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 NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA, 
 
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 ROBERTSON; 
 
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 THE 
 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 IX fulfilling the engagement which I had come 
 under to the public with respect to the History of 
 America, it was my intention not to have published 
 any part of the work until the whole was completed. 
 The present state of the British colonies has induced 
 me to alter that resolution. While they are engaged 
 in civil war with Great Britain, inquiries and specu- 
 lations concerning their ancient forms of policy and 
 laws, which exist no longer, cannot be interesting. 
 The attention and expectation of mankind are now 
 turned towards their future condition. In whatever 
 manner this unhappy contest may terminate, a new 
 order of things must arise in North America, and its 
 ' affairs will assume another aspect. I wait with the 
 r> solicitude of a good citizen, until the ferment sub- 
 ^ side, and regular government be re-established, and 
 then I shall retuni to this part of my work, in which 
 I had made some progress. That, together with the 
 history of Portuguese America, and of the settle- 
 > ments made by the several nations of Europe in the 
 4 West India Islands, will complete my plan. 
 
 The three volumes which I now publish contain 
 P an account of the discovery of the New World, and 
 of the progress of the Spanish arms and colonies 
 there. This is not only the most splendid portion 
 ^ of the American story, but so much detached, as, by 
 ^ itself, to form a perfect whole, remarkable for the 
 Q unity of the subject. As the principles and maxims 
 kOf the Spaniards in planting colonies, which have 
 jjcieen adopted in some measure by every nation, are 
 ^ unfolded in this part of my work, it will serve as a 
 * proper introduction to the history of all the European 
 establishments in America, and convey such infor- 
 mation concerning this important article of policy, as 
 may be deemed no less interesting than curious. 
 
 In describing the achievements and institutions 
 of the Spaniards in the New World, I have depart- 
 ed, in many instances, from the accounts of preced- 
 ing historians, and have often related facts which 
 seem to have been unknown to them. It is a duty 
 I owe the public to mention the sources from which 
 I have derived such intelligence as justifies me either 
 in placing transactions in a new light, or in forming 
 any new opinion with respect to their causes and 
 effects. This duty I perform with greater satisfac- 
 tion, as it will afford an opportunity of expressing 
 my gratitude to those benefactors who have honoured 
 me with their countenance and aid in my researches. 
 As it was from Spain that I had to expect the 
 most important information with regard to this part 
 of my work, I considered it as a very fortunate cir- 
 cumstance for me, when Lord Grantham, to whom 
 I had the honour of being personally known, and 
 with whose liberality of sentiment and disposition 
 to oblige I was well acquainted, was appointed 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA, No. I, 
 
 ambassador to the court of Madrid. Upon applying 
 to him, I met with such a reception as satisfied me 
 that his endeavours would be employed in the most 
 proper manner, in order to obtain the gratification 
 of my wishes ; and I am perfectly sensible, that 
 what progress I have made in my inquiries among 
 the Spaniards, ought to be ascribed chiefly to their 
 knowing how much his lordship interested himself 
 in my success. 
 
 But did I owe nothing more to lord Grantham, 
 than the advantages which I have derived from his 
 attention in engaging Mr. Waddilove, the chaplain 
 of his embassy, to take the conduct of my literary 
 inquiries in Spain, the obligations I lie under to him 
 would be very great. During five years that gentle- 
 man has carried on researches for my behoof, with 
 such activity, perseverance, and knowledge of the 
 subject to which his attention was turned, as have 
 filled me with no less astonishment than satisfaction. 
 He procured for me the greater part of the Spanish 
 books which I have consulted ; and as many of them 
 were printed early in the sixteenth century, and are 
 become extremely rare, the collecting of these was 
 such an occupation as alone required much time and 
 assiduity. To his friendly attention I am indebted 
 for copies of several valuable manuscripts, containing 
 facts and details which I might have searched for in 
 vain in works that have been made public. En- 
 couraged by the inviting good-will with which 
 Mr. Waddilove conferred his favours, I transmitted 
 to him a set of queries, with respect both to the cus- 
 toms and policy of the native Americans, and the 
 nature of several institutions in the Spanish settle- 
 ments, framed in such a manner, that a Spaniard 
 might answer them, without disclosing any thing 
 that was improper to be communicated to a foreigner. 
 He translated these into Spanish, and obtained from 
 various persons who had resided in most of the 
 Spanish colonies, such replies as have afforded me 
 much instruction. 
 
 Notwithstanding these peculiar advantages with 
 which my inquiries were carried on in Spain, it is 
 with regret I am obliged to add, that their success 
 must be ascribed to the beneficence of individuals, 
 not to any communication by public authority. By 
 a singular arrangement of Philip II. the records of 
 the Spanish monarchy are deposited in the Archivo 
 of Simancas, near Valladolid, at a distance of a hun- 
 dred and twenty miles from the seat of government, 
 and the supreme courts of justice. The papers rela- 
 tive to America, and chiefly to that early period of 
 its history towards which my attention was directed, 
 are so numerous, that they alone, according to one 
 account, fill the largest apartment in the Archivo; 
 aud t accordin to another, they compose eight huu- 
 
2 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 dred and seventy-three large bundles. Conscious 
 of possessing, in some degree, the industry which 
 belongs to an historian, the prospect of such a trea- 
 sure excited my most ardent curiosity. But the 
 prospect of it is all that I have enjoyed. Spain, with 
 an excess of caution, has uniformly thrown a veil 
 over her transactions in America. From strangers 
 they are concealed with peculiar solicitude. Even 
 to her own subjects the Archive of Simancas is not 
 opened without a particular order from the crown ; 
 and after obtaining that, papers cannot be copied, 
 without paying fees of office so exorbitant, that the 
 expense exceeds what it would be proper to bestow, 
 when the gratification of literary curiosity is the only 
 object. It is to be hoped, that the Spaniards will at 
 last discover this system of concealment to be no less 
 impolitic than illiberal. From what I have expe- 
 rienced in the course of my inquiries, I am satisfied, 
 that upon a more minute scrutiny into their early 
 operations in the New World, however reprehensible 
 the actions of individuals may appear, the conduct of 
 the nation will be placed in a more favourable light. 
 In other parts of Europe very different sentiments 
 prevail. Having searched, without success, in Spain, 
 for a letter of Cortes to Charles V. written soon after 
 he landed in the Mexican empire, which has not 
 hitherto been published, it occurred to me, that as 
 the emperor was setting out for Germany at the time 
 when the messengers from Cortes arrived in Europe, 
 the letter with which they were entrusted might pos- 
 sibly be preserved in the imperial library of Vienna. 
 I communicated this idea to Sir Robert Murray Keith, 
 with whom I have long had the honour to live in 
 friendship, and I had soon the pleasure to learn, that 
 upon his application, her imperial majesty had been 
 graciously pleased to issue an order, that not only 
 a copy of that letter, (if it were found), but of any 
 other papers in the library, which could throw light 
 upon the History of America, should be transmitted 
 to me. The letter from Cortes is not in the imperial 
 library, but an authentic copy, attested by a notary, 
 of a letter written by the magistrates of the colony 
 planted by him at Vera Cruz, which I have mentioned, 
 Book V. having been found, it was transcribed and 
 sent to me. As this letter is no less curious, and as 
 little known, as th;it which was the object of my 
 inquiries, I have given some account, in its proper 
 place, of what is most worthy of notice in it. To- 
 gether with it, I received a copy of a letter from 
 Cortes, containing a long account of his expedition 
 to Honduras, with respect to which I did not think 
 it necessary to enter into any particular detail ; and 
 likewise those curious Mexican paintings, which 
 I have described, Vol. iii. p. 23. 
 
 My inquiries at St. Petersburgh were carried on 
 with equal facility and success. In examining into 
 the nearest communication between our continent 
 and that of America, it became of consequence to 
 obtain authentic information concerning the dis- 
 coveries of the Russians in their navigation from 
 Kamschatka towards the coast of America. Accu- 
 rate relations of their first voyage, in 1741, have been 
 published by Muller and Gmelin. Several foreign 
 authors have entertained an opinion, that the court 
 of Russia studiously conceals the progress which has 
 been made by more recent navigators, and suffers the 
 public to be amused with false accounts of their 
 route. Such conduct appeared to me unsuitable to 
 those liberal sentiments, and that patronage oi 
 science, for which the present sovereign of Russia is 
 eminent; nor could I discern any political reason 
 that might render it improper to apply for informa- 
 
 tion concerning the late attempts of the Russians to 
 open a communication between Asia and America. 
 My ingenious countryman, Dr. Rogerson, first phy- 
 sician to the empress, presented my request to lu-r 
 imperial majesty, who not only disclaimed any idea 
 of concealment, 'but instantly ordered the journal of 
 Captain Krenitzin,who conducted the only voyage of 
 discovery made by public authority since the y-;ir 
 1741, to be translated, and his original chart to be 
 copied for my use. By consulting them, I have been 
 enabled to give a more accurate view of the progress 
 and extent of the Russian discoveries, than has 
 hitherto been communicated to the public. 
 
 From other quarters I have received information 
 of great utility and importance. M. le Chevalier de 
 Pinto, the minister from Portugal to the court of 
 Great Britain, who commanded for several years at 
 Matagrosso, a settlement of the Portuguese in the 
 interior part of Brazil, where the Indians are nume- 
 rous, and their original manners little altered by 
 intercourse with Europeans, was pleased to send me 
 very full answers to some queries concerning the 
 character and institutions of the natives of America, 
 which his polite reception of an application made to 
 him in my name, encouraged me to propose. These 
 satisfied me, that he had contemplated with a dis- 
 cerning attention the curious objects which his 
 situation (presented to his view, and I have often 
 followed him as one of my best instructed guides. 
 
 M. Suard, to whose elegant translation of the 
 History of the Reign of Charles V. I owe the favour- 
 able reception of that work on the continent, pro- 
 cured me answers to the same queries from M. de 
 Bougainville, who had opportunities of observing 
 the Indians both of North and South America, and 
 from M. Godin le Jeune, who resided fifteen years 
 among the Indians in Quito, and twenty years in 
 Cayenne. The latter are more valuable from having 
 been examined by M. de laCondamine, who, a few 
 weeks before his death, made some short additions 
 to them, which may be considered as the last effort 
 of that attention to science which occupied a long 
 life. 
 
 My inquiries were not confined to one region in 
 America. Governor Hutchinson took the trouble 
 of recommending the consideration of my queries 
 to Mr. Hawley and Mr. Brainerd, two protestant 
 missionaries employed among the Indians of the 
 Five Nations, who favoured me with answers which 
 discover a considerable knowledge of the people 
 whose customs they describe. From William Smith, 
 Esq. the ingenious historian of New York, I re- 
 ceived some useful information. When I enter 
 upon the History of our Colonies in North America, 
 I shall have occasion to acknowledge how much I 
 have been indebted to many other gentlemen of that 
 country. 
 
 From the valuable collection of voyages made by 
 Alexander Dalrymple, Esq. with whose attention to 
 the history of navigation and discovery the public is 
 well acquainted, I have received some very rare 
 books, particularly two large volumes of memorials, 
 partly manuscript, and partly in print, which were 
 presented to the Court of Spain during the reigns of 
 Philip III. and Philip IV. From these I have 
 learned many curious particulars with respect to 
 the interior state of the Spanish colonies, and the 
 various schemes formed for their improvement. As 
 this collection of memorials formerly belonged to 
 the Colbert Library, I have quoted them by that 
 title. 
 
 All those books and manuscripts I have consulted 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 with that attention which the respect duo from an 
 author to the public requires ; and by minute re- 
 ferences to them, I have endeavoured to authen- 
 ticate whatever I relate. The longer I reflect on the 
 nature of historical composition, the more I am con- 
 vinced that this scrupulous accuracy is necessary. 
 The historian who records the events of his own 
 time, is credited in proportion to the opinion which 
 the public entertains with respect to his means of 
 information and his veracity. He who delineates 
 the transactions of a remote period, has no title to 
 claim assent, unless he produces evidence in proof 
 of his assertions. Without this, he may write an 
 amusing tale, but cannot be said to have composed 
 an authentic history. In these sentiments I have 
 been confirmed by the opinion of an author, whom 
 his industry, erudition, and discernment, have de- 
 servedly placed in a high rank among the most 
 eminent historians of the are. Imboldened by a 
 hint from him, I have published a catalogue of the 
 Spanish books which I have consulted. This prac- 
 tice was frequent in the last century, and was con- 
 sidered as an evidence of laudable industry in an 
 author ; in the present, it may, perhaps, be deemed 
 the effect of ostentation ; but, as many of these 
 books are unknown in (treat Britain, I could not 
 otherwise have referred to them as authorities, with- 
 out encumbering the page with an insertion of their 
 full titles. To any person who may choose to follow 
 me in this path of inquiry, the catalogue must be 
 very useful. 
 
 My readers will observe, that in mentioning sums 
 of money, I have uniformly followed the Spanish 
 method of computing by pe*o$. In America, the 
 peso fuerte, or duro is the only one known; and 
 that is always meant when any sum imported from 
 America is mentioned. The peso fuerte, as well as 
 other coins, has varied in its numerary value ; but 
 I have been advised, without attending to such 
 minute variations, to consider it as equal to four 
 shillings and sixpence of our money. It is to be 
 remembered, however, that in the sixteenth century 
 
 the effective value of a peso, t. e. the quantity of 
 labour which it represented, or of goods which it 
 would purchase, was five or six times as much as at 
 present. 
 
 POSTCRIPT. 
 
 Since this edition was put into the press, a 
 History of Mexico, in two volumes in quarto, trans- 
 lated from the Italian of the Abb6 D. Francesco 
 Saverio Clavigero, has been published. From a 
 person who is a native of New Spain, who has re- 
 sided forty years in that country, and who is ac- 
 quainted with the Mexican language, it was natural 
 to expect much new information. Upon perusing 
 his work, however, I find that it contains hardly any 
 addition to the ancient History of the Mexican Em- 
 pire, as related by Acosta and Horrera, but what is 
 derived from the improbable narratives and fanciful 
 conjectures of Torquemada and Boturini. Having 
 copied their splendid descriptions of the high state 
 of civilization in the Mexican Empire, M. Clavigero, 
 in the abundance of his zeal for the honour of his 
 native country, charges me with having mistaken 
 some points, and with having misrepresented others, 
 in the history of it. When an author is conscious 
 of having exerted industry in research, and impar- 
 tiality in decision, he may, without presumption, 
 claim what praise is due to these qualities, and he 
 cannot be insensible to any accusation that tends to 
 weaken the force of his claim. A feeling of this 
 kind has induced me to examine such strictures of 
 M. Clavigero on my History of America as merited 
 any attention, especially as these are made by one 
 who seemed to possess the means of obtaining ac- 
 curate information ; and to show that the greater 
 part of them is destitute of any just foundation. 
 This I have in notes upon the passages in my His- 
 tory which gave rise to his criticism*. 
 
 COLLEGE OF EDINBURGH, 
 March 1, 1788. 
 
 THE 
 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 THE progress of men in discovering and peopling 
 the various parts of the earth, has been extremely 
 slow. Several ages elapsed before they removed far 
 from those mild and fertile regions in which they 
 were originally placed by their Creator. The occa- 
 sion of their first general dispersion is known ; but 
 we are unacquainted with the course of their migra- 
 tions, or the time when they took possession of the 
 different countries which they now inhabit. Neither 
 history nor tradition furnish such information con- 
 cerning those remote events, as enables us to trace, 
 with any certainty, the operations of the human 
 race in the infancy of society. 
 
 We may conclude, however, that all the early 
 migrations of mankind were made by land. The 
 ocean, which surrounds the habitable earth, as well 
 as the various arms of the sea which separate one re- 
 gion from another, though destined to facilitate the 
 communication between distant countries, seem, at 
 first view, to be formed to check the progress of 
 man, and to mark the bounds of that portion of the 
 globe to which nature had confined him. It was 
 long, we may believe, before men attempted to pass 
 these formidable barriers, and became so skilful and 
 adventurous as to trust themselves to the mercy of 
 the winds and waves, or to quit their native shores 
 in auest of remote and unknown regions. 
 
 Navigation and ship-building are arts so nice and 
 complicated, that they require the ingenuity, as well 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 as experience, of many successive ages to bring them 
 to any degree of perfection. From the raft or canoe, 
 which first served to carry a savage over the river 
 that obstructed him in the chase, to the construction 
 of a vessel capable of conveying a numerous crew with 
 safety to a distant coast, the progress in improvement is 
 immense. Many efforts would be made, many experi- 
 ments would be tried, and much labour as well as 
 invention would be employed, before men could ac- 
 complish this arduous and important undertaking. 
 The rude and imperfect state in which navigation is 
 still found among all nations which are not consi- 
 derably civilized, corresponds with this account of 
 its progress, and demonstrates that, in early times, 
 the art was not so far improved as to enable men to 
 undertake distant voyages, or to attempt remote 
 discoveries. 
 
 As soon, however, as the art of navigation be- 
 came known, a new species of correspondence among 
 men took place. It is from this era that we must 
 date the commencement of such an intercourse be- 
 tween nations as deserves the appellation of com- 
 merce. Men are, indeed, far advanced in improve- 
 ment before commerce becomes an object of great 
 importance to them. They must even have made 
 some considerable progress towards civilization, be- 
 fore they acquire the idea of property, and ascertain 
 it so perfectly as to be acquainted with the most 
 simple of all contracts, that of exchanging by barter 
 one rude commodity for another. But as soon as 
 this important right is established, and every indivi- 
 dual feels that he has an exclusive title to possess or 
 to alienate whatever he has acquired by his own 
 labour and dexterity, the wants and ingenuity of his 
 natui'e suggest to him a new method of increasing 
 his acquisitions and enjoyments, by disposing of 
 what is superfluous in his own stores, in order to 
 procure what is necessary or desirable in those of 
 other men. Thus a commercial intercourse begins, 
 and is carried on among the members of the same 
 community. By degrees, they discover that the 
 neighbouring tribes possess what they themselves 
 want, and enjoy comforts of which they wish to 
 partake. In the same mode, and upon the same 
 principles, that domestic traffic is carried on within the 
 society, an external commerce is established with 
 other tribes or nations. Their mutual interest and 
 mutual wants render this intercourse desirable, and 
 imperceptibly introduce the maxims and laws which 
 facilitate its progress and render it secure. But no 
 very extensive commerce can take place between 
 contiguous provinces, whose soil and climate being 
 nearly the same, yield similar productions. Remote 
 countries cannot convey their commodities by land 
 to those places where, on account of their rarity, 
 they are desired, and become valuable. It is to na- 
 vigation that men are indebted for the power of 
 transporting the superfluous stock of one part of the 
 earth to supply the wants of another. The luxuries 
 and blessings of a particular climate are no longer 
 confined to itself alone, but the enjoyment of them 
 is communicated to the most distant regions. 
 
 In proportion as the knowledge of the advantages 
 derived from navigation and commerce continued to 
 spread, the intercourse among nations extended. 
 The ambition of conquest, or the necessity of pro- 
 curing new settlements, were no longer the sole 
 motives of visiting distant lands. The desire of gain 
 became a new incentive to activity, roused adven- 
 turers, and sent them forth upon long voyages, in 
 search of countries, whose products or wants might 
 increase that circulation which nourishes and gives 
 
 'igour to commerce. Trade proved a great source 
 >f discovery, it opened unknown seas, it penetrated 
 nto new regions, and contributed more than any 
 other cause to bring men acquainted with the situa- 
 tion, the nature, and commodities of the different 
 parts of the globe. But even after a regular com- 
 merce was established in the world, after nations 
 were considerably civilized, and the sciences and 
 arts were cultivated with ardour and success, navi- 
 gation continued to be so imperfect, that it can 
 hardly be said to have advanced beyond the infancy 
 of its improvement in the ancient world. 
 
 Among all the nations of antiquity, the structure 
 of their vessels was extremely rude, and their 
 method of working them very defective. They were 
 unacquainted with several principles and operation* 
 in navigation, which are now considered as the first 
 elements on which that science is founded. Though 
 that property of the magnet, by which it attracts 
 iron, was well known to the ancients, its more im- 
 portant and amazing virtue of pointing to the poles 
 had entirely escaped their observation. Destitute 
 of this faithful guide, which now conducts the pilot 
 with so much certainty in the unbounded ocean, 
 during the darkness of night, or when the heavens 
 are covered with clouds, the ancients had no other 
 method of regulating their course than by observing 
 the sun and stars. Their navigation was of conse- 
 quence uncertain and timid. They durst seldom 
 quit sight of land, but crept along the coast, exposed 
 to all the dangers, and retarded by all the obstruc- 
 tions, unavoidable in holding such an awkward 
 course. An incredible length of time was requisite 
 for performing voyages, which are now finished in a 
 short space. Even in the mildest climates, and in 
 seas the least tempestuous, it was only during the 
 summer months that the ancients ventured out of 
 their harbours. The remainder of the year was lost 
 in inactivity. It would have been deemed most in- 
 considerate rashness to have braved the fury of the 
 winds and waves during winter. 
 
 While both the science and practice of navigation 
 continued to be so defective, it was an undertaking 
 of no small difficulty- and danger to visit any remote 
 region of the earth. Under every disadvantage, 
 however, the active spirit of commerce exerted itself. 
 The Egyptians, soon after the establishment of their 
 monarchy, are said to have opened a trade between 
 the Arabian gulf or Red sea, and the western coast 
 of the great Indian continent. The commodities 
 which tliey imported from the East, were carried by 
 land from the Arabian gulf to the banks of the Nile, 
 and conveyed down that river to the Mediterranean. 
 But if the Egyptians in earlier times applied them- 
 selves to commerce, their attention to it was of short 
 duration. The fertile soil and mild climate of 
 Egypt produced the necessaries and comforts of life 
 with such profusion, as rendered its inhabitants so 
 independent of other countries, that it became an 
 established maxim among that people, whose ideas 
 and institutions differed in almost every point from 
 those of other nations, to renounce all intercourse 
 with foreigners. In consequence of this, they never 
 went out of their own country; they held all sea- 
 faring persons in detestation, as impious and pro- 
 fane ; and fortifying their own harbours, they denied 
 strangers admittance into them. It was in the 
 decline of their power, and when their veneration 
 for ancient maxims had greatly abated, that they 
 again opened their ports, and resumed any commu- 
 nication with foreigners. 
 
 The character and situation of the Phenicians 
 
THE HISTOttY OF AMERICA. 
 
 were as favourable to the spirit of commerce and 
 discovery as those of the Egyptians were adverse to 
 it. They had no distinguishing peculiarity in their 
 manners and institutions ; they were not addicted to 
 any singular and unsocial form of supersition ; they 
 could mingle with other nations without scruple or 
 reluctance. The territory which they possessed was 
 neither large nor fertile. Commerce was the only 
 source from which they could derive opulence or 
 power. Accordingly the trade carried on by the 
 Phenicians of Sidon and Tyre was more extensive 
 and enterprising than that of any state in the ancient 
 world. The genius of the Phenicians, as well as 
 the object of their policy and the spirit of their 
 laws, were entirely commercial. They were a people 
 of merchants, who aimed at the empire of the sea, 
 and actually possessed it. Their ships not only fre- 
 quented all the ports in the Mediterranean, but they 
 were the first who ventured beyond the ancient 
 boundaries of navigation, and, passing the Straits of 
 Gades, visited the western coasts of Spain and 
 Africa. In many of the places to which they re- 
 sorted, they planted colonies, and communicated to 
 the rude inhabitants some knowledge of their arts 
 and improvements. While they extended their dis- 
 coveries towards the north and west, they did not 
 neglect to penetrate into the more opulent and fertile 
 regions of the south and east. Having rendered 
 themselves masters of several commodious harbours 
 towards the bottom of the Arabian gulf, they, after 
 the example of the Egyptians, established a regular 
 intercourse with Arabia and the continent of India 
 on the one hand, and with the eastern coast of 
 Africa on the other. From these countries they 
 imported many valuable commodities unknown to 
 the rest of the world, and, during a long period, en- 
 grossed that lucrative branch of commerce without a 
 rival (See Note 1 ). 
 
 The vast wealth which the Phenicians acquired by 
 monopolizing the trade carried on in the Red sea, 
 inciteil their neighbours the Jews, under the prosper- 
 ous reigns of David and Solomon, to aim at being 
 admitted to some share of it. This they obtained, 
 partly by their conquest of Idumea, which stretches 
 along the Reel sea, and partly by their alliance with 
 Hiram, king of Tyre. Solomon fitted out fleets, 
 which, under the direction of Phenician pilots, sailed 
 from the Red sea to Tarshish and Ophir. These, it 
 is probable, were ports in India and Africa, which 
 their conductors were accustomed to frequent, and 
 from them the Jewish ships returned with such 
 valuable cargoes as suddenly diffused wealth and 
 splendour through the kingdom of Israel. But the 
 singular institutions of the Jews, the observance of 
 which was enjoined by their divine Legislator, with 
 an intention of preserving them a separate people, 
 uninfected by idolatry, formed a national character, 
 incapable of that open and liberal intercourse with 
 strangers which commerce requires. Accordingly, 
 this unsocial genius of the people, together with the 
 disasters which befell the kingdom of Israel, pre- 
 vented the commercial spirit, which their monarchs 
 laboured to introduce and to cherish, from spreading 
 among them. The Jews cannot be numbered among 
 the nations which contributed to improve navigation 
 or to extend discovery. 
 
 But though the instructions and example of the 
 Phenicians were unable to mould the manners anc 
 temper of the Jews, in opposition to the tendency o 
 their laws, they transmitted the commercial spirit 
 with facility, and in full vigour, to their own de- 
 scendants the Carthaginians. The commonwealth o 
 
 Carthage applied to trade and to naval affairs, with 
 10 less ardour, ingenuity, and success, than its parent 
 tate. Carthage early rivalled and soon surpassed 
 L'yre in opulence and power, but seems not to have 
 .imed at obtaining any share in the commerce with 
 ndia. The Phenicians had engrossed this, and had 
 such a command of the Red sea as secured to them 
 he exclusive possession of that lucrative branch of 
 rade. The commercial activity of the Carthaginians 
 was exerted in another direction. Without contend- 
 ng for the trade of the East with their mother- 
 ountry, they extended their navigation chiefly to- 
 wards the west and north. Following the course 
 hich the Phenicians had opened, they passed the 
 Straits of Gades, and pushing their discoveries far 
 beyond those of the parent state, visited not only all 
 ;he coasts of Spain, but those of Gaul, and pene- 
 trated at last into Britain. At the same time that 
 they acquired knowledge of new countries in this 
 part of the globe, they gradually carried their re- 
 searches towards the south. They made considerable 
 progress, by land, into the interior provinces of 
 Africa, traded with some of them, and subjected 
 others to their empire. They sailed along the 
 western coast of that great continent, almost to the 
 tropic of Cancer, and planted several colonies, in 
 order to civilize the natives, and accustom them to 
 commerce. They discovered the Fortunate Islands, 
 now known by the name of the Canaries, the utmost 
 boundary of ancient navigation in the western ocean. 
 Nor was the progress of the Phenicians and Car- 
 thaginians in their knowledge of the globe owing 
 entirely to the desire of extending their trade from 
 one country to another. Commerce was followed by 
 its usual effects among both these people. It 
 awakened curiosity, enlarged the ideas and desires of 
 men, and incited them to bold enterprises. Voyages 
 were undertaken, the sole object of which was to 
 discover new countries, and to explore unknown seas. 
 Such, during the prosperous age of the Carthaginian re- 
 public, were the famous navigations of Hannoand Hiiu- 
 lico. Both their fleets were equipped by authority of the 
 senate, and at public expense. Hanno was directed 
 to steer towards the south, along the coast of Africa, 
 and he seems to have advanced much nearer the 
 equinoctial line than any former navigator. Himlico 
 had it in charge to proceed towards the north, and to 
 examine the western coasts of the European conti- 
 nent. Of the same nature was the extraordinary 
 navigation of the Phenicians round Africa. A Phe- 
 nician fleet, we are told, fitted out by Necho, king of 
 Egypt, took its departure about six hundred and 
 four years before the Christian era, from a port in the 
 Red sea, doubled the southern promontory of Africa, 
 and, after a voyage of three years, returned by the 
 Straits of Gades to the mouth of the Nile. Eu- 
 doxus of Cyzicus is said to have held the same 
 course, and to have accomplished the same arduous 
 undertaking. 
 
 These voyages, if performed in the manner which 
 I have related, may justly be reckoned the greatest 
 effort of navigation in the ancient world ; and if we 
 attend to the imperfect state of the art at that time, 
 it is diflicult to determine, whether we should most 
 admire the courage and sagacity with which the 
 design was formed, or the conduct and good fortune 
 with which it was executed. But unfortunately all 
 the authentic and original accounts of the Phenician 
 and Carthaginian voyages, whether undertaken by- 
 public authority, or in prosecution of their private 
 trade, have perished. The information which we 
 receive concerning them from the Greek and Roman 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 authors, is not only obscure and inaccurate, but, if 
 we except a short narrative of Hanno's expedition, 
 is of suspicious authority (2). Whatever acquaint- 
 ance with the remote regions of the earth the Phenicians 
 and Carthaginians may have acquired, was concealed 
 from the rest of mankind with a mercantile jealousy. 
 Every thing relative to the course of their naviga- 
 tion was not only a mystery of trade, but a secret of 
 state. Extraordinary facts are related concerning 
 their solicitude to prevent other nations from pene- 
 trating into what they wished should remain undi- 
 rulged. Many of their discoveries seem, accordingly, 
 to have been scarcely known beyond the precincts of 
 their own states. The navigation round Africa, in 
 particular, is recorded by the Greek and Roman 
 writers, rather as a strange amusing tale, which they 
 did not comprehend, or did believe, than as a real trans- 
 action, which enlarged their knowledge and influ- 
 enced their opinions. As neither the progress of the 
 Phenician or Carthaginian discoveries, nor the extent 
 of their navigation, were communicated to the rest 
 of mankind, all memorials of their extraordinary 
 skill in naval affairs seem, in a great measure, to 
 have perished, when the maritime power of the 
 former was annihilated by Alexander's conquest of 
 Tyre, and the empire of the latter was overturned by 
 the Roman arms. 
 
 Leaving, then, the obscure and pompous accounts 
 of the Phenician and Carthaginian voyages to the 
 curiosity and conjectures of antiquaries, history must 
 rest satisfied with relating the progress of navigation 
 and discovery among the Greeks and Romans, which, 
 though less splendid, is better ascertained. It is evi- 
 dent that the Phenicians, who instructed the Greeks 
 in many other useful sciences and arts, did not com- 
 municate to them that extensive knowledge of navi- 
 gation which they themselves possessed; nor did the 
 Romans imbibe that commercial spirit and ardour 
 for discovery which distinguished their rivals the 
 Carthaginians. Though Greece be almost encom- 
 passed by the sea, which formed many spacious bays 
 and commodious harbours ; though it be surrounded 
 by a great number of fertile islands, yet, notwith- 
 standing such a favourable situation, which seemed 
 to invite that ingenious people to apply themselves 
 to navigation, it was long before this art attained 
 any degree of perfection among them. Their early 
 voyages, the object of which was piracy rather than 
 commerce, were so inconsiderable, that the expedi- 
 tion of the Argonauts from the coast of Thessaly to 
 the Euxine sea, appeared such an amazing effort of 
 skill and courage, as entitled the conductors of it to 
 be ranked among the demigods, and exalted the ves- 
 sel in which they sailed to a place among the heavenly 
 constellations. Even at a later period, when the 
 Greeks engaged in their famous enterprise against 
 Troy, their knowledge in naval affairs seems not to 
 have been much improved. According to the ac- 
 count of Homer, the only poet to whom history 
 ventures to appeal, and who, by his scrupulous ac- 
 curacy in describing the manners and arts of early 
 ages, merits this distinction, the science of naviga- 
 tion, at that time, had hardly advanced beyond its 
 rudest state. The Greeks in the heroic age seem 
 to have been unacquainted with the use of iron, the 
 most serviceable of all the metals, without which no 
 considerable progress was ever made in the mechani- 
 cal arts. Their vessels were of inconsiderable bur- 
 den, and mostly without decks. They had only one 
 mast, which was erected or taken down at pleasure. 
 They were strangers to the use of anchors. All 
 their operations in sailing were clumsy and unskilful. , 
 
 They turned their observation towards stars, which 
 were improper for regulating their course, and their 
 mode of observing them was inaccurate and fallaci- 
 ous. When they had finished a voyage they drew 
 their paltry barks ashore, as savages do their canoes, 
 and these remained on dry land until the season of 
 returning to sea approached. It is not then in the 
 early or heroic ages of Greece that we can expect to 
 observe the science of navigation, and the spirit of 
 discovery, making any considerable progress. Dur- 
 ing that period of disorder and ignorance, a thousand 
 causes concurred in restraining curiosity and enter- 
 prise within very narrow bounds. 
 
 But the Greeks advanced with rapidity to a state 
 of greater civilization and refinement. Government, 
 in its most liberal and perfect form, began to be 
 established in their different communities ; equal 
 laws and regular police were gradually introduced ; 
 the sciences and arts which are useful or ornamental 
 in life were carried to a high pitch of improvement, 
 and several of the Grecian commonwealths applied 
 to commerce with such ardour and success, that they 
 were considered, in the ancient world, as maritime 
 powers of the first rank. Even then, however, the 
 naval victories of the Greeks must be ascribed rather 
 to the native spirit of the people, and to that courage 
 which the enjoyment of liberty inspires, than to any 
 extraordinary progress in the science of navigation. 
 In the Persian war, those exploits which the genius 
 of the Greek historians has rendered so famous, were 
 performed by fleets, composed chiefly of small ves- 
 sels without decks ; the crews of which rushed for- 
 ward with impetuous valour, but little art, to board 
 those of the enemy. In the war of Peloponnesus, 
 their ships seem still to have been of inconsiderable 
 burden and force. The extent of their trade, how 
 highly soever it may have been estimated in ancient 
 times, was in proportion to this low condition of 
 their marine. The maritime states of Greece hardly 
 carried on any commerce beyond the limits of the 
 Mediterranean sea. Their chief intercourse was with 
 the colonies of their countrymen, planted in the 
 Lesser Asia, in Italy and Sicily. They sometimes 
 visited the ports of Egypt, of the southern provinces 
 of Gaul, and of Thrace, or, passing through the 
 Hellespont, they traded with the countries situated 
 around the Euxine sea. Amazing instances occur 
 of their ignorance even of those countries which lay 
 within the narrow precincts to which their naviga- 
 tion was confined. When the Greeks had assembled 
 their combined fleet against Xerxes at Egina, they 
 thought it unadvisable to sail to Samos, because they 
 believed the distance between that island and Egina 
 to be as great as the distance between Egina and the 
 pillars of Hercules. They were either utterly un- 
 acquainted with all the parts of the globe beyond 
 the Mediterranean sea, or what knowledge they had 
 of them was founded on conjecture, or derived from 
 the information of a few persons, whom curiosity 
 and the love of science had prompted to travel by 
 land into the Upper Asia, or by sea into Egypt, the 
 ancient seats of wisdom and arts. After all that the 
 Greeks learned from them, they appear to have been 
 ignorant of the most important facts, on which an 
 accurate and scientific knowledge of the globe is 
 founded. 
 
 The expedition of Alexander 'the Great into the 
 East, considerably enlarged the sphere of navigation 
 and geographical knowledge among the Greeks. 
 That extraordinary man, notwithstanding the vio- 
 lent passions which incited him, at some times, to 
 the wildest actions, and the most extravagant enter- 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 prises, possessed talents which fitted him not only 
 to conquer but to govern the world. He was ca- 
 pable of framing those bold and original schemes of 
 policy, which gave a now form to human affairs. 
 The revolution in commerce, brought about by the 
 force of his genius, is hardly inferior to that revolu- 
 tion in empire, occasioned by the success of his arms. 
 It is probable, that the opppsition and efforts of the 
 republic of Tyre, which checked him so long in the 
 career of his victories, gave Alexander an opportunity 
 of observing the vast resources of a maritime power, 
 and conveyed to him some idea of the immense 
 wealth which the Tyrians derived from their com- 
 merce, especially that with the East Indies. As 
 sr>on as he had accomplished the destruction of Tyre, 
 and reduced Egypt to subjection, he formed the plan 
 of rendering the empire which he proposed to estab- 
 lish, the centre of commerce as well as the seat of 
 dominion. With this view he founded a great city, 
 which he honoured with his own name, near one of 
 the mouths of the river Nile, that by the Mediterranean 
 sea, and the neighbourhood of the Arabian gulf, it 
 might command the trade both of the East and West. 
 This situation was chosen with such discernment, 
 that Aleiandria soon became the chief commercial 
 city in the world. Not only during the subsistence 
 of th<> Grecian empire in K<:ypt and in the East, but 
 amidst all the successive revolutions in those coun- 
 tries from the time of the Ptolemies to the discovery 
 of the navigation by the Cape of Good Hope, com- 
 merce, particularly that of the East Indies, continued 
 to flow in the channel which the sagacity and fore- 
 sight of Alexander had marked out for it. 
 
 His ambition was not satisfied with having opened 
 to the Greeks a communication with India by sea ; 
 he aspired to the sovereignty of those regions which 
 furnished the rest of mankind with so many precious 
 commodities, and conducted his army thither by land. 
 Enterprising, however, as he was, he may be said 
 rather to have viewed than to have conquered that 
 country. He did not, in his progress toward the 
 East, advance beyond the banks of the rivers that 
 fall into the Indus, which is now the western boun- 
 dary of the vast continent of India. Amidst the wild 
 exploits which distinguish this part of his history, he 
 pursued measures that mark the superiority of his 
 genius as well as the extent of his views. He had pene- 
 trated as far into India as to confirm his opinion of its 
 commercial importance, and to perceive that immense 
 wealth might bo derived from intercourse with a 
 country, where the arts of elegance, having been more 
 early cultivated, were arrived at greater perfection than 
 in any other part of the earth. Full of this idea, he re- 
 solved to examine the course of navigation from the 
 mouth of the Indus to the bottom of the Persian gulf; 
 and, if it should be found practicable, to establish a 
 regular communication between them. In order to 
 effect this, he proposed to remove the cataracts, with 
 which the jealousy of the Persians, and their aversion 
 to correspondence with foreigners, had obstructed the 
 entrance into the Euphrates ; to carry the commodities 
 of the East up that river and the Tigris, which unites 
 with it, into the interior parts of his Asiatic domi- 
 nions ; while, by the way of the Arabian gulf, and 
 the river Nile, they might be conveyed to Alexandria, 
 and distributed to the rest of the world. Nearchus, 
 an officer of eminent abilities, was intrusted with the 
 command of the fleet fitted out for this expedition. 
 He performed this voyage, which was deemed an en- 
 terprise so arduous and important, that Alexander 
 reckoned it one of the most extraordinary events 
 which distinguished his reign. Inconsiderable as it 
 
 may now appear, it was , at that time, an undertaking 
 of no little merit and difficulty. In the prosecution 
 of it, striking instances occur of the small progress 
 which the Greeks had made in naval knowledge (4). 
 Having never sailed beyond the bounds of the Me- 
 diterranean, where the ebb and flow of the sea are 
 hardly perceptible, when they first observed this phe- 
 nomenon at the mouth of the Indus, it appeared to 
 them a prodigy, by which the gods testified the dis- 
 pleasure of heaven against their enterprise (5). 
 During their whole course, they seem never to 
 have lost sight of land, but followed the bearings 
 of the coast so servilely, that they could not much 
 avail themselves of those periodical winds which facili- 
 tate navigation in the Indian ocean. Accordingly, 
 they spent no less thati ten months in performing 
 this voyage, which, from the mouth of the Indus to 
 that of the Persian gulf, does not exceed twenty 
 degrees. It is probable, that, amidst the violent 
 convulsion* and frequent revolutions in the East, 
 occasioned by the contests among the successors of 
 Alexander, the navigation to India by the course 
 which Nearchus had opened was discontinued. The 
 Indian trade carried on at Alexandria, not only sub- 
 sisted, but was so much extended under the Grecian 
 monarch* of Egypt, that it proved a great source of 
 the wealth which distinguished their kingdom. 
 
 The progress which the Romans made in naviga- 
 tion and discovery, was still more inconsiderable 
 than that of the Greeks. The genius of the Roman 
 people, their military education, and the spirit of 
 their laws, concurred in estranging them from com- 
 merce and naval affairs. It was the necessity of 
 opposing a formidable rival, not the desire of extend- 
 ing trade, which first prompted them to aim at 
 maritime power. Though they soon perceived that 
 in order to acquire the universal dominion after 
 which they aspired, it was necessary to render them- 
 selves masters of the sea, they still considered the 
 naval service as a subordinate station, and reserved 
 for it such citizens as were not of a rank to be ad- 
 mitted into the legions. In the history of the Ro- 
 man Republic, hardly one event occurs that marks 
 attention to navigation any further than as it was 
 instrumental towards conquest. When the Roman 
 valour and discipline had subdued all the maritime 
 states known in the ancient world ; when Carthage, 
 Greece, and Egypt, had submitted to their power, 
 the Romans did not imbibe the commercial spirit of 
 the conquered nations. Among that people of sol- 
 diers, to have applied to trade would have been 
 deemed a degradation of a Roman citizen. They 
 abandoned the mechanical arts, commerce, and navi- 
 gation, to slaves, to freed-men, to provincials, and to 
 citizens of the lowest class. Even after the subver- 
 sion of liberty, when the severity and haughti- 
 ness of ancient manners began to abate, commerce 
 did not rise into high estimation among the Romans. 
 The trade of Greece, Egypt, and the other conquered 
 countries, continued to be carried on in its usual 
 channels, after they were reduced into the form of 
 Roman provinces. As Rome was the capital of the 
 world, and the seat of government, all the wealth 
 and valuable productions of the provinces flowed 
 naturally thither. The Romans, satisfied with this, 
 seem to have suffered commerce to remain almost 
 entirely in the hands of the natives of the respective 
 countries. The extent, however, of the Roman 
 power, which reached over the greatest part of the 
 known world, the vigilant inspection of the Roman 
 magistrates, and the spirit of the Roman govern- 
 ment, no less intelligent than active, gave such 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 additional security to commerce, as animated it with 
 new vigour. The union among nations was never 
 so entire, nor the intercourse so perfect, as within 
 the hounds of this vast empire. Commerce, under 
 the Roman dominion, was not obstructed by the 
 jealousy of rival states, interrupted by frequent 
 hostilities, or limited by partial restrictions. One 
 superintending power moved and regulated the in- 
 dustry of mankind, and enjoyed the fruits of their 
 joint efforts. 
 
 Navigation felt this influence, and improved under 
 it. As soon as the Romans acquired a taste for the 
 luxuries of the East, the trade with India through 
 Egypt was pushed with new vigour, and carried on 
 to greater extent. By frequenting the Indian con- 
 tinent, navigators became acquainted with the pe- 
 riodical course of the winds, which, in the ocean 
 that separates Africa from India, blow with little 
 variation during one half of the year from the east, 
 and during the other half blow with equal steadi- 
 ness from the west. Encouraged by observing this, 
 the pilots who sailed from Egypt to India, abandon- 
 ed their ancient slow and dangerous course along 
 the coast, and as soon as the western monsoon set 
 in, took their departure from Ocelis, at the mouth 
 of the Arabian Gulf, and stretched boldly across the 
 ocean. The uniform direction of the wind sup- 
 plying the place of the compass, and rendering the 
 guidance of the stars less necessary, conducted them 
 to the port of Musiris, on the western shore of the 
 Indian continent. There they took on board their 
 cargo, and returning with the eastern monsoon, 
 finished their voyage to the Arabian Gulf within the 
 year. This part of India, now known by the name 
 of the Malabar coast, seems to have been the utmost 
 limit of ancient navigation in that quarter of the 
 globe. What imperfect knowledge the ancients had 
 of the immense countries which stretch beyond this 
 towards the east, they received from a few adven- 
 turers, who had visited them by land. Such excur- 
 sions were neither frequent nor extensive, and it is 
 probable, that while the Roman intercourse with 
 India subsisted, no traveller ever penetrated further 
 than to the banks of the Gauges (6). The fleets from 
 Eaypt which traded at Musiris were loaded, it is 
 true, with the spices and other rich commodities of 
 the continent and islands of the further India ; but 
 these were brought to that port, which became the 
 staple of the commerce between the East and West, 
 by the Indians themselves, in canoes hollowed out 
 of one tree. The Egyptian and Roman merchants, 
 satisfied with acquiring those commodities in this 
 manner, did not think it necessary to explore un- 
 known seas, and venture upon a dangerous naviga- 
 tion, in quest of the countries which produced them. 
 But though the discoveries of the Romans in India 
 were so limited, their commerce there was such as 
 will appear considerable, even to the present age, 
 in which the Indian trade has been extended far 
 beyond the practice or conception of any preceding 
 period. We are informed by one author of credit, 
 that the commerce with India drained the Roman 
 empire every year of more than four hundred thou- 
 sand pounds ; and by another, that one hundred 
 and twenty ships sailed annually from the Arabian 
 gulf to that country. 
 
 The discovery of this new method of sailing to India, 
 is the most considerable improvement in navigation 
 made during the continuance of the Roman power. 
 But in ancient times, the knowledge of remote 
 countries was acquired more frequently by land 
 than by sea (7); ami the Romans, from their 
 
 peculiar disinclination to naval affairs, may be baid M 
 have neglected totally the latter, though a rnon; easy 
 and expeditious method of discovery. The progresn, 
 however, of their victorious armies through a con- 
 siderable portion of Europe, Asia, and Africa, contri- 
 buted greatly to extend discovery by land, and 
 gradually opened the navigation of new and unknown 
 seas. Previous to the Roman conquests, the civilized 
 nations of antiquity had little communication with 
 those countries in Europe, which now form it-, mo-a 
 opulent and powerful kingdoms. The interior parts 
 of Spain and Gaul were imperfectly known. Britain, 
 separated from the rest of the world, had never been 
 visited, except by its neighbours the Gauls, and by 
 a few Carthaginian merchants. The name of Ger- 
 main had scarcely been heard of. Into all these 
 countries the arms of the Romans penetrated. They 
 entirely subdued Spain and Gaul ; they conquered 
 the greatest and most fertile part of Britain ; they 
 advanced into Germany, as far as the banks of tin- 
 river Elbe. In Africa, they acquired a considerable 
 knowledge of the provinces, which stretch along the 
 Mediterranean sea, from Egypt westward to the 
 Straits of Gades. In Asia, they not only subjected 
 to their power most of the provinces which composed 
 the Persian and the Macedonian empires, but, after 
 their victories over Mithridates and Tygranes, they 
 seem to have made a more accurate survey of the 
 countries contiguous to the Euxine and Caspian seas, 
 and to have carried on a more extensive trade than 
 that of the Greeks with the opulent and commercial 
 nations then seated round the Euxine sea. 
 
 From this succinct survey of the discovery and na- 
 vigation, which I have traced from the earliest dawn 
 of historical knowledge to the full establishment of 
 the Roman dominion, the progress of both appears 
 to have been wonderfully slow. It seems neither 
 adequate to what we might have expected from th 
 activity and enterprise of the human mind, nor to 
 what might have been performed by the power of the 
 great empires which successively governed the 
 world. If we reject accounts that are fabulous and 
 obscure ; if we adhere steadily to the light and infor- 
 mation of authentic history, without substituting in 
 its place the conjectures of fancy, or the dreams of 
 etymologists, we must conclude, that the knowledge 
 which the ancients had acquired of the habitable 
 globe was extremely confined. In Europe, the ex- 
 tensive provinces in the eastern part of Geimany 
 were little known to them. They were almost totally 
 unacquainted with the vast countries which are now 
 subject to the kings of Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, 
 Poland, and the Russian empire. The more barren 
 regions, that stretch within the arctic circle, wete 
 quite unexplored. In Africa, their researches did 
 not extend far beyond the provinces which border on 
 the Mediterranean, and those situated on the western 
 shore of the Arabian gulf. In Asia, they w->re un- 
 acquainted, as I formerly observed, with all the fer- 
 tile and opulent countries beyond the Ganges, which 
 furnish the most valuable commodities that, in 
 modern times, have l>een the great object of the 
 European commerce with India ; nor do they se;sn to 
 have ever penetrated into those immense regions oc- 
 cupied by the \vanderin2 tribes, which they called by 
 iMieral name of Sarmatians or Scythians, and 
 which are now possessed by Tartars of various de- 
 nominations, and by the Asiatic subjects r.f Russia. 
 
 But there is one opinion that universal y prevailed 
 among the ancients, which conveys a more striking 
 idea of the small progress they had made in the 
 knowledge of the habitable globe, than can be derived 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA/ 
 
 from any detail of their discoveries. They supposed 
 the earth to be divided into five regions, which they 
 distinguished by the name of Zones. Two of these, 
 which were nearest the poles, they termed Frigid 
 Zones, and believed that the extreme cold which 
 reigned perpetually there, rendered them uninhabit- 
 able. Another, seated under the line, and extending 
 on either side towards the tropics, they called the 
 Torrid Zone, and imagined it to be so burnt up with 
 unremitting heat, as to be equally destitute of inha- 
 bitants. On the two other zones, which occupied the 
 remainder othe earth, they bestowed the appellation 
 "I I ernperate, and taught that these, being the only 
 regions in which life could subsist, were allotted to 
 man for his habitation. This wild opinion was not a 
 conceit of the uninformed vulgar, or a fanciful fiction 
 of the poets, but a system adopted by the most en- 
 lightened philosophers, the most accurate historians 
 and geographers in Greece and Rome. According to 
 this theory, a vast portion of the habitable earth was 
 pronounced to bo unfit for sustaining the human 
 species. Those fertile and populous regions within 
 the torrid zone, which arc now known not only to yield 
 their own inhabitants the necessaries and comforts of 
 life with most luxuriant profusion, but to communi- 
 cate their superfluous stores tathe rest of the world, 
 were supposed to be the mansion of perpetual steri- 
 lity and desolation. Ac all the parts of the globe 
 with which the ancients were acquainted lay within 
 tli'- northern temperate zone, their opinion that the 
 other temperate zone was filled with inhabitants, wag 
 founded on reasoning and conjecture, not on disco- 
 very. They even believed, that by the intolerable 
 heat of the torrid zone, such an insuperable barrier 
 was placed between the two temperate regions of the 
 earth, as would prevent for ever any intercourse 
 en their respective inhabitants. Thus this ex- 
 .11 it theory not only proves that the ancients 
 were unacquainted with the true state of the globe, 
 but it tended to render their ignorance perpetual, by 
 representing all attempts towards opening a commu- 
 nication with the remote regions of the earth as 
 utterly impracticable (8). 
 
 But, however imperfect or inaccurate the geogra- 
 phical knowledge which the Greeks and Romans had 
 acquired may appear, in respect of the present im- 
 proved state of that science, their progress in dis- 
 covery will seem considerable, and the extent to 
 which they carried navigation and commerce must be 
 reckoned great, when compared with the ignorance of 
 early times. As long as the Roman empire retained 
 such vigour as to preserve its authority over the con- 
 quered nations, and to keep them united, it was an 
 object of public policy, as well as of private curiosity, 
 to examine and describe the countries which composed 
 this great body. Even when the other sciences began 
 to decline, geography, enriched with new observa- 
 tions, and receiving some accession from the expe- 
 rience of every age, and the reports of every traveller, 
 continued to improve. It attained to the highest 
 point of perfection and accuracy to which it ever ar- 
 rived in the ancient world, by the industry and genius 
 of Ptolemy the philosopher. He flourished in the 
 second century of the Christian era, and published a 
 description of the terrestrial globe, more ample and 
 exact than that of any of his predecessors. 
 
 But, soon after, violent convulsions began to shake 
 the Roman state ; the fatal ambition or caprice of 
 Constantine, by changing the seat of government, 
 divided and weakened its force : the barbarous na- 
 tions, which Providence prepared as instruments to 
 overturn the mighty fabric of the Roman power, began 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA, No, 2. 
 
 to assemble and to muster their armies on its fron- 
 tier : the empire tottered to its fall. During this de- 
 cline and old age of the Roman state, it was impos- 
 sible that the sciences should go on improving. The 
 efforts of genius were, at that period, as languid .mil 
 feeble as those of government. From the time of 
 Potolemy, no considerable addition seems to have 
 been made to geographical knowledge, nor did .my 
 important revolution happen to trade, excepting that 
 Constantinople, by its advantageous situation, be- 
 came a commercial city of the first note. 
 
 At length, the clouds which had been go long 
 gathering round the Roman empire, burst into a 
 storm. Barbarous nations rushed in from several 
 quarters with irresistible impetuosity, and, in the 
 general wreck, occasioned by the inundation which 
 overwhelmed Europe, the arts, sciences, inventions, 
 and discoveries of the Romans, perished in a great 
 measure, and disappeared. All the various tribes, 
 which settled in the different provinces of the Ro- 
 man empire, were uncivilized, strangers to letters, 
 destitute of arts, unacquainted with regular govern- 
 ment, subordination, or laws. The manners and 
 institutions of some of them were so rude, as to be 
 hardly compatible with a state of social union. 
 Europe, when occupied by such inhabitants, may be 
 said to have returned to a second infancy, and had 
 to begin anew its career in improvement, science, and 
 civility. The first effect of (he settlement of those 
 barbarous invaders was to dissolve the union by 
 which the Roman power had cemented mankind to- 
 gether. They parcelled out Europe into many small 
 and independent states, differing from each other in 
 language and customs. No intercourse subsisted 
 between the members of those divided and hostile 
 communities. Accustomed to a simple mode of life, 
 and averse to industry, they had few wants to sup- 
 ply, and few superfluities to dispose of. The names 
 of $trariger and enemy became once more words of 
 the same import. Customs every where prevailed, 
 and even laws were established, which rendered it 
 disagreeable and dangerous to visit any foreign coun- 
 try. Cities, in which alone an extensive commerce 
 oan be carried on, were few, inconsiderable, and des- 
 titute of those immunities which produce security or 
 excite enterprise. The sciences, on which geography 
 and navigation are founded, were little cultivated. 
 The accounts of ancient improvements and dis- 
 coveries, contained in the Greek and Roman authors, 
 were neglected or misunderstood. The knowledge of 
 remote regions was lost ; their situation, their com- 
 modities, and almost their names, were unknown. 
 
 One circumstance prevented commercial inter- 
 course with distant nations from ceasing altogether. 
 Constantinople, thaugh often threatened by the 
 fierce invaders who spread desolation over the rest of 
 Europe, was so fortunate as to escape their de- 
 structive rage. In that city, the knowledge of 
 ancient arts and discoveries was preserved ; a taste 
 for splendour and elegance subsisted ; the produc- 
 tions and luxuries of foreign countries were in re- 
 quest; and commerce continued to flourish there 
 when it was almost extinct in every other part of 
 Europe. The citizens of Constantinople did not con- 
 fine their trade to the islands of the Archipelago, or 
 to the adjacent coasts of Asia ; they took a wider 
 range, and following the course which the ancients 
 had marked out, imported the commodities of the 
 East Indies from Alexandria. When Egypt was 
 torn from the Roman empire by the Arabians, the 
 industry of the Greeks discovered a new channel, by 
 which the productions of India might be conveyed 
 C 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 to Constantinople. They were carried up the Indus, 
 as far as that great river is navigable ; thence they 
 were transported by land to the banks of the river 
 Oxus, and proceeded down its stream to the Caspian 
 sea. There they entered the Volga, and sailing up 
 it, were carried by land to the Tanais, which con- 
 ducted them into the Euxine sea, where vessels from 
 Constantinople waited their arrival. This extra- 
 ordinary and tedious mode of conveyance merits at- 
 tention, not only as a proof of the violent passion 
 which the inhabitants of Constantinople had con- 
 ceived for the luxuries of the East, and as a specimen 
 of the ardour and ingenuity with which they carried 
 on commerce; but because it demonstrates, that 
 during the ignorance which reigned in the rest of 
 Europe, an extensive knowledge of remote countries 
 was still preserved in the capital of the Greek empire. 
 
 At the same time, a gleam of light and knowledge 
 "broke in upon the East. The Arabians, having con- 
 tracted some relish for the sciences of the people 
 whose empire they had contributed to overturn, 
 translated the books of several of the Greek philoso- 
 phers into their own language. One of the first was 
 that valuable work of Ptolemy, which I have already 
 mentioned. The study of geography became, of con- 
 sequence, an early object of attention to the Arabians. 
 But that acute and ingenious people cultivated chiefly 
 the speculative and scientific parts of geography. In 
 order to ascertain the figure and dimensions of the 
 terrestrial globe, they applied the principles of geo- 
 metry, they had recourse to astronomical observations, 
 they employed experiments and operations, which 
 Europe, in more enlightened times, has been proud 
 to adopt and to imitate. At that period, however, 
 the fame of the improvements made by the Arabians 
 did not reach Europe. The knowledge of their dis- 
 coveries was reserved for ages capable of compre- 
 hending and of perfecting them. 
 
 By degrees, the calamities and desolation brought 
 upon the western provinces of the Roman empire by 
 its barbarous conquerors, were forgotten, and in some 
 measure repaired. The rude tribes which settled 
 there acquiring insensibly some idea of regular go- 
 vernment, and some relish for the functions and com- 
 forts of civil life, Europe began to awake from its 
 torpid and inactive state. The first symptoms of 
 revival were discerned in Italy. The northern tribes 
 which took possession of this country, made progress 
 in improvement with greater rapidity than the people 
 settled in other parts of Europe. Various causes, 
 which it is not the object of this work to enumerate 
 or explain, concurred in restoring liberty and inde- 
 pendence to the cities of Italy. The acquisition of 
 these roused industry, and gave motion and vigour to 
 all the active powers of the human mind. Foreign 
 commerce revived, navigation was attended to and 
 improved. Constantinople became the chief mart to 
 which the Italians resorted. There they not only 
 met with a favourable reception, but obtained such 
 mercantile privileges as enabled them to carry on 
 trade with great advantage. They were supplied both 
 with the precious commodities of the East, and with 
 many curious manufactures, the product of ancient 
 arts and ingenuity which still subsisted among the 
 Greeks. As the labour and expense of conveying the 
 productions of India to Constantinople by that long 
 and indirect course which I have described, rendered 
 them extremely rare, and of an exorbitant price, the 
 Italians discovered other methods of procuring them 
 in greater abundance, and at an easier rate. They 
 sometimes purchased them in Aleppo, Tripoli, and 
 other ports on the coast of Syria, to which they were 
 
 brought by a route not unknown to the ancients. 
 They were conveyed from India by sea, up the Persian 
 gulf, and ascending the Euphrates and Tigris, as far 
 as Bagdad, were carried by land across the desert of 
 Palmyra, and from thence to the towns on the Medi- 
 terranean. But, from the length of the journey, and 
 the dangers to which the caravans were exposed, this 
 proved always a tedious, and often a precarious, mode 
 of conveyance. At length the soldans of Egypt, hav- 
 ing revived the commerce with India in its ancient 
 channel, by the Arabian gulf, the Italian merchants, 
 notwithstanding the violent antipathy to^each other 
 with which Christians and the followers of Mahomet 
 were then possessed, repaired to Alexandria, and 
 enduring, from the love of gain, the insolence and 
 exactions of the Mahometans, established a lucrative 
 trade in that port. From that period, the commercial 
 spirit of Italy became active and enterprising. Venice, 
 Genoa, Pisa rose, from inconsiderable towns, to be 
 populous and wealthy cities. Their naval power in- 
 creased; their vessels frequented not only all the 
 ports in the Mediterranean, but, venturing some- 
 times beyond the Straits, visited the maritime towns 
 of Spain, France, the Low Countries, and England ; 
 and, by distributing their commodities over Europe, 
 began to communicate to its various nations some 
 taste for the valuable productions of the East, as well 
 as some ideas of manufactures and arts, which were 
 then unknown beyond the precincts of Italy. 
 
 While the cities of Italy were thus advancing in 
 their career of improvement, an event happened, the 
 most extraordinary, perhaps, in the history of man- 
 kind, which, instead of retarding the commercial 
 progress of the Italians, rendered it more rapid. The 
 martial spirit of the Europeans, heightened and in- 
 flamed by religious zeal, prompted them to attempt 
 the deliverance of the Holy Land from the dominion 
 of infidels. Vast armies, composed of all the nations 
 in Europe, marched towards Asia, upon this wild 
 enterprise. The Genoese, the Pisans, and Venetians 
 furnished the transports which carried them thither. 
 They supplied them with provisions and military 
 stores. Besides the immense sums which they re- 
 ceived on this account, they obtained commercial 
 privileges and establishments, of great consequence 
 in the settlements which the crusaders made in 
 Palestine, and in other provinces of Asia. From those 
 sources, prodigious wealth flowed into the cities 
 which I have mentioned. This was accompanied with 
 a proportionate increase of power ; and, by the end 
 of the Holy War, Venice, in particular, became a 
 great maritime state, possessing an extensive com- 
 merce, and ample territories. Italy was not the only 
 country in which the Crusades contributed to revive 
 and diffuse such a spirit as prepared Europe for 
 future discoveries. By their expeditions into Asia, 
 the other European nations became well acquainted 
 with remote regions, which formerly they knew only 
 by name, or by the reports of ignorant and credulous 
 pilgrims. They had an opportunity of observing the 
 manners, the arts, and the accommodations of people 
 more polished than themselves. This intercourse 
 between the East and West subsisted almost two 
 centuries. The adventurers who returned from Asia 
 communicated to their countrymen the ideas which 
 they had acquired, and the habits of life they had 
 contracted by visiting more refined nations. The 
 Europeans began to be sensible of wants, with which 
 they were formerly unacquainted : new desires were 
 excited; and such a taste for the commodities and 
 arts of other countries gradually spread among them, 
 that they not only encouraged the resort of foreigners 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 11 
 
 to their harbours, but began to perceive the advantag 
 and necessity of applying to commerce themselves. 
 
 This communication, which was opened betweei 
 Europe and the western provinces of Asia, encou 
 raged several persons to advance far beyond th 
 countries in which the crusaders carried on thei 
 operations, and to travel by land into the more remote 
 and opulent regions of the East. The wild fanaticism 
 which seems, at that period, to have mingled in al 
 the schemes of individuals, no less than in all the 
 counsels of nations, first incited men to enter upon 
 those Ion? and dangerous peregrinations. They were 
 afterwards undertaken from prospects of commercia 
 advantage, or from motives of mere curiosity. Ben 
 jamin, a Jew of Tudela, in the kingdom of Navarre 
 possessed with a superstitious veneration for the law 
 of Moses, and solicitous to visit his countrymen inthi 
 East, whom he hoped to find in such a state of powe 
 and opulence as might redound to the honour of his 
 sect, set out from Spain in the year 1160, and travel- 
 ling by land to Constantinople, proceeded through the 
 countries to the north of the Euxine and Caspian seas 
 as far as Chinese Tartary: from thence he took his 
 route towards the south, and after traversing various 
 provinces of the further India, he embarked on the 
 Indian ocean, visited several of its islands, and re- 
 turned at the end of thirteen years by the way o: 
 Egypt, to Europe, with much information concerning 
 a large district of the globe altogether unknown at 
 that time to the western world. The zeal of the head 
 of the Christian church co-operated with the super- 
 stition of Benjamin the Jew, in discovering the inte- 
 rior and remote provinces of Asia [A. D. 1246]. Al 
 Christendom having been alarmed with accounts of 
 the rapid progress of the Tartar arms under Zengis 
 Khan, Innocent IV., who entertained most exalted 
 ideas concerning the plenitude of his own power, and 
 the submission due to his injunctions, sent Father 
 John de Piano Carpini, at the head of a mission of 
 Franciscan monks, and Father Ascolino, at the head 
 of another of Dominicans, to enjoin Kayuk Khan, the 
 grandson of Zengis, who was then at the head of the 
 Tartar empire, to embrace the Christian faith, and to 
 desist from desolating the earth by his arms. The 
 haughty descendant of the greatest conqueror Asia 
 had ever beheld, astonished at this strange mandate 
 from an Italian priest, whose name and jurisdiction 
 were alike unknown to him, received it with the con- 
 tempt which it merited, though he dismissed the 
 mendicants who delivered it with impunity. But, as 
 they had penetrated into the country by different 
 routes, and followed for some time the Tartar camps, 
 which were always in motion, they had opportunity 
 of visiting a great part of Asia. Carpini, who pro- 
 ceeded by the way of Poland and Russia, travelled 
 through its northern provinces as far as the extremi- 
 ties of Thibet. Ascolino, who seems to have landed 
 somewhere in Syria, advanced through its southern 
 provinces, into the interior parts of Persia. 
 
 [A.D. 1253.] Not long after St.Louis of France con- 
 tributed further towards extending the knowledge 
 which the Europeans had begun to acquire of those dis- 
 tant regions. Some designing impostor, who took ad- 
 vantage of theslender acquaintance of Christendom with 
 the state and character of the Asiatic nations, having 
 informed him that a powerful khan of the Tartars had 
 embraced the Christian faith, the monarch listened to 
 the tale with pious credulity, and instantly resolved 
 to send ambassadors to this illustrious convert, with 
 a view of enticing him to attack their common enemy 
 the Saracens in one quarter, while he fell upon them 
 in another. As monks were the only persons in that 
 
 age who possessed such a degree of knowledge as 
 qualified them for a service of this kind, he employed 
 in it Father Andrew, a Jacobine, who was followed 
 by Father William de Rubruquis, a Franciscan. With 
 respect to the progress of the former, there is no 
 memorial extant. The journal of the latter has been 
 published. He was admitted into the presence of 
 Mangu, the third khan in succession from Zengis, 
 and made a circuit through the interior parts of Asia, 
 more extensive than that of any European who had 
 hitherto explored them. 
 
 To those travellers, whom religious real sent forth 
 to visit Asia, succeeded others who ventured into 
 remote countries, from the prospect of commercial 
 advantage, or from motives of mere curiosity, the first 
 and most eminent of these was Marco Polo, [A. D. 1265], 
 a Venetian of a noble family. Having engaged early 
 in trade, according to the custom of his country, his 
 aspiring mind wished for a sphere of activity more 
 extensive than was afforded to it by the established 
 traflic carried on in those ports of Europe and Asia, 
 which the Venetians frequented. This prompted 
 him to travel into unknown countries, in expectation 
 of opening a commercial intercourse with them, more 
 suited to the sanguine ideas and hopes of a young 
 adventurer. 
 
 As his father had already carried some European 
 commodities to the court of the Great Khan of the 
 Tartars, and had disposed of them to advantage, he 
 resorted thither. Under the protection of Kublay 
 Khan, the most powerful of all the successors of 
 Zengis, he continued his mercantile peregrinations 
 in Asia upwards of twenty-six years; and, during 
 that time, advanced towards the east, far beyond 
 the utmost boundaries to which any European travel- 
 ler had ever proceeded. Instead of following the 
 course of Carpini and Rubruquis, along the vast 
 unpeopled plains of Tartiry, he passed through the 
 chief trading cities in the more cultivated parts of 
 Asia, and penetrated to Cambalu, or Pekin, the 
 capital of the great kingdom of Cathay, or China, 
 subject at that time to the successors of Zengis. He 
 made more than one voyage on the Indian ocean ; he 
 traded in many of the islands, from which Europe had 
 "ong received spices and other commodities, which 
 t held in high estimation, though unacquainted with 
 ;he particular countries to which it was indebted 
 or those precious productions ; and he obtained in- 
 brmation concerning several countries which he did 
 not visit in person, particularly the island Zipangri, 
 jrobably the same now known by the name of Japan. 
 Dn his return, he astonished his contemporaries with 
 lis description of vast regions, whose names had 
 never been heard of in Europe, and with such pomp- 
 ous accounts of their fertility, their populousness, 
 heir opulence, the variety of their manufactures, and 
 he extent of their trade, as rose far above the con- 
 ception of an uninformed age. 
 
 [A.D. 1322]. About half a century after Marco Polo, 
 ir John Mandeville, an Englishman, encouraged by 
 is example, visited most of the countries in the East 
 which he had described, and like him, published an 
 ccount of them. The narrations of those early travel- 
 ers abounded with many wild incoherent tales, con- 
 erning giants, enchanters, and monsters. But they 
 were not, from that circumstance, less acceptable to 
 n ignorant age, which delighted in what was mar- 
 ellous. The wonders which they told, mostly on 
 learsay, filled the multitude with admiration. The 
 acts which they related from their own observation 
 ttracted the attention of the more discerning. The 
 ormer, which may be considered as the popular 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 traditions and fables of the countries through which 
 they had passed, were gradually disregarded as 
 Europe advanced in knowledge. The latter, how- 
 ever incredible some of them may have appeared 
 in their own time, have been confirmed by the ob- 
 servations of modern travellers. By means of both, 
 however, the curiosity of mankind was excited with 
 respect to the remote parts of the earth; their ideas 
 were enlarged, and they were not only insensibly 
 disposed to attempt new discoveries, but received 
 such information as directed to that particular course 
 iri which these were afterwards carried on. 
 
 While this spirit was gradually forming in Europe, 
 a fortunate discovery was made, which contributed 
 more than all the efforts and ingenuity of preceding 
 ages, to improve and to extend navigation. That 
 wonderful property of the magnet, by which it com- 
 municates such virtue to a needle or slender rod of 
 iron, as to point towards the poles of the earth, was 
 observed. The use which might be made of this in 
 directing navigation was immediately perceived. That 
 valuable but now familiar instrument, the Mariner's 
 Compass, was constructed. When, by means of it, 
 navigators found that, at all seasons, and in every 
 place, they could discover the north and south with 
 so much ease and accuracy, it became no longer ne- 
 cessary t6 depend merely on the light of the stars 
 and the observation of the sea coast. They gradually 
 abandoned their ancient timid and lingering course 
 along the shore, ventured boldly into the ocean, and, 
 Telying on this new guide, could steer in the darkest 
 night, and under the most cloudy sky, with a security 
 and precision hitherto unknown. The compass may 
 be said to have opened to man the dominion of the 
 sea, and to have put him in full possession of the 
 earth, by enabling him to visit every part of it. 
 Flavio Gioia, a citizen of Amalfi, a town of consider- 
 able trade inthe kingdom of Naples, was the author 
 of this great discovery, about the year one thousand 
 three hundred and two. It hath been often the fate 
 of those illustrious benefactors of mankind, who have 
 enriched science and improved the arts by their in- 
 ventions, to derive more reputation than benefit from 
 the happy efforts of their genius. But the lot of 
 Gioia has been still more cruel : through the inatten- 
 tion or ignorance of contemporary historians, he has 
 "been defrauded even of the fame to which he had 
 such a just title. We receive from them no informa- 
 tion with respect to his profession, his character, the 
 precise time when he made this important discovery, 
 or the accidents and inquiries which led to it. The 
 knowledge of this event, though productive of greater 
 effects than any recorded in the annals of the human 
 race, is transmitted to us without any of those cir- 
 cumstances which can gratify the curiosity that it 
 naturally awakens. But though the use of the com- 
 pass might enable the Italians to perform the short 
 voyages to which they were accustomed, with greater 
 Security and expedition, its influence was not so sud- 
 den or extensive, as immediately to Tender navigation 
 adventurous, and to excite a spirit of discovery. 
 Many causes combined in preventing this beneficial 
 invention from producing its full effect instanta- 
 neously. Men relinquish ancient habits slowly, and 
 with reluctance. They are averse to new experiments, 
 and venture upon them with timidity. The com- 
 mercial jealousy of the Italians, it is probable, la- 
 boured to conceal the happy discovery of their 
 countryman from other nations. The art of steering 
 "by the compass with such skill and accuracy as to 
 inspire a full confidence in its direction, was acquired 
 gradually, Bailors, unaccustomed to quit sight of 
 
 land, durst not launch out at once and commit them- 
 selves to unknown seas. Accordingly, near half a 
 century elapsed from the time of Gioia' s discovery, 
 before navigators ventured into any seas which they 
 had not been accustomed to frequent. 
 
 The first appearance of a bolder spirit may be dated 
 from the voyages of the Spaniards to the Canary or 
 Fortunate Islands. By what accident they were led 
 to the discovery of those small isles, which lie near 
 five hundred miles from the Spanish coast, and above 
 a hundred and fifty miles from the coast of Africa, 
 contemporary writers have not explained. But, 
 about the middle of the fourteenth century, the people 
 of all the different kingdoms into which Spain was 
 then divided, were accustomed to make piratical ex- 
 cursions thither, in order to plunder the inhabitants, 
 or to carry them off as slaves. Clement VI. in virtue 
 of the right claimed by the holy see, to dispose of all 
 countries possessed by infidels, erected those isles 
 into a kingdom, in the year one thousand three hun- 
 dred and forty-four, and conferred it on Lewis de la 
 Cerda, descended from the royal family of Castile. 
 But that unfortunate prince, destitute of power to 
 assert his nominal title, having never visited the 
 Canaries, John de Bethencourt, a Norman baron, 
 obtained a grant of them from Henry III. of Castile. 
 Bethencourt, with the valour and good fortune which 
 distinguished the adventurers of hi* country, at- 
 tempted and effected the conquest ; and the posses- 
 sion of the Canaries remained for some time in his 
 family, as a fief held of the crown of Castile. Pre- 
 vious to this expedition of Bethencourt, his country- 
 men settled in Normandy are said to have visited the 
 coast of Africa [A. D. 1365], and to have proceeded far 
 to the south of the Canary Islands. But their voyages 
 thither seem not to have been undertaken in conse- 
 quence of any public or regular plan for extending 
 navigation and attempting new discoveries. They 
 were either excursions suggested by that roving 
 piratical spirit, which descended to the Normans from 
 their ancestors, or the commercial enterprises of pri- 
 vate merchants, which attracted so little notice, that 
 hardly any memorial of them is to be found in con- 
 temporary authors. In a general survey of the pro- 
 gress of discovery, it is sufficient to have mentioned 
 this event ; and leaving it among those of dubious 
 existence, or of small importance, we may conclude, 
 that though much additional information concerning 
 the remote regions of the East had been received by 
 travellers who visited them by land, navigation, at 
 the beginning of the fifteenth century, had not ad- 
 vanced beyond the state to which it had attained 
 before the downfall of the Roman empire. 
 
 At length the period arrived, when Providence 
 decreed that men were to pass the limits withia 
 which they had been so long confined, and open to 
 themselves a more ample field wherein to display 
 their talents, their enterprise, and courage. The first 
 considerable efforts towards this were not made by 
 any of the more powerful states of Europe, or by 
 those who had applied to navigation with the greatest 
 assiduity and success. The glory of leading the way 
 in this new career, was reserved for Portugal, one of 
 the smallest and least powerful of the European 
 kingdoms. As the attempts of the Portuguese to 
 acquire the knowledge of those parts of the globe with 
 which mankind were then unacquainted, not only 
 improved and extended the art of navigation, but 
 roused such a spirit of curiosity and enterprise, as 
 led to the discovery of the New World, of which I 
 propose to write the history, it is necessary to take a 
 full view of the rise, the progress, and success of 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERIOAv 
 
 their various naval operations. It was in this school 
 that the discoverer of America was trained ; and 
 unless we trace the steps by which his instructors 
 and guides advanced, it will be impossible to com- 
 prehend the circumstances which suggested the idea 
 or facilitated the execution of his great design. 
 
 Various circumstances prompted the Portuguese 
 to exert their activity in this new direction, and en- 
 abled them to accomplish undertakings apparently 
 superior to the natural force of their monarchy. The 
 kings of Portugal, having driven the Moors out of 
 their dominions, had acquired power, as well as glory, 
 by the success of their arms agninst the infidels. By 
 their victories over them, they had extended the royal 
 authority beyond the narrow limits within which it 
 was originally circumscribed in Portugal, as well as 
 in other feudal kingdoms. They had the command 
 of the national force, could rouse it to act with united 
 vigour, and, after the expulsion of the Moors, could 
 employ it without dread of interruption from any 
 domestic enemy. By the perpetual hostilities carried 
 on for several centuries against the Mahometans, the 
 martial and adventurous spirit which distinguished 
 all the European nations during the middle ages, was 
 improved and heightened among the Portuguese. 
 A fierce civil war towards the close of the fourteenth 
 century, occasioned by a disputed succession, aug- 
 mented the military ardour of the nation, and formed 
 or called forth men of such active and daring genius, 
 as are fit for bold undertakings. The situation of 
 the kingdom, bounded on every side by the domi- 
 nions of a more powerful neighbour, did not afford 
 free scope to the activity of the Portuguese by land, 
 as the strength of their monarchy was no match for 
 that of Castile. But Portugal was a maritime state, 
 in which there were many commodious harbours ; 
 the people had begun to make some progress in the 
 knowledge and practice of navigation ; and the sea 
 was open to them, presenting the only field of enter- 
 prise in which they could distinguish themselves. 
 
 Such was the state of Portuga', and such the dis- 
 position of the people, when John I., surnamed the 
 Bastard, obtained secure possession of the crown by 
 the peace concluded with Castile, in the year <nu 
 thousand four hundred and eleven. He was a prince 
 of great merit, who, by superior courage and abilities 
 had opened his way to a throne, which of right did not 
 belong to him. He instantly perceived that it woult 
 be impossible to preserve public order, or domestic 
 tranquillity, without finding some employment for the 
 restless spirit of his subjects. With this view he 
 assembled a numerous fleet at Lisbon, composed o 
 all the ships which he could fit out in his own king- 
 dom [A. D. 1412], and of many hired from foreigners 
 This great armament was destined to attack th< 
 Moors settled on the coast of Barbary. While it was 
 equipping, a few vessels were appointed to sail alonj 
 the western shore of Africa bounded by the Atlantic 
 ocean, and to discover the unknown countries situatec 
 there. From this inconsiderable attempt, we ma 1 
 date the commencement of that spirit of discovery 
 which opened the barriers that had so long shut ou 
 mankind from the knowledge of oae half of the ter 
 restrial globe. 
 
 At the time when John sent forth these ships or 
 this new voyage, the art of navigation was still ver} 
 imperfect. Though Africa lay so near to Portugal 
 and the fertility of the countries already known 01 
 that continent invited men to explore it more fully 
 the Portuguese had never ventured to sail beyoiK 
 Cape AW. That promontory, as its name imports 
 was hitherto considered as a boundary which, coul< 
 
 iot be passed. But the nations of Europe had now 
 cquired as much knowledge as emboldened theni 
 o disregard the prejudices and to correct the errors 
 f their ancestors. The long reign of ignorance, tlje 
 onstant enemy of every curious inquiry, and of every 
 low undertaking, wag approaching to its period, 
 ["he light of science began to dawn. The works of 
 he ancient Greeks and Romans began to be read 
 ith admiration and prpfit.. The sciences cultivated 
 >y the Arabians were introduced into Europe by the 
 kloors settled in Spain and Portugal, and by the 
 ews, who were very numerous in both these king- 
 doms. Geometry, astronomy, and geography, the 
 cienccs on which the art of navigation is founded, 
 became objects of studious attention. The memory 
 of the discoveries made by the ancients was revived, 
 and the progress of their navigation and commerce 
 began to be traced. Some of the causes which have 
 obstructed the cultivation of science in Portugal, 
 during this century and the last, did not exist, or did 
 not operate in the same manner, in the fifteenth cen- 
 tury (4) ; and the Portuguese, at that period, seem 
 to have kept pace with other nations on this side of 
 the Alps in literary pursuits. 
 
 As the genius of the age favoured the execution of 
 that new undertaking, to which the peculiar state of 
 the country invited the Portuguese, it proved success- 
 ful. The vessels sent on the discovery doubled that 
 formidable Cape, which had terminated the progress 
 of former navigators, and proceeded a hundred and 
 sixty miles beyond it, to Cape Bojador. As its rocky 
 cliffs, which stretched a considerable way into the 
 Atlantic, appeared more dreadful than the promon- 
 tory which they had passed, the Portuguese com- 
 manders durst not attempt to sail round it, but 
 returned to Lisbon, more satisfied with having 
 advanced so far, than ashamed of having ventured 
 no further. 
 
 Inconsiderable as this voyage was [A.D. 1417], it in- 
 creased the passion for discovery, which began to 
 arise in Portugal. The fortunate issue of the king's 
 expedition against the Moor* of Barbary, added 
 strength to that spirit in the nation, and pushed it on 
 to new undertakings. In order to render these suc- 
 cessful, it was necessary that they should be conducted 
 by a person who possessed abilities capable of dis- 
 cerning what was attainable, who enjoyed leisure to 
 form a regular system for prosecuting discovery, and 
 who was animated with ardour that would persevere 
 in spite of obstacles and repulses. Happily for Por- 
 tugal she found all those qualities in Henry Duke of 
 Visep, the fourth son of king John by Philippa of 
 Lancaster, sister of Henry IV. king of England. 
 That prince, in his early youth, having accompanied 
 his father in his expedition to Barbary, distinguished 
 himself by many deeds of valour. To the martial 
 spirit, which was the characteristic of every man of 
 noble birth at that time, he added all the accomplish- 
 ments of a more enlightened and polished age. He 
 cultivated the arts and sciences, which were then 
 unknown and despised by persons of his rank. He 
 applied with peculiar fondness to the study of geoc 
 graphy ; and by the instruction of able masters, as 
 well as by the accounts of travellers, he early ac- 
 quired such knowledge of the habitable globe, as dis- 
 covered the great probability of finding new and 
 opulent countries, by sailing along the coast of Africa. 
 Such an object was formed to awaken the enthusiasm 
 and ardour of a youthful mind, and he espoused with 
 the utmost zeal the patronage of. a design which 
 might prove as beneficial, as it appeared to be splendid 
 and honourable, ID. order that, he might pursue thui 
 
14 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 great scheme without interruption, he retired frorr 
 court immediately after his return from Africa, an 
 fixed his residence at Sagres, near Cape St. Vincent 
 where the prospect of the Atlantic ocean invited hi 
 thoughts continually towards his favourite project 
 and encouraged him to execute it. In this retreat he 
 was attended by some of the most learned men in 
 his country, who aided him in his researches. He 
 applied for information to the Moors of Barbary, who 
 were accustomed to travel by land into the interior 
 provinces of Africa, in quest of ivory, gold-dust, anc 
 other rich commodities. He consulted the Jews 
 settled in Portugal. By promises, rewards, and marks 
 of respect, he allured into his service several persons 
 foreigners as well as Portuguese, who were eminent 
 for their skill in navigation. In taking those prepara- 
 tory steps, the great abilities of the prince were se- 
 conded by his private virtues. His integrity, his 
 affability, his respect for religion, his zeal for the 
 honour of his country, engaged persons of all ranks to 
 applaud his design, and to favour the execution of it 
 His schemes were allowed, by the greater part of his 
 countrymen, to proceed neither from ambition nor 
 the desire of wealth, but to flow from the warm bene- 
 volence of a heart eager to promote the happiness of 
 mankind, and which justly entitled him to assume a 
 motto for his device, that described the quality by 
 which he wished to be distinguished, the talent of 
 doing good. 
 
 His first effort [A. D. 1418], as is usual at the com- 
 mencement of any new undertaking, was extremely 
 inconsiderable. He fitted out a single ship, and 
 giving the command of it to John Gonzalez Zarco 
 and Tristan Vaz, two gentlemen of his household, 
 who voluntarily offered to conduct the enterprise, he 
 instructed them to use their utmost efforts to double 
 Cape Bojador, and thence to steer towards the south. 
 They, according to the mode of navigation which still 
 prevailed, held their course along the shore ; and 
 by following that direction, they must have en- 
 countered almost insuperable difficulties in at- 
 tempting to pass Cape Bojador. But fortune 
 came in aid to their want of skill, and pre- 
 vented the voyage from being altogether fruitless. 
 A sudden squall of wind arose, drove them out to 
 sea, and when they expected every moment to perish, 
 landed them on an unknown island, which from their 
 happy escape they named Porto Santo. In the in- 
 fancy of navigation, the discovery of this small island 
 appeared a matter of such moment, that they in- 
 stantly returned to Portugal with the good tidings, 
 and were received by Henry with the applause and 
 honour due to fortunate adventurers. This faint 
 dawn of success filled a mind ardent in the pursuit 
 of a favourite object with such sanguine hopes as 
 were sufficient incitements to proceed. Next year 
 [A. D. 1419] Henry sent out three ships under the same 
 commanders, to whom he joined Bartholomew Pe- 
 icstrello, in order to take possession of the island 
 which they had discovered. When they began to 
 settle in Porto Santo, they observed towards the 
 south a fixed spot in the horizon like a small black 
 cloud. By degrees they were led to conjecture that 
 it might be land, and steering towards it, they arrived 
 at a considerable island, uninhabited and covered 
 with wood, which on that account they called Ma- 
 deira. As it was Henry's chief object to render his 
 discoveries useful to his country, he immediately 
 equipped a fleet to carry a colony of Portuguese to 
 these islands. By his provident care, they were fur- 
 nished not only with the seeds, plants, and domestic 
 mnimals common in Europe ; but as he foresaw 
 
 that the warmth of the climate and fertility of the 
 soil would prove favourable to the rearing of other 
 productions, he procured slips of the vine from the 
 island of Cyprus, the rich wines of which were then 
 in great request, and plants of the sugar-cane from 
 Sicily, into which it had been lately introduced. 
 These throve so prosperously in this new country, 
 that the benefit of cultivating them was immediately- 
 perceived, and the sugar and wine of Madeira quickly 
 became articles of some consequence in the commerce 
 of Portugal. 
 
 As soon as the advantages derived from this first 
 settement to the west of the European continent 
 began to be felt, the spirit of discovery appeared less 
 chimerical, and became more adventurous. By their 
 voyages to Madeira, the Portuguese were gradually 
 accustomed to a bolder navigation, and, instead of 
 creeping servilely along the coast, ventured into the 
 open sea. In consequence of taking this course, 
 Gilianez, who commanded one of Prince Henry's 
 ships, doubled Cape Bojador [A. D. 1423], the boundary 
 of the Portuguese navigation upwards of twenty years, 
 and which had hitherto been deemed impassable. This 
 successful voyage, which the ignorance of the age 
 placed on a level with the most famous exploits re- 
 corded in history, opened a new sphere to navigation, 
 as it discovered the vast continent of Africa, still 
 washed by the Atlantic ocean, and stretching towards 
 the south. Part of this was soon explored ; the Por- 
 tuguese advanced within the tropics, and in the space 
 of a few years they discovered the river Senegal, and 
 all the coast extending from Cape Blanco to Cape de 
 Verd. 
 
 Hitherto the Portuguese had been guided in their 
 discoveries, or encouraged to attempt them, by the 
 light and information which they received from the 
 works of the ancient mathematicians and geographers. 
 But when they began to enter the torrid zone, the 
 notion which prevailed among the ancients, that the 
 heat, which reigned perpetually there, was so exces- 
 sive as to render it uninhabitable, deterred them, for 
 some time, from proceeding. Their own observa- 
 tions, when they first ventured into this unknown 
 and formidable region, tended to confirm the opinion 
 of antiquity concerning the violent operation of the 
 direct rays of the sun. As far as the river Senegal, 
 the Portuguese had found the coast of Africa in- 
 habited by people nearly resembling the Moors of 
 Barbary. When they advanced to the south of that 
 river, the human form seemed to put on a new ap- 
 pearance. They beheld men with skins black as 
 bony, with short curled hair, flat noses, thick lips, 
 and all the peculiar features which are now known 
 to distinguish the race of negroes. This surprising 
 lteration they naturally attributed to the influence 
 )f heat, and if they should advance nearer to the 
 ine, they began to dread that its effects would be 
 still more violent. The dangers were exaggerated ; 
 and many other objections against attempting further 
 discoveries were proposed by some of the grandees, 
 who, from ignorance, from envy, or from that cold 
 imid prudence, which rejects whatever has the air 
 f novelty or enterprise, had hitherto condemned all 
 Prince Henry's schemes. They represented, that it 
 was altogether chimerical to expect any advantage 
 from countries situated in that region which the 
 wisdom and experience of antiquity had pronounced 
 :o be unfit for the habitation of men ; that their 
 brefathers, satisfied with cultivating the territory 
 which Providence had allotted them, did not waste 
 he strength of the kingdom by fruitless projects, in 
 quest of new settlements ; that Portugal was already 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 15 
 
 exhausted by the expense of attempts to discover I 
 lands, which either did not exist, or which nature | 
 destined to remain unknown ; and was drained of 
 men, who might have been employed in undertak- 
 ings attended with more certain success, and pro- 
 ductive of greater benefit. But neither their appeal 
 to the authority of the ancients, nor their reasonings 
 concerning the interests of Portugal, made any im- 
 pression upon the determined philosophic mind of 
 Prince Henry. The discoveries which he had al- 
 ready made convinced him that the ancients had 
 little more than a conjectural knowledge of the torrid 
 zone. He was no less satisfied that the political 
 arguments of his opponents, with respect to the in- 
 terest of Portugal, were malevolent and ill founded. 
 In those sentiments he was strenuously supported by 
 his brother Pedro, who governed the kingdom as 
 guardian of their nephew Alphonso V., who had suc- 
 ceeded to the throne during his minority [A. D. 1438] ; 
 and, instead of slackening his efforts, Henry con- 
 tinued to pursue his discoveries with fresh ardour. 
 
 But, in order to silence all the murmurs of oppo- 
 sition, he endeavoured to obtain the sanction of the 
 highest authority in favour of his operations. With 
 this view he applied to the pope, and represented, in 
 pompous terms, the pious and unwearied zeal with 
 which he had exerted himself during twenty years, 
 in discovering unknown countries, the wretched in- 
 habitants of which were utter strangers to true reli- 
 gion, wandering in heathen darkness, or led astray 
 by the delusions of Mahomet. He besought the 
 holy father, to whom, as the vicar of Christ, all the 
 kingdoms of the earth were subject, to confer on the 
 crown of Portugal a right to all the countries pos- 
 sessed by infidels, which should be discovered by the 
 industry of its subjects, and subdued by the force 
 of its arms. He entreated him to enjoin all Chris- 
 tian powers, under the highest penalties, not to 
 molest Portugal while engaged in this laudable enter- 
 prise, and to prohibit them from settling in any of 
 the countries which the Portuguese should discover. 
 Ho promised that, in all their expeditions, it should 
 be the chief object of his countrymen to spread the 
 knowledge of the Christian religion, to establish the 
 authority of the holy see, and to increase the flock 
 of the universal pastor. As it was by improving 
 with dexterity every favourable conjuncture for ac- 
 quiring new powers, that the court of Rome had 
 gradually extended its usurpations, Eugene IV. the 
 pontiff to whom this application was made, eagerly 
 seized the opportunity which now presented itself. 
 He instantly perceived, that, by complying with 
 Prince Henry's request, he might exercise a prero- 
 gative no less flattering in its own nature, than likely 
 to prove beneficial in its consequences, A bull was 
 accordingly issued, in which, after applauding in the 
 strongest terms the past efforts of the Portuguese, 
 and exhorting them to proceed in that laudable 
 career on which they had entered, he granted them 
 an exclusive right to all the countries which they 
 should discover, from Cape Non to the continent of 
 India. 
 
 Extravagant as this donation, comprehending such 
 a large portion of the habitable globe, would now 
 appear, even in catholic countries, no person in the 
 fifteenth century doubted that the Pope, in the ple- 
 nitude of his apostolic power, had a right to confer 
 it. Prince Henry was soon sensible of the advan- 
 tages which he derived from this transaction. His 
 schemes were authorized and sanctified by the bull 
 approving of them. The spirit of discovery was 
 connected with zeal for religion, which, in that age, 
 
 was a principle of such activity and vigour, as to 
 influence the conduct of nations. All Christian 
 princes were deterred from intruding into those 
 countries which the Portuguese had discovered, or 
 from interrupting the progress of their navigation 
 and conquests (10). 
 
 The fame of the Portuguese voyages soon spread 
 over Europe. Men Ion? accustomed to circumscribe 
 the activity and knowledge of the human mind 
 within the limits to which they had hitherto been 
 confined, were astonished to behold the sphere of 
 navigation so suddenly enlarged, and a prospect 
 opened of visiting regions of the globe, the exist- 
 ence of which was unknown in former times. The 
 learned and speculative reasoned and formed theories 
 concerning those unexpected discoveries. The vul- 
 gar inquired and wondered; while enterprising ad- 
 venturers crowded from every part of Europe, soli- 
 citing Prince Henry to employ them in this honoura- 
 ble service. Many Venetians and Genoese, in parti- 
 cular, who were, at that time, superior to all other 
 nations in the science of naval affairs, entered aboard 
 the Portuguese ships, and acquired a most perfect 
 and extensive knowledge of their profession in that 
 new school of navigation. In emulation of these 
 foreigners, the Portuguese exerted their own talents. 
 The nation seconded the designs of the prince. 
 [A.D. 1446J. Private merchants formedcompanies.with 
 a view to search for unknown countries. The Cape de 
 Verd Islands, which lie offthe promontory of that name, 
 were discovered [A.D. 1449], and soon after the isles 
 called Azores. As the former of these are above 
 three hundred miles from the African coast, and the 
 latter nine hundred miles from any continent, it is 
 evident, by their venturing so boldly into the open 
 seas, that the Portuguese had, by this time, im- 
 proved greatly in the art of navigation. 
 
 While the passion for engaging in new under- 
 takings was thus warm and active, it received an 
 unfortunate check by the death of Prince Henry 
 [A.D. 1463], whose superior knowledge had hitherto 
 directed all the operations of the discoverers, and 
 whose patronage had encouraged and protected them. 
 But, notwithstanding all the advantages which they 
 derived from these, the Portuguese, during his life, 
 did not advance, in their utmost progress towards 
 the south, within five degrees of the equinoctial 
 line; and after their continued exertions for half 
 a century [A. i\ 14121463], hardly fifteen hundred 
 miles of the coast of Africa were discovered. To an 
 age acquainted with the efforts of navigation in its 
 state of maturity and improvement, those essays 
 of its early years must necessarily appear feebte 
 and unskilful. But inconsiderable as they may 
 be deemed, they were sufficient to turn the curi- 
 osity of the European nations into a new channel, to 
 excite an enterprising spirit, and to point the way to 
 future discoveries. 
 
 Alphonso, who possessed the throne of Portugal at 
 the time of Prince Henry's death, was so much en- 
 gaged in supporting his own pretensions to the 
 throne of Castile, or in carrying on his expeditions 
 against the Moors in Barbary, that the force of },is 
 kingdom being exerted in other operations, he could 
 not prosecute the discoveries of Africa with ardour. 
 He committed the conduct of them to Fernando 
 Gomez, a merchant in Lisbon, to whom he granted 
 an exclusive right of commerce with all the countries 
 of which Prince Henry had taken possession. Under 
 the restraint and oppression of a monopoly, the 
 spirit of discovery languished. It ceased to be a 
 national object, and became the concern of a private 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 man, more attentive to his own gain, than to the glory 
 of his country. Some progress, however, was made. 
 The Portuguese ventured at length to cross the line, 
 [A. p. 1471] and, to their astonishment, found that 
 region of the torrid zone, which was supposed to be 
 scorched with intolerable heat, to be not only habit 
 able, but populous and fertile. 
 
 [A. D. 1481], John II. who succeeded his father 
 Alphonso, possessedtalents capable both of forming and 
 executing great designs. As part of his revenues, while 
 prince, had arisen from duties on the trade with the 
 newly-discovered countries, this naturally turned his 
 attention towards them, and satisfied him with respect 
 to their utility and importance. In proportion as his 
 knowledge of these countries extended, the possession 
 of them appeared to be of greater consequence. 
 While the Portugese proceeded along the coast of 
 Africa, from Cape Non to the river of Senegal, they 
 found all that extensive tract to be sandy, barren, and 
 thinly inhabited by a wretched people, professing the 
 Mahometan religion, and subject to the vast empire 
 of Morocco. But to the south of that river, the 
 power and religion of the Mahometans were unknown. 
 The country was divided into small independent 
 principalities, the population was considerable, the 
 soil fertile, and the Portuguese soon discovered that it 
 produced ivory, rich gums, gold, and other valuable 
 commodities. By the acquisition of these, com- 
 merce was enlarged, and became more adventurous. 
 Men, animated arid rendered active by the certain 
 prospect of gain, pursued discovery with great eager- 
 ness, than when they were excited only by curiosity 
 and hope. 
 
 This spirit derived no small reinforcement of vigour 
 from the countenance of such a monarch as John. 
 Declaring himself the patron of every attempt towards 
 discovery, he promoted it with all the ardour of his 
 rranduncle prince Henry, and with superior power. 
 The effects of this were immediately felt. A power- 
 ful fleet was fitted out [A. D. 1484J, which, after disco- 
 vering the kingdoms of Benin and Congo, advanced 
 above fifteen hundred milos beyond the line, and the 
 Portuguese, for the first time, beheld a new heaven, 
 and observed the stars of another hemisphere. John 
 was not only solicitous to discover, but attentive to 
 secure, the possession of those countries. He built 
 forts on the coast of Guinea ; he sent out colonies to 
 settle there ; he established a commercial intercourse 
 with the more powerful kingdoms ; he endeavoured 
 to render such as were feeble or divided, tributary 
 to the crown of Portugal. Some of the petty princes 
 voluntarily acknowledged themselves his vnssals. 
 Others were compelled to do so by force of arms. 
 A regular and well-digested system was formed 
 with respect to this new object of policy, and by 
 firmly adhering to it, the Portuguese power and 
 commerce in Africa were established upon a solid 
 foundation. 
 
 By their continued intercourse with the people of 
 Africa, the Portuguese gradually acquired some know- 
 ledge of those parts of that, country which they had 
 not visited. The information which they received 
 from the natives, added to what they had observed in 
 their own voyages, began to open prospects more ex- 
 tensive, and to suggest the idea of schemes more im- 
 portant, than those which had hitherto allured and 
 occupied them. They had detected the error of the 
 ancients concerning the nature of the torrid zone. 
 They found, as they proceeded southwards, that the 
 continent of Africa, instead of extending in breadth, 
 according to the doctrine of Ptolemy, at that time the 
 pracle and guide of the learned iu the science of 
 
 geography, appeared sensibly to contract itself, and to 
 bend toward the east. This induced them to give 
 credit to the accounts of the ancit-nt 1'hniiriaii voyages 
 round Africa, which had long been deemed fabulutis, 
 and led them to conceive hopes, that, by following the 
 same route, they might arrive at the East Indies, and 
 engross that commerce which has been the source of 
 wealth and power to every nation possessed of it. 
 The comprehensive genius of prince Henry, as we may 
 conjecture from the words of the pope's bull, had early 
 formed some idea of this navigation. But though his 
 countrymen, at that period, were incapable of con- 
 ceiving the extent of his views and schemes, all the 
 Portuguese mathematicians and pilots now concurred 
 in representing them as well founded and practicable. 
 The king entered with warmth into their sentiments, 
 and began to concert measures for this arduous and 
 important voyage. 
 
 Before his preparations for this expedition were 
 finished, accounts were transmitted from Africa that 
 various nations along the coast had mentioned a 
 mighty kingdom situated on their continent, at a great 
 distance towards the East, the king of which, accord- 
 ing to their description, professed the Christian refc- 
 gion. The Portuguese monarch immediately con- 
 cluded, that this must be the emperor of Abyssinia, 
 to whom the Europeans, seduced by a mistake of 
 Rubruquis, Marco Polo, and other travellers to the 
 East, absurdly gave the name of Prester or Presbyter 
 John ; and, as he hoped to receive information and 
 assistance from a Christian prince, in prosecuting a 
 scheme that tended to propagate their common faith, 
 he resolved to open, if possible, some intercourse with 
 his court. With this view, he made choice of Pedro 
 de Covillam and Alphonso de Payva, who were per- 
 fect masters of the Arabic language, and sent them 
 into the East to search for the residence of this un- 
 known potentate, and to make him proffers of friend- 
 ship. They had in charge likewise to procure what- 
 ever intelligence the nations which they visited could 
 supply, with respect to the trade of India, and the 
 course of navigation to that continent. 
 
 While John made this new attempt by land to obtain 
 some knowledge of the country which he wished so 
 ardently to discover, he did not neglect the prosecution 
 of this great design by sea, [A. D. 1488]. The conduct 
 of a voyage for this purpose, the most arduous and 
 important which the Portuguese had ever projected, 
 was committed to Bartholomew Diaz, an officer whose 
 sagacity, experience, and fortitude rendered him equal 
 to the undertaking. He stretched boldly towards the 
 south, and, proceeding beyond the utmost limits to 
 which his countrymen had hkherto advanced, disco- 
 vered near a thousand miles of new country. Neither 
 the danger to which he was exposed by a succession 
 of violent tempests in unknown seas, and by the fre- 
 quent mutinies of his crew, nor the calamities of 
 famine which he suffered from losing his store-ship, 
 could deter him from prosecuting his enterprise. In 
 recompence of his labour and perseverance, he at last 
 descried that lofty promontory which bounds Africa 
 to the south. But to descry it was all that he had in 
 his power to accomplish. The violence of the winds, 
 the shattered condition of his ships, and the turbu- 
 lent spirit of the sailors, compelled him to return after 
 a voyage of sixteen months, in which he disco-, ered a 
 far greater extent of country than any former navi- 
 gator. Diaz had called the promontory which termi- 
 nated his voyage, Cabo Tormentoso, or the Stormy 
 Cape ; but the king, his master, as he now entertained 
 no doubt of having found the long-desired route to India, 
 gave it a name more inviting, The Cape of Good Hope. 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 Those sanguine expectations of success were con- 
 firmed by the intelligence which John received over 
 land, in consequence of his embassy to Abyssinia. 
 Covillam and Payva, in obedience to their master's 
 instructions, had repaired to Grand Cairo. From 
 that city they travelled along with a caravan of 
 Egyptian merchants, and, embarking on the Red sea, 
 arrived at Aden in Arabia. There they separated; 
 Payva sailed directly towards Abyssinia ; Covillam 
 embarked for the East Indies, and, having visited 
 Calecut, Goa, and other cities on the Malabar coast, 
 returned to Sofala, on the east side of Africa, and 
 thence to Grand Cairo, which Payva and he had fixed 
 upon as their place of rendezvous. Unfortunately the 
 former was cruelly murdered in Abyssinia, but Co- 
 villam found at Cairo two Portuguese Jews, whom 
 John, whose provident sagacity attended to every cir- 
 cumstance that could facilitate the execution of his 
 schemes, had despatched after them, in order to re- 
 reive a detail of their proceedings, and to communi- 
 cate to them new instructions. By one of these Jews, 
 Covillam transmitted to Portugal a journal of his 
 travels by sea and land, his remarks upon the trade 
 of India, together with exact maps of the coasts on 
 which he had touched ; and from what he himself had 
 observed, as well as from the information of skilful 
 seamen in different countries, he concluded, that, by 
 sailm-,' round Africa, a passage might be found to the 
 East Indies. 
 
 The happy coincidence of Covillam's opinion and 
 report, with the discoveries which Diaz had lately 
 made, left hardly any shadow of doubt with respect 
 to the possibility of sailing from Europe to India. 
 But the vast length of the voyage, and the furious 
 storms which Diaz had encountered near the Cape of 
 Good Hope, alarmed and intimidated the Portuguese 
 to such a degree, although by long experience they 
 were now become adventurous and skilful mariners, 
 that some time was requisite to prepare their minds 
 for this dangerous and extraordinary voyage. The 
 murage however and authority of the monarch 
 gradually dispelled the vain fears of his subjects, or 
 made it necessary to conceal them. As John thought 
 himself now upon the eve of accomplishing that great 
 design, which had been the principal object of his reign, 
 his earnestness in prosecuting it became so vehement, 
 that it occupied his thoughts by day, and bereaved 
 him of sleep through the night. While he was taking 
 every precaution that his wisdom and experience 
 could suggest, in order to insure the success of the 
 expedition, which was to decide concerning the fate 
 of his favourite project, the fame of the vast dis- 
 coveries which the Portuguese had already made, 
 the reports concerning the extraordinary intelligence 
 which they had received from the East, and the 
 prospect of the voyage which they now meditated, 
 drew the attention of all the European nations, and 
 held them in suspense and expectation. By some, 
 the maritime skill and navigations of the Portuguese 
 were compared with those of the Phenicians and 
 Carthaginians, and exalted above them. Others 
 formed conjectures concerning the revolutions which 
 the success of the Portuguese schemes might oc- 
 casion in the course of trade, and the political state 
 of Europe. The Venetians began to be disquieted 
 with the apprehension of losing their Indian com- 
 merce, the monopoly of which was the chief source of 
 their power as well as opulence, and the Portuguese 
 already enjoyed in fancy the wealth of the East. 
 But, during this interval, which gave such scope to 
 the various workings of curiosity, of hope, and of 
 fear, an account was brought to Europe of an event 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA, No. 3. 
 
 no less extraordinary than unexpected, the discovery 
 of a New World situated in the west ; and the eyes 
 and admiration of mankind turned immediately to- 
 wards that great object. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 AMONG the foreigners whom the fame of the dis- 
 coveries made by the Portuguese had allured into 
 their service, was Christopher Colon, or Columbus, 
 a subject of the republic of Genoa. Neither the 
 time nor place of his birth are known with cer- 
 tainty (9) ; but he was descended of an honourable 
 family, though reduced to indigence by various mis- 
 fortunes. His ancestors having betaken themselves 
 for subsistence to a sea-fearing life, Columbus dis- 
 covered in his early youth the peculiar character 
 and talents which mark out a man for that profes- 
 sion. His parents, instead of thwarting this original 
 propensity of his mind, seem to have encouraged and 
 confirmed it, by the education which they gave him. 
 After acquiring some knowledge of the Latin tongue, 
 the only language in which science was taught at 
 that time, he was instructed in geometry, cosmo- 
 graphy, astronomy, and the art of drawing. To 
 these he applied with such ardour and predilection, 
 on account of their connexion with navigation, his 
 favourite object, that he advanced with rapid profi- 
 ciency in the study of them. Thus qualified, he went 
 to sea at the age of fourteen [A.D. 1461], and began 
 IM\ career on that element which conducted him to so 
 much glory. His early voyages were to those ports in 
 the Mediterranean which his countrymen the Genoese 
 frequented. This being a sphere too narrow for his 
 active mind [A.D. 1467], he made an excursion to 
 the northern seas, and visited the coasts of Iceland, 
 to which the English and other nations had begun to 
 resort on account of its fishery. As navigation, in 
 every direction, was now become enterprising, he 
 proceeded beyond that island, the Thule of the 
 ancients, and advanced severul derives within the polar 
 circle. Hnvniu' satisfied his curiosity, by a voyage 
 which tended more to enlarge his knowledge of naval 
 affairs than to improve his fortune, ht> entered into th 
 service of a famous sea-captain, of his own name and 
 family. This man commanded a small squadron fitted 
 out at his own expense, and by cruising sometimes 
 against the Mahometans, sometimes against the Ve- 
 netians, the rivals of his country in trade, had acquired 
 both wealth and reputation. With him Columbus 
 continued for several years, no less distinguished for 
 his courage, than for his experience as a sailor. At 
 length, in an obstinate engagement off the coast of 
 Portugal, with some Venetian Caravals, returning 
 richly laden from the Low Countries, the vessel on 
 board which he served took fire, together with one of 
 the enemy's ships, to which it was fast grappled. In 
 this dreadful extremity his intrepidity and presence 
 of mind did not forsake him. He threw himself into 
 the sea, laid hold of a floating oar, and by the support 
 of it, and his dexterity in swimming, he reached the 
 shore, though above two leagues distant, and saved a 
 life reserved for great undertakings. 
 
 A s soon as he recovered strength for the journey, he 
 repaired to Lisbon, where many of his countrymen 
 were settled. They soon conceived such a favourable 
 opinion , of his merit, as well as talents, that they 
 warmly solicited him to remain in that kingdom, where 
 his naval skill and experience could not fail of render- 
 ing him conspicuous. To every adventurer, animated 
 either with curiosity to visit new countries, or with 
 ambition to distinguish himself, the Portuguese service 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 was at that time extremely inviting. Columbus listened 
 with a favourable ear to the advice of his friends, and 
 having gained the esteem of a Portuguese lady, whom 
 he married, fixed his residence in Lisbon. This alli- 
 ance, instead of detaching him from a sea-faring life, 
 contributed to enlarge the sphere of his naval know- 
 ledge, and to excite a desire of extending it still further. 
 His wife was a daughter of Bartholomew Perestrello, 
 one of the captains employed by prince Henry in his 
 early navigations, and who, under his protection, had 
 discovered and planted the islands of Porto Santo and 
 Madeira. Columbus got possession of the journals 
 and charts of this experienced navigator, and from them 
 he learned the course which the Portuguese had held 
 in making their discoveries, as well as the various 
 circumstances which guided or encquraged them in 
 their attempts. The study of these soothed and 
 inflamed his favourite passion ; and while he con- 
 templated the maps, and read the descriptions of the 
 new countries which Perestrello had seen, his im- 
 patience to visit them became irresistible. In order 
 to indulge it, he made a voyage to Madeira, and 
 continued during several years to trade with that 
 island, the Canaries, the Azores, the settlements in 
 Guinea, and all the other places which the Portuguese 
 had discovered on the continent of Africa. 
 
 By the experience which Columbus acquired during 
 such a variety of voyages, to almost every part of the 
 globe with which, at that time, any intercourse was 
 carried on by sqa, he was now become one of the 
 most skilful navigators in Europe. But, not satisfied 
 with that praise, his ambition aimed at something 
 more. The successful progress of the Portuguese na- 
 vigators had awakened a spirit of curiosity and emula- 
 tion, which set every man of science upon examining 
 all the circumstances that led to the discoveries which 
 they had made, or that afforded a prospect of succeed- 
 ing in any new and bolder undertaking. The mind 
 of Columbus, naturally inquisitive, capable of deep 
 reflection, and turned to speculations of this kind, was 
 so often employed in revolving the principles upon 
 which the Portuguese had founded their schemes of 
 discovery, and the mode in which they had carried 
 them on, that he gradually began to form an idea of 
 improving upon their plan, and of accomplishing 
 discoveries which hitherto they had attempted in 
 rain. 
 
 To find out a passage by sea to the East-Indies, 
 was the great object in view at that period. From 
 the time that the Portuguese doubled Cape de Verd, 
 this was the point at which they aimed in all their 
 navigations, and, in comparison with it, all their 
 discoveries in Africa appeared inconsiderable. The 
 fertility and riches of India had been known for 
 many ages ; its spices and other valuable commodi- 
 ties were in high request throughout Europe, and 
 the vast wealth of the Venetians, arising from their 
 having engrossed this trade, had Raised the envy of 
 all nations. But how intent soever the Portuguese 
 were upon discovering a new route to those desirable 
 regions, they searched for it only by steering towards 
 the south, in hopes of arriving at India, by turning to 
 the east, after they had sailed round the further 
 extremity of Africa. This course was still unknown, 
 and, even, if discovered, was of such immense length, 
 that a voyage from Europe to India must have 
 appeared, at that period, an undertaking, extremely 
 arduous, and of very uncertain issue. More than 
 half a century had been employed in advancing 
 from Cape Non to the equator ; a much longer space 
 of time might elapse before the more extensive 
 navig atiou from that to India could be accomplished, 
 
 These reflections upon the uncert^int y, the 
 and tediousness of the course which the Portuguese 
 were pursuing, naturally led Columbus to co 
 whether a shorter and more direct passage to the East 
 Indies might not be found out. After revolving 
 loug and seriously every circumstance suL'.'.-lcd by 
 his superior knowledge in the theory as well as 
 practice of navigation ; after comparing attentively 
 the observations of modern pilots, with the hints and 
 conjectures of ancient authors, he at last concluded, 
 that by sailing directly towards the west, across the 
 Atlantic ocean, new countries, which probably fornwl 
 a part of the great continent of India, must infallibly 
 be discovered. 
 
 Principles and arguments of various kinds and d.- 
 rived from different sources, induced him to adopt 
 this opinion, seemingly as chimerical as it was new 
 and extraordinary. The spherical figure of the earth 
 was known, and its magnitude ascertained with some 
 degree of accuracy. From this it was evident, that 
 the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, as far as 
 they were known at that time, forme;! but a small 
 portion of the terraqueous globe. It was suitable to 
 our ideas concerning the wisdom and beneficence of 
 the Author of Nature, to believe that the vast -.par.- 
 still unexplored was not covered entirely by a waMe 
 unprofitable ocean, but occupied by countries fit for 
 the habitation of man. It appeared likewise extremely 
 probable, that the continent, on this side of the szlube, 
 was balanced by a proportional quantity of land in tin- 
 other hemisphere. These conclusions concernin.' the 
 existence of another continent, drawn from the figure 
 and structure of the globe, were confirmed by the ob- 
 servations aud conjectures of modern navigators. A 
 Portuguese pilot, having stretched further to the u v-,t 
 than was usual at that time, took up a piece of timber 
 artificially carved, floating upon the sea ; and as it 
 was driviMi towards him by a westerly wind, he con- 
 cluded that it came from some unknown land situated 
 in that quarter. Columbus's brother-in-law had found, 
 to the west of the Madeira Isles, a piece of timber 
 fashioned in the same manner, and brought by the 
 same wind; and had seen likewise cane* of an enor- 
 mous size floating upon the waves, which resembled 
 those described by Ptolemy as productions peculiar 
 to the East Indies. After a course of westerly winds, 
 trees, torn up by the roots, were often driven upon the 
 coasts of the Azores; and at one time, the dead bodies 
 of two men with singular features, resembling neither 
 the inhabitants of Europe nor of Africa, were cast 
 ashore there. 
 
 As the force of this united evidence, arising from 
 theoretical principles and practical observations, led 
 Columbus to expect the discovery of new countries in 
 the western ocean, other reasons induced him to 
 believe that these must be connected with the conti- 
 nent of India. Though the ancients had hardly ever 
 penetrated into India further than the banks of the 
 Ganges, yet some Greek authors had ventured to de- 
 scribe the provinces beyond that river. As men are 
 prone, and at liberty, to magnify what is remote or 
 unknown, they represented them as regions of an im- 
 mense extent. Ctesias affirmed that. India was as 
 large as all the rest of Asia. Onesicratus, whom Pliny 
 the naturalist follows, contended that it was equal t.> 
 a third part of the habitable earth. Nearchus asserted, 
 that it would take four months to march in a straight 
 line from one extremity of India to the other. The 
 journal of Marco Polo, who had proceeded towards 
 the east, far beyond the limits to which any European 
 had ever advanced, seemed to confirm these exagge- 
 rated, accounts of the ancients, By las wauuiikx-ut 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 19 
 
 descriptions of (he kingdoms of Oi//iai/ and Cipango, 
 and of muny oilier countries, the rv.imes of which were 
 unknown in Europe, India appeared to be a region of 
 Aast extent. From these accounts, which, however 
 defective, were the most accurate that the people of 
 Europe had received at that period, with respect to 
 the remote parts of the East, Columbus drew a just 
 conclusion. He contended, that in proportion as the 
 continent of India stretched out towards the east, it 
 must, in consequence of the spherical figure of the 
 earth, approach nearer to the islands which had lately 
 been discovered to the west of Africa ; that the dis- 
 tance from the one to the other was probably not very 
 considerable : and that the most direct as well as 
 shortest course to the remote regions of the east, was 
 in he found by sailing due west. This notion con- 
 cerning the vicinity of India to the western parts of 
 our continent, was countenanced by some eminent 
 writers among the ancients, the sanction of whose 
 authority \va^ necessary, in that age, to procure a 
 favourable reception to any tenet. Aristotle thought 
 it probable that the Columns of Hercules, or Strain of 
 (Gibraltar, were not far removed from the East Indies, 
 and that there might lie a communication by sea 
 between them. Seneca, in terms still more explicit, 
 affirm-, that, with a fair wind, one might sail from 
 Spain to India in a few days. The famous Atlantic 
 ishnd described by I'iato, and supposed by many to 
 be a real country, beyond which an unknown con- 
 tinent was situated, is represented by him as lying at 
 no great distance from Spain. Alter weighing all 
 these particulars, Columbus, in \\ho-e character the 
 mod'".ry and dillidence of true genius were united 
 with the ardent enthusiasm of a projector, did not rest 
 with such absolute assurance either upon his own 
 arguments, or upon the authority of the ancients, as 
 not to consult such of hi-, contemporaries as \\ere 
 capable of comprehending the nature of the evidence 
 which he produced in support of his opinion. As 
 early as the year one thousand four hundred and 
 seventy-four, he communicated his ideas concerning 
 the probability of discovering new countries, by sailing 
 irds, to Paul, a plnsician of Florence, eminent 
 for his knowledge of cosmography, and who, from the 
 learn inn as well as candour which he discovers in his 
 reply, appears lo have been well entitled to the con- 
 fidence which Columbus placed in him. He warmlv 
 approved of the plan, suggested several facts in con- 
 firmation of it, and encouraged Columbus to persevere 
 in an undertaking so laudable, and which must 
 redound so much to the honour of his country, and the 
 benefit of Europe. 
 
 To a mind less capable of forming and of executing 
 great designs than that of Columbus, all those reason- 
 ings, and observations, and authorities, would have 
 served only as the foundation of some plausible and 
 fruitless theory, which might have furnished matter 
 for ingenious discourse or fanciful conjecture. But 
 with his sanguine and enterprising temper, specula- 
 tion led directly to action. Fully satisfied himself 
 with respect to the truth of his system, he was impa- 
 tient to bring it to the test of experiment, and to set 
 out upon a voyage of discovery. The first step 
 towards this was to secure the patronage of some of 
 the considerable powers in Europe, capable of under- 
 taking such an enterprise. As long absence had not 
 extinguished the affection which he bore to his native 
 country, he wished that it should reap the fruits of 
 bis labours and invention. With this view, he laid his 
 scheme before the senate of Genoa, and making his 
 country the first tender of his service, offered to sail 
 under the banners of the republic, in quest of the new 
 
 regions which he expected to discover. But Columbus 
 had resided for so many years in foreign parts, that 
 his countrymen were unacquainted with his abilities 
 and character ; and though a maritime people, were 
 so little accustomed to distant voyages, that they could 
 form no just idea of the principles on which he founded 
 his hopes of success. They inconsiderately rejected 
 his proposal, as the dream of a chimerical projector, 
 and lost for ever the opportunity of restoring their 
 commonwealth to its ancient splendour. 
 
 Having performed what was due to his country, 
 Columbus was so little discouraged by the repulse 
 which he had received, that, instead of relinquishing 
 his undertaking, he pursued it with fresh ardour. He 
 made his next overture to John II. king of Portugal, 
 in whose dominions he had been long established, and 
 whom he considered, on that account, as having the 
 second claim to his service. Here every circumstance 
 seemed to promise him a more favourable reception : 
 he applied to a monarch of an enterprising genius, no 
 incompetent judge in naval affairs, and proud of 
 patronizing every attempt to discover new countries. 
 His subjects were the most experienced navigators in 
 Europe, and the least apt to be intimidated either by 
 the novelty or boldness of any maritime expedition. 
 In Portugal, the professional skill of Columbus, as Well 
 as his personal good qualities, were thoroughly known : 
 and as the former rendered it probable that his scheme 
 was not altogether visionary, the latter exempted him 
 from the suspicion of any sinister intention in pro- 
 posing it. Accordingly, the king listened to him in 
 the most gracious manner, and referred the considera- 
 tion of his plan to Diego Ortix, bishop of Ceuta, and 
 two Jewish physicians, eminent cosmographers, whom 
 he was accustomed to consult in matters of this kind. 
 As in Genoa, ignorance had opposed and disappointed 
 Columbus ; in Lisbon, he had to combat with preju- 
 dice, an enemy no less formidable. The persons, 
 according to whose decision his scheme was to be' 
 adopted or rejected, had been the chief directors of 
 the Portuguese navigations, and had advised to search 
 for a passage to India, by steering a course directly 
 opposite to that which Columbus recommended s 
 shorter and more certain. They could not, therefore, 
 approve of his proposal, without submitting to the 
 double mortification of condemning their own theory, 
 and acknowledging his superior sagacity. After teasing 
 him with captious questions, and starting innumerable 
 objections, with a view of betraying him into such a 
 particular explanation of his system, as might draw 
 from him a full discovery of its nature, they deferred 
 passing a final judgment Avith respect to it. In the 
 mean time, they conspired to rob him of the honour 
 and advantages which he expected from the success of 
 his scheme, advising the king to despatch a vessel 
 secretly, in order to attempt the proposed discover)-, 
 by following exactly the course which Columbu* 
 seemed to point out. John, forgetting on this occa- 
 sion the sentiments becoming a monarch, meanly 
 adopted this perfidious counsel. But the pilot chosen 
 to execute Columbia's plan, had neither the genius 
 nor the fortitude of its author. Contrary winds arose, 
 no sight of approaching land appeared; his courage 
 failed, and he returned to Lisbon, execrating the 
 project as equally extravagant and dangerous. 
 
 Upon discovering this dishonourable transaction, 
 Columbus felt the indignation natural to an ingenuous 
 mind, and in the warmth of his resentment determined 
 to break off all intercourse with a nation capable of 
 such flagrant treachery. He instantly quitted the 
 kingdom, and landed in Spain towards the close of the 
 year one thousand four hundred ami eighty-four. A$ 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 he was now at liberty to court the protection of any 
 patron, whom he could engage to approve of his plan, 
 and to carry it into execution, he resolved to propose 
 it in person to Ferdinand and Isabella, who at that 
 time governed the united kingdoms of Castile and 
 Arragon. But as he had already experienced the 
 uncertain issue of application to kings and ministers, 
 he took the precaution of sending into England his 
 brother Bartholomew, to whom he had fully communi- 
 cated his ideas, in order that he might negociate, at 
 the same time, with Henry VII. who was reputed one 
 of the most sagacious as well as opulent princes in 
 Europe. 
 
 It was not without reason that Columbus enter- 
 tained doubts and fears with respect to the reception 
 of his proposals in the Spanish court. Spain was, at 
 that juncture, engaged in a dangerous war with Gra- 
 nada, the last of the Moorish kingdoms in that country. 
 The wary and suspicious temper of Ferdinand was 
 not formed to relish bold or uncommon designs. 
 Isabella, though more generous and enterprising, was 
 under the influence of her husband in all her actions. 
 The Spaniards had hitherto made no efforts to extend 
 navigation beyond its ancient limits, and had beheld the 
 amazing progress of discovery among their neighbours 
 the Portuguese, without one attempt to imitate or to 
 rival them. The war with the infidels afforded an 
 ample field to the national activity and love of glory. 
 Under circumstances so unfavourable, it was impos- 
 sible for Columbus to make rapid progress with a 
 nation, naturally slow and dilatory in forming all its 
 resolutions. His character, however, was admirably 
 adapted to that of the people whose confidence and 
 protection he solicited. He was grave, though cour- 
 teous in his deportment; circumspect in his words 
 and actions ; irreproachable in his morals ; and ex- 
 emplary in his attention to all the duties and functions 
 of religion. By qualities so respectable, he not only 
 gained many private friends, but acquired such general 
 esteem, that, notwithstanding the plainness of his ap- 
 pearance, suitable to the mediocrity of his fortune, he 
 was not considered as a mere adventurer, to whom 
 indigence had suggested a visionary project, but was 
 received as a person to whose propositions serious 
 attention was due. 
 
 Ferdinand and Isabella, though fully occupied by 
 their operations against the Moors, paid so much 
 regard to Columbus, as to remit the consideration of 
 his plan to the queen's confessor, Ferdinand de 
 Talavera. He consulted such of his countrymen as 
 were supposed best qualified to decide with respect to 
 a subject of this kind. But true science had hitherto 
 made so little progress in Spain, that the pretended 
 philosophers, selected to judge in a matter of such 
 moment, did not comprehend the first principles upon 
 which Columbus founded his conjectures and hopes. 
 Some of them, from mistaken notions concerning the 
 dimensions of the globe, contended that a voyage to 
 those remote parts of the east which Columbus expected 
 to discover, could not be performed in less than three 
 years. Others concluded, that either he would find 
 the ocean to be of infinite extent, according to the 
 opinion of some ancient philosophers ; or if he should 
 persist in steering towards the west beyond a certain 
 point, that the convex figure of the globe would 
 prevent his return, and that he must inevitably 
 perish, in the vain attempt to open a communication 
 between the two opposite hemispheres, which nature 
 had for ever disjoined. Even without deigning to 
 enter into any particular discussion, many rejected 
 the scheme in general, upon the credit of a maxim, 
 under which the ignorant and unenterprising shelter 
 
 themselves in every age, " That it is presumptuous 
 in any person, to suppose that he alone possesses 
 knowledge superior to all the rest of mankind united.'' 
 They maintained, that if there were really any such 
 countries as Columbus pretended, they could not have 
 remained so long concealed, nor would the wisdom 
 and sagacity of former ages have left the glory of this 
 invention to an obscure Genoese pilot. 
 
 It required all Columbus's patience and address to 
 negociate with men capable of advancing such strange 
 propositions. He had to contend not only with the 
 obstinacy of ignorance, but with what is still more 
 intractable, the pride of false knowledge. After in- 
 numerable conferences, and wasting five years in 
 fruitless endeavours to inform and to satisfy judges 
 so little capable of deciding with propriety, Talavera, 
 at last, made such an unfavourable report to Ferdi- 
 nand and Isabella, as induced them to acquaint 
 Columbus, that until the war with the Moors should 
 be brought to a period, it would be imprudent to 
 engage in any new and extensive enterprise. 
 
 Whatever care was taken to soften the harshness of 
 this declaration, Columbus considered it as a final 
 rejection of his proposals. But, happily for mankind, 
 that superiority of genius, which is capable 'of form- 
 ing great and uncommon designs, is usually accom- 
 panied with an ardent enthusiasm, which can neither 
 be cooled by delays, nor damped by disappointment. 
 Columbus was of this sanguine temper. Though he 
 felt deeply the cruel blow given to his hopes, and 
 retired immediately from a court, where he had been 
 amused so long with vain expectations, his confidence 
 in the justness of his own system did not diminish, 
 and his impatience to demonstrate the truth of it by 
 an actual experiment, became greater than ever. 
 Having courted the protection of sovereign states 
 without success, he applied next to persons of inferior 
 rank, and addressed successively the Dukes of Medina 
 Sidonia and Medina Celi, who, though subjects, were 
 possessed of power and opulence more than equal to 
 the enterprise which he projected. His negociations 
 with them proved as fruitless as those in which he 
 had been hitherto engaged; for these noblemen were 
 either as little convinced by Columbus's arguments as 
 their superiors, or they were afraid of alarming the 
 jealousy and offending the pride of Ferdinand, by 
 countenancing a scheme which he had rejected. 
 
 Amid the painful sensations occasioned by such 
 a succession of disappointments, Columbus had to 
 sustain the additional distress of having received no 
 accounts of his brother, whom he had sent to the 
 court of England. In his voyage to that country, 
 Bartholomew had been so unfortunate as to fall into 
 the hands of pirates, who having stripped him of every 
 thing, detained him a prisoner for several years. At 
 length he made his escape, and arrived in London, 
 but in such extreme indigence, that he was obliged to 
 employ himself, during a considerable time, in draw- 
 ing and selling maps, in order to pick up as much 
 money as would purchase a decent dress, in which he 
 might venture to appear at court. He then laid 
 before the King the proposals with which he had 
 been intrusted by his brother, and, notwithstanding 
 Henry's excessive caution and parsimony, which 
 rendered him averse to new or extensive undertakings, 
 he received Columbus's overtures with more appro- 
 bation than any monarch to whom they had hitherto 
 been presented. 
 
 Meanwhile, Columbus being unacquainted with his 
 brother's fate, and having now no prospect of encou- 
 ragement in Spain, resolved to visit the court of 
 England in person, iu hopes of meeting with a more 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 favourable reception there. He had already made 
 preparations for this purpose, and taken measures for 
 the disposal of his children during his absence, when 
 Juan Perez, the guardian of the monastery of llabida, 
 near Palos, in which they had been educated, ear- 
 nestly solicited him to defer his journey for a short 
 time. Perez was a man of considerable learning, and 
 of some credit with Queen Isabella, to whom he was 
 known personally. He was warmly attached to Co- 
 lumbus, with whose abilities as well as integrity he 
 had many opportunities of being acquainted. Prompted 
 by curiosity or by friendship, he entered upon an 
 accurate examination of his system, in conjunction 
 with a physician settled in the neighbourhood, who 
 was a considerable proficient in mathematical know- 
 ledge. This investigation satisfied them so tho- 
 roughly, with respect to the solidity of the principles 
 on which Columbus founded his opinion, and the 
 probability of success in executing the plan which 
 he proposed, that Perez, in order to prevent his 
 country from being deprived of the glory and benefit 
 which must accrue to the patrons of such a grand 
 enterprise, ventured to write to Isabella, conjuring 
 her to consider the matter anew with the attention 
 which it merited. 
 
 Moved by the representations of a person whom 
 she respected, Isabella desired Perez to repair imme- 
 diately to the village of Santa Fe, in which, on account 
 of the siege of Granada, the court resided at that 
 time, that she might confer with him upon this 
 important subject. The first effect of their interview 
 was a gracious invitation to Columbus back to court, 
 accompanied with the present of a small sum to equip 
 him for the journey. As there was now a certain 
 prospect that the war with the Moors would speedily 
 be brought to a happy issue by the reduction of 
 Granada, which would leave the nation at liberty 
 to engage in new undertakings ; this, as well as the 
 mark of royal favour with which Columbus had been 
 lately honoured, encouraged his friends to appear 
 with greater confidence than formerly in support of 
 his scheme. The chief of these, Alonso de Quia- 
 linilla, comptroller of the finances in Castile, and 
 Luis de Santangel, receiver of the ecclesiastical reve- 
 nues in Arragon, whose meritorious zeal in promoting 
 this great design entitles their names to an honour- 
 able place in history, introduced Columbus to many 
 persons of high rank, and interested them warmly in 
 his behalf. 
 
 But it was not an easy matter to inspire Ferdinand 
 with favourable sentiments. He still regarded Colum- 
 bus's project as extravagant and chimerical ; and 
 in order to render the efforts of his partisans ineffec- 
 tual, he had the address to employ, in this new 
 negociation with him, some of the persons who had 
 formerly pronounced his scheme to be impracticable. 
 To their astonishment, Columbus appeared before 
 them with the same confident hopes of success as for- 
 merly, and insisted upon the same high recompence. 
 He proposed that a small fleet should be fitted out, 
 under his command, to attempt the discovery, and de- 
 manded to be appointed hereditary admiral and viceroy 
 of all the seas and lands which he should discover, and 
 to have the tenths of the profits arising from them 
 settled irrevocably upon himself and his descendants. 
 At the same time he offered to advance the eighth 
 part of the sum necessary for accomplishing his 
 design, on condition that he should be entitled to 
 a proportional share of benefit from the adventure. 
 If the enterprise should totally miscarry, he made no 
 stipulation for any reward or emolument whatever. 
 Instead of viewing this conduct as the clearest evi- 
 
 dence of his full persuasion with respect to the truth 
 of his own system, or being struck with that magna- 
 nimity which, after so many delays and repulses, 
 would stoop to nothing inferior to its original claims, 
 the persons with whom Cohimbus treated began 
 meanly to calculate the expense of the expedition, 
 and the value of the reward which he demanded. 
 The expense, moderate as it was, they represented to 
 be too great for Spain in the present exhausted state 
 of its finances. They contended that the honours and 
 emoluments claimed by Columbus were exorbitant, 
 even if he should perform the utmost of what he had 
 promised ; and if all his sanguine hopes should prove 
 illusive, such vast concessions to an adventurer would 
 be deemed not only inconsiderate, but ridiculous. In 
 tin's imposing garb of caution and prudence, their 
 opinion appeared so plausible, and was so warmly 
 supported by Ferdinand, that Isabella declined giving 
 any countenance to Columbus, and abruptly broke 
 off the negociation with him which she had begun. 
 
 This was more mortifying to Columbus than all 
 the disappointments which he had hitherto met withl 
 The invitation to court from Isabella, like an unex- 
 pected ray of light, had opened such prospects of 
 success as encouraged him to hope that his labours 
 were at an end ; but now darkness and uncertainty 
 returned, and his mind, firm as it was, could hardly 
 support the shock of such an unforeseen reverse. He 
 withdrew in deep anguish from court, with an inten- 
 tion of prosecuting his voyage to England as his last 
 resource. 
 
 [A. D. 1492.] About that time Granada surren- 
 dered, and Ferdinandjand Isabella, in triumphal pomp, 
 took possession of a city, the reduction of which ex- 
 tirpated a foreign power from the heart of their 
 dominions, and rendered them masters of all the 
 provinces, extending from the bottom of the Pyrenees 
 to the frontiers of Portugal. As the flow of spirits 
 which accompanies success elevates the mind and 
 renders it enterprising, Quintanilla and Santangel, 
 the vigilant and discerning patrons of Columbus, 
 took advantage of this favourable situation, in order 
 to make one effort more in behalf of their friend. 
 They addressed themselves to Isabella, and after 
 expressing some surprise that she, who had always 
 been the munificent patroness of generous under- 
 takings, should hesitate so long to countenance the 
 most splendid scheme that had ever been proposed to 
 any monarch; they represented to her that Columbus 
 was a man of a sound understanding and virtuous 
 character, well qualified, by his experience in naviga- 
 tion, as well as his knowledge of geometry, to form 
 just ideas with respect to the structure of the globe 
 and the situation of its various regions ; that by 
 offering to risk his own life and fortune in the execu- 
 tion of his scheme, he gave the most satisfying evi- 
 dence, both of his integrity and hope of success ; 
 that the sum requisite for equipping such an arma- 
 ment as (he demanded was inconsiderable, and the 
 advantages which might accrue from his undertaking 
 were immense; that he demanded no recompence for 
 his invention and labour, but what was to arise from 
 the countries which he should discover; that as it was 
 worthy of her magnanimity to make this noble attempt 
 to extend the sphere of human knowledge, and to 
 open an intercourse with regions hitherto unknown, 
 so it would afford the highest satisfaction to her piety 
 and zeal, after re-establishing the Christian faith in 
 those provinces of Spain from which it had been 
 long banished, to discover a new world, to which she 
 might communicate the light and blessings of divine 
 truth; that if now she did not decide instantly, the 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 opportunity would be irretrievably lost; that Columbus 
 was on his way to foreign countries, where some 
 prince, more fortunate or adventurous, would close 
 with his proposals, and Spain would for ever bewail 
 that fatal timidity which had excluded her from the 
 glory and advantages that she had once in her power 
 to have enjoyed. 
 
 These forcible arguments, urged by persons of 
 such authority, and at a juncture so well chosen, pro- 
 duced the desired effect. They dispelled all Isabella's 
 doubts and fears ; she ordered Columbus to be in- 
 stantly recalled, declared her resolution of employing 
 him on his own terms, and regretting the low state of 
 her finances, generously offered to pledge her own 
 jewels, in order to raise, as much money as might be 
 needed in making preparations for the voyage. Sant- 
 angel, in a transport of gratitude kissed the queen's 
 hand, and in order to save her from having recourse to 
 such a mortifying expedient for procuring money, 
 engaged to advance immediately the sum that was 
 requisite. 
 
 Columbus had proceeded some leagues on his 
 journey, when the messenger from Isabella overtook 
 him. Upon receiving an account of the unexpected 
 resolution in his favour, he returned directly to Santa 
 Fe, though some remnant of diffidence still mingled 
 itself with his joy. But the cordial reception which 
 he met with from Isabella, together with the near 
 prospect of setting out upon that voyage which had 
 so long been the object of his thoughts and wishes, 
 soon effaced the remembrance of all that he had suf- 
 fered in Spain, during eight tedious years of solicitation 
 and suspense. The negociation now went forward 
 with facility and despatch, and a treaty or capitulation 
 with Columbus was signed on the seventeenth of 
 April, one thousand four hundred and ninety-two. 
 The chief articles of it were: 1. Ferdinand and 
 Isabella, as Sovereigns of the Ocean, constituted 
 Columbus their High Admiral in all the seas, islands, 
 and continents, which should be discovered by his 
 industry ; and stipulated that he and his heirs for ever 
 should enjoy this office, with the same powers and 
 prerogatives which belonged to the High Admiral of 
 Castile, within the limits of his jurisdiction. 2. They 
 appointed Columbus their Viceroy in all the islands 
 and continents which he should discover; but if, for 
 the better administration of affairs, it should here- 
 after be necessary to establish a separate Governor in 
 any of those countries, they authorized Columbus to 
 name three persons, of whom they would choose one 
 for that office ; and the dignity of Viceroy, with all 
 its immunities, was likewise to be hereditary in the 
 family of Columbus. 3. They granted to Columbus 
 and his heirs for ever, the tenth of the free profits 
 accruing from the productions and commerce of the 
 countries which he should discover. 4. They de- 
 clared, that if any controversy or law-suit shall arise 
 with respect to any mercantile transaction in the 
 countries which should be discovered, it should be 
 determined by the sole authority of Columbus, or of 
 judges to be appointed by him. 5. They permitted 
 Columbus to advance one-eighth part of what should 
 be expended in preparing for the expedition, and in 
 carrying on commerce with the countries which he 
 should discover, and entitled him, in return, to an 
 eighth part of the profit. 
 
 Though the name of Ferdinand appears conjoined 
 with that of Isabella in this transaction, his distrust 
 of Columbus was still so violent that he refused to 
 take any part in the enterprise as King of Arragon. 
 As the whole expense of the expedition was to be 
 defrayed by the Crown of Castile, Isabella reserved 
 
 for her subjects of that kingdom an exclusive right to 
 all the benefits which might redound from its success. 
 
 As soon as the treaty was signed, Isabella, by h(-r 
 attention and activity in forwarding the preparations 
 for the voyage, endeavoured to make some reparation 
 to Columbus for the time which he had lost in fruit- 
 less solicitation. By the twelfth of May, all that de- 
 pended upon her was adjusted ; and Columbus 
 waited on the King and Queen, in order to receive 
 their final instructions. Every thing respecting the 
 destination and conduct of the voyage, they committed 
 implicitly to the disposal of his prudence. But that 
 they might avoid giving any just cause of offence to 
 the King of Portugal, they strictly enjoined him not 
 to approach near to the Portuguese settlements on the 
 coast of Guinea, or in any of the other countries to 
 which the Portuguese claimed right as the discoverers. 
 Isabella had ordered the ships, of which Columbus 
 was to take the command, to be fitted out in the port 
 of Palos, a small maritime town in the province of 
 Andalusia. As the guardian, Juan Perez, to whom 
 Columbus had already been so much indebted, re- 
 sided in the neighbourhood of this place, he, by the 
 influence of that good ecclesiastic, as well as by his 
 own connexion with the inhabitants, not only raised 
 among them what he wanted of the sum that he was 
 bound by treaty to advance, but pngaged several of 
 them to accompany him in the voyage. The chief of 
 these associates were three brothers of the name of 
 Pinzon, of considerable wealth, and of great ex- 
 perience in naval affairs, who were willing to hazard 
 their lives and fortunes in th expedition. 
 
 But, after all the efforts of Isabella and Columbus, 
 the armament was not suitable, either to the dignity 
 of the nation by which it was equipped, or to the im- 
 portance of the service for which it was destined. It 
 consisted of three vessels. The largest, a ship of no 
 considerable burthen, was commanded by Columbus, 
 as Admiral, who gave it the name of Santa Maria, 
 out of respect for the blessed Virgin, whom he 
 honoured with singular devotion. Of the second, 
 called the Pinta, Martin Pinzon was captain, and his 
 brother Francis pilot. The third, named the j\~iunn, 
 was under the command of Vincent Yanez Pinzon. 
 These two were light vessels, hardly superior in 
 burthen or force to large boats. This squadron, if it 
 merits that name, was victualled for twelve months, 
 and had on board ninety men, mostly sailors, together 
 with a few adventurers who followed the fortune of 
 Columbus, and some gentlemen of Isabella's court, 
 whom she appointed to accompany him. Though the 
 expense of the undertaking was one of the circum- 
 stances which chiefly alarmed the court of Spain, and 
 retarded so long the negociation with Columbus, the 
 sum employed in fitting out the squadron did not 
 exceed four thousand pounds. 
 
 As the art of ship-building in the fifteenth century 
 was extremely rude, and the bulk of vessels was 
 accommodated to the short and easy voyages along 
 the coast which they were accustomed to perform, il 
 is a proof of the courage as well as enterprising genius 
 of Columbus, that he ventured, with a fleet so unfit 
 for a distant navigation, to explore unknown seas, where 
 he had no chart to guide him, no knowledge of the 
 tides and currents, and no experience of the dangers 
 to which he might be exposed. His eagerness to 
 accomplish the great design which had so long en- 
 grossed his thoughts, made him overlook or disregard 
 every circumstance that would have intimidated a 
 mind less adventurous. He pushed forwards the 
 preparations with such ardour, and was seconded so 
 effectually by the persons to whom Isabella committed 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 the superintendance of this business, that every thing 
 was soon in readiness tor the voyage. But us Columbus 
 was deeply impressed with sentiments of religion, he 
 would not set out upon an expedition so arduous, and 
 of which one great object was to extend the know- 
 ledge of the '.Christian faith, without imploring 
 publicly the guidance and protection of Heaven. 
 With this view, he, together with all the persons under 
 his command, marched in solemn procession to the 
 monastery of Rabida. After confessing their sins, 
 and obtaining absolution, they received the holy 
 sacrament from the hands of the guardian, who joined 
 his prayers to theirs for the success of an enterprise 
 which he had so zealously patronized. 
 
 Xext morning, being Friday the third day of 
 August, in the year one thousand four hundred and 
 ninety-two, Columbus set sail, a little before sun- 
 rise, in presence of a vast crowd of spectators, who 
 sent up their supplications to Heaven for the pros- 
 perous issue of the voyage, which they wished rather 
 than expected. Columbus steered directly for the 
 Canary Islands [August 13], and arrived there with- 
 out any occurrence that would have deserved notice 
 on any other occasion. But, in a voyage of such 
 expectation and importance, every circumstance was 
 the object of attention. The rudder of the Pinta 
 broke loose the day after she left the harbour, and 
 that accident alarmed the crew, no less superstitious 
 than unskilful, as a certain omen of the unfortunate 
 destiny of the expedition. Even in the short run to 
 the Canaries, the ships were found to be so crazy and 
 ill-appointed, as to be very improper for a navigation 
 which was expected to be both long and dangerous. 
 Columbus refitted them, however, to the best of his 
 power, and having supplied himself with fresh pro- 
 visions, he took his departure from Gomcra, OIK- of 
 the most westerly of the Canary Islands, on the sixth 
 day of September. 
 
 Here the voyage of discovery may properly be said 
 to begin ; for Columbus, holding his course due west, 
 left immediately the usual track of navigation, and 
 stretched into unfrequented and unknown seas. The 
 first day, as it was very calm, he made hut little way ; 
 but on the second, he lost sight of the Canaries ; and 
 many of the sailors, dejected already and dismayed. 
 when they contemplated the boldness of the under- 
 taking, began to beat their breasts, and to shed tears, 
 sis if they were never more to behold land. Columbus 
 comforted them with assurances of success, and the 
 prospect of vast wealth, in those opulent regions 
 whither he was conducting them. This early dis- 
 covery of the spirit of his followers taught Columbus 
 that he must prepare to struggle, not only with the 
 unavoidable difficulties which might be expected 
 irom the nature of his undertaking, but with such as 
 were likely to arise from the ignorance and timidity 
 of the people under his command ; and he perceived 
 that the art of governing the minds of men would be 
 no less requisite for accomplishing the discoveries 
 which he had in view, than naval skill and undaunted 
 courage. Happily for himself, and for the country 
 by which he was employed, he joined to the ardent 
 temper and inventive genius of a projector, virtues of 
 another species, which are rarely united with them. 
 He possessed a thorough knowledge of mankind, an 
 insinuating address, a patient perseverance in execut- 
 ing any plan, the perfect gov'e^nment of his own 
 passions, and the talent of acquiring an ascendant 
 over those of other men. All these qualities, which 
 formed him for command, were accompanied with 
 that superior knowledge of his profession, which 
 begets confidence in times of difficulty and danger. 
 
 To unskilful Spanish sailors, accustomed only to 
 coasting voyages in the Mediterranean, the maritime 
 science of Columbus, the fruit of thirty years' ex- 
 perience, improved by an acquaintance with all the 
 inventions of the Portuguese, appeared immense. As 
 soon as they put to sea, he regulated every thing by 
 his sole authority ; he superintended the execution of 
 every order : and allowing himself only a few hours 
 for sleep, he was at all other times upon deck. As 
 his course lay through seas which had not formerly 
 been visited, the sounding-line, or instruments for 
 observation, were continually in his harjds. After 
 the example of the Portuguese discoverers, he attended 
 to the motion of tides and currents, watched the 
 flight of birds, the appearance of fishes, of sea-weeds,, 
 and of every thing that floated on the waves, and 
 entered every occurrence, with a minute exactness, 
 in the journal which he kept. As the length of the 
 voyage could not fail of alarming sailors habituated 
 only to short excursions, Columbus endeavoured to 
 conceal from them the real progress which they made. 
 With this view, though they run eighteen leagues on 
 the second day after they left Gomera, he gave out 
 that they had advanced only fifteen, and he uniformly 
 employed the same artifice of reckoning short during 
 the whole voyage. By the fourteenth of September, 
 the fleet was above two hundred leagues to the west 
 of the Canary Isles, at a greater distance from land 
 than any Spaniard had been before that time. There 
 they were struck with an appearance no less astonish- 
 in^ than neu. They observed that the magnetic 
 needle, in their compasses, did not point exactly to 
 the polar star, but varied towards the west ; and as 
 they proceeded, this variation increased. This 
 appearance, which is now familiar, though it still 
 remains one of the mysteries of nature, into the cause 
 of which the sagacity of man hath not been able to 
 penetrate, filled the companions of Columbus with 
 terror. They were now in a boundless and unknown 
 ocean, far from the usual course of navigation ; nature; 
 itself seemed to be altered, and the only guide which 
 they had left was about to fail them. Columbus, 
 with no less quickness than ingenuity, invented a 
 reason for this appearance, which, though it did not 
 satisfy himself, seemed so plausible to them, that it 
 dispelled their fears, or silenced their murmurs. 
 
 He still continued to steer due west, nearly in the 
 same latitude with the Canary Islands. In, this course, 
 he came within the sphere of the trade wind, which 
 blows invariably from east to west, between the 
 tropics and a fewdegrees beyond them. He advanced 
 before this steady gale with such uniform rapidity, 
 that it was seldom necessary to shift a sail. When 
 about four hundred leagues to the west of the 
 Canaries, he found the sea so covered with weeds, 
 thai it resembled a meadow of vast extent, and in 
 some places they were so thick, as to retard the motion 
 of the vessels. This strange appearance occasioned 
 new alarm and disquiet. The sailors imagined that 
 they were now arrived at the utmost boundary of the 
 navigable ocean ; that these floating weeds would 
 obstruct their furtherprogress, and concealed dangerous 
 rocks, or some large tract of land, which had sunk, 
 y knew not how, in that place. Columbus en- 
 oured to persuade them, that what had alarmed, 
 rather to have encouraged them, and was to be 
 considered as a sign of approaching land. At the 
 same time, a brisk gale arose, and carried them 
 forward. Several birds were seen hovering about the 
 ship (13), and directed their flight towirds the 
 west. The desponding crew resumed some degree of 
 spirit, and began to entertain fresh hopes. 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 Upon the first of October they were, according to 
 the admiral's reckoning, seven hundred and seventy 
 J(vii;ii(\s to the west of the Canaries ; but lest his men 
 should be intimidated by the prodigious length of the 
 navigation, he gave out that they had proceeded only 
 five hundred and eighty-four leagues ; and, fortunately 
 for Columbus, neither his own pilot, nor those of the 
 other ships, had skill sufficient to correct this error, 
 und discover the deceit. They had now been above 
 three weeks at sea ; they had proceeded far beyond 
 what former navigators had attempted or deemed 
 possible; 'all their prognostics of discovery, drawn 
 from the flight of birds and other circumstances, had 
 proved fallacious ; the appearances of land, with which 
 their own credulity or the artifice of their commander 
 had from time to time flattered and amused them, had 
 been altogether illusive, and their prospect of success 
 seemed now to be as distant as ever. These reflections 
 occured often to men, who had no other object or 
 occupation than to reason and discourse concerning 
 the intention and circumstances of their expedition. 
 They made impression, at first, upon the ignorant 
 and timid, and extending, by degrees, to such as were 
 better informed or more resolute, the contagion spread 
 at length from ship to ship. From secret whispers 
 or murmurings, they proceeded to open cabals and 
 public complaints. They taxed their sovereign with 
 inconsiderate credulity, in paying such regard to the 
 vain promises and rash conjectures of an indigent 
 foreigner, as to hazard the lives of so many of her 
 own subjects, in prosecuting a chimerical scheme. 
 They affirmed that they had fully performed their 
 duty, by venturing so far in an unknown and hopeless 
 course, and could incur no blame for refusing to follow, 
 any longer, a desperate adventurer to certain dcstru 
 tion. They contended, that it was necessary to think 
 of returning to Spain, while their crazy vessels were 
 still in a condition to keep the sea, but expressed their 
 fear that the attempt would prove vain, as the wind, 
 which had hitherto been so favourable to their course, 
 must render it impossible to sail in the opposite di- 
 rection. All agreed that Columbus should be 
 compelled by force to adopt a measure on which thei 
 common safety depended. Some of the more audacious 
 proposed, as the most expeditious and certain metho( 
 for getting rid at once of his remonstrances, to throw 
 him into the sea, being persuaded that, upon thei 
 return to Spain, the death of an unsuccessful pro- 
 jector would excite little concern, and be inquirec 
 into with no curiosity. 
 
 Columbus was fully sensible of his perilous situa 
 tion. He had observed, with great uneasiness, tin 
 fatal operation of ignorance and of fear in producing 
 disaffection among his crew, and saw that it was now 
 ready to burst out into open mutiny. He retained 
 however, perfect presence of mind. He affected t 
 seem ignorant of their machinations. Notwithstand 
 ing the agitation and solicitude of his own mind, h 
 appeared with a cheerful countenance, like a mai 
 satisfied with the progress he had made, and confi 
 dent of success. Sometimes he employed all th 
 arts of insinuation, to soothe his men. Sometime 
 he endeavoured to work upon their ambition o 
 avarice, by magnificent descriptions of the fame an 
 wealth which they were about to acquire. On othe 
 occasions, he assumed a tone of authority, an 
 'threatened them with vengeance from their sovereign 
 if, by their dastardly behaviour, they should defea 
 this noble effort to promote the glory of God, ai 
 to exalt the Spanish name above that of every othe 
 nation. Even with seditious sailors, the words of 
 man whom they had been accustomed to reverence 
 
 ere weighty and persuasive, and not only restrained 
 :iom from those violent excesses which they medi- 
 ated, but prevailed with them to accompany their 
 dmiral for some time longer. 
 
 As they proceeded, the indications of approaching 
 and seemed to be more certain, and excited hope in 
 roportion. The birds began to appear in flocks, 
 i.aking towards the south-west. Columbus, in imi- 
 ation of the Portuguese navigators, who had been 
 uided, in several of their discoveries, by the motion 
 f birds, altered his course from due west towards 
 hat quarter whither they pointed their flight. But, 
 fter holding on for several days in this new direction, 
 rithout any better success than formerly, having seen 
 10 object, during thirty days, but the sea and the 
 ky, the hopes of his companions subsided faster 
 han they had risen ; their fears revived with addi- 
 ional force ; impatience, rage, and depair, appewd 
 n eveiy countenance. All sense of subordination 
 ras lost : the officers, who had hitherto concurred 
 nth Columbus in opinion, and supported his autho- 
 ity, now took part with the private men : they as- 
 sembled tumultuously on the deck, expostulated with 
 ;heir commander, mingled threats with their expostu- 
 ations, and required him instantly to tack about 
 and return to Europe. Columbus perceived that it 
 would be of no avail to have recourse to any of his 
 former arts, which having been tried so often had lost 
 heir effect ; and that it was impossible to rekindle 
 any zeal for the success of the expedition among men, 
 n whose breasts fear had extinguished every generous 
 sentiment. He saw that it was no less vain to think 
 of employing either gentle or severe measures to quell 
 a mutiny so general <md so violent. It was necessary, 
 on all these accounts, to soothe passions which he 
 could no longer command, and to give way to a tor- 
 rent too impetuous to be checked. He promised so- 
 lemnly to his men that he would comply with their 
 request, provided they would accompany him, and 
 obey his command for three days longer, and if, dur- 
 ing that time, land were not discovered, he would 
 then abandon the enterprise, end direct his course 
 towards Spain. 
 
 Enraged as the sailors were, and impatient to turn 
 their faces again towards their native country, this 
 proposition did not appear to them unreasonable. 
 Nor did Columbus hazard much in confining himself 
 to a term so short. The presages of discovering land 
 were now so numerous and promising, that he deemed 
 them infallible. For some days the sounding-line 
 reached the bottom, and the soil which it brought up 
 indicated land to be at no great distance. The flocks 
 of birds increased, and were composed not only of 
 sea-fowl, but of such land birds as could not be sup- 
 posed to fly far from the shore. The crew of the Pinta 
 observed a cane floating, which seemed to have been 
 newly cut, and likewise a piece of timber artificially 
 carved. The sailors aboard the Nigna took up the 
 branch of a tree with red berries, perfectly fresh. 
 The clouds around the setting sun assumed a new 
 appearance; the air was more mild and warm, and, 
 during night, the wind became unequal and variable. 
 From all these symptoms, Columbus was so confident 
 of being near land, that on the evening of the eleventh 
 of October, after public prayers for success, he ordered 
 the sails to be furled, and the ships to lie to, keep- 
 ing strict watch, lest they should be driven ashore in 
 the night. During this interval of suspense and ex- 
 pectation, no man shut his eyes, all kept upon dock, 
 gazing intently towards that quarter where they 
 expected to discover the land, which had been so 
 long the object of their wishes. 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 About two hours before midnight, Columbus 
 standing on the forecastle, observed a light at a dis- 
 tance, and privately pointed it out to Pedro Gut- 
 ticrez, a page of the queen's wardrobe. Guttierez 
 perceived it, and calling to Salcedo, the comptroller 
 of the fleet, all three saw it in motion, as if it were 
 carried from place to place. A little after midnight, 
 the joyful sound of land ! land ! was heard from the 
 Pinta, which kapt always ahead of the other ships. 
 But, having been so often deceived by fallacious 
 appearances, every man was now become slow of 
 belief, and waited in all the anguish of uncertainty 
 and impatience, for the return of day. As s,oon as 
 morning dawned, [Friday, Oct. 12,] all doubts and 
 fears were dispelled. From every ship an island was 
 seen about two leagues to the north, whose flat and 
 verdant fields, well stored with wood, and watered 
 with many rivulets, presented the aspect of a de- 
 lightful country. The crew of the Pinta instantly 
 began the Te Dcum, as a hymn of thanksgiving to 
 God, and were joined by those of the other ships, 
 with tears of joy, and transports of congratulation. 
 This office of gratitude to Heaven was followed by an 
 act of justice to their commander. They threw 
 themselves at the feet of Columbus, with feelings of 
 self-condemnation mingled with reverence. They 
 implored him to pardon their ignorance, incredulity, 
 and insolence, which had created him so much unne- 
 cessary disquiet, and had so often obstructed the 
 prosecution of his well-concerted plan ; and passing, 
 in the warmth of their admiration, from one extreme 
 to another, they now pronounced the man, whom 
 they so lately reviled and threatened, to be a person 
 inspired by Heaven with sagacity and fortitude more 
 than human, in order to accomplish a design so far 
 beyond the ideas and conception of all former ages. 
 
 As soon as the sun arose, all their boats were 
 manned and armed. They rowed towards the island 
 with their colours displayed, with warlike music, 
 and other martial pomp. As they approached the 
 coast, they saw it covered with a multitude of 
 people, whom the novelty of the spectacle had drawn 
 together, whose attitudes and gestures expressed 
 wonder and astonishment at the strange objects 
 which presented themselves to their view. Colum- 
 bus was the first European who set foot in the New 
 World which he had discovered. He landed in a 
 rich dress, and with a naked sword in his hand. His 
 men fo. lowed, and kneeling down, they all kissed the 
 ground which they had so long desired to see. They 
 next erected a crucifix, and prostrating themselves 
 before it, returned thanks to God for conducting 
 their voyage to such a happy issue. They then took 
 solemn possession of the country for the Crown of 
 Castile and Leon, with all the formalities which the 
 Portuguese were accustomed to observe in acts of 
 this kind, in their new discoveries. 
 
 The Spaniards, while thus employed, were sur- 
 rounded by many of the natives, who gazed, in silent 
 admiration, upon actions which they could not com- 
 prehend, and of which they couki not foresee the 
 consequences. The dress of the Spaniards, the 
 whiteness of their skins, their beards, their arms, 
 appeared strange and surprising. The vast machines 
 in which they had traversed the ocean, that seemed 
 to move upon the waters with wings, and uttered a 
 dreadful sound resembling thunder, accompanied 
 with lightning and smoke, struck them with such 
 terror, that they began to respect their new guests as 
 a superior order of beings, and concluded that they 
 were children of the sun, who had descended to visit 
 the .earth. 
 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA, No. 4, 
 
 The Europeans were hardly less amazed at the 
 scene now before them. Every herb, and shrub, and 
 tree, was different from those which flourished in 
 Europe. The soil seemed to be rich, but bore few 
 marks of cultivation. The climate, even to the 
 Spaniards, felt warm, though extremely delightful. 
 The inhabitants appeared in the simple innocence of 
 nature, entirely naked. Their black hair, long and 
 uncurled, floated upon their shoulders, or was bound 
 in tresses around their heads. They had no beards, 
 and every part of their bodies was perfectly smooth. 
 Their complexion was of a dusky copper colour, their 
 features singular, rather than disagreeable, their 
 aspect gentle and timid. Though not tall, they were 
 well shaped and active. Their faces, and several 
 parts of their body, were fantastically painted with 
 glaring colours. They were shy at first through, 
 fear, but soon became familiar with the Spaniards, 
 and with transports of joy received from them 
 hawksbells, glass beads, or other baubles, in return 
 for which they gave such provisions as they had, and 
 some cotton yarn, the only commodity of value that 
 they could produce. Towards evening, Columbus 
 returned to his ship, accompanied by many of the 
 islanders in their boats, which they called canoet, 
 and though rudely formed out of the trunk of a 
 single tree, they rowed them with surprising dexte- 
 rity. Thus, in the first interview between the inha- 
 bitants of the Old and New Worlds, every thing was 
 conducted amicably, and to their mutual satisfaction. 
 The former, enlightened and ambitious, formed 
 already vast ideas with respect to the advantages 
 which they might derive from the regions that began 
 to open to their view. The latter, simple and undis- 
 cerning, had no foresight of the calamities and deso- 
 lation which were approaching their country. 
 
 Columbus, who now assumed the title and autho- 
 rity of admiral and viceroy, called the island which 
 he had discovered San Salvador. It is better known 
 by the name of Guanaliani, which the natives gave 
 to it, and is one of that large cluster of islands called 
 the Lucaya or Bahama Isles. It is situated above 
 three thousand miles to the wet of Gomera, from 
 which the squadron took its departure, and only four 
 degrees to the south of it; so little had Columbus 
 deviated from the westerly course, which lie had 
 chosen as the most proper. 
 
 Columbus employed the next day in visiting the 
 coast of the island ; and from the universal poverty 
 of the inhabitants, he perceived that this was not the 
 rich country for which he sought. But, conformably 
 to his theory concerning the discovery of those 
 regions of Asia which stretched towards the east, he 
 concluded that San Salvador was one of the is'ea 
 which geographer* described as situated in the great 
 ocean adjacent to India. Having observed that most 
 of the people whom he had seen wore small plates of 
 gold, by way of ornament, in their nostrils, he eagerly 
 enquired where they got that precious metal. They 
 pointed towards the south, and made him compre- 
 hend by signs, that gold abounded in countries 
 situated in that quarter. Thither he immediately 
 determined to direct his course, in full confidence 
 of finding there those opulent regions which had 
 been the object of his voyage, and would be a 
 recompence for all his toils and dangers. He took 
 along with him seven of the natives of San Salvador, 
 that, by acquiring the Span sh language, they 
 might serve as guides and interpreters ; and those 
 innocent people considered it as a mark of distinc- 
 tion when they were selected to accompany him. 
 
 He caw several islands, and touched at three of 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the largest, on which he bestowed the names of 
 St. Mary of the Conception, Fernandina, and Isabella. 
 But, as their soil, productions, and inhabitants, nearly 
 resemble those of San Salvador, he made no stay in 
 any of them. He inquired every where for gold, 
 and the signs that were uniformly made by way of 
 answer, confirmed him in the opinion that it was 
 brought from the south. He followed that course, 
 and soon discovered a country which appeared very 
 extensive, not perfectly level, like those which he had 
 already visited, but so diversified with rising grounds, 
 hills, rivers, woods, and plains, that he was uncertain 
 whether it might prove an island, or part of the 
 continent. The natives of San Salvador, whom he 
 had on board, called it Cuba ; Columbus gave it the 
 name of Juaua. He entered the mouth of a large 
 iriver with his squadron, and all the inhabitants fled 
 to the mountains as he approached the shore. But 
 as he resolved to careen his ships in that place, he 
 sent some Spaniards, together with one of the people 
 of San Salvador, to view the interior part of the 
 country. They having advanced above sixty miles 
 from the shore, reported, upon their return, that the 
 soil was richer and more cultivated than any they had 
 hitherto discovered; that, besides many scattered 
 cottages they had found one village, containing 
 above a thousand inhabitants; that the people, 
 though naked, seemed to be more intelligent than 
 those of San Salvador, but had treated them with the 
 ame respectful attention, kissing their feet, and 
 honouring them as sacred beings allied to heaven : 
 that they had given them to eat a certain root, the 
 taste of which resembled roasted chesnuts, and like- 
 wise a singular species of corn called Maize, which 
 either when roasted whole or 'ground into meal, was 
 abundantly palatable; that there seemed to be no 
 four-footed animals in the country, but a species of 
 dogs.which could not bark, and a creature resembling 
 a rabbit, but of a much smaller size ; that they had ob- 
 served some ornaments of gold among the people, but 
 of no great value. 
 
 These messengers had prevailed with some of the 
 natives to accompany them, who informed Colum- 
 bus, that the gold of which they made their orna- 
 ments was found in Cubanacan. By this word they 
 meant the middle or inland part of Cuba ; but Co- 
 lumbus, being ignorant of their language, as well as 
 unaccustomed to their pronunciation, and his thoughts 
 running continually upon his own theory concerning 
 the discovery of the East Indies, he was led, by the 
 resemblance of sound, to suppose that they spoke of 
 the Great Khan, and imagined that the opulent king- 
 dom of Cathay, described by Marco Polo, was not 
 very remote. This induced him to employ some time 
 in viewing the country. He visited almost every 
 harbour, from Porto del Principe, on the north coast 
 of Cuba, to the eastern extremity of the island ; but, 
 though delighted with the beauty of the scenes which 
 every where presented themselves, and amazed at 
 the luxuriant fertility of the soil, both which, from 
 their novelty, made a more lively impression upon 
 his imagination (14), he did not find gold in such 
 quantity as was sufficient to satisfy either the avarice 
 of his followers, or the expectations of the court to 
 which he was to return. The people of the country, 
 as much astonished at his eagerness in quest of gold 
 as the Europeans were at their ignorance and sim- 
 plicity, pointed towards the east, where an island 
 which they called Hayti was situated, in which that 
 metal was more abundant than among them. Co- 
 lumbus ordered his squadron to bend its course 
 thither ; but Martin Alonso Pinzon, impatient to be 
 
 the first who should take possession of the treasures 
 which this country was supposed to contain, quitted 
 his companions, regardless of all the admiral's signals 
 to slacken sail until they should come up with him. 
 Columbus, retarded by contrary winds did not reach 
 Hayti till the sixth of December. He called the 
 port, where he first touched, St. Nicholas, and the 
 island itself Espagnola, in honour of the kingdom by 
 which he was employed ; and it is the only country, 
 of those he had yet discovered, which has retained 
 the name that he gave it. As he could neither meet 
 with the Pinta, nor have intercourse with the in- 
 habitants, who fled in great consternation towards 
 the woods, he soon quitted St. Nicholas, and sailing 
 along the northern coast of the island, he entered 
 another harbour, which he called Conception. Here 
 he was more fortunate; his people overtook a woman 
 who was flying from them, and after treating her 
 with great gentleness, dismissed her with a present 
 of such toys as they knew were most valued in those 
 regions. The description which she gave to her 
 countrymen of the humanity and wonderful qualities 
 of the strangers; their admiration of the trinkets, 
 which she showed with exultation ; and their eager- 
 ness to participate of the same favours, removed all 
 their fears, and induced many of them to repair to 
 the harbour. The strange objects which they beheld, 
 and the baubles which Columbus bestowed upon 
 them, amply gratified their curiosity and their wishes. 
 They nearly resembled the people of Guanahani and 
 Cuba. They were naked like them, ignorant and 
 simple ; and seemed to be equally unacquainted with 
 all the arts which appear most necessary in polished 
 societies ; but they were gentle, credulous, and timid 
 to a degree which rendered it easy to acquire the 
 ascendant over them, especially as their excessive 
 admiration led them into the same error with the 
 people of the other islands, in believing the Spaniards 
 to be more than mortals, and descended immediately 
 from heaven. They possessed gold in greater abun- 
 dance than their neighbours, which they readily 
 exchanged for bells, beads, or pins ; and in this 
 unequal traffick both parties were highly pleased, each 
 considering themselves as gainers by the transaction. 
 Here Columbus was visited by a Prince or Cazique 
 of the country. He appeared with all the pomp 
 known among a simple people, being carried in a 
 sort of palanquin upon the shoulders of four men, 
 and attended by many of his subjects, who served 
 him with great respect. His deportment was grave 
 and stately, very reserved towards his own people, 
 but with Columbus and the Spaniards extremely 
 courteous. He gave the admiral some thin plates of 
 gold, and a girdle of curious workmanship, receiving 
 in return presents of small value, but highly accept- 
 able to him. 
 
 Columbus, still intent on discovering the mines 
 which yielded gold, continued to interrogate all the 
 natives with whom he had any intercourse, concern- 
 ing their situation. They concurred in pointing out 
 a mountainous country, which they called Cibao, at 
 some distance from the sea, and further towards the 
 east. Struck with this sound, which appeared to 
 him the same with Cipango, the name by which 
 Marco Polo, and other travellers to the east, distin- 
 guished the island of Japan, he no longer doubted 
 with respect to the vicinity of the countries which 
 he had discovered to the remote parts of Asia ; and 
 in full expectation of reaching soon those regions 
 which had been the object of his voyage, he directed 
 his course towards the east. He put into a com- 
 inodious harbour, which he called St, Thomas, and 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 found that district to be under the government of a 
 powerful cazique, named Guacanahari, who, as he 
 afterwards learned, was one of the five sovereigns 
 among whom the whole island was divided. He 
 immediately sent messengers to Columbus, who, in 
 his name, delivered to him the present of a mask 
 curiously fashioned, with the ears, nose, and mouth 
 of beaten gold, and invited him to the place of his 
 residence, near the harbour now called Cape Francois, 
 some leagues towards the east. Columbus dispatched 
 some of his officers to visit this Prince, who, as he 
 behaved himself with greater dignity, seemed to 
 claim more attention. They returned with such 
 favourable accounts both of the country and of the 
 people, as made Columbus impatient for that inter- 
 view with Guacanahari to which he had been invited. 
 
 He sailed for this purpose from St. Thomas on 
 the twenty-fourth of December, with a fair wind, 
 and the sea perfectly calm ; and as, amidst the 
 multiplicity of his occupations, he had not shut his 
 eyes for two days, he retired at midnight in order to 
 take some repose, having committed the helm to the 
 pilot, with strict injunctions not to quit it for a 
 moment. The pilot, dreading no danger, carelessly 
 left the helm to an inexperienced cabin-boy, and the 
 ship, carried away by a current, was dashed against 
 a rock. The violence of the shock awakened Co- 
 lumbus. He ran up to the deck. There all was 
 confusion and despair. He alone retained presence 
 of mind. He ordered some of the sailors to take a 
 boat, and carry out an anchor astern ; but, instead 
 of obeying, they made off towards the Nigna, which 
 was about half a league distant. He then commanded 
 the masts to be cut down, in order to lighten the 
 ship; but all his endeavours were too late; the vessel 
 opened near the keel, and filled so fast with water 
 that its loss was inevitable. The smoothness of the 
 sea, and the timely assistance of boats from the 
 Nigna, enabled the crew to save their lives. As 
 soon as the islanders heard of this disaster, they 
 crowded to the shore, with their Prince Guacanahari 
 at their head. Instead of taking advantage of the 
 distress in which they beheld the Spaniards, to 
 attempt any thing to their detriment, they lamented 
 their misfortune with tears of sincere condolence. 
 Not satisfied with this unavailing expression of their 
 sympathy, they put to sea a number of canoes, and 
 under the direction of the Spaniards, assisted in 
 saving whatever could be got out of the wreck ; and, 
 by the united labour of so many hands, almost every 
 thing of value was carried ashore. As fast as the 
 goods were landed, Guacanahari in person took 
 charge of them. By his orders they were all depo- 
 sited in one place, and armed sentinels were posted, 
 who kept the multitude at a distance, in order to 
 prevent them not only from embezzling, but from 
 inspecting too curiously what belonged to their 
 guests. Next morning this Prince visited Columbus, 
 who was now on board the Nigna, and endeavoured 
 to console him for^ his loss, by offering all that he 
 possessed to repair it. 
 
 The condition of Columbus was such, that he stood 
 in need of consolation. He had hitherto procured no 
 intelligence of the Pinta, and no longer doubted but 
 that his treacherous associate had set sail for Europe, 
 in order to have the merit of carrying the first tidings 
 of the extraordinary discoveries which had been 
 made, and to pre-occupy so far the ear of their sove- 
 reign, as to rob him of the glory and reward to which 
 he was justly entitled. There remained but one 
 vessel, and that the smallest and most crazy of the 
 squadron, to traverse such a vast ocean, and to carry 
 
 so many men back to Europe. Each of those cir- 
 cumstances was alarming, and filled the mind of 
 Columbus with the utmost solicitude. The desire of 
 overtaking Pinzon, and of effacing the unfavourable 
 impressions which his misrepresentations might make 
 in Spain, made it necessary to return thither without 
 delay. The difficulty of taking such a number of 
 persons aboard the Nigna, confirmed him in an opinion, 
 which the fertility of the country, and the gentle 
 temper of the people, had already induced him to 
 form. He resolved to leave a part of his crew in the 
 island, that by residing there, they might learn the 
 language of the natives, study their disposition, 
 examine the nature of the country, search for mines, 
 prepare for the commodious settlement of the colony, 
 with which he purposed to return, and thus secure 
 and facilitate the acquisition of those advantages which 
 he expected from his discoveries. When he mentioned 
 this to his men, all approved of the design ; and from 
 impatience under the fatigue of a long voyage, from 
 the levity natural to sailors, or from the hopes of 
 amassing wealth in a country, which afforded such 
 promising specimens of its riches, many offered volun- 
 tarily to be among the number of those who should 
 remain. 
 
 Nothing was now wanting towards the execution of 
 this scheme, but to obtain the consent of Guacanahari; 
 and his unsuspicious simplicity soon presented to the 
 admiral a favourable opportunity of proposing it. 
 Columbus having, in the best manner he could, by 
 broken words and signs, expressed some curiosity to 
 know the cause which had moved the islanders to fly 
 with such precipitation upon the approach of his ships, 
 the cazique informed him that the country was much 
 infested by the incursions of certain people, whom he 
 called Carribeant, who inhabited several islands to 
 the south-east. These he described as a fierce and 
 warlike race of men, who delighted in blood, and 
 devoured the flesh of the prisoners who were so 
 unhappy as to fall into their hands; and as the 
 Spaniards at their first appearance were supposed to 
 be Carribeans, whom the natives, however numerous, 
 durst not face in battle, they had recourse to their 
 usual method of securing their safety, by flying into 
 the thickest and most impenetrable woods. Gua- 
 canahari, while speaking of those dreadful invaders, 
 discovered such symptoms of terror, as well as such 
 consciousness of the inability of his own people to 
 resist them, as led Columbus to conclude that he 
 would not be alarmed at the proposition of any scheme 
 which afforded him the prospect of an additional 
 security against their attacks. He instantly offered 
 him the assistance of the Spaniards to repel his 
 enemies; he engaged to take him and his people 
 under the protection of the powerful monarch whom 
 he served, and offered to leave in the island such a 
 number of his men as should be sufficient, not only 
 to defend the inhabitants from future incursions, but 
 to avenge their past wrongs. 
 
 The credulous prince closed eagerly with the pro- 
 posal, and thought himself already safe under the 
 patronage of beings sprung from heaven, and superior 
 to the power of mortal men. The ground was marked 
 out for a small fort, which Columbus called Navidad, 
 because he had landed there on Christmas-day. A 
 deep ditch was drawn around it. The ramparts were 
 fortified with pallisades, and the great guns, saved out 
 of the admiral's ship, were planted upon them. In 
 ten days the work was finished ; that simple race of 
 men labouring with inconsiderate assiduity in erect- 
 ing this first monument of their own servitude. Dur- 
 'ng this time, Columbus, by his caresses and liberality, 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 laboured to increase the high opinion which the na- 
 tives entertained of the Spaniards. But while he 
 endeavoured to inspire them with confidence in their 
 disposition to do good, he wished likewise to give 
 them some striking idea of their power to punish and 
 destroy such as were the objects of their indignation. 
 With this view, in presence of a vast assembly, he 
 drew up his men in order of battle, and made an 
 ostentatious but innocent display of tbe sharpness of 
 the Spanish swords, of the force of their spears, and 
 the operation of their cross-bows. These rude people, 
 strangers to the use of iron, and unacquainted with 
 any hostile weapons but arrows of reeds pointed with 
 the bones of fishes, wooden sword, and javelins 
 hardened in the fire, wondered and trembled. Before 
 this surprise or fear had time to abate, he ordered the 
 great guns to be fired. The sudden explosion struck 
 them with such terror, that they fell flat to the ground, 
 covering their faces with their hands ; and when they 
 beheld the astonishing effect of the bullets among the 
 trees, towards which the cannon had been pointed, 
 they concluded that it was impossible to resist men, 
 who had the command of such destructive instruments, 
 and who came armed with thunder and lightning 
 against their enemies. 
 
 After giving such impressions both of the bene- 
 ficence and power of the Spaniards, as might have 
 rendered it easy to preserve an ascendant over the 
 minds of the natives, Columbus appointed thirty- 
 eight of his people to remain iu the island. He 
 intrusted the command of these to Diego de Arado, 
 a gentleman of Cordova, investing him with the same 
 powers which he himself had received from Ferdinand 
 and Isabella ; and furnished him with every thing 
 requisite for the subsistence or defence of this infant 
 colony. He strictly enjoined them to maintain con- 
 cord among themselves, to yield an unreserved 
 obedience to their commander, to avoid giving offence 
 to the natives by any violence or exaction, to cultivate 
 the friendship of Guacanahari, but not to put them- 
 selves in his power, by straggling in small parties, or 
 inarching too far from the fort. He promised to 
 revisit them soon, with such a reinforcement of 
 strength as might enable them to take full possession 
 of the country, and to reap all the fruits of their 
 discoveries. In the mean time, he engaged to mention 
 their names to the king and queen, and to place their 
 merit and services in the most advantageous light. 
 
 Having thus taken every precaution for the security 
 of the colony, he left Navidad on the fourth of January, 
 one thousand four hundred and ninety-three, and 
 steering towards the east, discovered and gave names 
 to most of the harbours on the northern coast of the 
 island. On the sixth he descried the Pinta, and soon 
 came up with her, after a separation of more than six 
 weeks. Pinzon endeavoured to justify his conduct, 
 by pretending that he had been driven from his course 
 by stress of weather, and prevented from returning 
 by contrary winds. The admiral, though he still 
 suspected his perfidious intentions, and knew well 
 what he urged in his own defence to be frivolous as 
 well as false, was so sensible that this was not a 
 proper time for venturing upon any high strain of 
 authority, and felt such satisfaction in this junction 
 with his consort, which delivered him from many 
 disquieting apprehensions, that, lame as Pinzon' s 
 apology was, he admitted of it without difficulty, and 
 restored him to favour. During his absence from the 
 admiral, Pinzon had visited several harbours in the 
 island, had acquired some gold by trafficking with 
 the natives, but had made no discovery of any 
 importance, 
 
 From the condition of his ships, as well as the 
 temper of his men, Columbus now found it necessary 
 to hasten his return to Europe. The former, having 
 suffered much during a voyage of such an unusual 
 length, were extremely leaky. The latter expressed 
 the utmost impatience to revisit their native country, 
 from which they had been so long absent, and where 
 they had things so wonderful and unheard-of to 
 relate. Accordingly, on the sixteenth of January, he 
 directed his course towards the north-east, and soon 
 lost sight of land. He had on board some of the 
 natives, whom he had taken from the different islands 
 which he discovered ; and besides the gold, which 
 was the chief object of research, he had collected 
 specimens of all the productions which were likely 
 to become subjects of commerce in the several 
 countries, as well as many unknown birds, and other 
 natural curiosities, which might attract the attention 
 of the learned, or excite the wonder of the people. 
 The voyage was prosperous to the fourteenth of 
 February, and he had advanced near five hundred 
 leagues across the Atlantic ocean, when the wind 
 began to rise, and continued to blow with increasing 
 rage, which terminated in a furious hurricane. Every 
 thing that the naval skill and experience of Columbus 
 could devise was employed, in order to save the ships. 
 But it was impossible to withstand the violence of 
 the storm, and, as they were still far from any land, 
 destruction seemed inevitable. The sailors had 
 recourse to prayers to Almighty God, to the invoca- 
 tion of saints, to vows and charms, to every thing that 
 religion dictates, or superstition suggests to the 
 affrighted mind of man. No prospect of deliverance 
 appearing, they abandoned themselves to despair, 
 and expected every moment to be swallowed up in 
 the waves. Besides the passions which naturally 
 agitate and alarm the human mind in such awful 
 situations,when certain death, in one of his most terrible 
 forms, is before it, Columbus had to endure feelings 
 of distress peculiar to himself. He dreaded that all 
 knowledge of the amazing discoveries which he had 
 made was now to perish ; mankind were to be 
 deprived of every benefit that might have been derived 
 from the happy success of his schemes, and his own 
 name would descend to posterity as that of a rash 
 deluded adventurer, instead of being transmitted with 
 the honour due to the author and conductor of the 
 most noble enterprise that had ever been undertaken. 
 These reflections extinguished all sense of his own 
 personal danger. Less affected with the loss of life, 
 than solicitous to preserve the memory of what he 
 had attempted and achieved, he retired to his cabin, 
 and wrote, upon parchment, a short account of the 
 voyage which he had made, of the course which he 
 had taken, of the situation and riches of the countries 
 which he had discovered, and of the colony that he 
 had left there. Having wrapped up this in an oiled 
 cloth, which he enclosed in a cake of wax, he put it 
 into a cask carefully stopped up, and threw it into 
 the sea, in hopes that some fortunate accident might 
 preserve a deposit of so much importance to the 
 world. 
 
 At length Providence interposed, to save a life 
 reserved for other sen-ices. The wind abated, the 
 sea became calm, and on the evening of the fifteenth, 
 Columbus and his companions discovered land ; and 
 though uncertain what it was, they made towards it. 
 They soon knew it to be St. Mary, one of the Azores 
 or western isles, subject to the crown of Portugal. 
 There, after a violent contest with the governor, in 
 which Columbus displayed no less spirit than pru- 
 dence, he obtained a supply of fresh provisions, an'd 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 whatever else Vie needed. One circumstance, how- 
 ever, greatly disquieted him. The Pinta, of which 
 he had lost sight on the first day of the hurricane, 
 did not appear ; he dreaded for some time that she 
 had foundered at sea, and that all her crew had 
 perished ; afterwards, his former suspicions recurred, 
 and he became apprehensive that Pinzon had borne 
 away for Spain, that he might reach it before him, 
 and, by giving the first account of his discoveries, 
 might obtain some share of his fame. 
 
 [Feb. 24.] In order to prevent this, he left the 
 Azores as soon as the weather would permit. At no 
 grent distance from the coast of Spain, when near the 
 end of his voyage, and seemingly beyond the reach 
 of any disaster, another storm arose, little inferior to 
 the former in violence ; and after driving before it 
 during two days and two nights, he was forced to 
 take shelter in the river Tagus [March 4.J Upon 
 application to the king of Portugal, he was allowed 
 to come up to Lisbon ; . and, notwithstanding the 
 envy which it was natural for the Portuguese to feel, 
 when they beheld another nation entering upon that 
 province of discovery which they had hitherto deemed 
 peculiarly their own, and in its first essay, not only 
 rivalling, but eclipsing their fame, Columbus was 
 received with all the marks of distinction due to a 
 man who had performed things so extraordinary and 
 unexpected. The king admitted him into his pre- 
 sence, treated him with the highest respect, and 
 listened to the account which he gave of his voyage 
 mingled with regret. While Columbus, on his part, 
 enjoyed the satisfaction of describing the importance 
 of his discoveries, and of being now able to prove the 
 solidity of his schemes to those very persons, who, 
 with an ignorance disgraceful to themselves, and 
 fatal to their country, had lately rejected them as the 
 projects of a visionary or designing adventurer (16). 
 
 Columbus was so impatient to return to Spain, 
 that he remained only five days in Lisbon. On the 
 fifteenth of March he arrived in the port of Palos, 
 Seven months and eleven days from the time when 
 he set out thence upon his voyage. As soon as the 
 ship was discovered approaching the port, all the 
 inhabitants of Palos ran eagerly to the shore, in order 
 to welcome their relations and fellow-citizens, and to 
 hear tidings of their voyage. When the prosperous 
 issue of it was known, when they beheld the strange 
 people, the unknown animals, and singular produc- 
 tions, brought from the countries which had been 
 discovered, the effusion of joy was general and 
 unbounded. The bells were rung, the cannon fired ; 
 Columbus was received at landing with royal honours, 
 and all the people, in solemn procession, accompanied 
 him and his crew to the church, where they returned 
 thanks to Heaven, which had so wonderfully con- 
 ducted and crowned with success a voyage of greater 
 length and of more importance than had been 
 attempted in any former age. On the evening of 
 the same day, he had the satisfaction of seeing the 
 Pinta, which the violence of the tempest had driven 
 far to the north, enter the harbour. 
 
 The first care of Columbus was to inform the king 
 and queen, who were then at Barcelona, of his arri- 
 val and success. Ferdinand and Isabella, no less 
 astonished than delighted with this unexpected 
 event, desired Columbus, in terms the most respect- 
 ful and flattering, to repair immediately to court, 
 that from his own mouth they might receive a full 
 detail of his extraordinary services and discoveries. 
 During his journey to Barcelona, the people crowded 
 from the adjacent country, following him everywhere 
 1rith admiration and applause, His entrance into 
 
 the city was conducted, by order of Ferdinand and 
 Isabella, with pomp suitable to the great event, 
 which added such distinguishing lustre to their reign. 
 The people whom he brought along with him from 
 the countries which he had discovered, marched first, 
 and by their singular complexion, the wild peculiarity 
 of their features, and uncouth finery, appeared like 
 men of another species. Next to them were carried 
 the ornaments of gold fashioned by the rude art of 
 the natives, the grains of gold found in the moun- 
 tains, and dust of the same metal gathered in the 
 rivers. After these appeared the various commo- 
 dities of the new discovered countries, together with 
 their curious productions. Columbus himself closed 
 the procession, and attracted the eyes of all the 
 spectators, who gazed with admiration on the extra- 
 ordinary man, whose superior sagacity and fortitude 
 had conducted their countrymen, by a route concealed 
 from past ages, to the knowledge of a new world. 
 Ferdinand and Isabella received him clad in their 
 royal robos, and seated upon a throne, under a mag- 
 nificent canopy. When he approached, they stood 
 up, and raising him as he kneeled to kiss their hands, 
 commanded him to take his seat upon a chair pre- 
 pared for him, and give a circumstantial account of 
 his voyage. He delivered it with a gravity and 
 composure no less suitable to the disposition of the 
 Spanish nation, than to the dignity of the audience 
 in which he spoke, and with that modest simplicity 
 which characterizes men of superior minds, who, 
 satisfied with having performed great actions, court 
 not vain applause by an ostentatious display of their 
 exploits. When he had finished his narration, the 
 king and queen, kneeling down, offered up solemn 
 thanks to Almighty God for the discovery of those 
 new regions, from which they expected so many 
 advantages to flow in upon the kingdoms subject to 
 their government (17). Every mark of honour that 
 gratitude or admiration could suggest was con- 
 ferred upon Columbus. Letters patent were issued, 
 confirming to him and to his heirs all the privileges 
 contained in the capitulation concluded at Santa Fe ; 
 his family was ennobled ; the king and queen, and, 
 after their example, the courtiers, treated him, on 
 every occasion, with all the ceremonious respect paid 
 to persons of the highest rank. But what pleased 
 him most, as it gratified his active mind, bent con- 
 tinually upon great objects, was an order to equip, 
 without delay, an armament of such force, as might 
 enable him not only to take possession of the countries 
 which he had already discovered, but to go in search 
 of those more opulent regions, which he still confi- 
 dently expected to find. 
 
 While preparations were making for this expedi- 
 tion, the fame of Columbus's successful voyage 
 spread over Europe, and excited general attention. 
 The multitude, struck with amazement when they 
 heard that a new world had been found, could hardly 
 believe an event so much above their conception. 
 Men of science, capable of comprehending the nature, 
 and of discerning the effects, of this great discovery, 
 received the account of it with admiration and joy. 
 They spoke of his voyage with rapture, and con- 
 gratulated one another upon their felicity, in having 
 lived in the period when, by this extraordinary erent, 
 the boundaries of human knowledge were so much 
 extended, and such a new field of inquiry and obser- 
 vation opened, as would lead mankind to a perfect 
 acquaintance with the structure and productions of 
 the habitable globe (IS). Various opinions and 
 conjectures were formed concerning the new-found 
 countries, and what division of the earth they 
 
30 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 belonged to. Columbus adhered tenaciously to his 
 original opinion, that they should be reckoned a part 
 of those vast regions in Asia, comprehended under 
 the general name of India. This sentiment was 
 confirmed by the observations which he made con- 
 cerning the productions of the countries he had 
 discovered. Gold was known to abound in India, 
 and he had met with such promising samples of it in 
 the islands which he visited, as led him to believe 
 that rich mines of it might be found. Cotton, 
 another production of the East Indies, was common 
 there. The pimento of the islands he imagined to 
 be a species of the East Indian pepper. He mistook 
 a root, somewhat resembling rhubarb, for that valu- 
 able drug, which was then supposed to be a plant 
 peculiar to the East Indies. The birds brought home 
 by him were adorned with the same rich plumage 
 which distinguishes those of India. The alligator of 
 the one country appeared to be the same with the 
 crocodile of the other. After weighing all these 
 circumstances, not only the Spaniards, but the other 
 nations of Europe, seem to have adopted the opinion 
 of Columbus. The countries which he had discovered 
 were considered as a part of India. In consequence 
 of this notion, the name of Indies is given to them 
 by Ferdinand and Isabella, in a ratification of their 
 former agreement, which was granted to Columbus 
 upon his return. Even after the error which gave 
 rise to this opinion was detected, and the true 
 position of the New World was ascertained, the 
 name has remained, aud the appellation of West 
 Indies is given by all the people of Europe to the 
 country, and that of Indians to its inhabitants. 
 
 The name by which Columbus distinguished the 
 countries which he had discovered was so inviting, the 
 specimens of their riches and fertility, which he pro- 
 duced, were so considerable, and the reports of his com- 
 panions, delivered frequently with the exaggeration 
 natural to travellers, so favourable, as to excite a 
 wonderful spirit of enterprise among the Spaniards. 
 Though little accustomed to naval expeditions, they 
 were impatient to set out upon their voyage. Volun- 
 teers of every rank solicited to.be employed. Allured 
 by the inviting prospects which opened to their 
 ambition and avarice, neither the length nor danger of 
 the navigation intimidated them. Cautious as Ferdi- 
 nand was, and averse to every thing new and adven- 
 turous, he seems to have catched the same spirit with 
 his subjects. Under its influence, preparations for a 
 second expedition were carried on with a rapidity 
 unusual in Spain, and to an extent that would be 
 deemed not inconsiderable in the present age. The 
 fleet consisted of seventeen ships, some of which 
 were of good burden. It had on board fifteen hundred 
 persons, among whom were many of noble families, 
 who had served in honourable stations. The greater 
 part of these being destined to remain in the country, 
 were furnished with every thing requisite for conquest 
 or settlement, with all kinds of European domestic 
 animals, with such seeds and plants as were most likely 
 to thrive in the climate of the West Indies, with utensils 
 and instruments of every sort, and with such artificers 
 as might be most useful in an infant colony. 
 
 But, formidable and well provided as this fleet 
 was, Ferdinand and Isabella did not rest their title 
 to the possession of the newly discovered countries 
 upon its operations alone. The example of the 
 Portuguese, as well as the superstition of the age, 
 made it necessary to obtain from the Roman pontiff 
 a grant of those teiritories which they wished to occupy. 
 The pope, as the vicar and representative of Jesus 
 Christ, was supposed to have a right of dominion 
 
 over all the kingdoms of the earth. Alexander VI. 
 a pontiff infamous jfor every crime which disgraces 
 humanity, filled the papal throne at that time. As 
 he was born Ferdinand's subject, and very solicitous 
 to secure the protection of Spain, in order to facilitate 
 the execution of his ambitious schemes in favour of 
 his own family, he was extremely willing to gratify 
 the Spanish monarchs. By an act of liberality which 
 cost him nothing, and that served to establish the 
 jurisdiction and pretensions of the papal see, he 
 granted in full right to Ferdinand and Isabella all 
 the countries inhabited by infidels, which they had 
 discovered, or should discover; and, in virtue of 
 that power which he derived from Jesus Christ, he 
 conferred on the crown of Castile vast regions, to 
 the possession of which he himself was so far from 
 having any title, that he was unacquainted with their 
 situation, and ignorant even of their own existence. 
 As it was necessary to prevent this grant from inter- 
 fering with that formerly made to the crown of 
 Portugal, he appointed that a line, supposed to be 
 drawn from pole to pole, a hundred leagues to the 
 westward of the Azores, should serve as a limit 
 between them ; and, in the plentitude of his power, 
 bestowed all to the east of this imaginary line upon 
 the Portuguese, and all to the west of it upon the 
 Spaniards. Zeal for propagating the Christian faith 
 was the consideration employed by Ferdinand in 
 soliciting this bull, and is mentioned by Alexander 
 as his chief motive for issuing it. In order to mani- 
 fest some concern for this laudable object, several 
 friars, under the direction of father Boyl, a Catalonian 
 monk of great reputation, as apostolical vicar, were 
 appointed to accompany Columbus, and to devote 
 themselves to the instruction of the natives. The 
 Indians, whom Columbus had brought along with 
 him, having received some tincture of Christian 
 knowledge, were baptized with much solemnity, the 
 king himself, the prince his son, and the chief persons 
 of his court, standing as their godfathers. Those 
 first fruits of the New World have not been followed 
 by such an increase as pious men wished, and had 
 reason to expect. 
 
 Ferdinand and Isabella having thus acquired a title, 
 which was then deemed completely valid, to extend 
 their discoveries and to establish their dominion 
 over such a considerable portion of the globe, nothing 
 now retarded the departure of the fleet. Columbus 
 was extremely impatient to revisit the colony which 
 he had left, and to pursue that career of glory upon 
 which he had entered. He set sail from the bay of 
 Cadiz on the twenty-fifth of September, and touching 
 again at the island of Gomera, he steered further 
 towards the south than in his former voyage. By- 
 holding this course, he enjoyed more steadily the 
 benefit of the regular winds which reign within the 
 tropics, and was carried towards a larger cluster 
 of islands, situated considerably to the east of those 
 which he had. aVeady discovered. On the twenty- 
 sixth day after his departure from Gomera [Nov. 2], 
 he made land. It was one of the Caribbee or Leeward 
 Islands, to which he gave the name of Descada, on 
 account of the impatience of his crew to discover 
 some part of the New World. After this he visited 
 successively Dominica, Marigalante, Guadaloupe, 
 Antigua, San Juan de Puerto Rico, and several other 
 islands, scattered in his way as he advanced towards 
 the north-west. All these he found to be inhabited 
 by that fierce race of people whom Guacanahari had 
 painted in such frightful colours. His descriptions 
 appeared not to have been exaggerated. The Spaniards 
 never attempted to laud without meeting with such 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 31 
 
 a reception, as discovered the martial and daring 
 spirit of the natives ; and in their habitations were 
 found relics of those horrid feasts which they had 
 made vipon the bodies of their enemies taken in war. 
 
 But as Columbus was eager to know the state of 
 the colony which he had planted, and to supply it 
 with the necessaries of which he supposed it to be in 
 want, he made no stay in any of those islands, and 
 proceeded directly to Hispaniola [Nov. 22]. When 
 he arrived off Navidad, the station in which he had 
 left the thirty-eight men under the command of 
 Arada, he was astonished that none of them appeared, 
 and expected every moment to see them running 
 with transports of joy to welcome their countrymen. 
 Full of solicitude about their safety, and foreboding 
 in his mind what had befallen them, he rowed in- 
 stantly to land. All the natives from whom he 
 might have received information had fled. But the 
 fort which he had built was entirely demolished, and 
 the tattered garments, the broken arms and utensils 
 scattered about it, left no room to doubt concerning 
 the unhappy fate of the garrison. While the Span- 
 iards were shedding tears over those sad memorials 
 of their fellow-citizens, a brother of the cazique 
 Guacanahari arrived. From him Columbus re- 
 ceived a particular detail of what had happened after 
 his departure from the island. The familiar inter- 
 course of the Indians with the Spaniards tended 
 gradually to diminish the superstitious veneration 
 with which their first appearance had inspired that 
 simple people. By their own indiscretion and ill 
 conduct, the Spaniards speedily effaced those favour- 
 able impressions, and soon convinced the natives, 
 that they had all the wants, and weaknesses, and 
 passions of men. As soon as the powerful restraint 
 which the presence and authority of Columbus im- 
 posed was withdrawn, the garrison threw off all re- 
 gard for the officer whom he had invested with com- 
 mand. Regardless of the prudent instructions which 
 he had given them, every man became independent, 
 and gratified his desires without controul. The gold, 
 the women, the provisions of the natives, were all 
 the prey of those licentious oppressors. They roamed 
 in small parties over the island, extending their ra- 
 pacity and insolence to every corner of it. Gentle 
 and timid as the people were, those unprovoked in- 
 juries at length exhausted their patience, and roused 
 their courage. The cazique of Cibao, whose country 
 the Spaniards chiefly infested on account of the gold 
 which it contained, surprised and cut off several of 
 them, while they straggled in as perfect security as 
 if their conduct had been altogether inoffensive. He 
 then assembled his subjects, and surrounding the 
 fort, set it on fire. Some of the Spaniards were killed 
 in defending it, the rest perishing in attempting to 
 make their escape by crossing an arm of the sea. 
 Guacanahari, whom all their exactions had not 
 alienated from the Spaniards, took arms in their 
 behalf, and, in endeavouring to protect them, had 
 received a wound, by which he was still confined. 
 
 Though this account was far from removing the 
 suspicions which the Spaniards entertained with 
 respect to the fidelity of Guacanahari, Columbus 
 perceived so clearly that this was not a proper 
 juncture for inquiring into his conduct with scru- 
 pulous accuracy, that he rejected the advice of several 
 of his officers, who urged him to seize the person of 
 that prince, and to revenge the death of their country- 
 man by attacking his subjects. He represented to 
 them the necessity of securing the friendship of some 
 potentate of the country, in order to facilitate the 
 settlement which they intended, and the danger of 
 
 driving the natives to unite in some desperate attempt 
 against them, by such an ill-timed and unavailing 
 exercise of rigour. Instead of wasting his time in 
 punishing past wrongs, he took precautions for 
 preventing any future injury. With this view he 
 made choice of a situation more healthy and com- 
 modious than that of Navidad. He traced out the 
 plan of a town in a large plain near a spacious bay, 
 and obliging every person to put his hand to a work 
 on which their common safety depended, the houses 
 and ramparts were soon so far advanced by their 
 united labour, as to afford them shelter and security. 
 This rising city, the first that the Europeans founded 
 in the New World, he named Isabella, in honour of 
 his patroness the queen of Castile. 
 
 In carrying on this necessary work, Columbus had 
 not only to sustain all the hardships, and to encounter 
 all the difficulties, to which infant colonies are ex- 
 posed when they settle in an uncultivated country, 
 but he had to contend with what was more insuper- 
 able, the laziness, the impatience, and mutinous 
 disposition of his followers. By the enervating in- 
 fluence of a hot climate, the natural inactivity of the 
 Spaniards seemed to increase. Many of them were 
 gentlemen, unaccustomed to the fatigue of bodily 
 labour, and all had engaged in the enterprise with 
 the sanguine hopes excited by the splendid and ex- 
 ggfentod description of their countrymen who re- 
 turned from the first voyage, or by the mistaken 
 opinion of Columbus, that the country which he had 
 discovered was either the Cipango of Marco Polo, or 
 the Ophair, from Avhich Solomon imported those 
 precious commodities which suddenly diffused such 
 extraordinary riches through his kingdom. But 
 when, instead of that golden harvest which they had 
 expected to reap without toil or pains, the Spaniards 
 saw that their prospect of wealth was remote as well 
 as uncertain, and that it could not be attained but 
 by the slow and persevering efforts of industry, the 
 disappointment of those chimerical hopes occasioned 
 such dejection of mind as bordered on despair, and 
 led to general discontent. In vain did Columbus 
 endeavour to revive their spirits by pointing out the 
 fertility of the soil, and exhibiting the specimens of 
 gold daily brought in from different parts of the 
 island. They had not patience to wait for the 
 gradual returns which the foimer might yield, and 
 the latter they despised as scanty and inconsiderable. 
 The spirit of disaffection spread, and a conspiracy 
 was formed, which might have been fatal to Colum- 
 bus and the colony. Happily he discovered it ; and, 
 seizing the ringleaders, punished some of them, sent 
 others prisoners into Spain, whither he dispatched 
 twelve of the ships which had served as transports, 
 with an earnest request for a reinforcement of men 
 and a large supply of provisions. 
 
 [A. D. 1494.] Meanwhile, in order to banish that 
 idleness, which, by allowing his people leisure to 
 brood over their disappointment, nourished the 
 spirit of discontent, Columbus planned several ex- 
 peditions into the interior parts of the country. He 
 sent a detachment, under the command of Alonzo 
 de Ojeda [March 12], a vigilant and enterprising 
 officer, to visit the district of Cibao, which was said 
 to yield the greatest quantity of gold, and followed 
 him in person with the main body of his troops. 
 In this expedition he displayed all the pomp of 
 military magnificence that he could exhibit, in order 
 to strike the imagination of the natives. He marched 
 with colours flying, with martial music, and with a 
 small body of cavalry that paraded sometimes in the 
 front and. sometimes in the rear. As those were the 
 
32 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 first horses which appeared in the New World, they 
 were objects of terror no less than of admiration t 
 the Indians, who, having no tame animals them- 
 selves, were unacquainted with that vast accession o 
 power which man hath acquired by subjecting them 
 to his dominion. They supposed them to be 
 rational creatures. They imagined that the horse 
 and the rider formed one animal, with whose speed 
 they were astonished, and whose impetuosity and 
 strength they considered as irresistible. But while 
 Columbus endeavoured to inspire the natives with 
 a dread of his power, he did not neglect the arts oi 
 gaining their love and confidence. He adhered 
 scrupulously to the principles of integrity and justice 
 in all his transactions with them, and treated them 
 on every occasion, not only with humanity, but with 
 indulgence. The district of Cibao answered the 
 description given of it by the natives. It was moun- 
 tainous and uncultivated, but in every river and 
 brook gold was gathered either in dust or in grains 
 *ome of which were of considerable size. The 
 Indians had never opened any mines in search of 
 gold. To penetrate into the bowels of the earth, and 
 to refine the rude ore, were operations too compli- 
 cated and laborious for their talents and industry, 
 and they had no such high value for gold as to put 
 their ingenuity and invention upon the stretch in 
 order to obtain it. The small quantity of that pre- 
 cious metal which they possessed, was either picked 
 up in the beds of the rivers, or washed from the 
 mountains by the heavy rains that fall within the 
 tropics. But, from those indications, the Spaniards 
 could no longer doubt that the country contained 
 rich treasures in its bowels, of which they hoped soon 
 to be masters. In order to secure the command of 
 this valuable province, Columbus erected a small 
 fort to which he gave the name of St. Thomas, by 
 way of ridicule upon some of his incredulous fol- 
 lowers, who would not believe that the country pro- 
 duced gold, until they saw it with their own eyes, 
 and touched it with their hands. 
 
 The account of those promising appearances of 
 -wealth in the country of Cibao came very seasonably 
 to comfort the desponding colony, which was affected 
 with distresses of various kinds. The stock of pro- 
 visions which had been brought from Europe was 
 mostly consumed ; what remained was so much cor- 
 rupted by the heat and moisture of the climate, as to 
 be almost unfit for use ; the natives cultivated so 
 small a portion of ground, and with so little skill, 
 that it hardly yielded what was sufficient for their 
 own subsistence; the Spaniards at Isabella had 
 hitherto neither time nor leisure to clear the soil, so 
 as to reap any considerable fruits of their own indus- 
 try. On all these accounts, they became afraid of 
 perishing with hunger, and were reduced already to a 
 scanty allowance. At the same time, the diseases 
 predominant in the torrid zone, and which rage 
 chiefly in those uncultivated countries, where the 
 hand of industry has not opened the woods, drained 
 the marshes, and confined the rivers within a certain 
 channel, began to spread among them. Alarmed at 
 the violence and unusual symptoms of those maladies, 
 they exclaimed against Columbus and his com- 
 panions in the former voyage, who, by their 
 splendid but deceitful descriptions of Hispaniola, 
 allured them to quit Spain for a barbarous unculti- 
 vated land, where they must either be cut off by 
 famine, or die of unknown distempers. Several of 
 the officers and persons of note, instead of checking, 
 joined in those seditious complaints. Father Boyl, 
 the apostolical vicar, .was ooe of the most turbulent 
 
 and outrageous. It required all the authority and 
 address of Columbus to re-establish subordination 
 and tranquility in the colony. Threats and promises 
 were alternately employed for this purpose ; but 
 nothing contributed more to soothe the malcontents, 
 than the prospect of finding in the mines of Cibao 
 such a store of treasure as would be a recompence 
 for all their sufferings, and efface the memory of 
 former disappointments. 
 
 When, by his unwearied endeavours, concord and 
 order were so far restored that he could venture to 
 leave the island, Columbus resolved to pursue his 
 discoveries, that he might be able to ascertain whether 
 those new countries with which he had opened a 
 communication were connected with any region of 
 the earth already known, or whether they were to be 
 considered as a separate portion of the globe hitherto 
 unvisited. He appointed his brother, Don Diego, 
 with the assistance of a council of officers, to govern 
 the island in his absence ; and gave the command of 
 a body of soldiers to Don Pedro Margarita, with 
 which he was to visit the different parts of the island, 
 and endeavour to establish the authority of the 
 Spaniards among the inhabitants. Having left them 
 very particular instructions with respect to their con- 
 duct, he weighed anchor on the twenty-fourth of April, 
 .with one ship, and two small barks, under his 
 command. During a tedious voyage of full five 
 months, he had a trial of almost all the numerous 
 hardships to which persons of his profession are 
 exposed, without making any discovery of importance, 
 except the island of Jamaica. As he ranged along 
 the southern coast of Cuba (19), he was entangled 
 in a labyrinth formed by an incredible number of 
 small islands, to which he gave the name of the 
 Queen's Garden. In this unknown course, among 
 rocks and shelves, he was retarded by contrary 
 winds, assaulted with furious storms, arid alarmed 
 with the terrible thunder and lightning which is 
 often almost incessant between the tropics. At 
 length his provisions fell short ; his crew, exhausted 
 with fatigue, as well as hunger, murmured and 
 threatened, and were ready to proceed to desperate 
 extremities against him. Beset with danger in such 
 various forms, he was obliged to keep continual 
 watch, to observe every occurrence with his own 
 eyes, to issue every order, and to superintend the 
 execution of it. On no occasion was the extent of 
 his skill and experience as a navigator so much tried. 
 To these the squadron owed its safety. But this 
 unremitted fatigue of body, and intense application 
 of mind, overpowering his constitution, though 
 naturally vigorous and robust, brought on a feverish 
 disorder, which terminated in a lethargy, that 
 deprived him of sense and memory, and had almost 
 proved fatal to his life. 
 
 But, on his return to Hispaniola [Sept. 27], the 
 sudden emotion of joy which he felt upon meeting 
 with his brother Bartholomew at Isabella, occasioned 
 such a flow of spirits as contributed greatly to his 
 recovery. It was now thirteen years since the two 
 brothers, whom similarity of talents united- in close 
 friendship, had separated from each other, and 
 during that long period there had been no intercourse 
 between them. Bartholomew, after finishing his 
 negociation in the court of England, had set out for 
 Spain by the way of France. At Paris he received 
 an account of the extraordinary discoveries which 
 his brother had made in his first voyage, and that he 
 was then preparing to embark on a second expedition. 
 Though this naturally induced him to pursue his 
 journey with the utmost dispatch, the Admiral had 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 S3 
 
 sailed for Hispaniola before he reached Spain. Fer- 
 dinand and Isabella received him with tho respect 
 due to the nearest kinsman of a person whose merits 
 and services rendered him so conspicuous ; and as 
 they knew what consolation his presence would 
 afford to his brother, they persuaded him to take the 
 command of three ships, which they had appointed to 
 carry provisions to the colony at Isabella. 
 
 He could not have arrived at any juncture when 
 Columbus stood more in need of a friend capable of 
 assisting him with his counsels, or of dividing with 
 lam the cares and burden of government. For 
 although the provisions now brought from Europe 
 aiTordcd a temporary relief to the Spaniards from 
 the calamities of famine, the supply was not in such 
 quantity as to support thorn long, and the island did 
 not hitherto yield what was sufficient for their suste- 
 nance. They were threatened with another danger, 
 still more formidable than the return of scarcity, and 
 which demanded more immediate attention. No 
 sooner did Columbus leave the island on his voyage 
 of discovery, than the soldiers under Margarita, as 
 if they had been set free from discipline and insu- 
 bordination, scorned all restraint. Instead of con- 
 forming to the prudent instructions of Columbus, 
 they dispersed in straggling parties over the island, 
 lived at discretion upon the natives, wasted their 
 provisions, seized their women, and treated that 
 inoti'eHsive race with all the insolence of military 
 oppression, 
 
 As long as the Indians had any prospect that 
 their sufferings might come to a period by the volun- 
 tary departure of the invaders, they submitted in 
 silence, and dissembled their sorrow ; but they now 
 perceived that the yoke would be as permanent as it 
 was intolerable. The Spaniards had built a town, 
 and surrounded it with ramparts. They had erected 
 forts in different places. They had enclosed and 
 sown several fields. It was apparent that they came 
 not to visit the country, but to settle in it. Though 
 the number of those strangers was inconsiderable, 
 the state of cultivation among this rude people was 
 so imperfect, and in such exact propoition to their 
 own consumption, that it was with difficulty they 
 could afford subsistence to their new guests. Tlicir 
 own mode of life was so indolent and inactive, 
 the warmth of the climate so enervating, the consti- 
 tution of their bodies naturally so feeble, and so 
 unaccustomed to the laborious exertions of industry, 
 that they were satisfied with a proportion of food 
 amazingly small. A handful of maize, or a little of 
 the insipid bread made of the cassada root, was 
 sufficient to support men, whose strength and spirits 
 were not exhausted by any vigorous efforts either of 
 body or mind. The Spaniards, though the most 
 abstemious of all European nations, appeared to 
 them excessively voracious. One Spaniard consumed 
 as much as several Indians. This keenness of appe- 
 tite surprised them so much, and seemed to be so 
 insatiable, that they supposed the Spaniards had left 
 their own country, because it did not produce as 
 much as was requisite to gratify their immoderate 
 desire of food, and had come among them in quest 
 of nourishment. Self-preservation prompted them 
 to wish for the departure of guests who wasted so 
 fast their slender stock of provisions. The injuries 
 which they suffered added to their impatience for 
 this event. They had long expected that the 
 Spaniards would retire of their own accord. They 
 now perceived that, in order to avert the destruction 
 with which they were threatened, either by the slow 
 consumption of famine, or by the violence of their 
 
 HISTORY or AMERICA, No, 5. 
 
 oppressors, it was necessary to assume courage, to 
 attack those formidable invaders with united force, 
 and drive them from the settlements of which they 
 had violently taken possession. 
 
 Such were the sentiments which universally pre- 
 vailed among the Indians, when Columbus returned 
 to Isabella. Inflamed by the unprovoked outrages 
 of the Spaniards, with a degree of rage of which 
 their gentle natures, formed to suffer and submit, 
 seemed hardly susceptible, they waited only for a 
 signal from their leaders to fall upon the colony. 
 Some of the caziques had already surprised and cut 
 off several stragglers. The dread of this impending 
 danger united the Spaniards, and re-established tho 
 authority of Columbus, as they saw no prospect of 
 safety but in committing themselves to his prudent 
 guidance. It was now necessary to have recourse to 
 arms, the employing of which against the Indians, 
 Columbus had hitherto avoided with the greatest 
 solicitude. Unequal as the conflict may seem, be- 
 tueen the naked inhabitants of the New World, 
 armed with clubs, sticks hardened in the fire, wooden 
 swords, and arrows pointed with bones or flints ; 
 and troops accustomed to the discipline, and provided 
 with the instruments of destruction, known in the 
 European art of war, the situation of the Spaniards 
 was far from being exempt from danger. Tho vast 
 supeiiority of the natives in number, compensated 
 many defects. A handful of men was about to 
 encounter a whole nation. One adverse event, or 
 even any unforeseen delay in determining the fate of 
 the war, might prove fatal to the Spaniards. Con- 
 scious that success depended on the vigour and 
 rapidity of his operations, Columbus instantly as- 
 sembled his forces. They were reduced to a very 
 small number. Diseases engendered by the warmth 
 and humidity of the country, or occasioned by their 
 own licentiousness, had raged among them with 
 much violence; experience had not yet taught them 
 the art either of curing these, or the precautions 
 requisite for guarding against them ; two thirds of 
 the original adventurers were dead, and many of 
 those who survived were incapable of service. The 
 body which took the field consisted only of two 
 hundred foot, twenty horse, and twenty large dogs, 
 and how strange soever it may seem to mention the 
 last as composing part of a military force, they were 
 not perhaps the least formidable and destructive of 
 the whole, when employed against naked and timid 
 Indians. All the caziques of the island, Guacanahari 
 excepted, who retained an inviolable attachment to 
 the Spaniards, were in arms to oppose Columbus, 
 with forces amounting, if we may believe the 
 Spanish historians, to a hundred thousand men. 
 Instead of attempting to draw the Spaniards into the? 
 fastnesses of the woods and mountains, they were so 
 imprudent as to take their station in the Vega Real, 
 the most open plain in the country. Columbus did 
 not allow them time to perceive their error, or to 
 alter their position. He attacked them during the 
 night, when undisciplined troops are least capable of 
 acting with union and concert, and obtained an easy 
 and bloodless victory. The consternation with 
 which the Indians were filled by the noise and havoc 
 made by the fire-arms, by the impetuous force of 
 the cavalry, and the fierce onset of the dogs, 
 was so great that they threw down their weapons, 
 and fled, without attempting resistance. Many were 
 slain ; more were taken prisoners, and reduced 
 to servitude ; and so thoroughly were the rest inti- 
 midated, that from that moment they abandoned 
 themselves to despair, relinquishing all thoughts of 
 F 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 contending with aggressors whom they deemed in- 
 tincible. 
 
 Columbus employed several months in marching 
 through the island, and in subjecting it to the 
 Spanish government, without meeting with any oppo- 
 sition. He imposed a tribute upon all the inhabit- 
 ants above the age of fourteen. Each person who 
 lived in those districts where gold was found, was 
 olbiged to pay quarterly as much gold-dust as filled 
 a hawk's bell; from those in other parts of the 
 country, twenty-five pounds of cotton were de- 
 manded. This was the first regular taxation of the 
 Indians, and served as a precedent for exactions still 
 more intolerable. Such an imposition was extremely 
 contrary to those maxims which Columbus had 
 hitherto inculcated, with respect to the mode of 
 treating them. But intrigues were carrying on in 
 the court of Spain at this juncture, in order to 
 undermine his power, and discredit his operations, 
 which constrained him to depart from his own 
 system of administration. Several unfavourable 
 accounts of his conduct, as well as of the countries 
 discovered by him, had been transmitted to Spain. 
 Margarita and father Boyl were now at court, and in 
 order to justify their own conduct, or to gratify their 
 resentment, watched with malevolent attention for 
 every opportunity of spreading insinuations to his 
 detriment. Many of the courtiers viewed his grow- 
 ing reputation and power with envious eyes. Fon- 
 seca, Archdeacon of Seville, who was entrusted with 
 the chief direction of Indian affairs, had conceived 
 such an unfavourable opinion of Columbus, for some 
 reason which the contemporary writers have not 
 mentioned, that he listened with partiality to every 
 invective against him. It was not easy for an un- 
 friended stranger, unpractised in courtly arts, to 
 counteract the machinations of so many enemies. 
 Columbus saw that there was but one method of 
 supporting his own credit, and of silencing all his 
 adversaries. He must produce such a quantity of 
 gold as would not only justify what he had reported 
 with respect to the richness of the country, but 
 encourage Ferdinand and Isabella to persevere in 
 prosecuting his plans. The necessity of obtaining 
 it, forced him not only to impose this heavy tax 
 upon the Indians, but to exact payment of it with 
 extreme rigour ; and may be pleaded in excuse for 
 his deviating on this occasion from the mildness and 
 humanity with which he uniformly treated that 
 unhappy people. 
 
 ' The labour, attention, and foresight, which the 
 Indians were obliged to employ in procuring the 
 tribute demanded of them, appeared the most into- 
 lerable of all evils, to men accustomed to pass their 
 days in a careless, improvident indolence. They were 
 incapable of such a regular and persevering exertion 
 of industry, and felt it such a grievous restraint upon 
 their liberty, that they had recourse to an expedient 
 for obtaining deliverance from this yoke, which 
 demonstrates the excess of their impatience and 
 despair. They formed a scheme of starving those 
 oppressors whom they durst not attempt to expel; 
 and from the opinion which they entertained with 
 respect to the voracious appetite of the Spaniards, 
 they concluded the execution of it to be very prac- 
 ticable. With this view they suspended all the opera- 
 tions of agriculture ; they sowed no maize, they 
 pulled up the roots of the manioc or cassada which 
 were planted, and retiring to the most inaccessible 
 parts of the mountains, left the uncultivated plains 
 to their enemies. This desperate resolution produced 
 in some degree the effects which they expected. The 
 
 Spaniards were reduced to extreme want ; but they 
 received such seasonable supplies of provisions from 
 Europe, and found so many resources in their own 
 ingenuity and industry, that they suffered no great 
 loss of men. The wretched Indians were the victims 
 of their own ill-concerted policy. A irrcat multitude 
 of people, shut up in the mountainous orwond.-d 
 part of the country, without any food but the spon- 
 taneous productions of the earth, soon felt the utmost 
 distresses of famine. This brought on contagious 
 diseases ; and, in the course of a few months, more 
 than a third part of the inhabitants of the island 
 perished, after experiencing misery in all its various 
 forms. 
 
 But while Columbus was establishing the founda- 
 tions of the Spanish grandeur in the New World, 
 his enemies laboured with unwearied assiduity to 
 deprive him of the glory and rewards, which by his 
 services and sufferings he was entitled to enjoy. The 
 hardships unavoidable in a new settlement, the 
 calamities occasioned by an unhealthy climate, the 
 disasters attending a voyage in unknown seas, were 
 all represented as the effects of his restless and 
 inconsiderate ambition. His prudent attention to 
 preserve discipline and subordination was denomi- 
 nated excess of rigour ; the punishments which ho 
 inflicted upon the mutinous and disorderly were 
 imputed to cruelty. These accusations gained such 
 credit in a jealous court, that a commissioner was 
 appointed to repair to Hispaniola, and to inspect 
 into the conduct of Columbus. By the recom- 
 mendation of his enemies, Aguado, a groom of the 
 bed-chamber, was the person to whom this important 
 trust was committed. But in this choice they seem 
 to have been more influenced by the obsequious 
 attachment of the man to their interest, than by his 
 capacity for the station. Puffed up with such 
 sudden elevation, Aguado displayed, in the exercise 
 of this office, all the frivolous self-importance, and 
 acted with all the disgusting insolence, which are 
 natural to little minds, when raised to unexpected 
 dignity, or employed in functions to which they are 
 not equal. By listening with eagerness to every 
 accusation against Columbus, and encouraging not 
 only the malcontent Spaniards, but even the Indians, 
 to produce their grievances, real or imaginary, he 
 fomented the spirit of dissension in the island, without 
 establishing any regulations of public utility, or that 
 tended to redress the many wronsjs, with the odium 
 of which he wished to load the admiral's administra- 
 tion. As Columbus felt sensibly how humiliating 
 his situation must be, if he should remain in the 
 country while such a partial inspector observed his 
 motions, and controlled his jurisdiction, he took the 
 resolution of returning to Spain, in order to lay a full 
 account of all his transactions, particularly with 
 respect to the points in dispute between him and his 
 adversaries,before Ferdinand and Isabella, from whose 
 justice and discernment he expected an equal and a 
 favourable decision [A. n. 1496]. He committed the 
 administration of affairs, during his absence, to Don 
 Bartholomew his brother, with the title of Adelantado, 
 or Lieutenant-Governor. By a choice less fortunate, 
 and which proved the source of many calamities to 
 the colony, he appointed Francis Roldau chief justice, 
 with very extensive powers. 
 
 In returning to Europe, Columbus held a course 
 different from that which he had taken in his former 
 voyage. He steered almost due east from Hispaniola, 
 in the parallel of twenty-two degrees of latitude; as 
 experience had not yet discovered the more certain 
 and expeditious method of stretching to the north, in 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 35 
 
 order to fall in with the south-west winds. By this ill- 
 advised choice, which, in the infancy of navigation be- 
 tween the New and Old Worlds, can hardly be imputed 
 to the admiral as a defect in naval skill, he was exposed 
 to infinite fatigue and danger, in a perpetual struggle 
 with the trade-winds, which blow without variation 
 from the east between the tropics. Notwithstanding 
 the almost insuperable difficulties of such a naviga- 
 tion, he persisted in his course with his usual patience 
 and firmness, but made so little way that he was three 
 months without seeing land. At length his provisions 
 be^iii to fail, the crew was reduced to the scanty 
 allowance of six ounces of bread a-day for each person. 
 The admiral fared no better than the meanest sailor. 
 But, even in this extreme distress, he retained the 
 humanity which distinguishes his character, and 
 refused to comply with the earnest solicitations of 
 his crew, some of whom proposed to feed upon the 
 Indian prisoners whom they were carrying over, and 
 others insisted to throw them overboard, in order to 
 lessen the consumption of their small stock. He 
 represented that thev were human homes, reduced by 
 a common calamity to the same condition with them- 
 selves, nml entitled to share an equal fate. His 
 authority and remonstrances dissipated those wild 
 ideas suggested by despair. Nor had they time to 
 recur ; as he came soon within sight of the coast of 
 Spain, when all their fears and sufferings ended. 
 
 Colir.nbus appeared at couit with the modest but 
 determined confidence of a man conscious not only 
 of integrity, but of having performed great service*. 
 Ferdinand and Isabella, ashamed of their own facility 
 in lending too favourable an ear to frivolous or 
 unfounded accusations, received him with such dis- 
 tinguished marks of respect as covered his enemies 
 with shame. Their censures and calumnies were no 
 more heard of at that juncture. The gold, the pearls, 
 the cotton, and other commodities of value which 
 Columbus produced, seemed fully to refute what the 
 malcontents had propagated with re.spect to the 
 poverty of the country. By reducing the Indians to 
 obedience, and imposing a regular tax upon them, he 
 had secured to Spain a large accession of new subjects, 
 and the establishment of a revenue that promised to 
 be considerable. By the mines which he had found 
 out and examined, a source of wealth still more 
 copious was opened. Great and unexpected as those 
 advantages were, Columbus represented them only 
 as preludes to future acquisitions, and as the earnest 
 of more important discoveries, which he still medi- 
 tated, and to which those he had already made would 
 conduct him with case and certainty. 
 
 The attentive consideration of all these circum- 
 stances made such an impression, not only upon 
 Isabella, who was flattered with the idea, of being the 
 patroness of all Columbus's enterprises, but even upon 
 Ferdinand, who having originally expressed his dis- 
 approbation of his schemes, was still apt to doubt of 
 their success, that they resolved to supply the colony 
 in Hispaniola with every thing which could render it 
 a permanent establishment, and to furnish Columbus 
 with such a fleet, that he might proceed to search for 
 those new countries, of whose existence he seemed 
 to be confident. The measures most proper for 
 accomplishing both these designs were concerted with 
 Columbus. Discovery had been the sole object of 
 tho first voyage to the New World ; and though, in 
 the second, settlement had been proposed, the pre- 
 cautions taken for that purpose had either been 
 insufficient, or were rendered ineffectual by the 
 mutinous spirit of the Spaniards, and the unforeseen 
 calamities arising from various causes. Now a plan 
 
 was to be formed of a regular colony, that might serve 
 as a model in all future establishments. Every par- 
 ticular was considered with attention, and the whole 
 arranged with a scrupulous accuracy. The precise 
 number of adventurers who should be permitted to 
 embark was fixed. They were to be of different 
 ranks and professions ; and the proportion of each 
 was established, according to their usefulness and the 
 wants of the colony. A suitable number of women 
 was to be chosen to accompany these new settlers. 
 As it was the first object to raise provisions in a 
 country where scarcity of food had been the occasion 
 of so much distress, a considerable body of husband- 
 men Avas to be carried over. As the Spaniards had 
 then no conception of deriving any benefit from those 
 productions of the New World which have since 
 yielded such large returns of wealth to Europe, but 
 had formed magnificent ideas, and entertained san- 
 guine hopes with respect to the riches contained in 
 the mines which had been discovered, a band of 
 workmen, skilled in the various arts employed iri 
 digging and refining the precious metals, was pro- 
 vided. All these emigrants wore to receive pay and 
 subsistence for some years at the public expense. 
 
 Thus far the regulations were prudent, and well 
 adapted to the end in view. But as it was foreseen 
 that few would engage voluntarily to settle in a 
 country, whose noxious climate had been fatal to so 
 many of their countrymen, Columbus proposed to 
 transport to Ilispaniola such malefactors as had been 
 convicted of crimes, which, though capital, were of a 
 less atrocious nature ; and that for the future a certain 
 proportion of the offenders usually sent to the galleys, 
 should be condemned to labour in the mines which 
 were to be opened. This advice, given without due 
 reflection, was as inconsiderately adopted. The 
 prisons of Spain were drained, in order to collect 
 members for the intended colony ; and the judges 
 empowered to try criminals were instructed to 
 recruit it by their future sentences. It was not, 
 however, with such materials that the foundation of 
 society, destined' to be permanent, should bo laid. 
 Industry, sobriety, patience, and mutual confidence, 
 are indispensably requisite in an infant settlement, 
 where purity of morals must contribute more towards 
 establishing order, than the operation or authority of 
 laws. But when such a mixture of what is corrupt 
 is admitted into the original constitution of tho 
 political body, the vices of those unsound and incur- 
 able members will probably infect the whole, and 
 must ceitainly be productive of violent and unhappy 
 effects. This the Spaniards fatally experienced ; and 
 the other European nations having successively 
 imitated the practice of Spain in this particular, 
 pernicious consequences have followed in their settle- 
 ments, which can be imputed to no other cause. 
 
 Though Columbus obtained, with great facility and 
 dispatch, the royal approbation of every measure and 
 regulation that he proposed, his endeavours to carry 
 them into execution were so long retarded, as must 
 have tired out the patience of any man less accustomed 
 to encounter and to surmount difficulties. Those 
 delays were occasioned partly by that tedious for- 
 mality and spirit of procrastination, with which the 
 Spaniards conduct business ; and partly by the ex- 
 hausted state of .the treasury, which was drained by 
 the expense of celebrating the marriage of Ferdinand 
 and Isabella's only son with Margaret of Austria, an<J 
 that of Joanna, their second daughter, with Philij 
 archduke of Austria ; but must be chiefly imputed t 
 the malicious arts of Columbus's enemies. Astonished 
 at the reception which he met. with upon his return, 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 und overawed by his presence, they gave way, for 
 some time, to a tide of favour too strong for them to 
 oppose. Their enmity, however, was too inveterate 
 to remain long inactive. They resumed their opera- 
 tions, and by the assistance of Fonseca, the minister 
 for Indian affairs, who was now promoted to the 
 bishopric of Badajos, they throw in so many obstacles 
 to protract the preparations for Columbus's expedition, 
 that a year elapsed before he could procure two ships 
 to carry over a part of the supplies destined for the 
 colony, and almost two years were spent before the 
 small squadron was equipped, of which he himself 
 was to take the command. 
 
 This squadron consisted of six ships only, of no 
 great burden, and but indifferently provided for a long 
 or dangerous navigation [A.D. 1498]. The voyage 
 which he now meditated was in a course different 
 from any he had undertaken. As he was fully per- 
 suaded that the fertile regions of India lay to the 
 south-west of those countries which he had discovered, 
 he proposed as the most certain method of finding out 
 these, to stand directly south from the Canary or Cape 
 de Verd Islands, until he came under the equinoctial 
 line, and then to stretch to the west before the 
 favourable wind for such a course, which blows inva- 
 riably between the tropics. With this idea he set 
 sail, and touched first at the Canary, and then at the 
 Cape de Verd Islands. From the former he despatched 
 three of his ships with a supply of provisions for the 
 colony in Hispaniola ; with the other three he con- 
 tinued his voyage towards the south. No remarkable 
 occurrence happened until they arrived within live 
 degrees of the line. There they were becalmed, and 
 at the same time the heat became so excessive, that 
 many of their wine-casks burst, the liquors in others 
 soured, and their provisions corrupted. The Spaniards, 
 who had never ventured so far to the south, were 
 afraid that the ships would take fire, and began to 
 apprehend the reality of what the ancients had taught 
 concerning the destructive qualities of that torrid 
 region of the globe. They were relieved, in some 
 measure, from their fears by a seasonable fall of rain. 
 This, however, though so heavy and unintermitting 
 that the men could hardly keep the deck, did not 
 greatly mitigate the intenseness of the heat. The 
 admiral, who with his usual vigilance had in person 
 directed every operation from the beginning of the 
 voyage, was so much exhausted by fatigue and want 
 of sleep, that it brought on a violent fit of the gout, 
 accompanied with a fever. All these circumstances 
 constrained him to yield to the importunities of his 
 crew, and to alter his course to the north-west, in 
 order to reach some of the Caribbee islands, where he 
 might refit, and be supplied with provisions. 
 
 On the first of August, the man stationed in the 
 round top surprised them with the joyful cry of Land ! 
 They stood towards it, and discovered a considerable 
 island, which the admiral called Trinidad, a name it 
 still retains. It lies on the coast of Guiana, near the 
 mouth of the Orinoco. This, though a river only of 
 the third or fourth magnitude in the New World, far 
 surpasses any of the streams in our hemisphere. It 
 rolls towards the ocean such a vast body of water, and 
 rushes into it with such impetuous force, that when 
 it meets the tide, which on that coast rises to an 
 uncommon height, their collision occasions a swell 
 and agitation of the waves no less surprising than 
 formidable. In this conflict, the irresistible torrent 
 of the river so far prevails, that it freshens the ocean 
 many leagues with its flood. Columbus, before he 
 conld conceive the danger, was entangled among 'those 
 adverse currents and tempestuous waves, and it was 
 
 with the utmost difficulty that he escaped through ;i 
 narrow strait, which appeared so tremendous, that he 
 called it La Boca del DragO. As soon as HP- emtr 
 sternation which this occasioned permitted him to 
 reflect upon the nature of an appearance so extraor- 
 dinary, he discerned in it a source of comfort and 
 hope, lie justly concluded that such a vast body <f 
 water as this river contained, could not be supplied 
 by any island, but must flow through a country of 
 immense extent, and of consequence that he was now 
 arrived at that continent which it had long been the 
 object of his wishes to discover. Full of this idea, he- 
 stood to the west along the coast of those provim-.--, 
 which are now known by the names of Paria and 
 Cumana. He landed in several places, and h:ul some 
 intercourse with the people, who resembled those of 
 Hispaniola in their appearance and manner of life. 
 They wore, as ornaments, small plaU'S of gold, and 
 pearls of considerable value, which they willingly 
 exchanged for European toys. They seemed to pos- 
 sess a" better understanding, and greater courage, 
 than the inhabitants of the islands. The country 
 produced four-footed animals of several kinds, as 
 well as a great variety of fowls and fruits. The 
 admiral was so much delighted with its beauty and 
 fertility, that with the warm enthusiasm of a disco- 
 verer, he imagined it to be the Paradise described 
 in Scripture, which the Almighty chose for the resi- 
 dence of man, while he retained the innocence that 
 rendered him worthy of such an habitation. Thus 
 Columbus had the glory not only of discovering to 
 mankind the existence of a new world, but made 
 considerable progress towards a perfect knowledge 
 of it ; and was the first man who conducted the 
 Spaniards to that vast continent which has been 
 the chief seat of their empire, and the source of their 
 treasures in this quarter of the globe. The shattered 
 condition of his ships, scarcity of provisions, his 
 own infirmities, together with the impatience of his 
 crew, prevented him from pursuing his discoveries 
 any further, and made it necessary to bear away for 
 Hispaniola. In his way thither he discovered the 
 islands of Cubagua and Margarita, which afterwards 
 became remarkable for their pearl-fishery. When he 
 arrived at Hispaniola [Aug. 30], he was wasted to 
 an extreme degree with fatigue and sickness ; but 
 found the affairs of the colony in such a situation, as 
 afforded him no prospect of enjoying that repose of 
 which he stood so mush in need. 
 
 Many revolutions had happened in that country 
 during his absence. His brother, the adelantado, in 
 consequence of an advice which the admiral gave 
 before his departure, had removed the colony from 
 Isabella to a more commodious station, on the oppo- 
 site side of the island, and laid the foundation of 
 St. Domingo, which was long the most considerable 
 European town in the New World, and the seat of 
 the supreme courts in the Spanish dominions there. 
 As soon as the Spaniards were established in this 
 new settlement, the adelantado, that they might 
 neither languish in inactivity, nor have leisure to 
 form new cabals, marched into those parts of the 
 island which his brother had not yet visited or 
 reduced to obedience. As the people were unable 
 to resist, they submitted every where to the tribute 
 which he imposed. But they soon found the burden 
 to be so intolerable, that, overawed as they wore by 
 the superior power of their oppressors, they tsolc 
 arms against them. Those insurrections, however, 
 were not formidable. A conflict with timid and 
 naked Indians was neither dangerous nor of doubtful 
 issue. 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 37 
 
 But Avhile the adelantado was employed against 
 them in the field, a mutiny of an aspect far more 
 alarming broke out among the Spaniards. The ring- 
 leader of it was Francis Roldan, whom Columbus had 
 placed in a station which required him to be the 
 guardian of order and tranquil ity in the colony. A 
 turbulent and inconsiderate ambition precipitated 
 him into this desperate measure, so unbecoming his 
 rank. The arguments which he employed to seduce 
 his countrymen were frivolous and ill-founded. He 
 accused Columbus and his two brothers of arrogance 
 and severity; he pretended that they aimed at 
 establishing an independent dominion in the country ; 
 he taxed them with an intention of cutting off part 
 of the Spaniards by hunger and fatigue, that they 
 might more easily reduce the remainder to subjec- 
 tion ; he represented it as unworthy of Castilians, to 
 remain the tame and passive slaves of three Genoese 
 adventurers. As men have always a propensity to 
 impute the hardships of which they feel the pressure, 
 to the misconduct of their rulers ; as every nation 
 views with a jealous eye the power and exaltation of 
 foreigners, Roldan's insinuations made a deep im- 
 pression on his countrymen. His character and rank 
 added weight to them. A considerable number of 
 the Spaniards made choice of him as their leader ; 
 and, taking arms against the adelantado and his 
 brother, seized the king's magazine of provisions, 
 and endeavoured to surprise the fort of St. Domingo. 
 This was preserved by the vigilance and courage of 
 Don Diego Columbus. The mutineers were obliirod 
 to retire to the province of Xaragua, where they 
 continued not only to disclaim the adelando's autho- 
 rity themselves, but excited the Indians to throw off 
 the yoke. 
 
 Such was the distracted state of the colony 
 when Columbus landed at St. Domingo. lie was 
 astonished to find that the three ships which he had 
 despatched from the Canaries were not yet arrived. 
 By the unskilfulness of the pilots, and the violence 
 of currents, they had been carried a hundred and 
 sixty miles to the west of St. Domingo, and forced 
 to take shelter in a harbour of the province of Xara- 
 gua, where Roldan and his seditious followers were 
 cantoned. Roldan carefully concealed from the 
 commanders of the ships his insurrectrtn against 
 the adelantado, and employing his utmost address 
 to gain their confidence, persuaded them to set on 
 shore a considerable part of the new settlers whom 
 they brought over, that they might proceed by land 
 to St. Domingo. It required but few arguments to 
 prevail with those men to espouse his cause. They 
 were the refuse of the gaols of Spain, to whom 
 idleness, licentiousness, and deeds of violence were 
 familiar ; and they returned eagerly to a course of 
 life nearly resembling that to which they had been 
 accustomed. The commanders of the ships per- 
 ceiving, when it was too late, their imprudence in 
 disembarking so many of their men, stood away for 
 St. Domingo, and got safe into the port a few days 
 after the admiral; but their stock of provisions was 
 so wasted during a voyage of sueh long continuance, 
 that they brought little relief to the colony. 
 
 By this junction with a band of such bold and 
 desperate associates, Roldan became extremely for- 
 midable, <ind no less extravagant in his demands. 
 Columbus, though filled with resentment at his ingra- 
 titude, and highly exasperated by the insolence of 
 his followers, made no haste to take the field. He 
 trembled at the thoughts of kindling the flames of a 
 civil war, in which, whatever party prevailed, the 
 power and strength of both must be so much wasted, 
 
 ns might encourage the common enemy to unite and 
 complete their destruction. At the same time, he 
 observed, that the prejudices and passions which 
 incited the rebels to take arms, had so far in- 
 fected those who still adhered to him, that many 
 of them were adverse, and all cold to the service. 
 From such sentiments, with respect to the public 
 interest, as well as from this view of his own situ- 
 ation, he chose to negociate rather than to fight. 
 By a seasonable proclamation, offering free pardon to 
 such as should merit it by returning to their duty, 
 he made impression upon some of the malcontents. 
 By engaging to grant such as should desire it the 
 liberty of returning to Spain, he allured all those 
 unfortunate adventurers, who, from sickness and 
 disappointment, were disgusted with the country. 
 By promising to re-establish Roldan in his former 
 office, he soothed his pride ; and, by complying with 
 most of his demands in behalf of his followers, he 
 satisfied their avarice. Thus, gradually, and with- 
 out bloodshed, but after many tedious negociations, 
 he dissolved this dangerous combination, which 
 threatened the colony with ruin; and restored the 
 appearance of order, regular government, and tran- 
 quillity. 
 
 In consequence of this agreement with the muti- 
 neers, lands were allotted them in different parts of 
 the island, and the Indians settled in each district 
 were appointed to cultivate a certain portion of 
 ground for the use of those new masters [A, D. 1499]. 
 The performance of this work was substituted in placo 
 of the tribute formerly imposed; and how neces- 
 sary soever such a regulation might be in a sickly 
 and feeble colony, it introduced among the Spaniards 
 the Repartimientos, or distributions of Indians, 
 established by them in all their settlements, which 
 brought numberless calamities upon that unhappy 
 people, and subjected them to the most grievous 
 oppression. This was not the only bad effect of the 
 insurrection in Hispaniola; it prevented Columbus 
 from prosecuting his discoveries on the continent, 
 as self-preservation obliged him to keep near his 
 person his brother the adelantado, and the sailors 
 whom he intended to have employed in that service. 
 As soon as his affairs would permit, he sent some of 
 his ships to Spain with a journal of the voyage which 
 he had made, a description of the new countries 
 which he had discovered, a chart of the coast along 
 which he had sailed, and specimens of the gold, the 
 pearls, and other curious or valuable productions 
 which he had acquired by trafficking with the natives. 
 At the same time he transmitted an account of the 
 insurrection in Hispaniola ; he accused the muti- 
 neers not only of having thrown the colony into such 
 violent convulsions as threatened its dissolution, but 
 of having obstructed every attempt towards discovery 
 and improvement, by their unprovoked rebellion 
 against their superiors; and proposed several regu- 
 lations for the better government of the island, as 
 well as the extinction of that mutinous spirit, which, 
 though suppressed at present, might soon burst out 
 with additional rage. Roldan and his associates did 
 not neglect to convey to Spain, by the same ships, 
 an apology for their own conduct, together with their 
 recriminations upon the admiral and his brothers. 
 Unfoitunately for the honour of Spain, and the 
 happiness of Columbus, the latter gained most credit 
 in the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, and produced 
 unexpected effects. 
 
 But, previous to the relating of these, it is proper 
 to take a view of some events, which merit attention, 
 both on account of their own. importance, and their 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 connexion with the history of the New World. While 
 Columbus was engaged in his successive voyages to 
 the west, the spirit of discovery did not languish in 
 Portugal, tlie kingdom where it first acquired vigour 
 and became enterprising. Self-condemnation and 
 regret were not the only sentiments to which the 
 success of Columbus, and reflection upon their own 
 imprudence in rejecting his proposals, gave rise 
 among the Portuguese. They excited a general emu- 
 lation to surpass his performances, and an ardent 
 desire to make some reparation to their country for 
 their own error. With this view, Emanuel, who 
 inherited the enterprising genius of his predecessors, 
 persisted in their grand scheme of opening a passage 
 to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, and, 
 soon after his accession to the throne, equipped a 
 squadron for that important voyage. He gave the 
 command of it to Vasco de Gama, a man of noble 
 birth, possessed of virtue, prudence, and courage, 
 equal to the station. The squadron, like all those 
 fitted out for discovery in the infancy of navigation, 
 was extremely feeble, consisting of three vessels, of 
 neither burden nor force adequate to the service. 
 As the Europeans were at that time little acquainted 
 with the course of the trade-winds and periodical 
 monsoons, which render navigation in the Atlantic 
 ocean, as well as in the sea that separates Africa 
 from India, at some seasons easy, and at others not 
 only dangerous, but almost impracticable, the time 
 chosen for Gama's departure was the most improper 
 during the whole year. 
 
 He set sail from Lisbon on the ninth of July 
 [A. D. 1497], and standing towards the south, had to 
 struggle for four months with contrary winds, before 
 he could reach the Cape of Good Hope, [Nov. 20.] 
 Here their violence began to abate ; and during an 
 interval of calm weather, Gama doubled that formid- 
 able promontory, which had so long been the boun- 
 dary of navigation, and directed his course towards 
 the north-east, along the African coast. He touched 
 at several ports ; and after various adventures, which 
 the Portuguese historians relate with high but just 
 encomiums upon his conduct and intrepidity, ho came 
 to anchor before the city of Melinda. Throughout 
 all the vast countries which extend along the coast 
 of Africa, from the river Senegal to the confines of 
 Zanguebar, the Portuguese had found a race of men 
 rude and uncultivated, strangers to letters, to arts, 
 and commerce, and differing from the inhabitants of 
 Europe, no less in their features and complexion 
 than in their manners and institutions. As they 
 advanced from this, they observed, to their inex- 
 pressible joy, that the human form gradually altered 
 and improved ; the Asiatic features began to predo- 
 minate, marks of civilization appeared, letters were 
 knewn, the Mahometan religion was established, and 
 a commerce, far from being inconsiderable, was 
 carried on. At that time several vessels from India 
 were in the port of Melinda. Gama now pursued 
 his voyage with almost absolute certainty of sviccess, 
 and, under the conduct of a Mahometan pilot, arrived 
 at Calecut, upon the coast of Malabar, on the twenty- 
 second of May one thousand four hundred and 
 ninety-eight. What he beheld of the wealth, the 
 populousness, the cultivation, the industry, and arts 
 of this highly civilized country, far surpassed any 
 idea that he had formed, from the imperfect accounts 
 which the Europeans had hitheitho received of it. 
 But as he possessed neither sufficient force to 
 attempt a settlement, nor proper commodities with 
 which he could carry on commerce of any conse- 
 quence, he hastened, back to Portugal, with an account 
 
 of his success in peiTorminii a voy:- r e, tin- longest, 
 as well as most difficult, that .'had <-vrr been made, 
 since the first invention of ir.vi.tralinn. He landed 
 at Lisbon on the fourteenth of September one thou- 
 sand four hundred and ninety-nine, l\vo years 1v, > 
 months and five days from the time he left that port. 
 
 Thus, during the course of the fifteenth century, 
 mankind made greater progress in exploring the stiite 
 of the habitable globe, than in all the ages which had 
 clasped previous to that period. The spirit of dis- 
 covery, feeble at first and cautious, moved within a 
 very narrow sphere, and made its efforts with hesita- 
 tion and timidity. Encouraged by success, it became 
 adventurous, and boldly extended its operations. In 
 the course of its progression, it continued to arquiro 
 vigour, and advanced at length with a rapidity and 
 force which burst through all the limits within winch 
 ignorance and fear had hitherto circumscribed the 
 activity of the human race. Almost fifty years were 
 employed by the Portuguese in creeping along the 
 coast of Africa from Cape Non to Cape cle Verd, tho 
 latter of which lies only twelve degrees to the south 
 of the former. In loss than thirty years they ventured 
 beyond the equinoctual line into another hemisphere, 
 and penetrated to the southern extremity of Africa, at 
 the distance of forty-nine degrees from Cape de Verd. 
 During the last seven years of the century, a New 
 World was discovered in the west, not inferior in 
 extent to all the parts of the earth with which mankind 
 were at that time acquainted. In the east, unknown 
 seas and countries were found out, and a communi- 
 cation, long desired, but hitherto concealed, was 
 opened between Europe and the opulent regions of 
 India. In comparison with events so wonderful and 
 unexpected, all that had hitherto boon deemed great 
 or splended faded away and disappeared. Vast 
 objects now presented themselves. The human mind, 
 roused and interested by the prospect, engaged with 
 ardour in pursuit of them, and exerted its active 
 powers in a new direction. 
 
 This spirit of enterprise, though but newly awakened 
 in Spain, began soon to operate extensively. All the 
 attempts towards discovery made in that kingdom had 
 hitheito been carried on by Columbus alone, and at 
 the expeiice of the sovereign. But now private ad- 
 venturers, allured by tho magnificent descriptions he 
 gave of the regions which he had visited, as well as by 
 the specimens of their wealth which he produced, 
 offered to fit out squadrons at their own risk, and to 
 go in quest of new countries. The Spanish court, 
 whose scanty revenues were exhausted by the charge 
 of its expedition to the New World, which, though 
 they opened alluring prospects of future benefit, 
 yielded a very sparing return of present profit, was 
 extremely willing to devolve the burthen of discovery 
 upon its subjects. It sei/ed with joy an opportunity 
 of rendering the avarice, tho ingenuity, and efforts of 
 projectors, instrumental in promoting designs of cer- 
 tain advantage to the public, though of doubtful 
 success with respect to themselves. One of the first 
 propositions of this kind was made by Alonso de 
 Ojeda, a gallant and active officer, Avho had accompa- 
 nied Columbus in his second voyage. His rank and 
 character procured him such credit with the merchants 
 of Seville, that they undertook to equip four ships, 
 provided he could obtain the royal licence, authorizing 
 the voyage. The powerful patronage of the bishop 
 of Badajns easily secured success in a suit so agree- 
 able to the court. Without consulting Columbus, or 
 regarding the rights and jurisdiction which he had 
 acquired by the capitulation in one thousand four 
 hundred and ninety-two, Ojeda was permitted to set 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 out for the Now World. In order to direct his course, 
 the bishop communicated to him the admiral's journal 
 of his last voyace, and his charts of the countries 
 which lie had discovered. Ojeda struck out into no 
 new path of navigation [May], but adhering servilely 
 to the route which Columbus had taken, arrived on 
 the coast of Paria. He traded with the natives, and 
 standing to the west, proceeded as far as Cape do 
 Vela, and ranged along a considerable extent of coast 
 beyond that on which Columbus had touched. Having 
 thus ascertained the opinion of Columbus [October], 
 that this country was a part of the continent, Ojeda 
 returned by way of Hispaniola to Spain, with some 
 reputation as a discoverer, but with little benef.t to 
 those who had raised the funds for the expedition. 
 
 Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine gentleman, accom- 
 panied Ojeda in this voyage. In what station he 
 served is uncertain ; but as he was an experienced 
 sailor, and eminently skilful in all the sciences sub- 
 servient to navigation, he seems to have acquired such 
 authority among his companions, that they willingly 
 allowed him to have a chief share in directing their 
 operations during the voyage. Soon after his return, 
 lie transmitted an account of his adventures and dis- 
 coveries to one of his countrymen ; and labouring with 
 the vanity of a traveller to magnify his own exploits, 
 h>> had the address and confidence to frame his narra- 
 tive, so as to make it appear that he had the glory of 
 having first discovered the continent in the New 
 Wor.'d. Amerigo's account was drawn up not only 
 with art, but with some elegance. It contained an 
 amusing history of his voyage, and judicious observa- 
 tions upon the natural productions, the inhabitants, 
 and the custom of the countries which he had visited. 
 As it was the first description of any part of the New 
 World, that wai published, a performance so well 
 calculated to gratify the passion of mankind for what 
 is new and marvellous, circulated rapidly, and was 
 read with admiration. The country of which Amerigo 
 was supposed to be the discoverer, came gradually to 
 be called by his name. The caprice of mankind, often 
 as unaccountable as unjust, has perpetuated this 
 error. By the universal consent of nations, America 
 is the name bestowed on this new quarter of the globe. 
 The bold pretensions of a fortunate impostor have 
 robbed the discoverer of the New World of a distinc- 
 tion which belonged to him. The name of Amerigo 
 has supplanted that of Columbus ; and mankind may 
 regret an act of injustice, which having received the 
 sanction of time, it is now too late to redress [22]. 
 
 During the same year, another voyage of discovery 
 was undertaken. Columbus not only introduced the 
 spirit of naval enterprise into Spain, but all the first 
 adventurers who distinguished themselves in this 
 new career, were formed by his instructions, and 
 acquired in his voyages the skill and information 
 which qualified them to imitate his example. Alonso 
 Nigno who had served under the admiral in his last 
 expedition, fitted out a single ship, in conjunction 
 with Christopher Guerra, a merchant of Seville, and 
 sailed to the coast of Paria. This voyage seems to 
 have been conducted with greater attention to private 
 emolument, than to any general or national object. 
 Nigno and Guerra made no discoveries of any import- 
 ance ; but they brought home such a return of gold 
 and pearls, as inflamed their countrymen with the 
 desire of engaging in similar adventures. 
 
 [A. D. 1500, JAN. 13.] Soon after, Vincent Yanez 
 Pinzon, one of the admiral's companions in his first 
 voyage, sailed from Palos with four ships. He stood 
 boldly towards the south, and was the first Spaniard 
 who ventured to cross the equinoctial lijac J but he 
 
 seems to have landed on no part of the coast beyond 
 the mouth of the Maragnon, or river of the Amazons. 
 AH these navigators adopted the erroneous theory of 
 Columbus, and believed that the countries which 
 they had discovered were part of the vast continent 
 of India. 
 
 During the last year of the fifteenth century, that 
 fertile district of America, on the confines of which 
 Pinzon had stopped short, was more fully discovered. 
 The successful voyage of Gama to the East Indies 
 having encouraged the king of Portugal to fit out a 
 lleet so powerful, as not only to carry on trade, but 
 to attempt conquest, he gave the command of it to 
 Pedro Alvarez Cabral. In order to avoid the coast 
 of Africa, where he was certain of meeting with vari- 
 able breezes, or frequent calms, which might retard 
 his voyage, Cabral stood out to sea, and kept so far 
 to the west, that, to his surprise, he found himself 
 upon the shore of an unknown country, in the tenth 
 degree beyond the line. He imagined at first that it 
 was some island in the Atlantic ocean, hitherto 
 unobserved; but proceeiing along its coasts for seve.al 
 days, he was led gradually to believe, that a country 
 so extensive formed a part of some great continent. 
 This hitter opinion was well founded. The country 
 with which he fell in belongs tb that province in 
 South America, now known by the name of Brazil. 
 lie landed ; and having formed a very high idea of 
 the fertility of the soil, and agreeableness of the 
 climate, lie took possession of it for the crown of 
 Portugal, and dispatched a ship to Lisbon with an 
 account of this event, which appeared to be no less 
 important than it was unexpected. Columbus's 
 discovery of the New World was the eflbrt of an 
 active genius, enlightened by science, guided by 
 experience, and acting upon a regular plan, executed 
 with no less courage than perseverance. But from 
 this adventure of the Portuguese, it appears that 
 chance might have accomplished that great design 
 which is now the pride of human reason to have 
 formed and perfected. If the sagacity of Columbus 
 had not conducted mankind to America, Cabral, by a 
 fortunate accident, might have led them, a few years 
 later, to the knowledge of that extensive continent. 
 
 While the Spaniards and Portuguese, by those 
 successive voyages, were daily acquiring more en- 
 larged ideas of the extent and opulence of that quarter 
 of the globe which Columbus had made known to 
 them, he himself, far from enjoying the tranquillity 
 and honours with which his services should have 
 been recompensed, was struggling with every distress 
 in which the envy and malevolence of the people 
 under his command or the ingratitude of the court 
 which he served, could involve him. Though the 
 pacification with Roldan broke the union and weak- 
 ened the force of the mutineers, it did not extirpate 
 the seeds of discord out of the island. Several of the 
 malcontents continued in arms, refusing to submit to 
 the Admiral. He and his brothers were obliged to 
 take the field alternately, in order to check their 
 incursions, or to punish their crimes. The perpetual 
 occupation and disquiet which this created, prevented 
 him from giving due attention to the dangerous 
 machinations of his enemies in the court of Spain. 
 A good number of such as were most dissatisfied 
 with his administration, had embraced the opportu- 
 nity of returning to Europe with the ships which he 
 despatched from St. Domingo. The final disappoint- 
 ment of all their hopes inflamed the rage of these 
 unfortunate adventurers against Columbus to the 
 utmost pitch. Their poverty and distress, by exciting 
 compassion, rendered their accusations credible, aw* 
 
40 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 their complaints interesting. They teased Ferdinand 
 and Isabella incessantly with memorials, containing 
 the detail of their own grievances, and the articles of 
 their charge against Columbus. Whenever either the 
 king or queen appeared in public, they surrounded 
 them in a tumultuary manner, insisting with impor- 
 tunate clamours for the payment of the arrears due 
 to them, and demanding vengeance upon the author 
 of their sufferings. They insulted the admiral's sons 
 wherever they met them, reproaching them as the 
 offspring of the projector, whose fatal curiosity had 
 discovered those pernicious regions which drained 
 Spain of its wealth, and would prove the grave of its 
 people. These avowed endeavours of the malcontents 
 from America to ruin Columbus, were seconded by 
 the secret but more dangerous insinuations of that 
 party among the courtiers which had always thwarted 
 his schemes and envied his success and credit. 
 
 Ferdinand was disposed to listen.not only with a will- 
 ing but with a partial ear, to these accusations. Notwith- 
 standing the flattering accounts which Columbus had 
 given of the riches of America, the remittances from it 
 had hitherto been so scanty, that they fell far short of 
 defraying the expence of the armaments fitted out. 
 The glory of the discovery, together with the prospect 
 of remote commercial advantages, was all that Spain 
 had yet received in return for the efforts she had 
 made. But time had already diminished the first 
 sensations of joy which the discovery of a New World 
 occasioned, and fame alone was not an object to satisfy 
 the cold interested mind of Ferdinand. The nature 
 of commerce was then so little understood, that where 
 immediate gain was not acquired, the hope of distant 
 benefit, or of slow and moderate returns, was totally 
 disregarded. Ferdinand considered Spain, on this 
 account, as having lost by the enterprise of Columbus, 
 and imputed it to his misconduct and incapacity for 
 government, that a country abounding in gold had 
 yielded nothing of value to its conquerors. Even 
 Isabella, who from the favorable opinion which she 
 entertained of Columbus, had uniformly protected 
 him, was shaken at length by the number and boldness 
 of his accusers, and began to suspect that a disaffec- 
 tion so general must have been occasioned by real 
 grievances, which called for redress. The Bishop of 
 Badajos, with his usual animosity against Columbus, 
 encouraged these suspicions and confirmed them. 
 
 As soon as the queen began to give way to the 
 torrent of calumny, a resolution fatal to Columbus 
 was taken. Francis de Bovadilla, a knight of Cala- 
 trava, was appointed to repair to Hispaniola, with 
 full powers to inquire into the conduct of Columbus, 
 and if he should find the charge of mal-administration 
 proved, to supersede him, and assume the government 
 of the island. It was impossible to escape condem- 
 nation, when this preposterous commission made it 
 the interest of the judge to pronounce the person 
 whom he was sent to try, guilty. Though Columbus 
 had now composed all the dissensions in the island ; 
 though he had brought both Spaniards and Indians 
 to submit peaceably to his government ; though he 
 had made such effectual provision for working the 
 mines, and cultivating the country, as would have 
 secured a considerable revenue to the king, as well 
 as large profits to individuals, Bovadilla, without 
 deigning to attend to the nature or merit of those 
 services, discovered, from the moment that he landed 
 in Hispaniola, a determined purpose of treating him 
 as a criminal, He took possession of the admiral's 
 house in St. Domingo, from which its master happened 
 at that time to be absent, and seized his effects, as if 
 his guilt had been, already fully proved ; he rendered- 
 
 himself master of the fort and of the king's stores by 
 violence ; he required all persons to acknowledge him 
 as supreme governor ; he set at liberty the prisoners 
 confined by the admiral ; and summoned him to appear 
 before his tribunal, in order to answer for his con- 
 duct ; transmitting to him, together with the summons, 
 a copy of the royal mandate, by which Columbus was 
 enjoined to yield implicit obedience to his commands. 
 
 [October.] Columbus, though deeply affected with 
 the ingratitude and injustice of Ferdinand and Isabella, 
 did not hesitate a moment about his own conduct. 
 He submitted to the will of his sovereigns with a 
 respectful silence, and repaired directly to the court 
 of that violent and partial judge whom they had au- 
 thorized to try him. Bovadilla, without admitting 
 him into his presence, ordered him instantly to b 
 arrested, to be loaded with chains, and hurried on 
 board a ship. Even under this humiliating reverse 
 of fortune, the firmness of mind which distinguishes 
 the character of Columbus did not forsake him. 
 Conscious of his own integrity, and solacing himself 
 with reflecting upon the great things which he had 
 achieved, he endured this insult offered to his cha- 
 racter, not only with composure, but with dignity. 
 Nor had he the consolation of sympathy to mitigate 
 his sufferings. Bovadilla had already rendered him- 
 self so extremely popular, by granting various immu- 
 nities to the colony, by liberal donations of Indians 
 to all who applied for them, and by relaxing the reins 
 of discipline and government, that the Spaniaids, 
 who were mostly adventurers, whom their indigence 
 or crimes had compelled to abandon their native 
 country, expressed the most indecent satisfaction 
 with the disgrace and imprisonment of Columbus. 
 They flattered themselves, that now they should/enjoy 
 an uncontrolled liberty, more suitable to their dispo- 
 sition and former habits of life. Among persons thus 
 prepared to censure the proceedings and to asperse 
 the character of Columbus, Bovadilla collected 
 materials for a charge against him. All accusa- 
 tions, the most improbable, as well as inconsistent, 
 were received. No informer, however infamous, was 
 rejected. The result of this inquest, no less indecent 
 than partial, he transmitted to Spain. At the same 
 time, he ordered Columbus, with his two brothers, 
 to be carried thither in fetters ; and, adding cruelty 
 to insult, he confined them in different ships, and 
 excluded them from the comfort of that friendly 
 intercourse which might have soothed their common 
 distress. But while the Spaniards in Hispaniola 
 viewed the arbitrary and insolent proceedings of 
 Bovadilla with a general approbation, which reflects 
 dishonour upon their name and country, one man 
 still retained a proper sense of the great actions which 
 Columbus had performed, and was touched with the 
 sentiments of veneration and pity due to his rank, 
 his age, and his merit. Alonzo de Valejo, the captain 
 of the vessel on board which the admiral was confined, 
 as soon as he was clear of the island, approached 
 his prisoner with great respect, and offered to release 
 him from the fetters with which he was unjustly 
 loaded. " No," replied Columbus, with a generous 
 indignation, " I wear these irons in consequence of 
 an order from my sovereigns. They shall find me as 
 obedient to this as to their other injunctions. By 
 their command I have been confined, and their com- 
 mand alone shall set me at liberty." 
 
 [November 23.] Fortunately, the voyage to Spain 
 was extremely short. As soon as Ferdinand and 
 Isabella were informed that Columbus was brought 
 home a prisoner, and in chains, they perceived at 
 once what universal astonishment this event must 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 41 
 
 occasion, and what an impression to their disadvan- 
 tage it must make. All Europe, they foresaw, would 
 be filled with indignation at this ungenerous requital 
 of a man who had performed actions worthy of the 
 highest recompence, and would exclaim against the 
 injustice of the nation, to which he had been such 
 an eminent benefactor, a-s we'll as against the ingra- 
 titude of the princes whose reign he had rendered 
 illustrious. Ashamed of their own conduct, and eager 
 not only to make some reparation for this injury, 
 but to efface the stain which it might fix upon their 
 character, they instantly issued orders to set Columbus 
 at liberty [December 17], invited him to court, and 
 remitted money to enable him to appear there in a 
 manner suitable to his rank. When he entered the 
 royal presence, Columbus threw himself at the feet 
 of his Sovereigns. He remained for some time silent ; 
 the various passions which agitated his mind sup- 
 pressing his power of utterance. At length he recovered 
 himself, and vindicated his conduct in a long dis- 
 course, producing the most satisfying proofs of his 
 own integrity as well as good intention, and evidence, 
 no less clear, of the malevolence of his enemies, who, 
 not satisfied with having ruined his fortune, laboured 
 to deprive him of what alone was now left, his honour 
 and his fame. Ferdinand received him with decent 
 civility, and Isabella with tenderness and respect. They 
 both expressed their sorrow for what had happened, 
 disavowed their knowledge of it, and joined in promis- 
 ing him protection and future favor. But though they 
 instantly degraded Bovadilla, in order to remove from 
 themselves any suspicion of having authorized his 
 violent proceedings, they did not restore to Columbus 
 his jurisdiction and privileges as viceroy of those 
 countries which he had discovered. Though willing 
 to appear the avengers of Columbus's wrongs, that 
 illiberal jealousy which prompted them to invest 
 Bovadilla with such authority as put it in his power 
 to treat the admiral with indignity, still subsisted. 
 They were afraid to trust a man to whom they had 
 been so highly indebted, and retaining him at couit 
 under various pretexts, thejr appointed Nicholas de 
 Ovando, a knight of the military order of Alcantara, 
 governor of Hispaniola. 
 
 Columbus was deeply affected with this new injury, 
 which came from hands that seemed to be employed 
 in making reparation for his past sufferings. The 
 sensibility with which great minds feel every thing 
 that implies any suspicion of their integrity, or that 
 wears the aspect of an affront, is exquisite. Colum- 
 bus had experienced both from the Spaniards ; and 
 their ungenerous conduct exasperated him to such a 
 degree, that he could no longer conceal the sentiments 
 which it excited. Wherever he went he carried 
 about with him, as a memorial of their ingratitude, 
 those fetters with which he had been loaded. They 
 were constantly hung up in his chamber, and he 
 gave orders, that when he died they should be buried 
 in his grave. 
 
 [A. D. 1501.] Meanwhile, the spirit of discovery, 
 notwithstanding the severe check which it had receiv- 
 ed by the ungenerous treatment of the man who first 
 excited it in Spain, continued active and vigorous. 
 Roderigo de Bastidas, a person of distinction, fitted 
 out two ships [January] in copartnery with John de 
 la Cosa, who having served under the Admiral in two 
 of his voyages, was deemed the most skilful pilot in 
 Spain. They steered directly towards the continent, 
 arrived on the coast of Paria, and proceeding to the 
 west, discovered all the coast of the province now 
 known by the name of Tierra Firme, from Cape de 
 Vela to the gulf of Darien. Not long after, Ojeda, 
 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA, No, . 
 
 with his former associate, Amerigo Vespucci, set out 
 upon a second voyage, and being unacquainted with 
 the destination of Bastidas, held the same course, 
 and touched at the same places. The voyage of Bas- 
 tidas was prosperous and lucrative, that of Ojeda un- 
 fortunate. But both tended to increase the ardour of 
 discovery ; for in proportion as the Spaniards acquired 
 a more extensive knowledge of the American conti- 
 nent, their idea of its opulence and fertility increased. 
 
 Before these adventurers returned from their 
 voyages, a fleet was equipped, at the public expense, 
 for carrying over Ovando, the new governor, to 
 Hispaniola. His presence there was extremely 
 requisite, in order to stop the inconsiderate career of 
 Bovadilla, whose imprudent administration threatened 
 the settlement with ruin. Conscious of the violence 
 and iniquity of his proceedings against Columbus, he 
 continued to make it his sole object to gain the favour 
 and support of his countrymen, by accommodating 
 himself to their passions and prejudices. With this 
 view, he established regulations in every point the 
 reverse of those which Columbus deemed essential to 
 the prosperity of the colony. Instead of the severe 
 discipline, necessary in order to habituate the disso- 
 lute and corrupted members of which the society was 
 composed, to the restraints of law and subordination, 
 he suffered them to enjoy such uncontrolled license, 
 as encouraged the wildest excesses. Instead of 
 protecting the Indians, he gave a legal sanction to the 
 oppression of that unhappy people. He took the 
 exact number of such as survived their past calamities, 
 divided them into distinct classes, distributed them 
 in property among his adherents, and reduced all the 
 people of the island to a state of complete servitude. 
 As the avarice of the Spaniards was too rapacious 
 and impatient to try any method of acquiring wealth 
 but that of searching for gold, this servitude became 
 as grievous as it was unjust. The Indians were 
 driven in crowds to the mountains, and compelled to 
 work in the mines, by masters who imposed their 
 tasks without mercy or discretion. Labour so dis- 
 proportioned to their strength and former habits of 
 life, wasted that feeble race of men with such rapid 
 consumption, as must have soon terminated in the 
 utter extinction of the ancient inhabitants of the 
 country. 
 
 The necessity of applying a speedy remedy to those 
 disorders, hastened Ovando's departure. He had the 
 command of the most respectable armament hitherto 
 fitted out for the New World. It consisted of thirty- 
 two ships, on board of which two thousand five hun- 
 dred persons embarked, with an intention of settling 
 in the country. Upon the arrival of the new governor 
 with this powerful reinforcement to the colony, 
 Bovadilla, resigned his charge, and was commanded 
 to return instantly to Spain, in order to answer for 
 his conduct. Roldan, and the other ringleaders of 
 the mutineers, who had been most active in opposing 
 Columbus, were required to leave the island at the 
 same time. A proclamation was issued, declaring 
 the natives to be free subjects of Spain, of whom no 
 service was to be exacted contrary to their own incli- 
 nation, and without paying them an adequate price 
 for their labour. With respect to the Spaniards them- 
 selves, various regulations were made, tending to- 
 suppress the licentious spirit which had been so fatal 
 to the colony, and to establish that reverence for law 
 and order on which society is founded, and to which it 
 is indebted for its increase and stability. In order to 
 limit the exorbitant gain which private persons were 
 supposed to make by working the mines, an ordinance 
 
 was published, directing all the gold, tq be brought to 
 G 
 
42 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 a public smelting-house, and declaring one half of it 
 to be the property of the crown. 
 
 While these steps were taking for securing the 
 tranquillity and welfare of the colony which Columbus 
 had planted, he himself was engaged in the unpleasant 
 employment of soliciting the favour of an ungrateful 
 court, and notwithstanding all his merit and services 
 he solicited in vain. He demanded, in terms of the 
 original capitulation in one thousand four hundred 
 and ninety-two, to be reinstated in his office of 
 viceroy over the countries which he had discovered. 
 By a strange fatality, the circumstance whicli 
 he urged in support of his claim, determined a 
 jealous monarch to reject it. The greatness of his 
 il-scoveries, and the prospect of their increasing value, 
 made Ferdinand consider the concessions in the capi- 
 tulation as extravagant and impolitic. He was afraid 
 of intrusting a subject with the exercise of a juris- 
 diction that now appeared to be so extremely exten- 
 sive, and might grow to be no less formidable. He 
 inspired Isabella with the same suspicions ; and under 
 various pretexts, equally frivolous and unjust, they 
 eluded all Columbus's requisitions to perform that 
 which a solemn compact bound them to accomplish. 
 After attending the court of Spain for near two years, 
 as an humble suitor, he found it impossible to 
 remove Ferdinand's prejudices and apprehensions ; 
 and perceived, at length, that he laboured in vain, 
 when he urged a claim of justice or merit with an 
 interested and unfeeling prince. 
 
 But even this ungenerous return did not discourage 
 him from pursuing the great object which first called 
 forth his inventive genius, and excited him to attempt 
 discovery. To open a new passage to the East Indies, 
 was his original and favourite scheme. This still 
 engrossed his thoughts ; and either from his own 
 observations in his voyage to Paria, or from some 
 obscure hint of the natives, or from the accounts given 
 "by Bastidas and De la Cosa of their expedition, he 
 conceived an opinion that, beyond the continent of 
 America, there was a sea which extended to the 
 East Indies, and hoped to find some strait or 
 narrow neck of land, by which a communication might 
 he opened with it and the part of the ocean already 
 known. By a very fortunate conjecture, he supposed 
 this strait or isthmus to be situated near the gulf of 
 Darien. Full of this idea, though he was now of an 
 advanced age, worn out with fatigue, and broken with 
 infirmities, he offered, with the alacrity of a youthful 
 adventurer, to undertake a voyage which would 
 ascertain this important point, and perfect the grand 
 scheme which from the beginning he proposed to 
 accomplish. Several circumstances concurred in 
 disposing Ferdinand and Isabella to lend a favourable 
 ear to this proposal. They were glad to have the 
 pretext of any honourable employment for removing 
 from court a man with whose demands they deemed 
 it impolitic to comply, and whose services it was 
 indecent to neglect. Though unwilling to reward 
 Columbus, they were not insensible of his merit, and 
 from their experience of his skill and conduct, had 
 reason to give credit to his conjectures, and to confide 
 in his success. To these considerations, a third must 
 be added of still more powerful influence. About 
 this time the Portuguese fleet, under Cabral, arrived 
 from the Indies ; and, by the richness of its cargo, 
 gave the people of Europe a more perfect idea than 
 they had hitherto been able to form, of the opulence 
 and fertility of the East. The Portuguese had been 
 more fortunate in their discoveries than the Spaniards. 
 They had opened a communication with countries 
 where industry, arts, and elegance flourished ; and, 
 
 where commerce had been longer established, and 
 carried to a greater extent, than in any region of tin- 
 earth. Their first voyages thither yielded immediate 
 as well as vast returns of profit, in commodities 
 extremely precious and in great request. Lisbon 
 became immediately the seat of commerce and wealth ; 
 while Spain had only the expectation of remote 
 benefit, and of future gain, from the western world. 
 Nothing, then, could be more acceptable to the 
 Spaniards than Columbus's offer to conduct them to 
 the East, by a route which Ke expected to be shorter, 
 as well as less dangerous, than that which the Portu- 
 guese had taken. Even Ferdinand was roused by 
 such a prospect, and warmly approved of the under- 
 taking. 
 
 But interesting as the object of this voyage was to 
 the nation, Columbus could only procure four small 
 barks, the largest of which did not exceed seventy 
 tons in burden, for performing it. Accustomed to 
 brave danger, and to engage in arduous undertakings 
 with inadequate force, he did not hesitate to accept 
 the command of this pitiful squadron. His brother 
 Bartholomew, and his second son Ferdinand, the 
 historian of his actions, accompanied him. He sailed 
 from Cadiz on the ninth of May, and touched, as 
 usual, at the Canary islands ; from thence he pro- 
 posed to have stood directly for the continent ; but 
 his largest vessel was so clumsy and unfit for service, 
 as constrained him to bear away for Hispaniola, in 
 hopes of exchanging her for some ship of the fleet 
 that had carried out Ovando. When he arrived at 
 St. Domingo (June 29), he found eighteen of these 
 ships ready loaded, and on the point of departing for 
 Spain. Columbus immediately acquainted the gover- 
 nor with the destination of his voyage, and the 
 accident which had obliged him to alter his route. 
 He requested permission to enter the harbour, not 
 only that he might negociate the exchange of his 
 ship, but that he might take shelter during a violent 
 hurricane, of which he discerned the approach from 
 various prognostics, which his experience and sagacity 
 had taught him to observe. On that account, he 
 advised him likewise to put off for some days the 
 departure of the fleet bound for Spain. But Ovando 
 refused his request, and despised his counsel. Under 
 circumstances in which humanity would have afforded 
 refuge to a stranger, Columbus was denied admittance 
 into a country of which he had discovered the exist- 
 ence and acquired the possession. His salutary 
 warning, which merited the greatest attention, was 
 regarded as the dream of a visionary prophet, who 
 arrogantly pretended to predict an event beyond the 
 reach of human foresight. The fleet set sail for 
 Spain. Next night the hurricane came on with 
 dreadful impetuosity. Columbus, aware of the 
 danger, took precautions against it, and saved his 
 little squadron. The fleet destined for Spain met 
 with the fate which the rashness and obstinacy of its 
 commanders deserved. Of eighteen ships, two or 
 three only escaped. In this general wreck perished 
 Bovadilla, Roldan, and the greater part of those who 
 hadbeen the most activein persecuting Columbus, and 
 oppressing the Indians, Together with themselves, 
 all the wealth which they had acquired by their 
 injustice and cruelty was swallowed up. It exceeded 
 in value two hundred thousand pesos; an immense 
 sum at that period, and sufficient not only to have 
 screened them from any severe scrutiny into their 
 conduct, hut to have secured them a gracious recep- 
 tion in the Spanish court. Among the ships that 
 escaped, one had on board all the effects of Columbus 
 which .had been recovered from the ruins of his 
 
THE' HISTORY OP AMERICA. ' 
 
 fortune. Historians, struck with the exact discrimi- 
 nation of characters, as well as the just distribution 
 of rewards and punishments, conspicuous in those 
 events, universally attributed them to an immediate 
 interposition of Divine Providence, in order to avenge 
 the wrongs of an injured man, and to punish the 
 oppressors of an innocent people. Upon the ignorant 
 and superstitious race of men, who were witnesses of 
 this occurrence, it made a different impression. From 
 an opinion which vulgar admiration is apt to enter- 
 tain with respect to persons who have distinguished 
 themselves by their sagacity and inventions, they 
 believed Columbus to be possessed of supernatural 
 powers, and imagined that he had conjured up this 
 dreadful storm by magical art and incantations, in 
 order to be avenged of his enemies. [July 14.] 
 Columbus soon left Hispaniola, where he met with 
 such an inhospitable reception, and stood towards 
 the continent. After a tedious and dangerous voyage, 
 he discovered Guanaia, an island not far distant from 
 the coast of Honduras. There he had an interview 
 with some inhabitants of the continent, who arrived 
 in a large canoe. They appeared to be a people more 
 civilized, and who had made greater progress in the 
 knowledge of useful arts, than any whom he had 
 hitherto discovered. In return to the inquiries which 
 the Spaniards made, with their usual eagerness, con- 
 cerning the places where the Indians got the gold 
 which they Avore by way of ornament, they directed 
 them to countries situated to the west, in which 
 gold was found in such profusion, that it was applied 
 to the most common uses. Instead of steering in 
 quest of a country so inviting, which would have 
 conducted him along the coast of Yucatan to the rich 
 empire of Mexico, Columbus was so bent upon his 
 favourite scheme of finding out the strait which he 
 supposed to communicate with the Indian ocean, that 
 he bore away to the east, towards the gulf of Darien. 
 In this navigation he discovered all the coast of the 
 continent, from Cape Gracias a Dios, to a harbour 
 which, on account of its beauty and security, he 
 called Porto Bello. He searched in vain for the 
 imaginary strait, through which he expected to make 
 his way into an unknown sea ; and though he went 
 on shore several times, and advanced into the country, 
 he did not penetrate so far as to cross the narrow 
 isthmus which separates the gulf of Mexico from the 
 great southern ocean. He was so much delighted, 
 however, with the fertility of the country, end con- 
 ceived such an idea of its wealth, from the specimens 
 of gold produced by the natives, that he resolved to 
 leave a small colony upon the river Belen [A. D. 1503], 
 in the province of Veragua, under the command of 
 his brother, and to return himself to Spain, in order 
 to procure what was requisite for rendering the 
 establishment permanent. But the ungovernable 
 spirit of the people under his command, deprived 
 Columbus of the glory of planting the first colony on 
 the continent of America. Their insolence and 
 rapaciousness provoked the natives to take arms, and 
 as these were a more hardy and warlike race of men 
 than the inhabitants of the islands, they cut off part 
 of the Spaniards, and obliged the rest to abandon a 
 station which was found to be untenable. 
 
 This repulse, the first that the Spaniards met with 
 from any of the American nations, was not the only 
 misfoitune that befell Columbtis ; it was followed by 
 a succession of all the disasters to which navigation 
 is exposed. Furious hurricanes, with violent storms 
 of thunder and lightning, threatened his leaky vessels 
 with destruction ; while his discontented crew, 
 exhausted with fatigue, and destitute of provisions, 
 
 was unwilling or unable to execute his commands. 
 One of his ships perished ; he was obliged to abandon 
 another, as unfit for service; and with the two which 
 remained, he quitted that part of the continent, 
 which in his anguish he named the Coast of Vexation, 
 and bore away for Hispaniola. New distresses 
 awaited him in this voyage. He was driven back by 
 a violent tempest from the coast of Cuba, his ships 
 fell foul of one another, and were so much shattered 
 by the shock, that with the utmost difficulty they 
 reached Jamaica [June 24]. where he was obliged to 
 run them aground, to prevent them from sinking. 
 The measure of his calamities seemed now to be full. 
 He was cast ashore upon an island at a considerable 
 distance from the only settlement of the Spaniards in 
 America. His ships were ruined beyond the possi- 
 bility of being repaired. To convey an account of 
 his situation to Hispaniola, appeared impracticable; 
 and without this it was vain to expect relief. His 
 genius, fertile in resources, and most vigorous in those 
 perilous extremities, when feeble minds abandon 
 themselves to despair, discovered the only expedient 
 which afforded any prospect of deliverance. He had 
 recourse to the hospitable kindness of the natives, 
 who, considering the Spaniards as beings of a supe- 
 rior nature, were eager, on every occasion, to minister 
 to their wants. From them he obtained two of their 
 canoes, each formed out of the trunk of a single 
 tree hollowed with fire, and so mis-shapen and 
 awkward as hardly to merit the name of boats. In 
 these, which were fit only for creeping along the 
 coast, or crossing from one side of a bay to another, 
 Mendez, a Spaniard, and Fieschi, a Genoese, two 
 gentlemen particularly attached to Columbus, gallantly 
 offered to set out for Hispaniola, upon a voyage of 
 above thirty leagues. This they accomplished in ten 
 days, after surmounting incredible dangers, and 
 enduring such fatigues that several of the Indians 
 who accompanied them sunk under it, and died. The 
 attention paid to them by the governor of Hispaniola 
 was neither such as thoir courage merited, nor the 
 distress of the persons from whom they came 
 required. Ovando, from a mean jealousy of Colum- 
 bus, was afraid of allowing him to set foot in the 
 island under his government. This ungenerous 
 passion hardened his heart against every tender sen- 
 timent, which reflection upon the services and mis- 
 fortunes of that great man, or compassion for his own 
 fellow-citizens involved in the same calamities, must 
 have excited. Mendez and Fieschi spent eight months 
 in soliciting relief for their commander and associates, 
 without any prospect of obtaining it. 
 
 During this period, various passions agitated the 
 mind of Columbus and his companions in adversity. 
 At first the expectation of speedy deliverance, from 
 the success of Mendez and Fieschi's voyage, cheered 
 the spirits of the most desponding. [A. D. 1504.] After 
 some time the most timorous began to suspect that 
 they had miscarried in their daring attempt. At 
 length, even the most sanguine concluded that they 
 had perished. The ray of hope which had broken in 
 upon them, made their condition appear now moro 
 dismal. Despair, heightened by disappointment, 
 settled in every breast. Their last resource had failed, 
 and nothing remained but the prospect of ending 
 their miserable days among naked savages, far from 
 their country and their friends. The ssamen, in a 
 transport of rage, rose in open mutiny, threatened the 
 life of Columbus, whom they reproached as the author 
 of all their calamities, seized ten canoes, which he 
 had purchased from the Indians, and, despising his 
 remonstrances and entreaties, made off with them to 
 
44 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 a distant part of the island. At the same time the 
 natives murmured at the long residence of the 
 Spaniards in thoir country. As their industry was 
 not greater than that of their neighbours in Hispaniola, 
 like them they found the burden of supporting so 
 many strangers to be altogether intolerable. They 
 began to bring in provisions with reluctance, they 
 furnished them with a sparing hand, and threatened 
 to withdraw those supplies altogether. Such a reso- 
 lution must have been quickly fatal to the Spaniards. 
 Their safety depended upon the good-will of the 
 Indians ; and unless they could revive the admiration 
 and reverence with which that simple people had at 
 first beheld them, destruction was unavoidable. 
 Though the licentious proceedings of the mutineers 
 had, in a great measure, effaced those impressions 
 which had been so favourable to the Spaniards, the 
 ingenuity of Columbus suggested a happy artifice, 
 that not only restored but heightened the high opinion 
 which the Indians had originally entertained of them. 
 By his skill in astronomy he knew that there was 
 shortly to be a total eclipse of the moon. He 
 assembled all the principal persons of the district 
 around him on the day before it happened, and, after 
 reproaching them for their fickleness in withdrawing 
 their affection and assistance from men whom they 
 had lately revered, he told them, that the Spaniards 
 were servants of the Great Spirit who dwells in 
 heaven, who made and governs the world ; that he, 
 offended at their refusing to support men who were 
 the objects of his peculiar favour, was preparing to 
 punish this crime with exemplary severity, and that 
 very night the moon should withhold her light, and 
 appear of a bloody hue, as a sign of the divine wrath, 
 and an emblem of the vengeance ready to fall upon 
 them. To this marvellous prediction some of them 
 listened with the careless indifference peculiar to the 
 people of America ; others, with the credulous asto- 
 nishment natural to barbarians. But when the 
 moon began gradually to be darkened, and at length 
 appeared of a red colour s all were struck with terror. 
 They ran with consternation to their houses, and 
 returning instantly to Columbus loaded with provi- 
 sions, threw them at his feet, conjuring him to inter- 
 cede with the Great Spirit to avert the destruction 
 with which they were threatened. Columbus, seeming 
 to be moved by their entreaties, promised to comply 
 with their desire. The eclipse went off, the moon 
 recovered its splendour, and from that day the 
 Spaniards were not only furnished profusely with 
 provisions, but the natives, with superstitious atten- 
 tion, avoided every thing that could give them 
 offence. 
 
 During those transactions, the mutineers had made 
 repeated attempts to pass over to Hispaniola in the 
 canoes which they had seized. But from their own 
 misconduct, or the violence of the winds and currents, 
 their efforts were all unsuccessful. Enraged at this 
 disappointment, they marched towards that part of 
 the island where Columbus remained, threatening him 
 with new insults and danger. While they were 
 advancing, an event happened, more cruel and afflicting 
 than any calamity which he dreaded from them. The 
 governor of Hispaniola, whose mind was still filled 
 with some dark suspicions of Columbus, sent a small 
 bark to Jamaica, not to deliver his distressed coun- 
 trymen, but to spy out their condition. Lest the 
 sympathy of those whom he employed should afford 
 them relief, contrary to his intention, he gnve the 
 command of this vessel to Escobar, an inveterate 
 enemy of Columbus, who, adhering to his instructions 
 with malignant accuracy, cast anchor at some distance 
 
 from the island, approached the shore in a small boat, 
 observed the wretched plight of the Spaniards, deli- 
 vered a letter of empty compliments to the admiral, 
 received his answer, and depai tod. When the Spaniards 
 first descried the vessel standing towards the island 
 every heart exulted, as if the long-expected hour of 
 their deliverance had at length arrived; but when it 
 disappeared so suddenly, they sunk into tho deepest 
 dejection, and all their hopes died away. Columbus 
 alone, though he felt most sensibly this wanton insult 
 which Ovando added to his past neglect, retained 
 such composure of mind as to be able to cheer his 
 followers. He assured them, thatMendez and Fieschi 
 had reached Hispaniola in safety ; that they would 
 speedily procure ships to carry them off; but, us 
 Escobar's vessel could not take them all on board, 
 that he had refused to go with her, because he was 
 determined never to abandon the faithful companion* 
 of his distress. Soothed with the expectation of 
 speedy deliverance, and delighted with his apparent 
 generosity in attending more to their preservation 
 than to his own safety, their spirits revived, and he 
 regained their confidence. 
 
 Without this confidence he could not have resisted 
 the mutineers, who were now at hand. All his 
 endeavours to reclaim those desperate men had no 
 effect but to increase their phrenzy. Their demands 
 became every day more extravagant, and their inten- 
 tions more violent and bloody. The common safety 
 rendered it necessary to oppose them with open force. 
 Columbus, who had been Jong afflicted with the gout, 
 could not take the field. His brother, the adelantado, 
 marched against them. [May 20.] They quickly met. 
 The mutineers rejected with scorn terms of accomo- 
 dation, which were once more offered them, and 
 rushed on boldly to the attack. They fell not upon 
 an enemy unprepared to receive them. In the first 
 shock several of their most daring leaders were slain. 
 The adelantado, whose strength was equal to his 
 courage, closed with their captain, wounded, dis- 
 armed, and took him prisoner. At sight of this, the 
 rest fled with a dastardly fear suitable to their former 
 insolence. Soon after, they submitted in a body to 
 Columbus, and bound themselves by the most solemn 
 oaths to obey all his commands. Hardly was tran- 
 quillity re-established, when the ships appeared 
 whose arrival Columbus had promised with great 
 address, though he could foresee it with little cer- 
 tainty. With transports of joy, the Spaniards quitted 
 an island in which the unfeeling jealousy of Orando 
 had suffered them to lauguish above a year, exposed 
 to misery in all its various forms. 
 
 When they arrived at St. Domingo, the governor, 
 with the mean artifice of a vulgar mind, that labours 
 to atone for insolence by servility, fawned on the man 
 whom he envied, and had attempted to ruin. He 
 received Columbus with the most studied respect, 
 lodged him in his own house, and distinguished him 
 with every mark of honour. But amidst those over- 
 acted demonstrations of regard, he could not conceal 
 the hatred and malignity latent in his heart. He set 
 at liberty the captain of the mutineers, whom Co- 
 lumbus had brought over in chains, to be tried for 
 his crimes ; and threatened such as had adhered to 
 the admiral with proceeding to a judicial inquiry into 
 their conduct. Columbus submitted in silence to 
 what he could not redress ; but discovered an extreme 
 impatience to quit a country which was under the 
 jurisdiction of a man who had treated him, on every 
 occasion, with inhumanity and injustice. 
 
 [September 12.] His preparations were soon 
 finished, and he set sail for Spain with two ships. 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 45 
 
 Disasters similar to those which had accompanied him 
 through life continued to pursue him to the end of 
 his career. One of his vessels being disabled, was 
 soon forced back to St. Domingo; the other, shattered 
 by violent storms, sailed seven hundred leagues with 
 jury-masts [December], and reached with difficulty 
 the port of St. Lucar. 
 
 There he received the account of an event [Nov. 9.] 
 the most fatal that could have befallen him, and which 
 completed his misfortunes. This was the death of 
 his patroness queen Isabella, in whose justice, hu- 
 manity, and favour, he confided as his last resource. 
 None now remained to redress his wrongs, or to reward 
 him for his services and sufferings, but Ferdinand, 
 who had so long opposed and so often injured him. 
 To solicit a prince thus prejudiced against him, was 
 an occupation no less irksome than hopeless. In 
 this, however, was Columbus doomed to employ the 
 close of his days. As soon as his health was in some 
 degree re-established, he repaired to court ; and 
 though he was received there with civility barely 
 decent, he plied Ferdinand with petition after petition, 
 demanding the punishment of his oppressors, and 
 the restitution of all the privileges bestowed upon 
 him by the capitulation of one thousand four hundred 
 and ninety-two. Ferdinand amused him with fair 
 words and unmeaning promises. Instead of granting 
 his claims, he opposed expedients in order to elude 
 them, and spun out the affair with such apparent art, 
 as plainly discovered his intention that it should never 
 be terminated. The declining health of Columbus 
 flattered Ferdinand with the hopes of being soon 
 delivered from an importunate suitor, and encouraged 
 him to persevere in this illiberal plan. Nor was he 
 deceived in his expectations. Disgusted with the 
 ingratitude of a monarch whom he had served with 
 such fidelity and success, exhausted with the fatigues 
 and hardships which he had endured, and broken 
 with the infirmities which these had brought upon 
 him, Columbus ended his life at Valladolid on the 
 twentieth of May, one thousand five hundred and six, 
 in the fifty-ninth year of his age. He died with a 
 composure of mind suitable to the magnanimity which 
 distinguished his character, and with sentiments of 
 piety becoming that supreme respect for religion, 
 which he had manifested in every occurrence of his life. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 WHILE Columbus was employed in his last voyage, 
 several events worthy of notice happened in His- 
 paniola. The colony there, the parent and nurse of 
 all the subsequent establishments of Spain in the 
 New World, gradually acquired the form of a regular 
 and prosperous society. The humane solicitude of 
 Isabella to protect the Indians from oppression, and 
 particularly the proclamation by which the Spaniards 
 were prohibited to compel them to work, retarded, 
 it is true, for some time the progress of improvement. 
 The natives, who considered exemption from toil as 
 supreme felicity, scorned every allurement and reward 
 by which they were invited to labour. The Spaniards 
 had not a sufficient number of hands either to work 
 the mines or to cultivate the soil. Several of the first 
 colonists, who had been accustomed to the service of 
 the Indians, quitted the island, when deprived of 
 those instruments without which they knew not how 
 to carry on any operation. Many of the new settlers 
 who came over with Ovando, were sei/ed with the 
 distempers peculiar to the climate, and in a short 
 space above a thousand of them died. At the same 
 time, the exacting one half of the product of the 
 
 mines as the royal share, was found to be a demand 
 so exorbitant, that no adventurers would engage to 
 work them upon such terms. In order to save the 
 colony from ruin, Ovando ventured to relax the rigour 
 of the royal edicts. [A. D. 1505.] He made a new 
 distribution of the Indians among the Spaniards, and 
 compelled them to labour, for a stated time, in 
 digging the mines, or in cultivating the ground ; but 
 in order to screen himself from the imputation of 
 having subjected them again to servitude, he enjoined 
 their masters to pay them a certain sum, as the price 
 of their work. He reduced the royal share of the 
 gold found in the mines from the half to the third 
 part, and soon after lowered it to a fifth, at which it 
 long remained. Notwithstanding Isabella's tender 
 concern for the good treatment of the Indians, and 
 Ferdinand's eagerness to improve the royal revenue, 
 Ovando persuaded the court to approve of both these 
 regulations. 
 
 But the Indians, after enjoying respite from 
 oppression, though during a short interval, now felt 
 the yoke of bondage to be so galling, that they made 
 several attempts to vindicate their own liberty. This 
 the Spaniards considered as rebellion, and took arms 
 in order to reduce them to subjection. When war is 
 carried on between nations whos'e state of improve- 
 ment is in any degree similar, the means of defence 
 bear some proportion to those employed in the attack ; 
 and in this equal contest such efforts must be made, 
 such talents are displayed, and such passions roused, 
 as exhibit mankind to view in a situation no less 
 striking than interesting. It is one of the noblest 
 functions of history, to observe and to delineate men 
 at a juncture when their minds are most violently 
 agitated, and all their powers and passions are called 
 forth. Hence the operations of war, and the struggles 
 between contending states, have been deemed by 
 historians, ancient as well as modern, a capital and 
 important article in the annals of human actions. 
 But in a contest between naked savages, and one of 
 the most warlike of the European nations, where 
 science, courage and discipline on one side, were 
 opposed by ignorance, timidity, and disorder on the 
 other, a particular detail of events would be as 
 unpleasant !as uninstructive. If the simplicity and 
 innocence of the Indians had inspired the Spaniards 
 with humanity, had softened the pride of superiority 
 into compassion, and had induced them to improve 
 the inhabitants of the New World, instead of 
 oppressing them, some sudden acts of violence, like 
 the too rigorous chastisements of impatient instruc- 
 tors, might have been related without horror. But, 
 unfortunately, this consciousness of superiority 
 operated in a different manner. The Spaniards were 
 advanced so far beyond the natives of America in 
 improvement of every kind, that they viewed them 
 with contempt. They conceived the Americans to 
 be animals of an inferior nature, who were not entitled 
 to the rights and privileges of men. In peace, they 
 subjected them to servitude. In war, they paid no 
 regard to those hftvs, which, by a tacit convention 
 between contending nations, regulate hostility, and 
 set some bounds to its rage. They considered them 
 not as men fighting in defence of their liberty, but as 
 slaves who had revolted against their masters. The 
 caziques, when taken, were condemned, like the 
 leaders of banditti, to the most cruel and ignominious 
 punishments ; and all their subjects, without regard- 
 ing the distinction of ranks established among them, 
 were reduced to the same state of abject slavery. 
 With such a spirit and sentiments were hostilities 
 carried on against the cazique of Higuey, a province 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 at tho eastern extremity of the island. This war was 
 occasioned by the perfidy of the Spaniards, in violat- 
 ing a treaty which they had made with the natives, 
 and it was terminated by hanging up the cazique, 
 who defended his people with bravery so far superior 
 to that of his countrymen, as entitled him to a better 
 fate. 
 
 The conduct of Ovando, in another part of the 
 island, was still more treacherous and cruel. The 
 province anciently named Xaragua, which extends 
 from the fertile plain where Leogane is now situated, 
 to the western extremity of the island, was subject 
 to a female cazique, named Anacoana, highly 
 respected by the natives. She, from that partial 
 fondness with which the women of America were 
 attached to the Europeans, (the cause of which shall 
 be afterwards explained,) had always courted the 
 friendship of the Spaniards, and loaded them with 
 benefits. But some of the adherents of Roldan 
 having settled in her country, were so much exaspe- 
 rated at her endeavouring to restrain their excesses, 
 that they accused her of having formed a plan to throw 
 off the yoke, and to exterminate the Spaniards. Ovando, 
 though he knew well what little credit was due to 
 such profligate men, marched, without further 
 inquiry, towards Xaragua, with three hundred foot 
 and seventy horsemen. To prevent the Indians from 
 taking alarm at this hostile appearance, he gave out 
 that his sole intention was to visit Anacoana, to 
 whom his countrymen had been so much indebted, 
 in the most respectful manner, and to regulate with 
 her the mode of levying the tribute payable to the 
 King of Spain. Anacoana, in order to receive this 
 illustrious guest with due honour, assembled the 
 principal men in her dominions, to the number of 
 three hundred, and advancing at the head of these, 
 accompanied by a great crowd of persons of inferior 
 rank, she welcomed Ovando with songs and dances, 
 according to the mode of the country, and conducted 
 him to the place of her residence. There he was 
 feasted for some days, with all the kindness of simple 
 hospitality, and amused with the games and spec- 
 tacles usual among the Americans upon occasions of 
 mirth and festivity. But amidst the security which 
 this inspired, Ovando was meditating the destruc- 
 tion of his unsuspicious entertainer and her subjects ; 
 and the mean perfidy with which he executed this 
 scheme, equalled his barbarity in forming it. Under 
 colour of exhibiting to the Indians the parade of 
 an European tournament, he advanced with histroops 
 in battle array, towards the house in which Anacoana 
 and the chiefs who attended her, were assembled. 
 The infantry took possession of all the avenues which 
 led to the village. The horsemen encompassed the 
 house. These movements were the object of admira- 
 tion without any mixture of fear, until, upon a signal 
 which had been concerted, the Spaniards suddenly 
 drew their swords, and rushed upon the Iudhns, 
 defenceless and astonished at an act of treachery 
 which exceeded the conception of undesigning men. 
 In a moment Anacoana was secured. All her at- 
 tendants were seized and bound. Fire was set to 
 the house ; and without examination or conviction, 
 all these unhappy persons, the most illustrious in 
 their own country, were consumed in the flames. 
 Anacoana was reserved for a more ignominious fate. 
 She was ca ried in chains to St. Domingo, and, after 
 the formality of a trial before Spanish judges, she 
 was condemned, upon the evidence of those very men 
 who had betrayed her, to be publicly hanged. 
 
 Overawed and humbled by this atrocious treatment 
 of their princes and nobles, who were objects of their 
 
 highest reverence, the people in all the provinces of 
 Hispaniola submitted, without further resistance, to 
 the Spanish yoke. Upon the death of Isabella, all the 
 regulations tending to mitigate the rigour of their 
 servitude were forgotten. The small gratuity paid to 
 them as the price of their labour was withdrawn, and 
 at the same time the tasks imposed upon them were 
 increased [A. D. 1506]. Ovando, without any re- 
 straint, distributed Indians among his friends in the 
 island. Ferdinand, to whom the queen had left by 
 will one half of the revenue arising from the settle- 
 ments in the New World, conferred grants of a similar 
 nature upon his courtiers, as the least expensive 
 mode of rewarding their services. They farmed out 
 the Indians, of whom they were rendered proprietors, 
 to their countrymen settled in Hispaniola ; and that 
 wretched people, being compelled to labour in order 
 to satisfy the rapacity of both, the exactions of their 
 oppressors no longer knew any bounds. But, barba- 
 rous as their policy was, and fatal to the inhabitants 
 of Hispaniola, it produced, for some time, very con- 
 siderable effects. By calling forth the force of a 
 whole nation, and exerting it in one direction, the 
 working of the mines was carried on with amazing 
 rapidity and success. During several years, the gold 
 brought into the royal smelting-house in Hispaniola 
 amounted annually to four hundred and sixty thousand, 
 pesos, above a hundred thousand pounds sterling ; 
 which, if we attend to the great change in the value 
 of money since the beginning of the sixteenth century 
 to the present times, must appear a considerable sum. 
 Vast fortunes were created, of a sudden, by some. 
 Others dissipated, in ostentatious profusion, what 
 they acquired with facility. Dazzled by both, new 
 adventurers crowded to America, with the most eager 
 impatience to share in those treasures which had 
 enriched their countrymen ; and, notwithstanding the 
 mortality occasioned by the unhealthiness of the 
 climate, the colony continued to increase. 
 
 Ovando governed the Spaniards with wisdom aud 
 justice not inferior to the rigour with which he treated 
 the Indians. He established equal laws ; and, by 
 executing them with impartality, accustomed the 
 people of the colony to reverence them. He founded 
 several new towns in different parts of the island, and 
 allured inhabitants to them, by the concession of 
 various immunities. He endeavoured to turn the 
 attention of the Spaniards to some branch of industry 
 more useful than that of searching for gold in the 
 mines. Some slips of the sugar-cane having been 
 brought from the Canary Islands by way of experi- 
 ment, they were found to thrive with such increase 
 in the rich soil and warm climate to which they were 
 transplanted, that the cultivation of them soon became 
 an object of commerce. Extensive plantations were 
 begun ; sugar-works, which the Spaniards called 
 ingenios, from the various machinery employed in 
 them, were erected, and in a few years the manufac- 
 ture of this commodity was the great occupation of 
 the" inhabitants of Hispaniola, and the most consider- 
 able source of their wealth. 
 
 The prudent endeavours of Ovando to promote the 
 welfare of the colony were powerfully seconded by 
 Ferdinand. The large remittances which he received 
 from the New World opened his eyes, at length, with 
 respect to the importance of those discoveries, which 
 he had hitherto affected to undervalue. Fortune, and 
 his own address, having now extricated himout of those 
 difficulties in which he had been involved by the death 
 of his queen [A. D. 1507], and by his disputes with 
 his son-in-law about the government of her dominions, 
 he had full leisure to turn his attention to the affairs 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 47 
 
 of America. To his provident sagacity, Spain is 
 indebted for many of those regulations which gradually 
 formed that system of profound but jealous policy, by 
 which she governs her dominions in the New World. 
 He erected a court distinguished by the title of the 
 Casa de Contratacion, or Board of Trade, composed 
 of persons eminent for rank and abilities, to whom he 
 committed the administration of American affairs. 
 This board assembled regularly in Seville, and was 
 invested with a distinct, and extensive jurisdiction. 
 He gave a regular form to ecclesiastical government 
 in America, by nominating archbishops, bishops, 
 deans, together with clergymen of subordinate ranks, 
 to take charge of the Spaniards established there, as 
 well as of the natives who should embrace the Christian 
 faith. But notwithstanding the obsequious devotion 
 of the Spanish court to the papal see, such was 
 Ferdinand's solicitude to prevent any foreign power 
 from claiming jurisdiction or acquiring influence in 
 his new dominions, that he reserved to the crown of 
 Spain the sole right of patronage to the benefices in 
 America, and stipulated that no papal bull or mandate 
 should be promulgated there, until it was previously- 
 examined and approved of by his council. With the 
 same spirit of jealousy, he prohibited any goods to 
 be exported to America, or any person to settle there, 
 without a special licence from that council. 
 
 But, notwithstanding this attention to the police 
 and welfare of the colony, a calamity impended which 
 threatened its dissolution. The original inhabitants, 
 on whose labour the Spaniards in Hisponiola depended 
 for their prosperity, and even their existence, wasted 
 so fast, that the extinction of the whole race seemed 
 to be inevitable. When Columbus discovered Hispa- 
 niola, the number of its inhabitants were computed to 
 le at least a million. They were now reduced to 
 sixty thousand in the space of fifteen years. This 
 consumption of the human species, no less amazing 
 than rapid, was the effect of several concurring causes. 
 The natives of the American islands were of a more 
 feeble constitution than the inhabitants of the other 
 hemisphere. They could neither perform the same 
 work, nor endure the same fatigue, with men whose 
 organs were of a more vigorous conformation. The 
 .listless indolence in which they delighted to pass their 
 days, as it was the effect of their debility, contributed 
 likewise to increase it, and rendered them, from habit 
 as well as constitution, incapable of hard labour. The 
 food on which they subsisted afforded little nourish- 
 ment, and they were accustomed to take it in small 
 quantities not sufficient to invigorate a languid frame, 
 and render it equal to the efforts of active industry. 
 The Spaniards, without attending to those peculiarities 
 in the constitution of the Americans, imposed tasks 
 upon them, which, though not greater than Europeans 
 might have performed with ease, were so, dispropor- 
 tioned to their strength, that many sunk uoder the 
 fatigue, and ended their wretched days. Others, 
 prompted by impatience and despair, cut short their 
 own lives with a violent hand. Famine, brought on 
 by compelling such numbers to abandon the culture 
 of their lauds, in order to labour in the mines, proved 
 fatal to many. Diseases of various kinds, some occa- 
 sioned by the hardships to which they were exposed, 
 and others by their intercourse with the Europeans 
 who communicated to them some of their peculiar 
 maladies, completed the desolation of the island. The 
 Spaniards, being thus deprived of the instruments 
 which they were accustomed to employ, found it 
 impossible to extend their improvements, or even to 
 carry on the works which they had already begun. 
 [A.D, 1508.] In order to provide an immediate remedy 
 
 for an evil so alarming, Ovando proposed to transport 
 the inhabitants of the Lucayo islands to Hispaniola, 
 under pretence that they might be civilized with more 
 facility, and instructed to greater advantage in the 
 Christian religion, if they were united to the Spanish 
 colony, and placed under the immediate inspection of 
 the missionaries settled there. Ferdinand, deceived 
 by this artifice, or willing to connive at an act of. 
 violence which policy represented as necessary, gave 
 his assent to the proposal. Several vessels were fitted 
 out for the Lucayos, the commanders of which in- 
 formed the natives, with whose language they were 
 now well acquainted, that they came from a delicious 
 country, in which the departed ancestors of the Indians 
 resided, by whom they were sent to invite their de- 
 scendants to resort thither, to partake of the bliss 
 enjoyed there by happy spirits. That simple people 
 listened with wonder and credulity ; and fond of 
 visiting their relations and friends in that happy 
 region, followed the Spaniards with eagerness. By 
 this artifice, above forty thousand were decoyed into 
 Hispaniola, to share in the sufferings which were the 
 lot of the inhabitants of that island, and to mingle 
 their groans and tears with those of that wretched 
 race of men. 
 
 The Spaniards had, for some time, carried on their 
 operations in the mines of Hispaniola with such 
 ardour, as well as success, that these seemed to have 
 engrossed their whole attention. The spirit of dis- 
 covery languished ; and, since the last voyage of 
 Columbus, no enterprise of any moment had been 
 undertaken. But as the decrease of the Indians 
 rendered it impossible to acquire wealth in that 
 island with the same rapidity as formerly, this urged 
 some of the more adventurous Spaniards to search 
 for new countries, where their avarice might be 
 gratified with more facility. Juan Ponce de Leon, 
 who commanded under Ovando in the eastern district 
 of Hispaniola, passed over to the island of St. Juan 
 de Puerto Rico, which Columbus had discovered in 
 his second voyage, and penetrated into the interior 
 part of the country. As he found the soil to be 
 fertile and expected, from some symptoms, as well 
 as from the information of the inhabitants, to dis- 
 cover mines of gold in the mountains, Ovando per- 
 mitted him to attempt making a settlement in the 
 island. This was easily effected by an officer emi- 
 nent for conduct no less than for courage. In a few 
 years Puerto Rico was subjected to the Spanish 
 government, the natives were reduced to servitude ; 
 and, being treated with the same inconsiderate 
 rigour as their neighbours in Hispaniola, the race of 
 original inhabitants, worn out with fatigue and 
 sufferings, was soon exterminated. 
 
 About the same time, Juan Diaz de Solis, in 
 conjunction with Vincent Yanez Pinzon, one of Co- 
 lumbus's original companions, made a voyage to the 
 continent. They held the same course which Co- 
 lumbus had taken, as far as to the island of 
 Guanaios ; but, standing from thence to the west, 
 they discovered a new and extensive province, 
 afterwards known by the name of Yucatan, and pro- 
 ceeded a considerable way along the coast of that 
 country. Though nothing memorable occurred in 
 this voyage, it deserves notice, because it led to dis- 
 coveries of greater importance. From the same 
 reason, the voyage of Sebastian de Ocampo must be 
 mentioned. By the command of Ovando, he sailed 
 round Cuba, and first discovered with certainty that 
 this country, which Columbus once supposed to be a 
 part of the continent, was a large island. 
 
 This voyage round Cuba was one of the last 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 occurrences under the administration of Ovando. Ever 
 since the deatli of Columbus, his son Don Diego had 
 been employed in soliciting Ferdinand to grant him 
 the offices of viceroy and admiral in the New World, 
 together with all the immunities and profits which 
 descended to him by inheritance, in consequence of 
 the original capitulation with his father. But if these 
 dignities and revenues appeared so considerable to 
 Ferdinand, that, at the expense of being deemed 
 unjust as well as ungrateful, he had wrested them 
 from Columbus, it is not surprising that he should 
 be unwilling to confer them on his son. Accordingly, 
 Don Diego wasted two years in incessant but fruit- 
 less importunity. Weary of this, he endeavoured at 
 length to obtain, by a legal sentence, what he could 
 not procure from the favour of an interested mo- 
 narch. He commenced a suit against Ferdinand 
 before the council which managed Indian affairs, and 
 that court, with integrity which, reflects honour upon 
 its proceedings, decided against the king, and sus- 
 tained Don Diego's claim of the viceroyalty, together 
 with all the other privileges stipulated in the capitu- 
 lation. Eren after this decree, Ferdinand's repug- 
 nance to put a subject in possession of such extensive 
 rights, might have thrown in new obstacles, if Don 
 Diego had not taken a step which interested very 
 powerful persons in the success of his claims. The 
 sentence of the council of the Indies gave him a title 
 to a rank so elevated, and a fortune so opulent, that 
 he found no difficulty in concluding a marriage with 
 Donna Maria, daughter of Don Ferdinand de Toledo, 
 great commendator of Leon, and brother of the Duke 
 of Alva, a nobleman of the first rank, and nearly re- 
 lated to the king. The Duke and his family espoused 
 so warmly the cause of their new ally, that Ferdinand 
 could not resist their solicitations. He recalled 
 Ovando, [A. D. 1509,] and appointed Don Diego his 
 successor, though, even in conferring this favour, he 
 could not conceal his jealousy; for he allowed him 
 to assume only the title of governor, not that of 
 viceroy, which had been adjudged to belong to him. 
 Don Diego quickly repaired to Hispaniola, attended 
 by his brother, his uncles, his wife, whom the courtesy 
 of the Spaniards honoured with the title of vice- 
 queen, and a numerous retinue of persons of both 
 sexes, born of good families. He lived with a splen- 
 dour and magnificence hitherto unknown in the New 
 World ; and the family of Columbus seemed now to 
 enjoy the honours and rewards due to his inventive 
 genius, of which he himself had been cruelly de- 
 frauded. The colony itself acquired new lustre by 
 the accession of so many inhabitants of a different 
 rank and character from most of those who had 
 hitherto migrated to America, and many of the most 
 illustrious families in the Spanish settlements are 
 descended from the persons who at that time accom- 
 panied Don Diego Columbus. 
 
 No benefits accrued to the unhappy natives from 
 this change of governors. Don Diego was not only 
 authorized by a royal edict to continue the reparti- 
 mientos, or distribution of Indians, but the particular 
 number which he might grant to every person, ac- 
 cording to his rank in the colony, was specified. He 
 availed himself of that permission, and soon after he 
 landed at St. Domingo, he divided such Indians as 
 were still unappropriated, among his relations and 
 attendants. 
 
 The next care of the new governor was to comply 
 with an instruction which he received from the king, 
 about settling a colony in Cubagua, a small island 
 which Columbus had discovered in his third voyage. 
 Though this barren spot hardly yielded subsistence 
 
 to its wretched inhabitants, such quantities of those 
 oysters which produce pearls were found on its 
 coast, that it did not long escape the inquisitive 
 avarice of the Spaniards, and became a place of con- 
 siderable resort. Large fortunes were acquired by 
 the fishery of pearls, which was carried on with ex- 
 traordinary ardour. The Indians, especially those 
 from the Lucayo islands, were compelled to dive for 
 them ; and this dangerous and unhealthy employment 
 was an additional calamity, which contributed not a 
 little to the extinction of that devoted race. 
 
 About this period, Juan Diaz de Solis and Pinzon 
 set out, in conjunction, upon a second voyage. They 
 stood directly south, towards the equinoctial line, 
 which Pinzon had formerly crossed, and advanced as 
 far as the fortieth degree of southern latitude. They 
 were astonished to find that the continent of America 
 stretched on their right hand, through all this vast 
 extent of ocean. They landed in different places, 
 to take possession in name of their sovereign ; but 
 though the country appeared to be extremely fertile 
 and inviting, their force was so small, having been 
 fitted out rather for discovery than making settle- 
 ments, that they left no colony behind them. Their 
 voyage served, however, to give the Spaniards more 
 exalted and adequate ideas with respect to the di- 
 mensions of this new quarter of the globe. 
 
 Though it was about ten years since Columbus 
 had discovered the main land of America, the Spani- 
 ards had hitherto made no settlement in any part of 
 it. What had been so long neglected was now seri- 
 ously attempted, and with considerable vigour; 
 though the plan for this purpose was neither formed, 
 by the crown, nor executed at the expense of the 
 nation, but carried on by the enterprising spirit of 
 private adventurers. This scheme took its rise from 
 Alonso de Ojeda, who had already made two voyages 
 as a discoverer, by which he acquired considerable 
 reputation, but no wealth. But his character for 
 intrepidity and conduct easily procured him associ- 
 ates, who advanced the money requisite to defray the 
 charges of the expedition. About the same time, 
 Diego de Nicuessa, who had acquired a large fortune 
 in Hispaniola, formed a similar design. Ferdinand 
 encouraged both ; and though he refused to advance 
 the smallest sum, was extremely liberal of titles and 
 patents. He erected two governments on the con- 
 tinent, one extending from Cape de Vela to the Gulf 
 of Darien, and the other from that to Cape Gracias a 
 Dios. The former was given to Ojeda, the latter to 
 Nicuessa. Ojeda fitted out a ship and two brigan- 
 tines, with three hundred men ; Nicuessa, six vessels, 
 with seven hundred and eighty men. They sailed 
 about the same time from St. Domingo for their 
 respective governments. In order to give their title 
 to those countries some appearance of validity, several 
 of the most eminent divines and lawyers in Spain were 
 employed to prescribe the mode in which they should 
 take possession of them. There is not in the history 
 of mankind any thing more singular or extravagant 
 than the form which they devised for this purpose. 
 They instructed those invaders, as soon as they 
 landed on the continent, to declare to the natives 
 the principle articles of the Christian faith ; to ac- 
 quaint them in particular, with the supreme juris- 
 diction of the pope over all the kingdoms of the 
 earth ; to inform them of the grant which this holy 
 pontiff had made of their country to the king of 
 Spain ; to require them to embrace the doctrines of 
 that religion which the Spaniards made known to 
 them ; and to snbmit to the sovereign whose autho- 
 rity they proclaimed. If the natives refused to 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 c omply with this i equisition, the terms of which 
 must have been utterly incomprehensible to unin- 
 structed Indians, then Ojeda and Nicuessa were 
 authorized to attack them with fire and sword ; to 
 reduce them, their wives and children, to a state of 
 servitude ; and to compel them by force to recognise 
 the jurisdiction of the Church, and the authority of 
 the Monarch, to which they would not voluntarily 
 subject themselves (23). 
 
 As the inhabitants of the Continent could not at 
 once yield assent to doctrines too refined for their 
 uncultivated understandings, and explained to them 
 by interpreters imperfectly acquainted with their 
 language ; as they did not conceive how a foreign 
 priest, of whbm they had never heard, could have 
 any right to dispose of their country, or how an 
 unknown prince should claim jurisdiction over them 
 as his subjects; they fiercely opposed the new 
 invaders of their territories. Ojeda and Nicuessa 
 endeavoured to effect by force what they could not 
 accomplish by persuasion. The contemporary writers 
 enter into a very minute detail in relating their 
 transactions ; but as they made no discovery of im- 
 portance, nor established any permanent settlement, 
 their adventures are not entitled to any considerable 
 place in the general history of a period, where 
 romantic valour, struggling with incredible hardships, 
 distinguishes every effort of the Spanish arms. They 
 found the natives in those countries of which they 
 went to assume the government, to be of a character 
 very different from that of their countrymen in the 
 islands. They were fierce and warlike. Their 
 arrows were dipped in a poison so noxious, that every 
 wound was followed with certain death. In one 
 encounter they slew about seventy of Ojeda's fol- 
 lowers, and the Spaniards, for the first time, were 
 taught to dread the inhabitants of the New World. 
 Nicuessa was opposed by people equally resolute in 
 defence of their possessions. Nothing could soften 
 their ferocity. Though the Spaniards employed 
 every art to soothe them, and to gain their confidence, 
 they refused to hold any intercourse, or to exchange 
 any friendly office, with men whose residence among 
 them they considered as fatal to their liberty and 
 independence [A. D. 1510]. This implacable enmity 
 of the natives, though it rendered an attempt to 
 establish a settlement in their country extremely 
 difficult as well as dangerous, might have been 
 surmounted at length by the perseverance of the 
 Spaniards, by the superiority of their arms, and their 
 skill in the art of war. But every disaster which can 
 be accumulated upon the unfortunate, combined to 
 complete their ruin. The loss of their ships by 
 various accidents upon an unknown coast, the diseases 
 peculiar to a climate the most noxious in all America, 
 the want of provisions, unavoidable in a country 
 imperfectly cultivated, dissension among themselves, 
 and the incessant hostilities of the natives, involved 
 them in a succession of calamities, the bare recital of 
 which strikes one with horror. Though they received 
 two considerable reinforcements from Hispaniola, the 
 greater part of those who had engaged in this 
 unhappy expedition perished, in less than a year, in 
 the most extreme misery. A few who survived, 
 settled as a feeble colony at Santa Maria el Antigua, 
 on the gulf of Darien, under the command of Vasco 
 Nugnez de Balboa, who, in the most desperate exi- 
 gences, displayed such courage and conduct, as first 
 gained the confidence of his countrymen, and marked 
 him out as their leader in more splendid and successful 
 undertakings. Nor was he the only adventurer in 
 this expedition who will appear with lustre in more 
 
 HISTORY o? AMERICA, No, 7 
 
 important scenes. Francisco Pizarro was one of 
 Ojeda's companions, and in this school of adversity 
 acquired or improved the talents which fitted him for 
 the extraordinary actions which he afterwards per- 
 formed. Hernan Cortes, whose name became still 
 more famous, had likewise engaged early in this 
 enterprise, which roused all the active youth of 
 Hispaniola to arms ; but the good fortune that 
 accompanied him in his subsequent adventures, in- 
 terposed to save him from the disasters to which his 
 companions were exposed. He was taken ill at St. 
 Domingo before the departure of the fleet, and 
 detained there by a tedious indisposition. 
 
 Notwithstanding the unfortunate issue of this 
 expedition, the Spaniards were not deterred from 
 engaging in new schemes of a similar nature. When, 
 wealth is acquired gradually by the persevering hand 
 of industry, or accumulated by the slow operations 
 of regular commerce, the means employed are so 
 proportioned to the end attained, that there is 
 nothing to strike the imagination, and little to urge* 
 on the active powers of the mind to uncommoa 
 efforts. But when large fortunes were created 
 almost instantaneously ; when gold and pearls were 
 procured in exchange for baubles ; when the countries 
 which produced these rich commodities, defended 
 only by naked savages, might be seized by the first 
 bold invader; objects so singular and alluring; 
 roused a wonderful spirit of enterprise among the 
 Spaniards, who rushed with ardour into this new 
 path that was opened to wealth and distinction. 
 While this spirit continued warm and vigorous, 
 every attempt either towards discovery or conquest 
 was applauded, and adventurers engaged in it with 
 emulation. The passion for new undertakings, which 
 characterizes the age of discovery in the latter part, 
 of the fifteenth and begirming of the sixteenth 
 century, would alone have been sufficient to prevent 
 the Spaniards from stopping short in their career. 
 But circumstances peculiar to Hispaniola, at this, 
 juncture, concurred with it in extending their navi- 
 gation ani conquests. The rigorous treatment of 
 the inhabitants of that island having almost extir- 
 pated the race, many of the Spanish planters, as I 
 have already observed, finding it impossible to carry 
 on their works with the same vigour and profit, were 
 obliged to look out for settlements in some country 
 where people were not yet wasted by oppression. 
 Others, with the inconsiderate levity natural to men, 
 upon whom wealth pours in with a sudden flow, had 
 squandered in thoughtless prodigality, what they 
 acquired with ease, and were driven by necessity to 
 embark in the most desperate schemes, in order to 
 retrieve their affairs [A. D. 1511]. From all these 
 causes, when Don Diego Columbus proposed to 
 conquer the island of Cuba, and to establish a colony- 
 there, many persons of chief distinction in Hispaniola 
 engaged with alacrity in the measure. He gave the 
 command of the troops destined for that service ta 
 Diego Velasquez, one of his father's companions in 
 his second voyage, and who, having been long settled: 
 in Hispaniola, had acquired an ample fortune, with 
 such reputation for probity and prudence, that he 
 seemed to be well qualified for conducting an expe- 
 dition of importance. Three hundred men were 
 deemed sufficient for the conquest of an island of 
 above seven hundred miles in length, and filled with 
 inhabitants. But they were of the same unwarlike 
 character with the people of Hispaniola. They were 
 not only intimidated by the appearance of their uewr 
 enemies, but unprepared to resist them. For though, 
 from the time that the Spaniards took possession of 
 H 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the adjacent island, there was reason to expect a 
 descent on their territories, none of the small com- 
 munities into which Cuba was divided, had either 
 made any provision for its own defence, or had 
 formed any concert for their common safety. The 
 only obstruction the Spaniards met with was from 
 Hatuey, a cazique, who had fled from Hispaniola, 
 and had taken possession of the eastern extremity 
 of Cuba. He stood upon the defensive at their first 
 landing, and endeavoured to drive them back to their 
 ships. His feeble troops, however, were soon broken 
 and dispersed ; and he himself being taken prisoner, 
 Velasquez, according to the barbarous maxim of the 
 Spaniards, considered him as a slave who had taken 
 arms against his master, and condemned him to the 
 flames. When Hatuey was fastened to the stake, a 
 Franciscan friar, labouring to convert him, promised 
 him immediate admittance into the joys of heaven, 
 if he would embrace the Christian faith. " Are 
 there any Spaniards," says he, after some pause, 
 " in that region of bliss which you describe?" 
 " Yes," replied the monk, " but only such as are 
 worthy and good." " The best of them," returned 
 the indignant cazique, " have neither worth nor 
 goodness : I will not go to a place where I may meet 
 with one of that accursed race." This dreadful 
 example of vengeance struck the people of Cuba 
 with such terror, that they scarcely gave any oppo- 
 sition to the progress of their invaders ; and Velas- 
 quez, without the loss of a man, annexed this 
 extensive and fertile island to the Spanish monarchy. 
 
 The facility with which this important conquest 
 was completed, served as an incitement to other 
 undertakings. Juan Ponce de Leon, having acquired 
 both fame and wealth by the reduction of Puerto 
 Rico, was impatient to engage in some new enterprise. 
 [A.D.1512.]Hefittedoutthreeships at hisown expense 
 for a voyage of discovery, and his reputation soon 
 drew together a respectable body of followers. He 
 directed his course towards the Lucayo Islands ; and 
 after touching at several of them, as well as the 
 Bahama Isles, he stood to the south-west, and 
 discovered a country hitherto unknown to the 
 Spaniards, which he called Florida, either because 
 he fell in with it on Palm Sunday, or on account of 
 its gay and beautiful appearance. He attempted to 
 land in different places, but met with such vigorous 
 opposition from the natives, who were fierce and 
 warlike, as convinced him that an increase of force 
 was requisite to effect a settlement. Satisfied with 
 having opened a communication with a new country, 
 of whose value and importance he conceived very 
 sanguine hopes, he returned to Puerto Rico, through 
 the channel now known by the name of the Gulf of 
 Florida. 
 
 It was not merely the passion of searching for 
 new countries that prompted Ponce de Leon to 
 undertake this voyage ; he was influenced by one of 
 those visionary ideas, which at that time often 
 mingled with the spirit of discovery, and rendered it 
 more active. A tradition prevailed among the 
 natives of Puerto Rico, that in the Isle of Bimini, 
 one of the Lucayos, there was a fountain of such 
 wonderful virtue as to renew the youth and recall 
 the vigour of every person who "bathed in its salutary 
 waters. In hopes of finding this grand restorative, 
 Ponce de Leon and his followers ranged through the 
 islands, searching, with fruitless solicitude and 
 labour, for the fountain which was the chief object 
 of their expedition. That a tale so fabulous should 
 gain credit among simple uninstructed Indians is 
 not surprising. That it should make any impression 
 
 upon an enlightened people, appears, in the present 
 age, altogether incredible. Tho fact, however, is 
 certain ; and the most authentic Spanish historians 
 mention this extravagant sally of their credulous 
 countrymen. The Spaniards, at that period, were 
 engaged in a career of activity which gave a romantic 
 turn to their imagination, and daily presented to 
 them strange and marvellous objects. A.New World 
 was opened to their view. They visited islands and 
 continents, of whose existence mankind in former 
 ages had no conception. In those delightful countries 
 nature seemed to assume another form : every tree 
 and plant and animal was different from those of the 
 ancient hemisphere. They seemed to be trans- 
 ported into enchanted ground ; and after the wonders 
 which they had seen, nothing, in the warmth and 
 novelty of their admiration, appeared to them so 
 extraordinary as to be beyond belief. If the rapid 
 succession of new and striking scenes made such 
 impression even upon the sound understanding of 
 Columbus, that he boasted of having found the seat 
 of Paradise, it will not appear strange that Ponce 
 de Leon should dream of discovering the fountain of 
 youth. 
 
 Soon after the expedition to Florida, a discovery 
 of much greater importance was made in another 
 part of America. Balboa having been raised to the 
 government of the small colony at Santa Maria in 
 Darien, by the voluntary suffrage of his associates, 
 was so extremely desirous to obtain from the Crown 
 a confirmation of their election, that he dispatched 
 one of his officers to Spain, in order to solicit a royal 
 commission, which might invest him with a legal 
 title to the supreme command. Conscious, however, 
 that he could not expect success from the patronage 
 of Ferdinand's ministers, with whom he was un- 
 connected, or from negociating in a court to the arts 
 of which he was a stranger, he endeavoured to 
 merit the dignity to which he aspired, and aimed at 
 performing some signal service that would secure 
 him the preference to every competitor. Full of this 
 idea he made frequent inroads into the adjacent 
 country, subdued several of the caziques, and col- 
 lected a considerable quantity of gold, which 
 abounded more in that part of the continent, than in 
 the islands. In one of those excursions, the Spaniards 
 contended with such eagerness about the division of 
 some gold, that they were at the point of proceeding 
 to acts of violence against one another. A young 
 cazique who was present, astonished at the high 
 value which they set upon a thing of which he did 
 not see the use, tumbled the gold out of the balance 
 with indignation ; and, turning to the Spaniards, 
 " Why do you quarrel (says he) about such a trifle? 
 If you are so passionately fond of gold, as to abandon 
 your own country, and to disturb the tranquillity of 
 distant nations for its sake, I will conduct you to a 
 region where the metal which seems to be the chief 
 object of your admiration and desire, is so common, 
 that the meanest utensils are formed of it." Trans- 
 ported with what they heard, Balboa and his com- 
 panions inquired eagerly where this happy country 
 la}', and how they might arrive at it. He informed 
 them that at the distance of six suns, that is, of six 
 days' journey, towards the south, they should dis- 
 cover another ocean, near to which this wealthy 
 kingdom was situated; but if they intended to attack 
 that powerful state, they must assemble forces far 
 superior in number and strength to those with which 
 they now appeared. 
 
 This was the first information which the Spaniards 
 received concerning the great southern ocean, or the 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 opulent and extensive country known afterwards by 
 the name of Peru. Balboa had now before him objects 
 suited to his boundless ambition, and the enterprising 
 ardour of his genius. He immediately concluded the 
 ocean which the cazique mentioned, to be that for 
 which Columbus had searched without success in 
 this part of America, in hopes of opening a more 
 direct communication with the East Indies ; and he 
 conjectured that the rich territory which had been 
 described to him, must be part of that vast and opu- 
 lent region of the earth. Elated with the idea of 
 performing what so great a man had attempted in 
 vain, and eagor to accomplish a discovery which he 
 knew would be no less acceptable to the king than 
 beneficial to his country, he was impatient until he 
 could set out upon this enterprise, in comparison of 
 which all his former exploits appeared inconsiderable. 
 But previous arrangement and preparation were 
 requisite to insure success. He began with courting 
 and securing the friendship of the neighbouring 
 caziques. He sent some of his officers to Hispaniola 
 with a large quantity of gold, as a proof of his past 
 success, and an earnest of his future hopes. By a 
 proper distribution of this, they secured the favour 
 of the governor, and allured volunteers into the 
 sen-ice. A considerable reinforcement from that island 
 joined him, and he thought himself in a condition to 
 attempt the discovery. 
 
 The isthmus .of Darien is not above sixty miles in 
 breadth; but this neck of land, which binds together 
 the continents of North and South America, is 
 strengthened by a chain of lofty mountains stretching 
 through its whole extent, which render it a barrier 
 of solidity sufficient to resist the impulse of two op- 
 posite oceans. The mountains are covered with forests 
 almost inaccessible. The valleys in that moist climate, 
 where it rains during two-thirds of the year, are 
 marshy, and so frequently overflowed, that the inha- 
 bitants find it necessary, in many places, to build their 
 houses upon trees, in order to be elevated at some 
 distance from the damp soil, and the odious reptiles 
 engendered in the putrid waters. Large rivers rush 
 down with an impetuous current from the high 
 grounds. In a region thinly inhabited by wandering 
 savages, the hand of industry had done nothing to 
 mitigate or correct those natural disadvantages. To 
 march across this unexplored country with no other 
 guides but Indians, whose fidelity could be little 
 trusted, was, on all those accounts, the boldest enter- 
 prise on which the Spaniards had hitherto ventured 
 in the New World. But the intrepidity of Balboa 
 was such as distinguished him among his countrymen, 
 at a period when every adventurer was conspicuous 
 for daring courage. [A. D. 1513.] Nor was bravery 
 his only merit ; he was prudent in conduct, gene- 
 rous, affable, and possessed of those popular talents 
 which, in the most desperate undertakings, inspire 
 confidence and secure attachment. Even after the 
 junction of the volunteers from Hispaniola, he was 
 able to muster only an hundred and ninety men for 
 his expedition. But they were hardy veterans, inured 
 to the climate of America, and ready to follow him 
 through every danger. A thousand Indians attended 
 them to carry their provisions ; and to complete their 
 warlike array, they took with them several of those 
 fierce dogs, which were no less formidable than de- 
 structive to their naked enemies. 
 
 Balboa set out upon this important expedition on 
 the first of September, about the time that the peri- 
 odical rains began to abate. He proceeded by sea, and 
 without any difficulty, to the territories of a cazique 
 whose friendship he had gained j but no sooner did 
 
 he begin to advance into the interior part of the 
 country, than he was retarded by every obstacle, 
 which he had reason to apprehend, from the nature 
 of the territory, or the disposition of its inhabitants. 
 Some of the caziques, at his approach, fled to the 
 mountains with all their people, and carried off or 
 destroyed whatever could afford subsistence to his 
 troops. Others collected their subjects, in order to 
 oppose his progress, and he quickly perceived what 
 an arduous undertaking it was to conduct such a 
 body of men through hostile nations, across swamps, 
 and rivers, and woods, which had never been passed 
 but by straggling Indians. But by sharing in every 
 hardship with the meanest soldier, by appearing the 
 foremost to meet every danger, by promising confi- 
 dently to his troops th enjoyment of honour and 
 riches superior to what had been attained by the most 
 successful of their countrymen, he inspired them with 
 such enthusiastic resolution, that they followed him 
 without murmuring. When they had penetrated a 
 good way into the mountains, a powerful cazique 
 appeared in a narrow pass, with a numerous body of 
 his subjects, to obstruct their progress. But men 
 who had surmounted so many obstacles, despised the 
 opposition of such feeble enemies. They attacked 
 them with impetuosity, and having dispersed them 
 with much ease and great slaughter, continued their 
 march. Though their guides had represented the 
 breadth of the isthmus to be only a journey of six 
 days, they had already spent twenty-five in forcing 
 their way through the woods and mountains. Many 
 of them were ready to sink under such uninterrupted 
 fatigue in that sultry climate, several were taken ill 
 of the dysentery and other diseases frequent in that 
 country, and all became impatient to reach the period 
 of their labours and sufferings. At length the Indians 
 assured them, that from the top of the next mountain 
 they should discover the ocean which was the object 
 of their wishes. When, with infinite toil, they had 
 climbed up the greater part of that steep ascent, 
 Balboa commanded his men to halt, and advanced 
 alone to the summit, that he might be the first who 
 should enjoy a spectacle which he had so long desired. 
 As soon as he beheld the South Sea stretching in 
 endless prospect below him, he fell on his knees, and 
 lifting up his hands to heaven, returned thanks to 
 God, who had conducted him to a discovery so bene- 
 ficial to his country, and so honourable to himself. 
 His followers, observing his transports of joy, rushed 
 forward to join in his wonder, exultation, and grati- 
 tude. They held on their course to the shore with 
 great alacrity, when Balboa, advancing up to the 
 middle in the waves with his buckler and sword, 
 took possession of that ocean in the name of the king 
 his master, and vowed to defend it, with these arms, 
 against all his enemies. 
 
 That part of the great Pacific or Southern Ocean, 
 which Balboa first discovered, still retains the name 
 of the Gulf of St. Michael, which he gave to it, and 
 is situated to the east of Panama. From several of 
 the petty princes, who governed in the districts adja- 
 cent to that gulf, he extorted provisions and gold by 
 force of arms. Others sent them to him voluntarily. 
 To these acceptable presents, some of the caziques 
 added a considerable quantity of pearls; and he 
 learned from them, with much satisfaction, that pearl 
 oysters abounded in the sea which he had newly 
 discovered. 
 
 Together with the acquisition of this wealth, which 
 served to soothe and encourage his followers, he 
 received accounts which confirmed his sanguine hopes 
 of future and more extensive benefits from the expe- 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 ilitioii. All the people on the coast of the South Sea 
 concurred in informing him, that there was a mighty 
 und opulent kingdom situated at a considerable dis- 
 tance towards the south-east, the inhabitants of which 
 Jhad tame animals to carry their burthens. In order 
 to give the Spaniards an idea of these, they drew 
 upon the:_sand the figure of the llamas or sheep, after 
 wards found in Peru, which the Peruvians had taught 
 to perform such services as they described. As the 
 llama In its form nearly resembles a camel, a beast of 
 burthen deemed peculiar to Asia, this circumstance 
 in conjunction with the discovery of the pearls, another 
 noted production of that country, tended to confirm 
 the Spaniards in their mistaken theory with respect 
 to the vicinity of the New World to the East Indies 
 But though the information which Balboa received 
 from the people on the coast, as well as his own con- 
 jectures and hopes, rendered him extremely impatient 
 to visit this unknown country, his prudence restrained 
 him from attempting to invade it with a handful 
 of men, exhausted by fatigue, and weakened by 
 disease (24). He determined to lead back his fol- 
 lowers, at present, to their settlement of Santa Maria 
 in Darien, and to return next season with a force 
 more adequate to such an arduous enterprise. In 
 order to acquit e a more extensive knowledge of the 
 isthmus, he marched back by a different route, which 
 lie found to be no less dangerous and difficult thau 
 that which he had formerly taken. But to men elated 
 with success, and animated with hope, nothing is 
 insurmountable. Balboa returned to Santa Maria, 
 [A. D. 1514], from which he had been absent four 
 months, with greater glory and more treasure than 
 the Spaniards had acquired in any expedition in the 
 New World. None of Balboa's officers distinguished 
 themselves more in this service than Francisco Pizarro, 
 or assisted with greater courage and ardour in open- 
 ing a communication with those countries, in which 
 he was destined to act soon a most illustrious part. 
 
 Balboa's first care was to send information to Spain 
 of the important discovery which he had made ; and 
 to demand a reinforcement of a thousand men, in 
 order to attempt the conquest of that opulent country, 
 concerning which he had received such inviting intel- 
 ligence. The first account of the discovery of the 
 New World hardly occasioned greater joy than the 
 unexpected tidings, that a passage was at last found 
 to the great southern ocean. The communication with 
 the East Indies, by a course to the westward of the 
 line of demarcation drawn by the pope, seemed now 
 to be certain. The vast wealth which flowed into 
 Portugal from its settlements and conquests in that 
 country, excited the envy, and called forth the emu- 
 lation, of other states. Ferdinand hoped now to come 
 in for a share in this lucrative commerce, and in his 
 eagerness to obtain it, was willing to make an effort 
 beyond what Balboa required. But even in this 
 exertion, his jealous policy, as well as the fatal 
 antipathy of Fonseca, now bishop of Burgos, to every 
 man of merit who distinguished himself in the New 
 World, were conspicuous. Notwithstanding Balboa's 
 recent services, which marked him out as the most 
 proper person to finish that great undertaking which he 
 had begun, Ferdinand was so ungenerous astooverlook 
 these, and to appoint Pedrarias Davila, governor of 
 Darien. He gave him the command of fifteen stout 
 vessels, and twelve hundred soldiers. These were 
 fitted out at the public expense, with a liberality which 
 Ferdinand had never displayed in any" former arma- 
 ment destined for the New World ; and such was the 
 ardour of the Spanish gentlemen to follow a leader 
 who was about to conduct them to a country, where, 
 
 as fame reported, they had only to throw their nets 
 into the sea and draw out gold, that fifteen hundn.-d 
 embarked on board the fleet ; and if they had not 
 been restrained, a much greater number would have 
 engaged in the service. 
 
 Pedrarias reached the gulf of Darien without any 
 remarkable accident, and immediately sent some of 
 his principal officers ashore to inform Balboa of his 
 arrival, with the king's commission, to be governor 
 of the colony. To their astonishment, they found 
 Balboa, of whose great exploits they had heard so 
 much, and of whose opulence they had formed such 
 high ideas, clad in a canvass jacket, and wearing 
 coarse hempen sandals used only by the meanest 
 peasants, employed, together with some Indians, in 
 thatching his own hut with reeds. Even in this 
 simple garb, which corresponded so ill with the 
 expectations and wishes of his new guests, Bnlboa 
 received them with dignity. The fame of his disco- 
 veries had drawn so many adventurers from the 
 islands, that he could now muster four hundred and 
 fifty men. At the head of those daring veterans, he 
 was more than a match for the forces which Pedrarias 
 brought with him. But though his troops murmured 
 loudly at the injustice of the King in superseding 
 their commander, and complained that strangers 
 would now reap the fruits of their toil and success, 
 Balboa submitted with implicit obedience to the will 
 of his sovereign, and received Pedrarias with all the 
 deference due to his character. 
 
 Notwithstanding this moderation, to which Pedra- 
 rias owed the peaceable possession of his government, 
 he appointed a judicial inquiry to be made into 
 Balboa's conduct, while under the command of 
 Nicuessa, and imposed a considerable fine upon him, 
 on account of the irregularities of which he had then 
 been guilty. Balboa felt sensibly the mortification 
 of being subjected to trial and to punishment in a 
 place where he had so lately occupied the first 
 station. Pedrarias could not conceal his jealousy of 
 his superior merit : so that the resentment of the 
 one, and the envy of the other, gave rise to dissen- 
 sions extremely detrimental to the colony. It vras 
 threatened with a calamity still more fatal. Pedra- 
 rias had landed in Darien at a most unlucky time of 
 the year [July], about the middle of the rainy 
 season, in that part of the torrid zone where the 
 clouds pour down such torrents as are unknown in 
 more temperate climates. The village of Santa 
 Maria was seated in a rich plain, environed with 
 marshes and woods. The constitution of Europeans 
 was unable to withstand the pestilential influence of 
 sueh a situation, in a climate naturally so noxious, 
 and at a season so peculiarly unhealthy. A violent 
 and destructive malady carried off many of the 
 soldiers who accompanied Pedrarias. An extreme 
 scarcity of provisions augmented this distress, as ren- 
 dered it impossible to find proper refreshment for the 
 ick, or the necessary sustenance for the healthy. In the 
 space of a month, above six hundred persons perished 
 'n the utmost misery. Dejection and despair spread 
 through the colony. Many principal persons soli- 
 cited their dismission, and were glad to relinquish all 
 their hopes of wealth, in order to escape from that 
 pernicious region. Pedrarias endeavoured to divert 
 those who remained from brooding over their misfor- 
 tunes, by finding them employment. With this 
 view, he sent several detachments into the interior 
 parts of the country, to levy gold among the natives, 
 and to search for the mines in which it was produced. 
 Those rapacious adventurers, more attentive to present 
 gain than to the means of facilitating their future 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 progress, plundered without distinction wherever they 
 marched. Regardless of the alliances which Balboa 
 had made with several of the caziques, they stripped 
 them of every thing valuable, and treated them, as 
 well as their subjects, with the utmost insolence and 
 cruelty. By their tyranny and exactions, which 
 Pedrarias, either from want of authority or inclina- 
 tion, did not restrain, all the country from the gulf 
 of Darien to the lake of Nicaragua was desolated, 
 and the Spaniards were inconsiderately deprived of 
 the advantages which they might have derived from 
 the friendship of the natives, in extending their 
 conquests to the South Sea. Balboa, who saw with 
 concern that such ill-judged proceedings retarded 
 the execution of his favourite scheme, sent violent 
 remonstrances to Spain against the imprudent govern- 
 ment of Pedrarias, which had ruined a happy and 
 flourishing colony. Pedrarias, on the other hand, 
 accused him of having deceived the King, by magni- 
 fying his own exploits, as well as by a false repre- 
 sentation of the opulence and value of the country. 
 
 Ferdinand became sensible at length of his impru- 
 dence in superseding the most active and experienced 
 officer in the New World, and, by way of compensa- 
 tion to Balboa, appointed him adelantado, or lieute- 
 nant-governor, of the countries upon the South Sea, 
 with very extensive privileges and authority. At 
 the same time he enjoined Pedrarias to support 
 Balboa in all his operations, and to consult with him 
 concerning every measure which he himself pursued. 
 But to effect such a sudden transition from inveterate 
 enmity to perfect confidence, exceeded Ferdinand's 
 power. [A. D. 1515.] Pedrarias continued to treat his 
 rival with neglect; and Balboa's fortune being ex- 
 hausted by the payment of his fine, and other 
 exactions of Pedrarias, he could not make suitable 
 preparations for taking possession of his new govern- 
 ment. At length, by the interposition and exhorta- 
 tions of the bishop of Darien, they were brought to 
 a reconciliation ; and in order to cement this union 
 more firmly, Pedrarias agreed to give his daughter in 
 marriage to Balboa. The first effect of their concord 
 was, that Balboa was permitted to make several small 
 incursions into the country [A. D. 1516]. These he 
 conducted with such prudence as added to the repu- 
 tation which he had already acquired. Many adven- 
 turers resorted to him ; and with the countenance 
 and aid of Pedrarias, he began to prepare for his 
 expedition to the South Sea. In order to accomplish 
 this, it was necessary to build vessels capable of 
 conveying his troops to those provinces which he 
 purposed to invade [A. D. 1517]. After surmounting 
 many obstacles, and enduring a variety of those 
 hardships which were the portion of the conquerors 
 of America, he at length finished four small brigan- 
 tines. In these, with three hundred chosen men, a 
 force superior to that with which Pizarro afterwards 
 undertook the same expedition, he was ready to sail 
 towards Peru, when he received an unexpected 
 message from Pedrarias. As his reconciliation with 
 Balboa had never been cordial, the progress which 
 his son-in-law was making revived his ancient 
 enmity, and added to its rancour. He dreaded the 
 prosperity and elevation of a man whom he had 
 injured so deeply. He suspected that success would 
 encourage him to aim at independence upon his 
 jurisdiction ; and so violently did the passions of 
 hatred, fear, and jealousy, operate upon his mind, 
 that, in order to gratify his vengeance, he scrupled 
 not to defeat an enterprise of the greatest moment to 
 his country. Under pretexts which were false, but 
 plausible, he desired Balboa to postpone his voyage 
 
 for a short time, and to repair to Ada, in order that 
 he might have an interview with him. Balboa, with 
 the unsuspicious confidence of a man conscious of 
 no crime, instantly obeyed the summons ; but as 
 soon as he entered the place, he was arrested by 
 order of Pedrarias, whose impatience to satiate his 
 revenge did not suffer him to languish long in con- 
 finement. -Judges were immediately appointed to 
 proceed to his trial. An accusation of disloyalty to 
 the King, and of an intention to revolt against the 
 Governor, was preferred against him. Sentence of 
 death was pronounced ; and though the judges who 
 passed it, seconded by the whole colony, interceded 
 warmly for his pardon, Pedrarias continued inexo- 
 rable; and the Spaniards beheld, with astonishment 
 and sorrow, the public execution of a man whom 
 they universally deemed more capable than any who 
 had borne command in America, of forming and 
 accomplishing great designs. Upon his death, the 
 expedition which he had planned was relinquished. 
 Pedrarias, notwithstanding the violence and in- 
 justice of his proceedings, was not only screened 
 from punishment by the powerful patronage of the 
 bishop of Burgos and other courtiers, but continued 
 in power. Soon after he obtained permission to 
 remove the colony from its unwholesome station of 
 Santa Maria to Panama, on the opposite side of the 
 isthmus ; and though it did not gain much in point 
 of healthfulness by the change, the commodious 
 situation of this new settlement contributed greatly 
 to facilitate the subsequent conquests of the Spaniards 
 in the extensive countries situated upon the southern 
 ocean. 
 
 [A. D. 1515.] During these transactions in Darien, 
 the history of which it was proper to carry on in an 
 uninterrupted tenor, several important events occurred, 
 with respect to the discovery, the conquest, and 
 government of other provinces in the New World. 
 Ferdinand was so intent upon opening a communi- 
 cation with the Molucca or Spice Islands by the 
 west, that, in the year one thousand five hundred, 
 and fifteen, he fitted out two ships at his own expense, 
 in order to attempt such a voyage, and gave the 
 command of them to Juan Diaz de Solis, who was 
 deemed one of the most skilful navigators in Spain. 
 He stood along the coast of South America, and on 
 the first of January, one thousand five hundred and 
 sixteen entered a river which he called Janeiro, 
 where an extensive commerce is now carried on. 
 From thence he proceeded to a spacious bay, which 
 he supposed to be the entrance into a strait that 
 communicated with the Indian Ocean ; but upon 
 advancing further, he found it to be the mouth of 
 Rio de Plata, one of the vast rivers by which the 
 Southern Continent of America is watered. In 
 endeavouring to make a descent in this country, De 
 Solis and several of his crew were slain by the 
 natives, who, in sight of the ships, cut their bodies 
 in pieces, roasted and devoured them. Discouraged 
 with the loss of their commander, and terrified at 
 this shocking spectacle, the .surviving Spaniards set 
 sail for Europe, without aiming at any further 
 discovery. Though this attempt proved abortive, it 
 was not without benefit. It turned the attention of 
 ingenious men to this course of navigation, and 
 prepared the way for a move fortunate voyage, by 
 which, a few years posterior to this period, the great 
 design that Ferdinand had in view was accomplished 
 
 Though the Spaniards were thus actively employed 
 in extending their discoveries and settlements in 
 America, they still considered Hispaniola as their 
 principal colony, and the seat of government. Don 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Diego Columbus wanted neither inclination nor 
 abilities to have rendered the members of this colony, 
 who were most immediately under his jurisdiction, 
 prosperous and happy. But he was circumscribed 
 in all his operations by the suspicious policy of 
 Ferdinand, who on every occasion, and under pretexts 
 the most frivolous, retrenched his privileges, and 
 encouraged the treasurer, the judges, and other 
 subordinate officers, to counteract his measures, and 
 to dispute his authority. The most valuable prerogative 
 which the Governor possessed, was that of distributing 
 Indians among the Spaniards settled in the island. 
 The rigorous servitude of those unhappy men having 
 been but little mitigated by all the regulations in 
 their favour, the power of parcelling out such neces- 
 sary instruments of labour at pleasure, secured to the 
 governor great influence in the colony. In order to 
 strip him of this, Ferdinand created a new office, with 
 the power of distributing the Indians, and bestowed 
 it upon Rodrigo Albuquerque, a relation of Zapata, 
 his confidential minister. Mortified with the injustice 
 as well as indignity of this invasion upon his rights, 
 in a point so essential, Don Diego could no longer 
 remain in a place where his power and consequence 
 were almost annihilated. He repaired to Spain with 
 the vain hopes of obtaining redress. Albuquerque 
 entered upon his office with all the rapacity of an 
 indigent adventurer impatient to amass wealth. He 
 began with taking the exact number of Indians in the 
 island, and found, that from sixty thousand, who, in 
 the year one thousand five hundred and eight, survived 
 after all their sufferings, they were now reduced to 
 fourteen thousand. These he threw into separate 
 divisions or lots, and bestowed them upon such as 
 were willing to purchase them at the highest puce. 
 By this arbitrary distribution, several of the natives 
 were removed from their original habitations, many 
 were taken from their ancient masters, and all of 
 them subjected to heavier burdens, and to more 
 intolerable labour, in order to reimburse their new 
 proprietors. Those additional calamities completed 
 the misery, and hastened on the extinction of this 
 wretched and innocent race of men. 
 
 The violence of these proceedings, together with 
 the fatal consequences which attended them, not only 
 excited complaints among such as thought them- 
 selves aggrieved, but touched the hearts of all who 
 retained any sentiments of humanity. From the 
 time that ecclesiastics were sent as instructors into 
 America, they perceived that the rigour with which 
 their countrymen treated the natives, rendered their 
 ministry altogether fruitless. The missionaries, in 
 conformity to the mild spirit of that religion which 
 they were employed to publish, early remonstrated 
 against the maxims of the planters with respect to 
 the Americans, and condemned the repartimientos, or 
 distributions, by which they were given up as slaves 
 to their conquerors, as no less contrary to natural 
 justice and the precepts of Christianity, than to sound 
 policy. The Dominicans, to whom the instruction of 
 the Americans was originally committed, were most 
 vehement in testifying against the repartimientos. 
 In the year one thousand five hundred and eleven, 
 Montesino, one of their most eminent preachers, 
 inveighed against this practice, in the great church at 
 St. Domingo, with all the impetuosity of popular 
 eloquence. Don Diego Columbus, the principal 
 officers of the colony, and all the laymen who had 
 been his hearers, complained of the monk to his 
 superiors ; but they, instead of condemning, ap- 
 plauded his doctrine, as equally pious and seasonable. 
 The Franciscans, influenced by the spirit of opposition 
 
 and rivalship which subsists between the two orders, 
 discovered some inclination to take part with the 
 laity, and to espouse the defence of the repartimientos. 
 But as they could not with decency give their avowed 
 approbation to a system of oppression so repugnant 
 to the spirit of religion, they endeavoured to paliate 
 what they could not justify, and alleged, in excuse 
 for the conduct of their countrymen, that it was 
 impossible to carry on any improvement in the colony, 
 unless the Spaniards possessed such dominion over 
 the natives that they could compel them to labour. 
 
 The Dominicans, regardless of such political and 
 interested considerations, would not relax in any 
 degree the rigour of their sentiments, and even 
 refused to absolve or admit to the sacrament, such of 
 their countrymen as continued to hold the natives in 
 servitude. Both parties applied to the king for his 
 decision in a matter of such importance. Ferdinand 
 empowered a committee of his privy-council, assisted 
 by some of the most eminent civilians and divines in 
 Spain, to hear the deputies sent from Hispaniola, in 
 support of their respective opinions. After a Jong 
 discussion, the speculative point in controversy was 
 determined in favour of the Dominicans, the Indians 
 were declared to be a free people, entitled to all the 
 natural rights of men ; but, notwithstanding all this 
 decision, the repartimientos were continued upon 
 their ancient footing. As this determination admitted 
 the principle upon which the Dominicans founded 
 their opinion, they renewed their efforts to obtain 
 relief for the Indians with additional boldness and 
 zeal. At length, in order to quiet the colony, which 
 was alarmed by their remonstrances and censures, 
 Ferdinand issued a decree of his privy-council, 
 declaring, that after mature consideration of the 
 Apostolic bull, and other titles by which the crown 
 of Castile claimed a right to its possessions in the 
 New World [A. D. 1513], the servitude of the Indians 
 was warranted both by the laws of God and of man ; 
 that unless they were subjected to the dominion of 
 the Spaniards, and compelled to reside under their 
 inspection, it would be impossible to reclaim them 
 from idolatry, or to instruct them in the principles 
 of the Christian faith ; that no further scruple ought 
 to be entertained concerning the lawfulness of the 
 repartimientos, as the king and council were willing 
 to take the charge of that upon their own consciences ; 
 and that therefore the Dominicans, and monks of 
 other religious orders, should abstain, for the future, 
 from those invectives, which, from an excess of 
 charitable but ill-informed zeal, they had uttered 
 against that practice. 
 
 That his intention of adhering to this decree might 
 be fully understood, Ferdinand conferred new grants 
 of Indians upon several of his courtiers (25). But 
 in order that he might not seem altogether inattentive 
 to the rights of humanity, he published an edict, in 
 which he endeavoured to provide for the mild treat- 
 ment of the Indians under the yoke to which he 
 subjected them ; he regulated the nature of the 
 work which they should be required to perform ; 
 he prescribed the mode in which they should be 
 clothed and fed, and gave directions with respect to 
 their instruction in the principles of Christianity. 
 
 But the Dominicans, who, from their experience of 
 what was passed, judged concerning the future, soon 
 perceived the inefficacy of those provisions, and 
 foretold, that as long as it was the interest of indi- 
 viduals to treat the Indians with rigour, no public 
 regulations could render their servitude mild or 
 tolerable. They considered it as vain to waste their 
 own time and strength in attempting to communicate 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the sublime truths of religion to men, whose spirits 
 were broken, and their faculties impaired by oppression. 
 Some of them, in despair, requested the permission 
 of their superiors to remove to the continent, and to 
 pursue the object of their mission among such of the 
 natives as were not hitherto corrupted by the example 
 of the Spaniards, or alienated by their cruelty from 
 the Christian faith. Such as remained in Hispaniola 
 continued to remonstrate, with decent firmness, 
 against the servitude of the Indians. 
 
 The violent operations of Albuquerque, the new 
 distributor of Indians, revived the zeal of the Do- 
 minicans against the repartimientos, and called forth 
 an advocate for that oppressed people, who possessed 
 all the courage, the talents, and activity requisite in 
 supporting such a desperate cause. This was Bar- 
 tholomew de las Casas, a native of Seville, and one of 
 the clergymen sent out with Columbus in his second 
 voyage to Hispaniola, in order to settle in that island. 
 He early adopted the opinion prevalent among eccle- 
 siastics, with respect to the unlawfulness of reducing 
 the natives to servitude ; and that he might demon- 
 strate the sincerity of his conviction, he relinquished 
 all the Indians who had fallen to his own share in 
 the division of the inhabitants among their conquerors, 
 declaring that he should ever bewail his own misfor- 
 tune and guilt, in having exercised for a moment this 
 impious dominion over his fellow-creatures. From 
 that time he became the avowed patron of the In- 
 dians; and by his bold interpositions in their behalf, 
 as well as by the respect due to his abilities and 
 character, he had often the merit of setting some 
 bounds to the excesses of his countrymen. He did 
 not fail to remonstrate warmly against the proceedings 
 of Albuquerque, and, though he soon found that 
 attention to his own interest rendered this rapacious 
 officer deaf to admonition, he did not abandon the 
 wretched people whose cause he had espoused. He 
 instantly set out for Spain, with the most sanguine 
 hopes of opening the eyes and softening the heart of 
 Ferdinand, by that striking picture of the oppression 
 of his new subjects, which he would exhibit to his 
 view. i 
 
 He easily obtained admittance to the king, whom 
 he found in a declining state of health. With much 
 freedom, and no less eloquence, he represented to 
 him all the fatal effects of the repartimientos in the 
 New World, boldly charging him with the guilt of 
 Laving authorised this impious measure, which had 
 brought misery and destruction upon a numerous 
 and innocent race of men, whom Providence had 
 placed under his protection. Ferdinand, whose mind 
 as well as body was much enfeebled by his distemper, 
 was greatly alarmed at this charge of impiety, which 
 at another juncture he would have despised. He 
 listened with deep compunction to the discourse of 
 las Casas, and promised to take into serious consi- 
 deration the means of redressing the evil of which he 
 complained. But death prevented him from executing 
 his resolution. Charles of Austria, to whom all his 
 crowns devolved, resided at that time in his paternal 
 dominions in the Low Countries. Las Casas, with 
 his usual ardour, prepared immediately to set out for 
 Flanders, in order to occupy the ear of the young 
 monarch, v/hsn cardinal Ximenes, who, as regent, 
 assumed the reigns of government in Castile, com- 
 manded him to desist from the journey, and engaged 
 to hear his complaints in person. 
 
 He accordingly weighed the matter with attention 
 equal to its importance ; and as his impetuous mind 
 delighted in schemes bold and uncommon, he. soon 
 fixed upon a plan which astonished the ministers, 
 
 trained up under the formal and cautious administra- 
 tion of Ferdinand. Without regarding either the 
 rights of Don Diego Columbus, or the regulations 
 established by the late king, he resolved to send three 
 persons to America as superintendents of all the 
 colonies there, with authoiity, after examining all 
 circumstances on the spot, to decide finally with 
 respect to the point in question. It was a matter of 
 deliberation and delicacy to choose men qualified for 
 such an important station. As all the laymen settled 
 in America, or who had been consulted in the 
 administration of that department, had given their 
 opinion that the Spaniards could not keep possession 
 of their new settlements, unless they were allowed to 
 retain their dominion over the Indians, he saw that 
 he could not rely on their impartiality, and determined 
 to commit the trust to ecclesiastics. As the Domi- 
 nicans and Franciscans had already espoused opposite 
 sides in the controversy, he, from the same principle 
 of impartiality, excluded both these fraternities from 
 the commission. He confined his choice to the 
 monks of St. Jerome, a small but respectable order 
 in Spain. With the assistance of their general, and 
 in concert with Las Casas, he soon pitched upon 
 three persons whom he deemed equal to the charge. 
 To them he joined Zuazo, a private lawyer of 
 distinguished probity, with unbounded power to 
 regulate all judicial proceedings in the colonies. Las 
 Casas was appointed to accompany them, with the 
 title of Protector of the Indians. 
 
 To vest such extraordinary powers, as might at 
 once overturn the system of government established 
 in the New World, in four persons, who, from their 
 humble condition in life, were little entitled to 
 possess this high authority, appeared to Zapata, and 
 other ministers of the late King, a measure so wild 
 and dangerous, that they refused to issue the des- 
 patches necessary for carrying it into execution. But 
 Ximenes was not of a temper patiently to brook 
 opposition to any of his schemes. He sent for the 
 refractory ministers, and addressed them in such a 
 tone, that in the utmost consternation they obeyed 
 his orders. The superintendents, with their asso- 
 ciate Zuazo, and Las Casas, sailed for St. Domingo. 
 Upon their arrival, the first act of their authority 
 was to set at liberty all the Indians who had been 
 granted to the Spanish courtiers, or to any person 
 not residing in America. This, together with the 
 information which had been received from Spain 
 concerning the object of the commission, spread a 
 general alarm. The colonists concluded that they 
 were to be deprived at once of the hands with which 
 they carried on their labour, and that, of conse- 
 quence, ruin was unavoidable. But the fathers of 
 St. Jerome proceeded Avith such caution and pru- 
 dence, as soon dissipated all their fears. They dis- 
 covered, in every step of their conduct, a knowledge 
 of the world, and of affairs, which is seldom acquired 
 in a cloister ; and displayed a moderation as well as 
 gentleness still more rare among persons trained up 
 in the solitude and austerity of a monastic life. 
 Their ears were open to information from every 
 quarter ; they compared the different accounts which 
 they received ; and after a mature consideration of 
 the whole, they were fully satisfied that the state of 
 the colony rendered it impossible to adopt the plan 
 proposed by las Casas, and recommended by the 
 cardinal. They plainly perceived that the Spaniards 
 settled in America were so few in immber, that they 
 could neither work the mines which had been opened, 
 nor cultivate the country; that "they depended for 
 effecting both upon the labour of the natives, and if 
 
r>c, 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 deprived of it, they must instantly relinquish their 
 conquests, or give up all the advantages which they 
 derived from them ; that no allurement was so 
 powerful as to surmount the natural aversion of the 
 Indians to any laborious effort, and that nothing but 
 the authority of a master could compel them to work; 
 and if they were not kept constantly under the 
 eye and discipline of a superior, so great was their 
 natural listlessness and indifference, that they would 
 neither attend to religious instruction, nor observe 
 those rights of Christianity which they had been 
 already taught. Upon all those accounts, the super- 
 intendents found it necessary to tolerate the repar- 
 timientos, and to suffer the Indians to remain under 
 subjection to their Spanish masters. They used their 
 utmost endeavours, however, to prevent the fatal 
 effects of this establishment, and to secure to the 
 Indians the consolation of the best treatment com- 
 patible with a state of servitude. For this purpose, 
 they revived former regulations, they prescribed new 
 ones, they neglected no circumstance that tended to 
 mitigate the rigour of the yoke ; and by their autho- 
 rity, their example, and their exhortations, they 
 laboured to inspire their countrymen with sentiments 
 of equity and gentleness towards the unhappy people 
 upon whose industry they depended. Zuazo, in his 
 department, seconded the endeavours of the super- 
 intendents. He reformed the courts of justice, in 
 such a manner as to render their decisions equitable 
 as well as expeditious, and introduced various re- 
 gulations which greatly improved the interior police 
 of the colony. The satisfaction which his conduct 
 and that of the superintendents gave, was now uni- 
 versal among the Spaniards settled in the New 
 World, and all admired the boldness of Ximenes, in 
 having departed from the ordinary path of business 
 in forming his plan, as well as his sagacity in 
 pitching upon persons, whose wisdom, moderation, 
 and disinterestedness, rendered them worthy of this 
 high trust. 
 
 Las Casas alone was dissatisfied. The prudential 
 considerations which influenced the superintendents 
 made no impression upon him. He regarded their 
 idea of accommodating their conduct to the state of 
 the colony, as the maxim of an unhallowed timid 
 policy, which tolerated what was unjust because it 
 was beneficial. He contended that the Indians were 
 by nature free, and as their protector, he required 
 the superintendents not to bereave them of the 
 common privilege of humanity. They received his 
 most virulent remonstrances without emotion, but 
 adhered firmly to their own system. The Spanish 
 planters did not bear with him so patiently, and 
 were ready to tear him in pieces for insisting in a 
 requisition so odious to them. Las Casas, in order 
 to screen himself fiom their rage, found it necessary 
 to take shelter in a convent ; and perceiving that all 
 his efforts in America were fruitless, he soon set out 
 for Europe, with a fixed resolution not to abandon 
 the protection of a people whom he deemed to be 
 cruelly oppressed. 
 
 Had Ximenes retained that vigour of mind with 
 which he usually applied to business, Las Casas must 
 have met with no very gracious reception upon his 
 return to Spain. But he found the cardinal languish- 
 ing under a mortal distemper, and preparing to 
 resign his authority to the young king, who was 
 daily expected from the Low Countries. Charles 
 arrived, took possession of the government, and, by 
 the death of Ximenes, lost a minister, whose abilities 
 and integrity entitled him to direct his affairs. 
 Many of the Flemish nobility had accompanied their 
 
 sovereign to Spain. From that warm predilection 
 to his countrymen, which was natural at his a^u, Jio 
 consulted them with respect to all the transarti ais 
 in his new kingdom : and they, with an indiscreet 
 eagerness, intruded themselves into every business, 
 and seized almost every department of adminis- 
 tration. The direction of American affairs was an 
 object too alluring to escape their attention. Las 
 Casas observed their growing influence, and though 
 projectors are usually too sanguine to conduct their 
 schemes with much dexterity, he possessed a bustling, 
 indefatigable activity, which sometimes accomplishe 
 its purposes with greater success than the most ex- 
 quisite discernment and address. He courted the 
 Flemish ministers with assiduity. He repiesented 
 to them the absurdity of all the maxims hit'i.i'.o 
 adopted with respect to the government of America, 
 particularly during the administration of Ferdinand, 
 and pointed out the defects of those arrangements 
 which Ximenes had introduced. The memory of 
 Ferdinand was odious to the Flemings. The superior 
 virtue and abilities of Ximenes had long been the 
 object of their envy. They fondly wished to have a 
 plausible pretext for condemning the measures, both 
 of the monarch and of the minister, and of reflecting 
 some discredit on their political wisdom. The friends 
 of Don Diego Columbus, as well as the Spanish 
 courtiers, who had been dissatisfied with the car- 
 dinal's administration, joined Las Casas in censuring 
 the scheme of sending superintendents to America. 
 This union of so many interests and passions was 
 irresistible ; and in consequence of it the fathers of 
 St. Jerome, together with their associate Zuazo, were 
 recalled. Roderigo de Figueroa, a lawyer of some 
 eminence, was appointed chief judge of the island, 
 and received instructions, in compliance with the 
 request of Las Casas, to examine once more, with 
 the utmost attention, the point in controversy between 
 him and the people of the colony, with respect to the 
 treatment of the natives ; and in the mean time to 
 do every thing in his power to alleviate their suffer- 
 ings, and prevent the extinction of the race. 
 
 This was all that the zeal of Las Casas could pro- 
 cure at that juncture in favour of the Indians. The 
 impossibility of carrying on any improvements in 
 America, unless the Spanish planters could command 
 the labour of the natives, was an insuperable ob- 
 jection to his plan of treating them as free subjects. 
 In order to provide some remedy for this, without 
 which he found it was in vain to mention his scheme, 
 Las Casas proposed to purchase a sufficient number 
 of negroes from the Portuguese settlements on the 
 coast of Africa, and to transport them to America, in 
 order that they might be employed as slaves in work- 
 ing the mines and cultivating the ground. One of 
 the first advantages which the Portuguese had de- 
 rived from their discoveries in Africa, arose from the 
 trade in slaves. Various circumstances concurred in 
 reviving this odious commerce, which had been long 
 abolished in Europe, and which is no less repugnant 
 to the feelings of humanity, than to the principles of 
 religion. As early as the year one thousand five 
 hundred and three, a few negro slaves had been sent 
 into the New World. In the year one thousand five 
 hundred and eleven, Ferdinand permitted the im- 
 portation of them in greater numbers. They were 
 found to be a more robust and hardy race than the 
 natives of America. They were more capable of 
 enduring fatigue, more patient under servitude, and 
 the labour of one negro was computed to be equal to 
 that of four Indians. Cardinal Ximenes, however, 
 when solicited to encourage this commerce, peremp- 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 torily rejected the proposition, because he perceived 
 the iniquity of reducing one race of men to slavery, 
 while he was consulting about the means of restoring 
 liberty to another. But Las Casas, from the incon- 
 sistency natural to men who hurry with headlong 
 impetuosity towards a favourite point, was incapable 
 of making this distinction. While he contended 
 earnestly for the liberty of the people born in one 
 quarter of the globe, he laboured to enslave the 
 inhabitants of another region ; and in the warmth of 
 his zeal to save the Americans from the yoke, pro- 
 nounced it to be lawful and expedient to impose one 
 still heavier upon the Africans. Unfortunately for the 
 latter, Las Casas's plan was adopted. Charles 
 granted a patent to one of his Flemish favourites, 
 containing an exclusive right of importing four 
 thousand negroes into America. The favourite sold 
 his patent to some Genoese merchants for twenty- 
 five thousand ducats, and they were the first who 
 brought into a regular form that commerce for slaves 
 between Africa and America, which has siiice been 
 carried on to such an amazing extent. 
 
 [A. D. 1518.] But the Genoese merchants, con- 
 ducting their operations, at first, with the rapocity of 
 monopolists, demanded such a high price for negroes, 
 that the number imported into Hispaniola made no 
 great change upon the state of the colony. Las 
 Casas, whose zeal was no less inventive thaii inde- 
 fatigable, had recourse to another expedient for the 
 relief of the Indians. He observed, that most of 
 the persons who had settled hitherto in America, 
 were sailors and soldiers employed in the discovery 
 or conquest of the country; the younger sons of 
 noble families, allured by the prospect of acquiring 
 sudden wealth; or desperate adventurers, whom their 
 indigence or crimes forced to abandon their native 
 land. Instead of such men, who were dissolute, 
 rapacious, and incapable of that sober persevering 
 industry, which is requisite in forming new colonies, 
 he proposed to supply the settlements in Hispaniola 
 and other parts of the New World with a sufficient 
 number of labourers and husbandmen, who should 
 be allured by suitable premiums to remove thither. 
 These, as they were accustomed to fatigue, would 
 be able to perform the work, to which the Indians, 
 from the feebleness of their constitution, were un- 
 equal, and might soon become useful and opulent 
 citizens. But though Hispaniola stood much in need 
 of a recruit of inhabitants, having been visited at 
 this time with the small-pox, which swept off almost 
 all the natives who had survived their long continued 
 oppression, and though Las Casas had the counte- 
 nance of the Flemish ministers, this scheme was 
 defeated by the bishop of Burgos, who thwarted all 
 his projects. 
 
 Las Casas now despaired of procuring any relief 
 for the Indians in those places where the Spaniards 
 were already settled. The evil was become so inve- 
 terate there, as not to admit of a cure. But such 
 discoveries were daily making in the continent, as 
 gave a high idea both of its extent and populousness. 
 In all those vast regions there was but one feeble 
 colony planted; and except a small spot on the 
 isthmus of Darien, the natives still occupied the whole 
 country. This opened a new and more ample field 
 for the humanity and zeal of Las Ca^as, who flattered 
 himself that he might prevent a pernicious system 
 from being introduced there, though he had failed of 
 success in his attempts to overturn it, where it was 
 already established. Full of this idea, he applied for 
 a grant of the unoccupied country, stretching along 
 the sea-coast from the gulf of Paiia to the western 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA, No. 8. 
 
 frontier of that province, now known by the name ot 
 Santa Martha. He proposed to settle there with a 
 colony composed of husbandmen, labourers, and 
 ecclesiastics. He engaged, in the space of two 
 years, to civilize ten thousand of the natives, and to 
 instruct them so thoroughly in the arts of social life, 
 that, from the fruits of their industry, an annual 
 revenue of fifteen thousand ducats should arise to the 
 King. In ten years he expected that his improve- 
 ments would be so far advanced, as to yield annually 
 sixty thousand ducats. He stipulated, that no sailor 
 or soldier should ever be permitted to settle in this 
 district ; and that no Spaniard whatever should enter 
 it without his permission. He evert projected to 
 clothe the people whom he took along with him in 
 some distinguishing garb, which did not resemble the 
 Spanish dress, that they might appear to the natives, 
 to be a different race of men from those who had 
 brought so many calamities upon their country. From 
 this scheme, of which I have traced only the great 
 lines, it is manifest that Las Casas had formed ideas 
 concerning the method of treating the Indians, similar 
 to those by which the Jesuits afterwards carried on 
 their great operations in another part of the same 
 continent. He supposed that the Europeans, by 
 availing themselves of that ascendant which they 
 possessed in consequence of their superior progress in 
 science and improvement, might gradually form the 
 minds of the Americans to relish those comforts of 
 which they were destitute, might train them to the 
 arts of civil life, and render them capable of its 
 functions. 
 
 But to the Bishop of Burgos atid the council of the 
 Indies, this project appeared not only chimerical, 
 but dangerous in a high degree. They deemed the 
 faculties of the Americans to be naturally so limited, 
 and their indolence so excessive, that every attempt 
 to instruct or to improve them would be fruitless. 
 They contended, that it would be extremely imprudent 
 to give the command of a country extending above a 
 thousand miles along the coast, to a fanciful presump- 
 tuous enthusiast, a stranger to the affairs of the 
 world, and unacquainted with the arts of government. 
 Las Casas, far from being discouraged with a repulse, 
 which he had reason to expect, had recourse once 
 more to the Flemish favourites, who zealously 
 patronized his scheme, merely because it had been 
 rejected by the Spanish ministers. They prevailed 
 with their master, who had lately been raised to the 
 imperial dignity [A. D. 1519], to refer the considera 
 tion of this measure t > a select number of his privy 
 counsellors ; and Las Casas having excopted against 
 the members of the council of the Indies, as partial 
 and interested, they were all excluded. The decision 
 of men chosen by recommendation of the Flemings, 
 was perfectly conformable to their sentiments. They 
 warmly approved of Las Casas's plan; and gav 
 orders for carrying it into execution, but restricted 
 the territory allotted him to three hundred miles alon/.;- 
 the coast of Cumana, allowing him, however, to extend 
 it as far as he pleased towards the interior part of th 
 country. 
 
 This determination did not pass uncensured. 
 Almost every person who had been in the West Indies 
 exclaimed against it, and supported their opinion so- 
 confidently, and with such plausible reasons, as made 
 it advisable to pause and to review the subject more 
 deliberately. Charles himself, though accustomed, 
 at this early period of his life, to adopt the sentiments 
 of his ministers with such submissive deference as 
 did not promise that decisive vigour of mind which 
 distinguished his riper years, could not help suspecting 
 I 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 that the eagerness with which the Flemings took part 
 in every affair relating to America, flowed from some 
 improper motive, and began to discover an inclination 
 to examine in person into the state of the question 
 concerning the character of the Americans, and the 
 proper method of treating them [June 20]. An 
 opportunity of making this inquiry with great ad- 
 vantage soon occurred. Quevedo, the bishop of 
 Darien, who had accompanied Pedrarias to the conti- 
 nent in the year one thousand five hundred and 
 thirteen, happened to land at Barcelona, where the 
 court then resided. It was quickly known, that his 
 sentiments concerning the talents and disposition of 
 the Indians differed from those of Las Casas ; and 
 Charles naturally concluded, that by confronting two 
 respectable persons, who, during their residence in 
 America, had full leisure to observe the manners of 
 the people whom they pretended to describe, he 
 might be able to discover which of them had formed 
 his opinion with the greatest discernment and accu- 
 racy. 
 
 A day for this solemn audience was appointed. 
 The emperor appeared with extraordinary pomp, and 
 took his seat on a throne in the great hall of the 
 palace. His principal courtiers attended. Don 
 Diego Columbus, admiral of the Indies, was sum- 
 moned to be present. The bishop of Darien was 
 called upon first to deliver his opinion. He, in a 
 short discourse, lamented the fatal desolation of 
 America, by the extinction of so many of its inhabit- 
 ants ; he acknowledged that this must be imputed, 
 in some degree, to the excessive rigour and inconsi- 
 derate proceedings of the Spaniards, but declared 
 that all the people of the New World whom he had 
 seen, either in the continent or in the islands, ap- 
 peared to him to be a race of men marked out, by 
 the inferiority of their talents, for servitude, and 
 whom it would be impossible to instruct or improve, 
 unless they were kept under the continual inspection 
 of a master. Las Casas, at greater length, and with 
 more fervour, defended his own system. He rejected 
 with indignation the idea that any race of men was 
 born to servitude, as irreligious and inhuman. He 
 asserted that the faculties of the Americans were not 
 naturally despicable, but unimproved ; that they 
 were capable of receiving instruction in the principles 
 of religion, as well as of acquiring the industry and 
 arts which would qualify them for the various offices 
 of social life ; that the mildness and timidity of their 
 nature rendered them so submissive and docile, that 
 they might be led and formed with a gentle hand. 
 He professed, that his intentions in proposing the 
 scheme now under consideration were pure and dis- 
 interested ; and though, from the accomplishment of 
 his designs, inestimable benefits would result to the 
 crown of Castile, he never had claimed, nor ever 
 would receive, any recompence on that account. 
 
 Charles, after hearing both, and consulting with 
 his ministers, did notthink himself sufficientlyinformed 
 to establish any general arrangement with respect to 
 the state of the Indians ; but as he had perfect confi- 
 dence in the integrity of Las Casas, and as even the 
 bishop of Darien admitted his scheme to be of such 
 importance, that a trial should be made of its effects, 
 lie issued a patent [A. D. 1520], granting him the 
 district in Cumana formerly mentioned, with full 
 power to establish a colony there according to his 
 own plan. 
 
 Las Casas pushed on the preparations for his 
 voyage with his usual ardour. But, either from his 
 own inexperience in the conduct of affairs, or from 
 the secret opposition of the ^Spanish nobility, who 
 
 universally dreaded the success of an institution that 
 miht rob them of the industrious and useful hands 
 which cultivated their estates, his progress in en- 
 gaging husbandmen and labourers was extremely 
 slow, and he could not prevail on more than two 
 hundred to accompany him to Cumana. 
 
 Nothing, however, could damp his zeal. With this 
 slender train, hardly sufficient to take possession of 
 such a large territory, and altogether unequal to any 
 effectual attempt towards civilizing its inhabitants, 
 he set sail. The first place at which he touched was 
 the island of Puerto Rico. There he received an 
 account of a new obstacle to the execution of his 
 scheme, more insuperable than any he had hitherto 
 encountered. When he left America in the year one 
 thousand five hundred and sixteen, the Spaniards 
 had little intercourse with any part of the continent, 
 except the countries adjacent to the gulf of Darien. 
 But as every species of internal industry began to stag- 
 nate in Hispaniola, when, by the rapid decrease of the 
 natives, the Spaniards were deprived of those hands 
 with which they had hitherto carried on their opera- 
 tions, this prompted them to try various expedients 
 for supplying that loss. Considerable numbers of 
 negroes were imported; but on' account of their 
 exorbitant price, many of the planters could not 
 afford to purchase them. In order to procure slaves 
 at an easier rate, some of the Spaniards in Hispaniola 
 fitted out vessels to cruise along the coast of the 
 continent. In places where they found themselves 
 inferior in strength, they traded with the natives, and 
 gave European toys in exchange for the plates of gold 
 worn by them as ornaments; but, wherever they 
 could surprise or overpower the Indians, they carried 
 them off by force, and sold them as slaves. In those 
 predatory excursions, such atrocious acts of violence 
 and cruelty had been committed, that the Spanish 
 name was held in detestation all over the continent. 
 Whenever any ships appeared, the inhabitants either 
 fled to the woods, or rushed down to the shore in 
 arms to repel those hated disturbers of their tran- 
 quillity. They forced some parties of the Spaniards 
 to retreat with precipitation ; they cut oif others ; 
 and in the violence of their resentment against the 
 whole nation, they murdered two Dominican mission- 
 aries, whose zeal had prompted them to settle in the 
 province of Cumana. This outrage against persons 
 revered for their sanctity, excited such indignation 
 among the people of Hispaniola, who, notwithstand- 
 ing all their licentious and cruel proceedings, were 
 possessed with a wonderful zeal for religion, and a 
 superstitious respect for its ministers, that they de- 
 termined to inflict exemplary punishment, not only 
 upon the perpetrators of that crime, but upon the 
 whole race. With this view, they gave the command 
 of five ships and three hundred men to Diego Ocampo, 
 with orders to lay waste the country of Cumana with 
 fire and sword, and to transport all the inhabitants 
 as slaves to Hispaniola. This armament Las Casas 
 found at Puerto Rico, in its way to the continent ; 
 and as Ocampo refused to defer his voyage, he imme- 
 diately perceived that it would be impossible to 
 attempt the execution of his pacific plan in a country 
 destined to be the seat of war and desolation. 
 
 [April 12.] In order to provide against the effects 
 of this unfortunate incident, he set sail directly for 
 St. Domingo, leaving his followers cantoned out 
 among the planters in Puerto Rico. From many 
 concurring causes, the reception which Las Casas 
 met with in Kispaniola was very unfavourable. In 
 his negociation for the relief of the Indians, he had 
 censured the conduct of his countrymen settled there 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 51? 
 
 with such honest severity, as rendered him universally 
 odious to them. They considered their own ruin as 
 the inevitable consequence of his success. They 
 were now elated with hope of receiving a large recruit 
 of slaves from Cumana, which must be relinquished 
 if Las Casas were assisted in settling his projected 
 colony there. Figueroa, in consequence of the in- 
 structions which he had received in Spain, had made 
 an experiment concerning the capacity of the Indians, 
 that was represented as decisive against the system 
 of Las Casas. He collected in Hispaniola a good 
 number of the natives, and settled them in two 
 villages, leaving them at perfect liberty, and with the 
 uncontrolled direction of their own actions. But 
 that people, accustomed to a mode of life extremely 
 different from that which takes place wherever 
 civilization has made any considerable progress, 
 were incapable of assuming new habits at once. 
 Dejected with their own misfortunes as well as those 
 of their country, they exerted so little industry in 
 cultivating the ground, appeared so devoid of solicitude 
 or foresight in providing for their own wants, and 
 were such strangers to arrangement in conducting 
 their affairs, that the Spaniards pronounced them 
 incapable of being formed to live like men in social 
 life, and considered them as children, who should be 
 kept under the perpetual tutelage of persons superior 
 to themselves in wisdom and sagacity. 
 
 Notwithstanding all those circumstances, which 
 alienated the persons in Hispaniola to whom Las 
 Casas applied from himself and from his measures, 
 he, by his activity and perseverance, by some 
 concessions, and many threats, obtained at length a 
 small body of troops to protect him and his colony at 
 their first landing. But upon his return to Puerto 
 Rico, he found that the diseases of the climate had 
 been fatal to several of his people ; and that others 
 having got employment in that island refused to 
 follow him. With the handful that remained, he set 
 sail and landed in Cumana. Ocampo had executed 
 his commission in that province with such barbarous 
 rage, having massacred many of the inhabitants, sent 
 others in chains to Hispaniola, and forced the rest 
 to fly for shelter to the woods, that the people of a 
 small colony, which he had planted at a place which 
 he named Toledo, were ready to perish for want in a 
 desolated country. There, however, Las Casas was 
 obliged to fix his residence, though deserted both by 
 the troops appointed to protect him, and by those 
 under the command of Ocampo, who foresaw and 
 dreaded the calamities to which he must be exposed 
 in that wretched station. He made the best provision 
 in his power for the safety and subsistence of his 
 followers ; but as his utmost efforts availed little 
 towards securing either the one or the other, he 
 returned to Hispaniola, in order to solicit more 
 effectual aid for the preservation of men, who, 
 from confidence in him, had ventured into a post of 
 so much danger. Soon after his departure, the 
 natives, having discovered the feeble and defenceless 
 state of the Spaniards, assembled secretly, attacked 
 them with the fury natural to men exasperated by 
 many injuries, cut off a good number, and compelled 
 the rest to fly in the utmost consternation to the 
 island of Cubagua. The small colony settled there 
 on account of the pearl fishery, catching the panic 
 with which their countrymen had been seized, 
 abandoned the island, and not a Spaniard remained 
 in any part of the continent, or adjacent islands, 
 from the gulf of Paria to the borders of Darien. 
 Astonished at such a succession of disasters, Las 
 Casas was ashamed to show his face after this fatal 
 
 termination of all his splendid schemes. He shut 
 himself up in the convent of the Dominicans at St. 
 Domingo, and soon after assumed the habit of that 
 order. 
 
 Though the expulsion of the colony from Cumana 
 happened in the year one thousand five hundred and 
 twenty one, I have chosen to trace the progress of 
 Las Casas's negociations from their first rise to their 
 final issue without interruption. His system was the 
 object of long and attentive discussion ; and though 
 his efforts in behalf of the oppressed Americans, 
 partly from his own rashness and imprudence, and 
 partly from the malevolent opposition of his adver- 
 saries, were not attended with that success which he 
 promised with too sanguine confidence, great praise 
 is due to his humane activity, which gave rise to 
 various regulations that were of some benefit to that 
 unhappy people. I return now to the history of the 
 Spanish discoveries, as they occur in the order of time. 
 
 Diego Velasquez, who conquered Cuba in the year 
 one thousand five hundred and eleven, still retained, 
 the government of that island, as the deputy of Don 
 Diego Columbus, though he seldom acknowledged 
 his superior, and aimed at rendering his own authority 
 altogether independent. Under his prudent ad- 
 ministration, Cuba became one of the most flourishing 
 of the Spanish settlements. The fame of this allured, 
 thither many persons from the other colonies,' in 
 hopes of finding either some permanent establish- 
 ment or some employment for their activity. As 
 Cuba lay to the west of all the islands occupied by 
 the Spaniards, and as the ocean, which stretches, 
 beyond it towards that quarter, had not hitherto been 
 explored, these circumstances naturally invited the 
 inhabitants to attempt new discoveries. An expe- 
 dition for this purpose, in which activity and resolu- 
 tion might conduct to sudden wealth, was more suited 
 to the genius of the age, than the patient industry 
 requisite in clearing ground and manufacturing sugar. 
 Instigated by this spirit, several officers, who had 
 served under Pedrarias in Darien, entered^ into an 
 association to undertake a voyage of discovery.. 
 They persuaded Francisco Hernandez Cordova, an 
 opulent planter in Cuba, and a man of distinguished 
 courage, to join with them in the adventure, and 
 chose him to be their commander. Velasquez not 
 only approved of the design, but assisted in carrying 
 it on. As the veterans from Darien were extremely 
 indigent, he and Cordova advanced money for pur- 
 chasing three small vessels, and furnishing them 
 with everything requisite either for traffic or for war. 
 A hundred and ten men embarked on board of them, 
 and sailed from St. Jago de Cuba on the eighth of 
 February one thousand five hundred and seventeen. 
 By the advice of their chief pilot, Antonio Alaminos, 
 who had served under the first admiral Columbus, 
 they stood directly west, relying on the opinion of 
 that great navigator, who uniformly maintained that 
 a westerly course would lead to the most important 
 discoveries. 
 
 On the twenty-first day after their departure from 
 St. Jago, they saw land, which proved to be Cape 
 Catoche, the eastern point of that large peninsula 
 projecting from the continent of America, which still 
 retains its original name of Yucatan. As they ap- 
 proached the shore, five canoes came off full of people, 
 decently clad in cotton garments ; an astonishing 
 spectacle to the Spaniards, Avho had found every other 
 part of America possessed by naked savages. Cor- 
 dova endeavoured by small presents to gain the good 
 will of these people. They, though amazed at the 
 strange objects now presented for the first time to 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 their view, invited the Spaniards to visit their habit- 
 ations, with an appearance of cordiality. They landed, 
 accordingly, and as they advanced into the country 
 they observed with new wonder some large houses 
 built with stone. But they soon found that, if the 
 people of Yucatan had made progress in improvement 
 beyond their countrymen, they were likewise more 
 artful and warlike. For though the cazique received 
 Cordova with many tokens of friendship, he had 
 posted a considerable body of his subjects in ambush 
 behind a thicket, who, upon a signal given by him, 
 rushed out and attacked the Spaniards with great 
 boldness, and some degree of martial order. At the 
 first flight of their arrows, fifteen of the Spaniards 
 were wounded ; but the Indians were struck with 
 such terror by the sudden explosion of the fire-arms, 
 and so surprised at the execution done by them, by 
 the cross-bows, and by the other weapons of their 
 new enemies, that they fled precipitately. Cordova 
 quitted a country where he had met with such a 
 fierce reception, carrying off two prisoners, together 
 with the ornaments of a small temple, which he 
 plundered in his retreat. 
 
 He continued his course towards the west, without 
 losing sight of the coast, and on the sixteenth day 
 arrived at Campeachy. There the natives received 
 them more hospitably ; but the Spaniards were much 
 surprised that on all the extensive coast along which 
 they had sailed, and which they imagined to be a 
 large island, they had not observed any river (2G). 
 As their water began to fail, they advanced, in hopes 
 of finding a supply; and at length they discovered 
 the mouth of a river at Potonchan, some leagues 
 beyond Campeachy. 
 
 Cordova landed all his troops, in order to protect 
 the sailors while employed in filling the casks ; but 
 notwithstanding this precaution, the natives rushed 
 clown upon them with such fury, and in such num- 
 bers, that forty-seven of the Spaniards were killed 
 upon the spot, and one man only of the whole body 
 escaped unhurt. Their commander, though wounded 
 in twelve different places, directed the retreat with 
 presence of mind equal to the courage with which he 
 had led them on in the engagement, and with much 
 difficulty they regained their ships. After this fatal 
 repulse, nothing remained but to hasten back to Cuba 
 with their shattered forces. In their passage thither 
 they suffered the most exquisite distress for want 
 of water, that men wounded and sickly, shut up in 
 small vessels, and exposed to the heat of the torrid 
 zone, can be supposed to endure. Some of them, 
 sinking under these calamities, died by the way ; 
 Cordova, their commander, expired soon after they 
 landed in Cuba. 
 
 Notwithstanding the disastrous conclusion of this 
 expedition, it contributed rather to animate than to 
 damp a spirit of enterprise among the Spaniards. 
 They had discovered an extensive country, situated 
 at no great distance from Cuba, fertile in appearance, 
 and possessed by a people far superior in improve- 
 ment to any hitherto known in America. Though 
 they had carried on little commercial intercourse 
 with the natives, they had brought off some orna- 
 ments of gold, not considerable in value, but of sin- 
 gular fabric. These circumstances, related with the 
 exaggeration natural to men desirous of heightening 
 the merit of their own exploits, were more than suffi- 
 cient to excite romantic hopes and expectations. 
 Great numbers offered to engage in a new expedition. 
 Velasquez, solicitous to distinguish himself by some 
 service so meritorious as might entitle him to claim 
 the government of Cuba independent of the admiral, 
 
 not only encouraged thoir ardour, but at his own ex- 
 pense lifted out four ships for the voyage. Two hun- 
 dred .and forty volunteers, anions whom were several 
 persons of rank and fortune, embarked in this enter- 
 prise. The command of it was given to Juan de 
 Grijalva, a young man of known merit and courage, 
 with instructions to observe attentively the nature of 
 the countries which he should discover, to barter for 
 gold, and, if circumstances were inviting, to settle a 
 colony in some proper station. [A. D. 1518.] He 
 sailed from St. Jago de Cuba on the eighth of April 
 one thousand five hundred and eighteen. The pilot 
 Alaminos held the same course as in the former 
 voyage ; but the violence of the currents carrying the 
 ships to the south, the first land which they made 
 was the island of Cozumel, to the east of Yucatan. 
 As all the inhabitants fled to the woods and mountains 
 at the approach of the Spaniards, they made no long 
 stay there, and without any remarkable occurrence 
 they reached Potonchan on the opposite side of the 
 peninsula. The desire of avenging their countrymen 
 who had been slain there, concurred with their ideas 
 of good policy in prompting them to land, that they 
 might chastise the Indians of that district with such 
 exemplary rigour, as would strike terror into all th 
 people around them. But though they disembarked 
 all their troops, and carried ashore some field-pieces, 
 the Indians fought with such courage, that the 
 Spaniards gained the victory with difficulty, and 
 were confirmed in their opinion that the inhabitants 
 of this country would prove more formidable enemies 
 than any they had met with in other parts of America. 
 From Potonchan, they continued their voyage towards 
 the west, keeping as near as possible to the shore, 
 and casting anchor every evening, from dread of the 
 dangerous accidents to which they might be exposed 
 in an unknown sea. During the day their eyes were 
 turned continually towards land, with a mixture of 
 surprise and wonder at the beauty of the country, 
 as well as the novelty of the objects which they 
 beheld. Many villages were scattered along tha 
 coast, in which they could distinguish houses of stone 
 that appeared white and lofty at a distance. In tho 
 warmth of their admiration, they fancied these to 
 be cities adorned with towers and pinnacles ; and one 
 of the soldiers happening to remark that this country 
 resembled Spain in appearance, Grijalva, with 
 universal applause, called it New Spain, the name 
 which still distinguishes this extensive and opulent 
 province of the Spanish empire in America (27). 
 They landed in a river which the natives called Ta- 
 basco, [June 9,] and the fame of their victory at 
 Potonchan having reached this place, the cazique not 
 only received them amicably, but bestowed presents 
 upon them of such value, as confirmed the high 
 ideas which the Spaniards had formed with respect 
 to the wealth and fertility of the country. These 
 ideas were raised still higher by what occurred at 
 the place where they next touched. This was con- 
 siderably to the west of Tabasco, in the province 
 since known by the name of Guaxaca. There they 
 were received with the respect paid to superior 
 beings. The people perfumed them as they landed, 
 with incense of gum copal, and presented to them as 
 offerings the choicest delicacies of their country. 
 They were extremely fond of trading with their new 
 visitants, and in six days the Spaniards obtained 
 ornaments of gold, of curious workmanship, to the 
 value of fifteen thousand pesos, in exchange for 
 European toys of small price. The two prisoners 
 whom Cordova had brought from Yucatan, had 
 hitherto served as interpreters ; but as they did not 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 61 
 
 understand the language of this country, the Span- 
 iards learned from the natives, by signs, that they 
 were subjects of a great monarch called Montczunui, 
 whose dominion extended over that and many other 
 provinces. Leaving this place, with which he hud 
 so much reason to be pleased, Grijalva continued 
 his course towards the west. He landed on a small 
 island, [June 19], which he named the Isle of Sa- 
 crifices, because there the Spaniards beheld, for the 
 first time, the horrid spectacle of human victims, 
 which the barbarous superstition of the natives 
 o tiered to their gods. He touched at another small 
 island which he called St. Juan de Ulna. From this 
 place he despatched Pedro de Alvarado, one of his 
 officers, to Velasquez, with a full account of the im- 
 portant discoveries which? he had made, and with all 
 the treasure that he had acquired, by trafficking with 
 the natives. After the departure of Alvarado, he him- 
 self, with the remaining vessels, proceeded along the 
 coast as far as the river Panuco, the country still 
 appearing to be well peopled, fertile, and opulent. 
 
 Several of Grijalva' s officers contended, that it was 
 not enough to have discovered those delightful 
 regions, or to have performed, at their different landing- 
 places, the empty ceremony of taking possession of 
 them for the crown of Castile, and that their glory 
 was incomplete, unless they planted a colony in some 
 proper station, which might not only secure the Span- 
 ish nation a footing in the country, but, with the 
 reinforcements which they were certain of receiving, 
 might gradually subject the whole to the dominion 
 of their sovereign. But the squadron had now been 
 above five months at sea ; the greatest part of their 
 provisions was exhausted, and what remained of their 
 stores so much corrupted by the heat of the climate, 
 as to be almost unfit for use ; they had lost some men 
 by death; others were sickly; the country was 
 crowded with people who seemed to be intelligent 
 as well as brave ; and they were under the govern- 
 ment of one powerful monarch, who could bring them 
 to act against their invaders with united force. To 
 plant a colony under so many circumstances of dis- 
 advantage, appeared a scheme too perilous to be at- 
 tempted. Giijalva, though possessed both of am- 
 bition and courage, was destitute of the superior 
 talents capable of forming or executing such a great 
 plan. He judged it more prudent to return to Cuba, 
 having fulfilled the purpose of his voyage, and ac- 
 complished all that the armament which he com- 
 manded enabled him to perform. He returned to 
 St. Jago de Cuba on the twenty-sixth of October, 
 from which he had taken his departure about six 
 months before. 
 
 This was the longest as well as the most successful 
 voyage which the Spaniards had hitherto made in the 
 New World. They had discovered that Yucatan was 
 not an island as they had supposed, but part of the 
 great continent of America. From Potonchan they 
 had pursued their course for many hundred miles 
 along a coast formerly unexplored, stretching at first 
 towards the west, and then turning to the north ; all 
 the country which they had discovered appeared to be 
 no less valuable than extensive. As soon as Alvarado 
 reached Cuba, Velasquez, transported with success so 
 far beyond his most sanguine expectations, imme- 
 diately despatched a person of confidence to carry 
 this important intelligence to Spain, to exhibit the 
 rich productions of the countries which had been dis- 
 covered by his means, and to solicit such an increase 
 of authority as might enable and enconrage him to 
 attempt the conquest of them. Without waiting for 
 the return of his messenger, or for the arrival of 
 
 Grijalva, of whom he was become so jealous or dis- 
 trustful that he was resolved no longer to employ 
 him, he began to prepare such a powerful armament, 
 as might prove equal to an enterprise of so much 
 danger and importance. 
 
 But as the expedition upon which Velasquez was 
 now intent, terminated in conquests of greater mo- 
 ment than what the Spaniards h;;d hitherto achieved, 
 and led them to the knowledge of a people, who, if 
 compared with those tribes of America with whom 
 they were hitherto acquainted, may be considered as 
 highly civilized ; it is proper to pause before we 
 proceed to the history of events extremely different 
 from those which we have already related, in order to 
 take a view of the state of the New World when first 
 discovered, and to contemplate the policy and man- 
 ners of the rude uncultivated tribes that occupy all 
 the parts of it with which the Spaniards were at this 
 time acquainted. 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 TWENTY-SIX years had elapsed since Columbus 
 conducted the people of Europe to the New World. 
 During that period the Spaniards had made great 
 progress in exploring its various regions. They had 
 visited all the islands scattered in different clusters 
 through that part of the ocean which flows in between 
 North and South America. They had sailed along 
 the eastein coast of the continent from the river De 
 la Plata to the bottom of the Mexican gulf, and had 
 found that it stretched without interruption through 
 this vast portion of the globe. They had discovered 
 the great Southern ocean, which opened new pros- 
 pects in that quarter. They had acquired some 
 knowledge of the coast of Florida, which led them to 
 observe the continent as it extended in an opposite 
 direction ; and though they pushed their discoveries 
 no further towards the north, other nations had visited 
 those parts which they neglected. The English, in a 
 voyage, the motives and success of which shall be 
 related iu another part of this History, had sailed 
 along the coast of America from Labrador to the con- 
 fines of Florida ; and the Portuguese, in quest of a 
 shorter passage to the East Indies, had ventured into 
 the northern seas, and viewed the same regions. 
 Thus at the period where I have chosen to take a 
 view of the state of the New World, its extent was 
 known almost from its northern extremity to thirty- 
 five degrees south of the equator. The countries 
 which stretch from thence to the southern boundary 
 of America, the great empire of Peru, and the interior 
 state of the extensive dominions subject to the 
 sovereigns of Mexico, were still undiscovered. 
 
 When we contemplate the New World, the first 
 circumstance that strikes us is its immense extent. It 
 was not a small portion of the earth, so inconsiderable 
 that it might have escaped the observation or research 
 of former ages, which Columbus discovered. He 
 made known a new hemisphere, larger than either 
 Europe, or Asia, or Africa, the three noted divisions 
 of the ancient continent, and not much inferior in 
 dimensions to a third part of the habitable globe. 
 
 America is remarkable, not only for its magnitude, 
 but for its position. It stretches from the northern 
 polar circle to a high southern latitude, above fifteen 
 hundred miles beyond the furthest extremity of the 
 old continent on that side of the line. 'A country of 
 such extent passes through all the climates capable 
 of becoming the habitation of man, and fit for yielding 
 the various productions peculiar either to the tem- 
 perate or to the torrid regions of the earth. 
 
62 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Next to the extent of the New World, the grandeur 
 of the objects which it presents to view is most apt 
 to strike the eye of an observer. Nature seems here 
 to have carried on her operations upon a larger scale, 
 and with a bolder hand, and to have distingished the 
 features of this country by a peculiar magnificence. 
 
 The mountains in America are much superior in 
 height to those in the other divisions of the globe. 
 Even the plain of Quito, which may be considered 
 as the base of the Andes, is elevated further above 
 the sea than the top of the Pyrenees. This stupen- 
 dous ridge of the Andes, no less remarkable for 
 extent than elevation, rises in different places more 
 than one-third above the Peak of Teneriffe, the 
 highest land in the ancient hemisphere. The Andes 
 may literally be said to hide their heads in the 
 clouds ; the storms often roll, and the thunder bursts 
 "below their summits, which, though exposed to the 
 rays of the sun in the centre of the torrid zone, are 
 covered with everlasting snows (28). 
 
 From these lofty mountains descend rivers, propor- 
 tionably large, with which the streams in the ancient 
 continent are not to be compared, either for length of 
 course, or the vast body of water which they roll 
 towards the ocean. The Maragnon, the Orinoco, the 
 Plata in South America, the Mississippi and St. 
 Laurence in North America, flow in such spacious 
 channels, that, long before they feel the influence of 
 tide, they resemble arms of the sea rather than 
 rivers of fresh water (29). 
 
 The lakes of the New World are no less conspicuous 
 for grandeur than its mountains and rivers. There 
 is nothing in other parts of the globe which resembles 
 the prodigious chain of lakes in North America. 
 They may properly be termed inland seas of fresh 
 water ; and even those of the second or third class 
 in magnitude are of larger circuit (the Caspian sea 
 excepted) than the greatest lake of the ancient 
 continent. 
 
 The New World is of a form extremely favourable 
 to commercial intercourse. When a continent is 
 formed, like Africa, of one vast solid mass, unbroken 
 by arms of the sea penetrating into its interior parts, 
 with few large rivers, and those at a considerable 
 distance from each other, the greater part of it seems 
 destined to remain for ever uncivilized, and to be de- 
 barred from any active or enlarged communication 
 with the rest of mankind. When, like Europe, a 
 continent is opened by inlets of the ocean of great 
 extent, such as the Mediterranean and Baltic ; or 
 when, like Asia, its coast is broken by deep bays 
 advancing far into the country, such as the Black 
 sea, the gulfs of Arabia, of Persia, of Bengal, of 
 Siam, and of Leotang ; when the surrounding seas 
 are filled with large and fertile islands, and the con- 
 tinent itself watered with a variety of navigable 
 rivers, those regions may be said to possess whatever 
 can facilitate the progress of their inhabitants in 
 commerce and improvement. In all these respects 
 America may bear a comparison with the other quar- 
 ters of the globe. The gulf of Mexico, which flows 
 in between North and South America, may be consi- 
 dered as a Mediterranean sea, which opens a maritime 
 commerce with all the fertile countries by which it 
 is encircled. The islands scattered in it are inferior 
 only to those in the Indian Archipelago, in number, 
 in magnitude, and in value. As we stretch along the 
 northern division of the American hemisphere, the 
 bay of Chesapeak presents a spacious inlet, which 
 conducts the navigator far into the interior parts of 
 provinces no less fertile than extensive ; and if ever 
 the progress of culture and population shall mitigate 
 
 the extreme rigour of the climate in the more northern 
 districts of America, Hudson's bay may become as 
 subservient to commercial intercourse in that quarter 
 of the globe, as the^Baltic is in Europe. The other 
 great portion of the New World is encompassed on 
 every side by the sea, except one narrow neck which 
 separates the Atlantic from the Pacific ocean ; and 
 though it be not opened by spacious bays or arms of 
 the sea, its interior parts are rendered accessible by 
 a number of large rivers, fed by so many auxiliary 
 streams, flowing in such various directions, that, 
 almost without any aid from the hand of industry and 
 art, an inland navigation can be carried on through 
 all the provinces from the river De la Plata to the 
 gulf of Paria. Nor is this bounty of nature confined 
 to the southern division of America ; its northern 
 continent abounds no less in rivers which are navi- 
 gable almost to their sources, and by its immense 
 chain of lakes provision is made for an inland com- 
 munication more extensive and commodious than in 
 any quarter of the globe. The countries stretching 
 from the gulf of Darien on one side, to that of 
 California on the other, which form the chain that 
 binds the two parts of the American continent toge- 
 ther, are not destitute of peculiar advantages. Their 
 coast on one side is washed by the Atlantic ocean, on 
 the other by the Pacific. Some of their rivers flow 
 into the former, some into the latter, and secure to 
 them all the commercial benefits that may result from 
 a communication with both. 
 
 But what most distinguishes America from other 
 parts of the earth, is the peculiar temperature of its 
 climate, and the different laws to which it is subject 
 with respect to the distribution of heat and cold. 
 We cannot determine with precision the portion of 
 heat felt in any part of the globe, merely by mea- 
 suring its distance from the equator. The climate 
 of a country is affected, in some degree, by its ele- 
 vation above the sea, by the extent of continent, 
 by the nature of the soil, the height of adjacent 
 mountains, and many other circumstances. The 
 influence of these, however, is, from various causes, 
 less considerable in the greater part of the ancient 
 continent ; and from knowing the position of any 
 country there, we can pronounce with greater certainty, 
 what will be the warmth of its climate, and the 
 nature of its productions. 
 
 The maxims which are founded upon observation 
 of our hemisphere will not apply to the other. In 
 the New World, cold predominates. The rigour of 
 the frigid zone extends over half those regions, which 
 should be temperate by their position. Countries 
 where the grape and fig should ripen, are buried 
 under smnv one-half of the year ; and lands situated 
 in the same parallel with the most fertile and best 
 cultivated provinces in Europe, are chilled with per- 
 petual frosts, which almost destroy the power of 
 vegetation (30). As we advance to those parts of 
 America which lie in the same parallel with provinces 
 of Asia and Africa, blessed with an uniform enjoy- 
 ment of such genial warmth as is most friendly to life 
 and to vegetation, the dominion of cold continues to 
 be felt, and winter reigns, though during a short 
 period, with extreme severity. If we proceed along 
 the American continent into the torrid zone, we shall 
 find the cold prevalent in the New World extending 
 itself also to this region of the globe, and mitigating 
 the excess of its fervour. While the negro on the 
 coast of Africa is scorched with unremitting heat, 
 the inhabitant of Peru breathes an air equally mild 
 and temperate, and is perpetually shaded under a 
 canopy of grey clouds, which intercepts the fierce 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 63 
 
 beams of the sun, without obstructing his friendly 
 influence. Along the eastern coast of America, the 
 climate, though more similar to that of the torrid zone 
 in other parts of the earth, is nevertheless considerably- 
 milder than in those countries of Asia and Africa 
 which lie in the same latitude. If from the southern 
 tropic we continue our progress to the extremity of 
 the American continent, we meet with frozen seas, 
 and count lies horrid, barren, and scarcely habitable 
 for cold, much sooner than in the north. 
 
 Various causes combine in rendering the climate 
 of America so extremely different from that of the 
 ancient continent. Though the utmost extent of 
 America towards the north be not yet undiscovered, we 
 know that it advances nearer to the pole than either 
 Europe or Asia. Both these have large seas to the 
 north, which are open during part of the year ; and 
 even when covered with ice, the wind that blows over 
 them is less intensely cold than that which blows 
 over land in the same high latitudes. But in America 
 the land stretches from the river St. Laurence towaids 
 the pole, and spreads out immensely to the west. A 
 chain of enormous mountains, covered with snow 
 and ice, runs through all this dreary region. The 
 wind in passing over such an extent of high and 
 frozen land, becomes so impregnated with cold, that 
 it acquires a piercing keenness, which it retains in 
 its progress through warmer climates, and it is not 
 entirely migitated until it reach the gulf of Mexico. 
 Over all the continent of North America, a north- 
 westerly wind and excessive cold arc synonymous 
 terms. Even in the most sultry weather, the moment 
 that the wind veers to that quarter, its penetrating 
 influence is felt in a transition from heat to cold no 
 less violent than sudden. To this powerful cause we 
 ascribe the extraordinary dominion of cold and its 
 inroads into the southern provinces in that part of 
 the globe. 
 
 Other causes, no less remarkable, diminish the 
 active power of heat in those parts of the American 
 continent which lie between the tropics. In all that 
 portion of the globe, the wind blows in an invariable 
 direction from east to west. As this wind holds its 
 course across the ancient continent, it arrives at the 
 countries which stretch along the western shores of 
 Africa, inflamed with all the fiery particles which it hath 
 collected from the sultry plains of Asia, and the burning 
 sands in the African deserts. The coast of Africa is, ac- 
 cordingly, the region of the earth which feels the most 
 fervent heat, and is exposed to the unmitigated ardour 
 of the torrid zone. But this same wind, which brings 
 such an accession of warmth to the countries lying 
 between the river of Senegal and Cafraria, traverses 
 the Atlantic ocean before it reaches the American 
 shore. It is cooled in its passage over this vast body 
 of water, and is felt as a refreshing gale along the 
 coast of Brazil (31), and Guiana, rendering these 
 countries, though among the warmest in America, 
 temperate, when compared with those which lie 
 opposite to them in Africa (32). As this wind 
 advances in its course across America, it meets with 
 immense plains covered with impenetrable forests, 
 or occupied by large rivers, marshes, and stagnating 
 waters, where it can recover no considerable degree of 
 heat. At length it arrives at the Andes, which run from 
 north to south through the whole continent. In pass- 
 ing over their elevated and frozen summits, it is so 
 thoroughly cooled, that the greater part of the coun- 
 tries beyond them haidly feel the ardour to which 
 they seem exposed by their situation. In the other 
 provinces of America, from Tierra Feime westward 
 to the Mexican empire, the heat of the climate is 
 
 tempered in some place?, by the elevation of the land 
 above the sea, in others, by their extraordinary 
 humidity, and in all, by the enormous mountains 
 scattered over this tract. The islands of America in 
 the torrid zone are either small or mountainous, and are 
 fanned alternately by refreshing sea and land breezes. 
 
 The causes of the extraordinary cold towards the 
 southern limits of America, and in the seas beyond 
 it, cannot be ascertained in a manner equally satis- 
 fying. It was long supposed that a vast continent, 
 distinguished by the name of Terra Australia In- 
 cognita, lay between the southern extremity of 
 America, and the Antarctic pole. The same princi- 
 ples which account for the extraordinary degree of 
 cold in the northern regions of America, were em- 
 ployed in order to explain that which is felt at Cape 
 Horn and the adjacent countries. The immense 
 extent of the southern continent, and the large rivers 
 which it poured into the ocean, were mentioned and 
 admitted by philosophers, as causes sufficient to oc- 
 casion the unusual sensation of cold, and the still 
 more uncommon appearances of frozen seas in that 
 region of the globe. But the imaginary continent to 
 which such influence was ascribed, having been 
 searched for in vain, and the space which it was sup- 
 posed to occupy having been found to be an open sea, 
 new conjectures must be formed 'with respect to the 
 causes of a temperature of climate, so extremely dif- 
 ferent from that which we experience in countries re- 
 moved at the same distance from theV>pposite pole (33). 
 
 After contemplating those permanent and charac- 
 teristic qualities of the American continent, which 
 arise from the peculiarity of its situation, and the 
 disposition of its parts, the next object that merits 
 attention is its condition when first discovered, as 
 far as that depended upon the industry and ope- 
 rations of man. The effects of human ingenuity and 
 labour are more extensive and considerable, than 
 even our own vanity is apt at first to imagine. When 
 we survey the face of the habitable globe, no small 
 part of that fertility and beauty which we ascribe to 
 the hand of nature, is the work of man. His efforts, 
 when continued through a succession of ages, change 
 the appearance and improve the qualities of the 
 earth. As a great part of the ancient continent has 
 long been occupied by nations far advanced in arts 
 and industry, our eye is accustomed to view the 
 earth in that form which it assumes when rendered 
 fit to be the residence of a numerous race of men, 
 and to supply them with nourishment. 
 
 But in the New World, the state of mankind was 
 ruder, and the aspect of nature extremely different. 
 Throughout all its vast regions, there Avere only two 
 monarchies remarkable for extent of territory, or dis- 
 tinguished by any progress in improvement. The 
 rest of this continent was possessed by small inde- 
 pendent tribes, destitute of arts and industry, and 
 neither capable to correct the defects, nor desirous 
 to meliorate the condition, of that part of the earth 
 allotted to them for their habitation. Countries, 
 occupied by such people, were almost in the same 
 state as if they had been without inhabitants. Im- 
 mense forests covered a great part of the uncultivated 
 earth ; and as the hand of industry had not taught 
 the rivers to run in a proper channel, or drained off 
 the stagnating water, many of the most fertile 
 plains were overflowed with inundations, or converted 
 into marshes. In the southern provinces, where the 
 warmth of the sun, the moisture of the climate, and 
 the fertility of the soil, combine in calling forth the 
 most vigorous powers of vegetation, the woods are 
 so choked with its rank luxuriance as to be almost 
 
64 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 impervious, and the surface of the ground is hid from 
 the eye under a thick covering of shrubs and herbs 
 and weeds. In this state of wild unassisted nature, 
 a great part of the large provinces in South America, 
 which extend from the bottom of the Andes to the 
 sea, still remain. The European colonies have 
 cleared and cultivated a few spots along the coast, 
 but the original race of inhabitants, as rude and in- 
 dolent as ever, have done nothing to open or improve 
 a country, possessing almost every advantage of situ- 
 ation and climate. As we advance towards the 
 northern provinces of America, nature continues to 
 wear the same uncultivated aspect, and in proportion 
 as the ligour of the climate increases, appears more 
 desolate and horrid. There the forests, though not 
 encumbered with the same exuberance of vegetation, 
 are of immense extent; prodigious marshes over- 
 spread the plains, and few marks appear of human 
 activity in any attempt to cultivate or embellish the 
 earth. No wonder that the colonies sent from 
 Europe were astonished at their first entrance into 
 the New World. It appeared to them waste, soli- 
 tary, and uninviting. When the English began to 
 settle in America, they termed the countries of which 
 they took possession, The Wilderness. Nothing but 
 their eager expectation of finding mines of gold, 
 could have induced the Spaniards to penetrate through 
 the woods and marshes of America, where, at every 
 sfep, they observed the extreme difference between 
 the uncultivated face of nature, and that which it 
 acquires under the forming hand of industry and 
 art (34). 
 
 The labour and operations of man not only improve 
 and embellish the earth, but render it more whole- 
 some and friendly to life. When any region lies 
 neglected and destitute of cultivation, the air stag- 
 nates in the woods, putrid exhalations arise from the 
 waters ; the surface of the earth, loaded with rank 
 vegetation, feels not the purifying of the sun or of 
 the wind; the malignity of the distempers natural to 
 the climate increases, and new maladies no less 
 noxious are engendered. Accordingly, all the provinces 
 of America, when first discovered, were found to be 
 remarkably unhealthy. This the Spaniards experi- 
 enced in every expedition into the New W T orld, 
 whether destined for conquest or settlement. 
 Though, by the natural constitution of their bodies, 
 their habitual temperance, and the persevering vigour 
 of their minds, they were as much formed as any 
 people in Europe for active service in a sultry climate, 
 they felt severely the fatal and pernicious qualities of 
 those uncultivated regions through which they 
 marched, or where they endeavoured to plant colonies. 
 Great numbers were cut off by the unknown and 
 violent diseases with which they were infected. Such 
 as survived the destructive rage of those maladies, 
 were not exempted from the noxious influence of the 
 climate. They returned to Europe, according to the 
 description of the early Spanish historians, feeble, 
 emaciated, with languid looks, and- complexions of 
 such a sick'y yellow colour, as indicated the unwhole- 
 some temperature of the countries where they had 
 resided. 
 
 The uncultivated state of the New World affected 
 not only the temperature of the air, but the qualities 
 of its productions. The principle of life seems to 
 have been less active and vigorous there, than in the 
 ancient continent. Notwithstanding the vast extent 
 of America, and the variety of its climates, the 
 different species of animals peculiar to it are much 
 fewer in proportion, than those of the other hemis- 
 phere. In the islands, there were only four kinds of 
 
 quadrupeds known, the largest of which did not 
 exceed the size of a rabbit. On the continent, the 
 variety was greater ; and though the individuals of 
 each kind could not fail of multiplying exceedingly, 
 when almost unmolested by men, who were neither 
 so numerous, nor so united in society, as to be 
 formidable enemies to the animal creation, the 
 number of distinct species must still be considered 
 as extremely small. Of two hundred different kinds 
 of animals spread over the face of the earth, about only 
 one-third existed in America at the time of its dis- 
 covery. Nature was not only less prolific in the New 
 World, but she appears likewise to have been less 
 vigorous in her productions. The animals originally 
 belonging to this quarter of the globe appear to^be of 
 an inferior race, neither so robust, nor so fierce, as 
 those of the other continent. America gives birth 
 to no creature of such bulk as to be compared with 
 the elephant or rhinoceros, or that equals the lion 
 and tiger in strength and ferocity (35). The Tapyr 
 of Brazil, the largest quadruped of the ravenous tribe 
 in the New World, is not larger than a calf of six 
 months old. The Puma and Jaguar, its fiercest 
 beast of prey, which Europeans have inaccurately 
 denominated lions and tigers, possess neither the 
 undaunted courage of the former, nor the ravenous 
 cruelty of the latter. They are inactive and timid, 
 hardly formidable to a man, and often turn their 
 backs upon the least appearance of resistance. The 
 same qualities in the climate of America, which 
 stinted the growth, and enfeebled the spirit, of its 
 native animals, have proved pernicious to such as 
 have migrated into it voluntarily from the other 
 continent, or have been transported thither by the 
 Europeans. The bears, the wolves, the deer of 
 America, are not equal in size to those of the Old 
 World. Most of the domestic animals, with which 
 the Europeans have stored the provinces wherein 
 they settled, have degenerated with respect either to 
 bulk or quality, in a country whose temperature and 
 soil seem to be less favourable to the strength and 
 perfection of the animal creation (36). 
 
 The same causes which checked the growth and 
 the vigour of the more noble animals, were friendly 
 to the propagation and increase of reptiles and 
 insects. Though this is not peculiar to the New 
 World, and those odious tribes, nourished by heat, 
 moisture, and corruption, infest every part of the 
 torrid zone; they multiply faster, perhaps, in Ame- 
 rica, and grow to a more monstrous bulk. As this 
 country is, ori the whole, less cultivated, and less 
 peopled? than the other quarters of the earth, the 
 active principle of life wastes its force in productions 
 of this inferior form. The air is often darkened 
 with clouds of insects, and the ground covered with 
 shocking and noxious reptiles. The country around 
 Porto Bello swarms with toads in such multitudes, as 
 hide the' surface of the earth. At Guayaquil, snakes 
 and vipers are hardly less numerous. Carthagena is 
 infested with numerous flocks of bats, which annoy 
 not only the cattle, but the inhabitants. In the 
 islands, legions of ants have, at different times, con- 
 sumed every vegetable production (37), and left the 
 earth entirely bare, as if it had been burnt with fire. 
 The damp forests and rank soil of the countries on 
 Mie banks of the O<inoco and Maragnon, teem with 
 almost every offensive and poisonous creature, which 
 the power of a sultry sun can quicken into life. 
 
 The birds of the New World are not distinguished 
 by qualities so conspicuous and characteristical, as 
 those which we have observed in its quadrupeds. 
 Birds are more independent of man, and less affected 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 by the changes which his industry and labour make 
 upon the state of the earth. They have a greater 
 propensity to migrate from one country to another, 
 and can gratify this instinct of their nature without 
 difficulty or danger. Hence the number of birds 
 common to both continents is much greater than that 
 of quadrupeds ; and even such as are peculiar to 
 America nearly resemble those with which mankind 
 were acquainted in similar regions of the ancient 
 hemisphere. The American birds of the torrid zone, 
 like those of the same climate in Asia and Africa, 
 are decked in plumage, which dazzles the eye with 
 the beauty of its colours ; but nature, satisfied with 
 clothing them in this gay dress, has denied most of 
 them that melody of sound, and variety of notes, 
 which catch and delight the ear. The birds of the 
 temperate climates there, in the same manner as in 
 our continent, are less splendid in their appearance ; 
 but, in compensation for that defect, they have voices 
 of greater compass, and more melodious. In some 
 districts of America, the unwholesome temperature 
 of the air seems to be unfavourable even to this 
 part of the creation. The number of birds is less 
 than in other countries, and the traveller is struck 
 with the amazing solitude and silence of its forests. 
 It is remarkable, however, that America, where the 
 quadrupeds are so dwarfish and dastardly, should 
 produce the ConcJor,which is entitled to pre-eminence 
 over all the flying tribe, in bulk, in strength, and in 
 courage. 
 
 The soil in a continent so extensive as America, 
 must of course be extremely various. In each of 
 its provinces, we find some distinguishing pecu- 
 liarities ; the description of which belongs to those 
 who write their particular history. In general, we 
 may observe, that the moisture and cold, which pre- 
 dominates so remarkably in all parts of America, 
 must have great influence upon the nature of its 
 soil; countries lying in the same parallel with those 
 regions which never feel the extreme rigour of winter 
 in the ancient continent, are frozen over in America 
 during a great part of the year. Chilled by this 
 intense cold, the ground never acquires warmth suffi- 
 cient to ripen the fruits which are found in the 
 corresponding parts of the other continent. If we 
 wish to rear in America the productions which 
 abound in any particular district of the ancient 
 world, we must advance several degrees nearer to 
 the line than in the other hemisphere, as it requires 
 such an increase of heat to counterbalance the 
 natural frigidity of the soil and climate (38). At the 
 Cape of Good Hope, several of the plants and fruits 
 peculiar to the countries within the tropics, are 
 cultivated with success ; whereas, at St. Augustine 
 in Florida, and Charlestown, in South Carolina, 
 though considerably nearer the line, they cannot be 
 brought to thrive with equal certainty (39). But-, if 
 allowance be made for this diversity in the degree of 
 heat, the soil of America is naturally as rich and 
 fertile as in any part of the earth. As the country 
 was thinly inhabited, and by a people of little 
 industry, who had none of the domestic animals 
 which civilized nations rear in such vast numbers, 
 the earth was not exhausted by their consumption. 
 The vegetable productions, to which the fertility of 
 the soil gave birth, often remained untouched, and 
 being suffered to corrupt on its surface, returned with 
 increase into its bosom. As trees and plants derive 
 a great part of their nourishment from air and water, 
 if they were not destroyed by man and other animals, 
 they would render to the earth more, perhaps, than 
 they take from it, and feed rather than impoverish it. 
 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA, No. 9. 
 
 Thus the unoccupied soil of America may have gone 
 on enriching for many ages. The vast number as 
 well as enormous size of the trees in America, in- 
 dicate the extraordinary vigour of the soil in its native 
 state. When the Europeans first began to cultivate 
 the New World, they were astonished at the? 
 luxuriant power of vegetation in its virgin mould ; 
 and in several places the ingenuity of the planter is 
 still employed in diminishing and wasting its super- 
 fluous fertility, in order to bring it down to a state 
 fit for profitable culture' (40). 
 
 Having thus surveyed the state of the New World 
 at the time of its discovery, and considered the 
 peculiar features and qualities which distinguish and 
 characterize it, the next inquiry that merits attention, 
 is, How was America peopled ? By what course did 
 mankind migrate from the one continent to the other ? 
 and in what quarter is it most probable that a com- 
 munication was opened_between them ? 
 
 We know, with infallible certainty, that all the 
 human race spring from the same source," and that 
 descendants of one man, under the protection as 
 well as in obedience to the command of Heaven, 
 multiplied and replenished the earth. But neither 
 the annals nor the traditions of nations reach back 
 to those remote ages, in which they took possession 
 of the different countries where they are now settled. 
 W r e cannot trace the branches of this first family, to 
 point out with certainty the time and manner in 
 which they divided and spread over the face of the 
 globe. Even among the most enlightened people, the 
 period of authentic history is extremely short ; and 
 every thing prior to that is fabulous or obscure. It 
 is not surprising, then, that the unlettered inha- 
 bitants of America, who have no solicitude about 
 futurity, and little curiosity concerning what is past, 
 should be altogether unacquainted with their own 
 original. The people on the two opposite coasts of 
 America, who occupy those countries in America 
 which approach nearest to the ancient continent, are 
 so remarkably rude, that it is altogether vain to- 
 search among them for such information as might 
 discover the place from whence they came, or the 
 ancestors of whom they are descended. Whatever light 
 has been thrown on this subject, is derived, not from 
 the natives of America, but from the inquisitive 
 genius of their conquerors. 
 
 When the people of Europe unexpectedly dis- 
 covered 9, new world, removed at a vast distance 
 from every part of the ancient continent which was 
 then known, and filled with inhabitants whose ap- 
 pearance and manners differed remarkably from the 
 rest of the human species, the question concerning 
 their original became naturally an object of curiosity 
 and attention. The theories and speculations of in- 
 genious men with respect to this subject, would fill 
 many volumes ; but are often so wild and chimerical, 
 that I should offer an insult to the understanding of 
 my readers, if I attempted either minutely to enu- 
 merate or to refute them. . Some have presumptu- 
 ously imagined that the people of America were not 
 the offspring of the same common parent with the 
 rest of mankind, but that they formed a separate 
 race of men, distinguishable by peculiar features in 
 the constitution of their bodies, as well as in the 
 characteristic qualities of their minds. Others con- 
 tend, that, they are descended from some remnant of 
 the antediluvian inhabitants of the earth, who sur- 
 vived the deluge, which swept away the greatest 
 part of the human species in the days of Noah, and 
 preposterously supposed rude, uncivilized tribes, 
 scattered over an uncultivated continent, to be the 
 K 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 most ancient race of people on the earth. There is 
 hardly any nation from the north to the south pole, 
 to which some antiquary, in the extravagance of 
 conjecture, has not ascribed the honour of peopling 
 America. The Jews, the Canaanites, the Phoenicians, 
 the Carthaginians, the Greeks, the Scythians, in 
 ancient times, are supposed to have settled in this 
 western world. The Chinese, the Swedes, the Nor- 
 wegians, the Welsh, the Spaniards, are said to have 
 sent colonies thither in later ages, at different periods, 
 and on various occasions. Zealous advocates stand 
 forth to support the respective claims of those people ; 
 and though they rest upon no better foundation than 
 the casual resemblance of some customs, or the sup- 
 posed affinity between a few words in their different 
 languages, much erudition and more zeal have been 
 employed, to little purpose, in defence of the opposite 
 systems. Those regions of conjecture and contro- 
 versy belong not to the historian. His is a more 
 limited province, confined by what is established by 
 certnin or highly probable evidence. Beyond this I 
 shall not venture, in offering a few observations 
 which may contribute to throw some light upon this 
 curious and much agitated question. 
 
 1. There are authors who have endeavoured by 
 mere conjecture to account for the peopling of 
 America. Some have supposed that it was originally 
 united to the ancient continent, and disjoined from it 
 by the shock of an earthquake, or the eruption of a 
 deluge. Others have imagined, that some vessel 
 being forced from its course, by the violence of a 
 westerly wind, might be driven by accident towards 
 the American coast, and have given a beginning to 
 population in that desolate continent. But with re- 
 spect to all those systems, it is vain either to reason 
 or inquire, because it is impossible to come to any 
 decision. Such events as they suppose are barely 
 possible, and may have happened. That they ever 
 did happen, we have no evidence, either from the 
 clear testimony of history, or from the obscure inti- 
 mations of tradition. 
 
 2. Nothing can be more frivolous or uncertain 
 than the attempts to discover the original of the 
 Americans, merely by tracing the resemblance be- 
 tween their manners and those of any particular 
 people in the ancient continent. If we suppose two 
 tribes, though placed in the most remote regions of the 
 globe, to live in a climate nearly of the same tem- 
 perature, to be in the same state of society, and to 
 resemble each other in the degree of their improve- 
 ment, they must feel the same wants, and exert the 
 same endeavours to supply them. The same objects 
 will allure, the same passions will animate them, and 
 the same ideas and sentiments will arise in their 
 minds. The character and occupations of the hunter 
 in America must be little different from those of an 
 Asiatic, who depends for subsistence on the chase. 
 A tribe of savages on the banks of the Danube 
 must nearly resemble one upon the plains washed by 
 the Mississippi. Instead then of presuming from 
 this similarity, that there is any affinity between 
 them, we should only conclude, that the dispositions 
 and manners of men are formed by their situation, 
 and arise from the state of society in which they live. 
 The moment that begins to vary, the character of a 
 people must change, In proportion as it advances in 
 improvement, their manners refine, their powers and 
 talents are called forth. In every part of the earth, 
 the progress of man hath been nearly the same ; and 
 we can trace him in his career from the rude simpli- 
 city of savage life, until he attains the industry, the 
 arts, and the elegance of polished society. There is 
 
 nothing wonderful then in the similitude between the 
 Americans and the barbarous nations of our conti- 
 nent. Had Lafitau, Garcia, and many other authors 
 attended to this, they would not have perplexed a 
 subject which they pretend to illustrate, by their 
 fruitless endeavours to establish an affinity between 
 various races of people, in the old and new conti- 
 nents, upon no other evidence than such a resemblance 
 in their manners as necessarily arises from the simi- 
 larity of their condition. There are, it is true, 
 among every people some customs which, as they do 
 not flow from any natural want or desire peculiar to 
 their situation, may be denominated usages of arbi- 
 trary institution. If between two nations settled in 
 remote parts of the earth, a perfect agreement with 
 respect to any of these should be discovered, one 
 might be led to suspect that they were connected by 
 some affinity. If, for example, a nation were found 
 in America that consecrated the seventh day to reli- 
 gious worship and rest, we might justly suppose that 
 it had derived its knowledge of this usage, which is 
 of arbitrary institution, from the Jews. But if it 
 were discovered that another nation celebrated the 
 first appearance of every new moon with extraordi- 
 nary demonstrations of joy, we should not be entitled 
 to conclude that the observation of this monthly 
 festival was borrowed from the Jews, but ought to 
 consider it merely as the expression of that joy 
 which is natural to man on the return of the planet 
 which guides and cheers him in the night. The 
 instances of customs, merely arbitrary, common to 
 the inhabitants of both hemispheres, are, indeed, so 
 few and so equivocal, that no theory concerning the 
 population of the New World ought to be founded 
 upon them. 
 
 3. The theories which have been formed with respect 
 to the original of the Americans, from observations of 
 their religious rites and practices, are no less fanciful, 
 and destitute of solid foundation. When the religious 
 opinions of any people are neither the result of rational 
 inquiry, nor derived from the instructions of revelation, 
 they must needs be wild and extravagant. Barbarous 
 nations are incapable of the former, and have not 
 been blessed with the advantages arising from the 
 latter. Still, however, the human mind, even where 
 its operations appear most wild and capricious, holds 
 a course so regular, that in every age and country 
 the dominion of particular passions will be attended 
 with similar effects. The savage of Europe or 
 America, when filled with superstitious dread of 
 invisible beings, or with inquisitive solicitude to 
 penetrate into the events of futurity, trembles alike 
 with fear, or glows with impatience. He has recourse 
 to rites and practices of the same kind, in order to 
 avert the vengeance which he supposes to be impend- 
 ing over him, or to divine the secret which is the 
 object of his curiosity. Accordingly the ritual of 
 superstition in one continent, seems, in many par- 
 ticulars, to be a transcript of that established in the 
 other, and both authorize similar institutions, some- 
 times so frivolous as to excite pity, sometimes so 
 bloody and barbarous as to create horror. But without 
 supposing any consanguinity between such distant 
 nations, or imagining that their religious ceremonies 
 were conveyed by tradition from the one to the other, 
 we may ascribe this uniformity, which, in many 
 instances, seems very amazing, to the natural opera- 
 tion of superstition and enthusiasm upon the weak- 
 ness of the human mind. 
 
 4. We may lay it down as a certain principle in 
 this inquiry, that America was not peopled by any 
 nation of the ancient continent, which had made 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 considerable progress in civilization. The inhabitants 
 of the New World were in a state of society so 
 extremely rude, as to be unacquainted with those 
 aits which are the first essays of human ingenuity in 
 its advance towards improvement. Even the most 
 cultivated nations of America were strangers to 
 many of those simple inventions which w re almost 
 coeval with society in other parts of the world, and were 
 known in the earliest periods of civil life with which 
 we have any acquaintance. From this it is manifest, 
 that the tribes which originally migrated to America, 
 came off from nations which must have been no less 
 barbarous than their posterity, at the time when they 
 were first discovered by the Europeans. For, although 
 the elegant or refined arts may decline or perish, 
 amidst the violent shocks of those revolutions and dis- 
 asters to which nations are exposed, the necessary 
 arts of life, when once they have been introduced 
 among any people, are never lost. None of the 
 vicissitudes in human affairs affect these, and they 
 continue to be practised as long as the race of men 
 exists. If ever the use of iron had been known to 
 the savages of America, or to their progenitors ; if 
 ever they had employed a plough, a loom, or a forge, 
 the utility of those inventions would have preserved 
 them, and it is impossible that they should have been 
 abandoned or forgotten. We may conclude, then, 
 that the Americans sprung from some people, Avho 
 were themselves in such an early and unimproved 
 stage of society, as to be unacquainted with all those 
 necessary arts, which continued to be unftnown 
 among their posterity when first visited by the 
 Spaniards. 
 
 5. It appears no less evident that America was not 
 peopled by any colony from the more southern nations 
 of the ancient continent. None of the rude tribes 
 settled in that part of our hemisphere can be supposed 
 to have visited a country so remote. They possessed 
 neither enterprise, nor ingenuity, nor power, that 
 could prompt them to undertake, or enable them to 
 perform, such a distant voyage. That the more 
 civilized nations in Asia or Africa are not the pro- 
 genitors of the Americans is manifest, not only from 
 the observations which I have already made concern- 
 ing their ignorance of the most simple and necessary 
 arts, but from an additional circumstance. When- 
 ever any people have experienced the advantages 
 which men enjoy by their dominion over the inferior 
 animals, they can neither subsist without the nourish- 
 ment which these afford, nor carry on any considerable 
 operation independent of their ministry and labour. 
 Accordingly, the first care of the Spaniards, when 
 they settled in America, was to stock it with all the 
 domestic animals of Europe ; and if, prior to them, 
 the Tyrians, the Carthaginians, the Chinese, or any 
 other polished people, had taken possession of that 
 continent, we should have found there the animals 
 peculiar to those regions of the globe, where they 
 were originally seated. In all America, however, 
 there is not one animal, tame or wild, which properly 
 belongs to the warm or even the more temperate 
 countries of the ancient continent. The camel, the 
 dromedary, the horse, the cow, were as much unknown 
 in America, as the Elephant or the lion. From which 
 it is obvious, that the people who first settled in the 
 western world did not issue from those countries 
 where those animals abound, and where men, from 
 having been long accustomed to their aid, would 
 naturally consider it not only as beneficial, but as 
 indispensably necessary to the improvement, and even 
 the preservation of civil society. 
 
 6. From considering 'the" animals v.ith which 
 
 America is stored, we may conclude that the nearest 
 point of contact between the old and new continents 
 is towards the northern extremity of both, and that 
 there the communication was opened, and the inter- 
 course carried on between them. AH the extensive 
 countries in America which lie within the tropics, or 
 approach near to them, are filled with indigenous 
 animals of various kinds, entirely different from those 
 in the corresponding regions of the ancient continent. 
 But the northern provinces of the New World abound 
 with many of the wild animals which are common in 
 such parts of our hemisphere as lie in a similar 
 situation. The bear, the wolf, the fox, the hare, the 
 deer, the roebuck, the elk, and several other species, 
 frequent the forests of North America, no less than, 
 those in the north of Europe and Asia. It seems to 
 be evident, then, that the two continents approach 
 each other in this quarter, and are either united, or 
 so nearly adjacent, that these animals might pasa 
 from one to the other. 
 
 7- The actual vicinity of the two continents is so 
 clearly established by modern discoveries, that the 
 chief difficulty with respect to the peopling of 
 America is removed, While those immense regions, 
 which stretch east-ward from the river Oby to the sea 
 of Kamchatka were unknown or imperfectly explored^ 
 the north-east extremities of our- hemisphere were 
 supposed to be so far distant from any part of the 
 New World, that it was not easy to conceive how any 
 communication could have been carried on between 
 them. But the Russians have subjected the western 
 part of Siberia to their empire, gradually extended 
 their knowledge of that vast country, by advancing 
 towards the east into unknown provinces. These 
 were discovered by hunters in their excursions after 
 game, or by soldiers employed in levying the taxes ; 
 and the court of Moscow estimated the importance 
 of those countries, only by the small addition which 
 they made to its revenue. At length Peter the Great 
 ascended the Russian throne. His enlightened, 
 comprehensive mind, intent upon every circumstance 
 that could aggrandize his empire, or render his reign 
 illustrious, discerned consequences of those disco- 
 veries which had escaped the observation of his 
 ignorant predecessors. He perceived that in pro- 
 portion as the regions of Asia extended towards the 
 east, they must approach nearer to America ; that 
 the communication between the two continents, which, 
 had long been searched for in vain, would probably 
 be found in this quarter, and that by opening it, 
 some part of the wealth and commerce of the western 
 world might be made 10 flow into his dominions by 
 a new channel. Such an object suited a genius that 
 delighted in grand schemes. Peter drew up instruc- 
 tions with his own hand for prosecuting this design, 
 and gave orders for carrying it into execution. 
 
 His successors adopted his ideas, and pursued his, 
 plan. The officers whom the Russian court employed, 
 in this service had to struggle with so many diffi- 
 culties, that their progress was extremly slow. 
 Encouraged by some faint traditions among the people 
 of Siberia, concerning a successful voyage in the year 
 one thousand six hundred and forty-eight, round the 
 north-east promontory of Asia, they attempted to 
 follow the same course. Vessels were fitted out, 
 with this view, at different times, from the rivers 
 Lena and Kolyma ; but in a frozen ocean, which 
 nature seems not to have designed for navigation, 
 they were exposed to many disasters, Avithout being 
 able to accomplish their purpose. No vessel fitted 
 out by the Russian court ever doubled this formid- 
 able Cape (41): we are indebted for Avhat is knoxvu 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 of those extreme regions of Asia, to the discoveries 
 made in excursions by land. In all those provinces 
 an opinion prevails, that there are countries of great 
 extent and fertility, which lie at no considerable 
 distance from their own coasts. These the Russians 
 imagined to be part of America ; and several circum- 
 stances concurred not only in confirming them in this 
 belief, but in persuading them that some portion of 
 that continent could not be very remote. Trees of 
 various kinds, unknown in those naked regions of 
 Asia, are driven upon the coast by an easterly wind. 
 By the same wind, floating ice is brought thither in 
 a few days ; flights of birds arrive annually from the 
 same quarter ; and a tradition obtains among the 
 inhabitants, of an intercourse formerly carried on 
 with some countries situate to the east. 
 
 After weighing all these particulars, and comparing 
 the position of the countries in Asia which had been 
 discovered, with such parts in the north-west of 
 America as were already known, the Russian court 
 formed a plan, which would have hardly occurred to a 
 nation less accustomed to engage in arduous under- 
 takings, and to contend with great difficulties. 
 Orders were issued to build two vessels at the small 
 village of Ochotz, situate on the sea of Kamchatka, to 
 sail on a voyage of discovery. Though that dreary 
 uncultivated region furnished nothing that could be 
 of use in constructing them, but some larch trees : 
 though not only the iron, the cordage, the sails, and 
 all the numerous articles requisite for their equip- 
 ment, but the provisions for victualling them, were 
 to be carried through the immense deserts of Siberia, 
 down rivers difficult of navigation, and along roads 
 almost impassable, the mandate of the sovereign, and 
 the perseverance of the people, at last surmounted 
 every obstacle. Two vessels were finished [A. D. 
 1741, June 4], and, under the command of the 
 Captains Behring and Tschirikow, sailed from Kam- 
 chatka, in quest of the New World, in a quarter 
 where it had never been approached. They shaped 
 their course towards the east ; and though a storm 
 soon separated the vessels, which never rejoined, and 
 many disasters befell them, the expectations from the 
 voyage were not altogether frustrated. Each of the 
 commanders discovered land, which to them appeared 
 to be part of the American continent ; and, according 
 to their observations, it seems to be situated within 
 a few degrees of the north-west coast of California. 
 Each sent some of his people ashore : but in one place 
 the inhabitants fled as the Russians approached; in 
 another, they carried off those who landed, and des- 
 troyed their boats. The violence of the weather, and 
 tihe distress of their crews, obliged both captains to 
 quit this inhospitable coast. In their return they 
 touched at several islands, which stretch in a chain 
 from east to west between the country which they had 
 discovered and the coast of Asia. They had some 
 intercourse with the natives, who seemed to them to 
 resemble the North Americans. They presented to 
 the Russians the calumet, or pipe of peace, which is 
 a symbol of friendship universal among the people of 
 INorth America, and an usage of arbitrary institution, 
 jreculiar to them. 
 
 Though the islands of this New Archipelago have 
 "been frequented since that time by the Russian 
 hunters, the court of St. Petersburgh, during a period 
 of more than forty years, seems to have relinquished 
 every thought of prosecuting discoveries in that 
 quarter. But in the year one thousand seven hun- 
 dred and sixty-eight, it was unexpectedly resumed. 
 The Sovereign, who had been lately seated on the 
 throne of Peter the Great, possessed the genius and , 
 
 talents of her illustrious predecessor. During the 
 operations of the most arduous and extensive war in 
 which the Russian empire was ever engaged, she 
 formed schemes and executed undertakings, to which 
 more limited abilities would have been incapable of 
 attending but amidst the leisure of pacific times. A 
 new voyage of discovery from the eastern extremity 
 of Asia was planned, and Captain Krenitzin and 
 Lieutenant Levasheff were appointed to command 
 the two vessels fitted out for that purpose. In their 
 voyage outward they held nearly the same course 
 with the former navigators, they touched at the same 
 islands, observed their situations and productions 
 more carefully, and discovered several new islands, 
 with which Behring and Tschirikow had not fallen 
 in. Though they did not proceed so far to the east 
 as to revisit the country which Behring and Tschirikow 
 supposed to be part of the American continent, yet, 
 by returning in a course considerably to the north of 
 theirs, they corrected some capital mistakes into 
 which their predecessors had fallen, and have contri- 
 buted to facilitate the progress of future navigators 
 in those seas (42). 
 
 Thus the possibility of a communication between 
 the continents in this quarter rests no longer upon 
 mere conjecture, but is established by undoubted 
 evidence. Some tribe or some families of wandering 
 Tartars, from the restless spirit peculiar to their race, 
 might migrate to the nearest islands, and, rude as 
 their knowledge of navigation was, might, by passing 
 from one to the other, reach at length the coast of 
 America, and give a beginning to population in that 
 continent. The distance between the Marian or 
 Ladrone islands and the nearest land in Asia, is 
 greater than that between the part of America which 
 the Russians discovered, and the coast of Kamchatka ; 
 and yet the inhabitants of those islands are manifestly 
 of Asiatic extract. If, notwithstanding their remote 
 situation, we admit that the Marian islands were 
 peopled from our continent, distance alone is no 
 reason why we should hesitate about admitting that 
 the Americans may derive their original from the 
 same source. It is probable that future navigators 
 in those seas, by steering further to the no'rth, may 
 find that the continent of America approaches still 
 nearer to Asia. According to the information of the 
 barbarous people who inhabit the country about the 
 north-east promontory of Asia, there lies, off the 
 coast, a small island, to which they sail in less than 
 a day. From that they can descry a large continent, 
 which according to their description, is covered with 
 forests, and possessed by people whose language they 
 do not understand. By them they are supplied with 
 the skins of martens, an animal unknown in the 
 northern parts of Siberia, and which is never found 
 but in countries abounding with trees. If we could 
 rely on this account, we might conclude, that the 
 American continent is separated from ours only by a 
 narrow strait, and all the difficulties with respect to 
 the communication between them would vanish. 
 What could be offered only as a conjecture when this 
 History was first published, is now known to be cer- 
 tain. The near approach of the two continents to each 
 other has been discovered and traced in a voyatre 
 undertaken upon principles so pure and so liberal, 
 and conducted with so much professional skill, as 
 reflect lustre upon the reign of the sovereign by 
 whom it was planned, and do honour to the officers 
 intrusted with the execution of it (43). 
 
 It is likewise evident from recent discoveries, that 
 an intercourse between our continent and America 
 might be carried on with no less facility from the 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 69 
 
 north-west extremities of Europe. As early as the 
 ninth century, the Norwegians discovered Greenland, 
 [A. D. 830,] and planted colonies there. The com- 
 munication with that country, after a long interrup- 
 tion, was renewed in the last century. Some Lutheran 
 and Moravian missionaries, prompted by zeal for 
 propagating the Christian faith, have ventured to 
 settle in this frozen and uncultivated region. To 
 them we are indebted for much curious information 
 with respect to its nature and inhabitants. We learn, 
 that the north-west coast of Greenland is separated 
 from America by a very nairow strait ; that, at the 
 bottom of the bay into which this strait conducts, it 
 is highly probable that they are united ; that the 
 inhabitants of the two countries have some inter- 
 course with one another ; that the Esquimaux of 
 America perfectly resemble the Greenlanders in their 
 aspect, dress, and mode of living ; that some sailors 
 who had acquired the knowledge of a few words in the 
 Greenlandish language, reported that these were 
 understood by the Esquimaux ; that, at length, [A. D. 
 1764,] a Moravian missionary, well acquainted with 
 the language of Greenland, having visited the country 
 of the Esquimaux, found, to his astonishment, that 
 they spoke the same language with the Greenlanders ; 
 that they were in every respect the same people, and 
 he was accordingly received and entertained by them 
 as a friend and a brother. 
 
 By these decisive facts, not only the consanguinity 
 of the Esquimaux and Greenlanders is established, 
 but the possibility of peopling America from the 
 north of Europe is demonstrated. If the Norwegians, 
 in a barbarous age, when science had not begun to 
 dawn in the north of Europe, possessed such naval 
 skill as to open a communication with Greenland, 
 their ancestors, as much addicted to roving by sea as 
 the Tartars are to wandering by land, might, at some 
 more remote period, accomplish the same voyage, and 
 settle a colony there, whose descendants might, in 
 progress of time, migrate into America. But if, 
 instead of venturing to sail directly from their own 
 coast to Greenland, we suppose that the Norwegians 
 held a more cautious course, and advanced from 
 Shetland to the Feroe Islands, and from them to 
 Iceland, in all which they had planted colonies ; their 
 progress may have been so gradual, that this naviga- 
 tion cannot be considered as either longer or more 
 hazardous, than those voyages which that hardy and 
 enterprising race of men is known to have performed 
 in every age. 
 
 8. Though it be possible that America may have 
 received its first inhabitants from our continent, 
 either by the north-west of Europe or the north-east 
 of Asia, there seems to be good reason for supposing 
 that the progenitors of all the American nations, 
 from Cape Horn to the southern confines of Labrador, 
 migrated from the latter rather than the former. 
 The Esquimaux are the only people in America, 
 who, in their aspect or character, bear any resem- 
 blance to the northern Europeans. They are mani- 
 festly a race of men distinct from all the nations of 
 the American continent, in language, in disposition, 
 and in habits of life. Their original, then, may 
 warrantably be traced up to that source which I have 
 pointed out. But among all the other inhabitants of 
 America, there is such a striking similitude in the 
 form of their bodies and the qualities of their minds, 
 that, notwithstanding the diversities occasioned by 
 the influence of climate, or unequal progress in im- 
 provement, we must pronounce them to be descended 
 from one source. There may be a variety in the 
 shades, but we can every where trace the same 
 
 original colour. F-ich tribe has something peculiar 
 which distinguishes it, but in all of them we discern 
 certain features common to the whole race. It is 
 remarkable, that in every peculiarity, whether in 
 their persons or dispositions, which characterise the 
 Americans, they have some resemblance to the rude 
 tribes scattered over the north-east of Asia, but 
 almost none to the nations settled in the northern 
 extremities of Europe. We may, therefore, iefer 
 them to the former origin, and conclude that their 
 Asiatic progenitors, having settled in those parts of 
 America where the Russians have discovered the 
 proximity of the two continents, spread gradually 
 over its various regions. This account of the progress 
 of population in America coincides with the traditions 
 of the Mexicans concerning their own origin, which, 
 imperfect as they are, were preserved with more 
 accuracy, and merit greater credit, than those of any 
 people in the New World. According to them, their 
 ancestors came from a remote country, situated to 
 the north-west of Mexico. The Mexicans point out 
 their various stations as they advanced from this into 
 the interior provinces, and it is precisely the same 
 route which they must have held, if they had been 
 emigrants from Asia. The Mexicans, in describing 
 the appearance of their progenitors, their manners 
 and habits of life at that period, exactly delineate 
 those of the rude Tartars, from whom I suppose them 
 to have sprung. 
 
 Thus have I finished a disquisition which has been 
 deemed of so much importance, that it would have 
 been improper to omit it in writing the history of 
 America. I have ventured to inquire, but without 
 presuming to decide. Satisfied with offering conjec- 
 tures, I pretend not to establish any system. When 
 an investigation is, from its nature, so intricate and 
 obscure, that it is impossible to arrive at conclusions 
 which are certain, there may be some merit in pointing 
 out such as are probable. 
 
 The condition and character of the American 
 nations at the time when they became known to the 
 Europeans, deserve more attentive consideration than 
 the inquiry concerning their original. The latter is 
 merely an object of curiosity ; the former is one of 
 the most important as well as instructive researches 
 which can occupy the philosopher or historian. In 
 order to complete the history of the human mind, and 
 attain to a perfect knowledge of its nature and opera- 
 tions, we must contemplate man in all those various 
 situations wherein he has been placed. We must 
 follow him in his progress through the different 
 stages of society, as he gradually advances from the 
 infant state of civil life towards its maturity and 
 decline. We must observe, at each period, how the 
 faculties of his understanding unfold ; we must attend 
 to the efforts of his active power, watch the various 
 movements of desire and affection, as they rise in his 
 breast, and mark whither they tend, and with what 
 ardour they are exerted. The philosophers and his- 
 torians of ancient Greece and Rome, our guides in 
 this as well as every other disquisition, had only a 
 limited view of this subject, as they had hardly any 
 opportunity of surveying man in his rudest and most 
 early state. In all those regions of the earth with 
 which they were well acquainted, civil society had 
 made considerable advances, and nations had finished 
 a good part of their career before they began to 
 observe them. The Scythians and Germans, the 
 rudest people of whom any ancient author has trans- 
 mitted to us an authentic account, possessed flocks 
 and herds, had acquired property of various kinds, 
 and, when compared with mankind in their primitive 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 state, may be reckoned to have attained to a great 
 degree of civilization. 
 
 But the discovery of the New World enlarged the 
 sphere of contemplation, and presented nations to our 
 view, in stages of their progress much less advanced 
 than those wherein they have been observed in our 
 continent. In America, man appears under the rudest 
 form in which we can conceive him to subsist. We 
 behold communities just beginning to unite, and may 
 examine the sentiments and actions of human beings 
 in the infancy of social life, while they feel but im- 
 perfectly the force of its tics, and have scarcely relin- 
 quished their native liberty. That state of primaeval 
 simplicity, which was known in our continent, only 
 by the fanciful description of poets, really existed in 
 the other. The greater part of its inhabitants were 
 strangers to industry and labour, ignorant of arts, 
 imperfectly acquainted with the nature of property, 
 and enjoying almost without restriction or control 
 the blessings which flowed spontaneously from the 
 bounty of nature. There Avere only two nations in 
 this vast continent which had emerged from this rude 
 state, and had made any considerable progress in 
 acquiring the ideas, and adopting the institutions, 
 which belong to polished societies. Their govern- 
 ment and manners will fall naturally under our 
 review in relating the discovery and conquest of the 
 Mexican and Peruvian empires ; and we shall have 
 there an opportunity of contemplating the Americans 
 in the state of highest improvement to which they 
 ever attained. 
 
 At present, our attention and researches shall be 
 turned to the small independent tribes which occupied 
 every other part of America. Among these, though 
 with some diversity in their character, their manners, 1 
 and institutions, the state of society was nearly similar, 
 and so extremely rude, that the denomination of savage 
 may be applied to them all. In a general history of 
 America, it would be highly improper to describe the 
 condition of each petty community, or to investigate 
 every minute circumstance which contributes to form 
 the character of its members. Such an inquiry would 
 lead to details of immeasurable and tiresome extent. 
 The qualities belonging to the people of all the dif- 
 ferent tribes have such a near resemblance, that they 
 may be painted with the same features. Where any 
 circumstances seem to constitute a diversity in their 
 character and manners worthy of attention, it will be 
 sufficient to point these out as they occur, and to 
 inquire into the cause of such peculiarities. 
 
 It is extremely difficult to procure satisfying and 
 authentic information concerning nations while they 
 remain uncivilized. To discover their true character 
 under this rude form, and to select the features by 
 which they are distinguished, requires an observer 
 possessed of no less impartiality than discernment. 
 For, in every state of society, the faculties, the senti- 
 ments, and desires of men, are so accommodated to 
 their own state, that they become standards of excel- 
 lence to themselves, they affix the idea of perfection 
 and happiness to those attainments which resemble 
 their own, and wherever the objects and enjoyments 
 to which they have been accustomed are wanting, 
 confidently pronounce a people to be barbarous and 
 miserable. Hence the mutual contempt with which 
 the members of communities, unequal in their degrees 
 of improvement, regard each other. Polished nations, 
 conscious of the advantages which they deiive from 
 their knowledge and arts, are apt to view rude 
 nations with peculiar scorn, anJ, in the pride of supe- 
 riority, will hardly allow either their occupations, their 
 feelings, or their pleasures, to be worthy of men. It 
 
 has seldom been the lot of communities, in their early 
 and unpolished state, to fall under the observation of 
 persons endowed with force of mind superior to 
 vulgar prejudices, and capable of contemplating man, 
 under whatever aspect he appears, with a candid and 
 discerning eye. 
 
 The Spaniards, who first visited Tvmerica, and who 
 had opportunity of beholding its various tribes while 
 entire and unsubdued, and before any change had 
 been made in their ideas or manners by intercourse 
 with a race of men much advanced beyond them in 
 improvement, were far from possessing the qualities 
 requisite for observing the sti iking spectacle pre- 
 sented to their view. Neither the age in which they 
 lived, nor the nation to which they belonged, had 
 made such progress in true science, as inspires en- 
 larged and liberal sentiments. The conquerors of 
 the New World were mostly illiterate adventurers, des- 
 titute of all the ideas which should have directed them 
 in contemplating objects so extremely different from 
 those with which they were acquainted. Surrounded 
 continually with danger, or struggling with hardships, 
 they had little leisure, and less capacity, for any specu- 
 lative inquiry. Eager to take possession of a country 
 of such extent and opulence, and happy in finding it 
 occupied by inhabitants so incapable to defend it, 
 they hastily pronounced them to be a wretched order 
 of men, formed merely for servitude; and were more 
 employed in computing the profits of their labour, 
 than inquiring into the operations of their minds, or 
 the reasons of their customs and institutions. The 
 persons who penetrated at subsequent periods into 
 the interior provinces, to which the knowledge and 
 devastations of the first conquerors did not reach, 
 were generally of a similar character ; brave and 
 enterprising in a high degree, but so uninformed as 
 to be little qualified either for observing or describing 
 what they beheld. 
 
 Not only the incapacity, but the prejudices of the 
 Spaniards, render their accounts of the people of 
 America extremely defective. Soon after they planted 
 colonies in their new conquests, a difference in opinion 
 arose with respect to the treatment of the natives. 
 One party solicitous to render their servitude per- 
 petual, represented them as a brutish, obstinate race, 
 incapable of either acquiring religious knowledge, or of 
 being trained to the functions of social life. The 
 other full of pious concern for their conversion, con- 
 tended that, though rude and ignorant, they were 
 gentle, affectionate, docile, and by proper instructions 
 and regulations might be formed gradually into good 
 Christians and useful citizens. This controversy, as 
 I have already related, was carried on with all the 
 warmth which is natural when attention to interest 
 on the one hand, and religious zeal on the other, 
 animate the disputants. Most of the laity espoused 
 the former opinion ; all the ecclesiastics were advo- 
 cates for the latter ; and we shall uniformly find, that, 
 accordingly as an author belonged to either of these 
 parties, he is apt to magnify the virtues or aggravate 
 the defects of the Americans far beyond truth. 
 Those repugnant accounts increase the difficulty of 
 attaining a perfect knowledge of their character, and 
 render it necessary to peruse all the descriptions of 
 them by Spanish w liters with distrust, and to 
 receive their information with some grains of 
 allowance. 
 
 Almost two centuries elapsed after the discovery of 
 America, before the manners of its inhabitants at- 
 tracted in any considerable degree, the attention of 
 philosophers. At length they discovered, that the 
 contemplation of the cundhioii and character of the 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Americans, in their original state, tended to complete 
 our knowledge of the human species ; might enable 
 us to fill up a considerable chasm in the history of its 
 progress ; and lead to speculations no less curious 
 than important. They entered upon this new field of 
 study with great ardour ; but, instead of throwing 
 light upon the subject, they have contributed in 
 some degree to involve it in additional obscurity. 
 Too impatient to inquire, the}' hastened to decide ; 
 and began to erect systems, when they should have 
 been searching for facts on which to establish their 
 foundations. Struck with the appearance of dege- 
 neracy in the human species' throughout the New 
 Word, and astonished at beholding a vast continent 
 occupied bv a naked, feeble, and ignorant race of men, 
 some authors of great name have maintained that 
 this part of the globe had but lately emerged from 
 the sea, and become fit for the residence of man ; that 
 every thing in it bore marl's of a recent original ; 
 and that its inhabitants, lately called into existence, 
 and still at the beginning of their career, were un- 
 worthy to be compared with the people of a more 
 ancient and improved continent. Others have ima- 
 gined, that, under the influence of an unkindly climate, 
 which checks and enervates the principle of life, man 
 never attained in America the perfection which be- 
 longs to his nature, but remained an animal of an 
 inferior order, defective in tho vigour of his bodily 
 frame, and destitute of sensibility, as well as of force, 
 in the operations of his mind. In opposition to both 
 those, other philosophers have supposed that man 
 arrives at his highest dignity and excellence long be- 
 fore he reaches a state of refinement ; and, in the 
 rude simplicity of savage life, displays an elevation of 
 sentiment, an independence of mind, and a warmth 
 of attachment, for which it is vain to search among 
 the members of polished societies. They seem to 
 consider that ns the most perfect state of man which 
 is the least civilized. They describe the manners of 
 the rude Americans with such rapture, as if they 
 proposed them for models to the rest of the species. 
 These contradictory theories have boon proposed with 
 equal confidence, and uncommon powers of genius 
 and eloquence have been exerted in order to clothe 
 them with an appearance of truth. 
 
 As all those circumstances concur in rendering an 
 inquiry into the state of the rude nations in America 
 intricate and obscure, it is necessary to carry it on 
 with caution. \Vhen guided in our researches by the 
 intelligent observations of the few philosophers who 
 have visited this part of the globe we may venture 
 to decide. When obliged to have recourse to the 
 superficial remarks of vulgar travellers, of sailors, 
 traders, buccaneers, and missionaries, we must often 
 pause and, comparing detached facts, endeavour to 
 discover what they wanted sagacity to observe. 
 Without indulging conjecture, or betraying a pro- 
 pensity to either system, we must study with equal 
 care to avoid the extremes of extravagant admiration 
 or of supercilious contempt for those manners which 
 we describe. 
 
 In order to conduct this inquiry with greater 
 accuracy, it should be rendered as simple as possible. 
 Man existed as an individual before he became the 
 member of a community ; and the qualities which 
 belong to him under his former capacity should be 
 known, before we proceed to examine those which 
 rise from the latter relation. This is peculiarly 
 necessary in investigating the manners of rude 
 nations. Their political union is so incomplete, 
 their civil institutions and regulations so few, so 
 simple, and of such slender authority, that men in 
 
 this state ought to be viewed rather as independent 
 agents, than as members of a regular society. The 
 character of a savage results almost entirely from his 
 sentiments or feelings as an individual, and is but 
 little influenced by his imperfect subjection to 
 government and order. I shall conduct my researches 
 concerning the manners of the Amerioansin this natural 
 ovder, proceeding gradually from what is simple to 
 what is more complicated. 
 
 I shall consider, I. The bodily constitution of the 
 Americans in those regions now under review. If. 
 The qualities of their minds. III. Their domestic 
 state. IV. Their political state and institutions. V. 
 Their system of war, and public security. VI. The 
 arts with which they were acquainted. VII. Their 
 religious ideas and institutions. VIII. Such singular 
 detached customs as are not reducible to any of the 
 former heads. IX. I shall conclude with a general 
 review and estimate of their virtues and defects. 
 
 I. The bodily constitution of the Americans. The 
 human body is less afl'ected by climate than that of 
 any other animal. Some anima's are confined to a 
 particular region of the globe, and cannot exist beyond 
 it; others though they may be brought to bear the 
 injuries of a climate foreign to them, cease to mul- 
 tiply when carried out of that district which nature 
 destined to be their mansion. Even such as seem 
 capable of being naturalized in various climates, feel 
 the effect of every remove from their proper station, 
 and gradually dwindle and degenerate from the vigour 
 and perfection peculiar to their species. Man is the 
 only living creature whose frame is at once so hardy 
 and so flexible, that he can spread over the whole 
 earth, become the inhabitant of every region, and 
 thrive and multiply under every climate. Subject, 
 however, to the general law of nature, the human 
 body is not entirely exempt from the operation of 
 climate ; and when exposed to the extremes either 
 of heat or cold, its size or vigour diminishes. 
 
 The first appearance of the inhabitants of the New 
 World filled the discoverers with such astonishment, 
 that they were apt to imagine them a race of men 
 different from those of the other hemisphere. Their 
 complexion is of a reddish brown, nearly resembling 
 the colour of copper. The hair of their heads is 
 always black, long, coarse, and uncurled. They have 
 no beard, and every part of their body is perfectly 
 smooth. Their persons are of a full size, extremely 
 straight, and well proportioned (44). Their features 
 are regular, though often distorted by absurd endea- 
 vours to improve the boauty of their natural form, or 
 to render their aspect more dreadful to their enemies. 
 In the islands, where four-footed animals were both 
 few and small, and the earth yielded her productions 
 almost spontaneously, the constitution of the natives, 
 neither braced by the active exercises of the chase, 
 nor invigorated by the labour of cultivation, was 
 extremely feeble and languid. On the continent, 
 where the forests abound with game of various kinds, 
 and the chief occupation of many tribes was to 
 pursue it, the human frame acquired greater firmness. 
 Still however, the Americans were more remarkable 
 for agility than strength. They resembled beasts of 
 prey, rather than animals formed for labour (45). 
 They were not only averse to toil, but incapable of 
 it ; and when roused by force from their native indo- 
 lence, and compelled to. work, they sunk under tasks 
 which the people of the other continent would have 
 performed with ease. This feebleness of constitu- 
 tion was universal among the inhabitants of those 
 regions in America which we are surveying, and may 
 be considered as characteristic of the species there. 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 The beardless countenance and smooth skin of the 
 American seems to indicate a defect of vigour, occa- 
 sioned by some vice in his frame. He is destitute 
 of one sign of manhood and of strength. This pecu- 
 liarity, by which the inhabitants of the New World 
 are distinguished from the people of all other nations, 
 cannot be attributed, as some travellers have sup- 
 posed, to their mode of subsistence. For though the 
 food of many Americans be extremely insipid, as 
 they are altogether unacquainted with the use of salt, 
 rude tribes in other parts of the earth have subsisted 
 on aliments equally simple, without this mark of de- 
 gradation, or any apparent symptom of a diminution 
 in their vigour. 
 
 As the external form of the Americans leads us to 
 suspect that there is some natural debility in their 
 frame, the smallness of their appetite for food has 
 been mentioned by many authors as a confirmation 
 of this suspicion. The quantity of food which men 
 consume varies according to the temperature of the 
 climate in which they live, the degree of activity 
 which they exert, and the natural vigour of their 
 constitutions. Under the eneivating heat of the 
 torrid zone, and when men pass their days in indo- 
 lence and ease, they require less nourishment than 
 the active inhabitants of temperate or cold countries. 
 But neither the warmth of their climate, nor their 
 extreme laziness, will account for the uncommon 
 defect of appetite among the Americans. The 
 Spaniards were astonished with observing this, not 
 only in the islands, but in several parts of the conti- 
 nent. The constitutional temperance of the natives 
 far exceeded, in their opinion, the abstinence of the 
 most mortified hermits ; while on the other hand, the 
 appetite of the Spaniards appeared to the Americans 
 insatiably voracious; and they affirmed, that one 
 Spaniard devoured more food in a day than was 
 sufficient for ten Americans. 
 
 A proof of some feebleness in their frame, still 
 more striking, is the insensibility of the Americans 
 to the charms of beauty and the power of love. That 
 passion, which was destined to perpetuate life, to be 
 the bond of social union, and the source of tenderness 
 and joy, is the most aident in the human breast. 
 Though the perils and hardships of the savage state, 
 though excessive fatigue, on some occasions, and the 
 difficulty at all times of procuring subsistence, may 
 seem to be adverse to this passion, and to have a 
 tendency to abate its vigour, yet the rudest nations 
 in every other part of the globe seem to feel its 
 influence more powerfully than the inhabitants of the 
 New World. The negro glows with all the warmth 
 of desire natural to his climate ; and the most uncul- 
 tivated Asiatics discover that sensibility which, 
 from their situation on the g obe, we should expect 
 them to have felt. But the Americans are, in an 
 amazing degree, strangers to the force of this first 
 instinct of nature. In every part of the New World 
 the natives treat their women with coldness and in- 
 difference. They are neither the objects of that 
 tender attachment which takes place in civilized 
 society, nor of that ardent desire conspicuous among 
 rude nations. Even in climates where this passion 
 usually acquires its greatest vigour, the savage of 
 America views his female with disdain, as an animal 
 of a less noble species. He is at no pains to win her 
 favour by the assiduity of courtship, and still less 
 solicitous to preserve it by indulgence and gentleness. 
 , Missionaries themselves, notwithstanding the aus- 
 terity of monastic ideas, cannot refrain from ex- 
 pressing their astonishment at the dispassionate 
 coldness of the American young men in their inter- 
 
 course with the other sex. Nor is this reserve to be 
 ascribed to any opinion which they entertain with 
 respect to the merit of female chastity. That is an 
 idea too refined for a savage, and suggested by a 
 delicacy of sentiment and affection to which he is a 
 stranger. 
 
 But in inquiries concerning either the bodily or 
 mental qualities of particular races of men, there is not 
 a more common or more seducing error, than that <;f 
 ascribing to a single cause those characteristic pecu- 
 liarities, which are the effect of the combined opera- 
 tion of many causes. The climate and soil of America 
 differ, in so many respects, from those of the other 
 hemisphere, and this difference is so obvious and 
 striking, that philosophers of great eminence have 
 laid hold on this as sufficient to account for what is 
 peculiar in the constitution of its inhabitants. They 
 rest on physical causes alone, and consider the feeble 
 frame and languid desire of the Americans, as conse- 
 quences of the temperament of that portion of the 
 globe which they occupy. But the influences of 
 political and moral causes ought not to have been 
 overlooked. These operate with no less effect than 
 that on which many philosophers rest as a full expla- 
 nation of the singular appearances which have been 
 mentioned. Wherever the state of society is such 
 as to create many wai ts and desires, which cannot 
 be satisfied without regular exertions of industry, 
 the body accustomed to labour becomes robust and 
 patient of fatigue. In a more simple state, where the 
 demands of men are so few and so moderate, that 
 they may be gratified, almost without any effort, by 
 the spontaneous productions of nature, the powers of 
 the body are not called forth, nor can they attain 
 their proper strength. The natives of Chili and 
 of North America, the two temperate regions in the 
 New World, who live by hunting, may be deemed 
 an active and vigorous race, when compared with the 
 inhabitants of the isles, or of those parts of the con- 
 tinent where hardly any labour is requisite to procure 
 subsistence. The exertions of a hunter are not, how- 
 ever, so regular, or so continued, as those of persons 
 employed in the culture of the earth, or in the various 
 arts of civilized life ; and though his agility may be 
 greater than theirs, his strength is on the whole 
 inferior. If another direction were given to the active 
 powers of man in the New W T orld, and his force 
 augmented by exercise, he might acquire a degree of 
 vigour which he does not in his present state pos- 
 sess. The truth of this is confirmed by experience. 
 Wherever the Americans have been gradually accus- 
 tomed to hard labour, their constitutions become 
 robust, and they have been found capable of per- 
 forming such tasks as seemed not only to exceed the 
 powers of such a feeble frame as has been deemed 
 peculiar to their country, but to equal any effort of 
 the natives either of Africa or of Europe (46). 
 
 The same reasoning will apply to what has been 
 observed concerning their slender demand for food. 
 As a proof that this should be ascribed as much 
 to their extreme indolence, and often total want of 
 occupation, as to anything peculiar in the physical 
 structure of their bodies, it has been observed, that 
 in those districts where the people of America are 
 obliged to exert any unusual effort of activity, in 
 order to procure subsistence, or wherever they are 
 employed in severe labour, their appetite is not 
 inferior to that of other men, and, in some places, it 
 has struck observers as remarkably voracious. 
 
 The operation of political and moral causes is 
 still more conspicuous, in modifying the degree of 
 attachment between the sexes. In a state of high 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 civilization, this passion, inflamed by restraint, re- 
 fined by delicacy, and cherished by fashion, occupies 
 and engrosses the heart. It is no longer a simple 
 instinct of nature ; sentiment heightens the ardour 
 of desire, and the most tender emotions of which 
 our frame is susceptible, soothe and agitate the soul. 
 This description, however, applies only to those, who, 
 by their situation, are exempted from the cares and 
 labours of life. Among persons of inferior order, who 
 are doomed by their condition to incessant toil, the 
 dominion of this passion is less violent ; their solici- 
 tude to procure subsistence, and to provide for the 
 first demand of nature, leaves little leisure for attend- 
 ing to its second call. But if the nature of the inter- 
 course between the sexes varies so much in persons 
 of different rank in polished societies, the condition 
 of man, while he remains uncivilized, must occasion a 
 variation still more apparent. We may well suppose, 
 that amidst the hardships, the dangers, and the sim- 
 plicity of savage life, where subsistence is always 
 precarious, and often scanty, where men are almost 
 continually engaged in the pursuit of their enemies, 
 or in guarding against their attacks, and where neither 
 dress nor reserve are employed as arts of female 
 allurement, that the attention of the Americans to 
 their women would be extremely feeble, without im- 
 puting this solely to any physical defect or degrada- 
 tion in their frame. 
 
 It is accordingly observed, that in those countries 
 of America, where, from the fertility of the soil, the 
 mildness of the climate, or some further advances 
 which the natives have made in improvement, the 
 means of subsistence are more abundant, and the 
 hardships of savage life are less severely felt, the 
 animal passion of the sexes becomes more ardent. 
 Striking examples of this occur among some tribes 
 seatod on the banks of great rivers well stored with 
 food, among others who are masters of hunting 
 grounds abounding so much with game, that they 
 have a regular and plentiful supply of nourishment 
 with little labour. The superior degree of security 
 and affluence which these tribes enjoy, is followed by 
 their natural effects. The passions implanted in the 
 human frame by the hand of nature acquire addi- 
 tional force ; new tastes and desires are formed ; the 
 women, as they are more valued and admired, 
 become more attentive to dress and ornament ; the 
 men, beginning to feel how much of their own 
 happiness depends upon them, no longer disdain the 
 arts of winning their favour and affection. The 
 intercourse of the sexes becomes very different from 
 that which takes place among their luder country- 
 men; and as hardly any restraint is imposed on the 
 gratification of desire, either by religion, or laws, 
 or decency, the dissolution of their manners is ex- 
 cessive. 
 
 Notwithstanding the feeble make of the Ameri- 
 cans, hardly any of them are deformed, or mutilated, 
 or defective in any of their senses. All travellers 
 have been struck with this circumstance, and have 
 celebrated the uniform symmetry and perfection of 
 their external figure. Some authors search for the 
 cause of this appearance in their physical condition. 
 As the parents are not exhausted or over-fatigued 
 with hard labour, they suppose that their children 
 are born vigorous and sound. They imagine, that in 
 the liberty of savage life, the human body, naked 
 and unconfined from its earliest age, preserves its 
 natural form ; and that all its limbs and members 
 acquire a juster proportion, than when fettered with 
 artificial restraints, which stint its growth and distort 
 its shape. Something, without doubt, may be 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA, No. 10. 
 
 ascribed to the operation of these causes ; but the 
 true reasons of this apparent advantage, which is 
 common to all savage nations, lie deeper, and are 
 closely interwoven with the nature and genius of that 
 state. The infancy of man is so long and so helpless, 
 that it is extremely difficult to rear children among 
 rude nations. Their means of subsistence are not 
 only scanty, but precarious. Such as live by hunting 
 must range over extensive countries, and shift often 
 from place to place. The care of children, as well 
 as every other laborious task, is devolved upon the 
 women. The distresses and hardships of the savage 
 life, which are often such as can hardly be supported 
 by persons in full vigour, must be fatal to those of 
 more tender age. Afraid of undertaking a task so 
 laborious, and of such long duration-, as that of rear- 
 ing their offspring, the women, in some parts of 
 America, procure frequent abortions by the use of 
 certain herbs, and extinguish the first sparks of that 
 life which they are unable to cherish. Sensible that 
 only stout and well formed children have force of 
 constitution to struggle through such a hard infancy, 
 other nations abandon and destroy such of their 
 progeny as appear feeble or defective, as unworthy 
 of attention. Even when they endeavour to rear all 
 their children without distinction, so great a propor- 
 tion of the whole number perishes under the rigorous 
 treatment which must be their lot in the savage 
 state, that few of those who laboured under any 
 original frailty attain the age of manhood. Thus, in 
 polished societies, where the means of subsistence 
 are secured with certainty, and acquired with ease; 
 where the talents of the mind are often of more 
 importance than the powers of the body ; children 
 are preserved notwithstanding their defects or de- 
 formity, and grow up to be useful citizens. In rude 
 nations, such persons are either cut off as soon as 
 they are born, or, becoming a burden to themselves 
 and to the community, cannot long protract their 
 lives. But in those provinces of the New World, 
 where, by the establishment of the Europeans, more 
 regular provision has been made for the subsistence 
 of its inhabitants, and they are restrained from lay- 
 ing violent hands on their children, the Americans 
 are so far from being eminent for any superior per- 
 fection in their form, that one should rather suspect 
 some peculiar imbecility in their race, from the 
 extraordinary number of individuals who are de- 
 formed, dwarfish, mutilated, blind, or deaf. 
 
 How feeble soever the constitution of the Ameri- 
 cans may be, it is remarkable, that there is less 
 variety in the human form throughout the New 
 World, than in the ancient continent. When 
 Columbus and the other discoverers first visited the 
 different countries of America which lie within the 
 torrid zone, they naturally expected to find people of 
 the same complexion with those in the corresponding 
 regions of the other hemisphere. To their amaze- 
 ment, however, they discovered that America con- 
 tained no negroes ; and the cause of this singular 
 appearance became as much the object of curiosity, 
 as the fact itself was of wonder. In what part or 
 membrane of the body that humour resides which 
 tinges the complexion of the negro with a deep 
 black, it is the business of anatomists to inquire and 
 describe. The powerfnl operation of heat appears 
 manifestly to be the cause which produces this 
 striking variety in the human species. All Europe, 
 a great part of Asia, and the temperate countries of 
 Africa, are inhabited by men of a white complexion. 
 All the torrid zone in Africa, some of the warmer 
 regions adjacent to it, and several countries in Asia, 
 
74 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 are filled with people of a deep black colour. If we 
 survey the nations of our continent, making our 
 progress from cold and temperate countries towards 
 those parts which are exposed to the influence of 
 vehement and unremitting heat, we shall find, that the 
 extreme whiteness of their skin soon begins to dimi- 
 nish ; that its colour gradually deepens as we advance ; 
 and after passing through all the successive gradations 
 of shade, terminates in an uniform unvarying black. 
 But in America, where the agency of heat is checked 
 and abated by various causes, which I have already 
 explained, the climate seems to be destitute of that 
 force which produces such wonderful effects on the 
 human frame. The colour of the natives of the 
 torrid zone in America is hardly of a deeper hue than 
 that of the people in the more temperate parts of 
 their continent. Accurate observers, who had an 
 opportunity of viewing the Americans in very dif- 
 ferent climates, and in provinces far removed from 
 each other, have been struck with the amazing simi- 
 larity of their figure and aspect (47). 
 
 But though the hand of nature has deviated so 
 little from one standard in fashioning the human 
 form in America, the creation of fancy hath been 
 various and extravagant. The same fables that were 
 current in the ancient continent, have been revived 
 with respect to the New World, and America too 
 has been peopled with human beings of monstrous 
 and fantastic appearance. The inhabitants of certain 
 provinces were described to be pigmies of three feet 
 high ; those of others to be giants of an enormous 
 size. Some travellers published accounts of people 
 with only one eye ; others pretended to have disco- 
 vered men without heads, whose eyes and mouths 
 were planted in their breasts. The variety of nature 
 in her productions is indeed so great, that it is pre- 
 sumptuous to set bounds to her fertility, and to 
 reject indiscriminately every relation that does not 
 perfectly accord with our own limited observation 
 and experience. But the other extreme, of yielding 
 a hasty assent, on the slightest evidence, to whatever 
 has the appearance of being strange and marvellous, 
 is still more unbecoming a philosophical inquirer ; as, 
 in every period, men are more apt to be betrayed 
 into error, by their weakness in believing too much, 
 than by their arrogance in believing too little. In 
 proportion as science extends, and nature is examined 
 with, a discerning eye, the wonders which amused 
 ages of ignorance disappear. The tales of credulous 
 travellers concerning America are forgotten ; the 
 monsters which they describe have been searched for 
 in vain ; and those provinces where they pretend to 
 have found inhabitants of singular forms, are now 
 known to be possessed by people nowise different 
 from the other Americans. 
 
 Though those relations may, without discussion, 
 be rejected as fabulous, there are other accounts of 
 varieties in the human species in some parts of the 
 New World, which rest upon better evidence, and 
 merit more attentite examination. This variety has 
 been particularly observed in three different districts. 
 The first of these is situated in the isthmus of 
 Darien, near the centre of America. Lionel Wafer, 
 a traveller possessed of more curiosity and intelli- 
 gence than we should have expected to find in an 
 associate of buccaneers, discovered there a race of 
 men, few in number, but of a singular make. They 
 are of low stature, according to his description, of a 
 feeble frame, incapable of enduring fatigue. Their 
 colour is a dead milk white ; not resembling that of 
 fair people among Europeans, but without any 
 tincture of a blush or sanguine complexion. The 
 
 skin is covered with a fine hairy down of a chalky 
 white ; the hair of their heads, their eye-brows, and 
 eye-lashes are of the same hue. Their eyes are of a 
 singular form, and so weak, that they can hardly 
 bear the light of the sun; but they see clearly by 
 moon-light, and are most active and gay in the night. 
 No race similar to this has been discovered in any 
 other part of America. Cortes, indeed, found some 
 persons exactly resembling the white people of 
 Darien, among the rare and monstrous animals which 
 Montezuma had collected. But as the power of the 
 Mexican empire extended to the provinces bordering 
 on the isthmus of Darien, they were probably brought 
 thence. Singular as the appearance of those people 
 may be, they cannot be considered as constituting a 
 distinct species. Among the negroes of Africa, as well 
 as the natives of the Indian islands, nature sometimes 
 produces a small number of individuals, with all the 
 characteristic features and qualities of the white 
 people of Darien. The former are called Albinos by 
 the Portuguese, the latter Kackerlakes by the Dutch. 
 In Darien the parents of those Whites are of the 
 same colour with the other natives of the country ; 
 and this observation applies equally to the anomalous 
 progeny of the negroes and Indians. The same 
 mother who produces some children of a colour that 
 does not belong to the race, brings forth the rest with 
 the complexion peculiar to the country. One con- 
 clusion may then be formed with respect to the 
 people described by Wafer, the Albinos and the 
 Kackerlakes; they are a degenerate breed, not a 
 separate class of men ; and from some disease or 
 defect of their parents, the peculiar colour and debi- 
 lity which mark their degradation are transmitted to 
 them. As a decisive proof of this, it has been 
 observed, that neither the white people of Darien, 
 nor the Albinos of Africa, propagate their race ; 
 their children are of the colour and temperament 
 peculiar to the natives of their respective coun- 
 tries (48). 
 
 The second district that is occupied by inhabitants 
 differing in appearance from the other people of 
 America, is situated in a high northern latitude, 
 extending from the coast of Labrador towards the 
 pole, as far as the country is habitable. The people 
 scattered over those dreary regions, are known to the 
 Europeans by the name of Esquimaux. They them- 
 selves, with that idea of their own superiority which 
 consoles the rudest and most wretched nations, as- 
 sume the name of Keralit or Men. They are of a 
 middle size, and robust, with heads of a dispropor- 
 tioned bulk, and feet as remarkably small. Their 
 complexion, though swarthy, by being continually 
 exposed to the rigour of a cold climate, inclines to 
 the European white, rather than to the copper colour 
 of America, and the men have beards which are 
 sometimes bushy and long. From these marks of 
 distinction, as well as from one still less equivocal, 
 the affinity of their language to that of the Green- 
 landers, which I have already mentioned, we may 
 conclude, with some degree of confidence, that the 
 Esquimaux are a race different from the rest of the 
 Americans. 
 
 We cannot decide with equal certainty concerning 
 the inhabitants of the third district, situated at the 
 southern extremity of America. These are the 
 famous Patagonians, who, during two centuries and 
 a half, have afforded a subject of controversy to the 
 learned, and an object of wonder to the vulgar. They 
 are supposed to be one of the wandering tribes, 
 which occupy the vast but least known region 
 America, which extends from the river de la Plata to 
 
 B y 
 ;s, 
 
 : 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 75 
 
 the straits of Magellan. Their proper station is in 
 that part of the interior country which lies on the 
 banks of the river Negro ; but in the hunting sea- 
 son, they often roam as far as the straits which 
 separate Tierra del Fuego from the main land. The 
 first accounts of this people were brought to Europe 
 by the companions of Magellan, who described them 
 as a gigantic race, above eight feet high, and of 
 strength in proportion to their enormous size. Among 
 several tribes of animals, a disparity in bulk as con- 
 siderable may be observed. Some large breeds of 
 horses and dogs exceed the more diminutive races in 
 stature and strength, as far as the Patagonian is sup- 
 posed to rise above the usual standard of the human 
 body. But animals attain the highest perfection of 
 their species only in mild climates, or where they 
 find the most nutritive food in greatest abund- 
 ance. It is not then in the uncultivated waste of the 
 Magellanic regions, and among a tribe of improvident 
 savages, that we should expect to find a man pos- 
 sessing the highest honours of his race, and distin- 
 guished by a superiority of size and vigour, far 
 beyond what he has reached in any other part of the 
 earth. The most explicit and unexceptionable evi- 
 dence is requisite, in order to establish a fact repug- 
 nant to those general principles and laws, which seem 
 to affect the human frame in every other instance, and 
 to decide with respect to its nature and qualities. 
 Such evidence has not hitherto been produced. 
 Though several persons, to whose testimony great 
 respect is due, have visited this part of America 
 since the time of Magellan, and have had interviews 
 with the natives ; though some have affirmed that 
 such as they saw were of gigantic stature, and others 
 have formed the same conclusion from measuring 
 their footsteps, or from viewing the skeletons of their 
 dead ; yet their accounts vary from each other in so 
 many essential points, and are mingled with so many 
 circumstances manifestly false or fabulous, as detract 
 much from their credit. On the other hand, some 
 navigators, and those among the most eminent of 
 their order for discernment and accuracy, have 
 asserted that the natives of Patagonia, with whom 
 they had intercourse, though stout and well made, 
 are not of such extraordinary size as to be distin- 
 guished from the rest of the human species (49). 
 The existence of this gigantic race of men seems, 
 then, to be one of those points in natural history, 
 with respect to which a cautious inquirer will hesi- 
 tate, and will choose to suspend his assent, until 
 more complete evidence shall decide, whether he 
 ought to admit a fact, seemingly inconsistent with 
 what reason and experience have discovered con- 
 cerning the structure and condition of man, in all 
 the various situations in which he has been observed. 
 In order to form a complete idea with respect to 
 the constitution of the inhabitants of this and the 
 other hemisphere, we should attend not only to the 
 make and vigour of their bodies, but consider what 
 degree of health they enjoy, and to what period of 
 longevity they usually arrive. In the simplicity of 
 the savage state, when man is not oppressed with 
 labour, or enervated by luxury, or disquieted with 
 care, we are apt to imagine that his life will flow on 
 almost untroubled by disease or suffering, until his 
 days be terminated, in extreme old age, by the 
 gradual decays of nature. We find, accordingly, 
 among the Americans, as well as among other rude 
 people, persons whose decrepit and shrivelled form 
 seems to indicate an extraordinary length of life. But 
 as most of them are unacquainted with the art of 
 numbering, and allof them as forgetful of what is past, 
 
 as they are improvident of what is to come, it is im- 
 possible to ascertain their age with any degree of 
 precision. It is evident that the period of their 
 longevity must vary considerably, according to the 
 diversity of climates, and their different modes of 
 subsistence. They seem, however, to be every where 
 exempt from many of the distempers which afflict 
 polished nations. None of the maladies, which are 
 the immediate offspring of luxury, ever visited them ; 
 and they have no names in their languages, by which 
 to distinguish this numerous train of adventitious evils. 
 
 But whatever be the situation in which man is 
 placed, he is born to suffer; and his diseases, in the 
 savage state, though fewer in number, are like those 
 of the animals whom he nearly resembles in his mode 
 of life, more violent and more fatal. If luxury en- 
 genders and nourishes distempers of one species, the 
 rigour and distresses of savage life bring on those of 
 another. As men in this state are wonderfully im- 
 provident, and their means of subsistence precarious, 
 they often pass from extreme want to exuberant 
 plenty, according to the vicissitudes of fortune in the 
 chase, or in consequence of the various degrees of 
 abundance with which the earth affords to them its 
 productions in different seasons. Their inconsiderate 
 gluttony in the one situation, and .their severe absti- 
 nence in the other, are equally pernicious. For 
 though the human constitution may be accustomed 
 by habit, like that of animals of prey, to tolerate long 
 famine, and then to gorge voraciously, it is not a 
 little affected by such sudden and violent transitions. 
 The strength and vigour of savages are at some sea- 
 sons impaired by what they suffer from a scarcity of 
 food ; at others, they are afflicted with disorders 
 arising from indigestion and a superfluity of gross 
 aliment. These are so common,'' that they may be 
 considered as the unavoidable consequence of their 
 mode of subsisting, and cut off considerable numbers 
 in the prime of life. They are likewise extremely 
 subject to consumptions, to pleuritic, asthmatic, and 
 paralytic disorders, brought on by the immoderate 
 hardships and fatigue which they endure in hunting 
 and in war ; or owing to the inclemency of the seasons 
 to which they are continually exposed. In the savage 
 state, hardships and fatigue violently assault the con- 
 stitution. In polished societies, intemperance under- 
 mines it. It is not easy to determine which of them 
 operates with most fatal effect, or tends most to 
 abridge human life. The influence of the former is 
 certainly most extensive. The pernicious conse- 
 quences of luxury reach only a few members in any 
 community ; the distresses of savage life are felt by 
 all. As far as I can judge, after very minute inquiry, 
 the general period of human life is shorter among 
 savages, than in well regulated and industrious 
 societies. 
 
 One dreadful malady, the severest scourge with 
 which, in this life, offended Heaven chastens the 
 indulgence of criminal desire, seems to have been 
 peculiar to the Americans. By communicating it to 
 their conquerors, they have not only amply avenged 
 their own wrongs, but by adding this calamity to 
 those which formerly embittered human life, they 
 have, perhaps, more than counterbalanced all the 
 benefits which Europe has derived from the discovery 
 of the New World. This distemper, from the country 
 in which it first raged, or from the people by whom 
 it was supposed to have been spread over Europe, 
 has sometimes been called the Neapolitan, and some- 
 times the French disease. At its first appearance, 
 the infection was so malignant, its symptoms so 
 violent, its operation so rapid and fatal, as to baffle aft 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA.' 
 
 the efforts of medical slcill. Astonishment and terror 
 accompanied this unknown affliction in its progress, 
 and men began to dread the extinction of the human 
 race by such a cruel visitation. Experience, and the 
 ingenuity of physicians, gradually discovered remedies 
 of such virtue as to cure or to mitigate the evil. During 
 the course of two centuries and a half, its virulence 
 seems to have abated considerably. At length, in the 
 same manner with the leprosy, "which raged in Europe 
 for some centuries, it may waste its force and dis- 
 appear; and in some happier age, this western infec- 
 tion, like that from the East, may be known only by 
 description (50). 
 
 II. After considering what appears to be peculiar 
 in the bodily constitution of the Americans, our at- 
 tention is naturally turned towards the powers and 
 qualities of their minds. As the individual advances 
 from the ignorance and imbecility of the infant state 
 to vigour and maturity of understanding, something 
 similar to this may be observed" in the progress of the 
 species. With respect to it too, there is a period of 
 infancy, during which several powers of the mind 
 are not unfolded, and all are feeble and defective in 
 their operation. In the early ages of society, while 
 the condition of man is simple and rude, his reason 
 is but little exercised, and his desires move within a 
 very narrow sphere. Hence arise two remarkable 
 characteristics of the human mind in this state. Its 
 intellectual powers are extremely limited; its emo- 
 tions and efforts are few and languid. Both these 
 distinctions are conspicuous among the rudest and 
 most unimproved of the American tribes, and consti- 
 tute a striking part of their description. 
 
 What, among polished nations, is called speculative 
 reasoning or research, is altogether unknown in the 
 rude state of society, and never becomes the occupa- 
 tion or amusement of the human faculties, until man 
 be so far improved as to have secured, with certainty, the 
 means of subsistence, as well as the possession of leisure 
 and tranquillity. The thoughts and attention of a sa- 
 vage are confined within the small circle of objects im- 
 mediately conducive to his preservation or enjoyment. 
 Every thing beyond that, escapes his observation, or 
 is perfectly indifferent to him. Like a mere animal, 
 what is before his eyes interests and affects him ; 
 what is out of sight, or at a distance, makes little 
 impression. There are several people in America 
 whose limited understandings seem not to be capable 
 of forming an arrangement for futurity ; neither their 
 solicitude nor their foresight extend so far. They 
 follow blindly the impulse of the appetite which they 
 feel, but are entirely regardless of distant conse- 
 quences, aiid even of those removed in the least 
 degree from immediate apprehension. While they 
 highly prize such things as serve for present use, or 
 minister to present enjoyment, they set no value upon 
 those which are not the object of some immediate 
 want. When, on the approach of the evening, a 
 Caribbee feels himself disposed to gp to rest, no con- 
 sideration will tempt him to sell his hammock. But, 
 in the morning, when he is sallying out to the busi- 
 ness or passtime of the day, he will part with it for 
 the slightest toy that catches his fancy. At the close 
 of winter, while the impression of what he has suf- 
 fered from the rigour of the climate is fresh in the 
 mind of the North American, he sets himself with 
 vigour to prepare materials for erecting a comfortable 
 hut to protect him against the inclemency of the suc- 
 ceeding season ; but, as soon as the weather becomes 
 mild, he forgets what is past, abandons his work, and 
 never thinks of it more, until the return of cold 
 compels him, when too late, to resume it. -~-^v 
 
 If, in concerns the most interesting, and seemingly 
 the most simple, the reason of man, while rude and 
 destitute of culture, differs so little from the thought- 
 less levity of children, or the improvident instinct of 
 animals, its exertions, in other directions, cannot be 
 very considerable. The objects towards which reason 
 turns, and the disquisitions in which it engages, must 
 depend upon the state in which man is placed, and 
 are suggested by his necessities and desires. Dis- 
 quisitions, which appear the most necessary and im- 
 portant to men in one state of society, never occur to 
 those in another. Among civilized nations, arith- 
 metic, or the art of numbering, is deemed an essential 
 and elementary science ; and in our continent, the 
 invention and use of it reaches back to a period so 
 remote as is beyond the knowledge of history. But 
 among savages, who have no property to estimate, no 
 hoarded treasures to count, no variety of objects or 
 multiplicity of ideas to enumerate, arithmetic is a 
 superfluous and useless art. Accordingly, among 
 some tribes in America it seems to be quite unknown. 
 There are many who cannot reckon further than 
 three ; and have no denomination to distinguish any 
 number above it. Several can proceed as far as ten, 
 others to twenty. When they would convey an idea 
 of any number beyond these, they point to the hair 
 of their hoad, intimating that it is equal to them, or 
 with wonder declare it to be so great that it cannot 
 be reckoned. Not only the Americans, but all nations, 
 while extremely rude, seem to be unacquainted with 
 the art of computation. As soon, however, as they ac- 
 quire such acquaintance or connexion with a variety of 
 objects that there is frequent occasion to combine or 
 divide them, their knowledge of numbers increases, 
 so that the state of this art among any people may be 
 considered as one standard, by which to estimate the 
 degree of their improvement. The Iroquois, in North 
 America, as they are much more civilized than the 
 rude inhabitants of Brazil, Paraguay, or Guiana, 
 have likewise made greater advances in this respect ; 
 though even their arithmetic does not extend beyond 
 a thousand, as in their petty transactions, they have 
 no occasion for any higher number. The Cherokee, 
 a less considerable nation on the same continent, can 
 reckon only as far as a hundred, and to that extent 
 have names for the several numbers ; the smaller 
 tribes in their neighbourhood can rise no higher than 
 ten (51). 
 
 In other respects, the exercise of the understanding 
 among rude nations is still more limited. The first 
 ideas of every human being must be such as he 
 receives by the senses. But in the mind of man, 
 while in the savage state, there seem to be hardly any 
 ideas but what enter by this avenue. The objects 
 around him are presented to his eye. Such as may 
 be subservient to his use, or can gratify any of his 
 appetites, attract his notice; he views the rest without 
 curiosity or attention. Satisfied with considering 
 them under that simple mode in which they appear 
 to him, as separate and detached, he neither com- 
 bines them so as to form general classes, nor contem- 
 plates their qualities apart from the subject in which 
 they inhere, nor bestows a thought upon the opera- 
 tions of his own mind concerning them. .Thus he is 
 unacquainted with all the ideas which have been 
 denominated universal, or abstract, or of reflection. 
 The range of his understanding must, of course, be 
 very confined, and his reasoning powers be employed 
 merely on what is sensible. ' This is so remarkably 
 the case with the ruder nations of America, that their 
 language (as we shall afterwards find) have not a word 
 to express any thingjbut what is material or corporeal. 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Time, space, substance, and a thousand other terms 
 which represent abstract and universal ideas, are 
 altogether unknown to them. A naked savage, cow- 
 ering over the fire in his miserable cabin, or stretched 
 under a few branches which afford him a temporary 
 shelter, has as little inclination as capacity for useless 
 speculation. His thoughts extend not beyond what 
 relates to animal life ; and when they are not directed 
 towards some of its concerns, his mind is totally 
 inactive. In situations where no extraordinary effort 
 either of ingenuity or labour is requisite, in order to 
 satisfy the simple demands of nature, the powers of 
 the mind are so seldom roused to any exertion, that 
 the rational faculties continue almost dormant and 
 unexercised. The numerous tribes scattered over the 
 rich plains of South America, the inhabitants of some 
 of the islands, and of several fertile regions on the 
 continent, come under this description. Their vacant 
 countenance, their staring inexpressive eye, their 
 listless inattention, and total ignorance of subjects, 
 which seemed to be the first which should occupy 
 the thoughts of rational beings, made such impression 
 upon the Spaniards, when they first beheld those 
 rude people, that they considered them as animals of 
 an inferior order, and could not believe that they 
 belonged to the human species. It required the 
 authority of a papal bull to counteract this opinion, 
 and to convince them that the Americans were 
 capable of the functions, and entitled to the privileges 
 of humanity. Since that time, persons more enlight- 
 ened and impartial than the discoverers or conquerors 
 of America, have had an opportunity of contemplating 
 the most savage of its inhabitants, and they have 
 been astonished and humbled, with observing how 
 nearly man, in this condition, approaches to the brute 
 creation. But in severer climates, where subsistence 
 cannot be procured with the same ease, where men 
 must unite more closely, and act with greater concert, 
 necessity calls forth their talents, and sharpens their 
 invention, so that the intellectual powers are more 
 exercised and improved. The North American tribes 
 and the natives of Chili, who inhabit the temperate 
 regions in the two great districts of America, are 
 people of cultivated and enlarged understandings, 
 when viewed in comparison with some of those seated 
 . in the islands, or on the banks of the Maragnon and 
 Orinoco. Their occupations are more various, their 
 system of policy, as well as of war, more complex, 
 their arts more numerous. But even among them, 
 the intellectual powers are extremely limited in their 
 operations, and unless when turned directly to those 
 objects which interest a savage, are held in no esti- 
 mation. Both the North Americans and the Chilese, 
 when not engaged in some of the functions belonging 
 to a warrior or hunter, loiter away their time in 
 thoughtless indolence, unacquainted with any other 
 subject worthy of their attention, or capable of occu- 
 pying their minds. If even among them reason is so 
 much circumscribed in its exertions, and never 
 arrives, in its highest attainments, at the knowledge 
 of those general principles and maxims which serve 
 as the foundation of science, we may conclude, that 
 the intellectual powers of man in the savage state are 
 destitute of their proper object, and cannot acquire 
 any considerable degree of vigour and enlargement. 
 
 From the same causes, the active efforts of the 
 mind are few, and on most occasions, languid. If we 
 examine into the motives which rouse men to activity 
 in civilized life, and prompt them to persevere in 
 fatiguing exertions of their ingenuity or strength, we 
 shall find that they arise chiefly from acquired wants 
 und appetites. These are numerous and importunate ; 
 
 they keep the mind in perpetual agitation, and, hi 
 order to gratify them, invention must be always on 
 the stretch, and industry must be incessantly em- 
 ployed. But the desires of simple nature are few, 
 and where a favourable climate yields almost spon- 
 taneously what suffices to gratify them, they scarcely 
 stir the soul, or excite any violent emotion. Hence 
 the people of several tribes in America waste their 
 life in a listless indolence. To be free from occupa- 
 tion, seems to be all the enjoyment towards which 
 they aspire. They will continue whole days stretched 
 out in their hammocks, or seated on the earth in 
 perfect idleness, without changing their posture, or 
 raising their eyes from the ground, or uttering a 
 single word. 
 
 Such is their aversion to labour, that neither the 
 hope of future good, nor the apprehension of future 
 evil, can surmount it. They appear equally indif- 
 ferent to both, discovering little solicitude, and taking 
 no precautions to avoid the one, or to secure the 
 other. The cravings of hunger may arouse them ; 
 but as they devour, with little distinction, whatever 
 will appease its instinctive demands, the exertions 
 which these occasion are of short duration. Destitute 
 of ardour, as well as variety of desire, they feel not 
 the force of those powerful springs which give vigour 
 to the movements of the mind, and urge the patient 
 hand of industry to persevere in its eifoits. Man, in 
 some parts of America, appears in a form so rude, 
 that we can discover no effects of his activity, and 
 the principle of understanding which should direct it 
 seems hardly to be unfolded. Like the other animals, 
 he has no fixed residence ; he has erected no habita- 
 tion to shelter Li in from the inclemency of the 
 weather ; he has taken no measures for securing 
 certain subsistence ; he neither sows nor reaps ; but 
 roams about as led in search of the plants and fruits 
 which the earth brings forth in sviccession ; and in 
 quest of the game which he kills in the forests, or 
 of the fish which he catches in the rivers. 
 
 This description, however, applies only to some 
 tribes. Man cannot continue long in this state of 
 feeble and uninformed infancy. He was made for 
 industry and action, and the powers of his nature, as 
 well as the necessity of his condition, urge him to 
 fulfil his destiny. Accordingly, among most of the 
 American nations, especially those seated in rigorous 
 climates, some efforts are employed, .and some pre- 
 vious precautions are taken, for securing subsistence. 
 The career of regular industry is begun, and the labo- 
 rious arm has made the first essays of its power. 
 Still, however, the improvident and slothful genius 
 of the savage state predominates. Even among 
 those more improved tribes, labour is deemed igno- 
 minious and degrading. It is only to work of a cer- 
 tain kind that a man will deign to put his hand. The 
 greater part is devolved entirely upon the women. 
 One half of the community remains inactive, while 
 the other is oppressed with the multitude and 
 variety of its occupations. Thus their industry is 
 partial, and the foresight which regulates it is no 
 less limited. A remarkable instance of this occurs 
 in the chief arrangement with respect to their man- 
 ner of living. They depend for their subsistence, 
 during one part of the year, on fishing ; during 
 another on hunting ; during a third, on the pro- 
 duce of their agriculture. Though experience has 
 taught them to foresee the return of those various 
 seasons, and to make some provision for the respec- 
 tive exigencies of each, they either want sagacity to 
 proportion this provision to their" consumption, or 
 are so incapable of any command over their appe- 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 tites, that from their inconsiderate waste, they often 
 feel the calamities of famine as severely as the 
 rudest of the savage tribes. What they suffer one 
 year does not- augment their industry, or render them 
 more provident to prevent similar distresses. This 
 inconsiderate thoughtlessness about futurity, the 
 effect of ignorance and the cause of sloth, accompa- 
 nies and characterizes man in every stage of savage 
 life ; and by a capricious singularity in his opera- 
 tions, he is then least solicitious about supplying his 
 wants, when the means of satisfying them are most 
 precarious, and procured with the greatest dif- 
 ficulty (52). 
 
 III. After viewing the bodily constitution of the 
 Americans, and contemplating the powers of their 
 minds, we are led, in the natural order of inquiry, to 
 consider them as united together in society. Hitherto 
 our researches have been confined to the operations 
 of understanding respecting themselves as individuals, 
 now they will extend to the degree of their sensi- 
 bility and affection towards their species. 
 
 The domestic state is the first and most simple 
 form of human association. The union of the sexes, 
 among different animals, is of longer or shorter dura- 
 tion in proportion to the ease or dilliculty of rearing 
 their offspring. Among those tribes where the season 
 of infancy is short, and the young soon acquire vigour 
 or agility, no permanent union is formed. Nature 
 commits the care of training up the offspring to the 
 mother alone, and her tenderness, without any other as- 
 sistance, is equal to the task. But where the state of 
 infancy is long and helpless, and the joint assiduity 
 of both parents is requisite in tending their feeble pro- 
 geny, there a more intimate connection takes place, 
 and continues until the purpose of nature be accom- 
 plished, and the new race grow up to full maturity. 
 As the infancy of man is more feeble and helpless 
 than that of any other animal, and he is dependent, 
 during a much longer period, on the care and fore- 
 sight of his parents, the union between husband and 
 wife came early to be considered, not only as a 
 solemn, but as a permanent, contract. A general 
 tate of promiscuous intercourse between the sexes 
 never existed but in the imagination of poets. In 
 the infancy of society, when men, destitute of arts 
 and industry, lead a hard precarious life, the rearing 
 of their progeny demands the attention and efforts of 
 both parents ; and if their union had not been formed 
 and continued with this view, the race could not have 
 been preserved. Accordingly, in America, even 
 among the rudest tribes, a regular union between 
 husband and wife was universal, and the rights of 
 marriage were understood and recognised. In those 
 districts where subsistence was scanty, and the diffi- 
 culty of maintaining a family was great, the man 
 confined himself to one wife. In warmer and more 
 fertile provinces, the facility of procuring food con- 
 curred with the influence of climate in inducing the 
 inhabitants to increase the number of their wives. 
 In some countries, the marriage union subsisted 
 during life ; in others, the impatience of the Ameri- 
 cans under restraint of any species, together with 
 their natural levity and caprice, prompted them to 
 dissolve it on very slight pretexts, and often without 
 assigning any cause. 
 
 But in whatever light the Americans considered 
 the obligation of this contract, either as perpetual, or 
 only as temporary, the condition of women was equally 
 humiliating and miserable. Whether man has been 
 improved by the progress of arts and civilization in 
 society, is a question which, in the wantonness of 
 disputation, has been agitated among philosophers. 
 
 That women are indebted to the refinements of 
 polished manners for a happy change in their state, is 
 a point which can admit of no doubt. To despise 
 and to degrade the female sex, is the characteristic of 
 the savage state in every part of the globe. Man, 
 proud of excelling in strength and in courage, the 
 chief marks of pre-eminence among rude people, 
 treats woman, as an inferior, with disdain. The 
 Americans, perhaps from that coldness and insensi- 
 bility which has been considered as peculiar to their 
 constitution, add neglect and harshness to contempt. 
 The most intelligent travellers have been struck with 
 this inattention of the Americans to their women. It is 
 not, as I have already observed, by a studied display 
 of tenderness and attachment, that the American en- 
 deavours to gain the heart of the woman whom he wishes 
 to marry. Marriage itself, instead of being an union 
 of affection and interests between equals, becomes, 
 among them, the unnatural conjunction of a master 
 with his slave. It is the observation of an author, 
 whose opinions are deservedly of great weight, that 
 wherever wives are purchased, their condition is ex- 
 tremely depressed. They become the property and 
 the slaves of those who buy them. In whatever pait 
 of the globe this custom prevails, the observation 
 holds. In countries where refinement has made some 
 progress, women, when purchased, are excluded from 
 society, shut up in sequestered apartments, and kept 
 under the vigilant guard of their masters. In ruder 
 nations, they are degraded to the meanest functions. 
 Among many people of America, the marriage-con- 
 tract is properly a purchase. The man buys his wife 
 of her parents. Though unacquainted with the use 
 of money, or with such commercial transactions as 
 take place in more improved society, he knows how 
 to give an equivalent for any object which he desires 
 to possess. In some places, the suitor devotes his 
 service for a certain time to the parents of the 
 maid whom he courts ; in others, he hunts for them 
 occasionally, or assists in cultivating their fields, and 
 forming their canoes ; in others, he offers presents of 
 such things as are deemed most valuable on account 
 of their usefulness or rarity. In return for these he 
 receives his wife ; and this circumstance, added to 
 the low estimation of women among savages, leads 
 him to consider her as a female servant whom he has 
 purchased, and whom he has a title to treat as an 
 inferior. In all unpolished nations, it is true, the 
 functions in domestic economy, which fall naturally 
 to the share of women, are so many, that they are 
 subjected to hard labour, and must bear more than 
 their full portion of the common burthen. But in 
 America their condition is so peculiarly grievous, and 
 their depression so complete, that servitude is a name 
 too mild to describe their wretched state. A wife, 
 among most tribes, is no better than a beast of bur- 
 then destined to every office of labour and fatigue. 
 While the men loiter out the day in sloth, or spend 
 it in amusement, the women are condemned to inces- 
 sant toil. Tasks are imposed upon them without 
 pity, and services are received without complaisance 
 or gratitude. Every circumstance reminds women 
 of this mortifying inferiority. They must approach 
 their lords with reverence ; they must regard them 
 as more exalted beings, and are not permitted to eat 
 in their presence. There are districts in America 
 where this dominion is so grievous, andso sensibly felt, 
 that some women, in a wild emotion of maternal tender- 
 ness, have destroyed their female children in their in- 
 fancy in order to deliver them from that intolerable 
 bondage to which they knew they were doomed. Thus 
 the'first institution of social life is perverted. That state 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 of domestic union towards which nature leads the 
 human species, in order to soften the heart to gentle- 
 ness and humanity, is rendered so unequal, as to 
 establish a cruel distinction between the sexes, which 
 forms the one to be harsh and unfeeling, and humbles 
 the other to servility and subjection. 
 
 It is owing, perhaps, in some measure to this state 
 of depression, that women in rude nations are far 
 from being prolific. The vigour of their constitution 
 is exhausted by excessive fatigue, and the wants and 
 distresses of savage life are so numerous, as to force 
 them to take various precautions in order to prevent 
 too rapid an increase of their progeny. Among wan- 
 dering tribes, or such as depend chiefly upon hunting 
 for subsistence, the mother cannot attempt to rear a 
 second child, until the first has attained such a degree 
 of vigour as to be in some measure independent of 
 her care. From this motive it is the universal prac- 
 tice of the American women to suckle their children 
 during several years ; and as they seldom marry early, 
 the period of their fertility is over before they can 
 finish the long but necessary attendance upon two 
 or three children. Among some of the least polished 
 tribes, whose industry and foresight do not extend 
 so far as to make any regular provision for their 
 own subsistence, it is a maxim not to burthen them- 
 selves with rearing more than two children ; and no 
 such numerous families, as are frequent in civilized 
 societies, are to be found among men in the savage 
 state. When twins are born, one of them commonly is 
 abandoned, because the mother is not equal to the 
 task of rearing both (53). When a mother dies while 
 she is nursing a child, all hope of preserving its life 
 fails, and it isbuiied together with her in the same 
 grave. As the parents are frequently exposed to 
 want by their own improvident indolence, the difficulty 
 of sustaining their children becomes so great, that it 
 is not uncommon to abandon or destroy them. Thus 
 their experience of the difficulty of training up an infant 
 to maturity, amidst the hardships of savage life, often 
 stifles the voice of nature among the Americans, and 
 suppresses the strong emotions of parental tenderness. 
 
 But, though necessity compels the inhabitants of 
 America thus to set bounds to the increase of their 
 families, they are not deficient "in affection and 
 attachment to their offspring. They feel the power 
 of this instinct in its full force, and as long as their 
 progeny continue feeble and helpless, no people 
 exceed them in tenderness and care. But in rude 
 nations, the dependence of children upon their 
 parents is of shorter continuance than in polished 
 societies. When men must be trained to the various 
 functions of civil life by previous discipline and 
 education, when the knowledge of abstruse sciences 
 must be taught, and dexterity in intricate arts must 
 be acquired, before a young man is prepared to begin 
 his career of action, the attentive feelings of a parent 
 are not confined to the years of infancy, but extend 
 to what is more remote, the establishment of his 
 child in the world. Even then his solicitude does 
 not terminate. His protection may still be requisite, 
 and his wisdom and experience still prove useful 
 guides. Thus a permanent connexion is formed ; 
 parental tenderne-s is exercised, and filial respect 
 returned, throughout the whole course of life. But 
 in the simplicity of the savage state, the affection of 
 parents, like the instinctive fondness of animals, 
 ceases almost entirely as soon as their offspring attain 
 maturity. Little instruction fits them for that mode 
 of life to which they are destined. The parents, as 
 if their duty were accomplished, when they have 
 conducted their children through the helpless years 
 
 of infancy, leave them afterwards at entire liberty. 
 Even in their tender age, they seldom advise or 
 admonish, they never chide or chastise them. They 
 suffer them to be absolute masters of their own 
 actions. In an American hut, a father, a mother, 
 and their posterity, live together like persons 
 assembled by accident, without seeming to feel the 
 obligation of the duties mutually arising from this 
 connexion. As filial love is not cherished by the 
 continuance of attention or good ofh'ces, the recol- 
 lection of benefits received in early infancy is too 
 faint to excite it. Conscious of their own liberty, 
 and impatient of restraint, the youth of America are 
 accustomed to act as if they were totally indepen- 
 dent. Their parents are not objects of greater 
 regard than other persons. They treat them always 
 with neglect, and often with such harshness and 
 insolence, as to fill those who have been witnesses 
 of their conduct with horror. Thus the ideas which 
 seem to be natural to man in his savage state, as 
 they result necessarily from his circumstances and 
 condition in that period of his progress, affect the two 
 capital relations in domestic life. They render the 
 union between husband and wife unequal. They 
 shorten the duration, and weaken the force, of the 
 connexion between parents and children. 
 
 IV. From the domestic state of the Americans, the 
 transition to the consideration of their civil govern- 
 ment and political institutions is natural. In every 
 inquiry concerning the operations of men when united 
 together in society, the first object of attention should 
 be their mode of subsistence. Accordingly as that 
 varies, their laws and policy must be, different. The 
 institution suited to the ideas and exigences of tribes, 
 which chiefly subsist by fishing or hunting, and 
 which have as yet acquired but an imperfect con- 
 ception of any species of property, will be much 
 more simple than those which must take place when 
 the earth is cultivated with regular industry, and a 
 right of property, not only in its productions, but in 
 the soil itself, is completely ascertained. 
 
 All the people of America, now under review, 
 belong to the former class. But though they may 
 all be comprehended under the general denomination 
 of savage, the advances which they had made in the 
 art of procuring to themselves a certain and plentiful 
 subsistence, were very unequal. On the extensive 
 plains of South America, man appears in one of the 
 rudest states in which he has been ever observed, or, 
 perhaps can exist. Several tiibes depend entirely 
 upon the bounty of nature for subsistence. They 
 discover no solicitude, they employ little foresight, 
 they scarcely exert any industry, to secure what is 
 necessary lor their support. The Topaycrs of Brazil, 
 the Gnaxeros of Tierra Firme, the Caiguas, the Moxos, 
 and several other people of Paraguay, are unac- 
 quainted with every species of cultivation. They 
 neither sow nor plant. Even the culture of the 
 manioc, of which cassada bread is made, is an 
 art too intricate for their ingenuity, or too fatiguing 
 to their indolence. The roots which the earth 
 produces spontaneously, the fruits, the berries, 
 and the seeds which they gather in the woods, 
 together with lizards and other reptiles, which mul- 
 tiply amazingly with the heat of the climate in a fat 
 soil, moistened by frequent rains, supply them with 
 food during some part of the year. At other times 
 they subsist by fishing ; and nature seems to have 
 indulged the laziness of the South American tribes 
 by the liberality with which she ministers, in this 
 way, to their wants. The vast rivers of that region 
 in America abound with an infinite variety of the 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 most delicate fish. The lakes and marshes formed 
 by the annual overflowing of the waters, are filled 
 with all the different species, where they remain shut 
 up, as in natural reservoirs, for the use of the inhabi- 
 tants. They swarm in such shoals, that in some 
 ? laces they are catched without art or industry (54). 
 n others the natives have discovered a method of 
 infecting the water with the juice of certain plants, 
 by which the fish become intoxicated, that they float 
 on the surface, and are taken with the hand (55). 
 Some tribes have ingenuity enough to preserve them 
 without salt, by drying or smoking them upon 
 hurdles over a slow fire. The proliflic quality of the 
 rivers in South America induces many of the natives 
 to resort to their banks, and to depend almost entirely 
 for nourishment on what their waters supply with such 
 profusion. In this part of the globe, hunting seems 
 not to have been the first employment of men, or the 
 first effort of their invention and labour to obtain 
 food. They were fishers before they became hunters ; 
 and as the occupations of the former do not call for 
 equal exertions of activity or talents with those of 
 the latter, people in that state appear to possess 
 neither the same degree of enterprise nor of ingenuity. 
 The petty nations, adjacent to the Maragnon and 
 Orinoco, are manifestly the most inactive and least 
 intelligent of all the Americans. 
 
 None but tribes contiguous to great rivers can 
 sustain themselves in this manner. The greater part 
 of the American nations, dispersed over the forests 
 with which their country is covered, do not procure 
 subsistence with the same facility. For although 
 these forests, especially in the southern continent of 
 America, are stored plentifully with game, consider- 
 able efforts of activity and ingenuity are requisite in 
 pursuit of it. Necessity incited the natives to the 
 one, and taught them the other. Hunting became 
 their principal occupation ; and as it called forth 
 strenuous exertions of courage, of force, and of inven- 
 tion, it was deemed no less honourable than neces- 
 sary. This occupation was peculiar to the men. 
 They were trained to it from their earliest youth. 
 A bold and dexterous hunter ranked next in fame to 
 the distinguished warrior, and an alliance with the 
 former is often courted in preference to one with the 
 latter. Hardly any device, which the ingenuity of 
 man has discovered for ensnaring or destroying wild 
 animals, was unknown to the Americans. While 
 engaged in this favorite exercise, they shake off the 
 indolence peculiar to their nature, the latent powers 
 and vigour of their minds are roused, and they 
 become active, persevering, and indefatigable. 
 Their sagacity in finding their prey, and their address 
 in killing it, are equal. Their reason and their 
 senses being constantly directed towards this one 
 object, the former displays such fertility of invention, 
 and the latter acquire such a degree of acuteness, as 
 appear almost incredible. They discern the footsteps 
 of a wild beast, which escape every other eye, and 
 can follow them with certainty through the pathless 
 f jrest. If they attack their game openly, their arrow 
 seldom errs from the mark ; if they endeavour to 
 circumvent it by art, it is almost impossible to avoid 
 their toils. Among several tribes their young men 
 were not permitted to marry, until they had given 
 
 such proofs of their skill in hunting as put it beyond 
 doubt that they were capable of providing for a family. 
 
 Their ingenuity, always on the stretch, and shar- 
 pened by emulation, as well as necessity, has struck 
 
 out many inventions, which greatly facilitate success 
 in the chase. The most singular of these is the 
 
 discovery of a poison in which they dip the arrows 
 
 employed in hunting. The slightest wound with 
 those envenomed shafts is mortal. If they only 
 pierce the skin the blood fixes and congeals in \a. 
 moment, and the strongest animal falls motionless to 
 the ground. Nor does this poison, notwithstanding 
 its violence and subtilty infect the flesh of the animal 
 which it kills. That may be eaten with perfect 
 safety, and retain its native relish and qualities. All 
 the nations situated upon the banks of the Maragnon 
 and Orinoco are acquainted with this composition, 
 the chief ingredient in which is the juice extracted 
 from the root of the curare, a species of withe. In 
 other parts of America, they employ the juice of the 
 manchenille for the same purpose, and it operates 
 with no less fatal activity. To people possessed of 
 those secrets, the bow is a more destructive weapon 
 than the musket, and in their skilful hands, does 
 great execution among the birds and beasts which 
 abound in the forests of America. 
 
 But the life of a hunter gradually leads man to a 
 state more advanced. The chase, even where prey 
 is abundant, and the dexterity of the hunter much 
 improved, affords but an uncertain maintenance, and 
 at some seasons it must be suspended altogether. 
 If a savage trusts to his bow alone for food, he and 
 his family will be often reduced to extreme distress 
 (56). Hardly any region of the earth furnishes man 
 spontaneously with what his wants require. In the 
 mildest climates, and most fertile soils, his own 
 industry and foresight must be exerted, in some 
 degree, to secure a regular supply of food. Their 
 experience of this surmounts the abhorrence of 
 labour natural to savage nations, and compels 
 them to have recourse to culture, as subsidiary to 
 hunting. In particular situations, some small tribes 
 may subsist by fishing, independent of any pro- 
 duction of the earth raised by their own industry. 
 But throughout all America, we scarcely meet with 
 any nation of hunters, which does not practise some 
 species of cultivation. 
 
 The agriculture of the Americans, however, is 
 neither extensive nor laborious. As game and fish are 
 their principal food, all they aim at, by cultivation, 
 is to supply any occasional defect of these. In the 
 southern continent of America, the natives confine 
 their industry to rearing a few plants, which in a rich 
 soil and warm climate were easily trained to maturity. 
 The chief of these is maize, well known in Europe by 
 the name of Turkey or Indian wheat, a grain extremely 
 prolific, of simple culture, agreeable to the taste, 
 and affording a strong hearty nourishment. The 
 second is the manioc, which grows to the size of a 
 large shrub, or small tree, and produces roots some- 
 what resembling parsnips. After carefully squeez- 
 ing out tho juice, these roots are grated down to a 
 fine powder, and formed into thin cakes, called 
 cassada bread, which, though insipid to the tasle, 
 proves no contemptible food. As the juice of the 
 manioc is a deadly poison, some authors have cele- 
 brated the ingenuity of the Americans in converting 
 a noxious plant into wholesome nourishment. But 
 it should rather be considered as one of the despe- 
 rate expedients for procuring subsistence, to which 
 necessity reduces rude nations; or perhaps, men 
 were led to the use of it by a progress, in which 
 there is nothing marvellous. One species of manioc 
 is altogether free of any poisonous quality, and may 
 be eaten without any preparation but that of roasting 
 it in the embers. This, it is probable, was first used 
 by the Americans as food ; and necessity having 
 gradually taught them the art of separating its per- 
 nicious juice from the other species, they have by 
 
THE' HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 experience found it to be more prolific as well as 
 more nourishing (57). The third is the plantain, 
 which, though it rises to the height of a tree, it is of 
 such quick growth, that in less than a year it rewards 
 the industry of the cultivator with its fruit. This, 
 when roasted, supplies the place of bread, and is both 
 palatable and nourishing (58). The fourth is the 
 potato, whose culture and qualities are too Well 
 known to need any description. The fifth Is pimento, 
 a small tree yielding a strong aromatic spice. The 
 Americans, who, like other inhabitants of warm cli- 
 mates, delight in whatever is hot and of poignant 
 flavour, deem this seasoning a necessary of life, and 
 mingle it copiously with every kind of food they take. 
 
 Such are the various productions, which were the 
 chief object of culture among the hunting tribes on 
 the continent of America ; and with a moderate exer- 
 tion of active and provident industry, these might 
 have yielded a full supply to the wants of a numerous 
 people. But men, accustomed to the free and vagrant 
 life of hunters, are incapable of regular application to 
 labour, and consider agriculture as a secondary and 
 inferior occupation. Accordingly, the provision for 
 subsistence, arising from cultivation, was so limited 
 and scanty among the Americans, that, upon any 
 accidental failure of their usual success in hunting, 
 they were often reduced to extreme distress. 
 
 In the islands, the mode of subsisting was con- 
 siderably different. None of the large animals 
 which abound on the continent were known there. 
 Only four species of quadrupeds, besides a kind of 
 small dumb dog, existed in the islands, the biggest 
 of which did not exceed the size of a rabbit. To 
 hunt such diminutive prey, was an occupation 
 which required no effort either of activity or courage. 
 The chief employment of a hunter in the isles was 
 to kill birds, which on the continent are deemed 
 iffnoble game, and left chiefly to the pursuit of 
 boys. This want of animals, as well as their peculiar 
 situation, led the islanders to depend principally upon 
 fishing for their subsistence. Their rivers, and the 
 sea with which they are surrounded, supplied them 
 with this species of food. At some particular seasons, 
 turtle, crabs, and other shell-fish, abounded in such 
 numbers, that the natives could support themselves 
 with a facility in which their indolence delighted. 
 At other times they ate lizards, and various reptiles 
 of odious forms. To fishing, the inhabitants of the 
 islands added some degree of agriculture. Maize (9), 
 manioc, and other plants, were cultivated in the same 
 manner as on the continent. But all the fruits of 
 their industry, together with what their soil and 
 climate produced spontaneously, afforded them but 
 a scanty maintenance. Though their demands for 
 food were very sparing, they hardly raised what was 
 sufficient for their own consumption. If a few 
 Spaniai'ds settled in any district, such a small addition 
 of supernumerary mouths soon exhausted their scanty 
 stores, and brought on a famine. 
 
 Two circumstances, common to all the savage 
 nations of America, concurred with those which I have 
 already mentioned, not only in rendering their agri- 
 culture imperfect, but in circumscribing their power 
 in all their operations. They had no tame animals ; 
 and they were unncquainted with the useful metals. 
 
 In other parts of the globe, man, in his rudest state, 
 appears as lord of the creation, giving law to various 
 tribes of animals, which he has tamed, and reduced 
 to subjection. The Tartar follows his prey on the 
 horse which he has reared ; or tends his numerous 
 herds, which furnish him both with food and clothing : 
 the Arab has rendered the camel docile, and avails 
 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA, No. 11. 
 
 himself of its persevering strength : the Laplander ha 
 formed the rein-deer to be subservient to his will ; 
 and even the people of Kamchatka have trained 
 their dogs to labour. This command over the 
 inferior creatures is one of the noblest prerogatives 
 of man, and among the greatest efforts of his wisdom 
 and power. Without this, his dominion is incom- 
 plete. He is a monarch who has no subjects ; a 
 master without servants, and must perform every 
 operation by the strength of his own arm. Such 
 was the condition of all the nide nations in America. 
 Their reason was so little improved, or their union 
 so incomplete, that they seem not to have been con- 
 scious of the superiority of their nature, and suffered 
 all the animal creation to retain its liberty, without 
 establishing their own authority over any one species. 
 Most of the animals, indeed, which have been ren- 
 dered domestic in our continent, do not exist in the 
 New World ; but those peculiar to it are neither so 
 fierce nor so formidable, as to have exempted them 
 from servitude. There are some animals of the 
 same species in both continents. But the rein-deer, 
 which has been tamed and broken to the yoke in 
 the one hemisphere, runs wild in the other. The 
 bison of America is manifestly of the same species 
 with the horned cattle of the other hemisphere. 
 The latter, even among the rudest nations in out 
 continent, have been rendered domestic ; and, in 
 consequence of his dominion over them, man can 
 accomplish works of labour with greater facility, 
 and has made a great addition to his means of sub- 
 sistence. The inhabitants of many regions of the 
 New World, where the bison abounds, might have 
 derived the same advantages from it. It is not of a 
 nature so indocile, but that it might have been 
 trained to be as subservient to man as our cattle. 
 But a savage, in that uncultivated state wherein the 
 Americans were discovered, is the enemy of the 
 other animals, not their superior. He wastes and 
 destroys, but knows not how to multiply or to govern 
 them. 
 
 This, perhaps, is the most notable distinction 
 between the inhabitants of the Ancient and New- 
 Worlds, and a high pre-eminence of civilized men 
 above such as continue rude. The greatest opera- 
 tions of man, in changing and improving the face 
 of nature, as well as his most considerable efforts in 
 cultivating the earth, are accomplished by means of 
 the aid which he receives from the animals that 
 he has tamed, and employs in labour. It is by their 
 strength that he subdues the stubborn soil, and 
 converts the desert or marsh into a fruitful field. 
 But man, in his civilized state, is so accustomed to 
 the service of the domestic animals, that he seldom 
 reflects upon the vast benefits which he derives from 
 it. If we were to suppose him, even when most 
 improved, to be deprived of their useful ministry, 
 his empire over nature must in some measure cease, 
 and he would remain a feeble animal, at a loss how- 
 to subsist, and incapable of attempting such arduous 
 undertakings as their assistance enables him to 
 execute with ease. 
 
 It is a doubtful point, whether the dominion of 
 man over the animal creation, or his acquiring the 
 useful metals, has contributed most to extend his 
 power. The era of this important discovery is unknown, 
 and in our hemisphere very remote. It is only by 
 tradition, or by digging up some rude instruments 
 of our forefathers, that we learn that mankind were 
 originally unacquainted with the use of metals, and 
 endeavoured to supply the want of them by employ- 
 ing flints, shells, bones, and other hard substances, 
 M 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 for the same purposes which metals serve among 
 polished nations. Nature completes the formation 
 of some metals. Gold, silver, and copper, are found 
 in their perfect state in the clefts of rocks, in the 
 sides of mountains, or the channels of rivers. These 
 were accordingly the metals first known, and first 
 applied to use. But iron, the most serviceable of 
 all, and to which man is most indebted, is never 
 discovered in its perfect form ; its gross and stub- 
 born ore must feel twice the force of fire, and go 
 through two laborious processes, before it can become 
 fit for use. Man was long acquainted with the other 
 metals before he acquired the art of fabricating 
 iron, or attained such ingenuity as to perfect an 
 invention, to which he is indebted for those instru- 
 ments wherewith he subdues the earth, and com- 
 mands all its inhabitants. But in this, as well as 
 in many other respects, the inferiority of the Ameri- 
 cans was conspicuous. All the savage tribes, scat- 
 tered over the continent and islands, were totally 
 unacquainted with the metals which their soil pro- 
 duces in great abundance, if we except some trifling 
 quantity of gold, which they picked up in the 
 torrents that descended from their mountains, and 
 formed into ornaments. Their devices to supply 
 this want of the serviceable metals, were extremely 
 rude and awkward. The most simple operation 
 was to them an undertaking of immense difficulty 
 and labour. To fell a tree with no other instruments 
 than hatchets of stone, was employment for a 
 month. To form a canoe into shape, and to hollow 
 it, consumed years ; and it frequently began to rot 
 "before they were able to finish it. Their operations 
 in agriculture were equally slow and defective. In 
 a country covered with woods of the hardest timber, 
 the clearing of a small field destined for culture 
 required the united efforts of a tribe, and was a work 
 of much time and great toil. This was the business 
 of the men, and their indolence was satisfied with 
 performing it in a very slovenly manner. The labour 
 of cultivation was left to the women, who, after 
 digging } or rather stirring, the field, with wooden 
 mattocks, and stakes hardened in the fire, sowed or 
 planted it ; but they were more indebted for the 
 increase to the fertility of the soil, than to their own 
 rude industry. 
 
 Agriculture, even when the strength of man is 
 seconded by that of the animals which he has sub- 
 jected to the yoke, and his power augmented by the 
 use of various instruments with which the discovery 
 of metals has furnished him, is still a work of great 
 labour ; and it is with the sweat of his brow that he 
 renders the earth fertile. It is not wonderful, then, 
 that people destitute of both these advantages should 
 have made so little progress in cultivation, that they 
 must be considered as depending for subsistence on 
 fishing and hunting, rather than on the fruits of 
 their own labour. 
 
 From this description of the mode of subsisting 
 among the rude American tribes, the form and 
 genius of their political institutions may be deduced, 
 and we are enabled to trace various circumstances 
 of distinction between them and more civilized 
 nations. 
 
 1. They were divided into small independent 
 communities. While hunting is the chief source of 
 subsistence, a vast extent of territory is requisite for 
 supporting a small number of people. In proportion 
 as men multiply and unite, the wild animals, on 
 which they depend for food, diminish, or fly at a 
 greater distance from the haunts of their enemy. 
 The increase of a society in this state is limited by 
 
 its own nature, and the members of it must either 
 disperse like the game which they pursue, or fall 
 upon some better method of procuring food than by 
 hunting. Beasts of prey are by nature solitary and 
 unsocial; they go not forth to the chase in herds, 
 but delight in those recesses of the forest where they 
 can roam and destroy undisturbed. A nation of 
 hunters resembles them both in occupation and in 
 genius. They cannot form into large communities, 
 because it would be impossible to find subsistence ; 
 and they must drive to a distance every rival who 
 may encroach on those domains, which they consider 
 as their own. This was the state of all the American 
 tribes ; the numbers in each were inconsiderable, 
 though scattered over countries of great extent ; they 
 were far removed from one another, and engaged in 
 perpetual hostilities or rivalship. In America the 
 word nation is not of the same import as in other 
 parts of the globe. It is applied to small societies, 
 not exceeding perhaps, two or three hundred persons, 
 but occupying provinces greater than some kingdoms 
 in Europe. The country of Guiana, though of larger 
 extent than the kingdom of France, and divided 
 among a greater number of nations, did not contain 
 above twenty-five thousand inhabitants. In the 
 provinces which border on the Orinoco, one may 
 travel several hundred miles in different directions, 
 without finding a single hut, or observing footsteps 
 of a human creature. In North America, where the 
 climate is more rigorous, and the soil less fertile, the 
 desolation is still greater. There, journeys of some 
 hundred leagues have been made through uninhabited 
 plains and forests (60). As long as hunting con- 
 tinues to be the chief employment of man, to which 
 he trusts for subsistence, he can hardly be said to 
 have occupied the earth (61). 
 
 2. Nations which depend upon hunting are, in a 
 great measure, strangers to the idea of property. As 
 the animals on which the hunter feeds are not bred 
 under his inspection, nor nourished by his care, he 
 can claim no right to them, while they run wild in 
 the forest. Where game is so plentiful that it may 
 be catched with little trouble, men never dream of 
 appropriating what is of small value, or of easy 
 acquisition. Where it is so rare, that the labour or 
 danger of the chase requires the united efforts of a 
 tribe, or village, what is killed is a common stock, 
 belonging equally to all, who by their skill or their 
 courage have contributed to the success of the excur- 
 sion. The forest, or hunting-grounds, are deemed 
 the property of the tribe, from which it has a title 
 to exclude every rival nation. But no individual 
 arrogates a right to any district of these, in prefer- 
 ence to his fellow citizens. They belong alike to all ; 
 and thither, as to a general and undivided store, all 
 repair in quest of sustenance. The same principles 
 by which they regulate their chief occupation, extend 
 to that which is subordinate. Even agriculture has not 
 introduced among them a complete idea of property. 
 As the men hunt, the women labour together, and 
 after they have shared the toils of the seed-time, 
 they enjoy the harvest in common. Among some 
 tribes, the increase of their cultivated lands is 
 deposited in a public granary, and divided among 
 them at stated times, according to their wants (62). 
 Among others, though they lay up separate stores, 
 they do not acquire such an exclusive right of pro- 
 perty, that they can enjoy superfluity, while those 
 around them suffer want. Thus the distinctions 
 arising from the inequality of possessions are un- 
 known. The terms rich or poor enter not into their 
 language, and being strangers to property, they ar 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 unacquainted with what is the great object of laws 
 and policy, as well as the chief motive which in- 
 duced mankind to establish the various arrangements 
 of regular government. 
 
 3. People in this state retain a high sense of 
 equality and independence. Whereever the idea of 
 property is not established, there can be no distinc- 
 tion among men, but what arises from personal 
 qualities. These can be conspicuous only on such 
 occasions as call them forth into exertion. In times 
 of danger, or in affairs of intricacy, the wisdom and 
 experience of age are consulted, and prescribe the 
 measures which ought to be pursued. When a tribe 
 of savages takes the field against the enemies of their 
 country, the warrior of most approved courage 
 leads the youth to the combat. If they go forth in a 
 body to the chase, the most expert and adventurous 
 hunter is foremost, and directs their motions. But 
 during seasons of tranquillity and inaction, when 
 there is no occasion to display those talents, all 
 pre-eminence ceases. Every circumstance indicates 
 that all the members of the community are on a 
 level. They are clothed in the same simple garb. 
 They feed on the same plain fare. Their houses and 
 furniture are exactly similar. No distinction can 
 arise from the inequality of possessions. Whatever 
 forms dependence on one part, or constitutes 
 superiority on the other, is unknown. All are free- 
 men, all feel themselves to be such, and assert with 
 firmness the rights which belong to that condition. 
 This sentiment of independence is imprinted so 
 deeply in their nature, that no change of condition 
 can eradicate it, and bend their minds to servitude. 
 Accustomed to be absolute masters of their own 
 conduct, they disdain to execute the orders of 
 another ; and having never known controul, they 
 will not submit to correction (63). Many of the 
 Americans, when they found that they were treated 
 as slaves by the Spaniards, died of grief; many 
 destroyed themselves in despair. 
 
 4. Among people in this state, government can 
 assume little authority, and the sense of civil subor- 
 dination must remain very imperfect. While the 
 idea of property is unknown, or incompletely con- 
 ceived; while the spontaneous productions of the 
 earth, as well as the fruits of industry, are considered 
 as belonging to the public stock, there can hardly be 
 any such subject of difference or discussion among 
 the members of the same community, as will require 
 the hand of authority to interpose in order to adjust 
 it. Where the right of separate and exclusive pos- 
 session is not introduced, the great object of law and 
 jurisdiction does not exist. When the members of 
 a tribe are called into the field, either to invade the 
 territories of their enemies or to repel their attacks, 
 when they are engaged together in the toil and 
 dangers of the chase, they then perceive that they are 
 part of a political body. They are conscious of their 
 own connexion with the companions in conjunction 
 with whom they act ; and they follow and reverence 
 such as excel in conduct and valour. But, during 
 the intervals between such common efforts, they 
 seem scarcely to feel the ties of political union (64). 
 No visible form of government is established. The 
 names of magittrate and tubject are not in use. 
 Every one seems to enjoy his natural independence 
 almost entire. If a scheme of public utility be pro- 
 posed, the members of the community are left at 
 liberty to choose whether they will or will not assist 
 in carrying it into execution. No statute imposes 
 any service as a duty, no compulsory laws oblige 
 them to perform it. All their resolutions are volun- 
 
 tary, and flow from the impulse of their own minds 
 The first step towards establishing a public jurisdic- 
 tion has not been taken in those rude societies. The 
 right of revenge is left in private hands. If violence 
 is committed, or blood is shed, the community does 
 not assume the power either of inflicting or of moder- 
 ating the punishment. It belongs to the family and 
 friends of the person injured or slain to avenge the 
 wrong, or to accept the reparation offered by the aggres- 
 sor. If the elders interpose, it is to advise, not to decide, 
 and it is seldom their counsels are listened to : for as it 
 is deemed pusillanimous to suffer an offender to 
 escape with impunity, resentment is implacable and 
 everlasting. The object of government among savages 
 is rather foreign than domestic. They do not aim at 
 maintaining interior order and police by public regu- 
 lations, or the exertions of any permanent authority, 
 but labour to preserve such union among the mem- 
 bers of their tribe, that they may watch the motions 
 of their enemies, and act against them with concert 
 and vigour. 
 
 Such was the form of political order established 
 among the greater part of the American nations. In 
 this state were almost all the tribes spread over the 
 provinces extending eastward of the Mississippi, from 
 the mouth of the St. Laurence to the confines of 
 Florida. In a similar condition were the people of 
 Brazil, the inhabitants of Chili, several tribes in 
 Paraguay and Guiana, and in the countries which 
 stretch from the mouth of the Orinoco to the penin- 
 sula of Yucatan. Among such an infinite number of 
 petty associations, there may be peculiarities which 
 constitute a distinction, and mark the varioui 
 degrees of their civilization and improvement. But 
 an attempt to trace and enumerate these would be 
 vain, as they have not been observed by persons 
 capable of discerning the minute and delicate cir- 
 cumstances which serve to discriminate nations 
 resembling one another in their general character and 
 features. The description which I have given of the 
 political institutions that took place among those rude 
 tribes in America, concerning which we have received 
 most complete information, will apply with little 
 variation, to every people, both in its northern and 
 southern division, who have advanced no further in 
 civilization, than to add some slender degree of agri- 
 culture to fishing and hunting. 
 
 Imperfect as those institutions may appear, several 
 tribes were not so far advanced in their political 
 progress. Among all those petty nations which 
 trusted for subsistence entirely to fishing and hunting 
 without any species of cultivation, the union was so 
 incomplete, and their sense of mutual dependence so 
 feeble, that hardly any appearance of government or 
 order can be discerned in their proceedings. Their 
 wants are few, their objects of pursuit simple, they 
 form into separate tribes, and act together, from, 
 instinct, habit, or conveniency, rather than from any 
 formal concert and association. To this class belong 
 the Californians, several of the small nations in the 
 extensive country of Paraguay, some of the people on. 
 the banks of the Orinoco and on the river St. Magda- 
 lene, in the new kingdom of Granada. 
 
 But though among these last mentioned tribes 
 there was hardly any shadow of regular government, 
 and even among those which I first described its 
 authority is slender and confined within narrow- 
 bounds, there were, however, some places in America, 
 where government was carried far beyond the degree 
 of perfection which seems natural to rude nations. 
 In surveying the political operations of man, either in 
 his savage or civilized state, we discover singular ancl 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 eccentric institutions, which start as it were from 
 their station, and fly off so wide, that we labour in 
 vain to bring them within the general laws of any 
 system, or to account for them by those principles 
 which influence other communities in a similar situa- 
 tion. Some instances of this occur among those 
 people of America, whom I have included under the 
 common denomination of savage. These are so 
 curious and important that I shall describe them, 
 and attempt to explain their origin. 
 
 In the New World, as well as in other parts of the 
 globe, cold or temperate countries appear to be the 
 favourite seat of freedom and independence. There 
 the mind, like the body, is firm and vigorous. There 
 men, conscious of their own dignity, and capable of 
 the greatest efforts in asserting it, aspire to indepen- 
 dence, and their stubborn spirits stoop with reluc- 
 tance to the yoke of servitude. In warmer climates, 
 by whose influence the whole frame is so much ener- 
 vated, that present pleasure is the supreme felicity, 
 and mere repose is enjoyment, men acquiesce, almost 
 without a struggle, in the dominion of a superior. 
 Accordingly, if we proceed from north to south along 
 the continent of America, we shall find the power of 
 those vested with authority gradually increasing, and 
 the spirit of the people becoming more tame and 
 passive. In Florida, the authority of the sachems, 
 caziques, or chiefs, was not only permanent, but here- 
 ditary. They were distinguished by peculiar orna- 
 ments, they enjoyed prerogatives of various kinds, and 
 were treated by their subjects with that reverence, 
 which people accustomed to subjection pay to a master. 
 Among the Natchez, a powerful tribe now extinct, for- 
 merly situated on the banks of the Mississippi, a dif- 
 ference of rank took place, with which the northern 
 tribes were altogether unacquainted. Some families 
 were reputed noble, and enjoyed hereditary dignity. 
 The body of the people was considered as vile, and 
 formed only for subjection. This distinction was 
 marked by appellations which intimated the high 
 elevation of the one state, and the ignominious 
 depression of the other. The former were called 
 Respectable ; the latter, the Stinkards. The great 
 Chief, in whom the supreme authority was vested, is 
 reputed to be a being of superior nature, the brother 
 of the sun, the sole object of their worship. They 
 approach this great Chief with religious veneration, 
 and honour him as, the representative of their deity. 
 His will is a law to which all submit with implicit 
 obedience. The lives of his subjects are so absolutely 
 at his disposal, that if any one has incurred his dis- 
 pleasure, the offender comes with profound humility 
 and offers him his head. Nor does the dominion of 
 the Chiefs end with their lives ; their principal 
 officers, their favourite wives, together with many 
 domestics of inferior rank, are sacrificed at their 
 tombs, that they may be attended in the next world 
 by the same persons who served them in this ; and 
 such is the reverence in which they are held, that 
 those victims welcome death with exultation, deeming 
 it a recompense of their fidelity, and a mark of dis- 
 tinction, to be selected to accompany their deceased 
 master. Thus a perfect despotism, with its full train 
 of superstition, arrogance, and cruelty, is established 
 among the N 7 atchez, and by a singular fatality, that 
 people has tasted of the worst calamities incident to 
 polished nations, though they themselves are not far 
 advanced beyond the tribes around them in civility 
 and improvement. In Hispaniola, Cuba, and the 
 larger islands, theircaziques or chiefs possessed exten- 
 sive power. The dignity was transmitted by here- 
 ditary right from father to sqo. Jts honours and 
 I 
 
 prerogatives were considerable. Their subjects pi 
 great respect to the caziques, and executed their order 
 without hesitation or reserve. They were distin 
 guished by peculiar ornaments, and in order to pre 
 serve or augment the veneration of the people, they 
 had the address to call in the aid of superstition to 
 uphold their authority. They delivered their man- 
 dates as the oracles of heaven, and pretended to pos- 
 sess the power of regulating the seasons, and of dis- 
 pensing rain or sunshine, according as their subjects 
 stood in need of them. 
 
 In some parts of the southern continent, the power 
 of the caziques seems to have been as extensive as 
 in the isles. In Bogota, which is now a province of 
 the new kingdom of Granada, there was settled a 
 nation, more considerable in number, and more 
 improved in the various arts of life, than any in 
 America, except the Mexicans and Peruvians. The 
 people of Bogota subsisted chiefly by agriculture. 
 The idea of property was introduced among them, 
 and its rights secured by laws, handed down by 
 tradition, and observed with great care. They lived 
 in towns which may be termed large when compared 
 with those in other parts of America. They were 
 clothed in a decent manner, and their houses may be 
 termed commodious, when compared with those of 
 the small tribes around them. The effects of this 
 uncommon civilization were conspicuous. Govern- 
 ment had assumed a regular form. A jurisdiction 
 was established, which took cognizance of different 
 crimes, and punished them with rigour. A distinc- 
 tion of ranks was known; their chief, to whom the 
 Spaniards gave the title of monarch, and who merited 
 that name on account of his splendour as well as 
 power, reigned with absolute authority. He was 
 attended by officers of various conditions; he never 
 appeared in public without a numerous retinue ; he 
 was carried in a sort of palanquin with much pomp, 
 and harbingers went before him to sweep the road 
 and strew it with flowers. This uncommon pomp 
 was supported by presents or taxes received from 
 his subjects, to whom their prince was such an object 
 of veneration, that none of them presumed to look 
 him directly in the face, or ever approached him but 
 with an averted countenance. There were other 
 tribes on the same continent, among which, though 
 far less advanced than the people of Bogota in their 
 progress towards refinement, the freedom and inde- 
 pendence, natural to man in his savage state, was 
 much abridged, and their caziques had assumed 
 extensive authority. 
 
 It is not easy to point out the circumstances, or to 
 discover the causes, which contributed to introduce 
 and establish among each of those people a form of 
 government so different from that of the tribes around 
 thorn, and so repugnant to the genius of rude nations. 
 If the persons who had an opportunity of observing 
 them in their original state had been more attentive 
 and more discerning, we might have received infor- 
 mation from their conquerors sufficient to guide us 
 in this inquiry. If the transactions of people, unac- 
 quainted with the use of letters, were not involved 
 in impenetrable obscurity, we might have derived 
 some information from this domestic source. But as 
 nothing satisfactory can be gathered either from the 
 accounts of the Spaniards, or from their own tradi- 
 tions, we must have recourse to conjectures, in order 
 to explain the irregular appearances in the political 
 state of the people whom I have mentioned. As all 
 those tribes which had lost their native liberty and 
 independence were seated in the torrid zone, or in 
 countries approaching to it, the climate may be sup* 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 posed to have had some influence in forming their 
 minds to that servitude, which seems to be the 
 destiny of man in those regions of the globe. But 
 though the influence of climate, more powerful than 
 that of any other natural cause, is not to be overlooked, 
 that alone cannot be admitted as a solution of the 
 point in question. The operations of men are so 
 complex, that we must not attribute the form which 
 they assume to the force of a single principle or cause. 
 Although despotism be confined in America to the 
 torrid zone, and to the warm regions bordering upon 
 it, I have already observed that these countries con- 
 tain various tribes, some of which possess a high 
 degree of freedom, and others are altogether unac- 
 quainted with the restraints of government. The 
 indolence and timidity peculiar to the inhabitants of 
 the islands, render them so incapable of the senti- 
 ments or effort* necessary for maintaining indepen- 
 dence, that there is no occasion to search for any 
 other cause of their tame submission to the will of a 
 superior. The subjection of the Natchez, and of the 
 people of Bogota, seems to have been the conse- 
 quence of a difference in their state from that of the 
 other Americans. They were settled nations, residing | 
 constantly in one place. Hunting was not the chief j 
 occupation of the former, and the latter seem hardly 
 to hare trusted to it for any part of their subsistence. 
 Both had made such progress in agriculture and arts, 
 that the idea of property was introduced in some 
 degree in the one community, and fully established 
 in the other. Among people in this state avarice and 
 ambition have acquired objects, and have begun to 
 exert their power ; views of interest allure the sel- 
 fish ; the desire of pre-eminence excites the enterpris- 
 ing ; dominion is courted by both; and passions 
 unknown to man in his savage state, prompt the 
 interested and ambitious to encroach on the rights of 
 their fellow-citizens. Motives, with which rude 
 nations are equally unacquainted, induce the people 
 to submit tamely to the usurped authority of their 
 superiors. But even among nations in this state, the 
 spirit of subjects could not have been rendered so 
 obsequious, or the power of rulers so unbounded, 
 without the intervention of superstition. By its 
 fatal influence, the human mind, in every stage of its 
 progress, is depressed, and its native vigour and 
 independence subdued. Whoever can acquire the 
 direction of this formidable engine, is secure of ' 
 dominion over his species. Unfortunately for the j 
 people whose institutions are the subject of inquiry, 
 this power was in the hands of their chiefs. The 
 caziques of the isles could put what responses they 
 pleased into the mouths of their Cemis or gods ; and 
 it was by their interposition, and in their name, that 
 they imposed any tribute or burden on their people. 
 The same power and prerogative was exercised by the 
 great chief of the Natchez, as the principal minister 
 as well as the representative of the sun, their deity. 
 The respect which the people of Bogota paid to their | 
 monarchs was likewise inspired by religion, and the { 
 heir-apparent to the kingdom was educated in the ! 
 innermost recess of their principal temple, under 
 such austere discipline, and with such peculiar rites, | 
 as tended to fill his subjects with high sentiments 
 concerning the sanctity of his character, and the dignity 
 of his station. Thus superstition, which, in the 
 rudest period of society, is either altogether unknown, 
 or wastes its force in childish unmeaning practices, 
 had acquired such an ascendant over those people 
 of America who had made some little progress 
 towards refinement, that it became the chief instru- 
 ment of bending their minds to an untimely servitude, 
 
 and subjected them in the beginning of their political 
 career, to a despotism hardly less rigorous than that 
 which awaits nations in the last stage of their cor- 
 ruption and decline. 
 
 V. After examining the political institutions of 
 the rude nations in America, the next object of 
 attention is their art of war, or their provision for 
 public security and defence. The small tribes dis- 
 persed over America, are not only independent and 
 unconnected, but engaged in perpetual hostilities with 
 one another. Though mostly strangers to the idea of 
 separate property, vested in any individual, the 
 rudest of the American nations are well acquainted 
 with the rights of each community to its own do- 
 mains. This right they hold to be perfect and exclu- 
 sive, entitling the possessor to oppose the encroach- 
 ment of neighbouring tribes. As it is of the utmost 
 consequence to prevent them from destroying or 
 disturbing the game in their hunting grounds, they 
 guard this national property with a jealous attention. 
 But as their territories are extensive, and the bound- 
 aries of them not exactly ascertained, innumerable 
 subjects of dispute arise, which seldom terminate 
 without bloodshed. Even in this simple and primi- 
 tive state of society, interest is. a source of discord, 
 and often prompts savage tribes to take arms, in order 
 to repel or punish such as encroach on the forests or 
 plains, to which they trust for subsistence. 
 
 But interest is not either the most frequent or the 
 most powerful motive of the incessant hostilities 
 among rude nations. These must be imputed to the 
 passion of revenge; which rages with such violence 
 in the breast of savages, that eagerness to gratify it 
 may be considered as the distinguishing characteristic 
 of men in their uncivilized state. Circumstances of 
 powerful influence, both in the interior government 
 of rude tribes, and in their external operations against 
 foreign enemies, concur in cherishing and adding 
 strength to a passion fatal to the general tranquillity. 
 When the right of redressing his own wrongs is left 
 in the hands of every individual, injuries are felt with 
 exquisite sensibility, and vengeance exercised with 
 unrelenting rancour. No time can obliterate the 
 memory of an offence, and it is seldom that it can be 
 expiated but by the blood of the offender. In carrying 
 on their public wars, savage nations are influenced 
 by the same ideas, and animated with the same 
 spirit, as in prosecuting private vengeance. In small 
 communities, every man is touched with the injury or 
 affront offered to the body of which he is a member, 
 as if it were a personal attack upon his own honour 
 or safety. The desire of revenge is communicated 
 from breast to breast, and soon kindles into rage. As 
 feeble societies can take the field only in small 
 parties, each warrior is conscious of the importance of 
 his own arm, and feels that to it is committed a con- 
 siderable portion of the public vengeance. War, 
 which between extensive kingdoms is carried on with 
 little animosity, is prosecuted by small tribes with all 
 the rancour of a private quarrel. The resentment of 
 nations is as implacable as that of individuals. It 
 may be dissembled or suppressed, but is never ex- 
 tinguished ; and often, when least expected or 
 dreaded, it bursts out with redoubled fury. When 
 polished nations have obtained the glory of victory, 
 or have acquired an addition of territory, they may 
 terminate a war with honour. But savages are not 
 satisfied until they extirpate the community which is 
 the object of their hatred. They fight not to conquer, 
 but to destroy. If they engage in hostilities, it is 
 with a resolution never to see the face of the enemy 
 in peace, but to prosecute the quarrel with immortal 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 enmity. The desire of vengeance is the first and 
 almost the only principle which a savage instils into 
 the minds of his children. This grows up with him 
 as he advances in life ; and as his attention is di- 
 rected to few objects, it cquires a degree of force 
 unknown among men whose passions are dissipated 
 and weakened by the variety of their occupations 
 and pursuits. The desire of vengeance, which takes 
 possession of the heart of savages, resembles the 
 instinctive rage of an animal, rather than the passion 
 of a man. It turns, with undiscerning fury, even 
 against inanimate objects. If hurt accidentally by a 
 stone, they often seize it in a transport of anger, and 
 endeavour to wreak their vengeance upon it. If 
 struck with an arrow in a battle, they will tear it 
 from the wound, break and bite it with their teeth, 
 and dash it on the ground. With respect to their 
 enemies, the rage of vengeance knows no bounds. 
 When under the dominion of this passion, man be- 
 comes the most c;uel of all animals. He neither 
 pities, nor forgives, nor spares. 
 
 The force of this passion is so well understood by 
 the Americans themselves, that they always apply to 
 it, in order to excite their people to take arms. If 
 the elders of any tribe attempt to rouse their youth 
 from sloth, if a chief wishes to allure a band of war- 
 riors to follow him in invading an enemy's country, 
 the most persuasive topics of their martial eloquence 
 are drawn from revenge. " The bones of our coun- 
 trymen," say they, " lie uncovered; their bloody bed 
 has not been washed clean. Their spirits cry against 
 us ; they must be appeased. Let us go and devour 
 the people by whom they were slain. Sit no longer 
 inactive upon your mats ; lift the hatchet, console 
 the spirits of the dead, and tell them that they shall 
 be avenged." 
 
 Animated with such exhortations, the youth snatch 
 heir arms in a transport of fury, raise the song of 
 ar, and burn with impatience to imbrue their hands 
 the blood of their enemies. Private chiefs often 
 semble small parties, and invade a hostile tribe, 
 ithout consulting the rulers of the community. A 
 ngle warrior, prompted by caprice or revenge, will 
 ake the field alone, and march several hundred miles 
 o surprise and cut off a straggling enemy (65). The 
 xploits of a noted warrior, in such solitary excur- 
 ions, often form the chief part in the history of an 
 American campaign (66) ; and their elders connive 
 at such irregular sallies, as they tend to cherish a 
 martial spirit, and accustom their people to enter- 
 prise and danger. But when a war is national, and 
 undertaken by public authority, the deliberations are 
 formal and slow. The elders assemble, they deliver 
 their opinions in solemn speeches, they weigh with 
 maturity the nature of the enterprise, and balance its 
 beneficial or disadvantageous consequences with no 
 inconsiderable portion of political discernment or 
 sagacity. Their priests and soothsayers are con- 
 sulted, and sometimes they ask the advice even of 
 their women. If the determination be for war, they 
 prepare for it with much ceremony. A leader offers 
 to conduct the expedition, and is accepted. But no 
 man is constrained to follow him; the resolution ol 
 the community to commence hostilities imposes no 
 obligation upon any member to take part in the war. 
 Each individual is still master of his own conduct, 
 and his engagement in the service is perfectly vo- 
 luntary. 
 
 The maxims by which they regulate their military 
 operations, though extremely different from those 
 which take place among more civilized and populous 
 untkms, are well suited to their own political state, 
 
 and the nature of the country in which they act. 
 They never take the field in numerous bodies, as it 
 would require a greater effort of foresight and in- 
 dustry, than is usual among savages, to provide for 
 their subsistence, during a march of some hundred 
 miles through dreary forests, or during a long voyage 
 upon their lakes and rivers. Their armies are not 
 encumbered with baggage or military stores. Each 
 warrior, besides his arms, carries a mat and a small 
 bag of pounded maize, and with these is completely 
 equipped for any service. While at a distance from 
 the enemy's frontier, they disperse through the 
 woods, and support themselves with the game which 
 they kill, or the fish which they catch. As they 
 approach nearer to the territories of the nation which 
 they intend to attack, they collect their troops, and 
 advance with greater caution Even in their hot- 
 test and most active wars, they proceed wholly by 
 stratagem and ambuscade. They place not their 
 glory in attacking their enemies with open force. To 
 surprise and destroy is the greatest merit of a com- 
 mander, and the highest pride of his followers. War 
 and hunting are their only occupations, and they 
 conduct both with the same spirit and the same arts. 
 They follow the track of their enemies through the 
 forest. They endeavour to discover their haunts, 
 they lurk in some thicket near to these, and, with the 
 patience of a sportsman lying in wait for game, will 
 continue in their station day after day, until they can 
 rush upon their prey when most secure, and least 
 able to resist them. If they meet no straggling party 
 of the enemy, they advance towards their villages, 
 but with such solicitude to conceal their own ap- 
 proach, that they often creep on their hands and 
 feet through the woods, and paint their skins of the 
 same colour with the withered leaves, in order to 
 avoid detection. If so fortunate as to remain unob- 
 served, they set on fire the enemies' huts in the dead 
 of night, and massacre the inhabitants, as they fly 
 naked and defenceless from the flames. If they 
 hope to effect a retreat without being pursued, they 
 carry off some prisoners, whom they reserve for a 
 more dreadful fate. But if, notwithstanding all their 
 address and precautions, they find that their motions 
 are discovered, that the enemy has taken the alarm, 
 and is prepared to oppose them, they usually deem it 
 most prudent to retire. They regard it as extreme 
 folly to meet an enemy who is on his guard, upon 
 equal terms, or to give battle in an open field. The 
 most distinguished success is a disgrace to a leader, 
 if it has been purchased with any considerable loss 
 of his followers (67), and they never boast of a 
 victory, if stained with the blood of their own coun- 
 trymen. To fall in battle, instead of being reckoned 
 an honourable death, is a misfortune which subjects 
 the memory of a warrior to the imputation of rash- 
 ness or imprudence (68). 
 
 This system of war was universal in America ; and 
 the small uncivilized tribes, dispersed through all its 
 different regions and climates, display more craft 
 than boldness in carrying on their hostilities. Struck 
 with this conduct, so opposite to the ideas and 
 maxims of Europeans, several authors contend that 
 it flows from a feeble and dastardly spirit peculiar to 
 the Americans, which is incapable of any generous or 
 manly exertion. But when we reflect that many of 
 these tribes, on occasions which call for extraordinary 
 efforts, not only defend themselves with obstinate 
 resolution, but attack their enemies with the most 
 daring courage, and that they possess fortitude of 
 mind superior to the sense of danger or the fear of 
 death, we must ascribe their habitual caution (o 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 some other cause than constitutional timidity. The 
 number of men in each tribe is so small, the difficulty 
 of rearing new members amidst the hardships and 
 dangers of savage liie so great, that the life of a 
 citizen is extremely precious, and the preservation of 
 it becomes a capital object in their policy. Had 
 the point of honour been the same among the feeble 
 American tribes as among the powerful nations of 
 Europe, had they been taught to court fame or vic- 
 tory in contempt of danger and death, they must 
 have been ruined by maxims so ill adapted to their 
 condition. But wherever their communities are 
 more populous, so that they can act with consider- 
 able force, and can sustain the loss of several of their 
 members, without being sensibly weakened, the 
 military operations of the Americans more nearly 
 resemble those of other nations. The Brazilians, as 
 well as the tribes situated upon the banks of the 
 river De la Plata, often take the field in such nume- 
 rous bodies as deserve the name of armies. They 
 defy their enemies to the combat, engage in regular 
 battles, and maintain the conflict with that desperate 
 ferocity, which is natural to men who, ha\ ing no idea 
 of war but that of exterminating their enemies, never 
 give or take quarter. In the powerful empires of 
 Mexico and Peru, great armies were assembled, 
 frequent battles were fought, and the theory as well 
 as practice of war were different from what took 
 place in those petty societies which assume the name 
 of nations. 
 
 But though vigilance and attention are the quali- 
 ties chiefly requisite, where the object of war is to 
 deceive and to surprise ; and though the Americans, 
 when acting singly, display an amazing degree of 
 address in concealing their own motions, and disco- 
 vering those of an enemy, yet it is remarkable, that, 
 when they take the field in parties, they can seldom 
 be brought to observe the precautions most essential 
 to their own security. Such is the difficulty of accus- 
 toming savages to subordination, or to act in concert ; 
 such is their impatience under restraint, and such 
 their caprice and presumption, that it is rarely 
 they can be brought to conform themselves to the 
 counsels and directions of their leaders. They never 
 station centinels around the place where they rest at 
 night, and after marching some hundred miles to 
 surprise an enemy, are often surprised themselves, 
 and cut off, while sunk in as profound sleep as if they 
 were not within reach of danger. 
 
 If, notwithstanding this negligence and security, 
 which often frustrate their most artful schemes, they 
 catch the enemy unprepared, they rush upon them 
 with the utmost ferocity, and tearing off the scalps of 
 all those who fall victims to their rage (70), they 
 carry home those strange trophies in triumph. These 
 they preserve as monuments, not only of their own 
 prowess, but of the vengeance which their arm has 
 inflicted upon the people who were objects of public 
 resentment. They are still more solicitous to seize 
 prisoners. During their retreat, if they hope to effect 
 it unmolested, the prisoners are commonly exempt 
 from any insult, and treated with some degree of 
 humanity, though guarded with the most strict 
 attention. 
 
 But after this temporary suspension, the rage of 
 the conquerors rekindles with new fury. As soon as 
 they approach their own frontier, some of their num- 
 ber are dispatched to inform their countrymen with 
 respect to the success of the expedition. Then the 
 prisoners begin to feel the wretchedness of their con- 
 dition. The women of the village, together with the 
 youth who have not attained to the age of bearing 
 
 arms, assemble, and forming themselves into two 
 lines, through which the prisoners must pass, beat 
 and bruise them w ith sticks or stones in a cruel man- 
 ner. After this first gratification of their rage against 
 their enemies, follow latnentationsjfor the loss of such 
 of their own countrymen as have fallen in the service, 
 accompanied with words and actions which seem to 
 express the utmost anguish and grief. But in a 
 moment, upon a signal given, their tears cease ; they 
 pass, with a sudden and unaccountable transition, 
 from the depths of sorrow to the transports of joy ; 
 and begin to celebrate their victory with all the wild 
 exultation of a barbarous triumph. The fate of the 
 prisoners remains still undecided. The old men 
 deliberate concerning it. Some are destined to be 
 tortured to death, in order to satiate the revenge of 
 the conquerors ; some to replace the members which 
 the community has lost in that or former wars. They 
 who are reserved for this milder fate, are led to the 
 huts of those whose friends have been killed. The 
 women meet them at the door, and if they receive 
 them, their sufferings are at an end. They are 
 adopted into the family, and, according to their 
 phrase, are seated upon the mat of the deceased. 
 They assume his name, they hold the same rank, and 
 are treated thenceforward with all the tenderness duo 
 to a father, a brother, a husband, or a friend. But 
 if, either from caprice or an unrelenting desire of 
 revenge, the women of any family refuse to accept of 
 the prisoner who is offered to them, his doom is 
 fixed : no power can then save him from torture and 
 death. 
 
 While their lot is in suspense, the prisoners them- 
 selves appear altogether unconcerned about what may 
 befall them. They talk, they eat, they sleep, as if 
 they were perfectly at ease, and no danger impending. 
 When the fatal sentence is intimated to them, they 
 receive it with an unaltered countenance, raise their 
 death-song, and prepare to suffer like men. Their 
 conquerors assemble as to a solemn festival, resolved 
 to put the fortitude of the captive to the utmost 
 proof. A scene ensues, the bare description of which 
 is enough to chill the heart with horror, wherever 
 men have been accustomed, by milder institutions, to 
 respect their species, and melt with tenderness at the 
 sight of human sufferings. The prisoners are tied 
 naked to a stake, but so as to be at liberty to move 
 round it. All who are present, men, women, and 
 children, rush upon them like furies. Every species 
 of torture is applied that the rancour of revenge can 
 invent. Some burn their limbs with red-hot irons, 
 some mangle their bodies with knives, others tear 
 their flesh from their bones, pluck out their nails by 
 the roots, and rend and twist their sinews. They vie 
 with one another in refinements of torture. Nothing 
 sets bounds to their rage but the dread of abridging 
 the duration of their vengeance by hastening the death 
 of the sufferers ; and such is their cruel ingenuity in 
 tormenting, that, by avoiding industriously to hurt 
 any vital part, they often prolong this scene of 
 anguish for several days. In spite of all that they 
 suffer, the victims continue to chant their death-song 
 with a firm voice, they boast of their own exploits, 
 they insult their tormentors for their want of skill in 
 avenging their friends and relations, they warn them 
 of the vengeance which awaits them on account of 
 what they are now doing, and excite their ferocity by 
 the most provoking reproaches and threats. To display 
 undaunted fortitude in such dreadful situations, is 
 the noblest triumph of a warrior. To avoid the trial 
 by a voluntary death, or to shrink under it, is deemed 
 infamous and cowardly. If any one betray symptoms 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 of timidity, his tormentors often dispatch him at once 
 with contempt, as unworthy of being treated like a 
 man. Animated wtih those ideas, they endure, 
 without a groan, what it seems almost impossible 
 that human nature should sustain. They appear to be 
 not only insensible of pain, but to court it, " For- 
 bear," said an aged chief of the Iroquois, when his 
 insults had provoked one of his tormentors to wound 
 him with a knife, " forbear these stabs of your knife, 
 and rather let me die by fire, that those dogs, your 
 allies, from beyond the sea, may learn by my example 
 to suffer like men." This magnanimity, of which 
 there are frequent instances among the American 
 warriors, instead of exciting admiration, or calling 
 forth sympathy, exasperates the fierce spirits of their 
 torturers to fresh acts of cruelty. Weary, at length, 
 of contending with men whose constancy of mind 
 they cannot vanquish, some chief, in a rae, puts a 
 period to their sufferings, by dispatching them with 
 his dagger or club. 
 
 This barbarous scene is often succeeded by one no 
 less shocking. As it is impossible to appease the 
 fell spirit of revenge which rages in the heart of a 
 savage, this frequently prompts the Americans to 
 devour those unhappy persons, who have been the 
 victims of their cruelty. In the ancient world, tradi- 
 tion has preserved the memory of barbarous nations 
 of cannibals, who fed on human flesh. But in every 
 part of the New World there were people to whom 
 this custom was familiar. It prevailed in the southern 
 continent, in several of the islands, and in various 
 districts of North America. Even in those parts, where 
 circumstances, with which we are unacquainted, had in 
 a great measure abolished thispractice, it seemsformerly 
 to have been so well known, that it is incorporated 
 into the idiom of their language. Among the Iroquois, 
 the phrase by which they express their resolution of 
 making war against an enemy is, " Let us go and eat 
 that nation." If they solicit the aid of a neighbouring 
 tribe, they invite it to " eat broth made of the flesh of 
 their enemies (71)." Nor was the practice peculiar to 
 rude unpolished tribes ; the principle from which it 
 took rise is so deoply rooted in the minds of the 
 Americans, that it subsisted in Mexico, one of the 
 civilized empires in the New World, and relics of it 
 may be discovered among the more mild inhabitants 
 of Peru. It was not scarcity of food, as some authors 
 imagine, and the importunate cravings of hunger, 
 which forced the Americans to those horrid repasts 
 on their fellow-creatures. Human flesh was never 
 used as common food in any country, and the various 
 relations concerning people who reckoned it among 
 the stated means of subsistence, flow from the credu- 
 lity and mistakes of travellers. The rancour of 
 revenge first prompted men to this barbarous action. 
 The fiercest tribes devoured none but prisoners taken 
 in war, or such as they regarded as enemies (72). 
 Women and children, who were not the objects of 
 enmity, if not cut off in the fury of their first inroad 
 into an hostile country, seldom suffered by the deli- 
 berate effects of their revenge. 
 
 The people of South America gratify their revenge 
 in a manner somewhat different, but with no less unre- 
 lenting rancour. Their prisoners, after meeting at their 
 first entrance with the same rough reception as among 
 the North Americans, are not on'y exempt from in- 
 jury, but treated with the greatest kindness. They are 
 feasted and caressed, and some beautiful young 
 women are appointed to attend and solace them. It 
 is not easy to account for this part of their conduct, 
 unless we impute it to a refinement in cruelty. 
 For, while they seem studious to attach the captives 
 
 to life, by supplying them with every enjoyment that 
 can render it agreeable, their doom is irrevocably 
 fixed. On a day appointed, the victorious tribe 
 assembles, the prisoner is brought forth with great 
 solemnity, he views the preparations for the sacrifice 
 with as much indifference as if he himself were not 
 the victim, and, meeting his fate with undaunted 
 firmness, is despatched with a single blow. The 
 moment he falls, the women seize the body, and 
 dress it for the feast. They besmear their children 
 with the blood, in order to kindle in their bosoms 
 a hatred of their enemies, which is never extin- 
 guished ; and all join in feeding upon the flesh with 
 amazing greediness and exultation. To devour the 
 body of a slaughtered enemy, they deem the most 
 complete and exquisite gratification of revenge. 
 Wherever this practice prevails, captives never escape 
 death, but they are not tortured with the same 
 cruelty as among tribes which are less accustomed 
 to such horrid feasts (73). 
 
 As the constancy of every American warrior may 
 be put to such severe proof, the great object of 
 military education and discipline in the New World 
 is to form the mind to sustain it. When nations 
 carry on war with open force, defy their enemies to 
 the combat, and vanquish them by the superiority of 
 their skill or courage, soldiers are trained to be 
 active, vigorous, and enterprising. But in America, 
 where the genius and maxims of war are extremely 
 different, passive fortitude is the quality in highest 
 estimation. Accordingly, it is early the study 
 of the Americans to acquire sentiments and 
 habits, which will enable them to behave like men, 
 when their resolution shall be put to the proof. As 
 the youth of other nations exercise themselves in 
 feats of activity and force, those of America vie with 
 one another in exhibitions of their patience under 
 sufferings. They harden their nerves by those 
 voluntary trials, and gradually accustom themselves 
 to endure the sharpest pain without complaining. 
 A boy and girl will bind their naked arms together, 
 and place a burning coal between them, in order to 
 try who first discovers such impatience as to shake it 
 off. All the trials, customary in America, when a 
 youth is admitted into the class of warriors, or when 
 a warrior is promoted to the dignity of captain or 
 chief, are accommodated to this idea of manliness. 
 They are not displays of valour, but of patience; 
 they are not exhibitions of their ability to offend, but 
 of theif capacity to suffer. Among the tribes on the 
 banks of the Orinoco, if a warrior aspires to the rank 
 of captain, his probation begins with a long fast, 
 more rigid than any ever observed by the most 
 abstemious hermit. At the close of this the chiefs 
 assemble, each gives him three lashes with a large 
 whip, applied so vigorously, that his body is almost 
 flayed, and if he betrays the least symptoms of impa- 
 tience or even sensibility, he is disgraced for ever, and 
 rejected as unworthy of the honour to which he aspires. 
 After some interval, the constancy of the candidate 
 is proved by a more excruciating trial. He is laid in 
 ajiammock with his hands bound fast, and an innu- 
 merable multitude of venemous ants, whose bite 
 occasions exquisite pain, and produces a violent 
 inflammation, are thrown upon him. The judges of 
 his merit stand around the hammock, and. while these 
 cruel insects fasten upon the most sensible parts of 
 his body, a sigh, a groan, an involuntary motion 
 expressive of what he suffers, would exclude him for 
 ever from the rank of captain. Even after this 
 evidence of his fortitude, it is not deemed to be 
 completely ascertained, but must stand another test 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 more dreadful than any he has hitherto undergone. 
 He is again suspended in his hammock, and covered 
 with leaves of the palmetto. A fire of stinking 
 herbs is kindled underneath, so as he may feel its 
 heat, and be involved in its smoke. Though scorched 
 and almost suffocated, he must continue to endure 
 with the same patient insensibility. Many perish in 
 this rude essay of their firmness and courage, but 
 such as go through it with applause, receive the 
 ensigns of their new dignity with much solemnity, 
 and are ever after regarded as le ders of approved 
 resolution, whose behaviour, in the most trying 
 situations, will do honour to their country. In 
 North America, the previous trial of a warrior is 
 neither so formal, nor so severe. Though even there, 
 before a youth is permitted to boar arms, his patience 
 and fortitude are proved by blows, by fire and by 
 insults, more intolerable to a haushty spirit than 
 both. 
 
 The amazing steadiness with which the Americans 
 endure the most exquisite torments, has induced 
 some authors to suppose that, from the peculiar 
 feebleness of their frame, their sensibility is not so 
 acute as that of other people ; as women, and 
 persons of a relaxed habit, are observed to be less 
 affected with pain than robust men, whose nerves 
 are more firmly braced. But the constitution of the 
 Americans is not so different, in its texture, from 
 that of the rest of the human species, as to account 
 for this diversity in their behaviour. It flows from 
 a principle of honour, instilled early, and cultivated 
 with such care, as to inspire man in his rudest state 
 with an heroic magnanimity, to which philosophy 
 hath endeavoured, in vain, to form him, when more 
 highly improved and polished. This invincible 
 constancy he has been taught to consider as the 
 chief distinction of a man, and the highest attain- 
 ment of a warrior. The ideas which influence his 
 conduct, and the passions which take possession of 
 his heart, are few. They operate of course with 
 more decisive effect, than when the mind is crowded 
 with a multiplicity of objects, or distracted by the 
 variety of its pursuits ; and when every motive that 
 acts with any force in forming the sentiments of a 
 savage, prompts him to suffer with dignity, he will 
 bear what might seem to be impossible for human 
 patience to sustain. But wherever the fortitude of 
 the Americans is not roused to exertion by their 
 ideas of honour, their feelings of pain are the same 
 with those of the rest of mankind (74). Nor is that 
 patience under sufferings for which the Americans 
 have been so justly celebrated an universal attain- 
 ment. The constancy of many of the victims is 
 overcome by the agonies of torture. Their weak- 
 ness and lamentations complete the triumph of 
 their enemies, and reflect disgrace upon their own 
 country. 
 
 The perpetual hostilities carried on among the 
 American tribes are productive of very fatal effects. 
 Even in seasons of public tranquillity, their imperfect 
 industry does not supply them with any superfluous 
 store of provisions ; but when the irruption of an 
 enemy desolates their cultivated lands, or disturbs 
 them in their hunting excursions, such a calamity 
 reduces a community, naturally improvident and 
 destitute of resources, to extreme want. All the 
 people of the district that is invaded, are frequently 
 forced to take refuge in woods or mountains, which 
 can afford them little subsistence, and where many 
 of them perish. Notwithstanding their excessive 
 caution in conducting their military operations, and 
 the solicitude of every leader to preserve the lives of 
 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA, No. 12. 
 
 his followers, as the rude tribes in America seldom 
 enjoy any interval of peace, the loss of men among 
 them is considerable in proportion to the degree of 
 population. Thus famine and the sword combine 
 in thinning their numbers. All their communities 
 are feeble, and nothing now remains of several 
 nations, which were once considerable, but the 
 name. 
 
 Sensible of this continual decay, there are tribes 
 which endeavour to recruit their national force when 
 exhausted, by adopting prisoners taken in war, and 
 by this expedient prevent their total extinction. 
 The practice, however, is not universally received. 
 Resentment operates more powerfully among sa- 
 vages, than considerations of policy. Far the greater 
 part of their captives was anciently sacrificed to 
 their vengeance, and it is only since their numbers 
 began to decline fast, that they have generally- 
 adopted milder maxims. But such as they do 
 naturalize, renounce for ever their native tribe, and 
 assume the manners as well as passions of the 
 people by whom they are adopted so entirely, that 
 they often join them in expeditions against their 
 own countrymen. Such a sudden transition, and so 
 repugnant to one of the most powerful instincts im- 
 planted by nature, would be deemed strange among 
 many people : but among the members of small 
 communities, where national enmity is violent and 
 deep-rooted, it has the appearance of being still 
 more unaccountable. It seems, however, to result 
 naturally from the principles upon which war is 
 carried on in America. When nations aim at ex- 
 terminating their enemies, no exchange of prisoners 
 can ever take place. From the moment one is 
 made a prisoner, his covintry and his friends con- 
 sider him as dead (75). He has incurred indelible 
 disgrace by suffering himself to be surprised or to 
 be taken by an enemy ; and were he to return home, 
 after such a stain upon his honour, his nearest rela- 
 tions would not receive or even acknowledge that 
 they knew him (76). Some tribes were still more 
 rigid, and if a prisoner returned, the infamy which he' 
 had brought on his country was expiated by putting 
 him instantly to death. As the unfortunate captive 
 is thus an outcast from his own country, and the 
 ties which bound him to it are irreparably broken, 
 he feels less reluctance in forming a new connexion 
 with people, who, as an evidence of their friendly 
 sentiments, not only deliver him from a cruel death, 
 but offer to admit him to all the rights of a fellow- 
 citizen. The perfect similarity of manners among 
 savage nations facilitates and completes the union, 
 and induces a captive to transfer not only his alle- 
 giance, but his affection, to the community into the 
 bosom of which he is received. 
 
 But though war be the chief occupation of men in 
 their rude state, and to excel in it their highest 
 distinction and pride, their inferiority is always 
 manifest when they engage in competition with 
 polished nations. Destitute of that foresight which 
 discerns and provides for remote events, strangers to 
 the union and mutual confidence requisite in forming 
 any extensive plan of operations, and incapable of 
 the subordination no less requisite in carrying such 
 plans into execution, savage nations may astonish a 
 disciplined enemy by their valour, but seldom prove 
 formidable to him by their conduct ; and whenever 
 the contest is of long continuance, must yield to 
 superior art. The empires of Peru and Mexico, 
 though their progress in civilization, when measured 
 by the European or Asiatic standards, was incon- 
 siderable, acquired such an ascendency over the rude 
 N . 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 tribes around them, that they subjected most of 
 them with great facility to their power. When the 
 people of Europe overran the various provinces of 
 America, this superiority was still more conspicuous. 
 Neither the courage nor number of the natives could 
 repel a handful of invaders. The alienation and 
 enmity, prevalent among barbarians, prevented them 
 from uniting in any common scheme of defence, and 
 while each tribe fought separately, all were subdued. 
 VI. The arts of rude nations unacquainted with 
 the use of metals, hardly merit any attention on 
 .their own account, but are worthy of some notice, as 
 far as they serve to display the genius and manners 
 of man in this stage of his progress. The first 
 distress a savage must feel, will arise from the 
 manner in which his body is affected, by the heat, 
 or cold, or moisture, of the climate under which he 
 lives ; and his first care will be to provide some 
 covering for his own defence. In the warmer and 
 more mild climates of America, none of the rude 
 tribes were clothed. To most of them nature had 
 not even suggested any idea of impropriety in being 
 altogether uncovered. As under a mild climate there 
 was little need of any defence from the injuries of 
 the air, and their extreme indolence shunned every 
 species of labour to which it was not urged by abso- 
 lute necessity, all the inhabitants of the isles, and 
 a considerable part of the people on the continent, 
 remained in this state of naked simplicity. Others 
 were satisfied with some slight covering, such as 
 decency required. But though naked, they were not 
 unadorned. They dressed their hair in many dif- 
 ferent forms. They fastened bits of gold, or shells, 
 or shining stones, in their ears, their noses, and 
 cheeks. They stained their skins with a great 
 Variety of figures ; and they spent much time, and 
 submitted to great pain, in ornamenting their persons 
 in this fantastic manner. Vanity, however, which finds 
 endless occupation for ingenuity and invention, in 
 nations where dress has become a complex and intri- 
 cate, art is circumscribed within so narrow bounds, and 
 confined to so few articles among naked savages, that 
 they are not satisfied with those simple decorations, 
 and have a wonderful propensity to alter the natural 
 Ibrm of their bodies, in order to render it (as they 
 imagine) more perfect and beautiful. This practice 
 was universal among the rudest of the American 
 tribes. Their operations for that purpose begin as 
 soon as an infant is born. By compressing the 
 bones of the skull, while still soft and flexible, some 
 flatten the crown of their heads ; some squeeze them 
 into the shape of a cone ; others mould them as moch 
 as possible into a square figure : and they often 
 endanger the lives of their posterity by their violent 
 and absurd efforts to derange the plan of nature, or 
 to improve upon her designs. Bat in all their 
 attempts either to adorn or new-model their per- 
 sons, it seems to have been less the object of the 
 Americans to please, or to appear beautiful, than 
 to give an air of dignity and terror to their aspect. 
 Their attention to dress had more reference to war 
 than to gallantry. The difference in rank and esti- 
 mation between the two sexes was so great, as seems 
 to have extinguished, in some measure, their solici- 
 tude to appear mutually amiable. The man deemed 
 it beneath him to adorn his person, for the sake of 
 one on whom he was accustomed to look down as 
 a slave. It was when the warrior had in view to 
 enter the council of his nation, or to take the f eld 
 against his enemies, that he assumed his choicest 
 ornaments, and decked his person with the nicest 
 care. The decorations pf. the women were few and 
 
 simple ; whatever was precious or splendid was 
 reserved for the men. In several tribes the women 
 were obliged to spend a considerable part of their 
 time every day in adorning and painting their hus- 
 bands, and could bestow but little attention in orna- 
 menting themselves. Among a race of men so 
 haughty as to despise, or so cold as to neglect them, 
 the women naturally became careless and slovenly, 
 and the love of finery and show, which has been 
 deemed their favourite passion, was confined chiefly 
 to the other sex. To deck his person was the dis- 
 tinction of a warrior, as well as one of his most 
 serious occupations (77). In one part of their dress, 
 which, at first sight, appears the most singular and 
 capricious, the Americans have discovered consider- 
 able sagacity in providing against the chief inconve- 
 niencies of their climate, which is often sultry and 
 moist to excess. All the different tribes, which 
 remain unclothed, are accustomed to anoint and rub 
 their bodies with the grease of animals, with viscous 
 gums, and with oils of different kinds. By this they 
 check that profuse perspiration, which, in the torrid 
 zone, wastes the vigour of the frame, and abridges 
 the period of human life. By this, too, they proyide 
 a defence against the extreme moisture during the 
 rainy season (7&). They likewise, at certain seasons, 
 temper paint of different colours with those unctuous 
 substances, and bedaub themselves plentifully with 
 that composition. Sheathed with this impenetrable 
 varnish, their skins are not only protected from the 
 penetrating heat of the sun, but as all the innumerable 
 tribes of insects have an antipathy to the smell or 
 taste of that mixture, they are delivered from their 
 teasing persecution, which amidst forests and marshes, 
 especially in the warmer regions, would have been 
 altogether intolerable in a state of perfect nakedness. 
 The next object to dress that will engage the 
 attention of a savage, is to prepare some habitation 
 which may afford him shelter by day, and a retreat at 
 night. Whatever is connected with his ideas of per- 
 sonal dignity, whatever bears any reference to his 
 military character, the savage warrior deems an object 
 of importance. Whatever relates only to peaceable 
 and inactive life, he views with indifference. Hence, 
 though finically attentive to dress, he is little solicit- 
 ous about the elegance or disposition of his habitation. 
 Savage nations, far from that state of improvement, 
 in which the mode of living is considered as a mark 
 of distinction, and unacquainted with those wants 
 which require a variety of accommodation, regulate 
 the construction of their houses according to their 
 limited ideas of necessity. Some of the American 
 tribes were so extremely rude, and had advanced 
 so little beyond the primeval simplicity of nature, 
 that they had no houses at all. During the day, they 
 take shelter from the scorching rays of the sun under 
 thick trees ; at night they form a shed with their 
 branches and leaves (79). In the rainy season 
 they retire into coves, formed by the hand of nature, 
 or hollowed out by their own industry. Others, who 
 have no fixed abode, and roam through the forest in 
 quest of game, sojourn in temporary huts, which 
 they erect with little labour, and abandon without 
 any concern. The inhabitants of those vast plains, 
 which are deluged by the overflowing of rivers 
 during the heavy rains that fall periodically between 
 the tropics, raise houses upon piles fastened in the 
 ground, or place them among the boughs of trees, 
 and are thus safe amidst that wide extended inunda- 
 tion which surrounds them. Such were the first 
 essays of the rudest Americans towards providing 
 themselves with habitations. Bvit even among tribes 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 which are more improved, and whose residence i 
 become altogether fixed, the structure of their house! 
 is extremely mean and simple. They are wretchec 
 huts, sometimes of an oblong and sometimes of a 
 circular form, intended merely for shelter, with no 
 'view to elegance, and little attention to conveniency 
 The doors are so low that it is necessary to bend or 
 creep on the hands and feet in order to enter them 
 They are without windows, and have a large hole in 
 the middle of the roof, to convey out the smoke. To 
 follow travellers in other minute circumstances of 
 their descriptions, is not only beneath the dignity of 
 history, but would be foreign to the object of my 
 researches. One circumstance merits attention, as it 
 is singular, and illustrates the character of the people. 
 Some of their houses are so large as to contain 
 accommodation for fourscore or a hundred persons. 
 These are built for the reception of different families, 
 which dwell together under the same roof (80), and 
 often around a common fire, without separate apart- 
 ments, or any kind of screen or partition between 
 the spaces which they respectively occupy. As soon 
 as men have acquired distinct ideas of property ; or 
 when they are so much attached to their females, as 
 to watch them with care and jealousy ; families of 
 course divide and settle in separate houses, where 
 they can secure and guard whatever they wish to 
 preserve. This singular mode of habitation among 
 several people of America, may therefore be consi- 
 dered, not only as the effect of their imperfect notions 
 concerning property, but as a proof of inattention and 
 indifference towards their women. If they had not 
 been accustomed to perfect equality, such an arrange- 
 ment could not have taken place. If their sensibility 
 had been apt to have taken alarm, they would not 
 have trusted the virtue of their women amidst the 
 temptations and opportunities of such a promiscuous 
 intercourse. At the same time, the perpetual con- 
 cord which reigns in habitations where so many 
 families are crowded together, is surprising, and 
 affords a striking evidence that they must be people 
 of either a very gentle or of a very phlegmatic temper, 
 who, in such a situation, are unacquainted with ani- 
 mosity, brawling, and discoid. 
 
 After making some provision for his dress and 
 habitation, a savage will perceive the necessity of 
 preparing proper arms with which to assault or repel 
 an enemy. This, accordingly, has e irly exercised the 
 ingenuity and invention of all rude nations. The first 
 offensive weapons were doubtless such as chance 
 presented, and the first efforts of art to improve upon 
 these, were extremely awkward and simple. Clubs 
 made of some heavy wood, stakes hardened in the 
 fire, lances whose heads were armed with flint or the 
 bones of soa.e animal, are weapons knoAvn to the 
 rudest nations. All these, however, were of use only 
 in close encounter. But men wished to annoy their 
 enemies while at a distance, and the bow and arrow 
 is the most early invention for this purpose. This 
 weapon is in the hands of people, whose advances in 
 improvement are extremely inconsiderable, and is 
 familiar to the inhabitants of every quarter of the 
 globe. It is remarkable, however, that some tribes 
 in America were so destitute of art and ingenuity, 
 that they had not attained to the discovery of this 
 simple invention, and seem to have been unacquainted 
 with the use of any missive weapon. The sling, 
 though in its construction not more complex than the 
 bow, and among many nations of equal antiquity, 
 was little known to the people of North America, or 
 the islands, but appears to have been used by a feu- 
 tribes in the southern continent (81). The people in 
 
 some provinces of Chili, and those of Pantagonia, 
 
 towards the southern extremity of America, use a. 
 
 weapon peculiar to themselves. They fasten stone?, 
 about the size of a fist, to each end of a. leather thong 
 of eight feet in length, and swing these round their 
 heads, throw them with such dexterity, that they 
 seldom miss the object at which they aim. 
 
 Among people who had hardly any occupation but 
 war or hunting, the chief exertions of their invention 
 (82), as well as industry, were naturally directed to- 
 wards these objects. With respect to every thing else, 
 their wants and desires were so limited, that their 
 invention was not xipou the stretch. As their food 
 and habitations are perfectly simple, thier domestic 
 utensils are few and rude. Somp of the southern 
 tribes had discovered the art of forming vessels of 
 earthenware, and baking them in the sun, so as they 
 could endure the fire. In North America, they hol- 
 lowed a piece of hard wood into the form of a kettle, 
 and filling it with water, brought it to boil by putting 
 red-hot stones into it. These vessels they used in, 
 preparing part of their provisions ; and this may be 
 considered as a step towards refinement and luxury, 
 for men in their rudest state were not acquainted 
 with any method of dressing their victuals but by 
 oasting them on the fire ; and among several tribes 
 n America, this is the only species of cookery yet 
 known (83). But the masterpiece of art, among the 
 avages of America, is the construction of the canoes. 
 An Esquimaux, shut up in his boat of whalebone, 
 overed with the skins of seals, can brave that stormy 
 )cean, on which the barrenness of his country compels, 
 lim to depend for the chief part of his subsistence. 
 The people of Canada venture upon their rivers and 
 'akes in boats made of the bark of trees, and so light 
 hat two men can carry them, wherever shallows or 
 ataracts obstruct the navigation (84). In these frail 
 essels they undertake and accomplish long voyages. 
 The inhabitants of the isles and of the southern con- 
 inent form their canoes by hollowing the trunk of a 
 arge tree, with infinite labour ; and though in appear- 
 nce they are extremely awkward and unwieldy, they 
 >addle and steer them with such dexterity, that 
 Europeans, well acquainted with all the improvements 
 n the science of navigation, have been astonished at 
 he rapidity of their motion, and the quickness of their 
 (volutions. Their pirogues, or war-boats, are so largo 
 ,s to carry forty or fifty men ; their canoes employed 
 n fishing and in short voyages are less capacious. 
 ?he form as well as materials of all these various 
 cinds of vessels is well adapted to the service for 
 
 hich they are destined ; and the more minutely 
 hey are examined, the mechanism of their structure, 
 s well as neatness of their fabric, will appear the 
 lore surprising. 
 
 But in every attempt towards industry among the 
 Americans, one striking quality in their character i* 
 onspicuous. They apply to work without ardour, 
 arry it on with little activity, and, like children, are 
 asily diverted from it. Even in operations which 
 eem the most interesting, and where the most power- 
 ul motives urge them to vigorous exertions, they 
 abour with a languid listlessness. Their work ad- 
 ances under their hand with such slowness, that an 
 ye-witness compares it to the imperceptible progress 
 f vegetation. They will spend so many years in 
 arming a canoe, that it often begins to rot with age 
 > e fore they finish it. They will suffer one part of a 
 oof to decay and perish, before they complete the- 
 ther. The slightest manual operation consumes an 
 mazing length of time, and what in polished nations 
 rould hardly be an effort of industry, is among 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 savages an arduous undertaking. This slowness of 
 the Americans in executing works of every kind may 
 Le imputed to various causes. Among savages, who 
 do not depend for subsistence upon the efforts of 
 regular industry, time is of so little importance, that 
 they set no value upon it ; and provided they can 
 finish a design, they never regard how long they are 
 Employed about it. The tools which they employ 
 are so awkward and defective, that every work in 
 which they engage must necessarily be tedious. The 
 hand of the most industrious and skilful artist, were 
 it furnished with no better instrument than a stone 
 hatchet, a shell, or the bone of some animal, would 
 find it difficult to perfect the most simple work. It is 
 by length of labour that he must endeavour to supply 
 his defect of power. But above all, the cold phleg- 
 matic temper peculiar to the Americans renders their 
 operations languid. It is almost impossible to rouse 
 them from that habitual indolence to which they are 
 sunk; and unless when engaged in war or hunting, 
 they seem incapable of exerting any vigorous effort. 
 Their ardour of application is not so great as to call 
 forth that inventive spirit which suggests expedients 
 for facilitating and abridging labour. They will re- 
 turn to a task day after day, but all their methods of 
 executing it are tedious and operose (85.) Even 
 since the Europeans have communicated to them the 
 knowledge of their instruments, and taught them to 
 imitate their arts, the peculiar genius of the Ameri- 
 cans is conspicuous in every attempt they make. 
 They may be patient and assiduous in labour, they 
 can copy with a servile and minute accuracy, but 
 discover little invention and no talents for despatch. 
 In spite of instruction and example, the spirit of the 
 race predominates ; their motions are naturally tardy, 
 and it is in vain to urge them to quicken their pace. 
 
 Among the Spaniards in America, the work of an 
 Indian is a phrase by which they describe any thing, 
 in the execution of which an immense time has been 
 employed, and much labour wasted. 
 
 VII. No circumstance respecting rude nations 
 has been the object cf greater curiosity than their 
 religious tenets and rites ; and, none, perhaps, has 
 teen so imperfectly understood, or represented with 
 so little fidelity. Priests and missionaries are the 
 persons who have had the best opportunities of car- 
 rying on this enquiry, among the most uncivilized of 
 the American tribes. Their minds, engrossed by 
 the doctrines of their own religion, and habituated to 
 its institutions, are apt to discover something which 
 resembles those objects of their veneration, in the 
 opinions and rites of every people. Whatever they 
 contemplate, they view through one medium, and 
 draw and accommodate it to their own system. They 
 study to reconcile the institutions, which fall under 
 their observation, to their own creed, not to explain 
 them according to the rude notions of the people 
 themselves. They ascribe to them ideas which they 
 are incapable of forming; and suppose them to be 
 acquainted with principles and facts, which it is impos- 
 sible that they should know. Hence, some mission- 
 aries have been induced to believe, that even among 
 the most barbarous nations in America, they had 
 discovered traces, no less distinct than amazing, of 
 their acquaintance with the sublime mysteries and 
 peculiar institutions of Christianity. From their own 
 interpretation of certain expressions and ceremonies, 
 they have concluded that these people had some 
 knowledge of the doctrine of the Trinity, of the in- 
 carnation of the Son of God, of his expiatory sacri- 
 fice, of the virtue of the cross, and of the efficacy of 
 the sacraments. In such unintelligent and credu- 
 JQIIS guides, we can place little confidence, 
 
 But even when we make our choice of conductors 
 with the greatest care, we must not follow them with 
 implicit faith. An enquiry into the religious notions 
 of rude nations is involved in peculiar intricacies, and 
 we must often pause in order to separate the facts 
 which our informers relate from the reasonings with 
 which they are accompanied, or the theories which 
 they build upon them. Several pious writers, more 
 attentive to the importance of the subject than to the 
 condition of the people whose sentiments they were 
 endeavouring to discover, have bestowed much un- 
 profitable labour in researches of this nature (S6.) 
 
 There are two fundamental doctrines upon which 
 the whole system of religion, as far as it can be dis- 
 covered by the light of nature, is established. The 
 one respects the being of a God, the other the immor- 
 tality of the soul. To discover the ideas of the un- 
 cultivated nations under our review with regard to 
 those important points, is not only an object of curio- 
 sity, but may afford instruction. To these two arti- 
 cles I shall confine my researches, leaving subordi- 
 nate opinions, and the detail of local superstitions, 
 to more minute inquirers. Whoever has had any 
 opportunity of examining into the religious opinions 
 of persons in the inferior ranks of life, even in the 
 most enlightened and civilized nations, will find that 
 their system of belief is derived from instruction, not 
 discovered by inquiry. That numerous part of the 
 human species whose lot is labour, whose principal 
 and almost sole occupation is to secure subsistence, 
 views the arrangement and operations of nature with 
 little reflection, and has neither leisure nor capacity 
 for entering into that path of refined and intricate 
 speculation which conducts to the knowledge of the 
 principles of natural religion. In the early and 
 most rude periods of savage life, such disquisitions 
 are altogether unknown. When the intellectual 
 powers are just beginning to unfold, and their first 
 feeble exertions are directed towards a few objects 
 of primary necessity and use; when the faculties of 
 the mind are so limited, as not to have formed 
 abstract or general ideas ; when language is so 
 barren, as to be destitute of names to distinguish 
 any thing that is not perceived by some of the 
 senses ; it is preposterous to expect that rnan should 
 be capable of tracing with accuracy the relation 
 between cause and effect; or to suppose that he 
 should rise from the contemplation of the one to the 
 knowledge of the other, and form just conceptions 
 of a Deity, as the Creator and Governor of the 
 universe. The idea of creation is so familiar 
 wherever the mind is enlarged by science, and illu- 
 minated with revelation, that we seldom reflect 
 how profound and abstruse this idea is, or consider 
 what progress man must have made in observation 
 and research, before he could arrive at any know- 
 ledge of this elementary principle in religion. Ac- 
 cordingly, several tribes have been discovered in 
 America, which have no idea whatever of a Supreme 
 Being, and no rites of religious worship. Inattentive 
 to that magnificent spectacle of beauty and order 
 presented to their view, unaccustomed to reflect 
 either upon what they themselves are, or to inquire 
 who is the author of their existence, men, in their 
 savage state, pass their days like the animals around 
 them, without knowledge or veneration of any superior 
 power. Some rude tribes have not in their language 
 any name for the Deity, nor have the most accurate 
 observers been able to discover any practice or 
 institution which seemed to imply that they recog- 
 nised his authority, or were solicitous to obtain hia 
 favour (87). It is however only among men in the 
 most uncultivated sta.te of nature, and while their. 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 intellectual faculties are so feeble and limited as 
 hardly to elevate them above the irrational creation, 
 that we discover this total insensibility to the im- 
 pressions of any invisible power. 
 
 Bat the human mind, formed for religion, soon 
 opens to the reception of ideas, which are destined, 
 when corrected and refined, to be the great source of 
 consolation amidst the calamities of life. Among 
 some of the American tribes, still in the infancy of 
 improvement, we discern apprehensions of some in- 
 visible and powerful beings. These apprehensions 
 are originally indistinct and perplexed, and seem to 
 be suggested rather by the dread of impending evils, 
 than to fiovf from gratitude for blessings received. 
 While nature holds on her course with uniform and 
 undisturbed regularity, men enjoy the benefits re- 
 sulting from it, without enquiring concerning its 
 cause. But every deviation from this regular course 
 rouses and astonishes them. When they behold 
 events to which they are not accustomed, they search 
 for the reasons of them with eager curiosity. Their 
 understanding is unable to penetrate into these; but 
 imagination, a more forward and ardent faculty of 
 the mind, decides without hesitation. It ascribes the 
 extraordinary occurrences in nature to the influence 
 of invisible beings, and supposes that the thunder, 
 the hurricane, and the earthquake, are effects of their 
 interposition. Some such confused notion of spiritual 
 or invisible power, superintending over those natural 
 calamities which frequently desolate the earth, and 
 terrify its inhabitants, may be traced among many- 
 rude nations (&). But besides this, the disasters 
 and dangers of savage life are so many, and men 
 often find themselves in situations so formidable, that 
 the mind, sensible of its own weakness, has no re- 
 source but in the guidance and protection of wisdom 
 and power superior to what is human. Dejected 
 with calamities which oppress him, and exposed to 
 dangers which he cannot repel, the savage no longer 
 relies upon himself ; he feels his own impotence, and 
 sees no prospect of being extricated, but by the in- 
 terposition of some unseen arm. Hence, in all unen- 
 lightened, nations, the first rites or practices which 
 bear any resemblance to acts of religion, have it for 
 their object to avert evils which men suffer or dread. 
 The Manitaiit or Okkis of the North Americans were 
 amulets or charms, which they imagined to be of such 
 virtue, as to preserve the persons who reposed confi- 
 dence in them from every disastrous event ; or they 
 wore considered as tutelar spirits, whose aid they 
 might implore in circumstances of distress. The 
 Cemis of the islanders were reputed by them to be 
 the authors of every calamity that afflicts the human 
 race ; they were represented under the most fright- 
 ful forms, and religious homage was, paid to them 
 with no other view than to appease these furious 
 deities. Even among those tribes whose religious 
 system was more enlarged, and who had formed some 
 conception of benevolent beings, which delighted in 
 conferring benefits, as well as of malicious powers 
 prone to inflict evil, superstition still appears as the 
 offspring of fear, and all its efforts were employed to 
 avert calamities. They were persuaded that their 
 good deities, prompted by the beneficence of their 
 nature, would bestow every blessing in their power, 
 without solicitation or acknowledgment ; and their 
 only anxiety was to soothe and deprecate the wrath 
 of the powers whom they regarded as the enemies of 
 mankind. 
 
 Such were the imperfect conceptions of the greater 
 part of the Americans with respect to the interposi- 
 tions of invisible agents, ad such, almost universally, 
 
 was the mean and illiberal object of their supersti- 
 tions. Were we to trace back the ideas of other 
 nations to that rude state in which history first 
 presents them to our view, we should discover a 
 surprising resemblance in their tenets and practices ; 
 and should be convinced, that, in similar circum- 
 stances, the faculties of the human mind hold nearly 
 the same course in their progress, and arrive at 
 almost the same conclusions. The impressions of 
 fear are conspicuous in all the systems of superstition 
 formed in this situation. The most exalted notions 
 of men rise no higher than to a perplexed apprehen- 
 sion of certain beings, whose power, though super- 
 natural, is limited as well as partial. 
 
 But, among other tribes, which have been longer 
 united, or have made greater progress in improve- 
 ment, we discern some feeble pointing towards more 
 just and adequate conceptions of the power that 
 presides in nature. They seem to perceive that 
 there must be some universal cause to whom all 
 things aie indebted for their being. If we may 
 judge by some of their expressions, they appear to 
 acknowledge a divine power to be the maker of the 
 world, and the disposer of all events. They denomi- 
 nate him the Great Spirit. But these ideas are 
 faint and confused, and when they attempt to explain 
 them it is manifest, that among them the word tpirit 
 has a meaning very different from that in which we 
 employ it, and that they have no conception of any 
 deity but what is corporeal. They believe their gods to 
 be of the human form, though of a nature more excel- 
 lent than man, and retail such wild incoherent fables 
 concerning their functions and operations, as are 
 altogether unworthy of a place in history. Even 
 among these tribes, there is no established form of pub- 
 lic worship ; there are no temples erected in honour 
 of their deities ; and no ministers peculiarly consecra- 
 ted to their service. They have the knowledge, how- 
 ever of several superstitious ceremonies and practices 
 handed down to them by tradition, and to these they 
 have recourse with a childish credulity, when roused 
 by any emergence from their usual insensibility, and 
 excited to acknowledge the power, and to implore 
 the protection, of superior beings. 
 
 The tribe of the Natchez, and the people of Bogota, 
 had advanced beyond the other uncultivated nations 
 of America in their ideas of religion, as well as in 
 their political institutions ; and it is no less difficult 
 to explain the cause of this distinction than of that 
 which we have already considered. The sun was the 
 chief object of religious worship among the Natchez. 
 In their temples, which were constructed with some 
 magnificence, and decorated with various ornaments,, 
 according to their mode of architecture, they pre- 
 served a perpetual fire, as the purest emblem of 
 their divinity. Ministers were appointed to watcn. 
 and feed this sacred flame. The first function of the 
 great chief of the nation, every morning, was an act 
 of obeisance to the sun ; and festivals returned at 
 stated seasons, which were celebrated by the whole 
 community with solemn but unbloody rites. This 
 is the most refined species of superstition known in 
 America, and, perhaps, one of the most natural as 
 well as most seducing. The sun is the appa- 
 rent source of the joy, fertility, and life, diffused 
 through nature ; and while the human mind, in its 
 earliest essays towards inquiry, contemplates and 
 admires his universal and animating energy, its 
 admiration is apt to stop short at what is visible, 
 without reaching to the unseen cause ; and pays 
 that adoration to the most glorious and beneficial 
 work of God, which is. due only to him who fornie4 
 
THE. HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 it. As fire is the most pure and active of the ele- 
 ments, and in some of its qualities and effects 
 resembles the sun, it was, not improperly, chosen to 
 fee the emblem of his powerful operation. The 
 ancient Persians, a people far superior, in every 
 respect, to that rude tribe whose rites I am describ- 
 ing, founded their religious system on similar prin- 
 ciples, and established a form of public worship, less 
 gross and exceptionable than that of any people 
 destitute of guidance from revelation. This sur- 
 prising coincidence in sentiment, between two nations, 
 in such different states of improvement, is one of 
 the many singular and unaccountable circumstances 
 wlwch occur in the history of human affairs. 
 
 Among the people of Bogota, the sun and moon 
 Nvcre, likewise, the chief objects of veneration. Their 
 system of religion was more pure and complete, 
 though less pure than that of the Natchez. They 
 had temples, altars, priests, sacrifices, and that long 
 train of ceremonies, which superstition introduces 
 wherever she has fully established her dominion over 
 the minds of men. But the rites of their worship 
 were cruel and bloody. They offered human victims 
 to their deities, and many of their practices nearly 
 resembled the barbarous institutions of the Mexicans, 
 the genius of which we shall have an opportunity of 
 considering more attentively in its proper place. 
 ' With respect to the other great doctrine of religion, 
 concerning the immortality of the soul, the senti- 
 ments of the Americans were more united : the 
 human mind, even when least improved and invigo- 
 rated by culture, shrinks from the thought of annihila- 
 tion and looks forward with hope and expectation to 
 a state of future existence. This sentiment, resulting 
 from a secret consciousness of its own dignity, from 
 an instinctive longing after immortality, is universal, 
 and may be deemed natural. Upon this are founded 
 the most exalted hopes of man in his highest state of 
 improvement ; nor has nature withheld from him this 
 soothing consolation, in the most early and rude 
 period of its progress. We can trace this opinion 
 from one extremity of America to the other, in some 
 regions more faint and obscure, in ethers more 
 perfectly developed, but nowhere unknown. The 
 most uncivilized of it; savage tribes do not appre- 
 hend death as the extinction of being. All entertain 
 hopes of a future and more happy state, where they 
 shall be for ever exempt from the calamities which 
 embitter human life in its present condition. This 
 future state they conceive to be a delightful country, 
 blessed with perpetual spring, whose forests abound 
 with game, whose rivers swarm with fish, where 
 famine is never felt, and uninterrupted plenty shall 
 be enjoyed without labour or toil. But as men, in 
 forming their first imperfect ideas concerning the 
 invisible world, suppose that there they shall con- 
 tinue to feel the same desires, and to be engaged in 
 the same occupations, as in the present world ; they 
 naturally ascribe eminence and distinction in that 
 state, to the same qualities and talents which are 
 here the object of their esteem. The Americans, ac- 
 coidinglj', allotted the highest place in their country 
 of spirits, to the skilful hunter, to the adventurous 
 and successful warrior, and to such as had tortured 
 the greatest number of captives, and devoured their 
 flesh. These notions where so prevalent, that they 
 gave rise to an universal custom, which is at once 
 the strongest evidence that the Americans believe in 
 a future state, and the best illustration of what they 
 expect there. As they imagine, that departed spirits 
 begin their career anew in the world whither they 
 are gone, that their friends may not enter upon it 
 
 defenceless and unprovided, they bury together with 
 the bodies of the dead, their bow, their arrows, and 
 other weapons used in hunting or war ; they deposit 
 in their tombs the skins or stuffs of which they make 
 garments, Indian corn, manioc, venison, domestic 
 utensils, and whatever is reckoned among the neces- 
 saries in their simple mode of life. In some pro- 
 vinces, upon the decease of a cazique or chief, a 
 certain number of his wives, of his favorites, and of 
 his slaves, were put to death, and interred together 
 with him, that he might appear with the same dignity 
 in his future station, and be waited upon by the 
 same attendants. This persuasion is so deep-rooted, 
 that many of the deceased person's retainers offer 
 themselves as voluntary victims, and court the 
 privilege of accompanying their dcpaited master, as 
 a high distinction. It has been found difficult, on 
 some occasions, to set bounds to this enthusiasm of 
 affectionate duty, and to reduce the train of a 
 favourite leader to such a number as the tribe could 
 afford to spare (89). 
 
 Among the Americans, as well as other uncivilized 
 nations, many of the rites and observances which 
 bear some resemblance to acts of religion, have no 
 connexion Avith devotion, but proceed from a fond 
 desire of prying into futurity. The human mind is 
 most aft to feel and to discover this vain curiosity 
 when its own powers are most feeble and unin- 
 formed. Astonished with occurrences, of which it is 
 unable to comprehend the cause, it naturally fancies, 
 that there is something mysterious and wonderful in 
 their origin. Alarmed at events of which it cannot 
 discern the issue or the consequences, it has recourse 
 to other means of discovering them, than the exercise 
 of its own sagacitv. Wherever superstition is so 
 established as to form a regular system, this desire 
 of penetrating into the secrets of futurity is connected 
 with it. Divination becomes a religious act. Priests, as 
 the ministers of Heaven, pretend to deliver its oracles 
 to men. They are the only soothsayers, augurs, and 
 magicians, who profess the sacred and important art 
 of disclosing what is hid from other eyes. 
 
 But among rude nations, who pay no veneration 
 to any superintending power, and who have no esta- 
 blished rites or ministers of religion, their curiosity 
 to discover what is future and unknown, is cherished 
 by a different principle, and derives strength from 
 another alliance. As the diseases of men in a savage 
 state are, as has been already observed, like those of 
 the animal creation, few, but extremely violent, iheir 
 impatience under what they sxiffer, and solicitude 
 for the recovery of health, soon inspired them with 
 extraordinary reverence for such as pretended to 
 understand the nature of their maladies, and to be 
 possessed of knowledge sufficient to preserve or deliver 
 them from their sudden and fatal effects. These 
 ignorant pretenders, however, were such utter stran- 
 gers to the structure of the human frame, as to be 
 equally unacquainted with the causes of its disorders, 
 and the manner in which they will terminate. Su- 
 persiition, mingled frequently with some portion of 
 craft, supplied what they wanted in science. They 
 imputed the organ of diseases to supernatural influ- 
 ence, and prescribed or performed a variety of mys- 
 terious rites, which they gave out to be of such 
 efficacy as to remove the mostdangerous and inveterate 
 maladies. The credulity and love of the marvellous, 
 natural to uninformed men, favoured the deception, 
 and prepared them to be the dupes of those impostors. 
 Amonjj savages, their first physicians ar a kind of 
 conjurers or wizards, who boast that they know 
 what is past, and can foretell what is to come. Incan- 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 tations, sorcery, and mummeries of diverse kinds, 
 no less strange than frivolous, are the means which 
 they employ to expel the imaginary causes of malig- 
 nity ; and, relying upon the efficacy of these, they 
 predict with confidence what will be the fate of their 
 deluded patients. Thus superstition, in its earliest 
 form, flowed from the solicitude of man to be deli- 
 vered from present distress, not from his dread of 
 evils awaiting him in a future life, and was originally- 
 ingrafted on medicine, not on religion. One of the 
 first and most intelligent historians of America was 
 struck with this alliance between the art of divina- 
 tion and that of physic, among the people of His- 
 paniola. But this was not peculiar to them. The 
 Alexis, the Piayas, the Autmoins. or whatever was 
 the distinguishing name of their diviners and 
 charmers in other parts of America, were all the phy- 
 sicians of their respective tribes, in the same manner 
 as the Bubitos of Hispaniola. As their function led 
 them to apply to the human mind when enfeebled 
 by sickness, and as they found it, in that season of 
 dejection, prone to be alarmed with imaginary fears, 
 or amused with vain hopes, they easily induced it 
 to rely with implicit confidence on the virtue of their 
 spell?, and the certainty of their predictions. 
 
 Whenever men acknowledge the reality of super- 
 natural power and discernment in one instance, 
 they have a propensity to admit it in others. The 
 Americans did not long suppose the efficacy of con- 
 juration to be confined to one subject. They had 
 recourse to it in every situation of danger or distress. 
 When the events of war were peculiarly disastrous, 
 when they met with unforeseen disappointment in 
 hunting, when inundations or drought threatened their 
 crops with destruction, they called upon their conjurers 
 to begin their incantations, in order to discover the 
 causes of those calamities, or to foretell what would 
 be their issue. Their confidence in this delusive art 
 gradually increased, and manifested itself in all the 
 occurrences of life. When involved in any difficulty, 
 or about to enter upon any transaction of moment, 
 every individual regularly consulted the sorcerer, 
 and depended upon his instructions to extricate him 
 from the former, as well as to direct his conduct in 
 the latter. Even among the rudest tribes in 
 America, superstition appears in this form, and 
 divination is an art in high esteem. Long before 
 man had acquired such knowledge of a deity as in- 
 spires reverence and leads to adoration, we observe 
 him stretching out a presumptuous hand to draw 
 aside that veil with which Providence kindly con- 
 ceals its purpose from human knowledge ; and we 
 find him labouring with fruitless anxiety to pene- 
 trate into the mysteries of the divine administration. 
 To discern and to worship a superintending power, 
 is an evidence of the enlargement and maturity of 
 the human understanding ; a vain desire of prying 
 into futurity, is the error of its infancy, and a proof 
 of its weakness. 
 
 From this weakness proceeded likewise the faith 
 of the Americans in dreams, their observation of 
 omens, their attention to the chirping of birds, and 
 the cries of animals, all which they suppose to be 
 indications of future events ; and if any one of these 
 prognostics is deemed unfavourable, they instantly 
 abandon the pursuit of those measures on which 
 thev are most eagerly bent. 
 
 VIII. But if we would form a complete idea of 
 the uncultivated nations of America, we must not 
 pass unobserved some singular customs, which, 
 though universal and characteristic, could not be 
 reduced, with propriety, to any of the articles into 
 
 which I have divided my inquiry concerning their 
 manners. 
 
 Among savages, in every part of the globe, the 
 love of dancing is a favourite passion. As, during a 
 great part of their time, they languish in a state of 
 inactivity and indolence, without any occupation to 
 rouse or interest them, they delight universally in a 
 pastime which calls forth the active powers of their 
 nature into exercise. The Spaniards, when they 
 first visited America, were astonished at the fondness 
 of the natives for dancing, and beheld with wonder a 
 people, cold and unanimated in most of their other 
 pursuits, kindle into lif-, and exert themselves 
 with ardour, as often as this favourite amusement 
 recurred. Among them, indeed, dancing ought not 
 to be denominated an amusement. It is a serious 
 and important occupation, which mingles in every oc- 
 currence of public or private life. If any inter- 
 course be necessary between two American tribes, 
 the ambassadors of the one approach in a solemn 
 dance, and present the calumet or emblem of peace ; 
 the sachems of the other receive it with the same 
 ceremony. If war is denounced against an enemy, 
 it is by a dance, expressive of the resentment which 
 they feel, and of the vengeance \yhich they meditate. 
 If the wrath of their gods is to be appeased or their 
 beneficence to be celebrated ; if they rejoice at 
 the birth of a child, or mourn the death of a 
 friend, they have dances appropriated to each of 
 these situations, and suited to the different senti- 
 ments with which they are then animated. If a 
 person is indisposed, a dance is prescribed as the 
 most effectual means of restoring him to health ; 
 and if he himself cannot endure the fatigue of such 
 an exercise, the physician or conjurer performs it 
 in his name, as if the virtue of his activity could be 
 transferred to his patient. 
 
 All their dances are imitations of some action ; 
 and though the music by which they are regulated 
 is extremely simple and tiresome to the ear by its 
 dull monotony,, some of their dances appear won- 
 derfully expressive and animated. The war dance 
 is, perhaps, the most striking. It is the representa- 
 tion of a complete American campaign. The de- 
 parture of the warriors from their village, their 
 march into the enemy's country, the caution with 
 which they encamp, the address with which they 
 station some of their party in ambush, the manner 
 ol surprising the enemy, the noise and ferocity of 
 the combat, the scalping of those who are slain, the 
 seizing of prisoners, the triumphant return of the 
 conquerors, and the torture of the victims, are suc- 
 cessively exhibited. The performers enter with such 
 enthusiastic ardour into their several parts; their 
 gestures, their countenance, their voice, are so 
 wild and so well adapted to their various situations, 
 that Europeans can hardly believe it to be a mimic 
 scene, or view it without emotions of fear and horror. 
 
 But however expressive some of the American 
 dances may be, there is one circumstance in them 
 remarkable, and connected with the character of the 
 race. The songs, the dances, the amusements of other 
 nations, expressive of the sentiments which animate 
 their hearts, are often adapted to display or excite 
 that sensibility which mutually attaches the sexes. 
 Among some people, such is the ardour of this 
 passion, that love is almost the sole object of festivity 
 and joy ; and as rude nations are strangers to deli- 
 cacy, and unaccustomed to disguise any emotion of 
 their minds, their dances are often extremely wanton 
 and indecent. Such' is the Calenda, of which the 
 natives of Africa are so passionately fond ; and such 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the feats, of the dancing girls, which the Asiatics 
 contemplate with so much avidity of desire. But 
 among the Americans, more cold and indifferent to 
 their females, from causes which I have already 
 explained, the passion of love mingles but little 
 with their festivals and pastimes. Their songs and 
 dances are mostly solemn and martial ; they are 
 connected with some of the serious and important 
 affairs of life; and having no relation to love or 
 gallantry, are seldom common to the two sexes, but 
 executed by the men and women apart (90). If, on 
 some occasions, the women are permitted to join 
 in the festival, the character of the entertainment 
 is still the same, and no movement or gesture is 
 expressive of attachment, or encourages familiarity. 
 
 An immoderate love of play, especially games of 
 hazard, which seems to be natural to all people 
 unaccustomed to the occupations of regular industry, 
 is likewise universal among the Americans. The 
 same causes, which so often prompt persons in 
 civilized life, who are at their ease, to have 
 recourse to this pastime, render it the delight 
 of the savage. The former are independent of 
 labour, the latter do not feel the necessity of it ; and 
 as both are unemployed, they run with transport to 
 whatever is interesting enough to stir and to agitate 
 their minds. Hence the Americans, who at other 
 times are so indifferent, so phlegmatic, so silent, and 
 animated with so few desires, as soon as they engage 
 in play, become rapacious, impatient, noisy, and 
 almost frantic with eagerness. Their furs, their 
 domestic utensils, their clothes, their arms, are 
 staked at the gaming-table, and when all is lost, 
 high as their sense of independence is, in a wild 
 emotion of despair or of hope, they will often risk 
 their personal liberty upon a single cast. Among 
 several tribes, such gaming parties frequently recur, 
 and become their most acceptable entertainment at 
 every great festival. Superstition, which is apt to 
 take hold of those passions which are most vigorous, 
 frequently lends its aid to confirm and strengthen 
 this favourite inclination. Their conjurers are accus- 
 tomed to prescribe a solemn match at play, as one 
 of the most efficacious methods of appeasing their 
 gods, or of restoring the sick to health. 
 
 From causes similar to those which render them 
 fond of play, the Americans are extremely addicted 
 to drunkenness. It seems to have been one of the 
 first exertions of human ingenuity to discover some 
 composition of an intoxicating quality ; and there is 
 hardly any nation so rude, or so destitute of inven- 
 tion, as not to have succeeded in this fatal research. 
 The most barbarous of the American tribes have been 
 so unfortunate as to attain this art ; and even those 
 which are so deficient in knowledge, as to be unac- 
 quainted with the method of giving an inebriating 
 strength to liquors by fermentation, can accomplish the 
 same end by other means. The people of the islands 
 of North America, and of California, used, for this 
 purpose, the smoke of tobacco, drawn up with a certain 
 instrument into the nostrils the fumes of which as- 
 scending to the brain, they felt all the transports and 
 phrensy of intoxication (91). In almost every other 
 part of the New World, the natives possess the art of 
 extracting an intoxicating liquor from maize or the 
 manioc root, the same substances which they convert 
 into bread. The operation by which they effect 
 this, nearly resembles the common one of brewing, 
 but with this difference, that in place of yeast, they 
 use a nauseous infusion of a certain quantity of maize 
 or manioc chewed by their women. The Saliva excites 
 a;vigorous fermentation, and in few days the liquor 
 
 becomes fit for drinking. It is not disagreeable? to 
 the taste, and when swallowed in large quantities, is 
 of an intoxicating quality. This is the general bever- 
 age of the Americans, which they distinguish by 
 various names, and for which they feel such a violent 
 and insatiable desire, as it is not easy either to con- 
 ceive or describe. Among polished nations, where a 
 succession of various functions and amusements 
 keep the mind in continual occupation, the dpsire of 
 strong drink is regulated in a great measure by the 
 climate, and increases or diminishes according to the 
 variations of its temperature. In warm regions, the 
 delicate and sensible frame of the inhabitants does 
 not require the stimulation of fermented liquors. In 
 colder countries, the constitution of the natives, more 
 robust and more sluggish, stands in need of generous 
 liquors to quicken and animate it. But among 
 savages, the desire of something that is of power to 
 intoxicate, is in every situation the same. All the 
 people of America, if we except some small tribes 
 near the Straits of Magellan, whether natives of the 
 torrid zone, or inhabitants of its more temperate 
 regions, or placed by a harder fate in the severe cli- 
 mates towards its northern or southern extremity, 
 appear to be equally under the dominion of this 
 appetite. Such a similarity of taste, among people 
 in such different situations, must be ascribed to the 
 influence of some moral cause, and cannot be consi- 
 dered as the effect of any physical or constitutional 
 want. While engaged in war or in the chace, the 
 savage is often in the most interesting situations, and 
 all the powers of his nature are roused to the most 
 vigorous exertions. But those animating scenes are 
 succeeded by long intervals of repose, during which 
 the warrior meets with nothing that he deems of 
 sufficient dignity or importance to merit his attention. 
 He languishes and mopes in this season of indolence. 
 The posture of his body is an emblem of the state of 
 his mind. In one climate, cowering over the fire in 
 his cabin : in another, stretched under the shade of 
 some tree, he dozes away his time in sleep, or in an 
 unthinking joyless inactivity, not far removed from it. 
 As strong liquors awake him from this torpid state, 
 give a brisker motion to his spirits, and enliven him 
 more thoroughly than either dancing or gaming, his 
 love of them is excessive. A savage when not engaged 
 in action, is a pensive melancholy animal; but as soon 
 as he tastes, or has a prospect of tasting, the intoxi- 
 cating draught, he becomes gay and frolicksome. 
 Whatever be the occasion or pretext on which the 
 Americans assemble, the meeting always terminates 
 in a debauch. Many of their festivals have no other 
 object, and they welcome the return of them with 
 transports of joy. As they are not accustomed to 
 restrain any appetite, they set no bounds to this. 
 The riot often continues without intermission several 
 days ; and whatever may be the fatal effects of their 
 excess, they never cease from drinking as long as 
 one drop of liquor remains. The persons of greatest 
 eminence, the most distinguished warriors, and the 
 chiefs most renowned for their wisdom, have no 
 greater command of themselves than the most obscure 
 members of the community. Their eagerness for 
 present enjoyment renders them blind to its fatal 
 consequences ; and those very men, who in other 
 situations seem to possess a force of mind more than 
 human, are in this instance inferior to children in 
 foresight, as well as consideration, and mere slaves of 
 brutal appetite. When their passions, naturally strong, 
 are heightened and inflamed by drink, they are guilty 
 of the most enormous outrages, and the festivity sel- 
 dom concludes without deeds of violence or bloodshed. 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 But, amidst this wild debauch, there is one cir- 
 cumstance remarkable ; the women, in most of the 
 American tribes, are not permitted to partake of it 
 (92). Their province is to prepare the liquor, to 
 serve it about to the guests, and to take care of their 
 husbands and friends, when their reason is over- 
 powered. This exclusion of the women from an enjoy- 
 ment so highly valued by savages, may be justly 
 considered as a mark of their inferiority, and as an 
 additional evidence of that contempt with which they 
 were treated in the New World. The people of 
 North America, when first discovered, were not ac- 
 quainted with any intoxicating drink : but as the 
 Europeans early found it their interest to supply them 
 with spirituous liquors, drunkenness soon became as 
 universal among them as among their countrymen to 
 the south ; and their women having acquired this 
 new taste, indulged it with as little decency and mo- 
 deration as the men. 
 
 It were endless to enumerate all the detached 
 customs which have excited the wonder of travellers 
 in America ; but I cannot omit one seemingly as 
 singular as any that has been mentioned. When 
 their parents and other relations become old, or labour 
 under any distemper which their slender knowledge 
 of the healing art cannot remove, the Americans cut 
 short their days with a violent hand, in order to be 
 relieved from the burden of supporting and tending 
 them. This practice prevailed among the ruder tribes 
 in every part of the continent, from Hudson's Bay to 
 the river De la Plata : and however shocking it may- 
 be to those sentiments of tenderness and attachment, 
 which, in civilized life, we are apt to consider as con- 
 genial with our frame, the condition of man in the 
 savage state leads and reconciles him to it. The 
 same hardships and difficulty of procuring subsistence, 
 which deter savages, in some cases, from rearing their 
 children, prompt them to destroy the aged and infirm. 
 The declining state of the one is as helpless as the 
 infancy of the other. The former are no less unable 
 than the latter to perform the functions that belong to 
 a warrior or hunter, or to endure those various dis- 
 tresses in which savages are so often involved, by 
 their own want of foresight and industry. Their 
 relations feel this ; and, incapable of attending to the 
 wants or weaknesses of others, their impatience under 
 an additional burden prompts them to extinguish that 
 life which they find it difficult to sustain. This is 
 not regarded as a deed of cruelty, but as an act of 
 mercy. An American, broken with years and infirmi- 
 ties, conscious that lie can no longer depend on the 
 aid of those around him, places himself contentedly in 
 his grave ; and it is by the hands of his children or 
 nearest relations that the thong is pulled, or the blow 
 inflicted, which releases him for ever from the sorrows 
 of life. 
 
 IX. After contemplating the rude American tribes 
 in such various lights ; after taking a view of their 
 customs and manners from so many different stations, 
 nothing remains but to form a general estimate of 
 their character, compared with that of more polished 
 nations. A human being, as he comes originally 
 from the hand of nature, is every where the same. 
 At his first appearance in the state of infancy, whe- 
 ther it be among the rudest savages, or in the most 
 civilized nation, we can discern no quality which 
 marks any distinction or superiority. The capacity 
 of improvement seems to be the same; and the 
 tulents he may afterwards acquire, as well as the 
 virtues he may be rendered capable of exercising, 
 depend, in a great measure, upon the state of society 
 in which he is placed. To this state his mind natu- 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, No. 13. 
 
 rally accommodates itself, and from it receives dis- 
 cipline and culture. In proportion to the wanta 
 which it accustoms a human being to feel, and the 
 functions in which these engage him, his intellectual 
 powers are called forth. According to the connexions 
 which it establishes between him and the rest of his 
 species, the affections of his heart are exerted. It is 
 only by attending to this great principle, that we can 
 discover what is the character of man. in every 
 different period of his progress. 
 
 If we apply it to savage life, and measure the at-* 
 tainments of the human mind in that state by this 
 standard, we shall find, according to an observation 
 which I have already made, that the intellectual 
 powers of man must be extremely limited in their 
 operations. They are confined within the narrow 
 sphere of what he deems necessary for supplying 
 his own wants. Whatever has not some relation to 
 these, neither attracts his attention, nor is the object 
 of his inquiries. But however narrow the bounds 
 may be within which the knowledge of a savage is 
 circumscribed, he possesses thoroughly that small 
 portion which he has attained. It was not commu- 
 nicated to him by formal instruction; he does not 
 attend to it as a matter of mere speculation and curi- 
 osity ; it is the result of his own observation, the fruit 
 of his own experience, and accommodated to his 
 condition and exigencies. While employed in the 
 active occupations of war or hunting, he often finds 
 himself in difficult and perilous situations, from which 
 the efforts of his own sagacity must extricate him. 
 He is frequently engaged in measures, where every 
 step depends upon his own ability to decide, where he 
 must rely solely upon his own penetration to discern 
 the dangers to which he is exposed, and upon his own 
 wisdom in providing against them. In consequence 
 of this, he feels the knowledge which he possesses, and 
 the efforts which he makes, and either in deliberation 
 or action rests on himself alone. 
 
 As the talents of individuals are exercised and 
 improved by such exertions, much political wisdom 
 is said to be displayed in conducting the affairs of 
 their small communities. The council of old men in 
 an American tribe, deliberating upon its interests, 
 and determining with respect to peace or war, has 
 been compared to the senate in more polihsed repub- 
 lics. The proceedings of the former, we are told, are 
 often no less formal and sagacious than those of the 
 latter. Great political wisdom is exhibited in pon- 
 dering the various measures proposed, and in 
 balancing their probable advantages, against the evils 
 of which they may be productive. Much address 
 and eloquence are employed by the leaders, who 
 aspire in acquiring such confidence with their coun- 
 trymen as to have an ascendent in those assemblies. 
 But, among savage tribes, the field for displaying 
 political talents cannot be extensive. Where the 
 idea of private property is incomplete, and no criminal 
 jurisdiction is established, there is hardly any func- 
 tion of internal government to exercise. W T here 
 there is no commerce, and scarcely any intercourse 
 among separate tribes ; where enmity is implacable, 
 and hostilities are carried on almost without inter- 
 mission ; there will be few points of public concern, 
 to adjust with their neighbours, and that department 
 of their affairs which may be denominated foreign, 
 cannot be so intricate as to require much refined 
 policy in conducting it. Where individuals are so 
 thoughtless and improvident as seldom to take 
 effectual precautions for self-preservation, it is vain > 
 to expect that public measures and deliberations will 
 be regulated by the contemplation of remote events 
 
 O 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 It is the genius of savages to act from the impulse 
 of present passion. They have neither foresight nor 
 temper to form complicated arrangements with re- 
 apect to their future conduct. The consultations of 
 the Americans, indeed, are [so frequent, and their 
 negociations are so many, and so long protracted, as 
 to give their proceedings an extraordinary aspect of 
 wisdom. But this is not owing so much to the depth 
 of their schemes as to the coldness and phlegm of their 
 temper, which render them slow in determinations. 
 If we except the celebrated league that united the 
 Five Nations in Canada into a federal republic, 
 which shall be considered in its proper 'place, we 
 can discern few such traces of political wisdom 
 among the rude American tribes, as discover any 
 great degree of foresight or extent of intellectual 
 abilities. Even among them, we shall find public 
 measures more frequently directed by the impetuous 
 ferocity of their youth, than regulated by the expe- 
 rience and wisdom of their old men. 
 
 As the condition of man in the savage state is 
 unfavourable to the progress of the understanding, 
 it has a tendency likewise, in some respects, to check 
 the exercise of affection, and to render the heart 
 contracted. The strongest feeling in the mind of a 
 savage is a sense of his own independence. He has 
 sacrificed so small a portion of his natural liberty by 
 becoming a member of society, that he remains, in a 
 great degree, the sole master of his own actions. 
 He often takes his resolutions alone, without con- 
 sulting, or feeling any connexion with the persons 
 around him. In many of his operations, he stands 
 as much detatched from the rest of his species, as 
 if he had formed no union with them. Conscious 
 how little he depends upon other men, he is apt to 
 view them with a careless indifference. Even the 
 force of his mind contributes to increase this uncon- 
 cern; and as he looks not beyond himself in deliber- 
 ating with respect to the part which he should act, 
 his solicitude about the consequences of it seldom 
 extends further. He pursues his own career, and 
 indulges his own fancy, without inquiring or regard- 
 ing whether what he does be agreeable or offensive 
 to others, whether they may derive benefit or receive 
 hurt from it. Hence the ungovernable caprice of 
 savages, their impatience under any species of re- 
 straint, their inability to suppress or moderate any 
 inclination, the scorn or neglect with which they 
 receive advice, their high estimation of themselves, 
 and their contempt of other men. Among them, the 
 pride of independence produces almost the same 
 effects with interestedness in a more advanced state 
 of society ; it refers every thing to a man himself, 
 it leads him to be indifferent about the manner in 
 which his actions may affect other men, and renders 
 the gratification of his own wishes the measure and 
 end of conduct. 
 
 To the same cause may be imputed the hardness 
 of heart, and insensibility, remarkable in all savage 
 nations. Their minds, roused only fey strong emo- 
 tions, are little susceptible of gentle, delicate, or 
 tender affections. Their union is so incomplete, that 
 each individual acts as if he retained all his natural 
 rights entire and undiminished. If a favour is con- 
 ferred upon him, or any beneficial service is performed 
 on his account, he receives it with much satisfaction, 
 because it contributes to his enjoyment ; but this 
 sentiment extends not beyond himself; it excites no 
 sense of obligation ; he neither feels gratitude nor 
 thinks of making any return. Even among persons 
 the most closely connected, the exchange of those 
 jjood, offices which strengthen attachment, mollify the 
 
 heart, and sweeten the intercourse of life, is not 
 frequent. The high ideas of independence among 
 the Americans nourish a sullen reserve, which keeps 
 them at a distance from each other. The nearest 
 relations are mutually afraid to make any demand, 
 or to solicit any service, lest it should be consi- 
 dered by the other as imposing a burden, or laying 
 a restraint upon his will. 
 
 I have already remarked the influence of this hard 
 unfeeling temper upon domestic life, with respect to 
 the connexion between husband and wife, as well as 
 that between parents and children. Its effects are no 
 less conspicuous, in the performance of those mutual 
 offices of tenderness which the infirmities of our 
 nature frequently exact. Among some tribes, when 
 any of their number are seized with any violent 
 disease, they are generally abandoned by all around 
 them, who, careless of their recovery, fly in the 
 utmost consternation from the supposed danger of 
 infection. But even where they are not thus deserted, 
 the cold indifference with which they are attended 
 can afford them little consolation. No look of 
 sympathy, no soothing expressions, no officious ser- 
 vices, contribute to alleviate the distress of the 
 sufferers, or to make them forget what they endure. 
 Their nearest relations will often refuse to submit 
 to the smallest inconveniency, or to part with the 
 least trifle, however much it may tend to their accom- 
 modation or relief. So little is the breast of a savage 
 susceptible of those sentiments which prompt men 
 to that feeling attention which mitigates the calami- 
 ties of human life, that in some provinces of America, 
 the Spaniards have found it necessary to enforce 
 the common duties of humanity by positive laws, 
 and to oblige husbands and wives, parents and 
 children, under severe penalties, to take care of 
 each other during their sickness. The same harsh- 
 ness of temper is still more conspicuous in their 
 treatment of the animal creation. Prior to their 
 intercourse with the people of Europe, the North 
 Americans had some tame dogs, which accompanied 
 them in their hunting excursions, and served them 
 with all the ardour and fidelity peculiar to the spe- 
 cies. But, instead of that fond attachment which 
 the hunter naturally feels towards those useful 
 companions of his toils, they requite their services 
 with neglect, seldom feed, and never caress them. 
 In other provinces the Americans have become 
 acquainted with the domestic animals of Europe, and 
 avail themselves of their service ; but it is univer- 
 sally observed that they always treat them harshly, 
 and never employ any method, either for breaking 
 or managing them, but force and cruelty. In every 
 part of the deportment of man in his savage state, 
 whether towards his equals of the human species, 
 or towards the animals below him, we recognise the 
 same character, and trace the operations of a mind 
 intent on its own gratifications, and regulated by 
 its own caprice, with little attention or sensibility 
 to the sentiments and feelings of the beings around 
 him. 
 
 After explaining how unfavourable the sarago 
 state is to the cultivation of the understanding and 
 to the improvement of the heart, I should not have 
 thought it necessary to mention what may be deemed 
 its lesser defects, if the character of nations, as well 
 as of individuals, were not often more distinctly 
 marked by circumstances apparently trivial than bf 
 those of greater moment. A savage, frequently 
 placed in situations of danger and distress, depending 
 on himself alone, and wrapped up in his own thoughts 
 and schemes, is a serious melancholy animal, Jiii 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 attention to others is small. The range of his own 
 ideas is narrow. Hence that taciturnity which is so 
 disgusting to men accustomed to the open intercourse 
 of social conversation. When they are not engaged in 
 action, the Americans often sit whole days in one 
 posture, without opening their lips. When they go 
 forth to war, or to the chase, they usually march in 
 a line at some distance from one another, and 
 without exchanging a word. The same profound 
 silence is observed when they row together in a 
 canoe. It is only when they are animated by 
 intoxicating liquors, or roused by the jollity of 
 the festival and dance, that they become gay and 
 conversible. 
 
 To the same causes may be imputed the refined 
 cunning with which they form and execute their 
 schemes. Men who are not habituated to a liberal 
 communication of their own sentiments and wishes, 
 are apt to be so distrustful, as to place little confi- 
 dence in others, and to have recourse to an insidious 
 craft in accomplishing their own purposes. In civi- 
 lized life, those persons who, by their situations, 
 have but a few objects of pursuit on which their 
 minds incessantly dwell, are most remarkable for low 
 artifice in carrying on their little projects. Among 
 savages, whose views are equally confined, and their 
 attention no Jess persevering, those circumstances 
 must operate still more powerfully, and gradually 
 accustom them to a disingenuous subtilty in all their 
 transactions. The force of this is increased by habits 
 which they acquire in carrying on the two most inter- 
 esting operations wherein they are engaged. With 
 them war is a system of craft, in which they trust 
 for success to stratagem more than to open force, and 
 have their invention continually on the stretch to 
 circumvent and surprise their enemies. As hunters, 
 it is their constant object to insnare, in order that 
 they may destroy. Accordingly, art and cunning 
 have been universally observed as distinguishing 
 characteristics of all savages. The people of the 
 rude tribes of America are remarkable for their 
 artifice and duplicity. Impenetrably secret in form- 
 ing their measures, they pursue them with a patient 
 undeviating attention, and there is no refinement of 
 dissimulation which they cannot employ, in order 
 to insure success. The natives of Peru were engaged 
 above thirty years in concerting the plan of that 
 insurrection which took place under the vice-royalty 
 of the Marquis de Villa Garcia ; and though it was 
 communicated to a great number of persons, in all 
 different ranks, no indication of it ever transpired 
 during that long period ; no man betrayed his trust, 
 or by an unguarded look, or rash word, gave rise to 
 any suspicion of what was intended. The dissimula- 
 tion and craft of individuals is no less remarkable 
 than that of nations. When set upon deceiving, 
 they wrap themselves up so artificially, that it i's 
 impossible to penetrate into their intentions, or to 
 detect their designs. 
 
 But if there be defects or vices peculiar to the 
 savage state, there are likewise virtues which it 
 inspires, and good qualities, to the exercise of which 
 it is friendly. The bonds of society sit so loose upon 
 the members of the more rude American tribes, that 
 they hardly feel any restraint. Hence the spirit of 
 independence, which is the pride of a savage, and 
 which he considers as the unalienable prerogative 
 of man. Incapable of control, and disdaining 
 to acknowledge any superior, his mind, though 
 limited in its powers, and erring in many of 
 its pursuits, acquires such elevation by the con- 
 sciousness of its own freedom, that he acts on some 
 
 occasions with astonishing force, and perseverance, 
 and dignity. 
 
 As independence nourishes this high spirit among 
 savages, the perpetual wars in which they are 
 engaged call it forth into action. Such long inter- 
 vals of tranquillity as are frequent in polished socie- 
 ties, are unknown in the savage state. Their enmities, 
 as I have observed, are implacable and immortal. 
 The valour of the young men is never allowed to 
 rust in inaction. The hatchet is always in their 
 hand, either for attack or defence. Even in their 
 hunting excursions, they must be on their guard 
 against surprise from the hostile tribes by which they 
 are surrounded. Accustomed to continual alarms, 
 they grow familiar with danger ; courage becomes an 
 habitual virtue, resulting naturally from their situa- 
 tion, and strengthened by constant exertions. The 
 mode of displaying fortitude may not be the same 
 in small and rude communities, as in more powerful 
 and civilized states. Their system of war, and stan- 
 dard of valour, may be formed upon different principles, 
 but in no situation does the human mind rise more 
 superior to the sense of danger, or the dread of 
 death, than in its most simple and uncultivated state. 
 
 Another virtue remarkable among savages, is 
 attachment to the community of which they are 
 members. From the nature of their political union, 
 one might expect this tie to be extremely feeble. 
 But there are circumstances which render the influ- 
 ence, even of their loose mode of association, very 
 powerful. The American tribes are small ; combined 
 against their neighbours, in prosecuting of ancient 
 enmities, or in avenging recent injuries, their interests 
 and operations are neither numerous nor complex. 
 These are objects, which the uncultivated under- 
 standing of a savage can comprehend. His heart is 
 capable of forming connexions which are so little 
 diffused. He assents with warmth to public mea- 
 sures, dictated by passions similar to those which 
 direct his own conduct. Hence the ardour with 
 which individuals undertake the most perilous service, 
 when the community deems it necessary. Hence their 
 fierce and deep-rooted antipathy to the public enemies. 
 Hence their zeal for the honour of their tribe, and that 
 love of their country, which prompts them to brave 
 danger that it may triumph, and to endure the most 
 exquisite torments, without a groan, that it may not 
 be disgraced. 
 
 Thus, in every situation where a human being can 
 be placed, even in the most unfavourable, there are 
 virtues which peculiarly belong to it ; there are 
 affections which it calls forth ; there is a species of 
 happiness which it yields. Nature, with most bene- 
 ficient intention, conciliates and forms the mind to 
 its condition ; the ideas and wishes of man extend 
 not beyond that state of society to which he is 
 habituated. What it presents as objects of contem- 
 plation or enjoyment, fills and satisfies his mind, 
 and he can hardly conceive any other mode of life 
 to be pleasant, or even tolerable. The Tartar, accus- 
 tomed to roam over extensive plains, and to subsist 
 on the product of his herds, imprecates upon his 
 enemy, as the greatest of all curses, that he may be 
 condemned to reside in one place, and to be nourished 
 with the top of a weed. The rude Americans, fond 
 of their own pursuits, and satisfied with their own 
 lot, are equally unable to comprehend the intention 
 or utility of the various accommodations, which, in 
 more polished society, are deemed essential to the 
 comfort of life. Far from complaining of their awn. 
 situation, or viewing that of men in a more improved 
 state with admiration or envy, they regard themselves. 
 
100 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 as the standard of excellence, as beings the bes 
 entitled, as well as the most perfectly* qualified, to 
 enjoy real happiness. Unaccustomed to any restrain 
 upon their will or their actions, they behold with 
 amazement the inequality of rank and the subordina 
 tion which takes place in civilized life, and con- 
 sider tihe voluntary submission of one man to another 
 as a renunciation, no less base than unaccoun- 
 table, of the first distinction of humanity. Voic 
 of foresight as well as free from care themselves 
 and delighted with that state of indolent security 
 they wonder at the anxious precautions, the unceas- 
 ing industry, and complicated arrangements o 
 Europeans, in guarding against distant evils, o 
 providing for future wants ; and they often exclairr 
 against their preposterous folly, in thug multiplying 
 the troubles and increasing the labour of life. This 
 preference of their own manners is conspicuoiis on 
 every occasion. Even the names, by which the 
 various nations wish to be distinguished, are assumet 
 from this idea of their own pre-eminence. Th( 
 appellation which the Iroquois give to themselves is 
 the chief of men. Caraibe, the original name of the 
 fierce inhabitants of the Windward Islands, signifies 
 the warlike people. The Cherokee; from an idea o 
 their own superiority, call the Europeans Nothings 
 or the accursed race, and assume to themselves the 
 name of the beloved people. The same principle 
 regulated the notions of the other Americans con- 
 cerning the Europeans ; for although, at first, they 
 were filled with astonishment at their arts, and with 
 dread of their power, they soon came to abate their 
 estimation of men whose maxims of life were so 
 different from their own. Hence they called them 
 the froth of the sea, men without father or mother. 
 They supposed, that either they had no country of 
 their own, and therefore invaded that which belonged 
 to others ; or that, being destitute of the neces- 
 saries of life at home, they were obliged to roam 
 over the ocean, in order to rob such as were more 
 amply provided. 
 
 Men thus satisfied with their condition, are far 
 from any inclination to relinquish their own habits, 
 or to adopt those of civilized life. The transition 
 is too violent to be suddenly made. Even where 
 endeavours have been used to wean a savage from 
 his own customs, and to render the accommodations 
 of polished society familiar to him ; even where he 
 has been allowed to taste of those pleasures, and 
 has been honoured with those distinctions, which 
 are the chief objects of our desire, he droops and 
 languishes under the restraint of laws and forms, 
 he seizes the first oppoi-tunity of breaking loose from 
 them, and returns with transport to the forest or the 
 wild, where he can enjoy a careless and uncontrolled 
 freedom. 
 
 Thus I hare finished a laborious delineation of 
 the character and manners of the uncivilized tribes 
 scattered over the vast continent of America. In 
 this, I aspire not at rivalling the great masters who 
 have painted tvnd adorned savage life, either in 
 tool tines* of design, or in the glow and beauty of 
 their colouring. I am satisfied with the more hum- 
 "ble merit of having persisted with patient industry, 
 in Tiftwing my subject in many various lights, and 
 tfollacting from the most accurate observers such 
 detached, and often minute features, as might en- 
 able me to exhibit a portrait that resembles the 
 original. 
 
 Before I close this part of my work, one observa- 
 tion more is necessary, in order to justify the conclu- 
 sions which I have formed, or to prevent the mistakes 
 
 into which such as examine them may fall. In con- 
 templating the inhabitants of a country so widely 
 extended as America, great attention should be paid 
 to the diversity of climates under which they are 
 placed. The influence of this I have pointed out 
 with respect to several important particulars which 
 have been the object of research ; but even where it 
 has not been mentioned, it ought not to be overlooked. 
 The provinces of America are of such different 
 temperament, that this alone is sufficient to consti- 
 tute a distinction between their inhabitants. In 
 every part of the earth where man exists, the power 
 of climate operates, *with decisive influence, upon 
 his condition and character. In those countries 
 which approach near to the extremes of heat or 
 cold, this influence is so conspicuous as to strike 
 every eye. Whether we consider man merely as an 
 animal, or as being endowed with rational powers 
 which fit him for activity and speculation, we shall 
 find that he has uniformly attained the greatest 
 perfection of which his nature is capable, in tht 
 temperate regions of the globe. There his consti- 
 tution is most vigorous, his organs most acute, and 
 his form most beautiful. There, too, he possesses 
 a superior extent of capacity, greater fertility of 
 imagination, more enterprising courage, and a sen- 
 sibility of heart which gives birth to desires, not 
 only ardent, but persevering. In this favourite 
 situation he has displayed the utmost efforts of his 
 genius, in literature, in policy, in commerce, ift 
 war, and in all the arts which improve or embellish 
 life. 
 
 This powerful operation of climate is felt most 
 sensibly by rude nations, and produces greater 
 effects than in societies more improved. The talents 
 of civilized men are continually exerted in render- 
 ing their own condition more comfortable ; and by 
 their ingenuity and inventions, they can, in a great 
 measure, supply the defects, and guard against the 
 inconveniences, of any climate. But the impro- 
 vident savage is affected by every circumstance 
 peculiar to his situation. He takes no precau- 
 tion either to mitigate or improve it. Like a plant, 
 or an animal, he is formed by the climate under 
 which he is placed, and feels the full force of its 
 influence. 
 
 In surveying the rude nations of America, this 
 natural distinction between the inhabitants of the 
 temperate and torrid zones is very remarkable. They 
 may, accordingly, be divided into two great classes. 
 The one comprehends all the North Americans, 
 from the river St. Laurence to the gulf of Mexico, 
 together with the people of Chili, and a few small 
 tribes towards the extremity of the southern con- 
 tinent. To the other belong all the inhabitants 
 of the islands, and those settled in the various pro- 
 vinces which extend from the isthmus of Darien 
 almost to the southern confines of Brazil, along the 
 east side of the Andes. In the former, which com- 
 prehends all the regions of the tempeiate zone that 
 n America are inhabited, the human species appear 
 manifestly to be more perfect. The natives are more 
 robust, more active, more intelligent, and more cou- 
 rageous. They possess, in the most eminent degree, 
 hat force of mind, and love of independence, which 
 [ have pointed out as the chief virtues of man in his 
 savage state. They have defended their liberty with 
 jersevering foititude against the Europeans, who 
 subdued the other rude nations of America with the 
 reatest ease. The natives of the temperate .zone 
 are the only people in the New World who are in- 
 lebted for their freedom to their own valour, The 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 101 
 
 North Americans, though long encompassed by three 
 formidable European powers, still retain part of their 
 original possessions, and continue to exist as inde- 
 pendent nations. The people of Chili, though early 
 invaded, still maintain a gallant contest with the 
 Spaniards, and have set bounds to their encroach- 
 ments ; whereas, in the warmer regions, men are more 
 feeble in their frame, less vigorous in the efforts of 
 their minds, of a gentle but dastardly spirit, more 
 enslaved by pleasure, and more sunk in indolence. 
 Accordingly, it is in the torrid zone that the Euro- 
 peans have most completely established their dominion 
 over America; the most fertile and desirable pro- 
 vinces in it are subject to their yoke ; and if several 
 tribes there still enjoy independence, it is either 
 because they have never been attacked by an enemy 
 already satiated with conquest, and possessed of 
 larger territories than he was able to occupy, or 
 because they have been saved from oppression by 
 their remote and inaccessible situation. 
 
 Conspicuous as this distinction may appear between 
 the inhabitants of those different regions, it is not, 
 however, universal. Moral and political causes, as 
 I have formerly observed, affect the disposition and 
 character of individuals, as well as nations, still more 
 powerfully than the influence of climate. There are, 
 accordingly, some tribes in various parts of the 
 torrid zone, possessed of courage, high spirit, and 
 love of independence, in a degree hardly inferior to 
 the natives of more temperate climates. We are too 
 little acquainted with the history of those people, to 
 be able to trace the several circumstances in their 
 progress and condition, to which they are indebted 
 for this remarkable pre-eminence. The fact, neyer- 
 theless, is certain. As early as the first voyage of 
 .Columbus, he received information that several of 
 the islands were inhabited by the Caribbees, a fierce 
 race of men, nowise resembling their feeble and timid 
 neighbours. lu his second expedition to the New 
 World he found this information to be just, and was 
 himself a witness of their intrepid valour (93). The 
 same character they have maintained invariably in all 
 subsequent contests with the people of Europe : and, 
 even inour own times, we have seen them make a 
 gallant stand in defence of the last territory which 
 the rapacity of their invaders had loft in their 
 possession (96). Some nations in Brazil were no 
 less eminent for vigour of mind and bravery in war. 
 The people of the isthmus of Darien boldly met the 
 Spaniards in the field, and frequently repelled those 
 formidable invaders. Other instances might be pro- 
 duced. It is not by attending to any single cause or 
 principle, how powerful and extensive soever its 
 influence may appear, that we can explain the actions, 
 or account for the character of men. Even the law 
 of climate, more universal, perhaps, in its operation 
 than any that affects the human species, cannot be 
 applied, in judging of their conduct without many 
 exceptions. 
 
 BOOK V. 
 
 WHEN Grijalva returned to Cuba, [A. D. 1518,] 
 he found the armament destined to attempt the con- 
 quest of that rich country which he had discovered, 
 almost complete. Not only ambition, but avarice, 
 had urged Velasquez to hasten his preparations ; and 
 having such a prospect of gratifying both, he had 
 advanced considerable sums out of his private fortune 
 towards defraying the expences of the expedition. 
 
 At the same time, he exerted his influence as gover- 
 nor, in engaging the most distinguished persons in 
 the colony to undertake the service (97). At a time 
 when the spirit of the Spanish nation was ad- 
 venturous to excess, a number of soldiers, eager to 
 embark in any daring enterprise, scon appeared. 
 But it was not so easy to find a person qualified to 
 take the command in an expedition of so much im- 
 portance ; and the character of Velasquez, who had 
 the right of nomination, greatly increased the diffi- 
 culty of the choice. Though of most aspiring 
 ambition, and not destitute of talents for government, 
 he possessed neither such courage nor such vigour 
 and activity of mind, as to undertake in person the 
 conduct of the armament which he was preparing. 
 In this embarrassing situation, he formed the 
 chimerical scheme, not only of achieving great 
 exploits by a deputy, but of securing to himself the 
 glory of conquests which were to be made by 
 another. In the execution of this plan he fondly 
 aimed at reconciling contradictions. He was solicit- 
 ous to choose a commander of intrepid resolution, 
 and of superior abilities, because he knew these to 
 be requisite in order to insure success ; but, at the 
 same time, from the jealousy natural to little minds, 
 he wished this person to be of. a spirit so tame and 
 obsequious, as to be entirely dependent on his will. 
 But when he came to apply those ideas in forming 
 an opinion concerning the several officers who occurred 
 to his thoughts as worthy of being intrusted with 
 the command, he soon perceived that it was impos- 
 sible to find such incompatible qualities united in 
 one character. Such as were distinguished for 
 courage and talents were too high-spirited to be 
 passive instruments in his hands. Those who 
 appeared more gentle and tractable were destitute of 
 capacity, and unequal to the charge. This augment- 
 ed his perplexity and his fears. He deliberated 
 "ong, and with much solicitude, and was still 
 wavering in his choice, when Amador de Lares, the 
 royal treasurer in Cuba, and Andres Duero, his own 
 secretary, the two persons in whom he chiefly con- 
 fided, were encouraged by this irresolution to propose 
 a new candidate, and they supported their recommen- 
 dation with such assiduity and address, that, no lest 
 fatally for Velasquez than happily for their country, 
 it proved successful. 
 
 The man whom they pointed out to him was Fer- 
 nando Cortes. He was born at Medellin, a small 
 town in Estremadura, in the year one thousand four 
 hundred and eighty-five, and descended from a 
 family of noble blood, but of very moderate fortime. 
 Being originally destined by his parents to the study 
 of law, as the most likely method of bettering his 
 condition, he was sent early to the university of 
 Salamanca, where he imbibed some tincture of learn- 
 ing. But he was soon disgusted with an academic 
 life, which did not suit his ardent and restless genius, 
 and retired to Medellin, where he gave himself up 
 entirely to active sports and martial exercises. At 
 this period of life, he was so impetuous, so overbear- 
 ing, and so dissipated, that his father was glad to 
 comply with his inclination, and send him abroad as 
 an adventurer in arms. There were in that age two 
 conspicuous theatres, on which such of the Spanish 
 youth as courted military glory might display their 
 valour ; one in Italy, under the command of the great 
 captain ; the other in the New World. Cortes pre- 
 ferred the former, but was prevented by indisposition 
 from embarking with a reinforcement of troops sent 
 to Naples. Upon this disappointment he turned hig 
 views towards America, whither he was allured by 
 
102 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 4he prospect of the advantages which he might derive 
 .from the patronage of Ovando (98), the governor of 
 Hispaniola, who was his kinsman. When he landed 
 at St. Domingo in one thousand five hundred and 
 four, his reception was such as equalled his most 
 sanguine hopes, and he was employed by the gover- 
 nor in several honourable and lucrative stations. 
 These, however, did not satisfy his ambition; and in 
 the year one thousand five hundred and eleven he 
 obtained permission to accompany Diego Velasquez 
 in his expedition to Cuba. In this service he distin- 
 guished himself so much, that notwithstanding some 
 violent contests with Velasquez, occasioned by trivial 
 events unworthy of remembrance, he was at length 
 taken into favour, and received an ample concession 
 of lands and of Indians, the recompence usually 
 bestowed upon adventurers in the New World. 
 
 Though Cortes had not hitherto acted in high 
 command, he had displayed such qualities in several 
 scenes of difficulty and danger, as raised universal 
 expectation, and turned the eyes of his countrymen 
 towards him, as one capable of performing great 
 things. The turbulence of youth, as soon as he 
 found objects and occupations suited to the ardour of 
 his mind, gradually subsided, and settled into a habit 
 of regular indefatigable activity. The impetuosity of 
 his temper, when he came to act with his equals, 
 insensibly abated, by being kept under restraint, aud 
 mellowed into a cordial soldierly frankness. These 
 qualities were accompanied with calm prudence in 
 concerting his schemes, with persevering vigour in 
 executing them, and with what is peculiar to superior 
 genius, the art of gaining the confidence and govern- 
 ing the minds of men. To all which were added the 
 inferior accomplishments that strike the vulgar, and 
 command their respect ; a graceful person, a winning 
 aspect, extraordinary address in martial exercises, 
 and a constitution of such vigour as to be capable of 
 enduring any fatigue. 
 
 As soon as Cortes was mentioned to Velasquez by 
 his two confidants, he flattered himself that he had 
 at length found what he had hitherto sought in vain, 
 a man with talents for command, but not an object 
 for jealousy. Neither the rank nor the fortune of 
 Cortes, as he imagined, were such that he could 
 aspire at independence. He had reason to believe 
 that by his own readiness to bury ancient animosities 
 in oblivion, as well as his liberality in conferring 
 several recent favours, he had already gained the 
 good-Avill of Cortes, and hoped, by this new and 
 unexpected mark of confidence, that he might attach 
 him for ever to his interest. 
 
 Cortes, receiving his commission with the warmest 
 expressions of respect and gratitude to the governor, 
 immediately erected his standard before his own 
 house, appeared in a military dress, and assumed all 
 the ensigns of his new dignity. His utmost influence 
 and activity were exerted in persuading many of his 
 friends to engage in the service, and in urging 
 forward the preparations for the voyage. All his 
 own funds, together with what money he could raise 
 by mortgaging his lands and Indians, were expended 
 in purchasing military stores and provisions, or in 
 supplying the wants of such of his officers as were 
 unable to equip themselves in a manner suited to 
 their rank (99). Inoffensive, and even laudable as 
 this conduct was, his dissappointed competitors were 
 malicious enough to give it a turn to his disadvan- 
 tage. They represented him as aiming already, with 
 little disguise, at establishing an independent autho- 
 rity over his troops, and endeavouring to secure their 
 respect or love by his ostentatious and interested 
 
 liberality. They reminded Velasquez of his former 
 dissensions with the man in whom he now reposed 
 so much confidence, and foretold that Cortes would be 
 more apt to avail himself of the power which the 
 governor was inconsiderately putting in his hands, to 
 avenge past injuries, than to requite recent obliga- 
 tions. These insinuations made such impression 
 upon the suspicious mind of Velasquez, that Cortes 
 soon observed some symptoms of a growing alienation 
 and distrust in his behaviour, and was advised by 
 Lares and Duero to hasten his departure, before these 
 should become so confirmed as to break out with 
 open violence. Fully sensible of this danger, he 
 urged forward his preparations with such rapidity, 
 that he set sail from St. Jago de Cuba on the eigh- 
 teenth of November, Velasquez accompanying him 
 to the shore, and taking leave of him with an 
 appearance of perfect friendship and confidence, 
 though he had secretly given it in charge to some 
 of Cortes' officers, to keep a watchful eye upon 
 every part of their commander's conduct. 
 
 Cortes proceeded to Trinidad, a small settlement 
 on the same side of the island, whore he was joined 
 by several adventurers, and received a supply of pro- 
 visions and military stores, of which his stock was 
 still very incomplete. He had hardly left St. Jago, 
 when the jealousy which had been working in the 
 breast of Velasquez grew to violent, that it was im- 
 possible to suppress it. The armament was no 
 longer under his own eye and direction : and he 
 felt, that as his power over it ceased, that of C".>rtrs 
 would become more absolute. Imagination now 
 aggravated every circumstance which had formTly 
 excited suspicion; the rivals of Cortes industriously 
 threw in reflections which increased his fears ; and 
 with no less art than malice they called superstition 
 to their aid, employing the predictions of an astro- 
 loger in order to complete the alarm. All these, by 
 their united operation, produced the desired effect. 
 Velasquez repented bitterly of his own imprudence, 
 in having committed a trust of so much importance 
 to a person whose fidelity appeared so doubtful, and 
 hastily despatched instructions to Trinidad, empower- 
 ing Verdugo, the chief magistrate there, to deprive 
 Cortes of his commission. But Cortes had already 
 made such progress in gaining the esteem and confi- 
 dence of his troops, that finding officers as well as 
 soldiers equally zealous to support his authority, 
 he soothed or intimidated Verdugo, and was ppr- 
 mitted to depart from Trinidad without molestation. 
 From Trinidad Cortes sailed for the Havana, in 
 order to raise more soldiers, and to complete the 
 victualling of his fleet. There several persons of dis- 
 tinction entered into the service, and engaged to 
 supply what provisions were still wanting ; but as it 
 was necessary to allow them some time for performing 
 what they had promised, Velasquez, sensible that ho 
 ought no longer to rely on a man of whom he had so 
 openly discovered his distrust, avai'ed himself of the 
 interval which this unavoidable delay afforded, in 
 order to make one attempt more to wrest the com- 
 mand out of the hands of Cortes. He loudly com- 
 plained of Verdugo's conduct, accusing him either of 
 childish facility, or of manifest treachery, in suffering 
 Cortes to escape from Trinidad. Anxious to guard 
 against a second disappointment, he sent a person of 
 confidence to the Havana, with peremptory injunc- 
 tions to Pedro Barba, his lieutenant-governor in that 
 colony, instantly to arrest Cortes, to send him pri- 
 soner to St. Jago under a strong guard, and to 
 countermand the sailing of the armament until he 
 should receive further orders. He wrote likewise to 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 103 
 
 the principal officers, requiring them to assist Barha 
 in executing what he had given him in charge. But 
 before the ariival of this messenger, a Franciscan 
 friar of St. Jago had secretly conveyed an account of 
 this interesting transaction to Bartholomew de Olme- 
 do, a monk of the same order, who acted as chaplain 
 to the expedition. 
 
 Cortes, forewarned of the danger, had time to take i 
 precautions for his own safety. His first step was to , 
 find some pretext for removing from the Havana, 
 Diego de Ordaz, an officer of great merit, but in 
 whom, on account of his known attachment to Velas- 
 quez, he could not confide in this trying and delicate 
 juncture. He gave him the command of a vessel, j 
 destined to take on board some provisions in a small 
 harbour beyond cape Antonio, and thus made sure 
 of his absence, without seeming to suspect his fidelity. 
 When he was gone, Cortes no longer concealed the 
 intentions of Velasquex from his troops ; and as offi- 
 cers and soldiers were equally impatient to set out 
 on an expedition, in preparing for which most of 
 them had expended all their fortunes, they expressed 
 their astonishment and indignation at that illiberal 
 jealousy, to which the governor was about to sacri- 
 fice, not only the honour of their general, but all 
 their sanguine hopes of glory and wealth. With one 
 voice they entreated that he would not abandon the 
 important station to which he had such a good title. 
 They conjured him not to deprive them of a leader 
 whom they followed with such well-founded confi- 
 dence, and 'offered to shed the last drcp of their 
 blood in maintaining his authority. Cortes was 
 easily induced to comply with what he himself so ar- 
 dently desired. He swore that he would never 
 desert soldiers who had given him such a signal proof 
 of their attachment, and promised instantly to con- 
 duct them to that rich country, which had been so 
 long the object of their thoughts and wishes. This 
 declaration was received with transports of military 
 applause, accompanied with threats and imprecations 
 against all who should presume to call in question 
 the jurisdiction of their general, or to obstruct the 
 execution of his designs. 
 
 Every thing was now ready for their departure ; 
 but though this expedition was fitted out by the 
 united efforts of the Spanish power in Cuba ; though 
 every settlement had contributed its quota of men and 
 provisions ; though the governor had laid out consi- 
 derable sums, and each adventurer had exhausted 
 his stock or strained his credit, the poverty of the 
 preparations was such, as must astonish the present 
 age, and bore, indeed, no resemblance to an arma- 
 ment destined for the conquest of a great empire. 
 The fleet consisted of eleven vessels ; the largest of a 
 hundred tons, which was dignified by the name of 
 admiral ; three of seventy or eighty tons, and the rest 
 small open barks. On board of these were six hun- 
 dred and seventeen men ; of which five hundred and 
 eight belonged to the land service, and a hundred and 
 nine were seamen or artificers. The soldiers were 
 divided into eleven companies, according to the num- 
 ber of the ships : to each of which Cortes appointed 
 a captain, and committed to him the command of the 
 vessel while at sea, and of the men when on shore 
 (100). As the use of fire-arms among the nations of 
 Europe was hitherto confined to a few battalions of 
 regularly disciplined infantry, only thirteen soldiers 
 were armed with muskets, thirty-two were cross- 
 bowmen, and the rest had swords and spears. In- 
 stead of the usual defensive armour, which must 
 have been cumbersome in a hot climate, the soldiers 
 jket quilted, with, cotton, which experience 
 
 had taught the Spaniards to be a sufficient protection 
 against the weapons of the Americans. They had 
 only sixteen horses, ten small field pieces, and four 
 falconets. 
 
 [A. D. 1519, Feb. 10.] With this slender and ill- 
 provided train did Cortes set sail, to make war upon 
 a monarch M'hose dominions were more extensive than 
 all the kingdoms subject to the Spanish crown. As 
 religious enthusiasm always mingled with the spirit 
 of adventure in the New World, and, by a combina- 
 tion still more strange, united with avarice, in 
 prompting the Spaniards to all their enterprises, a 
 large cross was displayed in their standards, with this 
 inscription, Let us follow the cross, for under this 
 sign ice shall conquer. 
 
 So powerfully were Cortes and his followers ani- 
 mated with both these passions, that no less eager to 
 plunder the opulent country whither they were bound, 
 than zealous to propagate the Christian faith among 
 its inhabitants, they set out, not with the solicitude 
 natural to men going npon dangerous services, but, 
 with that confidence which arises from security of 
 success, and certainty of the divine protection. 
 
 As Cortes had determined to touch at every plac* 
 which Grijaiva had visited, he steered directly towards 
 the island of Cozumel; there he had the good for- 
 tune to redeem Jerome de Aguilar, a Spaniard, who 
 had been eight years a prisoner among the Indians. 
 This man was perfectly acquainted with a dialect of 
 their language, understood through a large extent ofT 
 country, and possessing besides a considerable share of 
 prudence and sagacity, proved extremely useful as 
 an interpreter. From Cozumel, Cortes proceeded to 
 the river of Tabasco, [March 4,] in hopes of a re- 
 ception as friendly as Grijaiva had met with there, 
 and of finding gold in the same abundance ; but the 
 disposition of the natives from some unknown cause r 
 was totally changed. After repeated endeavours to 
 conciliate their good-will, he was constrained to have 
 recourse to violence. Though the forces of the enemy 
 were numerous, and advanced with extraordinary 
 courage, they were routed with great slaughter, in 
 several successive actions. The loss which they sus- 
 tained, and still more the astonishment and terror 
 excited by the destructive effect of the fire-arms, and 
 the dreadful appearance of the horses, humbled their 
 fierce spirits, and induced them to sue for peace. 
 They acknowledged the king of Castile as their sove- 
 reign, and granted Cortes a supply of provisions, with 
 a present of cotton garments, some gold, and twenty 
 female slaves (101). 
 
 Cortes continued his course to the westward, keep- 
 ing as near the shore as possible, in order to observo 
 the country ; but could discover no proper place for 
 landing, until he arrived at St. Juan de Ulua. 
 [April 2.] As he entered this harbour, a large canoe 
 full of people, among whom were two who seemed to 
 be persons of distinction, approached his ship with 
 signs of peace and amity. They came on board 
 without fear or distrust, and addressed him in a most 
 respectful manner, but in a language altogether un- 
 known to Aguilar. Cortes was in the utmost perplex- 
 ity and distress, at an event of which he instantly 
 foresaw all the consequences, and already felt the 
 hesitation and uncertainty with which he should carry 
 on the great schemes which he meditated, if, in his 
 transactions with the natives, he must depend entirely 
 upon such an imperfect, ambiguous, and conjectural 
 mode of communication* as the use of signs. But 
 he did not remain long in his embarrassing situation; 
 a fortunate accident extricated him, when his own 
 sagacity could have contributed little towards his 
 
104 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 relief. One of the female slaves, whom he had re- 
 ceived from the cazique of Tabasco, happened to be 
 present at the first interview between Cortes and his 
 new guests. She perceived his distress, as well as 
 the confusion of Aguilar ; and as she perfectly un- 
 derstood the Mexican language, she explained what 
 they had said in the Yucatan tongue, with which 
 Aguilar was acquainted. This woman, known after- 
 wards by the name of Donna Marina, and who makes 
 a conspicuous figure in the history of the New World, 
 where great revolutions were brought about by small 
 causes and inconsiderable instruments, was born in 
 one of the provinces of the Mexican empire. Having 
 been sold as a slave in the early part of her life, after 
 a variety of adventures she fell into the hands of the 
 Tabascans, and had resided long enough among them 
 to acquire their language, without losing the use of 
 her own. Though it was both tedious and trouble- 
 some to converse by the intervention of two different 
 interpreters, Cortes was so highly pleased with hav- 
 ing discovered this method of carrying on some inter- 
 course with the people of a country into which he was 
 determined to penetrate, that in the transports of his 
 joy he considered it as a visible interposition of Pro- 
 vidence in his favour. 
 
 He now learned, that the two persons whom he 
 had received on board of his ship were deputies from 
 Teutile and Pilpatoe, two officers intrusted with the 
 government of that province, by a great monarch, whom 
 they called Montezuma ; and that they were sent to 
 inquire what his intentions were in visiting their coast, 
 and to offer him what assistance he might need, in 
 order to continue his voyage. Cortes, struck with 
 the appearance of those people, as well as the tenor of 
 the message, assured them, in respectful terms, that 
 he approached their country with most friendly sen- 
 timents, and came to propose matters of great 
 importance to the welfare of their prince and his 
 kingdom, which he would unfold more fully, in 
 person to the governor and the general. Next 
 morning, without waiting 'for any answer, he landed 
 his troops, his horses, and artillery ; and having 
 chosen proper ground, began to erect huts for his 
 men and to fortify his camp. The natives, instead of 
 opposing the entrance of those fatal guests into their 
 country, assisted them in all their operations, with 
 an alacrity of which they had ere long good reason 
 to repent. 
 
 Next day Teutile and Pilpatoe entered the Spanish 
 camp with a numerous retinue, and Cortes consider- 
 ing them as the ministers of a great monarch, entitled 
 to a degree of attention very different from that 
 which the Spaniards were accustomed to pay the 
 petty caziques with whom they had intercourse in 
 the isl^s, received them with much formal ceremony. 
 He informed them, that he came as ambassador 
 from Don Carlos of Austria, king of Castile, the 
 greatest monarch of the east, and was intrusted 
 with propositions of such moment, that he could 
 impart them to none but the emperor Montezuma 
 himself, and therefore required them to conduct 
 him, without loss of time, into the presence of their 
 master. The Mexican officers could not conceal 
 their uneasiness at a request, which they knew 
 would be disagreeable, and which they foresaw 
 might prove extremely embarrassing to their sove- 
 reign, whose mind had been filled with many- 
 disquieting apprehensions, ever since the former 
 appearance of the Spaniards on his coasts. But before 
 they attempted to dissuade Cortes from insisting on 
 this demand, they endeavoured to conciliate his good- 
 v/ill, by entreating him to accept of certain presents, 
 
 which, as humble slaves of Montezuma, they laid at 
 his feet. They were introduced with great parade, 
 and consisted of fine cotton cloth, of plumes of 
 various colours, and of ornaments of gold and silver 
 to a considerable value ; the workmanship of which 
 appeared to be as curious as the materials were rich. 
 The display of these produced an effect very different 
 from what the Mexicans intended. Instead of satis- 
 fying it increased the avidity of the Spaniards, and 
 rendered them so eager and impatient to become 
 masters of a country which abounde I with such 
 precious productions, that Cortes could hardly listen 
 with patience to the arguments which Pilpatoe and 
 Teutile employed to dissuade him from visiting the 
 capital, and in a haughty determined tone he insisted 
 on his demand, of being admitted to a personal 
 audience of their sovereign. During this interview, 
 some painters, in the train of the Mexican chiefs, 
 had been diligently employed in delineating, upon 
 white cotton cloths, figures of the ships, the horses, 
 the artillery, the soldiers, and whatever else attracted 
 their eyes as singular. When Cortes observed this, 
 and wasinformed that these pictures were to be sent to 
 Montezuma, in order to convey to him a more lively 
 idea of the strange and wonderful objects now pre- 
 sented to their view, than any words could commu- 
 nicate, he resolved to render the representation still 
 more animating and interesting, by exhibiting such 
 a spectacle as might give both them and their 
 monarch an awful impression of the extraordir 
 prowess of his followers, and the irresistible 
 of their arms. The trumpets, by his order, 
 an alarm ; the troops, in a moment, formed hi 
 of battle, the infantry performed such martial exer- 
 cises as were best suited to display the effect of 
 their different weapons ; the horses, in various evolu- 
 tions, gave a specimen of their agility and strength ; 
 the artillery pointed towards the thick woods which 
 surrounded the camp, were fired, and made dread- 
 ful havoc among the trees. The Mexicans looked 
 on with that silent amazement which is natural 
 when the mind is struck with objects, which are 
 both awful and above its comprehension. But, at 
 the explosion of the cannon, many of them fled, 
 some fell to the ground, and all were so much con- 
 founded at the sight of men whose power so nearly 
 resembled that of the gods, that Cortes found it 
 difficult to compose and re-assure them. The 
 painters had now many new objects on which to 
 exercise their art, and they put their fancy on the 
 stretch in order to invent figures and symbols to 
 represent the extraordinary things which they had 
 seen. 
 
 Messengers were immediately despatched to Mon- 
 tezuma with those pictures, and a full account of 
 every thing that had passed since the arrival of the 
 Spaniards, and by them Cortes sent a present of 
 some European curiosities to Montezuma, which, 
 though of no great value, he believed would be 
 acceptable on account of their novelty. The Mexican 
 monarchs, in order to obtain early information of 
 every occurrence in all the corners of their extensive 
 empire, had introduced a refinement in police, 
 unknown, at that time, in Europe. They had cou- 
 riers posted at proper stations along the principal 
 roads ; and as these were trained to agility by a regular 
 education, and relieved one another at moderate 
 distances, they conveyed intelligence with surprising 
 rapidity. Though the capital in which Montezuma 
 resided was above an hundred and eighty miles from 
 Juan de Ulna, Cortes's presents were carried thither, 
 and an. answer to his demands was received in a 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 105- 
 
 few days. The same "officers who had hitherto 
 treated with the Spaniards, were employed to deliver 
 this answer ; but as they knew how repugnant the 
 determination of their masters was to all the schemes 
 and wishes of the Spanish commander, they would 
 not venture to make it known until they had pre- 
 viously endeavoured to soothe and mollify him. For 
 this purpose they renewed their negociation, by intro- 
 ducing a train of a hundred Indians, loaded with 
 presents sent to him by Montezuma. The magnifi- 
 cence of these was such as became a great monarch, 
 and far exceeded any idea which the Spaniards had 
 hitherto formed of his wealth. They were placed on 
 mats spread on the ground, in such order as showed 
 them to the greatest advantage. Cortes and his 
 officers viewed, with admiration, the various manu- 
 factures of the country ; cotton stuffs so fine, and of 
 such delicate texture, as to resemble silk ; pictures 
 of animals, trees, and other natural objects, formed 
 with feathers, of different colours, disposed and 
 mingled with such skill and elegance, as to rival the 
 work of the pencil in truth and beauty of imitation. 
 But what chiefly attracted their eyes, were two large 
 plates of a circular form, one of massive gold represent- 
 ing the sun, the other of silver, an emblem of the 
 moon (152.) These were accompanied \vith bracelets, 
 collars, rings, and other trinkets of gold ; and, that 
 nothing might be wanting which could give the 
 Spat nurds a complete idea of what the country af- 
 fi.rdfd, with some boxes filled with pearls, precious 
 si ones, and grains of gold unwrought, as they had 
 IHVU found in the mines or rivers. Cortes received 
 all these with an appearance of profound veneration 
 for the monarch by whom they were bestowed, But 
 when the Mexicans, presuming upon this, informed 
 him, that their master, though he desired him to 
 accept of what he had sent as a token of regard f ( >r 
 that monarch whom Cortes represented, would not 
 give his consent that foreign troops should approach 
 nearer to his capital, or even allow them to continue 
 longer in his dominions, the Spanish general declared, in 
 ;v manner more resolute and peremptory than formerly, 
 that he must insist on his first demand, as he could 
 not, without dishonour, return to his own country, 
 until he was admitted into the presence of the prince 
 whom he was appointed to visit in the name of his 
 sovereign. The Mexicans, astonished at seeing any 
 man dare to oppose that will, which they were accus- 
 tomed to consider as supreme and irresistible, yet 
 afraid of precipitating their country into an open 
 rupture with such formidable enemies, prevailed with 
 Cortes to promise, that he would not move from his 
 present camp, until the return of a messenger whom 
 they sent to Montezuma for further instructions. 
 
 The firmness with which Cortes adhered to his 
 original proposal, should naturally have brought the 
 negociation between him and Montezuma to a speedy 
 issue, as it seemed to leave the Mexican monarch no 
 choice, but either to receive him with confidence as a 
 friend, or to oppose him ogenly as an enemy. The 
 latter was what might have been expected from a 
 haughty prince in possession of extensive power. 
 The Mexican empire, at this period, was at a pitch 
 of grandeur to which no society ever attained in so 
 short a period. Though it had subsisted, according 
 to their own traditions, only a hundred and thirty 
 years, its dominion extended from the North to the 
 South sea, over territories stretching, with some small 
 interruption, above five hundred leagues from east 
 to west, and more than two hundred from north to 
 south, comprehending provinces, not inferior in 
 fertility, population, and opulence, to any in the 
 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA, No. 14. 
 
 torrid zone. The people were warlike and enterpris- 
 ing, the authority of the monarch unbounded, and. 
 his revenues considerable. If, with the forces which 
 might have been suddenly assembled in such an 
 empire, Montezuma had fallen upon the Spaniards 
 while encamped on a barren unhealthy coast, unsup- 
 ported by any ally, without a place of retreat, and 
 destitute of provisions, it seems to be impossible, 
 even with all the advantages of their superior disci- 
 pline and arms, that they could have stood the shock, 
 and they must either have perished in such an un- 
 equal contest, or have abandoned the enterprise. 
 
 As the power of Montezuma enabled him to take 
 this spirited part, his own dispositions were such as 
 seemed naturally to prompt him to it. Of all tha 
 princes who had swayed the Mexican sceptre, he was 
 the most haughty, the most violent, and the most 
 impatient of control. His subjects looked up to him 
 with awe, and his enemies with terror. The former 
 he governed with unexampled rigour ; but they were 
 impressed with such an opinion of his capacity, as 
 commanded their respect ; and, by many victories 
 over the latter, he had spread far the dread of his 
 arms, and had added several considerable provinces 
 to his dominions. But though his talents might be 
 suited to the transactions of a state so imperfectly 
 polished as the Mexican empire, and sufficient to 
 conduct them while in their accustomed course, they 
 were altogether inadequate to a conjuncture so extra- 
 ordinary, and did not qualify him either to judge 
 with the discernment, or to act with the decision 
 requisite in such a trying emergence. 
 
 From the moment that the Spaniards appeared on 
 his coast, he discovered symptoms of timidity and 
 embarrassment. Instead of taking such resolutions 
 as the consciousness of his own power, or the memory 
 of his former exploits, might have inspired, he deli- 
 berated with an anxiety and hesitation which did not 
 escape the notice of his meanest courtiers, The 
 perplexity and discomposure of Montezuma' s mind 
 upon this occasion, as well the general dismay of his 
 subjects, were not owing wholly to the impression 
 which the Spaniards had made by the novelty of their 
 appearance and the terror of their ^arms. Its origin 
 may be traced up to a more remote source. There 
 was an opinion, if we may believe the earliest and 
 most authentic Spanish historians, almost universal 
 among the Americans, that some dreadful calamity 
 was impending over their heads, from a race of formi- 
 dable invaders, who should come from regions towards 
 the rising sun, to overrun and desolate their country. 
 Whether this disquieting apprehension flowed from 
 the memory of some natural calamity which had 
 afflicted that part of the globe, and impressed the 
 minds of the inhabitants with superstitious fears and 
 forebodings, or whether it was an imagination acci- 
 dentally suggested by the astonishment which the first 
 sight of a new race of men occasioned, it is impossi- 
 ble to determine. But as the Mexicans were more 
 prone to superstition than any people in the New 
 World, they were more deeply affected by the appear- 
 ance of the Spaniards, whom their credulity instantly 
 represented as the instruments destined to bring about 
 this fatal revolution which they dreaded. Under 
 those circumstances, it ceases to be incredible that a 
 handful of adventurers should alarm the monarch of 
 a great empire, and all his subjects. 
 
 Notwithstanding the influence of this impression, 
 when the messenger arrived from the Spanish camp 
 with an account that the leader of the strangers, ad- 
 hering to his original demand, refused to obey tho 
 order enjoining him to leave the country, Montezuma 
 
106 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 assumed some degree of resolution, and, in a trans- 
 port of rage natural to a fierce prince unaccustomed 
 to meet with any opposition to his will, he threatened 
 to sacrifice those presumptuous men to his gods. 
 But his doubts and fears quickly returned, and instead 
 of issuing orders to carry his threats into execution, 
 he again called his ministers to confer and offer their 
 advice. Feeble and temporizing measures will always 
 le the result when men assemble to deliberate in a 
 situation where they ought to act. The Mexican 
 counsellors took no effectual measure for expelling 
 such troublesome intruders, and were satisfied with 
 issuing a more positive injunction, requiring them to 
 leave the country ; but this they preposterously ac- 
 companied with a present of such value, as proved 
 a fresh inducement to remain there. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Spaniards were not without solici- 
 tude, or a variety of sentiments, in deliberating con- 
 cerning their own future conduct. From what they 
 had already seen, many of them formed such ex- 
 travagant ideas concerning the opulence of the 
 country, that, despising danger % or hardships, when 
 they had in view treasures which appeared to be in- 
 exhaustible, they were eager to attempt the conquest. 
 Others, estimating the power of the Mexican empire 
 by its wealth, and enumerating the various proofs 
 which had occurred of its being under a well-regulated 
 administration, contended that it would be an act of 
 the wildest phrensy to attack such a state with a small 
 body of men, in want of provisions, unconnected with 
 any ally, and already enfeebled by the diseases pecu- 
 liar to the climate, and the loss of several of their 
 number. Cortes secretly applauded the advocates for 
 bold measures, and cherished their romantic hopes, as 
 such ideas corresponded with his own, and favoured 
 the execution of the schemes which he had formed. 
 From the time that the suspicions of Velasquez broke 
 out with open violence in the attempts to deprive him 
 of the command, Cortes saw the necessity of dissolving 
 a connexion which would obstruct and embarrass all 
 his operations, and watched for a proper opportunity 
 of coming to a final rupture with him. Having this 
 in view, he had laboured by every art to secure the 
 esteem and affection of his soldiers. With his abi- 
 lities for command, it was easy to gain their esteem ; 
 and his followers were quickly satisfied that they 
 might rely, with perfect confidence, on the conduct 
 and courage of their leader. Nor was it more difficult 
 to acquire their affection. Among adventurers nearly 
 of the same rank, and serving at their own expense, 
 the dignity of command did not elevate a general 
 above mingling with those who acted under .him. 
 Cortes availed himself of this freedom of intercourse, 
 to insinuate himself into their favour, and by his 
 affable manners, by well-timed acts of liberality to 
 some, by inspiring all with vast hopes, and by allow- 
 ing them to trade privately with the natives (103), he 
 attached the greater part of his soldiers so firmly to 
 himself, that they almost forgot that the armament 
 had been fitted out by the authority and at the expense 
 of another. 
 
 During those intrigues, Teutile arrived with the 
 present from Montezuma, and, together with it, de- 
 livered the ultimate order of that monarch to depart 
 instantly out of his dominions ; and when Cortes, 
 instead of complying, renewed his request of an au- 
 dience, the Mexican turned from him abruptly, and 
 quitted the camp with looks and gestures which 
 strongly expressed his surprise and resentment. Next 
 morning, none of the natives who used to frequent the 
 camp in great numbers, in order to barter with the 
 soldiers and, to bring in provisions, appeared. All 
 
 friendly correspondence seemed now to be at an end, 
 and it was expected every moment that hostilities 
 would commence. This, though an event that might 
 have been foreseen, occasioned a sudden consternation 
 among the Spaniards, which emboldened the adhe- 
 rents of Velasquez not only to murmur and cabal 
 against their general, but to appoint one of their 
 number to remonstrate openly against his imprudence 
 in attempting the conquest of a mighty empire with 
 such inadequate force, and to urge the necessity of 
 returning to Cuba, in order to refit the fleet and aug- 
 ment the army. Diego de Ordaz, one of his principal 
 officers, whom the malcontents charged with this 
 commission, delivered it with a soldierly freedom and 
 bluntness, assuring Cortes that he spoke the senti- 
 ment of the whole army. He listened to this remon- 
 strance without any appearance of emotion, and as he 
 well knew the temper and wishes of his soldiers, and 
 foresaw how they would receive a proposition fatal at 
 once to all the splendid hopes and schemes which 
 they had been forming with such complacency, he 
 carried his dissimulation so far as to seem to relinquish 
 his own measures in compliance with the request of 
 Ordaz, and issued orders that the army should be in 
 readiness next day to re-embark for Cuba. As soon 
 as this was known, the disappointed adventurers ex- 
 claimed and threatened ; the emissaries of Cortes, 
 mingling with them, inflamed their rage ; the ferment 
 became general ; the whole camp was almost in open 
 mutiny ; all demanding with eagerness to see their 
 commander. Cortes was not slow in appearing ; 
 when, with one voice, officers and soldiers expressed 
 their astonishment and indignation at the orders which 
 they had received. It was unworthy, they cried, of 
 the Castilian courage, to be daunted at the first as- 
 pect of danger, and infamous to fly before any enemy 
 appeared. For their parts they were determined not 
 to relinquish an enterprise that had hitherto been 
 successful, and which tended so visibly to spread the 
 knowledge of true religion, and to advance the glory 
 and interest of their country. Happy under his com- 
 mand, they would follow him with alacrity through 
 every danger, in quest of those settlements and trea- 
 sures which he had so long held out to their view ; 
 but if he chose rather to return to Cuba, and tamely 
 give up all his hopes of distinction and opulence to an 
 envious rival, they would instantly choose another 
 general to conduct them in that path of glory which 
 he had not spirit to enter. 
 
 Cortes, delighted with their ardour, took no offence 
 at the boldness with which it was uttered. The sen- 
 timents were what he himself had inspired, and the 
 warmth of expression satisfied him that his followers 
 had imbibed them thoroughly. He affected, however, 
 to be surprised at what he heard, declaring that his 
 orders to prepare for embarking were issued from a 
 persuasion that this was agreeable to his troops ; 
 that, from deference to what_ he had been informed 
 was their inclination, he had sacrificed his own pri- 
 vate opinion, which was firmly bent on establishing 
 immediately a settlement on the sea-coast, and then 
 on endeavouring to penetrate into the interior part of 
 the country ; that now he was convinced of his error ; 
 and as he perceived that they were animated with the 
 generous spirit which breathed in every true Spa- 
 niard, he would resume with fresh ardour, his original 
 plan of operation, and doubted not to conduct them, 
 in the career of victor}', to such independent fortunes 
 as their valour merited. Upon this declaration, shouts 
 of applause testified the excess of their joy. The 
 measure seemed to be taken with unanimous consent ; 
 such as secretly condemned it being obliged, to join in 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA, 
 
 ior 
 
 the acclamations, partly to conceal their disaffectio 
 from their general, and partly to avoid the imputatio 
 of cowardice from their fellow-soldiers. 
 
 Without allowing his men time to cool or to reflect 
 Cortes set about carrying his design into execution 
 In order to give a beginning to a colony, he assemble( 
 the principal persons in his army, and by their suf- 
 frage elected a council and magistrates, in whom the 
 government was to be vested. As men naturall; 
 transplant the institutions and forms of the mother 
 country into their new settlements, this was framec 
 upon the model of a Spanish corporation. The ma- 
 gistrates were distinguished by the same names and 
 ensigns of office, and were to exercise a similar juris- 
 diction. All the persons chosen were most firmly 
 devoted to Cortes, and the instrument of their elec- 
 tion was framed in the king's name, without any 
 mention of their dependence on Velasquez. The two 
 principles of avarice and enthusiasm, which prompted 
 the Spaniards to all their enterprires in the New 
 World, seem to have concurred in suggesting the name 
 which Cortes bestowed on his infant settlement. He 
 called it, The rich town of the true Cross.. 
 
 The first meeting of the new council was distin- 
 guished by a transaction of great moment. As soon 
 as it assembled, Cortes applied for leave to enter; and 
 approaching with many marks of profound respect, 
 which added dignity to the tribunal, and set an 
 example of reverence for its authority, he began a 
 long harangue, in which, with much art, and in terms 
 extremely flattering to persons just entering upon 
 their new function, he observed, that as the supreme 
 jurisdiction over the colony which they had planted 
 was now vested in this court, he considered them as 
 clothed with the authority, and representing the per 
 son of their sovereign ; that accordingly he would 
 communicate to them what he deemed essential to the 
 public safety, with the same dutiful fidelity as if he 
 were addressing his royal master ; that the security of 
 a colony settled in a great empire, whose sovereign 
 had already discovered his hostile intentions, depended 
 upon arms, and the efficacy of these upon the subor- 
 dination and discipline preserved among the troops ; 
 that his right to command was derived from a com- 
 mission granted by the governor of Cuba ; and as that 
 had been long since revoked, the lawfulness of his 
 jurisdiction might well be questioned ; that he might 
 be thought to act upon a defective, or even a dubious, 
 title ; nor could they trust an army which might dis- 
 pute the powers of its general, at a juncture when it 
 ought implicitly to obey his orders ; that, moved by 
 these considerations, he now resigned all his autho- 
 rity to them, that they, having both right to choose, 
 and power to confer full jurisdiction, might appoint 
 one in the king's name, to command the army in its 
 future operations ; and as for his own part, such was 
 his zeal for the service in which they were engaged, 
 that he would most cheerfully take up a pike with the 
 same hand that laid down the general's truncheon, 
 and convince his fellow-soldiers, that though accus- 
 tomed to command, he had not forgotten how to obey. 
 Having finished his discourse, he laid the commission 
 from Velasquez upon the table, and after kissing his 
 truncheon, delivered it to the chief magistrate and 
 withdrew. 
 
 The deliberations of the council were not long, as 
 Cortes had concerted this important measure with his 
 confidants, and had prepared the other members with 
 great address, for the part which he wished them to 
 take. His resignation was accepted; and as the 
 uninterrupted tenor of their prosperity under his 
 conduct afforded the most satisfying evidence of his 
 
 abilities for command, they, by their unanimous 
 suffrage, sleeted him chief-justice of the colony, and 
 captain-general of its army, and appointed his com- 
 mission to be made out in the king's name, with 
 most ample powers, which were to continue in force 
 until 'the royal pleasure should be further known. 
 That this deed might not be deemed the machination of 
 a junto, the [council called together the troops, and 
 acquainted them with what had been resolved. The 
 soldiers, with eager applause, ratified the choice 
 which the council had made ; the air resounded with 
 the name of Cortes, and all vowed to shed their blood 
 in support of his authority. 
 
 Cortes having now brought his intrigues to the 
 desired issue, and shaken off his mortifying depen- 
 dence on the govenor of Cuba, accepted of the com- 
 mission which vested in him supreme jurisdiction, 
 civil as well as military, over the colony, with many 
 professions of respect to the council, and gratitude to 
 the army. Together with his new command, he as- 
 sumed greater dignity, and began to exercise more 
 extensive powers. Formerly he had felt himself to be 
 only the deputy of a subject ; now he acted as the re- 
 presentative of his sovereign. The adherents of 
 Velasquez, fully aware of whaj; would be the effect 
 of this change in the situation of Cortes, could 
 no longer continue silent and passive spectators 
 of his actions. They exclaimed openly against the 
 proceedings of the council as illegal, and against those 
 of the army as mutinous. Cortes, instantly perceiving 
 the necessity of giving a timely check to such sedi- 
 tious discourse by some vigorous measure, arrested 
 Ordaz, Escudero, and Velasquez de Leon, the ring- 
 leaders of this faction, and sent them prisoners aboard 
 the fleet, loaded with chains. Their dependants, 
 astonished and overawed, remained quiet ; and 
 Cortes, more desirous to reclaim than to punish his 
 prisoners, who were officers of great merit, courted 
 their friendship with such assiduity and address, that 
 the reconciliation was perfectly cordial ; and on the 
 most trying occasions, neither their connexion with 
 the governor of Cuba, nor the memory of the indignity 
 with which they had been treated, tempted them to 
 swerve from an inviolable attachment to his interest. 
 In this as well as his other negociations at this cri- 
 tical conjuncture, which decided with respect to his 
 \iture fame and fortune, Cortes owed much of his 
 success to the Mexican gold, which he distributed 
 with a liberal hand both among his friends and his 
 pponents. 
 
 Cortes, having thus rendered the union between 
 limself and his army indissoluble, by engaging it to 
 oin him in disclaiming any dependence on the gover- 
 nor of Cuba, and in the repeated acts of disobedience 
 to his authority, thought he might now venture to 
 quit the camp in which he had hitherto remained, 
 and advance into the country. To this he was en- 
 couraged by an event no less fortunate than season- 
 ,ble. Some Indians having approached his camp in 
 a mysterious manner, were introduced into his pre- 
 ence. He found that they were sent with a proffer of 
 riendship from the cazique of Zempoalla, a consider- 
 able town at no great distance ; and from their answers 
 o a variety of questions which he put to them, ac- 
 :ording to his usual practice in every interview with 
 he people of the country, he gathered, that their 
 master, though subject to the Mexican empire, was 
 mpatient of the yoke, and filled with such dread and 
 latred of Montezuma, that nothing could be more 
 cceptable to him than any prospect of deliverance 
 rom the oppression under which he groaned. On 
 .earing this, a ray of light and hope broke in upojx 
 
ios 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMEB10A. 
 
 the mind of Cortes. Ho saw that the great empire 
 which he intended to attack was neither perfectly 
 united, nor its sovereign universally beloved. He 
 concluded, that the causes of disaffection could not be 
 confined to one province ; but that in other corners 
 there must be malcontents, so weary of subjection, 
 or so desirous of change, as to be ready to follow the 
 standard of any protector. Full of those ideas, oh 
 which he began to form a scheme, that time, and 
 more perfect information concerning the state of the 
 country, enabled him to mature, he gave a most 
 gracious reception to the Zempoallans, and promised 
 soon to visit their cazique. 
 
 In order to perform this promise, it was not neces- 
 sary to vary the route which he had already fixed for 
 his march. Some officers, whom he had employed 
 to survey the coast, having discovered a village 
 named Quiabislan, about forty miles to the northward, 
 which both on account of the fertility of the soil and 
 commodioushess of the harbour, seemed to be a more 
 proper station for a settlement than that where he 
 was encamped, Cortes determined to remove thither. 
 Zempoalla lay in his way, where the cazique received 
 him in the manner which he had reason to expect 
 with gifts and caresses, like a man solicitous to gain 
 his good-will ; with respect approaching almost to 
 adoration, like one who looked up to him as a de- 
 liverer. From him he learned many particulars with 
 respect to the character of Montezuma, and the cir- 
 cumstances which rendered his dominion odious. 
 He was a tyrant, as the cazique told him with tears, 
 haughty, cruel, and suspicious ; who treated his own 
 subjects with arrogance, ruined the conquered pro- 
 vinces by excessive exactions, and often tore their 
 sons and daughters from them by violence ; the former 
 to be offered as victims to his gods ; the latter, to be 
 reserved as concubines for himself or favourites. 
 Cortes, in reply to him, artfully insinuated, that one 
 great object of the Spaniards in visiting a country so 
 remote from their own, was to redress grievances, and 
 to relieve the distressed ; and having encouraged him 
 to hope for this interposition in due time, he continued 
 his march to Quiabislan. 
 
 The spot which his officers had recommended as a 
 proper situation, appeared to him to be so well chosen, 
 that he immediately marked out ground for a J town. 
 The houses to be erected were only huts ; but these 
 were to be surrounded with fortifications, of sufficient 
 strength to resist the assaults of an Indian army. As 
 the finishing of those fortifications was essential to 
 the existence of a colony, and of no less importance in 
 prosecuting the designs which the leader and his 
 followers meditated, both in order to secure a place 
 of retreat, and to preserve their communication with 
 the sea, every man in the army, officers as well as 
 Soldiers, put his hand to the work, Cortes himself 
 setting them an example of activity and perseverance 
 in labour. The Indians of Zempballa and Quiabislan 
 lent their aid ; and this petty station, the parent of 
 so many mighty settlements, was soon in a state of 
 defence. 
 
 IVhile engaged in this necessary work, Cortes had 
 several interviews with the caziques of Zempoalla and 
 Quiabislan ; and availing himself of their wonder and 
 astonishment at the new objects which they daily- 
 beheld, he gradually inspired them with such a high 
 opinion of the Spaniards, as beings of a supeiior 
 order and irresistible in arms, that, relying on their 
 protection, they ventured to insult the Mexican power, 
 at the very name of which they were accustomed to 
 tremble. Some of Montezuma's officers having ap- 
 peared to levy the usual tribute, and to demand a 
 
 certain number of human victims, as an expiation for 
 their guilt in presuming to hold intercourse with those 
 strangers whom the emperor had commanded to leave 
 his dominions, instead of obeying the order, the ca- 
 ziques made them prisoners, treated them with great 
 indignity, and as their superstition was no less bar- 
 barous than that of the Mexicans, they prepared to 
 sacrifice them to their gods. From this last danger 
 they were delivered by the interposition of Cortes, 
 who manifested the utmost horror at the mention of 
 such a deed. The two cazlqucs having now been 
 pushed to an act of stich open rebellion, as left them 
 no hope of safety but in attaching themselves inviola- 
 bly to the Spaniards, they soon completed their union 
 with them, by formally acknowledging themselves to 
 be vassals of the same monarch. Their example was 
 followed by the Totonaques, a fierce people who in- 
 habited the mountainous part of the country. They 
 willingly subjected themselves to the crown of Cas- 
 tile, and offered to accompany Cortes with all their 
 forces in his march towards Mexico. 
 
 Cortes had now been above three months in New 
 Spain : and though this period had not been distin- 
 guished by martial exploits, every moment had been 
 employed in operations, which though less splendid, 
 were more important. By his addfess in conducting 
 his intrigues with his own army, as well as his sa- 
 gacity in carrying on his negotiations with the natives, 
 he had already laid the foundations of his future 
 success. But whatever confidence he might place in 
 the plan which he had formed, he could uot but per- 
 ceive, that as his title to command was derived from 
 a doubtful authority, he held it by a precarious tenure. 
 The injuries which Velasquez had received, were such 
 as would naturally prompt him to apply for redress to 
 their common sovereign ; and such a representation, 
 he foresaw, might be given of his conduct, that he had 
 reason to apprehend, not only that he might be de- 
 graded from his present rank, but subjected to punish- 
 ment. Before he began his march, it was necessary 
 to take the most effectual precautions against this 
 impending danger. With this view he persuaded the 
 magistrates of the colony at Vera Cruz, to address 
 a letter to the king, the chief object of which was to 
 justify their own conduct in establishing a colony 
 independent on the jurisdiction of Velasquez. In 
 order to accomplish this, they endeavoured to detract 
 from his merit in fitting out the two former arma- 
 ments under Cordova and Grijalva, affirming that 
 these had been equipped by the adventurers who 
 engaged in the expeditions, and not by the governor. 
 They contended that the sole object of Velasquez was 
 to trade or barter with the natives, not to attempt the 
 conquest of New Spain, or to settle a colony there. 
 They asserted that Cortes and the officers who served 
 under him had defrayed the greater part of the 
 expence in fitting out the armament. On this ac- 
 count, they humbly requested their sovereign to 
 ratify what they had done in his name, and to confirm 
 Cortes in the supreme command by his roya! com- 
 mission. That Charles might be induced to grant 
 more readily what they demanded, they gave him a 
 pompous description of the country which they had 
 discovered ; of its riches, the number of its inhabit- 
 ants, their civilization and arts ; they related the 
 progress which they had already made in annexing 
 some parts of the country situated on the sea-coast 
 to the crown of Castile ; and mentioned the schemes 
 which they had formed, as well as the hopes which 
 they entertained, of reducing the whole to subjection. 
 Cortes himself wrote in a similar strain ; and as he 
 knew that the Spanish court, accustomed to the 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 100 
 
 exaggerated representations of every new country by 
 its discoverers, would give little credit to their 
 splendid accounts of New Spain, if these were not 
 accompanied with such a specimen of what it con- 
 tained as would excite a high idea of its opulence, 
 he solicited his soldiers to relinquish what they 
 might claim as their part of the treasures which had 
 hitherto been collected, in order that the whole 
 miaht be sent to the king. Such was the ascendant 
 which he had acquired over their minds, and such 
 their own romantic expectations of future wealth, 
 that an army of indigent and rapacious adventurers 
 was capable of this generous effort, and offered to 
 their sovereign the richest present that had hitherto 
 been transmitted from the New World (104). 
 Portocarrero and Montejo, the chief magistrates of 
 the colohy, were appointed to carry this present to 
 Castile, with express orders not to touch at Cuba in 
 their passage thither. 
 
 While a vessel was preparing for their departure, 
 an unexpected event occasioned a general alarm. 
 Some soldiers and sailors, secretly attached to Velas- 
 quez, or intimidated at the prospect of the dangers 
 unavoidable in attempting to penetrate into the 
 heart of a great empire with such unequal force, 
 formed the design of seizing one of the brigantines, 
 and making their escape to Cuba, in order to give the 
 governor such intelligence as might enable him to 
 intercept the ship which was to carry the treasure 
 and dispatches to Spain. This conspiracy, though 
 formed by persons of low rank, was conducted with 
 profound secrecy ; but at the moment when every 
 thing was ready for execution, they were betrayed 
 by one of their associates. 
 
 Though the good fortune of Cortes interposed so 
 seasonably on this occasion, the detection of this 
 conspiracy filled his mind with most disquieting 
 apprehensions, and prompted him to execute a scheme 
 which he had long revolved. He perceived that the 
 spirit of dissatisfaction still lurked among his troops; 
 that though hitherto checked by the uniform success 
 of his schemes, or suppressed by the hand of authority, 
 various events might occur which would encourage 
 and call it forth. He observed, that many of his 
 men, weary of the fatigue of service, longed to 
 revisit their settlements in Cuba; and that upon any 
 appearance of extraordinary danger, or any reverse 
 of fortune, it would be impossible to restrain them 
 from returning thither. He was sensible that his 
 forces, already too feeble, could bear no diminution, 
 and that a very small defection of his followers 
 would oblige him to abandon the enterprise. After 
 ruminating often, and with much solicitude, upon 
 those particulars, he saw no hope of success but in 
 cutting of all possibility of retreat, and in reducing 
 his men to the necessity of adopting the same resolu- 
 tion with which he himself was animated, either to 
 conquer or to perish. With this view, he determined 
 to destroy his fleet ; but as he durst not venture to 
 execute such a bold resolution by his single authority, 
 he laboured to bring his soldiers to adopt his ideas 
 with respect to the propriety of this measure. His 
 address in accomplishing this was not inferior to the 
 arduous occasion in which it was employed. He 
 persuaded some, that the ships had suffered so much 
 by having been long at sea, as to be altogether unfit 
 for service ; to others he pointed out what a season- 
 able reinforcement of strength they would derive 
 from the junction of a hundred me'n, now unprofit- 
 ably employed as sailors ; and to all he represented 
 the necessity o fixing their eyes and wishes upon 
 was "before them, without allowing the idea of 
 
 a retreat once to enter their thoughts. With uni- 
 versal consent the ships were drawn ashore, and after 
 stripping them of their sails, rigging, iron works, and 
 whatever else might be of use, they were broke in 
 pieces. Thus, from an effort of magnanimity, to 
 which there is nothing parallel in history, five 
 hundred men voluntarily consented to be shut up in 
 a hostile counti'y, filled with powerful and unknown 
 nations ; and having precluded every means of 
 escape, left themselves without any resource but 
 their own valour and perseverance. 
 
 Nothing now retarded Cortes ; the alacrity of his 
 troops and the disposition of his allies were equally 
 favourable. All the advantages, however, derived 
 from the latter, though procured by much assiduity 
 and address, were well nigh lost in a moment, by an 
 indiscreet sally of religious zeal, which, on many 
 occasions, precipitated Cortes into actions, incon- 
 sistent with the prudence that distinguishes his 
 character. Though hitherto he had neither time nor 
 opportunity to explain to the natives the errors of 
 their own superstition, or to instruct them in the 
 principles of the Christian faith, he commanded his 
 soldiers to overturn the altars and to destroy the 
 idols in the chief temple of Zempoalla, and in their 
 place to erect a crucifix and ah image of the Virgin 
 Mary. The people beheld this with astonishment 
 and horror ; the priests excited them to arms ; but 
 such was the authority of Cortes, and so great the 
 ascendant which the Spaniards had acquired, that 
 the commotion was appeased without bloodshed, and 
 concord perfectly re-established. 
 
 Cortes began his march from Zempoalla on the 
 sixteenth of August, with five hundred men, fifteen 
 horse, and six field-pieces. The rest of his troops, 
 consisting chiefly of such as from age or infirmity 
 were less fit for active service, he left as a garrison in 
 Villa Rica, under command of the Escalante, an officer 
 of merit, and warmly attached to his interest. The 
 cazique of Zempoalla supplied him with provisions, 
 and with two hundred of those Indians called 
 Tamemes, whose office, in a country where tame 
 animals were unknown, was to carry burthens, and 
 to perform all servile labour. They were a great 
 relief to the Spanish soldiers, who hitherto had 
 been obliged, not only to carry their own baggage, 
 but to drag along the artillery by main force. He 
 offered likewise a considerable body of his troops, 
 but Cortes, was satisfied with four hundred ; taking 
 care, however, to choose persons of such note as 
 might prove hostages for the fidelity of their master. 
 Nothing memorable happened in his progress, until 
 he arrived on the confines of Tlascala. The inhabit- 
 ants of that province, a warlike people, were impla- 
 cable enemies of the Mexicans, and had been united 
 in an ancient alliance with the caziques of Zempoalla. 
 Though less civi.ized than the subjects of Monte- 
 zuma, they were advanced in improvement far beyond 
 the rude nations of America, whose manners we 
 have described. They had made considerable pro- 
 gress in agriculture; they dwelt in large towns ; 
 they were not strangers to some species of commerce ; 
 and in the imperfect accounts of their institutions 
 and laws, transmitted to us by the early Spanish 
 writers, we discern traces both of distributive 
 justice and of criminal jurisdiction in their interior 
 police. But still, as the degree of their civilization 
 was incomplete, and as they depended for subsis- 
 tence, not on agriculture alone, but trusted for it in 
 a great measure to hunting, they retained many of 
 the qualities natural to men in this state. Like 
 them, they were fierce and revengeful ; like them, 
 
110 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 too, they were high-spirited and independent. In 
 consequence of the former, they were involved in 
 perpetual hostilities, and had but a slender and 
 occasional intercourse with neighbouring states. 
 The latter inspired them with such detestation of 
 servitude, that they not only refused to stoop to a 
 foreign yoke, .and maintained an obstinate and 
 successful contest in defence of their liberty against 
 the superior power of the Mexican empire, but they 
 guarded with equal solicitude against domestic 
 tyranny ; and disdaining to acknowledge any master, 
 they lived under the mild and limited jurisdiction of 
 a council elected by their several tribes. 
 
 Cortes, though he had received information con- 
 cerning the martial character of this people, flattered 
 himself that his professions of delivering the 
 oppressed from the tyranny of Montezuma, their 
 inveterate enmity to the Mexicans, and the example 
 of their ancient allies the Zempcallans, might induce 
 the Tlascalans to grant him a friendly reception. 
 In order to dispose them to this, four Zempoallans of 
 great eminence were sent ambassadors, to request, 
 in his name, and in that of their cazique, that they 
 would permit the Spaniards to pass through the 
 territories of the republic, in their way to Mexico. 
 But instead of the favourable answer which was 
 expected, the Tlascalans seized the ambassadors, 
 and without any regard to their public character, 
 made preparations for sacrificing them to their gods. 
 At the same time they assembled their troops, in 
 order to oppose those unknown invaders, if they 
 should attempt to make their passage good by force 
 of arms. Various motives concurred in precipitating 
 the Tlascalans into this resolution. A fierce people, 
 shut up within its own narrow precincts, and little 
 accustomed to any intercourse with foreigners, is apt to 
 consider every stranger as an enemy, and is easily- 
 excited to arms. They concluded, from Cortes' s 
 proposal of visiting Montezuma in his capital, that, 
 notwithstanding all his professions, he courted the 
 friendship of a monarch whom they both hated and 
 feared. The imprudent zeal of Cortes in violating 
 the temples in Zempoalla filled the Tlascalans with 
 horror ; and as they were no less attached to their 
 superstition than the other nations of New Spain, 
 they were impatient to avenge their injured gods, 
 and to acquire the merit of offering up to them, as 
 victims, those impious men who had dared to profane 
 their altars ; they contemned the small number of 
 the Spaniards, as they had not yet measured their 
 own strength with that of these new enemies, and had 
 no idea of the superiority which they derived from 
 thoir arms and dicipline. 
 
 [Aug. 30.] Cortes, after waiting some days in 
 vain for the return of his ambassadors, advanced 
 into the Tlascalan territories. As the resolutions 
 of people who delight in war are executed with 
 no less promptitude than they are formed, he found 
 troops in the field ready to oppose him. They 
 attacked him with great intrepidity, and, in the first 
 encounter, wounded some of the Spaniards, and 
 killed two horses ; a loss, in their situation, of great 
 moment, because it was irreparable. From this 
 specimen of their courage, Cortes saw the necessity 
 of proceeding with caution. His army marched in 
 close order ; he chose the stations where he halted 
 with attention, and fortified every camp with extra- 
 ordinary care. During fourteen days he was ex- 
 posed to almost uninterrupted assaults, the Tlas- 
 calans advancing with numerous armies, and renew- 
 ing the attack in various forms, with a degree of 
 valour and perseverance to which the Spaniards 
 
 had seen nothing parallel in the New World. The 
 Spanish historians describe those successive battles 
 with great pomp, and enter into a minute detail of 
 particulars, mingling many exaggerated and incre- 
 dible circumstances (105) with such as are real and 
 marvellous. But no power of words can render the 
 recital of a combat interesting, where there is no 
 equality of danger ; and when the narrative closes 
 with an account of thousands slain on the one side, 
 while not a single person falls on the other, the most 
 laboured descriptions of the previous disposition of 
 the troops, or of the various vicissitudes in the 
 engagement, command no attention. 
 
 There are some circumstances, however, in this war, 
 which are memorable, and merit notice, as they throw 
 liirht upon the character both of the people of New 
 Spain, and of their conquerors. Though the Tlasca- 
 lans brought into the field such numerous armies as 
 appear sufficient to have overwhelmed the Spaniards, 
 they were never able to make any impression upon 
 their small battalion. Singular as this may seem, it 
 is not inexplicable. The Tlascalans, though addicted 
 to war, were, like all unpolished nations, strangers to 
 military order and discipline, and lost in a great 
 measure the advantage which they might have deri- 
 ved from their numbers, and the impetuosity of their 
 attack, by their constant solicitude to carry off the 
 dead and wounded. This point of honour, founded 
 on a sentiment of tenderness natural to the human 
 mind, and strengthened by anxiety to preserve the 
 bodies of their countrymen from being devoured by 
 their enemies, was universal among the people of New 
 Spain. Attention to this pious office occupied them 
 even during the heat of combat, broke their union, 
 and diminished the force of the impression which 
 they might have made by a joint effort. 
 
 Not only was their superiority in number of little 
 avail, but the imperfection of their military weapons 
 rendered their valour in a great measure inoffensive. 
 After three battles, and many skirmishes and as- 
 saults, not one Spaniard was killed in the field. 
 Arrows and spears, headed with flint or the bones of 
 fishes, stakes hardened in the fire, and wooden swords, 
 though destructive weapons among naked Indians, 
 were easily turned aside by the Spanish bucklers, 
 and could hardly penetrate the escaupiles, or quilted 
 jackets, which the soldiers wore. The Tlascalans 
 advanced boldly to the charge, and often fought hand 
 to hand. Many of the Spaniards were wounded, though 
 all slightly, which cannot be imputed to any want 
 of courage or strength in their enemies, but to 
 the defect of the arms with which they assailed 
 them. 
 
 Notwithstanding the fury with which the Tlas- 
 calans attacked the Spaniards, they seemed to have 
 conducted their hostility with some degree of 
 barbarous generosity. They gave the Spaniards 
 warning of their hostile intentions, and as they 
 knew that their invaders wanted provisions, and 
 imagined, perhaps, like the other Americans, that 
 they had left their own country because it did not 
 afford them subsistence, they sent to their camp a 
 large supply of poultry and maize, desiring them 
 to eat plentifully, because they scorned to attack 
 an enemy enfeebled by hunger ; and it would be an 
 affront to their gods to offer them famished victims, 
 as well as disagreeable to themselves to feed on such 
 emaciated prey. 
 
 When they were taught by the first encounter 
 with their new enemies, that it was not easy to 
 execute this threat ; when they perceived, in the 
 subsequent engagements, that notwithstanding all 
 

 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 Ill 
 
 the efforts of their own valour, of which they had a 
 very high opinion, not one of the Spaniards was 
 slain or taken, they began to conceive them to be 
 a superior order of beings, against whom human 
 power could not avail. In this extremity they had 
 recourse to their priests, requiring them to reveal 
 the mysterious causes of such extraordinary events, 
 and to declare what new means they should employ 
 in order to repulse those formidable invaders. The 
 priests, after many sacrifices and incantations, 
 delivered this response : That these strangers were 
 the offspring of the sun, procreated by his animating 
 energy in the regions of the east ; that, by day, while 
 cherished with the influence of his parental beams, 
 they were invincible ; but by night, when his 
 reviving heat was withdrawn, their vigour declined 
 and faded like the herbs in the field, and they 
 dwindled down into mortal men. Theories less 
 plausible have gained credit with more enlightened 
 nations, and have influenced their conduct. In 
 consequence of this, the Tlascalans, with the im- 
 plicit confidence of men who fancy themselves to 
 be under the guidance of Heaven, acted in contra- 
 diction to one of their most established maxims in 
 war, and ventured to attack the enemy with a strong 
 body in the night-time, in hopes of destroying them 
 when enfeebled and surprised. But Cortes had 
 greater vigilance and discernment than to be 
 deceived by the rude stratagems of an Indian army. 
 The sentinels at his out-posts, observing some extra- 
 ordinary movement among the Tlascalans, gave 
 the alarm. In a moment the troops were under 
 arms, and sallying out, dispersed the party with 
 great slaughter without allowing it to approach 
 the camp. The Tlascalans convinced by sad expe- 
 rience that their priests had deluded them, and 
 satisfied that they attempted in vain, either to 
 deceive or to vanquish their enemies, their fierce- 
 ness abated, and they began to incline seriously to 
 peace. 
 
 They were at a loss, however, in what manner to 
 address the strangers, what idea to form of their cha- 
 racter, and whether to consider them as beings of 
 a gentle or malevolent nature. There were circum- 
 stances in their conduct which seemed to favour each 
 opinion. On the one hand, as the Spaniards con- 
 stantly dismissed the prisoners whom they took, 
 not only without injury, but often with presents of 
 European toys, and renewed their offers of peace 
 after every victory ; this lenity amazed people, who, 
 according to the exterminating system of war known 
 in America, were accustomed to sacrifice and devour 
 without mercy all captives taken in battle, and 
 disposed them to entertain favourable sentiments 
 of the humanity af their new enemies. But, on 
 the other hand, as Cortes had seized fifty of their 
 countrymen who brought provisions to his camp, 
 and supposing them to be spies, had cut off their 
 hands; this bloody spectacle, added to the terror 
 occasioned by the fire-arms and horses, filled them 
 with dreadful impressions of the ferocity of their 
 invaders (106). This uncertainty was apparent in the 
 mode of addressing the Spaniards. " If," said they, 
 you are divinities of a cruel and savage nature, we 
 present to you five slaves, that you may drink their 
 blood and eat their flesh. If you are mild deities, 
 accept an offering of incense and variegated plumes. 
 If you are men, here is meat, and bread, and fruit 
 to nourish you." The peace which both parties now 
 desired with equal ardour, was soon concluded. 
 The Tlascalans yielded themselves as vassals to the 
 crown of Castile, and. engaged to assist Cortes 
 
 in all his future operations. He took the republic 
 under his protection, and promised to defend 
 their persons and possessions from injury or 
 violence. 
 
 This treaty was concluded at a seasonable juncture 
 for the Spaniaids. The fatigue of the service among 
 a small body of men, surrounded by such a multitude 
 of enemies, was incredible. Half the army was on duty 
 every night, and even they whose turn it was to rest, 
 slept always upon their arms, that they might be 
 ready to ran to their posts on a moment's warning. 
 Many of them were wounded ; a good number, and 
 among these Cortes himself, laboured under the 
 distempers prevalent in hot climates, and several 
 had died since they set out from Vera Cruz. Not- 
 withstanding the supplies which they received from 
 the Tlascslans, they were often in want of pro- 
 visions, and so destitute of the necessaries most 
 requisite in dangerous service, that they had no 
 salve to dress their wounds, but what was composed 
 with the fat of the Indians whom they had slain. 
 Worn out with such intolerable toil and hardships, 
 many of the soldiers began to murmur, and, when 
 they reflected on the multitude and boldness of 
 their enemies, more were ready to despair. It 
 required the utmost exertion of Cortes's authority 
 and address to check this spirit of despondency in 
 its progress, and to reanimate his followers with 
 their wonted sense of their own superiority over 
 the enemies with whom they had to contend. The 
 submission of the Tlascalans, and their own triumph- 
 ant entry into the capital city, where they were received 
 with the reverence paid to beings of a superior order, 
 banished, at once, from the minds of the Spaniards, 
 all memory of past sufferings, dispelled every 
 anxious thought with respect to their future 
 operations, and fully satisfied them that there was not 
 now any power in America able to withstand their 
 arms. 
 
 Cortes remained twenty days in Tlascala, in order 
 to allow his troops a short interval of repose after 
 such hard service. During that time he was employed 
 in transactions and inquiries of great moment with 
 respect to his future schemes. In his daily con- 
 ferences with the Tlascalan chiefs, he received 
 information concerning every particular relative to 
 the state of the Mexican empire, or to the qualities 
 of its sovereign, which could be of use in regulat- 
 ing his conduct, whether he should be obliged to 
 act as a friend or as an enemy. As he found that 
 the antipathy of his new allies to the Mexican 
 nation was no less implacable than had been repre- 
 sented, and perceived what benefit he might derive 
 from the aid of such powerful confederates, he 
 employed all his powers of insinuation in order to 
 gain their confidence. Nor was any extraordinary 
 exertion of these necessary. The Tlascalans, with 
 the levity of mind natural to unpolished men, were, 
 of their own accord, disposed to run from the extreme 
 of hatred to that of fondness. Every thing in the 
 appearance and conduct of their guests was to them 
 matter of wonder (107). They gazed with admiration 
 at whatever the Spaniards did, and fancying them to 
 be of heavenly origin, were eager not only to comply 
 with their demands, but to anticipate their wishes. 
 They offered, accordingly, to accompany Cortes in 
 his march to Mexico, with all the forces of the 
 republic, under the commandof their most experienced 
 captains. 
 
 Bur, after bestowing so much pains on cementing 
 this union, all the beneficial fruits of it were on the 
 point of being lost, by a new effusion of that intern* 
 
112 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. ' 
 
 perate religious zeal with which Cortes was ani- 
 mated, no less than the adventurers of the age. 
 They all considered themselves as instruments em- 
 ployed by Heaven to propagate the Christian faith, 
 and the less they were qualified, either by their 
 knowledge or morals, for such a function, they were 
 more eager to discharge it. The profound veneration 
 of the Tlascalans for the Spaniards, having encou- 
 raged Cortes to explain to some of their chiefs the 
 doctrines of the Christian religion, and to insist that 
 they should abandon their own superstitions, and 
 embrace the faith of their new friends, they, ac- 
 cording to an idea universal among barbarous nations, 
 readily acknowledged the truth and excellency of 
 what he taught ; but contended, that the Teules of 
 Tlascala were divinities ho less than the God in 
 whom the Spaniards believed ; and as that Being 
 was entitled to the homage of Europeans, so they 
 were bound to revere the same powers which their 
 ancestors had worshipped. Cortes continued, never- 
 theless, to urge his demand in a tone of authority, 
 mingling threats with his arguments, until the 
 Tlascalans could bear it no longer, and conjured him 
 never to mention this again, lest the Gods should 
 avenge on their heads the guilt of having listened to 
 such a proposition. Cortes, astonished and enraged 
 at their obstinacy, prepared to execute by force 
 what he could not accomplish by persuasion, and 
 was going to overturn their altars, and cast down 
 their idols with the same violent hand as at Zem- 
 poalla, if Father Bartholomew de Olmedo, chaplain 
 to the expedition, had not checked his inconsiderate 
 impetuosity. He represented the imprudence of 
 such an attempt in a large city newly reconciled, and 
 filled with people no less superstitious than warlike ; 
 he deo'ared, that the proceeding at Zempoalla had 
 always appeared to him precipitate and unjust, that 
 religion was not to be propagated by the sword, 
 or infidels to be converted by violence ; that other 
 weapons were to be employed in this ministry ; 
 patient instruction must enlighten the understanding, 
 and pious example captivate the heart, before men 
 could be induced to abandon error, and embrace the 
 truth. Amidst scenes, where a narrow-minded 
 bigotry appears in such close union with oppression 
 and cruelty, sentiments so liberal and humane soothe 
 the mind with unexpected pleasure ; and at a time 
 when the rights of conscience were little understood 
 in the Christian world, and the idea of toleration 
 unknown, one is astonished to find a Spanish monk 
 of the sixteenth century amongst the first advocates 
 against persecution, and in behalf of religious liberty. 
 The remonstrances of an ecclesiastic, no loss respect- 
 able for wisdom than virtue, had their proper weight 
 with Cortes. He left the T.ascalans in the undis- 
 turbed exercise of their own rights, requiring only 
 that they should desist from their horrid practice of 
 offering human victims in sacrifice. 
 
 Cortes, as soon as his troops were fit for service, 
 resolved to continue his march towards Mexico, 
 notwithstanding the earnest dissuasives of the Tlas- 
 calans, who represented his destruction as unavoid- 
 able, if he put himself in the power of a prince so 
 faithless and cruel as Montezuma. As lie was 
 accompanied by six thousand Tlascalans, he had now 
 the command of forces which resembled a regular 
 army. They directed their course towards Cholula 
 [Oct. 13] ; Montezuma, who had at length consented 
 to admit the Spaniards into his presence, having 
 informed Cortes that he had given orders for his 
 friendly reception there. Cholula was a considerable 
 town, and though only five leagues distant from 
 
 Tlascala, was formerly an independent state, but had 
 been lately subjected to the Mexican empire. This 
 was considered by all the people of Nev Spain as a 
 holy place, the sanctuary and chief seat of their gods, 
 to which pilgrims resorted from every province, and a 
 greater number of human victims were offered in its 
 principal temple than even in that of Mexico. Mon- 
 tezuma seems to have invited the Spaniards thither, 
 either from some superstitious hope that the gods 
 would not suffer this sacred mansion to be defiled, 
 without pouring down their wrath upon those impious 
 strangers, who ventured to insult their power in the 
 place of its peculiar residence ; or from a belief that 
 he himself might attempt to cut them off with more 
 certain success, under the immediate protection of 
 his divinities. 
 
 Cortes had been warned by the Tlascalaus, before 
 he set out on his march, to keep a watchful eye over 
 the Cholulans. He himself, though received into 
 the town with much seeming respect and cordiality, 
 observed several circumstances in their conduct which 
 excited suspicion. Two of the Tlascalans, who were 
 encamped at some distance Trom the town, as the 
 Cholulans refused to admit their ancient enemies 
 within its precincts, having found means to enter in 
 disguise, acquainted Cortes, that they observed the 
 women and children of the principal citizens retiring 
 in great hurry every night ; and that six children had 
 been sacrificed in the chief temple, a rite which indi- 
 cated the execution of some warlike enterprise to be 
 approaching. At the same time, Marina the interpreter 
 received information from an Indian woman of dis- 
 tinction, whose confidence she had gained, that the 
 destruction of her friends was concerted ; that a body 
 of Mexican troops lay concealed near the town ; that 
 some of the streets were barricaded, and in others, 
 pits or deep trenches were dug, and slightly covered 
 over, as traps into which the horses might fall ; that 
 stones or missive weapons were collected on the 
 tops of the temples, with which to overwhelm the 
 infantry; that the fatal hour was now at hand, and 
 their ruin unavoidable. Cortes, alarmed at this 
 concurring evidence, secretly arrested three of the 
 chief priests, and extorted from them a confession 
 that confirmed the intelligence which he had receu ed. 
 As not a moment was to be lost, he instantly resolved 
 to prevent his enemies, and to inflict on them such 
 dreadful vengeance as might strike Montezuma and 
 his subjects with terror. For this purpose, the 
 Spaniards and Zempoallans were drawn up in a large 
 court, which had been allotted for their quarters, 
 near the centre of the town ; the Tlascalans had 
 orders to advance; the magistrates and several of the 
 chief citizens were sent for, under various pretexts, 
 and seized. On a signal given, the troops rushed out, 
 and fell upon the multitude, destitute of leaders, and 
 so much astonished, that the weapons dropped from 
 their hands, they stood motionless, and incapable of 
 defence. While the Spaniards pres.sed them in 
 front, the Tlascalans attacked them in the rear. 
 The streets were filled with bloodshed and death. 
 The temples, which afforded a retreat to the priests 
 and some of the leading men, were set on fire, and 
 they perished in the flames. This scene of horror 
 continued two days ; during which the wretched 
 inhabitants suffered all that the destructive rage of 
 the Spaniards, or the implacable revenge of the 
 Indian allies, could inflict (108). At length the car- 
 nage ceased, after the slaughter of six thousand Cholu- 
 lans, without the loss of a single Spaniard. Cortes 
 then released the magistrates, and reproaching them 
 bitterly for their intended treachery, declared, that 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 113 
 
 as justice was now appeased, he forgave the offence, 
 but required them to recall the citizens who had 
 fled, and re-establish order in the town. Such was 
 the ascendant which the Spaniards had acquired 
 over this superstitious race of men, and so deeply 
 were they impressed with an opinion of their superior 
 discernment, as well as power, that in obedience to 
 this command, the city was in a few days filled 
 again with people, who, amidst the ruins of their 
 sacred buildings, yielded respectful service to men 
 whose hands were stained with the blood of their 
 relations and fellow-citizens. 
 
 [Oct. 29.] From Cholula, Cortes advanced di- 
 rectly towards Mexico, which was only twenty leagues 
 distant. In every place through which he passed, he 
 was received as a person possessed of sufficient power 
 to deliver the empire from the oppression under which 
 it groaned ; and the caziques or governors commu- 
 nicated to him all the grievances which they felt 
 under the tyrannical government of Montezuma, 
 with that unreserved confidence which men naturally 
 repose in superior beings. When Cortes first observed 
 the seeds of discontent in the remote provinces of 
 the empire, hope dawned upon his mind ; but when 
 he now discovered such symptoms of alienation from 
 their monarch near the seat of government, he con- 
 cluded that the vital parts of the constitution were 
 affected, and conceived the most sanguine expecta- 
 tions of overturning a state, whose natural strength 
 was thus divided and impaired. While those reflec- 
 tions encouraged the general to persist in his arduous 
 undertaking, the soldiers were no less animated by 
 observations more obvious to their capacity. In 
 descending from the mountains of Chalco, across 
 which the road lay, the vast plain' of Mexico opened 
 gradually to their view. When they first beheld this 
 prospect, one of the most striking and beautiful 
 on the face of the earth ; when they observed fertile 
 and cultivated fields stretching farther than the eye 
 could reach ; when they saw a lake resembling the 
 sea in extent, encompassed with large towns, and 
 discovered the capital city rising upon an island in 
 the middle, adorned with its temples and turrets ; 
 the scene so far exceeded their imagination, that 
 some believed the fanciful descriptions of romance 
 were realized, and that its enchanted palaces and 
 gilded domes were presented to their sight ; others 
 could hardly persuade themselves that this wonderful 
 spectacle was any thing more than a dream (109). 
 As they advancod, their doubts were removed, but 
 their amazement increased. They were now fullv 
 satisfied that the country was rich beyond any con- 
 ception which they had formed of it, and flattered 
 themselves that at length they should obtain an ample 
 recompense for all their services and sufferings. 
 
 Hitherto they had met with no enemy to oppose 
 their progress, though several circumstances occurred 
 which led them to suspect that some design was 
 formed to surprise and cut them off. Many mes- 
 sengers arrived successively from Montezuma, per- 
 mitting them one day to advance, requiring them on 
 the next to retire, as his hopes or fears alternately 
 prevailed : and so wonderful was this infatuation, 
 which seems to be unaccountable on any supposition, 
 but that of a superstitious dread of the Spaniards, as 
 beings of a superior nature, that Cortes was almost 
 at the gates of the capital, before the monarch had 
 determined whether to receive him as a friend, or to 
 oppose him as an enemy. But as no sign of open 
 hostility appeared, the Spaniards, without regarding 
 the fluctuations of Montezuma' s sentiments, continued 
 their march along the causeway which led to Mexico 
 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA, No. 15. 
 
 through the lake, with great circumspection and the 
 strictest discipline, though without seeming to sus- 
 pect the prince whom they were about to visit. 
 
 When they drew near the city, about a thousand 
 persons, who appeared to be of distinction, came 
 forth to meet them, adorned with plumes and clad 
 in mantles of fine cotton. Each of these, in his 
 order, passed by Cortes, and saluted him according 
 to the mode deemed most respectful and submissive 
 in their country. They announced the approach of 
 Montezuma himself, and soon after his harbingers 
 came in sight. There appeared first two hundred 
 persons in an uniform dress, with large plumes of 
 feathers, alike in fashion, marching two and two, in 
 deep silence, bare-footed, with their eyes fixed on 
 the ground. These were followed by a company of 
 higher rank, in their most showy apparel, in the 
 midst of whom was Montezuma, in a chair or litter 
 richly ornamented with gold and feathers of various 
 colours. Four of his principal favourites carried 
 him on their shoulders, others supported a canopy 
 of curious workmanship over his head. Before him. 
 marched three officers with rods of gold in their 
 hands, which they lifted up on high at certain inter- 
 vals, and at that signal all the people bowed their 
 heads, and hid their faces, as unworthy to look on 
 so great a monarch. When he drew near, Cortes 
 dismounted, advancing towards him with officious 
 haste, and in a respectful posture. At the same 
 time Montezuma alighted from his chair, and leaning 
 on the arms of two of his near relations, approached 
 with a slow and stately pace, his attendants covering 
 the street with cotton cloths, that he might not 
 touch the ground. Cortes accosted him w ; th pro- 
 found reverence, after the European fashion. He 
 returned the salutation, according to the mode of his 
 country, by touching the earth with his hand, and 
 then kissing it. This ceromony, the customary ex- 
 pression of veneration from inferiors towards those who 
 were above them in rank, appeared such amazing 
 condescension in a proud monarch, who scarcely 
 deigned to consider the rest of mankind as of the 
 same species with himself, that all his subjects 
 firmly believed those persons, before whom he hum- 
 bled himself in this manner, to be something more 
 than human. Accordingly, as they marched through 
 the crowd, the Spaniards frequently, and with much 
 satisfaction, heard themselves denominated Teules, 
 or divinities. Nothing material passed in this first 
 interview. Montezuma conducted Cortes to the 
 quarters which he had prepared for his reception, 
 and immediately took leave of him, with a politeness 
 not unworthy of a court more refined. "You are 
 now," says he, " with your brothers in your own 
 house; refresh yourselves after your fatigue and 
 be happy until I return." The place allotted to 
 the Spaniards for their lodging was a house built 
 by the father of Montezuma. It was surrounded 
 by a stone wall, with towers at proper distances, 
 which served for defence as well as for ornament, 
 and its apartments and courts were so large, 
 as to accommodate both the Spaniards and their 
 Indian allies. The first care of Cortes was to take 
 precautions for his security, by planting the artillery 
 so as to command the different avenues which led to 
 it, by appointing a large division of his troops to be 
 always on guard, and by posting sentinels at proper 
 stations, with injunctions to observe the same vigi- 
 lant discipline as if they were within sight of au 
 enemy's camp. 
 
 In the evening, Montezuma returned to visit h?$ 
 guests with the same pomp as in their first interview, 
 
114 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 and brought presents of such value, not only to 
 Cortes and to his officers, but even to the private 
 men, as proved the liberality of the monarch to be 
 suitable to the opulence of his kingdom, A long 
 conference ensued, in which Cortes learned what 
 was the opinion of Montezuma with respect to the 
 Spaniards. It was an established tradition, he told 
 him, among the Mexicans, that their ancestors came 
 originally from a remote region, and conquered the 
 provinces now subject to his dominion : that after 
 they were settled there, the great captain who con- 
 ducted this colony, returned to his own country, 
 promising, that at some future period his descendants 
 should visit them, assume the government, and 
 reform their constitution and laws ; that from what he 
 had heard and seen of Cortes and his followers, he 
 was convinced they were the very persons whose 
 appearance the Mexican traditions and prophecies 
 taught them to expect ; that accordingly he had 
 received them, not as strangers, but as relations of 
 the same blood and parentage, and desired that they 
 might consider themselves as masters in his domi- 
 nions, for both himself and his subjects should be 
 ready to comply with their will, and even to prevent 
 their wishes. Cortes made a reply in his usual style, 
 with respect to the dignity and power of his sove- 
 reign, and his intention in sending him into that 
 country ; artfully endeavouring so to frame his dis- 
 course, that it might coincide as much as possible 
 with the idea which Montezuma had formed con- 
 cerning the origin of the Spaniards. Next morning, 
 Cortes and some of his principal attendants were 
 admitted to a public audience of the emperor. The 
 three subsequent days were employed in viewing the 
 city, the appearance of which, so far superior in the 
 order of its buildings, and the number of its inhabi- 
 tants, to any place the Spaniards had beheld in Ame- 
 rica, and yet so little resembling the structure of a 
 European city, filled them with surprise and admiration. 
 Mexico, or Tenuchtitlan, as it was anciently called 
 by the natives, is situated in a large plain, environed 
 "by mountains of such height, that, though within 
 the ton-id zone, the temperature of its climate is 
 mild and healthful. All the moisture which descends 
 from the high grounds is collected in several lakes, 
 the two largest of which, of about ninety miles in 
 circuit, communicate with each other. The waters 
 of the ojie are fresh, those of the others brackish. 
 On the banks of the latter, and on some small 
 islands adjoining to them, the capital of Montezu- 
 ma's empire was built. The access to the city was 
 Toy artificial causeways or streets formed of stones and 
 earth, about thirty feet in breadth. As the waters 
 of the lake during the rainy season overflowed the 
 flat country, these causeways were of considerable 
 length. That of Tacuba, on the west, extended a 
 mile and a-half ; that of Tepeaca, on the north-west, 
 three miles ; that of Cuoyacan, towards the south, 
 six miles. On the east there was no causeway, and 
 the city could be approached only by canoes. In 
 each of these causeways were openings at proper 
 intervals, through which the waters flowed, and over 
 these beams of timber were laid, which being covered 
 with earth, the causeway or street had every where 
 an uniform appearance. As the approaches to the 
 city were singular, its construction was remarkable. 
 Not only th temples of their gods, but the houses 
 belonging to the monarch, and to persons of distinc- 
 tion, were of such, dimensions, that in comparison 
 with any other buildings which had been hitherto 
 discovered in America, they might be termed mag- 
 nificent, The habitations of the common^ people 
 
 were mean, resembling the huts of other Indians. 
 But they were all placed in a regular manner, on the 
 banks of the canals which passed through the city, 
 in some of its districts, or in the sides of the streets 
 which intersected it in other quarters. In several 
 places were large openings or squares, one of which, 
 allotted for the great market, is said to have been so 
 spacious, that forty or fifty thousand persons carried 
 on traffic there. In this city, the pride of the New 
 World, and the noblest monument of the industry 
 and art of man, while unacquainted with the use of 
 iron, and destitute of aid from any domestic animal, 
 the Spaniards, who are most moderate in their com- 
 putations, reckon that there were at least sixty thou- 
 sand inhabitants. 
 
 But how much soever the novelty of tnose objects 
 might amuse or astonish the Spaniards, they felt the 
 utmost solicitude with respect to their own situation. 
 From a concurrence of circumstances, no less unex- 
 pected than favourable to their progress, they had 
 been allowed to penetrate into the heart of a powerful 
 kingdom, and were now lodged in its capital, without 
 having once met with open opposition from its mo- 
 narch. The Tlascalans, however, had earnestly 
 dissuaded them from placing such confidence in 
 Montezuma as to enter a city of such peculiar situa- 
 tion as Mexico, where that prince would have them 
 at mercy, shut up as it were in a snare, from which 
 it was impossible to escape. They assured them 
 that the Mexican priests had, in the name of the 
 gods, counselled their sovereign to admit the Spa- 
 niards into the capital, that he might cut them off 
 there at one blow with perfect security. They no\v 
 perceived too plainly, that the apprehensions of their 
 allies were not destitute of foundation ; that, by 
 breaking the bridges placed at certain intervals on 
 the causeways, or by destroying part of the cause- 
 ways themselves, their retreat would be rendered 
 impracticable, and they must remain cooped up in 
 the centre of a hostile city, surrounded by multitudes 
 sufficient to overwhelm them, and without a possi- 
 bility of receiving aid from their allies. Montezuma 
 had, indeed, received them with distinguished re- 
 spect. But ought they to reckon upon this as real, 
 or to consider it as feigned ? Even if it were sincere, 
 could they promise on its continuance ? Their 
 safety depended upon the will of a monarch in whose 
 attachment they had no reason to confide ; and an 
 order flowing from his caprice, or a word uttered by 
 him in passion, might decide irrevocably concerning 
 their fate. 
 
 These reflections, so obvious as to occur to the 
 meanest soldier, did not escape the vigilant sagacity 
 of their general. Before he set out from Cholula, 
 Cortes had received advice from Villa Rica, that 
 Quolpopoca, one of the Mexican generals on the 
 frontiers, having assembled on army in order to 
 attack some of the people whom the Spaniards had 
 encouraged to throw off the Mexican yoke, Escalante 
 had marched out with part of the garrison to sup- 
 port his allies ; that an engagement had ensued, in 
 which, though the Spanish were victorious, Esca- 
 lante, with seven of his men, had been mortally 
 wounded, his horse killed, and one Spaniard had 
 been surrounded by the enemy and taken alive ; 
 that the head of this unfortunate captive, after being 
 carried in tiiumph to different cities in order to con- 
 vince the people that their invaders were not immor- 
 tal, had been sent to Mexico. Cortes, thousjh alarmed 
 with this intelligence, as an indication of Montezu- 
 ma's hostile intentions, had continued his march. 
 But as soon as he entered Mexico, he became 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 115 
 
 sensible, that, from an excess of confidence in the 
 superior valour and discipline of his troops, as well 
 as from the disadvantage of having nothing to guide 
 him in an unknown country, but the defective intel- 
 ligence which he had received from people with whom 
 his mode of communication was very imperfect, he 
 had pushed forward into a situation, where it was 
 difficult to continue, and from which it was dangerous 
 to retire. Disgrace, and perhaps ruin, was the 
 certain consequence of attempting the latter. The 
 success of his enterprise depended upon supporting 
 the high opinion which the people of New Spain had 
 formed with respect to the irresistible power of his 
 arms. Upon the first symptom of timidity on his 
 part, their veneration would cease, and Montezuma, 
 whom fear alone restrained at present, would let 
 loose upon him the whole force of his empire. At 
 the same time, he knew that the countenance of his 
 own sovereign was to be obtained only by a series 
 of victories, and that nothing but the merit of extra- 
 ordinary success could screen his conduct from the 
 censure of irregularity. From all these considera- 
 tions, it was necessary to maintain his station, and 
 to extricate himself out of the difficulties in which 
 one bold step had involved him, by venturing upon 
 another still bolder. The situation was trying, but 
 his mind was equal to it ; and after revolving the 
 matter with deep attention, he fixed upon a plan no 
 less extraordinary than daring. He determined to 
 seize Montezuma in his palace, and to carry him as 
 a prisoner to the Spanish quarters. From the super- 
 stitious veneration of the Mexicans for the person of 
 their monarch, as well as their implicit submission 
 to his will, he hoped, by having Montezuma in his 
 power, to acquire the supreme direction of their 
 affairs ; or, at least, with such a sacred pledge in his 
 hands, he made no doubt of being secure from any 
 effort of their violence. 
 
 This he^immediately proposed to his officers. The 
 timid startled at a measure so audacious, and raised 
 objections. The more intelligent and resolute, con- 
 scious that it was the only resource in which there 
 appeared any prospect of safety, warmly approved of 
 it, and brought over their companions so cordially to 
 the same opinion, that it was agreed instantly to make 
 the attempt. At his usual hour of visiting Monte- 
 zuma, Cortes went to the palace, accompanied by 
 Alvarado, Sandoval, Lugo, Velasquez de Leon, and 
 Davila, five of his principal officers, and as many 
 trusty soldiers. Thirty chosen men followed, not in 
 regular order, but sauntering at some distance, as if 
 they had no object but curiosity ; small parties were 
 posted at proper intervals, in all the streets leading 
 from the Spanish quarters to the court ; and the re- 
 mainder of his troops, with the Tlascalan allies, were 
 under arms ready to sally out on the first alarm. 
 Cortes and his attendants were admitted without 
 suspicion; the Mexicans retiring, as usual, out of 
 respect. He addressed the monarch in a tone very 
 different from that which he had employed in former 
 conferences, reproaching him bitterly as the author 
 of the violent assault made upon the Spaniards by one 
 of his officers, and demanded public reparation for 
 the loss which they had sustained by the death of 
 some of their companions, as well as for the insult 
 offered to the great prince whose servants they were. 
 Montezuma, confounded at this unexpected accusa- 
 tion, and changing colour, either from consciousness 
 of guilt, or from feeling the indignity with which he 
 was treated, asserted his own innocence with great 
 earnestness, and, as a proof of it, gave orders in- 
 stantly to bring Qualpopoca and his accomplices 
 
 prisoners to Mexico. Cortes replied, with seeming 
 complaisance, that a declaration so respectable left no- 
 doubt remaining in his own mind, but that something 
 more was requisite to satisfy his followers, who would 
 never be convinced that Montezuma did not harbour 
 hostile intentions against them, unless, as an evidence 
 of his confidence and attachment, he removed front 
 his own palace and took up his residence in the 
 Spanish quarters, where he should be served and 
 honoured as became a great monarch. The first 
 mention of so strange a proposal bereaved Montezuma 
 of speech, and almost of motion. At length, indig- 
 nation gave him utterance, and he haughtily answered, 
 That persons of his rank were not accustomed 
 oluntarily to give up themselves as prisoners ; and 
 were he mean enough to do so, his subjects would 
 not permit such an affront to be offered to their sove- 
 reign." Cortes, unwilling to employ force, endea- 
 voured alternately to soothe and to intimidate him. 
 The altercation became warm ; and having continued 
 above three hours, Velasquez de Leon, an impetuous 
 and gallant young man, exclaimed with impatience, 
 " Why waste more time in vain ? Let us either 
 seize him instantly, or stab him to the heart." The 
 threatening voice and fierce gestures with which 
 these words were uttered, struck Montezuma. The 
 Spaniards, he was sensible, had now proceeded so 
 far, as left him no hope that they would recede. 
 His own danger was imminent, the necessity una- 
 voidable. He saw both, and abandoning himself to 
 his fate, complied with their request. 
 
 His officers were called. He communicated to 
 them his resolution. Though astonished and af- 
 flicted, they presumed not to question the will of 
 their master, but carried him in silent pomp, all 
 bathed in tears, to the Spanish quarters. When it 
 was known that the 'strangers were conveying away 
 the emperor, the people broke out into the wildest 
 transports of grief and rage, threatening the Spaniards 
 with immediate destruction, as the punishment justly 
 due to their impious audacity. But as soon as 
 Montezuma appeared with a seeming gaiety of coun- 
 tenance, and waved his hand, the tumult was hushed; 
 and upon his declaring it to be of his own choice that 
 he went to reside for some time among his new 
 friends, the multitude, taught to revere every inti- 
 mation of their sovereign's pleasure, quietly dispersed. 
 Thus was a powerful prince seized by a few stran- 
 gers in the midst of his capital, at noon-day, and 
 carried off as a prisoner, without opposition or blood- 
 shed. History contains nothing parallel to this 
 event, either with respect to the temerity of the 
 attempt, or the success of the execution ; and were 
 not all the circumstances of this extraordinary trans- 
 action authenticated by the most unquestionable 
 evidence, they would appear so wild and extravagant, 
 as to go far beyond the bounds of that probability 
 which must be preserved even in fictitious narrations. 
 Montezuma was received in the Spanish quarters 
 with all the ceremonious respect which Cortes had 
 promised. He was attended by his own domestics, 
 and served with his usual state. His principal 
 officers had free access to him, and he carried on 
 every function of government as if he had been at 
 perfect liberty. The Spaniards, however, watched 
 him with the scrupulous vigilance which was natural 
 in guarding such an important prize (110), endea- 
 vouring at the same time to soothe and reconcile him 
 to his situation, by every external demonstration of 
 regard and attachment. But from captive princes 
 the hour of humiliation and suffering is never far 
 distant. Qualpopoca, his son, and five of the princi- 
 
116 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 pal officers who served under him, were brought pri- 
 soners to the capital [Dec. 4], in consequence of the 
 orders which Montezuma had issued. The emperor 
 gave them up to Cortes, that he might inquire into 
 the nature of their crime, and determine their punish- 
 ment. They were formally tried by a Spanish 
 court-martial ; and though they had acted no other 
 part than what became loyal subjects and brave men 
 in obeying the orders of their lawful sovereign, and 
 in opposing the invaders of their country, they were 
 condemned to be burnt alive. The execution of such 
 atrocious deeds is seldom long suspended. Th 
 unhappy victims were instantly led forth. The pile 
 on which they were laid was composed of the weapons 
 collected in the royal magazine for the public defence 
 An innumerable multitude of Mexicans beheld, in 
 silent astonishment, the double insult offered to the 
 majesty of their empire, an officer of distinction 
 committed to the flames by the authority of stran- 
 gers, for having done what he owed in duty to his 
 natural sovereign ; and the arms provided by the 
 foresight of their ancestors for avenging public 
 wrongs, consumed before their eyes. 
 
 But these were not the most shocking indignities 
 which the Mexicans had to bear. The Spaniards, 
 convinced that Qualpopoca would not have ventured 
 to attack Escalante without orders from his master, 
 were not satisfied with inflicting vengeance on the 
 instrument employed in committing that crime, 
 while the author of it escaped with impunity. Just 
 before Qualpopoca was led out to suffer, Cortes 
 entered the apartment of Montezuma, followed by 
 some of his officers, and a soldier carrying a pair of 
 fetters ; and approaching the monarch with a stern 
 countenance, told him, that as the persons who 
 were now to undergo the punishment which they 
 merited, had charged him as the cause of the outrage 
 committed, it was necessary that he likewise should 
 make atonement for that guilt ; then turning away 
 abruptly, without waiting for a reply, commanded 
 the soldiers to clap the fetters on his legs. The 
 orders were instantly executed. The disconsolate 
 monarch, trained up with an idea that his person 
 was sacred and inviolable, and considering this pro- 
 fanation of it as the prelude of immediate death, 
 broke out into loud lamentations and complaints. 
 His attendants, speechless with horror, fell at his 
 feet, bathing them with their tears ; and bearing up 
 the fetters in their hands, endeavoured with officious 
 tenderness to lighten their pressure. Nor did their 
 grief and despondency abate until Cortes returned 
 from the execution, and with a cheerful countenance 
 ordered the fetters to be taken off. As Montezuma's 
 spirits had sunk with unmanly dejection, they now 
 rose into indecent joy ; and with an unbecoming 
 transition, he passed at once from the anguish of 
 despair to transports of gratitude and expressions of 
 fondness towards his deliverer. 
 
 In those transactions, as represented by the 
 Spanish historians, we search in vain for the qua- 
 lities which distinguish other parts of Cortes's 
 conduct. To usurp a jurisdiction which could not 
 belong to a stranger, who assumed no higher cha- 
 racter than that of an ambassador from a foreign 
 prince, and under colour of it, to inflict a capital 
 punishment on men whose conduct entitled them to 
 esteem, appears an act of barbarous cruelty. To put 
 the monarch of a great kingdom in irons, and, after 
 such ignominious treatment, suddenly to release him, 
 seems to be a display of power no less inconsiderate 
 than wanton. According to the common relation, no 
 account can be given either of one action or the 
 
 other, but that Cortes, intoxicated with success, 
 and presuming on the ascendant which he had 
 acquired over the minds of the Mexicans, thought 
 nothing too bold for him to undertake, or too dan- 
 gerous to execute. But, in one view, these pro- 
 ceedings, however repugnant to justice and humanity, 
 may have flowed from that artful policy which regu- 
 lated every part of Cortes's behaviour towards the 
 Mexicans. They had conceived the Spaniards to be 
 an order of beings superior to men. It was of the 
 utmost consequence to cherish this illusion, and to 
 keep up the veneration which it inspired. Cortes 
 wished that shedding the blood of a Spaniard 
 should be deemed the most heinous of all crimes ; 
 and nothing appeared better calculated to establish 
 this opinion, than to condemn the first Mexicans 
 who had ventured to commit it to a cruel death, and 
 to oblige their monarch himself to submit to a 
 mortifying indignity, as an expiation for being 
 accessory to a deed so atrocious (111). 
 
 [A. D. 1520]. The rigour with which Cortes 
 punished the unhappy persons who first presumed 
 to lay violent hands upon his followers, seems accor- 
 dingly to have made all the impression that he desired. 
 The spirit of Montezuma was not only overawed, 
 but subdued. During six months that Cortes re- 
 mained in Mexico, the monarch continued in the 
 Spanish quarters, with an appearance of as entire 
 satisfaction and tranquillity, as if he had resided 
 there, not from constraint, but through choice. 
 His ministers and officers attended him as usual. 
 He took cognizance of all affairs ; every order was 
 issued in his name. The external aspect of govern- 
 ment appearing the same, and all its ancient forms 
 being scrupulously observed, the people were so little 
 sensible of any change, that they obeyed the man- 
 dates of their monarch with the same submissive 
 reverence as ever. Such was the dread which both 
 Montezuma and his subjects had of the Spaniards, 
 or such the veneration in which they held them, that 
 no attempt was made to deliver their sovereign from 
 confinement ; and though Cortes, relying on this 
 ascendant which he had acquired over their minds, 
 permitted him not only to visit his temples, but to 
 make hunting excursions beyond the lake, a guard 
 of a few Spaniards carried with it such a terror as to 
 intimidate the multitude, and secure the captive 
 monarch. 
 
 Thus, by the fortunate temerity of Cortes in seiz- 
 ing Montemuza, the Spaniards at once secured to 
 themselves more extensive authority in the Mexican 
 empire than it was possible to have acquired in a 
 long course of time by open force ; and they exer- 
 cised more absolute sway in the name of another 
 than they could have done in their own. The arts 
 of polished nations, in subjecting such as are less 
 improved, have been nearly the same in every 
 period. The system of screening a foreign usurpa- 
 tion, under the sanction of authority derived from 
 the natural rulers of a country, the device of em- 
 ploying the magistrates and forms already estab- 
 lished as instruments to introduce a new dominion, of 
 which we are apt to boast as sublime refinements in 
 policy peculiar to the present ase, were inventions of 
 
 more early period, and had been tried with success 
 n the west, long before they were practised in the 
 east. 
 
 Cortes availed himself to the utmost of the powers 
 which he possessed by being able to act in the name 
 of Montezuma. He sent some Spaniards, whom he 
 udged best qualified for such commissions, into 
 different parts of the empire, accompanied by persons 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 117 
 
 of distinction, whom Montezuma appointed to attend 
 them both as guides and protectors. They visited 
 most of the provinces, viewed their soil and produc- 
 tions, surveyed with particular care the districts 
 which yielded gold or silver, pitched upon several 
 places as proper stations for future colonies, and 
 endeavoured to prepare the minds of the people for 
 submitting to the Spanish yoke. While they were 
 thus employed, Cortes in the name and by the 
 authority of Montezuma, degraded some of the 
 principal officers in the empire, whose abitities or 
 independent spirit excited his jealousy, and sub- 
 stituted in their place persons less capable or more 
 obsequiou5. 
 
 One thing still was wanting to complete his secu- 
 rity. He wished to have such command of the lake 
 as might insure a retreat, if, either from levity or 
 disgust, the Mexicans should take arms against him, 
 and break down the bridges or causeways. This, 
 too, his own address, and the facility of Montezuma, 
 enabled him to accomplish. Having frequently enter- 
 tained his prisoner with pompous accounts of the 
 European marine and art of navigation, he awakened 
 his curiosity to see those moving palaces which made 
 their way through the water without oars. Under 
 pretext of gratifying this desire, Cortes persuaded 
 Montezuma to appoint some of his subjects to fetch 
 part of the naval stores which the Spaniards had 
 deposited at Vera Cruz to Mexico, and to employ 
 others in cutting down and preparing timber. With 
 their assistance, the Spanish carpenters soon com- 
 pleted two brigantines, which afforded a frivolous 
 amusement to the monarch, and were considered by 
 Cortes as a certain resource, if he should be obliged 
 to retire. 
 
 Encouraged by so many instances'of the monarch's 
 tame submission to his will, Cortes ventured to put 
 it to a proof still more trying. He urged Montezuma 
 to acknowledge himself a vassal of the king of Castile, 
 to hold his crown of him as superior, and to subject 
 his dominions to the payment of an annual tribute. 
 With this requisition, the last and most humbling 
 that can be made to one possessed of sovereign 
 authority, Montezuma was so obsequious as to 
 comply. He called together the chief men of his 
 empire, and in a solemn harangue, reminding them 
 of the traditions and prophecies which led them to 
 expect the arrival of a people sprung from the same 
 stock with themselves, in order to take possession 
 of the supreme power, he declared his belief that the 
 Spaniards were this promised race; that therefore 
 he recognised the right of their monarch to govern 
 the Mexican empire ; that he would lay his crown 
 at his feet and obey him as a tributary. While 
 uttering these words, Montezuma discovered how 
 deeply he was affected in making such a sacrifice. 
 Tears and groans frequently inteirupted his dis- 
 course. Overawed and broken as his spirit was, it 
 still retained such a sense of dignity, as to feel that 
 pang which pierces the heart of princes when con- 
 strained to resign independent power. The first 
 mention of such a resolution struck the assembly 
 dumb with astonishment. This was followed by a 
 sudden murmur of so: row, mingled with indigna- 
 tion, which indicated some violent eruption of rage 
 to be near at hand. This Cortes foresaw, and 
 seasonably interposed to prevent it, by declaring 
 that his master had no intention to deprive Monte- 
 zuma of the royal dignity, or to make any innova- 
 tion upon the constitution and laws of the Mexican 
 empire. This assurance, added to their dread of 
 the Spanish power, aiid to the authority of their 
 
 monarch's example, extorted a reluctant consent 
 from the assembly (112). The act of submission and 
 homage was executed with all the formalities which 
 the Spaniards were pleased to prescribe. 
 
 Montezuma, at the desire of Cortes, accompanied 
 this profession of fealty and homage with a magni- 
 ficent present to his new sovereign ; and after his 
 example, his subjects brought in very liberal contri- 
 butions. The Spaniards now collected all the 
 treasure which had been either voluntarily bestowed 
 upon them at different times by Montezuma, or had 
 been extorted from his people under various pretexts ; 
 and having melted the gold and silver, the value of 
 these, without including jewels and ornaments of 
 various kinds which were preserved on account of 
 their curious workmanship, amounted to six hundred 
 thousand pesos. The soldiers were impatient to have 
 it divided, and Cortes complied with their desire. A 
 fifth of the whole was first set apart as the tax due to 
 the king. Another fifth was allotted to Cortes as com- 
 mander in chief. The sums advanced by Velas- 
 quez, by Coites, and by some of the officers, towards 
 defraying the expense of fitting out the armament, 
 were then deducted. The remainder was divided 
 among the army, including the garrison of Vera 
 Cruz, in proportion to their different ranks. After 
 so many defalcations, the share of a private man 
 did not exceed a hundred pesos. This sum fell so 
 far below their sanguine expectations, that some 
 soldiers rejected it with scorn, and others murmured 
 so loudly at this cruel disappointment of their hopes, 
 that it required all the address of Cortes, and no 
 small exertion ofj his liberality, to appease them. 
 The complaints of the army were not altogether 
 destitute of foundation. As the crown had contri- 
 buted nothing towards the equipment or success of 
 the armament, it was not without regret that the 
 soldiers beheld it sweep away so great a proportion 
 of the treasure purchased by their blood and toil. 
 What fell to the share of the general appeared, 
 according to the ideas of wealth in the sixteenth 
 century, an enormous sum. Some of Cortes's fa- 
 vourites had secretly appropriated to their own USB 
 several ornaments of gold, which neither paid the 
 royal fifth, nor were brought into account as part of 
 the common stock. It was, however, so manifestly 
 the interest of Cortes at this period to make a 
 large remittance to the king, that it is highly proba- 
 ble those concealments were' not of great conse- 
 quence. 
 
 The total sum amassed by the Spaniards bears no 
 proportion to the ideas which might be formed, 
 either by reflecting on the descriptions given by his- 
 torians of the ancient splendour of Mexico, or by con- 
 sidering the productions of its mines in modern times. 
 But among the ancient Mexicans, gold and silver 
 were not the standards by which the worth of other 
 commodities was estimated ; and, destitute of the 
 artificial value derived from this circumstance, were 
 no further in request than as they furnished mate- 
 rials for ornaments and trinkets. These were either 
 consecrated to the gods in their temples, or were 
 worn as marks of distinction by their princes and 
 some of their most eminent chiefs. As the con- 
 sumption of the precious metals was inconsiderable, 
 the demand for them was not such as to put either 
 the ingenuity or industry of the Mexicans on the 
 stretch, in order to augment their store. They were 
 altogether unacquainted with the art of working the 
 rich mines with which their country abounded. 
 What gold they had was gathered in the beds of 
 rivers, native, and ripened into a pure metallic 
 
118 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 state. The utmost effort of their labour in search 
 of it was to wash the earth carried down by the tor- 
 rents from the mountains, and to pick out the grains 
 of gold which subsided ; and even this simple opera- 
 tion, according to the report of the persons whom 
 Cortes appointed to survey the provinces where 
 fhere was a prospect of finding mines, they per- 
 formed very unskilfully. From all those causes, the 
 whole mass of gold in possession of the Mexicans 
 was not great. As silver is rarely found pure, 
 and the Mexican art was too rude to conduct the 
 process for refining it in a proper manner, the 
 quantity of this metal was still less considerable. 
 Thus, though the Spaniards had exerted all the 
 power which they possessed in Mexico, and often 
 with indecent rapacity, in order to gratify their 
 predominant passion, and though Montezuma had 
 fondly exhausted his treasures, in hopes of satiating 
 their thirst for gold, the product of both, which 
 probably included a great part of the bullion in the 
 empire, did not rise in value above what has been 
 mentioned (113). 
 
 But however pliant Montezuma might be in other 
 matters, with respect to one point he was inflexible. 
 Though Cortes often urged him with the importunate 
 zeal of a missionary, to renounce his false gods, and 
 to embrace" 7 the Christian faith, he always rejected 
 the proposition with horror. Superstition, among 
 the) Mexicans, was formed into such a regular and 
 complete system, that its institutions naturally took 
 fast hold of the mind ; and while the rude tribes in 
 other parts of America were easily induced to re- 
 linquish a few notions and rites, so loose and ar- 
 bitrary as hardly to merit the name of a public 
 religion, the Mexicans adhered tenaciously to their 
 mode of worship, which however barbarous, was 
 accompanied with such order and solemnity as to 
 render it an object of the highest veneration. Cortes, 
 finding all his attempts ineffectual to shake the con- 
 stancy of Montezuma, was so much enraged at his 
 obstinacy, that in a transport of zeal he led out his 
 soldiers to throw down the idols in the grand temple 
 by force. But the priests taking arms in defence of 
 their altars, and the people crowding with great 
 ardour to support them, Cortes's prudence overruled 
 his zeal, and induced him to desist from his rash 
 attempt, after dislodging the idols from one of the 
 shrines, and placing in their stead an image of the 
 Virgin Mary (114). 
 
 From that moment the Mexicans, who had per- 
 mitted the imprisonment of their sovereign, and 
 suffered the exactions of strangers without a struggle, 
 began to meditate how they might expel or destroy 
 the Spaniards, and thought themselves called upon to 
 avenge their insulted deities. The priests and lead- 
 ing men held frequent consultations with Montezuma 
 for this purpose. But as it might prove fatal to the 
 captive monarch to attempt either the one or the 
 other by violence, he was willing to try more gentle 
 means. Having called Cortes into his presence, he 
 observed, that now, as all the purposes of his embassy 
 were fully accomplished, the gods had declared their 
 will, and the people signified their desire, that he and 
 his followers should instantly depart out of the em- 
 pire. With this he required them to comply, or 
 unavoidable destruction would fall suddenly on theij 
 heads. The tenor of this unexpected requisition, as 
 well as the determined tone in which it was uttered, 
 left Cortes no room to doubt that it was the result of 
 some deep scheme concerted between Montezuma and 
 his subjects. He quickly perceived that he might 
 derive more advantage from a seeming compliance 
 
 with the monarch's inclination, than from an ill-timed 
 attempt to change or oppose it ; and replied, with 
 great composure, that he had already begun to pre- 
 pare for returning to his own country ; but as ho had 
 destroyed the vessels in which he had arrived, some 
 time was requisite for building other ships. This 
 appeared reasonable. A number of Mexicans were 
 sent to Vera Cruz, to cut down timber, and some 
 Spanish carpenters were appointed to superintend the 
 work. Cortes flattered himself, that during this in- 
 terval he might either find means to avert the threat- 
 ened danger, or receive such reinforcements as would 
 enable him to despise it. 
 
 Almost nine months were elapsed since Portocar- 
 rero and Montejo had sailed with his despatches to 
 Spain ; and he daily expected their return with a con- 
 firmation of his authority from the king. Without 
 this, his condition was insecure and precarious : and 
 after all the great things which he had done, it might 
 be his doom to bear the name and suffer the punish- 
 ment of a traitor. Rapid and extensive as his 
 progress had been, he could not hope to complete the 
 reduction of a great empire with so small a body of 
 men, which by this time diseases of various kinds had 
 considerably thinned ; nor could he apply for re- 
 cruits to the Spanish settlements in the islands, 
 until he received the royal approbation of his pro- 
 ceedings. 
 
 While he remained in this cruel situation, anxious 
 about what was past, uncertain with respect to the 
 future, and by the late declaration of Montezuma op- 
 pressed with a new addition of cares, a Mexican 
 courier arrived with an account of some ships having 
 appeared on the coast. Cortes with fond credulity 
 imagining that his messengers were returned from 
 Spain, and that the completion of all his wishes and 
 hopes was at hand, imparted the glad tidings to his 
 companions, who received them with transports of 
 mutual gratulation. Their joy was not of long con- 
 tinuance. A courier from Sandoval, whom Cortes 
 had appointed to succeed Escalante in command at 
 Vera Cruz, brought certain information that the ar- 
 mament was fitted out by Velasquez, governor of 
 Cuba, and instead of bringing the aid which they 
 expected, threatened them with immediate destruc- 
 tion. 
 
 The motives which prompted Velasquez to this 
 violent measure are obvious. From the circum- 
 stances of Cortes's departure, it was impossible not to 
 suspect his intention of throwing off all dependence 
 upon him. His neglecting to transmit any account 
 of his operations to Cuba, strengthened this suspicion, 
 which was at last confirmed beyond doubt, by the in- 
 discretion of the officers whom Cortes sent to Spain. 
 They, from some motive which is not clearly explained 
 by the contemporary historians, touched at the island 
 of Cuba, contrary to the peremptory orders of their 
 general. By this means Velasquez not only learned 
 that Cortes and his followers, after formally renounc- 
 ing all connexion with him, had established an 
 independent colony in New Spain, and were soliciting 
 the king to confirm their proceedings by his autho- 
 rity ; but he obtained particular information con- 
 cerning the opulence of the country, the valuable 
 presents which Cortes had received, and the inviting 
 prospects of success that opened to his view. Every 
 passion which can agitate an ambitious mind ; shame, 
 at having been so grossly over-reached ; indignation 
 at being betrayed by the man whom he had selected 
 as the object of his favour and confidence ; grief, for 
 having wasted his fortune to aggrandize an enemy ; 
 and despair of recovering so fair an opportunity of 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 119 
 
 establishing his fame and extending his power, now 
 raged in the bosom of Velasquez. All these, with 
 united force, excited him to make an extraordinary 
 effort in order to be avenged on the author of his 
 wrongs, and to wrest from him his usurped autho- 
 rity and conquests. Nor did he want the appear- 
 ance of a good title to justify such an attempt. 
 The agent whom he sent to Spain with an account 
 of Grijalva's voyage, had met with a most favourable 
 reception; and from the specimens which he pro- 
 duced, such high expectations were formed concerning 
 the opulence of New Spain, that Velasquez was 
 authorized to prosecute the discovery of the country, 
 ani appointed governor of it during lif-% with more 
 extensive power and privileges than had been granted 
 to any adventurer from the time of Columbus. Ela- 
 ted by this distinguishing mark of favour, and 
 warranted to consider Cortes not only as intruding 
 upon his jurisdiction, but as disobedient to the 
 royal mandate, he determined to vindicate his own 
 rights, and the honour of his sovereign, by force of 
 arms (115). His ardour in carrying on his prepa- 
 rations, was such as might have been expected from 
 the violence of the passions with which he was ani- 
 mated ; and in a short time an armament was com- 
 pleted, consisting of eighteen ships, which had on 
 board fourscore horsemen, eight hundred foot sol- 
 diers, of which eighty were musketeers, and a 
 hundred and twenty cross-bow men, together with a 
 train of twelve pieces of cannon. As Velasquez's 
 experience of the fatal consequence of committing to 
 another what he ought to have executed himself, had 
 not rendered him more enterprising, he vested the 
 command of this formidable body, which, in the in- 
 fancy of the Spanish power in America, merits the 
 appellation of an army, in Pamphilo de Narvaez, 
 with instructions to seize Cortes, and his principal 
 ofiicers, to send them prisoners to him, and then to 
 complete the discovery and conquest of the country 
 in his name. 
 
 [April.] After a prosperous voyage, Narvaez 
 landed his men without opposition near St. Juan de 
 Ulua. Three soldiers, whom Cortes had sent to 
 search for mines in that district, immediately joined 
 him. By this accident he not only received informa- 
 tion concerning the progress and situation of Cortes, 
 but as these soldiers had made some progress in the 
 knowledge of the Mexican language, he acquired in- 
 terpreters, by whose means he was enabled to hold 
 some intercourse with the people of the country. 
 But, according to the low cunning of deserters, they 
 framed their intelligence with more attention to what 
 they thought would be agreeable, than to what they 
 knew to be true; and represented the situation of 
 Cortes to be so desperate, and the disaffection of his 
 followers to be so general, as increased the natural 
 confidence and presumption of Narvaez. His first 
 operation, however, might have taught him not to 
 rely on their partial accounts. Having sent to sum- 
 mon the governor of Vera Cruz to surrender, Guevara , 
 a priest whom he employed in that service, made the 
 requisition with such insolence, that Sandoval, an 
 officer of high spirit, and zealously attached to Cortes, 
 instead of complying with his demands, seized him 
 and his attendants, and sent them in chains to 
 Mexico. 
 
 Cortes received them, not like enemies, but as 
 friends, and condemning the severity of Sandoval, set 
 them immediately at liberty. By this well-timed 
 clemency, seconded by caresses and presents, he 
 gained their confidence, and drew from them such 
 particulars concerning the force and intentions of 
 
 Narvaez, as gave him a viewof the impending danger 
 in its full extent. He had not to contend now 
 with half-naked Indians, no match for him in war, 
 and still more [inferior in the arts of policy, but to 
 take the field against an army in courage and martial 
 discipline equal to his own, in number far superior, 
 acting under the sanction of royal authority, and 
 commanded by an officer of known 1 ravery. He was 
 informed that Narvaez, more solicitous to gratify the 
 resentment of Velasquez, than attentive to the honour 
 or interest of his country, had begun his intercourse 
 with the natives, by representing him and his fol- 
 lowers as fugitives and outlaws, guilty of rebellion 
 against their own sovereign, and of injustice in 
 invading the Mexican empire ; and had declared that 
 his chief object in visiting the country was to punish 
 the Spaniards who had committed these crimes, and 
 to rescue the Mexicans from oppression. He soon 
 perceived that the same unfavourable representations 
 of his character and actions had been conveyed to 
 Montezuma, and that Narvaez had found means to 
 assure him, that ns the conduct of those who kept 
 him under restraint was highly displeasing to the 
 king his master, he had it in charge not only to 
 rescue an injured monarch from confinement, but to 
 reinstate him in the possession of his ancient power 
 and independence. Animated with this prospect of 
 being set free from subjection to strangers, the Mexi- 
 cans in several provinces began openly to revolt from 
 Cortes, and to regard Narvaez as a deliverer no less 
 able than willing to save them. Montezuma himself 
 kept up a secret intercourse with the new commander, 
 and seemed to court him as a person superior in 
 power and dignity to those Spaniards whom he had 
 hitherto revered as the first of men (116). 
 
 Such were the various aspects of danger and diffi- 
 culty which presented themselves to the view of 
 Cortes. No situation can be conceived more trying 
 to the capacity and firmness of a general, or where 
 the choice of the plan which ought to be adopted was 
 more difficult. If he should wait the approach of 
 Narvaez in Mexico, destruction seemed to be unavoid- 
 able ; for while the Spaniards pressed him from 
 without, the inhabitants, whose turbulent spirit he 
 could hardly restrain with all his authority and 
 attention, would easily lay hold on such a favourable 
 opportunity of avenging all their wrongs. If he 
 should abandon the capital, set the captive monarch 
 at liberty, and march out to meet the enemy, he 
 must at once forego the fruits of all his toils and 
 victories, and relinquish advantages which could 
 not be recovered without extraordinary efforts and 
 infinite danger. If, instead of employing force, he 
 should have recourse to conciliating measures, and 
 attempt an accommodation with Narvaez ; the 
 natural haughtiness of that officer, augmented by 
 consciousness of his present superiority, forbade him 
 to cherish any sanguine hope of success. After 
 revolving every scheme with deep attention, Cortes 
 fixed upon that which in execution was most 
 hazardous, but, if successful, would prove most bene- 
 ficial to himself and to his country ; and with the 
 decisive intrepidity suited to desperate situations, 
 determined to make one bold effort for victory under 
 every disadvantage, rather than sacrifice his own 
 conquests and the Spanish interests in Mexico. 
 
 But though he foresaw that the contest must be 
 terminated finally by arms, it would have been not 
 only indecont, but criminal, to have marched against 
 his countrymen, without attempting to adjust matters 
 by an amicable negociation. In this service he em- 
 ployed Olmedo, his chaplain, to whoso character the, 
 
J20 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 function was well suited, and who possessed besides, 
 such prudence and address as qualified him to carry 
 on the secret intrigues in which Cortes placed his 
 chief confidence. Narvaez rejected, with scorn, every 
 cheme of accommodation thatOlmedo proposed, and 
 was with difficulty restrained from laying violent 
 hands on him and his attendants. He met, however, 
 with a more favourable reception among the followers 
 of Narvaez, to many of whom he delivered letters, 
 either from Cortes or his officers, their ancient friends 
 and companions. Cortes artfully accompanied these 
 with presents of rings, chains of gold, and other 
 trinkets of value, which inspired those needy adven- 
 turers with high ideas of the wealth that he had 
 acquired, and with envy of their good fortune who 
 were engaged in his service. Some, from hopes of 
 becoming sharers in those rich spoils, declared for 
 an immediate accommodation with Cortes. Others, 
 from public spirit, laboured to prevent a civil war, 
 which, whatever party should prevail, must shake, 
 and perhaps subvert, the Spanish power, in a country 
 where it was so imperfectly established. Narvaez 
 disregarded both, and by a public proclamation de- 
 nounced Cortes and his adherents rebels and enemies 
 to their country. Cortes, it is probable, was not 
 much surprised at the untracUble arrogance of Nar- 
 vaez ; and, after having given such a proof of his own 
 pacific disposition as might justify his recourse to 
 other means, he determined to advance towards an 
 enemy whom he had laboured in vain to appease. 
 
 [May.] He left a hundred and fifty men in the 
 capital, under the command of Pedro de Alvarado, an 
 officer of distinguished courage, for whom the Mexi- 
 cans had conceived a singular degree of respect. To 
 the custody of this slender garrison he committed a 
 great city, with all the wealth he had amassed, and, 
 what was still of greater importance, the person of 
 the imprisoned monarch. His utmost art was em- 
 ployed in concealing from Montezuma the real cause 
 of his march. He laboured to persuade him, that 
 the strangers who had lately arrived were his friends 
 and fellow-subjects ; and that, after a short interview 
 with them, they would depart together, .and return 
 to their own country. The captive prince, unable to 
 comprehend the designs of the Spaniards, or to recon- 
 cile what he now heard with the declarations of 
 Narvaez, and afraid to discover any symptom of sus- 
 picion or distrust of Coftes, promised to remain 
 quietly in the Spanish quarters, and to cultivate the 
 same friendship with Alvarado which he had uni- 
 formly maintained with him. Cortes, with seeming 
 confidence in this promise, but relying principally 
 upon the injunctions which he had given Alvarado to 
 guard his prisoner with the most scrupulous vigilance, 
 set out from Mexico. 
 
 His strength, even after it was reinforced by the 
 junction of Sandoval and the garrison of Vera Cruz, 
 did not exceed two hundred and fifty men. As he 
 hoped for success chiefly from the rapidity of his 
 motions, his troops were not encumbered either with 
 baggage or artillery. But as he dreaded extremely 
 the impression which the enemy might make with 
 their cavalry, he had provided against this danger 
 with the foresight and sagacity which distinguish a 
 great commander. Having observed that the Indians 
 in the province of Chinantla used spears of extraor- 
 dinary length and force, he armed his soldiers with 
 these, and accustomed them to that deep and compact 
 arrangement which the use of this formidable weapon, 
 the best perhaps that ever was invented for defence, 
 enabled them to assume. 
 
 With this small but firm battalion, Cortes advanced 
 
 towards Zempoalla, of which Narvaez had taken 
 possession. During his march, he made repeated 
 attempts towards some accommodation with his 
 opponent. But Narvaez requiring that Cortes and 
 his followers should instantly recognise his title to be 
 governor of New Spain, in virtue of the powers which 
 he derived from Velasquez ; and Cortes refusing to 
 submit to any authority which was not founded on a 
 commission from the emperor himself, under whose 
 immediate protection he and his adherents had placed 
 their infant colony ; all these attempts proved fruit- 
 less. The intercourse, however, which this occasioned 
 between the two parties, proved of no small advan- 
 tage to Cortes, as it afforded him an opportunity of 
 gaining some of Narvaez's officers by liberal presents, 
 of softening others by a semblance of moderation, and 
 of dazzling all by the appearance of wealth among his 
 troops, most of his soldiers having converted their 
 share of the Mexican gold into chains, bracelets, and 
 other ornaments, which they displayed with military 
 ostentation. Narvaez and a little junto of his crea- 
 tures excepted, all the army leaned towards an 
 accommodation with their countrymen. Thjs dis- 
 covery of their inclination irritated his violent temper 
 almost to madness. In a transport of rage, he set a 
 price upon the head of Cortes, and of his principal 
 officers ; and having learned that he was now ad- 
 vanced within a league of Zempoalla with his small 
 body of men, he considered this as an insult which 
 merited immediate chastisement, and marched out 
 with all his troops to offer him battle. 
 
 But Cortes was a leader of greater abilities and 
 experience than, on equal ground, to fight an enemy 
 so far superior in number, and so much better ap- 
 pointed. Having taken his station on the opposite 
 bank of the river de Canoas, where he knew that he 
 could not be attacked, he beheld the approach of the 
 enemy without concern, and disregarded this vain 
 bravado. It was then the beginning of the wet sea- 
 son, and the rain had poured down during a great 
 part of the day, with the violence peculiar to the 
 torrid zone. The followers of Narvaez, unaccustomed 
 to the hardships of military service, murmured so 
 much at being. thus fruitlessly exposed, that, from 
 their unsoldier-like impatience, as well as his own 
 contempt of his adversary, their general permitted 
 them to retire to Zempoalla. The very circumstance 
 which induced them to quit the field, encouraged 
 Cortes to form a scheme by which he hoped at once 
 to terminate the war. He observed, that his hardy 
 veterans, though standing under the torrents which 
 continued to fall, without a single tent or any shelter 
 whatsoever to cover them, were so far from repining 
 at hardships which were become familiar to them, 
 that they were still fresh and alert for service. He 
 foresaw that the enemy would naturally give them- 
 selves up to repose after their fatigue, and that, 
 judging of the conduct of others by their own effemi- 
 nacy, they would deem themselves perfectly secure at 
 a season so unfit for action. He resolved, therefore, 
 to fall upon them in the dead of night, when the 
 surprise and terror of this unexpected attack might 
 more than compensate the inferiority of his numbers. 
 His soldiers, sensible that no resource remained, but 
 in some desperate effort of courage, approved of the 
 measure with such warmth, that Cortes, in a military 
 oration which he addressed to them before they began 
 their march, was more solicitous to temper than to 
 inflame their ardour. He divided them into three 
 parties. At the head of the first he placed Sandoval ; 
 intrusting this gallant officer with the most dangerous 
 and important service, that of seizing the enemy's 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 121 
 
 artillery, which was planted before the principal 
 tower of the temple, where Narvaez had fixed his 
 head-quarters. Christoval de Olid commanded the 
 second, with orders to assault the tower, and lay hold 
 on the general. Cortes himself conducted the third 
 and smallest division, which was to act as a body of 
 reserve, and to support the other two as there should 
 be occasion. Having passed the river de Canoas, 
 which was much swelled with the rains, not without 
 difficulty, the water reaching almost to their chins, 
 they advanced in profound silence, without beat of 
 drum, or sound of any warlike instrument ; each man 
 armed with his sword, his dagger, and his Chinan- 
 tlan spear. Narvaez, remiss in proportion to his 
 security, had posted only two sentinels to watch the 
 motions of an enemy whom he had such good cause 
 to dread. One of these was seized by the advanced 
 guard of Cortes's troops, the other made his escape, 
 and hurrying to the town with all the precipitation 
 of fear and zeal, gave such timely notice of the 
 enemy's approach, that there was full leisure to have 
 prepared for their reception. But through the arro- 
 gance and infatuation of Narvaez, this important 
 interval was lost. He imputed this alarm to the 
 cowardice of the sentinel, and treated with derision 
 the idea of being attacked by forces so unequal to 
 his own. The shouts of Cortes's soldiers, rushing on 
 to the assault, convinced him at last that the danger 
 which he despised was real. The rapidity with which 
 they advanced was such, that only one cannon could 
 be fired before Sandoval's party closed with the 
 enemy, drove them from their guns, and began to 
 force their way up the steps of the tower. Narvaez, 
 no less brave in action than presumptuous in conduct, 
 armed himself in haste, and by his voice and example 
 animateb his men to the comdat. Olid advanced to 
 sustain his companions ; and Cortes himself, rushing 
 to the front, conducted and added new vigour to the 
 attack. The compact order in which this small body 
 pressed on, and the impenetrable front which they 
 presented with their long spears, bore down all 
 opposition before it. They had now reached the 
 gate, and were struggling to burst it open, when a 
 soldier having set fire to the reeds with which the 
 tower was covered, compelled Narvaez to sally out. 
 In the first encounter he was wounded in the eye 
 with a spear, and, falling to the ground, was dragged 
 down the steps, and in a moment clapped in fetters. 
 The cry of victory resounded among the troops of 
 Cortes. Those who had sallied out with their leader 
 now maintained the conflict feebly, and began to 
 surrender. Among the remainder of his soldiers, 
 stationed in two smaller towers of the temple, terror 
 and confusion prevailed. The darkness was so great, 
 that they could not distinguish between their friends 
 and foes. Their own artillery was pointecl against 
 them. Wherever they turned their eyes, they beheld 
 lights gleaming through the obscurity of night, which, 
 though proceeding only from a variety of shining 
 insects that abound in moist and sultry climates, 
 their affrighted imaginations represented as numerous 
 bands of musketeers advancing with kindled matches 
 to the attack. After a short resistance, the soldiers 
 compelled their officers to capitulate, and before 
 morning all laid down their arms, and submitted 
 quietly to their conquerors. 
 
 This complete victory proved more acceptable, as 
 it was gained almost without bloodshed, only two 
 soldiers being killed on the side of Cortes, and two 
 officers, with fifteen private men, of the adverse fac- 
 ti >n. Cortes treated the vanquished not like enemies, 
 but as countrymen and friends, and offered eitlwr to 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, No. 10. 
 
 send them back directly to Cuba, or to take them into 
 his service, as partners in his fortune, on equal terms 
 with his own soldiers. This latter proposition, seconded 
 by a seasonable distribution of some presents from 
 Cortes, and liberal promises of more, opened prospect* 
 so agreeable to the romantic expectations which had 
 invited them to engage in this service, that all, a few 
 partisans of Narvaez excepted, closed with it, and, 
 vied with each other in professions of fidelity and 
 attachment to a general, whose recent success had 
 given them such a striking proof of his abilities for 
 command. Thus, by a series of events no less 
 fortunate than uncommon, Cortes not only escaped 
 from perdition which seemed inevitable, but, when 
 he had least reason to expect it, was placed at the 
 head of a thousand Spaniards, ready to follow where- 
 ever he should lead them. Whoever reflects upon 
 the facility with which this victory was obtained, or 
 considers with what sudden and unanimous transi- 
 tion the followers of Narvaez ranged themselves 
 under the standard of his rival, will be apt to ascribe 
 both events as much to the intrigues as to the arms 
 of Cortes, and cannot but suspect that the ruin of 
 Narvaez was occasioned, no less by the treachery of 
 his own followers, than by the valour of the enemy. 
 
 But, in one point, the prudent conduct and good 
 fortune of Cortes wre equally conspicuous. If, by 
 the rapidity of his operations after ha began his 
 march, he had not brought matters to such a speedy 
 issue, even this decisive victory would have come too 
 late to have saved his companions whom he left in 
 Mexico. A few days after the discomfiture of Nar- 
 vaez, a courier arrived with an account that the 
 Mexicans had taken arms, and having seized and 
 destroyed the two brigantines which Cortes had built 
 in order to secure the command of the lake, and 
 attacked the Spaniards in their quarters, and killed 
 several of them, and wounded more, had reduced to 
 ashes their magazine of provisions, and carried on. 
 hostilities with such fury, that though Alvarado and 
 his men defended themselves with undaunted reso- 
 lution, they must either be soon cut off by famine, 
 or sink nnder the multitude of their enemies. This 
 revolt was excited by motives which rendered it still 
 more alarming. On the departure of Cortes for 
 Zempoalla, the Mexicans flattered themselves, that 
 the long expected opportunity of restoring their 
 sovereign to liberty, and of vindicating their country 
 from the odious dominion of strangers, was at length 
 arrived ; that while the forces of their oppressors 
 were divided, and the arms of one party turned 
 against the other, they might triumph with greater 
 facility over both. Consultations were held, and 
 schemes formed with this intention. The Spaniards 
 in Mexico, conscious of their own feebleness, sus- 
 pected and dreaded those machinations. Alvarado, 
 though a gallant officer, possessed neither that ex- 
 tent of capacity, nor dignity of manners, by whi.ih 
 Cortes had acquired such an ascendant over the 
 minds of the Mexicans, as never allowed them to 
 form a just estimate of his weakness or of their own 
 strength. Alvarado knew no mode of supporting his 
 authority but force. Instead of employing address 
 to disconcert the plans, or to soothe the spirits of the 
 Mexicans, he waited the return of one of their solemn 
 festivals, when the principal persons in the empire 
 were dancing, according to custom, in the court of 
 the great temple ; he seized all the avenues which led 
 to it, and, allured partly by the rich ornaments which 
 they wore in honour of their gods, and partly by the 
 facility of cutting off at once the authors of that con- 
 spiracy which he dveaded, he fell upon them, unarmed 
 
122 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 and unsuspicious of any danger, and massacred a great 
 number, none escaping but such as made their way 
 over the battlements of the temple. An action so 
 cruel and treacherous filled not only the city, but the 
 whole empire, with indignation and rage. All called 
 loud for vengeance ; and regardless of the safety of 
 their monarch, whose life was at the mercy of the 
 Spaniards, or of their own danger in assaulting an 
 enemy who had been so long the object of their terror, 
 they committed all those acts of violence of which 
 Cortes received an account. 
 
 To him the danger appeared so imminent as to 
 admit neither of deliberation nor delay. He set out 
 instantly with all his forces, and returned from Zem- 
 poalla with no less rapidity than he advanced 
 thither. At Tlascala he was joined by two thousand 
 chosen warriors. On entering the Mexican territories, 
 he found that disaffection to the Spaniards was not 
 confined to the capital. The principal inhabitants 
 had deserted the towns through which he passed ; 
 no person of note appearing to meet him with the 
 usual respect ; no provision was made for the sub- 
 sistence oif his troops ; and though he was permitted 
 to advance without opposition, the solitude and 
 silence which reigned in every place, and the horror 
 with which the people avoided all intercourse with 
 him, discovered a deep rooted antipathy, that excited 
 the most just alarm. But implacable as the enmity 
 of the Mexicans was, they were so unacquainted with 
 the science of war, that they knew not how to take 
 the proper measures, either for their own safety or 
 the destruction of the Spaniards. Uninstructed by 
 their former error in admitting a formidable enemy 
 into their capital, instead of breaking down the 
 causeways and bridges, by which they might have 
 enclosed Alvarado and his party, and have effectu- 
 ally stopped the career of Cortes, they again suffered 
 him to march into the city without molestation [June 
 24], and to take quiet possession of his ancient station. 
 
 The transports of joy with which Alvarado and his 
 soldiers received their companions cannot be ex- 
 pressed. Both parties were so much elated, the one 
 with their seasonable deliverance, and the other with 
 the great exploits which they had achieved, that this 
 intoxication of success seems to have reached Cortes 
 himself; and he behaved on this occasion neither 
 with his usual sagacity nor attention. He not only 
 neglected to visit Montezuma, but imbittered the 
 insult by expressions full of contempt for that unfor- 
 tunate prince and his people. The forces of which 
 he had now the command appeared to him so irresis- 
 tible, that he might assume a higher tone, and lay 
 aside the mask of moderation under which he had 
 hitherto concealed his designs. Some Mexicans, who 
 understood the Spanish language, heard the contemp- 
 tuous words which Cortes uttered, and reporting them 
 to their countrymen, kindled their rage anew. They 
 were now convinced that the intentions of the gene- 
 ral were equally bloody with those of Alvarado, and 
 his original purpose in visiting their country had not 
 been as he pretended, to court the alliance of their 
 sovereign, but to attempt the conquest of his domi- 
 nions. They resumed their arms with the additional 
 fury which this discovery inspired, attacked a consi- 
 derable body of Spaniards who were marching towards 
 the great square in which the public market was 
 held, and compelled them to retire with some loss. 
 Imboldened by this success, and delighted to find 
 that their oppressors were not invincible, they ad- 
 vanced next day with extraordinary martial pomp to 
 assault the Spaniards in their quarters. Their 
 number was formidable, and their undaunted courage 
 
 still more so. Though the artillery pointed against 
 their numerous battalions, crowded together in 
 narrow streets, swept off multitudes at every dis- 
 charge ; though every blow of the Spanish weapon* 
 fell with mortal effect upon their naked bodies, the 
 impetuosity of the assault did not abate. Fresh men 
 rushed forward to occupy the places of the skin, and 
 meeting with the same fate, were succeeded by others 
 no less intrepid and eager for vengeance. The 
 utmost efforts of Cortes's abilities and experience, 
 seconded by the disciplined valour of his troops, 
 were hardly sufficient to defend the fortifications that 
 surrounded the post where the Spaniards were 
 stationed, into which the enemy were more than 
 once on the point of forcing their way. 
 
 Cortes beheld, with wonder, the implacable fero- 
 city of a people who seemed at first to submit tamely 
 to the yoke, and had continued so long passive 
 under it. The soldiers of Narvaez, who fondly 
 imagined that they followed Cortes to share in the 
 spoils of a conquered empire, were astonished to find 
 that they were involved in a dangerous war, with an 
 enemy whose vigour was still unbroken, and loudly 
 execrated their own weakness, in giving such easy 
 credit to the delusive promises of their new leader. 
 But surprise and complaints were of no avail. Some 
 immediate and extraordinary effort was requisite to 
 extricate themselves out of their present situation. 
 As soon as the approach of evening induced the 
 Mexicans to retire, in compliance with their national 
 custom of ceasing from hostilities with the setting 
 sun, Cortes began to prepare for a sally, next day, 
 with such a considerable force, as might either drive 
 the enemy out of the city, or compel them to listen 
 to terms of accommodation. 
 
 He conducted, in person, the troops destined for 
 this important service. Every invention known in 
 the European art of war, as well as every precaution 
 suggested by his long acquaintance with the Indian 
 mode of fighting, were employed to insure success. 
 But he found an enemy prepared and determined 
 to oppose him. The force of the Mexicans was 
 greatly augmented by fresh troops, which poured in 
 continually from the country, and their animosity 
 was in no degree abated. They were led by their 
 nobles, inflamed by the exhortations of their priests, 
 and fought in defence of their temples and families, 
 under the eye of their gods, and in presence of their 
 wives and children. Notwithstanding their num- 
 bers, and enthusiastic contempt of danger and death, 
 wherever the Spaniards could close with them, the 
 superiority of their discipline and arms obliged the 
 Mexicans to give way. But in narrow streets, and 
 where many of the bridges of communication were 
 broken down, the Spaniards could seldom come to 
 a fair encounter with the enemy, and as they ad- 
 vanced, were exposed to showers of arrows and 
 stones from the tops of houses. After a day of 
 incessant exertion, though vast numbers of the 
 Mexicans fell, and part of the city was burnt, the 
 Spaniards, weary with the slaughter, and harassed 
 by multitudes which successively relieved each other, 
 were obliged at length to retire, with the mortifica- 
 tion of having accomplished nothing so decisive as 
 to compensate the unusual calamity of having twelve 
 soldiers killed, and above sixty wounded. Another 
 sally, made with greater force, was not more effec- 
 tual, and in it the general himself was wounded in 
 the hand. 
 
 Cortes now perceived, too late, the fatal error into 
 which he had been betrayed by his own contempt of 
 the Mexicans, and was satisfied that he could neither 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 123 
 
 maintain his present station in the centre of an 
 hostile city, nor retire from it without the most 
 imminent danger. One resource still remained, to 
 try what effect the interposition of Montezuma might 
 have to soothe or overawe his subjects. When the 
 Mexicans approached next morning to renew the 
 assault, that unfortunate prince, at the mercy of the 
 Spaniards, and reduced to the sad necessity of be- 
 coming the instrument of his own disgrace, and of 
 the slavery of his people (117), advanced to the 
 battlements in his royal robes, and with all the pomp 
 in which he used to appear on solemn occasions. 
 At the sight of their sovereign, whom they had long 
 been accustomed to honour, and almost to revere as 
 a god, the weapons dropped from their hands, every 
 tongue was silent, all bowed their heads, and many 
 prostrated themselves on the ground. Montezuma 
 addressed them with every argument that could 
 mitigate their rage, or persuade them to cease from 
 hostilities. When he ended his discourse, a sullen 
 murmur of disapprobation ran through the ranks ; to 
 this succeeded reproaches and threats ; and the fury 
 of the multitude rising in a moment above every 
 restraint of decency or respect, flights of arrows and 
 volleys of stones poured in so violently upon the 
 ramparts, that before the Spanish soldiers appointed 
 to cover Montezuma with their bucklers, had time to 
 lift them in his defence, two arrows wounded the 
 unhappy monarch, and the blow of a stone on his 
 temple struck him to the ground. On seeing him 
 fall, the Mexicans were so much astonished, that with 
 a transition not uncommon in popular tumults, they 
 passed in a moment from one extreme to the other ; 
 remorse succeeded to insult, and they fled with 
 horror, as if the vengeance of heaven were pursuing 
 the crime which they had committed. The Spaniards 
 without molestation carried Montezuma to his apart- 
 ments, and Cortes hastened thither to console him 
 under his misfortune. But the unhappy monarch 
 now perceived how low he was sunk, and the 
 haughty spirit which seemed to have been so long 
 extinct, returning, he scorned to survive this last 
 humiliation, and to protract an ignominious life, not 
 only as the prisoner and tool of his enemies, but as 
 the object of contempt or detestation among his sub- 
 jects. In a transport of rage he tore the bandages 
 from his wounds, and refused, with such obstinacy, 
 to take any nourishment, that he soon ended his 
 wretched days, rejecting with disdain all the 
 solicitations of the Spaniards to embrace the Christian 
 faith. 
 
 Upon the death of Montezuma, Cortes having lost 
 all hope of bringing the Mexicans to an accommoda- 
 tion, saw no prospect of safety but in attempting a 
 retreat, and began to prepare for it. But a sudden 
 motion of the Mexicans engaged him in new con- 
 flicts. They took possession of a high tower in the 
 great temple which overlooked the Spanish quarters, 
 and placing there a garrison of their principal war- 
 riors, not a Spaniard could stir without being exposed 
 to their missile weapons. From this post it was 
 necessary to dislodge them at any risk ; and Juan de 
 Escobar, with a numerous detatchment of chosen 
 soldiers, was ordered to make the attack. But 
 Escobar, though a gallant oflicer, and at the head of 
 troops accustomed to conquer, and who now fought 
 under the eyes of their countrymen, was thrice re- 
 pulsed. Cortes, sensible that not only the reputation 
 but the safety of his army depended on the success 
 of this assault, ordered a buckler to be tied to Iris 
 arm, as he could not manage it with his wounded 
 hand, and rushed with his drawn sword into the 
 
 thickest of the combatants. Encouraged by ' the 
 presence of their general, the Spaniards returned to 
 the charge with such vigour, that they gradually 
 forced their way up the steps, and drove the Mexi- 
 cans to the platform at the top of the tower. There 
 a dreadful carnage began, when two young Mexicans 
 of high rank, observing Cortes as he animated his 
 soldiers by his voice and example, resolved to sacri- 
 fice their own lives in order to cut off the author of all 
 the calamities which desolated their country. They 
 approached him in a supplicant posture, as if they had 
 intended to lay down their arms, and seizing him in 
 a moment, hurried him towards the battlements, over 
 which they threw themselves ^headlong, in hopes of 
 dragging him along to be dashed in pieces by the 
 same fall. But Cortes, by his strength and agility, 
 broke loose from their grasp, and the gallant youths 
 perished in this generous attempt to save their 
 country. As soon as the Spaniards became masters 
 of the tower, they set fire to it, and, without further 
 molestation, continued the preparations for their 
 retreat. 
 
 This became the more necessary, as the Mexican! 
 were so much astonished at the last effort of the 
 Spanish valour, that they began to change their whole 
 system of hostility, and, instead of incessant attacks, 
 endeavoured, by barricading the streets, and break- 
 ing down the causeways, to cut off the communication 
 of the Spaniards with the continent, and thus to 
 starve an enemy whom they could not subdue. Th 
 first point to be determined by Cortes and his fol- 
 lowers was, whether they should march out open 
 in the face of day, when they could discern every 
 danger, and see how to regulate their own motions, 
 as well as how to resist the assaults of the enemy ; or, 
 whether they should endeavour to retire secretly in 
 the night ? The latter was preferred, partly from 
 hopes that their national superstition would restrain 
 the Mexicans from venturing to attack them in the 
 night, and partly from their own fond belief in the 
 predictions of a private soldier, who having acquired 
 universal credit by a smattering of learning, and hi 
 pretensions to astrology, boldly assured his country- 
 men of success if they made their retreat in thia 
 manner. They began to move, towards midnight, in 
 three divisions. Sandoval led the van ; Pedro Alva- 
 rado, and Velasquez de Leon, had the conduct of the 
 rear ; and Cortes commanded in the centre, where he 
 placed the prisoners, among whom were a son and 
 two daughters of Montezuma, together with several 
 Mexicans of distinction, the artillery, the baggage, 
 and a portable bridge of timber, intended to be laid 
 over the breaches in the causeway. They marched 
 in profound silence along the causeway which led to 
 Tacuba, because it was shorter than any of the rest, 
 and, lying most remote from the road towards Tlas- 
 cala and the sea-coast, had been left more entire by 
 the Mexicans. They reached the first breach in it 
 without molestation, hoping that their retreat was 
 undiscovered. 
 
 But the Mexicans, unperceived, had not only- 
 watched all their motions with attention, but had 
 made proper dispositions for a most formidable 
 attack. While the Spaniards were intent upon 
 placing their bridge in the breach, and occupied in 
 conductino- their horses and artillery along it, they 
 were suddenly alarmed with a tremendous sound of 
 warlike instruments, and a general shout from an 
 innumerable multitude of enemies; the lake was 
 covered with canoes ; flights of arrows and showers 
 of stones poured in upon them from every quarter ; 
 the Mexicans rushing forward to the charge with 
 
124 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 fearless impetuosity, as if they hoped in that moment 
 to be avenged for all their wrongs. Unfortunately 
 the wooden bridge, by the weight of the artillery, 
 was wedged so fast into the stones and mud, that it 
 was impossible to remove it. Dismayed at this 
 accident, the Spaniards advanced with precipitation 
 towards the second breach. The Mexicans hemmed 
 them in on every side, and though they defended 
 themselves with their usual courage, yet crowded 
 together as they were on a narrow causeway, their 
 discipline and military skill were of little avail, nor 
 did the obscurity of the night permit them to derive 
 great advantage from their fire arms, or the superi- 
 ority of their other weapons. All Mexico was now 
 in arms, and so eager were the people on the 
 destruction of their oppressors, that they who were 
 not near enough to annoy them in person, impatient 
 of delay, pressed forward with such ardour, as drove 
 on their countrymen in the front with irresistible 
 riolence. Fresh warriors instantly filled the place of 
 such as fell. The Spaniards, weary with slaughter, 
 and unable to sustain the weight of the torrent that 
 poured in upon them, began to give way. In a mo- 
 ment the confusion was universal ; horse and foot, 
 officers and soldiers, friends and enemies, were min- 
 gled together ; and while all fought, and many fell, they 
 could hardly distinguish from what hand the blow 
 came. 
 
 Cortes, with about a hundred foot soldiers and a 
 few horse, forced his way over the two remaining 
 breaches in the causeway, the bodies of the dead 
 serving to fill up the chasms, and reached the main 
 land. Having formed them as soon as they arrived, 
 he returned with such as were yet capable of service, 
 to assist his friends in their retreat, and to encourage 
 them, by his presence and example, to persevere in 
 the efforts requisite to effect it. He met with part of 
 his soldiers, who had broke through the enemy, but 
 found many more overwhelmed by the multitude of 
 their agressors, or perishing in the lake ; and heard 
 the piteous lamentations of others, whom the Mexi- 
 cans, having taken alive, were carrying off in triumph 
 to be sacrificed to the god of war. Before day, all 
 who had escaped assembled at Tacuba. But when 
 the morning dawned, and discovered to the view of 
 Cortes his shattered battalion,, reduced to less than 
 half its number, the survivors dejected, and most of 
 them covered with wounds, the thougnts of what they 
 had suffered, and the remembrance of so many faith- 
 ful friends and gallant followers who had fallen in 
 that night of sorrow, pierced his soul with such 
 anguish, that while he was forming their ranks, and 
 issuing some necessary orders, his soldiers observed 
 the tears trickling from his eyes, and remarked with 
 much satisfaction, that while attentive to the duties 
 of a general, he was not insensible to the feelings of 
 a man. 
 
 In this fatal retreat many officers of distinction 
 perished (118), and among these Velasquez de Leon, 
 who having forsaken the party of his kinsman, the 
 governor of Cuba, to follow the fortune of his com- 
 panions, was, on that account, as well as for his 
 superior merit, respected by them as the second per- 
 son in the army. All the artillery, ammunition, and 
 baggage, were lost ; the greater part of the horses, 
 and above two thousand of the Tlascalans, were 
 killed, and only a very small portion of the treasure 
 which they had amassed was saved. This, which 
 had been always their chief object, proved a great 
 cause of their calamity; for many of the soldiers 
 having so overloaded themselves with bars of gold as 
 rendered them unfit for action, and retarded their 
 
 flight, fell, ignominiously, the victims of their own 
 inconsiderate avarice. Amidst so many disasters, it 
 was some consolation to find that Aguilar and 
 Marina, whose function as interpreters was of Mich 
 essential importance, had made their escape. 
 
 The first care of Cortes was to find some shelter 
 for his wearied troops ; lor as the Mexicans infested 
 them on every side, and the people of Tacuba began 
 to take arms, he could not continue in his present 
 station. Pie directed his march towards the rising 
 ground, and having fortunately discovered a temple 
 situated on an eminence, took possession of it. 
 There he found not only the shelter for which he 
 wished, but, what was no less wanted, some provi- 
 sions to refresh his men ; and though the enemy did 
 not intermit their attacks throughout the day, they 
 were with less difficulty prevented from making any 
 impression. During this time Cortes was engaged 
 in deep consultation with his officers, concerning 
 the route which they ought to take in their retreat. 
 They were now on the west side of the lake. Tlas- 
 cala, [the only place where they could hope for a 
 friendly reception, lay about sixty-four miles to the 
 east of Mexico ; so that they were obliged to go round 
 the north end of the lake before they could fall into 
 the road which led thither. A Tlascalan soldier 
 undertook to be their guide, and conducted them 
 through a country, in some places marshy, in others 
 mountainous, in all ill cultivated and thinly peopled. 
 They marched for six days with little respite, and 
 under continual alarms, numerous bodies of the 
 Mexicans hovering round them, sometimes harassing 
 them at a distance with their missile weapons, and 
 sometimes attacking them closely in front, in rear, in 
 flank, with great boldness, as they now knew that 
 they were not invincible. Nor were the fatigue 
 and danger of those incessant conflicts the worse evils 
 to which they were exposed. As the barren country 
 through which they passed afforded hardly any provi- 
 sions, they were reduced to feed on berries, roots, 
 and the stalks of green maize; and at the very time 
 that famine was depressing their spirits and wasting 
 their strength, their situation required the most 
 vigorous and unremitting exertions of courage and 
 activity. Amidst those complicated distresses, one 
 circumstance supported and animated the Spaniards. 
 Their commander sustained this sad reverse of 
 fortune with unshaken magnanimity. His presence 
 of mind never forsook him ; his sagacity foresaw 
 every event, and his vigilance provided for it. He 
 was foremost in every danger, and endured every 
 hardship with cheerfulness. The difficulties with 
 which he was surrounded seemed to call forth new 
 talents ; and his soldiers, though despairing them* 
 selves, continued to follow him with increasing confi- 
 dence in his abilities. 
 
 On the sixth day they arrived near to Otumba, not 
 far from the road between Mexico and Tlascaln. 
 Early next morning they began to advance towards it, 
 flying parties of the enemy still hanging on the rear ; 
 and, amidst the insults with which they accompanied 
 their hostilities, Marina remarked that they often 
 exclaimed with exultation, " Go on, robbers ; go to 
 the place where you shall quickly meet the vengeance 
 due to your crimes." The meaning of this threat the 
 Spaniards did not comprehend, until they reached 
 the summit of an eminence before them. There a 
 spacious valley opened to their view covered with a 
 vast army, extending as far as the eye could reach. 
 The Mexicans, while with one body of their troops 
 they harassed the Spaniards in their retreat, had 
 assembled their principal force on the other side of 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 125 
 
 the lake; and marching along the road which led 
 directly to Tlascala, posted it in the plain of Otumba, 
 through which they knew Cortes must pass. At 
 the sight of this incredible multitude, which they 
 could survey at once from the rising ground, the 
 Spaniards were astonished, and even the boldest 
 began to despair. But Cortes, without allowing 
 leisure for their fears to acquire strength by reflec- 
 tion, after warning them briefly that no alternative 
 now remained but to conquer or to die, led them 
 instantly to the charge. The Mexicans waited their 
 approach with unusual fortitude. Such, however, 
 was the superiority of the Spanish discipline and 
 arms, that the impression of this small body was 
 irresistible: and whichever way its force was di- 
 rected, it penetrated and dispersed the most nume- 
 rous battalions. But while these gave way in one 
 quarter, new combatants advanced from another, and 
 the Spaniards, though successful in every attack, 
 were ready to sink under those repeated efforts, 
 without seeing any end to their toil, or any hope of 
 victory. At that time Cortes observed the great 
 standard of the empire, which was carried before the 
 Mexican general, advancing; and fortunately recol- 
 lecting to have heard, that on the fate of it depended 
 the event of every battle, he assembled a few of his 
 bravest officers, whose horses were still capable of 
 gervice, and placing himself at their head, pushed 
 forward towards the standard with an impetuosity 
 which bore down every thing before it. A chosen 
 body of nobles, who guarded the standard, made 
 some resistance, but were soon broken. Cortes, with 
 a stroke of his lance, wounded the Mexican general, 
 and threw him to the ground. One of the Spanish 
 officers alighting, put an end to his life, and laid hold 
 of the imperial standard. The moment that their 
 leader fell, and the standard, towards which all 
 directed their eyes, disappeared, an universal panic 
 struck the Mexicans, and, as if the bond which held 
 them together had been dissolved, every ensign was 
 lowered, each soldier threw away kis weapons, and 
 all fled with precipitation to the mountains. The 
 Spaniards, unable to pursue them far, returned to 
 collect the spoils of the field, which were so valuable 
 as to be some compensation for the wealth which 
 they had lost in Mexico ; for in the enemy's army 
 were most of their principal warriors dressed out in 
 their richest ornaments, as if they had been marching 
 to assured victory. Next day [July 8], to their great 
 joy, they entered the Tlascalan territories. 
 
 But amidst their satisfaction in having got beyond 
 the precincts of an hostile country, they could not 
 look forward without solicitude, as they were stil 
 uncertain what reception they might meet with from 
 allies, to whom they returned in a condition very 
 different from that in which they had lately set out 
 from their dominions. Happily for them, the enmity 
 of the Tlascalans to the Mexican name was so invete- 
 rate, their desire to avenge the death of their country- 
 men so vehement, and the ascendant which Cortes 
 had acquired over the chiefs of the republic so com- 
 plete, that far from entertaining a thought of taking 
 any advantage of the distressed situation in which 
 they beheld the Spaniards, they received them with a 
 tenderness and cordiality which quickly dissipatec 
 all their suspicions. 
 
 Some interval of tranquillity and indulgence wa 
 now absolutely necessary ; not only that the Spaniard 
 might give attention to the cure of their wounds 
 which had been too long neglected, but in order t 
 recruit their strength, exhausted by such a Ion, 
 succession of fatigue and hardships. During this 
 
 ortes learned that he and his companions were not 
 he only Spaniards who had felt the effects of the 
 lexican enmity. A considerable detachment which 
 was marching from Zempoalla towards the capital 
 lad been cut off by the people of Tepeaca. A smaller i 
 )arty, returning from Tlascala to Vera Cruz, with the 
 hare of the Mexican gold allotted to the garrison, 
 tad been surprised and destroyed in the mountains. 
 t .a juncture when the life of every Spaniard was of 
 mportance, such losses were deeply felt. The 
 chemes which Cortes was meditating rendered them 
 >eculiarly afflictive to him. While his enemies, and 
 ven many of his own followers^ considered the dis- 
 sters which had befallen him as fatal to the progress 
 f his arms, and imagined that nothing now remained 
 >ut speedily to abandon a country which he had 
 nvaded with unequal force, his mind, as eminent for 
 >erseverance as for enterprise, was still bent on 
 ccomplishing his original purpose of subjecting the 
 Mexican empire to the crown of Castile. Severe and 
 unexpected as the check was which he had received, 
 t did not appear to him a sufficient reason for relin- 
 quishing the conquests which he had already made, 
 or against resuming his operations with better hopes 
 of success. The colony at Vera Cruz was not only 
 safe, but had remained unmolested. The people of 
 Zempoalla and the adjacent districts had discovered 
 no symptoms of defection. The Tlascalans continued 
 aitliful to their alliance. On their martial spirit, 
 easily roused to arms, and inflamed with implacable 
 hatred of the Mexicans, Cortes depended for powerful 
 aid. He had still the command of a body of Spaniards , 
 equal in number to that with which he,had opened his 
 way into the centre of the empire, and had taken 
 possession of the capital ; so that with the benefit of 
 greater experience, as well as more perfect know- 
 ledge of the country, he did not despair of quickly 
 recovering all that he had been deprived of by 
 untoward events. 
 
 Full of this idea, he courted the Tlascalan chiefs 
 with such attention, and distributed among them so 
 liberally the rich spoils of Otumba, that he was secure 
 of obtaining whatever he should require of the 
 republic. He drew a small supply of ammunition, 
 and two or three field-pieces, from his stores at Vera 
 Cruz. He despatched an officer of confidence with 
 four ships of Narvaez's fleet to Hispaniola and 
 Jamaica, to engage adventurers, and to purchase 
 horses, gun-powder, and other military stores. As 
 he knew that it would be vain to attempt the reduc- 
 tion of Mexico unless he could secure the command 
 of the lake, he gave orders to prepare, in the moun- 
 tains of Tlascala, materials for building twelve brig- 
 antines, so that they might be carried thither in pieces 
 ready to be put together, and launched when he 
 stood in need of their service. 
 
 But while, with provident attention, he was taking 
 those necessary steps towards the execution of his 
 measures, an obstacle arose in a quarter where it was 
 least expected, but most formidable. The spirit of 
 discontent and mutiny broke out in his own army. 
 Many of Narvaez's followers were planters rather 
 than soldiers, and had accompanied him to New 
 Spain with sanguine hopes of obtaining settlements, 
 but with little inclination to engage in the hardships 
 and dangers of war. As the same motives had 
 induced them to enter into their new engagements 
 with Cortes, they no sooner became acquainted with 
 the nature of the service, than they bitterly repented 
 of their choice. Such of them as had the good fortune 
 to survive the perilous adventures in which their own 
 imprudence had involved them, happy in having 
 
126 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 made their escape, trembled at the thoughts of being 
 exposed a second time to similar calamities. As 
 soon as they discovered the intention of Cortes, they 
 began secretly to murmur and cabal, and waxing 
 gradually more audacious, they, in a body, offered a 
 remonstrance to their general against the imprudence 
 of attacking a powerful empire with his shattered 
 forces, and formally required him to lead them back 
 directly to Cuba. Though Cortes, long practised in 
 the arts of command, employed arguments, entreaties, 
 and presents to convince or to soothe them ; though 
 his own soldiers, animated with the spirit of their 
 leader, warmly seconded his endeavours; he found 
 their fears too violent and deep-rooted to be removed, 
 and the utmost he could effect was to prevail with 
 them to defer their departure for some time, on a 
 promise that he would, at a more proper juncture, 
 dismiss such as should desire it. 
 
 That the malcontents might have no leisure to 
 brood over the causes of their disaffection, he resolved 
 instantly to call forth his troops into action. He 
 proposed to chastise the people of Tepeaca for the 
 outrage which they had committed, and as the de- 
 tachment which they had cut off happened to be 
 composed mostly of soldiers who had served under 
 Narvaez, their companions, from the desire of ven- 
 geance, engaged the more willingly in this war. He 
 took the command in person [August], accompanied 
 by a numerous body of Tlascalans, and in the space 
 of a few weeks, after various encounters, with great 
 slaughter of the Tepeacans, reduced that province to 
 subjection. During several months, while he waited 
 for the supplies of men and ammunition which he 
 expected, and was carrying on his preparations for 
 constructing the brigantines, he kept his troops con- 
 stantly employed in various expeditions against the 
 adjacent provinces, all of which were conducted with 
 an uniform tenor of success. By these, his men 
 became again accustomed to victory, and resumed 
 their wonted sense of superiority ; the Mexican power 
 was weakened ; the Tlascalan warriors acquired the 
 habit of acting in conjunction with the Spaniards ; 
 and the chiefs of the republic, delighted to see their 
 country enriched with the spoils of all the people 
 around them, and astonished every day with fresh 
 discoveries of the irresistible prowess of their allies, 
 declined no effort requisite to support them. 
 ,' All those preparatory arrangements, however, 
 though the most prudent and efficacious which the 
 situation of Cortes allowed him to make would have 
 been of little avail without a reinforcement of Spanish 
 soldiers. Of this he was so deeply sensible, that it 
 was the chief object of his thoughts and wishes ; and 
 yet his only prospect of obtaining it, from the return 
 of the officer whom he had sent to the isles to solicit 
 aid, was both distant and uncertain. But what 
 neither his own sagacity nor power could have pro- 
 cured, he owed to a series of fortunate and unforeseen 
 incidents. The governor of Cuba, to whom the suc- 
 cess of Narvaez appeared an event of infallible 
 certainty, having sent two small ships after him with 
 new instructions, and a supply of men and military- 
 stores, the officer whom Cortes had appointed lo 
 command on the coast, artfully decoyed them into 
 the harbour of Vera Cruz, seized the vessels, and 
 easily persuaded the soldiers to follow the standard 
 of a more able leader than him whom they were 
 destined to join. Soon after, three ships of more 
 considerable force came into the harbour separately. 
 These belonged to an armament fitted out by Fran- 
 cisco de Garay, governor of Jamaica, who, being 
 possessed Avith the rage of discovery and conquest 
 
 which animated every Spaniard settled in America, 
 had long aimed at intruding into some district of 
 New Spain, and dividing with Cortes the glory and 
 gain of annexing that empire to the crown of Castile. 
 They unadvisedly made their attempt on the northern 
 provinces, where the country was poor, and the 
 people fierce and warlike ; and after a cruel succession 
 of disasters, famine compelled them to venture into 
 Vera Cruz [October 28], and cast themselves upon 
 the mercy of their countrymen. Their fidelity was 
 not proof against the splendid hopes and promises 
 which had seduced other adventurers, and as if the 
 spirit of revolt had been contagious in New Spain, 
 they likewise abandoned the master whom they were 
 bound to serve, and enlisted under Cortes. Nor was 
 it America alone that furnished such unexpected 
 aid.; a ship arrived from Spain, freighted by some 
 private merchants with military stores, in hopes of a 
 profitable market in a country, the fame of whose 
 opulence began to spread over Europe. Cortes 
 eagerly purchased a cargo which to him was invalu- 
 able, and the crew, following the general example, 
 joined him at Tlascala. 
 
 From those various quarters, the army of Cortes 
 was augmented with a hundred and eighty men, and 
 twenty horse, a reinforcement too inconsiderable to 
 produce any consequence which would entitle it to 
 have been mentioned in the history of other parts of 
 the globe. But in that of America, where great 
 revolutions were brought about by causes which 
 seemed to bear no proportion to their effects, such 
 small events rise into importance, because they were 
 sufficient to decide with respect to the fate of king- 
 doms. Nor is it the least remarkable instance of 
 the singular felicity conspicuous in many passages of 
 Cortes' s story, that the two persons chiefly instru- 
 mental in furnishing him with those seasonable 
 supplies, should be an avowed enemy who aimed at 
 his destruction, and an envious rival who wished to 
 supplant him. 
 
 The first effect of the junction with his new followers 
 was to enable him to dismiss such of Narvaez's soldiers 
 as remained with reluctance in his service. After their 
 departure, he still mustered five hundred and fifty in- 
 fantry, of which fourscore were armed with muskets or 
 cross-bows, forty horsemen, and a train of nine field- 
 pieces. At the head of these, accompanied by ten 
 thousand Tlascalans and other friendly Indians, 
 Cortes bes;an his march towards Mexico, on the 
 twenty-eighth of December, six months after his dis- 
 astrous retreat from that city. 
 
 Nor did he advance to attack an enemy unprepared 
 to receive him. Upon the death of Montezuma, the 
 Mexican chiefs, in whom the right of electing the 
 emperor was vested, had instantly raised his brother 
 Quetlavaca to the throne. His avowed and invete- 
 rate enmity to the Spaniards would have been suffi- 
 cient to gain their suffrages, although he had been 
 ess distinguished for courage and capacity. He had 
 an immediate opportunity of showing that he was 
 worthy of their choice, by conducting, in person, 
 those fierce attacks which compelled the Spaniards to 
 abandon his capital ; and as soon as their retreat 
 afforded them any respite from action, he took mea- 
 sures for preventing their return to Mexico, with 
 prudence equal to the spirit which he had displayed 
 in driving them out of it. As, from the vicinity of 
 Tlascala, he could not be unacquainted with the 
 motions and intentions of Cortes, he observed the 
 storm that was gathering, and began early to provide 
 against it. He repaired what the Spaniards had 
 ruined in the city, and strengthened it with such new 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 127 
 
 fortifications as the skill of his subjects was capable 
 of erecting. Besides filling his magazines with the 
 usual weapons of war, he gave directions to make 
 long spears headed with the swords and daggers taken 
 from the Spaniards, in order to annoy the cavalry. 
 He summoned the people in every province of the 
 empire to take arms against their oppressors, and as 
 an encouragement to exert themselves with vigour, 
 he promised them exemption from all the taxes which 
 his predecessors had imposed. But what he laboured 
 with the greatest earnestness was, to deprive the 
 Spaniards of the advantages which they derived from 
 the friendship of the Tlascalans, by endeavouring to 
 persuade that people to renounce all connexion with 
 men, who were not only avowed enemies of the gods 
 whom they worshipped, but who would not fail to 
 subject them at last to the same yoke, which they 
 were now inconsiderately lending their aid to impose 
 upon others. These representations, no less striking 
 than well founded, were urged so forcibly by his am- 
 bassadors, that it required all the address of Cortes 
 to prevent their making a dangerous impression. 
 
 But while Quetlavaca was arranging his plan of 
 defence, with a degree of foresight uncommon in an 
 American, his days were cut short by the small-pox. 
 This distemper, which raged at that time in New 
 Spain with fatal malignity, was unknown to that 
 quarter of the globe until it was introduced by the 
 Europeans, and may be reckoned among the greatest 
 calamities brought upon them by their invaders. In 
 his stead the Mexicans raised to the throne Guatimo- 
 2in, nephew and son-in-law of Montezuma, a young 
 man of such high reputation for abilities and valour, 
 that in this dangerous crisis his countrymen, with one 
 voice, called him to the supreme command. 
 
 [A. D. 1521.] As soon as Cortes entered the enemy's 
 territories, he discovered various preparations to 
 obstruct his progress. But his troops forced their 
 way with little difficulty, and took possession of 
 Tezeuco, the second city of the empire, situated on the 
 banks of the lake, about twenty miles from Mexico. 
 Here he determined to establish his head-quarters, 
 as the most proper station for launching his brigan- 
 tines, as well as for making his approaches to the 
 capital. In order to render his residence there more 
 secure, he deposed the cazique or hief who was at 
 the head of their community, under pretext of some 
 defect in his title, and substituted in his place a 
 person whom a faction of the nobles pointed out as 
 the right heir of that dignity. Attached to him by 
 this benefit, the new cazique and his adherents 
 served the Spaniards with inviolable fidelity. 
 
 As the preparations for constructing the brigan- 
 tines advanced slowly under the unskilful hands of 
 soldiers and Indians, whom Cortes was obliged to 
 employ in assisting three or four carpenters who 
 happened fortunately to be in his service, and as he 
 had not yet received the reinforcement which he ex- 
 pected from Hispaniola, he was not in a condition to 
 turn his arms directly against the capital. To have 
 attacked, at this period, a city so populous, so well 
 prepared for defence, and in a situation of such pecu- 
 liar strength, must have exposed his troops to inevi- 
 table destruction. Three months elapsed before the 
 materials for the brigantines were finished, and before 
 he heard any thing with respect to the success of the 
 officer whom he had sent to Hispaniola. This, how- 
 ever, was not a season of inaction to Cortes. He 
 attacked successively several of the towns situated 
 around the lake ; and though all the Mexican power 
 was exerted to obstruct his operations, he either com- 
 pelled them to ^submit to the Spanish crown, or 
 
 reduced them to ruins. The inhabitants of other towns 
 he endeavoured to conciliate by more gentle means, 
 and though he could not hold any intercourse with 
 them but by the intervention of interpreters, yet, 
 under all the disadvantages of that tedious and im- 
 perfect mode of communication, he had acquired 
 such thorough knowledge of the state of the country, 
 as well as of the disposition of the people, that he 
 conducted his negociations and intrigues with asto- 
 nishing dexterity and success. Most of the cities 
 adjacent to Mexico Avere originally the capitals of 
 small independent states ; and some of them, having 
 been but lately annexed to the Mexican empire, still 
 retained the remembrance of their ancient liberty, 
 and bore with impatience the rigorous yoke of their 
 new masters. Cortes having early observed symp- 
 toms of their disaffection, availed himself of this 
 knowledge to gain their confidence and friendship. 
 By offering them with confidence to deliver them 
 from the odious dominion of the Mexicans, and by 
 liberal promises of more indulgent treatment if they 
 would unite with him against their oppressors, he 
 prevailed on the people of several considerable dis- 
 tricts, not only to acknowledge the king of Castile 
 as their sovereign, but to supply the Spanish camp 
 with provisions, and to strengthen his army with 
 auxiliary troops. Guatimozin, on the first appear- 
 ance of defection among his subjects, exerted himself 
 with vigour to prevent or to punish their revolt ; but, 
 in spite of his efforts, the spirit continued to spread. 
 The Spaniards gradually acquired new allies, and 
 with deep concern he beheld Cortes arming against 
 his empire those very hands which ought to have 
 been active in its defence ; and ready to advance 
 against the capital at the head of a numerous body 
 of his own subjects. 
 
 While, by those various methods, Cortes was gra- 
 dually circumscribing the Mexican power in such a 
 manner that his prospect of overturning it seemed 
 neither to be uncertain nor remote, all his schemes 
 were well nigh defeated by a conspiracy no less un- 
 expected than dangerous. The soldiers of Narvaez 
 had never united perfectly with the original compa- 
 nions of Cortes, nor did they enter into his measures 
 with the same cordial zeal. Upon every occasion that 
 required any extraordinary effort of courage or of pa- 
 tience, their spirits were apt to sink ; and now, on a 
 near view of what they had to encounter, in attempt- 
 ing to reduce a city so inaccessible as Mexico, and 
 defended by a numerous army, the resolution even of 
 those among them who had adhered to Cortes when 
 he was deserted by their associates, began to fail. 
 Their fears led them to presumptuous and unsoldier- 
 like discussions concerning the propriety of their 
 general's measures, and the improbability of their 
 success. From these they proceeded to censure and 
 invectives, and at last began to deliberate how they 
 might provide for their own safety, of which they 
 deemed their commander to be totally negligent. 
 Antonio Villefagna, a private soldier, but bold, in- 
 triguing, and strongly attached to Velasquez, artfully 
 fomented this growing spirit of disaffection. His 
 quarters became the rendezvous of the mal-contents, 
 where, after many consultations, they could discover 
 no method of checking Cortes in his career, but by 
 assassinating him and his most considerable officers, 
 and conferring the command upon some person who 
 would relinquish his wild plans, and adopt measures 
 more consistent with the general security. Despair 
 inspired them with courage. The hour for perpe- 
 trating the crime, the persons whom they destined as 
 victims, the officers to succeed them in command 
 
128 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 were all named; and the conspirators signed an 
 association, by which they bound themselves with most 
 solemn oaths to mutual fidelity. But on the evening 
 before the appointed day, 'one of Cortes's ancient 
 followers, who had been seduced into the conspiracy, 
 touched with compunction at the imminent danger of 
 a man whom he had long been accustomed to revere, 
 or struck with horror at his own treachery, went 
 privately to his general, and revealed to him all that 
 he knew. Cortes, though deeply alarmed, discerned 
 at once what conduct was proper in a situation so 
 critical. He repaired instantly to Villefagna's quar- 
 ters, accompanied by some of his most trusty officers. 
 The astonishment and confusion of the man at this 
 unexpected visit anticipated the confession of his 
 guilt. Cortes, while his attendants seized the traitor, 
 snatched from his bosom a paper containing the asso- 
 ciation, signed by the conspirators. Impatient to 
 know how far the defection extended, he retired to 
 read it, and found there names which filled him with 
 surprise and sorrow. But aware how dangerous a 
 strict scrutiny might prove at such a juncture, he 
 confined his judicial inquiries to Villefagna alone. 
 As the proofs of his guilt were manifest, he was con- 
 demned after a short trial, and next morning he was 
 seen hanging before the door of the house in which 
 he had lodged. Cortes called his troops together, 
 and having explained to them the atrocious purpose 
 of the conspirators, as well as the justice of the pun- 
 ishment inflicted on Villefagna, he added, with an 
 appearance of satisfaction, that he was entirely igno- 
 rant with respect to all the circumstances of this dark 
 transaction, as the traitor, when arrested, had sud- 
 denly torn and swallowed a paper which probably 
 contained an account of it, and under the severest 
 tortures possessed such constancy as to conceal the 
 names of his accomplices. This artful declaration 
 restored tranquillity to many a breast that was throb- 
 bing, while he spoke, with consciousness of guilt and 
 dread of detection ; and by this prudent moderation, 
 Cortes had the advantage of having discovered, and 
 of being able to observe, such of his followers as 
 were disaffected; while they, flattering themselves 
 that their past crime was unknown, endeavoured to 
 avert any suspicion of it, by redoubling their activity 
 and zeal in his service. 
 
 Cortes did not allow them leisure to ruminate on 
 what had happened ; and, as the most effectual means 
 of preventing the return of a mutinous spirit, he de- 
 termined to call forth his troops immediately to action. 
 Fortunately a proper occasion for this occurred with- 
 out his seeming to court it. He received intelligence 
 that the materials for building the brigantines were at 
 length completely finished, and waited only for a body 
 of Spaniards to conduct them to Tezeuco. The com- 
 mand of this convoy, consisting of two hundred foot 
 soldiers, fifteen horsemen, and two field-pieces, he 
 gave to Sandoval, who, by the vigilance, activity, 
 and courage which he manifested on every occasion, 
 was growing daily in his confidence, and in the esti- 
 mation of his fellow-soldiers. The service was no less 
 singular than important ; the beams, the planks, the 
 masts, the cordage, the sails, the iron-work, and all 
 the infinite variety of articles requisite for the con- 
 etruction of thirteen brigantines, were to be carried 
 sixty miles over land, through a mountainous coun- 
 try, by people who were unacquainted with the 
 ministry of domestic animals, or the aid of machines 
 to facilitate any work of labour. The Tlascalans 
 furnished eight thousand Tamenes, an inferior order 
 of men destined for servile tasks, to carry the 
 materials on their shou'ders, and appointed fifteen 
 
 thousand warriors to accompany and ^defend them. 
 Sandoval made the disposition for their progress with 
 great propriety, placing the Tamenes in the centre, 
 one body of warriors in the front, another in the 
 rear, with considerable parties to cover the flanks. 
 To each of these he joined some Spaniards, not only 
 to assist them in danger, but to accustom them to 
 regularity and subordination. A body so numer- 
 ous, and so much encumbered, advanced leisurely, 
 but in excellent order ; and in some places, where it 
 was confined by the woods or mountains, the line of 
 march extended above six miles. Parties of Mexicans 
 frequently appeared hovering around them on the 
 high grounds ; but perceiving no prospect of success 
 in attacking an enemy continually on his guard, and 
 prepared to receive them, they did not venture to 
 molest him ; and Sandoval had the glory of conduct- 
 ing safely to Tezeuco a convoy on which all the future 
 operations of his countrymen depended. 
 
 This was followed by another event of no less 
 moment. Four ships arrived at Vera Cruz fromHis- 
 paniola, with two hundred soldiers, eighty horses, 
 two battering cannon, and a considerable supply of 
 ammunition and arms. Elevated with observing that 
 all his preparatory schemes, either for recruiting his 
 own army, or impairing the force of the enemy, had 
 now produced their full effect, Cortes, impatient to 
 begin the siege in form, hastened the launching of 
 the brigantines. To facilitate this he had employed 
 a vast number of Indians, for two months, in deep- 
 ening the small rivulet which runs by Tezeuco into 
 the lake, and in forming it into a canal near two 
 miles in length (119); and though the Mexicans, 
 aware of his intentions, as well as of the danger which 
 threatened them, endeavoured frequently to interrupt 
 tho labourers, or to burn the brigantines, the work 
 was at last completed. On the twenty-eighth of 
 April all the Spanish troops, together with the aux- 
 iliary Indians, wore drawn up on the banks of the 
 canal ; and with extraordinary military pomp, ren- 
 dered more solemn by the celebration of the most 
 sacred rites of religion, the brigantines were launched. 
 As they fell down the canal in order, father Olmedo 
 blessed them, and gave each its name. Every eye 
 followed them with wonder and hope, until they en- 
 tered the lake, when they hoisted their sails, and 
 bore away before the wind. A general shout of joy 
 was raised ; all admiring that bold inventive genius, 
 which, by means so extraordinary that their success 
 almost exceeded belief, had acquired the command of a 
 fleet, without the aid of which Mexico would have con- 
 tinued to set the Spanish power and arms at defiance. 
 
 Cortes determined to attack the city from three 
 different quarters ; from Tepeaca on the north side of 
 the lake,- from Tacuba on thewest, and from Cuyo- 
 can towards the south. Those towns were situated 
 on the principal causeways which led to the capital, 
 and intended for their defence. He appointed San- 
 doval to command in the first, Pedro de Alvarado in 
 the second, and Chris toval de Olid in the third ; al- 
 lotting to each a numerous body of Indian auxiliaries, 
 together with an equal division of Spaniards, who, by 
 the junction of the troops from Hispaniola, amounted 
 now to eighty-six horsemen, and eight hundred and 
 eighteen foot soldiers ; of whom one hundred and 
 eighteen were armed with muskets or cross-bows. 
 The train of artillery consisted of three battering 
 cannon, and fifteen field-pieces. He reserved for him- 
 self, as the station of greatest importance and danger, 
 the conduct of the brigantines, each armed with one of 
 his small cannon, and manned with twenty-five 
 Spaniards, ^ 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 [May 10.] As Alvarado and Olid proceeded to- 
 wards the posts assigned them, they broke down the 
 aqueducts which the ingenuity of the Mexicans had 
 erected for conveying water into the capital, and by 
 the distress to which this reduced the inhabitants, 
 gave a beginning to the calamities which they were 
 destined to suffer. Alvarado and Olid found the 
 towns of which they were ordered to take possession 
 deserted by their inhabitants, who had fled for safety 
 to the capital, were Gautimozin had collected the 
 chief force of his empire, as there alone he could 
 hope to make a successful stand against the for- 
 midable enemies who were approaching to assault 
 him. 
 
 The first effort of the Mexicans was to destroy the 
 fleet of brigantines, the fatal effects of whose oper- 
 ations they foresaw and dreaded. Though the bri- 
 gantines, after all the labour and merit of Cortes in 
 forming them, were of inconsiderable bulk, rudely 
 constructed, and manned chiefly with landsmen, 
 hardly possessed of skill enough to conduct them, 
 they must have been objects of terror to a people un- 
 acquainted with any navigation but that of their lake, 
 and possessed of no vessel larger than a canoe. Ne- 
 cessity, however, wired Guatimozin to hazard the 
 attack ; and hoping to supply by numbers what he 
 wanted in force, he assembled such a multitude of 
 canoes as covered the face of the lake. They rowed 
 on boldly to the charge, while the brigantines, re- 
 tarded by a dead calm, could scarcely advance to 
 meet them. But as the enemy drew near, a breeze 
 suddenly sprung up ; in a moment the sails were 
 spread, the brigantines, with the utmost ease broke 
 through their feeble opponents, overset many canoes, 
 and dissipated the wholearmament with such slaughter 
 as convinced the Mexicans, that the progress of the 
 Europeans in knowledge and arts rendered their 
 superiority greater on this new element than they had 
 hitherto found it by land. 
 
 From that time Cortes remained master of the lake, 
 and the brigantines not only preserved a communica- 
 tion between the Spaniards in their different stations, 
 though at considerable distance from each other, but 
 were employed to cover the causeways on each side, 
 and keep off the canoes, when they attempted to 
 annoy the troops as they advanced towards the city. 
 Cortes formed the brigantines into three divisions, 
 appointing one to cover each of the stations from 
 which an attack was to be carried on against the city, 
 with orders to second the operations of the ofiicer who 
 commanded there. From all the three stations he 
 pushed on the attack against the city with equal 
 vigour ; but in a manner so very different from the 
 conduct of sieges in regular war, that he himself 
 seems afraid it would appear no less improper than 
 singular, to persons unacquainted with his situation, j 
 Each morning his troops assaulted the barricades 
 which the enemy had erected on the causeways, 
 forced their way over the trenches which they had 
 dug, and through the canals where the bridges 
 were broken down, and endeavoured to penetrate 
 into the heart of the city, in hopes of obtaining 
 some decisive advantage, which might force the 
 enemy to surrender, and terminate the war at 
 once; but when the obstinate valour of the Mex- 
 icans rendered the efforts of the day ineffectual, 
 the Spaniards retired in the evening to their former 
 quarters. Thus their toil and danger were, in some 
 measure, continually renewed; the Mexicans re- 
 pairing in the night what the Spaniards had de- 
 stroyed through the day, and recovering the posts 
 from which they had driven them. But necessity 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, No, 17. 
 
 prescribed this slow and untoward mode of operation. 
 The number of his troops were so small, that Cortes 
 durst not, with a handful of men, attempt to make 
 a lodgment in a city where he might be surrounded 
 and annoyed by such a multitude of enemies. The 
 remembrance of what he had already suffered by the 
 ill-judged confidence with which he had ventured into 
 such a dangerous situation, was still fresh in his 
 mind. The Spaniards, exhausted with fatigue, were 
 unable to guard the various posts which they' daily 
 gained ; and though their camp was filled with Indian 
 auxiliaries, they durst not devolve this charge upon 
 them, because they were so little accustomed to dis- 
 cipline, that no confidence could be placed in their 
 vigilance. Besides this, Cortes was extremely solici- 
 tous to preserve the city as much as possible from 
 being destroyed, both because he destined it to be 
 the capital of his conquests, and wished that it might 
 remain as a monument of his glory. From all these 
 considerations, he adhered obstinately, for a month 
 after the siege was opened, to the system which he 
 had adopted. The Mexicans in their own defence, 
 displayed valour which was hardly inferior to that 
 with which the Spaniards attacked them. On land, 
 on water, by night and by day, one furious conflict 
 succeeded to another. Several Spaniards were killed, 
 more wounded, and all were ready to sink under the 
 toils of unremitting service, which were rendered 
 more intolerable by the injuries of the season, the 
 periodical rains being now set in with their usual 
 violence. 
 
 Astonished and disconcerted with the length and 
 difficulties of the siege, Cortes determined to make 
 one great effort to get possession of the city, before 
 he relinquished the plan which he had hitherto fol- 
 lowed, and had recourse to any other mode of attack. 
 With this view, he sent instructions to Alvarado and 
 Sandoval to advance with their divisions to a 
 general assault, and took the command in person of 
 that posted on the causeway of Cuyocan. Animated 
 by his presence, and the expectation of some decisive 
 event [July 3], the Spaniards pushed forward with 
 irresistible impetuosity. They broke through one 
 barricade after another, forced their way over the 
 ditches and canals, and having entered the city, 
 gained ground incessantly, in spite of the multitude 
 and ferocity of their opponents. Cortes, though 
 delighted with the rapidity of his progress, did not 
 forget that he might still find it necessary to retreat; 
 and in order to secure it, appointed Julien de Aide- 
 rete, a captain of chief note in the troops which he 
 had received from Hispaniola, to fill up the canals 
 and gaps in the causeway as the main body advanced. 
 
 That officer, deeming it inglorious to be thus em- 
 ployed while his companions were in the heat of 
 action and the career of victory, neglected the 
 important charge committed to him, and hurried on, 
 inconsiderately, to mingle with the combatants. The 
 Mexicans, whose military attention and skill were 
 daily improving, no sooner observed this, than they 
 carried an account of it to their monarch. 
 
 Guatimozin instantly discerned the consequence of 
 the error which the Spaniards had committed, and, 
 with admirable presence of mind, prepared to take 
 advantage of it. He commanded the troops posted in 
 the front to slacken their efforts, in order to allure 
 the Spaniards to push forward, while he dispatched 
 a large body of chosen warriors through different 
 streets, some by land and others by water, towards 
 the great breach in the causeway, which had been 
 left open. On a signal which he gave, the priests in 
 (he principal temple struck the great drum conse- 
 S 
 
130 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 crated to the god of war. No sooner did the Mexicans 
 hear its doleful solemn sound, calculated to inspire 
 them with contempt of death and enthusiastic ardour, 
 than they rushed upon the enemy with frantic rage. 
 The Spaniards, unable to resist men urged on no less 
 "by religious fury than hope of success, began to 
 l-etire, at first leisurely, and with a good countenance; 
 lut as the enemy pressed on, and their own impa- 
 tience to escape increased, the terror and confusion 
 "became so general, that when they arrived at the gap 
 in the causeway, Spaniards and Tlascalans, horsemen 
 and infantry, plunged in promiscuously, while the 
 Mexicans rushed upon them fiercely from every side, 
 their light canoes carrying them through shoals 
 which the brigantines could not approach. In vain 
 tlid Cortes attempt to stop and rally his flying troops ; 
 faar rendered them regardless of his entreaties or 
 commands. Finding all his endeavours to renew the 
 combat fruitless, his next care was to save some of 
 those who had thrown themselves into the water ; 
 hut while thus employed, with more attention to 
 their situation than his own, six Mexican captains 
 suddenly laid hold of him, and were hurrying him off 
 in triumph ; and though two of his officers rescued 
 him at the expence of their own lives, he received 
 several dangerous wounds before he could break 
 loose. Above sixty Spaniards perished in the rout ; 
 and what rendered the disaster more afflicting, forty 
 of these fell alive into the hands of an enemy never 
 jknown to show mercy to a captive. 
 
 The approach of night, though it delivered the de- 
 jected Spaniards from the attacks of the enemy, 
 ushered in what was hardly less grievous, the noise of 
 their barbarous triumph, and of the horrid festival 
 with which they celebrated their victory. Every 
 quarter of the city was illuminated ; the great temple 
 shone with sueh peculiar splendour, that the Span- 
 iards could plainly see the people in motion, and the 
 priests busy in hastening the preparations for the 
 death of the prisoners. Through the gloom, they 
 fancied that they discerned their companions by the 
 whiteness of their skins, as they were stript naked, 
 and compelled ^to dance before the image of the god 
 to whom they were to be offered. They heard the 
 shrieks of those who were sacrificed, and thought that 
 they could distinguish each unhappy victim by the 
 well-known sound of his voice. Imagination added 
 to what they really saw or heard, and augmented its 
 horror. The most unfeeling melted into tears of 
 compassion, and the stoutest heart trembled at the 
 dreadful spectacle which they beheld (120). 
 
 Cortes, who, besides all that he felt in common with 
 his soldiers, was oppressed with the additional load of 
 anxious reflections natural to a general on such an 
 unexpected calamity, could not, like them, relieve his 
 mind by giving vent to its anguish. He was obliged 
 to assume an air of tranquillity, in order to revive the 
 spirit and hopes of his followers. The juncture, 
 indeed, required an extraordinary exertion of forti- 
 tude. The Mexicans, elated with their victory, sallied 
 out next morning to attack him in his quarters. But 
 they did not rely on the efforts of their own arms 
 alone. They sent the heads of the Spaniards whom 
 they had sacrificed to the leading men in the adjacent 
 provinces, and assured them that the god of war, 
 appeased by the blood of their invaders, which had 
 been shed so plentifully on his altars, had declared 
 with an audible voice, that in eight days' time those 
 hated enemies should be finally destroyed, and 
 pace and prosperity re-established in the empire. 
 
 A prediction uttered with such confidence, and in 
 terms so void of ambiguity, gained universal credit 
 
 among a people prone to superstition. The zeal 
 of the provincies which had already declared against 
 the Spaniards augmented; and several which had 
 hitherto remained inactive, took arms, with enthusi- 
 astic ardour, to execute the decree of the gods. The 
 Indian auxiliaries who had joined Cortes, accustomed 
 to venerate the same deities with the Mexicans, and 
 to receive the responses of their priests with the same 
 implicit faith, abandoned the Spaniards as a race of 
 men devoted to certain destruction. Even the fidelity 
 of the Tlascalans was shaken, and the Spanish troops 
 were left almost alone in their stations. Cortes, 
 finding that he attempted in vain to dispel the super- 
 stitious fears of his confederates by argument, took 
 advantage, from the imprudence of those who had 
 framed the prophecy, in fixing its accomplishment so 
 near at hand, to give a striking demonstration of its 
 falsity. He suspended all military operations during the 
 period marked out by the oracle. Under cover of the 
 brigantines, which kept the enemy at a distance, his 
 troops lay in safety, and the fatal term expired with- 
 out any disaster. 
 
 Many of his allies, ashamed of their own credulity, 
 returned to their station. Other tribes, judging that 
 the gods who had now deceived the Mexicans, had 
 decreed finally to withdraw their protection from them, 
 joined his standard; and such was the levity of a 
 simple people, moved by every slight impression, 
 that in a short time after such a general defection of 
 his confederates, Cortes saw himself, if we may 
 believe his own account, at the head of a hundred and 
 fifty thousand Indians. Even with such a numerous 
 army, he found it necessary to adopt a new and more 
 wary system of operation. Instead of renewing his 
 attempts to become master of the city at once, by 
 such bold but dangerous efforts of valour as he had 
 already tried, he made his advances gradually, and 
 with every possible precaution against exposing his 
 men to any calamity similar to that which they still 
 bewailed. As the Spaniards pushed forward, the 
 Indians regularly repaired the causeways hehind them. 
 As soon as they got possession of any part of the 
 town, the houses were instantly levelled with the 
 ground. Day by day, the Mexicans, forced to retire 
 as their enemies gained ground, were hemmed in 
 within more narrow limits. Guatimozin, though 
 unable to stop the career of the enemy, continued to 
 defend his capital with obstinate resolution, and dis- 
 puted every inch of ground. The Spaniards not only 
 varied their mode of attack, but, by orders of Cortes, 
 changed the weapons with which they fought. They 
 were again armed with the long Chinantlan spears, 
 which they had employed with such success against 
 Narvaez ; and, by the firm array in which this enabled 
 them to range themselves, they repelled, with little 
 danger, the loose assault of the Mexicans ; incredible 
 numbers of them fell in the conflicts which they 
 renewed every day. While war wasted without, 
 famine began to consume them within the city. The 
 Spanish brigantines, having the entire command of 
 the lake, rendered it almost impossible to convey to 
 the besieged any supply of provisions by water. The 
 immense number of his Indian auxiliaries enabled 
 Cortes to shut up the avenues to the city by land. 
 The stores which Guatimo/in had laid up were 
 exhausted by Ihe multitudes which had crowded into 
 the capital to defend their sovereign and the temples 
 of their gods. Not only the people, but persons of 
 the highest rank, felt the utmost distresses of famine. 
 What they suffered brought on infectious and mortal 
 distempers, the last calamity that visits besieged 
 cities, and which filled up the measure of their woes. 
 
THE HISTOHY OP AMERICA, 
 
 131 
 
 But, under the pressure of so many and such variou 
 evils, the spirit of Guatimozin remained firm ant 
 unsubdued. He rejected, with scorn, every overture 
 of peace from Cortes ; and, disdaining the idea o 
 submitting to the oppressors of his country, deter- 
 mined not to survive its ruin. The Spaniards con- 
 tinued their progress [July 27]. At length all the 
 three divisions penetrated into the centre of the city, 
 and made a secure lodgment there. Three-fourths oi 
 the city were now reduced, and laid in ruins. The 
 remaining quarter was so closely pressed, that it could 
 not long withstand assailants, who attacked it from 
 their new station with superior advantage, and more 
 assured expectation of success. The Mexican nobles, 
 solicitous to save the life of a monarch whom they 
 revered, prevailed on Guatimozin to retire from a 
 place where resistance was now vain, that he might 
 rouse the more distant provinces of the empire to 
 arms, and maintain there a more successful struggle 
 with the public enemy. In order to facilitate the 
 execution of this measure, they endeavoured to 
 amuse Cortes with the overtures of submission, that, 
 while his attention was employed in adjusting the 
 articles of pacification, Guatimozin might escape 
 unperceived. But they made this attempt upon a 
 leader of greater sagacity and discernment than to 
 be deceived by their arts. Cortes, suspected their 
 intention, and aware of what moment it was to defeat 
 it, appointed Sandoval, the officer on whose vigilance 
 he could most perfectly rely, to take the command of 
 the brigantines, with strict injunctions to watch every 
 motion of the enemy. Sandoval, attentive to the 
 charge, observing some large canoes crowded with 
 people rowing across the lake with extraordinary 
 rapidity, instantly gave the signal to chase. Garcia 
 Holguin, who commanded the swiftest sailing brigan- 
 tine, soon overtook them, and was preparing to fire 
 on the foremost canoe, which seemed to carry some 
 person whom all the rest followed and obeyed. At 
 once the rowers dropped their oars, and all on board, 
 throwing down their arms, conjured him with cries 
 and tears to forbear, as the emperor 1 was there. Hol- 
 guin eagerly seized his prize ; and Guatimozin, with 
 a dignified composure, gave himself up into his hands, 
 requesting only that no insult might be offered to the 
 empress or his children. When conducted to Cortes, 
 he appeared neither with the sullen fierceness of a 
 barbarian, nor with the dejection of a supplicant. 
 "I have done," said he, addressing himse.f to the 
 Spanish general, " what became a monarch. I have 
 defended my people to the last extremity. Nothing 
 how remains but to die. Take this dagger," laying 
 his hand on one which Cortes wore, " plant it in my 
 breast, and put an end to a life which can no longer 
 be of use." 
 
 [Aug. 13.] As soon as the fate of their sovereign 
 was known, the resistance of the Mexicans ceased : 
 and Cortes took possession of that small part of the 
 capital which yet remained undestroyed. Thus termi- 
 nated the siege of Mexico, the most memorable event 
 in the conquest of America. It continued seventy- 
 five days, hardly one of which passed without some 
 extraordinary effort of one party in the attack, or of 
 the other in the defence, of a city, on the fate of 
 which both knew that the fortune of the empire 
 depended. As the struggle here was more obstinate, 
 it was likewise more equal, than any between the 
 inhabitants of the Old and New Worlds. The great 
 abilities of Guatimozin, the number of his troops, 
 the peculiar situation of his capital, so far counter- 
 balanced the superiority of the Spaniards in arms and 
 discipline, that they must have relinquished the enter- 
 
 prise if they had trusted for success to themselves 
 alone. But Mexico was overturned by the jealousy 
 of neighbours who dreaded its power, and by the 
 revolt of subjects impatient to shake off its yoke. 
 By their effectual aid, Cortes was enabled to accom- 
 plish what, without such support, he would hardly 
 have ventured to attempt. How much soever this 
 account of the reduction of MexJco may detract, on. 
 the one hand, from the marvellous relations of some 
 Spanish writers, by ascribing that to simple and 
 obvious causes which they attribute to the romantic 
 valour of their countrymen, it adds, on the other, to 
 the merit and abilities of Cortes, who, under every 
 disadvantage, acquired such an ascendant over un- 
 known nations, as to render them instruments towards 
 carrying his schemes into execution (121). 
 
 The exultation of the Spaniards on accomplishing; 
 this arduous enterprise was at first excessive. But 
 this was quickly damped by the cruel disappointment 
 of those sanguine hopes, which had animated them 
 amidst so many hardships and dangers. Instead of 
 the inexhaustible wealth which they expected from 
 becoming masters of Montczuma's treasures, and 
 the ornaments of so many temples, their rapacious- 
 ness could only collect an inconsiderable booty 
 amidst ruins and desolation. Guatimozin, aware 
 of his impending fate, had ordered what remained 
 of the riches amassed by his ancestors to be thrown 
 nto the lake. The Indian auxiliaries, while the 
 Spaniards were engaged in conflict with the enemy, 
 had carried off the most valuable part of the spoil. 
 The sum to be divided among the conquerors was 
 so small, that many of them disdained to iccept of 
 the pittance which fell to their share, and all mur- 
 mured and exclaimed ; some against Cortes and his 
 confidants, whom they suspected of having secretly 
 appropiated to their own r use a large portion of 
 ;he riches which should have been brought into 
 the common stock; others against Guatimozin, 
 horn they accused of obstinacy, in refusing t 
 discover the place where he had hidden his trea- 
 
 re. 
 
 Arguments, entreaties, and promises were employed 
 n order to soothe them, but with so little effect, that 
 fortes, from solicitude to check this growing spirit 
 of discontent, gave way to a deed Avhich stains, the 
 jlory of all his great actions. Without regarding the 
 brmer dignity of Guatimozin, or feeling any reverence 
 or those virtues which he had displayed, he subjected 
 ,he unhappy monarch, together with his chief favou- 
 rite, to torture, in order to force from them a discovery 
 )f the royal treasures, which it was supposed they had 
 concealed. Guatimozin bore whatever the refined 
 cruelty of his tormentors could inflict, with the in- 
 'incible fortitude of an American warrior. His fellow- 
 ufferer, overcome by the violence of the anguish, 
 urned a dejected' eye towards his master, which 
 eemed to implore his permission to reveal all that 
 le knew. But the high-spirited prince, darting on 
 lim a look of authority mingled with scorn, checked 
 us weakness by asking, " Am I now reposing orx a 
 ed of flowers ? " Overawed by the reproach, tha 
 avourite persevered in his dutiful silence, and expired, 
 fortes, ashamed of a scene so horrid, rescued the 
 oyal victim from the hands of his torturers, and 
 >rolonged a life reserved for new indignities and 
 ufferings. j 
 
 The fate of the capital, as both parties had foreseen, 
 decided that of the empire. The provinces sub mitted 
 me after another to the conquerors. Small detach- 
 ments of Spaniards marched through them without 
 nterruption, penetrated in different quarters to. the. 
 
132 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 great Southern occean, which, according to the ideas 
 of Columbus, they imagined would open a short as 
 well as easy passage to the East Indies, and secure to 
 the crown of Castile all the envied wealth of those 
 fertile regions ; and the active mind of Cortes began 
 already to form schemes for attempting his import- 
 ant discovery. 
 
 He did not know, that during the progress of his 
 victorious arms in Mexico, the very scheme of which 
 he began to form some idea had been undertaken and 
 accomplished. As this is one of the most splendid 
 events in the history of the Spanish discoveries, and 
 has been productive of effect* peculiarly interesting 
 to those extensive provinces which Cortes had now 
 subjected to the crown of Castile, the account of its 
 rise and progress merits a particular detail. 
 
 Ferdinand Magalhaens, or Magellan, a Portuguese 
 gentleman of honourable birth, having served several 
 years in the East Indies, with distinguished valour, 
 under the famous Albuquerque, demanded the recom- 
 pence which he thought due to his services, with the 
 boldness natural to a high-spirited soldier. But as his 
 general would not grant his suit, and he expected 
 greater justice from his sovereign, whom he knew to 
 be a good judge and a generous re warder of merit, 
 he quitted India abruptly, and returned to Lisbon. 
 In order to induce Emanuel to listen more favourably 
 to his claim, he not only stated his past services, but 
 oifered to add to them by conducting his countrymen 
 to the Molucca or Spice Islands, by holding a west- 
 terly course ; which he contended would be both 
 shorter and less hazardous than that which the Portu- 
 guese now followed by the Cape of Good Hope, 
 through the immense extent of the Eastern Ocean. 
 This was the original and favourite project of Colum- 
 hus, and Magellan founded his hopes of success on 
 the ideas of that great navigator, confirmed by many 
 observations, the result of his own naval experience, as 
 "well as that of his countrymen, in their intercourse 
 with the East. But though the Portuguese monarchs 
 had the merit of having first awakened and encouraged 
 the spirit of discovery in that age, it was their destiny, 
 in the course of a few years, to reject two grand 
 schemes for this purpose, the execution of which 
 would have been attended with a great accession of 
 
 flory to themselves, and of power to their kingdom. 
 n consequence of some ill-founded prejudice against 
 Magellan, or of some dark intrigue which contempo- 
 rary historians have not explained, Emanuel would 
 neither bestow the recompence which he claimed, nor 
 approveofthe schemewhich he proposed; and dismissed 
 him with a disdainful coldness ; intolerable to a man 
 conscious of what he deserved, and animated with the 
 sanguine hopes of success peculiar to thosewho are ca- 
 pable of forming or of conducting new and great under- 
 takings [A. D. 1517]. In a transport of resentment Magel- 
 lan formally renounced his allegiance to an ungrateful 
 master, and fled to the Court of Castile, where he ex- 
 pected that his talents would be most justly estimated. 
 He endeavoured to recommend himself by offering to 
 execute under the patronage of Spain, that scheme 
 which he had laid before the court of Portugal, the 
 accomplishment of which, he knew, would wound 
 the monarch against whom he was exasperated in 
 the most tender part. In order to establish the 
 justness of his theory, he produced the same argu- 
 ments which he had employed at Lisbon ; acknow- 
 ledging, at the same time, that the undertaking was 
 both arduous and expensive, as it could not bo 
 attempted but with a squadron of considerable force, 
 and victualled for at least two years. Fortunately, 
 he applied to a minister who was not apt to be deterred, 
 
 either by the boldness of a design, or the expense 
 of carrying it into execution. Cardinal Ximenes, who 
 at that time directed the affairs of Spain, discerning 
 at once what an increase of wealth and gloiy would 
 accrue to his country by the success of Magellan's 
 proposal, listened to it with a most favourable ear. 
 Charles V. on his arrival in his Spanish dominions, 
 entered into the measure with no loss ardour, and 
 orders were issued for equipping a proper squadron 
 at the public charge, of which the command was 
 given to Magellan, whom the king honoured with 
 the habit of St. Jago, and the title of captain-general. 
 
 On the tenth of August one thousand five hundred 
 and nineteen, Magellan sailed from Seville with five 
 ships, which, according to the ideas of the age, were 
 deemed to be of considerable- force, though the burden 
 of the largest did not exceed one hundred and twenty 
 tons. The crews of the whole amounted to two 
 hundred and thirty-four men, among whom were 
 some of the most skilful pilots in Spain, and several 
 Portuguese sailors in whose experience, as more 
 extensive, Magellan placed still greater confidence. 
 After touching at the" Canaries, he stood directly 
 south towards the equinoctial line along the coast of 
 America, but was so long retarded by tedious calms, 
 and spent so much time in searching every bay and 
 inlet for that communication with the Southern 
 Ocean which he wished to discover, that he did not 
 reach the river De la Plata till the twelfth of January. 
 [A. D. 1520.] That spacious opening through whick 
 its vast body of water pours into the Atlantic 
 allured him to enter ; but after sailing up it for some 
 days, he concluded, from the shallowness of the 
 stream and the freshness of the water, that the 
 wished-for strait was not situated there, and continued 
 his course towards the south. On the thirty-first of 
 March he arrived in the port of St. Julian, about 
 forty-eight degrees south of the line, where he re- 
 solved to winter. In this uncomfortable station he 
 lost one of his squadron, and the Spaniards suffered 
 so much from the excessive rigour of the climate, 
 that the crews of three of his ships, headed by their 
 officers, rose in open mutiny, and insisted on relin- 
 quishing the visionary project of a desperate adven- 
 turer, and returning directly to Spain. This dangerous 
 insurrection Magellan suppressed by an effort of 
 courage no less prompt than intrepid, and inflicted 
 exemplary punishment en the ringleaders. With the 
 remainder of his followers, overawed but not recon- 
 ciled to his scheme, he continued his voyage towards 
 the south, and at length discovered, near the fifty- 
 third degree of latitude, the mouth of a strait, into 
 which he entered, notwithstanding the murmurs and 
 remonstrances of the people under his command. 
 After sailing twenty days in that winding dangerous 
 channel, to which he gave his own name, and where 
 one of his ships deserted him, the great Southern 
 Ocean opened to his view, and with tears of joy he 
 returned thanks to Heaven for having thus far 
 crowned his endeavours with success. 
 
 But he was still at a greater distance than he 
 imagined from the object of his wishes. He sailed 
 during three months and twenty days in an uniform 
 direction towards ths north-west, without discovering 
 land. In this voyage, the longest that had ever been 
 made in the unbounded ocean, he suffered incredible 
 distress. His stock of provisions was almost ex- 
 hausted, the water became putrid, the men were 
 reduced to the shortest allowance with which it was 
 possible to sustain life, and the scurvy, the most 
 dreadful of all the maladies with which seafaring 
 people are afflicted, began to spread among the crew. 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, 
 
 133 
 
 One circumstance alone afforded them some consola- 
 tion ; they enjoyed an uninterrupted course of fair 
 weather, with such favourable winds, that Magellan 
 bestowed on that ocean the name of Pacific, which it 
 still retains. When reduced to such extremity that 
 they must have sunk under their sufferings, they fell 
 in with a cluster of small hut fertile islands [March 
 C], which afforded them refreshments in such abun- 
 dance, that their health was soon re-established. 
 From these isles, which he called De los Ladronei, 
 he proceeded on his voyage, and soon made a more 
 important discovery of the islands now known by the 
 name of the Philippine*, In one of these he got into 
 an unfortunate quarrel with the natives, who attacked 
 him with a numerous body of troops well armed ; and 
 while he fought at the head of his men with his usual 
 valour, he fell by the hands of those barbarians [April 
 26], together with several of his principal officers. 
 
 The expedition was prosecuted under other com- 
 manders. After visiting many of the smaller isles 
 scattered in the eastern part of the Indian Ocean, 
 they touched at the great island of Borneo, and at 
 length landed in Tidore, one of the Moluccas, to the 
 astonishment of the Portuguese, who could not com- 
 prehend how the Spaniards by holding a westerly 
 course, had arrived at that sequestered seat of their 
 most valuable commerce, which they themselves had 
 discovered by sailing in an opposite direction. There, 
 and in the adjacent isles, the Spaniards found a 
 people acquainted with the benefits of extensive 
 trade, and willing to open an intercourse with a new 
 nation. They took in a cargo of the precious spices, 
 which arc the distinguished productions of these 
 islands ; and with that, as well as with specimens of 
 the rich commodities yielded by the other countries 
 which they had visited, the Victory, which, of the two 
 ships that remained of the squadron, was most fit for 
 a long voyage, set sail for Europe [January 1522], 
 under the command of Juan Sebastian del Cano. He 
 followed the course of the Portuguese, by the Cape of 
 Good Hope, and after many disasters and sufferings 
 he arrived at St. Lucar on the seventh of September 
 one thousand five hundred and twenty-two, having 
 sailed round the globe in the space of three years and 
 twenty-eight days. 
 
 Though an untimely fate deprived Magellan of the 
 satisfaction of accomplishing this great undertaking, 
 his contemporaries, just to his memory and talents, 
 ascribed to him not only the honour of having formed 
 the plan, but of having surmounted almost every 
 obstacle to the completion of it ; and in the present 
 age his name is still ranked amongst the highest in 
 the roll of eminent and successful navigators. The 
 naval glory of Spain now eclipsed that of every other 
 nation ; and by a singular felicity she had the merit, 
 in the course of a few years, of discovering a new 
 continent almost as large as that part of the earth 
 which was formerly known, and of ascertaining by 
 experience the form and extent of the whole of the 
 terraqueous globe. 
 
 The Spaniards were not satisfied with the glory of 
 having first encompassed the earth ; they expected to 
 derive great commercial advantages from this new and 
 "boldest effort of their maritime skill. The men of 
 science among them contended, that the Spice Islands, 
 and several of the richest countries in the east, were 
 so situated as to belong of right to the crown of Cas- 
 tile, in consequence of the partitions made by Alex- 
 ander VI. The merchants, without attending to this 
 discussion, engaged eagerly in that lucrative and 
 alluring commerce which was t>ow opened to them. 
 The Portuguese, alarmed at the intrusion of such 
 
 formidable rivals, remonstrated and negociated in 
 Europe, while in Asia they obstructed the trade of 
 the Spaniards by force of arms. Charles V. not 
 sufficiently instructed with respect to the importance 
 of this valuable branch of commerce, or distracted by 
 the multiplicity of his schemes and operations, did 
 not afford his subjects proper protection. At last, 
 the low state of his finances, exhausted by the efforts 
 of his arms in every part of Europe, together with 
 the dread of adding a new war with Portugal to those 
 in which he was a'ready engaged, induced him to 
 make over his claim of the Moluccas to the Portuguese 
 for three hundred and fifty thousand ducats. He 
 reserved, however, to the crown of Castile the right 
 of reviving its pretensions on repayment of that sum; 
 but other objects engrossed his attention and that of 
 his successors ; and Spain was finally excluded from 
 a branch of commerce in which it was engaging with 
 sanguine expectations of profit. 
 
 Though the trade with the Moluccas was relin- 
 quished, the voyage of Magellan was followed by 
 commercial effects of great moment to Spain. Philip 
 II., in the year one thousand five hundred and sixty- 
 four, reduce:! those islands which he discovered in 
 the Eastern ocean to subjection, and established 
 settlements there ; between which and the kingdom 
 of New Spain a regular intercourse, the nature of 
 which shall be explained in its proper place, is still 
 carried on. I return now to the transactions in new 
 Spain. 
 
 At the time that Cortes was acquiring such ex- 
 tensive territories for his native country, and preparing 
 the way for future conquests, it was his singular fate 
 not only to be destitute of any commission or autho- 
 rity from the sovereign whom he wa serving with 
 such successful zeal, but to be regarded as an un- 
 dutiful and seditious subject. By the influence of 
 Fonseca, bishop of Burgos, his conduct in assuming 
 the government of New Spain was declared to be au 
 irregular usurpation, in contempt of the royal autho- 
 rity ; and Christoval de Tapia received a commissionj 
 empowering him to supersede Cortes, to seize his 
 person, to confiscate his effects, to make a strict 
 scrutiny into his proceedings, and to transmit the 
 result of all the inquiries carried on in New Spain to 
 the council of the Indies, of which the bishop of 
 Burgos was president. A few weeks after the re- 
 duction of Mexico, Tapia landed at Vera Cruz, with 
 the royal mandate to strip its conqueror of his 
 power, and treat him as a criminal. But Fonseca 
 had chosen a very improper instrument to wreak his 
 vengeance on Cortes. Tapia had neither the repu- 
 tation nor the talents that suited the high command 
 to which he was appointed. Cortes, while he publicly 
 expressed the most respectful veneration for the 
 emperor's authority, secretly took measures to defeat 
 the effect of his commission ; and having involved 
 Tapia and his followers in a multiplicity of negoci- 
 ations and conferences, in which he sometimes had 
 recourse to threats, but more frequently employed 
 bribes and promises, he at length prevailed upon that 
 weak man to abandon a province which he was un- 
 worthy of governing. 
 
 [May 15.] But notwithstanding the fortunate dex- 
 terity with which he had eluded this danger, Cortes 
 was so sensible of the precarious tenure by which "he 
 held his power, that he despatched deputies to 
 Spain, with a pompous account of the success of his 
 arms, with further specimens of the productions of 
 the country, and with rich presents to the emperor, 
 as the earnest of future contributions from his new 
 conquests ; requesting, in recompence for all his ser 
 
134 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 vices, the approbation of his proceedings, and that he 
 might be intrusted with the government of those domi- 
 nions, which his conduct and the valour of his fol- 
 lowers had added to the crown of Castile. The juncture 
 in which his deputies reached the court was favourable. 
 The internal commotions in Spain, which had dis- 
 quieted the beginning of Charles's reign were just ap- 
 peased. The ministers had leisure to turn their 
 attention towards foreign affairs. The account of 
 Cortes's victories filled his countrymen with admira- 
 tion. The extent and value of his conquests became 
 the object of vast and interesting hopes. Whatever 
 stain he might have contracted, by the irregularity 
 of the steps which he took in order to attain power, 
 was so fully effaced by the splendour and merit of the 
 great actions which this had enabled him to perform, 
 that eveiy heart revolted at the thought of inflicting 
 any censure on a man whose services entitled him to 
 the highest marks of distinction. The public voice 
 declared warmly in favour of his pretensions ; and 
 Charles, arriving in Spain about this time, adopted the 
 sentiments of his subjects with a youthful ardour. 
 Notwithstanding the claims of Velasquez, and the 
 partial representations of the bishop of Burgos, the 
 emperor appointed Cortes saptain-general and gover- 
 nor of New Spain, judging that no person was so 
 capable of maintaining the royal 'authority, or of esta- 
 blishing good order both among his Spanish and Indian 
 subjects, as the victorious leader whom the former had 
 long been accustomed to obey, and the latter had been 
 taught to fear and to respect. 
 
 Even before his jurisdiction received this legal sanc- 
 tion, Cortes ventured to exercise all the powers of a 
 governor, and by various arrangements, endeavoured 
 to render his conquest a secure and beneficial acquisi- 
 tion to his country. He determined te establish the 
 seat of government in its ancient station, and to raise 
 Mexico again from its ruins ; and having conceived 
 high ideas concerning the future grandeur of the state 
 of which he was laying the foundation, he began to 
 re-build its capital on a plan which hath gradually 
 formed the most magnificent city in the New World. 
 At the same time, he employed skilful persons to 
 search for mines in different parts of the country, and 
 opened some which were found to be richer than any 
 which the Spaniards had hitherto discovered in 
 America. He detached his principal officers into the 
 remote provinces, and encouraged them to settle there, 
 not only by bestowing upon them large tracts of land, 
 but by granting them the same dominion over the 
 Indians, and the same right to their service, which 
 the Spaniards had assumed in the islands. 
 
 It was not, however, without difficulty, that the 
 Mexican empire could be'entirely reduced into the form 
 of a Spanish colony. Enraged and rendered desperate 
 by oppression, the natives often forgot the superiority 
 of their enemies, and ran to arms in defence of their 
 liberties. In every contest, however, the European 
 valour and discipline prevailed. But fatally for the 
 honour of their country, the Spaniards sullied the 
 glory redounding from these repeated victories, by 
 their mode of treating the vanquished people. After 
 taking Guatimozin, and becoming masters of his 
 capital, they supposed that the king of Castile entered 
 on possession of all the rights of the captive monarch, 
 and affected to consider every effort of the Mexicans 
 to assert their own independence, as the rebellion of 
 vassals against their sovereign, or the mutiny of 
 slaves against their master. Under the sanction of 
 those ill-founded maxims, they violated every right 
 that should be held sacred between hostile nations. 
 After each insurrection, they reduced the common 
 
 people, in the provinces which they subdued, to the 
 most humiliating of all conditions, that of personal 
 servitude. Their chiefs, supposed to be more crimi- 
 nal, were punished with greater severity, and put to 
 death in the most ignominious or the most excruci- 
 ating mode that the insolence or the cruelty of their 
 conquerors could devise. In almost every district of 
 the Mexican empire, the progress of the Spanish arms 
 is marked with blood, and with deeds so atrocious, as to 
 disgrace the enterprising valour that conducted them 
 to success. In the country of Panuco sixty caziques 
 or leaders, and four hundred nobles, were burnt at 
 one time. Nor was this shocking barbarity perpe- 
 trated in any sudden sally of rage, or by a commander 
 of inferior note. It was the act of Sandoval, an officer 
 whose name is entitled to the second rank in the annals of 
 New Spain, and executed after a solemn consultation 
 with Cortes ; and to complete the horror of the scene, 
 the children and relations of the wretched victims 
 were assembled, and compelled to be spectators of 
 their dying agonies. It seems hardly possible to 
 exceed in horror this dreadful example of severity ; 
 but it was followed by another, which affected the 
 Mexicans still more sensibly, as it gave them a most 
 feeling proof of their own degradation, and of the 
 small regard which their haughty master retained for 
 the ancient dignity and splendour of their state. On 
 a slight suspicion, confirmed by very imperfect evi- 
 dence, that Guatimozin had formed a scheme to shake 
 off the yoke, and to excite his former subjects to take 
 arms, Cortes, without the formality of a trial, ordered 
 the unhappy monarch, together with the caziques 
 ofTezeuco andTacuba, the two persons of the greatest 
 eminence in the empire, to be hanged ; and the Mexi- 
 cans, with astonishment and horror, beheld this dis- 
 graceful punishment inflicted upon persons, to whom 
 they were accustomed to look up with reverence 
 hardly inferior to that which they paid to the gods 
 themselves (122). The example of Cortes and hi* 
 principal officers encouraged and justified persons of 
 subordinate rank to venture upon committing greater 
 excesses. Nuno de Guzman, in particular, stained 
 an iliustrious name by deeds of peculiar enormity 
 and rigour, in various expeditions which he con- 
 ducted. 
 
 One circumstance, however, saved the Mexicans 
 from further consumption, perhaps from, one as com- 
 plete as that which had depopulated the islands. The 
 first conquerors did not attempt to search for the pre- 
 cious metals in the bowels of the earth. They were 
 neither sufliciently wealthy to carry on the expensive 
 works, which are requisite for opening those deep 
 recesses where nature has concealed the veins of gold 
 and silver, nor sufficiently skilful to perform the in- 
 genious operations by which those precious metals are 
 separated from their respective oies. They were satis- 
 fied with the more simple method, practised by the 
 Indians, of washing the earth carried down rivers and 
 torrents from the mountains, and collecting the grain* 
 of native metal deposited there. The rich mines of 
 New Spain, which have poured forth their treasures 
 with such profusion on every quarter of the globe, 
 were not discovered for several years after the con- 
 quest. [A. D. 1552, &c.] By that time a more 
 orderly government and police were introduced into 
 the colony ; experience, derived from former errors, 
 had suggested many useful and humane regulations 
 for the protection and preservation of the Indians : 
 and though it then became necessary to increase the 
 number of those employed in the mines, and they were 
 engaged in a species of labour more pernicious to the 
 human constitution, they suffered less hardship or 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 135 
 
 diminution than from the ill-judged but less extensive 
 schemes of the first conquerors. 
 
 While it was the lot of the Indians to suffer, their 
 new masters seemed not to have derived any consi- 
 derable wealth from their ill-conducted researches. 
 According to the usual fate of first settlers in new 
 colonies, it was their lot to encounter danger, and to 
 struggle with difficulties ; the fruits of their victories 
 and toils were reserved for times of tranquillity, and 
 reaped by successors of greater industry, but of infe- 
 rior merit. The early historians of America abound 
 with accounts of the sufferings and of the poverty of 
 its conquerors. In New Spain, their condition was 
 rendered more grievous by a peculiar arrangement. 
 When Charles V. advanced Cortes to the government 
 of that country, he at the same time appointed cer- 
 tain commissioners to receive and administer the royal 
 revenue there with independent jurisdiction. These 
 men, chosen from inferior stations in various depart- 
 ments of public business at Madrid, were so much 
 elevated with their promotion, that they thought they 
 were called to act a part of the first consequence. 
 But being accustomed to the minute formalities of 
 office, and having contracted the narrow ideas suited 
 to the sphere in which they had hitherto moved, they 
 were astonished, on arriving in Mexico, [A. D. 1524,] 
 at the high authority which Cortes exercised, and 
 could not conceive that the mode of administration, in 
 a country recently subdued and settled, must bo dif- 
 ferent from what took place in one where tranquillity 
 and regular government had been long established. 
 In their letters they represented Cortes as an ambi- 
 tious tyrant, who, having usurped a jurisdiction 
 superior to law, aspired at independence, and by his 
 exorbitant wealth and extensive influence might ac- 
 complish those disloyal schemes which he apparently 
 meditated. These insinuations made such deep im- 
 pression upon the Spanish ministers, most of whom 
 had been formed to business under the jealous and 
 rigid administration of Ferdinand, that, unmindful 
 of all Cortes's past services, and regardless of what 
 he was then suffering in conducting that extraordinary 
 expedition, in which he advanced from the lake of 
 Mexico to , the western extremities of Honduras 
 (123), they infused the same suspicions into the 
 mind of their master, and prevailed on him to order a 
 solemn inquest to be made into his conduct, [A.D. 1525] 
 with powers to the licentiate, Ponce de Leon, intrusted 
 with that commission, to seize his person, if he should 
 find that expedient, and send him prisoner to Spain. 
 
 The sudden death of Ponce de Leon, a few days 
 after his arrival in New Spain, prevented the execu- 
 tion of this commission. But as the object of his 
 appointment was known, the mind of Cortes was 
 deeply wounded with this unexpected return for ser- 
 vices which far exceeded whatever any subject of 
 Spain had rendered to his sovereign. He endeavoured, 
 however, to maintain his station, and to recover the 
 confidence of the court. But every person in office 
 who had arrived from Spain since the conquest was a 
 spy upon his conduct, and with malicious ingenuity 
 gave an unfavourable representation of all his actions. 
 The aprehensions ,of Charles and his ministers in- 
 creased. A new commision of inquiry was issued, 
 with more extensive powers [A. D.1528], and various 
 precautions were taken in order to prevent or to punish 
 him if he should be so presumptuous as to attempt 
 what was inconsistent with the fidelity of a sub- 
 ject. Cortes beheld the approaching crisis of his 
 fortune with all the violent emotions natural to a 
 haughty mind, conscious of high desert, and receiving 
 unworthy treatment, But though some of his des- 
 
 perate followers urged him to assert his own rights 
 against his ungrateful country, and with a bold hand 
 to seize that power which the courtiers meanly 
 accused him of coveting, he retained such self-com- 
 mand, or was actuated with such sentiments of 
 loyalty, as to reject their dangerous counsels, and to 
 choose the only course in which he could secure his 
 own dignity, without departing from his duty. He 
 resolved not to expose himself to the ignominy of a 
 trial, in that country which had been the scene of his 
 triumphs ; but, without waiting for the arrival of his 
 judges, to repair directly to Castile, and commit him- 
 self and his cause to the justice and generosity of his 
 sovereign. 
 
 Cortes appeared in his native country with the 
 splendour that suited the conqueror of a mighty king- 
 dom. He brought with him a great part of his 
 wealth, many jewels and ornaments of great value, 
 several curious productions of the country (124), and 
 was attended by some Mexicans of the first rank, as 
 well as by the most considerable of his own officers. 
 His arrival in Spain removed at once every suspicion 
 and fear that had been entertained with respect to his 
 intentions. The emperor, having now nothing to appre- 
 hend from the designs of Cortes, received him like a 
 person whom consciousness of his own innocence had 
 brought into the presence of his master, and who was 
 entitled, by the eminence of his services, to the highest 
 marks of distinction and respect. The order of St. Jago, 
 the title of Marquis del Vallede Guaxaca, the grant 
 of an ample territory in New Spain, were successively 
 bestowed upon him ; and as his manners were correct 
 and elegant, although he had passed the greater part 
 of his life among rough adventurers, the emperor ad- 
 mitted him to the same familiar intercourse with 
 himself, that was enjoyed by noblemen of the first 
 rank. 
 
 But, admidst those external proofs of regard, symp- 
 toms of remaining distrust appeared. Though Cortes 
 earnestly solicited to be reinstated in the government of 
 New Spain, Charles, too sagacious to commitsuchanim- 
 portant charge to a man whom he had once suspected, 
 peremptorily refused to invest him again with powers 
 which he might find it impossible to controul. Cortes, 
 though dignified with new titles [A.D. 1530.], returned 
 to Mexico with diminished authority. The military de- 
 partment, with powers to attempt new discoveries, was 
 left in his hands; but the supreme direction of civil 
 affairs was placed in a board called The Audience of 
 New Spain. At a subsequent period, when, upon the 
 increase of the colony, the exertion of authority more 
 united and extensive became neceesary, Antonio de 
 Mendoza, a nobleman of high rank, was sent thither 
 as Viceroy, to take the government into his hands.- 
 
 This division of power in New Spain proved, as 
 was unavoidable, the source of perpetual dissension, 
 which imbittered the life of Cortes, and thwarted all 
 his schemes. As he had now no opportunity to dis- 
 play his active talents but in attempting new dis- 
 coveries, he formed various schemes for that purpose, 
 all of which bear impressions of a genius that de- 
 lighted in what was bold and splendid. He early 
 entertained an idea, that, either by steering through the 
 gulf of Florida along the east coast of North America, 
 some strait would be found that communicated with 
 the Western ocean ; or that by examining the 
 isthmus of Darien, some passage would be discovered 
 between the i North and South seas. But -having 
 been disappointed in his expectations with respect to 
 both, he now confined his views to such voyages of 
 discovery as he could make from the ports of New 
 Spain in the South Sea, ^ There he fitted out succes- 
 
136 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 ively several small squadrons, which either perished ! 
 in the attempt, or returned without making any 
 d iscoverjf of moment [A. D. 1536], Cortes, \reary of 
 ; ritrusting the conduct of his operations to others, 
 took the command of a new armament in person, and 
 after enduring incredible hardships, and encountering 
 dangers of every species, he discovered the large 
 peninsula of California, and surveyed the greater part 
 of the gulf which separates it from New Spain. The 
 discovery of a. country of such extent would have 
 deflected credit on a common adventurer ; but it 
 could add little new honour to the name of Cortes, 
 and was far from satisfying the sanguine expectations 
 which he had formed.. Disgusted .with ill success, to 
 which he had not been accustomed, and weary of 
 contesting with adversaries to whom he considered it 
 as a disgrace to be opposed, he once more sought 
 for redress in his native country [A. D. 1540]. 
 
 But his reception there was very different from that 
 which gratitude, and even decency, ought to have 
 secured for him. The merit of his ancient exploits 
 was already, in a great measure, forgotten, or eclipsed 
 by the fame of recent and more valuable conquests in 
 another quarter of America. No service of moment 
 was now expected from a man of declining years, and 
 who began to be unfortunate. The emperor behaved 
 to him with co'd civility ; his ministers treated him 
 sometimes with neglect, sometimes with insolence. 
 His grievances received no redress ; his claims were 
 urged without effect; and after several years spent in 
 fruitless application to ministers and judges, an 
 occupation the most irksome and mortifying to a man 
 of high spirit, who had moved in a sphere where he was 
 more accustomed to command than to solicit, Cortes 
 ended his days on the second of December one thou- 
 sand five hundred and forty-seven, in the sixty-second 
 year of his age. His fate was the same with that of all 
 the persons who distinguished themselves in the dis- 
 covery or conquest of the New world. Envied by his 
 contemporaries, and ill requited by the court which he 
 served, he has been admired and celebrated by suc- 
 ceeding ages. Which has formed the most just 
 estimate of his character, an impartial consideration 
 of his actions must determine. 
 
 BOOK VI. 
 
 [A. D. 1523.] FROM the time that Nugnez de 
 Balboa discovered the great Southern occean, and 
 received the first obscure hints concerning the opulent 
 countries with which it might open a communication, 
 the wishes and schemes of every enterprising person 
 in the colonies df Darren and Panama were turned 
 towards the wealth of those unknown regions. In 
 an age when the spirit of adventure was so ardent 
 and vigorous, that large fortunes were wasted, and the 
 most alarming dangers braved, in pursuit of dis- 
 coveries merely possible, the faintest ray of hope was 
 followed with an eager expectation, and the slightest 
 information was sufficient to inspire such perfect 
 confidence, as conducted men to the most arduous 
 undertakings (125). 
 
 Accordingly, several armaments were fitted out in 
 order to explore and take possession of the countries 
 to the east of Panama, but under the conduct of 
 leaders whose talents and resources were unequal to 
 the attempt. As the excursions of those adventurers 
 did not extend beyond the limits of the province to 
 which the Spaniards had given the name of Tierra 
 Firme, a mountainous region covered with woods, 
 thinly inhabited, and extremely unhealthy, they re- 
 
 turned with dismal accounts concerning the distresses 
 in which they had been exposed, and the unpromising 
 aspect of the places which they had visited. Damped 
 by these tidings, the rage for discovery in that direc- 
 tion abated; and it became the general opinion, that 
 Balboa had founded visionary hopes, on the tale 
 of an ignorant Indian, ill understood, or calculated to 
 deceive. 
 
 [A. D. 1524.] But there were three persons settled 
 in Panama, on whom the circumstances which de- 
 terred others made so little impression, that the very 
 moment when all considered Balboa's expectations of 
 discovering: a rich country, by steering towards the 
 east, as chimerical, they resolved to attempt the execu- 
 tion of his scheme. The names of those extraordinary 
 men were Francisco Pizarro, Diego de Almagro, and 
 Hernando Luque. Pizarro was the natural son of a 
 gentleman of an honourable family by a very low 
 woman, and, according to the cruel fate which often 
 attends the offspring of unlawful Jove, had been so 
 totally neglected in his youth by the author of his 
 birth, that he seems to have destined him never to 
 rise beyond the condition of his mother. In conse- 
 quence of this ungenerous idea, he set him, when 
 bordering on manhood, to keep hogs. But the 
 aspiring mind of young Pizarro disdaining that ignoble 
 occupation, he abruptly abandoned his charge, en- 
 listed as a soldier, and after serving some years in 
 Italy, embarked for America, which, by opening such 
 a boundless range to active talents, allured every 
 adventurer whose fortune was not equal to his am- 
 bitious thoughts. There Pizarro early distinguished 
 himself. "With a temper of mind no less daring than 
 the constitution of his body was robust, he was fore- 
 most in every danger, patient under the greatest 
 hardships, and unsubdued by any fatigue. Though 
 so illiterate that he could not even read, he was soon 
 considered as a man formed to command. Every 
 operation committed to his conduct proved success- 
 ful, as, by a happy but rare conjunction, he united 
 perseverance with ardour, and was cautious in exe- 
 cuting, as he was bold in forming, his plans. By 
 engaging early in active life, without any resource but 
 his own talents and industry, and by depending on 
 himself alone in his struggles to emerge from obscu- 
 rity, he acquired such a thorough knowledge of affairs, 
 and of men, that he was fitted to assume a superior 
 part in conducting the former, and in governing the 
 latter. 
 
 Almagro had as little to boast of his descent as 
 Pizarro. The one was a bastard, and the other a 
 foundling. Bred like his companion, in the camp, he 
 yielded not to him in any of the soldierly qualities of 
 intrepid valour, indefatigable activity, or insur- 
 mountable constancy, in enduring the hardships 
 inseparable from military service in the New World. 
 But in Almagro these virtues were accompanied with 
 the openness, generosity, and candour, natural to 
 men whose professioii is arms ; in Pizarro, they were 
 united with the address, the craft, and the dis- 
 simulation of a politician, with the art of concealing 
 his own purposes, and with sagacity to penetrate into 
 those of other men. 
 
 Fernando de Luque was an ecclesiastic, who acted 
 both as priest and schoolmaster at Panama, and, by 
 means which the contemporary writers have not 
 described, had amassed riches that inspired him with 
 thoughts of rising to greater eminence. 
 
 Such were the men destined to overturn one of the 
 most extensive empires on the face of the earth. 
 Their confederacy for this purpose was authorized by 
 Pedrarias, _the governor of Panama, Each engaged 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 137 
 
 to employ his whole fortune in the adventure. 
 Pizarro, the least wealthy of the three, as he could 
 not throw so large a sum as his associates into the 
 common stock, engaged to take the department of 
 greatest fatigue and danger, and to command in per- 
 son the armament which was to go first upon disco- 
 very. Almagro offered to conduct the supplies of pro- 
 visions and reinforcements of troops, of which Pizarro 
 might stand in need. Luque was to remain at Pa- 
 nama to negociate with the governor, and superintend 
 whatever was carrying on for the general interest. As 
 the spirit of enthusiasm uniformly accompanied that 
 of adventure in the New World, and by that strange 
 union both acquired an increase of force, this con- 
 federacy, formed by ambition and avarice, was con- 
 firmed by the most solemn act of religion. Luque 
 celebrated mass, divided a consecrated host into three, 
 and reserving one part to himself, gave the other two 
 to his associates, of which they partook ; and thus, 
 in the name of the Prince of peace, ratified a con- 
 tract of which plunder and bloodshed were the ob- 
 jects. 
 
 The attempt was begun with a force more suited 
 to the humble condition of the three associates, than 
 to the greatness of the enterprise in which they were 
 engaged. Pizarro set sail from Panama with a sinle 
 vessel, [Nov. 14,] of small burthen, and a hundred 
 and twelve men. But in that age, so little were the 
 Spaniards acquainted with the peculiarities of climate 
 in America, that the time which Pizarro chose for his 
 departure was the most improper in the whole year ; 
 the periodical winds which were then set in, being 
 directly adverse to the course which he proposed to 
 steer. After beating about for seventy days, with 
 much danger and incessant fatigue, Pizarro's progress 
 towards the south-east was not greater than what a 
 skilful navigator will now make in as many hours. 
 He touched at several places on the coast of Tierra 
 Firme, but found every where the same uninviting 
 country which former adventurers had described ; 
 the low grounds converted into swamps by an over- 
 flowing of rivers ; the higher covered with impervious 
 woods ; few inhabitants, and those fierce and hostile 
 [A. D. 1525]. Famine, fatigue, or frequent encoun- 
 ters witli the natives, and, above all, the distempers 
 of a moist, sultry climate, combined in wasting his 
 slender band of followers. The undaunted resolution 
 of their leader continued, however, for some time, to 
 sustain their spirits, although no sign had yet ap- 
 peared of discovering those golden regions to which 
 he had promised to conduct them. At length he was 
 obliged to abandon that inhospitable coast, and retire 
 to Chuchama, opposite to the pearl islands, where he 
 hoped to receive a supply of provisions and troops 
 from Panama. 
 
 But Almagro having sailed from that port with 
 seventy men, stood directly towards that part of the 
 continent where he hoped to meet with his associate. 
 Not finding him there, he landed his soldiers, who, 
 in searching for their companions, underwent the 
 same distresses, and were exposed to the same dan- 
 gers, which had driven them out of the country. Re- 
 pulsed at length by the Indians in a sharp conflict, 
 in which their leader lost one of his eyes by the 
 wound of an arrow, they likewise were compelled to 
 re-embark. Chance led them to the place of Pizarro's 
 retreat, where they found some consolation in recount- 
 ing to each other their adventures, and comparing 
 their sufferings [June 24]. As Almagro had ad- 
 vanced as far as the river St. Juan, in the province of 
 Popayan, where both the country and inhabitants 
 appeared with a more promising aspect, that dawtt ef 
 
 HISTORY OJP AMERICA, No. 18. 
 
 better fortune was sufficient to determine such san- 
 guine projectors not to abandon their scheme, not- 
 withstanding all that they had suffered in prosecuting 
 it (126). 
 
 [A. D. 1526.] Almagro repaired to Panama, in hopes 
 of recruiting their shattered troops. But what he 
 and Pizarro had suffered gave his countrymen such 
 an unfavourable idea of the service, that it was with 
 difficulty he could levy fourscore men. Feeble as 
 this reinforcement was, Almagro took the command 
 of it, and having joined Pizarro, they did not hesitate 
 about resuming their operations. After a long series 
 of disasters and disappointments, not inferior to those 
 which they had already experienced, part of the ar- 
 mament reached the Bay of St. Matthew, on the 
 coast of Quito, and landing at Tacamez, to the south 
 of the river of Emeralds, they beheld a country more 
 champaign and fertile than any they had yet dis- 
 covered in the Southern ocean, the natives clad in. 
 garments of woollen or cotton stuff, and adorned with 
 several trinkets of gold and silver. 
 
 But, notwithstanding those favourable appearances, 
 magnified beyond the truth, both by the vanity of 
 the persons who brought the report from Tacamez, 
 and by the fond imagination of those who listened to 
 them, Pizarro and Almagro durst not venture to in- 
 vade a country so populous with a handful of men 
 enfeebled by fatigue and diseases. They retired to 
 the small island of Gallo, where Pizarro remained 
 with part of the troops, and his associate returned to 
 Panama, in hopes of bringing such a reinforcement 
 as might enable them to take possession of the 
 opulent territories, whose existence seemed to be no 
 longer doubtful. 
 
 But some of the adventurers, less enterprising or 
 less hardy than their leaders, having secretly conveyed 
 lamentable accounts of their sufferings and losses to 
 their friends at Panama, Almagro met with an un- 
 favourable reception from Pedro de los Ilios, who 
 had succeeded Pedrarias in the government of that 
 settlement. After weighing the matter with that 
 cold economical prudence, which appears the first of 
 all virtues to persons whose limited faculties are in- 
 capable of conceiving or executing great designs, he 
 concluded an expedition, attended with such certain 
 waste of men, to be so detrimental to an infant and 
 feeble colony, that he not only prohibited the raising 
 of new levies, but despatched a vessel to bring home 
 Pizarro and his companions from the island of Gallr. 
 Almagro and Luque, though deeply affected with 
 those measures, which they could not prevent, and 
 durst not oppose, found means of communicating 
 their sentiments privately to Pizarro, and exhorted 
 him not to relinquish an enterprise that was the 
 foundation of all their hopes, and the only means of 
 re-establishing their reputation and fortune, which 
 were both on the decline. Pizarro's mind, bent with 
 inflexible obstinacy on all its purposes, needed no 
 incentive to persist in the scheme. He peremptorily 
 refused to obey the governor of Panama's orders, and 
 employed all his address and eloquence in persuading 
 his men not to abandon him. But the incredible 
 calamities to which they had been exposed were still 
 so recent in their memories, and the thoughts of re- 
 visiting their families and friends after a long absence, 
 rushed with such joy into their minds, that when 
 Pizarro drew a line upon the sand with his sword, 
 permitting such as wished to return home to pass 
 over it, only thirteen of all the daring veterans in his 
 service had resolution to remain with their com- 
 mander. 
 This small but determined, band, whose names the 
 
138 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Spanish historians record with deserved praise, as 
 the persons to whose persevering fortitude their coun- 
 try is indebted for the most valuable of all its 
 American possessions, fixed their residence in the 
 island of Gorgona. This, as it was further removed 
 from the coast than Gallo, and uninhabited, they con- 
 sidered as a more secure retreat, where, unmolested, 
 they might wait for supplies from Panama, which 
 they trusted that the activity of their associates 
 would be able to procure. Almagro and Luque were 
 not inattentive or cold solicitors, and their incessant 
 importunity was seconded by the general voice of the 
 colony, which exclaimed loudly against the infamy 
 of exposing brave men, engaged in the public service, 
 and chargeable with no error but what flowed from an 
 excess of zeal and courage, to perish like the most 
 odious criminals in a desert island. Overcome by 
 those entreaties and expostulations, the governor at 
 last consented to send a small vessel to their relief. 
 But that he might not seem to encourage Pizarro to 
 any new enterprise, he would not permit one landman 
 to embark on board of it. 
 
 By this time Pizarro and his companions had re- 
 mained five months in an island, infamous for the 
 most unhealthy climate in that region of America 
 (127). During all this period their eyes were turned 
 towards Panama, in hopes of succour from their 
 countrymen ; but worn out at length with fruitless 
 expectations, and dispirited with suffering hardships 
 of which they saw no end, they, in despair, came to a 
 resolution of committing themselves to the ocean on 
 a float, rather than continue in that detestable abode. 
 But, on the arrival of the vessel from Panama, they 
 "were transported with such joy, that all their suffer- 
 ings were forgotten. Their hopes revived, and, with a 
 rapid transition, not unnatural among men accustomed 
 by their mode of life to sudden vicissitudes of for- 
 tune, high confidence succeeding to extreme dejection, 
 Pizarro easily induced not only his own followers, 
 but the crew of the vessel from Panama, to resume 
 his former scheme with fresh ardour. Instead of 
 returning to Panama, they stood towards the south- 
 east, and more fortunate in this than in any of their 
 past efforts, they, on the twentieth day after their 
 departure from Gorgona, discovered the coast of 
 Peru. After touching at several villages near the 
 shore, which they found to be no wise inviting, they 
 landed at Tumbez, a place of some note, about three 
 degrees south of the line, distinguished for its stately 
 temple, and a palace of the Incas or sovereigns of 
 the country. There the Spaniards feasted their eyes 
 with the first view of the opulence and civilization of 
 the Peruvian empire. They beheld a country fully 
 peopled, and cultivated with an appearance of regu- 
 lar industry ; the natives decently clothed, and pos- 
 sessed of ingenuity so far surpassing the other 
 inhabitants of the New World, as to have the use of 
 tame domestic animals. But what chiefly attracted 
 their notice, was such a show of gold and silver, not 
 only in the ornaments of their persons and temples, 
 "but in several vessels and utensils for common use, 
 formed of those precious metals, as left no room to 
 doubt that they abounded with profusion in the 
 country. Pizarro and his companions seemed now 
 to have attained to the completion of their most 
 sanguine hopes, and fancied that all their wishes and 
 dreams of rich domains, and inexhaustible treasures, 
 would soon be realized. 
 
 i But with the slender force then under his com- 
 mand, Pizarro could only view the rich country of 
 which he hoped hereafter to obtain possession. He 
 zanged, however, for some time along the coast, main- 
 
 taining every where a peaceable intercourse with the 
 natives, no less astonished at their new visitants, 
 than the Spaniards were with the uniform appearance 
 of opulence and cultivation which they beheld [A. D. 
 1527]. Having explored the country as far as was 
 requisite to ascertain the importance of the discovery, 
 Pizarro procured from the inhabitants some of their 
 Llamas or tame cattle, to which the Spaniards gave 
 the name of sheep, some vessels of gold and silver, 
 as well as some specimens of their other works of 
 ingenuity, and two young men, whom he proposed 
 to instruct in the Castilian language, that they might 
 serve as interpreters in the expedition which he me- 
 ditated. With these he arrived at Panama, towards 
 the close of the third year from the time of his de- 
 parture thence. No adventurer of the age suffered 
 hardships or encountered dangers which equal those 
 to which he was exposed during this long period. 
 The patience with which he endured the one, and 
 the fortitude with which he surmounted the other, 
 exceed whatever is recorded in the history of the 
 New World, where so many romantic displays of 
 those virtues occur. 
 
 [A. D. 1528]. Neither the splendid relation that 
 Pizarro gave of the incredible opulence of the coun- 
 try which he had discovered, nor his bitter complaints 
 on account of that unseasonable recall of his forces, 
 which had put it out of his power to attempt making 
 any settlement there, could move the governor of 
 Panama to swerve from his former plan of conduct. 
 He still contended, that the colony was not in a con- 
 dition to invade such a mighty empire, and refused to 
 authorize an expedition which he foresaw would be 
 so alluring that it might ruin the province in which 
 he presided, by ;m effort beyond its strength. His 
 coldness, however, did not in any degree abate the 
 ardour of the three associates ; but they perceived 
 that they could not carry their scheme into execution 
 without the countenance of superior authority, and 
 must solicit their sovereign to grant that permission 
 which they could not extort from his delegate. With 
 this view, after adjusting among themselves, that 
 Pizarro should claim the station of governor, Almagro 
 that of lieutenant-governor, and Luque the dignity 
 of bishop, in the country which they purposed to 
 conquer, they sent Pizarro as their agent to Spain, 
 though their fortunes were now so much exhausted 
 by the repeated efforts which they had made, that 
 they found some difficulty in borrowing the small 
 sum requisite towards equipping him for the voyage. 
 
 Pizarro lost no time in repairing to court, and new 
 as the scene might be to him, he appeared before the 
 emperor with the unembarrassed dignity of a man 
 conscious of what his services merited ; and he con- 
 ducted his negociations with an insinuating dexterity 
 of address, which could not have been expected either 
 from his education or former habits of life. His 
 feeling description of his own sufferings, and his 
 pompous account of the country which he had dis- 
 covered, confirmed by the specimens of its produc- 
 tions which he exhibited, made such an impression 
 both on Charles and his ministers, that they not only 
 approved of the intended expedition, but seemed to 
 be interested in the success of its leader. 
 
 Presuming on those dispositions in his favour, 
 Pizarro paid little attention to the interest of his 
 associates. As the pretensions of Luque did not 
 interfere with his own, he obtained from him the 
 ecclesiastical dignity to which he aspired. For Alma- 
 gro he claimed only the command of the fortress 
 which should be erected at Tumbez. To himself he 
 secured whatever his boundless ambition could desire. 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 13$ 
 
 [July 26.] He was appointed governor.captain-general 
 and adelantado of all the country which he had dis 
 covered, and hoped toconquer, with supreme authority- 
 civil as well as military ; and with full right to all th< 
 privileges and emoluments usually granted to adven- 
 turers in the New World. His jurisdiction was 
 declared to extend two hundred leagues along the 
 coast to the south of the river St. Jago; to be inde- 
 pendent of the governor of Panama; and he ha 
 power to nominate all the officers who were to serve 
 under him. In return for those concessions, which 
 cost the court of Spain nothing, as the enjoyment of 
 them depended upon the success of Pizarro's own 
 efforts, he engaged to raise two hundred and fifty 
 men, and to provide the ships, arms, and warlike 
 stores requisite towards subjecting to the crown of 
 Castile the country of which the government was 
 allotted him. 
 
 [A. D. 1529], Inconsiderable as the body of men 
 was which Pizarrohad undertaken to raise, his funds and 
 credit were so low that he could hardly complete half 
 the number ; and after obtaining his patents from 
 the crown, he was obliged to steal privately out of 
 the port of Seville, in order to elude the scrutiny of 
 the officers who had it in charge to examine whether 
 he had fulfilled the stipulations in his contract. 
 Before his departure, however, he received some 
 supply of money from Cortes, who having returned 
 to Spain about this time, was willing to contribute 
 his aid towards enabling an ancient companion, with 
 whose talents and courage he was well acquainted, to 
 begin a career of glory similar to that which he him- 
 self had finished. 
 
 He landed at Nombre de Dios, and marched across 
 the isthmus of Panama, accompanied by his three 
 brothers, Ferdinand, Juan, and Gonzalo, of whom the 
 first was born in lawful wedlock, the two latter, like 
 himself, were of illegitimate birth, and by Francisco 
 de Alcantara, his mother's brother. They were all 
 in the prime of life, and of such abilities and courage 
 as fitted them to take a distinguished part in his 
 subsequent transactions. 
 
 [Oct. 1530.] On his arrival at Panama, Pizarro 
 found Almagro so much exasperated at the manner in 
 which he had conducted the negociation, that he not 
 only refused to act any longer in concert with a man 
 by whose perfidy he had been excluded from the 
 power and honours to which he had a just claim, 
 but laboured to form a new association, in order to 
 thwart or to rival his former confederate in his dis- 
 coveries. Pizarro, however, had more wisdom and 
 address than to suffer a rupture so fatal to all his 
 schemes to become irreparable. By offering volun- 
 tarily to relinquish the office of adelantado, and pro- 
 mising to concur in soliciting that title, with an in- 
 dependent government, for Almagro, he gradually 
 mitigated the rage of an open-hearted soldier, which 
 had been violent, but was not implacable. Luque, 
 highly satisfied with having been successful in all 
 his own pretensions, cordially seconded Pizairo's 
 endeavours. A reconciliation was effected, and the 
 confederacy renewed on its original terms, that the 
 enterprise should be carried on at the common 
 expense of the associates, and the profits accruing 
 from it should be equally divided among them, 
 > Even after their reunion, and the utmost efforts of 
 their interest, three small vessels, with a hundred and 
 eighty soldiers, thirty-six of whom were horsemen, 
 composed the armament which they were able to fit 
 out. But the astonishing progress of the Spaniards 
 in America had inspired them with such ideas of their 
 own superiority, that Pizarro did not hesitate to sail 
 
 with this contemptible force to invade a great em- 
 pire. Almagro was left at Panama [Feb. 1, 1531], 
 as formerly, to follow him with what reinforcement 
 of men he should be able to muster. As the season 
 for embarking was properly chosen, and the course 
 of navigation between Panama and Peru was now 
 better known, Pizarro completed the voyage in thir- 
 teen days ; though, by the force of the winds and 
 currents, he was carried about a hundred leagues to 
 the north of Tumbez, the place of his destination, 
 and obliged to land his troops in the bay of St. Mat- 
 thew. Without losing a moment he began to advance 
 towards the south, taking care, however, not to> 
 depart far from the sea-shore, both that he might 
 easily effect a junction with the supplies which he 
 expected from Panama, and secure a retreat in case 
 of any disaster, by keeping as near as possible ta 
 his ships. But as the country in several parts on 
 the coast of Peru is barren, unhealthful, and thinly 
 peopled ; as the Spaniards had to pass all the rivora 
 near their mouth, where the body of water is great- 
 est ; and as the imprudence of Pizarro, in attacking 
 the natives when he should have studied to gain their 
 confidence, had forced them to abandon their habita- 
 tions ; famine, fatigue, and diseases of various kinds 
 brought upon him and his followers calamities hardly 
 inferior to those which they had endured in their 
 former expedition. What they now experienced, 
 corresponded so ill with the alluring description of 
 the country given by Pizarro, that many began to 
 reproach him, and every soldier must have become 
 cold to the service, if, even in this unfertile region of 
 Peru, they had not met with some appearances of 
 wealth and cultivation, which seemed to justify the 
 report of their leader. At length they reached the 
 province of Coaque [April 14] ; and, having surprised 
 the principal settlement of the natives, they seized 
 their vessels and ornaments of gold and silver, to thf> 
 amount of thirty thousand pesos, with other booty of 
 such value, as dispelled all their doubts, and ins,piredL 
 the most desponding with sanguine hopes. 
 
 Pizarro himself was so much delighted with, this 
 rich spoil, which he considered as the first fruits of a 
 [and abounding with treasure, that he instantly 
 despatched one of his ships to Panama with a largo 
 remittance to Almagro ; and another to Nicarajrj a 
 with a considerable sum to several persons of influ- 
 ence in that province, in hopes of alluring adventurers 
 by this early display of the wealth wh''eh h e h a d 
 acquired. Meanwhile he continued his march 
 along the coast, and disdaining to employ any 
 means of reducing the natives. hut'force, he attacked 
 them with such violence in their scattered habita- 
 tions, as compelled them either to retire into the 
 nterior country, or to submit to his yoke. This, 
 udden appearance of invaders, whose aspect an 
 manners were so strange, and whose power seemed, 
 to be irresistible, made the same dreadful inv 
 aression as in other parts of America. Piiarro 
 hardly met with resistance until he attacked the 
 sland of Puna in the bay of Guayaquil. As that 
 was better peopled than the country through which 
 ic had passed, and its inhabitants fiercer and less 
 civilized than those of the continent, they defended 
 hemselves with such obstinate valour, that Pizarro 
 spent six months in reducing them to subjection, 
 ?rom Puna he proceeded to Tumbez, where the- 
 distempers which raged among his men compelled 
 lim to remain for three months. 
 
 While he was thus employed, he began to, reap 
 advantage from his attention to spread the fame of his 
 first success to Coaque, TWQ different d^achments. 
 
IK) 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 rrived from Nicaragua, which, though neither ex- 
 ceeded thirty men, he considered as a reinforcement 
 of great consequence to his feeble band [A. n. 1532], 
 especially as the one was under the command of 
 Sebastian Benalcazar, and the other of Hernando 
 Soto, officers not inferior in merit and reputation to 
 any who had served in America. From Tumboz 
 [May 16] he proceeded to the river Piura, and in 
 an advantageous station near the mouth of it, he 
 established the first Spanish colony in Peru, to which 
 he gave the name of St. Michael. 
 
 As Pizarro continued to advance towards the centre 
 of the Peruvian empire, he gradually received more 
 full information concerning its extent and policy, as 
 well as the situation of its affairs at that juncture. 
 Without some knowledge of these, he could not have 
 conducted his operations with propriety ; and with- 
 out a suitable attention to them, it is impossible to 
 account for the progress which the Spaniards had 
 already made, or to unfold the causes of their subse- 
 quent success. 
 
 At the time when the Spaniards invaded Peru, the 
 dominions of its sovereigns extended in length, from 
 north to south, above fifteen hundred miles along the 
 Pacific ocean. Its breadth, from east to west, was 
 much less considerable, being uniformly bounded by 
 the vast ridge of the Andes, stretching from its one 
 extremity to the other. Peru, like the rest of the 
 New World, was originally possessed by small in- 
 dependent tribes, differing from each other in man- 
 ners, and in their forms of rude policy. All, however, 
 were so little civilized, that if the traditions concern- 
 ing their mode of life, preserved among their descen- 
 dants, deserve credit, they must he classed among 
 the most unimproved savages of America. Stran- 
 gers to every species of cultivation or regular 
 industry, without any fixed residence, and unac- 
 quainted with those sentiments and obligations 
 which form the first bonds of social union, they are 
 *aid to have roamed about naked in the forests, with 
 which the country was then covered, more like wild 
 beasts than like men. After they had struggled for 
 several ages with the hardships and calamities which 
 are inevitable in such a state, and when no circum- 
 stance seemed to indicate the approach of any un- 
 common effort towards improvement, we are told 
 that there appeared, on the banks of the lakeTitiaca, 
 a man and woman of majestic form, clothed in decent 
 garments. They declared themselves to be children 
 of the.^sun, sent by their beneficent parent, who 
 beheld with pity the miseries of the human race, to 
 instruct, and to reclaim them. At their persuasion, 
 enforced by reverence for the divinity in whose name 
 they were supposed to speak, several of the dispersed 
 savages united together, and received their commands 
 as heavenly injunctions, followed them to Cuzco, 
 where they settled and began to lay the foundations 
 of a city. 
 
 k Manco Capac and Mama Ocollo, for such were the 
 names of those extraordinary personages, having thus 
 collected some wandering tribes, formed that social 
 union, which, by multiplying the desires and uniting 
 the efforts of the human species, excites industry, 
 and leads to improvement. Manco Capac instructed 
 the men in agriculture and other useful arts ; Mama 
 Ocollo taught the women to spin and to weave. By 
 the labour of the one sex, subsistence became less 
 precarious ; by that of the other, life was rendered 
 more comfortable. After securing the objects of 
 first necessity in an infant state, by providing food, 
 raiment, and habitations for the rude people of whom 
 he took^ charge, -JVlanco Capac turned his attention 
 
 towards introducing such laws and policy as m;ht 
 perpetuate their happiness. By his institutions, 
 which shall be more particularly explained hereafter, 
 the various relations in private life were established, 
 and the duties resulting from them prescribed with 
 such propriety, as gradually formed a barbarous 
 people to decency of manners. In public adminis- 
 tration, the functions of persons in authority wciv 
 so precisely defined, and the subordination of those 
 under their jurisdiction maintained with such a 
 steady hand, that the society in which he presided 
 soon assumed the aspect of a regular and well- go- 
 verned state. 
 
 Thus, according to the Indian tradition, was 
 founded the empire of the Incas or Lords of Peru. 
 At first its extent was small. The territory of Man- 
 co Capac did not reach above eight leagues from 
 Cuzco. But within its narrow precincts he exercised 
 absolute and uncontrolled authority. His successors, 
 as their dominions extended, arrogated a similar 
 jurisdiction over the new subjects which they ac- 
 quired ; the despotism of Asia was not more com- 
 plete. The Incas were not only obeyed as monarchs, 
 but revered as divinities. Their blood was hold to 
 be sacred, and by prohibiting intermarriages with tlip 
 people, was never contaminated by mixing with that 
 of any other race. The family, thus separated from 
 the rest of the nation, was distinguished by pecu- 
 liarities in dress and ornaments, which it was un- 
 lawful for others to assume. The monarch himself 
 appeared with ensigns of royalty reserved for him 
 alone ; and received from his subjects marks of ob- 
 sequious homage and respect, which approached 
 almost to adoration. 
 
 But, among the Peruvians, this unbounded power 
 of their monarchs seems to have been uniformly 
 accompanied with attention to the good of their sub- 
 jects. It was not the rage of conquest, if we may 
 believe the accounts of their countrymen, that 
 prompted the incas to extend their dominions, but 
 the desire of diffusing the blessings of civilization, 
 and the knowledge of the arts which they possessed, 
 among the barbarous people whom they reduced. 
 During a succession of twelve monarchs, it is said 
 that not one deviated from this beneficent cha- 
 racter. 
 
 When the Spaniards first visited the coast of Peru, 
 in the year one thousand five hundred and twenty-six, 
 Huana Capac, the twelfth monarch from the founder 
 of the state, was seated on the throne. He is repre- 
 sented as a prince distinguished not only for the 
 pacific virtues peculiar to the race, but eminent for 
 his martial talents. By his victorious arms the 
 kingdom of Quito was subjected, a conquest of such 
 extent and importance as almost doubled the power 
 of the Peruvian empire. He was fond of residing 
 in the capital of that valuable province which he had 
 added to his dominions ; and, notwithstanding the 
 ancient and fundamental law of the monarchy against 
 polluting the royal blood by any foreign alliance, he 
 married the daughter of the vanquished monarch of 
 Quito. She bore him a son named Atahuaipa, whom, 
 on his death at Quito, which seems to have happened 
 about the year one thousand five hundred and 
 twenty-nine, he appointed his successor in that 
 kingdom, leaving the rest of his dominions to Huascar, 
 his eldest son, by a mother of the royal race. Greatly 
 as the Peruvians revered the memory of a monarch 
 who had reigned with greater reputation and splen- 
 dour than any of his predecessors, the destination of 
 Huana Capac concerning the succession appeared so 
 repugnant to ajnaxim coeval with the empire, and 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 1-11 
 
 founded on authority deemed sacred, that it was no 
 sooner known at Cuzco than it excited general dis- 
 gust. Encouraged by those sentiments of his sub- 
 jects, Huascar required his brother to renounce the 
 government of Quito, and to acknowledge him as his 
 lawful superior. But it had been the first care of 
 Atahualpa to gain a large body of troops which had 
 accompanied his father to Quito. These were the 
 flower of the Peruvian warriors, to whose valour 
 Huana Capac had been indebted for all his victories. 
 Relying on their support, Atahualpa first eluded his 
 brother's demand, and then marched against him in 
 hostile array. 
 
 Thus the ambition of two young men, the title of 
 the one founded on ancient usage, and that of the ! 
 other asserted by the veteran troops, involved Peru in ! 
 rivil war, a calamity to which, under a succession of i 
 virtuous princes, it had hitherto been a stranger. In j 
 such a contest the issue was obvious. The force of 
 arms triumphed over the authority of laws. Ata- 
 hualpa remained victorious, and made a cruel use of j 
 his victory. Conscious of the defect in his own title ; 
 to thn crown, he attempted to exterminate the royal 
 race, by putting to death all the children of the sun 
 descenaed from Manco Capac, whom he could seize 
 either by force or stratagem. From a political motive, 
 the life of his unfortunate rival Huascar, who had 
 been taken prisoner in a battle which derided the fate 
 of the empire, was prolonged for some time, that by 
 issuing orders in his name tbe usurper might more 
 easily establish his own authority. 
 
 When Pizarro landed in the bay of St. Matthew, 
 this civil war raged between the two brothers in its 
 greatest fury. Had he made any hostile attempt in 
 his former visit to Peru in the year one thousand five 
 hundred and twenty-seven, he must then have en- 
 countered the force of a powerful state, united under 
 a monarch possessed of capacity as well as courage, 
 and unembarrassed with any care that could divert 
 him from opposing his progress. But at this time the 
 two competitors, though they received early accounts 
 of the arrival and violent proceedings of the Spaniards, 
 were so intent upon the operations of a war which 
 they deemed more interesting, that they paid no at- 
 tention to the motions of an enemy, too inconsider- 
 able in number to excite any great alarm, and to 
 whom it would be easy, as they imagined, to give a 
 check when more at leisure. 
 
 By this fortunate coincidence of events, whereof 
 Pizarro could have no foresight, and of which, from 
 his defective mode of intercourse with the people of 
 the country, he remained long ignorant, he was per- 
 mitted to carry on his operations unmolested, and 
 advance to the centre of a great empire before one 
 effort of its power was exerted to stop his career. 
 During their progress, the Spaniards had acquired 
 some imperfect knowledge of this struggle between 
 the two contending factions. The first complete 
 information with respect to it they received from 
 messengers whom Huascar sent to Pizarro, in order 
 to solicit his aid against Atahualpa, whom he re- 
 presented as a rebel and an usurper. Pizarro per- 
 ceived at once the importance of this intelligence, 
 and foresaw so clearly all the advantages which might 
 be derived from this divided state of the kingdom 
 which he had invaded, that without waiting for the 
 reinforcement which he expected from Panama, he 
 determined to push forward, while intestine discord 
 put it out of the power of the Peruvians to attack 
 him with their whole force, and while, by taking part, j 
 as circumstances should incline him, with one of the ! 
 competitors, he might be enabled with greater case i 
 
 to crush both. Enterprising as the Spaniards of 
 that age were in all their operations against Ameri- 
 cans, and distinguished as Pizarro was among his 
 countrymen for dating courage, we can hardly sup- 
 pose, that, after having proceeded hitherto slowly 
 and with much caution, he would have changed at 
 once his system of operation, and have ventured 
 upon a measure so hazardous, without some new 
 motive or prospect to justify it. 
 
 As he was obliged to divide his troops, in order to 
 leave a garrison in St. Michael, sufficient to defend 
 a Station of equal importance as a place of retreat in 
 case of any disaster, and as a poit for receiving any 
 supplies which should come from Panama, he began 
 his march with a very slender and ill-accoutred train 
 of followeis. They consisted of sixty-two horsemen 
 (12S), and a hundred and two foot-soldiers, of whom 
 twenty were armed with cross-bows, and three with 
 muskets. He directed his course towards Caxamalca, 
 a small town at the distance of twelve days' march 
 from St. Michael, where Atahualpa was encamped 
 with a considerable body of troops. Before he had 
 proceeded far, ari officer despatched by the inca met 
 him with a valuable present from that prince, accom- 
 panied with a proffer of his alliance, and assurances 
 of a friendly reception at Caxamalca. Pizarro, ac- 
 cording to the usual artifice of his countrymen in 
 America, pretended to come as the ambassador of a 
 very powerful monarch, and declared that he was now 
 advancing with an intention to offer Atahualpa his 
 aid against those enemies who disputed his title to 
 the throne. As the object of the Spaniards in 
 entering their country was altogether incomprehen- 
 sible to the Peruvians, they had formed various con- 
 jectures concerning it, without being able to decide 
 whether they should consider their new guests as 
 beings of a superior nature, who had visited them 
 from some beneficent motive, or as formidable 
 avengers of their crimes, and enemies to their repose 
 and liberty. The continual professions of the Span- 
 iards, that they came to enlighten them with the 
 knowledge of truth, and lead them in the way of 
 happiness, favoured the former opinion ; the outrages 
 which they committed, their rapaciousness and 
 cruelty , were awful confirmations of the latter. While 
 in this state of uncertainty, Pizarro's declaration of 
 his pacific intentions so far removed all the inca's 
 fears, that he determined to give him a friendly re- 
 ception. In consequence of this resolution, thq 
 Spaniards were allowed to march in tranquillity 
 across the sandy desert between St. Michael ant^ 
 Motupe, where the most feeble effort of an enemy, 
 added to the unavoidable distresses which they suf- 
 fered in passing through that comfortless region, 
 must have proved fatal to them (1 29). From Motup3 
 they advanced towards the mountains which encom- 
 passed the low country of Peru, and passed through 
 a defile so narrow and inaccessible, that a few men 
 might have defended it against a numerous army, 
 But here likewise, from the same inconsiderate cre- 
 dulity of the inca, the Spaniards met with no op- 
 position, and took quiet possession of a fort erected; 
 for the security of that important station. As they 
 now approached near to Caxamalca, Atahualpa re* 
 newed his professions of friendship ; and as an 
 evidence of their sincerity, sent them presents of 
 greater value than the former. 
 
 On entering Caxamalca, Pizarro took possession of 
 a large court, on one side of which was a house which 
 the Spanish historians call a palace of the inca, and on 
 the other a temple of the sun, the whole surrounded 
 with a strong rampart or wall of earth. When he 
 
142 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 had posted his troops in this advantageous station, 
 he dispatched his brother Ferdinand and Hernando 
 Soto to the camp of Atahualpa, which was about a 
 league distant from the town. He instructed them 
 to confirm the declaration which he had formerly- 
 made of his pacific disposition, and to desire an 
 interview with the inca, that he might explain more 
 fully the intention of the Spaniards in visiting his 
 country. They were treated with all the respectful 
 hospitality usual among the Peruvians in the re- 
 ception of their most cordial friends, and Atahualpa 
 promised to visit the Spanish commander next day 
 in his quarters. The decent deportment of the Pe- 
 ruvian monarch, the order of his court, and the 
 reverence with which his subjects approached his 
 person and obeyed his commands, astonished those 
 Spaniards who had never met in America with any 
 thing more dignified than the petty cazique of a 
 barbarous tribe. But their eyes were still more 
 powerfully attracted by the vast profusion of wealth 
 which they observed in the inca's camp. The rich 
 ornaments worn by him and his attendants, the 
 vessels of gold and silver in which the repast 
 offered to them was served up, the multitude of 
 utensils of every kind formed of those precious 
 metals, opened prospects far exceeding any idea of 
 opulence that an European of the sixteenth century 
 could form. 
 
 On their return to Caxamalca, while their minds 
 were yet warm with admiration and desire of the 
 wealth which they had beheld, they gave such a 
 description of it to their countrymen as confirmed 
 Pizarro in a resolution which he had already taken. 
 From his own obserration of American manners 
 during his long service in the New World, as well as 
 from the advantages which Cortes had derived from 
 seizing Montezuma, he knew of what consequence it 
 was to have the inca in his power. For this purpose, 
 he formed a plan as daring as it was perfidious. 
 Notwithstanding the character that he had assumed, 
 of an ambassador from a powerful monarch who 
 courted an alliance with the inca, and in violation of 
 the repeated offers which he had made to him of his 
 own friendship and assistance, he determined to avail 
 himself of the unsuspicious simplicity with which 
 Atahualpa relied upon his professions, and to seize 
 the person of the inca during the interview to which 
 he had invited him. He prepared for the execution 
 of his scheme with the same deliberate arrangement, 
 and with as little compunction, as if it had reflected 
 no disgrace on himself or his country. He divided 
 his cavalry into three small squadrons, under the 
 command of his brother Ferdinand, Soto, and Benal- 
 cazar ; his infantry were formed in one body, except 
 twenty of most tried courage, whom he kept near his 
 own person to support him in the dangerous service 
 which he reserved for himself ; the artillery, con- 
 sisting of two field- pieces, and the cross-bowmen, 
 were placed opposite to the avenue by which Ata- 
 hualpa was to approach. All were commanded to 
 keep within the square, and not to move until the 
 signal for action was given. 
 
 [Nov. 16.] Early in the morning the Peruvian 
 camp was all in motion. But as Atahualpa was 
 so solicitous to appear with the greatest splendour 
 and magnificence in his first interview with the 
 strangers, the preparations for this were so tedious, 
 that the day was far advanced before he began his 
 march. Even then, lest the order of the procession 
 should be deranged, he moved so slowly, that the 
 Spaniards became impatient, and apprehensive that 
 Borne suspicion of their intention might be the cause 
 
 of this delay. In order to remove this, Pizarro 
 despatched one of his officers with fresh assurances of 
 his friendly disposition. At length the inca ap- 
 proached. First of all appeared four hundred men, 
 in an uniform dress, as harbingers to clear the way 
 before him. He himself sitting on a throne or couch 
 adorned with plumes of various colours, and almost 
 covered with plates of gold and silver enriched with 
 precious stones, was carried on the shoulders of his 
 principal attendants. Behind him came some chief 
 officers of his court, carried in the same manner. 
 Several bands of singers and dancers accompanied 
 this cavalcade; and the whole plain was covered with 
 troops, amounting to more than thirty thousand men. 
 
 As the inca drew near the Spanish quarters, father 
 Vincent Valverde, chaplain to the expedition, advanced 
 with a crucifix in one hand, and a breviary in the 
 other, and in a long discourse explained to him the 
 doctrine of the creation, the fall of Adam, the incar- 
 nation, the sufferings and resurrection of Jesus 
 Christ, the appointment of St. Peter as God's vice- 
 gerent on earth, the transmission ef his apostolic 
 power by succession to the popes, the donation 
 made to the king of Castile, by pope Alexander, of 
 all the regions of the New World. In consequence 
 of all this, he required Atahualpa to embrace the 
 Christian faith, to acknowledge the supreme juris- 
 diction of the pope, and to submit to the king of 
 Castile as his lawful sovereign ; promising if he com- 
 plied instantly with this requisition, that the Castilian 
 monarch would protect his dominions, and permit 
 him to continue in the exercise of his royal authority; 
 but if he should impiously refuse to obey this sum- 
 mons, he denounced war against him in his master's 
 name, and threatened him with the most dreadful 
 effects of his vengeance. 
 
 This strange harangue , unfolding deep mysteries, 
 and alluding to unknown facts, of which no power of 
 eloquence could have conveyed at once a distinct idea 
 to an American, was so lamely translated by an un- 
 skilful interpreter, little acquainted with the idiom 
 of the Spanish tongue, and incapable of expressing 
 himself with propriety in the language of the inca, 
 that its general tenor was altogether incomprehen- 
 sible to Atahualpa. Some parts in it, of more obvious 
 meaning, filled him with astonishment and indigna- 
 tion. His reply, however, was temperate. He began 
 with observing, that he Avas lord of the dominions 
 over which he reigned by hereditary succession ; 
 and added, that he could not conceive how a foreign 
 priest should pretend to dispose of territories which 
 did not belong to him ; that if such a preposterous 
 grant had been made, he, who was the rightful pos- 
 sessor, refused to confirm it ; that he had no inclina- 
 tion to renounce the religious institutions established 
 by his ancestors ; nor would he forsake the service 
 of the sun, the immortal divinity whom he and his 
 people revered, in order to worship the god of the 
 Spaniards, who was subject 'to death ; that with re- 
 spect to other matters contained in his discourse, 
 as he had never heard of them before, and did not 
 now understand their meaning, he desired to know 
 where the priest had learned things so extraordinary. 
 " In this book," answered Valverde, reaching out to 
 him his breviary. The inca opened it eagerly, and 
 turning over the leaves, lifted it to his ear : "This," 
 says he, " is silent; it tells me nothing;" and threw 
 it with disdain to the ground. The enraged 
 monk, running towards his countrymen, cried out, 
 " To arms, Christians, to arms ; the word of God is 
 insulted; avenge this profanation on those impious 
 dogs (130}." 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 143 
 
 Pizarro, who, during this long conference, had 
 with difficulty restrained his soldiers, eager to seize 
 ihe rich spoils of which they had now so near a view, 
 immediately gave the signal of assault. At once the 
 martial music struck up, the cannon and muskets 
 began to fire, the horse sallied out fiercely to the 
 charge, the infantry rushed on sword in hand. The 
 Peruvians, astonished at the suddenness of an attack 
 which they did not expect, and dismayed with the 
 destructive effect of the fire-arms, and the irresistible 
 impression of the cavalry, fled with universal conster- 
 nation on every side, without, attempting either to 
 annoy the enemy or to defend themselves. Pizarro, 
 at the head of his chosen band, advanced directly 
 towards the inca ; and though^ his nobles crowded 
 around him with officious zeal, and fell in numbers 
 at his feet, while they vied one with another in 
 sacrificing their own lives, that they might cover the 
 sacred person of their sovereign, the Spaniards soon 
 penetrated to the royal seat'; and Pizarro, seizing the 
 inca by the arm, dragged him to the ground, and 
 carried him as a prisoner to his quarters. The fate 
 of the monarch increased the precipitate flight of his 
 followers. The Spaniards pursued them towards 
 every quarter, and with deliberate and unrelenting 
 barbarity continued to slaughter wretched fugitives, 
 who never once offered to resist. The carnage did 
 not cease until the close of the day. About four 
 thousand Peruvians were killed. Not a single 
 Spaniard fell, nor was one wounded but Pizarro 
 himself, whose hand was slightly hurt by one of his 
 own soldiers, while struggling eagerly to lay hold on 
 the inca (131). 
 
 The plunder of the field was rich beyond any idea 
 which the Spaniards had yet formed concerning the 
 wealth of Peru, and they were so transported 
 with the value of the acquisition, as well as the 
 greatness of their success, that they passed the 
 night in the extravagant exultation natural to in- 
 digent adventurers on such an extraordinary change 
 of fortune. 
 
 At first the captive monarch could hardly believe 
 a calamity, which he so little expected, to be real. 
 But he soon felt all the misery of his fate, and the 
 dejection into which he sunk was in proportion to 
 the height of grandeur from which he had fallen. 
 Pizarro, afraid of losing all the advantages which he 
 hoped to derive from the possession of such a prisoner, 
 laboured to console him with professions of kindness 
 and respect, that corresponded ill with his actions. 
 By residing among the Spaniards, the inca quickly 
 discovered their ruling passion, which indeed they 
 were nowise solicitous to conceal, and, by applying 
 to that, made an attempt to recover his liberty. He 
 offered as a ransom what astonished the Spaniards, 
 even after all they now knew concerning the opulence 
 of his kingdom. The apartment in which he was 
 confined was twenty-two feet in length and sixteen 
 in breadth ; he undertook to fill it with vessels of 
 gold as high as he could reach. Pizarro closed 
 eagerly with the tempting proposal, and a line was 
 drawn upon the walls of the chamber, to mark 
 the stipulated height to which the treasure was to 
 rise. 
 
 Atahualpa, transported with having obtained some 
 prospect of liberty, took measures instantly for 
 fulfilling his part of the agreement, by sending mes- 
 sengers to Cuzco, Quito, and other places, where 
 gold had been amassed in largest quantities, either 
 for adorning the temples of the gods, or the houses 
 of the inca, to bring what was necessary for com- 
 pleting his ransom directly to Caxamalca,' Though 
 
 Atahualpa was now in the custody of his enemies, 
 yet so much were the Peruvians accustomed to respect 
 every mandate issued by their sovereign, that his 
 orders were executed with the greatest alacrity. 
 Soothed with hopes of recovering his liberty by this 
 means, the subjects of the inca were afraid of en- 
 dangering his life by forming any other scheme for 
 his relief; and though the force of the empire was 
 still entire, no preparations were made and no army 
 assembled to avenge their own wrongs or those of 
 their monarch. The Spaniards remained in Caxamalca 
 tranquil and unmolested. Small detachments of their 
 number marched into remote provinces of the 
 empire, and instead of meeting with any opposition, 
 were every where received with marks of the most 
 submissive respect (132). 
 
 Inconsiderable as those parties were, and desirous 
 as Pizarro might be to obtain some knowledge of the 
 interior state of the country, he could not have 
 ventured upon any diminution of his main body, if he 
 had not about this time [December] received an 
 account of Almagro's having landed at St. Michael 
 with such a reinforcement as would almost double 
 the number of his followers. The arrival of this long- 
 expected succour was not more agreeable to the 
 Spaniards than alarming to the 'inca. He saw the 
 power of his enemies increase ; and as he knew 
 neither the source whence they derived their supplies, 
 nor the means by which they were conveyed to Peru, 
 he could not foresee to what a height the inundation 
 that poured in upon his dominions might rise. While 
 disquieted with such apprehensions, he learned that 
 some Spaniards, in their way to Cuzco, had visited 
 his brother Huascar in the place where he kept him 
 confined, and that the captive prince had represented 
 to them the justice of his own cause, and as an induce- 
 ment to espouse it, had promised them a quantity of 
 treasure greatly beyond that which Atahnalpa had 
 engaged to pay for his ransom. If the Spaniards 
 should listen to this proposal, Atahualpa perceived 
 his own destruction to be inevitable ; and suspecting 
 that their insatiable thirst for gold would tempt them 
 to lend a favourable ear to it, he determined to 
 sacrifice his brother's life, that he might save his 
 own [A. D.*1533] ; and his orders for this' purpose 
 were executed, like all his other commands, with 
 scrupulous punctuality. 
 
 Meanwhile Indians daily arrived at Caxamalca 
 from different parts of the kingdom, loaded with 
 treasure. A great part of the stipulated quantity 
 was now amassed, and Atahualpa assured the 
 Spaniards, that the only thing which prevented the 
 whole from being brought in, was the remoteness of 
 the provinces where it was deposited. But such 
 vast piles of gold presented continually to the view of 
 needy soldiers, had so inflamed their avarice, that 
 it was impossible any longer to restrain their impatience 
 to obtain possession of this rich booty. Orders were 
 given for melting down the whole, except some pieces 
 of curious fabric, reserved as a present for the 
 emperor. After setting apart the fifth due to the 
 crown, and a hundred thousand pesos as a donative 
 to the soldiers which arrived with Almagro, there 
 remained one million five hundred and twenty-eight 
 thousand five hundred pesos to Pizarro and his 
 followers. The festival of St. James, the patron saint 
 of Spain, was the day [July 25] chosen for the 
 partition of this enormous sum, and the manner of 
 conducting it strongly marks the strange alliance of 
 fanaticism with avarice, which I have more than once 
 had occasion to point out as a striking feature in the 
 character of the conquerors of tlie New World. 
 
144 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Though assembled to divide the spoils of an innocent 
 people, procured by deceit, extortion, and cruelty, the 
 transaction began with a solemn invocation of the name 
 of God, as if they could have expected the guidance of 
 Heaven in distributing those wages of iniquity. In this 
 division above eight thousand pesos, at that time not 
 inferior in effective value to as many pounds sterling 
 in the present century, fell to the share of each 
 horseman, and half that sum to each foot soldier. 
 Pizarro himself, and his officers, received dividends 
 in proportion to the dignity of their rank. 
 
 There is no example in history of such a sudden 
 acquisition of wealth by military service, nor was 
 ever a sum so great divided among so small a number 
 of soldiers. Many of them having received a recom- 
 pence for their services far beyond their most 
 sanguine hopes, were so impatient to retire from 
 fatigue and danger, in order to spend the remainder 
 of their days iu their native country in ease and 
 opulence, that they demanded their discharge with 
 clamorous importunity. Pizarro, sensible that from 
 such men he could expect neither enterprise in action 
 nor fortitude in suffering, and persuaded that 
 wherever they went the display of their riches would 
 allure adventurers, less opulent but more hardy, to his 
 standard, granted their suit without reluctance, and 
 permitted above sixty of them to accompany his 
 brother Ferdinand, whom he sent to Spain with an 
 account of his success, and the present destined for 
 the emperor. > 
 
 The Spaniards having divided among them the 
 treasure amassed for the inca's ransom, he insisted 
 with them to fulfil their promise of setting him at 
 liberty. But nothing was further from Pizarro's 
 thoughts. During his long service in the New 
 World, he had imbibed those ideas and maxims of 
 his fellow-soldiers, which led them to consider its 
 inhabitants as' an inferior race, neither worthy of the 
 name, nor entitled to the rights, of men. In his com- 
 pact with Atahualpa, he had no other object than to 
 amuse his captive with such a prospect of recovering 
 his liberty, as might induce him to lend all the aid 
 of his authority towards collecting the wealth of his 
 kingdom. Having now accomplished this, he no 
 longer regarded his plighted faith ; and at the very time 
 when the credulous prince hoped to be replaced on 
 his throne, he had secretly resolved to bereave him of 
 life. Many circumstances seemed to have concurred 
 in prompting him to this action, the most criminal 
 and atrocious that stains the Spanish name, amidst 
 all the deeds of violence committed in carrying on 
 the conquests of the New World. 
 
 Though Pizarro had seized the inca, in imitation 
 of Cortes's conduct towards the Mexican monarch, he 
 did not possess talents for carrying on the same artful 
 plan of policy. Destitute of the temper and address 
 requisite for gaining the confidence of his prisoner, he 
 never reaped all the advantages which might have 
 been derived from being master of his person and 
 authority. Atahualpa was, indeed, a prince of 
 greater abilities and discernment than Montezuma, 
 and seems to have penetrated more thoroughly into 
 the character and intentions of the Spaniards. 
 Mutual suspicion and distrust accordingly took place 
 between them. The strict attention with which it 
 was necessary to guard a captive of such importance, 
 greatly increased the fatigue of military duty. The 
 utility of keeping him appeared inconsiderable ; and 
 Pizarro felt him as an encumbrance, from which he 
 wished to be delivered. 
 
 Almagro and his followers had made a demand of 
 an equal share in the iuca's ransom ; and though 
 
 Pizarro had bestowed upon the private men the large 
 gratuity which I have mentioned, and endeavoured to 
 soothe their leader by presents of great value, they 
 still continued dissatisfied. They were apprehensive, 
 that as long as Atahualpa remained a prisoner, 
 Pizarro's soldiers would apply whatever treasure 
 should be acquired, to make up what was wanting 
 of the quantity stipulated for his ransom, and under 
 that pretext exclude them from any part of it. They 
 insisted eagerly on putting the inca to death, that all 
 the adventurers in Peru might thereafter be on an 
 equal footing. 
 
 Pizarro himself began to be alarmed with accounts 
 of forces assembling in the remote provinces of the 
 empire, and suspected Atahualpa of having issued 
 orders for that purpose. These fears and suspicions 
 were artfully increased by Philippillo, one of the 
 Indians whom Pizarro had carried off from Tumbez 
 in the year one thousand five hundred and twenty- 
 seven, and whom he employed as an interpreter. The 
 function which he performed admitting this man to 
 familiar intercourse with the captive monarch, he 
 presumed, notwithstanding the meanness of his birth, 
 to raise his affections to a Coya, or descendant of the 
 sun, one of Atahualpa's wives ; and seeing no pros- 
 pect of gratifying that passion during the life of the 
 monarch, he endeavoured to fill the ears of the 
 Spaniards with such accounts of the inca's secret 
 designs and preparations, as might awaken their 
 jealousy, and incite them to cut him off. 
 
 While Almagro and his followers openly demanded 
 the life of the inca, and Philippillo laboured to ruin 
 him by private machinations, that unhappy prince 
 inadvertently contributed to hasten his own fate. 
 During his confinement he had attached himself 
 with peculiar affections to Ferdinand Pizarro and 
 Hernando Soto ; who, as they were persons of birth 
 and education superior to the rough adventurers with 
 whom they served, were accustomed to behave with 
 more decency and attention to the captive monarch. 
 Soothed with this respect from persons of such high 
 rank, he delighted in their society. But in the 
 presence of the governor he was always uneasy and 
 overawed. This dread soon came to be mingled 
 with contempt. Among all the European arts, what 
 he admired most was that of reading and writing; 
 and he long deliberated with himself, whether he 
 should regard it as a natural or acquired talent. In 
 order to determine this, he desired one of the soldiers, 
 who guarded him, to write the name of God on the 
 nail of his thumb. This he showed successively to 
 several Spaniards, asking its meaning ; and to his 
 amazement, they all, without hesitation, returned the 
 same answer. At length Pizarro entered ; and, on 
 presenting it to him, he blushed, and with some 
 confusion was obliged to acknowledge his ignorance. 
 From that moment Atahualpa considered him as a 
 mean person, less instructed than his own soldiers ; 
 and he had not address enough to conceal the senti- 
 ments with which this discovery had inspired him. 
 To be the object of a barbarian's scorn, not only- 
 mortified the pride of Pizarro, but excited such re- 
 sentment in his breast, as added force to all the other 
 considerations which prompted him to put the inca 
 to death. 
 
 But in order to give some colour of justice to this 
 violent action, and that he himself might be exempted 
 from standing singly responsible for the commission 
 of it, Pizarro resolved to try the inca with all the 
 formalities observed in the criminal courts of Spain. 
 Pizarro himself, and Almagro, with two assistants, 
 were appointed judges, with full power to acquit or to 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 145 
 
 condemn ; an attorney-general was named to carry 
 on the prosecution in the king's name ; counsellors 
 were chosen to assist the prisoner in his defence ; 
 and clerks were ordained to record the proceedings 
 of court. Before this strange tribunal, a charge was 
 exhibited still more amazing. It consisted of various 
 articles ; that Atahualpa, though a bastard, had 
 dispossessed the rightful owner of the throne, and 
 usurped the regal power ; that he had put his brother 
 and lawful sovereign to death ; that he was an idolater, 
 and had not only permitted, but commanded, the 
 offering of human sacrifices; that he had a great 
 number of concubines ; that since his imprisonment 
 he had wasted and embezzled the royal treasures, 
 which now belonged of right to the conquerors ; that 
 lie had incited his subjects to take arms against the 
 Spaniards. On these heads of accusation, some j?of 
 which are so ludicrous, others so absurd, that the 
 effrontery of Pizarro, in making them the foundation 
 of a serious procedure, is not less surprising than his 
 injustice, did this strange court go on to try the 
 sovereign of a great empire, over whom he had no 
 jurisdiction. With respect to each of the articles, 
 witnesses were examined ; but as they delivered their 
 evidence in their native tongue, Philippillo had it in 
 his power to give their words whatever turn best 
 suited his malevolent intentions. To judges pre- 
 determined in their opinion, this evidence appeared 
 Eufficient. 
 
 They pronounced Atahualpa guilty, and condemned 
 him to be burnt alive. Friar Valverde prostituted 
 the authority of his sacred function to confirm this 
 sentence, and by his signature warranted it to be just. 
 Astonished at his fate, Atahualpa endeavoured to 
 avert it by tears, by promises, and by entreaties that 
 he might be sent to Spain, wliere a monarch would 
 be the arbiter of his lot. But pity never touched the 
 unfeeling heart of Pizarro. He ordered him to be 
 led instantly to execution; and, what added to the 
 bitterness of his last moments, the same monk who 
 had just ratified his doom, offered to console, and 
 attempted to convert him. The most powerful argu- 
 ment Valverde employed to prevail with him to 
 embrace the Christian faith, was a promise of mitiga- 
 tion in his punishment. The dread of a cruel death 
 extorted from the trembling victim a desire of 
 receiving baptism. The ceremony was performed; 
 and Atahualpa, instead of being burnt, was strangled 
 at the stake. 
 
 Happily for the credit of the Spanish nation, even 
 among the profligate adventurers which it sent forth 
 to conquer and desolate the New World, there were 
 persons who retained some tincture of the Castilian 
 generosity and honour. Though, before the trial of 
 Atahualpa, Ferdinand Pizarro had set out for Spain, 
 and Soto was sent on a separate command at a dis- 
 tance from Caxamalca, this odious transaction was 
 not carried on without censure and opposition. 
 Several officers, and among those some of the greatest 
 reputation and most respectable families in the 
 service, not only remonstrated, but protested against 
 this measure of their general, as disgraceful to their 
 country, as repugnant to every maxim of equity, as a 
 violation of public faith, and an usurpation of juris- 
 diction over an independent monarch, to which they 
 had no title. But their laudable endeavours were 
 vain. Numbers, and the opinions of such as held 
 every thing to be lawful which they deemed advan- 
 tageous, prevailed. History, however, records even 
 the unsuccessful exertions of virtue with applause ; 
 and the Spanish writers, in relating events where the 
 valour of their nation is more conspicuous thau its 
 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA, No, 19. 
 
 humanity, have not failed to preserve the names of 
 those who made this laudable effort to save their 
 country from the infamy of having perpetrated such 
 a crime. 
 
 On the death of Atahualpa, Piaarro invested one of 
 his sons with the ensigns of royalty, hoping that a 
 young man without experience might prove a more 
 passive instrument in his hands, than an ambitious 
 monarch, who had been accustomed to independent 
 command. The people of Cuzco, and the adjacent 
 country, acknowledged Manco Capac, a brother of 
 Huascar, as inca. But neither possessed the authority 
 which belonged to a sovereign of Peru. The violent 
 convulsions into which the empire had been thrown, 
 first by the civil war between the two brothers, and 
 then by the invasion of the Spaniards, had not only 
 deranged the order of the Peruvian government, but 
 almost dissolved its frame. When they beheld their 
 monarch a captive in the power of strangers, and at 
 last suffering an ignominious death, the people in 
 several provinces, as if they had been set free from 
 every restraint of law and decency, broke out in the 
 most licentious excesses. So many descendants of 
 the sun, after being treated with the utmost indignity, 
 had been cut off by Atahualpa, that not only their 
 influence in the state diminished with their number, 
 but the accustomed reverence for that sacred race 
 sensibly decreased. In consequence of this state of 
 things, ambitious men in different parts of the empire 
 aspired to independent authority, and usurped juris- 
 diction to which they had no title. The general who 
 commanded for Atahualpa in Quito, seized the brother 
 and children of his master, put them to a cruel death, 
 and disclaiming any connexion with either inca, 
 endeavoured to establish a separate kingdom for 
 himself. 
 
 The Spaniards, with pleasure beheld the spirit of 
 discord diffusing itself, and the vigour of government 
 relaxing among the Peruvians. They considered those 
 disorders as symptoms of a state hastening towards 
 its dissolution. Pizarro no longer hesitated to 
 advance towards Cuzco, and he had received sucli 
 considerable reinforcements, that he could venture 
 with little danger to penetrate so far into the interior 
 part of the country. The account of the wealth 
 acquired at Caxamalca operated as he had forseen. 
 No sooner did his brother Fordinand, with the 
 officers and soldiers to whom he had given their dis- 
 charge after the partition of the inca's ransom, arrive 
 at Panama, and display their riches in the view of 
 their astonished 'countrymen, than fame spread the 
 account with such exaggeration through all the Spanigh 
 settlements on the South Sea, that the governors of 
 Guatimala, Panama, and Nicaragua, could hardly 
 restrain the people under their jurisdiction from 
 abandoning their possessions, and crowding to that 
 inexhaustible source of wealth which seemed to be 
 opened in Peru. In spite of every check and regu- 
 lation, such numbers resorted thither, that Pizarro 
 began his march at the head of five hundred men, 
 after leaving a considerable garrison in St. Michael, 
 under the command of Benalcazar. The Peruvians 
 had assembled some large bodies of troops to oppose 
 his progress. Several fierce encounters happened, 
 But they terminated like all the actions in America : 
 a few Spaniards were killed or wounded ; the natives 
 were put to flight with incredible slaughter. At 
 length Pizarro forced his way to Cuzco, and took 
 quiet possession of that capital. The riches found 
 there, even after all the natives had carried off and 
 concealed, either from a superstitious veneration for 
 the ornaments of their temples, or out of hatred to 
 U 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 heir rapacious conquerors, exceeded in value what 
 Lad been received as Atahualpa's ransom. But as the 
 Spaniards were now accustomed to the wealth of the 
 country, and it came to be parcelled out among a 
 great number of adventurers, this dividend did not 
 excite the same surprise, either from novelty, or the 
 largeness of the sum that fell to the share of each 
 individual (133). 
 
 During the march to Cuzco, that son of Atahualpa 
 whom Pizarro treated as inca, died: and as the 
 Spaniards substituted no person in his place, the title 
 of Manco Capac seems to have been universally 
 recognised. 
 
 While his fellow-soldiers were thus employed, 
 Benalcazar, governor of St. Michael, an able and 
 enterprising officer, was ashamed of remaining 
 inactive, and impatient to have his name distinguished 
 among the discoverros and conquerors of the New 
 World. The seasonable arrival of a fresh body of 
 recruits from Panama and Nicaragua, put it in his 
 power to gratify this passion. Leaving a sufficient 
 force to protect the infant settlement intrusted to his 
 care, he placed himself at the head of the rest, and 
 set out to attempt the reduction of Quito, where, 
 according to the report of the natives, Atahualpa had 
 left the greatest part of his treasure. Notwithstanding 
 the distance of that city from St. Michael, the difficulty 
 of marching through a mountainous country covered 
 with woods, and the frequent and fierce attacks of 
 the best troops in Peru, commanded by a skilful 
 leader, the valour, good conduct, and perseverance of 
 Benalcazar surmounted every obstacle, and he entered 
 Quito with his victorious troops. But they met with 
 a cruel mortification there. The natives, now ac- 
 quainted to their sorrow with the predominant passion 
 of their invaders, and knowing how to disappoint it, 
 liad carried off all those treasures, the prospect of 
 which had prompted them to undertake this arduous 
 expedition, and had supported them under all the 
 dangers and hardships wherewith they had to 
 struggle in carrying it on. 
 
 Benalcazar was not the only Spanish leader who 
 attacked the kingdom of Quito. The fame of its 
 riches attracted a more powerful enemy. Pedro de 
 Alvarado, who had distinguished himself so eminently 
 in the conquest of Mexico, having obtained the govern- 
 ment of Guatimala aj a recompence for his valour, 
 soon became disgusted with a life of uniform tran- 
 quillity, and longed to be again engaged in the bustle 
 of military sendee. The glory and wealth acquiied 
 by the conquerors of Peru heightened this passion, 
 and gave it a determined direction. Believing, or 
 pretending to believe, that the kingdom of Quito did 
 not lie within the limits of the province allotted to 
 Pizarro, he resolved to invade it. The high reputation 
 of the commander allured volunteers from every 
 quarter. He embarked with five hundred men, of 
 whom above two hundred were of such distinction as 
 to serve on horseback. He landed at Puerto Viejo, 
 and without sufficient knowledge of the country, or 
 proper guides to conduct him, attempted to march 
 directly to Quito, by following the course of the river 
 Guayaquil, and crossing the ridge of the Andes to- 
 wards its head. But in this route one of the most 
 impracticable in all America, his troops endured such 
 fatigue in forcing their way through forests and 
 marshes on the low grounds, and suffered so much 
 from excessive cold when they began to ascend the 
 mountains, that before they reached the plain of Quito, 
 a fifth part of the men and half their horses died, 
 and the rest were so much dispirited and worn out, 
 as to be almost unfit for service (134). There they 
 
 met with a body, not of Indians but of Spaniards, 
 drawn up in hostile array against them. Pizarro 
 having received an account of Alvarado's armament, 
 had detached Ahnagro with some troops to oppose 
 this formidable invader of his jurisdiction ; and these 
 were joined by Benalcazar, and his victorious party. 
 Alvarado, though surprised at the sight of enemies 
 whom he did not expect, advanced boldly to the 
 cha.'ge. But, by the interposition of some moderate 
 men in each party, an amicable accommodation took 
 place ; and the fatal period, when Spaniards suspended 
 their conquests to imbrue their hands in the blood of 
 their countrymen, was postponed a few years. Alvarado 
 engaged to return to his government, upon Almagro's 
 paying him a hundred thousand pesos to defray the 
 expence of his armament. Most of his followers 
 remained in the country; and an expedition, which 
 threatened Pizarro and his colony with ruin, con- 
 tributed to augment its strength. 
 
 By this time Ferdinand Pizarro had landed in 
 Spain. The immense quantities of gold and silver 
 which he imported'(135), filled thekingdom with noless 
 astonishment than they had excited in Panama and 
 the adjacent provinces. Pizarro was received by the 
 emperor with the attention due to the bearer of a 
 present so rich as to exceed any idea which the 
 Spaniards had formed concerning the value of their 
 acquisitions in America, even after they had been 
 ten years masters of Mexico. In recompence of his 
 brother's services, his authority was confirmed with 
 ne.wpowers and privileges, and the addition of seventy 
 leagues, extending along the coast, to the southward 
 of the territory granted in his former patent. Almagro 
 received the honours which he had so long desired. 
 The title of adelantado, or governor, was conferred 
 upon, him, with jurisdiction over two hundred leagues 
 of country, stretching beyond the southern limits of 
 the province allotted to Pizarro. Ferdinand himself 
 did not go unrewarded. He was admitted into the 
 military order of St. Jago, a distinction always 
 acceptable to a Spanish gentleman, and soon set out 
 on his return to Peru, accompanied by many persons 
 of higher rank than had yet served in that country. 
 
 Some account of his negociations reached Peru 
 before he arrived there himself. Almagro no sooner 
 learned that he had obtained a royal grant of an in- 
 dependent government, than pretending that Cuzco, 
 the imperial residence of the incas, lay within its 
 boundaries, he attempted to render himself master of 
 that important station. Juan and Gonzalez Pi- 
 zarro prepared to oppose him. Each of the contend- 
 ing parties was supported by powerful adherents, 
 and the dispute was on the point of being terminated 
 by the sword, when Francis Pizarro arrived in the 
 capital. The reconciliation between him and Al- 
 magro had never been cordial. The treachery of 
 Pizarro in engrossing to himself all the honours 
 and emoluments, which ought to have been divided 
 with his associate, was always present in both their 
 thoughts. The former, conscious of his own perfidy, 
 did not expect forgiveness ; the latter, feeling that 
 he had been deceived, was impatient to be avenged ; 
 and though avarice and ambition had induced 
 them not only to dissemble their sentiments, but 
 even to act in concert while in pursuit of wealth 
 and power, nr sooner did they obtain possession of 
 these, than the same pissions which had formed 
 this temporary union gave rise to jealousy and dis- 
 cord. To each of them was attached a small band 
 of interested dependants, who, with the malicious 
 art peculiar to such men, heightened their suspi- 
 cions, and magnified every appearance of offence. 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 147 
 
 But with all those seeds of enmity in their minds, 
 and thus assiduously cherished, each was so tho- 
 roughly acquainted with the abilities and courage 
 of his rival, that they equally dreaded the conse- 
 quences of an open rupture. The fortunate arrival 
 of Pizarro at Cuzco, and the address mingled with 
 firmness which he manifested in his expostulations 
 with Almagro and his partisans, averted that evil 
 for the present. A new reconciliation took place ; 
 the chief article of which was, that Almagro should 
 attempt the conquest of Chili ; and if he did not 
 find in that province an establishment adequate to 
 his merit and expectations, Pizarro, by way of in- 
 demnification, should yield up to him a part of Peru 
 [June 12]. This new agreement, though confirmed 
 with the same sacred solemnities as their first con- 
 tract, was observed with as little fidelity. 
 
 Soon after he concluded this important transaction, 
 Pizarro marched back to the countries on the sea- 
 coast, and as he now enjoyed an interval of tran- 
 quillity undisturbed by any enemy, either Spanish or 
 Indian, he applied himself withthat persevering ardour 
 which distinguishes his character, to introduce a 
 form of regular government :nto the extensive pro- 
 vinces subject to his authority. Though ill qualified 
 by his education to enter into any disquisition con- 
 cerning the principles of civil policy, and little accus- 
 tomed by his former habits of life to attend to its 
 arrangements, his natural sagacity supplied the want 
 both of science and experience. He distributed the 
 country into various districts ; he appointed proper 
 magistrates to preside in each ; and established 
 regulations concerning the administration of justice, 
 the collection of the royal revenue, the working of 
 the mines, and the treatment of the Indians, ex- 
 tremely simple, but well calculated to promote the 
 public prosperity. But though, for the present, he 
 adapted his plan to the infant state of his colony, 
 his aspiring mind looked forward to its future 
 grandeur. He considered himself as laying the foun- 
 dation of a great empire, and deliberated long, and 
 with much solicitude, in what place he should fix 
 the seat of government. Cuzco, the imperial city of 
 the incas, was situated in a corner of the empire, 
 above lour hundred miles from the sea, and much 
 further from Quito, a province of whose value he had 
 formed a high idea. No other settlement of the Pe- 
 ruvians was so considerable as to merit the name of a 
 town, or to allure the Spaniards to fix their residence 
 in it. But in marching through the country, Pizarro 
 had been struck with the beauty and fertility of the 
 valley of Rimac, one of the most extensive and best 
 cultivated in Peru. There, on the banks of a small 
 river, of the same name with the vale which it waters 
 and enriches, at the distance of six miles from Callao 
 the most commodious harbour in the Pacific ocean, he 
 founded a city which he destined to be the capital of 
 his government [A. D. 1535, January 18], He 
 gave it the name of Ciudad de los Reyes, either from 
 the circumstance of having laid the first stone at that 
 season when the church celebrates the festival of the 
 three kings, or, as is more probable, in honour of 
 Juana and Charles, the joint sovereigns of Castile. 
 This name it still retains among the Spaniards in all 
 legal and formal deeds ; but it is better known to 
 foreigners by that of Lima, a corruption of the an- 
 cient appellation of the valley in which it is situated. 
 Under his inspection, the buildings advanced with 
 such rapidity, that it soon assumed the form of a city, 
 which, by a magnificent palace that he erected for him- 
 self, and by the stately houses built by several of his 
 officers, gave, even in its infancy, sow* indication of 
 its subsequent grandeur. 
 
 In consequence of what had been agreed with 
 Pizarro, Almagro began his^march towards Chili ; and 
 as he possessed in an eminent degree the virtues most 
 admired by soldiers, boundless liberality and fearless 
 courage, his standard was followed by five hundred 
 and seventy men, the greatest body of Europeans 
 that had hitherto been assembled in Peru. From im- 
 patience to finish the expedition, or from that con- 
 tempt of hardship and danger acquired by all the 
 Spaniards who had served long in America, Almagvo, 
 instead of advancing along the level country on the 
 coast, chose to march across the mountains by a route 
 that was shorter indeed, but almost impracticable. 
 In this attempt his troops were exposed to every ca- 
 lamity which men can suffer, from fatigue, from famine, 
 and from the rigour of the climate in those elevated 
 regions of the torrid zone, where the degree of cold i 
 hardly inferior to what is felt within the polar circle. 
 Many of them perished ; and the survivors when they 
 descended into the fertile plains of Chili, had new 
 difficulties to encounter. They found there a race of 
 men very different from the people of Peru, intrepid, 
 hardy, independent, and in their bodily constitution, 
 as well as vigour of spirit, nearly resembling the war- 
 like tribes of North America. .Though filled with 
 wonder at the first appearance of the Spaniards, and 
 still more astonished at the operations of their cavalry 
 and the effects of their fire arms, the Chilese soon 
 recovered so far from their surprise, as not only to- 
 defend themselves with obstinacy, but to attack their 
 enemies with more determined fierceness than* 
 any American nation had hitherto discovered. The 
 Spaniards, however, continued to penetrate into the 
 country, and collected some considerable quantities 
 of gold : but were so far from thinking of making any 
 settlement amidst such formidable neighbours, that, 
 in spite of all the experience and valour of their 
 leader, the final issue of the expedition still remained 
 extremely dubious, when they were recalled from it, 
 by an unexpected revolution in Peru. The causes of: 
 this important event I shall endeavour to trace to theic 
 source. 
 
 So many adventurers had flocked to Peru from, every 
 Spanish colony in America, and all with sur w . n hjg^ 
 expectations of accumulating independent fortunes at 
 once, that, to men possessed with notions. S o extra- 
 vagant, any mention of acquiring wealtVi gradually, 
 and by schemes of patient industry, would have been 
 not only a disappointment, but an insult. In order 
 to find occupation for men who could not with safety 
 be allowed to remain inactive, Pizarro encouraged 
 some of the most distinguished^officers who had lately 
 joined him, to invade different provinces of the em- 
 pire, which the Spaniards had not hitherto visited', 
 Several large bodies were formed for this purpose; 
 and about the time that Almagro set out for CM?, 
 they marched into remote districts of the country. 
 No sooner did Manco Capac, the inca, observe the- 
 inconsiderate security of the Spaniards in thus dis*~ 
 persing their troops, and that only a handful of sol- 
 diers ^remained in Cuzco, under Juan and Gonzalez; 
 Pizarro, than he thought that the happy period wr*8 
 at length come for vindicating his own rights, for 
 avenging the wrongs of his country, and extirpating 
 its oppressors. Though strictly watched by the Spa- 
 niaids, who allowed him to reside in the palace of his 
 ancestors at Cuzco, he found means of communicating 
 his scheme to the persons who were to be intrusted 
 with the execution of it. Among people accustomed 
 to revere their sovereign as a divinity, every hint of 
 his will carries the authority of a command': and 
 they themselves were now cQAviuced, by the daily in- 
 
14ft 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 crease in the number of their invaders, that the ford 
 hopes which they had long entertained of their vo- 
 luntary departure were altogether vain. All perceived 
 that a vigorous effort of the whole nation was requisite 
 to expel them, and the preparations for it were car- 
 ried on with the secrecy and silence peculiar to 
 Americans. 
 
 After some unsuccessful attempts of the inca to 
 make his escape, Ferdinand Pizarro happening to ar- 
 rive at that time in Cuzco, [A. D. 1536.] he obtained 
 permission from him to attend a great festival which 
 was to be celebrated a few leagues froin the capital. 
 Under pretext of that solemnity, the great men of the 
 empire were assembled. As soon as the inca joined 
 them, the standard of war was erected ; and in a short 
 time all the fighting men, from the confines of Quito 
 to the frontier of Chili/were in arms. Many Spaniards, 
 living securely on the settlements allotted them, 
 were massacred. Several detachments as they marched 
 carelessly through a country which seemed to be 
 tamely submissive to their dominion, were cat off to a 
 man. An army amounting (if we may believe the 
 Spanish writers) to two hundred thousand men, at- 
 tacked Cuzco, which the three brothers endeavoured 
 to defend with only one hundred and seventy 
 Spaniards. Another formidable body invested Lima, 
 and kept the governor closely shut up. There was no 
 longer any communication between the two cities ; the 
 numerous forces of the Peruvians spreading over the 
 country, intercepted every messenger; and as the 
 parties in Cuzco and Lima were equally unacquainted 
 with the fate of their countrymen, each boded the 
 worst concerning the other, and imagined that they 
 themselves were the only persons who had survived 
 the general extinction of the Spanish name in Peru. 
 
 It was at Cuzco, where the inca commanded in 
 person, that the Peruvians made their chief effort. 
 During nine months they carried on the siege with in- 
 cessant ardour, and in various forms ; and though they 
 displayed not the same undaunted ferocity as the 
 Mexican warriors, they conducted some of their oper- 
 ations in a manner which discovered greater sagacity, 
 and a genius more susceptible of improvement in the 
 military art. They not only observed the advantages 
 which the Spaniards derived from their discipline and 
 their weapons, but they endeavoured to imitate the 
 former, and turned the latter against them. They 
 armed a considerable body of their bravest warriors 
 with the swords, the spears, and bucklers, which they 
 had taken from the Spanish soldiers whom they had cut 
 off in different parts of the country. These they en- 
 deavoured to marshal in that regular compact order, 
 to which experience had taught them that the 
 Spaniards were indebted for their irresistible force in 
 action. Some appeared in the field with Spanish 
 muskets, and had acquired skill and resolution enough 
 to use them. A few of the boldest, among whom was 
 the inca himself, were mounted on the horses which 
 they had taken, and advanced briskly to the charge 
 like Spanish cavaliers, with their lances in the rest. 
 It was more by their numbers, however, than by those 
 imperfect essays to imitate European arts and to em- 
 ploy European arms, that the Peruvians annoyed the 
 Spaniards (136). In spite of the valour, heightened 
 l>y despair, with which the three brothers defended 
 Cuzco, Manco Capac recovered possession of one half 
 of his capital ; and in their various efforts to drive him 
 out of it, the Spaniards lost Juan Pizarro, the best 
 beloved of all the brothers, together with some other 
 pe-sons of note. Worn out with the fatigue of inces- 
 sant duty, distressed with the want of provisions, 
 and despairing of being able any longer to resist an 
 
 enemy whose numbers daily increased, the soldiers be- 
 came impatient to abandon Cuzco, in hopes either of 
 joining their countrymen, if any of thenVyet survived, 
 or of forcing their way to the sea, and finding some 
 means of escaping from a country which had been so 
 fatal to the Spanish name. While they were brooding 
 over those desponding thoughts, which their officers 
 laboured in vain to dispel, Almagro appeared sud- 
 denly in the neighbourhood of Cuzco. 
 
 The accounts transmitted to Almagro concerning 
 the general insurrection of the Peruvians, were such 
 as would have induced him, without hesitation, to re- 
 linquish the conquest of Chili, and haston to the aid 
 of his countrymen. But in this resolution he was 
 confirmed by a motive less generous, but more inter- 
 esting. By the same messenger who brought him 
 intelligence of the inca's icvolt, he received the royal 
 patent creating him governor of Chili, and defining 
 the limits of his jurisdiction. Upon considering the 
 tenor of it, he deemed it manifest beyond contradic- 
 tion, that Cuzco lay within the boundaries of his 
 government, and he was equally solicitous to prevent 
 the Peruvians from recovering possession of their c- 
 pital, and to wrest it out of the hands of tho 
 Pizarros. From impatience to accomplish both, he 
 ventured to return by a new route; and in marching 
 through the sandy plains on the coast, he suffered 
 from heat and drought, calamities of a new species, 
 hardly inferior to those in which he had been involved 
 by co'd and famine on the summits of the Andes. 
 
 [A. D. 1537.] His arrival at Cuzco was in a criti- 
 cal moment. The Spaniards and Peruvians fixed their 
 eyes upon him with equal solicitude. The former, as 
 he did not study to conceal his pretensions, were at a 
 loss whether to welcome him as a deliverer, or to take 
 precautions against him as an enemy. The latter, 
 knowing the points in contest between him and his 
 countrymen, flattered themselves that they had more 
 to hope than to dread from his operations. Almagro 
 himself, unacquainted with the detail of the events 
 which had happened in his absence, and solicitous to 
 learn the precise posture of affairs, advanced towards 
 the capital slowly, and with great circumspection. 
 Various negociations with both parties were set on 
 foot. The inca conducted them on his part with much 
 address. At first he endeavoured to gain the friend- 
 ship of Almagro ; and after many fruitless overtures, 
 despairing of any cordial union with a Spaniard, he 
 attacked him by surprise with a numerous body of 
 chosen troops. But the Spanish discipline and valour 
 maintained their wonted superiority. The Peruvians 
 were repulsed with such slaughter, that a great part 
 of their army dispersed, and Almagro proceeded to 
 the gates of Cuzco without interruption. 
 
 The Pizarros, as they had no longer to make head 
 against the Peruvians, directed all their attention to- 
 wards their new enemy, and took measures to obstruct 
 his entry into the capital. Prudence, however, re- 
 strained both parties for some time from turning their 
 arms against one another, while surrounded by com- 
 mon enemies, who would rejoice in the mutual 
 slaughter. Different schemes of accommodation were* 
 proposed. Each endeavoured to deceive the other, or 
 to corrupt his followers. The generous, open, affable 
 temper of Almagro gained many adherents of the 
 Pizarros, who were disgusted with their harsh domi- 
 neering manners. Encouraged by this defection, he 
 advanced towards the city by night, surprised the 
 sentinels, or was admitted by them, and investig the 
 house where the two brothers resided, compelledn them 
 after an obstinate defence, to surrender at discretion. 
 Almagro'* claim of jurisdiction over Cuzco was uni- 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 149 
 
 versally acknowledged, and a form of administration 
 established in his name. 
 
 Two or three persons onlf were killed in this first 
 act of civil hostility ; but it was soon followed by 
 scenes more bloody. Francis Pizarro having dispersed 
 the Peruvians who had invested Lima, and received 
 some considerable reinforcements from Hispaniola 
 and Nicaragua, ordered five hundred men, under the 
 command of Alonso de Alvarado, to march to Cuzco, 
 in hopes of relieving his brothers, if they and their 
 garrison were not already cut off by the Peruvians. 
 This body, which at that period of the Spanish power 
 in America, must be deemed a considerable force, 
 advanced near to the capital before they knew that 
 they had any enemy more formidable than Indians to 
 encounter. It was with astonishment that they 
 beheld their countrymen posted on the banks of the 
 river Abancay to oppose their progress. Almagro, 
 however, wished rather to gain than to conquer them, 
 and by bribes and promises endeavoured to seduce 
 their leader. The fidelity of Alvarado remained un- 
 shaken ; but his talents for war were not equal to his 
 virtue. Almagro amused him with various move- 
 ments, of which he did not comprehend the meaning, 
 while a large detachment of chosen soldiers passed 
 the river by night, [July 12,] fell upon his camp by 
 surprise, broke his troops before they had time to 
 form, and took him prisoner, together with his 
 principal ofiicers. 
 
 By the sudden rout of this body, the contest be- 
 tween the two rivals must have been decided, if 
 Almagro had known as well how to improve as how 
 to gain a victory. Rodrigo Orgognez, an oflicer of 
 great abilities, who having served under the constable 
 Bourbon, when he led the imperial army to Rome, 
 had been accustomed to bold and decisive measures, 
 advised him instantly to issue orders for putting to 
 death Ferdinand and Gonzalo Pizarro, Alvarado, and a 
 few other persons whom he could not hope to gain, 
 and to march directly with his victorious troops to 
 Lima, before the governor had time to prepare for his 
 defence. But Almagro, though he discerned at once 
 the utility of the counsel, and though he had courage 
 to have carried it into execution, suffered himself to 
 be influenced by sentiments unlike those of a soldier 
 of fortune grown old in service, and by scruples 
 which suited not the chief of a party who had drawn 
 his sword in civil war. Feelings of humanity re- 
 strained him from shedding the blood of his opponents ; 
 and the dread of being deemed a rebel, deterred him 
 from entering a province which the king had allotted 
 to another. Though he knew that arms must termi- 
 nate the dispute between him and Pizarro, and 
 resolved not to shun that mode of decision, yet with 
 a timid delicacy preposterous at such a juncture, he 
 was so solicitous that his rival should be considered 
 as the aggressor, that he marched quietly back to 
 Cuzco to wait his approach. 
 
 Pizarro was still unacquainted with all the interest- 
 ing events which had happened near Cuzco. Accounts 
 of Almagro's return, of the loss of the capital, of the 
 death of one brother, of the imprisonment of the other 
 two, and of the defeat of Alvarado, were brought 
 to him at once. Such a tide of misfortunes almost 
 overwhelmed a spirit which had continued firm and 
 erect under the rudest shocks of adversity. But the 
 necessity of attending to his own safety, as well as 
 the desire of revenge, preserved him from sinking 
 under it. He took measures for both with his wonted 
 sagacity. As he had the command of the sea-coast, 
 and expected considerable supplies both of men and 
 military stores, it was no less his interest to gain 
 
 time, and to avoid action, than it was that of Almagro 
 to precipitate operations, and bring the contest to a 
 speedy issue. He had recourse to arts which he had 
 formerly practised with success ; and Almagro was 
 again weak enough to suffer himself to be amused 
 with a prospect of terminating their differences by 
 some amicable accommodation. By varying his over- 
 tures, and shifting his ground as often as it suited 
 his purpose, sometimes seeming to yield to every 
 thing which his rival could desire, and then retract- 
 ing all that he had granted, Pizarro dexterously pro- 
 tracted the negociation to such a length, that, though 
 everyday was precious to Almagro, several months 
 elapsed without coming to any final agreement. 
 While the attention of Almagro, and of the officers 
 with whom he consulted, was occupied in detecting 
 and eluding the fraudulent intentions of the governor, 
 Gonzalo Pizarro, and Alvarado, found means to cor- 
 rupt the soldiers to whose custody they were com- 
 mitted, and not only made their escape themselves, 
 but persuaded sixty of the men who formerly guarded 
 them to accompany their flight. Fortune having thus 
 delivered one of his brothers, the governors scrupled 
 not at one act of perfidy more to procure the release 
 of the other. He proposed, that every point in con- 
 troversy between Almagro and himself should be 
 submitted to the decision of their sovereign ; that, 
 until his award was known, each should retain undis- 
 turbed possession of whatever part of the country he 
 now occupied ; that Ferdinand Pizarro should be set 
 at liberty, and return instantly to Spain, together 
 with the officers whom Almagro proposed to send 
 thither to represent the justice of his claims. Obvious 
 as the design of Pizairo was in those propositions, 
 and familiar as his artifices might now have been to 
 his opponent, Almagro, with a credulity approaching 
 to infatuation, relied on his sincerity, and concluded 
 an agreement on these terms. 
 
 The moment that Ferdinand Pizarro recovered his 
 liberty, the governor, no longer fettered in his opera- 
 tions by anxiety about his brother's life, threw off 
 every disguise which his concern for it had obliged 
 him to assume. The treaty was forgotten ; pacific 
 and conciliating measures were no more mentioned ; 
 it was in the field, he openly declared, and not in the 
 cabinet, by arms, and not by negociation, that it 
 must now be determined who should be master of 
 Peru. The rapidity of his preparations suited such 
 a decisive resolution. Seven hundred men were 
 soon ready to march towards Cuzco [A. D. 
 1538.] The command of these was given to his two 
 brothers, in whom he could perfectly confide for the 
 execution of his most violent schemes, as they were 
 urged on, not only by the enmity flowing from th 
 rivalship between their family and Almagro, but ani- 
 mated with the desire of vengeance, excited by recol- 
 lection of their own recent disgrace and sufferings. 
 After an unsuccessful attempt to cross the mountains 
 in the direct road between Lima and Cuzco, they 
 marched towards the south along the coast as far as 
 Nasca, and then turning to the left, penetrated 
 through the defiles in that branch of the Andes which 
 lay between them and the capital. Almagro, instead; 
 of hearkening to some of his officers, whojadvised him 
 to attempt the defence of those difficult passes, 
 waited the approach of the enemy in the plain of 
 Cuzco. Two reasons seem to have induced him to 
 take this resolution. His followers amounted hardly 
 to five hundred, and he was afraid of weakening such 
 a feeble body by sending any detachment towards 
 the mountains. His cavalry far exceeded that of the 
 adverse party, both in number and discipline, and, it 
 
150 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 was only in an open country that he could avail 
 himself of that advantage. 
 
 The Pizarros advanced without any obstruction, but 
 what arose from the nature of the desert and horrid re- 
 gions through which they marched. As soon as they 
 reached the plain, both factions were equally impatient 
 to bring this long protracted contest to an issue. Though 
 countrymen and friends, the subjects of the same sove- 
 reign, and each with the royal standard displayed ; 
 and though they beheld the mountains that sur- 
 rounded the plain in which they were drawn up, 
 covered with a vast multitude of Indians, assembled 
 to enjoy the spectacle of their mutual carnage, and 
 prepared to attack whatever party remained master 
 of the field ; so fell and implacable was the rancour 
 which had taken possession of every breast, that not 
 one pacific counsel, not a single overture towards ac- 
 commodation, proceeded from either side. Unfortu- 
 nately for Almagro, he was so worn out with the fa- 
 tigues of service, to which his advanced age was un- 
 equal, that at this ciisis of his fate he could not exert 
 his wonted activity ; and he was obliged to commit the 
 leading of his troops toOrgognez, who, though an officer 
 of great merit, did not possess the same ascendant 
 either over the spirit or affections of the soldiers, as 
 the chief whom they had long been accustomed to 
 follow and revere. 
 
 The conflict was fierce, and maintained by each 
 party with equal courage. On the side of Almagro 
 were more veteran soldiers, and a large proportion 
 of cavalry ; but these were counterbalanced by Pi- 
 zarro's superiority in numbers, and by two companies 
 of well disciplined musketeers, which, on receiving 
 an account of the insurrection of the Indians, the 
 emperor had sent from Spain. As the use of fire- 
 arms was not frequent among the adventurers in Ame- 
 rica, hastily equipped for service at their own expense, 
 this small band of soldiers regularly trained and armed 
 was a novelty in Peru, and decided the fate of the 
 day. Wherever it advanced, the weight of a heavy 
 and well-sustained fire bore down horse and foot 
 before it ; and Orgognez, while he endeavoured to 
 rally and animate his troops, having received a 
 dangerous wound, the rout became general. The 
 barbarity of the conquerors stained the glory which 
 they acquired by this complete victory. The vio- 
 lence of civil rage hurried on some to slaughter 
 their countrymen with indiscriminate cruelty ; the 
 meanness of private revenge instigated others to 
 single out individuals as the objects of their ven- 
 geance. Orgognez, and several officers of distinc- 
 tion, were massacred in cold blood ; above a hundred 
 and forty soldiers fell in the field ; a large propor- 
 tion, where the number of combatants was few, 
 and the heat of the contest soon over. Almagro, 
 though so feeble that he could not bear the motion 
 of a horse, had insisted on being carried in a litter 
 to an eminence which overlooked the field of battle. 
 From thence, in the utmost agitation of mind, he 
 viewed the various movements of both parties, and 
 at last beheld the total defeat of his own troops, 
 with all the passionate indignation of a veteran leader 
 long accustomed to victory. He endeavoured to save 
 himself by flight, but was taken prisoner, and guarded 
 with the strictest vigilance. 
 
 The Indians, instead of executing the resolution 
 which they had formed, retired quietly after the 
 battle was over ; and in the history of the Ne .v 
 World, there is not a more striking instance of the 
 wonderful ascendant which the Spaniards had ac- 
 quired over its inhabitants, than that, after seeing 
 one of the contending parties ruined and dispersed, 
 
 and the other weakened and fatigued, they had not 
 courage to fall upon their enemies, when fortune 
 presented an opportunity of attacking them with 
 such advantage. 
 
 Cuzco was pillaged by the victorious troops, who 
 found there a considerable booty, consisting partly of 
 the gleanings of the Indian treasures, and partly of 
 the wealth amassed by their antagonists from the 
 spoils of Peru and Chili. But so far did this, and 
 whatever the bounty of their leader could add to it, 
 fall below the high ideas of the recompence which 
 they conceived to be due to their merit, that Ferdi- 
 nand Pizarro, unable to gratify such extravagant ex- 
 pectations, had recourse to the same expedient which 
 his brother had employed on a similar occasion, and 
 endeavoured to find occupation for this turbulent 
 assuming spirit, in order to prevent it from breaking 
 out into open mutiny. With this view, he encouraged 
 his most active officers to attempt the discovery and 
 reduction of various provinces which had not hitherto 
 submitted to the Spaniards. To every standard erect- 
 ed by the leaders who undertook any of those new 
 expeditions, volunteers resorted with the ardour and 
 hope peculiar to the age. Several of Almagro's sol- 
 diers joined them, and thus Pizarre had the satisfac- 
 tion of being delivered both from the importunity of 
 his discontented friends, and the dread of his ancient 
 enemies. 
 
 Almagro himself remained for several months in 
 custody,under all the anguish of suspense. For although 
 his doom was determined by the Pizarros from the mo- 
 ment that he fell into theirhands, prudence constrained 
 them to defer gratifying their vengeance, until the 
 soldiers who had served under him, as well as several 
 of their own followers in whom they could not per- 
 fectly confide, had left Cuzco. As soon as they set 
 out upon their different expeditions, Almagro was im- 
 peached of treason, formally tried, and condemned to 
 die. The sentence astonished him ; and though he 
 had often braved death with undaunted spirit in the 
 field, its approach under this ignominious form ap- 
 palled him so much, that he had recourse to abject 
 supplications, unworthy of his former fame. He 
 besought the Pizarros to rember the ancient friend- 
 ship between their brother and him, and how much 
 he had contributed to the prosperity of their family; 
 he reminded them of the humanity with which, in 
 opposition to the repeated remonstrances of his most 
 attached friends, he had spared their lives when he 
 had them in his power ; he conjured them to pity his 
 age and infirmities, and to suffer him to pass the 
 wretched remainder of his days in bewailing his 
 crimes, and in making his peace with Heaven. The 
 entreaties, says a Spanish historian, of a man so much 
 beloved, touched many an unfeeling heart, and drew 
 tears from many a stern eye. But the brothers re- 
 mained inflexible. As soon as Almagro knew his fate 
 to be inevitable, he met it with the dignity and forti- 
 tude of a veteran. He was strangled in prison, and 
 afterwards publicly beheaded. He suffered in the 
 in the seventy-fifth year of his age, and left one son 
 by an Indian woman of Panama, whom, though at 
 that time a prisoner in Lima, he named as successor 
 to his government, pursuant to a power which the 
 emperor had granted him. 
 
 [A.D. 1539.] As, during the civil dissensions in 
 Peru, all intercourse with Spain was suspended, the 
 detail of the extraordinary transactions there did 
 not soon reach the court. Unfortunately for the vic- 
 torious faction, the first intelligence was brought 
 thither by some of Almagro's officers, who left the 
 country upon the ruin of their cause ; and they related 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 151 
 
 what had happened with every circumstance unfavour- 
 able to Pizarro and hi? brothers. Their ambition, 
 their breach of the most solemn engagements, their 
 violence and cruelty, were painted with all the malig- 
 nity and exaggeration of party hatred. Ferdinand 
 Pizarro, who arrived soon after, and appeared in 
 court with extraordinary splendour, endeavoured to 
 efface the impression which their accusations had 
 made, and to justify his brother and himself by 
 representing Almagro as the aggressor. The emperor 
 and his ministers, though they could not pronounce 
 which of the contending factions was most criminal, 
 clearly discerned the fatal tendency of their dissen- 
 sions. It was obvious, that while the leaders, 
 intrusted with the conduct of two infant colonies, 
 employed the arms which should have been turned 
 against the common enemy in destroying one another, 
 all attention to the public good must cease, and there 
 was reason to dread that the Indians might improve 
 the advantage which the disunion of the Spaniards 
 presented to them, and extirpate both the victors 
 and vanquished. But the evil was more apparent 
 than the remedy. Where the information which 
 had been received was so defective and suspicious, 
 and the scene of action so remote, it was almost im- 
 possible to chalk out the line of conduct that ought 
 to be followed, and before any plan that should be 
 approved of in Spain could be carried into execution, 
 the situation of the parties, and the circumstances of 
 affairs, might alter so entirely as to render its effects 
 extremely pernicious. 
 
 Nothing therefore remained but to send a person to 
 Peru, vested with extensive and discretionary power, 
 who,after viewing deliberately theposture of affairs with 
 his own eyes, and inquiring upon the spot into the con- 
 duct of the different leaders, should be authorized 
 to establish the government in that form which he 
 deemed most conducive to the interest of the parent 
 state, and the welfare of the colony. The man se- 
 lected for this important charge was Christoval Vaca 
 de Castro, a judge in the court of royal audience at 
 Valladolid ; and his abilities, integrity, and firmness, 
 justified the choice. His instructions, though ample, 
 were not such as to fetter him in his operations. Ac- 
 cording to the different aspect of affairs, he had 
 power to take upon him different characters. If he 
 found the governor still alive, he was to assume only 
 the title of judge, to maintain the appearance of 
 acting in concert with him, and to guard against giving 
 any just cause of offence to a man who had merited 
 so highly of his country. But if Pizarro were dead, 
 he was intrusted with a commission that he might 
 then produce, by which he was appointed his suc- 
 cessor in the government of Peru. This attention 
 to Pizarro, however, seems to have flowed rather 
 from a dread of his power, than from any approba- 
 tion of his measures ; for at the very time that the 
 court seemed so solicitous not to irritate him, his 
 brother Ferdinand was arrested at Madrid and con- 
 fined to a prison, where he remained above twenty 
 years. 
 
 [A. D. 1540.] While Vaca de Castro was preparing 
 for his voyage, events of great moment happened in 
 Peru. The governor considering himself, upon the 
 death of Almxgro, a.s the unrivalled possessor of that 
 vast empire, proceeded |to parcel out its territories 
 among the conquerors ; and had this division been 
 made \vith any degree of impartiality, the extent of 
 country which he had to bestow was sufficient to 
 have gratified his friends, and to have gained his 
 enemies. But Pizarro conducted this transaction, 
 not with the equity and candour of a. judge attentive 
 
 to discover and to reward merit, but with the illiberal 
 spirit of a party leader. Large districts, in parts of 
 the country most cultivated and populous, were set 
 apart as his own property, or granted to his brothers, 
 his adherents, and favourites. To others lots less 
 valuable and inviting were assigned. The follow- 
 ers of Almagro, amongst whom were many of the 
 original adventurers to whose valour and perseverance 
 Pizarro was indebted for his success, were totally 
 excluded from any portion in those lands, towards 
 the acquisition of which they had contributed so 
 largely. As the vanity of every individual set an 
 immoderate value upon his own services, and the idea 
 of each concerning the recompence due to them arose 
 gradually to a more exorbitant height in proportion 
 as their conquests extended, all who were disap- 
 pointed in their expectations, exclaimed loudly 
 against the rapaciousness and partiality of the gover- 
 nor. The partisans of Almagro murmured in secret, 
 and meditated revenge. 
 
 Rapid as the progress of the Spaniards in South 
 America had been since Pizarro landed in Peru, their 
 avidity of dominion was not yet satisfied. The officers 
 to whom Ferdinand Pizarro gave the command of 
 different detachments, penetrated into several new 
 provinces, and though some of them were exposed 
 to great hardships in the cold and barren regions of 
 the Andes, and others suffered distress not inferior 
 amidst the woods and marshes of the plains, they 
 made discoveries and conquests which not only ex- 
 tended their knowledge of the country, but added 
 considerably to the territories of Spain in the New 
 World. Pedro de Valdivia reassumed Almagro's 
 scheme of invading Chili, and notwithstanding the 
 fortitude of the natives in defending their posses- 
 sions, made such progress in the conquest of the 
 country, that he founded the city of St. Jago, and 
 gave a beginning to the establishment of the Spanish 
 dominion in that province. But of all the enter- 
 prises undertaken about this period, that of Gonzalo 
 Pizarro was the most remarkable. The governor, 
 who seems to have resolved that no person in Peru 
 should possess any station of distinguished emi- 
 nence or authority but those of his own family, had 
 deprived Benalcazar, the conqueror of Quito, of his 
 command in that kingdom, and appointed his brother 
 Gonzalo to take the government of it. He instructed 
 him to attempt the discovery and conquest of the 
 country to the east of the Andes, which, according to 
 the information of the Indians, abounded with cin- 
 namon and other valuable spices. Gonzalo, not in- 
 ferior to any of his brothers in courage, and no less 
 ambitious of acquiring distinction, eagerly engaged 
 in this difficult service. He set out from Quito at 
 the head of three hundred and forty soldiers, near 
 one-half of whom were horsemen ; with four thou- 
 sand Indians to carry their provisions. In forcing 
 their way through the defiles, or over the ridges, of 
 the Andes, excess of cold and fatigue, to neither of 
 which they were accustomed, proved fatal to the 
 greater part of their wretched attendants. The 
 Spaniards, though more robust, and inured to a va- 
 riety of climates, suffered considerably, and lost some 
 men ; but when they descended into the low country 
 their distress increased. During two months it rained 
 incessantly, without any interval of fair weather long 
 enough to dry their clothes. The immense plains 
 upon which they were now entering, either altogether 
 without inhabitants, or occupied by the rudest and 
 and least industrious tribes in the New World, 
 yie'ded little subsis'ence. They could not advance 
 a step but as they cut a road through woods, or made 
 
1.52 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 it through marshes. Such incessant toil, and con- 
 tinual scarcity of food, seem more than sufficient to 
 have exhausted and dispirited any troops. But the 
 fortitude and perseverance of the Spaniards in the 
 sixteenth century were insuperable. Allured by 
 frequent but false accounts of rich countries before 
 them, they persisted in struggling on, until they 
 reached the banks of the Coca or Napo, one of the 
 large rivers whose waters pour into the Maragnon, 
 and contribute to its grandeur. There, with infinite 
 labour, they built a bark, which they expected would 
 prove of great utility, in conveying them over rivers, 
 in procuring provisions, and in exploring the country. 
 This was manned with fifty soldiers, under the com- 
 mand of Francis Orellana, the officer next in rank to 
 Pi/arro. The stream carried them down with such 
 rapidity, that they were soon far a-head of their coun- 
 trymen, who followed slowly and with difficulty by 
 land. 
 
 At this distance from his commander, Orellana, a 
 young man of an aspiring mind, began to fancy him- 
 self independent, and transported with the predomi- 
 nant passion of the age, he formed the scheme of 
 distinguishing himself as a discoverer, by following 
 the course of the Maragnon, until it joined the ocean, 
 and by surveying the vast regions through which it 
 flows. This scheme of Orellana's was as bold us it 
 was treacherous. For, if he be chargeable with the guilt 
 of having violated his duty to his commander, and 
 with having abandoned his fellow-soldiers in a path- 
 less desert, where they had hardly any hopes of suc- 
 cess, or even of safety, but what weve founded on 
 the service which they expected from the bark ; his 
 crime is, in some measure, balanced by the glory of 
 having ventured upon a navigation of near two thou- 
 sand leagues, through unknown nations, in a vessel 
 hastily constructed, with green timber, and by very 
 unskilful hands, without provisions, without a com- 
 pass, or a pilot. But his courage and alacrity sup- 
 plied every defect. Committing himself fearlessly 
 to the guidance of the stream, the Napo bore him 
 along to the south, until he reached the great channel 
 of the Maragnon. Turning with it towards the coast, 
 he held on his course in that direction. He made 
 frequent descents on both sides of the river, some- 
 times seizing by force of arms the provisions of the 
 fierce savages seated on its banks, and sometimes 
 procuring a supply of food by a friendly intercourse 
 with more gentle tribes. After a long series of 
 dangers, which he encountered with amazing forti- 
 tude, and of distresses which he supported with no 
 less magnanimity, he reached the ocean- (137), where 
 new perils awaited him. These he likewise sur- 
 mounted, and got safe to the Spanish settlement in 
 the island of Cubagua ; from thence he sailed to 
 Spain. The vanity natural to travellers who visit 
 regions unknown to the rest of mankind, and the 
 art of an adventurer solicitous to magnify his own 
 merit, concurred in prompting him to mingle an ex- 
 traordinary proportion of the marvellous in the nar- 
 rative of his voyage. He pretended to have discovered 
 nations so rich, that the roofs of their temples were 
 covered with plates of gold ; and described a repub- 
 lic of women so warlike and powerful, as to have 
 extended their dominion over a considerable tract ol 
 the fertile plains which he had visited. Extravagant 
 as those tales were they gave rise to an opinion, that 
 a region abounding with gold, distinguished by the 
 name of El Dorado, and a community of Amazons, 
 were to be found in this part of the New World : 
 and such is the propensity of mankind to believe 
 what is wonderful, that it has been slowly and with 
 
 difficulty that reason and observation have exploded 
 those fables. The voyage, however, even when strip- 
 ped of every romantic embellishment, deserves to be 
 recorded, not only as one of the most memorable 
 occurrences in that adventurous age, but as the first 
 event which led to any certain knowledge of the ex- 
 tensive countries that stretch eastward from the 
 Andes to the ocean. 
 
 No words can describe the consternation of Pizarro, 
 when he did not find the bark at the confluence of 
 the Napo and Maragnon, where he had ordered Orel- 
 lana to wait for him. He would not allow himself to 
 suspect til** a man whom he had intrusted with such 
 an important command, could be so base and so un- 
 feeling iis to desert him at such a juncture. But 
 imputing his absence from the place of rendezvous to 
 sumo unknown accident, he advanced above fifty 
 leagues along the banks of the Maragnon, expecting 
 every moment to see the bark appear with a supply 
 of provisions [A. D. 1541]. At length he came up 
 with an officer whom Orellana had left to perish in 
 the desert, because he had the courage to remonstrate 
 against his perfidy. From him he learned the ex- 
 tent of Orellana's crime, and his followers perceived 
 at once their own desperate situation, when deprived 
 of their only resource. The spirit of the stoutest- 
 hearted veteran sunk within him, and all demanded 
 to be led back instantly. Pizarro, though he assumed 
 an appearance of tranquillity, did not oppose their 
 inclination. But he was now twelve hundred miles 
 from Quito; and in that long march the Spaniards 
 encountered hardships greater than those which they 
 had endured in their progress outward, without the 
 alluring hopes which then soothed and animated them 
 under their sufferings. Hunger compelled them to 
 feed on roots and berries, to eat all their dogs and 
 horses, to devour the most loathsome reptiles, and 
 even to gnaw the leather of their saddles and sword- 
 belts. Four thousand Indians, and two hundred and 
 ten Spaniards, perished in this wild disastrous expe- 
 dition, which continued near two years ; and as fifty 
 men were aboard the bark with Orellana, only four- 
 score got back to Quito. These were naked like 
 savages, and so emaciated with famine, or worn out 
 with fatigue, that they had more the appearance of 
 spectres than men. 
 
 But, instead of returning to enjoy th<> repose 
 which his condition required, Pizarro, on entering 
 Quito, received accounts of a fatal event that threat- 
 ened calamities more dreadful to him than those 
 through which he had passed. From the time that his 
 brother made that partial division of his conquests 
 which has been mentioned, th adherents of Almagro, 
 considering themselves as proscribed by the party in 
 power, no longer entertained any hope of bettering 
 their condition. Great numbers in despair resorted 
 to Lima, where the house of young Almagro was 
 always open to them, and the slender portion of his 
 father's fortune which the governor allowed him to 
 enjoy, was spent in affording them subsistence. The 
 warm attchment with which every person who had 
 served under the elder Almagro devoted himself to 
 his interests, was quickly transferred to his son, who 
 was now grown up to the age of manhood, and pos- 
 sessed all the qualities which captivate the affections 
 of soldiers. Of a graceful appearance, dexterous at 
 all martial exercises, bold, open, generous, he seemed 
 to be formed for command ; and as his father, con- 
 scious of his own inferiority, from the total want of 
 education, had been extremely attentive to have him 
 instructed in every science becoming a gentleman, tho 
 accomplishments which he had acquired heightened 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 153 
 
 the respect of his followers, as they gave him dis- 
 tinction and eminence among illiterate adventur- 
 ers. In this young man the Almagrians found a 
 point of union which they wanted, and looking up to 
 him as their head, were ready to undertake any thing 
 for his advancement. Nor was affection for Almagro 
 their only incitement ; they were urged on by their 
 own distresses. Many of them, destitute of common 
 necessaries (138), and weary of loitering away life, 
 a burden to their chief, or to such of their associates 
 as had saved some remnant of their fortune from 
 pillage and confiscation, longed impatiently for an 
 occasion to exert their activity and courage, and began 
 to deliberate how they might be avenged on the author 
 of all their misery. Their frequent cabals did not 
 pass unobserved ; and the governor was warned to be 
 on his guard against men who meditated some des- 
 perate deed, and had resolution to execute it. But 
 either from the native intrepidity of his mind, or from 
 contempt of persons whose poverty seemed to render 
 their machinations of little consequence, he disre- 
 garded the admonitions of his friends. " Be in no 
 pain," said he carelessly, " about my life; it is per- 
 fectly safe, as long as every man in Peru knows that 
 I can in a moment cut off any head which dares to 
 harbour a thought against it." This security gave the 
 Almagrians full leisure to digest and ripen every part 
 of their scheme ; and Juan de Harrada, an officer of 
 great abilities, who had the charge of Almagro's 
 education, took the direction of their consultations 
 with all the zeal which this connexion inspired, and 
 with all the authority which the ascendant that he 
 was known to have over the mind of his pupil gave 
 him. 
 
 On Sunday the twenty-sixth of June, at mid-day, 
 the season of tranquillity and repose in all sultry 
 climates, Herrada, at the head of eighteen of the 
 most determined conspirators, sallied out of Alma- 
 gro's house in complete armour ; and, drawing their 
 swords, as they advanced hastily towards the 
 governor's palace, cried out, " Long live the king, 
 but let the tyrant die !" Their associates, warned 
 of their motions by a signal, were in arms at differ- 
 ent stations ready to support them. Though Pizarro 
 was usually surrounded by a numerous train of 
 attendants as suited the magnificence of the most 
 opulent subject of the age in which he lived, yet as 
 he was jtut risen from table, and most of his domes- 
 tics had retired to their own apartments, the conspi- 
 rators passed through the two outer courts of the 
 palace unobserved. They were at the bottom of a 
 staircase before a page in waiting could give the alnrm 
 to his master, who was conversing with a few friends 
 in a large hall. The governor, whose steady mind 
 no form of danger could appal, starting up, called for 
 arms, and commanded Francisco de Chaves to make 
 fast the door. But that officer, who did not retain so 
 much presence of mind as to obey this prudent order, 
 running to the top of the stair-case, wildly asked the 
 conspirators what they meant, and whither they were 
 going ? Instead of answering, they stabbed him to 
 the heart, and burst into the hall. Some of the per- 
 sons who were there threw themselves from the win- 
 dows ; others attempted to fly ; and a few drawing 
 their swords followed their leader into an inner 
 apartment. The conspirators, animated with having 
 the object of their vengeance now in view, rushed 
 forward after them. Pizarro, with no other arms 
 than his sword and buckler, defended the entry ; and 
 supported by his half-brother Alcantara, and his 
 little knot of friends, he maintained the unequal 
 contest with intrepidity worthy of his past exploits, 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, No. 20. 
 
 and with ^ the vigour of a youthful combatant' 
 " Courage," cried he, "companions ! we are yet enow 
 to make those traitors repent of their audacity." 
 But the armour of the conspirators protected them, 
 while every thrust they made took effect. Alcantara 
 fell dead at his brother's feet ; his other defenders 
 were mortally wounded. The governor, so weary 
 that he could hardly wield his sword, and no longer 
 able to parry the many weapons furiously aimed at 
 him, received a deadly thrust full in the throat, sunk 
 to the ground, and expired. 
 
 As soon as he was slain, the assassins ran out into 
 the streets, and waving their bloody swords, pro- 
 claimed the death of the tyrant. Above t\vo hundred 
 of their associates having joined them, they conducted 
 young Almngro in solemn procession through the city, 
 and assembling the magistrates and principal citizens, 
 compelled the:n to acknowledge him as lawful suc- 
 cessor to his father in his government. The palace 
 of Pizarro, together with the houses of several of his 
 adherents were pillaged by the soldiers, who had the 
 satisfaction at once of being avenged on their enemies, 
 and of enriching themselves by the spoils of those 
 through whose hands all the wealth of Peru had 
 passed. 
 
 The bold: > and success of the- conspiracy, as well 
 as the name and popular qualities of Alrnagro, drew 
 many soldiers to his standard. Every adventurer of 
 desperate fortune, all who were dissatisfied with 
 Pizarro, and from the rapaciousnes of his government 
 in the latter years of his life the number of malcon- 
 tents was considerable, declared without hesitation 
 in favour of Almagro, and he was soon at the head 
 of eight hundred of the most gallant veterans in 
 Porn. As his youth and inexperience disqualified 
 him from taking the command of them himself, he 
 appointed Herrada to act as general. But though 
 Almagro speedily collected such a respectable force, 
 the acquiescence in his government was far from 
 being general. Pizarro had left many friends to 
 whom his memory was dear ; the barbarous assassi- 
 nation of a man to whom his country was so highly 
 indebted, filled every impartial person with horror. 
 The ignominious birth of Almagro, as well as the 
 doubtful title on which he founded his pretensions, 
 led others to consider him as an usurper. The offi- 
 cers who commanded in some provinces refused to 
 recognise his authority, until it was confirmed by the 
 emperor. In others, particularly at Cuzco, the royal 
 standard was erected, and preparations were begun 
 in order to revenge the murder of their ancient 
 leader. 
 
 Those seeds of discord, which could not have lain 
 long dormant, acquired great vigour and activity when 
 the arrival of Vaca de Castro was known. After a 
 long and disastrous voyage, he was driven by stress 
 of weather into a small harbour in the province of 
 Popayan ; and proceeding from thence by land, after 
 a journey no less tedious than difficult, he reached 
 Quito. In his way he received accounts of Pizarro's 
 death, and of the events which followed upon it. He 
 immediately produced the royal commission, appoint- 
 ing him governor of Peru, with the same privileges 
 and authority ; and his jurisdiction was acknowledged 
 without hesitation by Benalcazar, adelantado or lieu- 
 tenant-general for the emperor in Popayan, and by 
 Pedro de Puelles, who, in the absence of Gonzalo 
 Pizarro, had the command of the troops left in Quito. 
 Vaca de Castro not only assumed the supreme au- 
 thoritv, but showed that he possessed the talents 
 which the exercise of it at that juncture required. 
 By his influence and address he soon assembled such 
 X 
 
154 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AME11ICA. 
 
 a. body of troops, as not only to set him above all fear 
 of being exposed to any insult from the adverse 
 party, but enabled him to advance from Quito with 
 the dignity that became his character. By de- 
 spatching persons of confidence to the different set- 
 tlements in Peru, with a formal notification of his 
 arrival and of his commission, he communicated to 
 his countrymen the royal pleasure with respect to the 
 government of the country. By private emissaries, 
 he excited such officers as had discovered their dis- 
 approbation of Almagro's proceedings, to manifest 
 their duty to their sovereign by supporting the per- 
 son honoured with his commission. Those measures 
 were productive of great effects. Encouraged by the 
 approach of the new governor, or prepared by his 
 mhinations, the loyal were confirmed in their prin- 
 ciples, and avowed them with greater boldness ; the 
 timid ventured to declare their sentiments ; the 
 neutral and wavering, finding it necessary to choose a 
 side, began to lean to that which now appeared to be 
 the safest, as well as the most just. 
 
 Almagro observed the rapid progress of this spirit 
 of disaffection to his cause, and in order to give an 
 effectual check to it before the arrival of Vaca de 
 Castro, he set out at the head of his troops for Cuzco, 
 [A. D. 1542,] where the most considerable body of 
 opponents had erected the royal standard, under the 
 command of Pedro Alvarez Holguin. During his 
 march thither, Herrada, the skilful guide of his youth 
 and of his counsels, died; and from that time his 
 measures were conspicuous for their violence, but 
 concerted with little sagacity, and executed with no 
 address. Holguin, who, with forces far inferior to 
 those of the opposite party, was descending towards 
 the coast at the very time that Almagro was on his 
 way to Cuzco, deceived his inexperienced adversary 
 by a very simple stratagem, avoided an engagement, 
 and effected a junction with Alvarado, an officer of 
 note, who had been the first to declare against Alma- 
 gro as an usurper. 
 
 Soon after, Vaca de Castro entered their camp with 
 the troops which he brought from Quito, and erecting 
 the royal standard before his own tent, he declared 
 that, as governor, he would discharge in person all the 
 functions of gen oral of their combined forces. Though 
 formed by the tenor of his past life to the habits of 
 a sedentary and pacific profession, he at once assumed 
 the activity, and discovered the decision, of an officer 
 long accustomed to command. Knowing his strength 
 to be now far superior to that of the enemy, he was 
 impatient to terminate the contest by a battle. Nor 
 did the followers of Almagro, who had no hopes of 
 obtaining a pardon for a crime so atrocious as the 
 murder of the governor, decline that mode of deci- 
 sion. They met atChupaz, about two hundred miles 
 from Cuzco, and fought with all the fierce animosity 
 inspired by the violence of civil rage, the rancour of 
 private enmity, the eagerness of revenge, and the last 
 efforts of despair. Victory, after remaining long 
 doubtful, declared at last for Vaca de Castro. The 
 superior number of his troops, his own intrepidity, 
 and the martial talents of Francisco de Carvajal, a 
 veteran officer formed under the great captain in the 
 wars of Italy, and who on that day laid the foundation 
 of his future fame in Peru, triumphed over the bra- 
 very of his opponents, though led on by young Alma- 
 gro with a gallant spirit, worthy of a better cause, 
 and deserving another fate. The carnage was great 
 in proportion to the number of the combatants. 
 Many of the vanquished, especially such as were 
 onscious that they might be charged with being ac- 
 wsary t tta assassination of Piaarro, rushing on the 
 
 swords of the enemy, chose to fall like soldiers, rather 
 than wait an ignominious doom. Of fourteen hun- 
 derd men, the total amount of combatants on both 
 sides, five hundred lay dead on the field, and the 
 number of the wounded was still greater. 
 
 If the military talents displayed by Vaca de Cas- 
 tro, both in the council and field, surprised the ad- 
 venturers in Peru, they were still more astonished at 
 his conduct after the victory. As he was by nature 
 a rigid dispenser of justice, persuaded that it required 
 examples of extraordinary severity to restrain the 
 licentious spirit of soldiers so far removed from the 
 seat of government, he proceeded directly to try his 
 prisoners as rebels. Forty were condemned to suffer 
 the death of traitors, others were banished from Peru. 
 Their leader, who made his escape from the battle, 
 being betrayed by some of his officers, was publicly 
 beheaded in Cuzco ; and in him the name of Alma- 
 gro, and the spirit of the party, was extinct. 
 
 During those violent convulsions in Peru, the 
 emperor and his ministers were intently employed in 
 preparing regulations, by which they hoped, not only 
 to re-establish tranquillity there, but to introduce a 
 more perfect system of internal policy into all their 
 settlements in the New World. It is manifest from 
 all the events recorded in the history of America, 
 that, rapid and extensive as the Spanish conquests 
 there had been, they were not carried on by any 
 regular exertion of the national force, but by the 
 occasional efforts of private adventurers. After 
 fitting out a few of the first armaments for discover- 
 ing new regions, the court of Spain, during the busy 
 reigns of Ferdinand and of Charles V., the former 
 the most intriguing prince of the age, and the latter 
 the most ambitious, was encumbered with such a 
 multiplicity of schemes, and involved in war with so 
 many nations of Europe, that he had not leisure to 
 attend to distant and less interesting objects. The 
 care of prosecuting discovery, or of attempting con- 
 quest was abandoned to individuals ; and with 
 such ardour did men push forward in this newr 
 career, on which novelty, the spirit of adventure, 
 avarice, ambition, and the hope of meriting heaven, 
 prompted them with combined influence to enter, 
 that in less than half a century almost the whole of 
 that extensive empire which Spain now possesses 
 in the New World, was subjected to its dominion. 
 As the Spanish court contributed nothing towards 
 the various expeditions undertaken in America, it 
 was not entitled to claim much from their success. 
 The sovereignty of the conquered provinces, with 
 the fifth of the gold and silver, was reserved for the 
 crown ; every thing else was seized by the associates 
 in each expedition as their own right. The plunder 
 of the countries which they invaded served to in- 
 demnify them for what they had expended in equip- 
 ping themselves for the service, and the conquered 
 territory was divided among them, according to 
 rules which custom had introduced, as permanent 
 establishments which their successful valour merited. 
 In the infancy of those settlements, when their extent 
 as well as their value were unknown, many irregula- 
 rities escaped observation, and it was found necessary 
 to connive at many excesses. The conquered peo- 
 ple were frequently pillaged with destructive rapacity, 
 and their country parcelled out among its new mas- 
 ters in exorbitant shares, far exceeding the highest 
 recompence due to their services. The rude con- 
 querors of America, incapable of forming their es- 
 tablishments upon any general or extensive plan of 
 policy, attentive only to private interest, unwilling to 
 forego present gain from the prospect of remote or 
 
*THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 155 
 
 public benefit, seem to have had no object but to 
 amass sudden wealth, without regarding what might 
 be the consequences of the means by which they 
 acquired it. But when time at length discovered to 
 the Spanish court the importance of its American 
 possessions, the necessity of new-modelling their 
 whole frame became obvious, and in place of the 
 maxims and practices prevalent among military ad- 
 venturers, it was found requisite to substitute the 
 institutions of regular government. 
 
 One evil in particular called for an immediate 
 remedy. The conquerors of Mexico and Peru imi- 
 tated the fatal example of their countrymen settled 
 in the islands, and employed themselves in searching 
 for gold and silver with the same inconsiderate 
 eagerness. Similar effects followed. The natives 
 employed in this labour by masters, who in imposing 
 tasks had no regard either to what they felt or to 
 what they were able to perform, pined away and 
 perished so fast, that there was reason to apprehend 
 that Spain, instead of possessing countries peopled 
 to such a degree as to be susceptible of progressive 
 improvement, would soon remain proprietor only of 
 a vast uninhabited desert. 
 
 The emperor and his ministers were so sensible of 
 this, and so solicitous to prevent the extinction of 
 the Indian race, which threatened to render their 
 acquisitions of no value, that from time to time 
 various laws, which I have mentioned, had been 
 made for securing to that unhappy people more gentle 
 and equitable treatment. But the distance of Ame- 
 rica from the seat of empire, the feebleness of 
 government in the new colonies, the avarice and 
 audacity of soldiers unaccustomed to restraint, pre- 
 vented those salutary regulations from operating 
 with any considerable influence. The evil continued 
 to grow, and at this time the emperor found an 
 interval of leisure from the affairs of Europe to take 
 it into attentive consideration. He consulted not 
 only with his ministers and the members of the 
 council of the Indies, but called upon several persons 
 who had resided long in the Near World, to aid them 
 with the result of tlieir experience and observation. 
 Fortunately for the people of America, among these 
 was Bartholomew de las Casas, who happened to be 
 then at Madrid on a mission from a chapter of his 
 order at Chiapa. Though since the miscarriage of 
 his former scheme for the relief of the Indians, he had 
 continued shut up in his cloister, or occupied in 
 religious functions, his zeal in behalf of the former 
 objects of his pity was so far from abating, that, 
 from an increased knowledge of their sufferings, its 
 ardour had augmented. He seized eagerly this 
 opportunity of reviving his favourite maxims con- 
 cerning the treatment of the Indians. With the 
 moving eloquence natural to a man on whose mind 
 the scene which he had beheld had made a deep 
 impression, he described the irreparable waste of 
 the human species in the New World, the Indian 
 race almost totally swept away in the islands in less 
 than fifty years, and hastening to the extinction on 
 the continent with the same rapid decay. With the 
 decisive tone of one strongly prepossessed with the 
 truth of his own system, he imputed all this to a 
 single cause, to the exactions and cruelty of his 
 countrymen, and contended that nothing could pre- 
 vent the depopulation of America, but the declaring 
 of its natives to be freemen, and treating them as 
 subjects, not as slaves. Nor did he confide for the 
 success of this proposal in the powers of his oratory 
 alone. In order to enforce them, he composed his 
 famous treatises concerning the destruction of Ame- 
 
 rica, in which he relates, with many horrid circum- 
 stances, but with apparent marks of exaggerated 
 description, the devastation of every province which 
 had been visited by the Spaniards. 
 
 The emperor was deeply afflicted with the recital 
 of so many actions shocking to humanity. But as 
 his views extended far beyond those of Las Casas, 
 he perceived that relieving the Indians from oppres- 
 sion was but one step towards rendering his posses- 
 sions in the New World a valuable acquisition, and 
 would be of little avail, unless he could circumscribe 
 the power and usurpations of his own subjects there. 
 The conquerors of America, however great their 
 merit had been towards their country, were mostly 
 persons of such mean birth, and of such an abject 
 rank in society, as gave no distinction in the eye of 
 a monarch. The exorbitant wealth with which some 
 of them returned, gave umbrage to an age not accus- 
 tomed to see men in inferior condition elevated 
 above their level, and rising to emulate or to sur- 
 pass the ancient nobility in splendour. The territories 
 which their leaders had appropriated to themselves 
 were of such enormous extent (139), that if the 
 country should ever be improved in proportion to the 
 fertility of the soil, they must grow too wealthy and 
 too powerful for subjects. It appeared to Charles that 
 this abuse required a remedy no less than the other, 
 and that the regulations concerning both must be 
 enforced by a mode of government more vigorous 
 than had been introduced into America. 
 
 With this view he framed a body of laws, con- 
 taining many salutary appointments with respect to 
 the constitution and powers of the supreme council 
 of the Indies; concerning the station and jurisdiction 
 of the royal audiences in different parts of America ; 
 the administration of justice ; the order of govern- 
 ment, both ecclesiastical and civil. These were ap- 
 proved of by all ranks of men. But together with 
 them were issued the following regulations, which 
 excited universal alarm, and occasioned the most 
 violent convulsions : " That as the repartimiento* or 
 shares of land seized by several persons appeared to 
 be excessive, the royal audiences are empowered to 
 reduce them to a moderate extent : That upon the 
 death of any conqueror or planter, the lands and 
 Indians granted to him shall not descend to his 
 widow or children, but return to the crown : That 
 the Indians shall henceforth be exempt from personal 
 service, and shall not be compelled to carry the bag- 
 gage of travellers, to labour in the mines, or to dive 
 in the pearl fisheries : That the stated tribute due by 
 them to their superior shall be ascertained, and they 
 shall be paid as servants for any work they volun- 
 tarily perform : That all persons who are or have 
 been in public offices, all ecclesiastics of every deno- 
 mination, all hospitals and monasteries, shall be de- 
 prived of the lands and Indians allotted to them, and. 
 these be annexed to the crown : That every person 
 in Peru, who had any criminal concern in the con- 
 tests between Pizarro and Alamgro, should forfeit 
 his lands and Indians." 
 
 All the Spanish ministers who had hitherto been 
 intrusted with the direction of American affairs, and 
 who were best acquainted with the state of the 
 country, remonstrated against those regulations as 
 ruinous to their infant colonies. They represent that 
 the number of Spaniards who had hitherto emigrated 
 to the New World was so extremely small, that 
 nothing could be expected from any effort of their* 
 towards improving the vast regions over which they 
 were scattered ; that the success of every scheme for 
 this purpose must depend upon the ministry and 
 
156 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 service of the Indians, whose native indolence and 
 aversion to labour, no prospect of benefit or promise 
 of reward could surmount ; that the moment the 
 right of imposing a task, and exacting the per- 
 formance of it, was taken from their masters, every 
 work of industry must cease, and all the sources from 
 which wealth began to pour in upon Spain must be 
 stopped for ever. But Charles, tenacious at all times 
 of his own opinions, and so much impressed at pre- 
 sent with the view of the disorders which reigned in 
 America, that he was willing to hazard the applica- 
 tion even of a dangerous remedy, persisted in his 
 resolution of publishing the laws. That they might 
 be cairied into execution with greater vigour and 
 authority, he authorized Francisco Tello de Sandoval 
 to repair to Mexico as vititador or superintenclant of 
 that country, and to co-operate with Antcnio de 
 Mendoza, the viceroy, in enforcing them. He ap- 
 pointed Blasco Nugnez Vela to be governor of Peru 
 with the title of viceroy; and in order to strengthen 
 his administration, he established a court of royal 
 audience in Lima, in which four lawyers of eminence 
 were to preside as judges. 
 
 The viceroy and superintendant sailed at the same 
 time; and an account of the laws which they were to 
 enforce reached America before them. The entry of 
 Sandoval into Mexico was viewed as the prelude of 
 general ruin. The unlimited grant of liberty to the 
 Indians affected every Spaniard in America without 
 distinction ; and there was hardly one who might not 
 on some pretext be included under the other regula- 
 tions, and suffer by them. But the colony in New 
 Spain had now been so long accustomed to the re- 
 straints of law and authority under the steady and 
 prudent administration of Mendoza, that how much 
 soever the spirit of the new statutes was detested 
 and dreaded, no attempt was made to obstruct the 
 publication of them by any act of violence unbecom- 
 ing subjects. The magistrates and principal inha- 
 bitants, however, presented dutiful addresses to the 
 viceroy and superintendant, representing the fatal 
 consequences of enforcing them. Happily for them, 
 Mendoza, by long residence in the country, was so 
 thoroughly acquainted with its state, that he knew 
 what was for its interest as well as what it could 
 bear ; and Sandoval, though new in office, displayed a 
 degree of moderation seldom possessed by persons 
 just entering upon the exercise of power. They en- 
 gaged to suspend, for some time, the execution of 
 what was^ffensive in the new laws, and not only con- 
 sented that a deputation of citizens should be sent 
 to Europe to lay before the emperor the apprehensions 
 of his subjects in New Spain with respect to their 
 tendency and effects, but they concurred with them in 
 supporting their sentiments. Charles, moved by the 
 opinion of men whose abilities and integrity entitled 
 them to decide concerning what fell immediately under 
 their own view, granted such a relaxation of the rigour 
 of the laws as re-established the colony in its former 
 tranquillity. 
 
 [A. D. 1543.] In Peru the storm gathered with an 
 aspect still more fierce and threatening, and was not 
 so soon dispelled. The conquerors of Peru, of a rank 
 much inferior to those who had subjected Mexico to 
 the Spanish crown, further removed from the inspec- 
 tion of the parent stater, and intoxicated with the sud- 
 den acquisition of wealth, carried on all their opera- 
 tions with greater license and irregularity than any 
 body of adventurers in the New World. Amidst the 
 general subversion of law and order, occasioned by 
 two successive civil wars, when each individual was at 
 liberty to decide for himself, without any guide but 
 
 his own interest or passions, this turbulent spirit rose 
 above all sense of subordination. To men thus cor- 
 rupted by anarchy, the introduction of regular govern- 
 ment, the power of a viceroy, and the authority of a 
 respectable court of judicature, would of themselves 
 have appeared formidable restraints, to which they 
 would have submitted with reluctance. But they 
 revolted with indignation against the idea of comply- 
 ing with laws, by which they were to be stripped at 
 once of all they had earned so hardly during many 
 years of service and suffering. As the account of the 
 new laws spread successively through the different 
 settlements, the inhabitants ran together, the women 
 in tears, and the men exclaiming against the injustice 
 and ingratitude of their sovereign in depriving them, 
 unheard and unconvicted, of their possessions. " Is 
 this," cried they, " the recompence due to persons, 
 who, without public aid, at their own expense, and by 
 their own valour, have subjected to the crown of Cas- 
 tile territories of such immense extent and opulence? 
 Are these the rewards bestowed for having endured 
 unparalleled distress, for having encountered every 
 species of danger in the service of their country? 
 Whose merit is so great, whose conduct has been so 
 irreproachable, that he may not be condemned by 
 some penal clause in regulations, conceived in terms 
 as loose and comprehensive as if it had been intended 
 that all should be entangled in their snare ? Every 
 Spaniard of note in Peru has held some public office, 
 and all, without distinction, have been constrained to 
 take an active part in the contest between the two 
 rival chiefs. Were the former to be robbed of their 
 property because they had done their duty ? Were 
 the latter to be punished on account of what they 
 could not avoid ? Shall the conquerors of this great 
 empire, instead of receiving marks of distinction, be 
 deprived of the natural consolation of providing for 
 their widows and children, and leai-e them to depend 
 for subsistence on the scanty supply they can extort 
 from unfeeling courtiers ? We are riot able now, con- 
 tinued they, to explore unknown regions in quest of 
 more secure settlements; our constitutions debilitated 
 with age, and our bodies covered with wounds, are 
 no longer fit for active service; but still we possess 
 vigour sufficient to assert our just rights, and we will 
 not tamely suffer them to be wrested from us." 
 
 By discourses of this sort, uttered with vehemence, 
 and listened to with universal approbation, their pas- 
 sions were inflamed to such a pitch, that they were 
 prepared for the most violent measures, and began to 
 hold consultations in different places, how they might 
 oppose the entrance of the viceroy and judges, and 
 prevent not only the execution but the promulgation 
 of the new laws. From this, however, they were 
 diverted by the address of Vaca de Castro, who flat- 
 tered them with hopes, that as soon as the viceroy 
 and judges should arrive, and had leisure to examine 
 their petitions and remonstrances, they would concur 
 with them in endeavouring to procure some mitigation 
 in the rigour of laws, which had been framed without 
 due attention either to the state of the country or to 
 the sentiments of the people. A greater degree of 
 accommodation to these, and even some concessions on 
 the part of government, were now become requisite to 
 compose the present ferment, and to soothe the colo- 
 nists into submission, by inspiring them with confi- 
 dence in their superiors. But without profound dis- 
 cernment, conciliating manners, and flexibility of 
 temper, such a plan could not be cairied on. The 
 viceroy possessed none of these. Of all the qualities 
 that fit men for high command, he was endowed only 
 with integrity and courage; the former harsh and un- 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 complying, the latter bordering so frequently on rash- 
 ness or obstinacy, that in his situation they were 
 defects rather than virtues. From the moment that 
 he landed at Tumbez, [March 4] Nugnez Vela seems 
 to have considered himself merely as an executive 
 ofTicer, -without any discretionary power; and, regard- 
 less of whatever he observed or heard concerning the 
 state of the country, he adhered to the letter of the 
 regulations with unrelenting rigour. In all the towns 
 through which he passed the natives were declared 
 to be free ; every person in public office was deprived 
 of his lands and servants ; and as an example 
 of obedience to others, he would not suffer a 
 single Indian to carry his own baggage in 
 his march towards Lima. Amazement and con- 
 sternation went before him as he approached ; and so 
 little solicitous was he to prevent these from aug- 
 menting, that on entering the capital he openly 
 avowed, that he came to obey the orders of his so- 
 vereign, not to dispense with his laws. This harsh 
 declaration was accompanied with what rendered it 
 still more intolerable, haughtiness in deportment, a 
 tone of arrogance and decision in discourse, and an 
 insolence of ofiice grievous to men little accustomed 
 to hold civil authority in high respect. Every attempt 
 to procure a suspension or mitigation^ of the new 
 laws, the viceroy considered as flowing from a spirit 
 (,f disaffection that tended to rebellion. Several per- 
 sons of rank were confined, and some put to death, 
 without any form of trial. Vaca de Castro was 
 arrested, and notwithstanding the dignity of his 
 former rank, and his merit in having prevented a 
 general insurrection in the colony, he was loaded 
 with chains, and shut up in the common gaol. 
 
 But however general the indignation was against 
 such proceedings, it is probable the hand of authority 
 would have been strong enough to suppress it, or to 
 prevent it bursting out with open violence, if the 
 malcontents had not been provided with a leader of 
 credit and eminence to unite and to direct their 
 efforts. From the time that the purport of the new 
 regulations was known in Peru, every Spaniard there 
 turned his eyes towards Gonzalo Pizarro, as the 
 only person able to avert the ruin with which they 
 threatened the colony. From all quarters, letters and 
 addresses were sent to him, conjuring him to stand 
 forth as their common protector, and offering to sup- 
 port him in the attempt with their lives and fortunes. 
 Gonzalo, though inferior in talents to his brothers, 
 was equally ambitious, and of courage no less daring. 
 The behaviour of an ungrateful court towards his 
 brothers and himself dwelt continually on his mind. 
 Ferdinand a state prisoner in Europe, the children of 
 the governor in custody of the viceroy, and sent 
 aboard his fleet, himself reduced to the condition of 
 a private citizen in a country, for the discovery and 
 conquest of which Spain was indebted to his family; 
 these thoughts prompted him to seek for vengeance, 
 and to assert the rights of his family, of which he 
 now considered himself as the guardian and the heir. 
 But as no Spaniard can easily surmount that venera- 
 tion for his sovereign which seems to be interwoven 
 in his frame, the idea of marching in arms against the 
 royal standard filled him with horror. He hesitated 
 long, and was still unresolved, when the violence of 
 the viceroy, the universal call of his countrymen, and 
 the certainty of becoming soon a victim himself to the 
 severity of the new laws, moved him to quit his resi- 
 dence at Chuquisaca de la Plata, and repair to Cuzco. 
 All the inhabitants went out to meet him, and received 
 him with transports of joy as the deliverer of the colony. 
 In the fervour of their zeal, they elected him procu- 
 
 rator-general of the Spanish nation in Peru, to solicit 
 the repeal of the late regulations.- They empowered 
 him to lay their remonstrances before the royal au- 
 dience in Lima, and, upon pretext of danger from the 
 Indians, authorized him to march thither in arms, 
 [A.D. 1554.] Under sanction of this nomination, 
 Pizarro took possession of the royal treasure, appointed 
 officers, levied soldiers, seized a large train of artil- 
 lery which Vaca de Castro had deposited in Guman- 
 ga, and set out for Lima, as if he had been advancing 
 against a public enemy. Disaffection having now 
 assumed a regular form, and being united under a 
 chief of such distinguished name, many persons of 
 note resorted to his standard ; and a considerable 
 part of the troops, raised by the viceroy to oppose his 
 progress, deserted to him in a body. 
 
 Before Pizarro reached Lima, a revolution had 
 happened there, which encouraged him to proceed 
 with almost certainty of success. The violence of the 
 viceroy's administration was not more formidable to th 
 Spaniards of Peru, than his overbearing haughtiness 
 was odious to his associates, the judges of the royal 
 audience. During their voyage from Spain some 
 symptoms of coldness between the viceroy and them 
 began to appear. But as soon as they entered upon 
 the exercise of their respective offices, both parties 
 were so much exasperated by frequent contests, 
 arising from interference of jurisdiction and con- 
 trariety of opinion, that their mutual disgust soon grew 
 into open enmity. The judges thwarted the viceroy 
 in every measure, set at liberty prisoners whom he 
 had confined, justified the malcontents, and applauded 
 their remonstrances. At a time when both depart- 
 ments of government should have united against the 
 approaching enemy, they were contending with each 
 other for superiority. The judges at length pre- 
 vailed. The viceroy, universally odious, and aban- 
 doned even by his own guards, was seized in his pa- 
 lace, [Sept. 18] and carried to a desert island on the 
 coast, to be kept there until he could be sent home to 
 Spain. The judges, in consequence of this, having 
 assumed the supreme direction of affairs into their 
 own hands, issued a proclamation suspending the 
 execution of the obnoxious laws, and sent a message 
 to Pizarro, requiring him, as they had already granted 
 whatever he could request, to dismiss his troops, 
 and to repair to Lima with fifteen or twenty attend- 
 ants. They could hardly expect that a man so 
 daring and ambitious would tamely comply with this 
 requisition. It was made probably with no such in- 
 tention, but only to throw a decent veil over thejr 
 own conduct ; for Cepeda, the president of the court 
 of audience, a pragmatical and aspiring lawyer, seems 
 to have held a secret correspondence with Pizarro, 
 and had already formed the plan, which he afterwards 
 executed, of devoting himself to his service. The 
 imprisonment of the viceroy, the usurpation of the 
 judges, together with the universal confusion and 
 anarchy consequent upon events so singular aud 
 unexpected, opened new and vast prospects to 
 Pizarro. lie now beheld the supreme power within 
 his reach. Nor did he want courage to push on to- 
 wards the object which fortune presented to his view. 
 Carvajal, the prompter of his resolutions and guide 
 of all his actions, had long fixed his eye upon it as 
 the only end at which Pizarro ought to aim. Instead 
 of the inferior function of procurator for the Spanish 
 settlements in Peru, he openly demanded to be 
 governor and captain-general of the whole province, 
 and required the court of audience to grant him, a 
 commission to that effect. At the head of twelve 
 hundred men, within a mile of Lima, where there 
 
158 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 was neither leader nor army to oppose him, such a 
 request carried with it the authority of a command. 
 But the judges either from unwillingness to relin- 
 quish power, or from a desire of preserving some 
 attention to appearances, hesitated, or seemed to 
 hesitate, about complying with what he demanded. 
 Carvajal, impatient of delay, and impetuous in all 
 his operations, marched into the city by night, seized 
 several officers of distinction obnoxious to Pizarro, 
 and hanged them without the formality of a trial. 
 Next morning the court of audience issued a commis- 
 sion in the emperor's name, appointing Pizarro 
 governor of Peru, with full powers, civil as well as 
 military, and he entered the town that day with ex- 
 traordinary pomp, to take possession of his new 
 dignity. 
 
 [Oct. 28.] But amidst the disorder and turbulence 
 which accompanied this total dissolution of the frame 
 of government, the minds of men, set loose from the 
 ordinary restraints of law and authority, acted with 
 such capricious irregularity, that events no less extra- 
 ordinary than unexpected followed in a rapid succes- 
 sion. Pizarro had scarcely begun to exercise the new 
 powers with which he was invested, when he beheld 
 formidable enemies rise up to oppose him. The vice- 
 roy having been put on board a vessel by the judges 
 of the audience, in order that he might be carried to 
 Spain under custody of Juan Alvarez, one of their 
 own number ; as soon as they were out at sea, Alva- 
 rez, either touched with remorse, or moved by fear, 
 kneeled down to his prisoner, declaring him from that 
 moment to be free, and that he himself, and every 
 person in the ship, would obey him as the legal re- 
 presentative of their sovereign. Nugnez Vela ordered 
 the pilot of the vessel to shape his course towards 
 Tumbez, and as soon as he landed there erected the 
 royal standard, and resumed his functions of viceroy. 
 Several persons of note, to whom the contagion of the 
 seditious spirit which reigned at Cuzco and Lima had 
 not reached, instantly avowed their resolution to sup- 
 port his authority. The violence of Pizarro's govern- 
 ment, who observed every individual with the jealousy 
 natural to usurpers, and who punished every appear- 
 ance of disaffection with unforgiving severity, soon 
 augmented the number of the viceroy's adherents, as 
 it forced some leading men in the colony to fly to him 
 for refuge. While he was gathering such strength at 
 Tumbez, that his forces began to assume the appear- 
 ance of what was considered as an army in America, 
 Diego Centeno, a bold and active officer, exasperated 
 by the cruelty and oppression of Pizarro's lieutenant- 
 governor in the province of Charcas, formed a con- 
 spiracy against his life, cut him off, and declared for 
 the viceroy. 
 
 [A. D. 1 545.] Pizarro, though alarmed with those 
 appearances of hostility in the opposite extremes of 
 the empire, was not disconcerted. He prepared to 
 assert the authority to which he had attained with 
 the spirit and conduct of an officer accustomed to 
 command, and marched directly against the viceroy, 
 as the enemy who was nearest as well as most for- 
 midable. As he was master of the public revenues 
 in Peru, and most of the military men were attached 
 to his family, his troops were so numerous, that the 
 viceroy, unable to face them, retreated towards Quito. 
 Pizarro followed him ; and in that long march, 
 through a wild mountainous country, suffered hard- 
 ships and encountered difficulties, which no troops 
 but those accustomed to serve in America could have 
 endured or surmounted. The viceroy had scarcely 
 reached Quito, when the vanguard of Pizarro's forces 
 appeared, led by Carvajal, who, though near four- 
 
 score, was as hardy and active as any young soldier 
 under his command. Nugnez Vela instantly aban- 
 doned a town incapable of defence, and with a 
 rapidity more resembling a flight than a retreat, 
 marched into the province of Popayan. Pizarro con- 
 tinued to pursue ; but finding it impossible to over- 
 take him, returned to Quito. From thence he de- 
 spatched Carvajal to oppose Centeno, who was grow- 
 ing formidable in the southern provinces of the em- 
 pire, and he himself remained there to make head 
 against the viceroy. 
 
 By his own activity, and the assistance of Benal- 
 cazar, Nugnez Vela soon assembled four hundred 
 men in Popayan. As he retained, amidst all his dis- 
 asters, the same elevation of mind, and the same 
 high sense of his own dignity, he rejected with dis- 
 dain the advice of some of his followers, who urged 
 him to make overtures of accommodation to Pizarro, 
 declaring that it was only by the sword that a contest 
 with rebels could be decided [A. D. 1546.] With this 
 intention he marched back to Quito. Pizarro, relying 
 on the superior number, and still more on the dis- 
 cipline and valour, of his troops, advanced resolutely 
 to meet him [Jan. 18.] The battle was fierce and 
 bloody, both parties fighting like men who knew that 
 the possession of a great empire, the fate of their 
 leaders, and their own future fortune, depended upon 
 the issue of that day. But Pizarro's veterans pushed 
 forward with such regular and well-directed force, 
 that they soon began to make an impression on their 
 enemies. The viceroy, by extraordinary exertions, in 
 which the abilities of a commander and the courage 
 of a soldier were equally displayed, held victory for 
 some time in suspense. At length he fell, pierced 
 with many wounds ; and the rout of his followers 
 became general. They were hotly pursued. His head 
 was cut off, and placed on the public gibbet in Quito, 
 which Pizarro entered in triumph. The troops as- 
 sembled by Centeno were dispersed soon after by 
 Carvajal, and he himself compelled to fly to the 
 mountains, where he remained for several months 
 concealed in a cave. Every person in Peru, from the 
 frontiers of Popayan to those of Chili, submitted to 
 Pizarro ; and by his fleet, under Pedro de Hinojosa, 
 he had not only the unrivalled command of the South 
 sea, but had taken possession of Panama, and placed 
 a garrison in Nombre de Dios, on the opposite side of 
 the isthmus, which rendered him master of the only 
 avenue of communication between Spain and Peru 
 that was used at that period. 
 
 After this decisive victory Pizarro and his follow- 
 ers remained for some time at Quito, .and during the 
 first transports of their exultation : they ran into 
 every excess of licentious indulgence, with the riotous 
 spirit usual among low adventurers upon extraordinary 
 success. But amidst this dissipation, their chief and 
 his confidants were obliged to turn their thoughts 
 sometimes to what was serious, and deliberated with 
 much solicitude concerning the part that he ought 
 now to take. Carvajal, no less bold and decisive in 
 council than in the field, had from the beginning 
 warned Pizarro, that in the career on which he was 
 entering it was vain to think of holding a middle 
 course; that he must either boldly aim at all, or 
 attempt nothing. From the time that Pizarro ob- 
 tained possession of the government of Peru, he 
 inculcated the same maxim with greater earnestness. 
 Upon receiving an account of the victory at Quito, he 
 remonstrated with him in a tone still more peremp- 
 tory. " You have usurped," said he, in a letter 
 written to Pizarro on that occasion, "the supreme 
 power in this country, in contempt of the emperor's 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 159 
 
 commission to the viceroy. You have marched in 
 hostile array against the royal standard ; you have 
 attacked the representative of your sovereign in the 
 field, have defeated him, and cut off his head. 
 Think not that ever a monarch will forgive such in- 
 sults on his dignity, or that any reconciliation with 
 him can be cordial or sincere. Depend no longer on 
 the precarious favour of another. Assume yourself 
 the sovereignty over a country, to the dominion of 
 which your family has a title founded on the rights 
 both of discovery and conquest. It is in your power 
 to attach every Spaniard in Peru of any consequence 
 inviolably to your interest, by liberal grants of lands 
 and of Indians, or by instituting ranks of nobility, 
 and creating titles of honour similar to those which 
 are courted with so much eagerness in Europe. By 
 establishing orders of knighthood, with privileges 
 and distinctions resembling those in Spain, you may 
 bestow a gratification upon the officers in your ser- 
 vice, suited to the ideas of military men. Nor is it 
 to your countrymen only that you ought to attend ; 
 endeavour to gain the natives. By marrying the 
 Coya, or daughter of the Sun next in succession to 
 the crown, you will induce the Indians, out of venera- 
 tion for the blood of their ancient princes, to unite 
 with the Spaniards in support of your authority. 
 Thus, at the head of the ancient inhabitants of Peru, 
 as well as of the new settlers there, you may set at 
 defiance the power of Spain, and repel with ease any 
 feeble force which it can send at such a distance." 
 Cepeda, the lawyer, who was now Pizarro's confiden- 
 tial counsellor, warmly seconded Carvajal's exhorta- 
 tions, and employed whatever learning he possessed 
 in demonstrating that all the founders of great mon- 
 archies had been raised to pre-eminence, not by the 
 antiquity of their lineage, or the validity of their 
 rights, but by their own aspiring valour and personal 
 merit. 
 
 Pizarro listened attentively to both, and could not 
 conceal the satisfaction with which he contemplated 
 the abject that they presented to his view. But, 
 happily for the tranquillity of the world, few men 
 possess that superior strength of mind, and extent of 
 abilities, which are capable of forming and executing 
 such daring schemes as cannot be accomplished 
 without overturning the established order of society, 
 and violating those maxims of duty which men are 
 accustomed to hold sacred. The mediocrity of 
 Pizarro's talents circumscribed his ambition within 
 more narrow limits. Instead of aspiring at inde- 
 pendent power, he confined his views to the obtain- 
 ing from the court of Spain a confirmation of the 
 authority which he now possessed ; and for that 
 purpose he sent an officer of distinction thither, to 
 give such a representation of his conduct, and 
 of the state of the country, as might induce 
 the emperor and his ministers, either from incli- 
 nation or from necessity, to continue him in his 
 present station. 
 
 While Pizarro was deliberating with respect to the 
 part which he should take, consultations were held 
 in Spain, with no less solicitude, concerning the mea- 
 sures which ought to be pursued in order to re- 
 establish the emperor's authority in Peru. Though 
 unacquainted with the last excesses of outrage to 
 which the malcontents had proceeded in that country, 
 the court had received an account of the insurrection 
 against the viceroy, of his imprisonment, and the 
 usurpation of the government by Pizarro. A revo- 
 lution so alarming called for an immediate inter- 
 position of the emperor's abilities and authority. 
 But as he was fully occupied at that time in Ger- 
 
 many, in conducting the war against the famous 
 league of Smalkalde, one of the most interesting 
 and arduous enterprises in his reign, the care of 
 providing a remedy for the disorders in Peru de- 
 volved upon his son Philip, and the counsellors 
 whom Charles had appointed to assist him in the 
 government of Spain during his absence. At first 
 view, the actions of Pizarro and his adherents apr 
 peared so repugnant to the duty of subjects towards 
 their sovereign, that the greater part of the ministers 
 insisted on declaring them instantly to be guilty of 
 rebellion, and on proceeding to punish them with 
 exemplary rigour. But when the fervour of their 
 zeal and indignation began to abate, innumerable 
 obstacles to the execution of this measure presented 
 themselves. The veteran bands of infantry, the 
 strength and glory of -the Spanish armies, were 
 then employed in Germany. Spain, exhausted of 
 men and money by a long series of wars, in which 
 she had been involved by the restless ambition of 
 two successive monarchs, could not easily equip an 
 armament of sufficient force to reduce Pizarro. To 
 transport any respectable body of troops to a coun- 
 try so remote as Peru, appeared almost impossible. 
 While Pizarro continued master of the South sea, 
 the direct route by Nombre de Dios and Panama 
 was impracticable. An attempt to march to Quito 
 by land through the new kingdom of Granada, and 
 the province of Popayan, across regions of pro- 
 digious extent, desolate, unhealthy, or inhabited by 
 fierce and hostile tribes, would be attended with 
 insurmountable danger and hardships. The passage 
 to the South sea by the straits of Magellan was so 
 tedious, so uncertain, and so little known in that 
 age, that no confidence could bo placed in any 
 effort carried on in a course of navigation so remote 
 and precarious. Nothing then remained but to 
 relinquish the system which the ardour of their loy- 
 alty had first suggested, and to attempt by lenient 
 measures what could not be effected by force. It was 
 manifest, from Pizarro's solicitude to represent hjs 
 conduct in a favourable light to the emperor, thai 
 notwithstanding the excesses of which he had been 
 guilty, he still retained sentiments of veneration for 
 his sovereign. By a proper application to these, 
 together with some such concessions as should dis- 
 cover a spirit of moderation and forbearance in go- 
 vernment, there was still room to hope that he might 
 be yet reclaimed, or the ideas of loyalty natural to 
 Spaniards might so far revive among his followers, 
 that they would no longer lend their aid to uphold 
 his usurped authority. 
 
 The success, however, of this negociation, no less 
 delicate than it was important, depended entirely on 
 the abilities and address of the person to whom it 
 should be committed. After weighing with much 
 attention the comparative merit of various persons, 
 the Spanish ministers fixed with unanimity of 
 choice upon Pedro de la Gasca, a priest in no higher 
 station than that of counsellor to the inquisition. 
 Though in no public office, he had been occasion- 
 ally employed by government in affairs of trust and 
 consequence, and had conducted them with no less 
 skill than success ; displaying a gentle and insinu- 
 ating temper, accompanied with much firmness ; 
 probity, superior to any feeling of private interest ; 
 and a cautious circumspection in concerting mea* 
 sures, followed by such vigour in executing them' as 
 is rarely found in alliance with the other. These 
 qualities marked him out for the function to which 
 he was destined. The emperor, to whom Gasca was 
 not unknown, warmly approved of the choice, and 
 
1GO 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 communicated it to him in a letter containing ex- 
 pressions of good-will and confidence, no less honour- 
 able to the prince who wrote than to the subject who 
 received it. Gasca, notwithstanding his advanced 
 age and feeble constitution, and though, from the 
 apprehensions natural to a man, who, during the 
 course of his life, had never been out of his own 
 country, he dreaded the effects of a long voyage, and 
 of an unhealthy climate, did not hesitate a moment 
 about complying with the will of his sovereign. But 
 as a proof that it was from this principle alone he acted, 
 lie refused a bishopric which was offered to him, in 
 order that he might appear in Peru with a more dig- 
 nified character; he vrould accept of no higher title 
 than that of president of the court of audience in 
 Lima ; and declared that he would receive no salary 
 on account of his discharging the duties of that 
 office. All he required was, that the expense of sup- 
 porting his family should be defrayed by the public, 
 and as he was to go like a minister of peace with his 
 gown and breviary, and without any retinue but a 
 few domestics, this would not load the revenue with 
 any enormous burthen. 
 
 But while he discovered such disinterested mode- 
 rntion with respect to whatever related personally to 
 himself, he demanded his official powers in a very 
 different tone. He insisted, as he was to be employed 
 in a country so remote from the seat of government, 
 where he could not have recourse to his sovereign for 
 new instructions on every emergence, and as the 
 whole success of his negociations must depend upon j 
 the confidence which the people with whom he had 
 to treat could place in the extent of his powers, that 
 he ought to be invested with unlimited authority ; 
 that his jurisdiction must reach to all persons and to 
 all causes; that he must be empoweied to pardon, 
 to punish, or to reward, as circumstances and the 
 behaviour of different men might require; that in 
 case of resistance from the malcontents, he might be 
 authorized to reduce them to obedience by force of 
 arms, to levy troops for that purpose, and to call for 
 assistance from the governors of all the Spanish set- 
 tlements in America. These powers, though mani- 
 festly conducive to the great objects of his mission, 
 appeared to the Spanish ministers to be inalienable 
 prerogatives of royalty, which ought not to be dele- 
 gated to a subject, and they refused to giant them. 
 But the emperor's views were more enlarged. As, 
 from the nature of his employment, Gasca must be 
 intrusted with discretionary power in several points, 
 and all his efforts might prove ineffectual if he was 
 circumscribed in any one particular, Charles scrupled 
 not to invest him with authority to the full extent 
 that he demanded. Highly satisfied with this fresh 
 proof of his master's confidence, -Gasca hastened his 
 departure, and, without either money or troops, set 
 out to quell a formidable rebellion. 
 
 [July 27.] On his arrrival at Nombre de Dios he 
 found Herman Mexia, an officer of note, posted there, 
 by order of Pizarro, with a considerable body of men, 
 to oppose the landing of any hostiie forces. But 
 Gasca appeared in such pacific guise, with a train so 
 little formidable, and with a title of no such dignity 
 as to excite terror, that he was received with much 
 respect. From Nombre de Dios he advanced to 
 Panama, and met with a similar reception from 
 Hinojosa, whom Pizarro had intrusted with the go- 
 Vernment of that town, and the command of his fleet 
 stationed there. In both places he he'd the same 
 language, declaring that he was sent by their sovereign 
 as a messenger of peace, not as a minister of venge- 
 ance; that he came to redress all their grievances, to 
 
 revoke the laws which had excited alarm, to pardon 
 past offences, and to re-establish order and justice in 
 the government of Peru. His mild deportment, the 
 simplicity of his manners, the sanctity of his profession, 
 and a winning appearance of candour, gained credit 
 to his declarations. The veneration due to a person 
 clothed with legal authority, and acting in virtue of 
 a royal commission, began to revive among men ac- 
 customed for some time to nothing more respectable 
 than an usurped jurisdiction. Hinojosa, Mexia, and 
 several other oflicers of distinction, to ench of whom 
 Gasca applied separately, were gained over to his in- 
 terest, and waited only for some decent occasion of 
 declaring openly in his favour. 
 
 This the violence of Pizarro soon afforded them. 
 As soon as he heard of Gasca' s arrival at Panama, 
 though he received, at the same time, an account of 
 the nature of his commission, and was informed of 
 his offers, not only to render every Spaniard in Peru 
 easy concerning what was past, by an act of general 
 oblivion, but secure with respect to the future by re- 
 pealing the obnoxious laws ; instead of accepting with 
 gratitude his sovereign's gracious concessions, he was 
 so much exasperated on finding that he was not to 
 be continued in his station as governor of the country, 
 that he instantly resolved to oppose the president's 
 entry into Peru, and to prevent his exercising any 
 juiisdiction there. To this dc'sperate resolution he 
 added another highly preposterous. He sent a new 
 deputation to Spain to justify this conduct, and to 
 insist, in name of all the communities in Peru, for a 
 confirmation of the government to himself during 
 life, as the only means of preserving tranquillity 
 there. The persons intrusted with this strange com- 
 mission intimated the intention of Pizarro to the 
 president, and required him, in his name, to depart 
 from Panama and return to Spain. They carried 
 likewise secret instructions to Hinojosa, directing 
 him to offer Gasca a present of fifty thousand pesos, 
 if he would comply voluntarily with what was de- 
 manded of him ; and if he should continue obstinate, 
 to cut him off, either by assassination or poison. 
 
 Many circumstances concurred in pushing on 
 Pizarro to those wild measures. Having been once 
 accustomed to supreme command, he could not bear 
 the thoughts of descending to a private station. 
 Conscious of his own demerit, he suspected that the 
 emperor studied only to deceive him, and would 
 never pardon the outrages which he had committed. 
 His chief confidants, no less guilty, entertained the 
 same apprehensions. The approach of Gasca with- 
 out any military force excited no terror. There were 
 now above six thousand Spaniards settled in Peru ; 
 and at the head of these he doubted not to maintain 
 his own independence, if the court of Spain should 
 refuse to grant what he required. But he knew not 
 that a spirit of defection had already begun to spread 
 among those whom he trusted most. Hinojosa, 
 amazed at Pizarro's precipitate resolution of setting 
 himself in opposition to the emperor's commission, 
 and disdaining to be his instrument in perpetrating 
 the odious crimes pointed out in his secret instructions, 
 publicly recognised the title of the president to the 
 supreme authority in Peru. The officers under his 
 command did the same. Such was the contagious 
 influence of the example, that it reached even the 
 deputies who had been sent from Peru ; and at the 
 time when Pizarro expected to hear either of Gasca's 
 return to Spain, or of his death, he received an ac- 
 count of his being master of the fleet, of Panama, 
 and of the troops stationed there. 
 
 [A.D. 1547.] Irritated almost to madness by events 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 161 
 
 so unexpected, he openly prepared for war; and in 
 order to give some colour of justice to his arm*, he 
 appointed the court of audience in Lima to proceed 
 to the trial of Gasca, for the crimes of having seized 
 his ships, seduced |his officers, and prevented his 
 deputies from proceeding in their voyage to Spain. 
 Cepeda, though acting as a judge in virtue of the 
 royal commission, did not scruple : to prostitute the 
 dignity of his function by finding Gasca guilty 
 of treason, and condemning him to death on that 
 account. Wild, and even ridiculous, as this proceed- 
 ing was, it imposed on the low illiterate adventurers 
 with whom Peru was filled, by the semblance of legal 
 sanction warranting Pizarro to carry on hostilities 
 against a convicted traitor. Soldiers accordingly 
 resorted from every quarter to his standard, and he 
 was soon at the head of a thousand men, the best 
 equipped that had ever taken the field in Peru. 
 
 Gasca, on his part, perceiving that force must be 
 employed in order to accomplish the purpose of his 
 mission, was no less assiduous in collecting troops 
 from Nicaragua, Carthagena, and other settlements 
 on the continent ; and with such success, that he was 
 soon in a condition to detach a squadron of his fleet, 
 with a considerable body of soldiers, to the coast of 
 Peru. Their appearance excited a dreadful alarm 
 (April); and though they did not attempt for sometime 
 to njake any descent, they did more elfectual service, 
 by setting ashore in different places persons who 
 dispersed copies of the act of general indemnity, and 
 the revocation of the late edicts; and who made 
 known everywhere the pacific intentions, as well as 
 mild temper, of tht president. The effect of spread- 
 ing this information was wonderful. All who were 
 dissatisfied with Pizarro's violent administration, all 
 who retained any sentiments of fidelity to their 
 sovereign, began to meditate revolt. Some openly 
 deserted a cause which they now deemed to be 
 unjust. Centeno, leaving the cave in which he lay 
 concealed, assembled about fifty of his former ad- 
 herents, and with this feeble half-armed band 
 advanced boldly to Cnzco. By a sudden attack in 
 the night-time, in which he displayed no less military 
 skill than valour, he rendered himself master of that 
 capital, though defended by a garrison of five hundred 
 men. Most of these having ranged themselves under 
 his banners, he had soon the command of a respect- 
 able body of troops. 
 
 Pizarro, though astonished at beholding one enemy 
 approaching by sea, and another by land, at a time 
 when he trusted to the union of all Peru in his 
 favour, was of a spirit more undaunted, and more 
 accustomed to the vicissitudes of fortune, than to be 
 disconcerted or appalled. As the danger from Cen- 
 teno's operations was the most urgent, he instantly 
 set out to oppose him. Having provided horses for 
 all his soldiers, he marched with amazing rapidity. 
 But every morning he found his force diminished, 
 by numbers who had left him during the night ; and 
 though he became suspicious to excess, and punished 
 without mercy all whom he suspected, the rage of 
 desertion was too violent to be checked. Before he 
 got within sight of the enemy at Huarina, near the 
 lake Titiaca, he could not muster more than four 
 hundred soldiers. But these he justly considered as 
 men of tried attachment, on whom he might depend. 
 They were indeed the boldest and most desperate of 
 his followers, conscious, like himself, of crimes for 
 which they could hardly expect forgiveness, and 
 without any hope but in the success of their arms 
 (October 20). With these he did not hesitate to 
 attack Centeno' s troops (141), though double to his 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, No, 21. 
 
 own in number. The royalists did not decline the 
 combat. It was the most obstinate and bloody that 
 had hitherto been fought in Peru. At length the 
 intrepid valour of Pizarro, and the superiority of 
 Carvajal's military talents, triumphed over numbers, 
 and obtained a complete victory. The booty was 
 immense, and the treatment of the vanquished cruel. 
 By this signal success the reputation of Pizarro was 
 re-established, and being now deemed invincible in 
 the field, his army increased daily in number. 
 
 But events happened in other parts of Peru, which 
 more than counterbalanced the splendid victory at 
 Huarina. Pizarro had scarcely left Lima, when the 
 citizens weary of his oppressive dominion, erected the 
 royal standard, and Aldana, with a detachment of 
 soldiers from the fleet, took possession of the town. 
 About the same time, Gasca landed at Tumbez with 
 five hundred men. Encouraged by his presence, 
 every settlement in the low eountry declared far the 
 king. The situation of the two parties was now 
 perfectly reversed : Cuzco and the adjacent province* 
 were possessed by Pizarro : all the rest of the empire, 
 from Quito southward, acknowledged the jurisdiction 
 of the president. As his numbers augmented fast, 
 Gasca advanced into the interior part of the country. 
 His behaviour still continued to be gentle and unas- 
 suming ; he expressed, on every occasion, his ardent 
 wish of terminating the contest without bloodshed. 
 More solicitous to reclaim than to punish, he up- 
 braided no man for past offences, but received them 
 as a father receives penitent children returning to & 
 sense of their duty. Though desirous of peace, he 
 did not slacken his preparations for war. He ap- 
 pointed the general rendezvous of his troops in the 
 fertile valley of Xauxa, on the road to Cuzco. There 
 he remained for some months, not only that he might 
 have time to make another attempt towards an 
 accommodation with Pizarro, but that he might train 
 his new soldiers to the use of arms, and accustom 
 them to the discipline of a camp, before he led them 
 against a body of victorious veterans. Pizarro, 
 intoxicated with the success which had hitherto 
 accompanied his arms, and elated with having again 
 near a thousand men under his command, refused to 
 listen to any terms, although Cepeda, together with 
 several of his officers, and even Carvajal himself 
 (142), gave it as their advice to close with the presi- 
 dent's offer of a general indemnity, and the revoca- 
 tion of the obnoxious laws. 
 
 (Dec. 29.) Gasca having tried in vain every 
 expedient, to avoid imbruing his hands in the blood 
 of his coimtrymen, began to move towards Cuzco, at 
 the head of sixteen hundred men. 
 
 (A. D. 1548). Pizarro, confident of victory, Buf- 
 fered the royalists to pass all the rivers which lie 
 between Guamanga and Cuzco without opposition, 
 and to advance within four leagues of that capital, 
 flattering himself that a defeat in such a situation as 
 rendered escape impracticable would at once termi- 
 nate the war. He then marched out to meet the 
 enemy, and Carvajal chose his ground, and made the 
 disposition of the troops with the discerning eye, and 
 profound knov/ledge in the art of war, conspicuous 
 in all his operations. As the two armies moved 
 forwards slowly to the charge (April 9), the appear- 
 ance of each was singular. In that of Pizarro, 
 composed of men enriched with the spoils of the 
 most opulent country in America, every officer, and 
 almost all the private men, were clothed instuffsof silk, 
 or brocade, embroidered in gold and silver ; and their 
 horses, their arms, and their standards, were adorned 
 with all the pride of military pomp. That of Gasca, 
 
162 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, 
 
 though not o splendid, exhibited what was no Jess 
 striking. He himself, accompanied by the archbishop 
 of Lima, the bishops of Quito and Ciizco, and a great 
 number of ecclesiastics, marching along the lines, 
 blessing the men, and encouraging them to a resolute 
 discharge of their duty. 
 
 fc When both armies were just ready to engage, Ce- 
 peda set spurs to his horse, galloped off, and surren- 
 dered himself to the president. Garcilasso de la 
 Vega, and other officers of note, followed his example. 
 The revolt of persons in such high rank struck all 
 with amazement. The mutual confidence on which 
 the union and strength of armies depend, ceased at 
 once. Distrust and consternation spread from rank 
 to rank. Some silently slipped away, others threw 
 down their arms, the greatest number went over to 
 the royalists. Pizarro, Carvajal, and some leaders, 
 employed authority, threats, and entreaties, to stop 
 them, but in vain. In less than half an hour, a body 
 of men, which might have decided the fate of the Pe- 
 ruvian empire, was totally dispersed. Pizarro, seeing 
 all irretrievably lost, cried out in amazement to a few 
 officers who still faithfully adhered to him, " What 
 remains for us to do ?" " Let us rush," replied one 
 of them, " upon the enemy's firmest battalion, and 
 die like Romans." Dejected with such a reverse of 
 fortune, he had not spirit to follow this soldierlike 
 council, and, with a tameness disgraceful to his 
 former fame, he surrendered to one of Gasca's of- 
 ficers. Carvajal, endeavouring to escape, was over- 
 taken and seized. 
 
 Gasca, happy in this bloodless victory, did not 
 stain it with cruelty. Pizarro, Carvajal, and a small 
 number of the most distinguished or notorious of- 
 fenders, were punished capitally. Pizarro was be- 
 headed on the day after he surrendered. He 
 submitted to his fate with a composed dignity, and 
 seemed desirous to atone by repentance for the crimes 
 which he had committed. The end of Carvajal was 
 suitable to his life. On his trial he offered no defence. 
 When the sentence, adjudging him to be hanged, was 
 pronounced, he carelessly replied, " One can die but 
 once." During the interval, between the sentence 
 and execution, he discovered no sign either of remorse 
 for the past, or of solicitude about the future ; scoffing 
 at all who visited him, in his usual sarcastic vein of 
 mirth, with the same quickness of repartee and gross 
 pleasantry as at any other period of his life. Cepeda, 
 more criminal than either, 6ught to have shared the 
 same fate; but the merit of having deserted his asso- 
 ciates at such a critical moment, and with such deci- 
 sive effect, saved him from immediate punishment. 
 He was sent, however, as a prisoner to Spain, and 
 died in confinement. 
 
 In the minute detail which the contemporary his- 
 torians have given of the civil dissensions that raged 
 in Peru, with little interruption during ten years, 
 many circumstances occur so striking, and which 
 indicate such an uncommon state of manners, as to 
 merit particular attention. 
 
 Though the Spaniards who first invaded Peru were 
 of the lowest order in society, and the greater part of 
 those who afterwards joined them were persons of 
 desperate fortune, yet in all the bodies of troops 
 brought into the field by the different leaders who 
 contended for superiority, not one man acted as a 
 hired soldier, that followed his standard for pay. 
 Every adventurer in Peru considered himself as a 
 conqueror, entitled by his services, to an eslablisli- 
 ment in that country which had been acquired by his 
 valour. In the contests between the rival chiefs, 
 each chose his side as he was directed by his own 
 
 judgment or affections. He joined his commander 
 as a companion of his fortune, and disdained to 
 degrade himself by receiving the wages of a merce- 
 nary. It was to their sword, not to pre-eminence in 
 office, or nobility of birth, that most of the leaders 
 whom they followed were indebted for their elevation ; 
 and each of their adherents hoped, by the same 
 means, to open a way for himself to the possession of 
 power and wealth. 
 
 But though the troops in Peru served without any 
 regular pay, they were raised at immense expense. 
 Among men accustomed to divide the spoils of an 
 opulent country, the desire of obtaining wealth 
 acquired incredible force. The ardour of pursuit 
 augmented in proportion to the hope of success. 
 Where all were intent on the same object, and 
 under the dominion of the same passion, there was 
 but one mode of gaining men, or of securing their 
 attachment. Officers of name and influence, besides 
 the promise of future establishments, received in hand 
 large gratuities from the chief with whom they 
 engaged. Gonzalo Pizarro, in order to raise a thou- 
 sand men, advanced five hundred thousand pesos. 
 Gasca expended, in levying the troops which he led 
 against Pizarro, nine ^hundred thousand pesos. The 
 distribution of property, bestowed as the reward of 
 services, was still more exorbitant. Cepeda, as the 
 recompence of his perfidy and address, in persuading 
 the court of royal audience to give the sanction of its 
 authority to the usurped jurisdiction of Pizarro, 
 received a grant of lands which yielded an annual 
 income of a hundred and fifty thousand pesos. 
 Hinojosa, who, by his early defection from Pizarro, 
 and surrender of the fleet to Gasca, decided the fate 
 of Peru, obtained a district of country affording two 
 hundred thousand pesos of yearly value. While 
 such rewards were dealt out to the principal officers, 
 with more than royal munificence, proportional shares 
 were conferred upon those of inferior rank. 
 
 Such a rapid change of fortune produced its 
 natural effects. It gave birth to new wants, and new 
 desires. Veterans, long accustomed to hardship and 
 toil, acquired of a sudden a taste for profuse and 
 inconsiderate dissipation, and indulged in all the 
 excesses of military licentiousness. The riot of low 
 debauchery occupied some ; a relish for expensive 
 luxuries spread among others. The meanest soldier in 
 Peru would have thought himself degraded by march- 
 ing on foot ; and at a time when the prices of horses 
 in that country were exorbitant, each insisted on 
 being furnished with one before he would take the 
 field. But though less patient under the fatigue and 
 hardships of service, they were ready to face danger 
 and death with as much intrepidity as ever ; and ani- 
 mated by the hope of new rewards, they never failed, 
 on the day of battle, to display all their ancient 
 valour. 
 
 Together with their courage, they retained all the 
 ferocity by which they were originally distinguished. 
 Civil discord never raged with a more fell spirit than 
 among the Spaniards in Peru. To all the passions 
 which visually envenom contests amontf countrymen, 
 avarice was added, and lendered their enmity more 
 rancorous. Eagerness to seize the valuable forfeitures 
 expected upon the death of every opponent, shut the 
 door against, mercy. To be wealthy, was of itself suf- 
 ficient to expose a man to accusation, or to subject 
 him to punishment. On the slightest suspicions, 
 Pizarro condemned many of the most opulent inha- 
 bitants in Peru to death. Carvajal, without searching 
 for any pretext to justify his cruelty, cut off many 
 more. The number of those who suffered by the 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 163 
 
 hands of the executioner, was not much inferior to 
 what fell in the field (143) ; and the greater part were 
 condemned without the formality of any legal trial. 
 
 The violence with which the contending par- 
 ties treated their opponents was not accompanied 
 with its usual attendants, attachment and fidelity to 
 those with whom they acted. The ties of honour, 
 which ought to be held sacred among soldiers, and 
 the principle of integrity, interwoven as thoroughly 
 in the Spanish character as in that of any nation, 
 seem to have been equally forgotten. Even regard 
 for decency, and the sense of shame, were totally 
 lost. During their dissensions, there was hardly a 
 Spaniard in Peru who did not abandon the party 
 which he had originally espoused, betray the asso- 
 ciates with whom he had united, and violate the 
 engagements under which he had come. The viceroy 
 Nugnez Vela was ruined by the treachery of Cepeda 
 and the other judges of the royal audience, who were 
 bound by the duties of their function to have sup- 
 ported his authority. The chief advisers and com- 
 panions of Gonzalo Pizarro's revolt were the first 
 to forsake him, and submit to his enemies. His 
 fleet was given up to Gasca, hy the man whom he 
 had singled out among his officers to intrust with 
 that important command. On the day that was to 
 decide his fate, an army of veterans, in sight of the 
 enemy, threw down their arms without striking a 
 blow, and deserted a leader who had often conducted 
 them to victory. Instances of such general and 
 avowed contempt of the principles and obligations 
 which attach man to man, and bind them together 
 in social union, rarely occur in history. It is only 
 where men are far removed from the seat of govern- 
 ment, where the restraints of law and order are little 
 felt, where the prospect of gain is unbounded, and 
 where immense wealth may cover the crimes by 
 which it is acquired, that we can find any parallel to 
 the levity, the rapaciousness, the perfidy, and 
 corruption prevalent among the Spaniards in Peru. 
 
 On the death of Pizarro, the malcontents in every 
 corner of Peru laid down their arms, and tranquillity 
 seemed to be perfectly re-established. But two 
 very interesting objects still remained to occupy the 
 president's attention. The one was to find imme- 
 diately such employment for a multitude of turbulent 
 and daring adventurers with which the country was 
 filled, as might prevent them from exciting new com- 
 motions. The other, to bestow proper gratifications 
 upon those to whose loyalty and valour he had been 
 indebted for his success. The former of these was 
 in some measure accomplished, by appointing Pedro 
 de Valdivia to prosecute the conquest of Chili ; and 
 by empowering Diego Centeno to undertake the 
 discovery of the vast regions bordering on the river 
 De la Plata. The reputation of those leaders, 
 together with the hopes of acquiring wealth, and of 
 rising to consequence in some unexplored country, 
 alluring many of the most indigent and desperate 
 oldiers to follow their standards, drained off no 
 inconsiderable portion of that mutinous spirit which 
 Gasca dreaded. 
 
 The latter was an affair of greater difficulty, and to 
 be adjusted with a more attentive and delicate hand. 
 The repartimientot t or allotments of lands and Indians, 
 which fell to be distributed in consequence of the 
 death or forfeiture of the former possessors, exceeded 
 two millions of pesos of yearly rent. Gasca, when 
 now absolute master of this immense property, 
 retained the same disinterested sentiments which he 
 had originally professed, and refused to reserve the 
 smallest portion of it for himself. But the number 
 
 of claimants was great ; and whilst the vanity or 
 avarice of every individual fixed the value of his 
 own services, and estimated the recompence which 
 he thought due to him, the pretensions of each were 
 so extravagant, that it was impossible to satisfy all. 
 Gasca listened to them one by one, with the most 
 patient attention ; and that he might have leisure 
 to weigh the comparative merit of their several 
 claims with accuracy, he retired with the archbishop 
 of Lima, and a single secretary, to a village twelve 
 leagues from Cuzco. There he spent several days in 
 allotting to each a district of lands and number of 
 Indians, in proportion to his idea of their past 
 services and future importance. But that he might 
 get beyond the reach of the fierce storm of clamour 
 and rage which he foresaw would burst out on the 
 publication of his decree, notwithstanding the im- 
 partial equity with which he had framed it, he set 
 out for Lima, leaving the instrument of partition 
 sealed up, with orders not to open it for some days 
 after his departure. 
 
 [Aug. 24.] The indignation excited by publishing 
 the decree of partition was not less than Gasca had 
 expected. Vanity, avarice, emulation, envy, shame, 
 rage, and all the other passions which most vehe- 
 mently agitate the minds of men when both their 
 honour and their interest are deeply affected, con- 
 spired in adding to its violence. It broke out with 
 all the fury of military insolence. Calumny, threats, 
 and curses, were poured out openly upon the 
 president. He was accused of ingratitude, of 
 partiality, and of injustice. Among soldiers prompt 
 to action, such seditious discourse would have been 
 soon followed by deeds no less violent, and they 
 already began to turn their eyes towards some dis- 
 contented leaders, expecting them to stand forth in 
 redress of their wrongs. By some vigorous inter- 
 positions of government, a timely check was given 
 to this mutinous spirit, and the danger of another 
 civil war averted for the present. 
 
 [A. D. 1549.] Gasca, however, perceiving that the 
 flame was suppressed rather than extinguished, 
 laboured with the utmost assiduity to soothe the 
 malcontents, by bestowing large gratuities on some, 
 by promising repartimientot, when they fell vacant, 
 to others, and by caressing and flattering all. But 
 that the public security might rest on a foundation 
 more stable than their good affection, he endeavoured 
 to strengthen the hands of his successors in office, 
 by re-establishing the regular administration of 
 justice in every part of the empire. He introduced 
 order and simplicity into the mode of collecting the 
 royal revenue. He issued regulations concerning 
 the treatment of the Indians, well calculated to 
 protect them from oppression, and to provide for 
 their instruction in the principles of religion, without 
 depriving the Spaniards of the benefit accruing from 
 their labour. [A. D. 1550.] Having now accom- 
 plished every object of his mission, Gasca, longing 
 to return again to a private station, committed the 
 government of Peru to the court of audience, ar,d set 
 out for Spain. [Feb. 1 .] As, during the anarchy and 
 turbulence of the four last years, there had been no 
 remittance made of the royal revenue, he carried with 
 him thirteen hundred thousand pesos of public 
 money, which the economy and order of his adminis- 
 tration enabled him to save, after paying all the 
 expenses of the war. 
 
 He was received in his native country with uni- 
 versal admiration of his abilities and of his virtue. 
 Both were, indeed, highly conspicuous. Without 
 army, or fleet, or public funds j with a train so 
 
164 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 imple, that only three thousand ducats were ex- 
 pended in equipping him, he set out to oppose a for- 
 midable rebellion. By his address and talents he 
 supplied all those defects, and seemed to create in- 
 struments for executing his designs. He acquired 
 such a naval force, as gave him the command of the 
 se. He raised a body of men able to cope with the 
 veteran bands which gave law to Peru. He van- 
 quished their leader, on whose arms victory had 
 hitherto attended ; and in place of anarchy and usur- 
 pation, he established the government of laws, and 
 the authority of the rightful sovereign. But the 
 praise bestowed on his abilities was exceeded by that 
 which his virtue merited. After residing in a coun- 
 try where wealth presented allurements which had 
 seduced every person who had hitherto possessed 
 power there, he returned from that trying station with 
 integrity not only untainted, but unsuspected. 
 After distributing among his countrymen possessions 
 of greater extent and value than had ever been in the 
 disposal of a subject in any age or nation, he himself 
 remained in his original state of poverty ; and at the 
 very time when he brought such a large recruit to the 
 royal treasury, he was obliged to apply by petition 
 for a small sum to discharge some petty debts \vhich 
 he had con-tracted during the course of his service. 
 Charles was not insensible to such disinterested 
 merit. Gasca was received by him with the most 
 distinguishing marks of esteem, and being promoted 
 to the bishopric of Palencia, he passed the remainder 
 of his days in the tranquillity of retirement, respected 
 by his country, honoured by his sovereign, and be- 
 loved by all. 
 
 Notwithstanding all Gasca's wise regulations, the 
 tranquillity of Peru was not of long continuance. In 
 a country where the authority of government had 
 been almost forgotten during the long prevalence of 
 anarchy and misrule, where there were disappointed 
 leaders ripe for revolt, and seditious soldiers ready to 
 follow them, it was not difficult to raise combustion. 
 Several sucessive insurrections desolated the country 
 for some years. But as those, though fierce, were 
 only transient storms, excited rather by the ambition 
 and turbulence of particular men, than by general or 
 public motives, the detail of them is not the object of 
 this history. These commotions in Peru, like every 
 thing of extreme violence, either in the natural or 
 political body, were not of long duration, and by car- 
 rying off the corrupted humours which had given rise 
 to the disorders, they contributed in the end to 
 strengthen the society which at first they threatened 
 to destroy. During their fierce contests, several of 
 the first invaders of Peru, and many of those licenti- 
 ous adventurers whom the fame of their success had 
 allured thither, fell by each other's hands. Each of 
 the parties, as they alternately prevailed in the strug- 
 gle, gradually cleared the country of a number of 
 turbulent spirits, by executing, proscribing, or ban- 
 ishing their opponents. Men less enterprising, less 
 desperate, and more accustomed to move in the path 
 of sober and peaceable industry, settled in Peru ; and 
 the royal authority was gradually established as 
 firmly there as in other Spanish colonies. 
 
 BOOK VII. 
 
 As the conquest of the two great empires of 
 Mexico and Peru forms the most splendid and in- 
 teresting period in the history of America, a view of 
 their political institutions, and a description of their 
 national manners, will exhibit the human specie* to 
 
 the contemplation of intelligent observers in a very 
 singular stage of its progress (144). 
 
 When compared with other parts of the New 
 World, Mexico and Peru may be considered as 
 polished state?. Instead of small, independent, hos- 
 tile tribes, struggling for subsistence amidst woods 
 and marshes, strangers to industry and arts, unac- 
 quainted with subordination, and almost without the 
 appearance of regular government, we find countries 
 of great extent subjected to the dominion of one 
 sovereign ; the inhabitants collected together in 
 cities ; the wisdom and foresight of rulers employed 
 in providing for the maintenance and security of the 
 people; the empire of laws in some measure esta- 
 blished ; the authority of religion recognized; many 
 of the arts essential to life brought to some degree of 
 maturity, and the dawn of such as are ornamental 
 beginning to appear. 
 
 But if the comparison be made with the people of 
 the ancient continent, the inferiority of America in 
 improvement will be conspicuous, and neither the 
 Mexicans nor Peruvians will be entitled to rank with 
 those nations which merit the name of civilized. The 
 people of both the grent empires in America, like the 
 rude tribes around 'them, were totally unacquainted 
 with the useful metals, and the progress which they 
 had made in extending their -dominion over the ani- 
 mal creation was inconsiderable. The Mexicans had 
 gone no further than to tame and rear turkeys, 
 ducks, a species of small dogs, and rabbits. By this 
 feeble essay of ingenuity, the means of subsistence 
 were rendered somewhat more plentiful and secure, 
 than when men depend solely on hunting ; but they 
 had no idea of attempting to subdue the more robust 
 animals, or of deriving any aid from their ministry 
 in carrying on works of labour. The Peruvians seem 
 to have neglected the inferior animals, and not ren- 
 dered any of them domestic except the duck; but 
 they were more fortunate in taming the Llama, an 
 animal peculiar to their country, of a form which 
 bears some resemblance to a deer, and some to a 
 camel, and is of a size somewhat larger than a shoep. 
 Under the protection of man, this species multiplied 
 greatly. Its wool furnished the Peruvians with clo- 
 thing, its flesh with food. It was even employed as 
 a beast of burden, and carried a moderate load with 
 much patience and docility. It was never vised for 
 draught ; and the breed being confined to the moun- 
 tainous country, its service, if we may judge by 
 incidents which occur in the early Spanish writers, 
 was not very extensive among the Peruvians in their 
 original state. 
 
 In tracing the line by which nations proceed to- 
 wards civilization, the discovery of the useful metals, 
 and the acquisition of dominion over the animal crea- 
 tion, have been marked as steps of capital import- 
 ance in their progress. In our continent, long after 
 men had obtained both, society continued in that 
 state which is denominated barbarous. Even with 
 all that command over nature which these confer, 
 many ages elapse, before industry becomes so regular 
 as to render subsistence secure, before the arts which 
 supply the wants and furnish the accommodations of 
 life are brought to any considerable degree of 
 perfection, and before any idea is conceived of the 
 va ious institutions requisite in a well-ordered 
 society. The Mexicans and Peruvians, without know- 
 ledge of the useful metals, or the aid of domes- 
 tic animals, laboured under disadvantages which 
 must have greatly retarded their progress, and in 
 their highest state of improvement their power was 
 ,so limited, ami their operations so feeble, that they 
 

 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 165 
 
 can hardly be considered as having advanced beyond 
 the infancy of civil life. 
 
 After this general observation concerning the most 
 singular and distinguishing circumstance in the state 
 of both the great empires in America, I shall endea- 
 vour to give such a view of the constitution and in- 
 terior police of each, as may enable us to ascertain 
 their place in the political scale, to allot them their 
 proper station between the rude tribes in the New 
 World, and the polished states of the ancient, and to 
 determine how far they had risen above the former, 
 as well as how much they fell below the latter. 
 
 Mexico was first subjected to the Spanish crown. 
 Bat our acquaintance with its laws and manners is 
 not, from that circumstance, mor3 complete. What 
 I have remarked concerning the defective and inac- 
 curate information on which we must rely with 
 respect to the condition and customs of the savage 
 tribes in America, may be applied likewise to our 
 knowledge of the Mexican empire. Cortes, and the 
 rapacious adventurers who accompanied him, had not 
 leisure or capacity to enrich either civil or natural 
 history with new observations. They undertook their 
 expedition in quest of one object, and seemed hardly to 
 have turned their eyes towards any other. Or if, during 
 some short interval of tranqiiillity, when the occupa- 
 tions of war ceased, and the ardour of plunder w;ts 
 suspended, the institutions and manners of the peo- 
 ple whom they had invaded, drew their attention, 
 the inquiries of illiterate soldiers were conducted with 
 so little sagacity and precision, that the accounts 
 given by them of the policy and order established in 
 the Mexican monarchy are superficial, confused, and 
 inexplicable. It is rather from incidents which they 
 relate occasionally, than from their own deductions 
 and remarks, that we are enabled to form some idea 
 of the genius and manners of that people. The ob- 
 scurity in which the ignorance of its conquerors in- 
 volved the annals of Mexico, was augmented by the 
 superstition of those who succeeded them. As the 
 memory of past events was preserved among the 
 Mexicans by figures painted on skins, on cotton 
 cloth, on a kind of pasteboard, or on the bark of 
 trees, the early missionaries, unable to comprehend 
 their meaning, and struck with their uncouth forms, 
 conceived them to be monuments of idolatry which 
 ought to be destroyed, in order to facilitate the con- 
 version of the Indians. In obedience to an edict 
 issued by Juan de Zuramaraga, a Franciscan monk, 
 the first bishop of Mexico, as many records of the 
 ancient Mexican story as could be collected were com- 
 mitted to the flames. In consequence of this fanatical 
 zeal of the monks who first visited New Spain, (which 
 their successors soon began to lament,) whatever 
 knowledge of remote events such rude monuments 
 contained was almost entirely lost; and no info; ma- 
 tion remained concerning the ancient revolutions and 
 policy of the empire, but what was derived from tradi- 
 tion, or from some fragments of their historical paint- 
 ings that escaped the barbarous researches of Zum- 
 nlaraga. From the experience of all nations it is 
 manifest, that the memory of past transactions can 
 neither be long preserved, nor be transmitted with 
 any fidelity, by tradition. The Mexican paintings, 
 which are supposed to have served as annals of their 
 empire, are few in number, and of ambiguous mean- 
 ing. Thus, amidst the uncertainty of the former, and 
 the obscurity of the latter, we must glean what intel- 
 ligence can be collected from the scanty materials 
 scattered in the Spanish writers. 
 
 According to the account of the Mexicans them- 
 selves, their empire was not of long duration. Their 
 
 country, as they relate, was originally possessed, ra- 
 ther than peopled, by small independent tribes, whose 
 mode of life and manners resembled those of the 
 rudest savages which we have described. But about 
 a period corresponding to the beginning of the tenth 
 century, in the Christian sera, several tribes moved in 
 successive migrations from unknown regions towards 
 the north and north west, and settled in different 
 provinces of Analiuac^ the ancient name of New 
 Spain. These, more civilized than the original inha- 
 bitants, began to form them to the arts of social life. 
 At length, towards the commencement of the thir- 
 teenth century, the Mexicans, a people more polished 
 than any of the former, advanced from the border of 
 the California.!) gulf, and took possession of the plains 
 adjacent to the great lake near the centre of the 
 country. After residing there about fifty years, they 
 founded a town, since distinguished by the name of 
 Mexico, which, from humble beginnings, soon grew 
 to be the most considerable city in the New World. 
 The Mexicans, long after they were established in 
 their new possessions, continued, like other martial 
 tribes in America, unacquainted with regal dominion, 
 and were governed in peace, and conducted in war, 
 by such as were entitled to pre-eminence by their 
 wisdom or their valour. But among them, as in other 
 states whose power and territories become extensive, 
 the supreme authority centered at last in a single 
 person ; and when the Spaniards under Cortes invaded 
 the country, Montezuma was the ninth monarch in 
 order who had swayed the Mexican sceptre, not by 
 hereditary right, but by election. 
 
 Such is the traditional tale of the Mexicans con- 
 cerning the progress of their own empire. Accoiding 
 to this, its duration was very short. From the first 
 migration of their parent tribe, they can reckon little 
 move than three hundred years. From the establish- 
 ment of monarchical government, not above a hundred 
 and thirty years according to one account, or a hun- 
 dred ami ninety-seven, according to another compu- 
 tation, had elapsed. If, on one hand, we suppose 
 the Mexican state to have been of higher antiquity, 
 and to have subsisted during such a length of time 
 as the Spanish accounts of its civilization would na- 
 turally lead us to conclude, it is difficult to conceive 
 how, among a people who possessed the art of re- 
 cording events by pictures, and who considered it as 
 an essential part of their national education to teach 
 their children to repeat their historical songs which cele- 
 brated the exploits of their ancestors, the knowledge 
 of past transactions should be so slender and limited. 
 If, on the other hand, we adopt their own system 
 with respect to the antiquities of their nation, it is 
 no less difficult to account either for that improved 
 state of society, or for the extensive dominion to 
 which their empire had attained, when first visited by 
 the Spaniards. The infancy of nations is so long, 
 and, even when every circumstance is favourable to 
 their progress, they advance so slowly towards any 
 maturity of strength or policy, that the recent origin 
 of the Mexicans seems to be a strong presumption of 
 some exaggeration in the splendid descriptions which 
 have been given of their government and manners. 
 
 But it is not by theory or conjectures that history 
 decides with regard to the state or character of na- 
 tions. It produces facts as the foundation of every 
 judgment which it ventures to pronounce. In col- 
 lecting those which must regulate our opinion in the 
 present inquiry, some occur that suggest an idea of 
 considerable progress in civilization in the Mexican 
 empire, and others which seem to indicate that it 
 had advanced but little beyond the savage tribes 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 around it. Both shall be exhibited to the view of the 
 reader, that, from comparing them, he may determine 
 on which side the evidence preponderates. 
 
 In the Mexican empire, the right of private pro- 
 perty was perfectly understood, and established in 
 its full extent. Among several savage tribes, w^ have 
 seen, that the idea of a title to the separate and ex- 
 clusive possession of any object was hardly known ; 
 and that among all it was extremely limited and ill 
 defined. But in Mexico, where agriculture and in- 
 dustry had made some progress, the distinction be- 
 tween property in land and property in goods had 
 taken place. Both might be transferred from one 
 person to another by sale or barter; both might de- 
 scend by inheritance. Every person who could be 
 denominated a freeman had property in land. This, 
 however, they held by various tenures. Some pos- 
 sessed it in full right, and it descended to their heirs. 
 The title of others to their lands was derived from 
 the office or dignity which they enjoyed ; and when 
 deprived of the latter, they lost possession of the 
 former. Both these modes of occupying land were 
 deemed noble, and peculiar to citizens of the highest 
 class. The tenure by which the great body of the 
 people held their property, was very different. In 
 every district a certain quantity of land was mea- 
 sured out in proportion to the number of families. 
 This was cultivated by the joint labour of the whole; 
 its produce was deposited in a common storehouse, 
 and divided among them according to their respec- 
 tive exigencies. The members of the Calpullee, or 
 associations, could not alienate their share of the 
 common estate; it was an indivisible permanent pro- 
 perty, destined for the support of their families. In 
 consequence of this distribution of the territory of 
 the state, every man had an interest in its welfare, 
 and the happiness of the individual was connected 
 with the public security. Another striking circum- 
 stance, which distinguishes the Mexican empire from 
 those nations in America we have already described, 
 is the number and greatness of its cities. While so- 
 ciety continues in a rude state, the wants of men are 
 so few, and they stand so little in need of mutual 
 assistance, that their inducements to crowd together 
 are extremely feeble. Their industry at the 'same 
 time is so imperfect, that it cannot secure subsistence 
 for any considerable number of families settled in 
 one spot. They live dispersed, at this period, from 
 choice as well as from necessity, or, at the utmost, 
 assemble in small hamlets on the banks of the river 
 which supplies them with food, or on the border of 
 some plain left open by nature, or cleared by their 
 own labour. The Spaniards, accustomed to this 
 mode of habitation among all the savage tribes with 
 which they ivere hitherto acquainted, were astonished, 
 on entering New Spain, to find the natives residing 
 in towns of such extent as resembled those of Europe. 
 In the first fervour of their admiration, they compared 
 Zempoalla, though a town only of the second or third 
 size, to the cities of the greatest note in their own 
 country. When, afterwards, they visited in succes- 
 sion Tlascala, Cholula, Tacuba, Tezeuco, and Mexico 
 itself, their amazement increased so much, that it led 
 them to convey ideas of their magnitude and popu- 
 lousness bordering on what is incredible. Even when 
 there is leisure for observation, and no interest that 
 leads to deceive, conjectural estimates of the number 
 of people in cities are extremely loose, and usually 
 much exaggerated. It is not surprising, then, that 
 Cortes and his companions, little accustomed to such 
 computations, and powerfully tempted to magnify, in 
 order to exalt the merit of their own discoveries and 
 
 conquests, should have been batrayed into this com- 
 mon error, and have raised their descriptions con- 
 siderably above truth. For this reason, some con- 
 siderable abatement ought to be made from their 
 calculations of the number of inhabitants in the 
 Mexican cities, and we may fix the standard of their 
 population much lower than they have done ; but 
 still they will appear to be cities of such consequence, 
 as are not to be found but among people who have 
 made sonv? considerable progress in the arts of social 
 life (145). From their accounts, we can hardly sup- 
 pose Mexico, the capital of the empire, to have con- 
 tained fewer than sixty thousand inhabitants. 
 
 The separation of professions among the Mexicans 
 is a symptom of improvement no less remarkable. 
 Arts, in the early ages of society, are so few and so 
 simple, that each man is sufficiently master of them 
 all, to pratify every demand of his own limited de- 
 sires. The savage can form his bow, point his ar- 
 rows, rear his hut, and hollow his canoe, without 
 calling in the aid of any hand more skilful than his 
 own. Time must have augmented the wants of men, 
 
 | and ripened their ingenuity, before the productions 
 of art became so c implicated in their structure, or 
 so curious in their fabric, that a particular course of 
 education was requisite towards forming the artificer 
 to expertness in contrivance and workmanship. In 
 proportion as refinement spreads, the distinction of 
 professions increases, and they branch out into more 
 numerous and minute subdivisions. Among the Mex- 
 icans this separation of the arts necessary in life had 
 taken place to a considerable extent. The functions 
 of the mason, the weaver, the goldsmith, the painter, 
 and of several other crafts were carried on by dif- 
 ferent persons. Each was regularly instructed in hi* 
 calling. To it alone his industry was confined; and 
 by assiduous application to one object, together with 
 the persevering patience peculiar to Americans, their 
 artisans attained to a degree of neatness and perfec- 
 tion in work, far beyond what could have been ex- 
 pected from the rude tools which they employed. 
 Their various productions were brought into commerce, 
 and by the exchange of them in the stated markets 
 held in the cities, not only were their mutual 
 wants supplied, in such orderly intercourse as 
 characterizes an improved state of society, but 
 their industry was daily rendered persevering and 
 inventive. 
 
 The distinction of ranks established in the Mexican 
 
 I empire is the next circumstance that merits attention. 
 In surveying the savage tribes of America, weobserved, 
 that consciousness of equality, and impatience of 
 subordination, are sentiments natural to man in tha 
 infancy of civil life. During peace, the authority of 
 a superior is hardly felt among them, and even in 
 war it is but little acknowledged. Strangers to the 
 idea of property, the difference in condition resulting 
 from the inequality of it is unknown. Birth or titles 
 confer no pre-eminence ; it is only by personal merit 
 and accomplishments that distinction can be acquired. 
 The form of society was very different among the 
 Mexicans. The great body of the people was in a 
 most humiliating state. A considerable number, 
 known by the name of Mayequet, nearly resembled 
 in condition those peasants who, under various deno- 
 minations, were considered, during the prevalence of 
 the feudal system, as instruments of labour attached 
 to the soil. The Mayeques could not change their 
 place of residence without permission of the superior 
 on whom they depended. They were conveyed, 
 together with the lands on which they were settled, 
 from one proprietor to another ; and were bound to 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 167 
 
 cultivate the ground, and to perform several kinds of 
 servile work. Others were reduced to the lowest 
 form of subjection, that of domestic servitude, and 
 felt the utmost rigour of that wretched state. Their 
 condition was held to be so vile, and their lives 
 deemed to be of so little value, that a person who 
 killed one of these slaves was not subjected to any 
 punishment. Even those considered as freemen were 
 treated by their haughty lords as beings of an inferior 
 species. The nobles, possessed of ample territories 
 were divided into various classes, to each of which 
 peculiar titles belonged. Some of these titles, like 
 their lands, descended from father to son in per- 
 petual succession. Others were annexed to particular 
 offices, or conferred during life as marks of personal 
 distinction. The monarch, exalted above ail, en- 
 joyed extensire power, and supreme dignity. Thus, 
 the distinction of ranks was completely established, 
 in a line of regular subordination, reaching from the 
 highest to the lowest member of the community. 
 Each of these knew what he could claim, and what 
 he owed. The people, who were not allowed to wear 
 a dress of the same fashion, or to dwell in houses of 
 a form similar to those of the nobles, accosted them 
 with the most submissive reverence. In the presence 
 of their sovereign, they durst not lift their eyes 
 from the ground, or look him in the face. The 
 nobles themselves, when admitted to an audience of 
 their sovereign, entered barefooted, in mean gar- 
 ments, and, as his slaves, paid him homage approach- 
 ing to adoration. This respect, due from inferiors to 
 those above them in rank, was prescribed with such 
 ceremonious accuracy, that it incorporated with the 
 language, and influenced its genius and idiom. The 
 Mexican tongue abounded in expressions of reverence 
 and courtesy. The style and appellations used in 
 the intercourse between equals, would have been so 
 unbecoming in the mouth of one in a lower sphere, 
 when he accosted a person in higher rank, as to be 
 deemed an insult (146). It is only in societies, which 
 time and the institution of regular government have 
 moulded into form, that we find such an orderly 
 arrangement of men into different ranks, and such 
 nice attention paid to their various rights. 
 
 The spirit of the Mexicans, thus familiarized and 
 bended to subordination, was prepared for sub- 
 mitting to monarchical government. But the de- 
 scriptions of their policy and laws by the Spaniards 
 who overturned them, are so inaccurate and contra- 
 dictory, that it is difficult to delineate the form of 
 their constitution with any precision. Sometimes 
 they represent the monarchs of Mexico as absolute, 
 deciding according to their pleasure with re.spect to 
 every operation of the state. On other occasions, 
 we discover the traces of established customs and 
 laws, framed, in order to circumscribe the power of 
 the crown, and we meet with rights and and privi- 
 leges of the nobles which seemed to be opposed as 
 barriers against its encroachments. This appearance 
 of inconsistency has arisen from inattention to the 
 innovations of Montezuma upon the Mexican policy. 
 His aspiring ambition subverted the original system 
 of government, and introduced a pure despotism. 
 He disregarded the ancient laws, violated the privi- 
 lege* held most sacred, and reduced his subjects of 
 every order to the level of slaves. The chiefs, or 
 nobles of the first rank, submitted to the yoke with 
 such reluctance, that, from impatience to shake it 
 off, and hope of recovering their rights, many of 
 them courted the protection of Cortes, and joined a 
 foreign power against their domestic oppressor. It 
 is not then under the dominion of Montesmma. but 
 
 under the government of his predecessors, that we 
 can discover what was the original form and genius 
 of Mexican policy. From the foundation of the 
 monarchy to the election of Montezuma, it seems to 
 have subsisted with little variation. That body of 
 citizens which may be distinguished by the name of 
 nobility, formed the chief and most respectable 
 order in the state. They were of various ranks, at 
 has been already observed, and their honours were 
 acquired and transmitted in different manners. 
 Their number seems to have been great. According 
 to an author accustomed to examine with attention 
 what he relates, there were in the Mexican empire 
 thirty of this order, each of whom had in his terri- 
 tories about an hundred thousand people, and 
 subordinate to these, there were about three thou- 
 sand nobles of a lower class. The territories be- 
 longing to the chiefs of Tezeuco and Tacuba were 
 hardly inferior in extent to those of the Mexican 
 monarch. Each of these possessed complete terri- 
 torial jurisdiction, and levied taxes from their own 
 vassals. But all followed the standard of Mexico in 
 war, serving with a number of men in proportion to 
 their domain, and most of them paid tribute to it* 
 monarch as their superior lord. 
 
 In tracing those great lines of the Mexican con- 
 stitution, an image of feudal policy, in its most rigid 
 form, rises to view, and we discern its three distin- 
 guishing characteristics, a nobility possessing almost 
 independent authority, a people depressed into the 
 lowest state of subjection, and a king intrusted with 
 the executive power of the state. Its spirit and 
 principles seem to have operated in the Now World, 
 in the same manner as in the ancient. The juris- 
 diction 'of the crown was extremely limited. All 
 real and effective authority was retained by the 
 Mexican nobles in their own hands, and the shadow 
 of it only left to the king. Jealous to excess of their 
 own rights, they guarded with the most vigilant 
 anxiety against the encroachments of their sove- 
 reigns. By a fundamental law of the empire it was 
 provided, that the king should not determine con- 
 cerning any point of general importance, without 
 the approbation of a council composed of the prime 
 nobility. Unless he obtained their consent, he 
 could not engage the nation in war, nor could he 
 dispose of the most considerable branch of the 
 public revenue at pleasure ; it was appropriated to 
 certain purposes, from which it could not be diverted 
 by the regal authority alone. In order to secure 
 full effect to those constitutional restraints, the 
 Mexican nobles did not permit their crown to 
 descend by inheritance, but disposed of it by elec- 
 tion. The right of election seems to have been 
 originally vested in the whole body of nobility, but 
 was afterwards committed to six electors, of whom 
 the chiefs of Tezeuco and Tacuba were always two. 
 From respect for the family of their monarchs, the. 
 choice fell generally upon some person sprung from 
 it. But as the activity and valour of their piinc* 
 were of greater moment to a people perpetually en- 
 gaged in war, than a strict adherence to the order of 
 birth, collaterals of mature age, or of distinguished 
 merit, were often preferred to those who were nearer 
 the throne in direct descent. To this maxim in 
 their policy, the Mexicans appeared to be indebted 
 for such a succession of able and warlike princes, 
 as raised their empire in a short period to that ex- 
 traordinary height of power which it had attained 
 when Cortes landed in New Spain. 
 
 While the jurisdiction of the Mexican monarch! 
 continued to be limited, it ii probable that it wa* 
 
168 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 exercised with little ostentation. But astlieir authority 
 became more extensive, the splendour of their govern- 
 ment augmented. It \vas in this 1-st state that the 
 Spaniards beheld it ; and struck with the appearance 
 of Montezuma's court, they described its pomp at 
 great length, and with much admiration. The 
 number of his attendants, the order, the silence, and 
 the reverence with which they served him ; the extent 
 of his royal mansion, the variety of its apartments 
 allotted to different officers, and the ostentation with 
 which this grandeur was displayed, whenever he 
 permitted his subjects to behold him, seem to re- 
 semble the magnificence of the ancient monarchies in 
 Asia, rather than the simplicity of the infant states in 
 the New World. 
 
 But it was not in the mere parade of royalty that 
 the Mexican potentates exhibited their power; they 
 manifested it more beneficially in the order and 
 regularity with which they conducted the internal 
 administration andpoliceof then-dominions. Complete 
 jurisdiction, civil as well as criminal, over its own 
 immediate vassals, was vested in the crown. Judges 
 were appointed for each department, and if we may 
 rely on the account which the Spanish writers give of 
 the maxims and laws upon which they founded their 
 decisions with respect to the distribution of property 
 and the punishment of crimes, justice was adminis- 
 tered in the Mexican empire with a degree of order 
 and equity resembling what takes place in societies 
 highly civilized. 
 
 Their attention in providing for the support of 
 government was not less sagacious. Taxes were laid 
 upon land, upon the acquisitions of industry, 
 and upon commodities of every kind exposed to sale 
 in the public markets. These duties were consider- 
 able, but not arbitrary or unequal. They were 
 imposed according to established rules, and each 
 knew what share of the common burden he had to 
 bear. As the use of money was unknown, all the 
 taxes were paid in kind, and thus not only the 
 natural productions of all the different provinces 
 in the empire, but every species of manufacture, and 
 every work of ingenuity and ;irt, were collected in the 
 public storehouses. From those the emperor 
 supplied his numerous train of attendants in peace, 
 and his armies during war, with food, with clothes, 
 and ornaments. People of inferior condition, neither 
 possessing land, nor engaged in commerce, were 
 bound to the performance of various services. By 
 'their stated labour the crown lands were cultivated, 
 public works were carried on, and the various houses 
 belonging to the emperor were built and kept in 
 Tepair (147). 
 
 The improved state of government among the 
 Mexicans is conspicuous, not only in points essential 
 to the being of a well ordered society, but in several 
 regulations of inferior consequence with respect to 
 police. The institution which I have already men- 
 tioned, of public couriers, stationed at proper intervals, 
 to convey intelligence from one part of the empire to 
 the other, was a refinement in police not introduced 
 into any kingdom of Europe at that period. The struc- 
 ture of the capital city in a lake, with artificial dykes, 
 and causeways of great length, which served as avenues 
 to it from different quarters, erected in the water with 
 no less ingenuity than labour, seems to be an idea 
 that could not have occurred to any but a civilized 
 people. The same observation may be applied to 
 the structure of the aqueducts, or conduits by which 
 they conveyed a stream of fresh water, from a con- 
 siderable distance, into the city, along one of the 
 causeways (1-48). The appointment of a number of 
 
 persons to clean the streets-, to light them by fires 
 kindled in different places, and to patrole as watch- 
 men during the night, discovers a degree of attention 
 which even polished nations are late in acquiring. 
 
 The progress of the Mexicans in various arts, is 
 considered as the most decisive proof of their superior 
 refinement. Cortes, and the early Spanish authors, 
 describe this with rapture, and maintain, that the 
 most celebrated European aitists could not surpass 
 or even equal them in ingenuity and neatness of 
 workmanship. They represented men, animals, and 
 other objects, by such a disposition of various 
 coloured feathers, as is said to have produced all the 
 effects of light and shade, and to have imitated nature 
 with truth and delicacy. . Their ornaments of gold 
 and silver have been described to be of a fabric no 
 less curious. But in forming any idea, from general 
 descriptions, concerning the state of arts among 
 nations imperfectly polished, we are extremely ready 
 to err. In examining the works of peo pie whose 
 advances in improvement are nearly the same with 
 our own, we view them with a critical and often with 
 a jealous eye. Whereas, when conscious of our own 
 superiority, we survey the arts of nations compara- 
 tively rude, we are astonished at works executed by 
 them under such manifest disadvantages, and, in the 
 warmth of our admiration, are apt to represent them 
 as productions more finished than they really are. 
 To the influence of this illusion, without supposing 
 any intention to deceive, we may impute the exag- 
 geration of some Spanish authors, fn their accounts 
 of the Mexican arts. 
 
 It is not from those descriptions, but from con- 
 sidering such specimens of their arts as are still 
 preserved, that we must decide concerning their 
 degree of merit. As the ship in which Cortes sent 
 to Charles V. the most curious productions of the 
 Mexican artisans, which were collected by the 
 Spaniards when they first pillaged the empire, was 
 taken by a French corsair, the remains of their in- 
 genuity are less numerous than those of the Peruvians. 
 Whether any of their works with feathers, in imita- 
 tion of painting, be still extant in Spain, I have not 
 learned ; but many of their ornaments in gold and 
 silver, as well as various utensils employed in com- 
 mon life, are deposited in the magnificent cabinet of 
 natural and artificial productions lately opened by 
 the king of Spain : and I am informed by persons 
 on whose judgment and taste I can rely, that these 
 boasted efforts of their art are uncouth representations 
 of common objects, or very coarse images of the 
 human and some other forms, destitute of grace and 
 propriety. The justness of these observations is 
 confirmed by inspecting the wooden prints and 
 copper-plates of their paintings, which have been 
 published by various authors. In them, every 
 figure of men, of quadrupeds, or birds, as well as 
 every representation of inanimated nature, is ex- 
 tremely rude and awkward. The hardest Egyptian 
 style, stiff and imperfect as it was, is more elegant. 
 The scrawls of children delineate objects almost as 
 accurately. 
 
 But however low the Mexican paintings may be 
 ranked, when viewed merely as works of art, a 
 very different station belongs to them, when con- 
 sidered as the records of their country, as historical 
 monuments of its policy and transactions ; and they 
 become curious as well as interesting objects of at- 
 tention. The noblest and most beneficial invention 
 of which human ingenuity can boast, is that of 
 writing. But the first essays of this art, which hath 
 contributed more than all others to the improve- 
 
THE HISTORT OF AMERICA. 
 
 169 
 
 uient of the species, were very rude, and it advanced 
 towards perfection slowly, and by a gradual pro- 
 gression. When the warrior, eager for fame, wished 
 to transmit some knowledge of his exploits to suc- 
 ceeding ages ; when the gratitude of a people to 
 their sovereign prompted them to hand down an 
 account of his beneficent deeds to posterity ; the 
 first method of accomplishing this which seems to 
 have occurred to them, was to delineate, in the best 
 manner they could, figures representing the action 
 of which they were solicitous to preserve the me- 
 mory. Of this, which has very properly been called 
 picture writing, we find traces among some of the 
 most savage tribes of America. When a leader re- 
 turns from the field, he strips a tree of its bark, and 
 with red paint scratches upon it some uncouth 
 figures, which represent the order of his march, 
 the number of his followers, the enemy whom he 
 attacked, the scalps and captives which he brought 
 home. To those simple annals he trusts for renown, 
 and soothes himself with hope that by their means 
 he shall receive praise from warriors of future 
 times. 
 
 Compared with those awkward essays of their 
 savage countrymen, the paintings of the Mexicans 
 may be considered as works of composition and 
 .design. They were not acquainted, it is true, with 
 any other method of recording transactions, than 
 that of delineating the objects which they wished 
 to represent. But they could exhibit a more com- 
 plex series of events in progressive order, and 
 describe, by a proper disposition of figures, the oc- 
 <currences of a king's reign from his accession to his 
 death ; the progress of an infant's education from 
 its birth until it attain to the years of maturity ; 
 the different recompences and marks of distinction 
 conferred upon warriors, in proportion to the ex- 
 ploits which they had performed. Some singular 
 specimens of this picture-writing have been preserved, 
 which are justly considered as the most curious 
 monuments of art brought from the New World. The 
 most valuable of these was published by Purchas in 
 sixty-six plates. It is divided into three parts. The 
 first contains the history of the Mexican empire 
 under its ten monarchs. The second is a tribute- 
 toll, representing what each conquered town paid 
 into the royal treasury. The third is a code of their 
 institutions, domestic, political, and military. Ano- 
 ther specimen of Mexican painting has been pub- 
 lished in thirty-two plates, by the present archbishop 
 of Toledo. To both is annexed a full explanation 
 of what the figures were intended to represent, which 
 was obtained by the Spaniards from Indians well 
 acquainted with their own arts. The style of paint- 
 ing in all these is the same. They represent things 
 not words. They exhibit images to the eye, not 
 ideas to the understanding. They may, therefore, 
 be considered as the earliest and most imperfect 
 essay of men in their progress towards discovering 
 the art of writing. The defects in this mode of re- 
 cording transactions must have been early felt. To 
 paint every occurrence was, from its nature, a very 
 tedious operation ; and as affairs became more com- 
 plicated, and events multiplied in society, its annals 
 must have swelled to an enormous bulk. Besides 
 this, no objects could be delineated but those of 
 sense ; the conceptions of the mind had no corpo- 
 real form, and as long as picture-writing could not 
 convey an idea of these, it must have been 'a very 
 imperfect art. The necessity of improving it must 
 have roused and sharpened invention, and the hu- 
 jnan mind holding the same course in the New 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, No. 22. 
 
 World as in the Old, might have advanced by the 
 same successive Steps, first from an actual picture 
 to the plain hieroglyphic ; next to the allegorical 
 symbol ; then to the arbitrary character ; until, at 
 lensth, an alphabet of letters was discovered, capa- 
 ble" of expressing all the various combinations of 
 sound employed In speech. In the paintings of the 
 Mexicans we accordingly perceive, that this progress 
 was begun among them." Upon an attentive inspec- 
 tion of the plates which I have mentioned, we may 
 observe some approach to the plain or simple hiero- 
 glyphic, where some principal part or circumstance 
 in the subject is made to stand for the whole. In 
 the annals of their kings, published by Purchas, 
 the towns conquered by each are uniformly repre- 
 sented in the same manner by a rude delineation of 
 a house; but in order to point out the particular 
 towns which submitted to their victorious arms, pe- 
 culiar emblems, sometimes natural objects, and 
 sometimes artificial figures, are employed. In the 
 tribute-roll published by the archbishop of Toledo, 
 the house, which was properly the picture of the 
 town, is omitted, and the emblem alone is employed, 
 to represent it. The Mexicans seem even to have 
 made some advances beyond this, towards the use 
 of the more figurative and fandful hieroglyphic. In 
 order to describe a monarch who had enlarged his 
 dominions by force of arms, they painted a target 
 ornamented with darts, and placed it between him 
 and those towns which he subdued. But it is only 
 in ono instance, the notation of numbers, that we 
 discern any attempt to exhibit ideas which had no 
 corporeal form. The Mexican painters had invented 
 artificial marks, or signs of convention, for this pur- 
 pose. By means of these, they computed the years 
 of their kings' reigns, as well as the amount of tri- 
 bute to be paid into the royal treasury. The figure 
 of a circle represented unit, and in small numbers the 
 computation was made by repeating it. Larger num- 
 bers were expressed by a peculiar mark, and they 
 had such as denoted all integral numbers, from 
 twenty to eight thousand. The short duration of 
 their empire prevented the Mexicans from advanc- 
 ing further in that long course which conducts men 
 from the labour of delineating real objects to the 
 simplicity and ease of alphabetic writing. Their 
 records, notwithstanding some dawn of such ideas 
 as might have led to a more perfect style, can be 
 considered as little more than a species of picture- 
 writing, so far improved as to mark their superiority 
 over the savage tribes of America ; but still so de- 
 fective, as to prove that they had not proceeded far 
 beyond the first stage in that progress which must be 
 completed before any people can be ranked among 
 polished nations (150). 
 
 Their mode of computing time may be considered 
 as a more decisive evidence of their progress in im- 
 provement. They divided their year into eighteen 
 months, each consisting of twenty days, amounting 
 in all to three hundred and sixty. But as they ob- 
 served that the course of the sun was not completed 
 in that time, they added five days to the year. These, 
 which were properly intercalary days, they termed 
 supernumerary or waste ; and as they did not belong 
 to any month, no work was done, and no sacred rite 
 performed on them ; they were devoted wholly to 
 festivity and pastime. This near approach to philo- 
 sophical accuracy is a remarkable proof that the 
 Mexicans had bestowed some attention upon inquiries 
 and speculations, to which men in a very rude state 
 never turn their thoughts. 
 
 Such are the most striking particulars in the man- 
 Z 
 
170 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA 
 
 ners and policy of the Mexicans, which exhibit them 
 to view as a people considerably refined. But from 
 other cirumstances, one is apt to suspect that their 
 character, and many of their institutions, did not 
 differ greatly from those of the other inhabitants of 
 America. 
 
 Like the rude tribes around them, the Mexicans 
 were incessantly engaged in war, and the motives 
 which prompted them to hostility seem to have been 
 the same. They fought in order to gratify their ven- 
 geance, by shedding the blood of their enemies. In 
 battle they were chiefly intent on taking prisoners, 
 and it was by the number of these that they esti- 
 mated the glory of victory. No captive was ever ran- 
 somed or spared. All were sacrificed without mercy, 
 and their flesh devoured with the same barbarous joy 
 as among the fiercest savages. On some occasions it 
 rose to even wilder excesses. Their principal war- 
 riors covered themselves with the skins of the un- 
 happy victims, and danced about the streets, boasting 
 of their own valour, and exulting over their enemies. 
 Even in their civil institutions we discover traces of 
 that barbarous disposition which their system of war 
 inspired. The four chief counsellors of the empire 
 were distinguished by titles, which could have been 
 assumed only by a people who delighted in blood. 
 This ferocity of character prevailed among all the na- 
 tions of New Spain. The Tlascalaus, the people of 
 Mechoacan, and other states at enmity with the 
 Mexicans, delighted equally in war, and treated their 
 prisoners with the same ^cruelty. In proportion as 
 mankind combine in social union, and live under the 
 influence of equal laws and regular policy, their man- 
 ners soften, sentiments of humanity arise, and the 
 rights of the species come to be understood. The 
 fierceness of war abates, and even while engaged in 
 hostility, men remember what they owe one to an- 
 other. The savage fight to destroy, the citizen to 
 conquer. The former neither pities nor spares, the 
 latter has acquired sensibility which tempers his rage. 
 To this sensibility the Mexicans seem to have been 
 perfect strangers, and among them war was carried on 
 with sp much of its original barbarity, that we cannot 
 but suspect their degree of civilization to have been 
 Very imperfect. 
 
 Their funeral rites were not less bloody than those 
 of the most savage tribes. On the death of any dis- 
 tinguished personage, especially of the emperor, a 
 certain number of his attendants were chosen to ac- 
 company him to the other world ; and those unfor- 
 tunate victims were put to death without mercy, and 
 buried in the same tomb. 
 
 Though their agriculture was more extensive than 
 that of the roving tribes who trusted chiefly to their 
 bow for food, it seems not to have supplied them 
 with such subsistence as men require when engaged 
 in efforts of active industry. The Spaniards appeal- 
 not to have been struck with any superiority of the 
 Mexicans over the other people of America in bodily 
 vigour. Both, according to their observation, were 
 of such a feeble frame as to be unable to endure 
 fatigue, and the strength of one Spaniard exceeded 
 that of several Indians. This they imputed to their 
 scanty diet, on poor fare, sufficient to preserve life, 
 but not to give firmness to their constitution. Such a 
 remark could hardly have been made with respect to 
 any people furnished plentifully with the necessaries 
 of life. The difficulty which Cortes found in pro- 
 curing subsistence for his small body of soldiers, 
 who were often constrained to live on the spon- 
 taneous productions of the earth, seems to confirm 
 the remark of the Spanish writers, and gives no high 
 
 idea of the state of cultivation in the Mexican em- 
 pire. 
 
 A practice that was universal in New Spain ap- 
 pears to favour this opinion. The Mexican women 
 gave suck to their children for several years, and 
 during that time did not cohabit with their husbands. 
 This precaution against a burdensome increase of 
 progeny, though necessary, as I have already ob- 
 served, among savages, who from the hardships of 
 their condition, and the precariousness of their sub- 
 sistence, find it impossible to rear a numerous family, 
 can be hardly supposed to have continued among & 
 people who lived at ease and in abundance. 
 
 The vast extent of the Mexican empire, which has 
 been considered, and with justice, as the most 
 decisive proof of a considerable progress in regular 
 government and police, is one of those facts in the 
 history of the New World which seems to have been 
 admitted without due examination or sufficient evi- 
 dence. The Spanish historians, in order to magnify 
 the valour of their countrymen, are accustomed to 
 represent the dominion of Montezuma as stretching 
 over all the provinces of New Spain from the 
 Northern to the Southern ocean. But a great part 
 of the mountainous country was possessed by the 
 Otomies, a fierce uncivilized people, who seem to 
 have been the residue of the original inhabitants. 
 The provinces towards the north and west of Mexico 
 were occupied by the Chichemecas, and other tribes 
 of hunters. None of these recognised the Mexican 
 monarch as their superior. Even in the interior and 
 more level country, there were several cities and 
 provinces which had never submitted to the Mexican 
 yoke. Tlascala, though only twenty-one leagues 
 from the capital of the empire, was an independent 
 and hostile republic. Cholula, though still nearer, 
 had been subjected only a short time before the 
 arrival of the Spaniards. Tepeaca, at the distance 
 of thirty leagues from Mexico, seems to have' been 
 a separate state, governed by its own laws. Me- 
 choacan, the frontier of which extended within forty- 
 leagues of Mexico, was a powerful kingdom, remark- 
 able for its implacable enmity to the Mexican name. 
 By these hostile powers the Mexican empire was 
 circumscribed ou every quarter, and the high ideas 
 which we are apt to form of it from the description 
 of the Spanish historians, should be considerably 
 moderated. 
 
 In consequence of this independence of several 
 states in New Spain upon the Mexican empire, there 
 was not any considerable intercourse between its 
 various provinces. Even in the interior country, not 
 far distant from the capital, there seem to have been 
 no roads to facilitate the communication of one 
 district with another ; and when the Spaniards first 
 attempted to penetrate into its several provinces, they 
 had to open their way through forests and marshes. 
 Cortes, in his adventurous march from Mexico to 
 Honduras in 152.5, met with obstructions, and endured 
 hardships, little inferior to those with which he must 
 have struggled in the most uncivilized regions of 
 America. In some places he could hardly force a 
 passage through impervious woods, and plains over- 
 flowed with water. In others he found so little 
 cultivation, that his troops were frequently in danger 
 of perishing by famine. Such facts correspond ill 
 with the pompous description which the Spanish 
 writers give of Mexican police and industry, and 
 convey an idea of r a country nearly similar to that 
 possessed by the Indian tribes in North America. 
 Here and there a treading or a war-path, as they are 
 called in North America, led from one settlement 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 1 
 
 171 
 
 to another, but generally there appeared no sign 
 of any established communication, few marks of 
 industry, and fewer monuments of art. 
 
 A proof of this imperfection in their commercial 
 intercourse, no less striking, is their want of money, 
 or some universal standard by which to estimate the 
 value of commodities. The discovery of this is 
 among the steps of greatest consequence in the pro- 
 gress of nations. Until it has been made, ail their 
 transactions must be so awkward, so operose, and so 
 limited, that we may boldly pronounce that they 
 have advanced but a little way in their career. The 
 invention of such a commercial standard is of such high 
 antiquity in our hemisphere, and rises so far beyond 
 the era of authentic history, as to appear almost 
 coeval with the existence of society. The precious 
 metals seem to have been early employed for this 
 purpose, and from their permanent value, their divisi- 
 bility, and many other qualities, they are better 
 adapted to serve as a common standard than any 
 othdr substance of which nature has given us the 
 command. But in the New World, where these 
 metals abound most, this use of them was not known. 
 The exigencies of rude tribes, or of monarchies im- 
 perfectly civilized, did not call for it. All their com- 
 mercial intercourse was carried on by barter, and their 
 ignorance of any common standard by which to 
 facilitate that exchange of commodities which con- 
 tributes so much towards the comfort of life, may 
 be justly mentioned as an evidence of the infant 
 state of their policy. But even in the New World 
 the inconvenience of wanting some general instru- 
 ment of commerce began to be felt, and some efforts 
 were making towards supplying that defect. The 
 Mexicans, among whom the number and greatness 
 of their cities gave rise to a more extended com- 
 merce than in any other part of America, had begun 
 to employ a common standard of value, which ren- 
 dered smaller transactions much more easy. As 
 chocolate was the favourite drink of persons in 
 every rank of life, the nuts or almonds of cacao, of 
 which it is composed, were of such universal con- 
 sumption, that, in their stated markets, these were 
 willingly received in return for commodities of small 
 price. Thus they came to be considered as the in- 
 strument of commerce, and the value of what one 
 wishes to dispose of was estimated by the number 
 of nuts of the cacao which he might expect in 
 exchange for it. This seems to be the utmost 
 length which the Americans had advanced towards 
 the discovery of any expedient for supplying the 
 use of money. And if the want of it is to be held, 
 on one hand, as a proof of their barbarity, this ex- 
 pedient for supplying that want should be admitted, 
 on the other, as an evidence no less satisfying, of 
 some progress which the Mexicans had made in 
 refinement and civilization, beyond the savage tribes 
 around them. 
 
 In such a rude state were many of the Mexican 
 provinces when first visited by their conquerors. 
 Eren their cities, extensive and populous as they 
 were, seem more fit to be the habitation of men just 
 emerging from barbarity, than the residence of a 
 polished people. The description of Tlascala nearly 
 resembles that of an Indian village. A number of 
 low struggling huts, scattered about irregularly, 
 according to the caprice of each proprietor, built 
 with turf and stone and thatched with reeds, with- 
 out any light but what they received by a door, so 
 low that it could not be entered upright. In Mexico, 
 though from the peculiarity of its situation, the 
 disposition of the houses was xnore^ orderly, ^the 
 
 structure of the greater part was equally mean. Nor 
 does the fabric of their temples, and other public 
 edifices, appear to have been such as entitled them to 
 the high praise bestowed upon them by many 
 Spanish authors. As far as one can gather fiom 
 their obscure and inaccurate descriptions, the great 
 temple of Mexico, the most famous in New Spain, 
 which has been represented as a magnificent building, 
 raised to such a height that the ascent to it was by a 
 flight of a hundred and fourteen steps, was a solid 
 mass of earth of a square form, faced partly with 
 stone. Its base on each side extended ninety feet, 
 and decreasing gradually as it advanced in height, 
 it terminated in a quadrangle of about thirty feet, 
 where were placed a shrine of the deity, and two 
 altars: J on which the victims were sacrificed. All the 
 other celebrated temples of New Spain exactly 
 resembled that of Mexico (152). Such structures 
 convey no high idea of progress in art and in- 
 genuity ; and one can hardly conceive that a form 
 more rude and simple could have occurred to a 
 nation in its first efforts towards erecting any great 
 work. 
 
 Greater skill and ingenuity were displayed, if we 
 may believe the Spanish historians, in the houses of 
 the emperor, and in those of the principal nobility. 
 There, some elegance of design was visible, and a 
 commodious arrangement of the apartments was at- 
 tended to. But if buildings corresponding to such 
 descriptions had ever existed in the Mexican cities, 
 it is probable that some remains of them would still 
 be visible. From the manner in which Cortes con- 
 ducted the siege of Mexico, we can indeed easily ac- 
 count for the total destruction of whatever had any 
 appearance of splendour in that capital. But as only 
 two centuries and a half have elapsed since the con- 
 quest of New Spain, it seems altogether incredible 
 that in a period so short every vestige of this boasted 
 elegance and grandeur should have disappeared ; and 
 that in the other cities, particulaily in those which 
 did not suffer by the destructive hand of the con- 
 querors, there are not any ruins which can be consi- 
 dered as monuments of their ancient magnificence. 
 
 Even in a village of the rudest Indians, there are 
 buildings of greater extent and elevation than com- 
 mon dwelling-houses. Such as are destined for 
 holding the council of the tribe, and in which all 
 assemble on occasions of public festivity, may be 
 called stately edifices, when compared with the rest. 
 As among the Mexicans the distinction of ranks was 
 established, and property was unequally divided, 
 the number of distinguished structures in their 
 towns would of course be greater than in other parts 
 of America. But these seem not to have been either 
 so solid or magnificent as to merit the pompous epi- 
 thets which some Spanish authors employ in de- 
 scribing them. It is probable, that, though more 
 ornamented, and built on a larger scale, they wera 
 erected with the same slight materials which the 
 Indians employed in their common buildings (153), 
 and time, in a space much less than two hundied 
 and fifty years, may have swept away all remains of 
 them (154). 
 
 From this enumeration of facts, it seems upon the 
 whole to be evident, that the state of society in 
 Mexico was considerably advanced beyond that of 
 the savage tribes which we have delineated. But 
 it is no less manifest, that with respect to many par- 
 ticulars, the Spanish accounts of their progress ap- 
 pear to be highly embellished. There is not a more 
 frequent or a more fertile source of deception in 
 describing the manners and arts of savage nations, 
 
172 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 or of such as are imperfectly civilized, than that of 
 applying to them the names and phrases appropriated 
 to the institutions and refinements of polished life. 
 When the leader of a small tribe, or the head of a 
 rude community, is dignified with the name of king 
 or emperor, the place of his residence can receive no 
 other name but that of his palace ; and whatever his 
 attendants may be, they must be called his court. 
 Under such appellations they acquire, in our estima- 
 tion, an importance and dignity which does not be- 
 long to them. The illusion spreads, and giving a 
 false colour to every part of the narrative, the imagi- 
 nation is so much carried away with the resemblance, 
 that it becomes difficult to discern objects as they 
 Teally are. The Spaniards, when they first touched 
 on the Mexican coast, were so much struck with the 
 appearance of attainments in policy and in the arts of 
 life, far superior to those of the rude tribes with 
 which they were hitherto acquainted, that they fan- 
 cied they had at length discovered a civilized people 
 in the New World. This comparison between the 
 people of Mexico and their uncultivated neighbours, 
 they appear to, have kept constantly in view, and ob- 
 serving with admiration many things which marked 
 the pre-eminence of the former, they employ, in de- 
 scribing their imperfect policy and infant arts, such 
 terms as are applicable to the institutions of men far 
 "beyond them in improvement. Both these circum- 
 stances concur in detracting from the credit due to 
 the descriptions of Mexican manners by the early 
 Spanish writers. By drawing a parallel between 
 them and those of people so much less civilized, they 
 raised their own ideas too high. By their mode of 
 describing them, they conveyed ideas to others no 
 less exalted above truth. Later writers have adopted 
 the style of the original historians, and improved 
 upon it. The colours with which De Solis delineates 
 the character and describes the actions of Montezuma, 
 the splendour of his court, the laws and policy of his 
 empire, are the same that he must have employed in 
 exhibiting to view the monarch and institutions of a 
 highly polished people. 
 
 But though we may admit, that the warm imagina- 
 tion of the Spanish writers has added some embel- 
 lishment to their descriptions, this will not justify 
 the decisive and peremptory tone with which several 
 authors pronounce all their accounts of the Mexican 
 power, policy, and laws, to be the fictions of men 
 who wished to deceive, or who delighted in the mar- 
 vellous. There are few historical facts that can be 
 ascertained by evidence more unexceptionable than 
 may be produced in support of the material articles 
 in the description of the Mexican constitution and 
 manners. Eye-witnesses relate what they beheld. 
 Men who had resided among the Mexicans, both be- 
 fore and after tho conquest, describe institutions and 
 customs which were familiar to them. Persons of 
 professions so different that objects must have pre- 
 sented themselves to their view under every various 
 aspect ; soldiers, priests, and lawyers, all concur in 
 their testimony. Had Cortes ventured to impose 
 upon his sovereign, by exhibiting to him a picture of 
 imaginary manners, there wanted not enemies and 
 rivals who were qualified to detect his deceit, and 
 who would have rejoiced in exposing it. But ac- 
 cording to the just remark of an author, whose inge- 
 nuity has illustrated, and whose e'.oque'nco has adorn- 
 ed, the history of America, this supposition is in it- 
 self s\s improbable as the attempt would have been 
 audacious, Who among the destroyers of this great 
 empire was so eijjightened by science, or so attentive 
 
 to the progress aatl operations of men in social life, 
 
 as to frams a fictitious system of policy, so well com- 
 bined and so consistent, as that which they delineate 
 in their accounts of the Mexican government ? Where 
 could they have borrowed the idea of many institu- 
 tions in legislation and police, to which, at that pe- 
 riod, there was nothing parallel in the nations with 
 which they were acquainted ? There was not, at the 
 beginning of the sixteenth century, a regular estab- 
 lishment of posts for conveying intelligence to tha 
 sovereign of any kingdom in Europe. The same ob- 
 servation will apply to what the Spaniards relate with 
 respect to the structure of the city of Mexico, the re- 
 gulations concerning its police, and various laws estab- 
 lished for the administration of justice, or securing 
 the happiness of the community. Whoever is accus- 
 tomed to contemplate the progress of nations, will 
 often, at very early stages of it, discover a premature 
 and unexpected dawn of those ideas, which gave rise 
 to institutions that are the pride and ornament of its 
 most advanced period. Even in a state as imper- 
 fectly polished as the Mexican empire, the happy 
 genius of some sagacious observer, excited or aided 
 by circumstances unknown to us, may have intro- 
 duced institutions which are seldom found but in 
 societies highly refined. But it is almost impossible 
 that the illiterate conquerors of the New World 
 should have formed, in any one instance, a concep- 
 tion of customs and laws beyond the standard of 
 improvement in their own age and country. Or if 
 Cortes had been capable of this, what inducement 
 had those by whom he was superseded to continue 
 the deception ? Why should Corita, or Motolinea, 
 or Acosta, have amused their sovereign or their fel- 
 low-citizons with a tale purely fabulous ? 
 
 In one particular, however, the guides whom we 
 must follow, have represented tho Mexicans to be 
 more barbarous, perhaps, than they really were. 
 Their religious tenets, and the rites of their worship, 
 are described by them as wild and cruel in an ex- 
 treme degree. Religion, which occupies no consi- 
 derable place in the thoughts of a savage, whose con- 
 ceptions of any superior power are obscure, and his 
 sacred rites few as well as simple, was formed among 
 the Mexicans into a regular system, with its complete 
 train of priests, temples, victims, and festivals. This, 
 of itself, is a clear proof that the state of the Mexi- 
 cans was very different from that of the ruder Ame- 
 rican tribes. But from the extravagance of their re- 
 ligious notions, or the barbarity of their rites, no con- 
 clusion can be drawn with certainty concerning the 
 degree of their civilization. For nations, long after 
 their ideas begin to enlarge, and their manners tore- 
 fine, adhere to systems of superstition founded on the 
 crude conceptions of early ages. From the genius 
 of the Mexican religion we may, however, form a 
 most just conclusion with respect to its influence 
 upon the character of the people. The aspect of super- 
 stition in Mexico was gloomy and atrocious. Its 
 divinities were clothed with terror, and delighted in 
 vengeance. They were exhibited to the people 
 under detestable forms, which created horror. The 
 figures of serpents, of tigers, and of other destructive 
 animals, decorated their temples. Fear was the only 
 principle that inspired their votaries. Fasts, morti- 
 fications, and penances, all rigid, and many of them 
 excruciating to an extreme degree, were the means 
 employed to appease the wrath of their gods ; and 
 the Mexicans never approached their altars without 
 sprinkling them with blood drawn from their own 
 bodies. But, of all offerings, human sacrifices were 
 deemed the most acceptable. This religious belief, 
 mingling' with tke implacable spirit of vengeance, 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 173 
 
 ami adding new force to it, every captive taken in 
 war was brought to the temple, was devoted as a vic- 
 tim to the deity, and sacrificed with rites no less so- 
 lemn than cruel (155). The heart and head were 
 the portion consecrated to the gods ; the warrior by 
 whose prowess the prisoner had been seized, carried 
 off the body to feast upon it with his friends. Under 
 the impression of ideas so dreary and terrible, 
 nnd accustomed daily to scenes of bloodshed ren- 
 dered awful by religion, the heart of man must harden 
 and be steeled to every sentiment of humanity. The 
 spirit of the Mexicans was accordingly unfeeling, 
 and the genius of their religion so far counterba- 
 lanced the influence of policy and arts, that not- 
 withstanding their prosress in both, their manners, 
 instead] of softening, became more fierce. To what 
 circumstances it was owing that superstition as- 
 sumed such a dreadful form among the Mexicans, 
 we have not sufficient knowledge of their history to 
 determine. But its influence is visible, and produced 
 an effect that is singular in the history of the human 
 species. The manners of the people in the New 
 World who had made the greatest progress in the 
 arts of policy, were, in several respects, the most fe- 
 rocious, and the barbarity of some of their customs 
 exceeded even those of the savage state. 
 
 The empire of Peru boasts of a higher antiquity than 
 that of Mexico. According to the traditionary accounts 
 collected by the Spaniards, it had subsisted four 
 hundred years, under twelve successive monarchs. 
 But the knowledge of their ancient story, which the 
 Peruvians could communicate to their conquerors, 
 must have been both imperfect and uncertain (156). 
 Like the other American nations, they were totally 
 unacquainted with the art of writing, and destitute of 
 the only means, by which the memory of past 
 transactions can be preserved with any degree of 
 accuracy. Even among people to whom the use of 
 letters is known, the era where the authenticity of 
 history commences is much posterior to the intro- 
 duction of writing. That noble invention continued, 
 every where, to be long subservient to the common 
 business and wants of life, before it was employed 
 in recording events, with a view of conveying in- 
 formation from one age to another. But in no 
 country did ever tradition alone carry down histo- 
 rical knowledge, in any full continued stream, during 
 a period of half the length that the monarchy of 
 Peru is said to have subsisted. 
 
 The Quipos, or knots on cords of different colours, 
 which are celebrated by authors fond of the mar- 
 vellous, as if they had been regular annals of the 
 empire, imperfectly supplied the place of writing. 
 According to .the obscure description of them by 
 Acosta, which Garcilasso de la Vega has adopted 
 with little variation and no improvement, the quipos 
 leem to have been a device for rendering calculation 
 more expeditious and accurate. By the various 
 colours different objects were denoted, and by each 
 knot a distinct number. Thus an account was 
 taken, and a kind of register kept, of the inhabitants 
 in each province, or of the general productions col- 
 lected there for public use. But as by these knots, 
 however varied or combined, no moral or abstract 
 idea, no operation or quality of the mind, could be 
 represented, they contributed little towards preserving 
 the memory of ancient events and institutions. By 
 the Mexican paintings and symbols, rude as they 
 were, more knowledge of remote transactions seems 
 to have been conveyed than the Peruvians could 
 derive from their boasted quipos. Had the latter 
 been erea of more extensive use, and better adapted. 
 
 to supply the place of written records, they perished 
 so generally, together with other monuments of 
 Peruvian ingenuity, in the wreck occasioned by the 
 Spanish conquest, and the civil wars subsequent to 
 it, that no accession of light or knowledge comes 
 from them. All the zeal of Garcilasso de la Vega 
 for the honour of that race of monarchs from whom 
 he descended, all the industry of his researches, 
 and the superior advantages with which he carried 
 them on, opened no source of information unknown 
 to the Spanish authors who wrote before him. In 
 his Royal Commentaries, he confines himself to illus- 
 trate what they had related concerning the antiquities 
 and institutions of Peru ; and his illustrations, like 
 their accounts, are derived entirely from the tra- 
 ditionary tales current among his countrymen. 
 
 Very little credit then is due to the minute details 
 which have been given of the exploits, the battles, 
 the conquests, and private character of the early 
 Peruvian monarchs. We can rest upon nothing 
 in their story, as authentic, but a few facts so inter- 
 woven in the system of religion and policy, as pre- 
 served the memory of them from being lost: and 
 upon the description of such customs and institu- 
 tions as continued in force at the time of the con- 
 quest, and fell under the immediate observation of 
 the Spaniards. By attending carefully to these, 
 and endeavouring to separate them from what ap- 
 pears to be fabulous, or of doubtful authority, I have 
 laboured to form an idea of the Peruvian government 
 and manners. 
 
 The people of Peru, as I have always observed, had 
 not advanced beyond the rudest fo.m of savage life, 
 when Manco Capac, and his consort Mama Ocollo, 
 appeared to instruct and civilize them. Who these 
 extraordinary personages were, whether they im- 
 ported their system of legislation and knowledge of 
 arts from some country more improved, or, if natives 
 of Peru, how they acquired ideas so far superior to 
 those of the people whom they addressed, are cir- 
 cumstances with respect to which the Peruvian tra- 
 dition conveys no information. Manco Capac and 
 his consort, taking advantage of the propensity in the 
 Peruvians to superstition, and particularly of their 
 veneration for the sun, pretended to be children of 
 that glorious luminary, and to deliver their instruc- 
 tions in his name, and by authority from him. The 
 multitude listened and believed. What reformation 
 in policy and manners the Peruvians ascribe to 
 those founders of their empire, and how, from the 
 precepts of the inca and his consort, their ancestors 
 gradually acquired some '^knowledge of those arts, 
 and some relish for that industry, which render 
 subsistence secure and life comfortable, has been 
 formerly related. Those blessings were originally 
 confined within narrow precincts ; but in process of 
 time, the successors of Manco Capac extended their 
 dominion over all the regions that stretch to the 
 west of the Andes from Chili to Quito, establishing, 
 n every province their peculiar policy and religious 
 nstitutions. 
 
 The most singular and striking circumstance in 
 the Peruvian government, is the influence of religion 
 upon its genius and laws. Religious ideas make 
 such a feeble impression on the mind of a savage, 
 hat their effect upon his sentiments and manners is 
 hardly perceptible. Among the Mexicans, religion, 
 educed into a regular system, and holding a con- 
 siderable place in their public institutions, operated 
 pith conspicuous efficacy in forming the peculiar 
 haracter of that people. But in Peru, the whole 
 
 system of policy was founded oa religion. The inca 
 
174 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 appeared not only as a legislator, but as the mes- 
 senger of Heaven. His precepts were received not 
 merely as the injunction of a superior, but as the 
 mandates of the Deity. His race was to be held 
 sacred ; and in order to preserve it distinct, without 
 being polluted by any mixture of less noble blood, 
 the sons of Manco Capac married their own sisters, 
 and no person was ever admitted to the throne who 
 could not claim it by such a pure descent. To those 
 Children of the Sun, for that was the appellation 
 bestowed upon the offspring of the first inca, the 
 people looked up with the reverence due to beings of 
 a superior order. They were deemed to be under 
 the immediate protection of the Deity from whom 
 .they issued, and by him every order of the reigning 
 inca was supposed to be dictated. 
 
 From those ideas two consequences resulted. The 
 authority of the inca was unlimited and absolute, in 
 the most extensive meaning of the words. Whenever 
 the decrees of a prince are considered as the com- 
 rnands of the Divinity, it is not only an act of 
 rebellion, but of impiety, to dispute or oppose his 
 will. Obedience becomes a duty of religion ; and 
 as it would be profane to control a monarch who is 
 believed to be under the guidance of Heaven, and 
 presumptuous to advise him, nothing remains but to 
 submit with implicit respect. This must necessarily 
 be the effect of every government established on 
 pretensions of intercourse with superior powers. 
 Such accordingly was the blind submission which 
 the Peruvians yielded to their sovereigns. The 
 persons of highest rank and greatest power in their 
 dominions acknowledged them to be of a more 
 exalted nature : and in testimony of this, when 
 admitted into their presence, they entered with a 
 burden upon their shoulders, as an emblem of their 
 servitude, and willingness to bear whatever the inca 
 was pleased to impose. Among their subjects, force 
 was not requisite to second their commands. Every 
 officer intrusted with the execution of them was 
 revered, and according to the account of an intelli- 
 gent observer of Peruvian manners, he might 
 proceed alone from one extremity of the empire to 
 another without meeting opposition ; for, on pro- 
 ducing a fringe from the royal burla, an ornament of 
 the head peculiar to the reigning inca, the lives and 
 fortunes of the people were at his disposal. 
 
 Another consequence of establishing government 
 in Peru on the foundation of religion was, that all 
 crimes were punished capitally. They were not 
 considered as transgressions of human laws, but as 
 insults offered to the Deity. Each, without any 
 distinction between such as were slight and such as 
 were atrocious, called for vengeance, and could be 
 expiated only by the blood of the offender. Con- 
 sonantly to the same ideas, punishment followed the 
 trespass with inevitable certainty, because an offence 
 against Heaven was deemed such a high enormity as 
 could not be paidoned. Among a people of cor- 
 rupted morals, maxims of jurisprudence so severe 
 and unrelenting, by rendering men ferocious and 
 desperate, would be more apt to multiply crimes 
 than to restrain them. But the Peruvians, of simple 
 manners and unsuspicious faith, were held in such 
 awe by this rigid discipline, that the number of 
 offenders was extremely small. Veneration fur 
 monarchs, enlightened and directed, as they believed, 
 by the Divinity whom they adored, prompted them 
 to their duty ; the dread of punishment which they 
 vrere taught to consider as unavoidable vengeance 
 inflicted by offended Heaven, withheld them from 
 evil. 
 
 The system of superstition on which the incas 
 ingrafted their pretensions to such hi^h authority, 
 was of a genius very different from that established 
 among the Mexicans. Manco Capac turned the 
 veneration of his followers entirely towards natural 
 objects. The Sun, as the great source of light, of 
 j<>y, and fertility in the creation, attracted their 
 principal homage. The Moon and Stars, as co- 
 operating with him, were entitled to secondary 
 honours^ Wherever the propensity in the human 
 mind to acknowledge and to adore some superior 
 power takes this direction, and is employed in con- 
 templating the order and beneficence that really 
 exist ia nature, the spirit of superstition is mild. 
 Wherever imaginary beings, created by the fancy and 
 the fears of men, are supposed to preside in nature, 
 and become the objects of worship, superstition 
 always assumes a more severe and atrocious form. 
 Of the latter we have an example among the Mexi- 
 cans, of the former among the people of Peru. The 
 Peruvians had not, indeed, made such progress in 
 observation or inquiry, as to have attained just 
 conceptions of the Deity ; nor was there in their 
 language any proper- name or appellation of the 
 Supreme Power, which intimated that they had 
 formed any idea of him as the Creator and Governor 
 of the world. But by directing their veneration to 
 that glorious luminary, which, by its universal and 
 vivifying energy, is the best emblem of divine bene- 
 ficence, the rights and observances which they 
 deemed acceptable to him were innocent and humane. 
 They offered t to the sun a part of thoje productions 
 which his genial warmth had called forth from the 
 bosom of the earth, and reared to maturity. They 
 sacrificed, as an oblation of gratitude, tome of the 
 animals which were indebted to his influence for 
 
 i nourishment. They presented to him choice speci- 
 mens of those works of ingenuity which his light 
 had guided the hand of man in forming. But the 
 iucas never stained his altars with human blood, nor 
 could they conceive that their beneficent father, the 
 sun would be delighted with such horrid victims ( l. r )7). 
 Thus the Peruvians, unacquainted with those barba- 
 rous rites which extinguish sensibility, and suppress 
 the feelings of nature at the sight of human suffer- 
 
 ; ings, were formed by the spirit of the superstition 
 which .they had adopted, to a national character more 
 
 I gentle than that of any people in America. 
 
 The influence of this superstition operated in the 
 
 I same manner upon their civil institutions, and tended 
 
 ! to correct in them whatever was adverse to gentleness 
 of character. The dominion of the incas, though the 
 most absolute of all despotisms, was mitigated by its 
 alliance with religion. The mind was not humbled 
 and depressed by the idea of a forced subjection to 
 the will of a superior : obedience, paid to one who 
 was believed to be clothed with divine authority, was 
 willingly yielded, and implied no degradation. The 
 sovereign, conscious that the submissive reverence of 
 his people flowed from their belief of his heavenly 
 
 I descent, was continually reminded of a distinction 
 which prompted him to imitate that beneficent power 
 which he was supposed to represent. In consequence 
 of those impressions, there hardly occurs in the tra- 
 ditional history of Peru, any instance of rebellion 
 against the reigning prinae, and, among twelve sue* 
 cessive monarchs, there was not one tyrant. 
 
 Even the wars in which the incas engaged were 
 carried on with a spirit very different from that of 
 other American nations. They fought not, like 
 savages, to destroy and to exterminate; or, like the 
 
 v Mexicans, to glut blood-thirsty divinities with hurnaa 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 1 
 
 175 
 
 sacrifices. They conquered, in order to reclaim and 
 civilize the vanquished, and to diffuse the knowledge 
 of their own institutions and arts. Prisoners seem 
 not to have been exposed to the insults and tortures 
 which were their lot in every other part of the New 
 World. The incas took the people whom they sub- 
 dued under their protection, and admitted them to a 
 participation of all the advantages enjoyed by their 
 oiiginal subjects. This practice, so repugnant to 
 American ferocity, and resembling the humanity of 
 the most polished nations, must be ascribed, like 
 other peculiarities which we have observed in the 
 Peruvian manners, to the genius of their religion. 
 The incas, considering the homage paid to a/iy other 
 object than the heavenly powers which they adored 
 as impious, were fond oi' gaining proselytes to their 
 favourite system. The idols of every conquered pro- 
 vince were carried in triumph to the great temple at 
 Cuzco, and placed there as trophies of the superior 
 power of the divinity who was the protector of the 
 empire. The people were treated with lenity, and 
 instructed in the religious tenets of their new masters, 
 that the conqueror might have the glory of having 
 added to the number of the votaries of his father the 
 sun. 
 
 The state of property in Peru was no less singular 
 than that of religion, and contributed, likewise, to- 
 wards giving a mild turn of character to the people. 
 All the lands capable of cultivation were divided into 
 three shares. One was consecrated to the sun, and 
 the product of it was applied to the erection of temples, 
 and furnishing what was requisite towards celebrating 
 the public rites of religion. The second belonged to 
 the inca, and was set apart as the provision made by 
 the community for the support of government. The 
 third and largest fchare was reserved for the mainte- 
 nance of the people, among whom it was parcelled 
 out. Neither individuals, however, nor communities, 
 had a right of exclusive property in the portion set 
 apart for their use. They possessed it only for a 
 year, at the expiration of which a new division was 
 made, in proportion to the rank, the number, and exi- 
 gencies of each family. All those lands were cul- 
 tivated by the joint industry of the community. The 
 people, summoned by a proper officer, repaired in a 
 body to the fields, and performed their common task, 
 while songs and musical instruments cheered them 
 to their labour. By this singular distribution of ter- 
 ritory, as well as by the mode of cultivating it, the 
 idea of a common interest, and of mutual subser- 
 viency, was continually inculcated. Each individual 
 felt his connexion with those around him, and knew 
 that he depended on their friendly aid for what in- 
 crease he was to reap. A state thus constituted may 
 be considered as one great family, in which the union 
 of the members was so complete, and the exchange 
 of good offices so perceptible, as to create stronger 
 attachment, and to bind man to man in closer inter- 
 course, than subsisted under any form of society 
 established in America. From this resulted gentle 
 manners, and mild virtues unknown in the savage 
 state, and with which the Mexicans were little ac- 
 quainted. 
 
 But, though the institutions of the incas were so 
 framed as to strengthen the bonds of affection among 
 . their subjects, there was great inequality in their 
 condition. The distinction of ranks was fully estab- 
 lished in Peru. A great body of the inhabitants, 
 under the denomination of Yanaconas, were held in 
 a state of a servitude. Their garb and houses were 
 of a form different from those of freemen. Like the 
 Tamenes of Mexico, they were employed in carrying 
 
 burdens, and in performing every other work of 
 drudgery. Next to them in rank, were such of the 
 people as were free, but distinguished by no official 
 or hereditary honours. Above them were raised, 
 those whom the Spaniards call Orejones, from the. 
 ornaments worn in their ears. They formed what 
 nay be denominated the order of nobles, and in peace 
 as well as war held every office of power or trust. 
 At the head of all were the children of the sun, who, 
 by tlieir high descent and peculiar privileges, were as 
 much exalted above the orejones, as these were ele- 
 vated above the people. 
 
 Such a form of society, from the union of its mem- 
 bers, as well as from the distinction in their ranks, 
 was favourable to progress in the arts. But the 
 Spaniards, having been acquainted with the improved 
 state of various arts in Mexico, several years before 
 they discovered Peru, were not so much struck with 
 what they observed in the latter country, and de- 
 scribed the appearances of ingenuity there with less 
 warmth of admiration. The Peruvians, nevertheless, 
 had advanced far beyond the Mexicans, both in the 
 necessary arts of life, and in such as have some title 
 to the name of elegant. 
 
 In Peru, agriculture, the art of. primary necessity 
 in social life, was more extensive, and carried on with 
 greater skill, than in any part of America. The 
 Spaniards, in their progress through the country, 
 were so fully supplied with provisions of every kind, 
 that in the relation of their adventures we meet with 
 few of those dismal scenes of distress occasioned by 
 famine, in which the conquerors of Mexico were so 
 often involved. The quantity of soil under cultiva- 
 tion was not left to the discretion of individuals, but 
 regulated by public authority, in proportion to the 
 exigencies of the community. Even the calamity of 
 an unfruitful season was but little felt, for the pro- 
 duct of the lands consecrated to the sun, as well as 
 those set apart for the incas, being deposited in the 
 Tambos, or public storehouses, it remained there as 
 a stated provision for times of scarcity. As the 
 extent of cultivation was determined with such pro- 
 vident attention to the demands of the state, tho 
 invention and industry of the Peruvians were called 
 forth to extraordinary exertions, by certain defects 
 peculiar to their climate and. soil. All the vast 
 rivers that flow from the Andes take their course 
 eastward to the Atlantic Ocean. Peru is watered 
 only by some streams which rush down from the 
 mountains like torrents. A great part of the low 
 country is sandy and barren, and never refreshed 
 with rain. In order to render such an unpromising 
 region fertile, the ingenuity of the Peruvians had 
 recourse to various expedients. By means of arti- 
 ficial canals, conducted with much patience and 
 considerable art, from the torrents that poured across 
 their country, they conveyed a regular supply of 
 moisture to their fields. They enriched the soil by 
 manuring it with the dung of sea-fo\vls, of which 
 they found an inexhaustible store on all the islands 
 scattered along the coasts (158). In describing the 
 customs of any nation thoroughly civilized, such prac- 
 tices would hardly draw attention, or be mentioned as 
 in any degree remarkable ; but in the history of the 
 improvident race of men in the New World, they are 
 entitled to notice as singular proofs of industry and 
 of art. The use of the plough, indeed was un- 
 known to the Peruvians. They turned up the 
 earth with a kind of mattock of hard wood. Nor 
 was this labour deerr.ed so degrading as to be de- 
 volved wholly upon the women. Both sexes joined 
 in pe. -forming this necessary work. Even the 
 
176 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 children of the sun set an example of industry by 
 cultivating a field near Cuzco with their own hands, 
 and they dignified this function by denominating it 
 their triumph over the earth. 
 
 The superior ingenuity of the Peruvians is obvious, 
 likewise, in the construction of their houses and 
 public buildings. In the extensive plains which 
 stretch along the Pacific Ocean, where the sky is 
 perpetually se:ene, and the climate mild, their houses 
 were very properly of a fabric extremely slight. But 
 in the higher regions, where rain falls, where the 
 vicissitude of seasons is known, and their rigour felt, 
 houses were constructed with greater solidity. They 
 were generally of a square form, the walls about eight 
 feet high, built with bricks hardened in the sun, 
 without any windows, and the door low and strait. 
 Simple as these structures were, and rude as the 
 materials may seem to be of which they were formed, 
 they were so durable, that many of them still subsist 
 in different parts of Peru, long after every monument 
 that might have conveyed to us any idea of the 
 'domestic state of the other American nations has 
 vanished from the face of the earth. But it was in 
 the temples consecrated to the sun, and in the 
 buildings destined* for the residence of their mo- 
 narchs, that the Peruvians displayed the utmost 
 extent of their art and contrivance. The descriptions 
 of them by such of the Spanish writers as had an 
 opportunity of contemplating them, while in some 
 measure entire, might have appeared highly exag- 
 gerated, if the ruins which still remain did not 
 vouch the truth of their relations. These ruins of 
 sacred or royal buildings are found in every province 
 of the empire, and by their frequency demonstrate 
 that they are monuments of a powerful people, who 
 must have subsisted during a period of some extent, 
 in a state of no inconsiderable improvement. They 
 appear to have been edifices various in their dimen- 
 sions. Some of a moderate size, many of immense 
 extent, all remarkable for solidity, and resembling 
 each other in the style of architecture. The temple 
 of Pachacamac, together with a palace of the inca, 
 and a fortress, were so connected toguthe/ as to form 
 one great structure, above half a league in circuit. 
 Tn this prodigious pile, the same singular taste in 
 building is conspicuous as in other works of the 
 Peruvians. As they were unacquainted with the use 
 of the pulley, and other mechanical powers, and 
 could not elevate the larse stones and bricks which 
 they employed in building to any considerable 
 height, the walls of this edifice, in which they seem 
 to have made their greatest effort towards magnifi- 
 cence, did not rise above twelve feet from the ground, 
 Though thev had not discovered the use of mortar, 
 or of any other cement in building, the bricks or 
 stones were joined with so much nicety, that the 
 seams can hardly be discerned (159). The apart- 
 ments, as far as the distribution of them can be 
 traced in the ruins, were ill disposed, and afforded 
 little accommodation. There was not. a single 
 window in any part of the building ; and as no light 
 could enter but by the door, all the apartments of 
 largest dimensions must either have been perfectly 
 dark, or illuminated by some other means. But 
 with all these, and many other imperfections that 
 might be mentioned in their art of building, the 
 works of the Peruvians which still remain, must be 
 be considered as stupendous efforts of a people 
 unacquainted with the use of iron, and convey to us 
 a high idea of the power possessed by their ancient 
 monarchs. 
 
 These, however, were not the noblest or most use- 
 
 ful works of the incas. The two great roads from 
 Cusco to Quito, extending in an uninterrupted stretch 
 above fifteen hundred miles, are entitled to still 
 higher praise. Tiic one was conducted through the 
 interior and mountainous country, the other through 
 the plains on I he sea-coast. From the language of 
 admiration in which some of the early writers express 
 their astonishment when they first viewed those roads, 
 and from the more pompous description of later 
 writers, who labour to support some favourite theory 
 concerning America, one might be led to compare this 
 work of the incas to the famous military ways which 
 remain as monuments of the Roman power; but in a 
 country where there was no tame animal except the 
 llama, which was never used for draught, and but 
 little as a beast of burden, where the high-roads 
 were seldom trod by any but a human foot, no great 
 degree of labour or art was requisite in forming them. 
 The Peruvian roads were only fifteen feet in breadth, 
 an 1 in many places so slightly formed, that time has 
 effaced every vestige of the course in which they ran. 
 In the low country, little more seems to have been 
 done than to plant trees, or to fix posts at certain in- 
 tervals, in order to mark the proper route to travel- 
 lers. To open a path through tho mountainous coun- 
 try was a more arduous task. Eminences were le- 
 velled, and hollows filled up, and for the preservation 
 of the road it was fenced with a bank of turf. At 
 proper distances, tambos, or storehouses, were erected 
 for the accommodation of the inca and his attend- 
 ants, in their progress through his dominions. From 
 the manner in which the road was originally formed 
 in this higher and more impervious region, it has 
 proved more durable; and though, from the inatten- 
 tion of the Spaniaids to every object but that of 
 working their mines, nothing has been done towards 
 keeping it in repair, its course may still be traced. 
 Such was the celebrated road of the incas ; and even 
 from this description, divested of every circumstance 
 of manifest exaggeration, or of suspicious aspect, it 
 must be considered as a striking proof of an extraor- 
 dinary progress in improvement and policy. To the 
 savage tribes of America, the idea of facilitating com- 
 munication with places at a distance had never oc- 
 curred. To the Mexicans it was hardly known. 
 Even in the most civilized countries in Europe, men 
 had advanced far in refinement, before it became a re- 
 gular object of national police to form such roads as 
 render intercourse commodious. It was a capital 
 object of Roman policy to open a communication 
 with all the provinces of their extensive empire, by 
 means of those roads which are justly considered as 
 one of the noblest monuments both of their wisdom 
 and their power. But during the long reign of bar- 
 barism, the Roman roads were neglected or destroy- 
 ed ; and at the time when the Spaniards entered 
 Peru, no kingdom in Europe could boast of any work 
 of public utility that could be compared with the 
 great roads formed by the incas. 
 
 The formation of those roads introduced another 
 improvement in Peru equally unknown over all the 
 rest of America. In its course from south to north, 
 the road of the incas was intersected by all the tor- 
 rents which roll from the Andes towards the West- 
 ern ocean. From the rapidity of their course, as 
 well as from the frequency and violence of their inun- 
 dation, these were not foidable. Some expedient, 
 however, was to be found for passing them. The 
 Peruvians, from their unacquaintance with the use of 
 arches, and their inability to work in wood, could not 
 construct bridges either of stone or timber. But ne- 
 cessity, the parent of invention, suggested a device 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 177 
 
 which supplied that defect. They formed cables o: 
 great strength, by twisting together some of the pli- 
 able withes or osiers, with which their country 
 abounds ; six of these cables they stretched across 
 the stream parallel to one another, and made them 
 fast on each side. These they bound firmly together 
 by interweaving smaller ropes so close, as to form a 
 compact piece of net-work, which being covered with 
 branches of trees and earth, they passed along it with 
 tolerable security (160). Proper persons were ap- 
 pointed to attend at each bridge, to keep it in repair, 
 and to assist passengers. In the level country, where 
 the rivers became deep and broad and still, they are 
 passed in Balzas, or floats ; in the construction as 
 well as navigation of which, the ingenuity of the Pe- 
 ruvians appears to be far superior to that of any 
 people in America. These had advanced no further 
 in naval skill than the use of the paddle, or oar; the 
 Peruvians ventured to raise a mast, and spread a sail, 
 by means of which their balzas not only went nimbly 
 before the wind, but could veer and tack with great 
 celerity. 
 
 Nor were the ingenuity and art of the Peruvians 
 confined solely to objects of essential utility. They 
 had made some progress in arts, which may be called 
 elegant. They possessed the precious metals in 
 greater abundance than any people of America. They 
 obtained gold in the same manner with the Mexicans, 
 by searching in the channels of rivers, or washing the 
 earth in which particles of it were contained. But in 
 order to procure silver, they exerted no inconsider- 
 able degree of skill and invention. They had not, 
 indeed, attained the art of sinking a shaft into the 
 bowels of the earth, and penetrating to the riches 
 concealed there ; but they hollowed deep caverns on 
 the banks of rivers and the sides of mountains, and 
 emptied such veins as did not dip suddenly beyond 
 their reach. In other places, where the vein lay near 
 the surface, they dug pits to such a depth, that the 
 person who worked below could throw out the ore, or 
 hand it up in baskets. They had discovered the art 
 of smelting and refining this, either by the simple ap- 
 plication of fire, or where the ore was more stubborn, 
 and impregnated with foreign substances, by placing 
 it in small ovens or furnaces, on high grounds, so ar- 
 tificially constructed, that the draught of air perform- 
 ed the function of a bellows, an engine with which 
 they were totally unacquainted. By this simple de- 
 vice, the purer ores were smelted with facility, and 
 the quantity of silver in Peru was so considerable, 
 that many of the utensils employed in the functions 
 of common life were made of it. Several of those 
 vessels and trinkets are said to have meiited no small 
 degree of estimation, on account of the neatness of 
 the workmanship, as well as the intrinsic value of the 
 materials. But as the conquerors of America were 
 well acquainted with the latter, but had scarcely any 
 conception of the former, most of the silver vessels 
 and trinkets were melted down, and rated according 
 to the weight and fineness of the metal in the division 
 of the spoil. 
 
 In other works of mere curiosity or ornament, 
 their ingenuity has been highly celebrated. Many 
 specimens of those have been dug out of the Guacas, 
 or mounds of earth, with which the Peruvians covered 
 the bodies of the dead. Among these are mirrors of 
 various dimensions, of hard shining stones highly 
 polished ; vessels of earthenware of different forms ; 
 hatchets and other instruments, some destined for 
 war, and others for labour ; some were of flint, some 
 of copper, hardened to such a degree by an unknown 
 process, as to supply the place of iron on several 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, No. 23, 
 
 occasions. Had the use of those tools formed of 
 copper been general, the progress of the Peruvians 
 in the arts might have been such as to emulate that 
 of more cultivated nations. But either the metal 
 was so rare, or the operation by which it was hard- 
 ened so tedious, that their instruments of copper 
 were few, and so extremely small, that they seem to 
 have been employed only in slighter works. But 
 even to such a circumscribed use of this imperfect 
 metal, the Peruvians were indebted for their supe- 
 riority to the other people of America in various arts. 
 The same observation, however, may be applied to 
 them, which I formerly made with respect to the arts 
 of the Mexicans. From several specimens of Peru- 
 ruvian utensils and ornaments, which are deposited 
 in the royal cabinet of Madrid, and from some pre- 
 served in different collections in other parts of Europe, 
 I have reason to believe that the workmanship is 
 more to be admired on account of the rude tools with 
 which it was executed, than on account of its in- 
 trinsic neatness and elegance; and that the Peru- 
 vians, though the most improved of all the Americans, 
 were not advanced beyond the infancy of arts. 
 
 But notwithstanding so many particulars which 
 seem to indicate a high degree of improvement in 
 Peru, other circumstances occur that suggest the idea 
 of a society still in the first stages of its transition 
 from barbarism to civilization. In all the dominions 
 of the incas, Cuzco was the only place that had the 
 appearance, or was entitled to the name, of a city. 
 Every where else the people lived mostly in detached 
 habitations, dispersed over the country, or, at the 
 utmost, settled together in small villages. But until 
 men are brought to assemble in numerous bodies, 
 and incorporated in such close union, as to enjoy 
 frequent intercourse, and to feel mutual dependence, 
 they never imbibe perfectly the spirit, or assume the 
 manne-. s, of social life. In a country of immense ex- 
 tent, with only one city, the progress of manners, 
 and the improvement either of the necessary or more 
 refined arts, must have been so slow, and carried on 
 under such disadvantages, that it is more surprising 
 the Peruvians should have advanced so far in refine- 
 ment, than that they did not proceed further. 
 
 In consequence of this state of imperfect union, 
 the separation of professions in Peru was not so com- 
 plete as among the Mexicans. The less closely men 
 associate, the moVe simple are their manners, and the 
 fewer their wants. The crafts of common and most 
 necessary use in life do not, in such a state, become 
 so complex or difficult, as to render it requisite that 
 men should be trained to them by any particular 
 course of education. All the arts, accordingly, which 
 were of daily and indispensable utility, were exer- 
 cised by every Peruvian indiscriminately. None but 
 the artists employed in works of mere curiosity, or 
 ornament, constituted a separate order of men, or 
 were distinguished from other citizens. From the 
 want of cities in Peru, another consequence followed. 
 There was little commercial intercourse among the 
 inhabitants of that great empire. The activity of 
 commerce is coeval with the foundation of cities ; and 
 from the moment that the members of any commu- 
 nity settle in considerable numbers in one place, its 
 operations become vigorous. The citizen must de- 
 pend for subsistence on the labour of those who cul- 
 tivate the ground. They, in return, must receive 
 some equivalent. Thus mutual intercourse is estab- 
 lished, and the productions of art are regularly ex* 
 changed for the fruits of agriculture. In the towns 
 of the Mexican empire, stated markets were held, 
 and whatever could supply any want or desire of man 
 2 A 
 
178 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 was an object of commerce. 'But in Peru, from ardour, the same rapacious desire for wealth, and 
 
 the singular mode of dividing property, and the '. the same capacity for enduring and surmounting 
 i i ii _ .1 A ,,-1-1,1 ,1. - -i, , , ! i i j-i' i^ j 
 
 manner in which the people were settled, there w 
 hardly any species of commerce carried on between 
 different provinces, and the community was less ac- 
 quainted with that active intercourse, which is at 
 once a bond of union, and an incentive to improve- 
 ment. 
 
 everything in order to attain it, which distinguishe 
 the operations of the Spaniards in their greater 
 American conquests. But instead of entering into a 
 detail, which, from the similarity of the transactions 
 would appear almost a repetition of what has been 
 
 already related, I shall satisfy myself with such a 
 view of those provinces of the Spanish empire in 
 America, which have not hitherto been mentioned, 
 
 But the unwarlike spirit of the Peruvians was the 
 most remarkable, as well as the most fatal, defect in 
 
 their character. The greater part of the rude nations j as may convey to my readers an adequate idea of its 
 of America opposed their invaders with undaunted j greatness, fertility, and opulence, 
 ferocity, though with little conduct or success. The I I begin with the countries contiguous to the two 
 Mexicans maintained the struggle in defence of their j great monarchies, of whose history and institutions I 
 liberties with such persevering fortitude, that it was j have given some account, and shall then briefly 
 difficulty the Spaniards triumphed over them. Peru i describe the other districts of Spanish America. The 
 was subdued at once, and almost without resistance ; j jurisdiction of the viceroy of New Spain extends over 
 and the most favourable opportunities of regaining several provinces, which were not subject to the do- 
 
 j.1 /* 1 T f> 1 ,1 n , 1 it rill .!._-_ _ n* 1 
 
 their freedom, and of crushing their oppressors, were 
 lost through the timidity of the people. Though the 
 traditional history of the Peruvians represents all 
 the incas as warlike princes, frequently at the head 
 of armies, which they led to victory and conquest, 
 few symptoms of such a martial spirit appear in any 
 of their operations subsequent to the invasion of the 
 
 minion of the Mexicans. The countries of Cinaloa 
 and Sonora, that stretch along the east side of the 
 Vermilion sea, or gulf of California, as well as the 
 immense kingdoms of New Navarre and New Mexico, 
 which bend towards the west and north, did not ac- 
 knowledge the sovereignty of Montezuma, or his 
 predecessors. These regions, not inferior in magni- 
 
 Spaniards. The influence, perhaps, of those insti- tude to all the Mexican empire, are reduced, some to 
 tutions which rendered their manners gentle, gave j a greater, others to a less, degree of subjection to the 
 their minds this unmanly softness ; perhaps the con- Spanish yoke. They extend through the most de- 
 stant serenity and mildness of the climate may have ; lightful part of the temperate zone ; their soil is, in 
 enervated the vigour of their frame ; perhaps some j general, remarkably fertile, and all their productions, 
 principle in their government, unknown to us, was whether animal or vegetable, are most perfect in their 
 the occasion of this political debility. Whatever may | kind. They have all a communication either with 
 have been the cause, the fact is certain, and there is the Pacific ocean, or with the gulf of Mexico, and 
 not an instance in history of any people so little ad- are watered by rivers which not only enrich them, 
 vanced in refinement, so totally destitute of military but may become subservient to commerce. The 
 enterprise. This character hath descended to^ their number of Spaniards settled in those vast countries 
 posterity. The Indians of Peru are now more* tame is indeed extremely small. They may be said to 
 and depressed than any people of America. -Their \ have subdued rather to have occupied them. But if 
 feeble spirits, relaxed in lifeless inaction, seem hardly ! the population in their ancient establishments in 
 capable of any bold or manly exertion. ! America shall continue to increase, they may gra- 
 
 But, besides those capital defects in the political dually spread over those provinces, of which, however 
 state of Peru, some detached circumstances and facts inviting, they have not hitherto been able to take full 
 occur in the Spanish writers, which discover a con- j possession. 
 
 siderable remainder of barbarity in their manners, j One circumstance may contribute to the speedy 
 A cruel custom, that prevailed in some of the most | population of some districts. Very rich mines, both 
 savage tribes, subsisted among the Peruvians. On of gold and silver, have been discovered in many of 
 the death of the incas, and other eminent persons, a ! the regions which I have mentioned. Wherever 
 considerable number of their attendunts were put to these are opened, and worked with success, a number 
 death, and interred around their guacas, that they of people resort. In order to supply them with the 
 might appear in the next world with their former necessaries of life, cultivation must be increased, 
 dignity, and be served with the same respect. On artisans of various kinds must assemble, and industry 
 the death of Huona-Capac, the most powerful of j as well as wealth will be gradually diffused. Many 
 their monarchs, above a thousand victims were ! examples of this have occurred in different parts of 
 doomed to accompany him to . the tomb. In one ' America since they fell under the dominion of the 
 particular their manners appear to have been more : Spaniards. Populous villages and large towns have 
 barbarous than those of most rude tribes. Though suddenly arisen amidst uninhabited wilds and moun- 
 acquainted with the use of fire in preparing maize, ! tains ; and the working of mines, though far from 
 and other vegetables, for food, they devoured both j being the most proper object towards which the at- 
 fiesh and fish perfectly raw, and astonished the | tention of an infant society should be turned, may 
 Spaniards with a practice repugnant to the ideas of ! become the means both of promoting useful activity, 
 all civilized people. j and of augmenting the number of people. A recent 
 
 But though Mexico and Peru are the possessions j and singular instance of this has happened, which, 
 of Spain in the New World, which, on account both ! as it is but little known in Europe, and may be pro- 
 of their ancient and present state, have attracted the ductive of great effects, merits attention. The Spani- 
 greatest attention, her other dominions there are far 
 from being inconsiderable, either in extent or value. 
 
 ards settled in the provinces of Cinaloa and Sonora 
 had been long disturbed by the depredations of some 
 
 A ! _r? 1.1 _ T__ j' T._ A! 1 *r/?r^ + V/- 
 
 The greater part of them was reduced to subjection ! fierce tribes of the Indians. In the year 17G5, the 
 during the first part of the sixteenth century, by pri- ' incursions of those savages became so frequent, and 
 vate adventurers, who fitted out their small armanents so destructive, that the Spanish inhabitants, in des- 
 cither in Hispaniola or in Old Spain ; and were we pair, applied to the Marquis de Croix, the viceroy of 
 to follow each leader in his progress, we should dis- j Mexico, for such a body of troops as might enable 
 -cover the same daring courage, the same persevering ! them to drive those formidable invaders from their 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 170 
 
 places of retreat in the mountains. But the treasury 
 of Mexico was so much exhausted by the large sums 
 drawn from it, in order to support the late war 
 against Great Britain, that the viceroy could afford 
 them no aid. The respect due to his virtues accom- 
 plished what his official power could not effect. He 
 prevailed with the merchants of New Spain to ad- 
 vance about two hundred thousand pesos for defray- 
 ing the expense of the expedition. The war was 
 conducted by an officer of abilities ; and after being 
 protracted for three years, chiefly by the difficulty of 
 pursuing the fugitives over mountains and through 
 (iefiles which were almost impassable, it terminated, 
 in the year 1771, in the final submission of the 
 tribes which had been so long the object of terror to 
 the two provinces. In the course of this service, the 
 Spaniards marched through countries into which 
 they seem nut to have penetrated before that time, 
 and discovered mines of such value, as was astonish- 
 ing even to men acquainted with the riches con- 
 tuincd in the mountains of the New World. At 
 Ciueguilla, in the province of Sonora, they entered 
 a plain of fourteen leagues in extent, in which, at 
 the depth of only sixteen inches, they found gold in 
 grains of such a size, that some of them weighed nine 
 marks, and in such quantities, that in a shoi't time, 
 with a few labourers, they collected a thousand marks 
 of gold in grains, even without taking time to wash 
 the earth that had been dug, which appeared to be 
 .so rich, that pcrs-ms of skill computed that it might 
 yield what would be equal in value to a million of 
 pesos. Before the end of the year 1771, above two 
 thousand persons were settled in Cineguilla, under 
 the government of proper magistrates, and the in- 
 spection of several ecclesiastics. As several other 
 mines, not inferior in richness to that of Cineguilla, 
 have been discovered, both in Sonora and Cinaloa, 
 it is probable that these neglected and thinly inha- 
 bited provinces may soon become as populous and 
 valuable as any part of the Spanish empire of 
 America. 
 
 The peninsula of California, on the other side of 
 the Vermilion sea, seems to have been less known to 
 the ancient Mexicans than the provinces which I 
 have mentioned. It was discovered by Cortes in the 
 year 1536. During a long period it continued to be 
 so little frequented, that even its form was unknown, 
 and in most charts it was represented as an island, 
 not as a peninsula ( ). Though the climate of this 
 country, if we may judge from its situation, must be 
 very desirable, the Spaniards have made small pro- 
 gress in peopling it. Towards the close of the last 
 century, the Jesuits, who had great merit in exploring 
 this neglected province, and in civilizing its rude in- 
 habitants, imperceptibly acquired a dominion over it 
 as complete as that which they possessed in their 
 missions in Paraguay, and they laboured to introduce 
 into it the same policy, and to govern the natives by 
 the same maxims. In order to prevent the court of 
 Spain from conceiving any jealousy of their designs 
 and operations, they seem studiously to have depre- 
 ciated the country, by representing the climate as so 
 disagreeable and unwholesome, and the soil as so 
 barren, that nothing but a zealous desire of convert- 
 ing the natives could have induced them to settle 
 there. Several public-spirited citizens endeavoured 
 to undeceive their sovereigns, and to give them a 
 better view of California ; but in vain. 
 
 At length, on the expulsion of the Jesuits from the 
 Spanish dominions, the court of Madrid, as prone at 
 that juncture to suspect the purity of the order's in- 
 tentions, as formerly to confide in them with implicit 
 
 trust, appointed Don Joseph Galvcz, whose abilities 
 have since raised him to the high rank of minister for 
 the Indies, to visit that peninsula. His account of 
 the country was favourable ; he found the pearl- 
 fishery on its coasts to be valuable, and he discovered 
 mines of gold of a very promising appearance. 
 From its vicinity to Cinaloa and Sonora, it is pro- 
 bable, that if the population of these provinces shall 
 increase in the manner which I have supposed, Ca- 
 lifornia may, by degrees, receive from them such a 
 recruit of inhabitants, as to be no longer reckoned 
 among the desolate and useless districts of the Spa- 
 nish empire. 
 
 On the east of Mexico, Yucatan and Honduras 
 are comprehended in the government of New Spain, 
 though anciently they can hardly be said to have 
 formed a part of the Mexican empire. These large 
 provinces, stretching from the bay of Campeachy 
 beyond Cape Gracias a Dios, do not, like the other 
 territories of Spain in the New World, derive their 
 value either from the fertility of their soil, or the 
 richness of their mines; but they produce, in greater 
 abundance than any other part of America, the log- 
 wood-tree, which, in dying some colours, is so far 
 preferable to any other material, that the consump- 
 tion of it in Europe is considerable, and it has be- 
 come an article in commerce of great value. During 
 a long period no European nation intruded upon the 
 Spaniards in those provinces, or attempted to obtain 
 any share in this branch of trade. But after the 
 conquest of Jamaica by the English, it soon appeared 
 that a formidable rival was now seated in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the Spanish territories. One of the first 
 objects which tempted the English settled in that 
 island, was the great profit arising from the logwood 
 trade, and the facility of wresting some portion of it 
 from the Spaniards. Some adventurers from Ja- 
 maica made the first attempt at Cape Catoche, the 
 south-east promontory of Yucatan, and by cutting 
 logwood there, earned on a gainful traffic. When 
 most of the trees near the coast in that place were 
 felled, they removed to the island of Trist, in the bay 
 of Campeachy, and in later times, their principal 
 station has been in the bay of Honduras. The 
 Spaniards, alarmed at this encroachment, endea- 
 voured by negociation, remonstrances, and open 
 force, to prevent the English from obtaining any 
 footing on that part of the American continent. 
 But after struggling against it for more than a cen- 
 tury, the disasters of last war extorted from the court 
 of Madrid a reluctant consent to tolerate this settle- 
 ment of foreigners in the heart of its territories. 
 The pain which this humbling concession occasioned, 
 seems to have prompted the Spaniards to devise a 
 method of rendering it of little consequence, more 
 effectual than all the efforts of negociation or vio- 
 lence. The logwood produced on the west coast of 
 Yucatan, where the soil is drier, is in quality far 
 superior to that which grows on the marshy grounds 
 where the English are settled. By encouraging the 
 cutting of this, and permitting the importation 
 of it into Spain without paying any duty, such 
 vigour has been given to this branch of commerce, 
 and the logwood which the English bring to market 
 has sunk so much in value, that their trade to the 
 bay of Honduras has gradually declined since it 
 obtained a legal sanction ; and, it is probable, . will 
 soon be finally abandoned. In that event, Yucatan 
 and Honduras will become possessions of consider- 
 able importance to Spain. 
 
 Still further east than Honduras lie the two pro- 
 vinces of Costa Rica and Veragua, which likewise 
 
180 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 belong to the viceroyalty of New Spain ; but both 
 have been so much neglected by the Spaniards, and 
 are apparently of such small value, that they merit 
 no particular attention. 
 
 The most important province depending on the 
 viceroyalty of Peru is Chili. The incas had estab- 
 lished their dominion in some of its northern districts; 
 but in the greater part of the country, its gallant and 
 high-spirited inhabitants maintained their independ- 
 ence. The Spaniards, allured by the fame of its 
 opulence, early attempted the conquest of it under 
 Diego Almagro ; and after his death, Pedro de Val- 
 divia resumed the design. Both met with fierce op- 
 position. The former relinquished the enterprise in 
 the manner which I have mentioned. The latter, 
 after having given many displays, both of courage 
 and military skill, was cut off, together with a con- 
 siderable body of troops under his commaud. Fran- 
 cisco de Villagra, Valdivia's lieutenant, by his 
 spirited conduct, checked the natives in their career, 
 and saved the remainder of the Spaniards from des- 
 truction. By degrees, all the campaign country 
 along the coast was subjected to the Spanish do- 
 minion. The mountainous country is still possessed 
 by the Puelches, Araucos, and other tribes of its 
 original inhabitants, formidable neighbours to the 
 Spaniards; with whom, during the course of two 
 centuries, they have been obliged to maintain almost 
 perpetual hostility, suspended only by a few inter- 
 vals of insecure peace. 
 
 That part of Chili, then, which may properly be 
 deemed a Spanish province, is a narrow district, 
 extended along the coast from the desert of Atacamas 
 to the island of Chiloe, above nine hundred miles. 
 Its climate is the most delicious in the New World, 
 and is hardly equalled by that of any region on the 
 face of the earth. Though bordering on the torrid 
 zone, [it never feels the extremity of heat, being 
 screened on the east by the Andes, and refreshed 
 from the west by cooling sea-breezes. The tempe- 
 rature of the air is so mild and equable, that the 
 Spaniards give it the preference to that of the 
 southern provinces in their native country. The 
 fertility of the soil corresponds with the benignity 
 of the climate, and is wonderfully accommodated 
 to European productions. The most valuable of 
 these, corn, wine, and oil, abound in Chili, as if 
 they had been native to the country. All the fruits 
 imported from Europe attain to full maturity there. 
 The animals of our hemisphere not only multiply, 
 but improve, in this delightful region. The horned 
 cattle are of larger size than those of Spain. Its 
 breed of horses surpasses, both in beauty and spirit, 
 the famous Andalusian race from which they sprung. 
 Nor has nature exhausted her bounty on the surface 
 of the earth; she has stored its bowels with riches. 
 Valuable mines of gold, of silver, of copper, and 
 of lead, have been discovered in various parts of it. 
 
 A country distinguished by so many blessings, we 
 may be apt to conclude, would early become a fa- 
 vourite station of the Spaniards, and must have been 
 cultivated with peculiar predilection and care. In- 
 stead of this, a great part of it remains unoccupied. 
 In all this extent of country, there are not above 
 eighty thousand white inhabitants, and about three 
 times that number of negroes and people of a mixed 
 race. The most fertile soil in America lies unculti- 
 vated, and some of its most promising mines remain 
 unwrought. Strange as this neglect of the Spa- 
 niards to avail themselves of advantages which 
 seemed to court their acceptance may appear, the 
 causes of it can be traced. The only intercource 
 
 of Spain w r ith its colonies in the South sea, was 
 carried on during two centuries by the annual 
 fleet to Porto-bello. All the produce of these colo- 
 nies was shipped in the ports of Callao or Africa in 
 Peru, for Panama, and carried from thence across 
 the isthmus. All the commodities which they re- 
 ceived from the mother-country were conveyed from 
 Panama to the same harbours. Thus both the ex- 
 ports and imports of Chili passed through the hands 
 of merchants settled in Peru. These had of course 
 a profit on each ; and in both transactions the Chi- 
 lese felt their own subordination ; and having no 
 direct intercourse with the parent state, they de- 
 pended upon another province for the disposal of 
 their productions, as well as for the supply of their 
 wants. Under such discouragements, population 
 could not increase, and industry was destitute of one 
 chief incitement. But now that Spain, from motives 
 which I shall mention hereafter, has adopted a new 
 system, and carries on her commerce with the colo- 
 nies in the South sea, by ships which go round Cape 
 Horn, a direct intercourse is opened between Chili 
 and the mother-country. The gold, the silver, and 
 the other commodities of the province, will be ex- 
 changed in its own harbours for the manufactures of 
 Europe. Chili may speedily rise into that import- 
 ance among the Spanish settlements, to which it is 
 entitled by its natural advantages. It may become 
 the granary of Peru, and the other provinces along 
 the Pacific ocean. It may supply them with wine, 
 with cattle, with horses, with hemp, and many other 
 articles for which they now depend upon Europe. 
 Though the new system has been established only a 
 few years, those effects of it begin already to be 
 observed. If it shall be adhered to with any steadi- 
 ness for half a century, one may venture to foretell, 
 that population, industry, and opulence, will advance 
 in this province with rapid progress. 
 
 To the east of the Andes, the provinces of Tucu- 
 man, and Rio de la Plata, border on Chili; and, like 
 it, were dependent on the viceroyalty of Peru. 
 These regions, of immense extent, stretch in length, 
 from north to south, above thirteen hundred miles, 
 and in breadth more than a thousand. This country, 
 which is larger than most European kingdoms, na- 
 turally forms itself into two great divisions, one on 
 the north and the other on the south of Rio de la 
 Plata. The former comprehends Paraguay, the 
 famous missions of the Jesuits, and several other 
 districts. But as disputes have long subsisted be- 
 tween the courts of Spain and Portugal concerning 
 its boundaries, which, it is probable, will be soon 
 finally ascertained, either amicably or by the deci- 
 sion of the sword. I choose to reserve my account 
 of this northern division, until I enter upon the his- 
 tory of Portuguese America, with which it is inti- 
 mately connected ; and, in relating it, I shall be 
 able, from authentic materials, supplied both by 
 Spain and Portugal, to give a full and accurate des- 
 cription of the operations and views of the Jesuits, 
 in rearing that singular fabric of policy in America, 
 which has drawn so much attention, and has been 
 so imperfectly understood. The latter division of the 
 province contains the governments of Tucuman and 
 Buenos Ayres, and to these I shall at present con- 
 fine my observations. The Spaniards entered this 
 part of America by the river de la Plata ; and, 
 though a succession of cruel disasters befell them 
 in their early attempts to establish their dominion in 
 it, they were encouraged to persist in the design, 
 at first by the hopes of discovering mines in the 
 interior country, and afterwards by the necessity of 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 181 
 
 occupying it, in order to prevent any other nation 
 from settling there, and penetrating by this route 
 into their rich possessions in Peru. But except at 
 Buenos Ayres, they have made no settlement of any 
 consequence in all the vast space which I have 
 mentioned. There are, indeed, scattered over it, a 
 few places on which they have bestowed the name 
 of towns, and to which they have endeavoured to 
 add some dignity, by erecting them into bishoprics ; 
 but they are no better than paltry villages, each with 
 two or three hundred inhabitants. One circum- 
 stance, however, which was not originally foi'eseen, 
 has contributed to render this district, though thinly 
 peopled, of considerable importance. The province 
 of Tucuman, together with the country to the south 
 of the Plata, instead of being covered with wood like 
 other parts of America, forms one extensive open 
 plain, almost without a tree. The soil is a deep fer- 
 tile mould, watered by many streams descending 
 from the Andes, and clothed in perpetual verdure. 
 In this rich pasturage, the horses and cattle imported 
 by the Spaniards from Europe have multiplied to a 
 degree which almost exceeds belief. This has 
 enabled the inhabitants, not only to open a lucrative 
 trade with Peru, by supplying it with cattle, horses, 
 and mules, but to carry on a commerce no less bene- 
 ficial, by the exportation of hides to Europe. From 
 both the colony has derived great advantages. Bnt 
 its commodious situation for carrying on contraband 
 trade, has been the chief source of its prosperity. 
 While the court of Madrid adhered to its ancient 
 system, with respect to its communication with Ame- 
 rica, the river De la Plata lay so much out of the 
 course of Spanish navigation, that interlopers, 
 almost without any risk of being either observed or 
 obstructed, could pour in European manufactures in 
 such quantities, that they not only supplied the wants 
 of the colony, but were conveyed into all the eastern 
 districts of Peru. When the Portuguese in Brazil 
 extended their settlements to the banks of Rio de la 
 Plato, a new channel was opened, by which pro- 
 hibited commodities flowed into the Spanish terri- 
 tories, with still more facility, and in greater abun- 
 dance. This illegal traffic, however detrimental to 
 the parent state, contributed to the increase of the 
 settlement which had the immediate benefit of it, 
 and Buenos-Ayres became gradually a populous and 
 opulent town. What may be the effect of the altera- 
 tion lately made in the government of this colony, 
 the nature of which shall be described in the subse- 
 quent book, cannot hitherto be known. 
 
 All the other territories of Spain in the New 
 World, the islands exxepted, of whose discovery and 
 reduction I have formerly given an account, are 
 comprehended under two great divisions ; the former 
 denominated the kingdom of Tierra Ferme, the pro- 
 vinces of which stretch along the Atlantic, from the 
 eastern frontier of New Spain to the mouth of the 
 Orinoco ; the latter, the new kingdom of Granada, 
 situated in the interior country. With a short view 
 of these I shall close this part of my work. 
 
 To the east of Veragua, the last province subject 
 to the viceroy of Mexico, lies the isthmus of Darien. 
 Though it was in this part of the continent that the 
 Spaniards first began to plant colonies, they have 
 made no considerable progress in peopling it. As 
 the country is extremely mountainous, deluged with 
 rain during a good part of the year, remarkably un- 
 healthful, and contains no mines of great value, the 
 Spaniards would probably have abandoned it alto- 
 gether, if they had not been allui'ed to continue by 
 the excellence of the harbour of Porto-Bello on the 
 
 one sea, and that of Panama on the other. These 
 have been called the keys to the communication be 
 tween the North and South sea, between Spain and 
 her most valuable colonies. In consequence of this 
 advantage, Panama has become a considerable and 
 thriving town. The peculiar noxiousness of its cli- 
 mate has prevented Porto-Bello from increasing in 
 the same proportion. As the intercourse with the 
 settlements in the Pacific ocean is now carried on by 
 another channel, it is probable that both Porto- 
 Bello and Panama will decline, when no longer 
 nourished and enriched by that commerce to which 
 they were indebted for their prosperity, and even 
 their existence. 
 
 The provinces of Carthagena and Santa Martha 
 stretch to the eastward of the isthmus of Darien. 
 The country still continues mountainous, but its val- 
 leys begin to expand, are well watered, and extremely 
 fertile. Pedro de Heredia subjected this part of 
 America to the crown of Spain, about the year 1532. 
 It is thinly peopled, and of course ill cultivated. It 
 produces, however, a variety of valuable drugs, and 
 some precious stones, particularly emeralds. But its 
 chief importance is derived from the harbour of Car- 
 thagena, the safest and best fortified of any in the 
 American dominions of Spain. In a situation so 
 favourable, commerce soon began to flourish. As 
 early as the year 1544 it seems to have been a town 
 of some note. But when Carthagena was chosen as- 
 the port in which the galeons should first begin to 
 trade on their arrival from Europe, and to which they 
 were directed to return, in order to prepare for their 
 voyage homeward, the commerce of its inhabitants 
 was so much favoured by this arrangement, that it 
 soon became one of the most populous, opulent, and 
 beautiful cities in America. There is, however, 
 reason to apprehend, that it has reached its highest 
 point of exaltation, and that it will be so far affected 
 by the change in the Spanish system of trade with 
 America, which has withdrawn from it the desirable 
 visits of the galeons, as to feel at least a temporary 
 decline. But the wealth now collected there will 
 soon find or create employment for itself, and may 
 be turned with advantage into some new channel. 
 Its harbour is so safe, and so conveniently situated 
 for receiving commodities from Europe, its merchants 
 have been so long accustomed to convey these into 
 all the adjacent provinces, that it is probable they 
 will still retain this branch of trade, and Carthagena 
 continue to be a city of great importance. 
 
 The [province contiguous to Santa Martha on the 
 cast, was first visited by Alonso de Ojeda, in the 
 year 1499 ("^) ; and the Spaniards, on their land- 
 ing there, having observed some huts in an Indian 
 village built upon piles, in order to raise them above 
 the stagnated water which covered the plain, were 
 led to bestow upon it the name of Venezuela, or 
 Little Venice, by their usual propensity to find a 
 resemblance between what they discovered in Ame- 
 rica, and the objects which were familiar to them in 
 Europe. They made some attempts to settle there, 
 but with little success. The final reduction of the 
 province was accomplished by means very different 
 from those to which Spain was indebted for its other 
 acquisitions in the New World. The ambition of 
 Charles V. often engaged him in operations of such 
 variety and extent, that his revenues were not suffi- 
 cient to defray the expense of carrying them into exe- 
 cution. Among other expedients for supplying the 
 diticiency of his funds, he had borrowed large sums 
 from the Velsers of Augsburg, the most opulent 
 merchants at that time in Europe. By way of rctri- 
 
182 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 bution for these, or in hopes, perhaps, of obtaining a 
 new loan, he bestowed upon them the province of 
 Venezuela, to be held as an hereditary fief from the 
 crown of Castile, on condition that within a limited 
 time "they should render themselves masters of the 
 country, and establish a colony there. Under the 
 direction of such persons, it might have been ex- 
 pected that a settlement would have been established 
 on maxims very different from those of the Spaniards, 
 and better calculated to encourage such useful in- 
 dustry as mercantile proprietors might have known 
 to be the most certain course of prosperity and opu- 
 lence. But unfortunately they committed the exe- 
 cution of their plan to some of those soldiers of 
 fortune with which Germany abounded in the six- 
 teenth century. These adventurers, impatient to 
 amass riches, that they might speedily abandon a 
 station which they soon discovered to be very un- 
 cemfortable, instead of planting a colony in order to 
 cultivate and improve the country, wandered from 
 district to district in search of mines, plundering the 
 natives with unfeeling rapacity, or oppressing them 
 by the imposition of intolerable tasks. In the course 
 of a few years, their avarice and exactions, in com- 
 parison with which those of the Spaniards were 
 moderate, desolated the province so completely, that 
 it could hardly afford them subsistence, and the 
 Velsers relinquished a property from which the in- 
 considerate conduct of their agents left them no 
 hope of ever deriving any advantage. When the 
 wretched remainder of the Germans deserted Vene- 
 zuela, the Spaniards again took possession of it ; but 
 notwithstanding many natural advantages, it is one 
 of their most languishing and unproductive settle- 
 ments. 
 
 The provinces of Caraccas and Cumana are the 
 last of the Spanish territories on this coast; but in 
 relating the origin and operations of the mercantile 
 company, in which an exclusive right of trade with 
 them has been vested, I shall hereafter have occasion 
 to consider their state and productions. 
 
 The new kingdom of Granada is entirely an 
 inland country of great extent. This important ad- 
 dition was mac'e to the dominions of Spain about the 
 year 1536, by Sebastian dc Benalcazar and Gonzalo 
 Ximenes de Quesada, two of the bravest and most 
 accomplished officers employed in the conquest of 
 America. The former, who commanded at that 
 time in Quito, attacked it from the south ; the latter 
 made his invasion from Santa Martha on the north. 
 As the original inhabitants of this region were fur- 
 ther advanced in improvement than any people in 
 America but the Mexicans and Peruvians, they 
 defended themselves with great resolution and 
 good conduct. The abilities and perseverance of 
 Benalcazar and Quesada surmounted all opposition, 
 though not without encountering many dangers, and 
 reduced the country into the form of a Spanish 
 province. 
 
 The new kingdom of Granada is so far elevated 
 above the level of the sea, that though it approaches 
 .almost to the equator, the climate is remarkably 
 temperate. The fertility of its valleys is not in- 
 ferior to that of the richest districts in America, and 
 its higher grounds yield gold and precious stones of 
 various kinds. It is not by digging into the bowels 
 .of the earth that this gold is found ; it is mingled 
 .with the soil near the surface, and separated from it 
 -by repeated washing with water. This operation is 
 * /carried on wholly by negro slaves; for though the 
 ,chill subterranean air has been discovered, by ex- 
 perience, to be so fatal to them, that they cannot be 
 
 employed with advantage in the deep silver mines, 
 they are move capable of performing the other spe- 
 cies of labour than Indians. As the natives in the 
 new kingdom of Granada are exempt from that ser- 
 vice, which has wasted their race so rapidly in other 
 parts of America, the countiy is still remarkably 
 populous. Some districts yield gold with a pro- 
 fusion no less wonderful |than that in the vale of 
 Cineguilla, which 1 have formerly mentioned, and 
 it is often found in large pepitar, or grains, which 
 manifest the abundance in which it is produced, 
 On a rising ground near Pamplona, single labourers 
 have collected in a day what was equal in value 
 to a thousand pesos. A late governor of Santa 
 Fe brought with him to Spain a lump of pure gold, 
 estimated to be worth seven hundred and forty 
 pounds sterling. This, which is, perhaps, the largest 
 and finest specimen ever found in the New World, 
 is now deposited in the royal cabinet of Madrid. 
 But without founding any calculation on what is 
 rare and extraordinary, the value of the gold usually 
 collected in this countiy, particularly in the pro- 
 vinces of Popayan and Choco, is of considerable 
 amount. Its towns are populous and flourishing. 
 The number of inhabitants in almost every part of 
 the country daily increases. Cultivation and in- 
 dustry of various kinds begin to be encouraged, and 
 to prosper. A considerable trade is carried on with 
 Carthagena, the produce of the mines, and other 
 commodities, being conveyed down the great river of 
 St. Magdalene to that city. On another quarter, the 
 new kingdom of Granada has a communication with 
 the Atlantic by the river Orinoco ; but the country 
 which stretches along its banks towards the east, is 
 little known, and imperfectly occupied by the 
 Spaniards. 
 
 BOOK VIII. 
 
 After tracing the progress of the Spaniards iu 
 their discoveries and conquests during more than 
 half a century, I have conducted them to that pe- 
 riod when their authority was established over al- 
 most all the vast regions in the New World still 
 subject to their dominion. The effect of their settle- 
 ments upon the countries of which they took posses- 
 sion, the maxims which they adopted in forming 
 their new colonies, the interior structure and policy 
 of these, together with the influence of their pro- 
 gressive improvement upon the parent state, and 
 upon the commercial intercourse of nations, are the 
 objects to which we now turn our attention. 
 
 The first visible consequence of the establishments 
 made by the Spaniards in America, was the diminu- 
 tion of the ancient inhabitants, to a degree equally 
 astonishing and deplorable. I have already, on dif- 
 ferent occasions, mentioned the disastrous influence 
 under which the connexion of the Americans with 
 the people of the hemisphere commenced, both in 
 the islands and in several parts of the continent, and 
 have touched upon various causes of their rapid 
 consumption. Wherever the inhabitants of America 
 had resolution to take arms in defence of their 
 liberty and rights, many perished in the unequal 
 contest, and were cut off by their fierce invaders. 
 But the greatest desolation followed after the sword 
 j was sheathed, and the conquerors were settled in 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 183 
 
 tranquillity. It was in the islands, and in those Such are the most considerable events and causes 
 provinces of the continent which stretch from the which, by their combined operation, contributed to 
 gulf of Trinidad to the confines of Mexico/that the depopulate America. Without attending to these, 
 fatal effects of the Spanish dominion were first and many authors, astonished at the suddenness of the 
 most sensibly felt. All these were occupied either desolation, have ascribed this unexampled event to 
 by wandering tribes of hunters, or by such as had a system of policy no less profound than atrocious, 
 made but small progress in cultivation and industry. The Spaniards, as they pretend, conscious of their 
 When they were compelled by their new masters to own inability to occupy the vast regions which they 
 take up a fixed residence, and to apply to regular had discovered, and foreseeing the impossibility of 
 labour; when tasks were imposed upon them dis- maintaining their authority over a people infinitely 
 proportioned to their strength, and were exacted superior to themselves in number, in order to pre- 
 with unrelenting severity, they possessed not vigour serve the possession of America, resolved to exter- 
 either of mind or of body to ^sustain this unusual minate the inhabitants, and, by converting a great 
 load of oppression. Dejection and despair drove part of the country into a desert, endeavoured to 
 many to end their lives by violence. Fatigue and secure their own dominion over it. But nations scl- 
 famine destroyed more. In all those extensive re- dom extend their views to objects so remote, or lay 
 gions, the original race of inhabitants wasted away ; their plans so deep; and for the honour of humanity 
 in some it was totally extinguished. In Mexico, we may observe, that no nation ever deliberately 
 where a powerful and martial people distinguished formed such an execrable scheme. The Spanish 
 their opposition to the Spaniards by efforts of cou- monarchs, far from acting upon any such system 
 rao (> worthy of a better fate, great numbers fell in ' of destruction, were uniformly solicitous for the pre- 
 the field; and there, as well as in Peru, still greater servation of their new subjects. With Isabella, zeal 
 numbers perished under the hardships of attending for propagating the Christian faith, together with 
 the Spanish armies in their various expeditions and the desire of communicating the knowledge of truth, 
 civil wars, worn out with the incessant toil of carry- and the consolations of religion, to people destitute 
 ing their baggage, provisions, and military stores. of spiritual light, were more than ostensible motives 
 But neither the rage nor cruelty of the Spaniards for encouraging Columbus to attempt his discoveries, 
 was so destructive to the people of Mexico and Peru Upon his success, she endeavoured to fulfil her pious 
 as the inconsiderate policy with which they estab- purpose, and manifested the most tender concern to 
 lishcd their new settlements. The former were tern- secure not only religious instruction, but mild treat- 
 porary calamities, fatal to individuals : the latter ment, to that inofi'ensive race of men subjected to 
 was a permanent evil, which, with gradual consump- her crown. Her successors adopted the same ideas ; 
 tion, wasted the nation. When the provinces of and on many occasions, which I have mentioned, 
 Mexico and Peru were divided among the conquerors, their authority was interposed, in the most vigorous 
 each was eager to obtain a district from which exertions, to protect the people of America from the 
 he might expect an instantaneous recompence for oppression of their Spanish subjects. Their regu- 
 all his services. Soldiers, accustomed to the care- ; lations for this purpose were numerous, and often 
 lessness and dissipation of a military life, had neither repeated. They were framed with wisdom and die- 
 industry to carry on any plan of regular cultivation, tated by humanity. After their possessions in the 
 nor patience to wait for its slow but certain returns. . New World became so extensive as might have cx- 
 Instead of settling in the valleys occupied by the cited some apprehensions of difficulty in retaining 
 natives, where the fertility of the soil would have their dominion over them, the spirit of their regu- 
 amply rewarded the diligence of the planter, they ' lations was as mild as when their settlements were 
 chose to fix their stations in some of the mountainous j confined to the islands alone. Their solicitude to 
 regions, frequent both in New Spain and in Peru. ! protect the Indians seems rather to have augmented 
 To search for mines of gold and silver, was the chief ; as their acquisitions increased ; [and from ardour 
 object of their activity. The prospects which this i to accomplish this, they enacted and endeavoured 
 opens, and the alluring hopes which it continually j to enforce the execution of laws, which excited 
 presents, correspond wonderfully with the spirit of 
 enterprise and adventure that animated the first emi- 
 grants to America in every part of their conduct. 
 In order to push forward those favourite projects, so 
 many hands were wanted, that the service of the 
 natives became indispensably requisite. They were 
 accordingly compelled to abandon their ancient ha- 
 bitations in the plains, and driven in crowds to the 
 mountains. This sudden transition from the sultry 
 climate of the valleys to the chill penetrating air 
 peculiar to high land's in the torrid zone; exorbitant 
 
 a formidable rebellion in one of their colonies, 
 and spread alarm and disaffection through all 
 the rest. But the avarice of individuals was too 
 
 labour, scanty or unwholesome nourishment, and the 
 despondency occasioned by a species of oppression 
 to which they were not accustomed, and of which 
 they saw no end, affected them nearly as much as 
 their less industrious countrymen in the islands. 
 They sunk under the united pressure of those cala- 
 mities, and melted away with almost equal rapidity. 
 In consequence of this, together with the introduc- 
 tion of the small-pox, a malady unknown in Ame- 
 rica, and extremely fatal to the natives, the number 
 of people both in New Spain and Peru was so much 
 reduced, that in a few years the accounts of their 
 ancient population appeared almost incredible(16 1). 
 
 violent to be controlled by the authority of laws. 
 Rapacious and daring adventurers, far removed 
 from the seat of government, little accustomed to 
 the restraints of military discipline while in service, 
 and still less disposed to respect the feeble juris- 
 diction of civil power in an infant colony, despised 
 or deluded every regulation that set bounds to their 
 exactions and tyranny. The parent state, with per- 
 severing attention, issued edicts to prevent the op- 
 pression of the Indians; the colonists, regardless 
 of these, or trusting to their distance for impunity, 
 continued to consider and treat them as slaves. The 
 governors themselves, and other officers employed 
 in the colonies, several of whom were as indigent 
 and rapacious as the adventurers over whom they 
 presided, were too apt to adopt their contemptuous 
 ideas of the conquered people ; and, instead of 
 checking, encouraged or connived at their excesses. 
 The desolution of the New World should not then 
 be charged on the court of Spain, or be considered 
 as the effect of any system of policy adopted there, 
 
181 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 It ought to be imputed wholly to the indigent and 
 often unprincipled adventurers, whose fortune it was 
 to be the conquerors and first planters of America, 
 who, by measures no less inconsiderate than unjust, 
 counteracted the edicts of their sovereign, and have 
 brought disgrace upon their country. 
 
 With still greater injustice have many authors re- 
 presented the intole rating spirit of the Roman Ca- 
 tholic religion, as the cause of exterminating the 
 Americans, and have accused the Spanish eccle- 
 siastics of animating their countrymen to the 
 slaughter of that innocent people, as idolaters and 
 enemies of God. But the first missionaries who 
 visited America, though weak and illiterate were 
 pious men. They early espoused the defence of the 
 natives, and vindicated their character from the as- 
 persions of their conquerors, who, describing them 
 as incapable of being formed to the offices of 
 civil life, or of comprehending the doctrines of 
 religion, contended, that they were a subordi- 
 nate race of men, on whom the hand of nature 
 had set the mark of servitude. From the accounts 
 which I have given of the humane and pei'severing 
 zeal of the Spanish missionaries, in protecting the 
 helpless flock committed to their charge, they ap- 
 pear in a light which reflects lustre upon their func- 
 tion. They were ministers of peace, who endea- 
 voured to wrest the rod from the hands of oppressors. 
 To their powerful interposition the Americans were 
 indebted for every regulation tending to mitigate 
 the rigour of their fate. The clergy in the Spanish 
 settlements, regular as well as secular, are still con- 
 sidered by the Indians as their natural guardians, 
 to whom they have recourse under the hardships, 
 and exactions to which they are too often exposed. 
 But, notwithstanding the rapid depopulation of Ame- 
 rica, a very considerable number of the native race 
 still remains both in Mexico and Peru, especially in 
 those parts which were not exposed to the first fury 
 of the Spanish arms, or desolated by the first efforts 
 of their industry, still more ruinous. In Guatimala, 
 Chiapa, Nicaragua, and the other delightful pro- 
 vinces of the Mexican empire, which stretch along 
 the South sea, the race of Indians is still numerous. 
 Their settlements in some places are so popu- 
 lous, as to merit the name of cities. In the 
 three audiences into which New Spain is divi- 
 ded, there are at least two millions of Indians ; 
 a pitiful remnant indeed, of its ancient population ; 
 but such as still forms a body of people superior in 
 number to that of all the other inhabitants of this 
 extensive country. In Pedro several districts, par- 
 ticularly in the kingdom of Quito, are occupied 
 almost entirely by Indians. In other provinces 
 they are mingled with the Spaniards, and in many 
 of their settlements are almost the only persons who 
 practice the mechanic arts, and fill most of the 
 inferior stations in society. As the inhabitants both 
 of Mexico and Peru were accustomed to a fixed 
 residence, and to a certain degree of regular indus- 
 try, less violence was requisite in bringing them to 
 some conformity with the European modes of civil 
 life. But whenever the Spaniards settled among 
 the savage tribes of America, their atempts to in- 
 corporate with them have been always fruitless, and 
 often fatal to the natives. Impatient of restraint, 
 and disdaining labour as a mark of servility, they 
 either abandoned their original seats, and sought 
 for independence in mountains and forests inacces- 
 sible to their oppressers, or perished when reduced 
 to a state repugnant to their ancient ideas and 
 habits. In their district adjacent to Carthagena, to 
 
 I Panama, and to Buenos-Ayres, the desolation is 
 ! more general than even in those parts of Mexico 
 and Peru of which the Spaniards have taken most 
 full possession. 
 
 But the establishments of the Spaniards in the 
 I New World, though fatal to its ancient inhabitants, 
 I were made at a period when that monarchy was ca- 
 pable of forming them to best advantage. By the 
 union of all its petty kingdoms, Spain was become a 
 powerful state, equal to so great an undertaking. Its 
 monarchs, having extended their prerogatives far 
 beyond the limits which once circumscribed the 
 regal power in every kingdom of Europe, were hardly 
 subject to control, either in concerting or in 
 executing their measures. In every wide-ex- 
 tended empire, the form of government must be 
 simple, and the sovereign authority such, that its re- 
 solutions may be taken with promptitude, and may 
 pervade the whole with sufficient force. Such was 
 the power of the Spanish monarchs, when they were 
 called to deliberate concerning the mode of establish- 
 ing their dominion over the most remote provinces 
 which had ever been subjected to any European 
 state. In this deliberation, they felt themselves 
 under no constitutional restraint, and that, as inde- 
 pendent masters of their own resolves, they might 
 issue the edicts requisite for modelling the govern- 
 ment of the new colonies by a mere act of preroga- 
 tive. 
 
 This early interposition of the Spanish crown, in 
 order to regulate the policy and trade of its colonies, 
 is a peculiarity which distinguishes their progress from 
 that of the colonies of any other European nation. 
 When the Portuguese, the English, and French 
 took possession of the regions in American which 
 they now occupy, the advantages which these pro- 
 mised to yield were so remote and uncertain, that 
 their colonies were suffered to struggle through u 
 hard infancy, almost without guidance or protection 
 from the parent state. But gold and silver, the first 
 productions of the Spanish settlements in the New 
 World, were more alluring, and immediately at 
 tracted the attention of their monarchs. Though 
 they had contributed little to the discovery, and al- 
 most nothing lo the conquest, of the New World, 
 they instantly assumed the function of its legisla- 
 tors ; and having acquired a species of dominion 
 formerly unknown, they formed a plan for exercising 
 it, to which nothing similar occurs in the history of 
 human affairs. 
 
 The fundamental maxim of Spanish jurisprudence, 
 with respect to America, is to consider what has been 
 acquired there as vested in the crown, rather than in 
 the state. By the bull of Alexander VI., on which, 
 as its great charter, Spain founded its right, all the 
 regions that had been or should be discove.ied were 
 bestowed as a free gift upon Ferdinand and Isabella. 
 They and their successors were uniformly held to b e 
 the universal proprietors of the vast territories 
 which the arms of their subjects conquered in the 
 New World. From them all grants of land th ere 
 flowed, and to them they finally "returned. The lead- 
 ers who conducted the various expeditions, the go- 
 vernors who presided over the different colonies, the 
 officers of justice, and the ministers of religion, 
 were all appointed by their authority, and removable 
 at their pleasure. The people who composed 
 infant settlements were entitled to no privileges 
 independent of the sovereign, or that served as a 
 barrier against the power of the crown. It is true, 
 that when towns were built, and formed into bodies 
 corporate, the citizens were permitted to elect their 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 183 
 
 o\vn magistrates, who governed them by laws which 
 the community enacted. Even iu the most despotic 
 .states this fee. hie spark of liberty is not extinguished. 
 But, iu the cities of Spanish America, this jurisdic- 
 tion is merely municipal, and is confined to the regu- 
 lation of their own interior commerce and police. 
 In whatever relates to public government, and "the 
 gencarl interest, the will of the sovereign is law. 
 No political power originates from the people. 
 All centres in the crown, and in the olhcers of its 
 nomination. 
 
 When the conquests of the Spaniards in America 
 were completed, their mnnarehs, informing the plan 
 (if internal policy lor their new dominions, divided 
 them into two immen.se governments, one subject 
 to the viceroy of New Spain, the other to the viceroy 
 of Peru. The jurisdiction of the former extended 
 over all the provinces belonging to Spain in the 
 northern division of the American continent. Un- 
 der that of the latter, was comprehended whatever 
 she possessed in South America. This arrange- 
 ment, which, from the beginning was attended with 
 many inconveniences, became intolerable when the 
 remote provinces of each viceroyalty began to im- 
 prove in industry and population* The people com- 
 plained of their subjection to a superior, whose place 
 of residence was so distant, or so inaccessible, as 
 almost .excluded them from any intercourse with the 
 seat of government. The authority of (lie viceroy 
 over disti iits so far removed from his own e\ e and 
 observation, was unavoidably both feeble and ill 
 directed. As a remedy for those evils, a third vice- 
 royalty has been established in the present cen- 
 tury, at Santa Fe de Bogota, the capital of 
 the new kingdom of (Jranada, the jurisdiction of 
 which extends over the whole kingdom of Tierra 
 Firine and the province of Quito. Those viceroys not 
 only represent the person of their sovereign, but 
 possess his regal prerogatives within the precincts 
 of their own governments in their utmost extent. 
 Like him, they exercise supreme authority in every 
 department of government, civil, military, and cri- 
 minal. They have the sole right of nominating 
 the persons who hold many ottices of the highest 
 importance, and the occasional privilege of supply- 
 ing those which when they become vacant by death 
 are in the royal gift, until the successor by the king 
 shall arrive. The external pomp of their govern- 
 ment is suited to its real dignity and power. Their 
 courts are formed upon the model of that at Madrid 
 with horse and foot guards, a household regularly 
 established, numerous attendants, and ensigns of 
 command, displaying such imigni licence as hardly 
 retains the appearance of delegated authority. 
 
 But as the viceroys cannot discharge in person 
 the functions of a supreme magistrate in every part 
 of their extensive jurisdiction, they are aided in their 
 government by officers and tribunals similar to those 
 i-u Spain. The conduct of civil affairs in the various 
 provinces and districts, into which the Spanish do- 
 minions in Ainerica are divided, is committed to 
 magistrates of various orders and denominations ; 
 some appointed by the king, others by the viceroy, 
 but all subject to the command of the latter, and 
 amenable to his jurisdiction. The administration 
 of justice is vested in tribunals, known by the name 
 of audiences, and formed upon the model of the 
 court of chancery in Spain. These are eleven in 
 number, and dispense justice to as many districts, 
 into which the Spanish dominions in America are 
 divided (170). The number of judges in the court of 
 audience is various, according to the extent and im- 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA, No. -24. 
 
 portance of their jurisdiction. The station is no 
 less honourable than lucrative, and is commonly 
 tilled by persons of such abilities and merit as 
 | render this tribunal extremely respectable. Both 
 civil and criminal causes come under their cogni- 
 zance, and for each peculiar judges are set apart. 
 Though it is only in the most despotic governments 
 that the sovereign exercises in person the formidable 
 prerogative of administering justice to his subjects, 
 and in absolving, or condemning, consults no law 
 but what is deposited in his own breast ; though, in 
 all the monarchies of Europe, judicial authority is 
 committed to magistrates, whose decisions are regu- 
 lated by known laws and established forms; the 
 Spanish viceroys have often attempted to intrude 
 themselves into the seat of justice, and, with an am- 
 bition which their distance from the control of a 
 superior rendered bold, have aspired at a power 
 which their master does not venture to assume. In 
 order to cheek an usurpation which must have an- 
 nihilated justice and security in the Spanish colonies, 
 by subjecting the lives anil property of all to the 
 will of a single man, the viceroys have been prohi- 
 bited, in the most explicit terms, by repeated laws, 
 from interfering in the judicial proceedings of the 
 courts of audience, or from delivering an opinion, or 
 giving a vnii e, with respect to any point litigated 
 before them. In some particular cases, in which 
 any question of civil right is involved, even the po- 
 litical regulations of the viceroy may be brought 
 Tinder the review of the court of audience, which iu 
 those instances may be deemed an intermediate 
 power placed between him and the people, as a con- 
 stitutional barrier to circumscribe his jurisdiction. 
 But as legal restraints on a person who represents 
 the sovereign, and is clothed with his authority, are 
 little suited to the genius of Spanish policy; the he- 
 sitation and reserve with which it confers this 
 power on the courts of audience are remarkable. 
 They may advise, they may remonstrate; but, in 
 the event of a direct collision between their opinion 
 and the will of the viceroy, what he determines must 
 be carried into execution, and nothing remains for 
 them, but to lay the matter before the king and the 
 council of the indies But to be entitled to remon- 
 strate, and inform against a person before whom all 
 others must be silent, and tamely submit to his de 
 crees, is a privilege which adds dignity to the courts 
 of audience. This is further augmented by another 
 circumstance. Upon the death of a viceroy, with- 
 out any provision of a successor by the king, tin; 
 supreme power is vested in the court of audience 
 resident in the capital of the viceroyalty; and the 
 senior judge, assisted by his brethren, exercises all 
 the functions of the viceroy while the office conti- 
 nues vacant. In matters which come under the 
 cognizance of the audiences, in the course of their 
 ordinary jurisdiction, as courts of justice, their sen, 
 tenc.es are final in every litigation concerning pro 
 perty of less value than six thousand pesos ; hut 
 when the subject in dispute exceeds that sum, their 
 decisions are subject to review, and may be carried 
 by appeal before the royal council of the Indies. 
 
 In this council, one of the most considerable in 
 the monarchy for dignity and power, is vested the 
 supreme government of all the Spanish dominions 
 in America. It was first established by Ferdinand, 
 in the year 1511, and brought into a more perfect 
 form by Charles V., in the year 1524, Its jurisdic- 
 tion extends to eveiy department; ecclesiastical, 
 civil, military, and commercial All laws and ordi- 
 nances relative to the government and police of the 
 
 2 B 
 
186 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 colonies originate there, and must be approved of by 
 two-thirds of the members before they are issued in 
 the name of the king. All the offices, of which the 
 nomination is reserved to the crown, are conferred 
 iu this council. To it each person employed in 
 America, from the viceroy downwards, is account- 
 able. It reviews their conduct, rewards their ser- 
 vices, and inflicts the punishments due to their mal- 
 versations. Before it is laid whatever intelligence, 
 cither public or secret, is received from America ; 
 and every scheme of improving the administration, 
 the police, or the commerce of the colonies, is sub- 
 mitted to its consideration. From the first institu- 
 tion of the council of the Indies, it has been the 
 constant object of the Catholic monarchs to main- 
 tain its authority, and to make such additions from 
 time to time, both to its power and its splendour, as 
 might render it formidable to all their subjects in 
 the New World. Whatever degree of public order 
 and virtue still remains in that country, where so 
 many circumstances conspire to relax the former, 
 and to corrupt the latter, may be ascribed, in a great 
 measure, to the wise regulations and vigilant inspec- 
 tion of this respectable tribunal. 
 
 As the king is supposed to be always present in 
 his council of the Indies, its meetings arc held in 
 the place where he resides. Another tribunal has 
 been instituted, in order to regulate such commer- 
 cial affairs as required the immediate and personal 
 inspection of those appointed to superintend them. 
 This is culled Caxa de la Cuntratucion, or the house 
 of trade, and was established in Seville, the port to 
 which commerce with the New World was confined, 
 as early as the year 1501. It may be considered 
 both as a board of trade, and as a court, of judicature. 
 In the former capacity, it takes cognizance of what- 
 ever relates to the intercourse of Spain with Ame- 
 rica, it regulates what commodities should be ex- 
 ported thither, and has the inspection of such as are 
 received in return. It decides concerning the de- 
 parture of the fleets for the West Indies, the freight 
 and burden of the ships, their equipment and desti- 
 nation. In the latter capacity, it judges with respect 
 to every question, civil, commercial, or criminal, 
 arising in consequence of the transactions of Spain 
 with America; and in both these departments its 
 decisions are exempted from the review of any court 
 but that of the council of the Indies. 
 
 Such is the great outline of that system of govern- 
 ment which Spain has established in her American 
 colonies. To enumerate the various subordinate 
 boards and offices employed in the administration of 
 justice, in collecting the public revenue, and in re- 
 gulating the interior police of the country ; to de- 
 scribe their different functions, and to inquire into 
 the mode and effect of their operations, would prove 
 a detail no less intricate than minute and uninter- 
 esting. 
 
 The first object of the Spanish monarch was to 
 secure the productions of the colonies to the parent- 
 state, by an absolute prohibition of any intercourse 
 with foreign nations. They took possession of Ame- 
 rica by right of conquest, and conscious not only of 
 the feebleness of their infant settlements, but aware 
 of the difficulty in establishing their dominion over 
 regions so extensive, or in retaining so many reluct- 
 ant nations under the yoke, they dreaded the intru- 
 tion of strangers; they even shunned their inspec- 
 tion, and endeavoured to keep them at a distance 
 from their coasts. This spirit of jealousy and ex- 
 clusion, which at. first was natural, and perhaps nc- 
 pessary, augmented as their possessions in America 
 
 extended, und the value of them came to be more 
 fully understood. In consequence of it, a system 
 of colonizing was introduced, to which there had 
 hitherto been nothing simiiyr among mankind. Jn 
 the ancient world, it was not uncommon to M nd 
 forth colonies. But they were of two kinds only. 
 They were cither migrations, which served to dis- 
 burden a state of its superfluous subjects, when they 
 multiplied too last for the territory which they occu- 
 pied ; or, the\ were military detachments, stationed 
 as garrisons in a conquered province. The colonies 
 <.if some, (ireek republics, and the swarms of northern 
 barbarians which settled in different parts of Europe, 
 were of the first species. The Roman colonies wen; 
 of the second. In the former, the connexion with the 
 mother-country quickly ceased, and they became 
 independent states. In the latter, as the disjunction 
 was not complete, the dependence continued. In 
 their American settlements, the Spanish monarchs 
 took what was peculiarly to each, and studied to 
 unite them. By sending colonies to regions so re- 
 mote, by establishing in each a fonn of interior 
 policy and administration, under distinct governors, 
 and with peculiar laws, they disjoined them from 
 the mother-country. By retaining in their own 
 hands the rights of legislation, as well as that of 
 imposing taxes, together with the power of nominat- 
 ing the persons who filled exery department of ex- 
 ecutive government, civil or military, they secured 
 their dependence upon the parent-state. Happily 
 for Spain, the situation of her colonies was such as 
 rendered it possible to reduce this new idea into 
 practice. Almost all the countries which she had 
 discovered and occupied, lay within the tropics. 
 The productions of that, large portion of the globe 
 are different from those of Europe, even in its most 
 southern provinces. The qualities of the climate 
 and of the soil naturally turn the industry of such 
 as settle there into new channels. When the Spa- 
 niards first took possession of their dominions in 
 America, the precious metals which they yielded 
 Avere the only object that attracted their attention. 
 Even when their efforts began to take a better di- 
 rection, they employed themselves almost wholly 
 in rearing such peculiar productions of the climate 
 as, from their rarity or value, were of chief demand 
 in the mother-country. Allured by vast prospects 
 of immediate wealth, they disdained to waste their 
 industry on what was less lucrative, but of superior 
 moment. In order to render it impossible to correct 
 this error, and to prevent them from making any 
 efforts in industry which might interfere with those 
 of the mother-country, the establishment of several 
 species of manufactuics, and even the culture of the 
 vine, or olive, are prohibited in the Spanish colo- 
 nies (171), under severe penalties. They must 
 trust entirely to the mother-country for the objects 
 of primary necessity. Their clothes, their furniture, 
 their instruments of labour, their luxuries, and even 
 a considerable part of the provisions which they 
 consume, were imported from Spain. During a 
 great part of the sixteenth century, Spain, possess- 
 ing an extensive commerce and nourishing manufac- 
 tures, could supply with ease the growing demands 
 of her colonies from her own stores. The produce 
 | of their mines and plantations was given in cx- 
 I change for these. But all that the colonies received, 
 j as well as all that they gave, was conveyed in Spa- 
 i nish bottoms. No ve'ssel belonging- to the colonies 
 was ever permitted to carry the commodities of .Ame- 
 rica to Europe. Even the commercial intercourse 
 . of one colony with another was either absolutely 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA 
 
 187 
 
 Prohibited, or limited by many jealous restrictions 
 All that America yields Hows into the ports of Spain : 
 all that it consumes must issue from them. No fo- 
 reigner can enter its colonies without express per- 
 mission ; no vessel of any foreign nation is i -eceived 
 into their harbours ; and the pains of death, with 
 confiscation of movables, are denounced againet 
 every inhabitant who presumes to trade with them. 
 Thus the colonies are kept in a state of perpetual 
 pupilage ; and by the introduction of this commer- 
 cial dependence, a refinement in policy of which 
 Spain set the first example to European nations, 
 the supremacy of the parent state hath been main- 
 tained over remote colonies during two centuries and 
 a half. 
 
 Such are the capital maxims to which the Spanish 
 monarchs seem to have attended in forming their new 
 settlements in America. But they could not plant 
 with the same rapidity that they had destroyed; 
 and from many concurring causes, their progress 
 has been extremely slow in filling up the immense 
 void which their devastations had occasioned. As 
 soon as the rage for discovery and adventure began 
 to abate, the Spaniards opened their eyes to dangers 
 and distress which at first they did not perceive, or 
 had despised. The numerous hardships with which 
 the members of infant colonies have to struggle; the 
 <ii cases of unwholesome climates fatal to the con- 
 stitution of Europeans; the difficulty of bringing a 
 country covered with forests into culture ; the want 
 of hands necessary for labour in some provinces, 
 and the slow reward of industry in all, unless where 
 the accidental discovery of mini's enriched a few for- 
 tunate adventures, were evils universally felt and 
 magnified. Discouraged by the view of these, the 
 spirit of migration was so much damped, that sixty 
 years after the discovery of the New World the 
 number of Spaniards in all its provinces is com- 
 puted not to have exceeded fifteen thousand (172). 
 The mode in which property was distributed in 
 the Spanish colonies, and the regulations established 
 with respect to the transmission of it, whether by 
 descent or by sale, were extremely unfavourable to 
 population. In order to promote a rapid increase 
 of people in any new settlement, property in land 
 ought to be divided into small snares, and the alie- 
 nation of it should be rendered extremely easy. But 
 the rapaciousness of the Spanish conquerors of the. 
 New World, paid no regard to this fundamental 
 maxim of policy; and, as they possessed power which 
 enabled them to gratify the utmost extravagance of 
 their wishes, many seized districts of great extent, 
 and held them as encomiendas. By degrees they ob- 
 tained the privilege of converting a part of these 
 into Mayorasyos, a species of fief, introduced into 
 the Spanish system of feudal jurisprudence, which 
 can neither be divided nor alienated. Thus a great 
 portion of landed property, under this rigid form of 
 entail, is withheld from circulation, and descends 
 from father to son unimproved, and of little value 
 either to the proprietor or to the community. In 
 the account which I have given of the reduction of 
 Peru, various examples occur of enormous tracts of 
 country occupied by some of the conquerors. The 
 excesses in other provinces were similar; for, as the ' 
 value -of the lands which the Spaniards acquired; 
 was originally estimated according to the number 
 of Indians which lived upon them, America was in i 
 general so thinly peopled, that only districts of: 
 great extent could afford such a number of labour- 
 ers as might be employed in the mines with any 
 prospect of considerable gain. The pernicious effects 
 
 of those radical errors in the distribution and nature 
 of property in the Spanish settlements, are felt 
 through every department of industry, and may be 
 considered as one great cause of a progress in po- 
 pulation so much slower than that which has taken 
 place in better constituted colonies (173). 
 
 To this we may add, that the support of the enor 
 mous and expensive fabric of their ecclesiastical esta. 
 blishmeut has been a burden on the Spanish colo 
 nies, which has greatly retarded the progress of 
 population and industry. The payment of tithes is 
 a heavy tax on industry ; and if the exaction of them, 
 be not regulated and circumscribed by the wisdom 
 of the civil magistrate, it becomes intolerable and 
 ruinous. But, instead of any restraint on the claims 
 of ecclesiastics, the inconsiderate zeal of the Spanish 
 legislators, admitted them into America in their full 
 extent,. and at once imposed on their infant colonies 
 a burden which is in no slight degree oppressive to 
 society, even in its most improved state. As early 
 as the year 1501, the payment of tithes in the colo- 
 nies was enjoined, and the mode of it regulated by 
 law. Every article of primary necessity, towards 
 which the attention of new settlers must naturally 
 be turned, is subjected to that grievous exaction. 
 Nor were the demands of the clergy confined to ar- 
 ticles of simple and easy culture. Its more artificial 
 and opc-rose productions, such as sugar, indigo, and 
 cochineal, were soon declared to be titheable ; and 
 thus the industry of the planter was taxed in every 
 stage of its progress, from its rudest essay to its 
 highest improvement. To the weight of this legal 
 imposition, the bigotry of the American Spaniards 
 has made many voluntary additions. From their 
 fond delight in the external pomp and parade of re- 
 ligion, and from superstitious reverence for ecclesi- 
 astics of every denomination, they have bestowed 
 profuse donatives on churches and monasteries, and 
 have unprofitably wasted a large proportion of that 
 wealth, which might have nourished and given 
 'gour to productive labour in growing colonies. 
 But so fertile and inviting arc the regions of Ame- 
 rica, which the Spaniards have occupied, that, not- 
 withstanding all the circumstances which have 
 checked and retarded population, it has gradually 
 ncreased, and filled the colonies of Spain with citi- 
 zens of various orders. Among these, the Spaniards 
 who arrive from Europe, distinguished by the name 
 of Chapetones, are the first in rank and power, 
 From the jealous attention of the Spanish court to 
 secure the dependence of the colonies on the parent 
 state, all departments of consequence are filled by 
 persons sent from Europe ; and in order to prevent 
 any of dubious fidelity from being employed, each 
 must bring proof of a clear descent from a family 
 of Old Christians, untainted with any mixture of 
 Jewish or Mahometan blood, and never disgraced 
 by any censure of the inquisition. In such pure 
 hands power is deemed to be safely lodged, and al- 
 most every function, from the viceroyalty down- 
 wards, is committed to them alone. Every person, 
 who, by his birth or residence in America, may be 
 suspected of any attachment or interest adverse to 
 the mother-countiy, is the object of distrust to such 
 a degree, as amounts nearly to an exclusion from all 
 oflices of confidence or authority (174). By this con- 
 spicuous predilection of the court, the Chapetones are 
 raised to such pre-eminence in America, that they 
 look down with disdain on every other order of men. 
 The character and state of the Creoles, or descend- 
 ants of Europeans settled in America, the second 
 class of subjects in the Spanish colonies, have 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 enabled the Chapetones to acquire other advantages, 
 hardly less considerable than those which they de- 
 rive from the partial favour of government. Though 
 some of the Creolian race are descended from the 
 conquerors of the New World; though others can 
 trace up their pedigree to the noblest families in 
 Spain; though many are possessed of ample for- 
 tunes : yet, by the enervating influence of a sultry 
 climate, by the rigour of a jealous government, and 
 by their despair of attaining that distinction to \vhich 
 mankind naturally aspire, the vigour of their minds 
 is so entirely broken, that a great part of them 
 waste life in luxurious indulgences, mingled with an 
 illiberal superstition still more debasing. 
 
 Languid and unenterprising, the operations of an 
 active extended commerce would be to them so 
 cumbersome and oppressive, that in almost every 
 part of America they decline engaging in it. The 
 interior traffic of every colony, as well as any trade 
 which is permitted with the neighbouring provinces, 
 and with Spain itself, is carried on chielly by the 
 Chapetones; who, as the recompence of their in- 
 dustry, amass immense wealth, while the Creoles, 
 sunk in sloth, are satisfied with the revenues of their 
 paternal estates. 
 
 From this stated competition for power and wealth 
 between those two orders of citizens, and the various 
 passions excited by a rivalship so interesting, their 
 hatred is violent and implacable. On every occa- 
 sion, symptoms of this aversion break out, and the 
 common appellations which each bestows on the 
 other are as contemptuous as those which flow 
 from the most deep-rooted national antipathy. The 
 court of Spain, from a refinement of distrustful po- 
 licy, cherishes those seeds of discord, and foments 
 this mutual jealousy, which not only prevents the 
 two most powerful classes of its subjects in the New 
 World from combining against the parent state, but 
 prompts each, with the most vigilant zeal, to observe 
 the motions and to counteract the schemes of the 
 other. 
 
 . The third class of inhabitants in the Spanish co- 
 lonies is a mixed race, the offspring either of a 
 European and a negro, or a European and Indian, 
 the former called Mulattos, the latter Mestizo*. As 
 the court of Spain, solicitous to incorporate its new 
 vassals with its ancient subjects, early encouraged 
 the Spaniards settled in America to marry the na- 
 tives of that country, several alliances of this kind 
 were formed in their infant colonies. But it has 
 been more owing to licentious indulgence, than to 
 compliance with this injunction of their sovereigns, 
 that this mixed breed has multiplied so greatly, as to 
 constitute a considerable part of the population in 
 all the Spanish settlements. The several stages of 
 descent in this race, and the gradual variations of 
 shade, until tho African black or the copper colour 
 of America brighten into European complexion, are 
 accurately marked by the Spaniards, and each dis- 
 tinguished by a peculiar name. Those of the first 
 and second generations are considered and treated 
 as mere Indians and negroes; but, in the third de- 
 scent, the characteristic hue of the former disappear; 
 and in the fifth, the deeper tint of the latter is so 
 entirely effaced, that they can no longer be distin- 
 guished from Europeans, and become entitled to all 
 their privileges. It is chiefly by this mixed race, 
 whose frame is so remarkably robust and hardy, that 
 the mechanic arts are carried on in the Spanish set- 
 tlements, and other actwe functions in Society are 
 discharged, which the two higher classes of citizen*, 
 from pride or from indolence, disdain to exercise. 
 
 The negroes hold the fourth rank anu.iii the inha- 
 bitants of the Spanish colonies. The iiitn/tiu tion 
 f that unhappy part of the human species into 
 America, together with their services and suHV-rin 
 there, shall be fully explained in another place; 
 here they are mentioned chiefly in order to point out 
 a peculiarity in their situation under the Spanish 
 lominion. In several of their settlements, particu- 
 larly in new Spain, negroes are mostly employed in 
 domestic service. They form a principal part in the 
 train of luxury, and are cherished and caressed by 
 their superiors, to whose vanity and pleasures they 
 are equally .subservient. Their dress and appear- 
 ance are hardly less splendid than that of their 
 masters, whose manners they imitate, and whoso 
 passions they imbibe. Elevated by this distinction, 
 they have assumed such a tone 01 superiority over 
 the Indians, arid treat them with such insolence and 
 scorn, that the antipathy between the two races has 
 become implacable. Even in I'eru, where negroes 
 seem to be more numerous, and are employed in 
 field-work, as well as domestic service, they main- 
 tain their ascendant over the Indians, and the mu- 
 tual hatred of one to the other subsists with equal 
 violence. The laws have industriously fomented 
 this aversion, to which accident gave rise, and, by 
 most rigorous injunctions, have endeavoured to 
 prevent every intercourse that might form a bond of 
 union between the two races. Thus, by an artful 
 policy, the Spaniards derive strength from that cir- 
 cumstance in population, which is the weakness of 
 other European colonies, and have secured, as asso- 
 ciates and defenders, those very persons who else- 
 where are objects of jealousy and terror. 
 
 The Indians form the last and the most depressed 
 order of men in the country which belonged to their 
 ancestors. I have already traced the progress of 
 the Spanish ideas with respect to the condition and 
 treatment of that people; and have mentioned the 
 most important of their more early regulations, con- 
 cerning a matter of so much consequence in the ad- 
 ministration of their new dominions. But since the 
 period to which I have brought down the history of 
 America, the information and experience acquired 
 during two centuries, have enabled the court of Spain 
 to make such improvements in this part of its Ame- 
 rican system, that a short view of the present con- 
 dition of the Indians may prove both curious and 
 interesting. 
 
 By the famous regulations of Charles V. in 1542, 
 which have been so often mentioned, the high lire- 
 tensions of the conquerors of the New World, who 
 considered its inhabitants as slaves, to whose service 
 they had acquired a full right of property, were 
 finally abrogated. From that period, the Indians 
 have been reputed freemen, and entitled to the pri- 
 vileges of subjects. When admitted into this rank, 
 it was deemed just that they should contribute 
 towards the support and improvement of the society 
 which had adopted them as members. But, as no 
 considerable benefit could be expected from the vo- 
 luntary efforts of men unacquainted with regular 
 industry, and averse to labour, the court of Spain 
 found it necessary to fix and secure, by proper regu- 
 lations, what it thought reasonable to exact from 
 them. With this view, an annual tax was imposed 
 upon every male from the age of eighteen to fifty ; 
 and, at the same time, the nature as well as the ex- 
 tent of the services which they might be required to 
 perform, was ascertained with precision. This tribute 
 varies in different provinces ; but, if we take that 
 paid in New Spain as a medium, its annual amount 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMETUCA. 
 
 189 
 
 is nearly four shillings a head ; no exhoii/itaiit turn 
 in countries where, as at the source of wealth, the 
 value of money is extremely low ( 175). Tlie right of 
 levying this tribute likewise varies. In America, 
 every Indian is either an immediate vassal of the 
 crou n. or depends upon some subject to whom the 
 district -in which he resides has been granted for a 
 limited time, under the denomination of an cnroint- 
 cndti. In the former case, about three-fourths of the 
 tax is paid into the royal treasury; in the latter, 
 the same proportion of it belongs to the holder of 
 the grant. When Spain first took possession of 
 America, the greater part of it was parcelled out 
 among its conquerors, or those who first settled 
 there, and but a small portion reserved for the 
 crown. As those grants, which were made for two 
 lives only (1 76) reverted successively to the sovereign, 
 he had it in his power either to diffuse his favours 
 by grants to new proprietors, or to augment his own 
 revenue by valuable annexations. Of these, the 
 latter has been frequently chosen; the number of 
 Indians now depending immediately on the crown 
 is much greater than in the lirst stage after the con- 
 quest, and this branch of the renal ie\cnue continues 
 to extend. 
 
 The benefit arising from the services of the In- 
 dians, accrues either to the crown, or to the holder of 
 the t-iictunii itiht, according to the same rule observed 
 in the payment of tribute. Those services, however, 
 which can now be legally exacted, are very different 
 from the tasks originally imposed upon the Indians. 
 The nature of the work which they must, perform is 
 defined, and an equitable recompence is granted for 
 their labour. The stated services demanded of the 
 Indians may be divided into two branches. They 
 are either employed in works of primary necessity, 
 without which society cannot subsist comfortably, or 
 are compelled to labour in the mines, from which 
 the Spanish colonies derive their chief value and 
 importance. In consequence of the former, they 
 are obliged to assist in the culture of maize, and 
 other grain of necessary consumption; in tending 
 cattle ; in erecting edifices of public utility ; in 
 building bridges; and in forming high roads; but 
 they cannot be constrained to labour in raising vines, 
 olives, and sugar-canes, or any species of cultivation 
 which has for its object the gratification of luxury, 
 or commercial profit. In consequence of the latter, 
 the Indians are compelled to undertake the more 
 unpleasant task of extracting ore from the bowels of 
 the earth, and of refining it by successive processes, 
 no less unwholesome than operose (177). 
 
 The mode of exacting both these services is the 
 same, and is \mder regulations framed with a view 
 of rendering it as little oppressive as possible to the 
 Indians. They are called out successively in di- 
 visions, termed Mitas, and no person can be com- 
 pelled to go but in his turn. In Peru, the number 
 called out must not exceed the seventh part of the 
 inhabitants in any district. In New Spain, where 
 the Indians are more numerous, it is fixed at four in 
 the hundred. During what time the labour of such 
 Indians are employed in agriculture continues, I 
 have not been able to learn (178). But in Peru, each 
 mila, or division, destined for the mines, remains 
 there six months ; and while engaged in this service, 
 a labourer never receives less than two shillings a 
 day, and often earns more than double that sum. 
 No Indian, residing at a greater distance than thirty 
 miles from a mine, is included in the mita or divi- 
 sion employed in working it ; nor are the inhabitants 
 of the low country exposed now to certain destruc- 
 
 n, as they were at first, when under the dominion 
 of the conquerors, by compelling them to remove 
 from that warm climate, to the cold elevated regions 
 when- minerals abound (17 ( J). 
 
 The Indians who live in the principal towns, are 
 entirely subject to the Spanish laws and magistrates; 
 but in their own villiages they are governed by ca- 
 ziques, some of whom are the descendants of their 
 ancient lords, others are named by the Spanish vice- 
 roys. These regulate the petty ali'airs of the people 
 under them, according to maxims of justice trans- 
 mitted to them by tradition from their ancestors. To 
 the Indians, this jurisdiction, lodged in such friendly 
 hands, affords some consolation ; and so little for- 
 midable is this dignity to their new masters, that they 
 often allow it to descend by hereditary right. For 
 the further relief of men so much exposed" to oppres- 
 sion, the Spanish court has appointed an officer in 
 every district with the title of Protector of the In- 
 dians. It is his function, as the name implies, to 
 assert the rights of the Indians 1 ; to appear as their 
 defender in the courts of justice; and, by the inter- 
 position of his authority, to set bounds to the en- 
 croachments and exactions of his countrymen. A 
 certain portion of the reserved fourth of the annual 
 tribute is destined for the salary of the caziques and 
 protectors ; another is applied to the maintenance of 
 the clergy employed in the instruction of the In- 
 dians. Another part seems to be appropriated for the 
 benefit of the Indians themselves, and is applied for 
 the payment of their tribute in years of famine, or 
 when a particular district is affected by any extraor- 
 dinary local calamity. Besides this, provision is 
 made by various laws, that hospitals shall be found- 
 ed in every new settlement for the reception of In- 
 dians Such hospitals have, accordingly, been 
 erected, both for the indigent and infirm, in Lima, 
 in Cuzco, and in Mexico, where the Indians are 
 treated with tenderness and humanity. 
 
 Such are the leading principles in the jurispru- 
 dence and policy by which the Indians are now go- 
 verned in the provinces belonging to Spain. lu 
 those regulations of the Spanish monarchs, we dis- 
 cover no traces of that cruel system of extermina- 
 tion, which they have been charged with adopting; 
 and if we admit that the necessity of securing sub- 
 sistence for their colonies, or the advantages derived 
 from working the mines, give them a right to avail 
 themselves of the labour of the Indians, we must 
 allow, that the attention with which they regulate 
 and recompense that labour, is provident and saga- 
 cious. In no code of laws is greater solicitude dis- 
 played, or precautions multiplied with more prudent 
 concern, for the preservation, the security, and the 
 happiness of the subject, than we discover in the col- 
 lection of the Spanish laws for the Indies. But those 
 Litter regulations, like the more early edicts which 
 have been already mentioned, have too often proved 
 ineffectual remedies against the evils which they 
 were intended to prevent. In every age, if the same 
 causes continue to operate, the same effects must 
 follow. From the immence distance between the 
 power intrusted with the execution of laws, and that 
 by whose authority they are enacted, the vigour even 
 of the most absolute government must relax, and 
 the dread of a superior, too remote to observe with 
 accuracy, or to punish with dispatch, must insensi- 
 bly aba.te. Notwithstanding the numerous injunc- 
 tions of the Spanish monarch, the Indians still suffer, 
 on many occasions, both from the avarice of indi- 
 viduals, and from the exactions of the magistrates 
 who ought t> have protected them; unreasonable 
 
190 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 tasks are imposed; the term of their labour is pro 
 longed beyond the period fixed by law, and the 
 groan under many of the insults and wrongs whict 
 arc (he lot of a dependent people(lSO). From sonic in 
 formation on which I can depend, such oppressior 
 abounds more in Peru than in any other colony 
 Bui. it is not general. According to the account 
 even of those authors who arc most disposed to ex 
 aggerate, the sufferings of the Indians, I hey in severa 
 provinces enjoy not only ease but aril nonce ; the 
 possess large farms; they are masters oi' numeiou 
 herds and flocks ; and, by the knowledge which the; 
 have acquired of European arts and industry, ar 
 supplied not only with the necessaries, but with many 
 luxuries of life. 
 
 After- explaining the form of civil government in 
 the Spanish colonies, and the state of the varioui 
 orders of persons subject to it, the peculiarities ii 
 their ecclesiastical constitution merit consideration 
 Notwithstanding the superstitious veneration with 
 which the Spaniards are devoted to the holy see, th 
 vigilant and jealous policy of Ferdinand early 
 prompted him to take precautions against the intro- 
 duction of the papal dominion in America. With thi 
 view, he solicited Alexander VI. for a grant to th< 
 crown, of the tithes in all the newly discoveret 
 countries, which he obtained, on condition of his 
 making provision for the religious instruction of th< 
 natives. Soon after, Julius II. conferred on him 
 and his successors, the right of patronage and the 
 absolute disposal of airecclesiastical benefices there 
 But these pontiffs, unacquainted with the value o: 
 what he demanded, bestowed those donations with 
 an inconsiderate liberality, which their successors 
 have often lamented and wished to recall. In con- 
 sequence of those grants, the Spanish monarchs 
 have become in effect, the heads of the American 
 church. In them the administration of its revenues 
 is vested. Their nomination of persons to supply 
 vacant benefices is instanly confirmed by the pope. 
 Thus, in all Spanish America, authority of every 
 species centres in the crown. There no collision is 
 known between spiritual and temporal jurisdiction. 
 The king is the only superior, his name alone is 
 heard of, and no dependence upon any foreign 
 power has been introduced. Papal bulls cannot be 
 admitted into America, nor are they of any force 
 there, until they have been previously examined and 
 approved of by the royal council of the Indies ; 
 and if any bull should be surreptitiously introduced 
 and circulated in America without obtaining that 
 approbation, ecclesiastics are required not only to 
 prevent it from taking effect, but to seize all the co- 
 pies of it, and transmit them to the council of the 
 Indies. To this limitation of the papal jurisdiction, 
 equally singular whether we consider the age and na- 
 tion in which it was devised, or the jealous attention 
 with which Ferdinand and his successors have stu- 
 died to maintain it in full force, Spain is indebted, 
 in a great measure, for the uniform tranquillity which 
 has reigned in her American dominions. 
 
 The hierarchy is established in America in the 
 same form as in Spain, with its full train of arch- 
 bishops, bishops, deans, and other dignitaries. The 
 inferior clergy are divided into three classes, under 
 the denomination of Curas, Dovtrineros, and M/ssion- 
 eros. The first are parish priests in those parts of 
 the country where the Spaniards have settled. The 
 second have the charge of such districts as arc inha- 
 bited by Indians subjected to the Spanish govern- 
 ment, and living nnder its protection. The third are 
 employed in instructing and converting those fiercer 
 
 tribes, which disdain submission to the Spani.-.h Aoke, 
 and live in remote or inaccessible regions, t<> whirh 
 the Spanish arms have not penetrated. So iiinm-niu- 
 are the ecclesiastics of all those various orders, and 
 such the profuse liberality with which many of thorn 
 are endowed, that the revenues of the church hi 
 America arc immense. The Romish superstition 
 appears with its utmost pomp in the New World. 
 Churches and convents there are magnificent, and 
 richly adorned ; and on high festivals, the display 
 of gold and silver, and precious stones, is such a.s 
 exceeds the conception of a European. An eccle- 
 siastical establishment so splendid and extensive, 
 is unfavourable, as has been formerly observed, to 
 the progress of rising colonies ; but in countries 
 where riches abound, and the people are so delight- 
 ed with parade, that religion must assume it in order 
 to attract their veneration, this propensity to osten- 
 tation has been indulged, and becomes loss perni- 
 cious. 
 
 The early institution of monasteries in the Spa- 
 nish colonies, and the inconsiderate zeal in multi- 
 plying them, have been attended with consequences 
 more fatal. In every new settlement, the first object 
 should be to encourage population, and to incite 
 every citizen to contribute towards augmenting the 
 number and strength of the community. During 
 the youth and vigour of society, while there is room 
 to spread, and sustenance is procured with facility, 
 mankind increase with amazing rapidity. But, the 
 Spaniards had hardly taken posession of America, 
 when, with a most preposterous policy, they began 
 to erect convents, where persons of both sexes were 
 shut up, under a vow to defeat the purpose of nature, 
 and to counteract the first of her laws. Influenced 
 by a misguided piety, which ascribes transcendant 
 merit to a state of celibacy, or allured by the pros- 
 pect of that listless ease which in sultry climates is 
 deemed supreme felicity, numbers crowded into those 
 mansions of sloth and superstition, and are lost to 
 society. As none but persons of Spanish extract 
 are admitted into the monasteries of the New World, 
 the evil is more sensibly felt, and every monk or 
 nun may be considered as an active person with- 
 drawn from civil life. The impropriety of such 
 foundations in any situation, where the extent of 
 territory requires additional hands to improve it, is 
 so obvious, that some catholic states have expressly 
 prohibited any person in their colonies from taking 
 the monastic vows. Even the Spanish monarchs, 
 on some occasions, seem to have been alarmed with 
 the spreading of a spirit so adverse to the increase 
 and prosperity of their colonies, that they have en- 
 deavoured to check it. But the Spaniards in 
 America, more thoroughly under the influence of 
 superstition than their countrymen in Europe, and 
 directed by ecclesiastics more bigoted and illiterate, 
 have conceived such a high opinion of monastic 
 sanctity, that no regulations can restrain their zeal ; 
 and, by the excess of their ill-judged bounty, religi- 
 ous houses have multiplied to a degree no less 
 amazing than pernicious to society (181). 
 
 In viewing the state of colonies, where not only 
 
 he number but influence of ecclesiastics is so great, 
 
 he character of this powerful body is an object that 
 
 merits particular attention. A considerable part of 
 
 he secular clergy in Mexico and Peru are natives 
 
 )f Spain. As persons long accustomed, by their 
 
 education, to the retirement and indolence of aca- 
 
 Icmic life, are more incapable of active enterprise, 
 
 md less disposed to strike into new paths, than any 
 
 rder of men, the ecclesiastical adventurers by whom 
 
 i . 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 tho American church is recruited, are commonly 
 such as, from merit or rank in life, have little pros- 
 pect of success in their own country. Accordingly, 
 the secular priests in the New World are still less 
 distinguished than their brethren in Spain for lite- 
 rary accomplishments of any species ; and though 
 by the ample provision which has been made for the 
 American church, many of its members enjoy the 
 ease and independence which are favourable to the 
 cultivation of science, the body of secular clergy has 
 hardly, during two centuries and a half, produced 
 one author whose works convey such useful informa- 
 tion, or possess such a degree of merit, as to be 
 ranked among those which attract the attention of 
 enlightened nations. But the greatest part of the 
 ecclesiastics in the Spanish settlements are regulars. 
 On the discovery of America, a new field opened to 
 the pious zeal of the monastic orders; and, with a 
 becoming alacrity, they immediately sent forth mis- 
 sionaries to labour in it. The first attempt to instruct 
 and convert the Americans was made by monks ; 
 and as soon as the conquest of any province was 
 completed, and its ecclesiastical establishment began 
 to assume some form, the popes permitted the mis- 
 sionaries of the four mendicant orders, as a reward 
 for their services, to accept of parochial charges in 
 America, to perform all spiritual functions, and to 
 receive the tithes and other emoluments of the bene- 
 fice, without depending on the jurisdiction of the 
 bishop of the diocese, or being subject to his cen- 
 sures. In consequence of this, a new career of use- 
 fulness, as well as new objects of ambition, pre- 
 sented themselves. Whenever a call is made for a 
 fresh supply of missionaries, men of the most ardent 
 and aspiring minds, impatient under the restraint of 
 a cloister, weary of its insipid uniformity, and fa- 
 tigued with the irksome repetition of its frivolous 
 functions, offer their service with eagerness, and 
 repair to the New World in quest of liberty and 
 distinction. Nor do they pursue distinction without 
 success. The highest ecclesiastical honours, as well 
 a -s the most lucrative preferments in Mexico and 
 Pern, are often in the hands of regulars ; and it is 
 chiefly to the monastic orders that the Americans 
 are indebted for any portion of science which is 
 cultivated among them. They are almost the only 
 Spanish ecclesiastics from whom we have received 
 any accounts either of the civil or natural history 
 of the various provinces in America. Some of them, 
 though deeply tinged with the indelible superstition 
 of their profession, have published books which give 
 a favourable idea of their abilities. The natural and 
 moral history of the New World, by the Jesuit 
 Acosta, contains more accurate observations, per- 
 haps, and more sound science, than are to be found 
 in any description of remote countries published in 
 the sixteenth century. 
 
 But the same disgust with monastic life, to which 
 America is indebted for some instructors of worth 
 and abilities, filled it with others of a very different 
 character. The giddy, the profligate, the avaricious, 
 to whom the poverty and rigid discipline of a con- 
 vent are intolerable, consider a mission to America 
 as a release from mortification and bondage. There 
 they soon obtain some parochial charge ; and far 
 removed, by their situation, from the inspection of 
 their monastic superiors, and exempt, by their cha- 
 racter, from the jurisdiction of their diocesan, they 
 are hardly subjected to any controul. According to 
 the testimony of the most zealous catholics, many 
 of the regular clergy in the Spanish settlements are 
 not only destitute of the virtues becoming their pro- 
 
 fession, but regardless of that external decorum and 
 respect for the opinion of mankind, which preserve 
 a semblance of worth where the reality is wanting. 
 Secure of impunity, some regulars, in contempt of 
 their vow of poverty, engage openly in commerce, 
 and are so rapaciouly eager in amassing wealth, 
 that they become the most grievous oppressors of 
 the Indians whom it was their duty to have protect- 
 ed. Others, with no less flagrant violation of their 
 vow of chastity, indulge with little disguise in tho 
 most dissolute licentiousness (182). 
 
 Various schemes have been proposed for redress- 
 ing enormities so manifest and so offensive. Several 
 persons, no less eminent for piety than discernment, 
 have contended, that the regulars, in conformity to 
 the canons of the church, ought to be confined within 
 the walls of their cloisters, and should no longer be 
 permitted to encroach on the functions of the secular 
 clergy. Some public-spirited magistrates, from con- 
 v it-turn of its being necessary to deprive the regulais 
 of a privilege bestowed at first with good intention, 
 but of which time and experience had discovered the 
 pernicious effects, openly countenanced the secular 
 clergy in their attempts to assert their own rights. 
 The Prince D'Esquilache, viceroy of Peru under 
 Phillip III., took measures so decisive and effectual 
 for circumscribing the regulars within their proper 
 sphere, as struck them with general consterna- 
 tion (183). They had recourse to their usual arts. 
 They alarmed the superstitious, by representing the 
 proceedings of the viceroy as innovations fatal to 
 religion. They employed all the refinements of in- 
 trigue, in order to gain persons in power ; and se- 
 conded by the powerful influence of the Jesuits, 
 who claimed and enjoyed all the privileges which 
 belonged to the mendicant orders in America, they 
 made a deep impression on a bigoted prince and a 
 weak ministry. The ancient practice was tolerated. 
 The abuses which it occasioned continued to increase, 
 and the corruption of monks, exempt from the re- 
 straints of discipline, and the inspection of any su- 
 perior, became a disgrace to religion. At last, as 
 the veneration of the Spaniards for the monastic 
 orders began to abate, and the power of the Jesuits 
 was on the decline, Ferdinand VI. ventured to apply 
 the only effectual remedy, by issuing an edict, pro- 
 hibiting regulars of every denomination from taking 
 the charge of any parish with the cure of souls ; and 
 declaring, that on the demise of the present incum- 
 bents, none but secular priests, subject to the juris- 
 diction of their diocesans, shall be presented to 
 vacant benefices. If this regulation is carried into 
 execution with steadiness in any degree proportional 
 to the wisdom with which it is framed, a very con- 
 siderable reformation may take place in the eccle- 
 siastical state of Spanish America, and the secular 
 clergy may gradually become a respectable body of 
 men. The deportment of many ecclesiastics, even 
 at present, seems to be decent and exemplary; 
 otherwise we can hardly suppose that they would be 
 held in such high estimation, and possess such a 
 wonderful ascendant over the minds of their coun- 
 trymen throughout all the Spanish settlements. 
 
 "But whatever merit the Spanish ecclesiastics in 
 America may possess, the success of their endeavours 
 in communicating the knowledc of true religion to 
 the Indians, has been more imperfect than might 
 have been expected, either from the degree of their 
 zeal, or from the dominion which they had acquired 
 over that people. For this, various reasons may be 
 assigned. The first missionaries, in their ardour to 
 make proselytes, admitted the people of America 
 
192 ; 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 into the Christian church, \vithout previous instruc- 
 tion in the doctrines of religion, and even before 
 they themselves had acquired such knowledge in 
 the Indian language, as to be able to explain to the 
 natives the mysteries of faith, or the precepts of 
 duty. Resting upon a subtle distinction in scho- 
 lastic theology, between that degree of assent which 
 is founded on a complete knowledge and conviction 
 of duty, and that which may be yielded when both 
 these are imperfect, they adopted this strange prac- 
 tice, no less inconsistent with the spirit of a religion 
 which addresses itself to the understanding of men, 
 than repugnant to the dictates of reason. As soon 
 as any body of the people, overawed by dread of the 
 Spanish power, moved by the example of their own 
 chiefs, incited by levity, or yielding from mere ig- 
 norance, expressed the slightest desire of embracing 
 the religion of their conquerors, they were instantly 
 baptized. While this rage of conversion continued", 
 a single clergyman baptized in one day above five 
 thousand Mexicans, and did not desist until he was 
 so exhausted by fatigue, that he was unable to lift 
 his hands. In the course of a few years after the 
 reduction of the Mexican empire, the sacrament of 
 baptism was administered to more than four millions. 
 Proselytes adopted with such inconsiderate haste, 
 and who were neither instructed in the nature of the 
 tenets to which it was supposed they had given as- 
 sent, nor taught the absurdity of those which they 
 were required to relinquish, retained their venera- 
 tion for their ancient superstitions in full force, or 
 mingled an attachment to iis doctrines and rites 
 with that slender knowledge of Christianity which 
 they had acquired. These sentiments the new con- 
 verts transmitted to their posterity, into whose minds 
 they have sunk $o deep, that the Spanish ecclesias- 
 tics, with all their industry, have not been able to 
 eradicate them. The religious institutions of their 
 ancestors are still remembered and held in honour 
 by many of the Indians, both in Mexico and Peru ; 
 aud whenever they think themselves out of reach of 
 inspection by the Spaniards, they assemble and ce- 
 lebrate their idolatrous rites. 
 
 But this is not the most insurmoxm table obstacle 
 to the progress of Christianity among the Indians. 
 The powers of their uncultivated understandings are 
 so limited, their observations and reflections reach 
 so little beyond the mere objects of sense, that they 
 seem hardly to have the capacity of forming abstract 
 ideas, and possess not language to express them. 
 To such men the sublime and spiritual doctrines of 
 Christianity must be, in a great measure, incompre- 
 hensible. The numerous and splendid ceremonies 
 of the popish worship catch the eye, please and in- 
 terest them; but when their instructors attempt to 
 explain the articles of faith with which those external 
 observances are connected, though the Indians may 
 listen with patience, they so little conceive the 
 meaning of what they hear, that their acquiescence 
 does not merit the name of belief. Their indiffer- 
 ence is still greater than their incapacity. Atten- 
 tive only to the present moment, and engrossed by 
 the objects before them, the Indians so seldom reflect 
 upon what is ,'past, or take thought for what is to 
 come, that neither the promises nor threats of reli- 
 gion make much impression upon them, and while 
 their foresight rarely extends so far as the next day, 
 it is almost impossible to inspire them with solici- 
 tude about the concerns of a future world. Aston- 
 ished equally at their slowness of comprehension, 
 and at their insensibility, some of the early mis- 
 sionaries pronounced them a race of men so brutish 
 
 is to be incapable of understanding the first prin- 
 ciples of religion. A council held at Lima decreed, 
 ;hat, on account of this incapacity, they ought to be 
 excluded from the sacrament of the Eucharist. 
 Though Paul III., by his famous bull issued in the 
 year 1537, declared "them to be rational creatures 
 entitled to all the privileges of Christians ; yet after 
 the lapse of two centuries, during which they have 
 been members of the church, so imperfect are their 
 attainments in knowledge, that very few possess 
 such a portion of spiritual discernment, as to be 
 deemed worthy of being admitted to the holy com- 
 munion. From this ideir of their incapacity and 
 imperfect knowledge of religion, when the zeal of 
 Philip II. established the Inquisition in America in 
 the year 1570, the Indians were exempted from the 
 jurisdiction of that severe tribunal, and still continue 
 under the inspection of their diocesans. Even after 
 the: most perfect instruction, their faith is held to be 
 feeble and dubious; and though some of them have 
 been taught the learned languages, and have gone 
 through the ordinary course of academic education 
 with applause, their frailty is still so much sus- 
 pected, that few Indians are either ordained priests 
 or received into any religious order. (181.) 
 
 From this brief survey some idea may he formed 
 of the interior state of the Spanish colonies. The 
 various productions with which they supply and en- 
 rich the mother-country, aud the system of commer- 
 cial intercourse between them, come next in order 
 to be explained. If the dominions of Spain in the 
 New World had been of such moderate extent, as 
 bore a due proportion to the parent state, the pro- 
 gress of her colonizing might have been attended 
 with the same benetit as that of other nations. But 
 when, in less than half a century, her inconsiderate 
 rapacity had seized on countries larger than all 
 Europe, her inability to fill such vast regions with a 
 number of inhabitants sufficient for the cultivation of 
 them was so obvious, as to give a wrong direction to 
 all the efforts of the colonists. They did not form 
 compact settlements, where industry, circumscribed 
 within proper limits, both in its views and opera- 
 tions, is conducted with that sober persevering spirit, 
 which gradually converts whatever is in its possession, 
 to a proper use, and derives thence the greatest advan- 
 tage. Instead of this, the Spaniards, seduced by 
 the boundless prospect which opened to them, di- 
 vided their possessions in America into governments 
 of great extent. As their number was too small to 
 attempt the regular culture of the immense pro- 
 vinces which they occupied rather than peopled, 
 they bent their attention to a few objects that al- 
 lured them with hopes of sudden and exorbitant 
 gain, and turned away with contempt from the hum- 
 bler paths of industry, which lead more slowly, but 
 with greater certainty, to wealth and increase of 
 national strength. 
 
 Of all the methods by which riches may be ac- 
 quired, that of searching for the precious metals- i^ 
 one of the most inviting to men who are cither un- 
 accustomed to the regular assiduity with which the 
 culture of the earth and the operations of commerce 
 must be carried on, or who are so enterprising and 
 rapacious as not to be satisfied with the gradual re- 
 turns of profit which they yield. Accordingly, as 
 soon as the several countries in America were sub- 
 jected to the dominion of Spain, this was almost the 
 only method of acquiring wealth which occurred to 
 the adventurers by whom they were conquered. 
 Such provinces of the continent as did not allure 
 them to settle, by the prospect of their affording 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 193 
 
 gold and silver, were totally neglected. Those in 
 which they met with a disappointment of the san- 
 guine expectations they had formed, were abandoned. 
 Even the value of the islands, the first fruits of their 
 discoveries, and the first object of their attention, 
 sunk so much in their estimation, when the mines 
 which had been opened in them were exhausted, 
 that they were deserted by many of the planters, 
 and left to be occupied by more industrious posses- 
 sors. All crowded to Mexico and Peru, where the 
 quantities of gold and silver found among the 
 natives, who searched for them with little industry 
 arid less skill, promised an unexhausted store, as there- 
 compeuce of more intelligent and persevering efforts. 
 
 During several years, the ardour of their researches 
 was kept up by hope rather than success. At length, 
 the rich silver mines of Potosi in Peru were acci- 
 dentally discovered in the year 1545 by a-n Indian, 
 as he was clambering up the mountains in pursuit of 
 a llama which had strayed from his flock. Soon after 
 the mines of Sacotecas in New Spain, little inferior 
 to the other in value, were opened. From that time, 
 successive discoveries have been made in both colo- 
 nies, and silver mines are now so numerous, that 
 the working of them, and of some few mines of gold 
 in the provinces of Tierra Firmo, and the new king- 
 dom of Granada, has become the* capital occupation 
 of the Spaniards, and is reduced into a system no 
 less complicated than interesting. To describe the 
 nature of the various ores, the mode of extracting 
 them from the bowels of the earth, and to explain 
 the several processes by which the metals are sepa- 
 rated from the substances with which they are 
 mingled, either by the action of fire, or the attractive 
 powers of mercury, is the province of the natural 
 philosopher or chemist, rather than of the historian. 
 
 The exuberant profusion with which the moun- 
 tains of the New World poured forth their treasures 
 astonished mankind, who had been accustomed 
 hitherto to receive a penurious supply of the precious 
 metals, from the more scanty stores contained in the 
 mines of the ancient hemisphere. According to 
 principles of computation, which appear to be ex- 
 tremely moderate, the quantity of gold and silver 
 that has been regularly entered in the ports of 
 Spain, is equal in value to four millions sterling 
 annually, reckoning from the year 1492, in which 
 America w4s discovered, to the present time. This, 
 in two hundred and eighty-three years, amounts to 
 eleven hundred and thirty-two millions. Immense 
 as this sum is, the Spanish writers contend, that as 
 much more ought to be added to it, in consideration 
 of treasure which has been extracted from the mines, 
 and imported fraudulently into Spain without pay- 
 ing duty to the king. By this account, Spain has 
 drawn from the New World a supply of wealth 
 amounting at least to two thousand millions of 
 pounds sterling (185). 
 
 The mines, which have yielded this amazing 
 quantity of treasure, are not worked at the expense 
 of the crown or of the public. In order to encourage 
 private adventurers, the person who discovers and 
 works a new vein is entitled to the property of it. 
 Upon laying his claim to such a discovery before the 
 governor of the province, a certain extent of land is 
 measured off, and a certain number of Indians al- 
 lotted him, under the obligation of his 'opening the 
 mine within a limited time, and of his paying the 
 customary duty to the king for what it shall produce. 
 Invited by the facility with which such grants are 
 obtained, and encouraged by some striking examples 
 of success in this line of adventure, not only the san- 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA, No. 25. 
 
 guine and the bold, but the timid and diffident, enter 
 upon it with astonishing ardour. With vast objects 
 always in view, fed continually with hope, and ex- 
 pecting every moment that fortune will unveil her 
 secret stores, and give up the wealth which they 
 contain to their wishes, they deem every other occupa- 
 tion insipid and uninteresting. The charms of this 
 pursuit, like the rage for deep play, are so bewitch- 
 ing, and take such full possession of the mind, as 
 even to give a new bent to the natural temper. 
 Under its influence the cautious become enterprising, 
 and the covetous profuse. Powerful as this charm 
 naturally is, its force is augmented by the arts of tin 
 order of men known in Peru by the cant name of 
 searchers. These are commonly persons of desperate 
 fortune, who, availing themselves of some skill in 
 mineralogy, accompanied with the insinuating man- 
 ner and confident pretensions peculiar to projector.*, 
 address the wealthy and the credulous. By plausi- 
 ble descriptions of the appearances which they Ijpve 
 discovered of rich veins hitherto unexplored ; by 
 producing, when requisite, specimens of promising 
 ore; by affirming, with an imposing assurance, that 
 success is certain, and that the expense must be 
 trifling, they seldom fail to persuade. An association 
 is formed; a small sum is advanced by each co- 
 partner; the mine ia opened; the searcher is in- 
 trusted with the sole direction of every operation : 
 unforeseen difficulties occur; new demands of money 
 are made ; but, amidst a succession of disappoint- 
 ments and delays, hope is never extinguished, and 
 the ardour of expectation hardly abates. For it is 
 observed, that if any person once enter this seducing 
 path, it is almost impossible to return ; his iddas 
 alter, he seems to be possessed with another spirit ; 
 visions of imaginary wealth are continually before 
 his eyes, and he thinks, and speaks, and dreams of 
 nothing else. 
 
 Such is the spirit that must be formed, wherever 
 the active exertions of any society are chiefly em- 
 ployed in working mines of gold and silver. No 
 spirit is more adverse to such improvements in agri- 
 culture and commerce as render a nation really 
 opulent. If the system of administration in the 
 Spanish colonies had been founded upon principles 
 of sound policy, the power and ingenuity of the 
 legislator would have been exerted with as much 
 ardour in restraining its subjects from such perni- 
 cious industry, as is now employed in alluring them 
 towards it. " Projects of mining," says a good judge 
 of the political conduct of nations, " instead of re- 
 placing the capital employed in them, together with 
 the ordinary profit of stock, commonly absorb both 
 capital and profit. They are the projects, therefore, 
 to which, of all others, a prudent lawgiver, who de- 
 sired to increase the capital of his nation, would least 
 choose to give any extraordinary encouragement, or 
 to turn towards them a greater share of that capital 
 than would go to them of its own accord. Such in 
 reality is the absurd confidence which all men have 
 in their own good fortune, that wherever there is the 
 least probability of success, too great a - share of it 
 is apt to go to them of its own accord." But in 
 the Spanish colonies, government is studious to 
 cherish a spirit which it should have laboured to de- 
 press, and, by the sanction of its approbation, aug- 
 ments that inconsiderate credulity, which has turned 
 the active industry of Mexico and Peru into such an 
 improper channel. To this may be imputed the 
 slender progress which Spanish America has made, 
 during two centuries and a half, either in useful 
 manufactures, or in those lucrative branches of cul- 
 2 c 
 
194 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 tivatiou which furnish the colonies of other nations and in several other provinces : they are kilk-( 
 with their staple commodities. In comparison with ' merely for the sake of their hides ; and the slaughtei 
 the precious metals every bounty of nature is so at certain seasons is so great, that the stench of thei 
 much despised, that this extravagant idea of their ] carcasses, which are left in the field, would infect the 
 value has mingled with the idiom of language in j air, if large packs of wild dogs, and vast flocks ol 
 America, and the Spaniards settled there, denomi- ! yallinazos, or American vultures, the most voracious 
 nate a country rich, not from the fertility of its soil, ; of all the feathered kind, did not instantly devour 
 the abundance of its crops, or the exuberance of its them. The number of those hides exported in every 
 pastures, but on account of the minerals which its fleet to Europe is very great, and is a lucrative branch 
 mountains contain. In quest of these, they abandon of commerce. 
 
 the delightful plains of Peru and Mexico, and resort j Almost all these may be considered as staple corn- 
 to barren and uncomfortable regions, where they modities peculiar to America, and different, if we 
 have built some of the largest towns which they pos- except that last mentioned, from the productions of 
 sess in the New World. As the activity and enter- the mother-country. 
 
 prise of the Spaniards originally took this direction, j When the importations into Spain of those various 
 it is now so difficult to bend them a different way, articles from her colonies first became active and 
 that although, from various causes, the gain of considerable, her interior industry and manufactures 
 working mines is much decreased, the fascination ; were in a state so prosperous, that with the product 
 continues, and almost every person, who takes any j of these she was able both to purchase the commodi- 
 active part in the commerce of New Spain or Peru, ties of the New World and to answer its growing 
 is srill engaged in some adventure of this kind (186). demands. Under the reigns of Ferdinand and Isa- 
 But though mines are the chief object of the bella, and Charles V. Spain was one of the most in- 
 Spaniards, and the precious metals which these yield dustrious countries in Europe. Her manufactures 
 form the principal article in their commerce with [ in wool, and flax, and silk, were so extensive, as not 
 America ; the fertile countries which they possess only to furnish what was sufficient for her own con 
 there abound with other commodities of such value, sumption, but to afford a surplus for exportation, 
 or scarcity, as to attract a considerable degree of i When a market for them, formerly unknown, and to 
 attention, Cochineal is a production almost peculiar which she alone had access, opened in America, she 
 to New Spain, of such demand in commerce that 1 had recourse to her domestic store, and found there 
 the sale is always certain, and yet yields such profit an abundant supply(187). This new employment must 
 
 as amply rewards the labour and care employed in 
 rearing the curious insects of which this valuable 
 
 naturally have added vivacity to the spirit of in- 
 dustry. Nourished and invigorated by it, the manu- 
 
 drug is composed, and preparing it for the market. ' factures, the population, and wealth, of Spain might 
 
 Quinquina or Jesuits' bark, the most salutary simple, 
 perhaps, and of most restorative virtue, that Provi- 
 dence, in compassion to human infirmity, has made 
 known unto man, is found only in Peru, to which 
 it affords a lucrative branch of commerce. The in- 
 
 have gone on increasing in the same proportion with 
 the growth of her colonies. Nor was the state of the 
 Spanish marine at this period less flourishing than 
 that of its manufactures. In the beginning of the 
 sixteenth century, Spain is said to have possessed 
 
 digo of Guatimala is superior in quality to that of above a thousand merchant ships, a number probably 
 any province in America, and cultivated to a con- j far superior to that of any nation in Europe in that 
 siderable extent. Cacao, though not peculiar to the age. By the aid which foreign trade and domestic 
 
 Spanish colonies, attains to its highest state of per- ' industry give reciprocally to each other in their pro- 
 fection there, and from the great consumption of gress, the augmentation of both must have been 
 chocolate in Europe as well as in America, is a j rapid and extensive, and Spain might have received 
 valuable commodity. The tobacco of Cuba, of ! the same accession of opulence and vigour from her 
 more exquisite flavour than any brought, from the ' acquisitions in the New World, that other powers 
 New World ; the sugar raised in that island, in have derived from their colonies there. 
 
 Hispaniola, and in New Spain, together with drugs 
 of various kinds, may be mentioned among the 
 natural productions of America which enrich the 
 
 But various causes prevented this. . The same 
 thing happens to nations as to individuals. Wealth, 
 which flows in gradually, and with moderate increase, 
 
 Spanish commerce. To these must be added an j feeds and nourishes that activity which is friendly to 
 article of no inconsiderable account, the exportation commerce, and calls it forth into vigorous and well- 
 of hides ; for which, as well as for many of those conducted exertions ; but when opulence pours in 
 which I have enumerated, the Spaniards are more in- 1 suddenly, and with too full a stream, it overturns all 
 debted to the wonderful fertility of the country, than j sober plans of industry, and brings along with it a 
 to their own foresight and industry. The domestic : taste for what is wild and extravagant and daring in 
 animals of Europe, particularly horned cattle, have i business or in action. Such was the great and sud- 
 multiplied in the New World with a rapidity which den augmentation of power and revenue, that the 
 almost exceeds belief. A few years after the Spa- possession of America brought into Spain ; and some 
 niards settled there, the herds of tame cattle became symptoms of its pernicious influence upon the politi- 
 so numerous, that their propietors reckoned them by j cal operations of that monarchy soon began to ap- 
 thousands. Less attention being paid to them as j pear. For a considerable time, however, the supply 
 they continued to increase, they were suffered to ' of treasure from the New World was scanty and pro- 
 run wild ; and spreading over a country of bound- j carious ; and the genius of Charles V. conducted 
 less extent, under a mild climate and covered with . public measures with such prudence, that the effects 
 rich pasture, their number became immense. They ; of this influence were little perceived. But when 
 range over the vast plains which extend from Buenos , Philip II. r.sceuded the Spanish throne, with talents 
 Ayres towards the Andes, in herds of thirty or forty : far inferior to those of his father, and remittances 
 thousand ; and the unlucky traveller who once falls from the colonies became a regular and considerable 
 in among them, may proceed several days before he ; branch of revenue, the fatal operation of this rapid 
 can disentangle himself from among the crowd that | change in the state of the kingdom, both on the 
 covers the face of the earth, and seems to have no monarch and his people, was at once conspicuous, 
 end. They are hardly less numerous in New Spain, Philip, possessing that ^ilrit of unceasing assiduity 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 195 
 
 which often characterizes the ambition of, men of nufactures to America, and receive the exorbitant 
 
 moderate talents, entertained such a high opinion of price for which they are sold there, either in specie 
 
 his own resources that he thought nothing too ardu- or in the rich commodities of the New World, 
 
 ous for him to undertake. Shut up himself in the Neither the dread of danger, nor the allurement of 
 
 solitude of the Escurial, he troubled and annoyed all profit, ever induced a Spanish factor to betray or 
 
 the nations around him. He waged open war with defraud the person who confided in him; and that 
 
 the 'Dutch and English ; he encouraged and aided probity, which is the pride and distinction of the 
 
 a rebellious faction in France ; he conquered Portu- j nation contributes to its ruin. In a short time, not 
 
 gal, and maintained armies and garrisons in Italy, above a twentieth part of the commodities exported 
 
 Africa, and both the Indies. By such a multiplicity to America was of Spanish growth or fabric. All 
 
 of great and complicated operations, pursued with the rest was the property of foreign merchants, 
 
 ardour during the course of a long reign, Spain was though entered in the name of Spaniards. The 
 
 drained both of men and money. Under the weak treasure of the New World may be said hencefor- 
 
 administration of his successor, Philip III., the ward not to have belonged to Spain. Before it 
 
 vigour of the nation continued to decrease, and sunk reached Europe, it was anticipated as the price of 
 
 into the lowest decline, when the inconsiderate goods purchased from foreigners. That wealth 
 
 bigotry of that monarch expelled at once near a I which, by an internal circulation, would have spread 
 
 million of his most industrious subjects, at the very through each vein of industry, and have conveyed 
 
 time when the exhausted state of the kingdom re- 
 quired some extraordinary exertion of political wis- 
 dom to augment its numbers, and to revive its 
 strength. Early in the seventeenth century, Spain 
 felt such a diminution in the cumber of her people, 
 that from inability to recruit her armies she was 
 obliged to contract her operations. Her fleets, which 
 had been the terror of all Europe, were ruined. Her 
 extensive foreign commerce was lost. The trade 
 between different parts of her own dominions was 
 interrupted, and the ships which attempted to carry 
 it on were taken and plundered by enemies whom 
 she once despised. Even agriculture, the primary 
 object of industry in every prosperous state, was 
 neglected, and one of the most fertile countries in 
 Europe hardly raised what was sufficient for the sup- 
 port of its own inhabitants. 
 
 In proportion as the population and manufactures 
 of the parent state declined, the demands of her 
 
 The Spaniards, 
 with the wealth 
 which poured in annually upon them, deserted the 
 paths of industry to which they had been accus- 
 
 colonies continued to increase, 
 like their monarchs, intoxicated 
 
 life and movement to every branch of manufacture 
 flowed out of the kingdom with such a rapid course 
 as neither enriched nor animated it. On the other 
 hand, the artisans of rival nations, encouraged by 
 this quick sale of their commodities, improved so 
 much in skill and industry, as to be able to afford 
 them at a rate so low, that the manufactures of 
 Spain, which could not vie with theirs, either in 
 quality or cheapness of work, were still further de- 
 pressed. This destructive commerce drained off the 
 riches of the nation faster and more completely than 
 even the extravagant schemes of ambition carried on 
 by its monarchs. Spain was so much astonished and 
 distressed at beholding her American treasures 
 vanish almost as soon as they were imported, that 
 Philip III., unable to supply what was requisite in 
 circulation, issued an edict, by which he endea- 
 voured to raise copper money to a value in currency 
 nearly equal to that of silver: and the lord of the 
 Peruvian and 'Mexican mines was reduced to a 
 wretched expedient, which is the last resource of 
 petty impoverished states. 
 
 Thus the possessions of Spain in America have 
 
 tomed, and repaired with eagerness to those regions j not proved a source of population and of wealth to 
 from which this opulence issued. By this rage of her, in the same manner as those of other nations. 
 
 emigration another drain was opened, and the 
 strength of the colonies augmented by exhausting 
 that of the mother country. All those emigrants, 
 as well as the adventurers who had at first settled in 
 America, depended absolutely upon Spain for almost 
 every article of necessary consumption. Engaged 
 in more alluring and lucrative pursuits, or pre- 
 vented by restraints which government imposed, 
 they could not turn their own attention towards 
 establishing the manufactures requisite for com- 
 fortable subsistence. They received (as I have ob- 
 served in another place) their clothing, their furni- 
 ture, whatever ministers to the ease or luxury of 
 life, and even their instruments of labour, from 
 Europe. Spain thinned of people and decreasing in 
 industry, was unable to supply their growing de- 
 mands. She had recourse to her neighbours. The 
 manufactures of the Low Countries, of England, of 
 France, and of Italy, which her wants called into 
 existence or animated with new vivacity, furnished 
 in abundance whatever she required. In vain did 
 the fundamental law, concerning the exclusion ol 
 foreigners from trade with America, oppose this in- 
 novation. Necessity, more powerful than any 
 statute, defeated its operation, and constrained th< 
 Spaniards themselves to concur in eluding it. Th 
 English, the French and Dutch, relying on th 
 fidelity and honour of Spanish merchants, who len' 
 their names to cover the deceit, send out their rna 
 
 n the countries of Europe, where the spirit of in- 
 dustry subsists in full vigour, every person settled 
 n such colonies as are similar, in their situation, to 
 ,hose of Spain, is supposed to give employment to 
 hree or four at home in supplying his wants. But 
 wherever the mother country cannot afford this 
 supply, every emigrant may be considered as a 
 citizen lost to the community, and strangers must 
 reap all the benefit of answering his demands. 
 
 Such has been the internal state of Spain from 
 the close of the sixteenth century, and such her in- 
 ability to supply the growing wants of her colonies. 
 The fatal effects of this disproportion between their 
 demands, and her capacity of answering them, have 
 been much increased by the mode in which Spain 
 has endeavoured to regulate the intercourse between 
 the mother country and the colonies. It is from her 
 idea of monopolizing the trade with America, and 
 debarring her subjects there from any communica- 
 tion with foreigners,, that all her jealous and syste- 
 matic arrangements have arisen. These are so sin- 
 gular in their nature and consequences as to merit 
 a particular explanation. In order to secure the 
 monopoly at which she aimed, Spain did not vest 
 the trade with her colonies in an exclusive company, 
 a plan which has been adopted by nations more 
 commercial, and at a period when mercantile policy 
 was an object of greater attention, and ought to 
 have been better understood. The Dutch gave up 
 
1% 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the whole trade with their colonies, both in the East 
 and West Indies, to exclusive companies. The 
 English, the French, the Danes, have imitated their 
 example with respect to the East Indian commerce ; 
 and the two former have laid a similar restraint upon 
 some branches of their trade with the New World. 
 The wit of man cannot, perhaps, devise a method 
 for checking the progress of industry and popula- 
 lation in a new colony more effectual this. The 
 interest of the colony, and of the exclusive com- 
 pany, must in every point be diametrically opposite ; 
 and as the latter possesses such advantages in this 
 unequal contest, that it can prescribe at pleasure the 
 terms of intercourse, the former must not only buy 
 dear and sell cheap, but must suffer the mortification 
 of having the increase of its surplus stock discou- 
 raged by those very persons to whom alone it can 
 dispose of its productions. 
 
 Spain, it is probable, was preserved from falling 
 into this error of policy, by the high ideas which she 
 early formed concerning the riches of the New 
 World. Gold ^and silver were commodities of too 
 high a value to vest a monopoly of them in private 
 hands. The crown wished to retain the direction of 
 a commerce so inviting ; and, in order to secure 
 that, ordained the cargo of every ship fitted out for 
 America to be inspected by the officers of the Casa 
 de Contratacion in Seville before it could receive a 
 licence to make the voyage ; and that, on its return, 
 a report of the commodities which it brought should 
 be made to the same board before it could be per- 
 mitted to land them. In consequence of this regu- 
 lation, all the trade of Spain with the New World 
 centred originally in the port of Seville, and was 
 gradually brought into a form, in which it has been 
 conducted, with little variation, from the middle of 
 the sixteenth century almost to our own times. For 
 the greater security of the valuable cargoes sent to 
 America, as well as for the more easy prevention of 
 fraud, the commerce of Spain with its colonies is 
 carried on by its fleets which sail under strong con- 
 voys. These fleets, consisting of two squadrons, one 
 distinguished by the name of" the Galevns, the other 
 by that of the Flota, are equipped annually. Formerly 
 they took their departure from Seville ; but as the 
 port of Cadiz has been found more commodious, they 
 have sailed from it since the year 1720. 
 
 The Galeons destined to supply Tierra Firme, and 
 the kingdoms of Peru and Chili, with almost every 
 article of luxury, or necessary consumption, that an 
 opulent people can demand, touch first at Cartha- 
 gena, and then at Porto Bello. To the former, the 
 merchants of Santa Martha, Caraccas, the new king- 
 dom 6f Granada, and several other provinces, resort. 
 The latter is the great mart for the rich commerce of 
 Peru and Chili. At the season when the Galeons 
 are expected, the product of all the mines in these 
 two kingdoms, together with their other valuable 
 commodities, is transported by sea to Panama. 
 From thence, as soon as the appearance of the fleet 
 from Europe is announced, they are conveyed across 
 the isthmus, partly on mules and partly down the 
 river Chagre to Porto Bello. This paltry village, 
 the climate of which, from the pernicious union of 
 excessive heat, continual moisture, and the putrid 
 exalations arising from a rank soil, is more fatal 
 to life than any perhaps in the known world, is im- 
 mediately filled with people. From being the resi- 
 dence of a few negroes and mulattoes, and of a 
 miserable garrison relieved every three months, 
 Porto Bello assumes suddenly a very different aspect, 
 and its streets are crowded with opulent merchants 
 
 from every corner of Pern and the adjacent pro 
 vinces. A fair is opened, the wealth of America in 
 exchanged fur the manufactures of Europe ; and, 
 during its prescribed term of forty days, the richest 
 traffic on the face of the earth is begun and finished, 
 with that simplicity of transaction, and that un- 
 bounded confidence, which accompany extensive 
 commerce (188). The Flota holds its course to 
 Vera Cruz. The treasures and commodities of New 
 Spain, and the depending provinces, which were 
 deposited at Puebla de los Angeles, in expectation 
 of its arrival, are earned thither ; and the commer- 
 cial operations of Vera Cruz, conducted in the same 
 manner with those of Porto Bello, are inferior to 
 them only in importance and value. Both fleets, as 
 soon as they have completed their cargoes from 
 America, rendezvous at the Havanna, and return in 
 company to Europe. 
 
 The trade of Spain with her colonies, while thus 
 fettered and restricted, came necessarily to be con- 
 ducted with the same spirit, and upon the same 
 principles, as that of an exclusive company. Being 
 confined to a single port, it was of course thrown into 
 a few hands, and almost the whole of it was gra- 
 dually engrossed by a small numbei of wealthy 
 houses, formerly in Seville, and now in Cadiz. 
 These, by combinations which they can easily form, 
 may altogether prevent that competition which pre- 
 serves commodities at their natural price ; and by 
 acting in concert, to which they are prompted by 
 their mutual interest, they may raise or lower the 
 value of them at pleasure. In consequence of this, 
 the price of European goods in America is always 
 high, and often exorbitant. A hundred, two hun- 
 dred, and even three hundred per cent., are profits 
 not uncommon in the commerce of Spain with her 
 colonies. From the same engrossing spirit it fre- 
 quently happens that traders of the second order, 
 whose warehouses do not contain a complete assort- 
 ment of commodities for the American market, 
 cannot purchase from the more opulent merchants 
 such goods as they want, at a lower price than that 
 for which they are sold in the colonies. With the 
 same vigilant jealousy that an exclusive company 
 guards against the intrusion of the free trader, those 
 overgrown monopolists endeavour to check the pro- 
 gress of every one whose encroachments they dread. 
 This restraint of the American commerce to one 
 port, not only affects its domestic state, but limits its 
 foreign operations. A monopolist may acquire 
 more, and certainly will hazard less, by a confined 
 trade which yields exorbitant profit, than by an ex- 
 tensive commerce in which he receives only a mo- 
 derate return of gain. It is often his interest not to 
 enlarge but to circumscribe the sphere of his ac- 
 tivity ; and, instead of calling forth more vigorous 
 exertions of commercial industry, it maybe the ob- 
 ject of his attention to check and set bounds to them. 
 By some such maxim, the mercantile policy of Spain 
 seems to have regulated its intercourse with America. 
 Instead of furnishing the colonies with European 
 goods in such quantity as might render both the 
 price and the profit moderate, the merchants of Se- 
 ville and Cadiz seem to have supplied them with a 
 sparing hand, that the eagerness of competition, 
 amongst customers obliged to purchase in a scanty 
 mai'ket, might enable the Spanish factors to dispose 
 of their cargoes with exorbitant gain. About the 
 middle of the last century, when the exclusive trade 
 to America from Seville was in its most flourishing 
 state, the burden of the two united squadrons of the 
 Galeons and Flota did not exceed twenty-seven thou- 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 197 
 
 sand five hundred tons. The supply which such a 
 fleet could carry must have been very inadequate to 
 the demands of those "populous and extensive colo- 
 nies, which depended upon it for all the luxuries and 
 many of the necessaries of life. 
 
 Spain early became sensible of her declension 
 from her former prosperity ; and many respectable 
 and virtuous citizens employed their thoughts in de- 
 vising methods for reviving the decaying industry 
 and commerce of their country. From the violence 
 of the remedies proposed, we may judge how des- 
 perate and fatal the malady appeared. Some, con- 
 founding a violation of police with criminality 
 against the state, contended that, in order to check 
 illicit commerce, every person convicted of carrying 
 it on should be punished with death, and confiscation 
 of all his effects. Others, forgetting the distinction 
 between civil offences and acts of impiety, insisted 
 that contraband trade should be ranked among the 
 crimes reserved for the cognizance of the inquisi 
 tion ; that such as were guilty of it might be tried 
 and punished, according to the secret and summary 
 form in which that dreadful tribunal exercises its 
 jurisdiction. Others, uninstructed by observing the 
 pernicious effects of monopolies in every country 
 where they have been established, have proposed to 
 vest the trade with America in exclusive companies, 
 which interest would render the most vigilent 
 guardians of the Spanish commerce against the en- 
 croachment of the interlopers. 
 
 Besides these wild projects, many schemes, better 
 digested and more beneficial, were suggested. But, 
 under the feeble monarchs with whom the reign of 
 the Austrian line in Spain closed, incapacity and 
 indecision are conspicuous in every department of 
 government. Instead of taking for their model the 
 active administration of Charles V., they affected 
 to imitate the cautious procrastinating wisdom of 
 Philip II. ; and destitute of his talents, they deli- 
 berated perpetually, but determined nothing. No 
 remedy was applied to the evils under which the 
 national commerce, domestic as well as foreign, lan- 
 guished. These evils continued to increase; and 
 Spain, with dominions more extensive and more 
 opulent than any European state, possessed neither 
 vigour, nor money, (189) nor industry. At length, 
 the violence of a great national convulsion roused 
 the slumbering genius of Spain. The efforts of the 
 two contending "parties in the civil war, kindled by 
 the dispute concerning the succession of the crown 
 .it the beginning of this century, called forth in some 
 degree the ancient spirit and vigour of the nation. 
 While men were thus forming, capable of adopting 
 sentiments more liberal than those which had in- 
 fluenced the councils of the monarchy during the 
 course of a century, Spain derived from an unex- 
 pected source the means of availing itself of their 
 talents. The various powers who favoured the pre- 
 tensions either of the Austrian or Bourbon candi- 
 date for the Spanish throne, sent formidable fleets 
 and armies to their support : France, England, and 
 Holland, remitted immense sums to Spain. These 
 were spent, in the provinces which became the theatre 
 of war. Part of the American treasure, of which 
 foreigners had drained the kingdom, flowed back 
 thither. From this aera, one of the most intelligent 
 Spanish authors dates the revival of the monarchy ; 
 and however humiliating the truth may be, he ac- 
 knowledges, that it is to her enemies his country is 
 indebted for the acquisition of a fund of circulating 
 specie, in somo measure adequate to the exigencies 
 of the public. 
 
 As soon as the Bourbons obtained quiet possession 
 of the throne, they discerned this change in the 
 spirit of the people, and in the state of the nation, 
 and took advantage of it ; for although that family 
 uis not given monarchs to Spain remarkable for su- 
 periority of genius, they have all been beneficent 
 irinces, attentive to the happiness of their subjects, 
 and solicitous to promote it. It was, accordingly, 
 ^he first object of Philip V. to suppress an iunova- 
 ion which had crept in during the course of the war, 
 and had overturned the whole system of the Spanish 
 commerce with America. The English and Dutch, 
 >y their superiority in naval jiower, having acquired 
 such command of the sea as to cut off all intercourse 
 between Spain and her colonies, Spain, in order to 
 Burnish her subjects in America those necessaries of 
 ife without which they could not exist, and as the 
 only means of receiving from thence any part of 
 heir treasure, departed so far from the usual rigour 
 of its maxims, as to open the trade with Peru to her 
 allies the French. The merchants of St. Malo, to 
 whom Louis XIV. granted the privilege of this lu- 
 crative commerce, engaged in it with vigour, and 
 carried it on upon principles very different from 
 ;hose of the Spaniards. They supplied Peru with 
 European commodities at a moderate price, and not 
 n stinted quantity. The goods which they imported 
 were conveyed to every province of Spanish Ame- 
 rica, in such abundance as had never been known 
 in any former period. If this intercourse had been 
 continued, the exportation of European commodities 
 from Spain must have ceased, and the dependence 
 of the colonies on the mother-country have been at 
 an end. The most peremptory injunctions were 
 therefore issued, prohibiting the admission of foreign 
 vessels into any port of Peru or Chili, and a Spanish 
 squadron was employed to clear the South sea of in- 
 truders, whose aid was no longer necessary. 
 
 But though, on the cessation of the war which 
 was terminated by the treaty of Utrecht, Spain ob- 
 tained relief from one encroachment on her com- 
 mercial system, she was exposed to another which 
 she deemed hardly less pernicious. As an induce- 
 ment that might prevail with queen Anne to con- 
 clude a peace, which France and Spain desired with 
 equal ardour, Philip V. not only conveyed to Great 
 Britain the Assiento, or contract for supplying the 
 Spanish colonies with negroes, which had formerly 
 been enjoyed by France, but granted it the more 
 extraordinary privilege of sending annually to the 
 fair of Porto-bcllo, a ship of five hundred tons, laden 
 with European commodities. In consequence of 
 this, British factories were established at Carthagena, 
 Panama, Vera Cruz, Buenos Ayres, and other 
 Spanish settlements. The veil with which Spain had 
 hitherto covered the state and transactions of her 
 colonies was removed. The agents of a rival nation, 
 residing in the towns of most extensive trade, and 
 of chief resort, had the best opportunities of becom- 
 ing acquainted with the interior condition of the 
 American provinces, of observing their stated and 
 occasional wants, and of knowing what commodities 
 might be imported into them with the greatest ad- 
 vantage. In consequence of information so authentic 
 and expeditious, the merchants of Jamaica and 
 other English colonies who traded to the Spanish 
 main, were enabled to assort and proportion their 
 cargoes so exactly to the demands of the market, 
 that the contraband commerce was carried on with 
 a facility and to an extent unknown in any former 
 period. This, however, was not the most fatal con- 
 sequence of the Assiento to the trade of Spain. The 
 
198 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 agents of the British South sea company, under 
 cover of the importation which they were authorized 
 to make by the ship sent annually to Porto-bello, 
 poured in their commodities on the Spanish conti- 
 nent without limitation or restraint. Instead of a 
 ship of five hundred tons, as stipulated in the treaty, 
 they usually employed one which exceeded nine 
 hundred tons in burthen. She was accompanied by 
 two or three smaller vessels, which, mooring in some 
 neighbouring creek, supplied her clandestinely with 
 fresh bales of goods to replace such as were sold. 
 The inspectors of the fair, and officers of the revenue, 
 gained by exorbitant presents, connived at the 
 i'raud (190). Thus, partly by the operations of the 
 company, and partly by the activity of private in- 
 terlopers, almost the whole trade of Spanish America 
 was engrossed by foreigners. The immense com- 
 merce of the Galeons, formerly the pride of Spain, 
 and the envy of other nations, sunk to nothing ; and 
 the squadron itself, reduced from fifteen thousand to 
 two thousand tons, served hardly any purpose but to 
 fetch home the royal revenue arising from the fifth 
 on silver. 
 
 While Spain observed those encroachments, and 
 felt so sensibly their pernicious effects, it was impos- 
 sible not to make some effort to restrain them. Her 
 first expedient was to station ships of force, under 
 the appellation of Guarda costas, upon the coasts 
 of those provinces to which interlopers most fre- 
 quently resorted. As private interest concurred with 
 the duty which they owed to the public, in rendering 
 the officers who commanded those vessels vigilant 
 and active, some check was given to the progress of 
 the contraband trade, though in dominions so ex- 
 tensive, and so accessible by sea, hardly any number 
 of cruisers was sufficient to guard against its inroads 
 in every quarter. This interruption of an intercourse 
 which had been carried on with so much facility, 
 that the merchants in the British colonies were ac- 
 .customed to consider it almost as an allowed brand 
 .of commerce, excited murmurs and complaints 
 These, authorized in some measure, and renderet 
 more interesting by several unjustifiable acts of vio- 
 lence committed by the captains of the Spanish 
 Guarda costas, precipitated Great Britain into a war 
 with Spain ; in consequence of which, the latter ob- 
 tained a final release from the Assiento, and was lef 
 at liberty to regulate the commerce of her colonie 
 without being restrained by any engagement with ; 
 foreign power. 
 
 As the formidable encroachments of the English 
 on their American trade, had discovered to th< 
 Spaniards the vast consumption of European good 
 in their colonies, and taught them the advantage o 
 accommodating their importations to the occasiona 
 demand of the various provinces, they perceived th 
 necessity of devising some method of supplying thei 
 colonies, different from their ancient one of sendin 
 thither periodical fleets. That mode of communica 
 tion had been found not only to be uncertain, as th 
 departure of the Galeons and Flota was sometime 
 retarded by various accidents, and often preveute 
 by the wars which raged in Europe ; but long expe 
 rience had shown it to be ill adapted to afford Ame 
 rica a regular and timely supply of what it wantec 
 The scarcity of Europern goods in the Spanish se 
 tlements frequently became excessive ; their pric 
 rose to an enormous height; the vigilant eye o 
 mercantile attention did not fail to observe this fi 
 vourable opportunity ; an ample supply was pourc 
 in by interlopers from the English, the French, an 
 Dutch islands; and when the Galeons at leng 
 
 rrived, they found the markets so glutted by this 
 licit commerce, that there was no demand for the 
 ommodities with which they were loaded. In order 
 remedy this, Spain has permitted a considerable 
 art of her commerce with America to be carried on 
 y register sliips. These are fitted out during the 
 itervals between the stated seasons when the Ga- 
 :ons and Flota sail, by merchants in Seville or 
 adiz, upon obtaining a licence from the council of 
 le Indies, for which they pay a very high premium, 
 nd are destined for those ports in America where 
 ny extraordinary demand is foreseen or expected, 
 y this expedient, such a regular supply of the com- 
 modities for which there is the greatest demand is 
 mveyed to the American market^ that the interloper 
 
 no longer allured by the same prospect of exces- 
 ive gain, or the people in the colonies urged by the 
 ame necessity, to engage in the hazardous adven- 
 ures of contraband trade. 
 
 In proportion as experience manifested the advan- 
 dges of carrying on trade in this mode, the number 
 f register ships increased ; and at length, in the 
 ear 1748, the Galeons, after having been employed 
 ipwards of two centuries, were finally laid aside. 
 <>om that period there has been no intercourse with 
 
 hili and Peru but by single ships despatched from 
 ime to time, as occasion requires, and when the 
 ncrchants expect a profitable market wiD open, 
 ["hose ships sail round cape Horn, and convey di- 
 ectly to the ports in the South sea the productions 
 ind manufactures of Europe, for which, the people 
 ettled in those countries were formerly obliged to 
 epair to Porto-bello or Panama. These towns, as 
 las been formerly observed, must gradually decline, 
 vhen deprived of that commerce to which they owed 
 .heir prosperity. This disadvantage, however, is 
 more than compensated by the beneficial effects of 
 ,his new arrangement, as the whole continent of 
 South America receives new supplies of European 
 commodities with so much regularity, and in such 
 Abundance, as must not only contribute greatly to 
 the happiness, but increase the population, of all the 
 colonies settled there. But, as all the register ships 
 destined for the South seas must still take their de- 
 parture from Cadiz, and are obliged to return thither, 
 :his branch of the American commerce, even in its 
 new and improved form, continues subject to the 
 restraints of a species of monopoly, and feels those 
 pernicious effects of it which I have already des- 
 cribed. 
 
 Nor has the attention of Spain been confined to 
 regulating the trade with its more flourishing colo- 
 nies ; it has extended likewise to the reviving com- 
 merce in those settlements where it was neglected, or 
 had decayed. Among the new tastes which the 
 people of Europe have acquired, in consequence of 
 importing the productions of those countries which 
 they conquered in America, that for chocolate is one 
 of the most universal. The use of this liquor, made 
 with a paste formed of the nut or almond of the 
 cacao-tree, compounded with various ingredients, the 
 Spaniards first learned from the Mexicans; and it 
 has appeared to them, and to the other European 
 nations, so palatable, so nourishing, and so whole- 
 some, that it has become a commercial article of con- 
 siderable importance. The cacao-tree grows spon- 
 taneously in severaJ parts of the torrid zone; but the 
 nuts of the best quality, next to those of Guatimala 
 on the South sea, are produced in the rich plains of 
 Caraccas, a province of T'erra Firme. In conse- 
 quence of this acknowledge^ superiority in the qua- 
 lity of cacao in that province, and its communication 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 199 
 
 with the Atlantic, which facilitates the conveyance 
 to Europe, the culture of the cacao there is more 
 extensive than in any district of America. But the 
 Dutch, by the vicinity of their settlements in the 
 small islands of Curazoa and Bucn Ayrc, to the 
 coast of Caraccas, gradually engrossed the greatest 
 part of the cacao trade. The traffic with the mother- 
 country for this valuable commodity ceased almost 
 entirely; and such was the supine negligence of the 
 Spaniards, or the defects of their commercial arrang- 
 ments, that they were obliged to receive from the 
 hands of foreigners this production of their own 
 colonies, at an exorbitant price. In order to remedy 
 an evil no less disgraceful than pernicious to,his sub- 
 jects, Philip V., in the year 1728, granted to a body 
 of merchants an exclusive right to the commerce 
 with Caraccas and Cumana, on condition of their 
 employing, at their own expense, a sufficient num- 
 ber of armed vessels to clear the coast of interlopers. 
 This society, distinguished sometimes by the name 
 of the company of Guipuscoa, from the province of 
 Spain in which it is established, and sometimes by 
 that of the company of Caraccas, from the district 
 of America to which it trades, has carried on its 
 operations with .such vigour and success, that Spain 
 has recovered an important branch of commerce 
 which she had suffered to be wrested from her, and 
 is plentifully supplied with an article of extensive 
 consumption at a moderate price. Not only the 
 parent state, but the colony of Caraccas, has derived 
 great advantages from this institution ; for although, 
 at the first aspect, it may appear to be one of those 
 monopolies whose tendency is to check the spirit of 
 industry, instead of calling it forth to new exertions, 
 it has been prevented from operating in this manner 
 by several salutary regulations framed upon foresight 
 of such bad effects, and of purpose to obviate them. 
 The planters in the Caraccas are not left to depend 
 entirely on the company, either for the importation 
 of European commodities or the sale of their own 
 productions. The inhabitants of the Canary Islands 
 have the privilege of sending thither annually a 
 register ship of considerable burthen ; and from Vcra 
 Cruz, in New Spain, a free trade is permitted in 
 every poll comprehended in the charter of the com- 
 pany. In consequence of this, there is such a com- 
 petition, that both with respect to what the colonies 
 purchase and what they sell, the price seems to be 
 fixed at its natural and equitable rate. The com- 
 pany has not the power of raising the former, or of 
 degrading the latter, at pleasure; and accordingly, 
 since it was established, the increase of culture, of 
 population, and of live stock, in the province of 
 Caraccas, has been very considerable (191). 
 
 But as it is slowly that nations relinquish any sys 
 tern which time has rendered venerable, and as it is 
 still more slowly that commerce can be diverted from 
 the channel in which it has long been accustomed to 
 flow, Philip V., in his new regulations concerning 
 the American trade, paid such deference to the an- 
 cient maxim of Spain, concerning the limitation of 
 all importation from the New World to one harbour, 
 as to oblige both the register-ships which returned 
 from Peru, and those of the Guipuscoan company 
 
 or commerce of nations, the errors and defects of the 
 Spanish system with respect to both meet every eye, 
 and have not only been exposed with severity, but 
 are held up as a warning to other states. The 
 Spaniards, stung with the reproaches of these authors, 
 or convinced by their arguments, and admonished 
 by several enlightened writers of their own country, 
 seem at length to have discovered the destructive 
 tendency of those narrow maxims, which, by cramp- 
 ing commerce in all its operations, have so long re- 
 tarded its progress. It is to the monarch now on the 
 throne that Spain is indebted for the first, public re- 
 gulation, formed in consequence of such enlarged 
 ideas. 
 
 While Spain adhered with rigour to her ancient 
 maxim concerning her commerce with America, she 
 was so much afraid of opening any channel by which 
 an illicit trade might find admission into the colonies, 
 that she almost shut herself out from any intercourse 
 with them, but that which was carried on by her 
 annual fleets. There was no establishment, for'a re- 
 gular communication of cither public or private in- 
 telligence, between the mother-country and its Ameri- 
 can settlements. From the want of this necessary insti j 
 tution, the operations of the state, as well as the 
 business of individuals, were retarded, or conducted 
 unskilfully, and Spain often received from foreigners 
 her first information with respect to very interesting 
 events in her own colonies. But though this defect 
 in police was sensibly felt, and the remedy for it was 
 obvious, that jealous spirit with which the Spanish 
 monarchs guarded the exclusive trade, restrained them 
 from applying it. At length, Charles III. sur- 
 mounted those considerations which had deterred his 
 predecessors, and in the year 1764, appointed packet- 
 boats to be despatched on the first day of each month 
 from Corugna to the Havanna or Porto Rico. From 
 thence, letters ?re conveyed in small vessels to Vera 
 Cruz and Portobello, and transmitted by post through 
 the kingdoms of Tierra Firme, Granada, Peru, and 
 New Spain. With no less regularity, packet-boats 
 sail once in two months to Rio de la Plata, for the 
 accommodation of the provinces to the east of the 
 Andes. Thus provision is made for a speedy and 
 eertv'n circulation of intelligence throughout the 
 vast dominions of Spain, from which equal advantages, 
 must redound to the political and mercantile interest 
 of the kingdom. With this new arrangement, a 
 scheme of extending commerce has been more im- 
 mediately connected. Each of the packet-boats, 
 which are vessels of some considerable burden, is al- 
 lowed to take in half a loading of such commodities 
 as are the product of Spain, and most in demand in 
 the ports, whither they are bound. In return for 
 these, they may bring home to Corugna an equal 
 quantity of American productions. This may be 
 considered as the first relaxation of those rigid laws 
 which confined the trade with the New World to a 
 single port, and the first attempt to admit the rest of 
 the kingdom to some share in it. 
 
 It was soon followed by one more decisive. In 
 the year 1765, Charles III. laid open the trade to the 
 windward islands, Cuba, Hispaniola, Porto-Rico, 
 Margarita, and Tiiuidad, to his subjects in every 
 
 from Caraccas, to deliver their cargoes in the port of | province of Spain. He permitted them to sail from 
 Cadiz. Since his reign, sentiments more liberal and certain ports in each province, which are spacified in 
 enlarged begin to spread in Spain. The spirit of the edict, at any season and with whatever cargo 
 philosophical inquiry, which it is the glory of the they deemed most proper, without any other warrant 
 present age to have turned from frivolous or abstruse than a simple clearance from the custom-house of 
 speculations to the business and affairs of men, has the place whence they take their departure. He re- 
 extended its influence beyond the Pyrenees. In the leased them from the numerous and oppressive duties 
 researches of ingenious authors concerning the police imposed on goods exported to America, and in place 
 
200 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA 
 
 of the whole, substituted a moderate tax of six in the 
 hundred on the commodities sent from Spain. He 
 allowed them to return either to the same port, or to 
 any other where they might hope for a more advan- 
 tageous market, and there to enter the homeward 
 cargo on payment of the usual duties. This ample 
 privilege, which at once broke through all the fences 
 which the jealous policy of Spain had been labour- 
 ing for two centuries and a half to throw round its 
 commercial intercourse with the New World, was 
 soon after extended to Louisiana, and to the pro- 
 vinces of Yucatan and Campeachy. The propriety 
 of this innovation which may be considered as the 
 most liberal effort of Spanish legislation, has ap- 
 peared from its effects. Prior to the edict in favour 
 of the free trade, Spain derived hardly any benefit 
 from its neglected colonies in Hispaniola, Port Rico, 
 Margarita, and Trinidad. Its commerce with Cuba 
 was inconsiderable, and that of Yucatan and Cam- 
 peachy was engrossed almost entirely by interlopers. 
 But as soon as a general liberty of trade was per- 
 mitted, the intercourse with those provinces revived, 
 and has gone on with a rapidity of progression of 
 which there are few examples in the history of na- 
 tions. In less than ten years, the trade of Cuba has 
 been more than tripled. Even in those settlements 
 where, from the languishing state of industry, greater 
 efforts were requisite to restore its activity, their com- 
 merce has been doubled. It is computed, that such 
 a number of ships is already employed fa the free 
 trade, that the tonnage of them far exceeds that of 
 the Galeons and Flota at the most nourishing sera of 
 their commerce. The benefits of this arrangement 
 are not confined to a few merchants established in a 
 favourite port. They are diffused through every 
 province of the kingdom; and, by opening a new 
 market for their various productions and manafac- 
 tures, must encourage and add vivacity to the in 
 dustry of the fanner and artificer. Nor does the king- 
 dom profit only by what it exports ; it derives ad- 
 vantage likewise from what it receives in return, and 
 has the prospect of being soon able to supply itself 
 with several commodities of extensive consumption, 
 for which it formerly depended on foreigners. The 
 consumption of sugar in Spain is perhaps as great, in 
 proportion to the number of its inhabitants, as that, 
 of any European kingdom. But though possessed 
 of countries in the New "World whose soil and cli- 
 mate are most proper for rearing the sugar cane ; 
 though the domestic culture of that valuable plant in 
 the kingdom of Granada was once considerable ; such 
 has been the fatal tendency of ill-judged institutions 
 in America, and such the pressure of improper taxes 
 in Europe, that Spain has lost almost entirely this 
 branch of industry, which has enriched other nations. 
 This commodity, which has now become an article 
 of primary necessity in Europe, the Spaniards were 
 obliged to purchase of foreigners, and had the morti- 
 fication to see their country drained annually of great 
 sums on that account. But, if that spirit which the 
 permission of free trade has put in motion shall per- 
 severe in its efforts with the same vigour, the culti- 
 vation of sugar in Cuba and Porto Rico, may in- 
 crease so much, that in a few years it is probable that 
 their growth of sugars may be equal to the demand 
 of the kingdom. 
 
 Spain has been induced, by her experience of the 
 beneficial consequences resulting from having re- 
 laxed somewhat of the rigour of her ancient laws 
 with respect to the commerce of the mother-country 
 with the colonies, to permit a more liberal intercourse 
 jf one colony with another. By one of the jealous 
 
 j maxims of the old system, all the provinces situated 
 on the South seas were prohibited, under the most 
 severe penalties, from holding any communication 
 with one another. Though each of these yields 
 peculiar productions, the reciprocal exchange of 
 which might have added to the happiness of their 
 respective inhabitants, or have facilitated their pro- 
 gress in industry, so solicitious was the council of 
 the Indies to prevent their receiving any supply of 
 their wants but by the periodical fleets from Europe, 
 that in order to guard against this, it cruelly de- 
 barred the Spaniards in Peru, in the southern pro- 
 vinces of New Spain, in Guatimala, and the new- 
 kingdom of Granada, from such a correspondence 
 with their fellow-subjects as tended manifestly t<> 
 their mutual prosperity. Of all the numerous re- 
 strictions devised by Spain for securing the exclu- 
 sive trade with her American settlements, nono 
 perhaps was more illiberal, none seems to have been 
 more sensibly felt, or to have produced more hurtful 
 effects. This grievance, coeval with the settlements 
 of Spain in the countries situated on the Pacific 
 ocean, is at last redressed. In the year 1774, 
 Charles III. published an edict, granting to the 
 four great provinces which I have mentioned the 
 privilege of a free trrde with each other ( 192). 
 What may be the effects of opening this communi- 
 cation between countries destined by their situation 
 for reciprocal intercourse, cannot yet be determined 
 by experience. They can hardly fail of being bene- 
 ficial and extensive. The motives for granting this 
 permission are manifestly no less laudable, than the 
 principle on which it is founded is liberal ; and both 
 discover the progress of a spirit in Spain, far elevated 
 above the narrow prejudices and maxims on which 
 her system for regulating the trade and conducting 
 the government of her colonies was originally 
 founded. 
 
 At the same time that Spain has been intent on 
 introducing regulations, suggested by more enlarged 
 views of policy into her system of American com- 
 merce, she has" not been inattentive to the interior 
 government of her colonies. Here, too, there was 
 much room for reformation and improvement, and 
 Don Joseph Galvez, who has now the direction of 
 the department for Indian affairs in Spain, has en- 
 joyed the best opportunities, not only of observing 
 the defects and corruption in the political frame of 
 the colonies, but of discovering the sources of those 
 evils. After being employed seven years in the New- 
 World on an extraordinary mission, and with very 
 extensive powers, as inspector-general of New Spain; 
 after visiting in person the remote provinces of Cina- 
 loa, Sonora, and California, and making several im- 
 portant alterations in the state of the police and 
 revenue ; he began his ministry with a general re- 
 formation of the tribunals of justice in America. In 
 consequence of the progress of population and wealth 
 in the colonies, the business of the courts of audi- 
 ence has increased so much, that the number of 
 judges of which they were originally composed has 
 been found inadequate to the growing labours and 
 duties of the office, and the salaries settled upon 
 them have been deemed inferior to the dignity of the 
 station. As a remedy for both, he obtained a royal 
 edict, establishing an additional number of judges in 
 each court of audience, with higher titles, and more 
 ample appointments. 
 
 To the same intelligent minister Spain is indebted 
 for a new distribution of government in its American 
 provinces. Even since the establishment of a third 
 viceroyaltyin the new kingdom of Granada, so great i ; 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the extent of the Spanish dominions in the New World, ; pressed by the languor and feebleness natural to 
 that several places subject to the jurisdiction of each j provinces which compose the extremities of an over- 
 viceroy, were at such an enormous distance from the : grown empire, may be animated with vigour and 
 capitals in which they resided, that neither their at- activity when brought so near the seat of power as to 
 tendon nor their authority could reach so far. Some ! feel its invigorating influence. 
 
 provinces subordinate to the viceroy of New Spain 
 lay about two thousand miles from Mexico. There 
 
 Such, since the accession of the princes of the 
 house of Bourbon to the throne of Spain, has been 
 
 were countries subject to the viceroy of Peru still | the progress of their regulations, and the gradual 
 further from Lima. The people in those remote j expansion of their views with respect to the corn- 
 districts, could hardly be said to enjoy the benefit of j merce and government of their American colonies, 
 civil government. The oppression and insolence t5f j Nor has their attention been so entirely engrossed 
 its inferior ministers they often feel, and rather sub- by what related to the more remote parts of their 
 
 mit to these in silence, than involve themselves 
 in the expense and trouble of resorting to the distant 
 capitals, where alone they can rind redress. As a 
 remedy for this, a fourth viceroyalty has been erected, 
 to the jurisdiction of which are subjected the pro- 
 
 dominions, as to render them neglectful of what was 
 still more important the reformation of domestic 
 policy. Fully sensible of the 
 declension of Spain from her 
 
 errors and defects in 
 causes to which the 
 
 pain 
 
 former prosperity ought to be imputed, they have 
 
 1 i i , / , i i 
 
 viuces of Rio de la Plata, Buen<js-Ayres, Paraguay, made it a great object of their policy to revive a 
 Tucuman, Potosi, St. Cruz de la Sierra, Charcas, j spirit of industry among their subjects, and to give 
 and the towns of Mcndoza and St. Juan. By this | such extent and perfection to their manufactures as 
 well-judged arrangement, two advantages are gained, may enable them to supply the demands of America 
 All the inconveniences occasioned by the remote | from their own stock, and to exclude foreigners from 
 situation of those provinces, which had been long | a branch of commerce which has been so fatal to the 
 felt, and long complained of, arc in a great measure kingdom. This they have endeavoured to accom- 
 removccl. The countries most distant from Lima plish by a variety of edicts issued since the peace of 
 are separated from the viceroyalty of Peru, and Utretcht. They have granted bounties for the on- 
 united under a superior, whose seat of government couragement of some branches of industry ; they 
 at Buenos-Ayres will be commodious and accessible. | have lowered the taxes on others; they have either 
 The contraband trade with the Portuguese, \\hic h entirely prohibited, or have loaded with additional 
 was become so extensive as must have put a final j duties, such foreign manufactures as come in compr- 
 stop to the exportation of commodities from Spain ; tition with their own; they have instituted societies 
 
 to her southern colonies, may be checked more 
 thoroughly, and with greater facility, when the 
 supreme magistrate, by his vicinity to the places in 
 which it is carried on, can view its progress and ef- 
 fects with his own eves. Don Pedro Zevallos, who 
 
 for the improvement of trade and agriculture ; they 
 have planted colonies of husbandmen in some uncul- 
 tivated districts of Spain, and divided among them 
 the waste fields ; they have had recourse to every expe- 
 dient devised by commercial wisdom, or commercial 
 i /> J . . .1 . i.. , i J- 
 
 has been raised to this new dignity, with appoint- j jealousy, for reviving their own industry, and di?- 
 ments equal to those of the other viceroys, is well j countenancing that of other nations. These, how- 
 acquainted both with the state and the interest of! ever, it is not my province to explain, or to inquire 
 the countries over which he is to preside, having | into their propriety and effects, There is no effort, 
 served in them long, and with distinction. By this j of legislation more arduous, no experiment in policy 
 dismemberment, succeeding that which took place at [ more uncertain, than an attempt to revive the spirit 
 the erection of the viceroyalty of the new kingdom 
 of Granada, almost two-third parts of the territoric 
 
 originally subject to the vicerovs of Peru are now 
 lopped off from their jurisdiction. 
 
 The limits of the viceroyalty of New Spain have 
 likewise been considerably circumscribed, and with 
 no less propriety and discernment. Four of its most 
 remote provinces, Sonora, Cinaloa, California, and 
 New Navarre, have been formed into a separate 
 government. The Chevalier de Croix, who is in- 
 trusted wuth. this convnand, is not dignified with the 
 title of viceroy, nor does he enjoy the appointments 
 belonging to that rank; but his jurisdiction is alto- 
 gether independent on the viceroyalty of New Spain. 
 The erection of this last government seems to have 
 been suggested not only by the consideration of the 
 remote situation of those provinces from Mexico, 
 but by attention to tho late discoveries made there 
 which I have mentioned. Countries containing the 
 richest mines of gold that have hitherto been dis- 
 covered in the New World, and which probably 
 nvay rise into great importance, required tho imme- 
 diate inspection of a governor to whom they should 
 be specially committed. As every consideration of 
 duty, of interest, and of vanity, must concur in 
 prompting those new governors to encourage such 
 exertions as tend to diffuse opulence and prosperity 
 through the provinces committed to their charge, 
 the beneficial effects of this arrangement may le 
 considerable. Many districts in America, long dc- 
 THK HISTORY OF AJIEJUCA. No. 26. . 
 
 more 
 
 of industry where it has declined, or to introduce it 
 where it is unknown. Nations, already possessed of 
 extensive commerce enter into competition with 
 such advantages, derived from the large capitals ant 1 
 extensive credit of their merchants, the dexterity of 
 their manufacturers, and the alertness acquired by 
 habit in every department of business, that the state 
 which aims at rivalling or supplanting them, must 
 expect to struggle with many difficulties, and be 
 content to advance slowly. If the quantity of pro- 
 ductive industry, now in Spain, be compared with 
 that of the kingdom under the last listless monarchs 
 of the Austrian line, its progress must appear con 
 siderable, and is sufficient to alarm the jealousy, 
 and to call forth the most vigorous efforts, of tho 
 
 nations now in possessi 
 
 ion of the lucrative trade 
 
 which .the -Spaniards aim at wresting from them .^ 
 One circumstance may render those exertions of 
 Spain an object of more serious attention to thr 
 other European powers. They are not to be ascrib- d 
 wholly to the influence of the crown and its minis- 
 ters. The sentiments and spirit of the people socra 
 to second the provident care of their monarchs, and 
 to give it greater effect. The nation has adopted 
 more liberal idoas, not only with respect to corn- 
 me-ce but domestic policy. In all the later Spanish 
 writors, defects in the arrangements of their country 
 Concerning both are acknowledged, and remedies 
 proposed, which ignorance rendered their ancestors 
 incapable of discerning, and pride would uot luvo 
 2D 
 
202 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 allowed them tu confess (1^3). But after all that 
 the Spaniards have done, much remains to do. Many 
 pernicious institutions and abuses, deeply incorpo- 
 rated with the system of internal policy and tax- 
 ation which has been long established in Spain, 
 must be abolished before industry and manufac- 
 turers can recover an extensive activity. 
 
 Still, however, the commercial regulations of 
 Spain with respect to her colonies are too rigid and 
 systematical to be carried into complete execution. 
 The legislature that loads trade with impositions too 
 heavy, or fetters it by restrictions too severe, defeats 
 its own intention, and is only multiplying the in- 
 ducements to violate its statutes, and proposing a 
 high premium to encourage illicit traffic. The Spa- 
 niards, both in Europe and America, being circum- 
 scribed in their mutual intercourse by the jealousy 
 of the crown, or oppressed by its exactions, have 
 their invention continually on the stretch how to 
 elude its edicts. The vigilance and ingenuity of 
 private interest discover means of effecting this, 
 which public wisdom cannot foresee, nor public au- 
 thority prevent. This spirit, counteracting that of 
 the laws, pervades the commerce of Spain with 
 America in all its branches ; and from the highest 
 departments in government descends to the lowest. 
 The very officers appointed to check contraband 
 trade are often employed as instruments in carrying 
 it on ; and the boards instituted to restrain and 
 punish it arc the channels through which it Hows. 
 The king is supposed, by the most intelligent Spa- 
 nish writers', to bo defrauded, by various artifices, of 
 more than one-half of the revenue which he ought 
 to receive from America ; and as long as it is the 
 interest of so many persons to screen those artifices 
 from detection, the knowledge of them will never 
 reach the throne. " How many ordinances," says 
 Corita, " how many instructions, how many letters 
 from our sovereign, are sent in order to correct 
 abuses ! and how little are they observed, and what 
 small advantage is derived from them ! To me the 
 old observation appears just, that where there arc 
 many physicians and many medicines, there is a 
 want of health ; where there are many laws and 
 many judges, there is want of justice. We have 
 viceroys, presidents, governors, oydors, corrigidors, 
 alcaldes ; and thousands of al^uazils abound every 
 -where ; but notwithstanding all these, public abuse's 
 continue to multiply.** Time has increased the evils 
 which he lamented as early as the reign of Philip 
 II. A spirit of corruption has infected all the co- 
 lonies of Spain in America. Men far removed from 
 the seat of government; impatient to acquire 
 wealth, that they may return speedily from what 
 they are apt to consider as a state of exile in a re- 
 mote unhealthful country ; allured by opportunities 
 too tempting to be resisted, and seduced by the ex- 
 ample of those around them ; find their sentiments 
 of honour and of duty gradually relax. In private 
 life they give themselves up to a dissolute luxury, 
 while in their public conduct they become unmind- 
 ful of what they owe to their sovereign and to their 
 country. 
 
 Before I close this account of the Spanish trade 
 in America, there remains one detached but import- 
 ant branch of it to be mentioned. Soon after his 
 accession to the throne, Philip II. formed a scheme 
 of planting a colony in the Philippine islands which 
 had been neglected since the time of their disco- 
 very ; and he accomplished it by means of an arma- 
 ment fitted out from New Spain. Manila, in the 
 island of Luconia, was the station chosen for the 
 
 capital of this new establishment. From it an activ 
 commercial intercourse began with the Chinese, and 
 a considerable number of that industrious people, 
 allured by the prospect of gain, settled in the Phi- 
 lippine islands under the Spanish protection. They 
 supplied the colony so amply with all the valuable 
 productions and manufactures of the East, as enabled 
 it to open a trade with America, by a course of navi- 
 gation the longest from land to land on our globe. 
 In the infancy of this trade, it was carried on with 
 Callao, on the coast of Peru ; but experience having 
 discovered the impropriety of fixing upon that as the 
 port of communication with Manila, the staple of 
 the commerce between the east and west was re- 
 moved 'from Callao to Acapulco, on the coast of 
 New Spain. 
 
 After various arrangements, it has been brought 
 into a regular form. One or two ships depart an- 
 nually from Acapulco, which are permitted to carry 
 out silver to the amount of five hundred thousand 
 pesos ; but they have hardly any thing else of value 
 on board ; in return for which, they bring back spi- 
 ces, drugs, china and japan wares, calicoes, chintz, 
 muslins, silks, and every precious article with which 
 the benignity of the climate, or the ingenuity of its 
 people, has" enabled the East to supply the rest of 
 the world. For some time the merchants of Peru 
 wjrc admitted to participate in this traffic, and might 
 send annually a _ship to Acapulco, to wait the arri- 
 val of the vessels from Mauila, and receive a pro- 
 portional share of the commodities which they im- 
 ported. At length the Peruvians were excluded 
 from this trade by most rigorous edicts, and all the 
 commodities from the East reserved solely for the 
 consumption of New Spain. 
 
 In consequence of this indulgence, the inhabitants 
 of that country enjoy advantages unknown in the 
 other Spanish colonies. The manufactures of the 
 East are not only more suited to a warm climate, 
 and more showy than those of Europe, but can be 
 sold at a lower price ; while, at the same time, the 
 profits upon them are so considerable as to enrich 
 all those who are employed either in bringing them 
 from Manila or vending them in New Spain. As 
 the interest both of the buyer and seller concurred 
 in favouring this. branch of commerce, it has con- 
 tinued to extend in spite of regulations concerted 
 with the most anxious jealousy to circumscribe it. 
 Under cover of what the laws permit to be imported* 
 great quantities of Indian goods are poured into the 
 markets of New Spain (194) ; and when the Flota 
 arrives at Vera Cruz from Europe, it often finds the 
 wants of the people already supplied by cheaper and 
 more acceptable commodities. 
 
 There is not, in the commercial arrangements of 
 Spain, any circumstance more inexplicable than the 
 permission of this trade between New Spain and the 
 Philippines, or more repugnant to its fundamental 
 maxim of holding the colonies in perpetual depen- 
 dence on the mother-country, by prohibiting any 
 commercial intercourse that might suggest to them 
 the idea of receiving a supply of their wants from 
 any other quarter. This permission must appear 
 still more extraordinary, from considering that Spain 
 herself carries on no direct trade with her settle- 
 ments in the Philippines, and grants a privilege to 
 one of her American colonies which she denies to 
 her subjects in Europe. It is probable, that the 
 colonists who originally took possession of the Phi- 
 lippines, having been sent out from New Spain, be- 
 gun this intercourse with a country which they con- 
 side re 1, in some measure, as their parent state, 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 203 
 
 before the court of Madrid was aware of its conse- 
 quences, or could establish regulations in order to 
 prevent it. Many remonstrances have been^ pre- 
 sented against this trade, as detrimental to Spain, 
 by diverting into another channel a large portion of 
 that treasure which ought to flow into the kingdom, 
 as tending to give rise to a spirit of independence 
 in the colonies, and to encourage innumerable 
 frauds, against which it is impossible to guard, in 
 transactions so far removed from the inspection of 
 government. But as it requires no slight effort of 
 political wisdom and vigour to abolish any practice 
 which numbers are interested in supporting, and to 
 which time has added the sanction of its authority, 
 the commerce between New Spain and Manila seems 
 to be as considerable as ever, and may be considered 
 as one chief cause of the elegance and splendour 
 conspicuous in this part of the Spanish dominions. 
 But notwithstanding this general corruption in 
 the colonies of Spain, and the diminution of the in- 
 come belonging to the public occasioned by the 
 illicit importations made by foreigners, as well as by 
 the various frauds of which the colonists themselves 
 are guilty in their commerce with the parent state, 
 the Spanish monarchs receive a very considerable 
 revenue from their American dominions. This arises 
 from taxes of various kinds, which may be divided 
 into three capital branches. The first contains what 
 is paid to the king, as sovereign, or superior lord of 
 the New World : to this class belongs the duty on 
 the gold and silver raised from the mines, and the 
 tribute exacted from the Indians ; the former is 
 termed by the Spaniards the riyht ofsiyn iory, the 
 latter is the duty of vassalage. The second branch 
 comprehends the numerous duties upon commerce, 
 which accompany and oppress it in every step of its 
 progress, from the greatest transactions of the whole- 
 sale merchant, to the petty traffic of the vender by 
 retail. The third includes what accrues to the king, 
 as head of the church, and administrator of eccle- 
 siastical funds in the New World. In consequence 
 of this, he receives the first-fruits, annates, spoils, 
 and other spiritual revenues, levied by the apostolic 
 chamber in Europe ; and is entitled likewise, to the 
 profit arising from the sale of the bull of Cruzado. 
 This bull, which is published every two years, con- 
 tains an absolution from past offences by the pope, 
 and among other immunities, a permission to eat 
 several kinds of prohibited food during Lent, and 
 on meagre days. The monks employed in dispers- 
 ing those bulls, extol their virtues with oil the fer- 
 vour of interested eloquence ; the people, ignorant 
 and credulous, listen with implicit assent ; and every 
 person in the Spanish colonies, of European, Cre- 
 olian, or mixed race, purchases a bull, which is 
 deemed essential to his salvation, at the rate se 
 upon it by government (195). 
 
 What may be the amount of those various funds 
 it is almost impossible to determine with precision 
 The extent of the Spanish dominions in America 
 the jealousy of government, which renders them 
 inaccessible to foreigners, the mysterious silence 
 which the Spaniards are accustomed to observe with 
 respect to the interior state of their colonies, combine 
 in covering this sxibject with a veil which it is no 
 easy to remove. But an account, apparently no less 
 accurate than it is curious, has lately been published 
 of the royal revenue in New Spain, from which w( 
 may form some idea with respect to what is collected 
 in the other provinces. According to that account 
 thft crown does not receive from ?.ll the departments 
 of taxation in New Spain above a million of ou 
 
 money, from which one half must be deducted at the 
 xpense of the provincial establishment (196). Peru, 
 t is probable, yields a sum not inferior to this ; and 
 f we suppose that all the other regions of America, 
 ncluding the islands, furnish a third share of equal 
 r'aluo, we shall not perhaps be far wide from the 
 ruth if we conclude that the net public revenue of 
 Spain, raised in America, does not exceed a million 
 and a half sterling. This falls far short of the im 
 iiense sums to which suppositions, founded upon 
 Conjecture, have raised the Spanish revenue in 
 America (197). It is remarkable, however, upon one 
 account : Spain and Portugal are the only European 
 lowers who derive a direct revenue from their colo 
 lies. All the advantage that accrues to other na- 
 ;ions from their American dominions, arises from 
 :he exclusive enjoyment of their trade : but beside 
 ;his, Spain has brought her colonies to contribute 
 :owards increasing the power of the state, and, in 
 return for protection, to bear a proportional share of 
 he common burden. 
 
 Accordingly, the sum which I have computed to 
 be the amount of the Spanish revenue from America, 
 arises wholly from the taxes collected there, and is 
 far from being the whole of what accrues to the king 
 from his dominions in the New World. The heavy 
 duties imposed on the commodities exported from 
 Spain to America (198), as well- as what is paid by 
 those which she sends home in return ; the tax upon 
 the nogro slaves with which Africa supplies the New 
 World, together with several smaller branches of 
 finance, bring large sums into the treasury, the pre- 
 cise extent of which I cannot pretend to ascertain. 
 
 But if the revenue which Spain draws from Ame- 
 rica be great, the expense of administration in her 
 colonies bears proportion to it. In c very > depart- 
 ment, even of her domestic police and finances, 
 Spain has adopted a system more complex and more 
 encumbered with a variety of tribunals and a multi- 
 tude of officers, than that of any European nation 
 in which the sovereign possesses such extensive 
 power. From the jealous spirit with which Spain 
 watches over her American settlements, and her en- 
 deavours to guard against fraud in provinces so 
 remote from inspection, boards and officers have been 
 multiplied there with still more anxious attention. 
 In a country where the expense of living is great, 
 the salaries allotted to every person in public office 
 must be high, and must load the revenue with an 
 immense burden. The parade of government 
 ^really augments the weight of it. -The viceroys ot 
 Mexico, Peru, and the new kingdom of Granada, as 
 representatives of the king's person, among people 
 fond of ostentation, maintain all the state and dig- 
 nity of royalty. Their courts are formed upon the 
 model of that of Madrid, with horse and foot-guards, 
 a household regularly established, numerous attend- 
 ants, and ensigns of power, displaying such pomp 
 as hanlly retains the appearance of a delegated au- 
 thority. All the expense incurred by supporting the 
 external and permanent order of government is de- 
 frayed by the crown. The viceroys have besides, 
 peculiar appointments suited to their exalted station. 
 The salaries fixed bylaw are indeed extremely mode- 
 rate ; that of the viceroy of Peru is only thirty thou- 
 sand ducats; and that of the viceroy of Mexico twenty 
 thousand ducats. Of late they have been raised to 
 forty thousand. 
 
 These salaiies, however, constitute but a small part 
 of the revenue enjoyed by the viceroys. The exer- 
 cise of an absolute authority extending to every 
 department of government, and the power of tu^ 
 
204 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA 
 
 posing of many lucrative offices, aft'ord them many 
 opportunities of accumulating wealth. To these, 
 which may be considered as legal and allowed emo- 
 luments, large sums are often added by exactions, 
 which, in countries so far removed from the seat of 
 government, it is not easy to discover, and impossible 
 to restrain. By monopolizing some branches of 
 commerce, by a lucrative concern in others, by con- 
 niving at the frauds of merchants, a viceroy may raise 
 such an annual revenue as no subject of any Eu- 
 ropean monarch enjoys (199). From the single 
 article of presents made to him (fa the anniversary of 
 his Name-day (which is always observed as a high 
 festival), I am informed that a viceroy has been 
 known to receive sixty thousand pesos. According 
 to a- Spanish saying, the legal revenues of a viceroy- 
 are unknown, his real profits depend upon his oppor- 
 tunities and his conscience. Sensible of this, the 
 kings of Spain, as I have formerly observed, grant a 
 commission to their viceroys only for a few years. 
 This circumstance, however, renders them often 
 more rapacious, and adds to the ingenuity and ardour 
 wherewith they labour to improve every moment of 
 a power which they know is hastening fast to a pe- 
 riod ; and short as its duration is, it ustially affords 
 sufficient, time for repairing a shattered fortune, or 
 for creating a new one. But even in situations so 
 trying to human frailty, there are instances of virtue 
 that remain unseduced. In the year 1772. the Mar- 
 quis de Croix finished the term of his vice-royalty in 
 New Spain with unsuspected integrity ; and, instead 
 of- bringing home exorbitant wealth, returned with 
 the admiration and applause of a grateful people, 
 wKom his government had rendered happy. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT TO BOOKS IX. AND X. ; 
 
 Containing tlie History of Virginia to the year 1688, 
 and the Hittory of New England to the year 
 1652. 
 
 THE original plan of my father, the late Dr. Robert- 
 son, with respect to the history of America, compre- 
 hended not only an account of the discovery of that 
 country, and of the conquests and colonies of the 
 Spaniards, but embraced also the history of the Bri- 
 tish and Portuguese establishments in the New 
 World, and of the settlements made by the several 
 nations of Europe in the West India islands. It was 
 his intention not to have published any part of the 
 work until the whole was completed. In the Preface 
 to his History of America, he has stated the reasons 
 which induced him to depart from that resolution, 
 and to publish the two volumes which contain an 
 account of the discovery of the New World, and of 
 the progress of the Spanish arms and colonies in that 
 quarter of the globe. He says, "he had made some 
 progress in the history of British America ;" and ho 
 announces his intention to return to that part of his 
 work', as soon as the ferment which at that time pre- 
 vailed in the British colonies in America should sub- 
 side, and regular government be re-established.- 
 Various causes concurred in preventing him from 
 fulfilling his intention. 
 
 Duiing the course of a tedious illness, which he 
 early foresaw would have a fatal termination, Dr. 
 Robertson at different times destroyed many of his 
 papers. But after his death I found that part of the 
 history of British America which he had wrote many 
 years before, and which is now offered to the public. 
 It is written with his own hand, as all his works 
 wore ; it is as c^efully corrected as any part qf his 
 jruwitucrrpts which I have ever seen ; and he had 
 
 thought it worthy of being preserved, as it escaped 
 the flames to which so many other papers had been 
 committed. I read it with the utmost attention ; but 
 before I came to any resolution about the publication, 
 I put the MS. into the hands of some of those friends 
 whom my father used to consult on such occasions, 
 as it would have been rashness and presumption in 
 me to have trusted to my own partial decision. It 
 was perused by some other persons also, in whose 
 taste and judgment I have the greatest confidence; 
 by all of them I was encouraged to offer it to the 
 public, as a fragment curious and interesting in itself, 
 and not inferior to any of my father's works 
 
 When I determined to follow that advice, it was a 
 circumstance of great weight with me, that as I never 
 could think myself at liberty to destroy those papers, 
 which my father had thought worthy of being pre- 
 served, and as I could not know into whose hands 
 they might hereafter fall, I considered it as certain 
 that they would be published at some future period, 
 when they might meet with an editor, who, not being 
 actuated by the same sacred regard for the reputation 
 of the author which I feel, might make alterations 
 and additions, and obtrude the whole on the public as 
 a genuine and authentic work. The MS. is now 
 published, such as it was left by the author ; nor have 
 I presumed to make any addition, alteration, or cor- 
 rection whatever. 
 
 WILLIAM ROIJKKTSON. 
 Queen Street, EdinburyJi, 
 April, 1796. 
 
 BOOK IX. 
 
 THE dominions of Great Britain in America arc next 
 in extent to those of Spain. Its acquisitions there, 
 are a recompcnce due to those enterprising talents 
 which prompted the English to enter early on the 
 career of discovery, and to pursue it with persever- 
 ing ardour. England was the second natiwi that 
 ventured to visit the New World. The account of 
 Columbus's successful voyage filled all Europe with 
 astonishment and admiration. But in England it 
 did something more ; it excited a vehement desire of 
 emulating the glory of Spain, and of aiming to ob- 
 tain some share in those advantages which were 
 expected in this new field opened to national acti- 
 vity. The attention of the English court had been 
 turned towards the discovery of unknown countries 
 by its negotiation with Bartholomew Columbus. 
 Henry VII. having listened to his propositions with 
 a more favourable ear than could have been expected 
 from a cautious, distrustful prince, averse by habit 
 as well as by temper to new and hazardous projects, 
 he was more easily induced to approve of a voyage 
 for discovery, proposed by some of his own subjects, 
 soon after the return of Christopher Columbus. 
 
 But though the English had spirit to form the 
 scheme, they had not at that period attained to such 
 skill in navigation as qualified them for carrying it 
 intq execution, From the inconsiderate ambition of 
 its monarchs, the nation had long wasted its genius 
 and activity in pernicious and ineffectual efforts to 
 conquer France. When this ill-directed ardour 
 began to abate, the fatal contest between the houses 
 of York and Lancaster turned the arras of one-half 
 of t^e kingdom against the other, and exhausted the 
 vigour of both. During the course of two centuries, 
 while industry and commerce were making gradual 
 progress both in the south and north of Europe, the 
 English continued so blind to the advantages of 
 their own situation, that they hardly began to bend 
 their thoughts towards those objects and pursuits to 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 205 
 
 which they are indebted for their present opulence 
 and power. While the trading vessels of Italy, 
 Spain, and Portugal, as well as those of the Hans 
 Towns, visited the most remote ports in Europe, and 
 carried on an active intercourse with its various na- 
 tions, the English did little more than creep along- 
 their own coasts, in small barks, which conveyed the 
 productions of one county to another. Their com 
 merce was almost wholly passive. Their wants were 
 supplied by strangers ; and whatever necessary or 
 luxury of life their own country did not yield, was 
 imported in foreign bottoms. The cross of St. 
 George was seldom displayed beyond the precincts 
 of the narrow seas. Hardly any English ship traded 
 with Spain or Portugal, before the beginning of the 
 fifteenth century ; and half a century more elapsed 
 before the English mariners became so adventurous 
 as to enter the Mediterranean. 
 
 In this infancy of navigation, Henry could not 
 commit the conduct of an armament destined to ex- 
 plore unknown regions, to his own subjects. He 
 invested Giovanni Gaboto, a Venetian adventurer 
 who had settled in Bristol, with the chief command ; 
 and issued a commission to him and his three sons, 
 empowering them to sail under the banner of Eng- 
 land, towards the east, north, or west, in order to 
 discover countries unoccupied by any Christian 
 state ; to take possession of them in his name, and to 
 carry on an exclusive trade with the inhabitants, 
 under condition of paying a fifth part of the free pro- 
 fit on every voyage to the crown. This commission 
 was granted on March 5th, 1495, in less than two 
 vcars after the return of Columbus from America. 
 But Cabot (for that is the name he assumed in Eng- 
 land, and by which he is best known), did not sot 
 out on his voyage for two years. He, together with 
 his second son Sebastian, embarked at Bristol on 
 board a ship furnished by the king, and was accom- 
 panied by four small barks fitted out by the mer- 
 chants of that city. 
 
 As in that age the most eminent navigators, 
 formed by the instructions of Columbus, or animated 
 by his example, were guided by ideas derived from 
 his superior knowledge and experience, Cabot had 
 adopted the system of that great man concerning the 
 probability of opening a new and shorter passage to 
 the East Indies by holding a western course. The 
 opinions which Columbus had formed with respect 
 to the islands which he had discovered, were univer- 
 sally received. They were supposed to lie conti- 
 guous to the great continent of India, and to consti- 
 tute a part of the vast countries comprehended under 
 that general name. Cabot accordingly deemed it 
 probable, that, by steering to the north-west, he 
 might reach India by a shorter course than that 
 which Columbus had taken, and hoped to fall in with 
 the coast of Cathay, or China, of whose fertility and 
 opulence the descriptions of Marco Polo had excited 
 high ideas. After sailing for some weeks dae west, 
 and nearly on the parallel of the port from which he 
 took his departure, he discovered a large island, 
 which he called Prima Vista, and his sailors New- 
 foundland ; and in a few days he descried a smaller 
 isle, to which he gave the name of St. John. He 
 landed on both these, made some observations on 
 their soil and productions, and brought off three of 
 the natives. Continuing his course westward, he 
 ;oon reached the continent of North America, and 
 ailed along it from the fifty-sixth to the thirty-eighth 
 egree of latitude, from the coast of Labrador to that 
 ' Virginia. As his chief object was to discover some 
 ilet that, might open a passage to the rvcst, it 
 
 1 docs not appear that he landed any where during 
 this extensive run ; and he returned to England 
 ' without attempting either settlement or conquest in 
 any part of that continent. 
 
 If it had been Henry's purpose to prosecute the 
 j object of the commission given by him to Cabot, 
 | and to take possession of the countries which he had 
 ! discovered, the success of this voyage must have 
 answered his most sanguine expectations. His sub- 
 i jects were undoubtedly the first Europeans who had 
 : visited that part of the American continent, and 
 ! were entitled to whatever right of property prior dis 
 I covery is supposed to confer. Countries, which 
 | stretched in an uninterrupted course through such a 
 ! large portion of the temperate zone, opened a pro- 
 spect of settling to advantage under mild climates, 
 | and in a fertile soil. But by the time that Cabot 
 I returned to England, he found both the state of affairs 
 and the king's inclination unfavourable to any 
 | scheme the execution of which would have required 
 ! tranquillity and leisure. Henry was involved in a 
 war with Scotland, and his kingdom was not yet 
 fully composed after the commotion excited by a for- 
 midable insurrection of his own subjects in the west. 
 An ambassador from Ferdinand of Arragon was then 
 in London ; and as Henry set a high value upon 
 the friendship of that monarch, for whose character 
 he professes much admiration, perhaps from its simi- 
 larity to-its own, and was endeavouring to strenghen 
 their union by negociating the marriage which after- 
 wards took place between his eldest son and the 
 Princess Catherine, he was cautious of giving any 
 offence to a prince jealous to excess of all his rights. 
 From the position of the islands and continent which 
 Cabot had discovered, it was evident that they lay 
 within the limits of the ample donative, which the 
 bounty of Alexander VI. had conferred upon Fer- 
 dinand and Isabella. No person in that age ques- 
 tioned the validity of a papal grant ; and Ferdinand 
 was not of a temper to relinquish any claim to which 
 he had a shadow of title. Submission to the au- 
 thority of the pope, and deference for an ally whom 
 he courted, seem to have concurred with Henry's 
 own situation in determining him to abandon a 
 scheme in which he had engaged with some degree 
 of ardour and expectation. No attempt towards 
 discovery was made in England during the remainder 
 of his reign ; and Sebastian Cabot, finding no en- 
 couragement for his active talents there, entered into 
 the service of Spain. 
 
 This is the most probable account of the sudden 
 cessation of Henry's activity, after such success in 
 his first essay as might have encouraged him to per 
 severe. The advantages of commerce, as well as its 
 nature, were so little understood in England about 
 ! this period, that, by an act of parliament in the year 
 | 1488, the taking of interest for the use of money 
 ; was prohibited under severe penalties. And by ano- 
 ther law, the profit arising from dealing in bills of 
 exchange was condemned as savouring of usury. It 
 is not surprising, then, that no great effort should 
 be made to extend trade by a nation whose commer- 
 cial ideas were still so crude and illiberal. But it is 
 more difficult to discover what prevented this scheme 
 of Henry VII. from being resumed during the 
 reigns of his son and grandson ; and to give any 
 reason why no attempt .was made, either to explore 
 the northern continent of America more fully, or to 
 settle in it. Henry VIII. was frequently at open 
 enmity with Spain: the value of the Spanish ac- 
 quisitions in America had become so well known, as 
 might have excited his desire to qblain some footing 
 
206 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 in those opulent regions; and during a considerable j vast wealth th;it flowed into Portugal from its com- 
 part of his reign, the prohibitions in a papal bull merce with those regions. The scheme was aecor- 
 would not have restrained him from making en- dingly twice resumed under the long administration 
 croachment upon the Spanish dominions. But the of Henry VIII., first, with some slender aid from 
 reign of Henry was not favourable to the progress ! the king, and then by private merchants. Both 
 of discovery. During one period of it, the active ' voyages were disastrous and unsuccessful. In the 
 part which he took in the affairs of the continent, ! former, one of the ships was lost. In the latter, the 
 and the vigour with which he engaged in the contest stock of provisions was so ill proportioned to the 
 between the two mighty rivals, Charles V. and ' number of the crew, that, although they were but 
 Francis I., gave full occupation to the enterprising six months at sea, many perished with hunger, and 
 spirit both of the king and his nobility. During the survivors were constrained to support life by 
 another period of his administration, his famous feeding on the bodies of their dead companions, 
 controversy with the court of Rome kept the nation ; The vigour of a commercial spirit did not relax in 
 in perpetual agitation and suspense. Engrossed by the reign of Edward VI. The great fishery on the 
 those objects, neither the king nor the nobles had banks of Newfoundland became an object of atten- 
 inclinatiou or leisure to turn their attention to new ' tion ; and, from some regulations for the encourage- 
 pursuits ; and, without their patronage and aid, the ment of that branch of trade, it seems to have been 
 commercial part of the nation was too inconsiderable prosecuted with activity and success. But 'the pros- 
 to make any effort of consequence. Though Eug- pect of opening a communication with China and 
 land, by its total separation from the church of , the Spice Islands, by some other route than round 
 Rome, soon after the accession of Edward VI., dis- the Gape of Good Ilopc, slill continued to allure the 
 claimed that authority which, by its presumptuous English more than any scheme of adventure. Cabot, 
 partition of the globe between two favourite nations, ! whose opinion was deservedly of high authority in 
 circumscribed the activity of every other state within whatever related to naval enterprise, warmly urged 
 very narrow limits ; yet a feeble minority, distracted the English to make another attempt to discover this 
 with faction, was not a juncture for forming schemes passage. As it had been thrice searched for in vain 
 of doubtful success and remote utility. The bigotry by steering towards the north-west, he proposed that 
 of Mary, and her marriage with Philip, disposed her a trial should now be made by the north-east; and 
 to pay a sacred regard to that grant of the holy see, supported this advice by such plausible reasons and 
 which vested in a husband, on whom she doted, an conjectures as excited sanguine expectations of suc- 
 exclusive right to every part of the New World, cess. Several noblemen and persons of rank, to- 
 Thus, through a singular succession of various causes, gether with some principal merchants, having asso- 
 sixty-one years elapsed from the time that the ciatedfor this purpose, were incorporated, by a charter 
 English discovered North America, during which from the king, under the title of The Company of 
 their monarchs gave little attention to that country Merchant Adventurers for the Discovery of Regions, 
 which was destined to be annexed to their crown, Dominions, Islands, and Places unknown. Cabot, 
 and to be a chief source of its opulence and power, who was appointed governor of this company, soon 
 
 But though the public contributed little towards fitted out two ships and a bavk, furnished with in- 
 the progress of discovery, naval skill, knowledge of structions in his own hand, which discover the great 
 commerce, and a spirit of enterprise, began to spread extent both of his naval skill and mercantile saga- 
 among the English. During the reign of Henry VIII. city. 
 
 several new channels of trade were opened, and Sir Hugh Willoughby, who was intrusted with 
 private adventurers visited remote countries, with the command, stood directly northwards along the 
 which England had formerly no intercourse. Some coast of Norway, and doubled the North Cape. But 
 merchants of Bristol, having fitted out two ships for in that tempestuous ocean his small squadron was 
 the southern regions of America, committed the con- separated in a violent storm. Willoughby's ship 
 duct of them to Sebastian Cabot, who had quitted and the bark took refuge in an obseure harbour in 
 the service of Spain. He visited the coasts of Bra- a desert part of Russian Lapland, where ho and all 
 zil, and touched at the islands of Hispaniola and his companions were froxcn to death. Richard 
 Puerto Rico ; and though this voyage seems not to Chancclour, the captain of the other vessel, was 
 have been beneficial to the adventurers, it extended anorc fortunate ; he entered the White Sea, and 
 the sphere of English navigation, and added to the wintered in safety at Archangel. Though no vessel 
 national stock of nautical science. Though disap- of any, foreign nation had ever visited that quarter 
 pointed in their expectations of profit in this first of the globe before, the inhabitants received their 
 essay, the merchants were not discouraged. They new visitors with a hospitality which would havo 
 sent, successively, several vessels from different ports done honour to a more polished people. The P^ngbsh 
 towards the same quarter, and seem to have carried learned there that this was a province of a vast em- 
 on an interloping trade in the Portuguese settlements pire, subject to the great duke or czar of Muscovy, 
 with success. Nor was it only towards the west, that who resided in a great city twelve hundred miles 
 the activity of the English was directed. Other from Archangel. Cliancelour, with a spirit becoming 
 merchants began to extend their commercial views an ofliecr employed in an expedition for discovery, 
 to tlio east; and by establishing a,n intercourse did not hesitate a moment about the part which he 
 with several islands in the Archipelago, and with ought to take, and set out for that distant capital, 
 some of the towns on the coast of Syria, they found On his arrival in Moscow, he was admitted to au- 
 a new market for woollen cloths (the only mauufac- dicnce, and delivered a letter wh.ich the captain of 
 ture which the nation had begun to cultivate), and cacli ship had received from Edward VI. for the so- 
 supplied their countrymen with various productions vereign of whatever country they should discover 
 of the East, formerly unknown, or received from the . to John Vasilowitz, who at that time filled the Rus 
 Venetians at an exorbitant price. : sian throne. John, though he ruled over his sul 
 
 But the discovery of a shorter passage to the jccts with the cruelty and caprice of a barburo' 
 East. Indies, by the north-west, was still the favorite despot, was not destitute of political sagacity. B 
 project of tho nation, which beheld with envy the ' iusta'nily poimve-i the Inppy ccnJs^qu ices <K 
 
 project 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 207 
 
 might flow from opening an intercourse between his 
 dominions and the western nations of Europe ; and, 
 delighted with the fortunate event to which he was 
 indebted for this unexpected benefit, he treated 
 Chancelour with great respect; and, by a letter to 
 the king of England, invited his subjects to trade 
 in the Russian dominions, with ample promises of 
 protection and favour. 
 
 Chancelour, on his return, found Mary seated on 
 the English throne. The success of this voyage, 
 the discovery of a new course of navigation, the 
 establishment of commerce with a vast empire, the 
 name of which was then hardly known in the West, 
 and the hope of arriving, in this direction, at those 
 regions which had been so long the object of desire, 
 excited a wonderful ardour to prosecute the design 
 with greater vigour. Mary, implicitly guided by her 
 husband in every act of administration, was not un- 
 willing to turn the commercial activity of her sub- 
 jects towards a quarter where it could not excite the 
 jealousy of Spain by encroaching on its possessions 
 in the New World. She wrote to John Vasilowitz 
 in the most respectful terms, courting his friendship. 
 She confirmed the charter of Edward VI., empow- 
 ered Chancelour, and two agents appointed by the 
 company, to negociate with the czar in her name ; 
 and according to the spirit of that ago, she granted 
 an exclusive right of trade with Russia to the cor- 
 poration of merchant adventurers. In virtue of 
 this, they not only established an active and gainful 
 commerce with Russia, but, in hopes of reaching 
 China, they pushed their discoveries eastward to the 
 coast of Nova Zembla, the straits of Waigatz, and 
 towards the mouth of the great river Oby. But in 
 those frozen seas, which nature seems not to have 
 destined for navigation, they were exposed to innu- 
 merable disasters, and met with successive disap- 
 pointments. 
 
 Nor were their attempts to open a communication 
 with India made only in this channel. They ap- 
 pointed some of their factors to accompany the 
 Russian caravans which travelled into Persia by the 
 way of Astracau and the Caspian sea, instructing 
 them to penetrate as far as possible towards the east, 
 and to endeavour not only to establish a trade with 
 those countries, but to acquire every information 
 that might afford any light towards the discovery of 
 a passage to China by the north-east. Notwithstand- 
 ing a variety of dangers to which they were exposed 
 in travelling through so many provinces inhabited 
 by fierce and licentious nations, some of these factors 
 reached Bokara in the province of Chorassan ; and 
 though prevented from advancing further by the 
 civil wars which desolated the country, they returned 
 to Europe with some hopes of extending the com- 
 merce of the company into Persia, and with much 
 intelligence concerning the state of those remote 
 regions of the East. 
 
 The successful progress of the merchant adven- 
 turers iu discovery roused the emulation of their 
 countrymen, and turned their activity into new chan- 
 nels. A commercial intercourse, hitherto unattempted 
 by the English, having been opened with the coast 
 of Barbary, the specimens which that afforded of the 
 valuable productions of Africa invited some enter- 
 prising navigators to visit the more remote provinces 
 of that quarter of the globe. They sailed along its 
 western shore, traded in different ports on both sides 
 of the line, and, after acquiring considerable know- 
 ledge of those countries, returned with a cargo of 
 gold-dust, ivory, and other rich commodities little 
 known at that 'time in England; This commerce 
 
 with Africa seems to have been pursued with vigour, 
 and was at that time no less innocent than lucrative ; 
 for, as the English had then no demand for slaves, 
 they carried it on for many years without violating 
 the rights of humanity. Thus far did the English 
 advance during a period which may be considered 
 as the infant state of their navigation and commerce ; 
 and feeble as its steps at that time may appear to 
 us, we trace them with an interesting curiosity, and 
 look back with satisfaction to the early essays of 
 that spirit which we now behold in the full maturity 
 of its strength. Even in those first efforts of the 
 English, an intelligent' observer will discern pre- 
 sages of their future improvement. As soon as the 
 activity of the nation was put in motion, it took 
 various directions, and exerted itself in each with 
 that steady, persevering industry which is the soul 
 and guide of commerce. Neither discouraged by 
 the hardships and dangers to which they were ex- 
 posed in those northern seas which they first at- 
 tempted to explore, nor afraid of venturing into the 
 sultry climates of the torrid zone, the English, 
 during the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., and 
 Man% opened some of the most considerable sources 
 of their commercial opulence, and gave a beginning 
 to their trade with Turkey, with Africa, with Russia, 
 and with Newfoundland. 
 
 By the progress which England had already made 
 in navigation and commerce, it was now prepared 
 for advancing further; and on the accession of 
 Elizabeth to the throne, a period commenced ex- 
 tremely auspicious to this spirit which was rising in 
 the nation. The domestic tranquillity of the king- 
 dom, maintained, almost without interruption, during 
 the course of a long and prosperous reign ; the peace 
 with foreign nations, that subsisted more than twenty 
 years after Elizabeth was seated on the throne ; the 
 queen's attentive economy, which exempted her sub- 
 jects from the burthen of taxes oppressive to trade; 
 the popularity of her administration ; were all fa- 
 vourable to commercial enterprise, and called it 
 forth into vigorous exertion. The discerning eye of 
 Elizabeth having early perceived that the security 
 of a kingdom environed by the sea depended on its 
 naval force, she began her government with adding 
 to the number and strength of the royal liavy ; 
 which, during a factious minority, ar>d a reign intent 
 on no object but that of suppressing heresy, had 
 been neglected, and suffered to decay. She filled 
 her arsenals with naval stores ; she built several 
 ships of great force, according to the ideas of that 
 age, and encouraged her subjects to imitate her ex- 
 ample, that they might no longer depend on foreign- 
 ers, from whom the English had hitherto purchased 
 all vessels of any considerable burthen. By those 
 efforts the skill of the English artificers was im- 
 proved, the numbers of sailors increased, and the 
 attention of the public turned to the navy, as tlie 
 most important national object. Instead of aban- 
 doning any of the new channels of commerce which 
 had been opened in the three preceding reigns, the 
 English frequented them with greater assiduity, and 
 the patronage of their sovereign added vigour to all 
 their efforts. In order to secure to them the con- 
 tinuance of their exclusive trade with Russia, Eliza- 
 beth cultivated the connexion with John Vasilowitz, 
 which had been formed by her predecessor, and, by 
 successive embassies, gained his confidence so tho- 
 roughly, that the English enjoyed that lucrative 
 privilege during his long reign. She encouraged 
 the company of merchant adventurers, whose mo* 
 nopoly ef the Russian trade was confirmed by act 
 
208 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 of parliament, to resume their d(^>gn of penetrating 
 into Persia by land. Their second attempt, 
 conducted with greater prudence, or undertaken 
 at a more favourable juncture, than the first, was 
 more successful. Their agents arrived in the Per- 
 sian court, and obtained such protection and immu- 
 nities from the Shah, that for a course of years they 
 carried on a gainful commerce in his kingdom ; and 
 by frequenting the various provinces of Persia, be- 
 came so well acquainted with the vast riches of the 
 East, as strengthened their design of opening a 
 more direct intercourse with those fertile legions by 
 sea. 
 
 But as every effort to accomplish this by the north- 
 east had proved abortive, a scheme was formed, un- 
 der the patronage of the earl of Warwick, the head 
 of the enterprising family of Dudley, to make a 
 new attempt, by holding an opposite course by the 
 north-west. The conduct of this enterprise was 
 committed to Martin Frobisher, an officer of expe- 
 rience and reputation. In three successive voyages 
 he explored the inhospitable coast of Labrador, and 
 that of Greenland, (to which Elizabeth gave the 
 name of Meta Incognita,) without discovering any 
 probable appearance of that passage to India for 
 which he sought. This new disappointment was 
 sensibly felt, and might have damped the spirit of 
 naval enterprise among the English,/ if it had not 
 resumed fresh vigour, amidst the general exultation 
 of the nation, upon the successful expedition of Sir 
 Francis Drake. That bold navigator, emulous of 
 the glory which Magellan had acquired by sailing 
 round the globe, formed a scheme of attempting a 
 voyage, which all Europe had admired for sixty 
 years, without venturing to follow the Portuguese 
 discoverer in his adventurous course. Drake under- 
 took this with a feeble squadron, in which the largest 
 vessel did not exceed a hundred tons, and he accom- 
 plished it with no less credit to himself than honour 
 to his country. Even in this voyage, conducted with 
 other views, Drake seems not to have been inatten- 
 tive to the favourite object of his countrymen, the 
 discovery of a new route to India. Before he quitted 
 the Pacific ocean, in order to stretch towards the 
 Philippine islands, he ranged along the coast of 
 California, as high as the latitude of forty-two de- 
 grees north, in hopes of discovering, on that side, 
 Uie communication between the two seas, which had 
 so often been searched for in vain on the other. 
 But this was the only unsuccessful attempt of Drake. 
 The excessive cold of the climate, intolerable to 
 men who had long been accustomed to tropical 
 heat, obliged him to stop short in his progress 
 towards the north ; and whether or not there be 
 .any passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic ocean 
 in that quarter is a point still unascertained. 
 
 From this period, the English seem to have con- 
 fided in their own abilities and courage, as equal 
 to any naval enterprise. They had now visited 
 every region to which navigation extended in that 
 age, and had rivalled the nation of highest repute 
 for naval skill in its most splendid exploit. But 
 notwithstanding the knowledge which they had ac- 
 quired of the different quarters of the globe, they 
 had not hitherto attempted any settlement out of 
 their own country. Their merchants had not yet 
 acquired such a degree either of wealth or of poli- 
 tical influence, as was requisite towards carrying 
 a scheme of colonization into execution. Persons 
 of noble birth were destitue of the ideas and infor- 
 mation which might have disposed them to patronize 
 such a design The 'growing power of Spain, how- 
 
 ever, and the ascendant over the other nations uf 
 Europe to which it had attained under Charles V. 
 and his son, naturally turned the attention of man- 
 kind towards the importance of those settlements in 
 the New World, to which they were so much in- 
 debted for that pre-eminence. The intercourse be- 
 tween Spain and England during the reign of Philip 
 and Mary ; the resort of the Spanish nobility to the 
 English court, while Philip resided there ; the study 
 of the Spanish language, which became fashionable ; 
 and the translation of several histories of America 
 into English, diffused gradually through the nation 
 a more distinct knowledge of the policy of Spain in 
 planting its colonies, and of the advantages which it 
 derived from them. When hostilities commenced 
 between Elizabeth and Philip, the prospect of annoy- 
 ing Spain by sea, opened a new career to the enter- 
 prising spirit of the English nobility. Almost every 
 eminent leader of the age aimed at distinguishing 
 himself by naval exploits. That service, and the 
 ideas connected with it, the discovery of unknown 
 countries, the establishment of distant colonies, and 
 the enriching of commerce by new commodities, 
 became familiar to persons of rank. 
 
 In consequence of all those concurring causes, the 
 English began seriously to form plans of settling 
 colonies in those parts of America which hitherto 
 they had only visited. The projectors and patrons 
 of these plans were mostly persons of rank and influ- 
 ence. Among them, Sir Humphiy Gilbert, of Coinp- 
 ton, in Devonshire, ought to be mentioned with the 
 distinction due to the conductor of the first English 
 colony to America. He had parly rendered himself 
 conspicuous by his military services both in France 
 and Ireland ; and having afterwards turned his atten- 
 tion to naval affairs, he published a discourse con- 
 cerning the probability of a north-west passage, 
 which discovered no inconsiderable portion both of 
 learning and ingenuity, mingled with the enthusiasm, 
 the credulity, and sanguine expectations which incite 
 men to new and hazardous undertakings. With 
 those talents he was deemed a proper person to be 
 employed in establishing a new colony, and casily 
 obtained from the queen letters patent, vesting in 
 him sufficient powers for this purpose. 
 
 As this is the first charter to a colony, granted by 
 the crown of England, the articles in it merit paiti- 
 cular attention, as they unfold the ideas of that age 
 with respect to the nature of such settlements. Eli- 
 zabeth authorizes him to discover and take possession 
 of all remote and barbarous lands, unoccupied by any 
 Christian prince or people. She vests in him, his 
 heirs, and assigns for ever, the full right of property 
 in the soil of those countries whereof he shall take 
 possession. She permits such of her subjects as were 
 willing to accompany Gilbert in his voyage, to go 
 and settle in the countries which he shall plant. 
 She empowers him, his heirs, and assigns, to dispose 
 of whatever portion of those lands he shall judge 
 meet, to persons settled there, in fee simple, accord- 
 ing to the laws of England. She ordains, that all 
 the lands granted to Gilbert shall hold of the crown 
 of England by homage, on payment of the fifth part 
 of the gold or silver ore found there. She confers 
 upon him, his heirs and assigns, the complete juris- 
 dictions and royalties, as well marine as other, within 
 the said lands and seaS thereunto adjoining; and as 
 their common safety and interest would render good 
 government necessary in their new settlements, she 
 gave Gilbert, his heirs and assigns, full power to 
 convict, punish, pardon, govern, and rule, by their 
 good discretion and policy, as well in causes capital 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 2C9 
 
 or criminal as civil, both marine and other, all per- 
 sons who shall, from time to time, settle within the 
 said countries, according to such statutes, laws, and 
 ordinances, as shall be by him, his heirs and assigns, 
 devised and established for their better government. 
 She declared, that all who settled there should have 
 and enjoy all the privileges of free denizens and 
 natives of England, any law, custom, or usage to the 
 contrary notwithstanding. And finally, she prohi- 
 bited all persons from attempting to settle within two 
 hundred leagues of any place which Sir Humphry- 
 Gilbert or his associates shall have occupied, during 
 the space of six years. 
 
 With those extraordinary powers, suited to the high 
 notions of authority and prerogative prevalent iu 
 England during the sixteenth century, but very re- 
 pugnant to more recent ideas with respect to the j 
 rights of free men, who voluntarily unite to form a 
 colony, Gilbert began to collect associates, and to 
 prepare for embarkation. His own character, and 
 the zealous efforts of his half-brother, Walter Ralegh, 
 who even in his early youth displayed those splendid 
 talents, and that undaunted spirit, which create 
 admiration and confidence, soon procured him a suf- 
 ficient number of followers. But his success was not 
 suited either to the sanguine hopes of his country- 
 men or to the expense of his preparations. Two 
 expeditious, both of which he conducted in person, 
 ended disastrously. In the last he himself perished, 
 without having effected his intended settlement on 
 the continent of America, or performing any thing 
 more worthy of notice than the empty formality of 
 taking possession of the island of Newfoundland in 
 the name of his sovereign. The dissensions among 
 his officers; the licentious and ungovernable spirit of 
 some of his crew ; his total ignorance of the countries 
 which he purposed to occupy ; his misfortune in ap- 
 proaching the continent too far towards the north, 
 where the inhospitable coast of Cape Breton did not 
 invite them to settle ; the shipwreck of his largest 
 vessel ; and, above all, the scanty provision which the 
 funds of a private man could make of what was re- 
 quisite for establishing a new colony, were the true 
 causes to which the failure of the enterprize must be 
 imputed, not to any deficiency of abilities or resolu- 
 tion in its leader. 
 
 But the miscarriage of a scheme, in which Gilbert 
 had wasted his fortune, did not discourage Ralegh. 
 He adopted all his brother's ideas ; and applying to 
 the queen, in whose favour he stood high at that 
 time, he procured a patent, with jurisdiction and 
 prerogatives as ample as had been granted unto 
 Gilbert. Ralegh, no less eager to execute than to 
 undertake the scheme, instantlydispatched two small 
 vessels under the command of Amadas and Barlow, 
 two officers of trust, to visit the countries which he 
 intended to settle, and to acquire some previous 
 knowledge of their coasts, their soil, and produc- 
 tions. In order to avoid Gilbert's error, in holding 
 too far north, they took their course by the Canaries 
 and the West India islands, and approached the 
 North American continent by the gulf of Florida. 
 Unfortunately, their chief researches /were made in 
 that part of the country now known by the name of 
 North Carolina, the province in America most desti- 
 tute of commodious harbours. They touched first at 
 an island, which they call Wokocon (probably Oca- 
 koke), situated on the inlet into Pamplicoe sound, 
 and then at Roanokc, near the mouth of Albemarle 
 sound. In both they had some intercourse with the 
 natives, whom they found to be savages with all the 
 characteristic qualities of uncivilized life, bravery, 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, No. 27, 
 
 aversion to labour, hospitality, a propensity to ad- 
 mire, and a willingness to exchange their rude pro- 
 ductions for English commodities, especially for 
 iron, or any of the useful metals of which they were 
 destitute. After spending a few weeks in this traffic, 
 and in visiting some parts of the adjacent continent, 
 Amadas and Barlow returned to England with two 
 of the natives, and gave such splendid descriptions of 
 the beauty of the country, the fertility of the soil, and 
 the mildness of the climate, that Elizabeth, delighted 
 with the idea of occupying a territory superior, so 
 far, to the barren regions towards the north hitherto 
 visited by her subjects, bestowed on it the name of 
 Virginia ; as a memorial that this happy discovery 
 had been made under a virgin queen. 
 
 Their repoit encouraged Ralegh to hasten his pre- 
 parations for taking possession of such an inviting 
 property. He fitted out a squadron of seven small 
 ships under the command of Sir Richard Greenville, 
 a man of honourable birth, and of courage so un- 
 daunted as to be conspicuous even in that gallant 
 age. But the spirit of that predatory war which the 
 English carried on against Spain, mingled with this 
 scheme of settlement ; and on this account, as well as 
 from unacquaintance with a more direct and shorter 
 course to North America, Greenville sailed by the 
 West Indian islands. He spent some time in cruizing 
 among these, and in taking prizes; so that it was 
 towards the close of June before he arrived on the; 
 coast of North America. He touched at both the 
 islands where Amadas and Barlow had landed, and 
 made some excursions into different parts of the con- 
 tinent round Pamplicoe and Albemarle sounds. But 
 as, unfortunately, he did not advance far enough 
 towards the north to discover the noble bay of Che , 
 sapeak, he established the colony which he left on 
 the island of Roanoke, an incommodious station 
 without any safe harbour, and almost uninhabited. 
 
 This colony consisted only of one hundred and 
 eighty persons, under the command of Captain Lane, 
 assisted by some men of note, the most distinguished 
 of whom was Hariot, an eminent mathematician. 
 Their chief employment,, during a residence of nine, 
 months, was to obtain a more extensive knowledge of 
 the country ; and their researches were carried on 
 with greater spirit, and reached further than could 
 have been expected from a colony so feeble, and in a 
 station so disadvantageous. But from the same im- 
 patience of indigent adventurers to acquire sudden 
 wealth, which gave a wrong direction to the industry 
 of the Spaniards in their settlements, the greater 
 part of. the English -seem to have considered nothing 
 as worthy of attention but mines of gold and silver. 
 These they sought for wherever they came : these 
 they inquired after with unwearied eagerness. The 
 savages soon discovered the favourite objects which 
 allured them, and artfully amused them with so many 
 tales concerning pearl fisheries, and rich mines of 
 various metals, that Lane and his companions wasted 
 their time and activity in the chimerical pursuit of 
 these, instead of labouring to raise provisions for 
 their own subsistence. On discovering the deceit of 
 the Indians, they were so much exasperated, that 
 from expostulations and reproaches they proceeded 
 to open hostility. The supplies of provision which 
 they had been accustomed to receive from the natives 
 were of course withdrawn. Through their own ne- 
 gligence no other precaution had been taken for theiy 
 support. Ralegh having engaged in a scheme too 
 expensive for his narrow funds, had not been able to 
 send them that recruit of stores with which Green- 
 ville had promised to furnish them early in the 
 2 E 
 
210 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 spring. The colony, reduced to the utmost distress, 
 and on the point of perishing with famine, was pre- 
 paring to disperse into different districts of the coun- 
 try in quest of food, when Sir Francis Drake ap- 
 peared with his ileet, returning from a successful 
 expedition against the Spaniards in the West Indies. 
 A scheme which he formed of furnishing Lane and his 
 associates with such supplies as might enable them to 
 remain with comfort in their station, was disap- 
 pointed by a sudden storm, in which a small vessel 
 that he destined for their service was dashed to 
 pieces ; and as he could not supply them with an- 
 other, at their joint request, as they were worn out 
 with fatigue and famine, he curried them home to 
 England. 
 
 Such was the inauspicious beginning of the Eng 
 lirih settlements in the New World ; and after excit- 
 ing high expectations, this first attempt produced no 
 effect but that of affording a more complete know- 
 ledge of the country ; as it enabled Hariot, a man of 
 science and observation, to describe its soil, climate, 
 productions, and the manners of its inhabitants, with 
 a degree of accuracy which merits no inconsiderable 
 praise, when compared with the childish and marvel- 
 lous tales published by several of the early visitants 
 of the New World. There is another consequence 
 of this abortive colony important enough to entitle 
 it to a place in history. Lane and his associates, by 
 their constant intercourse with the Indians, had ac- 
 quired a relish for their favourite enjoyment of 
 smoking tobacco ; to the use of which, the credulity 
 of that people not only ascribed a thousand imagi- 
 nary virtues, but their superstition considered the 
 plant itself as a gracious gift of the gods, for the 
 solace of human kind, and the most acceptable offer- 
 ing which man can present to heaven. They brought 
 with them a specimen of this new commodity to 
 England, and taught their countrymen the method 
 of using it ; which Ralegh and some young men of 
 fashion fondly adopted. From imitation of them, 
 from love of novelty, and from the favourable opinion 
 of its salutary qualities entertained by several physi- 
 cians, the practice spread among the English. The 
 Spaniards and Portuguese had, previous to this, 
 introduced it in other parts of Europe. This habit 
 of taking tobacco gradually extended from the extre- 
 mities of the north to those of the south, and in one 
 form or other seems to be equally grateful to the 
 inhabitants of every climate, and by a singular ca- 
 price of the human species, no less inexplicable than 
 unexampled (so bewitching is the acquired taste for 
 a weed of no manifest utility, and at first not only- 
 unpleasant but nauseous), that it has become almost 
 as universal as the demands of those appetites origi- 
 nally implanted in our nature. Smoking was the 
 lirst mode of taking tobacco in England ; and we 
 learn from the comic writers towards the close of the 
 sixteenth century and the beginning of the seven- 
 teenth, that this was deemed one of the accomplish- 
 ments of a man of fashion and spirit. 
 
 A few days after Drake departed from Roanoke, 
 a small t>a;k, dispatched by Ralegh with a supply ot 
 stores for the colony, landed at the place where the 
 English had settled; but on finding it deserted by 
 their countrymen, they returned to England. Th 
 bark was hardly gone when Sir Richard Greenville 
 appeared with three ships. After searching in vain 
 for the colony which he had planted, without being 
 able to learn what had befallen it, he left fifteen o 
 his crew to keep possession of the island. This 
 handful of nien was soon overpowered and cut ii 
 pieces by the savages. 
 
 Though all Ralegh's efforts to establish a colony 
 n Virginia had hitherto proved abortive, and had 
 teen defeated by a succession of disasters arid disap- 
 lointments, neither his hopes ner resources were 
 xhausted. Early in the following year befitted out 
 hree ships, under the command of Captain John 
 White, who carried thither a colony more numerous 
 ban that which had been settled under Lane. On 
 heir arrival in Virginia, after viewing the face of 
 he country covered with one continued forest, which 
 o them appeared an uninhabited wild, as it was 
 >ccupied only by a few scattered tribes of savages, 
 h;-y discovered that they were destitute of many 
 hings which they deemed essentially necessary to- 
 vard's their subsistence in s-.ich an uncomfortable 
 situation ; and, with one voice, requested White, their 
 ;ommander, to return to England, as the person 
 imong them most likely to solicit, with efficacy, the 
 supply on which depended the existence of the colo- 
 ny. White landed in his native country at a most 
 unfavourable season for the negociatiou which he 
 lad undertaken. He found the nation in universal 
 alarm at the formidable preparations of Philip II. to 
 nvade England, and collecting all his force to op- 
 )ose the fleet to which he had arrogantly given the 
 name of the Invincible Armada. Ralegh, Green- 
 ville, and all the most zealous patrons of the new 
 settlement, were called to act a distinguished part in 
 he operations of a year equally interesting and glo- 
 rious to England. Amidst danger so imminent, and 
 during a contest for the honour of their sovereign 
 and the independence of their country, it was impos- 
 sible to attend to a less important and remote object. 
 The unfortunate colony in Roanoke received no 
 supply, and perished miserably by famine, or by the 
 unrelenting cruelty of those barbarians by whom they 
 were surrounded. 
 
 During the remainder of Elizabeth's reign, the 
 scheme of establishing a colony in Virginia was not 
 resumed. Ralegh, with a most aspiring mind and 
 extraordinary talents, enlightened by knowledge no 
 less uncommon, had the spirit and the defects of a 
 projector. Allured by new objects, and always giv- 
 ing the preference to such as were most splendid and 
 arduous, he was apt to engage in undertakings so 
 vast and so various as to be far beyond his power of 
 accomplishing. He was now intent on peopling and 
 improving a farge district of country in Ireland, of 
 which he had obtained a grant from the queen. He 
 was a deep adventurer in the scheme of fitting out a 
 powerful armament against Spain, in order to esta- 
 blishing Don Antonio on the throne of Portugal, 
 lie had begun to form his favourite but visionary 
 plan, of penetrating into the province of Guiana, 
 where he fondly dreamed of taking possession of 
 inexhaustible wealth flowing from the richest mines 
 in the New World. Amidst this multiplicity of pro- 
 jects, of such promising appearance, and recom- 
 mended by novelty, he naturally became cold towards 
 his ancient and hitherto unprofitable scheme of set- 
 tling a colony in Virginia, and was easily induced to 
 assign his right of property in that country, which he 
 had never visited, together with all the privileges 
 contained in his patent, to Sir Thomas Smith and a 
 company of merchants in London. This company, 
 satisfied with a paltry traffic carried on by a few 
 small barks, made no attempt to take possession of 
 the country. Thus, after a period of a hundred and 
 six years from the time that Cabot discovered North 
 America in the name of Henry VII., and of twenty 
 years from the time that Ralegn planted the first 
 colon v, there was not a single Englishman settled 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 211 
 
 there at the demise of Queen Elizabeth, in the year 
 one thousand six hundred and three, 
 
 I have already explained the causes of this during 
 the period previous to the accession of Kii/:ah,lh. 
 Other causes produced the same effect under her ad- 
 ministration. Though for one-half of her reign 
 England was engaged in no foreign war, and com- 
 merce enjoyed that perfect security which is friendly 
 t;> its progress ; though the glory of her latter years 
 give the highest tone of elevation and vigour to the 
 national spirit ; the queen herself, from her extreme 
 parsimony, and her aversion to demand extraordina- 
 ry supplies of her subjects, was more apt to restrain 
 than to second the ardent genius of her people. Se- 
 veral of the most splendid enterprizes in her reign 
 were concerted and executed by private adventurers. 
 All the schemes for colonization were carried on by 
 the funds of individuals, without any public aid. 
 Even the policy of her government was adverse to 
 the establishment of remote colonies. So powerful 
 is the attraction of our native soil, and such our for 
 tunate partiality to the laws and manners of our own 
 country, that men seldom choose to abandon it 
 unless they be driven away by oppression, or allured 
 by vast prospects of sudden wealth. But the pro- 
 vinces of America, in which the English attempted 
 to settle, did not, like those occupied by Spain, invite 
 them thither by any appearance of silver or gold 
 mines. All their hopes of gain were distant; and 
 they saw that nothing could be earned but by perse- 
 vering exertions of industry. The maxims of Eliza- 
 beth's administration were, in their general tenor, so 
 popular, as did not force her subjects to emigrate in 
 order to escape from the heavy or vexatious hand of 
 power. It seems to have been with difficulty that 
 these slender bands of planters were collected, on 
 which the writers of that age bestow the name of the 
 first and second Virginian colonies. The fulness of 
 time for English colonization was not yet arrived. 
 
 But the succession of the Scottish line to the 
 crown of England hastened its approach. James 
 was hardly seated on the throne before he discovered 
 his pacific intentions, and he soon terminated the 
 long war which had been carried on between Spain 
 and England, by an amicable treaty. From that 
 period uninterrupted tranquillity continued during 
 his reign. Many persons of high rank and of ardent 
 ambition, to whom the war with Spain had afforded 
 constant employment, and presented alluring pro- 
 spects not only of fame but of wealth, soon became 
 so impatient of languishing at home without occupa- 
 tion or object, that their invention was on the 
 stretch to find some exercise for their activity and 
 talents. To both these North America seemed to 
 open a new field, and schemes of carrying colonies 
 thither became more general and more popular. 
 
 A voyage undertaken by Bartholomew Gosnold, in 
 the last year of the queen, facilitated as well as en- 
 couraged the execution of these schemes. He sailed 
 from Falmouth in a small bark with thirty-two men. 
 Instead of following former navigators in their unne- 
 cessary circuit by the West India isles and the gulf 
 of Florida, Gosnold steered due west as nearly as 
 the winds would permit, and was the first English 
 commander who reached America by this shorter and 
 more direct course. That part of the continent which 
 he first descried was a promontory in the province 
 now called Massachusetts Bay, to which he gave the 
 name of Cape Cod. Holding along the coast as it 
 stretched towards the south-west, he touched at two 
 islands, one of which he called Martha's Vineyard, 
 the other Elizabeth's Island ; and visited the adjoin- 
 
 ing continent, and traded with its inhabitants. He 
 and his companions were so much delighted every 
 where with the inviting aspect of the country, that 
 notwithstanding the smallness of their number, a 
 pait of them consented to remain there. But when 
 they had leisure to reflect upon the fate of former 
 .settlers in America, they retracted a resolution 
 j formed in the first warmth of their admiration ; and 
 Gosnold returned to England in less than four 
 months from the time of his departure. 
 
 This voyage, however inconsiderable it may ap- 
 pear, had important effects. The English now dis- 
 covered the aspect of the American continent to be 
 extremely inviting far to the north of the place where 
 they had formerly attempted to settle. The coast of 
 a vast country, stretching through the most desirable 
 climates, lay before them. The richness of its virgin 
 soil promised a certain rccompence to their industry. 
 Ill its interior provinces unexpected sources of wealth 
 might open, and unknown objects .of commerce 
 might be found. Its distance from England was 
 diminished almost a third part, by the new course 
 which Gosnold had pointed out. Plans for esta 
 bli>hhig colonies began to be formed in different 
 part's of the kingdom ; and before these weie ripe for 
 execution, one small vessel was sent out by the mer- 
 chants of Bristol, another by the Earl of Southamp- 
 ton and Lord Arundel of Wardeur, in order to learn, 
 whether Gosnold's account of the country was to be 
 considered as a just Representation of its state, or as 
 the exaggerated description of a fond discoverer. 
 Both returned with a full confirmation of his vera- 
 city, and with the addition of so many new circum- 
 stances in favour of the country, acquired by a more 
 extensive view of it, as greatly increased the desire 
 of planting it. 
 
 The most active and efficacious promoter of this 
 was Richard Ilakluyt, prebendary of Westminster, 
 to whom England is more indebted for its American 
 possessions than to any man of that age. Formed 
 under a kinsman of the same name, eminent for 
 naval and commercial knowledge, he imbibed a simi- 
 lar taste, and applied early to the study of geography 
 and navigation. These favourite sciences engrossed 
 his attention, and to diffuse a relish for them was the 
 great object of his life. In order to excite his coun- 
 trymen to naval enterprize, by flattering their na- 
 tional vanity, he published, in the year one thousand 
 five hundred and eighty-nine, his valuable collection 
 of voyages -and discoveries made by Englishmen. 
 In order to supply them with what information might 
 be derived from the experience of the most success- 
 ful foreign navigators, he translated some of the 
 best accounts of the progress of the Spaniards and 
 Portuguese in their voyages both to the East and 
 West Indies, into the English tongue. He was 
 consulted with respect to many of the attempts to- 
 wards discovery or colonization during the latter part 
 of Elizabeth's reign. He corresponded with the 
 officers who conducted them, directed their researches 
 to proper objects, and published the history of their 
 exploits. By the zealous endeavours of a person 
 equally respected by men of rank and men of busi- 
 ness, many of both orders formed an association to 
 establish colonies in America, and petitioned the 
 king for the sanction of his authority to warrant the 
 execution of their plans. 
 
 James, who prided himself on his profound skill ill 
 ' in the science of government, and who had turned 
 j his attention to consider the advantages which might 
 be derived from colonies at a time when he patron- 
 ized his scheme for planting them in some of the 
 
212 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 ruder provinces of hj.s ancient kingdom, with a view 
 of introducing industry and civilization there, was 
 now no less fond of directing the active genius of his 
 English subjects towards occupations not repugnant 
 to his own pacific maxims, and listened with a fa- 
 vourable ear to their application. But as the extent 
 as well as value of the American continent began 
 now to be better known, a grant of the whole of 
 such a vast region to any one body of men, however 
 respectable, appeared to him an act of impolitic and 
 profuse liberality. For this reason he divided that 
 portion of North America, which stretches from the 
 thirty-fourth to the forty-fifth degree of latitude, into 
 two districts nearly equal ; the one called the first or 
 south colony of Virginia, the other the second or 
 north colony. He authorized Sir Thomas Gates, 
 Sir George Summers, Richard Hakluyt, and their 
 associates, mostly resident in London, to settle any 
 part of the former which they should choose, and 
 vested in them a right of property to the land ex- 
 tending along the coast fifty miles on each side of 
 the place of their first habitation, and reaching into 
 the interior country a hundred miles. The latter 
 district he allotted, as the place of settlement, to 
 sundry knights, gentlemen, and merchants of Bris- 
 tol, Plymouth, and other parts in the west of Eng- 
 land, with a similar grant of territory. Neither the 
 monarch who issued this charter, nor his subjects 
 who received it, had any conception that they were 
 proceeding to lay the foundation of mighty and opu- 
 lent states. What James granted was nothing more 
 than a simple charter of corporation to a trading 
 company, empowering the members of it to have a 
 common seal, and to act as a body politic. But as 
 the object for which they associated was new, the 
 plan established for the administration of their affairs 
 was uncommon. Instead of the power usually 
 granted to corporations, of electing officers, and 
 framing bye laws for the c mduct of their own opera- 
 tions, the supreme government of the colonies to be 
 settled was vested in a council resident in England, 
 to be named by the king according to such laws and 
 ordinances as should be given under his sign ma- 
 nual; and the subordinate jurisdiction was commit- 
 ted to a council resident in America, which was like- 
 wise to be nominated by the king, and to act con- 
 formably to his instructions. To this important 
 clause, which regulated the form of their constitu- 
 tution, was added the concession of several immuni- 
 ties, to encourage persons to settle in the intended 
 colonies. Some of these were the same which had 
 been granted to G Ibert and Ralegh ; such as the 
 .securing to the emigrants and their descendants all 
 the rights of denizens, in the same manner as if they 
 had remained or had been born in England ; and 
 granting them the privilege of holding their lands in 
 America by the freest and least burthensome tenure. 
 Others were more favourable than those granted by 
 Elizabeth. He permitted whatever was necessary 
 for the sustenance or commerce of the new colonies 
 to Le exported from England during the space of 
 seven years, without paying any duty ; and as a fur- 
 ther incitement to industry, he granted them liberty 
 of trade with other nations, and appropriated the 
 duty to be levied on foreign commodities for twenty- 
 one years, as a fund for the benefit of the colony. 
 
 In this singular charter, the contents of which 
 hove been little attended to by the historians of 
 America, some articles are as xm favourable to the 
 "rights of the colonists, as others are to the interests 
 of the parent state. By placing the legislative and 
 "executive powers in a council ^nominated by the 
 
 crown, and guided by its instructions, every person 
 settling in America seems to be bereaved of the no- 
 blest privilege of a free man ; by 4,he unlimited per- 
 mission of trade with foreigners, the parent state is 
 deprived of that exclusive commerce which has been 
 deemed the chief advantage resulting from the esta- 
 blishment of colonies. But in the infancy of coloni- 
 zation, and without the guidance of observation or 
 experience, the ideas of men, with respect to the 
 mode of forming new settlements, were not fully un- 
 folded or properly arranged. At a period when they 
 could not foresee the future grandeur and importance 
 of the communities which they were about to call 
 into existence, they were ill qualified to concert the 
 best plan for governing them. Besides, the English 
 of that age, accustomed to the high prerogative and 
 arbitrary rule of their monarchs, were not animated 
 with such liberal sentiments, either concerning their 
 own personal or political rights, as have become fa- 
 miliar in the more mature and improved state of 
 their constitution. 
 
 Without hesitation, or reluctance the proprietors 
 of both colonies prepared to execute their respective 
 plans ; and under the authority of a charter, which 
 would now be rejected with disdain, as a violent 
 invasion of the sacred and inalienable rights of li- 
 berty, the first permanent settlements of the English 
 in America were established. From this period the 
 progress of the two provinces of Virginia and New- 
 England forms a regular and connected story. The 
 former in the south, and the latter in the north, may 
 be considered as the original and parent colonies ; in 
 imitation of which, and under whose shelter all the 
 others have been successively planted and reared. 
 
 The first attempts to occupy Virginia and New 
 England were made by very feeble bodies of emi- 
 grants. As these settled under great disadvantages, 
 among tribes of savages, and in an uncultivated de 
 sert; as they attained gradually, after long struggles 
 and many disasters, to that maturity of strength and 
 order of policy, which entitle them to be considered 
 as respectable states, the history of their persevering 
 efforts merits particular attention. It will exhibit u 
 spectacle no less striking than instructive, and pre- 
 sents an opportunity which rarely occurs, of contem- 
 plating a society in the first moment of its political 
 existence, and of observing how its spirit forms in its 
 infant state, how its principles begin to unfold as it 
 advances, and how those characteristic qualities 
 which distinguish its maturer age are successively 
 acquired. The account of the establishment of the 
 other English colonies, undertaken at periods when 
 the importance of such possessions was better under- 
 stood, and effected by more direct and vigorous 
 exertions of the parent state is less interesting. I 
 shall therefore relate the history of the two original 
 colonies in detail. With respect to the subsequent 
 settlements, some more general observations con- 
 cerning the time, the motives, and circumstances of 
 their establishment will be sufficient. I begin with 
 the history of Virginia, the most ancient and most 
 valuable of the British colonies in North America. 
 
 Though many persons of distinction became pro- 
 prietors in the company which undertook to plant a 
 colony in Virginia, its funds seem not to have been 
 considerable, and its first effort was certainly ex- 
 tremely feeble. A small vessel of a hundred tons, 
 and two barks under the command of Captain New- 
 port, sailed with a hundred and five men destined to 
 remain in the country. Some of these were of re- 
 spectable familieSj particularly a brother of the Earl 
 of Northumberland, and several officers who had 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 213 
 
 served with reputation in the reign of Elizabeth. 
 Newport, I know not for what reason, followed the 
 ancient course by the West Indies, and did not 
 reach the coast of North America for four months. 
 But he approached it with better fortune than any 
 former navigator; for having been driven, by the 
 violence of a storm, to the northward of Roanoke, 
 the place of his destination, the first land he disco- 
 vered was a promontory which he called Cape Henry, 
 the southern boundary of the bay of Chesapeak. 
 The English stood directly into tRat spacious inlet, 
 which seemed to invite them to enter; and as they 
 advanced, contemplated with a mixture of delight 
 and admiration, that grand reservoir, into which are 
 poured the Xvaters of all the vast rivers which not 
 only diffuse fertility through that district of America, 
 but open the interior parts of the country to naviga- 
 tion, and render a commercial intercourse more ex- 
 trusive and commodious than in any other region of 
 the globe. Newport, keeping along the southern 
 shore, sailed up a river, which the natives called 
 Powhatan, and to which he gave the name of James 
 river. After viewing its banks, during a run of above 
 forty miles from its mouth, they all concluded that a 
 country, where safe and convenient harbours seemed 
 to be numerous, would be a more suitable station for 
 a trading colony than the shoaly and dangerous coast 
 to the south, on which their countrymen had for- 
 merly settled. Here then they determined to abide ; 
 and having chosen a proper spot for their residence, 
 they gave this infant settlement the name of James 
 town, which it still retains ; and though it has never 
 become either populous or opulent, it can boast of 
 being the most ancient habitation of the English in 
 the New World. But however well chosen the situ- 
 ation might be, the members of the colony were far 
 from availing themselves of its advantages. Violent 
 animosities had broke out among some of their 
 leaders, during their voyage to Virginia, These did 
 not subside on their arrival there. The first deed of 
 the council, which assumed the government in virtue 
 of a commission brought from England under the 
 seal of the company, and opened on the day after 
 they landed, was an act of injustice. Capt. Smith, 
 who had been appointed a member of the council, 
 was excluded from his seat at the board by the mean 
 jealousy of his colleagues, and not only reduced to 
 the condition of a private man, but of one suspected 
 and watched by his superiors. This diminution of 
 his influence, and restraint on his activity, was an 
 essential injury to the colony, which at that juncture 
 stood in need of the aid of both. For soon after they 
 Vgan to settle, the English were involved in a war 
 vith the natives, partly by their own indiscretion, 
 ;ud partly by the suspicion and ferocity of those 
 barbarians. And although the Indians, scattered 
 over the countries adjacent to James river, were di- 
 vided into independent tribes, so extremely feeble 
 that hardly one of them could muster above two hun- 
 dred warriors, they teased and annoyed an infant 
 colon) by their incessant hostilities. To this was 
 added a calamity still more dreadful ; the stock of 
 provisions left for their subsistence, on the departure 
 of their ships for England, was so scanty and of 
 such bad Duality, that a scarcity, appi-oaching almost 
 to absoluh famine, soon followed. Such poor un- 
 wholesome fare soon brought on diseases, the vio- 
 lence of which was so much increased by the sultry 
 heat of the climate, and the moisture of a country 
 covered with wood, that before the beginning of Sep- 
 tember one hdf of their number died, and most of 
 the survivors were sickly and dejectod. In such 
 
 trying extremities the comparative powers of every 
 individual are discovered and called forth, and each 
 naturally takes that station and assumes that ascen- 
 dant, to which he is entitled by his talents and force 
 of mind, Every eye was now turned towards Smith, 
 and all willingly devolved on him that authority of 
 which they had formerly deprived him. His un- 
 daunted temper, deeply tinctured with the wild 
 romantic spirit characteristic of military adventurers 
 in that age, was peculiarly suited to such a situation. 
 The vigour of his constitution continued fortunately 
 still unimpaired by disease, and his mind was never 
 appalled by danger. He instantly adopted the only 
 plan that could save them from destruction. He 
 began by surrounding James town with such rude 
 fortifications as were a sufficient defence against the 
 assaults of savages. He then marched at the head 
 of a small detachment in quest of their enemies. 
 Some tribes he gained by caresses and presents, and 
 procured from them a supply of provisions. Others 
 he attacked with open force ; and defeating them on 
 every occasion, whatever their superiority in num- 
 bers might be, compelled them to impart to him some 
 portion of their winter stores. As the recorapeuce of 
 all his toils and dangers, he saw abundance and con- 
 tentment re-established in the colony, and hoped 
 that he should be able to maintain them in that happy 
 state, until the arrival of ships from England in the 
 spring : but in one of his excursions he was surprised 
 by a numerous body of Indians, and in making his 
 escape from them, alter a gallant defence, he sunk to 
 the neck in a swamp, and was obliged to surrender. 
 Though he knew well what a dreadful fate awaits 
 the prisoners of savages, his presence of mind did not 
 forsake him. He shewed those who had taken him 
 captive a mariner's compass, and amused them with 
 so many wonderful accounts of its virtues, as filled 
 them with astonishment and veneration, which began 
 to operate very powerfully in his favour. They led 
 him, however, in triumph through various parts of 
 the country, and conducted him at last to Powhatan, 
 the most considerable sachim in that part of Virgi- 
 nia. There the doom of death being pronounced, he 
 was led to the place of execution, and his head 
 already bowed down to receive the fatal blow, when 
 that fond attachment of the American women to 
 their European invaders, the beneficial effects of 
 which the Spaniards often experienced, interposed 
 in his behalf. The favourite daughter of Powhatan 
 rushed in between him and the executioner, and by 
 her entreaties and tears prevailed on her father to 
 spare his life. The beneficence of his deliverer, 
 whom the early English writers dignify with the title 
 of the princess" Pocahuntas, did not tenninate here ; 
 she soon after procured his liberty, and sent him 
 from time to time seasonable presents of provisions 
 
 Smith, on his return to James town, found the co- 
 lony reduced to thirty-eight persons, who in despair 
 were preparing to abandon a country which did not 
 seem destined to be the habitation of Englishmen. 
 He employed caresses, threats, and even violence, in 
 order to prevent them from executing this fatal 
 resolution. With difficulty he prevailed on them to 
 defer it so long, that the succour anxiously expected 
 from England arrived. Plenty was instantly re- 
 stored; a hundred new planters were added to their 
 number; and an ample stock of whatever was requi- 
 site for clearing and sowing the ground was delivered 
 to them. But an unlucky incident turned their at- 
 tention from that species of industry which alone 
 could render their situation comfortable. In a small 
 stream of water that issued from a bank of sand near 
 
 
214 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 James town, a sediment of some shining mineral 
 substance, which had sonic resemblance of gold, was 
 discovered. At a time when the precious metals 
 were conceived to be the peculiar and only valuable 
 productions of the New World, when every moun- 
 tain was supposed to contain a treasure, and every 
 rivulet was searched for its golden sands, this ap"- 
 pearance was fondly considered as an infallible indi- 
 cation of a mine. Every hand was eager to dig ; 
 large quantities of this glittering dust were amassed 
 From some assay of its nature, made by an artist as 
 unskilful as his companions were credulous, it was 
 pronounced to be extremely rich. " There was 
 now," says Smith, " no talk, no hope, no work, but 
 dig gold, wash gold, refine gold." With this ima- 
 ginary wealth the first vessel returning to England 
 was loaded, while the culture of the land and every 
 useful occupation were totally neglected. 
 
 The effects of this fatal delusion were soon felt. 
 Notwithstanding all the provident activity of Smith, 
 in procuring corn from the natives by traffic or by 
 force, the colony began to suffer as much as formerly 
 from scarcity of food, and was wasted by the same 
 distempers. In hopes of obtaining some relief, 
 Smith proposed, as they had not hitherto extended 
 their researches beyond the countries contiguous to 
 James river, to open an intercourse with the more 
 remote tribes, and to examine into the state of cul- 
 ture and population among them. The execution of 
 this arduous design he undertook himself, in a small 
 open boat, with a feeble crew, and a very scanty 
 stock of provisions. He began his survey at Cape 
 Charles, and in two different excursions, which con- 
 tinued above four months, he advanced as far as the 
 river Susquehannah, which flows into the bottom of 
 the bay. He visited all the countries both on the 
 east and west shores ; he entered most of the consi- 
 derable creeks; he sailed up many of the great rivers 
 as far as their falls. He traded with some tribes ; 
 
 of their security and happiness. That supreme di- 
 rection of all the company's operations, which the 
 king by his charter had reserved to himself, discou- 
 raged persons of rank or property from becoming 
 members of a society so dependent on the arbitrary 
 will of the crown. Upon a representation of this to 
 James he granted them a new charter, with more 
 ample privileges. He enlarged the boundaries of 
 the colony ; he rendered the powers of the company, 
 as a corporation, more explicit and complete ; he 
 abolished the jurisdiction of the council resident in 
 Virginia ; he vested the government entirely in a 
 council residing in London; he granted to the pro- 
 prietors of the company the right of electing the per- 
 sons who were to compose this council,, by a majo- 
 rity of voices ; he authorized this council to e^tabli^h 
 such laws, orders, and forms of government and ma- 
 gistracy, for the colony and plantation, as they in 
 their discretion should think to be fittest for the good 
 of the adventurers and inhabitants there ; he em- 
 powered them to nominate a governor to have the 
 administration of affairs in the colony, and to carry 
 their orders into execution. In consequence of 
 these concessions, the company having acquired the 
 power of regulating all its own transactions, the 
 number of proprietors increased, and among them 
 we find the most respectable names in the na- 
 tion. 
 
 The first deed of the new council was to appoint 
 Lord Delaware governor and captain-general of their 
 colony in Virginia. To a person of his r; nk those 
 high-sounding titles could be no allurement; and by 
 his thorough acquaintance with the progress and 
 state of the settlement, he knew enough of the labour 
 and difficulty with which an infant colony is reared, 
 to expect any thing but anxiety and care in dis- 
 charging the duties of that delicate office. But, from 
 zeal to promote an establishment which he expected 
 to prove so highly beneficial to his country, he was 
 
 he fought with others ; he observed the nature of the j willing to relinquish all the comforts of an honoura- 
 territory which they occupied, their mode of subsist- ble station, to undertake a long voyage to settle 
 ence, the peculiarities in their manners ; and left i an uncultivated region, destitute of every accommo- 
 
 
 
 among all a wonderful admiration either of the be- { dation to which heliad been accustomed, and where 
 
 neficence or valour of the English. After sailing 
 above three thousand miles in a paltry vessel, ill 
 fitted for such an extensive navigation, during which 
 the hardships to which he was exposed, as well as 
 the patience with which he endured, and the forti- 
 tude with which he surmounted them, equal what- 
 ever is related of the celebrated Spanish discoverers 
 in their most daring enterprizes, he returned to James 
 town ; he brought with him an account of that large 
 portion of the American continent now compre- 
 hended in the two provinces of Virginia and Mary- 
 land, so full and exact, that after the progress of 
 information and research for a century and a half, 
 his map exhibits no inaccurate view of both coun- 
 tries, and is the original upon which all subsequent 
 delineations and descriptions have been formed. 
 
 But whatever pleasing prospect of future benefit 
 might open upon this complete discovery of a coun 
 
 he foresaw that toil, and trouble, and danger awaited 
 him. But as he could not immediately leave Eng- 
 land, the council despatched Sir Thomas Gates and 
 Sir George Summers, the former of whom had been 
 appointed lieutenant-general and the latter admiral, 
 with nine ships and five hundred planters. They 
 carried wtth them commissions by which they were 
 empowered to supersede the jurisdiction of the for- 
 mer council, to proclaim Lord Delaware governor, 
 and, until he should arrive, to take the administra 
 tion of affairs into their own hands. A violent hu T - 
 ricane separated the vessels in which Gates aid 
 Summers had embarked from the rest of the fleet, 
 and stranded it on the coast of Bermudas. The 
 other ships arrived safely at James town. But the 
 fate of their commanders was unknown. Their com- 
 mission for new-modelling the government, aad all 
 other public papers, were supposed to be los- toge- 
 
 try formed by nature to be the seat of an exclusive ther with them. The present form of gove'nment, 
 
 commerce, it afforded but little relief for their pre- 
 sent wants. The colony still depended for subsist- 
 ence chiefly on supplies from the natives ; as, after 
 all the efforts of their own industry, hardly thirty 
 
 however, was held to be abolished. No Ifgal war- 
 rant could be produced for establishing any other. 
 Smith was not in a condition at this jvncture to 
 assert his own rights, or to act with lis wonted 
 
 acres of ground were yet cleared so as to be capable j vigour. By an accidental explosion of gunpowder, 
 of culture. By Smith's attention, however, the he had been so miserably scorched aad mangled 
 
 stores of the English were so regularly filled, that for 
 some time they felt no considerable distress ; and at 
 this juncture a change was made in the constitution 
 
 that he was incapable of moving, and inder the ne- 
 cessity of committing himself to the gudance of his 
 friends, who carried him aboard onJ of the ships 
 
 of Uie company, which seemed to promise an increase returning to England, in hopes that Le might recover 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 215 
 
 by more skilful treatment than he could meet with in 
 Virginia. 
 
 After his departure, every thing tended fast to the 
 wildest anarchy. Faction and discontent had often 
 arisen so high among the old settlers, that they could 
 hardly be kept within bounds. The spirit of the new 
 comers was too ungovernable to bear any restraint. 
 Several among them of better rank were such dissi- 
 pated hopeless young men, as their friends were glad 
 to send out in quest of whatever fortune might betide 
 them in a foreign land. Of the lower order many 
 were so profligate or desperate that their country was 
 happy to throw them out as nuisances in society. 
 Such persons were little capable of the regular sub- 
 ordination, the strict economy, and persevering in- 
 dustry, which their situation required. The Indians, 
 observing their misconduct, and that every precau- 
 tion for sustenance or safety was neglected, not only 
 withheld the supplies of provisions which they were 
 accustomed to furnish, but harassed them with con- 
 tinual hostilities. All their subsistence was derived 
 from the stores which they had brought from Eng- 
 land ; these were soon consumed; then the domestic 
 animals sent out to breed in the country were de- 
 voured; and by this inconsiderate waste, they were 
 reduced to such extremity of famine, as not only to 
 eat the most nauseous and unwholesome roots and 
 berries, but to feed ou the bodies of the Indians whom 
 they slew, and even on those of their companions 
 who sunk under the oppression of such complicated 
 distress. In less than six months, of live hundred 
 persons whom Smith left in Virginia, only sixty 
 remained; and these so feeble and dejected, that they 
 could not have survived for ten days, if succour had 
 not arrived from a quarter whence they did not ex- 
 pect it. 
 
 When Gates and Summers were thrown ashore on 
 Bermudas, fortunately not a single person on board 
 their ship perished. A considerable part of their 
 provisions and stores, too, was saved, and in that 
 delightful spot nature, with spontaneous bounty, pre- 
 sented to them such a variety of her productions, 
 that a hundred and fifty people subsisted in affluence 
 for ten months en an uninhabited island. Impa- 
 tient, however, to escape from a place where they 
 were cut off' from all intercourse with mankind, they 
 set about building two barks with such tools and 
 materials as they had, and by amazing efforts of 
 perseverance and ingenuity they finished them. In 
 these they embarked, and steered directly towards 
 Virginia, in hopes of finding an ample consolation 
 for all their toils and dangers in the embraces of their 
 companions, and amidst the comforts of a flourishing 
 colony. After a more prosperous navigation than 
 they could have expected in their ill-constructed 
 vessels, they landed at James town. But instead of 
 that joyful interview for which they fondly looked, a 
 spectacle presented itself which struck them with 
 horror. They beheld the miserable remainder of 
 their countrymen emaciated with famine and sick- 
 ness, sunk in despair, and in their figure and looks 
 rather resembling spectres than human beings. As 
 Gates and Summers, in full confidence of finding 
 plenty of provisions in Virginia, had brought with 
 them no larger stock than was deemed necessary for 
 their own support during the voyage, their inability 
 to afford relief to their countrymen added to the an- 
 guish with which they viewed this unexpected scene 
 of distress. Nothing now remained but instantly to 
 abandon a country, where it was impossible to sub- 
 sist any longer; and though all that could be found 
 iu tho stores of the colony, when added to what 
 
 remained of the stock brought from Bermudas, did 
 not amount to more than was sufficient to support 
 them for sixteea days, at the most scanty allowance, 
 they set sail in hopes of being able to reach New- 
 foundland, where they expected to be relieved by their 
 countrymen employed at that season in the fishery 
 there. 
 
 But it was not the will of heaven that all the labour 
 of the English in planting this colony, as well as all 
 their hopes of benefit from its future prosperity, should 
 be for ever lost. Before Gates and the melancholy 
 companions of his voyage had reached the mouth of 
 James river, they were met by Lord Delaware with 
 three ships, that brought a large recruit of provisions, 
 a considerable number of new settlers, and every 
 thing requisite for defence or cultivation. By per- 
 suasion and authority he prevailed on them to return 
 to James town, where they found their fort, their 
 magazines, and houses entire, which Sir Thomas 
 Gates, by some happy chance, had preserved from 
 being set on fire at the time of their departure. A 
 society so feeble and disordered in its frame, required 
 a tender and skilful hand to cherish it, and restore 
 its vigour. This it found in Lord Delaware : he 
 searched into the causes of their misfortunes, as far 
 as he could discover them, amidst the violence of 
 their mutual accusations ; but instead of exerting his 
 power in punishing crimes that were past, he em- 
 ployed his prudence in healing their disscntions, 
 and in guarding against a repetition of the same 
 fatal errors. By unwearied assiduities, by the re- 
 spect, due to an amiable and beneficent character, by 
 knowing how to mingle severity with indulgence, 
 and when to assume the dignity of his office, as well 
 as when to display the gentleness natural to his own 
 temper, he gradually reconciled men corrupted by 
 anarchy to subordination and discipline, he turned 
 the attention of the idle and profligate to industry, 
 and taught the Indians again to reverence and dread 
 the English name. Under such an administration 
 the colony began once more to assume a promising 
 appearance ; when unhappily for it, a complication 
 of diseases brought on by the climate, obliged Lord 
 Delaware to quit the country ; the government of 
 which he committed to Mr. Percy. 
 
 He was soon superseded by the arrival of Sir 
 Thomas Dale ; in whom the company had vested 
 more absolute authority than in any of his prede- 
 cessors, empowering him to rule by martial law ; a 
 short code of which, founded on the practice of tho 
 armies in the Low Countries, the most rigid military 
 school at 'that time in Europe, they sent out with 
 him. This system of government is so violent and 
 arbitrary, that even the Spaniards themselves had not 
 ventured to introduce it into their settlements ; for 
 among them, as soon as a plantation began, and the 
 arts of peace succeeded to the operations of war, the 
 jurisdiction of the civil magistrate was uniformly es 
 Ublished. But however, unconstitutional or op- 
 pressive this may appear, it was adopted by the ad 
 vice of Sir Francis Bacon, the most enlightened phi- 
 losopher, and one of the most eminent lawyers of the 
 age. The company, well acquainted with the in- 
 efficacy of every me'thod which they had hitherto em- 
 ployed" for restraining the unruly mutinous spirits 
 which they had to govern, eagerly adopted a plan that 
 had the sanction of such high authority to recom- 
 mend it. Happily for the colony, Sir Thomas Dale, 
 who was intrusted with this dangerous power, exer- 
 cised it with prudence and moderation. By the 
 vigour which. the summary mode of military punish- 
 ment gave to hi~s administration, he introduced, into 
 
216 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the colony more perfect order than had ever been es- 
 tablished there ; and at the same time [he tempered 
 his vigour with so much discretion, that no alarm 
 seems to have been given by this formidable inno- 
 vation. 
 
 The regular form which the colony now began to 
 assume, induced the king to issue a new charter for 
 the encouragement of the adventurers, by which he 
 not only confirmed all their former privileges, and 
 piolonged the term of exemption from payment of 
 duties on the commodities exported by them, but 
 granted them more extensive property, as well as 
 more ample jurisdiction. All the islands lying 
 within three hundred leagues of the coast were an- 
 nexed to the province of Virginia. In consequence 
 of this, the company took possession of Bermudas, 
 and the other small islands discovered by Gates and 
 Summers, and at the same time"prepared to send out 
 a considerable reinforcement to the colony at James 
 town. The expense of those extraordinary efforts 
 was defrayed by the profits of a lottery, which 
 amounted nearly to thirty thousand pounds. This 
 expedient they were authorized to employ by their 
 new charter ; and it is remarkable, as the first in- 
 stance, in the English history, of any public coun- 
 tenance given to this pernicious seducing mode of 
 levying money. But the house of Commons, which 
 towards the close of this reign began to observe every 
 measure of government with jealous attention, hav- 
 ing remonstrated against the institution as uncon- 
 stitutional and impolitic, James recalled the licence 
 under the sanction of which it had been established. 
 
 By the severe discipline of martial law, the activity 
 of the colonists was forced into a proper direction, 
 and exerted itselt in useful industry. This, aided by 
 a fertile soil and favourable climate, soon enabled 
 them to raise such a large stock of provisions, that 
 they were no longer obliged to trust for subsistence 
 to the precarious supplies which they obtained or ex 
 torted from the Indians. In proportion as the Eng- 
 lish became more independent, the natives courted 
 their friendship upon more equal terms. The happy 
 effects of this were quickly felt. Sir Thomas Dale 
 concluded a treaty with one of their most powerful 
 and warlike tribes, situated on the river Chickaho- 
 miny, in which they consented to acknowledge 
 themselves subjects to the king of Great Britain, to 
 assume henceforth the name of Englishmen, to send 
 a body of their warriors to the assistance of the Eng- 
 lish as often as they look the field against any 
 enemy, and to deposit annually a stipulated quantity 
 of Indian corn in the storehouses of the colony. 
 An event, which the early historians of Virginia re 
 late with peculiar satisfaction, prepared the way for 
 this union. Pocahuntas, the favourite daughter of 
 the great chief Powhatan, to whose intercession cap- 
 tain Smith was indebted for his life, persevered in 
 her partial attachment to the English ; and as she 
 frequently visited their settlements, where she was 
 always received with respectful hospitality, her ad- 
 miration of their arts and manners continued to in- 
 crease. During this intercourse, her beauty, which 
 is represented as far superior to that of her country- 
 women, made such impression on the heart of Mr. 
 Rolfe, a young man of rank in the colony, that he 
 warmly solicited her to accept of him as a husband. 
 Where manners are simple, courtship is not tedious. 
 Neither artifice prevents, nor ceremony forbids, the 
 heart from declaring its sentiments. Pocahuntas 
 readily gave her consent ; Dale encouraged the al- 
 liance, and Powhatan did not disapprove it. The 
 marriage was celebrated with extraordinary pomp ; 
 
 and from that period a friendly correspondence sub- 
 sisted between the colony and all the tribes subject 
 to Powhatan, or that stood in awe of his power. 
 Rolfe and his princess (for by that name the writers 
 of the last age always distinguish her) set out for 
 England, where she was received by James and his 
 queen with the respect suited to her birth. Being 
 carefully instructed in the principles of the Christian 
 faith, she was publicly baptized, but died a few years 
 after, on her return to America, leaving one son, 
 from whom are sprung some of the most respectable,' 
 families in Virginia, who boast of their descent from 
 the race of the ancient rulers of their country. But 
 notwithstanding the visible good effects of that al- 
 liance, none of Rolfe's countrymen seem to have imi- 
 tated the example which he set them, of intermarry- 
 ing with the natives. Of all the Europeans who 
 have settled in America, the English have availed 
 themselves least of this obvious method of con- 
 ciliating the 'affection of its original inhabitants ; 
 and, either from the shyness conspicuous in their na- 
 tional character, or from the want of that pliant fa- 
 cility of manners which accommodates itself to every 
 situation, they have been more averse than the French 
 and Portuguese, or even the Spaniards, from incor- 
 porating with the native Americans. The Indians, 
 courting jsuch an union, oftx-red their daughters in 
 marriage to their new guests : and when they did 
 not accept of the proffered alliance, they naturally 
 imputed it to pride, and to their contempt of them as 
 an inferior order of beings. 
 
 During the interval of tranquillity procured by the 
 alliance with Powhatan, an important change was 
 made in the state of the colony. Hitherto no right 
 of private property in land had been established. 
 The fields that were cleared had been cultivated by 
 the joint labour of the colonists ; their product was 
 carried to the common storehouses, and distributed 
 weekly to every family, according to its number and 
 exigencies. A society, destitute of the first advant 
 age resulting from soc'ial union, was not formed to 
 prosper. Industry, when not excited by the idea of 
 property in what was acquired by its own efforts, 
 made no vigorous exertion. The head had no in- 
 ducement to contrive, n:>r the hand to labour. The 
 idle and the improvident trusted entirely to what was 
 issued from the common store ; the assiduity even of 
 the sober and attentive relaxed when they perceived 
 that others were to reap the fruit of their toil ; and it 
 was computed, that the united industry of the colony 
 did not accomplish as much work in a week as might 
 have been performed in a day, if each individual had 
 laboured on his own account. In order to remedy 
 this, Sir Thomas Dale divided a considerable por- 
 tion of the land into small lots, and granted one of 
 these to each individual in full property. From the 
 moment that industry had the certain prospect of a 
 recompencc, it advanced with rapid progress. The 
 articles of primary necessity were cultivated with so 
 much attention as secured the means of subsistence ; 
 and such schemes of improvement were formed as 
 prepared the way for the introduction of opulence 
 into the colony. 
 
 The industrious spirit which began to rise among 
 the planters was soon directed towards a new object; 
 and they applied to it for some time with such incon- 
 siderate ardour as was productive of fatal conse- 
 quences. The culture of tobacco, which has since 
 become the staple of Virginia, and the source of its 
 prosperity, was introduced about this time into the 
 colony. As the taste for that weed continued to in- 
 crease in England, notwithstanding the zealous decla- 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 217 
 
 fruitions of James against it, the tobacco imported 
 from Virginia came to a ready market ; and though 
 it was so much inferior in quality or in estimation to 
 that raised by the Spaniards in the West Indian 
 islands, that a pound of the latter sold for eighteen 
 shillings, and of the former for no more than three 
 shillings, it yielded a considerable profit. Allured 
 by the prospect of such a certain and quick return, 
 every other species of industry was neglected. The 
 land which ought to have been reserved for raising 
 provisions, and even the streets of James town, were 
 planted with tobacco. Various regulations v/ere 
 framed to restrain this ill-directed activity. But, 
 from eagerness for present gain, the planters disre- 
 garded every admonition. The means of subsistence 
 became so scanty as forced them to renew their de- 
 man, Is upon the Indians, who seeing no end of those 
 exactions, their antipathy to the English name re- 
 vived with additional rancour, and they began to 
 form schemes of vengeance with a secrecy and 
 silence peculiar to Americans. 
 
 Meanwhile the colony, notwithstanding this error 
 in its operations, and the cloud that was gathering 
 over its head, continued to wear an aspect of prospe- 
 rity. Its numbers increased by successive migra- 
 tions; the quantity of tobacco exported became every 
 year more considerable, and several of the planters 
 were not only in an easy situation, but advancing 
 fast to opulence ; and by two events, which happened 
 nearly at the same time, both population and indus- 
 try were greatly promoted. As few women had hi- 
 therto ventured to encounter the hardships which 
 were unavoidable in an unknown and uncultivated 
 country, most of the colonists, constrained to live 
 single, considered themselves as no mure than so- 
 journers in a land to which they were not attached 
 by the tender tics of a family and children. In 
 order to induce them to settle there, the company 
 took advantage of the apparent tranquillity in thu 
 country, to send out a considerable number of young 
 women, of humble birth indeed, but of unexception- 
 able character, and encouraged the planters, by pre- 
 miums and immunities, to marry them. These new 
 companions were received with such fondness, and 
 many of them so comfortably established, as invited 
 others to follow their example; and by degrees, 
 thoughtless adventurers, assuming the sentiments of 
 virtuous citizens and of provident fathers of families, 
 became solicitous about the prosperity of a country- 
 winch they now considered as their own. As the 
 colonists began to form more extensive plans of in- 
 dustry, they were unexpectedly furnished with means 
 of executing them with greater facility. A Dutch 
 ship from the coast of Guinea having sailed up James 
 river, sold a part of her cargo of negroes to the plan- 
 ters ; and as that hardy race was found more capable 
 of enduring fatigue under a sultry climate than Eu- 
 ropeans, their number has been increased by conti- 
 nual importation; their aid seems now to be essential 
 to the existence of the colony, and the greater part of 
 field-labour in Virginia is performed by servile 
 hands. 
 
 But as the condition of the colony improved the 
 spirit of its members became more independent. To 
 Englishmen the summary and severe decisions of 
 martial law, however tempered by the mildness of 
 their governors, appeared intolerably oppressive ; 
 and they longed to recover the privileges to which 
 they had been accustomed under the liberal form of 
 government in their native country. In compliance 
 with this spirit Sir George Yeardley, in the year 
 1619, called the first general assembly that was ever 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, No. 28. 
 
 held in Virginia ; and the numbers of the people 
 were now so increased, and their settlements so^dis- 
 persed, that eleven corporations appeared by their 
 representatives in this convention, where they were 
 permitted to assume legislative power, and to exer- 
 cise the noblest function of free men. The laws 
 enacted in it seem neither to have been many nor of 
 great importance ; but the meeting was highly ac- 
 ceptable to the people, as they now behold among 
 themselves an imago of the English constitution, 
 which they reverenced as the most perfect model of 
 free government. In order to render this resem- 
 blance more complete, and the rights of the planters 
 more certain, the company issued a charter or ordi- 
 nance, which gave a legal and permanent form to 
 the government of the colony. The supreme legis- 
 lative authority in Virginia, in imitation of that in 
 Great Britain, was divided, and lodged partly in the 
 governor, who held the place of the sovereign ; 
 partly in a council of state named by the company, 
 which possessed some of the distinctions, and exer- 
 cised some of the functions belonging to the peerage ; 
 partly in a general council or assembly composed of 
 the representatives of the people, in which were 
 vested powers and privileges similar to those of the 
 House of Commons. In both those councils all 
 questions were to be determined by the majority of 
 voices, and a negative was reserved to the governor ; 
 hut no law or ordinance, though approved of by all 
 the three members of the legislature, was to be of 
 force until it was ratified in England by a general 
 court of the company, and returned under its seal. 
 Thus the constitution of the colony was fixed, and 
 the members of it are henceforth to be considered, 
 not merely as servants of a commercial company 
 dependent on the will and orders of their superior, 
 but as free men and citizens. 
 
 The natural efi'ect of that happy change in their 
 condition was an increase of their industry. The 
 product of tobacco in Virginia was now equal, not 
 only to the consumption of it in Great Britain, but 
 could furnish some quantity for a foreign market. 
 The company opened a trade for it with Holland, 
 and established warehouses for it in Midflleburg and 
 Flushing. James and his privy council, alarmed at 
 seeing the commerce of a commodity, for which the 
 demand was daily increasing, turned into a channel 
 that tended to the diminution of the revenue, by 
 depriving it of a considerable duty imposed on the 
 importation of tobacco, interposed with vigour to 
 check this innovation. Some expedient was found, 
 by which the matter was adjusted for the present ; 
 but it is remarkable as the first instance of a differ- 
 ence in sentiment between the parent- state and the 
 colony, concerning their respective rights. The 
 former concluded that the trade of the colony should 
 :>e confined to England, and all its productions be 
 .anded there. The latter claimed not only the gene- 
 ral privilege of Englishmen to carry their commodi- 
 ties to the best market, but pleaded the particular 
 concessions in their charter, by which an unlimited 
 freedom of commerce seemed to be granted to them. 
 The time for a more full discussion of this important 
 question was not yet arrived. 
 
 But while the colony continued to increase so fast, 
 that settlements were scattered not only along the 
 banks of James and York rivers, but began to extend 
 to the Rapahannock, and even to the Potowmack, 
 ;he English, relying on their own numbers, and de- 
 ceived by this appearance of prosperity, lived in 
 full security. They neither attended to the move- 
 ments of the Indians, nor suspected their machina- 
 
 '2F 
 
218 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 tions; and though surrounded by a people whom they 
 might have known from experience to be both artful 
 and vindictive, they neglected every precaution for 
 their own safety that was requisite in such a situa- 
 tion. Like the peaceful inhabitants of a society 
 completely established, they were no longer soldiers 
 but citizens, and were so intent on what was subser- 
 vient to the comfort or embellishment of civil life, 
 that every martial exercise began to be laid aside as 
 unnecessary. The Indians, whom they commonly 
 employed as hunters, were furnished with fire-arms, 
 and taught to use them with dexterity. They were 
 permitted to frequent the habitations of the English 
 at all hours, and received as innocent visitants whom 
 there was no reason to dread. This inconsiderate 
 security enabled the Indians to prepare for the exe- 
 cution of that plan of vengeance, which they medi- 
 tated with all the deliberate forethought which is 
 agreeable to their temper. Nor did they want a 
 leader capable of conducting their schemes with 
 address. On the death of Powhatan, in the year 
 1618, Opechancanough succeeded him, not only as 
 wirowanee, or chief of his own tribe, but in that 
 extensive influence over all the Indian nations of 
 Virginia, which induced the English writers to dis- 
 tinguish him by the name of Emperor. According 
 to the Indian tradition he was not a native of Vir- 
 ginia, but came from a distant country to the south- 
 west, possibly from some province of the Mexican 
 empire. But as he was conspicuous for all the qua- 
 lities of highest estimation among savages, a fearless 
 courage, great strength and agility of body, and 
 crafty policy, he quickly rose to eminence and power. 
 Soon after his elevation to the supreme command, a 
 general massacre of the English seems to have been 
 resolved upon ; and during four years the means of 
 perpetrating it with the greatest facility and success 
 were concerted with amazing secrecy. All the tribes 
 contiguous to the English settlements were succes- 
 sively gained, except those on the eastern shore, 
 from whom, on account of their peculiar attachment 
 to their new neighbours, every circumstance that 
 might discover what they intended was carefully 
 concealed. To each tribe its station was allotted, 
 and the part it was to act prescribed. On the morn- 
 ing of the day consecrated to vengeance, each was 
 at the place of rendezvous appointed, while the Eng- 
 lish were so little aware of the impending destruc- 
 tion, that they received with unsuspicious hospitality 
 several persons sent by Opechancanough, under pre- 
 text of delivering presents of venison and fruits, but 
 in reality to observe their motions. Finding them 
 perfectly secure, at mid-day, tho moment that was 
 previously fixed for this deed of horror, the Indian 
 rushed at once upon them in all their different set- 
 tlements, and murdered men, women, and children, 
 with undistinguishing rage, and that rancorous cru- 
 elty with which savages treat their enemies. In one 
 hour nearly a fourth part of the whole colony was 
 cut off, almost without knowing by whose hands they 
 fell. The slaughter would have been universal, il 
 compassion or a sense of duty had not moved a con- 
 verted Indian, to whom the secret was communi- 
 cated the night before the massacre, to reveal it to 
 his master in such time as to save James town and 
 some adjacent settlements ; and if the English in 
 other districts had not run to their arms with resolu- 
 tion prompted by despair, and defended themselve 
 so bravely as to repulse their assailants, who, in the 
 execution of their plan, did not discover courage 
 equal to the sagacity and art with which they hi " 
 concerted it. 
 
 But though the blow was thus prevented from de- 
 scending with its full effect, it proved very grievous 
 to an infant colony. In some settlements not a 
 single Englishman escaped. Many persons of prime 
 note in the colony, and, among these several mem- 
 bers of the council, were slain. The survivors, over- 
 whelmed with grief, astonishment, and terror, aban- 
 doned all their remote settlements, and crowding to- 
 gether for safety to James town, did not occupy a 
 territory of greater extent than had been planted 
 soon after the arrival of their countrymen in Virgi- 
 nia. Confined within those narrow boundaries, they 
 were less intent on schemes of industry than on 
 thoughts of revenge. Every man took arms. A 
 " loody war against the Indians commenced ; and, 
 ent on exterminating the whole race, neither old 
 nor young were spared. The conduct of the Spa- 
 niards in the southern regions of America was openly 
 >roposed as the most proper model to imitate ; and 
 egardless, like them, of those principles of faith, 
 lonour, and humanity, which regulate hostility 
 among civilized nations and set bounds to its rage, 
 he English deemed everything allowable thct tended 
 o accomplish their design. They hunted the Indians 
 .ike wild beasts rather than enemies; and as the pur- 
 suit of them to their places of retreat in the woods, 
 which covered the country, was both difficult and 
 dangerous, they endeavoured to allure them from 
 their inaccessible fastnesses by offers of peace and 
 promises of oblivion, made with such an artful ap- 
 pearance of sincerity as deceived their crafty leader, 
 and induced them to return to their former settle- 
 ments, and resume their usual peaceful occupations. 
 The behaviour of the two people seemed now to be 
 perfectly reversed. The Indians, like men ac 
 quainted with the principles of integrity and good 
 faith, on which the intercourse between nations is 
 founded, confided in the reconciliation, and lived in 
 absolute security without suspicion of danger; while 
 the English, with perfidious craft, were preparing to 
 imitate savages in their revenge and cruelty. On 
 the approach of harvest, when they knew an hostile 
 attack would be most formidable and fatal, they fell 
 suddenly upon all the Indian plantations, murdered 
 every person on whom they could lay hold, and 
 drove the rest to the woods, where so many perished 
 with hunger, that some of the tribes nearest to the 
 English were totally extirpated. This atrocious deed, 
 which the perpetrators laboured to represent as a 
 necessary act of retaliation, was followed by some 
 happy effects. It delivered the colony so entirely 
 from any dread of the Indians, that its settlements 
 began again to extend, and its industry to revive. 
 
 But unfortunately at this juncture the state of the 
 company in England, in which the property of Vir 
 ginia and the government of the colony settled there 
 were vested, prevented it from seconding the efforts 
 of the planters, by such a reinforcement of men and 
 such a supply of necessaries, as were requisite to re- 
 place what they had lost. The company was origi- 
 nally composed of many adventurers, and increased 
 so fast by the junction of new members, allured by 
 the prospect of gain, or the desire of promoting a 
 scheme of public utility, that its general courts formed 
 a numerous assembly. The operation of every poli- 
 tical principle and passion that spread through the 
 kingdom was felt in those popular meetings, and 
 influenced their decisions. As towards the close of 
 James's reign more just and enlarged sentiments 
 with respect to constitutional liberty were diffused 
 among the people, they came to understand their 
 rights better and to assoit them with greater bold 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 ness ; a distinction formerly Little known, but now 
 familiar in English policy, began to be established 
 between the court and country parties, and the lead- 
 ers of each endeavouied to derive power and conse- 
 quence from every quarter. Both exerted themselves 
 with emulation, in order to obtain the direction of a 
 body so numerous and respectable as the company of 
 Virginian adventurers. In consequence of this, busi- 
 ness had been conducted in every general court for 
 some years, not with the temperate spirit of mer- 
 chants deliberating concerning their mutual interest, 
 but with the animosity and violence natural to nume- 
 rous assemblies, by which rival factions contend for 
 superiority. 
 
 As the king did not often assemble the great 
 council of the nation in parliament, the general 
 courts of the company became a theatre on which 
 popular orators displayed their talents; the procla- , 
 mations of the crown and acts of the privy council, { 
 with respect to the commerce and police of the 
 colony, were canvassed there with freedom, and cen- 
 sured with severity, ill-suited to the lofty ideas which 
 James entertained of his own wisdom and the extent 
 of his prerogative. In order to check this growing 
 spirit of discussion the ministers employed all their 
 address and influence to gain as many members of 
 the company as might give them the direction of 
 their deliberations. But so unsuccessful were they 
 in this attempt that every measure proposed by them 
 was reprobated by a vast majority, and sometimes 
 without any reason but because they were the pro- 
 posers of it. James, little favourable to the power 
 of any popular assembly, and weary of contending 
 with one over which he had laboured in vain to obtain 
 an ascendant, began to entertain thoughts of dissolv- 
 ing the company, and new-modelling its constitution. 
 Pretexts, neither unplausible nor destitute of some 
 foundation, seemed to justify this measure. The 
 slow progress of the colony, the large sums of money 
 expended, and great number of men who had pe- 
 rished in attempting to plant it, the late massacre by 
 the Indians, and every disaster that had befallen the 
 English from their first migration to America, were 
 imputed solely to the inability of a numerous com- 
 pany to conduct an enterprise so complex and ar- 
 duous. The nation felt sensibly its disappointment 
 ill a scheme in which it had engaged with sanguine 
 expectations of advantage, and wished impatiently 
 for such an impartial scrutiny into former proceed- 
 ings as might suggest more salutary measures in the 
 future administration of the colony. The present 
 state of its affairs, as well as the wishes of the people, 
 seemed to call for the interposition of the crown ; 
 and James, eager to display the superiority of his 
 royal wisdom, in correcting those errors into which 
 the company had been betrayed by inexperience in 
 the arts of government, boldly undertook the work of 
 reformation. Without regarding the rights con- 
 veyed to the company by their charter, and without 
 the formality of any judicial proceeding for annulling 
 it, he, by virtue of his prerogative, issued a commis- 
 sion, empowering some of the judges and other per- 
 sons of note, to examine into all the transactions of 
 the company from its first establishment, and to lay 
 the result of their inquiries, together with their opi- 
 nion concerning the most effectual means of render- 
 ing the colony more prosperous, before the privy 
 council. At the same time, by a strain of authority 
 still higher, he ordered all the records and papers oi 
 the company to be seized, and two of its principal 
 officers to be arrested. Violent and arbitrary as 
 these acts of authority may now appear, the comniis 
 
 sioners carried on their inquiry without any obstruc- 
 tion but what arose from some feeble and ineffectual 
 remonstrances of the company. The commissioner?, 
 though they conducted their scrutiny with much ac- 
 tivity and vigour, did not communicate any of their 
 proceedings to the company ; but their report, with 
 respect to its operations, seems to have been very 
 uui'avourable, as the king, in consequence of it, sig- 
 nified to the company his intention of vesting the 
 supreme government of the company in a governor 
 and twelve assistants, to be resident in England, and 
 the executive power in a council of twelve, which 
 should reside in Virginia. The governor and assist- 
 ants were to be originally appointed by the king. 
 Future vacancies were to be supplied by the gover- 
 nor and his assistants, but their nomination was not 
 to take effect until it should be ratified by the privy 
 council. The twelve councillors in Virginia were to 
 be chosen by the governor and assistants ; and this 
 choice was likewise subjected to the review of the 
 privy council. With an intention to quiet the minds 
 of the colonists it was declared that private property 
 should be deemed sacred ; and for the more effectual 
 security of it all grants of lauds from the former 
 company were to be confirmed by the new one. In 
 order to facilitate the execution of this plan, the kirg 
 required the company instantly to surrender itss 
 charter into his hands. 
 
 But here James and his ministers encountered a 
 spirit of which they seem not to have been aware. 
 They found the members of the company unwilling 
 tamely to relinquish rights of franchises, conveyed to 
 them with such legal formality, that upon faith iu 
 their validity they had expended considerable sums ; 
 and still more averse to the abolition of a popular 
 brm of government, in which every proprietor had a 
 voice, in order to subject a colony, in which they 
 >vere deeply interested, to the dominion of a small 
 junto absolutely dependent on the crown. Neither 
 promises nor threats could induce them to depart 
 Tom these sentiments; and in a general court the 
 dug's proposal was almost unanimously rejected, and 
 i resolution taken to defend to the utmost their char , 
 jered rights, if these should be called in question in 
 any court of justice. James, highly offended at their 
 ^resumption in daring to oppose his will, directed a 
 writ of quo warrants to be issued against the com- 
 >any, that the validity of its charter might be tried 
 n the court of King's Bench ; and in order to aggra- 
 vate the charge, by collecting additional proofs of 
 mal-administration, he appointed some persons iu 
 whom he could confide, to repair to Virginia to in- 
 spect the state of the colony, and inquire into the 
 conduct of the company, and of its officers there. 
 
 The law-suit in the King's Bench did not hang 
 long in suspense. It terminated, as was usual in 
 that reign, in a decision perfectly consonant to the 
 wishes of the monarch. The charter was forfeited, 
 the company was dissolved, and all the rights and 
 privileges conferred upon it returned to the king, 
 from whom they flowed. 
 
 Some writers, particularly Stith, the most intelli- 
 gent and best informed historian of Virginia, men- 
 tion the dissolution of the company as a most disas- 
 trous event to the colony. Animated with liberal 
 sentiments, imbibed in an age when the principles of 
 liberty were more fully unfolded than under the reigu 
 of James, they viewed his violent and arbitrary pro- 
 ceedings on this occasion with such indignation, that 
 their abhorrence of the means which he employed to 
 accomplish his design seems to have rendered them 
 incapable of contemplating its effects with discern- 
 
220 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 nicnt and candour. There is not perhaps any mode 
 of governing an infant colony less friendly to its 
 liberty, than the dominion of an exclusive corpora- 
 tion possessed of all the powers which James had 
 conferred upon the company of adventurers in Vir- 
 ginia. During several years the colonists can hardly 
 be considered in any other light than as servants to 
 the company, nourished out of its stores, bound im- 
 plicitly to obey its orders, and subjected to the most 
 rigorous of all forms of government, that of martial 
 law. Even after the native spirit of Englishmen 
 began to rouse under oppression, and had extorted 
 from their superiors the right of enacting laws for 
 the government of that community of which they 
 were members, as no act, though approved of by all 
 the branches of the provincial legislature, was held 
 to be of legal force until it was ratiiied by a general 
 court in England, the company still retained the pa- 
 ramount authority in its own hands. Nor was the 
 power of the company more favourable to the pros- 
 perity of the colony than to its freedom. A nume- 
 rous body of merchants, as long as its operations are 
 purely cjmmcrcial, may carry them on with discern- 
 ment and success. But the mercantile spirit seems 
 ill adapted to conduct an enlarged and liberal plan 
 of civil policy, and colonies have seldom grown up 
 to maturity and vigour under its narrow and inte- 
 rested regulations. To the unavoidable defects in 
 administration which this occasioned, were added 
 errors arising from inexperience. The English mer- 
 chants of that age had not those extensive views 
 which a general commerce opens to such as have the 
 direction of it. When they first began to venture 
 out of the beaten track, they groped their way with 
 timidity and hesitation. Unacquainted with the cli- 
 mate and soil of America, and ignorant of the pro- 
 ductions best suited to them, they seem to have had 
 no settled plan of improvement, and their schemes 
 were continually varying. Their system of govern- 
 ment was equally lluctuating. In the course of 
 eighteen years ten difl'erent pei'sons presided over 
 the province as chief governors. No wonder that, 
 under such administration, all the efforts to give vi- 
 gour and stability to the colony should prove abor- 
 tive, or produce only slender effects. These efforts, 
 however, when estimated according to the ideas of 
 that age, cither with respect to commerce or to poli- 
 cy, were very considerable, and conducted with as- 
 tonishing perseverance. 
 
 Above an hundred and fifty thousand pounds were 
 expended in this first attempt to plant an English 
 colony in America; and more than nine thousand 
 persons were ,sent out from the mother country to 
 people this new settlement. At the dissolution of 
 the company the nation, in return for this waste of 
 treasure and of people, did not receive from Virginia 
 an annual importation of commodities exceeding 
 twenty thousand pounds in value ; and the colony 
 was so far from having added strength to the state 
 by an increase of population, that in the year one 
 thousand six bundled and twenty-four scarcely two 
 thousand persons survived; a wretched remnant of 
 the numerous emigrants who had flocked thither 
 with sanguine expectations of a very different fate. 
 
 The company, like all unprosperous societies, fell 
 unpitied. The violent hand with which prerogative 
 had invaded its rights was forgotten, and new pros- 
 pects of success opened, under a form of government 
 exempt from all the defects to which past disasters 
 were imputed. The king and the nation concurred 
 with equal ardour iu resolving to encourage the co- 
 louy. Soon after the final judgment in the court of 
 
 King's Bench against the company James appointed 
 a council of twelve persons to take the temporary 
 direction of affairs in Virginia, that he might have 
 leisure to frame with deliberate consideration proper 
 regulations for the permanent government of the 
 colony. Pleased with such an opportunity of exer- 
 cising his talents as a legislator, he began to turn his 
 ! attention towards the subject; but death prevented 
 him from completing his plan. 
 
 Charles I. on his accession to the throne, adopted 
 ! all his father's maxims with respect to the colony in 
 j Virginia. He declared it to be a part of the empire 
 annexed to the crown, and immediately subordinate 
 to its jurisdiction ; he conferred the title of governor 
 on Sir George Yardely, and appointed him, in con- 
 junction with a council of twelve and a secretary, to 
 exercise supreme authority there, and enjoined them 
 to conform, in every point, to such instructions as 
 from time to time they might receive from him. 
 From the tenor of the king's commission, as well as 
 from the known spirit of his policy, it is apparent 
 that he intended to vest every power of government, 
 both legislative and executive, in the governor and 
 council, without recourse to the representatives of 
 the people, as possessing a right to enact laws for the 
 community, or to impose taxes upon it. Yardely 
 and his council, who seem to have been fit instru- 
 ments for carrying this system of arbitrary rule into 
 execution, did not fail to put such a construction on 
 the words of their commission as was most favoura 
 ble to their own jurisdiction. During a great part 
 of Charles's reign, Virginia knew no other law than 
 the will of the sovereign. Statutes were published, 
 and taxes imposed, without once calling the repre- 
 sentatives of the people to authorize the-m by their 
 sanction. At the same time that the colonists were 
 bereaved of political rights, which they deemed csscr. 
 tial to freemen and citizens, their private property 
 was violently invaded. A proclamation was issued 
 by which, under pretexts equally absurd and frivo- 
 lous, they were prohibited from selling tobacco to 
 any person but certain commissioners appointed 1/y 
 the king to purchase it on his account; and they had 
 the cruel mortification to behold the sovereign, who 
 should have afforded them protection, engross all the 
 profits of their industry, by seizing the only valuable 
 commodity which they had to vend, and retaining 
 the monopoly of it in his own hands. While the 
 staple of the colony in Virginia sunk in value under 
 the oppression and restraints of a monopoly, pro- 
 perty inland was rendered insecure by various grants 
 of it, which Charles inconsiderately bestowed upon 
 his favourites. These were not oniy of such exorbi- 
 tant extent as to be unfavourable to the progress of 
 cultivation ; but from inattention, or imperfect ac- 
 quaintance with the geography of the country, their 
 boundaries were so inaccurately defined, that large 
 tracts already occupied and planted were often in- 
 cluded in them. 
 
 The murmurs and complaints which such a system 
 of administration excited were augmented by the 
 rigour with which Sir John Harvey, who succeeded 
 Yardely in the government of the colony, enforced 
 every act of power. Rapacious, uni'ceiiiu!,-, and 
 haughty, he added insolence to oppression, and nei- 
 ther regarded the sentiments nor listened to the re- 
 monstrances of the people under his command. The 
 colonists, far from the seat of government, and over- 
 awed by authority derived from a royal commission, 
 submitted long to his tyranny and exactions. Their 
 patience was at last exhausted; and in a transpoit of 
 popular rage and indignation -they seized their go- 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 vcrnor, and sent him a prisoner to England, accom- 
 panied by two of (heir number, whom they deputed 
 to prefer their accusations against him to the king. 
 But this attempt to redress their own wrongs, by a 
 proceeding so summary and violent as is hardly con- 
 sistent with any idea of regular government, and can 
 be justified only in cases of such urgent necessity as 
 rarely occur in civil society, was altogether repug- 
 nant to every notion which Charles entertained with 
 respect to the obedience due by subjects to their 
 sovereign. To him the conduct of the colonists ap- 
 peared to be not only an usurpation of his right to 
 judge and to punish one of his own officers, but an 
 open and audacious act of rebellion against his au- 
 thority. Without deigning to admit their deputies 
 into his presence, or to hear one article of their 
 charge against Harvey, the king instantly sent him 
 back to his former station, with an ample renewal of 
 all the powers belonging to it. But though Charles 
 deemed this vigorous step necessary in order to as- 
 sert his own authority, and to testify his displeasure 
 with those who had presumed to offer such an insult 
 to it, he seems to have been so sensible of the griev- 
 ances under which the colonists groaned, and of the 
 chief source from which they flowed, that soon after 
 he not only removed a governor so justly odious to 
 them, but named as a successor Sir William Berke- 
 ley, a person far superior to Harvey in rank and 
 abilities, and still more distinguished by possessing 
 all the popular virtues to which the other was a 
 stranger. 
 
 Under his government the colony in Virginia re- 
 mained, with some short intervals of interruption, 
 almost forty years ; and to his mild and prudent ad- 
 ministratuln its increase and prosperity are in a great 
 measure to be ascribed. It was, indebted, however, 
 to the king himself Tor such a reform of its constitu- 
 tion and policy, as gave a different aspect, to the 
 colony, and animated all its operations with new 
 spirit." Though tlio tenor of Sir William Berkeley's 
 commission was the same with that of his predeces- 
 sor, he received instructions under the great seal, by 
 which he was empowered to declare, that in all its 
 concerns, civil as well as ecclesiastical, the colony 
 was to be governed according to the laws of Eng- 
 land; he was directed to issue writs for electing re- 
 presentatives of the people, who, in conjunction with 
 the governor and council, were to form a general 
 assembly, and to possess supreme legislative autho- 
 rity in the community ; he was ordered to esta- 
 blish courts of justice, in which all questions, whether 
 civil or criminal, were to be decided agreeably to the 
 forms of judicial procedure in the mother country. 
 It is not easy to discover what were the motives 
 which induced a monarch, tenacious in adhering to 
 any opinion or system which he had once adopted, 
 jealous to excess of his own rights, and adverse on 
 every occasion to any extension of the privileges 
 claimed by his people, to relinquish his original plan 
 of administration in the colony, and to grant such 
 immunities to his subjects settled there. From the 
 historians of Virginia, no less superficial than ill 
 informed, no light can be derived with respect to this 
 point. It is most probable the dread of the spirit 
 then rising in Great Britain extorted from Charles 
 concessions so favourable to Virginia. After an in- 
 termission 'of almost twelve years the state of his 
 affairs compelled him to have recourse to the great 
 c mncil of the nation. There his subjects would find 
 a jurisdiction independent of the crown, and able to 
 controul its authority. There they hoped for legal 
 redress of all their grievances. As the colonists in 
 
 Virginia had applied for relief to a former parlia- 
 ment, it might be expected with certainty that they 
 would lay their case before the first meeting of an 
 assembly in which they were secure of a favourable 
 audience. Charles knew that if the spirit of his ad- 
 ministration in Virginia were to be tried by the 
 maxims of the English constitution, it must be se- 
 verely reprehended. He was aware that many mea- 
 sures of greater moment in his government would be 
 brought under a strict review in parliament ; and, 
 unwilling to give malcontents the advantage of add- 
 ing a charge of oppression in the remote parts of his 
 dominions to a catalogue of domestic grievances, he 
 artfully endeavoured to take the merit of having 
 granted voluntarily to his people in Virginia such 
 privileges as he foresaw would be extorted from him. 
 
 But though Charles established the internal go- 
 vernment of Virginia on a model similar to that of 
 the English constitution, and conferred on his sub- 
 jects there all the rights of freemen and citizens, he 
 was extremely solicitous to maintain its connexion 
 with the parent state. With this view he instructed 
 Sir William Berkeley strictly to prohibit any com 
 merce of the colony with foreign nations ; and in 
 order more certainly to secure exclusive possession 
 of all the advantages arising from the sale of its pro- 
 ductions, he was required to take a bond from the 
 master of each vessel that sailed from Virginia to 
 land his cargo in some part of the king's dominions 
 in Europe. Even under this restraint, such is the 
 kindly influence of free government on society, the 
 colony advanced so rapidly in industry and popula- 
 tion, that at the beginning of the civil war the Eng- 
 lish settled in it exceeded twenty thousand. 
 
 Gratitude towards a monarch from whose hands 
 they had received immunities which they had long 
 wished but hardly expected to enjoy, the influence 
 and example of a popular governor, passionately de- 
 voted to the interests of his master, concurred in 
 preserving inviolated loyalty among the colonists. 
 Even after monarchy was abolished, after one king 
 had been beheaded, and another driven into exile, 
 the authority of the crown continued to be acknow- 
 ledged and revered in Virginia. Irritated at this 
 open defiance of its power, the parliament issued an 
 ordinance, declaring, that as the settlement in Vir- 
 ginia had been made at the cost and by the people of 
 England, it ought to be subordinate to and depend- 
 ent upon the English commonwealth, and subject to 
 such laws and regulations as are or shall be made in 
 parliament ; that, instead of this dutiful submission, 
 the colonists had disclaimed the authority of the 
 slate and audaciously rebelled against it ; that on this 
 account they were denounced notorious traitors, and 
 not only all vessels belonging to natives of England 
 but those of foreign nations were prohibited to enter 
 their ports, or to carry on any commerce with them. 
 
 It was not the mode of that age to wage a war of 
 words alone. The efforts of a high-spirited govern- 
 ment in asserting its own dignity were prompt and 
 vigorous. A powerful squadron, with a considerable 
 body of land forces, was despatched to reduce the 
 Virginians to obedience. After compelling the co- 
 lonies in Barbadoes and the other islands to submit 
 to the commonwealth, the squadron entered the bay 
 of Chesapeak. Berkeley, with more courage than 
 prudence, took arms to oppose this formidable arma- 
 ment ; but he could not long maintain such an un- 
 equal contest. His gallant resistance, however, pro 
 cured favourable terms to the people under his go- 
 vernment. A general indemnity for all past offences 
 was granted; they acknowledged the authority of 
 
222 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the commonwealth, and were admitted to a partici- 
 pation of all tho rights enjoyed by citizens. Berke- 
 ley, firm to his principles of loyalty, disdained to 
 make any stipulation for himself ; and choosing to 
 pass his days far removed from the seat of a go- 
 vernment which he detested, continued to reside in 
 Virginia as a private man, hcloved and respected by 
 all over whom he had formerly presided. 
 
 Not satisfied with taking measures to subject the 
 colonies, the commonwealth turned its attention to- 
 wards thf most effectual mode of retaining them in 
 dependence on the parent state, and of securing to it 
 the benefit of their increasing commerce. With this 
 view the parliament framed two laws, one of which 
 expressly prohibited all mercantile intercourse be- 
 tween the colonies and foreign states, and the other 
 ordained that no production of Asia, Africa, or Ame- 
 rica should be imported into the dominions of the 
 commonwealth but in vessels belonging to English 
 owners, or to the people of the colonies settled there, 
 and navigated by an English commander, and by 
 crews of which the greater part must be English- 
 men. But while the wisdom of the commonwealth 
 prescribed the channel in which the trade of the co- 
 lonies was to be carried on, it was solicitous to encou- 
 rage the cultivation of the staple commodity of Vir- 
 ginia by an act of parliament, which gave legal 
 force to all the injunctions of James and Charles 
 against planting tobacco in England. 
 
 Under governors appointed by the commonwealth, 
 or by Cromwell when he usurped the supreme 
 power, Virginia remained almost nine years in 
 perfect tranquillity. During that period many ad- 
 herents to the royal party, and among these some 
 gentlemen of good families, in order to avoid danger 
 and oppression to which they were exposed in Eng- 
 land, or in hopes of repairing their ruined fortunes, 
 resorted thither. Warmly attached to the cause for 
 which they had fought and suffered, and animated 
 with all the passions natural to men recently en- 
 gaged in a fierce and long protracted civil war, they, 
 by their intercourse with the colonists, confirmed 
 them in principles of loyalty, and added to their 
 impatience and indignation under the restraints im- 
 posed on their commerce by their new masters. On 
 the death of Matthews, the last governor named by 
 Cromwell, the sentiments and inclination of the 
 people, no longer under the controul of authority, 
 burst out with violence. They forced Sir William 
 Berkeley to quit his retirement; they unanimously 
 elected him governor of the colony ; and as he re- 
 fused to act under an usurped authority, they boldly 
 erected the royal standard, and acknowledging 
 Charles II. to be their lawful sovereign, proclaimed 
 him with all his titles ; and the Virginians long 
 boasted, that as they were the last of the king's sub- 
 jects who renounced their allegiance, they were the 
 first who returned to their duty. 
 
 Happily for the people of Virginia, a revolution 
 in England, no less sudden and unexpected, seated 
 Charles on the throne of his ancestors, and saved 
 them from the severe chastisement to which their 
 premature declaration in his favour must have ex- 
 posed them. On receiving the first account of this 
 event, the joy and exultation of the colony were uni- 
 versal and unbounded. These, however, were not of 
 long continuance. Gracious but unproductive pro- 
 fessions of esteem and good will were the only return 
 made by Charles to loyalty and services which in 
 their own estimation were so distinguished that no 
 recompencc was beyond what they might claim. If 
 the king's neglect and ingratitude disappointed all 
 
 the sanguiue hopes which their vanity had founded 
 on the merit of their past conduct, the spirit which 
 influenced parliament in its commercial deliberations 
 opened a prospect that alarmed them with respect to 
 their future situation. In framing regulations for 
 the encouragement of trade, which, during the con- 
 vulsions of civil war, and amidst continual fluctua- 
 tions in government, had met with such obstruction 
 that it declined in every quarter; the House of 
 Commons, instead of granting the colonies that re- 
 lief which they expected from the restraints in their 
 commerce imposed by the commonwealth and Crom- 
 well, not only adopted all their ideas concerning 
 this branch of legislation, but extended them further. 
 This produced the act of navigation, the most im- 
 portant and memorable of any in the statute-book 
 with respect to the history of English commerce. 
 By it, besides several momentous articles foreign to 
 the subject of this work, it was enacted, that no com- 
 modities should be imported into any settlement in 
 Asia, Africa, or America, or exported from them, 
 but in vessels of English or plantation built, whereof 
 the master and three-fourths of the mariners shall be 
 English subjects, under pain of forfeiting ship and 
 goods; that none but natural-born subjects, or such 
 as have been naturalized, shall exercise the occupa- 
 tion of merchant or factor in any English settlement, 
 under pain of forfeiting their goods and chattels ; 
 that no sugar, tobacco, cotton, wool, indigo, ginger, 
 or woods used in dyeing, of the growth or manu- 
 facture of the colonies, shall be shipped from them to 
 any other country but England ; and in order to se- 
 cure the performance of this, a sufficient bond, with 
 one surety, shall be given before sailing by the 
 owners, for a specific sum proportional to the rate of 
 the vessel employed by them, The productions sub- 
 jected to this restriction are distinguished, in the 
 language of commerce and finance, by the name of 
 enumerated commodities, and as industry in its pro- 
 gress furnished new articles of .value, these have 
 been successively added to the roll, and subjected to 
 the same restraint Soon after, the act of naviga- 
 tion was extended, and additional restraints were 
 imposed, by a new law, which prohibited the im- 
 portation of any European commodity into the co- 
 lonies, but what was laden in England in vessels 
 navigated and manned as the act of navigation re- 
 quired. More effectual provision was made by this 
 law for enacting the penalties to which the trans- 
 gressors of the act of navigation were subjected; 
 and the principles of policy, on which the various re- 
 gulations contained in both statutes are founded, 
 were openly avowed in a declaration, that as the 
 plantations beyond seas are inhabited and peopled 
 by subjects of England, they may be kept in a 
 firmer dependence upon it, and rendered yet more 
 beneficial and advantageous unto it, in the further 
 employment and increase of English shipping and 
 seamen, as well as in the vent of English woollen 
 and other manufactures and commodities ; and in 
 making England a staple, not only of the commodi- 
 ties of those plantations, hut also of the commodities 
 of other countries and places, for the supplying of 
 them; and itbeing the usage of other nations to keep 
 the trade of their plantations to themselves. In pro- 
 secution of those favourite maxims, the English le- 
 gislature proceeded a step further. As the act of na- 
 vigation had left the people of the colonies at liberty 
 to export the enumerated commodities from one 
 plantation to another without paying any duty, it 
 subjected them to a tax equivalent to what was paid 
 by the consumers of these commodities in England. 
 
THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 223 
 
 By these successive regulations, the plan of sc- ' 
 curing to England a monopoly of the commerce with j 
 its colonies, and of shutting up every other channel 
 into which it might be diverted, was perfected, and 
 reduced into a complete system. On one side of the 
 Atlantic these regulations have been extolled as an 
 extraordinary effort of political sagacity, and have 
 been considered as the great charter of national com- 
 merce, to which the parent state is indebted for all 
 its opulence and power. On the other, they have , 
 been execrated as a code of oppression, more suited 
 to the illiberality of mercantile ideas than to exten- 
 sive views of legislative wisdom. Which of these 
 opinions is best founded, I shall examine at large in 
 another part of this work. But in writing the his- 
 tory of the English settlements in America, it was 
 necessary to trace the progress of those restrain- 
 ing laws with accuracy, as in every subsequent 
 transaction we may observe a perpetual exertion, on | 
 the part of the mother-country, to enforce and ex- 
 tend them ; and on the part of the colonies, en- 
 deavours no less unremitting to elude or to obstruct 
 their operation. 
 
 Hardly was the act of navigation known in Vir- 
 ginia, and its effects begun to be felt, when the co- 
 lony remonstrated against it as a grievance, and pe- 
 titioned earnestly for relief. But the commercial 
 ideas of Charles and his ministers coincided so per- 
 fectly with those of parliament, that, instead of 
 listening with a favourable ear to their applications, 
 they laboured assiduously to carry the act into strict 
 execution. For this purpose, instructions were 
 issued to the governor, forts were built on the banks 
 of the principal rivers, and small vessels appointed 
 to cruise on the coast. The Virginians, seeing no 
 prospect of obtaining exemption from the act, set 
 themselves to evade it; and found means, notwith- 
 standing the vigilance with which they were watched, 
 of carrying on a considerable clandestine trade with 
 foreigners, particularly with the Dutch settled on 
 Hudson's river. Imboldened by observing disaffec- 
 tion spread through the colony, some veteran soldiers 
 who had served under Cromwell, and had been 
 banished to Virginia, formed a design of rendering 
 themselves masters of the country, and of asserting 
 its independence on England. This rash project 
 was discovered by one of their associates, and dis- 
 concerted by the vigorous exertions of Sir William 
 Berkeley. But the spirit of discontent, though re- 
 pressed, was not extinguished. Every day some- 
 thing occured to revive and to nourish it. As it is 
 with extreme difficulty that commerce can be turned 
 into a new channel, tobacco, the staple of the colony, 
 sunk prodigiously in value when they were compelled 
 to send it all to one market. It was some time before 
 England could furnish them regularly with full assort- 
 ments of those necessary articles, without which the 
 industry of the colony could not be carried on, or 
 its prosperity secured. Encouraged by the symptoms 
 of general languor and despondency which this de- 
 clining state of the colony occasioned, the Indians 
 seated towards the ends of the rivers ventured lirst 
 to attack the remote settlements, and then to make 
 incursions into the interior parts of the country. 
 Unexpected as these hostilities were, from a people 
 who during a long period had lived in friendship 
 with the English, a measure taken by the king seems 
 to have excited still greater terror among the most 
 opulent people of the colony. Charles had impru- 
 dently imitated the example of his father, by grant- 
 ing such large tracts of land in Virginia to several 
 of his courtiers, as tended to unsettle the distribu- 
 
 tion of property in the country, and to render the 
 title of the most ancient planters to their estates 
 precarious and questionable. From those various 
 causes, which in a greater or lesser degree affected 
 every individual in the colony, the indignation of the 
 people became general, and was worked up to such 
 a pitch, that nothing was wanting to precipitate 
 them into the most desperate acts but some leader 
 qualified to unite and to direct their operations. 
 
 Such a leader they found in Nathaniel Bacon, a 
 colonel of militia, who, though he had been settled 
 in Virginia only three years, had acquired, by po- 
 pular manners, an insinuating address, and the 
 consideration derived from having been regularly 
 trained in England to the profession of law, such 
 general esteem, that he had been admitted into the 
 council, and was regarded as one of the most re- 
 spectable persons in the colony. Bacon was ambi- 
 tious, eloquent, daring, and, prompted either by 
 honest zeal to redress the public wrongs, or allured 
 by hopes of raising himself to distinction and power, 
 he mingled with the malcontents ; and by his bold 
 j harangues and confident promises of removing all 
 1 their grievances, he inflamed them almost to madness. 
 ! As the devastation committed by the Indians was the 
 calamity most sensibly felt by the people, he accused 
 the governor of having neglected the proper mea- 
 sures for repelling the invasions'of the savages, and 
 exhorted them to take arms in their own defence, 
 and to exterminate that odious race. Great num- 
 bers assembled, and chose Bacon to be their gene- 
 ral. He applied to the governor for a commission, 
 confirming this election of the people, and offered 
 to march instantly against the common enemy. 
 Berkeley, accustomed by long possession of supreme 
 command to high ideas of the respect due to his sta- 
 tion, considered this tumultuary armament as an open 
 insult to his authority, and suspected that, under 
 specious appearances, Bacon concealed most dan- 
 gerous designs. Unwilling, however, to give fur- 
 ther provocations to an incensed multitude by a di 
 rect refusal of what they demanded, he thought it 
 prudent to negociate, in order to gain time ; and it 
 was riot until he found all endeavours to soothe them 
 ineffectual, that he issued a proclamation, requiring 
 them, in the king's name, under the pain of being 
 denounced rebels, to disperse. 
 
 But Bacon, sensible that he had now advanced 
 so far as rendered it impossible to recede with ho- 
 nour or safety, instantly took the only resolution 
 that remained in his situation. At the head of a 
 chosen body of his followers, he marched rapidly 
 to James town, and surrounding the house where 
 the jgovernor and council were assembled, demanded 
 the commission for which he had formerly applied. 
 Berkeley, with the proud indignant spirit of a cava- 
 lier, disdaining the requisitions of a rebel, perempto- 
 rily refused to comply, and calmly presented his 
 naked breast to the weapons which were pointed 
 against it. The council, however, foreseeing the 
 fatal consequences of driving an enraged multitude, 
 in whose power they were, to the last extremities of 
 violence, prepared a commission constituting Bacon 
 general of all the forces in Virginia, and by their 
 entreaties prevailed on the governor to sign it. 
 Bacon with his troops retired in triumph. Hardly 
 was the council delivered by his departure from the 
 dread of present danger, when, by a transition not 
 unusual in feeble minds, presumptuous boldness 
 succeeded to excessive fear. The commission 
 granted to Bacon was declared to be null, having 
 been extorted by force ; he was proclaimed a rebel, 
 
224 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 his followers were required to abandon his standard, 
 and the militia ordered to arm, and to join the go- 
 vernor. 
 
 Enraged at conduct which he branded with the 
 name of base and treacherous, Bacon, instead of 
 continuing his march towards the Indian country, 
 instantly wheeled about, and advanced with all his 
 forces to James town. The governor, unable to re- 
 sist such a numerous body, made his escape, and 
 fled across the bay to Acomack on the eastern 
 shore. Some of the counsellors accompanied him 
 thither, others retired to their own plantations. 
 Upon the flight of Sir William Berkeley, and dis- 
 persion of the council, the frame of civil govern- 
 ment in the colony seemed to be dissolved, and 
 Bacon became possessed of supreme and uncon- 
 trolled power. But as he was sensible that his 
 countrymen would not long submit with patience to 
 authority acquired and held merely by force of arms, 
 he endeavoured to found it on a more constitutional 
 basis, by obtaining the sanction of the people's ap- 
 probation. With this view he called together the 
 most considerable gentlemen in the colony, and hav- 
 inf prevailed on them to bind themselves by oath to 
 maintain his authority, and to resist every enemy 
 that should oppose it, he from that time considered 
 his jurisdiction as legally established. 
 
 Berkeley, meanwhile, having collected some forces, 
 made inroads into different parts of the colony where 
 Bacon's authority was recognised. Several sharp 
 conflicts happened with various success. James 
 town was reduced to ashes, and the best cultivated 
 districts in the province were laid waste, sometimes 
 by one party, and sometimes by the other. But it 
 was not by his own exertions that the governor 
 hoped to terminate the contest. He had early trans- 
 mitted an account of the transactions in Virginia to 
 the king, and demanded such a body of soldiers as 
 would enable him to quell the insurgents, whom he 
 represented as so exasperated by the restraints im- 
 posed on their trade, that they were impatient to 
 shake off all dependence on the parent state. Charles, 
 alarmed at a commotion no less dangerous than un- 
 expected, and solicitous to maintain his authority 
 over a colony the value of which was daily increas- 
 ing and more fully understood, speedily despatched 
 a small squadron with such a number of regular 
 troops as Berkeley had required. Bacon and his 
 followers received information of this armament, 
 but were not intimidated at its approach. They 
 boldly determined to oppose it with open force, 
 and declared it to be consistent with their duty and 
 allegiance, to treat all who should aid Sir William 
 Berkeley as enemies, until they should have an 
 opportunity of laying their grievances before their 
 sovereign. 
 
 But while both parties prepared, with equal ani- 
 mosity, to involve their country in the horrors of 
 civil war, an event happened, which quieted the 
 commotion almost as suddenly as it had been ex- 
 cited. Bacon, when ready to take the field, sicken- 
 ed and died. None of his followers possessed such 
 talents, or were so much objects of the people's con- 
 fidence, as entitled them to aspire to the supreme 
 command. Destitute of a leader to conduct and 
 animate them, their sanguine hopes of success sub- 
 sided ; mutual distrust accompanied this universal 
 despondency ; all began to wish for an accommoda- 
 tion ; and after a short negotiation with Sir William 
 Berkeley, they laid down their arms, and submitted 
 to his government, on obtaining a promise ofj 
 general pardon, 
 
 Thus terminated an insurrection, which, in tho 
 annals of Virginia, is distinguished by the name of 
 Bacon's rebellion. During seven months this dar- 
 ing leader was master of the colony, while the royal 
 governor was shut up in a remote and ill-peopled 
 corner of it. What were the real motives that 
 prompted him to take arms, and to what length he 
 intended to carry his plans of reformation, either in 
 commerce or government, it is not easy to discover 
 in the scanty materials from which we derive our 
 information with respect to this transaction. It is 
 probable, that his conduct, like that of other adven- 
 turers in faction, would have been regulated chiefly 
 by events ; and accordingly as these proved favour- 
 able or adverse, his views and requisitions would 
 have been extended or circumscribed. 
 
 Sir William Berkeley, as soon as he was rein- 
 stated in his office, called together the representa- 
 tives of the people, that by their advice and authority 
 public tranquility and order might be perfectly es- 
 tablished. Though this assembly met a few weeks 
 after the death of Bacon, while the memory of reci- 
 procal injuries was still recent, and when the pas- 
 sions excited by such a fierce contest had but little 
 time to subside, its proceedings were conducted with 
 a moderation seldom exercised by the successful 
 party in a civil war. No man suffered capitally ; a 
 small number were subjected to fines ; others were 
 declared incapable of holding any office of trust ; 
 and with those exceptions the promise of general 
 indemnity was confirmed by law. Soon after, 
 Berkeley was recalled, and colonel Jefferys was 
 appointed his successor. 
 
 From that period to the revolution in 1G88, there 
 is scarcely any memorable occurrence in the history 
 of Virginia. A peace was concluded with the 
 Indians. Under several successive governors, ad- 
 ministration was carried on in the colony with the 
 same arbitrary spirit that distinguished the latter 
 years of Charles II. and the precipitate counsels of 
 James II. The Virginians, with a constitution 
 which in form resembled that of England, enjoyed 
 hardly any portion of the liberty which that admira- 
 ble system of policy is framed to secure. They were 
 deprived oven of the last consolation of the op- 
 pressed, the power of complaining, by a law which, 
 under severe penalties, prohibited them from speak- 
 ing disrespectfully of the governor, or defaming, 
 either by words, or writing, the administration of 
 the colony. Still, however, the laws restraining 
 their commerce Avcre felt as an intolerable grie- 
 vance, and they nourished in secret a spirit of discon- 
 tent, which, from the necessity of concealing it, ac- 
 quired a greater degree of acrimony. But notwith- 
 standing those unfavourable circumstances, the 
 colony continued to increase. The use of tobacco 
 was now become general in Europe ; and though it 
 had fallen considerably in price, the extent of de- 
 mand compensated that diminution, and by giving 
 constant employment to the industry of the planters, 
 diffused wealth among them. At the revolution the 
 number of inhabitants in the colony exceeded sixty 
 thousand, and in the course of twenty-eight years_its 
 population had been more than doubled. 
 
 BOOK X. 
 
 When James I., in the year one thousand six 
 hundred and six, made that magnificent parti ti en 
 which has been mentioned, of a vast region in North 
 America, extending from the thirty-fourth to the 
 forty-fifth degree of latitude, between two trading 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 225 
 
 companies of his subjects, he established the residence 
 of the one in London, and of the other in Plymouth. 
 The former was authorized to settle in the southern, 
 and the latter in the northern part of this territory, 
 then distinguished by the general name of Virginia. 
 This arrangement seems to have been formed upon 
 the idea of some speculative refiner, who aimed at 
 diffusing the spirit of industry, by fixing the seat of 
 one branch of the trade that was now to be opened 
 on the east coast of the island, and the other on the 
 west. But London possesses such advantages of 
 situation that the commercial wealth and activity of 
 England have always centered in the capital. At 
 the beginning of the last century the superiority of 
 the metropolis in both these respects was so great, 
 that though the powers and privileges conferred by 
 the king on the two trading companies were pre- 
 cisely the same, the adventurers settled in Plymouth 
 fell far short of those in London in the vigour and 
 success of their efforts towards accomplishing the 
 purpose of their institution. Though the operations 
 of the Plymouth company were animated by the 
 public-spirited zeal of Sir John Popham, Chief Jus- 
 tice of England, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and some 
 other gentlemen of the west, all its exertions were 
 feeble and unfortunate. 
 
 The first vessel fitted out by the company was 
 taken by the Spaniards. In the year one thousand 
 six hundred and seven a feeble settlement was made 
 at Sagahadoc ; but on account of the rigour of the 
 climate was soon relinquished, and for some time 
 nothing further was attempted than a few fishing 
 voyages to Cape Cod, or a pitiful traffic with the na- 
 tives for skins and oil. One of the vessels equipped 
 for this purpose was commanded by Captain Smith, 
 whose name has been so often mentioned with dis- 
 tinction in the history of Virginia. The adventure 
 was prosperous and lucrative. But his ardent enter- 
 prising mind could not confine its attention to ob- 
 jects so unequal to it as the petty details of a trading | 
 voyage. He employed a part of his time in explor- 
 ing the coast, and in delineating its bays and har- 
 bours. On his return he laid a map of it before 
 Prince Charles, and, with the usual exaggeration of 
 discoverers, painted the beauty and excellence of the 
 country in such glowing colours that the young 
 prince, in the warmth of admiration, declared that it 
 should be called New England; a name which 
 effaced that of Virginia, and by which it is still dis- 
 tinguished. 
 
 The favourable accounts of" the country by Smith. 
 as well as the success of his voyage, seem to have 
 encouraged private adventurers" to prosecute the 
 trade on the coast of New England with greater 
 briskness ; but did not inspire the languishing con;- 
 pany of Plymouth with such vigour as to make any 
 new attempt towards establishing a permanent colony 
 there. Something more than the prospect of distant 
 gain to themselves or of future advantages to their 
 country, was requisite in order to induce men to 
 abandon the place of their nativity to migrate to 
 another quar&r of the globe, and endure innumera : 
 ble hardships under an untried climate, and in an 
 uncultivated land covered with woods, or occupied 
 by fierce and hostile tribes of savages. But what mere 
 attention to private emolument or to national utility 
 CJuld not affect was accomplished by tho operation of 
 a higher principle. Religion had gradually excited 
 among a great body of the people a spirit that fitted 
 them remarkably for encountering the dangers, and 
 surmounting the obstacles which had hitherto rendered 
 abortive the schemes of colonization in that part of 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, No. 29. 
 
 America allotted to the company of Plymouth. As 
 the various settlements in New England are in- 
 debted for their origin to this spirit, as in the course 
 of our narrative we shall discern its influence min- 
 gling in all their transactions, and giving a peculiar 
 tincture to the character of the people as well as to 
 their institutions, both civil and ecclesiastical, it 
 becomes necessary to trace its rise and progress with 
 attention and accuracy. 
 
 When the superstitions and corruptions of the 
 Romish church prompted different nations of Europe 
 to throw off its yoke and to withdraw from its com- 
 munion, the mode as well as degree of their separa- 
 tion was various. Wherever reformation was sud- 
 den, and carried on by the people without authority 
 from their rulers, or in opposition to it, the rupture 
 was violent and total. Every part of the ancient 
 fabric was overturned, and a different system, not 
 nly with fespect to doctrine, but to church govern- 
 ment and the external rites of worship, was esta- 
 blished. Calvin, who by his abilities, learning, and 
 austerity of manners, had acquired high reputation 
 and authority in. the Protestant churches, was a 
 zealous advocate'for this plan of thorough reforma- 
 tion. He exhibited a model of that pure form of 
 ecclesiastical policy which he approved in the 
 constitution of the church of Geneva. The simpli- 
 city of its institutions, and still more their repug- 
 nancy to those of the popish church, were so much 
 admired by all. the stricter reformers that it was co- 
 pied, with some small variations, in Scotland, in the 
 republic of the United Provinces, in the dominions of 
 the house of Brandenburg, in those 'of the elector 
 Palatine, and in the churches of the Hugonots in 
 France. 
 
 But in those countries where the steps of depar- 
 ture from the church of Rome were taken with 
 greater deliberation, and regulated by the wisdom or 
 policy of the supreme magistrate, the separation was 
 not so wide. Of all the reformed churches that of 
 England has deviated least from the ancient institu- 
 tions. The violent but capricious spirit of Henry 
 VIII., who, though he disclaimed the supremacy, 
 revered the tenets of the papal see, checked innova- 
 tions in doctrine or worship during his reign. When 
 his son ascended the throne and the Protestant reh^ 
 gion was established by law, the cautious prudence 
 of Archbishop Cranmer moderated the zeal of those 
 who had espoused the new opinions. Though the 
 articles to be recognized as the system of national 
 faith were framed conformably to the doctrines of 
 Calvin, his notions with respect to church govern- 
 ment and the inode of worship were not adopted. 
 As the hierarchy in England was incorporated with 
 the civil policy of the kingdom, and constituted a 
 member of the legislature, archbishops and bishops, 
 with all the subordinate ranks of ecclesiastics subject 
 to them, were continued according to ancient form, 
 and with the same dignity and jurisdiction. The 
 peculiar vestments in which the clergy performed 
 their sacred functions, bowing at the name of Jesus, 
 kneeling at receiving the sacrament of the Lord's 
 supper, the sign of the cross in baptism, the use of 
 the ring in marriage, with several other rites to 
 which long usage had accustomed the people, and 
 which time had rendered venerable, were still re- 
 tained. But though parliament enjoined the ob- 
 servance of these ceremonies under very severe p-'- 
 nalties, several of the more zealous clergy enter- 
 tained scruples with respect to the lawfulness of com- 
 with this injunction : and the vigilance and 
 v of Cranmer and Ridley with difficulty saved 
 2 G ' 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 their infant church from the disgrace oi' a schism on j 
 this account. 
 
 On the accession of Mary, the furious zeal with 
 which she persecuted all who had adopted the tenets 
 of the reformers forced many eminent Protestants, 
 laymen as well as ecclesiastics, to seek an asylum on 
 the continent. Frankfort, Geneva, Basil, and Stras- 
 burgh received them with affectionate hospitality as 
 sufferers in the cause of truth, and the magistrates 
 permitted them to assemble by themselves for reli- 
 gious worship. The exiles who took up their resi- 
 dence in the two former cities, modelled their little 
 congregations according to the ideas of Calvin, and 
 with a spirit natural to men in their situation, eagerly 
 adopted institutions which appeared to be further 
 removed from the superstitions of popery than those 
 of their own church. They returned to England as 
 soon as Elizabeth re-established the Protestant reli- 
 gion, not only with more violent antipathy to the 
 opinions and practices of that church by which they 
 had been oppressed, but with a strong attachment to 
 that mode of worship to which they had been for 
 some years accustomed. As they were received by 
 their countrymen with the veneration due to confes- 
 sors, they exerted all the influence derived from that 
 opinion, in order to obtain such a reformation in the 
 English ritual as might bring it nearer to the stand- 
 ard of purity in foreign churches. Some of the 
 queen's most confidential ministers were warmly 
 disposed to co-operate with them in this measure. 
 But Elizabeth paid little regard to the inclinations of 
 the one or the sentiments of the other. Fond of 
 pomp and ceremony, accustomed, according to the 
 mode of that age, to study religious controversy, and 
 possessing, like her father, such coniidence in her 
 uwn understanding, that she never doubted her capa- 
 city to judge and decide with respect to every point 
 in dispute between contending sects, she chose to 
 act according to her own ideas, which led her rather 
 to approach nearer to the church of Rome, in the 
 parade of external worship, than to widen the breach 
 by abolishing any rite already established. An act 
 of parliament, in the first year of her reign, not only 
 required an exact conformity to the mode of worship 
 prescribed in the service-book, under most rigorous 
 penalties, but empowered the queen to enjoin the 
 observance of such additional ceremonies as might 
 tend, in her opinion, to render the public exercises of 
 devotion more decent and edifying. 
 
 The 1 advocates for a further reformation, notwith- 
 standing this cruel disappointment of the sanguine 
 hopes with which they returned to their native 
 country, did not relinquish their design. They dis- 
 seminated their opinions with great industry among 
 the people. They extolled the purity of foreign 
 churches, and inveighed against the superstitious 
 practices with which religion was defiled in their own 
 church. In vain did the defenders of the established 
 system represent that these forms and ceremonies 
 were in themselves things perfectly indifferent, which, 
 from long usage, were viewed with reverence ; and, 
 by their impression .upon the senses and imagina- 
 tion tended not only to fix the niu-ntion but to affect 
 the heart, and to warm it with davout and worthy 
 sentiments. The puritans (for by that name such as 
 scrupled to comply with what was enjoined by the 
 act of uniformity were distinguished), maintained 
 that the rites in question were inventions of men, 
 superadded to the simple and reasonable service re- 
 quired in the word of God; that from the excessive 
 solicitude with which conformity to them was ex- 
 a,cted, the multitude must conceive such a hih oi>i- 
 
 nion of their value and importance, as might induce 
 them to rest satisfied with the mere form and shadow 
 of religion, and to imagine that external observances 
 may compensate for the w^ant of inward sanctity; 
 that ceremonies which had been long employed by a 
 society manifestly corrupt, to veil its own defects, 
 and to seduce and fascinate mankind, ought now to 
 be rejected as relics of superstition unworthy of a 
 place in a church which gloried in the name of Re- 
 formed. 
 
 The people, to whom in every religious controversy 
 the final appeal is made, listened to the arguments of 
 the contending parties ; and it is obvious to which of 
 them men, who had lately beheld the superstitious 
 spirit of popery, and felt its persecuting rage, would 
 lend the most favourable ear. The desire of a fur- 
 ther separation from the church of Rome spread wide 
 through the nation. The preachers who contended 
 for this, and who refused to wear the surplice and 
 other vestments peculiar to their ordc>r, or to observe 
 the ceremonies enjoined by law, were followed and 
 admired, while the ministry of the zealous advocales 
 for conformity was deserted, and their persons often 
 exposed to insult. For some time the non-confor- 
 mists were connived at; but as their number and 
 boldness increased, the interposition both of spiritual 
 and civil authority was deemed necessary in order to 
 check their progress. To the disgrace of Christians 
 the sacred rights of conscience and private judgment, 
 as well as the charity and mutual forbearance suita- 
 ble to the mild spirit'of the religion which they pro- 
 fessed, were in that age little understood. Not only 
 the idea of toleration but even the word itself in the 
 sense now affixed to it, was then unknown. Every 
 church claimed a right to employ the hand of power 
 for the protection of truth and the extirpation of 
 error. The laws of her kingdom armed Elizabeth 
 with ample authority for this purpose, and she was 
 abundantly disposed to exercise it with full vigour. 
 Many of the most eminent among the puritan clergy 
 were deprived of their benefices, others were impri- 
 soned, several were fined, and some put to death. 
 But persecution, as usually happens, instead of ex- 
 tinguishing, inflamed their zeal to such a height that 
 the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts of law was 
 deemed insufficient to suppress it, and a new tribu- 
 nal was established under the title of the hiyh com- 
 mixsiun for ecclesiastical affairs, whose powers and 
 mode of procedure were hardly less odious or lesi 
 hostile to the principles of justice than those of the 
 Spanish inquisition. Several attempts were made 
 in the House of Commons to check these arbitrary 
 proceedings, and to moderate the rage of persecu- 
 tion ; but the queen always imposed silence upon 
 those who presumed to deliver any opinion with re- 
 spect to a matter appertaining solely to her prero- 
 gative, in a tone as imperious and arrogant as was 
 ever used by Henry VIII. in addressing his parlia- 
 ments ; and so tamely obsequious were the guardians 
 of the people's rights that they not only obeyed 
 those unconstitutional commands, but consented to 
 an act by which every person who should absent 
 himself from church during a month was subjected 
 to punishment by fine and imprisonment ; and if 
 after conviction lie did not within three months re- 
 nounce his erroneous opinions and conform to th^ 
 laws, he was then obliged to abjure the realm ; but 
 if he either refused to comply with this condition, or 
 returned from banishment, he should be put to death 
 as a felon without, benefit of clergy. 
 
 By this iniquitous statute, equally repugnant to 
 ias of civ 1 '! n-- 1 , of reliarious libertv. the puritans 
 
 ideas of 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 were cut off from any hope of obtaining either refor- 
 mation in the church or indulgence to themselves. 
 Exasperated by this rigorous treatment their antipa- 
 thy to the established religion increased, andwiih 
 the progress natural to violent pas.- ion?, carried 
 them fur bevond what was their original aim. The 
 firs* puritans did not entertain any scruples with 
 respect to the lawfulness of episcopal government, 
 and seem to have been very unwilling to withdraw 
 from communion with the church of which they were 
 members. But when they were thrown out of her 
 bosom, and constrained to hold separate assemblies 
 for the worship of God, their followers no longer 
 viewed a society by which they were oppressed, with 
 reverence or affection. Her government., her disci- 
 pline, her ritual, were examined with minute atten- 
 tion. Every error was pointed out, and every defect 
 magnified. The more boldly any preacher inveighed 
 against the corruptions of the church he was listened 
 to with greater approbation ; and the further he 
 urged his disciples to depart from such an impure 
 community, the more eagerly did they follow him. 
 By degrees ideas of ecclesiastical policy, altogether 
 repugnant to those of the established church, gained 
 ioo ing iu the nation. The more sober and learned 
 puritans inclined to that form which is known by the 
 name of Presbyterian. Such as were more tho- 
 roughly possessed with the spirit of innovation, 
 luiwem-r much they might approve the equality of 
 pastors which that system establishes, reprobated' the 
 authority which it vests in various judicatories, de- 
 scending from one to another in regular subordina- 
 tion, as inconsistent with Christian liberty. 
 
 These wild notions floated for some time in the 
 minds of the people, and amused them with many 
 ideal schemes of ecclesiastical policy. At length 
 Robert Brown, a popular declaimer in high estima- 
 tion, reduced them to a system on which he mo- 
 delled his own congregation. He taught that the 
 church of England was corrupt and autichristian, its 
 ministers not lawfully ordained, its ordinances and 
 sacraments invalid ; and therefore he prohibited his 
 people to hold communion with it in any religious 
 function. He maintained that a society of Christians, 
 uniting together to worship God, constituted a church 
 possessed of complete jurisdiction in the conduct of ; 
 its own affairs, independent of any other society, 
 and unaccountable to any superior ; that the priest- 
 hood was neither a distinct order in the church, nor 
 conferred an indelible character ; but that every man 
 qualified to teach might be set apart for that office 
 by the election of the brethren, and by imposition of 
 their hands: in like manner, by their authority, he 
 might be discharged from that function and reduced 
 to the rank of a private Christian ; that every person, 
 when admitted a member of a church, ought to make 
 a public confession of his faith, and give evidence 
 of his being in a state of favour with God; and that 
 all the affairs of a church were to be regulated by 
 the decision of the majority of its members. 
 
 This democratical form of government, which abo- 
 lished all distinction of ranks in the church, and 
 conferred an equal portion of power on every indi 
 vidual, accorded so perfectly with the levelling ge- 
 nius of fanaticism that it was fondly adopted by 
 many as a complete model of Christian policy. From 
 their founder they were denominated Brownists ; and 
 as their tenets were more hostile to the established 
 religion than those of other separatists, the fiercest 
 storm of persecution fell upon their heads. Many of 
 them were lined or imprisoned, and some put to 
 death: and though Brown, with a levity of which 
 
 there are few examples among enthusiasts whose vu- 
 nity has been soothed by being recognized as heads 
 of a party, abandoned his disciples, conformed to 
 the established religion, and accepted of a benefice 
 in the church, the sect not only subsisted but conti- 
 nued to spread, especially among persons in the 
 mi. idle and lower ranks of life. But as all their 
 motions were carefully watched both by the eccle- 
 siastical and civil courts, which, as often as they 
 were detected, punished them with the utmost rigour, 
 a body of them, weary of living in a state of conti- 
 nual danger and alarm, fled to Holland, and settled 
 in Leyden, under the care of Mr. John Robinson, 
 their pastor. There they resided for several years 
 unmolested and obscure. But many of their ;<ged 
 members dying, and some of the younger marrying 
 into Dutch families, while their church received no 
 increase, either by recruits from England or by pro- 
 selytes gained in the country, they began to be afraid 
 that all their high attainments in spiritual know- 
 ledge would be lost, and that perfect fabric of policy 
 which they had erected would be dissolved and con- 
 signed to oblivion, if they remained longer in a. 
 strange land. 
 
 Bej-ply affected with the prospect of an event, 
 which to them appeared fatal to the interests of 
 : truth, they thought themselvqs called, in order to 
 prevent it, to remove to some other place where they 
 might profess and propagate their opinions with 
 greater success. America, in which their country- 
 men were at that time intent ou planting colonies, 
 i presented itself to their thoughts. They flattered 
 themselves with hopes of being permitted, in that 
 remote region, to follow their own ideas in religion 
 without disturbance The dangers and hardships to 
 j which all former emigrants to America had been 
 i exposed, did not deter them. " They were well 
 weaned (according to their own description) from the 
 j delicate milk of their mother country, and inured to 
 the difficulties of a strange land. They were knit 
 ; together in a strict and sacred band, by virtue of 
 i wliich they held themselves obliged to take care of 
 the good of each other, and of the whole. It was not 
 with them as with other men, whom small things 
 ; could discourage, or small discontents cause to wish 
 themselves at home again." The first object of 
 their solicitude was to secure the free exercise of 
 their religion. For this purpose they applied to the 
 ' king ; and though James refused to give them any 
 explicit assurance of toleration, they seem to have 
 obtained from him some prou:ise of his connivance 
 as long as they continued to demean themselves 
 quietly. So eager were they to accomplish their 
 favourite scheme, that relying on this precarious 
 security, they began to negotiate with the Virginian 
 company for a tract of land within the limits of their 
 patent. This they easily procured from a society 
 desirous of encouraging migration to a vast country, 
 of which they had hitherto occupied only a few 
 spots. 
 
 After the utmost efforts their preparations fell far 
 short of what was requisite for beginning the settle- 
 ment .of a new colony. A hundred and twenty per- 
 sons sailed from England in a single ship on this 
 arduous undertaking. The place of their destination 
 was Hudson's river, where they intended to settle; 
 but their captain having been bribed, as is said, by 
 the Dutch, who had then formed a scheme, which 
 they afterwards accomplished, of establishing a co- 
 lony there, carried them so far towards the north, 
 that, the firsthand in America which they made was 
 Cape Cod. They were now not only beyond the 
 
228 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, 
 
 precincts of the territory which had been granted to 
 them, but beyond those of the company from which 
 they derived their right. The season, however, was 
 so fur advanced, and sickness raged so violently 
 among men unaccustomed to the hardships of a long 
 voyage, that it became necessary to take up their 
 abode there. After exploring the coast, they chose 
 for their station a place now belonging to the pro- 
 vince of Massachusetts Bay, to which they gave the 
 name of New Plymouth, probably out of respect to 
 that company within whose jurisdiction they now 
 found themselves situated. 
 
 No season could be more unfavourable to settle- 
 ment than that in which the colony landed. The 
 winter, which from the predominance of cold in 
 America, is rigorous to a degree unknown in paral- 
 lel latitudes of our hemisphere, was already set in ; 
 and they were slenderly provided with what was re- 
 
 quisite for comfortable subsistence, under a climate | proceed to relate, 
 considerably more severe than that for which they The original c 
 
 cial, and the supply sent them by their friends so 
 scanty, that at the end of ten years the number of 
 people belonging to the settlement did not exceed 
 three hundred. During some years they appear not 
 to have acquired right, by any legal conveyance, to 
 the territory which they had occupied. At length 
 they obtained a grant of property from the council of 
 the New Plymouth company, but were never incor- 
 porated as a body politic by royal charter. Unlike 
 all the other settlements in America, this colony 
 must be considered merely as a voluntary association 
 held together by the tacit consent of its members U> 
 recognize the authority of laws, arid submit to the 
 jurisdiction of magistrates, framed and chosen by 
 themselves. In this state it remained an independ- 
 ent but feeble community until it was united to its 
 more powerful neighbour, the colony of Massachu- 
 setts bay, the origin and progress of which I now 
 
 considerably 
 
 had made preparation. 
 
 they 
 Above one half of them wa: 
 
 company of Plymouth having dono 
 effectual towards establishing any permanent 
 
 r __ r , nothing __ 
 
 cut off before the return of spring by diseases, or by I settlement in America, James I. in the year one 
 famine ; the survivors, instead of having leisure to j thousand six hundred and twenty issued a new char - 
 attend to the supply of their own wants, were com- j tor to the Duke of Lenox, the Marquis of Bucking 
 polled to take arms against the savages in their | ham, and several other persons of distinction in his 
 neighbourhood. Happily for the English, a pesti- j court, by which he conveyed to them a right to a 
 lence which raged in America the year bc.'ore they J territory in America still more extensive than what 
 landed, ha 1 swept off so great a. number of the ua- \ had been granted to the former patentees, incorpo- 
 tives that they were quickly repulsed and humbled, j rating them as a body politic, in order to plant eolo- 
 The privilege of professing their own opinions, and nics there, with powers and jurisdictions similar ti> 
 of being governed by laws of their own framing, those contained in his charters to the companies of 
 afforded consolation to the colonists amidst all their ; South and North Virginia. This society was cli;- 
 dangers and hardships. The constitution of their 
 church was the same with that which they had esta- 
 blished in Holland. Their system of civil govern- 
 ment was founded on those ideas of the natural 
 equality among men, to which their ecclesiastical 
 policy had accustomed them. Every free man, who 
 was a member of the church, was admitted into the 
 supreme legislative body. The laws of England 
 
 were adopted as the basis of their jurisprudence, 
 though with some diversity in the punishments in- 
 
 flicted upon crimes, borrowed from the Mosaic insti- 
 tutions. The executive power was 
 governor and some assistants, who 
 
 vested in a 
 were elected 
 
 annually by the members of the legislative assembly. 
 
 So far their institutions appear to be founded on the 
 
 tinguished by the name of the grand council of Ply- 
 mouth for planting and governing New England. 
 What considerations of public utility could induce 
 the king to commit such an undertaking to persons 
 apparently so ill qualified fur conducting it, or what 
 prospect of private advantage prompted them to en- 
 gage in it, the information we receive from contem- 
 porary writers does not enable us to determine. 
 Certain it is, that the expectations of both were dis- 
 
 appointed ; and after many schemes and arrange- 
 ments, all the attempts of the new associates towards 
 colonization proved unsuccessful. 
 
 New England must have remained unoccupied if 
 the same causes which occasioned the emigration of 
 the Brownists had not continued to operate. Not- 
 
 ordinary maxims of human prudence. But it was a j withstanding the violent persecution to which puri- 
 favourite opinion with all the enthusiasts of that age, { tans of every denomination were still exposed, their 
 that the Scriptures contained a complete system not j number and zeal daily increased. As they now 
 only of spiritual instruction but of civil wisdom and j despaired of obtaining in their own country any 
 polity ; and without attending to the peculiar circum- relaxation of the penal statutes enacted against their 
 stances or situation of the people whose history is sect, many began to turn their eyes towards some 
 there recorded^ they often deduced general rules for 
 their own conduct from what happened among men 
 in a very different state. Under the influence of this 
 wild nation the colonists of New Plymouth, in imita- 
 tion of the primitive Christians, threw all their pro- 
 perty into a common stock, and, like members of one 
 family, carried on every work of industry by their 
 joint labour for public behoof. But, however this 
 resolution might evidence the sincerity of their 
 faith, it retarded the progress of their colony. The 
 same fatal effects flowed from this community of 
 goods and of labour, which had formerly been expe- 
 rienced in Virginia ; and it soon became necessary 
 to relinquish what was too refined to be capable of 
 being accommodated to the affairs of men. But 
 though they built a small town, and surrounded it 
 with such a fence as afforded sufficient security 
 against the assaults of Indians, the soil around it 
 was so poor, their religious principles were so unso- 
 
 other place of retreat, where they might profess their 
 own opinions with impunity. From the tranquillity 
 which their brethren had hitherto enjoyed in New 
 Plymouth, they hoped to find this desired asylum ia 
 New England; and by the activity of Mr. White, a 
 non-conformist minister at Dorchester, an associa- 
 tion was formed by several gentlemen who had im- 
 bibed puritanical notions in order to conduct a co- 
 lony thither. They purchased from the council of 
 Plymouth all the territory, extending in length from 
 three miles north of the river Merrimack, to three 
 miles south of Charles river, and in breadth, from 
 the Atlantic to the Southern ocean. Zealous as 
 these proprietors were to accomplish their favourite 
 purpose, they quickly perceived their own inability 
 to attempt the population of such an immense 
 region, and deemed it necessary to call in the aid 
 of more opulent co-partners. 
 
 Of these they found, without difficulty, a sufficient 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 229 
 
 number, chiefly in the capital, and among persons in 
 the commercial and other industrious walks of life, 
 who had openly joined the sect of the puritans, or 
 secretly favoured their opinions. These new adven- 
 turers, with the caution natural to men conversant 
 in business, entertained doubts concerning the pro- 
 priety of founding a colony on the basis of a grant 
 from a private company of patentees, who might 
 convey a right of property in the soil, but could not 
 confer jurisdiction, or the privilege of governing that 
 society which they had in contemplation to esta- 
 blish. As it was only from royal authority that such 
 powers could be derived, they applied for these ; and 
 Charles granted their request with a facility which 
 appears astonishing, when we consider the principles 
 and views of the men who were suitors for the 
 favour. 
 
 Time has been considered as the parent of politi- 
 cal wisdom, but its instructions are communicated 
 slowly. Although the experience of above twenty 
 years might have taught the English the impropriety 
 of committing the government of settlements in 
 America to exclusive corporations resident in Europe, 
 neither the king nor his subjects had profited so 
 much by what passed before their eyes as to have 
 extended their ideas beyond those adopted by James 
 in his first attempts towards colonization. The 
 charter of Charles I. to the adventurers associated 
 for planting the province of Massachusetts bay was 
 perfectly similar to those granted by his father to the 
 two Virginian companies and to the council of Ply- 
 mouth. The new adventures were incorporated as 
 as a body politic, and their right to the territory, 
 which they had purchased from the council at Ply- 
 mouth, being confirmed by the king, they were em- 
 powered to dispose of the lands, and to govern the 
 people who should settle upon them. The first go- 
 vernor of the company and his assistants were 
 named by the crown ; the right of electing their suc- 
 cessors was vested in the members of the corporation. 
 The executive power was committed to the governor 
 and assistants ; that of legislation to the body of 
 proprietors, who might make statutes and orders for 
 the good of the community, not inconsistent with the 
 'aws of England, and enforce the observance of 
 friem, according to the course of other corporations 
 within the realm. Their lauds were to be held by 
 tit same liberal tenure with those granted to the 
 ^ i'ginian company. They obtained the same tempo- 
 ran exemption from internal taxes, and from duties 
 on foods exported or imported ; and notwithstanding 
 theii migration to America, they and their descend- 
 ants veie declared to be entitled to all the rights of 
 naturd-born subjects. 
 
 The manifest object of this charter was to confer 
 on the adventurers who undertook to people the ter- 
 ritory i Massachusetts bay, all the corporate 
 rights possessed by the council of Plymouth, from 
 which thy had purchased it, and to form them into 
 a public tody, resembling other great trading compa- 
 nies, whici the spirit of monarchy had at that time 
 multiplied in the kingdom. The king seems not to 
 have foreseen, or to have suspected the secret inten- 
 tions of those who projected tiie measure ; for so far 
 was he from alluring emigrants, by any hopes of in- 
 dulgence with respect to their religious scruples, or 
 from promising any relaxation from the rigour of 
 the penal statutes against non-conformists, that he 
 expressly provides for having the oath of supremacy 
 administered to every person who shall pass to the 
 colony, or inhabit there. 
 
 But whatever vere the intentions of the king, the 
 
 adventurers kept their own object steadily in view. 
 Soon after their powers to establish a colony were 
 rendered complete by the royal charter, they fitted 
 out five ships for New England ; on board of which 
 embarked upwards of three hundred passengers with 
 a view of settling there. These were mostly zealous 
 puritans, whose chief inducement to relinquish their 
 native land was the hope of enjoying religious liberty 
 in a country far removed from the seat of govern- 
 ment and the oppression of ecclesiastical courts. 
 Some eminent non-couf jrmist ministers accompanied 
 them as their spiritual instructors. On their arrival 
 in New England they found the wretched remainder 
 of a small body of emigrants, who had left England 
 the preceding year, under the conduct of Endicott, 
 a deep enthusiast, whom, prior to their incorpora- 
 tion by the royal charter, the associates had ap- 
 pointed deputy-governor. They were settled at a 
 place called by the Indians Nauuekeag, and to 
 which Endicott, with the fond affectation of fanatics 
 of that age to employ the language and appellations 
 of Scripture in the affairs of common life, had given 
 the name of Salem. 
 
 The emigrants under Endicott, and 'such as now 
 joined them, coincided perfectly in religious princi- 
 ples. They were puritans of the strictest form ; and 
 to men of this character the institution of a church 
 was naturally of such interesting concern as to tako 
 place of every other object. In this first transaction 
 they displayed at once the extent of the reformation 
 at which they aimed. Without regard to the senti- 
 ments of that monarch under the sanction of whose 
 authority they settled in America, and from whom 
 they derived right to act as a body politic, and in 
 contempt of the laws of England, with which the 
 charter required that none of their acts or ordinances 
 should be inconsistent, they adopted in their infant 
 church that form of policy which has since been dis- 
 tinguished by the name of independent. They united 
 together in religious society, by a solemn covenant 
 with God and with one another, and in strict con- 
 formity, as they imagined, to the rules of Scripture. 
 They elected a pa?tor, a teacher, and an elder, whom 
 they set apart for their respective offices, by imposi- 
 tion of the hands of the brethren. All \vho were that 
 day admitted membeis of the church signified their 
 assent to a confession of faith drawn up by their 
 teacher, and gave an account of the foundation of 
 their own hopes as Christians ; and it was declared 
 that no person should hereafter be received into 
 communion until he gave satisfaction to the church 
 with respect to his faith and sanctity. The form of 
 public worship which they instituted was without a 
 liturgy, disencumbered of every superfluous ceremo- 
 ny, and reduced to the lowest standard of Calvinistic 
 simplicity. 
 
 It was with the utmost complacence that men 
 passionately attached to their own notions, and who 
 had long been restrained from avowing them, em- 
 ployed themselves in framing this model of a pure 
 church. But in the first moment that they began 
 to taste of Christian liberty themselves, they forgot 
 that other men had an equal title to enjoy it. Some 
 of their number, retaining a high veneration for the 
 ritual of the English church, were so much offended 
 at the total abolition of it, that they withdrew from 
 communion with the newly instituted church, and 
 assembled separately for the worship of God. With 
 an inconsistency of which there are such flagrant 
 instances among christians of every denomination 
 that it cannot be imputed as a reproach peculiar to 
 any sect, the very men who had themselves fled from 
 
230 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 persecution became persecutors; and had recourse, in the other. They had applied for a royal charter, 
 in order to enforce their own opinions, to the same in order to give legal effect to their operations in 
 unhallowed weapons, against the employment of England, as acts of a body politic; but the persons 
 which they had lately remonstrated with so much ( whom they sent out to America, as soon as they 
 violence. Endicott called the two chief malcontents landed there, considered themselves as individuals 
 before him ; and though they were men of note, and . united together by voluntary association, possessing 
 among the number of original patentees, he expelled | the natural right of men who form a society, to adopt 
 them from the society, and sent them home in the ships what mode of government, and to enact what laws, 
 which were returning to England. The colonists they deemed most conducive to general felicity, 
 were now united in sentiments ; but, on the ap- Upon this principle of being entitled to judge 
 proach of winter, they suffered so much from diseases, I and to decide for themselves, they established their 
 which carried off almost one half of their number. | church in Salem, without regard to the institutions 
 that they made little progress in occupying the ! of the church of England, of which the charter sup- 
 country, j posed them to be members, and bound of consequence 
 
 Mea'n while the directors of the company in Eng- j to conformity with its ritual. Suitably to the same 
 land exerted their utmost endeavours in order to ideas, we shall observe them framing all their future 
 reinforce the colony with a numerous body of new : plans of civil and ecclesiastical policy. The king, 
 settlers ; and as the intolerant spirit of Laud exacted ^ though abundantly vigilant in observing and check- 
 conformity to all the injunctions of the church with j ing slighter encroachments on his prerogative, was 
 greater rigour than ever, the condition of such as \ either so much occupied at that time with other 
 had any scruples with respect to this became so cares, occasioned by his fatal breach with his pjiv- 
 intolerable, that many accepted of their invitation to j liament, that he could not attend to the proceedings 
 a secure retreat in New England. Several of these | of the company ; or he was so much pleased with 
 were persons of greater opulence and of better con- the prospect of removing a body of turbulent subjects 
 ditiori than any who had hitherto migrated to that ' to a distant country, where they might be useful, 
 country. But as they intended to employ their ; and could not prove dangerous, that he was disposed 
 fortunes, as well as to hazard their persons, in \ to connive at the irregularity of a measure which 
 establishing a permanent colony there, and foresaw facilitated their departure. 
 
 many inconveniences from their subjection to laws | Without interruption from the crown, the adven- 
 rnade without their own consent, and framed by a j turers proceeded to carry their scheme into execution, 
 society which must always be imperfectly acquainted ! In a general court, John Winthrop was appointed 
 with their situation, they insisted that the corporate ' governor, and Thomas Dudley deputy -governor, and 
 powers, of the company should be transferred from eighteen assistants were chosen; in whom, together 
 England to America, and the government of the with the body of freemen who should settle in New 
 colony be vested entirely in those who, by settling England, were vested with all the corporate rights 
 in the latter country, became members of it. The j of the company. With such zeal and activity did 
 company had already expended considerable sums in : they prepare for emigration, that in the course of the 
 prosecuting the designs of their institution, without ensuing year seventeen ships sailed for New Eng- 
 having received almost any return, and had no land, and aboard these above fifteen hundred per- 
 prospect of gain, or even of reimbursement, but sons, among whom were several of respectable 
 what was too remote and uncertain to be suitable families, and in easy circumstances. On their arrival 
 to the ideas of merchants, the most numerous class : in New England, many were so ill satisfied with the 
 of its members. They hesitated, however, with I situation of Salem, that they explored the countr 
 respect to the legality of granting the demand of the in quest of some better station; and settling in di.'- 
 intended emigrants. But such was their eagerness j ferent places around the buy, according to thnr 
 to be disengaged from an unpromising adventure, I various fancies, laid the foundations of Boston, 
 that, " by general consent it was determined, that | Charles town, Dorchester, Roxborough, and ot'ier 
 the charter should be transferred, and the govern-' towns, which have since become considerable in the 
 meut be settled in New England." To the members ! province. In each of these a church was established 
 of the corporation who chose to remain at home ! on the same model with that of Salem. This, tog.-ther 
 was reserved a share in the trading stock and ' with the care of making provision for their sabsis- 
 profits of the company during seven years. ; tence during winter, occupied them entirely luring 
 
 In this singular transaction, to which there is ! some months. But in the first general court, their 
 nothing similar in the history of English colonization, j disposition to consider themselves as membe'S of an 
 two circumstances merit particular attention : one j independent society, unconiined by the regulations 
 is the power of the company to make this trans- i in their charter, began to appear. The election of 
 ference ; the other is the silent acquiescence with j the governor and deputy-governor, the ap>ointment 
 which the king permitted it to take place. If the j of all other officers, and even the power jf making 
 validity of this determination of the company be j laws, all which were granted by the chirter to the 
 tried by the charter which constituted it a body i freemen, were taken from them, and vested in the 
 politic, and conveyed to it all the corporate powers ! council of assistants. But the aristooatical spirit 
 with which it was invested, it is evident that it could I of this resolution did not accord with the ideas of 
 neither exercise those powers in any mode different i equality prevalent among the people, who had been 
 from what the charter prescribed, nor alienate them J surprised into an approbation of it. Next year the 
 in such a manner as to convert the jurisdiction of a j freemen, whose numbers had been greatly aug- 
 trading corporation in England into a provincial ! mented by the admission of new members, resumed 
 government in America. But from the first in- | their former rights. 
 
 stitution of the company of Massachusetts bay, its 
 members seem to have been animated with a spirit 
 of innovation in civil policy, as well as in religion ; 
 and by the habit of rejecting established usages in 
 the one, they were prepared for deviating from them 
 
 But, at the same time, they ventured to deviate 
 from the charter in a matter of greater moment, 
 which deeply affected all the future operations of 
 the colony, and contributed greatly to form that 
 peculiar character by which the people of New Eng- 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 231 
 
 land have been distinguished. A law was passed, 
 declaring that none shall hereafter be admitted 
 freemen, ov be entitled to any share in the govern- 
 ment, or be capable of being chosen magistrates, or 
 even of serving as jurymen, but such as have been 
 received into the church as members. By this 
 resolution, every person who did not hold the fa- 
 vourite opinions concerning the doctrines of religion, 
 the discipline of the church, or the rites of worship, 
 was at once cast out of the society, and stripped of 
 all the privileges of a citizen. An uncontrolled 
 pQwer of approving or rejecting the claims of those 
 who applied for admission into communion with the 
 church being vested in the ministers and leading 
 men of each congregation, the most valuable of all 
 civil rights was made to depend on their decision 
 wuh respect to qualifications purely ecclesiastical. 
 As in examining into these they proceeded not by 
 any known or established rules, but exercised a dis- 
 cretionary judgment, the clergy rose gradually to a 
 degree of influence and authority from which the 
 levelling spirit of the independent church-policy was 
 calculated to exclude them. As by their deter- 
 mination the political condition of every citizen was 
 fixed, all paid court to men possessed of &uch an 
 important power, by assuming those austere and 
 sanctimonious manners which were known to be the 
 most certain recommendation to their favour. In 
 consequence of this ascendant, which was acquired 
 chiefly by the wildest enthusiasts among the clergy, 
 their notions became a standard to which all studied 
 to conform, and the singularities characteristic of 
 the puritans in that age increased, of which many 
 reuiarkable instances will occur in the course of our 
 narrative. 
 
 Though a considerable number of planters was 
 cut off by the diseases prevalent in a country so im- 
 perfectly cultivated by its original inhabitants as to 
 i*e still almost one continued forest, and several, 
 discouraged by the hardships to which they were 
 exposed, returned to England, recruits sufficient to 
 replace them arrived. At the same time the small- 
 pox, a distemper fatal to the people of the New- 
 World, swept away such multitudes of the natives, 
 that some whole tribes disappeared ; and Heaven, 
 by thus evacuating a country in which the English 
 might .settle without molestation, was supposed to 
 declare its intentions that they should occupy it. 
 
 As several of the vacant Indian stations were well 
 chosen, such Avas the eagerness of the English to 
 take possession of them, that their settlements be- 
 came more numerous and more widely dispersed 
 than suited the condition of an infant colony. This 
 led to an innovation which totally altered the nature 
 and constitution of the government. When a general 
 court was to be held in the year one thousand six 
 hundred and thirty-four, the freemen, instead of 
 attending it in person, as the charter prescribed, 
 elected representatives in tlrjir different districts, 
 authorizing them to appoar in their name, with full 
 power to deliberate and decide concerning every point 
 that fell under the cognizance of the general court. 
 
 Whether this measure was suggested by some de- 
 signing leaders, or whether they found it prudent to 
 soothe the people by comply ing with their inclination, 
 is unceitaiu. The representatives were admitted, and 
 considered themselves, in conjunction with the go- 
 vernor and assistants,as the supreme legislative assem- 
 bly of the colony. In assertion of their own rights, they 
 enacted that, no law should be passed, no tax should 
 be imposed, and no public officer should be ap- 
 pointed, but in the general assembly. The pretexts 
 
 for making this new arrangement were plausible. 
 The number of freemen was greatly increased; many 
 resided at a distance from the places where the su- 
 preme courts were held; personal attendance became 
 inconvenient ; the form of government in their own 
 country had rendered familiar the idea of delegating 
 their rights, and committing the guardianship of 
 their liberties, to representatives of their own choice, 
 and the experience of agrs had taught them that this 
 important trust might with safety be lorlged in their 
 hands. Thus did the company of Massachusetts 
 bay, in less than six years from its incorporation by 
 the kinir, mature and perfect a scheme which, I 
 have already observed, some of its more artiiil and 
 aspiring leaders seem to have had in view when the 
 association for peopling New England was first 
 formed. The colony must hencelimvard be con- 
 sidered, not as a corporation whose powers were 
 defined and its mode of procedure regulated by its 
 charter, but as a society, which, having acquired or 
 assumed political liberty, had, by its own Voluntary 
 deed, adopted a constitution or government framed 
 on the model of that in England. 
 
 But however liberal their system of civil policy- 
 might be, as their religious opinions were no longer 
 under any restraint of authority, the spirit of fanati- 
 cism continued to spread, and became every day 
 wilder and more extravagant. Williams, a minister 
 of Salem, in high estimation, having conceived an 
 antipathy to the cross of St. George in the standard 
 of England, declaimed against it with so much 
 vehemence, as a relic of superstition and idolatry 
 which ought not to be retained among a people so 
 pure and sanctified, that Emlicott, one of the mem- 
 bers of the court of assistants, in a transport of zeal, 
 publicly cut out the cross from the ensign displayed 
 before 'the governor's gate. This frivolous matter 
 interested and divided the colony. Some of the 
 militia scrupled to follow colours in which there was 
 a cross, lest they should do honour to an idol : others 
 refused to serve under a mutilated banner, lest they 
 should be suspected of having renounced their alle- 
 giance to the crown of England. After a long 
 controversy, carried on by both parties with that 
 heat and zeal which in trivial disputes supply the 
 want of argument, the contest was terminated by a 
 compromise. The cross was retained in the ensigns 
 of forts and ships, but erased from the colours of the 
 militia. Williams, on account of this-, as well as 
 ! of some other doctrines deemed unsound, was ba- 
 nished out of ihe colony. 
 
 The prosperous state of New England was now so 
 I highly extolled, and the simple frame of its ecclesi- 
 \ astic policy was so much admired by all whose affeo 
 \ tions were estranged from the church of England, 
 ! that crowds of new settlers flocked thither- Among 
 these were two persons, whose names have been 
 rendered memorable by the appearance which they 
 afterwards made on a more conspicuous theatre: 
 ; one was Hugh Peters, the enthusiastic and intriguing 
 chaplain of Oliver Cromwell ; the other Mr. Henry 
 Vane, son of Sir Henry Vane, a privy counsellor, 
 high in office, and of great credit with the king ; a 
 young man of a noble family, animated with such 
 zeal for pure religion and such love of liberty as 
 induced him to relinquish all his hopes in England, 
 and to settle in a colony hitherto no further advanced 
 in improvement than barely to afford subsistence to 
 its members, was received with the fondest admira- 
 tion. His mortified appearance, his demure look, 
 and rigid manners, carried even beyond the standard 
 of preciseness in that society which he joined. 
 
THE HISTORV OF AMERICA. 
 
 seemed to indicate a mail of high spiritual attain- j 
 incnts, while his abilities and address in business 
 pointed him out as worthy of the highest station in 
 the community. With universal consent, and high 
 expectations of advantage from his administration, | 
 he was elected governor in the year subsequent to i 
 his arrival. But as the affairs of an infant colony | 
 afforded not objects adequate to the talents of Vane, j 
 his busy pragmatical spirit occupied itself with theo- i 
 logical subtilties and speculations unworthy of his ' 
 attention. These were excited by a woman, whose ! 
 reveries produced such effects both within the colony | 
 and beyond its precincts, that, frivolous as they j 
 may now appear, they must be mentioned as an oc- i 
 currence of importance in its history. 
 
 It was the custom at that time in New England, i 
 among the chief men in every congregation, to I 
 meet once a week, in order to repeat the sermons ; 
 which they had heard, and to hold religious confer- j 
 ence with respect to the doctrine contained in them, j 
 Mrs.Hutchinsou, whose husband was among the most i 
 respectable members of the colony, regretting that J 
 persons of her sex were excluded from the benefit of ; 
 those meetings, assembled statedly in her house j 
 a number of women, who employed themselves in 
 pious exercises similar to those of the men. At first 
 she satisfied herself with repeating what she could 
 recollect of the discourses delivered by their teachers. 
 She began afterwards to add illustrations, and at 
 length proceeded to censure some of the clergy as 
 unsound, and to vent opinions and fancies of her 
 own. These were all founded on the system which 
 is denominated Antinomian by divines, and tinged 
 with the deepest enthusiasm. She taught, that sanc- 
 tity of life is no evidence of justification, or of a 
 state of favour with God ; an I that such as incul- 
 cated the necessity of manifesting the reality of our 
 faith by obedience, preached only a covenant of 
 works; she contended that the Spirit of God dwelt 
 personally in good men, and by inward revelations 
 and impressions they received the fullest discoveries 
 of the divine will. The fluency and confidence with 
 which she delivered these notions gained her many 
 admirers and proselytes, not only among the vulgar 
 but among the principal inhabitants. The whole 
 colony was interested and agitated. Vane, whose 
 sagacity and acuteness seemed to forsake .him when- 
 ever they were turned towards religion, espoused 
 and defended her wildest tenets. Many conferences 
 were held, days of fasting and humiliation were 
 appointed, a general synod was called ; and, after 
 dissensions so violent as threatened the dissolution 
 of the colony, Mrs. Hutchinson's opinions were 
 condemned as erroneous, and she herself banished. 
 Several of her disciples withdrew from the province 
 of their own accord. Vane quitted America in dis- 
 gust, unlameut.ed even by those who had lately ad- 
 mired him ; some of whom now regarded him as a 
 mere visionary, and others as one of those dark tur- 
 bulent spirits doomed to embroil every society into 
 which they enter. 
 
 However much these theological contests might 
 disquiet the colony of Massachusetts bay, they con- 
 tributed to the more speedy population of America. 
 When Williams was banished from Salem in the 
 year one thousand six hundred and thirty-four, such 
 was the attachment of his hearers to a pastor whoso 
 pie'iy they revered, that a good number of them vo? 
 luntarily accompanied him in his exile. They di- 
 rected their march towards the south ; and having 
 purchased from the natives a considerable tract of 
 land, to which Williams gave the name of Provi- 
 
 dence, they settled there. They were joined soon 
 after by some of those to whom the proceedings 
 against Mrs. Hutchinson gave disgust; and by a 
 transaction with the Indians they obtained a right to 
 a fertile island in Naraganset bay, which acquiied 
 the name of Rhode Island. Williams remained 
 among them upwards of forty years, respected as 
 the father and the guide of the colony which he had 
 planted. His spirit differed from that of the Puri- 
 tans in Massachusetts; it was mild and tolerating; 
 and having ventured himself to reject established 
 opinions, he endeavoured to secure the same liberty 
 to other men, by maintaining that the exercise of 
 private judgment was a natural and sacred right ; 
 that the civil magistrate has no compulsive jurisdic- 
 tion in the concerns of religion; that the punish- 
 ment of any person on account of his opinions was 
 an encroachment on conscience, and an act of per- 
 secution. These humane principle* he instilled into 
 his followers : and all who felt or dreaded oppression 
 in other settlements resorted to a community in 
 which universal toleration was known to be a funda- 
 mental maxim. In the plantations of Providence 
 and Rhode Island, political union was established by 
 voluntary association, and the equality of condition 
 among the members, as well as their religious 
 opinions ; their form of government was purely de- 
 mocratical, the supreme power being lodged in the 
 freemen personally assembled. In this state they 
 remained until they were incorporated by charter. 
 
 To similar causes the colony of Connecticut is in- 
 debted for its origin. The rivalship between Mr. 
 Cotton and Mr. Hooker, two favourite ministers in 
 the settlement of Massachusetts bay, disposed the 
 latter, who was least successful in this contest for 
 fame and power, to wish for some settlement at a 
 distance from a competitor by whom his reputation 
 was eclipsed. A good number of those who had 
 imbibed Mrs. Hutchinson's notions, and were of- 
 fended with such as combatted them, offered to 
 accompany him. Having employed proper persons 
 to explore the country, they pitched upon the west 
 side of the great river Connecticut at the most 
 inviting station ; and in the year one thousand six 
 hundred and thirty- six, about a hundred persons, 
 with their wives and families, after a fatiguing march 
 of many days through woods and swamps, arrived 
 there, and laid the foundation of the towns of Hart- 
 ford, Springfield, and Weatherfield. This settlement 
 was attended with peculiar irregularities. Part of 
 the district now occupied lay beyond the limits of 
 the territory granted to the colony of Massachusetts 
 bay, and yet the emigrants took a commission from 
 the governor and court of assistants, empowering 
 them to exercise jurisdiction in that country. The 
 Dutch from Manhados or New York, having dis- 
 covered the river Connecticut, and established some 
 trading houses upon it, had acquired all the right 
 that prior possession confers. Lord Say and Sele 
 and Lord Brook, the heads of two illustrious families, 
 were so much alarmed at the arbitrary measures rf 
 Charles I., both in his civil and ecclesiastical adr 
 ministration, that they took a resolution not unbe- 
 coming young men of noble birth and liberal 
 sentiments, of retiring to the New World, in order 
 to enjoy such a form of religion as they approved 
 of, and those liberties which they deemed essential 
 to the well-being of society. They, too, fixed on the 
 banks of the Connecticut as their place of settlement, 
 and had taken possession, by building a fort at the 
 mouth of the river, which, from their united 
 names, was called Say Brook. The emigrants from 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 233 
 
 Massachusetts, without regarding either the defects 
 in their own right or the pretensions of other claim- 
 ants, kept possession, and proceeded with vigour to 
 clear and cultivate the country. By degrees they 
 got rid of every competitor. The Dutch, recently 
 settled in America, and too feeble to engage in a 
 war, peaceably withdrew from Connecticut. Lord 
 Say and Sele and Lord Brook made over to the 
 colony whatever title they might have to any lands 
 in that region. Society was established by a volun- 
 tary compact of the freemen ; and though they soon 
 disclaimed all dependence on the colony of Mas- 
 sachusetts bay, they retained such veneration for 
 its legislative wisdom as to adopt a form of govern- 
 ment nearly resembling its institutions, with respect 
 both to civil and ecclesiastical policy. At a sub- 
 sequent period, the colony of Connecticut was 
 likewise incorporated by royal charter. 
 
 The history of the first attempts to people the 
 provinces of New Hampshire and Main, which form 
 the fourth and most extensive division in New 
 England, is obscure and perplexed, by the inter- 
 fering claims of various proprietors. The company 
 of Plymouth had inconsiderately parcelled out the 
 northern part of the territory contained in its grant 
 among different persons : of these only Sir Ferdi- 
 nando Gorges and Captain Mason seem to have had 
 any serious intention to occupy the land allotted to 
 them. Their efforts to accomplish this were meri- 
 torious and persevering, but unsuccessful. The 
 expense of settling colonies in an uncultivated 
 country must necessarily be great and immediate ; 
 the prospect of a return is often uncertain, and 
 always remote. The funds of two private adven- 
 turers were not adequate to such an undertaking. 
 Nor did the planters whom they sent out possess 
 that principle of enthusiasm, which animated their 
 neighbours of Massachusetts with vigour to struggle 
 through all the hardships and dangers to which 
 society in its infancy is exposed in a savage land. 
 Gorges and Mason, it is probable, must have aban- 
 doned their design, if, from the same motives that 
 settlements had been made in Rhode Island and 
 Connecticut, colonists had not unexpectedly mi- 
 grated into New Hampshire and Main. Mr. Wheel- 
 wright, a minister of some note, nearly related to 
 Mrs. Hutchinson, and one of her most fervent 
 admirers and partisans, had on this account been 
 banished from the province of Massachusetts bay. 
 In quest of a new station, he took a course opposite 
 to the other exiles, and, advancing towards the 
 north, founded the town of Exeter on a small river 
 flowing into Piskataqua bay. His followers, few in 
 number, but firmly united, were of such rigid prin- 
 ciples, that even the churches of Massachusetts did 
 not appear to them sufficiently pure. From time to 
 time they received some recruits, whom love of 
 novelty, or dissatisfaction with the ecclesiastical 
 institutions of the other colonies, prompted to join 
 them. Their plantations were widely dispersed, 
 but the country was thinly peopled, and its political 
 state extremely unsettled. The colony of Massa- 
 chusetts bay claimed jurisdiction over them, as j 
 occupying lands situated within the limits of their ! 
 grant. Gorges and Mason asserted the rights con- j 
 veyed to them as proprietors by their charter. In 
 several districts the planters, without regarding the 
 pretensions of either party, governed themselves by | 
 maxims and laws copied from those of their brethren i 
 in the adjacent colonies. The first reduction ; 
 of the political constitution in the provinces of 
 New Hampshire and Main into a regular and' 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. No. 30. 
 
 permanent form, was subsequent to the Revolution. 
 By extending their settlements, the English be- 
 came exposed to new danger. The tribes of Indians 
 around Massachusetts bay were feeble and unwar- 
 like; yet from regard to justice, as well as motives 
 of prudence, the first colonists were studious to ob- 
 tain the consent of the natives before they ventured 
 to occupy any of their lands ; and though in such 
 transactions the consideration given was often very 
 inadequate to the value of the territory acquired, it 
 was sufficient to satisfy the demands of the propri- 
 etors. The English took quiet possession of the 
 lands thus conveyed to them, and no open hostility 
 broke out between them and the ancient possessors. 
 But the colonies of Providence and Connecticut 
 soon found that they were surrounded by more 
 powerful and martial nations, Among these the 
 most considerable were the Naragansets and Pe- 
 quods ; the former seated on the bay which bears 
 their name, and the latter occupying the territory 
 which stretches from the river Pequod along the 
 banks of the Connecticut. The Pequods were a 
 formidable people, who could bring into the field a 
 thousand warriors not inferior in courage to any in 
 the New World. They foresaw, not only that the 
 extermination of the Indian race must be the con- 
 sequence of permitting the English to spread over 
 the continent of America, but that, if measures were 
 not speedily concerted to prevent it, the calamity 
 would be unavoidable. With this view they applied 
 to the Naragansets, requesting them to forget ancient 
 animosities for a moment, and to co-operate with 
 them in expelling a common enemy who threatened 
 both with destruction. They represented that, when 
 those strangers first landed, the object of their visit 
 was not suspected, and no proper precautions were 
 taken to check their progress; that now, by sending 
 out colonies in one year towards three different 
 quarters, their intentions were manifest, and the 
 people of America must abandon their native seats 
 to make way for unjust intruders. 
 
 But the Naragansets and Pequods, like most of 
 the contiguous tribes in America, were rivals, and 
 there subsisted between them an hereditary and im- 
 placable enmity. Revenge is the darling passion of 
 savages ; in order to secure the indulgence of which 
 there is no present advantage that they will not 
 sacrifice, and no future consequence which they do 
 not totally disregard. The Naragansets, instead of 
 closing with the prudent proposal of their neigh- 
 bours, discovered their hostile intentions to the 
 governor, of Massachusetts bay; and, eager to lay 
 hold on such a favourable opportunity of wreaking 
 their vengeance on their ancient foes, entered into 
 an alliance with the English against them. The 
 Pequods, more exasperated than discouraged by the 
 imprudence and treachery of their countrymen, took 
 the field, and carried on the war in the usual mode 
 of Americans. They surprised stragglers, and scalp- 
 ed them : they plundered and burnt remote set- 
 tlements ; they attacked Fort Say Brook without 
 success, though garrisoned only by twenty men ; and 
 when the English began to act offensively, they 
 retired to fastnesses which they deemed inaccessible. 
 The different colonies had agreed to unite against 
 the common enemy, each furnishing a quota of men 
 in proportion to its numbers. The troops of Con- 
 necticut, which lay most exposed to danger, were 
 soon assembled. The march of those from Mas- 
 sachusetts, which formed the most considerable body, 
 was retarded by the most singular cause that ever 
 influenced the operations of a military force. When 
 
 2 H 
 
234 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 they were mustered previous to their departure, it 
 was found that some of the officers, as well as of the 
 private soldiers, were still under a covenant of 
 works; and that the blessing of God could not be 
 implored or expected to crown the arms of such un- 
 hallowed men with success. The alarm was general, 
 and many arrangements necessary in order to cast 
 out the unclean, and to render this little band 
 sufficiently pure to fight the battles of a people who 
 entertained high ideas of their own sanctity. 
 
 Meanwhile the Connecticut troops, reinforced by 
 a small detachment from Say Brook, found it neces- 
 sary to advance towards the enemy. They were 
 posted on a rising ground, in the middle of a swamp 
 towards the head of the river Mistick, which they 
 had surrounded with palisadoes,the best defence that 
 their slender skill in the art of fortification had 
 discovered. Though they knew that the English 
 were in motion, yet, with the usual improvidence 
 and security of savages, they took no measures 
 either to observe their progress, or to guard against 
 being surprised themselves. The enemy, uuperceived, 
 reached the palisadoes ; and if a dog had not given 
 the alarm by barking, the Indians must have been 
 massacred without resistance. In a moment, how- 
 ever, they started to arms, and, raising the war-cry, 
 prepared to repel the assailants. But at that early 
 period of their intercourse with the Europeans, the 
 Americans were little acquainted with the use of 
 gunpowder, and dreaded its effects extremely. While 
 some of the English galled them with an incessant 
 fire through the intervals between the palisadoes, 
 others forced their way by the entries into the fort, 
 filled only with branches of trees ; and setting fire 
 to the huts, which were covered with reeds, the con- 
 fusion and terror quickly became general. Many 
 of the women and children perished in the flames ; 
 and the warriors, in endeavouring to escape, were 
 either slain by the English, or, falling into the hands 
 of their Indian allies, who surrounded the fort at a 
 distance, were reserved for a more cruel fate. After 
 the junction of the troops from Massachusetts, the 
 English resolved to pursue their victory; and hunting 
 the Indians from one place of retreat to another, 
 some subsequent encounters were hardly less fatal 
 to them than the action on the Mistick. In less 
 than three months the tribe of Pequods was extir- 
 pated; a few miserable fugitives, who took refuge 
 among the neighbouring Indians, being incorporated 
 by them, lost their name as a distinct people. In 
 this first essay of their arms the colonists of New 
 England seem to have been conducted by skilful 
 and enterprising officers, and displayed both courage 
 and perseverance as soldiers. But they stained their 
 laurels by the use which they made of victory. 
 Instead of treating the Pequods as an independent 
 people, who made a gallant effort to defend the 
 property, the rights, and the freedom of their nation, 
 they retaliated upon them all the barbarities of 
 American war. Some they massacred in cold blood, 
 others they gave up to be tortured by their Indian 
 allies, a considerable number they sold as slaves in 
 Bermudas, the rest were reduced to servitude among 
 themselves. 
 
 But reprehensible as this conduct of the English 
 must be deemed, their vigorous efforts in this de- 
 cisive campaign filled all the surrounding tribes of 
 Indians with such a high opinion of their valour as 
 secured a long tranquillity to all their settlements. 
 At the same time, the violence of administration in 
 England continued to increase their population and 
 strength, by forcing many respectable subjects to 
 
 tear themselves from all the tender connexions that 
 bind men to their native country, and to fly for 
 refuge to a region of the New World, which hitherto 
 presented to them nothing that could allure them 
 hither but exemption from oppression. The num- 
 ber of those emigrants drew the attention of govern 
 ment, and appeared so formidable, that a proclama- 
 tion was issued, prohibiting masters of ships from 
 carrying passengers to New England without special 
 permission. On many occasions this injunction was 
 eluded or disregarded. Fatally for the king, it 
 operated with full effect in one instance. Sir Arthur 
 Haslerig, John Hampden, Oliver Cromwell, and 
 some other persons whose principles and views 
 coincided with theirs, impatient to enjoy those civil 
 and religious liberties which they struggled in vain 
 to obtain in Great Britain, hired some ships to carry 
 them and their attendants to New England. By 
 order of council, an embargo was laid on these 
 when on the point of sailing ; and Charles, far from 
 suspecting that the future revolutions in his kingdoms 
 were to be excited and directed by persons in such 
 a humble sphere of life, forcibly detained the men 
 destined to overturn his throne, and to terminate his 
 lays by a violent death. 
 
 But, in spite of all the efforts of government to 
 check this spirit of migration, the measures of the 
 king and his ministers were considered by a great 
 body of the people as so hostile to those rights which 
 they deemed most valuable, that in the course of the 
 year one thousand six hundred and thirty-eight, 
 about three thousand persons embarked for New 
 England, choosing rather to expose themselves to 
 all the consequences of disregarding the royal 
 proclamation, than to remain longer under oppres- 
 sion. Exasperated at this contempt of his authority, 
 Charles had recourse to a violent but effectual mode 
 of accomplishing what he had in view. A writ of 
 quo warranto was issued against the corporation of 
 Massachusetts bay. The colonists had conformed 
 so little to the terms of their charter, that judgment 
 was given against them without difficulty. They 
 were found to have forfeited all their rights as a 
 corporation which of course returned to the crown, 
 and Charles began to take measures for new model- 
 ling the political frame of the colony, and vesting 
 the administration of its affairs in other hands. But 
 his plans were never carried into execution. In 
 every corner of his dominions the storm now began 
 to gather, which soon burst out with such fatal 
 violence, that Charles, during the remainder of his 
 unfortunate reign, occupied with domestic and more 
 interesting caves, had not leisure to bestow any at- 
 tention upon a remote and inconsiderable province. 
 
 On the meeting of the Long Parliament, such a 
 revolution took place in England, that all the mo- 
 tives for migrating to the New World ceased. The 
 maxims of the puritans with respect to the govern- 
 ment both of church and state became predominant 
 in the nation, and were enforced by the hand of 
 power. Their oppressors were humbled ; that per- 
 fect system of reformed polity, which had long been 
 the object of their admiration and desire, was esta- 
 blished by law; and amidst the intrigues and con- 
 flicts of an obstinate civil war, turbulent and aspiring 
 spirits found such full occupation, that they had 
 no inducement to quit a busy theatre, on which they 
 had risen to act a most conspicuous part. From 
 the year one thousand six hundred and twenty, 
 when the first feeble colony was conducted to New 
 England by the Brownists, to the year one thousand 
 six hundred and forty, it has been computed that 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 235 
 
 twenty-one thousand two hundred British subjects 
 had settled there. The money expended by various 
 adventurers during that period, in fitting out ships, 
 in purchasing stock, and transporting settlers, 
 amounted, on a moderate calculation, nearly to two 
 hundred thousand pounds ; a vast sum in that age, 
 and which no principles, inferior in force to those 
 wherewith the puritans were animated, could have 
 persuaded men to lay out on the uncertain prospect 
 of obtaining an establishment in a remote unculti- ( 
 vated region, which, from its situation and climate, ; 
 could allure them with no hope but that of finding ' 
 subsistence and enjoying freedom. For some years, ' 
 even subsistence was procured with difficulty ; and 
 it was towards the close of the period to which our 
 narrative is arrived, before the product of the settle- 
 ment yielded the planters any return for their stock. 
 About that time they began to export corn in small 
 quantities to the West Indies, and made some feeble 
 attempts to extend the fishery, and to open the trade 
 in lumber, which have since proved the staple arti- 
 cles of commerce in the colony. Since the year one 
 thousand six hundred and forty the number of people 
 with which New England has recruited the popula- 
 tion of the parent state, is supposed at least to equal 
 what may have been drained from it by occasional 
 migrations thither. 
 
 But though the sudden change of system in Great 
 Britain stopped entirely the influx of settlers into 
 New England, the principles of the colonists coin- 
 cided so perfectly with those of the popular leaders 
 in parliament, that they were soon distinguished by 
 peculiar marks of their brotherly affection. By a 
 vote of the House of Commons in the year one thou- 
 sand six hundred and forty two, the people in all the 
 different plantations of New England were exempted 
 from payment of any duties, either upon goods ex- 
 ported thither, or upon those which they imported 
 into the mother country, until the house shall take 
 further order to the contrary. This was afterwards 
 confirmed by the authority of both houses. Encou- 
 raged by sxich an extraordinary privilege, industry 
 made rapid progress in all the districts of New Eng- 
 land, and population increased along with it. In 
 return for those favours the colonists applauded the 
 measures of parliament, celebrated its generous efforts 
 to vindicate the rights and liberties of the nation, 
 prayed for the success of its arms, and framed regula- 
 tions in order to prevent any exertion in favour of 
 the king on the other side of the Atlantic. 
 
 Relying on the indulgent partiality with which all 
 their proceedings were viewed by men thus closely 
 united with them in sentiment and wishes, the people 
 of New England ventured on a measure which not 
 only increased their security and power, but may be 
 regarded as a considerable step towards indepen- 
 dence. Under the impression or pretext of the dan- 
 ger to which they were exposed from the surrounding 
 tribes of Indians, the four colonies of Massachusetts, 
 Plymouth, Connecticut, andNewhaven, entered into 
 a league of perpetual confederacy, offensive and de- 
 fensive ; an idea familiar to several leading men in 
 the colonies, as it was framed in imitation of the 
 famous bond of union among the Dutch provinces, 
 in whose dominions the Brownists had long resided. 
 It was stipulated that the confederates should hence- 
 forth be distinguished by the name of the United 
 Colonies of New England ; that each colony shall 
 remain separate and distinct, and have exclusive 
 jurisdiction within its own territory; and that in 
 every war, offensive or defensive, each of the confe- 
 derates shall furnish his quota of men, provisions, 
 
 and money, at a rate to be fixed from time to time, 
 in proportion to the number of people in each settle- 
 ment ; that an assembly composed of two commis- 
 sioners from each colony shall be held annually, 
 with power to deliberate and decide in all points of 
 common concern to the confederacy ; and every deter- 
 mination, in which six of their number concur, shall 
 be binding on the whole. In this transaction the 
 colonies of New England seem to have considered 
 themselves as independent societies, possessing all 
 the rights of sovereignty, and free from the control 
 of any superior power. The governing party in 
 England, occupied with affairs of more urgent con- 
 cern, and no wise disposed to observe the conduct of 
 their brethren in America with any jealous attention, 
 suffered the measure to pass without animadversion. 
 
 Emboldened by this connivance, the spirit of in- 
 dependence gathered strength, and soon displayed 
 itself more openly ; some persons of note in the co- 
 lony of Massachusetts, averse to the system of eccle- 
 siastical polity established there, and preferring to it 
 the government and discipline of the churches of 
 England or Scotland, having remonstrated to the 
 general court against the injustice of depriving them 
 of their rights as freemen, and of their privileges as 
 Christians, because they could not join as members 
 with any of the congregational churches, petitioned 
 that they might no longer be bound to obey laws to 
 which they had not assented, nor be subjected to 
 taxes imposed by an assembly in which they were 
 not represented. Their demands were not only 
 rejected, but they were imprisoned and fined as dis- 
 turbers of the public peace ; and when they appointed 
 some of their number to lay their grievances before 
 parliament, the annual court, in order to prevent 
 this appeal to the supreme power, attempted first to 
 seize their papers, and then to obstruct their embark- 
 ation for England. But though neither of these 
 could be accomplished, such was the address and 
 influence of the colony's agents in England, that no 
 inquiry seems to have been made into this transac- 
 tion. This was followed by an indication, still less 
 ambiguous, of the aspiring spirit prevalent among 
 the people of Massachusetts. Under every form of 
 government the right of coining money has been 
 considered as a prerogative peculiar to sovereignty, 
 and which no subordinate member in any state is 
 entitled to claim. Regardless of this established 
 maxim, the general court ordered a coinage of silver 
 money at Boston, stamped with the name of the 
 colony and a tree, as an apt symbol of its progres- 
 sive vigour. Even this usurpation escaped without 
 notice. The independents having now humbled all 
 rival sects, engrossed the whole direction of affairs 
 in Great Britain ; and long accustomed to admire the 
 government of New England, framed agreeably to 
 those principles which they had adopted as the most 
 perfect model of civil and ecclesiastical polity, they 
 were unwilling to stain its reputation by censuring 
 any part of its conduct. 
 
 When Cromwell usurped the supreme power, the 
 colonies of New England continued to stand as high 
 in his estimation. As he had deeply imbibed all the 
 fanatical notions of the independents, and was per- 
 petually surrounded by the most eminent and artful 
 teachers of that sect, he kept a constant correspon- 
 dence with the leading men in the American settle- 
 ments, who seem to have looked up to him as a zea- 
 lous patron. He in return considered them as his 
 most devoted adherents, attached to him no less by 
 affection than by principle. He soon gave a strik- 
 ing proof of this. On the conquest of Jamaica he 
 
236 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 formed a scheme for the security and improvement 
 of the acquisition made by his victorious arms, suited 
 to the ardour of an impetuous spirit that delighted 
 in accomplishing its ends by extraordinary means. 
 He proposed to transport the people of New Eng- 
 land to that island, and employed every argument 
 calculated to make impression upon them, in order 
 to obtain their consent. He endeavoured to rouse 
 their religious zeal, by representing what a fatal blow 
 it would be to the man of sin, if a colony of the 
 faithful were settled in the midst of his territories in 
 the New World. He allured them with prospects of 
 immense wealth in a fertile region, which would re- 
 ward the industry of those who cultivated it with all 
 the precious productions of the torrid zone, and ex- 
 
 pressed his fervent wish that they might take pxs* 
 session of it, in order to fulfil God's promise of mak- 
 ing his people the head and not the tail. He assured 
 them of being supported by the whole force of his 
 authority, and of vesting all the powers of govern- 
 ment entirely in their hands. But by this time the 
 colonists were attached to a country in which they 
 had resided for many years, and where, though they 
 did not attain opulence, they enjoyed the comforts of 
 life in great abundance ; and they dreaded so much 
 the noxious climate of the West Indies, which had 
 proved fatal to a great number of the English who 
 first settled in Jamaica, that they declined, though 
 in the most respectful terms, closing with the pro- 
 tector's proposition. 
 
 [Dr. Robertson's untimely death prevented his carrying the history of America any further. It is continued 
 to the present time from other and original sources.] 
 
 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS TO ROBERTSON'S HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 NOTE 1. TYRE was situated at such a distance from 
 the Arabian gulf, or Red sea, as made it impracticable 
 to convey commodities from thence to that city by land 
 carriage. This induced the Phenicians to render 
 themselves masters of Rhinocrura or Rhinocolura, 
 the nearest port in the Mediterranean to the Red 
 sea. They landed the cargoes which they purchased 
 in Arabia, Ethiopia, and India, at Elath, the safest 
 harbour in the Red sea towards the north. Thence, 
 they were carried by land to Rhinocolura, the dis- 
 tance not being very considerable ; and being re- 
 shipped in that port, were transported to Tyre, and 
 distributed over the world. Strabon. Geogr. edit. 
 Casaub. lib. xvi. p. 1128. Diodor. Sicul. Biblioth. 
 Hist. edit. Wesselengii, lib. 1. p. 70. 
 
 NOTE 2. The Periplus Hannonis is the only au- 
 thentic monument of the Carthaginian skill in naval 
 affairs, and one of the most curious fragments trans- 
 mitted to us by antiquity. The learned and industrious 
 Mr. Dodwell, in a dissertation prefixed to the Peri- 
 plus of Hanno, in the edition of the Minor Geogra- 
 phers published at Oxford, endeavours to prove that 
 this is a spurious work, the composition of some 
 Greek, who assumed Hanno's name. But M. de 
 Montesquieu, in his 1'Esprit des Loix, lib. xxi. c. 8, 
 and M. de Bougainville, in a dissertation published, 
 torn. xxvi. of the Memoires de 1' Academic des In- 
 scriptions, &c. have established its authenticity by 
 arguments which to me appear unanswerable. Ra- 
 musio has accompanied his translation of this curious 
 voyage with a dissertation tending to illustrate it, 
 Racolte de Viaggi, vol. i. p. 112. M. de Bougainville 
 has, with great learning and ability, treated the same 
 subject. It appears that Hanno, according to the 
 mode of ancient navigation, undertook this voyage 
 in small vessels, so constructed that he could keep 
 close in with the coast. He sailed from Gades to 
 the island of Cerne in twelve days. This is probably 
 what is known to the moderns by the name of the 
 isle of Arguim. It became the chief station of the 
 Carthaginians on that coast ; and M. de Bougain- 
 ville contends, that the cisterns found there are mo- 
 numents of the Carthaginian power and ingenuity. 
 Proceeding from Cerne, and still following the 
 winding of the coast, he arrived, in seventeen days, 
 at a promontory which he called The West Horn, 
 probably Cape Palmas. From this he advanced to 
 
 anotherpromontory, which he named The South Hern, 
 and which is manifestly Cape de Tres Puntas, about 
 five degrees north of the line. All the circumstances 
 contained in the short abstract of his journal, which 
 is handed down to us, concerning the appearance and 
 state of the countries on the coast of Africa, are con- 
 firmed and illustrated by a comparison with the 
 accounts of modern navigators. Even those circum- 
 stances which, from their seeming improbability, 
 have been produced to invalidate the credibility of 
 his relation, tend to confirm it. He observes, that 
 in the country to the south of Cerne, a profound 
 silence reigned through the day ; but during the 
 night innumerable fires were kindled along the 
 banks of the rivers, and the air resounded with the 
 noise of pipes and drums, and ciies of joy. The 
 same thing, as Ramusio observes, still takes place. 
 The excessive heat obliges the negroes to take shel- 
 ter in the woods, or in their houses, during the day. 
 As soon as the sun sets they sally out, and by torcn- 
 light enjoy the pleasure of music and dancing, in 
 which they spend the night. Ramus. i. 113, F. In 
 another place he mentions the sea as burning with 
 torrents of fire. What occurred to M. Adanson on 
 the same coast, may explain this : "as soon," says 
 he, " as the sun dipped beneath the horizon, and 
 night overspread the earth with darkness, the sea 
 lent us its friendly light. While the prow of our 
 vessel ploughed the foaming surges, it seemed to set 
 them all on fire. Thus we sailed in a luminous en- 
 closure, which surrounded us like a large circle of 
 rays, from whence darted in the wake of the ship a 
 long stream of light." Voyage to Senegal, p. 176. 
 This appearance of the sea, observed by Hunter, has 
 been mentioned as an argument against the authen- 
 ticity of the Periplus. It is, however, a phenome- 
 non very common in warm climates. Captain 
 Cook's Second Voyage, vol. i. p. 15. The Periplus 
 of Hanno has been translated, and every point with 
 respect to it has been illustrated with much learning 
 and ingenuity, in a work published by Don Pcdr. 
 Rodrig. Campomanes, entitled, Antiguedad maritama 
 de Cartago, con el Periplo de su General Hannon 
 traducido e illustrado. Mad. 1756. 4to. 
 
 NOTE 3. Long after the navigation of the Phenici- 
 ans, and of Eudoxus round Africa, Polybius, the most 
 intelligent'and best informed historian of antiquity.and 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 237 
 
 particularly distinguished by his attention to geo- 
 
 nhical researches, affirms that it was not known, 
 is time, whether Africa was a continued conti- 
 nent, stretching to the south, or whether it was en- 
 compassed by the sea. Polybii Hist. lib. iii. Pliny 
 the naturalist asserts, that there can be no commu- 
 nication between the southern and northern tempe- 
 
 the Ganges, his intelligence was still more defective, 
 and his errors more enormous. I shall have occa- 
 sion to observe, in another place, that he has placed 
 the country of the Seres, or China, no less than sixty 
 degrees further east than its true position. M. d'An- 
 ville, one of the most learned and intelligent of the 
 modern geographers, has set this matter in a clear 
 
 rate zones. Plinri Hist. Natur. edit, in usum Delph. light, in two dissertations published in Mem. de 
 4to. lib. ii. c. 68. If they had given full credit to j 1'Academ. des Inscript. &c. torn, xxxii. p. 573, 604. 
 the accounts of those voyages, the former could not | NOTE 7. It is remarkable that the discoveries of 
 have entertained such a doubt, the latter could not ' the ancients were made chiefly by land ; those of the 
 have delivered such an opinion. Strabo mentions ! moderns are carried on chiefly by sea. The progress of 
 the voyage of Eudoxus, but treats it as a fabulous | conquest led to the former, that of commerce the lat- 
 tale, lib. ii. p. 155 ; and according to his account of ter. It is a judicious observation of Strabo, that the 
 it, no other judgment can be formed with respect to J conquests of Alexander the Great made known the 
 it. Strabo seems not to have known any thing with i east, those of the Romans opened the west, and those 
 
 , ,1 / 1 /,! c-Tk/T'tl'TA 1 " - />T" j _ il .. il- T ^"U -T ~ O! 
 
 certainty concerning the form and state of the 
 southern parts of Africa. Geogr. lib. xvii. p. 1180. 
 Ptolemy, the most inquisitive and learned of all the 
 ancient geographers, was equally unacquainted with 
 any parts of Africa situated a few degrees beyond 
 the equinoctial line ; for he supposes that this great 
 continent was not surrounded by the sea, but that it 
 stretched, without interruption, towards the south 
 pole ; and he so far mistakes its true figure, that he 
 describes the continent as becoming broader and 
 broader as it advanced towards the south. Ptolemaei 
 Geogr. lib. iv. c. 9. Brietii Parallela Geogr. veteris 
 et novae, p. 86. 
 
 NOTE 4. A]fact, recorded by Strabo, affords a very 
 strong and singular proof of the ignorance of the an- 
 cients with respect to the situation of the various parts 
 
 When Alexander marched along the 
 Hydaspes and Acesine, two of the 
 
 of the earth, 
 banks of the 
 
 rivers which fall into the Indus, he observed that 
 .there were many crocodiles in those rivers, and that 
 the country produced beans of the same species with 
 those which were common in Egypt. From these 
 circumstances he concluded that he had discovered 
 the source of the Nile, and prepared a fleet to sail 
 down the Hydaspes to Egypt. Strab. Geogr. lib. xv. 
 p. 1020. This amazing error did not arise from any 
 
 ignorance ot 
 for we are in 
 
 if geography p 
 informed bv Si 
 
 eculiar to that monarch 
 by Strabo, that Alexander ap- 
 plied with particular attention in order to acquire 
 the knowledge of this science, and had accurate maps 
 or descriptions of the countries through which he 
 marched. Lib. ii. p. 120. But in his age the know- 
 ledge of the Greeks did not extend beyond the limits 
 of the Mediterranean. 
 
 NOTE 5. As the flux and reflux of the sea is re- 
 markably great at the mouth of the river Indus, this 
 would render the phenomenon more formidable to 
 the Greeks. Varen. Geogr. vol. i. p. 251. 
 
 NOTE 6. It is probable that the ancients were sel- 
 dom induced to advance so far as the mouth of the 
 Ganges either by motives of curiosity, or views of com- 
 mercial advantage. In consequence of this, their idea 
 concerning the position of that great river was very er 
 roneous. Ptolemy places that branch of the Ganges 
 which he distinguishes by the name of the Great 
 Mouth, in the hundred and forty-sixth degree of 
 longitude from his first meridian in the Fortunate 
 Islands. But its true longitude, computed from 
 that meridian, is now determined, by astronomical 
 observations, to be only a hundred and five degrees. 
 A geographer so eminent must have been betrayed 
 into an error of this magnitude by the imperfection 
 of the information which he had received concerning 
 those distant regions ; and this affords a striking 
 proof of the intercourse with them being extremely 
 rare. With respect to the countries of India beyond 
 
 of Mithridates, king of Pontus, the north. Lib. i. p. 26. 
 When discovery is carried on by land alone its pro- 
 gress must be slow and its operations confined. When 
 it is carried on only by sea its sphere may be more 
 extensive, audits advances more rapid; but it labours 
 under peculiar defects. Though it may make known 
 the position of different countries, and ascertain their 
 boundaries as far as these are determined by the 
 ocean, it leaves us in ignorance with respect to their 
 interior state. Above two centuries and a half have 
 elapsed since the Europeans sailed round the southern 
 promontory of Africa, and have- traded in most of its 
 ports ; but in a considerable part of that great conti- 
 nent they have done little more than survey its coasts, 
 and mark its capes and harbours. Its interior regions 
 are in a great measure unknown. The ancients, 
 who had a very imperfect knowledge of its coasts, 
 except where they are washed by the Mediterranean 
 or Red sea, were accustomed to penetrate into its 
 inland provinces, and if we may rely on the testi- 
 mony of Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, had ex- 
 plored many parts of it now altogether unknown. 
 Unless both modes of discovery be united, the geo- 
 graphical knowledge of the earth must remain in- 
 complete and inaccurate. 
 
 NOTE 8. The notion of the ancients concerning 
 such an excessive degree of heat in the torrid zone, as 
 rendered it uninhabitable, and their persisting in this 
 error long after they began to have some commercial 
 intercourse with several parts of India lying within 
 the tropics, must appear so singular and absurd, that 
 it may not be unacceptable to some of my readers to 
 produce evidence of their holding this opinion, and 
 to account for the apparent inconsistence of their 
 theory with their experience. Cicero, who had be- 
 stowed attention upon every part of philosophy 
 known to the ancients, seem to have believed that 
 the torrid zone was uninhabitable, and, of conse- 
 quence, that there would be no intercourse between 
 the northern and southern temperate zones. He intro- 
 duces Africanus thus addressing the younger Scipio : 
 " You see this earth encompassed, and as it were 
 bound in, by certain zones, of which two, at the 
 greatest distance from each other, and sustaining the 
 opposite poles of heaven, are frozen with perpetual 
 cold : the middle one, and the largest of all, is burnt 
 with the heat of the sun; two are habitable, the 
 people in the southern one are antipodes to us, with 
 whom we have no connection." Somnium Scipionis, 
 c. 6. Geminus, a Greek philosopher, contemporary 
 with Cicero, delivers the same doctrine, not in a 
 popular work, but in his Eisayoge eis phainomena, a 
 treatise purely scientific. " When we speak," says 
 he, "of the southern temperate zone, and its inhabi- 
 tants, and concerning those who are called anti 
 podes, it mu*t always be understood, that we have 
 
'238 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 no certain knowledge or information concerning the 
 southern temperate zone, whether it be inhabited or 
 not. But from the spherical figure of the earth, and 
 the course which the sun holds between the tropics, 
 we conclude that there is another zone situated to 
 the south, which enjoys the same degree of tem- 
 perature with the northern one which we inhabit." 
 Cap. xiii. p. 31. ap. Petavii Opus de Doctr. Temper, 
 in quo Uranologium sive Systemata var. Auctorum. 
 Amst. 1705. vol. iii. The opinion of Pliny the na- 
 turalist, with respect to both these points, was the 
 same : " There are five divisions of the earth which 
 are called zones. All that portion which lies near 
 to the two opposite poles is oppressed with vehement 
 cold and eternal frost. There, unblessed with the 
 aspect of milder stars, perpetual darkness reigns, or 
 at the utmost a feeble light reflected from surround- 
 ing snows. The middle of the earth, in which is the 
 orbit of the sun, is scorched and burnt up with flames 
 and fiery vapour. Between these torrid and frozen 
 districts, lie two other portions of the earth, which 
 are temperate ; but, on account of the burning re- 
 gion interposed, there can be no communication be- 
 tween them. Thus heaven has deprived us of three 
 parts of the earth." Lib. ii. c. 68. Strabo delivers 
 his opinion to the same effect, in terms no less ex- 
 plicit : " The portion of the earth which lies near the 
 equator, in the torrid zone, is rendered uninhabit- 
 able by heat." Lib. ii. p. 154. To these I might 
 add the authority of many other respectable philoso- 
 phers and historians of antiquity. 
 
 In order to explain the sense in which this doc- 
 trine was generally received, we may observe, that 
 Parmenides, as we are informed by Strabo, was the 
 first who divided the earth into five zones, and he ex- 
 tended the limits of the zone which he supposed to 
 be uninhabitable on account of heat, beyond the tro- 
 pics. Aristotle, as we learn likewise from Strabo, 
 fixed the boundaries of the different zones in the 
 same manner as they are defined by modern geogra- 
 phers. But the progress of discovery having gradu- 
 ally demonstrated that several regions of the earth 
 which lay within the tropics were not only habitable, 
 but populous and fertile, this induced later geogra- 
 phers to circumscribe the limits of the torrid zone. It 
 is not easy to ascertain with precision the boundaries 
 which they allotted to it. From a passage in Strabo, 
 who, as far as I know, is the only author of antiquity 
 from whom we receive any hint concerning this sub- 
 ject, I should conjecture, that those who calculated 
 according to the measurement of the earth by Era- 
 tosthenes, supposed the torrid zone to comprehend 
 near sixteen degrees, about eight on eac'h side of the 
 equator ; whereas such as followed the computation 
 of Posidonius allotted about twenty-four degrees, or 
 somewhat more than twelve degrees on each side of 
 the equator, to the torrid zone. Strabo, lib. ii. p. 151 . 
 According to the former opinion, about two thirds of 
 that portion of the earth which lies between the tropics 
 was considered as habitable ; according to the latter, 
 about one half of it. With this restriction, the doc- 
 trine of the ancients concerning the torrid zone ap- 
 pears less absurd ; and we can conceive the reason 
 of their asserting this zone to be uninhabitable, even 
 after they had opened a communication with several 
 places within the tropics. When men of science 
 spoke of the torrid zone, they considered it as it is was 
 limited by the definition of geographers to sixteen, 
 or at the utmost to twenty-four degrees ; and as they 
 knew almost nothing of the countries nearer to the 
 equator, they might still suppose them to be unin- 
 habitable. In loose and popular discourse, the name 
 of the torrid zone continued to be given to all that 
 
 portion of the earth which lies within the tropics. 
 Cicero seems to be unacquainted with those ideas of 
 the later geographers ; and, adhering to the division 
 >f Parmenides, describes the torrid zone as the largest 
 jf the five. Some of the ancients rejected the notion 
 concerning the intolerable heat of the torrid zone as 
 a popular error. This, we are told by Plutarch, was 
 the sentiment of Pythagoras ; and we learn from 
 Strabo, that Eratosthenes and Polybius had adopted 
 the same opinion, lib. ii. p. 154. Ptolemy seems to 
 have paid no regard to the ancient doctrine and opi- 
 nions concerning the torrid zone. 
 
 NOTE 9. The court of inquisition, which effectually 
 checks a spirit of liberal inquiry, and of literary im- 
 provement, wherever it is established, was unknown 
 n Portugal in the fifteenth century, when the people of 
 that kingdom began their voyages of discovery. 
 More than a century elapsed before it was introduced 
 by John III. whose reign commenced A. D. 1521. 
 
 NOTE 10. An instance of this is related by Haek- 
 luyt, upon authority of the Portuguese historian Gar- 
 cia de Resende. Some English merchants having re- 
 solved to open a trade with the coast of Guiriea, John 
 II. of Portugal despatched ambassadors to Edward IV. 
 in order to lay before him the right which he had ac- 
 quired by the pope's bull to the dominion of that 
 country, and to request of him to prohibit his sub- 
 jects to prosecute their intended voyage. Edward 
 was so much satisfied with the exclusive title of the 
 Portuguese, that he issued his orders in the terms 
 which they desired. Hackluyt, Navigations, Voy- 
 ages, and Traffics of the English, vol^ii. part ii. p. 2. 
 
 NOTE II. The time of Columbus's death may be 
 nearly ascertained by the following circumstances. It 
 appears from the general fragment of a letter, address- 
 ed by him to Ferdinand and Isabella, A. D. 1501, that 
 he had, at that time, been engaged forty years in a 
 seafaring life. In another letter he informs them, 
 that he w T ent to sea at the age of fourteen : from those 
 facts it follows, that he was born A. D. 1447. Life 
 of Christoph. Columbus, by his son Don Fer- 
 dinand. Churchill's collection of Voyages, Vol. ii. p. 
 484,485. 
 
 NOTE 12. The spherical figure of the earth was 
 known to the ancient geographers. They invented the 
 method, still in use, of computing the longitude and 
 latitude of different places. According to their doctrine, 
 the equator, or imaginary line which encompasses the 
 earth, contained three hundred and sixty degrees ; 
 these they divided into twenty-four parts, or hours, 
 each equal to fifteen degrees. The country of the 
 Seres or Since, being the farthest part of India known 
 to the ancients, was supposed by Marinus Tyrius, 
 the most eminent of the ancient geographers before 
 Ptolemy, to be fifteen hours, or two hundred and 
 twenty-five degrees to the east of the first meridian, 
 passing through the Fortunate Islands. Ptolemaei 
 Geogr. lib. i. c. 11. If this supposition was well 
 founded, the country of the Seres, or China, was only 
 nine hours, or one hundred and thirty-five degrees, 
 west from the Fortunate or Canary islands ; and the 
 navigation in that direction was much shorter than 
 by the course which the Portuguese were pursuing. 
 Marco Polo, in his travels, had described countries, 
 particularly the island of Cipango or Zipangri, sup- 
 posed to be Japan, considerably to the east of any 
 part of Asia known to the ancients. Marcus Paulus 
 de Region. Oriental: lib. ii. c. 70. lib. iii c. 2. 
 Of course, this country, as it extended further to the 
 east, was still nearer to the Canary islands. The 
 conclusions of Columbus, though drawn from in- 
 accurate observations, were just. If the suppositions 
 of Marinus had been well founded, and if the coun- 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 239 
 
 tries which Marco Polo visited had been situated to i 
 the east of those whose longitude Marinus had as- j 
 certained, the proper and nearest course to the East j 
 Indies must have been to steer directly west. Herrera, 
 dec. 1. lib. i. c. 2. A more extensive knowledge of; 
 the globe has now discovered the great error of Ma- 
 rinus, in supposing China to be fifteen hours, or two 
 hundred and twenty-five degrees east from the Canary 
 Islands, and that even Ptolemy was mistaken, when j 
 he reduced the longitude of China to twelve hours, | 
 or one hundred and eighty degrees. The longitude j 
 of the western frontier of that vast empire is seven 
 hours, or one hundred and fifteen degrees from the 
 meridian of the Canary Islands. But Columbus 
 followed the light which his age afforded, and relied 
 upon the authority of writers, who were, at that time, 
 regarded as the instructors and guides of mankind in 
 the science of geography. 
 
 NOTE 13. As the Portuguese, in making their dis- 
 coveries, did not depart far from the coasts of Africa, 
 they concluded that birds, whose flight they observed j 
 with great attention, did not venture to any considera- 
 ble distance from land. In the infancy of navigation it 
 was not known, that birds often stretched their flight 
 to an immense distance from any shore. In sailing 
 towards the West Indian islands, birds are often 
 seen at the distance of two hundred leagues from 
 tue nearest coast. Sloane's Nat. Hist, of Jamaica, 
 vol. i. p. 30. Catesby saw an owl at sea, when the 
 ship was six hundred leagues distant from land. 
 Nat. Hist, of Carolina, pref. p. 7. Hist. Naturelle de 
 M. Buffon, torn. xvi. p. 32. From which it appears, 
 that this indication of land, on which Columbus 
 seems to have relied with some confidence, was ex 
 tremely uncertain. This observation is confirmed by 
 Capt. Cook, the most extensive and experienced na- 
 vigator of any age or nation. " No one yet knows 
 (says he) to what distance any of the oceanic birds 
 go to sea ; for my own part, I do not believe that 
 there is one in the whole tribe that can be relied on 
 in pointing out the vicinity of land." Voyage to- 
 wards the South Pole, vol. i. p. 275. 
 
 NOTE 14. In a letter of the admiral's to Ferdinand 
 and Isabella, he describes one of the harbours in Cuba 
 with all the enthusiastic admiration of a discoverer. 
 ' ' I discovered a river which a galley might easily enter: 
 the beauty of it induced me to sound, and I found from 
 five to eight fathoms of water. Having proceeded a 
 considerable way up the river, every thing invited 
 roe to settle there. The beauty of the river, the 
 clearness of the water, through which I could see the 
 sandy bottom, the multitude of palm trees of different 
 kinds, the tallest and finest I had seen, and an 
 infinite number of other large and flourishing trees, 
 the birds, and the verdure of the plains, are so 
 wonderfully beautiful, that this country excels all 
 others as far as the day surpasses the night in bright- 
 ness and splendour, so that I often said, that it 
 would be in vain for me to attempt to give your high- 
 nesses a full account of it, for neither my tongue 
 nor my pen could come up to the truth ; and in- 
 deed I am so much amazed at the sight of such 
 beauty, that I know not how to describe it." Life 
 of Columb, c. 30. 
 
 NOTE 15. The account which Columbus gives of 
 the humanity and orderly behaviour of the natives on 
 this occasion is very striking. " The king," says he, in 
 a letter to Ferdinand and Isabella, " having been 
 informed of our misfortune, expressed great grief 
 for our loss, and immediately sent aboard all' the 
 people iu the place in many large canoes; we soon 
 unloaded the ship of every thing that was upon 
 
 deck, as the king gave us great assistance : he him- 
 self, with his brothers and relations, took all possible 
 care that every thing should be properly done, both 
 aboard and on shore. And, from time to time, he 
 sent some of his relations weeping, to beg of me not 
 to be dejected, for he would give me all that he had. 
 I can assure your highness, that so much care would 
 not have been taken in securing our effects in any 
 part of Spain, as all our property was put together 
 in one place near his palace, until the houses which 
 he wanted to prepare for the custody of it were emp- 
 tied. He immediately placed a guard of armed 
 men, who watched during the whole night, and 
 those on shore lamented as if they had been much 
 interested Mi our loss. The people are so affection- 
 ate, so tractable, and so peaceable, that I swear to 
 your highnesses that there is not a better race of 
 men, nor a better country, in the world. They love 
 their neighbour as themselves; their conversation 
 is the sweetest and mildest in the world, cheerful 
 and always accompanied with a smile. And al- 
 though it is true that they go naked, yet your high- 
 nesses may be assured that they have many very 
 commendable customs ; the king is served with 
 ajreat state, and his behaviour is so decent, that it is 
 pleasant to see him, as it is likewise to observe the 
 wonderful memory which these people have, and 
 their desire of knowing every' thing, which leads 
 them to inquire into its causes and effects." Life 
 of Columbus, c. 32. It is probable that the Spaniards 
 were indebted for this officious attention, to the opi- 
 nion which the Indians entertained of them as a 
 superior order of beings. 
 
 NOTE 16. Every monument of such a man as Co- 
 lumbus is valuable. A letter which he wrote to Ferdi- 
 nand and Isabella, describing what passed on this occa] 
 sion, exhibits a most striking picture of his^intre- 
 pidity, his humanity, his prudence, his public spirit, 
 and courtly address. " I would have been less con- 
 cerned for this misfortune had I alone been in dan- 
 ger, both because my life is a debt that I owe to the 
 Supreme Creator, and because I-ha-ye at other times 
 been exposed to the most imminent hazard. But 
 what gave me infinite grief and vexation was, that 
 after it had pleased our Lord to give me faith to 
 undertake this enterprize, in which I had now been 
 so successful, that my opponents would have been 
 convinced, and the glory of your highnesses, and 
 the extent of your territory increased by me, it 
 should please the divine majesty to stop all by my 
 death. All this would have been more tolerable, 
 had it not been attended with the loss of those men 
 whom I had carried with me, upon promise of the 
 greatest prosperity, who, seeing themselves in such 
 distress, cursed not only their coming along with 
 me, but that fear and awe of me which prevented 
 them from returning, as they often had resolved to 
 have done. But besides all this, my sorrow was 
 greatly increased by recollecting that I had left my 
 two sons at school at Cordova, destitute of friends, in 
 a foreign country, when it could not in all probabi- 
 lity be known that I had done such services as might 
 induce your highnesses to remember them. And 
 though I comforted myself with the faith that cur 
 Lord would not permit that, which tended so much 
 to the glory of his church, and which I had brought 
 about with so much trouble, to remain imperfect ; 
 yet I considered that, on account of my sins, it was 
 his will to deprive me of that glory which I might 
 have attained in this world. While in this confused 
 state, I thought on the good fortune which accom- 
 panies your highnesses, and imagined that, although 
 
240 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 I should perish, and the vessel be lost, it was possible 
 that you might somehow come to the knowledge of 
 my voyage, and the success with which it was at- 
 tended. For that reason I wrote upon parchment 
 with the brevity which the situation required, that I 
 had discovered the lands which I promised, in how 
 many days I had done it, and what course I had fol- 
 lowed. I mentioned the goodness of the country, 
 the character of the inhabitants, and that your high- 
 nesses' subjects were left in possession of all that I 
 had discovered. Having sealed this writing, I ad- 
 dressed it to your highnesses, and promised a thou- 
 sand ducats to any person who should deliver it 
 sealed, so that if any foreigners found it, the pro- 
 mised reward might prevail on them not to give the 
 information to another. I then caused a great cask 
 to be brought to me, and wrapping up the parch- 
 ment in an oiled cloth, and afterwards in a cake of 
 wax, 1 put it into the cask, and having stopped it 
 well, I cast it into the sea. All the men believed 
 that it was some act of devotion. Imagining that 
 this might never chance to be taken up, as the ships 
 approached nearer to Spain, I made another packet 
 like the first, and placed it at the top of the poop, so 
 that if the ship sunk, the cask remaining above 
 water might be committed to the guidance of 
 fortune." 
 
 NOTE 17. Some Spanish authors, with the mean- 
 ness of national jealousy, have endeavoured to detract 
 from the glory of Columbus by insinuating that he was 
 led tot he discovery of the New World, not by his own 
 inventive or enterprising genius, but by information 
 which he had received. According to their account, 
 a vessel having been driven from its course by 
 easterly winds, was carried before them far to the 
 west, and landed on the coast of an unknown coun- 
 try, from which it returned with difficulty ; the pilot 
 and three sailors being the only persons who survived 
 the distresses which the crew suffered, from want of 
 provisions and fatigue in this long voyage. In a few 
 days after their arrival, all the four died ; but the 
 pilot having been received into the house of Colum- 
 bus, hie intimate friend disclosed to him, before his 
 death, the secret of the discovery which he had acci- 
 dentally made, and left him his papers, containing a 
 journal of a voyage, which served as a guide to Co- 
 lumbus in his undertaking. Gomara, as far as I 
 know, is the first author who published this story, 
 Hist. c. 13. Every circumstance is destitute of evi- 
 
 of success, that by holding a westerly course he must 
 certainly arrive at those regions of the east described 
 by the aricients. His firm belief of his own system 
 led him to take that course, and to pursue it without 
 deviation. 
 
 The Spaniards are not the only people who have 
 called in question Columbus's claim to the honour 
 of having discovered America. Some German au- 
 thors ascribe this honour to Martin Behaim, their 
 countryman. He was of the noble family of the 
 Behaims of Schwartzbach, citizens of the first rank 
 ifi the imperial town of Nuremberg. Having studied 
 under the celebrated John Muller, better known by 
 the name of Regiomontanus, he acquired such 
 knowledge of cosmography, as excited a desire of 
 exploring those regions, the situation and qualities 
 of which he had been accustomed, under that able 
 master, to investigate and describe. Under the pa- 
 tronage of the Duchess of Burgundy, he repaired to 
 Lisbon, whither the fame of the Portuguese discove- 
 ries invited all the adventurous spirits of the age. 
 There, as we learn from Herman Schedel, of whose 
 Chronicon Mundi a German translation was printed 
 at Nuremberg, A. D. 1493, his merit as a cosmogra- 
 pher raised him, in conjunction with Diego Cana, to 
 the command of a squadron fitted out for discovery 
 in the year 1483. In that voyage he is said to have 
 discovered the kingdom of Congo. He settled in the 
 island of Fayal, one of the Azores, and was a parti- 
 cular friend of Columbus. Herrera, dec. 11. lib. ii. 
 c. 2. Magellan had a terrestrial globe made by Be- 
 haim, on which he demonstrated the course that he 
 proposed to hold in search of the communication 
 with the South sea, which he afterwards discovered. 
 Gomora. Hist. c. 19. Herrera, dec. 11. lib. ii. c. 19. 
 
 lu the 
 
 year 
 
 1492 Behaim visited his relations in 
 
 Nuremberg, and left with them a map drawn with 
 his own hand, which is still preserved among the 
 archives of the family. Thus far the -story of Martin 
 Behaim seems to be well authenticated; but the 
 account of his having discovered any part of the 
 New World appears to be merely conjectural. 
 
 In the first edition, as I had at that time hardly 
 any knowledge of Behaim but what I derived from 
 a frivolous dissertation, ' De vero Novi Orbis Inven- 
 tore,' published at Francfort, A. D. 1714, by Jo. 
 Frid. Stuvenius, I was induced by the authority of 
 Herrera, to suppose that Behaim was not a native of 
 Germany ; but from more full and accurate informa- 
 
 tion, 
 
 communicated_to me by the learned Dr. John 
 
 was 
 
 dence to support it. Neither the name of the vessel 
 
 nor its destination is known. Some pretend that it I Reinhold Forster, I am now satisfied that I 
 belonged to one of the seaport towns in Andalusia, I mistaken. Dr. Forster has been likewise so good as 
 and was sailing either to the Canaries, or to Madeira ; j to favour me with a copy of Behaim' s map, as pub- 
 others, that it was a Biscayner in its way to Eng- ! lished by Doppelmayer, in his account of the ma- 
 land ; others, a Portuguese ship trading on the coast thematicians and artists of Nuremberg. From this 
 of Guinea. The name of the pilot is alike unknown, I map the imperfection of cosmographical knowledge 
 as well as that of the port in which he landed on his j at that period is manifest. Hardly one place is laid 
 return. According to some, it was in Portugal; down in its true situation. Nor can I discover from 
 according to others, in Madeira, or the Azores. The ! it any reason to suppose that Behaim had the least 
 year in which thir voyage was made is no less uncer- j knowledge of any region in America. He delineates, 
 tnin Mnnsrm's "NTairal TVnMc r.KnvM^ll ii; .T7 1 indeed, an island to which he gives the name of St. 
 
 tain. Monson's Naval Tracts. Churchill, iii. 371. 
 No mention is made of this pilot, or his discoveries, 
 by And. Bermaldes, or Pet. Martyr, the contempo- 
 raries of Columbus. Herrara, with his usual judg- 
 ment, passes over it in silence. Oviedo takes notice 
 of this report, but considers it as a tale fit only to 
 amuse the vulgar. Hist. lib. ii. c. 2. As Columbus 
 
 Brandon. This, it is imagined, may be some part of 
 Guiana, supposed at first to be an island. He places 
 it in the same latitude with the Cape Verd isles, and 
 I suspect it to be an imaginary island which has been 
 admitted into some ancient maps on no better autho- 
 rity than the legend of the Irish St. Brandon, or 
 
 held his course directly west from the Canaries, and j Brendan, whose story is so childishly fabulous as to 
 never varied it, some later authors have supposed \ be unworthy of any notice. Gii-ald. Cambrensis ap. 
 that this uniformity is a proof of his being guided by Missingham Florilegium Sanctorum, p. 427. 
 some previous information. But they do not recol- j The pretensions of the Welch to the discovery of 
 lect the principles on which he founded all his hopes , America seem not to rest on a foundation much more 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 241 
 
 solid. In the twelfth century, according to Powell, 
 a dispute having arisen among the sons of Owen 
 Guyncth, king of North, Wales, concerning the 
 succession to his crown, Madoc. one of their number, 
 weary of this contention, betook himself to sea in 
 quest of a more quiet settlement. He steered due 
 west, leaving Ireland to the north, and arrived in an 
 unknown country, which appeared to him so desira- 
 ble that he returned to Wales, and carried thither 
 several of his adherents and companions. This is 
 said to have happened about the year 1170, and 
 after that he and his colony were heard of no more. 
 But it is to be observed that Powell, on whose testi- 
 mony the authenticity of this story rests, published 
 his history above four centuries from the date of the 
 event which he relates. Among a people as rude 
 and as illiterate as the Welch at that period, the 
 memory of a transaction so remote must have been 
 very imperfectly preserved, and would require to be 
 confirmed by some author of greater credit, and 
 nearer to the era of Madoc's voyage, than Powell. 
 Later antiquaries have indeed appealed to the testi- 
 mony of Meredith ap Rees, a Welch bard, who died 
 A. D. 1477. But he, too, lived at such a distance of 
 time from the event, that he cannot be considered as 
 a witness of much more credit than Powell. Besides, 
 his verses, published by Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 1. con- 
 vey no information, but that Madoc, dissatisfied with 
 his domestic situation, employed himself in searching 
 the ocean for new possessions. But even if we ad- 
 mit the auihoniicity of Powel's story, it docs not 
 follow that the unknown country which Madoc dis- 
 covered by steering west, in such a course as to 
 leave Ireland to the north, was any part of America. 
 The naval skill of the Welch in the twelfth century 
 was hardly equal to such a voyage. If he made any 
 discovery at all, it is more probable that it was Ma- 
 deira, or some other of the western isles. The affi 
 nity of the Welch language with some dialects 
 spoken in America, has been mentioned as a cir- 
 cumstance which confirms the truth of Madoc's 
 voyage. But that affinity has been observed in so 
 iyw instances, and in some of these is so obscure, or 
 so fanciful, that no conclusion can be drawn from the 
 casual resemblance of a small number of words. 
 There is a bird, which, as far as is yet known, is 
 found only on the coasts of South America, from 
 Port Desire to the Straits of Magellan. It is distin 
 guished by the name of Penguin. This word in the 
 Welch language signifies White-head. Almost all 
 the authors who favour the pretensions of the Welch 
 to the discovery of America, mention this as an irre- 
 fragable proof of the affinity of. the Welch language 
 with that spoken in this region of America. But 
 Mr. Pennant, who has given a scientific description 
 of the penguin, observes, that all the birds of this 
 genus have black heads, " so that we must resign 
 every hope (adds he) founded on this hypothesis, of 
 retrieving the Cambrian race in the New World." 
 Philos. Transac. vol. Iviii. p. 91, &c. Besides this, 
 if the Welch, towards the close of the twelfth cen- 
 tury, had settled in any part of America, some re- 
 mains of the christian doctrine and rites must have 
 been found among their descendants, when they 
 were discovered about three hundred years posterior 
 to their migration ; a period so short, that in the 
 course of it w : e cannot well suppose that all European 
 ideas and arts would bo totally forgotten. Lord Lit- 
 tleton in his notes to the fifth book of his History of 
 Henry II. p. 371, has examined what Powell relates 
 concerning the discoveries made by Madoc, and 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. No. 31. 
 
 invalidates the truth of his story by other arguments 
 of great weight. 
 
 The pretensions of the Norwegians to the disco- 
 very of America seem to be better founded than those 
 of the Germans or Welch. .The inhabitants of Scan- 
 dinavia were remarkable in the middle ages for the' 
 boldness and extent of their maritime excursions. 
 In 874 the Norwegians discovered and planted a 
 colony in Iceland In 982 they discovered Green- 
 land, and established settlements there. From that 
 some of their navigators proceeded towards the west, 
 and discovered a country more inviting than those 
 horrid regions with which they were acquainted. 
 According to their representation this country was 
 sandy on the coasts, but in the interior parts level 
 and covered with wood, on which account they gave 
 it the name of H die-land, and Mark land, and hav- 
 ing afterwards found some plants of the vine which 
 bore grapes, they called it Win-land. The credit of 
 this story rests, as far as I know, on the authority of 
 the saya, or chronicle of king Olaus, composed by 
 Snorro Sturlonides, or Sturlusons, published by Pe- 
 rinskiold, at Stockholm, A. D. 1697. As Snorro was 
 born in the year 1179, his chronicle might be com- 
 piled about two centuries after the event which he 
 relates. His account of the navigation and disco- 
 veries of Eiorn, and his companion Lief, is a very 
 rude, confused tale, pp. 104, 110, 326. It is impos- 
 sible to discover from him what part of America it 
 was in which the Norwegians landed. According to 
 his account of the length of the days and nights, it 
 must have been as far north as the fifty-eighth de- 
 gree of latitude, on some part of the coast of Labra- 
 dore, approaching near to the entry of Hudson's 
 straits. Grapes, certainly, arc not the production of 
 that country. Torfeus supposes that there is an 
 error in the text, by rectifying of which the place 
 where the Norwegians landed may be supposed to 
 be situated in latitude 49 degrees. But neither is 
 that the region of the vine in America. From pe- 
 rusing Snorro' s tale I should think that the situation 
 of Newfoundland corresponds best with that of the 
 country discovered by the Norwegians. Grapes, 
 however, are not the production of tha barren 
 island. Other conjectures are mentioned by M. 
 Mallet, Introd. a 1'Hist. de Dannem. 175, c. I am 
 not sufficiently acquainted with the literature of the 
 north to examine them. It seems manifest, that if 
 the Norwegians did discover any part of America at 
 that period their attempts to plant colonies proved 
 unsuccessful, and all knowledge of it was soon lost. 
 
 NOTE 18. Peter Martyr, ab Angleria, a Milanese 
 gentleman, residing at that time in the court of 
 Spain, whose letters contain an account of the trans- 
 actions of that period, in the order wherein they 
 occurred, describes the sentiments with which he 
 himself and his learned correspondents were affected, 
 in very striking terms. "Puc laetitia prosiluisse te, 
 vixque a lachrymis prae gaudio temperasse, quando 
 literas adspexisti meas quibus, de antipodum orbe 
 latenti hactenus, te certiorem feci, mi suavissime 
 Pomponi, insinuasti. Ex tuis ipse literis colligo, 
 quid senseris. Sensisti autem, tantique rem fecisti, 
 quanti virum summa doctrina insignitum decuit. 
 Quis namquc cibus sublimibus. pracstari potest inge- 
 niis, isto suavior ? quod condimentum gratius? A 
 me facio conjecturam. Beatos sentio spiritus meos, 
 { quando accitos alloquor prudentes aliquos ex his qui 
 
 ab ea redeunt provincia. Implicent animos pecuni- 
 ' arum cumulis augendis miseri avari, libidinibus cb- 
 
 scoeni ; nostras nos mentes, postquam Deo pleni ali 
 
 2 I 
 
242 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 quando fucrimus, contemplando, hujusceraodi rerum 
 notitia demulciamus." Epist. 152. Pomponio Lseto. 
 NOTE 19. So firmly were men of science in that 
 age persuaded that the countries which Columbus 
 had discovered were connected with the East Indies, 
 that Bernaldes, the Cura de los Palacios, who seems 
 to have been no inconsiderable proficient in the 
 knowledge of cosmography, contends that Cuba was 
 not an island, but a part of the continent, and united 
 to the dominions of the Great Khan. This he deli- 
 vered as his opinion to Columbus himself, who was 
 his guest for some_time on his return from his second 
 voyage; and he supports it by several arguments, 
 mostly founded on the authority of Sir John Mande- 
 ville; MS. penes me. Antonio Gallo, who was se- 
 cretary to the magistracy of Genoa towards the close 
 of the fifteenth century, published a short account of 
 the navigations and discoveries of his countryman 
 Columbus, annexed to his Opuscula Historica de 
 Rebus Populi Genuensis ; in which he informs us, 
 from letters of Columbus which he himself had seen, 
 that it was his opinion, founded upon nautical obser- 
 vations, that one of the islands he had discovered 
 was distant only two hours or thirty degrees from 
 Cattigara, which, in the charts of the geographers of 
 that age, was laid down upon the authority of Pto- 
 lemy, lib. vii. c. 3, as the most easterly place in 
 Asia. From this he concluded, that if some unknown 
 continent did not obstruct the navigation, there must 
 be a short and easy access, by holding a westerly 
 course, to this extreme region of the east. Muratori 
 Scriptores Her. Italicarum, vol. xxiii. p. 304. 
 
 NOTE 20. Bernaldes, the Cura or Rector de los 
 Palacios, a contemporary writer, says, that five hun- 
 dred of these captives were sent to Spain, and sold 
 publicly in Seville as slaves ; but that by the change 
 of climate and their inability to bear the fatigue of 
 labour, they all died in a short time. M.S. penes me. 
 NOTE 21. Columbus seems to have formed some 
 very singular opinions concerning the countries 
 which he had now discovered. The violent swell 
 and agitation of the waters on the coast of Trinidad, 
 led him to conclude this to be the highest part of the 
 terraqueous globe ; and he imagined that various 
 circumstances concurred in proving that the sea was 
 here visibly elevated. Having adopted this erroneous 
 principle, the apparent beauty of the country induced 
 him to fall in with a notion of Sir John Mandeville, 
 c. 102, that the terrestrial paradise was the highest 
 land in the earth ; and he believed that he had been 
 so fortunate as to discover this happy abode. Nor 
 ought we to think it strange that a person of so much 
 sagacity should be influenced by the opinion or re- 
 ports of such a fabulous author as Mandeville. Co- 
 lumbus and the other discoverers were obliged to 
 follow such guides as they could find ; and it appears 
 from several passages in the manuscript of Andr. 
 Bernaldes, the friend of Columbus, that no inconsi- 
 derable degree of credit was given to the testimony 
 of Mandeville in that age. Bernaldes frequently 
 quotes him, and always with respect. 
 
 NOTE 22. It is remarkable that neither 
 Gomara nor Oviedo, the most ancient Spanish 
 historians of America, nor Hervera, consider Ojeda, 
 or his companion Vespucci, as the first discoverers 
 of the continent of America. They uniformly 
 ascribe this honour to Columbus. Some have sup- 
 posed that national resentment against Vespucci, 
 for deserting the service of Spain, and entering 
 into that of Portugal, may have prompted these 
 writers to conceal the actions which he performed. 
 But Martyr and Benzoni. both Italians, could not 
 
 be warped by the same prejudice. Martyr was a 
 contemporary author; he resided in the court of 
 Spain, and had the best opportunity to be exactly 
 informed with respect to all public transactions ; 
 and yet neither in his Decads, the first general 
 history published of the New World, nor in his 
 epistles, which contain an account of all the re- 
 markable events of his time, does he ascribe to 
 Vespucci the honour of ^having first discovered the 
 continent. Benzoni went as an adventurer to 
 America in the year 1541, and resided there a con- 
 siderable time. He appears to have been animated 
 with a warm zeal for the honour of Italy, his native 
 country, and yet does not mention the exploits and 
 discoveries of Vespucci. Herrera, who compiled 
 his general history of America from the most au- 
 thentic records, not only follows those early writers, 
 but accuses Vespucci of falsifying the dates of both 
 the voyages which he made to the New World, and 
 of confounding the one with the other, in order that 
 he might arrogate to himself the glory of having 
 discovered the continent. Her. dec. 1. lib. iv. c. 2. 
 He asserts, that in a judicial inquiry into this matter 
 by the royal fiscal, it was proved by the testimony of 
 Ojeda himself, that he touched at Hispaniola when 
 returning to Spain from his first voyage ; whereas 
 Vespucci gave out that they returned directly to 
 Cadiz from the coast of Paria, and touched at 
 Hispaniola only in their second voyage ; and that 
 he had finished the voyage in five months, whereas, 
 according to Vespucci's account, he had employed 
 seventeen months in performing it. Viaggio primo 
 de Am. Vespucci, p. 36. Viag. secundo, p. 45. 
 Herrera gives a more full account.of this inquest in 
 another part of his Decads, and to the same effect. 
 Her. dec. 1. lib. vii. c. 5. Columbus was in His- 
 paniola when Ojeda arrived there, and had by that 
 time come to an agreement with Roldan, who opposed 
 Ojeda's attempt to excite a new insurrection, and, of 
 consequence, his voyage must have been posterior 
 to that of the admiral. Life of Columbus, c. 84. 
 According to Vespucci's account, he set out on his 
 first voyage, May 10, 1497. Viag. primo, p. 6. At 
 that time Columbus was in the court of Spain, pre- 
 paring for his voyage, and seems to have enjoyed a 
 considerable degree of favour. The affairs of the 
 New World were at this juncture under the direction 
 of Antonio Torres, a friend of Columbus. It is not 
 probable, that at that period a commission would be 
 granted to another person, to anticipate the admiral, 
 by undertaking a voyage which he himself intended 
 to perform. Fonseca, who patronized Ojeda, and 
 granted the license for his voyage, was not recalled 
 to court, and reinstated in the direction of Indian 
 affairs, Until 'the death of prince John, which hap- 
 pened September, 1497 (P. Martyr, Ep. 182.), se- 
 veral months posterior to the time at which Vespucci 
 pretends to have set out upon his voyage. A life of 
 Vespucci was published at Florence by the Abate 
 Bandini, A. D. 1745, 4to. It is a work of no merit, 
 written with little judgment, and less candour. He 
 contends for his countryman's title to the discovery 
 of the continent with all the blind zeal of national 
 partiality, but produces no new evidence to support 
 it. We learn from him that Vespucci's account of his 
 voyage was published as early as the year 1510, 
 and probably sooner. Vita di Am. Vesp. p. 52. At 
 what time the name of AMERICA came to be first 
 given to the New World is not certain. 
 
 NOTE 23. The form employed on this occasion 
 served as a model to the Spaniards in all their 
 subsequent conquests in America. It is so extra 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 243 
 
 ordinary in its nature, and gives us such an idea of 
 the proceedings of the Spaniards, and the principles 
 upon which they founded their right to the extensive 
 dominions which they acquired in the New World, 
 that it well merits the attention, of the reader. " I 
 Alonso dc Ojeda, servant of tlie most high and 
 powerful kings of Castile and Leon, the conquerors 
 of barbarous nations, their messenger and captain, 
 notify to you and declare, in as ample form as I am 
 capable, that God our Lord, who is one and eternal, 
 created the heaven and the earth, and one man and 
 one woman, of whom you and we, and all the men 
 who have been or shall be in the world, are de- 
 scended. But as it has come to pass through the 
 number of generations during more than five thou- 
 sand years, that they have been dispersed into dif- 
 ferent parts of the world, and are divided into 
 various kingdoms and provinces, because one coun- 
 try was not able to contain them, nor could they 
 have found in one the means of subsistence and 
 preservation ; therefore God our Lord gave the 
 charge of all those people to one man named St. 
 Peter, whom he constituted the lord and head of all 
 the human race, that all men, in whatever place 
 they are born, or in whatever faith or place they are 
 educated, might yield obedience unto him. He hath 
 subjected the whole world to his jurisdiction, and 
 commanded him to establish his residence in Rome, 
 as the most proper place for the government of the 
 world. He likewise promised and gave him power 
 to establish his authority in every other part of the 
 world, and to judge and govern all Christians, 
 Moors, Jews, Gentiles, and all other people, of 
 whatever sect or faith they may be. To him is 
 given the name of Pope, which signifies admirable, 
 great father and guardian, because he is the father 
 and governor of all men. Those who lived in the 
 time of this holy father obeyed and acknowledged 
 him as their lord and king, and the superior of the 
 universe. The same has been observed with respect 
 to them who, since his time, have been chosen to 
 the pontificate. Thus it now continues, and will 
 continue to the end of the world. 
 
 " One of these pontiffs, as lord of the world, hath 
 made a grant of these islands, and of the Tierra 
 Firme of the ocean sea, to the catholic kings of 
 Castile, Don Ferdinand and Donna Isabella, of 
 glorious memory, and their successors, our sove- 
 reigns, with all they contain, as is more fully ex- 
 pressed in certain deeds passed upon that occasion, 
 which you may see, if you desire it. Thus his ma- I 
 jesty is king and lord of these islands and of the 
 continent, in virtue of this donation ; and, as king 
 and lord aforesaid, most of the islands to which his 
 title has been notified, have recognised his majesty, 
 and now yield obedience and subjection to him as 
 their lord, voluntarily and without resistance ; and 
 instantly, as soon as they received information, they 
 obeyed the religious men sent by the king to preach 
 to them, and to instruct them in our holy faith ; 
 and all these, of their own free will, without any 
 recompence or gratuity, became Christians, and con- 
 tinue to be so ; and his majesty having received 
 them graciously under his protection, has com- 
 manded that they should be treated in the same 
 manner as his other subjects and vassals. You are 
 bound and obliged to act in the same manner. 
 Therefore I now entreat and require you to consider 
 attentively what I have declared to you ; and that 
 you may more perfectly comprehend it, that you 
 take such time as is reasonable, in order that you 
 may acknowledge the church as the superior and 
 
 guide of the universe, and likewise the holy father 
 called the pope, in his own right, and his majesty 
 by his appointment, as king and sovereign lord of 
 these islands, and of the Tierra Firme ; and that 
 you consent that the aforesaid holy . fathers shall 
 declare and preach to you the doctrines above men- 
 tioned. If you do this, you act well, and perform 
 that to which you are bound and obliged ; arid his 
 majesty, and I in his name, will receive you with 
 love and kindness, and will leave you, your wives 
 and children, free and exempt from servitude, and 
 in the enjoyment of all you possess, in the same 
 manner as the inhabitants of the islands. Besides 
 this, his majesty will bestow upon you many privi- 
 leges, exemptions, and rewards. But if you will not 
 comply, or maliciously delay to obey my injunction, 
 then, with the help of God, I will enter your country 
 by force; I will carry on war against you with the 
 utmost violence ; I will subject you to the yoke of 
 obedience to the church and king ; I will take your 
 wives and children, and will make them slaves, and 
 sell or dispose of them according to his majesty's 
 pleasure ; I will seize your goods, and do you all the 
 mischief in my power, as rebellious subjects, who 
 will not acknowledge or submit to their lawful 
 sovereign. And I protest, that all the bloodshed 
 and calamities which shall follow, are to be imputed 
 to you, and not to his majesty, or to me, or the 
 gentlemen who serve under me ; and as I have now 
 made this declaration and requisition unto you, I 
 require the notary here present to grant me a cer 
 tificate of this, subscribed in proper form." Hcrrcra, 
 dec. 1. lib. vii. c. 14. > 
 
 NOTE 24. Balboa, in his letter to the king, ob- 
 serves, that of the hundred and ninety men whom he 
 took with him, there never were above eighty fit for 
 seivice at one time. So much did they suffer from 
 hunger, fatigue, and sickness. Herrera, dec. 1. 
 lib. x. c. 16. P. Mart, decad. 225. 
 
 NOTE 25. Fonseca, bishop of Palencia, the 
 principal director of American affairs, had eight 
 hundred Indians in property; the commendator 
 Lope de Conchillos, his chief associate in that de- 
 partment, eleven hundred ; and other farourites had 
 considerable numbers. They sent overseers to the 
 islands, and hired out those slaves to the planters. 
 Herrera, dec. 1. lib. ix. c. 14. p. 325. 
 
 NOTE 26. Though America is more plentifully 
 supplied with water than the other regions of the 
 globe, there is no river or stream of water in Yucatan. 
 This peninsula projects from the continent a hun- 
 dred leagues, but, where broadest, does not extend 
 above twenty-five leagues. It is an extensive plain, 
 not only without mountains, but without almost any 
 inequality of ground. The inhabitants are supplied 
 with water from pits, and wherever they dig them, 
 find it in abundance. It is probable, from all these 
 circumstances, that this country was formerly co- 
 vered by the sea. Herrerse Descriptio Indise Occi- 
 dentalis, p. 14. Histoire Naturelle, par M. de 
 Buffon, torn. i. p. 593. 
 
 NOTE 27. M. Clavigero censures me for having 
 represented the Spaniards who sailed with Cordova 
 and Grijalva, as fancying, in the warmth of their 
 imagination, that they saw cities on the coast of 
 Yucatan adorned with towers and cupolas. I know 
 not what translation of my history he has consulted 
 (for his quotation from it is not taken from the 
 original), but I never imagined that any building 
 erected by the Americans could suggest the idea of a 
 cupola or dome, a structure which their utmost skill 
 in architecture was incapable of rearing. My words 
 
244 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 are, that they fancied the villages which they saw 
 from their ships " to be cities adorned with towers 
 and pinnacles." By pinnacles I meant some eleva- 
 tion above the rest of the building ; and the passage 
 is translated almost literally from Herrera, dec. 2. 
 lib. iii. c. 1. In almost all the accounts of new coun- 
 tries given by the Spanish discoverers of that age, 
 this warmth of admiration is conspicuous, and led 
 them to describe these new objects in the most splen- 
 did terms. When Cordova and his companions first 
 beheld an Indian village of greater magnitude than 
 any they had beheld in the islands, they dignified it 
 by the name of Grand Cairo, B. Diaz, c. 2. From 
 the same cause Grijalva and his associates thought 
 the country, along the coast of which they held their 
 course, entitled to the name of New Spain. 
 
 NOTE 28. The height of the most elevated point 
 in the Pyrenees is. according to M. Cassini, six 
 thousand six hundred and forty-six feet. The height of 
 the Peak of Teneriffe, according to the measurement 
 of P. Feuiile, is thirteen thousand one hundred and 
 seventy-eight feet. The height of Chimborazzo, the 
 most elevated point of the Andes, is twenty thousand j 
 two hundred and eighty feet ; no less than seven i 
 thousand one hundred and two feet above the highest j 
 mountain in the ancient continent. Voyage de D. J 
 Juan Ulloa, Observations Astron. et Physiq. torn. ii. 
 p. 114. The line of congelation on Chimborazzo, or 
 that part of the mountain which is covered perpetually i 
 with snow, is no less than two thousand four hundred ' 
 feet from its summit. Prevot. Hist. Gener. des Voy- 
 ages, vol xiii. p. 636. 
 
 NOTE 29. As a particular description makes a 
 stronger impression than general assertions, I shall 
 give one of Rio de la Plata by an eye-witness, P. 
 Cattaneo, a Modenese Jesuit, who landed at Buenos 
 Ayres in 1749, and thus represents what he felt when 
 such new objects were first presented to his view. 
 " While I resided in Europe, and read in books of 
 history or geography that the mouth of the river de la 
 Plata was a hundred and fifty miles in breadth, I 
 considered it as an exaggeration, because in this 
 hemisphere we have no example of such vast rivers. 
 When I approached its mouth, I had the most ve- 
 hement desire to ascertain the truth with my own 
 eyes ; and I have found the matter to be exactly as 
 it was represented. This I deduce particularly from 
 one circumstance : When' we took our departure 
 from Monte-Video, a fort situated more than a hun- 
 dred miles from the mouth of the river, and where 
 its breadth is considerably diminished, we sailed a 
 complete day before we discovered the land on the 
 opposite bank of the river ; and when we were in 
 the middle of the channel, we could not discern land 
 on either side, and saw nothing but the sky and 
 water, as if we had been in some great ocean. Indeed 
 we should have taken it to be sea, if the fresh water 
 of the river, which was turbid like the Po, had not 
 satisfied us that it was a river. Moreover, at Buenos 
 Ayres, another hundred miles up the river, and 
 where it is still much narrower, it is not only im- 
 possible to discern the opposite coast, which is indeed 
 very low and flat, but one cannot perceive the houses 
 or the tops of the steeples in the Portuguese settle- 
 ment at .Colonia on the other side of the river." 
 Lettera prima, published by Muratori, II Christian- 
 esimo Felice, &c. i. p. 357. 
 
 NOTE 30. Newfoundland, part of Nova Scotia, 
 and Canada, are the countries which lie in the same 
 parallel of latitude with the kingdom of France ; and 
 in every part of these the water of the rivers is frozen 
 during winter to the thickness of several feet; the j 
 
 earth is covered with snow as deep ; almost all the 
 birds fly, during that season, from a climate where 
 they could not live. The country of the Esquimaux, 
 part of Labrador, and the countries on the south of 
 Hudson's bay, are in the same parallel with Great 
 Britain ; and yet in all these the cold is so intense, 
 that even the industry of Europeans has not at- 
 tempted cultivation. 
 
 NOTE 31. Acosta is the first philosopher, as far as 
 I k'now, who endeavoured to account for the different 
 degrees of heat in the old and new continents, by the 
 agency of the winds which blow in each. Hibt. 
 Moral. &c. lib. ii. and iii. M. de Button adopts this 
 theory, and has not only improved it by new obser- 
 vations, but has employed his amazing powers of 
 descriptive eloquence in embellishing and placing it 
 in the most striking light. Some remarks may be 
 added, which tend to illustrate more fully a doctrine 
 of much importance in every inquiry concerning the 
 temperature of various climates. 
 
 When a cold wind blows over land, it must in its 
 passage rob the suri'ace of some of its heat. By 
 means of this, the coldness of the wind is abated. 
 But if it continue to blow in the same direction, it 
 will come, by degrees, to pass over a surface already 
 cooled, and will suffer no longer any abatement of 
 its own keenness. Thus, as it advances over a large 
 tract of land, it brings on all the severity of intense 
 frost. 
 
 Let the same wind blow over an extensive and 
 deep sea ; the superficial water must be immediately 
 cooled to a certain degree, and the wind proportion- 
 ably warmed. But the superficial and colder water 
 becoming specifically heavier than the warm water 
 below it, descends; what is warmer supplies its 
 place, which, as it comes to be cooled in its turn, 
 continues to warm the air which passes over it, or 
 to diminish its cold. This change of the superficial 
 water and successive ascent of that which is warmer, 
 and the consequent successive abatement of coldness 
 in the air, is aided by the agitation caused in the 
 sea by the mechanical action of the wind, and also 
 by the motion of the tides. This will go on, and 
 the rigour of the wind will continue to diminish, 
 until the whole water is so far cooled that the water 
 on the surface is no longer removed from the action 
 of the wind, fast enough to hinder it from being 
 arrested by frost. Whenever the surface freezes, 
 the wind is no longer wanned by the water from 
 below, and it goes on with undiminished cold. 
 
 From those principles may be explained the 
 severity of winter frosts in extensive continents ; 
 their mildness in small islands; and the superior 
 rigour of winter in those parts of North America with 
 which we are best acquainted. In the north-west 
 parts of Europe, the seventy of winter is mitigated 
 by the west winds, which usually blow in the months 
 of November, December, and part of January. 
 
 On the other hand, when a warm wind blows 
 over land, it heats the surface, which must therefore 
 cease to abate the fervour of the wind. But the 
 same wind blowing over water, agitates it, brings up 
 the cold water from below, and thus is continually 
 losing somewhat of its own heat. 
 
 But the great power of the sea to mitigate the 
 heat of the wind or air passing over it, proceeds 
 from the following circumstance : that on account 
 of the transparency of the sea, its surface cannot be 
 heated to a great degree by the sun's rays ; whereas 
 the ground, ^subjected to their influence, very soon 
 acquires great heat. When, therefore, the waul 
 blows over a torrid continent, it is soon raised to a 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 245 
 
 heat almost intolerable ; but during its passage over 
 an extensive ocean, it is gradually cooled ; so thai 
 on its arrival at the furthest shore, it is again fit for 
 respiration. 
 
 Those pi'inciples will account for the sultry heats 
 of large continents in the torrid z6ne ; for the mile 
 climate of islands in the same latitude ; and for tht 
 superior warmth in summer which large continents, 
 situated in the temperate or colder zones of the 
 earth, enjoy, when compared with that of islands 
 The heat of a climate depends not only upon the 
 immediate effect of the sun's rays, but on their 
 continued operation, on the effect which they have 
 formerly produced, and which remains for some 
 time in the ground. This is the reason why the 
 day is wannest about two in the afternoon, the sum- 
 mer warmest about the middle of July, and the 
 winter coldest about the middle of January. 
 
 The forests which cover America, and hinder the 
 sun-beams from heating the ground, are a greaj 
 cause of the temperate climate in the equatorial 
 parts. The ground, not being heated, cannot heat 
 the air ; and the leaves, which receive the rays inter- 
 cepted from the ground, have not a mass of matter 
 sufficient to absorb heat enough for this purpose. 
 Besides, it. is a known fact, that the vegetative power 
 of a plant occasions a perspiration from the leaves 
 in proportion to the heat to which they are exposed; 
 and from the nature of evaporation, this perspiration 
 produces a cold in the leaf proportional to the 
 perspiration. Thus the effect of the leaf in heating 
 the air in contact with it, is prodigiously diminished. 
 For these observations, which throw much additional 
 light on this curious subject, I am indebted to my 
 ingenious friend, Mr. Kobison, professor of natural 
 philosophy in the university of Edinburgh. 
 
 NOTE 32. The climate of Brazil has been des- 
 cribed by two eminent naturalists, Piso and Margrave, 
 who observed it with a philosophical accuracy for 
 which we search in vain in the accounts of many 
 other provinces in America. Both represent it as 
 temperate and mild, when compared with the climate 
 of Africa. They ascribe this chiefly to the refreshing 
 wind which blows continually from the sea. The air 
 is not only cool, but chilly through the night, in so 
 much that the natives kindle fires every evening in 
 their huts. Piso do Medicina Brasiliensi, lib. i. p. 
 1, &c. Margravius Histor. Rerum Natural. Bra- 
 siliae, lib. viii. c. 3. p. 264. Nieuhoff, who resided 
 long in Brazil, confirms their description. Churchill's 
 Collection, vol. ii. page 26. Gumilla, who was a 
 missionary many years among the Indians upon the 
 river Oronoco, gives a similar description of the 
 temperature of the climate there. Hist, de 1'Ore- 
 noque, torn. i. p. 26, P. Acugna felt a very conside- 
 rable degree of cold in the countries on the banks of 
 the river Amazons. Relat. vol. ii. p. 56. M. Biet, 
 who lived a considerable time in Cayenne, gives a 
 similar account of the temperature of that climate, 
 and ascribes it to the same cause. Voyage de la 
 France, Equinox, p. 330. Nothing can be more 
 different from these descriptions than that of the 
 burning heat of the African coast given by M Ad- 
 anson. Voyage to Senegal, passim. 
 
 NOTE 33. Two French frigates were sent upon a 
 voyage of discovery in the year 1739. In latitude 
 44 deg. south, they began to feel a considerable de- 
 
 50 deg. 33 min. south, on the fifteenth of December, 
 which is midsummer in that part of the globe, the 
 twenty-first of December, being the longest day 
 there, compares the climate to that of England in 
 the middle of winter. Voyages by Hawkesworth, 
 i. 25. Mr. Banks having landed on Terra del Fuego, 
 in the bay of Good Success, lat. 55 deg. on the six- 
 teenth of January, which corresponds to the month 
 of July in our hemisphere, two of his attendants died 
 in one night of extreme cold, and all the party were 
 in the most eminent danger of perishing. Id. ii. 51, 
 52. By the fourteenth of March, corresponding to 
 September in our hemisphere, winter was set in with 
 rigour, and the mountains were covered with snow. 
 Ibid. 72. Captain Cook, in his voyage towards the 
 south pole, furnishes new and striking instances of 
 the extraordinary predominance of cold in this region 
 of the globe. " Who would have thought (says he) 
 that an island of no greater extent than seventy 
 leagues in circuit, situated between the latitude of 
 54 and 55 deg. should, in the very height of summer, 
 be in a manner wholly covered, many fathoms deep, 
 with frozen snow, but more especially the S. W. 
 coast ? The very summits of the lofty mountains 
 were cased with snow and ice ; but the quantity that 
 lay in the valleys is incredible ; and at the bottom of 
 the bays the coast was terminated by a wall of ice 
 of considerable height." Vol. ii.. p. 217. 
 
 In some places of the ancient continent, an ex- 
 traordinary degree of cold prevails in very low lati- 
 tudes. Mr. Bogle, in his embassy to the court of 
 the Delai Lama, passed the winter of the year 1774 
 at Chamnanning, in lat. 31 deg. 39 min. N. He 
 often found the thermometer in his room twenty-nine 
 degrees under the freezing point by Fahrenheit's 
 scale ; and in the middle of April the standing waters 
 were all frozen, and heavy showers of snow fre- 
 quently fell. The extraordinary elevation of the 
 country seems to be the cause of this excessive cold. 
 In travelling from Indostan to Thibet, the ascent to 
 the sumriiit of the Boutan mountains is very great, 
 but the descent on the other side is not in equal pro 
 portion. The kingdom of Thibet is an elevated 
 region, extremely bare and desolate. Account of 
 Thibet, by Mr. Stewart, read in the Royal Society, 
 [>. 7. The extraordinary cold in low latitudes in 
 America cannot be accounted for by the same cause. 
 Those regions are not remarkable for elevation. 
 Some of them are countries depressed and level. 
 
 The most obvious and probable cause of the supe- 
 rior degree of cold towards the southern extremity of 
 America seems to be the form of the continent there. 
 [ts breadth gradually decreases as it stretches from 
 St. Antonio southwards, and from the bay of St. 
 Julian to the straits of Magellan, its dimensions are 
 much contracted. On the east and west sides it is 
 vashed by the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. From 
 ts southern point it is probable that a great extent 
 )f sea, without any considerable tract of land, 
 caches to the Antarctic pole. In whichever of 
 hese directions the wind blows, it is cooled before it 
 approaches the Magellanic regions by passing over a 
 /ast body of water; nor is the land there of such 
 extent that it can recover any considerable degree of 
 eat in its progress over it. These circumstances 
 concur in rendering the temperature of the air in 
 this district of America more similar to that of an 
 
 gree of cold. In latitude 48 deg. they met with > insular than to that of a continental climate, and hin- 
 islands of floating ice. Histoires des Navigations aux j der it from" acquiring the same degree of summer 
 Torres Australes, torn. ii. p. 256, &c. Dr. Halley i heat with places in Europe and Asia in a correspond- 
 fell in with ice in lat. 59 deg. Id. torn. i. p. 47. Com- ! ent northern latitude. The north wind is the only 
 modove Byron, when on the coast of Patagonia, lat. ' one that reaches this part of America, after blowing 
 
246 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 over a great continent. But from an attentive sur- 
 vey of its position, this will be found to have a ten- 
 dency rather to diminish than augment the degree of 
 heat. The southern extremity of America is pro- 
 perly the termination of the immense ridge of the 
 Andes, which stretches nearly in a direct line from 
 north to south, through the whole extent of the con- 
 tinent. The most sultry regions in South America, 
 Guiana, Brazil, Paraguay, and Tucuman, lie many 
 degrees to the east of the Magellanic regions. The 
 level country of Peru, which enjoys the tropical 
 heats, is situated considerably to the west of them. 
 The north wind then, though it blows over land, does 
 not bring to the southern extremity of America an 
 increase of heat collected in its passage over torrid 
 regions ; but before it arrives there, it must have 
 swept along the summits of the Andes, and comes 
 impregnated with the cold of that frozen region. 
 
 Though it be now demonstrated that there is no 
 southern continent in that region of the globe which 
 it was supposed to occupy, it appears to be certain 
 from Captain Cook's discoveries, that there is a large 
 tract of land near the south pole, which is the source 
 of most of the ice spread over the vast southern 
 ocean. Vol. ii. p. 230, 239, &c. Whether the in- 
 fluence of this remote frozen continent may reach 
 the southern extremity of America, and affect its 
 climate, is an inquiry not unworthy of attention. 
 
 NOTE 34. M. Condamine is one of the latest and 
 most accurate observers of the interior state of South 
 America. " After descending from the Andes" (says 
 he), " one beholds a vast and uniform prospect of 
 water and verdure, and nothing more. One treads 
 upon the' earth, but does not see it ; as it is so entirely 
 covered with luxuriant plants, weeds, and shrubs, 
 that it would require a considerable degree of labour 
 to clear it for the space of a foot." Relation abregee 
 d'un Voyage, &c. p. 48. One of the singularities 
 in the forests is a sort of osiers, or withes, called 
 bejucos by the Spaniards, lianes by the French, and 
 nibbes by the Indians, which are usually employed as those bordering on the frozen sea he could not live. 
 
 quarters of the globe. From antlers of the moose- 
 deer which have been found in America, it appears 
 to have been an animal of great size. Near the 
 banks of the Ohio a considerable number of bones of 
 an immense magnitude have been found. The place 
 where this discovery has been made lies about one 
 hundred and ninety miles below the junction of the 
 river Scioto with the Ohio. It is about four miles 
 distant from the banks of the latter on the side of the 
 marsh called the Salt Lick. The bones lie in vast 
 quantities about five or six feet under ground, and 
 the stratum is visible in the bank on the edge 
 of the Lick. Journal of Colonel Georye Croylan, 
 MS. penes me. This spot seems to be accurately 
 laid down by Evans in his map. These bones must 
 have belonged to animals of enormous bulk ; but 
 naturalists, being acquainted with no living creature 
 of such size, were at first inclined to think that they 
 were mineral substances. Upon receiving a greater 
 number of specimens, and after inspecting them 
 more narrowly, they are now allowed to be the bones 
 of an animal. As the elephant is the largest known 
 quadruped, and the tusks which were found nearly 
 resembled, both in form and quality, the tusks of an 
 elephant, it was concluded that the carcases depo- 
 sited on the Ohio were of that species. But Dr. 
 Hunter, one of the persons of our age best qualified 
 to decide with respect to this point, having accu- 
 rately examined several parcels of the tusks, and 
 grinders, and jaw-bones, sent from the Ohio to Lon- 
 don, gives it as his opinion, that they did not belong 
 to an elephant, but to some huge carnivorous animal 
 
 _ /? _ .. i __ TII_ M rri i 1__:^: 
 
 of an 
 p. 31. 
 
 unknown species. Phil. Transact, vol. Iviii. 
 Bones of the same kind, and as remarkable 
 
 for their size, have been found near the mouths of 
 the great rivers Oby, Jeniseia, and Lena, in Siberia. 
 Strahlerenberg, Descript. of North and East Parts of 
 Eu'ope and Asia, p. 402, c. The elephant seems 
 to be confined in his range to the torrid zone, and 
 never multiplies beyond it. In such cold regions as 
 
 ropes in America. This is one of the parasitical 
 plants, which twists about the trees itmeets with, and 
 rising above their highest branches, its tendrils de- 
 scend perpendicularly, strike into the ground, take 
 root, rise up around another tree, and thus mount 
 and descend alternately. Other tendrils are carried 
 obliquely by the wind, or some accident, and form a of which no account is preserved in history 
 
 confusion of interwoven cordage, which resembles 
 the rigging of a ship. Bancroft, Nat. Hist, of Guiana, 
 99. These withes are often as thick as the arm of a 
 man. Ib. p. 75. M. Bouguer's account of the forests 
 in Peru perfectly resembles this description. Voyages 
 au Peru, p. 16. Oviedo gives a similar description 
 of the forests in other parts of America. Hist. lib. ix. 
 p. 144. D. The country of the Moxos is so much 
 overflowed that they are obliged to reside on the 
 summit of some rising ground during some part of 
 the year, and have no communication with their 
 countrymen at any distance. Lettres Edifiantes, 
 torn. x. p. 187. Garcia gives a full and just descrip- 
 tion of the rivers, lakes, woods, and marshes in those 
 countries of America which lie between the tropics. 
 Origin de los Indies, lib. ii. c. 5, s. 4, 5. The in- 
 credible hardships to which Gonzalez Pizarro was 
 exposed in attempting to march into the country to 
 the east of the Andes, convey a very striking idea of 
 that part of America in its original uncultivated state. 
 Garcil. de la Vega, Royal. Comment, of Peru, part 
 ii. book iii. c. 2 5. 
 
 NOTE 35. The animals of America seem not to 
 have been always of a size inferior to those in other 
 
 The existence of such large animals in America 
 might open a wide field for conjecture. The more 
 we contemplate the face of nature, and consider tho 
 variety of her productions, the more we must be sa- 
 tisfied, that astonishing changes have been made in 
 the terraqueous globe by convulsions and revolutions, 
 
 NOTE 36. This degeneracy of the domestic Eu- 
 ropean animals in America may be imputed to some 
 of these causes. In the Spanish settlements, wliieh 
 are situated either within the torrid zone, or in coun- 
 tries bordering upon it, the increase of heat, and di- 
 versity of food, prevent sheep and horned cattle from 
 attaining the same size as in Europe. They seldom 
 become so fat, and their flesh is not so juicy, or of 
 such delicate flavour. In North America where the 
 climate is more favourable, and similar to that of 
 Europe, the quality of the grasses which spring up 
 naturally in their pasture-grounds is not good. Mit- 
 chell, p. 151. Agriculture is still so much in its 
 infancy, that artificial food for cattle is not raised in 
 any quantity. During a winter, long in many pro- 
 vinces and rigorous in all, no proper care is taken 
 of their cattle. The general treatment of their 
 horses and horned cattle is injudicious and harsh in 
 all the English colonies. These circumstances con- 
 tribute more, perhaps, than any thing peculiar in 
 the quality of the climate, to the degeneracy of breed 
 in the horses, cows, and sheep, of many of the North 
 American provinces. 
 
 NOTE 37. In the year 1518 the island of Hispa- 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 247 
 
 niola was afflicted with a dreadful visitation of those 
 destructive insects, the particulars of which Herreva 
 describes, and mentions a singular instance of the su- 
 perstition of the Spanish planters. After trying 
 various methods of exterminating the ants, they 
 resolved to implore protection of the saints ; but as 
 the calamity was new, they were at a loss to find out 
 the saint who could give them the most effectual aid. 
 They cast lots in order to discover the patron whom 
 they should invoke. The lots decided in favour of 
 St. Saturninus. They celebrated his festival with 
 great solemnity, and immediately, adds the historian, 
 the calamity began to abate. Herrera, dec. 2, lib. iii. 
 c. 15, p. 107. 
 
 NOTE 38. The author of Recherches Philoso- 
 phiques sur les Americains, supposes this difference 
 in heat to be equal to twelve degrees, and that a 
 place thirty degrees from the equator in the old con- 
 tinent is as warm as one situated eighteen degrees 
 from it in America, torn. i. p. 11. Dr. Mitchell, 
 after observations carried on during thirty years, 
 contends that the difference is equal to fourteen or 
 fifteen degrees of latitude. Present State, &c. 
 p. 257. 
 
 NOTE 39. January 3rd, 17G5, Mr. Bertram, near 
 the head of St. John's river, in East Florida, ob- 
 served a frost so intense, that in one night the ground 
 was frozen an inch thick upon the banks of the 
 river. The limes, citrons, and banana trees at St. 
 Augustin were destroyed. Bertram's Journal, p. 20. 
 Other instances of the extraordinary operations of 
 cold in the southern provinces of North America 
 are collected by Dr. Mitchell. Present State, p. 206, 
 &c. February 7th, 1747, the frost at Charlcstown 
 was so intense, that a person having carried two 
 (mart bottles of hot water to bed, in the morning 
 they were split to pieces, and the water converted 
 into solid lumps of ice. In a kitchen, where there 
 was a fire, the water in a jar, where there was a 
 large live eel, was frozen to the bottom. Almost all 
 the orange and olive-trees were destroyed. De- 
 scription of South Carolina, 8vo. Lond. 1761. 
 
 NOTE 40. A remarkable instance of this occurs 
 in Dutch Guiana, a country everywhere level, and 
 so low, that during the rainy seasons it is usually 
 covered with water near two feet in height. This 
 renders the soil so rich, that on the surface, for 
 twelve inches in depth, it is a stratum of perfect 
 manure, and as such has been transported to Bar- 
 badoes. On the banks of the Essequebo, thirty 
 crops of ratan canes have been "raised successively ; 
 whereas, in the West India Islands, not more than 
 two is ever expected from the richest land. The ex- 
 pedients by which the planters endeavour to diminish 
 this excessive fertility of the soil are various. Ban- 
 croft, Nat. Hist, of Guiana, p. 10, &c. 
 
 NOTE 41. Muller seems to have believed, without 
 sufficient evidence, that the cape had been doubled 
 torn. i. p. 11, &c. ; and the imperial academy of St. 
 Petersburgh gives some countenance to it by the 
 manner in which Tschukotskoi-noss is laid down in 
 their charts. But I am assured, from undoubted 
 authority, that no Russian vessel has ever sailed 
 round that cape ; and as the country of Tschutki is 
 not subject to the Russian empire, it is very im- 
 perfectly known 
 
 NOTE 42. Were this the place for entering into 
 a long and intricate geographical disquisition, many 
 . curious observations might arise from comparing the 
 accounts of the two Russian voyages and the charts 
 of their respective navigations. One remark is ap- 
 plicable to both. We cannot rely with absolute 
 
 ertainty on the position which they assign to several 
 if the places which they visited. The weather was 
 o extremely foggy, that they seldom saw the sun or 
 tars ; and the position of the islands and supposed 
 continents was commonly determined by reckoning, 
 not by observation. Behring and Tschirikow pro- 
 ceeded much further towards the east than Krenitzin/" 
 The land discovered by Behring, which he imagined 
 to be part of the American continent, is in the 236th 
 degree of north longitude from the first meridian in 
 the isle of Ferro, and in 58 deg. 28 min. of latitude. 
 Tschirikow came upon the same coast in longitude 
 241 deg., latitude 65 deg. Muller, i. 248, 249. The 
 brnier must have advanced 60 degrees from the port 
 of Petropawlowski, from which he took his departure, 
 and the latter 65 degrees. But from the chart of 
 Krenitzin's voyage, it appears that he did not sail 
 further towards the east than the 208th degree, and 
 only 32 degrees from Petropawlowski. In 1741, 
 Behring and Tschirikow, both in going and re- 
 turning, held a course which was mostly to the south 
 of that chain of islands which they discovered ; and 
 observing the mountainous and rugged aspect of the 
 headlands which they descried towards the north, 
 they supposed them to be promontories belonging to 
 some part of the American continent, which, as they 
 fancied, stretched as far south as the latitude 56. 
 In this manner they are laid down in the chart 
 published by Muller, and likewise in -a manuscript 
 chart drawn by a mate of Behring's ship, communi- 
 cated to me by Mr. Professor Robinson. But in 
 1769, Krenitzin, after wintering in the island Alaxa, 
 stood so far towards the north in his return, that his 
 course lay through the middle of what Behring and 
 Tschirikow had supposed to be a continent, which 
 he found to be an open sea, and that they had 
 mistaken rocky isles for the headlands of a conti- 
 nent. It is probable, that the countries discovered 
 ia 1741, towards the east, do not belong to the 
 American continent, but are only a continuation of 
 the chain of islands. The number of volcanoes in. 
 this region of the globe is remarkable. There are 
 several in Kamtchatka, and not one of the islands, 
 great or small, as far as the Russian navigation ex- 
 tends, is without them. Many are actually burning, 
 and the mountains in all bear marks of having been 
 once in a state of eruption. Were I disposed to 
 admit such conjectures as have found place in other 
 inquiries concerning the people of America, I might 
 suppose that this part of the earth, having mani- 
 festly suffered violent convulsions from earthquakes 
 and volcanoes, an isthmus, which may have formerly 
 united Asia to America, has been broken, and formed 
 into a cluster of islands by the shock. 
 
 It is singular, that at the very time the Russian 
 navigators were attempting to make discoveries in 
 the north-west of America, the Spaniards were pro- 
 secuting the same design from another quarter. In 
 1769, two small vessels sailed from Loretto, in 
 California, to explore the coasts of the country to 
 the north of that peninsula. They advanced no 
 further than the port of Monte -Rey, in latitude 36. 
 But, in several successive expeditions, fitted out 
 from the port of St. Bias in New Galicia, the 
 Spaniards have advanced as far as the latitude 58. 
 Gazeta de Madrid, March 19, and May 14, 1776. 
 But as the journals of those voyages have not yet 
 been published, I cannot compare their progress 
 with that of the Russians, or show how near the 
 navigators of the two nations have approached to 
 each other. It is to be hoped, that the enlightened 
 minister who has now the direction of American, 
 
246 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 affairs in Spain, will not withhold this informatioi 
 from the public. 
 
 NOTE 43. Our knowledge of the vicinity of the 
 two continents of Asia and America, which was 
 very imperfect when I published the History o; 
 America in the year 1777, is now complete. Mr, 
 Coxe's Account of the Russian Discoveries between 
 Asia and America, printed in the year 1780, con- 
 tains many curious and important facts with rcspecl 
 to the various attempts of the Russians to open 
 communication with the New World. The history 
 of the great voyage of discovery, begun by Captain 
 Cook in 1776, and completed by Captains Clerk 
 and Gore, published in the year 1780, communicates 
 all the information that the curiosity of mankind 
 could desire with regard to this subject. 
 
 At my request, my friend Mr. Play fair, Professor 
 of Mathematics in the University of Edinburgh, has 
 compared the narrative and charts of those illus- 
 trious navigators, with the more imperfect relations 
 and maps of the Russians The result of this com- 
 parison I communicate in his own words, with much 
 greater confidence in his scientific accuracy than I 
 could have ventured to place in any observations 
 which I myself might have made upon the subject. 
 
 " The discoveries of Captain Cook, in his last 
 voyage, have confirmed the conclusions which Dr. 
 Robertson had drawn, and have connected together 
 the facts from which they were deduced. They have 
 now rendered it certain that Behring and Tschivikow 
 touched on the coast of America in 1741. The 
 former discovered land in latitude 58 deg. 28 min., 
 and about 236 deg. east from Ferro. He has given 
 such a description of the bay in which he anchored, 
 and the high mountain to the westward of it, which 
 he calls St. Elias, that though the account of his 
 voyage is much abridged in the English translation, 
 Captain Cook recognised the place as he sailed 
 along the western coast of America in the year 1778, 
 The isle of St. Hermogenes, near the mouth of 
 Cook's River, Schumagin's Isles on the coast of 
 Alashka, and Foggy Isle, retain, in Captain Cook's 
 chart, the names which they had received from the 
 Russian navigator. Cook's Voy. vol. ii. p 347. 
 
 " Tschirikow came upon the same coast, about 
 2 deg. 30 min. further south than Behring, near the 
 Mount. Edgcumbe of Captain Cook. 
 
 " With regard to Krenitzin, we learn from Coxe's 
 Account of the Russian Discoveries, that he sailed 
 from the mouth of the Kamtchatka River with two 
 ships in the year 1768. With his own ship he 
 reached the Island of Oonolashka, in which there 
 had been a Russian settlement since the year 1762, 
 where he wintered, probably in the same harbour or 
 bay where Captain Cook afterwards anchored. The 
 other ship wintered at Alashka, which was supposed 
 to be an island, though it be in fact a part of the 
 American continent. Krenitzin accordingly re- 
 turned without knowing that either of his ships had 
 been on the coast of America; and this is the more 
 surprising, because Captain Cook has informed us 
 that Alashka is understood to be a great continent, 
 both by the Russians and the natives at Oonolashka. 
 " According to Krenitzin, the ship which had 
 wintered at Alashka had hardly sailed 32 deg. to the 
 eastward of the harbour of St. Peter and St. Paul, 
 in Kamtchatka ; but, according to the more ac- 
 curate chart of Captain Cook, it had sailed no less 
 than 37 deg. 17 min. to the eastward of that harbour. 
 There is nearly the same mistake of 5 degrees in the 
 longitude which Kreuitzin assigns to Oonolashka. 
 It is remarkable enough, that in the chart of those 
 
 seas, put into the hand of Captain Cook by the Rus- 
 sians on that island, there was an error of the same 
 kind, and very nearly of the same extent. 
 
 " But what is of most consequence to be remarked 
 on the subject is, that the discoveries of Captain 
 Cook have fully verified Dr. Robertson's conjecture, 
 that ' it is probable that future navigators in those 
 seas, by steering further to the north than Behring 
 and Tschirikow or Krenitzin had done, may find 
 that the continent of America approaches still 
 nearer to that of Asia.' Book iv. p. 8U9. It has ac- 
 cordingly been found that these two continents, 
 which, in the parallel of 55 deg. or that of the south- 
 ern extremity of Alashka, are about four hundred 
 leagues asunder, approach continually to one an- 
 other as they stretch together toward the north, un- 
 til, within less than a degree from the polar circle, 
 they are terminated by two capes, only thirteen 
 leagues distant. The east cape of Asia is in lat. 66 
 deg. 6 min., and in long. 190 deg. 22 min. east 
 from Greenwich ; the western extremity of America, 
 or Prince of Wales' s Cape, is in lat. 65 deg. 46 min. 
 and in long. 191 deg. 45 min. Nearly in the middle 
 of the narrow strait (Behring' s Strait) which sepa- 
 rates these capes, are the two islands of St. Diomede, 
 from which both continents may be seen. Captain 
 King informs us, that as he was sailing through this 
 strait, July 5, 1779, the fog having cleared away, he 
 enjoyed the pleasure of seeing from the ship the 
 continents of Asia and America at the same mo- 
 nent, together with the islands of St. Diomede lying 
 between them. Cook's Voy. vol. iii. p. 244. 
 
 " Beyond this point the strait opens towards the 
 Arctic sea, and the coasts of Asia and America di- 
 verge so fast from one another, that iu the parallel of 
 deg. they are more than one hundred leagues 
 asunder. Ib. p. 277. To the south of the strait, 
 here are a number of islands, Clerk's, King's, An- 
 derson's, &c. which, as well as those of St. Diomede, 
 may have facilitated the migrations of the natives 
 ? rom the one continent to the other. Captain Cook, 
 lowcver, on the authority of the Russians at Oono- 
 lashka, and for other good reasons, has diminished 
 ;he number of islands which had been inserted in 
 'onuer charts of the northern Archipelago. He has 
 ilso placed Alashka, or the promontory which 
 stretches from the continent of America S. W. to- 
 wards Kamtchatka, at the distance of five degrees of 
 .Oiagitude further from the coast of Asia than it was 
 eckoned by the Russian navigators. 
 
 " The geography of the Old and New World is 
 ,herefore equally indebted to the discoveries made in 
 lais memorable voyage ; and as many errors have 
 >een corrected, and many deficiencies supplied by 
 neans of these discoveries, so the accuracy of some 
 brmer observations has been established. The 
 iasis of the map of the Russian empire, as far as 
 egarded Kamtchatka, and the country of the 
 Tschutzki, was the position of four places, Yakut sh, 
 Ochotz, Bolcheresk, and Petropawlowski, which had 
 >een determined by the astronomer Krassilnicow in 
 he year 1744. Nov. Comment. Petrop. vol. iii. 
 ). 465, &c. But ths accuracy of his observations 
 vas contested by M. Engel, and M. Robert, de Vau- 
 foiuly; Coxe, Append, i. No. 2, p. 267, 272; and 
 he former of these geographers ventured to take 
 iway no less than 28 degrees from the longitude, 
 vhich, on the faith of Krassilnicow's observations, 
 vas assigned to the eastern boundary of the Russian 
 mpire. With how little reason this was done, will 
 ippcar from considering that our British navigators, 
 laving determined the position of Petropawlowski 
 
THE HlS'l'ORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 249 
 
 by a great number of very accurate observations, 
 found the longitude of that port 158 deg. 43 min. E. 
 from Greenwich, and its latitude 53 deg. 1 min.; 
 agreeing, the first to less than seven minutes, and 
 the second to less than half a minute, with the calcu- 
 lations of the Russian astronomer; a coincidence 
 which, in the situation of so remote a place, does not 
 leave an uncertainty of more than four English 
 miles, and which, for the credit of science, deserves 
 to be particularly remarked. The chief error in the 
 Russian maps has been in not extending the boun- 
 daries of that empire sufficiently towards the east. 
 For as there was nothing to connect the land of the 
 Tschutzki and the north-east point of Asia with 
 those places whereof the position had been carefully 
 ascertained, except the imperfect accounts of Beh- 
 ring's and Sind's voyages, considerable errors could 
 not fail to be introduced, and that point was laid 
 down as not more than 23 deg. 2 min. east of the 
 meridian of Petropawlowski. Coxe. Append, i. No. 2. 
 By the observations of Captain King, the dift'erence 
 of longitude between Petropawlowski and the East 
 Cape is 31 deg. 9 mm. ; that is 8 deg. 7 min. greater 
 than it was supposed to be by the Russian geogra- 
 ^raphers." It appears from Cook's and King's Voy. 
 iii. p. 272, that the continents of Asia and America 
 are usually joined together by ice during winter. 
 Mr. Samwell confirms this account of his superior 
 officer. ' At this place, viz. near the lat. of 66 dog. 
 N. the two coasts are only thirteen leagues asunder, 
 and about midway between them lie two islands, the 
 distance from which to either shore is short of twenty 
 miles. At this place the natives of Asia could find 
 no difficulty in passing over to the opposite coast, 
 which is in sight of their own. That in a course of 
 years such an event would happen, either through 
 design or accident, cannot admit of a doubt. The 
 canoes which we saw among the Tschutzki were ca- 
 pable of performing a much longer voyage ; and, 
 however ru.de they may have been at some distant 
 period, we can scarcely suppose them unequal to a 
 passage of six or seven leagues. People might have 
 been carried over by accident on floating pieces of 
 ice. They might also have travelled across on 
 sledges or on foot ; for we have reason to believe that 
 i he strait is entirely frozen over in the winter ; so 
 that during that season the continents, with respect 
 to the communication between them, may be consi- 
 dered as one land." Letter from Mr Samwell, Scots 
 Magazine for 1788, p. 604. It is probable that this 
 interesting portion of geographical knowledge will, 
 in the course of a few years, receive further improve- 
 ment. Soon after the publication of Captain Cook's 
 last voyage, the great and enlightened sovereign of 
 Russia, attentive to every thing that may contribute 
 to extend the bounds of science, or to render it more 
 accurate, formed the plan of a new voyage of disco- 
 very, in order to explore those parts of the ocean 
 lying between Asia and America which Captain 
 Cook did not visit, to examine more accurately the 
 islands which stretch from one continent almost to 
 the other, to survey the north-east coast of the Rus- 
 sian empire, from the mouth of the Kovyma, or Ko- 
 lyma, to the North Cape, and to settle, by astrono- 
 mical observations, the position of each place worth 
 notice. The conduct of this important enterprize is 
 committed to Captain Billings, an English officer in 
 the Russian service, of whose abilities for that sta- 
 tion it will be deemed the best evidence, that he ac- 
 companied Captain Cook in his last voyage. To 
 render the expedition more extensively useful, an 
 eminent naturalist is appointed to attend Captain 
 THE HibTORY OF AMERICA. No. 32. 
 
 Billings. Six years will be requisite for accom- 
 plishing the purposes of the voyage. Coxe, Supple- 
 ment to Russian Discoveries, p." 27, &c. 
 
 NOTE 44. Few travellers have had such oppor- 
 tunity of observing the natives of America, in its 
 various districts, as Don. Antonio Ulloa. In a work 
 lately published by him, he thus describes the cha 
 racteristical features of the race : " A very small 
 forehead, covered with hair towards its extremities, 
 as far as the middle of the eye-brows ; little eyes ; a 
 thin nose, small and bending towards the upper lip ; 
 the countenance broad ; the ears large ; the hair 
 very black, lank, and coarse ; the limbs well turned, 
 the feet small, the body cf just proportion ; and alto- 
 gether smooth and free from hair, until old age, 
 when they acquire some beard, but never on the 
 cheeks." Noticias Americanas, &c. p. 307. M. lo 
 Chevalier de Pinto, who resided several years in a 
 part of America which Ulloa never visited, gives a 
 sketch of the general aspect of the Indians there. 
 " They are all of copper colour, with some diversity 
 of shade, not in proportion to their distance from 
 the equator, but according to the degree of elevation 
 of the territory which they inhabit. Those who live 
 in a high country are fairer than those in the marshy 
 low lauds on the coast. Their face is round, further 
 removed, perhaps, than that of any people from an 
 oval shape. Their forehead is small, the extremity 
 of their cars far from the face, their lips thick, their 
 nose flat, their eyes black, or of a chesnut colour, 
 small, but capable of discerning objects at a great 
 distance. Their hair is always thick and sleek, and 
 without any tendency to curl. They have no hair 
 on any part -of their body but the head. At the first 
 aspect a southern American appears to be rnild and 
 innocent, but on a more attentive view, one discovers 
 in his countenance something wild, distrustful, and 
 sullen." MS. penes me. The two portraits, drawn 
 by hands very different from those of common tra- 
 vellers, have a near resemblance. 
 
 NOTE 45. Amazing accounts are given of the 
 persevering speed of the Americans. Adair relates 
 the adventures of a Chikkasah warrior, who ran 
 through woods and over mountains, three hundred 
 computed miles, in a day and a half and two nights. 
 Hist, of Amer. Ind. 396. 
 
 NOTE 46. M. Godin le Jeune, who resided fif- 
 teen years among the Indians of Peru and Quito, 
 and twenty years in the French colony of Cayenne, 
 in which there is a constant intercourse with the 
 Galibis and other tribes on the Orinoco, observes, 
 that the vigour of constitution among the Americans 
 is exactly in proportion to their habits of labour. 
 The Indians, in warm climates, such as those on the 
 coasts of the South Sea, on the river of Amazons, 
 and the river Orinoco, are not to be compared for 
 strength with those in cold countries ; and yet, says 
 he, boats daily set out from Para, a Portuguese set- 
 tlement on the river of Amazons, to ascend that rivei 
 against the rapidity of the stream, and with the same 
 crew they proceed to San Pablo, which is eight hun- 
 dred leagues distant. No crew of white people, or 
 even of negroes, would be found equal to a task of 
 such persevering fatigue, as the Portuguese have 
 experienced, and yet the Indians, being accustomed 
 to this labour from their infancy, perform it. MS. 
 penes me. 
 
 NOTE 47. Don Antonio Ulloa, who visited a 
 
 great part of Peru and Chili, the kingdom of New 
 
 i Grenada, and several of the provinces bordering on 
 
 ! the Mexican gulf, while employed in the same ser- 
 
 ' vice with the French mathematicians during the 
 
 2 K 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 space of ten years, and who afterwards had an op- | of the same stature with Spaniards. I never saw one 
 portunity of viewing the North Americans, asserts, I who rose in height two varas and two or three 
 " that if we have seen one American, we may be | inches," i. e. about ttO or 81.332 inches English, if 
 said to have seen them all, their colour and make are 
 so nearly the same." Notic. Americanas, p. 308. A 
 
 more early observer, Pedro de Cieca de Leon, one of 
 the conquerors of Peru, who had likewise traversed 
 many provinces of America, affirms that the people, 
 men and women, although there is such a multitude 
 of tribes or nations as to be almost innumerable, and 
 such diversity of climates, appear nevertheless like 
 the children of one father and mother. Chronica del' 
 Peru, parte i. c. 19. There is, no doubt, a certain 
 combination of features, and peculiarity of aspect, 
 which forms what may be called a European or 
 Asiatic countenance. There must likewise be one 
 that may be denominated American, common to the 
 whole race. This may be supposed to strike the tra- 
 veller at first sight, while not only the various shades 
 which distinguish people of different regions, but the 
 peculiar features which discriminate individuals, es- 
 cape the notice of a transient observer. But when 
 persons who had resided so long among the Ameri- 
 cans concur in bearing testimony to the similarity of 
 their appearance in every climate, we may conclude 
 that it is more remarkable than that of any other 
 race. See likewise Garcia, Origen de los Indies, 
 
 Echavarri makes his computation according to the 
 ara of Madrid. This agrees nearly with the mea- 
 
 surement of Captain Wallis. Reyno Jesuitico, 238. 
 Mr. Falkner, who resided as a missionary forty years 
 in the southern parts of America, says, that " the 
 Patagonians, or Puelches, are a large-bodied people ; 
 but I never heard of that gigantic race which others 
 have mentioned, though I have seen persons of all 
 the different tribes of southern Indians." Introd. 
 p. 26. M. Dobrizhoifer, a Jesuit, who resided eigh- 
 teen years in Paraguay, and who had seen great 
 numbers of the various tribes which inhabit the 
 countries situated upon the straits of Magellan, con 
 firms, in every point, the testimony of his brother- 
 missionary Falkner. Dobrizhoffer "enters into some 
 detail with respect to the opinions of several authors, 
 concerning the stature of the Patagonian?. Having 
 mentioned the reports of some early travellers with 
 regard to the extraordinary size of some bones found 
 on that coast which were supposed to be human, 
 and having endeavoured to shew that these bones 
 belonged to some large marine or land animal, he 
 concludes, " de hisce ossibus crede quicquidlibuerit, 
 dummodo, me suasore, Patagones pro gigantibus de- 
 Historia de Abissonibus, vol. ii. 
 
 snas habere." 
 p. 19, &c. 
 
 NOTE 50. Antonio Sanchez Rideiro, a learned 
 
 p. 54, 242. Torquemada, Monarch. Indiana, ii. 571 
 
 NOTE 48. M. le Chevalier de Pinto observes, 
 that in the interior parts of Brazil he had been in- 
 formed that some persons resembling the white peo- i and ingenious physician, published a dissertation in 
 pie of Darien have been found; but that the breed I the year 1765, in which he endeavours to prove, that 
 did not continue, and their children became like j this disease was not introduced from America, but 
 other Americans. This race, however, is very im- ! took its rise in Europe, and was brought on by an 
 perfectly known, MS penes me. 
 
 NOTE 49. The testimonies of different travellers 
 concerning the Patagoniaus, have been collected and 
 stated with a considerable degree of accuracy by the 
 author of Recherches Philosophiques, &c. torn. i. 
 281, &c. iii. 181, &c. Since the publication of his 
 work several navigators have visited the Magellanic 
 
 regions, and like their predecessors, differ 
 widely in their accounts of its inhabitants. 
 
 very 
 By 
 
 Commodore Byron and his crew, who sailed through 
 the Straits in 1764, the common size of the Patago- 
 nians was estimated to be eight feet, and many of 
 them much taller. Phil. Transact, vol. Ivii p. 78. 
 By Captains Wallis and Carteret, who actually mea- 
 sured them in 1766, they were found to be from six 
 feet to six feet five and seven inches in height. Phil. 
 Transact, vol. Ix. p. 22. These, however, seem to 
 have been the very people whose size had been 
 rated so high in the year 1764; for several of them 
 had beads and red baize of the same kind with what 
 had been put on board Captain Wallis' s ship, and he 
 naturally concluded that they had got these from 
 Mr. Byron. Hawkesw. i. In 1767 they were again 
 measured by M. Bougainville, whose account differs 
 little from that of Captain Wallis. Voy. 129. To 
 this 1 shall add a testimony of great weight. In the 
 year 1762 Don Bernardo Ibegnez de Echavarri 
 accompanied the Marquis de Valdelirios to Buenos 
 Ayres, and resided there several years. He is a very 
 intelligent author, and his reputation for veracity 
 unimpeached among his countrymen. In speaking 
 of the country towards the southern extremity of 
 America, " By what Indians," says he, " is it pos- 
 sessed ? Not certainly by the fabulous Patagonians, 
 who are supposed to "occupy this district. I have 
 from many eye-witnesses, who have lived among 
 those Indians, and traded much with them, a true 
 and accurate description of their persons. Th< y arc 
 
 pidemical and malignant disorder. Did I choose 
 to enter into a disquisition on this subject, which I 
 should not have mentioned, if it had not been inti- 
 mately connected with this part of my inquiries, it 
 would not bo difficult to point out some mistakes 
 with respect to the facts upon which he founds, as 
 well as some errors in the consequences which he 
 draws from them. The rapid communication of this 
 disease from Spain over Europe seems however to 
 resemble the progress of an epidemic, rather than 
 that of a disease transmitted by infection. The first 
 mention of it is in the year 1493, and before the year 
 1497 it had made its appearance in most countries 
 of Europe with such alarming symptoms as rendered 
 it necessary for the civil magistrate to interpose, in 
 order to check its career. Since the publication of 
 this work, a second edition of Dr. Sanchez's Disser- 
 tation has been communicated to me. It contains 
 several additional facts in confirmation of his opi- 
 nion, which is supported with such plausible argu- 
 ments, as render it a subject of inquiry well deserv- 
 ing the attention of learned physicians. 
 
 NOTE 51. The people of Otaheite have' no deno- 
 mination for any number above two hundred, which 
 is sufficient for their transactions. Voyages by 
 Hawkesworth, ii. 228. 
 
 NOTE 52. As the view which I have given of 
 rude nations is extremely different from that exhi- 
 bited by very respectable authors, it may be proper 
 to produce some of the many authorities on which I 
 found my description. The manners of the savage 
 tribes in America have never been viewed by persons 
 more capable of observing them with discernment 
 than the philosophers employed by France and 
 Spain in the year 1735, to determine the figure of 
 the earth. M. Bouguer, D. Antonio d'Ulloa, and 
 I). Jorge Jiwn, resided long among the natives of 
 the l^aj-t civilized provinces in Peru. M. de la Con- 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 251 
 
 damine had not only the same advantages with them 
 for observation, but in his voyage dowu the Marag- 
 non, he had an opportunity of inspecting the state of 
 the various nations seated on its banks, in its vast 
 course across the continent of South America. 
 There is a wonderful resemblance in their represen- 
 tation of the character of the Americans. " They 
 are all extremely indolent," says M. Bouguer, " they 
 are stupid; they pass whole days sitting in the same 
 place without moving, or speaking a single word. 
 It is not easy to describe the degree of their indif- 
 ference for wealth and all its advantages. One does 
 not well know what motive to propose to them, 
 when one would persuade them to perform any ser- 
 vice. It is vain to offer them money; they answer 
 that they are not hungry." Voyage au Perou, p. 102. 
 " If one considers them as men, the narrowness of 
 their understanding seems to be incompatible with 
 the excellence of the soul. Their imbecility is so 
 visible that one can hardly form an idea of them dif- 
 ferent from what one has of the brutes. Nothing 
 disturbs the tranquillity of their souls, equally insen- 
 sible to disasters and to prosperity. Though half-- 
 naked, they are as contented as a monarch in his 
 most splendid array. Riches do not attract them in 
 the smallest degree, and the authority or dignities to 
 which they may aspire are so little the objects of 
 their ambition, that an Indian will receive with the 
 same indifference the office of a judge (alcade) or 
 that of a hangman, if deprived of the former and 
 appointed to the latter. Nothing can move or change 
 them. Interest has no power over them, and they 
 often refuse to perform a small service, though cer- 
 tain of a great recompence. Fear makes no impres- 
 sion upon them, and respect as little. Their dispo- 
 sition is so singular that there is no method of in- 
 Huencing them, no means of rousing them from that 
 indifference, which is proof against all the endea- 
 vours of the wisest persons; no expedient which can 
 induce them to abandon that gross ignorance, or lay 
 aside that careless negligence, which disconcert the 
 prudence and disappoint the care of such as are at- 
 tentive to their welfare." Voyage d'Ulloa, torn. i. 
 335, 356. Of those singular qualities he produces 
 many extraordinary instances, p 336 347. " In 
 sensibility," says M de la Condamine, " is the ba- 
 ds of the American character. I leave others to 
 determine whether this should be dignified with the 
 name of apathy, or disgraced with that of stupidity. 
 It arises, without doubt, from the small number of 
 their ideas, which do not extend beyond their wants. 
 Gluttons even to voracity, when they have where- 
 withal to satisfy their appetite. Temperate, when 
 necessity obliges them, to such a degree, that they 
 can endure want without seeming to desire any 
 thing. Pusillanimous and cowardly td excess, un- 
 less when they are rendered desperate by drunken- 
 ness. Averse to labour, indifferent to every motive 
 of glory, honour, or gratitude ; occupied entirely by 
 the object that is present, and always determined by 
 it alone, without any solicitude about futurity; inca- 
 pable of foresight or of reflection ; abandoning them- 
 selves, when under no restraint, to a puerile joy, 
 which they express by frisking about, and immode- 
 rate fits of laughter; without object or design they 
 pass their life without thinking, and grow old with- 
 out advancing beyond childhood, of which they re- 
 tain all the defects. If this description were appli- 
 cable only to the Indians in some provinces of Peru, 
 who are slaves in every respect but the name, one : 
 might believe that this degree of degeneracy was 
 occasioned by the servile dependence to which they 
 
 are reduced ; the example of the modern Greeks 
 being proof how far servitude may degrade the hu- 
 man species. But the Indians in the missions of the 
 Jesuits, and the savages who still enjoy unimpaired 
 liberty, being as limited in their faculties, not to say 
 as stupid, as the other, one cannot observe, without 
 humiliation, that man, when abandoned to simple 
 nature, and deprived of the advantages resulting 
 from education and society, differs but little from tho 
 brute creation." Voyage de la Riv. de Amaz. 52, 53. 
 M. de Chanvalon, an intelligent and philosophical 
 observer, who visited Martinico in 1751, and re- 
 sided there six years, gives the following description 
 of the Caraibs : " It is not the red colour of their 
 complexion, it is not the singularity of their features, 
 which constitutes the chief difference between them 
 and us. It is their excessive simplicity ; it is the 
 limited degree of their faculties. Their reason is 
 not more enlightened or more provident than the 
 instinct of brutes. The reason of the most gross 
 peasants, that of the negroes brought up in the parts 
 of Africa most remote from intercourse with Euro- 
 peans is such, that we discover appearances of intel- 
 ligence, which, though imperfect, is capable of in- 
 crease. But of this the understanding of the Caraibs 
 seems to be hardly susceptible. If sound philosophy 
 and religion did not afford us their light, if we were 
 to decide according to the first' impression which the 
 view of that people makes upon the mind, we should 
 be disposed to believe that they do not belong to the 
 same species with us. Their stupid eyes are the 
 true mirror of their souls ; it appears to be without 
 functions. Their indolence is extreme ; they have 
 never the least solicitude about the moment which 
 is to succeed that which is present." Voyage a la 
 Martinique, p. 44, 45, 51. M. de la Borde, Tertre, 
 and Rochefort, confirm this description. " The cha- 
 racteristics of the Californians," says P. Venegas, 
 " as well as of all other Indians, are stupidity and 
 insensibility ; want of knowledge and reflection ; in- 
 constancy, impetuosity, and blindness of appetite ; 
 an excessive sloth, and abhorrence of all labour and 
 fatigue ; an excessive love of pleasure and amuse- 
 ment of every kind, however trifling or brutal; pu- 
 sillanimity ; and, in fine, a most wretched want of 
 every thing which constitutes the real man, and ren- 
 ders him rational, inventive, tractable, and useful to 
 himself and society. It is not easy for Europeans, 
 who never were out of their own country, to conceive 
 an adequate idea of those people ; for even in the 
 least frequented corners of the globe, there is not a 
 nation so stupid, of such contracted ideas, and so 
 weak both in body and mind, as the unhappy Cali- 
 fornians. Their understanding comprehends little 
 more than what they see ; abstract ideas, and much 
 less a chain of reasoning, being far beyond their 
 power; so that they scarce ever improve their first 
 ideas, and these are in general false, or at least ini.- 
 dequate. It is in vain to represent to them any fu- 
 ture advantages which will result to them from doing 
 or abstaining from this or that particular immediately 
 present ; the relation of means and ends being be- 
 yond the stretch of their faculties. Nor have they 
 the least notion of pursuing such intentions as will 
 procure themselves some future good, or guard 
 them against future evils. Their will is proportioned 
 to their faculties, and all their passions move in a 
 very narrow sphere. Ambition they have none, and 
 are more Desirous of being accounted strong than 
 valiant. The objects of ambition with us honour, 
 fame, reputation, titles, posts, and distinctions of 
 superiority are unknown among them ; so that this 
 
25*2 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 powerful spring of action, the cause of so much seem- 
 ing good and real evil in the world, has no power 
 here. This disposition of mind, as it gives them up 
 
 to an 
 
 amazing languor and lassitude, their 
 
 lives 
 
 NOTE 55. Piso describes two of these plants, the 
 Cururuape and the Guajana-Tintbn. It is remarka- 
 hle, that though they have this fatal effect upon 
 fishes, they are so far from being noxious to the 
 
 fleeting away in a perpetual inactivity and detesta- i human species, that they are used in medicine with 
 tion of labour, so it likewise induces them to be j success. Piso, lib. iv. c. 88. Bancroft mentions an- 
 
 attracted by the first object which their own fancy, 
 or the persuasion of another, places before them ; 
 and at the same time renders them as prone to alter 
 their resolutions with the same facility. They look 
 with indifference upon any kindness done them ; nor 
 
 other, the Hiarree, a small quantity of which is suf- 
 ficient to inebriate all the fish to a considerable dis- 
 tance, so that in a few minutes they float motionless 
 on the surface of the water, and are taken with ease. 
 Nat. Hist, of Guiana, p. 109. 
 
 is even the bare remembrance of it to be expected NOTE 56. Remarkable instances occur of the 
 from them. In a word, the unhappy mortals may be j calamities which rude nations suffer by famine. Al- 
 compared to children, in whom the developement of var Nugnez Cabeca de Vaca, one of the most gallant 
 reason is not completed. They may indeed be called j and virtuous of the Spanish adventurers, resided 
 a nation who never arrived at manhood." Hist, of | almost nine years among the savages of Florida. 
 Californ. Engl. Transl. i. 64, 67. Mr. Ellis gives a j They wore unacquainted with every species of agri- 
 similar account of the want of foresight and inconsi- j culture. Their subsistence was poor and precarious, 
 derate disposition of the people adjacent to Hudson's j " They live chiefly (says he) upon roots of different 
 bay. Voyage, p. 194, 195. j plants,' which they procure with great difficulty, wan - 
 
 The incapacity of the Americans is so remarkable, | dering from place" to place in search of them.'Some- 
 that negroes from all the different provinces of Africa j times they kill game, sometimes they catch fish, but 
 are observed to be more capable of improving by in- j in such small quantities, that their hunger is so ex- 
 struction. They acquire the knowledge of several j treme as compels them to cat spiders, the eggs of 
 particulars which the Americans cannot comprehend, ants, worms, lizards, serpents, a kind of unctuous 
 Hence the negroes, though slaves, value themselves j earth, and I am persuaded, that if in this country 
 as a superior order of beings, and look down upon the I there were any stones, they would swallow these. 
 Americans with contempt, as void of capacity and of j They preserve the bones of fishes and serpents, which 
 rational discernment. Ulloa, Notic. Americ. 322, 323. they grind into powder, and eat. The only season 
 
 NOTE 53. Dobrizhoffer, the last traveller I know j when they do not suffer much from famine, "is when 
 who has resided among any tribe of the ruder Ame- j a certain fruit, which he calls Tuna.*, is ripe. This 
 ricans, has explained so fully the various reasons j is the same with the Opuntia, or prickly pear, of a 
 which have induced their women to suckle their j reddish and yellow colour, with a sweet insipid 
 children long, and never to undertake rearing such : taste. They are sometimes obliged to travel far 
 as were feeble or distorted, and even to destroy a j from their usual place of residence, in order to find 
 considerable number of their offspring, as to throw I them." Naufragios, c. xviii. p. 20, 21, 22. In an- 
 great light on the observations I have made, p. 71, I other place he observes, that they are frequently 
 72. Hist, de Abissonibus, vol. ii. p. 107,221. So j reduced to pass two or three days without food", 
 deeply were these ideas imprinted in the minds of c. xxiv. p. 27. 
 
 the Americans, that the Peruvians, a civilized peo- NOTE 57. M. Fermin has given an accurate dc- 
 ple, when compared with the barbarous tribes whose | scription of the two species of manioc, with an 
 manners I am describing, retained them ; and even ! account of its culture, to which he has added some 
 their intercourse with the Spaniards has not been ! experiments, in order to ascertain the poisonous 
 able to root them out. When twins are born in any j qualities of the juice extracted from that species 
 family, it is still considered as an ominous event, | which he calls the bitter cassava. Among the Spa- 
 and the parents have recourse to rigorous acts of j niards it is known by the name of Yuca brava, De<-cr. 
 mortification, in order to avert the calamities with | de Sunn. torn. i. p. 66. 
 
 which they are threatened. When a child is born I NOTE 58. The plantain is found in Asia and 
 with any deformity they will not, if they can possibly Africa, as well as in America. Oviedo contends, 
 avoid it, bring it to be baptized, and it is with diffi- j that it is not an indigenous plant of the New World, 
 culty they can be brought to rear it. Arriaga Extir- but was introduced into the island of Hispaniola in 
 
 pac. de la Idolat. del Peru, p. 32, 33. 
 
 NOTE 54. The number of the fish in the rivers 
 
 of South America is so extraordinary, as to merit ! whither the original slips had been brought from the 
 
 P. i East Indies. Oviedo, lib. viii. c. 1. But the opi 
 
 the year 1516, by father Thomas de Berlanga, and 
 that he transplanted it from the Canary Islands, 
 
 particular notice. " In the Maragnon (says 
 
 Acugna) fish are so plentiful, that without any art ' of Acosta and other naturalists, who reckon* it an 
 they may take them with the hands," p. 138. " In ' American plant, seems to be better founded. Acosta, 
 the Orinoco (says P. Gumilla), besides an infinite [ Hist. Nat. lib. iv. 21. It was cultivated by rude 
 variety of other fish, tortoise or turtle abound in ! tribes in America, who had little intercourse with 
 such numbers, that I cannot find words to express the Spaniards, and who were destitute of that inge- 
 it. I doubt not but that such as read my account I nuity which disposes men to borrow what is useful 
 will accuse me of exaggeration ; but I can affirm that from foreign nations. Gumil. iii. 186. Wafer's 
 
 it is as difficult to count them as to count the sands 
 on the banks of that river. One may judge of their 
 number by the amazing consumption of them ; for 
 all the nations contiguous to the river, and even 
 many who are at a distance, flock thither at the sea- 
 son of breeding, and not only find sustenance during 
 that time, but carry off great numbers both of the 
 turtles and of their eggs," &c. Hist, de 1'Orenoque, 
 
 ii. c. 22, p. 59. M 
 accounts, p. 159. 
 
 e la Condamine confirms their 
 
 Voyage, p. 87. 
 
 NOTE 59. It is remarkable that Acosta, one of 
 the most accurate and best informed writers con- 
 cerning the West Indies, affirms that maize, though 
 cultivated on the continent, was not known in the 
 islands, the inhabitants of which had none but cas- 
 sada bread. Hist Nat. lib. iv. c. 16. But P. Mar- 
 tyr, in the first book of his first Decad, which was 
 written in the year 1493, upon the return of Colum- 
 ! bus from his first voyage, expressly mentions maize 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 253 
 
 as a plant which the islanders cultivated, and o 
 which they made bread, p. 7. Gomara likewise as- 
 serts, that they were acquainted with the culture of 
 maize. Histor. Gener. cap. 28. Oviedo describes 
 maize without any intimation of its being a plant 
 that was not natural to Hispaniola. Lib. vii. c. 1. 
 
 NOTE 60. New Holland, a country which for- 
 merly was only known, has lately been visited by 
 intelligent observers. It lies in a region of the globe 
 where it must enjoy a very favourable climate, as it 
 stretches from the 10th to the 38th degree of southern 
 latitude. It is of great extent, and from its square 
 form must be much more than equal to all Europe. 
 The people who inhabit the various parts of it appear 
 to be of one race. They are evidently ruder than 
 most of the Americans, and have made still less 
 progress in improvement and the arts of life. There 
 is not the least appearance of cultivation in any part 
 of this vast region. The inhabitants are extremely 
 few, so that the country appears almost desolate. 
 Their tribes are still more inconsiderable than those 
 of America. They depend for subsistence almost 
 entirely on fishing. They do not settle in one place, 
 but roam about in quest of food. Both sexes go 
 stark-naked. Their habitations, utensils, &c. are 
 more simple and rude than those of the Americans. 
 Voyages, by Hawkesworth, iii. 622, &c. This, per- 
 haps, is the country where man has been discovered 
 in the earliest stage of his progress, and it exhibits a 
 miserable specimen of his condition and powers in 
 that uncultivated state. If this country shall be more 
 fully explored by future navigators, the comparison 
 of the manners of its inhabitants with those of the 
 Americans will prove an instructive article in the 
 history of the human species: 
 
 NOTE 61. P. Gabriel Marest, who travelled 
 from his station among the Illinois to Machillimaki- 
 nac, thus describes the face of the country : " We 
 have marched twelve days without meeting a single 
 human creature. Sometimes we found ourselves in 
 vast meadows, of which we could not see the boun- 
 daries, through which there flowed many brooks and 
 rivers, but without any path to conduct us. Some- 
 times we were obliged to open a passage across thick 
 forests, through bushes, and underwood filled with 
 briers and thorns. Sometimes we had to pass 
 through deep marshes, in which we sunk up to the 
 middle. After being fatigued through the day, we 
 had the earth for our bed, or a few leaves, exposed 
 to the wind, the rain, and all the injuries of the 
 air." Lettr. Edifiantcs, ii. 360. Dr. Brickell, in an 
 excursion from North Carolina towards the moun- 
 tains, A. D. 1730. travelled fifteen days without 
 meeting with a human creature. Nat. Hist, of North 
 Carolina, 389. Diego de Ordas, in attempting to 
 make a settlement in South America, A. D. 1532, 
 marched fifty days through a country without one 
 inhabitant, Herrera, dec. 5, lib. i. c. 11. 
 
 NOTE 62. I strongly suspect that a community 
 of goods, and an undivided store, are known only 
 among the rudest tribes of hunters ; and that as soon 
 as any species ot agriculture or regular industry is 
 known, the idea of an exclusive right of property to 
 the fruits of them is introduced. I am confirmed in 
 this opinion by accounts which 1 have received con- 
 cerning the state of property among the Indians in 
 very different regions of America. " The idea of 
 the natives of Brazil concerning property is, that if 
 any person cultivate a field, he alone ought to enjoy 
 the produce of it, and no other has a title to pretend 
 to it. If an individual or family go a hunting or 
 fishing, what ;> cro.jght belongs to the individual or 
 
 to the family, and they communicate no part of it to 
 any but to their cazique, or to such of their kindred 
 as happen to be indisposed. If any person in the 
 village come to their hut he may sit down freely, and 
 eat without asking liberty. But this is the conse- 
 quence of their general principle of hospitality ; for 
 I never observed any partition of the increase of 
 their fields, or the produce of the chase, which I 
 could consider as the result of any idea concerning a 
 community of goods. On the contrary, they are so 
 much attached to what they deem to be their pro- 
 perty, that it would be extremely dangerous to en- 
 croach upon it. As far as I have seen or can learn 
 there is not one tribe of Indians in South America, 
 among whom that community, of goods which has 
 been so highly extolled, is known. The circum- 
 stance in the government of the Jesuits, most irk- 
 some to the Indians of Paraguay, was the community 
 of goods which those fathers introduced. This was 
 repugnant to the original ideas of the Indians. They 
 were acquainted with the rights of private exclusive 
 property, and they submitted with impatience to re- 
 gulations which destroyed them." M. le Cheval. de 
 Pinto, MS. penes me. " Actual possession" (says a 
 missionary who resided several years among the In- 
 dians of the Five Nations), gives a right to the soil, 
 but whenever a possessor sees fit to quit it, another 
 has as good right to take it as -he who left it. This 
 law, or custom, respects not only the particular spot 
 on which he erects his house, but also his planting 
 ground. If a man has prepared a particular spot of 
 ground, on which he designs in future to build or 
 plant, no man has a right to incommode him, much 
 less to the fmit of his labours, until it appears that 
 he voluntarily gives up his views. But I never heard 
 of any formal conveyance from one Indian to an- 
 other in their natural state. The limits of every 
 canton are circumscribed ; that is, they are allowed 
 to hunt as far as such a river on this hand, and such 
 a mountain" on the other. This area is occupied an 1 
 improved by individuals and their families. Indivi- 
 luals, not the community, have the use and profit of 
 their own labours, or success in hunting." MS. of 
 Mr. Gideon Hawley, penes me. 
 
 NOTE 63. This difference of temper between the 
 Americans and negroes is so remarkable, that it is a 
 proverbial saying in the French islands, " Regarder 
 au sauvage de travers, c'est le battre ; le battre, c'est 
 le tuer ; battre un negre, c'est le nourrir." Tertre, 
 ii. 490. 
 
 NOTE 64. The description of the political state 
 of the people of Cinaloa perfectly resembles that of 
 the inhabitants of North America. " They have 
 neither laws nor kings (says a missionary who re- 
 sided long among them) to punish any crime. Nor* 
 is there among them any species of authority, or 
 political government, to restrain them in any part of 
 iheir conduct. It is true, that they acknowledge 
 certain caziques, who are heads of their families or 
 villages, but their authority appears chiefly in war, 
 and the expeditions against their enemies. This au- 
 hority the caziques obtain not by hereditary right, 
 ^>ut by their valour in war, or by the power and num- 
 ber of their families and relations. Sometimes they 
 owe their pre-eminence to their eloquence in dis- 
 playing their own exploits." Ribas, Hist, de las 
 Triumph, p. 11. The state of the Chiquitos in South 
 America is nearly the same. " They have no regu- 
 ar form of government, or civil life, but in matters 
 of public concern they listen to the advice of their 
 old men, and usually follow it. The dignity of 
 taziqw is not hcrpdil-'.ry, but conferred according to 
 
254 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 merit, as the reward of valour in war. The union j nostros in militiam euntes comitari volui. Hi, nti- 
 among them is imperfect. Their society resembles mero 4000 capita, cum hostibus ad littus decertA- 
 a republic without any head, in which every man is runt, tanta ferocitate, ut vel rabidos et furiosos 
 master of himself, and' upon the least disgust, sepa- | quosque superarent. Cum primum hostes conspex- 
 rates from those with whom he seemed to be con- ' ere, in magnos atque editos ululatus perruperunt. 
 nccted." Relacion Historical de las Missiones de los Haec gens adeo fera est et truculenta, ut tantispcr 
 Chiquitos, por P. Juan Patr. Fernandez, p. 32, 33. i dum virium vel tantillum restat, continue dimicent, 
 Thus, under very different climates, when nations fugamque nunquam capessant. Quod a natura illis 
 are in a similar state of society, their institutions j inditum esse reor. Tester interea me, qui non se- 
 and civil government assume the same form. j inel, turn pedituni turn equitum copias ingentes, in 
 
 NOTE 65. " I have known the Indians" .(says ai aciem instructas hie conspexi, tanta nunquam vo- 
 
 person well acquainted with their mode of life), " to 
 go a thousand miles for the purpose of revenge, in 
 pathless woods, over hills and mountains, through 
 huge cane-swamps, exposed to the extremities of 
 heat and cold, the vicissitude of seasons, to hunger 
 and thirst. Such is their over-boiling revengeful 
 temper, that they utterly contemn all those things as 
 imaginary trifles, if they are so happy as to get the 
 scalp of the murderer, or enemy, to satisfy the crav- 
 ing ghosts of their deceased relations." Adair's His. 
 of Amer. Indians, p. 150. 
 
 NOTE 66. In the account of the great war be- 
 tween the Algonquins aud Iroquois, the achievements 
 of Piskaret, a famous chief of the Algonquins, per- 
 formed mostly by himself alone, or with one or two 
 companions, make a capital figure. De la Protherie, 
 i. 297, &c. Gulden's History of Five Nations, 
 125, &c. 
 
 NOTE 67. The life of an unfortunate leader is 
 often in danger, and he is always degraded from the 
 rank which he had acquired by his former exploits. 
 Adair, p. 388. 
 
 NOTE 68. As the ideas of the North Americans, 
 with respect to the mode of carrying on war, are 
 generally known, I have founded my observations 
 chiefly upon the testimony of the authors who de- 
 scribe them. But the same maxims took place 
 among other nations in the New World. A judi- 
 cious missionary has given a view of the military 
 operations of the people in Gran Chaco, in South 
 America, perfectly similar to those of the Iroquois. 
 " They are much addicted to war" (says he), " which 
 they carry on frequently among themselves, but per- 
 petually against the Spaniards. But they may ra- 
 ther be called thieves than soldiers, for they never 
 make head against the Spaniards, unless when they 
 
 par 
 
 th, 
 
 can assault them by stealth, or have guarded against 
 any mischance by spies, who may be called indefa- 
 tigable. They will watch the settlements of the 
 Spaniards for one, two, or three years, observing by 
 night every thing that passes with the utmost solici- 
 tude, whether they may expect resistance or not, and 
 until they are perfectly secure of the event, they 
 will not venture upon an attack ; so that when they 
 do give the assault, they are certain of success, and 
 free from all danger. These spies, in order that they 
 may not be observed, will creep on all-four like cats 
 in the night; but if they are discovered, make their 
 escape with much dexterity. But although they 
 never choose to face the Spaniards, if they be sur- 
 rounded in any place whence they cannot escape, 
 they will fight with desperate valour, and sell their 
 lives very dear." Lozano, Descript. del Gran. Chaco, 
 p. 78. 
 
 NOTE 69. Lery, who was an eye-witness of the 
 proceedings of the Toupinambos, a Brazilian tribe, in 
 a war against a powerful nation of their enemies, 
 describes their courage and ferocity in very striking 
 terms. Ego cum Gallo altero, paulo' curiosius, magno 
 nostro periculo, (si enim ab hostibus capti aut lesi 
 ftrissemus, devorationi fuissenvus devoti), barbaros 
 
 luptate videndis peditum legionibus armis fulgenti 
 bus, quanta turn pugnantibus istis percussum fuisse. 
 Lery, Hist. Navigat. in Brazil, ap. de Bry. iii. 207, 
 
 It was originally the practice of the 
 
 208, 209. 
 NOTE 70. 
 
 Americans, as well as of other savage nations, to cut 
 off the heads of the enemies whom they slew, and to 
 carry them away as trophies. But as they found 
 these cumbersome in their retreat, which they always 
 make very rapidly, and often through a vast extent 
 of country, they became satisfied with tearing off 
 their scalps. This custom, though most prevalent in 
 North America, was not unknown among the 
 southern tribes. Lozano, p. 79. 
 
 NOTE 71. The terms of the war-song seem to be 
 dictated by the same fierce spirit of revenge. " I 
 go to war to revenge the death of my brothers ; I 
 shall kill ; I shall exterminate ; I shall burn my ene- 
 mies ; I shall bring away slaves ; I shall devoiir their 
 heart, dry their flesh, drink their blood; I shall 
 tear off their scalps, and make cups of their skulls." 
 Bossu's Travels through Louisania, vol. i. p. 102. I 
 am informed, by persons on whose testimony I can 
 rely, that as the number of people in the Indian 
 tribes has decreased so much, almost none of their 
 prisoners are now put to death. It is considered as 
 better policy to spare and to adopt them. Those 
 dreadful scenes which I have described occur now 
 so rarely, that missionaries and traders who have 
 resided "long among the Indians, never were wit- 
 nesses to them. 
 
 NOTE 72. All the travellers who have visited the 
 most uncivilized of the American tribes agree in this. 
 It is confirmed by two remarkable circumstances, 
 which occurred in the con quest of different provinces. 
 In the expedition of Narvaez into Florida in the 
 year 1528, the Spaniards were reduced to such ex- 
 treme distress by famine, that in order to preserve 
 their own lives, they eat such of their companions as 
 happened to die. This appeared so shocking to the 
 natives, who were accustomed to devour none but 
 prisoners, that it filled them with horror and indig- 
 nation against the Spaniards. Torquemada Monarch. 
 Ind. ii. p. 584. Naufragios de Alv. Nugnez Cabeca 
 de Vaca, c. xiv. p. 15. During the siege of Mexico, 
 though the Mexicans devoured with greediness the 
 
 Spaniards aud Tlascalans whom they took prison- 
 ers, the utmost rigour of the famine which they suf- 
 fered could not induce them to touch the dead bodies 
 of their own countrymen. Bern. Diaz, del Castillo, 
 Conquist. de la N. Espagna, p. 156. 
 
 NOTE 73. Many singular circumstances con- 
 cerning the treatment of prisoners among the people 
 of Brazil, are contained in the narrative of Stadius, 
 a German officer in the service of the Portuguese, 
 published in the year 1556. He was taken prisoner 
 by the Toupinambos, and remained in captivity nine 
 years. He was often present at those horrid festi- 
 vals which he describes, and was destined himself to 
 the same cruel fate with other prisoners. But he 
 saved his life by his extraordinary efforts of courage 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 255 
 
 and address. De Bry, iii. p. 34, c. M de Lery, permitted to wear bracelets, or other ornaments, 
 who accompanied M. de Villagagnon in his expedi- with which the men were fond of decking themselves, 
 tion to Brazil, in the year 1556, and who resided Zarate, Hist, de Peru, i. p. 15, 16. 
 some time in that country, agrees with Stadius in I NOTE 78. I have ventured to call this mode of 
 every circumstance of importance. He was fre- j anointing and painting their bodies, the dress of the 
 quently an eye-witness of the manner in which the j Americans. This is agreeable to their own idiom. 
 Brazilians treated their prisoners. De Bry, iii. 210. As they never stir abroad if they are not completely 
 Several striking particulars omitted by them are men- anointed, they excuse themselves when in this situ- 
 tioned by a Portuguese author. Purch. Pilgr. iv. ation by saying that they cannot appear because 
 1294, &c. they are naked. Gumilla, Hist, de 1'Orenoque, i. 191 
 
 NOTE 74. Though I have followed that opinion NOTE 79. Some tribes in the province of Cina- 
 concerning the apathy of the Americans, which ap- loa, on the gulf of California, seem to be among the 
 peared to me most rational, and supported by the j rudest people of America united in the social state, 
 authority of the most respectable authors, other theo- j They neither cultivate nor sow; they have no houses 
 ries have been formed with regard to it by writers of in which they reside. Those in the inland country 
 great eminence. De Ant. Ulloa, in a late work, con- j subsist by hunting; those on the sea-coast chiefly by 
 tends that the texture of the skin and bodily habits ! fishing. Both depend upon the spontaneous produc . 
 of the Americans is such, that they are less sensible I tions of the earth, fruits, plants, and roots of various 
 of pain than the rest of mankind. He produces se- j kinds. In the rainy season, as they have no habi- 
 veral proofs of this from the manner in which they ; tations to afford them shelter, they gather bundles of 
 endure the most ciuel chirurgical operations, &c. j reeds, or strong grass, and binding them together at 
 Noticias Americanas, p. 313, 314. The same ob- j one end, they open them at the other, and fitting 
 servation has been made by surgeons in Brazil. An them to their heads, they are covered as with a 
 
 Indian, they say, never complains under pain, and 
 will bear the amputation of a leg or an arm without 
 uttering a single groan. MS. penes me. 
 
 NOTE 75. This is an idea natural to all rude na- 
 tions. Among the Romans, in the early periods of 
 their commonwealth, it was a maxim that a prisoner, 
 " turn decessisse videtur cum captus est," Digest, 
 lib. xlix. tit. 15, c. 18. And afterwards, when the 
 progress of refinement rendered them more indulgent 
 with respect to this article, they were obliged to em- 
 ploy two fictions of law to secure the property, and 
 permit the return of a captive, the one by the Lex 
 Cornelia, and the other by the Jus Postliminii. 
 Heinec. Elern, Jur. Civ. sec. ord. Pand. ii. p. 294. 
 Among the negroes the same ideas prevail. No ran- 
 som was ever accepted for a prisoner. As soon as 
 one is taken in war, he is reputed to be dead ; and 
 he is so in effect to his country and his family. 
 Voy. du Cheval. des Marchais, i. p. 369. 
 
 NOTE 76. The people of Chili, the most gallant 
 and high-spirited of all the Americans, are the only 
 exception to this observation. They attack their 
 enemies in the open field ; their troops are ranged in 
 regular order ; their battalions advance to the charge, 
 not only with courage, but with discipline. The 
 North Americans, though many of them have sub- 
 stituted the European fire-arms in place of their own 
 bows and arrows, still adhere to their ancient max- 
 ims of war, and carry it on according to their own 
 peculiar system. But the Chilese nearly resemble 
 the warlike nations of Europe and Asia in their mi- 
 litary operations. Ovalle's Relation of Chili. Church. 
 Col. "iii. p. 71. Lozano's Hist. Parag. i. 144, 145. 
 
 NOTE 77. Herrera gives a remarkable proof of 
 tlis. In Yucatan the men are so solicitous about 
 
 mirrors, 
 
 picbably made of stone, like those of the Mexicans, 
 Dec. iv. lib. iii. c. 8, in which they delight to view 
 themselves; but the women never use them, Dec. iv. 
 lib. x. c. 3. He takes notice that among the fierce 
 tribe of the Punches, in the new kingdom of Grana- 
 da, none but distinguished warriors were permitted 
 either to pierce their lips and to wear green stones 
 in them, or to adorn their heads with plumes of" fea- 
 thers, Dec. vii. lib. ix. c. 4. In some provinces ol 
 Peri;, though that empire had made considerable 
 progress in civilization, the state of women was little 
 improved. All the toil of cultivation and domestic 
 work %\as devolved upon them, and they were not 
 
 large cap, which like a pent-house, throws off the 
 rain, and will keep them dry for several hours. 
 During the warm season they form a shed with the 
 branches of trees, which protects them from the sul- 
 try rays of the sun. When exposed to cold they 
 make large fires, round which they sleep in the open 
 air. Historia de los Triumphos de Nuestra Sante 
 Pe entre Gentes las mas Barbaras, &c. por P. And. 
 Perez de Ribas, p. 7, &c. 
 
 NOTE 80. These houses resemble barns. "We have 
 measured some which were a hundred and fifty paces 
 ong, and twenty paces broad. Above a hundred 
 persons resided in some of them." Wilson's account 
 of Guiana. Purch. Pilgr. vol. iv. p. 1263. Ibid. 1291. 
 
 The Indian houses," says Mr. Barrere, " have a 
 most wretched appearance, and are a striking image 
 of the rudeness of early times. Their huts are com- 
 monly built on some rising ground, or on the banks 
 of a river, huddled sometimes together, sometimes 
 straggling, and always without any order. Their 
 aspect is melancholy and disagreeable. One sees 
 nothing but what is hideous and savage. The un- 
 cultivated fields have no gaiety. The silence which 
 reigns there, unless when interrupted by the disa- 
 greeable notes of birds, or cries of wild beasts, is 
 extremely dismal." Relat. de la France Equin. 
 
 tl eir dress, that they carry about with them 
 
 p. 146. 
 
 NOTE 81. Some tribes 
 
 in South America can 
 
 send their arrows to a great distance, and with con- 
 siderable force, without the aid of the bow. They 
 make use of a hollow reed, about nine feet long, and 
 an inch thick, which is called a Sarbacane. In it 
 they lodge a small arrow, with some unspun cotton 
 wound about its great end ; this confines the air, so 
 that they can blow it with astonishing rapidity, and 
 a sure aim, to the distance of above a hundred paces. 
 These small arrows are always poisoned. Fermin. 
 Descr. de Surin. i. 55. Bancroft's Hist, of Guiana, 
 p. 281, &c. The Sarbacane is much used in some 
 parts of the East Indies. 
 
 NOTE 82 I might produce many instances of 
 this, but shall satisfy myself with one, taken from 
 the Esquimaux. " Their greatest ingenuity" (says 
 Mr. Ellis), " is shewn in the structure of their bows, 
 made commonly of three pieces of wood, each mak- 
 ing part of the same arch, very nicely and exactly 
 joined together. They are commonly of fir or larch ; 
 and as this wants strength and elasticity, they supply 
 both by bracing the back of the bow with a kiud of 
 
256 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 thread or line, made of the sinews of their deer, and 
 the bow-string of the same materials. To make them 
 draw more stiffly, they dip them into water, which 
 causes both the back of the bow and the string to 
 contract, and consequently gives it the greater force; 
 and as they practice from their youth, they shoot 
 with very great dexterity." Voyage to Hudson's 
 Bay, p. 138 
 
 NOTE 83. Necessity is the great prompter and 
 guide to mankind in their inventions. There is, 
 however, such inequality in some parts of their pro- 
 gress, and some nations get so far the start of others 
 in circumstances nearly similar, that we must ascribe 
 this to some events in their story, or to some pecu- 
 liarity in their situation, with which we are unac- 
 quainted. The people in the island of Otaheite lately 
 discovered in the South Sea, far excel most of the 
 Americans in the knowledge and practice of the arts 
 of ingenuity, and yet they had not invented any 
 method of boiling water ; and having no vessel that 
 would bear the fire, they had no more idea that 
 water could be made hot than that it could be made 
 solid. Voyages by Hawkesworth, i. -166, 484. 
 
 NOTE 84. One of these boats, which could carry 
 nine men, weighed only sixty pounds. Gosnal. Re- 
 lat. des Voy. a la Virgin Rec. de Voy. au Nord, torn, 
 v. p. 403. 
 
 NOTE 85. A remarkable proof of this is produced 
 by Ulloa. In weaving hammocks, coverlets, and 
 other coarse cloths, which they are accustomed to 
 manufacture, their industry has discovered no more 
 expeditious method than to take up thread after 
 thread, and after counting and sorting them each 
 time, to pass the woof between them, so that in 
 finishing a small piece of those stuffs, they frequently 
 spend more than two years. Voyage, i. 336. Ban- 
 croft gives the same description of the Indians of 
 Guiana, p. 255. According to Adair, the ingenuity 
 and dispatch of the North American Indians are not 
 greater, p. 422. From one of the engravings of the 
 Mexican paintings in Purchas, vol. iii. p. 1106, I 
 think it probable that the people of Mexico were un- 
 acquainted with any better or more expeditious 
 mode of weaving. A loom was an invention beyond 
 the ingenuity of the most improved Americans. In 
 all their works they advance so slowly, that one of 
 their artists is two months at a tobacco-pipe with his 
 knife before he finishes it. Adair, p. 423. . 
 
 NOTE 86. The article of religion in P. Lafitau's 
 Moeurs des Sauvages, extends to 347 tedious pages 
 in quarto. 
 
 NOTE 87. I have referred the reader to several of 
 the authors who describe the most uncivilized na- 
 tions in America. Their testimony is uniform. That 
 of P. Ribas concerning the people of Cirialoa, coin- 
 cides with the rest. " I was extremely attentive, 
 (says he), during the years I resided among them, to 
 ascertain whether they were to be considered as 
 idolaters ; and it may be affirmed with the most per- 
 fect exactness, that though among some of them 
 there may be traces of idolatry, yet others have not 
 the least knowledge of God, or even of any false 
 deity, nor pay any formal adoration to the Supreme 
 Being who exercises dominion over the world ; nor 
 have they any conception of the providence of a 
 Creator or Governor, from whom they expect in the 
 next life the reward of their good or the punishment 
 df their evil deeds. Neither do they publicly join 
 in any act of divine worship." Ribas Triuraphos, &c. 
 p. 16." 
 
 NOTK 88. The people of Brazil were so much 
 affrighted by thunder, which is frequent and awful 
 
 in their country, as well as in other parts of the tor- 
 lid zone, that it was not only the object of religious 
 reverence, but the most expressive name in their lan- 
 guage for the Deity was Toupan, the same by which 
 they distinguished thunder. Piso de Medec. Brazil, 
 p 8. Nieuhoff. Church. Coll. ii. p. 132. 
 
 NOTE 89. By the account which M. Dumont, an 
 eye-witness, gives of the funeral of the great chief of 
 the Natchez, it appears that the feelings of the per- 
 sons who suffered on that occasion were very differ- 
 ent. Some solicited the honour with eagerness ; 
 others laboured to avoid their doom, and several 
 saved their lives by flying to the woods As the 
 Indian Brahmins give an intoxicating draught to 
 the women who are to be burnt together with the 
 bodies of their husbands, which renders them, insen- 
 sible of their approaching fate, the Natchez obliged 
 their victims to swallow several large pilis of tobacco, 
 which produce a similar effect. Mem. dc Louis. 
 i. 227. 
 
 NOTE 90. On some occasions, particularly in 
 dances instituted for the recovery of persons who are 
 indisposed, they are extremely licentious and inde- 
 cent. De la Potherie Hist. &c. ii. p. 42. Charlev. 
 N. Fr. iii. p. 319. But the nature of their dances is 
 commonly such as I have described. 
 
 NOTE 91. The Othomacoas, a tribe seated on tbe 
 banks of the Orinoco, employ for the same purpose 
 a composition which they call Yupa. It is formed of 
 the seeds of an unknown plant reduced to powder, 
 and certain shells burnt and pulverized. The effects 
 of this when drawn up into the nostrils are so vio 
 lent, that they resemble madness rather than intox- 
 ication. Gumilla, i. 286. 
 
 NOTE 92. Though this observation holds true 
 | among the greater part of the southern tribes, there 
 ! are some in which the intemperance of the women 
 i is as excessive as that of the men. Bancroft's Nat. 
 I Hist, of Guiana, p. 275. 
 
 NOTE 93. Even in the most intelligent writers 
 concerning the manners of the Americans, one meets 
 I with inconsistent and inexplicable circumstances. 
 { The Jesuit Charlevoix, who, in consequence of the 
 I controversy between his order and that of the Fran- 
 j ciscans, with respect to the talents and abilities of 
 I the North Americans, is disposed to represent their 
 intellectual as well as moral qualities in the most 
 favourable light, asserts, that they are engaged in 
 continual negociations with their neighbours, and 
 ' conduct these with the most refined address. At the 
 ! same time he adds, " that it behoves their envoys or 
 | plenipotentiaries to exert their abilities and elo- 
 I qucnce, for if the terms which they offer are not ac- 
 1 ceptcd of, they had need to stand on their guard. It 
 frequently happens that a blow with a hatchet is the 
 ! only return given to their propositions. The envoy 
 ! is not out of danger, even if he is so fortunate as to 
 ' avoid the stroke ; he may expect to be pursued, and 
 if taken, to be burnt." Hist. N. Fr. iii. 251. What 
 ' occurs, p. 862, concerning the manner in which the 
 Tlascalans treated the ambassadors from Zempoalla, 
 | corresponds with the fact related by Charievoix. 
 j Men capable of such acts of violence, seem to be un- 
 | acquainted with the first principles upon which the 
 | intercourse between nations is founded ; and instead 
 of the perpetual negociations which Charlevoix men- 
 tions, it seems almost impossible that there should be 
 any correspondence whatever among them. 
 
 NOTE 94. It is a remark of Tacitus concerning 
 the Germans, " Gaudent muneribus, sed nee data 
 imputant, nee acceptis obligantur " C. 21. An au 
 thor who had a good opportunity of observing the 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 257 
 
 principle which leads savages neither to express gra- 
 titude for favours which they had received, nor to 
 expect any return for such as they bestowed, thus 
 explains their ideas : " If (say they) you give me 
 this, it is because you have no need of it yourself ; 
 and as for me, I never part with that which I think 
 
 America. 
 
 . The letters of Cortes to the Emperor 
 Charles V. are an historical monument, not only 
 first in order of time, but of the greatest authenticity 
 and value. As Cortes early assumed a command 
 independent of Velasquez, it became necessary to 
 convey such an account of his operations to Madrid 
 
 necessary to me." Memoire surles Galibis: His. des as might procure him the approbation of his sove- 
 Plantes de la Guiane Francoise par M. Aublet. torn, reign. 
 ii. p. 110. 
 
 NOTE 95. And. Bernaldes, the contemporary 
 and friend of Columbus, has preserved some circum- 
 stances concerning the bravery of the Caribtiees, 
 which are not mentioned by Don Ferdinand Colum- 
 bus, or the other historians of that period, whose 
 works have been published. A Caribbean canoe, 
 with four men, two women, and a boy, fell in unex- 
 pectedly with the fleet of Columbus in his second 
 voyage, as it was steering through their islands. At 
 first they were struck almost stupid with astonish- 
 ment at such a strange spectacle, and hardly moved 
 from the spot for above an hour. A Spanish bark, 
 with twenty-five men, advanced towards them, and 
 the fleet gradually surrounded them, so as to cut off 
 their communication with the shore. " When they 
 saw that it was impossible to escape (says the histo- 
 rian), they seized their arms with undaunted resolu- 
 tion, and began the attack. I use the expression 
 it'ith undaunted resolution, for they were few, and be 
 held a vast number ready to assault them. They 
 wounded several of the Spaniards although they had 
 targets, as well as other defensive armour ; and even 
 after their canoe was overset, it was with no little 
 difficulty and danger that part of them were taken, 
 as they continued to defend themselves, and to use 
 their bows with great dexterity while swimming in 
 the sea." Hist, de D.Fern. y Ysab. M.S. c. 119. 
 
 NOTE 96. A probable conjecture may be formed 
 with respect to the cause of the distinction in charac- 
 ter between the Caribbees and the inhabitants of the 
 larger islands. The former appear manifestly to be a 
 separate race. Their language is totally different 
 from that of their neighbours in the large islands. 
 They themselves have a tradition, that their ancestors 
 came originally from some part of the continent, and 
 having conquered and exterminated the ancient 
 inhabitants, took possession of their lands, and of 
 their women. Rochefort, 38 4. Tertrc. 360. Hence 
 they call themselves Bana ree, which signifies a man 
 
 The first of his dispatches had never been made 
 public. It was sent from Vera Cruz, July 16, 1519. 
 As I imagined that it might not reach the emperor 
 until he arrived in Germany, for which he set out 
 early in the year 1520, in order to receive the impe 
 rial crown, I made diligent search for a copy of this 
 despatch, both in Spain and in Germany, but without 
 success. This, however, is of less consequence, as it 
 could not contain any thing very material, being 
 written so soon after Cortes arrived in New Spain. 
 But in searching for the letter from Cortes, a copy of 
 one from the colony of Vera Cruz to the emperor has 
 been discovered in" the imperial library at Vienna. 
 Of this I have given some account in its pro- 
 per place. The second despatch, dated October 
 30, 1520, was published at Seville, A. D. 1522, and 
 the third and fourth soon after they were received. 
 A Latin translation of them appeared in Germany, 
 A. D. 1532. Ramusio soon after made them more 
 generally known, by inserting them in his valuable 
 collection. They contain a regular and minute his- 
 tory of the expedition, with many curious particu- 
 lars concerning the policy and manners of the Mex- 
 icans. The work does honour to Cortes : the style is 
 simple and perspicuous; but as it was manifestly his 
 interest to represent his own actions in the fairest 
 light, his victories are probably exaggerated, his 
 losses diminished, and his acts of rigour and violence 
 softened. 
 
 The next in order is the Cronica de la Nueva Es- 
 pagna, by Francisco Lopez de Gomara, published 
 A. D. 1554. Gomara's historical merit is considera- 
 ble. His mode of narration is clear, flowing, always 
 agreeable, and sometimes elegant. But he is fre- 
 quently inaccurate and credulous ; and as he was the 
 domestic chaplain of Cortes after his return from 
 New Spain, and probably composed his work at his 
 desire, it is manifest that he labours to magnify the 
 merit of his hero, and to conceal or extenuate such 
 transactions as were unfavourable to his character. 
 
 come from beyond sea. Labat. vi 131. According- Of this Herrera accuses him in one instance, dec. ii. 
 
 ly, the Caribbees still use two distinct languages, one 
 peculiar to the men, and the other to the women. 
 Tertre, 361. The language of the men has nothing 
 common with that spoken in the large islands. The 
 dialect of the women considerably resembles it. La- 
 bat. 129. This strongly confirms the tradition which 
 I have mentioned. The Caribbees themselves ima- 
 gine that they were a colony from the Galabis, a 
 powerful nation of Guiana, in South America. Ter- 
 tre, 361. Rochefort, 318. But as their fierce man- 
 ners approach nearer to those of the people in the 
 northern continent than to those of the natives of 
 South America; and as their language has likewise 
 some affinity to that spoken in Florida, their origin 
 should be deduced rather from the former than from 
 the latter. Labat. 128, &c. Herrera, dec. i. lib. ix. 
 c. 4. In their wars they still observe their ancient 
 practice of destroying all the males, and preserving 
 the women either for servitude or for breeding. 
 
 NOTE 97. Our knowledge of the events which 
 happened in the conquest of New Spain, is derived 
 from sources of information more original and au- 
 thentic than that of any transaction in the history of 
 
 THB HISTORY OF AMERICA. No. 33. 
 
 lib. iii. c. 2, and it is not once only that this is con- 
 spicuous. He writes, however, with so much freedom 
 concerning several measures of the Spanish court, 
 that the copies both of his Historia de las Indias, 
 and of his Cronica, were called in by a decree of the 
 council of the Indies, and they were long considered 
 as prohibited books in Spain ; it is only of late that 
 licence to print them has been granted. Pinelo Bib- 
 lioth. 582. 
 
 The Chronicle of Gomara induced Bernal Diaz 
 del Castillo to compose his Historia Verdadera de 
 la Conquista de la Nueva Espagna. He had been an 
 adventurer in each of the expeditions to New Spain, 
 and was the companion of -Cortes in all his battles 
 and perils. When he found that neither he himself, 
 nor many of his fellow-soldiers, were once mentioned 
 by Gomara, but that the fame of all their exploits 
 was ascribed to Cortes, the gallant veteran laid hold 
 of his pen with indignation, and composed his true 
 history. It contains a prolix, minute, confused nar- 
 rative of all Cortes's operations, in such rude vulgar 
 style as might be expected from an illiterate soldier. 
 But as he relates transactions of which he was wit- 
 
 2L 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 ness, and iu which he performed a considerable part, 
 his account hears all the marks of authenticity, and 
 is accompanied with such a pleasant na'iuetd, with 
 such interesting details, with such amusing vanity, 
 and yet so pardonable in an old soldier who had been 
 (as he boasts) in a hundred and nineteen battles, as 
 renders his book one of the most singular that is to 
 be found in any language. 
 
 Pet. Martyr ab Angleria, in a treatise De Insulis 
 nuper inventis, added to his Decades de Rebus Oce- 
 ariicis et Novo Orbe, gives some account of Cortes's 
 expedition. But he proceeds no further than to re- 
 late what happened after his first landing. This 
 work, which is brief and slight, seems to contain the 
 information transmitted by Cortes in his first de- 
 spatches, embellished with several particulars com- 
 municated to the author by the officers who brought 
 the letters from Cortes. 
 
 But the book to which the greater part of modern 
 historians have had recourse for information con- 
 cerning the conquest of New Spain, is Historia de 
 la Conquista de Mexico, por D. Antonio de Solis, 
 first published A. D. 1684. I know no author in 
 any language whose literary fame has risen so far 
 beyond his real merit. De Solis is reckoned by his 
 countrymen one of the purest writers in the Casti- 
 lian tongue ; and if a foreigner may venture to give 
 his opinion concerning a matter of which Spaniards 
 alone are qualified to judge, he is entitled to that 
 praise. But though his language is correct, his 
 taste in composition is far from being just. His 
 periods are so much laboured as to be often stiff, and 
 sometimes tumid ; the figures which he employs by 
 way of ornament are frequently trite or improper, 
 and his observations superficial. These blemishes, 
 however, might easily be overlooked, if he were not 
 defective with respect to all the great qualities of an 
 historian. Destitute of that patient industry in re- 
 search which conducts to the knowledge of truth ; a 
 stranger to that impartiality which weighs evidence 
 with cool attention ; and ever eager to establish his 
 favourite system of exalting the character of Cortes 
 into that of a perfect hero, exempt from error, and 
 adorned with every virtue ; he is less solicitous to 
 discover what was true than to relate what might 
 appear splendid. When he attempts any critical 
 discussion his reasonings are fallacious, and founded 
 upon an imperfect view of facts. Though he some- 
 times quotes the despatches of Cortes, he seems not 
 to have consulted them; and though he sets out with 
 some censure on Gomara, he frequently prefers his 
 authority, the most doubtful of any, to that of the 
 other contemporary historians. 
 
 But of all the Spanish writers, Herrera furnishes 
 ihe fullest and most accurate information concerning 
 the conquest of Mexico, as well as every other trans- 
 action of America. The industry and attention with 
 which he consulted not only the books, but the ori 
 ginal papers and public records, which tended to 
 throw any light upon the subject of his inquiries, 
 were so great, and he usually judges of the evidence 
 before him with so much impartiality and candour, 
 that his decads may be ranked among the most judi- 
 cious and useful historical collections. If, by at- 
 tempting to relate the various occurrences in the 
 New World in a strict chronological order, the ar- 
 rangement of events in his work had not been ren- 
 dered so perplexed, disconnected, and obscure, that 
 it is an unpleasant task to collect from different parts 
 of his book, and piece together the detached shreds of 
 a atory, he might justly have been ranked among the 
 most eminent historians of his country. He gives an 
 
 account of the materials from which he composed his 
 work, Decad. 6, lib. iii. c. 19. 
 
 NOTE 98. Cortes purposed to have gone in the 
 train of Ovando, when he set out for his government 
 in the year 1502, but was detained by an accident. 
 As he was attempting in a dark night to scramble up 
 to the window of a lady's bed chamber, with whom 
 he carried on an intrigue, an old wall, on the top of 
 which he had mounted, gave way, and he was so 
 much bruised by the fall as to be' unfit for the voy- 
 age. Gomara, Cronica de la Nueva Espagna, cap. 1 . 
 
 NOTE 99. Cortes had two thousand pesos in the 
 hands of Andrew Duero, and he borrowed four thou- 
 sand. These sums are about equal in value to fif- 
 teen hundred pounds sterling ; but as the price of 
 every thing was extremely high in America, they 
 made but a scanty stock when applied towards the 
 equipment of a military expedition. Herrera, dec. 2, 
 lib. iii. c. 2. B. Diaz, c. 20. 
 
 NOTE 100. The names of those gallant officers, 
 which will often occur in the subsequent story, were 
 Juan Velasquez de Leon, Alonso Hernandez Porto- 
 carrero, Francisco de Montejo, Christoval de Oii<l, 
 Juan de Escalante, Francisco de Moria, Pedro de 
 Alvarado, Francisco de Salceda, Juan dc Escobar, 
 Gines de Nortes. Cortes himself commanded the 
 capitana, or admiral. Francisco de Orozco, an offi- 
 cer formed in the wars of Italy, had the command of 
 the artillery. The experienced Alaminos acted as 
 chief pilot. 
 
 NOTE 101. In those different conflicts the Spa- 
 niards lost only two men, but had a considerable 
 number wounded. Though there be no occasion for 
 recourse to any supernatural caitse to account either 
 for the greatness of their victories or the smallness 
 of their loss, the Spanish historians fail not to ascribe 
 both to the patronage of St. Jago, the tutelar saint 
 of their country, who, as they relate, fought at the 
 head of their countrymen, and by his prowess gave a 
 turn to the fate of the battle. Gomara is the first 
 who mentions this apparition of St. James. It is 
 amusing to observe the embarrassment of B. Diaz 
 del Castillo, occasioned by the struggle between his 
 superstition and his veracity. The former disposed 
 him to believe this miracle, the latter restrained him 
 from attesting it. " I acknowledge," says he, "that 
 all our exploits and victories are owing to our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and that in this battle there was such a 
 number of Indians to every one of us, that if each 
 had thrown a handful of earth they might have 
 buried us, if by the great mercy of God we had not 
 been protected. It may be that the person whom 
 Gomara mentions as having appeared on a mottled 
 grey horse, was the glorious apostle Signer San Jago 
 or Signer San Pedro, and that I, as being a sinner, 
 was not worthy to see him. This I know, that I saw 
 Francisco de Morla on such a horse, but as an un- 
 worthy transgressor, did not deserve to see any of the 
 holy apostles. It may have been the will of God 
 that it was so as Gomara relates, but until I read his 
 chronicle I never heard among any of the conquer- 
 ors that such a thing had happened." Cap. 34. 
 
 NOTE 102. Several Spanish historians relate this 
 occurrence in such terms as if they wished it should 
 be believed that the Indians, loaded with the pre- 
 sents, had carried them from the capital in the same 
 short space of time that the couriers performed that 
 journey. This is incredible, and Gomara mentions 
 a circumstance which shows that nothing extraordi- 
 nary happened on this occasion. This rich present 
 had been prepared for Grijalva, when he touched at 
 the same place some months before, and was now 
 
THE HISTOKY OF AMERICA. 
 
 259 
 
 ready to be delivered as soon as Montezuma sent 
 
 orders for that 
 p. 28. 
 
 purpose. 
 
 Gomara Cron. c. xxvii. 
 
 According to B. Diaz del Castillo the value of the 
 silver plate, representing the moon, was alone above 
 
 spies. So many prisoners had been taken and dis- 
 missed, and the Tlascalans had sent so many mes- 
 sages to the Spanish quarters, that there appears to 
 be no reason for hazarding the lives of so many con- 
 siderable people, in order to procure information 
 
 twenty thousand pesos, about five thousand pounds i about the position and state of their camp. The 
 sterling. j barbarous manner in which Cortes treated a people 
 
 NOTE 103. This private traffic was directly con- j unacquainted with the laws of war established among 
 trary to the instructions of Velasquez, who enjoined, ' polished nations, appears so shocking to the later 
 that whatever was acquired by trade should be thrown ) Spanish writers, that they diminish the number of 
 into the common stock. But it appears that the | those whom he punished so cruelly. Hen-era says, 
 soldiers had each a private assortment of toys, and ' that he cut off the hands of seven, and the thumbs of 
 other goods proper for the Indian trade, and Cortes j some more. Dec. ii. lib. ii. c. 8. De Solis relates, 
 gained their favour by encouraging this under-hand j that the hands of fourteen or fifteen were cut off, and 
 barter. B. Diaz, c. 41. the thumbs of all the rest. Lib. ii. c. 20. But Cortes 
 
 NOTE 104. Gomara has published a catalogue of j himself, Relat. p. 228, and after him Gomara, c. 48, 
 the various articles of which this present consisted, i affirm, that the hands of all the fifty were cut off. 
 Cron. c. 49. P. Martyr ab Angleria, who saw them i NOTE 107. The horses were objects of the great- 
 after they were brought to Spain, and who seems to est astonishment to all the people of New Spain. At 
 have examined them with great attention, gives a first they imagined the horse and his rider, like the 
 description to each, which is curious, as it conveys centaurs of the ancients, to be some monstrous aui- 
 some idea of the progress which the Mexicans had j nial of a terrible form; and supposing that their food 
 made in several arts of elegance. De Insulis nuper j was the same as that of men, brought flesh and bread 
 inventis Liber, p. 354, &c. j to nourish them. Even after they discovered their 
 
 NOTE 105. There is no circumstance in the his. ; mistake, they believed the horses devoured men in 
 lory of the conquest of America which is more qiu-s- battle, and when they neighed,, thought that they 
 tioiiable than the account of the numerous armies j were demanding their prey. It was not the interest 
 brought into the field against the Spaniards. As ! of the Spaniards to undeceive them. Herrera, dec. ii. 
 the war with the republic of Tlascala, though of short ; lib. vi. c. 11. 
 duration, was one of the most considerable which the j NOTE 108. According to Bart, de las Casas, there 
 
 Spaniards waged in America, the account given of 
 the Tlascalan armies merits some attention. The 
 only authentic information concerning this is de- 
 rived from three authors. Cortes, in his second 
 despatch to the emperor, dated at Segura de la Fron- 
 tera, October 30, 1520, thus estimates the number of 
 their troops ; in the first battle GOOO ; in the second 
 battle 100,000 ; in the third battle 150,000. Relat. ap. 
 llamus. iii. 228. Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who was 
 an eye-witness, and engaged in all the actions of this 
 war, thus reckons their numbers : in the first battle 
 3000, p. 43 ; in the second battle GOOO, ibid ; in the 
 third battle 50,000, p. 45. Gomara, who was Cor- 
 tcs's chaplain after his return to Spain, and pub- 
 lished his Cronica in 1554, follows the computation 
 of Cortes, except in the second battle, where he rec- 
 kons the Tlascalans at 80,000, p. 49. It was mani- 
 festly the interest of Cortes to magnify his own dan- 
 gers and exploits. For it was only by the merit of 
 extraordinary services that he could hope to atone 
 for his irregular conduct in assuming an independent 
 command. B. Diaz, though abundantly disposed to 
 place his own prowess, and that of his fellow-con- 
 querors in the most advantageous point of light, had 
 not the same temptation to exaggerate ; and it is pro- 
 bable that his account of the numbers approaches 
 nearer to the truth. The assembling of an army of 
 150,000 men requires many previous arrangements, 
 and such provisions for their subsistence as seems to 
 be beyond the foresight of Americans. The degree 
 of cultivation in Tlascala does not seem to have been 
 so great as to have furnished such a vast army with 
 
 provisions. Though this province -was so much bet- ; relate, another to have beheld, things that were never 
 ter cultivated than other regions of New Spain, that before seen, or heard, or spoken of among men." 
 it was called the country of bread, yet the Spaniards Cap. 86, p. 64, b. 
 
 in their march suffered such want that they were ] NOTE 1 10. B. Diaz del Castillo gives us some 
 obliged to subsist upon Tunas, a species of fruit idea of the fatigue and hardships they underwent in. 
 which grows wild in the fields. Herrera. dec. ii. lib. ' performing this and other parts of duty. During 
 vi. c. 5, p. 182. j the nine months that they remained in Mexico, every 
 
 NOTE 106. These unhappy victims are said to man, without any distinction between officers and 
 be persons of distinction. It srem:- improbable that soldi on-, slept on his arms in his quilted jacket a;id 
 to great a number as fifty should be employed as gorget. They lay on mats, or straw spread on the 
 
 was no reason for this massacre, and it was an act of 
 wanton cruelty, perpetrated merely to strike terror 
 into the people of New Spain. Relac. de la Destruyc. 
 p. 17, &c. But the zeal of Las Casas often leads 
 him to exaggerate. In opposition to him, Bern. Diaz, 
 c. 83, asserts, that the first missionaries sent into 
 New Spain by the emperor made a judicial inquiry 
 into this transaction ; and having examined the 
 priests and elders of Cholula, found that there was a 
 real conspiracy to cut off the Spaniard^ and that 
 the account given by Cortes was exactly true. As 
 it was the object of Cortes at that time, and rnani- 
 festly his interest, to gain the good-will of Montezu- 
 ma. it is improbable that he should have taken a step 
 which tended so visibly to alienate him from the 
 Spaniards, if he had not believed it to be necessary 
 for his own preservation. At the same time the Spa- 
 niards who served in America had such contempt for 
 the natives, and thought them so little entitled to the 
 common rights of men, that Cortes might hold the 
 Cholulans to be guilty upon slight and imperfect 
 evidence. The severity of the punishment was cer- 
 tainly excessive and atrocious. 
 
 NOTE 109. This description is taken almost lite- 
 rally from Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who was so un- 
 acquainted with the art of composition, as to be in- 
 capable of embellishing his narrative. He relates in 
 a simple and rude style what passed in his own mind 
 and that of his fellow-soldiers on that, occasion : 
 " and let it not be thought strange," says he, " that 
 I should write in this manner of what then happened, 
 for it ought to be considered, that it is one thing to 
 
260 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 floor, and each was obliged to hold himself as alert 
 as if he had been on guard. " This," adds he, " be- 
 came so habitual to me, that even now in my ad- 
 vanced age, I always sleep in my clothes, and never 
 in my bed. When I visit my Encomienda, I reckon 
 it suitable to my rank to have a bed carried along 
 with my other baggage, but I never go into it ; but, 
 according to custom, I lie in my clothes, and walk 
 frequently during the night in the open-air, to, view 
 the stars, as I was wont when in service." Cap. 108. 
 NOTE 111. Cortes himself, in his second despatch 
 to the emperor, does not explain the motives which 
 induced him either to condemn Qualpopoca to the 
 flames, or to put Montezuma in irons. Ramus. iii. 
 236. B. Diaz is silent with respect to his reasons 
 for the former ; and the only cause he assigns for the 
 latter was, that he might meet with no interruption 
 in executing the sentence pronounced against Qual- 
 popoca, c. xcv. p. 75. But as Montezuma was his 
 prisoner, and absolutely in his power, he had no rea- 
 son to dread him, and the insult offered to that mo- 
 narch could have no effect but to irritate him unne- 
 cessarily. Gomara supposes that Cortes had no other 
 object than to occupy Montezuma with his own dis- 
 tress and sufferings, that he might give less attention 
 to what befell Qualpopoca. Cron. c. 89. Herrera 
 adopts the same opinion, dec. 2, lib. viii. c. 9. But 
 it seems an odd expedient, in order to make a person 
 bear one injury, to load him with another that is 
 greater. De Solis imagines, that Cortes had nothing 
 else in view than to intimidate Montezuma, so that 
 he might make no attempt to rescue the victims 
 from their fate ; but the spirit of that monarch was 
 so submissive, and he had so tamely given up the 
 prisoners to the disposal of Cortes, that he had no 
 cause to apprehend any opposition from him. If the 
 explanation which 1 have attempted to give of Cor- 
 tes's proceedings on this occasion be not admitted, it 
 appears to me that they must be reckoned among the 
 wanton and barbarous acts of oppression which occur 
 too often in the history of the conquest of America. 
 NOTE 112. De Solis asserts, lib. iv. c. 3, that the 
 proposition of doing homage to the king of Spain 
 came from Montezuma himself, and was made in or- 
 der to induce the Spaniards to depart out of his do- 
 minions. He describes his conduct on this occasion, 
 as if it had been founded upon a scheme of profound 
 policy, and executed with such refined address as to 
 deceive Cortes himself. But there is no hint or cir- 
 cumstance in the contemporary historians, Cortes, 
 Diaz, or Gomara, to justify this theory. Montezuma, 
 on other occasions, discovered no such extent of art 
 and abilities. The anguish which he felt in per- 
 forming this humbling ceremony is natural, if We 
 suppose it to have been involuntary. But, according 
 to the theory of De Solis, which supposes that Mon- 
 tezuma was executing what he himself had proposed, 
 to have assumed an appearance of sorrow would 
 have been preposterous, and inconsistent with his 
 own design of deceiving the Spaniards. 
 
 NOTE 113. In several of the provinces the Spa- 
 niards, with all their industry and influence, could 
 collect no gold. In others they procured only a fev 
 trinkets of small value. Montezuma accused Cortes, 
 that the present which he offered to the King of Cas- 
 tile, after doing homage, consisted of all the treasure 
 amassed by his father ; and told him that he had al- 
 ready distributed the rest of his gold and jewels 
 among the Spaniards. B. Diaz, c. 104. Gomara 
 relates, that all the silver collected amounted to 500 
 marks. Cron. c. 93. This agrees with the account 
 given by Cortes, that the royal fifth of silver was 100 
 
 marks. Relat. 239, b. So that the sum total of sil- 
 ver was only 4000 ounces, at the rate of eight ounces 
 a mark, which demonstrates the proportion of silver 
 :o gold to have been exceedingly smalL 
 
 NOTE 114. De Solis, lib. iv. c. 1, calls in ques- 
 tion the truth of this transaction, from no better rea- 
 son than that it was inconsistent with that prudence 
 which distinguishes the character of Cortes. But he 
 ought to have recollected the impetuosity of his zeal, ' 
 at Tlascala, which was no less imprudent. He as- 
 serts, that the evidence for it rests upon the testimo- 
 ny of B. Diaz del Castillo, of Gomara, and of Her- 
 rera. They all concur, indeed, in mentioning this 
 inconsiderate step which Cortes took ; and they had 
 good reason to do so, for Cortes himself relates this 
 exploit in his second despatch to the emperor, and 
 seems to glory in it. Cort. Relat. Ramus. iii. 140, d. 
 This is one instance, among many, of De Solis's hav- 
 ing consulted with little attention the letters of Cortes 
 to Charles V , from which the most authentic infor- 
 mation with respect to his operations must be 
 derived. 
 
 NOTE 115. Herrera and De Solis suppose that 
 Velasquez was encouraged to equip this armament 
 against Cortes by the accounts which he received 
 from Spain concerning the reception of the agent 
 sent by the colony of Vera Cruz, and the warmth 
 with which Fonseca, bishop of Burgos, had espoused 
 his interest, and condemned the proceedings of Cor- 
 tes. Herrera, dec. 2, lib. ix. c 18. De Soiis, lib.iv. 
 c. 5. But the chronological order of events refute? 
 this supposition. Portocarrero and Montejo sailed 
 from Vera Cruz July 26, 1519. Herrera, dec 2, lib. 
 v. b. 4. They landed at St. Lucar in October, ac- 
 cording to Herrera, ibid. But P. Martyr, who at- 
 tended the court at that time, and communicated 
 every occurrence of moment to his correspondents 
 day by day, mentions the arrival of these agents for 
 the first time in December, and speaks of it as a re- 
 cent event. Epist. 650. All the historians agree, 
 that the agents of Cortes had their first audience of 
 the emperor at Tordesillas, when he went to that 
 town to visit his mother in his way to St. Jago de 
 Compostella. Herrera, dec. 2, lib. v. c. 4. De Solis, 
 lib. iv. c. 5. But the emperor set out from Vallado- 
 lid for Tordesillas on the llth of March, 1520; and 
 P. Martyr mentions his having seen at that time 
 the presents made to Charles, Epist. 665. The ar- 
 mament under Narvacz sailed from Cuba in April 
 1520. It is manifest then that Velasquez could not 
 receive any account of what passed in this interview 
 at Tordesillas, previous to his hostile preparations 
 against Cortes. His real motives seem to be those 
 which I have mentioned. The patent appointing 
 him Adtlantado of New Spain, with such extensive 
 powers, bears date November 13, 1519. Herrera, 
 dec. 2, lib. iii. c. 11. He might receive it about the 
 beginning of January. Gomara takes notice, that as 
 soon as this patent was delivered to him, he began to 
 equip a fleet and levy forces. Cron. c. 96. 
 
 NOTE 116. De Solis contends, that as Narvacz 
 had no interpreters, he could hold no intercourse 
 with the people of the provinces, nor converse with 
 them in any way but by signs, and that it was equally 
 impossible for him to carry on a.ny communication 
 with Montezuma. Lib. iv. c. 7. But it is upon the 
 authority of Cortes himself that I relate all the parti- 
 culars of Narvaez's correspondence, both with Mon- 
 tezuma and with his subjects in the maritime pro- 
 I vinces. Relat. Ramus. iii. 244, a. c. Cortes affirms, 
 , that there was a mode of intercourse between Nar- 
 vaez and the Mexican?, but does not explain how it 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 261 
 
 was carried on. Bernal Diaz supplies this defect, 
 and informs us that the three deserters who joined 
 Narvaoz acted as interpreters, having acquired a 
 competent knowledge of the language, c. 110. With 
 his usual minuteness, he mentions their names and 
 characters, and relates, in chapter 122, how they 
 were punished for their perfidy. The Spaniards had 
 now resided above a year among the Mexicans ; and 
 it is not surprising that several among them should 
 have made some proficiency in speaking their lan- 
 guage. This seems to have been the case. Herrera, 
 detC2, lib. x. c. 1. Both B. Diaz, who was present, 
 and Herrera, the most accurate and best informed of 
 all the Spanish writers, agree with Cortes in his ac- 
 count of the secret correspondence carried on with 
 Mon-tezuma. Dec. 2, lib. x. c. 18, 19. De Solis 
 seems to consider it as a discredit to Cortes, his hero, 
 that Montezuma should have been ready to engage 
 in a correspondence with Narvaez. He supposes 
 that monarch to have contracted such a wonderful 
 affection for the Spaniards that he was not solicitous 
 to be delivered from them. After the indignity with 
 which he had been treated, such an affection is in- 
 credible ; and even De Solis is obliged to acknow- 
 ledge, that it must be looked upon as one of the mi- 
 racles which God had wrought to facilitate the con- 
 quest, lib. ib. c. 7. The truth is, Montezuma, how- 
 ever much overawed by the dread of the Spaniards, 
 was extremely impatient to recover his liberty. 
 
 NOTE 117 These words I have borrowed from 
 the anonymous account of the European settlements 
 in America, published by Dodsley, in two volumes 
 8vo. ; a work of so much merit, that I should think 
 there is hardly any writer in the age who ought to 
 be ashamed of himself to be the author of it. 
 
 NOTE 118. The contemporary historians differ 
 considerably with respect to the loss of the Spaniards 
 on this occasion. Cortes, in his second despatch to 
 the emperor, makes the number only 150. Relat. ap. 
 Ramus. iii. p. 249, a. But it was manifestly his 
 interest, at that juncture, to conceal from the court 
 of Spain the full extent of the loss which he had sus- 
 tained. De Solis, always studious to diminish every 
 misfortune that befell his countrymen, rates their 
 loss at about two hundred men. Lib. iv. c. 19. B. 
 Diaz affirms that they lost 870 men, and that only 
 440 escaped from Mexico; c. 128, p. 108, b. Pala- 
 fox, bishop of Los Angeles, who seems to have in- 
 quired into the early transactions of his countrymen 
 in New Spain with great attention, confirms the 
 account ofB. Diaz with .respect to the extent of their 
 loss. Virtudes del Indio, p. 22. Gomara states their 
 loss at 450 men. Cron. c. 109. Some months af- 
 terwards, when Cortes had received several rein- 
 forcements, he mustered his troops, and found them 
 to be only 590. Relat. ap. Ramus. iii. p. 255, e. 
 Now, as Narvaez brought 880 men into New Spain, 
 and about 400 of Cortes' soldiers were then alive, 
 it is evident that his loss, in the retreat from Mex- 
 ico, must have been much more considerable than 
 what he mentions. B. Diaz, solicitous to magnify 
 the dangers and sufferings to which he and his fel- 
 low-conquerors were exposed, may have exaggerated 
 their loss ; but in my opinion it cannot well be esti- 
 jnatcd at less than 600 men. 
 
 NOTE 119. Some remains of this great work are 
 still visible, and the spot where the brigantines wer 
 built and launched is still pointed out to strangers. 
 Torquemada viewed them. Monarq. Indiana, vol. i. 
 p. 531. 
 
 NOTE 120. The station of Alvarado on the 
 causeway of Tacuba \vas tk? nearest to the city. 
 
 Cortes observes, that there they could distinctly ob- 
 serve what passed when their countrymen were 
 sacrificed. Relat. ap. Ramus. iii. p. 273, e . B. 
 Diaz, who belonged to Alvarado's division, relates 
 what he beheld with his own eyes : c. 152, p. 148, b. 
 159, a. Like a man whose courage was so clear 
 as to be above suspicion, he describes with his usual 
 simplicity the impression which this spectacle made 
 upon him. " Before," says he, " I saw the breasts 
 of my companions opened, their hearts yet fluttering, 
 offered to an accursed idol, and their flesh devoured 
 by their exulting enemies, I was accustomed to en- 
 ter a battle not only without fear, but with high spi- 
 rit. But from that time I never advanced to fight 
 the Mexicans without a secret horror and anxiety ; 
 my heart trembled at the thoughts of the death which 
 1 had seen them suffer." He takes care to add, that 
 as soon as the combat began, his terror went off ; 
 and indeed his adventurous bravery on every occa- 
 sion is full of evidence of this. B. Diaz, c. 156, 
 p. 157, a. 
 
 NOTE 121. One circumstance in this siege merits 
 particular notice. The account which the Spanish 
 writers give of the numerous armies employed in the 
 attack or defence of Mexico seems to be incredible. 
 According to Cortes himself, he had at one time 
 150,000 auxiliary Indians in his service. Relat. 
 Ramus. iii. 275, e. Gomara asserts, that they were 
 above 200,000. Cron. c. 136. Herrera, an anthor 
 of higher authority, says they were about 200,000. 
 Dec. 3, lib. i. c. 19. None of the contemporary 
 writers ascertain explicitly the number of persons in 
 Mexico during the siege. But Cortes on several 
 occasions mentions the number of Mexicans who 
 were slain, or who perished for want of food ; and if 
 we may rely on those circumstances, it is probable 
 that above two hundred thousand must have been 
 hut up in the town. But the quantity of provisions 
 necessary for the subsistence of such vast multitudes 
 assembled in one place during three months is so 
 great, and it requires so much foresight and arrange- 
 ment to collect these, and lay them up in magazines 
 so as to be certain of a regular supply, that one can 
 hardly believe that this could be accomplished in a 
 country where agriculture was so imperfect as in the 
 Mexican empire, where there were no tame animals, 
 and by a people naturally so improvident, and so 
 incapable of executing a complicated plan, as the 
 most improved Americans. The Spaniards, with all 
 their care and attention, fared very poorly, and were 
 often reduced to extreme distress for want of provi- 
 sions. B. Diaz, p. 142. Cortes Relat. 271, d. 
 Cortes on one occasion mentions slightly the subsist- 
 ence of his army; and after acknowledging that they 
 were often in great want, adds, that they received 
 supplies from the people of the country, of fish, and 
 of some fruit, which he calls the cherries of the coun- 
 try. Ibid. B. Diaz says, that they had cakes of 
 maize, and serasas de la tierra ; and when the season 
 of these was over, another fruit, which he calls Tunas; 
 but their most comfortable subsistence was a root 
 which the Indians use as food, to which he givrs the 
 name of Quililes, p. 142. The Indian auxiliaries 
 had one means of subsistence more than the Spani- 
 ards. They fed upon the bodies of the Mexicans 
 whom they killed in battle. Cort. Relat. 176, c. B. 
 Diaz confirms his relation, and adds, that when tho 
 Indians returned from Mexico to their own country, 
 they carried with them large quantities of the flesh 
 of the Mexicans salted or dried, as a most acceptable 
 1 present to their friends, that they might have the 
 pleasure of feeding upon the bodies of their enemies 
 
262 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 in their festivals, p. 157. De Solis, who seems to 
 consider it as an imputation of discredit to his coun- 
 trymen, that they should act in concert with auxilia- 
 ries who fed upon human flesh, is solicitous to prove 
 that the Spaniards endeavoured to prevent their as- 
 sociates from eating the bodies of the Mexicans, lib. 
 v. c. 24. But he has no authority for this from the 
 original historians. Neither Cortes himself, nor B. 
 Diaz, seem to have had any such scruple ; and on 
 many occasions they mention the Indian repasts, 
 which were become familiar to them, without any 
 mark of abhorrence. Even with this additional stock 
 of food for the Indians, it was hai'dly possible to pro- 
 cure subsistence for armies amounting to such num- 
 bers as we find in the Spanish writers. Perhaps the 
 best solution of the difficulty is, to adopt, the opinion 
 of B. Diaz del Castillo, the most artless of all the 
 Historiadores primitives. " When Gomara," says 
 he, " on some occasions relates, that there were so 
 many thousand Indians our auxiliaries, and in others, 
 that there were so many thousand houses in this or 
 that town, no regard is to be paid to his enumeration, 
 as he has no authority for it, the numbers not being 
 in reality the fifth of what he relates. If we add to- 
 gether the different numbers which he mentions, that 
 country would contain more millions than there are 
 in Castile." C. 129. But though some considera- 
 ble deduction should certainly be made from the 
 Spanish accounts of the Mexican forces, they must 
 have been very numerous ; for nothing but an im- 
 mense superiority in number could have enabled 
 them to withstand a body of nine hundred Spaniards, 
 conducted by a leader of such abilities as Cortes. 
 
 NOTE 122. In relating the oppressive and cruel 
 proceedings of the conquerors of New Spain, I have 
 not followed B. de las Casas as my guide. His ac- 
 count of them, Relat. de la Destruyc. p. 18, &c., is 
 manifestly exaggerated. It is from the testimony of 
 Cortes himself, and of Gomara, who wrote under his 
 eye, that I have taken my account of the punishment 
 of I he Panucans, and they relate it without any dis- 
 approbation. B. Diaz, contrary to his usual custom, 
 mentions it only in general terms, c. 162. Herrera, 
 solicitous to extenuate this bai'barous action of his 
 countrymen, though he mentions sixty-three caziques 
 and four hundred men of note, as being condemned 
 to the flames, asserts that thirty only were burnt, and 
 the rest pardoned. Dec. 3, lib. v. c. 7. But this is 
 contrary to the testimony of the original historians, 
 particularly of Gomara, whom it appears he had con- 
 sulted, as he adopts several of his expressions in this 
 .passage. The punishment of Guatimozin is related 
 by the most authentic of the Spanish writers. Tor- 
 .quemada has extracted from a history of Tezeuco, 
 composed in the Mexican tongue, an account of this 
 transaction, more favourable to Guatimozin than 
 that of the Spanish authors. Mon. Indiana, i. 575. 
 According to the Mexican account, Cortes had 
 scarcely a shadow of evidence to justify such a wan- 
 ton act of cruelty. B. Diaz affirms, that Guatimozin 
 and his fellow sufferers asserted their innocence with 
 their last breath, and that many of the Spanish 
 soldiers condemned this action of Cortes as equally 
 unnecessary and unjust, p, 200, b. 201, a. 
 
 NOTE 123. The motive for undertaking this ex 
 pedition was to punish Christoval de Olid, one of his 
 officers, who had revolted against him, and aimed at 
 establishing an independent jurisdiction. Cortes 
 regarded this insurrection as of such dangerous ex- 
 ample, and dreaded so much the abilities and popu- 
 larity of its author, that in person he led the body of 
 troops destined to suppress it. He marched, accord- 
 
 ing to Gomara, three thousand miles, through a 
 country abounding with thick forests, rugged moun- 
 tains, deep rivers, thinly inhabited, and cultivated 
 only in a few places. What he suffered from famine, 
 from the hostility of the natives, from the climate, 
 and from hardships of every species, has nothing in 
 history parallel to it, but what occurs in the adven- 
 tures of the other discoverers and conquerors of the 
 New World. Cortes was employed in this dreadful 
 service above two years ; and though it was not dis- 
 tinguished by any splendid event, he exhibited, dur- 
 ing the course of it, greater personal courage, more 
 fortitude of mind, more perseverance and patience, 
 than in any other period or scene in his life. Her- 
 rera, dec. 3. lib. vi. vii. viii. ix. Gomara, Cron. c. 
 1631 77. B. Diaz, 1 74190. Cortes, MS. pene* 
 me. Were one to write a life of Cortes, the account 
 of this expedition should occupy a splendid place in 
 it. In a general history of America, as the expedi- 
 tion was productive of no great event, the mention 
 of it is sufficient. 
 
 NOTE 124. According to Herrera, the treasure 
 which Cortes brought with him consisted of fifteen 
 hundred marks of wrought plate, two hundred thou- 
 sand pesos of fine gold, and ten thousand of inferior 
 standard, many rich jewels, one in particular worth 
 forty thousand pesos, and several trinkets and orna- 
 ments of value. Dec. iv. lib. iii. c. 8. lib. iv. c. 1. 
 He afterwai-ds engaged to give a portion with his 
 daughter of a hundred thousand pesos. Gomara, 
 Cron. c. 237. The fortune which he left his sons 
 was very considerable. But, as we have before re- 
 lated, the sum divided among the conquerors, on the 
 first reduction of Mexico, was very small. There 
 appears, then, to be some reason for suspecting that 
 the accusations of Cortes's enemies were not altoge- 
 ther destitute of foundation. They charged him with 
 having applied to his own use a disproportionate 
 share of the Mexican spoils ; with having concealed 
 the royal treasures of Montezuma and Guatimozin ; 
 with defrauding the king of his fifth ; and robbing 
 his follower. 1 - of what was due to them. Herrera, dec. 
 3, lib. viii. c. 15. dec. 4, lib. iii. c. 8. Some of the 
 conquerors themselves entertained suspicions of the 
 same kind with respect to this part of his conduct. 
 B. Diaz, c. 157. 
 
 NOTE 125. In tracing the progress of the Spa- 
 nish arms in New Spain, we have followed Cortes 
 himself as our most certain guide. His despatches 
 to the emperor contain a minute account of his ope- 
 rations. But the unlettered conqueror of Peru was 
 incapable of relating his own exploits. Our infor- 
 mation with respect to them and other transactions in 
 Peru is derived, however, from contemporary and 
 respectable authors. 
 
 The most early account of Pizarro's transactions 
 in Peru was published by Francisco de Xerez, his 
 secretary. It is a simple unadorned narrative, car- 
 ried down no further than the death of Atahualpa, 
 in 1533 ; for the author returned to Spain in 1534, 
 and soon after he landed, printed at Seville his short 
 History of the Conquest of Peru, addressed to the 
 emperor. 
 
 Don Pedro Sancho, an officer who served under 
 Pizarro, drew up an account of his expedition, which 
 was translated into Italian byRamusio, and inserted 
 in his valuable collection, but has never been pub- 
 lished in its original language. Sancho returned to 
 Spain at the same time with Xcrez. Great credit is 
 due to what both these authors relate concerning th 
 progress and operations of Pizarro : but the residence 
 of the Spaniards in Peru had been so short, at the 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 26S 
 
 time when they left it, and their intercourse with the j 
 natives so slender, that their knowledge of the Pe- 
 ruvian manners and customs is very imperfect. 
 
 The next contemporary historian is Pedro Cieza | 
 de Leon, who published his Crouica del Peru, at 
 Seville, in 1553. If he had finished all that he pro- 
 poses in the general division of his work, it would 
 have been the most complete history which had been 
 published of any region in the New World. He was 
 well qualified to execute it, having served seventeen 
 years in America, and having visited in person most 
 of the provinces concerning which he had occasion 
 to write. But only the first part of his chronicle has 
 been printed. It contains a description of Peru and 
 several of the adjacent provinces, with an account of 
 the institutions and customs of the natives, and is 
 written with so little art and such an apparent re- 
 gard for truth, that one must regret the loss of the 
 other parts of his work. 
 
 This loss is amply supplied by Don Augustine 
 Zarate, who published, hi 1555, his Historia del 
 Descubrimiento y Conquesta de la Proviucia del 
 Pern. Zarate was a man of rank and education, 
 and employed in Peru as comptroller-general of the 
 public revenue. His history, whether we attend to 
 its matter or composition, is a book of considerable 
 merit ; as he had an opportunity to be well informed 
 and seems to have been inquisitive with respect to 
 the manners and transactions of the Peruvians, 
 great credit is due to his testimony. 
 
 Don Diego Fernandez published his Historia del 
 Peru in 1571. His sole object is to relate the dis- 
 sensions and civil wars of the Spaniards in that em- 
 pire. As he served in a public station in Peru, and 
 was well acquainted both with the country and with 
 the principal actors in those singular scenes which 
 he describes, as he possessed sound understanding 
 and great impartiality, his work may be ranked 
 among those of the historians most distinguished for 
 their industry in research, or their capacity in judg- 
 ing with respect to the events which they relate. 
 
 The last author who can be reckoned among the 
 contemporary historians of the conquest of Peru is ! 
 Garcilasso de la Vega, Inca. For though the first ! 
 part of his work, entitled Commentarios Reales del \ 
 Origin de los Incas lieies del Peru, was not published 
 sooner than the year 1609, seventy-six years after the 
 death of Atahualpa the last emperor, yet as he was 
 born in Peru, and was the son of an officer of dis- 
 tinction among the Spanish conquerors, by a Coya, 
 or lady of the royal race, on account of which he 
 always took the name of inca ; as he was master of 
 the language spoken by the incas, and acquainted 
 with the traditions of his countrymen, his authority 
 is rated very high, and often placed above that of all 
 the other historians. His work, however, is little 
 more than a commentary upon the Spanish writers 
 of the Peruvian story, and composed of quotations 
 taken from the authors whom I have mentioned. 
 This is the idea which he himself gives of it, lib. i. 
 c. 10. Nor is it in the account of facts only that he 
 follows them servilely; Even in explaining the in- 
 stitutions and rites of his ancestors, his information 
 seems not to be more perfect than theirs. His ex- 
 planation of the Quipos is almost the same with that 
 of Acosta. He produces no specimen of Peruvian 
 poetry, but that wretched one which he borrows 
 trom Bias Valera, an early missionary, whose me- 
 moirs have never been published. Lib. ii. c. 15. As 
 for composition, arrangement, or a capacity of dis- 
 tinguishing between what is fabulous, what is pro- 
 bable, and what is true, one searches for them in vain 
 
 in the commentaries of the inca. His work, how- 
 ever, notwithstanding its great defects, is not altoge- 
 ther destitute of use. Some traditions which he re- 
 ceived from his countrymen are preserved in it. His 
 knowledge of the Peruvian language has enabled 
 him to correct some errors of the Spanish writers, 
 and he has inserted in it some curious facts taken 
 from authors whose works were never published, and 
 are now lost. 
 
 NOTE 126. One may form an idea both of the 
 hardships which they endured, and of the unhealth- 
 ful climate in the regions which they visited, from, 
 the extraordinary mortality that prevailed among 
 them. Pizarro carried out 112 men, Almagro 70. 
 In less than nine months 130 of these died. Few 
 fell by the sword ; most of them, were cut off by dis- 
 eases. Xerez, p. 180. 
 
 NOTE 127. This island, says Herrera, is ren- 
 dered so uncomfortable by the uuwholesomeness of 
 its climate, its.impenetrable woods, its rugged moun- 
 tains, and the multitude of insects and reptiles, that 
 it is seldom any softer epithet than that of infernal is 
 employed in describing it. The sun is almost never 
 seen there, and throughout the year it hardly ever 
 ceases to rain. Dec. 3, lib. x. c. 3. Dampier touched 
 at this island in the year 1685 ;. and his account of 
 the climate is not more favourable. Vol. i. p. 172. 
 He, during his cruise on the coast, visited most of 
 the places where Pizarro landed, and his description 
 of them throws light on the narrations of the early 
 Spanish historians. 
 
 NOTE 128. By this time horses had multiplied 
 greatly in the Spanish settlements on the continent. 
 When Cortes began his expedition in the year 1518, 
 though his armament was more considerable than 
 that of Pizarro, and composed of persons superior in 
 rank to those who invaded Peru, he could procure no 
 more than sixteen horses. 
 
 NOTE 129. In the year 1740, D. Ant. Ulloa, 
 and D. George Juan, travelled from Guayaquil to 
 Motupe, by the same route which Pizarro took. 
 From the description of their journey, one may form 
 an idea of the difficulty of his march. The sandy 
 plains between St. Michael de Pieura and Motupe 
 extend 90 miles, without water, without a tree, a 
 plant, or any green thing, on a dreary stretch of 
 burning sand. Voyage, torn. i. p. 399, &c. 
 
 NOTE 130. This extravagant and unseasonable 
 discourse of Valverde has "been censured by all histo- 
 rians, and with justice. But though he seems to 
 have been an illiterate and bigoted monk, nowise 
 resembling the good Olmedo, who accompanied Cor 
 tes, the absurdity of his address to Atahualpa must 
 not be charged wholly upon him. His harangue is 
 evidently a translation or paraphrase of that form 
 concerted by a junto of Spanish divines and lawyers 
 in the year 1509, for explaining the right of their 
 king to the sovereignty of the New World, and for 
 directing the officers employed in America how they 
 should take possession of any new country. See 
 Note 23. The sentiments contained in Valverde's 
 harangue must not then be imputed to the bigoted 
 imbecility of a particular man, but to that of the age. 
 But Gomara and Benzorii relate one circumstance 
 concerning Valverde, which, if authentic, renders him 
 an object, not of contempt only, but of horror. They 
 assert, that during the whole action Valverde conti- 
 nued to excite the soldiers to slaughter, calling to 
 them to strike the enemy not with the edge, but with 
 the points of their swords. Gom. Cron. c. 113. Benz. 
 Histor. Nov. Orbis, lib. iii. c. 3. Such behaviour 
 was very different from that of the Roman Catholic 
 
204 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 rgy in other parts of America, where they uni- j respect. To these were owing the cordial reception 
 
 formly exerted their influence to protect the Indians, 
 and to moderate the ferocity of their countrymen. 
 
 NOTE 131. Two different systems have been 
 formed concerning the conduct of Atahualpa. The 
 Spanish writers, in order to justify the violence of 
 their countrymen, contend that all the inca's profes- 
 sions of friendship were feigned ; and that his inten- 
 tion in agreeing to an interview with Pizarro atCax- 
 amalca, was to cut off him and his followers at one 
 blow ; that for this purpose he advanced with such a 
 numerous body of attendants, who had arms con- 
 cealed under their garments, to execute this scheme. 
 This is the account given by Xerez and Zarate, 
 and adopted by Herrera. But if it had been the 
 plan of the inca to destroy the Spaniards, one can 
 hardly imagine that he would have permitted them 
 to march unmolested through the desert of Motupe, 
 or have neglected to defend the passes in the moun- 
 tains, where they might have been attacked with so 
 much advantage. If the Peruvians marched to Cax- 
 amalca with an intention to fall upon the Spaniards, 
 it is inconceivable that of so great a body of men, 
 prepared for action, not one should attempt to make 
 resistance, but all tamely suffer themselves to be but- 
 chered by an enemy whom they were armed to at- 
 tack. Atahualpa's mode of advancing to the inter- 
 view has the aspect of a peaceable procession, not of 
 a military enterprize. He himself and his followers 
 were, in their habits of ceremony preceded, as on 
 days of solemnity, by unarmed harbingers. Though 
 
 ide nations are frequently cunning arid false, yet, if 
 a scheme of deception and treachery must be i 
 puted either to a monarch that had no great reason 
 to be alarmed at a visit from strangers who solicited 
 admission into his presence as friends, or to an ad- 
 venturer so, daring and so little scrupulous as Pizar- 
 ro, one cannot hesitate in determining where to fix 
 the presumption of guilt. Even amidst the endea- 
 vours of the Spanish writers to palliate the proceed- 
 ings of Pizarro, one plainly perceives that it was his 
 intention as well as his interest to seize the inca, and 
 that he had taken measures for that purpose, pre- 
 vious to any suspicion of that monarch's designs. 
 
 Garcilasso de la Vega, extremely solicitous to vin- 
 dicate his countrymen, the Peruvians, from the 
 crime of having concerted the destruction of Pizarro 
 and his followers, and no less afraid to charge the 
 Spaniards with improper conduct towards the inca, 
 has framed another system. He relates, that a man 
 of majestic form, with a long beard, and garments 
 reaching to the ground, having appeared in a vision 
 to Viracocha, the eighth inca, and declared that lit 
 was a child of the sun, that monarch built a templ( 
 in honour of this person, and erected an image o 
 him, resembling as nearly as possible the singulai 
 form in which he had exhibited himself to his view 
 In this temple divine honours were paid to him bj 
 the name of Viracocha. P. i. lib. iv. c. 21, lib. v. c. 22 
 When the Spaniards first appeared in Peru, th< 
 length of their beards, and the dress they wore 
 struck every body so much with their likeness to th 
 image of Viracocha, that they supposed them to be 
 children of the sun, who had descended from heaven 
 to earth. All concluded that the fatal period of the 
 Peruvian empire was now approaching, and that th 
 throne would be occupied by new possessors. Ata 
 hualpa himself, considering the Spaniards as mes 
 sengers from heaven, was so far from entertaininj 
 any thoughts of resisting them, that he determined 
 yield implicit obedience to their commands. From 
 these sentiments flowed his professions of love an 
 
 f Soto and Ferdinand Pizarro in his camp, and the 
 ubmissive reverence with which he himself advanced 
 o visit the Spanish general in his quarters ; but from 
 le gross ignorance of Philipillo, the interpreter, the 
 eclaration of the Spaniards, and his answer to it, 
 r'ere so well explained, that by their mutual inability 
 o comprehend each other's intentions, the fatal ren- 
 ounter at Caxamalca, with all its dreadful conse- 
 uences, was occasioned. 
 
 It is remarkable that no traces of this superstitious 
 eneration of the Peruvians for the Spaniards are to 
 >e found either in Xerez, or Sancho, or Zarate, pre- 
 r ious to the interview at Caxamalca; and yet the two 
 ormer served under Pizarro at that time, and the 
 atter visited Peru soon after the conquest. If either 
 he inca himself, or his messengers, had addressed 
 he Spaniards in the words which Garcilasso puts in 
 heir mouths, they must have been struck with such 
 submissive declarations ; and they would certainly 
 lave availed themselves of them to accomplish their 
 >wn designs with greater facility. Garcilasso him- 
 ielf, though his narrative of the intercourse between 
 he inca and Spaniards, preceding the rencounter at 
 Daxamalca, is founded on the supposition of his be- 
 .ieving them to be Viracochas, or divine beings, 
 j.ii.lib. i. c. 17, &c., yet with his usual inattention and 
 naccuracy he admits, in another place, that the Pe- 
 ruvians did not recollect the resemblance between 
 them and the god Viracocha, until the fatal disasters 
 subsequent to the defeat at Caxamalca, and then 
 only began to call them Viracochas, p. i. lib. v. c 21. 
 This is confirmed by Herrera, dec. 5, lib. ii. c. 12. 
 [n many different parts of America, if we may believe 
 the Spanish writers, their countrymen were consi- 
 dered as divine beings who had descended from 
 icaven. But in this instance as in many which oc- 
 :ur in the intercourse between nations whose pro- 
 gress in refinement is very unequal, the ideas of those 
 who used the expression were different from the ideas 
 of those who heard it. For such is the idiom of the 
 Indian languages, or such is the simplicity of those 
 who speak them, that when they see any thing with 
 which they were formerly unacquainted, and of 
 which they do not know the origin, they say that 
 it came down from heaven. Nugnez. Ram. iii. 
 c. 327, c. 
 
 The account which I have given of the sentiments 
 and proceedings of the Peruvians appears to be more 
 natural and consistent than either of the two preced- 
 ing, and is better supported by the facts related by 
 the contemporary historians. 
 
 According to Xerez, p. 200, two thousand Peru 
 vians were killed. Sancho makes the number of the 
 slain six or seven thousand. Bam. iii. 2^4. D. By 
 Garcilasso' s account, five thousand were massacred, 
 p. ii. lib. i. c. 25. The number which I have men- 
 tioned, being the medium between the extremes, may 
 probably be nearest the truth. 
 
 NOTE 132. Nothing can be a more striking proof 
 of this than that three Spaniards travelled from Cox- 
 amalca to Cuzco. The distance between them is six 
 hundred miles. In every place throughout this great 
 extent of country, they were treated with all the ho- 
 nours which the Peruvians paid to their sovereigns, 
 and even to their divinities. Under pretext of amass- 
 ing what was wanting for the ransom of the inca, 
 they demanded the plates of gold with which the 
 walls of the temple of the Sun in Cuzco were adorn- 
 ed; and though the priests were unwilling to alienate 
 those sacred ornaments, and the people refused to 
 violate the shrine of their god, the three Spaniards, 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 265 
 
 with their own hands, robbed the temple of part of 
 this valuable treasure ; and such was the reverence 
 of the natives for their persons, that though they be- 
 held this act of sacrilege with astonishment, they did 
 aot attempt to prevent or disturb the commission 
 of it. Zarate, lib. ii. c. 6. Sancho ap. Ramus. iii. 
 375, D. 
 
 NOTE 133. According to Herrera, the spoil of 
 Cuzco, after setting apart the king's fftli, was di 
 vided among 480 persons. Each received 4000 pesos. 
 This amounts to 1,920,000 pesos. Dec. v. lib. vi. c. 
 3. But as the general and other officers were enti- 
 tled to a share far greater than that of the private 
 men, the sum total must have risen much beyond 
 what I have mentioned. Gomara, c. 123, and Za- 
 rate, lib. ii. c. 8, satisfy themselves with asserting in 
 general that the plunder of Cuzco was of greater 
 value than the ransom of Atahualpa. - -- 
 
 NOTE 134. No expedition in the New World was 
 conducted with more persevering courage than that 
 of Alvarado, and in none were greater hardships 
 endured. Many of the persons engaged in it were, 
 like their leader, veterans who had served under Cor- 
 tes, inured to all the rigour of American war. Such 
 of my readers as have not an opportunity of perusing 
 the striking description of their sufferings by Zarate 
 or Herrera, may form some idea of the nature of 
 their march from the sea-coast to Quito, by consult- 
 ing the account which D. Ant. Ulloa gives of his 
 own journey, in 1736, nearly in the same route ; 
 Voy. torn. i. p. 178, &c., or that of M. Bouguer, who 
 proceeded from Puerto Viejo to Quito, by the same 
 road which Alvarado took. He compares his own 
 journey with that of the Spanish leader, and by the 
 comparison gives a most striking idea of the boldness 
 and patience of Alvarado, in forcing his way through 
 so many obstacles. Voyage du Perou, p. 28, &c. 
 
 NOTE 135. According to Herrera, there was en- 
 tered on account of the king, in gold, 155,300 pesos, 
 and 5400 marks (each eight ounces) of silver, besides 
 several vessels and ornaments, some of gold and 
 others of silver; on account of private persons, in 
 gold, 499,000 pesos, and 54,000 marks of silver. 
 Dec. 5, lib. vi. c. 13. 
 
 NOTE 136 The Peruvians not only imitated the 
 military arts of the Spaniards, but had recourse to 
 devices of their own. As the cavalry were the chief 
 objects of their terror, they endeavoured to render 
 them incapable of acting by means of a long thong 
 with a stone fastened to each end. This when thrown 
 by a skilful hand twisted about the horse and its 
 rider, and entangled them so as to obstruct their mo- 
 tions. Herrera mentions this as an invention of 
 their own. Dec. 5, lib. viii. c. 4. But as I have 
 observed, this weapon is common among seve- 
 ral barbarous tribes towards the extremity of South 
 America ; and it is more probable that the Peruvians 
 had observed the dexterity with which they used it in 
 hunting, and on this occasion adopted it themselves. 
 The Spaniards were considerably annoyed by it. 
 Herrera, ibid. Another instance of the ingenuity of 
 the Peruvians deserves mention. By turning a river 
 out of its channel they overflowed a "valley, in which 
 a body of the enemy was posted, so suddenly, that it 
 was with the utmost difficulty the Spaniards made 
 their escape. Herrera, dec.- 5, lib. viii. c. 5. 
 
 NOTE 137. Herrera's account of Orellana's voy- 
 age is the most minute, and apparently the most 
 accurate. It was probably taken from the journal of 
 Orellana himself. But the dates are not distinctly 
 marked. His navigation down th^ Coca, or Napo, 
 began early in February, 1541 ; and he arrived at 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. No. 34. 
 
 (he mouth of the river on the 26th of August, having 
 spent near seven months in the voyage. M. de la 
 Condamine, in the year 1742, sailed from Cuenca to 
 Para, a settlement of the Portuguese at the moufh of 
 the river, a navigation much longer than that of Orel- 
 lana, in less than four mouths. Voyage, p. 179. But 
 the two adventurers were very differently provided 
 for the voyage. This hazardous undertaking, to 
 which ambition prompted Orellana, and to which the 
 love of science led M. de la Condamine, was under- 
 taken in the year 1769, by Madam Godin des Odo- 
 nais, from conjugal affection. The narrative of the 
 hardships which she suffered, of the dangers to which 
 she was exposed, and of the disasters which befel her, 
 is one of the most singular and affecting stories in 
 any language, exhibiting in her conduct a striking 
 picture of the fortitude which distinguishes the one 
 sex, mingled with the sensibility and tenderness pe- 
 culiar to the other. Lettre de M. Godin a M. de la 
 Condamine. 
 
 NOTE 138. Herrera gives a striking picture of 
 their indigence. Twelve gentlemen, who had been 
 officers of distinction under Almagro, lodged in.the 
 same house, and having but one cloak among them, 
 it wa* worn alternately by him who had occasion to 
 appear in public, while the rest, from the want of a 
 decent dress, were obliged to -keep within "doors. 
 Their former friends and companions were so much 
 afraid of giving offence to Pizarro, that they durst 
 not entertain or even converse with them. One may 
 conceive what was the condition, and what the in- 
 dignation of men once accustomed to power and 
 opulence, when they felt themselves poor and de 
 spised, without a roof under which to shelter their 
 heads, while they beheld others, whose merits and 
 services were not equal to theirs, living in splendour 
 in sumptuous edifices. Dec. 6, lib. viii. c. 6. 
 
 NOTE 139. Herrera, whose accuracy entitles him 
 to great credit, asserts, that Gonzalo Pizarro pos- 
 sessed domains in the neighbourhood of Chuquesaca 
 de la Plata, which yielded him an annual revenue 
 greater than that of the archbishop of Toledo, the 
 best endowed see in Europe. Dec. 7, lib. vi. c. 3. 
 
 NOTE 140. All the Spanish writers describe his 
 inarch, and the distresses of both parties, very mi- 
 nutely. Zarate observes, that hardly any parallel 
 to it occurs in history, either with respect to the 
 length of the retreat, or the ardour of the pursuit. 
 Pizarro, according to his computation, followed the 
 viceroy upwards of three thousand miles. Lib. v. 
 c. 16, 26. 
 
 NOTE 141. It amounted, according to Fernandez, 
 the best informed historian of that period, to one 
 million four hundred thousand pesos. Lib. ii. c. 79. 
 
 NOTE 142. Carvajal, from the beginning, had 
 been an advocate for an accommodation with Gasca. 
 Finding Pizarro incapable of holding that bold course 
 which he originally suggested, he recommended to 
 him a timely submission to his sovereign as the 
 safest measure. When the president's offers were 
 first communicated to Carvajal, " By our Lady," 
 (said he, in that strain of buffoonery which was fa- 
 miliar to him), "the priest issues gracious bulls. He 
 gives them both good and cheap ; let us not only 
 accept them, but wear them as reliques about our 
 necks." Fernandez, lib. ii. c. 63. 
 
 NOTE 143. During the rebellion of Gonzalo 
 Pizarro seven hundred men were killed in battle, 
 and three hundred and eighty were hanged or be- 
 headed. Herrera, dec. 8, lib. iv. c. 4. Above three 
 hundred of these were cut off by Carvajal. Fernan- 
 dez, lib. ii. c. 91. Zarate makes the number of 
 
 2 M 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 those 
 
 a violent death five hundred. Lib- 1 
 
 put to 
 vii. c. 1. 
 
 NOTE 144 In my inquiries concerning the man- 
 ners and policy of the Mexicans, 1 have received 
 much information from a large manuscript of Don j 
 Alonso de Corita, one of the judges in the court of j 
 audience of Mexico. In the year 1553 Philip II., ' 
 in order to discover the mode of levying tribute from 
 his Indian subjects, that would be most beneficial to ( 
 the crown, and least oppressive to them, addressed a 
 mandate to all the courts of audience in America, 
 enjoining them to answer certain queries which he 
 proposed to them, concerning the ancient form of 
 government established among the various nations 
 of Indians, and the mode in which they had been 
 accustomed to pay taxes to their kings or chiefs. In 
 obedience to this mandate Corita, who had resided 
 nineteen years in America, fourteen of which he 
 passed in New Spain, composed the work of which I 
 have a copy. He acquaints his sovereign, that he 
 had made ft an object, during his residence in Ame- 
 rica, and in all its provinces which he had visited, to 
 inquire diligently into the manners and customs of 
 the natives : that he had conversed for this purpose 
 with many aged and intelligent Indians, and con- 
 sulted several of the Spanish ecclesiastics, who un- 
 derstood the Indian languages most perfectly, .parti- 
 cularly some of those who landed in New Spain 
 soon after the conquest. Corita appears to be a man 
 of some learning, and to have carried on his inqui- 
 ries with the diligence and accuracy to which he 
 pretends. Greater credit is due to his testimony 
 from one circumstance. His work was not composed 
 with a view to publication, or in support of any par- 
 ticular theory, but contains simple though full an- 
 swers to queries proposed to him officially. Though 
 Herrera does not mention him among the authors 
 whom he had followed as guides in his history, 
 should suppose, from several facts of which he takes 
 notice, as well as from several expressions which he 
 uses, that this memorial of Corita was not unknowi 
 to him. 
 
 NOTE 145. The early Spanish writers were so 
 hasty and inaccurate in estimating the numbers o 
 peop'le in the provinces and towns of America that i 
 is impossible to ascertain that of Mexico itself with 
 any degree of precision. Cortes describes the ex 
 tent and populousness of Mexico in general terms 
 which imply that it was not inferior to the greates 
 cities in Europe. Gomara is more explicit, an< 
 affirms, that there were 60.000 houses or families i 
 Mexico, Cron. c. 78. Herrera adopts his opinion 
 dec. 2, lib. vii. c. 13; and the generality of writer 
 follow them implicitly without inquiry or scruple 
 According to this account the inhabitants of Mexic 
 must have been about 300,000. Torquemada, wit 
 his usual propensity to the marvellous, -"asserts, tha 
 there were a hundred and twenty thousand houses o 
 families in Mexico, and consequently about six hun 
 dred thousand inhabitants. Lib. iii. e. 23. But in 
 very judicious account of the Mexican empire, b 
 one of Cortes's officers, the population is fixed a 
 60,000 people. Ramusio, iii. 309, a. Even by th 
 account, which probably is much nearer the tnit 
 than any of the foregoing, Mexico was a great city. 
 NOTE 146. It is to P. Torribio de Benavent 
 that I am indebted for this curious observation. P 
 lafbx, bishop of Cuidad de la Puebla Los Angele 
 confirms and illustrates it more fully. The Mexica 
 (saya he) is the onry language in which a termina 
 tion indicating respect, silavas reverentiales y de cor 
 tesia, may be affixed to every word. By adding th 
 
 final syllable tin or azin to any word, it becomes a 
 
 proper expression of veneration in the mouth of an 
 
 inferior. If, in speaking to an equal, the word 
 
 father is to be used, it is tail, but an inferior says 
 
 tatzin. One priest speaking to another, calls him 
 
 teopixque ; a person of inferior rank calls him teopix- 
 
 catzin. The name of the emperor who reigned when 
 
 Cortes invaded Mexico, was Montezuma ; but his 
 
 vassals, from reverence, pronounced it Montezumazin. 
 
 'orribio, MS. Palaf. Virtudes del Indio, p. 65. The 
 
 Mexicans had not only reverential nouns, but reve- 
 
 ential verbs. The manner in which these are 
 
 rmed from the verbs in common use is explained by 
 
 i. Jos. Aug. Aldama y Guevara in his Mexican 
 
 grammar, No. 188. 
 
 NOTE 147. From comparing several passages iu 
 lorita and Herrera, we may collect, with some de- 
 ree of accuracy, the various modes in which the 
 Icxicans contributed towards the support of govern- 
 ment. Some persons of the first order seem to have 
 ieen exempted from the payment of any tribute, and, 
 .s their only duty to the public, were bound to per- 
 onal service in war, and to follow the banner of 
 heir sovereign with their vassals. 2. The immediate 
 -assals of the crown were bound not only to personal 
 military service, but paid a certain proportion of the 
 produce of their lands in kind. 3. Those who held 
 iffices of honour or trust paid a certain share of what 
 hey received in consequence of holding these. 4. 
 Each Capullee, or association, cultivated some part 
 >f the common field allotted to it, for the behoof of 
 he crown, and deposited the produce in the royal 
 granaries. 5. Some part of whatever was brought 
 :o the public markets, whether fruits of the earth or 
 he various productions of their artists and manufac- 
 turers, was demanded for the public use, and the 
 merchants who paid this were exempted from every 
 >thcr tax. 6. The Mayeques, or adscripti glebce, 
 were bound to cultivate certain districts in every 
 province, which may be considered as crown lands, 
 and brought the increase into public storehouses. 
 Thus the sovereign received some part of whatever 
 was useful or valuable in the country, whether it was 
 the natural production of the soil, or acquired by the 
 industry of the people. What each contributed to- 
 wards the support of government seems to have been 
 inconsiderable. Corita, in answer to one of the que- 
 ries put to the audience of Mexico by Philip II., 
 endeavours to estimate in money the value of what 
 each citizen might be supposed to pay, and does not 
 reckon it at more than three or four reals, about 
 eighteen pence or two shillings a head. 
 
 NOTE 148. Cortes, who seems to have been as 
 much astonished with this as with any instance of 
 Mexican ingenuity, gives a particular description of 
 it. Along one of the causeways, says he, by which 
 they ente'r the city, are conducted two conduits, 
 composed of clay tempered with mortar, about two 
 paces in breadth, and raised about six feet. In one 
 of them is conveyed a stream of excellent water, as 
 large as the body of a man, into the centre of the 
 city, and it supplies all the inhabitants plentifully. 
 The other is empty, that \vhen it is necessary to 
 clean or repair the former, the stream of water may 
 be turned into it. As this conduit passes along two 
 "of the bridges, where there are no breaches in the 
 causeway, through which the salt-water of the lake 
 flows, it is conveyed over them in pipes as large as 
 the body of an ux, then carried from the conduit to 
 the remote quarters of the city in canoes, and sold to 
 the inhabitants. Relat. ap, Ramus. 214, a. 
 
 NOTE 149.- In the armoury of the royal palace at 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 267 
 
 Madrid are shown suits of armour, which are called 
 Montezuma's. They are composed of thin lacquered 
 copper-f.la.tos. la the opinion of very intelligent 
 judges, they are evidently eastern. The forms of the 
 silver ornaments upon them, representing dragons, 
 &c., may be considered as a confirmation of this. 
 They are infinitely superior, in point of workman- 
 ship, to any effort of American art. The Spaniards 
 probably received them from the Philippine islands. 
 The only unquestionable specimen of Mexican art 
 that I know of in Great Britain, is a cup of very fine 
 gold, which is said to have belonged to Montezuma. 
 It weighs 5 oz. 12 dwt. Three drawings of it were 
 exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries, June 10, 
 1765. A man's head is represented on this cup. On 
 one side the full face, on the other the profile, on the 
 third the back parts of the head. The relievo is said 
 to have been produced by pinching the inside of the 
 cup, so as to make the representation of a face on 
 the outside.. The features are gross, but represented 
 with some degree of art, and certainly too rude for 
 Spanish workmanship. This cup was purchased by 
 Edward Earl of Orford, while he lay in the harboui 
 of Cadiz with the fleet under his command, and is 
 now in the possession of his grandson, Lord Archer. 
 I am indebted for this information to my respectable 
 and ingenious friend, Mr. Bamngton. In the sixth 
 volume of the Archoeologia, p 107, is published an 
 account of some masks of Terra Cotta, brought fror 
 a burying-ground on the American continent, about 
 seventy miles from the British settlement on th 
 Mosquito shore. They are said to be likenesses o1 
 chiefs or other eminent persons. From the descrip- 
 tions and engravings of them we have an additional 
 proof of the imperfect state of arts among the Ame- 
 ricans. 
 
 NOTE 150. The learned reader will perceive how 
 much I have been indebted, in this part of my work, 
 to the guidance of the Bishop of Gloucester, who h 
 traced the successive steps by which the human mind 
 advanced in this line of its progress, with much eru- 
 dition, and greater ingenuity. He is the first, as far 
 as I know, who formed a rational and consistent 
 theory concerning the various modes of writing prac- 
 tised by nations, according to the various degrees of 
 their improvement. Div. Legation of Moses, iii. G9, 
 &c. Some important observations have been added 
 by M. le President de Brosses, the learned and intel- 
 ligent author of the Traite de la Formation Meca- 
 nique des Langues, torn. i. 295, &c. 
 
 As the Mexican paintings are the most curious 
 monument extant of the earliest mode of writing, it 
 will not be improper to give some account of the 
 means by which they were preserved from the gene- 
 ral wreck of every work of art in America, and com- 
 municated to the public. For the most early and 
 complete collection of these published by Purchas, 
 we are indebted to the attention of that curious in- 
 quirer, Hakluyt. Don Antonio Mendoza, viceroy 
 of New Spain, having deemed those paintings a pro- 
 per present for Charles V,, the ship in which "they 
 were sent to Spain was taken by a French cruiser, 
 and they came into the possession of Thevet, the 
 king's geographer, who, having travelled himself 
 into the New World, and described one of its pro- 
 vinces, was a curious observer of whatever tended to 
 illustrate the manners of the Americans. On his 
 death they were purchased by Hakluyt, at that time 
 chaplain of the English ambassador to the French 
 court ; and being left by him to Purchas, were pub- 
 lished at the desire of the learned antiquary Sir 
 Henry Spelman. Purchas, iii. 1065. They "were 
 
 ! translated from English into French by M'eichlrd- 
 ! deck Thevenot, and published in his collection of 
 j voyages, A. D. 1683. 
 
 The second specimen of Mexican picture-writing 
 was published by Dr. Francis Gemelli Carreri, in 
 two copper-plates. The first is a map, or represen- 
 tation of the progress of the ancient Mexicans on 
 their first arrival in the country, and of the various 
 stations in which they settled, before they founded 
 the capital of their empire in the lake of Mexico. 
 The second is a chronological wheel, or circle, re- 
 presenting the manner in which they computed and 
 marked their cycle of fifty-two years. He received 
 both from Don Carlos de Siguenza y Congorra, a 
 diligent collector of ancient Mexican documents. 
 But as it seems now to be a received opinion 
 (founded, as far as I know, on no good evidence) 
 that Carreri was never out of Italy, and that his 
 famous Giro del Mundo is an account of a fictitious 
 voyage, I have not mentioned these paintings in the 
 text. They have, however, manifestly the appear- 
 ance of being Mexican productions, and are allowed 
 to be so by Boturini, who was well qualified to de- 
 termine whether they were genuine or suppositious. 
 M. Clavigcro likewise admits them to be genuine 
 paintings of .the ancient Mexicans. To me they 
 always appeared to be so, though, from my desire to 
 rest no part of my narrative upon questionable 
 authority, I did not refer to them The style of 
 painting in the former is considerably more perfect 
 than any other specimen of Mexican design ; but as 
 the original'is said to have been much defaced by 
 time, I suspect that it has been improved by some 
 touches from the hand of an European artist. Car- 
 reri, Churchill, iv. p. 487. The chronological 
 wheel is a just delineation of the Mexican mode of 
 computing time, as described by Acosta, lib. vi. c. 2. 
 It seems to resemble one which that learned Jesuit 
 had seen ; and if it be admitted as a genuine monu- 
 ment, it proves that the Mexicans had artificial or 
 arbitrary characters, which represented several 
 things besides numbers. Each month is there re- 
 presented by a symbol expressive of some work, or 
 rite peculiar to it. 
 
 The third specimen of Mexican painting was dis- 
 covered by another Italian. In 1736, Lorenzo 
 Boturino Bcnaeluci set out for New Spain, and was 
 led by several incidents to study the language of the 
 Mexicans, and to collect the remains of their his- 
 torical monuments. He persisted nine years in his 
 researches, with the enthusiasm of a projector, and 
 the patience of an antiquary. In 1746, he pub- 
 lished at Madrid, Ida de una Nueva Historia Gene- 
 ral de la America Septentrional, containing an ac- 
 count of the result of his inquiries ; and he added to 
 it a catalogue of his American Historical Museum, 
 arranged under thirty-six different heads. His idea 
 of a New History appears to me the work of a whim- 
 sical credulous man. But his catalogue of Mexican 
 maps, paintings, tribute-rolls, calendars. &c., is 
 much larger than one could have expected. Unfor- 
 tunately a ship, in which he had sent a considerable 
 part of them to Europe, was taken by an English 
 privateer during the war between Great Britain and 
 Spain, which commenced in the year 1739; and it 
 is probable that they perished by falling into the 
 bands of ignorant captors. Boturini himself in- 
 curred the displeasure of the Spanish court, and 
 died in an hospital at Madrid. The history, of 
 which the Idea, &c. was only a prospectus, was never 
 published. The remainder of his Museum seems to 
 have been dispersed. Some part of it came into tho 
 
2G8 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 possession' of the present archbishop of Toledo, when j 
 he was primate of New Spain ; and he published ' 
 from it that curious tribute roll which I have men- ' 
 tioned. 
 
 The only other collection of Mexican paintings, as 
 far as 1 can learn, is in the imperial library at 
 Vienna. By order of their imperial majesties, I 
 have obtained such a specimen of these as I desired, 
 in eight paintings made with so much fidelity, that I 
 am informed the copies could hardly be distinguished 
 from the originals. According to a note in this 
 Codex Mexicanus, it appears to have been a present 
 from Emmanuel king of Portugal to pope Clement 
 VII., who died A. D. 1533. After passing through 
 the hands of several illustrious proprietors, it fell 
 into those of the Cardinal of Saxe-Eisenach, who 
 presented it to the emperor Leopold. These paint- 
 ings are manifestly Mexican, but they are in a style 
 very different from any of the former. An engraving 
 has' been made of one of them, in order to gratify 
 such of my readers as may deem this an object wor- 
 thy of their attention. Were it an object of sufficient 
 importance, it might perhaps be possible, by re- 
 courfie to the plates of Purchas, and the archbishop 
 of Toledo, as a key, to form plausible conjectures 
 concerning the meaning of this picture. Many of 
 the figures are evidently similar. A. A. are targets 
 and darts, almost in the same form with those pub- 
 lished by Purchas, p. 1070, 1071, &c. B. B. are 
 figures of temples, nearly resembling those in Pur- 
 chas, p. 1109, and 1113., and in Lorenzana, plate II. 
 C. is a bale ofmantles, or cotton cloths, the figure of 
 which occurs in almost every plate of Purchas and 
 Lorenzana. E. E. E. seem to be Mexican captains 
 in their war dress, the fantastic ornaments of which 
 resemble the figures in Purchas, p. 1110, 1111. 
 2113. I should suppose this picture to be a tribute- 
 roll, as their mode of noting numbers occurs fre- 
 quently. D. D. D., c. According to Boturini, 
 the mode of computation by the number of knots 
 was known to the Mexicans as well as to the Peru- 
 vians, p. 85., and the manner in which the number 
 of units is represented in the Mexican paintings in 
 my possession seems to confirm this opinion. They 
 plainly resemble a string of knots on a cord or 
 slender rope. 
 
 Since I published the former edition, Mr. Waddi- 
 love, who is still pleased to continue his friendly 
 attention to procure me information, has discovered, 
 in the library of the Escurial, a volume in folio, con- 
 sisting of forty sheets of a kind of pasteboard, each 
 the size of a common sheet of writing paper, with 
 great variety of uncouth and whimsical figures of 
 Mexican painting, in very fresh colours, and with an 
 explanation in Spanish to most of them. The first 
 twenty two sheets are the signs of the months, days, 
 &c. About the middle of each sheet are two or 
 more large figures for the month, surrounded by the 
 signs of the days. The -last eighteen sheets are not 
 so filled with figures. They seem to be signs of 
 deities, and images of various objects. According 
 to this Calendar in the Escurial, the Mexican year 
 contained 286 days, divided into 22 months of 13 
 days. Each day is represented by a different sign, 
 taken from some natural object, a serpent, a dog, a 
 lizard, a reed, a house, &c. The signs of days in 
 the Calendar of the Escurial are precisely the same 
 with those mentioned by Boturini, Idea, &c. p. 45. 
 But, if we may give credit to that author, the Mexican 
 year contained 360 days, divided into 18 months of 
 20 days. The order of days in every month was 
 computed, according to him, first by what he calls a 
 
 tridecennary progression of days from one to thirteen, 
 in the same manner as in the Calendar of the 
 Escurial, and then by a septenary progression of 
 days from one to seven, making in all twenty. In 
 this calendar not only the signs which distinguish 
 each day, but the qualities supposed to be peculiar 
 to each' month, are marked. * There are certain 
 weaknesses which seem to accompany the human 
 mind through every stage of its progress in observa- 
 tion and science. Slender as was the knowledge of 
 the Mexicans in astronomy, it appears to have been 
 already connected with judicial astrology. The for- 
 tune and character of persons born in each month 
 are supposed to be decided by some superior influ- 
 ence predominant at the time of nativity. Hence it 
 is foretold in the calendar, that all who are born in 
 one month will be rich, in another warlike, in a 
 third luxurious, &c. The pasteboard, or whatever 
 substance it may be on which the calendar in the 
 Escurial is painted, seems, by Mr. Waddilove's de- 
 scription of it, to resemble nearly that in the impe- 
 rial library at Vienna. In several particulars the 
 figures bear ^ome likeness to those in the plate 
 which I have published. The figures marked D, 
 which induced me to conjecture that this painting 
 might be a tribute-roll similar to those published by 
 Purchas and the Archbishop of Toledo, Mr. Wad- 
 dilove supposes to be signs of days ; and I have such 
 confidence in the accuracy of his observations, as to 
 conclude his opinion to be well founded. It appears, 
 from the characters in which the explanations of the 
 figures are written, that this curious monument of 
 Mexican art has been obtained soon after the con- 
 quest of the empire. It is singular that it should 
 never have been mentioned by any Spanish author. 
 
 NOTE 151. The first was called the Prince of the 
 Deathful Lance ; the second the Divider of Men ; 
 the third the Shedder of Blood ; the fourth the Lord 
 of the Dark-house. Acosta, lib. vi. c. 25. 
 
 NOTE 152. The temple of Cholula, which was 
 deemed more holy than any in New Spain, was like- 
 wise the most considerable. But it was nothing 
 more than a mount of solid earth. According to 
 Torquemada, it was above a quarter of a league in 
 circuit at the base, and rose to the height of forty 
 fathom. Mon. Ind. lib. iii. c. 19. Even M. Cla- 
 vigero acknowledges that all the Mexican temples 
 were solid structures, or earthen mounts, and of 
 consequence cannot be considered as any evidence of 
 their having made any considerable progress in the 
 art, of building. Clavig. ii. 207. 
 
 From inspecting various figures of temples in the 
 paintings engraved by Purchas, there seems to be 
 some reason for suspecting that all their temples were 
 constructed in the same manner. See Vol. iii. p. 1 109, 
 1110, 1113. 
 
 NOTE 153. Not only in Tlascala and Tepeaca, 
 but even in Mexico itself, the houses of the people 
 were mere huts built with turf or mud, or the 
 branches of trees. They were extremely low, and 
 slight, and without any furniture but a few earthen 
 vessels. Like the rudest Indians several families 
 resided under the same roof, without having any se- 
 parate apartments. Herrera, dec. ii. lib. vii. c. 13, 
 lib. x. c. 22, dec. 3, lib. iv. c. 17. Torquem. lib. iii. 
 chap. 23. 
 
 NOTE 154. I am informed by a person who re- 
 sided long in New Spain, and visited almost every 
 province of it, that there is not, in all the extent of 
 that vast empire, any monument or vestige of any 
 building more ancient than the conquest, nor of any 
 bridge or highway, except some remains of the 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 269 
 
 way from Guadaloupe to that gate of Mexico by 
 whicu Cortes entered the city. MS. penes me. The 
 author of another account in manuscript observes, 
 " That at this day there does not remain even the 
 smallest vestige of the existence of any ancient Indian 
 building public or private, either in Mexico or in 
 any province of New Spain. I have travelled, says 
 he, through all the countries adjacent to them, viz. 
 New Galicia, New Biscay, New Mexico, Sonora, 
 Cinaloa, the new kingdom of Leon, and New San- 
 tandero, without having observed any monument 
 worth notice, except some ruins near an ancient 
 village in the valley de Casas Grandes, in lat. N. 
 3 deg. 46 min., long. 258 deg. '24 min. from the 
 island of Teneriffe, or 460 leagues N. N. W. from 
 Mexico." He describes these ruins minutely, and 
 they appear to be the remains of a paltry building of 
 turf and stone, plastered over with white earth or 
 lime. A missionary informed that gentleman that 
 he had discovered the ruins of another edifice simi- 
 lar to the former, about an hundred leagues towards 
 N. W. on the banks of the river St. Pedro. MS. 
 penes me. 
 
 These testimonies derive great credit from one cir- 
 cumstance, that they were not given in support of 
 any particular system or theory, but as simple an- 
 swers to queries which I had proposed. It is pro- 
 bable, however, that when these gentlemen assert 
 that no ruins or monuments of any ancient work 
 whatever are now to be discovered in the Mexican 
 empire, they meant that there were no such ruins or 
 monuments as conveyed any idea of grandeur or 
 magnificence in the works of its ancient inhabitants. 
 For it appears from the testimony of several Spanish 
 authors, that in Otumba, Tlascala, Cholula, &c., 
 some vestiges of ancient buildings are still visible. 
 Villa Segnor Theatro Amer. p. 143, 308, 353. D. 
 Fran. Ant. Lorenzana, formerly Archbishop of 
 Mexico, and now of Toledo, in his introduction to 
 that edition of the Cartas de Relacion of Cortes, 
 which he published at Mexico, mentions some ruins 
 which are still visible in several of the towns through 
 which Cortes passed in his way to the capital, p. 4, 
 &c. But neither of these authors gives any descrip- 
 tion of them, and they seem to be so very inconside- 
 rable, as to shew only that some buildings had once 
 been there. The large mount of earth at Cholula, 
 which the Spaniards dignified with the name of 
 temple, still remains, but without any steps by which 
 to ascend, or any facing of stone. It appears now 
 like a natural mount, covered with grass and shrubs, 
 and possibly it was never any thing more. Torquem. 
 lib. i-ii. c. 19. I have received a minute description 
 of the remains of a temple near Cuernavaca, on the 
 road from Mexico to Acapulco. It is composed of 
 large stones, fitted to each other as nicely as those in 
 the buildings of the Peruvians, which are hereafter 
 mentioned. At the foundation it forms a square of 
 twenty-five yards ; but as it rises in height it dimi- 
 nishes in extent, not gradually, but by being con- 
 tracted suddenly at regular distances, so that it must 
 have resembled the figure B in the plate. It termi- 
 nated, it is said, in a spire. 
 
 NOTE 155. The exaggeration of the Spanish his- 
 torians, with respect to the number of human victims 
 sacrificed in Mexico, appears to be very great. Ac 
 cording to Gomara, there was no year in which 
 twenty thousand human victims were not offered t 
 the Mexican divinities, and in some years the) 
 amounted to fifty thousand. Cron. c. 229. The 
 skulls of those unhappy persons were ranged in orde 
 in a building erected for that purpose, and two o 
 
 Cortes's officers, who had counted them, informed 
 Gomara that their number was a hundred and thirty- 
 six thousand. Ibid. c. 82. Herrera's account is sti'll 
 more incredible, that the number of victims was so 
 reat that five thousand have been sacrificed in one 
 day, nay, on some occasions, no less than twenty 
 housand. Dec. iii. lib. ii. c. 16. Torquemada goes 
 >eyond both in extravagance; for he asserts that 
 wcnty thousand children, exclusive of other vic- 
 ims, were slaughtered annually. Mon. Ind. lib. vii. 
 :. 21. The most respectable authority in favour of 
 inch high numbers is that of Zumurraga, the first 
 )ishop of Mexico, who, in a letter to the chapter-ge - 
 neral of his order, A. I). 1631, asserts that the Mex- 
 cans sacrificed annually twenty thousand victims. 
 Davilo. Teatro Eccles. 126. In opposition to all 
 hese accounts, B. de las Casas observes, that if there 
 had been such an annual waste of the human species, 
 he country could never have arrived at that degree 
 >f populousness for which it was remarkable when 
 he Spaniards first landed there. This reasoning is 
 ust. If the number of victims in all the provinces 
 f New Spain had been so great, not only must po- 
 mlation have been prevented from increasing, but 
 he human race must have been exterminated in a 
 short time. For besides the waste of the species by 
 such numerous sacrifices, it is .observable that wher- 
 ever the fate of captives taken in war is either certain 
 death or perpetual slavery, as men can gain nothing 
 )y submitting speedily to an enemy, they always re- 
 sist to the uttermost, and war becomes bloody and 
 destructive to the last degree. Las Casas positively 
 sserts, that the Mexicans never sacrificed more than 
 fifty or a hundred persons in a year. See his dispute 
 with Sepulveda, subjoined to his Brevissima Rela- 
 cion, p. 105. Cortes does not specify what number 
 of victims was sacrificed annually ; but B. Diaz del 
 Castillo relates that an inquiry having been made 
 with respect to this by the Franciscan monks who 
 were sent into New Spain immediately after the con- 
 quest, it was found that about two thousand five hun- 
 dred were sacrificed every year in Mexico. C. 207. 
 
 NOTE 156. -It is hardly necessary to observe that 
 the Peruvian chronology is not only obscure, but 
 repugnant to conclusions deduced from the most ac- 
 curate and extensive observations, concerning thf 
 time that elapses during each reign, in any give 
 succession of princes. The medium has been foun- 
 not to exceed twenty years. According to Acost* 
 and Garcilasso de la Vega, Huana Capac, who died 
 abont the year 1527, was the twelfth inca. Accord- 
 ing to this rule of computing, the duration of the 
 Peruvian monarchy ought not to have been reckoned 
 above two hundred and forty years ; but they affirm 
 that it had subsisted four hundred years. Acosta, 
 lib. vi. c. 19. Vega, lib. i. c. 9. By this account 
 each reign is extended at a medium to thirty -three 
 years instead of twenty, the number ascertained by 
 Sir Isaac Newton's observations ; but so imperfect 
 were the Peruvian traditions, that though the total is 
 boldly marked, the number of years in each reign is 
 unknown. 
 
 NOTE 157 Many of the early Spanish writers 
 assert that the Peruvians offered human sacrifices. 
 Xerez, p. 190. Zarate, lib. i. c. 11. Acosta, lib. v. 
 c. 19. -But Garcilasso de la Vega contends, that 
 though this barbarous practice prevailed among their 
 uncivilized ancestors, it was totally abolished by the 
 incas, and that no human victim was ever offered in 
 any temple of the sun. This assertion, and the plau- 
 sible reasons with which he confirms it, are sufficient 
 to refute the Spanish writers, whose accounts oeem 
 
270 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 to be founded entirely upon report, not upon what 
 they themselves had observed. Vega, lib. ii. c. 4. In 
 one of their festivals the Peruvians ofiereu cakeb o 
 bread moistened with blood drawn from the arms 
 the eyebrows, and noses of their children. Id. lib. vii 
 c. 6. This rite may have been derived from thei' 
 ancient practice, in their uncivilized state, of sacri 
 ficing human victims. 
 
 NOTE 158. The Spaniards have adopted both 
 those customs of the ancient Peruvians. They hay< 
 preserved some of the aqueducts or canals, made ii 
 the days of the incas, and have made new ones, bi 
 which they water every field that they cultivate 
 Ulloa, Voyage, torn. i. 4'2'2, 477. They likewise con 
 tinue to use yuano, or the dung of sea-fowls, as ma 
 nure. Ulloa gives a description of the almost incre 
 dible quantity of it in the small islands near the 
 coast. Ibid. 481. 
 
 NOTE 159. The temple of Cayambo, the palace 
 of the inca at Callo in the plain of Lacatunga, and 
 that of Atun-Cannar, are described by Ulloa, torn, i 
 286, &c., who inspected them with great care. M 
 de Condarnine published a curious memoir concern 
 ing the ruins of Atun-Cannar. Mem. de 1' Academic 
 de Berlin, A. D. 1746, p. 435. Acosta describes th< 
 ruins of Cuzco, which he had examined. Lib. vi 
 c. 1 4. Garcilasso, in his usual style, gives pompous 
 and confused descriptions of several temples anc 
 other public edifices. Lib. iii. c. 1, c. 21, lib. vi. c. 4 
 
 Don Zapata, in a large treatise concerning 
 
 Peru, which has not hitherto been published, com 
 municates some information with respect to severa 
 monuments of the ancient Peruvians which have 
 not been mentioned by other authors. MS. penes me, 
 Articulo xx. Ulloa describes some of the ancienl 
 Peruvian fortifications, which were likewise works ol 
 great extent and solidity. Tom. i. 391. Three cir- 
 cumstances struck all those observers ; the vast size 
 of the stones which the Peruvians- employed in some 
 of their buildings. Acosta measured one which was 
 thirty feet long, eighteen broad, and six in thick- 
 ness ; and yet he adds, that in the fortress at Cuzco, 
 there were "stones considerably large?. It is difficult 
 to conceive how the Peruvians could move these and 
 raise them to the height of even twelve feet. The 
 second circumstance is the imperfection of the Peru- 
 vian art, when applied to working in timber. By 
 the patience and perseverance natural to Ameri- 
 cans, stones may be formed into any shape, merely 
 by rubbing one against another, or by the use or 
 hatchets or other instruments made of stone; but 
 with such rude tools little progress can be made in 
 carpentry. The Peruvians could not mortise two 
 beams together, or give any degree of union or sta- 
 bility 'to any work composed of timber. As they 
 could not form a centre, they were totally unac- 
 quainted with the use of arches in building ; nor can 
 the Spanish authors conceive how they were able to 
 frame a roof for those ample structures which th( j y 
 raised. 
 
 The third circumstance is a striking proof, which 
 all the monuments of the Peruvians furnish, of their 
 want of ingenuity and invention, accompanied with 
 patience no less astonishing None of the stones 
 employed in those works were formed into any par- 
 ticular or uniform shape, which could render them 
 fit for being compacted together in building. The 
 Indians took them as they fell from the mountains, 
 or were raised out of the quarries. Some were 
 square, some triangular, some convex, some concave. 
 Their art and industry were employed in joining 
 them together, by forming ^such hollows in the one 
 
 as perfectly corresponded to the projections or rising* 
 in the other. This tedious operation, which might 
 have been so eabily alii. .'., ./,* .^a^iiug the sur- 
 face of the stones to each other, either by rubbing or 
 by their hatchets of copper, would be deemed incre- 
 dible, if it were not put beyond doubt by inspecting 
 the remains of those buildings. It gives them a 
 very singular appearance to an European eye. There 
 is no regular layer or stratum of building, and no one 
 stone resembles another in dimensions or form. At 
 the same time, by the persevering but ill-directed 
 industry of the Indians, they are all joined with that 
 minute nicety which I have mentioned. Ulloa made 
 this observation concerning therform of the stones in 
 the fortress of Atun-Cannar. Voy. i. p. 387. Pineto 
 gives a similar description of the fortress of Cuzco, 
 the most perfect of all the Peruvian works. Zatapa, 
 MS. penes me. According to M. de Condamine, 
 there were regular strata of building in some parts 
 of Atun-Cannar, which he remarks as singular, and 
 as a proof of some progress in improvement. 
 
 NOTE 160. The appearance of those bridges, 
 which bend with their own weight, wave with the 
 wind, and are considerably agitated by the motion 
 of every person who passes along them, is very 
 frightful at first. But the Spaniards have found 
 them to be the easiest mode of passing the torrents 
 in Peru, over which it would be difficult to throw 
 more solid structures either of stone or timber. They 
 form those hanging bridges so strong and broad that 
 loaded mules pass along them. All the trade of 
 Cuzco is carried on W means of such a bridge over, 
 the river Apurimac. Ulloa, torn. i. 358. A more 
 simple contrivance was employed in passing smaller 
 streams : a basket, in which the traveller was placed, 
 being suspended from a strong rope stretched across 
 the stream, it was pushed or drawn from the one side 
 to the other. Ibid. 
 
 NOTE 161. My information with respect to those 
 events is taken from Noticia breve de la cxpedicion 
 militar de Sinora y Ciniloa, su exito feliz, y vanto- 
 joso estado, en que por ccinsecuentia de ello, se han 
 puesto ambas provincias, published at Mexico, June 
 17th, 1771, in order to satisfy the curiosity of the 
 merchants, who had furnished the viceroy with mo- 
 ney for defraying the expense of the armament. The 
 copies of this Noticia are very rare in Madrid; but I 
 have obtained one, which has enabled me to commu- 
 nicate these curious facts to the public. According 
 to this account there was found in the mine Yeco- 
 rato in Cinaloa a grain of gold of twenty-two carats, 
 which weighed sixteen marks four ounces four ocha- 
 vas ; this was sent to Spain as a present fit for the 
 cing, and is now deposited in the royal cabinet at 
 Madrid. 
 
 NOTE 162. The uncertainty of geographers with 
 respect to this point is remarkable, for Cortes seems 
 ;o have surveyed its coasts with great accuracy. The 
 Archbishop of Toledo has published, from the origi- 
 nal in the possession of the Marquis del Valle, (he 
 descendant of Cortes, a map drawn in 1541, by the 
 nlot Domingo Castillo, in which California is laid 
 down as a peninsula, stretching out nearly in the 
 ;amc direction which is now given to it in the best 
 naps ; and the point where Rio Colorado enters the 
 *ulf is marked with precision. Hist, de Nueva Es- 
 agna, 327. 
 
 NOTE 163. I am indebted for this fact to L'Abbe 
 laynal, torn. iii. 103 ; and upon consulting an intel- 
 ligent person, long settled on the Mosquito shore, 
 and who has been engaged in the logwood trade, I 
 find that ingenious author has been well informed. 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 271 
 
 The logwood cut near the town of St. Francis of 
 Campeachy is of much better quality than that on the 
 other side of Yucatan : and the English trade in the 
 bay of Honduras is almost at an end. 
 
 NOTE 1G4. P. Torribio de Benevente, or Moto- 
 linea, has enumerated ten causes of the rapid depo- 
 pulation of Mexico, to which he gives the name of 
 the Ten Plagues. Many of these are not peculiar 
 to that province. 1. The introduction of the small- 
 pox. This disease was first brought into New Spain 
 in the year 1520, by a negro slave who attended Nar- 
 vaez in his expedition against Cortes. Torribio 
 affirms, that one half of the people in the provinces 
 visited with this dis-tempcr died. To this mortality, 
 occasioned by the small pox, Torquemada adds the 
 destructive effects of two contagious distempers which 
 raged in the year 1545 and 1576. In the former 
 800,000, in the latter above two millions perished, 
 according to an exact account taken by order of the 
 viceroys. Mon. Ind. i. 642. The small-pox was 
 not introduced into Peru for several years after the 
 invasion of the Spaniards; but there, too, that dis- 
 temper proved very fatal to the natives. Garcia 
 Origen, p. 88. 2. The numbers who were killed or 
 died of famine in their war with the Spaniards, par- 
 ticularly during the siege of Mexico. 3. The great 
 famine that followed after the reduction of Mexico, 
 as all the people engaged, either on one side or other, 
 had neglected the cultivation of their lands. Some- 
 thing similar to this happened in all the other coun- 
 tries conquered by the Spaniards. 4. The grievous 
 tasks imposed by the Spaniards upon the people be- 
 longing to their Repartimientos. 5. The oppressive 
 burden of taxes which they were unable to pay, and 
 from which they could hope for no exemption 6. 
 The numbers employed in collecting the gold car- 
 ried down by the torrents from the mountains, who 
 were forced from their own habitations, without any 
 provision made for their subsistence, and subjected 
 to ail the rigour of cold in those elevated regions. 
 7. The immense labour of rebuilding Mexico, which 
 Cortes urged on with such precipitate ardour as de- 
 stroyed an incredible number of people. 8. The 
 number of people condemned to servitude, under 
 various pretexts, and employed in work-ing the sil- 
 ver mines. These, marked by each proprietor with 
 a hot iron, like his cattle, were driven in herds to 
 the mountains. The nature of the labour to which 
 they were subjected there, the noxious vapours of 
 the'inines, the' coldness of the climate, and scarcity 
 of food, were so fatal, that Torribio affirms the coun- 
 try round several of those mines, particularly near 
 Guaxago, was covered with dead bodies, the air cor- 
 rupted with their stench, and so many vultures and 
 other voracious birds hovered about for their prey, 
 that the sun was darkened with their flight. 10. 
 The Spaniards, in the different expeditions which 
 they undertook and by the civil war* which they 
 carried on, destroyed many of the natives whom they 
 compelled to serve them as Tamemes, or carriers of 
 burdens. This last mode of oppression was particu- 
 larly ruinous to the Peruvians. From the number of 
 Indians who perished in Gonzalo Pizarro's expedi- 
 tion into the countries to the east of the Andes, one 
 may form some idea of what they suffered in similar 
 services, and how fast they were wasted by them. 
 Torribio, MS. Corita, in his Breve y Summaria 
 Belacion, illustrates and confirms several of Torri- 
 bio's observations, to which he refers. MS. penes me. 
 
 NOTE 165. Even Montesquieu has adopted this 
 idea. lib. viii. c. 18. But the passion of that great 
 man for system sometimes rendered Hi*" inattentive 
 
 to research ; and from his capacity to refine, he was 
 apt, in some instances, to overlook obvious and just 
 causes. 
 
 NOTE 166. A strong proof of this occurs in the 
 testament of Isabella, where she discovers the most 
 tender concern for the humane and mild usage of 
 the Indians. Those laudable sentiments of the 
 queen have been adopted into the public law of 
 Spain, and serve as the introduction to the regula- 
 tions contained under the title of Of the good treat- 
 ment of the Indians. Recopil. lib. vi. tit. x. 
 
 NOTE 167. In the seventh Title of the first book 
 of the Recopilacion^ which contains the laws concern- 
 ing the powers and functions of archbishops and 
 bishops, almost a third part of them relates to what 
 is incumbent upon them as guardians of the Indians, 
 and points out the various methods in which it is 
 their duty to interpose, in order to defend them from 
 oppression, either with respect to their persons or 
 property. Not only do the laws commit to them this 
 honourable and humane office, but the ecclesiastics 
 of America actually exercise it. 
 
 Innumerable proofs of this might be produced 
 from Spanish authors. But I rather refer to Gage, 
 as he was not disposed to ascribe any merit to the 
 popish clergy to which they were not fully entitled. 
 Survey, p. 142, 192, &c. Henry Hawks, an English 
 merchant, who resided five years in New Spain pre- 
 vious to the year 1572, gives the same favourable 
 account of the popish clergy. Hakluyt, iii. 466. By 
 a law of Charles V. not only bishops but other eccle- 
 siastics, are empowered to inform and admonish the 
 civil magistrates, if any Indian is deprived of his just 
 liberty and rights ; Recopilac. lib. vi. tit. vi. ley. 14 ; 
 and thus were constituted legal protectors of the 
 Indians. Some of the Spanish ecclesiastics refuse to 
 grant absolution to such of their countrymen as pos- 
 sessed Encomiendas, and considered the Indians as 
 slaves, or employed them in working their mines. 
 Gonz. Davil. Teatro Eccles. i. 157. 
 
 NOTE 168. According to Gage, Chiapa dos In- 
 dos contains 4000 families ; and he mentions it only 
 as one of the largest Indian towns in America, 
 p. 104. 
 
 * NOTE 169. It is very difficult to obtain an accu- 
 rate account of the state of population in those king- 
 doms of Europe where the police is most perfect, and 
 where science has made the greatest progress. In 
 Spanish America, where knowledge is still in its 
 infancy, and few men have leisure to engage in re- 
 searches merely speculative, little attention has been 
 paid to this curious inquiry. But in the year 1741, 
 I Philip V. enjoined the viceroys and governors of the 
 ; several provinces in America to make an actual sur- 
 j vey of the people under their jurisdiction, and to 
 transmit a report concerning their number and oc- 
 cupations. In consequence of this order the Conde 
 de Fuen-Clara, viceroy of New Spain, appointed D. 
 Jos. Antonio de Villa Segnor y Sanchez to execute 
 that commission in New Spain. From the reports 
 of the magistrates in the several districts, as well as 
 from his own observations and long acquaintance 
 with most of the provinces, Villa Segnor published 
 the result of his inquiries in his Teatro Americano. 
 His report, however, is imperfect Of the nine dio- 
 ceses, into which the Mexican empire has been di- 
 vided, he has published an account of five only, viz., 
 the archbishopric of Mexico, the bishoprics of Puebla 
 de los Angeles, Mechoacan, Oaxaca, and Nova Ga- 
 licia. The bishoprics of Yucatan, Verapaz, Chiapa,, 
 and Guatemala, are entirely omitted, though the two 
 latter comprehend countries in which the Indian 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 lace is more numerous than in any part of New cording to an account which I have reason i to coasi-. 
 Spain In his survey of the extensive diocese of ! der as accurate, the number of copies of the bull of 
 Nova 'Galicia, the situation of the different Indian , Cruzada, exported to Peru on each new publication, 
 
 - ,326. 1 am in- 
 
 people only in a small part 6f it. ~The Indians of formed that but few Indians purchase bulls, and that 
 
 J_H, nlS Su.rV6y OI LUc extcilbivu u-iuucac wi . **v* w j*- 
 
 "Galicia the situation of the different Indian , Cruzada, exported to Peru on each new publication, 
 villages is described, but he specifies the number of! is 1,171,953; to New Spam, 2,649,3 
 people only in a small part of it. The Indians of formed that but few Indians purchase 1 
 that i extensive province, in which the Spanish domi- they are sold chiefly to the Spanish inhabitants, and 
 nion is imperfectly established, are not registered those of mixed race; so that the number of Spaniards 
 with the same accuracy as in other parts of New and people of a mixed race will amount by this mode 
 Spain According to Villa Segnor, the actual state ; of computation to at least throe millions, 
 of population in the five dioceses abovementioned is, j The number of inhabitants in many of the towns 
 of Spaniards, negroes, mulattoes, and mestizos, in , in Spanish America may give us some idea of the 
 the dioceses of I extent of population, and correct the inaccurate but 
 
 Familios. j popular notion entertained in Great Britain concern- 
 105,202 ing the weak and desolate state of their colonies. 
 30,600 j The city of Mexico contains at least 150,000 people. 
 30,840 i It is remarkable that Torquemada, who wrote his 
 7,296 \ Monarquia Indiana about the year 1612, reckons the 
 16,770 ! inhabitants of Mexico at that time to be only 7000 
 
 I Spaniards and 8000 Indians. Lib. iii. c. 26. Puebla 
 
 190,708 I de los Angeles contains above 60,000 Spaniards, and 
 
 At the rate of five to a family, the total number is I people of a mixed race. Villa Segnor, p. 247. Gua- 
 
 I dalaxara contains above 30,000, exclusive of In- 
 119,511 j dians. Id. ii.206. Lima contains 54,000. DeCosme 
 88,240 Bueno Descr. de Peru, 1764. Carthagena contains 
 36,196 
 44,222 
 6,222 
 
 294,391 
 At the rate of five to a family, the total nnmber is 
 
 Mexico : 
 Los Angeles 
 Mechoacan 
 Oaxaca 
 NovaGalieia 
 
 953,540. 
 
 Indian families in the diocese of Mexico 
 
 Los Angeles 
 
 Mechoacau 
 
 Gaxaca : 
 
 Nova Galicia 
 
 25,000. Potosi contain-, '.>"> n.in Bueno 17C7. 
 I'-- r ,uan contains above 20,000, l.iloa, i.287. Towns 
 of a "second class are still more numerous. The 
 cities in the most thriving settlements of other Eu- 
 ropean nations in America cannot be compared with 
 these. 
 
 1,471,955. We may rely with greater certainty on j Such are the detached accounts of the number of 
 this computation of the number of Indians, as it is I people in several towns, which I found scattered in 
 
 taken from the Matricula, or register, according to 
 which the tribute paid by them is collected. As 
 four dioceses of nine are totally omitted, and in that 
 of Nova Galicia the numbers are imperfectly re- 
 corded, we may conclude that the number of Indians 
 in the Mexican empire exceeds two millions. 
 
 The account of the number of'Spaniards, &c. seems 
 not to be equally complete. Of many places, Villa 
 Segnor observes in general terms, that several Spa- 
 niards, negroes, and people of mixed race, reside 
 there, without specifying their number. If, there- 
 fore, we make allowance for these, and for all who 
 reside in the four dioceses omitted, the number of 
 Spaniards, and those of a mixed race, may probably 
 amount to a million and a half. In some places 
 Villa Segnor distinguishes between Spaniards and 
 the inferior races of negroes, mulattoes, and mesti- 
 zos, and marks their number separately. But he 
 generally blends them together. But from the pro- 
 portion observable in those places, where the num- 
 ber of each is marked, as well as from the account 
 of the state of population in New Spain by other 
 authors, it is manifest that the number of negroes 
 and persons of a mixed race far exceeds that of Spa- 
 niards. Perhaps the latter ought not to be reckoned 
 above 500,000 to a million of the former. 
 
 Defective as this account may be, I have not been 
 able to procure such intelligence concerning the 
 number of people in Peru, as might enable me to 
 form any conjecture equally satisfying with respect 
 to the degree of its population. I have been in- 
 formed that in the year 1761 the protector of the 
 Indians in the viceroyalty of Peru computed that 
 612,780 paid tribute to the king. As all females, 
 and persons under age, are exempted from this tax 
 in Peru, the total number of Indians ought by that 
 account to be 2,449,120, MS. penes me. 
 
 I shall mention another mode, by which one may 
 compute, or at least form a guess concerning the 
 state of population in New Spain and Peru. Ac- 
 
 authors whom I thought worthy of credit. But I 
 have obtained an enumeration of the inhabitants of 
 the towns in the province of Quito, on the accuracy 
 of which I can rely ; and I communicate it to the 
 public, both to gratify curiosity, and to rectify the 
 mistaken notion which I have mentioned. St. Fran- 
 cisco do Quito contains between 50 and 60,000^)eo- 
 ple of all the different races. Besides the city, there 
 are in the Corregimien .> twenty-nine euros or pa- 
 rishes established in the principal villages, each of 
 which has smaller hamlets depending upon it. The 
 inhabitants of these arc mostly Indians and mesti- 
 zos. St. Juan de Pasto has between 6 and 8,000 
 inhabitants, besides 27 dependent villages. Gt. Mi- 
 guel de Ibarra, 7000 citizens,, and ten villages. The 
 district of Havala, between 18 and 20,000 people. 
 The district of Tacuna, between 10 and 12,000. The 
 district of Ambato, between 8 and 10,000, besides 
 16 depending villages. The city of Riobamba, be- 
 tween 16 and 20,000 inhabitants, and nine depend- 
 ing villages. The district of Chimbo, between 6 and 
 8000. The city of Guayaquil, from 16 to 20,000 
 inhabitants, and 14 depending villages. The dis- 
 trict of Atuasi, between 5 and 6100 inhabitants, and 
 4 depending villages. The city of Cuenza, between 
 25 and 30,000 inhabitants, and 9 populous depend- 
 ing villages. The town of- Laxa, from 8 to 10,000 
 inhabitants, and 14 depending villages. This degree 
 of population, though slender if we consider the vast 
 extent of the country, is far beyond what is com- 
 monly supposed. I have omitted to mention, in its 
 proper place, that Quito is the only province in Spa- 
 nish America that can be denominated a manufac- 
 turing country; hats, cotton stuffs, and coarse wool- 
 len cloths, are made there in such quantities as to be 
 sufficient not only for the consumption of the pro- 
 vince, but to furnish a considerable article for ex- 
 portation into other parts of Spanish America. I 
 know not whether the uncommon industry of this 
 province should be considered as the cause or the 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 2:3 
 
 cft'ect of its populousness. But among the ostenta- 
 tious inhabitants of the New World the passion for 
 every thing that comes from Europe is so violent that 
 I am' informed the manufactures of Quito are so much 
 undervalued as to be on the decline. 
 
 NOTE 170. These are established at the follow- 
 ing places : St. Domingo, in the island of Hispa- 
 niola ; Mexico, in New Spain ; Lima, in Peru ; Pa- 
 nama, in Tierra Firme ; Santiago, in Guatimala; 
 Guadalaxara, in New Galicia ; Santa Fe, in the new 
 kingdom of Granada : La Plata, in the country of 
 Los Charcas; St. Francisco de Quito, St. Jago de 
 Chili, Buenos Ayres. To each of these are subjected 
 several large provinces, and some so far removed 
 from the cities where the courts are fixed, that they 
 can derive little benefit from their jurisdiction. The 
 Spanish writers commonly reckon up twelve courts 
 of audience, but they include that of Manila, in the 
 Philippine islands. 
 
 NO'TE 171. On account of the distance of Peru 
 and Chili from Spain, and the difficulty of carrying 
 commodities of such bulk as wine and oil across the 
 isthmus of Panama, the Spaniards in those provinces 
 have been permitted to plant vines and olives ; but 
 they are strictly prohibited from exporting wine or 
 oil to any of the provinces on the Pacific ocean, 
 which are in such a situation as to receive them from 
 Spain. Recop. lib. i. tit. xvii. 1. 15 18. 
 
 NOTE 172. This computation was made by Ben- 
 zoni, A. D. 1550, fifty-eight years after the discovery 
 of America. Hist. Novi Orbis, lib. iii. c. 21. But 
 as Benzoni wrote with the spirit of a malecontent, 
 disposed to detract from the Spaniards in every par- 
 ticular, it is probable that his calculation is conside- 
 rably too low. 
 
 NOTE 173. My information with respect to the 
 division and transmission of property in the Spanish 
 colonies is imperfect. The Spanish authors do not 
 explain this fully, and have not perhaps attended 
 sufficiently to the effects of their own institutions 
 ami laws." Solorzario de Jure Ind. (vol. ii. lib. ii. 
 . 1. 16), explains in some measure the introduction of 
 the tenure of Mayorasyo, and mentions some of its 
 effects. Villa Segnor takes notice of a single conse- 
 quence of it He observes, that in some of the best 
 situations in the city of Mexico a good deal of ground 
 is unoccupied, or covered only with the ruins of the 
 houses once erected upon it ; and adds, that as this 
 ground is held by right of Mayorasgo, and cannot be 
 alienated, that desolation and those ruins become 
 perpetual. Teatr. Amer. vol. i. p. 34. 
 
 NOTE 174. There is no law that excludes Creoles 
 from offices either civil or ecclesiastic. On the con 
 trary, there are many Cedulas, which recommend the 
 conferring places of trust indiscriminately on the 
 natives of Spain and America. Betancourt y Figue- 
 roa Derecho, &c. p. 5, 6. But, notwithstanding 
 such repeated recommendations, preferment in almosi 
 every line is conferred on native Spaniards. A re- 
 markable proof of this is produced by the author last 
 quoted. From the discovery of America to the year 
 1637, three hundred and sixty-nine bishops, or arch- 
 bishops, have been appointed to the different dioceses 
 IB that country, and of all that number only twelv< 
 were Creoles, p. 40. This predilection for Europeans 
 seems still to continue. By a royal mandate, issuec 
 in 1776, the chapter of the cathedral of Mexico i 
 directed to nominate European ecclesiastics of known 
 merit and abilities, that the king may appoint them 
 to supply vacant benefices. MS. penes me. 
 
 NOTE 175. Moderate as this tribute may appear 
 
 such is the extreme poverty of the Indians in man) 
 
 THE HISTORY OK AMEIUCA No. 35. 
 
 )rovinces of America, that the exacting of it is into- 
 erably oppressive. Pegua Itiner. par Paroches de 
 Indios, p. 192. 
 
 NOTE 176. In New Spain, on account of the ex- 
 raordiuary merit and services of the first conquerors, 
 as well as the small revenue arising from the country 
 previous to the discovery of the mines of Sacatecas, 
 he encomiendas were granted for three, and some- 
 ,imes for four lives. Recop. lib. vi. tit. ii. c. 14, &c. 
 
 NOTE 177. D. Ant. Ulloa contends that working 
 n mines is not noxious, and as a proof of this, in- 
 forms us that many mestizos and Indians, who do 
 not belong to any repartimiento, voluntarily hire 
 hemselves as miners; and several of the Indians, 
 when the legal term of their service expires, continue 
 ;o work in the mines of choice. Entreten, p. 265. 
 But his opinion concerning the wholesomeness of 
 ;his occupation is contrary to the experience of all 
 ages ; and wherever men are allured by high wages, 
 :hey will engage in any species of labour, however 
 fatiguing or pernicious it may be. D. Hern. Carillo 
 Altamirano relates a curious fact incompatible with 
 ;his opinion. Wherever mines are wrought, says 
 "le, the number of Indians decreases ; but in the pro- 
 vince of Campeachy, where there are no mines, the 
 number of Indians has increased more than a third 
 since the conquest of America, -though neither the 
 soil nor climate be so favourable as in Peru or Mex- 
 ico Colbert Collect. In another memorial pre- 
 sented to Philip III. in the year 1609, Captain Juan 
 Gonzales de Azevcdo asserts, that in every district 
 of Peru where the Indians are compelled to labour 
 in the mines, their numbers were reduced to the 
 half, and in some places to the third, of what it was 
 under the viceroyalty of Don. Fran. Toledo in 1581. 
 Colb. Collect. 
 
 NOTE 178. As labour of this kind cannot be pre- 
 scribed with legal accuracy, the tasks seem to be in a 
 reat measure^ arbitrary, and like the services exacted 
 y feudal superiors in vinea, prato, ant messe, from 
 their vassals, are extremely burdensome, and often 
 wantonly oppressive. Pegna Itiner. par Parochos 
 de Indios. 
 
 NOTE 179. The turn of service known in Peru by 
 the name of Mita is called Tanda in New Spain. 
 There it continues no longer than a week at a time. 
 No person is called to serve at a greater distance 
 from his habitation than 24 miles. This arrangement 
 is less oppressive to the Indians than that established 
 in Peru. Memorial of Hern. Carillo Altamirano. 
 Colbert Collect. 
 
 NOTE 180. The strongest proof of this may be 
 deduced from the laws themselves. By the multitude 
 and variety of regulations to prevent abuses, we may 
 form an idea of the number of abuses that prevail. 
 Though the laws have wisely provided that no Indian 
 shall be obliged to serve in any mine at a greater 
 distance from his place of residence than thirty 
 miles ; we are informed in a memorial of D. Hernau 
 Carillo Altamirano presented to the king, that the 
 Indians of Peru are often compelled to serve in 
 mines at the distance of a hundred, a hundred and 
 fifty, and even two hundred leagues from their habi- 
 tation. Colbert Collect. Many mines are situated 
 in parts of the country so barren and so distant from 
 the ordinary habitations of the Indians, that the. ne- 
 cessity of procuring labourers to work there has 
 obliged the Spanish monarchs to dispense with their 
 own regulations in several instances, and to permit 
 the viceroys to compel the people of moie remote 
 provinces to resort to those mines. Escalona Gazo- 
 phvl. Perub. lib. i. c. 16. But in justice to them it 
 
 2 N 
 
274 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 should be observed that they have been studious to 
 alleviate this oppression as much as possible, by en- 
 joining viceroys to employ every method in order to 
 induce the Indians to settle in some part of the 
 country adjacent to the mines. Id. ibid. 
 
 NOTE 181. Torquemada, after a long enumera- 
 tion which has the appearance of accuracy, con- 
 cludes the number of monasteries in New Spain to 
 be four hundred. Mon. Ind lib. xix. c. 32. The 
 number of monasteries in the city of Mexico alone 
 was, in the year 1745, fifty-five. Villa Segnor Teat. 
 Amer. i. 34. Ulloa reckons up forty convents in 
 Lima : and mentioning those for nuns, he says that 
 a small town might be peopled out of them, the 
 number of persons shut up there is so great. Voy. i. 
 429. Philip III., in a letter to the viceroy of Peru, 
 A. D. 1620, observes, that the number of convents 
 in Lima was so great that they covered more ground 
 than all the rest of the city. Solorz. lib. iii. c. 23, 
 n. 57. Lib. iii. c. 16. Torquem. lib. xv. c. 3. The 
 first monastery in New Spain was founded A. D. 
 1525, four years only after the conquest. Torq. 
 lib. xv. c. 16. 
 
 According to Gil Gonzalez Davila, the complete 
 establishment of the American church in all the 
 Spanish settlements was, in the year 1649, 1 patri- 
 arch, 6 archbishops, 32 bishops, 316 prebends, 2 
 abbots, 5 royal chaplains, 840 convents. Teatro 
 Ecclesiastico de las Ind. Occident, vol. i. Pref. 
 When the order of Jesuits was expelled from all the 
 Spanish dominions, the colleges, professed houses, 
 and residences, which it possessed in the province 
 of New Spain were thirty, in Quito sixteen, in the 
 new kingdom of Granada thirteen, in Peru seven- 
 teen, in Chili eighteen, in Paraguay eighteen ; in 
 all, a hundred and twelve. Collection General de 
 Providencias hasta aqui tomadas sobre estranamento, 
 &c. de la Compagnia, part i. p. 19. The number of 
 Jesuits, priests, and novices in all these amounted to 
 2245. MS. penes me. 
 
 In the year 1644 the city of Mexico presented a 
 petition to the king, praying that no new monastery- 
 might be founded, and that the revenues of those 
 already established might be circumscribed, other- 
 wise the religious houses would soon acquire the 
 property of the whole country. The petitioners re- 
 quest, likewise, that the bishops might be laid under 
 restrictions in conferring holy orders, as there were 
 at that time in New Spain above six thousand cler- 
 gymen without any living. Id. p. 16. These abuses 
 must have been enormous indeed, when the supersti- 
 tion of American Spaniards was shocked, and in- 
 duced to remonstrate against them. 
 
 NOTE 182. This description of the manners of 
 the Spanish clergy I should not have ventured to 
 give upon the testimony of Protestant authors alone, 
 as they may be suspected of prejudice or exaggera- 
 tion. Gage, in particular, who had a better oppor- 
 tunity than any Protestant to view the interior state 
 of Spanish America, describes the corruption of the 
 church which he had forsaken with so much of the 
 acrimony of a new convert, that I should have dis- 
 trusted his evidence, though it communicates some 
 very curious and striking facts. But Benzoni men- 
 tions the profligacy of ecclesiastics in America at a 
 very early period after their settlement there. Hist, 
 lib. ii. c. 19, 20. M. Frezier, an intelligent observer, 
 and zealous for his owa religion, paints the dissolute 
 manners of the Spanish ecclesiastics in Peru, parti- 
 cularly the regulars, in stronger colours than I have 
 employed. Voy. p. 51, 215, &c. M. Gentil confirms 
 this account. Voy. i. 34. Correal concurs with both, 
 
 and adds many respectable circumstances. Voy. i. 
 61, 155, 161. I have good reason to believe that the 
 manners of the regular clergy, particularly in Peru, 
 are still extremely indecent. Acosta himself ac- 
 knowledges that great corruption of manners had 
 been the consequence of permitting monks to forsake 
 the retirement and discipline of the cloister, and to 
 mingle again with the world, by undertaking the 
 charge of the Indian parishes. De Procur. Ind. 
 Salute, lib. iv. c. 13, &c. He mentions particularly 
 those vices of which I have taken notice, and consi- 
 ders the temptations to them as so formidable, that 
 he leans to the opinion of those who hold that the 
 regular clergy should not be employed as parish 
 priests. Lib. v. c. 20. Even the advocates for the 
 regulars admit, that many and great enormities 
 abounded among the monks of different orders, when 
 set free from the restraint of monastic discipline ; 
 and from the tone of their defence one may conclude 
 that the charge brought against them was not desti- 
 tute of truth. In the French colonies the state of 
 the regular clergy is nearly the same as in the Spa- 
 nish settlements, and the same consequences have 
 followed. M. Biet, superior of the secular priests 
 in Cayenne, inquires, with no less appearance of piety 
 than of candour, into the causes of this corruption, 
 and imputes it chiefly to the exemption of regulars 
 from the jurisdiction and censures of their diocesans; 
 to the temptations to which they are exposed ; and to 
 their engaging in commerce. Voy. p. 320. It is re- 
 markable that all the authors who censure the licen- 
 tiousness of the Spanish regulars with the greatest 
 severity, concur in vindicating the conduct of the 
 Jesuits. Formed under a discipline more perfect 
 than that of the other monastic orders, or animated 
 by that concern for the honour of the society which 
 takes sugh full possession of every member of the 
 order, the Jesuits, both in Mexico and Peru, it is al- 
 lowed, maintained a most irreproachable decency of 
 manners. Frezier, 223. Gentil, i. 34. The same 
 praise is likewise due to the bishops and most of the 
 dignified clergy. Frez. Ibid. 
 
 A volume of the Gazette de Mexico for the years 
 1728, 1729, 1730, having been communicated tome, 
 I find there a striking confirmation of what I have 
 advanced concerning the spirit of low illiberal super- 
 stition prevalent in Spanish America. From the 
 newspapers of any nation one may learn what are 
 the objects which chiefly engross its attention, and 
 which appear to it most interesting. The gazette of 
 Mexico is filled almost entirely with accounts of reli- 
 gious functions, with descriptions of processions, 
 consecrations of churches, beatifications of saints, 
 festivals, autos de fe, &c. Civil or commercial affairs, 
 and even the transactions of Europe, occupy but a 
 small corner in this magazine of monthly intelli- 
 gence. From the titles of new books, which are 
 regularly inserted in this gazette, it appears that 
 two-thirds of them are treatises of scholastic theology, 
 or of monkish devotion. 
 
 NOTE 183. Solorzano, after mentioning the cor- 
 rupt morals of some of the regular clergy, with that 
 cautious reserve which became a Spanish layman 
 in touching on a subject so delicate, gives his opi- 
 nion very explicitly, and with much firmness, 
 against committing parochial charges to monks. 
 He produces the testimony of several respectable 
 authors of his country, both divines and lawyers, in 
 confirmation of his opinion. De Jure Ind. iirlib. iii. 
 c. 16. A striking proof of the alarm excited by the 
 attempt of the Prince d'Esquilache to exclude the 
 regulars from parochial cures, is contained in the 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 275 
 
 Colbert collection of papers. Several memorials 
 were presented to the king by the procurators for the 
 monastic orders, and replies were made to these in 
 name of the secular clergy. An eager and even ran- 
 corous spirit is manifest on both sides, in the con- 
 duct of this dispute. 
 
 NOTE 184. Not only the native Indians, but the 
 mestizos, or children of a Spaniard and Indian, were 
 originally excluded from the priesthood, and refused 
 admission into any religious order. But by a law 
 issued Sept 28th, 1588, Philip II. required the pre- 
 lates of America to ordain such mestizos born in 
 lawful wedlock, as they should find to be properly 
 qualified, and to permit them to take the vows in any 
 monastery where they had gone through a regular 
 noviciate. Recopil. lib. i. tit. vii. 1. 7. Some regard 
 seems to have been paid to this law in New Spain ; 
 but none in Peru. Upon a representation of this to 
 Charles IT. in the year 1697, he issued a new edict, 
 enforcing the observation of it, and professing his 
 desire to have all his subjects, Indians and mestizos 
 as well as Spaniards, admitted to the enjoyment of 
 the same privileges. Such, however, was the aver- 
 sion of Spaniards in America to the Indians and 
 their race, that, this seoms to have produced little 
 effect; for in the year 1725 Philip V. WAS obliged to 
 renew the injunction in a more peremptory tone. 
 But so unsurmountable are the hatred and contempt 
 of the Indians among the Peruvian Spaniards, that 
 the present king has been constrained to enforce the 
 former edicts anew, by a law published Sept. 11, 
 1774. Real Cedula, MS. penes me. 
 
 M. Clavigero has contradicted what I have related 
 concerning the ecclesiastical state of the Indians, 
 particularly their exclusion from, the sacrament of 
 the eucharist, and from holy orders, either as secu- 
 lars or regulars, in such a manner as cannot fail to 
 make a deep impression. He from his own know- 
 ledge asserts, "that in New Spain not only are In- 
 dians permitted to partake of the sacrament of the 
 altar, but that Indian priests are so numerous that 
 they may b counted by hundreds ; and among these 
 have been many hundreds of rectors, canons, and 
 doctors, and, as report goes, even a very learned 
 bishop. At present there are many priests, and not 
 a few rectors, among whom there have been three or 
 four our own pupils." VoL ii. 348, &c. I owe it 
 therefore as a duty to the public as well as to myself, 
 to consider each of these points with care, and to 
 explain the reasons which induced me to adopt the 
 opinion which I have published. 
 
 I knew that in the christiau church there is no 
 distinction of persons, but that men of every nation, 
 who embrace the religion of Jesus, are equally en- 
 titled to every Christian privilege which they are 
 qualified to receive. I knew likewise that an opi- 
 nion prevailed, not only among most of the Spanish 
 laity settled in America, but among " many ecclesi- 
 astics, (I use the words of Herrera, dec. ii. lib. ii. 
 c. 15), that the Indians were not perfect or rational 
 men, and were not possessed of such capacity as 
 qualified them to partake of the sacrament of the 
 altar, or of any other benefit of our religion." It 
 was against this opinion that Las Casas contended 
 with the laudable zeal which I have described in 
 books III. and VI. But as the Bishop of Darien, 
 Dr. Sepulvida, and other respectable ecclesiastics, 
 vigorously supported the common opinion concern- 
 ing the incapacity of the Indians, it became neces- 
 sary, in order to determine the point, that the autho- 
 rity of the holy see should be interposed : and ac- 
 cordingly Paul III. ifHied a bull, A. D. J537, in 
 
 which, after condemning the opinion of those who 
 held that the Indians, as being on a level with brute 
 beasts, should be reduced to servitude, he declares 
 that they were really men, and as such were capable 
 of embracing the Christian religion, and participat- 
 ing of all its blessings. My account of this bull, 
 notwithstanding the cavils of M. Clavigero, must 
 appear just to every person who takes the trouble of 
 perusing it ; and my account is the same with that 
 adopted by Torquemada, lib. xvi. c. 25, and by Gar- 
 cia, Orig. p. 311. But even after this decision, so 
 low did the Spaniards residing in America rate the 
 capacity of the natives, that the first council of Lima 
 (I call it by that name on the authority of the best 
 Spanish authors) discountenanced the admission of 
 Indians to the holy communion. Torquem. lib. xvi. 
 c. 20. In New Spain the exclusion ef Indians from 
 the sacrament was still more explicit. Ibid. After 
 two centuries have elapsed, and notwithstanding all 
 the improvement that the Indians may be supposed 
 to have derived from their intercourse with the Spa- 
 niards during that period, we are informed by D. 
 Ant. Ulloa, that in Peru, where, as will appear in 
 the sequel of this note, they are supposed to be bet- 
 ter instructed than in New Spain, their ignorance is 
 so prodigious that very few are permitted to commu- 
 nicate, as bemg altogether destitute of the requisite 
 capacity. Voy. i. 341, &c. Solorz. Polit. Ind. i. 203. 
 
 With respect to the exclusion of Indians from the 
 priesthood, either as seculars or regulars, we may 
 observe, that while it continued to be the common 
 opinion that the natives of America, on account of 
 their incapacity, should not be permitted to partake 
 of the holy sacrament, we cannot suppose that they 
 would be clothed with that sacred, character which 
 entitled them to consecrate and to dispense it. When 
 Torquemada composed his Monarquia Indiana, it 
 was almost a century after the conquest of New 
 Spain ; and yet in his time it was still the general 
 practice to exclude Indians from holy orders. Of 
 this we have the most satisfying evidence. Torque- 
 mada having celebrated the virtues and graces of 
 the Indians at great length, and with all the compla- 
 cency of a missionary, he starts as an objection to 
 what he had asserted, " If the Indians really pos- 
 sess all the excellent qualities which you have de- 
 scribed, why are they not permitted to assume the 
 religious habit ? Why are they not ordained priests 
 and bishops, as the Jewish and Gentile converts 
 were in the primitive church, especially as they 
 might be employed with such superior advantage to 
 other persons in the instruction of their country- 
 men ?" Lib. xvii . c. 13. 
 
 In answer to this objection, which establishes, iu 
 the most unequivocal manner, what was the general 
 practice at that period, Torquemada observes, that 
 although by their natural dispositions the Indians 
 are well fitted for a subordinate situation, they are 
 destitute of all the qualities requisite in any station 
 of dignity and authority ; and that they are in gene- 
 ral so addicted to drunkenness, that upon the slight- 
 est temptation one cannot promise on their behav- 
 ing with the decency suitable to the clerical charac- 
 ter. The propriety of excluding them from it on 
 these accounts was, he observed, so well,justified by 
 experience, that when a foreigner of great erudition, 
 who came from Spain, condemned the practice of 
 the Mexican church, he was convinced of his mistake 
 in a public disputation with the learned and most 
 religious father D. Juan de Gaona, and his retracta- 
 tion is still extant. Torquemada indeed acknow- 
 irrlgrr-, 35 M. Clavigero observer-, with a degree r-f 
 
276 
 
 THE HISTOHY OF AMERICA. 
 
 exultation, that in his time some Indians had been 
 admitted into monasteries; but with the art of a dis- 
 putant he forgets to mention that Torquemada spe- 
 cifics only two examples of this, and takes notice 
 that in both instances those Indians have been ad- 
 mitted by mistake. Relying upon the authority of 
 Torquemada with regard to New Spain, and of Ulloa 
 with regard to Peru, and considering the humiliating 
 depression of the Indians in all the Spanish settle- 
 ments, I concluded that they were not admitted into 
 the- ecclesiastical order, which is held in the highest 
 veneration all over the New World. 
 
 But when M. Clavigero, upon his own knowledge, 
 asserted facts so repugnant to the conclusion I had 
 formed, I began to distrust it, and to wish for fur- 
 ther information. In order to obtain this I applied 
 to a Spanish nobleman, high in office, and eminent 
 for his abilities, who, on different occasions, has 
 permitted me to have the honour and benefit of cor- 
 responding with him. I have been favoured with the 
 following answer: "What you have written con- 
 cerning the admission of Indians into holy orders, or 
 into monasteries, in Book VIII., especially as it is 
 explained and limited in Note Ixxxviii. of the quarto 
 edition, is in general accurate, and conformable to 
 the authorities which you quote. And although the 
 congregation of the council resolved and declared, 
 Feb. 13, A. D. 1682, that the circumstance of being 
 an Indian, a mulatto, or mestizo, did not not disqua- 
 lify any person from being admitted into holy orders, 
 if he was possessed of what is required by the canons 
 to entitle him to that privilege ; this only proves such 
 ordinations to be legal and valid (of which Solorzano 
 and the Spanish lawyers and historians quoted by 
 him, Pol. Ind. lib. ii. c. 29, were persuaded), but it 
 neither proves the propriety of admitting Indians 
 into holy orders, nor what was then the common 
 practice with respect to this ; but on the contrary 
 it shows that there was some doubt concerning 
 the ordaining of Indians, and some repugnance to 
 it. 
 
 " Since that time there have been some examples 
 of admitting Indians into holy orders. We have 
 now at Madrid an aged priest, a native of Tlascala. 
 His name is D. Juan Cerilo de Castilla Aquihual 
 Catehutle, descended of a cazique converted to Chris- 
 tianity soon after the conquest. He studied the 
 ecclesiastical sciences in a seminary of Puebla de los 
 Angeles. He was a candidate, nevertheless, for ten 
 years, and it required much interest before Bishop 
 Abren would consent to ordain him. This eccle- 
 siastic is a man of unexceptionable character, rno- 
 dest, self-denied, and with a competent knowledge of 
 what relates to his clerical functions. He came to 
 Madrid above thirty-four years ago, with the sole 
 view of soliciting admission for the Indians into the 
 colleges and seminaries in New Spain, that if, after 
 being well instructed and tried, they should find an 
 inclination to enter into the ecclesiastical state, they 
 might embrace it, and perform its functions with the 
 greatest benefit to their countrymen, whom they 
 could address in their native tongue. He has ob- 
 tained various regulations favourable to his scheme, 
 particularly that the first college which became vacant, 
 in consequence of the exclusion of the Jesuits, should 
 be set apart for this purpose. But neither these 
 regulations, nor any similar ones inserted in the 
 laws of the Indies, have produced any effect, on ac- 
 count of objections and representations from the 
 greater part of persons of chief consideration em- 
 ployed in New Spain. Whether their opposition be 
 well founded or net, is a problem difficult to resolve, 
 
 and towards the solution of which several distinc- 
 tions and modifications are requisite. 
 
 " According to the accounts of this ecclesiastic, 
 and the information of other persons who have re- 
 sided in the Spanish dominions in America, you may 
 rest assured that in the kingdom Tierra Firme no 
 such thing is known as either an Indian secular 
 priest or monk ; and that in New Spain there are 
 very few ecclesiastics of Indian race. In Peru, per- 
 haps, the riumber may be greater, as in that country 
 there are more Indians who possess the means of 
 acquiring such a learned education as is necessary 
 for persons who aspire to the clerical character." 
 
 NOTE 185. Uztariz, an accurate and cautious 
 calculator, seems to admit that the quantity of silver 
 which does not pay duty may be stated thus high. 
 According to Herrera there was not above a third 
 of what was extracted from Potosi that paid the 
 king's fifth. Dec. S, lib. ii. c. 15. Solorzano asserts 
 likewise that the quantity of silver which is fraudu- 
 lently circulated, is far greater than that which is 
 regularly stamped, after paying the fifth. De Ind. 
 Jure, vo'l. ii. lib. v. p. 846. 
 
 NOTE 186. When the mines of Potosi were dis- 
 covered in the year 1545, the veins were so near the 
 surface that the ore was easily extracted, and so rich 
 that it was refined with little trouble and at a small 
 expense, merely by the action of fire. The simple 
 mode of refining by fusion alone continued until the 
 year 1574, when the use of mercury in refining sil- 
 ver as well as gold was discovered. Those mines 
 having been wrought without interruption for two 
 centuries, the veins are now sunk so deep that the 
 expense of extracting the ore is greatly increased. 
 Besides this, the richness of the ore, contrary to what 
 happens in most other mines, has become less as the 
 vein continued to dip. The vein has likewise di- 
 minished to such a degree, that one is amazed that 
 the Spaniards should persist in working it. Other 
 rich mines have been successively discovered; but 
 in general the value of the ores has decreased so 
 much, while the expense of extracting them has aug- 
 mented, that the court of Spain in the year 1736 
 reduced the duty .payable to the king from a fifth to 
 a tenth. All the" quicksilver used in Peru is extracted 
 from the famous mine of Guancabelica, discovered 
 in the year 1563. The crown has reserved the pro- 
 perty of this mine to itself; and the persons who 
 purchase the quicksilver pay not only the price of it, 
 but likewise & fifth, as a duty to the king. But in 
 the year 1761 this duty on quicksilver was abolished, 
 on account of the increase of expense in working 
 mines. Ulloa, Entretenimientos, xii xv. Yoy. i. 
 p. 505, 523. In consequence of this abolition of the 
 fifth, and some subsequent abatements of price, 
 which became necessary on account of the increas- 
 ing expense of working mines, quicksilver, which 
 was formerly sold at eighty pesos the quintal, is now 
 delivered by the king at the rate of sixty pesos. 
 Campomanes, Educ. Popul. ii. 132, note. The duty 
 on gold is reduced to a twentieth, or five per cent. 
 Any of my readers who are desirous of being ac- 
 
 rinted with the mode in which the Spaniards con- 
 t the working of their mines, and the refinement 
 of the ore, will find an accurate description of the 
 ancient method by Acosta, lib. iv. c. 1 13, and of 
 their more recent improvements in the metallurgic 
 art, by Gamboa Comment, a las ordenanz. de Minas, 
 chap. 22. 
 
 NOTE 187. Many remarkable proofs occur of the 
 advanced state of industry in Spain at the beginning 
 of the sixteenth century. The number of cities in 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 277 
 
 Spain was considerable, and they were peopled far 
 beyond the proportion that was common in other 
 parts of Europe. The causes of this I have explained, 
 Hist, of Charles V. p. 355. Wherever cities are 
 populous, that species of industry which is peculiar 
 to them increases ; artificers and manufacturers 
 abound. The effect of the American trade in giving 
 activity to these is manifest, from a singular fact. 
 In the year 1545, while Spain continued to depend 
 on its own industry for the supply of its colonies, so 
 much work was bespoke from the manufacturers, that 
 it was supposed' they could hardly finish it in less 
 than six years. Campom. i. 406. Such a demand 
 must have put much industry in motion, and have 
 excited extraordinary efforts. Accordingly, we are 
 informed, that in the beginning of Philip II. 's reign 
 the city of Seville alone, where the trade with Ame- 
 rica centred, gave employment to no fewer than 
 1G,000 looms in silk or woollen work, and that above 
 130,000 persons had occupation in carrying on these 
 manufactures. Campom. ii. 472. But so rapid and 
 pernicious was the operation of the causes which I 
 shall enumerate, that before Philip III. ended his 
 reign the looms in Seville were reduced to 400. 
 Uztariz, c. 7. 
 
 Since the publication of the first edition I have the 
 satisfaction to find my ideas concerning the early 
 commercial intercourse between Spain and her colo- 
 nies confirmed and illustrated by D. Bernardo 
 Ward, of the Junta de Comercio at Madrid, in his 
 Proi/iclo Economics, part ii. c. i. " Under the reign of 
 Charles V. and Philip II." says he, " the manufac- 
 turers of Spain and of the Low Countries subject to 
 her dominion were in a most flourishing state. 
 Those of France and England were in their infancy. 
 The republic of the United Provinces did not then 
 exist. No European power but Spain had colonies 
 of any value in the New World. Spain could sup- 
 ply her settlements there with the productions of her 
 own soil, the fabrics wrought by the hands of her 
 own artizans, and all she received in return for 
 these belonged to herself alone. Then the exclu- 
 sion of foreign manufactures was proper, because it 
 might be rendered effectual. Then Spain might lay 
 heavy duties upon goods exported to America, or 
 imported from it, and might impose what restraints 
 she deemed proper upon a commerce entirely in her 
 own hands. But when time and successive revolu- 
 tions had occasioned an alteration in all those cir- 
 cumstances, when the manufactures of Spain began 
 to decline, and the demands of America were sup- 
 plied by foreign fabrics, the original maxims and re- 
 gulations of Spain should have been accommodated 
 to the change in her situation. The policy that was 
 wise at one period became absurd in the other." 
 
 NOTE 188. No bale of goods is ever opened, no 
 chest of treasure is examined. Both are received on 
 the credit of the persons to whom they belong; and 
 only one instance of fraud is recorded during the 
 long period in which trade was carried on with this 
 liberal confidence. AH the coined silver that was 
 brought from Peru to Porto-bello in the year 1654 
 was found to be adulterated, and to be mingled with 
 a fifth part of base metal. The Spanish merchants, 
 with sentiments suitable to their usual integrity, sus- 
 tained the whole loss, and indemnified the foreign- 
 ers by whom they were employed. The fraud was 
 detected, and the treasurer of the revenue in Peru, 
 the author of it, was publicly burnt. B. Ulloa Re- 
 tablis. de Manuf. &c. liv. ii. p. 102. 
 
 NOTE 189. Many striking proofs occur of the 
 scarcity of money in Spain. Of all the immense 
 
 sums which have been imported from America, the 
 amount of which I shall afterwards have occasion to 
 mention, Moncada asserts, that there did not remain 
 in Spain, in 1619, above two hundred millions of 
 pesos t one half in coined money, the other in plate 
 and jewels, Restaur. de Espagna/disc. iii. c. 1. 
 Uztariz, who published his valuable work in 1724, 
 contends, that in money, plate, and jewels, there did 
 not remain an hundred million. Theor. &c. c. 3. 
 Campomanes, on the authority of a remonstrance 
 from the community of merchants in Toledo to Philip 
 III. relates, as a certain proof how scarce cash^had 
 become, that persons who lent money received a 
 third part of the sum which they advanced as interest 
 and premium. Educ. Popul. i. 417. 
 
 NOTE 190. The account of the mode in which the 
 factors of the South-Sea Company conducted the 
 trade in the fair of Porto-bello, which was opened to 
 them by the Assiento, I have taken from Don Dion. 
 Alcedo y Herrera, president of the court of audience 
 in Quito, and governor of that province. Don Dio- 
 nysio was a person of such respectable character for 
 probity and discernment, that his testimony in any 
 point would be of much weight ; but greater credit 
 is due to it in this case, as he was an eye-witness of 
 the transactions which he relates, and was often 
 employed in detecting and authenticating the frauds 
 which he describes. It is probable, however, that 
 his representation, being composed at the commence- 
 ment of the war which broke out between Great 
 Britain and Spain, in the year 1739, may, in some 
 instances, discover a portion of the acrimonious spi- 
 rit natural at that juncture. His detail of facts is 
 curious ; and even English authors confirm it in 
 some degree, by admitting both that various frauds 
 were practised in the transactions of the annual 
 ship, and that the contraband trade from Jamaica 
 and other British colonies was become enormously 
 great. But for the credit of the English nation it 
 may be observed that those fraudulent operations are 
 not to be considered as deeds of the company, but as 
 the dishonourable arts of their factors and agents. 
 The company itself sustained a considerable loss by 
 the Assiento trade. Many of its servants acquired 
 immense fortunes. Anderson Chronol. deduct, ii. 388. 
 
 NOTE 191. Several facts with respect to the in- 
 stitution, the progress, and the effects of this company 
 are curious, and but little known to English readers. 
 Though the province of Venezuela, or Caraccas, 
 extends four hundred miles along the coast, and is 
 one of the most fertile in America ; it was so much 
 neglected by the Spaniards, that during the twenty 
 years prior to tho establishment of the company, 
 only five ships sailed from Spain to that province ; 
 and during sixteen years, from 1706 to 1722, not a 
 single ship arrived from the Caraccas in Spain. 
 Noticias de Real Campania de Caraccas, p. 28. 
 During this period Spain must have been supplied 
 almost entirely with a large quantity of cacao, which 
 it consumes, by foreigners. Before the erection of 
 the company, neither tobacco nor hides were im- 
 ported from Caraccas into Spain. Ibid. p. 115 
 Since the commercial operations of the company 
 begun in the year 1731, the importation of cacao into 
 Spain has increased amazingly. During thirty years 
 subsequent to 1701, the number of fanegaa of 
 cacao (each a hundred and ten pounds), imported 
 from Caraccas was 643,215. During eighteen years 
 subsequent to 1731, the number offunegat imported 
 was 869,247 ; and if we suppose the importation to 
 be continued in the same proportion during the re- 
 mainder of thirty years, it will amount to 1,448,746 
 
278 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 s, which is an increase of 805,531 fanegas. 
 Id. p. 148. During eight years subsequent to 1756, 
 there have been imported into Spain by the company 
 88,482 arrobas (each twenty -five pounds) of tobacco; 
 and hides to the number of 177,354. Id. 161. Since 
 the publication of the Noticias de Campania in 1765 
 its trade seems to be on the increase. During five 
 years subsequent ttf 1769, it has imported 179,156 
 fancy as of cacao into Spain, 36,208 arrobas of to- 
 bacco, 75,496 hides, and 221,432 pesos in specie. 
 Campomanes, ii. 162. The last article is a proof of 
 the growing wealth of the colony. It receives cash 
 from Mexico in return for the cacao, with which it 
 supplies that province, and this it remits to Spain, or 
 lays out in purchasing European goods. But be- 
 sides this the most explicit evidence is produced, that 
 the quantity of cacao raised in the province is double 
 to what it yielded in 1731; the number of its live 
 stock is more than treble, and its inhabitants much 
 augmented. The revenue of the bishop, which arises 
 wholly from tithes, has increased from eight to 
 twenty thousand pesos. Noticias, p. 69. In con- 
 sequence of the augmentation of the quantity of 
 cacao imported into Spain its price has decreased 
 from eighty pesos for the fan eg a to forty. Id. 61. 
 Since the publication of the first edition I have 
 learned that Guyana, including all the extensive 
 provinces situated on the banks of the Orinoco, the 
 islands of Trinidad and Margarita, are added to the 
 countries with which the company of Caraccas had 
 liberty of trading by their former charters. Real 
 Cedula, Nov. 19, 1776. But I have likewise been 
 informed that the institution of this company has 
 not. been attended with all the beneficial effects 
 which I have ascribed to it. In many of its opera- 
 tions the illiberal and oppressive spirit of monopoly 
 is still conspicuous. But in order to explain tiiis it 
 would be necessary to enter into minute details which 
 are not suited to the nature of this work. 
 
 NOTE 192. This first experiment made by Spain 
 of opening a free trade with any of her colonies, has 
 produced effects so remarkable as to merit some fur- 
 ther illustration. The towns to which this liberty 
 has been granted are Cadiz and Seville, for the pro- 
 vince of Andalusia; Alicant and Carthagena, for 
 Valencia and Murcia ; Barcelona, for Catalonia and 
 Arragon ; Santander, for Castile ; Corugna, for Ga- 
 licia ; and Gijon, for Asturias. Append, ii. a la 
 Educ. Popul. p. 41. These are either the ports of 
 chief trade in their respective districts, or those most 
 conveniently situated for the exportation of their 
 respective productions. The following facts give a 
 view of the increase of trade in the settlements to 
 which the new regulations extend. Prior to the 
 allowance of free trade, the duties collected in the 
 custom-house at the Havannah were computed to be 
 104,208 pesos annually. During the five years pre- 
 ceding 1774, they rose at a medium to 308,000 pesos 
 a year. In Yucatan the duties have risen from 8000 
 to 15,000. In Hispaniola from 2500 to 5600. In 
 Porto Rico from 1200 to 7000. The total value of 
 goods imported from Cuba into Spain was reckoned 
 in 1774 to be 1,500,000 pesos. Educ. Popul. i. 
 450, & c . 
 
 NOTE 193. The two treatises of Don Pedro Ro- 
 driguez Campomanes, Fiscal del real consejo y Su- 
 premo (an office in rank and power nearly similar to 
 that of Attorney-General in England), and director 
 of the royal academy of history, the one entitled, Dis- 
 curso sobre el Fomento dn la Industria Popular ; the 
 other, Discurso sobre la Education Popular de los 
 Artcsanos y su Fomcnto ; the fonncr published in 
 
 1774, and the latter in 1775, afford a striking proof 
 of this. Almost every point of importance with re- 
 spect to interior police, taxation, agriculture, manu- 
 factures, and trade, domestic as well as foreign, is 
 examined in the course of these works ; and there are 
 not many authors, even in the nations most eminent 
 for commercial knowledge, who have carried on their 
 inquiries with a more thorough knowledge of those 
 various subjects, and a more perfect freedom from 
 vulgar and national prejudices, or who have united 
 more happily the calm researches of philosophy with 
 the ardent zeal of a public-spirited citizen. These 
 books are in high estimation among the Spaniards ; 
 and it is a decisive evidence of the progress of their 
 own ideas that they are capable of relishing an au- 
 thor whose sentiments are so liberal. 
 
 NOTE 194. The galeon employed in that trade, 
 instead of the six hundred tons to'which it is limited 
 by law, Recop. lib. xlv. 1, 15, is commonly from 
 twelve hundred to two thousand tons burden. The 
 ship from Acapulco, taken by Lord Anson, instead 
 of the 500,000 pesos permitted by law, had on board 
 1,313,843 pesos, besides uncoined silver equal in 
 value to 43,611 pesdft more. Anson's Voy. 381. 
 
 NOTE 195. The price paid for the bull varies 
 according to the rank of different persons. Those 
 in the lowest order, who are servants or slaves, pay- 
 two reals of plate, or one shilling; other Spaniards 
 pay eight reals, and those in public office, or who 
 hold encomiendas, sixteen reals. Solorz. de Jure 
 Ind. vol. ii. lib. iii. c. 25. According to Chilton, an 
 English merchant who resided long in the Spanish 
 settlements, the bull of Cruzado bore a higher price 
 in the year 1570. being then sold for four reals at 
 the lowest. Hakluyt, iii. 461. The price seems to 
 have varied at different periods. That exacted for 
 the bulls issued in the last Predicari-jn will appear 
 from the ensuing table, which will give some idea of 
 the proportional numbers of the different classes of 
 citizens in New Spain and Peru : 
 
 There wore issued for New Spain 
 
 Bulls at 10 pesos each : : : 4 
 
 at 2 pi-sos each : : : 22,601 
 
 at 1 peso each : : : 164.220 
 
 at 2 reals each : : : 2,462,500 
 
 For Peru 
 
 at 16 pesos 4-|- reals each 
 at 3 pesos 3 reals each 
 at 1 peso 5 reals 
 at 4 reals " : : 
 
 at 3 reals : : 
 
 2,649,325 
 
 : 3 
 14,202 
 78,822 
 410,325 
 668,601 
 
 1,171,953 
 
 NOTE 196. As Villa Segnor, to whom we are in- 
 debted for this information contained in his Teatro 
 Americano, published in Mexico, A. D. 1746, was 
 accomptant-general in one of the most considerable 
 departments of the royal revenue, and by that means 
 had access to proper information, his testimony with 
 respect to this point merits great credit. No such 
 accurate detail of the Spanish revenues in any part 
 of America has hitherto been published in the Eng- 
 lish language ; and the particulars of it may appeav 
 curious and interesting to some of my readers : 
 
 Peso?. 
 
 From the bull of Cru/ado, published every 
 two year?, there arises an annual revenue 
 in pesos '::::. 150,000 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, 
 
 279 
 
 Brought forward 
 From the duty on silver 
 From the duty on gold 
 From tax on cards : 
 From tax oa Pulque, a drink used by 
 
 Indians 
 
 From tax on stamped paper 
 From ditto on ice : 
 From ditto on leather 
 From ditto on gunpowder 
 From ditto on salt 
 From ditto on copper of Mcchochan 
 From ditto on alum 
 From ditto on Juego de los gallos 
 From the half of ecclesiastical annats 
 From royal ninths of bishoprics, &c. 
 From the tribute of Indians : 
 
 From Alcavala, or duty on sale of goods 
 From the Almajorifasgo, custom-house 
 From the mint ; 
 
 the 
 
 Pesos. 
 
 150,000 
 
 700,000 
 
 60,000 
 
 70,000 
 
 161,000 
 
 41,000 
 
 15,522 
 
 2,500 
 
 71,550 
 
 32,000 
 
 1,000 
 
 6,500 
 
 21,100 
 
 49,000 
 
 68,800 
 
 650,000 
 
 721,875 
 
 373,333 
 
 357,500 
 
 5,552,680 
 
 This sum amounts to 819,1612. sterling ; and if we 
 add to it the profit accruing from the sale of 5,000 
 quintals of quicksilver, imported from the mines of 
 Almaden, in Spain, on the king's account, and what 
 accrues from the Averia, and some other taxs which 
 Villa Segnor does not estimate, the public revenue 
 in New Spain may well be reckoned above a million 
 pounds sterling money. Teat. Mex. vol. i. p. 38, 
 c. According to Villa Segnor the total produce of 
 the Mexican mines amounts at a medium to eight 
 millions of pesos in silver annually, and to 5912 
 marks of gold. Id. p. 44. Several branches of the 
 revenue have been explained in the course of the 
 history ; some which there was no occasion of men 
 tioning, require a particular illustration. The right 
 to the tithes in the New World is vested in the 
 crown of Spain by a bull of Alexander VI. Charles 
 V. appointed them to be applied in the following 
 manner : one fourth is allotted to the bishop of the 
 diocese, another fourth to the dean and chapter, and 
 other officers of the cathedral. The remaining half 
 is divided into nine equal parts. Two of these, un- 
 der the denomination of los dos Novenos reales, are 
 paid to the crown, and constitute a branch of the 
 royal revenue. The other seven parts are applied to 
 the maintenance of the parochial clergy, the building 
 and support of churches, and other pious uses. Recop. 
 lib. i. tit. xvi Ley, 23, &c. Avendano Thesaur. 
 Indie, vol. i. p 184. 
 
 The Alcavala is a duty levied by an excise on the 
 sale of goods. In Spain it amounts to ten per cent. 
 In America to four per cent. Solorzano, Polit. In- 
 diana, lib. vi. c. 8. Avendano, vol. i 186. 
 
 The Almajorifasco, or custom paid in America on 
 goods imported and exported, may amount on an 
 average to fifteen per cent. Recopil. lib. viii. tit. xiv. 
 Ley, 1. Avendano, vol. i. 188. 
 
 The Averia, or tax paid on account of convoys to 
 guard the ships sailing to and from America, was 
 first imposed when Sir Francis Drake filled the New 
 World with terror by his expedition to the South 
 Sea, It amounts to two per cent, on the value of 
 goods. Avendano, vol. i. p. 189. Recopil. lib. ix. 
 tit ix. Ley, 43, 44, 
 
 I have not been able to procure any accurate de- 
 tail of the several branches of revenue in Peru 
 later than the year 1614. From a curious manu- 
 script containing a state of that viceroyalty in all its 
 
 departments, presented to the Marquis of Monies- 
 Clares by Fran. Lopez Caravantes, accomptant-ge- 
 neral in the tribunal of Lima, it appears that the 
 public revenue, as nearly as I can compute the va- 
 lue of money in which Caravantes states his accounts, 
 amounted in ducats at 4s. lid. to : 2,372,768 
 Expenses of government . . 1,242,992 
 
 Net free revenue 1,129,776 
 
 The total in sterling money 
 Expenses of government 
 
 Net free revenue 
 
 583,303 
 305,568 
 
 277,735 
 
 But several articles appear to be omitted in this 
 computation, such as the duty on stamped paper, 
 leather, ecclesiastical annats, &c., so that the revenue 
 of Peru may be well supposed equal to that of 
 Mexico. 
 
 In computing the expense of government in New 
 Spain, I may take that of Peru as a standard. 
 There the annual establishment for defraying the 
 charge of administration exceeds one half of the 
 revenue collected, and there is no reason for suppos- 
 ing it to be less in New Spain. 
 
 I have obtained a calculation of the total amount 
 of the public revenue of Spain from America and 
 the Philippines, which, as the reader will perceive 
 from the two last articles, is more recent than any of 
 the former. 
 
 Alcavalas (excise) and Aduanas (customs), 
 
 &c., in pesos fuertes 
 Duties on gold and silver 
 Bull of Cruzado : 
 Tribute of the Indians 
 By sale of quicksilver 
 
 Paper exported on the king's account, and. 
 sold in the royal warehouses 
 
 2,500,000 
 3,000,POO 
 1,000,000 
 2,000,000 
 300,000 
 
 300,000 
 
 Stamped paper, tobacco, and other small 
 
 duties : : : : : 1,000,000 
 
 Duty on coinage of, at the rate of one real 
 
 de la Plata for each mark : : 300,000 
 
 From the trade of Acapulco, and the coast- 
 ing trade from province to province 500,000 
 
 Assiento of negroes : : : 200,000 
 
 From the trade of Mathe, or herb of Para- 
 guay, formerly monopolized by the 
 Jesuits : : : : : 500,000 
 
 From other revenues formerly belonging to 
 that order : : : : : 400,000 
 
 Total 12,000,000 
 
 Total in sterling money 2,700,000 
 Deduct half as the expense of administra- 
 tion, and there remains net free re- 
 venue : : : : 1,350,000 
 
 NOTE 197. An author long conversant in com- 
 mercial speculation has computed, that from the 
 mines of New Spain alone the king receives an- 
 nually, as his fifth, the sum of two millions of our 
 money. Harris, Collect, of Voy. ii. p. 164. Ac- 
 cording to this calculation the total produce of the 
 
280 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 mines must be ten millions sterling ; a sum so exor- 
 bitant, and so little corresponding with all accounts 
 of the annual importation from America, that the 
 information on which it is founded must evidently 
 be erroneous. According to Compomanes the total 
 product of the American mines may be computed at 
 thirty millions of pesos, which, at 4s. 6d. a peso, 
 amounts to 7,425,000/. sterling, the king's fifth of 
 which (if that were regularly paid) would be 
 1,485,OOOZ. But from this sum must be deducted 
 what is lost by a fraudulent withholding of the fifth 
 due to the crown, as well as the sum necessary for 
 defraying the expense of administration. Educ. 
 Popular, vol. ii. p. 131, note. Both these sums are 
 considerable. 
 
 NOTE 198. According to Bern, de Ulloa, all 
 foreign goods exported from Spain to America pay 
 
 duties of various kinds, amounting in all to mor* 
 than 25 per cent. As most of the goods with which 
 Spain supplies her colonies are foreign, such a tax 
 upon a trade so extensive must yield a considerable 
 revenue. Retablis. de Manuf. & du Commerce 
 d'Esp. p. 150. He computes the value of goods 
 exported annually from Spain to America to be 
 about two millions and a half sterling. P. 97. 
 
 NOTE 199. The Marquis de Serralvo, according 
 to Gage, by a monopoly of salt, and by embarking 
 deeply in the Manilla trade, as well as in that to 
 Spain, gained annually a million of ducats. In one 
 year he remitted a million of ducats to Spain, in 
 order to purchase from the Conde Olivares, and his 
 creatures, a prolongation of his government, p. 61. 
 He was successful in his suit, and continued in office 
 from 1624 to 1635, double the usual time. 
 
 END or ROBERTSON'S HISTORY OF AMERICA 
 
HISTORY 
 
 OP THE 
 
 UNITED STATES 
 
 OF 
 
 NORTH AMERICA, 
 
 COMPILED FROM 
 
 AMERICAN AND OTHER SOURCES. 
 
 LIBRARY | EDITION 
 or 
 
 BDCCATION.CSE.JSTANDARD 
 
 AND WORKS 
 
 JEMTKRTAINMENT I Native & Foroig,, 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED, STEREOTYPED, AND PUBLISHED 
 BY MAYHEW, ISAAC, AND CO., 
 
 14, HENRIETTA STREET, 
 
 COVENT GARDEN. 
 
 1834. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IN conformity with the plan of the NATIONAL LIBRARY, the present HISTORY OP THE 
 UNITED STATES is a careful Compilation from the Standard Authors on the subject ; 
 and it will be sufficient to say, that it contains all that is valuable in the following 
 Works, corrected by reference to later documents : 
 
 Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay Belknap's History of New Hampshire 
 Smith's Histories of New York and of New Jersey Trumbull's Civil and Ecclesiasti- 
 cal History of Connecticut Proud's History of Pennsylvania Franklin's Historical 
 Review of Pennsylvania Jefferson's Virginia Hewett's History of Carolina and 
 Georgia Ramsay's Revolutions of South Carolina The Universal History Winter- 
 botham's Account of the United States Warden's Ditto Willard's History of the 
 Same Botta's War of the Independence Pitkin's History of the States Holmes's 
 Annals Marshall's Life of Washington The Encyclopaedias Rich's View of the 
 United States Stewart's Travels. 
 
 The account of the first colonizing of New England and of Virginia is not repeated 
 in this Volume, as Robertson's fragments on the subject will be found appended to his 
 History of (Spanish) America. This latter Work having been considered as the first 
 part of the present (in relation to the whole of America), the pageing has been carried 
 on, it having been intended to bind up the whole together. In consequence, however, 
 of a very general request on the part of those Persons who already possess Robertson, 
 this portion of the History of the United States is given separately ; thus affording to 
 Purchasers the option of taking either or both Works. 
 
 In the compilation, the Editor has been careful to select authentic matter ; but has 
 otherwise presumed to do little more than occasionally retrench redundancies, and cor- 
 rect matters of fact by reference to later productions. The materials were ample, but 
 have never before been collected ; and the Volume may claim attention as comprising 
 the main body of Works which all who desire information relative to this great and 
 rising country, must possess, and which yet cannot be had without the outlay of many 
 pounds. He hopes it will therefore be acceptable to Readers on both sides of the 
 Atlantic ; especially as it is the only existing Work which fully and connectedly 
 developes the rise, progress, and completion of a government which may be termed a 
 phenomenon in political history. 
 
 a 2 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 From the arrival of Governor Dudley, in 1702, to 
 the arrival of Governor Shute, in 1716 Page 291 
 
 From the arrival of Governor Shute, in 1716, to the 
 arrival of Governor Belcher, in 1730 . 311 
 
 From the arrival of Governor Belcher, in 1730, to 
 the reimbursement of the charge of the expedition 
 against Cape Breton, and the abolition of paper 
 money, 1749 . 352 
 
 From the close of the war with France, to the end of 
 Governor Pownall's administration, in the year 
 1760 . . 372 
 
 From the arrival of Governor Bernard, August 2nd, 
 1760, to the commencement of the revolution 392 
 
 NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
 
 The grants to Mason and others. Beginning of the 
 settlements at Portsmouth and Dover. Wheel- 
 right's Indian purchase. Neal's adventures. Dis- 
 couragements. Dissolution of the Council. Causes 
 of the failure of his enterprise . 398 
 
 Troubles at Dover. Settlements of Exeter and Hamp- 
 ton. Huin of Mason's interest. Story of Under- 
 bill. Combinations at Portsmouth and Dover. 
 Union of New Hampshire with Massachusetts 402 
 
 Observations on the principles and conduct of the 
 first planters of New England. Causes of their 
 removal. Their fortitude. Religious sentiments. 
 Care of their posterity. Justice. Laws. The- 
 ocratic prejudices. Intolerance and persecu- 
 tions . . . 4Q6 
 
 Mode of government under Massachusetts. Mason's 
 efforts to recover the property of his ancestor. 
 Transactions of the King's commissioners. Op- 
 position to them. Political principles. Internal 
 transactions. Mason discouraged . 412 
 
 Remarks on the temper and manners of the Indians. 
 The first general war with them, called Philip's 
 war ... 415 
 
 Mason's renewed efforts. Randolph's mission and 
 transactions. Attempts for the trial of Mason's 
 title. New Hampshire separated from Massa- 
 chusetts, and made a royal province. Abstract of 
 the commission. Rema'rks on it . 423 
 
 The administration of Cranfield. Violent measures. 
 Insurrection, trial, and imprisonment of Gove. 
 Mason's suits. Vaughan's imprisonment. Pro- 
 
 secution of Moody and his imprisonment. Arbi- 
 trary proceedings. Complaints. Tumults. Weare's 
 agency in England. Cranfield's removal. Bare- 
 foote's administration . Page 427 
 
 The administration of Dudley as president, and An- 
 drosse as governor of New England. Mason's 
 farther attempt. His disappointment and death. 
 Revolution in England. Sale to Allen. His 
 commission for the government . 433 
 
 The war with the French and Indians, commonly 
 called King William's war . 435 
 
 The civil affairs of the province during the adminis- 
 trations of Usher, Partridge, Allen, the earl of 
 Bellamont, and Dudley comprehending the con- 
 troversy with Allen and his heirs . 443 
 
 The war with the French and Indians, called Queen 
 Anne's war. Conclusion of Dudley's and Usher's 
 administration . 450 
 
 The administration of Governor Sbute, and his lieu, 
 tenants, Vaughan and Wentworth . 455 
 
 The fourth Indian war, commonly called the three 
 years' war, or Lovewell's war . 460 
 
 Wentworth's administration continued. Burnet's 
 short administration. Belcher succeeds him. 
 Wentworth's death and character . 467 
 
 Dunbar's lieutenancy and enmity to Belcher. Ef- 
 forts to settle the boundary lines. Divisions. 
 Riot. Trade. Episcopal church. Throat dis- 
 temper . 469 
 
 State of parties. Controversy about lines. Com- 
 missioners appointed. Their session and result. 
 Appeals. Complaints . 473 
 
 Revival of Mason's claim. Accusations against Bel- 
 cher, real and forged. Royal censure. Final es- 
 tablishment of the lines. Hutchinson's agency. 
 
 I Spanish war. Belcher's zeal and fidelity. His 
 removal. Examination of his character . 4/8 
 
 The beginning of Benning Wentworth's administra- 
 tion. War opened in Nova Scotia. Expedition 
 to cape Breton ; its plan, conduct, and success, 
 with a description of the island, and of the city 
 of Louisbourg . . 482 
 
 Projected expedition to Canada. Alarm by the 
 French fleet. State of the frontiers. Peace 489 
 
 Purchase of Mason's claim. Controversy about re- 
 presentation. Plan of extending the settlements. 
 Jealousy and resentment of the savages . 494 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 The last French and Indian war, which terminated in , 
 the conquest of Canada. Controversy concerning 
 the land westward of Connecticut river Page 498 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 From the discovery of the colony to the surrender in 
 1664 504 
 
 From the surrender in 1664, to the settlement at 
 the English revolution of 1688 511 
 
 From the revolution to the second expedition against 
 Canada . . 526 
 
 From the Canada expedition, in 1709, to the arrival 
 of Governor Burnet . 542 
 
 From the year 1720 to the commencement of the ad- 
 ministration of Colonel Cosby . 551 
 
 NEW JERSEY. 
 
 First settlers. Acquirement by the English. Lord 
 Berkeley and Sir George Carteret proprietors. 
 Purchase of Elizabeth Town, and settlement of 
 Newark, Middletown, and Shrewsbury. Philip 
 Carteret governor. Purchases from the Indians. 
 Captain Berry deputy governor. Currency. Sir 
 George Carteret's additional instructions . 562 
 
 Major Andross appointed governor at New York. 
 Takes possession at Delaware. Arrival of the first 
 English settlers to West Jersey, under the Duke 
 of York's title. Lord Berkeley assigns his moiety 
 of New Jersey to Byllinge, and he in trust to 
 others. Their letter and first commission. New 
 Jersey divided into the provinces, East and West 
 Jersey ; and the declaration of the West Jersey 
 proprietors . . . 563 
 
 Arrival of more settlers to West Jersey. Their dif- 
 ficulties. Their purchases from the Indians. They 
 lay out a town. Some of their first sentiments of 
 the country, and an account of the Duke of York's 
 two last grants, being for the provinces East and 
 West New Jersey, separately . 567 
 
 Letters from some of the settlers of West Jersey, 
 and arguments against the customs imposed at the 
 Hoar Kill by the governor of New York . 570 
 
 The first form of government in West Jersey, under 
 the proprietors. The first laws they made. The 
 regulation relative to the partitioning of land 574 
 
 Another ship arrives at West Jersey. Proceedings 
 of the general assembly of West Jersey. Sir 
 George Carteret's death. Conveyance to the 
 twelve eastern proprietors. Their proposals and 
 regulations in several respects; particularly in 
 disposing of lands and building a town at Ambo 
 point. The twelve proprietors each take a partner, 
 and thence are called the twenty-four ; to whom 
 the Duke of York makes a third and last grant. 
 The twenty-four establish the council of proprietors 
 of East Jersey on the footing it now is. A gene- 
 ral view of the improvements in East Jersey, in 
 1682. A compendium of some of the first laws 
 passed at Elizabeth-town. Doubts started whether 
 the government of West Jersey was granted with 
 
 the soil. Jenings continued governor of West 
 Jersey ; and laws passed there . Page 57G 
 
 Robert Barclay appointed governor of East Jersey, 
 and T. Rudyard, deputy. Letters from Rudyard 
 and others concerned in that settlement . 580 
 
 Manner of the West Jersey government in 1684. 
 Their unsettled state, and succession of governors. 
 Danger of suffering for want of food in 1687. 
 The division line run by G. Keith ; and agreement 
 between the governors Coxe and Barclay. Al- 
 teration in the manner of locating lands in West 
 Jersey. No person in West Jersey to purchase 
 from the Indians without the consent of the coun- 
 cil of proprietors; and instructions respecting 
 deeds and warrants for taking up lands . 584 
 
 A flood at Delaware falls. Death and character of 
 Thomas Olive. Commotions in East and West 
 Jersey. Surrender of the two governments to 
 Queen Anne. Her acceptance, and commission 
 to Lord Cornbury. . . 587 
 
 Instructions from Queen Anne to Lord Cornbury 
 
 590 
 
 Lord Cornbury convenes the first general assembly 
 after the surrender. His speech, their address, 
 and other proceedings. Queen Anne's proclama- 
 tion for ascertaining the rates of coin. Lord Corn- 
 bury dissolves the assembly, and convenes a new 
 one. Its proceedings and dissolution. A sum- 
 mary of the establishment and practice of the 
 council of proprietors of West Jersey. Another 
 assembly called . . 598 
 
 Lord Cornbury's answer to the assembly's remon- 
 strance . , . 604 
 
 The assembly's reply to Lord Cornbury's answer to 
 their remonstrance . . 608 
 
 Memorial of the West Jersey proprietors, residing 
 in England, to the lords commissioners for trade 
 and plantations. The lieutenant-governor, with 
 some of the council, address the queen. The last 
 meeting of assembly under Cornbury's adminis- 
 tration. They continue their complaints. Samuel 
 Jenings, death and character . 615 
 
 Lord Lovelace arrives as governor. His death ; is 
 succeeded by the Lieutenant-governor Isgoldsby. 
 Arrival of Governor Hunter. The aid for the ex- 
 pedition to Canada. A new assembly chosen 620 
 
 Representation of the assembly to Governor Hun- 
 ter; and his answer . . 623 
 
 A session of general assembly. A second expedi- 
 tion to Canada. Meeting of a new assembly. 
 Last session in Hunter's time. An act passed for 
 running the division line between East and West 
 Jersey. William Burnet arrives as governor. Is 
 succeeded by John Montgomerie, Esq. Lewis 
 Morris appointed governor, separate from New 
 York. Affairs until the revolution . 629 
 
 CONNECTICUT. 
 
 The patent of Connecticut. The discovery of Con- 
 necticut river. Description of other rivers. Ply- 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 mouth and Dutch houses. Prospects of trade 
 upon the riter . Page 635 
 
 The state of the country of Connecticut when the 
 settlement of the colony commenced. Its trees 
 and fruits. Its animals. Number, situation, ge- 
 nius, manners, arms, utensils, and wars of the In- 
 dians . . . 638 
 
 The people at Dorchester, Watertown, and New- 
 town, finding themselves straitened in the Massa- 
 chusetts, determine to remove to Connecticut. De- 
 bates in Massachusetts relative to their removal. 
 The general court at first prohibits it, but after- 
 wards give its consent. The people remove and 
 settle the towns of Windsor, Hartford, and Wea- 
 thersfield. Hardships and losses of the first win- 
 ters . . 644 
 
 The war with the Pequots. Their defeat. A second 
 expedition against them conjointly with Massa- 
 chusetts. The great swamp fight. The Pequots 
 subdued. The survivors incorporated with the 
 Moheagans and Narragansets, and their name ex- 
 tinguished . . . 648 
 
 Effects of the war. Great scarcity. Settlement of 
 New Haven. Plantation covenant. Means for 
 the defence of the colony. Captain Mason made 
 major-general. Civil constitution of Connecticut, 
 formed by voluntary compact. First general elec- 
 tion at Connecticut. Governors and magistrates. 
 General rights of the people, and principal laws 
 of the colony. Constitution and laws of New 
 Haven. Purchase and settlement of several towns 
 in Connecticut and New Haven . 650 
 
 The progress of purchase, settlement, and law, in 
 the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven. The 
 effect of the conquest of the Pequots on the na- 
 tives, and the manner in which they were treated. 
 Purchases of them. Towns settled. Divisions 
 at Weathersfield occasion the settlement of Stam- 
 ford. Contests with the Dutch and Indians. 
 Capital laws of Connecticut. The confederation 
 of the united colonies. Further contests with 
 the Indians. Precautions of the colonies to pre- 
 vent war. The Dutch apply to New Haven for 
 assistance . . . 658 
 
 Public fasts appointed. Indians continue hostile, and 
 commit murder. Acts of the commissioners respect- 
 ing them. Branford settled. Towns in Connecticut. 
 Message of the commissioners to theNarragansets. 
 Their agreement respecting Uncas. Long Island 
 Indians taken under the protection of the United 
 Colonies. Massachusetts claims part of the Pe- 
 quot country and Waranoke. Determination 
 of the commissioners respecting said claim. Agree- 
 ment with Mr. Fenwick relative to Saybrook fort 
 and the adjacent country,, Fortifications advanced. 
 Extraordinary meeting of the commissioners to 
 suppress the outrages of the Narragansets. War 
 proclaimed and troops sent against them. They 
 treat and prevent war. Fail-field objects to a jury 
 of six. Controversy with the Dutch. The In- 
 dians plot against the life of Governor Hopkins 
 and other principal gentlemen at Hartford. Da- 
 mages at Windsor. Battle between the Dutch 
 and Indians. Losses of New Haven. Dispute 
 with Massachusetts relative to the impost at Say- 
 brook. Mr. Winthrop's claim of the Nehantic 
 
 country. Settlement of accounts between the co- 
 lonies . . Page 666 
 
 Settlement of New London. Salaries first granted 
 to civil officers. Troubles with the Narraganset 
 Indians. Rhode Island petitions to be united with 
 the colonies in confederation. The Massachusetts 
 resume the affair of the impost. Mr. Westerhouse 
 complains of the seizure of his vessel by the Dutch, 
 in the harbour of New Haven. Murders com- 
 mitted by the Indians ; resolutions respecting the 
 murderers. Body of laws compiled. Debates re- 
 lative to the settlement of Delaware. The Pe- 
 quots revolt from Uncas, and petition the English. 
 Resolution respecting them. Mr. Westerhouse 
 petitions to make reprisals from the Dutch. Let- 
 ter to the Dutch governor. Further altercations 
 respecting the impost. Final issue of that affair. 
 The conduct of the Massachusetts upon its de- 
 cision, and the declaration of the commissioners 
 respecting it. Their treatment of Connecticut 
 respecting the line between the colonies. The 
 court of Connecticut determine to avenge the 
 death of John Whitmore . 676 
 
 Court of election at Hartford. Grants to Captain 
 Mason. Message to Ninigrate. The line is fixed 
 between the English and Dutoh plantations. Agree- 
 ments with Mr. Fenwick occasion general uneasi- 
 ness. An act for the encouragement of seeking 
 and improving mines. Norwalk and Mattabeseck 
 settled. The colony of New Haven make another 
 attempt to settle at Delaware. The Dutch go- 
 vernor seizes the company, and frustrates the de- 
 sign. French commissioners from Canada. War 
 determined with the Dutch and Indians. Massa- 
 chusetts prevents it. Alarm and distress of the 
 plantations. Appeal to Cromwell and the parlia- 
 ment for assistance. The tumultuous state of the 
 settlements ... 681 
 
 The death and character of Governor Haynes. The 
 freemen of Connecticut meet, and appoint a mo- 
 derator. Mr. Ludlow removes to Virgfciia. The 
 spirited conduct of the people at Milford in recover- 
 ing Manning's vessel. The freemen add to the 
 fundamental articles. Fleet arrives at Boston for 
 the reduction of the Dutch. The colonies agree 
 to raise men to assist the armament fromEn gland. 
 Peace prevents the expedition. The general court 
 at New Haven charge the Massachusetts with a 
 breach of the confederation. They refuse to join 
 in a war against Ninigrate, and oblige Connec- 
 ticut and New Haven to provide for the defence 
 of themselves and their allies. Ninigrate con- 
 tinuing his hostile measures, the commissioners 
 send messengers to him. His answer to them. 
 They declare war, and send an army against him. 
 The art of Massachusetts, and the deceit of Major 
 Willard, defeat the designed expedition. The 
 number of rateable polls, and the amount of 
 the list of Connecticut. The Pequots are taken 
 under their protection. Ninigrate persisting in 
 his hostilities against the Indians upon Long 
 Island, the general court adopt measures for the 
 defence of the Indians and the English inhabi- 
 tants there. New Haven complete and print 
 their laws. The answer of New Haven to the 
 protector's invitation, that they would remove to 
 Jamaica. Reply of the commissioners to the 
 Dutch governor. Uncas embroils the country. 
 Deaths and characters of Governors Eaton and 
 
viii 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Hopkins. Settlement of Stonington. Mr. Win- 
 throp chosen governor. The third fundamental 
 article is altered by the freemen. Mr. Fitch and 
 his church and people remove to Norwich. Final 
 settlement of accounts with the heirs of Mr. Fen- 
 wick. Deputy-governor Mason resigns the Mo- 
 heagan lands to the colony . Page 691 
 
 The general court of Connecticut declare their loy- 
 alty and submission to Charles II. ; determine to 
 address his majesty, and apply for charter privi- 
 leges. Governor Winthrop is appointed the co- 
 lony's agent. Regicides condemned. Whalley 
 and Goffe arrive at Boston. The king proclaimed. 
 Governor Winthrop obtains the charter of Con- 
 necticut. First governor and council under the 
 charter. Representation of the constitution it or- 
 dains, and the privileges it conveys. Difficulties 
 of the colony of New Haven. Charter of Con- 
 necticut arrives. Proceedings of Connecticut in 
 consequence of the charter. They extend their 
 jurisdiction to all places within the limits of their 
 patent, and challenge New Haven colony, as 
 under their jurisdiction. Controversy between 
 the two colonies. Settlement of Killingworth. 
 Patent of the Duke of York. Colonel Nichols 
 and commissioners arrive, reduce all the Dutch 
 settlements. Their extraordinary powers. Im- 
 portant crisis of Connecticut. Boundaries be- 
 tween Connecticut and New York. Union of 
 Connecticut and New Haven. . 698 
 
 A view of the churches of Connecticut and New 
 Haven. Ecclesiastical laws. Care to diffuse 
 general knowledge ; its happy influence. At- 
 tempts to found a college at New Haven. No 
 sectaries in Connecticut nor New Haven until 
 after the union. Deaths and characters of se- 
 veral of the first ministers. Dissensions in the 
 church. Laws against the Quakers. A synod 
 proposed and convened. Dissensions continued 
 at Hartford and at Weathersfield. Settlement o: 
 Hadley. Synod at Boston 709 
 
 Conduct of the king's commissioners. Counties anc 
 county courts regulated. Governor Winthrop's 
 estate freed from taxation. Towns settled. Con- 
 troversy with Rhode Island. The grounds of it, 
 Courts appointed in the Narraganset country 
 Laws revised and printed. War with the Dutch, 
 Claims and conduct of Major Edmund Andross, 
 Governor of New York. Protest against him, 
 Conduct of Captain Thomas Bull. Proclamation 
 respecting the insult received from Major Andross 
 Philip's war. Captains Hutchinson and Lothroj 
 surprised and slain. Treachery of the Springfiel 
 Indians. Hadley attacked by the enemy. The 
 assembly make provision for the defence of Con 
 necticut. Expedition against the Narraganse 
 Indians. The reasons of it. The great swamj 
 fight. Loss of men. Courage exhibited, anc 
 hardships endured. Captain Pierce and his party 
 cut off. Nanunttenoo taken. Success of Cap 
 tains Denison and Avery. Captain Wadsworth 
 and his party slain. Death and character of Go- 
 vernor Winthrop. Success of Major Talcott 
 Attack upon Hadley. The enemy beaten anc 
 begin to scatter. They are pursued to Housato 
 nick. Sachem of Quabaug and Philip killed 
 Number of the enemy before fehe war. Their dc 
 rtruction. Loss of the colonies. Connection 
 
 happy in preserving its own towns and assisting 
 its neighbours. . . Page 720 
 
 Measures adopted to discharge the public debt, and 
 settle the country in peace. The reasons of the 
 colonies claim to Narraganset. The former set- 
 tlers and owners of land there apply to Connecti- 
 cut for protection. Major Treat goes to the upper 
 towns upon Connecticut river, to treat with the 
 Indians. Fasts appointed through New England. 
 Act concerning the conquered lands in Narra- 
 ganset. Navigation act grievous to the colonies. 
 Governor Leet takes the oath respecting trade 
 and navigation. Answers to queries from the 
 lords of trade and plantations. Protest against 
 Sir Edmund Andross's claim to Fisher's Island. 
 Character of Governor Leet. Commissioners ap- 
 pointed by his majesty to examine and make re- 
 port concerning all claims to the Narraganset 
 country, or king's province. They report in fa- 
 vour of Connecticut. Answers to the renewed 
 claim of the Duke of Hamilton, and opinions on 
 the case. Connecticut congratulates the arrival 
 of Colonel Dungan, governor of New York, and 
 agrees with him respecting the boundary line be- 
 tween that colony and Connecticut. Petition to 
 King James II. Settlement of Waterbury. Quo 
 warrantos against the colony. The assembly pe- 
 tition his majesty to continue their charter privi- 
 leges. Sir Edmund Andross made governor of 
 New England. Arrives at Hartford, and takes 
 the government, by order of his majesty. The 
 oppression and cruelty of his administration 730 
 
 Revolution in New England. Connecticut resumes 
 its government. Address to King William. 
 Troops raised for the defence of the eastern set- 
 tlements in New Hampshire and the province 
 of Maine. French and Indian war. Schenectady 
 destroyed. Connecticut dispatch a reinforcement 
 to Albany. Expedition against Canada. The 
 land army retreats, and the enterprise proves un- 
 successful. Leisler's abuse of Major-general 
 Winthrop. The assembly of Connecticut approve 
 the general's conduct. Thanks are returned to 
 Mr. Mather, Agent Whiting, and Mr. Porter. 
 Opinions respecting the charter, and the legality 
 of Connecticut's assuming its government. 
 Windham settled. The Mohawk castles are sur- 
 prised, and the country alarmed. Connecticut 
 sends troops to Albany. Colonel Fletcher, gover- 
 nor of New York, demands the command of the 
 militia of Connecticut. The colony petition King 
 William on the subject. Colonel Fletcher comes 
 to Hartford, and, in person, demands that the 
 legislature submit the militia to his command ; but 
 they refuse. Captain Wadsworth prevents the 
 reading of his commission, and the colonel deems 
 it expedient to leave the colony. The case of 
 Connecticut relative to the militia stated. His 
 majesty determines in favour of the colony. Com- 
 mittees are appointed to settle the boundary line 
 between Connecticut and Massachusetts. Ge- 
 neral Winthrop returns, and receives public 
 thanks. Congratulation of the earl of Bellamont, 
 appointed governor of New York and Massachu- 
 setts. Dispute with Rhode Island continues. 
 Committee to settle the boundaries. Expenses 
 of the war. Peace . . 737 
 
 General Winthrop is elected governor. The as- 
 sembly divide an.d form into two houses. Purchase 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 and settlement of several towns. The boundary 
 line between Connecticut and New York surveyed 
 and fixed. Attempts for running and establish- 
 ing the line between Massachusetts and Connecti- 
 cut. Owaneco and the Moheagans claim Col- 
 chester and other tracts in the colony. Attempts 
 to compose all differences with them. Grant to 
 the volunteers. The assembly enacts, that the 
 session in October shall for the future be in New 
 Haven. An act enlarging the boundaries of New 
 London, and acts relative to towns and patents. 
 Measures adopted for the defence of the colony. 
 Appointment of king's attorneys. Attempts to 
 despoil Connecticut of its charter. Bill for re- 
 uniting the charter governments to the crown. 
 Sir Henry Ashurst petitions against, and prevents 
 the passing of the bill. Governor Dudley, Lord 
 Cornbury, and other enemies conspire against the 
 colony. They exhibit grievous complaints against 
 it. Sir Henry Ashurst defends the colony, and 
 defeats their attempts. Quakers petition. Mohe- 
 agan case. Survey and bounds of the pretended 
 Moheagan country. Dudley's court at Stoning- 
 ton. The colony protest against it. Dudley's 
 treatment of the colony. Judgment against it. 
 Petition to her majesty on the subject. New com- 
 missions are granted. Act in favour of the clergy. 
 State of the colony . . Page 743 
 
 The country is alarmed. Means of defence. New 
 townships granted and settled. The Rev. Gurdon 
 Saltonstall chosen governor. Act empowering 
 the freemen to choose the governor from among 
 themselves ?t large. Acts relative to the settle- 
 ment of the boundary line with Massachusetts. 
 Garrisons erected in the towns on the frontiers. 
 Expedition against Canada. First emission of 
 paper money. Address to her majesty. Loss of 
 the colony at Wood Creek. Expedition against 
 Port Royal. Acts respecting the superior court. 
 Settlement of the boundary line between Mas- 
 sachusetts and Connecticut. Return of peace. 
 Towns settled under Massachusetts. State of the 
 colony. . . . 754 
 
 Ecclesiastical Affairs of Connecticut, from 1666 to 
 1714. The general assembly appoint a synod to 
 determine points of religious controversy. The mi- 
 nisters decline meeting under the name of a synod. 
 The assembly alter the name, and require them to 
 meet as a general assembly of the ministers and 
 churches of Connecticut. Seventeen questions 
 were proposed to the assembly to be discussed and 
 answered. The assembly of ministers and churches 
 meet and discuss the questions. The legislature 
 declare that they had not been decided, and give 
 intimations that they did not desire that the mi- 
 nisters and churches of Connecticut should report 
 their opinion upon them. They express their de- 
 sires of a larger council from Massachusetts and 
 New Plymouth. The Rev. Mr. Davenport re- 
 moves to Boston. Dissension at Windsor. Mr. 
 Bulkley and Mr. Fitch are appointed by the as- 
 sembly to devise some way in which the churches 
 might walk together, notwithstanding their dif- 
 ferent opinions relative to the subjects of baptism, 
 church communion, and the mode of church dis- 
 cipline. The church at Hartford divides, and 
 Mr. Whiting and his adherents are allowed to 
 practise upon congregational principles. The 
 church at Stratford allowed to divide, and hold 
 distinct meetings. Mr. Walker and his hearers, 
 
 upon advice, remove and settle the town of Wood- 
 bury. Deaths and characters of the Rev. Messrs. 
 John Davenport and John Warham. General 
 attempts for a reformation of manners. Religious 
 state of the colony in 1680. Attempts for the 
 instruction and christianizing of the Indians in. 
 Connecticut. Act of the legislature respecting 
 Windsor. The people there required peaceably 
 to settle and support Mr. Mather. Owning or 
 subscribing the covenant introduced at Hartford. 
 College founded, and trustees incorporated. Wor- 
 ship according to the mode of the church of Eng- 
 land performed, in this colony, first at Stratford. 
 Episcopal church gathered there. Act of as- 
 sembly requiring the ministers and churches of 
 Connecticut to meet and form a religious consti- 
 tution. They meet and compile the Saybrook 
 Platform. Articles of discipline. Act of the le- 
 gislature adopting the Platform. Associations; 
 consociations. General association. Its recom- 
 mendations relative to the examination of candi- 
 dates for the ministry, and of pastors elect pre- 
 vious to their ordination. Ministers, churches, and 
 Ecclesiastical Societies in Connecticut, in 1713 
 
 Page 759 
 
 RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE. 
 
 Origin of the colony. Roger Williams. His views. 
 William Coddington and his companions seek the 
 colony. Rhode Island refuses to submit to the 
 jurisdiction of Plymouth. Government established, 
 and code of laws. Charter granted by Charles 
 II. Internal state of the colony. Government. 
 Laws. Towns. Produce. Exports. Religion. 
 Literature, &c. . . 772 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE. 
 
 Introduction. Biography of Penn . 781 
 
 William Penn's chief design in the colonization of 
 Pennsylvania. Cause and manner of obtaining 
 the grant. King Charles II.'s royal charter to 
 William Penn. Boundary between Maryland 
 and Pennsylvania, with the real extent of the 
 latter. The king's declaration. Account of the 
 province, terms of sale for land, andconditions of 
 settlement published, with advice to the adven- 
 turers. Free society of traders, &c. 787 
 
 Conditions, or concessions published. Sailing of 
 the first ship for Pennsylvania. Joseph Kirk- 
 bride, &c. The proprietor's manner of treating 
 the Indians. His letter to them. First frame of 
 government and laws published. Part of the pre- 
 face to the same. Purport of the frame, and one 
 of the laws. Duke of York's deed of release to 
 William Penn. The territories obtained, &c. 
 Boundary between the territories and Mary- 
 land ... 793 
 
 Penn sails for Pennsylvania. Writes a valedictory 
 epistle to his friends in England. Arrives in the 
 Delaware. His reception in the country. Holds 
 an assembly at Upland (Chester). Passes an 
 act of union between the province and territory. 
 Naturalizes the foreigners. Passes the laws 
 agreed on in England, in form. Preamble to said 
 laws with their titles. He visits New York and 
 Maryland ; and treats with the Lord Baltimore, 
 respecting the boundaries. Extracts from two of 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 his letters, respecting his employment in the 
 country, and in vindication of himself from some 
 undue reflections. The proprietor purchases lands 
 of the Indians, and treats them with great justice 
 and kindness . . Page 795 
 
 Arrivals of colonists in the first year, and early times, 
 with their general character. Some of their set- 
 tlements, and rapid improvements. Their diffi- 
 culties and hardships. Part of the planter's speech 
 to his neighbours and countrymen. Richard 
 Townsend's testimony respecting the prosperity 
 of Pennsylvania from the first settlement of it, 
 for above 40 years . 798 
 
 Foundation of the city of Philadelphia. Province 
 and territory divided into counties. First general 
 assembly at Philadelphia in 1683. Proceedings 
 of the assembly. Second charter, or frame of 
 government. A seal for each county ; the first 
 sheriffs. First grand and petit jury, with their 
 business, &c. Further account of the situation 
 and plan of Philadelphia. Penn's letter to the 
 free society of traders, giving an account of Penn- 
 sylvania at that time . . 802 
 
 The dispute between Penn and Lord Baltimore, 
 respecting the boundaries between their territories. 
 Penn's letter to the Lords of plantations. Lord 
 Baltimore's commission to Colonel George Talbot, 
 with a demand of the latter. William Penn's 
 answer to said demand. Incursion from Mary- 
 land, attempting forcible entry. Difficulty to re- 
 strain the Indians from strong liquors 810 
 
 The proprietary obliged to return to England. Com- 
 missions the provincial council to act in his 
 absence, &c. His letter at his departure. Old- 
 mixon's account. Thomas Langhorne. Death 
 of Charles II., and succession of James II. to the 
 crown of England, with Penn's interest and 
 service at court. The dispute between Penn and 
 Lord Baltimore, respecting the boundary of the 
 territories decided, &c. Boundary lines between 
 the counties of the province ascertained. Pro- 
 ceedings of the assembly against N. Moore, J. 
 Bridges and P. Robinson. Means used to instruct 
 the Indians. State of the province 814 
 
 Penn's employment in Europe. Emigrants from 
 Holland and Germany. Five commissioners of 
 state created. The proprietor's instructions to 
 them. His beneficent employment in England 
 for the Quakers, &c. Letter to Lloyd. False 
 alarm of an Indian insurrection. Caleb Pussey. 
 Captain John Blackwell, Deputy Governor. The 
 proprietary's instructions to him. He meets the 
 assembly, disagrees with the council, and returns 
 to England. Institution of the first public gram- 
 mar-school in Pennsylvania . 818 
 
 Penn's difficulties after the revolution in England. 
 Disagreement between the province and terri- 
 tories. Declaration of the council, and other pro- 
 ceedings relating to the difference. Two deputy- 
 governors. The proprietary's concern at this dif- 
 ference. Further proceedings of the province. 
 A promulgated bill. Letter to the proprietary, 
 &c. ... 822 
 
 Schism and separation between George Keith and 
 the Quakers. His conduct afterwards. Some 
 
 judicial proceedings against him, &c. The ma. 
 gistrates' declaration of the reasons for these pro- 
 ceedings. Penn deprived of the government by 
 King William and Queen Mary. Their com- 
 mission to Fletcher, governor of New York. 
 Fletcher's letter to Deputy Lloyd . Page 826 
 
 Governor Fletcher arrives at Philadelphia. Council's 
 address to the governor. Proceedings of the go- 
 vernor and assembly, &c. The defence of Albany. 
 Assembly's address to the governor, with his 
 answer. The assembly's remonstrance, with other 
 proceedings. A law for the support of govern- 
 ment, &c. Assembly's petition to the governor. 
 Resolve of the assembly, and protest of some of 
 its members. Governor Fletcher dissolves the 
 assembly, appoints William Markham his deputy, 
 and departs for New York. Death of the former 
 deputy-governor, Thomas Lloyd . 829 
 
 Penn cleared of the accusations against him, and 
 his government restored. Death of his wife, 
 Gulielma Maria. He commissions William Mark- 
 ham his lieutenant-governor. His useful employ- 
 ment in England. His second marriage. Death 
 of his eldest son, Springett. Proceedings of the 
 assembly in 1696. Their remonstrance, &c. 
 Further proceedings of the legislature ; wherein 
 a bill of settlement is agreed to and passed, called 
 the third frame of government, &c. State of the 
 province about this time. A proclamation 833 
 
 Penn, with his wife and family, sail for Pennsyl- 
 vania. Yellow fever in Pennsylvania. Pro- 
 ceedings of the governor and assembly against 
 piracy and illicit trade. The proprietary's con- 
 cern for the benefit of the Indians and Negroes, 
 with the measures used. Money requested of the 
 assembly for the fortifications on the frontiers of 
 New York. Assembly's address to the proprie- 
 tary on this occasion. Articles of agreement be- 
 tween Penn and the Indians about Susquehanna, 
 &c. . 35 
 
 Penn's motives for returning to England. His 
 speech to the assembly, with their answer. He 
 takes leave of the Indians. Disagreement be- 
 tween the province and territories revived. The 
 proprietary endeavours to reconcile them. His 
 letter to the assembly, urging their agreement. 
 The last charter of Pennsylvania. The proprietary 
 also grants a charter to the city of Philadelphia. 
 Andrew Hamilton of New Jersey being consti- 
 tuted deputy-governor, and James Logan secretary 
 of the province, Penn sails for England 839 
 
 King William dies, and is succeeded by Queen 
 Anne. Penn in favour at court. Governor Ha- 
 milton's administration and death. Province and 
 territories irreconcilable. They agree to a sepa- 
 ration in legislation ; Edward Shippen, president 
 of the council. Resolve of the provincial assembly- 
 after separation. John Evans arrives as deputy- 
 governor, and endeavours to reunite the province 
 and territories in legislation, but in vain. The 
 governor displeased with the assembly of the pro- 
 vince. David Lloyd. Governor's proclamation 
 for raising a militia. He meets the assembly of 
 the territories at Newcastle. The provincial as- 
 sembly remonstrate w.th the proprietary. The go- 
 vernor's speech in 1705. A very different as- 
 sembly elected, and more harmony succeeds. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Thomas Chalkley's visit to the Indians at Con- 
 nestogo, with a memorial of him. Pennsylvania 
 affected in times of war, on account of the Quakers' 
 principles . . . Page 843 
 
 Governor Evans's disposition and conduct. His 
 treatment of the Quakers' principles on war. 
 False alarm at Philadelphia. Fort and exactions 
 at Newcastle. Assembly's address to the go- 
 vernor. Further proceeding and dispute between 
 the governor and assembly. Assembly displeased 
 with the secretary, James Logan. The assembly 
 impeach the secretary. Heads of a remonstrance 
 to the proprietor. Difficulties of the proprietor 
 about this time . . 845 
 
 Governor Gookin arrives. Assembly's address to 
 the governor. They continue their former ani- 
 mosity. The governor's answer; to which the 
 assembly reply. The council's address to the 
 governor. The assembly displeased with the 
 council, and present a remonstrance of grievances 
 to the governor. The governor's speech to the 
 assembly, containing a military requisition in 
 1709. ' 848 
 
 The assembly vote a present to the Queen. The 
 governor not satisfied with their offer ; and they 
 adjourn. Proceedings of the next meeting of as- 
 sembly. They agree to augment the sum, voted 
 before to the Queen ; and request the governor's 
 concurrence to divers bills. Further dispute be- 
 tween the governor and assembly ; with reasons 
 of the former for not agreeing with the latter ; 
 upon which they remonstrate to the governor, and 
 are much displeased with the secretary, James 
 Logan. Proceedings between the governor, and 
 the next assembly. Their proceedings against 
 James Logan. They are disappointed in their 
 design against him by the governor. The secre- 
 tary goes to England, &c. . 851 
 
 Party spirit endangers the government and consti- 
 tution. The proprietor's letter to the assembly 
 respecting their late transactions. An entire new 
 assembly elected in October 1710. Harmony 
 between the governor and this assembly productive 
 of more agreeable and better consequences, &c. 
 Proceedings of the legislature in consequence of 
 an express from England, received by the go- 
 vernor, relating to an expedition against Canada. 
 The Queen's letter of instructions to him. The 
 assembly vote 2000Z. for the Queen's use. The 
 next year produces a change in the assembly. 
 The proprietor agrees to dispose of the govern- 
 ment, to the Queen ; and is seized with an apo- 
 plexy. Wine and rum imported in 1712. Set- 
 tlement of New Garden and London Grove, in 
 Chester county. Samuel Carpenter. The go- 
 vernor's writ for summoning the assembly. Alter- 
 cation between them . . 855 
 
 The assembly's address to the governor respecting 
 tumults, &c. in Philadelphia, with his answer. 
 An Indian treaty held in Philadelphia in 1715. 
 The assembly's address to George I. The gover- 
 nor disagrees with both the council and as- 
 sembly. The assembly's representation to Gover- 
 nor Gookin, containing a variety of matters, in 
 1716. 859 
 
 Governor Gookin is superseded by Sir William 
 Keith. Concern at the great influx of foreigners. 
 Dr. Griffith Owen. Address of the governor and 
 assembly to the King. Great harmony between 
 the governor and assembly. Penn's death and 
 character . . . Page 865 
 
 Penn's will. State of his agreement with Queen 
 Anne, for the sale of the government. Go- 
 vernor and assembly's conduct, on hearing of 
 the proprietor's decease. Claims of the late pro- 
 prietor's family. Conduct of the governor and 
 assembly, respecting said claim. The Indians of 
 Pennsylvania attacked by some foreign Indians. 
 Proceedings of the governor and assembly. Go- 
 vernor Keith, with the assembly's consent, es- 
 tablishes a court of chancery, &c. The governor 
 endeavours to prevent ill-consequences among the 
 Indians. A treaty with the Indians at Connes- 
 togo . . . 868 
 
 The governor's concern to promote the country's 
 benefit. Proceedings in consequence of the 
 barbarous murder of an Indian. Divers useful 
 laws passed, with some of their titles. Increase 
 of law-suits. Regulation of bread and flour. 
 Paper currency scheme first introduced in 1722. 
 Advocated by the governor, and favoured by the 
 generality of the people ; but disliked by some. 
 Sentiments of several gentlemen and merchants, 
 relating to a paper currency, presented to the 
 assembly. Answer to these sentiments, &c. Go- 
 vernor Keith's judgment on the same subject, in 
 writing, to the assembly. Reply to the answer 
 to the above sentiments, &c. . 875 
 
 The assembly's conduct in the affair of a paper cur- 
 rency. Further account of the Pennsylvania 
 paper currency, till 1749. Governor Keith vio- 
 lates his instructions from the proprietary. Rea- 
 sons given for and against the same. The widow 
 Penn's answer to the remonstrance of the as- 
 sembly. Disputes afterwards relative to the pro- 
 prietor's instructions . . 878 
 
 Affirmation, &c. instead of an oath, established in 
 Pennsylvania. Quakers' grateful address to the 
 King on the occasion. Custom of the Quakers 
 appearing in courts of justice with their hats on 
 their heads interrupted and restored. Their ad- 
 dress to the governor, and his compliance with 
 their request. He is superseded in the govern- 
 ment by Patrick Gordon, in 1726. Governor 
 Gordon's administration. State of Pennsylvania 
 about this time . ' . 882 
 
 Thomas Penn arrives in the province in 1732. As- 
 sembly's address to him, with his answer. Bound- 
 aries between Pennsylvania and Maryland. Joha 
 Penn arrives in 1734. The assembly's address to 
 him, with his answer. Lord Baltimore attempts 
 to obtain of the King the territories. Death of 
 John Penn and Governor Gordon. Administra- 
 tion of the Council, James Logan, President. 
 Benjamin Franklin. Arrival of Governor Thomas. 
 His administration. Andrew Hamilton's speech 
 to the assembly. . . 884 
 
 Conduct of Governor Thomas respecting the enlist- 
 ing soldiers. Assembly's address to Thomas 
 Penn. Riotous election in 1742. Indian affairs 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 during Governor Thomas's administration. H< 
 resigns the government in 1747. Succeeding ad- 
 ministration and governors. Disputes as to money 
 bills and quit-rents. Conclusion Page 887 
 
 MARYLAND. 
 
 Origin. Government. First settlers. House of 
 assembly. Laws. Ingle's insurrection. Power 
 of taxation. State during the protectorate. On 
 the accession of William and Mary. Inspection 
 
 of the church. Establishment of the Protestant 
 church. Value of the colony to the proprietary. 
 General view of it . . 894 
 
 VIRGINIA. 
 
 Robertson's account of this state. Inimical to 
 slavery. Situation. Climate. Description. 
 Mountains. Productions. Political divisions. Ex- 
 ports. Literature &c. . . 898 
 
 NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA AND 
 GEORGIA. 
 
 Original grant to Sir Robert Heath. First settlers 
 from Virginia and Massachusetts. Charter granted 
 Lord Clarendon and others. Locke's constitu 
 tional code. Governor Sayle. Difficulties of the 
 early settlers. Foundation of Charlestown. Sir 
 John Yeamans, governor. Treaty with Spain. 
 Formation of a legislature. Contentions with the 
 Spaniards. Domestic dissensions. Arrival of 
 Dutch settlers. Governor West. Description of 
 the country. Governor Morton. Fresh settlers 
 on account of the religious persecution in Eng- 
 land and France. Mode of gathering turpentine. 
 Governor Colleton. Civil commotions. Seth 
 Soshel usurps the governorship. Is deposed 905 
 
 The French refugees. Philip Ludwell, governor. 
 Harsh treatment of the refugees. Juries chosen 
 by ballot. Pirate,s favoured by the colonist?. 
 Thomas Smith, governor. The planting of rice 
 introduced. The employment of Negroes. In- 
 dians' complaints. John Archdale, governor 
 His new regulations. Joseph Blake, governor 
 TUe French in Florida. Refugees incorporated 
 by law. Depredations of pirates. Calamities of 
 the province. James Moore, governor. Lord 
 Graiiville, Palatine. An established church pro- 
 jected. Expedition against Augustine. The first 
 paper currency. Expedition against the Apala- 
 cliian Indians. System of culture in the co- 
 lony . 915 
 
 quered. Bank bills established. Trade infested 
 by pirates. Several English statutes adopted 
 
 Page 92.') 
 
 Intention of government towards the colonies. In- 
 dian war. Application to the crown for relief. 
 Harsh conduct of the proprietors. Robert Daniel, 
 deputy-governor. Lord Carteret, palatine. Dis- 
 affection towards the proprietors. Robert J ohnson, 
 governor. The depredations of the pirates. Their 
 extirpation. Difficulties arising from a paper 
 currency. Indians inimical. Complaints against 
 Chief Justice Trott. The consequences of it. 
 Invasion by the Spaniards. An association 
 formed against the proprietors . 935 
 
 The people's encouragement to revolt. Proceed- 
 ings of the convention. The assembly dissolved. 
 Proceedings of the people. James Moore, go- 
 vernor. The declaration of the convention. The 
 invasion from Spain defeated. Francis Nicolson, 
 governor. George I. recognised as sovereign. 
 The regulation of Indian affairs. The trial of the 
 family of Dutartre. Progress of the colony. 
 Arthur Middleton, president. A dispute con- 
 cerning the boundaries. Reprisals on the Spa- 
 niards. Encroachment of the French in Loui- 
 siana. The province purchased for the crown 
 
 944 
 
 Sir Alexander Gumming treats with the Indians. 
 Seven Cherokees taken to England. Robert 
 Johnson, governor. James Oglethorpe settles a 
 colony in Georgia. A colony of Switzers arrives 
 in Carolina. Eleven townships marked out. A 
 struggle about lands. State of the colony. The 
 regulations of the trustees. Settlement of two 
 colonies of Highlanders and Germans. Thomas 
 Broughton, lieutenant-governor. Oglethorpe for- 
 tifies Georgia. The Chickesaws defeat the French. 
 Religious state of the colony. The association of 
 Presbyterians. Remarks on paper currency. 
 Small progress of Georgia. Hardships of the first 
 settlers. An Irish colony planted . 957 
 
 Trade obstructed by the Spaniards of Mexico. 
 William Bull, lieutenant-governor. Oglethorpe's 
 regiment sent to Georgia, The Spaniards try to 
 seduce the Creeks. Mutiny in Oglethorpe's camp. 
 A negro insurrection in Carolina. A war with 
 Spain. A project for invading Florida. General 
 Oglethorpe marches against Florida. Invests 
 Augustine. Raises the siege. A great fire at 
 Charlestown. A petition in favour of the rice 
 trade. James Glenn, governor. Lord Carteret's 
 property divided from that of the crown. The 
 Spaniards invade Georgia. Ill treatment of Ge- 
 neral Oglethorpe. Petition for three independent 
 companies . . . 970 
 
 Sir Nathaniel Johnson appointed governor. The 
 church of England established by law. The in- 
 habitants remonstrate against it. Lay commis- 
 sioners appointed. The acts ratified by the pro- Influx of Scotch settlers. Climate and diseases. 
 
 prietors. The petition of Dissenters to the House 
 of Lords. Resolutions of the House of Lords. 
 Their address to the Queen. The Queen's 
 A project formed for invading Carolina. A Spa- 
 nish and French invasion repulsed. Missionaries 
 sent out by the society in England. Lord Craven, 
 palatine. Edward Tynte, governor. The- re- 
 venues of the colony. The invasion of Canada. 
 A French colony planted in Louisiana. A colony 
 of palatines settled. Robert Gibbes, governor. 
 Charles Craven, governor. An Indian war in 
 North Carolina. The Tuskorora Indians 
 
 Cultivation of indigo. State of Georgia. Dis- 
 sensions excited by Bosomworth. Georgia made 
 a royal government. Whitfield in Carolina. 
 Conference with the Indians. Great hurricane 
 at Charlestown . State of commerce 980 
 
 A dispute about the limits of British and French 
 territories. War with the French. Governor 
 Glen holds a congress with the Cherokees. Forts 
 built. The Cherokee war. The Highlanders 
 return to Carolina. Peace with the Cherokees. 
 Storm at Charlestown 988 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 xiu 
 
 The peace with France. Boundaries of East an 
 West Florida. The southern provinces left secure 
 Encouragement given to reduced officers anc 
 soldiers. Georgia begins to flourish. Emigra 
 tions to Carolina. Regulations relative to th( 
 Indians. John Stuart, superintendant for Indian 
 affairs. Decrease of Indians, and the causes of it 
 Population and trade of the province. Page 996 
 
 LOUISIANA AND FLORIDA. 
 
 Discovery. Vasquez's piratical visit. Expedition 
 of Narvaez Also of Soto. Moscoso succeeds him 
 Adventures of Ribaut. Fort Carolina built. Fur 
 ther discoveries. Distress of the colony. Spa- 
 niards in Florida. Fort Carolina taken by them 
 Merciless contests between the French and Spa- 
 niards. Account of, and war with, the Indians. 
 La Sale's progress, and death. Adventures oi 
 Joutel. Discovery of the Mississippi. State ol 
 Louisiana. Adventures of St. Denys. Peace ol 
 1763. Account of the Indians . 1000 
 
 THE WAR OF THE INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 Taxation of the colonies. Stamp act proposed. Con- 
 duct of the colonies. Stamp act passed. Con 
 gress at New York. Stamp act repealed. Co- 
 
 Ires- 
 030 
 
 lonies taxed by duties. Associate to resist opp 
 sion 1 
 
 Convention at Boston. Consequent conduct of co- 
 lonies. Tea cargoes destroyed. Spread of revo- 
 lutionary principles . . 1032 
 
 Congress gives one vote to each colony. Bill of 
 rights. Petition to the king. Address to the 
 people of England. Boston Neck fortified. Battle 
 of Lexington. Militia. Fort Ticonderoga cap- 
 tured. Crown Point surprised . 1034 
 
 Second meeting of congress. British troops arrive. 
 Fortifications on Breed's Hill. Conflict with the 
 British. Washington elected commander-in-chief. 
 Georgia joins the confederacy. First line of 
 posts . 1037 
 
 Americans send two parties against Canada. Mont- 
 gomery invests St. John's. Colonel Allen makes 
 an attempt on Montreal. He is taken prisoner. 
 Montgomery takes St. John's And Montreal. 
 Proceeds to Quebec. Arnold arrives at Point 
 Levi. Attempts to surprise Quebec. Montgo- 
 mery arrives. Quebec assaulted. Montgomery 
 killed. Arnold wounded. Part of the assailants 
 surrender. Arnold blockades Quebec . 1039 
 
 Falmouth and Boston burned. Attention of Ame- 
 ricans to their navy. British attempt to gain New 
 York Are defeated. Dunmore burns Norfolk. 
 Penn examined before the peers. Parliament of 
 England prohibit the trade of the colonies And 
 hires mercenaries from Germany. Bad state of 
 the army. Washington fortifies Dorchester heights. 
 He compels the British to evacuate Boston. Ar- 
 nold's difficult situation at Quebec. General 
 Thomas supersedes him. Siege of Quebec raised. 
 Thomas dies. Loss of the Americans at the Ce- 
 dars. General Thompson and 200 Americans 
 taken prisoners. British fleet arrives at Charles- 
 town. Attack of the British on Sullivan's island. 
 Jasper's exploit. British sail for New York. In- 
 
 dependence proposed in congress. Independe 
 declared. State of the country. Eminent n 
 
 juce 
 men 
 Page 1010 
 
 The declaration of independence of the United 
 States of America . 1043 
 
 Geographical notice of the state of the country from 
 1763 to 1776 . . 1044 
 
 Catalogue of eminent men who flourished during the 
 same period . . 1045 
 
 Howe takes possession of Staten Island. Positions 
 of Washington's army. British land on Long 
 Island. Battle of Long Island. The Americans 
 defeated . . . 1045 
 
 Washington withdraws his troops from Long Island. 
 British enter New York. Situation of the Ame- 
 rican army. Battle of West Plains. Fort Wash- 
 ington surrenders. Fort Lee evacuated. Wash- 
 ington retreats . . 1046 
 
 Distress of Washington's army. General Lee made 
 prisoner. Washington attacks Cornwallis. Ar- 
 nold defeated. British blockade Providence. 
 Congress grant extraordinary powers to Washing- 
 ton . . 1048 
 
 Campaign of 1777. Excesses of the English army 
 in New Jersey. Revolt of the loyalists. Gover- 
 nor Tryon advances to Danbury. Exploit of Co- 
 lonel Meigs at Sag Harbour. La Fayette es- 
 pouses the American cause. Cornwallis defeats 
 Sterling . . 1049 
 
 Jeneral Prescott captured. Burgoyne arrives at 
 Quebec with an army. Fort Stanwix invested. 
 Burgoyne's army move to Crown Point. Ameri- 
 cans lose 1000 men. Schuyler retreats. British 
 defeated at Bennington. Battle near Saratoga. 
 British defeated. Burgoyne surrenders. Gar- 
 rison of Ticonderoga retreat. Kingstown is 
 burned . ' . 1051 
 
 Battle of Brandywine. Americans defeated. Wash- 
 ington retreats to Chester. Congress adjourn to 
 Lancaster. Cornwallis enters Philadelphia. Bat- 
 tle of Germantown. Americans defeated. Wash- 
 ington returns to Schippack creek. Attack on 
 Redbank. American crews destroy their own ves- 
 sels. Washington retires to winter-quarters 1053 
 
 lauses of the distress of the army. Intrigues against 
 Washington. Predatory excursions of the British. 
 Massacre at the bridges of Quinton and Hancock. 
 Policy of France in reference to America. France 
 concludes a treaty with America. Arrival of Bri- 
 tish ministers . . 1055 
 
 Battle of Monmoutn. Clinton removes to New York. 
 Washington to the Hudson. French fleet arrives. 
 Franklin appointed minister to France. Expedi- 
 tion against Rhode Island. Siege of Newport. 
 Indian atrocities. Attack of Wyoming. Savan- 
 nah taken by the British . 1058 
 
 Campaign of 1779. Sunbury taken by the British. 
 Unsuccessful attempt upon port Royal. Colonel 
 Pickens defeats a party of Royalists. General 
 Prevost surprises the Americans. John Rutledga 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 governor of South Carolina. British defeat Ge- 
 neral Moultrie near Charlestown. Engagement 
 at Stony Ferry. British make a descent on Vir- 
 ginia. Governoi Tryon makes a descent on Con- 
 necticut. Americans take Stony Point. British 
 land at Penobscot river. American flotilla de- 
 stroyed. Sullivan defeats the savages. Page 1059 
 
 Naval affairs. D'Estaigne arrives off the coast of 
 Georgia. Savannah invested by the French. The 
 siege raised. Paul Jones's naval engagement. 
 Intrigues of France and Spain . 1061 
 
 Campaign of 1779. Armed neutrality. Clinton be- 
 sieges Charlestown. That city capitulates. Tarle- 
 ton surprises Burford. Clinton in South Caro- 
 lina. He returns to New York. Skirmish at 
 Springfield . . 1064 
 
 Congress sanction the depreciation of paper cur- 
 rency. British in South Carolina. Heroism of 
 the women in South Carolina. Society of ladies 
 
 1065 
 
 Campaign of 1780. British defeated at Hanging 
 Rock. Baron De Kalb enters North Carolina. 
 Battle near Camden. Death of De Kaib. Tarle- 
 ton surprises Sumpter . 1066 
 
 Arnold's treason. Execution of Andre. Cornwallis 
 arrives at Charlottetown. Defeat at Ferguson. 
 Descent upon Portsmouth, Virginia. Gates sur- 
 prised by Greene. Arnold makes a descent upon 
 Virginia . . . 1067 
 
 Campaign of 1781. Robert Morris treasurer. 
 Franklin obtains money from France and Hol- 
 land. Revolt of the Pennsylvanian line. New 
 Jersey troops revolt. Tarleton attacks Morton at 
 the Cowpens. Cornwallis pursues Morgan. Co- 
 lonel Lee defeats Colonel Hill. Battle of Guil- 
 ford Court-house. The Americans retreat. Corn- 
 wallis sets out for Virginia . . 1069 
 
 Sumpter and Marion annoy the British. Ameri- 
 cans defeated at Hobkirk's Hill. Rawdon eva- 
 cuates Camden. British forts taken by the Ame- 
 ricans. Greene attacks fort Ninety-six . 1071 
 
 Battle of Eutaw Springs. Engagement of the 
 French and English fleets. Junction of the Bri- 
 tish armies. Tarleton surprises Charlotte-ville. 
 Cornwallis enters, Yorktown. Washington arrives 
 at the head of the Elk. De Grasse enters the Che- 
 sapeake. Action between the French and Eng- 
 lish fleets . . 1072 
 
 Fort Trumbull taken And fort Groswall. Arnold 
 burns New London. Yorktown besieged. Corn- 
 wallis capitulates. British land forces surren- 
 der to the Americans, and the marine to the 
 French. Clinton too late endeavours to preserve 
 Cornwallis. La Fayette returns to France 1074 
 
 Poverty of the American government. Trials and 
 magnanimity of the treasurer. Sir Guy Carleton 
 supersedes Clinton. Articles of peace signed at 
 Paris. Disturbance among the officers of the 
 army. Evacuation of New York. Resignation 
 of Washington 1076 
 
 State of the American finances. Rebellion in Mas- 
 sachusetts. In New Hampshire. Defects in the 
 
 American form of government. Delegates meet 
 from five states. Constitution framed at Phila- 
 delphia. Constitution. Adopted by eleven states 
 
 Page 1077 
 
 The constitution of the United States of America 
 framed during the year 1787 by a convention of 
 delegates, who met at Philadelphia, from the states 
 of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
 New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, 
 Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Caro- 
 lina, Georgia . 1079 
 
 Geographical notices of the country at this period 
 
 1085 
 
 Catalogue of eminent men who died during the pe- 
 riod extending from 1776 to 1789 . 1085 
 
 Washington elected president. Hamilton's report 
 on the public debts. Bill for duty on distilled spi- 
 rits. A national bank established. Vermont 
 admitted into the Union . 1085 
 
 Indian war in Ohio. Harmer defeated. Also St. 
 Clair. Proclamation of neutrality. Randolph 
 succeeds Jefferson as secretary of state . 1087 
 
 Insurrection in Pennsylvania. Wayne defeats the 
 Indians. Jay's treaty. Treaty with Algiers With 
 Spain. Mr. Monroe sent to France And re- 
 called. Washington's farewell address to the 
 people . . 1088 
 
 Mr. Adams elected president. X Y & Z mission. 
 Capture of the L'Insurgente. Death of Wash- 
 ington . . . 1094 
 
 Seat of government transferred to Washington. 
 Election of Jefferson and Burr. Inauguration of 
 Jefferson. Right of deposit at New Orleans. Loui- 
 siana purchased . . 1096 
 
 Geographical notices of the country in 1803 . 1097 
 
 Catalogue of eminent men who died during the pe- 
 riod extending from 7789 to 1803 . 1098 
 
 War with Tripoli. Possession taken of Derne. A 
 peace concluded. General Hamilton killed in a 
 uuel. Jefferson again elected president. Dis- 
 pute with England. Colonel Burr's projects. His 
 trial and acquittal . . 1C98 
 
 The Chesapeake searched. Mr. Madison elected 
 president. Erskiue's treaty. Indians commence 
 hostilities. Battle of Tippecanoe. Henry's se- 
 cret mission. . . . 1100 
 
 War declared. An act of congress to raise 25,000 
 men. State of the revenue. General Dearborn 
 commander-in-chief. Proceedings of the army 
 of the north-west. Hull's operations. His pro- 
 clamation. Affair at the river Aux Canards. 
 Van Horn defeated at Brownstown. Mackinau 
 surrendered. Dearborn's armistice. Hull aban- 
 dons Maiden. Battle of Maguaga. Captain 
 Heald defeated. Hull capitulates. Is exchanged. 
 His trial and sentence . . 1102 
 
 Successes of the Americans at sea. Situation of 
 the forces on the New York frontier. Affair of 
 Queenstown. Harrison takes command of the 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 north-western army. Hopkins' expedition. The 
 Americans invade Canada. The capture of the 
 Frolic Arid other vessels . PagellOS 
 
 America makes overtures of peace. Connecticut 
 and Massachusetts refuse to furnish troops. Con- 
 gress assembles. Acts passed. Madison re-elected 
 president. Plan of the campaign. Massacre at 
 French Town. Fort Meigs besieged. Six 
 nations declare war against Canada. Fort Ste- 
 phenson besieged. Proctor repulsed 1111 
 
 Attack on Ogdensburg Chauncey prepares a fleet 
 on lake Ontario. York attacked by the Ameri- 
 cans. General Pike killed. York surrenders. 
 Chandler and Winder captured. Perry's victory 
 on lake Erie. Battle of the Thames. Delaware 
 and Chesapeake bays in a state of blockade. Ad- 
 miral Cockburn carries on a predatory warfare. 
 New York and New London harbours blockaded 
 
 1114 
 
 Chauncey captures a British squadron. Battle of 
 Williamsburg. Affair of Chateaugay. Newark 
 burnt. The British take possession of fort Nia- 
 gara. Naval engagements. The Hornet and the 
 Peacock. Chesapeake and the Shannon. The 
 Argus and the Pelican. The Enterprise captures 
 the Boxer. Creek war . . 1117 
 
 Mediations of peace. Extra session of congress. 
 Embargo and non-importation act. Unsuccessful 
 attempt at La Colle. Attack on Oswego. Ex- 
 pedition to the river Thames. British ascend 
 Connecticut river . . 1120 
 
 General Brown crosses the Niagara. Battle of 
 Chippewa. Battle of Bridgewater. General 
 Ryall captured. Fort Erie besieged. Colonel 
 Drummond killed. British works destroyed. Un- 
 successful attempt to re-take Mackinau 1122 
 
 Peace of Paris. Preparations to defend Washing- 
 ton. British land and ascend the Patuxent. Pro- 
 ceedings of both armies. Alexandria capitu- 
 lates. Battle near Baltimore. Various rencontres 
 
 1125 
 
 British force in Canada increased. Sir George Pre- 
 
 vost advances to Plattsburg. Engagement i n 
 the bay of Plattsburg. Americans annoy the 
 British merchant-vessels. Naval engagements. 
 Difficulties of the Americans. Convention at 
 Hartford . Page 1127 
 
 Proceedings in the south. La Fitte's disclosures. 
 Pensacola surrenders to the Americans. General 
 Jackson's preparations at New Orleans. Cap- 
 ture of the American flotilla. Contests between 
 the armies. Sir E. Packenham arrives with the 
 main body of the British. Jackson's proceedings 
 with the legislature of Louisiana. Battle of 
 New Orleans. Sir E. Packenham killed. Sub- 
 sequent rencontres. British abandon the expe- 
 dition. Fort Bowyer surrenders. Peace pro- 
 claimed. . . 1130 
 
 War with Algiers. Decatur and Bainbridge sent 
 to the Mediterranean. Piratical powers make 
 peace. Treaties with the Indians. National 
 bank. Mr. Monroe president. Mississippi ad- 
 mitted to the union. The illicit trade destroyed. 
 Proceedings of the congress. Commencement of 
 the Seminole war. General Jackson marches 
 against them. Trial of Arbuthnot And of Am- 
 brister. Treaties with Great Britain and Sweden. 
 Indian affairs. Cession of Florida 1132 
 
 Alabama admitted to the union. The Missouri 
 question. Mr. Monroe re-elected. Treaty with 
 France. Increase of piracy. Recognition of 
 South American states. The tariff question again 
 agitated . . . 1135 
 
 La Fayette visits America. His reception. Re- 
 turns to France. Mr. Adams elected president. 
 Treaty with Columbia. Representatives sent to 
 the congress at Panama. Fiftieth anniversary 
 of Independence , . 1137 
 
 List of the military stations in the United States, 
 in 1826 . 1139 
 
 Catalogue of eminent men who died during t 
 period extending from 1803 to 1826 11 
 
 the 
 39 
 
 Concluding remarks. Retrospect and present state. 
 Future prospects. Conclusion - . 1141 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 THE volumes published by Dr. Robertson contain, to use his own words, " The Account 
 of the Discovery of the New World, and of the Progress of the Spanish Arms and Colo- 
 nies there." This account is brought down to the year 1772. It was his intention to have 
 given a complete history of the whole of America, but his death prevented the fulfil- 
 ment of his project. The history of Portuguese America and the settlements made in 
 the West India Islands, were totally untouched by him. Of the history of the United 
 States some fragments were discovered after his death, and have uniformly been 
 printed with his History of Spanish America. 
 
 The Proprietors have determined to carry into effect the comprehensive history of 
 the New World, contemplated by Dr. Robertson ; aware that it is more than ever required 
 at a time when it is fast advancing in a career, which, in all probability, will surpass 
 that of the Old. The work will be compiled from the ample and authentic sources 
 open to them ; and in following Dr. Robertson's steps, they will not walk in any hopes 
 of rivalry, but merely collect and arrange, from the most esteemed historians of this 
 country and America, such accounts as have received the public sanction. 
 
 We shall proceed first with the history of the United States of America, as well on 
 account of their political importance as of their British origin. The fragments of 
 Robertson bring the history of Virginia down to the year 1688, and the history of 
 New England to 1652. This compilation will commence with a continuation of the 
 latter, as being most necessary to a proper knowledge of the general history of the 
 States ; and a separate and succinct account will be given of each of them down to the 
 war which established their grand federative union and independence : a method that 
 will avoid much confusion, aud in which we are guided by the principal historians. 
 The history of Massachusetts is placed first, as being the most important State of 
 New England. 
 
 THE HISTORT or AMERICA. No. 36. 2 O 
 
THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 THE histories of Virginia and New England, left by 
 Dr. Robertson, are in an imperfect form, and present 
 only a very small portion of the history of the 
 numerous countries now known as the United 
 States. These fragments contain only a general 
 view of a part of the States, and it may, perhaps, 
 therefore be necessary, in order to give the vise and 
 progress of all of them, to retrace, in some instances, 
 the same period of which Dr. Robertson has given 
 an outline. 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 Of the two companies incorporated by King James, 
 an account otthe proceedings and dissolution of one, 
 and a history of the colony to the time of Cromwell, 
 will be found in Robertson's narration, whose frag- 
 ment concludes with stating that the colonists of this 
 settlement declined complying with his desire, that 
 they should remove to the island of Jamaica, which 
 he had taken from the Spaniards. 
 
 In 1641, the settlements in New Hampshire had 
 been incorporated with Massachusetts. And, in 
 1652, the inhabitants of the province of Maine were, 
 at their own request, taken under her protection. 
 This province had been granted to Sir Ferdinand 
 Gorges, who, in 1639, first established a government 
 over it. In 1640 a general court was held at Saco. 
 Upon the death of the proprietor, in 1649, most of 
 the officers whom he had appointed deserted it, and 
 the people found it necessary to resort elsewhere for 
 protection. 
 
 In 1656 several Quakers arrived in the colony. 
 In this age of enthusiasts, these sectarians surpassed 
 all others in enthusiasm. Their behaviour was rude, 
 contemptuous, and disorderly. They reviled magis- 
 trates and ministers, and entering churches on the 
 sabbath, disturbed the solemnities of public worship. 
 For these offences they were first imprisoned, and 
 then banished. A law was passed prohibi iug 
 Quakers from coming into the colony, imposing the 
 penalty of banishment upon the first offence, and of 
 death upon such as should return after banishment. 
 Four, who were so infatuated as to return and ob- 
 trude themselves upon the notice of the government, 
 suffered the death which they appeared to seek. This 
 cruel and impolitic law was soon afterwards repealed. 
 
 Cromwell, who had governed England with greater 
 ability and higher merit than most of her kings, died 
 in 1658, and after an interval of two years Charles 
 the Second, a prince destitute of honour and virtue, 
 was recalled from exile, and placed upon the throne. 
 He was reluctantly acknowledged by the colonies of 
 New England. They had been the favourites of the 
 parliament and the protector, and apprehended, with 
 good reason, the loss of their civil and religious pri- 
 vileges. 
 
 A short time after, Whalley and Goffe, two of the 
 judges who had sentenced Charles the First to be 
 beheaded, having fled before the return of his suc- 
 cessor, arrived in New England. Their first place 
 of residence was Cambridge ; but they often ap- 
 peared publicly in Boston, particularly on Sundays 
 and other days of religious solemnities. They had 
 sustained high rank in Cromwell's army, were men 
 of uncommon talents, and, by their dignified man- 
 ners and grave deportment, commanded universal 
 respect. 
 
 As soon as it was known that they were excepted 
 from the general pardon, the governor suggested to 
 the court of assistants the expediency of arresting 
 them. A majority opposed it, and many members 
 of the general court gave them assurances of protec- 
 tion. Considering themselves, however, unsafe at 
 Cambridge, they removed to New Haven, where they 
 were received with great respect by the clergy and 
 magistrates. 
 
 After a short residence there, enjoying, in private, 
 the society of their friends, the governor of Massa- 
 chusetts received a mandate to arrest them. A war- 
 rant was immediately issued, authorizing two zealous 
 royalists to search for, and seize them, wherever 
 found, in New England. They hastened to the 
 colony of New Haven, exhibited the warrant to the 
 governor, who resided at Guildford, and requested 
 him to furnish authority and assistants to pursue 
 them. Desirous of favouring the exiles, he affected 
 to deliberate until the next morning, and then utterly 
 declined acting officially without the advice of his 
 council. 
 
 In the mean time they were apprized of their dan- 
 ger, and retired to a new place of concealment. The 
 pursuers, on arriving at New Haven, searched every 
 suspected house, except the one where the judges 
 were oncealed : this they began to search, but were 
 induced, by the address of the mistress of it, to desist : 
 when the pursuers had departed, the judges, retiring 
 into the woods, fixed their abode in a cave. 
 
 Having there heard that their friends were threat- 
 ened with punishment for having afforded them pro- 
 tection, they came from their hiding place for the 
 purpose of delivering themselves up ; but their 
 friends, actuated by feelings equally noble and gene- 
 rous, persuaded them to relinquish their intention. 
 Soon after they removed to Milford, where they re- 
 mained about two years. 
 
 Upon the arrival of other persons, instructed to 
 apprehend them, they repaired privately to Hadley, 
 in Massachusetts, where they resided fifteen or six- 
 teen years, but few persons being acquainted with 
 the place of their concealment. There is in that 
 neighbourhood a tradition, that many years after- 
 wards two graves were discovered in the minister's 
 cellar ; and in these, it was supposed, they had been 
 
284 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 interred. At New Haven two graves are shown, 
 said to be those of the two judges. It is not impro- 
 bable that their remains were removed to this place 
 from Hadley. 
 
 A singular incident which occurred at the latter 
 place in 1675, shows that one of these illustrious 
 exiles had not forgotten the avocations of his youth. 
 The people, at the time of public worship, were 
 alarmed by an attack from the Indians, and thrown 
 into the utmost confusion. Suddenly a grave, elderly 
 person appeared, differing in his mien and dress from 
 all around him. He put himself at their head, ral- 
 lied, encouraged, and led them against the enemy, 
 who were repulsed and completely defeated. As 
 suddenly the deliverer of Hadley disappeared. The 
 people were lost in amazement, and many believed 
 that an angel sent from heaven had led them to 
 victory. 
 
 Their treatment of the king's judges, and in truth 
 all their conduct, evinced the republican spirit of the 
 colonists. By the royal government of England 
 they could not therefore be regarded with favour. 
 In 1663 it was enacted that no European commodity 
 should be imported into the colonies, unless shipped 
 directly from England, and in British vessels. By 
 this regulation, in connection with others that had 
 been previously made, all the trade of the colonies 
 was secured to the mother country. They submitted 
 reluctantly to these restrictions, and often made 
 them the subject of complaint. But England, believ- 
 ing that they augmented her wealth and power, ob- 
 stinately refused to repeal them. 
 
 In 1664 the king dispatched four commissioners 
 to visit the several colonies of New England, to 
 examine into their condition, to hear and decide 
 complaints, and to make him a report of their pro- 
 ceedings and observations. This measure was dic- 
 tated by no friendly motive, and was considered by 
 the. colonies as a violation of their charters. 
 
 The first session of the commissioners was at Ply- 
 mouth, where but little business was transacted ; the 
 next in Rhode Island, where they heard complaints 
 from the Indians, and all who were discontented, 
 and made various determinations respecting titles to 
 land, which were but little regarded. In Massachu- 
 setts the general court complied with such of their 
 requisitions as they thought proper; but professing 
 sincere loyalty to his majesty, declined acknowledg- 
 ing their authority, and protested against the exercise 
 of it within their limits. 
 
 In consequence of this manly assertion of their 
 chartered rights, an angry correspondence took 
 place between them, at the close of which the com- 
 missioners petulantly told the general court, " that 
 they would lose no more of their labours upon them,' 
 but would represent their conduct to his majesty. 
 
 From Boston the commissioners proceeded to New 
 Hampshire, where they exercised several acts ol 
 government, and offered to release the inhabitants 
 from the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. This offer 
 was almost unanimously rejected. In Maine they 
 excited more disturbance. They encouraged the 
 people to declare themselves independent, and founc 
 many disposed to listen to their suggestions ; bul 
 Massachusetts, by a prompt and vigorous exertion o: 
 power, constrained the disaffected to submit to her 
 authority. 
 
 Connecticut appears to have been the favourite 
 of the commissioners. She treated them with re 
 spect, and complied with their requisitions. In re 
 turn they made such a representation of her merit 
 to the king, as to draw from him a letter of thanks 
 
 ' Although," says he, " your carriage doth of itself 
 most justly deserve our praise and approbation, yet 
 t seems to be set off with more lustre by the contrary 
 ehaviour of the colony of Massachusetts." 
 
 At the end of fifty years from the arrival of the 
 emigrants at Plymouth, the New England colonies 
 were supposed to contain one hundred and twenty 
 owns, and as many thousand inhabitants. The acts 
 f parliament not being rigidly enforced, their trade 
 iad become extensive and profitable. The habits of 
 ndustry and economy, which had been formed in 
 ess happy times continued to prevail, and gave a 
 competency to those who had nothing, and wealth 
 to those who had a competency. The wilderness 
 receded before adventurous and hardy labourers, and 
 ts savage inhabitants found their game dispersed, 
 and their favourite haunts invaded. 
 
 This was the natural consequence of the sales of 
 .and which were at all times readily made to the 
 whites. But this consequence the Indians did not 
 bresee ; and when they felt it in all its force, the 
 strongest passions were awakened which can animate 
 civilized or savage man, the love of country and of 
 'ndependence. 
 
 A leader only was wanting to concentrate and di 
 rect their exertions, and Philip, of Pokanoket, 
 sachem of a tribe living within the boundaries of 
 Plymouth and Rhode Island, assumed that honoura- 
 ble but dangerous station. His father was the friend, 
 but he had ever been the enemy, of the whites ; and 
 this enmity arising from causes of national concern, 
 bad been embittered to vindictive hatred by their 
 conduct towards his elder brother. This brother, 
 being suspected of plotting against them, was seized 
 by a detachment of soldiers and confined ; and the 
 indignity so wrought upon his proud spirit as to pro- 
 duce a fever that put an end to his life. 
 
 Philip inherited the authority and proud spirit of 
 his brother. He exerted all the arts of intrigue and 
 powers of persuasion of which he was master, to 
 induce the Indians, in all parts of New England, to 
 unite their efforts for the destruction of the whites. 
 He succeeded in forming a confederacy, able to send 
 into action between three and four thousand warriors. 
 
 The English were apprized of the plots of the In- 
 dians, and made preparations to meet their hostili- 
 ties. They hoped, however, that the threatened 
 storm would pass by as others had, and that peace 
 would be preserved. But the insolence of Philip, 
 and the number of his adherents increased daily ; 
 and in June 1675, some of them entered the town of 
 Swanzey, in Plymouth, where, after slaughtering the 
 cattle, and plundering the houses, they fired upon the 
 inhabitants, killing and wounding several. 
 
 The troops of that colony marched immediately to 
 Swanzey, and were soon joined by a detachment 
 from Massachusetts. The Indians fled, and marked 
 the course of their flight by burning the buildings, 
 and fixing on poles by the way-side the hands, scalps, 
 and heads of the whites whom they had killed. The 
 troops pursued, but unable to overtake them, re- 
 turned to Swanzey. 
 
 The whole country was alarmed, and the number 
 of troops augmented. By this array of force. Philip 
 was induced to quit his residence at Mount Hope, 
 and take post near a swamp at Pocasset. At that 
 place the English attacked him, but were repulsed. 
 Sixteen were killed, and the Indians by this success 
 were made bolder. 
 
 At this time most of the settlements were sur- 
 rounded by thick forests, and the Indians lived inter- 
 mixed with the whites. The former were acquainted, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 285 
 
 of course, with the dwellings of the latter, with their 
 roads, and places of resort ; could watch their mo- 
 tions, and fall upon them in their defenceless and 
 unguarded moments. Many were shot dead as they 
 opened their doors in the morning ; many while at 
 work in their fields, and others while travelling to 
 visit their neighbours, or to places of worship. At 
 all times, at all places, in all employments, were their 
 lives in jeopardy ; and no one could tell but that in 
 the next moment he should receive his death-shot 
 from his barn, the thicket, or the way-side. 
 
 Whenever the enemy assembled in force, detach- 
 ments were sent against them; if weaker than these, 
 they would retreat ; if stronger, assault and conquer 
 them. Defenceless villages were suddenly attacked, 
 the houses burned, and the men, women, and 
 children killed, or carried into captivity. Their ruin 
 was the work of a moment ; and when accomplished, 
 its authors vanished. 
 
 The colonies, losing individuals, families and vil- 
 lages, found their numbers sensibly diminished ; their 
 strength impaired ; and began to apprehend even 
 total extinction. Nothing but a vigorous effort could 
 save them. The commissioners met, and determined 
 to dispatch an army of a thousand men to attack the 
 principal position of the enemy. Josiah Winslow, 
 governor of Plymouth, was appointed commander in 
 chief: and a solemn fast, to invoke the divine aid, 
 was proclaimed throughout New England. 
 
 On the 18th of December, the different bodies of 
 troops formed a junction at a place in the country of 
 the Narragansets, about fifteen miles from the ene- 
 my. The weather was extremely cold, but the men, 
 from necessity, passed the night uncovered in the 
 fields. At dawn of day they began their march, 
 wading through the deep snow, and at one o'clock 
 arrived near the enemy's post, which was upon a 
 rising ground, in the midst of a swamp. It was sur- 
 rounded by palisades, and on the outside of these 
 was a fence of brush a rod in width. 
 
 Here was fought the most desperate battle recordec 
 in the early annals of the country. It continuec 
 three hours. The English obtained a decisive vie 
 tory. One thousand Indian warriors were killed 
 three hundred more, and as many women am 
 children were made prisoners. But dearly was the 
 victory purchased. Six captains, and eighty men 
 were killed, and one hundred and fifty wounded. 
 
 From this blow the confederated Indians neve 
 recovered ; but they still remained sufficiently strong 
 to harass the settlements by continual inroads. In 
 retaliation the English sent several detachments int( 
 their territories, nearly all of which were successful 
 Captain Church, of Plymouth, and Captain Denni 
 son, of Connecticut, were conspicuous for thei 
 bravery and good fortune. 
 
 In the midst of these reverses, Philip remainec 
 firm and unshaken. His warriors were cut off; hi 
 chief men, his wife and family were killed or taken 
 prisoners ; and at these successive misfortunes, he i 
 represented to have wept with a bitterness whicl 
 proved him to possess the noblest of human virtue 
 and affections ; but he disdained to listen to an 1 
 offers of peace. He even shot one of his men, wh 
 proposed submission. At length after being huntec 
 from swamp to swamp, he was himself shot by th 
 brother of the Indian he had killed. After his deaf 
 the remnant of his followers either submitted to th 
 English, or united with distant tribes. 
 
 Never was peace more welcome, for never had wa 
 been more distressing. The whole population wa 
 in mourning for relatives *lain. Nearly a thousan 
 
 maim. ne was tuvu uic ueatci 
 
 ing, requiring that agents should 
 of London,' fully empowered to 
 
 ouses had been burned, and goods and cattle of 
 ;reat value had been plundered or destroyed. The 
 olonies had contracted a heavy debt, which, their 
 esources having been so much diminished, they 
 ound an almost insupportable burden. But in their 
 leepest distress they forbore to apply to the mother 
 ountry for assistance ; and this omission excited sur- 
 >rise and jealousy. " You act," said a privy coun- 
 illor, " as though you were independent of our mas- 
 er's crown ; and though poor, yet you are proud." 
 
 In 1680 New Hampshire, at the solicitation of 
 John Mason, to whose ancestor a part of the terri- 
 ory had been granted, was constituted a separate 
 colony. Massachusetts, apprehending the loss of 
 Vlaine also, purchased of the heirs of Gorges their 
 claim to the soil and jurisdiction, for twelve hundred 
 nd fifty pounds. 
 
 The disregard of the acts of trade had given great 
 offence to the mother country, and the governors of 
 New England were peremptorily required to enforce 
 them. But being enacted by a parliament in which 
 the colonies were not represented, they were re- 
 garded as violations of their rights, and continued to 
 se evaded with impunity. Edward Randolph was 
 therefore sent over, commissioned as inspector of the 
 customs in New England. He was also the bearer 
 of a letter from the kinj 
 be sent to the court 
 act for the colonies. 
 
 It was well understood to be the intention of the 
 king to procure from the agents a surrender of the 
 charters, or to annul them by a suit in his courts, 
 that he might himself place officers over the colonies 
 who would be subservient to his views. The inha- 
 bitants of Massachusetts felt that to be deprived of 
 their charter, which secured to them the right of 
 self-government, would be the greatest of calamities ; 
 and their agents were instructed, in no emergency, 
 to surrender it. This being known to the king, a 
 prosecution was instituted against the corporation, 
 and in 1684 a subservient court decreed that the 
 charter should be cancelled. 
 
 All impediments to the exercise of the royal will 
 being thus removed, King James established a tem- 
 porary government over the colony, first appoint- 
 ing Joseph Dudley, and, in 168.6, Sir Edmund An- 
 dros, governor. This latter appointment caused the 
 most gloomy forebodings. Sir Edmund had been 
 governor of New York, and it was known that his 
 conduct there had been arbitrary and tyrannical. 
 
 Having secured a majority in the council, he as- 
 sumed controul over the press, appointing Randolph 
 licenser. He established new and oppressive regu- 
 lations concerning taxes, pubh'c worship, marriages, 
 and the settlement of estates. He, and by his per- 
 mission, his subordinate officers, extorted enormous 
 fees for their services. He declared that the char- 
 ter being cancelled, the old titles to land were of no 
 validity, and compelled the inhabitants, in order to 
 avoid suits before judges dependent on his will, to 
 take out new patents, for which large sums were 
 demanded. 
 
 The hatred of the people was excited in proportion 
 to their sufferings. In the beginning of 1689, a ru- 
 mour reached Boston, that William Prince of Orange 
 had invaded England, with the intention of dethron- 
 ing the king. Animated by the hope of deliverance, 
 the people rushed spontaneously to arms, took pos- 
 session of the fort, seized Andros, Randolph, and 
 other obnoxious persons, and placed them in con- 
 finement. A council of safety, consisting of their 
 former magistrates, was then organized, to administer 
 
286 
 
 THE 'HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the government until authentic intelligence should 
 be received from England. 
 
 In a few weeks a ship arrived, bringing the glad 
 tidings that William and Mary were firmly seated 
 on the throne. They were immediately proclaimed 
 in all the colonies with unusual rejoicings. The 
 people of Massachusetts applied for the restoration 
 of their old, or the grant of a new charter. A defi- 
 nite answer was deferred, but the council was autho- 
 rized to administer the government, according to the 
 provisions of the old charter, until further directions 
 should be given. Andros, Randolph, and others, 
 were ordered home for trial. 
 
 In this unsettled state of the country, the French 
 in Canada and Nova Scotia instigated the northern 
 and eastern Indians to commence hostilities against 
 the English settlements. Dover and Salmon Falls, 
 in New Hampshire ; Casco, in Maine ; and Sche- 
 nectady, in New York ; were attacked by different 
 parties of French and Indians, and the most shock- 
 ing barbarities perpetrated on the inhabitants. 
 
 Regarding Canada as the principal source of their 
 miseries, New England and New York formed the 
 bold project of reducing it to subjection. By great 
 exertion they raised an army, which, under the 
 command of General Winthrop, was sent against 
 Montreal, and equipped a fleet, which, commanded 
 by Sir William Phipps, was destined to attack 
 Quebec. 
 
 Both returned unsuccessful, disappointing the san- 
 guine hopes of the people, and burdening them with 
 a debt which they had not the means of discharging. 
 To pay off her troops, Massachusetts put in circula- 
 tion bills of credit, or paper money, an expedient 
 which was afterwards often resorted to, and though 
 it afforded relief at the moment, produced in its con- 
 sequences extensive and complicated mischief. 
 
 In the mean time a new charter had been granted 
 to Massachusetts, ' which added Plymouth, Maine, 
 and Nova Scotia, to her territory. The only privi- 
 lege it allowed to the people was the choice of repre- 
 sentatives. These were to elect a council, and both 
 bodies were to constitute the legislative power 
 
 It reserved to the king the right of appointing the 
 governor and lieutenant-governor. To the governor 
 it gave the power of rejecting laws, of negativing the 
 choice of councillors, of appointing all military and 
 judicial officers, of adjourning and even of dissolving 
 the assembly at pleasure. Laws, although approved 
 by him, might be abrogated by the king, within 
 three years after their enactment. 
 
 The king, to render the new charter more accept- 
 able, appointed Sir William Phipps, a native of the 
 province, governor, and in 1692 he arrived at Bos- 
 ton. The new government went into operation 
 without any opposition from the inhabitants ; and 
 almost the first act of Sir William Phipps and his 
 council was the institution of a court to try the un- 
 fortunate victims of popular delusion, accused of 
 withcraft, at Salem. 
 
 The belief in this supposed crime had been so 
 prevalent in England, that parliament had enacted 
 a law punishing it with death. Under this law, mul- 
 titudes had been tried and executed in that country, 
 and two or three in Massachusetts, some of whom 
 acknowledged they were guilty. Accounts of these 
 trials and confessions, and particularly of some trials 
 before Sir Matthew Hale, a judge revered in the co- 
 lonies, had been published and distributed through- 
 out the country. They were read in a time of great 
 distress and gloom by a people naturally sedate, and 
 accustomed to regard with awe the surprising and 
 
 unaccountable incidents and appearances which, in 
 this new world, were often presented to their con- 
 templation. 
 
 In February, 1692, a daughter and a niece of Mr. 
 Paris, the minister of Salem, were afflicted with dis- 
 orders affecting their bodies in the most singular 
 manner. The physicians, unable to account for their 
 contortions, pronounced them bewitched ; and the 
 children, hearing of this, declared that an Indian 
 woman, who lived in the house, was the cause of their 
 torments. Mr. Paris concurred with the physicians. 
 Several private fasts were kept at his house, and the 
 gloom was increased by a solemn fast throughout the 
 colony. 
 
 The Indian woman confessed herself guilty. The 
 children were visited, noticed, and pitied. This en- 
 couraged them to persevere, and other children, either 
 from sympathy or the desire of similar attentions, 
 exhibited similar contortions. A distracted old woman, 
 and one who had been a long time confined to her 
 bed, was added to the list of the accused ; and, in the 
 progress of the infatuation, women of mature age 
 united with the children in their accusations. 
 
 The accused were multiplied in proportion to the 
 accusers. Children accused their parents, and pa- 
 rents their children. A word from those who were 
 supposed to be afflicted occasioned the arrest of the 
 devoted victim ; and so firmly convinced were the 
 magistrates that the prince of darkness was in the 
 midst of them, using human instruments to accom- 
 plish his purposes, that the slightest testimony was 
 deemed sufficient to justify a commitment for trial. 
 
 The court, specially instituted for this purpose, 
 held a session in June, and afterwards several others, 
 by adjournment. Many were tm^l, and received 
 sentence of death. A few pleaded guilty. Several 
 were convicted upon testimony,^ which, at other 
 times, would not have induced suspicion of an ordi- 
 nary crime, and some upon testimony retracted after 
 conviction. Nineteen were executed, and many yet 
 remained to be -tried. 
 
 At this stage of the proceedings the legislature 
 established, by law, a permanent court, by which the 
 other was superseded, and fixed a distant day for its 
 first session, at Salem. In the mean time the accu- 
 sations multiplied, and additional jails were required 
 to hold the accused The impostors, hardened by 
 impunity and success, ascended from decrepid old 
 women to respectable characters, and at length, in 
 their ravings, named ministers of the gospel, and 
 even the wife of the governor. 
 
 The community were thrown into consternation. 
 Each felt alarm for himself, his family, and his 
 friends. The shock roused them to reflection. They 
 considered more closely the character of the ac- 
 cusers ; the nature of the alleged crime ; the testi- 
 mony often contradictory and never explicit; and 
 more than all these, the high standing of some who 
 were implicated ; and began to doubt whether they 
 had not been too credulous and precipitate. 
 
 At the next term the grand jury found indictments 
 against fifty ; but on trial all were acquitted except 
 three, and those the governor reprieved. He also 
 directed that all who were in prison should be set at 
 liberty. A belief, however, of the truth of the 
 charges still lingered among the people, and pre- 
 vented any prosecution of the impostors. That all 
 were impostors, cannot be believed. Many- must 
 have acted under the influence of a disordered ima- 
 gination, which the attendant circumstances were 
 well calculated to produce. 
 
 Besides establishing courts of justice, the legisla 
 
UNITED -STATES. 
 
 287 
 
 ture, at its first session under the new charter, passed 
 a law which indicates the same independent spirit 
 that afterwards resisted the usurpations of the British 
 parliament. It provided that no tax should be im- 
 posed upon any of his Majesty's subjects, or their 
 estates, in the province, but by the act and consent 
 of the governor, council, and representatives of the 
 people, in general court assembled. It is almost 
 superfluous to say that this law was disallowed by 
 the king. 
 
 The war with the French and Indians, which be- 
 gan in 1690, was not yet terminated. For seven 
 years were the frontier settlements harassed by the 
 savages ; and the English employed in expeditions 
 against them. A history of these would consist only 
 of repeated accounts of Indian cunning and barba- 
 rity, and of English enterprize and fortitude. 
 
 The peace of Ryswick was proclaimed in Boston, 
 December 10, 1697. The war with the Indians did 
 not immediately cease. The beginning of the next 
 year, they shewed themselves at Kittery, where they 
 killed an old man ; and at the same time they car- 
 ried away three persons from York. In July, they 
 appeared upon the western frontier and took three 
 or four prisoners at Hatfield : but the French no 
 longer daring to afford them assistance, they spent 
 the rest of the year in contriving a peace. Upon 
 intimations given by the Indians to any of the forts 
 or outposts that they were disposed to peace, the 
 English were very ready to embrace the offer. The 
 principal object was the recovery of the captives, 
 which at the end of the war had generally been 
 numerous. In October, Major Convert and Captain 
 Alden were sent to Penobscot to settle preliminaries ; 
 one of which was to be the release of all prisoners, 
 but no more could be obtained, on this head, than a 
 promise to return all such as desired it ; the Indians 
 refused to compel any who inclined to remain with 
 them. In the winter, John Phillips, Esq., of the 
 council, with Major Convers, and Cyprian South- 
 ack, commander of the province galley, went with 
 full powers to conclude a treaty. The Indians were 
 not very nice in acknowledging their perfidy in 
 such terms as the English prepared for them, and 
 made such submissions and promises of future fide- 
 lity as were desired. The treaty was in the same 
 terms with that in 1693. Several captives were 
 restored, and others were promised in the spring; 
 but many remained, males and females, who min- 
 gled with Indians, and contributed to promote a suc- 
 cession of savages to exercise cruelties upon the 
 English frontiers, in future wars, and perhaps upon 
 some of their own relations. 
 
 The leaving bounds to be settled between the 
 English and French, upon the continent, by com- 
 missaries, and the ambiguous terms made use of in 
 treaties (perhaps artfully introduced by the French) 
 have ever been the causes of new disputes between 
 the two crowns ; and, in one instance at least, 
 very soon brought on a new war. The peace ol 
 Ryswick was scarcely proclaimed in New England, 
 when the inhabitants were made sensible of the 
 designs of the French to make themselves sole pro- 
 prietors of the fishery, and to restrain the English 
 from the possession of any part of the country con- 
 tained in the Massachusetts charter to the eastward 
 of Kennebeck. It was understood by the English 
 court, that by the treaty of Ryswick, all tne country 
 westward of St. Croix was to remain to the English, 
 as being within the bounds of the province of Mas- 
 sachusetts-Bay. The French court, immediately after 
 the treaty, asserted an exclusive right to the fishery 
 
 upon the sea coasts and to all the inland country 
 A. French man of war, bound from France to Port 
 royal, met one of the fishing vessels off Cape Sabels, 
 sent for the skipper to come on board, and caused 
 to be translated and read to him in English an 
 order of the French king for seizing all English 
 vessels found fishing on the coasts, and told him to 
 five notice of this order to all other vessels. Ville- 
 bon, governor of St. John's river, writes, soon after, 
 to Mr. Stoughton, that he had orders, from the 
 French king, his master, to take possession of, and 
 defend the whole country as far as Kennebeck. 
 
 The Norridgewock Indians, this year also, built 
 a church, at their chief settlement upon Kennebeck 
 river, which was complained of by the Massachusetts' 
 government as a French encroachment; but we know 
 not for what reason, except their having a French 
 man for their priest can be thought one. 
 
 Representations were made to the ministry, and 
 the right of the English to the eastern country, as 
 far as St. Croix, was insisted upon. The Lords of 
 trade wrote thus to the Earl of Bellamont. " As to 
 the boundaries, we have always insisted and shall 
 insist upon the English right as far as the river St. 
 Croix; but in the mean while, in relation to the 
 encroachments of the French and their building a 
 church on Kennebeck river, that seems to us a very 
 proper occasion for your Lordship's urging the gene- 
 ral assembly of the Massachusetts-Bay to rebuild the 
 fort at Pemaquid, which they ought to have done 
 long ago, and thereby they might have prevented 
 this and many other inconveniences." 
 
 The French persisted in their molestations of the 
 English fishermen, and there seems to have been 
 no great concern about it in the English ministry ; 
 other greater affairs, in difference between the two 
 crowns, engaged the attention, and brought on a 
 new war ; and it was well they did, for it seems very 
 probable that this dispute about the fishery would 
 not have made a breach ; but if peace had continued, 
 the French would have excluded the English, and 
 this valuable branch once lost, might never have 
 been recovered. 
 
 King James, always under the influence of 
 France, had relinquished his right to Acadia or 
 Nova Scotia ; and although his governor (Andros) 
 for the short time the king remained afterwards 
 upon the throne, retained the possession of Pema- 
 quid, and challenged a right to St. Croix; and 
 although the friendship between the two monarchs 
 might prevent any severity upon the English 
 fishermen, yet the French insisted upon their right 
 both to the country aad coasts. The war, upon the 
 revolution, suspended' the dispute about title. At 
 the treaty of Ryswick, England was not disposed to 
 urge any points which would retard the peace ; and 
 the French immediately after renewed the same 
 claim they had made under King James. 
 
 Lord Bellamont arrived at Boston from New 
 York, May 26, 1699. A nobleman at the head of 
 the government was a new thhig. All ranks of 
 people exerted themselves to show him respect, and 
 the appearance was so pompous, that his lordship 
 thought it gave him good reason to expect a very 
 honourable support from a province so well stocked 
 with inhabitants, and in a state of so much affluence. 
 He took every method to ingratiate himself with the 
 people. He was condescending, affable, and cour- 
 teous upon all occasions. He professed to be of the 
 most moderate principles in religion and govern- 
 ment ; although a churchman, yet far from the high 
 church, and he attended the weekly lecture at Bos- 
 
288 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 ton with great reverence, and professed great regard 
 and esteem for the preachers. He avoided all un- 
 necessary contests with private persons, or with 
 either branch of the legislature. His inclination 
 led him to Mr. Dudley's enemies, but he did not 
 neglect those who were friendly and attached to him. 
 There was perfect harmony in the general court 
 whilst he presided. There was something singular 
 and unparliamentary in his form of proceeding in 
 council; for he considered himself as at the head of 
 the board in their legislative, as well as executive 
 capacity. He concerned himself in all their debates, 
 proposed all business, and frequently recommended 
 to them to resolve into a committee upon bills or 
 clauses in bills, and then, as the entries stand, he 
 left the chair, and the committee (being ready to 
 report) reassumed; nor did he think it proper they 
 should act as a house of parliament in his absence ; 
 but when detained at home, by messages from time 
 to time, directed their going into a committee and 
 preparing business against such time as he should 
 be able to attend. This was guiding them in all 
 their debates and resolves, as far as his influence 
 would extend, which was not a little way ; and yet, 
 afterwards, as a separate branch, he had his nega- 
 tive upon all their proceedings which were not 
 according to his mind. This irregularity does not 
 seem to be the mere effect of his lordship's authority 
 and influence over the council. The constitution 
 under the new charter was not settled. They came 
 off by degrees from their practice under the old 
 charter. The governor, created by the people, used 
 then to vote with the assistants ; and although he 
 had no negative, yet he had a casting voice. Lord 
 Bellamont finding this to have been the practice, 
 and considering how much it increased his share in 
 all acts of government, might be disposed to retain 
 it. Experience taught, what was not at first con- 
 ceived, the great difference between the privilege of 
 proposing or originating and that of rejecting. In 
 some succeeding administrations, it has given cause 
 of exception and complaint when the governor has 
 interested himself in the debates of the council, to 
 influence their determinations and abridge them of 
 that freedom, to which they are equally entitled 
 with the other branches of the legislature. He was 
 the first governor who imitated the lord lieutenant of 
 Ireland in formal speeches, as the king's representa- 
 tive, to the two houses of parliament ; copies of 
 which were delivered to the speaker, and afterwards 
 printed. Extracts from one or two, shew they were 
 calculated ad captandum. The unfavourable senti- 
 ments of the inhabitants in general, of the reign of 
 the Stuarts, were well known to him; no subject 
 could be more engaging than a censure upon that 
 family. He concludes his first speech, which is a 
 very long one, in this manner : " I should be want- 
 ing to you and myself too, if I did not put you in 
 mind of the indispensable duty and respect we owe 
 the king, for being the glorious instrument of our 
 deliverance from the odious fetters and chains of 
 popery and tyranny, which has almost overwhelmed 
 our consciences and subverted all our civil rights. 
 There is something that is godlike in what the king 
 hath done for us. The works of redemption and 
 preservation come next to that of creation. I would 
 not be misunderstood, so as to be thought to rob 
 God of the glory of that stupendous act of his provi- 
 dence, in bringing to pass the late happy and won- 
 derful revolution in England. His blessed work it 
 was, without doubt, and he was pleased to make king 
 William, immediately, the author and instrument 
 
 >f it. Ever since the year 1602, England has had 
 i succession of kings, who have been aliens in this 
 espect, that they have not fought our battles nor 
 ieen in our interests, but have been, in an unna- 
 ural manner, plotting and contriving to undermine 
 and subvert our religion, laws, and liberties, till God 
 was pleased, by his infinite power and mercy and 
 goodness, to give us a true English king, in the 
 >erson of his present majesty, who has, upon all 
 occasions, hazarded his royal person in the fronts of 
 our battles, and wHere there was most danger ; he 
 las restored to our nation the almost lost character 
 f bravery and valour ; and, what is most valuable 
 if all, his majesty is entirely in the interest of his 
 >eople. It is therefore our duty and interest to pray 
 ,o God, in the most fervent manner, that he would 
 )less our great king William with a long and pros- 
 perous reign over us, to which I am persuaded, you 
 hat are present and all good people will heartily 
 say amen." 
 
 His last speech had expressions, strong enough, 
 upon the same strain. " The parting with Canada 
 to the French, and the eastern country called Acadia 
 or Nova Scotia, with the noble fishery on that 
 coast, were most execrable treacheries to England, 
 and intended, without doubt, to serve the ends of 
 popery. It is too well known what interest that 
 ting favoured who parted with Nova Scotia, and of 
 what religion he died." 
 
 By avoiding offence to particular persons, and by 
 a general conformity to the cast or prevailing dispo- 
 sition of the people, his lordship obtained a larger 
 sum as a salary and gratuity, not only than any of 
 liis predecessors, but also than any who succeeded 
 him, when the inhabitants were more numerous and 
 more opulent, and money compared with the neces- 
 saries of life had become less valuable ; for he re- 
 mained but fourteen months in the province, and the 
 grants made by the general court amounted to 2500 J. 
 lawful money, or 1875J. sterling. 
 
 His time was much taken up in securing the 
 pirates and their effects, which, as was supposed, 
 was the great inducement with the king to send him 
 to America. Before his arrival in Boston, several 
 suspected persons had been seized. After thirty or 
 forty years indulgence, there succeeded a general 
 abhorrence of buccaneering ; and the buccaneers, or 
 freebooters, were hunted from one colony to another. 
 A large sum of money was seized in the possession 
 of one Smith, part of it foreign coins and the impres- 
 sions unintelligible ; and he was brought upon trial, 
 but the evidence produced being insufficient to sa- 
 tisfy the jury, he was acquitted. 
 
 About the same time one Bradish was appre- 
 hended. He had been boatswain's mate of a ship 
 fitted out by merchants and tradesmen of London 
 to India, in the interloping trade. The crew turned 
 pirates ; and, having left the master ashore at Polo- 
 nais, gave the command to Bradish. They came to 
 America, and lodged large sums of money and goods 
 with persons upon Long Island and other places 
 within and near to the government of New York, 
 and then dispersed ; some to Connecticut, others to 
 Massachusetts, where Bradish was taken and others 
 of his crew, and sent to England. The vigi- 
 lance used in pursuing and apprehending them, ap- 
 pears from the account Mr. Stoughton transmitted to 
 the secretary of state. But Kidd was his lordship's 
 chief object. His own reputation and that of seve- 
 ral of his friends depended upon his seizure, that being 
 the only effectual way of removing the jealousies 
 and unjust surmises, not only against several of the 
 
UNITED STATE*. 
 
 tfuni&ry, but even against the king himself. In 
 order to suppress the piracies committed by English 
 subjects in India, &c., it was thought proper to fit 
 out a ship for that special purpose. Lord Rumney, 
 Sommers and others, became adventurers, to the 
 amount of six thousand pounds sterling, and a grant 
 was made to them of all captures, saving one-tenth 
 only reserved to the king. Lord Bellamont seems 
 to have had the principal direction. Upon enquiry 
 for a proper commander, Mr. Livingstone, a princi- 
 pal inhabitant of New York, being then in London, 
 recommended Kidd, who had sailed out of New 
 York, and having a family there, no question was 
 made of his attachment to it, and there was no sus- 
 picion of his ever turning pirate himself. From 
 London he went first to New York, where he broke 
 through the instructions he had received, shipping 
 his men upon new terms ; and when he arrived in 
 India, not only connived at and suffered to continue, 
 a known pirate vessel, but committed divers alarm- 
 ing acts of piracy himself, to the endangering the 
 amity subsisting between the East India Company 
 and the princes in that part of the world. The least 
 said by the enemies of the administration was, that 
 from a greedy desire of gain, an ill-judged measure 
 had been engaged in, which would be attended with 
 very mischievous consequences, and the malice of 
 some insinuated a criminal intention in the under- 
 taking. 
 
 Where Kidd would seek an asylum was uncer- 
 tain. Strangely infatuated, he came from Mada- 
 gascar to Boston, and made a bold open appearance 
 there, July 1, this year, and some of his crew with 
 him. On the 3rd he was sent for by the governor 
 and examined before the council. What account he 
 could give of himself does not now appear, but he 
 was not immediately committed, and only ordered to 
 draw up a narrative of his proceedings ; which ne- 
 glecting to do in the time assigned him, on the 6th 
 he was apprehended and committed to prison. Being 
 a very resolute fellow, when the officer arrested him 
 in his lodgings, he attempted to draw his sword, but 
 a young gentleman, who accompanied the officer, 
 laying hold of his arm, prevented him, and he sub- 
 mitted. Several of his men were secured at the 
 same time, and advice having been sent to England, 
 it was thought an affair of so much importance, that 
 a man of war was sent to carry them there ; where 
 Kidd, Bradish. and divers others were condemned 
 and executed. The party writers in England pre- 
 tended, that after Kidd's arrival he had assurance 
 from some anti-courtiers, who examined him in pri- 
 son, that his life should be spared if he would accuse 
 his employers, but that he was not bad enough to 
 comply with such a proposal. 
 
 Lord Bellamont held two sessions of the general 
 court this year; the first, the anniversary for the 
 election of councillors, the latter the 31st of March 
 following, occasioned by a general rumour through 
 the colonies, that the Indians (from all quarters, not 
 only those upon the frontiers, but those who were 
 scattered through the towus in the several colonies) 
 had united and agreed, at an appointed time, to fall 
 upon the English in order to a total extirpation. 
 The Indiana were no less alarmed with a report 
 that the king had withdrawn his protection from 
 them, and ordered his subjects to unite in their de- 
 struction. These reports were supposed to have 
 been raised by evil-minded persons among the Eng- 
 lish or Dutch ; but it is more probable, the Indians 
 of the six nations, to obtain the presents which 
 accompanied all treaties between the English and 
 
 THE HISTOKT OF AMERICA Nos. 37 & 38. 
 
 them, were the contrivers and managers of the whole 
 affair. (1699.) Such was the consternation in the 
 Massachusetts, that several acts passed the general 
 court for levying soldiers ; for punishing mutiny and 
 desertion ; or holding all the militia in readiness to 
 march ; and for enabling the governor to march them 
 out of the province, which, by charter, he wa re- 
 strained from without an act of assembly. AST it 
 happened, there was no occasion for carrying these 
 laws into execution; the general terror subsiding 
 soon after. 
 
 Soon after the session of the general court in May 
 1 700, Lord Bellamont took his leave of the Massa- 
 chusetts, and went to New York, where he died the 
 5th of March following. Mr. Stoughton took the 
 chair again, with reluctance. His advanced age 
 and declining state of health made him fond of ease 
 and retirement. 
 
 As soon as the news of the governor's death 
 reached England, Mr. Dudley renewed his solicita- 
 tions with fresh vigour, for a post which he never 
 lost sight of. By the interest of Lord Cults, and 
 the condescension of Lord Weymouth, whose son-in- 
 law was a competitor, he was chosen member for 
 Newtown in Southampton county, in King William's 
 last parliament. This, with the place of lieut.-go- 
 vernor of the Isle of Wight, \vas to be preferred to 
 all he could expect in New England, if it had not 
 been his native country ; but he had a passion for 
 layiug his bones there, which equalled that of the 
 ancient Athenians, and which he could not help 
 mentioning to every New England man who paid 
 him a visit ; as many frequently would do, from 
 Portsmouth, where they were often detained for 
 convoy. 
 
 (1701.) When Sir Richard Onslow and Mr. Har- 
 ley were competitors for the Speaker's place, his in- 
 clination led him to the latter, from whom he had re- 
 ceived favours; but his favourite object, which he was 
 then pursuing, obliged him to comply with the court 
 and vote for the former. He made use of the dissenting 
 interest in England to obtain his commission, and 
 to recommend him to his countrymen upon his arri- 
 val. There was another difficulty still remaining, 
 the king was not willing to appoint a governor, who 
 he knew had been very obnoxious to the people. A 
 petition was therefore procured from such persons 
 belonging to the Massachusetts as were then in 
 London, and from the principal New-England mer- 
 chants, praying that Mr. Dudley might be appointed 
 governor. He had also the address to reconcile 
 himself to Mr. Mather the younger, and to obtain 
 from him a letter favouring his cause, which he 
 made known to the king, and which removed his 
 objection ; and although Lord Cornbury, a near re- 
 lation of the Queen and the Princess Ann, being 
 appointed for New York, expected Massachusetts 
 also, yet Mr. Dudley prevailed; and his commission 
 passed the seals. The king's death, a few months 
 after, caused him the trouble of taking out a new 
 commission from the queen, but he had the unusual 
 favour shown him of remitting most if not all the 
 fees. 
 
 Whilst these things were transacting in England, 
 the lieut.-governor, Mr. Stoughton, died, in May 
 (1702), at his house in Dorchester. The admini- 
 stration for the first time devolved upon the council. 
 Some manuscript minutes and letters, which we have 
 seen, about the time and after the settlement of the 
 charter, take it for granted, that upon the death or 
 absence of the governor and lieut.-governor, the 
 senior counsellor would preside, and an instruction 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 from the crown has been given for that purpose; 
 but the expression in the charter, if it will admit of 
 this construction, does not favour it : we must not 
 wonder, therefore, that twenty-seven counsellors did 
 not readily give up their share in the administration 
 lo him that happened to be the eldest. It is a defect 
 in the constitution, for although, for certain pur- 
 poses, seven counsellors make a quorum, yet in all 
 acts, as commanders in chief, it has been judged 
 necessary that fifteen (or a majority of the whole 
 number) should give their consent. This must be 
 extremely inconvenient, especially in time of war, 
 when despatch often, and secresy sometimes, are of 
 great importance. 
 
 Mr. Stoughton's father was esteemed by the peo- 
 ple ; was commander in chief of the forces of the 
 colony in the first war against the Pequod Indians, 
 and after that many years a magistrate; and of a 
 considerable estate for those times. This circum- 
 stance caused his own natural endowments, which 
 were cultivated and improved by the best education 
 the country afforded, to be more observed and va- 
 lued. He was, in early life, a candidate for the mi- 
 nistry ; but the people judged him proper to take his 
 father's place as a magistrate; then employed him 
 as their agent in England ; and urged him a second 
 time to engage in the same service. It is no blemish 
 in his character that he had many opposers. Every 
 man, who makes it more his aim to serve than to 
 please the people, may expect it. From the obser- 
 vations he made in his agency, he was convinced it 
 was to no purpose to oppose the demands of King 
 Charles ; and from the example of the corporations 
 in England, he was for surrendering the charter 
 rather than to suffer a judgment or decree against 
 it. In such case a more favourable administration 
 might be expected to succeed it, and in better times 
 there would be a greater chance for re-assuming it. 
 He consented to act as one of the council under 
 Sir Edmund Andros, in hopes, by that means, to 
 render the new form of government more easy. By 
 this step he lost the favour of the people, and yet did 
 not obtain the confidence of the governor, who 
 would willingly have been rid of him, seldom con- 
 sulted him, and by the influence he had over the 
 majority of the council, generally carried the votes 
 against his mind. He joined upon the revolution 
 with the old magistrates, who made no scruple of 
 receiving him, in re-assuming the government; but 
 upon the election afterwards made by the people he 
 did not obtain a vote. At the desire of the council 
 and representatives he drew up a narrative of the 
 proceedings of Sir Edmund and his accomplices, 
 signed by him and several others of the council ; in 
 which they modestly take exception to many things 
 in the administration, and exculpate themselves from 
 any share in them. He was nine years lieut.-go- 
 vernor, and six of them commander in chief; had 
 experienced the two extremes of popular and abso- 
 lute government ; and not only himself approved of 
 a mean between both, but was better qualified to re- 
 commend it, by a discreet administration, to the 
 people of the province. He died a bachelor. , In- 
 stead of children, he saw, before his death, a college 
 reared at his expense, which took the name of 
 Stoughton-hall. He had good reason to think it 
 would transmit a grateful remembrance of his name 
 to succeeding ages. 
 
 Sir Henry Ashurst and Constantine Phipps had 
 continued agents for the province, in England, for 
 ten years together. Divers attempts had been made 
 by IVtr. Mather's friends to send him again to Eng- 
 
 and jn the service of the province ; and after Mr. 
 Stoughton's death the two houses came to a resolu- 
 tion to choose some person in the province, and send 
 aim to England as their agent ; and a great interest 
 s made that Mr. Mather might be the man ; but it 
 lappened that Mr. Cooke, who had not forgot their 
 former difference when joint agents, stood as well 
 with the assembly at this time as he had ever done, 
 and had influence enough to prevent Mr. Mather 
 from succeeding. The choice fell upon Waitstill 
 Winthrop, grandson to the first governor of the 
 Massachusetts, and son to the first governor of Con- 
 necticut, and who, either out of respect to his family 
 or for some other reason which does not now appear, 
 was considered as president of the council, although 
 there were many who, by priority of appointment, 
 the rule generally observed, should have preceded 
 him. 
 
 The French claim to the country east of the river 
 Kennebeck, and to an exclusive fishery upon the sea 
 coast, were the reasons publicly assigned for the 
 choice of an agent at this time, and an address to 
 the king had passed the council and assembly, and 
 Mr. Winthrop's instructions were prepared. These 
 proceedings of the French were really alarming. 
 The professed reasons, however, were not the true 
 reasons. Mr. Dudley's solicitations for the govern- 
 ment were known, and although his interest in the 
 province was increasing, yet a majority of the court 
 had a very ill opinion of him. Mr. Wiuthrop was a 
 good sort of man, and although he was of a genius 
 rather inferior to either of his ancestors, yet he was 
 popular 1 , and the party against Mr. Dudley wished 
 to have him governor. They flattered themselves 
 that his being acceptable to the country would, toge- 
 ther with his family and his estate, both w r hich were 
 of the first rate, be sufficient to recommend him, but 
 they were mistaken. Winthrop was a plain honest 
 man. Dudley had been many years well acquainted 
 with the customs and manners of a court, and would 
 have been more than a match for him. Just as he 
 was about to embark, news came that Mr. Dudley 
 was appointed governor, and Thomas Povey lieut.- 
 governor. The reason of Mr. Winthrop's appoint- 
 ment to the agency immediately appeared. The 
 vote for his instructions was reconsidered, and his 
 voyage laid aside. It was thought proper, however, 
 that the address to the king should be forwarded. 
 This was sent to Mr. Phipps. A second address ac- 
 companied it, occasioned by advice of a bill being 
 brought into the House of Lords for dissolving 
 charter governments. It is not probable that the 
 Massachusetts charter was the special occasion of 
 this bill. It differs so little from the commissions in 
 the royal governments, as they are called, as not to 
 be worth notice. Aboxit this time, or a little before, 
 the spirit against the king had caused the re-assump- 
 tion of many grants which he had made of pri- 
 vate estates. If there was a special prejudice against 
 colony charters, it is probable the charter to Penn- 
 sylvania was the most exceptionable. The proprie- 
 tor was obnoxious, had absconded a few years be- 
 fore upon a suspicion of treasonable practices, and 
 was still under a cloud. The Massachusetts instruct 
 their agents as follows : " As to the bill said to be 
 lying before the House of Lords, for the dissolving 
 charter governments in the plantations, we intreat 
 you to be very watchful in that matter, and use ut- 
 most diligence, by all convenient means, to prevent 
 our being comprehended in or concluded by the 
 same. Our circumstances are different frjom those 
 of other plantations under charter government, our 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 291 
 
 first settlement being wholly at our own cost and 
 charge, and by our present settlement we are already 
 reduced to a more immediate dependence on the 
 crown, h-is majesty having reserved to himself the 
 nomination of our governor, lieut governor, and 
 secretary, and a negative on our laws." In their 
 address to the kiug they thus express themselves : 
 " And forasmuch as we are given to understand 
 that, through the suggestions of some persons no 
 well affected to charter governments, a bill has been 
 preferred in the House of Lords for vacating char 
 ter and proprietary governments within your majes 
 ty's plantations, we in all submission crave leave 
 humbly to pray your majesty's grace and favour to 
 wards your good subjects within this your province 
 that no such suggestions may make an impression in 
 your royal breast to deprive us of those privileges 
 which we enjoy under your majesty's most gracious 
 grant, and that we may not be included in any such 
 act to our prejudice, without having opportunity 
 given us of being heard and speaking for ourselves." 
 The bill was dropped in the House of Lords, and 
 war with France being every day expected, the long- 
 est sword was to determine the points complained of 
 in the first address. 
 
 The sending these addresses to Phipps was grievous 
 to Ashurst. Although he had not very shining ta- 
 lents, yet being a member of parliament, having a 
 great family interest, and being an honest man and 
 conscientious in the discharge of his trust, he had 
 been very serviceable to the province. He had, how- 
 ever, the fate of most agents. As soon as the party 
 against him found they were strong enough they left 
 him out of the agency, and he made frequent com- 
 plaints that they had slighted his services and ne- 
 glected giving him an adequate reward. All the 
 agents who had been employed before him, except 
 Mr. Winslow, were unsuccessful ; and several, pro- 
 bably for that reason, thought unfaithful. The first 
 who were employed were Weld, Peters, and I lib- 
 bins, in 1640. They borrowed money for the service 
 of the colony, and proper care not being taken by 
 the government, for the payment, these agents for 
 several years after, were contending about the pro- 
 portion in which they should pay it themselves. 
 Winslow, who went over in 1646, soon found more 
 profitable employment, but his allowance was so 
 Ecant from the colony, that the corporation for pro- 
 pagating the gospel among the Indians allowed him 
 130/. sterling for promoting that design, but wrote to 
 the government that it ought to be restored. Brad- 
 street and Norton were sent in 1660. Norton laid 
 the reproaches he met with so much to heart as to 
 affect his health and shorten his life. In 1677, 
 Stoughton and Bulkley were employed, and soon 
 after their return it was said by those who charged 
 Bulkley with too great compliance with court mea- 
 sures, that his sun set in a cloud. He died of me- 
 lancholy. Stoughton was reproached, and although 
 he had a majority of the court in his favour, he could 
 not be prevailed on to risk his reputation a second 
 time. Dudley and Richards were the next, in 1682. 
 The former managed the whole business, and bore 
 the whole blame, but being of a very different tem- 
 per from some of his predecessors, instead of laying 
 to heart the slight of his countrymen, he was politic 
 enough to improve frowns at home to procure favours 
 from abroad. Mather, Cooke, and Oakes were em- 
 ployed to solicit the restoration of the first charter. 
 In this they failed, Mather without the consent of 
 his brethren accepted the present charter, and al- 
 though, at first, a majority of the court acknowledged 
 
 his merit, the opposite party soon after prevailed, and 
 he failed of his expected reward, and complained all 
 his life of the ingratitude of his countrymen, after 
 having spent not only his time but part of his estate 
 in public service. We would draw a veil over our 
 transactions relative to agents, if the obligations due 
 to truth would permit. Errors and failings, as well 
 as laudable deeds, in past ages, may be rendered 
 useful, by exciting posterity to avoid the one and to 
 imitate the other. 
 
 From the arrival of Governor Dudley, in 1 702, to the 
 arrival of Governor Shute, in 1716. 
 
 Mr. Dudley was received with ceremony and 
 marks of respect, even by those who had been his 
 greatest opposers in the reign of King James. Win- 
 throp, Cooke, Hutchinson, Foster, Addington, Rus- 
 sell, Phillips, Browne, Sargent, and others, who had 
 been of the council which committed him to prison, 
 where he lay twenty weeks, were of the council when 
 he arrived. Upon such political changes a general 
 amnesty is oftentimes advisable and necessary. 
 
 The affront and insult shown by Louis XIV., not 
 only to the prince upon the throne, but to the Eng- 
 lish nation, in proclaiming another person king, had 
 rendered a war with France inevitable, before the 
 governor left England. The news of its being pro- 
 claimed arrived in a few weeks after him. Nothing 
 less could be expected than a war with the Indiana 
 also. Ever since the peace, in 1698, the governor 
 of Canada, by his emissaries, had been continually 
 exciting them to hostilities ; and justified himself 
 upon this principle, that the Indians having cast 
 themselves upon the French long since, as their 
 protectors, and being proprietors of the eastern 
 country, where the English had usurped a jurisdic- 
 tion, which as far westward as Kennebeck rightfully 
 belonged to the French, the English therefore were 
 to be considered as intruders and invaders upon the 
 jurisdiction of the French and upon the property of 
 the Indians. 
 
 The governor, the first summer, visited all the 
 eastern frontiers as far as Pemaquid; taking such 
 gentlemen of the general court with him as he 
 thought proper ; met the delegates from the Indian 
 tribes, and confirmed the former treaties which had 
 been made. lie had recommended, in his first 
 speech to the assembly, the rebuilding the fort at 
 Pemaquid; and the gentlemen who accompanied 
 him east reported in favour of it, and their report 
 was accepted by the council ; but the house con- 
 tinued of the same mind they had formerly been, 
 urging that all the n.oney they could raise would be 
 wanted for other services more necessary than that, 
 and refused to comply with the governor's proposal. 
 His heart was set upon it ; the ministry continued 
 heir prejudice in favour of this particular spot, and 
 t is net improbable that he had given himself encou- 
 ragement he should be able to carry a point, which 
 his predecessors could not, and therefore was the 
 more mortified at the failure. 
 
 The Indians, upon the Massachusetts frontiers, 
 continued quiet this year, but the Nova-Scotia In- 
 dians seized throe of the fishing vessels belonging to 
 ;his province, upon a report that war was declared. 
 The council attempted to recover them, and by the 
 nterposition of Bruillon, governor of Nova Scotia, 
 ,wo, if not the third, were restored. 
 
 (1703.) At the first election Mr. Dudley treated 
 he house more cavalierly than Sir William Phipps or 
 jord BeJlamont had ever done. After the list of coun- 
 cilors elect had been presented. " A message wat 
 
 2P2 
 
29'2 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA 
 
 sent from his Excellency to desire Mr. Speaker ami 
 the house forthwith to attend him in the council 
 chamber; and Mr. Speaker and the house being 
 come up, his excellency observed to them, that in 
 their list of elections, presented to him, he took no- 
 tice that there were several gentlemen left out who 
 were of the council last year, who were of good abi- 
 lity, for estate and otherwise, to serve her majesty 
 and well disposed thereto, and that some others who 
 were new elected, were not so well qualified ; some 
 of them being of little or mean estate; and withal 
 signified, that he should expunge five of the names 
 in their list, viz., Elisha Cooke, and Peter Sargent. 
 Esqrs., Mr. Thomas Oakes, Mr. John Saffin, and 
 Mr. John Bradford, and dismissed the house, who 
 returned to their chamber." Cooke had been of the 
 council nine or ten years, had been assistant before 
 the revolution, married a daughter of governor Le- 
 veret, and was allied to the best families in the pro- 
 vince, had a better estate than the governor him- 
 self, but then he had been agent in England, and 
 discovered greater zeal for prosecuting the com- 
 plaints against Andros, Dudley, &c., than any of 
 his fellow agents. Sargent had married the relict 
 of Sir William Phipps. Oakes had been one of the 
 agents in England also, and under the direction of 
 Cooke. Baffin was a principal inhabitant of Bris- 
 tol (the father of Thomas Saffin, of Stepney church- 
 yard, whose memory the author of the Spectator 
 has immortalized), and Bradford was grandson of 
 the first worthy governor of Plymouth. 
 - There had been but one instance of the gover- 
 nor's refusal of a counsellor, since the charter. The 
 right of refusal could not be disputed. Had the 
 power been frequently exercised less exception 
 would have been taken to this instance ; but the 
 h;fig disuse of it caused the re-assumption of it upon 
 so many persons at once, to be more disagreeable. 
 Oakes was of the house, and notwithstanding the 
 negative as a counsellor, remained there; and if he 
 could be of any consequence, this would add to his 
 weight. 
 
 Lord Cornbury, governor of New York, some time 
 in the month of May advised Mr. Dudley of an 
 army of French and Indians, intending to make a 
 descent upon Deerfield, in the Massachusetts pro- 
 vince. The intelligence was brought to Albany by- 
 some of the praying or christianized Mohawks, who 
 had been to visit their friends at Cagnawaga, in 
 Canada, who formerly had belonged to the same 
 village, about forty miles from Albany. This de- 
 sign was not immediately carried into execution. 
 
 Whilst every one was fearing hostilities from the 
 Indians, several Englishmen, pretending friendship 
 to Castine, son of the Baron de St. Castine, by an 
 Indian woman, who now lived at Penobscot, plun- 
 dered his house, &c., and made great spoil. Upon 
 bis complaint to the government, he was assured the 
 action should not go without due punishment, and 
 that restitution should be made. About the same 
 time the Indians did mischief to some of the people 
 of Kennebeck : which action was first cannot be as- 
 certained. Perhaps neither of them was from re- 
 sentment or revenge for the other. 
 
 Before the end of the year, the blow threatened 
 in the beginning of it, was struck upon Deerfield. 
 This was the most remote settlement upon Connec- 
 ticut river, except a few families at Squakheag or 
 Northfield adjoining to it- Deerfield, being easiest 
 of access of any place upon the river, had often suf- 
 fered by small parties. In 1697 an attempt was 
 made upon it, but failed of success through the vigi. 
 
 lance and bravery of tho inhabitants, with Mr, 
 Williams their minister at their head. Colonel 
 Schuyler, of Albany, had obtained information of 
 the designs of the enemy upon it this year, and 
 gave notice seasonable enough to put the people 
 upon their guard. It was afterwards thought re- 
 markable, that the minister had it strongly hn- 
 Sressed upon his mind that the town would !>. 
 estroyed. It would not have been very strang< 
 if this impression had never been off his mind. He 
 warned his people of it in his sermons, but too 
 many made light of the intelligence, and of the 
 impressions which naturally followed. The govern- 
 ment, upon his application, ordered twenty soldiers 
 as a guard. The party, which had been fitted out 
 at Canada, consisted of about 300 French and In- 
 dians, under Hertel de Rouville, who had four bro- 
 thers with him ; their father had been a noted par- 
 tisan, but was now unable to take so long a march. 
 They came upon the town the night after the '28th 
 of February. In the fore part of the night, and 
 until about two hours before day, the watch kept the 
 streets ; and then unfortunately went all to sleep. 
 The enemy, who had been hovering about them, 
 and kept continually reconnoitring, perceived all to 
 be quiet, and first surprised the fort or principal 
 garrison house. The snow was so high, in drifts, 
 that they had no difficulty in jumping over the 
 walls. Another party broke into the house of Mr 
 Williams, the minister, who, rising from his bod. 
 discovered near twenty entering. He expected im- 
 mediate death, but had the firmness of mind to take 
 down a pistol, which he always kept loaded upon his 
 tester, and to present it to the breast of the first 
 Indian who came up to him. The pistol, fortunately 
 for Mr. Williams, snapped only and missed fire. 
 Had he killed the Indian, his own life no doubt 
 would have been taken in revenge. Being, in effect, 
 disarmed, he was seized and pinioned, and kept 
 standing, in his shirt only, in that cold season, the 
 space of an hour. In 'the mean time his house was 
 plundered, and two of his children and a negro 
 woman murdered. His wife and five other children 
 were suffered to put on their clothes, and then he 
 himself was allowed to dress and prepare for a long 
 march. 
 
 Other parties fell upon other houses in the town, 
 and slew about forty persons, and made about a 
 hundred more prisoners. The sun being about an hour 
 high, the enemy had finished their work, and took 
 their departure, leaving all the houses, outhouses, 
 &c. in flames. Mrs. Williams had scarcely reco- 
 vered from her lying in, and was in a weak state. 
 The enemy made all the haste they could, lest a su- 
 perior force should overtake them. The second day 
 she let her husband know she was unable to travel 
 any farther as fast as they did. He knew the con- 
 sequence, and would gladly have remained with her 
 and assisted her ; but they had different masters, 
 and leave could not be obtained, and he was carried 
 from her, and soon after heard that her master had 
 sunk his hatchet into her brains. One cannot easily 
 conceive of greater distress, than what an affection- 
 ate husband must then have felt. About twenty 
 more of the prisoners, in their travel towards Cana- 
 da, gave out and were killed also. They were twen- 
 ty-five days between Deerfield and Chambli, depend- 
 ing upon hunting for their support as they travelled. 
 Vaudreuil, the French governor of Canada, treated 
 these prisoners with humanity; and although the 
 Indians have been encouraged, by premiums upon 
 prisoners and scalps to Jay waste tie English fror- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 293 
 
 tiers, yet the captives, who have been carried to 
 Canada, have often received very kind usage from 
 the French inhabitants. 
 
 The unfortunate provinces of Massachusetts-bay 
 and New Hampshire, were the only people upon the 
 continent against whom the French and Indians, 
 during a ten years' war, exerted their strength. 
 Connecticut and Rhode-Island were covered by the 
 Massachusetts. New York took care of themselves, 
 and of the colonies south of them, by a neutrality 
 which the Iroquois or six nations (influenced by 
 those who had the direction of Indian affairs) en- 
 gaged to observe between the English and French. 
 This was, in effect, a neutrality between the French 
 and the English governments to the southward of 
 New England. Nothing could be more acceptable 
 to the Canadians. The New England governments 
 felt the terrible consequences. Charlevoix gives 
 this account of it. " Teganissorens arrived, a little 
 while after, at Montreal, and, in the conference 
 which hj had with the commander in chief, he ap- 
 peared at first to be out of humour, which boded ill 
 to the business h:; came upon. The Europeans, says 
 he, are an out of the way people ; after they have 
 made peace, one with another, they go to war again, 
 for mere nothing at all. This is not our practice ; 
 after we have once signed to a treaty there must be 
 some very strong reasons to induce us to break it. 
 He went on and declared that his nation should not 
 engage in a war which they did not approve of, nei- 
 ther on one side nor the other. Mons. de Vaudreuil 
 let Teganissorens know that he desired nothing fur- 
 ther ; and that the Iroquois might have no pretence 
 to break so advantageous a neutrality, he deter- 
 mined to send out no parties towards New York." 
 Again upon another occasion, "At all events, the 
 six nations, and especially the Tsononheans were 
 resolved strictly to observe the neutrality which they 
 had sworn, and of which they began to feel the be- 
 nefit ; but you shall see that they were much set upon 
 including the English, that they might be consi- 
 dered as mediators between them and us. Mr. Vau- 
 dreuil, who had very early seen through their de- 
 sign, had acquainted the court with it, and received 
 for answer, that if he was able to carry on the war 
 io advantage without putting the crown to any ex- 
 traordinary expense, he should reject the proposals 
 of the Iroquois ; otherwise he might settle a neu- 
 trality for America upon the best terms he could, 
 but that it was not for his majesty's honour that his 
 governor and lieutenant general should be the first 
 mover of it. The minister added, that he thought 
 it would be most proper for the missionaries to 
 let the Indians know that the French did not desire 
 to disturb the peace ofthe country ; thatalthough they 
 were very well able to carry on a vigorous war, 
 yet they preferred the quiet of Canada to all the 
 advantages they might reap from the superiority 
 of their arms ; and if the six nations, convinced 
 that this was our disposition, should cause the Eng- 
 lish to ask a neutrality for their colonies, M. Vau- 
 dreuil might consider of it; but that he should not 
 come to a conclusion without orders from the king." 
 It is true Charlevoix says, that " the Boston- 
 eers would have obtained the same thing from the 
 Abcnaquis or eastern Indians." It is certain that 
 the Massachusetts government would have been 
 content (provided the eastern Indians had continued 
 a peace with the English) that they should not be 
 obliged to go to war against the French ; but the 
 Massachusetts, in all their treaties with the eastern 
 Indians, made peace for the other governments as 
 
 well as for themselves ; and hostilities against Con- 
 necticut or New York would have been deemed a 
 breach of the peace, as well as those against th* 
 Massachusetts ; whereas the New Yorkers, or rather 
 the Albanians, suffered the Canada Indians to g.o 
 through their province and fall upon any of the 
 frontiers, without looking upon it to be a breach of 
 the neutrality, and carried on great trade both with 
 French and Indians, at the same time; and some- 
 times the plunder made in the county of Hampshire 
 became merchandize in Albany. Some of the best 
 people detested such proceedings, particularly Col. 
 John Schuyler, of Albany ; who, by means of the 
 Indians of the six nations in the English interest, 
 informed himself of the intended expeditions of the 
 French and French Indians, and gave frequent 
 notice to the people upon the frontiers to be upon 
 their guard ; but most of the inroads made upon it 
 he had it not in his power to discover. 
 
 That the French might improve this plan to 
 greater advantage, they drew off, about this time, a 
 great number of the Abenaquis families from Pen- 
 obscot, Norridgewock Saco, Pigwacket, &c. and set- 
 tled them at Becancour and St. Francois, in Ca- 
 nada, where they were known to the English by the 
 name of St. Francois Indians. Here they were 
 under the constant direction of the governor of 
 Canada, and were sent out, froau time to time, witk 
 parties of the six nations in the French interest and 
 French Canadians, to massacre the men, women, 
 and children upon the east and west frontiers. 
 Charlevoix says, " they were intended as a barrier 
 against the inroads of the six nations, in case of a 
 future war between them and the French." 
 
 The Massachusetts, thus harassed and perplexed, 
 thought it necessary to remain no longer on the 
 defensive only ; and, in the fall, sent out three or 
 four hundred men to a noted settlement of the In- 
 dians at Pigwacket, and another party to the ponds, 
 Ossapy, &c. upon the back ofthe eastern frontier; 
 but neither party met with the enemy. Soon after, 
 Colonel March going out with another party, killed 
 and took about a dozen of the enemy. This mea- 
 sure not answering expectation ; to encourage small 
 parties of the English to go out and hunt the Indi- 
 ans, the general court promised a bounty or reward, 
 no less than forty pounds, for every Indian scalp. 
 Captain Twyng went out in the winter and brought 
 in live. 
 
 (1704.) In the spring, another project was tried. 
 About an hundred Indians were obtained from Con- 
 necticut and posted at Berwick, in the county of York ; 
 but these Indians were not only strangers to the 
 woods, and wholly ignorant of the frontiers of Ca- 
 nada, but by long living in a depressed state among 
 the English, were dispirited, enervated and unfit 
 for this service, and nothing remarkable was ef- 
 fected. Had not the six nations been restrained, 
 parties of them, harassing the French settlements, 
 would have induced the French, for their own pre- 
 servation, to have suffered the frontiers of New 
 England, as well as New York, to have remained 
 unmolested. 
 
 All these attempts failing, a still more expensive 
 undertaking was agreed on. It was supposed that 
 an army, to sweep the coast and country from Pis- 
 cataqua river to Nova Scotia, would strike terror 
 into the Indians and bring them to reason. Colonel 
 Church, noted for his exploits in former wars, es- 
 pecially in Philip's war, was pitched upon to com- 
 mand in this expedition, and had orders to enlist 
 as many as he could,, both of English and Indians, 
 
294 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 who had been in service before. This is called, by 
 Charlevoix, an expedition against Port Royal; but 
 Church was instructed not to make any attempt 
 against the Fort there, and to ravage the country 
 only. Mr. Dudley had intimations of the queen's 
 intention, to send ships the next year for the re- 
 duction of that fortress. 
 
 Church had 550 soldiers under him, in fourteen 
 small transports, and was provided with thirty-six 
 whaleboats, and convoyed by the Jersey man of war, 
 of forty-eight, the Gosport of thirty-two, and the 
 Province Snow of fourteen guns. He stopped first 
 at Montinicus, and sent two of his boats to Green- 
 Island, where he took four or five French and In- 
 dians, who served him for pilots up Penobscot river 
 and to the Indian settlements there. In this river 
 he killed and took captive many of the enemy ; 
 among the captives were Castine's daughter and 
 her children, her husband and father being gone to 
 France, where Castine had an estate upon which he 
 lived after he left America. The transports lay at 
 Mount Desart. Church, having taken from them a 
 fresh supply of provisions, went in the boats up the 
 western Passimaquady. In the harbour he found only 
 a French woman and her children, upon an island, 
 and another family upon the main, near to it. He 
 then went up the river, where he took prisoners, 
 Gourdon a French officer and his family, who lived 
 in a small cottage. Church seeing some of his men 
 hovering over another hut, he called to them to 
 know what they were doing ; and upon their reply, 
 that there were people in the house who would not 
 come out, he, hastily, bid his men knock them on 
 the head ; which order they immediately observed. 
 He was much blamed for this, after his return, and 
 excused himself but indifferently. He feared the 
 enemy might fall upon his men, who he saw were 
 off their guard, which put him in a passion. He 
 went as high up the river as the falls, taking or de- 
 ^?troying all in his way ; missed Chartiers, another 
 French officer who lived or was posted there. The 
 transports took in the forces at the harbour or mouth 
 of the river and carried them to Menis ; the men of 
 war standing for Port-royal. At Menis, he met with 
 some opposition, the enemy firing from the banks 
 as he rowed up the river to the town ; but he lost 
 none of his men. They found plenty, not only of 
 fresh provisions but good liquor in the town, which 
 occasioned such disorders among the men, especially 
 the Indians, that it was necessary to stave all the 
 casks which had an/ wine or spirits in them, and it 
 was done accordingly. Here, the lieutenant of 
 Church's own company, Barker (Charlevoix calls 
 him the lieutenant general) and one man more were 
 shot down, which were all that were lost in the ex- 
 pedition. After plundering the inhabitants of all 
 their goods, they set the town on fire, and then em- 
 barked on board the transports. The inhabitants 
 of a village, upon another branch of the river, sup- 
 posed the English to be gone, and that they should 
 escape; but Church went back with his boats, and, 
 going up this branch, came unexpectedly upon the 
 village and took what prisoners he had a mind to, 
 and among the rest, two gentlemen who had been 
 sent by the governor of Port-royal to bring two 
 companies of soldiers for the defence of the place 
 against the men of war which appeared in the gut. 
 Church gave the gentlemen leave to return, for the 
 sake of sending a message by them to the governor, 
 to desire him to acquaint the governor of Canada, 
 that if he did not prevent his French and Indians 
 from committing such barbarities upon poor helpless 
 
 women and children, as the people of Deerficld had 
 suffered the last year, he would return with a thou- 
 sand Indians and let them loose upon the frontiers 
 of Canada to commit the like barbarities there. 
 This the French governor must know to be a gas- 
 conade. 
 
 The forces, after this, went up what is called the 
 eastern river and destroyed the settlements there, 
 and then returned to the transports, and joined the 
 men of war at Port-royal; where it was agreed, 
 both by sea and land officers, that no attempt should 
 be made. The men of war returned to Mount 
 Desart harbour, and Church with his transports, 
 went up to Chignecto. The inhabitants all lied, 
 taking with them as much of their substance as 
 they could carry away; the rest they left to the 
 mercy of the English, who laid all waste. From 
 Chignecto they went to Mount Desart ; the men of 
 war being gone to Boston, the transports followed; 
 and stopping at Casco-bay, Church found orders 
 lodged there, from the governor, to go up Kenne- 
 beck river as far as Norridgewock fort ; but having 
 intelligence that it was deserted and his men having 
 undergone much fatigue, he thought it best to re- 
 turn home. 
 
 This expedition Mr. Dudley supposes, in his speech 
 to the assembly, struck great terror into the Indians, 
 and drove them from the frontiers ; but it appears 
 from Church's journal, that the poor Acadians, who 
 had been so often ravaged before, were the principal 
 sufferers now, and that the Indians were little or 
 nothing annoyed. 
 
 An exploit of Caleb Lyman of Northampton, de- 
 serves to be recorded. Hearing of a small party 
 of Indians at Cohoss, far up Connecticut river, he 
 went out with only five friend Indians, and, after 
 nine or ten days travel, came upon the enemy In- 
 dians in the night, killed seven out of nine, and the 
 other two escaped, but wounded. 
 
 This may be placed among the favourable years ; 
 but the frontiers were not without annoyance. In 
 April an Indian scout killed Edward Taylor at 
 Lamprey river and carried his wife and child to 
 Canada ; Major Hilton with twenty men pursuing 
 without overtaking them. They lay in wait to take 
 Major Waldron at Cochecho, but missed him, carry- 
 ing off one of his servants in his stead. July 31. 
 About four hundred, French and Indians, fell upon 
 Lancaster, and assaulted six garrison houses at the 
 same time, which made a brave c/ofence. They 
 burned many other dwelling houses and the meeting 
 house. An alarm was soon spread, and three hun- 
 dred men were in the town before night, who en- 
 gaged the enemy with some loss on both sides. 
 The beginning of August, a party of the enemy, ly- 
 ing in wait, fired upon a small scout going from 
 Northampton to Westfield, killed one man and took 
 two prisoners; but more of the forces being behind, 
 they came up, retook the two men, and killed two 
 of the Indians. Soon after, they killed lieutenant 
 Wyler and several others at Groton, and at a plan- 
 tation called Natheway. 
 
 Almsbury, Haverill and Yoik, in the Massa- 
 chusetts and Exeter, Dover and Oyster river, in 
 New-Hampshire, suffered more or less, this summer, 
 by the enemy. 
 
 The licentious practice, indulged among the sea- 
 men, of making depredations upon foreign nations 
 in the east and west Indies was not wholly sup- 
 pressed. John Quelch (who had been master of 
 the brigantine Charles, and had committed many 
 piratical acts upon the coast of India) came with 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 295 
 
 several of his crew and landed, some in one part of 
 New England, some in another. Quelch and six 
 more were condemned at Boston and executed. 
 Some were admitted to be witnesses for the king, 
 some reprieved, and some pardoned. The gover- 
 nor, upon this occasion, found old prejudices against 
 him reviving. Reports were spread, of large sums 
 of money falling into the hands of the governor and 
 of his son, the queen's advocate, which however 
 groundless easily obtained credit. 
 
 Mr. Dudley's" principles, in government, were too 
 high for the Massachusetts people. He found it 
 very difficult to maintain what appealed to him to 
 be the just prerogative of the crown, and at the same 
 time to recover and preserve the esteem of the 
 country. The government had been so popular 
 under the old charter, that the excercise of the 
 powers reserved to the crown by the new charter 
 was submitted to with reluctance. Sir William 
 Phipps was under the influence of some of his council 
 and some of the ministers of note, and suffered re- 
 mains of customs under the old form, hardly con- 
 sistent with the new. Mr. Stoughton expecting 
 every day to be superseded, avoided all occasions of 
 controversy. Lord Bellamont, indeed, in some in- 
 stances, assumed more than he had right to. His 
 quality and the high esteem, at first, conceived of 
 him, prevented any controversies, during his very 
 short administration. Mr. Dudley set out, with re- 
 solution, to maintain his authority. The people 
 were more jealous of him than they would have been 
 of any other person. His negativing five of the 
 council, the first election, was an unpopular stroke. 
 The next year (1704) the two houses chose again 
 two of the negatived persons, Mr. Cooke, and Mr. 
 Sargent, and the governor again refused to approve 
 of them. They were such favourites of the house, 
 that the speaker, the house being present, addressed 
 his excellency and prayed him to reconsider his ne- 
 gative, and to approve'of the choice. This was out 
 .of character, and the house dishonoured themselves 
 .and had the mortification of being denied. This 
 year, neither of the persons were chosen of the coun- 
 cil, but one of them, Mr. Oakes, being chosen 
 speaker of the house, upon the governor's being ac- 
 quainted therewith, he signified to the house that he 
 disapproved of their choice, and directed them to 
 proceed in the choice of another, which they refused 
 to do. It had been always the practice, for the gov- 
 ernor to give directions to the two houses to proceed 
 to the choice of counsellors; but the dispute about 
 the speaker prevented it at this time, the council in- 
 serted themselves, and the question being put, whe- 
 ther it was in the governor's power, by virtue of the 
 charter, to refuse the election of a speaker and direct 
 the choice of another, they determined it was not, 
 and immediately joined the house in electing coun- 
 sellors. The next day the governor declared, that 
 he looked upon it to be her majesty's prerogative 
 to allow or disallow the choice of a speaker, but he 
 would not delay the assembly by disputes, when the 
 affairs of war were so pressing, saving to her ma- 
 jesty her just rights at all times. 
 
 The governor had it in special command to re- 
 commend three things to the assembly ; the rebuild- 
 ing the fort at Permaquid ; the contributing to a 
 fort at Piscataqua ; and the establishing honourable 
 salaries for the governor, lieutenant governor and 
 judges of the courts. He had been pressing these 
 things from his first arrival, but could obtain neither 
 of them, and as to salaries, they not only refused 
 .fixing a salary, but allowed him only 500 per 
 
 annum, viz. 300 of it in the spring and 200 in the 
 fall. To the iieutenant governor they gave 200 
 annually, as lieut. governor and captain of the 
 castle ; and although it was more than any lieut. 
 governor has received since, yet he found it insuf- 
 ficient to support him, and this year, by the way of 
 Lisbon, went back to England, and never returned 
 to the province. A message from the house this 
 year to the governor, though not very elegant, 
 shews the sense they had of these matters, 
 " May it please your excellency, 
 
 "!N answer to those parts of your excellency's 
 speech, at the beginning of the session, referring 
 to her majesty's directions for the building of a fort 
 at Permaquid, contributing to the charge of a fort 
 at Piscataqua, and settling of salaries, we crave 
 leave to offer, 
 
 " Imprimis, as to the building a fort at Permaquid, 
 we are humbly of opinion, that her majesty hath re- 
 ceived misrepresentations concerning the necessity 
 and usefulness of a fort there ; wherefore, this house, 
 in their humble address to her majesty, dated the 
 27th of March 1703, and since twice repeated, did 
 among other things lay before her majesty our rea- 
 sons why we could not comply with her expectations 
 in that affair, as 
 
 " First, the little benefit said fort was to us, not be- 
 ing, as we could discern, any .bridle to the enemy 
 or barrier to our frontiers, being out of the usual 
 road of the Indians and a hundred miles distant 
 from any English plantation; and seemed only 
 to make an anchorage for a few fishing boats, that 
 accidentally put in there ; but the expense thereon 
 was very great, not less than twenty thousand 
 pounds. 
 
 " Secondly, the charge of the said fort will be such 
 that we cannot see how the province can possibly 
 sustain it, having already laid out several large sums 
 of money in raising new fortifications at Castle Is- 
 land, &c., which was set forth in the address and 
 memorial accompanying the same ; but we under- 
 stand we have been so unhappy, as that the said 
 address and memorial did not reach her majesty's 
 hands, because proceeding from this house alone, 
 although the addressing her majesty is a privilege 
 ever allowed to the meanest of her subjects. We 
 did therefore at our session in February last join 
 the council, in making our humble address to her 
 majesty upon the affair aforesaid, which we hope, 
 hath some time since arrived to her majesty's favor- 
 able acceptance. 
 
 "The second article is the contributing to the 
 charge of Piscataqua fort. The fort in that province 
 was built several years past, when it was not desired 
 or thought necessary that this province should assist 
 them therein. The late reforms and reparations 
 made of the same, as we have been informed, stands 
 that whole province about the sum of five hundred 
 pounds, which doth not amount to the quota of se- 
 veral particular towns within this province, towards 
 the charge of the war one year ; and all the naviga- 
 tion and trade of this province, coming down Pisca- 
 taqua river, have been charged with a considerable 
 duty towards the support of that fort; and this pro- 
 vince hath always afforded such guards as were 
 needful for their haling of masts, timber, &c. for her 
 majesty's service, whilst the principal benefit and 
 advantage of the trade hath accrued to that province. 
 And they have never contributed any thing to the 
 charge of our forces, forts, and garrisons, or guard 
 by sea, that are as great a safety and defence to 
 them as to ourselves : but the public charge of that 
 
296 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 government has been much less proportionably than 
 the charge of this ; which being considered we hope 
 110 assistance will be expected from us towards the 
 charge of the said fort. 
 
 " Thirdly, as to the settling fixed salaries, the 
 circumstances of this province, as to our ability to 
 support the government, are at times so different, 
 that we fear the settling of fixed salaries, will be of 
 no service to her majesty's interest, but may prove 
 prejudicial to her majesty's good subjects here ; and 
 as it is the native privilege and right of English sub- 
 jects, by consent of parliament, from time to time, 
 to raise and dispose of such sums of money as the 
 present sxigency of affairs calls for ; which privilege 
 we her majesty's loyal and dutiful subjects have 
 hitherto lived in the enjoyment of, so we hope and 
 pray always to enjoy the same under our most graci- 
 ous sovereign and her successors." 
 
 The governor then proposed the several matters 
 to the council. 
 
 1st. Whether they advised to the building a fort 
 at Peramquicl. 
 
 2d. Whether they advised to a contribution to- 
 wards the charge of Piscataqua fort. 
 
 ?d. Whether they advised to the settling a fixed 
 salary to the governor and lieutenant-governor 
 for the time being. 
 
 And.they gave a negative answer to each question. 
 
 It was a great disappointment, to be able to carry 
 neither of these points, which the ministry were very 
 .much set upon, and which it is not improbable they 
 were encouraged might be obtained. Had they been 
 matters less unpopular, yet the governor's weight, at 
 this time, would have scarce been sufficient to have 
 carried them through. The prejudices against him 
 were great. The people in general looked upon him 
 as an enemy, even to the privileges of the new char- 
 ter. Sir Henry Ashurst procured an original letter, 
 wrote by the governor's son Paul, who was then an 
 attorney general, to Mr. Floyd, and sent it to New- 
 England, in which were these expressions, " The 
 government and college are disposed of here in 
 chimney corners and private meetings, as confidently 
 as can be this country will never be worth living 
 in for lawyers and gentlemen, till the charter is taken 
 
 away. My father and I sometimes talk of the 
 
 queen's establishing a court of chancery in this coun- 
 try. I have wrote about it to Mr. Blathwait." 
 Copies were dispersed about the province, and the 
 letter was soon after printed. Mr. Dudley had no 
 rest the fkst seven years ; besides the opposition he 
 met with in his administration, endeavours were 
 using, soon after his arrival, to supplant him, and 
 his enemies prevailed upon Sir Charles Hobby (who 
 had been knighted as some said for fortitude and 
 resolution at the time of the earthquake in Jamaica, 
 others for the further consideration of 800 sterling) 
 to go to England and solicit for the government. 
 He was recommended to Sir H. Ashurst, who at first 
 gave encouragement of success. Hobby was a gay 
 man, a free liver and of very different behaviour from 
 what should have recommended him to the clergy of 
 New-England ; and yet, such is the force of party- 
 prejudice, that it prevails over religion itself, and 
 some of the most pious ministers strongly urged, in 
 their letters, that he might be appointed their gover- 
 nor instead of Dudley. 
 
 The governor, this year sent Mr. Livingston, 
 William Dudley, the governor's son,, and two or three 
 other gentlrmen, to Canada, for the exchange of pri- 
 soners; who bronght back with them Mr. Williams 
 
 the minister and many of the inhabitants of Deerfiehi 
 with other captives. Vaudreuil, the French gover- 
 nor, sent a commissioner to Boston, with proposals 
 of neutrality, which were communicated to the gene- 
 ral court, who did not think proper to take any steps 
 towards effecting it. They wished and hoped instead 
 of a neutrality for the reduction of Canada ; whereas 
 the employment given to the French strength in 
 Europe might well cause Vaudreuil to fear the want 
 of protection, and dispose him to secure himself by a 
 neutrality. Dudley, however, kept the matter in 
 suspense with Vaudreuil for some time ; and to the 
 policy of his negotiation it was owing, that the peo- 
 ple upon the frontiers en joyed remark able tranquility, 
 and he valued himself upon it in his speech to the 
 general court. Charlevoix says, " it was evident 
 Mr. Dudley had no intention to agree, that he was 
 a long time in treaty, and at length declared that he 
 could come to no agreement without the consent of 
 the other English colonies ; and thereupon Vaudreuil 
 caused hostilities to be renewed against the people 
 of New England. He adds, that the Canadians were 
 much dissatisfied with their governor, for suffering; 
 Mr. Dudley's son to remain some time at Quebec, 
 under pretence of finishing the treaty, and for per- 
 mitting a New England brigantine to go up and 
 down the river." 
 
 Another negotiation, the next year, had a less desi- 
 rable effect, William Kovvse was sent in a small 
 vessel, to Nova Scotia, as a flag of truce. He 
 stayed there a long time, and brought back only 
 seventeen prisoners. Being sent a second time, he 
 brought no more than seven. Much greater numbers 
 were expected, considering the time spent in pro- 
 curing them. Upon his last return, it was charged 
 upon him, that instead of employing his time in 
 redeeming captives, he had been trading with the 
 enemy and supplying them with ammunition and other 
 stores of war. Rowse, upon examination, was com- 
 mitted to pi ison. Samuel Vetch, afterwards Colonel 
 Vetch, and governoi of Nova Scotia; John Borland, 
 a merchant of note in Boston, and Roger Lawson, 
 were all apprehended and examined, and bound to 
 answer at the superior court. There was a general 
 clamour through the province ; and it was whispered 
 about that the governor was as deeply concerned a< 
 any of the rest, and such reports against a governor 
 as easily obtain credit, with many, without ground, 
 as with. The house of representatives took the first 
 opportunity of satisfying themselves. It was sug- 
 gested there, that the superior court had no cogni 
 zanceofthe offence; and, that admitting Nova Scotia 
 to be part of the province, yet it was not within the 
 bounds of any country, and there was no authority, 
 but the general court, that could punish it. The 
 caryiug the goods from Boston and the conspiracy 
 there, were not considered. Besides, no persons 
 could be supposed to have the public interests so 
 much at heart, and none so likely to search to the 
 bottom. They thereupon resolved, that the superior 
 court had not jurisdiction, and that a parliamentary- 
 enquiry was necessary; and, in imitation of tin; 
 house of commons, they framed articles of accusation 
 and impeachment against the several persons appre- 
 hended, for traitorously supplying the queen's ene- 
 mies, &c. These were signed by the speaker, and 
 sent by a committee to the council (June 25) praying 
 " that such proceedings, examinations, trials, and 
 judgments may be had and used upon and relating 
 to the said persons as is agreeable to law and justice." 
 It was expected that the council should proceed, as 
 the house of lords do upon an impeachment. No 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 297 
 
 wonder tbe council did uot immediately proceed. 
 In trying a capital offence, it became them to b,e well 
 satisfied of their jurisdiction. . No notice is taken of 
 the affair in the council books for above a fortnight. 
 The governor sat every day in council, and he still 
 continued the practice of directing, every day, upon 
 what business the council should proceed. It having 
 been reported, that the house, in their examination 
 of the prisoners, enquired how far the governor was 
 concerned ; on the 9th of July they passed a vote, 
 vindicating themselves from an aspersion cast upon 
 them, as having, in the examination of the prisoners, 
 made it the first question, whether the governor was 
 not concerned with them in the unlawful trade ; 
 wickedly insinuating, that the house had suspicion 
 thereof, which they declared to be utterly false; and 
 they thanked his excellency for his utmost readiness 
 and forwardness, upon all occasions, in detecting and 
 discouraging all such illegal trade and traders. For 
 this the governor gave them thanks. 
 
 Before the 13th of July, the house were either 
 convinced that the form of proceeding was irregular, 
 or else that they could not support the charge of 
 high treason, and ordered a bill to be brought in for 
 inflicting pains and penalties ; some moved for a bill 
 of attainder, but the court being near rising, a mes- 
 sage was sent to the governor, desiring that the pri- 
 soners charged might be kept in close custody, until 
 the next session, in order to fui'ther proceeding 
 against him. 
 
 At the next session, a few weeks after, the persons 
 charged with two or three other accomplices of less 
 note, were brought upon trial before the whole court; 
 the governor's son, Paul Dudley, the queen's attorney, 
 supporting the charge. The prisoners were heard by 
 counsel in their defence. The court pronounced them 
 all to be guilty, and then proceeded to determine their 
 punishment A committee of the two houses reported 
 a fine of 1000 on Mr. Borland and three months' 
 imprisonment; 350 on Roger Lawson and three 
 months' imprisonment; 400 on Samuel Vetch and 
 one year's imprisonment; 1000 on William Rowse, 
 one year's imprisonment and incapacity of sustaining 
 any office of public trust; 100 on John Philips , jun. 
 and one years imprisonment; and 100 on Ebenezer 
 Coffin. The house accepted this report, with an addi- 
 tion to Rowse' s punishment, that he sit an hour upon 
 the gallows with a rope about his neck ; but the board 
 disagreed to and reduced all the fines except Rowse' s, 
 and rejected the infamous part of his punishment. 
 After a conference between the two houses, they 
 settled the penalties as follows, viz. on Vetch a fine 
 of 200; Borland 1100; Lawson 300; Rowse 
 1200 and incapacity; Phillips 100; and Coffin 
 60: all to stand committed until the fines and 
 costs of prosecution were paid ; and six separate acts 
 passed the whole court for these purposes. By a 
 clause in the charter, the general court is impower- 
 ed to impose fines, imprisonments, and other pu- 
 nishments, and in consequence of this clause the pro- 
 ceeding was thought to be regular ; but the queen did 
 not think so, and these acts were disallowed. The go- 
 vernor was under a disadvantage, any obstruction to 
 the two houses would have been improved as an evi- 
 dence of the truth of the reports of his being particeps 
 criminis; his compliance did not satisfy the people. 
 An ill impression against persons in authority is 
 uot easily effaced. Several persons, some in Bos- 
 ton, but more in London, signed a petition, full of 
 invectives against the governor, which was pre- 
 sented to the queen. Upon information of this pe- 
 tition, the council and house of representatives 
 
 passed votes, declaring their sense of the injury 
 done the governor by the persons signing this peti- 
 tion or address. Mr. Higginson, who was at the 
 head of the petitioners, was originally of New 
 England, and educated at Harvard College, after- 
 wards he travelled to the East Indies, and upon his 
 return became a merchant in London, he was also a 
 member of the corporation for propagating the Gos- 
 pel among the Indians of New England, &c., and 
 had so much interest, that some persons of note, by 
 their letters, signified that they thought the two 
 houses impolitic in the severity of their expressions, 
 which, from being their friend, might at least cause 
 him to become cool and indifferent. 
 
 Besides this petition, a pamphlet from New Eng- 
 land appeared about the same time in London, 
 charging the governor with treasonable correspond- 
 ence, and it was expected that his enemies would 
 prevail. Mr. Povey wrote to him from London ; 
 that he must prepare to receive the news of being 
 superseded ; but he was so fortunate, as either to 
 convince the queen and her ministers of his inno- 
 cence, or by some other means to allay the storm 
 which had been raised against him. The charge of 
 supplying the enemy with ammunition is incredible. 
 Those persons who were convicted, had he been an 
 accomplice, would have discovered him. He left 
 them to suffer such punishment as the court thought 
 proper to inflict. There was no certainty that the 
 acts would be repealed, and after they were repealed, 
 some remained long in prison; Rouse lay there 
 eighteen months, unable to find security. The 
 whole that appeared upon the trial, was an invoice 
 for a quantity of nails, which, at the request of the 
 governor of Port Royal, Mr. Dudley allowed to be 
 shipped. This was foundation enough, though in 
 no degree criminal, to give rise to all the calumny. 
 It is not improbable, from the rempnstrance of Mr. 
 Sewall, who was a person of great integrity, that 
 connivance might be shown as to some supplies of 
 merchandise, and that this indulgence might be 
 abused to the supply of powder, shot, &c., contrary 
 to the governor's mind. It was the general opinion, 
 that, without these supplies, the French could not 
 have proceeded in their expedition against New- 
 foundland, where the harbours this year were much 
 spoiled, and great loss and damage was sustained, 
 not by the Europeans only, but by the New Eng- 
 landers, who had then large commerce there. 
 
 That we might finish what relates to this prose- 
 cution, which was a subject of notoriety for many 
 years after, we have been led a year or two forward. 
 We meet with no remarkable devastations by the 
 Indians in 1706; but in April 1706, they renewed 
 their inroads and murdered eight or ten people in 
 one house at Oyster River. There was a garrison 
 house near, where the women of the neighbourhood 
 had retreated, their husbands being abroad at their 
 labour, or absent upon other occasions. This house 
 being attacked, the women put on their husbands' 
 hats and jackets, and let their hair loose, to make 
 the appearance of men ; and firing briskly from the 
 openings, saved the house and caused the enemy to 
 retreat. 
 
 Colonel Schuyler gave intelligence of two hun- 
 dred and seventy men having marched from the 
 frontiers of New Canada, which was an alarm to all 
 the frontiers of New England; for it was uncertain 
 upon which part they would fall. They made their 
 first appearance upon Merimack River, about Dun- 
 stable, surprised and burned a garrison house there 
 in \vhich twenty soldiers were posted, and did other 
 
298 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 mischief. Five of their Indians, probably from the 
 same party, ventured down as far as Reading, about 
 fifteen or eighteen miles from Boston, surprised a 
 poor woman, who had eight children with her in a 
 lone cottage, killed the woman and three of the 
 children, and carried away the rest ; but the distant 
 inhabitants were alarmed time enough to overtake 
 them in their retreat, and recovered three of the 
 children. Chelmsford, Sudbury, Groton, Exeter, 
 Dover, and other plantations, had more or less of 
 their people killed or taken; some of the latter they 
 murdered before they could reach Canada, others 
 very narrowly escaping. A poor woman, Rebecca 
 Taylor, after the misery of a long travel to St. 
 Lawrence River, near to Montreal, having offended 
 her Indian master, he took off his belt and fas- 
 tened one end of it round her neck, and threw the 
 other over the limb of a tree ; but the weight of her 
 body broke the limb. He was making a second at- 
 tempt, when the noted Bomazeen came by and res- 
 cued her. In their march, their hunting failing, 
 they were kindling a fire to roast a child of one 
 Hannah Parsons, when a strange dog, falling in 
 their way, supplied the child's place. A Groton 
 soldier, Samnel Butterfield, defended himself 
 bravely, and killed one of their chiefs. This occa- 
 sioned a dispute about the kind of punishment, 
 some being for burning alive, others for whipping to 
 death. It was left to the dead man's widow to de- 
 tsrmine it. She told them, that if killing the pri- 
 soner would bring her husband to life, she cared not 
 what kind of death he suffered ; but if not, she de- 
 sired to have him for a slave, and her request was 
 granted. 
 
 It appears, by the French accounts, that the In- 
 dians themselves were tired of the war, and. with 
 great difficulty were prevailed upon to continue it. 
 To encourage them, a noted chief, dreaded by the 
 English upon the frontiers, from the report of his 
 cruelties, Nescambouit, was about this time sent by 
 M. Vaudreuil to France, to receive his reward from 
 the king himself. Upon his appearance at court, 
 he held out his arm and bragged, that with that arm 
 he had slain one hundred and fifty of his majesty's 
 enemies. The king was so much pleased, that, as 
 was then reported, he knighted him, and settled a 
 pension of eight livres a day for life. 
 
 Charlevoix attributes the distress of the New 
 Englanders to their refusal of a neutrality, " The 
 Abenakis continued to lay New England d'esolate; 
 Mr. Dudley either being unwilling or afraid to ac- 
 cept the neutrality which had been proposed for 
 that province. He was much affected with the 
 cries of the inhabitants, who were no longer able 
 to improve their lands, which were continually ra- 
 vaged by the Indians, and he thought the only way 
 to put an end to this distress was to extirpate the 
 French from Acadia." 
 
 1707. Dudley depended upon the French being 
 extirpated from Canada, as well as Acadia, or he 
 would have been glad of a neutrality, if he could 
 have had the queen's leave to agree to it. It was 
 known, that an armament was intended, this year, 
 from England against the French, either in Canada, 
 or Acadia, or both. Troops were actually destined 
 for this service, and general Macartney was to have 
 commanded ; but the battle of Almanza, in Spain, 
 made mch an alteration in affairs, that the troops 
 could not be spared, and the expedition was laid 
 aside. The Massachussetts would have been ready 
 with the forces expected from them ; and it was de- 
 termined, early in the spring, that such a number 
 
 of men should be raised, us might be sufficient for 
 the reduction of Acadia, although no assistance 
 came from England. At least the other parts of 
 Nova Scotia might be ravaged ; but for Port Royal, 
 it was doubted whether it could be subdued : how- 
 ever, the fortress there wag " to be insulted, if by a 
 council of war it should be found practicable." 
 
 One thousand men it was resolved should be 
 raised in the Massachussetts, and proposals were 
 made to New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode 
 Island, to join. Connecticut declined. The other 
 two governments assisted, and Mr. Dudley, in his 
 speech to the assembly, acknowledges that he had 
 received a very honourable assistance from Rhode 
 Island, and a proper force from New Hampshire. 
 The naval force was barely sufficient for convoy, 
 there being only the Deptford man-of-war, Captain 
 Stukeley, and the province galley, captain South- 
 ack. The command of the land forces was given 
 to colonel March, who had behaved well at Casco 
 fort and upon some other occasions ; but had never 
 been tried in any service where other talents besides 
 mere natural bravery were necessary. The fleet 
 sailed from Boston the 13th of May, and arrived 
 the 26th at Port Royal. March immediately landed 
 with seven hundred men on the harbour side ; colo- 
 nel Appleton with three hundred men landing on 
 the other side. The next day, as March with his 
 men was advancing towards the fort, he disco- 
 vered about two hundred of the enemy, with Suber- 
 cas, the governor, at their head, near the top of a 
 hill. A short skirmish ensued, and Subercas had 
 his horse killed under him ; but the numbers being 
 very unequal the French soon retreated, leaving 
 two of their number killed, and having wounded 
 three of the English. On the 29th, Appleton and 
 his three hundred men were attacked by a body of 
 Indians, joined by about sixty Canadians who had 
 arrived just before to man a privateer which lay in 
 the harbour. They killed two of the English and 
 then retreated. All the inhabitants forsook their 
 houses and retired to the fort, which was well gar- 
 risoned. They made a continual fire with cannon 
 and mortars upon the English camp ; but wanting 
 skilful engineers, very lew of them fell so as to 
 cause any destruction. The Indians, upon every 
 quarter skulking about, shot any man who ventured 
 without the camp. It is evident that the forces 
 were very diffident of success from their first land- 
 ing ; and the army would in a great measure have 
 saved their reputation, if, in conformity to the voto 
 of the court for engaging in the expedition, they 
 had, at a council of war determined not to attack 
 the fort, and proceeded to ravage the country. 
 Some intelligence which they had received of the 
 disposition of great part of the garrison to revolt, 
 seems to have encouraged them more than any 
 hopes they had of being able to reduce the place by 
 a regular siege or sudden attack. The 13th of 
 May, at a council of war, it was agreed, "that the 
 enemy's well disciplined garrison in a strong fort, 
 was more than a match for a raw undisciplined 
 army." They opened their trenches notwithstand- 
 'ng, and in three or four days they had made some 
 Breaches, and determined upon a general assault; 
 sut advancing towards the fort and finding no de- 
 serters come over, they altered their minds, and the 
 3th or 7th of June the whole army were re-em- 
 mrked. Colonel Redknap (the engineer) and 
 colonel Appleton went to Boston for further orders ; 
 he rest of the army to Casco Bay. A great cla- 
 mour was raised at Boston against March and 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 299 
 
 Wainwright, and letters were sent them from 
 thence, some anonymous, vilifying them as cowards 
 and deserving the gallows. They charged Apple- 
 ton with being the first for decamping, bnt own it 
 would have been to no good purpose to have re- 
 mained ; as there was no prospect of carrying the 
 fort. Captain Stukely, of the Deptford, gave an 
 account of the strength of the place, and added, 
 that he had hoped the fighting men at Boston, who 
 had wrote so many scurrilous, vilifying letters, 
 without names, would be satisfied, that regular, well 
 fortified, and well defended forts, are not to be taken 
 by raw men ; and he was very certain that 1,500 
 of the best of them would come back as the army 
 had done. 
 
 Mr. Dudley, notwithstanding the diffidence ex- 
 pressed, thought of nothing short of the reduction 
 of Port Royal from the beginning; and after so 
 great an expense in raising such an armed force, he 
 was unwilling to give over the design, and sent im- 
 mediate orders for the forces to remain where they 
 were whilst he considered of further measures. 
 March was beloved by the soldiers ; besides, his 
 courage was not suspected, although his capacity for 
 a general was called in question. It was not, there- 
 fore, thought proper to recall him, and to appoint a 
 general officer over him would be as exceptionable. 
 An cxprdient was therefore thought of, which was 
 suggested perhaps by the practice of the Dutch. 
 Three gentlemen of the council were to be sent to 
 the army, with as full powers to superintend and 
 direct the proceedings as the governor himself would 
 have had if present in person. Colonel Hutchin- 
 son, colonel Townsend, and Mr. Leverctt, were se- 
 lected for this purpose ; and they embarked in the 
 middle of July with about one hundred recruits and 
 several deserters, who had left the army at Casco. 
 Upon their arrival, they found parties formed among 
 officers and men, no subordination, a coldness in the 
 officers, and an aversion in the privates, to a return 
 to the ground they had left. But it seems, the go- 
 vernor had made a point the army should go back. 
 
 A round robin was signed by a great number, 
 peremptorily refusing to go to Port Royal; but the 
 ringleaders being discovered and secured, whilst 
 their sentence was under consideration, the rest 
 submitted, and the ships of war and transports sailed. 
 They stopped at Passimaquadi, about the 7th of 
 August. March's spirits were broke and his health 
 affected, so that, when the disposition was made for 
 landing the army, he declared himself incapable of 
 acting, and the command was given to Wainwright, 
 the next officer. The 10th of August they crossed 
 over to Port Royal, where they landed, but on the 
 opposite side to the fort, and in every respect, in a 
 much worse condition than before. The nights 
 were growing cold, the men sickening, and the 
 army in general, incapable of sustaining the fati- 
 gues of a siege. Waiuwright's letter to the Com- 
 missioners, August 14th, shows the state they were 
 in. " Our not recovering the intended ground on 
 the opposite side is a mighty advantage to the ene- 
 my, in that they have opportunity, and are improv- 
 ing it, for casting up trenches in the very place 
 where we designed to land and draw up our small 
 forces. Yesterday, the French, about eight of the 
 clock forenoon, on the fort point, with a small body 
 of St. John's Indians, began to fire on our river 
 guards, and so continued until about three in the 
 afternoon : then appeared about one hundred In- 
 dians and French, upon the same ground, who kept 
 firing at us until dark. Several wer shot through 
 
 their clothes, and one Indian through the thigh. 
 About four in the afternoon I suffered a number of 
 men, about forty or fifty, to go down to the bank of 
 the river, to cut thatch to cover their tents. All 
 returned well, except nine of captain Dimmock's 
 men, who were led away by one Mansfield, a mad 
 fellow, to the next plantation to get cabbages in a 
 garden, without the leave and against the will of 
 his officer. They were no sooner at their plunder 
 but they were surrounded by at least one hundred 
 French and Indians, who in a few minutes killed 
 every one of them, their bodies being mangled in a 
 frightful manner. Our people buried them, and 
 fired twice upon the enemy ; on which they were 
 seen to run towards our out-guards next the woods, 
 which we immediately strengthened. Indeed, the 
 French have reduced us to the same state to which 
 we reduced them at our last being at Port Royal ; 
 surrounded with enemies, and judging it unsafe to 
 proceed on any service without a company of at 
 least one hundred men. I shall now give you a 
 short account of the state of our people, truly, as 
 delivered me by doctor Ellis. There is a considera- 
 ble number of them visited with violent fluxes, and 
 although we have things proper to give them, yet 
 dare not do it ; others taken with mighty swellings 
 in their throats ; others filled with terror at the 
 consideration of a fatal event of the expedition, 
 concluding that, in a short time, there will not be 
 well enough to carry off the sick. 
 
 " I am distressed to know which way to keep the 
 Indians steady to the service. They protest they 
 will draw off, whatever becomes of them. It is 
 truly astonishing, to behold the miserable posture 
 and temper that most of the army are in, besides 
 the smallness of our number, to be attacked by the 
 enemy which we expect every moment. 
 
 " I am much disordered in my health by a great 
 cold. I shall not use it as an argument to be 
 drawn off myself; but as you are masters of the 
 affair, lay before you the true state of the army, 
 which indeed is very deplorable : I should much re- 
 joice to see some of you here that you might be 
 proper judges of it. 
 
 " If we had the transports with us, it would be 
 impossible, without a miracle, to recover the ground 
 on the other side, and I believe the French have ad- 
 ditional strength every day. In fine, most of the 
 forces are in a distressed state, some in body, and 
 some in mind, and the longer they are kept here on 
 the cold ground the longer it will grow upon them, 
 and, I fear, the further we proceed the worse the 
 event. God help us." 
 
 Captain Stukeky had given encouragement, that 
 he would lead on an hundred of his own men ; but 
 the bad state of affairs caused him to change his 
 mind, and he had drawn them off before the date of 
 this letter. 
 
 The army continued ashore until the 20th, whon 
 they re-embarked. The enemy then attacked them, 
 many of whom were killed and wounded, and 
 finally put to flight. The French say that both re- 
 treate'd by turns. Each seem to have been glad to 
 be rid of the other. About sixteen were killed, in 
 the whole expedition, and as many wounded. The 
 French, finding so few dead bodies, supposed the 
 Massachussetts threw them into the sea. 
 
 When the forces returned, Mr. Dudley put the 
 best face upon their ill success. In his speech to 
 the assembly, he says, "Though we have not ob- 
 tained all that we desired against the enemy, yet 
 we are to acknowledge the favour of God in pre- 
 
300 
 
 THE HISTORY Of AMERICA. 
 
 serving our forces in the expedition, and prospering 
 (hem so far as the destruction of the French settle- 
 ments and estates, in and about Port Royal, to a 
 great value ; which must needs distress the enemy 
 to a very great degree." 
 
 A court martial was judged necessary, and or- 
 dered, but never met. The act of the province, for 
 constituting courts martial, made so many officers 
 requisite, that it was found impracticable to hold 
 one. This must be owing to the great number of 
 persons charged, the remainder being insufficient to 
 try them. 
 
 1708. Whilst the forces were employed against 
 French, the Indians kept harassing the frontiers. 
 Oyster River. Exeter, Kingston, and Dover in New 
 Hampshire government, and Berwick, York, Wells, 
 Winter Harbour, Casco, and even the inland town 
 of Marlborougb. in the Massachusetts, sustained 
 loss. The winter following passed without mo- 
 lestation. In the spring, 1708, Mr. Littlefield, the 
 lieutenant of Wells, travelling to York, was taken 
 and carried to Canada. For several months after, 
 the enemy seemed to have forsaken the frontiers. 
 It afterwards appeared, that they were collecting 
 their forces in Canada for some important stroke. 
 
 Schuyler had such influence over the French 
 Mohawks, who kept a constant trade with Albany, 
 that they inclined to a more general peace with the 
 English than merely those of New York. The 
 French discovered their indift'erence, and to keep 
 them engaged, a grand council was called at Mon- 
 treal, the beginning of this year, and an expedition 
 was agreed upon, in which were to be employed 
 the principal Indians of every tribe in Canada, the 
 Abenakis Indians, and one hundred select French 
 Canadians, and a number of volunteers, several of 
 whom were officers in the French troops. They 
 were to make in the whole four hundred men. 
 
 De Chaillons, and Hertel de Rouville (the same 
 who sacked Deerfield) commanded the French, and 
 La Perriere the Indians. To give the less alarm 
 to the English, the French party, with the Algon- 
 quin and St. Francois and Huron Indians, marched 
 by the way of the river St. Francois: La Perriere 
 and the French Mohawks went by lake Champlain : 
 They were to rendezvous at lake Nikisipique, and 
 there the Norringewock, Penobscot and other east- 
 ern Indians were to join them. They all began their 
 march the 16th July, but the Hurons gave out and 
 returned, before they arrived at St. Francois river. 
 One of them had killed his companion, by accident, 
 which they thought an ill omen and that the .expedi- 
 tion would prove unfortunate. The Mohawks also 
 pretended, that some of their number were taken 
 sick by an infectious distemper which would be com- 
 municated to the rest, and they returned. Vaud- 
 reuil, when he heard these accounts, sent orders to 
 his French officers, that, although the Algonquin 
 and St. Francois Indians should leave them also, yet 
 they should go on and fall upon some of the scat- 
 tered settlements. When the Indians were tired of 
 murdering poor helpless women and children, Vau- 
 dreuil employed his French officers to do it. Those 
 Indians, however, did not leave them, and, being 
 about 200 in all, they marched between four and 
 five hundred miles through the woods to Nikipisque, 
 where they found none of the eastern Indians. This 
 was a happy disappointment for the English. Had 
 the whole proposed number rendezvoused thero, 
 Newbury, or perhaps Portsmouth, might have been 
 surprised and destroyed ; but, the army being thus 
 reduced, Haver bill, a small but compact village a5 
 
 pitched upon. Intelligence had been carried to 
 Boston, that an army of 800 men was intended for 
 some part of the frontiers, but it was uncertain 
 which. Guards were sent to Haverhill. as well a* 
 other places ; but they were posted in the most ex- 
 posed parts of the town and the enemy avoided them, 
 or passed undiscovered, and, on the 29th of August, 
 about break of day, surprised the body of the town, 
 adjoining to Merrimack river, where were twenty 
 or thirty houses together, several of which they 
 burned, and attempted to burn the meeting-house, 
 but failed. The rest of the houses they ransacked 
 and plundered. Mr. Rolfe the minister, Wain- 
 wright the captain of the town, and thirty or forty 
 more, the French say about 100, were killed, and 
 many taken prisoners. Mr. Rolfe's maid jumped 
 out of bed, upon the alarm, and ran with his two 
 daughters of six or eight years old into the cellar, 
 and covered them with two large tubs, which the In- 
 dians neglected to turn over and they wore both pre- 
 served. Three very good officers wore at that time 
 in the town, Major Turner, Capt Price and Capt, 
 Gardner, all of Salem, but most of their men were 
 posted at a distance, and, before any sufficient num- 
 ber could be collected, the mischief was done. The 
 enemy, however, was pursued, overtaken and at- 
 tacked, just as they were entering the woods. The 
 French reported, when they got back, that they 
 faced about, and that the Massachusetts being 
 astonished, were all killed or taken, except ten or 
 twelve who escaped. The truth is, that there was a 
 brush, which lasted about an hour, and that the 
 enemy then took to the woods, except nine who were 
 left dead, among whom was Rouville's brother, and 
 another officer. Many of the prisoners were also 
 recovered. The governor in his speech to the as- 
 sembly says, " We might have done more against 
 them if \ve had followed their tracks." 
 
 The return of the French Mohawks might be 
 owing to Schuyler's negotiations with them, which, 
 it may be said, he would have had no opportunity 
 for, if it had not been for the neutrality between 
 them and Albany; but, on the other hand, not only 
 Indians, at other times, but even the Penobscots 
 and Norridgewocks were enabled by this neutrality, 
 to make their inroads. The governor of Port royal, 
 in a letter to the Count de Pontchartraiu, says, 
 " that the Michmacks were quite naked and the 
 Kenebeckans and Penobscots would have been so 
 too, if they had not carried on a trade with the 
 Indians of Hudson's river, or, rather, by their means, 
 with the English, who allowed a crown a pound 
 for beaver, and sold their goods very reasonably." 
 Charlevoix justly remarks upon it, " thus our own 
 enemies relieved our most faithful allies, when they 
 were in necessity, and whilst they were every day 
 hazarding their lives in our service." The Mas- 
 sachusetts general court also, this year in an address 
 to the Queen, say, "A letter from M. Vaudreuil, 
 governor of Canada, to the laic governor of Port- 
 royal was sometime since happily intercepted, and 
 came to our governor's hands; wherein he writes 
 thus, namely, that he endeavours to keep all quiet 
 on the side of Orange or Albany, having command 
 from the king his master not to have any quarrel 
 with your majesty's subjects on that side, or with the 
 Mohawks, which he hath strictly observed. And 
 they are in a profound peace, having met with little 
 or no less on the land side, either in men or estates 
 this war." 
 
 The enemy were satisfied with their success at 
 Ilavcrhill, fo/ this reason, and, except now and then 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 301 
 
 a straggling Indian, none of them appeared agan 
 upon the frontiers this summer. 
 
 The party against the governor still pursued thei 
 schemes in England for his removal. Ashurst en 
 gaged a committee of the kirk of Scotland, wh 
 came up to London to settle some affairs with the 
 queen's council, to use their interest, that Dudley 
 might be removed and a new governor appointed 
 and he was very sanguine, that this would do the 
 business, and that Hobby would be appointed, though 
 not such a person as he could wish. In the pro 
 vince, the governor's interest was strengthening 
 Some of the old senators, who had been disaffectet 
 to him, were left out of the council. Oakes, whoir 
 he had negatived as speaker, and one other member 
 for Boston lost their election, and John Clark anc 
 Thomas Hutchinson, two young gentlemen of the 
 town, who were under no prejudice against him 
 came into the house in their stead; and, although 
 this year Mr. Cooke was again chosen one of the 
 council, it was the last effort. The governor per 
 sisted in negativing him, and at the same time nega- 
 tived Nathaniel Paine of Bristol: but he had so ac- 
 customed them to negatives, that they gave less of- 
 fence than they would have done after long disuse. 
 
 The principal subject of the assembly's address, 
 which we have just before mentioned, to the queen, 
 was the reduction of Canada and Acadia by an ar- 
 mament from England, to be assisted by forces raised 
 in the colonies. Vetch, who the last year was 
 charged as a traitor, this year appeared, before the 
 queen and her ministers, soliciting in behalf of the 
 colonies; being able to give a full information of 
 the condition of the French in America. 
 
 (1709.) In the spring, Mr. Dudley was advised, by 
 loiters from the Earl of Sunderland, that the queen 
 had determined upon an expedition, and Vetch, 
 made a colonel, came over with instructions to make 
 the necessary preparations. The plan was exten- 
 sive. The French were to be subdued, not only in 
 ('anad. and Acadia, but in Newfoundland also. A 
 >quadron of ships were to be at Boston by the mid- 
 die of May. Five regiments of regular troops were 
 to be sent from England, to be joined by 1200 men, 
 to be raised in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and 
 tbe governments were to send transports, flat bot 
 tomed boats, pilots, and three months' provisions for 
 ihcir own troops. With this force, Quebec was to 
 be attacked; at the same time 1,500 men, proposed 
 to be raised in the governments south of Rhode 
 Inland, which were to march by the way of the lake, 
 were to attack Montreal. The men, assigned to 
 the Massachusetts to raise, were ready by the 20th 
 of May; and Vetch gave a certificate under his 
 hand, that all the governments concerned had cheer- 
 fully and punctually complied with the orders given, 
 except Pennsylvania. It was left to Lord Lovelace, 
 governor of New York, to appoint the general officer 
 lor the 1500 men, but, by his death, the power de- 
 volved upon Mr. Ingoldsby, the lieutenant-governor ; 
 and Nicholson who had been lieutenant-governor of 
 Now York under Andros and afterwards lieutenant- 
 governor of Virginia and Maryland being then in 
 America, was settled as a proper person, and marched 
 with the forces under his command as far as Wood- 
 creek, there to wait untill the arrival of the fleet at 
 Boston, that the attack on both places might be 
 made at one time. The transports and troops lay 
 waiting at Boston from May to September, every 
 day expecting the fleet. No intelligence coming 
 i'rom England, Vetch, being sensible it was too late 
 to go to Canada, proposed a meeting, at New Lon- 
 
 don, of the governors of the several colonies, to 
 consider in what other way the forces raised should 
 be employed against the' enemy, that the expense 
 might not be wholly lost; but Nicholson, unexpect- 
 edly, returned with his men from Wood-creek, and 
 he and Vetch and Colonel Moody met some of the 
 governors at Rhode Island. Two or three days be- 
 fore the congress (October llth) a ship arrived at 
 Boston from England, with advice that the forces 
 intended for America were ordered to Portugal, and 
 with directions to consult whether the forces raised 
 in America might not be employed against Port 
 Royal, the ships of war of which there were several 
 then at Boston to be aiding and assisting. There 
 was no great honour or profit to be expected, by 
 the captains of the men of war, if the expedition 
 should succeed, nothing more being required of them, 
 than to serve as convoy to the transports, and cover 
 to the forces at their landing ; therefore two of the 
 frigates, whose station was New York, sailed imme- 
 diately from Boston, without taking leave of any 
 body, and the commanders of the rest, Mathews, 
 afterwards Admiral Mathews, who was then com- 
 mander of the station ship at Boston, only excepted, 
 peremptorily refused. As soon as this was known 
 to the two houses, the court being sitting, they de- 
 sired the governor to discharge the transports and 
 disband the men, it not being -safe to proceed with- 
 out convoy. This was a heavy charge upon the 
 province, without any good effect. It was indeed 
 late in the year for the attempt against Port Royal, 
 but then the prospect of surprising the enemy was 
 so mnch the greater, and if it had happened other- 
 wise and the forces had returned without subduing 
 the place, it would have caused but little increase of 
 the expense. 
 
 Whilst Nicholson lay at Wood-creek, the gover- 
 nor of Canada, who had intelligence of all his mo- 
 tions, sent out an army of 1500 French and Indians, 
 who left Montreal the 28th July N. S. and the three 
 irst days advanced forty leagues towards the Eng- 
 ish camp; but upon a report that they were 5000 
 strong, and upon the march to meet the French, and 
 .here being discord at the same time, among the 
 French officers, it was thought best to return to 
 heir advanced posts, and wait to receive the Eng- 
 ish there. Had they proceeded, they were equal to 
 ;he English, better acquainted with the country, 
 vould have come unexpected, and the event would 
 at least have been doubtful for us. 
 
 Charlevoix gives an instance of the treachery of 
 the Indians of the six nations, and of their intention 
 -o destroy the whole English army. Speaking of 
 ather Mareuil, who had been a prisoner at Albany, 
 le says, " This missionary having been exchanged 
 or a nephew of the principal officer at Albany, we 
 "earned from him, all the circumstances of that affair, 
 md to what New France owed her deliverance from 
 ;he greatest danger to which s>he had been at any 
 ime exposed from that quarter." Then having men- 
 ioned a grand council of the Indians, held at Onon- 
 dago, where all their general meetings upon im- 
 >ortant matters were held, he goes on, " The 
 )nondago, one of the old men of that nation, who 
 was speaker, asked whether it was out of their minds 
 hat they were situated between two potent people, 
 either of which were capable of totally extirpating 
 hem, and that it would be the interest of either to do 
 t, as soon as they should have no further occasion 
 or them. It behoved them therefore to be very 
 areful, that they did not lose their importance', 
 which they would do, unless each of those people 
 
302 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 were prevented from destroying the other. This 
 harangue made great impression upon the assembly, 
 and it was resolved, upon this occasion, to continue 
 the same political conduct which they had hitherto 
 observed. Accordingly, the Iroquois, when they had 
 joined the English army, and found, as they ima- 
 gined, that, it would be strong enough to take Mont- 
 real, employed their whole attention in contriving 
 the destruction of it ; and this was the way they went 
 to work. The army being encamped upon the banks 
 of a small river, the Indians who spent most of their 
 time in hunting, threw the skins of all the creatures, 
 which they flead, into the river, a little above the 
 camp, which soon corrupted the water. The Eng- 
 lish never suspected this treachery and continued to 
 drink the water; but it caused such a mortality 
 among them, that father de Mareuil and the two 
 officers, who went to fetch him from Albany to Ca- 
 nada, judged, by the graves, that there must have 
 been at least a thousand buried there." 
 
 Nicholson certainly decamped sooner than was 
 expected, which caused some dissatisfaction. The 
 army was in a bad state. And a letter dated New 
 York, November 4th, 1709, says, that many of the 
 soldiers, who were at the lake, died as if they had 
 been poisoned. 
 
 Although the French were in constant expecta- 
 tion of being attacked themselves, yet it did not 
 prevent them from employing some of their strength, 
 this summer, against the New England frontiers. In 
 April, a man was taken prisoner at Deerfield. In 
 May, several men were surprised and taken, as they 
 were passing to a saw mill in Exeter ; and in June, 
 one of the Kouvilles, with 180 French and Indians, 
 made another attempt upon Deerfield, to destroy or 
 carry away prisoners the poor people, who, but a 
 little while before, had returned from their captivity ; 
 but the enemy was discovered at a distance and beat 
 off, the inhabitants bravely defending themselves. 
 The town of Brookfield, in' the west, and Wells, in 
 the east, soon after lost some of their people, by 
 small parties of Indians. 
 
 (1710.) Nicholson went to England, in the au- 
 tumn, to solicit a force against Canada the next year, 
 and an expedition seems to have been resolved upon. 
 Advice was received, in New England, that, in July, 
 Lord Shannon, with a fleet destined for that service, 
 lay under orders for sailing, but. that it was feared 
 the westerly winds would detain him until it was too 
 late. Port Royal, which did not require so great a 
 force and which might be attempted late in the year, 
 xvas afterwards made the only object. The Dragon 
 and Falraouth, with a bomb ship and a tender, and 
 two or three transports, left England in the spring, 
 and Nicholson was on board of one of them. They 
 arrived at Boston, July the 15th, and seem to have 
 lain waiting there for orders, or until it should be 
 made certain whether they were to be joined by any 
 further force from England. On the 18th of Sep- 
 tember a fleet sailed from Nantasket for Port Royal, 
 consisting of three-fourth rates, viz. the Dragon, 
 commodore Martin ; the Chester, Matthews ; the 
 Falmouth, Riddle; two-fifth rates, the Leostaffe, 
 Gordon, and the Feversham, Paston, together with 
 the Star bomb, Rochfort, and the province galley, 
 Southack, with fourteen transports in the pay of 
 the Massachusetts, five of Connecticut, two of New 
 Hampshire, and three of Rhode Island. These, 
 with the tender and transports from England, made 
 thirty-six sail. There was a regiment of marines, 
 commanded by Colonel Redding, and four regiments 
 raised in New England, two commanded by Sir 
 
 Charles Hobby and Colonel Tailer of Massacbufcetts 
 Bay, one by Colonel Whiting of Connecticut, and 
 one by Colonel Walton of New Hampshire. Nichol- 
 son was general and Vetch adjutant-general. One 
 transport, Captain Taye, ran ashore at the mouth of 
 the river and was lost, and twenty-six men were 
 drowned, the rest of the fleet arrived safe at Port 
 Royal, the 24th of September. The forces were 
 landed without any opposition. Subercase, the go- 
 vernor, had only 260 men, and most of them he was 
 afraid to trust out of the fort, lest they should desert 
 to the English. As the army was marching up to 
 the fort, several men were killed by the inhabitants, 
 who fired from their houses and from behind their 
 fences and made their escape ; and, for three or four 
 days, whilst the necessary preparations were making 
 by the English, the French threw shells and shot 
 from the fort, and the bomb ship, on the other hand, 
 plied the French with her shells. It was commonly 
 said, after the return of the forces to Boston, iha't 
 early intimation was given to the English that they 
 would meet with no great difficulty, a decent pre'- 
 tence for a surrender was all that was desired. On 
 the 29th, the governor sent out a flag of truce, 
 praying leave for some of his ladies, who were afraid 
 of the bombs, to be sheltered in the English camp. 
 The officer, not observing the rules of war, was put 
 under arrest, and an English officer sent to the fort 
 to acquaint the governor with the reason of it. The 
 first of October, the two engineers, Forbes and Red- 
 knap, had three batteries opened, two mortars and 
 twenty-four cohorn mortars ready, within 100 yards 
 of the fort, and began their firing, the French firing 
 their shot and throwing shells at the same time. 
 The same day, Colonel Tailer and Captain Aber- 
 crombie were sent, w*ith a summons to surrender, 
 and, in consequence thereof, a cessation of arms was 
 agreed upon, and the terms of the capitulation were 
 soon settled, and the next day the following articles 
 signed. 
 
 " Articles of capitulation agreed upon for the sur- 
 render of the fort at Port Royal, Sfc. betwixt 
 Francis Nicholson, Esq. general and commander- 
 in-chief of all the forces of her sacred Majesty 
 Anne Queen of Great Britain, fyc. and Monsieur 
 Subercase, governor, fyc. for his most Christian 
 Majesty. 
 
 1. THAT the garrison shall march out with their 
 arms and baggage, drums beating and colours flying. 
 
 2. That there shall be a sufficient number of 
 ships and provisions to transport the said garrison 
 to Rochel or Rochfort, by the shortest passage, 
 when they shall be furnished with passports for their 
 return. 
 
 3. That I may take out six guns and two mortars, 
 such as I shall think fit. 
 
 4. That the officers shall carry out all their ef- 
 fects, of what sort soever, except they do agree to 
 the selling them; the payment of which to be upon 
 good faith. 
 
 5. That the inhabitants, within cannon shot of 
 Port Royal, shall remain upon their estates, with 
 their corn, cattle and furniture during two years, in 
 case they are not desirous to go before, they taking 
 the oaths of allegiance and fidelity to her Sacred 
 Majesty of Great Britain. 
 
 6. That a vessel be provided for the privateers 
 belonging to the islands in America, for their trans- 
 portation thither. 
 
 7. That those, that are desirous to go for Placen- 
 tia in Newfoundland, shall leave by the nearest 
 passage. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 303 
 
 8. That the Canadians, or those that are desir- 
 ous to go there, may, for during the space of one 
 year. 
 
 9. That effects, ornaments and utensils of the 
 chapel and hospital shall be delivered to the Al- 
 moner. 
 
 10. I promise to deliver the fort of Port Royal 
 into the hands of Francis Nicholson, Esq. for the 
 Queen of Great Britain, within three days after the 
 ratification of this present treaty, with all the effects 
 belonging to the King, as guns, mortars, bombs, 
 ball, powder and all other small arms. 
 
 11. I will discover, upon my faith, all the mines, 
 fugasses and casements. 
 
 12. All the articles of this present, treaty shall 
 be executed upon good faith, without difficulty, and 
 signed by each other at her Majesty of Great Bri- 
 tain's camp before Port Royal fort, this second day 
 of October, in the ninth year of her Majesty's reign, 
 Anno Domini, 1710. 
 
 " FRANCIS NICHOLSOS. SUBERCASE." 
 
 ' ; MEMORANDUM. The General declared, that 
 within cannon shot of Port Royal, in the fifth article 
 abovesaid, is to be understood three English miles 
 round the fort, to be Annapolis Royal and the inha- 
 bitants within three miles to have the benefit of that 
 article. Which persons male and female, compre- 
 hended in the said article, according to a list of their 
 names given in to the general by M. Allein, amounts 
 to 481 persons." 
 
 The English lost fourteen or fifteen men in the 
 expedition, besides the twenty-six drowned when the 
 transport was lost. The fort had been neglected 
 and was in a very bad state. Subercase told the 
 general t; he was very sorry for the king his master, 
 in losing such a strong fort and the territories ad- 
 joining." This was a compliment to Nicholson, 
 but it was in no condition to stand a siege. Charle- 
 voix says, Subercase's character suffered a great 
 shock. He mentions several actions which other 
 accounts take no notice of " The troops being 
 landed and nothing to oppose their march, went on 
 towards the fort; but when they came within reach 
 of the cannon, the governor caused so smart a firing 
 as put them to a stand, killed a great many of their 
 men,&c." Again, tae eighth (N.S.) " M. Subercase, 
 having observed the spot where the enemy were 
 about to erect their batteries, made so lucky a fire 
 that Mr. Nicholson, after having lost a great many 
 men, was obliged to retreat." 
 
 The general having left a sufficient garrison under 
 the command of Colonel Vetch, who was destined in 
 case of success, to the government of the country, 
 returned with the fleet and army to Boston, arriv- 
 ing there the 2Gth of October. 
 
 Whilst the forces were at Port Royal, it was 
 thought proper, at a council of war, to send Castine, 
 who probably was in the fort, and Major Living- 
 stone to Canada through the country, with letters to 
 M. Vaudreuil, acquainting him that the country of 
 Acadia was subdued and that all the inhabitants, 
 except such as were within cannon shot of the fort 
 were prisoners at discretion ; and as the council had 
 been informed that he had often sent out his bar- 
 barous Indians to murder the poor innocent women 
 and children upon the frontiers of New England, i 
 he continued that practice they would cause the 
 same execution upon the people of Acadia or Nova- 
 Scotia, now absolutely in their power: but they 
 abhorred such barbarities, and hoped he would give 
 them no further occasion to copy after him, but 
 rather would release and send home such prisoners 
 
 s had been taken by the Indians. After a most 
 fatiguing, hazardous journey, Livingstone says in his 
 ournal that " he went about the middle of October 
 rom Port-royal to Penobscot, where he was kindly 
 entertained by Castiae, at his own house ; and from 
 thence went up the river in canoes, until they came 
 to an island where was a great body of Indians, men, 
 women, and children. Here, an Indian being en- 
 raged because some English prisoners had run away 
 with his canoe, seized Livingstone by the throat, 
 and would have dispatched him with a hatchet, if 
 Castine had not thrown himself between them and 
 rescued him. The Indians would not suffer them to 
 proceed, for several days. At length, November 4, 
 they set out in their canoes, and the next day the 
 canoe the major was in overset, and one of the 
 Indian guides was drowned. Soon after, the water 
 beginning to freeze, the ice so shattered their tender 
 vessels and made the passing so difficult, that they 
 were obliged to betake themselves to the land and 
 to travel by their compass, through a country so 
 thick with spruce, cedar, and pine wood, and under-> 
 wood, as to be scarcely passable, and the greatest 
 part of the way broken and mountainous land. 
 They were above a fortnight without the sight of 
 the sun, the weather being stormy or foggy the 
 whole time. They had spent their provisions six 
 days before they came to any French settlement, 
 and lived wholly upon moss, leaves, and dried berries. 
 At length, the 16th of December they arrived at 
 Quebec." The governor sent his answer to the 
 message by two partizans, Rouville and Dupuis, by 
 land through Albany, that they might be acquainted 
 with the country and more fit to be employed in 
 making war on a future occasion. The sum of the 
 answer was, that Nicholson had been so well taught 
 the laws of war as to know that they did not admit 
 of reprisals upon such inhabitants as had surrendered 
 upon an express promise of being well treated. That 
 he, Vaudreuil, never knew the French charged with 
 inhumanity, and he was not afraid to appeal to the 
 English prisoners, within his government, against, 
 such a charge ; they had often been redeemed from 
 the Indians, at a great expense, and, out of pure 
 charity; indeed, the Indians themselves, ordinarily, 
 did not treat them ill, but let that be as it would, 
 the French were not accountable for the behaviour 
 of the Indians ; it was not their fault, that this un- 
 fortunate war was not over a long time ago, and all 
 the miseries, which had been the consequence, must 
 be attributed to those who had refused the neutrality 
 between the two colonies ; he was very ready to 
 agree to the exchange of prisoners, but he had not 
 the command of those which were in the hands of 
 his Indian allies; as for the menace, of delivering 
 up the Acadians to the Indians of New England, if 
 the Indians of New France should refuse to deliver 
 the English prisoners, it was contrary to all the rules 
 of justice and humanity, and if it should be carried 
 into execution he should be obliged to do as much to 
 all the English he had in his power. . This was all 
 that was effected by Livingstone's most fatiguing 
 hazardous journey. 
 
 At this time, a change in the agency was agreed 
 upon. The change of the ministry in England was 
 as alarming to New England, as to any part of his 
 majesty's dominions. Mr. Phipps was deeply en- 
 gaged in the new measures. There could not then 
 have been any apprehension of his removing to Ire- 
 land ; but a whig people would not be satisfied with 
 a tory agent. Sir H. Ashurst never had any great 
 powers, au'l he was now declining in age and health. 
 
304 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 The party that used to support him set up his bro- 
 ther, Sir William Ashurst, a gentleman of superior 
 character and real worth. Mr. Dudley did every 
 thing in his power to prevent the choice, but, when 
 he couid not prevail, made a merit of accepting it. 
 An address to the queen was sent to Sir William, 
 but he refused the agency; he was well acquainted 
 with the neglect of his brother and the little or no 
 reward given him for his long services. When he 
 excused himself, he recommended a New England 
 young gentleman, then in London, Jeremiah Dum- 
 mer, who also procured from the principal merchants 
 in London, trading to New England, letters in his 
 favour. He was not, at that time, acceptable to Mr. 
 I)udley, and, in a message to the assembly, he ad- 
 vised them to chuse Henry Newman, a New Eng- 
 land man, then in London "also, a person of great 
 probity, who had lived some years in the Duke of 
 Somerset's family, and who afterwards was secretary 
 to the society for promoting Christian knowledge; 
 but the choice fell upon Mr. Dummer and the go- 
 vernor did not think proper to, negative him. 
 
 Mr. Dudley found means to remove the prejudice 
 of Sir William Ashurst. From this time all his let- 
 ters are written in a different style, and he repre- 
 sents the times to be such, that there was no pros- 
 pect of a better governor, and advises the people, if 
 they could be tolerably easy, not to run the risk of 
 a change. Mr. Dummer, who was attaching him- 
 self to the new ministry and had great favour shewn 
 him, engaged also in Mr. Dudley's interest. Mr. 
 Phipps, who, at first, opposed him, had for some time 
 been very friendly to him. It was a rule with him 
 to gain his enemies, he was sure of his friends. It 
 requires much of that art and skill, of which he is 
 said to have been master, to render this rule, for any 
 length of time successful. He happened also, as we 
 have observed, when he was in England, to be favour- 
 ed by Mr. Harley, and his interest there was so 
 established, that he was no longer in danger, until 
 the death of the queen caused an entire revolution, 
 both as to men and measures. In the province, some 
 reports against him were of so gross and criminal a 
 nature, that although they might find, some ready to 
 believe them at first, yet time alone had sunk the 
 credit of them, and the remembrance of lesser mat- 
 ters sunk with it, and the last days of his adminis- 
 tration were his best days. 
 
 This year the enemy made their first appearance, 
 in the spring, at York, but found the inhabitants 
 upon their guard. In June, Col. Hilton of Exeter, 
 being in the woods with eighteen men, was ambush- 
 ed by a party, who fired and killed the colonel and 
 two of his company, and took two prisoners, the 
 rest escaping, Hilton was a good officer, and had 
 behaved well with Church, in 1704, and upon other 
 occasions ; but at this time was off his guard. One 
 hundred men went out upon the alarm, but had no 
 other success than to bring in the dead mangled 
 bodies to a decent interment A few days after, 
 sixty or seventy French and Indians appeared in the 
 skirts of the town of Exeter, but were alarmed by 
 the firing of a gun, and went oft with four children, 
 which they picked up in the street or. road at play, 
 to the unspeakable distress of their parents. In their 
 retreat, they killed one man and took another pri- 
 soner. They then travelled westward and killed 
 several of the inhabitants of Waterbury and Sims- 
 bury in Connecticut, struck down upon Brookfield 
 and Marlborough. and, from thence, to Chelmsfoid, 
 where Major Tyng was slain, an oflicer respected 
 fur bis prudence and courage. 
 
 The 2d of August, about fifty Indians came upon 
 Winter Harbour, and hovered about the place, some 
 iine, until they had killed four or five and taken 
 ight or ten of the inhabitants. They insulted the 
 fort, and found the garrison too many to be taken ; 
 imt not enough to sally out and attack them. Oc- 
 tober the 1st, several persons, as they were going to 
 meeting at Berwick, were waylaid, one of them kill- 
 ed, another had his horse shot under him, the rest 
 escaping. The 10th of the same month, Bomazeen, 
 with sixty or seventy more Indians, appeared at 
 Winter Harbour, killed three or four and took as 
 many captives ; one of the latter w as Johnson liar- 
 man, an officer noted for his expeditions in the en- 
 suing war. The Indians, after they had done this 
 mischief, sent a flag of truce to the fort, and offered 
 to ransom their prisoners, if a vessel should be sent 
 to Kennebeck river to receive them. 
 
 The Massachusetts forces had been scouring the 
 woods all the summer, but the parties of the enemy 
 avoided them. Towards winter, Col. Wilton, after 
 his return from Port-royal, with 170 men ranged the 
 eastern country, and killed a Norridgewock chief 
 and six or eight others. He made a second march 
 to Winnepisiaukee, without any success: but in 
 the mean time, the Indians were committing atroci- 
 ties at Cocheco, York, Wells, and other places. 
 
 (1711.) After Port royal was reduced, Nicholson 
 went to England to solicit another expedition against 
 Canada; and, although his intention was known, 
 there seemed to be no expectation that he would suc- 
 ceed. The New England people we have observed 
 were all w r higs and supposed the tory ministry to be 
 determined upon a peace, and rather disposed to 
 suffer France to recover part of what she had lost, 
 than to make further acquisition from her: and 
 there was a general astonishment when Nicholson 
 returned to Boston, on the 8th of June, with orders 
 from the queen to the several governments of New 
 England, to New York, the Jerseys, and Pensyl- 
 vania to have their quotas of men in readiness for a 
 fleet which had been dispatched, and which arrived 
 on the 24th. This was short warning: but it was 
 thought more extraordinary, that ten weeks' provi- 
 sion for the army was to be procured at Boston. 
 One reason given for this measure, was, that there 
 might be no suspicions, in Europe, of the destination 
 of this armament. It might well be doubted whether 
 it would be possible to procure such a quantity of 
 provisions at Boston in season, and if it was not, it 
 v.-ould be impossible to proceed. This unexpected 
 measure increased a jealousy, began before, that it 
 was not designed Canada should be taken, and that 
 the blame should Vie cast upon New England. This 
 jealousy may have been as groundless as the charge, 
 which Walker first, and, after him, many other 
 authors have brought against New England, for not 
 affording that ready assistance which was expected: 
 but it certainly had this effect, to cause, not only 
 the government, but even private persons to exeit 
 themselves with more zeal and vigour than had 
 been done upon any other occasion ; and the 
 people submitted, not without reluctance, it is true, 
 to have their property taken from them, in a way 
 and manner which the people of Great Britain or 
 Ireland would not have allowed. A general meet- 
 ing of all the governois was appointed, immediately 
 after Nicholson's arrival at New London, and they 
 were sitting when the fleet arrived. The assembly 
 happened to be at Boston, when the first orders 
 came. The governor, without delay, recommended 
 to thorn a full oomplirnce with the orders he bad r* 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 305 
 
 ceived. The first thing necessary, was money. The 
 credit of the treasury was so low in England, that 
 no merchants or private persons at Massachusetts 
 would take bills, unless the drawer would make 
 themselves responsible, and there was no body au 
 thorized to draw such bills. The general court de 
 termined to issue forty thousand pounds in bills o 
 credit, and to lend them to merchants and others 
 for the term of two years. These persons with their 
 bills of credit purchased bills of exchange upon th 
 treasury in England, which, it was hoped, before the 
 expiration of the two years, would be paid, and, i 
 they should not, it would be in the power of the go- 
 vernment to continue the loan, but there was "no 
 engagement to do it. The next difficulty to be re- 
 moved was the extravagant price to which provisions 
 had started, upon the advice of this extraordinary 
 demand. For this purpose, an order passed the 
 court, stating the prices of the several species of 
 provisions necessary for the service. The owners 
 of the provisions shut up their stores, or removed 
 their provisions in order to conceal them. The de- 
 mand, which had raised the price, they urged, was 
 the common chance in trade, which every merchant 
 was justly entitled to. Another order soon passed 
 the court, to impress all provisions, in whose pos- 
 session soever, and for this purpose to open all doors 
 and enter. This effected a general compliance. 
 The short time spent for this purpose, and the refusal 
 of particular persons to submit at first, caused a 
 charge from the officers against the country in ge- 
 neral, for unnecessarily delaying the fleet and army; 
 and no notice was taken of the zeal of the govern- 
 ment and this extraordinary measure for the removal 
 of these impediments. The addition of so many 
 mouths had caused a sudden rise of all poultry and 
 fresh meat, and at that season of the year, if the 
 usual consumption had continued, the forces must 
 have failed of necessary supplies. This considera- 
 tion induced many of the principal gentlemen in 
 Boston to deprive themselves, aud to eat salt pro- 
 visions, and no other, in their families, as long as 
 the fleet remained. The soldiers and seamen, some 
 of them, deserted and were concealed by the inhabi- 
 tants, who were justly censured for doing it. A law 
 against this offence was made, with a very severe 
 penalty, and a more summary way provided for trial 
 of the offence than ever had been in any instance 
 before. The desertion of the men put the Admiral 
 out of temper, and he wrote the governor an angry 
 letter, in which he told him, the service had been 
 prejudiced, rather than forwarded, since his arrival 
 at Boston, and demanded from the government a 
 supply of men equal to the loss. This could be done 
 in no other way than an impress. The inhabitants, 
 it must be owned, would not have submitted to it ; 
 but, in general, would have preferred a prison on 
 shore to a man of war at sea. 
 
 Besides the mistake, in the plan of this expedition, 
 with respect to a speedy supply of provisions at 
 Boston without previous notice, there was another, 
 in presuming that skilful pilots were to be obtained 
 there. The best in the country were shipmasters, 
 who had been once or twice up the river St. Law- 
 rence. These were employed in other business, 
 upon which their future support depended, and they 
 were averse to leaving it; but the government im- 
 pressed them into the service, and afterwards was 
 charged with their defect of skill, which, admitting 
 it to be true, could not be helped. 
 
 The troops were all landed upon Noddle's island, 
 about a mile from the town, where they were every 
 'THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. Nos. 39 & 40. 
 
 day exercised in a healthy air ; and it was allowed, 
 that men were never landed and reimbarked in bet- 
 ter order. The land force, including two regiments 
 from New England, amounted to near 7000 men, 
 an army more than equal in number to that which 
 afterwards reduced Quebec, under General Wolfe ; 
 although, in 1711, it was not half so stronsr as in 
 1759. 
 
 The fleet which arrived at Boston, consisted of 
 fifteen sail of men of war, and forty transports, and 
 all sailed again the 30th of July. Greater despatch 
 could not well be expected from such short warning. 
 Nicholson set out for Albany the same day, to take 
 the command of the forces which were to march by 
 land. 
 
 Nothing remarkable happened in the passage of 
 the fleet to Gaspee, where it arrived the 18th of 
 August, and sailed again the 20th. The next day 
 and the day after proving foggy, and the wind be- 
 ginning to blow fresh at E.S.E., the ships brought 
 to, with their heads to the southward, being out of 
 sight of land and out of soundings. This, the ad- 
 miral, in his own account, says was by the advice of 
 the pilots, both English and French ; and that they 
 were of opinion the fleet would drive into the midst 
 of the channel or river. The New England pilots 
 always denied they gave such advice, and declared, 
 upon their oaths, their opinion was not followed nor 
 regarded. Some of the principal 'persons on board 
 one of the ships which belonged to New England, 
 reported that upon the fleets being ordered to lie 
 with their heads to the southward, the whole ship's 
 company determined they must drive upon the 
 north shore ; and they were confirmed in their for- 
 mer jealousy, that it was never intended the fleet 
 should arrive at Quebec. This, however, is incre- 
 dible ; and the admiral, who had not the character 
 of an abandoned man, was incapable of sacrificing 
 the lives of so many men ; and, it must be presumed, 
 he would not have thrown away his own life, which 
 was exposed as well as the rest. The pilots from 
 Boston supposed the admiral had a very mean opi- 
 nion of them, and laid greater stress upon the judg- 
 ment of the French pilots, who, through ignorance 
 or from design, occasioned this wrong measure. In 
 two or three hours after the fleet brought to, some 
 of the transports were among the breakers. Eight 
 or nine ships were lost upon the rocks, about mid- 
 night, one thousand of the men that were on board 
 drowned, and about six or seven hundred saved by 
 the other ships. All the men of war escaped ; the 
 admiral's ship is said to have anchored, and the rest 
 ither stood off or came to anchor ; and the next 
 morning, the wind shifting to W.S.W. the admiral 
 bore away for Spanish river, the men of war and 
 transports following; but, the wind shifting again to 
 east, they were eight days before they all arrived, 
 and, as they had the wind, might more easily have 
 e to Quebec. In a council of war, it was una- 
 nimously resolved, not only not to make any further 
 ;rial to go up the river St. Lawrence, but also not 
 :o attempt any thing against Placentia in New- 
 "oundland ; the fleet not being sufficiently victualled 
 or either. They sailed the 16th of September, and 
 he admiral arrived the 9th of October at Ports- 
 mouth, and the 15th, his ship, the Edgar, blew up ; 
 the cause not being known, jealous minds would 
 suggest that even this was not without design. 
 
 The admiral supposed, in his account of the ex- 
 pedition, that if they had arrived at Quebec and 
 anded their men, their misfortune would have been 
 greater still; that the French would either have 
 
 2Q 
 
30G 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 quitted the place and carried all their provisions 
 with them, or that they would have defended the 
 place until the provisions of the fleet and army 
 were spent, and they must have laid down their 
 arms; or if they finally surrendered, it was not to 
 be expected the provisions, for so small a garrison, 
 would have lasted any time for twelve thousand 
 men, and French and English must have starved 
 together. Vaudreuil had made the best preparations 
 he could for their reception, having early notice of 
 their coming, from the governor of Placentia. An 
 English prisoner, carried in there from Boston, 
 gave an account of Nicholson's arrival, of the fleet 
 that was to follow, and of the forces intended by 
 way of the lake ; and the captain of a privateer saw 
 the fleet within sixty leagues of Boston. This in- 
 telligence was afterwards confirmed by an Onon- 
 dago Indian, who came to Quebec to inform of the 
 great preparations making at Albany. 
 
 Nicholson had made but little progress in his 
 march when he received the news of this disaster, 
 and if the fleet had arrived safe, he would have been 
 too late to have drawn any of the French force from 
 Quebec, before so much of the provisions of the fleet 
 had been spent that it would not have been safe to 
 have remained any longer ; and it is well he did 
 not proceed; for as soon as Vaudreuil had advice 
 of so many ships stove, and so many dead bodies 
 with red coats drove upon the shore, and that the 
 river was clear of ships, he ordered all the strength 
 of Canada towards Montreal and the lake Cham- 
 plain; which if Nicholson had passed, would have 
 been sufficient to prevent his return. 
 
 To complete the charge against the Massachusetts, 
 they are said to have represented the navigation to 
 Quebec to be easy and without hazard, of which 
 they were wholly ignorant ; for the French, after 
 an hundred years experience, almost every year 
 suffered shipwreck; and sailing in the bay and 
 river St. Lawrence was so hazardous, that they 
 could hardly obtain sailors for a voyage thither. 
 The Massachusetts people knew very well that 
 Phipps and his fleet went up and down without diffi- 
 culty, in 1690; that flags of truce had frequently 
 passed and repassed, and they supposed the French re- 
 presented the passage difficult, to deter other nations, 
 and experience now shews that they judged right. 
 
 The American transports were all preserved, ex- 
 cept one victualler, and the crew of that were saved. 
 The disappointment and loss was grievous to New 
 England. Some pious minds gave over all hopes 
 of reducing Canada. So many attempts blasted, 
 plainly indicated, as they conceived, that Provi- 
 dence never designed the whole northern continent 
 of America for one European nation. Upon the 
 first news in England of the disaster, the blame was 
 laid upon governor Dudley, and it was said he 
 would be removed, but his conduct soon appeared to 
 Lave been unexceptionable. 
 
 Upon the return of the Massachusetts troops, 
 they gave an account of the freedom used by the 
 sea and land officers, in attributing the whole mis- 
 fortune to the colonies. The forces were unreason- 
 ably detained at Boston -the provisions fell short of 
 what was expected the pilots were ignorant, and 
 not fit to be trusted. The general court therefore 
 thought that it was necessary to exculpate them- 
 selves ; and that it would be prudent to lay no 
 blame any where else. The governor, in his speech, 
 October 17, says, " I condole with you upon the 
 sorrowful disaster of the fleet and forces sent hither, 
 by her majesty's special favour, to all her good sub- 
 
 jects in the provinces of North America. I have 
 had time enough, since the account thereof; to con- 
 sider the several articles of her majesty's commands 
 to this government for the putting forward the ex- 
 pedition, and, therein, 1 cannot charge this assem- 
 bly with neglect in any particular; but when I 
 peruse the journal of the proceedings, I think there 
 was all provision and expedition made, in every 
 article referring to soldiers, artificers, pilots, trans- 
 ports, and provisions for the service of her majesty's 
 British forces, as well as our own ; which I hope 
 you will see reason to consider and represent home 
 tor our justification, that it may be demonstrated, 
 that we were in earnest to do our duty, to the ut- 
 most, for our own benefit and establishment, as well 
 as her majesty's honour and just rights." 
 
 Three of the principal pilots in the service, were 
 sent to England, to be ready to give an account of 
 their conduct, if inquiry should be made. A journal 
 of the proceedings relative to the expedition was 
 prepared and transmitted, together with an address 
 to the queen. The instructions to the agent were 
 given with prudence and caution. " It chiefly con- 
 cerns us to set forth that we have done our duty, by 
 giving all assistance in obedience to her majesty's 
 royal commands, as we have represented in our 
 humble address herewith transmitted to be presented 
 by you, and will appear by the journal and orders 
 accompanying the same. We comported with the 
 supplies, in the large demands made upon us, to the 
 utmost of our power, beyond what we had at first a 
 reasonable prospect to have provided timely, having 
 so short a notice ; but made our utmost efforts, and 
 happily got through the same, in which you are to 
 vindicate and justify the government. 
 
 " It is not our province, nor must you enter there- 
 into, to fault or impeach others, for want of doing 
 their duty, or for their conduct in that affair, any 
 further than is absolutely necessary for our own 
 vindication. If there be just cause, therefore, her 
 majesty, in her princely wisdom, will direct the in- 
 quiry thereinto." 
 
 The pilots waited many months in England, ready 
 to answer any questions, but none were ever asked, 
 nor was any inquiry ever made into the cause of 
 the failure of the expedition. Upon the whole, it 
 cannot be conceived that the admiral, general, and 
 principal persons employed in the execution of this 
 plan, pursued any particular measures in order to 
 defeat and overthrow it ; that those who projected it 
 in England, had not good reason to expect, from 
 the insufficient provision made, that it must fail of 
 success, and, at best, were all content that it should, 
 is not so certain. 
 
 The account which Charlevoix gives of the French 
 pilot does not agree with Walker's. " There was 
 on board the admiral, a French prisoner, one Para- 
 dis, an old seaman who was perfectly acquainted with 
 the River St. Lawrence. This man cautioned him, 
 when he was off the seven islands, not to venture 
 too near the land, and he obliged him to make fre- 
 quent tacks, and to keep near the wind, which did 
 not favour him. At length the admiral tired out, 
 and, perhaps, suspecting the pilot only designed to 
 wear out his men, refused to come to stays, and 
 bordered so near a little island called the isle of eggs, 
 that he and seven mure were driven ashore by a 
 very sudden squall at south east, and stove to pieces, 
 and but very few people were saved." 
 
 A brief account of the disaster the fleet met with, 
 is given in the following letter of the New England 
 commissary, Sampson Sheaf: 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 307 
 
 " When I accepted the employment of commis- 
 sary to the New England forces on the Canada 
 expedition, it was in hopes of doing some good ser- 
 vice ; wherein I designed to do my best, and hoped, 
 with my diligence and best understanding to have 
 been of some use ; but on the 22d of August, our 
 fleet under the command of Sir Hovenden Walker, 
 about eight or ten leagues above the entrance of 
 Canada river, about eleven or twelve at night, met 
 with a dismal disaster. Ten or eleven of the Bri- 
 tish transports run on the north shore, and were 
 dashed to pieces against the rocks. I hear but of 
 one vessel belonging to New England met with any 
 damage. There is an eminent providence of God 
 therein, which doubtless we ought to consider ; but 
 as to the instrumental cause, by whose misconduct, 
 remains to be examined, and, I hope, will be made 
 evident. The admiral and general were in great 
 danger ; they saved tkemselves and their ships by 
 anchoring, but lost several anchors. It was lamen- 
 table to hear the shrieks of the sinking, drowning, 
 departing souls. The ship, wherein I was embarked, 
 with very great difficulty weathered the rocks ; but 
 we were in no capacity to succour them that were 
 in distress. 
 
 " Admiral Walker, just before our departure from 
 Spanish River, set up a cross with an inscription, 
 dated 15th of September. In nomine Patris, $c., 
 the purport of which was, that thereby he took pos- 
 session of that country for her majesty. 
 
 " This will be a bitter pill for New "England. The 
 French will now employ their Indians with re- 
 doubled rage and malice, to distress and destroy our 
 exposed frontiers. 
 
 " Annapolis-Royal, October 6, 1711." 
 
 Although the principal object of this expedition 
 was not obtained, yet, in all probability, Annapolis- 
 Royal was saved by it from falling into the hands of 
 the French. The garrison there was reduced to a 
 handful of men. Between two and three hundred 
 of the New England forces were kept there, after the 
 place was reduced, and four out of five were dead, 
 and they were afraid even of the Acadians alone, 
 without any additional strength; but the French 
 court, sensible of their mistake in not giving more 
 attention to the preservation of that country when 
 it was in their hands, pressed the governor of Cana- 
 da, in the strongest manner, to exert himself for the 
 recovery of it. A body of troops was raised and 
 ready to depart from Canada, when the news arrived 
 of the English fleet and other preparations making ; 
 and the men which were designed against Nova- 
 Scotia were detained at home to defend Canada. 
 The French inhabitants of Nora-Scotia, having 
 notice of the force intended from Canada, grew in- 
 solent, and it was not safe for an Englishman to stir 
 out of the fort. As soon as they heard of the dis- 
 appointment, they became submissive again and 
 made acknowledgment of their faults; but at the 
 same time let Vaudreuil know, that the French king 
 had no better subjects, and necessity alone had 
 brought them to this submission. These were the in- 
 habitants round the fort, included in the capitulation. 
 Many of those at a distance had not yet submitted 
 to the English, and Capt. Pigeon, an officer of the 
 regulars, was sent up the river to destroy some of 
 the French houses, as well as to cut timber for the 
 repair of the fort. He was surprised by a great 
 number of Indians, who killed the fort major, the 
 engineer, and all the boat's crew, and took thirty or 
 forty of the garrison prisoners. This encouraged 
 the inhabitants again to take up arms, and five 
 
 hundred of them, with as many Indians as they 
 could collect, were preparing to attack the fort, ex'- 
 pecting an experienced officer from Placentia to 
 head them; but the governor not being able to 
 spare one, they laid down their arms again and dis- 
 persed. 
 
 To meet the French or Indian enemy, who were 
 expected upon our frontiers, Col Walton was sent, 
 in the fall, with 180 men, as far as Penobscot, where 
 he burned two vessels which were designed for pri- 
 vateers or cruize rs, and took some prisoners. 
 
 The year 1711 was rendered remarkable by a fire 
 in the town of Boston, which from that time until 
 the year 1760 was called the great fire. It was sup- 
 posed to have been caused by the carelessness of an old 
 woman in or near what was called Williams's-court; 
 all the houses on both sides of Cornhill, from School- 
 street to what was called the stone shop in Dock- 
 square, all the upper part of King-street on the 
 south and north side, together with the town-house, 
 and what was called the old meeting-house above it, 
 were consumed to ashes. Col. Tailer arrived in the 
 fall of the year 1711, with her majesty's commission 
 for lieut.-governor. 
 
 (1712.) Early in the spring the enemy attacked 
 Exeter, Kittery, York, and Wells. In May, a party 
 of English went up Merrimack river and killed 
 eight Indians, without loss to themselves; but the 
 Indians did not rest long without revenge. In June 
 and July, they killed or took several prisoners from 
 Berwick, Kittery, Wells, Dover, and Kingston. At 
 Dover, apprehending they were in danger as they 
 were scalping two children, for greater dispatch they 
 took off both their heads, leaving the bodies a re- 
 yolting spectacle. In the autumn, a great number 
 of people being at a wedding of Capt. Wheelwright's 
 daughter, of Wells, the enemy surprised several of 
 the company, and among the rest, the bridegroom, 
 Mr. Plaisted, son to a gentleman of Portsmouth. 
 The Indians expected a good ransom for such a pri- 
 soner, and, instead of carrying him to Canada, sent 
 in a flag, and offered, upon payment of three hundred 
 pounds to release him, and the money was paid and 
 the prisoner returned. We become wearied of rer 
 lating these inroads and atrocities of the enemy, 
 many of which have been given in general terms, 
 to avoid frequently enumerating circumstances which 
 can excite nothing but horror and disgust. This 
 was the last action of any consequence. (1713.) In 
 the spring, after the peace of Utrecht was known in 
 America, the Indians sent in to Major Moodey at 
 Casco, to pray that there might be peace between 
 the English and them also, and also proposed a 
 treaty to be held there; but the governor thought it 
 more for his honour to oblige them to come to Ports- 
 mouth, the chief town of one of his governments, 
 than to go to the borders of their usual residence ; 
 and, upon the 13th of July, they entered anew into 
 articles of submission and pacification, signed by a 
 number of chiefs of their several tribes, wherein they 
 asked pardon for all their past rebellions and viola- 
 tions of former promises, and engaged to demean 
 themselves for the future as faithful subjects of the 
 crown of Great Britain. It may here be observed, 
 that though the inhabitants in the colonies, in gene- 
 ral, double their numbers, from their natural growth 
 or increase, in twenty-five years at most, yet the 
 growth of the Massachusetts colony and New Hamp- 
 shire have borne no proportion to the rest; and in 
 the year 1713 there was not double the number of 
 inhabitants in the Massachusetts province, which 
 the several colonies of which it was formed con^ 
 
 2Q2 
 
308 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 tained fifty years"before ; and yet during this perio 
 there was no remarkable emigration to other colo 
 nies: there was vacant land sufficient to exten 
 settlements upon, and as easy to be procured as anj 
 where else: the heavy taxes may have driven som< 
 to other governments ; but the chief reason of th< 
 difference is to be found in the constant state of wa 
 which these two provinces were in, the Massachu 
 setts more especially. From 1675 to 1713, five o; 
 six thousand of the youth of the country had perish 
 ed by the enemy, or by distempers contracted in th< 
 service; nine in ten of these would have been fa 
 thers of families, and, in the course of forty years, 
 have multiplied to near an hundred thousand souls. 
 Th. heavy burdens which the province subjected 
 itself to during this war, were beyond those of any 
 other ten years from the first settlement. The castle 
 and other'fortifkations at Boston, the several forts 
 in the eastern country, the various expensive expe- 
 ditions actually prosecuted, and the preparations 
 made for others", added to the constant defence of the 
 extensive frontiers and to the support of the civil go- 
 ve'rnment, without any relief or compensation from 
 the crown, must have occasioned such an annual 
 burden as was not felt by any other subjects of Great 
 Britain, and the merit of the people of that day- 
 ought not to be forgotten. 
 
 The settlement of the line of jurisdiction between 
 the province and the colony of Connecticut, which 
 was accomplished in the year 1713, after ineffectual 
 attempts for several years before, deserves particular 
 notice. In 1636 the first settlers upon Connecticut 
 river had removed from the Massachusetts, and 
 taken possession of the country upon and near the 
 river on both sides, from Springfield as low as 
 Weathersfield, inclusive of both, and managed their 
 affairs by virtue of authority from the general court 
 of the Massachusetts. In 1638 the inhabitants of 
 Springfield, which included what was afterwards 
 called Suffield, below on one side of the river, and 
 Enfield on the other side, having no doubt that they 
 were within the limits of the Massachusetts patent, 
 petitioned the general court that they might be se- 
 parated from the other towns below, and be received 
 and continued as part of the colony, which was 
 granted and jurisdiction exercised accordingly. In 
 1642, by order of the general court, two mathema- 
 ticians, as they are called in the records, Nathan 
 Woodward and Solomon Saffery, ran a line west, as 
 they supposed, from a station three miles north of 
 Charles river until they came to Windsor, upon 
 Connecticut river, where it struck the house of Bis- 
 sel, who kept the ferry. The people who had settled 
 upon Connecticut river had no better title to land 
 or jurisdiction than possession, the grant made by 
 the Massachusetts general court being a mere 
 nullity. 
 
 In 1630, the Earl of Warwick had obtained from 
 the council of Plymouth, a patent of the lands upon 
 a straight line near the soa shore towards the south 
 west, west and by south, or west, from Naraganset 
 river forty leagues, as the coast lies towards Vir- 
 ginia, and all within that breadth to the south sea ; 
 and yet, in 1635, all the lands between Connecticut 
 river and the Naraganset country were assigned by 
 the same council to the Marquis of Hamilton. Lord 
 Say and others had purchased the Earl of War- 
 wick's title, and by their agents built a fort at the 
 mouth of Connecticut river about the year 1635, 
 and four or five years after Mr. Fenwick came over 
 with design to take possession of the lands upon 
 Connecticut river under lord Say, &c., and remained 
 
 in possession of the mouth of the river until 1644, 
 when the settlers purchased the title, as it was 
 called, and formed themselves into, or continued the 
 form they had assumed, of a body politic. 
 
 When the line was run by Woodward and Saffery, 
 Fenwick was to have joined, as the Massachusetts 
 commissioners for the united colonies afterwards 
 affirmed, though Connecticut commissioners denied 
 it; and in 1648, when a dispute arose about a duty 
 required of Springfield for the support of the fort at 
 the mouth of the river, the Massachusetts offered to 
 run the line anew if Connecticut would be at the 
 charge, the Massachusetts having been at the sole 
 charge before, but this was not agreed to, and the 
 fort having been burnt down, and the controversy 
 about the duty at an end, this line seems to have 
 seen acquiesced in; and, in 1662, Mr. Winthrop ob- 
 :ained from King Charles, a charter for the colonies 
 )f Connecticut and New-Haven united, the north 
 ine of which was said to be intended to be the same 
 with the south line of Massachusetts. From this 
 ;ime, until after the incorporation of the Massachu- 
 setts by a new charter in 1691, we hear nothing 
 about bounds, except some controversies between 
 Springfield and Windsor about their towns grants, 
 and letters from the authority of each government 
 relative to it; and, in 1686, many of the inhabitants 
 of Roxbury pitched upon a tract of land to settle 
 ipon, which was bounded on the south by Wood- 
 ward and Saffery's line, and it was granted to them 
 by the Massachusetts government and took the 
 name of Woodstock. Grants were also made to 
 particular persons of tracts of land near to this line. 
 After the new charter, Connecticut made a more 
 erious affair of what was called the Massachusetts 
 encroachments, and in 1700, upon the appointment 
 >f a committee by Connecticut with a general power 
 o settle the bounds between the two governments, 
 he Massachusetts appointed a committee with a 
 pecial limited power, viz. " to find the southernmost 
 ine of the late colony of Massachusetts-bay as 
 nciently run by Nathaniel Woodward and Solomon 
 Saffery, and to "make report thereof to the general 
 ourt." This was not what Connecticut wanted, for 
 bey supposed Woodward and Saffery's line to be 
 rroneous: however they appointed a committee to 
 ttend the work, who reported to their constituents 
 tiat a line from three miles north of Charles river, 
 r Woodward and Saffery's station, would run some 
 iiles to the northward of John Bissell's house, where 
 Voodward and Saffery supposed it to run; and in 
 702 Mr. Winthrop, the governor of Connecticut, 
 wrote to governor Dudley, and desired that the 
 Massachusetts would join in ascertaining the differ- 
 nce of latitude between the Charles River station 
 nd Bissell's house. There were other attempts to 
 ring this affair to a conclusion, but ineffectual, and 
 n 1708, by a state of the case read in both houses, 
 t appears that the Massachusetts intended "to rely 
 pon the line formerly run, as it is therein said, by 
 wo skilful artists in the year 1642, and which has 
 ontinued the stated boundary for sixty-six years." 
 hey add, " that the Connecticut charter which was 
 ranted in 1662 was bound by the south line of the 
 Massachusetts, which was net then an imaginary or 
 ntried line, but well known to the gentleman who 
 elicited that charter, who if he had thought it con- 
 rovertible would doubtless have obtained an order 
 >r rectifying and adjusting it; and supposing, which 
 as not granted, that there should be any error or 
 mistake in the line, yet, having been run and stated 
 o long before the grant of Connecticut charter, and 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 309 
 
 held by possession for sixty-six years, and towns and 
 plantations having been granted and settled upon 
 the same, it was unreasonable, now, to draw it into 
 question." 
 
 There being so little prospect of the Massachusetts 
 receding from a line of which they had so long been 
 in possession, Connecticut made their application to 
 England, and it appears by a letter from governor 
 Saltoustall, of Connecticut, in 17 10, that he was ex- 
 pecting orders concerning it If any came, pro- 
 bably they were such as repeatedly afterwards were 
 sent to New Hampshire, viz. to settle the controversy 
 by commissioners appointed or agreed upon by the 
 general courts of each colony. Be that as it may, 
 it is certain that Connecticut renewed their applica- 
 tion to the Massachusetts, and at last commissions 
 passed the seals of each government with ample 
 powers to settle the controversy. The Massachu- 
 setts were intent upon securing the property to such 
 persons to whom they had granted lands and the 
 jurisdiction of those towns which had been settled 
 by them. Suffield, Enfield, and Woodstock were 
 *he only towns which could be affected. Connecticut 
 was also apprehensive that part of the town of Sims- 
 bury, which had been settled by that government, 
 might fall within the Massachusetts. It was there- 
 fore settled as a preliminary, that the towns should 
 remain to the governments by which they had been 
 settled, and the property of as many acres as should 
 appear upon a balance to have been gained by one 
 government from the other should be conveyed out 
 of other unimproved lauds as a satisfaction or equi- 
 valent; only, as there was about two miles which 
 Windsor claimed upon the town of Suffield, there 
 having been a long contest between these two towns 
 concerning the validity of the respective grants, it 
 was agreed the two miles should belong to the Con- 
 necticut if they fell within their line. 
 
 Nothing could be more equitable, nor tend more 
 to the future peace and content of the inhabitants of 
 the contested borders. 
 
 It appeared, by the report of the commissioners, 
 that 107,793 acres of land were due from the Mas- 
 sachusetts, who accordingly made a grant thereof to 
 Connecticut. They accepted and made sale of the 
 same, and applied the produce to the support of Yale 
 college and other public uses, and the controverted 
 towns for many years after continued without mo- 
 lestation under the jurisdiction by which they were 
 settled. 
 
 The affairs of the war had so engaged the atten- 
 tion of all persons, that we hear little of party dis- 
 putes and discord, for five or six years ; but as soon 
 as they were delivered from enemies without, a con- 
 tention began within, from a new cause, the effects 
 of which were felt for many years together. The 
 paper bills of credit were the cause of this conten- 
 tion: so many of which had been issued for the 
 charges of the war (particularly the large sum of 
 forty thousand pounds, issued for the Canada expe- 
 dition), that they were become the sole instrument 
 and measure of commerce, and silver and gold were 
 entirely banished. Of two instruments, one in use 
 in a particular state only, the other with the whole 
 commercial world, it is easy to determine which must 
 leave that particular state and which remain. The 
 currency of silver and gold entirely ceasing, the 
 price of every thing bought or sold was no longer 
 compared therewith, but with the paper bills, or ra- 
 ther with mere ideal pounds, shillings, and pence. 
 The rise of exchange with England and all other 
 countries .was not attributed to the true cause, the 
 
 want of a fixed staple medium, but to the general 
 bad state of the trade. It was thought that increas 
 ing the paper bills would enliven and reform the 
 trade. Three parties were formed, one very small, 
 which were for drawing in the paper bills and de- 
 pending upon silver and gold currency. Mr. Hutch- 
 inson, one of the members for Boston, was among 
 the most active of this party. He was an enemy, 
 all his life, to a depreciating currency, upon a prin- 
 ciple very ancient, but too seldom practised upon, 
 nil utile quod non honcstum : nothing is useful which 
 is not honest 
 
 Another party was very numerous. These had 
 projected a private bank, or rather had taken up a 
 project published in London in the year 1684; but 
 this not being generally known in America, a mer- 
 chant in Boston was the reputed father of it. There 
 was nothing more in it, than issuing bills of credit, 
 which all the members of the company promised to 
 receive as money, but at no certain value compared 
 with silver and gold; and real estates, to a sufficient 
 value, were to be bound as a security that the com- 
 pany should perform their engagements. They were 
 soliciting the sanction of the general court, and 
 an act of government to incorporate them. This 
 party, generally, consisted of persons in difficult or 
 involved circumstances in trade, or such as were pos- 
 sessed of real estates, but had little or no ready mo- 
 ney at command, or men of no substance at all; and 
 we may well enough suppose the party to be very 
 numerous. Some, no doubt, joined them from mis- 
 taken principles, and an apprehension that it was a 
 scheme beneficial to the public, and some for party 
 sake and popular applause. 
 
 Three of the representatives of Boston, Mr. Cooke, 
 Mr. Noyes, a gentleman in great esteem with the 
 inhabitants in general, and Mr. Payne, were the 
 supporters of the party. Mr. Hutchinsou, the other 
 (an attempt to leave him out of the house not suc- 
 ceeding), was sent from the house to the council, 
 where his opposition would be of less consequence. 
 The governor was no favourer of the scheme, but 
 the lieut.-governor, a gentleman of no great fortune, 
 and whose stipend from the government was trifling, 
 engaged in this cause with great zeal. 
 
 A third party, though very opposite to the private 
 bank, yet were no enemies to bills of credit. They 
 were in favour of a loan of bills from th& govern- 
 ment to any of the inhabitants who would mortgage 
 their estates as a security for the repayment of the 
 bills with interest, in a term of years, the interest 
 to be paid annually, and applied to the support of 
 government. This was an easy way of paying pub- 
 lic charges, which, no doubt, they wondered that in 
 so many ages the wisdom of other governments had 
 never discovered. The principal men of the council 
 were in favour of it, and it being thought by the first 
 party the least of the two evils, they fell in with the 
 scheme, and, after that, the country was divided be- 
 tween the public and private bank. The house of 
 representatives was nearly equally divided, but rather 
 favourers of the private bank, from the great influ- 
 ence of the Boston members in the house, and a 
 great number of persons of the town, out of it. The 
 controversy spread universally, and divided towns, 
 parishes, and private families. 
 
 (1714.) At length, after a long struggle, the party 
 for the public bank prevailed in the general court, 
 for a loan of fifty thousand pounds in bills of credit, 
 which were put into the hands of trustees and lent 
 for five years only, to any of the inhabitants at fi r e 
 per cent, interest, one-fifth part of the principal to 
 
310 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 be paid annually. This lessened the number of the' 
 party for the private bank, but it increased the zeal, 
 and raised a strong resentment, in those which re- 
 mained. 
 
 A vessel, which arrived at Boston from Ireland on 
 the 15th of September, brought the first news of the 
 death of the queen, and the accession of king George 
 the First ; and two days after, a vessel arrived, from 
 some part of Great Britain, with the printed pro- 
 clamation in the London Gazette. This, the go- 
 vernor thought sufficient warrant, without express 
 orders, for proclaiming the king in the province. 
 The practice in the colonies has not been uniform 
 on the like occasions. At New Hampshire, the 
 king was proclaimed from the same intelligence, 
 the 22d of September; at Rhode-Island, the 29th; 
 at New York, on the llth of October; at New 
 Haven, in Connecticut, the 14th; at Philadelphia, 
 the 27th; no express orders being received in any 
 of those places : but at Annapolis-Royal it was de- 
 layed until the 2d of December. The propriety of 
 proceeding without express orders has been ques- 
 tioned ; but the absurdity of acts of government in 
 the name and by authority of a prince, for months 
 together, after certain intelligence of their demise, 
 has generally influenced the governors to proceed. 
 
 The secret designs of Queen Anne's last ministry 
 were no where more suspected, nor more dreaded, 
 than in Massachusetts ; and the 1 st of August was 
 no where celebrated with greater joy, during the 
 whole of the king's reign. 
 
 The Hazard sloop, sent express from England 
 with orders to the government, was lost upon Co- 
 hasset rocks, the 12th of November, the vessel being 
 stove to pieces and no papers of any consequence 
 saved. Enough washed ashore to make certain 
 what vessel it was, and one man had been landed 
 and left at Nantucket. Six months, from the king's 
 accession, had expired and no orders had arrived for 
 continuing officers in their posts. The authority of 
 the governor began to be called in question. Ac- 
 cording to the charter, upon the death, removal, or 
 absence of the governor or lieut. -governor, and there 
 being no person commissioned as governor within 
 the province, the government devolves upon the coun- 
 cil or the major part of them. The council deriving 
 their authority from charter and not from a royal 
 commission, the act of parliament, limiting the con 
 tinuance in office to six months after the death of a 
 prince, it was supposed could not affect their au- 
 thority. The advice of the miscarriage of the first 
 orders went the first opportunity to England, and 
 new orders were daily expected, and some were in- 
 clined to wait; but, on the 4th of February, the 
 council assumed the government, the lieut. governor, 
 being of the council, joining with the rest, and is 
 sued a proclamation for all officers to continue in 
 their posts, &c. 
 
 An instruction had been given by the queen, in 
 1707, directing that in case of the death or absence 
 of the governor and lieut.-governor, the eldest coun- 
 sellor should preside in the province ; but the charter 
 giving the powers of government to the major part, 
 this instruction was not regarded. 
 
 The administration of the council was short, and 
 nothing of moment was transacted. On the 21st ol 
 March, the king's proclamation was received, and 
 the governor reassumed with as great parade as il 
 he had been first entering upon the government; 
 but he had reason to expect his rule would be short 
 His friends in the province were increased. Those 
 who had been his greatest opposcrs had many oJ 
 
 them changed sides, and were strongly attached to 
 bim, and used what interest they had with Sir Wil- 
 liam Ashurst and others, that he might be continu- 
 ed, and at their request Ashurst appeared for him. 
 The Bankers were the most disaffected, and Colonel 
 Byfield, a gentleman of the council, father-in-law to 
 the lieut.-governor, went over to England to endea- 
 vour to supplant him, but wanted interest. In Eng- 
 land Mr. Dudley lost his friends by the queen's 
 death. Colonel Burgess, who had served under 
 General Stanhope, was, by his interest, in February, 
 appointed to the government, and his commissions 
 passed the seals March the 17th, and Ashurst writes, 
 that the General had promised to be answerable for 
 his good behaviour. 
 
 (1715.) Mr. Dudley met the assembly, at the 
 election in May, but made no speech, though he had 
 never failed of doing it before. The council and 
 house chose his great adversary, Mr. Cooke, whom ho 
 had so often negatived, into the council, and either 
 from indifference, or a spirit of forgiveness before 
 his political departure, he now approved of him. 
 
 Colonel Burgess intended to stay a short time in 
 England. The bank party were impatient for the 
 removal of Dudley, who did not favour them, and 
 whose second son, William Dudley, who began to 
 have great weight in the house of representatives, 
 was a violent opposer. An unusual step was taken, 
 that the governor's commission might be superseded. 
 An exemplification of Burgess's commission was ob- 
 tained ; and that, with the new commission or war- 
 rant to the lieut-governor, Tailer, were published in 
 Boston, at the same time, the 9th of November; 
 and thereupon Tailer took upon him the adminis- 
 tration. It was questioned, whether this was regu- 
 lar ; the commissions lay three or four weeks for the 
 council to consider of; but at length they advised to 
 the publication. No other instance of the publica- 
 tion of a governor's commission in the Massachusetts 
 before his arrival in person ever occurred. In Vir- 
 ginia, it must have been practised, if a publication 
 has been judged necessary ; as several of their go- 
 vernors have never been in the colony. The house 
 of representatives, the first day of their sitting (No- 
 vember 23d), appointed a committee to consider of 
 the commissions, but no public exception was taken. 
 Mr. Dudley's friends were sensible he could con- 
 tinue but a 'short time ; for the original commission, 
 with the new governor, would remove all doubt ; -he 
 himself was in advanced life, near seventy, and had 
 felt so much of the burthen of government, that he 
 might well be weary of it ; and, like his friend, Mr. 
 Stoughton, wish to retire. 
 
 No New England man had passed through more 
 scenes of busy life than Mr. Dudley. He was edu- 
 cated for the ministry, and if various dignities had 
 been known in the New England churches, possibly 
 he had lived and died a clergyman ; but, without 
 this, nothing could be more dissonant from his ge- 
 nius. He soon turned his thoughts to civil affairs ; 
 was first a deputy, or representative of the town of 
 Roxbury; then an assistant; then agent for the 
 colony in England, where he laid a foundation for a 
 commission, soon after, appointing him president of 
 the council, first for Massachusetts Bay only, but, 
 under Andros, for all New England. Upon the 
 revolution, for a short time, he was sunk in disgrace, 
 but soon emerged. He appeared, first, in the cha- 
 racter of chief justice at New York, then, returning 
 to England, became lieut.-governor of the Isle of 
 Wight, and member of Parliament for Newtown, 
 both which places he willingly resigned for the chief 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 311 
 
 commaud in his own country. Ambition was the 
 ruling passion ; and, perhaps, like Ceesar, he had 
 rather be the first man in New England than the 
 second in Old. Few men have been pursued by 
 their enemies with greater virulence, and few have 
 been supported' by their friends with greater zeal. 
 It has been seen that a second generation inherited 
 the spirit of their ancestors, the descendants, on one 
 side, preserving an affection for his family and pos- 
 terity, and on the other, retaining equal disaffection 
 against thorn. Some of his good qualities were so 
 conspicuous, that his enemies could not avoid ac- 
 knowledging them. He applied himself with the 
 greatest diligence to the business of his station. The 
 affairs of the war and other parts of his administra- 
 tion were conducted with good judgment. In eco- 
 nomy he excelled both in public and private life. 
 He supported the dignity of a governor without the 
 reproach of parsimony ; and yet, from the moderate 
 emoluments of his post, made an addition to his 
 paternal estate. The visible increase of his sub- 
 stance made some incredible reports of bribery and 
 corruption to be very easily received ; but, in times 
 wnen party spirit prevails, what will not a gover- 
 nor's enemies believe, however injurious and ab- 
 surd ? It is no more than justice to his character, 
 to allow that he had as many virtues as can consist 
 with so great a thirst for honour atid power. 
 
 His life would afford convincing evidence, if 
 there was any doubt, that an humble calm mind 
 enjoys more happiness in private life than an am- 
 bitious anxious mind in the highest station. No 
 man in that period had seen more of those vicissi- 
 tudes of fortune and the age, which Cicero, in one 
 of his epistles to Lucceius, says, afford a pleasing 
 narration, however irksome to the man who has 
 the experience of them. 
 
 Colonel Tailer's strong attachment to the bank 
 party procured him the administration for a few 
 months ; but was the ultimate cause of his losing 
 his commission for lieut.-governor. It was sup- 
 posed, but it does not appear upon what grounds, 
 that Colonel Burgess would favour the same party, 
 and his arrival was every day wished for by them; 
 whilst the other party dreaded it, and laboured to 
 pi event it. It was said also, that, in other res- 
 pects, he would by no means be agreeable to the 
 country ; a gentleman of a more grave serious turn 
 of mind would be more likely to be happy he-re 
 himself, and to render the people so. Mr. Belcher, 
 afterwards governor, who was very opposite to the 
 bank party, was then in London, he joined with 
 Mr. Dummer, the agent, and they engaged Sir 
 William Ashurst with them, and prevailed upon 
 Burgess for a thousand pounds sterling, which 
 Belcher and Dummer advanced equally between 
 them, to resign his commission, that Colonel Shute 
 might be appointed in his stead. Colonel Tailer's 
 friends had endeavoured to engage Ashurst in his 
 favour, but to no purpose ; the same interest ob- 
 tained the lieut-governor's commission for Mr. 
 William Dummer, a New England gentleman, who 
 had married a daughter of Mr. Dummer, one of 
 the commissioners at Plymouth, and was in some 
 post there himself; but, "his wife dying, he had 
 returned to his native country. 
 
 Colonel Shute's family were, generally, dissent- 
 ers : His father, an eminent citizen in London; 
 his mother, daughter of Mr. Caryl, a dissenting 
 minister of great note. His brother, afterwards 
 Lord Barrington, was then a member of parliament, 
 and at the head of the dissenting interest. The 
 
 colonel began his education under Mr. Charles 
 Morton, who, about the year 1684, came to New 
 England, and was minister of Charlestown. After 
 tuition under him, he was sent to Leyden. He 
 went after that into the army under King William, 
 who made him a captain, served under the Duke of 
 Marlborough, was a lieut.-colonel, and wounded in 
 one of the principal battles in Flanders. He had a 
 good acquaintance, and was w r ell esteemed at court; 
 had the character of a friend to liberty, and was of 
 an open, generous, and humane disposition. A 
 governor of his character might be supposed to be 
 welcome to New England men, but the interest 
 of party prevails over all other considerations ; and 
 virtue, religion, private friendship, and public good 
 are all sacrificed to promote it. 
 
 From the arrival of Governor Shute, in 1716. to the 
 arrival of Governor Belcher, in 1730. 
 
 Colonel Shute arrived at Boston, October the 
 4th, 1716, in a merchant ship, and was received 
 with the usual parade. He made the opposers of 
 the bank his first acquaintance, the old governor's 
 family in particular, and took his lodgings at Mr. 
 Paul Dudley's. He had received very unfavoura- 
 ble impressions of the other party, from Mr. Bel- 
 cher and Mr. Dummer, in England, and was con- 
 sidered, from his first arrival, as an enemy to the 
 scheme, and the heads of the party were the heads 
 of an opposition, during the whole of his adminis- 
 tration. In his first speech to the general court, 
 November 7th, he put them in mind of the bad state 
 of the trade of the province, an important article 
 of any people's happiness, owing, as he supposed, 
 to the great scarcity of money, and recommended 
 the consideration of some effectual measures to sup- 
 ply this want, and thereby to restore trade to a 
 flourishing condition. He advocated the further 
 emission of government bills, and the representa- 
 tives, pleased with so easy a method of obtaining 
 money, soon determined upon a second loan, of one 
 hundred thousand pounds for ten years, to be put 
 into the hands of commissioners appointed for each 
 county in proportion to their taxes. This provision 
 being made by the government, there was the less 
 pretence for private persons or companies issuing 
 their bills ; but it gave no relief to the trade, the 
 whole currency soon depreciating to that degree, as, 
 with this addition, to answer the purposes of money 
 very little more than if it had not been made. The 
 governor became sensible of it, and recommended 
 to them to provide against it, which they were not 
 able to do, and many of them would not have been 
 willing if they had been able, being in debt; and, 
 by means of the depreciation, discharging their 
 debts by a nominal sum, perhaps of not more than 
 one half of the real value of the debts. He soon 
 found the effects of it upon his own salary, which 
 they refused to advance as the bills sunk; and 
 having recommended this measure in a public speech, 
 it became more difficult afterwards to refuse repeat- 
 ing it. 
 
 The province had been at war with the eastern 
 Indians, except some short intervals, far about forty 
 years. The prospect of a long peace between Great 
 Britain and France encouraged us to hope for the 
 like with the Indians, who had always been under 
 French influence; but their father, Ralle, a Jesuit, 
 was constantly instigating them to insult and annoy 
 the new settlers who, he pretended, encroached upon 
 the lands of the Indians, and by supplying them 
 with strong drink, del auched their morals and pre 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 vented the progress of the good work he had began 
 among them. A treaty or conference was thought 
 expedient to confirm them in their friendship with 
 the English, and, if possible, to draw thorn from the 
 Roman Catholic to the Protestant religion. The 
 governor, therefore, the first summer after his arri- 
 val, in August, (1717), attended by several of the 
 council both of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, 
 and other gentlemen, met the Indians at Arowsick 
 Island. 
 
 At the beginning of the conference, he delivered 
 them an English and an Indian bible, which he told 
 them contained the religion of the English, and at 
 the same time recommended to them Mr. Baxter, 
 a minister who went down as a missionary, and told 
 them he would explain the Bible, and instruct them 
 in the principles of religion. They were at no loss 
 for an answer. " All people, they said, loved their 
 own ministers ; and as for the Bible, they desired 
 to be excused from keeping it, God had given them 
 teaching, and if they should go from that they 
 should displease God." They were fixed in their 
 religion, and it would have been a loss of time to at- 
 tempt to move them. The rest of the conference was 
 upon the right of the English to settle in that part of 
 the country. Upon complaint made, by the Indians, of 
 encroachments upon their lands, the governor pro- 
 duced one of the original deeds which had been 
 given by their sachems. They acknowledged the 
 lands, to the west of Kennebeck, belonged to the 
 English, but they were sure no sale had ever been 
 made of any lands to the east. The governor told 
 them the English would not part with an inch of 
 the land which belonged to them. The Indians 
 were so offended, that they rose immediately, and, 
 without ceremony, took to their canoes, and went 
 to another island, where they had their head quar- 
 ters, leaving behind an English flag which the go- 
 vernor had given them. In the evening, several of 
 them returned to Arowsick, with a letter from Ralle 
 to the governor, acquainting him that the French 
 king did not allow, that in any treaty he had given 
 away the land of the Indians to the English, and 
 would protect the Indians against the English en- 
 croachments. The governor let them know, that 
 he highly resented the insolence of the Jesuit, and 
 the next morning ordered the signal for sailing. 
 Ralle, in his letters, often laments the unsteadiness 
 of the Indians. They were afraid at this time of a 
 new war. The old men were loth to quit their vil- 
 lages at Norridgewock and Penobscot, where they 
 lived at ease, and encamp in the woods, or, which 
 was much wor.se, depend upon the French who, 
 they would often say, treated them like dogs when 
 there was no immediate occasion for their service. 
 This consideration induced them to send two of their 
 number with a message to the governor, acknow- 
 ledging that yesterday they had been rude and un- 
 mannerly, and earnestly desiring to see him again. 
 He let them know he would see them upon no terms, 
 unless they quitted their pretensions to the lauds 
 which belonged to the English. This the messen- 
 gers promised should be done, and desired that the 
 English colours which they had slighted might be 
 returned them. In the evening they came again to 
 the conference, and appointed a new speaker, as a 
 mark of resentment to the former, who, they said, 
 had behaved ill the day before ; and, without enter- 
 ing into any dispute about particular limits or 
 bounds, declared they were willing the English 
 should settle where their predecessors had settled, 
 desired to live in peace, and to be supplied with 
 
 necessaries, in a way of trade, confessed that some 
 of their inconsiderate young men had offered injuries 
 to the English, and violated the treaty of Ports- 
 mouth in 1713. After renewing that treaty, the 
 conference ended. 
 
 The administration of a new Governor in the colo- 
 nies was formerly calm at first. Several months 
 passed after Col. Shute's arrival, without open oppo 
 sition to any measures. The town of Bolton at the 
 first election of their representatives, left out such as 
 had been bank men, and choose such as were of the 
 other party, but Mr. Cooke, who was at the head of 
 the first party, had interest enough to obtain a place 
 in council. It was, soon after, insinuated that the 
 governor was a weak man, easily led away, and that 
 he was in the hcjads of the Dudleys, men of high 
 principles in government, and it behoved the people 
 to be very careful of their liberties. Mr. Cooke, 
 who had the character of a fair and open enemy, 
 was bold in expressing his sentiments, and the go- 
 vernor was informed of some contemptuous language 
 in private company, with which he was so much of- 
 fended as to procure Mr. Cooke's removal from the 
 place of clerk to the superior court. A dispute hap- 
 pening about the same time between Mr. Bridges, 
 surveyor of the woods, and the inhabitants of the 
 province of Maine, concerning the property of the 
 white pine trees within that province, Mr. Cooke 
 immediately inserted himself in the controversy, 
 publicly patronized the inhabitants, and in a me- 
 morial to the house of representatives, charged the 
 surveyor with mal-conduct in threatening to prose- 
 cute all who, without licence from him, should cut 
 any pine trees in their own ground, which Mr. 
 Cooke alleged they had good right to do, and he 
 further charged* the surveyor with permitting such 
 persons, as would pay him for it, to cut down the 
 trees which were said to belong to the king. 
 
 The surveyor thereupon preferred his memorial to 
 the governor and council, justifying himself in the 
 discharge of his trust, and complaining of Mr. Cooke, 
 one of the members of the council, for officiously 
 concerning himself with the affairs of the surveyor's 
 office, and obstructing his measures for the service 
 of the crown. Mr. Cooke had many friends in the 
 house ready to support him, and this dispute was the 
 beginning of the public controversy which continued 
 until the end of Col. Shute's administration; parties 
 were formed, new subjects for contention from time 
 to time were furnished, until at length the governor 
 was forced to leave the province. 
 
 In the month of April of this year (1717), a pirto. 
 ship, the Whidah, of '23 guns and 130 men, Samuel 
 Bellamy, commander, ventured upon the coast of 
 New England, near to Cape Cod, and after havinjr 
 taken several vessels, seven of the pirates were put 
 on board one of them, who soon got drunk and went 
 to sleep. The master of the vessel which had been 
 taken, ran her ashore upon the back of the cape and 
 the seven men were secured. Soon after, the pirate 
 ship, in a storm, was forced ashore near the table 
 land, and the whole crew, except one Englishman 
 and one Indian, were drowned. Six of the company, 
 upon trial by a special court of admiralty, were pro- 
 nounced guilty, and executed at Boston, Nov. 15th. 
 
 The famous Indian warrior, Benjamin Church, 
 who had escaped the enemy's bullets in a great 
 number of encounters when in the most imminent 
 hazard, met death this year by a fall from his horse, 
 at the age of 78. 
 
 Mr. Woodward, secretary of the province, tired of 
 a post of much labour and little emolument, disposed 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 313 
 
 of it to Josiah Willard, Esq.; who obtained the royal 
 commission, and arrived at Boston, from London, 
 December the 12th. 
 
 (1713.) No vote of council upon this memorial 
 can be found, but the governor espoused the cause 
 of the surveyor, and, to shew his resentment against 
 Mr. Cooke, when the list of counsellors was present- 
 ed at the next election, directed his speech to him in 
 particular, and let him know he would excuse him 
 from attending at the board for the ensuing year. 
 
 Mr. Cooke, soon after, presented his memorial to 
 the council, in which he justified his own conduct, 
 and charged Mr. Bridges with "using his utmost ef- 
 forts to evade the rights and properties of the people 
 in the province of Main, by his exorbitant actions, 
 as well as basely betraying the trust the crown had 
 invested him with, by daily selling and bartering 
 the very logs and timber which he gave out was the 
 king's, his master, whose bread he then eat." The 
 council suffered the memorial to lie upon the table, 
 but acted nothing upon it. Afterwards, upon the 
 appointment of a committee by the house, they join- 
 ed a committee of council to consider in general of 
 Mr. Bridges's conduct. This committee, in their 
 report, justified Mr. Cooke, and condemned the pro- 
 ceedings of the surveyor. The council put off the 
 consideration of this report also, but the house voted 
 their acceptance of it. The governor, of course, 
 transmitted to the board of trade an account of all 
 these proceedings, and very soon received an answer 
 censuring the house of representatives for counte- 
 nancing and encouraging Mr. Cooke. This being 
 laid before the house, they by a vote declared, that 
 the censure of the board of trade was occasioned 
 " by sending home the papers on one side only, 
 whereby their lordships were informed ex parte," 
 The house had avoided any direct attack upon the 
 governor, until this vote; many of the principal 
 members this year being well affected to him, but 
 the party without doors, especially in Boston, had 
 been increasing against him, and, at the next elec- 
 tion for that town, they sent all new members, and 
 a change was made in many other towns unfavour- 
 able to the governor's interest. 
 
 The famous projector, Captain Corarn, in the year 
 1718, was busy in a scheme for settling Nova-Scotia 
 and the lands between Nova-Scotia and the province 
 of Main, and a petition was preferred by Sir Alex- 
 ander Cairnes, James Douglas, and Joshua Gee, in 
 behalf of themselves and others, praying for a grant 
 upon the sea-coast five leagues south west and five 
 leagues north east of Chibuctow harbour, where they 
 proposed to build a town, and to improve the country 
 round it in raising hemp, in making pitch, tar, and 
 turpentine, and they undertook to settle a certain 
 number of families to consist of 200 persons in three 
 years, the rest of his majesty's subjects not to be 
 prohibited fishing on the coasts under regulations. 
 To this petition Mr. Dummer, the Massachusetts 
 agent, objected because of the last clause, which laid 
 a restraint upon the fishery. The lords of trade, 
 however, reported in favour of it, but it stopped in 
 council. 
 
 Another petition was preferred by William Arm- 
 strong and others, who had been officers and soldiers 
 in the army, " praying for a grant of the lands be- 
 tween Nova-Scotia and the province of Main, the 
 the said tract of land having been conquered by the 
 French in 1696, and possessed by them until 1710, 
 when it was recovered by the English, and by the 
 treaty of Utrecht was, with Nova- Scotia, given up 
 by France to the British crown." The conquest in 
 
 1696, was the taking Pemaquid fort and holding 
 possession of the harbour two or three days. The 
 general court being restrained from conveying these 
 lands without consent of the crown, it was proposed 
 that if they would consent to resign the jurisdiction 
 between Kennebeck and Penobscot the crown should 
 confirm the property of the soil, but upon the pro- 
 posal being communicated to the court, they in- 
 structed their agent to make no concessions. 
 
 One Sarah Watts, setting forth that she was heir 
 at law to Thomas Goffe, deputy governor and one of 
 the twenty-six patentees of the old colony, claimed 
 a 16th part of the colony, and the issues and profits 
 for eighty or ninety years. She filed a bill of com- 
 plaint in chancery against the province, and there 
 was a commission of sequestration for several New 
 England ships in the river, which cost the owners 
 several guineas, each, to the sharpers who had urged 
 the woman to the suit. The agent was required to 
 answer the bill, which he did by declaring that if the 
 complainant could even make it appear that Thomas 
 Goffe was once seized of a 26th part of the colony, 
 and that she was heir at law to him, which he did 
 not believe she was able to do, yet he verily believ- 
 ed that when the patentees, with others, were incor- 
 porated into a body politic, their respective rights 
 ceased and passed to the corporation, who had grant- 
 ed the lands away. The poor woman was at last 
 arrested for debt and sent to Newgate, where she 
 perished. 
 
 (1719.) The governor, in the beginning of the 
 year 1718, had consented to an impost bill which 
 laid a duty not only upon West India goods, wines, 
 &c., but also upon English manufactures, and a duty 
 of tonnage upon English ships. Before the session 
 in May, the next year, he had received an instruc- 
 tion from the king to give all encouragement to the 
 manufactures of Great Britain. The house, how- 
 ever, passed a bill of the same tenor with that of last 
 year, and sent it to the council for their concurrence. 
 An amendment was proposed, viz., to leave out the 
 duty upon English vessels and goods, but the house 
 adhered to their bill. A conference ensued, for the 
 house was not, then, so exact as they have been 
 since, in refusing to confer upon money bills. This 
 produced nothing more than a proposal from the 
 house to alter the word English to European, which, 
 being trivial, was refused. It seems, the governor, 
 a little out of time, had taken the opinion of the 
 council upon this question, whether, consistent with 
 his instruction, he could give his consent to the 
 bill, which they determined he could not, if it 
 should be offered to him. The house then tried the 
 council with the following resolve, '" The house in- 
 sist on their vote, forasmuch as the royal charter of 
 this province gives power to the government to im- 
 pose and levy proportionable and reasonable assess- 
 ments, rates, and taxes upon the estates and persons 
 of all and every the proprietors and inhabitants of 
 the same, which this government has been in the 
 free and uninterrupted exercise of ever since the 
 enjoyment of the said charter." Sent to the upper 
 house for their concurrence. The upper house was 
 a new name for the council, and designed as a fleer, 
 and to intimate that they might consider themselves 
 in another capacity, than as privy council. Perhaps 
 if Cromwell's epithet for his house of lords had come 
 into their minds, it would have been, the other 
 house. Taunts and language which tend to irritate, 
 can upon no occasion be justifiable from one branch 
 of the legislature to the other. Upon an agreement 
 and harmony the interest of the people depends. 
 
314 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Upon different apprehensions of this interest, if it 
 be the real object, the several branches, by the per- 
 suasive voice of reason, will strive to convince each 
 other, and be willing to be convinced as truth shall 
 appear. 
 
 The council thought themselves unkindly treated; 
 and, by a message, desired the house to alter their 
 vote, but they refused to do it, and gave their rea- 
 sons for the new form " The house have received 
 new and unusual treatment from the board. 1st, It 
 is new and unusual for the council to give his ex- 
 cellency their advice upon a bill, till they have 
 acted in concert with the house in concurring or 
 non-concurring. 2d, It is likewise new and unusual 
 for the council to desire a free conference, upon a 
 subject matter, and then, at the management, to 
 inform the house that by a previous vote they had 
 so far engaged themselves that they could not re- 
 cede from it. 3d, It is likewise a new and unusual 
 method for the honourable board, after a message to 
 the house during several amendments to a bill of 
 rates and duties which were in a great measure 
 agreed to by the house, immediately to non-concur 
 (he bill. 4th, It is likewise new and unusual for 
 the honourable board to intermeddle so much with 
 the grants and funds, which this house take to be 
 their peculiar province." 
 
 The house having in this manner expressed their 
 resentment, returned to their old style, and then 
 the council, by message, let them know that they 
 would not give their concurrence to any bill laying 
 a duty upon European goods, denied the charge 
 made against them by the house, of innovations, 
 and intimated that any further messages would only 
 tend to increase the misunderstanding and retard 
 the affairs of the government, and desired the house, 
 rather to join W 7 ith them in a diligent endeavour to 
 bring the session to such a conclusion, as should 
 promote his majesty's honour and the interest of the 
 province. 
 
 Several weeks having been spent in these alter- 
 cations, the governor thought it time to interpose ; 
 arid, sending for the house to the council-chamber, 
 he made the following mild and healing speech to 
 them. 
 
 " Gentlemen, My design for sending for you up 
 at this time, is to let you know hoiv concerned I am 
 at the unhappy misunderstandings that have been 
 for many years between the council and your house 
 relating to the impost bill, and to assure you that 
 no person here present can be more desirous of 
 preserving the privileges of this people than myself, 
 so far as is consistent with the late instructions 1 
 have received from my royal master, which have, 
 by his special directions, been laid before this court. 
 I am fully persuaded, that to act any way contrary 
 thereto, after the many debates and votes which 
 have been upon that head, would rather destroy 
 than preserve those privileges we justly prize. 
 Gentlemen, I desire your earnest consideration of 
 what I have hinted ; that so the important affairs of 
 the province yet lying before you may have a speedy 
 and happy conclusion." 
 
 This speech, which, a year or two after, when the 
 prejudices against the governor were at the height, 
 would have been excepted to as irregular and anti- 
 cipating matters, which it would have been time 
 enough for the governor to have declared his sense 
 of when they came to be laid before him, had now 
 a good effect, and the house, the same day, resolved 
 that a new impost bill should be brought in, and 
 that the controverted clause in the former bill 
 
 should be left out, but in the preamble to their re- 
 solve they made a heavy charge against the council 
 for not concurring their former bill. 
 
 " Whereas this house have voted, and passed a 
 bill, granting to his majesty several rates and duties 
 of impost and tonnage of shipping, in which was 
 included one per cent, on European merchandize, 
 for which article or clause the honourable council 
 have several times non-concurred the said bill, not- 
 withstanding all proper endeavours have been used 
 by this house to attain the same which have hitherto 
 proved fruitless, whereby a considerable part of the 
 revenue, which would have accrued to this province, 
 is for the present session foregone ; which also tends 
 to the depriving this government of their just rights, 
 powers, and privileges granted by the royal charter, 
 resolved," &c. 
 
 The council were fond of peace, and, as soon as 
 this resolve came to their knowledge, they sent a 
 message to the house desiring they would not print 
 the resolve in their votes, as it would have an ill 
 effect and would oblige the council, in their own 
 vindication, to reply, although they wished that all 
 controversy, between the two houses, might cease. 
 The house printed it, notwithstanding, and the next 
 day the council sent the following answer. 
 
 " The board are very much concerned to find, 
 among the votes of the honourable house, a decla- 
 ration as if the council in non-concurring the bill of 
 impost as it was first framed, had done that whereby 
 a considerable part of the revenue, which would have 
 accrued to this province, is for the present session 
 foregone; which also tends to the depriving this 
 government of their just rights, powers, and privi- 
 leges granted by the royal charter. 
 
 " This declaration contains, or implies, such a 
 charge as the council can, by no means, suffer 
 themselves to lie under, without asserting and so- 
 lemnly declaring their integrity, and they are more 
 surprised, at the imputation of doing a thing which 
 tends to deprive this government of their just rights, 
 powers and privileges granted by the royal charter; 
 because, on the 23d current, the board sent down a 
 message to the honourable house, ' that they were 
 always ready and desirous to concur with the ho- 
 nourable house of representatives in such proposals 
 relating to an impost, as may not tend to alter or 
 expose our present happy constitution under the 
 royal charter ;' so that it was from a sincere and 
 ju&t regard to the rights, powers, and privileges of 
 this government granted by the royal charter, that 
 the council chose rather to omit the duty of one per 
 cent, on English goods for this session. 
 
 " That the council apprehended the duty of on-e 
 per cent, on English goods affected the trade of 
 Great Britain, and so came within the meaning of 
 his majesty's late additional instruction, is certain : 
 and, being of that opinion, it would have been in- 
 consistent for the board to concur the bill of impost 
 as it was sent up ; however, they can boldly and 
 truly say, they have acted from a principle of duty 
 to his majesty, love and fidelity to their country, 
 and have nothing more at heart than the just, wise, 
 and careful preservation of those invaluable rights, 
 powers, and privileges granted by the royal charter, 
 which God long continue." 
 
 This controversy being over, the court was pro- 
 rogued. 
 
 Before the next sessions in November, the gover- 
 nor received a reprimand from the lords justices, 
 the king being absent, for consenting to the duty on 
 English goods, &c. by the impost act in 1718. Thifa. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 315 
 
 he laid before the court. The same house, which 
 had so long contended with the council, the session 
 before, for this clause in the bill, now " readily ac- 
 knowledge the exceptions taken to it are just and 
 reasonable." An instruction to the governor to 
 support the surveyor of the woods in the execution 
 of his office, which was communicated to the house 
 at the same time, was not so favourably received, 
 and in an answer or remonstrance occasioned by 
 the governor's speech they charge the surveyor with 
 instances of very gross mal-conduct. What evi- 
 dence they had of it does not now fully appear. 
 The governor, by a message, desired that they would 
 not print their remonstrance. They sent a com- 
 mittee to acquaint him, they must insist upon the 
 right they had to make it public. He made a very 
 great mistake, and told the committee, that his 
 majesty had given him the power of the press, and 
 he would not suffer it to be printed. This doctrine 
 would have done well enough in the reigns of the 
 Stuarts. In the present age it is justly exception- 
 able ; although, by the liberty of the press, we are 
 not to understand a liberty of printing every thing, 
 however criminal, with impunity. The house had 
 no opportunity to take notice of this declaration. 
 Upon another occasion they let him know they had 
 not forgot it. The governor was so displeased with 
 the proceedings of the house, that he put an end to 
 the session, and they did not meet again. 
 
 (1720.) We are now arrived to the memorable 
 year 1720. The contests and dissentions in the go- 
 vernment rose to a greater height than they had 
 done since the religious feuds in the years 1636 and 
 1637. 
 
 The public affairs, in general, were in a very in- 
 different state. The Indians upon the eastern fron- 
 tiers were continually insulting and menacing the 
 English inhabitants, so that but little progress had 
 been made in settling the country since the peace, 
 and, this year, most of the settlements which had 
 been begun were deserted, and a new war was every 
 day expected. 
 
 The trade of the province declined; there was a 
 general cry for want of money, and yet the bills of 
 credit, which were the only money, were daily de- 
 preciating; the depreciation was grievous to all cre- 
 ditors, but particularly distressing to the clergy and 
 other salary men, to widows and orphans whose es- 
 tates consisted of money at interest, perhaps just 
 enough to support them, and being reduced to one 
 half the former value, they found themselves on a 
 sudden in a state of poverty and want; executors 
 and administrators, and all who were possessed of 
 the effects of others in trust, had a strong tempta- 
 tion to retain them; the influence a bad currency 
 has upon the morals of the people is greater than is 
 generally imagined. Numbers of schemes, for pri- 
 vate and public emissions of bills, were proposed as 
 remedies, the only effectual one, the utter abolition 
 of the bills, was omitted. 
 
 By these calamities, the minds of the people were 
 prepared for impressions from pamphlets, courants, 
 and other newspapers, which were frequently pub- 
 lished, in order to convince them, that their civil 
 liberties and privileges were struck at, and that a 
 general union was necessary. These did not pass 
 without answers, attributing all the distress in public 
 affairs to the wrath and resentment, the arts and 
 sinister views, of a few particular persons ; but the 
 voice of the people in general was against the go- 
 vernor. In the mother country, when disputes arise 
 between the branches of the legislature upon their re- 
 
 spective rights, parties are formed and the body of 
 the people are divided; for in a well constituted go- 
 vernment it is of importance to the people that the 
 share, even of the popular part of the constitution, 
 should not be unduly raised to the suppression of 
 the monarchical or aristocratical parts. From a 
 regard to the common interest, therefore, in a dis- 
 pute concerning prerogative and privilege, the peo- 
 ple, ordinarily, are divided in sentiment. The rea- 
 son is obvious why it is less frequently so in a 
 colony. There, the people, in general, consider the 
 prerogative as an interest; without them, separate 
 and distinct from the interior interest of the colony: 
 this takes their attention from the just proportion of 
 weight due to each branch in the constitution, and 
 causes a bias in favour of the popular art. For the 
 same reason, men fond of popular applause are more 
 sure of success, with less degree of part, in a colony, 
 than in a state not so connected: and, consequently, 
 men who with unbiassed judgments, discern and 
 have virtue enough to pursue the real interest of 
 their country, are more likely to be reproached arid 
 vilified. 
 
 The first act of the house of representatives was 
 the choice of Mr. Cooke for their speaker. A com- 
 mittee was sent to the governor at his house, to ac- 
 quaint him with the choice. They reported, at their 
 return, that his excellency said, '.' it was very well.' 
 In the afternoon, the governor, being in council, 
 sent the secretary to acquaint the house, that he was 
 now in the chair and ready to receive their message, 
 respecting the choice of a speaker. They sent back 
 an answer, that his excellency, upon being informed 
 of the choice in the morning, had said " it was very 
 well," and they had recorded his answer in the books 
 of the house. The governor replied, that he would 
 receive no message from the house but when he was 
 in the chair. The house then proposed, by message, 
 to the council, to join with them in the business of 
 the day, the choice of counsellors; b.ut upon the go- 
 vernor's telling their committee, who carried up the 
 message, that no election should be made until he 
 was acquainted who was chosen speaker, the house 
 sent a new committee to acquaint him with the 
 choice they had made. The governor replied to 
 this committee, that Mr. Cooke had treated him ill 
 as the king's governor, and, therefore, according to 
 the power given him by the royal charter, he nega- 
 tived the choice, and desired they would proceed to 
 choose another person. They sent back their an- 
 swer, that they had chosen a speaker, according to 
 their known and legal privileges, and therefore in- 
 sisted upon the choice, and at the same time they 
 renewed their motion to the council to join with 
 them in the election. The governor told the com- 
 mittee, that he had received a message from the 
 house, acquainting him with the choice they had 
 made of a speaker, which choice had been negatived 
 and he was no speaker. Upon this, the house sent 
 their committee to the board to acquaint them, that 
 two messages having been sent to propose to the 
 board to join in the choice of counsellors and no 
 answer having been given, they now desired to know 
 whether the board would join in the election or not. 
 
 If there had been any further delay on the part of 
 the board, it is very probable, the house would have 
 proceeded without them, which must have increased 
 the perplexity. The governor, therefore, left the 
 board, having' first charged the secretary with the 
 following message to the house, " His excellency 
 orders me to acquaint you, he is informed that go- 
 vernor Dudley did, in the time of his government, 
 
316 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 disallow of a speaker chosen by the house, and that 
 his proceedings therein were approved by the com- 
 missioners of trade and plantations, a-nd that he was 
 thereupon directed by the said commissioners to ac- 
 quaint the council, that it would not be thought fit 
 tha-t her majesty's right of having a negative upon 
 the choice of a speaker be given up, which was re- 
 served to her majesty, as well by the charter, as by 
 the constitution of England." 
 
 Notwithstanding the warm disputes, in the pre- 
 ceding year, between the two houses, only one new 
 counsellor was chosen, John Burrill, Esq., of Lynn, 
 who had been many years speaker of the house, but 
 this year was sent to the board, in the room of Mr. 
 Higginson. His temperate spirit, until now, had 
 engaged the whole house in his favour, and, from 
 year to year, procured him a general vote, but this 
 year the house were willing to part with him for a 
 gentleme-n obnoxious to the governor, which mea- 
 sure, it was easy to foresee, must give a further oc- 
 casion of controversy. 
 
 Two of the new elected counsellors were nega- 
 tived, Nathaniel Byfield, who had been soliciting in 
 England for the government when Colonel Shute 
 was appointed, and John Clark, who was a person 
 of many valuable qualities, and obnoxious, only, for 
 being strongly attached to Mr. Cooke, and having 
 been a great supporter of the cause. 
 
 After the election, the governor made a further 
 attempt to bring the house to a compliance by the 
 following speech. " Gentlemen. At the opening 
 of this session you thought fit to make choice of 
 Elisha Gooke, Esq. for your speaker; and, upon 
 reporting of it to me, I did declare my disacceptance 
 of that election, and am firm in my opinion that I 
 had good right so to do, by virtue of his majesty's 
 commission, and the powers reserved by the royal 
 charter, and am also confirmed in it, by what I find 
 transacted by the late governor Dudley, during his 
 administration, and also by the opinion of the right 
 honourable the lords of trade and plantations in that 
 matter. I must further observe to you, that the 
 person you have chosen had invaded the king my 
 my master's rights in the woods of the province of 
 Main, though confirmed to his majesty by an act of 
 the British parliament, and I have received the 
 thanks of the right honourable the lords of trade 
 and plantations for removing him out of the coun- 
 cil. He has ill treated me, who am the king's go- 
 vernor, and has been censured by the council for it, 
 which stands upon record in the council books. 
 How acceptable this matter will be, at home, consi- 
 dering the warning we have lately had from the 
 court of Great Britain upon the account of passing 
 the impost bill, will be worthy of your serious re- 
 flection. These things I thought necessary to ac- 
 quaint you with, and advise you to return to your 
 house and choose some other person speaker, with a 
 reservation of your own rights, until you shall send 
 to the court of Great Britain for the explanation of 
 that part of your charter, relating to the affair of a 
 speaker." 
 
 The house, immediately upon their return to their 
 chamber, entered into a debate upon this speech, 
 and the question being put, whether, for the reasons 
 assigned by his excellency, the house will proceed 
 to the choice of a new speaker, it passed in the ne- 
 gative, nemine contradicente. 
 
 The governor gave them no opportunity to pro- 
 ceed on any other business, for the next day he sent 
 for them up again, and, after another speech, dis- 
 solved the court. " Gentlemen. Out of a tender 
 
 regard I have for the welfare of this province, I 
 shall give you the following advice before we part; 
 that when it shall please God we meet again in a 
 general assembly, which shall be as soon as possi- 
 ble, you will not let this province suffer by the per- 
 verse temper of a particular person, but that you 
 will choose one for a speaker that has no other view 
 but that of the public good, one that fears God and 
 honours the king. It is irksome and disagreeable 
 to me to dissolve an assembly, but as matters now 
 stand, I am forced to do it, or must give up the 
 king, my master's prerogative, which nothing shall 
 ever oblige me to do, who am the king's governor. 
 Gentlemen, I do not think it for the honour of his 
 majesty's government that this assembly should sit 
 any longer, and therefore I shall dissolve you." 
 
 Writs were issued for a new assembly", to meet 
 the 13th of July. The governor had no great rea- 
 son to hope for a more favourable house. The 
 people, in general, thought their privileges were at- 
 tacked. The charter indeed was silent upon this 
 point. In a dispute, between the crown and the 
 house of commons in the reign of Charles the Se- 
 cond, an expedient was found which seemed to avoid 
 the acknowledgment of the right of the crown to 
 refuse a speaker, but a provincial law was princi- 
 pally relied upon which declares " that the repre- 
 sentatives assembled in any great and general court 
 shall be the sole judges of elections and qualifica- 
 tions of their own members, and may from time to 
 time settle, order, and purge their own house, and 
 make such necessary orders for the due regulation 
 thereof as they shall see occasion." Whether the 
 legislators had in contemplation the right of the 
 house to ckoose a speaker, exempt from the gover- 
 nor's negative, might well be questioned ; but it 
 was urged that the due regulation of the house 
 might very well include this right. 
 
 The towns, in general, sent the former members. 
 Boston discovered how they stood affected by leaving 
 out Mr. Tay, who was one of those persons who 
 serve upon a pinch, when a favourite cannot be car- 
 ried by a party, to stop the gap, and prevent an 
 opposite candidate ; and he came in several times 
 upon such occasions. In his room, the town now 
 chose Mr. Clark, the negatived counsellor. 
 
 The house was willing to sit and do business, 
 which the choice of the former speaker would have 
 prevented. They therefore pitched upon a person 
 less attached to party, Timothy Lindall, one of the 
 representatives of Salem, to whom no exception was 
 taken. The governor, in his speech, recommended 
 a peaceable session, but the house could not forget 
 the late dissolution. They began with a warm mes- 
 sage or remonstrance to the governor, in which they 
 tell him, " the last assembly took no great pleasure 
 in being dissolved, before they had gone through 
 the usual necessary business ; their asserting and 
 maintaining their just right and ancient privilege of 
 choosing their speaker, and not owning his excel- 
 lency's power to negative him, was nothing but what 
 they were strictly obliged to ; and the new house are 
 humbly of opinion, that whoever was of advice to 
 his excellency, in the matter, did not consult his 
 majesty's interest, nor the public weal and quiet of 
 the government, but officiously endeavoured to beget 
 unhappy misunderstandings between his excellency 
 and the house, and break off that desirable harmonv 
 which every one ought to keep up ; we earnestly 
 hope and desire the province may never have an 
 assembly that will willingly forego such a valuable 
 privilege as King William and Queen Mary, of ever 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 317 
 
 blessed memory graciously favoured the province 
 v/ith, when they gave their royal assent to a law, 
 directing and governing that affair." 
 
 All the subsequent proceedings of this short session 
 shew how much the house was out of temper. An 
 Indian war used to be universally dreaded. To 
 prevent it, the governor and council had been treat- 
 ing with three of the Penobscot tribe, who were sent 
 for or came to Boston, and the house were desired 
 to make a grant for a present to them, but by a vote 
 they refused to do it. Some time after, they order- 
 ed a small sum, ten pounds only. To the contro- 
 versy with the governor, and the opposition made to 
 the proposals which came from him, the war, which 
 soon after broke out, was, by the governor's friends, 
 attributed. 
 
 There had been no public notaries in the province, 
 except such as derived their authority from the arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury. The house now first observ- 
 ed, that a notary public was a civil officer, which by 
 the charter was to be chosen by the general court, 
 and sent a message desiring the council to join with 
 the house in the choice of such an officer in each 
 part of the province. To all instruments which 
 were sent abroad, not only the attestation of the no- 
 tary himself would be necessary, but a certificate 
 under the province seal, to shew the authority to 
 attest; the council therefore took time to consider 
 of the expediency of appointing such an officer, and 
 referred the matter to the next session, but the 
 house immediately proceeded and chose the officers 
 by their owr votes. The arguments, to prove that 
 an officer to be chose by the whole court could de- 
 rive an authority from the majority of the members 
 of the house of representatives, have not been pre- 
 served. 
 
 Being offended with the council, the house sent a 
 message desiring " that considering the low circum- 
 stances of the province, no draught be made upon 
 the treasury for expenses, at times of public rejoic- 
 ing, for the future." 
 
 It had been usual to make a grant to the governor 
 for the salary of half the year, at the beginning of 
 the session: the house deferred it until the close, 
 and then reduced it from five to six hundred pounds, 
 although the currency was depreciated. To the 
 lieut-governor they used to make a present, once a 
 year, never less than fifty pounds, they now reduced 
 it to thirty-five. Mr. Dummer had so much spirit, 
 that he inclosed the vote in a letter to the speaker, 
 acquainting him that " having the honour to bear 
 the king's commission for lieut.-governor of the pro- 
 vince, and having been annually more than fifty 
 pounds out of pocket in that service, he did not 
 think it for his honour to accept of their grant." 
 
 The governor took no public notice of the pro- 
 ceedings of the house. On the 23d of July he put 
 an end to the session. 
 
 During the recess of the court (August 7th) a 
 part of the eastern Indians fell upon Canso, within 
 the province of Nova-Scotia, but peopled every sum- 
 mer from the Massachusetts. The Indians surprised 
 the English in their beds and stripped them of every 
 thing, telling them they came to carry away what 
 they could find upon their own land. Three or four 
 of the English were killed. Some of the French of 
 Cape Breton were in confederacy, and came vith 
 their vessels, the next night, and carried off the 
 plunder, together with about 2,000 quintals of 
 fish. The English vessels in the harbour were not 
 attempted. A sloop happening to arrive the next 
 day, the master offered his service to go out and 
 
 make reprisals, and being furnished with a number 
 of men, and two or three small vessels for his con- 
 sorts, for want of more ample authority, he took a 
 commission from one Thomas Richards, a Canso 
 justice, and went after the French, and soon brought 
 in six or seven small fishing vessels, having all of 
 them more or less of the English property aboard. 
 
 Mr. Henshaw, of Boston, a principal merchant at 
 Canso, went to Louisbourg with a complaint to the 
 French governor, who excused himself from inter- 
 meddling, the Indians not being French subjects, 
 nor under his controul. The French prisoners were 
 sent to Annapolis-royal. The loss sustained by the 
 English, was estimated at twenty thousand pounds 
 currency. 
 
 The fears of the people, in the eastern parts of 
 the Massachusetts, were increased by this stroke 
 upon Canso. In a short time after the cattle were 
 destroyed and the lives of the owners threatened. 
 The governor was still desirous of preserving peace, 
 and, by the advice of counsel, sent orders to Colonel 
 Walton, the commanding officer of such forces as 
 upon the alarm had been sent there, to inform the 
 Indians, that commissioners should be sent to treat 
 with them. The Indians liked the proposal and 
 promised to attend the treaty. 
 
 Before the time appointed the general court met, 
 and the house passed a resolve, " that 150 effective 
 men, under suitable officers, be forthwith ordered to 
 march up to Norridgewock, and compel the Indians 
 that shall be found there, or in other those parts, to 
 make full satisfaction for the damage they have 
 done the English, by killing their swine and sheep 
 or carrying them away; or stealing provisions, cloth- 
 ing, or any other way wronging them: and that a 
 warrant be directed to Capt. John Leighton, high 
 sheriff of the county of York, who is to accompany 
 the forces for the apprehending and safe bringing 
 Mr. Ralle to Boston, who is at present resident 
 at or near Norridgewock, in Kennebeck river, in 
 this province; and, if he be not to be found, that 
 then the sheriff direct and command the Indians 
 there, or in the parts adjacent, to bring in and sur- 
 render up the Jesuit to him the sheriff; and, upon 
 their refusal to comply with either of the said de- 
 mands, that the commanding officer is to take the 
 best and most effectual way to apprehend and secure 
 the Indians so refusing, and safe conduct them to 
 Boston.". 
 
 The governor looked upon this resolve to be, in 
 effect, a declaration of war and an invasion of the 
 prerogative; it necessarily prevented a treaty he 
 had agreed to hold with the Indians, aud a new war 
 must be the consequence oi such a measure. The 
 council were fond of peace, and when the resolve 
 was sent to them for concurrence, they rejected it. 
 The house were less averse to war. The charge of 
 carrying it on, it was said, would be no burden to 
 the province; the French, now, durst not join the 
 Indians, and this would be the most favourable op- 
 portunity which could be expected to subdue or ut- 
 terly extirpate them. That the charge should be 
 no burden seems to be a paradox, but a wild opi- 
 nion had filled the minds of great part of the people 
 of the province, that,if tills of credit could be issued, 
 the advantage to trade would be so great, that the 
 taxes by which, at distant periods, they were to be 
 drawn in again would not be felt. Many schemes 
 of public expense were projected, and, among the 
 rest, a bridge over Charles river, broader and much 
 deeper than the Thames at London or Westminster. 
 
 The public records of the general court are al- 
 
518 
 
 TH-E HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 ways open to the inspection of uu\ of the members, 
 but, that the house might have them under their 
 more immediate view and charge, they passed a 
 vote, that the secretary should make duplicates of 
 all public records, and that one set should be lodged , 
 in such place as the house should appoint. The 
 council, willing to have duplicates for greater se- 
 curity, concurred with an amendment, viz., in such 
 place as the general assembly should direct, but 
 this amendment the house rejected. 
 
 The house, finding the council a bar to their at- 
 tempts, resolved, in oae instance, to act by them- 
 selves. There was a complaint or suggestion, that 
 false musters were made by some of the officers in 
 the pay of the province. The house taking the 
 affair into considera^-on resolved, "that one or more 
 meet persons be appointed by this house clerk of 
 the check, who shall, from time to time, have an 
 inspection into the forts, garrisons, and forces, and 
 take care that every one have their compliment of 
 men; and the better to enable them to execute the 
 trust reposed in them, that when and so often as they 
 shall see reason, the commanders of the forts, gar- 
 risons, and captains of any of the companies in the 
 pay of this government, shall call forth their men 
 before them, and, if any do not appear, the com- 
 manding officer to give the reason of such absent 
 men ; and that no muster roll shall be accepted 
 and paid by the treasurer, unless approved of by the 
 clerk of the check." The governor did not intend 
 to admit this officer, appointed by the house, into 
 the forts, garrisons, &c., which, by the charter, the 
 crown had reserved to the governor, but he kept 
 silent. 
 
 To another act of the house the council took ex- 
 ception. A message was sent by the house to the 
 council to let them know they had appointed a 
 committee to prepare a bill for levying soldiers, 
 " taking it to be their peculiar care." Lest it 
 should be understood that this was to exclude the 
 council from concurring or non-concurring such 
 bill, or from advising to the levying soldiers upon 
 an emergency in the recess of the court, the coun- 
 cil desired the house to withdraw those words, 
 " taking it to be their peculiar care," which they 
 agreed to. 
 
 At this session, the house, again, withhelu one 
 hundred pounds from the governor's usual half 
 year's salary. He had passed it over without notice 
 before, but now he thought it proper to lay before 
 them a royal instruction to recommend to the as- 
 sembly to establish a sufficient allowance for him by 
 a fixed salary. They sent him a reply, " that they 
 humbly conceived what was granted him was an 
 honourable allowance, and the affair of settling sa- 
 laries being a matter of great weight, and wholly 
 new to the house, and many of the members absent, 
 they did not think it proper to enter upon the con- 
 sideration of it, but desired the court might rise." 
 The governor complied with their request. The 
 Massachusetts province afforded subject for some 
 part of the madness of the people of England in 
 this remarkable year. Waste lands have an ima- 
 ginary value set upon them, sometimes higher, 
 sometimes lower, and continually afforded subject for 
 bubbles among themselves. Mr. Dummer raised a 
 bubble from the eastern lands, but had not time foi 
 any very great success. We give his letter, as a 
 specimen of this kind of transaction : 
 
 " It remains now that I give an account to the 
 general court of a very considerable undertaking 
 which I set on foot, and have been carrying on foi 
 
 everal month's past in hopes to procure thereby 
 many great advantages to the province. I have 
 >rojected a scheme to raise hemp and flax in the 
 'astern frontiers of the province of Main for the 
 upply of this kingdom. In order to accomplish 
 his design, I proposed that the lands between St. 
 Droix and Penobscot should be granted to the un- 
 dertakers and their assigns by the crown., and that 
 hey should also have a charter of incorporation, 
 with all reasonable privileges and advantages al- 
 "owed them. 
 
 " I set myself heartily to work, and, that I might, 
 ay a good foundation, I chose seventeen managers 
 for the carrying it on, who are all persons of great 
 distinction, and attend diligently upon the business 
 at every meeting. My Lord Harrington is one, and 
 Colonel Bladen, of the board of trade, is another, 
 and Alderman Bailis, a commissioner of the cus- 
 :oms, is a third. The rest are either men of note 
 and figure in parliament, as Mr. Young, first com- 
 missioner for stating the accounts of the army, or 
 eminent citizens, as Sir Justus Beck, who is one of 
 the greatest merchants in the kingdom. Being 
 thus strong, I had no reason to take notice of Goram 
 and friends, or to have any apprehensions of what 
 they were doing, or capable of doing against me; 
 yet, for quietness sake, I sent them word that, if 
 they would withdraw their petition, and give me no 
 more trouble, they should find an account of profit 
 from this undertaking, beyond what they could ever 
 expect, if it were to be under their own conduct. 
 Coram immediately submitted to my petition, but 
 when he afterwards was told that I had left out of 
 my petition the tract of land between Kennebeck 
 and Penobscot, he ran about in a mad rage, de- 
 claring he would rather starve than come into it, 
 and that the whole design was only a trick in me 
 to save that fine country for the villainous people 
 of New England. I have therefore since treated 
 and agreed with his partners and patrons by whose 
 interest he was supported, so that Coram is now 
 entirely dropped, and I have no opposition. 
 
 " Nevertheless, it is the opinion of the managers 
 to rest a little till the ministry has quelled the great 
 number of companies that are erected every day in 
 defiance of the late act of parliament, and are so 
 offensive to the government, that the best scheme in 
 the world would suffer some disgrace by appearing 
 at this time. I have only to add, that I have re- 
 served twenty thousand pounds of the subscription 
 for the use and benefit of the province; which, 
 when the time comes, I will put in the name of 
 proper trustees for that end." 
 
 (1721.) At the opening the next session (March 
 15th), the governor, in his speech, recommended 
 measures to prevent the depreciation of the currency, 
 to suppress a trade carried on with the French at 
 Cape Breton, and to punish the authors of factious 
 and seditious papers, to provide a present for the 
 five nations, and to enlarge his salary. 
 
 They refused, directly or virtually, every propo- 
 sal. To the first the house tell him, in their an- 
 swer, " they had passed a bill for issuing one hun- 
 dred thousand pounds more in bills of credit. This, 
 alone, had a direct tendency to increase the mis- 
 chief, but th<?y add that " to prevent their depreci- 
 ation they had prohibited the buying, selling, and 
 bartering silver, at any higher rate than set by act 
 of parliament. This certainly could have no ten- 
 dency to lessen it." Such an act can no more be 
 executed than an act to stop the ebbing and flowing 
 of the sea. It would probably carry away and keep 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 319 
 
 out all silver und gold. The depreciation of their 
 currency would, notwithstanding, havebeen as visible 
 by the rise of exchange with foreign countries, and 
 as sensibly felt by every creditor among them- 
 selves. To his other roposals they say, " they 
 
 know of no trade carried on by any people of the 
 province with Cape Breton, and do not think any 
 law to prevent a trade there is necessary ; and for 
 seditious and scandalous papers, the best way to 
 suppress or prevent them is, for the executive part 
 of the government to bring the authors to condign 
 punishment ; and if proper measures had been taken 
 to discover and punish the authors of a libel called 
 News from Robinson Crusoe's Island, wherein the 
 members of the house are grossly reflected upon, 
 few or none would have dared, afterwards, to pub- 
 lish any thing of that nature or tendency, but to 
 suffer no books to be printed without license from 
 the governor will be attended with innumerable 
 inconveniences and danger; as to the five nations, 
 the house do not know enough of their number, nor 
 what the other governments intend to give, and, 
 therefore, cannot judge what is proper for them to 
 do; and for the allowance to the governor, they 
 think it as much as the honour and service of the 
 government calls for, and believe the inhabitants of 
 the several towns through the province are of the 
 same mind." 
 
 There never had been an instance of any gover- 
 nor's refusing or neglecting, at the beginning of the 
 year, to appoint a fast, in conformity to the prac- 
 tice of the country, but the house now endeavoured 
 to anticipate the governor, and appointed a com- 
 mittee to join with a committee of council to pre- 
 pare a proclamation for a public fast. The council 
 refused to join, and acquainted the house they could 
 find no precedent; but the house replied that, if 
 such days had not the sanction of the whole court, 
 people would not be liable to punishment for work- 
 ing or playing. The governor, willing to conform 
 to the house so far as would consist with maintain- 
 ing his right of issuing proclamations, mentioned 
 in the proclamation which he soon after published, 
 that the appointment was by advice of council, and 
 upon a motion from the house of representatives ; 
 but the house refused to meet him and declared they 
 had never made any such motion ; and ordered that 
 no members of the house should carry any procla- 
 mations to their towns, for the present. The day 
 was, however, observed as usual, except that one of 
 the representatives of Boston would not attend the 
 public worship, but opened his warehouse as upon 
 other days. 
 
 Certain persons had cut pine trees upon that part 
 of the province of Main which had been granted by 
 the general court as private property. A deputy to 
 the surveyor of the woods gave licence to cut the 
 trees, as belonging to the king. The house ap- 
 pointed a committee to join with a committee of 
 council, which joint committee were to seize and 
 secure for the province, the same logs which had 
 been cut by licence. The council concurred with a 
 " saving to his majesty all such rights as are reserv- 
 ed by the royal charter, and acts of parliament, to 
 trees of the royal navy." 
 
 The house desired this saving might be with- 
 drawn, not that they apprehended the reservation 
 made in the charter, or the provision by act of par- 
 liament, were of no force; but they alleged that 
 the trees they designed to seize were cut by one de- 
 puted by the deputy of the surveyor of woods, and 
 cut not for the royal navy, but for other uses, and 
 
 therefore they did not come within reason of thf 
 reservation or provision. 
 
 Finally, upon the council's refusing to join, the 
 house appointed a committee of their own to seize 
 the logs, and directed the attorney-general to prose- 
 cute those who had trespassed and made spoil upon 
 the province lands. After they were seized, the 
 house again desired the council to concur a vote or 
 order for securing and converting the logs to the 
 benefit of the province. This, without any judicial 
 determination, was still more irregular, and the 
 council declined meddling with them. 
 
 As the time approached for issuing writs for a 
 new assembly, the governor made the following 
 speech to them, before their dissolution: 
 
 " Gentlemen of the house of representatives : In 
 my speech at the beginning of the session, I gave 
 you the reasons of my meeting you at this time. I 
 have since received your answer, which I shall take 
 care to transmit by the first conveyance, that his 
 majesty may see, not only how his governor of this 
 province is treated and supported, but what sort of 
 regard is paid to his own royal instructions. I 
 shall also lay before the right honourable the lords 
 commissioners of trade and plantations, the bill for 
 prohibiting a trade to Cape Breton, which I recom- 
 mended to you several sessions, and which had twice 
 the concurrence of his majesty's council, but was as 
 often thrown out in your house,' notwithstanding the 
 message that accompanied that bill. 
 
 " I am very much surprised you should refuse two 
 other bills, which came down from the council, the 
 one to prevent riots, the other to prohibit the making 
 and publishing libels and scandalous pamphlets, 
 the passing of which would, in my opinion, have 
 tended both to the honour of the government and 
 the public peace. 
 
 " But what gives me the greatest concern is, that 
 the proceedings of your house, with respect to the 
 woods in the province of Main, are directly contrary 
 to the reservation of his majesty's right in the royal 
 charter, and an act of parliament, which were both 
 set forth in my proclamation, dated the 1st of No- 
 vember, 1720, for preventing the destruction and 
 spoil of his majesty's woods. 
 
 " I could heartily wish, that instead of obliging 
 me to make such representations to the lords of 
 trade, as I fear will not be to ycur advantage, you 
 had acted with that calmness and moderation, which 
 becomes the subjects of a prince, who possesses 
 those qualities in an eminent degree; and, which 
 becomes the representatives of a province, that, with- 
 out any encroachment on the royal prerogative, en- 
 joys as many and as high privileges, as the greatest 
 advocates for liberty can desire or expect. 
 
 " I must therefore recommend to you a loyal and 
 peaceable behaviour, and to lay aside those mis- 
 understandings and animosities that of late prevail 
 so much amongst you, which you will find to be 
 your truest and best interest." 
 
 Doctor Noyes, one of the representatives of Bos- 
 ton, died while the court was sitting (March 16th), 
 after a short illness. He was very strongly attach- 
 ed to the popular party, and highly esteemed by 
 them ; was of a very humane and obliging disposi- 
 tion, and, in private life, no man was more free from 
 indelicacies. Mr. William Hutchinson, who suc- 
 ceeded him, was also a gentleman of a very fair 
 character, sens : ble, virtuous, discreet, and of an in- 
 dependent fortune. He began his political life at. a 
 time when persons, thus qualified, were wanted for 
 the service of their country, to moderate the pas 
 
320 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA 
 
 sions of those who were less temperate and who had 
 the lead in the house. In general, he adhered to 
 the popular party also, but lived but a little while. 
 Longer experience might probably have convinced 
 him, that he would have shewn his gratitude to his 
 constituents more, by endeavouring to convince 
 them that they were running to an extreme, than 
 by encouraging the same extremities himself. 
 
 ?The session of the general court, in May, this 
 year, began as unfavourably as any former session. 
 The house chose for their speaker, John Clarke, 
 Esq. ; who the year before had been negatived by 
 the governor, as a counsellor. To prevent a nega- 
 tive, as a speaker, they projected a new form of 
 message directed to the governor and council jointly, 
 to acquaint them " that John Clarke, Esq. is chosen 
 speaker of the house, and is now sitting in the 
 chair," This was undoubtedly a very extraordinary 
 contempt ef the governor. Mr. John White, a 
 gentleman of unspotted character, had been clerk of 
 t'he house for many years. He was no zealous party 
 man, but his most intimate friends, who esteemed 
 him, and sought his company for the sake of his 
 valuable accomplishments, were strongly attached 
 to the governor. This, alone, was enough to dis- 
 miss him; and Mr. William Payne, brother by 
 marriage to Mr. Cooke, and who had formerly been 
 of the bank party, was appointed clerk in his stead. 
 The governor was more wroth than upon any 
 occasion before, He came to council, in the after- 
 noon, and sent immediately for the house, no doubt 
 with an intent to dissolve the court. He had seve- 
 ral faithful advisers about him, and, whilst the 
 house were preparing to come up, he sent a message 
 to stop them, and to let them know he accepted 
 their choice of a speaker. This was giving a con- 
 struction to their message, which they did not in- 
 tend, and it was giving his consent before it was 
 asked, but it was to be preferred to a dissolution ; 
 for a dissolution of the court, before the election of 
 counsellors, according to the construction the house 
 have sometimes put upon the charter, would have 
 been a dissolution of the government, for one year 
 at least, because the time mentioned for the first 
 election was the last Wednesday in May. The 
 counsellors named in the charter were to continue 
 until others were chosen and appointed in their 
 stead. We do not know of any words in the charter 
 which would make the choice upon any day invalid, 
 although that be the day more particularly designed 
 for that business. The house shewed their resent- 
 ment against the lieut.-governor, and Mr. Belcher, 
 who were both left out of the council. The rest 
 were continued. 
 
 The next step was the appointing a committee to 
 carry a list of the new elected counsellors to the 
 governor; but the committee was not to desire his 
 approbation, though this form had never been omit- 
 ted in any one instance. The governor sent the 
 list back, and took notice of the omission. The 
 house thereupon resolved, " that considering the 
 small pox was in Boston, and they were very de- 
 sirous the house should be removed to Cambridge, 
 they would send the list in the usual terms, saving 
 their right to assert their privileges at a more con- 
 venient time." What privileges they had in their 
 minds it is now difficult to discover. Surely they 
 could not imagine the election would have been 
 valid without his consent. The governor negatived 
 
 Colonel Byfield, the rest he consented to. 
 The court was adjourned to Cambridge. Th 
 
 governor, in his speech, took no notice of past 
 
 differences. All was fair and smooth, and all was 
 fair in the house also, the first fortnight, but, on the 
 19th of June, the governor's speech, at the dissolu- 
 tion of the last assembly, was ordered to be read, 
 and a committee was appointed " to vindicate the 
 proceedings of the house from the insinuations made 
 " y the governor of their want of duty and loyalty to 
 his majesty." This committee made a report, not 
 in the form of an address or message to the gover- 
 nor, but of a narrative and justification of the pro- 
 ceedings of the last assembly, and the house ac- 
 cepted it, and ordered it to be printed. 
 
 To vindicate the past proceedings about the pine 
 trees, a full consideration was now had of the seve- 
 ral acts of parliament, and the reservation to the 
 :rown in the province charter. The house did not 
 deny a right in the crown to the trees, whilst they 
 were standing, and fit for masts, but supposed that, 
 as soon as they were felled and cut into lengths, fit 
 for boards or timber only, the right of the crown 
 ceased, and the owners of the soil recovered or ac- 
 quired a new property in them. This, it was said, 
 would render the provision made for the preserva- 
 tion of the trees, which at best is insufficient, to be 
 of no effect, nothing being more easy than for the 
 owners of the soil to procure the trees to be felled 
 and cut into short logs, without possibility of dis- 
 covery. However, they came to the following re- 
 solution, viz. " That inasmuch as a great number cf 
 pine trees have been cut in the province of Main, 
 which, when standing, were fit for masts for th<; 
 royal navy, but are now cut into logs of about 
 twenty feet in length, and ' although the cuttii g 
 them should be allowed to be an infringement of 
 his majesty's rights reserved in the charter,' yet in 
 the condition they are now in, being no longer ca 
 pable of being used for masts, it is lawful tVr, 
 and behoves this government to -jause such logs to 
 be seized, auci converted to their own use, and to 
 bring the persons who cut down the trees to pu- 
 nishment." In consequence, and for the purposes, 
 of this resolve a committee was appointed. 
 
 The reservation in the charter is in these word's, 
 " for the better providing and furnishing of masts 
 for our royal navy, we do hereby reserve to us, our 
 heirs and successors, all trees of the diameter of 
 twenty-four inches, and upwards of twelve inches 
 from the ground, growing upon any soil or tract of 
 land not heretofore granted to private persons. 
 And we restrain and forbid all persons whatsoever 
 from selling, cutting, or destroying any such trees 
 without the royal licence of us, our heirs and suc- 
 cessors, first had and obtained, upon penalty of for- 
 feiting one hundred pounds sterling unto us, our 
 heirs and successors, for every such tree." 
 
 It was said further upon this occasion that al- 
 though the crown reserved the trees, and restrained 
 all persons from cutting them which the necessity 
 of the trees for national use and service might be 
 sufficient to justify, yet it was not equitable to take 
 them without a valuable consideration. The crown 
 had made an absolute grant of the province of Main 
 to Gorges, from whom the Massachusetts purchased. 
 The Massachusetts' charter indeed was declared for- 
 feited. Where the right was, after that, might be 
 disputed, but this was a hard judgment, and it was 
 the plain intent of the charter, in general, to restore 
 rights, except that of the form of jurisdiction or ad- 
 ministration of government, to the former state. 
 
 The house neglected making any provision for 
 the support of the governor, or the other officers of 
 the government, who depended upon the court for 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 321 
 
 their salaries. They waited to see how far the go- 
 vernor would consent to their several acts and votes. 
 On the other hand, the two houses having chose the 
 treasurer, impost officer, and other civil officers, the 
 governor laid hy the list, and neither approved or 
 disapproved. When the house sent a message to 
 the council, to enquire whether the governor had 
 passed upon the list, he directed the committee to 
 tell the house tha the should take his own time for 
 it. This occasioned a reply from the house, and 
 divers messages and answers passed upon the sub- 
 ject. At length the house, by a vote, determined 
 they would not go into the consideration of grants 
 and allowances, before his excellency had passed 
 upon the acts, resolves and election of that session. 
 This was in plain terms avowing that the governor 
 at first charged them with tacitly intending. To 
 compel the governor to any particular measure, by 
 making his support, in whole or in part, depend 
 upon it, was said to be inconsistent with that free- 
 dom of judgment, in each branch of the legislature, 
 which is the glory of the English .constitution : this 
 was not all; the house withheld the support of all 
 the other salary men, because the governor would 
 not comply with the measures of the house. . 
 
 Resentment was shewn against some of the go- 
 vernor's friends. The agent in England, Mr. Dum- 
 mer, in some of his letters, had informed the court 
 of the sentiments of the ministry upon the proceed- 
 ings of the house of representatives, and of the ge- 
 neral approbation in England of the governor's con- 
 duct. A faithful agent would rather tell them the 
 truth, than recommend himself to them by flattery 
 and false representations. He lost the favour of the 
 house, who, upon the receipt of these letters, voted, 
 that it was not for the interest of the province Mr. 
 Dummer should be continued agent any longer, 
 and therefore it was ordered that he should be 
 dismissed. 
 
 Paul Dudley, another of the governor's friends, 
 had the misfortune also of falling under the dis- 
 pleasure of the house. He had been chosen, by a 
 small majority, counsellor for Sagadehoc. By the 
 charter, it was necessary for him to have been an 
 inhabitant or proprietor of that part of the province 
 for which he was chosen. He dwelt in the old co- 
 lony of Massachusetts. It was suggested, in the 
 house, that he had no lands at Sagadehoc, and they 
 appointed a committee to enquire into this fact. 
 Upon their applying to Mr. Dudley for evidence of 
 his title, he told them it was too late, they should 
 have inquired before the election. Perhaps he was 
 in an error. He went on and told the committee, 
 he had a deed which he would not expose to the 
 house, but he would shew it to two or three of the 
 members. Upon this they sent another committee 
 to inform him, it was expected he should produce his 
 deed, the next morning, to be laid upon the speak- 
 er's table. He replied that he would not produce 
 his deed before the house, for they might possibly 
 vote it insufficient. In this part of the province 
 there are scarce any lands which have not more than 
 one claimer, and it is not improbable some of the 
 members of the house claimed the lands in Mr. 
 Dudley's deed. The vote of the house would not 
 have determined his title, but it might have had un- 
 due influence upon a jury in a judicial proceeding. 
 
 Mr. Dudley's answer was unsatisfactory, and the 
 house voted that it was an affront; that his declin- 
 ing to produce his deeds gave sufficient grounds to 
 believe that he was no proprietor, and it was there- 
 fore resolved that his election be declared null and 
 
 His op AMEF. Nos. 41 & 42 
 
 void. This vote being sent to the council was by 
 them unanimously non-concurred. 
 
 No grants had been made, and no officers for the 
 ensuing year had been constituted; the house, not- 
 withstanding, sent a message to the governor to de- 
 sire the court might rise. He refused to gratify 
 them. Thursday, the 13th of July, had been ap- 
 pointed for a public fast; the members desired to be 
 at home with their families; and, on Wednesday, 
 by a vote, they adjourned themselves to Tuesday in 
 the next week. It was urged that the British house 
 of commons adjourn for as long a time, without any 
 immediate act of royal authority; but it was replied 
 that it never did so contrary to the inclination of the 
 crown; and the adjournments over holidays are as 
 much established by ancient usage, as the ordinary 
 adjournments from day to day, and, being conform- 
 ed to by both houses of parliament, no inconvenience 
 can arise. But the charter was argued by the go- 
 vernor, to be the rule in this assembly, not the ana- 
 logy between a Massachusetts' house of representa- 
 tives and the commons of Great Britain The go- 
 vernor, by charter, had the sole power of adjourning, 
 proroguing, and dissolving the general court. Taken 
 strictly, it would be extremely inconvenient, for the 
 act of the governor would be necessary every day. 
 Upon a reasonable construction, therefore, the house 
 had always adjourned from day 'to day, but never 
 for so great a number of days. The council, who 
 were obliged to spend near a week without business, 
 unanimously voted, upon hearing the house had ad- 
 journed, that such adjournment, without his excel- 
 lency's knowledge and consent, was irregular and 
 not agreeable to the charter. 
 
 The governor, afterwards, made this adjournment 
 one of the principal articles of complaint against the 
 house. 
 
 Upon Tuesday, like the first day of a session, 
 there was scarcely a house for business. The next 
 morning some votes passed, which were offered to 
 the governor, and which he would not suffer to be 
 laid before him, until he had sent for the house, and 
 told them they had made a breach upon his ma- 
 jesty's prerogative, which he was under oath to take 
 care of; and he insisted upon an acknowledgment 
 of their error before they proceeded to business. 
 
 The house, by a vote or resolve, declared they 
 had no design to make any breach upon the prero- 
 gative, but acknowledged, they had made a mistake 
 in not acquainting his excellency and the board with 
 the adjournment. 
 
 The governor observed to them, that they had 
 industriously avoided acknowledging the sole power 
 of adjourning, as well as proroguing and dissolving 
 the general assembly, is vested in his majesty's go- 
 vernor, by the royal charter. They thereupon agreed 
 to the following message : " The house of represen- 
 tatives do truly acknowledge, that, by the royal 
 charter, your excellency and the governor for the 
 time being, have the sole power and authority to 
 adjourn, prorogue, and dissolve the general court; 
 and the house further acknowledge, that your excel- 
 lency ought to have been acquainted with the de- 
 sign and intention of the house, in their adjourn- 
 ment from Wednesday the 12th, to Tuesday the 18th 
 instant, before they did adjourn, and that it was so 
 designed and casually omitted." 
 
 The house carefully distinguished between the 
 power of adjourning the general court and adjourn- 
 ing the house of representatives, one branch only, 
 and seem to suppose, that their only mistake was 
 their not acquainting the governor and the board 
 
 2R 
 
322 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 with their intention, which was, by no means, satis- 
 factory to the governor, and he immediately ordered 
 the house to attend him in the council chamber. 
 The speaker ordered all the members of the house 
 to be called in, and, expecting a dissolution, they 
 resolved, " that all the votes of the house in the 
 present session, more especially relating to any 
 misunderstanding or difference that hath arisen be- 
 tween his excellency and the house, shall be pre- 
 pared to be sent home, and that the speaker trans- 
 mit them to William Tailer, Esq., now resident in 
 London, or, in his absence, to such persons, as 
 he shall think fit, desiring them to lay the same 
 before his majesty in council, or any where else, 
 if need require, to obviate any complaint that may 
 be made by his excellency the governor against 
 the proceedings of this house for their just and ne- 
 cessary vindication. So much time was taken up in 
 this vote, or resolve, that the governor was highly 
 offended, and sent a second time, requiring them to 
 attend him forthwith. It has always been the prac- 
 tice of the house, before and since, upon a message 
 from the governor, to stop all business, and go up 
 without delay. The speaker, at this time, was 
 among the forwardest in the opposition. There was 
 no need of four or five members to hold him, as the 
 speaker of the house of commons was once held, in 
 the chair, until a number of strong resolutions had 
 passed the house. 
 
 The governor directed his speech to the house 
 only. " Gentlemen of the house of representatives : 
 I am very much concerned to find in the printed 
 journal of the house, first, an order to appoint a 
 committee to draw a memorial upon, or representa- 
 tion of, my speech, made before the dissolution o 
 the assembly in March last, and, afterwards, the 
 memorial itself, signed by Mr. Cooke, in the name 
 of the committee. 
 
 " This treatment is very surprising, from a house 
 of representatives that profess so much loyalty anc 
 respect to his majesty's government. It appears to 
 me to be very irregular, that the present house o 
 representatives, whereof John Clarke, Esq. is speak 
 er, and which consists of a majority of new mem- 
 bers, should take upon them to answer my speech made 
 to a former house of representatives, whereof Timo 
 thy Lindall, Esq. was speaker. These proceedings 
 are not only improper, but without precedent from 
 any former assembly. 
 
 " I must also observe to yo,u, that you have no 
 shewn that respect which is due to me as governor 
 of this province, by suffering this order or memoria 
 to go into the press, before it was communicated to 
 me, which, if you had done, I could have convincet 
 you, that it would have been very much for the ser 
 vice of your constituents, that neither the orde 
 nor the memorial should have appeared in print. 
 
 " It is my opinion, that you will quickly b< 
 convinced how much you have been wanting in you 
 duty and interest, by disowning the authority of th 
 right honourable board, which his majesty has con" 
 stituted to superintend the affairs of the province 
 and all the other plantations. 
 
 " For these reasons, I should have dissolved th 
 
 feneral court when the memorial first appeared, bu 
 was in hopes the house might have been brough 
 to correct or expunge it. Instead of making thi 
 use of my tenderness, you have gone on in the mos 
 undutiful manner, to withdraw from his majesty' 
 and your country's service, by adjourning yourselve 
 for near a week, without my knowledge and con 
 sent, contrary to the royal charter, which absolulel 
 
 ests in the governors of this province the power of 
 djourning, proroguing and dissolving, and that at 
 . time when I thought it for the interest of the 
 olony to adjourn you for two days only, having an 
 ffair of the greatest consequence to communicate 
 o the house, which was to persuade you to take 
 ome effectual measures to prevent the plague coming 
 imong us, there being nothing so likely to bring it 
 n as the French silk and stuffs which are constant- 
 y brought into this province. 
 
 " These your unwarrantable proceedings oblige 
 ne to dissolve this assembly." 
 
 This speech, and the dissolution which iollowed, 
 urther alienated the minds of the people from the 
 governor. Some of his friends wished he had car- 
 ried his resentment no further than putting an end 
 ,o the session and giving time to deliberate. There 
 was no room to expect a change for the better, 
 upon a new election. 
 
 There was yet no open war with the Indians, but 
 ;hey continued their insults. The French instigated 
 hem, and furnished them with ammunition and 
 provisions. Governor Shute published a proclama- 
 ;ion, requiring the inhabitants to remain upon their 
 estates, and keep possession of the country. No 
 wonder the proclamation was not obeyed. We 
 know no authority he had to require them to remain. 
 If the preservation of their own property was not 
 sufficient to keep them there, it could not be ex- 
 pected they would remain merely as a barrier for 
 the rest of the province. 
 
 In the month of August, two hundred Indians, 
 with two French Jesuits, came to George town upon 
 Arowsick Island, armed, and under French colours, 
 and, after some parley with the inhabitants, left a 
 letter to be delivered to the governor, in which they 
 make a heavy charge against the English for unjustly 
 invading the property of the Indians, and taking 
 from them the country which God had given them. 
 
 Ralle, their spiritual father, was their patron also 
 in their temporal concerns. Either from a con- 
 sciousness of their having conveyed the country to 
 the English, or from a desire of peace and quiet, 
 they were averse to engaging in war. When they 
 were at their villages, the priests were continually 
 exciting them to act vigorously, and drive all the 
 English to the westward of Kennebec; and such 
 was their influence over them, that they would often 
 set out from home, with great resolution to persist 
 in their demands, and in their parleys, with the 
 commanders of forts, as well as at more public trea- 
 ties, would appear, at first, to be very sturdy, but 
 were soon softened down to a better temper, and 
 made to agree that the English should hold the 
 lands without molestation. When they returned 
 home, they gave their father an account of the great 
 firmness they had shewn in refusing to make any 
 concessions, and to this we are to impute the erro- 
 neous relation of these treaties by Charlevoix and 
 others. 
 
 But about this time Toxus, the Norridgewock 
 chief, died. When they came to choose another 
 Toxus, the old men who were averse to war, con- 
 trary to- Ralle's inclination, pitched upon Ouikoui- 
 roumenit, who had always been of the pacific party. 
 They took another verv disagreeable step, and sub- 
 mitted to send four hostages to Boston, sureties for 
 their good behaviour, and for the payment of the 
 damages the English had sustained. Vaudreuil, 
 the governor of Canada, was alarmed, and thought 
 it necessary to exert himself upon this occasion. 
 He writes to father Ralle, of the 15th of June, " I 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 323 
 
 was at Montreal, my reverend father, when your 
 letters of the 16th and 18th of May came to my 
 hands, informing me of the bad step taken by the 
 Norridgewocks, in choosing Ouikouiroumenit suc- 
 cessor to the deceased Toxus, of the great loss which 
 the whole Abenakis nation hath sustained by his 
 death, and the divisions prevailing among the Nor- 
 ridgewocks, many of whom, and especially their 
 chiefs, have betrayed the interest of their tribe in 
 openly favouring the pretensions of the English to 
 the country of Norridgewock. The faint hearts of 
 your Indians in giving hostages to the English, to 
 secure payment of the damage they have sustained, 
 and the audacious language which they have used 
 to the Indians, in order to keep possession of their 
 country, and to drive you out of it, fully convinced 
 cie that every advantage would be taken of the pre- 
 sent state of affairs, to subject them to the English, 
 if the utmost care should not be immediately taken 
 to prevent so great a misfortune. Without a mo- 
 ment's delay I set out, in order to apply myself to 
 the business of Montreal, and from thence to St. 
 Francois and Becancour, where I prevailed with 
 the Indians of those villages vigorously to support 
 their brethren of Norridgewock, and to send two 
 deputies for that purpose, to be present at the treaty 
 and to let the English know, that they will not 
 have to do with the Norridgewocks alone if they 
 continue their injuries to them. The intendant 
 and I have joined in a letter, to desire father le 
 Chase to take a journey to Norridgewock, in order 
 to keep those Indians in their present disposition 
 and to encourage them to behave with firmness and 
 resolution. He will also go to Pcnobscot, to engage 
 them to send some of their chiefs also, to be present 
 on this occasion and to strengthen their brethren." 
 
 Begoir, the intendant, writes at the same time to 
 Ralle, " I wrote, my reverend father, to Mons. de 
 Vaudreuil, who is at Montreal, the sentiments of 
 father de la Chase and my own, viz., what we think 
 convenient to be done, until we hear from the coun- 
 cil of the marine, whether the French shall join the 
 Indians to support them openly against the English, 
 or shall content themselves with supplying ammuni- 
 tion, as the council has advised that M. Vaudreuil 
 might do, in case the English should enterprise any- 
 thing against them. He thought it more proper to 
 send the reverend father la Chase, than Mons. de 
 Croisil, lieutenant, &c., because the English can 
 have no room to except to one missionary's visiting 
 another, the treaty of peace not forbidding it; 
 whereas, if a French officer was sent, they might 
 complain that we sent Frenchmen into a country, 
 which they pretend belongs to them, to excite the 
 Indians to make war upon them. 
 
 " It is to be wished that you and your Indians 
 may be suffered to live in quiet until we know the 
 king's intentions whether we shall openly join the 
 Indians if they are attacked wrongfully; in the 
 mean time we shall assist them with ammunition, 
 which they may be assured they shall not want. 
 
 " P. S. Since I wrote the foregoing, the Indians 
 of St. Francois and Becancour have desired M. 
 Vaudreuil that M. de Croisil may go with them to 
 be a witness of their good disposition, and he has 
 consented to join him with father de la Chase." 
 
 The Massachusetts people made heavy complaints 
 of the French governor, for supporting and stirring 
 up enemies against them in time of peace between 
 the two crowns, but he justified himself to his own 
 master. Ralle was ranked by the English among 
 *he most infamous villains, and his scalp would have 
 
 been worth an hundred scalps of the Indians. His 
 intrepid courage and fervent zeal to promote the 
 religion he professed, and to secure his neophytes or 
 converts to the interest of his sovereign, were the 
 principal causes of these prejudices. The French, 
 for the same reasons, rank him with saints and 
 heroes. He had been near forty years a missionary 
 among the Indians, and their manner of life had 
 become quite easy and agreeable to him. They 
 loved and idolized him, and were always ready to 
 hazard their own lives to preserve his. His letters, 
 upon various subjects, discover him to have been a 
 man of superior natural powers, which had been 
 improved by an education in a college of Jesuits; his 
 latin is pure, classical, and elegant; he had taught 
 many of his converts, male and female, to write, and 
 corresponded with them in their own language, and 
 made some attempts in Indian poetry. When he 
 was young he learned to speak Dutch, and so came 
 more easily to a smattering of English, enough to 
 be understood by traders and tradesmen, who had 
 been employed in building a church and other work 
 at Norridgewock. He corresponded in latin with 
 one or more of the ministers of Boston, and had a 
 great fondness for shewing his talent at controversy. 
 Pride was his foible, and he took great delight in 
 raillery. The English idiom and the flat and bald 
 Latin, in some of his correspondent letters, afforded 
 him subjects. Some of his contemporaries, as well 
 as Cotton, Norton, Mitchel, and others of the first 
 ministers of the country, would have been a match 
 for him. He contemned and often provoked the 
 English, and when threatened with destruction by 
 them, if they should ever take Norridgewock, he 
 replied, " If." 
 
 The English charge the Indians with perfidy and 
 breach of the most solemn engagements. The Jesuit 
 denies it and justifies their conduct, from their being 
 under duresse, at such times, and compelled to agree 
 to whatever terms are proposed to them; particu- 
 larly, when they met governor Shute, at Arowsick, 
 in 1717, he says, the body of the Norridgewocks had 
 fully determined, that the English should settle no 
 farther upon Kennebeck river than a certain mill; 
 for all the pretence they had to go beyond that, was 
 a bargain of this sort, made by some Englishman 
 with any Indian he happened to meet with. " I will 
 give you a bottle of rum if you will give me leave to 
 settle here; or, if you will give me such a place." 
 " Give me the bottle," says the Indian, " and take as 
 much land as you have a mind to:" the Englishman 
 asks his name, which he writes down and the bar- 
 gain is finished. Such sort of bargains being urged 
 against the Indians, at the treaty, they rose in a 
 body and went away in great wrath, and, although 
 they met again the next day and submitted to the 
 governor's terms, yet when they came home, all 
 they had done was disallowed by the body of the 
 nation and rejected." Whilst the English^ kept 
 within the mill the Jesuit forbad the Indians molest- 
 ing them, but if any settled beyond those bounds, 
 he allowed and encouraged the Indians to kill their 
 cattle and to make other spoil. 
 
 The consideration made by the purchasers of In- 
 dian lands was not always so inconsiderable as the 
 Jesuit mentions, and the purchases were from chiefs 
 or reputed chiefs or sachems, and the possession had 
 been taken and improvements made scores of miles 
 beyond the limits he would restrain the English to, 
 more than sixty years before. 
 
 The French governor, Vaudreuil, in his manu- 
 script letters, and the French historian, Charlevoix, 
 
 2R2 
 
324 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 in print, suppose the English settlers to be mere 
 intruders, and charge the English nation with great 
 injustice in dispossessing the Abanakis of their 
 country. The European nations, which have their 
 colonies in America, may not reproach one another 
 upon this head. They all took possession, contrary 
 to the minds of the natives, who would gladly have 
 been rid of their new guests. The best plea, viz. 
 that a small number of families laid claim to a 
 greater part of the globe than they were capable of' 
 improving, and to a greater proportion than the 
 general proprietor designed for so few people, who 
 therefore had acquired no such right to it as to ex- 
 clude the rest of mankind, will hold as well for the 
 English as any other nation. The first settlers of 
 the Massachusetts and Plimouth were not content 
 with this, but made conscience of paying the natives 
 to their satisfaction for all parts of the territory 
 which were not depopulated or deserted, and left 
 without a clairner. Gorges, the original patentee 
 of the province of Main, made grants or conveyance 
 of greater part of the sea coast and rivers of that 
 province without purchase from the natives, other 
 parts had been purchased from them by particular 
 persons, and the remaining part, as well as the 
 country east of it, the government claimed by con- 
 quest ; but it must be confessed, that in the several 
 treaties of peace this right had not been acknow- 
 ledged by the Indians, nor insisted upon by the En- 
 glish, this controversy being about those parts of the 
 country which the English claimed by purchase, 
 and no mention made of a right to the whole by 
 conquest. 
 
 The governor, immediately after the dissolution 
 of the general court, issued writs for a new house of 
 representatives, and the court met, the 23d of Au- 
 gust, at the George tavern, the then extreme part 
 of Boston, beyond the isthmus or neck, the small 
 pox then prevailing in the town. The house chose 
 Mr. Clarke, their former speaker, and informed the 
 governor of it by message, and he sent his approba- 
 tion, in writing, to the house. They passed a re- 
 solve, that they intended no more by their message 
 than to inform the governor and council of the 
 choice they had made, and that they had no need of 
 the governor's approbation. 
 
 The first act of the house gave new occasion for 
 controversy. They were so near the town as to be 
 in danger, and, instead of desiring the governor to 
 adjourn or prorogue the court to some other place, 
 they passed a vote for removing the court to Cam- 
 bridge, and sent it to the council for concurrence. 
 The council nonconcurred the vote. The governor 
 let the house know, that he should be very ready to 
 gratify them if he was applied to in such manner as 
 should consist with the sole right in him of adjourn- 
 ing, proroguing, and dissolving the court. They 
 replied, that they were very willing to acknowledge 
 his right, so far as respected time, but as to place, 
 by the law of the province, the court was to be 
 held in Boston, and therefore an act or order of the 
 three branches was necessary to remove it to any 
 other place. They let the governor know further, 
 that although they had met in consequence of his 
 summons, yet, as many of the members apprehended 
 that their lives were in danger, they would leave 
 the court and go home. There was a quorum, how- 
 ever, who chose to risk their lives rather than con- 
 cede that the governor had power, by his own act, 
 to remove the court from Boston to any other town 
 in the province, or risk the consequence of refusing 
 to remain a sufficient number to make a house. 
 
 The governor had received from England the 
 opinion of the attorney-general, that he had good 
 right to negative the speaker; and the lords com- 
 missioners of trade and plantations had written to 
 lim, and signified their approbation of his proceed- 
 ings. These papers he caused to be laid before the 
 house. The house drew up a remonstrance, in 
 which they justified their own conduct, and that of 
 former assemblies, in their controversies with the 
 governor, and with a great deal of decency declared 
 that, with all deference to the opinion of the attor- 
 ney-general, they must still claim the right of solely 
 electing and constituting their speaker ; and they 
 humbly presumed that their so doing could not be 
 construed a disrespect to his majesty's instructions, 
 or bearing upon the royal prerogative. The gover- 
 nor gave them a short and very moderate answer; 
 that he had made his majesty's instructions and the 
 royal charter the rule of his administration, that he 
 did not desire to be his own judge, the former house 
 had voted to send an account of the proceedings to 
 England, arid it would be very acceptable to him, if 
 the present house would state the case, and send it 
 home to persons learned in the law, and give them 
 directions to appear for the house, that his majesty 
 might judge between his governor and them, but in the 
 mean time it was his duty to follow his instructions 
 until they were countermanded. 
 
 Here seems to have been a calm interval. The 
 flame was abated but the fire not extinguished. 
 Fresh fuel soon caused a fresh flame. The grant to 
 the governor afforded proper matter. It was said 
 the house were bad economists. To save an hun- 
 dred pounds in the governor's salary they put their 
 constituents to the expense of five hundred pounds 
 for their own wages. If the governor's demand was 
 unreasonable, the house may be justified, although 
 the wages of the members for the time spent in the 
 debate amounted to much more than the sum in dis- 
 pute.' The currency also continued to depreciate, 
 but this is a consideration which never had its just 
 weight. Twenty shillings one year must be as 
 go.od as twenty shillings another. They received 
 and paid their private dues and debts in bills of 
 credit according to their denominations, why should 
 not the government's debts be paid in the same 
 manner ? A majority of the house were prevailed 
 upon to vote no more than five hundred pounds, for 
 half a year's salary, equal to about an hundred and 
 eighty pounds sterling. 
 
 The governor was irritated, instead of obtaining 
 an established salary of a thousand pounds sterling 
 per annum, which he had been instructed to insist 
 upon, his whole perquisites from the government 
 would not afford him a decent support, and they 
 were growing less every day by the sinking of the 
 curiency in its value. 
 
 The house, from an expectation that the governor 
 would, from time to time, make complaints to the 
 ministry, voted 500J. pounds sterling to be paid into 
 the hands of such persons as should be chosen to 
 defend their rights in England, but 1 the council 
 refusedto concur the vote, because it was not ex- 
 pressed by whom the persons should be chosen. 
 
 At the close of the session, the house and council 
 came into a vote, and the governor was prevailed 
 with to consent to it, " that 300 men should be sent 
 to the head quarters of the Indians, and that pro- 
 clamation should be rnade commanding them, on 
 pain of being prosecuted with the utmost severity, 
 to deliver up the Jesuits, and the other heads and 
 fomenters of their rebellion, and to make satisfac- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 325 
 
 tion for the damage tiicy hud aone; and if they re- 
 fused to comply, that as many of their principal men 
 as the commanding officer should think meet, should 
 be seized, together with Ralle, or any other Jesuit, 
 and sent to Boston ; and if any opposition should be 
 made, force should be repelled by force." Judge 
 Sewall, one of the council, scrupled the lawfulness 
 of this proceeding against the Indians and entered 
 his dissent. This gentleman was a great friend to 
 the aboriginals of every tribe, not from mere hu- 
 manity and compassion, but from a strange notion 
 that they were part of the ancient people of God ; 
 and that the ten tribes, by some means or other, had 
 strolled into America. He was a commissioner from 
 the corporation for propagating the gospel among 
 them, and with his own substance built them what 
 he named a synagogue, and did many other charit- 
 able acts. After the general court was prorogued, 
 the governor, notwithstanding he had consented to 
 the vote, suspended the prosecution until the Indian 
 hostages escaped from the castle, but a war being 
 then deemed inevitable, orders were given for rais- 
 ing the men. The hostages were taken and sent 
 back to their confinement, and the orders were re- 
 called. 
 
 A promise had been made, by the governor, to 
 the Indians, that trading houses should be built, 
 armourers or smiths sent down, at the charge of the 
 province, and that they should be supplied with pro- 
 visions, clothing, &c., for their furs and skins. The 
 compliance with this promise was expected from the 
 general court ; and at any other time, it would have 
 been thought a well judged measure, but the unhappy 
 controversy with the governor would not suffer any 
 thing from him to be approved of, and the private 
 traders provoked the Indians by their frauds and 
 other injuries,- and, it seems, the governor, as well 
 as good Mr. Sewall, scrupled whether a declaration 
 of war against them was just or prudent. This 
 house and council chose to call the proceedings 
 against them, a prosecution for rebellion; but, if a 
 view be taken of all the transactions between the 
 English and them from the beginning, it will be 
 difficult to say what sort of subjects they were, and 
 it is not certain that they understood that they had 
 promised any subjection at all. 
 
 The house, dissatisfied with the governor for not 
 carrying into execution a vote of the whole court, 
 resolved at the beginning of the next session, " that 
 the government has still sufficient reason for prose- 
 cuting the eastern Indians for their many breaches 
 of covenant." The vote being sent up for con- 
 currence, the council desired the house to explain 
 what they intended by prosecution, but they refused 
 to do it, and desired the council either to concur or 
 non-concur The house refusing to explain their 
 meaning, the board undertook to explain it, and con- 
 curred the vote with a declaration that they under- 
 stood it to be such a prosecution as had been deter- 
 mined the former session. This, no doubt, was ir- 
 regular in the council, and left room to question 
 whether it was a vote of the court, the house not 
 having agreed to it as the council qualified it. How- 
 ever, in consequence of it, a party of men were or- 
 dered up to Norridgewock, and returned with no 
 other success than bringing off some of Halle's 
 books and papers, his faithful disciples having taken, 
 care to secure his person and fly with him into the 
 woods. This insult upon their chief town, and the 
 :-()oil made upon their priest, did not long remain 
 un revenged. 
 
 The session began at Boston the 3d of November. 
 
 The governor prorogued the court to meet at Cam- 
 bridge the 7th; and before they proceeded to business, 
 to avoid any dispute about the place of meeting, 
 which would have obstructed the important affairs 
 of the province, he gave his consent to a vote of the 
 two houses, that by this instance of the governor's 
 adjourning the court no advantage should be taken 
 in favour of his sole power of removing the court 
 from place to place. In his speech, he had taken 
 no notice of party disputes, and only recommended 
 to them to raise money for the service of the go- 
 vernment and particularly of their exposed fron- 
 tiers. 
 
 The house, in their vote for supply of the treasury, 
 brought in a clause which had not been in former 
 votes, and which the council supposed would lay 
 such restraint upon the money in the treasury, that 
 it would not be in the governor's power, with their 
 advice and consent, so much as to pay an express 
 without a vote of the whole court ; they therefore 
 non-concurred the vote, and the house refused any 
 provision without that clause. In the midst of the 
 dispute, Mr. Hutchinson, one of the members for 
 Boston, was seized with the small pox and died in a 
 few days. The speaker, Mr. Clarke, was one of the 
 most noted physicians in Boston, and notwithstand- 
 ing all his care to cleanse himself from infection 
 after visiting his patients, it was supposed, brought the 
 distemper to his brother member, which so terrified 
 the court, that after the report of his being seized, it 
 was not possible to keep them together, and the go- 
 yernor found it necessary to prorogue them. At, 
 the next session in March, the house insisting upon 
 the form of supply which they had voted in the last 
 session, the council concurred. 
 
 An affair happened during this session, which 
 shewed the uncertainty of the relation the Indians 
 stood in to the English. Castine, son by an Indian 
 woman to the Baron de St. Castine, who lived many 
 years, in the last century, at Penobscot, had ap- 
 peared among the Indians, who were in arms at 
 Arovvsick. By an order of court, he had been after- 
 wards seized in the eastern country, and brought to 
 Boston and put under close confinement. 
 
 The house ordered that he should be brought upon 
 trial in the county of Suffolk, before the superior 
 court, and that the witnesses who saw him in arms 
 should be summoned to attend. This, no doubt, 
 would have been trying in one county a fact com- 
 mitted in another. The council non-concurred and 
 voted to send for witnesses, that the court might 
 judge in what manner to proceed against him ; but 
 this was not agreed to by the house. Some time 
 after a committee was appointed to examine him. 
 Castine was a very subtle fellow, and made all 
 straight with the committee. He professed the 
 highest friendship for the English, and affirmed that 
 he came to Penobscot to prevent the Indians from 
 doing mischief, and promised to endeavour to in- 
 fluence all that tribe to keep peace. The committee, 
 therefore, reported and the two houses accepted the 
 report, that he should be set at large. The gover- 
 nor approved of this proceeding; he had yet hopes 
 of preserving peace. To have punished him as a 
 traitor, would have destroyed all hopes of an accom- 
 nodation. It might also be very well questioned 
 whether it would have been justifiable. The tribe, 
 or nation, with which he was mixed, has repeatedly, 
 in. words of which they had no adequate ideas, ac- 
 knowledged themselves subjects ; but, in fact, in con- 
 comitant as well as precedent and subsequent trans- 
 actions with them, they had always been considered 
 
326 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 as free and independent; and, although, they lived 
 within the limits of the charter, the government 
 never made any attempt to exercise any civil au- 
 thority or jurisdiction over them, except when any 
 of them came within the English settlements and 
 disputes had arisen between them and the English 
 subjects. 
 
 The house, who, the last session, were for prose- 
 cuting the Indians, and could not reasonably have 
 supposed that they would bury, as they express them- 
 selves, the late march of the English to Norridge- 
 wock, seem, notwithstanding, to be suddenly chang- 
 ed from vigorous measures for bringing them to 
 terras, to schemes for appeasing and softening them ; 
 and a present was ordered to be sent to Bomaseen, 
 the Norridgewock captain, to engage him in favour 
 of the English. 
 
 The small pox, this year, made great havoc in 
 Boston and some of the adjacent towns. It had 
 teen brought into the harbour of Boston about the 
 middle of April by the Saltortugas fleet ; and having 
 been prevented spreading for near twenty years, all 
 born within that time, besides many who had es- 
 caped it before, were liable to the distemper. Of 
 5889 which took it in Boston, 844 died. Inocula- 
 tion was introduced upon this occasion, contrary to 
 the minds of the inhabitants in general, and not 
 without hazard to the lives of those who promoted 
 it, from the rage of the people. Doctor C. Mather, 
 one of the principal ministers of Boston, had ob- 
 served, in the Philosophical Transactions, a letter of 
 Timonius from Constantinople, and a treatise of 
 Pylarinus, Venetian consul at Smyrna, giving a 
 very favourable account of the operation, and he 
 recommended a trial to the physicians of the town, 
 when the small pox first began to spread, but they 
 all declined it, except Doctor Boylston, who made 
 himself very obnoxious. To shew the confidence he 
 had of success, he began with his own children and 
 servants. Many sober pious people were struck 
 with horror, and were of opinion that, if any of his 
 patients should die, he ought to be treated as a 
 murderer. The vulgar were enraged to that de- 
 gree, that his family were hardly safe in his house, and 
 he often met with affronts and insults in the streets. 
 
 The faculty, in general, disapproved his conduct, 
 but Doctor Douglas made the most zealous opposi- 
 tion. He had been regularly bred in Scotland, 
 was assuming even to arrogance, and in several 
 fugitive pieces, which he published, treated all who 
 differed from him with contempt. He was credu- 
 lous, and easily received idle reports, of persons 
 who had received the small pox by inoculation 
 taking it a second time in the natural way, of others 
 who perished in a most deplorable manner from the 
 corrupt matter which had so infected the mass of 
 blood as to render the patient incurable. At other 
 times he pronounced the eruption from inoculation 
 to be only a pustulary fever, like the chicken or 
 swine pox, nothing analogous to the small pox, and 
 that the patient, therefore, had not the least secu- 
 rity against the small pox, afterwards, by ordinary- 
 infection. 
 
 Another practiser, Lawrence Dalhonde, who had 
 been a surgeon in the French army, made oath 
 that at Cremona, about the year 1696, the operation 
 was made upon thirteen soldiers, four of which died, 
 three did not take the distemper, the other six 
 hardly escaped, and were left with tumours, inflam- 
 mations, gangrenes, &c. ; and that, about the time 
 of the battle of Almanza, the small pox being in the 
 army, two Muscovites were inoculated, one without 
 
 any immediate effect, but six weeks after was seized 
 with a frenzy, swelled all over his body, and was 
 supposed to be poisoned, and, being opened after 
 his death, his lungs were found ulcerated, which it 
 was determined was caused by inoculation. 
 
 The justices of the peace and select men of the 
 town called together the physicians, who, after ma- 
 ture deliberation, came to the following conclusions : 
 " That it appears, by numerous instances, that ino- 
 culation has proved the death of many persons, soon 
 after the operation, and brought distempers upon 
 many others which, in the end, have proved deadly 
 to them. That the natural tendency of infusing 
 such malignant filth in the masa of blood is to cor- 
 rupt and putrify it, and if there be not a sufficient 
 discharge of that malignity, by the place of incision 
 or elsewhere, it lays a foundation for many dange- 
 rous diseases. That the continuing the operation 
 among us is likely to prove of the most dangerous 
 consequence." The practice was generally con- 
 demned. 
 
 The comihon people imbibed the strongest preju- 
 dices, and such as died by inoculation were no 
 more lamented than self-murderers. Doctor Mather, 
 the first mover, after having been reproached and 
 vilified in pamphlets and newspapers, was at length 
 attacked in a more violent way. His nephew, Mr. 
 Walter, one of the ministers of Roxbury, having 
 been privately inoculated in the doctor's house in 
 Boston, a villain, about three o'clock in the morn- 
 ing, set fire to the fuze of a grenado shell, filled 
 with combustible stuff, and threw it into the cham- 
 ber where the sick man was lodged. The fuze was 
 fortunately beat off by the passing of the shell 
 through the window, and the wild fire spent itself 
 upon the floor. It was generally supposed that the 
 bursting of the shell by that means was prevented ; 
 but the shell was not filled with powder, but a 
 mixture of brimstone, with bituminous matter. A 
 scurrilous menacing writing was fastened to it. 
 
 The moderate opposers urged, that the practice 
 was to be condemned, as trusting more to the ma- 
 chination of men, than to the all-wise providence of 
 God in the ordinary course of nature, and as tend- 
 ing to propagate distempers to the destruction of 
 mankind, which proved it to be criminal in its na- 
 ture, and a species of murder. The magistrates in 
 Boston supposed it had a tendency to increase the 
 malignity, and prolong the continuance of the in- 
 fection, and that therefore it behoved them to dis- 
 countenance it. 
 
 At length, in the house of representatives, a bill 
 was brought in, and passed, to prohibit all persons 
 from inoculation for the small pox, but the council 
 were in doubt, and the bill stopped. 
 
 Such is the force of prejudice. All orders of 
 men, in that day, in greater or less proportion, con- 
 demned a practice which is now generally approved, 
 and to which many thousands owe the preservation 
 of their lives. 
 
 Boylston continued the practice, in spite of all 
 the opposition. About 300 were inoculated, in Bos- 
 ton and the adjacent towns. It is impossible to 
 determine the number which died by it. Douglas 
 would have it there was one in fourteen, whilst the 
 favourers of the practice would not allow more than 
 one in seventy or eighty. It was evident, from the 
 speedy eruption, that many had taken the distemper 
 before they were inoculated. Indeed, where per- 
 sons have continued in an infected air for months 
 together, no true judgment can ever be made of the 
 experiment. 
 
UNITED STATES 
 
 327 
 
 (1722.) The now house of representatives, in 
 May, chose the former speaker, and the governor 
 declared his approbation in the same manner he 
 had done before. He negatived two of the counsel- 
 lors elect, Colonel Byfield and Mr. William Clark. 
 Mr. Clark, being a member of the house for Boston, 
 had ever adhered closely to Mr. Cooke. The go- 
 vernor shewed his resentment, by refusing to admit 
 him to the council, but did not serve his own inter- 
 est, Mr. Clarke's opposition being of greater conse- 
 quence in the house. 
 
 The Indians were meditating mischief, from the 
 time the English were at Norridgewock, but com- 
 mitted no hostilities until June following. They 
 came then with about sixty men, in twenty canoes, 
 into Merrymeeting Bay, and took prisoners nine 
 families, but gave no marks of their usual rage and 
 barbarity. Some of their prisoners they released 
 immediately, and others in a short time after. 
 Enough were retained to be a security for the re- 
 turn of their hostages from Boston. Another small 
 party of Indians made an attempt upon a fishing 
 vessel belonging to Ipswich, as she lay in one of 
 the eastern harbours, but the fishermen being armed 
 they killed two or three of the Indians, and the 
 rest retreated. The collector of the customs at An- 
 napolis Royal, Mr. Newton, with John Adams, son 
 of one of the council for Nova Scotia, were coming 
 from thence, with Captain Blin, to Boston, and, 
 putting in to one of the Passimaquadies, went 
 ashore, with other passengers, and were all seized, 
 and made prisoners, by about a dozen Indians and 
 as many French; the people left on board the sloop 
 cut their cables and fled to Boston. 
 
 Another party of the Indians burned a sloop at 
 St. George's river, took several prisoners, and at- 
 tempted to surprise the fort. 
 
 Intelligence of these several hostile acts came to 
 Boston, whilst the general court was sitting, but 
 there seemed to be no disposition to engage in war. 
 Instead of the former vigorous resolves, upon lesser 
 provocations, the house proposed that a message 
 should be sent to the Norridgewock Indians to de- 
 mand the reasons of this behaviour, restitution of 
 the captives, and satisfaction for damages, and ac- 
 quaint them that, if they refused, effectual methods 
 <rould be taken to compel them. The hostages, 
 given by the Indians, were sent down to the east- 
 ward, and, upon the restoring the English captives, 
 they were to be set at liberty. 
 
 The friends of the English captives were impor- 
 tunate with the government to take measures for 
 their redemption, and a view to effect this seems to 
 have been the chief reason which delayed a declara- 
 tion of war. But, soon after the prorogation of the 
 court, news carne that the Indians had burnt Bruns- 
 wick, a village between Casco Bay and Kennebeck, 
 and that Captain Harman, with part of the forces 
 posted upon the frontiers, had pursued the enemy, 
 killed several, and taken fifteen of their guns. 
 Immediately after this news (July 25), the gover 
 nor, by advice of council, caused a declaration of 
 war to be published. 
 
 Foreign wars often delivered Greece and Rome 
 from their intestine broils and animosities, but this 
 war furnished a new subject for contention. The 
 governor often charged the party in the house, with 
 assuming the direction of the war, and taking into 
 their hands that power which the charter gives to 
 the governor. He gave them a hint in his speech, 
 (August 8th), at the opening the next session. 
 " One thing I would particularly remark to you, 
 
 which is that, if my hands and the council's be not 
 left at a much greater liberty than of late they have 
 been, I fear our affairs will be carried on with little 
 or no spirit. Surely, every person who wishes well 
 to his country will think it high time to lay aside all 
 animosities, private piques, "and self-interest, that 
 so we may unanimously join in the vigorous prose- 
 cution of the weighty affairs which are now upon 
 the carpet." 
 
 The house, in an address to the governor, signi- 
 fied their sentiments of the necessity of this declara- 
 tion of war, and promised " all necessary and cheerful 
 assistance." A committee of the two houses settled 
 the rates of wages, and provisions for the forces, to 
 which no exception was taken, but they went fur- 
 ther, and determined the service in which they 
 were to be employed, 300 men to be sent upon au 
 expedition to Penobscot, and the rest to be posted 
 at different places on the frontiers, and qualified 
 their report, by desiring the governor to give or- 
 ders accordingly. He let them know, that the king 
 his master, and the royal charter, had given him the 
 sole command and direction of the militia and all 
 the forces, which might be raised on any emergency, 
 and that he would not suffer them to be under any 
 direction but his own, and those officers he should 
 think fit to appoint. The house made him no 
 answer. The destination of the, military forces in 
 this manner, and making the establishment of their 
 wages depend upon a compliance with it, had not 
 been the practice in former wars and administra- 
 tions, but. the governor found he must submit to it, 
 or the frontiers would be without defence. He gave 
 up his own opinion with respect to the Penobscots, 
 and had laid the same plan which the committee 
 had reported, and he intended to prosecute it, which 
 made his compliance more easy. The house, being 
 dissatisfied with Major Moody, who had the com- 
 mand of the forces, passed the vote desiring the 
 governor to dismiss him. The council non-con- 
 curred this vote, " because he was condemned un- 
 heard," and substituted another vote, to desire the 
 governor to send for him, that he might attend the 
 court, but this the house would not agree to, and 
 sent a separate message to the governor to desire 
 him to suspend the major from his post. The go- 
 vernor told them he was surprised they should de- 
 sire so high a piece of injustice as the punishing a 
 man without hearing what he had to say for him- 
 self, and let them know that he would enquire into 
 the grounds of their complaint. Several other votes 
 passed, relative to the forces, which the governor 
 did not approve. 
 
 At the next session, November 15th, he recom- 
 mended a law to prevent mutiny and desertion, for 
 want of which the men were daily running away. 
 The house thought it necessary to be first satisfied, 
 whether the desertion in the army was not owing to 
 the unfaithfulness of the officers, and appointed two 
 committees, one to repair to the head quarters on 
 the eastern, and the other on the western frontiers, 
 with powers to require the officers to muster their 
 companies, when an exact list was to be taken of 
 the men that appeared, an account of all deserters, 
 and of all such as were absent upon. furlough, or 
 had been dismissed, or had been exchanged, toge- 
 ther with divers other powers. They then applied 
 to the governor to give orders to all in command to 
 pay a a proper deference to the vote and order of 
 the house respecting repeated abuses and misma- 
 nagements among the forces, &c. 
 
 This the governor thought he had good right to 
 
328 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 except to, and he made the vote itself, as well as the 
 manner in which it was to be executed, an article of 
 complaint against the house to the king ; but he was 
 prevailed upon to consent to it, and either made, or 
 intended to make this condition, that the commit- 
 tees should make report to him. The house urged 
 this consent against him, but, in England, it was 
 not thought a sufficient justification. 
 
 The conceding in one point naturally led to a de- 
 mand of the like concessions in others. 
 
 It was thought a salutary measure to send for de- 
 legates from the Iroquois, who were in friendship 
 with the colony, and to desire them to use the influ- 
 ence they had over the eastern Indians, in order to 
 their making satisfaction for the injuries done, and 
 to their good behaviour for the time to come. When 
 the delegates came to Boston, the house voted that 
 the speech to be made to them by the governor 
 should be prepared by a committee of the two houses. 
 The governor had prepared his speech, and he di- 
 rected the secretary to read it to the house of repre- 
 sentatives, but this was not satisfactory and they 
 sent a message, to desire that what the secretary 
 had read might be laid before the house. The 
 governor refused, at first, but, upon further con- 
 sideration consented, desiring they would speedily 
 return it. They sent it back to him and let him 
 know they would not agree to it, unless he would 
 speak in the name of the general court, and the 
 house of representatives might be present when 
 the speech was delivered. This was disagreeable 
 to him, and a novelty to the Indians, who had 
 always considered in their treaties, the governor of 
 Pensylvania, as well as the governor of New York, 
 to be treating with them in their own names, or the 
 name of the king, and cot of ibfiir respective aen> 
 blies, but he submitted. 
 
 In consequence of the vote of the house, in the 
 last session, the governor had directed an expedition 
 to Penobscot, although it was not altogether agree- 
 able to his own judgment. It seems he had hopes 
 of an accommodation, with that tribe at least. Col. 
 Walton, who had the command on the eastern fron- 
 tiers, selected forces proper for the purpose, and they 
 had actually began their march, when intelligence 
 arrived to the Colonel, that Arowsick was attacked 
 by a great number of Indians. He immediately 
 sent an express with orders to the forces to return, 
 and acquainted the governor with his proceedings. 
 The council advised to keep the whole forces for the 
 defence of our own inhabitants, and to suspend act- 
 ing upon the offensive until winter, which they 
 judged a more proper season for the expedition ; and 
 the men, in consequence of this new advice, were 
 employed in marches on the borders of the frontiers. 
 But the house were dissatisfied, and sent a message 
 to the governor " to desire him to order, by express, 
 Col. Walton to appear forthwith before the house, to 
 render his reasons why the orders relating to the 
 expedition had not been executed." This was not 
 only to take Walton from the command, as long as 
 the house should think fit to detain him, but the or- 
 ders, " relating to the expedition, " might be under- 
 stood to mean the orders which had been given by 
 the house, and not what he had received from the 
 captain general. The governor told the committee 
 that he would take no notice of the message from 
 the house unless it was otherwise expressed; besides 
 he and the council were well satisfied, and he 
 thought every body else was. He added, that he 
 intended the officers should give an account " to 
 him " of their conduct. The next day (Nov. 20), 
 
 hey sent another message to him to desire him to 
 nformthe house, whether he would send for Walton 
 as they had desired. He then told the committee, 
 ic would send his answer to the house when they 
 ;hought proper. Upon this, they seem to have ap- 
 lointed a messenger to go to the eastward, upon 
 what occasion does not appear, and the next day 
 massed the following extraordinary vote: " Whereas 
 iris house did, on Thursday last, appoint a commit- 
 :ee to wait on his excellency the governor, praying 
 lis orders for Col. Walton's appearance before the 
 house, and renewed their request to him yesterday, 
 and his excellency has not yet seen cause to comply 
 with that vote, and the denial of Col. Walton's being 
 sent for has extremely discouraged the house, in 
 projecting any further schemes for carrying on the 
 svar, under any views of success. And this house 
 being zealously inclined to do what in them lies to 
 bring this people out of the calamities and perplexi- 
 ties of fhe present war, and to spare no cost and 
 charge to effect so great a good, were some things 
 at present remedied : We do, therefore, once more, 
 
 h the greatest sincerity and concern for our 
 country's good, apply to your excellency for your 
 speedy issuing your orders concerning Col. Walton, 
 to be dispatched by the messenger of this house 
 going into those parts." The governor did not like 
 to be so closely pressed, and when the committee 
 came to his house, he told them he would not re- 
 ceive the vote, and, as it was inserted in the report 
 and journal of the house, " he went his way." They 
 then appointed their speaker and eight principal 
 members, a committee to wait upon the governor 
 and desire him to return to the chair, " on some im- 
 portant affairs which lay before the house," but he 
 refused to see the committee, and directed his ser- 
 vant to tell them he would not then be spoke to by 
 any body. 
 
 Walton was a New Hampshire man at the head 
 of the forces, a small part only of which were raised 
 in that government. This might prejudice many, 
 but there was a private grudge against him, in sume 
 of the leading men of the house, and they never left 
 pursuing him until they effected his removal. 
 
 The house, finding the governor would not comply, 
 all their messages to him being exceptionable, as 
 founded upon a supposed right in the house to call 
 the officers out of the service to account before them 
 whensoever they thought proper, and also to order 
 the particular services in which the forces should be 
 employed without leaving it in the governor's power 
 to vary, they made some alterations in the form of 
 their request, and (Dec. 4th) passed the following 
 vote : " Whereas this house have been informed of 
 divers miscarriages in the management of the war 
 in the eastern country, voted that his excellency the 
 governor be desired to express to Col. Walton, that 
 he forthwith repair to Boston, and when he hath at- 
 tended upon his excellency, that b.? would please to 
 direct him to wait on this house, that they might ex- 
 amine him concerning his late conduct in prosecu- 
 iing the war, more especially referring to the late 
 intended expedition to the. fort of Penobscot." This 
 being more general,- and not confined to the laying 
 aside the expedition, which was known to be in 
 consequence of orders, the governor was willing it 
 should be construed favourably and sent for Walton. 
 
 The council having steadily adhered to the gover- 
 nor, he took this opportunity to recommend to the 
 house, to act jointly with the council in messages to 
 him of general coacern, and at the same time, in a 
 verbal message to the secretary, endeavoured to 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 329 
 
 soften the temper of the house. " Mr. Speaker, his 
 excellency commands me to acquaint this honourable 
 house, that he has taken into consideration the se- 
 veral messages relating to Col. Walton, and thinks 
 it most agreeable to the constitution, and what 
 would tend to keep up a good agreement between 
 the council and house of representatives, for all 
 their messages, of a public nature and wherein the 
 whole government is concerned, to be sent up to the 
 council for their concurrence, and not immediately 
 to himself; however, that he will give order for Col. 
 Walton's coming up to town, and when he has re- 
 ceived an account of his proceedings, the whole 
 court shall have the hearing of him if they desire 
 it." In this way, the governor intended to guard 
 against any undue proceeding, there being no dan- 
 ger of the council's condemning a measure to which 
 a little while before they had given their advice and 
 consent ; but the house improved the hint to a very 
 different purpose, and on the 5th of December voted 
 '' that a committee, to consist of eleven members of 
 the two houses, seven of the house of representatives 
 and four of the council, shall meet in the recess of 
 the court, once in fourteen days, and oftener if occa- 
 sion shall require, to concert what steps and methods 
 shall be put in practice relative to the war, and hav- 
 ing agreed upon any projections or designs, to lay 
 them before his excellency for his approbation, who 
 is desired to take effectual care to carry them into 
 speedy execution." In affairs of government, of 
 what nature soever, this was an innovation in the 
 constitution ; but in matters relative to the war it 
 was taking the powers from the governor, which be- 
 longed to him by the constitution, and vesting them 
 in a committee of the two houses. The council 
 unanimously nonconcured the vote, and an alter- 
 cation ensued between them and the house, but the 
 council persevered. In the mean time the governor 
 was engaged in the house with new disputes. 
 
 The committee of the house, which had been sent 
 to the eastern frontiers, returned, and instead of 
 making their report to the governor, which was the 
 condition of his consent to their authority, and of 
 his orders to the officers to submit to them, they 
 made their report to the house. This was disinge- 
 nuous. It would not do to urge that he had no 
 right to make conditions to their votes, for he had 
 given no consent, unless it was conditional, and 
 without his consent they could have no authority. 
 As soon as he heard of the report, he sent to the 
 house for his original order, which he had delivered 
 to the committee. They answered that they were 
 not possessed of it, but the chairman of the com- 
 mittee had left an attested copy on their files, which 
 he might have if he pleased, but he refused the copy 
 and insisted upon the original. He then sent for 
 John Wainwright, the chairman of the committee, 
 to attend him in council, and there demanded the 
 return of the original order. Wainwright, in gene- 
 ral, was what was called a prerogative man, but the 
 house had enjoined him not to return the order. He 
 acknowledged he had the order in his possession, 
 but desired to be excused from delivering it, the 
 house having directed him to deliver no original 
 papers. The original vote of the house and the go- 
 vernor's order were as follows : 
 
 " In the house of representatives, Nov. II, 1712. 
 
 "Whereas this house have been informed of re- 
 peated abuses and mismanagements among the offi- 
 cers now in pay, tending greatly to the dishonour 
 and damage of the government, and are desirous to 
 use all proper and suitable methods for the full dis- 
 
 covery thereof. And, to effect the same, have sent 
 a committee from the house, to enquire into these 
 rumours and report how they find things. We, the 
 representatives, do most earnestly desire your excel- 
 lency's orders, by the same committee, to the com- 
 manding officer and all others in command there, to 
 pay all proper deference to the vote and order of 
 this house respecting the matter. 
 
 " John Clarke, Speaker." 
 
 "Boston, Nov. } To the officer commanding in chief 
 the 17th, 1722. $ to the eastward. 
 
 " I do hereby give orders to the commanding offi- 
 cers and all other inferior officers, to pay deference 
 to the committee, andrdo expect that the committee 
 lay first before me their report as captain general, 
 and, afterwards, upon the desire of the house of re- 
 presentatives, it shall be laid before them. 
 
 " Samuel Shute." 
 
 The house expected the governor would complain 
 of them for usurping a military power, and might 
 refuse to part with the original votes or orders by 
 which he had signified his consent to it, the condi- 
 tion not preceding the exercise of such power. 
 
 Soon after (Dec. 18th) Col. Walton came to town, 
 and the house sent their committee to desire the go- 
 vernor to direct him to attend the house the next 
 morning, but the governor refused to give such or- 
 ders, and told the committee, that if his officers 
 were to answer for their conductj it should be before 
 the whole court. They then sent their door keeper 
 and messenger to Walton, and let him know the 
 house expected his attendance. He went imme- 
 diately, but refused to give any account of his pro- 
 ceedings, without leave from the governor. The 
 next day, Walton was ordered to appear before the 
 whole court, and the governor sent a message by the 
 secretary, to acquaint the house, that they might 
 then ask any questions they thought proper relative 
 to his conduct; but they resolved, that their intent 
 in sending for him was that he should appear before 
 them. The next day, he sent another message to 
 acquaint the house that Walton was then before the 
 governor and council with his journal, and if the 
 bouse, inclined to it, he desired them to come up, 
 and ask any questions they thought proper. They 
 returned for answer, that they did not think it ex- 
 pedient, for they looked upon it not only their pri- 
 vilege, but duty, to demand, of any officer in the pay 
 and service of the government, an account of his 
 management, while employed by the public. 
 
 This perhaps, in general, was not the cause of 
 dispute, but the question was, whether he was cul- 
 pable for observing the orders which the governor 
 had given contrary to the declared mind and order 
 of the house. They then passed an order for Wal- 
 ton forthwith to lay his journal before the house. 
 This was their last vote relative to this affair, whilst 
 the governor was in the province. He had, without 
 making it public, obtained his majesty's permission 
 to leave the province and go to England. The pre- 
 judice, in the minds of the common people, increas- 
 ed every day. It was known to his friends, that as 
 he sat in one of the chambers of his house, the win- 
 dow and door of a closet being open, a bullet en- 
 tered through the window and door passages, and 
 passed very near him. If some thought this a mere 
 accident, yet as he knew he had many virulent ene- 
 mies, he could not be without suspicion of a wicked 
 design ; but his principal intention in going home, 
 was to represent the conduct of the house, to call 
 them to answer before his majesty in council, and to 
 obtain a decision of the points in, controversy, and 
 
330 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA 
 
 thereby to remove all occasion or pretence for fur- j 
 ther disputes. Hie departure was very sudden. The 
 Seahorse man of war, Captain Durell, lying in 
 Nautasket, bound to Barbadoes, to convoy the 
 Saltortugas fleet, the governor went on board her, 
 Dec. 27th, intending to go from Barbadoes the first 
 opportunity for London. Not one member of the 
 court was in the secret, nor indeed any person in 
 the province except two or three of his domestics. 
 The wind proved contrary for three or four days, 
 during which, the owners of the ship Ann, Captain 
 Finch, which was then loading for London, by em- 
 ploying a great number of hands, had her fitted for 
 the sea and sent her to Nantasket, and offered the 
 governor his passage in her, and he went on board 
 and sailed the 1st of January. 
 
 Colonel Shutc had the character of being humane, 
 friendly, and benevolent, but somewhat warm and 
 sudden upon provocations received, was a lover of 
 case and diversions, and for the sake of indulging 
 his inclinations, in those respects, would willingly 
 have avoided controversy with particular persons or 
 orders of men in the government ; but it was his 
 misfortune to arrive when parties ran high, and the 
 opposition had been violent. With great skill in 
 the art of government, it might not have been im- 
 possible for him to have kept both parties in sus- 
 pense, without interesting himself on either side, 
 until he had broken their respective connections or 
 the animosity had subsided ; but, void of art, with 
 great integrity, he attached himself to that party 
 which appeared to him to be right, and made the 
 other his irreconcilable enemies. His negativing 
 Mr. Cooke, when chose to the council, was no more 
 than what he had an undoubted right to do by 
 charter, but the refusal to accept him as speaker, 
 perhaps, was impolitic, the country in general sup- 
 posing it to be an invasion of the rights of the house, 
 and it would have been less exceptionable to have 
 dissolved them immediately, which he had a right 
 to do, than to dissolve them after an unsuccessful 
 attempt to enforce his negative, when his right was 
 doubtful in the province, although not so with the 
 attorney and solicitor general, who supposed the 
 house of representatives claimed a privilege which 
 the house of commons did not. The leading men 
 in the house of representatives did not think so. 
 That point had not been in question in England 
 since the reign of King Charles the Second, when 
 it was rather avoided than determined, and it was 
 not certain that the house of commons in the reign 
 of King George the First would more readily have 
 given up the point than their predecessors in the 
 time of King Charles. The house, in the other 
 parts of the controversy, had less to say for them- 
 selves, and, with respect to the attempts upon his 
 military authority, were glad to be excused by an 
 acknowledgment of their having been in the wrong. 
 The reducing his salary, which, at the highest, 
 would no more than decejitly support him, was 
 highly resented by him, and his friends said that he 
 would have remained in the government, and waited 
 the decision of the other points, if the two hundred 
 pounds, equal to about fifty pounds sterling, the 
 deduction made, had been restored. 
 
 Under an absolute monarch the people are 
 without spirit, wear their chains despairing of free- 
 dom. A change of masters is the sum of their 
 hopes, and, after insurrections and convulsions, they 
 still continue slaves. In a government founded 
 upon the principle of liberty, as far as government 
 and liberty can consist, such are the sweets of li- 
 
 berty, that we often see attempts for a greater de- 
 gree of it than will consist with the established 
 constitution, although anarchy, the greatest and 
 worst of tyrannies may prove the consequence, until 
 the eyes of the people are opened, and they see the 
 necessity of returning to their former happy state of 
 government and order. 
 
 The lieut.-governor took the chair, under the 
 disadvantage of being obliged to maintain the same 
 cause which had forced his predecessor out of it. 
 Personal prejudice against the governor was the 
 cause of assuming rights reserved by charter to the 
 crown. The cause now ceased, but power once as- 
 sumed is not willingly parted with. Mr. Dummer 
 had conducted himself very discreetly. His at- 
 tachment to the cause of the governor lost him some 
 friends, and proved a prejudice to him and to his 
 successors, for it had been usual to make an annual 
 grant or allowance to the lieut.-governor, in consi- 
 deration of his being at hand, or as they expressed 
 it, ready to serve the province, in case of the gover- 
 nor's absence, but, after the two or three first years 
 from his arrival, they withheld it. Without any 
 mention of the unhappy state of affairs, in a short 
 speech to the two houses, he let them know that he 
 would concur with them in every measure for his 
 majesty's service, and the good of the province. 
 An aged senator, Mr. Sewall, the only person alive 
 who had been an assistant under the old charter, 
 addressed himself to the lieut.-governor with great 
 gravity and simplicity, in a primitive style, which, 
 however obsolete, may be worth preserving. " If 
 your honour and the honourable board please to 
 give me leave, I would speak a word or two, upon 
 this solemn occasion. Although the unerring pro- 
 vidence of God has brought your honour to the 
 chair of government, in a cloudy and tempestuous 
 season, yet you have this for your encouragement, 
 that the people you have to do with are a part of 
 the Israel of God, and you may expect to have of 
 the prudence and patience of Moses communicated 
 to you. for your conduct. It is evident, that our 
 Almighty Saviour counselled the first planters to 
 remove hither, and settle here, and they dutifully 
 followed his advice, and therefore he will never 
 leave nor forsake them, nor theirs; so that your 
 honour must needs be happy in sincerely seeking 
 their happiness and welfare, which your birth and 
 education will incline you to do. Difficilia qucr, 
 pulchra. I promise myself, that they who set at 
 this board will yield their faithful advice to your 
 honour, according to the duty of their place." 
 
 The house thought it necessary to take immediate 
 measures for their defence and vindication in Eng- 
 land. The governor had mentioned nothing more 
 to their lieut.-governor than, that he was embarked, 
 and intended to return to his government early in 
 the fall. This, the lieut.-governor communicated 
 to the council, and the council to the house. They 
 sent a committee immediately to the lieut.-governor, 
 to pray him to inform them what he knew of the 
 governor's intended voyage; but he could tell them 
 no more. They then appointed another committee 
 " to prepare and lay before the house what they 
 think proper to be done in this critical juncture, in 
 their just and necessary vindication at the court at 
 home," and a ship, Captain Clerk, then ready to 
 sail for London, was detained until the dispatches 
 were ready. Anthony Sanderson, a merchant of 
 London, had been recommended by Mr. Popple, of 
 the plantation office, in a letter to the speaker, as a 
 proper person for the province agent. To him the 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 331 
 
 house sent their papers, to be improved as they 
 should order. 
 
 (1723.) The house was loth, suddenly, to recede, 
 and, the day after the governor sailed, they ap- 
 pointed a committee, to join with a committee of 
 council, to consider of proper ways for carrying 
 into execution the report of a committee of war. 
 This was the province of the captain general, and 
 the council refused a concurrence. The house then 
 passed another vote, protesting against carrying on 
 an offensive war, unless Walton, the colonel, and 
 Moody, the major, should be removed, and other 
 suitable persons appointed. Before the council 
 passed upon this vote, the two obnoxious persons 
 were prevailed upon to write to the lieut. -governor, 
 and desire a dismission, provided they might be 
 paid their wages, and, the letters being communi- 
 cated to the council, they passed another vote, de- 
 siring the lieut.-governor to dismiss the officers, 
 agreeable to the letters received from them. This 
 vote the house non-concurred, and insisted upon 
 their own vote, which the council then non-con- 
 curred. The house then passed a resolve, that, un- 
 less Walton and Moody were dismissed, they should 
 be necessitated to draw off part of the forces, and 
 sent their ' resolve to be laid upon the council table.' 
 The lieut.-governor, by a message, let the house 
 know, that the king had appointed him general of 
 the forces, and that he, only, hud the power to 
 draw them off, and added, that he expected all mes- 
 sages from the house should be properly addressed 
 to him, otherwise he should pay no regard to them. 
 The house were sensible they had gone too far, and 
 appointed a committee to wait upon the lieut.-go- 
 vernor, to desire they might have leave to withdraw 
 their resolve, and declared that, however expressed, 
 they intended only that they would not vote any 
 further pay and subsistence. They persisted, how- 
 ever, in their refusal to provide for the pay of the 
 two officers, whose dismission they required, nor 
 would they make provision for further carrying on 
 the war until other officers were appointed. 
 
 Among the other instances of additional power 
 to the house they had, by degrees, acquired, from 
 the governor and council the keys of the treasury, 
 and no monies could be issued without the vote of 
 the house for that purpose. This is no more than 
 some colonies, without charters, claim and enjoy; 
 but by the charter, all monies are to be paid out of 
 the treasury ' by warrant' from the governor, with 
 advice and consent of the council. The right of the 
 house to originate all acts and orders for raising 
 monies from the people and to appropriate such 
 monies to such services as they ' thought proper, 
 was not disputed, but they went further, and would 
 not admit that payment should be made for such 
 services until they had judged whether they were 
 well performed, and had passed a special order for 
 such payment. Thus they kept every officer de- 
 pendent, and Walton, because he had not observed 
 their orders to go to Penobscot, but had conformed 
 to the governor's orders, from whom he derived all 
 the authority he had to march any where, was de 
 nied his pay. Other matters were alleged against 
 Walton in the course of the dispute, but this seems 
 to have been the principal. 
 
 The exposed state which the frontiers must have 
 been in, if the forces had been drawn off, and they 
 could not be kept there without pay, induced the 
 lieut-governor to dismiss Walton, and to appoint 
 Thomas Westbrooke colonel and commander-in- 
 chicf, whereupon an establishment was settled by 
 
 the house, premiums were gran ed for Indian scalps 
 and prisoners, and au end was put to the session. 
 
 The Indians, we have observed, were instigated 
 by the French to begin the war. The old men 
 were averse to it. Halle, with difficulty, prevailed 
 upon the Norridgewocks. The Peuobscots were 
 still more disinclined and, after hostilities began, 
 expressed their desires of an accommodation. The 
 St. Francois Indians, who lived upon the borders of 
 Canada, and the St. John's, as also the Cape Sable 
 Indians, were so remote, as not to fear the destruc- 
 tion of their villages by the English. They mixed 
 with the Norridgewocks and Penobscots, and made 
 the war general. In the latter part of July the 
 enemies surprized Canso, and other harbours near 
 to it, and took sixteen or seventeen sail of fishing 
 vessels, all belonging to the Massachusetts. Go- 
 vernor Phillips happened to be at Canso, and caused 
 two sloops to be manned, partly with volunteer 
 sailors from merchant vessels, which were loading 
 with fish, and sent them, under the command of 
 John Eliot of Boston, and John Robinson of Cape 
 Ann, in quest of the enemy. Eliot, as he was 
 ranging the coast, observed seven vessels in a har- 
 bour called Winnepaug, and concealed all his men, 
 except four or five, until he came near to one of the 
 vessels, which had about forty Indians aboard, who 
 were in expectation of another 'prize falling into 
 their hands. As soon as he was within hearing, 
 they hoisted their pennants and called out, * strike, 
 English dogs, and come aboard, for you are all 
 prisoners.' Eliot answered, that he would make all 
 the haste he could. Finding he made no attempt 
 to escape, they began to fear a tartar, and cut their 
 cable, with intent to run ashore, but he was too 
 quick for them, and immediately clapped them 
 aboard. For about half an hour they made a brave 
 resistance; but, at length some of them jumping 
 into the hold, Eliot threw his hand grenadoes after 
 them, which made such havoc, that all which re- 
 mained alive took to the water, where they were a 
 fatal mark for the English shot. From this, or a 
 like action, probably took rise a common expression 
 among English soldiers, and sometimes English 
 hunters, who, when they have killed an Indian, 
 make their boast of having killed a black duck. 
 Five only reached the shore. 
 
 Eliot received three bad wounds, and several of 
 the men were wounded, and one killed. Seven 
 vessels, with several hundred quintals of fish, and 
 fifteen of the captives, were recovered from the 
 enemy. They had sent many of the prisoners away, 
 and nine they had killed in cold blood. The Nova 
 Scotia Indians had the character of being more 
 savage and cruel than the other nations. 
 
 Robinson retook two vessels, and killed several 
 of the enemy. Five other vessels the Indians had 
 carried so far up the bay, above the harbour of Ma- 
 lagash, that they were out of his reach, and he had 
 not sufficient men to land, the enemy being very 
 numerous. 
 
 The loss of so many men enraged them, and they 
 had determined to revenge themselves upon the 
 poor fishermen, above twenty of whom yet remained 
 prisoners at Malagash harbour, and they were all 
 destined to be sacrificed to the manes of the slain 
 Indians. The powowing and other ceremonies were 
 performing when Captain Blin, in a sloop, appeared 
 off the harbour, and made the signal, or sent in a 
 token, which had been agreed upon between him 
 and the Indians, when he was their prisoner, should 
 be his l protection. Three of the Indians went 
 
332 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 aboard his vessel, and agreed for the ransom both 
 of vessels and captives, which were delivered to 
 nim, and the ransom paid. In his way to Boston 
 he made prisoners of three or four Indians near 
 Cape Sables, and, about the same time, Captain 
 Southack took two canoes, with three Indians in 
 each, one of which was killed, and the other five 
 brought to Boston. 
 
 This Nova Scotia affair proved very unfortunate 
 for the Indians. The Massachusetts frontiers af- 
 forded them less plunder, but they were in less 
 danger. On the 16th of September, between four 
 and five hundred Indians were discovered upon 
 Arowsick Island, by a party of soldiers who were 
 employed as a guard to the inhabitants while at 
 their labour. They immediately made an alarm, 
 by firing some of their guns, and the inhabitants of 
 the island, by this means, had sufficient notice to 
 shelter themselves in the fort or garrison house, and 
 also to secure part of their goods before the enemy 
 came upon them. 
 
 They fired some time upon the fort, and killed 
 one man, after which they fell to destroying the 
 cattle, about fifty head, and" plundering the houses, 
 and set fire to twenty-six houses, the flames of which 
 the owners beheld from the fort, lamenting the in- 
 sufficiency of their numbers to sally out and prevent 
 the mischief. 
 
 These were the Indians who put a stop to the 
 march to Penobscot. There were in the fort about 
 forty soldiers, under Capt. Robert Temple and Capt. 
 Penhallow. Capt. Temple was a gentleman who 
 came over from Ireland, with an intent to settle in 
 the country with a great number of families from 
 the north of Ireland, but this rupture with the In- 
 dians broke his measures, and having been an officer 
 in the army, Col. Shute gave him a command here. 
 Walton and Harman, upon the first alarm, made 
 all the dispatch they could, and before night came 
 to the island in two whaleboats with thirty men 
 inore. With their joint force the English made an 
 Attempt to repel the enemy, but the disproportion in 
 numbers was such that, in a bush fight or behind 
 trees, there was no chance, and the English retreat- 
 ed to the fort. The enemy drew off the same night, 
 and passing up Kennebeck river, met the province 
 sloop, and firing upon her killed the master, Bar- 
 tholomew Stretton, and then made an attempt upon 
 Richmond fort, and from thence went to the village 
 of Norridgewock, their head quarters. 
 
 A man was killed at Berwick, which was the last 
 mischief done by the enemy this first year of the 
 war. 
 
 When the general court met in May, next year, 
 no advice had been received of any measures taken 
 by the governor in England. The house chose their 
 speaker, and placed him in the chair without pre- 
 senting him to the lieut-governor, which he took no 
 notice of. They continued their claim to a share in 
 Ihe direction of the war, and insisted, that if any 
 proposals of peace should be made by the Indians, 
 they should be communicated to the house and ap- 
 proved by them. They repeated also a vote for a 
 committee of the two houses to meet in the recess of 
 the court, and to settle plans for managing the af- 
 fairs of the war, which the lieut.-governor was to 
 carry into execution, but in this the council again 
 noncurred. The lieut. -governor's seal being affixed 
 to a belt, given to tne delegates from the Iroquois, 
 who came to Boston to a conference, the house pas- 
 sed a resolve " that the seal be defaced, and that the 
 seal of the province be affixed to the belt, as the 
 
 committee of the two houses have agreed," and sen 
 the resolve to the council for their concurrence. 
 The council, instead of concurring, voted, as well 
 they might, that the resolve contained just matter of 
 oft'enoe, and therefore they desired the house to 
 withdraw it. This produced another resolve from 
 the house still higher, " that the affixing a private 
 seal, contrary to the agreement of a committee, was 
 a high affront and indignity to them, and therefore 
 they very justly expected the advisers and promo- 
 ters thereof to be made known to the house." There 
 was a double error in this transaction of the house, 
 the lieut.-governor having the unquestionable right 
 of ordering the form of proceeding in treaties or 
 conferences of this kind, and the house having no 
 authority to direct the king's seal to be applied to 
 any purpose, the governor being the keeper of the 
 seal; and although, in common parlance, called tht 
 province seal, yet, properly speaking, it was the 
 king's seal for the use of the province. 
 
 The lieut.-governor took no public exception to 
 any votes of the house this session, which we must 
 presume to be owing to his apprehensions, that in a 
 short time, a full consideration would be had ir 
 England of matters of the same nature during Col 
 Shute's administration. Before the next session r 
 the general court (Oct. 23d), the agent, Mr. Sande 
 son, transmitted to the speaker a copy of the hea 
 of complaint exhibited against the house, for en- 
 croaching upon his majesty's prerogative in seven 
 instances. 
 
 1. "In their behaviour with respect to the trees 
 reserved for masts for the royal navy. 
 
 2. For refusing to admit the governor's negative 
 upon their choice of a speaker. 
 
 3. Assuming power in the appointment of days 
 for fasting and thanksgiving. 
 
 4. Adjourning themselves to a distant day by 
 their own act. 
 
 5. Dismantling forts, and directing the artillery 
 and warlike stores to other than the custody of the 
 captain general, or his order. 
 
 6. Suspending military officers and refusing their 
 pay. 
 
 7. Appointing committees of their own to direct 
 and muster his majesty's forces." 
 
 The house voted the complaint groundless, and 
 ordered one hundred pounds sterling to be remitted 
 Sanderson, to enable him to employ counsel to justify 
 the proceedings of the house. The vote being sent 
 to the council was unanimously nonconcurred. 
 
 The house then prepared an answer to the several 
 articles of complaint, and an address to the king, to 
 which they likewise desired the concurrence or ap- 
 probation of the council ; but they were disapproved 
 and sent back with a vote or message, that " in 
 faithfulness to the province, and from a tender re- 
 gard to the house of representatives, the board can- 
 not but declare and give as their opinion, that the 
 answer is not likely to recommend this government 
 and people to the grace and favour of his majesty, 
 but on the contrary, has a tendency to render us 
 obnoxious to the royal displeasure." 
 
 The house, however, ordered the answer and aa- 
 dress to be signed by the speaker, and forwarded 
 to Mr. Sanderson, to be improved as they should 
 order. 
 
 The council thereupon prepared a separate ad- 
 dress to his majesty, and transmitted it to the go- 
 vernor. The nonconcurrence of council with these 
 measures of the house, was resented, and the houso 
 desired to know what part of their answer had a ten- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 333 
 
 dency to render the government and people obnox- j 
 ious. Here the council, very prudently, avoided en- 
 gaging in controversy with the house. '' It was not 
 their design to enter into a detail, but only to inti- 
 mate their opinion, that considering the present cir- 
 cumstances of affairs, some better method might be 
 taken than an absolute justification." They had 
 shewn their dissatisfaction with the conduct of the 
 house, in every article which furnished matter for 
 the complaint, except that of the speaker, and did 
 all in their power to prevent them; but now this 
 conduct was impeached, the arguments used by the 
 council in a dispute with the house, might be suffi- 
 cient to justify the council and set their conduct in 
 an advantageous light, but they would strengthen 
 and increase the prejudice against the country in 
 general. This was an instance of public spirit worthy 
 of imitation. 
 
 The house then resolved, " that being apprehen- 
 sive that the liberties and pn'vileges of the people 
 are struck at, by governor Shute's memorial to his 
 majesty, it is therefore their duty as well as interest, 
 to send some suitable person or persons from hence, 
 to use the best method that may be to defend the 
 constitution and charter privileges." They had no 
 power over the treasury, without the council, and 
 therefore sent this vote for concurrence; but it was 
 refused, and the following vote passed in council in- 
 stead of it: "The liberties and privileges of his ma- 
 jesty's good subjects of this province being in dan- 
 ger, at this present critical conjuncture of our public 
 affairs at the court of Great Britain, and it being 
 our duty as well as interest to use the best methods 
 that maybe in defence of the same; and whereas 
 Jeremiah Dummcr, Esq., the agent of this court, is 
 a person of great knowledge and long experience 
 in the affairs of the province, and has greatly merit- 
 ed of this people, by his printed defence of the 
 charter, and may reasonably be supposed more ca- 
 pable of serving us in this existence, than any per- 
 son that may be sent from hence, voted, that the 
 said Mr. agent Dummer be directed to appear in 
 behalf of the province, for the defence of the charter, 
 according to such instructions as he shall receive 
 frpm this court." This vote plainly intimated, that 
 by the late conduct of the house, the charter of the 
 province was in danger, but the house seem to have 
 overlooked it, and concurred with~ an amendment, 
 " that Mr. Sanderson and a person sent from hence 
 be joined with Mr. Dummer." The council agreed, 
 that a person should be sent home, but refused to 
 join Sanderson. Before the house passed upon this 
 amendment, they made a further trial to obtain an 
 independency of the council, and voted, that there 
 should be paid out of the treasury, to the speaker of 
 the house, three hundred pounds sterling, to be ap- 
 plied as the house should order. Near three weeks 
 were spent in altercations upon this subject, between 
 the council and the. house ; at length it was agreed 
 that one hundred pounds should be at the disposal 
 of the house, and two hundred to be paid to such 
 agents as should be chosen by the whole court. The 
 house were in arrears to Sanderson, which they 
 wanted this money to discharge, and then were con- 
 tent to drop him. 
 
 The manner of chusing civil officers had been by 
 a joint vote or ballot of council and house. This 
 gave a great advantage to the house, who were four 
 times the number of the board. But to be more 
 sure of the person the majority of the house were 
 fond of, they chose Mr. Cooke for agent, and sent 
 the vote to the board for concurrence. The council 
 
 nonconcured, and insisted on proceeding in the 
 usual way, which the house were obliged to comply 
 with. The choice, however, fell upon the same per- 
 son, and he sailed for London the 18th of January. 
 
 Col. Westbrook with 230 men set out from Kene- 
 beck, the llth of February this year, with small ves- 
 sels and a whale-boat, and ranged the coast as far east 
 as Mount Desart. Upon his return, he went up 
 Penobscot river, where, about thirty-two miles from 
 the anchoring place of the transports, he discovered 
 the Indian castle or fortress, wailed with stockadoes, 
 about seventy feet in length and fifty in breadth, 
 which inclosed twenty-three well finished wigwams. 
 Without, was a church sixty feet long and thirty 
 broad, very decently finished within and without, 
 and a very commodious house in which the priest 
 dwelt. All was deserted, and all the success attend- 
 ing this expedition was the burning the village. 
 The forces returned to St. Georges, the 20th of 
 March. 
 
 Captain Harman was intended, with about 120 
 men, for Norridgewock at the same time, and set 
 out the 6th of February, but the rivers were so open 
 and the ground so full of water, that they could 
 neither pass by water nor land; and having with 
 great difficulty reached to the upper falls of Amas- 
 coggin, they divided into scouting parties, and re- 
 turned without seeing any of the enemy.' 
 
 An attempt was made to engage the six nations 
 and the Scatacook Indians in the war, and commis- 
 sioners were sent to Albany empowered to promise 
 a bounty for every scalp if they would go out against 
 the enemy, but they had no further success than a 
 proposal to send a large number of delegates to 
 Boston. 
 
 The commissioners for Indian affairs in Albany 
 had the command of the six nations, and would not 
 have suffered them to engage in war if they had in- 
 clined to it. The Massachusetts commissioners were 
 amused, and a large sum was drawn from the go- 
 vernment in valuable presents to no purpose. No 
 less than sixty-three Indians came to Boston, Au- 
 gust the 21st, the general court then sitting. A 
 very formal conference was held with them, in the 
 presence of the whole court, but the delegates would 
 not involve their principals in war; if any of their 
 young men inclined to go out with any parties of 
 the English, they were at liberty and might do as 
 they pleased. Two young fellows offered their ser- 
 vice, and were sent down to Fort Richmond, on 
 Kenebeok river. Capt. Heath the commander, or- 
 dered his ensign (Coleby) and three of the garrison 
 to go up the river with them. After they had tra- 
 velled a league from the fort, they judged by the 
 smell of fire that a party of the enemy must be near. 
 The Mohawks would go no further until they were 
 strengthened by more men, and sent to the fort for 
 a whaleboat, with as many men as she could carry. 
 Thirteen men were sent, and soon after they had 
 joined the first party, about thirty of the enemy ap- 
 peared, and after a smart skirmish fled to their ca- 
 noes, carrying off two of their company dead, or so 
 badly wounded as to be unable to walk, and leaving 
 their packs behind. Coleby, who commanded the 
 party, was killed, and two others wounded. The 
 Mohawks had enough of the service and could not 
 be prevailed on to stay any longer, and were sent 
 back to Boston. 
 
 Small parties of the enemy kept the frontiers in 
 constant terror, and now and then met with success. 
 
 In April they killed and took eight persons at 
 Scarborough and Falmouth. Among the dead, was 
 
334 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the serjeant of the fort, Chubb, whom the Indian 
 took to be Capt. Harman, and no less than fifteen 
 of them aimed at him at the same time, and lodged 
 eleven bullets in his body. This was lucky for the 
 rest, many more escaping to the fort than would 
 otherwise have done. In May, they killed two at 
 or near Berwick, one at Wells, and two travelling 
 between York and Wells. In June, they came to 
 Roger Bering's garrison, at Scarborough, killed his 
 wife and took three of his children as they were 
 picking berries, and killed two other persons. In 
 July, Bominicus Jordan, a principal inhabitant and 
 proprietor of Saco, was attacked in his field by five 
 Indians, but keeping 1 his gun constantly presented, 
 without firing, they did not care to close in with 
 him, and after receiving three wounds recovered the 
 garrison. In August, the enemy appeared west- 
 ward, and on the 1 3th killed two men at Northfi eld ; 
 and the next day a father and four of his sons, mak- 
 ing hay at a meadow at Rutland, were surprised by 
 about a dozen Indians. The father escaped in the 
 bushes, but the four sons fell a prey to the enemy. 
 Mr. Willard, the minister of Rutland, being abroad, 
 armed, fell into their hands also, having killed one 
 and wounded another before he was slain himself. 
 The last of the month, they killed a man at Cocheco. 
 and killed or carried away another at Arundel. The 
 llth of October, about seventy of the enemy attack- 
 ed the blockhouse above Northfield, and killed or 
 wounded four or five of the English. Col. Stoddard 
 marched immediately with fifty men from Nor- 
 thampton to reinforce Northfield, fifty men belong- 
 ing to Connecticut having been drawn off the day 
 before. Justice should be done to the government 
 of Connecticut. Their frontiers were covered by 
 the Massachusetts, and if they had not contributed 
 to the charge of the war, it was not probable that 
 the Massachusetts people would have drawn in and 
 left Connecticut frontiers exposed. Nevertheless, 
 they generally, at the request of the Massachusetts, 
 sent forces every year during the summer, in this 
 and former wars, and paid their wages, the provis- 
 ions being furnished by this government. 
 
 In October, the enemy surprised one Cogswell, 
 and a boat's crew, which were with him at Mount 
 Besart. December 25th, about sixty Indians laid 
 siege to the fort at Muscongus or St. George's. 
 They surprised and took two of the garrison, who 
 informed them the fort was in a miserable condition, 
 but the chief officer there, Kennedy, being a bold, 
 resolute man, the garrison held out until Colonel 
 Westbrook arrived, with force sufficient to scatter 
 the besiegers and put them to flight. 
 
 This summer, also, July 14th, the Indians sur- 
 prised one Captain Watkins, who was on a fishing 
 voyage at Canso, and killed him and- three or four 
 of his family upon DurelPs Island. 
 
 Bouglas, and other writers, applaud the adminis- 
 tration for conducting this war with great skill. 
 The French could not join the Indians, as in for- 
 mer wars. Parties of the English kept upon the 
 march, backwards, and forwards, but saw no In- 
 dians. Captain Moulton went up to Norridgewock, 
 and brought away some books and papers of the 
 Jesuit, Ralle, which discovered that the French 
 were the instigators of the Indians to war, but he 
 saw none of the enemy. He came off without des- 
 troying their houses and church. Moulton was a 
 discreet, as well as brave, man, and probably ima- 
 gined this instance of his moderation would provoke 
 in the Indians the like spirit towards the English. 
 August 25. A Nipuiug Indian, John Quittamug, 
 
 came to Boston, and was entertained by several 
 gentlemen, who accounted him a great prodigy. 
 Forty years before he had been remarked as an old 
 Indian, and must now have been above 112 years 
 of age. He constantly affirmed, that in the year 
 1630, upon a message from the English that they 
 were in want of corn, soon after their arrival, he 
 went with his father to Boston, and carried from 
 the Nipmug country a bushel and a half of corn all 
 the way upon his back, that there was then only one 
 cellar began in the town, and that somewhere near 
 the common. He was in good health, his under- 
 standing and memory entire, and travelled on foot 
 ten miles a day. He lived near the town of Wood- 
 stock. His journey to Boston proved as fatal to 
 him as old Thomas Parr's journey to London, sur- 
 viving it a very short time after his return home, 
 having been feasted by some of the principal gen- 
 tlemen here as Parr had been at London. 
 
 (1724.) The next year was unfavourable to the 
 English in the former part of it, and the losses, 
 upon the whole, exceeded those of the enemy ; but 
 a successful stroke or two against them, in the 
 course of the year, made them weary of war, and 
 were the means of an accommodation. The 23d of 
 March they killed one Smith, serjeant of the fort at 
 Cape Porpoise. In April one Mitchell was killed at 
 Black Point, and two of his sons taken, and about 
 the same time John Felt, William Wormwell, and 
 Ebenezer Lewis, were killed in a saw mill on Ken- 
 nebeck river, and one Thomson at Berwick met 
 -with the same fate in May, and one of his children 
 was carried into captivity, another child was scalped, 
 and left on the ground for dead, but soon after was 
 taken up and carried home alive. In the same 
 month they killed elder Knock, at Lamprey river, 
 George Chapley, and a young woman, at Oyster 
 river, as they were going home from public worship, 
 and took prisoners a man and three boys at Kings- 
 ton. The beginning of June a scout of thirty men, 
 from Oyster liver, were attacked before they left 
 the houses, and two men were shot down. The rest 
 ran upon the Indians, aud put them to flight, leav- 
 ing their packs and one of their company, who was 
 killed in the skirmish. One Englishman was killed 
 and two taken prisoners at Hatfield; another, with 
 a friend Indian, and their horses, were killed be- 
 tween Northfield and Beerfield. 
 
 This month, news was brought to Boston of the 
 loss of Captain Josiah Winslow and thirteen of his 
 company, belonging to the fort at St. George's 
 river. There went out seventeen men in two whale 
 boats, April 30. The Indians, it seems, watched 
 their motions and waited the most convenient time 
 and place to attack them. The next day, as they 
 were upon their return, they found themselves, on 
 a sudden, surrounded with thirty canoes, whose 
 compliment must be an hundred Indians. They 
 attempted to land, but were intercepted, and nothing 
 remained but to sell their lives as dear as they 
 could They made a gallant defence, and the bra- 
 re ry of their captain was, in an especial manner, 
 applauded. Every Englishman was killed. Three 
 Indians, of those called the Cape Ann Indians, who 
 were of the company, made their escape, and car- 
 ried to the fort the melancholy news. 
 
 Encouraged by this success, the enemy made a 
 still greater attempt, by water, seized two shallops 
 at the Isle of Shoals, and, afterwards, other fishing 
 vessels in other harbours, and, among the rest, a 
 arge schooner, with two swivel guns, which they 
 manned and cruized about the coast. A small force 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 335 
 
 was thought sufficient to conquer these raw sailors, 
 and the lieut.-governor commissioned Doctor Jack- 
 son, of the province of Main, in a small schooner, 
 \vith twenty men, and Silvauus Lakeman, of Ips- 
 wich, in a shallop with sixteen men, to go in quest 
 of them. They soon came up with them, and, not 
 long after, returned, with their rigging much da- 
 maged by the swivel guns, and Jackson and several 
 of his men wounded, and could give no other ac- 
 count of the enemy than that they had gone to Pe- 
 nobscot. 
 
 The Seahorse, man of-war, Captain Durrell, being 
 then upon the Boston station, the lieutenant, mas- 
 ter, and master's mate, each of them took the com- 
 mand of a small vessel, with thirty men each, and 
 went after the Indians, but, it is probable, they 
 were soon tired of this new business, for they were 
 not to be found, nor do we meet with any further 
 intelligence about them. They took eleven ves- 
 sels, with forty-five men, twenty-two of whom they 
 killed, and carried twenty-three into captivity. 
 
 At Groton they killed one man, and left dead 
 one of their own number. August 3d, they killed 
 three, wounded one, and made another prisoner at 
 Rutland. The Gth, four of them came upon a small 
 house in Oxford, which was built under a hill. 
 They made a breach in the roof, and, as one of 
 them was attempting to enter, he received a shot in 
 his belly, from a courageous woman, the only per- 
 son in the house ; she had two muskets and two 
 pistols charged, and was prepared for all four, but 
 they thought fit to retreat, carrying off the dead or 
 wounded man. The 16th a man was killed at Ber- 
 wick, another wounded, and a third carried away. 
 The 2Sth, one was killed, and another wounded, at 
 Northampton, and the 26th, the enemy came to the 
 house of John Hanson, one of the people called 
 quakers, at Dover, and killed or carried away his 
 wife, maid, and six children, the man himself being 
 at the friends' meeting. This unfortunate man, 
 Hanson, went afterwards to Ganda and redeemed 
 his wife, three of his children, and the maid. Two 
 of his sons were killed, a daughter, of seventeen 
 years of age, he was obliged to leave in their hands. 
 The Indians would permit him to see and converse 
 with her, but would not part with her upon any 
 terms. 
 
 Discouraged with the ineffectual attempts to in- 
 tercept the enemy, by parties of our forces marching 
 upon the back of the frontiers, another expedition 
 was resolved \xpon, in order to surprise them in 
 their principal village at Norridgewock. 
 
 Four companies, consisting in the whole of 208 
 men, were ordered up the river Kenebeck, under 
 Captain Haraian, Captain Moulton, Captain Bourn, 
 and lieutenant Bean. Three Indians, of the six 
 nations, were prevailed with to accompany our 
 forces. The different accounts given by the French 
 and English of this expedition may afford some 
 entertainment. Charlevoix, who was about that 
 time in Canada, and might receive there or from 
 thence the account given by the Indians themselves, 
 relates it in this manner. " The 23d of August, 
 1724, eleven hundred men, part English, part In- 
 dians, came up to Norridgewock. The thickets, 
 with which the Indian village was surrounded, and 
 the little care taken by the inhabitants to prevent a 
 surprise, caused that the enemy were not discovered, 
 until the very instant when they made a general 
 discharge of their guns, and their shot had pene- 
 trated all the Indian wigwams. There were not 
 above fifty fighting men in the village. These took 
 
 to their arms, and ran out in confusion, not with 
 any expectation of defending the place against an 
 enemy who were already in possession, but to favour 
 the escape of their wives, their old men and chil- 
 dren, and to give them time to recover the other 
 side of the river, of which the English bad not then 
 possessed themselves. 
 
 " The noise and tumult gave father Ralle notice 
 of the danger his converts were in. Not intimi- 
 dated, he went to meet the enemy, in hopes to draw 
 all their attention to himself, and secure his flock 
 at the peril of his own life. He was not disap- 
 pointed. As soon as he appeared, the English set 
 up a great shout, which was followed by a shower 
 of shot, and he fell down dead near to a cross which 
 he had erected in the midst of the village, seven 
 Indians, who accompanied him to shelter him with 
 their own bodies, falling dead round about him. 
 Thus died this kind shepherd, giving his life for hk 
 sheep, after a painful mission of thirty-seven years. 
 The Indians, who were all in the greatest conster- 
 nation at his death, immediately took to flight, and 
 crossed the river, some swimming and ethers ford- 
 ing. The enemy pursued them, until they had 
 entered far into woods, where they again gathered 
 together to the number of an hundred and fifty, 
 men, women, and children. Although mere than 
 two thousand shot had been fired upon them, yet 
 there were no more than thirty killed and fourteen 
 wounded. The English, finding they had no body 
 left to resist them, fell first to pillaging and then 
 burning the wigwams. They spared the church, so 
 long as was necessary for their shamefully pro- 
 faning the sacred vessels and the adorable body of 
 Jesus Christ, and then set fire to it. At length 
 they withdrew, with so great precipitation that it 
 was rather a flight, and they seemed to be struck 
 with a perfect panic. The Indians immediately re- 
 turned to their village, where they made it their 
 first care to weep over the body of their holy mis- 
 sionary, whilst their women were looking out for 
 herbs and plants for healing the wounded. They 
 found him shot in a thousand places, scalped, his 
 skull broke to pieces with the blows of hatchets, his 
 mouth and eyes filled of mud, the bones of his legs 
 fractured, and all his members mangled an hundred 
 different ways. Thus was a priest treated in his 
 mission, at the foot of a cross, by those very men 
 who have so strongly exaggerated the pretended 
 inhumanity of our Indians, who have never made 
 such carnage upon the dead bodies of their enemies. 
 After his converts had raised up, and oftentimes 
 kissed the precious remains, so tenderly and so justly 
 beloved by them, they buried him in the same place 
 where, the evening before, he had celebrated the 
 sacred mysteries, namely, where the altar stood, 
 before the church was burnt." 
 
 Besides the great error in the number of the 
 English forces, there are many embellishments in 
 this relation in favour of the Indians, and injurious 
 to the English. Not satisfied with the journal alone 
 which was given in by Captain Harman, Captain 
 Moulton' s minute and circumstantial account of 
 this affair has been compared with it. And the fol- 
 lowing is the result. 
 
 The forces left Richmond fort, on Kennebeck 
 river, the 8th of August. The 9th, they arrived at 
 Taconick, where they left their whaleboats, with a 
 lieutenant and 40 of the 208 men to guard them. 
 With the remaining forces, on the 10th, they began 
 their march by land for Norridgewock. The same 
 evening, they discovered and fired upon two Indian 
 
33C 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 women, one of them, the daughter of the well known 
 Bomazeen, they killed, the other his wife, they took 
 prisoner. From her they received a full account 
 of the state of Norridgewock. The 12th, a little 
 after noon, they came near to a village : it was sup- 
 posed that part of the Indians might be at their 
 corn-fields, which were at some distance, and it there- 
 fore was thought proper to divide this small army. 
 
 Harman, with about eighty men, chose to go by 
 way of the fields, and Moulton, with as many-more, 
 were left to march straight to the village, which, 
 about three o'clock, suddenly opened upon them. 
 There was not an Indian to be seen, being all in 
 their wigwams. The men were ordered to advance 
 softly and to keep a profound silence. At length, 
 an Indian came out of one of the wigwams, and, as 
 he was making water, looked round him and dis- 
 covered the English close upon him: he immediately 
 gave the war whoop and ran in for his gun. The 
 whole village, consisting of about sixty warriors, 
 besides old men, women, and children, took the 
 alarm, and the warriors ran to meet the Eng- 
 lish, the rest fled to save their lives. Moulton, in- 
 stead of suffering his men to fire at random through 
 the wigwams, charged every man not to fire upon 
 pain of death, until the Indians had discharged their 
 guns. It happened as he expected; in their sur- 
 prise they overshot the English, and not a man was 
 hurt. The English then discharged in their turn, 
 and made great slaughter, but every man still kept 
 his rank. The Indians fired a second volley, and 
 immediately fled towards the river : some jumped 
 into their canoes, but had left their paddles in their 
 houses, others took to swimming, and some of the 
 tallest could ford the river, which was about sixty 
 feet over, and the waters being low, it was no where 
 more than six feet deep. The English pursued, 
 some furnished themselves with paddles and took 
 the Indian canoes which were left, others waded in- 
 to the river. They soon drove the Indians from 
 their canoes into the river, and shot them in the 
 water; and they conjectured that not more than 
 fifty of the whole village landed on the other side, 
 and that some of them were killed before they reach- 
 ed the woods. 
 
 The English then returned to the town, where 
 they found the Jesuit, in one of the wigwams, firing 
 upon a few of our men, who had not pursued after 
 the enemy. He had an English boy in the wig- 
 wam with him, about fourteen years of age, who had 
 been taken about six months before. This boy he 
 shot through the thigh, and afterwards stabbed in 
 the body, but by the care of the surgeons he recover- 
 ed. We find this act of cruelty in the account given 
 by Harman upon oath. Moulton had given orders 
 not to kill the Jesuit, but, by his firing from the 
 wigwam, one of our men being wounded, a lieu- 
 tenant Jaques stove open the door and shot him 
 through the head. Jacques excused himself to his 
 commanding officer, alleging that Ralle was load- 
 ing his gun when he entered the wigwam, and de- 
 clared that he would neither give nor take quarter. 
 Moulton allowed that some answer was made by 
 Ralle which provoked Jacques, but doubted whether 
 it was the same as reported, and always expressed 
 his disapprobation of the action. Mog, a famous 
 old chief among the Indians, was shut up in another 
 wigwam, and firing from it killed one of the three 
 Mohawks. His brother was so enraged that he 
 broke down the door and shot Mog dead. The 
 English, in their rage, followed and killed the poor 
 squaw and two helpless children. Having cleared 
 
 the village of the enemy, they then fell to plundering 
 and destroying the wigwams. The plunder of an 
 Indian town consisted of but little corn, it being not 
 far from harvest, a few blankets, kettles, guns, and 
 about three barrels of powder, all which was brought 
 away. New England puritans, of course, thought 
 it no sacrilege to take the plate from an idolatrous 
 roman catholic church, which was all the profane- 
 ness offered to the sacred vessels. There were some 
 expressions of zeal against idolatry, in breaking the 
 crucifixes and other imagery which were found 
 there. The church itself, a few years before, had 
 been built by carpenters from New England. Bea- 
 ver and other Indian furs and skins had paid for the 
 church, and a zeal against a false religion destroyed 
 the ornaments of it. 
 
 Harmau and the men who went to the corn-fields 
 did not come up till near night, when the action was 
 over. Both parties lodged in the wigwams, keep- 
 ing a guard of forty men; the next morning they 
 found twenty dead bodies, besides that of the Jesuit, 
 and had one woman and three children prisoners. 
 Among the dead were Bomazeen, Mog, Job, Cara- 
 besett, Wissememet, and Bomazeen's son in lav/, 
 all noted warriors. They marched early for Taco- 
 nick, being in some pain for their men and whale- 
 boats, but found all safe. Christian, one of the Mo- 
 hawks, was sent, or of his own accord returned, 
 after they had began their march, and set fire to the 
 wigwams and to the church, and then joined the 
 company again. The 16th they all arrived at Rich- 
 mond fort. Harman went to Boston with the scalp?, 
 and being the chief in command, was made a lieut.- 
 colonel for an exploit in which Moulton was the 
 principal actor, who had no distinguishing reward, 
 except the applause of the country in general. This 
 has often been the case in much more important 
 services. The Norridgewock tribe never made any 
 figure after this defeat. 
 
 Encouraged by this success, Col. Westbrook was 
 ordered to march with 300 men across from Kenne- 
 beck to Penobscot, which he performed with no 
 other advantage than exploring the country, which 
 before was little known. Other parties were order- 
 ed up Amaseconti Amarescoggin, and a second at- 
 tempt was made upon Norridgewock, but no Indians 
 were to be found. 
 
 The frontiers, however, continued to be infested. 
 September the 6th, anEnglish party of fourteen went 
 i.om Dunstable in search of two men who were 
 missing. About thirty Indians lay in wait, and 
 shot down six, and took three prisoners. A second 
 party went out, and lost two of their number. The 
 western frontier seems to have been better guarded, 
 for, although often alarmed, they were less an- 
 noyed. 
 
 (1725.) The government increased the premium 
 for Indian scalps and captives to one hundred 
 pounds. This encouraged John Lovewell to raise 
 a company of volunteers to go out upon an Indian 
 hunting. January 5th, he brought to Boston a 
 captive and a scalp, both which he met with above 
 forty miles beyond Winnepesiaukee lake. Going 
 out a second time, he discovered ten Indians round 
 a fire, all asleep. He ordered part of his company 
 to fire, who killed three; the other seven, as they 
 were rising up, were shot by the other part of the 
 company reserved for that purpose. The ten scalps 
 were brought to Boston 3d of March. Emboldened 
 by repeated success, he made a third attempt, and 
 went out with thirty three men. Upon the 8th of 
 May they discovered an Indian upon a point of 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 337 
 
 land which joined to a great pond or lake. They 
 had some suspicion that he was set there to draw 
 them into a snare, and that there must be many 
 Indians near, and therefore laid down their packs, 
 that they might be ready for action, and then 
 marched near two miles round the pond to come 
 at the Indian they had seen. The Indian remained, 
 although it was certain death to him, and when the 
 English came within gun-shot, discharged his piece, 
 which was loaded with beaver shot, and wounded 
 Lovewell and one of his men, and then immediately 
 fell himself, and was scalped. His name ought to 
 have been transmitted, as well as that of Mutius 
 Curtius, the Roman, who jumped into the gulf or 
 chasm, upon less rational grounds, to save his coun- 
 try. 
 
 The Indians, who lay concealed, seized all the 
 English packs, and then waited their return at a 
 place convenient for their own purpose. One of 
 the Indians being discovered, the rest, being about 
 eighty, rose, yelled, and fired, and then ran on 
 with their hatchets with great fury. The English 
 retreated to the pond to secure their rear; and 
 although so unequal in numbers, continued to fight 
 five or six hours, till night came on. Captain 
 Lovewell, his lieutenant, Farwell, and ensign, Ro- 
 bins, were soon mortally wounded, and, with five 
 more, were left dead on the spot. Sixteen escaped, 
 and returned unhurt, but were obliged to leave 
 eight, of their wounded companions in the woods 
 without 'provisions: their chaplain, Mr. Fry, of An- 
 dover, was one, who had behaved with great bra very, 
 and scalped one Indian in the heat of the action, 
 but perished himself for want of relief. 
 
 One of the eight, afterwards, came into Berwick, 
 and another to Saco. This misfortune discouraged 
 scalping parties. But Indians, as well as English, 
 wished to be at peace. After Ralle's death they 
 were at liberty to follow their inclinations. The 
 Penobscot tribe, however, beiug best disposed, were 
 first founded. An Indian hostage aud a captive 
 were permitted, upon their parole, to go home in 
 the winter of 1724, aud they came back to the fort 
 at St. George's the 9th of February, accompanied 
 with two of the tribe, one a principal sachem or 
 chief. They brought an account that, at a meeting 
 of the Penobscots, it was agreed to make proposals 
 of peace. The sachem or chief was sent back, with 
 the other Indian, and promised to return in twenty- 
 three days, and bring a deputation, to consist of 
 several other chiefs, with him ; but Captain Heath, 
 having gone out upon a march from Kennebcck, 
 across the country, to Penobscot, fell upon a de- 
 serted village of about fifty Indian houses, which he 
 burned, but saw none of the inhabitants. The In- 
 dians who went from St. George's knew nothing 
 of this action until they came home, and it seems to 
 have discouraged them from returning according 
 to their promise, and the treaty, by this means, was 
 retarded. But upon new intimations, in June fol- 
 lowing, John Stoddardand John Waiuwright, Esqs-, 
 were commissioned by the lieut.-governor, and sent 
 down to St. George's, to treat with such Indians as 
 should come in there* and settle preliminaries of 
 peace. 
 
 A cessation of arms was agreed upon, and four 
 delegates came up, soon after, to Boston, and signed 
 a treaty of peace, and, the next year, the lieut.-go- 
 vernor, in person, attended by gentlemen of the 
 court and others, and the lieut.-governor of New 
 Hampshire, with gentlemen from that province, ra- 
 tified the same at Falmouth in Casco-bay. This 
 
 His. OF AMER. Nos. 43 & 44. 
 
 treaty has been applauded as the most judicious 
 which has ever been made with the Indians. A 
 long peace succeeded it. 
 
 The pacific temper of the Indians, for many years 
 after, cannot be attributed to any peculiar excellen- 
 cy in this treaty, there being no articles in it of any 
 importance, differing from former treaties. It was 
 owing to the subsequent acts of government in con- 
 formity to the treaty. The Indians had long been 
 extremely desirous of trading houses to supply them 
 with necessaries, and to take off their furs, skins, 
 &c. This was promised by Governor Shute, at a 
 conference, but the general court, at that time, 
 would make 110 provision for the performance. Mr. 
 Duminer promised the same thing. The court, 
 then, made provision for trading houses at St. 
 George's, Kennebeck, and Saco rivers, and the In- 
 dians soon found that they were supplied with 
 goods upon better terms than they could have them 
 from the French, or even from private English 
 traders. Acts or laws were made, at the same time, 
 for restraining private trade with the Indians ; but 
 the supplies, made by the province at a cheaper 
 rate than private traders could afford, would have 
 broke up their trade without any other provision, 
 and laws would have signified little without that. 
 Mr. Dummer engaged that the Indians should be 
 supplied with goods at as cheap .rate as they were 
 sold in Boston. This was afterwards construed fa- 
 vourably for the government. The goods, being 
 bought by wholesale, were sold to the Indians at the 
 retail price, in Boston, and a seeming profit, by the 
 commissary's account, accrued to the government; 
 but, when the charge of trading houses, truckmas- 
 ters, garrisons, and a vessel employed in transport- 
 ing goods was deducted, the province was still 
 tributary to the Indians every year. However, it 
 was allowed to be a well-judged measure, tending to 
 preserve peace, and was more reputable thaa if a 
 certain pension had been, every year paid for that 
 purpose. 
 
 Delegates from all the tribes of Indians, parti- 
 cularly the Norridgewocks, not having been pre- 
 sent at this first treaty, another was thought ne- 
 cessary the next year, when the former was reuewed 
 and ratified. It was most acceptable to the Indians 
 to hold their treaties near their own settlement, and 
 in a proper season of the year it was an agreeable 
 tour to the governors or commanders in chief, and 
 the gentlemen accompanying them. 
 
 To bring this war to a close, we have passed over 
 the other affairs of the government for a year or 
 two past. Soon after Mr. Cooke's arrival in Lon- 
 don, Governor Shute exhibited a second memorial 
 against the house of representatives, for matters 
 transacted after he left the province. The principal 
 articles of complaint were the several orders rela- 
 tive to the forts and forces, which, he said, the house 
 had taken out of the hands of the lieut.-governor, 
 and the affront offered to the lieut.-governor, in or- 
 dering his seal to be effaced upon the belt of v.am- 
 pum. Several other things seem to be brought in 
 to increase the resentment against them, as their 
 choosing Mr. Cooke, who had been at the head of 
 all the measures complained of in the first memorial, 
 for their agent; their refusing to confer with the 
 council upon a money bill ; their endeavouring by 
 their votes to lessen the members of the council in 
 the esteem of the people ; their withholding his sa- 
 lary in his absence ; and their assuming more and 
 more the authority of government into their hands. 
 The council, in this memorial, arc also complained. 
 
 2S 
 
338 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 of, they having put their negative to the vote for 
 choosing Mr. Cooke, and yet, afterwards, joined in 
 election with the house, when they had reason to 
 suppose, by the great superiority of the house in 
 number, that he would be the person. 
 
 Mr. agent Dummer, who was to act jointly with 
 Mr. Cooke, made an attempt to reconcile the go- 
 vernor to him, but he refused to see him; and the 
 attempt offended Mr. Cooke also, and occasioned 
 a warm discourse between him and Dummer, which 
 caused the latter to refuse to act in concert, especi- 
 ally as Mr. Cooke had shewn him a private instruc- 
 tion from the house, by which their defence against 
 the charge of invading the royal prerogative was 
 committed to Mr. Cooke and Mr. Sanderson, to the 
 exclusion of Mr. Dummer. 
 
 After divers hearings upon the subject matter of 
 the complaints, the reports of the attorney and so- 
 licitor general, of the lords committee, and finally 
 the determination of his majesty in council, were all 
 unfavourable to the house of representatives. 
 
 The several acts or votes of the house relative to 
 the king's woods, and to the forts and forces, seem 
 to have been generally deemed indefensible, the 
 agents were advised to acknowledge them to be so, 
 and it was so far relied upon, that they would be so 
 acknowledged in the province, as that no special 
 provision was thought necessary for the regulation 
 of their future conduct, the charter being express 
 and clear. But the governor's power to negative 
 the speaker, and the time for which the house might 
 adjourn, were points not so certain. What was 
 called an explanatory charter was therefore thought 
 necessary, and such a charter accordingly passed 
 the seals. By this charter, the power of the gover- 
 nor to negative a speaker is expressly declared, and 
 the power of the house to adjourn themselves is 
 limited to two days. With respect to the latter, 
 perhaps this new charter may properly enough be 
 called explanatory, the governor having the power, 
 by the principal charter, of adjourning the assembly, 
 and yet, from the nature of the thing, it was neces- 
 sary that the house, a part of that assembly, should 
 have the power of adjourning themselves for a longer 
 or shorter time; but the power of negativing a 
 speaker seems to be a new article, wherein the 
 charter is silent; so that whatever right it might be 
 apprehended the king had to explain his own pa- 
 tents, where there was ambiguity, yet when an al- 
 teration is to be made in the charter, or a new rule 
 established in any point wherein the charter is silent, 
 the acceptance of the people, perhaps, is necessary. 
 This seems to have been the reason of leaving it to 
 the option of the general court, either to accept or 
 refuse the explanatory charter. It was intimated 
 at the same time, that if the charter should be re- 
 fused, the whole controversy between the governor 
 and the house of representatives would be carried 
 before the parliament. Had the two points men- 
 tioned in the explanatory charter, or the conduct of 
 the house relative to them, been all that was to be 
 carried into parliament, the general court, probably, 
 would not have accepted this charter. They would 
 have urged, that it was not certain that a house of 
 commons would have determined that the king, by 
 his goveraor, had a right to negative the speaker of 
 a house of representatives in the colonies, especially 
 as the attorney -general had inferred this right from 
 the right of negativing the speaker of the house of 
 commons; but it was their misfortune that in the 
 other articles of complaint the house was generally 
 condemned iu England, the ministry were highly 
 
 inceiised, and it was feared the consequence of a 
 parliamentary enquiry would be an act to vacate' the 
 charter of the province. The temper of the house 
 was much changed, and although there were several 
 members, who had been active in all the measures 
 which brought this difficulty upon the country, still 
 resolute to risk all, rather than by their own act 
 give up any one privilege, yet the following vote wag 
 carried in the house for accepting the charter, and 
 in such terms as would induce one to imagine it 
 rather the grant of a favour than the deprivation of 
 a right. 
 
 January 15, 1725. 
 " In the house of representatives. 
 
 " Whereas, his honour the lieut.-governor has 
 laid before this court, in their present session, for 
 their acceptance, an explanatory charter received 
 from his grace the Duke of Newcastle, with a copy 
 of his majesty's order in council concerning the 
 same, wherein his majesty has been pleased to con- 
 firm the charter granted by their late majesties, king 
 William and queen Mary, in which former charter 
 there being no express mention made relating to the 
 choice of a speaker, and the house's power of ad- 
 journing, to both which points, in the said explana- 
 tory charter, his majesty has been pleased to give 
 particular directions : 
 
 "We, his majesty's loyal and dutiful subjects, 
 being very desirous to signalise our duty and obedi- 
 ence, which we at all times owe to his most excel- 
 lent majesty, have and do hereby accept of the said 
 explanatory charter, and shall act in conformity 
 thereto for the future, not doubting but that we shall 
 thereby recommend his majesty's loyal and dutiful 
 subjects, the inhabitants of this province, to his fur- 
 ther most gracious favour and protection. 
 " In council, read and concurred, 
 
 " Consented to. Wm. Dummer." 
 
 It has been said that the English are islanders, 
 and therefore inconstant. Transplanted to the con- 
 tinent they are, nevertheless, Englishmen. When 
 we reflect upon the many instances of frequent sud- 
 den changes, and from one extreme to the other, in 
 ancient times in the parliament of England, we may 
 well enough expect, now and then, to meet with the 
 like instances in the assemblies of the English colo- 
 nies. This was the issue of the unfortunate contro- 
 versy with governor Shute, unless we allow that it 
 was the occasion also of the controversy with his 
 successor, which is not improbable. 
 
 The governor was offended with Mr. Dummer for 
 receiving grants from the court, made to him for his 
 service as commander in chief, it being expected 
 that when the governor is absent, with leave, his 
 salary should be continued, one half of which, by a 
 royal instruction, is to be allowed to the lieut.-go- 
 vernor; but the house took a more frugal method, 
 and made grants of little more than one half the go- 
 vernor's usual salary, to the lieut.-governor imme- 
 diately, any part of which he could very ill afford to 
 spare from his own support. His pacific measures, 
 and accommodation or suspension of some of the 
 controverted points, might be another cause of cold- 
 ness, at least between the governor and him. 
 
 Another affair occasioned a mark of royal dis- 
 pleasure upon the lieut-governor. Synods had been 
 frequent under the first charter, either for suppress- 
 ing errors in principles, or immoralities in practice, 
 or for establishing or reforming church government 
 and order, but under a new charter no synod had 
 ever been convened. A convention of ministers had 
 been annually held, instead, at the time for election 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 of the council. This might have been, in many re- 
 spects, useful, but it was thought could not have 
 that weight for promoting any of the intended pur- 
 poses which a synod convened would have, especially 
 if their decrees were ratified by the government. 
 There were many ancient members in both houses, 
 who had not then lost their affection for these synods ; 
 and the following application was made by the mi- 
 nisters : 
 
 " To the very honourable William Dummer, Esq. 
 lieut.-governor and commander in chief. To the 
 honourable the counsellors. To the honoured the 
 representatives in the great and general court of his 
 majesty's province of the Massachusetts-bay, assem- 
 bled, and now sitting. A memorial and address 
 humbly presented. 
 
 " At a general convention of ministers, from se- 
 veral parts of the province, at Boston, May 
 the 27th, 1725. 
 
 " Considering the great and visible decay of^iety 
 in the country, and the growth of many miscarriages, 
 which we fear may have provoked the glorious Lord 
 in a series of various judgments wonderfully to dis- 
 tress us. Considering also the laudable example of 
 our predecessors, to recover and establish the faith 
 and order of the gospel in the churches, and provide 
 against what immoralities may threaten to impair 
 them, in the way of general synods convened for 
 that purpose, and considering that about forty-five 
 years have now rolled away since these churches 
 have seen any such conventions. It is humbly de- 
 sired that the honoured general court would express 
 their concern for the interests of religion in the 
 country, by calling the several churches in the pro- 
 vince to meet by their pastors and messengers in a 
 synod, and from thence offer their advice upon that 
 weighty case, which the circumstances of the day do 
 loudly call to be considered, ' What are the mis- 
 carriages whereof we have reason to think the judg- 
 ments of heaven, upon us, call us to be more gene- 
 rally sensible, and what may be the most evangelical 
 and effectual expedients to put a stop unto those or 
 the like miscarriages?' This proposal we humbly 
 make, in hopes that, if it be prosecuted, it may be fol- 
 lowed with many desirable consequences, worthy the 
 study of those whom God has made, and we are so 
 happy to enjoy, as the nursing fathers of our churches. 
 
 " Cotton Mather, 
 "In the name of the ministers assembled 
 
 in their general convention." 
 This memorial was granted by the council, but 
 the house did not concur. Afterwards, by a vote of 
 W.h houses, it was referred to the next session, to 
 wnich the lieut.-governor gave his consent. Oppo- 
 sition was made by the episcopal ministers, but a 
 doubt of success in the province caused them to ap- 
 ply in England, most probably to the bishop of Lon- 
 don. The king being at that time at Hanover, an 
 instruction came from the lords justices to surcease 
 all proceedings, and the lieut.-governor received a 
 reprimand for " giving his consent to a vote of re- 
 ference, and neglecting to transmit an account of so 
 remarkable a transaction." A stop was put to any 
 further proceeding in the affair, nor has any attempt 
 for a synod been made since. 
 
 (1726.) The remainder of Mr. Dummer's short 
 administration was easy to him. The war being 
 over, the principal ground of dispute, the ordering 
 the forces, ceased. Other affairs, relative to the 
 treasury, the passing upon accounts and the form of 
 supplies he suffered to go on according to the claim 
 of the house. Mr. Cooke, the first election after his 
 
 return from England, May, 1726, was chose of the 
 council. This was a mark of the house's approba- 
 tion of his conduct in the agency, although it had 
 not been attended with success. The lieTit.-gover- 
 nor did not think it convenient to offend the house 
 by a negative. The small allowance made him as a 
 salary, about two hundred and fifty pounds sterling 
 per annum, he also acquiesced in for the sake of 
 peace. The governor was expected by almost every 
 ship for a year or two together, but by some means 
 or other was delayed until the summer of 1727, when 
 he was upon the point of embarking, but the sudden 
 death of the king prevented. The principal cause 
 of delay seems to have been the insufficiency of the 
 salary which had been granted for his support, and 
 the uncertainty whether the assembly woul'd make 
 an addition to it. 
 
 (1727.) Upon the accession of King George the 
 Second, a gentleman, who, it is said, was in parti- 
 cular esteem with the king himself, was appointed 
 governor of New York and the Jerseys, in the room 
 of Mr. Burnet, whose administration had, in gene- 
 ral, been very acceptable to those colonies, and ap- 
 proved in England. The bishop, his father, had 
 likewise been a most steady friend to the house of 
 Hanover. Governor Burnet's fortune being re- 
 duced in the general calamity of the year 1720, he 
 parted with a place in the revenue of 120CM. per 
 annum, and received commissions for these govern- 
 ments, with a view to his retrieving his fortune in a 
 course of years. He thought it hard, in so short a 
 time, to be superseded ; for although Massachusetts 
 and New Hampshire weie given to him, yet he 
 was to part with very profitable posts for such as, at 
 best, would afford him no more than a decent sup- 
 port, an easy administration for one which he fore- 
 saw would be extremely troublesome. He com- 
 plained of his hard fate, and it had a visible effect 
 upon his spirits. Colonel Shute was provided for, 
 more to his satisfaction than if he had returned to 
 his government, a pension of 400/. sterling per an- 
 num being settled upon him, to be paid out of the 
 4^ per cent, duty raised in the West India islands. 
 The West Indians, who would perhaps have been 
 content if it had been applied to one of their own 
 governors who had been superseded, have taken 
 exception to the payment of it to a governor of the 
 northern colonies. The duties granted by Barba- 
 dos and the leeward islands upon their own produce, 
 to be disposed of by the crown, are the only in- 
 stances of the kind in the colonies. Jamaica is ex- 
 empt. It was said in parliament, in the reign of 
 Charles the Second, that this duty was consented to, 
 upon condition the planters should be released from, 
 a duty of forty cwt. sugar per head reserved when 
 the king granted the lands. Jamaica was chiefly 
 disposed of by Cromwell, free from any such bur- 
 den or charge. 
 
 The earthquake on the 29th of October, 1727, 
 although not confined to the Massachusetts, was so 
 remarkable an event in providence, that we may 
 3e excused if we give a circumstantial account of 
 t. About forty minutes after ten at night, when 
 there was a serene sky, and calm, but sharp air, a 
 most amazing noise was heard, like to the roaring 
 f a chimney when on fire, as some said, only be 
 yond comparison greater, others compared it to the 
 noise of coaches upon pavements, and thought that 
 f ten thousand together would not have exceeded it. 
 The noise was judged by some to continue about 
 lalf a minute before the shock began, which in- 
 creased gradually, and was thought to have con- 
 
 2S2 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 tinued the space of a minute before it was at the 
 height, and, in about half a minute more, to have 
 been at an end by a gradual decrease. When ter- 
 ror is so great, no dependence can be placed upon 
 the admeasurement of time in any person's mind, 
 and we always find very different apprehensions of 
 it. The noise and shock of this, and all earthquakes 
 which preceded it in New England were observed 
 to come from the west or north-west, and go off to 
 the east or south-east. At Newbury, and other 
 towns upon Merrimack river, the shock was greater 
 than in any other part of Massachusetts, but no 
 buildings were thrown down, part of the walls of 
 several cellars fell in, and the tops of many chim- 
 neys were shook off. At New York it seems to 
 have been equal to what it was in the Massachusetts, 
 lut at Philadelphia it was sensibly weaker, and, in 
 the colonies southward, it grew less and less, until 
 it had spent itself, or became in-sensible. The sea- 
 men upon the coast supposed their vessels to have 
 struck upon a shoal of loose ballast. More gentle 
 shocks were frequently felt in most parts of New 
 England for several months after. There have sel- 
 dom passed above fifteen or twenty years without 
 an earthquake, but there had been n-one, very violent, 
 in the memory of any then living. There was a 
 general apprehension of danger of destruction and 
 death, and many, who had very little sense of reli- 
 gion before, appeared to be very serious and devout 
 penitents, but, too generally, as the fears of another 
 earthquake went off, the religious impressions went 
 with them; and they, who had been the subjects 
 of both, returned to their former course of life. 
 
 The trade of the province being in a bad state, 
 and there being a general complaint of scarcity of 
 money, the old spirit revived for increasing the cur- 
 rency by a further emission of bills of credit. It 
 would be just as rational when the blood in the 
 human body is in a putrid corrupt state to increase 
 the quantity by luxurious living, in order to restore 
 health. Some of the leading men, among the re- 
 presentatives, were debtors, and a depreciating cur- 
 rency was convenient for them. A bill was projected 
 for fortifying the sea ports. The town of Boston 
 was to expend ten thousand pounds in forts and 
 stores, and, to enable them to do it, thirty thousand 
 pounds was to be issued in bills, and lent to the 
 town for thirteen years. Salem, Plimouth, Marble- 
 head, Charlestown, Glocester, and even Truro, on 
 the cape, were all to be supplied with bills of credit 
 for the like purposes. After repeated nonconcur- 
 rence and long altercation, the council were prevailed 
 upon to agree to the bill. When it came to the 
 lieut. -governor, he laid the king's instruction before 
 the council, and required their opinion, upon their 
 oaths, whether, consistent with the instruction, he 
 could sign the bill, and they answered he could not. 
 Not only the lieut.-goveruor, but several of the 
 council, were dependent on the house for the grant 
 of their salaries, and this dependence was made use 
 of as, in divers instances, it had been formerly. The 
 house referred the consideration of allowance to the 
 next session, and desired the court might rise. The 
 lieut.-governor let them know, by a message, that 
 he apprehended his small support was withheld from 
 him because he would not sign a bill contrary to 
 his instructions. They replied, that he had recom- 
 mended to them the making the provision for forti- 
 fying the province, and now they had passed a bill 
 for that purpose he refused to sign it, and they were 
 obliged, in prudence and faithfulness to their prin- 
 cipals, to come into a vote, referring allowances and 
 
 other matters to another session, when a way may 
 be found to enable the inhabitants to pay into the 
 treasury again such sums as may be drawn out for 
 gratuities and allowances. After a recess of about 
 a fortnight, an expedient was found. Instead of a 
 bill for fortifying, another was prepared, with a 
 specious title, " An act for raising and settling a 
 public revenue for and towards defraying the neces 
 sary charges of the government by an emission of 
 60,OOOZ. in bills of credit." This was done to bring 
 it within the words of the instruction, which re- 
 strained the governor from consenting to the issuing 
 bills of credit, except for charges of government. 
 The interest of four per cent on 240CM. was to be 
 pplied annually to the public charges, and gave 
 olour for issuing the principal sum of G0,000/. 
 The lieut -governor was prevailed upon to sign it, 
 and, the same day, the house made the grant of his 
 salary, and the usual allowance to the judges, most 
 o-f whom were members of the council, and to the 
 other officers of the government. This was after- 
 wards alledged to be a compulsion of the lieut.-go- 
 vernor and such members of the council as were 
 salary men, to comply with the house of representa- 
 tives, by withholding from them their subsistence. 
 The eagerness of the body of the people for paper 
 bills, more easily acquired in this way than the 
 righteous way of industry and frugality, no doubt, 
 facilitated a compliance. 
 
 The council, upon this occasion, declined answer- 
 ing, upon their oath, as counsellors, when the lieut.- 
 governor asked their advice. They swear, that to 
 the best of their judgment they will at all times 
 freely give their advice to the governor for the good 
 management of the public affairs of the government. 
 The lieut.-governor proposed the following question 
 to them in writing: " Gentlemen, I find it neces- 
 sary, in order to my signing the bill entitled an Act 
 for raising and settling a revenue, &c., which has 
 passed both houses, to have your advice whether I 
 can sign the said bill without the breach of the in- 
 struction of the lords justices of Great Britain, dated 
 the 27th of September, 1720, and the order of the 
 lords commissioners of trade and plantations, dated 
 the 8th of February, 1726-7. W. Dummer, Feb. 
 17, 1727." Upon which, the council came to the 
 following vote. " In council, Feb. 19, 1727, Read, 
 and as the council have already, as they are one part 
 of the general court, passed a concurrence with the 
 honourable house of representatives upon the said 
 bill, they cannot think it proper for them to give 
 your honour any further advice thereupon, nor do 
 they apprehend the oath of a counsellor obliges 
 them thereto. At the same time, they cannot but 
 think it will be for the good and welfare of the pro- 
 vince, and the necessary support of the government 
 thereof, if the bill be consented to by your honour. 
 J. Willard, Secretary." 
 
 They had given their advice or opinion, the same 
 session, upon the bill for fortifying, after they had 
 passed it, that it was contrary to the instruction, 
 and instances of the like kind have been frequent 
 before and since this time. 
 
 The lieut. -governor had a further opportunity 
 before Mr. Burnets's arrival, of meeting the assem- 
 bly in May for election of counsellors. 
 
 The house discovered, in one instance, this ses- 
 sion, a desire to amplify their jurisdiction. The 
 council and house had made it a practice, ever since 
 the charter, to unite in the choice of the treasurer, 
 impost officer, and other civil officers, the appoint- 
 ment whereof is reserved to the general assembly 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 341 
 
 The council, being in number less than a third part 
 of the house, have by this means no weight in such 
 elections, except when there are two or more candi- 
 dates for an office set up by the house, and then the 
 balance of power, if they are united themselves, may 
 be with them. This seems to have been an old 
 charter practice and handed down. The two houses, 
 when parties to any petition or cause desire to be 
 heard, often meet iu one house, which no doubt also 
 came from the old charter, but after they are sepa- 
 rated, they vote separately upon the subject matter 
 of the hearing. In this session, after a hearing of 
 this sort, the house passed a vote, " that when a 
 hearing shall be had on any private cause before both 
 houses together, the subject matter shall be deter- 
 mined by both houses conjunctly." They might 
 as well have voted, that after a conference between 
 the two houses, the subject matter should be deter- 
 mined conjointly. The council were sensible this 
 was taking from the little weight they had, and 
 unanimously nonconcured the vote. 
 
 The manner of chasing civil officers is a defect in 
 the constitution, which does not seem to have been 
 considered at the framing the charter; and, as by 
 charter, officers must annually be elected, it was a 
 defect which must be submitted to. In the early 
 days of the charter, it had been made a question, 
 whether in any acts of government the council had 
 a negative voice, and were not rather to vote in con- 
 junction with the house of representatives, and Con- 
 stantino Phips gave his opinion that they had no 
 negative. He seems to have considered, that, the 
 charter and the commissions to governors of other 
 colonies, evidently intended a legislature after the 
 pattern of the legislature of England, as far as the 
 state and circumstances of the colonies would admit. 
 
 The government, under the old charter and the 
 new, had been very prudent in the distribution of 
 the territory. Lands were granted for the sake of 
 settling them. Grants for any other purpose had 
 been very rare, and ordinarily a new settlement was 
 contiguous to an old one. The settlers themselves, 
 as well as the government, were inclined to this for 
 the sake of a social neighbourhood, as well as mutual 
 defence against an enemy. The first settlers on 
 Connecticut river, indeed, left a great tract of wilder- 
 ness between them and the rest of the colony, but 
 they went off in a body, and a new colony, Con- 
 necticut, was settling near them at that time. Rivers 
 were also an inducement to settle, but very few had 
 ventured above Dunstable, upon the fine river Mer- 
 rimack, and the rivers iu the province o Main had 
 no towns at any distance from the sea into which 
 they empty. But on a sudden, plans were laid for 
 grants of vast tracts of unimproved land, and the 
 last session of Mr. Dummer's administration, a vote 
 passed the two houses appointing a committee to lay 
 out three lines of towns, each town of the contents 
 of six miles square, one line to extend from Con- 
 necticut river above Northfield to Merrimack river 
 above Dunstable, another line on each side Merri- 
 mack as far as Penicook, and another from Niche- 
 wanock river to Falmouth in Casco-bay. 
 
 Pretences were encouraged, and even sought after, 
 to entitle persons to be grantees. The posterity of 
 all the officers and soldiers who served in the famous 
 Naraganset expedition, in 1 675, were the first pitch- 
 ed upon ; those who were in the unfortunate attempt 
 upon Canada, in 1G90, were to come next. The 
 government of N. Hampshire supposed these grants 
 were made, in order to secure the possession of a 
 tract of country challenged by them as within their 
 
 bounds. This might have weight with some leading 
 men, who were acquainted with the controversy, but 
 there was a fondness for granting land in any part 
 of the province. A condition of settling a certain 
 number of families in a few years, ordinarily was an- 
 nexed to the grants ; but the court, by multiplying 
 their grants, rendered the performance of the con- 
 dition impracticable, there not being people enough 
 within the province willing to leave the old settled 
 towns, and the grantees not being able to procure 
 settlers from abroad. 
 
 The settlement of the province was retarded by it ; 
 a trade of land jobbing made many idle persons ; 
 imaginary wealth was created, which was attended 
 with some of the mischievous effects of the paper 
 currency, viz., idleness and bad economy, a real ex- 
 pense was occasioned to many persons, besides the 
 purchase of the grantees' title, for every township 
 by law was made a propriety, and their frequent 
 meetings, schemes for settlement, and other prepara- 
 tory business, occasioned many charges. In some 
 few towns houses were built and some part of the 
 lands cleared. In a short time, a new line being 
 determined for the northern boundary of the Massa- 
 chusetts colony, many of these townships were found 
 to be without it. The government of New Hamp- 
 shire, for the crown, laid claim to some of them, and 
 certain persons calling themselves proprietors under 
 Mason, to others, and the Massachusetts people, 
 after a further expence in contesting their title, 
 either wholly lost the lands, or made such composi- 
 tion as the new claimers thought fit to agree to. 
 
 Mr. Burnet, the new governor, arrived on the 
 13th of July, and was received with unusual pomp. 
 Besides a committee of the general court, many 
 private gentlemen went as far as Bristol to wait 
 upon him, and, besides the continual addition that 
 was making in the journey, there went out of Bos- 
 ton to meet him at a small distance such a multitude 
 of horses and carriages, that he entered the town 
 with a greater cavalcade than had ever been seen 
 before or since. Like one of the predecessors, Lord 
 Bellamont, he urged this grand appearance, in his 
 first speech to the assembly, as a proof of their ability 
 very honourably to support his majesty's govern- 
 ment; and, at the same time, acquainted them with 
 the king's instruction to him to insist upon an 
 established salary, and his intention firmly to adhere 
 to it, as the following extract of his speech, of the 
 24th of July, will shew: "It is not easy to express 
 the pleasure I have had in coming among you. The 
 commission with which his majesty has honoured 
 me (however unequal to it), has been received in so 
 respectful and noble a manner, and the plenty and 
 wealth of this great province has appeared to me 
 in such a strong light, as will not suffer me to doubt 
 of your supporting his majesty's government by an 
 ample, honourable, and lasting settlement. The 
 wisdom of parliament has made it an established 
 custom, to grant the civil list to the king for life; 
 and as I am confident the representatives of the 
 people here, would be unwilling to own themselves 
 outdone in duty to his majesty by any of his sub- 
 jects, I have reason to hope that they will not think 
 such an example has any thing in it which they are 
 not ready to imitate. I shall lay before you his 
 majesty's instruction to me on this subject, which, 
 as it shall be an inviolable rule for my conduct, will, 
 without question, have its due weight with you." 
 He had asked the opinion of a New England gentle- 
 man, who was then the minister of the presbyterian 
 church at New York, whether the assembly would 
 
342 
 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 comply with his instruction, and received a dis- 
 couraging answer which caused him to reply, that 
 he would not engage in a quarrel, or to that effect; 
 but he either received different advice upon his ar- 
 rival, or for some other reason altered his mind. 
 The assembly seemed, from the beginning, deter- 
 mined to withstand him. To do it with better grace 
 and a more reasonable prospect of success, the quan- 
 tum of the salary, it was agreed, was not worth dis- 
 puting. It bore no proportion to the privilege and 
 right of granting it for such time as they thought 
 proper. The same persons, therefore, who six or 
 seven years before refused to make governor Shute, 
 and perhaps the government, easy, by granting not 
 more than five hundred pounds sterling a year, now 
 readily voted for a thousand, or a sum which was 
 intended to be equal to it. As soon as addresses 
 from the council and house, the usual compliments 
 upon the first arrival of a governor, had passed, the 
 house made a grant of 1,700. towards his support, 
 and to defray the charge of his journey. In a day 
 or two, the governor let them know he was utterly 
 unable to give his consent to it, being inconsistent 
 with his instruction. After a week's deliberation, 
 a grant was made of three hundred pounds for the 
 charge of his journey, which he accepted; and ano- 
 ther of fourteen hundred pounds towards his support, 
 which was accompanied with a joint message from 
 the council and house, prepared by a committee, 
 wherein they asserted their undoubted right as Eng- 
 lishmen and their privilege by the charter, to raise 
 and apply monies for the support of government and 
 their readiness to give the governor an ample and 
 honourable support, but they apprehended it would 
 be most for his majesty's service, &c., to do it with- 
 out establishing a fixed salary. The governor was 
 always very quick in his replies, and once when a 
 committee came to him with a message, having pri- 
 vately obtained a copy of it, gave the same commit 
 tee an answer in writing to carry back. The same 
 day this message was delivered he observed to them, 
 in answer, " that the right of Englishmen coulc 
 never intitle them to do wrong, but their privilege 
 of raising money by charter was expressed to be ' by 
 wholesome and reasonable laws and directions,' con 
 sequently such as were hurtful to the constitution 
 and the ends of government; but their way of giving 
 a support to the governor could not be honourable 
 for it deprived him of the undoubted right of ar 
 Englishman, viz., to act his judgment, or obligee 
 him to remain without support, and he appealed to 
 their own consciences, whether they had not for 
 merly kept back their governor's allowance unti 
 other bills were passed, and whether they had no 
 sometimes made the salary depend upon the consen 
 to such bills ; that if they really intended from time 
 to time to grant an honourable support, they coul 
 have no just objection to making their purposes ef 
 fectual by fixing his salary, for he would never ac 
 cept of a grant of the kind they had then made.' 
 We shall be convinced that Mr. Burnet was not a 
 person who could be easily moved from a resolution 
 he had once taken up. 
 
 Upon the receipt of this message and the peremp 
 tory declaration of the governor, the house foun 
 this was like to be a serious affair, and that the) 
 should not so easily get rid of it as they had done o 
 the like demands made by Dudley and Shute, an 
 again appointed a committee to join with a commit 
 tee of council to consider of this message. The ex 
 elusive right of the house in originating grants the) 
 have often so far given up, as to join with the counci 
 
 y committees to consider and report the expediency 
 f them, the reports, generally, being sent to the 
 iouse, there to be first acted upon. The report of 
 his committee was accepted in council and sent to 
 he house, but there rejected, and not being able to 
 mite in an answer, the house tried the council with 
 a resolve, sent to them for concurrence, the purport 
 f which was, that fixing a salary on the governor 
 r commander in chief for the time being, would be 
 dangerous to the inhabitants and contrary to the de- 
 ign of the charter, in giving power to make whole- 
 ome and reasonable orders and laws for the welfare 
 if the province. This vote, in so general terms, the 
 council did not think proper to concui', and de- 
 clared, August 19th, that, although they were of 
 pinion it might prove of ill consequence to settle a 
 salary upon the governor for the time being, yet 
 hey apprehended a salary might be granted for a 
 certain time, to the present governor, without danger 
 to the province, or being contrary to the design of 
 Jie charter. 
 
 This occasioned a conference, without effect, both 
 louses adhering to their own votes, and from this 
 ;ime the house was left to manage the controversy 
 ;hemselves. August 28th, they sent a message to 
 the governor, to desire the court might rise. He 
 told them, that if he should comply with their desire, 
 he should put it out of their power to pay an imme- 
 diate regard to the king's instruction, and he would 
 not grant them a recess until they had finished the 
 business for which the court was then sitting. They 
 then, in a message to him, declared that, in faith- 
 fulness to the people of the province, they could not 
 come into an act for establishing a salary on the go- 
 vernor or commander in chief for the time being, 
 and therefore they renewed August 29th, their re- 
 quest that the court might rise. 
 
 Both the governor and the house seem to have had 
 some reserve in their declarations. Perhaps a salary 
 during his administration would have satisfied him, 
 although he. demanded it for the commander in chief 
 for the time being; and the house did not say that 
 it would not settle a salary for a limited time. Each 
 desired that the other would make some concessions. 
 Both declined, and both by long altercation were 
 irritated, and, at last, instead of closing, as seemed 
 probable at first, widened the breach until they fixed 
 at the opposite extremes. The major part of the 
 council and about a sixth part of the house were 
 willing to settle a salary upon Mr. Burnet for a term 
 not exceeding three years, possibly even some who 
 were finally the most zealous in the opposition, 
 would have submitted to this if they could have been 
 sure of its being accepted, and they had been at li- 
 berty to act their judgment. Mr. Cooke had expe- 
 rienced the ill success of the controversy with go- 
 vernor Shute, and seemed desirous of being upon 
 terms with his successor, who, upon his first arrival 
 and until the province house could be repaired, 
 lodged at Mr. Cooke's house, but a friendship could 
 not long continue between two persons of so different 
 opinions upon civil government. The language of 
 the governor's messages was thought too dictatorial 
 by the people, and particularly by the inhabitants 
 of Boston, arid he had been somewhat free in his 
 jokes upon some of the shopkeepers and principal 
 tradesmen who were, then, the directors of the coun- 
 cils of the town, and very much- influenced those of 
 the house. An intimation in the governor's next 
 message that, if they did not comply with the in- 
 struction, the legislature of Great Britain would take 
 into consideration the support of the government 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 343 
 
 and, perhaps, something besides, meaning the char- 
 ier, increased the prejudices against him. The 
 house, August 31, thought themselves obliged to be 
 more particular than they had yet beeo, fully to as- 
 sert their rights. This was what the governor de- 
 sired, and, without any delay, September 2nd, he 
 sent them an answer. As these two messages seem 
 to begin, in earnest, the argument on each side of 
 the question, we shall insert them. 
 
 " August 31st, 1728. 
 
 " The house of representatives sent the following 
 message to his excellency the governor. 
 " May it please your excellency, 
 
 " The representatives in general court assembled, 
 before they proceed to make reply to what they re- 
 ceived from you on Thursday last, respecting their 
 answer of that morning to your message of the 28th 
 current, beg leave to recur to what the council and 
 representatives, the 7th instant, in great truth and 
 sincerity, among other things, laid before your ex- 
 cellency, viz. They humbly apprehend that his ma- 
 jesty's service in the necessary defence and support 
 of the government and the protection and preserva- 
 tion of the inhabitants thereof, the two great ends 
 proposed in the power granted to this court for the 
 raising taxes, would be best answered without esta- 
 blishing a salary. Your excellency was pleased to 
 let us know, that the answer of the" house contained 
 no reasons that appeared to you sufficient why his 
 majesty's 23d instruction might notbe complied with, 
 since the same methods that are found uo ways to 
 prejudice the rights and liberties of the people of 
 Great Britain, nor of other colonies, cannot preju- 
 dice those of the province. If the method practised 
 in Great Britain is not prejudicial to the rights and 
 liberties of the people there, it does not therefore 
 follow, that fixing a salary will not prejudice the 
 people of this province. The British constitution 
 differing from ours in many respects ; and other co- 
 lonies coming into any particular method, we not 
 knowing the motives inducing them thereto, nor the 
 several constitutions of government they are put 
 under, ought not to influence or prompt us to imi- 
 tate them. 
 
 " May it please your excellency, 
 " The house, being heartily desirous to cultivate a 
 good agreement and harmony with your excellency, 
 take this opportunity to assure you, that we have, 
 once and again, deliberately considered your mes- 
 sage for fixing a salary, and do humbly conceive that 
 it is against the good design of the powers vested and 
 reposed in us by the royal charter, to pass acts pur- 
 suant to the instructions laid before us, for as much 
 as passing such acts, as we apprehend, has a direct 
 tendency to weaken our happy constitution ; for that 
 their late majesties King William and Queen Mary, 
 of glorious memory, were graciously pleased to gra- 
 tify the inhabitants here, and did grant to them cer- 
 tain powers, privileges, and franchises, to be used 
 and employed for the benefit of the people ; and, in 
 the same grant, reserved other powers to be used and 
 exercised by the crown or the governors sent by 
 them, agreeable to the directions and instructions 
 contained in said grant and their commissions, hav- 
 ing reference for their better guidance and direc- 
 tions to the several powers and authorities mentioned 
 in the said charter; if, therefore, the general as- 
 sembly should at any time come into any act that 
 might tend to infringe the prerogative or disserve 
 the crown, his majesty's governors have a negative 
 voice on all such acts ; furthermore, should any go- 
 vernor incautiously give his consent to such acts, his 
 
 majesty has reserved to himself a power to disallow 
 the same, by the use and exercise of the other powers 
 and privileges lodged in the general assembly, his 
 majesty justly expects they will never make use of 
 them in prejudice of the rights and liberties of the 
 people, but at all times exert themselves in defence 
 thereof. If we resemble the British constitution, as- 
 your excellency has done us the honour to declare,, 
 we humbly apprehend that no part of the legislature 
 here should be entirely independent, as your excel- 
 lency has very justly denoted to us, that the three 
 distinct branches of the legislature, preserved in a 
 due balance, forms the excellency of the British con- 
 stitution, and if any of those branches should become 
 less able to support its own dignify and freedom, the 
 whole must inevitably suffer by the alteration. Your 
 excellency is pleased to say, that a support given as 
 has been usual here, cannot, be honourable, because 
 that implies no sort of confidence in the government. 
 To which we humbly offer, that if your excellency 
 would take notice of our grants, you would see that 
 the very method itself is founded on nothing else, in- 
 asmuch as they always look forward and are given 
 to enable the governor to go on and manage the 
 public affairs. Thus, in this our first session at your 
 excellency's first and welcome arrival, the assembly 
 made a grant of 1400/., to enable your excellency to 
 manage the affairs of this province, fully confiding 
 in your conduct. If your excellency intends that 
 we do not put so much confidence in you as the parlia- 
 ment do in our most gracious sovereign, to whom 
 the civil list is granted for life (which God long pre- 
 serve) we freely acknowledge it. Is it reasonable 
 or possible, that we should confide in any governor 
 whatsoever, so much as in our gracious king, the 
 common father of all his people, who is krown to 
 delight in nothing so much as in their happiness, 
 and whose interest and glory, and that of his royal 
 progeny, are inseparable from the prosperity and 
 welfare of his people ; whereas it is most obvious, 
 that neither the prosperity nor adversity of a people 
 affect a governor's interest at all, when he has once 
 left them. 
 
 " Your excellency goes on, and declares that the 
 support of the government in this manner visibly de- 
 pends on an entire compliance with the other parts of 
 the legislature. Had the governor no authority nor 
 checks upon them, we must acknowledge this to be the 
 case, but as both the other parts have a great depend- 
 ence upon the governor's discretionary power, the 
 council (as the practice usually is) for their very being r 
 and both they and the representatives for every law 
 and proper act of government, and for every penny 
 put into and drawn out of the treasury, for their 
 whole defence and security in every case of danger, 
 as he is their captain general, besides other obvious 
 particulars, needless and too numerous to be named, 
 that if in this single instance the governor should 
 have dependence on the assembly as to his support, 
 according as they shall see the province able, the 
 other things that" they depend upon him for are so 
 vastly more than a counterbalance, that it cannot 
 be thought that the commander in chief can be 
 hereby prevented acting according to his judgment, 
 or remain without support. We assure your excel- 
 lency that it is not any exception to your person or 
 administration (which we hope other parts of our 
 conduct have made evident) that determines us 
 against fixing a salary as prescribed. 
 " May it please your excellency, 
 
 " Since we have so many times heretofore, and do 
 now, in the most solemn manner, and after the 
 
341 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 most strict scrutiny we are able to make in this im- 
 portant affair, manifest that in faithfulness to our 
 country we cannot think it advisable for this house 
 to be concerned in passing an act for fixing a salary 
 as prescribed, we do therefore most ardently move 
 your excellency, that you would permit us to repair 
 to our several homes, and not keep us sitting here 
 in order to our acting contrary to our native free- 
 dom and declared judgment, and so betraying the 
 great trust and confidence our principals have re- 
 posed in us." 
 
 On the 3d of September the secretary carried 
 down to the house the following message from his 
 excellency the governor : 
 
 " Gentlemen of the house of representatives, It 
 is not at all agreeable to my inclination to enter into 
 disputes with your house, and, for that reason, 1 have 
 endeavoured hitherto to be as short as the import- 
 ance of the matters which I have recommended to 
 you will allow me. But since you have thought fit 
 to lay such stress on the reasons offered in your 
 reply of Saturday, I cannot avoid, once more for all, 
 entering into a particular examination of them, that 
 not only yourselves, but those whom you represent, 
 may be enabled to judge of the controversy between 
 us. You begin with reminding me that the coun- 
 cil and representatives apprehended that his majes- 
 ty's service, in the necessary defence and support of 
 the government, and the protection and preservation 
 of the inhabitants thereof, the two great ends pro- 
 posed in the power granted to this court, would be 
 best answered without establishing a fixed salary. 
 It ought not to be forgotten, at the same time, that 
 the council had altered the words would be best into 
 may be well, though you prevailed with them to re- 
 cede from the amendment, and that they made this 
 addition, * We esteem it a great unhappiness that 
 his majesty should think our method ot supporting 
 the governors of this province a design of making 
 them dependent on the people,' to which you agreed, 
 though nothing to that effect had been asserted in 
 your own draught. By these instances, the council 
 appear, from the first, to have different apprehen- 
 sions from you of the regard to be paid (o his ma- 
 jesty's instruction, and of the weight of his displea- 
 sure, which last consideration (though the greatest 
 part of my message) was not. it seems, thought by 
 
 g)u to deserve any room at all in so long a reply, 
 ut supposing the council and you were agreed, 
 that is to say, that two branches of the legislature 
 thought it best to keep the third entirely dependent 
 on them, (which would be a manifest piece of par- 
 tiality and injustice) is this any reason why the 
 third should be of the same opinion ? Or rather, 
 does it not confirm the too just suspicion his majesty 
 has of a design so dangerous to his own authority ? 
 Two branches of legislature can bring nothing to 
 effect without the third, and, consequently, if what 
 seems best to them only cannot be consented to by 
 the other, it becomes their duty to consider what 
 next best thing can be done, in which all three can 
 concur, for it does not follow that if what some 
 imagine best cannot be done, therefore nothing 
 
 should be done at all. And so much for what 
 
 you have said before you proceed to make reply. 
 
 " You may perceive from what I have alread'y ex- 
 pressed, upon how many accounts the reasons of the 
 house can never appear sufficient to me why his 
 majesty's twenty-third instruction should not be 
 complied with, and I am far from thinking, that you 
 give any answer to my former reasons. -You say, 
 ' that if the method practised in Great Britain is not 
 
 prejudicial to the rights and liberties of the people 
 there, it does not therefore follow that fixing a salary 
 would not prejudice the people of this province.' 
 Rights and liberties are words that have, naturally, 
 the same meaning in all countries, and, unless you 
 can shew me wherein the British rights and liber- 
 ties are defective, (which you have not done,) I 
 may conclude that they are not so, and, in that case, 
 it is a natural consequence that the methods under 
 which they have been so long safe and flourishing, 
 are most likely to produce the same effects. But 
 you say, ' the British constitution differs from yours 
 in many respects.' I take the chief difference to 
 have been in the use made of the constitution, which 
 has been no ways to your advantage, for by Great 
 Britain's keeping up to their constitution, public 
 credit still continues at a height, notwithstanding 
 the vast charges and debts of the nation, but with 
 you credit has fallen lower and lower in an amazing 
 manner, and this has proceeded plainly from the 
 want of a sufficient check in the other branches of 
 the legislature to the sudden and unadvised measures 
 of former assemblies; so that if ever you come near 
 the happiness of Great Britain, it must be by sup- 
 porting those parts of the legislature which of late 
 have been too much depressed, but are in them- 
 selves necessary to guard the liberties and proper- 
 ties of the inhabitants, as well as the house of re- 
 presentatives. 
 
 " As to the case of other plantations, I shall only 
 say; if you enjoy larger privileges by the favour of 
 the crown than they, and, by consequence, have 
 more to lose by his majesty's displeasure, the argu- 
 ments both of gratitude and interest plead stronger 
 with you for a compliance with an instruction in 
 itself so just and reasonable. 
 
 " I cannot see why you apprehend that passing acts 
 pursuant to the instruction has a direct tendency to 
 weaken your happy constitution, especially since 
 you now acknowledge what I had formerly observed, 
 ' that each branch of the legislature, and conse- 
 quently the governor, ought to be enabled to sup- 
 port its own dignity and freedom,' which is all that 
 is intended by the instruction. 
 
 "I had observed, ' that the usual way of supporting 
 the government implied no sort of confidence in the 
 governor.' You offer ' that if I would take notice 
 of your grants I should see that the very method 
 itself is founded upon nothing else, inasmuch as they 
 always look forward, and are given to enable the 
 governor to go on and manage the public affairs.' 
 I can scarce believe that this is intended for a seri- 
 ous argument, since a time no longer ago than last 
 winter session affords a plain proof to the contrary. 
 The lieut.-governor informed the house, in answer 
 to their message, expressing their desire of an ad- 
 journment, ' that he had consented to all the acts 
 and votes passed the two houses, except the bill 
 for emitting bills of credit, which he would have 
 signed were it consistent with his majesty's instruc- 
 tion, which it was not, in the opinion of the council.' 
 And he concludes with reminding them, ' that the 
 proper and usual season for granting salaries is al- 
 ready outrun, and that be expects they will provide 
 for the honourable support of the government be- 
 fore they rise.' The house entered into the consi- 
 deration of the above message, and after some de- 
 bate had thereon, the question was put, whether the 
 house will now come to the consideration of allow- 
 ances, it passed in the negative. Then the question 
 was put, whether the ruiisideration of allowances 
 shall be referred to the next session of this court ; 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 345 
 
 resolved in the affirmative. In this manner was 
 this method of grants ' that always look forward' 
 brought to look directly upon the present business, 
 in order to compel a compliance or, if you like that 
 better, to look backward by way of punishment for 
 a denial ; and so the public affairs were left to ma- 
 nage themselves for any care that was taken of them. 
 "Your next observation is not one jot a juster 
 representation of the case before you. You say you 
 are not for fixing a salary ' because it is not reason- 
 able or possible you should confide in any governor 
 whatsoever, so much as in our most gracious king.' 
 As if this instruction to demand a salary came from 
 a governor, and not from his majesty himself; and 
 as if the salary was to be given directly to the go- 
 vernor, and not to his majesty, for the use of his 
 governor or commander in chief; or as if upon just 
 complaint his majesty could not or would not re- 
 move an ill governor, and, in short, as if your doing 
 the thing would not be altogethei upon confidence 
 in his majesty, and not in any governor whatsoever. 
 The words of respect here used to his majesty came 
 with a very ill grace, and have not that gravity in 
 them which would be more becoming, since in the 
 same breath you are disregarding his own demand 
 and undervaluing his favour, and making light of his 
 declaration, 'that if you do not pay an immediate 
 regard to his instruction, he will look upon it as a 
 manifest mark of your undutiful behaviour to himself.' 
 " You carry on the same kind of reasoning to the 
 end of your paper, which seems much better adapted 
 to amuse than to prove any thing. 
 
 " In the first place, you make a very pompous re- 
 presentation of the governor's authority, and of the 
 great dependance the other parts of the genera 
 court have on his discretionary power, and call his> 
 support the single instance in which he has some 
 dependance on the assembly; and, just after, you 
 give an odious aspersion on an undoubted branch o 
 the power lodged in the governor, which is ' to keep 
 the general court together as long as he thinks the 
 public affairs require it.' I am at a loss to know 
 whether your insinuation, that I keep you here in or 
 der to compel you to act contrary to your nativi 
 freedom and declared judgment, be more injuriou 
 to me or yourselves. You seem to allow the go 
 vernor's powers only so far as he uses them accord 
 ing to your pleasure; but, in using your own powers 
 to take' it very ill to be directed by any body. Yoi 
 said before, ' that the other things which the hous 
 depends on a governor for, are so vastly more thai 
 a counterbalance to his support, (you might hav 
 said subsistence, and then the irony would have aj 
 peared more openly,) that it cannot be thought tha 
 the commander in chief can be thereby prevente 
 acting according to his judgment, or remain withou 
 support.' As if you were ignorant of the afore 
 mentioned proceedings of the last winter ; and ye 
 you are very ready to think, that to keep you sittin^ 
 here is a compulsion to you to act contrary to you 
 native freedom and declared judgment, and so be 
 tray the great trust your principals have reposed i 
 you. But I persuade myself that your faithfulnes 
 to your country put you above any such temptation 
 " And, as I am still of opinion that you have ac 
 ed upon mistaken notions, I cannot give over th 
 hopes of your coming to see things in that true ligh 
 in which, I flatter myself, I have stated the point i 
 question ; and as I am disposed to gratify you as fa 
 as is consistent with my duty and my honour, I hop 
 you will consider what advances you can make t< 
 wards a compliance, that so the present session ma 
 
 ot be a needless burden to the people, but still hava 
 great issue to his majesty's and the country's ser- 
 ce. " W. Burnet." 
 
 Not long after the house, instead of any advances 
 )wards a compliance, which the governor wished to 
 jtain, came to resolutions upon two questions which 
 icwed still more fully their sense of the point in 
 ontroversy. The first question was, Whether the 
 ouse would take under consideration the settling a 
 emporary salary upon the governor or commander 
 n chief for the time being. This passed in the 
 egative. Then this question was put : Whether 
 ic house can, with safety to the people, come into 
 ny other method for supporting the governor or 
 ommander in chief for the time being, than what 
 as been heretofore practised. This also passed in 
 ic negative, and was the first instance of the house's 
 eclaring they would make no advances, for in their 
 message last preceding they only say, they do not 
 hink it advisable to pass an act for fixing a salary 
 s prescribed. These votes caused the governor to 
 ut them in mind of a letter from their agent, in the 
 ear 1722, wherein he mentions that Lord Cartaret, 
 n conversation, desired him to write to the assembly 
 ot to provoke the government in England to bring 
 heir charter before the parliament, for if they did, 
 t was his opinion, it would be dissolved without op- 
 osition, and the governor advised them to take care 
 heir proceedings did not bring their charter into 
 langer at that time. This caution did not prevent 
 he house from preparing a state of the controversy 
 Between the governor and them, concerning his sa- 
 ary, to transmit to their several towns, in the con- 
 tusion of which they say that they dare neither 
 come into a fixed salary on the governor for ever, 
 aor for a limited time, for the following reasons : 
 
 " 1. Because it is an untrodden path, which nei- 
 her they nor their predecessors have gone in, and 
 hey cannot certainly foresee the many dangers that 
 may be in it, nor can they depart from that way 
 which has been found safe and comfortable. 
 
 ' 2. Because it is the undoubted right of all Eng- 
 lishmen, by magna charta, to raise and dispose of 
 money for the public service, of their own free ac- 
 cord, without compulsion. 
 
 ' 3. Because it must necessarily lessen the dignity 
 and freedom of the house of representatives, in mak- 
 ng acts, and raising and applying taxes, &c., and 
 consequently cannot be thought a proper method to 
 preserve that balance in the three branches of the 
 legislature, which seems necessary to form, maintain, 
 and uphold the constitution. 
 
 " 4th. Because the charter fully impowers the ge 
 neral assembly to make such laws and orders as they 
 shall judge for the good and welfare of the inhabi- 
 tants ; and if they, or any part of them, judge this 
 not to be for their good, they neither ought nor could 
 come into it ; for, as to act beyond or without the 
 powers granted in the charter might justly incur the 
 king's displeasure, so not to act up and agreeable to 
 those powers might justly be deemed a betraying the 
 rights and privileges therein granted ; and, if they 
 should give up this right, they would open a door to 
 many other inconveniences." 
 
 This representation was prepared to be carried 
 home by the several members, upon the rising of the 
 court, m order to their towns giving their instruc- 
 tions ; but, the house being kept sitting, it was 
 printed and sent through the province. The go- 
 vernor sent a message to the house, a few days after, 
 in which he takes their representation to pieces ; 
 and, in the close of his message, appeals to them 
 
3-16 
 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 whether he had not answered all their objections, 
 " except the unknown inconveniences to which a 
 door would be opened," which could not be answered 
 until they could tell what they were ; and charges 
 them with calling for help from what they had not 
 mentioned, from a sense of the imperfection of what 
 they had, and with sending to their several towns for 
 advice ; and declaring at the same time, that they did 
 not dare follow it. 
 
 It would be tedious to recite at length the several 
 messages which passed during the remainder of the 
 controversy, from the chair to the house and from 
 the house to the chair, which followed quick one upon 
 the back of another ; the sum of the argument, upon 
 the part of the governor was, that it was highly rea- 
 sonable he should enjoy the free exercise of his 
 judgment in the administration of government; but 
 the grants, made for a short time only by the house, 
 were thus limited for no other reason than to keep 
 the governor in a state of dependence, and with de- 
 sign to withhold from him the necessary means of 
 subsistence, unless he would comply with their acts 
 and resolves, however unreasonable they might ap- 
 pear to him: that in fact they had treated governor 
 Shute in this manner, and no longer since than the 
 previous year, the house had refused to make the 
 usual gi'ants and allowances, not only to the lieute 
 nant-governor, but to other officers, until they hac 
 compelled him to give his consent to a loan of sixty 
 thousand pounds in bills of credit ; that a constitu 
 tion which, in name and appearance, consisted o 
 three branches was, in fact, reduced to one ; that i 
 was a professed principle in the constitution of Grea 
 Britain, to preserve a freedom in each of the thre 
 branches of the legislature ; and it was a great fa 
 vour shewn the province, when king William anc 
 queen Mary established, by the royal charter, a forn 
 of government so analogous to the government of 
 Great Britain ; a principle of gratitude and loyalty, 
 therefore, ought to induce them to establish a salary 
 for the governor of this province, in order to his sup- 
 porting his dignity and freedom, in like manner as 
 the parliament always granted to the king what was 
 called the civil list, not once in six months or from 
 year to year, but for life ; that this was no more 
 than other provinces which had no charters had done 
 for their governors ; that there was nothing in the 
 province charter to exempt, them from the same ob- 
 ligation which other his majesty's colonies were 
 under, to support the government ; and that they 
 could have no pretence to greater privileges by char- 
 ter, than the people of England enjoyed from magna 
 charta, no clause of which was ever urged as an ob- 
 jection against granting to the king a revenue for 
 life ; and a power by charter to grant monies could 
 not be a reason against granting them either for a 
 limited or unlimited time. 
 
 On the part of the house, the substance of their 
 defence against the governor's demand, and his rea 
 sons in support of it, was, that an obligation upon an 
 assembly in the plantations could not be inferrec 
 from the practice of the house of commons in Great 
 Britain ; the king was the common father of all his 
 subjects, and their interests were inseparably united, 
 whereas a plantation governor was affected neither 
 by the adversity nor prosperity of a colony when he 
 had once left it ; no wonder then a colony could not 
 place the same confidence in the governor which the 
 nation placed in the king ; however, the grants to 
 the governor always looked forward, and were made, 
 not for service done, but to be done. It must be 
 admitted, the governor is in some measure depend- 
 
 ent upon the assembly for his salary, but he is d 
 undent in this instance only ; whereas he has a 
 :heck and controul upon every grant to any person 
 n the government, and upon all laws and acts of 
 government whatsoever; nor can an exact parallel 
 3e drawn between the constitution of Britain and 
 ;hat of the province, for the council are dependent 
 upon the governor for their very being, once every 
 year, whereas the house of lords cannot be displaced 
 unless they have criminally forfeited the rights of 
 peers ; the house was not to be governed by the prac- 
 tice of assemblies in some of the other colonies, nor 
 were they to be dictated to and required to raise a 
 certain sum for a certain time and certain purposes ; 
 this would destroy the freedom which the house ap- 
 prehended they had a right to in all their acts and 
 resolves, and would deprive them of the powers given 
 to them, by charter, to raise money and apply it 
 when and how they thought proper. 
 
 The messages of the house, at first, were short, 
 supposed to have been drawn by Mr. Cooke, who 
 never used many words in his speeches in the house, 
 which generally discovered something manly and 
 open, though sometimes severe and bitter, and often 
 inaccurate. In the latter part of the controversy 
 they were generally drawn by Mr. Welles, another 
 member from Boston, the second year of his coming 
 to the house. These were generally more prolix, and 
 necessarily so, from the length of the messages to 
 which they were an answer. The house had justice 
 done them by their committees who managed this 
 controversy, and they were then willing to allow, 
 that the governor maintained a bad cause with as 
 plausible reasons as could be. 
 
 The contending parties, for a little while, endea- 
 voured to be moderate and to preserve decorum, but 
 it was impossible to continue this temper. 
 
 On the 4th of September, the house repeated to 
 the governor the request they had formerly made, to 
 rise ; but he refused to grant it, and told them, that un- 
 less his majesty's pleasure had its due weight with them 
 their desires should have very little weight with him. 
 
 The council, who had been for some time out of 
 the question, now interposed and passed a vote " that 
 it is expedient for the court to ascertain a sum as a 
 salary for his excellency's support, as also the term 
 of time for its continuance." This was sent to the 
 house for concurrence. The council seem to have 
 gone a little out of their line ; but the house took no 
 other notice of the vote than to nonconcur it. The 
 house, being kept sitting against their will, employed 
 part of their time in drawing up the state of the con- 
 troversy which we have mentioned. 
 
 This was not occasioned by any doubt they had 
 themselves, but to convince the governor that the 
 people throughout the province were generally of the 
 same mind with the house, and for this purpose they 
 thought it necessary to obtain from their towns an 
 express approbation of their conduct. It was well 
 known, that not a town in the province would then 
 have instructed their representatives to fix a salary 
 upon the governor for the time being. 
 
 One of the king's governments (Barbadoes) was 
 at this time warmly contending with its governor 
 against fixing a salary. The assembly of that island, 
 some years before, had settled a very large salary 
 upon a governor, against whom they afterwards made 
 heavy complaints, charging him with rapaciousncss 
 and grievous oppressions ; and his successor having 
 demanded the like settlement upon him, they re- 
 solved to withstand the demand, and the spirit seemed 
 to be as high there as in Massachusetts. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 347 
 
 This had no small tendency to strengthen and 
 confirm the resolution of the people here, who sup- 
 posed their charter rather an additional privilege 
 and security against this demand. There was a minor 
 part, however, very desirous of an accommodation. 
 The ill success of the controversy with governor 
 Shute was fresh in their minds. Many amiable qua- 
 lities in Mr. Burnet caused them to wish he might 
 continue their governor, and employ those powers 
 and that attention which were now wholly engaged 
 in this single point, in promoting the general welfare 
 and prosperity of the province. 
 
 About a third part of the house of representatives, 
 and a major part of the council, would have been 
 content to have granted a salary for two, or perhaps, 
 three years. If we are to judge by his declarations, 
 this would not 'have satisfied him, and it was far 
 short of his instructions ; but his friends were of opi- 
 nion, that such a partial compliance would have 
 produced a relaxation of the instruction, and issued 
 in lasting agreement and harmony. 
 
 The house made what they would have the governor 
 think a small advance towards it. Instead of a 
 grant for the salary, supposed, though not expressed, 
 for half a year, they made a grant (September 20th,) 
 of three thousand pounds, equal to one thousand 
 sterling, in order to enable him to manage the affairs 
 of the province, and although it was not expressly 
 mentioned, it was generally understood to be for a 
 year. This was concurred by the council, but he 
 let it lie without signing his consent, which caused 
 the house to make at least a seeming farther ad- 
 vance ; for on the 24th of October, they by a message 
 intreated him to accept the grant, and added, " We 
 cannot doubt but that succeeding assemblies, accord- 
 ing to the ability of the province, will be very ready 
 to grant as ample a support ; and if they should not, 
 your excellency will then have the opportunity of 
 shewing your resentment." Still they had no effect ; 
 the governor knew how natural it would be for a fu- 
 ture assembly to refuse being governed by the opi- 
 nion of a former, besides the reserve " according to 
 the ability of the province," left sufficient room for 
 a further reason for reducing the sum whensoever a 
 future assembly should think it proper. 
 
 A little before this message from the house, the 
 governor had informed them that he was of opinion 
 the act which passed the last year, issuing sixty 
 thousand pounds in bills of credit by way of loan, 
 would be disallowed, the lieutenant-governor having 
 given his consent to it directly contrary to a royal 
 instruction, and recommended to them, as the most 
 likely way to obtain his majesty's approbation, to ap- 
 ply the interest of the money arising from the loan 
 towards the governor's salary. This was one of 
 those acts which have their operation so far, before 
 they are laid before his majesty, that great confusion 
 may arise from their disallowance. The house there- 
 fore, had no great fears concerning it ; but it would 
 have been a sufficient reason to prevent their com- 
 plying with the proposal, that it would be a fixing 
 the salary so long as the loan continued, and for this 
 reason they refused it. 
 
 The country in general, as we have observed, was 
 averse to a compliance with the king's instruction, 
 but no part more so than the town of Boston. Ge- 
 nerally, in the colonies, where there is a trading ca- 
 pital town, the inhabitants of it are the most zealous 
 part of the colony in asserting their liberties when 
 an opinion prevails that they are attacked. They 
 follow the example of London, the capital of the na- 
 tion. The governor had frequently said, that the 
 
 members of the house could not act with freedom, 
 >eing influenced by the inhabitants of the town. Be- 
 sides, the town, at a general meeting of the inhabit- 
 ants for that purpose, had passed a vote, which was 
 ailed the unanimous declaration of the inhabitants 
 )f the town of Boston, against fixing a salary upon, 
 the governor, and this vote they ordered to be 
 printed. The governor was in great wrath, and 
 called it " an unnecessary forwardness, an attempt 
 o give law to the country." This seems to have de- 
 ermined him to remove the court out of town, and 
 on the 24th of October he caused it to be adjourned 
 ;o the 31st, then to meet at Salem, in the county of 
 Essex, " where prejudice had not taken root, and 
 where of consequence his majesty's service would in 
 all probability be better answered." Jocosely, he 
 aid there might be a charm in the names of places, 
 and that he was at a loss whether to carry them 
 there or to Concord. 
 
 The house thought their being kept so long sitting 
 at Boston a great grievance. In one of their mes- 
 sages, they ask the governor, " Whether it has been 
 customary that the knights, burgesses, and other 
 freemen of the land, should be told that they are met 
 to grant money in such a peculiar way and manner, 
 and so they should be kept till they had done it, and 
 this in order to gain their good will and assent." In 
 his reply, he tells them he would consider their ques- 
 tion in all its parts : " 1st, ' Whether freemen, &c. 
 should be told they are met to grant money.' I 
 answer, the crown always tells them so. 2d. * In 
 such a particular way and manner ?' I answer, if 
 you mean the way and means of raising money, the 
 crown leaves that to the commons ; but if you mean 
 the purpose for which it is to be granted, the crown 
 always tell them what that is, whether it is for an 
 honourable support, the defence of the kingdom, 
 carrying on a war, or the like. 3d. ' And so they 
 should be kept till they had done it' The crown 
 never tells the parliament so, that I know of; nor 
 have I told you any thing like this as an expedient 
 to get the thing done. I have given you a very dif- 
 ferent reason for not agreeing to a recess, altogether 
 for your own sakes, lest I should thereby make your im- 
 mediate regard to his majesty's pleasure impossible." 
 
 The house could not easily be persuaded they were 
 kept so long together merely for their own sakes, and 
 thought this part of the governor's answer evasive of 
 the true reason ; and considered themselves as under 
 duresse whilst at Boston, and their removal to Salem 
 to be a further hardship, and an earnest of what was 
 still further to come, a removal from place to place 
 until they were harassed into a compliance. The 
 members of the general court privately lamented 
 the measures which had driven away governor Shute, 
 who would have been easy with a salary of about 
 500/. sterling, granted from year to year ; and the 
 same persons, by whose influence his salary was re- 
 duced, were now pressing Mr. Burnet to accept 
 1000Z. in the same way, and could not prevail. 
 
 The house met, according to the adjournment, but 
 immediately complained of their removal from Bos- 
 ton as illegal or unconstitutional, and a great griev- 
 ance. The same, and the only reason which was 
 now given, had been given before in the controversy 
 with governor Shute. The form of the writ for 
 calling an assembly, directed by the province law, 
 mentions its being to be held at the town house at 
 Boston ; but this had been determined by the king 
 in council to be, as no doubt it was, mere matter of 
 form or example only, and that it did not limit the 
 power which the crown before had of summoning 
 
348 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 and holding assemblies at any other place. They 
 prayed the governor, however, to adjourn them back 
 to Boston, but without success. 
 
 They endeavoured to prevail upon the council to 
 join with them, but the council declared they were 
 of a different opinion, and urged the house to pro- 
 ceed upon business, which occasioned repeated mes- 
 sages upon the subject; but the whole stress of the 
 argument on the part of the house lay upon the form 
 of the writ for calling the assembly, which the board 
 answered by saying, that the house might as well in- 
 sist that all precepts to the towns should go from the 
 sheriff of Suffolk, because the form of the precept 
 in the law has " Suffolk ss." 
 
 The alteration of place had no effect upon the 
 members of the house. Votes and messages passed, 
 but no new arguments; the subject had been ex- 
 hausted, and nothing remained but a determined 
 resolution on both sides to abide by their principles, 
 consequently, the house met and adjourned, day 
 after day, without doing any business. The gover- 
 nor was the principal sufferer, not being allowed by 
 the king to receive any thing towards his support, 
 except in a way in which the assembly would not 
 give it. The members of the court, in general, were 
 as well accommodated at Salem as Boston, and the 
 members of Boston, who had not been used to the 
 expense and other inconvenience of absence from 
 home, received a compensation from their town, over 
 and above the ordinary wages of representatives. It 
 was a time of peace without, and a cessation of pub- 
 lic business, for that reason, was less felt. 
 
 The house, from an apprehension that their cause 
 was just, and therefore that they were entitled to re- 
 lief, resolved to make their humble application to 
 his majesty. Francis Wilks, a New England mer- 
 chant, in London, who had been friendly to Mr. 
 Cooke in his agency, and who was universally 
 esteemed for his great probity, as well as his humane 
 obliging disposition, was fixed upon for their agent. 
 Mr. Belcher, who had been several years of the 
 council, always closely attached to governor Shute, 
 and, in general, what was called a prerogative man, 
 by some accident or other became, on a sudden, the 
 favourite of the house, and he was thought the pro- 
 perest person to join with Mr. Wilks. At the last 
 election he had been left out of the council, by what 
 was called the country party, but now declared 
 against the governor's measures, and became inti- 
 mate with Mr. Cooke and other leading members oi 
 the house. Such instantaneous conversions are not 
 uncommon. A grant was made by the house to de- 
 fray the charges of the agency, but this was noneon 
 curred by the council, because it was for the use of 
 agents in whose appointment they had no voice 
 The want of money threatened a stop to the pro- 
 ceeding, but the public spirit of the town of Boston 
 was displayed upon this occasion, and by a subscrip 
 tion of merchants and other inhabitants, a sum was 
 raised which was thought sufficient for the purpose 
 the house voting them thanks, and promising thei; 
 utmost endeavours that the sums advanced shoulc 
 be repaid in convenient time. The governor desir 
 ed a copy of their address to the king, but they re 
 fused it. 
 
 The only argument or reason in the king's in 
 struction for fixing a salary is, " that former assem 
 blies have, from time to time, made such allowance 
 and in such proportion as they themselves though 
 the governor deserved, in order to make him mor 
 dependent upon them." The house, in the first par 
 of their memorial or address, declare they canno 
 
 i faithfulness settle or fix a salary, because, after 
 hat is done, the governor's particular interest will 
 e very little affected by serving or disserving the 
 nterest of the people. This was shewing, that they 
 pprehended the reason given by his majesty for 
 ettling a salary was insufficient, and that the go- 
 ernor ought to be paid according to his services in 
 ic judgment of those who paid him, but in the 
 lose of the address they say, " we doubt not suc- 
 eeding assemblies, according to the ability of the 
 rovince, will come into as ample and honourable a 
 upport, from time to time, and should they not, we 
 cknowledge your majesty will have just reason to 
 hew your displeasure with them." It was remark- 
 d, that in order to make the last clause consist with 
 he first, the ample and honourable support must be 
 inderstood in proportion to the services of the go- 
 ernor in the judgment of the house, but in this 
 ense it was saying nothing, and trifling with the 
 nng; for no case could happen, at any time, in 
 vhich he would have just reason to shew his dis- 
 )Ieasure. It would always be enough to say that 
 he house, in faithfulness to the people, had with- 
 icld part of the governor's support, because, in their 
 udgment, he had neglected their interest and his 
 duty. 
 
 It is curious to observe the progress of a spirit, 
 vhich afterwards manifested itself in the entire 
 emancipation of the colonies. At this time it wa# 
 uggested that the people of the Massachusetts were 
 aiming at independency, and in consequence of what 
 was then deemed an aspersion, the following remark 
 ivas made in the brief drawn up previous to the 
 learing before the committee in council : " From 
 he universal loyalty of the people, even beyond any 
 >ther part of his majesty's dominions, it is absurd to 
 magine they can have thoughts of independency; 
 and, to shew the reverse, it is the custom for all per- 
 ons coming from thence for London, though they 
 ind their fathers and grandfathers were born in 
 
 ew England, to say and always deem it coming 
 home,' as naturally as if born in London, so that it 
 may be said, without being ludicrous, that it would 
 not be more absurd to place two of his majesty's 
 beef-eaters to watch a child in the cradle, that it do 
 not rise and cut his father's throat, than to guard 
 ,hese infant colonies to prevent their shaking off the 
 British yoke. Besides they are so distinct from one 
 another in their forms of government, in their re- 
 .igious rites, in their emulation of trade, and conse- 
 quently in their affections, that they can never be 
 supposed to unite in so dangerous an enterprise." 
 The repeated opposition to instructions from the 
 crown also tended to raise a jealousy in the minds 
 of some, that there was danger of the colonies eman- 
 cipating themselves. Col. Bladen, in particular, for 
 many years one of the board of trade, often express- 
 ed to the agents and other persons who appeared 
 for New England, his apprehensions of such de- 
 signs. It is, nevertheless, certain, that such a 
 scheme' then appeared to the generality of the coun- 
 try to be altogether as wild and extravagant as the 
 foregoing excuse represents it. The following para- 
 graph in the report of the lords of trade to the lords 
 committee of council, had been the immediate occa- 
 sion of the matter being agitated: " The inhabitants, 
 far from making suitable returns to his majesty for 
 the extraordinary privileges they enjoy, are daily 
 endeavouring to wrest the small remains of power 
 out of the hands of the crown, and to become inde- 
 pendent of the mother kingdom. The nature of 
 the soil and product are much the same with those 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 349 
 
 of Great Britain, the inhabitants upwards of 94,000, 
 and their militia, consisting of sixteen regiments of 
 font and fifteen troops of horse, in the year 1718, 
 15,000 men, and, by a medium taken from the naval 
 officers' accounts for three years, from the 24th of 
 June 1714 to the 24th of June 1717, for the ports 
 of Boston and Salem only, it appears that the trade 
 of this country employs continually no less than 
 3,493 sailors, and 492 ships, making 25,406 tons. 
 Hence your excellencies will be apprised of what 
 importance it is to his majesty's service, that so 
 powerful a colony should be restrained within due 
 bounds of obedience to the crown, and more firmly 
 attached to the interests of Great Britain than they 
 now seem to be, which we conceive cannot effectually 
 be done without the interposition of the British 
 legislature, wherein, in our humble opinion, no time 
 should be lost." 
 
 The house had great encouragement given them 
 by Mr. Wilks, that their address would obtain for 
 them the wished for relief. He had been heard by 
 counsel, Mr. Fazakerley and Doctor Sayes, before the 
 board of trade, Mr. Belcher not being then arrived; 
 but soon after they received letters from their joint 
 agents, inclosing the report of the. board of trade, 
 highly disapproving the conduct of the house ; and 
 their agents let them know it was their opinion 
 that if the house should persist in their refusal to 
 comply with the king's instruction, the affair might 
 be carried before the parliament; but, if this should 
 be the case, they thought it better, a salary should 
 be fixed by the supreme legislature than by the 
 legislature of the province ; better the liberties of the 
 people should be taken away from them, than given 
 up by their own act. The governor likewise com- 
 municated to the house his letters from the lords of 
 trade approving his conduct. 
 
 All hopes of success from the agents seemed to 
 be over, and their business in England would have 
 been very short if the governor had not given oc- 
 casion for further application. His administration 
 for many months, except in this affair of the salary, 
 had been unexceptionable. Indeed the members ol 
 the house thought themselves aggrieved, that he 
 would not sign a warrant upon the treasury for their 
 pay, and his reason for refusing it, viz. that one 
 branch of the legislature might as well go without 
 their wages as another, they thought insufficient. 
 Being driven to pecuniary embarrassments, and 
 obliged to his friends to assist him in the support of 
 his family, he thought he might be justified in es- 
 tablishing a fee and perquisite which had never been 
 known in the province before. At New York, all 
 vessels took from the governor, a pass, for which 
 there was no law, but the owners of vessels submittec 
 to it, and it was said that they, " volenti non Jit in- 
 juria" were willing it should not be deemed an 
 injury, but this could be no justification of an arbi 
 trary imposition. 
 
 The governor required all masters to take th< 
 same passes, against their will, and demanded 6*., or 
 2s. sterling for every vessel bound a foreign voyage 
 and 4*. for coasters. The stated fee, by law, foi 
 registers was 6s., but the bills having depreciatec 
 more than one half in value since the law was made 
 he required 12s. This was a rather different case 
 from the other, but they were alike complained o 
 as grievous and oppressive, and the governor's ene 
 mies were not displeased with the advantage he hac 
 given them against him, and, upon a representation 
 made by the agents, notwithstanding the hardship 
 of being restrained from receiving a salary in 
 
 way except such as the assembly would not give it 
 "n, yet such was the regard to law and justice, that 
 iis conduct, so far as related to the passes, was im- 
 mediately disapproved. There were other matters, 
 )esides that of the salary, to be settled befcre Mr. 
 3urnet could be easy in his government, but this 
 _rand affair caused the lesser to be kept off as much 
 as possible. One was the appointment of an attor- 
 ney general. By the charter the election of the 
 civil officers, except such as belong to the council 
 and courts of justice, is in the general assembly. 
 Until after governor Dudley's time it had generally 
 been allowed that the attorney general was an offi- 
 cer of the courts of justice, and included in the ex- 
 ception; but lieut.-governor Tailer, in the year 
 1716, consented to an election made by the two 
 bouses, and the choice had been annually made and 
 approved ever since, not without notice from Mr. 
 Shute of the irregularity of it, but he had so many 
 other affairs upon his hands, that he waived this. 
 
 Mr. Burnet was determined not to part with the 
 right of nomination, and the council were of the 
 opinion he ought not, and refused to join with the 
 house in the election, There was some altercation 
 between the two houses upon it, and both adhered 
 to their principles. 
 
 Another affair, of more extensive influence, wunld 
 have been more strenuously insisted upon. 
 
 In governor Shute's administration, the house, 
 after long disputes with the governor and with the 
 council, carried the point as to the form of supply 
 of the treasury, which differing, as we have already 
 observed, from the former practice, and, as both 
 governor and council insisted, from the rule pre- 
 scribed by the charter, Mr. Burnet had determined 
 to return to the first practice. The house passed a 
 vote for supplying the treasury with twenty thou- 
 sand pounds, which the council concurred, the prac- 
 tice having been the same for eight or nine years 
 together, but the governor refused his consent, and 
 assured them that he would agree to no supply of 
 the treasury but such as was in practice before the 
 year 1721. This declaration was made not long 
 before his death. The settlement of the point in 
 controversy remained for his successor. 
 
 The court was allowed a recess from the 20th of 
 December to the 2d of April, (1729), and then sat 
 until the 1 8th, at Salem again, without any disposi- 
 tion to comply. 
 
 The new assembly for the election of counsellors 
 was held at the same place : there was a general ex- 
 pectation that a new set of counsellors would be cho- 
 sen. The council, of the last year, had been of 
 very different opinion from the house, in many 
 points. They had no doubt of the governor's power 
 to call, adjourn, or prorogue the assembly to any 
 part of the province he thought proper, and, although 
 they were not for a fixed salary, according to the 
 instruction, yet they would willingly have consented 
 to settle it for longer term than a year, and some of 
 them, during Mr. Burnet's administration ; but the 
 house were most offended with the nonconcurrence 
 of their grant of money to their agents. After all, 
 only four new counsellors were elected. Immedi- 
 ately after the council was settled, the court was 
 prorogued to the 25th of June, and, having sat until 
 the 10th of July, he prorogued them again until the 
 20th of August, having made no speech at either of 
 the sessions, or taken any notice of any business he 
 thought proper for them to do. The reason of this 
 omission appeared at the session in August. He 
 had waited the final determination of his majesty in 
 
350 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 council, upon the report of the lords committee. 
 This he now communicated to the house, whereby 
 they perceived that his conduct was approved, that 
 of the house condemned, and his majesty advised to 
 lay the case before the parliament. As this is a curious 
 state document, and gives an idea of the tenets held by 
 the English court, we shall preserve it in our history. 
 
 " At the Court at Kensington, the 22d day of 
 May, 1729, present, the Queen's most excellent ma- 
 iesty, guardian of the kingdom of Great Britain, and. 
 his majesty's lieutenant within the same, in council, 
 his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, Lord Chancellor, Lord Privy 
 Seal, Lord Steward. Lord Chamberlain, Duke of 
 Somerset, Duke of Bolton, Duke of Rutland, Duke 
 of Argyle, Duke of Montross, Duke of Kent, Duke 
 of Ancaster, Duke of Newcastle, Earl of Westmor- 
 land, Earl of Burlington, Earl of Scarborough, Earl 
 of Coventry, Earl of Grantham, Earl of Godolphin, 
 Earl of Loudoun, Earl of Finlater, Earl of March- 
 mont, Earl of Hay, Earl of Uxbridge, Earl of Sussex, 
 Earl of Lonsdale", Viscount Cobham, Viscount Fal- 
 mouth, Lord Wilmington, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer, Master of the Rolls, Sir 
 Paul Methuen, Henry Pelham, Esq. ; 
 
 " Upon reading this day at the board a report to 
 his majesty from the lords of the committee of his ma- 
 jesty's most honourable privy council, dated the 22d 
 of the last month, in the words following, viz. 
 
 " Your majesty having been pleased, by your 
 order in council of the 1st of February, to refer unto 
 this committee an address from the house of repre- 
 sentatives of the province of the Massachusetts bay, 
 offering the reason and grounds of their proceedings 
 and conclusions against settling a fixed salary of one 
 thousand pounds per annum on the governor of that 
 province for the time being, according to your ma- 
 jesty's instructions to the present governor, and 
 complaining against the governor for having ad- 
 journed the general court from Boston to Salem ; the 
 lords of the committee did, in obedience to your ma- 
 jesty's said order, proceed, the same day, to take 
 the said address into their consideration ; but being 
 informed that the lords commissioners for trade and 
 plantations had under their examination several let- 
 ters from William Burnet, Esq. your majesty's go- 
 vernor of that province, relating to the behaviour of 
 the said assembly in this affair, the lords of the com- 
 mittee did thereupon send a copy of the said address 
 to the said lords commissioners, that they might 
 have the whole matter before them, and directed 
 them to report their opinion thereupon to this com- 
 mittee. And the said lords commissioners having 
 accordingly considered the said several papers, and 
 heard Mr. Attorney and Solicitor-general in support 
 of your majesty's said instructions, and also counsel 
 in behalf of the said assembly, have reported upon 
 the whole. That they seemed entirely averse to settle 
 a certain salary upon the present governor and those 
 which shall succeed him, yet the said lords commis- 
 sioners judge it absolutely necessary that the as- 
 sembly should settle a fixed salary of 1000Z. sterling 
 per annum, at, least, upon the governor, during the 
 whole time of his governmeat, it being absolutely 
 necessary for your majesty's service that the inde- 
 pendency of the governor upon the assembly should 
 be preserved : And that as to the complaint against 
 the governor for removing the assembly from Boston 
 to Salem, his majesty in council, upon a former com- 
 plaint of this nature against colonel Shute, had de- 
 termined that point in favour of the governor, and, 
 therefore, the lords commissioners were of opinion 
 
 the present governor had acted in this matter agree- 
 able to that detennination. 
 
 " The lords of the committee hereupon beg leave to 
 acquaint your majesty, that notwithstanding the said 
 lords commissioners for trade had fully heard all the 
 reasons that were offered in behalf of the said as- 
 sembly, yet the agents of the said assembly petitioned 
 this committee the 19th instant, praying that they 
 might be admitted to be heard before their lordships, 
 who thought it proper to know upon what terms thev 
 would insist, that your majesty's attorney and solf- 
 citor-general might be prepared to answer the same, 
 and they desiring to be heard upon the reasons they 
 had to offer why the said assembly should not settle 
 a fixed salary upon his majesty's governor of that 
 province during the whole time of his government, 
 their lordships appointed this day for hearing them 
 thereupon ; they having accordingly attended with 
 their counsel, their lordships heard all that was offered 
 on their behalf against settling such a fixed salary, 
 and also heard Mr. Attorney and Solicitor-general 
 in support of your majesty's said instructions recom- 
 mending it to them : And do thereupon agree humbly 
 to report to your majesty, 
 
 " That by the charter granted to the Massachu- 
 setts-bay, the legislative power is vested in a gover- 
 nor, council and assembly, of whom the governor 
 alone is nominated by your majesty ; that the as- 
 sembly is chosen annually by the p'eople, and that 
 the council is likewise chosen annually by the as- 
 sembly in conjunction with the members of the coun- 
 cil; that by the reasons insisted on by the council for 
 the assembly in refusing to settle a fixed salary, it 
 appeared, the point contended for was to bring the 
 governor appointed by your majesty over them into 
 a dependence on their good will for his subsistence, 
 which would manifestly tend to a lessening of his 
 authority, and consequently, of that dependence 
 which this colony ought to have upon the crown of 
 Great Britain, by bringing the whale legislative 
 power into the hands of the people. 
 
 "The power of raising taxes being by the charter 
 granted to the general assembly, it was from thence 
 argued, that they ought to be left at liberty for the 
 doing or omitting it, as they shall think proper ; but 
 the words of the charter shew the intent of granting 
 them this power to be, that they should use it for the 
 service of the crown, in the necessary defence and 
 support of your majesty's government of the said 
 province, and the protection and preservation of the 
 inhabitants ; and that, therefore, the refusing or ne- 
 glecting to make due provision for the support of 
 your majesty's governor, who is so essential a part of 
 the government, must be looked upon as acting con- 
 trary to the terms of the said charter, and incon- 
 sistent w T ith the trust reposed in them thereby. That, 
 besides the instruction given to the present governor 
 by your majesty for this purpose, instructions have 
 always been given by your majesty's predecessors to 
 former governors, to recommend to the assembly the 
 establishing a salary suitable to the dignity of that 
 post ; notwithstanding which the assembly have 
 hitherto refused to comply therewith, although they 
 have by act of assembly settled a fixed salary or al- 
 lowance of six shillings a day on themselves, and 
 ten shillings a day on the council. The present as- 
 sembly have, indeed, offered your majesty's governor 
 a salary equal to what was recommended by your 
 majesty's instructions, for the time he has been with 
 them ; but it is apprehended this was done only to 
 tempt him to give up your majesty's instructions for 
 settling it for the whole time of his government. 
 
UNITED STATES, 
 
 351 
 
 " And here their lordships cannot, in justice to 
 Mr. Burnet, omit taking notice, that by his steady 
 pursuit of your majesty's instructions and icjecting 
 the temptations offerc-d by the assembly, he has acted 
 with the utmost duty to your majesty, and a just re- 
 gard to the trust reposed in him as governor of that 
 province. 
 
 ' Upon a due consideration of all that has been 
 offered on the part of the assembly in justification of 
 their refusing to comply with your majesty's instruc- 
 tions, the lords of the committee cannot but agree 
 in opinion with the lords commissioners for trade and 
 plantations, that it is absolutely necessary for your 
 majesty's service and for preserving that dependency 
 which this colony ought to have upon Great Britain, 
 and better securing a due execution of the laws for 
 trade and navigation, that a salary of 100CM. sterling 
 per annum should be settled upon the governor 
 during' the whole time of his government, and con- 
 sidering that the assembly of the province has shewn 
 so little regard to your majesty's instructions or to 
 those of your royal predecessors in this behalf, which 
 the governors, from time to time, have been directed 
 to lay before them, the lords of the committee do ad- 
 vise your majesty to lay the whole matter before the 
 parliament of Great Britain. 
 
 " Her majesty, this day, took the said report into 
 consideration, and was pleased, with the advice of 
 his majesty's privy council, to approve thereof, and 
 to order, as is hereby ordered, that one of his ma- 
 jesty's principal secretaries of state should receive 
 the pleasure of the crown thereupon. 
 
 " A true copy, Temple Stanyan." 
 
 The house received with the foregoing order, a 
 letter from their agents, who, it seems, had altered 
 their opinions, and now intimated to the house, that 
 notwithstanding the determination or advice of the 
 privy council, it was not likely the affair would ever 
 be brought before the parliament. This letter the 
 house ordered to be printed. The governor in one 
 or his messages characterizes it as " an undeniable 
 proof of their endeavours to keep the people in igno- 
 rance of the true state of their affairs." 
 
 The governor having held several sessions at Sa- 
 lem, without any success, he adjourned the court, to 
 meet the 21st of August, at Cambridge. This 
 widened the breach, and the house grew warmer in 
 their votes and messages, and complained that they 
 were to be compelled to measures against their judg- 
 ment, by being harassed and drove from one part of 
 the province to another. The governor's friends 
 observed the effect the controversy had upon his 
 spirits. In a few days, he fell sick of a fever, and 
 died at Boston the 7th of September. Some attri- 
 buted his illness to his taking cold, his carriage 
 oversetting upon the causeway at Cambridge, the 
 tide being high, and he falling into the water. The 
 resentment which had been raised ceased, with peo- 
 ple in general, upon his death. Many amiable parts 
 of his character revived in their minds. He had been 
 steady and inflexible in his adherence to his instruc- 
 tions, but discovered nothing of a grasping avarici- 
 cious mind ; it was the mode, more than the quan- 
 tum, of his salary upon which he insisted. The 
 naval office had generally been a post for some re- 
 lation or favourite of the governor, but Colonel 
 Tailer having been lieut.-governor, and in circum- 
 stances far from affluent, he generously gave the 
 post to him, without any reserve of the issues or 
 profits. The only instance of his undue exacting 
 money, by some, was thought to be palliated by the 
 established custom of the government he had quit- 
 
 ted. This did not justify it. In his disposal of 
 public offices, he gave the preference to such as were 
 disposed to favour his cause, and displaced some for 
 not favouring it, and, in some instances, he went 
 further than good policy would allow. He did not 
 know the temper of the people of New England. 
 They ever had a strong sense of liberty, and were 
 more easily led than driven. He disobliged many 
 of his friends by removing from his post Mr. Lynde, 
 a gentleman of the house, esteemed by both sides 
 for his integrity and other valuable qualities, and 
 he acknowledged that he could assign no other rea- 
 son except that the gentleman had not voted for a 
 compliance with the instruction. However, an im- 
 moral or unfair character was a bar to office, and 
 he gave his negative to an election of a counsellor, 
 in one instance, upon that principle only. His su- 
 perior talents, and free and easy manner of com- 
 municating his sentiments, made him the delight of 
 men of sense and learning. His right of precedence 
 in all companies facilitated the exercise of his natu- 
 ral disposition to a great share in the conversation, 
 and at the same time ' caused it to appear more 
 excusable.' His own account of his genius was, 
 that it was late before it budded, and that, until he 
 was near twenty years of age, his father despaired 
 of his ever making any figure in life. This, per- 
 haps, might proceed from the exact severe discipline 
 of the bishop's family, not calculated for every tem- 
 per alike, and might damp and discourage his. To 
 long and frequent religious services at home, in his 
 youth, he would sometimes pleasantly attribute his 
 indisposition to a very scrupulous exact attendance 
 upon public worship, but this might, really, be 
 owing to an abhorrence of ostentation and mere 
 formality in religion, to avoid which, as most of the 
 grave serious people of the province thought, he ap- 
 proached too near the other extreme. A little more 
 caution and conformity to the different ages, man- 
 ners, customs, and even prejudices of different com- 
 panies, would have been more politic, but his open, 
 undisguised mind could not submit to it. Being 
 asked to dine with an old charter senator, who re- 
 tained the custom of saying grace sitting, the grave 
 gentleman desired to know which would be more 
 agreeable to his excellency, that grace should be 
 said standing or sitting ; the governor replied, stand- 
 ing or sitting any way or no way, just as you please. 
 He sometimes wore a cloth coat lined with velvet. 
 It was said to be expressive of his character. He 
 was a firm believer of the truth of revealed religion, 
 but a bigot to no particular profession among Chris 
 tians, and laid little stress upon modes and forms. 
 By a clause in his last will, he ordered his body to 
 be buried, if he died at New York, by his wife, if iu 
 any other part of the world, in the nearest church- 
 yard or burying-ground, all places being alike to 
 God's all-seeing eye. The assembly ordered a very 
 honourable funeral at the public charge. 
 
 Mr. Dummer reassumed the administration. He 
 did not intend to enter into the controversy about 
 the salary; no advantage could arise from it, no 
 new arguments could be used, the king's instruc- 
 tions were to be his rule, and he would not depart 
 from them by accepting any grant as lieut.-gover- 
 nor ; but the affair having been under consideration, 
 before his majesty in council, and further proceed- 
 ings expected, he would wait for further intelligence 
 and directions. The house were not willing to ad- 
 mit that the instruction had any respect to the sa- 
 lary of a lieut.-governor, but if it had, they had 
 given sufficient reasons against it, and were deter- 
 
S52 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 mined to come into no act for fixing a salary. 
 Having continued the session at Cambridge until 
 the 26th of September, he ordered an adjournment 
 to the 29th of November, at Boston, which was a 
 further indication that he did not intend to press 
 the instruction ; however, at their first coming toge- 
 ther, he recommended to them a compliance with 
 it, and, upon their assuring him, by a message, that, 
 although they could not settle a salary, yet they 
 were ready to give him an ample and honourable 
 support, he desired them to lose no time about it, 
 for he would accept of no support unless it should 
 be exactly conformable to his majesty's instruction. 
 The house, notwithstanding, made a grant of 750/. 
 to enable him to manage the affairs of government. 
 The council concurred with an amendment, adding, 
 ' for the half year current;' but this being fixing a 
 salary for half a year, the house refused it. 
 
 Upon the news of Mr. Burnet's death, Mr. Bel- 
 cher applied with all his powers to obtain the com- 
 mission for the government. Governor Shute might 
 have returned, but he declined, and generously gave 
 his interest to Mr. Belcher, who, fourteen years be- 
 fore, had given 500J. sterling, which was never 
 repaid, to facilitate Colonel Shute's appointment. 
 The controversy, which it was supposed a governor 
 must be engaged in, caused fewer competitors, and 
 the ministry were the more concerned to find a 
 proper person. Lord Townshend asked Mr. Wilks, 
 who had much of his confidence, whether he thought 
 Mr. Belcher would be able to influence the people 
 to a compliance with the king's instructions, he 
 replied that he thought no man more likely. Their 
 choosing him agent was a mark of their confidence 
 in him, but it seemed natural to expect that they 
 would be under stronger prejudices against him than 
 against a person who had never engaged in their 
 favour. Mr. Belcher's appointment occasioned the 
 removal of Mr. Dummer from the place of lieut.- 
 governor. A young gentleman, with whose family 
 Mr. Wilks was connected, (Mr. Thornton) Mr. 
 Belcher had engaged to provide for, and he had no 
 post in his gift, worth accepting, besides the naval 
 office. To make a vacancy there, Colonel Tailer 
 was appointed lieut.-governor. The pleasure, if 
 there was any, in superseding Mr. Dummer, who 
 had superseded him before, could be no equivalent 
 for the difference between a post of naked honour, 
 and a post of profit, which gave him a comfortable 
 living. Mr. Dummer's administration has been, 
 justly, well spoken of. His general aim was to do 
 public service. He was compelled to some com- 
 pliances which appeared to him the least of two 
 evils. It lessened him in Mr. Burnet's esteem, who 
 thought he should have shewn more fortitude ; but 
 he retired with honour, and, after some years, was 
 elected into the council, where, from respect to his 
 former commission, he took the place of president; 
 but, being thought too favourable to the prerogative, 
 after two or three years, he was left out. He seemed 
 to lay this slight more to heart than the loss of his 
 commission, and aimed- at nothing more, the rest of 
 his life, than selecting for his friends and acquaint 
 ance men of sense, virtue, and religion, and en- 
 joyed in life, for many years, that fame which, for 
 infinitely wise reasons, the great Creator has im- 
 planted in every generous breast a desire of, even 
 after death. 
 
 Colonel Tailer's commission was received and 
 published before Mr. Belcher's arrival, and it gave 
 him an opportunity of doing a generous thing for 
 Mr. Dummer. A vote had passed the two houses, 
 
 granting him nine hundred pounds, which, from a 
 regard to his instructions, he had not signed, nor 
 lad he expressly refused it, and the court having 
 aeen adjourned only, not prorogued, the next meet- 
 ing was considered as the same session, and Colonel 
 Tailer ventured to sign it, not being a grant to him- 
 self, and not against the letter of his instructions; 
 and it was really saving money to Mr. Dummer, the 
 grant being intended for services to come as well as 
 past, would not have been renewed, or in part only. 
 
 From the arrival of Governor Belcher, in 1730, to 
 the reimbursement of the charge of the expedition 
 against Cape Breton, and the abolition of paper 
 money, 1749. 
 
 Mr. Belcher arrived the beginning of August, in 
 the Blandford man of war, Capt Prothero. 
 
 No governor had been received with a shew of 
 greater joy. Both parties supposed they had an in- 
 terest in him. For men to alter their principles 
 and practice, according to their interest, was no new 
 thing. A sketch of Mr. Belcher's life and character 
 will in some measure account for his obtaining the 
 government, for the principal events in its adminis- 
 tration and for the loss of his commission. 
 
 Being the only son of a wealthy father, he had 
 good prospects from the beginning of life. After 
 an academical education in his own country, he 
 travelled to Europe, was twice at Hanover, and 
 was introduced to the court there, at the time 
 when the princess Sophia was the presumptive 
 heiress to the British crown. The novelty of a 
 British American, added to the gracefulness of his 
 person, caused distinguished notice to be taken of 
 him, which tended to increase that aspiring turn 
 of mind which was very natural to him. Some years 
 after, he made another voyage tc England, being 
 then engaged in mercantile affairs, which, after his 
 return home, proved, in the general course of them, 
 rather unsuccessful, and seem to have suppressed 
 or abated the ruling passion ; but being chosen agent 
 for the house of repi'esentatives, it revived and was 
 gratified to the utmost, by his appointment to the 
 government of Massachusetts-bay and New Hamp- 
 shire, and discovered itself in every part of his ad- 
 ministration. Before he was governor, except in 
 one instance, he had always been a favourer of the 
 prerogative, and afterwards he did not fail of acting 
 up to his principles. A man of high principles can- 
 not be too jealous of himself, upon a sudden ad- 
 vancement to a place of power. The council never 
 enjoyed less freedom than in his time. He propos- 
 ed matters for the sake of their sanction rather than 
 advice, rarely failing of a majority to approve of his 
 sentiments. 
 
 He lived elegantly in his family, was hospitable, 
 made great shew in dress, equipage, &c. and although 
 by his depreciation of the currency he was curtailed 
 of his salary, yet he disdained any unwarrantable 
 or mean ways of obtaining money to supply his ex- 
 penses. By great freedom in conversation, and an 
 unreserved censure of persons whose principles or 
 conduct he disapproved, he made himself many ene- 
 mies. In a private person, this may often pass with 
 little notice, but from a governor it is sure to be 
 remembered, and some never ceased pursuing him 
 until they had him displaced. 
 
 The general court met the 9th of September, at 
 Cambridge, the small-pox being at Boston. The 
 people waited with impatience the governor's first 
 speech. Many flattered themselves that the instruc- 
 tion for a fixed salary was withdrawn ; others, that 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 if it was continued, he would treat it rather as Dud- 
 ley aud Shute had done, than as his immediate pre- 
 de'cessor; others, who did not expect a relaxation, 
 were, from curiosity, wishing to know how he would 
 acquit himself with* the people who sent him to Eng- 
 land to oppose the instruction. After premising 
 that the honour of the crown and interest of Great 
 Britain are very compatible with the privileges and 
 liberties of the plantations, he tells the two houses 
 that he had it in command from his royal master, to 
 communicate to them his 27th instruction, respect- 
 ing the governor's support ; that whilst he was in 
 England he did every thing, consistent with reason 
 and justice, for preserving and lengthening out the 
 peace and welfare of the province ; that they were no 
 strangers to the steps taken by his majesty with 
 respect to the unhappy dispute between the late 
 governor and them, and he hoped after such a 
 struggle, they would think it for the true interest of 
 the province to do what might be perfectly accept- 
 able ; that nothing prevented this controversy, and 
 several other matters of dangerous consequence, 
 being laid before the parliament, but his majesty's 
 great lenity and goodness, which inclined him 'to 
 give them one opportunity more of paying a due re- 
 gard to what in his royal wisdom he thinks so just 
 and reasonable. Had he stopped here, perhaps, 
 less could not have been expected from him, but he 
 unfortunately attempted to shew the similitude be- 
 tween the case of Cato shut up in Utica, and the 
 Massachusetts-bay under the restraint of the royal 
 instruction ; commended the wisdom of Cato in mak- 
 ing so brave a stand for the liberties of his country, 
 but condemned his putting an end to his life when 
 affairs became desperate, rather than submit to a 
 power he could no longer resist; which instance he 
 brought as some illustration of the late controversy, 
 though he would not allow it to run parallel, Caesar 
 being a tyrant, and the king the protector of the 
 liberties of his subjects. 
 
 It was said, upon this occasion, that the governor 
 must allow that the Massachusetts assembly had 
 done wisely hitherto in defending their liberties, for, 
 otherwise, he had brought an instance of a case in 
 no one respect similar to theirs; and if they had 
 done so, it was because the instruction was a mere 
 exeition of power, and then the parallel would run 
 farther than he was willing to allow. 
 
 The instruction was conceived in much stronger 
 terms than that to governor Burnet, and it is de- 
 clared that in case the assembly refuses to conform 
 to it, " his majesty will find himself under a neces- 
 sity of laying the undutiful behaviour of the province 
 before the legislature of Great Britain, not only in 
 this single instance but in many others of the same 
 nature and tendency, whereby it manifestly appears 
 that this assembly, for some years last past, have 
 attempted by unwarrantable practices to weaken, 
 not cast off the obedience they owe to the crown, and 
 the dependance which all colonies ought to have on 
 their mother country." And in the close of the in- 
 struction his majesty expects "that they do forth- 
 with comply with this proposal as the last significa- 
 tion of our royal pleasure to them upon this subject, 
 and if the said assembly shall not think fit to comply 
 therewith, it is our will and pleasure and you are 
 required immediately to come over to this kingdom 
 of Great Britain, in order to give us an exact ac- 
 count of all that shall have passed upon this sub- 
 ject, that we may lay the same before our parlia 
 ment." 
 
 The bouse proceeded just as they had done with 
 HIST OF AMER. NoV 45 & 48. 
 
 governor Burnet. They made a grant to Mr. Bel- 
 ;her of 1,OOOJ. currency, for defraying the expense 
 f his voyage to New England, and as a gratuity for 
 ervices while in England : 500/. was also granted 
 o the governor, for his services in England as agent 
 "or the house of representatives ; and the sum of 
 1,5032. Is. Id., which had been advanced by mer- 
 chants in Boston and others and supplied the agents, 
 vas also granted to be paid out of the public treasury, 
 and to the several persons respectively. The ho- 
 nour of the governor who had spent the money, as 
 well as that of the house, was concerned. The coun- 
 cil, although in general the same persons who 
 lad refused to consent to any grant of money, for 
 the use of an agent in the choice of whom they had 
 no share, were prevailed upon by the governor and 
 the influence of a great number of the principal 
 merchants of Boston, who had advanced the money, 
 to consent to a grant for the repayment of it. Th& 
 liouse, expecting the like difficulty might arise upon 
 a like occasion in future time, took this favourable 
 opportunity of passing a vote for the taking the 
 sum of 500. sterling out of the province treasury, 
 and depositing it in the bank of England for the usw 
 of the house. To this vt)te the council gave their 
 concurrence and the governor his consent. He re- 
 pented of it afterwards, when he found the agent 
 employed by the house and supported with this mo- 
 ney was the principal promoter of the complaints 
 a gainst him which caused his removal from the go- 
 vernment; and sometime after they voted him a sum 
 equal to a thousand pounds sterling,- to enable him 
 to manage the public affairs, &c., but would fix no 
 time. The council concurred in it with an amend- 
 ment, viz., " and that the same sum be annually 
 allowed for the governor's support." This, without 
 a fund for the payment of it, was doing little mere 
 than the house had repeatedly done by their decla- 
 rations, that they doubted not future assemblies 
 would make the like honourable provision for the 
 governor's support, according to the ability of the 
 province; the amendment, notwithstanding, was nut 
 agreed to, and the house adhered to their own vote. 
 This produced a second amendment, viz., " that tho 
 same sum should be annually paid during his ex- 
 cellency's continuance in the government and resi- 
 dence here :" but this also was nonconcured. Tho 
 two houses then conferred upon the subject, the go 
 vernor being present, which was unusual, at. the confer 
 ence. Mr. Shirley had been desirous of acquainting 
 himself with the arguments on both sides, in some 
 affair in controversy between the two houses, inti- 
 mated to the council his inclination to be present. 
 When the house came up the speaker, Mr. Gushing, 
 seeing the governor in the chair, started back and 
 remaining at the door of the council chamber, ex- 
 pressed his surprise at seeing his excellency in the 
 chair, the conference being intended between the 
 two houses only, but if his excellency intended to 
 remain in the chair, only to hear the arguments, 
 he imagined the house would have no objection to 
 conferring in his presence: and Mr. Shirley re- 
 mained, as in the present instance did Mr. Bel- 
 cher, and made a long speech, expressing the great 
 pleasure the council had given him in the part 
 they had taken, and his concern and surprize at the 
 conduct of the house, in running the risk of the 
 consequences of their refusal to comply with the in- 
 struction, reminded them of the vast expense which 
 their former unsuccessful disputes with their go- 
 vernors had occasioned to the province, but used no 
 arguments to convince them of the reasonableness 
 
 2T 
 
3' -4 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 of the demand, and its compatibility with their rights 
 and privileges. 
 
 The small-pox being in the town of Cambridge, 
 where the court sat, the house desired to rise; but the 
 governor let them know he would meet them in any 
 other town, and the same day ordered an adjourn- 
 ment to Roxbury, where a bill passed both houses 
 for the support of the governor, but not coming up 
 to the instruction, the governor could not consent to 
 it. The country party in the house, as much a sole- 
 cism as it was, was the most zealous for the prero- 
 gative ; and, except a few prerogative men who 
 were always willing to fix the salary, none went so 
 great a length, at this time, towards fixing it, as 
 those who opposed any one step towards it, under Mr. 
 Bur net. 
 
 The people, in general, were well plcas-d with the 
 governor. It is not improbable that he would have 
 obtained the settlement of a salary during his admi- 
 nistiation, if it had not been, in effect, a settlement 
 for his successors also, for such a precedent could 
 not easily have been resisted. The two parties which 
 had long subsisted in the government were vying, 
 each with the other, in measures for an expedient or 
 accommodation. The prerogative men were Mr. 
 Belcher's old friends, who were pretty well satisfied 
 that his going over to the other side was not from 
 any real affection to the cause, and that he must, 
 sooner or later, differ with those who adhered to it, 
 and for this event 'they waited patiently. The other 
 party, by whose interest he had been sent to Eng- 
 land, adhered to him, expecting their reward. Ac- 
 cordingly, Mr. Cooke was soon appointed a justice 
 of the common pleas for the county of Suffolk. To 
 make way for him and another favourite, Colonel 
 Byfield, to whom Mr. Belcher was allied, two gen- 
 tlemen, Colonel Hutchinson and Colonel Dudley, 
 were displaced. They were both in principle steady 
 friends to government, and the first of them was a 
 fast friend to the governor. Mr. Belcher would not 
 have been able to advance so many of his friends as 
 he did, if he had not persuaded the council that, 
 upon the appointment of a new governor, it was ne- 
 cessary to renew all civil commissions. Having ob- 
 tained this point, he took the most convenient time 
 to settle the several counties. Before he settled the 
 county of York, he recommended to the judges a 
 person for clerk of the court. This officer the pro- 
 vince law empowers the judges to appoint. Some of 
 them sent their excuse, being well satisfied with the 
 clerk they had, who was a faithful well approved 
 officer; but the governor let the judges know, if he 
 could not appoint a clerk he could a judge, and ac- 
 cordingly removed those who were not for his pur- 
 pose and appointed, others in their stead. There was 
 an inconsistency in delaying appointments, with the 
 principles he advanced. If new commissions were 
 necessary, they were necessary immediately, and they 
 might as well be delayed seven years as one. 
 
 It was said that when Mr. Belcher, some years 
 after, was ordered by the king to remove his son-in- 
 law, Mr. Lyde, from the naval office, the power of 
 appointment to which office is, by act of parliament, 
 given to the governor, he was advised to make an 
 excuse, Mr. Lyde being an officer who gave general 
 satisfaction ; but Mr. Belcher replied, that although 
 the king could not make a naval officer yet he could 
 make a governor, and he was forced to give up his 
 son-in-law. This was the first instance of an ap- 
 pointment made by the crown immediately to this 
 office, and perhaps to any office in the province, the 
 nomination to which is, by the charier and royal com- 
 
 mission, left to the judgment and discretion of the 
 governor. 
 
 The commissions to civil officers being in the 
 king's name and tested by the governor, the renewal 
 of such commissions upon the appointment of a go- 
 vernor has not been practised since Mr. Belcher's 
 time. It was proposed in council by his successor, 
 but. Mr. Read, a very eminent lawyer, and which is 
 more, a person of great integrity and firmness of 
 mind, being then a member of the council, brought 
 such arguments against the practice, that the ma- 
 jority of the board refused to consent to it. Besides 
 this general new appointment, Mr. Belcher, in the 
 course of his administration, made more frequent 
 removals of persons from office than any governor 
 before or since. This was owing to the pusillani- 
 mity of the council. No appointment can be made 
 without their advice. The governor, it is true, could 
 refuse his consent, every year, to their election ; but 
 the emoluments of a Massachusetts counsellor were 
 very small, and caused no great temptation to sa- 
 crifice virtue. It is said, that one of the judges of 
 the superior court expecting to be removed, in the 
 latter part of Mr. Belcher's administration, applied 
 by a friend in England to lord chief justice Willes, 
 who signified his resolution, that if any judge should 
 be removed without good reason assigned, he would 
 himself complain to his majesty against the governor. 
 The freedom and independence of the judges of 
 England is always enumerated among the excellen- 
 cies of the constitution. The Massachusetts judges 
 were far from independent. In Mr. Belcher's ad- 
 ministration, they were peculiarly dependent upon 
 the governor. Before and since they were depend- 
 ent upon the assembly for their salary, granted an- 
 nually, which sometimes was delayed, sometimes di- 
 minished, and rarely escaped being a subject of 
 debate and altercation. 
 
 (1731.) Two or three sessions passed, when little 
 more was done on the governor's part, than repeat- 
 ing his demand for a fixed salary, and intimating 
 that he should be obliged to go to England and render 
 an account of their behaviour to the king. The 
 major part of the house were very desirous of giving 
 satisfaction to the governor and to their constituents 
 both, but could not. Mr. Cooke's friends in the 
 town of Boston began to be jealous of him. A bill 
 was prepared, which sets forth in the preamble, that 
 settling a salary would deprive the people of their 
 rights as Englishmen. After granting 3400/., which 
 was about equal to 1000/. sterling, it is further 
 enacted, that as his majesty had been graciously 
 pleased to appoint J. B., Esq. to be the governor, 
 who was a native of the country, whose fortune was 
 here, who, when a member of the council, as well as 
 when in a private station, has always consulted the 
 true interest of his country as well as the honour 
 and dignity of the crown, therefore, it is most so- 
 lemnly promised and engaged to his most excellent 
 majesty, that there shall be granted the like sum for 
 the like purpose, at the beginning of the sessions in 
 May every year during the governor's continuance 
 in the administration and residence within the pro- 
 vince ; provided, this act shall not be pleaded as a 
 precedent, or binding on any future assembly, for 
 fixing a salary on any succeeding governor. The 
 bill is in Mr. Cooke's hand writing, and it is minuted 
 at the bottom, that the governor approved of it. The 
 governor could not imagine so evasive a thing eould 
 be approved in England. He might hope to im- 
 prove it, as being a further advance than had oeen 
 before made ; and, by using this argument, that it 
 
UNITED STATES 
 
 would be much more rational for the house to 
 do what they now had fully in their power to do, 
 <hun to make a solemn promise that another house 
 should do the same thing, the performance of which 
 promise they would not have in their own power. 
 The scheme failed, the bill did not pass ; and from 
 that time Mr. Belcher, despairing of carrying his 
 point, turned his thought to obtaining a relaxation 
 if his instruction. Instead of applying himself, he 
 advised to an address from the house, not for the 
 withdrawal of the instruction, but that the governor 
 might have leave to receive the sura granted. This 
 was allowed ; but it was to be understood, that he 
 was to insist upon a compliance with his instruction 
 as much as ever. Leave for consent to particular 
 grants was obtained two or three years, and at length 
 a general order of leave to receive such sums as 
 should be granted. This was the issue of the con- 
 troversy about a fixed salary. Until Mr. Belcher's 
 arrival, Mr. Cooke had differed from most who, from 
 time to time, have been recorded in history for po- 
 pular men. Generally, to preserve the favour of the 
 people, they must change with the popular air, and 
 when we survey a course of action it will not appear 
 altogether consistent. He had the art of keeping 
 the people steady in the applause of his measures. 
 To be careful never to depart from the appearance 
 of maintaining or enlarging rights, liberties, and 
 privileges, was all he found necessary. As soon as 
 he was defective in this respect, and tried to secure 
 his interest both with the governor and town of Bos- 
 ton, he had like to have lost both. In the election 
 of representatives for Boslon, in 1733 or 1734, the 
 governor's party appeared against him ; he had lost 
 many of the other party by what they called too 
 great a compliance, and he had a majority, after se- 
 veral trials, of one or two votes only in six or seven 
 hundred. 
 
 (1732.) The dispute about the manner of issuing 
 money out of the treasury, was settled unfavourably 
 for the house The charter provided, that all money 
 should be issued by warrant from the governor, with 
 advice and consent of the council. Until the year 
 1720 the money was brought into the treasury, by a 
 vote or act originating in the house, and destined to 
 certain purposes, and drawn out for those purposes 
 by warrant from the governor, with advice, &c. ; but 
 after that, the house not only destined the money 
 when put into the treasury, but provided that none 
 of it, except some trilling sums for expresses and 
 the like, should be issued without a vote of the whole 
 court for payment. After such a vote they were 
 willing the governor should give his warrant. This 
 appeared to the king to render his governor con- 
 temptible, and entirely to defeat the provision in the 
 charter, and there was no prospect of any relaxation 
 of the instruction to the governor. When the ser- 
 vants of the government had suffered along time for 
 want of their money, the house passed a bill, which 
 supplied the treasury in a way not materially differ- 
 ing from what had been in practice before 1720. 
 
 Mr. Belcher had another instruction, not to con- 
 sent to the issuing any bills of credit for a longer 
 term than those were to remain current which had 
 before been issued, none of which extended beyond 
 the year 1741. It would have been but a small bur- 
 den upon the inhabitants to have paid the charges of 
 every year, and the debt which lay upon such year 
 besides; but, instead of that wise measure, they suf- 
 fered one year after another to pass with light taxes, 
 and laid heavy burdens upon distant years, and the 
 Jast year, 1741, had more laid upon it than any four 
 
 or five preceding years ; and although even this was 
 far short of what has been paid in some succeeding 
 years, yet it was deemed an insupportable burden, 
 and it was generally supposed, the promises made by 
 the acts of government to draw in the bills in tha't 
 year would, by some means or other, be evaded or 
 openly violated. Mr. Belcher seemed determined to 
 adhere to his instruction, and there was an expecta- 
 tion of some great convulsion, which was prevented 
 by his being superseded before that period arrived. 
 
 Captain Coram pursued the project for settling 
 the eastern country, until he procured an order or 
 instruction to Colonel Phillips, the governor of 
 Nova Scotia, in 1730, to take possession of the land 
 between St. Croix and Kennebeck, and thirty men, 
 with an officer, were sent to the fort at Pemaquid, 
 built by the Massachusetts. Colonel Dunbar, a 
 gentleman out of employ, came over about the same 
 time, took the command of the fort, and assumed 
 the government of that part of the province. Mr. 
 Belcher was applied to by the proprietors of the lands 
 there, and the house of representatives asserted the 
 right of the province. The governor, with advice 
 of council, issued a proclamation, requiring the in- 
 habitants to remain in their obedience and due sub- 
 jection to the laws and government of the province. 
 This seems to have been all that in prudence he 
 could do. Some were for taking further measures 
 to remove Dunbar, which, as he had a royal com- 
 mission, however liable to exceptions, Mr. Belcher 
 thought by no means warrantable. The minds of 
 the people were inflamed, and when Dunbar came 
 up to Boston he persisted in his claim to the country 
 which, with reports of some not very decent ex- 
 pressions of the governor, raised the resentment of 
 many. Persons of ill design perhaps might have 
 been able to have caused a tumult. The lands in- 
 deed were claimed by a few particular persons, but 
 it was spread abroad that when this country should 
 be detached from the rest of the province the sup- 
 plies of fuel to the sea-port towns would cease, or 
 be burdened with heavy duties, and the poor op- 
 pressed. It happened that Mr. Samuel Waldo, a 
 gentleman of good capacity, and who would not 
 easily relinquish his right, undertook for the pro- 
 prietors of the principal tract of the country claimed, 
 and, upon representation to his majesty in council, 
 the order to Phillips and the authority to Dunbar 
 were revoked in 1732, and the government of the 
 province afterwards thought it proper to place a 
 garrison in their own pay at Fort Frederick, the 
 name given by Dunbar to the fort at Pemaquid. 
 
 We shall take notice of two or three only, and 
 those the most remarkable events during the rest of 
 Mr. Belcher's administration. 
 
 (1733.) In 1733 there was a general complaint 
 throughout the four governments of New England 
 of the unusual scarcity of money. There was as 
 large a sum current in bills of credit as ever, but the 
 bills having depreciated, they answered the purposes 
 of money so much less in proportion. The Massa- 
 chusetts and New Hampshire were clogged with 
 royal instructions. It was owing to them that those 
 governments had not issued bills to as great an 
 amount as Rhode Island. Connecticut, although 
 under no restraint, yet, consisting of more husband- 
 men and fewer traders than the rest, did not so 
 much feel the want of money. The Massachusetts 
 people were dissatisfied that Rhode -Island should 
 send their bills among them, and take away their 
 substance and employ it in trade, and many people 
 wished to see the bills of each government current 
 
 2 T 2 
 
356 
 
 THE iil&TORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 withm the limits of such government only. In the 
 midst of this discontent, Rhode Island passed an act 
 for issuing 100,0001. upon loan, for about twenty 
 years, to their own inhabitants, who would immedi- 
 ately have it in their power to add 100,000/. to their 
 trading stock from the horses, sheep, lumber, fish, 
 &c. of the Massachusetts inhabitants. The mer- 
 chants of Boston therefore confederated, and mu- 
 tually promised and engaged not to receive any 
 bills of this new emission, but, to provide a cur- 
 rency, a large number formed themselves into a 
 company, entered into covenants, chose directors, 
 &c. and issued 110,000/. redeemable in ten years, 
 in silver, at 19s. per oz. the then current rate, or 
 gold in proportion, a tenth part annually. About 
 the same time the Massachusetts treasury, which 
 had been long shut, was opened, and the debts of 
 two or three years were all paid at one time in bills 
 of credit; to this was added the ordinary emissions 
 of bills from New Hampshire and Connecticut, and 
 some of the Boston merchants, tempted by an op- 
 portunity of selling their English goods, having 
 broke through their engagements, and received the 
 Rhode Island bills, all the rest soon followed the 
 example. All these emissions made a flood of mo- 
 ney, silver rose from 19s. to 27s. the oz., and ex- 
 change with all other countries consequently rose 
 also, and every creditor was defrauded of about one 
 third of his just dues. As soon as silver rose to 
 27s., the notes issued by the merchants payable at 
 19., were hoarded up, and no longer answered the 
 purposes of money. Although the currency was 
 lessened by taking away the notes, yet what re- 
 mained never increased in value, silver continuing 
 several years about the same rate, until it took 
 another large jump. Thus very great injustice was 
 caused by this wretched paper currency, and no 
 relief of any sort obtained ; for, by this sinking in 
 value, though the nominal sum was higher than it 
 had ever been before, yet the currency would pro- 
 duce no more sterling money than it would have 
 done before the late emissions were made. William 
 Tailer, the lieut. -governor, dying in 1732, in 1733 
 Spencer Phips, nephew by the sister, and adopted 
 son to Sir William Phips, succeeded. Mr. Belcher 
 used his interest for Adam Winthrop, Esq. : both 
 Winthrop and Phips had been several years mem- 
 bers of the council. 
 
 (1737.) In 1737 a controversy, which had long 
 subsisted between the two governments of Massa- 
 chusetts bay and New Hampshire was heard by 
 commissioners for that purpose appointed by the 
 crown. Various attempts had been made to settle 
 this dispute, and it had been often recommended by 
 the crown to the assemblies of the two provinces to 
 agree upon arbitrators from neighbouring govern- 
 ments, and to pass acts which should bind each pro- 
 vince to be subject to their determinations. Seve- 
 ral such acts passed, but they were not exactly 
 conformable one to the other, or the operation of 
 them was by some means or other obstructed. The 
 Massachusetts refused terms which, afterwards, they 
 vrould gladly have accepted. They have done the 
 like in other controversies. Long possession caused 
 them to be loth to concede any part of the terri- 
 tory. New Hampshire took its name from the 
 grants made by the council of Plimouth to Captain 
 John Mason. Of these there had been four or five, 
 all containing more or less of the same lands. Ex- 
 ceptions were taken to all of them, and that which 
 was the least imperfect was dated after the grant of 
 Massachusetts bay, o that the whole controversy 
 
 turned upon the construction of the Massachusetts' 
 charters. The first charter made the northern boun- 
 dary to be three miles to the northward of Merri- 
 mack river, or to the northward of any and every 
 part thereof. After running westward about thirty 
 miles from the sea, the river alters its course, and 
 tends to the north, or, to speak with more propriety, 
 having run from its crotch or the meeting of Pemi- 
 gewasset river, and Winnepissauke pond, to the 
 southward about fifty miles, it then tends to the 
 eastward about thirty miles, until it empties into 
 the sea. It was urged by the advocates for Massa- 
 chusetts colony, that their boundary was to be three 
 miles to the northward of the northernmost part of 
 the river, and to extend east and west from the At- 
 lantic to the South sea. This swallowed up all New 
 Hampshire, and the greatest part of the province of 
 Main. At a hearing before the king in council, in 
 1677, the agents for Massachusetts, by advice, dis- 
 claimed all right of jurisdiction beyond the three 
 miles north of the river according to the course, and 
 it was determined they had a right as far as the 
 river extended, but how far the river did extend was 
 not then expressly mentioned. It seems, however, 
 not to have been doubted, for although at the time 
 of the grant of the first charter, it does not appear 
 that the course was known any great distance from 
 the sea, yet, soon after the government was trans- 
 ferred from Old England to New, it was as well 
 known by the name of Merrimack as far as Peni- 
 cook as it is at this day, and the tribe of Indians 
 which dwelt there had a correspondence with the 
 English, and in 1639 persons were employed by the 
 government of Massachusetts to explore that part of 
 the country, and there are still preserved the testi- 
 monies of divers persons declaring that they, before 
 that time, always understood the river to be called 
 by the same name, from the crotch to the mouth. 
 If the first charter of the Massachusetts had con- 
 tinued, it is not probable any different construction 
 would ever have been started ; but in the new char- 
 ter the boundary is thus expressed, " extending 
 from the great river commonly called Monomack, 
 alias Merrimack, on the north part, and from three 
 miles northward of the said river, to the Atlantic or 
 western sea, or ocean on the south part, &c. The 
 whole, however, of the old colony being included in 
 the new province, many years passed without any 
 thought of a different construction of bounds in the 
 two charters, and the disputes between New Hamp- 
 shire and the Massachusetts have been, principally, 
 concerning the towns of Salisbury and Haverhill, 
 which, when first granted by the Massachusetts, 
 were made to extend more than three miles from 
 the river, and the part beyond the three miles re- 
 mained under the jurisdiction by which they had 
 been granted, which New Hampshire complained 
 of. A new line, to begin three miles north of the 
 mouth of Merrimack, and so run west to the south 
 sea, was a modern construction. Some hints had 
 been given of such a line, before or about the year 
 1726, and it was supposed by New Hampshire that 
 the Massachusetts were induced thereby to make 
 grants of townships between Merrimack and Con- 
 necticut river, in order to strengthen their title by 
 possession, still there was a prospect of accommo- 
 dation, and, in the year 1731, the committees from 
 the assemblies of two provinces differed only upon 
 the point of equivalents, the Massachusetts desiring 
 to retain under their jurisdiction the whole of those 
 towns which lay upon the river, and to give other 
 landa as an equivalent for the property ; but about 
 
UNITED STATES, 
 
 347 
 
 the same time the principal men of New Hampshire 
 thinking, and perhaps justly, that they were not 
 well treated by Mr. Belcher, determined to exert ' 
 themselves to obtain a governor for that province, 
 and to remain no longer under the same governor 
 with the Massachusetts. They had but little chance 
 for this unless they could enlarge their bonnds. 
 The very proposal of a distinct government, as it 
 increased the number of officers of the crown, they 
 thought would be a favourable circumstance in settl- 
 ing the controversy with Massachusetts. 
 
 The house of representatives of New Hampshire, 
 Oct. 7, 1731, by a vote appointed John Ridge, Esq., 
 a merchant there, who was bound to England, their 
 agent to solicit the settlement of the boundaries. 
 But their main dependance was upon Mr. Tomlin- 
 son, a gentleman who had been in New Hampshire, 
 and was then a merchant of note in London, and 
 perhaps was as capable of conducting their cause as 
 any person they could have pitched upon. He had 
 the friendship of Col. Bladeu, who at that day had 
 great weight in the board of trade, and had con- 
 ceived very unfavourable sentiments of the Massa- 
 chusetts in general, and did not like Mr. Belcher, 
 the governor. He employed a solicitor, Feiuiaando 
 Paris, one of the first rate, and who had a peculiar 
 talent at slurring the characters of his antagonists. 
 Many of his briefs abound in this way. The first 
 step in consequence of Mr. Rindge's petition was a 
 question sent by the lords of trade to the attorney 
 and solicitor-general for their opinion, " From what 
 port of Merrimack river, the three miles from whence 
 the dividing line between the province of New 
 Hampshire and the province of the Massachusetts 
 bay, is to begin, ought to be taken according to the 
 intent of the charter of William and Mary." This 
 was a plain intimation that if the point where to be- 
 gin could be settled, nothing more was necessary, 
 the west line claimed by New Hampshire was to 
 follow of course. The Massachusetts agent (Mr. 
 Wilks) by his council would say nothing upon the 
 question, because it would not determine the mat- 
 ters in dispute. Report was made, however, that it 
 ought to begin three miles north of the mouth oi 
 Merrimack river. It was then proposed that com- 
 misioners should be appointed to settle this contro- 
 versy. This the Massachusetts were averse to, un- 
 less they knew who they were to be. They were at the 
 same time afraid of its being determined in Eng- 
 land, ex parle, if they should refuse to consent. A 
 committee of the general court reported "that the 
 agent should be instructed that the province would 
 agree to commissioners to be appointed, to settle the 
 controversy, here." This report was accepted, the 
 house intending the commissioners should be agreed 
 upon by the two governments, some of the commit- 
 tee intending the agent should understand his in- 
 structions, to consent to the appointment of com- 
 missioners provided thay sat here, or in one of the 
 two governments. A comma after the word 'ap- 
 pointed,' and after the word ' controversy,' would 
 give the sense of the house, the last comma left oul 
 it might be taken in the sense of the committee ; bul 
 as it is most probable the letter had no regular point- 
 ing, their meaning was to be guessed at. 
 
 This was treating the agent ill, and he was cen- 
 sured by the house for not observing his instructions 
 The committee privately excused themselves for thii 
 equivocal report as being necessary for the publi< 
 service, the house not being willing to consent to an 
 explicit submission. It was made a condition of the 
 Bubmiseion that private property should not be af- 
 
 fected. The ministry in later instances have not 
 waited for an express submission, but have appoint- 
 d commissioners upon application from one party 
 n-ly. 
 
 The commissioners were all such as the New 
 lampshire agent proposed, five counsellors from 
 ach of the governments of New York, Rhode Is- 
 and, and Nova Scotia. With the two former go- 
 ernments, the Massachusetts were then in contro- 
 ersy about lines. The latter it was said was dis- 
 affected to charter government. Connecticut, pro- 
 >osed by Massachusetts, was rejected because of a 
 ias from their tiade, religion, &c., which New 
 rlampshire was afraid of. The place for the meet- 
 ng of commissioners was Hampton in New Hamp- 
 ,hire, the 1st of August. 
 
 The commissioners from Nova Scotia, with some 
 >f Rhode Island, met at the time appointed, and 
 were afterwards joined by Mr. Livingstone, from 
 tfew York, who presided. After many weeks spent 
 n hearing the parties and examining their evidence, 
 ;he only doubt in the commissioners minds was, 
 whether the Massachusetts new charter comprehend- 
 ed the whole of the old colony. Not being able to 
 satisfy themselves, and perhaps not being unwilling 
 to avoid the determination, they agreed to make a 
 special judgment or decree, the substance of which 
 was, that if the charter of William and Mary grants 
 to the Massachusetts-bay, all the lands granted by 
 the charter of Charles the First, they then adjudga 
 a curve line to begin three miles north of the mouth 
 of the river, and to keep the same distance from the 
 river as far as the crotch or parting at Pemigewasset 
 arid Winepesiaukee, and then to run west towards 
 the south sea until it meets with his majesty's other 
 governments; but if the charter of William and 
 Mary did not contain &c., then they adjudge a west 
 line to begin at the same place three miles north of 
 the mouth and to run to the south sea. This point 
 in doubt they submitted to his majesty's royal plea- 
 sure. 
 
 The Massachusetts were sure of their cause. It 
 was impossible, they thought, consistent with com- 
 mon sense, that the point in doubt should be deter- 
 mined against them. They thought it safest how- 
 ever to send to England a special agent, Edmund 
 Quincy, Esq., one of the council, who had been one 
 of the court's agents before the commissioners. He 
 was joined with Mr. Wilks, and Mr. Belcher by his 
 interest prevailed upon the assembly to add a third, 
 his wife's brother, Richard Partridge. Exceptions, 
 called an appeal, were offered to the judgment of the 
 commissioners. Mr. Quincy died of the small pox 
 by inoculation soon after his arrival in London, the 
 other two knew little or nothing of the controversy. 
 The commissioner, however, had rendered it as diffi- 
 cult to determine a line against the Massachusetts 
 as if they had given a general judgment in their 
 favour. The New Hampshire agent and solicitor 
 thought of no expedient. In their brief they pray 
 the lords committee to report " that all the lands 
 lying to the northward of Merrimack river, which 
 were granted by the charter of King Charles the 
 First to the late colony of the Massacusetts bay. are 
 not granted to the present province of the Massa- 
 chusetts-bay by the charter of King William and 
 Queen Mary." This never could have been done. 
 At the hearing, it was thought proper to lay aside 
 all regard to the judgment of the commissioners, 
 and to proceed upon an entirely new plan. No 
 doubt was made that the old colony was all included 
 in the new province. The question was, what were 
 
358 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the northern bounds of the colony of Massachusetts- 
 bay, which the council of Plimouth when they sold 
 the territory to the patentees, and the king when he 
 granted the jurisdiction, had in contemplation. This, 
 it was said, must be a line three miles north of a 
 river not fully explored, but whose general course 
 was supposed to be east and west. So far therefore 
 as it afterwards appeared that the river kept this 
 course, so far it was equitable the line should con- 
 tinue; but, as on the one hand, if the river had 
 altered its course and turned to the south, it would 
 have been inequitable to have reduced the grant to 
 a very small tract, so on the other hand, when it ap- 
 peared to turn to the north it was inequitable to ex 
 tend the grant and make a very large territory, and 
 therefore defeat other grants made about the same 
 time. The grant to Sir Henry Roswell and others, 
 was March the 19th, 1627. That to Mason, was 
 November 7th, 1619, and was to extend sixty miles 
 from the sea. But the river Merrimack turning to 
 the north after about thirty miles from the sea, if 
 the Massachusetts bounds had continued three miles 
 distant from the river to the crotch, it would com- 
 prehend more than half of Mason's grant. It was 
 therefore determined that the northern boundaries 
 of Massachusetts-bay, should be a line three miles 
 from the river as far as Pan tucket-falls, then to run 
 W. 10 dog. N. until it meets New York line. 
 
 The Massachusetts thought themselves aggrieved. 
 They submitted the controversy to commissioners 
 to be appointed by the crown, and had been fully 
 heard. The whole proceedings of the commission- 
 ers were set aside, and without any notice to the 
 government, the controversy was determined by a 
 committee of council, upon a new point on which 
 their agent had never been instructed. And how- 
 ever there might be the appearance of equity in the 
 principle upon which their lordships proceeded, yet 
 the Massachusetts supposed, if their possession for 
 one hundred years, together with the determination 
 of the king in council, in 1677, and the acquiescence 
 of all parties in this determination for about fifty 
 years had been urged and duly weighed, the balance 
 upon the sole principle of equity would have been 
 in their favour. It increased their mortification to 
 find that they had lost by this new line several 
 hundred thousand acres more than the utmost claim 
 ever made by New Hampshire ; for Merrimack 
 river from the mouth to Pantucket-falls tending to 
 the south, it made a difference of four or five miles 
 in breadth, the whole length of the line, between a 
 line to run west from Pantucket falls, and a line 
 west from the black rocks. 
 
 The dispute about the bounds of the province of 
 Main, which lies on the other side New Hampshire, 
 was .upon the construction of the word north-west- 
 ward. The Massachusetts urged, that it was the 
 evident design of the grantors of the province of 
 Main, to describe a territory about 120 miles square. 
 At that day, this was probably the reputed distance 
 from Newichawannock or Piscataqua river to Ken- 
 nebeck, along the sea coast, the general course of 
 which was north-east and south-west ; after going 
 up the two rivers to the heads, the lines were to run 
 north-westward until 120 miles were finished, and 
 then a line back parallel to the line upon the sea. 
 The agents for New Hampshire, at the court of 
 commissioners, insisted that every body understooc 
 north-westward to be north a little, perhaps less than 
 a quarter of a point west. It not being possible to 
 think of any reason for a line to run upon tha 
 course, the Massachusetts could scarce suppose the 
 
 ^ew Hampshire agents to be serious, and imagined 
 he commissioners would need no other reply, than 
 hat every body understood a line running westward 
 o be a line from east to west; and by the same rule 
 >f construction, they supposed north-westward to be 
 'rom south-east to north-west : that north-eastward 
 )eing explained in the same grant to be as the coast 
 ay, proved in fact to be from south-west to north- 
 east. They were, however, surprised with the de- 
 ermination of the commissioners, that northwest- 
 yard intended north two degrees west. Why not 
 me degree or three degrees, as well as two ? From 
 ;his part of the judgment the Massachusetts ap- 
 lealed. The agents in England obtained the cele- 
 Doctor Halley's opinion, in writing under his hand, 
 hat in the language and understanding of mathe- 
 maticians, a line to run north-westward is a line to 
 run north-west; but this opinion did not prevail, 
 and the judgment of the commissioners upon this 
 joint was confirmed by his majesty in council. 
 
 It behoved Mr. Belcher, the governor of both pro- 
 vinces, to carry an even hand. It happened, that 
 ;he general court of the Massachusetts, whilst it sat 
 at Salisbury on the occasion of this controversy, 
 made him a grant of 800/. currency, in considera- 
 ;ion of the deficiency of their former grants, for hia 
 salary and his extraordinary expense and trouble in 
 ttending the court at a distance from his house and 
 family. Soon after this grant he adjourned the ge- 
 neral courts of both provinces, in order to their de- 
 termining whether to abide by the result of the com- 
 missioners or to appeal from it; but the court of 
 New Hampshire was adjourned to a day or two after 
 the Massachusetts court, and it was said they were 
 prevented entering the appeal within the time li- 
 mited. He did not care that either assembly should 
 do any business when he was absent, and therefore 
 intended first to finish the Massachusetts business, 
 and immediately after proceed to New Hampshire. 
 
 This afforded matter of complaint from that pro- 
 vince, which Mr. Belcher was called upon to answer, 
 and it was determined the complaint was well 
 founded ; and it being urged that the 800/. was in- 
 tended as a bribe to influence him to this measure, 
 the Massachusetts thought their own honour con- 
 cerned, and joined with him in his defence, which 
 perhaps increased the suspicion of guilt and hastened 
 his removal. That we may finish what relates to 
 the controversy between the two provinces, we must 
 take notice of the conduct of the Massachusetts upon 
 receiving his majesty's order in council. The lines, 
 by the order, were to be run by two surveyors, one 
 on the part of each province ; but if either province 
 refused, the other was to proceed ex parte. New 
 Hampshire, whose highest expectations were exceed- 
 ed, proposed to join, but were refused by the Massa- 
 chusetts ; and thereupon appointed surveyors to run 
 the lines of the Massachusetts and province of Main 
 ex parte. Both lines were complained of as being 
 run favourably for New Hampshire : that of the pro- 
 vince of Main is a subject of new controversy, it 
 having been suggested that the surveyor mistook the 
 main branch of the river Newichewanock, which, if 
 he had pursued, would have made five or six miles 
 in breadth to the advantage of Massachusetts. This 
 refusal to join, proceeded from the feeble irresolute 
 state of the minds of the house of representatives. 
 Unwilling by any act of their own to express their 
 submission to whac they called an unequal decree, 
 they ran the risk of its being carried into execution 
 still more unequally ; and yet succeeding houses, by 
 a subsequent long continued passive submission, as 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 359 
 
 effectually subjected the province as if it had been 
 explicitly acknowledged at first. 
 
 After the controversy about the governor's salary 
 and the supply of the treasury was finished, there 
 seemed to be a general disposition to rest, and we 
 hear little of a party in opposition to the governor 
 for several years together. Whilst the controversy 
 with New Hampshire was depending, all of every 
 party engaged in defence of the right of the pro- 
 vince. Besides, Mr. Cooke, who had been many 
 years at the head of the popular party, was worn out 
 with service ; and having been some time in a de- 
 clining state, died in the fall of the year 1737, and 
 the town of Boston was so far from an apprehension 
 of danger to their liberties, that they chose in his 
 stead Mr. Wheelwright, the commissary-general, 
 who depended upon the governor every year for his 
 approbation after being elected by the council and 
 house, and in 1738, three of the representatives of 
 the town bad the character of friends to government ; 
 but towards the end of the year a great clamour 
 arose against the governor for adhering to his in- 
 struction about paper money, and against the three 
 representatives for their pernicious principles upon 
 the subject of paper money ; and at the town elec- 
 tion for 1739, three others were chosen in their stead, 
 two of them professedly disaffected to the governor 
 and promoters of popular measures, the third, al- 
 though of great integrity, and for that reason de- 
 sirous of a fixed currency, yet in his judgment 
 against reducing the paper money, and a favourer 
 of schemes for preventing its depreciation. Many 
 country towns followed the example of Boston, and 
 it appeared that a majority of the house were of the 
 same principles with the town members. After Mr. 
 Belcher's arrival, the house, as we have observed, 
 had passed a vote for depositing 500/. sterling in the 
 bank of England, to be used as they or their suc- 
 cessors should think proper. This was concurred 
 jn council, and consented to by the governor. This 
 money, it was said, could not be better applied, than 
 in soliciting a relaxation of the governor's instruc- 
 tion concerning paper money ; and Mr. Kilby, one 
 of the Boston representatives, was chosen agent for 
 the house, and a petition was by him presented from 
 the house to his majesty in council, but it had no effect. 
 
 (1739.) A general dread of drawing in all the 
 paper money without a substitution of any other in- 
 strument of trade in the place of it, disposed a great 
 part of the province to favour what was called the 
 land bank or manufactory scheme, which was began, 
 or rather revived in this year 1739, and produced 
 such great and lasting mischiefs, that a particular re- 
 lation of the rise, progress, and overthrow of it, may 
 be of use to discourage and prevent any attempts of 
 the like nature in future ages. By a strange con- 
 duct in the general court, they had been issuing 
 bills of credit for eight or ten years annually for 
 charges of government, and being willing to ease 
 each present year, they had put off the redemption 
 of the bills as far as they could ; but the governor 
 being restrained by his instruction from going be- 
 yond the year 1741, that year was unreasonably 
 loaded with thirty or forty thousand pounds sterling 
 taxes, which according to the general opinion of the 
 people it was impossible to levy, not only on ac- 
 count of the large sum, but because all the bills in 
 the province were but just sufficient- to pay it, and 
 there was very little silver or gold, which by an act 
 of government was allowed to be paid for taxes as 
 equivalent to the bills. A scheme was laid before 
 thf general court by Mr. Hutchinson, the author of! 
 
 the History of Massachusetts, then one of the repre- 
 sentatives of Boston, in which it was proposed to 
 borrow in England upon interest, and to import into 
 the province a sum in silver, equal to all the bills 
 then extant, and therewith to redeem them from 
 possessors and furnish a currency for the inhabit- 
 ants, and to repay the silver at distant periods, 
 which would render the burden of taxes tolerable 
 by an equal division on a number of future years, 
 and would prevent the distress of trade by the 
 loss of the only instrument, the bills of credit, 
 without another provided in its place. But this 
 proposal was rejected. One great frailty of human 
 nature, an inability or indisposition to compare a 
 distant though certain inconvenience or distress 
 with a present convenience or delight, is said by 
 some former visitors to that country, to be preva- 
 lent in America, so as to make it one of the 
 distinguishing characteristics. Be that as it may, 
 it is certain that at this time a great number of pri- 
 vate persons alledging that the preceding general 
 court having suffered the province to be brought into 
 distress, from which it was not in the power of their 
 successors to afford relief, the royal instruction 
 being a bar to any future emissions of bills until all 
 that were then extant should be redeemed, resolved 
 to interpose. Royal instructions were no bar to the 
 proceedings of private persons. The project of a 
 bank in the year 1714 was revived (1740). Ths 
 projector of that bank now put himself at the head 
 of seven or eight hundred persons, some few of rank 
 and good estate, but generally of low condition 
 among the plebeians and of small estate, and many 
 of them perhaps insolvent. This notable company 
 were to give credit to 150,000f. lawful money, to be 
 issued in bills, each person being to mortgage a real 
 estate in proportion to the sums he subscribed and 
 took out, or to give bond with two sureties; but per- 
 sonal security was not to be taken for more than 
 100/. from any one person. Ten directors and a 
 treasurer were to be chosen by the company. Every 
 subscriber or partner was to pay 3 per cent, interest 
 for the sum taken out, and 5 per cent, of the prin- 
 cipal ; and he that did not pay bills, might pay the 
 produce and manufacture of the province at such 
 rates as the directors from time to time should set, 
 and they should commonly pass in lawful money. 
 The pretence was, that by thus furnishing a medium 
 and instrument of trade, not only the inhabitants in 
 general would be better able to procure the province 
 bills of credit for their taxes, but trade, foreign and 
 inland, would revive and flourish. The fate of the 
 project was thought to depend upon the opinion 
 which the general court should form of it. It was 
 necessary, therefore, to have a house of representa- 
 tives well disposed. Besides the eight hundred per- 
 sons subscribers, the needy part of the province in 
 general favoured the scheme. One of their votes 
 will go as far in popular elections, as one of the most 
 opulent. The former are most numerous ; and it 
 appeared, that by far the majority of the represen- 
 tatives for 1740 were subscribers to or favourers of 
 the scheme, and they were long.after distinguished 
 by the name of the land bank house. 
 
 Men of estates, and the principal merchants in 
 the province, abhorred the project, and refused to 
 receive the bills, but great numbers of shopkeepers, 
 who had lived for a long time before upon the fraud 
 of a depreciating currency, and many small traders, 
 gave credit to the bills. The directors, it was said, 
 by a vote of the company, became traders, and is- 
 sued just what bills they thonght proper, without 
 
360- 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 any fund or security for their ever being redeemed. 
 They purchased every sort of commodity, ever so 
 much a drug, for the sake of pushing off their bills ; 
 and, by one means or other, a large sum, perhaps 
 fifty or sixty thousand pounds, was abroad. To les- 
 sen the temptation to receive the bills, a company of 
 merchants agreed to issue their notes or bills, re- 
 deemable by silver and gold at distant periods, much 
 like the scheme in 1733. and attended with no better 
 effect. The governor exerted himself to blast this 
 fraudulent undertaking, the land bank. Not only 
 such civil and military officers as were directors or 
 partners, but all who received or paid any of the 
 bills, were displaced. The governor negatived the 
 person chosen speaker of the house, being a director 
 of the bank, and afterwards negatived thirteen of the 
 new elected counsellors, who were directors or part- 
 ners in or reputed favourers of the scheme. But all 
 was insufficient to suppress it. Perhaps the major 
 part, in number, of the inhabitants of the province, 
 openly or secretly, were well wishers to it. One of 
 the directors afterwards acknowledged, that although 
 he entered in the company with a view to the 
 public interest, yet when he found what power and 
 influence they had in all public concerns, he was 
 convinced it was more than belonged to them, more 
 than they could make a good use of, and therefore 
 unwarrantable. Many of the most sensible discreet 
 persons in the province saw a general confusion at 
 hand. The authority of parliament to control all 
 public and private persons and proceedings in the 
 colonies was. in that day, questioned by no body. 
 Application was therefore made to parliament for 
 an act to suppress the company, which, notwith- 
 standing the opposition made by their agent, was 
 very easily obtained, and therein it was declared 
 that the act of the 6th of King George the First, 
 chapter the eighteenth, did, does, and shall extend 
 to the colonies and plantations in America. It was 
 said the act of George the First, when it passed, 
 had no relation to America, but another act, twenty 
 years after, gave it a force even from the passing it, 
 which it never could, have had without. This was 
 said to be an instance of the transcendent power of 
 parliament. Although the company was dissolved, 
 yet the act of parliament gave the professors of the 
 bills a right of action against every partner or di- 
 rector for the sums expressed with interest. The 
 company were in amaze. At a general meeting 
 some, it was said, were for running all hazards, al- 
 though the act subjected them to a prsemunire, but 
 the directors had more prudence, and advised them 
 to declare that they considered themselves dissolved, 
 and met only to consult upon some method of re- 
 deeming their bills from the possessors, which every 
 man engaged to endeavour in proportion to his in- 
 terest, and to pay in to the directors, or some of 
 them, to burn or destroy. Had the company issued 
 their bills at the value expressed in the face of them, 
 they would have had no reason to complain of being 
 obliged to redeem them at the same rate, but as this 
 was not the case in general, and many of the pos- 
 sessors of the bills had acquired them for half 
 their value, as expressed, equity could not be done, 
 and, so far as respected the company, perhaps the 
 parliament was not very anxious, the loss they sus- 
 tained being but a just penalty for their unwarrant- 
 able undertaking if it had been properly applied. 
 Had not the parliament interposed, the province 
 would have been in the utmost confusion, and the 
 authority of government entirely in the land bank 
 company. 
 
 Whilst Mr. Belcher, by his vigorous opposition 
 to the land bank, was rendering himself obnoxious 
 to one half the people of the province, measures 
 were pursuing in England for his removal from the 
 government. Besides the attempts which we have 
 mentioned from New Hampshire, which had never 
 been laid aside, there had always been a disaffected 
 party in Massachusetts who had been using what 
 interest they had in England against him. Lord 
 Wilmington, president of the council, the speaker 
 of the house of commons, and Sir Charles Wager, 
 first lord of the admiralty, all had a favourable opi- 
 nion of Mr. Belcher, so had Mr. Holden, who was 
 at the head of the dissenters in England, and all, 
 upon one occasion or another, had appeared for him. 
 
 The most unfair and indirect measures were used 
 with each of these persons to render Mr. Belcher 
 obnoxious and odious to them. The first instance 
 was several years before this time. A letter was 
 sent to Sir Charles Wager in the name of five per- 
 sons, whose hands were counterfeited, w : ith an insi- 
 nuation that Mr. Belcher encouraged the destruc- 
 tion of the pine trees reserved for masts for the 
 navy, and suffered them to be cut into logs for 
 boards. Calumnies of this kind strike us with more 
 horror than false insinuations in conversation, and 
 perhaps are equally mischievous in their effects. 
 The latter may appear the less criminal because 
 abundantly more common. 
 
 An anonymous letter was sent to Mr. Holden, 
 but the contents of it declared that it was the letter 
 of many of the principal ministers of New England, 
 who were afraid to publish their names, lest Mr. 
 Belcher should ruin them. The charge against him 
 was a secret undermining the congregational inter- 
 est, in concert with Commissary Price and Doctor 
 Cutler, whilst at the same time he pretended to Mr. 
 Holden and the other dissenters in England to have 
 it much at heart. To remove suspicion of fraud the 
 letter was superscribed in writing, either in imita- 
 tion of Doctor Colman's h;md, a correspondent of 
 Mr. Holden, or, which is more probable, a cover of 
 one of his genuine letters had been taken off by a 
 person of not an unblemished character, to whose 
 care it was committed, and made use of to inclose 
 the spurious one. Truth and right are more fre- 
 quently, in a high degree, violated in political- con- 
 tests and animosities than upon any other occasion. 
 It was well known that nothing would more readily 
 induce a person of so great virtue as the speaker to 
 give up Mr. Belcher than an instance of corruption 
 and bribery. The New Hampshire agents there- 
 fore furnished him with the votes of the Massachu- 
 setts assembly, containing the grant of 8001. and 
 evidence of the adjournment of New Hampshire as- 
 sembly, alledged to be done in consequence, nor was 
 he undeceived until it was too late. 
 
 Mr. Wilks, the Massachusetts agent, who was in 
 great esteem with Lord Wilmington, and was really 
 a person of a fair upright mind, had prevented any 
 impressions to Mr. Belcher's prejudice, but it un- 
 luckily happened that the land bank company em- 
 ployed Richard Partridge, brother by marriage to 
 Mr. Belcher, as their agent. He had been many 
 years agent for his brother, which fact was well 
 known to his lordship, but, from an expectation of 
 obtaining the sole agency of the province by the in- 
 terest of the prevailing party there, engaged zea- 
 lously in opposing the petitions to the house of 
 commons, and gave out bills at the door of the house. 
 It was said that all Mr. Belcher's opposition to the 
 scheme, in the province, was mere pretence ; had 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 361 
 
 he been in earnest, his agent in England would 
 never venture to appear in support of it, and this 
 was improved with Lord Wilmington to induce him 
 to give up Mr. Belcher, and it succeeded. Still 
 the removal was delayed one week after another, 
 two gentlemen from the Massachusetts continually 
 soliciting. At length, it being known that Lord 
 Euston's election for Coventry was dubious, one of 
 these gentlemen undertook to the Duke of Grafton to 
 secure the election, provided Mr. Belcher might im- 
 mediately be removed, and, to accomplish his design, 
 lie represented to Mr. Maltby, a large dealer in 
 Coventry stuffs, and a zealous dissenter, that Mr. 
 Belcher was, with the episcopal clergy, conspiring 
 the ruin of the congregational interest in New Eng- 
 land, and unless he was immediately removed it 
 would be irrecoverably lost ; that the Duke of Graf- 
 ton had promised, if Lord Euston's election could 
 be secured, it should be done; that letters to his 
 friends in Coventry would infallibly secure it, that 
 he could not better employ his interest than in the 
 cause of God and of religion. Maltby swallowed 
 the bait, used all his interest for Lord Euston, the 
 two gentlemen spent three weeks at Coventry, and 
 having succeeded, agreeable to the duke's promise, 
 Mr. Belcher was removed a day or two after their 
 return. This account was given by Mr. Maltby 
 himself, who lamented that he had suffered himself 
 to be so easily imposed on. 
 
 A few weeks longer delay would have baffled all the 
 schemes. The news arrived of his negativing thir- 
 teen counsellors, and displacing a great number of 
 officers concerned in the land bank, and his zeal 
 and fortitude were highly applauded when it was too 
 late. Certainly, in public employments, no man 
 ought to be condemned from the reports and accu- 
 sations of a party, without a sufficient opportunity 
 given him to exculpate himself, a plantation gover- 
 nor especially, who, be he without guile, or a con- 
 summate politician, will infallibly have a greater or 
 lesser number disaffected to him. 
 
 Mr. Shirley, successor to Mr. Belcher, was a gen- 
 tleman of Sussex, bred in the law and had been in 
 office in the city, but having prospect of a numerous 
 offspring, was advised to remove to Boston in the 
 Massachusetts, where he had resided six or eight 
 years and acquired a general esteem, and if there 
 must be a change it was said to be as acceptable to 
 have it in his favour as any person whatsoever. His 
 lady was then in London, and had obtained the 
 promise of the collector's place for the port of Boston 
 and would have preferred it to the government, but 
 a strong interest being made for Mr. Frankland, 
 since Sir Henry Frankland, there was no way of 
 providing for both, except by giving the government 
 to Mr. Shirley. 
 
 The news came to Boston the first week in July. 
 Mr. Shirley was, at Providence in Rhode Island go- 
 vernment, counsel for the Massachusetts before a 
 court of commissioners appointed to settle the line 
 between the two governments. As the records of 
 that time were burnt, we cannot give so particular 
 an account of the proceeding of those commissioners 
 as otherwise might have been. It is certain that for 
 many years past, the only part in controversy be- 
 tween the two governments, was a small gore of land 
 between Attleborough in the Massachusetts and the 
 old township of Providence. A great part of the 
 Massachusetts assembly wished it might be ceded to 
 Rhode Island, but a few tenacious men, who do no! 
 always regard consequences, influenced a majority 
 against it. Besides a settlement made bv commis- 
 
 ioners in 1664 or 65, another settlement had been 
 made, or the old one confirmed in 1708; but Rhode 
 [sland, encouraged by the ill success of the Massa- 
 chusetts in the controversy with New Hampshire, 
 ipplied to his majesty to appoint commissioners to 
 ettle the line between the two governments. The 
 consent or submission of the Massachusetts to such 
 appointment was not thought necessary, and if they 
 ld not appear, the commissioners were to pro- 
 ceed ex parte. The Massachusetts assembly thought 
 n-oper to appear by their committee, having no ap- 
 prehensions the controversy would turn, in the judg- 
 ment of the commissioners, upon a point never be- 
 bre relied upon, viz., that the colony of New Pli- 
 mouth -having no charter from the crown, Rhode 
 [sland charter must be the sole rule of determining 
 the boundary, although the patent from the council 
 of Plimouth to Bradford and associates was prior to 
 t. The colony of New Plimouth was a govern- 
 ment de facto, and considered by King Charles as 
 such in his letters and orders to them before and 
 after the grant of Rhode Island charter, and when 
 ;he incorporation was made of New Plimouth with 
 Massachusetts, &c., the natural and legal construc- 
 tion of the province charter seems to be, that it 
 should have relation to the time when the several 
 governments incorporated respectively, in fact, be- 
 came governments, A gentleman of the council of 
 New York had great influence at the board of com- 
 missioners. The argument which had been made 
 use of in former controversies, that Massachusetts 
 was too extensive, and the other governments they 
 were contending with, of which New York was one, 
 were too contracted, was now revived. To the sur- 
 prise of Massachusetts, a line was determined which 
 not only took from them the gore formerly in dis- 
 pute, but the towns of Bristol, Tiverton, and Little 
 Compton, and great part of Swansey, and Barring- 
 ton. All this country was conquered by Massachu- 
 setts and Plimouth from Philip, and to prevent dis- 
 pute, was expressly granted to Plimouth by Charles 
 the Second. An appeal was claimed and allowed 
 to his majesty in council, where, after lying four or 
 five years, the decree of the court of commissioners 
 was confirmed. In the prosecution and defence of 
 this title, it has been said, that some material evi- 
 dence was never produced which would have sup- 
 ported the Massachusetts claim. 
 
 (1741.) Mr. Shirley found the affairs of the pro- 
 vince in a perplexed state. The treasury was shut 
 and could not be opened without some deviation 
 from the royal instructions, the bills of credit were 
 reduced and nothing substituted as a currency in 
 their stead ; the land bank party carried every point 
 in the house, there seemed to be a necessity of se- 
 curing them ; the great art was to bring them over 
 to his measures, and yet not give in to their mea- 
 sures so as to lose his interest with the rest of the 
 province, and with the ministry in England. Some 
 of the principal of them, who knew their own im- 
 portance, were willing to have some assurance of 
 favour from him, at the same time they engaged to 
 do every thing to serve him. The first step on their 
 part, was the advancement of the governor's salary 
 to the full value of one thousand pounds sterling per 
 annum. This had been most unjustifiably evaded 
 all the latter part of Mr. Belcher's administration, 
 by granting a sum in bills of credit without a due 
 regard to their depreciation. Mr. Kilby, who had 
 been very active for Mr. Shirley's interest, and 
 against Mr. Belcher, in England, was chosen agent 
 for the province in England; and Mr, Wilks, who 
 
3G2 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 nad been agent the whole of the last administration, 
 was laid aside. Mr. Auchmuty, who had been one 
 of the land bank directors, was joined with Mr. 
 Kilby in the affair of the Rhode Island line. A 
 grant of about 200Z. sterling was made to John 
 Sharpe, Esq., for his account of charge in defend- 
 ing Mr. Belcher against New Hampshire's com- 
 plaint to the king in council. This had been re- 
 peatedly refused in Mr. Belcher's time, which gave 
 great offence to Mr. Sharpe. It was thought extra- 
 ordinary that Mr. Shirley should make it a point 
 with the land bankers that this debt for his prede- 
 cessor should be paid, but to take Mr. Sharpe off 
 from Mr. Belcher and engage him for Mr. Shirley, 
 the friends and solicitors for the latter in England 
 had engaged, that if he was appointed governor Mr. 
 Sharpe's account should be paid. 
 
 But the grand affair to settle was that of the bills 
 of credit. The instruction was express not to con- 
 sent to any act which should continue the bills be- 
 yond the time fixed for their being brought in. If 
 this was complied with, a tax must have been made 
 for the whole sum extant in that year 1741. This 
 it was said would be a burden that the people would 
 never bear. Mr. Shirley was sensible that the in- 
 tent of his instruction was the prevention of a de- 
 preciating currency. No matter how large a sum 
 in bills was current if their value could be secured. 
 If the spirit ot the instruction could be preserved, 
 an exact conformity to the letter would not be re- 
 quired. Every scheme for fixing the value of the 
 bills had failed. A new project was reported by a 
 committee of the house, and accepted, and after- 
 wards concurred by the council, and consented to by 
 the governor. This was a scheme to establish an 
 ideal measure in all trade and dealings, let the in- 
 strument be what it would. The act which passed 
 the court declared that all contracts should be un- 
 derstood payable in silver at 6s. Sd. the ounce, or 
 gold in proportion. Bills of a new form were issued, 
 20s. of which expressed in the face of the bill three 
 ounces of silver, and they were to be received ac- 
 cordingly in all public and private payments, with 
 this saving that, if they should depreciate in their 
 value, an addition should be made to all debts, as 
 much as the depreciation from the time of contract 
 to the time of payment. How to ascertain the de- 
 preciation from time to time was the great difficulty 
 in framing the act. To leave it to a common jury 
 would never do. There was some doubt whether a 
 house of representatives would be wholly unbiassed. 
 At length it was agreed that the eldest council, in 
 each county, should meet once a year and ascertain 
 the depreciation. This is said to have been the 
 scheme of Col. Stoddard, of Northampton, a gentle- 
 man of good sense and great virtue, who probably 
 saw the defects, but hoped to substitute a lessei evil 
 in the place of a greater. 
 
 This at best must have been a very partial cure. 
 It did not prevent the loss from the depreciation ol 
 the bills in those persons' hands through which they 
 were continually passing. All debts, which were 
 contracted and paid between the periods when the 
 value of the bills were fixed annually, could not be 
 affected by such fixing; and unless in debts of long 
 standing, which the debtor could not pay without an 
 action at law, demand was not ordinarily made for 
 depreciation ; and what rendered it of little effect in 
 all other cases, the counsellors appointed to estimate 
 the depreciation, never had firmness enough in at 
 instance to make the full allowance ; but when sil- 
 ver and. exchange had rose 20 per cent or more, an 
 
 addition was made of four or five only. The popu- 
 .ar cry was against it ; and one year when Nathaniel 
 Hubbard, Esq., the eldest counsellor for the county 
 of Bristol, a gentleman of amiable character, and 
 who filled the several posts he sustained with ap 
 plause, endeavoured to approach nearer to a just al 
 towance than had been made in former years, he 
 felt the resentment of the house, who left him out of 
 the council the next election. In short, the act 
 neither prevented the depreciation of the bills, nor 
 afforded relief in case of it, and was of no other ser- 
 vice than to serve as a warning, when an act passed 
 for the establishing a fixed currency a few years 
 after, to leave nothing to be done by any person or 
 bodies of men, or even future legislatures to give 
 the act its designed effect, but in the act itself to 
 make full provision for its execution in every part. 
 
 Even this act, which, with its fair appearance, jus- 
 tified Mr. Shirley in departing from his instruction, 
 and afforded a supply of the treasury for the pay- 
 ment of debts and future support of government, 
 could not have been obtained, if he had not pre- 
 vailed with the land bank party, contrary to the in- 
 clinations of many of them, to join in promoting it. 
 
 He made them return, by consenting to any new 
 elections that were made of any of them into the 
 council, by restoring now and then one and another 
 to the posts they had been deprived of; which, though 
 it was done by degrees, caused many who condemned 
 the land bank and all who were concerned in it, to 
 be very free in their censures upon it. 
 
 But the great favour they expected, was relief 
 from the severity of the act of parliament. This 
 was to be touched with great tenderness and deli- 
 cacy. Every person concerned was liable to the 
 demands of the possessors of the bills. If large de- 
 mands should be made upon any particular persons, 
 it seemed but just that the rest should contribute 
 their proportion ; but no demand was given by the 
 act to one partner against another in such case. A 
 bill was therefore prepared, with a professed design 
 to carry the act of parliament equitably into execu- 
 tion. Three commissioners were appointed by the 
 bill, with power to tax all who had been concerned 
 in the scheme in proportion to their interest in it, 
 and with the monies thus raised to redeem the com- 
 pany's bills from the possessors ; and after the re- 
 demption of the bills, to make an equitable adjust- 
 ment between the members and the company. Great 
 care was taken to avoid all opposition to the act of 
 parliament ; Mr. Shirley, however, did not think 
 proper to sign the bill until he had sent a copy of it 
 to England, and received directions concerning it. 
 After it had passed both houses, to oblige the prin- 
 cipal bankers, he continued the session of the court 
 by long repeated adjournments many months, and 
 before the expiration of the year gave his consent to 
 the bill. Having thus secured a considerable party 
 in the government, without losing those who had 
 been in opposition to them, he rendered his adminis- 
 tration easy, and geneially obtained from the as- 
 sembly such matters as he recommended to them. 
 
 From the Spanish war in 1740, a French war was 
 expected every year to follow. Castle William, the 
 key of the province, was not only effectually re- 
 paired, but a new battery of twenty 42-pounders, 
 which takes the name of Shirley battery, was added 
 to the works, with a larger magazine than any be- 
 fore, and a large supply of powder, all at the ex- 
 pense of the province. Th cannon, mortars, shot, 
 and other stores, were the bounty of the crown. 
 The forts upon the frontiers were also put into good 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 363 
 
 order, and upon a representation from Mr. Masea- 
 renc, commander in chief at Annapolis, in Nova 
 Scotia, of the defenceless state of that province raid 
 the danger they were in from the enemy, Mr. Shirley, 
 in 1744, prevailed upon the Massachusetts assembly 
 to vote, pay, &c. for 200 men which were sent there, 
 and who were the probable means of saving that 
 country from falling into the enemy's hands. 
 
 (174*4.) But the great event in this administration 
 was the siege and reduction of Louisburgh. Canso 
 had been surprised and taken by 900 men under 
 Duvivier from Louisburgh, before the war with 
 France- was known at Boston. With another party, 
 Duvivier made an attempt the same summer upon 
 Annapolis, but was disappointed. Many of our 
 vessels had been taken by the French men-of-war 
 and privateers, and carried into Louisbuvgh. The 
 tishermen had no intention to go upon their voyages 
 the next summer, and every branch of trade, it was 
 supposed, must be carried on by vessels under con- 
 voy. It was the general voice, in the fall of the 
 year, that Louisburgh must be taken, but nobody- 
 supposed that the united force of the colonies could 
 take it ; application must be made to his majesty for 
 sea and land forces sufficient for the purpose. As 
 winter approached, it began to be suggested that it 
 was not improbable the place might be surprised or 
 taken by a coup de main, the inhabitants and garri- 
 son being shut up within the walls. Some of the 
 garrison of Canso, who had been prisoners, and who 
 professed to be well acquainted with the fortifications 
 and garrison at Louisburgh, favoured this opinion; 
 and declared, that in winter the snow often lay in 
 drifts or banks against a particular part of the wall, 
 where there were no embrasures nor any cannon 
 mounted ; that the crust would bear a man's weight; 
 and, in that part at least, the walls might be scaled, 
 and perhaps by the help of ladders it would not be 
 difficult in other parts ; that the grand battery, in- 
 tended for defence in case of an attack by sea, 
 would not be capable of long resisting if attacked 
 by land. Mr. Vaughan, who had been a trader at 
 Louisburgh, was very sanguine also that the place 
 might be taken by surprise; and it was generally 
 agreed, that if they should be mistaken, yet it would 
 not be possible for the enemy, who were scant of 
 provisions, to stand a siege until the time the sup 
 plies usually arrive to them from France ; and to 
 prevent any chance vessels from entering, a suffi- 
 cient naval force might be provided to cruize before 
 the harbour. Whilst this was the conversation 
 abroad, Mr. Shirley was diligently enquiring o 
 those persons who had been traders, and of others 
 who had been prisoners there, into the condition o1 
 the place, the usual time for the arrival of supplies 
 from Europe, the practicability of cruising off the 
 harbour, &c. He had before wrote to the ministry, 
 and represented the necessity of a naval force early 
 in the spring for the preservation of Annapolis. I: 
 this should arrive, he might be able to prevail with 
 the commander to cover our forces with it. Com- 
 modore Warren was with several ships at the Lee- 
 ward islands ; it was possible, when he was ac- 
 quainted with the expedition, he would come with 01 
 send part of his force to strengthen it. These were 
 the only chances for a naval strength sufficient to 
 cope with a single capital French ship that might be 
 bound to Louisburgh in the spring. The ministry 
 indeed, would by express be immediately acquaintec 
 with the expedition, if engaged in ; but Europe was 
 at too great a distance to expect timely aid from 
 thence. The plan of the expedition was, a Ian 
 
 orce of 4000 men in small transports to proceed to 
 }anso, and the first favourable opportunity to land 
 it Chapeaurouge bay, with cannon, mortars, ammu- 
 nition and warlike stores, and all other necessaries 
 or carrying on a siege ; and, to prevent a supply of 
 iro vision and stores to the enemy, several vessels 
 vere to cruise off the harbour of Louisburgh, as 
 oon as the season of the year would permit. An 
 estimate was made of all the naval force which could 
 )e procured in this a-nd the neighbouring colonies, 
 he largest vessel not exceeding 20 guns. With 
 his land and sea force, it was sakl there was good 
 chance for success ; and if the men-of-war should 
 arrive, which there was good reason to hope for, 
 .here was all imaginable grounds to depend upon 
 he reduction of the place. 
 
 (1755.) The general court being sitting the be- 
 ginning of January, the governor sent a message to 
 he two houses, to let them know he had something 
 o communicate to them of very great importance, 
 mt of such a nature that the publishing it might 
 wholly defeat the design, he therefore desired they 
 would lay themselves under an oath of secrecy for 
 such time as each house should think proper. This 
 ;hey did, although it was the first instance in the 
 louse of representatives, without any scruple, and 
 ;hen he communicated to them, his proposed plan of 
 ;he expedition. Many of the members, who bad 
 icard little or nothing of the conversation upon the 
 subject, were struck with amazement at the pro- 
 posal. The undertaking was thought to be vastly 
 LOO great, if there was a rational prospect of success. 
 However, in deference to the recommendation of 
 the governor, a committee of the two houses was 
 appointed to consider the proposal. Here, the pro- 
 posal was for several days deliberated and it was ar- 
 gued, " if Louisburgh be left in the hands of the 
 French, it would prove the Dunkirk of New England; 
 their trade had always been inconsiderable their, 
 fishery was upon the decline, and for several years* 
 past they had bought fish of the English at Canso 
 cheaper than they could catch and cure it them- 
 selves ; both trade and fishery they might well lay 
 aside, and, by privateering, enrich themselves with 
 the spoils of New England ; and, to all these dan- 
 gers, was added that of losing Nova Scotia, which 
 would cause an increase of six or eight thousand 
 enemies in an instant. The garrison of Louisburgh 
 was disaffected, provisions were scant, the works 
 mouldering and decayed, the governor an old man, 
 unskilled in the art of war ; this therefore was the 
 only time for success, another year the place would 
 be impregnable. We had nothing to fear from the 
 forces at Louisburgh, before additional strength 
 could arrive from France they would be forced to 
 surrender. We had, it must be owned, no ships of 
 strength sufficient to match the French men of war, 
 unless, perhaps, a single ship should fall in by her- 
 self, and in that case five or six of ours might be a 
 match for her ; but there was no probability of men 
 of war so early, and it was very probable English 
 men of war from Europe, or the West Indies, would 
 arrive before them. There was always uncertainty 
 in war, a risk must be run, if we failed we should be 
 able to grapple with the disappointment, although 
 we should bear the whole expense, but if we suc- 
 ceeded, not only the coasts of New England would 
 be free from molestation, bat so glorious an acqui- 
 sition would be of the greatest importance to Great 
 Britain, and might give peace to Europe, and wa 
 might depend upon a reimbursement of the whole 
 charge we had been at." 
 
364 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 On the other hand it was replied, " that we had 
 better suffer in our trade, than by so expensive a 
 measure deprive ourselves of all means of carrying 
 on any future trade ; that we are capable of annoying 
 them in their fishery as much as they could annoy us 
 in ours ; and, in a short time, both sides would be will- 
 ing to leave the fishery unmolested ; that the accounts 
 given of the works and the garrison at Louisburgh 
 could not be depended upon, and it was not credible 
 that any part of the walls should be unguarded and ex- 
 posed to surprise ; that instances of disaffection rising 
 to mutiny were rare, and but few instances were to 
 be met with in history, where such expectation has 
 not failed. The garrison at Louisburgh consisted 
 of regular experienced troops who, though unequal 
 in number, would be more than a match in open 
 field for all the raw unexperienced militia which 
 could be sent from New England ; that twenty crui- 
 zers at that season of the year would not prevent 
 supplies going into the harbour, it being impossible 
 to keep any station for any length of time, and the 
 weather being frequently so thick, that a vessel was 
 not to be discovered at a quarter of a mile's distance ; 
 that there was no room to expect any men of war 
 for the cover of our troops, that if only one sixty 
 gun ship should arrive from France, or the French 
 Islands, she would be more than a match for all the 
 armed vessels we could provide, our transports at 
 Chapeaurouge bay would be every one destroyed, 
 and the army upon Cape Breton obliged to submit 
 to the mercy of the French ; that we should be con- 
 demned in England for engaging in such an affair 
 without their direct approbation, and we should be 
 no where pitied, our misfortunes proceeding from 
 our own rash and wild measures." To these argu- 
 ments were added the uncertainty of raising a suffi- 
 cient number of men, or of being able to procure 
 provisions, warlike stores, and transports, discou- 
 ragement from the season of the year when, fre- 
 quently, for many days together no business could be 
 done out of doors. Money indeed could be fur- 
 nished, or bills of credit in lieu of it, but the infalli- 
 ble consequence would be the sinking the value of 
 the whole currency, to what degree no man could 
 determine, but, probably, in proportion to the sum 
 issued ; and finally, if it should succeed, a general 
 national benefit would be the consequence, in which 
 the benefits of success would be far short of the 
 vast expense of treasure, and perhaps of lives, in 
 obtaining it, and if it failed, such a shock would 
 be given to the province, that half a century would 
 not recover the colony. After mature delibera- 
 tion, a majority of the committee disapproved the 
 proposal, and their report was accepted, and, for 
 a few days, all thoughts of the expedition with 
 the members of the court were laid aside. In th 
 mean time the governor, who wished the proposa 
 had been agreed to, but did not think it proper to 
 press it any farther by message, or by privately 
 urging the members, either directed or encouragec 
 the carrying about a petition, which was signed bj 
 many of the merchants in the town of Boston, bu 
 principally by those of Salem and Marblehead, di 
 rected to the house of representatives, or to the twc 
 houses, praying, for reasons set forth, among others 
 the saving the fishery from ruin, they would recon 
 sider their vote, and agree to the governor's propo 
 sal of an expedition against Louisburgh. A secom 
 committee, appointed upon this petition, reportec 
 in favour of it, and, the 26th of January, their repor 
 came before the house, who spent the day in de 
 bating it, and, at night, a vote was carried in farou 
 
 f it by a majority of one voice only. Never wa 
 ny affair deliberated upon with greater calmness 
 nd moderation, the governor indeed laid the affair 
 >efore the court, but left the members free to act 
 heir judgment without any solicitation, and there 
 ppeared no other division than what was caused 
 y a real difference in opinion, as to the true interest 
 f the province. 
 
 The point once settled, there was immediately a 
 nion of both parties in the necessary measures for 
 arrying the design into execution, those who had 
 opposed it before being employed upon committees, 
 and exerting themselves with zeal equal to that of 
 he principal promoters. An embargo was laid upon 
 ;very harbour in the province, and messengers were 
 immediately dispatched to the several governments, 
 as far as Pennsylvania, to entreat an embargo on 
 heir ports, and that they would join in the expedi- 
 ion. All excused themselves from any share in 
 he adventure, except Connecticut, who agreed to 
 aise 500 men, New Hampshire 300, and Rhode 
 island 300. Connecticut and Rhode Island also 
 consented their colony sloops should be employed as 
 cruizers. A small privateer sloop, about 200 tons, 
 a snow of less burden, belonging to Newport, were 
 lired there by the Massachusetts, a new snow, Cap- 
 ;ain Rouse, a ship, Captain Snelling, were taken 
 into the service at Boston, which, with a snow, 
 Captain Smethurst, and a brig, Captain Fletcher, 
 ,hree sloops, Captains Sanders, Donahew, and 
 Bosch, and a ship of twenty guns, purchased on the 
 stocks, Captain Tyng the commodore, made the 
 whole naval force. 
 
 From the day the vote passed until the place was 
 reduced, a series of favourable incidents contributed 
 to success. They will be obvious enough in the 
 course of the narrative, and will not require being 
 specially remarked. The time for preparing was 
 short. The winter proved so favourable that all 
 sorts of out-door business was carried on as well, and 
 with as great dispatch as at any other season of the 
 year. In the appointment of a general officer, one 
 qualification was considered as essential, that he 
 should be acceptable to the body of the people, the 
 inlistment depended upon this circumstance. It was 
 not easy to find a person, thus qualified, willing to 
 accept the trust : Col. Pepperell, having the offer 
 from the governor, was rather pressed into the ser- 
 vice than voluntarily engaged. Besides a very great 
 landed interest, he was largely concerned in mercan- 
 tile affairs, which must necessarily suffer by his ab- 
 sence, and this being generally known had no small 
 influence, from the example, with inferior officers 
 and even private soldiers, to quit their lesser affairs 
 for a season for the service of their country. Many 
 of the private soldiers were freeholders, and many 
 more sons of wealthy farmers, who could have no 
 other views in consenting to the inlistment of their 
 children than the public interest 
 
 Mr. Shirley had set his heart so much upon the 
 expedition, that many points were conceded by him 
 which he would not have given up at any other time, 
 and the people of the province submitted to com- 
 pulsory measures from the government, which, at 
 another time, would have been grievous and not 
 very patiently borne. Such officers were nominated 
 by the governor as the people proposed or called 
 for, because they were most likely to inlist men. In- 
 stead of a commissary general, an officer appointed 
 by the governor, a committee of war was chosen by 
 the two houses out of their own members. Nothing 
 further was heard of the royal instruction against 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 36* 
 
 bills of credit. Such sums as the service called for 
 and to be redeemed at such periods as the house 
 thought proper, were consented to by the governor. 
 It soon appeared that these sums would vastly ex- 
 exceed what had been computed, and many declared 
 that had a right estimate been made, they should 
 never have voted for the expedition, but it was now 
 too late to go back. It was found also, that trans- 
 
 Sorts and vessels of war could not be engaged un- 
 ?ss the government would become insurers, which 
 although it occasioned no additional expense at first, 
 yet, in case of ill success, would greatly increase the 
 public debt and distress. The committee of war 
 were likewise convinced that a sufficiency of provis- 
 ions, clothing, and warlike stores could not be pro- 
 cured within the province. Whosoever was posess- 
 ed of any of these articles, by an act or order of 
 government, his property was subjected to the com- 
 mittee, who set such price as they judged equitable; 
 and upon refusal to deliver, entered warehouses, 
 cellars, &c., by a warrant for that purpose to the 
 sheriff, and took possession. In the course of the 
 preparation many vessels unexpectedly arrived with 
 more or less of each of these articles, and after all, 
 the army was poorly enough provided. Ten cannon, 
 eighteen pounders, were obtained upon loan, not 
 without difficulty, from New York, otherwise Mr. 
 Shirley himself seemed to doubt whether they could 
 proceed. Some dependence was placed upon can- 
 non from the grand battery, but this was too mani- 
 fest a disposal of the skin before the bear was caught. 
 By force of a general exertion in all orders of men, 
 the armament was ready, and the general, on board 
 the Shirley snow, Captain Rouse, with the trans- 
 ports under her convoy, sailed from Nantasket the 
 24th of March, and arrived at Canso the 4th oi 
 April. The Massachusetts land forces consisted ol 
 3,250 men, exclusive of commission officers. The 
 Hampshire forces, 304, including officers, arrived four 
 days before. Connecticut, being 5 16, officers inclusive, 
 did not arrive until the 25th. The deputy governor 
 of the colony, Roger Walcot, had the command, and 
 was the second officer in the army. Rhode Island 
 waited until a better judgment could be made of 
 the event, their 300 not arriving until after the place 
 had surrendered. The 23d of March, an express 
 boat sent to Commodore Warren in the West Indies, 
 returned to Boston. As this was a provincial expe- 
 dition, without orders from England, and as his 
 small squadron had been weakened by the loss of 
 the Weymouth, Mr. Warren excused himself from 
 any concern in the affair. This answer must neces 
 aarily strike a damp into the governor, as well as 
 the general, and Brigadier Waldo then next in 
 command, who were the only persons in the army 
 made privy to it before the fleet sailed. Several of 
 the cruizing vessels had sailed the middle of March, 
 but they could be no protection to the army against 
 two capital ships ; if they intercepted small vessels 
 it was the most that was expected. A blockhouse 
 with eight cannon was built at Canso. Whether 
 some good reason would not have been given for 
 proceeding no further than Canso, if there, had been 
 a dissappointment in the expected junction of men 
 of war from the several quarters to which notice o: 
 the expedition had been sent, may well enough be 
 made a question. Mr. Shirley hoped, if the reduc- 
 tion of Louisburgh was not effected, at least Canso 
 would be regained, Nova Scotia preserved, the 
 French fishery broke up, and the New England anc 
 Newfoundland fisheries restored. But on the 23d 
 of April, to the great joy of the army, arrived a 
 
 3anso, the Eltham of forty guns, frem New Eng- 
 and, by order from Mr. Warren, and on the 23d 
 he commodore himself, in the Superb of sixty guns, 
 with the Launceston and Mermaid of forty each, 
 rrived also. This gave great spirits to all who had 
 he succe.ss of the expedition at heart, for although 
 his was not a naval force to enter the harbour or 
 nnoy the forts, yet it was a cover to the army and 
 equal to any expected force from France. It seems 
 hat, in two or three days after the express sailed 
 'rom the West Indies for Boston, the Hind sloop 
 >rought orders to Mr. Warren, to repair to Boston 
 with what ships could be spared, and to concert 
 measures with Mr. Shirley for his majesty's general 
 ervice in North America. Upon the passage to 
 Boston, the commodore received intelligence that 
 he fleet had sailed for Canso, and meeting with a 
 chooner at sea he sent her to Boston, to acquaint 
 VIr. Shirley that he would proceed to Canso, and, at 
 he same time, sent orders to any ships which might 
 >e in these seas to join him. The Eltham was actu- 
 ally under sail with the mast fleet, when an express 
 lent from Boston with the commodore's orders ar- 
 ived at Portsmouth in New Hampshire, but being 
 bllowed and overtaken by a boat, the captain order- 
 ed his convoy into port again and sailed for Canso. 
 After a short consultation with the general, the men 
 of war sailed to cruize before Louisburgh. The 
 cruizers before this, had intercepted several small 
 vessels bound in there with West India goods and 
 provisions, and had engaged the Renommee, a 
 French ship of thirty-six guns sent from France 
 with dispatches, and who kept a running fight with 
 our vessels for some time, being able with ease to 
 outsail them, and after two or three attempts to enter 
 the harbour, went back to France, to give an ac- 
 count of what had been met with. She fell in with 
 the Connecticut troops, under convoy of their own 
 and the Rhode Island colony sloops, both which she 
 had strength enough to have carried, but after some 
 damage to the Rhode Island sloop, she went her 
 way. The forces landed at Chapeaurouge bay the 
 30th of April. The transports weie discovered early 
 in the morning from the town, which was the first 
 knowledge of any design against them. The crui- 
 sers had been seen every fair day before the harbour, 
 but these were supposed to be privateers in search 
 after their trading and fishing vessels. The night 
 before, it is said, there was a grand ball at the f jrt, 
 and the company had scarce been asleep, when they 
 were called up by an alarm. Bouladrie, a French 
 officer, was sent with 150 men to oppose the landing, 
 but the general making a feint of landing at one 
 place, drew the detachment there, and this oppor- 
 tunity was taken for lauding 100 men at another 
 place without opposition, although they were soon 
 after attacked by the detachment; six of which were 
 killed on the spot, and about as many more witb 
 Bouladrie their leader, were taken prisoners, the 
 rest fled to the town, or they would soon have fallen 
 into the hands of the men, who were landing fast 
 one upon the back of another. 
 
 The next morning after they landed, 400 men 
 marched round to the north-east harbour, behind the 
 hills, setting fire to all the houses and store-houses, 
 until they came within a mile of the grand battery. 
 Some of the store-houses having in them pitch, tar, 
 and other combustibles, caused such a thick smoke, 
 that the garrison were unable to discover an enemy, 
 though but a few rods distant ; and, expecting the 
 body of the army upon them, they deserted the fort, 
 having thrown their powder into a well, but leaving 
 
360 
 
 THE HISTOUY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the cannon and shot for the service of the English. 
 A small party, of less than twenty English, first 
 came up to the battery, and discovering no signs of 
 men suspected a plot, and were afraid to enter ; at 
 length, it is said, a Cape Cod Indian went in alone 
 and discovered the state of it to the rest of the party, 
 just as some of the French were relaudiug in order 
 to regain the possession of it. 
 
 The army found they had near two miles to trans- 
 port their cannon, mortars, shot, &c. through a mo- 
 rass. This must be done by meer dint of labour. 
 Such of the men who had been used to drawing pine 
 trees for masts, and those who had the hardiest and 
 strongest bodies, were employed in this service. 
 Horses and oxen would have been buried in inud, 
 and were of no use. Brigadier Waldo had the com- 
 mand of the grand battery. The French kept firing 
 upon the battery from the" town as well as from the 
 island battery, but to little purpose, the town being 
 near 2000 yards distant, and the island about 1600 
 A constant fire was kept from the grand battery upor 
 the town with the 42-pounders. This greatly damagec 
 the houses, but caused so great an expense of pow- 
 der, that it was thought advisable to stop and reserve 
 it for the fascine batteries. Five of these were 
 erected; the last the 20th of May, called Tidcomb's 
 battery, with five 42-pounders, which did as grea 
 execution as any. The men knew nothing of regu 
 lar approaches, they took the advantage of the 
 night, and when they heard Mr. Bastide's proposal 
 for zig-zags and epaulements, they made merry wit! 
 the terms and went on, void of art, in their own na 
 tural way. Captain Pierce, a brave officer, standing 
 at one of these batteries, had his bowels shot awa 
 by a cannon ball, and lived just long enough to say 
 "Its hard to die." 
 
 Whilst our people were thus busy ashore, th 
 
 men-of-war and other vessels were cruising off th 
 
 harbour whenever the weather would permit ; am 
 
 the 18th of May, the Vigilant, a French man-o 
 
 war of 64 guns, having 560 men on board, and store 
 
 of all sorts for the garrison, was met by the Mer 
 
 maid, whom she attacked ; but Captain* Douglas 
 
 the commander, being of unequal force, suli'ere 
 
 himself to be chased by her until he drew her und 
 
 the command of the commodore and the other s\ii\ 
 
 cruising with him, to whom, or as some say, to th 
 
 Mermaid, she struck, because she had lirst m 
 
 with her. This ci-.pture gave great joy to the arim 
 
 not so much for the addition made to the naval fore 
 
 as for the disappointment to the enemy. A prop 
 
 sal had been made a few days before, that the men 
 
 of-war should anchor in Chapeaurouge bay, and th 
 
 the marines and as many sailors as could 'be sparec 
 
 should land and join the army. The Vigilant wou 
 
 then have got in, and the siege would have bee 
 
 given over. Affairs were now in such a state, tha 
 
 the anxiety at Boston was much lessened. It w 
 
 hoped the army might retreat with safety wheuev 
 
 it should be determined to give over the siege ; f 
 
 Bouladrie, who belonged to the town of Louisburg 
 
 and the Marquis de la Maisonforte, commander 
 
 the Vigilant, who was well acquainted with the st 
 
 of the place, when thoy came to Boston were sa 
 
 guine that it would hold out; but soon after was i 
 
 ccived the news of a fruitless and perhaps a ras 
 
 attempt upon the island battery of 400 men, 60 
 
 whom were killed, and 116 taken prisoners. T 
 
 Caesar, Snelling, one of the ships in the provincia 
 
 service, arrived at Boston with letters from the gen 
 
 ral, and an application for more men and a furth 
 
 supply of powder. The Massachusetts agreed, am 
 
 tually did raise 400 men, and siait all the po\\dci 
 lat could be purchased, and Connecticut raised '200 
 en, but there were neither men nor powder arrived 
 len the siege was finished. 
 
 The Princess Mary of 60, and the Hector of 40 
 uns, unexpectedly had arrived at Boston from 
 ngland, and were immediately sent to join the 
 mmodore, pursuant to his general orders, and ar- 
 ved before Louisburgh the 22d of May. This in- 
 case of naval force occasioned conjectures, some 
 >eing of opinion, that rather than the siege should 
 e raised, the ships would attempt to go in ; but it 
 as generally supposed the hazard would be too 
 jrcat. It was commonly reported that Colonel More, 
 the New Hampshire regiment, offered to go on 
 )oard the Vigilant with his whole regiment and to 
 ead the van, if, in case of success, he might be 
 onfirmed in the command of the ship. He had 
 )een an experienced sea captain, and had a very 
 character. It is certain, an attempt with the 
 lips was not then thought advisable. A new battery 
 bout this time was erected upon the light-house 
 mint, which being well attended by Lieut.-Colonel 
 jrridley of the artillery, did great execution upon 
 ic island battery, silenced many of the guns, and 
 , was expected it would not be long tenable. Soon 
 fter, June 10th, arrived before Louisburgh, the 
 Chester, a 50 gun ship, in consequence of the dU- 
 jatches from Mr. Shirley, with an account of the ex- 
 ledition. The Canterbury and Sunderland, two 60 
 run ships, sailed with her and arrived the 12th. 
 iere was now a fleet of eleven ships, and it is said 
 o have been determined the ships should make an 
 attack by sea the 18th, while the army did the same 
 >y land. It was not certain that when the day 
 hould come, some sufficient reason would not have 
 >een found for a further delay. Those who give the 
 most favourable accounts of the siege say, " the 
 vest gate was entirely bat down, the wall adjoining 
 very much battered, and a breach made ten feet 
 'rom the bottom ; the circular battery of 16 cannon, 
 aud the principal one against ships almost ruined ; 
 ,he north-east battery of 17 cannon damaged and 
 he men drove from the guns, and the west flank of 
 ;he king's bastion almost demolished." Others say 
 " the west gate was defaced, and the adjoining cur- 
 tain, with the flank of the king's bastion were much 
 ;iurt, but no practicable breach." Whether a ge- 
 neral storm was really intended upon the Ibth or 
 not, it seems the French expected it from the pre- 
 parations on board the men-of-war, and did not in- 
 -line to stand it; and on the 15th sent a flag of 
 truce to the general, desiring a cessation, that they 
 might consider of articles to be proposed for a capi- 
 tulation. Time was allowed for this purpose until 
 the next morning, when such articles were offered 
 as were rejected by the general and commodore, and 
 others offered to the enemy in their stead, which they 
 accepted of, and hostages were exchanged ; and the 
 next day, the 17th, the city was delivered up. 
 
 Many of the men had taken colds and many fallen 
 into dysenteries, so that 1500 were taken off from 
 duty at one time ; but the weather proving remarkably 
 fine during the forty-nine days siege, they generally 
 recovered. The day after the surrender the rains 
 began, and continued ten days incessantly, which 
 must have been fatal to many, they having nothing 
 better than the wet ground to lodge on, and their 
 tents, in general, being insufficient to secure them 
 against a single shower, but in the city they found 
 barracks to shelter them. Captain Bennct, in a 
 schooner, was sent immediately to Boston, and ar 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 367 
 
 rived with the great news the 3d of July, about one 
 in the morning. The bells of the town were ringing 
 by break of day, and the day and night following 
 were spent in rejoicing. The news flew through 
 the continent. The colonies which declined any 
 share in the expense and hazard, were sensible they 
 were greatly interested in the success. It was al- 
 lowed every where, that if there had been no signal 
 proof of bravery and courage in time of action, 
 there having been only one sally from the town and 
 a few skirmishes with French and Indians from the 
 woods, in all which the Massachusetts behaved well ; 
 yet here was the strongest evidence of a generous 
 noble public spirit, which first induced the under- 
 taking, and of steadiness and firmness of mind in 
 the prosecution of it, the labour, fatigue, and other 
 hardships of the siege, being without parallel in all 
 preceding American affairs. A shade was thrown 
 over the imprudence at first charged upon the New 
 Englauders. Considerate persons among themselves 
 could not, however, avoid gratefully admiring the 
 favour of divine providence in so great a number of 
 remarkable incidents which contributed to this suc- 
 cess. The best use to be made by posterity seems to 
 be, not to depend upon special interpositions of pro- 
 vidence because their ancestors have experienced 
 them ; but to avoid the like imminent dangers, and 
 to weigh the probability and improbability of suc- 
 ceeding in the ordinary course of events. 
 
 The commodore was willing to carry away a full 
 share of the glory of this action. It was made a 
 question whether the keys of the town should be 
 delivered to him or to the general, and whether the 
 sea or land forces should first enter. The officers 
 of the army say they prevailed. The marines took 
 possession of one or more of the batteries, and some- 
 times the commodore took the keys of the city gates. 
 The command however until orders should arrive 
 from England was to be joint, and a dispute about 
 precedence to be avoided as much as could be. 
 The commodore dispatched Mr. Montague in the 
 Mermaid to England with intelligence, and the 
 general, the day after, sent the Shirley Galley. Cap- 
 tain Rouse. The Mermaid arrived first. 
 
 It was very happy that disputes arose to no height 
 between sea and land forces during the siege. This 
 has often proved fatal. This expedition having been 
 begun and carried on under a commission from a 
 provincial governor seems to be distinguished from 
 ordinary cases, and to leave less room for dispute. 
 Whether the land or sea force had the greatest share 
 in the acquisition may be judged from the relation 
 of facts. Neither would have succeeded alone. The 
 army, with infinite labour and fatigue to themselves, 
 harrassed and distressed the enemy, and, with per- 
 severance, a few weeks or days longer must have 
 compelled a surrender. It is very doutful whether 
 the ships could have lain long enough before the 
 walls to have carried the place by storm, or whether, 
 notwithstanding the appearance of a design to do it, 
 they would have thought it advisable to attempt it; 
 it is certain they prevented the arrival of the Vigi- 
 lant, took away all hopes of further supply and suc- 
 cour, and it is very probable the fears of a storm 
 aught accelerate the capitulation. The loss by the 
 enemy and sickness did not exceed 101 men. The 
 loss of the Snow, Prince of Orange, belonging to 
 the province, and supposed to be overset, was a 
 heavy blow upon the town of Marble-head, the captain 
 tmd most of the crew belonging to that town, and it 
 is a rare thing for a Marblehead man to die without 
 leaving a widow and a number of children surviving. 
 
 As it was a time t.f year to expect French vessels 
 from all parts to Louisburgh, the French flag was 
 kept flying to decoy them in. Two East India and 
 and one South sea ship, supposed to be all together 
 of the value of 600,000/. sterling, were taken by the 
 squadron at the mouth of the harbour, into which 
 they would undoubtedly have entered. The army, 
 at first, supposed they had acquired a right to the 
 island of Cape Breton and its dependencies, and, 
 until they were undeceived by Mr. Shirley, were 
 for dividing the territory among the officers and 
 men. With greater colour they might have claimed 
 a share with the men of war in these rich prizes. 
 Some of the officers expected a claim would have 
 been laid in, but means were found to divert it, nor 
 was any part decreed to the vessels of war in the 
 province seivice, except a small sum to the brig 
 Boston packet, Captain Fletcher, who being chased 
 by the south sea ship, led her directly under the 
 command of the guns of one of the men of war. It 
 seemed to be conceded that, as this acquisition was 
 made under the commission of the governor of Mas- 
 sachusetts bay, the exercise of government there 
 appertained to him, until his majesty's pleasure 
 should be known. We know of no precedent in the 
 colonies, except that of the conquest of Nova Scotia 
 in 1690. It was necessary then to admit this prin- 
 ciple, the acquisition could not' otherwise have been 
 retained, Mr. Shirley made a voyage to Louisburgh, 
 took the government upon him, prevailed upon a 
 great part of the army to consent to remain in gar- 
 rison over the winter, or until regiments, which 
 were expected, arrived, engaged that their pay should 
 be increased, and clothing provided, and settled 
 other matters to general satisfaction. Pennsylvania 
 contributed 4000*., New York, 3000/., and New 
 Jersey, 2000/., some in money, others in provisions, 
 for support of the troops. 
 
 Duvivier had been sent to France the winter of 
 1744, to solicit a force not to defend Cape Breton, 
 but to conquer Nova Scotia, and accordingly sailed 
 the beginning of July with seven ships of war for 
 that purpose, who were to stop at Louisburgh. This 
 fleet took a prize bound from Boston to London, on 
 board of which was lieut.-governor Clark of New 
 Yerk, and by this means they were informed of the 
 conquest of Louisburgh. and the strong squadron 
 there, otherwise some or all of them would also have 
 probably fallen into the hands of the English. Upon 
 this intelligence they went back to France. Thus 
 Nova Scotia no doubt was saved by the Massachu- 
 setts expedition. There would not have been men 
 of war sufficient to match this squadron. 
 
 (1746.) The reduction of Louisbuigh by a British 
 colony must have been a surpri/e to Great Britain 
 and to France. It caused very grand plans of 
 American measures for the next year with both pow- 
 ers. Great Britain had in view the reduction of 
 Canada, and the extirpation of the French from the 
 northern continent. France intended the recovery 
 of Louisburgh, the conquest of Nova Scotia, and 
 the destruction of the English sea coast from Nova 
 Scotia to Georgia. Upon the English plan, eight 
 battalions of regular troops, with the provincial 
 forces to be raised in the four New England go- 
 vernments, were to rendezvous at Louisburgh, and, 
 with a squadron under Admiral Warren, were to go 
 up the river Saint Lawrence to Quebec, other pro- 
 vincials from Virginia and the colonies northward, 
 including New York, were to rendezvous at Albany 
 and go across the country to Montreal; the land 
 forces to be under General St. Clair. No province 
 
368 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 had a certain number assigned, it was expecte 
 there should be at least 5000 in the whole. Th 
 colonies voted to raise men in very unequal propor- 
 tions. New Hampshire 500, Massachusetts, 3,500 
 Rhode Island, 300, Connecticut, 1000, New York 
 1,600, New Jersies, 500, Maryland, 300, Virginia 
 100. Pennsylvania raised 400, though not by an 
 act of government. The whole number was 8,200, 
 The Massachusetts forces were ready to embark by 
 the middle of July, about six weeks after the firs 
 notice. The preparations making at Brest for Ame- 
 rica, were well known in England, and was ordered 
 to block up that harbour. Notwithstanding all the 
 caution used, the Brest squadron slipped out, and 
 sailed to the westward, and it is certain no English 
 squadron followed. Whilst they were impatiently 
 waiting for news of the arrival of the fleet at Louis"- 
 burg, a fisherman went in, some time in August 
 with an account of his being brought-to by four 
 French capital ships not far from Chibucto, that he 
 was required to pilot them there, that as he lay 
 under the stern of one of them he read the word le 
 Terrible, but a fog suddenly rising he made his es- 
 cape. After that some days had passed without any 
 further account, the fisherman's news was generally 
 discredited. It appeared some months after, that 
 these were four ships under M. Conflans, who had 
 escaped an English squadron from Jamaica, and 
 were bound to Chibucto, in order to join the Brest 
 fleet, but after cruizing some time, and meeting with 
 storms and fogs, upon a coast they were unac- 
 quainted with, they returned to France. 
 
 The beginning of September, vessels arrived at 
 Boston from Hull and Liverpool, with advice that 
 the Brest fleet had sailed, and it was supposed for 
 North America, and from the middle to the latter 
 end of the month, frequent accounts were brought 
 of a great fleet seen to the westward of Newfound- 
 land, which might have been English as likely as 
 French; but on the 28th, an express arrived from 
 Louisburgh with certain advice these ships were the 
 French fleet, which it was affirmed consisted of 
 seventy sail, fourteen of which were capital ships, 
 and that there were twenty smaller men of war, and 
 the rest fire ships, bombs, tenders, and transports 
 for eight thousand troops. The same day a vessel 
 from Jamaica arrived with advice that the four men 
 of war, who had engaged with commodore Mitchell, 
 were intended to join the fleet, and it was now no 
 longer doubted that these were the ships seen by the 
 fishermen, and it was supposed soon after got into 
 Chibucto. England was not more alarmed with the 
 Spanash Armada, in 1588, than Boston and the 
 other North American sea ports were with the ar- 
 rival of this fleet in their neighbourhood. The 
 firmest mind will bend upon the first advice of im- 
 minent danger to its country. Even the great De 
 Witt swooned when he first opened a letter giving 
 intelligence of England's confederating with France 
 to enslave the Dutch, though the next moment he 
 recovered his natural courage and vivacity. 
 
 Every practicable measure for defence was imme- 
 diately pursued by the authority of the Massachu- 
 setts province, but the main dependance was upon 
 a squadron from England sufficient, in conjunction 
 with the ships then at Louisburgh, to overcome the 
 French. It was impossible the ministry should be 
 ignorant of the sailing of this fleet, and unless they 
 were willing the colonies should be exposed to the 
 ravages of the enemy, it was impossible an English 
 squadron should not be soon after them. This was 
 the general voice, but this dependence failed : how- 
 
 ever the probability of the arrival of the Massachu- 
 setts squadron was from day to day lessened, the ap- 
 prehensions of danger from the enemy lessened also. 
 At length there was such authentic account of the 
 distresses of the French, that it was not only agreed 
 that Admiral Townsend's ships at Louisburgh were 
 more than a match for them, but it' that should prove 
 otherwise, the utmost they would be able to effect 
 by their grand plan, would be the conquest of Anna- 
 polis and the whole province of Nova "Scotia; and 
 if the winter did not prevent a farther progress, their 
 strength was not sufficient for an attempt uponBoston . 
 The misfortunes of this grand armament are really 
 very remarkable. The loss of Cape Breton filled 
 the French with a spirit of revenge against tbe 
 British colonies. The duke d'Anville, a French 
 nobleman, in whose conrage and conduct great con- 
 fidence was placed, was appointed to the command 
 of the expedition. As early as the beginning of 
 May the fleet was ready to sail, but detained by con- 
 trary winds until the 22d of June, when it left Ro- 
 chelle, and then consisted of eleven ships of the line, 
 thirty smaller vessels from ten to thirty guns, and 
 transport ships with 3,130 land forces commanded 
 by Monsieur Pommeret, a brigadier general. The 
 French of Nova Scotia, it was expected, would join 
 them, and Ramsay, a French officer, with 1,700 
 Canadians and Indians were actually in arms there 
 ready for their arrival. To this force Conflans with 
 four ships from the West Indians were to be added. 
 It was the 3d of August before the fleet had passed the 
 western Islands. The 24th, they were 300 leagues 
 distant from Nova Scotia, and one of their ships 
 complained so much that they burnt her. The 1st 
 of September, in a violent storm, the Mars, a sixty- 
 four gun ship, was so damaged in her masts and so 
 leaky, that she bore away for the West Indies, and 
 the Alcide, of sixty-four guns, which had also lost 
 aer topmast, was sent to accompany her. The 15th, 
 ihe Ardent, of sixty-four guns, most of her crew 
 seing sick, put back for Brest. 
 
 The Duke d'Anville, in the Northumberland, ar- 
 rieed at Chibucto the 12th of September, with only 
 one ship of the line, the Renomrnee and three or 
 four of the transports. There he found only one ol" 
 ;he fleet, which had been in three days ; and after 
 waiting three days and finding that only three more, 
 and those transports, had arrived, the 16th, in the 
 morning, he died, the French said of apoplexy, the 
 English that he poisoned himself. In the afternoon, 
 the vice admiral, d'Estournelle, with three or four 
 more of the line came in. Mons. de la Jonquicre, 
 governor of Canada, was aboard the Northumber- 
 land, and had been declared a chief d'escadre after 
 ;he fleet left France, and by this means was next in 
 command to the vice admiral. In a council of war, 
 the 18th, the vice admiral proposed returning to 
 Prance. Four of the capital ships, the Ardent, 
 Caribou, Mars, and Alcide, and the Argonaute fire- 
 hip they were deprived of, there was no news of 
 Conflans and his ships, so that only seven ships of 
 importance remained; more or less of the land forces 
 were on board each of the missing ships, and what 
 -emained were in a very sickly condition. This 
 notion was opposed for seven or eight hours by Jon- 
 quire and others of the council, who supposed, that 
 at least they were in a condition to recover Annapolis 
 and Nova Scotia, after which they might either 
 winter securely at Casco bay, or, at worst, then re- 
 urn to France: the sick men by the constant sup- 
 >ly of fresh provisions from the Acadians, were 
 daily recovering and would be soon fit for service. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 SG9 
 
 The motion not prevailing, the vice admiral's spirits 
 were agitated to such a degree as to throw him into 
 a fever attended with a delirium, in which he ima- 
 gined himself among the English, and ran himself 
 through the body. Jonquiere succeeded, who was a 
 man experienced in war, and although above sixty, 
 still more active than either of his predecessors, and 
 the expectations of the fleet and army were much 
 raised. From this time Annapolis seems to have 
 been their chief object. An account, supposed to 
 be authentic, having been received at Boston of the 
 sailing of Admiral Lestock, Mr. Shirley sent an ex- 
 press to Louisburgh to carry the intelligence. The 
 packet boat was taken and carried into Chibucto, 
 which accelerated the sailing of the fleet. Most of 
 the sick had died at Chibucto, and but about one 
 half of their number remained alive'. They sailed 
 the 13th of October, and the 15th, being near Cape 
 Sables, they met with a violent cold storm, which, 
 after some intermission, increased the IGth and 17th 
 and separated the fleet, two of which only, a fifty 
 and a thirty-six gun ship, were discovered from the 
 fort at Annapolis, where the Chester man of war, 
 Capt. Spry, then lay with the Shirley frigate and a 
 small vessel in the service of the board of ordnance, 
 who being discovered by the French to be under 
 sail, they made off, and this was the last of the ex- 
 pedition. The news of the beginning of the mis- 
 fortunes of the French having reached France by 
 some of the returned vessels, two men of war were 
 sent immediately with orders, at all events, to take 
 Annapolis, but the fleet had sailed three or four 
 days before they arrived. 
 
 Pious men saw the immediate hand of Divine Provi- 
 dence in the protection, or rather rescue, of the 
 British colonies this year, as they had done in mira- 
 culous success of the Cape Breton expedition the 
 former year. 
 
 When the summer had so far passed as to render 
 it too late to prssecute the expedition against Ca- 
 nada, if the fleet had arrived, Mr. Shirley's enter- 
 prisfng genius led him to project an attempt upon 
 the French fort at Crown-point, with part of the 
 Massachusetts forces, in conjunction with those of 
 the other colonies, but the alarm of the French fleet 
 prevented until it was judged, by some concerned, 
 to be too late. Fifteen hundred of the Massachu- 
 setts men were intended for Nova Scotia, upon the 
 news of Ramsay's appearing there, and 400 actually 
 went there, convoyed by the Chester, and late in 
 the fall an additional number were sent thither. 
 Those posted at Minas were surprised, the first day 
 of January, by a body of French and Indians com- 
 manded by Le Come, a French officer, and, after 
 having 160 of their number killed, wounded, and 
 taken prisoners, the rest capitulated, engaging not 
 to bear arms against the French in Nova Scotia for 
 the term of one year. De Ramsay, with his troops, 
 soon after returned to Canada. 
 
 The troops raised for the Canada expedition con- 
 tinued in pay until September the next year, 1747. 
 Some of them served for defence of the frontier, the 
 rest were inactive. The inactive prosecution of the 
 war in Europe on both sides indicated peace to be 
 near, which the next year was effected. 
 
 (1747.) War had been declared in 1744 against 
 the Cape Sable and St. John's Indians, and in 1745 
 against the Penobscots and Norridgewocks. The 
 frontiers did not escape molestation. They suffered 
 less than in any former wars. The Indians were 
 lessened in number, and having withdrawn to the 
 French frontiers, were sometimes detained for their 
 Hwx OF AMKR. Nos. 47 & 48. 
 
 defence upon an apprehended invasion, and at other 
 times engaged to be in readiness to join in the great 
 designs against the English. 
 
 In 1747 (Nov. 17th) there occurred a tumult in 
 the town of Boston equal to any which had preceded 
 it. Mr. Knowles was commodore of a number of 
 men of war then in the harbour of Nantasket. Some 
 of the sailors had deserted. Deserters generally 
 flee to some of the neighbouring ports, where they 
 were out of danger of discovery. The commodore 
 thought it reasonable that Boston should supply 
 him with as many men as he had lost, and sent his 
 boats up to town early in the morning, and surprised 
 not only as many seamen as could be found on 
 board any of the ships, outward bound as well as 
 others, but swept the wharfs also, taking some ship 
 carpenters, apprentices, and labouring land men. 
 However such conduct might be tolerated in Eng- 
 land, it was not to be borne in Boston. The people 
 had not been used to it, and men of all orders re- 
 sented it, but the lower class were beyond measure 
 enraged, and soon assembled with sticks, clubs, 
 pitchmops, &c. They first seized an innocent lieu- 
 tenant, who happened to be ashore upon other busi- 
 ness. -They had then formed no scheme, and the 
 speaker of the house passing by, and assuring them 
 that he knew that the lieutenant had no hand in the 
 press, they suffered him to be led off to a place of 
 safety. The mob increasing, and having received 
 intelligence that several of the commanders were at 
 the governor's house, it was agreed to go and de- 
 mand satisfaction. The house was soon surrounded, 
 and the court, or yard before the house, filled, but 
 many persons of discretion inserted themselves, and 
 prevailed so far as to prevent the mob from enter- 
 ing. Several of the officers had planted themselves 
 at the head of the stair way with loaded carbines, 
 and seemed determined to preserve their liberty or 
 lose their lives. A deputy sheriff attempting to ex- 
 ercise his authority, was seized by the mob, and 
 carried away in triumph, and set in the stocks, which 
 afforded them diversion, and tended to abate their 
 rage, and disposed them to separate and go to dinner. 
 As soon as it was dusk, several thousand people 
 assembled in King-street, below the town house, 
 where the general court was sitting. Stones and 
 brickbats were thrown through the glass into the 
 council chamber. The governor, however, with 
 several gentlemen of the council and house, ventured 
 into the balcony, and, after silence was obtained, 
 the governor, in a well judged speech, expressed 
 his great disapprobation of the impress, and pro- 
 mised his utmost endeavours to obtain the discharge 
 of every one of the inhabitants, and at the same 
 time gently reproved the irregular proceedings both 
 of the forenoon and evening. Other gentlemen also 
 attempted to persuade the people to disperse, and 
 wait to see what steps the general court would take. 
 All was to no purpose. The seizure and restraint of 
 the commanders and other officers who were in town 
 was insisted upon as the only effectual method to 
 procure the release of the inhabitants aboard the 
 ships. 
 
 It was thought advisable for the governor to 
 withdraw to his house, many of the officers of the 
 militia and other gentlemen attending him. A re- 
 port was raised, that a barge from one of the ships 
 was come to a wharf in the town. The mob flew 
 to seize it, but by mistake took a boat belonging 
 to a Scotch ship, and dragged it, with as much 
 seeming ease through the streets as if it had been 
 in the water, to the governor's house, and prepared 
 
 2U 
 
370 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 to burn it before the house, but from a consideration 
 of the danger of setting the town on fire wore di- 
 verted, and the boat was burnt in a place of less 
 hazard. The next day the governor ordered that 
 the military officers of Boston should cause their 
 companies to be mustered, and to appear in arms, 
 and that a military watch should be kept the suc- 
 ceeding night, but the drummers were interrupted, 
 and the militia refused to appear. The governor 
 did not think it for his honour to remain in town 
 another night, and privately withdrew to the casUe. 
 A number of gentleman who had some intimation of 
 his design, sent a message to him by Colonel Hutch- 
 inson, assuring him they would stand by him in 
 maintaining the authority of government, and re- 
 storing peace and order, but he did not think this 
 sufficient. 
 
 The governor wrote to Mr. Knowles, representing 
 the confusions occasioned by this extravagant act of 
 his officers, but he refused all terms of accommoda- 
 tion until the commanders and other officers on shore 
 were suffered to go on board their ships, and he 
 threatened to bring up his ships and bombard the 
 town, and some of them coming to sail, caused dif- 
 ferent conjectures of his real intention. Captain 
 Erskine, of the Canterbury, had been seized at the 
 house of Colonel Brinley in Roxbury, and given his 
 parole not to go abroad, and divers inferior officers 
 had been secured. 
 
 The 17th, 18th, and part of the 19th, the council 
 and house of representatives, sitting in the town, 
 went on with their ordinary business, not willing to 
 interpose lest they should encourage other com- 
 manders of the navy to acts of the like nature, but 
 towards noon of the 19th some of the principal mem- 
 bers of the house began to think more seriously of 
 the dangerous consequence of leaving the governor 
 without support when there was not the least ground 
 of exception to his conduct. Some high spirits in 
 the town began to question whether his retiring 
 should be deemed a desertion or abdication. It 
 was moved to appoint a committee of the two houses, 
 to consider what was proper to be done. This 
 would take time, and was excepted to, and the 
 speaker was desired to draw up such resolves as it 
 was thought necessary the house should immediately 
 agree to, and they were passed by a considerable 
 majority, and made public- 
 
 " In the house of representatives, Nov. 19, 1747. 
 " Resolved That there has been, and still con 
 tinues, a tumultuous riotous assemblage of armec 
 seamen, servants, negroes, and others in the town 
 of Boston, tending to the destruction of all govern 
 ment and order. 
 
 " Resolved That it is incumbent on the civi 
 and military officers in the province to exert them 
 selves to the utmost, to discourage and suppress al 
 such tumultuous riotous proceedings whensoeve 
 they may happen. 
 
 " Resolved That this house will stand by anc 
 support, wkh their lives and estates, his excellency 
 the governor, and the executive part of the govern, 
 ment, in all endeavours for this purpose. 
 
 " Resolved That this house will exert themselves 
 by all ways and means possible, in redressing such 
 grievances as his majesty's subjects are and hav< 
 been under, which may have been the cause of th< 
 aforesaid tumultuous disorderly assembling together 
 
 " T. Hutchinson, Speaker." 
 The council passed a vote, ordering that Captain 
 Erskine, and all other officers belonging to his ma 
 ' jesty's ships, should be forthwith set at liberty anc 
 
 >rotected by the government, which was concurred 
 >y the house. As soon as these votes were known, 
 he tumultuous spirit began to subside. The in- 
 habitants of the town of Boston assembled in town 
 neeting in the afternoon, having been notified 
 o consider, in general, what was proper for them 
 o do upon this occasion ; and notwithstanding it 
 vas urged by many, that all measures to suppress 
 he present spirit in the people would tend to en- 
 tourage the like oppressive acts for the future, yet 
 he contrary party prevailed ; and the town, although 
 hey expressed their sense of the great insult and in- 
 ury by the impress, condemned the tumultuous 
 riotous acts of such as had insulted the governor 
 nd other branches of the legislature, and committed 
 many other heinous offences. 
 
 The governor, not expecting so favourable a turn, 
 lad wrote to the secretary to prepare orders for the 
 colonels of the regiments of Cambridge, Roxbury, 
 and Milton, and the regiment of horse, to have their 
 officers and men ready to march at an hour's warn- 
 ng to such place of rendezvous as he should direct; 
 but the next day there was an uncommon appear- 
 ance of the militia of the town of Boston, many 
 persons taking their muskets who never carried one 
 upon any other occasion, and the governor was con- 
 ducted to his house with as great parade as when he 
 first assumed the government. 
 
 The commodore dismissed most, if not all, of the 
 inhabitants who had been impressed, and the squa- 
 dron sailed, to the joy of the rest of the town. 
 
 By the expedition to Louisburgh, the preparations 
 for the reduction of Canada, and the several sup- 
 plies of men for Nova Scotia, the province had is- 
 sued an immense sum in bills of credit, between two 
 and three millions, according to their denomination 
 in the currency. The greatest part of this sum had 
 been issued, when between five and six hundred 
 pounds was equal to one hundred pounds sterling, 
 and perhaps the real consideration the government 
 received from the inhabitants who gave credit to 
 them, was near four hundred thousand pounds ster- 
 ling ; but by thus multiplying the bills they had so 
 much depreciated, that at the end of the war, eleven 
 or twelve hundred pounds was not equal to more 
 than an hundred pounds sterling, and the whole 
 debt of the province did not much exceed two hun- 
 dred thousand pounds sterling. Thus the people 
 had paid 'two hundred thousand pounds sterling in 
 two or three years, besides a large sum raised by 
 taxes each year, as much as it was supposed the 
 people were able to pay ; but to pay by the depre- 
 ciation of the bills, although infinitely unequal, yet, 
 as they were shifting hands every day, it was almost 
 insensible ; a possessor of a large sum for a few 
 days, not perceiving the difference in their value be- 
 tween the time when he received them, and the time 
 when he parted with them. The apprehension of 
 their depreciation tended to increase it, and occa- 
 sioned a quick circulation; and for some time, even 
 for English goods, which ordinarily sell for the 
 longest credit, nobody pretended to ask credit. They 
 were constantly, however, dying in somebody's hand, 
 though nobody kept them long by them. Business 
 was brisk, men in trade increased their figures, but 
 were sinking the real value of their stock ; and what 
 is worse, by endeavours to shift the loss attending 
 such a pernicious currency from one to another, 
 fraudulent dispositions and habits are acquired, and 
 the morals of the people depreciate with the currency- 
 The government was soliciting for the reimburse- 
 ment of the charge in taking and securing Cap 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 371 
 
 Breton ; and by the address, assiduity, and fidelity 
 of William Bollan, Esq., who was one of the agents 
 of the province for that purpose, there was a hope- 
 ful prospect that the full sum, about 180,OOOZ. ster- 
 ling, would be obtained. 
 
 Some of the ministry thought it sufficient to grant 
 such sum as would redeem the bills issued for the 
 expedition, &c. at their depreciated value, and Mr. 
 Kilby, the other agcnit, seemed to despair of ob- 
 taining more ; but Mr. Bollan, who had an intimate 
 knowledge of our public affairs, set the injustice of 
 this proposal in a clear light, and made it evident 
 that the depreciation of the bills was as effectually 
 a charge borne by the people, as if the same pro- 
 portion of bills had been drawn in by taxes, and re- 
 fused all proposals of accommodation, insisting upon 
 the full value of the bills when issued. 
 
 Mr. Hutchinson, who was then speaker of the 
 house of representatives, imagined this to be a most 
 favourable opportunity for abolishing bills of credit, 
 the source of so much iniquity, and for establishing 
 a stable currency of silver and gold for the future. 
 About two million two hundred thousand pounds 
 would be outstanding in bills in the year 1749. One 
 hundred and eighty thousand pounds sterling, at 
 eleven for one, which was the lowest rate of ex- 
 change with London for a year or two before, and 
 perhaps the difference was really twelve for one, 
 would redeem nineteen hundred and eighty thousand 
 pounds, which would leave but two hundred and 
 twenty thousand pounds outstanding, it was there- 
 fore proposed, that the sum granted by parliament 
 should be shipped to the province in Spanish milled 
 dollars, and applied for the redemption of the bills 
 as far as it would serve for that purpose, anil that the 
 remainder of the bills should be drawn in by a tax 
 on the year 1749. This would finish the bills. For 
 the future, silver of sterling alloy at 6s. 8d. the 
 ounce, if payment should be made in bullion, or 
 otherwise milled dollars at Gs. each, should be the 
 lawful money of the province, and no person should 
 receive or pay within the province, bills of credit 
 of any of the other governments of New England. 
 This proposal being made to the governor, he ap- 
 proved of it as founded in justice, and tending to 
 promote the real interest of the province ; but he 
 knew the attachment of the people to paper money, 
 and supposed it impracticable. The speaker, how- 
 ever, laid the proposal before the house, where it 
 was received with a smile, and generally thought to 
 be an Utopian project, and rather out of deference 
 to the speaker than from an apprehension of any 
 effect, the house appointed a committee to consider 
 of it. The committee treated it in the same man- 
 ner, bnt reported that the speaker should be desired 
 to bring in a bill for the consideration of the house. 
 When this came to be known abroad, exceptions 
 were taken, and a clamour was raised from every 
 quarter. The major part of the people, in number, 
 were no sufferers by a depreciating currency ; the 
 number of debtors is always more than the number 
 of creditors, and although debts on specialties had 
 allowance made in judgments of court for deprecia- 
 tion of the bills, yet on simple contracts, of which 
 there were ten to one specialty, no allowance was 
 made. Those who were for a fixed currency were 
 divided. Some supposed the bills might be reduced 
 to so small a quantity as to be fixed and stable, and 
 therefore were for redeeming as many by bills of ex- 
 change as should be thought superfluous; others 
 were for putting an end to the bills, but in a gradual 
 way, otherwise it was said a fatal shock would be 
 
 given to trade. This last was the objection of many 
 men of good sense. Douglass, who had wrote well 
 upon the paper currency, and had been the oracle of 
 the anti-paper party, was among them ; and, as his 
 manner was with all who differed from him, dis- 
 covered as much rancour against the author and pro- 
 moters of this new project, as he had done against 
 the fraudulent contrivers of paper money emissions. 
 
 The bills it was said had sunk gradually in their 
 value, and as by this means creditors had been de- 
 frauded, it was but reasonable they should rise gra- 
 dually that justice might be done: but the creditors 
 and debtors would not be the same in one instance 
 in a thousand, and where this was uot the case the 
 injury was the same, to oblige any one to pay more 
 as to receive less than was justly due. Others were 
 for exchanging the bills at a lower rate than the then 
 current price of silver. The inhabitants had given 
 credit to the government, when silver was at 30s. 
 the ounce, and ought to be paid accordingly. Two 
 of the representatives of Boston urged their being 
 exchanged at 30s., which would have given a most 
 unreasonable profit to the present possessor, who 
 had taken them at 55s. or 60s. To draw over some 
 of this party concessions were made, and the bills 
 were exchanged at 50s. the ounce, instead of 55s. as 
 was at first proposed. 
 
 Some of the directors and principal promoters of 
 the land bank scheme, being at this time members 
 of the general court, unexpectedly joined with the 
 party who were for finishing paper money, but the 
 opposition was so great, that after many weeks spent 
 in debating and settling the several parts of the bill, 
 and a whole day's debate at last in a committee of 
 the whole house upon the expediency of passing the 
 bill, as thus settled, it was rejected, and the report 
 of the committee accepted. 
 
 The house, although upon some occasions excep- 
 tions are taken to motions and proceedings which 
 come before them, as not being in parliamentary 
 form, yet are not strict in conforming to some of the 
 most useful rules of parliament. A bill or motion 
 is not only referred from one session to another, but 
 a bill, after rejecting upon a second or third read- 
 ing, is sometimes taken up and passed suddenly the 
 same session. They have an order of the house, 
 that when any affair has been considered, it shall not 
 be brought before the house again the same session, 
 unless there be as full a house as when it was passed 
 upon. This, if observed, would still be liable to in- 
 convenience, as any designing person might take 
 an opportunity upon a change of faces, the number 
 being as great as before, suddenly to carry any 
 poiut; but even this rule, like many other of what 
 are called standing orders, is too frequently by votes, 
 on particular occasions, dispensed with, which les- 
 sens the dignity of the house. 
 
 It seems to be of no consequence to the preroga- 
 tive whether the currency of a colony be silver or 
 paper, but the royal instructions from time to time 
 for preventing a depreciating currency, caused 
 merely by a gracious regard to the interest of the 
 people, had generally engaged what was called the 
 country party, in opposition to them and in favour 
 of paper. It was the case at this time. However, 
 the next morning, two of the members of the house 
 zealous adherents to this party, and who had been 
 strong opposers of the bill, came early to the house 
 to wait the coming of the speaker, and in the lobby 
 let him know, that although they were not satisfied 
 with several parts of the bill, yet they were alarmed 
 with the danger to the province from the schemes 
 
 2U2 
 
372 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 of those persons who were fur a gradual reduction 
 of the bills, and by that means, for raising the value 
 of the currency without any provision for the relief 
 of debtors, and therefore they had changed their 
 minds; and if the bill could be brought forward 
 again, they would give their voice for it, and others 
 Who had opposed it would do the same. The speaker 
 who had looked upon any further attempt to be to 
 no purpose, acquainted them that he did not think 
 it proper to dtsire any of the favourers of the bill to 
 move for a reconsideration of it, inasmuch as it had 
 been understood, and agreed in the house the day 
 before, that if upon a full debate had, the bill should 
 be rejected, no further motion should be made about 
 it. As soon as the house met, upon a motion by 
 one of these members seconded by the other, the bill 
 was again brought under consideration, and passed 
 the house as it afterwards did the council, and had 
 the governor's consent. 
 
 The provision made by this act for the exchange 
 of the bills, and for establishing a silver currency, 
 was altogether conditional, and depended upon a 
 grant of parliament for reimbursement of the charge 
 of the Cape Breton expedition. This being at a dis 
 tance and not absolutely certain, the act had no 
 sudden effect upon the minds of the people, but 
 when the news of the grant arrived, the discontent 
 appeared more visible, and upon the arrival of the 
 money there were some beginnings of tumults, and 
 the authors and promoters of the measure were 
 threatened. The government passed an act with 
 a severe penalty against riobs, and appeared deter- 
 mined to carry the other act for exchanging the bills 
 into execution. The apprehension of a shock to 
 trade proved groundless, the silver took place in- 
 stead of them; a good currency was insensibly sub- 
 stituted in the room of a bad one; and every branch 
 of business was carried on to greater advantage than 
 before. The other governments, especially Con- 
 necticut and Rhode Island, who refused, upon being 
 invited to conform their currency to the Massachu- 
 setts, felt a shock in their trade which they were 
 long iu recovering from. The latter had been the 
 importers, for the Massachusetts, of West India goods 
 for many years, which ceased at once. New Hamp- 
 shire, after some years, revived its business and in- 
 creased the trade in English goods, which formerly 
 had been supplied from the Massachusetts. 
 
 From the close of the war with France, to the end 
 of Governor Pownall'g administration, in the year 
 1760. 
 
 (1749.) The people of Massachusetts Bay were 
 never in a more easy and happy situation, than at 
 the close of the war with France. By the generous 
 reimbursement of the whole charge incurred by the 
 expedition against Cape Breton, the province was 
 set free from a heavy debt, in which it must other- 
 wise have remained involved, and was enabled to 
 exchange a depreciating paper medium, which had 
 long been the sole instrument of trade, for a stable 
 medium of silver and gold ; the advantage whereof, 
 to all branches of their commerce, was evident and 
 excited the envy of the other colonies, in each of 
 which paper was the principal currency. 
 
 They flattered themselves that Cape Breton would 
 remain subject to Great Britain; and it was a mor- 
 tification to them, that, what they called "their 
 own acquisition," should be restored to France ; but 
 they had nothing to fear from it, so long as peace 
 continued. The French fishery had failed before 
 the war, and whilst the English could catch and cure 
 
 fish cheaper thati the French, there was uo dangt r 
 of its revival. 
 
 The Indians upon the frontiers were so reduced, 
 that new settlements were made without danger, 
 which not only caused the territory settled to increase 
 in value, but afforded materials for enlarging the 
 commerce of the province. 
 
 There was but little subject for controversy in the 
 general assembly. Governor Shirley's administra- 
 tion had been satisfactory to the major part of the 
 people. There was an opposition, but it was not 
 powerful ; perhaps not more powerful than may, ge- 
 nerally, be salutary. During the last seven years, 
 no great change of counsellors had been made at 
 any of the elections, and they were, in general, well 
 affected to the governor. This prosperous state of 
 the province was very much owing to the success of 
 his active, vigorous measures ; of which he wished 
 to give an account ki person, and for that purpose 
 had obtained leave to go to England. He had fur- 
 ther views. Soon after the peace was proclaimed 
 in America, the French discovered a design of en- 
 larging their territory on the back of New York, 
 and of taking fresh possession of the country of 
 Acadia; and it was a common report, that French 
 settlements were begun east of Crown Point. By a 
 hint from the govcinor to some of his friends, the 
 council and house were brought to join in an address, 
 praying him to represent to the king the necessity 
 of building a strong fort near to Crown Point ; and 
 of settling and fortifying a town at Chibucto, or 
 some other harbour in" Nova Scotia. The governor 
 of Canada had written to the Indians upon the 
 eastern frontiers of New England, to dissuade them 
 from a peace with the English, and a copy of the 
 letter had been obtained by Mr. Shirley. 
 
 The contest about the bounds between the French 
 and English in America, which was, by the treaty, 
 to be left to commissaries, instead of being amicably 
 settled, would probably be increased, and finally de"- 
 cided by the sword. It looked as if the peace could 
 be of no long continuance. At such a time, he 
 thought he could be of more service to himself, and 
 to the public, in England, than in America. He 
 sailed from Boston in September, 1749. 
 
 Soon after his arrival in England, he was ap- 
 pointed one of the commissaries for settling the Ame 
 rican boundaries. He spent much time in France 
 with little success. The documents produced by the 
 commissaries on each side shewed that, on different 
 occasions, different bounds had been assigned to the 
 territory of Acadia. In the commission to the last 
 French governor before the treaty of Utrecht, Aca- 
 dia was made to extend to the river Kennebeck, and 
 the whole was ceded, by the treaty, to the English. 
 The French commissaries, notwithstanding, refused 
 to agree to so great an extent, and confined Acadia, 
 which they suppose in the treaty intended Nova 
 Scotia, to the peninsula. They 'could no better 
 agree upon the limits of Canada ; and each party 
 urged that their claims were strengthened by the 
 evidence produced on this occasion. 
 
 When the Indians have taken part in a war with 
 the French, or, by themselves have engaged in war 
 against the English, a formal treaty of peace has al- 
 ways been thought expedient. 
 
 The necessary preparation for Mr. Shirley's voy- 
 age prevented his attending the treaty in person ; 
 and commissioners were appointed, who met some of 
 the principal Indians, in the character of delegates 
 from the several tribes, at Falmouth in Casco Bay ; 
 and, after several days spent in conference, agreed 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 373 
 
 with them upon terms of peace, between the provinces 
 of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire, on the 
 one part, and the several tribes of Indians situated be- 
 tween New England and Canada, on the other part. 
 The commissioners from Massachusetts Bay were 
 ThoYnasHutchinson, John Choate, Israel Williams, 
 and James Otis, Esqrs. Sir William Pepperellhad 
 been appointed at the head of the commission, but 
 sailed for England before the treaty took place. 
 Theodore Atkinson and John Downing, Esqrs. were 
 the commissioners from New Hampshire. 
 
 The Indians began the treaty with an act of plea- 
 santry and good humour. Notice had been given, 
 that they must bring in such English captives as 
 were among them, and particularly a boy whose 
 name was Macfarlaue, and who was taken in the 
 beginning of the war. They apologised for not 
 bringing Macfarlane. and feigned some excuse, pro- 
 mising he should be sent when they returned home. 
 The commissioners shewed great resentment, and 
 insisted upon the delivery of the captive previously 
 to their entering upon the treaty. Some time was 
 spent in altercation. At length an old Sachem rose 
 up, and took one of the handsomest and best dressed 
 young Indians by the hand, and presented him to 
 Mr. Hutchinson, the chairman of the commissioners, 
 as the captive Macfarlane. This increased the re- 
 sentment, and it was thought too serious an affair 
 to be jested with*. The young man then discovered 
 himself, and (having spoken before nothing but In- 
 dian) in the English language, thanked the com- 
 missioners for their kind care in procuring his re- 
 demption. He had so much the appearance of an 
 Indian, not only in his dress, but in his behaviour, 
 and also his complexion, that nobody had any sus- 
 picion to the contrary. He had made himself per- 
 fectly acquainted with their language, and proved 
 serviceable as an interpreter at the French house so 
 long as he lived. 
 
 The treaty made by Mr. Dummer in 1726, was 
 considered as the basis of this, and the same articles 
 were renewed, those only, which concerned trade, 
 being so explained, as to take away all those pre- 
 tences for discontent, which had been at different 
 times urged by the Indians. 
 
 This treaty was scarcely finished, when an affair 
 happened which threatened a new war. While the 
 commissioners were at Falmouth, they were in 
 formed that a bad spirit prevailed among many o 
 the common people, of New Hampshire, and of the 
 eastern part of Massachusetts Bay ; that many 
 threatened revenge upon the Indians, notwithstand- 
 ing the peace, for the depredations made during tht 
 war ; and the latter end of November, or beginning 
 of December, ?n Indian was killed, and two others 
 dangerously wounded, by some of the English in 
 habitants of a place called Wiscasset, in the county 
 of York. Two persons, Samuel Ball and Benjamin 
 Ledyte, were committed to prison, and a proclama 
 tion was issued by Mr. Phipps, the lieutenant-go 
 vernor, promising a reward for apprehending a third 
 Obadiah Alby ; all supposed to be concerned in thi 
 murder. Agreeably to the provision in such cas 
 made by the laws of the province, a special cour 
 was summoned, and the persons, or some of them 
 brought upon trial. It was said, that a jury in th 
 county of York, where the inhabitants had suffers 
 so much from the Indians, let the case be ever s 
 plain, would not convict an Englishman of murdc 
 for the death of an Indian. It was, therefore, move 
 in the general assembly, that a law should pass t 
 emrower the judges to summon a jury from anothe 
 
 otmty, but the motion did not succeed; and though 
 ne or more of the persons were brought upon trial, 
 lere was no conviction. Many good people, at 
 lis time, lamented the disposition, which they 
 lought was discovered, to distinguish between the 
 uilt of killing an Indian, and that of killing an 
 Englishman, as if God had not " made of one blood 
 11 the nations of men upon tiie face of the earth." 
 
 The Indians were enraged at the murder ; but by 
 air words and kind deeds, ordered by government, 
 i relieving some distressed families among them, 
 icy were kept quiet ; but, at length, despairing of 
 istice upon the murderers, they resolved to revenge 
 iiemselves upon the public, and made an attempt to 
 urprise Richmond fort, on Kennebeck river. Fail- 
 ng of success, they fell upon the inhabitants near 
 he fort, and made several of them prisoners ; but 
 ere reduced to so small a number as to be inca- 
 able of much mischief ; and, after a short time, 
 tie injury they received was forgotten. 
 
 (1750.) In the early days of the New England 
 olonies, Massachusetts Bay had, by mere dint of 
 lower, compelled Connecticut and the other colonies, 
 o give way to the decision of the Massachusetts as- 
 embly, in a way that could not well be justified. 
 Connecticut, in its turn, now gave to Massachusetts 
 much greater cause of complaint. 
 
 When the line between the two colonies was 
 ettled in 1713, it was agreed, that the towns of 
 Woodstock, Somers, Suffieldj and Enfield, though, 
 iccording to that line, they fell within Connecticut, 
 hould remain under the jurisdiction of Massachu- 
 etts Bay, by whose inhabitants they had been set- 
 led ; and an equivalent was given for the property, 
 >y the assignment of an equal quantity of unculti- 
 vated lands in the Massachusetts province. Con- 
 necticut had accepted the equivalent, had made sale 
 of the lands, and had applied the produce to the use 
 if that colony. The inhabitants of the towns thought 
 hemselves happy under the Massachusetts govern- 
 ment, until they felt a greater proportion of burden 
 r rom the charge of the war, than they would have 
 done under Connecticut. At the expiration of the 
 war, a much heavier debt also lay upon Massachu- 
 setts than Connecticut; and the relief from this 
 debt by the grant which was afterwards made by 
 parliament, was then uncertain. The inhabitants, 
 hereupon, made application to the general assembly 
 of Connecticut, and prayed to be received as under 
 that government, and to be protected by them. Con- 
 siderable sums, which had been assessed by the 
 Massachusetts government, remained in arrear, and 
 these they refused to pay. Notice was given by the 
 governor of Connecticut to the governor of Massa- 
 chusetts Bay, of the application, without expressing 
 any resolution on the part of Connecticut to grant, 
 or to refuse their request. It was reasonable to sup- 
 pose that an agreement made with great formality, 
 and conformed to for nearly forty years, would not 
 be violated. The sheriffs and other officers of Mas- 
 sachusetts Bay, were at first opposed by the inhabit- 
 ants of the towns, who resolved to stand upon their 
 defence. The Massachusetts assembly having, but 
 a few years before, succeeded so ill in their contro- 
 versies with New Hampshire and Rhode Island, 
 were more easily disposed to avoid this controversy, 
 fearing that Connecticut also, if the boundary line 
 should be again considered at large, would net only 
 gain the particular territory in dispute, but a larg-e 
 addition to it. They, therefore, did not act with 
 their usual spirit ; but rather faintly went into mea- 
 sures for maintaining their authority. This encou- 
 
374 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 raged the assembly of Connecticut ; arid it then had been the practice of government to issue bills 
 appeared, that they countenanced the revolt. After for public charges, and to make a tax for the pay- 
 a resolve to receive the towns into their jurisdiction, ment of the sum issued, in future years, into the 
 they proposed to the Massachusetts assembly, that treasury again. The bills being all exchanged by 
 commissioners should be appointed by each govern- the silver imported from England, and provision 
 ment to run the boundary line ; but, in their proposal, made by law, that no bills of credit should ever after 
 had no respect to the settlement made in 1713, pass as money, there was a difficulty in providing 
 which left the towns to Massachusetts Bay. The I money for the immediate service of government, un- 
 proposal in this form, was rejected; but in lieu of til it could be raised by a tax. Few people were, at 
 it, an offer was made to treat upon ways and means, first, inclined to lend to the province, though they 
 in general, for preventing a controversy between were assured of payment in a short time with hr- 
 the two governments. This would not answer the terest. The treasurer, therefore, was ordered to 
 purpose of Connecticut. The settlement in 1713, make payment to the creditors of government in 
 and the equivalent received for the towns, were both promissory notes, payable to the bearer in silver in 
 acknowledged ; but it was urged, that the inhabit- two or three years, with lawful interest. This was 
 ants had an unalienable right to the jurisdiction of really better than any private security; but the peo- 
 Connecticut, by charter, which the legislature of pie, who had seen so much of the bad effects of their 
 Connecticut could not take from them, and which I former paper money, from its depreciation, could 
 the act of the inhabitants in 1713 could not take 1 not consider this as without danger, and the notes 
 from the inhabitants in 1749. No subject affords a I were sold for silver at discount, which continued 
 larger field, not for mere cavils only, but for plausi- I until it was found that the promise made by govern- 
 bility of exception, than that of government. Upon ment was punctually performed. From that time, 
 this feeble pretence, Connecticut supported its claim, the public security was preferred to private, and 
 
 and kept possession of their jurisdicti 
 
 the the treasurer's notes were more sought for than 
 
 towns. It'would, at least, have been decent in the I those of any other person whomsoever. This was 
 Connecticut assembly, to offer to return the equiva- the era of> public credit in Massachusetts Bay. 
 lent which their predecessors had received. Peace being restored, and the Indians upon the 
 
 The aversion, in the common people, to a silver I frontiers almost extinct, a more extensive view was 
 and gold currency, had occasioned several tumultu- 1 opened for the enlargement of the colony. There 
 ous assemblies in and near the town of Boston. The were many judicious persons, who were content with 
 paper, they said, was not worth hoarding, but silver I the natural increase of the inhabitants, and with an 
 and gold would all fall to the share of men of wealth, extension of the pomaria, only in proportion as the 
 and would either be exported or hoarded up, and no interior parts became crowded, and pressed for en- 
 part of it would go to the labourer, or the lower largement. But there were many others, who were 
 class of people, who must take their pay in goods, or proprietors of large tracts of uncultivated land, which 
 go without. In a short time experience taught afforded no income, and some, who had obtained 
 them, that it was as easy for a frugal industrious grants of land, which, unless cultivated within all- 
 person to obtain silver, as it had been to obtain I rnited time, were to revert to the grantors, 
 paper ; and the prejudice in the town of Boston was I These persons endeavoured to represent the great 
 so much abated, that when a large number of people benefit arising to the community from the speedy 
 from Abingdon, and other towns near to it, came to increase of population ; and, not contented with 
 Boston, expecting to be joined by the like people the natural growth of a colony, which, it was then 
 there, they were hooted at, and insulted by the boys agreed, would double its number every twenty-five 
 andservants,andobligedtoreturnhomedisappointed. years, nor with such additionsasmight.be made 
 The assembly being then sitting, it was thought from other parts of the British dominions, they per- 
 proper to pass an act for preventing riots, upon the suaded the general assembly to countenance and 
 plan cf the act of parliament known by the name of encourage their private endeavours to bring a large 
 the Riot Act, except that the penalty was changed body of foreign protestants into the colony. They 
 from death, to other severe and infamous punishment, were intended not only for the frontiers, both east 
 This was a temporary act, but not suffered to ex- and west, as a barrier ill case of any rupture with 
 pire ; and continued in force until riots took place Indians or French, but some were to be placed 
 to prevent the execution of acts of parliament which within and near the principal sea ports and large 
 \vere deemed grievous, and then it was discontinued, inland towns, to introduce useful manufactures. 
 
 From an aversion to a silver currency, the body Mr. Waldo, a proprietor of a large tract of land 
 of the people changed in a few months, and took an upon the eastern frontiers, had carried on a corres- 
 aversion to paper, though it had silver as a fund to pondence with Mr. Crelleies, and had, by his means, 
 secure the value of it. A sufficient quantity of I procured many emigrants from Germany, to whom 
 small silver for change could not be procured in I conditional grants had been made by Mr. Waldo. 
 England, when the grant made by parliament was Another person, who seemed to be of more import- 
 sent to America. The assembly, therefore, ordered ance, Mr. Luther, a counsellor of law in Germany, 
 a deposit to remain in the treasury, of three thou- by some means or other, became a correspondent 
 sand pounds in dolla.rs, and issued small paper bills with the general assembly, and they expressed to 
 of different denominations, from one penny to eigh- I him their desire to introduce foreign protestants, 
 teen pence ; and every person, possessed of them to I and signified to him, in general terms, that his as- 
 the amount of one dollar or any larger sum, might sistance to those persons who were entering into 
 exchange the bills at the treasury for silver upon contracts for that purpose, would be kindly received, 
 demand. The whole sum was prepared, but a small Mr. Luther, from this correspondence, considered 
 part only was issued, and scarcely any person would himself as a sort of public person, and proposed 
 receive them in payment, choosing rather a base I many plans, and, probably, was at much pains, and 
 coin imported from Spain, called pistorines, at 20 I some expense, to encourage the emigration. The 
 per cent more than the intrinsic value. I expectations, neither of the emigrants which ar- 
 
 From ths first introduction of paper money, it I rived, nor of the province, were answered, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 375 
 
 Such as settled upon the frontiers suffered ex- 
 ceedingly, and many died the first winter, for want 
 of necessary lodging, food, and clothing. 
 
 (1751.) An attempt was made to settle a manu- 
 facturing German town, a few miles from Boston, 
 within the limits of the township of Braintree ; but 
 it never flourished. The private undertakers grew 
 discouraged; the emigrants complained of being 
 disappointed and deserted ; the assembly first slack- 
 ened their correspondence with Mr. Luther, and, 
 after a year or two, ceased answering his frequent 
 letters, which were filled with complaints of neglect, 
 and hard usage. Mr. Phipps, the lieut.-governor, 
 was concerned for the honour of the government, 
 and repeatedly recommended to the assembly a 
 proper notice of Mr. Luther, and a consideration of 
 his service and expense, but without any effect. 
 The house had been brought into the correspond- 
 ence, by the influence of a few persons who deserted 
 the cause, and were under no apparent concern at 
 the reproaches upon government. Some of the 
 members, both of the council and of the house, ear- 
 nestly endeavoured to persuade the general assem- 
 bly to do as a collective body, that, which every 
 individual would in honour have been bound, and 
 perhaps by law might have been compelled, to do ; 
 but they could not prevail. 
 
 Possession had been taken of the harbour at Chi- 
 bucto in Nova Scotia, by the British government, 
 the year after the peace. A plan was laid for the 
 settlement of a fortified town, by the name of Hali- 
 ia.x, and the plan was vigorously executed; but it 
 appeared that the French were more early in their 
 measures, for, upon the arrival of Governor Corn- 
 wallis at Halifax, he found the French had taken 
 possession of Chignecto, and had erected a fort 
 there, and claimed the river St. John, and all Aca- 
 dia, as far as Penobscot; which must cut oft' Nova 
 Scotia from the rest of the British dominions upon 
 the continent; and that many of the French Acadi- 
 ans, commonly called neutrals, who had acknow- 
 ledged themselves subjects of the crown of Great 
 Britain, ever since the surrender of Acadia to Ni- 
 cholson in 1710, had now declared their revolt, and 
 their adherence to the crown of France. Mr. Corn- 
 wallis wrote, in very pressing terms, to Mr. Phipps 
 for aid ; who recommended to the assembly the 
 measures necessary on their part, to enable him to 
 raise, and transport a proper force to Nova Scotia; 
 but they declined it. 
 
 Mr. Shirley would have had a better chance of 
 success ; though the assembly urged, as an excuse, 
 that they had enough to do in providing for their 
 own security. 
 
 The lieut.-governor had, about the same time, re- 
 ceived information, to which he gave full credit, 
 that the French had also taken possession of the 
 river Lechock, within the province of Massachusetts 
 bay, about five leagues east of Penobscot. Gover- 
 nor Clinton, also, wrote from New York, that the 
 governor of Canada was endeavouring to draw over 
 the Indians of the six nations, and urged a meeting 
 of commissioners from the English colonies to 
 counteract him. 
 
 The possession of Chibucto by the English, was 
 perfectly agreeable to the last treaty, it being a part 
 of the peninsula of Nova Scotia to which the French 
 made no pretence; but Chignecto and the country 
 of the six nations, were the territories in dispute, 
 which, in pursuance of the last treaty, the commis- 
 sioners at Paris were then litigating. Thus, before 
 peace was fully settled, the French engaged in mea- 
 
 sures which had a direct tendency to renew the war. 
 
 There was an affair, of some importance to the 
 province, which came under consideration in ths 
 assembly, while Mr. Phipps was in the administration. 
 Many of the province laws had become obsolete; 
 others, by frequent additions and alterations, were 
 perplexed and unintelligible, and had been differ- 
 ently understood and acted upon, at different times, 
 and on different occasions. 
 
 (1752.) The case had been much the same in 
 Virginia, where the assembly had made a general 
 revisal of their code of laws, except such as were 
 personal, or of a private nature, and had framed, 
 very successfully, a complete and well-digested body, 
 which was well approved of by the government in 
 England. This success was the occasion of an in- 
 struction from the lords justices, the king being in 
 Hanover, to the governor of Massachusetts bay, to 
 recommend to the assembly a like revisal of their 
 laws, to be passed, and sent to England for" the royal 
 approbation. 
 
 In consequence of a message from the lieut.-go- 
 vernor to the two houses, the council appointed a 
 committee to consider the proposal in conjunction 
 with a committee of the house ; but the house de- 
 clinfid joining; and, though the lieut.-governor re- 
 peated his recommendation, they neglected or refus- 
 ed to comply with it. 
 
 It was allowed that the laws were deficient, and 
 it was evident that if any laws should be repealed by 
 the assembly, and other provision be made by a new 
 law, and the king should disallow the new law, he 
 would also disallow the repeal, and the old law would 
 remain in force; for the king could not disallow part 
 of a law, and approve of other parts. This was a 
 security for any favourite law, which the people 
 might suspect the king wished they had not approv- 
 ed of. And, then, no new law could be imposed 
 upon them; because no alteration could be made in 
 England, but the whole must be allowed or rejected, 
 as it originated in the province. Many acknow- 
 ledged that there was the appearance of much bene- 
 fit from the proposal, that they could not see any 
 danger. A majority, however, were jealous of a la- 
 tent design. They feared, that in the prosecution 
 of the business, a way would be found to give a new 
 construction to some of their laws, especially some 
 which respected the ecclesiastical part of the consti- 
 tion. It was also a part of the plan, and very ne- 
 cessary, that there should be a clause in every law, 
 suspending the operation of it until the king's plea- 
 sure should be known. A prejudice had long lain 
 upon the minds of the people against such a clause, 
 though it is not easy to conceive of any inconveni- 
 ence which could arise from it; and it was added, 
 that, in the present state of the laws, the people were 
 well satisfied; that the effect of alterations was un- 
 certain, and that, therefore, it was best not to at- 
 tempt them. 
 
 (1753.) Mr. Phipps's administration was short, 
 and, as that of a lieut.-governor had generally been, 
 quiet. Mr. Shirley arrived in Boston from England, 
 August the 6th, 1753. He made an ill-judged step 
 when he was in France, which he had reason to re- 
 pent of as long as he lived. At the age of three- 
 score, he was captivated with the charms of a young 
 girl, his landlord's daughter in Paris, and married 
 her privately. 
 
 When he came back to England, he would have 
 concealed his match. Lord Halifax had heard the 
 report, but did not credit it, until some of her let- 
 ters were shewn him, which had been privately taken 
 
376 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 out of Mr. Shirley's desk, by persons who wished to 
 defeat his design of obtaining a better government, 
 and to oblige him to return to New England. This 
 imprudence lessened him in Lord Halifax's esteem; 
 and, though he had shewn himself to be very capable 
 of his trust of commissary of France, as well as very 
 faithful in the discharge of it, yet, as he failed of 
 success, which more frequently than real merit en- 
 titles to reward, his private fortune was much hurt 
 by his employment. His allowance being 41. only 
 per diem, he used to say, it did not cover his neces- 
 sary expense in that public character. The rumour 
 of his marriage came to New England before his 
 arrival, and some who were not well affected to him, 
 were ready enough to insinuate that his French 
 connexions might induce him to favour the French 
 cause, but his conduct evinced the contrary. He 
 pronounced an accommodation desperate, that the 
 sword must settle the controversy, that it ought to 
 be done without delay, otherwise the French would 
 make themselves too strong for all the force the 
 English could bring against them. 
 
 A session of the general assembly was held soon 
 after his arrival, September the 5th, in which the 
 two houses politely thanked him for his services 
 during his absence. This was a short session, not 
 intended for the general business of the province. 
 
 In his speech at opening the next session, on the 
 4th of December, he set forth at large his services 
 in England and France, which indeed were of ge- 
 neral concern to the British Empire, but they re- 
 spected the colonies, and particularly Massachusetts 
 bay, more than any other parts, and he urged the 
 assembly to make him an adequate consideration. 
 
 It has always been the expectation of the crown, 
 that the salaries of the governors should be conti- 
 nued to them, whenever they are absent with leave, 
 and that one-half should be allowed to the lieut.-go- 
 vernors or commanders in chief in such absence; 
 but the Massachusetts assembly would never allow a 
 salary to a governor in his absence, and their grants 
 to the lieut. -governors never exceeded, and were 
 often short of^ one-half the usual salary to the go- 
 vernor. 
 
 The assembly, about three months before Mr. 
 Shirley left the province, had made him a grant of 
 his salary for a year to come ; it seemed, therefore, 
 to be the mind of a great part of the house, not to 
 grant any further salary until nine months had pass- 
 ed after his return; but his friends carried a vote 
 for 1,400Z. lawful money, which was equal to 1,050/. 
 sterling. This was more than they expected, and 
 they wished he would be contented with it; but he 
 delayed giving his assent to the grant, and by re- 
 peated messages, long and argumentative, one fol- 
 lowing on another, urged the increase of the sum ; 
 and insisted on a voyage to Cape Breton, at the re- 
 quest of the assembly 1745, for which a grant was 
 made by the assembly of that day, of 300/. sterling, 
 and which he then declined accepting, lest it should 
 be a prejudice to him in England, from whence he 
 expected a reward adequate to his services, but had 
 been disappointed. The house excused themselves 
 by observing, that if he had taken the grant at that 
 time, it would have been added to the charge of the 
 expedition to Cape Breton, and would have been 
 reimbursed by parliament. He would not allow 
 this to be a proper article of charge. He generally 
 urged the measures which he proposed to the assem- 
 bly, as far as he could without annoying them and 
 putting them out of temper, and no further. He 
 pressed them too hard in this instance, and they 
 
 sent him an angry message, and not only peremp- 
 torily refused to enlarge the grant, but gave this 
 reason for it, that if his services and their payments 
 since his appointment to the government could be 
 fully stated, the balance would be in their favour. 
 
 He was hurt by this message, but though he want- 
 ed money, he had other views of more importance 
 than a few hundred pounds, and it would not con- 
 sist with those views to be upon ill terms with the 
 assembly. 
 
 From the beginning of his administration, until 
 the year before he went to England, he had been 
 constantly employed in projecting and prosecuting 
 plans, offensive or defensive, against the king's ene- 
 mies. At this time it was the general opinion in 
 England and in America, and we must suppose it 
 was his opinion, that the French were engaged in 
 such encroachments as would make a new war un- 
 avoidable, and the longer the encroachments should 
 be permitted, the more difficult it would be to re- 
 move them. A regard, therefore, to the public in- 
 terest, seemed to call upon him to promo. e a war. 
 He had a fair prospect, in this way, of forwarding 
 his private interest. Nine years only had passed 
 since he commenced soldier. He stood forward, 
 however, in the list of colonels in the army ; and in 
 case of war, expected a regiment, and to be made a 
 general officer. He not only urged the necessity 
 of opposing the French, and removing the settle- 
 ments they were making in the controverted terri 
 tory, but he recommended to the Massachusetts 
 assembly to extend their own settlements into such 
 part of this territory, as is included within their 
 charter, that they might be beforehand, and put 
 themselves on the defensive. 
 
 (1754.) In Acadia, the French had taken pos- 
 session of the Isthmus, near Bay Vert, and had 
 built a fort there, which secured their passage to 
 Quebec without going upon the occasion. They had 
 a blockhouse about thirteen miles distant from this 
 fort, towards Chignecto, and three miles further, 
 they had a large and strong fort, within half a mile 
 of the basin of Chignecto, at the bottom of the bay 
 of Fundy. Up the river St. John's, they had also 
 built two forts, before the peace of Utrecht. These 
 they now repaired and fortified. Of all this, there 
 was undeniable evidence. 
 
 There was also a rumour, that they had begun a 
 settlement near the river Kennebeck, which is in 
 Massachusetts' province, and so had secured the car- 
 rying place from that river, to the river Chaudiere. 
 It soon obtained credit, though really there was no 
 grounds for it. 
 
 They had forts upon the back of Virginia, Penn- 
 sylvania, and New York, before the year 1744. 
 The journal of an English trader, who was taken 
 prisoner upon the river Ohio, soon after that war 
 began, mentions his being carried from fort to fort, 
 until he arrived at Quebec, and gives an account of 
 other forts, twenty or thirty miles distant one from 
 the other, between the Ohio and the Mississippi. 
 It is probable, they had built other forts since the 
 last peace ; besides one. which was more inconside- 
 rable than the rest, to which they gave the name of 
 Fort du Quesne, within the colony of Virginia. 
 But a report, that they had built a fort eastward of, 
 and not far distant from Crown Point, which was 
 more alarming to the western part of Massachusetts 
 bay, than any of the rest, was not well founded. 
 
 Thus stood affairs between the English and French 
 in America, in the beginning of the year 1754, 
 when government in England thought fit to recom- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 377 
 
 mend a convention of delegates from the assemblies 
 of the several colonies, to be held at Albany in the 
 province of New York. The city of Albany is the 
 place where the Indians of the six nations had ge- 
 nerally been treated with, either by the governors 
 of New York, or by governors or commissioners 
 from any other colonies; and as large presents 
 were to be made this year to the Indians, and the 
 French were using every art to bring them over to 
 the interest of France, it was thought proper at such 
 a time, to have the joint council of all the English 
 colonies. 
 
 Insinuations had been made, that there had not 
 been a fair and full distribution of the former pre- 
 sents to the Indians, and this was said to be one 
 reason why the distribution at this time was ordered 
 to be made by all the colonies, and not left to New 
 York alone, as had been usual. But the principal 
 design of this meeting seems to have been, to unite 
 the colonies in measures for their general defence, 
 and to settle a quota of men and money, whenever 
 they might be necessary against a common enemy. 
 
 The letter from the secretary of state by order 
 from the king, was directed to the governor of New 
 York, who was required to notify the governors of 
 Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 
 Massachusetts bay, and New Hampshire, by name, 
 of the time of the meeting, and also to endeavour 
 to prevail on any other colonies to join in the treaty. 
 
 Virginia, and New Jersey, though expressly 
 named, did not send commissioners. Connecticut 
 and Rhode Island were the only colonies which sent, 
 of those who were not expressly named. This was 
 an assembly the most deserving of respect of any 
 which had been convened in America, whether we 
 consider the colonies which were represented, the 
 rank and characters of the delegates, or the purposes 
 for which it was convened. 
 
 After " brightening the chain," to use the Indian 
 metaphor, between the British colonies, and the six 
 nations with their confederates, a representation to 
 the king was agreed upon, in which were set forth 
 the unquastionable designs of the French to prevent 
 the colonies from extending their settlements, a line 
 of forts having been erected for this purpose, and 
 many troops transported from France; and the 
 danger the colonies were in, of being driven by the 
 French into the sea, was urged. 
 
 The commissioners then proceeded to the con- 
 sideration of a plan for the union of the colonies. 
 The king, in his instructions for this convention 
 proposed that a quota should be settled, and that, 
 by acts of the respective assemblies, this should be 
 established as the rule for raising men and monies. 
 The plan for a general union was projected by Ben- 
 jamin Franklin, Esq., one of the commissioners 
 from the province of Pennsylvania, the heads whereo 
 he brought with him. 
 
 A representation was proposed by delegates from 
 each colony, to be chosen by its assembly. The 
 president was to be appointed by the crown. The 
 delegates to be newly elected once in three years. 
 The president to have a negative upon all acts: the 
 acts were to be sent to England for the king's al- 
 lowance or disallowance; if not disallowed in three 
 years, they were to be considered as if expressly 
 allowed. This assembly was to have power to make 
 peace with, or declare war against the Indians; to 
 tmact laws for the regulation of the Indian trade; to 
 purchase from the Indians, for the crown, such 
 lands as are not within the bounds of any colony, or 
 watch may not be within such bounds, when some 
 
 of the colonies shall be i-educed to more convenient 
 dimensions ; to grant such lands upon quit- rents, to 
 be paid into the general treasury of the colonies for 
 the purpose of making settlements; to make law* 
 for regulating such settlements, until the king forms 
 them into governments ; to raise and pay soldiers, 
 and to erect forts for the defence of the colonies ; to 
 build ships of war for protection of trade on the 
 ocean, as well as on the lakes; and for these pur- 
 poses to impose and levy such imposts, duties, and 
 taxes as may be just and reasonable. These were 
 he capital parts of the plan. 
 
 Previously to any debate upon it, a doubt arose, 
 whether an act of parliament was not necessary to 
 establish such an union. The charters and commis- 
 sions by which the powers of government were grant- 
 ed to the colonies, gave no authority to form one 
 general government over the whole. It might be 
 said, if the king could give and grant powers of go- 
 vernment separately to each colony, he could do the 
 like to the whole collectively; but this would be 
 altering the powers given by charter, if a new go- 
 vernment was appointed over the inhabitants for 
 any purposes to which the government by charter 
 was constituted; and, as the power of parliament had 
 not then bean called in question, an act of parlia- 
 ment was judged necessary for removing all excep- 
 tion, and made part of the plan. 
 
 Some of the delegates had very full powers, while 
 others were limited, and held to make report to their 
 constituents. This plan, therefore, though unani- 
 mously voted, was to be of no fores until confirmed 
 by the several assemblies. 
 
 Not one of the assemblies from Georgia to New 
 Hampshire, when the report was made by their de- 
 legates, inclined to part with so great a share of power 
 as was to be given to this general government. 
 
 The plan met with no better fate in England. It 
 was transmitted, with the other proceedings of the 
 convention, to be laid before the king. The conven 
 tion was at an end ; and no notice was afterwards 
 publicly taken of the plan. To erect a general go- 
 vernment over the whole, though in its original for- 
 mation it might be limited to special purposes, was 
 a matter of great importance, and of uncertain con- 
 sequences, men in possession of power being gene- 
 rally inclined to amplify their jurisdiction ; and 
 some of the delegates who agreed to it in Albany, 
 doubted whether it would ever be approved of by the 
 king, the parliament, or any of the American as- 
 semblies. 
 
 Mr. Shirley seems to have been in favour of an 
 assembly to consist of all the governors of the colo- 
 nies, and a certain number of the council of each 
 colony, with powers to agree upon measures for the 
 defence of the colonies, and to draw upon the trea- 
 sury in England for money necessary to carry such 
 measures into execution ; for the reimbursement 
 whereof, a tax should be laid on each colony by an 
 act of parliament. This plan was communicated by 
 Mr. Shirley to Mr. Franklin, one of the delegates 
 from Pennsylvania, who a few months after the con- 
 vention ended, went to Boston. Mr. Franklin de- 
 fended his own plan, and took exceptions to Mr. 
 Shirley's in several ingenious letters. Upon this 
 occasion, much was said in favour of an exemption 
 of English subjects in the colonies from tax, unless 
 by their representatives, of which they had none in 
 parliament. The restrictions laid by parliament on 
 the commerce of the colonies, were considered a* 
 " secondary" taxes, of which they did not complain, 
 though they had no share in laying, or disposing of 
 
378 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 tliefn . and the benefit arising to the kingdom from 
 these restrictions, was deemed a full equivalent to 
 what was saved to the colonies, by an exemption 
 from what might be called " primary" taxes, or such 
 as should be laid in another form, and appropriated 
 by parliament. Upon the whole, however, Mr. 
 Franklin concluded in favour of a more intimate 
 union with Great Britain by representatives in par- 
 liament, and he was of opinion that such an union 
 would be very acceptable to the colonies, provided 
 they had a reasonable number of representatives al- 
 lowed them, and that all the old acts of parliament 
 restraining the trade, or cramping the manufactures 
 of the colonies, be at the same time repealed, and 
 the British subjects there be on the same footing, 
 in those respects, with the subjects in Great Britain, 
 till the new parliament, representing the whole, 
 shall think it for the interest of the whole, to re- 
 enact some or all of them : not that he imagined so 
 many representatives would be allowed the colonies, 
 as to have any great weight by their numbers ; but 
 he thought they might be sufficient to occasion those 
 laws to be better and more impartially considered, 
 and perhaps to overcome the private interest of a 
 corporation, or of any particular set of artificers or 
 traders in England. He looked upon the colonies 
 as so many counties gained to Great Britain, and 
 all included in the British empire, which had only 
 extended itself by their means ; and it was of no 
 importance to the general state whether a merchant, 
 a smith, or a hatter, grew rich in Old or New Eng- 
 land, any more than whether an iron manufacturer 
 lived at Birmingham or Sheffield, or both, seeing 
 they were still within its bounds, and their wealth 
 and persons at its command. 
 
 This correspondence was carried on with great 
 privacy. Mr. Shirley saw that his assembly had no 
 disposition to adopt the Albany plan of union, and 
 he took no public part, but left them to themselves. 
 
 The representation of the imminent danger to the 
 colonies from the French encroachments, probably 
 accelerated those measures in England which brought 
 on the war with France. 
 
 While the convention was sitting, and attending 
 principally to the frontiers of the colonies in the 
 western parts, Mr. Shirley was diligently employed 
 in the east, prosecuting a plan for securing the 
 frontiers of Massachusetts Bay. 
 
 A rumour sometimes obtains credit, because the 
 subject, from the nature of it, is probable. From 
 the rumour of a French settlement between Kenne- 
 beck and Chaudiere, it was urged, that this must be 
 a very fit place for a French settlement; or there 
 would be no such rumour. 
 
 The Massachusetts assembly was influenced by the 
 friends of the governor, to address him to raise a 
 small army, and to order a detachment to this sup- 
 posed settlement, and, if the rumour should be well 
 founded, to break it up ; and, at all events, to secure 
 by forts the passes from Quebec, for New England, 
 by the way of Kennebeck. The assembly also de- 
 sired him to go into the eastern part of the province, 
 and there to take upon himself the immediate di- 
 rection of the affair. He accordingly made a voy- 
 age from Boston to Falmouth, in Casco Bay, and 
 took with him a quorum of his council, and several 
 principal members of the house, who, having by 
 their advice, been instrumental in promoting his 
 measures, would think themselves bound, upon their 
 return, to promote a sanction of them in the gene- 
 ral assembly. 
 
 He first held a treaty or conference with the In- 
 
 dian chiefs at Falmouth, to prevent their being 
 alarmed from fear of hostilities against them ; and 
 then ordered the forces which he had raised, consist- 
 ing of eight hundred men under the command of 
 Mr. John Winslow, who had been a captain in the 
 royal army at the siege of Carthagene, and was on 
 half pay, to the river Kennebeck. There they first 
 built a fort, about three quarters of a mile below Ta- 
 comick falls, and about thirty-seven miles above 
 Richmond fort. This new fort took the name of 
 Halifax, out of respect to the then secretary of state. 
 A number of persons who claimed a tract of land 
 upon this river, under a long dormant and lately re- 
 vived grant from the assembly of New Plymouth, 
 obtained leave from the governor to erect another 
 fort, eighteen miles below the first, at a place called 
 Cushnock. This he called Fort Western, from a 
 gentleman of his acquaintance in Sussex, in England, 
 and in each fort a garrison was placed in the pay of 
 the province. 
 
 Five hundred men then marched to what was 
 called the carrying-place, and to a pond which they 
 supposed to be half way over it, without finding any 
 marks of French or Indian settiemen ts, made or in- 
 tended to be made ; and then returned to Casco Bay. 
 
 Thus ended this expedition, which was very ex- 
 pensive ; and though it was, in every part of it. the 
 project of the governor, yet, as it had the appear- 
 ance of originating in the assembly, there was no 
 room for complaint. Besides, it was said by the go- 
 vernor, that the forts built on the Kennebeck, in the 
 vicinity of this carrying-place, would be a check 
 upon the Indians, who, in time of war passed over it. 
 
 The expense was to no beneficial purpose. Both 
 French and Indians soon ceased from any thoughts 
 of taking: possession of the British territories, and 
 their attention was taken up, in defending themselves 
 against the vigorous measures of their provoked 
 enemies. 
 
 Soon after governor Shirley's return to Boston 
 from this expedition, in October or November, he 
 received letters from the secretary of state, signify- 
 ing his majesty's pleasure, that in concert with colo- 
 nel Lawrence, lieutenant-governor and commander- 
 in-chief of Nova Scotia, he should take the most 
 proper measures for removing the subjects of the 
 French king from the forts in that province ; arid, 
 in the winter following, lieutenant-colonel Monckton 
 came to Boston, with proposals from colonel Law- 
 rence for raising two thousand men, to be employed 
 in this service. 
 
 They were to be raised by enlistment, and though 
 they were to be carried out of the province, it must 
 be with their own consent. The charge also of 
 raising, paying, transporting, &c., was to be paid by 
 the crown. It seemed, therefore, that there was no 
 occasion for meeting the general assembly. But the 
 governor knew, that it would much forward the en- 
 listment, if he could give the assembly a favourable 
 opinion of the expedition. In a very long speech, 
 he therefore laboured to set before them the danger 
 to which the whole British interest in America, as he 
 alleged, would be exposed, if these encroachments 
 were suffered to continue ; and that if this critical 
 opportunity should be lost, it would be much more 
 difficult to remove them hereafter. Mr. Shirley had 
 one peculiar advantage for promoting his military 
 schemes in the assembly. Many of the field officers 
 and others who were at Louisburg, and in other ser- 
 vices, the last war, were now members of assembly, 
 and the more readily fell in with his proposals. At 
 this time, the assembly not only acquiesced in the 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 governor's proposals, but the members in the several 
 parts of the province encouraged the enlistment, 
 and the proposed number was complete sooner than 
 expected ; and sooner than otherwise it would have 
 been, by assurances that the governor himself would 
 take the command of the whole battalion, and that 
 major-general Winslow would be the next officer ; 
 and Mr. Winslow was made to believe it also. It is 
 not probable that Mr. Monckton, who had the rank 
 of lieutenant-colonel in the army, ever intended to 
 serve under Mr. Winslow, who had only the rank of 
 captain. There was the appearance of discontent, 
 on the part of Mr. Winslow, when colonel Monck- 
 ton's claim to the superior command first transpired. 
 Governor Shirley managed the affair very skilfully. 
 The business of the province would not admit of his 
 leaving it, and, though it was called his regiment, 
 he could not take the command in person. A com- 
 mission for the first battalion was given to Mr. 
 Monckton, and Mr. Winslow was brought, upon 
 such consideration as was thought fit, to be content 
 with the command of the second. 
 
 The only inconvenience to the province from this 
 expedition, was the loss of the men who enlisted, 
 which increased the difficulty of raising men for 
 further services. For, when the governor had brought 
 the assembly to an acquiescence, and had secured 
 the enlistment, he opened to them a further part of 
 his plan ; which would take both men and money 
 from the province. 
 
 The rumours of a French fort near to Crown 
 Point, it was now acknowledged, were groundless, 
 but it was certain that there was a rocky eminence, 
 which would command Crown Point fort, and the 
 governor proposed, that whilst the expedition was 
 going on against the French forts in Nova Scotia, 
 which must draw the attention of the French in 
 Quebec, to that province, possession should be taken 
 of this eminence, and a strong fort be erected there, 
 and well garrisoned. This would be a security to 
 the frontiers of the English colonies against the in- 
 roads of French and Indians, and would be a good 
 post from whence parties of English, and Indians 
 in their interest, might issue to make depredations 
 on the French; and, whenever it should be thought 
 proper to make an attempt uponCrown Pointby means 
 of this post such attempt would be much facilitated. 
 The assembly thought favourably of the project. 
 They did not, however, immediately resolve to make 
 provision for the charge which must attend it, but 
 desired the governor to carry it on at the charge of 
 the crown, and gave their opinion, that he would 
 run no risk in it. He, on the other hand, recom- 
 mended to them to raise the money necessary for the 
 purpose, and intimated to them, that they had no 
 more reason now to distrust his majesty's paternal 
 regard, in affording them relief, so far as they should 
 overburden themselves, than they had when they 
 engaged the last war, in the successful expedition 
 against Louisburg. Many members, who would not 
 otherwise have been in favour of the proposal, were 
 made to believe that the charge would be repaid; 
 and a majority of the house came to a resolve, to 
 desire the governor to engage in an attempt to erect 
 a fortress near to the French fort at Crown Point, 
 and to repel and revenge any hostilities which might 
 be offered to his majesty's forces, whilst they should 
 be employed in that service. This they did, in 
 humble trust that his majesty would be graciously 
 pleased to relieve the province from the expense of 
 this undertaking, though at all events, they would 
 not leave the governor to suffer. 
 
 (1753.) Thus the assembly was brought, expressly 
 to desire the governor to oppose the French by force, 
 if they should interrupt the English; which looks as 
 if he had some doubts whether he did not run a risk 
 of the measures not being approved, and imagined 
 such a desire would be of service to him in England. 
 
 Although he considered the Massachusetts as the 
 leading colony, yet he designed to engage other. co- 
 lonies to take part with it. Less than five thousand 
 men was deemed insufficient. The Massachusetts 
 assembly resolved to make provision for the pay and 
 subsistence of 1,200. It was proposed, that New 
 Hampshire should raise 600, Rhode Island 400, 
 Connecticut 1,000, and New York 800; and as th 
 governor and Sir William Pepperell had, each of 
 them, been ordered by the king to raise a regiment 
 upon the establishment, it was part of the plan that 
 those regiments should join. 
 
 New Jersey, it was expected, would make some 
 addition, and Pennsylvania, which scrupled raising 
 men, was desired to contribute to the charge by 
 raising provisions. Commissioners were sent from 
 Massachusetts to each of the other colonies to solicit 
 a junction. 
 
 The governor was much at a loss for a proper 
 general. Mr. Hutchinson, who had be?n one of the 
 commissioners at Albany, proposed to him Colonel 
 Johnson, one of the council at New York, who was 
 also a commissioner at Albany. Governor Shirley 
 approved of the proposal, but doubted whether the 
 assembly would not dislike his appointing a general 
 who lived in another province. The assembly were 
 brought to acquiesce, by being informed, that no 
 man had so great an influence over the Indians as 
 Colonel Johnson, and that he would, undoubtedly, 
 be the means of bringing several hundred to join in 
 the expedition. 
 
 The commissions to the general officers then came 
 to be considered. It was a new case, and it was 
 judged necessary that each governor in the colony, 
 where any forces of which the army consisted, were 
 raised, should give commissions to the general offi- 
 cers, and that the regimental commissions for each 
 colony should subject the regiments to such general 
 command. 
 
 While preparations were making for the expedi- 
 tions to Nova Scotia and Crown Point, General 
 Braddock arrived in Virginia from England, and 
 immediately gave notice to governor Shirley, and 
 to several other governors, to meet him at Annapolis, 
 in Maryland, in order to consult upon measures for 
 his majesty's service. The place was afterwards 
 changed to Alexandria. 
 
 At this meeting, the expedition to the west, under 
 General Johnson, as well as that to Nova Scotia, 
 under Colonel Monckton, was approved of: and it 
 was determined, that another expedition should be 
 formed against Fort du Quesne, upon the back of 
 Virginia, with a force under General Braddock, 
 consisting of two regiments which he brought with 
 him from England, two independent companies 
 which were posted at New York, and so many pro- 
 vincials, to be raised in the southern colonies, as 
 should amount in the whole to 2,400 men. It was 
 further determined that the two newly raised regi- 
 ments of Shirley and Pepperell, with 500 men raised 
 in New Jersey, and 300, of the 1,200 raised in Mas- 
 sachusetts, and which had been destined for the ex- 
 pedition to Crown Point, should be taken from that 
 service, and employed under governor Shirley, in 
 an attempt to dislodge the French who were posted 
 at Niagara, in a fort there. Thus there were four 
 
380 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 expeditions on foot at the same time, in three of 
 which the Massachusetts had a share. 
 
 The success was various. That to Nova Scotia 
 an'swered expectation. The French forts at Beau 
 Sejour were taken; and, thereupon, those at the 
 river St. John were abandoned. 
 
 That under General Braddock was entirely frus- 
 trated. In marching through the woods, when about 
 ten miles distant from Fort du Quesne, the army 
 was surprised by an attack, on every quarter, from 
 an invisible enemy. A body of French and Indians 
 having been posted, every man behind a tree, at a 
 convenient distance, made a sudden fire upon them, 
 and killed and wounded a great number. They 
 could not see, but they could hear their enemies; 
 and the yells of the savages, which of all noises is 
 the most horrid, added much to the terror with 
 which the army was seized. The fire was returned, 
 but to little purpose. The general was mortally 
 wounded; his secretary, eldest son to Governor Shir- 
 ley, shot through the head. Sir Peter Halkett, and 
 many of the officers were among the slain; Sir 
 John Sinclair, and many others, among the wounded 
 The army retreated under the command of Lieut.- 
 colonel Gage. General Braddock died in the woods 
 soon after the action. 
 
 His body was buried in the most secret manner, 
 to prevent indignities from the savages, if the place 
 should be discovered by them : and thus ended this 
 unfortunate expedition. There was not the least 
 apprehension of a force in that quarter, equal to 
 that of the English. Much confidence was placed 
 in an experienced English general. All this tended 
 to make the disappointment greater. 
 
 The main strength of the enemy was expected to 
 oppose the army destined to Crown Point : neither 
 the general, nor the greater part of that army, had 
 ever seen service. Some part of the officers and 
 men had been employed in the last war against 
 Xouisburg. The news of Braddock's defeat might 
 well cause a general despair of Johnson's success. 
 
 Soon after, letters were received from him by 
 lieut. -governor Phipps, governor Shirley being ab- 
 sent, urging an immediate reinforcement of the army 
 then under his command at or near lake George. 
 He had not only received advice that the strength 
 of the enemy was superior to what had been expect- 
 ed, but his own strength was inferior to what he had 
 been made to believe he might depend upon, when 
 he accepted of the command. It is doubtful whether 
 Mr. Shirley ever intended that the two regiments of 
 regular troops should serve under a provincial gene- 
 ral; but the deduction of the Massachusetts and 
 New Jersey forces he could not have in view. 
 General Johnson was not only disappointed, but 
 was much displeased; and it caused a breach be- 
 tween him and governor Shirley, to whom he sup- 
 posed it to be owing, which was never made up. 
 
 At best, the issue of this expedition was very 
 doubtful, and every man who had the interest of his 
 country at heart was full of anxiety. 
 
 Such extraordinary incidents as had given suc- 
 cess beyond all rational probability, to the expedition 
 against Louisburg, and in as wonderful a manner 
 had defeated the expedition under the Duke d'An- 
 ville, it was presumption to expect. 
 - The Massachusetts assembly stood prorogued to 
 the 24th of September. The lieut. -governor was 
 advised to ord^r a special session, by proclamation, 
 on the 5th. There had been no precedent for this 
 in the province. Recourse was had to precedents 
 in parliamentary proceedings. Whci> the Dutch 
 
 threatened an invasion in 16G7, King Charles II., 
 having prorogued the parliament to October 10th, 
 called, by proclamation, an intermediate session on 
 the 25th of July. The Dutch did what mischief 
 they could, and withdrew their ships. The parlia- 
 ment was again prorogued to the 10th of October, 
 and, as no business was done, there was no room to 
 call in question the validity of any proceedings. 
 
 The necessity of the case induced Mr Phipps to 
 comply with the advice given him, and the assembly 
 having sat every day, Sunday included, from the, 
 5th to the 9th, and made provision for raising t\vo 
 thousand men as an additional force, were prorogued 
 to the 10th of October; when it was thought proper, 
 by an act passed for that purpose, to establish all 
 the proceedings of the intermediate session, and 
 sufficient ground for a refusal to obey them, which 
 might be of very bad consequence. 
 
 On the 15th of September, an express arrived 
 from General Johnson with intelligence which re- 
 lieved the people of Massachusetts bay from their 
 fears. 
 
 The English army, which had marched near to 
 lake George, formed a camp, which they fortified 
 with the best breast-work the time would admit of, 
 such as trees felled for that purpose. 
 
 Advice was soon received of an army of French 
 and Indians, upon their march from South bay. 
 Colonel Ephraim Williams, a Massachusetts officer, 
 was ordered to march out with one thousand Eng- 
 lish and two hundred Indians, and to endeavour to 
 ambush the enemy ; but he was met by them sooner 
 than he expected, and fell in the beginning of the 
 action. The men fled back to the camp with great 
 precipitation. Many of them were killed or badly 
 wounded, and those who escaped came to the camp 
 in tumultuous hurry, and struck terror into the 
 whole army. The enemy, which consisted of re- 
 gular troops, militia, and Indians mixed, came on 
 in good order. The English within the camp lay 
 flat upon the ground, until they had received the 
 first fire, which was made at a great distance, and 
 with muskets only, the enemy having no artillery. 
 The cannon from the English camp did no great 
 execution. 
 
 The baron Dieskau, general of the French army, 
 soon received a wound, whether from the English, 
 or from his own army, is uncertain. It was a for- 
 tunate stroke for the English, as it disabled him for 
 any further service, cooled the ardour of the French, 
 raised the spirits of the English, and caused both 
 French and Indians to retreat, leaving their gc 
 neral a prisoner. In the action, and in their i c 
 treat, it was reported that the enemy lost one thou 
 sand men ; but this was much too large a conipu 
 tation. Of the English, about one hundred and 
 thirty were killed and mortally wounded ; among 
 whom was colonel Titcomb of the Massachusetts, 
 who behaved with great bravery in the expedition 
 against Louisburg. Hendrick also, a Mohawk chief, 
 was slain. He had been influenced by general 
 Johnson to join the English army, at the head of 
 two or three hundred Indians of different tribes. 
 
 Johnson, it was allowed by all, discovered a firm, 
 steady mind, during the action. He received a shot 
 in one of his thighs, which he complained of as very 
 painful, but not dangerous. 
 
 The enemy was so much dispirited by the loss of 
 their general, and the garrison left at Crown Point 
 was so weak, that it is probable it would have been 
 an easy acquisition, if an immediate attack had been 
 made ; but the general did not think it advisable. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 381 
 
 This repulse of the enemy caused great rejoicings 
 in the several colonies, and it was represented in 
 the most favourable light in England. 
 
 The Massachusetts assembly, though they could 
 find no fault with the conduct of the general in the 
 field, or as is related to the common interest with 
 whirh he was intrusted, yet they were not pleased 
 with his distinguishing New York in his correspond- 
 ence ; and, in a message to the lieut.-governor, they 
 desired he would acquaint general Johnson, that, as 
 the Massachusetts province bore the greatest part of 
 the charge and burden of the expedition, it ought to 
 be considered the principal in all respects ; and that 
 all papers and advices of importance ought to be first 
 sent to that province ; and that the French general, 
 and other prisoners of note, ought to be sent to 
 Boston. General Johnson's correspondence was, 
 notwithstanding, principally with the government of 
 New York. Dieskau and the other prisoners were 
 sent there; and it was most convenient for the 
 wounded that they should be sent there also, it being 
 nearest to the army, and the passage to it being by 
 water. 
 
 Thus arose a coldness between the province and 
 the general, which seemed to give him no great con- 
 cern. All he could expect from the colonies bore 
 no proportion to his expectations from government 
 in England, which were fully answered. The king 
 conferred on him the dignity of a baronet. The 
 parliament made him a grant of 5000J., or rather 
 compelled the colonies to the payment of 5000/., by 
 deducting so much from the sum intended as a re- 
 imbursement to the colonies, and appropriating it to 
 general Johnson's benefit. 
 
 Massachusetts assembly, by repeated votes, de- 
 clared their sense of the expediency of proceeding 
 upon the expedition without delay; and that, at 
 least, an attempt ought to be made to remove the 
 enemy from Ticonderara, where they had taken post; 
 and commissioners were sent to Albany, and autho- 
 rised to make all necessary provisions for that pur- 
 pose. But it grew late in the year, and the army 
 was disbanded without effecting any thing more 
 than the repelling of an enemy, who, if this expedi- 
 tion had not been formed, would not have come out 
 against the English, or not in this quarter. 
 
 The other part of the plan of measures for the 
 present year fell short of what was intended. 
 
 After the consultation at Alexandria, governor 
 Shirley returned to Boston, and having attended an 
 assembly for the election of counsellors, and other 
 ordinary business, he left Boston, and proceeded 
 westward, in order to prepare for the expedition 
 against Niagara. Upon general Braddock's death, 
 the command of the forces devolved upon him. This 
 did not hinder his proceeding to lake Ontario, where 
 he spent the remainder of the summer and the au- 
 tumn in building forts at Oswego; reserving the 
 attempt upon Niagara for the next season. While 
 he was at. Albany, returning to Boston, he received 
 a commission appointing him commander in chief 
 of all his majesty's forces upon the continent of 
 North America. At this moment, he was in his 
 zenith. His friends saw the risk he was running, 
 and wished he had contented himself with his civil 
 station. The affairs of North America called for a 
 general of the first military accomplishments. By 
 his letters from Albany, he recommended to the as- 
 sembly the appointment of commissioners to confer 
 with commissioners from the other colonies upon 
 measures for the further prosecution of the war. 
 But being chagrined at so little effect from the ex- 
 
 pense of the last year, they received those recom- 
 mendations very coldly, and declined a compliance, 
 alleging, that " securing his majesty's territories is 
 a design which his majesty only is equal to project 
 and execute, and the nation to support; and that it 
 cannot reasonably be expected that these infant 
 plantations should engage as principals in the affair." 
 
 He went from Albany to New York, where he 
 spent several weeks in consultations with the officers 
 of the army upon the necessary preparations for the 
 measures of the next year ; and did not return to 
 his own government until the middle of winter. 
 
 The French forts at Beau Sejour, Bay Verte, and 
 the river St. John, in Nova Scotia, had been reco- 
 vered. The state of that province was, notwith- 
 standing, deemed very insecure ; many thousand 
 French inhabitants still continuing in it. They 
 had been admitted by lieut.-governor Armstrong, 
 after that province was reduced in the reign of queen 
 Anne, upon such a sort of oath, as to consider them- 
 selves rather in a neutral state between England 
 and France, than in a subjection to either, and from 
 thence they took the name of French neutrals. 
 Being all Roman catholics, and great bigots, and 
 retaining the French language, they were better 
 affected to France than to England. In civil mat- 
 ters, they had been more indulged by the English 
 than they would have been by' the French, being in 
 a mariner free from taxes ; and a great part of them 
 were so sensible of it, that they wished to avoid 
 taking part on the one side or the other. But the 
 Indians, who were engaged on the part of the French, 
 had constant intercourse with them, their houses 
 being scattered, and where there were any number 
 together to form a village, open to both French and 
 Indians from Canada, without any sort of defence. 
 And it was the general opinion, that, if any attempt 
 should be made by the French to recover the pro- 
 vince of Nova Scotia, the whole body of the Acadi- 
 ans, some from inclination, others from compulsion, 
 would join in the attempt. 
 
 The coinmander-in-chief of his majesty's ships, 
 then at Halifax, as well as the governor of the pro- 
 vince, supposed that the principle of self-preserva- 
 tion would justify the removal of these Acadians ; 
 and it was determined to take them by surprise, and 
 transport them all, men, women, and children, to the 
 English colonies. A few days before the determina- 
 tion was executed, notice was given to the governors 
 of the several colonies to prepare for their recep- 
 tion. Far the greatest part were accordingly seized 
 by the king's troops, which had remained in the pro- 
 vince, and hurried on board small vessels prepared 
 to receive them, with such part of their household 
 goods as there was room for ; the remainder, with 
 their stock of cattle, the contents of their barns, 
 their farm utensils, and all other moveables, being 
 left behind and never recovered, nor any satisfactioa 
 made for them. 
 
 In several instances, the husbands who happened 
 to be at a distance from home, were put on board 
 vessels bound to one of the English colonies, and 
 their wives and children on board other vessels, 
 bound to other colonies remote from the first. One 
 of the most sensible of them, describing his case, 
 said, " it was the hardest which had happened since 
 our Saviour was upon earth." 
 
 About a thousand of them arrived at Boston, just 
 in the beginning of winter, crowded almost to death. 
 No provision was made, in case government should 
 refuse to take them under its care. As it happened, 
 the assembly were sitting when they arrived ; but 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 several days were spent without any determination, 
 and some aged and infirm persons, in danger of 
 perishing, were received on shore in houses provided 
 for them by private persons. At length the assem- 
 bly passed a resolve, that they should all be permitted 
 to land, and that they should be sent to such towns 
 as a committee appointed for that purpose should 
 think fit ; and a law of the province was passed, to 
 authorize justices of the peace, overseers of the poor, 
 &c., to employ them in labour, bind them out to ser- 
 vice, and, in general, provide for their support, in 
 like manner as if they had been indigent inhabit- 
 ants of the province. 
 
 Favour was shewn to many elderly people among 
 them, and to others who had been in circumstances 
 superior to the rest, and they were allowed support 
 without being held to labour. Many of them went 
 through great hardships, but in general they were 
 treated with humanity. They fared the better, be- 
 cause the towns where they were sent, were to be 
 reimbursed out of the province treasury, and the as- 
 sembly was made to believe that the province would 
 be reimbursed by the crown ; but this expectation 
 failed. It was proposed to them to settle upon some 
 of the unappropriated lands of the province, and to 
 become British subjects, but they refused. They 
 had a strong persuasion, that the French king would 
 never make peace with England, unless they were 
 restored to their estates. A gentleman who was 
 much affected with their sufferings, prepared a re- 
 presentation proper for them to make to the British 
 government, to be signed by the chief of them in 
 behalf of the rest, praying that they might either 
 have leave to return to their estates, or might re- 
 ceive a compensation ; and he offered to put it into 
 the hands of a proper person in England to solicit 
 their cause. They received the proposal thankfully, 
 took the representation to consider of, and, after 
 some days, returned it without having signed it. 
 They were afraid of losing the favour of France, if 
 they should receive or solicit for compensation from 
 England. Despair of the free exercise of their re- 
 ligion, was another bar to every proposal tending to 
 an establishment. 
 
 The people of New England had more just notions 
 of toleration than their ancestors, and no exception 
 was taken to their prayers in their families, in their 
 own way, which, I believe, they practised in gene- 
 ral, and sometimes they assembled several families 
 together ; but the people would upon no terms have 
 consented to the public exercise of religious worship 
 by Roman catholic priests. A law remained unve- 
 pealed, though it is to be hoped it would never have 
 been executed, which made it a capital offence in 
 such persons to come within the provinco. It was 
 suspected that some such were among them in dis- 
 guise; but it is not probable that auy ventured. 
 One of the most noted families, when they were dis- 
 suaded from removing to Quebec, lest they should 
 suffer more hardship from the French there than 
 they had done from the English, acknowledged they 
 exp'ected it; but they had it not in their power 
 since they left their country, to confess and to be 
 absolved of their sins, and the hazard of dying in 
 such a state, distressed them more than the fear of 
 temporal sufferings. 
 
 When these unhappy persons despaired of being 
 restored to their own estates, they began to think of 
 a removal to places where they might find priests of 
 their own religion, and other inhabitants of their 
 own language. Many hundreds went from the New 
 England colonies to Hispaniola, where, in less than 
 
 a year, by far the greatest part died. Others went 
 to Canada, where they were considered as an infe- 
 rior race of Frenchmen, and they were so neglected, 
 that some of them wrote to a gentleman in Boston 
 who had patronised them, that they wished to re- 
 turn. In 1763, Monsieur Bougainville carried se- 
 veral families of them, who had found their way to 
 France, to the Malouines, or Falkland Islands, 
 where they remained but a short time, being turned 
 off by Mr. Byron. Bougainville says, " they are 
 a laborious intelligent set of men, who ought to be 
 dear to France, on account of the inviolate attach- 
 ment they have shewn as honest but unfortunate 
 citizens." Thus they were dispersed through the 
 world, until they were in a manner extinct, the few 
 which remained being mixed with other subjects in 
 different parts of the French dominions. 
 
 The whole surviving force, employed by the cc- 
 lonies upon the expedition under general Johnson, 
 returned before winter, except six hundred men, 
 which remained to keep post at lake George, where 
 a woodea fort was built, and at another station near 
 Hudson's river, which took the name of fort Edward. 
 
 These, with some small vessels and a large num- 
 ber of boats on the lake, and works erected by Mr. 
 Shirley at Oswego, where he had placed garrisons, 
 and lodged large magazines of provisions and mili- 
 tary stores, were all the strength of the English upon 
 the western frontiers, at the close of the year 1755. 
 The French had a strong fort at Crown Point, and 
 works at Ticonderaga, another fort at Cataraqui. 
 upon or near lake Ontario, called Fort Frontenac, 
 and another near the falls of Niagara. 
 
 During Mr. Shirley's absence from his govern- 
 ment, he had held a conference with several Sa- 
 chems of the six nations, and had promised to build 
 forts in the countries of the Onandagoes, Oneidas, 
 and Tuscaroras, and to provide garrisons for and to 
 send men to the Cayugas, to protect and assist them 
 in their husbandry, and he had received assurances 
 from the other two nations, the Senekas and Ma- 
 quas, that they would join him in the spring. 
 
 The year 1755 was rendered remarkable by an 
 earthquake more violent than any other since the 
 discovery of America. It seems to have been greater 
 in Massachusetts than any other colony. In Boston, 
 many chimneys and walls of houses were much shat- 
 tered, but no house thrown down. A stack of chim- 
 neys, in one large house, was lifted off from the wall 
 of the house, and brought so far upon the roof, that 
 if it had been an inch or two more, that part of the 
 stack which was above the roof must have fallen 
 over, and made a passage through the house to the 
 cellar. At Newport, on Rhode Island, it was less 
 sensibly felt than on the main land near the island : 
 no lives were lost. This was the third remarkable 
 earthquake in New England, since the English ar- 
 rived there. 
 
 Of the first, in 1638, we have but an imperfect ac- 
 count. The inhabitants were few in number. At the 
 time of the second, in 1727, there was no remembrance 
 nor tradition of the effect of the first upon the minrls 
 of the people. That, in 1727, was accompanied with 
 a most tremendous noise, which greatly increased 
 the terror, from the danger of the shock, which was 
 not greater than this of 1755. Besides, the first 
 great shock was followed by others less violent, the 
 same night : and such smaller shocks were frequently 
 felt for several weeks after. The places of public 
 worship were then crowded, one day after another, 
 in most parts of the country; and a strong and per- 
 manent religious impression was made" upon the 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 minds of many people. This, in 1755, had less of 
 that kind of effect. Public fasts were ordered by 
 authority, but the terror was soon over, there being 
 very few repetitions of the shock. A great part of 
 the'people remembered the earthquake in 1727, and 
 there had been other less violent ones in a few years, 
 which made them more familiar, and lessened the 
 apprehension of danger in proportion. 
 
 (1756.) It was part of the plan for the year 1756, 
 to remove the French from the lakes; and as soon 
 as the governor returned to Boston, he called on his 
 assembly to afford their assistance. 
 
 They were not in a temper suddenly to hearken to 
 this call. Many of them were not satisfied, that a 
 better use might not have been made of the repulse 
 of the French the last year, than remaining alto- 
 gether on the defensive. Accounts had been re- 
 ceived that General Johnson was expected at Ticon- 
 deroga and Crown Point immediately after Dieskau's 
 defeat, and that, if he had proceeded, both places 
 would have fallen into his hands without defence. 
 
 At first they desired to be wholly excused: any 
 further charge must ruin them. The treasure and 
 power of France were likely to be employed against 
 the English colonies. They hoped his majesty 
 would graciously afford a sufficient force to oppose 
 so powerful an enemy. 
 
 The governor, in his reply, said to them, that 
 their furnishing a quota of men for the service of 
 the next year would probably free them from future 
 taxes, as it would remove that enemy which other- 
 wise would make them to be necessary ; and the 
 most likely way to obtain a compensation for what 
 they had already done would be by a further vigo- 
 rous exertion. They assigned a further reason for 
 their non-compliance. They had not been able to 
 borrow money sufficient to pay the charges of the 
 last year, and it was absolutely out of their power 
 to provide for the charge of the next. 
 
 This objection he obviated too, by an offer to 
 lend the province 30,000^. sterling, out of the monies 
 which had been remitted for the king's troops, and 
 to repay himself out of the grant which it was ex- 
 pected parliament would make to the province for 
 last year's charges; but with this caution, that an 
 act of assembly should pass for levying a tax in 
 the years 1757 and 1758, of 30,000*. sterling, as a 
 collateral security, the act to have no effect if the 
 grant should be before made by parliament. 
 
 Declarations made to serve political purposes 
 oftentimes will not bear a strict scrutiny. 
 
 The province was never in better credit than at 
 this time. They could have borrowed enough to 
 pay the charges of the past and present year : but 
 this mode of proceeding induced many members of 
 the assembly to come into the measure. They were 
 made to believe it tended to facilitate the obtaining 
 of a grant from parliament. 
 
 In this way the assembly was brought to agree 
 to the governor's proposal, and to resolve to make 
 provision " for raising 3,000 men, in order to re- 
 move the encroachments of the French from his 
 majesty's territories at or near Crown Point; in 
 humble confidence, that his majesty will be gra- 
 ciously pleased, hereafter, to give orders for defray- 
 ing the expense of this expedition, and for establish- 
 ing such garrisons as may be needed, in order to 
 maintain the possession of that country." They 
 intimated to the governor, that it would encourage 
 men to enlist, if a gentleman belonging to the pro- 
 vince might have the chief command; and this inti- 
 mation was not disagreeable to him, ^as he could 
 
 with better grace decline making the offer to Sir 
 William Johnson. 
 
 Mr. Shirley had formed a plan to raise 3,000 men 
 in Massachusetts bay, as the proportion of that pro- 
 vince to an army of 9,000, to be completed by Con- 
 necticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and New 
 York. Mr. John Winslow, who was second in com- 
 mand the last year at Nova Scotia, was appointed 
 commander-in-chief in this service. 
 
 It was expected that a proper bounty would soon 
 encourage the whole number to enlist; but the en- 
 listment went on slowly, and an act of assembly 
 passed to make up the deficiency by impressing 
 men out of the militia : but this act was not season- 
 ably executed; for the governor, who left the pro- 
 vince the latter part of April, complains, in a letter 
 of the 25th of May, that there was likely to be a de- 
 ficiency of 500 men; and Winslow urged, not only 
 to make up that number, but to raise an additional 
 force. When the army arrived at Fort Edward, 
 either Ticonderoga and Crown Point had been 
 really made stronger than was expected, or appeared 
 more formidable from some other cause; and men 
 of judgment were under great concern, lest an un- 
 successful attempt should be made by a body of raw, 
 undisciplined militia, and they should be repelled, 
 scattered, and cut to pieces. 
 
 On the other hand, it was painful to think of 
 losing another year, by the continuance of the army 
 in a state of inactivity. 
 
 Mr. Shirley had remained at Albany and New 
 York, directing the necessary measures for the king's 
 service upon lake Ontario, completing the armed 
 vessels, whaleboats, batteaus, provisions, and war- 
 like stores, necessary for strengthening Oswego, and 
 carrying on an expedition against the French forts 
 at Cataraqui and Niagara. 
 
 While at New York in the month of June, he re- 
 ceived despatches from the secretary of state, sig- 
 nifying that it was his majesty's pleasure that he 
 should come to England, in order to his being con- 
 sulted upon measures for carrying on the Avar ; that 
 Lord Loudoun would soon leave England, in order 
 to take the command of his majesty's forces, which, 
 in the mean time, Mr. Shirley was to leave to gene 
 ral Abercrombie. Though this had the appearance 
 of letting him down tenderly, it was a mortifying 
 stroke, and the more so, as it was altogether unex- 
 pected. It seems to have proceeded from a more 
 mature consideration of his want of military know- 
 ledge, and his unfitness for so great a command. 
 He was never charged with want of fidelity ; and 
 the state of his own affairs, after he had quitted the 
 service shewed that he had paid more attention to 
 the public, than to his private fortune. He was 
 obliged to continue at New York many weeks to 
 settle his accounts, which gave him much greater 
 trouble, as the whole affairs of the army had been 
 carried on by agents employed to purchase provi- 
 sions, stores, &c., on the best terms they could, and 
 not by contractors at certain rates. Here he had 
 the further mortification of receiving news of the 
 loss of Oswego, taken by Montcalm, the 14th of 
 August, with all the shipping, stores, &c., of every 
 kind, and of immense value. The garrison were 
 prisoners of war. Colonel Mercer, chief in com- 
 mand, was killed by a cannon ball. 
 
 Mr. Shirley was charged with not giving a full 
 information of the condition of the place to his suc- 
 cessor in command. He denied the truth of the 
 charge, and attributed the loss of the place to the 
 want of skill, or courage, or both, in those with 
 
384 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 whom the defence of it was entrusted. Neglect 
 from many, who had been servile courtiers a short 
 time before, convinced him of the truth of the old 
 observation, " that you are to number your friends so 
 long as you continue in prosperity, and no longer." 
 
 He wished to spend a little time with his family 
 in Boston; but his successor, judging that he should 
 be better able to transact business with the assembly 
 after the governor had left the province, called on 
 him repeatedly, by letters, to embark, and he sailed 
 several weeks sooner than otherwise he would have 
 done. 
 
 Mr Shirley made no doubt of his return to his 
 government, if he could not obtain a better. Soon 
 after his departure, private letters from England 
 mentioned the high displeasure of the duke of Cum- 
 berland at his conduct, and some mark of it was 
 feared by his friends. Before he arrived, a successor 
 to his government was nominated. Considering how 
 much of his life had been spent in public service, 
 how small his emoluments had been, and especially 
 considering the acquisition of Louisburg, and the 
 preservation of Nova Scotia, in the former war, he 
 seems to have met with hard treatment. He suffered, 
 besides, by the delay in passing his accounts ; and 
 some persons employed under him in the service 
 were great losers, by not having observed the forms 
 required in the army ; though, as he alleged, the 
 whole expense of victualling the army, by his ac- 
 counts, did not exceed four-pence per day for each 
 man ; and the government contract, under his suc- 
 cessor, was at sixpence per day ; the same articles 
 of charge being contained in the first as in the last. 
 There was no inquiry into his conduct. After long 
 solicitations, he obtained the small government of 
 the Bahama islands. 
 
 When Oswego surrendered to the French, a 
 body of English troops were on their way from Al- 
 bany in order to strengthen the garrison. The French 
 force was represented to be very formidable, and it 
 was expected, would come down to Albany ; but 
 while general Webb was employing the English 
 troops in felling trees to fill up or stop the passage 
 through Wood Creek, general Montcalm took the 
 other route, and went back by the river St. Law- 
 rence, in order to preserve Crown Point and Ticon- 
 tleroga from the army under Winslow. This army 
 consisted of seven or eight thousand men. If it was 
 advisable for them to hBve proceeded at any time 
 this season, it was when the army under Montcalm 
 had marched against Oswego. 
 
 Just at this time the general command of the 
 forces were changed, and all affairs seemed to be at 
 a stand 
 
 After Lord Loudoun had received information of 
 the state of the army, and of the force, and success, 
 of the enemy, it is probable that he laid aside all 
 thoughts of acting upon the offensive for that cam- 
 paign ; though he did not make his resolutions pub- 
 lic until October. In the mean time he received 
 intelligence, that the enemy, flushed with success, 
 had arrived at Ticonderoga." He therefore ordered 
 such of the regular forces as could be spared, to 
 join Winslow's army, which it was supposed would 
 be attacked by Montcalm ; and it is probable that 
 the intelligence which was carried by scouting par- 
 ties to Montcalm of this junction, diverted him from 
 his design. As soon as the main body of the ene- 
 my went back to Canada, the provincial army broke 
 up, and returned to the government in which it had 
 been raised. Many had deserted, and more had 
 died, while they lay encamped. Many died upon 
 
 the road, und many died of the camp distemper after 
 they were at home. 
 
 The measures of this year were in every part un- 
 successful. When the Massachusetts forces returned, 
 no provision had been made by government for their 
 pay. Three commissioners were appointed to apply 
 to Lord Loudoun at Albany, to enable the govern- 
 ment to Uischarge this debt, but without success, 
 and provision was made by the assembly as usual. 
 Lord Loudoun consulted with the commissioners at 
 Albany, upon the expediency of his meeting the 
 governors, with commissioners from the assemblies 
 of the New England colonies, at Boston, in order 
 to facilitate the measures of the next year ; and in- 
 timated his intention to propose such a meeting. 
 Whatever engagements were jointly made, he sup- 
 posed might be depended on. 
 
 In former years, when each assembly was left to 
 send what they thought fit, the number had always 
 been short of expectation. 
 
 (1757.^ Lord Loudoun came soon after to Boston, 
 where, besides Mr. Phipps, lieut governor of Mas- 
 sachusetts, he found Mr. Fitch and Mr. Hopkins, 
 the governors of Connecticut and Rhode Island, and 
 commissioners from each of the assemblies and also 
 from the assembly of New Hampshire. 
 
 The number of men proposed to be raised by the 
 four governments was four thousand only. This 
 being less than expected, met with no opposition ; 
 but it was as difficult to settle the proportion of each 
 government, as if the number had been much larger. 
 After ten days spent by the commissioners without 
 agreeing, Lord Loudoun proposed to them a propor- 
 tion, in which they acquiesced, and promised to re- 
 commend a compliance to the respective assemblies. 
 Massachusetts, one thousand eight hundred; Con- 
 necticut, one thousand four hundred; Rhode Island, 
 four hundred and fifty; New Hampshire, three 
 hundred and fifty. Respect was had to the force 
 employed by Massachusetts, both by sea and land, 
 exclusive of this force. 
 
 Lord Loudoun offered to victual the men, and to 
 furnish ammunition and artillery stores, and to ad- 
 mit into the king's hospital those whose cases re- 
 quired it. He would not say where they would be 
 employed, lest the enemy should come to the know- 
 ledge of it; but, as he knew where the assemblies 
 desired they should not be employed, he declared he 
 had no intention to carry them there ; and, as it had 
 been the practice to raise men for one year only, he 
 did not expect to detain them so long as that. 
 
 These proposals were very agreeable to the com- 
 missioners. The assembly of Massachusetts bay, 
 which was then sitting, discovered a dislike to the 
 demands which had been made by Lord Loudoun, 
 for barrack articles and quarters for the king's troops, 
 when they occasionally came into the province; but 
 it proceeded to no length, and the demands were 
 complied with. 
 
 Mr. Phipps, the lieut.-governor, rejoiced in the 
 success of this convention. His declining age and 
 health would not admit of his giving close attention 
 to it; but Lord Loudoun facilitated this measure- by 
 application to the commissioners, as a board, and 
 to such of them personally, as had the greatest influ- 
 ence at the board, or in the assemblies. Much re- 
 spect was shewn to his lordship, and there had been, 
 at no time, a fairer prospect of a good harmony be- 
 tween the officers of the crown and the assemblies 
 and people of the colonies, than there was at this 
 time. 
 
 Although the plan of opera ions for the next year 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 38T> 
 
 p/as not made public, enough appeared, to make it 
 probable that the principal object was the reduction 
 of Louisburg, by a competent naval force, and the 
 regular troops; and that the provincials, joined to 
 such a number of regulars as should be judged pro- 
 per, were to remain on the defensive, as guards and 
 garrisons for the protection of the frontiers. 
 
 In all former wars between England and France, 
 the Indians, upon the eastern frontiers, had taken 
 part with the French. The poor creatures had lately 
 been visited with the small pox, which is remarkably 
 fatal to them, and they were reduced to so small a 
 number that the French neglected them: and fear- 
 ing they should irrecoverably lose the territory which 
 remained to them, they desired to continue in peace, 
 and made proposals for renewing the treaty. The 
 lieut.-governor, willing to take the advantage of this 
 pacific disposition, had determined to meet the as- 
 sembly the last of March, but, a few days before the 
 time of meeting he fell sick, and died the 4th of April. 
 
 It fell to the council to act in a twofold capacity, 
 as governor, and as the second branch of the legis- 
 lature. Not judging it convenient to proceed on a 
 treaty with the Indians, until a governor should ar- 
 rive in the province, and little other business being 
 necessary, after several votes for completing the 
 levies, and an act for laying an embargo on all ves- 
 sels in the several harbours, within the province, the 
 assembly was dissolved. The design of this act was 
 to prevent the discovery of the expedition against 
 Louisburg. A flag of truce from thence was detain- 
 ed at Boston, and the people belonging to her put 
 under confinement. 
 
 Before the session, in May 1 757, for the election 
 of counsellors, letters came to hand from Mr. Bollan, 
 the province agent in England, informing the coun- 
 cil that the king had been pleased to appoint Thos. 
 Pownall, Esq., to be the governor of the province 
 in the room of Mr. Shirley ; and that the newly ap- 
 pointed governor was to embark for his government 
 by way of Halifax, the next day after the date of 
 the letters. The council, therefore in a speech to 
 the house, recommended to act only upon business 
 of great necessity, and to defer all other matters 
 until the governor's arrival. This was a compliment 
 to the new governor, but did not prevent either house 
 from going on with whatever business came before 
 them as usual. 
 
 Among other matters, a bill was brought in and 
 passed both houses, for making the district of Dan- 
 vere a town, by which a right would be acquired of 
 sending two members to the general assembly. By 
 the king's instructions to the governor, he was strictly 
 charged to consent to no act for making a new town, 
 unless, by a clause in it, there should be a restraint 
 of this power of sending representatives; and Dan- 
 vers, a few years before, when it had been separated 
 from the town of Salem, was made a district and not 
 a town, because districts had not this power. Every 
 governor and lieut governor had obsei-ved this in- 
 struction; and it was thought by some of the council 
 an ill-judged measure, to concur with the house in 
 passing this bill, as it carried the appearance of in- 
 fluence by the house, on whom they depended for 
 their election. The house had always disliked the 
 instruction, as it prevented the increase of the num- 
 ber of members, which added to the importance of 
 the house. The council should have approved of it, 
 because, as the importance of the house increased, 
 that of the council lessen4 in proportion ; especially 
 in all elections which were made by the joint votes 
 of council and house. In earlier times of the consti- 
 
 HIST, OF AMER. Nos. 49 & 50. 
 
 tutiou, when the powers of the governor had devolved 
 upon the council, they had been very scrupulous in 
 maintaining the prerogative in every part, and con- 
 sidered themselves under as strong obligations to 
 adhere to the observance of the royal instruction, as 
 the governor or lieut.-governor. There had not been 
 any instance of a protest in form, in imitation of the 
 practice in the house of lords. Upon this occasion, 
 one of the council desired his dissent might be en- 
 tered, and it stands upon record. 
 
 " The question, whether the bill entitled an act 
 for erecting the district of Danvers into a township 
 shall be enacted, having passed in the affirmative, I 
 dissent for the following reasons : 
 
 " First. Because it is the professed design of the 
 bill to give the inhabitants, who now join with tne 
 town of Salem in the choice of representatives, a 
 power of choosing by themselves; and the number 
 of which the house of representatives may at present 
 consist, being full large, the increase must have a 
 tendency to retard the proceedings of the general 
 court, and to increase the burden which, by their 
 long session every year, lies upon the people, and 
 must likewise give the house an undue proportion to 
 the board of the legislature, where many affairs are 
 determined by a joint ballot of the two houses. 
 
 "Second. Because, there being no governor nor 
 lieut.-governor in the province, it is most agreeable 
 to his majesty's commission to the late governor, to 
 the message of this board to the house, at opening 
 the session, and, in itself, is most reasonable, that 
 all matters of importance should be deferred until 
 there be a governor or lieut.-governor in the chair. 
 
 "Third. Because the board, by passing this bill, 
 as the second branch of the legislature, necessarily 
 bring it before themselves, as the first branch, for as- 
 sent or refusal; and such members as vote for the 
 bill in one capacity, must give their assent to it in 
 the other, directly against the royal instruction to 
 the governor, when the case is in no degree neces- 
 sary for the public interest; otherwise their doings 
 will be inconsistent and absurd. 
 
 " Council Chamber, Thomas Hutchinson." 
 
 June 9, 1757. 
 
 A bill, receiving the assent of the governor con- 
 trary to the instructions given by the king, it is 
 natural to suppose, would have been disallowed by 
 the king; but the council kept no correspondence 
 by letters with the king's ministers, and this bill, 
 with others, received the royal allowance, probably 
 without being observed to be contrary to the instruc- 
 tions; which would not have been the case, if there 
 had been a governor or lieut.-governor, it having 
 been their constant practice to make their observa- 
 tions upon every act, when sent to England to be 
 laid before the king. 
 
 The military operations for the year 1757 were 
 carried on upon the plan which had been conjec- 
 tured. The men raised in Massachusetts bay and 
 the other colonies of New England, were posted at 
 Fort William Henry, Fort Edward, and other places 
 on the frontiers, under the command of an'officer of 
 the regular forces. 
 
 Lord Loudoun with the main body of the regular 
 troops, under the convoy of one fifty-gun ship, one 
 twenty, and two sloops, the whole fleet consisting of 
 ninety sail, and the troops being in number 6,000, 
 left New York the 20th of June, to proceed to Hali- 
 fax. The fleet had lain ready for some time, expect- 
 ing intelligence of the arrival of men of war and 
 transports from England, destined also to Halifax ; 
 but, it growing late, at length sailed without advice. 
 
386 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, 
 
 Soon after the news of the sailing of this fleet, in- 
 telligence was brought to Boston, of six French ships 
 of the line and one frigate, seen off Cape Sable ; 
 which filled with anxiety every man who had the 
 public interest at heart, until advice was received of 
 the arrival of the English fleet at Halifax, ten days 
 after it left New York. 
 
 Admiral Holburne, with the fleet and transports 
 from England, joined those from New York, at Hali- 
 fax, the 9th of July. 
 
 In this fleet came Mr. Pownall, the newly ap- 
 pointed governor for Massachusetts bay; and from 
 Halifax he proceeded to Boston, where he arrived 
 the 2nd of August. This was his third passage to 
 America. In 1754, when Sir Danvers Osborne came 
 over to the government of New York, Mr. Pownall 
 was in his family, and brought with him, or received 
 soon after, a commission as lieut.-governor of New 
 Jersey, the governor whereof, Mr. Belcher, was old 
 and infirm; and in case of his death, Mr. Pownall 
 would probably have been his successor. With a 
 view to make himself acquainted with the affairs of 
 the colonies, he was present at Albany while the 
 commissioners held their meeting there, and, soon 
 after, made a visit to Massachusetts bay; and Mr. 
 Shirley appointed him, in conjunction with a gen- 
 tleman of the council and another of the house, 
 to solicit the aid of the colonies of Pennsylvania 
 and New York, in carrying on the war. He 
 also accompanied to Alexandria the governors, 
 &c., who met General Braddock at that place. In 
 1755, he went back to England, and returned to 
 America with Lord Loudoun in 1756, but continued 
 there a few months only. Upon his arrival again in 
 England, he was appointed to succeed Mr. Shirley. 
 He had acquired great knowledge of the geography, 
 history, and polity of the several American colonies, 
 and came into office with many advantages. 
 
 Great part of the people of the province who had 
 been attached to Mr. Shirley, were, in principle, 
 friends to government, and disposed to support his 
 successor in pursuing the ends of government. Many 
 who had been inimical to him, and who kept up a 
 strong party against him, though always the minority, 
 had not the esteem of the people, any further than 
 they acquired it by thoir opposition to government, 
 and professions of maintaining liberty. These were 
 the men who were most forward in offering incense 
 to the new governor; and these he took most pains 
 to secure to his interest, depending upon the prin- 
 ciples of those who were in favour of government, 
 without immediate respect to the person of the go- 
 vernor, to promote his measures for the public good. 
 But besides these, there were many who were at- 
 tached to Mr. Shirley, merely because he kept them 
 in places, and, upon their recommendation, disposed 
 of places to their friends, and also hearkened much 
 to their opinion and advice, in many affairs which 
 came before the general assembly. Between these 
 persons, and many of those who had been in opposi- 
 tion to Mr. Shirley, there was great personal enmity; 
 and it soon appeared impracticable to unite them in 
 public measures. In a short time most of the chief 
 friends to Mr. Shirley became opposers of Mr. Pow- 
 nall, and most of Mr. Shirley's enemies became Mr. 
 Pownall' s friends. A part, however, of those who 
 had been in favour of government from principle, 
 continued to support the measures of government. 
 In the latter part of his administration, they who 
 had acquired the favour of the people by opposing 
 Mr. Shirley, lost it by supporting Mr. Pownall, and 
 were no longer able to do him any more service. 
 
 They failed of their elections into the assembly, v/iere 
 only they could be of use, and when he left th pro- 
 vince, he observed himself, that he had very few 
 friends remaining in the house. 
 
 The governor scarcely had time to inquire into the 
 state of public affairs, before an express arrived from 
 Major-General Webb at Fort Edward, informing 
 him that a large army of French and Indians were 
 in motion, in order to attack the forts under his 
 command, and urging, that all possible assistance 
 should immediately be afforded. The inhabitants of 
 the province, by charter, cannot be carried beyond 
 the limits of it except by their own consent, or by 
 virtue of an act of the general assembly. 
 
 The governor with the council had, in many in- 
 stances, since the charter for the public safety, done 
 those acts, w r hich, strictly and constitutionally, the 
 general assembly only had power to do. 
 
 Upon this occasion the governor caused the coun- 
 cil to be convened, and required their opinion, whe- 
 ther, in case of an attack made by the enemy upon 
 his majesty's forts without the limits of the province, 
 it would be a breach of duty in him to order the 
 militia to march beyond those limits, the restriction 
 in the charter notwithstanding. 
 
 The council considered the marching of the militia 
 beyond the bounds of the province, to join the other 
 forces there, as tending more to the defence of the 
 province, than if the militia should wait within 
 its limits, to meet the enemy there ; and though an 
 order for that purpose was not within the words, yet 
 it was within the reason, of the charter; and, there- 
 fore, they gave their opinion, that he should require 
 the militia to march. 
 
 In two or three days more, accounts arrived of 
 the progress of the enemy, to the 4th of August, 
 when they laid siege to Fort William Henry. The 
 first step taken by the governor was the creation of 
 a new officer not known in the province before; and 
 Sir William Pepperell received a commission as 
 lieut.-general over all the militia throughout the 
 province. 
 
 Orders were then issued by the governor, to the 
 colonels of the several regiments through the pro- 
 vince, to cause every man to be completely furnished 
 with anns and ammunition according to law; to 
 hold himself in readiness to march at a minute's 
 warning; and to observe the orders of Sir William 
 Pepperell. 
 
 Sir William repaired to the town of Springfield, 
 to collect there a magazine of provisions and military 
 stores, and to issue his orders from thence. 
 
 Soon after his arrival there, he received intelli- 
 gence of the surrender of Fort William Henry on 
 the 9th of August, and immediately communicated the 
 same by express to the governor at Boston; earnestly 
 urging that all the aid possible should be afforded. 
 
 The governor, by advice of council, issued orders, 
 that the several tro'ops of horse, and one-fourth part 
 of all the regiments of foot, the counties of York, 
 Nantucket, and Duke's county excepted, should be 
 drawn out immediately for the protection of the pro- 
 vince, and for the aid and assistance of his majesty's 
 forces. A train of artillery was also ordered to be 
 provided, and a regiment of artillery to be formed. 
 The governor proposed to march himself, and to 
 take the command of the force of the province; and 
 his company of cadets had orders to be ready to 
 attend him. Sir William Pepperell was ordered to 
 require the inhabitants west of Connecticut rivor to 
 destroy their wheel carriages, and to drive in their 
 cattle. In case of the approach of the enemy, it 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 was proposed to make a stand on the east side of the 
 river. 
 
 Several regiments, from the counties of Hampshire 
 and Worcester, marched towards Fort Edward, into 
 the unsettled country beyond Albany; but, before 
 they reached the fort, they were stopped by orders 
 from General Webb, who was convinced that the 
 enemy was satisfied with the acquisition of Fort Wil- 
 liam Henry, and did not design to attack Fort Ed- 
 ward; and before the 18th of August, the governor 
 received such intelligence as caused him to revoke 
 his orders for raising the militia. 
 
 All that were upon the march, as soon as they 
 came to the knowledge of General Webb's orders, 
 returned home. 
 
 It is almost incredible, that 4 or 5,000 men, most 
 of them Canadians and savages, should give such 
 an alarm to so great a province. 
 
 Reports were spread among the people, that, after 
 the surrender of the fort, the garrison had been 
 massacred by the Indians, by the countenance and 
 connivance of the French general; and it is certain, 
 that, when a detachment of the French army was 
 escorting the prisoners on their way to Fort Edward, 
 the Indians, who had been disappointed in their 
 expectations of plunder, fell upon the English, and 
 stripped many of them. The two colonels, Munro 
 and Young, with a great part of the prisoners, either 
 had not left, or went back to the French army, and 
 complained of this breach of the capitulation. About 
 six hundred fled into the woods, some quite, and 
 others almost, naked ; and the first who came into 
 Fort Edward reported the massacre of the rest. 
 Some few were killed, or never heard of; the rest 
 came in, one after another, many having lost their 
 way in the woods, and suffered extreme hardships. 
 The commander of the Massachusetts forces, colonel 
 Frye, was thought to be lost ; but, after wandering 
 about some days, came in with no other apparel 
 than his shirt. The prisoners acknowledged that 
 the French strove to restrain the Indians, but were 
 overpowered. 
 
 When the accounts of the charge attending this 
 alarm were exhibited to the general assembly, it 
 was then said by many to be more than necessary. 
 The charge, however, was allowed. The men were 
 paid at the same rate as the soldiers who had en- 
 listed into the service, and were then on the frontiers. 
 The members of the assembly have always taken 
 care that justice should be done to the soldiers in 
 public service, whether they have been impressed 
 without any promise of pay, or enlisted upon encou- 
 ragement, or assurances given. 
 
 Upon the news of the loss of Fort William Henry, 
 an express was sent to Lord Loudoun, at Halifax, to 
 inform him of it, and of the probability that Fort 
 Edward would meet with the same fate, and that 
 the enemy would make advances towards New Eng- 
 land and New York. 
 
 The express met his lordship, with the forces un- 
 der his command, on his passage from Halifax to 
 New York. He wrote to governor Pownall, that he 
 proposed, as soon as he should come to land, to 
 march directly to meet the enemy, and hoped to 
 give a good account of them. He recommended to 
 the governor, in the mean time, to harass and dis- 
 tress them, but not to hazard an engagement. 
 
 While the English fleet and army were at Hali- 
 fax, preparing for a descent upon the island of Cape 
 Breton, endeavours were used to obtain the fullest 
 knowledge of the enemy's force there ; but the ac- 
 counts varied, and were uncertain. The English 
 
 troops were embarked, in order to proceed on the 
 1st of August. On the 4th of August, a French 
 prize was brought into Halifax, having left Louis- 
 burg a few days before. It appeared, by the exa- 
 mination of the prisoners, that there were seventeen 
 ships of the line and twelve frigates then at Louis 
 burg, with four thousand regular troops, beside the 
 garrison. The summer was far advanced. The 
 troops, without great loss, might make good their 
 landing at Chapeau-rouge bay ; but there was no 
 probability of carrying the town against so strong a 
 land force, and a sea force superior to that of the 
 English. A defeat would have exposed the English 
 colonies to the ravages of the enemy, and would 
 have been of fatal consequence to the British inter- 
 est in America. It was therefore determined, in a 
 council of war of the sea and land ofiicers, by all 
 but one voice, not to proceed. 
 
 The English fleet, however, remained waiting the 
 motions of the French fleet, until the 25th of Sep- 
 tember; when, cruizing off Louisburg, a violent 
 storm arose, in which the Tilbury, a sixty gun ship, 
 was driven upon the rocks and lost; ten or twelve 
 other ships were dismasted, and others damaged, 
 and the whole fleet scattered, most of which returned 
 to England. 
 
 The French fleet had an opportunity, the whole 
 month of October, of laying waste the sea-ports of 
 New England ; and the people of Boston were not 
 free from fears, until news arrived of its having 
 sailed for Europe. 
 
 The return of Lord Loudoun, with his troops, freed 
 the colonies from apprehensions of danger from 
 any new inroads of French or Indian enemies ; but 
 winter was approaching, which caused all thoughts 
 of offensive measures to be laid aside. Thus ended 
 the third unsuccessful campaign in America. 
 
 When the governor arrived, the general assembly 
 stood prorogued to the 16th of August. 
 
 Nothing memorable happened in this short ses- 
 sion, except a proposal from the governor to the 
 assembly, to pass an act, " to empower and require 
 the civil magistrate to take up and assign quarters 
 for such of the king's troops as should come into the 
 province, under such regulations, that the troops 
 might be well accommodated, and the province be 
 burdened as little as possible." 
 
 The council and house, in a joint message to the 
 governor, excused themselves, and supposed the 
 barracks at the castle, which were intended to ac- 
 commodate one thousand men, together with the 
 barrack utensils, fire, and light, were all the pro- 
 vision proper to be made by the province. 
 
 The next session began the 23d of November. 
 In the recess, recruiting parties arrived in Boston 
 from Nova Scotia. They made application to the 
 governor for quarters. He directed them to apply 
 to the magistrates in Boston. They declined doing 
 any thing. Upon representation to Lord Loudoun, 
 at New York, he sent an express to the governor; 
 made a demand, in form, of quarters in the town of 
 Boston, alleging, that the act of parliament for 
 quarters extended to the colonies, which made any 
 provincial law unnecessary ; complained of the ma- 
 gistrates in Boston for not complying with the act of 
 parliament ; and added, that he had ordered his mes- 
 senger to wait forty-eight hours for answer, and if, 
 within that time, his demand was not complied with, 
 he would march one regiment which he had in Con- 
 necticut, another which was at Long Island, and a 
 third at New York ; and observed, that he had two 
 more in Pennsylvania, and, if they began their 
 
 2X2 
 
388 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 march, ho would on no terms revoke them, until 
 they arrived in Boston. 
 
 The assembly having met before this letter ar- 
 rived, the governor laid the letter before them, and 
 recommended it to their serious and immediate con- 
 sideration. 
 
 It is probable that the governor himself was of 
 opinion that the act of parliament did not extend to 
 America; for, in three or four days, an act of the 
 province passed the three branches of the legislature, 
 making provision for quartering troops in public 
 houses, as sinalar to the provisions made by act of 
 parliament, as the difference between the circum- 
 stances of the kingdom and those of the province 
 would admit. Upon transmitting a copy of this act 
 to Lord Louuoun, he was dissatisfied, and would not 
 allow that the assembly had any concern in the dis- 
 pute ; and added, " that in time of war, the rules 
 and customs of war must govern." 
 
 This also was laid before the assembly, and pro- 
 duced a message to the governor, declaring the opi- 
 nion of the assembly, that the act of parliament did 
 not extend to the plantations, and that the rules and 
 customs of war w'ere not the rules which the civil 
 magistrate was to govern himself by, but that a law 
 of the province was necessary for his justiiication. 
 The governor's letter, or perhaps further considera- 
 tion upon the subject, abated the resentment of the 
 general, and caused some change of sentiments. 
 The answer which he wrote to it, being communi- 
 cated to the assembly, produced a memorable mes- 
 sage to the governor, which so fully expresses the 
 sense which they then had of the constitutional au- 
 thority of parliament, that it seems to be very pro- 
 per to insert it at large. 
 
 " May it please your excellency, 
 
 '' We are very glad to perceive by the letter from 
 his excellency the earl of Loudoun, which you have- 
 been pleased to direct the secretary to lay before us, 
 that the conduct of the general court is so well ap- 
 proved of, and that he has, thereupon, counter- 
 manded the orders which he had given for marching 
 the troops to be quartered and billetted within this 
 province. 
 
 " We thank your excellency for your good offices 
 in our behalf, and for the care and* pains which we 
 are sensible you have taken to avert the troubles 
 which seemed to be coming upon us. We doubt 
 not, that future assemblies will act upon the same 
 principles with this assembly; and that the Massa- 
 chusetts province wu'i always deserve the favourable 
 opinion of the general of his majesty's forces. 
 
 " We wish to stand perfectly right with his lord- 
 ship, and it will be a great satisfaction to us, if we 
 may be able to remove his misapprehension of the 
 spring and motive of our proceedings. 
 
 " His lordship is pleased to say, that we seem 
 willing to enter into a dispute upon the necessity of 
 a provincial law to enforce a British act of parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 " We arc utterly at a loss what part of our con- 
 duct could give occasion for this expression. The 
 point in which we were obliged to differ from his 
 lordship was the extent of the provision made by act 
 of parliament for regulating quarters. We thought 
 it did not reach the colonies. Had we thought that 
 it did reach us, and yet made an act of our own to 
 enforce it, there would have been good grounds for 
 his lordship's exception, but being fully persuaded, 
 that the provision was never intended for us, what 
 better step could we take, than, agreeable to the 
 twentieth section in the articles of war, to regulate 
 
 quarters as the circumstances of the province re- 
 quire ; but still, as similar to the provision made in 
 England as possible ? And how can it be inferred 
 from thence, that we suppose a provincial act ne- 
 cessary to enforce an act of parliament ? 
 
 " We are willing, by a due exercise of the pow- 
 ers of civil government, (and we have the pleasure 
 of seeing your excellency concur with us,) to remove, 
 as much as may be, all pretence of necessity of mi- 
 litary government. Such measures, we are sure, 
 will never be disapproved by the parliament of Great 
 Britain, our dependence upon which we never had 
 a desire, or thought of lessening. From the know- 
 ledge your excellency has acquired of us you will 
 be able to do us justice in this regard. 
 
 " In our message to your excellency, which you 
 transmitted to his lordship, we declared that the act 
 of parliament, the extent of which was then in dis- 
 pute, as far as it related to the plantations, had al- 
 ways been observed by us. 
 
 " The authority of all acts of parliament which 
 concern the colonies, and extend to them, is ever 
 acknowledged in all the courts of law, and made the 
 rule of all judicial proceedings in the province. 
 There is not a member of the general court, and we 
 know no inhabitant within the bounds of the go- 
 vernment, that ever questioned this authority. 
 
 " To prevent any ill consequences which may 
 arise from an opinion of our holding such principles, 
 we now utterly disavow thorn, as we should readily 
 have done at any time past, if there had been occa- 
 sion for it; and we pray that his lordship may be 
 acquainted therewith, that we may appear in a true 
 light, and that no impressions may remain to our 
 disadvantage." 
 
 This address or message was drawn up by Mr 
 Hutchhison, then a member of the council, and of 
 the committee. 
 
 The expectation of favour from parliament, in the 
 reimbursement of their expenses, induced the coun- 
 cil and assembly to make and publish so explicit a 
 declaration of their principles, lest the construction 
 which the general had put upon their refusal to 
 conform to the mutiny act might operate to their 
 prejudice. They were nevertheless the real princi- 
 ples of those who made the declaration, and not 
 merely pretended, to serve a purpose. 
 
 The governor, observing that his predecessor had 
 suffered the house to take to themselves some share 
 of that military authority, which the charter gives 
 to the office of a governor, endeavoured to make a 
 reform. In the grants of money for the defence of 
 the province, the house, with whom all grants must 
 originate, in several late instances, had appropriated 
 the money granted, to the payment of such a num- 
 ber of men as should be posted in such places, or 
 employed in such service, as the votes of the house 
 expressed, and restrained the governor and council 
 from drawing it out of the treasury for any other 
 purpose. Mr. Shirley, to keep the house in good 
 humour, and thereby to promote his general design, 
 had submitted to this invasion. Mr. Pownall, for 
 some days, suffered a grant, made in this form, to 
 lie before him; and endeavoured to prevail on the 
 house to depart from this irregularity ; but they w-ere 
 tenacious of it, and he gave his assent, protesting 
 against the vote as a breach of the constitution. No 
 notice was taken of this in England, where there 
 was no disposition to contend with the colonies, nor 
 any apprehension of serious consequences from the 
 advances made by the people upon the prerogative. 
 
 The Massachusetts assembly, which had been 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 389 
 
 used to take the lead, proposed to the other New | 
 England assemblies a meeting by ^commissioners, to | 
 agree upon measures for the defence of the New 
 England colonies. New Hampshire and Rhode 
 Island returned no answer to this proposal. Con- 
 necticut appointed commissioners, who met the Mas- 
 sachusetts commissioners at Boston, and a plan of 
 measures was agreed upon, and New Hampshire 
 and Rhode Island were invited to accede ; but the 
 whole affair dropped, by the neglect of the assem- 
 blies to act upon the report of the commissioners. 
 
 (1758.) Lord Loudoun, soon after, appointed a 
 meeting of the governors of New York and of the 
 New England colonies, or of commissioners from the 
 colonies, together with such officers of the army as ho 
 thought fit, to be held at Hartford in Connecticut, 
 20th of February, where he intended to lay before 
 them a plan of measures for the ensuing year. The 
 governor of Massachusetts bay, New York, and Con- 
 necticut, and two commissioners from Rhode Island, 
 met accordingly; but it soon appeared, that what- 
 ever might be the private opinions of the governors 
 or commissioners, they could not ensure the concur- 
 rence of the assemblies. The general, not being 
 able to effect his purpose at this meeting, went for- 
 ward to Boston, hoping to succeed as well there as 
 he had done the last year. But he was disappointed. 
 He came to town the first day of the session of the 
 assembly. The governor, in his speech, recom- 
 mended to make provision for a suitable body of 
 forces to co-operate in aid and assistance to his 
 majesty's troops, to the eastward. 
 
 This gave room to conjecture that another expe- 
 dition to Louisburg was intended. The season was 
 advanced, and there was no time to spare. Twenty- 
 two hundred men was the full number desired. 
 From some cause or other, the general and the 
 governor did not perfectly harmonize. The propo- 
 sal laboured in the assembly. Six days were spent 
 without any vote. Certain queries were then laid 
 before the general, to which answers were desired. 
 How long are the men to continue in service? 
 What officers are they to be under? Where is the 
 command to be ? How are they to be paid, armed, 
 and victualled ? What is their destination ? What 
 will be the whole force, when they shall have joined it ? 
 
 The general was much displeased with these queries, 
 considereo them as dilatory pleas, and was delibe- 
 rating in what manner to reply to them, when an 
 express came to town from New York, bringing intel- 
 ligence that the Earl of Loudoun was superseded, 
 and Major-General Abercrombie appointed com- 
 mander in chief of his majesty's forces. The same 
 express brought letters to the governor from the 
 secretary of state, Mr. Pitt, recommending, in the 
 strongest terms, an exertion on the part of the pro- 
 vince, and giving encouragement that a compensa- 
 tion should be made in proportion. It was expected, 
 that the forces would be employed in the reduction 
 of Canada ; the object, above all others, wished for 
 by the people of New England. The house now 
 made no queries, but came immediately to a resolve, 
 " to raise seven thousand men by enlistment for the 
 intended expedition against Canada, to be formed 
 into regiments under such officers, being inhabitants 
 of the province, as his excellency the captain-general 
 shall appoint; to continue in service no longer than 
 the first of November, and to be dismissed as much 
 sooner as his majesty's service shall admit." 
 
 This was the greatest exertion ever made by the 
 province. From the proposal made by Lord Lou- 
 doun, they expected nothing more than another at- 
 
 tempt upon Louisburg. Now, they had in view the 
 country westward, considered the reduction of Ti- 
 conderoga and Crown Point to be certain, and that 
 the possession of all Canada would soon follow. But 
 the benefits expected from this acquisition were no- 
 thing more than a freedom from that distress which 
 they were liable to, every time a war broke out be- 
 tween England and France. Whenever America 
 should be actually subject to the supreme authority 
 of the British empire, there would be no longer any 
 reason to fear French nor Indian enemies, which 
 had been a scourge to the colonies from their first 
 settlement. An empire, separate or distinct from 
 Britain, was then expected, or desired. From the 
 common increase of inhabitants, in a part of the 
 globe which nature afforded every inducement to 
 cultivate, settlements would gradually extend; and, 
 in distant ages, an independent empire would pro- 
 bably be formed. This was the language of that day. 
 
 Seven thousand men was a great proportion of the 
 whole people to be raised, and sent out of the pro- 
 vince. The bounty to enlist was large : the wages 
 of a soldier were much higher than those of any 
 soldiers in Europe. Many officers depended upon 
 the number of men they could enlist, to entitle them 
 to their commissions. Four thousand five hundred 
 only could be raised by voluntary enlistment, and 
 the remaining twenty-five hundred, by a subsequent 
 act or order of court, were drawn from the militia, 
 and impressed into the service. Between two and 
 three thousand men were raised by the other colo- 
 nies, which made more than nine thousand provin- 
 cials, who, with between six and seven thousand re- 
 gulars and rangers in the king's pay included, all 
 marched to lake George, where general Abercrom- 
 bie in person was in command. Lord Howe ar- 
 rived in Boston, from England, after the forces had 
 left the province, and, immediately upon his land- 
 ing, began his journey, and joined the army before 
 any action took place. 
 
 This body of men, the greatest which had ever 
 been assembled in arms in America, since it was 
 settled by the English, embarked on lake George, 
 the 5th of July, for the French fortress at Ticonde- 
 roga. and landed the next day at a cove, and landing- 
 place, from whence a way led to the advanced guard 
 of the enemy. Seven thousand men, in four co- 
 lumns, then began a march through a thick wood. 
 The columns were necessarily broken; their guides 
 were unskilful ; the men were bewildered and lost ; 
 and parties fell in one upon another. Lord Howe, 
 the life of the army, at the head of a column which 
 was supported by the light infantry, being advanced, 
 fell in with a party of the enemy, consisting of about 
 four hundred regulars and some Indians. Many of 
 them were killed, and one hundred and forty eight 
 taken prisoners. This, however, was a dearly pur- 
 chased victory, for lord Howe was the first who fell 
 on the English side : whether shot by the enemy, 
 or by his own people, was uncertain. One of the 
 provincial colonels present supposed the last, not 
 merely from the disorderly firing, but from a view 
 of the body ; the ball entering, as he said, at his 
 back, when" he was facing the enemy. 
 
 The general assembly at Massachusetts Bay, upon 
 a suggestion from the governor to some of the mem- 
 bers, testified their respect to the memory of lord 
 Howe, by granting a sum of money fora monument, 
 which has been placed in Westminster Abbey. 
 " In the house of representatives. 
 
 " The great and general court, bearing testimony 
 to the sense which the province had, of the services 
 
390 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 and military virtues of the late lord viscount Howe, 
 who fell in the last campaign, fighting in the cause 
 <tf the colonies, and also to express the affection 
 which their officers and soldiers bore to his command, 
 
 " Ordered, that the sum of two hundred and fifty 
 pounds be paid out of the public treasury, to the 
 order of the present lord viscount Howe, for erect- 
 ing a monument to his lordship's memory, to be 
 built in such manner, and situated in such place, as 
 the present lord viscount Howe shall choose, and 
 that his excellency the governor be desired to ac- 
 quaint his lordship therewith, in such manner that 
 the testimony be engraved on such monument. 
 
 " In council read and concurred 
 
 " Consented to by the governor." 
 
 The report of his death caused consternation as 
 well as grief, through the army, which had placed 
 much confidence in him. 
 
 The troops returned, the next day, to the place 
 where they landed, much fatigued. Colonel Brad- 
 street, having been sent with a detachment to take 
 possession of a saw-mill at about two miles distance 
 from the main body of the enemy at Ticonderoga, 
 found it deserted. 
 
 The army marched there that evening. The pri- 
 soners agreed in their accounts, that the enemy's 
 force was about 6000 men, of which eight battalions 
 were regular troops, the remainder Canadians and 
 Indians ; that they were encamped before the fort, 
 and were enclosing their camp with the best breast- 
 work they could, by felling trees with their branches 
 interwoven, &c. ; that 3000 men had been sent off 
 under Monsieur de Levi, mostly Canadians and 
 Indians, to the Mohawk river, but, upon news of 
 the approach of the English army, had been recalled, 
 and were expected every hour. 
 
 From this intelligence, the general thought no 
 time ought to be lost, and that an attack should be 
 made without delay. 
 
 Early in the morning of the 8th, Mr. Clerk, the 
 chief engineer, was sent to reconnoitre. He judged 
 it practicable to carry the works, if attacked before 
 they were completed. It was, thereupon, resolved 
 to begin immediately. 
 
 The whole army, except a guard for the boats, and 
 a provincial regiment at a saw-mill, was in motion. 
 The attack was to be made by the regular forces, 
 who had orders to march up to the breast-work, rush 
 upon the fire of the enemy, but not to fire themselves 
 until they should be within the works. 
 
 The provincials in the rear were to support the 
 regulars, who advanced with great bravery, but were 
 surprised to find the intrenchment much stronger 
 than lepresented. 
 
 The enemy were within a breast-work, which had 
 been thrown up eight or nine feet high. The ground 
 before it was covered to a considerable breadth with 
 trees fallen one upon another, and the branches 
 interwoven so thick as to bar the passage of the 
 troops, while they were exposed to the swivel guns 
 and small arms of the enemy incessantly firing upon 
 them. The provincials, generally undisciplined, 
 could not be kept from firing in the rear, and at 
 random ; and some of their own officers admitted, 
 that some of the regulars probably fell by that cir- 
 cumstance. Major Proby, lieut.-colonel Bever, and 
 other officers, were killed whilst attempting to 
 mount the breast-work ; which but a small part of 
 the army had reached, when they were called off 
 from the attack, which had been several times re- 
 peated, the whole action having continued two or 
 three hours 
 
 About 500 regulars were killed upon the spot, and 
 about 1,200 wounded. Of the provincials 100 were 
 killed, and 250 wounded. 
 
 The army still consisted of 13 or 14,000. 
 
 The enemy was much inferior in number. The 
 retreat, nevertheless, was precipitate. Early in the 
 morning of the 9th the whole army embarked in 
 their boats, and arrived at the other end of the lake, 
 and landed in the evening. Provisions, intrenching 
 tools, and many stores, of various kinds fell into the 
 hands of the enemy. The English arms have rarely 
 suffered greater disgrace. 
 
 Before the news of this ill success, the governor 
 of Massachusetts bay had acquainted the general, 
 that the militia were ordered to hold themselves in 
 readiness. After the repulse, the general thanked 
 him for the orders, but hoped he should not want 
 the men. Letters came also to the governor, to be 
 forwarded to General Amherst, at Louisburg, to call 
 him from thonce, as soon as the service would admit. 
 These letters never were received by General Am- 
 herst, nor was it known how they could miscarry. 
 The failure caused a delay until duplicates came to 
 hand, and he did not arrive in Boston until the 13th 
 of September. He began his march from Boston 
 to Albany, with 4,500 men, on the 16th. 
 
 Whether any further attempt would have been 
 made that year, if they had arrived sooner, is doubt- 
 ful. It is certain that, whatever may have been in 
 contemplation, nothing was done, and General Am- 
 herst, in a short time, himself returned to Boston, 
 and went from thence to Halifax. 
 
 In the interval between the repulse at Ticonde- 
 roga and the arrival of General Amherst, Colonel 
 Bradstreet, with 3,000 of the provincials, and 120 
 regulars, stole a march upon Montcalm, and before 
 he could send a detachment from his army to lake 
 Ontario, by the way of St. Lawrence, went up the 
 Mohawk river. About the 25th of August, they ar- 
 rived at fort Frontenac, surprised the garrison, who 
 were made prisoners of war, took and destroyed nine 
 small vessels and much merchandise ; but having 
 intelligence of a large body of the enemy near, 
 they made haste back to Albany. It was an expe- 
 dition of eclat. The men complained of undergoing 
 greater hardship than they had ever undergone be- 
 fore, and many sickened and died by the fatigue of 
 the march. 
 
 Louisburg was reduced this year, by the fleet un- 
 der Admiral Boscawen, and the army under General 
 Amherst. It did not surrender until the 26th of 
 July. Whatever the plan may have been, it was 
 too late to proceed upon an expedition up the river 
 St. Lawrence. They had no knowledge then of 
 Abercrombie's misfortune. Admiral Boscawen, after 
 taking possession of the island St. John, included 
 in the capitulation of Louisburg, sailed with the fleet 
 for England. 
 
 An expedition for dispossessing the French of Fort 
 du Quesne, near the Ohio, had, at first, a very un- 
 favourable prospect. The English forces met with 
 a variety of obstructions and discouragements ; and, 
 when they had advanced within thirty or forty miles 
 of the fort, were at a stand, deliberating whether 
 they should go forward, or not. Receiving intelli- 
 gence that the garrison was in a weak condition, 
 they pushed on. Upon their arrival at the fort, they 
 met with no opposition. The enemy had deserted 
 it some days before, for want of provisions, as was 
 generally believed; and it was added, that the pro- 
 visions intended to supply that fort were destroyed 
 by Bradstreet at fort Frontenac. Its greatest se- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 391 
 
 viirity seems to have been the difficulty of coming 
 .it it, with an array furnished with artillery, &c. 
 
 The Massachusetts forces this year suffered much 
 by mortality while in camp; and great numbers 
 died by sickness upon the road, and after their re- 
 turn ; especially of those who were in Bradstreet's 
 expedition. 
 
 The commissions of Thomas Hutchinson, Esq. for 
 lieut.-governor, and Andrew Oliver, Esq. for secre- 
 tary of Massachusetts bay, were published in council, 
 June 1,1758. 
 
 The ill success of General Abercrombie at Ticon- 
 deroga caused his recall. He seemed to expect and 
 desire it. He was succeeded by General Amherst. 
 
 (1759.) Whatever might be the real intentions of 
 government in 1758, there was no room to doubt of 
 its determination in 1759, to prosecute with vigour 
 an expedition against Canada. Mr. Pitt, in his let- 
 ter to the governor, pressed with much earnestness, 
 the raising, this year, of as many men as were raised 
 the last; and promised, as he had done before, a re- 
 compense in proportion to the active vigour and 
 strenuous efforts wherewith the province should ex- 
 ert itself. 
 
 The difficulty of carrying the vote of the assembly, 
 last year, for 7,000 men, into effect, caused a less 
 number to be voted this year. The whole to be 
 raised was 5,000 only ; and, of these, 400 were to 
 be employed under the governor, as a guard or de- 
 fence in building a fort at the mouth of the river 
 Penobscot. This was consented to by the general 
 at the governor's request. As the navy was in great 
 want of seamen, it was also agreed, that as many 
 men as would enlist for the sea service should be ac- 
 counted part of the number ; and provision was made, 
 that if the whole number did not enlist within a time 
 limited, the deficiency should be made good by an 
 impress. 
 
 The general was dissatisfied, and repeatedly made 
 demands of additional numbers. At length, it was 
 resolved to increase the bounty, in order to encou- 
 rage 1,500 more to enlist; but if this encouragement 
 should not effect the enlistment, there was no power 
 to impress. The number, however, was nearly com- 
 pleted. 
 
 Notwithstanding the ill success of former attempts 
 for the reduction of Canada, by the co-operation of 
 an army by the river St. Lawrence, and another by 
 lake Champlain, the same plan was laid again. 
 
 In two former expeditions, the forces intended by 
 the lakes were of no use ; and the whole force of the 
 enemy was at liberty to oppose the army by the 
 river. There was the utmost hazard of failure this 
 year, from the like cause. 
 
 It was proposed, with a large body of regulars 
 and provincials, under General Amherst, to remove 
 the French from Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and 
 also from their fort at 'Niagara. The occupation of 
 the two former by the English would open a way to 
 Canada through lake Champlain. 
 
 In the month of July, General Amherst took pos- 
 session of the enemy's lines at Ticonderoga, which 
 they abandoned, after setting fire to the fort: and, 
 the beginning of August, the fort at Crown Point, 
 having been abandoned also by the French, fell into 
 the possession of the English. 
 
 Brigadier Prideaux had been sent with a proper 
 force to besiege the fort at Niagara, and, on the 19th 
 of July, walking in the trenches, was killed by the 
 carelessness of his own gunner in firing a cohorn. 
 
 Colonel Gage, upon the intelligence of this loss, 
 was r,ent from Crown Point by General Amherst to 
 
 ucceed Brigadier Prideaux. Luckily for Sir Wil- 
 liam Johnson, who, as the next officer on the spot, 
 took the command upon Prideaux's death, a body of 
 1.200 men from Detroit, c., making an attempt, on 
 the 24th of July, to throw themselves into the fort 
 as a reinforcement, were intercepted, and killed, 
 taken, or dispersed; and, the next day, the garrison 
 capitulated. There were great obstructions to the 
 passage of an army from lake Ontario into Canada 
 by the river St. Lawrence. The general recom- 
 mended to Colonel Gage to take post at La Ga- 
 lette, but too many difficulties attended such an 
 attempt, and it was laid aside ; and no assistance 
 could be afforded to the army before Quebec from 
 this quarter. 
 
 About the middle of the month of August, General 
 Amherst received information at Crown Point, that 
 M. Bourlemaque was encamped at Isle aux Noix with 
 3,500 men, and 100 cannon, and that the French 
 had four vessels on the lake, under the command of 
 the captain of a man of war. It was judged neces- 
 sary to build a brigantine, a radeau, and a sloop of 
 sixteen guns. There could be no prospect of having 
 such a fleet ready until the beginning of October. 
 
 The fleet under Sir Charles Saunders, with the 
 army under General Wolfe, arrived before Quebec 
 the latter part of June. The general, after many 
 unsuccessful attempts to gain the possession of that 
 city, was, on the 2nd of September, in a critical 
 situation, and, to use his own words, met with "such 
 a choice of difficulties, as to be at a Toss how to de- 
 termine." 
 
 With an army, of which, he says, " between 4 
 and 5,000 men were nearly the whole strength," 
 he landed on the 13th of September, and, with tho 
 loss of his own life, obtained a victory over the ene- 
 my, which was made the more certain by the fall of 
 Montcalm, the French general, about the same time 
 with that of the English general. 
 
 General Monckton being shot through the lungs, 
 which happily did not prove mortal, the completing 
 of the victory, and the reduction of the city by capi- 
 tulation, three days after, was reserved for General 
 Townshend. 
 
 No communication could be opened between the 
 two armies : but it is extremely probable, that, if a 
 great part of the French force had not been with- 
 drawn from Quebec to attend the motions of General 
 Amherst, the attempt made by General Wolfe must 
 have failed. 
 
 The Massachusetts forces this year were of great 
 service. 2,500 served in garrison at Louisburg and 
 Nova Scotia, in the room of the regular troops, taken 
 from thence to serve under General Wolfe. Several 
 hundred served on board the king's ships as seamen, 
 and the remainder of the 6,500 men, voted in the 
 spring, served under General Amherst. Besides 
 this force, upon application from General Wolfe, 
 300 more were raised and sent to Quebec by the 
 lieut.-governor, in the absence of the governor at 
 Penobscot. These served as pioneers, and in other 
 capacities, in which the regulars must otherwise have 
 been employed. 
 
 The city of Quebec was reduced. Montreal be- 
 came the seat of the French governor. The inhabi- 
 tants of Canada, in general, remained subjects of the 
 French king, and a considerable military force was 
 still within the province. General Amherst, on the 
 llth of October, embarked his army in batteaus, 
 under the convoy of the armed vessels which he had 
 caused to be built, and went from Crown Point part 
 of the way down the lake; but meeting with bad 
 
392 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 weather and contrary winds, on the 19th resolved 
 to return to Crown Point, and to desist from any 
 further attempt until the next year. 
 
 The fleet returned to England, and General Mur- 
 ray was left in command with a strong garrison at 
 Quebec. 
 
 Such of the Massachusetts forces as had been sent 
 to Louisburg and Nova Scotia were held in service, 
 although the term for which they enlisted was ex- 
 pired. The remainder were discharged, and re- 
 turned home. 
 
 (1760.) General Amherst made application to the 
 Massachusetts for the same number of men for the 
 service of the next year, as they had raised the last. 
 The reduction of Canada was still the object. This 
 alone was found to be a sufficient stimulus to the 
 assembly, and they 'did not need other arguments 
 from the governor. The generous compensations 
 which had been every year made by parliament, not 
 only alleviated the burden of taxes, which otherwise 
 would have been heavy, but, by the importation of 
 such large sums of specie, increased commerce; and 
 it was the opinion of some, that the war added to 
 the wealth ot the province, though the compensation 
 did not amount to one-half the charges of government. 
 The assembly, at the session in January, 1760, 
 first granted a large bounty to the men in garrison 
 at Louisburg and Nova Scotia, to encourage them 
 to continue in service. A vote. was then passed for 
 raising 5,000 men more, upon the same encourage- 
 ment as those of the last year had received. Soon 
 after, the governor received letters from Mr. Pitt, 
 making the like requisition as had been made by 
 him last year, and giving the same assurances cf 
 compensation. At the beginning of the year the 
 English interest in Canada was in a precarious state. 
 Quebec had been besieged in the spring, after a bat- 
 tle in which General Murray had lost a considerable 
 part of his garrison. Fortunately, Lord Colville 
 arrived at a critical time, and caused the siege to be 
 raised. 
 
 This danger being over, and there being no pro- 
 bability of any French force from Europe, it seemed 
 agreed, that all Canada must fall in the course of 
 the summer. The Massachusetts enlistments went 
 on but slowly. Only 3,300 of the proposed 5,000 
 men enlisted, and 700 only remained! in garrisons at 
 Louisburg and Nova Scotia. 
 
 A fire in Boston, the night after the 20th of March, 
 exceeded the great fire, as it had always been styled, 
 in 1711. It began in Cornhill, at a house known 
 by the name of the Brazen Head, south of the town- 
 house. Three or four houses were burnt, and the 
 progress of it seemed to be stopped, when a violent 
 wind at north-west came on suddenly, and it con- 
 sumed, in that direction, between Cornhill and the 
 harbour, 150 houses great and small. The news- 
 papers made the damage amount to 300,000/. ster- 
 ling. A brief from the governor supposed, that, at 
 a moderate computation, it amounted to at least 
 100,000/. Others, who had observed the increased 
 value of the land upon which the houses stood, esti- 
 mated the loss at not more than 50,000/., and judged, 
 that if the donations could have been equally distri- 
 buted, no great loss would have been sustained. 
 
 Governor Pownall's administration was short. In 
 November 1759, it was thought proper to nominate 
 him to the government of South Carolina, in the 
 room of Mr. Littleton, appointed governor of Ja- 
 maica. Mr. Bernard, governor of New Jersey, was 
 appointed to succeed Mr. Pownall. 
 
 The news of Mr. Pownall's recall did not arrive 
 
 n Boston until the latter part of February. He con- 
 tinued there until the election of counsellors was 
 
 ast for the year 1760, and sailed for England the 
 3rd of June. 
 
 From the arrival of Governor Bernard, Auyutt Ind, 
 1760, to the commencement of the revolution. 
 
 (1760.) Mr. Bernard was detained in New Jer- 
 ey, waiting for his commission longer than he ex- 
 pected. In this time the business of the assembly, 
 which Mr. Pownall had left sitting, was completed 
 by Mr Hutchinson, the lieutenant-governor, who 
 made a short prorogation, that the new governor 
 might have the earliest opportunity of meeting 
 them, if he thought fit. The people had conceived 
 a very favourable opinion of him, and evidenced it 
 by public marks of respect, as he travelled through 
 the province, and upon his arrival at the seat of 
 government. 
 
 In this session an addition was made of five hun- 
 dred men to the forces under General Amherst. The 
 county of York was divided, and two new counties 
 erected, Lincoln, and Cumberland, on the eastern 
 side, the western part retaining the name of York. 
 
 The Massachusetts forces served this year, in 
 conjunction with other provincials and about 1600 
 regulars, under Colonel Haviland. They entered 
 Canada from Crown Point by lakeChamplaivi ; while 
 General Amherst, with the troops under his imme- 
 diate command, went from Albany, by the Mohawk 
 river, to lake Ontario, and from thence by the river 
 St. Lawrence ; and General Murray, with part of 
 the army which was at Quebec, went from thence 
 up the same river. The three armies met about the 
 same time at Montreal ; which facilitated the reduc- 
 tion of that city, and of course of the whole pro- 
 vince of Canada. 
 
 The news of this event was brought to Boston on 
 the 23d of September, and was no where received 
 with greater joy, no part of the king's dominions 
 being more interested in it. 
 
 Governor Bernard, in his speech to the assembly 
 upon this occasion, put them in mind of " the bless- 
 ings they derive from their subjection to Great Bri- 
 tain, without which they could not now have been 
 a free people ; for no other nation upon earth could 
 have delivered them from the power they had to 
 contend with." 
 
 The council, in their address, acknowledge that, 
 " to their relation to Great Britain, they owe their 
 present freedom," and then echo back, in imitation 
 of the pattern they aimed to follow in addresses, 
 that " no other nation upon earth could have deli- 
 vered them from the power they had to contend with.'* 
 
 The house, without scrupling to make, in express 
 words, the acknowledgment of their subjection, ne- 
 vertheless explain the nature of it. They " are 
 sensible of the blessings derived to the Britien colo- 
 nies from their subjection to Great Britain ; and the 
 whole world must be sensible of the blessings de- 
 rived to Great Britain, from the loyalty of the colo- 
 nies in general, and from the efforts of this province 
 in particular; which, for more than a century past, 
 has been wading in blood, and laden with the ex- 
 penses of repelling the common enemy ; without 
 which efforts, Great Britain, at this day, might have 
 had no colonies to defend :" and in the same address 
 they observe, that " the connection between the mo- 
 ther country and these provinces is founded on the 
 principles of filial obedience, protection, and justice." 
 
 These addresses have the appearance of caution, 
 which are not before met with in any public papers 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 393 
 
 since the revolution. Perhaps it was observed only 
 by the persons who composed them, and not by the 
 council or house in general. > 
 
 The greatest, hopes from the reduction of Canada, 
 as far as could be judged from the public prayers of 
 the clergy, as well as from the conversation of people 
 in general, was, " to sit quiet under their own vines 
 and fig trees, and to have none to make them afraid." 
 All they had ever suffered, as a community, had been 
 from their French and Indian neighbours. In every 
 respect, except the charges which had been occa- 
 sioned by Indian wars, they had felt less of the bur- 
 lens of government, than any people besides, who 
 enjoyed so much of the benefit of it. That their 
 civil and religious principles might be transmitted 
 to the latest posterity, was an expression in general 
 use among the clergy. 
 
 In Massachusetts bay especially, there was a very 
 general satisfaction with the form of government ac- 
 cording to their charter. Although under the first 
 charter, the government had been more popular, the 
 governor himself being annually elected, they were 
 so fully satisfied with the new. that few persons, if 
 any, wished to return to the old. From heats and 
 animosities in popular elections in towns, they 
 judged of the danger from such an election by all 
 the people of the province. 
 
 The controversies between governors and their 
 assemblies had been occasioned by different con- 
 structions of their respective powers, as derived from 
 the charter ; but these were pretty well settled. 
 When a people are in such a state, they are not apt 
 to be disturbed by mere theoretical notions of govern- 
 ment, or with ideas of any particular degree of natu- 
 ral liberty which it is not in their power to alienate. 
 
 Speculative men had already figured in their 
 minds an American empire, but in such distant 
 ages, that no body then living could expect to see 
 it. Besides, whilst the French remained upon the 
 continent, the English were apprehensive lest, 
 sooner or later, they should be driven from it. But 
 as soon as they were removed, a new scene opened. 
 The prospect was greatly enlarged. There was no- 
 thing to obstruct a gradual progress of settlements, 
 through a vast continent, from the Atlantic to the 
 Pacific Ocean. 
 
 The two colonies of Massachusetts bay and Con- 
 necticut claimed, by charters, the property of this 
 vast territory, at their sole disposal, so far as came 
 within the latitudes to which they were limited; the 
 small territory, possessed by Pennsylvania and New 
 York, only excepted. 
 
 Men whose minds were turned to calculations 
 found that the colonies increased so rapidly, as to 
 double the number of inhabitants in a much shorter 
 space of time than had been imagined. 
 
 From the number of inhabitants then in the se- 
 veral colonies, and a supposition that, for the time 
 to come, they might increase in the same proportion 
 as in the time past, the colonies would soon exceed 
 the parent state. 
 
 These considerations did not, of themselves, im- 
 mediately occasion any plan, or even a desire, of 
 independency. They produced a higher sense of 
 the grandeur and importance of the colonies. 
 
 Advantages in any respect, enjoyed by the sub- 
 jects in England, which were not enjoyed by the 
 subjects in the colonies, began to be considered in 
 an invidious light, and men were led to inquire, 
 with greater attention than formerly, into the rela- 
 tion in which the colonies stood to the state from 
 which they sprang. 
 
 Every argument which would give colour for the 
 removal of this distinction was favourably received : 
 and from various events, men were prepared to 
 think more favourably of independency, before any 
 measures were taken with a professed design of at- 
 taining to i f . 
 
 'Governor Bernard had been but a few weeks in 
 the province, when he found himself under the ne- 
 cessity either of making a particular family and its 
 connexions extremely inimical to him, or of doing 
 what would not have been approved of by the greater 
 part of the province. 
 
 Upon the death of the chief justice, the first sur- 
 viving judge, and two other judges, together with 
 several of the principal gentlemen of the bar, sig- 
 nified their desire to the governor that he would ap- 
 point the lieut.-governor to be the successor. When 
 Mr. Shirley was in administration he had encou- 
 raged, if not promised, a gentleman at the bar, that, 
 upon a vacancy in the superior court, he should 
 have a seat there. A vacancy happened, and Mr, 
 Shirley, from a prior engagement, or for some other 
 reason, disappointed him. He was at this time 
 speaker of the house of representatives, and he made 
 application to Governor Bernard, that the first sur- 
 viving judge might be appointed chief justice, and 
 that he might, take the place of a judge. His son, 
 Mr. Otis, author of the first political pamphlet upon 
 the rights of Americans ; also, with great warmth, 
 engaged in behalf of his father, and, not meeting 
 with that encouragement which he expected, threat- 
 ened resentment, if he should finally fail of success. 
 
 Several weeks elapsed, before any nomination was 
 made, or any thing had passed between the governor 
 and lieut.-governor, upon the subject At length it 
 was intimated to the lieut.-governor, that the gover- 
 nor, when he had been applied to by many persons 
 in his behalf, was at a loss to account for his silence 
 upon the subject. This caused a conversation, in 
 which the lieut.-governor signified that he had de- 
 sired no persons to apply in his behalf, and had 
 avoided applying himself, that the governor might 
 the more freely use his own judgment, in appointing 
 such person as should appear to him most fit. And 
 soon after, upon the lieut.-governor's being informed 
 of the governor's intention to nominate him to the 
 place, he gave his opinion, that a refusal to comply 
 with the solicitations which had been made to the 
 governor by the other person, would cause a strong 
 opposition 'to his administration, and, at the same 
 time, assured the governor, that he would not take 
 amiss the compliance, but would support his admi- 
 nistration with the name zeal as if he had been ap- 
 pointed himself. 
 
 The governor declared that, if the lieut.-governor 
 should finally refuse the place, the other person 
 would not be nominated. The expected opposition 
 ensued. The resentment in the disappointed per- 
 sons was also as strong against the lieut.-governor 
 for accepting the place, as if he had sought it, and 
 had opposed their solicitations. Both the gentlemen 
 had been friends to government. From this time 
 they were at the head of every measure in opposi- 
 tion, not merely in those points which concerned 
 the governor in his administration, but in such as 
 concerned the authority of parliament ; the opposi- 
 tion to which first began in this colony, and was 
 moved and conducted by one of them, both in the 
 the assembly and the town of Boston. From so 
 small a spark a great fire seems to have been kindled. 
 
 The news of the demise of King George the Se- 
 cond was received in Boston the 27th of December, 
 
394 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 1 760. There was no room to doubt the truth of it 
 The people on board a ship which arrived from an 
 out-port in England, all agreed in it, and the news 
 papers contained an account of it, and of the accession 
 of King George the Third, as published by authorit) 
 in the London Gazette. There was no official advice 
 and upon the governor's consulting the council, some 
 doubted the propriety of proclaiming a new king, 
 until directions should be received from the secretary 
 of state, in his name. Others were of opinion that 
 it was justifiable. It was a season of the year, when 
 it was probable that many weeks would pass before 
 orders arrived, and it would have a strange appear- 
 ance, if all writs, processes, and public acts of every 
 kind, continued, all that time, in the name of a 
 prince known to be in his grave. Upon consulting 
 precedents, they were in favour of the last opinion, and 
 the king was proclaimed on the 30th of December. 
 (1761.) On Thursday, January 1st, the governor, 
 council, &c., went into mourning. In the morning 
 a sermon was preached in the meeting-house, by 
 Mr. Cooper, one of the ministers of Boston, when 
 the whole general assembly attended. The governor 
 proposed to the rector of King's chapel to preach 
 there, in the afternoon: and the council and as- 
 sembly attended with him. This is the only in- 
 stance of a sermon preached before the general as- 
 sembly in an episcopal church. 
 
 A short time only passed, before Mr. Otis, the 
 son, appeared at the head of a party, not in opposi- 
 tion to any act of the governor, but to the past trans- 
 actions of officers in the court of admiralty, in whose 
 defence the governor would probably be engaged. 
 
 The act of parliament of the 6th of George the 
 Second, which imposed a duty of sixpence per gallon 
 upon all foreign molasses imported into the colonies, 
 gave one-third part of the forfeiture to the king, for 
 the use of the colony where the forfeiture should be 
 made, one-third to the governor, and the other to 
 the informer. 
 
 The act, though it had been made near thirty 
 years, and large sums had been forfeited, was always 
 deemed a grievance. The assembly had suffered 
 the share given to the province to lie in the court. 
 It had, besides, been the practice of the court, to 
 allow to the informer what he gave for private infor- 
 mation, and to charge it upon the third given to the 
 king for the colony, (which third nobody appeared 
 to demand,) and not upon the whole forfeiture. 
 The like practice had before obtained, in all forfeit- 
 ures where the crown, for its own use, was entitled 
 to one-third. 
 
 Mr. Otis, bred to the law, and at that time a prac- 
 titioner in the courts, took the advantage of this 
 irregularity. The merchants, some of whom had 
 been affected by these forfeitures, were easily brought 
 by a committee to prefer a petition to the general 
 assembly, praying to be heard by counsel; which 
 was granted, and Mr. Otis was the person employed. 
 It was proposed that actions should be brought, in 
 behalf of the province, against the custom-house 
 officers to whom these illegal charges had been al- 
 lowed, for the recovery of monies had and received 
 for the use of the province. 
 
 The house was easily induced to a compliance 
 with the prayer of the petition. Mr. Otis, when 
 before the council, undertook to support such an 
 action, and was very sanguine that it could not be 
 withstood. Opposition, however, was made in coun- 
 cil; and it was plainly shewn, that no such action 
 could lie. The superior court, having all the pow- 
 ers within the province of the court of king's bench 
 
 in England, might put a stop to the proceedings of 
 the court of admiralty, whenever it took cognizance 
 of a cause not within its jurisdiction, by a writ of 
 prohibition ; but in this case, jurisdiction had been 
 expressly given, by an act of parliament, to the 
 court of admiralty. The province might have ap- 
 peared by an attorney, and have taken exceptions 
 to the decree, and, if the exceptions had not pre- 
 vailed, might have brought an appeal to the high 
 court of admiralty in England; but the opportunity 
 was wilfully slipped, and there was now no remedy. 
 It was said, however, that the people were dissatis- 
 fied, and that it would not be believed that there 
 was no remedy, unless there was a trial : and a ma- 
 jority of the council concurred with the house. 
 
 The governor at first, declined his assent, and, in 
 a message to the house, gave, as the only reason, 
 their appointing the province treasurer to bring the 
 action ; whereas, the money sued for being granted 
 to the king, the king's attorney was the person in 
 whose name the action should be brought. 
 
 This objection from the governor was really of 
 no weight, because the money was granted to the 
 king for the use of the province ; and all money 
 belonging to the province had always been sued for 
 by the treasurer; particularly all arrears of taxes, 
 which had always been granted, in name, to the 
 king, though really for the use of the province. 
 But he hoped to prevent Mr. Otis from carrying on 
 the suit. 
 
 The governor, in his message, had intimated, that 
 bis consent to the vote in that form would expose 
 him to the displeasure of the king. When he found 
 bow unpopular it would be to refuse his assent, he 
 [aid the matter before the council, and demanded 
 their advice ; and they advised him, " on that occa- 
 sion, to wave his own opinion, how well soever 
 f ounded." Thereupon, he gave his assent to the 
 rote. This was esteemed a triumph, as they had 
 compelled the governor to depart from what he had 
 declared to be his judgment. But when the cause 
 came upon trial, it was very feebly supported, by 
 shewing that the charges ought not to have been 
 allowed by the court of admiralty ; and by repre- 
 senting that court, as not congenial with the spirit 
 f the English constitution, for which reason no in- 
 dulgent construction ought to be allowed to their 
 proceedings. 
 
 The court summed up the cause to the jury, so as 
 ;o shew that the action had not been supported; and 
 cautioned them against departing from the rules of 
 aw, and consequently from their oaths, in compli- 
 ance with popular prejudices : and, contrary to the 
 prevailing expectation, they found costs for the 
 defendants. 
 
 The authority of acts of parliament had never 
 )een called in question as the rule of law, when 
 hey plainly extended to the colonies. In a message 
 'rom the two houses to the governor, upon the sub- 
 ect of this trial, they acknowledge, " that every act 
 )f the province, repugnant to an act of parliament 
 extending to the plantations, is, ipso facto, null and 
 r oid." Juries were disposed to receive the law from 
 he court, and could not easily be induced to depart 
 rom their oaths. 
 
 Whilst this process was depending, Mr. Otis, who 
 
 arried it on, was equally sedulous in promoting 
 
 nother measure, which tended to raise heats and 
 
 animosities, and to destroy the powers of government. 
 
 The collectors and inferior officers of the customs, 
 merely by the authority derived from their commis. 
 ions, had forcibly entered warehouses, and even 
 
UNITED STATES, 
 
 395 
 
 dwelling-houses, upon information that contraband 
 goods were concealed in them. 
 
 The people grew uneasy under the exercise of 
 this assumed authority, and some stood upon their 
 defeuce against such entries, whilst others were 
 bringing their actions at law against the officers, for 
 past illegal entries, or attempts to enter. 
 
 When Mr. Shirley was in administration, he, as 
 the civil magistrate, gave out his warrants to the 
 officers of the customs to enter. 
 
 This appears more extraordinary, as Mr. Shirley 
 was a lawyer by education, and was allowed to be 
 a man of good sense. These warrants, however, 
 were in use some years. At length, the surveyor and 
 searcher being one day about to break open a ware- 
 house, upon an information of iron imported from 
 Spain being concealed there, a gentleman, who was 
 brother to the owner of the warehouse, and also a 
 friend to the surveyor and searcher, enquired what 
 authority he had to enter, and, thereupon, he shewed 
 the governor's warrant. The gentleman, who knew 
 the information to be ill-founded, sent for the keys, 
 and caused the warehouse to be opened; and, at 
 the same time, assured the surveyor, that, if he had 
 forced an entry, an action would have been brought 
 against him, his warrant being of no value. 
 
 This put the governor upon examining the legality 
 of his warrants, and caused him to direct the officers 
 to apply for warrants from the superior court; and, 
 from that time, writs issued, not exactly in the form, 
 but of the nature, of writs of assistance issued from 
 the court of exchequer in England. 
 
 Upon application made to the court by one of the 
 custom-house officers, an exception was taken to the 
 application; and Mr. Otis desired that a time might 
 be assigned for an argument upon it. The motion 
 was the more readily complied with, because it was 
 suggested, that the late chief justice, who was in high 
 esteem, had doubts of the legality of such writs. 
 
 It was objected to the writs, that they were of the 
 nature of general warrants ; that, although formerly 
 it was the practice to issue general warrants to search 
 for stolon goods, yet, for many years, this practise 
 had been altered, and special warrants only were 
 issued by justices of the peace, to search in places 
 set forth in the warrants; that it was equally rea- 
 sonable to alter these writs, to which there would be 
 no objection, if the place where the search was to be 
 made should be specifically mentioned, and infor- 
 mation given upon oath. The form of a writ of as- 
 sistance was, it is true, to be found in some registers, 
 which was general, but it was affirmed, without proof, 
 that the late practice in England was otherwise, and 
 that such writs issued upon special information only. 
 
 The court was convinced that a writ, or warrant, 
 to be issued only in cases where special information 
 was given upon oath, would rarely, if ever, be ap- 
 plied for, as no informer would expose himself to 
 the rage of the people. The statute of the 14th of 
 Charles II. authorized issuing writs of assistance 
 from the court of exchequer in England. The sta- 
 tutes of the 7th and 8th of William III. required all 
 that aid to be given to the officers of the customs in 
 the plantations, which was required by law to be 
 given in England. Some of the judges, notwith- 
 standing, from a doubt whether such writs were still 
 iu use in England, seemed to favour the exception, 
 and, if judgment had been then given, it is uncertain 
 on which side it would have been. The chief justice 
 was, therefore, desired, by the first opportunity in 
 his power, to obtain information of the practice in 
 England, and judgment was suspended. At the 
 
 next town, it appeared that such writs issued from 
 the exchequer, of course, when applied for ; and this 
 was judged sufficient to warrant the like practice in 
 the province. A form was settled, as agreeable to 
 the form in England as the circumstances of the 
 colony would admit, and the writs were ordered to 
 be issued to custom-house officers, for whom applica- 
 tion should be made to the chief justice by the sur- 
 veyor-general of the customs. 
 
 The ill success of these two attempts seemed to 
 have a tendency to check and discourage the spirit 
 of opposition; but it had a contrary effect. The 
 people were taught that innovations, under pretence 
 of law, were now confirmed by judgments of court 
 incompatible with English liberties, and that the au- 
 thority of courts of admiralty, and the powers of cus- 
 tom-house officers, always deemed grievous because 
 unconstitufjonal, were now established by judges de- 
 voted to the prerogative. 
 
 Mr. Otis's zeal in carrying on these causes was 
 deemed meritorious, as it was considered to arise 
 from a sincere concern for the liberties of the people. 
 His resentment against the governor was not charged 
 upon him as the motive. The town of Boston, at 
 their next election, in May, shewed the sense they 
 had of his merit, by choosing him one of their repre- 
 sentatives in the general assembly. 
 
 The government in England thought it necessary 
 to keep up in America a considerable part of the 
 military force, notwithstanding the reduction of 
 Canada, until peace should be established. 
 
 An expedition was determined to be carried on 
 this summer, against the French islands : and great 
 part of the regular troops were to be taken from the 
 continent for that service. Massachusetts bay was 
 called upon to assist in supplying provincial troops 
 in their stead, by raising two-thirds as many men 
 as they raised the last year. 3,000 men were re- 
 solved upon; but great opposition was made, and 
 the vote was kept four days on the table of the 
 house ; and then a motion was made for reconsidering 
 it; but it did not prevail, and the vote passed the 
 several branches. 
 
 Governor Bernard saw a strong party forming, at 
 the head of which, ostensibly, was Mr. Otis, the son; 
 but the father, being speaker of the house, was a 
 great support to it. 
 
 The governor flattered himself that he should be 
 able to reconcile to him, both father and son. 
 
 By the demise of the king, all civil as well as 
 military commissions must be renewed. This was 
 the only opportunity which a Massachusetts gover- 
 nor could have, of nominating persons to office, 
 at pleasure. When he came to settle the county of 
 Barnstable, where the speaker lived, he made him 
 an offer of taking to himself the principal offices in 
 the county, and of naming many of his relations and 
 friends to other offices ; and the whole county was 
 settled to his mind. He took for himself the place 
 of first justice of the county court of common pleas, 
 and also that of judge of probate, which gives much 
 weight and influence in the county. 
 
 Mr. Otis, the son, soon after appeared in favour 
 of a grant, made by the assembly to the governor, 
 of the island of Mount Desert; and there was the 
 appearance of reconciliation. It lasted but a short 
 time. Places granted by a Massachusetts governor 
 could not be taken away again at pleasure, except 
 places in the militia, which were not much valued, 
 after the title and rank, derived from them, were 
 once acquired. 
 
 (1762.) The successes of the year 1761 gave a 
 
396 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 general expectation of peace, which was disappointed 
 by the intermeddling of the Spaniards. 
 
 The Massachusetts, therefore, were again called 
 upon for the like number of men as had been in ser- 
 vice the last year, to serve upon the continent, while 
 the regulars were to be employed in an important 
 service elsewhere. The assembly determined to rais'e 
 3,200 men, which number was- satisfactory. They 
 also voted a bounty of 71. per man, to encourage 
 the enlistment of 893 men into the regular troops. 
 This is a singular instance. 
 
 Men were raised with greater ease than ever. By 
 habit they became fond of the life of a soldier. The 
 number, now required, being not half what had bet-n 
 required in several former years, there was not room 
 for many who were inclined to serve, and who, thus, 
 were obliged to remain at home. 
 
 This provision was made at a session of the as- 
 sembly, in the winter after 1761. 
 
 Another session, for election, in the summer fol- 
 lowing, passed in quiet, the ordinary business of the 
 province going on without opposition. 
 
 Soon after it was finished, the fishing towns were 
 alarmed with the news of a French force which had 
 taken possession of St. John's, Newfoundland, and 
 the inhabitants of Salem and Marblehead petitioned 
 the governor and council, to cause a ship and sloop, 
 then in the service of the province, to be fitted out 
 and employed for the guard and security of the 
 vessels employed in fishing. The council advised 
 an additional number of men for the sloop, and 
 a bounty for the encouragement of men to enlist to 
 make up the complement of the ship. The whole 
 expense did not exceed 3 or 400Z. sterling. 
 
 In September the assembly met again. 
 
 The governor, among other things in his speech, 
 took notice of this small expense, which had been 
 incurred in the recess; and afterwards, in a mes- 
 sage, recommended to them to make provision for 
 the continuance of pay to the additional number of 
 men on board the sloop. 
 
 This exercise of authority, by the governor and 
 council, was to be justified as far as precedents, from 
 the date of the charter, could justify it. In this in- 
 stance, notwithstanding, as unexceptionable perhaps 
 as any other whatever, the house thought fit to lake 
 exception; and, in a remonstrance composed by Mr. 
 Otis, to declare against such a practice, as taking 
 from the house " their most darling privilege, the 
 right of originating all taxes," and as " annihilating 
 one branch of the legislature." They say, " it would 
 be of little consequence to the people, whether they 
 were subject to George or Louis, the king of Great 
 Britain or the French king, if both were as arbi- 
 trary as both would be, if both could levy taxes 
 without parliament;" and conclude with praying 
 the governor, " as he regards the peace and welfare 
 of the province, that no measures of this nature be 
 taken for the future, let the advice of council be what 
 it may." 
 
 When the remonstrance was delivered to the go- 
 vernor, he sent it back in a private letter to the 
 speaker, and advised him to recommend the house 
 to expunge from it, and from their record, that pas- 
 sage in which the king's name was used with a free- 
 dom which was not decent. Mr. Otis resisted the 
 proposal, but was content that some qualifying words 
 should be brought in, as, "with due reverence to 
 his majesty's sacred person," or the like; but the 
 government cried out " erase them, erase them," 
 and they were ordered to be expunged. Mr. Otis 
 justified the remonstrance, and his conduct relative 
 
 to it, iu a pamphlet which he published soon aft;r 
 the session was over. No further notice was taken 
 of the remonstrance. It was calculated to raise a 
 spirit against the council, of which the lieut. -gover- 
 nor was president, and whose character was attacked 
 in newspaper publications, to some of which Mr. Otis 
 affixed his name. 
 
 The currency of Massachusetts bay had been un- 
 der as good regulation as possible, from the time 
 that paper had been exchanged for silver, which 
 was made the standard at 6s 8rf. the ounce. Gold 
 was not a lawful tender, but passed current at fixed 
 rates, a guinea at '2*s., a moidoie at 36s., &c., being 
 nearly the same proportion that gold bore to silver 
 in Europe at the time when the paper-money was 
 exchanged. Silver bullion, for a year or two past, 
 had advanced in price, in England, from 5s. 3oL to 
 5s. Id. an ounce. A greater proportion of silver 
 than of gold had been exported, and people, who 
 observed the scarcity of silver, were alarmed. A 
 bill was brought into the house of representatives 
 and passed, making gold a lawful tender at the rates 
 at which the several coins had been current for many 
 years past. 
 
 The bill was now concurred in council, and a 
 conference ensued between the two houses, the 
 lieut.-governor being at the head of the managers 
 for the council, and Mr. Otis of those for the house. 
 
 The only argument on the part of the house was 
 the danger of oppression towards debtors, by their 
 being obliged to procure silver at disadvantage. 
 
 On the part of the council, it was said, that the 
 proportion between silver and gold was different at 
 different times ; that one only ought to be the stand- 
 ard, and the other considered as merchandize; that, 
 silver being made the standard in the province, it 
 behoved government rather to reduce the rate at 
 which gold coin should pass, so as to make the pro- 
 portion between gold and silver the same in the 
 province as in Europe ; that, in such case, there 
 would be the same profit upon exporting gold as 
 silver ; but as one metal was made the standard, and 
 the only lawful tender, it was not advisable for go- 
 vernment to regulate the other, but to leave it to 
 take its chance ; and that there was no other way 
 of securing the currency from depreciation. 
 
 The house was much engaged to carry the bill 
 through, but the council stood firm, and rejected it. 
 But in a session of the assembly, some time after, 
 this bill passed into an act, and gold as well as silver 
 was made a lawful tender. But, about the same 
 time, the price of silver bullion in England fell to 
 5s. 3'/. or 5s. '2d. the ounce, and there was no longer 
 any profit by the exportation of silver rather than 
 gold. 
 
 There seems to have been no reason for men 
 enggaing more on one side the question than the 
 other, in this dispute, only as one side might appear 
 to them more just, and reasonable than the other; 
 but the lieut.-governor having taken one side of the 
 question, Mr. Otis took the other; and the court 
 and country parties took one side and the other with 
 much of the same spirit, as if it had been a contro- 
 versy between privilege and prerogative. 
 
 (1763.) The conquest of the Havannah, soon after 
 that of Martinico and Guadal oupe, brought on a treaty 
 between the contending powers in Europe ; and the 
 news of preliminaries being signed reached Boston 
 in January, 1763, and of the definite treaty, in May 
 following. 
 
 It was well known in America, that the people of 
 England, as well as the administration, were divided 
 
UNITED STATES 
 
 397 
 
 upon the expediency of retaining Canada ra.hpr 
 than the islands ; and it was also known that the 
 objection to Canada proceeded from an opinion, that 
 the cession of it by France would cause, in time, a 
 separation of the British colonies from the mother 
 country. This jealousy in England being known, 
 it was of itself sufficient to set enterprising men upon 
 considering how far such a separation was expedi- 
 ent and practicable. But the general joy in Ame- 
 rica upon the news of this cession was not caused 
 by such views. And we may well infer from the 
 addresses of the two houses upon this occasion, that 
 they could have no such thoughts. The governor, 
 in his speech, congratulated them upon so joyful an 
 event. In their address to him, they acknowledge, 
 that the evident design of the French to surround 
 the colonies was the immediate and just cause of the 
 war; that, without the protection afforded them 
 during the war, they must have been a prey to the 
 power of France; that without the compensation 
 made them by parliament, the burden of the expense 
 of the war must have been insupportable. 
 
 lu their address to the king they make the like 
 acknowledgments, and, at the conclusion, promise 
 to evidence their gratitude by every expression of 
 duty and loyalty in their power. 
 
 Mr. Otis, at the first town meeting of Boston after 
 the peace, having been chosen moderator, addressed 
 himself to the inhabitants, in a speech which he 
 caused to be printed in the newspapers, in the fol- 
 lowing words : " We in America have certainly 
 abundant reasons to rejoice. The heathen are not 
 only driven cut, but the Canadians, much more for- 
 midable enemies, are conquered and become fellow- 
 subjects. The British dominion and power may now 
 be said, literally, to extend from sea to sea, and 
 from the great river to the ends of the earth. And 
 we may safely conclude from his majesty's wise ad- 
 ministration hitherto, that liberty and knowledge, 
 civil and religious, will be co-extended, improved 
 and preserved to the latest posterity. No other con- 
 stitution of civil government has yet appeared in tho 
 world, so admirably adapted to these great purposes, 
 as that of Great Britain. Every British su! ject in 
 America is of common right, " by acts of parlia- 
 ment," and by the laws of God and nature, entitled 
 to all tiie essential privileges of Britons. By parti- 
 cular charters there are peculiar privileges granted, 
 as in justice there might and ought, in consideration 
 of the arduous undertaking to begin so glorious an 
 empire as British America is rising to. Those jea- 
 lousies, that some weak, and wicked minds have en- 
 deavoured to infuse with regard to the colonies, had 
 their birth in the blackness of darkness, and it is 
 great pity thc?y had not remained there for ever. The 
 true interests of Great Britain and her plantations 
 are mutual, and what God in his providence has 
 united, let no man dare attempt to pull asunder." 
 
 The southern colonies were molested, all the sum- 
 mer after tho peace, by inroads from the Indians, 
 and many people were killed, and others carried into 
 captivity from the frontiers. In the autumn, gene- 
 ral Gage, who succeeded General Amherst in the 
 command of the British forces, called upon the Mas- 
 sachusetts for assistance, in conjunction with the 
 other New England colonies, in order to form an 
 army early in the spring, to enter the enemy's coun- 
 try by the lakes, whilst another army from the 
 southern colonies should enter it by the Ohio. But 
 this application was coldly received by the assembly. 
 In former wars, the province had defended its own 
 frontiers without aid from the southern colonies. 
 
 Before the assembly came to a determination, there 
 was a prospect of a treaty with the Indians, and 
 they gave this treaty as a reason for referring the 
 matter to another session. A general accommoda- 
 tion soon followed. 
 
 There does not appear to have been any special 
 cause of dissatisfaction with the administiation of 
 government, at this time, in Massachusetts bay. 
 There was no complaint of invasion upon any of the 
 rights and liberties of the people. At all times, there 
 are many out of place, who wish to be in. There 
 were, indeed, great disturbances in England; but 
 nothing had occurred there, which concerned the 
 people of Massachusetts bay. Mr. Wilkes, never- 
 theless, had his partisans in America, and the sound 
 of " Wilkes and liberty" was heard in Boston, in 
 proportion to the number of inhabitants, as much as 
 in London. Men took sides in New England upon 
 mere speculative points in government, when there 
 was nothing in practice which could give any grounds 
 for forming parties. The officers of the crown, and 
 especially all officers of the customs, were considered 
 as engaged in promoting measures, more restrictive 
 of the natural rights and liberties of the people, 
 " than tho ends for which government was instituted 
 made necessary." They had the law, however, on 
 their side. Squibs were thrown at their general 
 characters, in newspapers, hand-bills, &c. 
 
 The terms whig and tory had never been much 
 used in America. The Massachusetts people, in 
 general, were of the principles of the ancient whigs ; 
 attached to the revolution, and to the succession of 
 the crown in the house of Hanover. A very few, 
 who might have been called tories in England, took 
 the name of Jacobites in America. 
 
 All of a sudden, the officers of the crown, and 
 such as were for keeping up their authority, were 
 branded with the name of tories, always the term of 
 reproach ; their opposers assuming the name of 
 whigs, because the common people, as far as they 
 had been acquainted with the parties in England, all 
 supposed the whigs to have been in the right, and 
 the tories in the wrong. 
 
 Whilst the people in the province were thus dis- 
 posed to engage in parties, the state of the colonies 
 became a matter of more serious consideration in 
 England, than it had ever been before. The amaz- 
 ing increase of the national debt, by a war engaged 
 in at the solicitations, and for the protection of the 
 colonies, seems to have caused this new attention. 
 
 The first proof of it towards Massachusetts bay was 
 an order to the governor, to obtain a more exact and 
 certain knowledge, than had ever been obtained, of 
 the number of inhabitants, distinguishing age, sex, &c. 
 
 This the governor could not obtain without the 
 aid of the assembly, by a law to compel the several 
 towns and districts to make returns of their numbers 
 Objections were made to it. Some suspected that it 
 was required for purposes, though they could not 
 discover them, to the disadvantage of the province; 
 others, and not a few, seemed to have religious 
 scruples, and compared it to David's numbering the 
 people. The proposal was referred from one session 
 to another, and, though it was finally agreed to by a 
 majority, yet many remained dissatisfied. 
 
 (1764.) As we are now fast advancing to the pe- 
 riod when a determination to resist the authority of 
 the British government was becoming universal in 
 all the colonies, we shall close our separate history 
 of Massachusetts, referring the part taken by that 
 colony, in the struggle 'for emancipation, to the ge- 
 neral history of the revolution. 
 
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
 
 THE History of New Hampshire is so exceedingly 
 slightly touched upon by Robertson, in his account 
 of the Planting of New England, most of his frag- 
 ment being occupied with the settlement of Massa- 
 chusetts, that we shall give a more detailed account 
 of its rise and progress." 
 
 The grants to Mason and others Beginning of the 
 settlements at Portsmouth and Dover Whelewrighfi 
 Indian purchase Neal's adventures Discourage- 
 ments Dissolution of the Council Causes of the 
 failure of his enterprise. 
 
 A patent was granted by King James, in 1606, 
 limiting the dominion of Virginia from the thirty- 
 fourth to the forty-fourth degree of northern latitude, 
 which extent of territory had been divided into two 
 parts, called North and South Virginia. The latter 
 was assigned to certain noblemen, knights, and geii- 
 tlemen of London; the former to others in Bristol, 
 Exeter, and Plymouth. Those who were interested 
 in the northern colony, finding that the patent did 
 not secure them from the intrusions of others, peti- 
 tioned, in 1620, for an enlargement and confirma- 
 tion of their privileges. After some time, the king, 
 by his sole authority, constituted a council, consist- 
 ing of forty noblemen, knights, and gentlemen, by 
 the name of " The council established at Plymouth, 
 in the county of Devon, for the planting, ruling, and 
 governing of New England, in America." They 
 were a corporation with a perpetual succession, by 
 election of the majority; and their territories ex- 
 tended from the fortieth to the forty-eighth degree 
 of northern latitude. This patent, or charter, is the 
 foundation of all the grants that were made of the 
 country of New England. But either from the 
 jarring interests of the members, or their indistinct 
 knowledge of the country, or their inattention to 
 business, or some other cause which does not fully 
 appear, their affairs were tiansacted in a confused 
 manner from the beginning; and the grants which 
 they made were so inaccurately described, and in- 
 terfered so much with each other, as to occasion 
 difficulties and controversies, some of which are not 
 totally obliterated. 
 
 Two of the most active members of this council, 
 were Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and Captain John 
 Mason. Gorges had been an officer in the navy 
 of Queen Elizabeth, intimately connected with Sir 
 Walter Raleigh, of whose adventurous spirit he had 
 a large share. After the peace which King James 
 made in 1604, he was appointed governor of the fort 
 and Island of Plymouth in Devonshire. While he 
 resided there, Captain Weymouth, who had been 
 employed by Lord Arundel in search of a northwest 
 passage, but had fallen short of his course and put 
 in at Pemaquid, brought from thence into the har- 
 bour of Plymouth, five natives of America, three of 
 whom were eagerly seized by Gorges, and retained 
 in his service for three years. Finding them of a 
 tractable and communicative disposition, and having 
 won their affections by gentle treatment, he learned 
 
 from them many particulars concerning their country, 
 its rivers, harbours, islands, fisheries, and other pro- 
 ducts; and the numbers, force, disposition, and go- 
 vernment of the natives; and from this information 
 he conceived sanguine hopes of indulging his genius, 
 and making his fortune, by a thorough discovery of 
 the country. For this purpose he, in conjunction 
 with others, ventured several ships, whereof some 
 met with peculiar misfortunes ; and others brought 
 home accounts, which, though discouraging to some 
 of his associates, made him determine upon farther 
 attempts, wherein his resolution and perseverance 
 were more conspicuous than any solid gain. These 
 transactions were previous to the establishment of 
 the council ; in soliciting which, Gorges was so ex- 
 tremely active, that he was appointed their presi- 
 dent, and had a principal share in all their transac- 
 tions. Mason was a merchant of London, but be- 
 came a sea-officer, and, after the peace, governor of 
 Newfoundland, where he acquired a knowledge of 
 America, which led him, on his return to England, 
 into a close attachment to those who were engaged 
 in its discovery; and upon some vacancy in the coun- 
 cil, he was elected a member and became their 
 secretary; being also governor of Portsmouth in 
 Hampshire. (1621.) He procured a grant from the 
 council, of all the land from the river of Naumkeag 
 (now Salem), round Cape Anne, to the river Mem- 
 mack; and upon each of those rivers to the farthest 
 head thereof; then to cross over from the head of 
 the one to the head of the other ; with all the is- 
 lands lying within three miles of the coast. This 
 district was called Mariana. (1622.) The next year 
 another grant was made to Gorges and Mason jointly, 
 of all the lands between the rivers Merrimadc and 
 Sagadehock, extending back to the great lakes and 
 river of Canada, and this was called Laconia. 
 
 Under the authority of this grant, Gorges and 
 Mason, in conjunction with several merchants of 
 London, Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth, Shrewsbury, 
 and Dorchester, who styled themselves " The com- 
 pany of Laconia," attempted the establishment of a 
 colony and fishery at the river Pascataqua ; and in 
 the spring of the following year, (1623), they sent 
 over David Thompson, a Scotsman, Edward and 
 William Hilton, fishmongers of London, with a 
 number of other people, in two divisions, furnished 
 with all necessaries to carry on their design. One 
 of these companies landed on the southern shore of 
 the river, at its mouth, and called the place Little 
 Harbour : here they erected salt works, and built an 
 house, which was afterward called Mason Hall ; but 
 the Hilton s set up their stages eight miles further 
 up the river toward the northwest, on a neck of land 
 which the Indians called Winnichahannat, but they 
 named Northam, and afterwards Dover. Thompson, 
 not being pleased with his -situation, removed the 
 next spring (1624), to an island in the bay of Mas- 
 sachusetts ; this the general court afterward con- 
 firmed to him, and still bears his name. 
 
 These settlements went on but slowly for several 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 399 
 
 years 4 but the natives being peaceable, and several 
 other small beginnings being made along the coast 
 as far as Plymouth, a neighbourly intercourse was 
 kept up among them, each following their respect- 
 ive employments of fishing, trading, and planting, 
 till the disorderly behaviour (1628), of one Morton, 
 at Mount Wollaston, in the bay of Massachusetts, 
 caused an alarm among the scattered settlements as 
 lar as Pescataqua. This man had, in defiance of 
 rhe king's proclamation, made a practice of selling 
 arms and ammunition to the Indians, whom he em- 
 ployed in hunting and fowling for him; so that the 
 English, seeing the Indians armed in the woods, 
 began to be in terror. They also apprehended dan- 
 ger of another kind; for Morton's plantation was a 
 receptacle for discontented servants, whose desertion 
 weakened the settlements, and who, being there 
 without law, were more formidable than the savages 
 themselves. The principal persons of Pascataqua 
 therefore readily united with their neighbours, in 
 making application to the colony of Plymouth, 
 which was of more force than all the rest, to put a 
 stop to this growing mischief; which they happily 
 effected by seizing Moiton, and sending him pri- 
 soner to England. 
 
 (1629.) Some of the scattered planters in the bay 
 of Massachusetts, being desirous of making a settle"- 
 ment in the neighbourhood of Pascataqua, and fol- 
 lowing the example of those at Plymouth, who had 
 purchased their lands of the Indians, which they 
 conscientiously thought necessary to give them a just 
 title, procured a general meeting of Indians, at 
 Squamscot falls, where they obtained a deed from 
 Passaconaway, Sagamore of Penacock, Runnawitt 
 of Pantucket, Wahongnonawit of Squamscot, and 
 Rowls of Newichwannock : wherein they express 
 their " desire to have the English come and settle 
 among them as among their countrymen in Massa- 
 chusetts, whereby they hoped to be strengthened 
 against their enemies the Tarrateens ; and accord- 
 ingly, with the universal consent of their subjects, for 
 what they deemed a valuable consideration in coats, 
 shirts, and kettles, sell to John Whelewright of the 
 Massachusetts bay, late of England, minister of the 
 gospel, Augustine Story [or Storer], Thomas Wight, 
 William Wentworth, and Thomas Leavit, all that 
 part of the main land bounded by the river Pasca- 
 taqua and the river Merrimack to begin at Ne- 
 wichannock falls in Pascataqua river aforesaid, and 
 down said river to the sea ; and along the sea-shore 
 to Merrimack river; and up said river to the falls 
 at Pantucket; and from thence upon a northwest 
 line, twenty English miles into the woods ; and from 
 thence upon a straight line northeast, till it meet 
 with the main rivers that run down to Pantucket 
 falls, and Newichannock falls aforesaid; the said 
 rivers to be the bounds from the thwart or head line 
 to the aforesaid falls, and from thence the main 
 channel of each river to the sea to be the side 
 bounds ; together with all the islands within the said 
 bounds ; as also the isles of shoals so called." The 
 conditions of this grant were, " that Whelewright 
 should within ten years begin a plantation at Squam- 
 scot falls ; that other inhabitants should have the same 
 privileges with him; that no plantation should ex- 
 ceed ten miles square ; that no lands should be 
 granted but in townships ; and that these should 
 be subject to the government of the Massachusetts 
 colony, until they should have a settled government 
 among thems-elves ; that for each township there 
 should be paid an annual acknowledgment of " one 
 oat of truckling cloth," to Passaconaway the chief 
 
 Sagamore or his successors, and two bushels of 
 Indian corn to Whelewright and his heirs. The 
 Indians reserve to themselves free liberty of fish- 
 ing, fowling, hunting, and planting within these li- 
 mits." The principal persons of Pascataqua and 
 the province of Maine were witnesses to the sub- 
 scribing of this instrument, and giving possession of 
 the lands. 
 
 By this deed the English inhabitants within these 
 limits obtained a right to the soil from the original 
 proprietors, more valuable in a moral view than the 
 grants of any European prince could convey. If 
 we smile at the arrogance of a Roman Pontiff in 
 assuming to divide the whole new world between the 
 Spaniards and Portuguese, with what consistency- 
 can we admit the right of a king of England to par- 
 cel out America to his subjects, when he had neither 
 purchased nor conquered it, nor could pretend any 
 other title, than that some of his subjects were the 
 first Europeans who discovered it, while it was in 
 possession of its native lords? The only validity 
 which such grants could have in the eye of reason, 
 was, that the grantees had from their prince a per- 
 mission to negotiate with the possessors for the pur- 
 chase of the soil, and thereupon a power of juris- 
 diction subordinate to his crown. 
 
 The same year Captain Mason procured a new 
 patent, under the common seal of the council of Ply- 
 mouth, for the land "from the middle of Pascataqua 
 river and up the same to the farthest head thereof, 
 and from thence northwestward until sixty miles 
 from the mouth of the harbour were finished : also 
 through Merrimack river, to the farthest head there- 
 of, and so forward up into the land westward, until 
 sixty miles were finished; and from thence to cross 
 over land to the end of the sixty miles accounted from 
 Pascataqua river; together with all islands within 
 five leagues of the coast." This tract of land was 
 called New Hampshire : it comprehended the whole 
 of Whelewright's purchase; and unless Mason's in- 
 tention was to frustrate his title, it is difficult to as- 
 sign a reason for the procurement of this patent, as 
 the same land, with much more, had been granted 
 to Gorges and Mason jointly, seven years before. 
 If there was an agreement between them to divide 
 the province of Laconia, and take out new patents 
 from the council, in preference to the making a deed 
 of partition; it is not easy to conceive why the west- 
 ern boundary should be contracted to sixty miles 
 from the sea, when the lakes and river of Canada 
 were supposed to be but ninety or an hundred miles 
 from Pascataqua. If this grant was intended as an 
 equivalent for the patent of Mariana, which the 
 council had the preceding year included in their 
 deed to the Massachusetts company; it is impossible 
 to account for the extension of New Hampshire to 
 the river Merrimack, when the grant of Massachu- 
 setts reached to " three miles north of that river and 
 of every part of it." 
 
 (1630.) The west country adventurers were not 
 less attentive to their interest ; for in the following 
 spring they obtained a patent from the council 
 whereby " all that part of the river Pascataqua 
 called or known by the name of Hilton's Point, 
 with the south side of the said river up to the falls 
 of Squamscot, and three miles into the main land 
 for breadth," was granted to Edward Hilton. This 
 patent, sealed with the common seal of the council, 
 and subscribed by the earl of Warwick, sets forth, 
 that Hilton and his associates had at their own pro- 
 per cost and charges transported servants, built 
 bouses, and -planted corn at Hilton's Point, now 
 
400 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Dover, and intended the further increase and ad- 
 vancement of the plantation. (1631.) William 
 Blackstone, William Jefferies, and Thomas Lewis, 
 or either of thorn, were impowered to give posses- 
 sion of the premises ; which was done by Lewis, and 
 the livery and seizin endorsed. Within these li- 
 mits are contained the towns of Dover, Durham, and 
 Stretham, with part of Newington and Greenland. 
 It was commonly called Squamscot patent, but 
 sometimes Bloody-point patent, from a quarrel be- 
 tween the agents of the two companies about a point 
 of laud in the river which was convenient for both ; 
 and there being no government then established, the 
 controversy would have ended in blood, if the con- 
 tending parties had not been persuaded to refer the 
 decision of it to their employers. 
 
 The London adventurers also thought it prudent 
 to have some security for the interest which they had 
 advanced, and accordingly obtained a grant from the 
 council, of " that part of the patent of Laconia, on 
 which the buildings and salt-works were erected, situ- 
 ate on both sides the harbour and river of Pascataqua 
 to the extent of five miles westward by the sea-coast, 
 then to cross over towards the other plantation in the 
 hands of Edward Hilton." The grantees named in 
 this patent were Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Captain 
 John Mason, John Cotton, Henry Gardner, George 
 Griffith, Edwin Gay, Thomas Warnerton, Thomas 
 Eyre and Eliezer Eyre, who, it is said, had already 
 expended 3000/. in the undertaking. They were to 
 pay forty-eight pounds per annum by way of acknow- 
 ledgment to the president and council, if demanded. 
 Captain Comocke, a relation of the Earl of Warwick, 
 with Henry Jocelyn, who were then intending a 
 voyage here, were appointed to put the grantees in 
 possession. Within this patent are comprehended 
 the towns of Portsmouth, Newcastle and Rye, with 
 part of Newington and Greenland. 
 
 The whole interest being thus divided into two 
 parts, Captain Thomas Wiggenwas appointed agent 
 for the upper, and Captain Walter Neal for the 
 lower plantation ; with him were associated Ambrose 
 Gibbons, George Vaughan, Thomas Warnerton, 
 Humphrey Chadbourne and one Godfrie, as super- 
 intendants of the several businesses of trade, fishery, 
 salt-making, building, and husbandry. Neal resided 
 at Little-Harbour wi'th Godfrie, who had the care of 
 the fishery. Chadbourne built a house at Strawber- 
 ry-bank, which was called the great house, in which 
 Warnerton resided. Gibbons had the care of a saw- 
 mill, and lived in a palisaded house at Newichwan- 
 nock, where he carried on trade with the Indians. 
 He afterward removed to Sander' s-point, where the 
 adventurers gave him a settlement for his faithful 
 services. He was succeeded at Nevvichwannoch by 
 Chadbourne, whose posterity are persons of principal 
 figure and interest there at this day. The proprietors 
 were also careful to provide for the defence of their 
 plantations, and sent over several cannon, which 
 they directed their agents to mount in the most con- 
 venient place for a fort. They accordingly placed 
 them on the north-east point of the Great-Island, at 
 the mouth of the harbour, and laid out the ground 
 " about a bow-shot from the water-side to a high 
 rock, on which it was intended in time to build the 
 principal fort." 
 
 A great part of Captain Neal's errand was to pe- 
 netrate the interior part of the province of Laconia, 
 concerning which the adventurers had formed very 
 sanguine expectations. It was described as contain- 
 ing divers lakes, and extending back to a great lake 
 and river in the country of the Iroquois. This river 
 
 was said to be fair and large, containing many fruit- 
 ful islands ; the air pure and salubrious ; the coun- 
 try pleasant, having some high hills ; full of goodly 
 forests, fair valleys, and fertile plains ; abounding in 
 corn, vines, chesnuts, walnuts, and many other sorts 
 of fruit; the rivers well stored with fish, and envi- 
 roned with goodly meadows full of timber-trees. In 
 the great lake were said to be four islands, full of 
 pleasant woods and meadows, having great store ol 
 stags, fallow-deer, elks, roebucks, beavers, and other 
 game, and these islands were supposed to be com- 
 modiously situated for habitation and traffic, in the 
 midst of a fine lake, abounding with the most deli- 
 cate fish. No one who is acquainted with the interior 
 part of the country in its wilderness state, can for- 
 bear smiling at this romantic description, penned in 
 the true style of adventurers : yet such an impression 
 had the charms of Laconia made on the minds of the 
 first settlers, that Neal set out (1632) on foot, in 
 company with Jocelyn and Darby Field, to discover 
 these beautiful lakes, and settle a trade with the In- 
 dians by pinnaces, imagining the distance to be 
 short of an hundred miles. In the course of their 
 travels, they visited the white mountains, which they 
 described in the same romantic style, to be a ridge', 
 extending 100 leagues, on which snow lieth all the 
 year, and inaccessible but by the gullies which the 
 dissolved snow hath made : on one of these moun- 
 tains they reported to have found a plain of a day's 
 journey over, whereon nothing grows but moss ; and 
 at the further end of this plain, a rude heap of massy 
 stones, piled upon one another, a mile high on 
 which one might ascend from stone to stone, like a 
 flight of winding stairs, to the top, where was another 
 level of about an acre, with a pond of clear water. 
 This summit was said to be far above the clouds, 
 and from hence they beheld a vapour like a vast pil- 
 lar, drawn up by the sunbeams out of a great lake 
 into the air, where it was formed into a cloud. The 
 country beyond these mountains northward, was said 
 to be " daunting terrible," full of rocky hills, as 
 thick as mole-hills in a meadow, and clothed with 
 infinite thick woods. They had great expectation of 
 finding precious stones on these mountains; and 
 something resembling chrystal being picked up, was 
 sufficient to give thorn the name of the Chrystal 
 Hills. From hence they continued their route in 
 search of the lake ; till finding their provision almost 
 spent, and the forests of Laconia yielding no supply, 
 they were obliged to return when they supposed 
 themselves so far advanced, that " the discovery 
 wanted but one day's journey of being finished." 
 
 This expedition being ended, was succeeded by one 
 of another kind. The coast was alarmed by the 
 report of a pirate, one Dixy Bull; who, with fifteen 
 others, being employed in the Indian trade at the 
 eastward, had taken several boats and rifled the foit 
 at Pcmaquid. Neal, in conjunction with the others, 
 equipped four pinnaces and shallops, manned with 
 forty men, being all the force that both plantations 
 could spare, who being joined by twenty more 
 in a bark from Boston, proceeded to Pemaquid ; 
 but contrary winds and bad weather obliged them to 
 return without meeting the pirates, who made their 
 way farther to the eastward, and at length got to 
 England ; where Bull met with his deserts. The 
 company, on their return, hanged, at Richmond's 
 Island, an Indian who had been concerned in the 
 murder of an Englishman. 
 
 (1633.) The next year Neal and Wiggen joined 
 n surveying their respective patent?, and laying out 
 the towns of Portsmouth and N'-rtham, and another 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 401 
 
 which was called Hampton, although no settlement 
 had been made there. They also agreed with Whele- 
 wright, that the plantation which he had undertaken 
 to make at Squamscot falls, should be called Exeter; 
 and determined the bounds between his land and 
 them This survey was made by order of the com- 
 pany of Laconia, who gave names to the four towns, 
 and the transaction was duly reported to them : 
 soon after which Neal returned to England. 
 
 From a number of letters that passed between the 
 adventurers and Gibbons their factor, and which 
 are yet preserved, it appears that their views were 
 chiefly turned toward the discovery of the lakes and 
 of mines ; the cultivation of grapes, and the advan- 
 tages of trade and fishery; and that little regard was 
 had to agriculture, the surest foundation of all other 
 improvements in such a country as this. They often 
 complain of their expenses, as indeed they might 
 with reason ; for they had not only to pay wages to 
 their colonists, but to supply them with provisions, 
 clothing, utensils, medicines, articles of trade, im- 
 plements for building, husbandry and fishing, and 
 to stock their plantations with cattle, swine, and 
 goats. Bread was either brought from England in 
 meal, or from Virginia in grain, and then sent to 
 the wind-mill at Boston, there being none erected 
 here. Very little improvement was made on the 
 lands ; the lakes were not explored ; the vines were 
 planted, but came to nothing; no mines were found 
 but those of iron, and these were not wrought; 
 three or four houses only were built within the first 
 seven years ; the peltry trade with the Indians was 
 of some value, and the fishery served for the sup- 
 port of the inhabitants ; but yielded no great profit 
 to the adventurers, who received but inadequate 
 returns in lumber and furs. They saw their interest 
 sinking apace, and grew dispirited ; and the major 
 part of them either relinquished the design, or sold 
 their shares to Mason and Gorges, who were more 
 sanguine than the rest, and became (either by pur- 
 chase or tacit consent of the others) the principal, 
 if not sole proprietors. These gentlemen renewed 
 their exertions with greater vigour, sent over a fresh 
 supply of servants, and materials for carrying on 
 the settlement, and (1634), appointed Francis 
 Williams their governor. He was a gentleman of 
 good sense and discretion ; and so very acceptable 
 to the people, that when they combined in a body 
 politic they continued him at their head. 
 
 (1635.) The charter by which the council of 
 Plymouth was established, had been from the be- 
 ginning disrelished by the Virginia company ; who 
 spared no pains to get it revoked. Their applica- 
 tions to the king proved fruitless; but when the 
 parliament began to enquire into the grievances of 
 the nation, this patent was complained of as a mo- 
 nopoly. Sir Ferdinando Gorges, being summoned, 
 appeared before them, and both in person and by 
 his counsel defended it in a masterly manner, but 
 in vain ; for when the national grievances were 
 presented to the throne, the patent of New England 
 was the first. The council had also got into disre- 
 pute with the high church party, for having encou- 
 raged the settlement of the Plymouth and Massa- 
 chusetts colonists, who fled from their persecutions. 
 These prejudices against them, operating as dis- 
 couragements to their undertaking, induced the coun- 
 cil to resign thtir charter to the king; having pre- 
 viously taken care to secure some portion of the 
 expiring interest to such of themselves as were dis- 
 posed to ac :ept it. The scheme they had in view 
 was to divide tneir territory into twelve provinces, 
 
 HIST. OF AMER Nos. 51 & 52. 
 
 under as many proprietary governors, subject to 
 one general governor; and they went so far as to 
 nominate Gorges, then threescore years of age, for 
 the person, and build a ship of war, which **? to 
 bring him over and remain in the service of the 
 country. But the ship fell, and broke in the launch- 
 ing ; and their project not being sufficiently attended 
 to by those in power, they were obliged to be con- 
 tent with such grants as they could make of those 
 districts, into which they had divided the country. 
 
 That which was now made to Mason comprehended 
 both his former patents, extending from Naumkeag 
 to Pascataqua, and sixty miles northwestward within 
 the land, together with the south half of the Isles of 
 Shoals, and ten thousand acres at Sagadahock; 
 saving to those already settled within these limits, 
 the property of their lawful grants on paying "some 
 small acknowledgement" to the proprietor. This 
 grant was dated the 22nd of April. In June follow- 
 ing the council surrendered their charter to the king, 
 and in September Gorges sold to Mason a tract of 
 land on the northeast side of the river Pascataqua, 
 extending three miles in breadth, and following the 
 course of the river from its mouth to its farthest 
 head, including the sawmill which had been built at 
 the falls of Newichwannock. 
 
 But death, which puts an end- to the fairest pros- 
 pects, cut off all the hopes which Mason h'ad enter- 
 tained of aggrandizing his fortune, by the settlement 
 of New Hampshire. By his last will, which he 
 signed a few days before his death, he disposed of 
 his American estate in the foilowing manner, viz. : 
 To the corporation o.f Lynn Regis in Norfolk, the 
 place of his nativity, he gave two thousand acres of 
 land in New Hampshire, subject to the yearly rent 
 of one penny per acre to his heirs, and two-fifths of 
 all mines royal, on condition that five families should 
 within five years be settled thereupon. To his bro- 
 ther-in-law John Wallaston, three thousand acres, 
 subject to the yearly rent of one shilling. To his 
 grandchild Ann Tufton, ten thousand acres at Saga- 
 dahock. To Robert Tufton, his grandson, he gave 
 his manor of Mason Hall, on condition that he 
 should take the surname of Mason. He also gave 
 to his brother Wallaston in trust, one thousand acres 
 for the maintenance of " an honest, godly, and re- 
 ligious preacher of God's word;" and one thousand 
 more for the support of a grammar school; each of 
 these estates to be conveyed to feoffees in trust, and 
 their successors, paying annually one penny per 
 acre to his heirs. The residue of his estate in New 
 Hampshire he gave to his grandson John Tufton, 
 he taking the sirname of Mason, and to his lawful 
 issue ; or in want thereof to Robert Tufton and his 
 lawful issue; or in want thereof to Doctor Robert 
 Mason, chancellor of the diocese of Winchester, and 
 his lawful issue ; or in want of such issue, to his own 
 other right heirs for ever; provided that it should 
 not go out of the name of Mason. The residuary 
 legatee was required to pay 5 DO/, out of his estate 
 to his sister Mary, and all the grandchildren were 
 to relinquish their right to 1,000/. due from this 
 estate to their father Joseph Tufton. The estate 
 in America was valued in the inventory at 10,0(XK. 
 sterling. 
 
 The Massachusetts planters viewed Mason as their 
 enemy, because he with Gorges had privately en- 
 couraged some persons whom they had censured and 
 sent home, to petition against them as disaffected to 
 the government; and had endeavoured to get their 
 charter set aside, to make way for the scheme of a 
 weneral governor. 
 
 2Y 
 
402 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA 
 
 But though Mason and Gorges had not the same 
 religious views with the Massachusetts planters, yet 
 their memory deserves respect. They were both 
 heartily engaged in the settlement of the country ; 
 they sunk their estates in the undertaking, and 
 reaped no profit to themselves ; yet their enterprising 
 spirit e ccited emulation in others, who had the ad- 
 vantage of improving their plans and avoiding their 
 mistakes. Gorges accounted for the ill success of 
 his adventures in the following manner: 1. He 
 began when there was no "hope of anything for the 
 present but loss ; as he had first to seek a place ; 
 which, being found, was a wilderness, and so gloomy 
 was the prospect, that he could scarce procure any 
 to go, much less to reside in it : and those whom he 
 at length sent, could not subsist but on the provisions 
 with which he supplied them. 2. He sought not 
 barely his own profit, but the thorough discovery of 
 the country; wherein he went so far (with the help 
 of his associates) as to open the way for others to 
 make their gain. 3. He never went in person to 
 oversee the people whom he employed. 4. There 
 was no settled government to punish offenders, or 
 mispenders of their masters' goods. Two other 
 things contributed to the disappointment in as great 
 if not a greater degree than what he has assigned. 
 The one was, that instead of applying themselves 
 chiefly to husbandry, the original source of wealth 
 and independence in such a country as this, he and 
 his associates, being merchants, were rather intent 
 on trade and fishing as their primary objects. These 
 cannot be profitable in a new country, until the 
 foundation is laid in the culture of the lands. If 
 the lumber trade and fishery cannot now be carried on 
 to advantage, without the constant aid of husbandry 
 in their neighbourhood, how could a colony of traders 
 and fishermen make profitable returns to their em- 
 ployers, when the husbandry necessary for their sup- 
 port was at the distance of Virginia or England? 
 The other mistake which these adventurers fell into 
 was the idea of lordship, and the granting of lands 
 not as freeholds, but by leases subject to quit-rents. 
 To settle a colony of tenants in a climate so far 
 northward, where the charges of subsistence and 
 improvement were much greater than the value of 
 the lands, after the improvements were made espe- 
 cially in the neighbourhood of so respectable and 
 growing a colony as that of Massachusetts was in- 
 deed a chimerical project; and had not the wiser 
 people among them sought an union with the Mas- 
 sachusetts, in all probability the settlements must 
 have been deserted. 
 
 Troubles at Dover Settlements of Exeter and Hamp- 
 ton Ruin of Mason's interest Story of Underhill 
 Combinations at Portsmouth and Dover Union 
 of New Hampshire with Massachusetts. 
 
 (1633.) While the lower plantation on the river 
 Pascataqua lay under discouragement by the death 
 of its principal patron, the upper settlement, though 
 carried on with more success, had peculiar difficulties 
 to struggle with. Two thirds of this patent belonged 
 to some merchants of Bristol, the other third to 
 some of Shrewsbury: and there was an agreement 
 that the division should be made by indifferent men. 
 Captain Wiggen, who was sent over to superintend 
 their affairs, after about one year's residence in the 
 country made a voyage to England, to procure more 
 ample means for carrying on the plantation. In the 
 mean time those of Bristol had sold their interest to 
 the Lords Say and Broke, George Willys and Wil- 
 liam Whiting, who continued Wiggen in the agency, 
 
 and procured a considerable number of families in 
 the west of England, some of whom were of good 
 estates, and " of some account for religion," to come 
 over and increase the colony. It appears from an- 
 cient records, that Wiggen had a power of granting 
 lands to the settlers; but, as trade was their prin- 
 cipal object, they took up small lots, intending to 
 build a compact town on Dover Neck, which lies 
 between two branches of the river, and is a fine, dry, 
 and healthy situation; so high as to command all 
 the neighbouring shores, and afford a very extensive 
 and delightful prospect. On the most inviting part 
 of this eminence they built a meeting house, which 
 was afterward surrounded with an entrenchment and 
 flankarts, the remains of which are still visible. 
 Wiggen also brought over William Leverich, a 
 worthy and 'able puritan minister; but his allowance 
 from the adventurers proving too small for his sup- 
 port in a new country, where ail the necessaries of 
 life were scarce and dear, he was obliged to remove 
 to the southward, and settled at Sandwich in the 
 colony of Plymouth. This proved an unhappy 
 event to the people, who, being left destitute of regu- 
 lar instruction, were exposed to the intrusions of 
 artful impostors. 
 
 (1634.) The first of these was one Burdet. He 
 had been a minister at Yarmouth in England; but 
 either really or pretendcdly taking offence at the 
 extravagancies of the bishops and spiritual courts, 
 came over to New England, and joined with the 
 church in Salem, who employed him for a year or 
 two as a preacher, being a good scholar and plausible 
 in his behaviour. But, disgusted with the strictness 
 of their discipline, he removed to Dover (1636), and 
 continued for some time in good esteem with the peo- 
 ple as a preacher; until, by artful insinuations, he 
 raised such a jealousy in their minds against Wig- 
 gen their governor, that they deprived him of his 
 office, and elected Burdet in his place. 
 
 (1637.) During his residence here, he carried on 
 a correspondence with Archbishop Laud to the dis- 
 advantage of the Massachusetts colony, representing 
 them as hypocritical and disaffected, and that under 
 pretence of greater purity and discipline in matters 
 of religion, they were aiming at independent so- 
 vereignty; it being accounted perjury and treason 
 by their general court, to speak of appeals to the 
 king. (1638.) The prelate thanked him for his 
 zeal in the king's service, and assured him that care 
 should be taken to redress those disorders when 
 leisure from other concerns would permit. This 
 letter of the archbishop was intercepted, and shewn 
 to the governor of Massachusetts. Burdet's villany 
 was considered as the more atrocious, because he 
 had been admitted a freeman of their corporation, 
 and had taken the oath of fidelity. A copy of his 
 own letter was afterwards found in his closet. 
 
 About this time the Antinomian controversy at 
 Boston having occasioned the banishment of the 
 principal persons of that sect, several of them re- 
 tired to this settlement, being without the jurisdic- 
 tion of Massachusetts. When this was known, Go- 
 vernor Winthrop wrote to Wiggen, Burdet, and 
 others of this plantation. " that as there had hitherto 
 been a good correspondence between them it would 
 be much resented if they should receive the exiles ; 
 and intimating the intention of the general court 
 to survey the utmost limits of their patent, and 
 make use of them." To this Burdet returned a 
 scornful answer refusing to give the governor his 
 title. The governor thought of citing him to court 
 to answer for his contempt; but was dissuaded 
 
UNITED STATES, 
 
 403 
 
 fram it by Dudley, the deputy-governor, who judged 
 it imprudent to exasperate him, lest he should avenge 
 himself by farther accusing them to their ene- 
 mies in England. The governor contented himself 
 with sending to Hilton an account of Burdet's be- 
 haviour, inclosing a copy of his letter, and caution- 
 ing the people not to put themselves too far under 
 his power. His true character did not long remain 
 secret; for being detected in some licentious actions, 
 he made a precipitate removal to Agamenticus (now 
 York), in the province of Maine, where he also as- 
 sumed to rule, and continued a course of injustice 
 and adultery till the arrival of Thomas Gorges, their 
 governor, (1640) who laid a fine on him, and seized 
 his cattle for the payment of it. He appealed to the 
 king, but his appeal not being admitted, he departed 
 for England full of enmity against these plantations. 
 When he arrived, he found all in confusion, and 
 falling in with the royalists was taken and imprisoned 
 by the parliamentary party, which is the last account 
 we have of him. 
 
 One of the exiles on account of the Antinomian 
 controversy, was John Whelewright, brother to the 
 famous Anne Hutchinson. He had been a preacher 
 at Braintree, which was then part of Boston, and 
 was a gentlemo.n of learning, piety, and zeal. Hav- 
 ing engaged to make a settlement within ten years, 
 on the lands he had purchased of the Indians at 
 Squamscot falls, he with a number of his adherents 
 began a plantation there, which according to the 
 agreement made with Mason's agents, they called 
 Exeter. Having obtained a dismission from the 
 church in Boston, they formed themselves into a 
 church ; and judging themselves without the juris- 
 diction of Massachusetts, they combined into a sepa- 
 rate body politic, and chose rulers and assistants, 
 who were sworn to the due discharge of their office, 
 and the people were as solemnly sworn to obey them. 
 Their rulers were Isaac Grosse, Nicholas Needham, 
 and Thomas Wilson, each of whom continued in 
 office the space of a year, having two assistants. 
 The laws were made in a popular assembly and 
 formally consented to by the rulers. Treason, and 
 rebellion against the king (who is styled " the Lord's 
 anointed"), or the country, were made capital 
 crimes; and sedition was punishable by a fine of 
 ten pounds, or otherwise, at the discretion of the 
 court. This combination subsisted three years. 
 
 About the same time a plantation was formed at 
 Winnicumet, which was called Hampton. The 
 principal inducement to the making this settlement 
 was the very extensive salt-marsh, which was ex- 
 tremely valuable, as the uplands wei'e not cultivated 
 so as to produce a sufficiency of hay for the support 
 of cattle. With a view to secure these meadows, the 
 general court of Massachusetts had [in 1636] em- 
 powered Mr. Dummer of Newbury, with John Spen- 
 cer, to build a house there at the expense of the co- 
 lony, which was to be refunded by those who should 
 settle there. Accordingly a house was built, and 
 commonly called the Bound-house ; though it was 
 intended as a mark of possession rather than of limits. 
 The architect was Nicholas Easton, who soon after 
 removed to Rhode-Island, and built the first English 
 house in Newport. 
 
 This entrance being made, a petition was pre- 
 sented to the court by a number of persons, chiefly 
 from Norfolk in England, praying for liberty to 
 settle there, which was granted them. They began 
 the settlement by laying out a township in one hun- 
 dred and forty-seven shares ; and having formed a 
 church, chose Stephen Batchelor for their minister, 
 
 with whom Timothy Dalton was soon after associated. 
 The number of the first inhabitants was fifty-six. 
 
 The authority of Massachusetts having established 
 this settlement, they, from the beginning, considered 
 it as belonging to their colony. Though the agent 
 of Mason's estate made some objection to their pro- 
 ceeding, yet no legal method being taken to contro- 
 vert this extension of their claim, the way was pre- 
 pared for one still greater, which many circumstances 
 concurred to establish. 
 
 After the death of Captain Mason, his widow and 
 executrix sent over Francis Norton as her " general 
 attorney ;" to whom she committed the whole ma- 
 nagement of the estate. But the expense so far ex- 
 ceeded the income, and the servants grew so impa- 
 tient for their arrears, that she was obliged to relin- 
 quish the charge of the plantation, and tell the servants 
 that they must shift for themselves : upon which 
 they shared the goods and cattle. Norton drove 
 above a hundred oxen to Boston, and there sold thorn 
 for twenty-live pounds sterling per head, which it is 
 said was the current price of the best cattle in New- 
 England at that time. These were of a large breed, 
 imported from Denmark, from whence Mason had 
 also procured a number of men skilled in sawing 
 planks and making potashes. Having shared the 
 stock and other materials, some of the people quitted 
 the plantation ; others of them tarried, keeping pos- 
 session of the buildings and improvements, which 
 they claimed as their own ; the houses at Newich- 
 wannock were burned ; and thus Mason's estate 
 was ruined. These events happened between 1638 
 and 1644. 
 
 Among the Antinomians who were banished from 
 Boston, and took refuge in these plantations, was 
 Captain John Underbill, in whose story will appear 
 some very strong characteristics of the spirit of these 
 times. He had been a soldier in the Netherlands, 
 and was brought over to New England by Governor 
 Winthrop, to train the people in military discipline. 
 He served the country in the Pequod war, and was 
 in such reputation in the town of Boston, that they 
 had chosen him one of their deputies. Deeply tinc- 
 tured with Antinomian principles, and possessed of 
 a high degree of enthusiasm, he made a chief figure 
 in the controversy; being one of the subscribers to 
 a petition in which the court was censured, with an 
 indecent severity, for their proceedings against 
 Whelewright. For this offence he was disfranchised. 
 He then made a voyage to England; and upon his 
 return petitioned the court for 300 acres of land, 
 which had been promised him for his former services, 
 intending to remove after Whelewright In his 
 petition he acknowledged his offence in condemning 
 the court, and declared " that the Lord had brought 
 him to a sense of his sin in that respect, so that he 
 had been in great trouble on account thereof." On 
 this occasion the court thought proper to question 
 him concerning an offensive expression, which he 
 had uttered on board the ship in which he came from 
 England, " that the government at Boston were as 
 zealous as the scribes and Pharisees, and as Paul 
 before his conversion." He denied the charge, and 
 it was proved to his face by a woman who was pas- 
 senger with him, and whom he had endeavoured to 
 seduce to his opinions. He was also questioned for 
 what he had said to her of his receiving assu- 
 rance of spiritual grace, which was, " that having 
 long lain under a spirit of bondage, he could get no 
 assurance ; till at length, as he was taking a pipe of 
 tobacco, the spirit set home upon him an absolute 
 promise of free grace, with such assurance and joy 
 
404 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 that he had never since doubted of his good estate, 
 neither should he, whatever sins he might fall into." 
 This he would neither own nor deny ; but objected 
 to the sufficiency of a single testimony. The court 
 committed him for abusing them with a pretended 
 retraction, and the next day passed the sentence of 
 banishment upon him. Being allowed the liberty 
 of attending public worship, his enthusiastic zeal 
 brake out in a speech, in which he endeavoured to 
 prove " that as the Lord was pleased to convert 
 Saul while he was persecuting, so he might manifest 
 himself to him while making a moderate use of the 
 good creature tobacco ; professing withal that he 
 knew not wherein he had deserved the censure of the 
 court." The elders reproved him for this inconsi- 
 derate speech; and Mr. Cotton told him, " that 
 though God often laid a man under a spirit of bon- 
 dage while walking in sin, as was the case with Paul, 
 yet he never sent a spirit of comfort but in an ordi- 
 nance, as he did to Paul by the ministry of Ananias ; 
 and therefore exhorted him to examine carefully the 
 revelation and joy to which he pretended." The 
 same week he was privately dealt with on suspicion 
 of adultery, vtlrich he disregarded ; and therefore on 
 the next sabbath was questioned for it before the 
 church ; but the evidence not being sufficient to con- 
 vict him, the church could only admonish him. 
 
 These proceedings, civil and ecclesiastical, being 
 finished, he removed out of their jurisdiction ; and 
 after a while went to Dover, where he procured the 
 place of governor in the room of Burdet. Governor 
 Wiuthrop hearing of this, wrote to Hilton and others 
 of this plantation, informing them of his character. 
 Underhill intercepted the letter, and returned a bit- 
 ter answer to Mr. Cotton ; and wrote another letter 
 full of reproaches against the governor to a gentle- 
 man of his family, while he addressed the governor 
 himself in a fawning, obsequious strain, begging an 
 obliteration of former miscarriages, and a bearing 
 with human infirmities. These letters were all sent 
 back to Hilton ; but too late to prevent his ad- 
 vancement. 
 
 Being settled in his government, he procured a 
 church tt be gathered at Dover, who chose Hanserd 
 Knollys lor their minister. He had come over from 
 England the year before; but being an Anabaptist 
 of the Antinomian cast, was not well received in 
 Massachusetts, and came here while Burdet was in 
 office, who forbad his preaching ; but Underhill, 
 agreeing better with him, prevailed to have him 
 chosen their minister. To ingratiate himself with 
 his new patron, Knollys wrote in his favour to the 
 church in Boston, styling him " The right worship- 
 ful their honoured governor.' Notwithstanding 
 which they cited him again to appear before them; 
 the court granting him safe conduct. At the same 
 time complaint was made to the chief inhabitants on 
 the river, of the breach of friendship in advancing 
 Underhill after his rejection ; and a copy of Knollys's 
 k-tter was returned, wherein he had written, that 
 " Underbill was an instrument of God for their 
 ruin," and it was enquired whether that letter was 
 written by the desire or consent of the people. The 
 principal persons of Portsmouth and Dover disclaim- 
 ed his miscarriages, and expressed their readiness to 
 call him to account when a proper information should 
 be presented ; but begged that no force might be sent 
 against him. By his instigation Knollys had also 
 written to his friends in England a calumnious let- 
 ter against the Massachusetts planters, representing 
 them as more arbitrary than the high commission 
 court, and that there was no real religion in the 
 
 country. A copy of this letter being sent from Eng- 
 andto Governor Winthrop, Knollys was so ashamed 
 at the discovery, that obtaining a licence, he went 
 to Boston ; and at the public lecture before the go- 
 vernor, magistrates, ministers, and the congregation, 
 made confession of his fault, and wrote a retraction 
 ;o his friends in England, which he left with the 
 governor to be sent to them. 
 
 Underhill was so affected with his friend's humi- 
 liation, and the disaffection of the people of Pascata- 
 qua to him, that he resolved to retrieve his charac- 
 ter in the same way. Having obtained safe con- 
 duct, he went to Boston, and in the same public 
 manner acknowledged his adultery, his disrespect to 
 the government, and the justice of their proceedings 
 against him : but his confession wa? mixed with so 
 many excuses and extenuations, that it gave no sa- 
 tisfaction ; and the evidence of his scandalous de- 
 portment being now undeniable, the church passed 
 the sentence of excommunication, to which he seemed 
 to submit, and appeared much dejected while he 
 remained there. 
 
 Upon his return, to please some disaffected per- 
 sons, at the mouth of the river, he sent thirteen 
 armed men to Exeter to rescue out of the officers' 
 hands one Fish, who had been taken into custody for 
 speaking against the king. The people of Dover 
 forbad his coming into their coui't till they had con- 
 sidered his crimes, and he promised to resign his 
 place if they should disapprove of his conduct; but 
 hearing that they were determined to remove him, 
 he rushed into court in a passion, took his seat, 
 ordered one of the magistrates to prison for saying 
 that he would not sit with an adulterer, and refused 
 to receive his dismission, when they voted it. But 
 they proceeded to choose another governor, Roberts, 
 and sent back the prisoner to Exeter. 
 
 (1640.) A new scene of difficulty now arose. 
 Thomas Larkham, a native of Lyme in Dorsetshire, 
 and formerly a minister at Northam near Barns- 
 stable, had come over to New England, and not 
 favouring the doctrine, nor willing to submit to 
 the discipline of the churches in Massachusetts, came 
 to Dover; and being a preacher of good talents, 
 eclipsed Knollys, and raised a party who determi- 
 ned to remove him. He therefore gave way to 
 popular prejudice, and suffered Larkham to take his 
 place ; who soon discovered his licentious princi- 
 ples, by receiving into the church persons of immo- 
 ral characters, and assuming, like Burdet, the civil, 
 as well as ecclesiastical, authority. The better sort 
 of the people were displeased, and restored Knollys 
 to his office, who excommunicated Larkham. This 
 bred a riot, in which Larkham laid hands on Knol- 
 lys, taking away his hat on pretence that he had 
 not paid for it ; but he was civil enough afterwards 
 to return it. Some of the magistrates joined with 
 Larkham, and forming a court, summoned Under- 
 hill, who was of Knollys's party, to appear befoie 
 them, and answer to a new crime which they had to 
 allege against him. Underhill collected his adhe- 
 rents ; Knollys was armed with a pistol, and another 
 had a bible mounted on a halbert for an ensign. 
 In this ridiculous parade they marched against 
 Larkham arid his party, who prudently declined a 
 combat, and sent down the river to Williams the 
 governor, at Portsmouth, for assistance. He came 
 up in a boat with an armed party, beset Knollys' 
 house where Underhill was, guarded it night and 
 day till a court was summoned, and then, Williams 
 sitting as judge, Underhill and his company were 
 found guilty of a riot, and after being fined, were 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 405 
 
 banished the plantation. The new crime which 
 Larkham's party alleged against Underbill was, that 
 he had been secretly endeavouring to persuade the 
 inhabitants to offer themselves to the government of 
 Massachusetts, whose favour he was desirous to pur- 
 chase by these means, as he kcew that their view 
 was to extend their jurisdiction as far as they ima- 
 gined their limits reached, whenever they should 
 find a favourable opportunity. The same policy 
 led him, with his party, to send a petition to Boston, 
 praying for the interposition of the government in 
 their case : in consequence of which the governor 
 and assistants commissioned Simon Bradstreet, Esq., 
 with the famous Hugh Peters, then minister of 
 Salem, and Timothy Dalton of Hampton, to enquire 
 into the matter, and effect a reconciliation, or cer- 
 tify the state of things to them. These gentlemen 
 travelled on foot to Dover, and finding both sides in 
 fault, brought the matter to this issue, that the one 
 party revoked the excommunication, and the other 
 the fines and banishment. 
 
 In the heat of these disputes, a discovery was 
 made of Knollys' failure in point of chastity. He 
 acknowledged his crime before the church ; but they 
 dismissed him, and he returned to England, where 
 he suffered by the severity of the long parliament in 
 1644 ; and being forbidden to preach in the churches, 
 opened a separate meeting in Great St. Helen's, 
 from which he was soon dislodged, and his followers 
 dispersed. He also suffered in the cause of non- 
 conformity in the reign of King Charles the second, 
 and at length (as it is said) died " a good man, in a 
 good old age," September 19, 1691, aged ninety- 
 three. 
 
 Underbill having finished his career in these parts, 
 obtained leave to return to Boston, and finding ho- 
 nesty to be the best policy, did in a large assembly 
 at the public lecture, and during the sitting of the 
 court, make a full confession of his adultery and 
 hypocrisy, his pride and contempt of authority, 
 justifying the church and court in all that they had 
 done against him, declaring that his pretended assu- 
 rance had failed him, and that the terror of his mind 
 had at some times been so great, that he had drawn 
 his sword to put an end to his life. The church be- 
 ing now satisfied, restored him to their communion. 
 The court, after waiting six months for evidence of 
 his good behaviour, took off his sentence of banish- 
 ment, and released him from the punishment of his 
 adultery : the law, which made it capital, having been 
 enacted after the crime was committed, could not 
 touch his life. Some offers being made him by the 
 Dutch at Hudson's river, whose language was fami- 
 liar to him, the church of Boston hired a vessel to 
 transport him and his family thither, furnishing 
 them with all necessaries for the voyage. The Dutch 
 governor gave him the command" of a company of 
 an hundred and twenty men, and he was very ser- 
 viceable in the wars which that colony had with 
 the Indians, having, it is said, killed one hundred 
 and fifty on Long Island, and three hundred on the 
 Main. He continued in their service till his death. 
 
 We find in this relation a striking instance of 
 that species of false religion, which, having its seat 
 in the imagination, instead of making the heart 
 better, and reforming the life, inflames the passions, 
 stupifies reason, and produces the wildest effects in 
 the behaviour. The excesses of enthusiasm have 
 often been observed to lead to sensual gratifica- 
 tions ; the same natural fervour being sufficient to 
 produce both. It cannot be strange, that they who 
 decry morality should indulge such gross and scan- 
 
 dalous enormities as are sufficient to invalidate all 
 those evidences of their religious character on which 
 they lay so much stress. But it is not so surprising 
 that men should be thus misled, as that such frantic 
 zealots should ever be reduced to an acknowledgment 
 of their offences; which in this instance may be 
 ascribed to the strict discipline then practised in the 
 churches of New England. 
 
 The people of Dover and Portsmouth during all 
 this time had no power of government delegated 
 from the crown : but finding the necessity of some 
 more determinate form than they had yet enjoyed, 
 combined themselves each into a body politic after 
 the example of their neighbours at Exeter. The 
 inhabitants of Dover, by a written instrument, 
 signed by forty-one persons, agreed to submit to 
 the laws of England, and such others as should 
 be enacted by a majority of their number, until the 
 royal pleasure should be known. The date of the 
 combination at Portsmouth is uncertain, their first 
 book of records having been destroyed [in 1052], 
 after copying out what they then thought proper to 
 preserve. Williams, who had been sent over by the 
 adventurers, was by annual suffrage continued go- 
 vernor of the place, and with him were associated 
 Ambrose Gibbons and Thomas Warnerton in qua- 
 lity of assistants. During this combination, a grant 
 of fifty acres of land for a glebe was made by the 
 governor and inhabitants to Thomas Walford and 
 Henry Sherburne, churchwardens, and their suc- 
 cessors for ever, as feoffees in trust; by virtue of 
 which grant the same land is still held, and being 
 let on long leases, a considerable part of the town 
 of Portsmouth is built upon it. At this time they 
 had a parsonage house and chapel, and had chosen 
 Richard Gibson for their parson, the patronage be- 
 ing vested in the parishioners. Gibson was sent 
 from England as minister to a fishing plantation 
 belonging to one Trelawney. He was " wholly 
 addicted to the hierarchy and discipline of England, 
 and exercised his ministerial function" according to 
 the ritual. He was summoned before the court at 
 Boston for " scandalizing the government there, 
 and denying their title ;" but upon his submission, 
 they discharged him without fine or punishment, 
 being a stranger, and about to depart the country. 
 After his departure the people of Portsmouth had 
 James Parker for their minister, who was a scholar, 
 and had been a deputy in the Massachusetts court. 
 After him they had one Browne ; and Samuel Dud- 
 ley, a son of Deputy-governor Dudley; but these 
 were only temporary preachers, and they did not 
 obtain the regular settlement of a minister for many 
 years. 
 
 Four distinct governments (including one at Kit- 
 tery on the north side of the river) were now formed 
 on the several branches of Pascataqua. These com- 
 binations being only voluntary agreements, liable 
 to be broken or subdivided on the first popular dis- 
 content, there could be no safety in the continuance 
 of them. The distractions in England at this time 
 had cut off all hope of the royal attention, and the. 
 people of the several settlements were too much 
 divided in their opinions to form any general plan, 
 of government which could afford a prospect of per- 
 manent utility. The more considerate persons among 
 them, therefore, thought it best to treat with Ma--, 
 sachusetts about taking them under their protection. 
 That government was glad of an opportunity to 
 realize the construction which they had put upon 
 the clause of their charter, wherein their northern 
 limits are defined. For a line drawn from east to, 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 west at the distance of " three miles to the north- 
 ward of Merriraack river, and of any and evely part 
 thereof," will take in the whole province of New 
 Hampshire, and the greater part of the province of 
 Maine, so that both Mason's and Gerges's patents 
 must have been vacated. They had already inti- 
 mated their intention to run this east, and west line, 
 and presuming on the justice of their claim, they 
 readily entered into a negociation with the principal 
 settlers of Pascataqua respecting their incorporation 
 with them. (1641.) The affair was more than a 
 year in agitation, and was at length concluded by 
 an instrument subscribed in the presence of the ge- 
 neral court by George Willys, Robert Saltonstall, 
 William Whiting, Edward Holiock, and Thomas 
 Makepeace, in behalf of themselves and the oilier 
 partners of the two patents ; by which instrument 
 they resigned the jurisdiction of the whole to Massa- 
 chusetts, on condition that the inhabitants should 
 enjoy the same liberties with their own people, and 
 have a court of justice erected among them. The 
 property of the whole patent of Portsmouth, and of 
 one-third part of that of Dover, and of all the im- 
 proved lands therein, was reserved to the lords and 
 gentlemen proprietors, and their heirs for ever. 
 
 The court, on their part, consented that the in- 
 habitants of these towns should enjoy the same pri- 
 vileges with the rest of the colony, and have the 
 same administration of just-ice as in the courts of 
 Salem and Ipswich; that they should be exempted 
 from all public charges, except what should arise 
 among themselves, or for their own peculiar benefit; 
 that they should enjoy their former liberties of fish- 
 ing, planting, and felling timber ; that they should 
 send two deputies to the general court; and that 
 the same persons who were authorised by their com- 
 binations to govern them, should continue in office 
 till the commissioners named in this order should 
 arrive at Pascataqua. These commissioners were 
 invested with the power of the quarter courts of Sa- 
 lem and Ipswich, and at their arrival they constituted 
 Francis Williams, Thomas Warnerton and Ambrose 
 Gibbons of Portsmouth, Edward Hilton, Thomas 
 Wiggen, and William Waldron of Dover, magis- 
 trates, who were confirmed by the general court. 
 
 (1642.) By a subsequent order a very extraordi- 
 nary concession was made to these towns, which 
 shews the fondness that government had of retaining 
 them under their jurisdiction. A test, had been es- 
 tablished by law, but it was dispensed with in their 
 favour; their freemen were allowed to vote in town 
 affairs, and their deputies to sit in the general court 
 though they were not church members. 
 
 The people of Dover being left destitute of a mi- 
 nister by the sudden departure of Larkham, wh 
 took this method to avoid the shame which would 
 have attended the discovery of a crime similar to 
 that for which Knollys had been dismissed, wrote to 
 the Massachusetts for help. The court took care to 
 send them Daniel Maud, who had been a minister 
 in England. He was an honest man, and of a quiet 
 and peaceable disposition, qualities much wanting in 
 all his predecessors. Larkham returned to Eng- 
 land, where he continued to exercise his ministry 
 till ejected by the act of uniformity in 1662, from 
 Tavistock in Devon. He is said to have been " well 
 known there for a man of great piety and sincerity," 
 and died in 1 669, aged 68. 
 
 The inhabitants of Exeter had hitherto continued 
 their combination ; but finding themselves compre- 
 hended within the claim of Massachusetts, and being 
 weary of their inefficacious mode of government, they 
 
 petitioned the court, and ware readily admitted un- 
 der their jurisdiction. William Wenborne, Robert 
 Smith, and Thomas Wardhall were appointed their 
 magistrates; and they were annexed to the county of 
 Essex. Upon this, Whelewright, who was still under 
 sentence of banishment, with those of his church 
 who were resolved to adhere to him, removed into 
 the province of Maine, and settled at Wells, where 
 his posterity yet remain. He was soon after re- 
 stored, upon a slight acknowledgment, to the free- 
 dom of the colony, and removed to Hampton, of 
 which church he was minister for many years, until 
 he went to England, where he was in favour with 
 Cromwell : but after the restoration, he returned 
 and settled at Salisbury, where he died in 1680. 
 
 (1644.) After his departure from Exeter, an attempt 
 was made by the remaining inhabitants to form 
 themselves into a church, and they called the aged Ste- 
 phen Batchelor to the ministry, who had been dis- 
 missed from Hampton for his irregular conduct. 
 But the general court here interposed and sent them 
 a solemn prohibition, importing " that their divi- 
 sions were such that they could not comfortably, 
 and with approbation, proceed in so weighty and 
 sacred affairs," and therefore directing them " to de- 
 fer gathering a church, or any other such proceed- 
 ing, till they or the court at Ipswich, upon further 
 satisfaction of their reconciliation and fitness, should 
 give allowance therefor." 
 
 Such a stretch of power which would now be looked 
 upon as an infringement of Christian liberty, was 
 agreeable to the principles of the first fathers of New 
 England, who thought that civil government was 
 established for the defence and security of the church 
 against error both doctrinal and moral. In this 
 sentiment they were not singular, it being univer- 
 sally adopted by the reformers, in that and the pre- 
 ceding age, as one of the fundamental principles of 
 their separation from the Romish church, and ne- 
 cessary to curtail the claims of her Pontiff, who as- 
 sumed a supremacy over " the kings of the earth." 
 
 Observations on the principles and conduct of the first 
 planters of New England. Causes of their removal. 
 Their fortitude. Religious sentiments. Care of 
 their posterity. Justice. Laws. Theocratic pre- 
 judices. Intolerance and persecutions. 
 
 AN union having been formed between the settle- 
 ments on Pascataqua and the colony of Massachu- 
 setts, their history for the succeeding forty years is 
 in a great measure the same : and as many of the 
 people in New Hampshire had the same principles, 
 views, and interests, with the other people of New 
 England, we shall make such observations, and in- 
 tersperse such historical facts, as may illustrate the 
 subject. 
 
 In the preceding century the holy scriptures, 
 which had long lain hid in the rubbish of monastic 
 libraries, were brought to public view by the happy 
 invention of printing ; and as darkness vanishes be- 
 fore the rising sun, so the light of divine truth began 
 to dissipate those errors and superstitions in which 
 Europe had long been involved. At the same time 
 a remarkable concurrence of circumstances gave pe- 
 culiar advantage to the bold attempt of Luther, to 
 rouse Germany from her inglorious subjection to the 
 Roman Pontiff, and effectuate a reformation, which 
 soon spread into the neighbouring countries. But 
 so intimately were the political interests of king- 
 doms and states blended with religious prejudices, 
 that the work, though happily begun, was greatly 
 blemished and impeded. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 407 
 
 Henry the Eighth of England took advantage of 
 this amazing revolution in the minds of men, to 
 throw off the papal yoke, and assert his native claim 
 to independence. But so dazzling was the idea of 
 power, and the example of the first Christian princes 
 who had exercised a superintendency in spirituals 
 as well as temporals, that he transferred to himself 
 that spiritual power which had been usurped and 
 exercised by the bishops of Rome, and set up him- 
 self as supreme head on earth of the church of Eng- 
 land ; commanding both clergy and laity in his do- 
 minions to swear allegiance to him in this newly 
 assumed character. 
 
 This claim was kept up by his son and successor, 
 Edward the Sixth, in whose reign the reformation 
 gained much ground ; and a service-book was pub- 
 lished by royal authority as the standard of worship 
 and discipline for his subjects. This excellent prince 
 was taken out of the world in his youth ; and his 
 sister Mary, who then came to the throne, restored 
 the supremacy to the pope, and raised such fiery per- 
 secution against the reformers, that many of them 
 fled into Germany and the Netherlands, where they 
 departed from that uniformity which had been esta- 
 blished in England, and became divided in their 
 sentiments and practice respecting ecclesiastical af- 
 fairs : the native effect of that just liberty of con- 
 science which they enjoyed abroad, pursuing their 
 own enquiries according to their respective measures 
 of light; uninfluenced by secular power, or the hope 
 of acquiring dignities in a national establishment. 
 
 The accession of Elizabeth inspired them with new 
 hopes ; and they returned home, resolving to attempt 
 the reformation of the church of England, agreeably 
 to the respective opinions which they had embraced 
 in their exile. But they soon found that the queen, 
 who had been educated in the same manner with her 
 brother Edward, was fond of the establishment made 
 in his reign, and was strongly prejudiced in favor 
 of pomp and ceremony in religious worship. She 
 asserted her supremacy in the most absolute terms, 
 and erected a high commission court with jurisdic- 
 tion in ecclesiastical affairs. Uniformity being rigo- 
 rously enjoined and no abatement or allowance made 
 for tender consciences (though it was conceded that 
 the ceremonies were indifferent) a separation from 
 the establishment took place. Those who were de- 
 sirous of a farther reformation from the Romish su- 
 perstitions, and of a more pure and perfect form of 
 religion, were denominated Puritans ; whose prin- 
 ciples, as distinguished from those of the other 
 reformers who were in favour with the queen, are 
 thus represented. 
 
 " The queen and court reformers held, 1. Tha 
 every prince had the sole authority to correct al 
 abuses of doctrine and worship within his own terri- 
 tories. 2. That the church of Rome was a true 
 church, though corrupt in some points of doctrine 
 and government ; that all her ministrations were 
 valid, and that the pope was a true bishop of Rome, 
 though not of the universal church. 3. That the 
 scriptures were a perfect rule of faith, but not a 
 standard of discipline ; and that it was left to the 
 discretion of the Christian magistrate, to accommodate 
 the government of the church to the policy of the 
 state. 4. That the practice of the primitive church 
 for the first four or five centuries, was a proper 
 standard of church government and discipline ; anc 
 in some respects better than that of the apostles, 
 which was only accommodated to the infant state o 
 the church, while it was under persecution ; whereas 
 the other was suited to the grandeur of a nationa" 
 
 stablishment 5. That things indifferent in their 
 iwn nature, as rites, ceremonies, and habits, might 
 >e settled, determined and made necessary, by the 
 ommand of the civil magistrate, and that in such 
 cases it was the duty of the subject to observe them. 
 
 ' On the other hand, the Puritans, 1 . Disowned 
 all foreign jurisdiction over the church, but could 
 not admit of that extensive power which the crown 
 claimed by the supremacy. However, they took the 
 oath, with the queen's explication, as only restoring 
 icr majesty to the ancient and natural rights of 
 sovereign princes over their subjects. 2. They held 
 the pope to be antichrist, the church of Rome a false 
 church, and all her ministrations superstitious and 
 dolatrous. 3. That the scriptures were a standard 
 of discipline as well as doctrine, and if there was 
 need of a discretionary power, it was vested not in 
 the magistrate, but in the officers of the church, 
 4. That the form of government ordained by the 
 apostles was aristocratical, and designed as a pattern 
 to the church in after ages, not to be departed from 
 in its main principles. 5. That those things which 
 Christ hath left indifferent ought not to be made ne 
 cessary ; and that such rites and ceremonies as had 
 been abused to idolatry and superstition, and had a 
 manifest tendency to lead men back thereto, were 
 no longer indifferent but unlawful. 
 
 " Both parties agree too well in asserting the ne- 
 cessity of uniformity in public worship, and of using 
 the sword of the magistrate for the support and de 
 fence of their respective principles ; which they 
 made an ill use of in their turns, whenever they could 
 grasp it in their hands. The standard of uniformity 
 according to the bishops, was the queen's supremacy 
 and the laws of the land ; according to the Puritans, 
 the decrees of national and provincial synods, al 
 lowed and enforced by the civil magistrate. Neither 
 party were for admitting that liberty of conscience 
 and freedom of profession which is every man's 
 right, so far as is consistent with the peace of civil 
 government. Upon this fatal rock of uniformity, 
 was the peace of the church of England split." 
 
 It is melancholy to observe what mischiefs were 
 caused by the want of a just distinction between civil 
 and ecclesiastical power, and by that absurd zeal for 
 uniformity, which kept the nation in along ferment, 
 and at length burst out into a blaze, the fury of which 
 was never thoroughly quelled till the happy genius 
 of the revolution gave birth to a free and equitable 
 toleration, whereby every man was restored to the 
 natural right of judging and acting for himself in 
 matters oi' religion. All the celebrated wisdom of 
 Elizabeth's government could not devise an expe- 
 dient so successful. Though her reign was long and 
 prosperous, yet it was much stained with oppression 
 and cruelty toward many of her best subjects ; who, 
 wearied with ineffectual applications, waited the ac 
 cession of James, from whom they expected moro 
 favour, because he had been educated in the presby- 
 terian church of Scotland, and professed a high ve- 
 neration for that establishment. But they soon found 
 that he had changed his religious principles with his 
 climate, and that nothing was to be expected from a 
 prince of so base a character, but insult and contempt. 
 In the beginning of his reign a great number of 
 the Puritans removed into Holland, where they 
 formed churches upon their own principles. But not 
 relishing the manners of the Dutch, after twelve 
 years they projected a removal to America, and laid 
 the foundation of the colony of Plymouth. The 
 spirit of uniformity still prevailing in England, and 
 being carried to the greatest extent, in the reign of 
 
408 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Charles the First, by that furious bigot Archbishop 
 Laud, many of the less scrupulous, but conscientious 
 members of the church of England, who had hitherto 
 remained in her communion, seeing no prospect of 
 rest or liberty in their native country, followed their 
 brethren to America, and established the colony of 
 Massachusetts, from which proceeded that of Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 By such men, influenced by such motives, were the 
 principal settlements in New England effected. The 
 fortitude and perseverance which they exhibited 
 therein will always render their memory dear to their 
 posterity. To prepare for their enterprize, they had 
 to sell their estates, some of which were large and 
 valuable, and turn them into materials for a new 
 plantation, with the nature of which they had no ac- 
 quaintance, and of which they could derive no know- 
 ledge from the experience of others. After traversing 
 a wide ocean they found themselves in a country full 
 of woods, to subdue which required immense labour 
 and patience ; at a vast distance from any civilized 
 people ; in the neighbourhood of none but ignorant 
 and barbarous savages ; and in a climate, where a 
 winter much more severe than they had been accus- 
 tomed to, reigns for a third part of the year. Their 
 stock of provisions falling short, they had the dread- 
 ful apprehension of perishing by famine, one half of 
 their number dying before the first year was com- 
 pleted ; the ocean on one side separated them from 
 their friends, and the wilderness on the other pre- 
 sented nothing but scenes of horror, which it was 
 impossible for them to conceive before they endured 
 them. 
 
 But under all these difficulties, they maintained a 
 steady and pious resolution ; depending on the pro- 
 vidence of the Supreme Ruler, and never repenting 
 the business on which they had come into this wil- 
 derness. As purity in divine administrations was 
 the professed object of their undertaking, so they 
 immediately set themselves to form churches, on what 
 they judged the gospel plan. To be out of the reach 
 of prelatic tyranny, and at full liberty to pursue their 
 own enquiries, and worship God according to their 
 consciences, (which had been denied them in their 
 own country) was esteemed the greatest of blessings, 
 and sweetened every bitter cup which they were 
 obliged to drink. They always professed that their 
 principal design was to erect churches on the primi- 
 tive model, and that the consideration of temporal 
 interest and conveniency had but the second place 
 in their views. 
 
 In the doctrinal points of religion they were of 
 the same mind with their brethren of the church of 
 England, as expressed in their articles. The Mas- 
 sachusetts planters left behind them, when they 
 oailed, a respectful declaration importing that they 
 did not consider the church of England as anti- 
 christian, but only withdrew from the imposition of 
 unscriptural terms of communion. Some of the 
 Plymouth planters had embraced the narrow prin- 
 ciples of the Brownists, the first who separated from 
 the church of England; but by the improvements 
 which they made in religious knowledge under the 
 instruction of the renowned John Robinson, their 
 pastor in Holland, they were in great measure cured 
 of that sour leaven. The congregational system of 
 church government was the result of the studies of 
 that truly pious, learned, humble, and benevolent 
 divine, who seems to have had more of the genuine 
 spirit of the reformation, and of freedom from bigo- 
 try, than any others in his day. His farewell 
 charge to those of his flock, who were embarking in 
 
 Holland for America, deserves to be had in perpetual 
 remembrance. "Brethien (said he), we are now 
 quickly to part from one another, and whether 1 
 may ever live to see your face on earth any more, 
 the" God of heaven only knows: but whether the 
 Lord hath appointed that or no, I charge you be- 
 fore God and his blessed angels that you follow me 
 no further than you have seen me follow the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. If God reveal any thing to you by 
 any other instrument of his, be as ready to receive 
 it, as ever you were to receive any truth by my 
 ministry; for I am verily persuaded, I am very con- 
 fident, the Lord has more truth yet to break forth 
 out of his holy word. For my part, I cannot suffi- 
 ciently bewail the condition of the reformed churches, 
 who are come to a period in religion, and will go at 
 present no farther than the instruments of their re- 
 formation. The Lutherans cannot be drawn to go 
 beyond what Luther saw ; whatever part of his will 
 our good God has revealed to Calvin, they will ra- 
 ther die than embrace it. And the Calvinists you 
 see stick fast where they were left by that great man 
 of God, who yet saw riot all things. This is a misery 
 much to be lamented ; for though they were burning 
 and shining lights in their times, yet they penetrated 
 not into the whole counsel of God; but were they 
 now living, would be as willing to embrace farther 
 light, as that which they at first received. I beseech 
 you to remember it as an article of your church co- 
 venant, ' That you be ready to receive whatever 
 truth shall be made known to you from the written 
 word of God.' Remember that, and every other 
 article of your sacred covenant. But I must here- 
 withal exhort you to take heed wha* you receive as 
 truth. Examine, consider, and compare it with 
 other scriptures of truth, before you receive it ; for 
 it is not possible the Christian world should come so 
 lately out of such thick antichristian darkness, and 
 that perfection of knowledge should break forth at 
 once." It is much to be regretted that this excel- 
 lent man did not live to reach New England, and to 
 diffuse more generally such truly catholic and apos- 
 tolic principles. 
 
 Many of the first planters of New England were 
 peisons of good education, and some of them emi- 
 nent for their abilities and learning. Such men 
 could not but see the necessity of securing to their 
 posterity the advantages which they had so dearly 
 purchased. One of their first concerns was to have 
 their children considered, from their earliest years, 
 as subjects of ecclesiastical discipline. This became 
 a matter of controversy, and was largely discussed 
 in sermons and pamphlets, and at length determined 
 by the authority of a synod. A regular course of 
 academical learning was a point of equal importance, 
 and admitted of no dispute. They saw that the re- 
 putation and happiness of the whole country de- 
 pended greatly upon it. They therefore took early 
 care for the establishment of schools, and within 
 ten years from their first settlement, founded a college 
 at Cambridge, which from small beginnings, by the 
 munificence of its patrons, has made a distinguished 
 figure in the republic of letters. Many eminent men 
 have there been formed for the service of the church 
 and state : and without this advantage the country 
 could not have arrived, in so short a time, at its pre- 
 sent respectable state; nor have been furnished with 
 men capable of filling the various stations of useful- 
 ness, and of defending civil and religious liberty. 
 
 Though the first planters derived from the royal 
 grants and charters a political right, as subjects" of 
 the crown of England, to this territory; yet they 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 400 
 
 did not think themselves justly entitled to the pro- 
 perty of it till they had fairly purchased it of its 
 native lords, and made them full satisfaction. Nor did 
 they content themselves with merely living peaceably 
 among them, but exerted themselves vigorously in 
 endeavouring their conversion to Christianity, which 
 was one of the obligations of their patent, and one 
 of the professed designs of their settlement m this 
 country. This duty was strictly performed, and 
 the names of Eliot and Mayhew will always be 
 remembered as unwearied instruments in promo- 
 ting it. Great care was taken by the govern- 
 ment to prevent fraud and injustice toward the In- 
 dians in trade, or violence to their persons. The 
 nearest of the natives were so sensible of the justice 
 of their English neighbours, that they lived in a 
 state of peace with them, with but little interruption, 
 for above fifty years. 
 
 Slavery was thought so inconsistent with the na- 
 tural rights of mankind, and detrimental to society, 
 that an express law was made, prohibiting the buy- 
 ing or selling of slaves, except those taken in lawful 
 war, or reduced to servitude for their crimes by a 
 judicial sentence ; and these were to have the same 
 privileges as were allowed by the laws of Moses. 
 There was a remarkable instance of justice in the 
 execution of this law, in 1645, when a Negro who 
 had been fraudulently brought from the coast of 
 Africa, and sold in the country, was by the special 
 interposition of the general court taken from his 
 master in order to be sent home to his native land. 
 How long after this the importation of blacks con- 
 tinued to be disallowed is uncertain ; but if the same 
 resolute justice had always been observed, it would 
 have been much for the credit and interest of the 
 country; and their own struggles for liberty would 
 not have carried so flagrant an appearance of incon- 
 sistency. 
 
 Severe laws conformable to the principles of the 
 laws of Moses were enacted against all kinds of im- 
 morality. Blasphemy, idolatry, adultery, unnatural 
 lusts, rape, murder, manstealing, false witness, re- 
 bellion against parents, and conspiracy against the 
 commonwealth, were made capital crimes; and be- 
 cause some doubted whether the magistrate could 
 punish breaches of the four first commands of the 
 decalogue, this right was asserted in the highest 
 tone, and the denial of it ranked among the most 
 pestilent heresies, and punished with banishment. 
 By the severity and impartiality with which those 
 laws were executed, intemperance and profaneness 
 were so effectually discountenanced that Hugh Peters, 
 who had resided in the country twenty years, de- 
 clared before the parliament that he had not seen a 
 drunken man, nor heard a profane oath during that 
 period. The report of this extraordinary strictness, 
 while it invited many of the best men in England 
 to come over, kept them clear of those wretches who 
 fly from one country to another to escape the pu- 
 nishment of their crimes. 
 
 The professed design of the plantation being the 
 advancement of religion, and men of the strictest 
 morals being appointed to the chief places of go- 
 vernment, their zeal for purity of every kind carried 
 them into some refinements in their laws, which are 
 not generally supposed to come within the sphere of the 
 magistracy, and in larger communities could scarcely 
 be attended to in a judicial way. The drinking of 
 healths, and the use of tobacco, were forbidden, the 
 former being considered as an heathenish and ido- 
 latrous practice, grounded on the ancient libations ; 
 the other as a. species of intoxication and waste of 
 
 time. Laws were instituted to regulate the inter- 
 course between the sexes, and the advances toward 
 matrimony : they had a ceremony of betrothing, 
 which preceded that of marriage. Pride and levity 
 of behaviour came under the cognizance of the ma- 
 gistrate. Not only the richness but the mode of 
 dress, and cut of the hair, were subject to state re- 
 gulations. Women were forbidden to expose their 
 arms or bosoms to view ; it was ordered that their 
 sleeves should reach down to their wrist, and their 
 gowns be closed round their neck. Men were obliged 
 to cut short their hair, that they might not resemble 
 women. No person not worth two hundred pounds 
 was allowed to wear gold or silver lace, or silk hoods 
 and scarfs. Offences against these laws were pre- 
 sentable by the grand jury ; and those who dressed 
 above their rank were to be assessed accordingly. 
 Sumptuary laws might be of use in the beginning 
 of a new plantation; but these pious rulers had 
 more in view than the political good. They were 
 not only concerned for the external appearance of 
 sobriety and good order, but thought themselves 
 obliged, so far as they were able, to promote real 
 religion, and enforce the observance of the divino 
 precepts. 
 
 As they were fond of imagining a near resem- 
 blance between the circumstances of their settlement 
 in this country, and the redemption of Israel from 
 Egypt or Babylon ; it is not strange that they should 
 also look upon their " commonwealth as an institu- 
 tion of God for the preservation of their churches, 
 and the civil rulers as both members and fathers of 
 them." The famous John Cotton, the first minister 
 in Boston, was the chief promoter of this sentiment. 
 When he arrived in 1633, he found the people di- 
 vided in their opinions. Some had been admitted to 
 the privileges of freemen at the first general court, 
 who were not in communion with the churches ; 
 after this an order was passed, that none but mem- 
 bers of the churches should be admitted freemen ; 
 whereby all other persons were excluded from every 
 office or privilege, civil or military. This great 
 man, by his eloquence, confirmed those who had 
 embraced this opinion, and earnestly pleaded " that 
 the government might be considered as a theocracy, 
 wherein the Lord was judge, lawgiver, and king ; 
 that the laws which he gave Israel might be adopted, 
 so far as they were of moral and perpetual equity ; 
 that the people might be considered as God's people 
 in covenant with him; that none but persons of 
 approved piety and eminent gifts should be chosen 
 rulers ; that the ministers should be consulted in all 
 matters of religion ; and that the magistrate .should 
 have a superintending and coercive power over the 
 churches." At the desire of the court, he compiled 
 a system of laws, founded chiefly on the laws of 
 Moses, which was considered by the legislative- body 
 as the general standard ; though they never formal- 
 ly adopted it, and in some instances varied from it. 
 
 These principles were fundamentally the same 
 with those on which were grounded all the persecu- 
 tions which they had endured in England, and na- 
 turally led to the same extremes of conduct which 
 they had so bitterly complained of in those civil and 
 ecclesiastical rulers, from whose tyranny they had 
 fled into this wilderness. They had already pro- 
 ceeded a step farther than the hierarchy had ever 
 attempted. No test-law had as yet taken place in 
 England ; but they had at one blow cut off all but 
 those of their own communion from the privileges 
 of civil offices, however otherwise qualified. They 
 thought that as they had suffered so much in laying 
 
410 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the foundation of a new state, which was supposed I judge of what is agreeable or contrary to the gospel ? 
 to be " a model of the glorious kingdom of Christ If the magistrate, then there is only a liberty to be* 
 
 on earth," they had an exclusive right to all the 
 honours and privileges of it ; and having the power 
 in their hands, they effectually established their 
 pretensions, and made all dissenters and disturbers 
 feel the weight of their indignation. 
 
 In consequence of the union thus formed between 
 the church and state on the plan of the Jewish theo- 
 cracy, the ministers were called to sit in council, 
 and give their advice in matters of religion and cases 
 of conscience which came before the court, and 
 without them they never proceeded to any act of an 
 ecclesiastical nature. As none were allowed to vote 
 in the election of rulers but freemen, and freemen 
 must be church members; and as none could be 
 admitted into the church but by the elders, who first 
 examined, and then propounded them to the breth- 
 ren for their vote, the clergy acquired hereby a vast 
 ascendency over both rulers and people, and had in 
 effect the keys of the state as well as the church in 
 their hands. The magistrates, on the other hand, 
 regulated the gathering of churches, interposed in 
 the settlement and dismission of ministers, arbitrated 
 in ecclesiastical controversies, and controled syno- 
 dical assemblies. This coercive power in the ma- 
 gistrate was deemed absolutely necessary to preserve 
 " the order of the gospel." 
 
 The principle on which this power is grounded is 
 expressed in the Cambridge Platform in terms as 
 mild as possible. " The power and authority of 
 magistrates is not for the restraining of churches, 
 or any other good works, but for the helping in and 
 furthering thereof, and therefore the consent and 
 countenance of magistrates, when it may be had, is 
 not to be slighted or lightly esteemed ; but, on the 
 contrary, it is a part of the honour due to Christian 
 magistrates to desire and crave their consent and 
 approbation therein: which being obtained, the 
 churches may then proceed in their way with much 
 more encouragement and comfort." This article 
 (like many others in that work) is curiously and 
 artfully drawn up, so that there is an appearance of 
 liberty and tenderness, but none in reality : for al- 
 though the magistrate was not to restrain any good 
 works, yet he was to be the judge of the good or evil 
 of the works to be restrained; and what security 
 could churches have that they should not be re- 
 strained in the performance of what they judged to 
 be good works ? They might indeed think them- 
 selves safe, while their rulers were so zealous for 
 the purity of the churches of which themselves were 
 members, and while their ministers were consulted 
 in all ecclesiastical affairs ; but if the civil powers 
 had acted without such consultation, or if the mi- 
 nisters had been induced to yield to the opinion of 
 the magistrates, when contrary to the interest of the 
 churches, what then would have become of religious 
 liberty ? 
 
 The idea of liberty in matters of religion was in 
 that day strangely understood, and mysteriously ex- 
 pressed. The venerable Higginson of Salem, in his 
 sermon on the day of the election 1663, speaks thus : 
 " The gospel of Christ hath a right paramount all 
 rights in the world ; it hath a divine and supreme 
 right to be received in every nation, and the knee of 
 magistracy is to bow at the name of Jesus. This 
 right carries liberty along with it, for all such as pro- 
 fess the gospel, to walk according to the faith and 
 order of the gospel. That which is contrary to the 
 gospel hath no right, and therefore should have no 
 liberty." Here the question arises, who is to be the 
 
 only a liberty 
 
 lieve and practice what the magistrate thinks right. 
 A similar sentiment occurs in the sermon of the 
 learned President Oakes on the same occasion in 
 1673; " The outcry of some is for liberty of con- 
 
 science, 
 this age. 
 
 This is the 
 But remem 
 
 great Diana of the libertines of 
 iber, that as long as vou have 
 
 liberty to walk in the faith and order of the gospel, 
 and may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godli- 
 ness and honesty, you have as much liberty of con- 
 science as Paul desired under any government." 
 Here the question recurs, would Paul have submitted 
 to walk according to the opinion which the magis- 
 trate might entertain of the faith and order of the 
 gospel ? But this was all the freedom allowed by the 
 spirit of these times. Liberty of conscience and to- 
 leration were offensive terms, and they who used 
 them were supposed to be the enemies of religion and 
 government. " I look upon toleration (says the 
 same author) as the first born of all abominations ; 
 if it should be born and brought forth among us, you 
 may call it Gad, and give the same reason that Leah 
 did for the name of her sou, Behold a troop cometh, 
 a troop of all manner of abominations." In another 
 of these election sermons, (which may generally be 
 accounted the echo of the public voice, or the politi- 
 cal pulse by which the popular opinion may be felt) 
 it is shrewdly intimated that toleration had its origin 
 from the devil, and the speech of the demoniac who 
 cried out, " what have we to do with thee, let us 
 alone, thou Jesus of Nazareth," is styled " Sa'an's 
 plea for toleration." The following admonition to 
 posterity, written by the Deputy-Governor Dudley, 
 is another specimen : 
 
 " Let men of God in courts and churches watch 
 O'er such as do a toleration hatch ; 
 Lest that ill egg bring forth a cockatrice, 
 To poison all with heresy and vice. 
 If men be left and otherwise combine, 
 My epitaph's I die no libertine." 
 
 The champion of these sentiments was Cotton, 
 who though eminently meek, placid and charitable, 
 yet was strongly tinctured with the prevailing opinion, 
 that the magistrate had a coercive power against 
 heretics. The banishment of Roger Williams, mi- 
 nister of Salem, occasioned a vehement controversy 
 on this point. Williams having written in favour 
 of liberty of conscience, and styled the opposite prin- 
 ciple " the bloody tenet ;" was answered by Cotton, 
 who published a treatise in 1647, with this strange 
 title, " The bloody tenet washed, and made white 
 in the blood of the Lamb." In this work he labours 
 to prove the lawfulness of the magistrate's using the 
 civil sword to extirpate heretics, from the commands 
 given to the Jews to put to death all blasphemers and 
 idolaters. To the objection, that persecution serves 
 to make men hypocrites, he says, " better tolerate 
 hypocrites and tares than briars and thorns. In 
 such cases the civil sword doth not so much attend 
 the conversion of seducers, as the preventing the 
 seduction of honest minds by their means." He al- 
 lows indeed that " the magistrate ought not to draw 
 the sword against seducers till he have used all good 
 means for their conviction : but if after their con- 
 tinuance in obstinate rebellion against the light, he 
 shall still walk toward them in soft and gentle com- 
 miseiation, his softness and gentleness is excessive 
 large to foxes and wolves ; but his bowels are miser- 
 ably straitened and hardened against the poor sheep 
 and lambs of Christ. Nor is it frustrating the end 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 411 
 
 of Christ's coming, which was to save souls, but a 
 direct advancing it, to destroy, if need be, the bodies 
 of those wolves, who seek to destroy the souls of 
 those for whom Christ died." In pursuing his argu- 
 ment he refines so far as to deny that any man is 
 to be persecuted on account of conscience " till, being 
 convinced in his conscience of his wickedness, he do 
 stand out therein, not only against the truth, but 
 against the light of his own conscience, that so it 
 may appear he is not persecuted for cause of con- 
 science, but punished for sinning against his own 
 conscience." To which he adds, " sometimes it may 
 be an aggravation of siu both in judgment and prac- 
 tice that a man committeth it in conscience." After 
 having said that it was toleration which made the 
 world antichristian, he concludes his book with this 
 singular ejaculation, " the Lord keep us from being 
 bewitcheu with tlie whore's cup, lest while we seem 
 to reject her with open i'ace of profession, we bring 
 her in hy a back door of toleration ; and so come to 
 drink deeply of the cup of the Lord's wrath, and be 
 filled with her plagues." 
 
 But the strangest language that ever was used on 
 this or perhaps on any other subject, is to be found 
 in a book printed in 1645, by the humorous Ward of 
 Ipswich, entitled, " the Simple Cobler of Agawam." 
 " My heart (says he) hath naturally detested four 
 things ; the standing of the Apocrypha in the Bible : 
 foreigners dwelling in my country, to crowd out na- 
 tive subjects into the corners of the earth : alchy- 
 inized coins : toleration of divers religions or of one 
 religion in segregant shapes. He that willingly 
 assents to the last, if he examines his heart by day- 
 light, his conscience will tell him, he is either an 
 atheist, or an heretic, or an hypocrite, or at best a 
 captive to some lust. Polypiety is the greatest im- 
 piety in the world. To authorize an untruth by 
 toleration of the state, is to build a sconce against 
 the walls of heaven, to batter God out of his chair. 
 Persecution of true religion and toleration of false 
 are the Jannes and Jambres to the kingdom of Christ, 
 whereof the last is by far the worst. He that is will- 
 ing to tolerate any unsound opinion, that his own 
 may be tolerated though never so sound, will for a 
 need, hang God's bible at the devil's girdle. It is 
 said that men ought to have liberty of conscience, 
 and that it is persecution to debar them of it : I can 
 rather stand amazed than reply to this ; it is an 
 astonishment that the brains of men should be par- 
 boiled in such impious ignorance." 
 
 From these specimens (of which the reader will 
 think he has had enough), it is easy to see how 
 deeply the principle of intolerancy was rooted in the 
 minds of the first settlers. Had it stood only in their 
 books as a subject of speculation, it might have been 
 excused, considering the prejudices of the times 
 but it was drawn out into fatal practice, and caused 
 severe persecutions, which cannot, be justified con 
 sistently with Christianity or true policy. What 
 ever may be said in favour of their proceedings 
 against the Antinomians, whose principles had such 
 an effect on the minds of the people as materially 
 affected the foundations of government, in the in- 
 fancy of the plantation ; yet the Anabaptists and 
 Quakers were so inconsiderable for numbers, and th 
 colony was then so well established, that no dangei 
 could have been rationally apprehended to the com- 
 monwealth from them. Rhode Island was settlec 
 by some of the Antinomian exiles on a plan of en 
 tire religious liberty : men of every denomination 
 being equally protected and countenanced, and en 
 joying the honours and offices of government. The 
 
 Anabaptists, fined and banished, flocked to that new 
 settlement, and many of the Quakers also took re- 
 fuge there ; so that Rhode Island was in those days 
 "ooked upon as the drain or sink of New England : 
 ind it has been said that "if any man had lost his 
 eligion, he might have found it there, among such 
 i general muster of opinionists." Notwithstanding 
 his invective, it is much to the honour of that go- 
 vernment, that there never was an instance of per- 
 secution for conscience sake countenanced by them. 
 Rhode IslariM and Pennsylvania afford a strong 
 proof that toleration conduces greatly to the settle- 
 ment and increase of an infant plantation. 
 
 The Quakers at first were banished; but this pro- 
 ing insufficient, a succession of sanguinary laws 
 were enacted against them, of which imprisonment, 
 whipping, cutting off the ears, boring the tongue with 
 an hot iron, and banishment on pain of death, were 
 the terrible punishments. In consequence of these 
 laws four persons were put to death at Boston, bear- 
 'ug their punishment with patience and fortitude; 
 solemnly protesting that their return from banish- 
 ment was by divine direction, to warn the magis- 
 trates of their errors, and intreat them to repeal 
 their cruel laws; denouncing the judgments of God 
 upon them; and foretelling that if they should put 
 them to death, others would rise up in their room to 
 fill their hands with work. After the execution of 
 the fourth person, an order from King Charles the 
 Second, procured by their friends in England, put 
 a stop to capital executions. 
 
 Impartiality will not suffer a veil to be drawn 
 over these disgraceful transactions. The utmost 
 that has been pleaded in favour of them, cannot ex- 
 cuse them in the eye of reason and justice. The 
 Quakers, it is said, were heretics; their principles 
 appeared to be subversive of the gospel, and deroga- 
 tory from the honour of the Redeemer. Argument 
 and scripture were in this case the proper weapons 
 to combat them with; and if these had failed of suc- 
 cess, they must have been left to the judgment of 
 an omniscient and merciful God. They were com- 
 plained of as disturbers of the peace, revilers of ma- 
 gistracy, ''malignant and assiduous promoters of doc- 
 trines directly tending to subvert both church and 
 state;" and the settlers thought it hard, when they 
 had fled from opposition and persecution in one 
 shape to be again troubled with it in another. But 
 it would have been more to their honour, to have 
 suffered their magistracy and church order to be in- 
 sulted, than to have stained their hands with the 
 blood of men who deserved pity rather than punish- 
 ment. The Quakers indeed had no right to disturb 
 them; and some of their conduct was to an high 
 degree indecent and provoking; but they were un- 
 der the influence of a spirit which is not easily 
 quelled by opposition. Had not the government 
 appeared to be jealous of their principles, and pro- 
 hibited the reading of their books before any of them 
 appeared in person, there could not have been so 
 plausible a pretext for their reviling government. 
 It was said that the laws by which they were con- 
 demned were grounded on the laws in England 
 against Jesuits. But the case was by no means 
 parallel (as the Quakers pleaded), their principles 
 and practices not being equally detrimental to so- 
 ciety. It was moreover urged in excuse of the se- 
 verities exercised against the Quakers, that the ma- 
 gistrates thought themselves " bound in conscience 
 to keep the passage with the point of the sword : 
 this (it was said) could do no harm to him that could 
 be warned by it; their rushing on it was their own 
 
412 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 act, and they brought the blood on their own heads. 
 Had they promised to depart the jurisdiction and 
 not return without leave, the country would have 
 been glad to have rid themselves of the trouble of 
 executing the laws upon them; it was their pre- 
 sumptuous returning after banishment that caused 
 them to be put to death." This was the plea which 
 the court used in their address to the king; and in 
 another vindication published by their order, the un- 
 happy sufferers are styled " fclones de se," or self- 
 murderers. But this will not justify the putting 
 them to death, unless the original crimes for which 
 they were banished had deserved it. The preamble 
 to the act by which they were condemned, charges 
 them with " altering the received laudable custom 
 of giving respect to equals and reverence to supe- 
 riors ; that their actions tend to undermine the civil 
 government and destroy the order of the churches, 
 by denying all established forms of worship, by 
 withdrawing from orderly church fellowship allowed 
 and approved by all orthodox professors of the truth, 
 and instead thereof, and in opposition thereto, fre- 
 quently meeting themselves, insinuating themselves 
 into the minds of the simple, whereby divers of our 
 inhabitants have been infected." Did these offences 
 deserve death ? Had any government a right to 
 terrify with capital laws persons guilty of no other 
 crimes than these especially when they professed 
 that they were obliged to go the greatest lengths in 
 maintaining those tenets which they judged sacred, 
 and following the dictates of that spirit which they 
 thought divine ? Was not the mere " holding the 
 point of the sword " to them, really inviting them to 
 " rush on it," and seal their testimony with their 
 blood ? And was not this the most likely way to 
 strengthen and increase their party ? Such punish- 
 ment for offences which proceeded from a misguided 
 zeal, increased and inflamed by opposition, will 
 never reflect any honour on the policy or modera- 
 tion of the government ; and can be accounted for 
 only by the strong predilection for coercive power in 
 religion, retained by most or all of the reformed 
 churches; a prejudice which time and experience 
 were necessary to remove. 
 
 The mistakes on which their conduct was grounded 
 cannot be detected in a more masterly manner, than 
 by transcribing the sentiments of Doctor Increase 
 Mather, who lived in those times, and was a strong 
 advocate for the coercive power of the magistrate in 
 matters of religion ; but afterward changed his opin- 
 ion on this point : "He became sensible that the 
 example of the Israelitish reformers inflicting penal- 
 ties on false worshippers, would not legitimate the 
 like proceedings among Christian gentiles: for the 
 holy land of old was, by a deed of gift from the glo- 
 rious God, miraculously and indisputably granted to 
 the Israelitish nation, and the condition on which 
 they had it was their observance of the Mosaic in- 
 stitutions. To violate them was high treason against 
 the king of the theocracy, an iniquity to be punished 
 by the judge. At the same time sojourners in the 
 land were not compelled to the keeping those rites 
 and laws which Moses had given to the people. Nay 
 the Israelites themselves tell, many of them, into 
 the worst of heresies, yet while they kept the laws 
 and rites of Moses, the magistrate would not meddle 
 with them. The heresy of the Sadducees in par- 
 ticular struck at the foundation of all religion ; yet 
 we do not find that our Saviour ever blamed the 
 Pharisees for not persecuting them. The Christian 
 religion brings us not into a temporal Canaan, it 
 knows no weapons but what are purely spiritual. He 
 
 saw that until persecution be utterly banished out 
 of the world, and Cain's club taken out of Abel's 
 hand, 'tis impossible to rescue the world from end- 
 less confusions. He that has the power of the sword 
 will always be in the right, and always assume the 
 power of persecuting. In his latter times there- 
 fore he looked upon it as one of the most hopeful 
 among the signs of the times, the people began to 
 be ashamed of a practice which had been a mother 
 of abominations, and he came entirely into that 
 golden maxim, Errantis pottna doceri" 
 
 Divers others of the principal actors and abettors 
 of this tragedy lived to see the folly and incompe- 
 tency of such sanguinary laws, to which the suffer- 
 ings of their brethren, the nonconformists in Eng- 
 land, did not a little contribute. Und^r the arbitrary 
 government of King James the Second, when he 7 
 for a shew of liberty, and as a leading step to the 
 introduction of popery, issued a proclamation of in- 
 dulgence to tender consciences, the principal men 
 of the country sent him an address of thanks, for 
 granting them what they had formerly denied to 
 others. It is but justice to add, that all those dis- 
 graceful laws we're renounced and repealed, and the 
 people of New England are now as candidly disposed 
 toward the Quakers as any other denominations of 
 Christians. To keep alive a spirit of resentment 
 and reproach to the country, on account of those 
 ancient transactions which arc now universally con- 
 demned, would discover a temper not very consist- 
 ent with that meekness and forgiveness which ought 
 to be cultivated by all who profess to be influenced 
 by the gospel. 
 
 But though the early colonists are justly censurable 
 for those instances of misconduct, yet they are not 
 to be condemned as unworthy the Christian name ; 
 since some of the first disciples of our Lord, in a 
 zealous imitation of the prophet Elias, would have 
 called for fire from heaven to consume a village of 
 the Samaritans who refused to receive him. Their 
 zeal was of the same kind; and the answer which 
 the benevolent author of our religion gave to his 
 disciples on that occasion, might, with equal pro- 
 priety, be addressed to them, and to all persecuting 
 Christians, " Ye know not what spirit ye are of, for 
 the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, 
 but to save them." 
 
 Mode of Government under Massachusetts Mason's 
 efforts to recover the property of his ancestor 
 Transactions of the King's commissioners Ojyosi- 
 tion to them Political principles Internal trans- 
 actions Mason discouraged. 
 
 (1643.) During the union of these plantations 
 with Massachusetts, they were governed by the ge- 
 neral laws of the colony, and the terms of the union 
 were strictly observed. Exeter and Hampton were 
 at first annexed to the jurisdiction of the courts at 
 Ipswich, till the establishment of a new county, 
 which was called Norfolk, and comprehended Salis- 
 bury, Haverhill, Hampton, Exeter. Portsmouth, 
 and Dover. These towns were then of such extent, 
 as to contain all the lands between the rivers Mer- 
 rimack and Pascataqua. The shire town was Salis- 
 bury ; but Dover and Portsmouth had always a dis- 
 tinct jurisdiction, though they were considered as 
 part of this new county ; a court being held in one 
 or the other, sometimes" once and sometimes twice in 
 the year, consisting of one or more of the magis- 
 trates or assistants, and one or more commissioners 
 chosen by the general court out of the principal 
 gentlemen of each town. This was called the court 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 413 
 
 of Associates ; and their power extended to causes 
 of twenty pounds value. From them there was ail 
 appeal to the board of assistants, which being found 
 inconvenient, it was in 1670 ordered to be made to 
 the county court of Norfolk. Causes under twenty- 
 shillings in value were settled in each town by an 
 inferior court, consisting of three persons. (1647.) 
 After some time they had liberty to choose their as- 
 sociates, which was done by the votes of both towns, 
 opened at a joint meeting of their select men, though 
 sometimes they requested the court to appoint them 
 as before. That mutual confidence between rulers 
 and people, which springs from the genius of a re- 
 publican government, is observable in all their trans- 
 actions. 
 
 This extension of the colony's jurisdiction over 
 New Hampshire, could not fail of being noticed by 
 the heirs of Mason : but the distractions caused by 
 the civil wars in England were invincible bars to 
 any legal enquiry. The first heir named in Mason's 
 will dying in infancy, the estate descended after the 
 death of the executrix to Robert Tufton, who was 
 not of age till 1650. In two years after this, Joseph 
 Mason came over as agent to the executrix, to look 
 after the interest of her deceased husband. He 
 found the lands at Newichwannock occupied by 
 Richard Leader, against whom he brought actions 
 in the county court of Norfolk ; but a dispute arising 
 whether the lands in question were within the juris- 
 diction of Massachusetts, and the court of Norfolk 
 judging the action not to be within their cognizance, 
 recourse was had to the general court ; who, on this 
 occasion, ordered an accurate survey of the northern 
 bounds of their patent to be made; a thing which 
 they had long meditated. A committee of the 
 general court, attended by Jonathan I nee and John 
 Shearman, sui'veyors, and several Indian guides, 
 went up the river Merrimack to find the most north- 
 erly part thereof, which the Indians told them was 
 at Aquedochtan, the outlet of the lake Winnipiseo- 
 gee. The latitude of this place was observed to be 
 forty-three degrees, forty minutes, and twelve se- 
 conds, to which three miles being added, made the 
 line of the patent, according to their construction, 
 fall within the lake, in the latitude of forty-three 
 Legrees, forty-three minutes, and twelve seconds. 
 (1653.) Two experienced ship-masters, Jonas Clarke 
 and Samuel Andrews, were then dispatched to the 
 eastern coast, who found the same degrees, minutes, 
 and seconds, on the northern point of an island in 
 Casco bay, called the Upper Clapboard Island. 
 An east and west line, drawn through these points, 
 from the Atlantic to the South sea, was therefore 
 supposed to be the northern boundary of the Massa- 
 chusetts patent, within which the whole claim of 
 Mason, and the greater part of that of Gorges, were 
 comprehended. When this grand point was deter- 
 mined, the court were of opinion, that " some lands 
 at Newichwannock, with the river, were by agree- 
 ment of " Sir Ferdinando Gorges and others, ap- 
 portioned to Captain Mason, and that he also had 
 right by purchase of the Indians, as also by posses- 
 sion and improvement;" and they ordered " a 
 quantity of land proportionable to his disbursements, 
 with the privilege of the river, to be laid out to his 
 heirs." The agent made no attempt to recover any 
 other part of the estate ; but having tarried long 
 enough in the country to observe the temper of the 
 government, and the management used in the de- 
 termination of his suit, he returned; and the estate 
 was given up for lost unless the government of Eng- 
 lund should interpose. 
 
 (1660.) During the commonwealth, and the pro- 
 tectorate of Cromwell, there could be no hope of 
 relief, as the family had always been attached to the 
 royal cause, and the colony stood high in the favour 
 of the parliament and of Cromwell. But the resto- 
 ration of King Charles the Second encouraged 
 Tufton, who now took the surname of Mason, to 
 look up to the throne for favour and assistance. 
 For though the plan of colonization adopted by his 
 gi-andfather was in itself chimerical, and proved 
 fruitless, yet he had expended a large estate in the 
 prosecution of it, which must have been wholly lost 
 to his heirs, unless they could recover the possession 
 of his American territories. Full of this idea, Ma- 
 son petitioned the king ; setting forth " the en- 
 croachment of the Massachusetts colony upon his 
 lands, their making grants and giving titles to the 
 inhabitants, and thereby dispossessing him and keep- 
 ing him out of his right." The king referred the 
 petition to his attorney-general Sir Geoffrey Palmer, 
 who reported that " Robert Mason, grandson and 
 heir to Captain John Mason, had a good and legal 
 title to the province of New Hampshire." Nothing 
 farther was done at this time, nor was the matter 
 mentioned in the letter which the king soon after 
 sent to the colony, though some offensive things in 
 their conduct were therein reprehended, and divers 
 alterations enjoined. But the directions contained 
 in this letter not being strictly attended to, and 
 complaints being made to the king of disputes which 
 had arisen in divers parts of New England concern- 
 ing the limits of jurisdiction, and addresses having 
 been presented by several persons, praying for the 
 royal interposition ; a commission was issued under 
 the great seal to Colonel Richard Nichols, Sir Ro- 
 bert Carre, Knight, George Carteret, and Samuel 
 Maverick, Esqs., empowering them " to visit the 
 several colonies of New England ; to examine and 
 determine all complaints and appeals in matters, 
 civil, military, and criminal; to provide for the 
 peace and security of the country, according to 
 their good and sound discretion, and to such instruc- 
 tions as they should receive from the king, and to 
 certify him of their proceedings." 
 
 This commission was highly disrelished by the 
 colony, as inconsistent with the rights and privileges 
 which they enjoyed by their charter, and which the 
 king had sacredly promised to confirm. It is there- 
 fore no wonder that the commissioners were treated 
 with much coolness at their arrival ; but they severely 
 repaid it in their report to the king. 
 
 In their progress through the country Ihey came 
 to Pascataqua, and enquired into the bounds of Ma- 
 son's patent. They heard the allegation of Whele- 
 wright, who when banished by the colony, was per- 
 mitted to reside immediately beyond what was called 
 the bound-house, which was three long miles to the 
 northward of the river Merrimack. They took the 
 affidavit of Henry Jocelyn concerning the agreement 
 between Governor Cradock and Captain Mason, that 
 the river should be the boundary of their respective 
 patents. They made no determination of this con- 
 troversy in their report to the king ; but having called 
 together the inhabitants of Portsmouth, Sir Robert 
 Carre, in the name of the rest, told them that " they 
 would release them from the government of Massa- 
 chusetts, whose jurisdiction should come no farther 
 than the bound-house." They then proceeded to 
 appoint justices of the peace and other officers, with 
 power to act according to the laws of England and 
 such laws of their own as were not repugnant thereto, 
 until the king's pleasure should be further known. 
 
414 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 (1665) There had always been a party who were dis- 
 affected to the government of Massachusetts. One 
 of the most active among them was Abraham Cor- 
 bett, of Portsmouth, wU>, since the arrival of the 
 commissioners at Boston, and probably by authority 
 derived from them, had taken upon him to issue 
 warrants in the king's name on several occasions, 
 which was construed a high misdemeanor, as he had 
 never been commissioned by the authority of the co- 
 lony. Being called to account by the general court, 
 he was admonished, fined five pounds, and committed 
 till the sentence was performed. Irritated by this 
 severity, he was the fitter instrument for the purpose 
 of the commissioners, who employed him to frame a 
 petition to the king in the name of the four towns, 
 complaining of the usurpation of Massachusetts over 
 them, and praying to be released from their tyranny. 
 Corbett. in a secret manner, procured several per- 
 sons both in Portsmouth and Dover, to subscribe 
 this petition, but the most of those to whom he offered 
 it refused. 
 
 The sensible part of the inhabitants now saw with 
 much concern that they were in danger of being 
 reduced to the same unhappy state which they had 
 been in before their union with Massachusetts. Awed 
 by the supercilious behaviour of the commissioners, 
 they knew not at first how to act ; for to oppose the 
 king's authority was construed treason, and it was 
 said that Sir Robert Carre had threatened a poor old 
 man with death for no other crime than forbidding 
 his grandchild to open a door to them. But when 
 the rumour was spread that a petition was drawn, 
 and that Corbett was procuring subscribers, the 
 people, no longer able to bear the abuse, earnestly 
 applied to the general court, praying " that in some 
 orderly way they might have an opportunity to clear 
 themselves of so great and unjust aspersions as were, 
 by this petition drawn in their name, cast upon the 
 government under which they were settled ; and also 
 to manifest their sense of such perfidious actions, lest 
 by their silence it should be concluded they were of 
 the same mind with those who framed the petition." 
 In consequence of this petition the court commis- 
 sioned Thomas Danforth, Eleazar Lusher, and Major 
 General Leverett, to enquire into the matter, and 
 settle the peace in these places according to their 
 best discretion. 
 
 These gentlemen came to Portsmouth, and having 
 assembled the inhabitants, and published their com- 
 mission, they told them that they were informed of 
 a petition subscribed in behalf of that and the neigh- 
 bouring towns, complaining of the government ; and 
 desiring them if they had any just grievances to let 
 them be known, and report should be immediately 
 made to the general court. The next day they as- 
 sembled the people of Dover and made the same 
 challenge. Both towns respectively protested against 
 the petition, and professed full satisfaction with the 
 government, which they signified in addresses to the 
 court. Dudley, the minister of Exeter, certified 
 under his hand to the committee, that the people of 
 that town had no concern directly nor indirectly 
 with the obnoxious petition. They received also full 
 satisfaction with regard to Hampton ; a certificate 
 of which might have been obtained, if they had 
 thought it necessary. 
 
 They then proceeded to summon Corbett before 
 them for seditious behaviour; but he eluded the 
 search that was made for him, and they were obliged 
 to leave a warrant with an officer to cite him to the 
 court at Boston. The commissioners had now gone 
 over into the province of Maine, from whence Sir 
 
 Robert Carre in their name sent a severe reprimand 
 to this committee, forbidding them to proceed against 
 such persons as had subscribed the petition, and en- 
 closing a copy of a letter which the said commis- 
 sioners had written to the governor and council on 
 the same subject. 
 
 The committee returned and reported their pro- 
 ceedings to the court, and about the same time the 
 commissioners rame from their eastern tour to Bos- 
 ton ; where the court desired a conference with them, 
 but received such an answer from Sir Robert Carre 
 as determined them not to repeat their request. A 
 warrant was then issued by the secretary, in the 
 name of the whole court, to apprehend Corbett and 
 bring him before the governor and magistrates, " to 
 answer for his tumultuous and seditious practices 
 against the government." (1666.) The next spring 
 he was seized and brought before them ; and after a 
 full hearing was adjudged guilty of sedition, and 
 exciting others to discontent with the government 
 and laws, and of keeping a disorderly house of en- 
 tertainment, for which crimes he was sentenced to 
 give a bond of one hundred pounds, with security for 
 his peaceable behaviour and obedience to the laws ; 
 he was prohibited retailing liquors; disabled from 
 bearing any office in the town or commonwealth, 
 during the pleasure of the court ; and obliged to pay 
 a fine of twenty pounds, and five pounds for the 
 costs of his prosecution. 
 
 This severity in vindication of their charter-rights 
 they thought fit to temper with something that had 
 the appearance of submission to the royal commands. 
 The king's pleasure had been signified to the com- 
 missioners, that the harbours should be fortified. 
 This instruction came to hand while they were at 
 Pascataqua, and they immediately issued warrants 
 to the four towns, requiring them to meet at a time 
 and place appointed, to receive his majesty's orders. 
 One of these warrants was sent by express to Boston, 
 from whence two officers were dispatched by the 
 governor and council to forbid the towns on their 
 peril to meet, or obey the commands of the commis- 
 sioners. But by their own authority they ordered a 
 committee to look out the most convenient place for 
 a fortification, upon whose report " the neck of land 
 on the eastward of the Great Island, where a small 
 fort had been already built, was sequestered for the 
 purpose, taking in the Great Rock, and from thence 
 all the easterly part of the said island." The court 
 of associates being empowered to hear and determine 
 the claims of those who pretended any title to this 
 land, a claim was entered by George Walton, but 
 rejected ; and the appropriation confirmed. The 
 customs and imposts on goods imported into the 
 harbour were applied to the maintenance of the fort, 
 and the trained bands of Great Island and Kittery- 
 Point were discharged from all other duty to attend 
 the service of it, under Richard Cutts, esq. who was 
 appointed captain. 
 
 The people of Massachusetts have, both in former 
 and latter times, been charged with disloyalty to the 
 king, in their conduct toward these commissioners, 
 and their disregard of authority derived from the 
 same source with their charter. To account for 
 their conduct on this occasion, we must consider the 
 ideas they had of their political connexion with the 
 parent state. They had been forced from thence by 
 persecution; they came at their own charges into a 
 wilderness, claimed indeed by the crown of Eng- 
 land, but really in possession of its native lords, 
 from whom they had purchased the soil and so- 
 vereignty, which gave them a title, considered in a 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 415 
 
 moral view superior to the grant of any European 
 prince. For convenience only, they had solicited and 
 accepted a patent from the crown, which in their opin- 
 ion constituted the only bond of union betvyeen them 
 and their prince, by which the nature and extent of 
 their allegiance to him was to be determined. This 
 patent they regarded as a solemn compact, wherein 
 the king had granted them undisturbed possession 
 of the soil, and power of government within certain 
 limits on condition that they should settle the 
 country, christianize the natives, yield a fifth of all 
 gold and silver mines to the crown, and make no 
 laws repugnant to those of England. They had, on 
 their part, sacredly performed these conditions; and 
 therefore concluded that the grant of title, property 
 and dominion which the crown had made to them was 
 irrevocable. And although they acknowledged them- 
 selves subjects of the reigning prince, arid owned a 
 dependence on the royal authority ; yet they under- 
 stood it to be only through the medium of their charter. 
 
 The appointment of commissioners who were to 
 act within the same limits, independently of this au- 
 thority, and to receive appeals from it, whose rule 
 of conduct was no established law, but their own 
 " good and sound discretion," was regarded as a 
 dangerous stretch of royal power, militating against 
 and superseding their charter. If the royal authority 
 was destined to flow through the patent, it could not 
 regularly be turned into another channel : if they 
 were to be governed by laws made and executed by 
 officers of their own choosing, they could not at the 
 same time be governed by the "discretion" of men 
 in whose appointment they had no voice, and over 
 whom they had no control. Two ruling powers in 
 the same state was a solecism which they could not 
 digest. The patent was neither forfeited nor re- 
 voked, but the king had solemnly promised to con- 
 firm it, and it subsisted in full force. The commis- 
 sion therefore was deemed an usurpation and in- 
 fringement of those chartered rights, which had 
 been solemnly pledged on the one part, dearly pur- 
 chased and justly paid for on the other. They re- 
 garded " a royal donation under the great seal (to 
 use their own words) as the greatest security that 
 could be had in human affairs;" and they had con- 
 fidence in the justice of the supreme ruler, that if 
 they held what they in their consciences thought to 
 be their rights, and performed the engagements by 
 which they had acquired them, they should enjoy 
 the protection of his providence, though they should 
 be obliged to abandon the country, which they had 
 planted with so much labour and expense, and seek 
 a new settlement in some other part of the globe. 
 
 These were the principles which they had imbibed, 
 which they openly avowed, and on which they acted. 
 Policy might have dictated to them the same flexi- 
 bility of conduct, and softness of expression, by which 
 the other colonies on this occasion gained the royal 
 favour. But they had so long held the sole and un- 
 interrupted sovereignty, in which they had been in- 
 dulged by the late popular government of England, 
 and were so fully convinced it was their right, that 
 they chose rather to risk the loss of all, than to make 
 any concessions, thereby exposing themselves far- 
 ther to the malice of their enemies and the vengeance 
 of power. 
 
 The commissioners, having finished their business, 
 were recalled by the order of the king, who was much 
 displeased with the ill treatment they had received 
 from the Massachusetts government, which was es- 
 teemed the more heinous, as the colonies of Plymouth, 
 Rhode Island, and Connecticut had treated the com- 
 
 mission with acknowledged respect. By a letter to 
 the colony he commanded them to send over four or 
 five agents, promising "to hear in person, all the 
 allegations, suggestions, and pretences to right or 
 favour, that could be made on behalf of the colony," 
 intimating that he was far from desiring to invade 
 their charter ; and commanding that all things 
 should remain as the commissioners had settled them 
 until his farther order; and that those persons who 
 had been imprisoned for petitioning or applying to 
 them should be released. The court, however, con- 
 tinued to exercise jurisdiction, appoint officers, and 
 execute the laws in these towns as they had dona 
 for twenty-five years, to the general satisfaction of 
 the people, who were united to them in principles 
 and affection. 
 
 (1669.) This affection was demonstrated by their 
 ready concurrence with the proposal for a general 
 collection, for the purpose of erecting a new brick 
 building at Harvard college, the old wooden one 
 being small and decayed. The town of Portsmouth, 
 which was now become the richest, made a sub- 
 scription of 60/. per annum for seven years; and 
 after five years passed a town vote to carry this engage- 
 ment into effect. Dover gave 321 , and Exeter 
 
 . for the same laudable purpose. 
 
 (1671.) The people of Portsmouth, having for 
 some time employed Joshua Moody as a preacher 
 among them, and erected a new meeting-house, pro- 
 ceeded to settle him in regular order. A church con- 
 sisting of nine brethren was first gathered ; then the 
 general court having been duly informed of it, and 
 having signified their approbation, according to the 
 established practice, Moody was ordained in the 
 presence of Governor Leverett and several of the 
 magistrates. 
 
 (1674.) The whole attention of the government in, 
 England being at this time taken up with things that 
 more immediately concerned themselves, nothing of 
 moment relating to Mason's interest was transacted. 
 He became discouraged, and joined with the heirs 
 of Gorges in proposing an alienation of their re- 
 spective rights in the provinces of New Hampshire 
 and Maine to the Crown, to make a government for 
 the Duke of Monmouth. The duke himself was 
 greatly pleased with the scheme, as he had been 
 told that an annual revenue of 5,000. or more might 
 be collected from these provinces. But by the more 
 faithful representations of some persons who were 
 well acquainted with the country, he was induced to 
 lay aside the project. Many complaints were made 
 against the government of Massachusetts, and it 
 was thought to be highly expedient that more severe 
 measures should be used with them; but the Dutch 
 wars, and other foreign transactions, prevented any 
 determination concerning them, till the country was 
 involved in all the horrors of a general war with the 
 natives. 
 
 Remarks on the temper and manners of the Indians. 
 The first general war with them, called Philip's war. 
 
 At the time of the first discovery of the river 
 Pascataqua by Captain Smith, it was found that the 
 native inhabitants of these parts differed not in lan- 
 guage, manners, nor government, from their eastern 
 or western neighbours. Though they were divided into 
 several tribes, each of which had a distinct sachem, 
 yet they all owned subjection to a sovereign prince, 
 called Bashaba, whose residence was somewhere 
 about Pemaquid. It was soon after found that the 
 Tarrateens, who lived farther eastward, had invaded 
 his country, surprised and slain him and all the 
 
41G 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 people in his neighbourhood, and carried off his 
 women leaving no traces of his authority. Upon 
 which the subordinate sachems, having no head to 
 unite them, and each one striving for the pre-emi- 
 nence, made war among themselves ; whereby many 
 of their people, and much of their provision were 
 destroyed. When Sir Richard Hawkins visited the 
 coast in 1615, this war was at its height; and to 
 this succeeded a pestilence, which carried them off 
 in such numbers, that the living were not able to 
 bury the dead ; but their bones remained at the 
 places of their habitations for several years. Du- 
 ring this pestilence, Richard Vines and several others, 
 whom Sir Ferdinando Gorges had hired, at a great 
 expense, to tarry in the country through the winter, 
 lived among them, and lodged in their cabins, 
 without receiving the least injury in their health, 
 " not so much as feeling their heads to ache the 
 whole time." By such singular means did Divine 
 Providence prepare the way for the peaceable en- 
 trance of the Europeans into this land. 
 
 When the first settlements were made, the re- 
 mains of two tribes had their habitations on the 
 several branches of the river Pascataqua ; one of 
 their sachems lived at the falls of Squamscot, and 
 the other at those of Newichwannock ; their head- 
 quarters being generally seated in places convenient 
 for fishing. Both these, together with several inland 
 tribes, who resided at Pantucket and Winnipiseo- 
 gee, acknowledged subjection to Passaconaway, the 
 great sagamore of Pannukog, or (as it is commonly 
 pronounced) Penacook. He 'excelled the other sa- 
 chems in sagacity, duplicity, and moderation ; but 
 his principal qualification was his skill in some of 
 the secret operations of nature, which gave him the 
 reputation of a sorcerer, and extended his fame and 
 influence among all the neighbouring tribes. They 
 believed that it was in his power to make water 
 burn and trees dance, and to metamorphose himself 
 into flame ; that in winter ke could raise a green 
 leaf from the ashes of a dry one, and a living ser- 
 pent from the skin of one that was dead. 
 
 An English gentleman, who had been much con- 
 versant among the Indians, was invited, in 1660, 
 to a great dance and feast ; on which occasion the 
 elderly men, in songs or speeches, recite their his- 
 tories, and deliver their sentiments and advice to 
 the younger. At this solemnity Passaconaway, 
 being grown old, made his farewell speech to his 
 children and people ; in which, as a dying man, he 
 warned them to take heed how they quarrelled with 
 their English neighbours ; for though they might do 
 them some damage, yet it would prove the means of 
 their own destruction. He told them he had been a 
 bitter enemy to the English, and by the arts of sor- 
 cery had tried his utmost to hinder their settlement 
 and increase ; but could by no means succeed. This 
 caution, perhaps often repeated, had such an effect, 
 that upon the breaking out of the Indian war fifteen 
 years afterward, Wonolanset, his son and successor, 
 withdrew himself and his people into some remote 
 place, that they might not be drawn into the quarrel. 
 
 While the British nations had been distracted 
 with internal convulsions, and had endured the hor- 
 rors of a civil war, produced by the same causes 
 which forced the planters of New England to quit 
 the land of their nativity ; this wilderness had been 
 to them a quiet habitation. They had struggled 
 with many hardships ; but providence had smiled 
 upon their undertaking, their settlements were ex 
 tended, and their churches multiplied. There had 
 been no remarkable quarrel with the savages, ex- 
 
 cept the short war with the Pequods, who dwelt in 
 south-east part of Connecticut : they being to- 
 tally subdued in 1637, the dread and terror of the 
 English kept the other nations quiet for near forty 
 years : during which time the New England colo- 
 nies being confederated for their mutual defence, 
 andfor maintaining the public peace, took great pains 
 to propagate the gospel among the natives, and 
 bring them to a civilized way of living, which with 
 respect to some proved effectual; others refused to 
 receive the missionaries, and remained obstinately 
 prejudiced against the English. Yet the object of 
 their hatred was at the same time the object of their 
 fear, which lead them to forbear acts of hostility, and 
 to preserve an outward shew of friendship, to their 
 mutual interest. 
 
 Our historians have generally represented the 
 Indians in a most odious light, especially when re- 
 counting the effects of their ferocity. Dogs, caitiffs, 
 miscreants and hell-hounds, are the politest names 
 which have been given them by some writers, who 
 seem to be in a passion at the mentioning their 
 cruelties, and at other times speak of them with 
 contempt. Whatever indulgence may be allowed 
 to those who wrote in times when the mind was 
 vexed with their recent depredations and inhuma- 
 nities, it ill becomes us to cherish an inveterate 
 hatred of the unhappy natives. Religion teaches 
 a better temper, and providence has now put an 
 end to the controversy, by their almost total extir- 
 pation. We should therefore proceed with calm- 
 ness in recollecting their past injuries, and forming 
 our judgment of their character. 
 
 It must be acknowledged that human depravity 
 appeared in these unhappy creatures in a most 
 shocking view. The principles of education and 
 the refinements of civilized life either lay a check 
 upon our vicious propensities, or disguise our crimes; 
 but among them human wickedness was seen in its 
 naked deformity. Yet, bad as they were, it will be 
 difficult to find them guilty of any crime which 
 cannot be paralleled among civilized nations. 
 
 They are always described as being remarkably 
 cruel ; and it cannot be denied that this disposition, 
 indulged to the greatest excess, strongly marks their 
 character. We are struck with horror, when we 
 hear of their binding the victim to the stake, biting 
 off his nails, tearing out his hair by the roots, pull- 
 ing out his tongue, boring out his eyes, sticking his 
 skin full of lighted pitch-wood, half roasting him at 
 the fire, and then making him run for their diver- 
 sion till he faints and dies under the blows which 
 they give him on every part of his body. But is it 
 not as dreadful to read of an unhappy wretch, sewed 
 up in a sack full of serpents, and thrown into the 
 sea; or broiled in a red hot iron chair; or mangled 
 by lions and tigers, after having spent his strength 
 to combat them for the diversion of the spectators in 
 an amphitheatre ? and yet these were punishments 
 among the Romans in the politest ages of the em- 
 pire. What greater cruelty is there in the Ameri- 
 can tortures, than in confining a man in a trough, 
 and daubing him with honey, that he may be stung 
 to death by wasps and other venomous insects; or 
 flaying him alive, and stretching out his skin before 
 his eyes, which modes of punishment were not in- 
 consistent with the softness and elegance of the 
 ancient court of Persia ? or, to come down to modern 
 times, what greater misery can there be in the 
 Indian executions, than in racking a prisoner on a 
 wheel, and breaking his bones one by one with an 
 iron bar ; or placing his legs in a boot, and driving 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 417 
 
 in wedges one after another; which tortures are 
 still, or have till lately been used in some European 
 kingdoms ; we forbear to name the torments of tho 
 inquisition, because they seem to be beyond the 
 stretch of human invention. If civilized nations, 
 and those who profess the most merciful religion 
 that ever blessed the world, have practised these 
 cruelties, what could be expected of men who were 
 strangers to every degree of refinement, either civil 
 or mental? 
 
 The Indians have been represented as revengeful. 
 When any person was killed, the nearest relative 
 thought himself bound to be the avenger of blood, 
 and never left seeking, till he found an opportunity 
 to execute his purpose. Whether in a state where 
 government is confessedly so feeble as among them, 
 such a conduct is not justifiable, and even counte- 
 nanced by the Jewish law,may deserve consideration. 
 
 The treachery with which these people are justly 
 charged, is exactly the same disposition which ope- 
 rates in the breach of solemn treaties made between 
 nations which call themselves Christian. Can it be 
 more criminal in an Indian, than in an European, 
 not to think himself bound by promises and oaths 
 extorted from him when under duress? 
 
 Their jealousy and hatred of their English neigh- 
 bours may easily be accounted for, if we allow them 
 to have the same feelings with ourselves. How na- 
 tural is it for us to form a disagreeable idea of a whole 
 nation, from the bad conduct of some individuals 
 with whom we are acquainted ? and though others 
 of them may be of a different character, yet will not 
 that prudence which is esteemed a virtue, lead us to 
 suspect the fairest appearances, as used to cover the 
 most fraudulent designs, especially if pains are taken 
 by the most politic among us to foment such jealou- 
 sies, to subserve their own ambitious purposes ? 
 
 Though the greater part ^f the English settlers 
 came hither with religious views, and fairly pur- 
 chased their lands of the Indians, yet it cannot be 
 denied that some, especially in the eastern parts of 
 New England, had lucrative views only ; and from 
 the beginning used fraudulent methods in trade with 
 them. Such things were indeed disallowed by the 
 government, and would always have been punished 
 if the Indians had made complaint : but they knew 
 only the law of retaliation, and when an injury was 
 received, it was never forgotten till revenged. En- 
 croachments made on their lands, and fraud com- 
 mitted in trade, afforded sufficient grounds for a 
 quarrel, though at ever so great a length of time ; 
 and kept alive a perpetual jealousy of the like treat- 
 ment again. 
 
 (1675.) Such was the temper of the Indians of 
 New England when the first general war began. It 
 was thought by the English in that day, that Philip, 
 sachem of the Wompanoags, a crafty and aspiring 
 man, partly by intrigue, and partly by example, ex- 
 cited them to such a general combination. He was 
 the son of Massassoiet, the nearest sachem to the 
 colony of Plymouth, with whom he had concluded a 
 peace, which he maintained more through fear than 
 good will as long he lived. His son and immediate 
 successor Alexander, preserved the same external 
 shew of friendship ; but died with choler on being 
 detected in a plot against them. Philip, it is said, 
 dissembled his hostile purposes; he was ready, on, 
 every suspicion of his infidelity, to renew his sub- 
 mission, and testify it even by the delivery of his 
 arms, till he had secretly infused a cruel jealousy 
 into many of the neighbouring Indians ; which ex- 
 cited them to attempt the recoven'ng their country 
 
 HIST. OF AMER, Nos. 53 & 54. 
 
 by extirpating the new possessors. The plot, it is 
 said, was discovered before it was ripe for execution; 
 and as he could no longer promise himself security 
 under the mask of friendship, he was constrained to 
 shew himself in his true character, and accordingly 
 began hostilities upon the plantation of Swanzy, in 
 the colony of Plymouth, in the month of June 1675. 
 
 Notwithstanding this general opinion, it may ad- 
 mit of some doubt, whether a single sachem, whose 
 authority was limited, could have such an extensive 
 influence over tribes so remote and unconnected 
 with him as the eastern Indians ; much more im- 
 probable is it, that those in Virginia should have 
 joined in the confederacy, as it has been intimated. 
 The Indians never travelled to any greater distance 
 than their hunting required ; and so ignorant were 
 they of the geography of their country, that they 
 imagined New England to be an island, and could 
 tell the name of an inlet or streight by which they 
 supposed it was separated from the main land. But 
 what renders it more improbable that Philip was so 
 active an instrument in exciting this war, is the con- 
 stant tradition among the posterity of those people 
 who lived near him, and were familiarly conversant 
 with him, and with those of his Indians who survived 
 the war which is, that he was forced on by the fury 
 of his young men, sorely against his own judgment 
 and that of his chief counsellors ; and that as he 
 foresaw that the English would, in time, establish 
 themselves and extirpate the Indians, so he thought 
 that the making war upon them would only hasten 
 the destruction of his own people. It was always a 
 very common, and sometimes a just excuse with the 
 Indians, when charged with breach of faith, that the 
 old men were not able to restrain the younger from 
 signalizing their valour, and gratifying their revenge, 
 though they disapproved their rashness. This want 
 of restraint was owing to the weakness of their go- 
 vernment ; their sachems having but the shadow of 
 sovereign authority. 
 
 The inhabitants of Bristol shew a particular spot 
 where Philip received the news of the first English- 
 men that were killed, with so much sorrow as to 
 cause him to weep ; a few days before which he had 
 rescued one who had been taken by his Indians, and 
 privately sent him home. Whatever credit may be 
 given to this account, so different from the current 
 opinion, it must be owned, that in such a season of 
 general confusion as the first war occasioned, fear 
 and jealousy might create many suspicions, which 
 would soon be formed into reports of a general con- 
 federacy, through Philip's contrivance ; and it is to 
 be noted that the principal histories of this war, [In- 
 crease Mather's and Hubbard's] were printed in 
 1676 and 1677, when the strangest reports were 
 easily credited, and the people were ready to believe 
 every thing that was bad of so formidable a neigh- 
 bour as Philip. But as the fact cannot now be pre- 
 cisely ascertained, we shall detain the reader no longer 
 from the real causes of the war in these eastern parts. 
 There dwelled near the river Saco, a sachem 
 named Squando, a noted enthusiast, a leader in the 
 devotions of their religion, and one that pretended 
 to a familiar intercourse with the invisible world. 
 These qualifications rendered him a perso-n of the 
 highest dignity, importance, and influence among 
 all the eastern Indians. His squaw passing along 
 the river in a canoe, with her infant child, was met 
 by some rude sailors, who having heard that the In- 
 dian children could swim as naturally as the young 
 of the brutal kind, in a thoughtless and unguarded 
 lumour overset the canoe. The child sunk, and the 
 
 2Z 
 
418 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 mother instantly diving fetched it up alive, but the 
 child dying soon after, its death was imputed to the 
 treatment it had received from the seamen ; and 
 Squando was so provoked that he conceived a bitter 
 antipathy to the English, and employed his great 
 art and influence to excite the Indians against them. 
 Some other injuries were alleged as the ground of 
 the quarrel; and, considering the interested views 
 and irregular lives of many of the eastern settlers, 
 their distance from the seat of government, and the 
 want of due subordination among them, it is not im- 
 probable that a great part of the blame of the eastern 
 war belonged to them. 
 
 The first alarm of the war in Plymouth colony 
 spread great consternation among the distant In- 
 dians, and held them awhile in suspense what part to 
 act, for there had been a long external friendship 
 subsisting between them and the English, and they 
 were afraid of provoking such powerful neighbours. 
 But the seeds of jealousy and hatred had been so 
 effectually sown, that the crafty and revengeful, and 
 those who were ambitious of doing some exploits, 
 soon found means to urge them on to an open rupture ; 
 so that within twenty days after Philip had begun 
 the war at the southward, the flame broke out in the 
 most north-easterly part of the country, at the dis- 
 tance of 200 miles. 
 
 The English inhabitants about the river Kenne- 
 beck, hearing of the insurrection in Plymouth colony, 
 determined to make trial of the fidelity of their In- 
 dian neighbours, by requesting them to deliver their 
 arms. They made a show of compliance, but in 
 doing it, committed an act of violence on a French- 
 man, who lived in an English family, which being 
 judged an offence, both by the English and the 
 elder Indians, the offender was seized; but upon a 
 promise, with security, for his future good behaviour, 
 his life was spared, and some of them consented to 
 remain as hostages, who soon made their escape, 
 and joined with their fellows in robbing the house 
 of Purchas, an ancient planter at Pechypscot. 
 
 The quarrel being thus begun, and their natural 
 hatred of the English, and jealousy of their designs, 
 having risen to a great height under the malignant 
 influence of Squando and other leading men, and 
 being encouraged by the example of the western 
 Indians, who were daily making depredations on the 
 colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts, they took 
 every opportunity to rob and murder the people in 
 the scattered settlements of the province of Maine ; 
 and having dispersed themselves into many small 
 parties, that they might be the more extensively 
 mischievous, in the month of September they ap'- 
 proached the plantations at Pascataqua, and made 
 their first onset at Oyster river, then a part of the 
 town of Dover, but now Durham. Here they 
 burned two houses belonging to two persons named 
 Chesley, killed two men in a canoe, and carried 
 away two captives ; both of whom soon after made 
 their escape. About the same time a party of four 
 laid in ambush near the road between Exeter and 
 Hampton, where they killed one, and took another, 
 who made his escape. Within a few days an assault 
 was made on the house of one Tozer, at Newich- 
 wannock, wherein were fifteen women and children, 
 all of whom except two were saved by the intrepidly 
 of a girl of eighteen ; she first seeing the Indians as 
 they advanced to the house, shut the door and stood 
 against it till the others escaped to the next house, 
 which was better secured. The Indians chopped 
 the door to pieces with their hatchets, and then en- 
 tering, they knocked her down, and leaving her for 
 
 dead, went in pursuit of the others, of whom two 
 children, who could not get over the fence, fell iuto 
 their hands. The adventurous heroine recovered, 
 and was perfectly healed of her wound. 
 
 The two following days they made several appear- 
 ances on both sides of the river, using much inso- 
 lence, and burning two houses and three barns, with 
 a large quantity of grain. Some shot were ex- 
 changed without effect, and a pursuit was made after 
 them into the woods by eight men, but night obliged 
 them to return without success. Five or six houses 
 were burned at Oyster river, and two more men 
 killed. These daily insults could not be borne with- 
 out indignation and reprisal. About twenty young 
 men, chiefly of Dover, obtained leave of Major Wal- 
 dron, then commander of the militia, to try their 
 skill and courage with the Indians in their own way. 
 Having scattered themselves in the woods, a small 
 party of them discovered five Indians in a field near 
 a deserted house, some of whom were gathering corn, 
 and others kindling a fire to roast it. The men 
 were at such a distance from their fellows that they 
 could make no signal to them without danger of a 
 discovery; two of them, therefore, crept along si- 
 lently, near to the house, from whence they suddenly 
 rushed upon those two Indians who were busy at 
 the fire, and knocked them down with the butts of 
 their guns ; the other three took the alarm and escaped. 
 
 All the plantations at Pascataqua, with the whole 
 eastern country, were now filled with fear and con- 
 fusion : business was suspended, and every man was 
 obliged to provide for his own and his family's safety. 
 The only way was to desert their habitations, and 
 retire together within the larger and more conve- 
 nient houses, which they fortified with a timber wall 
 and flankarts, placing a centry-box on the roof. 
 Thus the labour of the field was exchanged for the 
 duty of the garrison, and they who had long lived 
 in peace and security, were upon their guard night 
 and day, subject to continual alarms, and the most 
 fearful apprehensions. 
 
 The 7th of October was observed as a day of fast- 
 ing and prayer; and on the 16th the enemy made 
 an assault upon the inhabitants at Salmon-falls, in 
 Berwick. Lieut. Roger Plaisted, being a man of 
 true courage and of a public spirit, immediately sent 
 out a party of seven from his garrison to make dis- 
 covery. They fell into an ambush : three were killed, 
 and the rest retreated, The lieutenant then dis- 
 patched an express to Major Waldron and Lieut. 
 Coffin at Cochecho, begging most importunately for 
 help, which they were in no capacity to afford, con- 
 sistently with their own safety. The next day 
 Plaisted ventured out with twenty men, and a cart 
 to fetch the dead bodies of their friends, and unhap- 
 pily fell into another ambush. The cattle affrighted 
 ran back, and Plaisted being deserted by his men, 
 and disdaining either to yield or fly, was killed on 
 the spot, with his eldest son and one more ; his other 
 son died of his wound in a few weeks. Had the 
 heroism of this worthy family been imitated by the 
 rest of the party, and a reinforcement arrived in sea- 
 son, the enemy might have received such a severe 
 check as would have prevented them from appearing 
 in small parties. The gallant behaviour of Plaisted, 
 though fatal to himself and his sons, had this good 
 effect, that the enemy retreated to the woods : and 
 the next day Captain Frost came up with a party 
 from Sturgeon creek, and peaceably buried the 
 dead : but before the month had expired a mill was 
 burned there, and an assault made on Frost's garri- 
 son, who though he had only three boy$ with him, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 419 
 
 kept up a constant fire, and called aloud as if he were 
 commanding a body of men, to march here and fire 
 there : the stratagem succeeded, and the house was 
 saved. The enemy then proceeded down the river, 
 killing and plundering as they found people off their 
 guard, till they came opposite to Portsmouth ; from 
 whence some cannon being fired they dispersed, and 
 were pursued by the help of a light snow which 
 fell in the night, and overtaken by the side of a 
 swamp, into which they threw themselves, leaving 
 their packs and plunder to the pursuers. They soon 
 after did more mischief at Dover, Lamprey river, 
 and Exeter ; and with these small, but irritating 
 assaults and skirmishes, the autumn was spent until 
 the end of November ; when the number of people 
 killed and taken from Kennebeck to Pascataqua 
 amounted to upwards of fifty. 
 
 The Massachusetts government being fully em- 
 ployed in defending the southern and western parts, 
 could not seasonably send succours to the eastward. 
 Major General Denison, who commanded the militia 
 of the colony, had ordered the majors who com- 
 manded the regiments on this side of the country, to 
 draw out a sufficient number of men to reduce the 
 enemy, by attacking them at their retreat to their 
 head-quarters at Ossapy and Pigwacket. But the 
 winter setting in early and fiercely, and the men 
 being unprovided with rackets to travel on the snow, 
 which by the 10th of December was four feet deep 
 in the woods, it was impossible to execute the de- 
 sign. This peculiar severity of the season however 
 proved favourable. The Indians were pinched with 
 famine, and having lost by their own confession 
 about ninety of their number, partly by the war, and 
 partly for want of food, they were reduced to the 
 necessity of suing for peace. With this view they 
 came to Major Waldron, expressing great sorrow 
 for what had been done, and promising to be quiet 
 and submissive. By his mediation a peace was con- 
 cluded with the whole body of eastern Indians, which 
 continued till the next August; and might have con- 
 tinued longer, if the inhabitants of the eastern parts 
 had not been too intent on private gain, and of a 
 disposition too ungovernable to be a barrier against 
 an enemy so irritable and vindictive. The restora- 
 tion of the captives made the peace more valued : 
 a return from the dead could not be more welcome 
 than a deliverance from Indian captivity. 
 
 (1676.) The war at the southward, " though re- 
 newed in the spring, drew toward a close. Philip's 
 affairs were desperate ; many of his dependents and 
 allies forsook him; and in August he was slain 
 by a party under Captain Church. Those western 
 Indians, who had been engaged in the war, now 
 fearing a total extirpation, endeavoured to conceal 
 themselves among their brethren of Penacook, who 
 had not joined in the war, and those of Ossapy and 
 Pigwacket, who had made peace. But they could 
 not so disguise themselves or their behaviour, as to 
 escape the discernment of those who had been con- 
 versant with Indians. Several of them were taken 
 at different times, and delivered up to public exe- 
 cution. Three of them, Simon, Andrew, and Peter, 
 who had been concerned in killing Thomas Kimbal 
 of Bradford, and capturing his family, did, within 
 six weeks, voluntarily restore the women and five 
 children. It being doubted whether this act of sub- 
 mission was a sufficient atonement for the murder, 
 they were committed to Dover prison till their case 
 could be considered. Fearing that this confinement 
 was a prelude to farther punishment, they broke out 
 of prison, and going to the eastward, joined with 
 
 the Indians of Kennebeck and Amoriscogin in those 
 depredations which they renewed on the inhabitants 
 of those parts, in August, and were afterward active 
 in distressing the people of Pascataqua. 
 
 This renewal of hostilities occasioned the sending 
 of two companies to the east under Captain Joseph 
 Syll, and Captain William Hawthorne. In the 
 course of their march they came to Cocheco, on the 
 sixth of September, where four hundred mixed In- 
 dians were met at the house of Major Waldron, 
 with whom they had made the peace, and whom they 
 considered as their friend and father. The two cap- 
 tains would have fallen upon them at once, having 
 it in their orders to seize all Indians, who had been 
 concerned in the war. The major dissuaded them 
 from that purpose, and contrived the following stra- 
 tagem. He proposed to the Indians, to have a 
 training the next day, and a sham fight after the 
 English mode ; and summoning his own men, with 
 those under Captain Frost of Kittery, they, in con- 
 junction with the two companies, formed one party, 
 and the Indians another. Having diverted them a 
 while in this manner, and caused the Indians to fire 
 the first volley ; by a peculiar dexterity, the whole 
 body of them (except two or three) were surrounded, 
 before they could form a suspicion of what was in- 
 tended. They were immediately seized and dis- 
 armed, without the loss of a man on either side. A 
 separation was then made : Wonolanset, with the 
 Penacook Indians, and others who had joined in 
 making peace the winter before, were peaceably 
 dismissed; but the strange Indians (as they were 
 called)who had fled from the southward, and taken 
 refuge among them, were made prisoners, to the 
 number of two hundred ; and being sent to Boston, 
 seven or eight of them, who were known to have 
 killed someEnglishmen,were condemned and hanged ; 
 the rest were sold into slavery in foreign parts. 
 
 This action was highly applauded by the general 
 voice of the colony; as it gave them opportunity to 
 deal with their enemies in a judicial way, as rebels, 
 and, as they imagined, to extirpate those trouble- 
 some neighbours. The remaining Indians, however, 
 looked upon the conduct of Major Waldron as a 
 breach of faith ; inasmuch as they had taken those 
 fugitive Indians under their protection, and had 
 made peace with him, which had been strictly ob- 
 served with regard to him and his neighbours, though 
 it had been broken elsewhere. The Indians had no 
 idea of the same government being extended very 
 far, and thought they might make peace in one 
 place, and war in another, without any imputation 
 of infidelity ; but a breach of hospitality and friend- 
 ship, as they deemed this to be, merited, according 
 to their principles, a severe revenge, and was never 
 to be forgotten or forgiven. The major's situation 
 on this occasion was indeed extremely critical ; and 
 he could not have acted either way without blame 
 It is said that his own judgment was against any 
 forcible measure, as he knew that many of those 
 Indians were true friends to the colony ; and that 
 in case of failure he should expose the country to 
 their resentment; but had he not assisted the forces 
 in the execution of their commission, (which was to 
 seize all Indians who had been concerned with Phi- 
 lip in the war) he must have fallen under censure, 
 and been deemed accessary, by his neglect, to the 
 mischiefs which might afterward have been perpe- 
 trated by them. In this dilemma he finally deter- 
 mined to comply with the orders and expectations 
 of government j imagining that he should be able 
 to satisfy those of the Indians whom he intended to 
 
 2 Z 2 
 
420 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 dismiss, and that the others would be removed out 
 of the way of doing any further mischief; but he 
 had no suspicion that he was laying a snare for his 
 own life. It was unhappy for him that he was 
 obliged, in deference to the laws of his country, and 
 the orders of government, to give offence to a peopli 
 who, having no public judicatories and penal l aw 
 among themselves, were unable to distinguish be- 
 tween a legal punishment and private malice. 
 
 Two days after this surprisal, the forces proceeded 
 on their route to the eastward, being joined with 
 some of Waldron's and Frost's men ; and taking 
 with them Blind Will, a sagamore of the Indians 
 who lived about Cocheco, and eight of his people for 
 pilots. The eastern settlements were all either de- 
 stroyed or deserted, and no enemy was to be seen ; 
 so that the expedition proved fruitless, and the com- 
 panies returned to Pascataqua. 
 
 It was then thought advisable, that they should 
 march up toward the Ossapy ponds ; where ' the 
 Indians had a strong fort of timber fourteen feet 
 high, with flankarts ; which they had a few years 
 before hired some English carpenters to build for 
 them, as a defence against the Mohawks, of whom 
 they were always afraid. It was thought that if the 
 Indians could be surprised on their first return to 
 their head quarters, at the beginning of winter, 
 some considerable advantage might be gained against 
 them ; or if they had not arrived there, that the 
 provisions, which they had laid in for their winter 
 subsistence, might be destroyed. Accordingly, the 
 companies being well provided for a march at that 
 season, set off on the first of November ; and after 
 travelling four days through a rugged, mountainous 
 wilderness, and crossing several rivers, they arrived 
 at the spot; but found the fort and adjacent places 
 entirely deserted, and saw not an Indian in all the 
 way. Thinking it needless for the whole body to go 
 further, the weather being severe, and the snow- 
 deep, a select party was detached eighteen or twenty 
 miles above; who discovered nothing but frozen 
 ponds, and snowy mountains; and supposing the 
 Indians had taken up their winter quarters nearer 
 the sea, they returned to Newichwannock, within 
 nine days from their first departure. 
 
 They had been prompted to undertake this expe- 
 dition by the false accounts brought by Mogg, an 
 Indian of Penobscot, who had come to Pascataqua 
 with a proposal of peace ; and had reported that an 
 hundred Indians were assembled at Ossapy. This In- 
 dian brought with him two men of Portsmouth, 
 Fryer and Kendal, who had been taken on board a 
 vessel at the eastward ; he was deputed by the Pe- 
 nobscot tribe to consent to articles of pacification ; 
 and being sent to Boston, a treaty was drawn and 
 subscribed by the governor and magistrates on the 
 one part, and by Mogg on the other ; in which it 
 was stipulated, that if the Indians of the other tribes 
 did not agree to this transaction, and cease hos- 
 tilities, they should be deemed and treated as ene- 
 mies by both parties. This treaty was signed on 
 the sixth of November; Mogg pledging his life for 
 the fulfilment of it. Accordingly, vessels being sent 
 to Penobscot, the peace was ratified by Madoka- 
 wando the sachem, and two captives were restored. 
 But Mogg, being incautiously permitted to go to a 
 neighbouring tribe, on pretence of persuading them 
 to deliver their captives, though he promised to 
 return in three days, was seen no more. It was at 
 first thought that he had been sacrificed by his coun- 
 trymen, as he pretended to fear when he left the 
 vessels ; but a captive who escaped in January, 1677, 
 
 gave an account, that he boasted of having deceived 
 the English, and laughed at their kind entertain- 
 ment of him. There was also a design talked of 
 among them to break the peace in the spring, and 
 join with the other Indians at the eastward in ruin- 
 ing the fishery. About the same time it was dis- 
 covered that some of the Narrhaganset Indians were 
 scattered in the eastern parts; three of whom having 
 been decoyed by some of the Cocheco Indians into 
 their wigwams, and scalped, were known by the cut 
 of their hair. This raised a fear in the minds of 
 the people, that more of them might have found their 
 way to the eastward, and would prosecute their re- 
 venge against them. 
 
 From these circumstances it was suspected, that 
 the truce would be but of short continuance. The 
 treachery of Mogg, who was surety for the perform- 
 ance of the treaty, was deemed a full justification of 
 the renewal of hostilities; and the state of things 
 was, by some gentlemen of Pascataqua, represented 
 to be so dangerous, that the government determined 
 upon a winter expedition. Two hundred men, in- 
 cluding sixty Natick Indians, were enlisted and 
 equipped, and sailed from Boston the first week in 
 February, under the command of Major Waldron ; a 
 day of prayer having been previously appointed for 
 the success of the enterprize. 
 
 AtCasco the major had a fruitless conference, 
 and a slight skirmish with a few Indians, of whom 
 some were killed and wounded. At Kennebeck he 
 built a fort, and left a garrison of foity men, under 
 the command of Captain Sylvanus Davis. At Pe- 
 maquid he had a conference with a company of In- 
 dians, who promised to deliver their captives on the 
 payment of a ransom. Part of it being paid, three 
 captives were delivered, and it was agreed that the 
 conference should be renewed in the afternoon, and 
 all arms be laid aside. Some suspicion of their in- 
 fidelity had arisen, and when the major went ashore 
 in the afternoon with five men, and the remainder 
 of the ransom, he discovered the point of a lance 
 hid under a board, which he drew out and advanced 
 with it toward them; charging them with treachery 
 in concealing their arms so near. They attempted 
 to take it from him by force ; but he threatened 
 them with instant death, and waved his cap for a 
 signal to the vessels. While the rest were coming 
 on shore, the major with his five men secured the 
 goods : some of the Indians snatching up a bundle 
 of guns which they had hid, ran away. Captain 
 Frost, who was one of the five, seized an Indian, 
 who was well known to be a rogue, and with lieute- 
 nant Nutter, carried him on board. The major 
 searching about found three guns, with which he 
 armed his remaining three men ; and the rest being 
 come on shore by this time, they pursued the In- 
 dians, killed several of them before they could reco- 
 ver their canoes, and after they had pushed off, sank 
 one with five men, who were drowned ; and took 
 four prisoners, with about a thousand pounds of 
 dried beef, and some other plunder. The whole 
 number of the Indians was twenty-five. 
 
 Whether the casual discovery of their arms, which 
 they had agreed to lay aside, was sufficient to justify 
 this severity, may be doubted ; since, if their inten- 
 tions had really been hostile, they had a fine oppor- 
 tunity of ambushing or seizing the major and his 
 five attendants, who came ashore unarmed ; and it 
 is not likely that they would have waited for the rest 
 to come ashore before they opened the plot. Pos- 
 sibly, this sudden suspicion might be groundless, 
 and might inflame the prejudice against the majoi; 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 421 
 
 which had boon already excited by the seizure of 
 their friends at Cochecho some time before. 
 
 On the return of the forces, they found some wheat, 
 guns, anchors and boards at Kennebeck, which they 
 took with them. They killed two Indians on Ar- 
 rowsick island, who, with one of the prisoners taken 
 at Pemaquid, and shot on board, made the number 
 of Indians killed in this expedition thirteen. They 
 returned to Boston on the eleventh of March, without 
 the loss of a man, bringing with them the bones of 
 Captain Lake, which they found entire in the place 
 where he was killed. 
 
 There being no prospect of peace at the eastward, 
 it became necessary to maintain great circumspec- 
 tion and resolution, and to make use of every pos- 
 sible advantage against the enemy. A long and 
 inveterate animosity had subsisted between the Mo- 
 hawks and the eastern Indians, the original of which 
 is not mentioned, and perhaps was not known by 
 any of the historians ; nor can the oldest men among 
 the Mohawks at this day give any account of it. 
 These Indians were in a state of friendship with their 
 English neighbours; and being a fierce and for- 
 midable race of men, their name carried terror wher- 
 ever it was known. It was now thought, that if they 
 could be induced to prosecute their ancient quarrel 
 with the eastern Indians, the latter might be awed 
 into peace, or incapacitated for any farther mischief. 
 The propriety of this measure became a subject of 
 debate ; some questioning the lawfulness of making 
 use of their help, " as they were heathen ;" but it 
 was urged in reply, that Abraham had entered into 
 a confederacy with the Amorites, among whom he 
 dwelt, and made use of their assistance in reco- 
 vering his kinsman Lot from the hands of their com- 
 mon enemy. With this argument the objectors were 
 satisfied; and two messengers, Major Pynchon of 
 Springfield, and Richards of Hartford, were dis- 
 patched to the country of the Mohawks, who treated 
 them with great civility, expressed the most bitter 
 hatred against the eastern enemy, and promised to 
 pursue the quarrel to the utmost of their power. 
 
 Accordingly, some parties of them came down the 
 country about the middle of March, and the first 
 alarm was given at Amuskeeg falls ; where the son 
 of Wonolanset being hunting, discovered, fifteen 
 Indians on the other side, who called to him in a 
 language which he did not understand ; upon which 
 he fled, while they fired near thirty guns at him 
 without effect. Presently after this they were dis- 
 covered in the woods near Cochecho. Major Wal- 
 dron sent out eight of his Indians, whereof Blind 
 Will was one, for farther information. They were 
 all surprised together by a company of the Mohawks ; 
 two or three escaped, the others were either killed 
 or taken : Will was dragged away by his hair ; 
 and being wounded, perished in the woods, on a neck 
 of land, formed by the confluence of Cochecho and 
 Isinglass rivers, which still bears the name of Blind 
 Will's Neck. This fellow was judged to be a secret 
 enemy to the English, though he pretended much 
 friendship and respect; so that it was impossible to have 
 punished him, without provoking the other neighbour- 
 ing Indians, with whom he lived in amity, and of 
 whose fidelity there was no suspicion. It was at first 
 thought a fortunate circumstance that he was killed in 
 this manner ; but the consequence proved it to be 
 otherwise ; for two of those who were taken with him 
 escaping, reported that the Mohawks threatened de- 
 struction to all the Indians in these parts without 
 distinction : so that those who lived in subjection to 
 the English grew jealous of their sincerity, and 
 
 imagined, not without very plausible ground, that 
 the Mohawks had been persuaded or hired to engage 
 in the war, on purpose to destroy them ; since they 
 never actually exercised their fury upon those In- 
 dians who were in hostility with the English, but 
 only upon those who were in friendship with them ; 
 and this only in such a degree as to irritate, rather 
 than to weaken or distress them. It cannot there- 
 fore be thought strange that the friendly Indians 
 were alienated from their English neighbours, and 
 disposed to listen to the seducing stratagems of the 
 French ; who in a few years after made use of them 
 in conjunction with others, sorely to scourge these 
 unhappy people. The English, in reality, had no 
 such design ; but the event proved, that the scheme 
 of engaging the Mohawks in the quarrel, however 
 lawful in itself, and countenanced by the example 
 of Abraham, was a pernicious source of innumer- 
 able calamities. 
 
 The terror which it was thought this incursion of 
 the Mohawks would strike into the eastern Indians, 
 was too small to prevent their renewing hostilities 
 very early in the spring. Some of the garrison who 
 had been left at Kennebeck were surprised by an 
 ambush, as they were attempting to bury the dead 
 bodies of their friends, who had been killed the sum- 
 mer before, and had lain under the snow all the winter. 
 The remainder of that garrison were then taken off 
 and conveyed to Pascataqua; whither a company 
 of fifty men and ten Natick Indians marched, under 
 Captain Swaine, to succour the inhabitants, who 
 were alarmed by scattered parties of the enemy, kill- 
 ing and taking people, and burning houses in Wells, 
 Kittery, and within the bounds of Portsmouth. A 
 young woman who was taken from Rawling's house, 
 made her escape and came into Cochecho, stating 
 where the enemy lay. Three parties were dispatch- 
 ed to ambush three places, by one of which they 
 must pass. The enemy appearing at one of these 
 places, were seasonably discovered ; but by the too 
 great eagerness of the party to fire on them, they 
 avoided the ambush and escaped. 
 
 Soon after this the garrisons at Wells and Black 
 Point were beset, and at the latter place the enemy 
 lost their leader Mogg, who had proved so treacher- 
 ous a negotiator. Upon his death they fled in their 
 canoes, some to the eastward and others toward 
 York, where they also did some mischief. On a 
 sabbath morning, a party of twenty, under the gui- 
 dance of Simon, surprised six of our Indians, who 
 lay drunk in the woods, at a small distance from 
 Portsmouth ; they kept all day hovering about the 
 town, and if they had taken advantage of the 
 people's absence from home, in attending the public 
 worship, they might easily have plundered and burn- 
 ed the outmost houses ; but they were providentially 
 restrained. At night they crossed the river at the 
 Long Reach, killed some sheep at Kittery, and then 
 went toward Wells ; but, being afraid of the Mohawks, 
 let their prisoners go. . Four men were soon after 
 killed at North Hill, one of whom was Edward Col- 
 cott, whose death was much regretted. 
 
 More mischief being expected, and the eastern 
 settlements needing assistance, the government or- 
 dered 200 Indians of Natick, with forty English 
 soldiers, under Captain Benjamin Swett, of Hamp- 
 ton, and Lieutenant Richardson, to march to the falls 
 of Taconick on Kennebeck river ; where it was said 
 the Indians had six forts, well furnished with am- 
 munition. The vessels came to an anchor off Black 
 Point, where the captain being informed that son\e 
 Indians had been seen, went on shore with a party, 
 
422 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 and being joined by some of the inhabitants so as 
 to make about ninety in all, marched to seek the 
 enemy, who shewed themselves on a plain in three 
 parties. Swett divided his men accordingly, and 
 went to meet them. The enemy retreated till they 
 had drawn our people two miles from the fort, and 
 then turning suddenly and violently upon them, 
 threw them into confusion, they being mostly young 
 and unexperienced soldiers. Swett, with a few of 
 the more resolute, fought bravely on the retreat, till 
 he came near the fort, when he was killed ; sixty 
 more were left dead or wounded, and the rest got 
 into the fort The victorious savages then surprised 
 about twenty fishing vessels, which put into the 
 eastern harbours by night ; the crews, not being ap- 
 prehensive of danger on the water, fell an easy prey 
 to them. Thus the summer was spent with terror and 
 perplexity by the colonists; while the enemy rioted 
 without control, till they had satiated their ven- 
 geance, and greatly reduced the eastern settlements. 
 
 At length, in the month of August, Major An- 
 drosse, governor of New York, sent a sloop with 
 some forces to take possession of the land which had 
 been granted to the Duke of York, and build a fort 
 at Pemaquid, to defend the country against the en- 
 croachment of foreigners. Upon their arrival the 
 Indians appeared friendly: and in evidence of their 
 pacific disposition, restored fifteen prisoners with the 
 fishing vessels. They continued quiet all the suc- 
 ceeding autumn and winter, and lived in harmony 
 with the new garrison. 
 
 (1678.) In the spring, Major Shapleigh, of Kit- 
 tery, Captain Champernoon and Mr. Fryer of Ports- 
 mouth, were appointed commissioners to settle aformal 
 treaty of peace with Squando and the other chiefs, 
 which was done at Casco, whither they brought the 
 remainder of the captives. It was stipulated in the 
 treaty, that the inhabitants should return to their de- 
 serted settlements, on condition of paying one peck of 
 corn annually for each family, by way of acknowledg- 
 ment to the Indians for the possession of their lands, 
 and one bushel for Major Pendleton, who was a great 
 proprietor. Thus an end was put to a tedious and 
 distressing war, which had subsisted three years. The 
 terms of peace were disgraceful, but not unjust, con- 
 sidering the former irregular conduct of many of the 
 eastern settlers, and the native property of the In- 
 dians of the soil; certainly they were now masters 
 of it, and it was entirely at their option whether the 
 English should return to their habitations or not. 
 It was therefore thought better to live peaceably, 
 though in a sort of subjection, than to leave such 
 commodious settlements and forego the advantages 
 of trade and fishery, which were very considerable, 
 and by which the inhabitants of that part of the 
 country had chiefly subsisted. 
 
 It was a matter of great inquiry and speculation, 
 how the Indians were supplied with arms and am- 
 munition to carry on this war. The Dutch at New 
 York were too near the Mohawks for the eastern 
 Indians to adventure thither. The French in Cana- 
 da were too feeble, and too much in fear of the Eng- 
 lish, to do any thing which might disturb their tran- 
 quillity; and there was peace between the two na- 
 tions. It was therefore supposed that the Indians 
 had long premeditated the war, and laid in a stock 
 beforehand. There had formerly been severe penal- 
 ties exacted by the government, on the selling of 
 arms and ammunition to the Indians ; but ever since 
 1657, licences had been granted to particular per- 
 sons to supply them occasionally for the purpose oi 
 hunting, on paying an acknowledgment to the 
 
 public treasury. This indulgence, having been 
 much abused by some of the eastern traders, who, 
 far from the seat of government, were impatient of 
 the restraint of law, was supposed to be the source 
 of the mischief. But it was afterward discovered 
 that the Baron de St. Castine, a reduced French 
 officer, who had married a daughter of Madokawando, 
 and kept a trading-house at Penobscot, where he 
 considered himself as independent, being out of the 
 limits of any established government, was the per- 
 son from whom they had their supplies; which 
 needed not be very great as they always husbanded 
 their ammunition with much care, and never expend- 
 ed it but when they were certain of doing execution. 
 
 The whole burden and expense of this war, on the 
 part of the colonists, were borne by themselves- It 
 was indeed thought strange by their friends in Eng- 
 land, and resented by those in power, that they 
 made no application to the king for assistance. It 
 was intimated to them by Lord Anglesey, " that his 
 majesty was ready to assist them with ships, troops, 
 ammunition, or money, if they would but ask it;" 
 and their silence was construed to their disadvantage, 
 as if they were proud, and obstinate, and desired to 
 be considered as an independent state. They had 
 indeed no inclination to ask favours from thence; 
 being well aware of the consequence of laying them- 
 selves under obligations to those who had been seek- 
 ing to undermine their establishment; and remem- 
 bering how they had been neglected in the late 
 Dutch wars, when they stood in much greater need 
 of assistance : the king had then sent ammunition to 
 New York, but had sent word to New England, 
 " that they must shift for themselves, and make the 
 best defence they could." It was therefore highly 
 injurious to blame them for not making application 
 for help. But if they had not been so ill treated, 
 they could not be charged with disrespect, since 
 they really did not need foreign assistance. Ships 
 of war and regular troops must have been altogether 
 useless; and no one that knew the nature of an In- 
 dian war could be serious in proposing to send them. 
 Ammunition and money were necessary, but as they 
 had long enjoyed a free trade, and had coined the 
 bullion which they imported, there was no scarcity 
 of money, nor of any stores which money could pur- 
 chase. The method of fighting with Indians could 
 be learned only from themselves. After a little ex- 
 perience, a few men in scattered parties were of more 
 service than the largest and best equipped armies 
 which Europe could have afforded. It ought ever 
 to be remembered for the honour of New England, 
 that as their first settlement, so their preservation, 
 increase, and defence, even in their weakest infancy, 
 were not owing to any foreign assistance, but to 
 their own magnanimity and perseverance. 
 
 The gravest historians have recorded many omens, 
 predictions, and other alarming circumstances, dur- 
 ing this and the Pequod war, which in a more phi- 
 losophical and less credulous age would not be 
 worthy of notice. When men's minds were render- 
 ed gloomy by the horrors of a surrounding wilder- 
 ness, and the continual apprehension of danger from 
 its savage inhabitants; when they were ignorant of 
 the causes of many of the common appearances in 
 nature, and were disposed to resolve every unusual 
 appearance into prodigy and miracle, it is not to be 
 wondered that they should imagine they heard the 
 noise of drums and guns in the air, and saw flaming 
 swords and spears in the heavens, and should even 
 interpret eclipses as ominous. Some old Indians 
 had intimated their apprehensions concerning the 
 
UNITED STATES 
 
 423 
 
 increase of the English, and the diminution of their 
 own people, which any rational observer in a course 
 of forty or fifty years might easily have foretold, 
 without the least pretence to a spirit of prophecy; 
 yet these sayings were recollected and recorded, as 
 so many predictions by force of a supernatural im- 
 pulse on their minds, and many persons of the 
 greatest distinction were disposed to credit them as 
 such. These things would not have been mentioned, 
 but to give a just idea of the age. If mankind are 
 now better enlightened, superstition is the less ex- 
 cusable in its remaining votaries. 
 
 Mason's renewed efforts Randolph's mission and trans- 
 actions Attempt* for the trial of Mason's title 
 New Hampshire separated from Massachusetts, and 
 made a royal province Abstract of the commis- 
 tion Remarks on it. 
 
 (1675.) While the country was labouring under 
 the perplexity and distress arising from the war, 
 measures were taking in England to increase their 
 difficulties, and divide their attention. The scheme 
 of selling the provinces of New Hampshire and 
 Maine to the crown being laid aside. Mason again 
 petitioned the king for the restoration of his pro- 
 perty; and the king 1'eferred the matter to his At- 
 torney-General, Sir William Jones, and his Solicitor, 
 General Sir Francis Winnington, who reported 
 that " John Mason, Esq., grandfather to the petiti- 
 oner, by virtue of several giants from the council of 
 New England, under their common seal, was in- 
 stated in fee in sundry great tracts of land in New 
 England, by the name of New Hampshire ; and that 
 the petitioner being heir at law to the said John had 
 a good and legal title to the said lands" (1676.) 
 Whereupon a letter was dispatched to the Massa- 
 chusetts colony, requiring them to send over agents 
 within six months, fully empowered to answer the 
 complaints, which Mason and the heirs of Gorges 
 had made, of their usurping jurisdiction over the 
 territories claimed by them; and to receive the 
 royal determination in that matter. Copies of the 
 complaints were inclosed ; and Edward Randolph, 
 a kinsman of Mason, a man of great address and 
 penetration, resolute and indefatigable in business, 
 was charged with the letters, and directed by the 
 lords of trade to make enquiry into the state of the 
 country. When he arrived, he waited on Governor 
 Leverett, who read the king's letter, with the peti- 
 tions of Mason and Gorges in council, Randolph 
 being present, who could obtain no other answer 
 than that " they would consider it." 
 
 He then came into New Hampshire, and as he 
 passed along, freely declared the business on which 
 he was come, and publicly read a letter which Mason 
 had sent to the inhabitants. Some of them he found 
 ready to complain of the government, and desirous 
 of a change ; but the body of the people were highly 
 enraged against him ; and the inhabitants of Dover, 
 in a public town-meeting, " protested against the 
 claim of Mason ; declaring that they had bona fide 
 purchased their lands of the Indians ; 'ecognized 
 their subjection to the government of Massachusetts, 
 under whom they had lived long and happily, and 
 by whom they were now assisted in defending their 
 estates and families against the savage enemy." 
 They appointed Major Waldron " to petition the 
 king in their behalf, that he would interpose his 
 royal authority, and afford them his wonted favour ; 
 that they might not be disturbed by Mason, or any 
 other person, but continue peaceably in possession 
 of their rights under the government of Massachu- 
 
 setts." A similar petition was sent by the inhabi- 
 tants of Portsmouth, who appointed John Cutts and 
 Richard Martyn, Esqs., Captains Daniel and Stile- 
 man, to draught and forward it. 
 
 When Randolph returned to Boston, he had a 
 severe reproof from the governor, for publishing his 
 errand, and endeavouring to raise discontent among 
 the people. To which he made no other answer 
 than that " if he had done amiss, they might com- 
 plain to the king." 
 
 After about six weeks stay, he returned to Eng- 
 land, and reported to the king, that " he had found 
 the whole country complaining of the usurpation of 
 the magistrates of Boston ; earnestly hoping and 
 expecting that his majesty would not permit them 
 any longer to be oppressed ; but would give them 
 relief according to the promises of the commissioners 
 in 1665." With the same bitterness of temper, and 
 in the same strain of misrepresentation, he inveighed 
 against the government in a long report to the lords 
 of trade; which farther inflamed the prejudice that 
 had long been conceived against the colony, and 
 prepared the way for the separation which was me- 
 ditated. 
 
 After his departure, a special council being sum- 
 moned, at which the elders of the churches were 
 present, the question was proposed to them, 
 " whether the best way of making answer to the 
 complaints of Gorges and Mason about the extent 
 of their patent, be by sending agents, or by writing 
 only?" To which they answered, " that it was 
 most expedient to send agents, to answer by way of 
 information, provided they were instructed with 
 much care and caution to negociate the affair with 
 safety to the country, and loyalty to his majesty, in 
 the preservation of their patent liberties." Accord- 
 ingly William Stoughton, afterward lieutenant-go- 
 vernor, and Peter Bulkley, then speaker of 'the 
 house of deputies, were appointed agents, and sailed 
 for England. 
 
 (1677.) At their arrival, a hearing was ordered 
 before the lords chief justices of the King's Bench 
 and Common Pleas ; when the agents in the name 
 of the colony disclaimed all title to the lands claimed 
 by the petitioner, and to the jurisdiction beyond 
 three miles northward of the river Merrimack, to 
 follow the course of the river, so far as it extended. 
 The judges reported to the king, " that they could 
 give no opinion as to the right of soil, in the pro- 
 vinces of New Hampshire and Maine, not having 
 the proper parties before them ; it appearing that 
 not the Massachusetts colony, but the ter-tenants 
 ((/round-tenants) had the right of soil, and whole 
 benefit thereof, and yet were not summoned to de- 
 fend their titles. As to Mason's right of govern- 
 ment within the soil he claimed, their lordships, 
 and indeed his own counsel, agreed he had none ; 
 the great council of Plymouth, under whom he 
 claimed, having no power to transfer government to 
 any. It was determined that the four towns of 
 Portsmouth, Dover, Exeter, and Hampton, were out 
 of the bounds of Massachusetts." This report was 
 accepted, and confirmed by the king in council. 
 
 (1679.) After this, at the request of the agents, 
 Sir William Jones, the attorney-general, drew up a 
 complete state of the case to be transmitted to the 
 colony ; by which it seems that he had altered his 
 opinion since the report which he gave to the king 
 in 1675, concerning the validity of Mason's title. 
 It was also admittted that the title could be tried 
 only on the spot, there being no court in England 
 that had cognizance of it. 
 
424 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 It became necessary then to the establishment of 
 Mason's title, that a new jurisdiction should be 
 erected, in which the king might direct the mode of 
 trial and appeal at his pleasure : this being resolved 
 upon, the colony of Massachusetts was informed, by 
 a letter from the secretary of state, of the king's 
 intention to separate New Hampshire from their 
 government, and required to revoke all commissions 
 which they had granted there, and which were 
 thereby declared to be null and void. To prevent 
 any extravagant demand, the king obliged the claim- 
 ant to declare, under his hand and seal, that he 
 would require no rents of the inhabitants for the 
 time passed, before the 24th of June, 1679, nor mo- 
 lest any in their possessions for the time to come ; 
 but would make out titles to them and their heirs 
 for ever, provided they would pay him sixpence in 
 the pound, according to the yearly value of all 
 houses which they had built, and lands which they 
 had improved. 
 
 Things being thus prepared, a commission passed 
 the great seal on the 18th of September for the go- 
 vernment of New Hampshire ; which ' inhibits and 
 restrains the jurisdiction exercised by the colony of 
 Massachusetts over the towns of Portsmouth, Dover, 
 Exeter, and Hampton, and all other lands extend- 
 ing from three miles to the northward of the river 
 Merrimack, and of any and every part thereof, to 
 the province of Maine ; constitutes a president and 
 council to govern the province; appoints John 
 Cutts, esq. president, to continue one year and till 
 another be appointed by the same authority ; Richard 
 Marty-n, William Vaughan, and Thomas Daniel of 
 Portsmouth, John Oilman of Exeter, Christopher 
 Hussey of Hampton, and Richard Waldron of Do- 
 ver, esquires, to be of the council, who were autho- 
 rised to chose three other qualified persons out of 
 the several parts of the province to be added to them. 
 The said president and every succeeding one to ap- 
 point a deputy to preside in his absence ; the pre- 
 sident or his deputy, with any five, to be a quorum. 
 They were to meet at Portsmouth in twenty days 
 after the arrival of the commission and publish it. 
 They were constituted a court of record for the ad- 
 ministration of justice, according to the laws of Eng- 
 land, so far as circumstances would permit ; reserv- 
 ing a right of appeal to the king in council for ac- 
 tions of fifty pounds value. They were empowered 
 to appoint military officers, and take all needful 
 measures for defence against enemies. Liberty of 
 conscience was allowed to all protestants, those of 
 the church of England to be particularly encouraged. 
 For the support of government they were to continue 
 the present taxes, till an assembly could be called ; 
 to which end they were within three months to issue 
 writs under the province seal, for calling an assem- 
 bly, to whom the president should recommend the 
 passing such laws as should establish their alle- 
 giance, good order and defence, and the raising 
 taxes in such manner and proportion as they should 
 see fit. All laws to be approved by the president 
 and council, and then to remain in force till the 
 king's pleasure should be known, for which purpose 
 they should be sent to England by the first ships. 
 In case of the president's death, his deputy to suc- 
 ceed, and on the death of a counsellor, the remainder 
 to elect another, and send over his name, with the 
 names of two other meet persons, that the king might 
 appoint one of the three. The king engaged for 
 himself and successors to continue the privilege of 
 an assembly, in the same manner and form, unless 
 by inconvenience arising therefrom he or his heirs 
 
 should see cause to alter the same. If any of the 
 inhabitants should refuse to agree with Mason or his 
 agents, on the terms before mentioned, the president 
 and council were directed to reconcile the difference, 
 or send the case stated in writing with their own 
 opinions, to the king, that he with his privy council 
 might determine it according to equity.* 
 
 The form of government described in this com- 
 mission, considered abstractedly from the immediate 
 intentions, characters, and connexions of the per- 
 sons concerned, appears to be of as simple a kind as 
 the nature of a subordinate government and the 
 liberty of the subject can admit. The people, who 
 are the natural and original source of power, had a 
 representation in a body chosen by themselves ; and 
 the king was represented by a president and council 
 of his own appointment ; each had the right of in- 
 structing their representative, and the king had the 
 superior prerogative of disannulling the acts of the 
 whole at his pleasure. The principal blemish in 
 the commission was the right claimed by the king 
 of discontinuing the representation of the people 
 whenever he should find it inconvenient, after he had 
 solemnly engaged to continue this privilege. The 
 clause, indeed, is artfully worded, and might be con- 
 strued to imply more or less at pleasure. Herein 
 Charles was consistent with himself, parliaments 
 being his aversion. However, theie was in this plan 
 as much of the spirit of the British constitution as 
 there could be any foundation for in such a colony ; 
 for here was no third branch to form a balance be- 
 tween the king or his representative, and the people. 
 The institution of an house of peers in Britain was 
 the result of the feudal system : the barons being 
 lords of the soil and enjoying a sovereignty within 
 their own territories and over their own vassals ; the 
 constitution was formed by the union of these dis- 
 tinct estates under one common sovereign. But 
 there was nothing similar to this in New England. 
 The settlements began here by an equal division of 
 property among independent freemen. Lordship 
 and vassalage were held in abhorrence. The yeo- 
 manry were the proprietors of the soil and the" na- 
 tural defenders of their own rights and property ; 
 and they knew no superior but the king. A council, 
 whether appointed by him or chosen by the people, 
 could not form a distinct body, because they could 
 not be independent. Had "such a simple form of 
 colony government been more generally adopted, 
 and pcrseveringly adhered to, and administered 
 only by the most delicate hands, it might have served 
 better than any other, to perpetuate the dependence 
 of the colonies on the British crown. 
 
 The administration of the first Council Opposition to 
 the acts of trade Mason's arrival Opposition to 
 him His departure 'State oftra&e and navigation. 
 
 (1680.) The commission was brought to Ports 
 mouth on the 1st of January by Edward Randolph, 
 than whom there could not be a more unwelcome 
 messenger. It was received with great reluctance 
 by the gentlemen therein named ; who, though they 
 were of the first character, interest and influence', 
 and had sustained the principal offices, civil and mi- 
 litary, under the colony government ; yet easily saw 
 that their appointment was not from any respect to 
 them or favour to the people ; but merely to obtain 
 a more easy introduction to a new form of govern- 
 ment, for a particular purpose, which they knew 
 would be a source of perplexity and distress. They 
 would gladly have declined acting in their new ca- 
 pacity ; but considering the temper of the govern- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 425 
 
 ment in England, the unavoidable necessity of sub- 
 mitting to the change, and the danger (upon their 
 refusal) of others being appointed who would be 
 inimical to the country, they agreed to qualify them- 
 selves, determining to do what good, and keep off 
 what harm they were able. They therefore pub- 
 lished the commission, and took the oaths on the 22d 
 day of January, which was beyond the utmost time 
 limited in the commission. Agreeably to the royal 
 direction they chose three other gentlemen into the 
 council ; Elias Stileman of Great Island, who had 
 been a clerk in the county courts, whom they now 
 appointed secretary, Samuel Dalton of Hampton, 
 and Job Clements of Dover. The president nomi- 
 nated Waldron to be his deputy or vice president, 
 Martyn was appointed treasurer, and John Ro- 
 berts, marshal. 
 
 The president, John Cutts, was a principal mer- 
 chant, of great probity and esteem in Portsmouth ; 
 but now aged and infirm. Richard Martyn, was of 
 good character, and great influence. He had been 
 very active in procuring the settlement of a minister 
 in the town of Portsmouth. William Vaughan, was 
 a wealthy, generous, and public-spirited merchant, 
 and of undaunted resolution. He was of Welch ex- 
 traction, but was educated in London under Sir 
 Josiah Child, who had a great regard for him, and 
 whose interest he made use of for the good of the 
 province. Thomas Daniel, was a person of such 
 note and importance, that when he died in a time 
 of general sickness and mortality, Mr. Moody preach- 
 ed his funeral sermon from 2 Sam. ii. 30. " There 
 lacked of David's servants nineteen men and Asa- 
 hel." John Gilman, was a man of considerable es- 
 timation in Exeter, as was Christopher Hussey, in 
 Hampton. Richard Waldron, was a native of So- 
 mersetshire, and one of the first settlers in Dover. 
 He was much respected and eminently useful, hav- 
 ing sustained many important offices, civil and 
 military, and approved his courage and fidelity in 
 the most hazardous enterprises. 
 
 This change of government gratified the discon- 
 contented few, but was greatly disrelished by the 
 people in general, as they saw themselves deprived 
 of the privilege of choosing their own rulers, which 
 was still enjoyed by the other colonies in New Eng- 
 land, and as they expected an invasion of their pro- 
 perty soon to follow. 
 
 When writs were issued for calling a general as- 
 sembly, the persons in each town who were judged 
 qualified to vote were named in the writs ; and the 
 oath of allegiance was administered to each voter. 
 The number of qualified voters in each town was, in 
 Portsmouth 71, Dover 61, Hampton 57, Exeter 20, 
 total 209. A public fast was observed, to ask the 
 divine blessing on the approaching assembly, and 
 " the continuance of their precious and pleasant 
 things." The assembly met at Portsmouth on the 
 16th of March, and was opened with a prayer and 
 a sermon by Mr. Moody. 
 
 To express their genuine sentiments of the pre- 
 sent change, and invalidate the false reports which 
 had been raised against them, as well as to shew 
 their gratitude and respect to their former protectors, 
 they wrote to the general court at Boston, "acknow- 
 ledging the kindness of that colony, in taking them 
 under their protection and ruling. them well; assur- 
 ing them, that it was not any dissatisfaction with 
 their government, but merely their submission to 
 divine providence and his majesty's commands, with- 
 out any seeking of their own, which induced them 
 to comply with the present separation, which they 
 
 should have been glad had never taken place; sig- 
 nifying their desire that a mutual correspondence 
 might be continued for defence against the common 
 enemy, and offering their service when it should be 
 necessary." 
 
 It may not be uninteresting to give the names of 
 the deputies in this first assembly which were for 
 Portsmouth, Robert Eliot, Philip Lewis, John Pick- 
 ering; for Dover, Peter Coffin, Anthony Nutter, 
 Richard Waldron, jun.; for Hampton/ Anthony 
 Stanyon, Thomas Marston, Edward Gove; for Exe- 
 ter, Bartholomew Tippen, Ralph Hall. 
 
 Their next care was to frame a code of laws of 
 which the first, conceived in a style becoming free- 
 men, was " that no act, imposition, law, or ordi- 
 nance should be made or imposed upon them, but 
 such as should be made by the assembly and ap- 
 proved by the president and council." Idolatry, 
 blasphemy, treason, rebellion, wilful murder, man- 
 slaughter," poisoning, witchcraft, sodomy, bestiality, 
 perjury, man stealing, cursing, and rebelling against 
 parents, rape and arson, were made capital crimes. 
 The other penal laws were in their main principles 
 the same that are now in force. To prevent con- 
 tentions that might arise by reason of the late change 
 of government, all townships and grants of land were 
 confirmed, and ordered to remain as before; and 
 controversies about the titles of land were to be de- 
 termined by juries chosen by the several towns, ac- 
 cording to former custom. The president and coun- 
 cil, with the assembly, were a supreme court of judi- 
 cature, with a jury when desired by the parties; 
 and three inferior courts were constituted at Dover, 
 Hampton, and Portsmouth. The military arrange- 
 ment was, one foot company in each town, one com- 
 pany of artillery at the fort, and one troop of horse, 
 all under the command of Major Waldron. 
 
 During this administration, things went on as 
 nearly as possible in the old channel, and with the 
 same spirit, as before the separation. A jealous 
 watch was kept over their rights and privileges, and 
 every encroachment upon them was withstood to 
 the utmost. The duties and restrictions established 
 by the acts of trade and navigation were universally 
 disgustful, and the more so as Randolph was ap- 
 pointed collector, surveyor and searcher of the cus- 
 toms throughout New England. In the execution 
 of his commission he seized a ketch belonging to 
 Portsmouth, but bound from Maryland to Ireland, 
 which had been put into this port for a few days. 
 The master, Mark Hunking, brought an action 
 against him at a special court before the president 
 and council, and recovered damages and costs to 
 the amount of 13/. Randolph behaved on this oc- 
 casion with such insolence, that the council obliged 
 him publicly to acknowledge his offence and ask 
 their pardon. He appealed from their judgment to 
 the king, but what the issue was does not appear. 
 Having constituted Captain Walter Barefoote his 
 deputy at this port, an advertisement was published 
 requiring that all vessels should be entered and 
 cleared with him. Upon which Barefoote was brought 
 to examination, and afterwards indicted before the 
 president and council, for " having in an high and 
 presumptuous manner set up his majesty's office of 
 customs without leave from the president and coun- 
 cil, in contempt of his majesty's authority in this 
 place; for disturbing and obstructing his majesty's 
 subjects in passing from harbour to harbour, and 
 town to town ; and for his insolence in making no 
 other answer to any question propounded to him, 
 but ' my name is Walter.' " He was sentenced to 
 
426 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 pay a fine of 101. and stand committed till it was 
 paid. But though Randolph's authority was denied, 
 yet they made an order of their own for the observa- 
 tion of the acts of trade, and appointed officers of 
 their own to see them executed. They had been 
 long under the Massachusetts government, and 
 learned their political principles from them; and 
 as they had been used to think that all royal au- 
 thority flowed in the channel of the charter, so they 
 now thought that no authority derived from the 
 crown could be regularly exercised in the province 
 but through their commission. In this they reasoned 
 agreeably not only to their former principles, but to 
 their fundamental law, to which they steadily ad- 
 hered, though they had no reason to think it would 
 be allowed by the crown ; and though they knew 
 that a rigid adherence to rights, however clear and 
 sacred, was not the way to recommend themselves 
 to royal favour. But they were not singular in these 
 sentiments, nor in their opposition to the laws of 
 trade. Randolph was equally hated, and his com- 
 mission neglected at Boston, where the notary re- 
 fused to enter his protest against the proceedings of 
 the court, and he was obliged to post it on the exchange. 
 
 In the latter end of the year, Mason arrived from 
 England with a mandamus, requiring the council to 
 admit him to a seat at the board, which was accord- 
 ingly done. He soon entered on the business he 
 came about, endeavouring to persuade some of the 
 people to take leases of him threatening others if 
 they did not forbidding them to cut firewood and 
 timber asserting his right to the province, and as- 
 suming the title of lord-proprietor. His agents, or 
 stewards as they were called, had rendered them- 
 selves obnoxious by demanding rents of several per- 
 sons and threatening to sell their houses for payment. 
 
 (1681.) These proceedings raised a general un- 
 easiness, and petitions were sent from each town, as 
 well as from divers individuals, to the council for 
 protection, who taking up the matter judicially, 
 published an order prohibiting Mason or his agents 
 at their peril to repeat such irregular proceedings, 
 and declaring their intention to transmit the griev- 
 ances and complaints of the people to the king. 
 Upon this Mason would no longer sit in council, 
 though desired, nor appear when sent for; when 
 they threatened to deal with him as an offender, he 
 threatened to appeal to the king, and published 
 a summons to the president and several members 
 of the council, and others, to appear before his 
 majesty in three months. This was deemed " an 
 usurpation over his majesty's authority here estab- 
 lished," and a warrant was issued for apprehending 
 him, but he got out of their reach and went to England. 
 
 During these transactions president Cutts died, 
 and Major Waldron succeeded him, appointing Cap- 
 tain Stilcman for his deputy, who had quitted his 
 place of secretary upon the appointment of Richard 
 Chamberlayne to that office by royal commission. 
 The vacancy made in the council by the president's 
 death, was filled by Richard Waldron, jun. On the 
 death of Dalton, Anthony Nutter was chosen. Henry 
 Dow was appointed marshal in the room of Roberts, 
 who resigned. 
 
 (1682.) During the remainder of the council's 
 administration, the common business went on in the 
 usual manner, and nothing remarkable is mentioned, 
 excepting another prosecution of Barefoote, with his 
 assistants, William Haskins and Thomas Thurton, 
 for seizing a vessel "under pretence of his ma- 
 jesty's name, without the knowledge of the au- 
 toontiss of the province, and without shewing any 
 
 breach of statute though demanded." Barefoote 
 pleaded his deputation from Randolph, but he was 
 amerced 20Z. to be respited during his good beha 
 viour, and his two assistants 5/. each; the complain 
 ant being left to the law for his damages. Thin 
 affair was carried by appeal to the king ; but the 
 issue is not mentioned. 
 
 It will be proper to close the account of this ad 
 ministration with a view of the state of the province 
 as to its trade, improvements and defence, from the 
 following representation made by the council to the 
 lords of trade, pursuant to their order. 
 
 "The trade of the province is in masts, planks, 
 boards, and staves, and all other lumber, which at 
 present is of little value in other plantations, to 
 which they are transported, so that we see no other 
 way for the advantage of the trade, unless his ma- 
 jesty please to make our river a free port. 
 
 " Importation by strangers is of little value; ships 
 commonly selling their cargoes in other govern- 
 ments, and if they come here, usually come empty 
 to fill with lumber: but if haply they are at any 
 time loaded with fish, it is brought from other ports, 
 there being none made in our province, nor likely 
 to be, until his majesty please to make the south 
 part of the Isles of Shoals part of this government, 
 they not being at present under any. 
 
 " In reference to the improvement of lands by til- 
 lage, our soil is generally so barren, and the winters 
 so extreme cold and long, that there is not provision 
 enough raised to supply the inhabitants, many of 
 whom were in the late Indian war so impoverished, 
 their houses and estates being destroyed, and they 
 and others remaining still so incapacitated for the 
 improvement of the land, (several of the youth being 
 killed also) that they even groan under the tax or 
 rate assessed for that service, which is, great part 
 of it, unpaid to this day. 
 
 " There is at the Great Island in Portsmouth, at 
 the harbour's mouth, a fort well enough situated, but 
 for the present too weak and insufficient for the de- 
 fence of the place ; the guns being eleven in num- 
 ber, are small, none exceeding a sacre (six- pounder) 
 nor above twenty-one hundred weight, and the people 
 too poor to make defence suitable to the occasion 
 that may happen for the fort. 
 
 " These guns were bought, and the fortification 
 erected, at the proper charge of the towns of Dover 
 and Portsmouth, at the beginning of the first Dutch 
 war, about the year 1665, in obedience to his ma- 
 jesty's command in his letter to the government, 
 under which this province then was. 
 
 " There are five guns more lying at the upper 
 part of Portsmouth, purchased by private persons, 
 for their security and defence against the Indians in 
 the late war with them, and whereof the owners may 
 dispose at their pleasure. To supply the aforesaid 
 defect and weakness of the guns and fort, we humbly 
 supplicate his majesty to send us such guns as shall 
 be more serviceable, with powder and shot." 
 
 By an account of the entries in the port annexed 
 to the above, it appears, that from the 15th of June 
 1680, to the 12th of April 1681, were entered, 
 twenty-two ships, eighteen ketches, two barks, three 
 pinks, one shallop and one fly boat : in all forty- 
 seven. " The Isles of shoals," mentioned in the 
 foregoing report, must have been settled very early, 
 though exactly when is uncertain : as they are most 
 commodiously situated for the fishery, they were a 
 principal object with the first settlers. While New 
 Hampshire was united to Massachusetts, they were 
 under the same jurisdiction, and the town there 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 427 
 
 erected was called Appledore. They are not named 
 in Cutts' nor Cranfield's commission: but under 
 Dudley's presidency, causes were brought from thence 
 to Portsmouth, which is said to be in the same 
 county. In Allen's and all succeeding commissions, 
 they are particularly mentioned; the south half of 
 them being in New Hampshire. 
 
 Taxes were commonly paid in lumber or provisions 
 at stated prices ; and whoever paid them in money 
 was abated one-third part. The prices in 1680, were 
 as follows : merchantable white pine boards per 
 thousand, 30s. ; white oak pine staves per thousand, 
 31. ; red oak ditto per thousand, 30s. ; red oak hogs- 
 head ditto per thousand, 25s.: Indian corn per 
 bushel, 3s. ; wheat per bushel, 5s. ; malt per bushel, 
 4*. Silver was 6s. 8d. per ounce. 
 
 The administration of Cranfield Violent measures- 
 Insurrection, trial, and imprisonment of Cove- 
 Mason's suits Vaughan's imprisonment Prosecu- 
 tion of Moody and his imprisonment Arbitrary pro- 
 ceedings Complaints Tumults Weare's agency 
 in England Cranfield's removal Barefoote' s ad- 
 ministration. 
 
 (1682.) Experience having now convinced Mason, 
 that the government which he had procured to be 
 erected was not likely to be administered in a man- 
 ner favourable to his views, he made it his business, 
 on his return to England, to solicit a change ; in 
 consequence of which it was determined to commis- 
 sian Edward Cranfield, esq. lieut.-governor and com- 
 mander in chief of New Hampshire. By a deed en- 
 rolled in the court of chancery, Mason surrendered 
 to the king one-fifth part of the quit-rents, which 
 had or should become due : these, with the fines and 
 forfeitures which had accrued to the crown since the 
 establishment of the province, and which should af- 
 terward arise, were appropriated to the support of 
 the governor. But this being deemed too precarious 
 a foundation, Mason by another deed mortgaged the 
 whole province to Cranfield, for twenty-one years, 
 as security for the payment of 150/. per annum, for 
 the space of seven years. On this encouragement, 
 Cranfield relinquished a profitable office at home, 
 with the view of bettering his fortune here. 
 
 By the commission, which bears date the 9th of 
 May, the governor was impowered to call, adjourn, 
 prorogue and dissolve general courts ; to have a ne- 
 gative voice in all acts of government ; to suspend 
 any of the council when he should see just cause 
 (and every counsellor so suspended was declared in- 
 capable of being elected into the general assembly) ; 
 to appoint a deputy governor, judges, justices, and 
 other offices, by his sole authority ; and to execute 
 the powers of vice-admiral. The case of Mason was 
 recited nearly in the same words as in the former 
 commission, and the same directions were given to 
 the governor to reconcile differences, or send cases 
 fairly stated to the king in council, for his decision. 
 The counsellors named in this commission were Ma- 
 son, who was styled proprietor, Waldron, Daniel, 
 Vaughan, Martyn, Oilman, Stileman, and Clements : 
 these were of the former council, and to them were 
 added Walter Barefoote, and Richard Chamber- 
 lay ne. 
 
 Cranfield arrived and published his commission 
 on the 4th of October, and within six days Waldron 
 and Martyn were suspended from the council, on 
 certain articles exhibited against them by Mason. 
 This early specimen of the exercise of power must 
 have been intended as a public affront to them, in 
 revenge for their former spirited conduct; otherwise 
 
 their names might have been left out of the commis- 
 sion when it was drawn. 
 
 The people now plainly saw the dangerous designs 
 formed against them. The negative voice of a go- 
 vernor, his right of suspending counsellors, and ap- 
 pointing officers, by his own authority, were wholly 
 unprecedented in New England; and they had the 
 singular mortification to see the crown not only ap- 
 pointing two branches of their legislature, but claim- 
 ing a negative on the election of their representa- 
 tives, in a particular case, which might sometimes 
 be essentially necessary to their own security. They 
 well knew that the sole design of these novel and 
 extraordinary powers was to facilitate the entry of 
 the claimant on the lands which some of them held 
 by virtue of grants from the same authority, and 
 which had all been fairly purchased of the Indians ; 
 a right which they believed to be of more validity 
 than any other. Having by their own labour and 
 expense subdued a rough wilderness, defended their 
 families and estates against the savage enemy, with- 
 out the least assistance from the claimant, and held 
 possession for above fifty years ; they now thought 
 it hard and cruel, that when they had just recovered 
 from the horrors of a bloody war, they should have 
 their liberty abridged, and their property demanded, 
 to satisfy a claim which was at best disputable, and 
 in their opinion groundless. On- the other hand it 
 was deemed unjust, that grants made under the 
 royal authority should be disregarded ; and that so 
 great a sum as had been expended by the ancestor 
 of the claimant, to promote the settlement of the 
 country, should be entirely lost to him ; especially as 
 he had foregone some just claims on the estate as 
 a condition of inheritance. Had the inhabitants by 
 any fraudulent means impeded the designs of the 
 original grantee, or embezzled his interest, there 
 might have. been a just demand for damages; but 
 the unsuccessfulness of that adventure was *o be 
 sought for in its own impracticability, or the negli 
 gence, inability, or inexperience of those into whose 
 hands the management of it fell after Captain Ma- 
 son's death, and during the minority of his successor. 
 
 An assembly, being summoned, met on the 14th 
 of November; with whose concurrence a new body 
 of laws was enacted, in some respects different from 
 the former ; the fundamental law being omitted, 
 and an alteration made in the appointment of jurors, 
 which was now ordered to be done by the sheriff, 
 after the custom in England. 
 
 Cranfield, who made no secret of his intention to 
 enrich himself, by accepting the government, on 
 the first day of the assembly restored Waldron and 
 Martyn to their places in the council ; having, as he 
 said, examined the allegations against them, and 
 found them insufficient. In return for this shew of 
 complaisance, and taking advantage of his needy 
 situation, the assembly having ordered an assess- 
 ment of five hundred pounds, appropriated one half 
 of it as a present to the governor ; hoping thereby 
 to detach him from Mason, who they knew could 
 never comply with his engagements to him. Pre- 
 ferring a certainty to an uncertainty, he passed the 
 bill, though it was not presented to him till after he 
 had given orders for adjourning the court, and after 
 Mason, Barefoote, and Chamberlayne, were with- 
 drawn from the council. 
 
 (1683.) This appearance of good humour was but 
 short-lived ; for at the next session of the assembly, 
 the governor and council having tendered them a 
 bill for the support of government, which they did 
 not approve, and they having offered him several 
 
428 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 bills which he said were contrary to law, he dis- 
 solved them ; having previously suspended Stileman 
 from the council, and dismissed him from the com- 
 mand of the fort, for suffering a vessel under seizure 
 to go out of the harbour. Barefoote was made cap- 
 tain of the fort in his room. 
 
 The dissolution of the assembly, a thing before 
 unknown, aggravated the popular discontent, and 
 kindled the resentment of some rash persons in 
 Hampton and Exeter; who, headed by Edward 
 Gove, a member of the dissolved assembly, declared, 
 by sound of trumpet " for liberty and reformation." 
 There had been a town meeting at Hampton, when 
 a new clerk was chosen, and their records secured. 
 Gove went from town to town, proclaiming what 
 had been done at Hampton, carrying his arms, de- 
 claring that the governor was a traitor, and had 
 exceeded his commission, and that he would not lay 
 down his arms till matters were set right and en- 
 deavouring to excite the principal men in the pro- 
 vince to join in a confederacy to overset the govern- 
 ment. His project appeared to them so wild and 
 dangerous, that they not only disapproved it, but 
 informed against him, and assisted in apprehending 
 him. Hearing of their design, he collected his 
 company, and appeared in arms; but on the per- 
 suasion of some of his friends he surrendered. A 
 special court was immediately commissioned for his 
 trial, of which Major Waldron sat as judge, with 
 William Vaughan and Thomas Daniel assistants. 
 The grand jury presented a bill, in which Edward 
 Gove, John Gove, his son, and William Hely, of 
 Hampton; Joseph, John, and Robert Wadleigh, 
 three brothers, Thomas Rawlins, Mark Baker, and 
 John Sleeper, of Exeter, were charged with high 
 treason. Gove, who behaved with great insolence 
 before the court, and pretended to justify what he 
 had done, was convicted, and received sentence of 
 death in the usual form ; and his estate was seized, 
 as forfeited to flie crown. The others were con- 
 victed of being accomplices, and respited. The 
 king's pleasure being signified to the governor that 
 he should pardon such as he judged objects of 
 mercy; they were all set at liberty but Gove, who 
 was sent to England, and imprisoned in the tower 
 of London about three years. On his repeated pe- 
 titions to the king, and by the interest of Randolph 
 with the Earl of Clarendon, then lord chamberlain, 
 he obtained his pardon, and returned home in 1G8G, 
 with an order to the then president and council of 
 New England to restore his estate. 
 
 Gove, in his petitions to the king, pleaded " a 
 distemper of mind" as the cause of those actions for 
 which he was prosecuted. He also speaks in some 
 of his private letters of a drinking match at his 
 house, and that he had not slept for twelve days and 
 nights, about that time. When these things are 
 considered, it is not hard to account for his conduct. 
 From a letter which he wrote to the court while in 
 prison, one would suppose him to have been dis- 
 ordered in his mind. His punishment was by much 
 too severe, and his trial was hurried on too fast, i1 
 being only six days after the commission of his 
 crime. Had he been indicted only for a riot, there 
 would have been no difficulty in the proof, nor 
 hardship in inflicting the legal penalty. Waldron 
 it is said, shed tears when pronouncing sentence o 
 death upon him. 
 
 On the 14th of February the governor, by adver- 
 tisement, called upon the inhabitants to take out 
 leases from Mason within one month, otherwise he 
 must, pursuant to his instructions, certify the refusa 
 
 ;o the king, that Mason might be discharged of his 
 obligation to grant them. Upon this summons, and 
 within the time set, Major Waldron, John Win- 
 jett, and Thomas Roberts, three of the principal 
 landholders in Dover, waited on the governor to 
 know his pleasure, who directed them to agree with 
 Mason. They then retired into another room where 
 Mason was, and proposed to refer the matter to the 
 governor, that he might, according to his commis- 
 sion, state the matter to the king fur his decision. 
 This proposal Mason rejected, saying that unless 
 they would own his title, he would have nothing to 
 do with them. While they were in discourse the 
 governor came in, and desired them to depart. 
 
 This piece of conduct is difficult to be accounted 
 for, it being directly in the face of the commission. 
 Had the method therein prescribed, and by these 
 men proposed, been adopted, it was natural to expect 
 that the king, who had ail along favoured Mason's 
 pretensions, would have determined the case as 
 much to his wish as upon an appeal from a judicial 
 court; besides, he had now the fairest opportunity 
 to have it decided in the shortest way, to which his 
 antagonists must have submitted, it being their own 
 proposal. His refusal to accede to it was a great 
 mistake, as it left both him and Cranfield exposed 
 to the charge of disobedience. But it afforded a 
 powerful plea in behalf of the people ; whose confi- 
 dence in the royal justice would have induced them 
 to comply with the directions in the commission. 
 It being now impossible to have the controversy thus 
 decided, they determined to hearken to none of hii 
 proposals. As he generally met with opposition 
 and contradiction, he was induced to utter many rash 
 sayings in all companies. He threatened to seize 
 the principal estates, beggar their owners, and pro- 
 voke them to rebellion, by bringing a frigate into 
 the harbour, and procuring soldiers to be quartered 
 on the inhabitants. These threats were so far from 
 intimidating the people, that they served the more 
 firmly to unite them in their determination not to 
 submit ; and each party was now warm in their op- 
 position and resentment. 
 
 The governor, on some fresh pretence, suspended 
 Waldron, Martyn, and Gilman, from the council. 
 The deaths of Daniels and Clements made two other 
 vacancies. Vaughan held his seat the longest, but 
 was at length thrust out for his non-compliance with 
 some arbitrary measures. So that the governor had 
 it in his power to model the council to his mind, 
 which he did, by appointing at various times Na- 
 thaniel Fryer, Robert Eliot, John Hinckes, James 
 Sherlock, Francis Shampernoon, and Edward Ran- 
 dolph, Esqs. The judicial courts were also filled 
 with officers proper for the intended business. Bare- 
 foote, the deputy-governor, was judge : Mason was 
 chancellor; Charnberlayne was clerk and prothono- 
 tary ; Randolph was attorney-general, and Sherlock 
 provost marshal and sheriff. Some, who had always 
 been disaffected to the country, and others who had 
 been awed by threats, or flattered by promises, took 
 leases from Mason ; and these serve'd for umler-she- 
 rift's, jurors, evidences, and other necessary persons. 
 
 Things being thus prepared, Mason began his 
 law-suits by a writ against Major Waldron (who 
 had always distinguished himself in opposition to this 
 claim), for holding lands and felling timber to the 
 amount of 4,OOOJ. The major appeared in court, 
 and changellcd every one of the jury as interested 
 persons, some of them having taken leases of Mason, 
 and all of them living upon the lands which he 
 claimed. The judge then caused the oath of voire 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 429 
 
 dire to be administered to each juror, purporting 
 " that he was not concerned in the lands in ques- 
 tion, and that he should neither gain nor lose by the 
 cause." Upon which the major said aloud to the 
 people present, " That his was a leading case, and 
 that if he were cast they must all become tenants lo 
 Mason ; and that all persons in the province being 
 interested, none of them could legally be of the jury." 
 The case however went on ; but he made no defence, 
 asserted no title, and gave no evidence on his part. 
 Judgment was given against him, and at the next 
 court of sessions he was fined bl. for "mutinous and 
 seditious words." 
 
 Suits were then instituted against all the principal 
 landholders in the province, who, following Wal- 
 dron's example, never made any defence. Some, 
 chiefly of Hampton, gave in writing their reasons 
 for not joining issue, which were, the refusal of 
 Mason to comply with the directions in the commis- 
 sion ; the impropriety of a jury determining what 
 the king had expressly reserved to himself; and the 
 incompetency of the jury, they being all interested 
 persons, one of whom had said that " he would spend 
 his estate to make Mason's right good." These 
 reasons were irritating rather than convincing to 
 the court. The jury never hesitated in their ver- 
 dicts. From seven to twelve causes were dispatched 
 in a day, and the costs were multiplied from bl. to 
 201. Executions were issued, of which two or three 
 only were levied ; but Mason could neither keep 
 possession of the premises nor dispose of them by 
 sale, so that the owners still enjoyed them. Several 
 threatened to appeal to the king, but Major Vaughan 
 alone made the experiment. 
 
 A suit was also commenced against Martyn, who 
 had been treasurer, for the fines and forfeitures re- 
 ceived by him, during the former administration; 
 and judgment was recovered for 711. with costs. 
 Martyn petitioned Mason as chancellor, setting 
 forth that he had received and disposed of the money 
 according to the orders of the late president and 
 council, and praying that the whole burden might 
 not lie upon him. A decree was then issued for the 
 other surviving members of the late council, and the 
 heirs of those who were dead, to bear their propor- 
 tion. This decree was afterwards reversed by the 
 king in council. 
 
 Cranfield with his council had now assumed the 
 whole legislative power. They prohibited vessels 
 from Massachusetts to enter the port, because the 
 acts of trade were not observed in that colony : they 
 fixed the dimensions of mercantile lumber; altered 
 the value of silver money, which had always passed 
 by weight at 6s. Sd. per ounce, and ordered that 
 dollars should be received at 6s. each, which was 
 then a great hardship, as many of them were greatly- 
 deficient in weight: they also changed the bounds 
 of townships; established fees of office; made regu- 
 lations for the package of fish, and ordered the con- 
 stables to forbear collecting any town or parish taxes 
 till the province tax was paid, and the accounts set- 
 tled with the treasurer. 
 
 The public grievances having become insupport- 
 able, the people were driven to the necessity of mak- 
 ing a vigorous stand for their liberties. The only 
 regular way was by complaint to the king. Having 
 privately communicated their sentiments to each 
 other, and raised money by subscription, they ap- 
 pointed Nathanial Weare, Esq., of Hampton, their 
 agent; and the four towns having drawn and sub- 
 scribed distinct petitions of the same tenor, Weare 
 privately withdrew to Boston from whence he sailed 
 
 for England. Major Vaughan who accompanied 
 him to Boston, and was appointed to procure depo- 
 sitions to send after him, was, upon his return to 
 Portsmouth, brought to an examination, treated with 
 great insolence, and required to find sureties for his 
 good behaviour, which, having broken no law, he 
 refused, and was by the governor's own warrant im- 
 mediately committed to prison, where he was kept 
 nine months to the great damage of his health, and 
 of his own as well as the people's interest. 
 
 (1684.) Amidst these multiplied oppressions, Cran- 
 field was still disappointed of the gains he had ex- 
 pected to reap from his office; and found to his great 
 mortification, that there was no way of supplying 
 his wants, but by application to the people through 
 an assembly. He had already abused them so much 
 that he could hope nothing from their favour, and 
 was therefore obliged to have recourse to artifice. On 
 a vague rumour of a foreign war, he pretended much 
 concern for the preservation of the province from 
 invasion; and presuming that they would shew the 
 same concern for themselves, he called an assembly 
 at Great Island where he resided, to whom he ten- 
 dered a bill, which in a manner totally unparlia- 
 mentary, had been drawn and passed by the council, 
 for raising money to defray the expense of repairing 
 the fort, and supplying it with ammunition, and for 
 other necessary charges of government. The house 
 debated awhile, and adjourned for the night, and 
 the tide serving, the members went up to the town. 
 In the morning they returned the bill with their 
 negative, at which the governor was highly enraged, 
 and telling them that they had been to consult with 
 Moody, and other declared enemies of the king and 
 church of England, he dissolved them; and after- 
 ward by his influence with the court of sessions, di- 
 vers of the members were made constables for the 
 following year. Some of them took the oath, and 
 others paid the fine, which was 101. Thus by a 
 mean and execrable revenge, he taxed those whom 
 he could not persuade to tax their constituents for 
 his purposes. 
 
 But Moody was marked as an object of peculiar 
 vengeance. He had for some time rendered him- 
 self obnoxious by the freedom and plainness of his 
 pulpit discourses, and his strictness in administering 
 the discipline of the church; one instance of which 
 merits particular notice. Randolph having seized a 
 vessel, it was in the night carried out of the harbour. 
 The owner, who was a member of the church, swore 
 that he knew nothing of it, but upon trial there ap- 
 peared strong suspicions that he had perjured him- 
 self: he found mean.? to make up the matter with 
 the governor and collector, but Moody being con- 
 cerned for the purity of his church, requested of the 
 governor copies of the evidence, that the offender 
 might be called to account in the way of ecclesias- 
 tical discipline. Cranfield sternly refused, saying 
 that he had forgiven him, and that neither the 
 church nor minister should meddle with him. and 
 even threatened Moody in case he should. Not in- 
 timidated, Moody consulted the church, and preached 
 a sermon against false swearing; then the offender, 
 being called to account, was censured, and at length 
 brought to a public confession. This procedure ex- 
 tremely disgusted the governor, who had no way 
 then in his power to shew his resentment. But 
 malice, ever fruitful in expedients to attain its ends, 
 suggested a method, which, to the scandal of the 
 English nation, has been too often practised. The 
 penal laws against nonconformists were at this time 
 executing with great rigour in England; and Cran- 
 
430 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 field, ambitious to ape his royal master, determined 
 to play off the ecclesiastical artillery here, the di- 
 rection of which he supposed to be deputed to him 
 with his other powers. He had attempted to impose 
 upon the people the observation of the 30th of Jan- 
 uary as a fast, and restrain them from manual labour 
 at Christmas : but his capital stroke was to issue an 
 order in council " That after the 1st of January, the 
 ministers should admit all persons of suitable years 
 and not vicious, to the lord's supper, and their child- 
 ren to baptism; and that if any person should desire 
 Dapfeism, or the other sacrament to be administered 
 according to the liturgy of the church of England, 
 it should be done in pursuance of the king's com- 
 mand to the colony of Massachusetts; and any 
 minister refusing so to do, should suffer the penalty 
 of the statutes of uniformity." 
 
 The same week in which he dissolved the assembly, 
 he signified to Moody in writing, by the hands of the 
 sheriff, that himself, with Mason and Hinckes, in- 
 tended to partake of the Lord's supper the next 
 Sunday, requiring him to administer it to them ac- 
 cording to the liturgy ; and, as they justly expected, 
 he at once denied them. The way was now opened 
 for a persecution ; and the attorney-general, Joseph 
 Rayn, by the governor's order exhibited an infor- 
 mation at the next court of sessions, before Walter 
 Barefoote, Judge, Nathaniel Fryer and Henry 
 Greene, assistants, Peter Coffin, Thomas Edgerly 
 and Henry Robie, justices, setting forth, " that 
 Joshua Moody, clerk, being minister of the town of 
 Portsmouth, within the dominions of King Charles, 
 was by the duty of his place and the laws of the 
 realm, viz. the statutes of the fifth and sixth of Ed- 
 ward VI., the first of Elizabeth, and the thirteenth 
 and fourteenth of Charles II., required to adminis- 
 ter the Lord's supper in such form as was set forth 
 in the book of Common Prayer, and no other. But 
 that the said Moody, in contempt of the laws, had 
 wilfully and obstinately refused to administer the 
 same to the Honourable Edward Cranfield, Robert 
 Mason, and John Hinckes, and did obstinately use 
 some other form." Moody in his defence pleaded, 
 that he was not episcopally ordained as the statutes 
 required ; nor diet he receive his maintenance ac- 
 cording to them, and therefore was not obliged to 
 the performance of what had been commanded; that 
 the alleged statutes were not intended for these plan- 
 tations, the known and avowed end of their settle- 
 ment being the enjoyment of freedom from the im- 
 position of those laws ; which freedom was allowed 
 and confirmed by the king, in the liberty of con- 
 science granted to all protestants, in the governor's 
 commission. Four of the justices, viz. Greene, Ro- 
 bie, Edgerly, and Fryer, were at first for acquitting 
 him ; but the matter being adjourned till the nexi 
 day, Cranfield found means before morning to gain 
 Robie and Greene, who then joined with Barefoote 
 and Coffin, in sentencing him to six months impri 
 sonment, without bail or mainprize. The other twc 
 persisted in their former opinion, and were soon afte; 
 removed from all their offices. Moody was imme 
 diately ordered into custody, without being permittee 
 first to see his family ; and he remained under con 
 finement, in company with Major Vaughan, at the 
 house of Captain Stileman, with liberty of the yard 
 for thirteen weeks, " his benefice" being declarec 
 forfeited to the crown. The next week after Moody' 
 trial, the governor in a profane bravado, sent won 
 to Seaborn Cotton, minister of Hampton, that "when 
 he had prepared his soul, he would come and demand 
 the sacrament of him as he had done at Portsmouth. 1 
 
 Upon which Cotton withdrew to Boston. The mi- 
 lister of Dover, John Pike, was apparently unmo- 
 ested. Exeter had then no settled minister. 
 During Moody's imprisonment, Cranfield would 
 either suffer him to go up to the town to preach, 
 or the people to assemble at the island to hear, nor 
 tie neighbouring ministers to supply his place ; only 
 he family where he was confined were permitted to 
 )e present with him at Sabbath exercises. But while 
 he governor was absent on a tour to New York, 
 Mason gave leave for opening the meeting-house 
 wice, when they obtained a minister to officiate ; he 
 ,lso allowed both Moody and Vaughan to make a 
 hort visit to their families. At length, by the in- 
 erposition of friends, Moody obtained a release, 
 hough under a strict charge to preach no more 
 within the province, on penalty of farther imprison- 
 ment. He then accepted an invitation from the 
 first church in Boston ; where being out of the reach 
 of his persecutors, he was employed as a preacher, 
 and was so highly esteemed, that upon the death of 
 President Rogers he was invited to take the over- 
 ight of the college, which he modestly declined, 
 ind continued his ministrations at Boston, frequently 
 visiting his destitute church at Portsmouth, at their 
 >rivate meetings, till 1692, when, the government 
 )eing in other hands, and the eastern country under 
 .rouble by the Indians, at the earnest request of his 
 people, and by the advice of an ecclesiastical coun- 
 cil, he returned to his charge at Portsmouth, and 
 pent the rest of his days there in usefulness, love, 
 and peace. 
 
 Upon a calm review of this prosecution, one can 
 lardly tell which is most detestable, the vindictive 
 ;emper which gave it birth, or the profaneness and 
 lypocrisy with which it was conducted. The pre- 
 ;ended zeal of the prosecutors was totally inconsist- 
 ent with a due regard to those laws, and the prin- 
 ciples of that church, for which they made themselves 
 such contemptible champions. For it had been long 
 before this time, a received opinion in the church of 
 England, that the validity of all the sacramental 
 administrations depends on authority derived from 
 the apostles, by episcopal ordination, in an uninter- 
 rupted succession ; and one of the statutes on which 
 the prosecution was grounded, enacts lt lhac no 
 person shall presume to consecrate and administer 
 the Lord's supper, before he be ordained a priest by 
 episcopal ordination, on pain of forfeiting for every 
 offence, 100/." The ministers then in the province, 
 being destitute of the grand pre-requisite, were in- 
 capable by the act of doing what was so peremptorily 
 required of them ; and had they complied with the 
 governor's order, must have exposed themselves to 
 the penalty, if he had pleased to exact it from them. 
 But the extending these penalties to the king's 
 American subjects, who had fled thither from the rod 
 of prelatic tyranny, was a most unwarrantable stretch 
 of power ; since the last of these acts, and the only 
 one which had been made since the settlement of 
 the colonies, was expressly restricted in its operation, 
 to " the realm of England, dominion of Wales, and 
 town of Berwick upon Tweed." 
 
 Disappointed in all his schemes for raising money 
 by an assembly, Cranfield next ventured on the 
 project of taxing the people without their consent, 
 The pretext for this was a clause in the commission, 
 empowering him, with the council, " to continue 
 such taxes as had been formerly levied, until a ge- 
 neral assembly could be called." This had been 
 done, without "offence, at the beginning both of this 
 and the former administration, when the change of 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 431 
 
 government rendered it necessary. But the council, 
 though too much devoted to him, were not easily 
 persuaded into the measure at this time ; till fear at 
 length accomplished what reason could not approve : 
 for, letters being received from the eastward, stating 
 the discovery of a plot among the Indians, who were 
 instigated by Castine the Frenchman to renew the 
 war early in the spring, the council were summoned 
 in haste, and presently agreed to the governor's 
 proposal for continuing such taxes as had been 
 formerly laid, which he told them were necessary for 
 the immediate defence and security of the province. 
 This affair, however, was kept secret for the pre- 
 sent : and the people were first to be convinced of 
 the governor's paternal care and kindness in taking 
 the necessary precautions for their safety. It was 
 ordered that the meeting-houses in each town should 
 be fortified, and bye garrisons were established in 
 convenient places : supplies of ammunition were 
 ordered to be provided : circular letters were dis- 
 patched to the governors of the neighbouring colo- 
 nies, informing them of the danger ; and, to crown 
 the whole, Cranfield himself, at the request of the 
 council, undertook a tour to New York, to solicit 
 the governor, Dongan, for a number of the Mohawks 
 to come down and destroy the eastern Indians; 
 promising to pay them for their services out of the 
 money which was thus to be raised. 
 
 At his return from this excursion, he found him- 
 self under some embarrassment in his favourite 
 views, from a letter of the lords of trade, which di- 
 rected him to make use of an assembly, in raising 
 money on the people. He could not, therefore, 
 avoid calling one, though he immediately dissolved 
 it, because several of the members were those whom 
 he had formerly ordered to be made constables. At 
 the same time, in his letters to the secretary of state, 
 he represented the assembly as persons of such a 
 mutinous and rebellious disposition, that it was not 
 safe to let them convene ; that they had never given 
 any tiling toward the support of government; that 
 he was obliged to raise money without them; and 
 that it was impossible for him to serve his majesty's 
 interest without a ship of war to enforce his orders ; 
 and, finally, he desired leave to go to the West 
 Indies for the recovery of his health. When this 
 business was dispatched, warrants were issued for 
 collecting the taxes ; which caused fresh murmur- 
 ings and discontent among the people. 
 
 But however disaffected to the governor and his 
 creatures, they were always ready to testify their 
 obedience to the royal orders ; an instance of which 
 occurred at this time. The seas of America and the 
 West Indies being much infested with pirates, the 
 king sent orders to all the governors and colony as- 
 semblies, directing acts to be made for the suppress- 
 ing of piracy and robbery on the high seas. Cran- 
 fi-eld, having received this order, summoned an as- 
 sembly ; and though it consisted almost entirely of 
 the same persons who were in the last, he suffered 
 them to pass the act, and then quietly dissolved 
 them : and this was the last assembly that he called. 
 
 The tax-bills were first put into the hands of the 
 newly-made co-nstables; who soon returned them, 
 informing the governor that the people were so 
 averse from the method, that it was impossible to 
 collect the money. The provost, Thomas Thurton, 
 was then commanded to do it, with the assistance of 
 his deputies and the constables. The people still 
 refusing compliance, their cattle and goods were 
 taken by distraint, and sold by auction : those who 
 would neither pay nor discover their goods to the 
 
 officers, were apprehended and imprisoned; and 
 some of the constables, who refused to assist, suffered 
 the same fate. The more considerate of the people 
 were disposed to bear these grievances, though highly 
 irritating, till they could know the result of their 
 applications to the king. But in a country where 
 the love of liberty had ever been the ruling passion, 
 it could not be expected but that some forward 
 spirits would break the restraints of prudence, and 
 take a summary method to put a stop to their op- 
 pressions. Several persons had declared that they 
 would sooner part with their lives, than suffer dis- 
 traints; and associations were formed for mutual 
 support. At Exeter the sheriff was resisted, and 
 driven off with clubs ; the women having prepared 
 hot spits and scalding water to assist in the opposi- 
 tion, as Thurton testified in his deposition on the 
 occasion. At Hampton he was beaten, and his 
 sword was taken from him ; then he was seated on 
 a horse, and conveyed out of the province to Salis- 
 bury with a rope about his neck, and his feet tied 
 under the horse's belly. Justice Robe attempted to 
 commit some of the rioters ; but they were rescued 
 by the way, and both the justice and the sheriff 
 were struck in the execution of their office. The 
 troop of horse, under Mason's command, was then 
 ordered to turn out completely mounted and armed, 
 to assist in suppressing the disorders ; but when the 
 day came not one trooper appeared. Cranfield, 
 thus finding his efforts ineffectual, and his authority 
 contemptible, was obliged to desist. 
 
 The agent had been a long time in England, 
 waiting for the depositions which were to have been 
 transmitted to him in support of the complaint 
 which he was to exhibit. Cranfield and his crea- 
 tures here did all they could to retard the business ; 
 first, by imprisoning Vaughan, and then by refusing 
 to summon and swear witnesses when applied to by 
 others, who were obliged to go into the neighbour- 
 ing governments, to get their depositions authenti- 
 cated ; and after all the proof was defective, as they 
 had not access to the public records. The agent, 
 however, exhibited his complaint against Cranfield 
 in general terms, consisting of eight articles. " That 
 he had engrossed the power of erecting courts, and 
 establishing fees exclusive of the assembly; that he 
 had not followed the directions in his commission 
 respecting Mason's controversy, but had caused it 
 to be decided on the spot by courts of his own con- 
 stitution, consisting wholly of persons devoted to 
 his interest ; that exorbitant charges had been ex- 
 acted, and some, who were unable to satisfy them, 
 had been imprisoned ; that others had been obliged 
 to submit, for want of money to carry on the suits ; 
 that he had altered the value of silver money ; that 
 he had imprisoned sundry persons without just cause; 
 that he, with his council, had assumed legislative 
 authority, without an assembly ; and, that he had 
 done his utmost to prevent the people from laying 
 their complaints before the king, and procuring the 
 necessary evidence." 
 
 The complaint was referred to the board of trade, 
 who transmitted copies of it, and of the several 
 proofs, to Cranfield, and summoned him to make his 
 defence; directing him to deliver to the adverse 
 party, copies of all the affidavits which should be 
 taken in his favour; to let all persons have free ac- 
 cess to the records; and to give all needful assis- 
 tance to them in collecting their evidence against him. 
 
 When he had received this letter he suspended 
 Mason's suits, till the question concerning the le- 
 gality of the courts should be decided. He also or- 
 
432 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 dered the secretary to give copies to those who 
 should apply for them. At the same time it was 
 complained that the people, on their part, had been 
 equally reserved, in secreting the records of the 
 several towns, so that Mason upon enquiry could 
 not find where they were deposited ; and the town 
 clerks, when summoned, had solemnly sworn that 
 they knew neither where the books were concealed, 
 nor who had taken them out of their possession. 
 
 (1685.) The necessary evidence on both sides 
 being procured, a new complaint was drawn up, 
 consisting of twelve articles, which were, " That at 
 the first session of the assembly, Cranfield had chal- 
 lenged the power of legislation and settlement of the 
 affairs to himself against the words of the commis- 
 sion: That he had by purchase or mortgage from 
 Mason, made himself owner of the province, and so 
 was not likely to act impartially between Mason and 
 the inhabitants: That he had made courts, whereof 
 both judges and jurors had agreed with Mason for 
 their own lands, and some had taken deeds of him 
 for other men's lands, so that they were engaged by 
 their interest to set up Mason's title: That Mason 
 had sued forty persons, and cast all ; and that the 
 governor's interposal to state the cases, as by his 
 commission he was directed, had been refused though 
 desired; and that the defendants' pleas grounded 
 on the laws of England were rejected: That they 
 could not reconcile the verdict with the attachment 
 nor the execution with the verdict, nor their prac- 
 tice under colour of the execution with either; thai 
 the verdict found the lands sued for according to th< 
 royal commission and instructions, and that the com 
 mission only gave power to state the case if Mason 
 and the people could not agree; but the execution 
 took land and all: That the charge of every actioi 
 was about 6/., though nothing was done in court bu 
 reading the commission, and some blank grant 
 without hand or seal; and these were not read fo 
 one case in ten : That court charges were exactec 
 in money, which many had not; who though the) 
 tendered cattle, were committed to prison for non 
 payment: That ministers, contrary to his majesty' 
 commission, which granted liberty of conscience t 
 all protestants, had their dues withheld from them 
 even those that were due before Cranfield came 
 and were threatened with six months' imprisonmen 
 for not administering the sacrament according t 
 the liturgy : That though the general assembl 
 agreed that Spanish money should pass by weight 
 the governor and council ordered pieces of eight t 
 pass for 6s., though under weight : That men wer 
 commonly compelled to enter into bonds of grea 
 penalty, to appear and answer to what should b 
 objected against them, when no crime was alleged 
 That they had few laws but those made by the go 
 vernor and council, when his commission directe 
 the general assembly to make laws: That the court 
 were kept in a remote corner of the province ; an 
 the sheriff was a stranger and had no visible estate 
 and so was not responsible for failures." 
 
 Upon this complaint a hearing was had before th 
 lords of trade, on Tuesday the 10th of March : an 
 their lordships reported to the king, on three article 
 only of the complaint, viz. " That Cranfield had n 
 pursued his instructions with regard to Mason's con 
 troversy ; but instead thereof had caused courts t 
 be held and titles to be decided, with exorbitant costs 
 and that he had exceeded his power in regulating th 
 value of coins." This report was accepted, and th 
 king's pleasure therein signified to him. At th 
 same time, his request for absence being granted, h 
 
 n receipt of the letters, privately embarked on 
 oard a vessel for Jamaica ; and from thence went 
 
 England, where he obtained the collectorship of 
 arbadocs. At his departure, Barefoote, the deputy- 
 overnor, took the chair, which he held till he was 
 jpersoded by Dudley's commission, as president 
 f New England. 
 
 Cranfield's ill conduct must be ascribed in a great 
 measure to his disappointment of the gains which he 
 xpected to acquire by the establishment of Mason's 
 tie, which could be his only inducement to accept 
 f the government. This disappointment inflaming 
 is temper, naturally vindictive and imperious, urged 
 im to actions not only illegal, but cruel and un- 
 manly. Had there been the least colour, either of 
 eal or policy, for the severity exercised in the pro- 
 ecution of Moody, candour would oblige us to make 
 ome allowance for human frailty. His ordering 
 he members of the assembly to be made constables, 
 ras a mode of revenge disgraceful to the character 
 )f the supreme magistrate. From the same base 
 lisposition, he is said to have employed spies and 
 limps, to find matter of accusation against people in 
 heir clubs, and private discourse. And his deceit 
 was equal to his malice ; for, being at Boston when 
 he charter of that colony was called in question, 
 ind the people were solicitous to ward off the danger, 
 ic advised them to make a private offer of two thou- 
 sand guineas to the king, promising to represent 
 ;hem in a favourable light; but when they, not sus- 
 iccting his intention, followed his advice, and shewed 
 :iim the letter which they had wrote to their agents 
 for that purpose, he treacherously represented them 
 as " disloyal rogues ;" and made them appear so 
 ridiculous that their agents were ashamed to be seen 
 at court. However, when he had quitted the coun- 
 try, and had time for reflection, he grew ashamed of 
 his misconduct, and while he was collector at Bar- 
 badoes, made a point of treating the masters of ves- 
 sels, and other persons who went thither from Pas- 
 cataqua, with particular respect. 
 
 Although the decision of titles in Cranfield's 
 courts had been represented, in the report of the 
 lords, as extrajudicial, and a royal order had been 
 thereupon issued to suspend any farther proceedings 
 in the case of Mason till the matter should be brought 
 before the king in council, pursuant to the directions 
 in the commission ; yetBarefoote suffered executions 
 which had before been issued to be extended, and 
 persons to be imprisoned at Mason's suit. This oc- 
 casioned a fresh complaint and petition to the king, 
 which was sent by Weare, who about this time made 
 a second voyage to England, as agent for the pro- 
 vince and attorney to Vaughan, to manage an appeal 
 from several verdicts, judgments, decrees and fines, 
 which had been given against him in the courts here, 
 one of which was on the title to his estate. An at- 
 tempt being made to levy one of the executions in 
 Dover, a number of persons forcibly resisted the 
 officer, and obliged him to relinquish his design. 
 Warrants were then issued against the rioters, and 
 the sheriff with his attendants attempted to seize 
 them while the people were assembled for divine 
 service. This caused an uproar in the congregation, 
 in which a young heroine distinguished herself by 
 knocking down one of the officers with her Bible. 
 They were all so roughly handled that they were 
 glad to escape with their lives. 
 
 That nothing might be wanting to shew the en- 
 mity of the people to these measures, and their hatred 
 
 and contempt for the authors of them, there are still 
 preserved the original depositions on oath, of Bare- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 433 
 
 foote and Mason, relating to an assault made on 
 their persons by Thomas Wiggen and Anthony Nut- 
 ter, who had been members of the assembly. These 
 two men came to Barefoote's house, where Mason 
 lodged, and entered into discourse with him about 
 his proceedings ; denying his claim, and using such 
 language as provoked him to take hold of Wiggen, 
 with an intention to thrust him out at the door. But 
 Wiggen being a stronger man, seized him by his 
 cravat, and threw him into the fire, where his clothes 
 and one of his legs were burned. Barefoote, at- 
 tempting to help him, met with the same fate, and 
 had two of his ribs broken and one of his teeth beaten 
 out in the struggle. The noise alarmed the servants, 
 who at Mason's command brought his sword, which 
 Nutter took away, making sport of their misery. A 
 farther specimen of the contempt in which these 
 men were held, even by the lower class of people, 
 expressed in their own genuine language, may be 
 seen in the following affidavit: " Mary Rann, aged 
 thirty years or thereabouts, witnesseth, that the 21st 
 day of March 84, being in company with Seabank 
 Hog, I heard her say it was very hard for the go- 
 vernor of this province to strike Sam. Seavy before 
 he spoke ; the said Hog said also, that it was well 
 the said Seavy's mother was not there for the go- 
 vernor, for if she had, there had been bloody work 
 for him. I heard the said Hog say also, that the 
 governor and the rest of the gentlemen were a crew 
 of pitiful curs, and did they want earthly honour ? if 
 they did, she would pull off her head clothes, and 
 come in her hair to them, like a parcel of pitiful 
 beggarly curs as they were; come to undo us both 
 body and soul ; they could not be contented to take 
 our estates from us, but they have taken away the 
 gospel also, which the devil would have them for it." 
 Sworn in the court of pleas, held at Great Island, 
 the 7th of Nov. 1684. R. Chamberlain, Prothon." 
 
 Nothing else occurred during Barefoote's short 
 administration, except a treaty of friendship between 
 the Indians of Penacook and Saco, on the one part; 
 and the people of New Hampshire and Maine o-n 
 the other. The foundation of this treaty seems to 
 have been laid in Cranfield's project of bringing 
 down the Mohawks on the eastern Indian-s ; which 
 had once before proved a pernicious measure; as 
 they made no distinction between those tribes 
 which were at peace with the English, and those 
 which were at war. Some of the Penacook Indians, 
 who had been at Albany after Cranfield's journey 
 to New York, reported on their return, that the 
 Mohawks threatened destruction to all the eastern 
 Indians, from Narrhaganset to Pechypscot. Hag- 
 kins, a chief of the tribe, had informed Cranfield in 
 the spring of the danger he apprehended, and had 
 implored assistance and protection, but had been 
 treated with neglect. In August the Penacook and 
 Saco Indians gathered their corn, and removed their 
 families; which gave an alarm to their English 
 neighbours, as if they were preparing for war. 
 Messengers being sent to demand the reason of their 
 movement, were informed that it was the fear of the 
 Mohawks, whom they daily expected to destroy 
 them ; and being asked why they did not come in 
 among the English for protection, they answered, 
 let the Mohawks should hurt the English on their 
 account. Upon this they were persuaded to enter 
 into an agreement; and accordingly their chiefs 
 being assembled with the council of New Hampshire, 
 and a deputation from the province of Maine, a 
 treaty was concluded, wherein it was stipulated, that 
 all future personal injuries on either side should, 
 
 HIST. OF AMER. Nos. 55 & 56. 
 
 upon complaint, be immediately redressed; that in- 
 formation should be given of approaching danger 
 fron? enemies ; that the Indians should not remove 
 their families from the neighbourhood of the Eng- 
 lish without giving timely notice, and if they did 
 that it should be taken for a declaration of war; 
 and, that while these articles were observed, the 
 English would assist and protect them against the 
 Mohawks and all other enemies. The danger was 
 but imaginary, and the peace continued for about 
 four years. 
 
 (1686.) Though Mason was hitherto disappointed 
 in his views of recovering the inhabited part of the 
 province, he endeavoured to lay a foundation for 
 realising his claim to the waste lands. A purchase 
 having been made from the Indians, by Jonathi 
 Tyng, and nineteen others, of a tract of land on 
 both sides the river Merrimack, siA, Jles in breadth, 
 from Souhegan river to Winnipfisi ygee lake ; Ma- 
 son, by deed, confirmed the same, reserving to him- 
 self and his heirs the yearly rent of ten shillings. 
 This was called the million acre purchase. About 
 the same time he farmed out to Hezekiah Usher and 
 his heirs, the mines, minerals, and ores, within the 
 limits of New Hampshire, for the term of one thou- 
 sand years ; reserving to himself one quarter part of 
 the royal ores and one seventeenth of the baser 
 sorts ; and having put his affairs here in the best 
 order that the times would admit, he sailed for Eng- 
 land, to attend the hearing of Vaughan's appeal to 
 the king. 
 
 The administration of Dudley as President, and An- 
 drosse as Governor of New England Mason's far- 
 ther attempt His disappointment and death Re- 
 volution in England- Sale to Allen 'His commission 
 for the government. 
 
 When an arbitrary government is determined to 
 infringe the liberty of the people, it is easy to find 
 pretences to support the most iniquitous claims. 
 King Charles the Second, in the latter part of his 
 reign, was making large strides toward despotism. 
 Charters, which obstructed his pernicious views, 
 were, by a perversion of the law, decreed forfeited. 
 The city of London, and most of the corporations in 
 England, either suffered the execution of these sen- 
 tences, or tamely surrendered their franchises to 
 the all-grasping hand of power. It could not be 
 expected that in this gener-al wreck of privileges, 
 the colonies of New England could escape. The 
 people of Massachusetts had long been viewed with 
 a jealous eye. Though the king had repeatedly as- 
 sured them of his protection, and solemnly confirmed 
 their charter privileges ; yet their spirit and princi- 
 ples were so totally dissonant to the corrupt views 
 of the court, that intriguing men found easy access 
 to the royal ear, with complaints against them. Of 
 these the most inveterate and indefatigable was 
 Randolph, who made no less than eight voyages in 
 nine years across the Atlantic, on this mischievous 
 business. They were accused of extending their 
 jurisdiction beyond the bounds of their patent; of 
 invading the prerogative by coining money ; of not 
 allowing appeals to the king from their courts ; and 
 of obstructing the execution of the navigation and 
 trade laws. By the king's command agents were 
 sent over to answer these complaints. They found 
 the prejudice against the colony so strong, that it 
 was in vain to withstand it; and solicited instruc- 
 tions whether to submit to the king's pleasure, or to 
 let the proceedings against them be issued in form 
 of law. A solemn consultation being held, at which 
 
 3 A 
 
434 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the clergy assisted, it was determined " to die by 
 the hands of others rather than by their own." 
 Upon notice of this, the agents quitted England; 
 and Randolph, as the angel of death, soon followed 
 them, bringing a writ of quo warranto from the 
 King's Bench ; but the scire facias which issued 
 from the chancery did not arrive till the time fixed 
 for their appearance was elapsed: this, however, 
 was deemed too trivial an error to stop the proceed- 
 ings ; judgment was entered against them, and the 
 charter declared forfeited. 
 
 The king died before a new form of government 
 was settled ; but there could be no hope of favour 
 from his successor, who inherited the arbitrary prin- 
 ciples of his brother, and was publicly known to be 
 a bigoted papist. 
 
 The intended alteration in the government was 
 introduced in the same gradual manner as it had 
 been in New Hampshire. A commission was issued, 
 in which Joseph Dudley, Esq., was appointed pre- 
 sident of his majesty's territory and dominion of 
 New England ; William Stoughton, deputy presi- 
 dent; Simon Bradstreet, Robert Mason, John Fitz 
 \Vinthrop, John Pynchon, Peter Bulkley, Edward 
 Randolph, Wait Winthrop, Richard Warton, John 
 Usher, Nathaniel Saltonstall, Bartholomew Gedney, 
 Jonathan Tyng, Dudley Bradstreet, John Hinckes, 
 and Edward Tyiig, counsellors. Their jurisdiction 
 extended over Massachusetts, New Hampshire, 
 Maine, and the Narrhaganset or King's Province. 
 These gentlemen were mostly natives of the country, 
 some of them had been magistrates, and one of them 
 governor under the charter. No house of deputies 
 was mentioned in the commission. 
 
 The new form of government took place on the 
 25th day of May, 1686 ; and on the 10th of June, 
 an order of council was issued for settling the county 
 courts, which consisted of such members of the 
 council as resided in each county, and any others of 
 them who might be present, with such justices as 
 were commissioned for the purpose. These courts 
 had the power of trying and issuing all civil causes, 
 and all criminal matters under life or limb ; from 
 them an appeal was allowed to a superior court, held 
 three times in the year at Boston for the whole 
 territory ; and from thence appeals, in certain cases, 
 might be had to the king in council. Juries were 
 pricked by the marshal and one justice of each 
 county, in a list given them by the select men of the 
 towns A probate court was held at Boston by the 
 president, and " in the other provinces and remote 
 counties " by a judge and clerk appointed by the 
 president. The territory was divided into four 
 counties, viz., Suffolk, Middlesex, Essex, and Hamp- 
 shire; and three provinces, viz., New Hampshire, 
 Maine, and King's province. By another order of 
 the same date, town taxes could not be assessed but 
 by allowance of two justices; and the members of the 
 council were exempted from paying any part thereof. 
 
 Things were conducted with tolerable decency, 
 and the innovations were rendered as little grievous 
 as possible ; that the people might be induced more 
 readily to submit to the long meditated introduction 
 of a governor-general. 
 
 In December following, Sir Edmund Androsse, 
 who had been governor of New York, arrived at 
 Boston with a commission, appointing him captain- 
 general and governor in chief of the territory and 
 dominion of New England, in which the colony of 
 Plymouth was now included. By this commission, 
 the governor with his council, five of whom were a 
 quorum, were empowered to make such laws, im- 
 
 pose such taxes, and apply them to such purposes, 
 as they should think proper. They were also em- 
 powered to grant lands on such terms, and subject 
 to such quit-rents, as should be appointed by the 
 king. Invested with such powers, these men were 
 capable of the most extravagant actions. Though 
 Androsse, like his master, began his administration 
 with the fairest professions, yet like him he soon 
 violated them, and proved himself a fit instrument 
 for accomplishing the most execrable designs. Those 
 of his council who were backward in aiding his ra- 
 pacious intentions were neglected. Seven being 
 sufficient for a full board, he selected such only as 
 were devoted to him, and with their concurrence did 
 what he pleased. Randolph and Mason were at 
 first among his confidents ; but afterward, when New 
 York was annexed to his government, the members 
 from that quarter were most in his favour. 
 
 (1687.) To particularize the many instances of 
 tyranny and oppression which the country suffered 
 from these men, is not within the design of this 
 work. Let it suffice to observe, that the press was 
 restrained, liberty of conscience infringed, exorbi- 
 tant fees and taxes demanded without the voice or 
 consent of the people, who had no privilege of re- 
 presentation. The charter being vacated, it was 
 pretended that all titles to land were annulled; and 
 as to Indian deeds, Androsse declared them no bet- 
 ter than "the scratch of a bear's paw." Land- 
 holders were obliged to take out patents for their 
 e.states which they had possessed forty or fifty years; 
 for these patents extravagant fees were exacted, and 
 those who would not submit to this imposition, had 
 writs of intrusion brought against them, and their 
 land patented to others. To hinder the people from 
 consulting about the redress of their grievances, 
 town meetings were prohibited, except one in the 
 month of May for the choice of town officers: and to 
 prevent complaints being carried to England, no 
 person was permitted to go out of the country with- 
 out express leave from the governor. But notwith- 
 standing all the vigilance of the governor, his emis- 
 saries and his guards, the resolute and indefatigable 
 Increase Mather, minister of the second church ia 
 Boston, and president of the college, got on board a 
 ship and sailed for England, with complaints in the 
 name of the people against the governor, which he 
 delivered with his own hand to the king; but finding 
 no hope of redress, he waited the event of the revo- 
 lution which was then expected. 
 
 (1688.) When the people groaned under so many 
 real grievances, it is no wonder that their fears and 
 jealousies suggested some that were imaginary. 
 They believed Androsse to be a papist ; that he had 
 hired the Indians, and supplied them with ammuni- 
 tion to destroy their frontier settlements ; and that 
 he was preparing to betray the country into the 
 hands of the French. At the same time, the large 
 strides that King James the Second was making 
 toward the establishment of popery and despotism 
 raised the most terrible apprehensions ; so that the 
 report of the landing of the Prince of Orange in 
 England was received here with the greatest, joy. 
 Androsse was so alarmed at the news, that he im- 
 prisoned the man who brought a copy of the prince's 
 declaration, and published a proclamation, com- 
 manding all persons to be in readiness to oppose 
 " any invasion from Holland," which met with as 
 much disregard as one he had issued before, ap- 
 pointing a day of thanksgiving for the birth of a 
 Prince of Wales 
 
 (1689.) The people had now borne these innova- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 435 
 
 tions and impositions for about three years : their 
 patience was worn out, and their native love of 
 freedom kindled at the prospect of deliverance. The 
 news of a complete revolution in England had not 
 reached them ; yet so sanguine were their expecta- 
 tions, so eager were they to prove that they were 
 animated by the same spirit with their brethren at 
 home, that upon the rumour of an intended massacre 
 in the town of Boston by the governor's guards, 
 they were wrought up to a degree of fury. On the 
 morning of the 18th of April the town was in arms, 
 and the country flocking in to their assistance. 
 The governor, and those who had fled with him to 
 the fort, were seized and committed to prison. The 
 gentlemen who had been magistrates under the 
 charter, with Bradstroet, the late governor, at their 
 head, assumed the name of a council of safety, and 
 kept up a form of government, in the exigency of 
 affairs, till orders arrived from England ; when An- 
 drosse and his accomplices were sent home as pri- 
 soners of state, to be disposed of according to the 
 king's pleasure. 
 
 The people of New Hampshire had their share of 
 sufferings under this rapacious administration ; and 
 Mason himself did not escape. Having attended 
 the hearing of Vaughan's appeal to the king, which 
 was decided in M ason's favour ; the judgment ob- 
 tained here, being affirmed ; and having now the 
 fairest prospect of realising his claim, he returned 
 hither in the spring of 1687, but found his views 
 obstructed in a manner which he little expected. 
 The government was in the hands of a set of un- 
 principled men, who looked with envy on the large 
 share of territory which Mason claimed, and were 
 for parcelling it out among themselves. The new 
 judges delayed issuing executions on the judgments 
 which he had formerly recovered, and the attorney, 
 general, Graham, would not allow that he had power 
 to grant lands by leases. This confirmed the people 
 in their opinion of the invalidity of his claim, and 
 rendered them more averse to him than ever. At 
 length, however, he obtained from Dudley, the chief 
 justice, a writ of certiorari, directed to the'late judges 
 of New Hampshire, by which his causes were to be 
 removed to the supreme court of the whole territory, 
 then held at Boston ; but before this could be done, 
 death put an end to his hopes, and relieved the peo- 
 ple for a time from their fears. Beiu-g one of Sir 
 Edmund's council, and attending him on a journey 
 from New York to Albany ; he died at Esopus, in 
 the fifty-ninth year of his age ; leaving two sons, John 
 and Robert, the heirs of his claim and controversy. 
 
 The revolution at Boston, though extremely pleas- 
 ing to the people of New Hampshire, left then in an 
 unsettled state. They waited the arrival of orders 
 from England; but none arriving, an-d the people's 
 minds being uneasy, it was proposed by some of the 
 principal gentlemen, that a convention of deputies 
 from each of the towns should consider what was 
 best to be done. The convention-parliament in 
 England was a sufficient precedent to authorize this 
 proceeding. Deputies were accordingly chosen, and 
 instructed to resolve upon some method of govern- 
 ment (1690.) At their first meeting they came to 
 no conclusion ; but afterward they thought it best to 
 return to their ancient union with Massachusetts. 
 A petition for this purpose being presented, they 
 were readily admitted till the king's pleasure should 
 be known, and members were sent to the general 
 court which met there in this and the two following 
 years. The gentlemen who had formerly been in 
 commission for the peace, tiie militia and the civil 
 
 offices, were by town votes approved by the general 
 court, restored to their places, and ancient laws and 
 customs continued to be observed. 
 
 (1691.) Had the inclination of the people been 
 consulted, they would gladly have been annexed to 
 that government. This was well known to Mather 
 and the other agents, who, when soliciting for a 
 new charter, earnestly requested that New 'Hamp- 
 shire might be included in it. But it was answered 
 that the people had expressed an aversion fnna it, 
 and desired to be under a distinct government. 
 This could be founded only on the reports which 
 had been made by the commissioners in 1665, and 
 by Randolph in his narrative. The true reason for 
 denying the request was, that Mason's two heirs 
 had sold their title to the lands in New Hampshire 
 to Samuel Allen of London, merchant, for seven 
 hundred and fifty pounds the entail having been 
 previously docked by a fine and recovery in the 
 Court of King's Bench ; and Allen was now solicit- 
 ing a recognition of his title from the crown, and a 
 commission for the government of the provim-e. 
 When the inhabitants were informed of what was 
 doing, they again assembled by deputies in conven- 
 tion, and sent (1691) a petition to the king, praying 
 that they might be annexed to the Massachusetts. "The 
 petition was presented by Sir Henry Ashurst, and 
 they were amused by some equivocal promises of 
 success by the Earl of Nottingham; but Allen's 
 importunity coinciding with the king's inclination, 
 effectually frustrated their attempt. The claim which 
 Allen had to the lands from Naumkeag, to three 
 miles northward of Merrimack, was noticed in the 
 Massachusetts charter (1692) ; and he obtained a 
 commission for the government of New Hampshire-, 
 in which his son-in-law, John Usher, then iu Lon- 
 don, was appointed lieut.-governor, with power to 
 execute the commission in Allen's absence. The 
 counsellors named in the governor's instructions 
 were John Usher, lieut-governor, John Hinckes, 
 Nathaniel Fryer, Thomas Graffort, Peter Coffin, 
 Henry Green, Robert Eliot, John Gerrish, John 
 Walford, and John Love. The governor was in- 
 structed to send to the secretary of state the names 
 of six other persons suitable for counsellors. Three 
 were a quorum, but the instructions were that nothing 
 should be done unless five were present, except in 
 extraordinary emergencies. Major Vaughan, Na- 
 thaniel Weare, and Richard Waldron, were a r ter- 
 ward added to the number. 
 
 The council was composed of men who, in general, 
 had the confidence of the people ; but Usher was 
 very disagreeable, not only as he had an interest iu 
 Allen's claim to the lands, but as he had been one 
 of Sir Edmund Androsse's adherents, and a-n active 
 instrument in the late oppressive government. He 
 arrived with the commission and took upon him the 
 command, on the 13th day of August. The people 
 again submitted, with extreme reluctance, to the 
 unavoidable necessity of being under a government 
 distinct from Massachusetts. 
 
 The year 1692 was remarkable for a great morta- 
 lity in Portsmouth and Greenland by the small pox. 
 The infection was brought in bags of cotton from 
 the West Indies, and there being but few people 
 who were acquainted with it, the patients suffered 
 greatly, and but few recovered. 
 
 The war with the French and Indiant, commonly 
 called King William's vxtr, 
 
 It was the misfortune of this country to have enemies 
 of different kinds to contend with at the same time. 
 
 3A2 
 
436 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 While the changes above related were taking place 
 in their government, a fresh war broke out on their 
 frontiers, which, though ascribed to divers causes, 
 was really kindled by the rashness of the same per- 
 son? who were making havock of their liberties. 
 
 The lands from Penobscot to Nova Scotia had 
 been coded to the French, by the treaty of Breda, 
 in exchange for the island of St. Christopher. On 
 these lands the baron de St. Castine had for many 
 years resided, and carried on a large trade with the 
 Indians, with whom he was intimately connected; 
 having several of their women, beside a daughter of 
 ! he sachem Madokawando, for his wives. The lands 
 which had been granted by the crown of England 
 to the duke of York (at that time King James the 
 .Second) interfered with Castine's plantation, as the 
 duke claimed to the river St. Croix. A fort had 
 been built by his order at Pemaquid, and a garrison 
 stationed there to prevent any intrusion on his pro- 
 perty. In 1686 a 'ship belonging to Pascataqua 
 landed some wines at Penobscot, supposing it to be 
 within the French territory. Palmer and West, the 
 duke's agents at Pemaquid, went and seized the 
 wines; but by the influence of the French ambassa- 
 dor in England, an order was obtained for the res- 
 toration of the-m. Hereupon a new line was run, 
 which took Castine's plantation into the duke's ter- 
 ritory. In the spring of 1688, Androsse went in 
 the Rose frigate, and plundered Castine's house and 
 fort, leaving only the ornaments of his chapel to 
 oiisole him for the loss of his arms and goods. This 
 base action provoked Castine to excite the Indians 
 to a new war, pretences for which were not wanting 
 .in their part. They complained that the tribute of 
 corn which had been promised by the treaty of 1678, 
 had been withheld ; that the fishery of the river Saeo 
 had been obstructed by seines ; that their standing 
 corn had been devoured by cattle belonging to the 
 English ; that their lands at Pemaquid had been 
 patented without their consent ; and that they had 
 been fraudulently dealt with in trade. Some of 
 these complaints were doubtless well grounded ; but 
 none of them were ever enquired into or redressed. 
 
 They began to make reprisals at North Yarmouth 
 by killing cattle. Justice Blackman ordered sixteen 
 of them to be seized and kept under guard at Fal- 
 mouth ; but others continued to rob and capture the 
 inhabitants. Androsse, who pretended to treat the 
 Indians with mildness, commanded those whom 
 Blackman had seized to be set at liberty. But this 
 mildness had not the desired effect; 'the Indians 
 kept their prisoners, and murdered some of them in 
 their barbarous sports. Androsso then changed his 
 measures, and thought to frighten them with an 
 army of 700 men, which he led into their country 
 in the month of November. The rigor of the season 
 proved fatal to some of iiis men ; but he never saw 
 an Indian in his whole march. The enemy were 
 quiet during the winter. 
 
 (1689.) After the revolution, the gentlemen who 
 assumed the government took some precautions to 
 prevent the renewal of hostilities. They sent mes- 
 sengers and presents to several tribes of Indians 
 who answered them with fair promises ; but their 
 prejudice against the English was too inveterate to 
 be allayed by sueh means as these. 
 
 Thirteen years had almost elapsed since the sei 
 zure of the 400 Indians, at Cochecho, by Major 
 Waldron; during all which time an inextinguish- 
 able thirst of revenge had been cherished among 
 them, which never till now found opportunity for 
 gratification. Wonolanset, one of the sachems o 
 
 Penacook, who was dismissed with hi-s people at the 
 ime of the seizure, ahvays/jbscrved his father's dy- 
 ng charge, not to quarrel with the English ; but. 
 Hagkins, another sachem, who had been treated 
 with neglect by Cranfield, was more ready to listen 
 ,o the seducing invitations of Castine's emissaries. 
 Some of those Indians, who were then seized and 
 sold into slavery abroad, had found their way home, 
 and could not rest till they had their revenge. Ac- 
 cordingly a confederacy being formed between the 
 ribes of Penacook and Pigwacket, and the strange 
 [ndians (as they were called) who were incorporated 
 with them, it was determined to surprise the major 
 ind his neighbours, among whom they had all this 
 time been peaceably conversant. 
 
 In that part of the town of Dover which lies about 
 the first falls in the river Cochecho, were five gar- 
 risoned houses ; three on the north side, called re- 
 spectively, Waldron, Otis, and Heard ; and two on 
 the south side, Peter Coffin and his son's. Theso 
 houses were surrounded with timber walls, the gates of 
 which, as well as the house doors, were secured with 
 bolts and bars. The neighbouring families retired 
 to these houses by night; but by an unaccountable 
 negligence, no watch was kept. The Indians who 
 were daily passing through the town, visiting and 
 trading with the inhabitants, as usual in time of 
 peace, viewed their situation with an attentive eye. 
 Some hints of a mischievous design had been given 
 out by their squaws ; but in such dark and ambi- 
 guous terms that no one could comprehend their 
 meaning. Some of the people were uneasy ; but 
 Waldron, who, from a long course of experience, 
 was intimately acquainted with the Indians, and on 
 other occasions had been ready enough to suspect 
 them, was now so thoroughly secure, that when 
 some of the people hinted their fears to him, he 
 merrily bad them to go and plant their pumpkins, 
 paying that he would tell them when the Indians 
 would break out. The very evening before the mis- 
 chief was done, being told by a young man that the 
 town was full of Indians, and the people were much 
 concerned ; he answered that he knew the Indians 
 verv well, and there was no danger. 
 
 The plan which the Indians had preconcerted was, 
 that two squaws should go to each of the garrisoned 
 houses in the evening, and ask leave to lodge by the 
 fire; that in the night when the people were asleep 
 they should open the doors and gates, and give the 
 signal by a whistle, upon which the strange Indians, 
 who were to be within hearing, should rush in, and 
 take their long meditated revenge. This plan being 
 ripe for execution, on the evening of Thursday the 
 27th of June, two squaws applied to each of the 
 garrisons for lodging, as they frequently did in time 
 of peace. They were admitted into all but the 
 younger Coffin's," and the people, at their request, 
 shewed them how to open the doors, in case they 
 should have occasion to go out in the night. Mesan- 
 dowit, one of their chiefs, went to Waldron's garri- 
 son, and was kindly entertained, as he had often 
 been before. The squaws told the major, that a 
 number of Indians were coming to trade with him 
 the next day, and Mesandowit while at sapper, with 
 his usual familiarity, said, " Brother Waldron, what 
 would you do if the strange Indians should come ?" 
 The major carelessly answered, that he could as- 
 semble 100 men, by lifting up his finger. In this 
 unsuspecting confidence the family retired to rest. 
 
 When all was quiet, the gates were opened and 
 the signal given. The Indians entered, set a guard 
 at the door, and rushed into the major's apartment, 
 
UNITED STATES 
 
 437 
 
 which was an inner room. Awakened by the noise, 
 he jumped out of bed, and though now advanced in 
 life to the age of eighty years, he retained so much 
 vigour as to drive them" with his sword through two 
 or throe doors, but as he was returning for his other 
 arms, they came behind him, stunned him with a 
 hatchet, drew him into his hall, and seating him in 
 an elbow char on a long table insultingly asked him, 
 "Who shall judge Indians now?" They then 
 obliged the people in the house to get them some 
 victuals : and when they had done eating, they cut 
 the major across the breast and belly with knives, 
 each one with a stroke saying, " I cross out my ac- 
 count." They then cut off his nose and ears, forcing 
 them into his mouth and when, spent with the loss 
 of blood, he was falling down from the table, one of 
 them held his own sword under him, which put an 
 end to his misery. They also killed his son in law 
 Abraham Lee; but took his daughter Lee with se- 
 veral others, and having pillaged the house, left it 
 on fire. Otis's garrison, which was next to the 
 major's, met with the same fate; he was killed, with 
 several others, and his wife and child were captured. 
 Heard's was saved by the barking of a dog just as 
 the Indians were entering : Elder Wentworth, who 
 was awakened by the noise, pushed them out, and 
 falling on his back, set his feet against the gate and 
 held it till he had alarmed the people; two balls 
 were fired through it but both missed him. Coffin's 
 house was surprised, but as the Indians had no par- 
 ticular enmity to him, they spared his life, ami the 
 lives of his family, and contented themselves with 
 pillaging the house. Finding a bag of money, they 
 made him throw it by handfulls on the floor, while 
 they amused themselves in scrambling for it. They 
 then went to the house of his son who would not ad- 
 mit the squaws in the evening, and summoned him 
 to surrender, promising him quarter: he declined 
 their offer, and determined to defend his house, till 
 they brought out his father and threatened to kill 
 him before his eyes; filial affection then overcame 
 his resolution, and he surrendered. They put both 
 families together into a deserted house, intending to 
 reserve them for prisoners; but while the Indians 
 were busy in plundering, they all escaped. 
 
 Twenty-three people were killed in this surprisal, 
 and twenty-nine were captured; five or six houses 
 with the mills were burned ; and so expeditious were 
 the Indians in the execution of their plot, that be- 
 fore the people could be collected from the other 
 parts of the town to oppose them, they fled with their 
 prisoners and booty. As they passed by Heard's 
 garrison in their retreat, they fired upon it, but the 
 people being prepared and resolved to defend it, and 
 the enemy being in haste, it was preserved. The pre- 
 servation of its owner was more remarkable. 
 
 Elizabeth Heard, with her three sons and a 
 daughter, and some others, were returning in the 
 night from Portsmouth; they passed up the river in 
 their boat unperceived by the Indians, who were 
 then in possession of the houses; but suspecting 
 danger by the noise which they heard, after they 
 had landed they betook themselves to Waldron's 
 garrison, where they saw lights, which they imagined 
 were set up for direction to those who might be seek- 
 ing a refuge. They knocked and begged earnestly 
 for admission, but no answer being given, a young 
 man of the company climbed up the wall, and saw, 
 to his inexpressible surprise, an Indian standing in 
 the door of the house with his gun. The woman 
 was so overcome with the fright that she was unable 
 to fly, but begged her children to shift for them- 
 
 selves, and they with heavy hearts left her. When 
 she had a little recovered she crawled into some 
 bushes, and lay there till day-light: she then per- 
 ceived an Indian coming toward her with a pistol iu 
 his hand, he looked at her and went away; return- 
 ing, he looked at her again, and she asked him what 
 he would have. He made no answer, but ran yell- 
 ing to the house, and she saw him no more. She 
 kept her place till the house was burned and the 
 Indians were gone, and then returning home found 
 her own house safe. Her preservation in these 
 dangerous circumstances was more remarkable, if 
 (as it is supposed) it was an instance of justice and 
 gratitude in the Indians : for at the time when the 
 400 were seized in 1676, a young Indian escaped 
 and took refuge in her house, where she concealed 
 him; in return for which kindness he promised her 
 that he would never kill her, nor any of her family 
 in any future war, and that he would use his influ- 
 ence with the other Indians to the same purpose. 
 This Indian was one of the party who surprised the 
 place, and she was well known to the most of them. 
 
 The same day, after the mischief was done, a 
 letter from Secretary Addington, written by order 
 of the government, directed to Major Waldron, giving 
 him notice of the intention of the Indians to sur- 
 prise him under pretence of. trade, fell into the 
 hands of his son. This design was communicated 
 to Governor Bradstreet by Major Henchman of 
 Chehnsford, who had learned it of the Indians. The 
 letter was dispatched from Boston, the day before, 
 by Mr. Weare; but some delay which he met with 
 at Newbury ferry prevented its arrival in season. 
 
 The prisoners taken at this time were mostly car- 
 ried to Canada, and sold to the French ; and these-, 
 so far as can be learned, were the first tnat cvct 
 were carried thither. One of these prisoners was 
 Sarah Gerrish, a remarkably fine child, of seven 
 years old, and grand-daughter of Major Waldron, 
 in whose house she lodged that fatal night. Some 
 circumstances attending her captivity are truly af- 
 fecting. When she was awakened by the noise of 
 the Indians in the house, she crept into another bed, 
 and hid herself under the clothes to escape their 
 search. She remained in their hands till the next 
 winter, and was sold from one to another several 
 times. An Indian girl once pushed her into a river; 
 but, catching by the bushes, she escaped drowning, 
 yet durst not tell how she came to be wet. Once 
 she was so weary with travelling, that she did not 
 awake in the morning till the Indians were gone, 
 and then found herself alone in the woods, covered 
 with snow, and without any food; having found 
 their tracks, she went crying after them till they 
 heard her and took her with them. At another time 
 they kindled a great fire, and the young Indians told 
 her she was to be roasted. She burst into tears, 
 threw her arms round her master's neck, and begged 
 him to save her, which he promised to do if she 
 would behave well. Being arrived in Canada, she 
 was bought by the Intendant's lady, who treated her 
 courteously, and sent her to a nunnery for educa- 
 tion. But when Sir William Phips was at Quebec 
 she was exchanged, and returned to her friends, 
 with whom she lived till she was sixteen years old. 
 
 The wife of Richard Otis was taken at the same 
 time, with an infant daughter of three months old. 
 The French priests took this child under their care, 
 baptised her by the name of Christina, and educated 
 her in the Romish religion. She passed tome time 
 in a nunnery, but declined taking the veil, and was 
 mavried to a Frenchman, by whom she had two- 
 
448 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 children. But her desire to see New England was 
 so strong, that upon an exchange of prisoners in 
 1714, being then a widow, she left both her children, 
 who were not permitted to come with her, and re- 
 turned home, where she abjured the Romish faith. 
 M. Siguenot, her former contessor, wrote her a flatter- 
 ing letter, warning her of her danger, inviting her to 
 return to the bosom of the catholic church, and re- 
 peating many gross calumnies which had formerly 
 been vented against Luther and the other reformers. 
 This letter being shewn to Governor Burnet, he 
 wrote her a sensible and masterly answer, refuting 
 the arguments, and detecting the falsehoods it con- 
 tained : both these letters were printed. She was 
 married afterwards to Captain Thomas Baker, who 
 had been taken at Deerfield in 1704, and lived in 
 Dover, where she was born, till the year 1773. 
 The Indians had been seduced to the French inter- 
 est by popish emissaries, who had begun to fascinate 
 them with their religious and national prejudices. 
 They had now learned to call the English heretics, 
 and that to extirpate them as such was meritorious 
 in the sight of heaven. When their minds were 
 filled with religious frenzy, they became more bitter 
 and implacable enemies than before ; and finding 
 the sale of scalps and prisoners turn to good account 
 in Canada, they had still farther incitement to con- 
 tinue their depredations, and prosecute their ven- 
 geance. 
 
 The necessity of vigorous measures was now so 
 pressing, that parties were immediately dispatched, 
 one under Captain Noyes to Penacook, where they 
 destroyed the corn, but the Indians escaped ; another 
 from Pascataqua, under Captain Wincal, to Win- 
 nipiseogee, whither the Indians had retired, as John 
 Church, who had been taken at Cocheco, and escaped 
 from them, reported : one or two Indians were killed 
 there, and their corn cut down. But these excur- 
 sions proved of small service, as the Indians had 
 little to lose, and could find a home wherever they 
 could find game and fish. 
 
 In the month of August Major Swaine, with seven 
 or eight companies raised by the Massachusetts go- 
 verment, marched to the eastward; and Major 
 Church, with another party, consisting of English 
 and Indians, from the colony of Plymouth, soon fol- 
 lowed them. While these forces were on their 
 march, the Indians, who lay in the woods about 
 Oyster river, observed how many men belonged to 
 Hucking's garrison ; and seeing them all go out 
 one morning to work, nimbly ran between them and 
 the house, and killed them all, being in number 
 eighteen, except one who had passed the brook. 
 They then attacked the house, in which were only 
 two boys, one of whom was lame, with some women 
 and children. The boys kept them off for some 
 time, and wounded several of them. At length the 
 Indians set the house on fire, and even then the 
 toys would not surrender till they had promise 
 them to spare their lives. They perfidiously mur- 
 dered three or four of the children ; one of them was 
 set on a sharp stake, in the view of its distressec 
 mother, who, with the other women and the boys, 
 were carried captive. One of the boys escaped the 
 next day. Captain Garner, with his company, pur- 
 sued the enemy, but did not come up with them. 
 
 The Massachusetts and Plymouth companies pro- 
 ceeded to the eastward, settled garrisons in conve 
 nient places, and had some skirmishes with the 
 enemy at Casco and Blue Point. On their return 
 Major Swaine sent a party of the Indian auxiliaries 
 under Lieutenant Flagg toward Winnipi Q eo^ec t< 
 
 make discoveries. These Indians held a consulta- 
 ion in their own language ; and having persuaded 
 heir lieutenant, with two men, to return, nineteen 
 >f them tarried out eleven days longer; in which 
 ime they found the enemy, staid with them two 
 lights, and informed them of every thing which they 
 desired to know ; upon which the enemy retired to 
 their inaccessible deserts, and the forces returned 
 without finding them, and in November were dis- 
 janded. 
 
 Nothing was more welcome to the distressed in- 
 labitants of the frontiers than the approach of win- 
 ,er, as they then expected a respite from their suf- 
 'erings. The deep snows and cold weather were 
 commonly a good security against an attack from 
 he Indians ; but when resolutely set on mischief, 
 and instigated by popish enthusiasm, no obstacles 
 could prevent the execution of their purposes. 
 
 (1690.) The Count de Frontenac, now governor 
 of Canada, was fond of distinguishing himself by 
 enterprises against the American subjects of King 
 William, with whom his master was at war in 
 Europe. For this purpose he detached three parties 
 of French and Indians from Canada in the winter, 
 who were to take three different routes into the En- 
 glish territories. One of these parties marched 
 from Montreal, and destroyed Scheuectada, a Dutch 
 village on the Mohawk river, in the province of 
 New York. This action, which happened at an 
 unusual time of the year, in the month of February, 
 alarmed the whole country ; and the eastern settle- 
 ments were ordered to be on their guard. On the 
 18th day of March, another party, which came from 
 Trois Rivieres, under the command of the Sieur 
 Hertel, an officer of great repute in Canada, fomid 
 their way to Salmon falls, a settlement on the river 
 which divides New Hampshire from the province of 
 Maine. This party consisted of fifty-two men, of 
 whom twenty-five were Indians under Hoophood, a 
 noted warrior. They began the attack at day-break, 
 in three different places. The people were sur- 
 prised ; but flew to arms, and defended themselves 
 in the garrisoned houses, with a bravery which the 
 enemy themselves applauded. But as in all such 
 onsets the assailants have the greatest advantage, 
 so they here proved too strong for the defendants ; 
 about thirty of the bravest were killed, and the rest 
 surrendered at discretion, to the number of fifty- 
 four, of whom the greater part were women and 
 children. After plundering, the enemy burned the 
 houses, mills and barns, with the cattle, which were 
 within doors, and then retreated into the woods, 
 whither they were pursued by about one hundred 
 and forty men, suddenly collected from the neigh- 
 bouring towns, who came up with them in the after- 
 noon, at a narrow bridge on Wooster's river. Her- 
 tel, expecting a pursuit, had posted his men advan- 
 tageously on the opposite bank. The pursuers ad- 
 vanced with great intrepidity, and a warm engage- 
 ment ensued, which lasted till night, when they re- 
 tired with the loss of four or five killed; the enemy, 
 by their own account, lost two, one of whom was 
 Hertel's nephew; his son was wounded in the knee; 
 another Frenchman was taken prisoner, who was so 
 tenderly treated that he embraced the protestant 
 faith, and remained in the country. Hertel, on his 
 way homeward, met with a third party who had 
 marched from Quebec, and joining his company to 
 them, attacked and destroyed the fort and settle- 
 ment at Casco, the next May. Thus the three ex- 
 peditions planned by Count Frontenac proved suc- 
 cessful ; but the glory of them was much tarnished 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 439 
 
 by acts of cruelty, which christians should be ashamed 
 to countenance, though perpetrated by savages. 
 
 The following instances of cruelty, exercised to- 
 wards the prisoners taken at Salmon falls, are men- 
 tioned by Dr. Mather. Robert Rogers, a corpulent 
 man, being unable to carry the burden which the 
 Indians imposed upon him, threw it in the path and 
 went aside in the woods to conceal himself. They 
 found him by his track, stripped, beat, and pricked 
 him with their swords: then tied him to a tree and 
 danced round him till they had kindled a fire. They 
 gave him time to pray, and take leave of his fellow 
 prisoners, who were placed round the fire to see his 
 death. They pushed the fire toward him, and when 
 he was almost stifled, took it away to give him time 
 to breathe, and thus prolong his misery; they drown- 
 ed his dying groans with their hideous singing and 
 yelling, all the while dancing round the fire, cutting 
 off pieces of his flesh and throwing them in his face. 
 When he was dead they left his body broiling on 
 the coals, in which state it was found by his friends 
 and buried. Mehetabel Goodwin was taken with a 
 child of five months old; when it cried they threat- 
 ened to kill it, which made the mother go aside and 
 sit for hours together in the snow to lull it to sleep; 
 her master seeing that this hindered her from tra- 
 velling, took the child, struck its head against a tree, 
 and hung it on one of the branches; she would have 
 buried it but he would not let her, telling her that 
 if she came again that way she might have the plea- 
 sure of seeing it. She was carried to Canada, and after 
 five years returned home. Mary Plaistcd was taken 
 out of her bed, having lain in but three weeks : they 
 made her travel with them through the snow, and 
 " to ease her of her burden," as they said, struck the 
 child's head against a tree, and threw it into a river. 
 An anecdote of another kind may relieve the reader 
 after these tragical accounts? Thomas Toogood was 
 
 Two companies under the Captains Floyd and 
 Wiswal were now scouting, and on the 6th 'day of 
 July discovered an Indian track, which they pur^ 
 sued till they came up with the enemy at "Wheel- 
 wright's Pond, [in Lee] where a bloody engagement 
 ensued for some hours, in which Wiswal, his lieu- 
 tenant, Flagg, and serjeant Walker, with twelve 
 more, were killed, and several wounded. It was not 
 known how many of the enemy fell, as they always 
 carried off their dead. Floyd maintained the fight 
 after Wiswal's death, till his men, fatigued and 
 wounded, drew off, which obliged him to follow. 
 The enemy retreated at the same time ; for when 
 Captain Convers went to look after the wounded, he 
 found seven alive, whom he brought in by sunrise 
 the next morning, and then returned to bury the 
 dead. The enemy then went westward, and in the 
 course of one week killed, between Lamprey river 
 and Almsbury, not less than forty people. 
 
 The cruelties exercised upon the captives in this 
 war exceeded, both in number and degree, any in 
 former times. The most healthy and vigorous of 
 them were sold in Canada, the weaker were sacri- 
 ficed and scalped ; and for every scalp they had a 
 premium. Two instances only are remembered of 
 their releasing any without a ransom ; one was a 
 woman taken from Fox Point, who obtained her 
 liberty by procuring them some'of the necessaries of 
 life : the other was at York, where, after they had 
 taken many of the people, they restored two aged 
 women and five children, in return for a generous 
 action of Major Church, who had spared the lives 
 of as many women and children when they fell into 
 his hands at Amariscogin, 
 
 The people of New England now looked on Ca 
 nada as the source of their troubles, and formed a 
 design to reduce it to subjection to the crown of 
 England. The enterprise was bold and hazardous ; 
 
 pursued by three Indians and overtaken by one of I but had their ability been equal to the ardour of 
 
 them, who having enquired his name, was preparing 
 strings to bind him, holding his gun under his arm, 
 which Toogood seized and went backward, keeping 
 the gun presented at him, and protesting that he 
 would shoot him if he alarmed the others who had 
 stopped on the opposite side of the hill. By this 
 dexterity he escaped and got safe into Cochecho; 
 while his adversary had no recompense in his power 
 but to call after him by the name of Nogood. 
 
 After the destruction of Casco the eastern settle- 
 ments were all deserted, and the people retired to 
 the fort at Wells. The Indians then came up west- 
 ward, and a party of them under Hoophood some 
 time in May made an assault on Fox Point, in 
 Nevvington, where they burned several houses, killed 
 about fourteen people, and carried away six. They 
 were pursued by the Captains Floyd and Greenleaf, 
 who came up with them and recovered some of the 
 captives and spoil, after a skirmish in which Hoop- 
 hood was wounded and lost his gun. This fellow 
 was soon after killed by a party of Canada Indians, 
 who mistook him for one of the Iroquois, with whom 
 they were at war. On the 4th day of July, eight 
 persons were killed as they were mowing in a field 
 near Lamprey river, and a lad was captured. The 
 next day they attacked Captain Hilton's garrison 
 at Exeter, which was relieved by Lieutenant Ban- 
 croft with the loss of a few of his men ; one of them, 
 Simon Stone, received nine wounds with shot, and 
 two strokes of a hatchet; when his friends came to 
 bury him, they perceived life in him, and by the 
 application of cordials he revived, to the amazement 
 of all 
 
 jy equipped 
 to the serv 
 
 an 
 service. 
 
 their patriotism, it might probably have been accom 
 plished. Straining every nerve, they 
 armament in some degree equal to 
 What was wanting in military and naval discipline 
 was made up in resolution ; and the command was 
 given to Sir William Phips, an honest man, and a 
 friend to his country, but by no moans qualified for 
 such an enterprise. Unavoidable accidents retarded 
 the expedition, so that the fleet did not arrive be- 
 fore Quebec till October, when it was more than 
 time to return. It being impossible to continue 
 there to any purpose, and the troops growing sickly 
 and discouraged, after some ineffectual parade, they 
 abandoned the enterprise, 
 
 This disappointment was severely felt. The equip- 
 ment of the fleet and army required a supply of 
 money which could not readily be collected, and oc- 
 casioned a paper currency, which has often been 
 drawn into precedent on like occasions, and has 
 proved a fatal source of the most complicated and 
 extensive mischief. The people were almost dispi- 
 rited with the prospect of poverty and ruin. In this 
 melancholy state of the country, it was a happy cir- 
 cumstance that the Indians voluntarily came in with 
 a flag of truce, and desired a cessation of hostilities. 
 (1691.) A conference being held at Sagadahock, 
 they brought in ten captives, and settled a truce till 
 the 1st day of May, which they observed till the 
 9th of Jurie, when they attacked Storar's garrison 
 at Wells, but were bravely repulsed. About the 
 same time they killed two men at Exeter, and on 
 the 29th of September, a party of them came from 
 the eastward in canoes to Sandy Beach, Rye, wher 
 
440 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 they killed and captured twenty-one persons. Cap- 
 tain Sherburne of Portsmouth, a worthy officer, was 
 this year killed at Macquoit. 
 
 (1692.) The next winter, the country being alarm- 
 ed with the destruction of York, some new regula- 
 tions were made for the general defence. Major 
 Elisha Hutchinson was appointed commander in 
 chief of the militia, by whose prudent conduct the 
 frontiers were well guarded, and so constant a com- 
 munication was kept up, by ranging parties, from 
 one post to another, that it became impossible for 
 the enemy to attack in theii usual way by surprise. 
 The good effect of this regulation was presently seen. 
 A young man being in the woods near Cochecho, 
 was fired at by some Indians. Lieutenant Wilson 
 immediately went out with eighteen men ; and find- 
 ing the Indians, killed or wounded the whole party 
 excepting one. This struck them with terror, and 
 kept them quiet the remainder of the winter and 
 spring. But on the 10th day of June, an army of 
 French and Indians made a furious attack on Storer's 
 garrison at Wells, where Captain Convers com- 
 manded ; who after a brave and resolute defence, 
 was so happy as to drive them off with great loss. 
 
 Sir William Phips, being now governor of Mas- 
 sachusetts, continued the same method of defence, 
 keeping out continual scouts under brave and expe- 
 rienced officers. This kept the Indians so quiet, 
 that except one poor family which they took at Oys- 
 ter river, and some small mischief at Quaboag, there 
 is no mention of any destruction made by them du- 
 ring the year 1693. Their animosity against New 
 England was not quelled ; but they needed time to 
 recruit ; some of their principal men were in cap- 
 tivity, and they could not hope to redeem them 
 without a peace. To obtain it, they came into the 
 fort at Pemaquid ; and there entered into a solemn 
 covenant, wherein they acknowledged subjection to 
 the crown of England ; engaged to abandon the 
 French interest ; promised perpetual peace ; to for- 
 bear private revenge ; to restore all captives, and 
 even went so far as to deliver hostages for the due 
 performance of their engagements. This peace, or 
 rather truce, gave both sides a respite, which both 
 earnestly desired. 
 
 The people of New Hampshire were much re- 
 duced, their lumber trade and husbandry being 
 greatly impeded by the war. Frequent complaints 
 were made of the burden of the war, the scarcity of 
 provisions, and the dispiritedness of the people. 
 Once it is said in the council minutes that they 
 were even ready to quit the province. The governor 
 was obliged to impress men to guard the outposts : 
 they were sometimes dismissed for want of provi- 
 sions, and then the garrison officers called to account 
 and severely punished : yet all this time the public 
 debt did not exceed 400/. In this situation they 
 were obliged to apply to their neighbours for assis- 
 tance ; but this was granted with a sparing hand. 
 The people of Massachusetts were much divided and 
 at variance among themselves, both on account of 
 the new charter which they had received from King 
 William, and the pretended witchcrafts which have 
 made so loud a noise in the world. 
 
 (1694.) The engagements made by the Indians 
 in the treaty of Pemaquid, might have been per- 
 formed if they had been left to their own choice. 
 But the French missionaries had been for some years 
 very assiduous in propagating their tenets among 
 them, one of which was, " that to break faith with 
 heretics was no sin." The Sieur de Villieu, who 
 had distinguished himself in the defence of Quebec 
 
 when Phips was before it, and had contracted a. 
 trong antipathy to the New Englanders, being now 
 in command at Penobscot, he, with M. Thurv, the 
 missionary, diverted Madokawando and the other 
 sachems from complying with their engagements ; 
 so that pretences were found for detaining the Eng- 
 lish captives, who were more in number, and of 
 more consequence, than the hostages whom the In- 
 dians had given. Influenced by the same pernicious 
 councils, they kept a watchful eye on the frontier 
 towns, to sec what place was most secure and might 
 be attacked to the greatest advantage. The settle- 
 ment at Oyster river, within the town of Dover, was 
 pitched upon as the most likely place ; and it is said 
 that the design of surprising it was publicly talked 
 of at Quebec two months before it was put in execu- 
 tion. Rumours of Indians lurking ia the woods 
 thereabout, made some of the people apprehend 
 danger : but no mischief being attempted, they ima- 
 gined them to be hunting parties, and returned to 
 their security. At length, the necessary prepara- 
 tions being made, Villieu, with a body of 250 In 
 dians, collected from the tribes of St. John, Penobs 
 cot, and Norridgwog, attended by a French priest 
 marched for the devoted place. 
 
 Oyster river is a stream which runs into the west- 
 ern branch of Pascataqua : the settlements were on 
 both sides of it, and the houses chiefly near the 
 water. Here were twelve garrisoned houses suffi- 
 cient for the defence of the inhabitants; but appre- 
 hending no danger, some' families remained at their 
 own unfortified houses, and those who were in the 
 garrisons were but indifferently provided for defence, 
 some being even destitute of powder. The enemy 
 approached the place undiscovered, and halted near 
 the falls on Tuesday evening, the 17th of July. 
 Here they formed into two divisions, one of which 
 was to go on each side of the river and plant them- 
 selves in ambush, in small parties, near every house, 
 so as to be ready for the attack at the rising of the 
 sun, the first gun to be the signal. John Dean, 
 whose house stood by the saw-mill at the falls, in- 
 tending to go from home very early, arose before 
 the dawn of day, and was shot as he came out of his 
 door. This disconcerted their plan : several parties 
 who had some distance to go, had not then arrived 
 at their stations : the people in general were imme- 
 diately alarmed : some of them had time to make 
 their escape, and others to prepare for their defence. 
 The signal being given, the attack began in all parts 
 where the enemy was ready. 
 
 Of the twelve garrisoned houses five were destroy- 
 ed, viz. Adams's, Drews's, Edgerly's, Medar's, and 
 Beard's. They entered Adams's without resistance, 
 where they killed fourteen persons; one of them, 
 being a woman with child, they ripped open. The 
 grave is still to be seen in which they were all bu- 
 ried. Drew surrendered his garrison on the promise 
 of security, but was murdered when he fell into 
 their hands ; one of his children, a boy of nine years 
 old, was made to run through a lane of Indians as a 
 mark for them to throw their hatchets at, till they 
 had dispatched him. Edgerly's was evacuated ; the 
 people took to their boat, and one of them was mor- 
 tally wounded before they got out of reach of the 
 enemy's shot. Beard's and Medar's were also eva 
 cuated, and the people escaped. The defenceless 
 houses were nearly all set on fire, the inhabitants 
 being either killed or taken in them, or else in en- 
 deavouring to fly to the garrisons, Some escaped 
 by hiding in the bushes and other secret places. 
 
 Thomas Edgerly, by concealing himself in hi> 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 441 
 
 cellar, preserved his house, though twice set on fire. 
 The house of John Buss, the minister, was destroyed 
 with a valuable library. He was absent, his wife 
 and family fled to the woods and escaped. The wife 
 of John Dean, at whom the first gun was fired, was 
 taken with her daughter, and carried about two 
 miles up the river, where they were left under the 
 care of an old Indian while the others returned to 
 their bloody work. The Indian complained of a pain 
 in his head, and asked the woman what would be a 
 proper remedy. She answered, Occapee, which is 
 the Indian word for rum, of which she knew he had 
 taken a bottle from her house. The remedy being 
 agreeable, he took a large dose and fell asleep ; and 
 she took that opportunity to make her escape, with 
 her child, into the woods, and kept concealed till 
 they were gone. 
 
 The other seven garrisons, viz. Burnham's, Bick- 
 ford's. Smith's, Bunker's, Davis's, Jones and Wood- 
 man's, were resolutely and successfully defended. 
 At Burnham's the gate was left open : the Indians, 
 ten in number, who were appointed to surprise it, 
 were asleep under the bank of the river, at the time 
 that the alarm was given. - A man within, who had 
 been kept awake by the toothache, hearing the first 
 gun, roused the people and secured the gate, just as 
 the Indians who were awakened by the same noise were 
 entering. Finding themselves disappointed, they ran 
 to Pitman's defenceless house, and forced the door at 
 the moment that he had burst a way through that 
 end of the house which was next to the garrison, to 
 which he with his family, taking advantage of the 
 shade of some trees, it being moonlight, happily es- 
 caped. Still defeated, they attacked the house of 
 John Davis, which after some resistance he surren- 
 dered on terms; but the terms wereviolated, and the 
 whole family either killed or made captives. Thomas 
 Bicklbrd preserved his house in a singular manner. 
 It was situated near the river, and surrounded with 
 a palisade. Being alarmed before the enemy had 
 reached the house, he sent off his family in a boat, 
 and then shutting his gate, betook himself alone to 
 the defence of his fortress. Despising alike the 
 promises and threats by which the Indians would 
 have persuaded him to surrender, he kept up a con- 
 stant fire at them, changing his dress as often as he 
 could, shewing himself with a different cap, hat or 
 coat, and sometimes without either, and giving di- 
 rections aloud as if he had a number of men with 
 him. Finding their attempt vain the enemy with- 
 drew, and left him sole master of the house which he 
 had defended with such admirable address. Smith's, 
 Bunker's, and Davis's garrisons, being seasonably 
 apprised of the danger, were resolutely defended 
 one Indian was supposed to be killed and another 
 wounded by a shot from Davis's. Jones's garrison 
 was beset before day; Captain Jones hearing his 
 dogs bark, and imagining wolves might be near, 
 went out to secure some swine and returned unmo- 
 lested. He then went up into the flankart and sat 
 on the wall. Discerning the flash of a gun he drop- 
 ped backward; the ball entered the place from 
 whence he had withdrawn his legs. The enemy 
 from behind a rock kept firing on the house for some 
 time and then quitted it. During these transactions 
 the French priest took possession of the meeting- 
 house, and employed himself in writing on the pulpit 
 with chalk, but the house received no damage. 
 
 Those parties of the enemy who were on the south 
 side of the rive,r, having completed their destructive 
 work, collected in a field adjoining Burnham's gar- 
 rison, where they insultingly shewed their prisoners, 
 
 and derided the people, thinking themselves out of 
 reach of their shot. A young man from the eeutry- 
 box fired at one who was making some indecent 
 signs of defiance, and wounded him in the heel. 
 Both divisions then met at the falls, where they had 
 parted the evening before, and proceeded together 
 to Captain Woodman's garrison. The ground being 
 uneven, they approached without danger, and from 
 behind a hill kept up a long and severe fire at the 
 hats and caps which the people within held up on 
 sticks above the walls, without any other damage 
 than galling the roof of the house. At length, ap- 
 prehending it was time for the people in the neigh- 
 bouring settlements to be collected in pursuit of 
 them, they finally withdrew; having killed and cap- 
 tured between ninety and a hundred persons, and 
 burned about twenty houses, of which five were gar- 
 risons. The main body of them retreated over Win- 
 nipiseogee lake, where they divided their prisoners, 
 separating those in particular who were most inti 
 mately connected, in which they often took a plea- 
 sure suited to their savage nature. 
 
 Among these prisoners were Thomas Drew and 
 his wife, who were newly married: he was carried 
 to Canada, where he continued two years and was 
 redeemed ; she to Norridgwog, and was gone four 
 years, in which she endured every thing but death. 
 She was delivered of a child in the winter, in the 
 open air, and in a violent snow storm; being unable 
 to suckle her child, or provide it any food, the In- 
 dians killed it. She lived fourteen days on a de- 
 coction of the bark of trees. Once they set her to 
 draw a sled up a river against a piercing north-west 
 wind, and left her. She was so overcome with the 
 cold that she grew sleepy, laid down, and was nearly 
 dead when they returned : they carried her sense- 
 less to a wigwam, and poured warm water down her 
 throat, which recovered her. After her return to 
 her husband she had fourteen children; they lived 
 together till he was ninety-three and she eighty-nine 
 years of age; they died within two days of each 
 other and were buried in one grave. 
 
 About forty of the enemy under Toxus. a Norridg- 
 wog chief, resolving on farther mischief, went west- 
 ward and did execution as far as Groton. A smaller 
 party having crossed the river Pascataqua, came to 
 a farm where Ursula Cutts, widow of the deceased 
 president, resided, who imagining the enemy had 
 done what mischief they intended for that time, 
 could not be persuaded to remove into town till her 
 haymaking should be finished. As she was in the 
 field with her labourers, the enemy fired from an 
 ambush and killed her, with three others. Colonel 
 Richard Waldron and his wife with her infant son 
 (afterward secretary) had almost shared the same 
 fate; they were taking boat to go and dine with this 
 lady, when they were stopped by the arrival of soni'i 
 friends at their house ; while at dinner they were in- 
 formed of her death. She lived about two miles 
 above the town of Portsmouth, and had laid out her 
 farm with much elegance. The scalps taken in this 
 whole expedition were carried to Canada by Madoka- 
 wando, and presented to Count Frontenac, from whom 
 he received the reward of his treacherous adventure. 
 
 There is no mention of any more mischief by the 
 Indians within this province till the next year (1695), 
 when, in the month of July, two men were killed at 
 Exeter. The following year (1696), on the 7th of 
 Mav, John Church, who had been taken and escaped 
 from them seven years before, was killed and scalped 
 at Cocheco, near his own house. On the 26th of 
 June, an attack was made at Portsmouth plain 
 
442 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 about two miles from the town. The enemy came 
 from York-nubble to Sandy-beach in canoes, which 
 they hid there among the bushes near the shore. 
 Some suspicion was formed the day before by reason 
 of the cattle running out of the woods at Little-har- 
 bour; but false alarms were frequent, and this was 
 not much regarded. Early in the morning the at- 
 tack was made on five houses at once ; fourteen per- 
 sons were killed on the spot, one was scalped and 
 left for dead, but recovered, and four were taken. 
 The enemy having plundered the houses of what 
 they could carry, set them on fire, and made a pre- 
 cipitate retreat through the great swamp. A com- 
 pany of militia under Captain Shackford and Lieu- 
 tenant Libbey pursued, and discovered them cooking 
 their breakfast, at a place ever since called Break 
 fast-hill. The Indians were on the farther side, 
 having placed their captives between themselves and 
 the top of the hill, that in case of an attack they 
 might first receive the fire. The lieutenant urged 
 to go round the hill, and come upon them below to 
 cut off their retreat; but the captain fearing in that 
 case, that they would, according to their custom, 
 iiill the prisoners, rushed upon them from the top 
 of the hill, by which means they retook the captives 
 and plunder, but the Indians rolling down the hill 
 escaped into the swamp and got to their canoes. 
 Another party, under another commander, was then 
 sent out in shallops to intercept them as they should 
 cross over to the eastward by night. The captain 
 ranged his boats in a line, and ordered his men to 
 reserve theii fire till he gave the watch-word. It 
 being a calm night the Indians were heard as they 
 advanced; but the captain, unhappily giving the 
 word before they had come within gun-shot, they 
 tacked about to the southward, and going round the 
 Isles of Shoals, by the favour of their light canoes 
 escaped. The watch-word was Crambo, which the 
 captain ever after bore as an appendage to his title. 
 On the 20th day of July, the people of Dover were 
 waylaid as they were returning from the public wor- 
 ship, when three were killed, three wounded, and 
 three carried to Penobscot, from whence they soon 
 found their way home. 
 
 (1697.) The next year, on the 10th of June, the 
 town of Exeter was remarkably preserved from de- 
 struction. A body of the enemy had placed them- 
 selves near the town, intending to make an assault 
 in the morning of the next day. A number of 
 women and children, contrary to the advice of their 
 friends, went into the fields, without a guard, to 
 gather strawberries. When they were gone, some 
 persons, to frighten them, fired an alarm; which 
 quickly spread through the town, and brought the 
 people together in arms. The Indians, supposing 
 that they were discovered, and quickened by fear, 
 after killing one, wounding another, and taking a 
 child, made a hasty retreat, and were seen no more 
 there. But on the fourth day of July they waylaid 
 and killed the worthy Major Frost at Kittery, to 
 whom they had owed revenge ever since the seizure 
 of the four hundred at Cocheco, in which he was 
 concerned. 
 
 The same year an invasion of the country was 
 projected by the French. A fleet was to sail from 
 France to Newfoundland, and thence to Penobscot, 
 where, being joined by an army from Canada, an 
 attempt was to be made on Boston, and the sea coast 
 ravaged from thence to Pascataqua. The plan was 
 too extensive and complicated to be executed in one 
 summer. The fleet came no further than New- 
 foundland; when the advanced season, and scanti- 
 
 ness of provisions obliged them to give over the de- 
 sign. The people of New England were apprised 
 of the danger, and made the best preparations in 
 their power. They strengthened their fortifications 
 on the coast, and raised a body of men to defend the 
 frontiers against the Indians, who were expected to 
 co-operate with the French. Some mischief was 
 done by lurking parties at the eastward ; but New 
 Hampshire was unmolested by them during the re- 
 mainder of this and the whole of tho following year. 
 
 (.1698.) After the peace of Ryswick, Count Fron- 
 tenac informed the Indians that he could not any 
 longer support them in a war with the English, with 
 whom his nation was now at peace. He therefore 
 advised them to bury the hatchet, and restore their 
 captives. Having suffered much by famine, and 
 being divided in their opinions about prosecuting 
 the war, after a long time they were brought to a 
 treaty (1699) at Casco, where they ratified their 
 former engagements; acknowledged subjection to 
 the crown of England ; lamented their former per- 
 fidy, and promised future peace and good behaviour 
 in such terms as the commissioners dictated, and 
 with as much sincerity as could be expected. At 
 the same time they restored those captives who were 
 able to travel from the places of their detention to 
 Casco in that unfavourable season of the year ; giving 
 assurance for the return of the others in the spring; 
 but many of the younger sort, both males and fe- 
 males, were detained; who, mingling with the In- 
 dians, contributed to a succession of enemies in fu- 
 ture wars against their own country. 
 
 A general view of an Indian war will give a just 
 idea of those distressing times, and be a proper close 
 to this narration. 
 
 The Indians were seldom or never seen before 
 they did execution. They appeared not in the open 
 field, nor gave proofs of a truly masculine courage ; 
 but did their exploits by surprise, chiefly in the 
 morning, keeping themselves hid behind logs and 
 bushes, near the paths in the woods, or the fences 
 contiguous to the doors of houses ; and their lurking 
 holes could be known only by the report of their 
 guns, which was indeed but feeble, as they were 
 sparing of ammunition, and as near as possible to 
 their object before they fired. They rarely assaulted 
 a house unless they knew there would be but little 
 resistance, and it has been afterwards known that 
 they have lain in ambush for days together, watch- 
 ing the motions of the people at their work, without 
 daring to discover themselves. One of their chiefs, 
 who had got a woman's riding-hood among his plun- 
 der, would put it on, in an evening, and walk into 
 the streets of Portsmouth, looking into the windows 
 of houses, and listening to the conversation of the 
 people. 
 
 Their cruelty was chiefly exercised upon children, 
 and such aged, infirm, or corpulent persons as could 
 not bear the hardships of a journey through the 
 wilderness. If they took a woman far advanced in 
 pregnancy, their knives were plunged into her bow- 
 els. An infant, when it became troublesome, had 
 its brains dashed out against the next tree or stone. 
 Sometimes, to torment the wretched mother, they 
 would whip and beat the child till almost dead, or 
 hold it under water till its breath was just gone, and 
 then throw it to her to comfort and quiet it. If the 
 mother could not readily still its weeping, the hatchet 
 was buried in its skull. A captive, wearied with the 
 burden laid on his shoulders, was often sent to rest 
 in the same way. If any one proved refractory, or 
 was known to be instrumental to the death of m In- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 443 
 
 dian, or related to one who had been so, he was 
 tortured with a lingering punishment, generally at 
 the stake, while the other captives were insulted 
 with the sight of his miseries. Sometimes a fire 
 would be kindled and a threatening given out against 
 one or more, though there was no intention of sa- 
 crificing them, only to make sport of their terrors. 
 The young Indians often signalized their cruelty in 
 treating captives inhumanly out of sight of the elder, 
 and when inquiry was made into the matter, the in- 
 sulted captive must either be silent, or put the best 
 face on it, to prevent worse treatment for the future. 
 If a captive appeared sad and dejected, he was sure 
 to meet with insult ; but if he could sing and dance 
 and laugh with his masters, he was caressed as a 
 brother. They had a strong aversion to negroes, and 
 generally killed them when they fell into their hands. 
 
 Famine was a common attendant on these capti- 
 vities; the Indians when they caught any game de- 
 voured it all at one sitting, and then girding them- 
 selves round the waist, travelled without sustenance 
 I'll chance threw more in their way. The captives, 
 unused to such canine repasts and abstinences, conic! 
 not support the surfeit of the one nor the cravings of 
 the other. A change of masters, though it some- 
 times proved a relief from misery, yet rendered the 
 prospect of a return to their home more distant. It' 
 an Indian had lost a relative, a prisoner bought for 
 a gun, a hatchet, or a few skins, must supply the 
 place of the deceased, and be the father, brother, or 
 eon of the purchaser ; and those who could accom- 
 modate themselves to such barbarous adoption, were 
 treated with the same kindness as the persons in 
 whose place they were substituted. A sale among 
 the French of Canada was the most happy event to 
 a captive, especially if he became a servant in a 
 family; though sometimes even there a prison was 
 their lot, till an opportunity was presented for their 
 redemption ; while the priests employed every se- 
 ducing art to pervert them to the popish religion, 
 and induce them to abandon their country. These 
 circumstances, joined with the more obvious hard- 
 ships of travelling half naked and barefoot through 
 pathless deserts, over craggy mountains and deep 
 swamps, through frost, rain and snow, exposed by 
 day and night to the inclemency of the weather, and 
 in summer to the venomous stings of those number- 
 less insects with which the woods abound ; the rest- 
 less anxiety of mind ; the retrospect of past scenes 
 of pleasure, the remembrance of distant friends, the 
 bereavements experienced at the beginning or du- 
 ring the progress of the captivity, and the daily ap- 
 prehension of death either by famine or the sa'vage 
 enemy ; these were the horrors of an Indian captivity. 
 
 On the other hand, it must be acknowledged that 
 there have been instances of justice, generosity, and 
 tenderness, during these wars, which would' have 
 done honour to a civilized people. A kindness shewn 
 to an Indian was remembered as long as an injury, 
 and persons have had their lives spared for acts of 
 humanity done to the ancestors of those Indians into 
 whose hands they have fallen. They would some- 
 times " carry children on their arms and shoulders, 
 1'oed their prisoners with the best of their provision, 
 and pinch themselves rather than their captives 
 should want food." When sick or wounded they 
 would afford them proper means for their recovery, 
 which they were very well able to do by their know- 
 ledge of simples. In thus preserving the lives and 
 health of their prisoners, they doubtless had a view 
 of gain. But the most remarkably favourable cir- 
 cumstance in an Indian captivity, was their decent 
 
 behaviour to women. It has never been found that 
 any woman who foil into their hands was treated with 
 the least immodesty ; but testimonies to the con- 
 trary arc very frequent. Mary Rowlandson, who was 
 captured at Lancaster in 1 675, has this passage in 
 her narrative : " I have been in the midst of these 
 roaring lions and savage bears, that feared neither 
 God nor man nor the devil, by day and night, alone 
 and in company ; sleeping all sorts together, and 
 yet not one of them ever offered me the least abuse 
 of unchastity in word or action." 
 
 Elizabeth Hanson who was taken from Dover in 
 1724, testifies in her narrative, that " the Indians 
 are very civil toward their captive women, not offer- 
 ing any incivility by any indecent carriage." 
 
 William Fleming', who was taken in Pennsylva- 
 nia, in 1755, says, the Indians told him, " he need 
 not be afraid of their abusing his wife, for they would 
 not do it, for fear of offending their God (pointing 
 their hands toward heaven) for the man that affronts 
 his God will surely be killed when he goes to war." 
 He farther says, that one of them gave his wife a 
 shift and petticoat which he had among his plunder, 
 and though he was alone with her, yet " he turned 
 his hack, and went to some distance while she put 
 them on." 
 
 Charlevoix in his account of the Indians of Canada, 
 says, " There is no example that any have ever ta- 
 ken the lfast liberty with the French women, even 
 when they were their prisoners." Whether this ne- 
 gative virtue is to be ascribed to a natural frigidity 
 of constitution, let philosophers enquire: the fact 
 is certain : and it was a most happy circumstance 
 for the female captives, that in the midst of all their 
 distresses, they had no reason to fear from a savage 
 foe the perpetration of a crime, which has too fre- 
 quently disgraced not only the personal but the na- 
 tional character of those who make large pretences 
 to civilization and humanity. 
 
 The civil affairs of the province during the administra- 
 tions of Usher, Partridye, Allen, the Earl of Bella- 
 mont, and Dudley comprehending the controversy 
 with Allen and his heirs. 
 
 John Usher was a native of Boston, and by pro- 
 fession a stationer. He was possessed of an hand- 
 some fortune, and sustained a fair character in trade. 
 He had been employed by the Massachusetts go- 
 vernment, when in England, to negociate the pur- 
 chase of the province of Maine from the heirs of Sir 
 Ferdinando Gorges, and had thence got a taste for 
 speculating in landed interest. He was one of the 
 partners in the million purchase, and had sanguine 
 expectations of gain from that quarter. He had 
 rendered himself unpopular among his countrymen, 
 by accepting the office of treasurer under Sir Ed- 
 mund Androsse, and joining with apparent zeal in 
 the measures of that administration, and he con- 
 tinued a friendly connection with that party after 
 they were displaced. 
 
 Though not illnatured, but rather of an open and 
 generous disposition, yet he wanted those accom- 
 plishments which he might have acquired by a 
 learned and polite education. He was but little of 
 the statesman and less of the courtier. Instead of an 
 engaging affability he affected a severity in his de- 
 portment, was loud in conversation, and stern in 
 command. Fond of presiding in government, he 
 frequently journeyed into the province, (though 
 his residence was at Boston, where he carried on 
 his business as usual,) and often summoned the 
 council when he had little or nothing to lay before 
 
411 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 them. He gave orders, and found fault like one 
 who felt himself independent, and was determined 
 to be obeyed. He had an high idea of his authority 
 and the d"ignity of his commission, and when op- 
 posed and insulted, as he sometimes was, he treated 
 the offenders with a severity which he would not re- 
 lax till he had brought them to submission. His 
 public speeches were always incorrect, and some- 
 times coarse and reproachful. 
 
 He seems, however, to have taken as much rare 
 for the interest and preservation of the province, as 
 one in his circumstances could have done. He began 
 his administration in the height of a war which 
 greatly distressed and impoverished the country, yet 
 his views from the beginning were mercenary. The 
 people perceived these views, and were aware of the 
 danger. The transfer of the title from Mason to 
 Allen was only a change of names: they expected 
 a repetition of the same difficulties under a new 
 claimant. After the opposition they had hitherto 
 made, it could not be thought strange that men 
 whose pulse beat high for freedom, should refuse to 
 submit to vassalage; nor, while they were on one 
 side defending their possessions against a savage 
 enemy, could it be expected, that on the other, they 
 should tamely suffer the intrusion of a landlord. 
 Usher's interest was united with theirs in providing 
 for the defence of the country, and contending with 
 the enemy; but when the property of the soil was 
 in question, they stood on opposite sides; and as 
 both these controversies were carried on at the same 
 time, the conduct of the people toward him raried 
 according to the exigency of the case; they some- 
 times voted him thanks for his services, and at other 
 times complained of his abusing and oppressing them. 
 
 Some of them would have been content to have 
 held their estates under Allen's title, but the greater 
 part, including the principal men, were resolved to 
 oppose it to the last extremity. They had an aver- 
 sion not only to the proprietary claim on their lands, 
 but their separation from the Massachusetts govern- 
 ment, under which they had formerly enjoyed so 
 much freedom and peace. They had petitioned to 
 be reannexed to them at the time of the revolution 
 of 1688, and they were always very fond of applying 
 to them for help in their difficulties, that it might 
 appear how unable they were to subsist alone. They 
 knew also that the Massachusetts people were as 
 averse as themselves to Allen's claim, which extend- 
 ed to a great part of their lands, and was particu- 
 larly noticed in their new charter. 
 
 Soon after Usher's arrival, he made enquiry for 
 the papers which contained the transactions relative 
 to Mason's suits. During the suspension of govern- 
 ment in 1689, Captain John Pickering, a man of a 
 rough and adventurous spirit, and a lawyer, had gone 
 with a company of armed men to the house of Cham- 
 berlayne, the late secretary and clerk, and demanded 
 the records and files which were in his possession. 
 Chamberlayne refused to deliver them without some 
 legal warrant or security; but Pickering took them 
 by force, and conveyed them over the river to Kit- 
 tery. Pickering was summoned before the governor, 
 threatened and imprisoned, but for some time would 
 neither deliver the books, nor discover the place of 
 their concealment, unless by order of the assembly 
 and to some person by them appointed to receive 
 them. At length, however, he was constrained to 
 deliver them, and they were put into the hands of 
 the secretary, by the lieut-governor's order. 
 
 (1693.) Another favourite point with Uhher was 
 to have the boundary between New Hampshire and 
 
 Massachusetts ascertained: there were reasons which 
 induced some of the people to fall in with this desire. 
 The general idea was, that New Hampshire began 
 at the end of three miles north of the river Merri- 
 mack ; which imaginary line was also the boundary 
 of the adjoining townships on each side. The peo- 
 ple who lived, and owned lands near these limits, 
 pretended to belong to either province, as best suited 
 their conveniency; which caused a difficulty in the 
 collecting taxes and cutting timber. (1695.) The 
 town of Hampton was sensibly affected with these 
 difficulties, and petitioned the council that the line 
 might be run. The council appointed a committee 
 of Hampton men to do it, and gave notice to the 
 Massachusetts of their intention, desiring them to 
 join in the affair. They disliked it and declined to 
 act; upon which the lieut.-governor and council of 
 New Hampshire, caused the boundary line to be 
 run from the sea-shore three miles northward of 
 Merrimack, and parallel to the river, as far as any 
 settlements had been made, or lands occupied. 
 
 The only attempt made to extend the settlement 
 of the lands during these times, was that in the spring 
 of the year 1694, while there was a truce with the 
 Indians. Usher granted a charter for the township 
 of Kingston to about twenty petitioners from Hamp- 
 ton. They were soon discouraged by the dangers 
 and difficulties of the succeeding hostilities, and 
 many of them returned home within two years. After 
 the war they resumed their enterprise; but it was 
 not till the year 1725, that they were able to obtain 
 the settlement of a minister. No alterations took 
 place in the old towns, except the separation (in 
 1693) of Great Island, Little Harbour, and Sandy 
 Beach, from Portsmouth, and their erection into a 
 town by the name of New Castle ; together with the 
 annexation of that part of Squamscot patent which 
 now bears the name of Stretham, to Exeter, it hav- 
 ing before been connected with Hampton-. 
 
 The lieut.-governor was very forward in these 
 transactions, thinking them circumstances favour- 
 able to his views, and being willing to recommend 
 himself to the people by seconding their wishes, so 
 far as was consistent with the interest he meant to 
 serve. The people, however, regarded the settling 
 and dividing of townships, and the running of lines, 
 only as matters of general convenience, and con- 
 tinued to be disgusted with his administration. His 
 repeated calls upon them for money were answered 
 by repeated pleas of poverty, and requests for as- 
 sistance from the neighbouring province. Usher 
 used all his influence with that government to ob- 
 tain a supply of men to garrison the frontiers; and 
 when they wanted provisions for the garrisons, and 
 could not readily raise the money, he would advance 
 it out of his own purse and wait till the treasury 
 could reimburse it. 
 
 For the two or three first years of his administra- 
 tion the public charges were provided for as they 
 had been before, by an excise on wines and other 
 spirituous liquors, and an impost on merchandize. 
 (J695.) These duties being laid only from year to 
 year, Usher vehemently urged upon the assembly a 
 renewal of the act, and an extension of the duty to 
 articles of export; and that a part of the money so 
 raised might be applied to the support of govern- 
 ment. The answer he obtained was, that "con- 
 sidering the exposed state of the province, they were 
 obliged to apply all the money they could raise to 
 their defence; and therefore they were not capable 
 of doing any thing for the support of government, 
 though they were sensible his honour had been at 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 445 
 
 considerable expense : they begged that he would 
 join with the council in representing to the king, 
 the poverty and danger of the province, that such 
 methods might be taken for their support and pre- 
 servation as to the royal wisdom should seem meet." 
 Being further pressed upon the subject, they passed 
 a vote to lay the proposed duties for one year, " pro- 
 vided he and the council would join with them in peti- 
 tioning the king to annex them to the Massachusetts." 
 
 He had the mortification of being disappointed in 
 his expectations of gain, not only from the people, 
 but from his employer. Allen had promised him 
 250/. per annum for executing his commission ; and 
 when .at the end of the third year, Usher drew on 
 him for the payment of this sunij his bill came back 
 protested. This was the more mortifying, as he had 
 assiduously and faithfully attended to Allen's inte- 
 rest, and acquainted him from time to time with the 
 means he had used, the difficulties he had encoun 
 tered, the pleas he had urged, the time he had spent, 
 and the expense he had incurred in defence and 
 support of his claim. He now desired him to come 
 over and assume the government himself, or get a 
 successor to him appointed in the office of lieutenant- 
 gorernor. He did not. know that the people were 
 Beforehand with him in this latter request. 
 
 On a pretence of disloyalty he had removed 
 Hinckes, Waldron and Vaughan from their seats in 
 the council. The former of these was a man who 
 could change with the times ; the two latter were 
 steady opposers of the proprietary claim. Their sus- 
 pension irritated the people, who, by their influence, 
 privately agreed to recommend William Partridge, 
 Esq. as a proper person for their lieutenant-governor 
 in Usher's stead. Partridge was a native of Ports- 
 mouth, a shipwright, of an extraordinary mechani- 
 cal genius, of a political turn of mind, and a popu- 
 lar man. He was treasurer of the province, and had 
 been ill used by Usher. Being largely concerned 
 in trade, he was well known in England, having 
 -supplied the navy with masts and timber. His sud- 
 dcri departure for England was very surprising to 
 Usher, who could not imagine he had any other bu- 
 siness than to settle his accounts. (1697.) But the 
 surprise was greatly increased when he returned with 
 a commission appointing him lieutenant-governor 
 and commander-in-chicf in Allen's absence. It was 
 obtained of the lords justices in the king's absence, 
 by the interest of Sir Henry Ashurst, and was dated 
 June 6, 1696. 
 
 Immediately on his am ral, his appointment was 
 publicly notified to the people ; though, either from 
 f!ie delay of making out his instructions, or for want 
 of the form of an oath necessary to be taken, the 
 commission was not published in the usual manner : 
 but the party in opposition to Usher triumphed. The 
 suspended counsellors resumed their seats, Pickering 
 was made king's attorney, and Hinckes, as president 
 of the council, opened the assembly with a speech. 
 This assembly ordered the records which had been 
 taken from Pickering to be deposited in the hands 
 df Major Vaughan, who was appointed recorder. 
 In consequence of which they have been kept in 
 that office ever since. 
 
 Usher being at Boston when this alteration took 
 place, wrote to them, declaring that no commission 
 could supersede his till duly published ; and inti- 
 mated his intention of coming hither, " if he could 
 le safe with his life." He also dispatched his se- 
 cretary, Charles Story, to England, with an account 
 <;f this transaction, which in one of his private letters 
 he styles " the Paseataqua rebellion;" adding, that 
 
 ' the militia were raised, and forty horse sent to 
 ;eize him ;" and intimating that the confusion was 
 so great, that " if but three French ships were to ap- 
 >ear, he believed they would surrender on the first 
 summons." The extreme imprudence of sending 
 such a letter across the Atlantic in time of war, was 
 still heightened by an apprehension which then pre- 
 vailed, that the French were preparing an arma- 
 ment to invade the country, and that " they parti- 
 cularly designed for Pascataqua river." 
 
 In answer to his complaint, the lords of trade di- 
 rected him to continue in the place of lieutenant- 
 governor till Partridge should qualify himself, or 
 till Richard, Earl of Bellamont, should arrive, who 
 was commissioned to the government of New York, 
 Massachusetts Bay, and New Hampshire; but had 
 not yet departed from England. Usher received the 
 letter from the lords, together with the articles of 
 peace which had been concluded at Ryswick, and 
 immediately set off for New Hampshire, (whrye he 
 had not been for a year) proclaimed the peace, and 
 published the orders he had received, and having 
 proceeded thus far, " thought all well and quiet." 
 But his opposers having held a consultation at night, 
 Partridge's commission was the next day published 
 in form ; he took the oaths, and entered on the ad- 
 ministration of government, to the complete vexation 
 and disappointment of Usher, who had been so elated 
 with the confirmation of his commission, that as he 
 passed through Hampton, he had forbidden the mi- 
 nister of that place to observe a thanksgiving day, 
 which had been appointed by President Hinckes. 
 
 (1698.) An assembly being called, one of their 
 first acts was to write to the lords of trade, " acknow- 
 ledging the favour of the king in appointing one of 
 their own inhabitants to the command of the pro- 
 vince, complaining of Usher, and alleging that there 
 had been no disturbances but what he himself had 
 made; declaring that those counsellors whom he had 
 suspended were loyal subjects, and capable of serv- 
 ing the king; and informing their lordships that 
 Partridge had now qualified himself, and that they 
 were waiting the arrival of the earl of Bellamont." 
 
 They also deputed Ichabod Plaisted to wait on the 
 earl at New York, and compliment him on his arrival. 
 " If he should find his lordship high, and reserved, 
 and not easy of access, he was instructed to employ 
 some gentleman who was in his confidence to manage 
 the business; but if easy and free, he was to wait 
 on him in person : to tell him how joyfully they re- 
 ceived the news of his appointment, and that they 
 daily expected Governor Allen, whose commission 
 would be accounted good till his lordship's should be 
 published, and to ask his advice how they should 
 behave in such a case." The principal design of 
 this message was to make their court to the earl, arid 
 get the start of Usher or any of his friends who 
 might prepossess him with an opinion to their dis- 
 advantage. But if this should have happened, Plais- 
 ted was directed " to observe what reception they 
 met with. If his lordship was ready to come this 
 way, he was to beg leave to attend him as far as 
 Boston, and thenaskhis permission to return home;" 
 and he was furnished with a letter of credit to defray 
 his expenses. This message, which shews the contri- 
 vers to be no mean politicians, had the desired effect. 
 
 The earl continued at New York for the first year 
 after his arrival in America; during which time 
 Governor Allen came over, as it was expected, and 
 his commission being still in force, he took the oaths 
 and assumed the command. Upon which Usher 
 again made his appearance in council, where he 
 
446 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 produced the letter from the lords of trade, claimed 
 his place as lieutenant-governor, and declared that 
 the suspended counsellors had no right to sit till re- 
 stored by the king's order. This brought on an al- 
 tercation, wherein Elliot affirmed that Partridge 
 was duly qualified and in office, that Waldron and 
 Vaughan had been suspended without cause, and that 
 if they were not allowed to sit, the rest were deter- 
 mined to resign. The governor declared Usher to 
 be of the council ; upon which Elliot withdrew. 
 
 (1699.) At the succeeding assembly two new 
 counsellors appeared Joseph Smith, and Kingsly 
 Hall. The first day passed quietly. The governor 
 approved Pickering as speaker of the house ; told 
 them he had assumed the government because the 
 Earl of Bellamont had not arrived ; recommended a 
 continuance of the excise and powder money, and 
 advised them to send a congratulatory message to 
 the earl at New York. The next day'the house an- 
 swered, that they had continued the customs and 
 excise till November, that they had already con- 
 gratulated the earl, and received a kind answer, and 
 were waiting his arrival; when they should enter 
 further on business. They complained that Allen's 
 conduct had been grievous in forbidding the collect- 
 ing of the last tax, whereby the public debts were not 
 paid; in displacing sundry fit persons, and appoint- 
 ing others less fit, and admitting Usher to be of the 
 council, though superseded by Partridge's commis- 
 sion. These things they told him had obliged some 
 members of the council and assembly to apply to 
 his lordship for relief, and " unless he should ma- 
 nage with a "more moderate hand," they threatened 
 him with a second application. 
 
 The same day Coffin and Weare moved a question 
 in council, whether Usher was one of that body. He 
 asserted his privilege, and obtained a majority. 
 They then entered their dissent, and desired a dis- 
 mission. The governor forbad their departure. 
 Weare answered that he would not, by sitting there, 
 put contempt on the king's commission, meaning 
 Partridge's, and withdrew. The next day the as- 
 sembly ordered the money arising from the impost 
 and excise to be kept in the treasury, till the earl 
 of Bellamont's arrival ; and the governor dis- 
 solved them. 
 
 These violences on his part were supposed to ori- 
 ginate from Usher's resentment, and his overbearing 
 influence upon Allen, who is said to have been rather 
 of a pacific disposition. The same ill temper con- 
 tinued during the remainder of this short adminis- 
 tration. The old counsellors, excepting Fryer, re- 
 fused to sit. Sampson, Sheaffe, and Peter Weare, 
 made up the quorum. Sheaffe was also secretary, 
 Smith treasurer, and William Ardell sheriff. The 
 constables refused to collect the taxes of the prece- 
 ding year, and the governor was obliged to revoke 
 his orders, and commission the former constables to 
 do the duty which he had forbidden. 
 
 In the spring the Earl of Bellamont set out for 
 the eastern governments. The council voted an 
 address, and sent a committee, of which Usher was 
 one, to present it to him at Boston ; and prepara- 
 tions were made for his reception in New Hamp- 
 shire ; where he at length came and published his 
 commission to the great joy of the people, who now 
 saw at the head of the government a nobleman of 
 distinguished figure and polite manners, a firm friend 
 to the revolution, a favourite of King William, and 
 one who iad no interest in oppressing them. 
 
 During the controversy with Allen, Partridge 
 had withdrawn ; but upon this change he took his 
 
 seat as lieut.-governor, and the displaced counsellors 
 were again called to the board. A petition wui 
 presented against the judges of the superior court, 
 and a proclamation was issued for justices of the 
 peace and constables only to continue iu oflice, where- 
 by the judges' commissions determined. Richard 
 Jose was made sheriff in the room of Ardell, and 
 Charles Story secretary in the room of Sheaffe. 
 
 The government was now modelled in favour of 
 the people, and they rejoiced in the change, as they 
 imagined the way was opened for an effectual 
 settlement of their long-continued difficulties and 
 disputes Both parties laid their complaints before 
 the governor, who wisely avoided censuring either, 
 and advised to a revival of the courts of justice, in 
 which the main controversy might be legally de- 
 cided. This was agreed to, and the necessary acts 
 being passed by an assembly, (who also presented 
 the earl with 50(K, which he obtained the king's 
 leave to accept), after about eighteen days stay he 
 quitted the province, leaving Partridge, now quietly 
 seated in the chair, to appoint the judges of the re- 
 spective courts. Hinckes was made chief justice of 
 the superior court, with Peter Coffin, John Gerrish, 
 and John Plaisted, for assistants; Waldron, chief 
 justice of the inferior court, with Henry Dow, Theo- 
 dore Atkinson, and John Woodman, for assistants. 
 
 One principal object of the earl's attention was 
 to fortify the harbour, and provide for the defence 
 of the country in case of another war. He had re- 
 commended to the assembly in his speech the build- 
 ing a strong fort on Great Island, and afterwards in 
 his letters, assured them that if they would provide 
 materials, he would endeavour to prevail on the king 
 to be at the expense of erecting it. (1700.) Colonel 
 Romer, a Dutch engineer, having viewed the spot, 
 produced to the assembly an estimate of the cost 
 and transportation of materials, amounting to above 
 six thousand pounds. They were amazed at the 
 proposal ; and returned for answer to the governor, 
 that in their greatest difficulties, when their lives 
 and estates were in the most imminent hazard, they 
 were never able to raise one thousand pounds in a 
 year; that they had been exceedingly impoverished 
 by a long war, and were now struggling under a 
 heavy debt, besides being engaged in a controversy 
 with a " pretended proprietor;" that they had ex- 
 pended more " blood and money" to secure his ma- 
 jesty's interest and dominion in New England than 
 the intrinsic value of their estates, and that the for- 
 tifying the harbour did as much concern the Mas- 
 sachusetts as themselves ; but they concluded with 
 assuring his lordship, that if he were " thoroughly 
 acquainted with their miserable, poor, and mean 
 circumstances, they would readily submit to what- 
 ever he should think them capable of doing." They 
 were also required to furnish their quota of men to 
 join with the other colonies in defending the fron- 
 tiers of New York in case of an attack. This they 
 thought extremely hard, not only because they had 
 never received the least assistance from New York 
 in the late wars, but because an opinion prevailed 
 among them that their enemies had received sup- 
 plies from the Dutch at Albany, and that the plun- 
 der taken from their desolated towns had been sold 
 in that place. There was, however, no opportunity 
 for affording this assistance, as the New Yorkists 
 took care to maintain a good understanding with 
 the French and Indians, for the benefit of trade. 
 The quotas of men to be furnished by each govern- 
 ment for the defence of New York, if attacked, were 
 as follows ; viz. Massachusetts 350, New Hampshire 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 447 
 
 40, Rhode Island 48, Connecticut 120, New York, 
 200, East New Jersey 60, West New Jersey 60, 
 Pennsylvania 80, Maryland 160, Virginia 240. 
 
 But to return to Allen. He had as little prospect 
 of success in the newly established courts, as the 
 people had when Mason's suits were carried on un- 
 der Cranfield's government. On examining the 
 records of the superior court, it was found that 
 twenty-four leaves were missing, in which it was sup- 
 posed the judgments recovered by Mason were re- 
 corded. No evidence appeared of his having ob- 
 tained possession. The work was to begin anew; 
 and Waldron, being one of the principal landhold- 
 ers, and most strenuous opposers of the claim, was 
 singled out to stand foremost in the controvery with 
 Allen, as his father had done with Mason. The cause 
 went through the courts, and was invariably given 
 in favour of the defendant with costs. Allen's only 
 refuge was in an appeal to the king, which the court, 
 following the example of their brethren in the Mas- 
 sachusetts, refused to admit. He then petitioned 
 the king ; who, by an order in council, granted him 
 an appeal, allowing him eight months to prepare for 
 its prosecution. 
 
 (1701.) The refusal of an appeal could not fail of 
 being highly resented in England. It was severely 
 animadverted on by the lords of trade, who, in a 
 letter to the Earl of Bellamont upon this occasion, 
 say, " This declining to admit appeals to his Ma- 
 jesty in council, is a matter that you ought very 
 carefully to watch against in all your governments. 
 It is an humour that prevails so much in proprieties 
 and charter colonies, and the independency they 
 thirst after is now so notorious, that it has been 
 thought fit those considerations, together with other 
 objections against those colonies, should be laid be- 
 fore the parliament; and a bill has thereupon been 
 brought into the house of lords for reuniting the 
 right of government in their colonies to the crown." 
 
 Before this letter was written the earl died at 
 New York, to the great regret of the people in his 
 several governments, among whom he had made 
 himself very popular. A copy of the letter was sent 
 to New York, but the bill mentioned in it was not 
 passed into an act of parliament. For some reasons 
 of state it was rejected by the house of lords. 
 
 The assembly of New Hampshire, having now a 
 fair opportunity, endeavoured as much as possible 
 to provide for their own security; and passed two 
 acts, the one for confirming the grants of lands 
 which had been made within their several townships; 
 the other for ascertaining the bounds of them. Part- 
 ridge gave his consent to these acts; but Allen had 
 the address to get them disallowed and repealed, be- 
 cause there was no reserve made in them of the pro- 
 prietor's right. 
 
 The controversy being brought before the king, 
 both sides prepared to attend the suit. Allen's age, 
 and probably want of money, prevented his going 
 in person; he therefore appointed Usher to act for 
 him, having previously mortgaged one half of the 
 province to him for 1,500/. (]702.) Vaughan was 
 appointed agent for the province, and attorney to 
 Waldron. It being a general interest, the assembly 
 bore the expense, and notwithstanding their pleas 
 of poverty on other occasions, provided a fund on 
 which the agent might draw in case of emergency. 
 
 In the mean time King William died, and Queen 
 Anne appointed Joseph Dudley, Esq., formerly pre- 
 sident of New England, to be governor of Massa- 
 chusetts and New Hampshire; whose commission 
 being published at Portsmouth, the assembly by a 
 
 well-timed present interested him in their favour, 
 and afterwards settled a salary on him during his 
 administration, agreeably to the queen's instructions, 
 who about this time forbad her governors to receive 
 any but settled salaries. 
 
 When Allen's appeal came before the queen in 
 council, it was found that his attorney had not 
 brought proof that Mason had ever been legally in 
 possession ; for want of this, the judgment recovered 
 by Waldron was affirmed; but the order of council 
 directed that the appellant " should be at liberty to 
 begin dts novo by a writ of ejectment in the courts 
 of New Hampshire, to try his title to the lands, or 
 to quit-rents payable for the same; and that if any 
 doubt in law should arise, the jury should declare 
 what titles each party did severally make out to the 
 lands in question, and that the points in law should 
 be referred to the court; or if any doubt should arise 
 concerning the evidence, it should be specially stated 
 in writing, that if either party should appeal to her 
 majesty she might be more fully informed, in order 
 to a final determination." 
 
 While this appeal was depending, a petition was 
 presented to the queen, praying that Allen might 
 be put in possession of the waste lands. This pe- 
 tition was referred to Sir Edward Northey, attorney 
 general, who was ordered to report on three questions, 
 viz. : 1 . Whether Allen had a Tight to the wastes. 
 2. What lands ought to be accounted waste. 3. By 
 what method her majesty might put him into pos- 
 session. At the same "time Usher was making in- 
 terest to be reappointed lieut-governor of the pro- 
 vince. Upon this Vaughan entered a complaint to 
 the queen, setting forth " that Allen claimed as waste 
 ground not only a large tract of unoccupied land, 
 but much of that which had been long enjoyed by 
 the inhabitants as common pasture, within the 
 bounds of their several townships. That Usher, by 
 his former managements and misdemeanors when in 
 office, had forced some of the principal inhabitants 
 to quit the province, and had greatly harassed and 
 disgusted all the rest, rendering himself quite un- 
 acceptable to them. That he was interested in the 
 suits now depending, as on Allen's death he would 
 in right of his wife be entitled to part of the estate. 
 Wherefore it was humbly submitted whether it would 
 be proper to appoint, as lieut.-governor, one whose 
 interest and endeavour it would be to disseize the 
 people of their ancient estates, and render them un- 
 easy ; and it was prayed that no letters might be 
 wrote to put Allen in" possession of the wastes till 
 the petitioner should be heard by council.' 1 
 
 (1703.) Usher's interest however prevailed. The 
 attorney-general reported, that " Allen's claim to 
 the wastes was valid; that all lands uninclosed and 
 unoccupied were to be reputed waste; that he might 
 enter into and take possession of them, and if dis- 
 turbed might assert his right and prosecute tres- 
 passers in the courts there; but that it would not 
 be proper for her majesty to interpose, unless the 
 question came before her by appeal from those 
 courts ; save, that it might be reasonable to direct 
 (if Allen should insist on it at the trials) that mat- 
 ters of fact be found specially by the juries, and 
 that these special matters should be made to appear 
 on an appeal." 
 
 Soon after this Usher obtained a second commis- 
 sion as lieut.governor; but was expressly restricted 
 from intermedling "with the appointment of judges 
 or juries, or otherwise, in matters relating to the 
 disputes between Allen and the inhabitants." The 
 people did not relish this reappointiaent, nor did his 
 
448 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 subsequent conduct reconcile them to it. Upon his 
 first appearance in council Partridge took his seat 
 as counsellor ; but the next day desired his dismis- 
 sion on account of a ship in the river which demanded 
 his constant attention. This request was granted, 
 and he soon after removed to Newbury, where he 
 spent the rest of his days in a mercantile depart- 
 ment, and in the business of his profession. 
 
 It had always been a favourite point with Usher 
 to get the books and files, which had been taken 
 from Chamberlayne, lodged in the secretary's office. 
 Among these files were the original minutes of the 
 suits which Mason had carried on, and the verdicts, 
 judgments, and bills of costs he had recovered. As 
 they were committed to the care of the recorder, who 
 was appointed by the general court, and removable 
 nly by them, no use could be made of these papers 
 but by consent of the assembly. When Usher pro- 
 duced to the council an order from Whitehall that 
 these records should be deposited with the secretary, 
 Penhallow, the recorder, (1704), who was a mem- 
 ber of the council, refused to deliver them without an 
 act of the general assembly authorising him so to do. 
 
 Usher succeeded but little better in his applica- 
 tions for money. He alleged that he had received 
 nothing for his former services, though they had 
 given hundreds to Partridge ; and complained that 
 no house was provided for him to reside in, which 
 obliged him to spend most of bis time at Boston. 
 The plea of poverty always at hand, was not forgot- 
 ten in answer to these demands. But at length, 
 upon his repeated importunity and Dudley's earnest 
 recommendation, after the assembly had refused 
 making any provision for him, and the governor had 
 expressly directed him to reside at the New Castle, 
 and exercise a regular command, it being a time of 
 war ; the council were prevailed upon to allow him 
 two rooms in any house he could procure " till the 
 next morning of the assembly," and to order thirty- 
 eight shillings to be given him for the expense of his 
 " journey to and from Boston." 
 
 When Dudley acquainted the assembly with the 
 royal determination in Allen's suits, they appeared 
 tolerably satisfied with the equitable intention dis- 
 covered therein ; but begged him to represent to her 
 majesty that the province was at least sixty miles 
 long and twenty wide, containing twelve hundred 
 square miles; that the inhabitants claimed only the 
 property of the lands contained within the bounds 
 of their townships, which was less than one-third of 
 the province, and had been possessed by them and 
 their ancestors more than sixty years ; that they had 
 nothing to offer as a grievance if the other two- 
 thirds were adjudged to Allen; but should be glad 
 to sec the same planted and settled for the better 
 security and defence of the whole ; withal desiring 
 it might be considered how much time, blood and 
 treasure had been spent in settling and defending 
 this part of her majesty's dominion, and that the 
 cost and labour bestowed thereon far exceeded the 
 true value of the land, so that they hoped it was not 
 her majesty's intention to deprive them of all tho 
 herbage, timber, and fuel, without which they could 
 not subsist, and that the lands comprehended within 
 the bounds of their townships was little enough to 
 afford these necessary articles ; it not being usual in 
 these plantations to fence in more of their lands 
 than would serve for tillage, leaving the rest un- 
 fenced for the feeding their cattle in common." 
 
 Notwithstanding this plea, which was often al 
 ieged, Allen, by virtue of the queen's permission, 
 iu December, 1703, had entered upon and taken 
 
 possession by turf and twig of the common land in 
 each township, as well as of that which was without 
 their bounds, and brought his writ of ejectment, dt 
 noro, against Waldron, and when the trial was 
 coming on informed Governor Dudley thereof, that 
 he might come into court, and demand a special ver- 
 dict agreeably to the queen's instructions. Dudley 
 from Boston informed the court of the day when ho 
 intended to be at Portsmouth, and directed the 
 judges to adjourn the court to that day. Before it 
 came he heard of a body of Indians above Lan- 
 caster, which had put the country in alarm, and 
 ordered the court to be again adjourned. At length 
 he began his journey ; but was taken ill at New- 
 bury, with a seasonable fit of the gravel, and pro- 
 ceeded no farther. The jury in the meantime re- 
 fused to bring in a special verdict; but found for the 
 defendant with costs. Allen again appealed from 
 the judgment. 
 
 Perplexed, however with these repeated disap- 
 pointments, and at the same time being low iu 
 purse, as well as weakened with age, he sought an 
 accommodation with the people, with whom he was 
 desirous to spend the remainder of his days in peace. 
 It has been said that he made very advantageous 
 offers to Vaughan and Waldron if they would pur- 
 chase his title ; but that they utterly refused it. The 
 people were sensible that a door was still open for 
 litigation ; and that after Allen's death they might, 
 perhaps, meet with as much or more difficulty from 
 his heirs, among whom Usher would probably have 
 a great influence : they well knew his indefatigable 
 industry in the pursuit of gain, that he was able to 
 harass them in law, and had great interest in Eng- 
 land. They therefore thought it best to fall in with 
 Allen's views, and enter into an accommodation 
 with him. (1705.) A general meeting of deputies 
 being held at Portsmouth, the following resolutions 
 arid proposals were drawn up, viz. " That they had 
 no claim or challenge to any part of the province 
 without the bounds of the four towns of Portsmouth, 
 Dover, Hampton, and Exeter, with the hamlets of 
 Newcastle and Kingston, which were all compre- 
 hended within lines already known and laid out, and 
 which should forthwith be revised; but that Allen 
 and his heirs might peaceably hold and enjoy the 
 said great waste, containing forty miles in length 
 and twenty in breadth, or thereabouts, at the heads 
 of the four towns aforesaid, if it should so please her 
 majesty; and that the inhabitants of the four towns 
 would be so far from interrupting the settlement 
 thereof, that they desired the said waste to be planted 
 and filled with inhabitants, to whom they would give 
 all the encouragement and assistance in their power. 
 That in case Allen would, for himself and heirs, for 
 ever quit claim, to the present inhabitants and their 
 heirs, all that tract of land comprehended within 
 the bounds of the several towns, and warrant and 
 defend the same against all persons, free of mort- 
 gage, entailment, and every other incumbiance, and 
 that this agreement should be accepted and confirm- 
 ed by the queen ; then they would lot and lay out 
 to him and his heirs 500 acres within the town of 
 Portsmouth and Newcastle, 1500 in Dover, 1500 in 
 Hampshire and Kingston, and 1500 in Exeter, out 
 of the commonages of the said towns, in such places, 
 not exceeding three divisions in each town, as 
 should best accommodate him and be least detri- 
 mental to them ; and that they would pay him or his 
 heirs 2000/. current money of New England, at two 
 payments, one within a year after receiving the 
 royal confirmation of this agreement, and the other 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 449 
 
 within a year after the first payment. That all ron- 
 tracts made either by Mason or Allen, with any of 
 the inhabitants, or others, for lands or othfir privi- 
 leges in the possession of their tenants in their own 
 just right, beside the claim of Mason and Allen, and 
 no other, should be accounted valid ; but that if 
 any of the purchasers, lessees, or tenants, should 
 refuse to pay their just part of the sums agreed on, 
 according to the lands they held, their share should 
 be abated by Allen out of the 20001. payable by this 
 agreement. That upon Allen's acceptance, and 
 underwriting of these articles, they would give per- 
 sonal security for the aforesaid payment ; and that 
 all actions and suits depending in law concerning 
 the premises should cease till the queen's pleasure 
 should be known." 
 
 These articles were ordered to be presented to 
 Allen for his acceptance : but so desirable an issue 
 of the controversy was prevented by his sudden 
 death, which happened on the next day. 
 
 Colonel Allen is represented as a gentleman of no 
 remarkable abilities, and of a solitary rather than a 
 social disposition ; but mild, obliging, and charitable. 
 His character, while he was a merchant in London, 
 was fair and upright, and his domestic deportment 
 amiable and exemplary. He was a member of the 
 church of England by profession, but constantly at- 
 tended divine worship in the congregation at New- 
 cn'stle, and w r as a strict observer of the Christian 
 sabbath. He died intestate on the 5th of May 1705, 
 in the 70th year of his age, leaving a son and four 
 daughters, and was buried in the fort. 
 
 (1706.) After his death his only son, Thomas Al- 
 len, Esq. of London, renewed the suit, by petition- 
 ing the queen, who allowed him to bring a new writ 
 of ejectment, and ordered a revival of the directions 
 given to the governor in 1703, with respect to the 
 jury's finding a special verdict. Accordingly Allen, 
 having previously conveyed one half of the lands in 
 New Hampshire by deed of sale to Sir Charles Hob- 
 by, and appointed his mother, Elizabeth Allen, his 
 attorney, brought his writof ejectment against Wal- 
 dron in the inferior court of common pleas, where 
 he was cast. He then removed it by appeal to the 
 superior court, where it had been tried three years 
 before. As this was the last trial, and as all the 
 strength of both parties was fully displayed on the 
 occasion, it will be proper to give as just a view of 
 the case as can now be collected from the papers on 
 file in the office of the superior court. 
 
 On Allen's part were produced copies of the char- 
 ter by which King James I. constituted the council 
 of Plymouth ; their grants to Mason in 1629 and 
 1635 ; his last will and testament; an inventory of 
 artillery, arms, ammunition, provisions, merchan- 
 dize, and cattle, left in the care of his agents there 
 at his death ; depositions of several ancient persons 
 taken in 1685, who remembered the houses, fields, 
 forts, and other possessions of Captain Mason, at 
 Portsmouth and Newichwannock, and were ac- 
 quainted with his agents, stewards, factors, and 
 other servants, who divided the cattle and merchan- 
 dize among them after his death ; the opinions of 
 Sir Geoffry Palmer, Sir Francis Winnington and Sir 
 William Jones, in favour of the validity of Mason's 
 title; King Charles's letter to the president and 
 council of New Hampshire in 1680; the paragraph 
 of Cranfield's commission which respects Mason's 
 claim in 1682; the writ, verdict, judgment, and 
 execution against Major Waldron in 1683; the de- 
 cision of the king in council against Vaughan in 
 1686 ; Dudley's writ of certiorari in 1688 ; the fine 
 
 HIST. OF AMKK. Nos. 57 & 58. 
 
 and recovery in Westminster hall, whereby the en- 
 tail was cut off, and the consequent deed of sale to 
 Allen in 1691; Sir Edward Northey's report in 
 1703; and evidence of Allen' staking possession of 
 the wastes, and of his enclosing and occupying some 1 
 land at Great Island. (1707.) On this evidence, it 
 was pleaded that the title derived from Mason, and" 
 his possession of the province, of which the lands in 
 question were part, was legal ; that the appellee's 
 possession had been interrupted by the appellant, 
 and those from whom he derived his title, more es- 
 pecially by the judgment recovered by Robert Ma- 
 son against Major Waldron ; and a special verdict 
 was moved for, agreeably to the royal directions. 
 The counsel on this side were James Meinzies and 
 John Valentine. 
 
 On Waldron's part was produced the deed from 
 four Indian sachems to Whelewright and others in 
 1629 ; and depositions taken from, several ancient 
 persons who testified that they had lived with Major 
 Waldron, when he began his plantation atCochecho, 
 about the year 1640, and assisted him in building 
 his houses and mills, and that no person had dis- 
 turbed him in the possession thereof for above forty 
 years. To invalidate the evidence of the title pro- 
 duced on the opposite side, it was pleaded, That 
 the alleged grant from the council of Plymouth to 
 Mason in 1629, was not signed-; that livery of seizin 
 was not endorsed on it as on other of their grants, 
 and as was then the legal form ; nor was it ever en- 
 rolled according to statute : that the sale of part of 
 the same lands in 1628 to the Massachusetts com- 
 pany, by an instrument signed and executed accord- 
 ing to law, renders this subsequent grant suspicious ; 
 and that his pretending to procure another grant of 
 part of the same lands in 1635, was an argument 
 that he himself could not rely on the preceding one, 
 nor was it credible that the same council should 
 grant the same lands twice, and to the same person : 
 that the alleged grant in 1635 w~as equally defec- 
 tive ; and that he must relinquish one or the other, 
 it being contrary to the reason and usage of law to- 
 rely on two several titles at once. It was urged, 
 that Waldron's possession was grounded on a deed 
 from the native lords of the soil, with whom his 
 father had endeavoured to cultivate a friendly con- 
 nexion ; that he had taken up his land with their 
 consent, when the country was a wilderness; had 
 cultivated it, had defended it in war at a great ex- 
 pense, and at the hazard of his life, which he finally 
 lost in the attempt; that the Indian deed was legally 
 executed in the presence of the factors and agents' 
 of the company of Laconia, of which Mason was 
 one ; that this w r as done with the allowance of the 
 council of Plymouth, and in pursuance of the great 
 ends of their incorporation, which were to cultivate 
 the lands, to people the country, and christianize 
 the natives, for the honour and interest of the crowr 
 and the trade of England, all which ends had been 
 pursued and attained by the appellee and his ances- 
 tor. It was also alleged, that the writ against Ma- 
 jor Waldron in 1683, was for "lands and tene- 
 ments," of which the quantity, situation and bounds 
 were not described, for want of which no legal judg- 
 ment could be given; that no execution had ever 
 been levied, nor was the possessor ever disturbed or 
 amoved by reason thereof; and that the copies pro- 
 duced were not attested, no book of records being 
 to be found. To invalidate the evidence of Mason's 
 possession, it was observed, that he himself was 
 never there in person ; that all the settlement made 
 by his agents or successors was only a factory for 
 
 3 B 
 
450 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 trade with the Indians, and principally for the dis- 
 covery of a country called Laconia; and that this 
 was done in company with several other mevchant- 
 adventurers in London, who for the security of 
 their goods erected a fort; but that this could not 
 amount to a legal possession, nor prove a. title to 
 the country, especially as, upon the failure of trade, 
 the object of their enterprise, they quitted their 
 factory, after a few years stay in those parts. 
 
 As to the motion for a special verdict, it was said 
 that a jury could not find one if they had no doubt 
 of the law or fact, for the reason of a special verdict 
 is a doubt either in point of law or evidence ; nor 
 was it consistent with the privileges of Englishmen 
 that a jury should be compelled to find specially. In 
 addition to these pleas, it was further alleged, that 
 by the statute law no action of ejectment can be 
 maintained except the plaintiff, or those under whom 
 he claims, have been in possession within twenty 
 years ; and if they have been out of possession sixty 
 years, then not only an ejectment, but a writ of 
 right, and all other real actions are barred in respect 
 of a subject, and that in such cases the right of the 
 crown is also barred: and that by the statute of 
 32 Hen. 8. ch. 9. it is enacted, that no person shall 
 purchase any lands or tenements, unless the seller, 
 or they by whom he claims, have been in possession 
 of the same, or the reversion, or the remainder 
 thereof, or having taken the rents or profits thereof, 
 by the space of one whole year next before such 
 bargain is made ; and that the appellee and his an- 
 cestor, and no othei person whatever had been in 
 possession of the premises, nor was it ever pretended 
 by the appellant that the Masons, of whom the pur- 
 chase was made, were in possession within one year, 
 or at any time before the alleged purchase ; that all 
 the mischiefs provided against by the above statute 
 have been experienced by the people of New Hamp- 
 shire from the purchase made by the appellant's 
 father, of the bare title of the propriety of the pro- 
 vince. The counsel on this side were John Picker- 
 ing and Charles Story. 
 
 A certificate from the lieut. -governor respecting 
 the queen's directions was delivered to the jury, 
 who returned the following verdict : " In the cause 
 depending between Thomas Allen, Esq., appellant, 
 and Richard Waldrou, Esq., defendant, the jury 
 finds for the defendant a confirmation of the former 
 judgment and costs of courts. Mark Hunking, 
 foreman." 
 
 The court then sent out the jury again with 
 this charge, " Gentlemen, you are further to con- 
 sider this case and observe her majesty's directions 
 to find specially and your oaths." They returned 
 the second time with the same verdict; upon which 
 the court ordered judgment to be entered, and that 
 the defendant recover costs of the appellant. The 
 counsel for the appellant then moved for an appeal 
 to her majesty in council, which was allowed on 
 th:ir giving bond in 200L to prosecute it. 
 
 But the loyalty of the people, and the distresses 
 under which they laboured by reason of the war, 
 prevailed on the queen's ministry to suspend a final 
 decision ; and before the appeal could be heard, 
 Allen's death, which happened in 1715, put an end 
 to the suit,whieh his heirs,being minors, did not renew. 
 
 The war with the French and Indians, called Queen 
 Anne's war Conclusion of Dudley's and Usher's 
 administra t ion . 
 
 The peace which followed the treaty of Rysxvick 
 was but of short duration, for the seeds of war were 
 
 ready sown both in Europe and America. Louit 
 had proclaimed the pretender king of England, and 
 his governor, Villebon, had orders to extend his pro- 
 vince of Acadia to the river Kennebeck, though the 
 English court understood St. Croix to be the bound- 
 ary between their territories and those of the French. 
 The fishery was interrupted by French men of war, 
 and by the orders of Villebon, who suffered no Eng- 
 lish vessels to fish on the banks of Nova Scotia. A 
 French mission was established, and a chapel erected 
 at Norridgewog, on the upper part of Kennebeck, 
 which served to extend the influence of the French 
 among the Indians. The governor of Canada, as 
 suming the character of their father and protector, 
 instigated them to prevent the settlement of the 
 English to the east of Kennebeck, and found some 
 among them ready to listen to his advice. Thfi 
 people in those parts were apprehensive of danger 
 and meditating a removal, and those who had enter- 
 tained thoughts of settling there were restrained. 
 
 Things were in this posture when Dudley entered 
 on his government. He had particular orders from 
 England to rebuild the fort at Pemaquid; but could 
 not prevail on the Massachusetts assembly to bear 
 the expense of it. However he determined on a 
 visit to the eastern country, and having notified his 
 intention to the Indians, took with him a number of 
 gentlemen of both provinces, (1703) and held a con- 
 ference at Casco with delegates from the tribes of 
 Norridgewog, Penobscot, Pigwacket, Penacook ami 
 Amariscoggin, who assured him that " as high as 
 the sun was above the earth, so far distant was their 
 design of making the least breach of the peace." 
 They presented him a belt of wampum in token of 
 their sincerity, and both parties went to two heaps 
 of stones which had formerly been pitched, and 
 called the " two brothers," where the friendship was 
 further ratified by the addition of other stones. 
 They also declared, that although the French em is 
 saries among them hati been endeavouring to break 
 the union, yet it was " firm as a mountain, and 
 should continue as long as the sun and moon." Not- 
 withstanding these fair appearances, it was observed 
 that when the Indians fired a salute their guns were 
 charged with shot; and it was suspected that they 
 had then formed a design to seize the governor and 
 his attendants, if a party which they expected from 
 Canada, and which arrived two or three days after, 
 had come in proper season to their assistance. How- 
 ever this might be, it is certain that in the space of 
 six weeks, a body of French and Indians, 500 in 
 number, having divided themselves into several par- 
 ties, attacked all the settlements from Casco to 
 Wells, and killed and took 130 people, burning and 
 destroying all before them. 
 
 The next week (August 17) a party of thirty In- 
 dians under Capf. Tom killed five people at Hamp- 
 ton village; among whom was a widow Mussy, a 
 noted speaker among the Friends, and much lamented 
 by them ; they also plundered two houses, but the 
 people being alarmed, and pursuing them, they fled. 
 
 The country was now in terror and confusion. 
 The women and children retired to the garrisons. 
 The men went armed to their work and posted 
 centinels in the fields. Troops of horse were quar- 
 tered at Portsmouth and in the province of Maine. 
 A scout of 360 men marched toward Pigwacket, and 
 another to the Ossapy Pond, but made no disco- 
 veries. Alarms were frequent, and the whole fron- 
 tier country, from Deeirfield on the west to Casco 
 on the east, was kept in continual terror by small 
 parties of the enemy. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 In the fall, Col. March of Casco made a visit to 
 Pigwacket, where he killed six of the enemy and 
 took six more; this encouraged the government to 
 offer a bounty of 40Z. for scalps. 
 
 As the winter came on, the frontier towns were 
 ordered to provide a large number of snow-shoes; 
 and an expedition was planned in New Hampshire 
 against the head-quarters of the Indians. Major 
 Wiuthrop Hilton and Captain John Oilman of Exe- 
 ter, Captain Chesley and Captain Davis of Oyster 
 river, marched with their companies oil snow shoes 
 into the woods, but returned without success. This 
 is called in the council books, " an honourable ser- 
 vice." Hilton received a gratuity of 12/., and each 
 of the captains 5/. 
 
 (1704.) With the return of spring there was a 
 return of hostilities, for notwithstanding the posting 
 a few southern Indians in the garrison at Berwick, 
 the enemy appeared at Oyster river, and shot Na- 
 thaniel Medar near his own field, and the next day 
 killed Edward Taylor near Lamprey river, and cap- 
 tured his wife and son. These instances of mischief 
 gave colour to a false alarm at Cocheco, where it 
 was said they lay in wait for Col. Waldron a whole 
 day, but missing him by reason of his absence from 
 home, took his servant maid as she went to a spring 
 for water; and having examined her as to the state 
 of the garrison, stunned her with an hatchet but did 
 not scalp her. 
 
 In May, Col. Church, by Governor Dudley's or- 
 der, having planned an expedition to the eastern 
 shore, sailed from Boston with a number of trans- 
 ports, furnished with whaleboats for going up rivers. 
 In this way he stopt at Pascataqua, where he was 
 joined by a body of men under Major Hilton, who 
 was of eminent service to him in this expedition, 
 which lasted the whole summer, and in which they 
 destroyed the towns of Minas and Chiegnecto, and 
 did considerable damage to the French and Indians 
 ai Penobscot and Passamaquoddy, and even insulted 
 Port Royal. While they were at Mount Desart, 
 Church learned from nine of his prisoners, that a 
 body of 600 Indians were preparing for an attack on 
 Casco, and the head of Pascataqua river, and sent 
 an express to Portsmouth which obliged the people 
 to be vigilant. No such great force as this appeared, 
 but small parties kept hovering on the outskirts. At 
 Oyster river they wounded William Tasker; and at 
 Dover they laid in ambush for the people on their 
 return from public worship, but happily missed their 
 aim. They afterwards mortally wounded Mark Gyles 
 at that place, and soon after killed several people in 
 a field at Oyster river, whose names are not mentioned. 
 
 In the former wars New Hampshire had received 
 much assistance from their brethren of Massachu- 
 setts; but these now remonstrated to the governor 
 that his other province did not bear their proportion 
 of the charge for the common defence. The repre- 
 sentatives of New Hampshire urged, in reply, the 
 different circumstances of the two provinces, "most 
 of the towns in Massachusetts being out of the reach 
 of the enemy, and no otherwise affected by the war, 
 than in the payment of their part of the expense, 
 while this province was wholly a frontier by sea and 
 land, and in equal danger with the county of York, 
 in which four companies were stationed, and the in- 
 habitants were abated their proportion of the public 
 charges." They begged that twenty of the friendly 
 Indians might be sent to scout on their borders, 
 which request the governor complied with. 
 
 (1705.) In the winter, Col. Hilton with 270 men, 
 including the 20 Indians, were sent to Norridgwog 
 
 on snow shoes. They had a favourable season for 
 their march, the snow being four feet deep. When 
 they arrived there, finding no enemy to contend with, 
 they burnt the deserted wigwams and the chapel. 
 The officers who went on this expedition complained 
 that they had only the pay of private soldiers. 
 
 The late repairs of fort William and Mary at New- 
 castle were always complained of as burdensome to 
 the people, and a representation thereof had been 
 made to the queen, who instructed Dudley to press 
 the assembly of Massachusetts to contribute to the 
 expense ; as the river belonged equally to both pro- 
 vinces. They urged in excuse that the fort was built 
 at first at the sole charge of New Hampshire, to 
 whom it properly belonged ; that the whole expense 
 of the repairs did not amount to what several of their 
 towns singly paid towards the support of the war for 
 one year; that all the trade and navigation of the 
 river, on both sides, paid a duty toward maintaining 
 that fortress ; and that they had been at a great ex- 
 pense in protecting the frontiers of New Hampshire, 
 and the parties who were employed in getting tim- 
 ber and masts for her majesty's service; while New 
 Hampshire had never contributed any thing to the 
 support of the garrisons, forces, and guards by sea, 
 which were of equal benefit to them as to Massa- 
 chusetts. One thing, which made New Hampshire 
 more in favour with the queen was, that they had 
 settled a salary on her governor, which the others 
 never could be persuaded to do. The repairs of the 
 fort, however, went on without their assistance, un- 
 der the direction of Colonel Romer ; and when they 
 were completed, a petition was sent home for a sup"- 
 ply of cannon, ammunition, and stores. 
 
 The next summer was chiefly spent in negotiating 
 an exchange of prisoners ; and Dudley had the ad- 
 dress to protract the negotiation, under pretence of 
 consulting with the other governments about a neu- 
 trality proposed by the governor of Canada, by 
 which means the frontiers in general were kept tole- 
 rably quiet, although the enemy appeared once or 
 twice in the town of Kittery. The line of pickets 
 which inclosed the town of Portsmouth was repaired, 
 and a nightly patrole established on the sea-shore, 
 from Rendezvous Point to the bounds of Hampton, 
 to prevent any surprise by sea ; the coast being at 
 this time infested by the enemy's privateers. 
 
 During this truce, the inhabitants of Kingston, 
 who had left the place, were encouraged to petition 
 for leave to return to their lands; which the court 
 granted, on condition that they should build a fort 
 in the centre of the town, lay out a parsonage, and 
 settle a minister within three years. This last con- 
 dition was rendered impracticable by the renewal of 
 hostilities. 
 
 The governor of Canada had encouraged the In- 
 dians who inhabited the borders of New England to 
 remove to Canada, where, being incorporated with 
 the tribe of St. Francis, they have ever since re- 
 mained. By this policy they became more firmly 
 attached to the interests of the French, and were 
 more easily dispatched on their bloody business to 
 the frontiers of New England, with which they were 
 well acquainted. Dudley, who was generally ap- 
 prised of their movements, and kept a vigilant eye 
 upon them, apprehended a rupture in the winter; 
 and gave orders, 1706, for a circular scouting march, 
 once a month, round the head of the towns from 
 Kingston to Salmon falls ; but the enemy did not 
 appear till April; when a small party of them at- 
 tacked the house of John Drew at Oyster river, 
 where they killed eight and wounded two. The gar 
 3B2 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 rison was near, but not a mau in it : the women, 
 however, seeing but death before them, fired an 
 alarm, and then putting on hats, and loosening their 
 hair, that they might appear like men, they tired so 
 briskly, that the enemy, apprehending the people , 
 were alarmed, fled without burning or even plun- 
 dering the house which they had attacked. John 
 Wheeler, meeting this party, and mistaking them 
 for friendly Indians, unhappily fell into their hands, 
 and was killed, with his wile and two children. 
 Four of his sons took refuge in a cave by the bank 
 of the Little Bay, and though pursued by the Indi- 
 ans, escaped unhurt. 
 
 In July, Colonel Schuyler, from Albany, gave 
 notice to Dudley that 270 of the enemy were on 
 their march toward Pascataqua, of which he imme- 
 diately informed the people, and ordered them to 
 close garrison, and one half of the militia to be 
 ready at a minute's warning. The first appearance 
 of this body of the enemy was at Dunstable ; from 
 whence they proceeded to Amesbury and Kingston, 
 where they killed some cattle. Hilton, with sixty- 
 four men, marched from Exeter ; but was obliged to 
 return without meeting the enemy. The reason he 
 gave to the council for returning so soon was the 
 want of provision, there being none in readiness at 
 the garrisons, notwithstanding a law lately enacted, 
 enjoining every town to have stores ready, and de- 
 posited in the hands of their captains. For the 
 same reason he had been obliged to discontinue a small 
 scout which he had for some time kept up. Hilton 
 was so brave and active an officer that the enemy 
 had marked him for destruction ; and for this pur- 
 pose a party of them kept lurking about his house, 
 where they observed ten men to go out one morn- 
 ing with their scythes, and lay aside their arms to 
 mow ; they then crept between the men and their 
 guns, and suddenly rushing on them, killed four, 
 wounded one, and took three ; two only of the whole 
 number escaped. They missed the major for this 
 time, and two of the prisoners escaped; but suffered 
 much in their return, having nothing to subsist on 
 for three weeks but lily roots and rinds of trees, 
 After this they killed William Pearl, and took Na- 
 thaniel Tibbets at Dover. It was observed during 
 this war that the enemy did more damage in small 
 bodies than in larger, and by scattering along the 
 frontiers kept the people in continual apprehension 
 and alarm ; and so very few of them were taken 
 prisoners, that in computing the expense of the war it 
 was judged that every Indian killed or taken cost 
 the country a thousand pounds. 
 
 (1707.) In the following winter Hilton made 
 another excursion to the eastward, and a shallop 
 was sent to Casco with stores and provisions for his 
 party, consisting of two hundred and twenty men. 
 The winter being mild, and the weather unsettled, 
 prevented their marching so far as they intended: 
 cold dry weather, and deep snow, being most fa- 
 vourable to winter expeditions. However, they 
 came on an Indian track near Black Point, and pur- 
 suing it, killed four, and took a squaw who con 
 ducted them to a party of eighteen, whom they sur- 
 prised as they lay asleep on a neck of land at break 
 of day, and of whom they killed seventeen, and took 
 the other. This was matter of triumph considering 
 the difficulty of finding their haunts. It is asserted, 
 that on the very morning this affair happened, 
 it was reported, with but little variation from the 
 truth, at Portsmouth, though at the distance of six- 
 ty miles. 
 
 When Church went to Nova Scotia, he very 
 
 earnestly solicited leave to make an attempt on 
 Port Royal; but Dudley would not consent, and 
 the reason he gave was, that he had written to the 
 ministry in England, and expected orders and naval 
 lelp to reduce the place. His enemies however as- 
 signed another reason for his refusal; which was 
 Lhat a clandestine trade was carried on by his con- 
 nivance, and to his emolument, with the French 
 ;here. This report gained credit, and occasioned a 
 loud call for justice. Those who were directly con- 
 cerned in the illegal traffic, were prosecuted and 
 fined; and the governor suffered much in his repu- 
 tation. To wipe off these aspersions he now deter- 
 mined to make an attack in earnest on Port Royal, 
 even though no assistance should come from Eng- 
 land. It was intended that an armament should be 
 sent to America, and the commander was appointed ; 
 but the state of affairs in Europe prevented their 
 coming. 
 
 Early in the spring the governor applied to the 
 assemblies of both his provinces, and to the colonies 
 of Rhode Island and Connecticut, requesting them 
 to raise one thousand men for the expedition. Con- 
 necticut declined; but the other three raised the 
 whole number, who were disposed into two regi- 
 ments, of which Colonel Wainwright commanded 
 the one, and Colonel Hilton the other. They em- 
 barked at Nantasket in twenty-three transports, fur- 
 nished with whaleboats, under convoy of the Dept- 
 ford man of war, Captain Stuckley, and the pro- 
 vince galley, Captain Southack. The chief com- 
 mand was given to Colonel March, who had behaved 
 well in several scouts and rencounters with the In- 
 dians, but had never been tried in such service as 
 this. They arrived before Port Royal in a few days, 
 and after burning some houses, killing some cattle 
 round the fort, and making some ineffectual at- 
 tempts to bombard it, a jealousy and disagreement 
 among the officers, and a misapprehension of the 
 state of the fort and garrison, caused the army to 
 break up and reimbark in a disorderly manner. 
 Some of the officers went to Boston for orders, some 
 of the transports put in at Casco; a sloop, with 
 Captain Chesley's company of sixty men, arrived at 
 Portsmouth : Chesley suffered his men to disperse, 
 but ordered them to return at the beat of the drum : 
 being called to account for this conduct, he alleged 
 that " general orders were given at Port Royal for 
 every man to make the best of his way borne." The 
 governor, highly chagrined, and very angry, sent 
 orders from Boston that if any more vessels arrived 
 the men should not be permitted to come on shore 
 " on pain of death." After a while he ordered 
 Chesley's company to be collected and reimbarked, 
 offering a pardon to those who voluntarily returned, 
 the rest to be severely punished. By the latter end 
 of July they got on board, and with the rest of the 
 army, returned to the place of action. At the land- 
 ing, an ambuscade of Indians from among the sedge 
 on the top of a sea-wall, greatly annoyed the troops. 
 Major Walton, and Captain Chesley, being then on 
 shore with the New Hampshire companies, pushed 
 their men up the beach, flanked the enemy, and 
 after an obstinate struggle, put them to flight. The 
 command was now given to Wainwright, and the 
 army put under the direction of three supervisors ; 
 but no means could inspire that union, firmness, 
 and skill which were necessary. By the last of 
 August the whole affair was at an end, and the army 
 returned sickly, fatigued, disheartened, and ashamed ; 
 but with no greater loss than sixteen killed, and as 
 many wounded. 
 
UNITED STATES, 
 
 453 
 
 While this unfortunate expedition was in hand, 
 the frontiers were kept in continual alarm. Two 
 men were taken from Oyster river, and two more 
 killed as they were driving a team hetween that 
 place and Dover. Captain Sumersby pursued with 
 his troop and recovered the contents of the cart. 
 Stephen and Jacob Oilman, brothers, were ambushed 
 between Exeter and Kingston; their horses were 
 killed, but both of them escaped to the garrison. 
 Kingston, being a new plantation, was much ex- 
 posed, and was this summer weakened by the de- 
 sertion of eight men. The remaining inhabitants 
 complained to government, who ordered the captains 
 of Exeter and Hampton to take them up as desert- 
 ers, and oblige them to return to the defence of 
 their settlements, or do duty at the fort during the 
 governor's pleasure. They were afterwards bound 
 over to the sessions for contempt of orders. The 
 state of the country at this time was truly distressing; 
 a large quota of their best men were abroad, the rest 
 harassed by the enemy at home, obliged to continual 
 duty in garrisons and in scouts, and subject to severe 
 discipline for neglects. They earned their bread at 
 the continual hazard of their lives, never daring to 
 stir abroad unarmed ; they could till no lauds but 
 what were within call of the garrisoned houses into 
 which their families were crowded ; their husbandry, 
 lumber-trade and fishery were declining, their taxes 
 increasing, their apprehensions both from the force 
 of the enemy and the failure of the Port Royal ex- 
 pedition were exceedingly dismal, and there was no 
 prospect of an end to the war, in which they were 
 now advanced to the fifth summer. Yet under all 
 these distresses and discouragements, they resolutely 
 kept their ground and maintained their garrisons 
 not one of which was cut off during the whole of this 
 war, within the limits of New Hampshire. 
 
 In September one man was killed at Exeter, and 
 two days after Henry Elkins at Kingston. But the 
 severest blow on the frontiers happened at Oyster 
 river, a place which suffered more than all the rest. 
 A party of French Mohawks, painted red, attacked 
 with a hideous yell a company who were in the 
 woods, some hewing timber and others driving a 
 team, under the direction ofCaptain Chesley, who 
 was just returned the second time from Port Royal. 
 At the first fire they killed seven and mortally 
 wounded another. Chesley, with the few who were 
 left, fired on the enemy with great vigour, and for 
 some time checked their ardour ; but being over- 
 powered, he at length fell. He was much lamented, 
 being a brave officer. Three of the scalps taken at 
 this time were soon after recovered at Berwick. 
 
 (1708.) The next year a large army from Canada 
 was destined against the frontiers of New England. 
 Dudley received information of it in the usual route 
 from Albany, and immediately ordered guards in the 
 most exposed places of both his provinces. A troop 
 under Captain Robert Coffin patroled from Kings- 
 ton to Cochecho, and scouts were kept out conti- 
 nually. Spy-boats were also kept out at sea between 
 Pascataqua and Winter harbours. Four hundred 
 Massachusetts soldiers were posted in this province. 
 The towns were ordered to provide ammunition, and 
 all things were in as good a state of preparation as 
 could be expected. At length the storm fell on Ha- 
 verhill; but the enemy's force having been dimi- 
 nished by various accidents, they proceeded no far- 
 ther, and every part of New Hampshire was quiet. 
 Hilton^ made another winter inarch to Pigwacket 
 with 170 men, but made no discovery. 
 
 (1709.) The next spring William Moody, Samuel 
 
 Stevens, and two sons of Jeremy Gilrnan, were ta- 
 ken at Pickpocket-mill in Exeter, and soon after 
 Bartholomew Stevenson was killed at Oyster river. 
 Colonel Hilton and Captain Davis performed their 
 usual tour of duty in scouting, and the people this 
 summer kept close in garrison, on a report that two 
 hundred Indians had marched against them from 
 Montreal. But the principal object now in view 
 was a desire of wiping off the disgrace of a former 
 year, by an attempt, not on Port Royal, but on Ca- 
 nada itself. For this purpose solicitations had been 
 made in England by Francis Nicholson, Esq. who 
 had been lieutenant-governor of Virginia, and Cap- 
 tain Samuel Vetch, a trader to Nova Scotia, who 
 was well acquainted with the French settlements 
 there, and made a full representation of the state 
 of things in America to the British ministry. An 
 expedition being determined upon, they came over 
 early in the spring with the queen's command to 
 the governors of the several provinces to raise men 
 for the service. Vetch was appointed a colonel, and 
 Nicholson, by nomination of the governor of New 
 York, and consent of the other governments, was 
 made commander in chief. The people of New 
 Hampshire were so much exhausted, and their men 
 had been so ill paid before, that it was with great 
 difficulty, and not without the dissolution of one as- 
 sembly and the calling of another, that they could 
 raise money to levy 100 men, and procure two 
 transports for conveying them. After the utmost 
 exertions had been made by the several govern- 
 ments, and Nicholson with part of the troops bad 
 marched to Wood creek, and the rest with the 
 transports had lain at Nantasket three months wait- 
 ing for a fleet, news arrived that the armament pro- 
 mised from England was diverted to another quar- 
 ter. Upon which the commander of the frigates on 
 the Boston station refused to convoy the troops, the 
 whole army was disbanded, and the expense the 
 colonies had been at was fruitless. A congress of 
 governors and delegates from the assemblies met 
 late in the year at Rhode Island, who recommended 
 the sending home agents to assist Colonel Nichol- 
 son in representing the state of the country, and 
 soliciting an expedition against Canada the next 
 spring. The ministry at first seemed to listen to 
 this proposal, but afterward (1710) changed their 
 minds, and resolved only on the reduction of Port 
 Royal. For this purpose Nicholson came over in 
 July with five frigates and a bomb ketch ; the colo- 
 nies then had to raise their quotas ; the New Hamp- 
 shire assembly ordered 100 men, who were get 
 ready as soon as possible, and put under the com- 
 mand of Colonel Shadrach Walton. The whole 
 armament sailed from Boston the 18th of September, 
 and on the 24th arrived at the place. The force 
 now being equal to its reduction, Subcrease, the 
 governor, waited only the compliment of a few shot 
 and shells as a decent pretence for a surrender ; 
 which was completed on the 5th of October, and 
 Vetch was appointed governor of the place, which 
 in honour of the queen was called Annapolis. 
 
 While this expedition was in hand, and before 
 the appointment of the commanders, New Hamp- 
 shire sustained a heavy loss in the death of Col. 
 Winthrop Hilton. This worthy officer being con- 
 cerned in the masting business, and having several 
 large trees felled about fourteen miles from home, 
 went out with a party to peel the bark that the wood 
 might not be injured by worms. While engaged 
 in this business they were ambushed by a party of 
 Indians, who at the firtt fire killed Hilton \vith two 
 
451 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA 
 
 more, and took two; the rest being terrified, and 
 their guns being wet, made no opposition but escaped. 
 The next day 100 men marched in pursuit, but dis- 
 covered only the mangled bodies of the dead. The 
 enemy in their barbarous triumph had struck their 
 hatchets into the colonel's brains, and left a lance 
 in his heart. He was a gentleman " of good tem- 
 per, courage and conduct, respected and lamented 
 by all that knew him," and was buried with the 
 honours due to his rank and character. 
 
 Flushed with this success, they insolently appeared 
 in the open road at Exeter, and took four children 
 who were at their play. They also took John Wedg- 
 wood, and killed John Magoon near his brother's 
 barn, a place which for three days he had visited 
 with a melancholy apprehension arising from a dream 
 that he should there be murdered. 
 
 The s-ame day that Hilton was killed, a company 
 of Indians who had pretended friendship, and the 
 year before had been peaceably conversant with the 
 inhabitants of Kingston, and seemed to be thirsting 
 after the blood of the enemy, came into the town, 
 and ambushing the road, killed Samuel Wiuslow 
 and Samuel Huntoon ; they also took Philip Hun- 
 toon and Jacob Oilman, and carried them to Canada, 
 where, after some time, they purchased their own 
 redemption by building a saw-mill for the governor 
 after the English mode, 
 
 The last that fell this snmmer was Jacob Garland, 
 who was killed at Cochecho on his return from the 
 public worship. As the winter approached, Colonel 
 Walton with 170 men traversed the eastern shores, 
 which the Indians usually visited at this season for 
 the purpose of gathering clams. On an island where 
 the party was encamped, several Indians, decoyed 
 by their smoke, and mistaking them for some of their 
 own tribe, came among them and were made pri- 
 soners. One of them was a sachem of Norridgwog, 
 active, bold, and sullen; when he found himself in 
 the hands of enemies he would answer none of their 
 questions, and laughed with scorn at their threaten- 
 ing him with death. His wife, being an eye-witness 
 of the execution of the threatening, was so intimi- 
 dated as to make the discoveries which the captors 
 had in vain desired of the sachem ; in consequence 
 of which, three were taken at the place of which she 
 informed, and two more at Saco river, where also 
 five were killed. This success, inconsiderable as it 
 may appear, kept up the spirits of the people, and 
 added to the loss of the enemy, who were daily di- 
 minishing by sickness and famine. 
 
 (1711.) In the spring they renewed their ravages 
 on the frontiers in small parties. Thomas Downs, 
 John Church, and three more were killed at Coche- 
 cho; and on a sabbath-day several of the people 
 there fell into an ambush as they were returning 
 from public worship. John Horn was wounded, and 
 Humphrey Foss was taken; but by the determined 
 bravery of Lieutenant Heard, he was recovered out 
 of the hands of the enemy. Walton with two com- 
 panies marched to the ponds about the fishing season, 
 but the Indians had withdrawn, and nothing was to 
 be seen but their deserted wigwams. 
 
 After the reduction of Port Royal, Nicholson went 
 to England to solicit an expedition against Canada. 
 The tory ministry of Queen Anne, to the surprise of 
 all the Whigs in England and America, fell in with 
 the proposal; and on the 8th of June, Nicholson 
 came to Boston with orders for the northern colonies 
 to get ready their quotas of men and provision by 
 the arrival of the fleet and army from Europe, which 
 happened within sixteen days, and while the several 
 
 governors were holding a consultation on the sub- 
 ject of their orders. A compliance with them in so 
 short a time was impossible, yet every thing that 
 could be done was done ; the nature of the service 
 conspiring with the wishes of the people, made the 
 governments exert themselves to the utmost. New 
 Hampshire raised 100 men, which was more than 
 they could well spare; one half of the militia being 
 continually employed in guarding the frontiers. They 
 also voted them subsistence for 126 days, besides pro- 
 viding for them on shore before their embarkation. 
 Two transports weretaken up at 8s. per month per ton, 
 and artillery stores were issued from the fort. The 
 colony forces formed two regiments, under the com- 
 mand of Vetch and Walton. The army which cam-e 
 from England were seven veteran regiments of the 
 Duke of Marlborough's army, and a battalion of 
 marines under the command of Brigadier-General 
 Hill, which, joined with the New England troops, 
 made a body of about 6,500 men, provided with a 
 fine train of artillery. The fleet consisted of fifteen 
 ships of war from eighty to thirty-six guns, with 
 forty transports and six storeships under the com- 
 mand of Admiral Walker. A force fully equal to 
 the reduction of Quebec. 
 
 The fleet sailed from Boston on the 30th of July; 
 and a fast was ordered by Dudley to be kept on the 
 last Thursday of that, and each succeeding month, 
 till the enterprise should be finished. This was an 
 imitation of the conduct of the long parliament, 
 during the civil wars in the previous century. But the 
 sanguine hopes of success which had been enter- 
 tained by the nation and the colonies, were all 
 blasted in one fatal night: for, the fleet having ad- 
 vanced ten leagues into the river St. Lawrence, in 
 the night of the 23d of August, the weather being 
 thick and dark, eight transports were wrecked on 
 Egg Island near the north shore, and 1,000 people 
 perished ; of whom there was but one man who be- 
 longed to New England. The next day the fleet 
 put back, and were eight days beating down the 
 river against an easterly wind, which would in two 
 days have carried them to Quebec. After collecting 
 together at Spanish river in the island of Cape Bre- 
 ton, and holding a fruitless consultation about annoy- 
 ing the French at Placentia, the expedition was 
 broken up; the fleet returned to England, and the 
 New England troops to their homes. Loud com- 
 plaints and heavy charges were made on this occa- 
 sion ; the ignorance of the pilots the obstinacy of 
 the admiral the detention of the fleet at Boston 
 its late arrival there the want of seasonable orders 
 aud the secret intentions of the ministry, were all 
 subjects of bitter altercation; but the miscarriage 
 was never regularly enquired into, and the disasters 
 of the voyage were finally completed by the blowing 
 up of the admiral's ship, with most of his papers, 
 and 400 seamen, at Spithead. 
 
 (1712.) The failure of this expedition encouraged 
 the Indians to harass the frontiers as soon as the 
 season would permit. In April one Cunningham 
 was killed at Exeter, Ensign Tuttle at Dover, and 
 Jeremy Crommet at Oyster river; on one of the 
 upper branches of this stream the enemy burned a 
 saw-mill with a large quantity of boards. A scout- 
 ing party who went up the river Merrimack, had the 
 good fortune to surprise and kill eight Indians, and 
 recover a considerable quantity of plunder, without 
 the loss of a man. The frontiers were well guarded; 
 one half of the militia did duty at the garrisons and 
 were ready to march at a minute's warning; a scout 
 of forty men kept ranging on the heads of the towns, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 455 
 
 and the like care was taken by sea spy-boats being 
 employed in coasting from Cape Neddock to the 
 Great Boar's-head. Notwithstanding this vigi- 
 lance, small parties of the enemy were frequently 
 seen. Stephen Gilman and Ebenezer Stevens were 
 wounded at Kingston the former was taken and 
 put to death. In July an ambush was discovered 
 at Dover, but the enemy escaped; and while a 
 
 Sarty was gone in pursuit of them, two children of 
 ohn Waldron were taken, and for want of time to 
 scalp them, their heads were cut off. There being 
 no man at that time in Heard's garrison, a woman 
 named Esther Jones mounted guard, and with a 
 commanding voice called so loudly and resolutely 
 as made the enemy think there was help at hand, 
 and prevented farther mischief. 
 
 In autumn the news of the peace of Utrecht ar- 
 rived in America; and on the 29th of October the 
 suspension of arms was proclaimed at Portsmouth. 
 The Indians, being informed of this event, came in 
 with a flag of truce to Captain Moody at Casco, 
 and desired a treaty ; which the governor, with the 
 council of each province (1713), held at Ports- 
 mouth, where the chiefs and deputies of the several 
 belligerent tribes, by a formal writing under hand 
 and seal, acknowledged their perfidy, promised 
 fidelity, renewed their allegiance, submitted to the 
 laws, and begged the queen's pardon for their 
 former miscarriages. The frequent repetition of 
 such engagements, and as frequent violations of 
 them, had by this time much abated the sense of 
 obligation on the one part, and of confidence on the 
 other. But it being for the interest of both parties 
 to be at peace, the event was peculiarly welcome. 
 
 To preserve the dependence of the Indians, and to 
 prevent all occasions of complaint, private traffic with 
 them was forbidden, and truck houses established 
 at the public expense ; and the next summer (1714), 
 a ship was fitted out by both provinces, and sent to 
 Quebec, where an exchange of prisoners was effected. 
 
 During the whole of this long war, Usher behaved 
 as a faithful servant of the crown ; frequently coming 
 into the province by Dudley's direction, and some- 
 times residing in it several months, enquiring into 
 the state of the frontiers and garrisons, visiting 
 them in person, consulting with the officers of mili- 
 tia about the proper methods of defence and protec- 
 tion, and offering his service on all occasions : yet 
 his austere and ungracious manners, and the interest 
 he had in Allen's claim, effectually prevented him 
 from acquiring that popularity which he seems to 
 have deserved. He was solicitous to support the 
 dignity of his commission; but could never prevail 
 with the assembly to settle a salary upon him. The 
 council generally paid his travelling expenses by a 
 draught on the treasury, which never amounted to 
 more than bl. for each journey, until he came from 
 Boston to proclaim the accession of King George ; 
 when in a fit of loyalty and good humour they gave 
 him 10J., which served as a precedent for two or 
 three other grants. He often complained, and 
 sometimes in harsh and reproachful terms, of their 
 neglect; and once told told them that his "Negro 
 servants were much better accommodated in his house 
 than the queen's governor was in the queen's fort." 
 
 Dudley had the good fortune to be more popular. 
 Beside his attention to the general interest of the 
 province and his care for its defence, he had the 
 particular merit of favouring the views of those 
 who were most strongly opposed to Allen's claim ; 
 and they made him amends by promoting in the 
 assembly addresses to the queen, defending his cha- 
 
 ractei when it was attacked, and praying for his 
 continuance in office when petitions were presented 
 for his removal. One of these addresses was in 
 1706, and another in 1707, in both which they re- 
 present him as a " prudent, careful, and faithful 
 governor," and say they " are perfectly satisfied 
 with his disposal of the people, and their arms and 
 the public money." Addresses to the crown were 
 very frequent during this female reign. Scarce a 
 year passed without one or two ; they either con- 
 gratulated her majesty on her victories in Europe, 
 or petitioned for arms and military stores for their 
 defence, or for ships and troops to go against Ca- 
 nada, or represented their own poverty or Dudley's 
 merits, or thanked her majesty for her care and 
 protection, and for interposing in the affair of Allen's 
 suit and not suffering it to be decided against them. 
 A good harmony subsisted between the governor 
 and people, and between the two branches of the 
 legislature, during the whole of this administration. 
 
 On the accession of King George (1715), a change 
 was expected in the government, and the assembly 
 did what they could to prevent it by petitioning the 
 king for Dudley's continuance. But it being now 
 a time of peace, and a number of valuable officers 
 who had served with reputation in the late wars, 
 being out of employ; interest was made for their 
 obtaining places of profit under the crown. Colonel 
 Eliseus Burges who had served under General 
 Stanhope was, by his recommendation, commissionsd 
 governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire ; 
 and by the same interest George Vaughan, Esq., 
 then in London, was made lieutenant-governor of 
 the latter province; he arrived and published 
 his commission on the thirteenth of October. 
 Usher had some scruples about the validity of it, as 
 he had formerly had of Partridge's, and wrote on 
 the subject to the assembly, who assured him that, 
 on inspection, they had found Vaughan's commission 
 " strong and authentic ;" and that his own was 
 " null and void." Upon his dismission from office 
 he retired to his elegant seat at Medford, where he 
 spent the rest of his days, and died on the 5th of 
 September, 1726, in the 78th year of his age. 
 
 Burges wrote a letter to the assembly in July, in 
 which he informed them of his appointment, and of 
 his intention to sail for America in the following 
 month. But Sir William Ashurst, with Jeremy 
 Dumraer the Massachusetts agent, and Jonathan 
 Belcher, then in London, apprehending that he 
 would not be an acceptable person to the people 
 of New-England, prevailed with him for the con- 
 sideration of IOOOJ. sterling, which Dummer and 
 Belcher generously advanced, to resign his com- 
 mission ; and Colonel Samuel Shute was appointed 
 in his stead to the command of both provinces. He 
 arrived in New Hampshire and his commission was 
 published the 17th of October, 1716. Dudley being 
 thus superseded, retired to his family-seat at Rox- 
 bury, where he died in 1720, in the 73rd year of 
 his age. 
 
 The administration of Governor Shute, and his Lieu- 
 tenants, Vaughan and Wentworth. 
 
 (1715.) George Vaughan, Esq. was the son of 
 Major William Vaughan, who had been so ill used 
 by former governors, and had suffered so much in 
 the cause of his country, that the advancement of 
 his son to the office of lieutenant-governor was es- 
 teemed a mark of particular favour from the crown 
 to the province, and a singular gratification to the 
 parent, then in the decline of life. The lieutenant- 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 governor had been employed by the province, as 
 their agent in England, to manage their defence 
 against Allen. There he was taken notice of, by 
 some persons of quality and influence, with whom 
 his father had been connected ; and by them he was 
 recommended as a candidate for the honour to which 
 he was now advanced. 
 
 After he had arrived, and opened his commission, 
 Dudley, though not actually superseded, yet daily 
 expecting Burges to succeed him, did not think it 
 proper to come into the province, or perform any 
 acts of government ; so that, during a year, Vaughan 
 had the sole command. In this time he called an 
 assembly, who granted him the product of the im- 
 post and excise for one year, but refused to esta- 
 blish these duties for any longer tin;e; upon which 
 (1716) he dissolved them, and called another; to 
 whom he recommended, in a style too peremptory, 
 the establishment of a perpetual revenue to the 
 crown ; a matter in which he had been so much en- 
 gaged, that while in England, " he presented a 
 memorial to the king and ministry, to bring New 
 England into the land tax of Great Britain ; and 
 proposed that a receiver should be appointed by the 
 crown." The assembly was of opinion, that the 
 public charges might be defrayed in the usual man- 
 ner, by an equal tax on polls and estates ; and de- 
 clined laying an impost, or entering on any but 
 the common business of the year, till the arrival of 
 a governor. 
 
 When Governor Shute came to the chair, several 
 of the old counsellors were laid aside, and six new 
 ones appointed, all of whom were inhabitants of 
 Portsmouth. That town, at the same time, was un- 
 happily agitated by a controversy, which had for 
 some years subsisted between the two parishes. This 
 had not only imbittsred the minds of the people, but 
 had prejudiced some of the members of the council 
 and assembly, so as to affect the proceedings of the 
 legislature, and break the harmony which had been 
 preserved in that body during the preceding admi- 
 nistration. (1717.) The governor, in his first speech to 
 the assembly, took notice of their division, and advised 
 them to unanimity. They thanked him for his ad- 
 vice, but remonstrated against the removal of the 
 old counsellors, and the confining of the new ap- 
 pointments, both in the council and the judicial 
 courts, to residents in one town, as being contrary 
 to former usage, and giving an advantage to the 
 trading above the landed interest. This, they said, 
 was the reason that an impost could not now be ob- 
 tained, and that the whole burden of taxes was laid 
 on the husbandman and the labourer, who had been 
 greatly impoverished by the late war. The governor 
 wisely avoided an answer to this remonstrance, by 
 putting it on the council, who were a party in the 
 controversy. The council, in their answer, acknow- 
 ledged that the province had been much distressed by 
 the war, but had in a great measure recovered ; that 
 there would have been no opposition to an impost, 
 if the representatives had agreed to an act of export, 
 according to the practice in England; that the king 
 had a right to appoint his counsellors from any part 
 of the province ; that it was an affront to the pre- 
 rogative to find fault with the exercise of this light; 
 and that it was most convenient for the affairs o 
 government, especially upon sudden emergencies 
 that the council should reside near the seat of go 
 vernment. This answer might have appeared de 
 cent enough if they had not added, that they were 
 " gentlemen of the best quality, and greatec-t ability 
 to serve the government, in that station; and hai 
 
 .s good or better estates in land, and land securities, 
 han any in the house, and not inferior to the gen- 
 lemen who were laid aside." 
 
 While these altercations were in hand there was 
 i great complaint of the scarcity of money, and some 
 xpedient was judged necessary to supply tbo place 
 >f current coin. A proposal was made to issue ten 
 housand pounds in bills, on loan, for twenty-throe 
 fears, at five per cent, on land security. In this 
 oth houses agreed; but the next day the council 
 roposed to enlarge the sum to 15000/., to which the 
 louse would not consent. The governor then or- 
 dered the house to attend a conference with the 
 council; they desired to know on what subject; he 
 gave them no answer, but commanded their attcnd- 
 ince. Having conferred about the proposed loan to 
 no purpose, the circumstance of asking on what 
 ubject they were to confer was deemed an affront, 
 and served as a pretext for dissolving them. The 
 Text assembly was more pliant, and issued 15,000/. 
 in loan, for eleven years, at ten per cent. 
 
 A controversy also arose between the governor 
 md lieut.-governor about the power of the latter, in 
 he absence of the former. Vaughan contended, 
 hat when the governor was present in his other pro- 
 rince, he was absent from New Hampshire, and 
 consequently that the administration devolved on 
 iim. The position was a metaphysical truth, but 
 :he inference was to be measured by political rules. 
 Shute alleged that his commissions being published 
 and recorded in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, 
 le had the power of commander in chief over both 
 provinces, during his residence in either ; and thought 
 .t an absurdity to suppose, that the king had ap- 
 pointed the governor commander in chief, for five or 
 six weeks only in the year, and the lieutenant-go- 
 vernor during the rest of the time; and that if the 
 ieut. -governor should happen, in that time, to step 
 >ver the province line, the senior counsel must take 
 the chair ; this he said would make the province 
 " a monster with three heads." The controversy 
 was soon brought to an issue ; for Vaughan received 
 an order from Shute, while at Boston, to appoint a 
 fast, which he did not obey ; he received another to 
 prorogue the assembly, instead of which he dissolved 
 them, without the advice of council. He required 
 the opinion of the council on the extent of his power, 
 but they declined giving it. Penhallow, the gover- 
 nor's chief friend, was a warm opposer of Vaughan's 
 pretensions, and incurred so much of his displeasure, 
 that he publicly charged him with sowing discord in 
 the government, and suspended him from his seat in 
 council. On hearing this, Shute hasted to Ports- 
 mouth, and having summoned the council, ordered 
 the king's instruction to him for suspending coun- 
 sellors to be read, and demanded of Vaughan whe- 
 ther he had any instruction which superseded it. 
 He answered, no. The governor then asked the 
 council's advice whether the suspension of Penal- 
 low was legal ; they answered in the negative, lie 
 then restored him to his seat, and suspended Vaughan. 
 The assembly, which Vaughan had assumed the 
 right to dissolve, met again, and approved the pro- 
 ceedings against him, justifying the construction 
 which the governor had put on his commission, and 
 his opinion of the lieut.-governor's power; which 
 was " to observe such orders as he should from time 
 to time receive from the king or the governor in 
 chief." The representatives of Hampton presented 
 a remonstrance, in which, admitting the lieut.- 
 governor's opinion that " when the governor is out 
 of tho province-, ii*e lieut. -governor is empowered to 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 157 
 
 execute the king's commission," and asserting that 
 the governor was not in the province when the 
 lieut.-governor dissolved the assembly, they declared 
 that they could not act with the house, unless they 
 were re-elected. This remonstrance was deemed a 
 libel, and the governor in council having summoned 
 them before hinr>, laid them under bonds of 400/. 
 each, for their good behaviour. Ho then issued a 
 proclamation, asserting his sole power, as com- 
 mander in chief; and declaring that the lieut.- 
 governor had no right to exercise any acts of go- 
 vernment without his special order. 
 
 To maintain a controversy with a superior officer 
 on the extent of power, equally claimed by both, 
 requires a delicacy and address which does not fall 
 to the lot of every man. An aspiring and precipi- 
 tate temper may bring on such a contention, but 
 disqualifies the person from managing it with pro- 
 priety. Had Vaughan proposed to submit the 
 question to the king, he would have acted more in 
 character, and might have preserved his reputation, 
 though he had lost his power ; but having offended 
 the governor and disgusted the council and assem- 
 bly, he could hope for no favour from the crown. 
 When the report of the proceedings was sent to 
 England, Sir William Ashurst, who had great 
 interest at court and was a friend to New Eng- 
 land, and who greatly disrelished the memorial 
 which Vaughan had formerly presented to the king, 
 easily found means to displace him ; and in his room 
 was appointed John Wentworth, Esq., whose com- 
 mission was published on the 7th of December. 
 The celebrated Mr. Addison being then secretary 
 of state, 'this commission is countersigned by a 
 name particularly dear to the friends of liberty and 
 literature. 
 
 John Wentworth, Esq., grandson of William 
 Wentworth, formerly mentioned as one of the first 
 settlers of the country, had been in the early part 
 of his life commander of a ship, and had acquired a 
 handsome fortune by mercantile industry. With- 
 out any superior abilities or learning, by a steady 
 attention to business, and a prudent, obliging de- 
 portment, he had recommended himself to the 
 esteem of the people. Having been five years in 
 the council before his appointment as lieut.-governor, 
 he had carried the same useful qualities into public 
 life, and preserved or increased that respect which 
 he had acquired in a private station. The rancour 
 of contending parties made moderation a necessary 
 character in a chief magistrate; and the circum- 
 stances of the province, at that time, required a 
 person of experience in trade at its head. 
 
 It being a time of peace, after a long and dis- 
 tressing war, the improvement of which the province 
 was capable, in regard to its natural productions, 
 lumber and naval stoies, rose into view and became 
 objects of close attention, both here and in England. 
 As early as 1668, the government of Massachusetts, 
 under which the province then was, had reserved for 
 the public use all white pine trees of twenty-four 
 inches in diameter, at three feet from the ground. 
 In King William's reign, a surveyor of the woods 
 was appointed by the crown ; and an order was sent 
 to the Earl of Bellamont, to cause acts to be passed 
 in his several governments for the preservation of 
 the white pines. In 1708 a law made in New 
 Hampshire prohibited the cutting of such as were 
 twenty-four inches in diameter, at twelve inches 
 from the ground, without leave of the surveyor, who 
 was instructed by the queen to mark with the broad 
 arrow (hose which were, or might be, fit for the use 
 
 of the navy, and to keep a register of them. What- 
 ever severity might be used in executing the law, it 
 was no difficult matter for those who knew the 
 woods and were concerned in lumber to evade it ; 
 though sometimes they were detected and fined. 
 Great complaints were frequently made of the de- 
 struction of the royal woods ; every governor and 
 lieut.-governor had occasion to declaim on the sub- 
 ject in their speeches and letters ; it was a favourite 
 point in England, and recommended them to their 
 superiors as careful guardians of the royal interest. 
 On the other hand, the people made as loud com- 
 plaints against the surveyor, for prohibiting the 
 cutting of pine trees, and yet neglecting to mark 
 such as were fit for masts ; by which means, many 
 trees which never could be used as masts, and might 
 be cut into logs for sawing, were rotting in the 
 woods ; or the people who got them were exposed to 
 a vexatious prosecution. When no surveyor was 
 on the spot, the governor and council appointed 
 suitable persons to take care that no waste should 
 be made of the mast trees ; and these officers, with 
 a very moderate allowance, performed the duty to 
 much better purpose than those who were sent 
 from England and maintained at a great expense 
 to the crown. 
 
 (1718.) As those trees which grew within the 
 limits of the townships were deemed private property, 
 the people were desirous to get other townships laid 
 out, that the trees might be secured for their own 
 use. This was a difficult point. The assembly, in 1704, 
 during the controversy with Allen, had explicitly dis- 
 claimed all title to the waste lands, by which they 
 understood all those without the bounds of their towns. 
 The heirs of Allen kept a jealous eye upon them. 
 Usher, who claimed by mortgage from Governor 
 Allen, was still living, and was daily inviting pur- 
 chasers by advertisements. The heir of Sir Charles 
 Hobby, whose claim was founded on purchase from 
 Thomas Allen, had offered his title to the assembly, 
 but they had refused it. The creditors of Hobby's 
 estate had applied for letters of administration ; and 
 though the matter had been by the judge of probate 
 submitted to the general court, and by their advice 
 suspended, yet the letters had been granted. Allen's 
 other heirs were in a state of minority in England ; 
 but their guardian was attentive to their interest. 
 The controversy had become more complex than 
 before ; and the claimants, however multiplied in 
 number and discordant in their views, yet had an 
 interest separate from that of the public. The 
 royal determination could not be had, but on an ap- 
 peal from a verdict at law ; but no suits were now 
 pending; nor coiild the lands be granted by royal 
 charter, without seeming to intrench on the property 
 of the claimants. Notwithstanding these difficulties, 
 the necessity of extending the settlements, and im- 
 proving the natural advantages of the country, was 
 too apparent to be neglected. 
 
 (1719.) Great quantities of iron ore were found in 
 many places ; and it was in contemplation to erect 
 forges on some of the rivers and to introduce foreign 
 artists and labourers to refine it. A law was made lay- 
 ing a penalty of ten pounds per ton on the transporting 
 of it out of the province ; but for the further en- 
 couragement of the manufacture, it was deemed 
 necessary that some lands should be appropriated to 
 the purpose of supplying with fuel the iron works 
 which were to be erected on Lamprey river, and of 
 settling the people who were to be employed in that 
 service. On this occasion it was recollected that in 
 1672, while this province was subject to the Masta- 
 
458 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 chusetts government, and after the town of Ports- 
 mouth had made a liberal contribution for the re- 
 building of Havard College, a promise had been 
 made by the general court to grant to that town a 
 quantity of " land for a village, when they should 
 declare to thecQurtthe place where they desired it." 
 Upon (his, a petition was presented to the governor 
 and council praying for a fulfilment of this promise ; 
 and after some hesitation, a grant was made of a 
 slip of land two miles in breadth above the head 
 line of Dover, for the use of the iron works, which 
 was called the " renewing a grant formerly made." 
 This was known by the name of the two-mile slip, 
 and it was afterwards included in the township of 
 Harrington. 
 
 In some parts of the province were many pitch- 
 pine trees, unfit for masts, but capable of yielding 
 tar and turpentine. A monopoly of this manufac- 
 ture had been attempted by a company of merchants ; 
 but when many thousand trees were prepared for 
 use, they were destroyed by unknown hands. After- 
 wards a law was made providing that tar should be 
 received in lieu of taxes, at twenty shillings per 
 barrel. This encouraged the making of it for some 
 time. Another law laid a penalty on the injuring 
 of trees for drawing turpentine. Butprhate inte- 
 rest was too strong to be counteracted by a sense of 
 public utility. Too many incisions being made in 
 the trees at once, they were soon destroyed; and 
 as those which were near at hand became scarce, 
 the manufacture was gradually discontinued. 
 
 Hemp was another object. Some had been sown, 
 and from the specimen of its growth, much advan- 
 tage was expected. An act was made to encourage 
 it ; and it was allowed to be received at the treasury, 
 in lieu of money, at one shilling per pound. But 
 as there was scarcely land enough in cultivation for 
 the production of corn, it was vain to think of rais- 
 ing a less necessary commodity. 
 
 The parliament of England was attentive to the 
 advantages which might be derived to the nation from 
 the colonies, to which they were particularly incited 
 by the war which at this time raged between Swe- 
 den arid Russia the grand mart for ncival stores in 
 Europe. A duty which had been paid on lumber 
 imported from America, was taken off ; and this was 
 esteemed so great a favour to New Hampshire that 
 the assembly thanked Shute for the share he had in 
 obtaining it. About the same time an act of par- 
 liament was made for the preservation of the w r hite 
 pines. Penalties, in proportion to the size of the 
 trees, were laid on the cutting of those which grew 
 without the bounds of townships ; and for the greater 
 terror, these penalties were to be recovered by the 
 oath of one witness, in a court of admiralty ; where 
 a single judge, appointed by the crown, and remove- 
 able at pleasure, determined the cause without a jury. 
 While this bill was pending, Henry Newman, the 
 agent for New Hampshire, petitioned against the 
 severity of it, but without effect. 
 
 Great inconveniences had arisen for want of a due 
 settlement of the limits of the province. The people 
 who lived near the supposed line, were sometimes 
 taxed in both provinces, and were liable to arrests 
 by the officers of both ; and sometimes the officers 
 themselves were at variance, and imprisoned each 
 other. Several attempts had been made to remove 
 the difficulty, and letters frequently passed between 
 the two courts on the subject, in consequence of pe- 
 titions and complaints from the borderers. In 1716 
 commissioners were appointed by both provinces, to 
 settle the line. The New Hampshire commissioners 
 
 were furnished by Lieut.-Governor Vaughan, with 
 a copy of the report of the lords chief justices in 
 1677, and were instructed " to follow the course of 
 the river Merrimack, at the distance of three miles 
 north as far as the river extends." The commis- 
 sioners on the other side corn plained that this power 
 was not sufficient. If by sufficient it was meant that 
 they had no power to vary from their instructions, 
 the objection was true, but why this should have 
 been objected it is not so easy to account, since the 
 instructions would have given Massachusetts all which 
 they could claim by virtue of their old charter ; or 
 the judgment upon it, on which they always laid 
 much stress. Three years afterward the affair was 
 agitated again, in obedience to an order from the 
 lords of trade ; who directed a map to be drawn and 
 sent to them, in which the boundaries of the pro- 
 vince should be deliueated, and the best accounts 
 and vouchers procured to elucidate it. Commis- 
 sioners were again appointed to meet at Newbury ; 
 and those from New Hampshire were instructed by 
 Lieutenaut-Governor Wentworth to confer with the 
 others ; and if they could agree in fixing the place 
 where to begin the line, they were to report accord- 
 ingly : but if not, they were to proceed ex parte, 
 " setting their compass on the north side of the mouth 
 of Merrimack river at high water mark, and from 
 thence measuring three miles on a north line, and 
 from the end of the first three miles on a west line 
 into the country, till they should meet the great 
 river which runs out of Winipisiogee pond." To 
 this idea of a west line the Massachusetts commis- 
 sioners objected; and desired that the commission 
 of the governor of New Hampshire might be sent to 
 Newbury, which was refused, and the conference 
 ended without any agreement. However, a plan 
 was drawn agreeably to these instructions, and sent 
 to the lords of trade ; and Newman, the agent, was 
 instructed to solicit for a confirmation of it. In 
 these instructions, the ideas of the gentlemen in 
 government are more fully expressed. The due west 
 line on the southern side of the province, they sup- 
 posed, ought to extend as far as Massachusetts ex- 
 tended. The line on the northerly side adjoining 
 to the province of Maine, they supposed ought to 
 be drawn up the middle of the river Pascataqua, as 
 far as the tide flows in the Newichwannock branch; 
 and thence northwestward, but whether two or more 
 points westward of north, was left for further con- 
 sideration. 
 
 While these things were in agitation, the pro- 
 vince unexpectedly received an accession of inhabit* 
 ants from the north of Ireland. A colony of Scots 
 pvcsbyterians had been settled in the Province of 
 Ulster, in the reign of James I.; they had borne a 
 large share in the sufferings which the protestants 
 in that unhappy country underwent, in the reign 
 of Charles I. and James II. ; and had thereby con- 
 ceived an ardent and inextinguishable thirst for 
 civil and religious liberty. Notwithstanding the 
 peace which Ireland had enjoyed, since the sub- 
 jection of the Popish party by King William, som 
 penal laws were still in force, which, with the incon- 
 venience of rents and tithes, made these people wish 
 for a settlement in America ; where they might be 
 free from these burthens and have full scope for 
 their industry. One Holmes, a youug man, son of 
 a clergyman, had been here and carried home a 
 favourable report of the country, which induced 
 his father, with three other presb'yterian ministers, 
 James Macgregore, William Cornwall, and William 
 Boyd, and a large number of their congregations, to 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 459 
 
 resolve on an emigration. Having converted their 
 substance into money, they embarked in five ships, 
 and on the 14th of October, 1718, about 100 families 
 of them arrived at Boston. Cornwell, with about 
 twenty families more, arrived at Casco. They im- 
 mediately petitioned the Assembly of Massachusetts 
 for a tract of land ; who gave them leave to look 
 out a settlement of six miles square, in any of the 
 unappropriated lands at the eastward. After a 
 fruitless search along the shore, finding no place 
 that suited them there, sixteen families, hearing of 
 a tract of good land, above Haverhill, called Nut- 
 field (from the great number of chesnut and walnut- 
 trees there), and being informed that it was not 
 appropriated, determined there to take up their 
 grant ; the others dispersed themselves into various 
 parts of the country. 
 
 As soon as the spring opened, the men went from 
 Haverhill, where they left their families, and built 
 some huts near a brook which falls into Beaver 
 River, and which they named West-running brook. 
 The first evening after their arrival, a sermon was 
 preached to them under a large oak, which is to 
 this day regarded with a degree of veneration. As 
 soon as they could collect their families, they called 
 Macgregore to be their minister, who, since his 
 arrival in the country, had preached at Dracut. 
 At the first sacramental occasion were present, two 
 ministers and 65 communicants. Macgregore con- 
 tinued with them till his death ; and his memory is 
 still green among them: he was a wise, affec- 
 tionate, and faithful guide, both in civil and re- 
 ligious concerns. These people brought with them 
 the necessary materials for the manufacture of 
 linen ; and their spinning wheels, turned by the 
 foot, were a novelty in the country. They also in- 
 troduced the culture of potatoes, which were first 
 planted in the garden of Nathaniel Walker, of 
 Andover. They were an industrious, frugal, and 
 consequently thriving people. 
 
 They met with some difficulty in obtaining a title 
 to their lands. If the due west line between the 
 provinces had been established, it would have passed 
 through their settlement and divided it between 
 Massachusetts and New Hampshire ; but the curve 
 line, following the course of Merrimack at three 
 miles distance, would leave them unquestionably in 
 New Hampshire. This was the idea of the General 
 Court of Massachusetts, who, upon application to 
 them for a confirmation of their former grant, de- 
 clared them to be out of their jurisdiction. Among 
 the many claimants to these lands, they were in- 
 formed that Colonel Whelewright, of Wells, had 
 the best Indian title, derived from his ancestors. 
 Supposing this to be valid in a moral view, they 
 followed the example of the first settlers of New 
 England, and obtained a deed of ten miles square, 
 in virtue of the general license granted by the 
 Indian Sagamores in 1629. To prevent difficulty 
 from Allen's claim, they applied for leave of settle- 
 ment to Colonel Usher, who told them that the land 
 was in dispute, and that he could not give them 
 leave, but that he supposed they might settle on it, 
 if they would hold it either of the king or of Allen's 
 heirs, as the case might be determined. They also 
 applied to the Lieutenant Governor of New Hamp- 
 shire, who declined making them a grant in the 
 king's name ; but, by advice of council, gave them 
 a protection, and extended the benefit of the law to 
 them ; appointing James M'Kean to be a justice of 
 the peace, and Robert Wier a deputy-sheriff. 
 
 (1720.) Some persons who claimed these lands, 
 
 by virtue of a deed of about twenty years date, from 
 John, an Indian Sagamore, gave them some dis- 
 turbance ; but, having obtained what they judged a 
 superior title, and enjoying the protection of govern- 
 ment, they went on with their plantation ; receiving 
 frequent additions of their countrymen, as well as 
 others, till in 1722, their town was incorporated by 
 the name of Londonderry, from a city in the north 
 of Ireland, in and near to which most of them had 
 resided ; and in which some of them had endured 
 the hardships of a memorable siege. John Barr, 
 William Caldwell, and Abraham Blair, with several 
 others who had suffered in this siege, and formerly 
 came to America, were by King William's special 
 order made free of taxes through all the British 
 dominions. 
 
 The settlement of these emigrants on the waste 
 lands opened the way for other plantations. Those 
 who had borne the burthens and distresses of war, 
 in defending the country, had long been circum 
 scribed within the limits of the old towns, but were 
 now multiplied, and required room to make settle- 
 ments for their children. They thought it hard 
 to be excluded from the privilege of cultivating the 
 lands, which they and their fathers had defended; 
 while strangers were admitted to sit down peaceably 
 upon them. These were weighty reasons. At the 
 same time no attempt was making by any of the 
 claimants to determine the long-contested point of 
 property ; and, in fact, no person could give a clear 
 and undisputed title to any of the unsettled lands. 
 
 In these circumstances a company of about one 
 hundred persons, inhabitants of Portsmouth, Exeter 
 and Haverhill, petitioned for liberty to begin a 
 plantation on the northerly part of the lands called 
 Nutfield. (1721.) These were soon followed by 
 petitioners from the other towns, for the lands which 
 lay contiguous to them. The governor and council 
 kept the petitions suspended for a long time, giving 
 public notice to all persons concerned to make their 
 objections. In this time the lands were surveyed, 
 and the limits of four proposed townships deter- 
 mined ; and the people were permitted to build and 
 plant upon the lands, " provided that they did not 
 infringe on, or interfere with, any former grants, 
 possessions, or properties." Some of these lands 
 were well stocked with pine trees, which were felled 
 in great abundance ; this occasioned a fresh com- 
 plaint from the King's surveyor. 
 
 (1722.) At length, charters being prepared, were 
 signed by the governor; by which four townships, 
 Chester, Nottingham, Barrington, and Rochester, 
 were granted and incorporated. The grants were 
 made in the name of the king, who was considered 
 as the common guardian, both of the people and the 
 claimants ; but with a clause of reservation, " as far 
 as in us lies," that there might be no infringement 
 on the claims. 
 
 The signing of these grants was the last act of go- 
 vernment performed by Shute in New Hampshire. 
 A violent party in Massachusetts had made such 
 strenuous opposition to him, and caused him so 
 much vexation, as rendered it eligible for him to 
 ask leave to return to England. He is said to have 
 been a man of a humane, obliging, and friendly dis- 
 position; but having been used to military com- 
 mand, could not bear with patience the collision of 
 parties, nor keep his temper when provoked. Fond 
 3f ease, and now in the decline of life, he would 
 gladly have spent his days in America if he could 
 lave avoided controversy. The people of New 
 Hampshire were satisfied with his administration, as 
 
460 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 far as it respected them; and though they did not 
 settle a salary on him as on his predecessor, yet 
 they made him a grant twice in the year, generally 
 amounting to a hundred pounds, and paid it out of 
 the excise, which was voted from year to year. This 
 was more, in proportion, than he received from his 
 other government. On his departure for England, 
 (1723), which was very sudden and unexpected, 
 Lieut.-Governor Wentworth took the chief com 
 mand, in a time of distress and perplexity ; the 
 country being then involved in another war with 
 the natives. 
 
 The fourth Indian war, commonly called the three 
 years' war, or LoveweWs war. 
 
 To account for the frequent wars with the eastern 
 Indians, usually called by the French the Abenaquis, 
 and their unsteadiness, both in war and peace we 
 must observe, that they were situated between the 
 colonies of two European nations, who were often at 
 war with each other, and who pursued very different 
 measures with regard to them. 
 
 As the lands, on which they lived, were compre- 
 hended in the patents granted by the crown of Eng- 
 land, the natives were considered by the English as 
 subjects of that crown. In the treaties and con- 
 ferences held with them, they were styled the king's 
 subjects ; when war was declared against them, they 
 were called rebels ; and when they were compelled 
 to make peace, they subscribed an acknowledgment 
 of their perfidy, and a declaration of their submis- 
 sion to the government, without any just ideas of 
 the meaning of those terms ; and it is a difficult 
 point, to determine what kind of subjects they were. 
 
 Beside the patents derived from the crown, the 
 English in general were fond of obtaining from the 
 Indians deeds of sale for those lands on which 
 they were disposed to make settlements. Some of 
 these deeds were executed with legal formality, and 
 a valuable consideration was paid to the natives for 
 the purchase; and others were of obscure and un- 
 certain origin ; but the memory of such transac- 
 tions was soon lost, among a people who had no 
 written records. Lands had been purchased of the 
 Indian chiefs, on the rivers Kennebeck and St. 
 George, at an early period; but the succeeding In- 
 dians either had no knowledge of the sales made by 
 their ancestors, or had an idea that such bargains 
 were not binding on posterity ; who had as much 
 need of the lands, and could use them to the same 
 purpose as their fathers. At first, the Indians did 
 not know that the European manner of cultivating 
 lands, and erecting mills and dams, would drive 
 away the game and fish, and thereby deprive them 
 of the means of subsistence ; afterwards, finding by 
 experience that this was the consequence of admit- 
 ting foreigners to settle among them, they repented 
 of their hospitality, and were inclined to dispossess 
 their new neighbours, as the only way of restoring 
 the country to its pristine state, and of recovering 
 their usual mode of subsistence. 
 
 They were extremely offended by the settlements 
 which the English, after the peace of Utrecht, made 
 on the lands at the eastward, and by their building 
 forts, block houses, and mills ; whereby their usual 
 mode of passing the rivers and carrying-places 
 was interrupted ; and they could not believe, though 
 they were told with great solemnity, that these for- 
 tifications were erected for their defence against in- 
 vasion. When conferences were in 1717 held with 
 them on this subject, they either denied that the 
 ]&nds had been sold, or pretended that the sachems 
 
 had exceeded their powor in making the bargains, 
 or had conveyed lands beyond the limits of their 
 tribe; or that the English had taken advantage of 
 their drunkenness to make them sign the deeds; or 
 that no valuable consideration had been given for 
 tho purchase. No arguments or evidence which 
 could be adduced would satisfy them, unless the lands 
 were paid for again; and had this been done once, 
 their posterity after a few years would have renewed 
 the demand. 
 
 On the other hand, the French did not in a formal 
 manner declare them subjects of the crown of France; 
 but every tribe, however small, was allowed to pre- 
 serve its independence. Those who were situated 
 in the heart of Canada kept their lands to them- 
 selves, which were never solicited from them; those 
 who dwelt on the rivers and shores of the Atlantic, 
 though distant from the French colonies, received 
 annual presents from the king of France ; and soli- 
 tary traders resided with, or occasionally visited 
 them; but no attempt was made by any company to 
 settle on their lands. 
 
 It was in the power of the English to supply them 
 with provisions, arms, ammunition, blankets, and 
 other articles which they wanted, cheaper than they 
 could purchase them of the French. (1717.) Gover- 
 nor Snute had promised that trading houses should 
 be established among them, and that a smith should 
 be provided to keep their arms and other instru- 
 ments in repair; but the unhappy contentions be- 
 tween the governor and assembly of Massachusetts 
 prevented a compliance with this engagement. The 
 Indians were therefore obliged to submit to the 
 impositions of private traders, or to seek supplies 
 from the French; who failed not to join with 
 them in reproaching the English for this breach 
 of promise, and for their avidity in getting away 
 the land. 
 
 The inhabitants of the eastern parts of New Eng- 
 land were not of the best character for religion, and 
 were ill adapted to engage the affections of the In- 
 dians by their example. The frequent hostilities on 
 this quarter, not only kept alive a spirit of jealousy 
 and revenge in individuals, but prevented any en- 
 deavours to propagate religious knowledge among 
 the Indians by the government ; though it was one 
 of the conditions of their charter, and though many 
 good men wished it might be attempted. At length 
 Governor Shute, in his conference with their Sa- 
 chems at Arrowsic, introduced this important busi- 
 ness by offering them in a formal manner, an Indian 
 bible, and a protestant missionary ; but they rejected 
 both, saying, " God hath given us teaching already, 
 and if we should go from it we should displease him." 
 He would have done much better service, and per- 
 haps prevented a war, if he had complied with their 
 earnest desire to fix a boundary, beyond which the 
 English should not extend their settlements. 
 
 A gentleman, in conversation with one of their 
 Sachems, asked him why they were so strongly at- 
 tached to the French, from whom they could not 
 expect to receive so much benefit as from the Eng- 
 lish ; the Sachem gravely answered, " Because the 
 French have taught us to pray to God, which the 
 English never did." 
 
 The Jesuits had planted themselves among these 
 tribes. They had one church at Penobscot, and ano- 
 ther at Norrigdwog, where Sebastian Ralle, a French 
 Jesuit, resided. He was a man of good sense, learn- 
 ing and address, and by a compliance with then- 
 mode of life, and a gentle, condescending deport 
 ment. had gained their affections so as to manage 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 4G1 
 
 them at his pleasure. Knowing the power of super- 
 stition over the savage mind, he took advantage of 
 this, and of their prejudice against the English, to 
 promote the cause, and strengthen the interest of 
 the French among them. He even made the offices 
 of devotion serve as incentives to their ferocity, and 
 kept a flag, in which was depicted a cross, sur- 
 rounded by bows and arrows, which he used to hoist 
 on a polo, at the door of his church, when he gave 
 them absolution, previously to their engaging in any 
 warlike enterprise. 
 
 With this Jesuit, the governor of Canada held a 
 close correspondence ; and by him was informed of 
 every thing transacted among the Indians. By this 
 means, their discontent with the English, on account 
 of the settlements made at the eastward, was height- 
 ened and inflamed; and they received every en- 
 couragement, to assert their title to the lands in 
 question, and molest the settlers, by killing their 
 cattle, burning their stacks of hay, robbing and in- 
 sulting them. These insolencies discouraged the 
 people, and caused many of them to remove. (1720) 
 The garrisons were then reinforced ; and scouting 
 parties were ordered into the eastern quarter, under 
 the command of Col. Shadrach Walton. By this 
 appearance of force, the Indians, who dreaded the 
 power of the English, were restrained from open 
 hostilities. They had frequent parleys with the com- 
 manders of forts, and with commissioners who vi- 
 sited them occasionally ; and though at first they 
 seemed to be resolute in demanding the removal of 
 the English, declaring that " they had fought for 
 the land three times, and would fight for it again ;" 
 yet when they were told that there was no alternative 
 but perfect peace or open war, and that if they 
 chose peace they must forbear every kind of insult, 
 they seemed to prefer peace ; and either pretended 
 ignorance of what had been done, or promised to 
 make inquiry into it; and as an evidence of their 
 good intentions, offered a tribute of skins, and de- 
 livered up four of their young men as hostages. 
 
 This proceeding was highly disrelished by the go- 
 vernor of Canada, who renewed his efforts to keep 
 up the quarrel, and secretly promised to supply the 
 Indians with arms and ammunition ; though as it 
 was a time of peace between the two crowns, he 
 could not openly assist them. 
 
 The New England governments, though highly 
 incensed, were not easily persuaded to consent to a 
 war. The dispute was between the Indians and the 
 proprietors of the eastern lands, in which the public 
 were not directly interested. No blood had as yet 
 been shed. Canseau had been surprised and plun- 
 dered, and some people killed there ; but that was 
 in the government of Nova Scotia. Ralle was re- 
 garded as the principal instigator of the Indians ; 
 and it was thought, that if he could be taken off they 
 would be quiet. It was once proposed to send the 
 sheriff of York county with a posse of 150 men, to 
 seize and bring him to Boston ; but this was not 
 agreed to. (1721.) The next summer, Ralle, in 
 company with Castine from Penobscot, and Croisil 
 from Canada, appeared among the Indians, at a confe- 
 rence held on Arrowsic island, with Capt. Penhal- 
 low, the commander of the garrison, and brought a 
 letter, written in the name of the several tribes of 
 Indians, directed to Governor Shute ; in which it 
 was declared, " that if the English did not remove 
 in three weeks, they would kill them and their cattle 
 and burn their houses." An additional guard was 
 sent down ; but the government, loth to come to a 
 rupture, and desirous if possible to treat with the 
 
 Indians separately from the French emissaries, in- 
 vited them to another conference, which they treated 
 with neglect. 
 
 In the succeeding winter, a party under Col. Tho- 
 mas Westbrookc was ordered to Norridgwog to seize 
 Ralle. They arrived at the village undiscovered, 
 but before they could surround his house, he escaped 
 into the woods, leaving his papers in his strongbox, 
 which they brought off without doing any other da- 
 mage. Among these papers were his letters of cor- 
 respondence with the governor of Canada, by which 
 it clearly appeared, that he was deeply engaged in 
 exciting the Indians to a rupture, and had promised 
 to assist them. 
 
 This attempt to seize their spiritual father, could 
 not long be unrevenged. (1722.) The next sum- 
 mer they took nine families from Merrymeeting 
 bay, and after dismissing some of the prisoners, re- 
 tained enough to secure the redemption of their hos- 
 tages, and sent them to Canada. About the same 
 time they made an attempt on the fort at St. George's ; 
 but were repulsed with considerable loss. They also 
 surprised some fishing vessels in the eastern har- 
 bours ; and at length made a furious attack on the 
 town of Brunswick, which they destroyed. This ac- 
 tion determined the government to issue a declara- 
 tion of war against them, which was published in 
 form at Boston and Portsmouth. 
 
 New Hampshire being 'seated in the bosom of 
 Massachusetts, had the same interest to serve, and 
 bore a proportionable share of all these transactions 
 and the expenses attending them. Walton, who 
 first commanded the forces sent into the eastern 
 parts, and Westbrooke, who succeeded him, as well 
 as Penhallow, the commander of the fort at Arrow- 
 sic, were New Hampshire men; the two former 
 were of the council. A declaration of war being 
 made, the enemy were expected on every part of the 
 frontiers ; and the assembly were obliged to concert 
 measures for their security, after an interval of peace 
 for about ten years. 
 
 The usual route of the Indians, in their marches 
 to the frontiers of New Hampshire, was by the way 
 of Winipiseogee lake. The distance from Cochecho 
 falls in the town of Dover, to the south-east bay of 
 that lake, is about thirty miles. It was thought that 
 if a road could be opened to that place, and a fort 
 built there, the enemy would be prevented from 
 coming that way. Orders were accordingly issued, 
 and a party of 250 men were employed in cutting 
 down the woods for a road ; but the expense so far 
 exceeded the benefit which could be expected from 
 a fort at such a distance, in the wilderness, to be 
 supplied with provisions and ammunition by land 
 carriage, which might easily be interrupted by the 
 enemy, that the design was laid aside, and the old 
 method of defence by scouts and garrisons was 
 adopted. Lieut-governor Wentworth, being com- 
 mander in chief in Shute's absence, was particu'arly 
 careful to supply the garrisons with stores, and visit 
 them in person, to see that the duty was regularly 
 performed; for which, and other prudent and faithful 
 services, he frequently received the acknowledg- 
 ments of the assembly and grants of money, generally 
 amounting to 100/. at every session, and sometimes 
 more. They also took care to inlist men for two 
 years, and to establish the wages of officers and 
 soldiers at the following rates : a captain at seven 
 pounds per month, a lieutenant four pounds, a ser- 
 geant fifty-eight shillings, a corporal forty-five shil- 
 lings, and a private forty shillings. A bounty of 
 one hundred pounds was offered for every Indian 
 
4G2 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA 
 
 scalp. The difference between the currency and 
 sterling was two and a half for one. 
 
 (1723.) The first appearance of the enemy in New 
 Hampshire was at Dover, were they surprised and 
 killed Joseph Ham, and took three of his children ; 
 the rest of the family escaped to the garrison. Soon 
 after they waylaid the road, and killed Tristram 
 Heard. Their next onset was at Lamprey river, 
 where they killed Aaron Rawlins and one of his 
 children, taking his wife and two children captive. 
 This Aaron Rawlins (whose wife was a daughter of 
 Edward Taylor, who was killed by the Indians in 
 1704) lived upon the plantation left by Taylor, 
 about half a mile west from Lamprey river landing, 
 at the lower falls on Piscasick river. The people 
 there at that time, commonly retired at night to the 
 garrisoned houses, and returned home in the day 
 time; but that night they neglected to retire as 
 usual. His brother Samuel also lived about half a 
 mile distant on the same river. It seems the Indian 
 scout consisted of eighteen, who probably had been 
 reconnoitring some time, and intended to have de- 
 stroyed both the families, and for that purpose 
 divided, and nine went to each house ; but the party 
 that went to Samuel Rawlins's, beating in the win- 
 dow, and finding the family gone, immediately joined 
 their companions, who were engaged at Aaron's. 
 His wife went out at the door (ignorant of 
 course of the Indians being there), and was 
 immediately seized, and also one or two of her 
 children who followed her. Her husband being 
 alarmed, secured the door before they could enter, 
 and with his eldest daughter, about twelve years 
 old, stood upon his defence, repeatedly firing where- 
 ver they attempted to enter, and at the same time 
 calling earnestly to his neighbours for help ; but 
 the people in the several garrisoned houses near, 
 apprehending from the noise and incessant firing, 
 the number of the enemy to be greater than they 
 were, and expecting every moment to be attacked 
 themselves, did not venture to come to his assistance. 
 Having for some time bravely withstood such une- 
 qual force, he was at last killed by their random 
 shots through the house, which they then broke 
 open, and killed his daughter. They scalped him, 
 and cut off his daughter's head, either through haste 
 or probably being enraged against her, on account 
 of the assistance she had afforded her father in their 
 defence, which evidently appeared by her hands 
 being soiled with powder. His wife and two chil- 
 dren (a son and a daughter) they carried to Canada. 
 The woman was redeemed in a few years ; the son 
 was adopted by the Indians, and lived with them all 
 his days : he came into Pennycook with the Indians 
 after the peace, and expressed to some people with 
 whom he conversed much resentment against his 
 uncle Samuel Rawlins, supposing he had detained 
 from his mother some property left by his father, 
 but manifested no desire of returning to Newmarket 
 again. The daughter married with a Frenchman, 
 and when she was near sixty years old returned 
 with her husband to her native place, in expectation 
 of recovering the patrimony she conceived was left 
 at the death of her father ; but the estate having 
 been sold by her grandfather Taylor's administrator, 
 they were disappointed, and after a year or two went 
 back to Canada. 
 
 The next spring (1724), the Indians killed James 
 Nock, one of the elders of the church, as he was 
 returning on horseback from setting his beaver 
 traps in the woods. Soon after they appeared at 
 Kingston, where they took Peter Colcord and 
 
 Ephraini Stevens, and two children of Ebenezor 
 Stevens. They were pursued by scouts from King- 
 ston and Londonderry, but in vain. Colcord n.adf 
 his escape in about six months, and received a gra- 
 tuity of ten pounds from the assembly, for his 
 " courage and ingenuity, and for the account he gave 
 of the proceedings of the enemy." 
 
 On a sabbath day they ambushed the road at 
 Oyster river, and killed George Chesley, and mor- 
 tally wounded Elizabeth Burnham, as they were re- 
 turning together from public worship. In a few 
 days more, five Indians took Thomas Smith and 
 John Carr, at Chester, and after carrying them 
 about thirty miles, bound them and lay down to 
 sleep ; the captives escaped, and in three days ar- 
 rived safe at a garrison in Londonderry. 
 
 The settlements at Oyster river being very muck 
 exposed, a company of volunteers under the com- 
 mand of Abraham Bemvick, who went out on the 
 encouragement offered by the government for scalps, 
 were about marching to make discoveries. It hap- 
 pened that Moses Davis, and his son of the same 
 name, being at work in their corn field, went to a 
 brook to drink, where they discovered three Indian 
 packs. They immediately gave notice of this dis- 
 covery to the volunteer company, and went before 
 to guide them to the spot. The Indians had placed 
 themselves in ambush; and the unhappy father and 
 son were both killed. The company then fired, 
 killed one, and wounded two others who made their 
 escape, though they were pursued and tracked by 
 their blood to a considerable distance. The slain 
 Indian was a person of distinction, and wore a kind 
 of coronet of scarlet-dyed fur, with an appendage of 
 four small bells, by the sound of which the others 
 might follow him through the thickets. His hail- 
 was remarkbly soft and fine, aud he had about him 
 devotional book and muster-roll of 180 Indians ; 
 from which circumstances it was supposed that he 
 was a natural son of the Jesuit Ralle, by an Indian 
 woman who had served him as a laundress. His 
 scalp was presented to the lieut.-governer in coun- 
 cil, by Robert Burnham, and the promised bounty 
 was paid to Captain Francis Matthews, in trust for 
 the company. 
 
 Within the town of Dover were many families of 
 Quakers; who, scrupling the lawfulness of war, 
 could not be persuaded to use any means for their 
 defence, though equally exposed with their neigh- 
 bours to an enemy who made no distinction between 
 them. One of these people, Ebenezer Downs, was 
 taken by the Indians, and was grossly insulted and 
 abused by them, because he refused to dance as the 
 other prisoners did, for the diversion of their savage 
 captors. Another of them, John Hanson, who lived 
 on the outside of the town in a remote situation, 
 could not be persuaded to remove to a garrison, 
 though he had a large family of children. A party 
 of thirteen Indians, called" French Mohawks, had 
 marked his house for their prey; and lay several 
 days in ambush, waiting for an opportunity to as- 
 sault it. While Hanson with his eldest daughter 
 were gone to attend the weekly meeting of Friends, 
 arid his two eldest sons were at work in a meadow 
 at some distance, the Indians entered the house, 
 killed and scalped two small children, and took his 
 wife, with her infant of fourteen days old, her nurse, 
 two daughters and a son, and after rifling the house 
 carried them off. This was done so suddenly and 
 secretly, that the first person who discovered it was 
 the eldest daughter at her return from the meeting 
 before her father. Seeing the two children dead at 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 463 
 
 the door, she gave a shriek of distress, which wa> 
 distinctly heard by her mother, then in the hands o 
 the enemy among the bushes, and by her brothers 
 in the meadow. The people being alarmed, wen' 
 in pursuit; but the Indians cautiously avoiding al 
 paths, went off with their captives undiscovered 
 After this disaster had befallen his family, Hanson 
 removed the remainder of them to the house of his 
 brother, who, though of the same religious persua 
 sion, yet had a number of lusty sons, and always 
 kept his fire-arms in good order, for the purpose o: 
 shooting game. Hanson's wife, though of a tender 
 constitution, had a firm and vigorous mind, anc 
 passed through the various hardships of an Indian 
 captivity with much resolution and patience. When 
 her milk failed she supported her infant with water, 
 which she warmed in her mouth, and dropped on her 
 breast, till the squaws told her to beat the kernel ol 
 walnuts and boil it with bruised corn, which proved 
 a nourishing food for her babe. They were all sold 
 to the French in Canada. Hanson went the next 
 spring and redeemed his wife, the three younger 
 children and the nurse, but he could not obtain the 
 elder daughter of seventeen years old, though he 
 saw and conversed with her. He also redeemed 
 Ebenezer Downs. He made a second attempt in 
 1727, but died at Crown-point on his way to Canada. 
 The girl was married to a Frenchman, and never 
 returned. 
 
 These and other insolencies of the enemy being 
 daily perpetrated on the frontiers, caused the go- 
 vernments to resolve on an expedition to Norridg- 
 wog. The Captains Moulton and Harman, both of 
 York, each at the head of a company of 100 men, 
 executed their orders with great address. They com- 
 pletely invested and surprised that village killed 
 the obnoxious Jesuit with about eighty of his Indians 
 recovered three captives destroyed the chapel, 
 and brought away the plate and furniture of the 
 altar, and the devotional flag, as trophies of their 
 victory. Ralle was then in the G8th year of his age, 
 and had resided in his mission at Norridgwog 26 
 years, having before spent 6 years in travelling among 
 the Indian nations, in the interior parts of America. 
 The parties of Indians who were abroad, continued 
 to ravage the frontiers. Two men being missing 
 from Dunstable, a scout of eleven went in quest of 
 them ; they were fired upon by thirty of the enemy, 
 and nine of them were killed : the other two made 
 their escape, though one of them was badly wounded. 
 Afterward another company fell into their ambush 
 and engaged them, but the enemy being superior 
 in number overpowered them, and killed one and 
 wounded four, the rest retreating. At Kingston, 
 Jabez Colman and his son Joseph, were killed as 
 they were at work in their field. The success of the 
 forces at Norridgwog and the large premium offered 
 for scalps, having induced several volunteer com- 
 panies to go out, they visited one after another of 
 the Indian villages, but found them deserted. The 
 fate of Norridgwog had struck such terror into them, 
 that they did not think themselves safe at any of 
 their former places of abode, and occupied them as 
 resting places only, when they were scouting or 
 hunting. 
 
 Oije of these volunteer companies, under the com- 
 mand of Captain John Lnvewell, of Dunstable, was 
 greatly distinguished, first by their success and after- 
 wards by their misfortunes. This company consisted 
 of thirty : at their first excursion to the northward 
 of Winipiseogee lake, they discovered an Indian 
 wigwam in which there were a man and a boy. They 
 
 killed and scalped the man and brought the boy 
 alive to Boston, where they received the reward 
 promised by law, and a handsome gratuity besides, 
 
 By this success his company was augmented to 
 seventy. They marched again, and visiting the 
 place where they had killed the Indian, found his body 
 as they had left it two months before. (1725.) Their 
 provision falling short, thirty of them were dismissed 
 by lot and returned. The remaining 40 continued 
 their march till they discovered a track, which they 
 followed till they saw a smoke just before sunset, by 
 which they judged that the enemy were encamped 
 for the night. They kept themselves concealed till 
 after midnight, when they silently advanced, and dis- 
 covered ten Indians asleep round a fire by the side 
 of a frozen pond. Lovewell now determined to make 
 sure work, and, placing his men conveniently, or- 
 dered part of them to fire, five at once, as quick after 
 each other as possible, and another part to reserve 
 their fire: he gave the signal by firing his own gun, 
 which killed two of them; the men firing according 
 to order, killed five more on the spot; the other 
 three starting up from their sleep, two of them 
 were immediately shot dead by the reserve; the 
 other, though wounded, attempted to escape by 
 crossing the pond, but was seized by a dog and 
 held fast tilMhey killed him. Thus in a few mi- 
 nutes the whole company was destroyed, and some 
 attempt against the frontiers of New Hampshire 
 prevented; for these Indians were marching from 
 Canada, well furnished with new guns and plenty of 
 ammunition; they had also a number of spare blan- 
 kets, mockaseens, and snow shoes for the accommo- 
 dation of the prisoners whom they expected to take, 
 and were within two days march of the frontiers. 
 The pond where this exploit was performed is at the 
 head of a branch of Salmonfall river, in the town- 
 ship of Wakefield, and has ever since borne the 
 name of Lovewell's pond. The action was spoken of 
 by elderly people, at a distance of time, with an 
 air of exultation ; and considering the extreme diffi- 
 culty of finding and attacking Indians in the woods, 
 and the judicious manner in which they were so 
 completely surprised, it was a capital exploit. 
 
 The brave company, with the ten scalps stretched 
 on hoops, and elevated on poles, entered Dover in 
 triumph, and proceeded thence to Boston; where 
 they received the bounty of one hundred pounds for 
 each, out of the public treasury. 
 
 Encouraged by this success, Lovettell marched a 
 third time; intending to attack the villages of Pig- 
 wacket, on the upper part of the river Saco, which 
 bad been the residence of a formidable tribe, and 
 which they still occasionally inhabited. His com- 
 pany at this time consisted of forty-six, including a 
 chaplain and surgeon : Two of them proving lame, 
 returned : another falling sick, they halted, and built 
 a stockade fort on the west side of great Ossapy 
 pond; partly for the accommodation of the sick man, 
 and partly for a place of retreat in case of any mis- 
 fortune. Here the surgeon was left with the sick 
 nan, and eight of the company for a guard. The 
 .lumber was now reduced to thirty-four. Pursuing 
 :heir march to the northward, they came to a pond, 
 about twenty-two miles distant, in a line from the 
 fort, and encamped by the side of it. Early the 
 next morning, while at their devotions, they heard 
 the report of a gun, and discovered a single Indian, 
 standing on a point of land which runs into the 
 oond, more than a mile distant. They had been 
 alarmed the preceding night by noises round their 
 amp, which they imagined were made by Indians, 
 
40 i 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 and this opinion was now strengthened. They sus- 
 pected that the Indian was placed there to decoy 
 them, and that a body of the enemy was in their 
 front. A consultation being held, they determined 
 to march forward, and by encompassing the pond, to 
 gain the place where the Indian stood; and that 
 they might be ready for action, they disencumbered 
 themselves of their packs, and left them, without a 
 guard, at the north-east end of the pond, in a pitch 
 pine plain, where the trees were thin and the brakes, 
 at that time of the year, small. It happened that 
 Lovewell's march had crossed a carrying-place, by 
 which two parties of Indians, consisting of forty-one 
 men, commanded by Pangus and Wahwa, who had 
 been scouting down Saco river, were returning 
 to the lower village of Pigwacket, distant about a 
 mile and a half from this pond. Having fallen on 
 Lovewell's track, they followed it till they came to 
 the packs, which they removed ; and counting them, 
 found the number of his men to be less than their 
 own : they therefore placed themselves in ambush, 
 to attack them on their return. The Indian, who 
 had stood on the point, and was returning to the vil- 
 lage by another path, met our party, and received 
 their fire, which he returned, and wounded Love- 
 well and another with small shot. Lieutenant Wy- 
 man, firing again, killed him, and they took his 
 scalp. Seeing no other enemy, they returned to 
 the place where they had left their packs, and while 
 they were looking for them, the Indians rose, and 
 ran toward them with a horrid yelling. A smart 
 firing commenced on both sides, it being now about 
 ten of the clock. Captain Lovewell and eight more 
 were killed on the spot. Lieutenant Farwell, and 
 two othei's, were wounded ; several of the Indians 
 fell ; but, being superior in number, they endea- 
 voured to surround the party, who, perceiving their 
 intention, retreated hoping to be sheltered by a 
 
 !>oint of rock which ran into the pond, and a few 
 arge pine trees standing on a sandy beech. In this 
 forlorn place they took their station. On their right 
 was the mouth of a brook, at that time unfordable ; 
 on their left was the rocky point ; their front was 
 partly covered by a deep bog, and partly uncovered, 
 and the pond was in their rear. The enemy galled 
 them in front and flank, and had them so completely 
 in their power, that had they made a prudent use of 
 their advantage, the whole company must either 
 have been killed, or obliged to surrender at discre- 
 tion being destitute of a mouthful of sustenance, 
 and an escape being impracticable. Under the 
 conduct of Lieutenant Wyman they kept up their 
 fire, and shewed a resolute countenance, all the re- 
 mainder of the day; during which their chaplain, 
 Jonathan Frie, Ensign Bobbins, and one more, were 
 mortally wounded. The Indians invited them to 
 surrender, by holding up ropes to them, and endea- 
 voured to intimidate them by their hideous yells ; 
 but they determined to die rather than yield; an< 
 by their well-directed fire, the number of the savages 
 \vas thinned, and their cries became fainter, till, 
 just before night, they quitted their advantageous 
 ground, carrying off their killed and wounded, am: 
 leaving the dead bodies of Lovewell and his men 
 unstalpcd. The shattered remnant of this brave 
 company, collecting themselves together, found three 
 of their number unable to move from the spot, elever 
 wounded, but able to inarch, and nine who had re- 
 ceived no hurt. It was melancholy to leave theii 
 dying companions behind, but there was no possi 
 bility of removing them. One of them, ensign Rob 
 ins, desired them to lay his gun by him charged 
 
 hat it' the Indians should return before his death he 
 night be able to kill one more. After the rising of 
 he moon, they quitted the fatal spot, and directed 
 ;heir march toward the fort where the surgeon and 
 juard had been left. To their great surprise they 
 ound it deserted. In the beginning of the action, 
 >ne man, (whose name has not been thought worthy 
 o be transmitted to posterity) quitted the field, and 
 led to the fort; where, in the style of Job's mes- 
 sengers, he informed them of Lovewell's death, and 
 he defeat of the whole company ; upon which they 
 made the best of their way home ; leaving a quan- 
 ity of bread and pork, which was a seasonable relief 
 ,o the retreating survivors. From this place they 
 endeavoured to get home. Lieutenant Farwell, the 
 chaplain, (who had the journal of the march in his 
 jocket,) and one more, perished in the woods, for 
 want of dressing for their wounds. The others, 
 after enduring the most severe hardships, came in 
 one after another, and were not only received with 
 oy, but were recompensed, for their valour and suf- 
 ? erings ; and a generous provision was made for the 
 widows and children of the slain. 
 
 A party from the frontiers of New Hampshire 
 were ordered out to bury the dead ; but, by some 
 mistake, did not reach the place of action. Colonel 
 Tyng, with a company from Dunstable, went to the 
 spot, and having found the bodies of twelve, buried 
 them, and carved their names on the trees where 
 the battle was fought. At a little distance he found 
 :hree Indian graves, which he opened ; one of the 
 bodies was known to be their warrior Paugus. He 
 also observed tracks of blood on the ground, to a 
 great distance from the scene of action. It was re- 
 marked, that a week before this engagement hap- 
 pened, it had been reported in Portsmouth at the 
 distance of eighty miles, with but little variation 
 from the truth. Such incidents were not uncom- 
 mon, and could scarcely deserve notice, if they did 
 not indicate that a taste for the marvellous was not 
 extinguished in the minds of the most sober and ra- 
 tional. 
 
 This was one of the most fierce and obstinate bat- 
 tles which had been fought with the Indians. They 
 had not only the advantage of numbers, but of plac- 
 ing themselves in ambush, and waiting with deli- 
 beration the moment of attack. These circumstan- 
 ces gave them a degree of ardour and impetuosity. 
 Loveweli and his men, though disappointed of meet- 
 ing the enemy in their front, expected, and deter- 
 mined, to fight. The fall of their commander, and 
 more than one quarter of their number, in the first 
 onset, was greatly discouraging; but they knew that 
 the situation to which they were reduced, and their 
 distance from the frontiers, cut off all hope of safety 
 from flight. In these circumstances, prudence as 
 well as valour dictated a continuance of the engage- 
 ment, and a refusal to surrender, until the enemy, 
 awed by their brave resistance, and weakened by 
 their own loss, yielded them the honour of the field. 
 After this encounter the Indians resided no more at 
 Pigwacket till the peace. 
 
 The conduct of the Marquis de Vaudreuil, gover- 
 nor of Canada, was so flagrant- a breach of the treaty 
 of peace subsisting between the crowns of England 
 and France, that it was thought a spirited remon- 
 strance might make him ashamed, and produce some 
 beneficial effects. With this view, the general court 
 of Massachusetts proposed to the colonies of New 
 York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hamp- 
 shire, to join in sending commissioners to Canada 
 on this errand. New Hampshire was the only one 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 which consented ; and Theodore Atkinson was ap- 
 pointed on their part, to join with William Dudley 
 and Samuel Thaxter on the part of Massachusetts. 
 
 The instructions which they received from the 
 Lieut.-governors Dummer and Wentworth, by ad- 
 vice of the council and assembly of each province, 
 were nearly similar. They were to demand of the 
 French governor, restitution of the captives who had 
 been carried into Canada; to remonstrate to him on 
 his injustice and breach of friendship, in counte- 
 nancing the Indians in their hostilities against the 
 people of New England; to insist on his withdraw- 
 ing his assistance for the future; and to observe to 
 him, that if in the farther prosecution of the war, 
 the Indian allies should in their pursuit of the enemy 
 commit hostilities against the French, the blame 
 would be entirely chargeable to himself. If the 
 French governor or the Indians, should make any 
 overtures for peace, they were empowered to give 
 them passports, to come either to Boston or Ports- 
 mouth for that purpose, and to return; but they 
 were not to enter into any treaty with them. The 
 commissioners were also furnished with the original 
 letters of Vaudreuil to the governors of New Eng- 
 land, and to the Jesuit Halle, and with copies of the 
 several treaties which had been made with the In- 
 dians. The gentlemen went by the way of Albany, 
 and over the lakes, on the ice, to Montreal, where 
 they arrived after a tedious and dangerous journey. 
 
 The Marquis, who happened to be at Montreal, 
 received and entertained them with much polite- 
 ness. Having delivered their letters, and produced 
 their commissions, they presented their remon- 
 strance in writing, and made the several demands 
 agreeably to their instructions ; using this among 
 other arguments, " Those Indians dwell either in 
 the dominions of the King of Great Britain, or in 
 the territories of the French king. If in the 
 French king's dominions, the violation of the 
 peace is very flagrant, they then being his subjects ; 
 but if they are subjects of the British crown, then 
 much more is it a breach of the peace to excite a 
 rebellion among the subjects of his Majesty of 
 Great Britain." 
 
 The governor gave them no written answer, but 
 denied that the Abenaquis were under his govern- 
 ment, and that he had either encouraged or sup- 
 plied them for the purpose of war. He said that 
 he considered them as an independent nation, and 
 that the war was undertaken by them, in defence of 
 their lands, which had been invaded by the people 
 of New England. The commissioners, in reply, 
 informed him that the lands for which the Indians 
 had quarrelled were fairly purchased of their an- 
 cestors, and had been for many years inhabited by 
 the English. They produced his own letters to the 
 governors of New England in which he had (in- 
 consistently, and perhaps inadvertently) styled 
 these Indians ' subjects of the King of France." 
 They also alleged the several treaties held with them 
 as evidence that they had acknowledged themselves 
 subjects of the Britis'h crown ; and to his great mor- 
 tification, they also produced his own original letters 
 to the Jesuit Ralle, which had been taken at Nor- 
 ridgwog, in which the evidence of his assisting-, and 
 encouraging them in the war was too flagrant to 
 admit of palliation. Farther to strengthen this part 
 of their argument, they presented to the governor a 
 Mohawk whom they had met with at Montreal, 
 who, according to his own voluntary acknowledg- 
 ment, had been supplied by the governor with arms, 
 ammunition, and provision to engage in the war, 
 
 HIST. OF AMER. Nos. 59 & 60. 
 
 and had killed one man, and taken another whom 
 he had sold in Canada. 
 
 In addition to what was urged by the commis- 
 sioners in general, Mr. Atkinson, on the part of 
 New Hampshire, entered into a particular remon- 
 strance, alleging that the Indians had no cause of 
 controversy with that province, the lands in ques- 
 tion being out of their claim. To this the governor 
 answered that New Hampshire was a part of the 
 same nation, and the Indians could make no dis- 
 tinction. Atkinson asked him why they did not 
 for the same reason make war on the people of 
 Albany? The governor answered, "The people 
 of Albany have sent a message to pray me to re- 
 strain the savages from molesting them ; in a man- 
 ner very different from your demands :" to which 
 Atkinson with equal spirit replied, " Your lordship, 
 then, is the right person for our governments to ap- 
 ply to, if the Indians are subject to your orders." 
 
 Finding himself thus closely pressed, he promised 
 to do what lay in his power to bring them to an 
 accommodation, and to restore those captives who 
 were in the hands of the French, on the payment 
 of what they had cost ; and he engaged to see that 
 no unreasonable demands should be made by the 
 persons who held them in servitude; as to those 
 who stiil remained in the hands of the Indians, 
 he said he had no power over them, and could not 
 engage for their redemption. He complained in 
 his turn of the governor of New York, for building 
 a fort on the river Onondago, and said that he 
 should look upon that proceeding as a breach of the 
 treaty of peace ; and he boasted that he had the 
 five nations of the Iroquois so much under his influ- 
 ence, that he could at any time cause them to make 
 war upon the subjects of Great Britain. 
 
 The commissioners employed themselves very 
 diligently in their inquiries respecting the captives, 
 and in settling the terms of their redemption. They 
 succeeded in effecting the ransom of sixteen, and 
 engaging for ten others. The governor obliged the 
 French, who held them, to abate of their demands ; 
 but after all, they were paid for at an exorbitant 
 rate. He was extremely desirous that the gentle- 
 men should have an interview with the Indians, 
 who were at war ; and for this purpose sent for a 
 number of them from the village of St. Francis, and 
 kept them concealed in Montreal. The commis- 
 sioners had repeatedly told him that they had no 
 power to treat with them, and that they would not 
 speak to them unless they should desire peace. At 
 his request, the chiefs of the Nipissins visited the 
 commissioners, and said that they disapproved the 
 war which their children the Abenaquis had made, 
 and would persuade them to ask for peace. After a 
 variety of manoeuvres, the governor at length pro- 
 mised the commissioners that if they would consent 
 to meet the Indians at his house, they should speak 
 first. This assurance produced an interview; and 
 the Indians asked the commissioners whether they 
 would make proposals of peace ? They answered, 
 no. The Indians then proposed, that " if the 
 English would demolish all their forts, and remove 
 one mile westward of Saco river ; if they would re- 
 build their church at Norridgwog, and restore to 
 them their priest, they would be brothers again* 
 The commissioners told them that they had n< 
 warrant to treat with them ; but if they were dis- 
 posed for peace, they should have safe conduct to 
 and from Boston or Portsmouth ; and the governor 
 promised to send his son with them to see justice 
 done. They answered, that " this was the only 
 
 ; 3 c 
 
466 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 place to conclude peace, as the nations were near 
 and could readily attend." The governor would 
 have had them recede 1'rom their proposals, which 
 he said were unreasonable, and make others ; but 
 father Lc Chase, a Jesuit, being present, and acting 
 as interpreter for the Indians, embarrassed the mat- 
 ter so much, that nothing more was proposed. It 
 was observed by the commissioners, that when they 
 conversed with the governor alone, they found him 
 more candid and open to conviction than when Le 
 Chase, or any other Jesuit was present; and, 
 through the whole of their negociation, it evidently 
 appeared that the governor himself, as well as the 
 Indians, were subject to the powerful influence of 
 these ecclesiastics, of whom there was a seminary in 
 Canada, under the direction of the Abbede Belmont. 
 
 Having completed their business, and the rivers 
 and lakes being clear of ice, the commissioners took 
 their leave of the governor, and set out on their re- 
 turn, with the redeemed captives, and a guard of 
 soldiers, which the governor ordered to attend them 
 as far as Crown-point. They went down the river 
 St. Lawrence to the mouth of the Sorel, then up 
 that river to Chamblee, and through the lakes to 
 fort Nicholson. After a pleasant passage, of seven 
 days, they arrived at Albany. 
 
 Here they found commissioners of Indian affairs 
 for the province of New York, to whom they com- 
 municated the observations which they had made 
 in Canada, and what the Marquis de Vaudreuil had 
 said respecting the five nations, and the fort at 
 Onandago. There being a deputation from these 
 nations at Albany, they held a conference with 
 them, and gave them belts; requesting their assist- 
 ance in establishing a peace with the Abenaquis. 
 From this place Mr. Atkinson wrote to M. Cava- 
 melle, son of the Marquis, acknowledging the polite 
 reception the commissioners had met with from the 
 family ; subjoining a copy of the information which 
 they had given to the commissioners of New York ; 
 and promising that a due representation should be 
 made to the kings of England and France on the 
 subject of their negociation. 
 
 The report of the commissioners being laid before 
 the Assemblies of Massachusetts and New Hamp- 
 shire, it was determined to prosecute the war with 
 vigour. Orders were issued for the defence and 
 supply of the frontiers, and for the encouragement 
 of ranging parties, both volunteers and militia. A 
 petition was sent to the king complaining of the 
 French governor, and desiring that orders might be 
 given to the other colonies of New England, and to 
 New York, to furnish their quotas of assistance in 
 the further prosecution of the war ; and letters were 
 written to the governor of New York, requesting 
 that such of the hostile Indians as should resort to 
 Albany, might be seized and secured. 
 
 The good effects of this mission to Canada were 
 soon visible. One of the Indian hostages who had 
 been detained at Boston through the whole war, to- 
 gether with one who had been taken, were allowed 
 on their parole, to visit their countrymen ; and they 
 returned with a request for peace. Commissioners 
 from both provinces went to St. George's, where a 
 conference was held, which ended in a proposal for 
 a farther treaty at Boston. In the mean time, some 
 of the enemy were disposed for further mischief. 
 These who had been concerned in taking Hanson's 
 family at Dover, in a short time after their redemp- 
 tion and rc'turn, came down with a design to take 
 them again, as they had threatened them before 
 they left Canada. When they had come near the 
 
 house, they observed some people at work in a neigh- 
 bouring field, by which it was necessary for them to 
 pass, both in going and returning. This obliged 
 them to alter their purpose, and conceal themselves 
 in a barn, till they were ready to attack them. Two 
 women passed by the barn, while they were in it, 
 and had just reached the garrison as the guns were 
 fired. They shot Benjamin Evans dead on the spot: 
 wounded William Evans and cut his throat ; John 
 Evans received a slight wound in the breast, which 
 bleeding plentifully, deceived them, and thinking 
 him dead, they stripped and scalped him : he bore 
 the painful operation without discovering any signs 
 of life, though all the time in his perfect senses, 
 and continued-in the feigned appearance of death, 
 till they had turned him over, and struck him seve- 
 ral blows with their guns, and left him for dead. 
 After they were gone off he rose and walked, naked 
 and bloody, toward the garrison ; but on meeting his 
 friends by the way, dropped, fainting on the ground, 
 and being covered with a blanket, was conveyed to 
 the house. He recovered and lived fifty years. A 
 pursuit was made after the enemy, but they got off 
 undiscovered, carrying with them Benjamin Evans, 
 junior, a lad of thirteen years old, to Canada, whence 
 he was redeemed as usual by a charitable collection. 
 
 This was the last effort of the enemy in New- 
 Hampshire. In three months, the treaty which 
 they desired was held at Boston, and the next spring 
 ratified at Falmouth. A peace was concluded in 
 the usual form ; which was followed by restraining 
 all private traffic with the Indians, and establishing 
 truck-houses in convenient places, where they were 
 supplied with the necessaries of life, on the most ad- 
 vantageous terms. Though the governments on the 
 whole were losers by the trade, yet it was a more 
 honourable way of preserving the peace, than if an 
 acknowledgment had been made to the Indians in 
 any other manner. 
 
 None of the other colonies of New England bore 
 any share in the expenses or calamities of this war ; 
 and New Hampshire did not suffer so much as in 
 former wars ; partly by reason of the more extended 
 frontier of Massachusetts, both on the eastern and 
 western parts, against the former of which the enemy 
 directed their greatest fury ; and partly by reason 
 of the success of the ranging parties, who constantly 
 traversed the woods as far northward as the White 
 Mountains. The militia at this time was completely 
 trained for active service ; every man of forty years 
 of age having seen more than twenty years of war. 
 They had been used to handle their arms from the 
 age of childhood, and most of them, by long prac- 
 tice, had become excellent marksmen, and good 
 hunters. They were well acquainted with the lurk- 
 ing-places of the enemy ; and possessed a degree of 
 hardiness and intrepidity, which can be acquired 
 only by the habitude of those scenes of danger and 
 fatigue, to which they were daily exposed. They 
 had also imbibed from their infancy a strong anti- 
 pathy to the savage natives ; which was strengthen- 
 ed by repeated horrors of blood and desolation, and 
 not obliterated by the intercourse which they had 
 with them in time of peace. As the Indians fre- 
 quently resorted to the frontier towns in time of 
 scarcity, it was common for them to visit the fami- 
 lies whom they had injured in war ; to recount the 
 circumstances of death and torture which had been 
 practised on their friends ; and when provoked or 
 intoxicated, to threaten a repetition of such insults 
 in future wars. To bear such treatment required 
 more than human patience ; and it is not improbable 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 467 
 
 that secret murders were sometimes the consequence 
 of these harsh provocations. Certain it is, that when 
 any person was arrested, for killing an Indian in 
 time of peace, he was either forcibly rescued from 
 the hands of justice, or if brought to trial, invariably 
 acquitted; it being impossible to impannel a jury 
 some of whom had not not suffered by the Indians, 
 either in their persons or families. 
 
 IVentworth's administration continued Bnrnet's short 
 administration Belcher succeeds him Wentworth's 
 death and character. 
 
 During the war, the lieut.-governor had managed 
 the executive department with much prudence ; the 
 people were satisfied with his administration, and 
 entertained an affection for him, which was expressed 
 not only by words, but by frequent grants of money, 
 in the general assembly. When he returned from 
 Boston, (1726) where the treaty of peace was con- 
 cluded, they presented to him an address of congra- 
 tulation, and told him that " his absence had seemed 
 long ; but the service he had done them filled their 
 hearts with satisfaction." This address was followed 
 by a grant of 100/.. He had, just before, consented 
 to an issue of 2000/. in bills of credit, to be paid, one 
 half in the year 1735, and the other half in 1736. 
 An excise was laid for three years, and was farmed 
 for 300J. 
 
 The divisional line between the provinces of New 
 Hampshire and Massachusetts was yet unsettled, and 
 in addition to the usual disadvantages occasioned by 
 this long neglect, a new one arose. By the con- 
 struction which Massachusetts put on their charter, 
 all the lands three miles northward of the river Mer- 
 rimack were within their limits. On this principle, 
 a grant had formerly been made to Governor Endi- 
 cot, of some lands at Penacook, which had been the 
 seat of a numerous and powerful tribe of Indians 
 The quality of the land at that place invited the at- 
 tention of adventurers from Andover, Bradford anc 
 Haverhill ; to whom a grant was made of a town- 
 ship, seven miles square ; comprehending the lands 
 on both sides of the Merrimack, extending south- 
 wardly from the branch called Contoocook. This 
 grant awakened the attention of others ; and a mo 
 tion was made in the Massachusetts assembly, for a 
 line of townships, to extend from Dunstable on Mer 
 rimack, to Northfield on Connecticut river; butthi 
 motion was not immediately adopted. The assembl) 
 of New Hampshire was alarmed. Newman, theii 
 agent, had been a long time at the British court 
 soliciting the settlement of the line, and a supply o 
 military stores for the fort. Fresh instructions were 
 sent to him to expedite the business, and to submi 
 the settlement of the line to the king. A committee 
 was appointed to go to Penacook, to confer with a 
 committee of Massachusetts, then employed in laying 
 out the lands, and to remonstrate against their pro 
 ceeding. A survey of other lands near Winipiseogee 
 lake, was ordered ; that it might be known, wha 
 number of townships could be laid out, independently 
 of the Massachusetts claim. On the other hand 
 the heirs of Allen renewed their endeavours, and one 
 of them, John Hobby, petitioned the assembly tc 
 compound with him for his claim to half the pro 
 vince ; but the only answer which he could obtain 
 was that " the courts of law were competent to the de 
 termination of titles," aud his petition was dismissed 
 Both provinces became earnestly engaged. Mas 
 sachusetts proposed to New Hampshire the appoint 
 ment of commissioners to establish the line. The 
 New Hampshire assembly refused, because they ha< 
 
 ubmitted the case to the king. The Massachusetts 
 jeople, foreseeing that the result of this application 
 might prove unfavourable to their claim of jurisdic- 
 ion, were solicitous to secure to themselves the pro- 
 perty of the lands in question. Accordingly, the 
 iroposed line of townships being surveyed, "pre- 
 sences were encouraged and even sought after, to 
 entitle persons to be grantees." The descendants 
 of the officers and soldiers, who had been employed 
 n expeditions against the Narraganset Indians, and 
 against Canada, in the preceding century, were ad- 
 mitted; and the survivors of the late Captain Love- 
 well's company, with the heirs of the deceased, had 
 a select tract granted to them at Suncook. There 
 was an appearance of gratitude in making these 
 grants, and there would have been policy in it, had 
 the grantees been able to comply with the conditions. 
 (1727.) New Hampshire followed the example, and 
 made grants of the townships of Epsom, Chichester, 
 Barnste'ad, Canterbury, Gilmantown, and Bow. All 
 these, excepting the last, were undoubtedly within 
 their limits ; but the grant of Bow interfered with 
 the grants which Massachusetts had made at Pena- 
 cook and Suncook, and gave rise to a litigation te- 
 dious, expensive, and of forty years continuance. 
 
 These tracts of land granted by both provinces 
 were too numerous and extensive. It was impracti- 
 cable to fulfil the conditions, on which the grants 
 were made. Had the same liberal policy prevailed 
 here as in Pennsylvania, and had the importation 
 of emigrants from abroad been encouraged, the 
 country might have been soon filled with inhabitants; 
 but the people of Londonderry were already looked 
 upon with a jealous eye, and a farther intrusion of 
 strangers was feared, lest they should prove a bur- 
 den and charge to the community People could 
 not be spared from the old towns. Penacook was 
 almost the only settlement which was effected by 
 emigrants from Massachusetts. A small beginning 
 was made by the New Hampshire proprietors at 
 Bow, on Suncook river; but the most (if the inter- 
 mediate country remained uncultivated for many 
 years. Schemes of settlement were indeed continu- 
 ally forming ; meetings of proprietors were frequently 
 held, and an avaricious spirit of speculation in landed 
 property prevailed, but the real wealth and improve- 
 ment of the country instead of being promoted were 
 retarded. 
 
 On the death of King George I., the assembly, 
 which had subsisted five years, was of course dis- 
 solved; and writs for the election of another were 
 issued in the name of George II. The long continu- 
 ance of this assembly was principally owing to the 
 absence of Governor Shute, in whose administration 
 it commenced, and the uncertainty of his return or 
 the appointment of a successor. It had been deemed 
 a grievance, and an attempt had been made in 17 24, 
 to limit the duration of assemblies to three years, in 
 conformity to the custom of England. At the meet- 
 ing of the new assembly, the first business which 
 they took up was to move for a triennial act. The 
 Lieut.-governor was disposed to gratify them. Both 
 houses agreed in framing an act for a triennial as- 
 sembly, in which the duration of the present assem- 
 bly was limited to three years (unless sooner dis- 
 solved by the commander in chief), writs were to 
 issue fifteen days at least before a new election; the 
 qualification of a representative was declared to be 
 a freehold estate of 300J. talue The" qualification 
 of an elector was a real estate of 50/.. within the 
 town or precinct where the election should be made, 
 but habitancy was not required in either case , the 
 
468 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 select men of the town, with the moderator of the 
 meeting, were constituted judges of the qualifica- 
 tions of electors, saving an appeal to the house of 
 representatives. This act having been passed in 
 due form, received the royal approbation, and was 
 the only act which could be called a constitution or 
 form of government, established by the people of 
 New Hampshire; all other parts of their govern- 
 ment being founded on royal commissions and in- 
 structions. But this act was defective, in not deter- 
 mining by whom the writs should be issued, and in 
 not describing the places from which representatives 
 should be called either by name, extent, or popula- 
 tion. This defect gave birth to a long and bitter 
 controversy, as will be seen hereafter. 
 
 The triennial act being passed, the house were 
 disposed to make other alterations in the govern- 
 ment. An appeal was allowed in all civil cases from 
 the inferior to the superior court ; if the matter in 
 controversy exceeded 100/., another appeal was al- 
 lowed to the governor and council, and if it exceeded 
 300/., to the king in council. The appeal to fhe 
 governor in council was first established by Cult's 
 commission, and continued by subsequent commis- 
 sions and instructions. In Queen Anne's time, it 
 was complained of as a grievance, that the gover- 
 nor and council received appeals and decided causes, 
 without taking an oath to do justice. An oath was 
 then prescribed and taken. The authority of this 
 court had been recognised by several clauses in the 
 laws, but was disrelished by many of the people, 
 partly because the judges who had before decided 
 cases, were generally members of the council; partly 
 because no injury was admitted in this court of ap- 
 peal, and partly because no such institution was 
 known in the neighbouring province of Massachu- 
 setts. The house moved for a repeal of the several 
 clauses in the laws relative to this obnoxious court; 
 the council non-concurred their vote, and referred 
 them to the royal instructions. The house persisted 
 in their endeavours, and the council in their oppo- 
 sition. Both sides grew warm, and there was no 
 prospect of an accommodation. The lieut-governor 
 put an end to the session, and soon after dissolved 
 the assembly by proclamation. 
 
 (1728.) A new assembly was called; the same 
 persons, with but two 01 three exceptions, were 
 re-elected, and the same spirit appeared in all their 
 transactions. They chose for their speaker Natha- 
 niel Weare, who had been speaker of the former 
 assembly, and having as usual presented him to the 
 lieut-governor, he negatived the choice. The house 
 desired to know by what authority ; he produced his 
 commission ; nothing appeared in that which satisfied 
 them ; and they adjourned from day to day without 
 doing any business. After nine days they chose 
 another speaker, Andrew Wiggin, and sent up the 
 vote, with a preamble, justifying their former choice. 
 The lieut.-governor approved of the speaker, but 
 disapproved the preamble ; and thus the controversy 
 closed, each side retaining their own opinion. The 
 speeches and messages from the chair, and the an- 
 swers from the house during this session were filled 
 with reproaches; the public business was conducted 
 with ill humour, and the house carried their opposi- 
 tion so far as to pass a vote for addressing the king to 
 annex the province to Massachusetts : to this vote 
 the council made no answer. But as a new gover- 
 nor was expected, they agreed in appointing a com- 
 mittee of both houses to go to Boston, and compli- 
 ment him on his arrival. 
 
 The expected governor was William Burnet, son 
 
 of the celebrated Bishop of Sarum, whose name was 
 dear to the people of New England, as a steady and 
 active friend to civil and religious liberty. Mr. Bur- 
 net was a man of good understanding and polite 
 literature ; fond of books and of the conversation of 
 literary men; but an enemy to ostentation and pa- 
 rade. He had been governor of New York and 
 New Jersey, and quitted those provinces with reluc- 
 tance, to make way for another person, for whom the 
 British ministry had to provide. Whilst at New 
 York he was very popular, and his fame having 
 reached New England, the expectations of the peo- 
 ple were much raised on the news of his appointment 
 to the government of Massachusetts and New Hamp- 
 shire. Lieut. Governor Wentworth characterised 
 him in one of his speeches as " a gentlemen of 
 known worth, having justly obtained an universal 
 regard from all who have had the honour to be under 
 his government." He was received with much pa- 
 rade at Boston, whither the lieut.-goveruor of New 
 Hampshire, with a committee of the council and 
 assembly, went to compliment him on his arrival. 
 
 Mr. Burnet had positive instructions from the 
 crown to insist on the establishment of a permanent 
 salary in both his provinces. He began with Massa- 
 chusetts, and held a long controversy with the gene- 
 ral court to no purpose. In New Hampshire a pre- 
 cedent had been established in the administration of 
 Dudley, which was favourable to his views. Though 
 some of the assembly were averse to a permanent sa- 
 lary, yet the lieut.-governor had so much interest 
 with them by virtue of having made them propri- 
 etors in the lately granted townships that they were 
 induced to consent ; on condition that he should be 
 allowed one third part of the salary, and they should 
 be discharged from all obligations to him. (1729.) 
 This bargain being concluded, the house passed a 
 vote, with which the council concurred, to pay, 
 " Governor Burnet, for the term of three years, or 
 during his administration, the sum of two hundred 
 pounds sterling, or six hundred pounds in bills of 
 credit ; which sum was to be in full of all demands 
 from this government for his salary ; and all ex- 
 penses in coming to, tarrying in, or going from this 
 province ; and also for any allowance to be made to 
 the lieut.-governor ; and that the excise on liquors 
 should be appropriated to that use." To this vote 
 six of the representatives entered their dissent. 
 
 The governor came but once into New Hampshire. 
 His death, which happened after a few months, was 
 supposed to be occasioned by the ill effect which his 
 controversy with Massachusetts, and the disappoint- 
 ment which he suffered, had on his nerves. 
 
 (1730.) When the death of governor Burnet was 
 known in England the resentment against the pro- 
 vince of Massachusetts was very high, on account 
 of their determined refusal to fix a salary on the 
 king's governor. It was even proposed to reduce 
 them to " a more absolute dependence on the crown;" 
 but a spirit of moderation prevailed ; and it was 
 thought that Mr. Jonathan Belcher, then in England, 
 being a native of the province, and well acquainted 
 with the temper of his countrymen, would have more 
 influence than a stranger to carry the favourite point 
 of a fixed salary. His appointment as governor of 
 New Hampshire was merely an appendage to his 
 other commission. 
 
 Belcher was a merchant of large fortune and un- 
 blemished reputation. He had spent six years in 
 Europe, had been twice at the court of Hanover 
 before the protestant succession took place in the 
 family of Brunswick, and had received from the 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 Princess Sophia a rich gold medal. He was grace- 
 ful in his person, elegant and polite in his manners, 
 of a lofty and aspiring disposition, a steady, gene- 
 rous friend, a vindictive but not implacable enemy. 
 Frank and sincere, he was extremely liberal in his 
 censures, both in conversation and letters. Having 
 a high sense of the dignity of his commission, he 
 determined to support it, even at the expense of his 
 private fortune ; the emoluments of office in both 
 provinces being inadequate to the style in which he 
 chose to live. 
 
 Whilst he was in England, and it was uncertain 
 whether he would be appointed or Shute would re- 
 turn, Wentworth wrote letters of compliment to 
 both. Belcher knew nothing of the letter to Shute 
 till his arrival in America, and after he had made a 
 visit to New Hampshire, and had been entertained 
 at the house of the lieut.-governor. He was then 
 informed that Wentworth had written a letter to 
 Shute, of the same tenor as that to himself. This 
 he deemed an act of duplicity. How far it was so, 
 cannot now be determined. The persuasion was so 
 strong in the mind of Belcher, that on his next visit 
 to Portsmouth he refused an invitation to Went- 
 worth's house. This was not the only way in which 
 he manifested his displeasure. When the affair of 
 the salary came before the assembly, he not only 
 refused to' make such a compromise as Burnet had 
 done; but obliged the lieut.-governor under his 
 hand " to quit all claim to any part of the salary, 
 and to acknowledge that he had no expectation from, 
 or dependence on, the assembly for any allowance, 
 but that he depended wholly on the governor." The 
 same salary was then voted, and in nearly the same 
 words, as to his predecessor. He allowed the lieut.- 
 governor the fees and perquisites only which arose 
 from registers, certificates, licenses, and passes, 
 amounting to about fifty pounds sterling. Went- 
 worth and his friends were disappointed and dis- 
 gusted. He himself did not long survive ; being 
 seized with a lethargic disorder, he died December 
 12th, in the fifty-ninth year of his age ; but his 
 family connexions resented the affront, and drew a 
 considerable party into their views. Benning Went- 
 worth, his son, and Theodore Atkinson, who had 
 married his daughter, were at the head of the op- 
 position. The latter was removed from his office of 
 collector of customs, to make room for Richard 
 Wibird ; the naval office was taken from him and 
 given to Ellis Huske; and the office of high sheriff, 
 which he had held, was divided between him and 
 Eleazer Russell. Other alterations were made, 
 which greatly offended the friends of the late lieut.- 
 governor; but Belcher, satisfied that his conduct 
 was agreeable to his commission and instructions, 
 disregarded his opponents, and apprehended no 
 danger from their resentment. Atkinson was a 
 man of humour, and took occasion to express his 
 disgust in a singular manner. The governor, who 
 was fond of parade, had ordered a troop of horse to 
 meet him on the road and escort him to Portsmouth. 
 The officers of the government met him, and joined 
 the cavalcade. Atkinson was tardy ; but when he 
 appeared, having broken the sheriff's wand, he held 
 one half in his hand. Being chid by the governor 
 for not appearing sooner, he begged his excellency 
 to excuse him, because he had but half a horse 
 to ride. 
 
 In addition to what has been observed respecting 
 lieut-governor Wentworth, the following portrait of 
 his character, by some contemporary friend, deserves 
 remembrance. 
 
 " He was born at Portsmouth, of worthy parents, 
 from whom he had a religious education. His incli- 
 nation leading him to the sea, he soon became a 
 commander of note, and gave a laudable example to 
 that order by his sober behaviour and his constant 
 care to uphold the worship of God in his ship. 
 Wherever he came, by his discreet and obliging de- 
 portment, he gained the love and esteem of those 
 with whom he conversed. 
 
 " On his leaving the sea, he had considerable 
 business as a merchant, and always had the reputa- 
 tion of a fair and generous dealer.' 
 
 " He has approved himself to the general accep- 
 tance of his majesty's good subjects throughout this 
 province, and under his mild administration, we 
 enjoyed great quietness. 
 
 " He was a gentleman of good natural abilities, 
 much improved by conversation ; remarkably civil 
 and kind to strangers respectful to the ministers 
 of the gospel a lover of good men of all denomina- 
 tions compassionate and bountiful to the poor 
 courteous and affable to all having a constant 
 regard to the duties of divine worship, in private 
 and public, and paying a due deference to all 
 the sacred institutions of Christ. He had sixteen 
 children." 
 
 Dunbar's Lieutenancy and enmity to Belcher Ef- 
 forts to settle the boundary lines Divisions Riot 
 Trade Episcopal Church Throat distemper. 
 
 (1731.) Mr. Wentworth was succeeded in the 
 lieutenancy by David Dunbar, Esq., a native of 
 Ireland, and a reduced colonel in the British ser- 
 vice ; who was also deputed to be surveyor of the 
 king's woods. This appointment was made by the 
 recommendation of the board of trade ; of which 
 Colonel Bladen was an active member, who bore no 
 good will to Governor Belcher, Dunbar had been 
 commander of a fort at Pernaquid, which it was in 
 contemplation to annex to Nova Scotia. He had 
 taken upon him to govern the few scattered people 
 in that district, with a degree of rigor to which they 
 could not easily submit. This conduct had already 
 opened a controversy, between him and the province 
 of Massachusetts ; and it was very unfortunate for 
 Belcher to have such a person connected with both 
 his governments. What were the merits, which re- 
 commended Dunbar to these stations, it is not easy 
 at this time to determine ; the only qualifications, 
 which appear to have pleaded in his favour, were 
 poverty and the friendship of men in power. He was 
 an instrument of intrigue and disaffection ; and he no 
 sooner made his appearance in New Hampshire, than 
 he joined the party who were in opposition to the go- 
 vernor. Belcher perceived the advantage which his 
 enemies would derive from this alliance, and made all 
 the efforts in his power to displace him. In his letters 
 to the ministry, to the board of trade, and to his 
 friends in England, he continually represented him 
 in the worst light, and solicited his removal. It is 
 not improbable, that his numerous letters of this 
 kind, written in his usual style, with great freedom 
 and without any reserve, might confirm the suspi- 
 cions raised by the letters of his adversaries, and 
 induced the ministry to keep Dunbar in place, as a 
 check upon Belcher, and to preserve the balance of 
 parties. 
 
 Within a few weeks after Dunbar's coming to 
 Portsmouth, a complaint was drawn up against Bel- 
 cher, and signed by fifteen persons; alleging that 
 his government was grievous, oppressive, and arbi- 
 trary, and praying the king for his removal. This 
 
470 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 roused the governor's friends, at the head of whom 
 was Richard Waldron, the secretary, who drew up 
 a counter address, and procured a hundred names 
 to be subscribed. Both addresses reached England 
 about the same time. Richard Partridge, Mr. Bel- 
 cher's brother in law, in conjunction with his son, 
 Jonathan Belcher, then a student in the Temple, 
 applied for a copy of the complaint against him, at 
 the plantation office, and obtained it ; but could not 
 get sight of the letters which accompanied it, though, 
 on the foundation of those letters, a representation 
 had been made by the board of trade to the king. 
 
 The only effect which Dunbar's letters had at that 
 time, was to procure the appointment of Theodore 
 Atkinson, Benning Wentworth, and Joshua Peirce, 
 to be counsellors of New Hampshire ; and though 
 Belcher remonstrated to the secretary of state against 
 these appointments, and recommended other persons 
 
 t i * n A l .1 
 
 to be disposed of by them. On both suppositions 
 the people of New Hampshire can have no property 
 in the lands, and therefore why should they be 
 zealous about the division, or tax themselves to pay 
 the expense of it ? 
 
 The governor, as obliged by his instructions, fre- 
 quently urged the settlement of the lines in his 
 speeches, and declared, that the assembly of New 
 Hampshire had done more toward effecting it, than 
 that of Massachusetts. A committee from both pro- 
 vinces met at Newbury in the autumn of 1731, on 
 this long contested affair; but the influence of that 
 party in Massachusetts, of which Elisha Cooke was 
 at the head, prevented an accommodation. Soon 
 after this fruitless conference, the representatives of 
 New Hampshire, of whom a majority was in favour 
 of settling the line, determined no longer to treat 
 with Massachusetts ; but to represent the matter to 
 
 in their room, he could not prevail, any farther than j the king, and petition him to decide the controversy, 
 to delay the admission of the two former for about J Newman's commission, as agent, having expired, 
 two years ; during which time they were elected into I they chose for this pm'pose John Rindge, merchant, 
 the house of representatives, and kept up the oppo- of Portsmouth, then bound on a voyage to London, 
 sition there. The recommendations, which he made The appointment of this gentleman was fortunate 
 of other persons, were duly attended to when vacan- j for them, not only as he had large connexions in 
 cies happened ; and thus the council was composed j England; but as he was capable of advancing money, 
 of his friends, and his enemies. The civil officers, ! to carry on the solicitation. The council, a majority 
 whom he appointed, were sometimes superseded by ! of which was in the opposite interest, did neither con- 
 persons recommended and sent from England; and cur in the appointment, nor consent to the petition, 
 in one instance, a commission for the naval office, (1732.) Mr. Rindge, on his arrival in England, 
 in favour of a Mr. Reynolds, son of the Bishop of | petitioned the king in his own name, and in behalf 
 Lincoln, was filled up in England, and sent over j of the representatives of New Hampshire, to estab- 
 with orders for him to sign it ; which he was obliged lish the boundaries of the province ; but his private 
 punctually to obey. affairs requiring his return to America, he did, 
 
 From the confidential letters of the leading men agreeably to his instructions, leave the business in 
 on both sides, the views of each party may plainly ! the hands of Captain John Thornlinson, merchant, 
 be seen; though they endeavoured to conceal them j of London, who was well known in New Hamp- 
 from each other. The governor and his friends had shire, where he had frequently been in quality of a 
 projected an union of New Hampshire with Massa- ; sea commander. He was a gentleman of great 
 chusetts ; but were at a loss by what means to bring penetration, industry, and address ; and having 
 it into effect. The most desirable method would fully entered into the views of Belcher's opponents, 
 Kave been, an unanimity in the people of New ; prosecuted the affair of the line, "with ardour and 
 Hampshire, in petitioning the crown for it : but as ' diligence ;" employing for his solicitor, Ferdinando 
 this could not be had, the project was kept out of j John Parris ; who, being well supplied with money, 
 sight, till some favourable opportunity should present. | was indefatigable in his attention. The petition 
 
 The other party contemplated not only the con- 
 tinuance of a separate government, but the appoint- 
 ment of a distinct governor, who should reside in 
 the province, and have no connexion with Massa- 
 chusetts. The greatest obstacle in their way, was 
 
 was of course referred to the lords of trade, and 
 Francis Wilks, the agent of Massachusetts, was 
 served with a copy to be sent to his constituents. 
 
 Whilst the matter of the line was pending on the 
 British side of the Atlantic, the parties in New Hamp- 
 
 the smallness and poverty of the province, which shire maintained their opposition, and were on ail 
 was not able to support a gentleman in the charac- j occasions vilifying and abusing each other, especially 
 
 rr\ ji * _1__j. 1- 'A. _.. ji I_JA j 1 1 f> __ 1 -n i I r\ .1 
 
 ter of governor. To remove this obstacle, it was 
 necessary to have the limits of territories, not only 
 fixed, but enlarged. They were therefore zealous 
 in their attempts for this purpose ; and had the ad- 
 dress to persuade a majority of the people, that they 
 would be gainers by the establishment of the lines ; 
 that the lands would be granted to them and their 
 children; and that the expense of obtaining the 
 settlement would be so trifling, that each man's 
 share would not exceed the value of a pullet. 
 
 The governor's friends were averse to pressing 
 the settlement of the line ; and their reasons were 
 these. The controversy is either between the king 
 and the subjects of his charter government of Mas- 
 sachusetts ; or else, between the heirs of Mason and 
 Allen, and the people of Massachusetts. If the 
 controversy be settled even in favour of New Hamp- 
 shire, the lands which fall within the line will be 
 either the king's property, to be granted by his go- 
 vernor and council, according to royal instructions; 
 or else the property of the heirs of Mason or Allen, 
 
 in their letters to their friends in England. On the 
 one side, Belcher incessantly represented Dunbar as 
 the fomenter of opposition ; as false, perfidious, ma- 
 licious, and revengeful ; that he did no service to 
 the crown, nor to himself, but was " a plague to 
 the governor and a deceiver of the people." He 
 was also very liberal in his reflections, on his other 
 opposers. On the other side, they represented him 
 as unfriendly to the royal interest, as obstructing 
 the settlement of the lines, conniving at the destruc- 
 tion of the king's timber ; and partial to his other 
 government, where all his interest lay ; and that he 
 had not even a freehold in New Hampshire. (1733.) 
 As an instance of his partiality, they alleged that in 
 almost every session of the Assembly of Massachu- 
 setts, he consented to grants of the disputed lands, 
 to the people of that province; by which means 
 their Assembly raised money, to enable their agent 
 to protract the controversy, that they might have 
 opportunities to lay out more townships ; while at 
 the same time he rejected a supply bill of the New 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 471 
 
 Hampshire Assembly, and dissolved them, because 
 that in it, they had made an appropriation for their 
 agent. The truth was, that the council did not con- 
 sent to the bill, because they had no hand in ap- 
 pointing the agent, and the bill never came before 
 the governor. The frequent dissolution of assem- 
 blies was another subject of complaint; and, in 
 fact, this measure never produced the desired effect; 
 for the same persons were generally re-elected, and 
 rro reconciling measures were adopted by either party. 
 
 (1734.) The governor frequently complained, in 
 his speeches, that the public debts were not paid ; 
 nor the fort, prison, and other public buildings kept 
 in repair, because of their failure in supplying the 
 treasury. The true reason of their not supplying it 
 was, that they wanted issues of paper money, to be 
 drawn in at distant periods ; to this the governor 
 could not consent, being restrained by a royal in- 
 struction, as well as in principle opposed to all such 
 practices. But one issue of paper was made in his 
 administration ; and for its redemption, a fund was 
 established in hemp, iron, and other productions of 
 the country. When a number of merchants and 
 others had combined to issue notes, to supply the 
 place of a currency, he issued a proclamation 
 against them ; and in his next speech to the assem- 
 bly, condemned them in very severe terms. The 
 assembly endeavoured to vindicate the character of 
 the bills ; but in a few days he dissolved them, with 
 a reprimand, charging them with trilling, with in- 
 justice and hypocrisy. It must be remembered 
 that his complaints of an empty treasury were not 
 occasioned by any failure of his own salary, which 
 was regularly paid out of the excise. 
 
 Belcher revived the idea of his predecessor Shute, 
 which was also countenanced by his instructions, 
 that he was virtually present in New Hampshire 
 when personally absent and attending his duty in 
 his other province ; and therefore that the lieut.- 
 governor could do nothing but by his orders. Dun- 
 bar had no seat in the council, and Shadrach 
 Walton being senior member, by the governor's 
 order summoned them and presided. He also held 
 the command of the fort, by the governor's commis- 
 sion ; granted passes for ships, and licenses for mar- 
 riage ; and received and executed military orders, 
 as occasion required. The lieutenant-governor 
 contested this point, but could not prevail ; and 
 finding himself reduced to a state of insignificance, 
 he retired in disgust to his fort at Pemaquid, where 
 he resided almost two years. The governor's friends 
 gave out that he had absconded for debt, and affected 
 to triumph over the opposition, as poor and im- 
 potent; but their complaints, supported by their 
 agent Thomlinson, and the influence of Bladen at 
 the Board of Trade, made an impression there much 
 to the disadvantage of Mr. Belcher, though he had 
 friends among the ministry and nobility, the prin- 
 cipal of whom was Lord Townsend, by whose influ- 
 ence he had obtained his commission. 
 
 After Dunbar's return to Portsmouth the gover- 
 nor thought it good policy to relax his severity; and 
 gave him the command of the fort, with the ordinary 
 perquisites of office, amounting to about fifty pounds 
 sterling. Not content with this, he complained that 
 the governor did not allow him one third of his 
 salary. The governor's salary was but 600. 
 currency; and he spent at least one hundred in 
 every journey to New Hampshire, of which he made 
 two in a year. At the same time Dunbar had two 
 hundred pounds sterling, as surveyor general of the 
 woods ; which, with the perquisites, amounting to 
 
 one hundred more, were divided between him and 
 his deputies. But it must be remembered that he 
 was deeply in debt, both here and in England. 
 
 The rigid execution of the office of surveyor ge- 
 neral had always been attended with difficulty ; ana 
 the violent manner in which Dunbar proceeded with 
 trespassers, raised a spirit of opposition on such 
 occasions. The statutes for the preservation of the 
 woods im powered the surveyor to seize all logs cut 
 from white pine trees without license ; and it rested 
 on the claimant to prove his property in the court of 
 admiralty. Dunbar went to the saw-mills, where 
 he seized and marked large quantities of lumber; 
 and with an air and manner to which he had been 
 accustomed in his military capacity, abused and 
 threatened the people. That class of men with 
 whom he was disposed to contend are not easily in- 
 timidated with high words; and he was not a match 
 for them in that species of controversy which 
 they have denominated swamp law. An instance of 
 this happened at Dover, whither he came with his 
 boat's crew to remove a parcel of boards which he 
 had seized. The owner, Paul Gerrish, warned him 
 of the consequence; Dunbar threatened with death 
 the first man who should obstruct his intentions ; the 
 same threat was returned to the first man who should 
 remove the boards. Dunbar's prudence at this time 
 got the better of his courage, and he retired. 
 
 With the like spirit, an attempt of the same kind 
 was frustrated at Exeter, whither he sent a company 
 in a boat to remove lumber. Whilst his men were 
 regaling themselves at a public house, in the even- 
 ing, and boasting of what they intended to do the 
 next day, a number of persons, disguised like Indi- 
 ans, attacked and beat them ; whilst others cut tho 
 rigging and sails of the boat, and made a hole in her 
 bottom. The party not finding themselves safe in 
 the house, retreated to the boat, and pushed off; but 
 being there in danger of sinking, they with difficulty 
 regained the shore, and hid themselves till morning, 
 when they returned on foot to Portsmouth. 
 
 This was deemed a flagrant insult. Dunbar sum- 
 moned the council, and complained to them of the 
 riotous proceedings at Exeter, where there was " a 
 conspiracy against his life, by evil-minded persons, 
 who had hired Indians to destroy him." He pro- 
 posed to the council the issuing of a proclamation, 
 offering a reward to apprehend the rioters. The 
 major part of the council were of opinion that no 
 proclamation could be issued but by the governor. 
 Information being sent to the governor, he issued a 
 proclamation ; commanding all magistrates to assist 
 in discovering the rioters. 
 
 This transaction afforded matter for complaint, 
 and a memorial was drawn up by Thomlinson, 
 grounded on letters which he had received. It was 
 suggested, that the governor's pretence to favour the 
 surveyor was deceitful ; that the rioters at Exeter 
 were his greatest friends ; that the council, wholly 
 devoted to him, would not advise to a proclamation 
 till they had sent to Boston that the proclamation 
 was delayed and when it appeared offered no re- 
 ward, though Dunbar had proposed to pay the money 
 himself and that by reason of this delay and omis- 
 sion, the rioters escaped with impunity. 
 
 In justice to Mr, Belcher, it must be said that 
 there was-no delay on his part the proclamation 
 being sent from Boston within six days. It also 
 appears, from the secret and confidential letters of 
 the governor, that he disapproved the riot, and eveii 
 called it rebellion ; that he gave particular orders 
 to the magistrates to make inquiry, and take depo- 
 
472 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 sitions, and do their utmost to discover the rioters. 
 If he did not advertise a reward, it was because 
 there was no money in the treasury : and if Dun- 
 bar had been sincere in his offer to pay it, he might 
 have promised it by advertisement. The true rea- 
 son that the rioters were riot discovered was, that 
 their plan was so artfully conducted, their persons so 
 effectually disguised, and their confidence in each 
 other so well placed, that no proof could be obtained ; 
 and the secret remained with themselves, till the 
 danger was ovar, and the government had passed 
 into other hands. 
 
 A law had been made for holding the inferior 
 court of common pleas, alternately in each of the 
 four old towns ; and the practice had been con- 
 tinued for several years, much to the convenience 
 and satisfaction of the people ; but Dunbar remon- 
 strated against it to the board of trade, and moved 
 for a disallowance of the act, because the people who 
 had obstructed him in his office deserved not so much 
 favour. The act was in consequence disallowed, 
 and the courts were afterward confined to Ports- 
 mouth. (1735.) The order for disallowance came 
 to the hands of Dunbar, who called a meeting of the 
 council, that they might advise to its publication. 
 A majority of them would not consent till the origi- 
 nal order was sent to Boston, and Governor Belcher 
 directed the publication of it. This transaction 
 served as matter of fresh complaint, and was alleged 
 as an argument for the appointment of a governor 
 who should reside constantly in the province. 
 
 To finish what relates to Dunbar. He was caressed 
 by the party in opposition to Belcher, under the idea 
 that he had interest enough in England to obtain a 
 commission for the government of New Hampshire. 
 In 1737 he went to England to prosecute his design ; 
 where, by his old creditors he was arrested and 
 thrown into prison. Thomlinson found means to 
 liberate him ; but perceived that he had neither 
 steadiness nor ability for the station at which he 
 aimed, nor interest enough to obtain it; though by 
 his presence in England he served to keep up the 
 opposition to Belcher, and was used as a tool for 
 that purpose, till the object was accomplished. After 
 which he was (1743) appointed, by the East India 
 Company, governor of St. Helena. 
 
 The trade of the province at this time consisted 
 chiefly in the exportation of lumber and fish to 
 Spain and Portugal, and the Caribbee Islands. The 
 mast trade was wholly confined to Great Britain. 
 In the winter small vessels went to the southern 
 colonies, with English and West India goods, and 
 returned with corn and pork. The manufacture of 
 iron within the province, which had been set up by 
 the late Lieut.-Governor Wentworth, and other gen- 
 tlemen, lay under discouragement, for want of ex- 
 perienced and industrious workmen. The woollen 
 manufacture was diminished, and sheep were scarcer 
 than formerly the common lands on which they 
 used to feed, being fenced in by the proprietors. The 
 manufacture of linen was much increased by means 
 of the emigrants from Ireland, who were skilled in 
 that business. No improvements were made in 
 agriculture, and the newly granted townships were 
 not cultivated with spirit or success. 
 
 There had not been any settled episcopal church 
 in the province from the beginning, till about the 
 year 1732, when some gentlemen who were fond of 
 the mode of divine worship in the church of Eng- 
 land, contributed to the erection of a neat building 
 on a commanding eminence, in Portsmouth, which 
 they called the Queen's chapel. Mr. Thomlinson 
 
 was greatly instrumental in procuring them assis- 
 tance in England, toward completing and furnishing 
 it. It was consecrated in 1734, and in 1736 they 
 obtained Mi. Arthur Brown for their minister, with 
 a salary from the society for propagating the gospel 
 in foreign parts. 
 
 About this time, the country was visited with a 
 new epidemic disease, which obtained the name 
 of the throat distemper. The general description 
 of it was a swelled throat, with white or ash-coloured 
 specks, an efflorescence on the skin, great debility 
 of the whole system, and a strong tendency to putri- 
 dity. Its first appearance was in May 1735, at 
 Kingston in New Hampshire, an inland town, sit- 
 uate on a low plain. The first person seized was a 
 child, who died in three days. About a week after, in 
 another family, at the distance of four miles, three 
 children were successively attacked, who also died 
 on the third day. It continued spreading gradually 
 in that township, through the summer, and of the 
 first forty who had it, none recovered. In August 
 it began to make its appearance at Exeter, six miles 
 north-eastward, and in September at Boston, fifty 
 miles southward, though it was October before it 
 reached Chester, the nearest settlement on the west 
 of Kingston. It continued its ravages through the 
 succeeding winter and spring, and did not disappear 
 till the end of the next summer. In Boston it is 
 calculated that 4,000 had the distemper, of whom 
 114 died. 
 
 The most who died of this pestilence were children, 
 and the distress which it occasioned was heightened 
 to the most poignant degree. From three to six 
 children were lost out of some families, several buried 
 four in a day, and many lost all. In some towns 
 one in three, and in others one in four, of the sick 
 were carried off. In the parish of Hampton Falls 
 it raged most violently. Twenty families buried all 
 their children: twenty-seven persons were lost out 
 of five families, and more than one-sixth part of the 
 inhabitants of that place died within thirteen months. 
 In the whole province not less than 1,000 persons, 
 of whom above 900 were under twenty years of age, 
 fell victims to this raging distemper. 
 
 Since the settlement of this country such a mor- 
 tality had not been known. It was observed that 
 the distemper proved most fatal, when plentiful 
 evacuations, particularly bleeding, were used ; a great 
 prostration of strength being an invariable symptom. 
 The summer of 1735, when the sickness began, was 
 unusually wet and cold, and the easterly wind greatly 
 prevailed: but it was acknowledged to be, not "a 
 creature of the seasons," as it raged through every 
 part of the year. Its extent is said to have been 
 " from Pemaquid to Carolina:" but with what viru- 
 lence it raged, or in what measure it proved fatal to 
 the southward of New England, does not appear. 
 
 The same distemper has made its appearance at 
 various times since. In 1754 and 1755, it produced 
 a great mortality in several parts of New Hamp- 
 shire, and the neighbouring parts of Massachusetts. 
 Since that time it has either put on a milder form, 
 or physicians have become better acquainted with 
 it. The last time of its general spreading was in 
 1784, 5, 6, and 7. It was then first seen at San- 
 ford in the county of York, and thence diffused itself 
 very slowly through most of the towns of New Eng- 
 land; but its virulence, and the mortality which it 
 caused, were comparatively inconsiderable. " Its 
 remote or predisposing cause, is one of those mys- 
 teries in nature which baffle human inquiry." 
 
 The following enumeration shews the amount of 
 
UNITED STATES, 
 
 473 
 
 mortality for fourteen months, preceding the 26th 
 of July, '1736: Died in Portsmouth 99, Dover 88, 
 Hampton 55, Hampton Falls 210, Exeter 127, New- 
 castle 11, Gosport 37, Rye 44, Greenland 18, New- 
 ington 21, Newmarket 22, Stretham 18, Kingston 
 113, Durham 100, Chester 21 Total 984. 
 
 After this account was taken, " several other 
 children " died of the throat distemper ; in the town 
 of Hampton thirteen more within the year 1736, so 
 that the whole number must have exceeded 1,000. 
 In the town of Kittery, in the county of York, 1.22 died. 
 
 It appears also, from the church records of Hamp 
 ton, that from January 1754 to July 1755, fifty-one 
 persons died of the same distemper in that town. 
 
 State of parties Controversy about lines Commis- 
 sioners appointed- Their session and result Ap- 
 peals Complaints. 
 
 We have now come to that part of the History of 
 New Hampshire, in which may be seen, operating 
 in a smaller sphere, the same spirit of intrigue 
 which has frequently influenced the conduct of 
 princes, and determined the fate of nations. Whilst 
 on the one hand, we see Massachusetts stiffly as- 
 serting her chartered claims, and looking with con- 
 tempt on the small province of New Hampshire, 
 over which she had formerly exercised jurisdiction, 
 we shall see, on the other hand, New Havnpshirc 
 aiming at an equal rank, and contending with her 
 for a large portion of territory ; not depending solely 
 on argument, but seeking her refuge in the royal 
 favour, and making interest with the servants of the 
 crown. Had the controversy been decided by a 
 court of law, the claims of Massachusetts would 
 have had as much weight as those of an individual, 
 in a case of private property ; but the question being 
 concerning a line of jurisdiction, it was natural to 
 expect a decision agreeable to the rules of policy 
 and convenience; especially where the tribunal 
 itself was a party concerned. 
 
 It must be observed, that the party in New Hamp- 
 shire, who were so earnestly engaged in the establish- 
 ment of the boundary lines, had another object in 
 view, to which this was subordinate. Their avowed 
 intention was to finish a long controversy which had 
 proved a source of inconvenience to the people who 
 resided on the disputed lands, or those who sought 
 an interest in them ; but their secret design was to 
 displace Belcher, and obtain a governor who should 
 have no connexion with Massachusetts. To accom- 
 plish the principal, it was necessary that the subor- 
 dinate object should be vigorously pursued. The 
 government of New Hampshire, with its limited 
 salary, was thought to be not worthy the attention 
 of any gentleman ; but if the lines could be extended 
 on both sides, there would be at once an increase of 
 territory and a prospect of speculating in landed 
 property ; and in future there would be an increase 
 of cultivation, and consequently of ability to support 
 a governor. 
 
 The people were told that the lands would be 
 granted to them ; and by this bait they were induced 
 to favour the plan ; whilst the ministry in England 
 were flattered with the idea of an increase of crown 
 influence in the plantations. 
 
 The leading men in Massachusetts were aware of 
 the views of those in New Hampshire, and deter- 
 mined to guard against them. They presumed, that 
 a line of jurisdiction would not affect property; and 
 therefore endeavoured to secure the lands to them- 
 selves, by possession and improvement, as far as it 
 was practicable. The same idea prevailed among 
 
 the governor's friends in New Hampshire. They 
 perceived, that a tract of wilderness on the north 
 eastern side of Merrimack river, and the ponds 
 which flow into it, must doubtless fall into New 
 Hampshire. For these lands they petitioned the 
 governor, and a charter was prepared, in which this 
 whole tract, called King's Wood, was granted to 
 them. It contained all the lands not before granted 
 between the bounds of New Hampshire on the south- 
 west and north-east; which, according to the ideas 
 of those concerned, would have been sufficient for 
 about four large townships. 
 
 Governor Belcher had a difficult part to act. 
 He was at the head of two rival provinces ; he had 
 friends in both, who were seeking their own as well 
 as the public interest : he had enemies in both, who 
 were watching him, eager to lay hold of the most 
 trivial mista-ke, and magnify it to his disadvantage. 
 His own interest was to preserve his commission, 
 and counteract the machinations of his enemies ; but 
 as the settlement of the line, and the removing of 
 him from his office, were carried on at the same 
 time, and by the same persons, it was difficult for 
 him to oppose the latter, without seeming to oppose 
 the former. Besides, Mr. Wilks, the agent of Mas- 
 sachusetts, was well known to be his friend ; and 
 when it was found necessary to increase the number, 
 one of them was his brother, Mr. Partridge.' On the - 
 other hand, Mr. Rindge and Mr. Thomlinson were 
 his avowed enemies. There was also a difference in 
 the mode of appointing these agents. Those of Mas- 
 sachusetts were constituted by the council and repre- 
 sentatives, with the governor's consent. Those of 
 New Hampshire were chosen by the representatives 
 only, the council nonconcurring in the choice ; which, 
 of course, could not be sanctioned by the governor's 
 signature, nor by the seal of the province. 
 
 (1732.) When the petition which Rindge presented 
 to the king, had been referred to the board of trade, 
 and a copy of it given to Wilks, to be sent to his 
 constituents, it became necessary that they should 
 instruct him. Their instructions were designedly 
 expressed in such ambiguous terms, that he was left 
 to guess their meaning, and afterwards blamed for 
 not observing their directions. His embarrassment 
 on this occasion, expressed in his petition and 
 counter-petition, to the board of trade, protracted 
 the business, and gave it a complexion unfavourable 
 to his constituents, but extremely favourable to -the 
 design of New Hampshire. 
 
 (1733.) To bring forward the controversy, Parris, 
 the solicitor for the agents of New Hampshire, 
 moved a question, 'From what part of Merrimack 
 river the line should begin ?' The board of trade 
 referred this question to the attorney and solicitor 
 general, who appointed a day to hear counsel on 
 both sides. The counsel for New Hampshire insisted 
 that the line ought to begin three miles north of the 
 mouth of the Merrimack. The counsel for Massa- 
 chusetts declared, that in their opinion, the solution 
 of this question would not determine the controversy, 
 and therefore declined saying any thing upon it. 
 (1734.) The attorney and solicitor reported, that 
 " whether this were so or not, they could not judge; 
 but as the question had been referred to them, they 
 were of opinion, that according to the charter of 
 William and Mary, the dividing line ought to be 
 taken from three miles north of the mouth of Mer- 
 rimack, where it runs into the sea." Copies of this 
 opinion were given to each party ; and (1735) the 
 lords of trade reported, that the king should appoint 
 commissioners, from the neighbouring provinces, to 
 
474 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 mark out the dividing line. This report was ap- 
 proved by the lords of council. 
 
 Much time was spent in references, messages, and 
 petitions, concerning the adjustment of various mat- 
 ters; and at length (1737) the principal heads of 
 the commission were determined. The first was, 
 that the commissioners should be appointed from 
 among the counsellors of New York, New Jersey, 
 Rhode Island, and Nova Scotia. These were all 
 royal governments except Rhode Island ; and with 
 that colony, as well as New York, Massachusetts 
 had a controversy respecting boundaries. Connec- 
 ticut, though proposed, was designedly omitted, 
 because it was imagined that they would be partial 
 to Massachusetts, from the similarity of their habits 
 and interests. The other points were, that twenty 
 commissioners should be nominated, of whom five 
 were to be a quorum; that they should meet at 
 Hampton, in New Hampshire, on the 1st of August, 
 1737; that each province should send to the com- 
 missioners, at their first meeting, the names of two 
 public officers, on whom any notice, summons, or 
 final judgment might be served ; and at the same 
 time should exhibit, in writing, a plain and full state- 
 ment of their respective claims, copies of which should 
 be mutually exchanged ; and that if either province 
 should neglect to send in the names of their officers, 
 or the full statement of their demands, at the time ap- 
 pointed, then the commissioners should proceed ex 
 parle. That when the commissioners should have 
 made and signed their final determination, they 
 should send copies to the public officers of each 
 province; and then should adjourn for six weeks, 
 that either party might enter their appeal. 
 
 These points being determined, the board of trade 
 wrote letters to Belcher, enclosing the heads of the 
 proposed commission, and directing him to recom- 
 mend to the assemblies of each province to choose 
 their public officers and prepare their demands by 
 the time when the commissioners were to meet. 
 These were accompanied with letters to the go- 
 vernors of the several provinces from which the 
 commissioners were elected, informing them of their 
 appointment. The letters were delivered to Parris, 
 and by him to Thomlinson, to be sent by the first ship 
 to America. Those to Massachusetts and New 
 Hampshire were directed, the one to Mr. Belcher, 
 by name, as governor of Massachusetts ; the other 
 to the commander in chief, resident in New Hamp- 
 shire ; and it was required that the delivery of the 
 letters should be certified by affidavit. The design 
 of this singular injunction was, that Dunbar, if pre- 
 sent, should receive the letter, and call the assembly 
 of New Hampshire immediately ; and that if Belcher 
 should forbid or hinder it, the blame of the neglect 
 should fall on him. At the same time, another let- 
 ter respecting a petition of a borderer on the line, 
 and containing a reprimand to Belcher, was sent in 
 the same manner, to be delivered by Dunbar into 
 Belcher's hands. These intended affronts both 
 failed of their effect; Dunbar having, before the 
 arrival of the letters, taken his passage to England. 
 
 The anxiety of Thomlinson to have the earliest 
 notice possible of the intended commission sent to 
 New Hampshire, led him not only to forward the 
 public letters, but to send copies of all the transac- 
 tions to his friends there. In a letter to Wiggin 
 and Rindge (the committee who corresponded with 
 him) he advised them to make the necessary pre- 
 parations as soon as possible, to act in conformity 
 to the commission and instructions ; and even went 
 ao far as to nominate the persons whom they 
 
 should appoint to manage their cause before the 
 commissioners. 
 
 These papers were communicated to the assembly 
 at their session in March ; and at the same time the 
 governor laid before them a copy of the report of 
 the board of trade, in favour of a commission which 
 had been made in the preceding December. In 
 consequence of which the assembly appointed a 
 committee of eight, namely, Shadrack Walton, 
 George Jaffrey, Jotham Odiorne, Theodore Atkin- 
 son, who were members of the council ; and Andrew 
 Wiggin, John Rindge, Thomas Packer, and James 
 Jaffrey, who were members of the house. They 
 were empowered " to prepare witnesses, pleas and 
 allegations, papers and records, to be laid before the 
 commissioners ; to provide for their reception and 
 entertainment, and to draw upon the treasurer for 
 such supplies of money as might be needful." This 
 appointment was made by the united voice of the 
 council and representatives, and consented to by 
 the governor ; and though it was made three weeks 
 before the reception of the letters from the lords of 
 trade, directing the appointing of public officers and 
 preparing a statement of claims ; yet it was under- 
 stood to be a full compliance with the orders and 
 expectations of the government in England t 
 
 The same day on which this order passed, the go- 
 vernor prorogued the assembly to the 6th of July; 
 and on the 20th of June he prorogued it again to 
 the 4th of August. 
 
 The letters respecting the commission were deli- 
 vered to Mr. Belcher on the 22nd of April, and he 
 acknowledged the receipt of them, in a letter to the 
 board of trade on the 10th of May. The commis- 
 sion itself was issued on the 9th of April, and sent 
 to Mr. Rindge, who kept it till the meeting of the 
 commissioners, and then delivered it to them. The 
 expense of it, amounting to 1352. sterling, was paid 
 by the agents of New Hampshire. 
 
 At the spring session of the general court in Mas- 
 sachusetts, the governor laid before them the letter 
 from the lords of trade, enclosing an order from the 
 privy council, and recommended to them to stop all 
 processes in law respecting any disputes of the 
 borderers till the boundaries should be determined. 
 During the same session, he reminded them of the 
 order, and desired them to consider it ; telling them 
 that he had no advice of the appointment of com- 
 missioners. His meaning was, that the commission 
 itself, in which they were named, bad not been sent 
 to him; nor was he actually informed that it was in 
 America till after he had prorogued the assemblies 
 of both provinces to the 4th of August. In obedi- 
 ence to the royal order, the assembly of Massachu- 
 setts appointed Josiah Willard, secretary, and Ed- 
 ward Winslow, sheriff of Suffolk, to be the two 
 public officers; on whom, or at whose places of 
 abode, any notice, summons, or other process of the 
 commissioners, might be served. 
 
 On the day appointed, eight of the commissioners, 
 namely, William Skene Prest, Erasmus James 
 Phillips, Otho Hamilton, from Nova Scotia; and 
 Samuel Vernon, John Gardner, John Potter, Eze- 
 kiel Warner, and George Cornel, from Rhode-island ; 
 met at Hampton. They published their commis- 
 sion, opened their court, chose William Parker 
 their clerk, and George Mitchel, surveyor. Ou the 
 same day, the committee of eight, who had been 
 appointed by the assembly of New Hampshire, in 
 April, appeared, and delivered a paper to the court, 
 reciting the order of the king for the appointment 
 of two public officers, alleging that the assembly 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 475 
 
 had not been convened since the arrival of that 
 order; but, that there should be no failure for want 
 of such officers, they appointed Richard Waldron 
 secretary, and Eleazer Russell sheriff. They also 
 delivered the claim and demand of New Hampshire, 
 in the following words : " That the southern bound- 
 ary of said province should begin at the end of 
 three miles north from the middle of the channel of 
 Merrimack river, where it runs into the Atlantic 
 Ocean ; and from thence should run, on a straight 
 line, west, up into the main land (toward the south 
 sea) until it meets his majesty's other governments. 
 And that the northern boundary of New Hampshire 
 should begin at the entrance of Piscataqua harbour, 
 and so pass up the same into the river of Newich- 
 wannock, and through the same into the farthest 
 head thereof, and from thence northwestward (that 
 is, north, less than a quarter of a point westwardly), 
 as far as the British dominion extends ; and also 
 the western half of the Isles of Shoals, we say lies 
 within the province of New Hampshire." 
 
 The same day, Thomas Berry and Benjamin 
 Lynde, counsellors of Massachusetts, appeared and 
 delivered the vote of their assembly, appointing two 
 public officers, with a letter from the secretary, by 
 order of the governor, purporting that, " at the 
 last rising of the assembly there was no account 
 that any commission had arrived ; that the assembly 
 stood prorogued to the 4th of August ; that a com- 
 mittee had been appointed to draw up a state of 
 their demands, which would be reported at the next 
 session, and therefore praying that this short delay 
 might not operate to their disadvantage." Upon 
 this, the committee of New Hampshire drew up and 
 presented another paper, charging the government 
 of Massachusetts with " great backwardness, and 
 aversion to any measures, which had a tendency to 
 the settlement of this long subsisting controversy ; 
 and also charging their agent, in England, with 
 having used all imaginable artifices, to delay the 
 issue ; for which reason, the agent of New Hamp- 
 shire had petitioned the king to give directions that 
 each party might be fully prepared to give in a state 
 of their demands, at the first meeting of the com- 
 missioners ; which direction they had faithfully 
 observed, to the utmost of their power; and as the 
 assembly of Massachusetts had made no seasonable 
 preparation, they did, in behalf of New Hampshire, 
 except and protest against any claim or evidence 
 being received from them, and pray the court to 
 proceed ex parie agreeably to the commission." 
 
 It was alleged in favour of Massachusetts, that, 
 by the first meeting of the commisioners could not be 
 meant the first day, but the first session. The court 
 understood the word in this sense, and resolved that 
 Massachusetts should be allowed time, till the eighth 
 of August, and nc longer, to bring in their claims ; 
 nd that if they should fail, the court would proceed 
 exparte. The court then adjourned to the eighth day. 
 
 The assembly of New Hampshire met on the 
 fourth ; and the secretary, by the governor's order, 
 prorogued them to the tenth, then to meet at 
 Hampton Falls. On the same day, the assembly of 
 Massachusetts met at Boston, and received the 
 report of the committee, which had drawn up their 
 claim, and dispatched expresses to New York and 
 New Jersey, to expedite the other commissioners. 
 The assembly then appointed nother commit- 
 tee to support their claims, consisting of Edmund 
 Quincy, William Dudley, Samuel Welles, Thomas 
 Berry," and Benjamin Lynde, of the council ; and 
 Elisha Cooke, Thomas Gushing, Job Almy, Henry 
 
 Rolfe, and Nathaniel Peaslce, of the house. Cooke 
 died while the commissioners were sitting; in con- 
 sequence of which, and of the absence of another 
 member, they on the 13th appointed John Read and 
 Robert Auchmuty. The governor adjourned the 
 assembly to the 10th, then to meet at Salisbury. Thus 
 the assemblies of both provinces were drawn within 
 five miles of each other ; and the governor de- 
 clared, in his speech, that he would " act as a com- 
 mon father to both." 
 
 The claim of Massachusetts being prepared, was 
 delivered to the court on the day appointed. After 
 reciting their grant and charters and the judicial 
 determination in 1677, they asserted their " claim 
 and demand, still to hold and possess, by a boundary 
 line on the southerly side of New Hampshire, be- 
 ginning at the sea, three English miles north from 
 the Black Rocks, so called, at the mouth of the 
 river Merrimack, as it emptied itself into the sea 
 sixty years ago ; thence running parallel with the 
 river, as far northward as the crotch or parting of 
 the river; thence due north, as far as a certain tree, 
 commonly known for more than seventy years past 
 by the name of Endicot's tree ; standing three 
 miles northward of said crotch or parting of Merri- 
 mack river, and thence due west to the South Sea, 
 which (they said) they were able to prove, by 
 ancient and incontestible evidence, were the bounds 
 intended, granted, and adjudged to them; and they 
 insisted on the grant and settlement as above said, 
 to be conclusive and irrefragable. 
 
 " On the northerly side of New Hampshire, they 
 claimed a boundary line, beginning at the entrance 
 of Piscataqua harbour, passing up the same to the 
 river Newichwanock, through that to the farthest 
 head thereof, and from thence a due north west line 
 till 120 miles from the mouth of Piscataqaa harbour 
 be finished." 
 
 The court ordered copies of the claims of each 
 province, to be drawn and exchanged; and having 
 appointed Benjamin Rolfe of Boston, an additional 
 clerk, they adjourned to the tenth day of the month. 
 
 On that day both assemblies met at the appointed 
 places. A cavalcade was formed from Boston to 
 Salisbury, and the governor rode in state, attended 
 by a troop of horse. He was met at Newbury-ferry 
 by another troop, who, joined by three more at the 
 supposed divisional line, conducted him to the 
 George tavern, at Hampton Falls, where he held a 
 council, and made a speech to the assembly of New 
 Hampshire. Whilst both assemblies were in ses- 
 sion, the go vernor, with a select company, made an 
 excursion of three days to the Falls of Amuskeag, an 
 account of which was published in the papers, and 
 concluded in the following manner : " His Excel- 
 lency was much pleased with the fine soil of Chester, 
 the extraordinary improvements at Derry, and the 
 mighty falls at Skeag." 
 
 In the speech which the governor made to the 
 assembly of New Hampshire, he recommended to 
 them to appoint two officers, agreeably to his ma- 
 jesty's commision. The assembly appeared to be 
 much surprised at this speech, and in their answer 
 said " that the committee before appointed had al- 
 ready given in the names of two officers, which they 
 approved of; for, had it not been done, at the first 
 meeting of the commissioners they might have pro- 
 ceededed ex pane." 
 
 Considering the temper and views of Mr. Bel- 
 cher's opponents, this was rather unfortunate for 
 him so soon after his profession of being " a com- 
 mon father to both provinces." For if the commit- 
 
476 
 
 THE HIS10RY OF AMERICA. 
 
 tee had a right to nominate the two officers, then 
 his recommendation was needless; if they had not, 
 it might justly be asked, why did he not call the 
 assembly together on the 6th of July, to which day 
 they had been prorogued ? The excuse was, that 
 he did it to avoid any objection which might be 
 made to the regularity of their appointment; and 
 to give them an opportunity to ratify and confirm it. 
 The truth was, that Mr. Belcher highly resented 
 the conduct of the committee of New Hampshire, 
 who concealed the commission, and never commu- 
 nicated it to him in form. Had he been aware of 
 the use which his enemies might make of his rigid 
 adherence to forms, when he could not but know 
 the contents of the commission, and the time when 
 it must be executed, prudence might have dictated a 
 more flexible conduct. They did not fail to make 
 the utmost advantage of his mistakes, to serve the 
 main cause which they had in view. 
 
 The expresses which were sent by Massachusetts, 
 to call the other commissioners, had no other effect 
 than to add to the number Philip Livingstone, from 
 New York; who, being senior in nomination, pre- 
 sided in the court. 
 
 To prevent the delay which would unavoidably 
 attend the taking of plans from actual surveys, the 
 commissioners recommended to both assemblies to 
 agree upon a plan by which the pretensions of each 
 province should be understood ; but as this could 
 not be done, a plan drawn by Mitchel was accepted, 
 and when their result was made this plaa was an- 
 nexed to it. They then proceeded to hear the 
 answers, which each party made to the demands of 
 the other, and to examine witnesses on both sides. 
 Neither party was willing to admit the evidence 
 produced by the other, and mutual exceptions and 
 protests were entered. The points in debate were, 
 whether Merrimack river at that time emptied 
 itself into the sea, at the same place where it did 
 sixty years before ? Whether it bore the same 
 name from the sea up to the crotch ; and whether 
 it were possible to draw a parallel line, three miles 
 northward, of every part of a river, the course of 
 which was, in some places, from north to south ? 
 
 With respect to the boundary line, between New 
 Hampshire and Maine; the controverted points 
 were, whether it should run up the middle of the 
 river, or on its north-eastern shore ; and whether 
 the line, from the head of the river, should be due 
 north-west, or only a few degrees westward of north. 
 
 The grand point on which the whole controversy 
 respecting the southern line turned, was, whether 
 the charter of William and Mary, granted to Mas- 
 sachusetts, all the lands which were granted by the 
 charter of Charles the First ? On this question, the 
 commissioners did not come to any conclusion. 
 Reasons of policy might have some weight, to render 
 them indecisive; but, whether it were really so or 
 not, they made and pronounced their result in the 
 following words. In " pursuance of his majesty's 
 commission, the court took under consideration, the 
 evidences, pleas, and allegations offered and made 
 by each party ; and, upon mature advisement on 
 the whole, a doubt arose in point of law; and the 
 court thereupon came to the following resolution. 
 That if the charter of King William and Queen 
 Mary grants to the province of Massachusetts bay 
 all the lands granted by the charter of King Charles 
 the First, lying to the northward of Merrimack 
 river; then the court adjudge and determine, that a 
 line shall run, parallel with the *said river, at the 
 distance of three English miles, north from the 
 
 mouth of the said river, beginning at the southerly 
 side of the black rocks, so called, at low water mark, 
 and from thence to run to the crotch, where the 
 rivers of Pemigewasset and Winnipiseogee meet; 
 and from thence due north three miles, and from 
 thence due west, toward the south sea, until it meets 
 with his majesty's other governments ; which shall 
 be the boundary or dividing line, between the said 
 provinces of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, on 
 that side. But, if otherwise, then the Court adjudge 
 and determine, that a line on the southerly side of 
 New Hampshire, beginning at the distance of three 
 miles north, from the southerly side of the Black 
 Rocks aforesaid, at low water mark, and from thence 
 running due west, up into the main land, toward the 
 south sea, until it meets with his majesty's other 
 governments, shall be the boundary line between the 
 said provinces, on the side aforesaid: which point 
 in doubt the court humbly submit to the wise con- 
 sideration of his most sacred majesty, in his privy 
 council; to be determined according to his royal 
 will and pleasure. 
 
 " As to the northern boundary, between the said 
 provinces, the court resolve and determine ; that 
 the dividing line shall pass through the mouth of 
 Piscataqua harbour, and up the middle of the river 
 of Newichwanock, (part of which is now called 
 Salmon Falls) and through the middle of the same, 
 to the farthest head thereof, and from thence north, 
 two degrees westerly, until 120 miles be finished, 
 from the mouth of Piscataqua harbour aforesaid; or 
 until it meets with his majesty's other governments; 
 and that the dividing line shall part the Isles of 
 Shoals, and run through the middle of the harbour, 
 between the islands, to the sea, on the southerly side; 
 and that the south-westerly part of said islands shall 
 lie in, and be accounted part of, the province of 
 New Hampshire; and that the north-easterly part 
 thereof shall He in, and be accounted part of, the 
 province of Massachusetts bay; and be held and 
 enjoyed by the said provinces respectively, in the 
 same manner as they now do, and have heretofore 
 held and enjoyed the same. 
 
 " And the court do further adjudge that the cost 
 and charge arising by taking out the commission, 
 and also of the commissioners and their officers, viz. 
 the two clerks, surveyor, and waiter, for their travel- 
 ling expenses, and attendance in the execution of 
 the same, be equally borne by the said provinces." 
 
 Thus this long depending question, after all the 
 time, expense, and argument which it had occasi- 
 oned, remained undecided. 
 
 When this evasive decree was published the 
 commissioners adjourned to the 14th of October, 
 to receive appeals ; and the same day, the governor, 
 at the request of the council only, adjourned the 
 assembly of New Hampshire to the 12th of October. 
 By this sudden adjournment it was impossible for 
 thorn to obtain a copy of the decree before their 
 dispersion, or to frame an appeal till two days before 
 the time when it must have been presented. The 
 assembly of Massachusetts continued their session at 
 Salisbury five days longer. On the 5th of Septem- 
 ber they obtained copies of the royal commission, 
 and the decree of the commissioners, which they 
 entered on their journal. On the 6th they agreed 
 upon an appeal ; and on the 7th. at the united re- 
 quest of both houses, the governor adjourned them 
 to the 12th of October. 
 
 The sudden adjournment of the assembly of New 
 Hampshire, when that of Massachusetts continued 
 their session, was unfortunate for governor Belcher ; 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 477 
 
 and gave his opponents another advantage to pursue 
 their grand design against him. The reasons as- 
 signed for it were, that the report of the commis- 
 sioners being special, the whole matter would oi 
 course come before the king, without any appeal from 
 either province. For this reason a majority of the 
 council were against an appeal. That as the com 
 mittee appointed in April had the same power to act 
 in the recess as in the session of the assembly ; and 
 as the council were against appealing, so the appeal 
 could not be made by the whole assembly ; and 
 therefore the governor thought that the best service 
 which he could do to the province, was to adjourn 
 the assembly, and leave the whole business in the 
 hands of the committee. With respect to the short 
 time between the 12th and 14th ot October, it was 
 observed, that the claim of New Hampshire was 
 contained in a few lines, and their exceptions to the 
 judgment of the commissioners might be prepared 
 in a quarter of an hour. 
 
 Both assemblies met again, in the same places, at 
 the appointed time. The representatives of New 
 Hampshire having, by the help of their committee, 
 in the recess of the assembly, obtained the papers, 
 framed their exceptions, and sent a message to know 
 if the council were sitting ; but the council being 
 determined against an appeal, had met and ad- 
 journed, without doing any business. The house 
 therefore was reduced to the necessity of desiring 
 the commissioners to receive their appeal, without 
 the concurrence of the governor and council. The 
 appeal from the assembly of Massachusetts was pre- 
 sented in due form, authenticated by the speaker, 
 secretary, and governor. Their committee entered a 
 protest against the appeal of New Hampshire, be- 
 cause it was not an act of the whole legislature; 
 nevertheless, the commissioners received it, and 
 entered it on their minutes. Having received these 
 appeals, the commissioners adjourned their court to 
 the 1st of August in the next year, but they never 
 met again. 
 
 The assembly of Massachusetts appointed Edmund 
 Quincy and Richard Partridge, agents, to join with 
 Francis Wilks, their former agent, in the prosecu- 
 tion of their appeal before the king; and raised the 
 sum of two thousand pounds sterling, to defray the 
 expense. 
 
 When the representatives of New Hampshire 
 proposed the raising of money, to prosecute their 
 appeal, the council nonconcured the vote. Their 
 reasons were, that the appeal was not an act of the 
 council ; that they had no voice in the appointment 
 of the agent ; and, that at the beginning of the 
 affair, the house had declared to the council, that the 
 expense of it would be defrayed by private sub- 
 scription 
 
 At this session of the Massachusetts assembly Mr. 
 Belcher put them in mind that he had suffered in his 
 interest by the continually sinking value of their 
 bills of credit, in which his salary was paid ; a point 
 which he had often before urged them to consider. 
 In answer to this message, they mado him a grant 
 of 333/. 6s. 8d. in bills of the new tenor. The same 
 day they made a grant of the like sum to the presi- 
 dent of Harvard College. Buth of these sums appear 
 to have been justly due : and at any other time no 
 exception could have been made to either. But, 
 because the grant to the governor happened to be 
 made at the same time with the grant of 2000Z. ster- 
 ling to the agents, his opponents pretended that he 
 received it as a bribe from the assembly of Massa- 
 chusetts, for favouring their cause. 
 
 The appeal of New Hampshire from the judgment 
 of the commissioners was founded on the following 
 reasons. With respect to the southerly line ; be- 
 cause it made the Black Rocks, lying in a bay of 
 Merrimack river, the point from which the three 
 miles were to be measured ; which point was three 
 quarters of a mile north of the river's mouth ; and 
 because a line parallel with the river was not only 
 impracticable, but founded on the old charter, which 
 had been vacated ; and, if practicable, yet ought 
 not to go farther than the river held a westerly 
 course. With respect- to the northern boundary, 
 they objected to that part of the judgment only which 
 directed the line to run up the middle of the river; 
 alleging that the grant to Gorges was only of land, 
 between that river and Kennebec; and that New 
 Hampshire had always been in possession of the 
 whole river, and had maintained a fortress which 
 commanded its entrance. 
 
 The appeal of Massachusetts was grounded on the 
 following reasons. That by the charter of William 
 and Mary, the old colony of Massachusetts was 
 re-incorporated without any exception ; that this 
 charter empowered the governor and general assem- 
 bly to grant all lands, comprehended in the old 
 colony; that the committee of New Hampshire 
 acknowledged that New Hampshire lay without the 
 late colony of Massachusetts; by declaring that it 
 was between that and the province of Maine; that 
 the west line, claimed by New Hampshire, would 
 cross Merrimack river, thirty miles from its mouth, 
 and exclude forty miles of the said river out of Mas- 
 sachusetts, though declared by both charters to be 
 in it. They objected to extending the line of New 
 Hampshire till it should meet with his majesty's 
 other governments ; because according to Mason's 
 grant, New Hampshire could extend no farther than 
 sixty miles from the sea. With respect to the 
 northern boundary, they objected to a line north, 
 two degrees westwardly, alleging that it ought to be 
 on the northwest point ; they also excepted to the 
 protraction of this line, till it should meet with his 
 majesty's other governments ; alleging that it ought 
 to extend no farther than one hundred and twenty 
 miles, the fixed limits of the province of Maine. 
 
 It was unfortunate for Massachusetts that their 
 committee had brought Mason's grant in evidence 
 to the commissioners, and again recited it in their 
 appeal ; for a line of sixty miles from the sea would 
 cross Merrimack river long before the similar curve 
 line, for which they contended could be completed : 
 besides, Mason's grant extended to Naumkeag, 
 which was much further southward than they would 
 have been willing to admit. 
 
 It may seem curious and unaccountable to most 
 readers, that tha commissioners should determine the 
 northern, or rather eastern bounds of the northern 
 >art of New Hampshire, to be a line drawn north, 
 wo degrees westerly, from the head of Salmon-fall 
 river, when the express words of Gorges' patent are 
 " north-westward." The agents for Massachusetts, 
 when this claim was put in by New Hampshire, 
 could hardly think it was seriously meant, when it 
 was alleged that by northwestward must be under- 
 stood, north a little westward. The only ostensible 
 reason given for this construction was, that if a north- 
 west line had been intended, then a southeast line, 
 drawn from the mouth of the harbour, would leave 
 all the Isles of Shoals in New Hampshire ; whereas, 
 the dividing line runs between them. On the other 
 side, it might have been said, with equal propriety, 
 that a line drawn south, two degrees east, from the 
 
478 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, 
 
 mouth of the harbour, would leave all these islands 
 in Massachusetts. For the point where the islands 
 are divided bears south, twenty -nine degrees east 
 from the middle of the harbour's mouth; the varia- 
 tion of the needle being six degrees west. 
 
 When this affair was again agitated in England, 
 the agents of Massachusetts obtained a certificate 
 from the learned Dr. Halley, that a line northwest- 
 ward ought to run forty-five degrees westward of the 
 north point. This was demonstratively true, but 
 there were political reasons for dissenting from 
 mathematical demonstration. One of them is thus 
 expressed, in a private letter from a committee of 
 the assembly, to their agent Thomlinson. " We 
 hope that the northern line will be but a few degrees 
 to the westward of north, that his majesty's province 
 may include the greatest number, ana best mast 
 trees for the royal navy." Though this thought 
 might never have occurred to a mathematician, yet 
 some of the commissioners were doubtless acquainted 
 with it; and it was too important not to have been 
 communicated to the king's ministers. Another 
 political reason of dissent was, that by enlarging 
 New Hampshire, there would be a better prospect 
 of obtaining a distinct governor, which was the grand 
 object in view. 
 
 (1738.) The new agent of Massachusetts, Edmund 
 Quincy, died of the small pox, soon after his arrival 
 in London. The affair was then left in the hands 
 of Wilks and Partridge, neither of whom under- 
 stood so much of the controversy as Thomlinson, 
 who was also far superior to them in address. In 
 his letters to his friends in New Hampshire, he fre- 
 quently blames them for their negligence in not 
 sending to him the necessary papers in proper sea- 
 son ; and when sent, for the want of correctness and 
 regularity in them : but their deficiency was abund- 
 antly compensated by the dexterity of his solicitor 
 Parris, who drew up a long " petition of appeal/' in 
 which all the circumstances attending the whole 
 transaction from the beginning were recited and 
 coloured in such a manner as to asperse the gover- 
 nor and assembly of " the vast, opulent, overgrown 
 province of Massachusetts;" while "the poor, little, 
 loyal, distressed province of New Hampshire," was 
 represented as ready to be devoured, and the king's 
 own property and possessions swallowed up, by the 
 boundless rapacity of the charter government. Con- 
 cerning the manner in which this masterly philippic 
 was framed, and the principal object at which it was 
 directed, there can be no better evidence, than that 
 which is contained in a letter, written by Parris to 
 Thomlinson, and by him sent to New Hampshire. 
 "Two nights ago, I received a heap of papers from 
 you about the lines; and have been four times to 
 the colony office and board of trade, to discover 
 what I could in this imperfect affair, but cannot see 
 the case till after Tuesday next; notwithstanding 
 which, I have as well as I can, without proper ma- 
 terials, drawn up a long petition of appeal to his 
 majesty; and as the Massachusetts have not yet 
 presented theirs, I send you the draught of it, and 
 hope we shall have our appeal, as well as the peti- 
 tion, from the New Hampshire assembly, in, before 
 the Massachusetts get theirs in. Had your princi- 
 pals considered the great consequence of being first, 
 surely in all this time they would have sent you a 
 copy of their proceedings, in order to have enabled 
 us to be first; but, as it is, I am forced to guess at 
 matters, and affirm facts at adventure, or upon du- 
 bious passages in letters, which is a sad way of pro- 
 ceeding, and I wish we do not mistake some facts. 
 
 They oblige us to make brick without straw. Above 
 all, why did they not send a copy of their own appeal? 
 For want of it, I have been forced to guess what that 
 appeal was, from loose passages in Mr. A's letters. 
 Beg them immediately to order an exact copy to be 
 made of all their votes, from March to October last. 
 Had these votes come over regularly and authenti- 
 cally, his Excellency would have been shaken quite 
 down in a few weeks by them. You'll observe, I 
 have laid it on him pretty handsomely, in my peti- 
 tion to the king." 
 
 Thus the petition of appeal became a petition of 
 complaint against the governor and assembly of 
 Massachusetts : copies were delivered to their agents, 
 and the governor was ordered to make answer to the 
 allegations against him ; at the game time Thomlin- 
 sou advised his friends in New Hampshire, to pre- 
 pare their proofs as silently as possible ; and by no 
 means to give any offence to the governor; assuring 
 them of the favourable disposition of several lords 
 of the privy council, as well as the board of trade, 
 toward their cause; and that they had need to be 
 in no pain, about the event. 
 
 The death of Mr. Quincy at this critical period, 
 and the length of time necessary to prepare and 
 send over answers to the complaint which Parris 
 had thus artfully drawn up, obliged the agents of Mas- 
 sachusetts to suspend the presenting of their appeal 
 for several months. 
 
 Revival of Mason's claim Accusations againstBelcher, 
 real andforyed Royal censure Final establish- 
 ment of the lines Hutchinson's agency Spanish 
 war Belcher's zeal and fidelity His removal' 
 Examination of his character. 
 
 The spirit of intrigue was not confined to New 
 Hampshire ; for the politicians of Massachusetts, by 
 bringing into view the long dormant claim of Mason, 
 had another game to play, besides proving the small 
 extent of New Hampshire. They perceived that the 
 line, whether settled according to their own demand 
 or that of New Hampshire, would cut off a consider- 
 able part of several of their townships ; and though 
 they had, by their agent, obtained a promise, that 
 private property should not be affected by the line of 
 jurisdiction, yet they thought it best to have some 
 other security. 
 
 For what reason the government of Massachusetts 
 did not purchase the province of New Hampshire 
 from Robert Mason, at the same time (1677) that 
 they purchased the province of Maine, from the heirs 
 of Gorges, we are not now able precisely to deter- 
 mine. It is probable that the purchase might then 
 have been easily made, and much controversy pre- 
 vented. When it was sold, by John and Robert 
 Mason, to Samuel Allen, (1691) the bargain was 
 made in England ; and the lands were, by fiction of 
 law, supposed to be there ; by which means, the 
 process respecting the fine and recovery was carried 
 on in the court of King's Bench. During the lives 
 of the two Masons, no notice was taken of the sup- 
 posed flaw ; and the sale to Allen was not disputed. 
 The brothers returned to America. John the elder, 
 died without issue. Robert married in New England 
 and had a son ; who, after the death of his father, 
 conceived hopes of invalidating Allen's purchase, 
 and regaining his paternal inheritance, which it was 
 supposed could not have been transferred by his fa- 
 ther and uncle, for any longer term, than their own 
 lives. It was also said that the fiction, by which the 
 lands were described, to be within the jurisdiction 
 of the courts of Westminster Hall, rendered the 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 479 
 
 proceedings void ; aud therefore that the entail was 
 still good. Filled with these ideas, he made stre- 
 nuous exertions, to acquire money, to assist him in 
 realizing his expectations; but died in 1718, at the 
 Havanna, whither he had made a voyage with this 
 view. His eldest son, John Tufton, was bred to a 
 mechanical employment in Boston; and came of 
 age about the time in which the controversy be- 
 tween the two provinces was in agitation. He in- 
 herited the enterprising spirit of his ancestors, and 
 the public controversy called his attention to his 
 interest. On this young man (1738) the politicians 
 cast their eyes ; and having consulted counsel on 
 the validity of his claim, and the defect of the trans- 
 fer, they encouraged him to hope, that this was the 
 most favourable time to assert his pretensions. Had 
 they purchased his claim at once, they might doubt- 
 less have obtained it for a trifle, and have greatly 
 embarrassed the views of their antagonists. Instead 
 of such a stroke of liberal policy, they treated with 
 him, concerning the release of all those lands, in 
 Salisbury, Amesbury, Haverhill, Methuen and Dra- 
 cut, which the line would cut off; and, for 500/. 
 currency, obtained a quit-claim of 23,675 acres. 
 They also admitted his memorial to the assembly ; 
 in which he represented to them, that his interest 
 might probably be affected, by the final determina- 
 tion of the line, and praying that the province woulc 
 be at the expense of his voyage to England, to take 
 proper measures for securing it. To this they con- 
 sented, on condition that he should prove his descen 
 from Capt. John Mason, the original patentee 
 Depositions were accordingly taken in both provin- 
 ces, to which the public seals were affixed ; and they 
 put him under the direction of their agents, ordering 
 his expenses to be paid, as long as they should judge 
 his presence in England serviceable tc their views. 
 
 The agents stated his case to their counsel, th 
 king's solicitor, and asked his opinion how the) 
 should proceed ; but he advised them not to bring 
 him into view, lest the lords should think it an ar 
 tifice, intended to perplex the main cause. On thii 
 consideration, they dismissed him from any farthe: 
 attendance ; and paid his expenses, amounting t< 
 above 901. sterling. 
 
 Such a transaction, though conducted as privatelj 
 as the nature of the thing would admit, did not es 
 cape the vigilance of Thomlinson ; who, on finding 
 Mason detached from the agents of Massachusetts 
 entered into an agreement with him, for the release 
 of his whole interest, to the assembly of New Hamp 
 shire ; in consideration of the payment of lOOOJ. 
 currency of New England. This manoeuvre serve< 
 to strengthen the interest of New Hampshire, anc 
 Thomlinson was much applauded for his dexterity 
 He had the strongest inducement to continue hi 
 efforts in their favour; for no less than 1,200/. ster 
 ling had been already expended, in prosecuting the 
 affair of the line ; which sum had been advanced b 1 
 himself and Rindge. There was no prospect of re 
 payment, unless the province could be put under < 
 separate governor ; and this point could not be ob 
 tained, till the removal of Belcher. 
 
 The agents of Massachusetts, after a long delay 
 presented their appeal; and followed it with a peti 
 tion, for the benefit of their former protests, agains 
 the New Hampshire appeal; objecting also to it 
 regularity, as it contained matters of personal com 
 plaint against the governor ; which had been no par 
 of the records of the commissioners. Thomlinson 
 finding this new petition thrown in his way, appliec 
 for its being immediately heard ; aud, at the hear 
 
 ng, it was dismissed, but without prejudice to the 
 gents of Massachusetts being permitted to object 
 gainst the regularity of the New Hampshire appeal, 
 yhen it should come to a hearing. Such were the 
 omplaints against the governor, and the importu- 
 lity of his adversaries to prosecute them, that it 
 was necessary to hear and dispatch them, before the 
 ippeal respecting the lines could be brought forward. 
 It must be remembered, that Mr. Belcher had 
 enemies, in his government of Massachusetts as well 
 is New Hampshire, who united their efforts to ob- 
 tain his removal from both ; but, as they supposed 
 lim more vulnerable in his capacity of governor of 
 New Hampshire, so they joined in strengthening 
 the complaints from that quarter, as a preparatory 
 step, to effect his complete removal. Whilst he was 
 engaged in preparing his defence against the charges, 
 in the petition of appeal, other attacks were medi- 
 tating, which were conducted with such silence, that 
 it was impossible for him to guard against their 
 effects. (1739.) One of these was a letter, pur- 
 porting to have been written at Exeter, subscribed 
 by five persons, said to be inhabitants of that town, 
 and directed to Sir Charles Wager, first lord of the 
 Admiralty. In this letter it was said, that " find- 
 ing his lordship had ordered the Judge Advocate of 
 the Court of Admiralty to inquire into the riot, 
 which had been committed there, (1734), and the 
 assault of the surveyor and his officers ; and fearing 
 to be brought into trouble on that account, they 
 would confess the whole truth. That they had been 
 indulged by former surveyors, in cutting all sorts of 
 pine trees, till the appointment of Colonel Dunbar 
 to that office; who had restrained and prosecuted 
 them ; but that governor Belcher had privately given 
 them encouragement to go on ; by assuring them 
 that they had the best right to the trees ; that the 
 laws were iniquitous, and ought not to be regarded; 
 that although he must make a shew of assisting that 
 Irish dog of a surveyor; yet he would so manage it 
 with the council and justices, who were under his 
 influence, that they should not suffer ; and further 
 to encourage them, he had made several of them 
 justices of the peace, and officers of militia. That 
 he had also told them not to fear any inquiry into 
 their conduct ; for that he would write to the board 
 of admiralty in their favour ; and boasted, that he 
 had such an influence ovei their lordships, that they 
 would believe every thing which he should say. 
 That as they had now confessed the truth, they hoped 
 to be forgiven, and not prosecuted in the admiralty 
 court; and begged that this information might be 
 kept secret till the governor's removal, which they 
 hoped would soon be effected. That whatever might 
 have been said to the contrary, they could assure 
 him that the province of New Hampshire contained 
 the largest number of pine trees, and of the best 
 quality, in all his majesty's American dominions ; 
 and, for further information, they referred his lord- 
 ship to several persons then in London, particularly 
 Mr. Wentworth and Mr. Waldo; the latter of 
 whom was agent to Mr. Gulston, for procuring masts 
 for the royal navy." 
 
 On the receipt of this letter, Sir Charles, with 
 the candour of a gentleman, sent a copy of it to Mr. 
 Belcher ; who immediately ordered an inquiry ; and 
 it was proved to be an entire forgery ; four of the 
 persons whose names were subscribed utterly dis- 
 claimed it, and the fifth was not to be found ; no 
 such person being known in the town of Exeter. 
 The evidence of this forgery was transmitted to 
 England with all possible expedition ; but not till it 
 
480 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 had made an impression to the disadvantage of the 
 governor. 
 
 Another artifice used against him was a memorial 
 of Gulston, the navy agent, and others, complaining 
 of the defenceless state of the province ; that the 
 fort lay in ruins, and that the militia were without 
 discipline, notwithstanding the probability of a war. 
 This memorial was so artfully drawn as to throw 
 the blame of the neglect on the governor, without 
 mentioning 1 is name ; which was intended to pre- 
 vent his obte ning a copy, and being allowed time 
 to answer. Another complaint was made, in the 
 form of a letter, respecting the grant of the tract 
 called Ki'^gswood ; in which he was represented as 
 partial to his friends, in giving them an exclusive 
 right to the whole of that territory, which they 
 deemed the unappropriated lands of the province. 
 Several parts of his administration were also com- 
 pK/ned of. and in particular the infrequency of his 
 v sits to New Hampshire. This letter was signed 
 y six members of the council and a majority of the 
 .-presentatives. 
 
 Gulston's memorial was presented to the lords of 
 council, and by them referred to the board of trade, 
 accompanied by the letter; and though Mr. Belcher's 
 brother and son applied for copies and time to an- 
 swer, the request was evaded, and a report was 
 framed in favour of putting New Hampshire under 
 a separate governor. When this report came before 
 the privy council, Lord Wilmington, the president, 
 ordered it back again, that the governor might have 
 that justice which his agents had asked. By this 
 means he had an opportunity to answer in his defence, 
 that without money the fort could not be repaired 
 that it was not in his power to tax the people that 
 he had frequently applied to the assemblies for 
 money to repair the fort, to which they had con- 
 stantly answered, that the people were too poor to 
 be taxed, and had solicited him to break through his 
 instructions, and allow them to issue paper money, 
 without any fund for its redemption that the mili 
 tia had always been trained according to law anc 
 that he had constantly visited New Hampshire, anc 
 held an assembly, twice in the year, unless preventec 
 by sickness, for which he appealed to the journals 
 To corroborate these pleas, the governor's friends 
 procured five petitions in his favour and praying fo 
 his continuance, signed by about 500 people. The 
 petitions, however, did not express the sense of the 
 majority, who had been persuaded into a belief tba 
 they should receive much benefit by a separate go 
 vernor, and accordingly a counter petition being 
 circulated, was signed by about seven hundred of th 
 inhabitants. 
 
 Things being thus prepared, the complaints wer 
 brought to a hearing before the'lords of council, wh 
 reported to the king, " that governor Belcher hai 
 acted with great partiality by proroguing the assem 
 bly of New Hampshire from the 6th of July, 1737 
 to the 4th of August following, in disobedience t 
 his majesty's order in council, which had bee; 
 transmitted to him by the lords of trade, and whic! 
 was proved to have been delivered to him in du 
 time ; and also by farther proroguing the said as 
 sembly from the 2nd of September, 1737, to the 13tl 
 of October ; whereby the province were deprived c 
 the time intended by his majesty's said order to b 
 allowed them to make a proper and regular appeal 
 thereby endeavouring to frustrate the intention o 
 his majesty's commission." This report was a 
 proved by the king ; and from this time it may ' 
 
 concluded that 
 
 ng; 
 
 Mr. 
 
 Belcher's removal from th 
 
 overnment of New Hampshire was seriously con- 
 smplated. The grant of Kingswood was also, 
 nnulled, and he was prohibited from making 
 ny other grants of land till the lines should be 
 etermined. 
 
 (1740.) This censure being passed on the go- 
 ernor, and the complaints being at an end, the way 
 as prepared for a hearing of the appeals from both 
 rovinces respecting the lines. Which being had, 
 determination of this long controversy was made 
 n a plan entirely new. The special part of the 
 ecree of the commissioners was set aside, and no 
 igard was had to their doubt, whether the new 
 barter granted all the lands comprehended in the 
 Id. It was said that when the first grant was 
 ade, the country was not explored. The course of 
 B river, though unknown, was supposed to be from 
 ,vest to east; therefore it was deemed equitable, 
 lat as far as the river flowed in that course, the 
 arallel line at three miles distance should extend. 
 Jut as on the one hand, if by pursuing the course 
 f the river up into the country it had been found to 
 lave a southern bend, it would have been inequita- 
 le to have contracted the Massachusetts grant; 
 o, on the other hand, when it appeared to have a 
 northern bend, it was equally inequitable to enlarge 
 t. Therefore it was determined, " that the northern 
 )oundary of the province of Massachusetts be a 
 imilar curve line, pursuing the course of Merrimack 
 iver at three miles distance on the north side 
 hereof, beginning at the Atlantic Ocean, and end- 
 ng at a point due north of Patucket falls ; and a 
 >traight line drawn from thence due west, till it 
 meets with his majesty's other governments." The 
 ither parts of the decree of the commissioners, re- 
 pecting the northern line and the payment of 
 expenses, were affirmed. 
 
 This determination exceeded the utmost expecta- 
 tion of New Hampshire, as it gave them a tract of 
 country 14 miles in breadth, and above 50 in length, 
 more than they had ever claimed. It cut off from 
 Massachusetts 28 new townships, between Merri- 
 mack and Connecticut rivers, besides large tracts of 
 vacant land, which lay intermixed, and districts 
 from six of their old towns, on the north side of the 
 Merrimack ; and if, as was then supposed, the due 
 west line were to extend to twenty miles east of 
 Hudson's river, the reputed boundary of New York, 
 a vast tract of fertile country, on the western side of 
 Connecticut river was annexed to New Hampshire, 
 by which an ample scope was given, first for landed 
 speculation, and afterward for cultivation, and wealth. 
 When this determination was known, the politi- 
 cians of Massachusetts were chagrined and enraged. 
 They talked loudly of injustice, and some of the 
 more zealous proposed trying the merits of the 
 cause upon the words of the charter, before the 
 judges in Westminster-hall, who it was expected 
 would upon their oath and honour reverse the 
 judgment, and tell the king that he had mistaken 
 the meaning of the royal charter. This would, in- 
 deed, have been a bold stroke. But a move moderate 
 and pusillanimous scheme was adopted, which was, 
 to send over a new agent to petition the king that 
 he would re-annex to their government the twenty- 
 eight new townships which had been cut off, and 
 the districts of the six old towns. It was also 
 thought prudent that the whole province should not 
 openly appear in the affair, but that petitions should 
 be drawn by the inhabitants of these towns, and 
 that the agent should be chosen by them. Accord- 
 ingly town meetings were held, petitions were pre- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 481 
 
 pared and subscribed, and Thomas Hutchinson was 
 appointed their agent, and sent over to England, 
 where he formed those connexions which afterwards 
 served to raise him to the chair of government in 
 his native province. 
 
 About the same time, Governor Belcher procured 
 a petition from his six friends, of the council of 
 New Hampshire, to the king, praying that the whole 
 province might be annexed to the government of 
 Massachusetts. This matter had been long in con- 
 templation with these gentlemen, but was now pro- 
 duced at the most unfortunate time which could 
 have been chosen. Their petition was at once re- 
 jected ; but that from the towns was kept in sus- 
 pense a long time, till Thomlinson was prepared to 
 answer all the pleas which Hutchiuson could ad- 
 vance, and proved too hard an antagonist for him. 
 It was finally dismissed, because it was thought 
 " that it never could be for his majesty's service to 
 annex any part of his province of New Hampshire, 
 as an increase of territory, to Massachusetts ; but 
 rather that it would be for the benefit of his subjects 
 there, to be under a distinct government." 
 
 Though Belcher's removal was seriously feared 
 by his best friends, yet he had so much interest with 
 some of the lords in high office, that they could not 
 be prevailed with to give him up. The war which 
 had commenced between Britain and Spain afforded 
 him an opportunity to signalize his zeal for the 
 king's service ; and he determined to prove himself 
 a faithful servant to the crown in every instance, in 
 hope that a course of time and fidelity might efface 
 the impressions which had been made to his disad- 
 vantage. 
 
 It being resolved by the British court to under 
 take an expedition to the island of Cuba, Governor 
 Belcher, agreeably to the orders which he had re- 
 ceived from the Duke of Newcastle, issued a pro- 
 clamation for the encouragement of men who would 
 enlist in the service; " that they should be supplied 
 with arms and clothing, be in the king's pay, have 
 a share of the booty which should be taken, and be 
 sent home at the expiration of their time of service ; 
 and that his majesty would order a number of blank 
 commissions to be filled up by the governor, anc 
 given to the officers who should command the 
 troops to be raised in the provinces." He after 
 wards pressed this matter closely, in his speech t( 
 the assembly, and urged them to make provision foi 
 one hundred men and a transport, to convey them t< 
 Virginia, where all the colony troops were to ren 
 dezvous, and thence to proceed, under the commanc 
 of Colonel Gooch, to the place of their destination 
 The assembly voted as much as they judged suf 
 ficient for this purpose ; and the governor appointee 
 a captain, and gave him beating orders ; but the 
 commissions and arms not being sent, according tc 
 the royal promise, no men could be enlisted in New 
 Hampshire. The governor received commission, 
 and arms for four companies to be raised in Massa 
 chusetts ; where he could easily have enlisted ten 
 had he been furnished according to the engagement 
 To this failure, and not to any want of exertion 01 
 his part, in either of his governments, may be as 
 cribed the paucity of troops raised in them ; and ye 
 his enemies failed not of blaming him on this ac 
 count. The representatives of New Hampshire too] 
 this occasion to frame a vote, disapproving his ad 
 ministration ; and upon this vote, their agent foundec 
 another battery, to attack his character. 
 
 (1741.) In conformity to the royal determination 
 of the boundaries, orders were given to Belcher t 
 HIST. OF AMEU. Nos. 61 & 62. 
 
 pply to both his governments, to join in appointing 
 urveyors, to run out, and mark the lines ; and that 
 f either should refuse, the other should proceed ex 
 mrte. The assembly of Massachusetts delayed giv- 
 ng an answer in season, which was construed a 
 lenial. The assembly of New Hampshire appointed 
 hree surveyors to execute the service, who were 
 Commissioned by the governor. They were directed 
 o allow ten degrees for the westerly variation of the 
 needle ; and the work was performed in the months 
 f February and March. George Mitchell surveyed 
 ind marked the similar curve line, from the ocean, 
 hree miles north of Merrimack river, to a station 
 north of Pantucket falls, in the township of Dracut. 
 ilichard Hazen began at that station and marked 
 ;he west line, across Connecticut river, to the sup- 
 posed boundary line of New York. Walter Bryent 
 jegan the line, from the head of Salmon-falls river, 
 and marked it about thirty miles; but was prevented 
 "rom proceeding farther, partly by the breaking up 
 of the rivers, which rendered travelling impracti- 
 cable, and partly by meeting a company of Indians 
 who were hunting, and took his men for a scouting 
 party. In their return they found on one of the 
 trees, which they had marked, " the figure of a 
 man's hand grasping a sword;" which they inter- 
 preted as a signal of defiance from the Indians. 
 
 The report of the completion of these lines 
 was one of the last acts of Mr. Belcher's admini- 
 stration. His enemies in both governments were 
 indefatigable in their endeavours to remove him ; 
 and by their incessant applications to the ministry ; 
 by taking every advantage of his mistakes ; by 
 falsehood and misrepresentation ; and finally, by the 
 diabolical arts of forgery and perjury, they accom- 
 plished their views. He was succeeded in the go- 
 vernment of Massachusetts by William Shirley ; and 
 in N ew Hampshire, by Benning Wentworth. 
 
 At this distance of time, when all these parties avc 
 extinct, and every reader may be supposed impar- 
 tial ; it may seem rather strange, that Governor 
 Belcher should meet with such treatment from the 
 British court, in the reign of George the Second. 
 That Mr. Belcher was imprudent and unguarded, in 
 some instances, cannot be denied. He was indeed 
 zealous to serve his friends and hearken to their 
 advice ; but, by this means, he laid himself open to 
 the attacks of his enemies, to whom he paid no 
 court, but openly treated them with contempt. His 
 language to them was severe and reproachful, and 
 he never spared to tell the world what he thought 
 of them. 
 
 This provoked them ; but they had the art to con- 
 ceal their resentment, and carry on their designs in 
 silence, till they were ripe for execution. He had 
 by far too mean an opinion of their abilities, and the 
 interest which they had at court; and when he 
 knew that they had the ear of the lords of trade, he 
 affected to think them, " not very mighty lords, nor 
 able to administer life and death." He had a con- 
 sciousness of the general integrity of his own inten- 
 tions ; and appears to have been influenced by mo- 
 tives of honour and justice ; but he was not aware 
 of the force of his own prejudices. It may admit of 
 doubt, whether, considering the extreme delicacy of 
 his situation, it were within the compass of human 
 policy, to have behaved so as to give offence to 
 neither of his provinces, in the management of such 
 a controversy; but it is certain, that his antagonists 
 could fairly fix but one real stigma on his cha- 
 racter; and that, when impartially examined, can 
 amount to no more tkan an imprudent step, at a 
 
 3 D 
 
482 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 critical time, grounded on an undue resentment of 
 an affront ; for to suppose that his intention was to 
 frustrate the commission, is inconsistent with the 
 whole tenor of his public declarations and private 
 correspondence. When bis enemies met him on fair 
 and open ground, he was always prepared to answer; 
 but it was impossible to guard against their secret 
 attacks. If the cause which they meant to serve was 
 a good one, why did they employ the basest means 
 to effect it? 
 
 The cruelty and hardship of his case may appear 
 from the following considerations. He had been 
 one of the. principal merchants of New England, 
 but on his appointment to the chair of government, 
 quitted every other kind of business, that he might 
 uttend with punctuality and dignity to the duties of 
 his station. By the royal instructions, he was re- 
 strained from giving his assent to any grant of 
 money to himself, unless it should be a permanent 
 salary. What he received from New Hampshire 
 was fixed, and paid out of the excise ; but the as- 
 sembly of Massachusetts could not be persuaded to 
 settle any salary upon him. They made him a grant 
 of money (worth about 700/. or 80CK. sterling) ge- 
 nerally once in a year, at their session in May. He 
 was then obliged to solicit leave from the king, to 
 accept the grant and sign the bill ; and sometimes 
 could not obtain this leave till the end of the year : 
 once not till five days before the dissolution of the 
 assembly. In the mean time he was obliged to sub- 
 sist on his own estate, and had he died within the 
 year, the grant would have been wholly lost to his 
 family. He was earnest to obtain a general per- 
 mission to sign these grants ; but in that case the 
 clerks of office in England, through whose hands the 
 permission must have passed, would have lost their 
 fees. He was now in the GOth year of his age : he 
 had a family of children and grandchildren, whose 
 sole dependence was on him ; and he thought, with 
 reason, that if his course of faithful service, and the 
 unworthy arts of his enemies had been duly consi- 
 dered, the censure of his superiors would have been less 
 severe, than "to deprive him of his bread and honour.' 
 Whilst he entertained the worst opinion possible 
 of the characters of his enemies, he had a strong 
 confidence in the justice of the government before 
 which he was accused. In one of his letters to his 
 son, he says, " I must expect no favour while Bla- 
 den is at the Board of Trade; but where the devil bul 
 there should I expect justice, under the British Con- 
 stitution, corroborated by the Hanover succession?' 
 The event proved, that his confidence was not il 
 founded. For, on being superseded, he repaired t< 
 court, where, though his presence was unvrelcomi 
 to some, yet he had opportunity to bring the mos 
 convincing evidence of his integrity, and of the basi 
 designs of his enemies. He was so far restored t< 
 the royal favour, that he obtained a promise of the 
 first vacant government in America which woul< 
 be worthy of his acceptance. This proved to be the 
 province of New Jersey, where he spent the remain 
 ing years of his life, and where his memory has been 
 treated with deserved respect. 
 
 The beginning of Benning Wenticorth' ? administra 
 tion War opened in Nova Scotia Expedition t 
 Cape Breton; its plan, conduct, and success, with 
 description tf the island, and of the city ofLouisboury 
 
 Benning Wentworth, Esq. son of the decease 
 lieut. -governor, was a merchant of good reputatio 
 in Portsmouth, and well beloved by the people. H 
 had represented hi* native town in the assembly f< 
 
 everal years, where he distinguished himself in the 
 pposition to Belcher. He afterwards obtained a 
 ;at in council ; where, sensible of the popularity of 
 is family, and feeling the pride of elevation, he con 
 nued the opposition, and joined in the measures 
 hich were pursued for obtaining a distinct governor, 
 ithout any apprehension that himself would be 
 he person, till a series of incidents, at first view 
 nfortunate, prepared the way for his advancement 
 o the chair. 
 
 In the course of his mercantile dealings, he had 
 ntered into a contract with an agent of the court of 
 pain, and supplied him with a large quantity of the 
 est oak timber, to procure which, he borrowed 
 money in London. When he delivered the timber 
 t Cadiz, the agent with whom he had contracted 
 out of place, and the new officer declined pay- 
 ment. In returning to America the ship foundered, 
 nd he was saved with the crew in a boat. These 
 misfortunes deranged his affairs and reduced him to 
 state of bankruptcy. Afterwards he went again to 
 pain, hoping by the interest of Sir Benjamin 
 "Leone, the British minister, to obtain his due, but 
 is suit was ineffectual. About that time Thomliu- 
 on, despairing of Dunbar's advancement to the go- 
 ernment of New Hampshire, turned his thoughts 
 oward Wentworth ; and having procured him a let- 
 er of license from his creditors in London, invited 
 lim thither. Wentworth represented his case to the 
 British court, complained of the injustice of Spain, 
 and petitioned for redress. Many British merchants, 
 ho had suffered by. the insolence of the Spaniards, 
 were, at the same time, clamorous for reparation. 
 The ministry were studious to avoid a war. A ne- 
 rociation was begun, and the court of Spain pro- 
 nised restitution, but failed in the performance. 
 War was then determined on, and all ncgociation 
 mded. Disappointed in his plea for justice, Went- 
 ,vorth made his suit for favour, and by the aid of 
 Thomlinson, who understood the ways of access to 
 he great, he obtained a promise from the Duke of 
 Newcastle, that when New Hampshire should be 
 iut under a distinct governor, he should have the 
 ommission. The expense of the solicitation and 
 'ees, amounting to 30U/. sterling, was advanced by 
 lis friends in England, and repaid by his friends in 
 STew Hampshire. 
 
 (1741.) He was received in Portsmouth, after a 
 ong absence, with great marks of popular respect. 
 Among the compliments which were paid to him 
 n that occasion, one was, that he had been in- 
 strumental to " rescuing New Hampshire from con- 
 tempt and dependence." In his first speech to the 
 assembly (1742) he reflected on the conduct of his 
 predecessor, not by name, but by implication, for 
 not having taken early measures "to raise men for 
 the expedition against the Spanish West Indies; 
 and intimated his apprehension, that the good in- 
 tention of the province in raising money for that 
 purpose would be frustrated, since the men who were 
 willing to enter into the service had enlisted in the 
 other provinces. He also complimented them on 
 their good faith in regard to the several issues of 
 paper money, all of which were to be called in within 
 the present year. He did not forget to recommend 
 a fixed salary for himself, not subject to depreciation, 
 nor the payment of expenses which had arisen on 
 account of the boundary lines ; he informed them 
 of the king's indulgence, in giving him leave to con- 
 sent to a farther issue of bills of credit, to enable 
 them to discharge their obligations to the crown, 
 provided that no injury should be done to the trade 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 483 
 
 of the mother country. He also recommended to 
 their attention the faithful services of their agents, 
 one of whom, Rindge, was dead, and the payment 
 of the debt due to his heirs. 
 
 The assembly, in their answer, acknowledged the 
 wisdom and justice of the king in determining the 
 long controversy between them and Massachusetts ; 
 but as to payment of the expense, they reminded 
 him that one-half ought to be paid by Massachusetts, 
 and desired him to use his influence for that purpose. 
 With respect to the failure of raising men for the 
 expedition, they set him right by ascribing it to the 
 true cause ; there being no commissions sent to the 
 province for that service. Concerning the salary, 
 they said that as soon as they could know what 
 number of inhabitants would be added to them by 
 the settlement of the lines, and how the money could 
 be raised, they should make as ample provision for 
 his honourable support as their circumstances would 
 admit. They acknowledged the fidelity and indus- 
 try of their agents, and professed a good will to re- 
 ward them ; but could not then promise adequate 
 compensation. 
 
 The assembly voted a salary of 25CM. proclama- 
 tion money to the governor, funded as usual on the ex- 
 cise; and having obtained a royal licence for issuing 
 25,000/. on loan for ten years, they granted the go- 
 vernor 2501. more, to be paid annually out of the 
 interest of the loan. When this fund failed, they made 
 annual grants for his " further and more ample sup- 
 port," and generally added something for house- 
 vent. They presented their agent Thomlinson 1001. 
 sterling for his faithful services ; but what they did 
 for the heirs of Rindge does not appear. 
 
 (1743.) After Mr. Wentworth was quietly seated 
 in the chair of government, an opportunity presented 
 to advance his interest still farther. For the sum 
 of 2,000/. sterling, Dunbar was prevailed on to re- 
 sign the surveyorship of the woods, and Thomlinson 
 negociated an appointment in favour of Wentworth, 
 with a salary of 800/. sterling, out of which he was 
 to maintain four deputies. But to obtain this office, 
 he was obliged to " rest his claim on the crown of 
 Spain for 56,000 dollars." 
 
 These appointments of Mr. Wentworth gave the 
 opposers of the former administration great cause of 
 triumph ; but the spirit of opposition had only 
 changed sides. It was hoped and expected by some, 
 that Mr. Belcher, by going to England, would not 
 only remove the ill impressions which the malice of 
 his enemies had made, but return to his former sta- 
 tion. Others, who had no predilection for Belcher, 
 looked with envy on the good fortune of Wentworth, 
 and aimed to undermine him; at the same time 
 courting the friends of the former administration to 
 join in their measures. These things were managed 
 with secrecy, and a few hints only are left as evi- 
 dence of the existence of designs, which were never 
 brought to maturity. 
 
 It was one of the royal instructions to governors, 
 that in any cases of difficulty or sudden emergency, 
 they should communicate with each other. Mr. 
 Weutworth had a high opinion of the abilities of the 
 new governor of Massachusetts, and there being a 
 strict friendship between them, consulted him on all 
 occasions. Shirley was gratified by this deference, 
 and knew how to make his advantage; of it. Thus, 
 though New Hampshire was under a governor dis- 
 tinct from that of Massachusetts a point which had 
 long been contended for yet the difference was not 
 so great in reality as in appearance. This was a 
 circumstance not much known at that time. The 
 
 advice which Shirley gave him was, in general, 
 salutary and judicious. 
 
 . (1744.) The war which had been kindled between 
 Britain and Spain, extended its flame over a great 
 part of Europe ; and when France became involved 
 in it, the American colonies were more nearly in- 
 terested, because of the proximity of the French, and 
 of the Indians, who were in their interest. War is 
 so natural to savages, that they need but little to 
 excite them to it. An Indian war was a necessary 
 appendage of a war with France. The scene of 
 both was opened in Nova Scotia. 
 
 That province had been alternately claimed and 
 possessed by the English and French for more than 
 a century. Ever since the peace of Utrecht it had 
 been subject to the crown of Britain, and the French 
 inhabitants, who were under a kind of patriarchal 
 government of their priests, and devoted to the 
 French interest, were kept in awe, partly by the 
 fear of having their dikes destroyed which they had 
 erected to prevent the sea from overflowing their 
 fields and partly by a British garrison at Anna- 
 polis, where a governor and council resided. The 
 Indian tribes maintained their native independence, 
 though they were attached to the French by reli- 
 gious as well as interested obligations. Canseau, 
 an island on the north-eastern part of Nova Scotia, 
 was in possession of the English. It was resorted 
 to by the fishermen of New England. It was de- 
 fended by a block-house and garrisoned by a de- 
 tachment of troops from Annapolis. The island of 
 Cape Breton was possessed by the French, and lay 
 between the English of Canseau and those of New- 
 foundland. This was too near a neighbourhood for 
 enemies, especially when both were pursuing one 
 object, the fishery. 
 
 The French at Cape Breton having received early 
 intelligence of the declaration of war, immediately 
 resolved on the destruction of the English fishery at 
 Canseau. Duquesnel, the governor, sent Duvivier 
 with a few small armed vessels, and about nine hun- 
 dred men, who seized and took possession of the 
 island, burned the houses, and made prisoners of the 
 garrison and inhabitants. This was done, before 
 the news of war had arrived in New England. It 
 was followed by an attempt upon Placentia, in New- 
 foundland, which miscarried. An attack was also made 
 upon Annapolis, the garrison of which was reinforced 
 by several companies of militia and rangers, from 
 Massachusetts, and the enemy were obliged to re- 
 tire. The Indians of Nova Scotia assisted the French 
 in this attack; which, with some other insolencies 
 committed by them, occasioned a declaration of war 
 by the government of Massachusetts against them, 
 with a premium for scalps and prisoners. 
 
 These proceedings of the French were rash and 
 precipitate. They were not prepared for extensive 
 operations ; nor had they any orders from their court 
 to undertake them. What they had done, served 
 to irritate and alarm the neighbouring English co- 
 lonies, and shew them their danger in the most con- 
 spicuous manner. Their sea coast, navigation, and 
 fishery lay exposed to continual insults. Their fron- 
 tier settlements on the western side were but eighty 
 miles distant from the French fort on Lake Cham- 
 plain. The Indians who lay between them, had not 
 yet taken up the hatchet ; but it was expected that 
 encouragement would be given them by the gover- 
 nor of Canada, to insult the frontiers. Several new 
 settlements were wholly broken up; and many of the 
 women and children of other frontier places retired 
 to the old towns for security. 
 
 3D2 
 
484 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, 
 
 In the autumn, Duquesnel the French governor 
 of Cape Breton, died, and was succeeded in the 
 command by Duchambon, who had not so good a 
 military character. Duvivier went to France to so- 
 licit a force to carry on the war in Nova Scotia in 
 the ensuing spring. The store ships, expected from 
 France at Cape Breton, came on the coast so late in 
 the fall, and the winter there set in so early and 
 fierce, as to keep them out of port, and drive them 
 off to the West Indies. The captive garrison of 
 Canseau, with other prisoners, who had been taken 
 at sea and carried into Louisbourg, were sent to 
 Boston. From them, as well as from other inform- 
 ants, Governor Shirley obtained such intelligence of 
 the state of that island and fortress, as induced him 
 te form the project of attacking it. But before we 
 open this romantic and hazardous scene, it is ne- 
 cessary to give some account of the place which was 
 to be the theatre of operations. 
 
 The island of Cape Breton, so denominated from 
 one of its capes, lies between the forty-fifth and 
 forty-seventh degrees of north latitude, at the dis- 
 tance of fifteen leagues from Cape Ray, the south- 
 western extremity of Newfoundland. It is separated 
 from the main land of Nova Scotia by a narrow 
 strait six leagues in length, the navigation of which 
 is safe for a ship of forty guns. The greatest length 
 of the island, from north-east to south-west is about 
 fifty leagues, and its greatest breadth thirty-three. 
 It is about eighty-eight leagues in circuit as seamen 
 estimate distances. Its general form is triangular, 
 but it is indented by many deep bays. 
 
 The soil of this island is by no means inviting. 
 It is either rocky and mountainous, or else cold and 
 boggy ; and much less capable of improvement than 
 Nova Scotia. Its only valuable productions are of 
 the fossil kind, pit-coal and plaster. Its atmosphere 
 in the spring and summer is an almost continual 
 fog, which prevents the rays of the sun from per- 
 fecting vegetation. Its winter is severe and of long 
 continuance ; and as the island forms an eddy to 
 the current which sets through the gulf of St. 
 Lawrence, its harbours are filled with large quanti- 
 ties of floating ice, with which its shores are envi- 
 roned till late in the spring. 
 
 Much has been said by French and English 
 writers on the great importance and advantage of 
 this island, and some political and temporary pur- 
 poses were doubtless to be answered by such publi- 
 cations ; but in fact, the only real importance of 
 Cape Breton was derived from its central situation, 
 and the convenience of its ports. On the north and 
 west sides it is steep and inaccessible ; but the 
 south-eastern side is full of fine bays and harbours, 
 capable of receiving and securing ships of any bur- 
 den ; and, being situated between Canada, France, 
 and the West Indies, it was extremely favourable to 
 the French commerce. It was not so good a station 
 for the fishery as several parts of Nova Scotia and 
 Newfoundland. The greater part of the French 
 fishery was prosecuted elsewhere ; and they could 
 buy fish at Canseau cheaper than they could cure 
 it at Cape Breton. 
 
 Whilst the French held possession of the coasts 
 of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, this island was 
 neglected ; but after they had ceded these places to 
 the crown of England, and the crown of England had 
 ceded this island to them by the treaty of Utrecht, 
 1713, they began to see its value. Instead of giving 
 so much attention to the fur trade of Canada as they 
 had before done, they contemplated building a for- 
 tified town on this island, as a security to their na- 
 
 vigation and fishery. For this purpose they chose 
 a fine harbour on the south-east side of the island, 
 formerly called English harbour; where they erected 
 their fortifications, and called the place Louisbourg. 
 
 The harbour of Louisbourg lies in latitude 45 55" ; 
 its entrance is about four hundred yards wide. The 
 anchorage is uniformly safe, and ships may run 
 ashore on a soft muddy bottom. The depth of water 
 at the entrance is from nine to twelve fathoms. The 
 harbour lies open to the south-east. Upon a neck 
 of land on the south side of the harbour was built 
 the town, two miles and a quarter in circumference ; 
 fortified in every accessible part with a rampart of 
 stone, from thirty to thirty-six feet high, and a ditch 
 eighty feet wide. A space of about two hundred 
 yards was left without a rampart, on the side next 
 to the sea; it was enclosed by a simple dike and a 
 line of pickets. The sea was so shallow in this place, 
 that it made only a narrow channel, inaccessible 
 from its numerous reefs to any shipping whatever. 
 The side fire from the bastions secured this spot 
 from an attack. There were six bastions and three 
 batteries, containing embrasures for 148 cannon, of 
 which sixty-five only were mounted, and sixteen 
 mortars. On an island at the entrance of the har- 
 bour was planted a battery of thirty cannon, carry- 
 ing twenty-eight pounds shot; and at the bottom of 
 the harbour, directly opposite to the entrance, was 
 the grand or royal battery of twenty-eight cannon, 
 (forty-two pounders,) and two eighteen pounders. On 
 a high cliff, opposite to the island battery, stood a 
 light-house ; and within this point, at the north-east 
 part of the harbour, was a careening wharf secure 
 from all winds, and a magazine of naval stores. 
 
 The town was regularly laid out in squares. The 
 streets were broad ; the houses mostly of wood, but 
 some of stone. On the west side, near the rampart, 
 was a spacious citadel, and a large parade ; on one 
 side of which were the governor's apartments. Un- 
 der the rampart were casemates to receive the women 
 and children during a siege. The entrance of the 
 town on the land side was at the west gate, over a 
 draw-bridge, near to which was a circular battery, 
 mounting sixteen guns, of twenty-four pounds shot. 
 
 These works had been twenty-five years in build- 
 ing; and though not finished, had cost the crown, 
 it is said, nearly 1,000,000/. sterling. The place 
 was so strong as to be called " the Dunkirk of Ame- 
 rica." It was, in peace, a safe retreat for the ships 
 of France bound homeward from the East and West. 
 Indies; and in war, a source of distress to the north- 
 ern English colonies; its situation being extremely 
 favourable for privateers to ruin their fishery, anil 
 interrupt their coasting and foreign trade ; for which 
 reasons, the reduction of it was an object as desira- 
 ble to them, as that of Carthage was to the Romans. 
 
 In the autumn, Shirley wrote to the British mi- 
 nistry, representing the danger of an attack on 
 Nova Scotia from the French, in the ensuing spring; 
 and praying for some naval assistanco. These let- 
 ters he sent by Captain Ryal, an officer of the gar- 
 rison which had been taken at Canseau, who " from 
 bis particular knowledge of Louisbourg, and of the 
 reat consequence of the acquisition of Cape Breton, 
 and the preservation of Nova Scotia, he hoped would 
 be of considerable service to the northern colonies, 
 with the lords of the admiralty." Thus early did 
 Shirley conceive and communicate to Wentworth 
 tiis great design ; and the most prudent step which 
 lie took in this whole affair was to solicit help from 
 England. His petition, supported by that worthy 
 officer, was so favourably received by the ministry, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 485 
 
 that as early as the beginning of January, orders 
 were dispatched to Commodore Warren, then in the 
 West Indies, to proceed to the northward in the 
 spring, and employ such a force as might be suffi- 
 cient to protect the northern colonies in their trade 
 and fishery, and distress the enemy ; and for this 
 purpose to consult with Governor Shirley. Orders 
 of the same date were written to Shirley, inclosed to 
 Warren, directing him to assist the king's ships 
 with transports, men and provisions. These orders, 
 though extremely favourable to the design, were 
 totally unknown in New England till the middle of 
 April following, before which time the expedition 
 was completely formed. 
 
 It has been said, that a plan of this famous enter- 
 prise was first suggested by William Vaughan, a son 
 of Lieut-governor Vaughan, of New Hampshire. 
 Several other persons have claimed the like merit. 
 How far each one's information or advice contri- 
 buted toward forming the design, cannot now be 
 determined. Vaughan was largely concerned in 
 the fishery on the eastern coast of Massachusetts. 
 He was a man of good understanding, but of a dar- 
 ing, enterprising, and tenacious mind, and one who 
 thought of no obstacles to the accomplishment of his 
 views. An instance of his temerity is still remem- 
 bered. He had equipped, at Portsmouth, a number 
 of boats to carry on his fishery at Montinicus ; on 
 the day appointed for sailing, in the month of March, 
 though the wind was so boisterous that experienced 
 mariners deemed it impossible for such vessels to 
 carry sail, he went on board one, and ordered the 
 others to follow. One was lost at the mouth of the 
 river, the rest arrived with much difficulty, but in a 
 short time, at the place of their destination. Vaughan 
 had not been at Louisbourg; but had learned from 
 fishermen and others, something of the strength and 
 situation of the place, and nothing being in his view 
 impracticable which he had a mind to accomplish, 
 he conceived a design to take the city by surprise; 
 and even proposed going over the walls in the winter 
 on the drifts of snow. This idea of a surprisal 
 forcibly struck the mind of Shirley, and prevailed 
 with him to hasten his preparations, before he could 
 have any answer or orders from England. 
 
 ^1745.) In the beginning of January he requested 
 of the members of the general court, that they would 
 lay themselves under an oath of secresy, to receive 
 a proposal from him, of very great importance. This 
 was the first request of the kind which had ever been 
 made to a legislative body in the colonies. They 
 readily took the oath, and he communicated to them 
 the plan which he had formed of attacking Louisbourg. 
 The secret was kept for some days, till an honest 
 member, who performed the family devotion at his 
 lodgings, inadvertently discovered it by praying for 
 a blessing on the attempt. At the first deliberation 
 the proposal was rejected, but by the address of the 
 governor and the invincible perseverance of Vaughan, 
 a petition from the merchants concerned in the 
 fishery, was brought into court, which revived the 
 affair; and it was finally carried in the affirmative 
 by a majority of one voice, in the absence of several 
 members who were known to be against it. Cir- 
 cular letters were immediately dispatched to all the 
 colonies, as far as Pennsylvania, requesting their 
 assistance, and an embargo on their ports. 
 
 With one of these letters Vaughan rode express 
 to Portsmouth, where the assembly was sitting. 
 Governor Wentworth immediately laid the matter 
 before them, and proposed a conference of the two 
 houses to be held on the next day. The house of 
 
 representatives having caught the enthusiasm of 
 Vaughan, were impatient of delay, and desired that 
 t might be held immediately. It was accordingly 
 icld, and the committee reported in favour of the 
 expedition, estimated the expense at 4,000/., and 
 desired the governor to issue a proclamation for 
 inlisting 250 men, at 25s. per month, one month's 
 pay to be advanced ; they also recommended that 
 military stores and transports should be provided, 
 and that such preparations should be made that 
 the whole might be ready by the beginning of March. 
 All this was instantly agreed to, on condition that 
 proper methods could be found to pay the charges. 
 This could be done in no other way than by a new 
 issue of bills of credit, contrary to the letter of royal 
 instructions. But, by the help of Shirley, a way 
 was found to surmount this difficulty; for on the. 
 same day he wrote to Wentworth, informing him 
 that he had, in answer to repeated solicitations, ob- 
 tained a relaxation of his instructions relative to 
 bills of credit, so far as to have leave to consent to 
 such issues as the exigencies of war might require ; 
 and advising him that, considering the occasion, it 
 was probable his consenting to an issue would rather 
 be approved than censured by his superiors. The 
 next day he wrote again assuring him that he might 
 safely do it, provided, that the sum to be issued were 
 solely appropriated to the service of the expedition. 
 He also sent him a copy of the instruction, enjoining 
 him to let no person know that he had sent it. Shir- 
 ley himself had consented to an issue of 50,OOW., to 
 be drawn in by a tax in the years 1747 and 1748. 
 
 The house of representatives passed a vote for an 
 issue of 10,000. toward defraying the charge of the 
 expedition and further carrying on the war, and the 
 support of government ; to be drawn in by taxes in 
 ten annual payments, to begin in 1755. The coun- 
 cil objected and said, that the grant should be wholly 
 appropriated to the expedition, and the payments 
 should begin in 1751. The house adhered to their 
 vote. The governor interposed, and an altercation 
 took place, which continued several days. The go- 
 vernor adjourned the assembly till he could again 
 ask Shirley's advice and receive his answer. At 
 length the house altered their vote, and appointed 
 the year 1751 for drawing in the money, augmenting 
 the sum to 13,000/.; and at the governor's express 
 desire, they publicly assured him that they "could not 
 find out any other way to carry on the expedition, 
 or in any degree shorten the period for bringing in 
 the money." This was done to serve as an apology 
 for the governor's consenting to the bill, notwith- 
 standing he had no liberty to recede from his in- 
 structions ; and thus, the matter being compromised, 
 he gave his consent. 
 
 During this tedious interval, a report was spread, 
 that the house had refused to raise men and money 
 for the expedition; and the author of the report was 
 sought out and called to account by the house for 
 his misbehaviour. The next day they altered their 
 terms of enlistment, conformably to those offered in 
 Massachusetts, and by the 17th of February, 250 
 men were enlisted for the service. 
 
 The person appointed to command the expedition 
 was William Pepperrell, Esq. of Kittery, colonel of 
 a regiment of militia, a merchant of unblemished 
 reputation and engaging manners, extensively known 
 both in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and 
 very popular. These qualities were absolutely ne- 
 cessary in the commander of an army of volunteers, 
 his own countrymen, who were to quit their domes- 
 tic connexions and employments, and engage in a 
 
486 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 hazardous enterprise, which none of them, from the 
 highest to the lowest, knew how to conduct. Pro- 
 fessional skill and experience were entirely out of 
 the question; had these qualities been necessary, 
 the expedition must have been laid aside ; for there 
 was no person in New England in these respects 
 qualified for the command. Fidelity, resolution and 
 popularity must supply the place of military talents ; 
 and Pepperrell was possessed of these. It was ne- 
 cessary that the men should know and love their ge- 
 neral, or they would not enlist under him. 
 
 After this appointment was made, and while it 
 was uncertain whether the assembly of New Hamp- 
 shire would agree with the governor in raising mo- 
 ney for the expedition, Shirley proposed to Went- 
 worth, the raising of men in New Hampshire, to be 
 in the pay of Massachusetts, and in the letter which 
 he wrote on that occasion paid him the following 
 compliment : " It would have been an infinite satis- 
 faction to me, and done great honour to the expedi- 
 tion, if your limbs would have permitted you to take 
 the chief command." Wentworth was charmed 
 with the idea, and forgetting his gout, made an offer 
 of his personal service, but not till after the assem- 
 bly had agreed to his terms and the money bill was 
 passed. Shirley was then obliged to answer him 
 thus : " Upon communicating your offer to two or 
 three gentlemen, in whose prudence and judgment I 
 most confide, I found them clearly of opinion, that 
 any alteration of the present command would be at- 
 tended with great risque, both with respect to the as- 
 sembly and the soldiers being entirely disgusted." 
 
 Before Pepperrell accepted the command, he 
 asked the opinion of the famous George Whitefield, 
 who was then itinerating and preaching in New 
 England. Whitefield told him, that he did not think 
 the scheme very promising ; that the eyes of all 
 would be on him ; that if it should not succeed, the 
 widows ana orphans of the slain would reproach 
 him; and if it should succeed, many would regard 
 him with envy, and endeavour to eclipse his glory ; 
 that, he ought therefore to go with a " single eye," 
 and then he would find his strength proportioned to 
 his necessity. Henry Sherburne, the commissary of 
 New Hampshire, another of Whitefield's friends, 
 pressed him to favour the expedition and give a 
 motto for the flag ; to which, after some hesitation, 
 he consented. The motto was, " Nil desperandum 
 Christo duce" This gave the expedition the air of 
 a crusade, and many of his followers enlisted. One 
 of them, a chaplain, carried on his shoulder 
 hatchet, with which he intended to destroy the 
 images in the French churches. 
 
 There are certain latent sparks in human nature, 
 which, by a collision of causes, are sometimes brought 
 to light ; and when once excited, their operations 
 are not easily controlled. In undertaking any thing 
 hazardous, there is a necessity for extraordinary 
 vigor of mind, and a degree of confidence and forti- 
 tude, which shall raise us above the dread of danger, 
 and dispose us to run a risk which the cold maxims 
 of prudence would forbid. The people of New Eng- 
 land have at various times shewn this enthusias- 
 tic ardour, which has been excited by the example 
 of their ancestors and their own exposed situation 
 It was never more apparent, and perhaps never more 
 necessary, than on occasion of this expedition. Nor 
 ought it to be forgotten, that several circumstances 
 which did not depend on human foresight, greatly 
 favoured the undertaking. 
 
 The winters in this country are often severe, but 
 the winter in which this expedition was planned 
 
 and particularly the month of February, was very 
 mild. The harbours and rivers were open, and the 
 weather was in general so pleasant, that every kind 
 of labour could be done abroad. The fruitfulness of 
 the pi;eceding season had made provisions plenty. 
 The Indians had not yet molested the frontiers; and 
 though some of them had heard that an expedition 
 against Cape Breton was in hand, and carried the 
 news of it to Canada, such an attempt was so im- 
 probable, that the French gave no credit to the re- 
 port, and those in Nova Scotia did not receive the 
 least intelligence of the preparations. Douglas ob- 
 serves, that " some guardian angel preserved the 
 troops from taking the small-pox," which appeared 
 in Boston about the time of their embarkation, and 
 was actually imported in one of the ships which was 
 taken into the service. A concurrence of happy in- 
 cidents brought together every British ship of war 
 from the ports of the American continent and 
 isiands, till they made a formidable naval force, con- 
 sisting of four ships of the line and six frigates, un- 
 der the command cf an active, judicious and expe- 
 rienced officer. On the other hand, the garrison of 
 Louisbourg was discontented and mutinous; they 
 were in want of provisions and stores ; they had no 
 inowledge of the design formed against them ; their 
 shores were so environed with ice, that no supplies 
 could arrive early from France, and those which 
 came afterward were intercepted and taken by our 
 cruisers. In short, " if any one circumstance had 
 taken a wrong turn on our side, and if any one cir- 
 cumstance had not taken a wrong turn on the French 
 side, the expedition must have miscarried." 
 
 In the undertaking and prosecuting of an enter- 
 prise so novel to the people of New England, it is 
 amusing to see how many projects were invented ; 
 what a variety of advice was given from all quarters, 
 and what romantic expectations were formed by ad- 
 visers and adventurers. During the enlistment', one 
 of the officers was heard to say with great sobriety, 
 that he intended to carry with him three shirts, one 
 of which should be ruffled, because he expected that 
 the general would give him the command of the 
 city, when it should be taken. An ingenious and 
 benevolent clergyman presented to the general a 
 plan for the encampment of the army, the opening 
 of trenches, and the placing of batteries before the 
 city. To prevent danger to the troops from subter- 
 raneous mines, he proposed, that two confidential 
 persons, attended by a guard, should, during the 
 night, approach the walls ; that one should with a 
 beetle strike the ground, while the other should lay 
 his ear to it, and observe whether the sound was 
 hollow, and that a mark should be set on all places 
 suspected. Another gentleman of equal ingenuity, 
 sent the general a model of a flying bridge, to be 
 used in scaling the walls of Louisbourg. It was so 
 light, that twenty men could carry it on their shoul- 
 ders to the wall, and raise it in one minute. The ap- 
 paratus for raising it consisted of four blocks, and 
 two hundred fathoms of rope. It was to be floored 
 with boards, wide enough for eight men to march 
 abreast; and to prevent danger from the enemy's 
 fire, it might be covered with raw hides. This 
 bridge, it was said, might be erected against any 
 part of the wall, even where no breach had been 
 made ; and it was supposed that 1000 men might 
 pass over it in four minutes. 
 
 But the most extraordinary project of all, was 
 Shirley's scheme for taking the city by surprise, in 
 the first night after the arrival of the troops, and 
 before any British naval force could possibly come 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 487 
 
 to thnlr assistance. It is thus delineated in a con- 
 fidential letter which he wrote to Wentworth, when 
 he urged him to send the New Hampshire troops to 
 Boston, to proceed thence with the fleet of trans- 
 ports. "The success of our scheme for surprising 
 Louisbourg will entirely depend on the -execution of 
 the first night, after the arrival of our forces. For 
 this purpose it is necessary, that the whole fleet 
 should make Chappeau-rouge point just at the shut- 
 ting in of the day, when they cannot easily be dis- 
 covered, and from thence push into the bay, so as to 
 have all the men landed before midnight ; the land- 
 ing of whom, it is computed by Capt. Durell and 
 Mr. Bastide, will take up three hours at least. 
 After which, the forming of the four several corps 
 to be employed in attempting to scale the walls of 
 Louisbourg, near the east gate, fronting the sea, and 
 the west gate fronting the harbour, to cover the re- 
 treat of the beforementioned parties in case of a re- 
 pulse, and to attack the grand battery, (which at- 
 tack must be made at the same time with the two 
 other attacks) will take up two hours more at least. 
 After these four bodies are formed, their march to 
 their respective posts from whence they are to make 
 their attacks and serve as a cover to the retreat, will 
 take up another two hours, which, supposing the 
 transports to arrive in Chappeau-rouge bay at nine 
 o'clock in the evening, and not before, as it will be 
 necessary i'ur them to do in order to land and inarch 
 under cover of the night, will bring them to four in 
 the morning, being day-break, before they begin 
 the attack, which will be full late for them to begin. 
 Your excellency will from hence perceive how criti- 
 cal an afl'air the time of the fleet's arrival in Chap- 
 peau-rouge bay is, and how necessary it is to the 
 success of our principal scheme, that the fleet should 
 arrive there in a body at that precise hour." 
 
 It is easy to perceive that this plan was contrived 
 by a person totally unskilled in the arts of naviga- 
 tion and of war. The coast of Cape Breton was 
 dangerous and inhospitable, the season of the year 
 rough and tempestuous, and the air a continual fog; 
 yet, a fleet of an hundred vessels, after sailing nearly 
 200 leagues (for by this plan they were not to stop) 
 must make a certain point of land " at a precise 
 hour." and enter an unknown bay, in an evening. 
 The troops were to land in the dark, amidst a violent 
 surf, on a rocky shore to march through a thicket 
 and bog throe miles to the city, and some of them 
 a mile beyond it to the royal battery. Men who 
 had never been in action were to perform services 
 which the most experienced veteran would think of 
 with dread ; to pull down pickets with grappling- 
 irons, and si-ale the walls of a regular fortification 
 vith ladders which were afterwards found to be too 
 short by ten feet all in the space of twelve hours 
 from their first making the land, and nine hours 
 from thoir debarkation. This part of the plan was 
 prudently concealed from the troops. 
 
 The forces which New Hampshire furnished for 
 this expedition were 350 men, including the crew of 
 an armed sloop which convoyed the transports and 
 served as a cnuiser. They were formed into a regi- 
 ment consisting of eight companies, and were under 
 the command of Colonel Samuel Moore. The sloop 
 was commanded by Captain John Fernald ; her 
 crew consisted of thirty men. The regiment, sloop, 
 and transports were, by Governor Wentworth's writ- 
 ten instructions to the general, put under his com- 
 mand. Besides these, a body of 150 men was in- 
 listed in New Hampshire, and aggregated to the 
 reg:m?:it i:t the pay of Massachusetts. Thus New 
 
 Hampshire employed 500 'men; about one-eighth 
 part of the whole land force. In these men there 
 was such an ardour for action, and such a dread of 
 delay, that it was impracticable to put them so far 
 out of their course as to join the fleet at Boston. 
 Shirley therefore altered the plan, and appointed a 
 rendezvouz at Canseau, where the forces of New 
 Hampshire arrived two days before the general and 
 his other troops from Boston. 
 
 The instructions which Pepperrell received from 
 Shirley, were conformed to the plan which he had 
 communicated to Wentworth, but much more par- 
 ticular and circumstantial. He was ordered to pro- 
 ceed to Canseau, there to build a block-house and 
 battery, and leave two companies in garrison, and 
 to deposit the stores which might not immediately 
 be wanted by the army. Thence he was to send a 
 detachment to the village of St. Peters, on the in- 
 land of Cape Breton, and destroy it, to prevent any 
 intelligence which might be carried to Lcuisbourg ; 
 for which purpose also, the armed vessels were to 
 cruise before the harbour. The whole fleet was to 
 sail from Canseau, so as' to arrive in- Chappeau- 
 rouge bay about nine o'clock in the evening. The 
 troops were to land in four divisions, and proceed to 
 the assault before morning. If the plan for the 
 surprisal should fail, he had particular directions 
 where and how to land, march, encamp, attack, and 
 defend ; to hold councils and keep records, and t<> 
 send intelligence to Boston by certain vessels re- 
 tained for the purpose, which vessels were to stop at 
 Castle William, and there receive the governor's 
 orders. Several other Vessels were appointed to 
 cruise between Canseau and the camp, to convey 
 orders, transport stores, and catch fish for the army. 
 To close these instructions, after the most minuto 
 detail of duty, the general was finally " left to act. 
 upon unforeseen emergencies according to his dis- 
 cretion ;" which, in the opinion of military gentle- 
 men, is accounted the most rational part of the whols. 
 Such was the plan for the reduction of a regularly 
 constructed fortress, drawn by a lawyer, to be exe- 
 cuted by a merchant, at the head of a body of hus- 
 bandmen and mechanics ; animated indeed by ar- 
 dent patriotism, but destitute of professional skill 
 and experience. After they had embarked, the 
 hearts of many began to fail ; some repented that 
 they had voted for the expedition, or promoted it; and 
 the most thoughtful were in the greatest perplexity. 
 
 The troops were detained at Canseau three weeks, 
 waiting for the ice, which invironed the island of 
 Cape Breton, to be dissolved. They were all this 
 time within view of St. Peters, but were not dis- 
 covered. Their provisions became short; but they 
 were supplied by prizes taken by the cruizers. 
 Among others, the New Hampshire sloop took a 
 ship from Martin ico, and retook one of the trans- 
 ports, which she had taken the day before. At 
 length, to their great joy, Commodore Warren, in 
 the Superbe, of sixty guns, with three other ships of 
 forty guns each, arrived at Canseau, and having held 
 a consultation with the general, proceeded to crui/.e 
 before Louisbourg. The general having sent t!-; 
 New Hampshire sloop to cover a detachment which 
 destroyed the village of St. Peters, and scattered 
 the inhabitants, sailed with the whole fleet ; but in- 
 stead of making Chappeau-rouge point in the even- 
 ing, the wind falling short, they made it at the dawn 
 of the next morning; and their appearance in the- 
 bay gave the first notice to the French of a de-sign 
 formed against them. 
 
 The intended surprisal being thus happily frua- 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 trated, the next thing after landing the troops wa 
 to invest the city. Vaughan, the adventurer from 
 New Hampshire, had the rank and pay of a lieute 
 nant-colonel, but refused to have a regular command 
 He was appointed one of the council of war, and was 
 ready for any service which the general might think 
 suited to his genius. He conducted the first co 
 lumn through the woods, within sight of the city 
 and saluted it with three cheers. He headed a de- 
 tachment, consisting chiefly of the New Hampshire 
 troops, and marched to the north-east part of the 
 harbour, in the night ; where they burned the ware- 
 houses containing the naval stores, and staved a 
 large quantity of wine and brandy. The smoke o1 
 this fire being driven by the wind into the grand 
 battery, so terrified the French, that they abandoned 
 it and retired to the city, after having spiked the 
 guns and cut the halliards of the flag-staff. The 
 next morning, as Vaughan was returning, with thir- 
 teen men only, he crept up the hill which overlooked 
 the battery, and observed, that the chimnies of the 
 barrack were without smoke, and the staff without a 
 flag. With a bottle of brandy which he had in his 
 pocket, (though he never drank spirituous liquors), 
 he hired one of his party, a Cape Cod Indian, to 
 crawl in at an embrasure, and open the gate. He 
 then wrote to the general these words, " May it 
 please your honour to be informed, that by 'the 
 grace of God, and the courage of thirteen men, I 
 entered the royal battery, about nine o'clock, and 
 am waiting for a reinforcement, and a flag." Before 
 either could arrive, one of the men climbed up the 
 staff, with a red coat in his teeth, which he fastened 
 by a nail to the top. This piece of triumphant va- 
 nity alarmed the city, and immediately an hundred 
 men were dispatched in boats to retake the battery. 
 But Vaughan, with his small party, on the naked 
 beach, and in the face of a smart fire from the city 
 and the boats, kept them from landing, till the rein- 
 forcement arrived. In every duty of fatigue, or 
 sanguine adventure, he was always ready; and the 
 New Hampshire troops, animated by the same en- 
 thusiastic ardour, partook of all the labours and 
 dangers of the siege. They were employed for 
 fourteen nights successively, in drawing cannon 
 from the landing place to the camp, through a mo- 
 rass ; and their Lieutenant-Colonel Messcrve, being 
 a ship carpenter, constructed sledges, on which the 
 cannon were drawn, when it was found that their 
 wheels were buried in the mire. The men, with 
 straps over their shoulders, and sinking to their 
 knees in mud, performed labour beyond the rjower 
 of oxen; which labour could be done only in the 
 night or in a foggy day ; the place being within 
 plain view and random shot of the enemy's walls. 
 They were much disappointed and chagrined, when 
 they found that these meritorious services were not 
 more distinctly acknowledged in the accounts which 
 were sent to England, and afterwards published. 
 
 In the unfortunate attempt on the island battery 
 by 400 volunteers from different regiments, the New 
 Hampshire troops were very active. When it was 
 determined to erect a battery on the light-house cliff, 
 two companies of them (Mason's and Fernald's) 
 were employed in that laborious service, under cover 
 of their armed sloop; and when a proposal was 
 made for a general assault by sea and land, Colonel 
 Moore, who had been an experienced sea comman- 
 der, offered to go on board the Vigilant with his 
 whole regiment, and lead the attack, if in case of 
 success he might be confirmed in the command of 
 the ship ; but when this was denied, most of the men 
 
 who were fit for duty, readily went on board the 
 Princess Mary, to act as marines on that occasion. 
 It has been said, that " this siege was carried on 
 in a tumultuary, random manner, resembling a 
 Cambridge commencement." The remark is in a 
 great measure true. Though the business of the 
 council of war was conducted with all the formality 
 of a legislative assembly ; though orders were issued 
 by the general, and returns made by the officers 
 at the several posts ; yet the want of discipline was 
 too visible in the camp. Those who were on the 
 spot, frequently laughed at the recital of their own 
 irregularities, and expressed their admiration when 
 they reflected on the almost miraculous preservation 
 of the army from destruction. They indeed pre- 
 sented a fonnidable front to the enemy; but the 
 rear was a scene of confusion and frolic. While 
 some were on duty at the trenches, others were racing, 
 wrestling, pitching quoits, firing at marks or at 
 birds, or running after shot from the enemy's guns, 
 for which they received a bounty, and the shot were 
 sent back to the city. The ground was so uneven, 
 and the people so scattered, that the French could 
 form no estimate of their numbers; nor could they 
 learn it from the prisoners taken at the island bat- 
 tery, who on their examination, as if by previous 
 agreement, represented the number to be vastly 
 greater than it was. The garrison of Louisbourg 
 had been so mutinous before the siege, that the offi- 
 cers could not trust the men to make a sortie, lest 
 they should desert; had they been united, and acted 
 with vigour, the camp might have been surprised, 
 and many of the people destroyed. 
 
 Much has been ascribed, and much is justly due, 
 to the activity and vigilance of Commodore Warren, 
 and the ships under his command : much is also due 
 to the vigour and perseverance of the land forces, 
 and the success was doubtless owing to the joint 
 efforts of both. Something of policy, as well as 
 bravery, is generally necessary in such undertak- 
 ings ; and there was one piece of management, which, 
 though not mentioned by any historian, yet greatly 
 contributed to the surrender of the city. 
 
 The capture of the Vigilant, a French sixty-four 
 2;un ship, commanded by the Marquis de la Maison- 
 Forte, and richly laden with military stores for the 
 relief of the garrison, was one of the most capital 
 exploits performed by the navy. This ship had been 
 anxiously expected by the French, and it was thought 
 ;hat the news of her capture, if properly communi- 
 cated to them, might produce a good effect; but how 
 ;o do it was the question. At length the commodore 
 lit on this expedient, which he proposed to the ge- 
 neral, who approved and put it into execution. In 
 a skirmish on the island, with a party of French 
 and Indians, some English prisoners had been taken 
 jy them, and used with cruelty. This circumstance 
 was made known to the marquis, and he was re- 
 quested to go on board of all the ships in the bay 
 where French prisoners were confined, and observe 
 he condition in which they were kept. He did so, 
 ind was well satisfied with their fare and accommo- 
 dations. He was then desired to write to the go- 
 vernor of the city, and inform him how well the 
 French prisoners were treated, and to request the 
 ike favour for the English prisoners. The humane 
 marquis readily consented, and the letter was sent 
 ,he next day by a flag, entrusted to the care of Capt. 
 Vlacdonald. He was carried before the governor 
 and his chief officers ; and by pretending not to un- 
 derstand their language, he had the advantage of 
 "istening to their discourse, by which he found, that 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 489 
 
 they had not before heard of the capture of the Vi- 
 gilant, and that the news of it, under the hand of 
 her late commander, threw them into visible pertur- 
 bation. This event, with the erection of a battery 
 on the high cliff at the light house, under the direc- 
 tion of Lieut.-colonel Gridley, by which the island 
 battery was much annoyed, and the preparations 
 which were evidently making for a general assault, 
 determined Duchambon to surrender; and accord- 
 ingly, in a few days he capitulated. 
 
 Upon entering the fortress and viewing its strength, 
 and the plenty and variety of its means of defence, 
 the stoutest hearts were appalled, and the impractica- 
 bility of carrying it by assault was fully demonstrated. 
 No sooner was the city taken, and the army un- 
 der shelter, than the weather, which during the siege, 
 excepting eight or nine days after the first landing, 
 had been remarkably dry for that climate , changed 
 for the worse ; and an incessant rain of ten days 
 succeeded. Had this happened before the surrender, 
 the troops who had then begun to be sickly, and had 
 none but very thin tents, must have perished in 
 great numbers. Reinforcements of men, stores and 
 provisions arrived, and it was determined in a coun- 
 cil of war, to maintain the place and repair the 
 breaches. A total demolition might have been more 
 advantageous to the nation ; but in that case, indi- 
 viduals would not have enjoyed the profit of draw- 
 ing bills on the navy and ordnance establishments, 
 The French flag was kept flying on the ramparts 
 and several rich prizes were decoyed into the har 
 Lour. The army supposed that they had a right to a 
 share of these prizes ; but means were found to sup 
 press or evade their claim ; nor did any of the co 
 lony cruizers (except one) though they were retainec 
 in the service, under the direction of the commodore 
 reap any benefit from the captures. 
 
 The news of this important victory filled Americ 
 with joy, and Europe with astonishment. The en 
 terprising spirit of New England gave a seriou 
 alann to those jealous fears, which had long pre 
 dieted the independence of the colonies. Great pain 
 were taken in England to ascribe all the glory t 
 the navy, and lessen the merit of the army. How 
 ever, Pepperell received the title of baronet, a 
 \vell as "Warren. The latter was promoted to be a 
 admiral ; the former had a commission as colonel i 
 the British establishment, and was empowered t 
 raise a regiment in America, to be in the pay of th 
 crown. The same emolument was given to Shirle 1 
 and both he and Wentworth acquired so much repu 
 tation as to be confirmed in their places. Vaugha 
 went to England to seek a reward for his service; 
 and there died of the small-pox. Solicitations wer 
 set on foot for a parliamentary reimbursemen 
 which, after much difficulty and delay, was obtained 
 and the colonies who had expended their substanc 
 were in credit at the British treasury. The justic 
 and policy of this measure must appear to every on< 
 who considers, that excepting the suppression of 
 rebellion within the bowels of the kingdom, th 
 conquest was the only action which could be calle 
 a victory, on the part of the British nation, durin 
 the whole French war, and afforded them the mean 
 of purchasing a peace. 
 
 Projected Expedition to Canada Alarmby the Frent 
 fleet State of the frontiers Peace. 
 
 Whilst the expedition to Cape Breton wasinhan 
 the active mind of Governor Shirley contemplat< 
 nothing less than the conquest of all the French d 
 minions in America ; and he consulted with G 
 
 ernor Wentworth and Mr. Atkinson on the practi- 
 Jbility of such a design. After Louisbourg was 
 ken, he made a visit thither, and held a consulta- 
 on with Sir Peter Warren and Sir William Pep- 
 erell ; and from that place wrote pressingly to the 
 ritish ministry on the subject. His solicitations, 
 nforced by the brilliant success at Louisbourg, and 
 le apparent danger in which Nova Scotia and the 
 ew conquest were involved, had such an effect, that 
 n the spring of the following year, (1746) a circular 
 etter was sent from the Duke of Newcastle, secre- 
 ry of state, to all the governors of the American 
 olonies, as far southward as Virginia, requiring 
 icm to raise as many men as they could spare, and 
 orm them into companies of one hundred, to be 
 eady to unite, and act according to the orders 
 hich they should afterwards receive. The plan 
 as, that a squadron of ships of war, and a body of 
 and forces, should be sent from England against 
 Canada; that the troops raised in New England 
 hould join the British fleet and army at Louisbourg, 
 ind proceed up the river St. Lawrence ; that those 
 >f New York and the other provinces at the south- 
 vard, should be collected at Albany, and march 
 against Crown Point and Montreal. The manage- 
 ment of this expedition was committed to Sir John 
 St. Clair, in conjunction with Sir Peter Warren 
 and Governor Shirley. St. Clair did not come to 
 America. Warren and Shirley gave the orders, 
 vhile Warren was here ; and afterwards Commodore 
 ECnowles, who succeeded him, was joined with Shir- 
 .ey ; but as Knowles was part of the time at Louis- 
 bourg, most of the concern devolved on Shirley alone. 
 
 Beside the danger of losing Nova Scotia and Cape 
 Breton, there were other reasons for undertaking 
 his expedition. The Indians, instigated by the 
 governor of Canada, were ravaging the frontiers, 
 destroying the fields and cattle, burning houses and 
 mills, killing and carrying away the inhabitants. 
 Though scouts and garrisons were maintained by 
 the governments, yet to act altogether on the de- 
 fensive, was thought to be not only an ineffectual, 
 but a disgraceful mode of carrying on the war, es- 
 pecially after the success which had attended the 
 arms of the colonists in their attempt against Louis- 
 bourg. The continuance of such a mode of defence 
 would neither dispirit the enemy, nor secure the 
 frontiers from their depredations. 
 
 The design was pleasing, and the colonies readily 
 furnished their quotas of men. In New Hampshire, 
 the same difficulty occurred as on occasion of the 
 Louisbourg expedition. The governor had no au- 
 thority to consent to the issue of bills of credit, but 
 Shirley removed that obstacle, by suggesting to him, 
 that as the ministry did not disapprove what he had 
 done before, so there was no reason to fear it now ; 
 and that the importance of the service, and the ne- 
 cessity of the case, would justify his conduct. The 
 demand at first, was for levy money and victualling. 
 The arms and pay of the troops were to be furnished 
 by the crown ; but it was afterwards found necessary 
 that the several governments should provide clothing, 
 transports and stores, and depend on a reimburse- 
 ment from the British parliament. 
 
 The assembly was immediately convened, and 
 voted an encouragement for enlisting 1,000 men, or 
 more, if they could be raised ; with a bounty of 30/. 
 currency, and a blanket to each man, besides keep- 
 ing two armed vessels in pay. Col. Atkinson was 
 appointed to the command of the troops ; 800 mea 
 were enlisted and ready for embarkation by the be- 
 ginning of July. Transports and provisions were 
 
490 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 prepared, and the men waited impatiently all sum- 
 mer for employment. Neither the general nor any 
 orders arrived from England ; the fleet, which was 
 said to be destined for the expedition, sailed seven 
 times from Spithead, and as often returned. Two 
 regiments only were sent from Gibraltar, to Louis- 
 bourg, to relieve the New England men, who had 
 gt rrisoned it since the conquest. It is much easier 
 to write the history of an active campaign, than to 
 trace the causes of inaction and disappointment; and 
 it is in vain to supply the place of facts by conjecture. 
 
 In this time of suspense, Sir Peter Warren and 
 Sir William Pepperell having arrived at Boston, 
 from Louisbouig, Shirley had an opportunity of 
 consulting them, and such other gentlemen as he 
 thought proper, on the affair of the Canada expedi- 
 tion. The season was so far advanced, that a fleet 
 oould hardly be expected from England; or if it 
 should arrive, it would be too late to attempt the 
 navigation of the river St. Lawrence. Cut as a 
 sufficient body of the troops might be assembled at 
 Albany, it was judged prudent to employ them in 
 an attempt against the French fort at Crown Point. 
 At the same time Clinton, governor of New York, 
 solicited and obtained the friendly assistance of the 
 Six Nations of Indians, on the borders of his pro- 
 vince. It was thought, that if this attempt should 
 be made, the alliance with these Indians would be 
 strengthened and secured, and the frontiers would 
 be relieved from the horrors of desolation and cap- 
 tivity, to which they were continually exposed. In 
 pursuance of this plan, the forces of New Hamp- 
 shire were ordered to hold themselves in readiness 
 to march to Albany ; but, it being discovered that 
 the small-pox was there, the rendezvous was ap- 
 pointed at Saratoga and the adjacent villages. 
 
 No sooner was this plan resolved on, and prepara- 
 tions made to carry it into execution, than accounts 
 were received of danger which threatened Annapolis 
 from a body of French and Indians at Minas, and 
 the probable revolt of the Acadians. It was thought 
 that Nova Scotia would be lost if some powerful 
 succour were not sent thither. Orders were accord- 
 ingly issued for the troops of Massachusetts, Rhode 
 Island, and New Hampshire, to embark for that 
 place, and "drive the enemy out of Nova Scotia." 
 But, within a few days more, the whole country was 
 alarmed, and thrown into the utmost consternation, 
 by reports of the arrival of a large fleet and army 
 from Frsnce, at Nova Scotia, under the command 
 of the Duke d'Anville. It was supposed that their 
 object was to recover Louisbourg to take Anna- 
 polis to break up the settlements on the eastern 
 coast of Massachusetts and to distress, if not at- 
 tempt the conquest of the whole country of New 
 England. On this occasion, the troops destined for 
 Canada found sufficient employment at home, and 
 the militia was collected to join them; the old forts 
 on the sea-coast were repaired, and new ones were 
 erected. A new battery, consisting of sixteen guns 
 of thirty-two and twenty-four pounds shot, was ad- 
 ded to fort William and Mary, at the entrance of 
 Pascataqua harbour; and another, of nine thirty-two 
 pounders, was placed at the point of Little harbour 
 These works were supposed to be sufficient to pre- 
 vent a surprisal; military guards were appointed; 
 and in this state of fear and anxiety the people were 
 kept for six weeks, when some prisoners who had 
 been released by the French, brought the most af- 
 fecting accounts of the distress and confusion on 
 board the fleet. It was expected by the people in 
 New England, that an English fleet would have 
 
 Allowed them to America. This expectation was 
 grounded on some letters from England, which Shir- 
 ey had received and which he forwarded by express 
 to Admiral Townsend, at Louisbourg. The letters 
 were intercepted by a French cruiser, and carried 
 nto Chebucto, where the fleet lay. They were 
 opened in a council of war, and caused a division 
 mong the officers; which added to the sickly con- 
 dition of the men. and the damage which the fleet 
 iiad sustained by storms, and their loss by ship- 
 wrecks, dejected their commander to that degree, 
 that he put an end to his life by poison; and the 
 second in command fell on his sword. These me- 
 lancholy events, disconcerted their first plan. They 
 then resolved to make an attempt on Annapolis; but 
 when they had sailed from Chebucto, they were 
 overtaken by a violent tempest off Cape Sable, and 
 those ships which escaped destruction returned singly 
 to France. 
 
 Nova Scotia was not yet out of danger. The 
 French and Indians who, during the stay of the fleet 
 at Chebucto, had appeared before Annapolis, but on 
 their departure retired, were still in the peninsula; 
 and it was thought necessary to dislodge them. For 
 this purpose Shirley sent a body of the Massachu- 
 setts forces, and pressed the governors of Rhode Is- 
 land and New Hampshire to send part of theirs. 
 Those from Rhode Island, and one transport from 
 Boston, were wrecked on the passage. The armed 
 vessels of New Hampshire, with 200 men, went to 
 Annapolis; but the commander of one of them, in- 
 stead of landing his men, sailed across the bay of 
 Funda into St. John's river, where meeting with a 
 French snow, and mistaking her for one of th^ Rhode 
 Island transports, he imprudently sent his boat with 
 eight men on board, who were made prisoners, and 
 the snow escaped. The sloop instead of returning 
 to Annapolis, came back to Portsmouth. Theso 
 misfortunes and disappointments had very seriou.* 
 ill consequences. (1747.) The Massachusetts forces 
 who were at Nova Scotia, being inferior in number 
 to the French, and deceived by false intelligence, 
 were surprised in the midst of a snow storm at Minas, 
 and after an obstinate resistance were obliged to 
 capitulate. Their commander, Col. Arthur Noble, 
 and about sixty men were killed, and fifty were 
 wounded. The enemy being provided with snow- 
 shoes made forced marches, and ours being destitute 
 of them were unable to escape. 
 
 When the alarm occasioned by the French fleet 
 had subsided, Atkinson's regiment marched into the 
 country to cover the lower part of the frontiers, and 
 encamped near the shore of Wiuipiseogee lake, 
 where they passed the winter and built a slight fort. 
 They were plentifully supplied with provisions, ami 
 had but little exercise or discipline. Courts mar- 
 tial were not instituted, nor offences punished. The 
 officers and men were tired of the service, but were 
 not permitted to enter on any other business lest orders 
 should arrive from England. Some were employed 
 in scouting some in hunting or fishing and some 
 deserted. 
 
 Shirley was so intent on attacking Crown Point, 
 that he even proposed to march thither in the win- 
 ter, and hud the address to draw the assembly of 
 Massachusetts into an approbation of this project. 
 He enlarged his plan, by proposing that the Now 
 Hampshire troops should at the same time go by the 
 way of Connecticut river, to the Indian village of 
 St. Francis, at the distance of 200 miles, and destroy 
 it; while the troops from Massachusetts. Connecti- 
 I cut, and New York, should gn by the way of the 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 491 
 
 lakes to Crown Point. The governor of New York 
 would have consented to this wild project, on ac- 
 countof the Indian allies, who were impatientfor war, 
 but it was happily frustrated by the prudence of the 
 Connecticut assembly, who deemed the winter an 
 improper season for so great an undertaking, and 
 deferred their assistance till the ensuing spring. At 
 the same time the small pox prevailed in the settle- 
 ments above Albany, through which the forces must 
 have marched ; and that distemper was then an ob- 
 ject of much greater dread than the storms of win- 
 ter, or the face of an enemy. 
 
 To finish what relates to 'the Canada forces, it can 
 only be said, that excepting some who were employed 
 on the frontiers, they were kept in a state of military 
 indolence, till the autumn of the ensuing year, when 
 by order from the Duke of Newcastle they were dis- 
 banded, and paid at the same rate as the king's 
 troops. The governors drew bills on the British 
 treasury, which were negociated among the mer- 
 chants at 7 and 800f. per cent. ; and the parliament 
 granted money to reimburse the charges of the 
 equipment ana subsistence of these forces. 
 
 The state of the frontiers now demands our atten- 
 tion. (1745.) By the extension of the boundaries 
 of the province, several settlements which had been 
 made by the people of Massachusetts, and under 
 the authority of grants from their general court, had 
 fallen within New Hampshire. In one of them 
 stood Fort Dummer, on the west side of Connecticut 
 river, and within the lately extended line of New 
 Hampshire. This fort had been erected and main- 
 tained at the expense of Massachusetts ; but when 
 it was found to be within New Hampshire, the go- 
 vernor was instructed by the crown to recommend 
 to the assembly the future maintenance of it. In 
 the same assembly, which had so zealously entered 
 upon the expedition against Cape Breton, this matter 
 was introduced ; but a considerable majority of the 
 lower house declined making any grant for this pur- 
 pose, and adduced the following reasons, viz. That 
 the fort was fifty miles distant from any towns which 
 had been settled by the government or people of 
 New Hampshire ; that the people had no right to 
 the lands which, by the dividing line, had fallen 
 within New Hampshire; notwithstanding the plau- 
 sible arguments which had been used to induce them 
 to bear the expense of the line namely, that the 
 land would be given to them, or else would be sold 
 to pay that expense ; that the charge of maintaining 
 that fort, at so great a distance, and to which there 
 was no communication by roads, would exceed what 
 had been the whole expense of government before 
 the line was established ; that the great load of debt 
 contracted on that account, and the yearly support 
 of government, with the unavoidable expenses of the 
 war, were as much as the people could bear ; that if 
 they should take upon them to maintain this fort, 
 there was another much better and more convenient 
 fort at a place called Number-four, besides several 
 other settlements, which they should also be obliged 
 to defend ; and finally, that taere was no danger 
 that these forts would want support, since it was the 
 interest of Massachusetts, by whom they were erected, 
 to maintain them as a cover to their frontier. 
 
 When these reasons were given, the governor dis- 
 solved the assembly and called another, to whom he 
 recommended the same measure in the most pressing 
 terms; telling them, " that it was of the last con- 
 sequence to the present and future prosperity of the 
 government ; that their refusal would lessen them 
 in the esteem of the king and his ministers, and strip ' 
 
 the children yet unborn of their natural right ; and 
 deprive their brethren who were then hazarding 
 their lives before the walls of Louisbourg of their 
 just expectations, which were to sit down on that 
 valuable part of the province." But his eloquence 
 had no effect. They thought it unjust to burden 
 their constituents with an expense which could yield 
 them no profit, and afford them no protection. 
 
 When it was determined that New Hampshire 
 would make no provision for fort Dummer, the as- 
 sembly of Massachusetts continued its usual support, 
 and also provided for the other posts on Connecticut 
 river and its branches, which were within the limits 
 of New Hampshire. They afterwards petitioned 
 the king, to deduct that charge out of the reimburse- 
 ment which the parliament had granted to New 
 Hampshire, for the Canada expedition ; but in this 
 they were defeated, by the vigilance and address of 
 Thomlinson, the agent of New Hampshire. 
 
 Most of the frontier towns of New Hampshire, at 
 that time, were distinguished by no other than by 
 Indian or temporary names. It may be convenient 
 to compare them with their present names. On 
 Connecticut river, and its eastern branches, were 
 Number-four, Great Meadow, Great Fall, Fort 
 Dummer, Upper Ashuelot, and Lower Ashuelot; 
 now respectively called, Charlestown, Westmore- 
 land, Walpole, Hinsdale, Keene, and Swansey. On 
 Merrimack river and its branches were, Penacook, 
 Suncook, Contoocook, New Hopkinton, Souhegan 
 east, and Souhegan west; now respectively called, 
 Concord, Pembroke, Boscawen, Hopkinton, Merri- 
 mack, and Amherst. On Pascataqua river and its 
 branches were, the townships of Nottingham, Bar- 
 rington and Rochester. 
 
 Besides the forts which were maintained at the 
 public expense, there were private houses enclosed 
 with ramparts, or palisades of timber, to which the 
 people who remained on the frontiers retired ; these 
 private garrisoned houses were distinguished by the 
 names of the owners. The danger to which these 
 distressed people were constantly exposed did not 
 permit them to cultivate their lands to any advan- 
 tage. They were frequently alarmed when at labour 
 in their fields, and obliged either to repel an attack, 
 or make a retreat. Their crops were often injured, 
 and sometimes destroyed, either by their cattle get- 
 ting into the fields where the enemy had broken the 
 fences, or because they were afraid to venture out, 
 to collect and secure the harvest. Their cattle and 
 borses were frequently killed by the enemy, who cut 
 the flesh from the bones, and took out the tongues, 
 which they preserved for food, by drying in smoke. 
 Sometimes they were afraid even to milk their cows, 
 though they kept them in pastures as near as pos- 
 sible to the forts. When they went abroad, they 
 were always armed ; but frequently they were shut 
 up for weeks together in a state of inactivity. 
 
 The history of a war on the frontiers can be little 
 else than a recital of the exploits, the sufferings, the 
 escapes, and deliverances of individuals, of single 
 families, or small parties. The first appearance of 
 the enemy on the western frontier was at the Great 
 Meadow, sixteen miles above fort Dummer. Two 
 Indians took William Phips, as he was hoeing his 
 corn. When they had carried him half a mile, one 
 of them went down a steep hill to fetch something 
 which had been left. In his absence, Phips, with 
 iis own hoe, knocked down the Indian who was 
 with him ; then seizing his gun, shot the other as he 
 ascended the hill. Unfortunately, meeting with three 
 others of the &ame party, they killed him. The la- 
 
492 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 dian whom he knocked down died of his wound. 
 The same week they killed Josiah Fisher of upper 
 Ashuelot. 
 
 No other damage was done for three months, 
 when a party of twelve Indians approached the fort 
 at Great Meadow, and took Nehemiah How, who 
 was at a little distance from the fort, cutting wood. 
 The fort was alarmed, and one Indian was killed by 
 a shot from the rampart ; but no attempt was made 
 to rescue the prisoner. As they were leading him 
 away, by the side of the river, they espied a canoe 
 coming down, with two men, at whom they fired, 
 and killed David Rugg ; but Robert Baker got to 
 the opposite shore and escaped. Proceeding farther, 
 they met three other men, who, by skulking under 
 the bank, got safe to the fort. One of them was 
 Caleb How, the prisoner's son. When they came 
 opposite to Number-four, they made their captive 
 write his name on a piece of bark, and left it there. 
 Having travelled seven days westward, they came 
 to a lake, where they found five canoes, with corn, 
 pork, and tobacco. In these canoes they embarked; 
 and having stuck the scalp of David Rugg on a pole, 
 proceeded to the fort at Crown Point, where How 
 received humane treatment from the French. He 
 was then carried down to Quebec, where he died in 
 prison. He was a useful man, greatly lamented by 
 his friends and fellow-captives. 
 
 (1746.) The next spring, a party of Indians ap- 
 peared at Number-four, where they took John 
 Spafford, Isaac Parker, and Stephen Farnsworth, as 
 they were driving a team. Their cattle were found 
 dead, with their tongues cut out. The men were 
 carried to Canada, and, after some time, returned 
 to Boston, in a flag of truce. 
 
 Within a few days a large party, consisting of 
 fifty, laid a plan to surprise the fort, at Upper 
 Ashuelot. They hid themselves in a swamp, in the 
 evening, intending to wait till the men had gone 
 out to their work, in the morning, and then rush 
 in. Ephraim Dorman, who was abroad very early, 
 discovered them and gave the alarm. He bravely 
 defended himself against two Indians, and stripped 
 one of his blanket and gun, which he carried into 
 the fort. John Bullard, and the wife of Daniel 
 M 'Kenny, were killed. Nathan Blake was taken 
 and carried to Canada, where he remained two years. 
 They burned several houses and barns ; and from 
 the human bones found among the ashes, it was 
 thought that some of the enemy fell and were con- 
 cealed in the flames. 
 
 About the same time a party came down to New 
 Hopkinton, where they entered a garrisoned house, 
 and found the people asleep, the door having been 
 left open by one who had risen early and gone out 
 to hunt. Eight persons were thus taken ; Samuel 
 Burbank and his two sons, David Woodwell, his 
 wife, two sons, and a daughter. Burbank and the 
 wife of Woodwell died in captivity. Woodwell and 
 three of the children returned in a flag of truce 
 to Boston. 
 
 The enemy were scattered in small parties, on all 
 the frontiers. At Number-four, some women went 
 out to milk their cows, with Major Josiah Willard, 
 and several soldiers for their guard : eight Indians, 
 who were concealed in a barn, fired on them, and 
 killed Seth Putnam ; as they were scalping him, 
 Willard and two more fired on them, and mortally 
 wounded two, whom their companions carried oil. 
 
 At Cantoocook, five white men and a negro were 
 fired at. Elisha Cook and the nepro were killed. 
 Thomas Jones was taken, aud died in Canada. 
 
 At lower Ashuelot, they took Timothy Brown and 
 Robert Moffat, who were carried to Canada, and 
 returned. At the same time a party lay about the 
 fort at upper Ashuelot. As one of 'them knocked 
 at the gate in the night, the centinel fired through 
 the gate, and gave him a mortal wound. 
 
 The danger thus increasing, a reinforcement was 
 sent by the Massachusetts assembly, to these dis- 
 tressed towns. Captain Paine, with a troop, came 
 to Number-four ; and about twenty of his men, going 
 to view the place where Putnam was killed, fell into 
 an ambush. The enemy rose and fired, and then 
 endeavoured to cut off their retreat. Captain Phi- 
 neas Stevens, with a party, rushed out to their re- 
 lief: a skirmish ensued, in which five men were 
 killed on each side, and one of ours was taken. 
 The Indians left some of their guns and blankets 
 behind. 
 
 In about a month after this, another engagement 
 happened at the same place. As Captain Stevens 
 and Captain Brown were going into the meadow, to 
 look for their horses, the dogs discovered an ambush, 
 which put the men into a posture for action, and 
 gave them the advantage of the first fire. After a 
 sharp encounter, the enemy were driven into a 
 swamp, drawing away several of their dead. In this 
 action only one man was lost. Several blankets, 
 hatchets, spears, guns, and other things, were left 
 on the ground, which were sold for forty pounds old 
 tenor. This was reckoned " a great booty from 
 such beggarly enemies." 
 
 At Bridgman's fort near fort Dummer, William 
 Robins and James Baker were killed in a meadow. 
 Daniel How and John Beeman were taken. How 
 killed one of the Indians before he was taken. 
 
 When the people wanted bread they were obliged 
 to go to the mills with a guard, every place being 
 full of danger. A party who went to Hinsdalc's 
 mill, with Colonel Willard at their head, in search- 
 ing round the mill, discovered an ambush. The 
 enemy were put to flight with the loss of their packs. 
 
 At Number-four, one Phillips was killed; and as 
 some of the people were bringing him into the fort, 
 they were fired upon ; but none were hurt. Having 
 burned some buildings, and killed some cattle, the 
 enemy went and ambushed the road near Winches- 
 ter, where they killed Joseph Rawson. 
 
 Whilst the upper settlements were thus suffering, 
 the lower towns did not escape. A party of Indians 
 came down to Rochester, within twenty miles of 
 Portsmouth. Five men were at work in a field, 
 having their arms at hand. The Indians concealed 
 themselves; one of them fired, with a view to induce 
 the men to discharge their pieces, which they did. 
 The enemy then rushed upon them before they 
 could load again. They retreated to a small de- 
 serted house, and fastened the door. The Indians 
 tore off the roof, and with their guns and tomahawks 
 dispatched John Wentworth and Gersham Downs. 
 They wounded John Richards ; and then cross- 
 ing over to another road, came upon some men who 
 were at work in a field, all of whom escaped ; but 
 they took Jonathan Door, a boy, as he was sitting 
 on a fence. Richards was kindly used, his wounds 
 were healed, and after eighteen months he was sent 
 to Boston in a flag of truce. Door lived with the 
 Indians, and acquired their manners and habits; 
 but, after the conquest of Canada, returned to his 
 native place. 
 
 Soon after this, another man was killed at Ro- 
 chester. Two men were surprised, and taken at 
 Contoocook; aud a large party of Indians lay ia 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 493 
 
 ambush at Penacook, with an intention to attack 
 the people, while assembled for public worship; but 
 seeing them go armed to their devotions, they waited 
 till the next morning, when they killed five and took 
 two. 
 
 In these irritating skirmishes the summer was 
 spent ; till a large body of French and Indians at- 
 tacked Fort Massachusetts, at Hoosuck. This fort 
 was lost for want of ammunition to defend it. After 
 this success, the enemy remained quiet during the 
 rest of the summer. 
 
 The prospect of an expedition to Canada had in- 
 duced many of the soldiers who were posted on the 
 frontiers to enlist into the regiments, because they 
 preferred active service to the dull routine of a gar- 
 rison. The defence of the western posts was not 
 only hazardous, but ineffectual; and some persons 
 in the north-western part of Massachusetts thought 
 it inexpedient to be at the charge of defending a 
 territory which was out of their jurisdiction. Their 
 petitions prevailed with the assembly, to withdraw 
 their troops from the western parts of New Hamp- 
 shire. The inhabitants were then obliged to quit 
 their estates. They deposited in the earth such fur- 
 niture and utensils as could be saved by that means ; 
 they carried off on horseback such as were portable ; 
 and the remainder, with their buildings, was left as 
 a prey to the enemy, who came and destroyed, or 
 carried away, what they pleased. Four families, 
 who remained in Shattuck's Fort, (Hinsdale), de- 
 fended it against a party of Indians, who attempted 
 to burn it. Six men only were left in the fort at 
 Number-four, who in the following winter deserted 
 it; and it was wholly destitute for two months. 
 In this time some gentlemen, who understood the 
 true interest of the country, prevailed on the assem- 
 bly of Massachusetts to resume the protection of 
 those deserted places ; and to employ a sufficiency 
 of men, not only to garrison them, but to range the 
 woods, and watch the motions of the enemy. 
 
 (1747.) In the latter end of March, Captain 
 Phinehas Stevens, who commanded a ranging com- 
 pany of thirty men, came to Number-four; and, 
 finding the fort entire, determined to keep possession 
 of it. He had not been there many days, when he 
 was attacked by a very large party of French and 
 Indians, commanded by M. Debeline. The dogs, 
 by their barking, discovered that the enemy was 
 near ; which caused the gate to be kept shut beyond 
 the usual time. One man went out to make dis- 
 covery, and was fired on ; but returned with a slight 
 wound only. The enemy, finding that they were 
 discovered, arose from their concealment, and fired 
 at the fort on all sides. The wind being high, they 
 set fire to the fences and log-houses, till the fort was 
 surrounded by flames. Captain Stevens took the 
 most prudent measures for his security; keeping 
 every vessel full of water, and digging trenches un- 
 der the walls in several places ; so that a man might 
 creep through, and extinguish any fire which might 
 catch on the outside of the walls. The fire of the 
 fences did not reach the fort ; nor did the flaming 
 arrows which they incessantly shot against it take 
 effect. Having continued this mode of attack for 
 two days, accompanied with hideous shouts and yells ; 
 they prepared a wheel carriage, loaded with dry 
 faggots, to be pushed before them, that they might 
 set fire to the fort. Before they proceeded to this 
 operation, they demanded a cessation of arms till 
 the sun-rising, which was granted. In the morning, 
 Dcbelirie came up with fifty men, and a flag of truce, 
 which he stuck in the ground. He demanded a 
 
 parley, which was agreed to. A French officer, 
 with a soldier and an Indian, then advanced ; and 
 proposed that the garrison should bind up a quantity 
 of provisions with their blankets, and having laid 
 down their arms, should be conducted prisoners to 
 Montreal. Another proposal was, that the two com- 
 manders should meet, and that an answer should 
 then be given. Stevens met the French commander, 
 who, without waiting for an answer, began to en- 
 force his proposal, by threatening to storm the fort, 
 and put every man to death, if they should refuse his 
 terms, and kill one of his men. Stevens answered, 
 that he could hearken to no terms till the last extre- 
 mity ; that he was intrusted with the defence of the 
 fort, and was determined to maintain it, till he 
 should be convinced that the Frenchman could per- 
 form what he had threatened. He added, that it 
 was poor encouragement to surrender, if they were 
 all to be put to the sword for killing one man, when 
 it was probable they had already killed more. The 
 Frenchman replied, " Go and see if your men dare 
 to fight any longer, and give me a quick answer." 
 Stevens returned, and asked his men whether they 
 would fight or surrender. They unanimously deter- 
 mined to fight. This was immediately made known 
 to the enemy, who renewed their shouting and firing 
 all that day and night. On the morning of the third 
 day they requested another 'cessation for two hours. 
 Two Indians came with a flag, and proposed, that 
 if Stevens would sell them provisions they would 
 withdraw. He answered, that to sell them provi- 
 sions for money would be contrary to the law of na- 
 tions; but that he would pay them five bushels of 
 corn for every captive, for whom they would give a 
 hostage, till the captive could be brought from Ca- 
 nada. After this answer, a few guns were fired, and 
 the enemy were seen no more. 
 
 In this furious attack from a starving enemy no 
 lives were lost in the fort, and two men only were 
 wounded. No men could have behaved with more in- 
 trepidity in the midst of such threatening danger. An 
 express was immediately dispatched to Boston, and 
 the news was there received with great joy. Com- 
 modore Sir Charles Knowles was so highly pleased 
 with the conduct of Capt. Stevens, that he presented 
 him with a valuable and elegant sword, as a reward 
 for his bravery. From this circumstance, the town- 
 ship, when it was incorporated, took the name of 
 Charlestown. 
 
 Small parties of the enemy kept hovering, and 
 sometimes discovered themselves. Sergeant Phelps 
 killed one near the fort, and escaped unhurt, though 
 fired upon and pursued by two others. 
 
 Other parties went farther down the country; and 
 at Rochester they ambushed a company who were 
 at work in a field. The ambush was discovered by 
 three lads, John and George Place, and Paul Jen- 
 nens. The Indians fired upon them. John Place 
 returned the fire and wounded an Indian. Jennens 
 presented his gun but did not fire ; this prevented 
 the enemy from rushing upon them, till the men 
 from the 'field came to their relief and put the In- 
 dians to flight. 
 
 At Penacook, a party of the enemy discovered 
 themselves by firing at some cattle. They were 
 pursued by fifty men, and retreated with such pre- 
 cipitation as to leave their packs and blankets with 
 other things behind. One man had his arm broken 
 in this conflict. About the same time a man was 
 killed there who had just returned from Cape Bre- 
 ton, after an absence of two years. Another was 
 killed at Suncook; and at Nottingham, Robert 
 
401 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Beard, John Folsom, and P^lizabeth Simpson su 
 fered the same fate. 
 
 In the autumn, Major Willard and Captain Alex 
 ander wounded and took a Frenchman, near Win 
 Chester, who was conducted to Boston and returne 
 to Canada. Soon after, the enemy burned Bridg 
 man's fort (Hinsdale), and killed several persons 
 and took others from that place, and from Numbei 
 four in the ensuing winter. No pursuit could b 
 made, because the garrison was not provided witl 
 snow-shoes, though many hundreds had been paic 
 for by the government. 
 
 (1748.) The next spring, Captain Stevens wa 
 again appointed to command at Number-four, with 
 a garrison of 100 men; Captain Humphrey Hobb 
 being second in command. A scouting party o 
 eighteen was sent out under Capt. Eleazer Melvin 
 They discovered two canoes in Lake Champlain, a 
 which they fired. The fort at Crown Point wai 
 alarmed, and a party came out to intercept them 
 Melvin crossed their track and came back to Wes 
 River, where as his men were diverting themselvei 
 by shooting salmon, the Indians suddenly cam< 
 upon them and killed six. The others came in a 
 different times to Fort Dummer. 
 
 On a Sabbath morning, at Rochester, the wife o 
 Jonathan Hodgdon was taken by the Indians as sh( 
 was going to milk her cows; she called aloud to her 
 husband; the Indians would have kept her quiet 
 but as she persisted in calling they killed her, ap 
 parently contrary to their intentions. Her husband 
 heard her cries, and came to her assistance at the 
 instant of her death. His gun missed fire and he 
 escaped. The alarm occasioned by this action pre- 
 vented greater mischief. 
 
 The next month, they killed three men belonging 
 to Hinsdale's fort, Nathan French, Joseph Richard- 
 son, and John Frost. Seven were taken; one o: 
 whom, William Bickford, died of his wounds. Capt. 
 Hobbs and forty men being on a scout near Wesl 
 River, were surprised by a party of Indians, with 
 whom they had a smart encounter of three hours 
 continuance. Hobbs left the ground, having had 
 three men killed and four wounded. The same 
 party of the enemy killed two men and took nine, 
 between fort Hinsdale and fort Dummer. 
 
 (1749.) The cessation of arms between the belli- 
 gerent powers did not wholly put a stop to the in- 
 cursions of the enemy ; for after it was known here, 
 and after the garrison of Number-four was with- 
 drawn, excepting fifteen men, Obadiah Sortwell was 
 killed, and a son of Capt. Stevens was taken and 
 carried to Canada, but he was released and returned. 
 During this affecting scene of devastation and 
 captivity, there were no instances of deliberate mur- 
 der nor torture exercised on those who fell into the 
 hands of the Indians ; and even the old custom of 
 making them run the gauntlet was in most cases 
 omitted. On the contrary there is an universal 
 testimony from the captives who survived and re- 
 turned, in favour of the humanity of their captors. 
 When feeble, they assisted them in travelling; and 
 in cases of distress from want of provision, they 
 shared with them an equal proportion. A singular 
 instance of moderation deserves remembrance. An 
 Indian had surprised a man at Ashuelot; the man 
 asked for quarter, and it was granted: whilst the 
 Indian was preparing to bind him, he seized the 
 Indian's gun, and shot him in one arm. The In- 
 dian, however, secured him ; but took no other re- 
 venge than, with a kick, to say " You dog, how 
 could you treat me so ?" The gentleman from whom 
 
 this information came, had frequently heard the 
 story both from the captive and the -captor. The 
 latter related it as an instance of English perfidy ; 
 the former of Indian lenity. 
 
 There was a striking difference between the 
 manner in which this war was managed, on the 
 part of the English, and on the part of the 
 French. The latter kept out small parties con- 
 tinually engaged in killing, scalping, and taking 
 prisoners; who were sold in Canada and redeemed 
 by their friends at a great expense. By this mode 
 of conduct, the French made their enemies pay the 
 whole charge of their predatory excursions, besides 
 reaping a handsome profit to themselves. On the 
 other hand, the English attended only to the do- 
 fence of the frontiers; and that in such a manner, 
 as to leave them for the most part insecure. No 
 parties were sent to harass the settlements of the 
 French. If the whole country of Canada could not 
 be subdued, nothing less could be attempted. Men 
 were continually kept in pay, and in expectation of 
 service, but spent their time ciiher in garrisons, or 
 camps, or in guarding provisions wheu sent to the 
 several forts. Though large rewards were promised 
 for scalps aud prisoners, scarcely any were ob- 
 tained unless by accident. A confusion of councils, 
 and a multiplicity of directors, caused frequent 
 changes of measures, and delays in the execution of 
 them. The forts were ill supplied with ammunition, 
 provisions, clothing, and snow-shoes. When an 
 alarm happened, it was necessary cither to bake 
 bread, or dress meat, or cast bullets, before a pursuit 
 could be made. The French gave commissions to 
 none but those who had distinguished themselves by 
 some exploit. Among us, persons frequently ob- 
 tained preferment for themselves or their friend.-, 
 by making their court to governors, and promoting 
 favourite measures in town meetings, or general as- 
 semblies. 
 
 A community recovering from a war, like an in- 
 lividual recovering from sickness, is sometimes in 
 danger of a relapse. This war was not decisive, 
 and the causes which kindled it were not removed. 
 One of its effects was, that it produced a class of 
 men, who, having been for a time released from 
 laborious occupations, and devoted to the parade of 
 military life, did not readily listen to the calls of 
 ndustry. To such men peace was burdensome, 
 and the more so, because they had not the advantage 
 of half pay. The interval between this and the suc- 
 ceeding war was not long. The peace took place 
 n 1749, and in 1754 there was a call to resume 
 the sword. 
 
 Purchase of Mason's claim Controversy about repre- 
 sentation Plan of extending the settlements Jea- 
 lousy and resentment of the savages. 
 
 Whilbt the people were contending with an enemy 
 abroad, an attempt was making at home to revive 
 he old claim of Mason, which their fathers had 
 withstood, and which for many years had lain dor- 
 mant, till recalled to view by the politicians of Mas- 
 achusetts, as already related. After Thomlinson 
 lad engaged with Mason, for the purchase of his 
 itle, nothing more was heard of it, till the contro- 
 ersy respecting the lines was finished, and 'Went- 
 rorth was established in the seat of government, 
 nd in the office of surveyor of the woods. (1744.) 
 ^he agreement which Thomlinson had made, was in 
 ehalf of the representatives of New Hampshire ; 
 nd the instrument was lodged in the hands of the 
 overnor, who sent it to the house for their perusal 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 495 
 
 and consideration. It lay on their table a long 
 time, without any formal notice. Quickening mes- 
 sages were sent time after time ; but the affairs of 
 the war, and Mason's absence at sea, and in the 
 expedition to Louisbourg, where he had a company, 
 together with a disinclination in the house, which 
 was of a different complexion from that in 1739, 
 prevented any thing from being done. 
 
 (1745.) In the mean time Mason suffered a fine 
 and recovery, by which the entail was docked, in 
 the courts of New Hampshire, .and he became en- 
 titled to the privilege of selling his interest. He also 
 presented a memorial to the assembly, in which he 
 told them that he would wait no longer ; and unless 
 they would come to some resolution, he should take 
 their silence as a refusal. (174G.) Intimations were 
 given, that if they should not ratify the agreement, 
 a sale would be made to other persons, who stood 
 ready to purchase. At length the house came to a 
 resolution, " that they would comply with the agree- 
 ment, and pay the price; and that the waste lands 
 should be granted by the general assembly, to the 
 inhabitants, as they should think proper." A com- 
 mittee was appointed to treat with Mason about 
 fulfilling his agreement, and to draw the proper in- 
 struments of conveyance ; but he had on the same 
 day, by deed of sale, for the sum of 150U/. currency, 
 conveyed his whole interest to twelve persons, in 
 fifteen shares. When the house sent a message to 
 the council to inform them of this resolution, the 
 council objected to that clause of the resolution, 
 " that the lands be granted by the general assem- 
 bly," as contrary to the royal commission and in- 
 structions; but if the house would address the king, 
 for leave to dispose of the lauds, they said that they 
 were content. 
 
 These transactions raised a great ferment among 
 the people. Angry and menacing words were plen- 
 tifully thrown out against the purchasers ; but they 
 had prudently taken care to file in the recorder's 
 office a deed of quit-claim to all the towns which had 
 been settled and granted within the limits of their 
 purchase. In this quit-claim they inserted a clause 
 in the following words : " excepting and reserving 
 our respective rights, titles, inheritance, and pos- 
 sessions, which we heretofore had, in common or 
 severally, as inhabitants or proprietors of houses or 
 lands, within any of the towns, precincts, districts, 
 or villages aforesaid." This precaution had not at 
 first its effect. A committee of both houses was ap- 
 pointed to consider the matter, and they reported, 
 that " for quieting the minds of the people, and to 
 prevent future difficulty, it would be best for the 
 province to purchase the claim, for the use and 
 benefit of the inhabitants ; provided that the pur- 
 chasers would sell it for the cost and charges." This 
 report was accepted, concurred, and consented to, 
 by every branch of the legislature. A committee 
 was appointed to consult counsel, and agree on 
 proper instruments of conveyance. The same day, 
 this committee met with the purchasers, and con- 
 ferred on the question, whether they would sell on 
 the terms proposed ? At the conference, the pur- 
 chasers appeared to be divided, and agreed so far 
 only, as .to withdraw their deed from the recorder's 
 office. The committee reported that they could 
 make no terms with the purchasers ; in consequence 
 of which the deed was again lodged in the office 
 ; n 1 recorded. ,- ' 
 
 Much blame was cast on the purchasers, for clan- 
 destinely taking a bargain out of the hands of the 
 assembly. They said in their vindication, " that 
 
 they saw no prospect of an effectual purchase by the 
 assembly, though those of them who were members 
 voted for it, and did what they could to encourage 
 it; that they" would have gladly given Mason as 
 much money for his private quit-claim to their se- 
 veral rights in the townships already granted and 
 settled; that Mason's claim had for many years 
 hung over the province, and that on every turn they 
 had been threatened with a proprietor; that Mason's 
 deed to a committee of Massachusetts, in behalf of 
 that province, for a tract of laud adjoining the boun- 
 dary line, had been entered on the records, and a 
 title under it set up, in opposition to grants made 
 by the governor and council; that it was impossible 
 to say where this evil would stop, and therefore they 
 thought it most prudent to prevent any farther ef- 
 fects of it, by taking up with his offer, especially 
 as they knew that he might have made a more ad- 
 vantageous bargain, with a gentlemen of fortune in 
 the neighbouring province ; but that they were still 
 willing to sell their interest to the assembly, for the 
 cost and charges ; provided that the land be granted 
 by the governor and council; and that the agreement 
 be madewithin one month from the date of their letter." 
 
 Within that month the alarm caused by the ap- 
 proach of D'Anville's fleet put a stop to the nego- 
 ciation. After that danger was over, the affair was 
 revived; but the grand difficulty subsisted. The 
 purchasers would not sell, but on condition that the 
 lands should be granted by the governor and coun- 
 cil. (1747.) The assembly thought that they could 
 have no security that the land would be granted to 
 the people; because the governor and council might 
 grant it to themselves, or to their dependents, or to 
 strangers, and the people who had paid for it might 
 be excluded from the benefit which they had pur- 
 chased. A proposal was afterwards made, that the 
 sale should be to feoffees in trust for the people; 
 and a form of a deed for this purpose was drawn. 
 To this proposal, the purchasers raised several ob- 
 jections; and as the assembly had not voted any 
 money to make the purchase, they declined signing 
 the deed; and no farther efforts being made by the 
 assembly, the purchase rested in the hands of the 
 proprietors. In 1749 they took a second deed, com- 
 prehending all the Masonian grants, from Naum- 
 keag to Pascataqua; whereas the former deed was 
 confined to the lately established boundaries of 
 New Hampshire. This latter deed was not record- 
 ed till 1753. 
 
 (1748.) After they had taken their first deed, the 
 Masonians began to grant townships, and continued 
 granting them to petitioners, often without fees, 
 and always without quit-rents. They quieted the 
 proprietors of the towns on the western side of the 
 Merrimack, which had been granted by Massachu- 
 setts, before the establishment of the line; so that 
 they went on peaceably with their settlements. The 
 terms of their grants were, that the grantees should, 
 within a limited trine, erect mills and meeting-houses, 
 clear out roads, and settle ministers. In every town- 
 ship, they reserved one right for the first settled mi- 
 nisier, another for a parsonage, and a third for a 
 school. They also reserved fifteen rights for them- 
 selves, and two for their attorneys; all of which 
 were to be free from taxes, till sold or occupied. 
 By virtue of these grants, many townships were 
 settled, and the interest of the people became so 
 united with that of the proprietors, that the preju- 
 dice against them gradually abated; and, at length, 
 even some who had been the most violent opposers, 
 acquiesced in the safety and policy of their measures, 
 
196 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 though they could not concede to the validity of 
 their claim. 
 
 The heirs of Allen menaced them by advertise- 
 ments, and warned the people against accepting 
 their grants. They depended on the recognition of 
 Allen's purchase, in the charter of Massachusetts, 
 as an argument in favour of its validity ; and sup- 
 posed, that because the ablest lawyers in the king- 
 dom were consulted, and employed in framing that 
 charter, they must have had evidence of the justice 
 of his pretensions, before such a reservation could 
 have been introduced into it. So strong was the 
 impression which this argument had made on the 
 minds of speculators in England, that large sums 
 had been offered to some of Allen's heirs in that 
 kingdom ; and Thomlinson himself, the first mover 
 of the purchase from Mason, in behalf of New Hamp- 
 shire, had his doubts; and would have persuaded 
 the associates to join in buying Allen's title also, 
 even at the price of 2,000/. sterling, to prevent a 
 more expensive litigation, the issue of which would 
 be uncertain. But they, being vested with the prin- 
 cipal offices of government; being men of large 
 property, which was also increased by this purchase ; 
 and having satisfied themselves of the validity of 
 their title, by the opinions of some principal lawyers, 
 both here and in England, contented themselves 
 with the purchase which they had made; and by 
 maintaining their possession, extended the cultiva- 
 tion of the country within their limits. 
 
 The words of the original grants to Mason de- 
 scribe an extent of sixty miles from the sea, on each 
 side of the province, and a line to cross over from 
 the end of one line of sixty miles to the end of the 
 other. The Masonian proprietoi'S pleaded, that this 
 cross line should be a curve, because no other line 
 would preserve the distance of sixty miles from the 
 sea, in every part of their western boundary. No 
 person had any right to contest the point with them 
 but the king. It was not for the interest of his go- 
 vernor and council to object; because several of 
 them, and of their connexions, were of the Masonian 
 propriety; and no objection was made by any other 
 persons, in behalf of the crown. Surveyors were 
 employed, at several times, to mark this curve line ; 
 but on running, first from the southern, and then 
 from the eastern boundary, to the river Pemigewas- 
 set, they could not make the lines meet. Contro- 
 versies were thus engendered between the grantees 
 of crown lauds and those of the Masonians, which 
 subsisted for many years. In some cases, the dis- 
 putes were compromised, and in others, left open for 
 litigation; till, by the revolution, the government 
 fell into other hands. 
 
 This was not the only controversy which, till that 
 period, remained undetermined. When the exten- 
 sion of the boundary lines gave birth to a demand 
 for the maintenance of fort Dummer, the governor 
 had the address to call to that assembly, into which 
 he introduced this demand, six new members, who 
 appeared as representatives for six towns and dis- 
 tricts, some of which had been by the southern line 
 cut off from Massachusetts. It was supposed that 
 his design in calling these members was to facilitate 
 the adoption of fort Dummer. Other towns, which 
 ought to have had the same privilege extended to 
 them, were neglected. When the new members 
 appeared in the house, the secretary, by the governor's 
 order, administered (o them "the usual oaths; 
 after which they were asked, in the name of the 
 house, by what authority they came thither ? They 
 answered that they were chosen by virtue of a writ, 
 
 in the king's name, delivered to their respective 
 towns and districts by the sheriff. The house re- 
 monstrated to the governor, that these places had 
 no right by law, nor by custom, to send persons to 
 represent them, and then debarred them from the 
 privilege of voting in the choice of a speaker : two 
 only dissenting out of nineteen. Several sharp mes- 
 sages passed between the governor and the house on 
 that occasion, but the pressing exigencies of the war, 
 and the proposed expedition to Cape Breton, obliged 
 him for that time to give way, and suffer his new 
 members to be excluded till the king's pleasure could 
 be known. 
 
 The house vindicated their proceedings, by ap- 
 pealing to their records; from which it appeared, 
 that all the additions which had been made to the 
 house of representatives were in consequence of 
 their own votes, either issuing a precept themselves, 
 or requesting the governor to do it; from which they 
 argued, that no town or parish ought to have any 
 writ for the choice of a representative but by a vote 
 of the house, or by an act of the assembly. On the 
 other side it was alleged, that the right of sending 
 representatives was originally founded on the royal 
 commission and instructions, and therefore that the 
 privilege might, by the same authority, be lawfully 
 extended to the new towns, as the king, or his go- 
 vernor, by advice of council, might think proper. 
 The precedents on both sides were undisputed, but 
 neither party would admit the conclusion drawn by 
 the other. Had this difficulty been foreseen, it 
 might have been prevented when the triennial act 
 was made in 1727. The defects of that law began 
 now to be severely felt, but could not be remedied. 
 The dispute having thus subsided, was not revived 
 during the war; but as soon as the peace was made, 
 and the king had gone on a visit to his German do- 
 minions, an additional instruction was sent from 
 the lords justices, who presided in the king's absence, 
 directing the governor to dissolve the assembly then 
 subsisting; and when another should be called, to 
 issue the king's writ to the sheriff, commanding him 
 to make out precepts to the towns and districts, 
 whose representatives had been before excluded; and 
 that when they should be chosen, the governor 
 should support their rights. 
 
 Had this instruction extended to all the other 
 towns in the province, which had not been before 
 represented, it might have been deemed equitable ; 
 but as it respected those only which had been the 
 subject of controversy, it appeared to be grounded 
 on partial information, and intended to strengthen 
 the prerogative of the crown, without a due regard 
 to the privileges of the people at large. 
 
 (1749.) The party in opposition to the governor 
 became more acrimonious than ever. Richard 
 Waldron, the former secretary, and the confidential 
 friend of Belcher, appeared in the new assembly and 
 was chosen speaker. The governor negatived him ; 
 and ordered the house to admit the new members, 
 and choose another speaker. They denied his power 
 of negativing their speaker and of introducing new 
 members. The style of his messages was peremp- 
 tory and severe ; their answers and remonstrances 
 were calm, but resolute, and in some instances sa- 
 tirical. Neither party would yield ; no business was 
 transacted, though the assembly met about once in 
 a month, and was kept alive, by adjournments and 
 prorogations, for three years. Had he dissolved 
 them, before the time for which they were chosen 
 had expired, he knew, that in all probability, the 
 same persons would be re-elected. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 497 
 
 The effect of this controversy was injurious to 
 the governor, as well as to the people. The public 
 bills of credit had depreciated since this administra- 
 tion began, in the ratio of thirty to fifty-six ; and 
 the value of the governor's salary had declined in 
 the same proportion. The excise could neither be 
 formed nor collected ; and that part of the governor's 
 salary, which was funded upon it, failed. The trea- 
 surer's accounts were unsettled. The soldiers, who 
 had guarded the frontiers in the preceding war, were 
 not paid; nor were their muster-rolls adjusted. The 
 public records of deeds were shut up ; for the re- 
 corder's time having expired, and the appointment 
 being by law vested in the assembly, no choice could 
 be made. No authenticated papers could be ob- 
 tained, though the agent was constantly soliciting 
 for those which related to the controversy about Fort 
 Dummer, at that time before the king and council. 
 
 (1750, 1751.) When the situation of the province 
 was known in England, an impression to its dis- 
 advantage was made on the minds of its best friends; 
 and they even imagined that the governor's con- 
 duct was not blameless. The language at court was 
 totally changed. The people of New Hampshire, 
 who had formerly been in favour, as loyal and obe- 
 dient subjects, were now said to be in rebellion. 
 Their agent was frequently reproached and morti- 
 fied on their account, and was under great appre- 
 hension that they would suffer, not only in their 
 reputation, but in their interest The agent of Mas- 
 sachusetts was continually soliciting for repayment 
 of the charges of maintaining fort Dummer, and it 
 was in contemplation, to take off a large district 
 from the western part of New Hampshire, and to 
 annex it to Massachusetts, to satisfy them for that 
 expense. Besides this, the paper money of the co- 
 lonies was under the consideration of parliament ; 
 and the province of Massachusetts was rising into 
 favour for having abolished that system of iniquity. 
 The same justice was expected of New Hampshire, 
 since they had the same means in their power by 
 the reimbursement granted to them by parliament 
 for the Cape Breton and Canada expeditions. This 
 money, amounting to about 30,0001. sterling, clear 
 of all fees and commissions, had lain long in the 
 treasury ; and when it was paid to the agent, he 
 would have placed it in the funds, where it might 
 have yielded an interest of three per cent. ; but 
 having no directions from the assembly, he locked 
 it up in the bank. This was a clear loss to them of 
 900/. per annum. There were some who reflected 
 on the agent, as if he had made an advantage to 
 himself of this money. Had he done it, his own 
 capital was sufficient to have answered any of their 
 demands ; but it was also sufficient to put him above 
 the necessity of employing their money, either in 
 trade or speculation. 
 
 It had also been suggested, that Thomlinson, at 
 the governor's request, had solicited and procured 
 the instruction, which had occasioned this unhappy 
 stagnation of business. When this suggestion came 
 to his knowledge, he exculpated himself from the 
 charge in a letter which he wrote to a leading 
 member of the assembly, and gave a full account o 
 the matter as far as it had come to his knowledge 
 He said, that the governor himself had stated the 
 facts in his letters to the ministry; concerning his 
 calling of the new members, in 1745, and their ex 
 elusion from the assembly, with the reasons given 
 for it; and had desired ^.o know the king's pleasure 
 and to have directions how to act. That the minis 
 try, without any exception or hesitation, had pro 
 HIST. OF AMER. Nos. 63 & 64. 
 
 nounced his conduct conformable to his duty. That 
 nevertheless, the Board of Trade had solemnly con- 
 idered the matter, and consulted counsel, and had 
 ummoned him, as agent of the piovince, to attend 
 heir deliberation. Their result was, that as the 
 :rown had an indisputable right to incorporate any 
 own in England, and qualify it to send members 
 ,o parliament, so the same right and power had 
 >een legally given to all the governors in America ; 
 >y means of which, all the assemblies in the king's 
 governments had increased in number, as the colo- 
 nies had increased in settlements. That any other 
 usage in calling representatives was wrong; al- 
 hough it might have been indulged when the pro- 
 vince was under the same governor with Massachu- 
 setts. This was all which passed before the addi- 
 tional instruction came out, which was sent through 
 the hands of the agent. As it was founded on a 
 question concerning the rights and prerogatives of 
 the crown, he argued the absurdity of supposing, 
 either that it had been solicited, or that any attempt 
 to have it withdrawn could be effectual. His advice 
 was, that they should submit to it; because, that 
 under it, they would enjoy the same rights and pri- 
 vileges with their fellow-subjects in England, and 
 in the other colonies; assuring them, that the then 
 reigning prince had never discovered the least in- 
 clination to infringe the constitutional rights of any 
 of his subjects. 
 
 This advice, however salutary, had not the in- 
 tended effect. Instead of submitting, the party in 
 opposition to the governor framed a complaint against 
 him, and sent it i.o London, to be presented to the 
 king. If they could have prevailed, their next mea- 
 sure would have been, to recommend a gentleman, 
 Sir William Pepperell, of Massachusetts, for his 
 successor. This manoeuvre came to the ears of 
 Thomlinson ; but he was under no necessity to ex- 
 ert himself on this occasion, for the person to whose 
 care the address was intrusted, considering the ab- 
 surdity of complaining to the king against his go- 
 vernor for acting agreeably to his instructions, was 
 advised not to present it. This disappointment vexed 
 the opposition to such a degree, that they would 
 have gladly dissolved the government, and put them- 
 selves under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, had 
 it been in their power. But finding all their efforts 
 ineffectual either to have the instruction withdrawn, 
 or the governor removed, they consoled themselves 
 with this thought, that it was " better to have two 
 privileges taken from them, than voluntarily to give 
 up one." 
 
 (1752.) The time for which this assembly was 
 elected, having expired, a new one was called in the 
 same manner. They came together with a spirit of 
 moderation, and a disposition to transact the long 
 neglected business. The members from the new 
 towns quietly took their seats an unexceptionable 
 speaker, Meshech Weare, was elected a recorder 
 was appointed a committee was chosen to settle 
 the treasurer's accounts and a vote was passed for 
 putting the reimbursement money into the public 
 funds in England. The governor's salary was aug- 
 mented, and all things went on smoothly. The 
 party which had been opposed to the governor, de- 
 clined in number and virulence; some had been re- 
 moved by death, others were softened and relaxed; 
 a liberal distribution of commissions, civil and mili- 
 tary, was made ; and an era of domestic reconcilia- 
 tion commenced. 
 
 The controversy respecting Fort Dummer, and 
 i.he fear of losing a district in that neighbourhood, 
 
 3 E 
 
498 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 quickened the governor to make grants of several 
 townships in that quarter, on both sides of Connec- 
 ticut river, chiefly to those persons who claimed the 
 same lands under the Massachusetts title. The w<*vr 
 being over, the old inhabitants returned to their 
 plantations, and were strengthened by additions to 
 their number. It was in contemplation, to extend 
 the settlements farther up Connecticut river, to the 
 rich meadows of Cohos. The plan was to cut a road 
 to that place to lay out two townships, one on each 
 side of the river, and opposite to each other to 
 erect stockades, with lodgments for 200 men in each 
 township, enclosing a space of fifteen acres, in the 
 centre of which was to be a citadel containing the 
 public buildings and granaries, which were to be 
 large enough to receive all the inhabitants and their 
 moveable effects in case of necessity. As an induce- 
 ment to people to remove to this new plantation, 
 they were to have courts of judicature and other 
 civil privileges among themselves, and were to be 
 under strict military discipline. A large number of 
 persons engaged in this enterprise, and they were 
 the rather stimulated to undertake it, because it 
 was feared that the French, who had already begun 
 to encroach on the territory claimed by the British 
 crown, would take possession of this valuable tract, 
 if it should be left unoccupied. 
 
 In pursuance of this plan, a party was sent up in 
 the spring of 1752 to view the meadows of Cohos, 
 and lay out the proposed townships: the Indians 
 observed them, and suspected their intentions. The 
 land was theirs, and they knew its value. A party 
 of the Arosaguntacook, or St. Francis tribe, was de- 
 puted to remonstrate against this proceeding. They 
 came to the fort at Number-four, with a flag of truce, 
 pretending that they had not heard of the treaty of 
 peace which had been made with the several Indian 
 tribes. They complained to Captain Stevens, of the 
 encroachment which was meditating on their land, 
 and said that they could not allow the English to 
 settle at Cohos, when they owned more land already 
 than they could improve; and, that if this settlement 
 were pursued, they should think the English had a 
 mind for war, and would resist them. This threat- 
 ening being communicated to the governor of Mas- 
 sachusetts, and by him to the governor of New- 
 Hampshire, threw such discouragement on the pro- 
 ject that it was laid aside. 
 
 The Indians did not content themselves with re- 
 monstrating and threatening. Two of the same 
 tribe, named Sabatis and Christi, came to Canter- 
 bury, where they were entertained in a friendly 
 manner for more than a month; at their departure, 
 they forced away two negroes, one of whom escaped 
 and returned, and the other was carried to Crown 
 Point and sold to a French officer. A party of ten 
 or twelve of the same tribe, commanded by Captain 
 Moses, met with four young men who were hunting 
 on Baker's river. One of these was John Stark. 
 When he found himself surprised and fallen into 
 their hands, he called to his brother William Stark, 
 who being in a canoe, gained the opposite shore and 
 escaped. They fired at the canoe and killed a young 
 man who was in it. John received a severe beating 
 from the Indians for alarming his brother. They 
 carried him, and his companion Eastman, up Con- 
 necticut river, through several carrying places, and 
 down the lake Memphrimagog to the head-quarters 
 of their tribe. There they dressed him in their 
 finest robes, and adopted him as a son. This early 
 captivity, from which he was redeemed, qualified 
 him to be an expert partisan in the succeeding war; 
 
 from which station, he afterwards rose to tl-.c rank 
 of brigadier -general in the armies of the United States. 
 
 (1753.) The next year Sabatis, with another 
 Indian named Plausawa, came to Canterbury ; 
 where, being reproached with the misconduct re- 
 specting the negroes, he and his companion behaved 
 in an insolent manner. Several persons treated 
 ihem freely with strong liquor. One followed them 
 into the woods, and killed them, and, by the help 
 oi' another, buried them; but so shallow, thai their 
 bodies were devoured by beasts of prey, and their 
 bones lay on the ground. By the treaties of peace, 
 it had been stipulated on the one part, that if any 
 of the Indians should commit an act of hostility 
 against the English, their young men should join 
 with the English in reducing such Indians to sub- 
 mission ; and, on the other hand, that if an Eng- 
 lishman should injure any of them, no private re- 
 venge should be taken ; but application should be 
 made to the government for justice. In the autumn 
 of the same year, a conference being held with the 
 eastern Indians by the government of Massachu- 
 setts, a present was made to the Arosaguntacook 
 tribe, expressive of an intention to wipe away the 
 blood. They accepted the present, and ratified the 
 peace which had been made in 1749. 
 
 (1754.) The two men who killed Sabatis and 
 Plausawa were apprehended and brought to Ports- 
 mouth. A bill was found against them by the grand 
 jury, and they were confined in irons. In the 
 night, before the day appointed for their trial, an 
 armed mob from the country, with axes and crows, 
 forced the prison, and carried them off in triumph. 
 A proclamation was issued, and a reward offered by 
 the governor, for apprehending the rioters ; but no 
 discovery was made, and the action was even deemed 
 meritorious. The next summer another conference 
 was held at Falmouth, at which commissioners from 
 New Hampshire assisted. The Arosaguntacooke 
 did not attend, but sent a message, purporting that 
 the blood was not wiped away. The commissioners 
 from New Hampshire made a handsome present to 
 all the Indians who appeared at this conference ; 
 which ended as usual, in the promise of peace and 
 friendship. 
 
 The last French and Indian war, which terminated in 
 the conquest of Canada. Controversy concerning 
 the land westward of Connecticut river. 
 
 By the treaty of Aix la Chappelle, in 1748, it was 
 stipulated, that " all things should be restored, on 
 the footing they were before the war." The island 
 of Cape Breton was accordingly restored to France; 
 but the limits of the French and English territories 
 on the continent were undetermined ; and it was 
 the policy of both nations to gain possession of im- 
 portant passes, to which each had some pretensions, 
 and to hold them, till the limits should be settled by 
 commissioners mutually chosen. These commissi- 
 oners met at Paris ; but came to no decision. By 
 the construction of charters and grants from the. 
 crown of England, her colonies extended indefi- 
 nitely westward. The French had settlements in 
 Canada and Louisiana, and they meditated to join 
 these distant colonies, by a chain of forts and posts 
 from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi ; and to 
 extend the limits of Canada as far eastward as to 
 command, navigation in the winter, when the great 
 river St. Lawrence is impassable. These claims of 
 territory, extending on the one part from east to 
 west, and on the other from north to south, necessa- 
 rily interfered. The colonies of Nova Scotia, New 
 
UNITED STATES 
 
 499 
 
 York, and Virginia, were principally affected by 
 this interference; and the encroachments made on 
 them by the French, were a subject of complaint, 
 both there and in Europe. 
 
 (] 754.) It was foreseen that this controversy could 
 not be decided but by the sword ; and the English 
 determined to be early in their preparations. The 
 Earl of Holdcrness, Secretary of State, wrote to the 
 governors of the American colonies, recommending 
 union for their mutual protection and defence. A 
 meeting of commissioners from the colonies, at Al- 
 bany, having been appointed, for the purpose of 
 holding a conference with the six nations, on the 
 subject of French encroachments within their coun- 
 try it was proposed by Governor Shirley to the 
 several governors, that the delegates should be in- 
 structed on the subject of union. 
 
 At the place appointed the congress was held ; con- 
 sisting of delegates from Massachusetts, New Hamp- 
 shire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and 
 Maryland ; with the lieut.-gcvernor and council ofNew 
 York. They took theirrank in geographical order, be- 
 ginning at the north. One member from each colony 
 was appointed to draw a plan of union ; Hutchin- 
 son, of Massachusetts, Atkinson, of New Hampshire, 
 Hopkins, of Rhode Island, Pitkin, of Connecticut, 
 Smith, of New York, Franklin, of Pennsylvania, 
 and Tasker, of Maryland. The substance of the 
 plan was, that application be made for an act of 
 parliament to form a grand council, consisting of 
 delegates from the several legislative assemblies, 
 subject to the control of a president-general (to be 
 appointed by the crown,) with a negative voice. 
 That this council should enact general laws; ap- 
 portion the quotas of men and money to be raised 
 by each colony; determine the building of forts; 
 regulate the operations of armies ; and concert all 
 measures for the common protection and safety. 
 The delegates of Connecticut alone entered their 
 dissent to the plan, because of the negative voice of 
 the president-general. It is worthy of remark, that 
 this plan for the union of the colonies was agreed 
 to on the fourth day of July, exactly twenty- two 
 years before the declaration of American indepen- 
 dence, and that the name of Franklin appears in both. 
 
 With the plan of union, a representation was 
 made to the king of the danger in which the colo- 
 nies were involved. Copies of both were laid before 
 the several assemblies. They were fully sensible of 
 their danger from the French; but they appre- 
 hended greater danger from the plan of union. Its 
 fate was singular. It was rejected in America be- 
 cause it was supposed to. put too much power into 
 the hands of the king ; and it was rejected in Eng- 
 land, because it was supposed to give too much 
 power to the assemblies of the colonies. The mi- 
 nistry made another proposal ; that the governor. 
 with one or two members of the council of each 
 colony, should assemble, and consult for the com- 
 mon defence, and draw on the British treasury for 
 the sums expended ; which should be raised by a 
 general tax laid by parliament on the colonies. 
 But this was not a time to push such an alarming 
 innovation ; and when it was found impracticable, 
 the ministry determined to employ their own truops 
 to fight their battles in America, rather than to let 
 the colonists feel their strength, and be directed by 
 their own counsels. 
 
 To draw some aid however from the colonies was 
 necessary. Their militia might serve as guards, or 
 rangers, or labourers, or do garrison duty, or be 
 employed in other inferior offices; but British troops. 
 
 commanded by British officers, must have the honour 
 of reducing the French dominions in North America. 
 
 The savage nations in the French interest were 
 always ready, on the first appearance of a rupture, 
 to take up the hatchet. It was the policy of the 
 French government, to encourage their depredations 
 on the frontiers of the English colonies, to which 
 they had a native antipathy. By this means the 
 French could make their enemies pay the whole ex- 
 pense of the war; for all the supplies which they 
 afforded to the Indians, were amply compensated 
 by the ransom of captives. In these later wars, 
 therefore, we find the savages more dextrous in 
 taking captives, and more tender of them when taken 
 than In former wars, which were carried on with 
 circumstances of greater cruelty. 
 
 No sooner had the alarm of hostilities, which com- 
 menced between the English and French in the 
 western part of Virginia, spread through the con- 
 tinent, than the Indians renewed their attacks on 
 the frontiers of New Hampshire. A party of them 
 made an assault on a family at Baker's-town, on 
 Pemigewasset river, where they killed a woman, and 
 took several captives. Within three days they 
 killed a man and woman at Stevens town in the 
 same neighbourhood, upon which the settlements 
 were broken up, and the people retired to the lower 
 towns for safety, and the government was obliged to 
 post soldiers in the deserted places. After a few 
 days more they broke into the house of James John- 
 son, at Number-four, early in the morning before 
 any of the family were awake, and took him with 
 his wife and three children, her sister Miriam Wil- 
 lard, and two men, Peter Laboree and Ebenezer 
 Farnsworth. The surprisal was complete and blood- 
 less, and they carried them off undisturbed. The 
 next day Johnson's wife was delivered of a daughter, 
 who from the circumstance of its birth was named 
 Captive. The Indians halted one day, on the wo- 
 man's account, and the next day resumed their 
 march, carrying her on a litter which they made for 
 the purpose, and afterwards put her on horseback. 
 On their march they were distressed for provision, 
 and killed the horse for food ; the infant was nourished 
 by sucking pieces of its flesh. When they arrived 
 at Montreal, Johnson obtained a parole of two 
 months, to return and solicit the means of redemp- 
 tion. He applied to the assembly of New Hamp- 
 shire, and after some delay obtained 150/. sterling. 
 But the season was so far advanced, and the winter 
 proved so severe, that he did not reach Canada till 
 the spring. He was then charged with breaking 
 his parole; a great part of his money was taken 
 from him by violence, and he was shut up with his 
 family in prison, where they took the* small-pox, 
 which they happily survived. After eighteen months, 
 the woman with her sister and two daughters were 
 sent in a cartel ship to England, and thence re- 
 turned to Boston. Johnson was kept in prison three 
 years ; and then with his son returned and met his 
 wife in Boston, where he had the singular ill fortune 
 to be suspected of designs unfriendly to his country, 
 and was again imprisoned; but no evidence being 
 produced against him, he was liberated. His eldest 
 daughter was retained in a Canadian nunnery. 
 
 The fort and settlement of Number-four, being in 
 an exposed situation, required assistance and sup- 
 port. It had been built by Massachusetts when it 
 was supposed to be within its limits. It was pro- 
 jected by Colonel Stoddard, of Northampton, and 
 was well situated in connection with the other forts 
 on the western frontier, to command all the paths 
 
 3E2 
 
500 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 by which the Indians travelled from Canada to New 
 England. It was now evidently in New Hampshire ; 
 and Shirley, by advice of his council, applied to 
 Wentworth recommending the future maintenance 
 of that post to the care of his assembly ; but they 
 did not think themselves interested in its preserva- 
 tion, and refused to make any provision for it. The 
 inhabitants made several applications for the same 
 purpose, but were uniformly disappointed. They 
 then made pressing remonstrances to the assembly 
 of Massachusetts, who sent soldiers for the defence 
 of that post, and of Fort Dummer, till 1757, when 
 they supposed that the commander in chief of the 
 king's forces would take them under his care, as 
 royal garrisons. It was also recommended to the 
 assembly of New Hampshire to build a fort at Cohos, 
 but this proposal met the same fate. 
 
 (1755.) The next spring, three expeditions were 
 undertaken against the French forts. One against 
 Fort Duquesne, on the Ohio, was conduct by Ge- 
 neral Braddock, who was defeated and slain. Another 
 against Niagara, by Governor Shirley, which mis- 
 carried; and a third against Crown Point, by Ge- 
 neral Johnson. For this last expedition, New 
 Hampshire raised 500 men, and put them under 
 the command of Colonel Joseph Blanchard. The 
 governor ordered them to Connecticut river, to build 
 a fort at Cohos, supposing it to be in their way to 
 Crown Point. They first marched to Baker's-town, 
 where they began to build batteaux, and consumed 
 time and provisions to no purpose By Shirley's 
 advice they quitted that futile employment, and 
 made a fatiguing march through the woods, by the 
 way of Number-four to Albany. Whilst Johnson 
 lay encamped at Lake George with his other forces, 
 he posted the New Hampshire regiment at Fort 
 Edward. On the 8th of September, he was attacked 
 in his camp by Baron Dieskau, commanding a body 
 of French regular troops, Canadians and savages. 
 On the morning of that day, a scouting party from 
 Fort Edward discovered waggons burning in the 
 road; upon which Captain Nathaniel Folsom was 
 ordered out with eighty of the New Hampshire regi- 
 ment, and forty of New York under Capt. M'Gennis. 
 When they came to the place, they found the wag- 
 goners and the cattle dead, but no enemy was there. 
 Hearing the report of guns toward the lake, they 
 hastened thither; and having approached within two 
 miles, found the baggage of the French army under 
 the care of a guard, whom they attacked and dis- 
 persed. When the retreating army of Dieskau ap- 
 peared, about four of the clock in the afternoon, 
 Folsom posted his men among the trees, and kept 
 up a well-directed fire till night; the enemy retired 
 with great loss, and he made his way to the camp, 
 carrying his own wounded and several French pri- 
 soners, with many of the enemy's packs. This well- 
 timed engagement, in which but six men of Fol- 
 som's were lost, deprived the French army of their 
 ammunition and baggage; the remains of which 
 were brought into camp the next day. After this 
 the regiment of New Hampshire joined the army. 
 The men were employed in scouting, which service 
 they performed in a manner so acceptable, that no 
 other duty was required of them. Parties of them 
 frequently went within view of the French fort at 
 Crown Point; and at one time they brought off the 
 scalp of a French soldier, whom they killed near the 
 gate. 
 
 After the engagement on the 8th of September, 
 when it was found necessary to reinforce the army ; 
 a second regiment, of 300 men, was raised in New 
 
 Hampshire, and put under the command of Col. 
 Peter Gilman. These men were as alert and inde- 
 fatigable as their brethren, though they had not op- 
 --rtunity to give such convincing evidence of it 
 
 e expedition was no farther pursued ; and late in 
 autumn the forces were disbanded and returned home. 
 
 The exertions made for the reduction of Crown 
 Point not only failed of their object, but proyoked 
 the Indians to execute their mischievous designs 
 against the frontiers of New Hampshire, which were 
 wholly uncovered, and exposed to their full force. 
 Between the rivers Connecticut and St. Francis, 
 there is a safe and easy communication by short 
 carrying-places, with which they were perfectly ac- 
 quainted. The Indians of that river, therefore, 
 made frequent incursions, and returned unmolested 
 with their prisoners and booty. 
 
 At New Hopkinton, they took a man and a boy ; 
 but perceiving the approach of a scouting party, 
 they fled and left their captives. At Keene they 
 took Benjamin Twitchel, and at Walpole they killed 
 Daniel Twitchel, and a man named Flynt. At the 
 same place Colonel Bellows, at the head of twenty 
 men, met with a party of fifty Indians ; and having 
 exchanged some shot, and killed several of the 
 enemy, he broke through them and got into the 
 fort, not one man of his company being killed or 
 wounded. After a few days, these Indians, being 
 joined by others to the number of 170, assaulted 
 the garrison of John Kilburne, in which were him- 
 self, John Pike, two boys, and several women, who 
 bravely defended the house and obliged the enemy 
 to retire, with considerable loss. Pike was mortally 
 wounded. Some of these Indians joined Dieskau's 
 army, and were in the battle at Lake George. At 
 Number-four, they killed a large number of cattle, 
 and cut off the flesh. At Hinsdale, they attacked a 
 party, who were at work in the woods ; killed John 
 Hardiclay and John Alexander, and took Jonathan 
 Colby ; the others escaped to the fort. Within a 
 few days afterwards, they ambushed Caleb Howe, 
 Hilkiah Grout, and Benjamin Gaffield, as they were 
 returning from their labour in the fields. Howe was 
 killed ; Gaffield was drowned in attempting to cross 
 the river ; and Grout made his escape. The Indians 
 went directly to Bridgman's fort, where the families 
 of these unfortunate men resided. They had heard 
 the report of the guns, and were impatient to learn 
 the cause. By the sound of feet without, it being 
 in the dusk of the evening, they concluded that 
 their friends had returned, and too hastily opened 
 the gate to receive them ; when to their inexpres- 
 sible surprise, they admitted the savages and the 
 three families, consisting of fourteen persons, were 
 made captives. 
 
 After the defeat and death of Braddock, the chief 
 command of the operations against the enemy fell 
 into the hands of Shirley, who called another Con- 
 gress, at New York, and planned another expedi- 
 tion against Crown Point ; for which purpose, he 
 called on the several governments to raise men and 
 provide stores. A regiment was raised in New 
 Hampshire, the command of which was given to 
 Col. Nathaniel Messerve. (1756.) They also ap- 
 pointed two commissaries, Peter Gilman and Tho- 
 mas Westbrooke Waldron, who resided at Albany, 
 to take care of the stores, whilst the regiment, with 
 the other troops, assisted in building forts and bat- 
 teaux. In the midst of this campaign, Shirley was 
 superseded by the Earl of London ; but the summer 
 passed away in fruitless labour; whilst the French, 
 by their superior alertness, besieged and took the 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 50* 
 
 English fort at Oswego ; and the regiments of Shir- 
 ley and Pepperrell, who garrisoned it, were sent pri- 
 soners to France. During this summer, the Indians 
 killed Lieut. Moses Willard, and wounded his son 
 at Number-four ; and took Josiah Foster, with his 
 wife and two children, from Winchester. They 
 also wounded Zebulon Stebbins, of Hinsdale, who, 
 with Reuben Wright, discovered an ambush, and 
 prevented the captivity of several persons for whom 
 the Indians were lying in wait. 
 
 The soldiers of New Hampshire were so expert 
 in every service which required agility, and so ha- 
 bituated to fatigue and danger, that, by the express 
 desire of Lord Loudon, three ranging companies 
 were formed of thorn, who continued in service dur- 
 ing the wiuter as well as the summer. The com- 
 mand of those companies was given to Robert Ro- 
 gers, John Stark, and William Stark. They were 
 eminently useful in scouring the woods, procuring 
 intelligence, and skirmishing with detached parties 
 of the enemy. These companies were kept during 
 the war in the pay of the crown ; and after the peace, 
 the officers were allowed half-pay on the British 
 establishment. 
 
 (1757.) The next year, another Crown Point ex- 
 pedition was projected by Lord Loudon. The crown 
 was at the expense of stores and provisions, and re- 
 quired of the colonies, to raise, arm, clothe, and 
 pay their quotas of men. Another regiment was 
 raised in New Hampshire, of which Messerve was 
 commander, who went to Halifax with part of his 
 regiment, a body of 100 carpenters, and the three 
 companies of rangers, to serve under Lord Loudon, 
 whilst the other part of the regiment under Lieut.- 
 Colonel Goffe, was ordered by General Webb, who 
 commanded at the westward in the absence of the 
 Earl of Loudon, to rendezvous at Number-four. 
 Before their arrival, a large party of French and 
 Indians attacked the mills in that place, and took 
 Sampson Colefax, David Farnsworth, and Thomas 
 Adams. The inhabitants, hearing the guns, ad- 
 vanced to the mills ; but finding the enemy in force, 
 prudently retreated. The enemy burned the mills ; 
 and in their retreat, took two other men, who were 
 coming in from hunting, viz. Thomas Robins and 
 Asa Spafford. Farnsworth and Robins returned; 
 the others died in Canada. 
 
 Goffe, with his men, marched through Number- 
 four and joined General Webb at Albany, who 
 posted them at fort William Henry, near lake 
 George, under the command of Col. Munroe, of 
 the 35th British regiment. The French General 
 Montcalm, at the head of a large body of Canadians 
 and Indians, with a train of artillery, invested this 
 fort ; and in six days the garrison, after having 
 expended all their ammunition, capitulated, on con- 
 dition that they should not serve against the French 
 tor eighteen months. They were allowed the honours 
 of war, and were to be escorted by the French 
 troops to fort Edward, with their private baggage. 
 The Indians, who served in this expedition on the 
 promise of plunder, were enraged at the terms 
 granted to the garrison ; and, as they marched out 
 unarmed, fell upon them, stripped them naked, and 
 murdered all who made any resistance. The New 
 Hampshire regiment happening to be in the rear, 
 felt the chief fury of the enemy. Out of two hun- 
 dred, eighty were killed and taken. 
 
 This melancholy event threw the whole country 
 into the deepest consternation. Webb, who re- 
 mained at Fort Edward, expecting to be there at- 
 lacked, sent expresses to all the provinces for rein- 
 
 forcements. The French, however, did not pursue 
 their advantage, but returned to Canada. A rein- 
 forcement of 250 men was raised in New Hamp- 
 shire, under the command of Major Thomas Tash; 
 which, by the orders of General Webb, was sta- 
 tioned at Number-four. This was the first time 
 that the troops of New Hampshire occupied that 
 important post. 
 
 Hitherto the war had been, on our part, unsuc- 
 cessful. The great expense, the frequent disap- 
 pointments, the loss of men, of forts, and of stores, 
 were very discouraging. The enemy's country was 
 filled with prisoners, and scalps, private plunder, 
 and public stores and provisions, which the colonists, 
 as beasts of burden, had conveyed to them. These 
 reflections were the dismal entertainment of the 
 winter. The next spring called for fresh exertions ; 
 the British ministry had been changed, and the di- 
 rection of the war was put into the hands of that 
 decisive statesman, William Pitt. 
 
 (1758.) In his circular letter to the American 
 governors, he assured them, that to repair the losses 
 and disappointments of the last inactive campaign, 
 it was determined to send a formidable force, to 
 operate by sea and land against the French in 
 America ; and he called upon them to raise " as 
 large bodies of men, within their respective govern- 
 ments, as the number of inhabitants might allow ;" 
 leaving it to them, to form the regiments and to ap- 
 point officers at their discretion. He informed them 
 that arms, ammunition, tents, provisions, and boats 
 would be furnished by the crown ; and he required 
 the colonies to levy, clothe, and pay their men, as- 
 suring them that recommendations would be made 
 to parliament " to grant them a compensation." 
 
 Notwithstanding their former losses and disap- 
 pointments, the assembly of New Hampshire, on 
 receiving this requisition, cheerfully voted 800 men 
 for the service of the year. The regiment com- 
 manded by Col. John Hart marched to the west- 
 ward, and served under General Abercrombie. A 
 body of 108 carpenters, under the conduct of Col. 
 Messerve, embarked for Louisbourg, to serve at the 
 second siege of that fortress, under General Am- 
 herst. Unhappily the small-pox broke out among 
 them, which disabled them from service ; all but 
 sixteen were seized at once, and these attended the 
 sick. Messerve and his eldest son died of this fatal 
 disorder. This year was remarkable for the second 
 surrender of Louisbourg ; the unfortunate attack on 
 the lines of Ticonderoga, where Lord Howe was 
 killed ; the taking of fort Frontenac by Col. Brad- 
 street; and the destruction effort du Quesue on the 
 Ohio, the contention for which began the war. 
 
 In the course of this year, the Indians continued 
 to infest the frontiers. At Hinsdale they killed 
 Captain Moore and his son, took his family, and 
 burned his house. At Number-four they killed 
 Asahel Stebbins, and took his wife, with Isaac Par- 
 ker and a soldier. The cattle of this exposed set- 
 tlement, which fed chiefly in the woods, at a dis- 
 tance from the fort, often served the enemy for pro- 
 visions. 
 
 (1759.) The next year, a similar requisition being 
 made by Secretary Pitt, New Hampshire raised a 
 thousand men for the service, who were regimented 
 under the command of Colonel Zacheus Lovewell, 
 son of the famous partisan who lost his life at Pig- 
 wacket. This regiment joined the army at the west- 
 ward, and served under General Amherst, in the 
 actual reduction of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, 
 and in building a new fortress at the last place. 
 
502 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 The success of this summer was brilliant, beyond 
 former example. The French Fort at Niagara sur- 
 rendered to General Johnson; and the strong city 
 of Quebec was taken by the British troops under 
 General Wolfe, who, with the French general, Mont- 
 calm, was slain in the decisive battle. 
 
 When the British arms had obtained a decided 
 superiority over the French, it was determined to 
 chastise the Indians who had committed so many 
 devastations on the frontiers of New England. Ma- 
 jor Robert Rogers was dispatched from Crown Point, 
 by General Amherst, with about 200 rangers, to de- 
 stroy the Indian village of St. Francis. After a fa- 
 tiguing march of twenty -one days, he came within 
 sight of the place, which he discovered from the top 
 of a tree, and halted his men at the distance of 
 three miles. In the evening he entered the village 
 in disguise, with two of his officers. The Indians 
 were engaged in a grand dance, and he passed through 
 them undiscovered. Having formed his men into 
 parties, and posted them to advantage, he made a 
 general assault, just before day, whilst the Indians 
 were asleep. They were so completely surprised, 
 that little resistance could be made. Some were 
 killed in their houses ; and of those who attempted 
 to flee, many were shot or tomahawked by parties 
 placed at the avenues. The dawn of day disclosed 
 a horrid scene ; and an edge was given to the fury 
 of the assailants by the sight of several hundred 
 scalps of their countrymen, elevated on poles, and 
 waving in the air. This village had been enriched 
 with the plunder of the frontiers and the sale of cap- 
 tives. The houses were well furnished, and the 
 church was adorned with plate. The suddenness of 
 the attack, and the fear of a pursuit, did not allow 
 much time for pillage ; but the rangers brought off 
 such things as were most convenient for transport- 
 ation ; among which were about two hundred guineas 
 in money, a silver image weighing ten pounds, and 
 a large quantity of wampum and clothing. Having 
 set fire to the village, Rogers made his retreat up 
 the river St. Francis, intending that his men should 
 rendezvous at the upper Cohos, on Connecticut 
 river. They took with them five English prisoners, 
 whom they found at St. Francis, and about twenty 
 Indians; but these last they dismissed. Of the 
 rangers, one man only was killed ; and six or seven 
 were wounded. In their retreat they were pursued, 
 and lost seven men. They kept in a body for about 
 ten days, passing on the eastern side of Lake Mem- 
 frimagog, and then scattered. Some found their 
 way to Number-four, after having suffered much by 
 hunger and fatigue. Others perished in the woods, 
 and their bones were found near Connecticut river 
 by the people, who after several year sbegan plant 
 ations at the Upper Cohos. 
 
 After the taking of Quebec, the remainder of th< 
 season was too short to complete the reduction of 
 Canada. (1760.) The next summer General Am- 
 herst made preparations to approach Montreal by 
 three different routes; intending, with equal pru- 
 dence and humanity, to finish the conquest without 
 the effusion of blood. For the service of this year, 
 800 men were raised in New Hampshire, and put 
 under the command of Colonel John Goffe. They 
 marched, as usual, to Number-four ; but instead of 
 taking the old route to Albany, they cut a road 
 through the woods, directly toward Crown Point. 
 In this work they made such dispatch, as to join 
 that part of the army which Amherst had left at 
 Crown Point, twelve days before their embarkation. 
 They proceeded down the lake, under the command 
 
 of Colonel Haviland. The enemy made some re 
 sistance at Isle au Noix, which stopped their pro- 
 gress for some days, and a few men were lost on both 
 sides. But this post being deserted, the forts of St. 
 John and Chamblee became an easy conquest, and 
 finally Montreal capitulated. This event finished 
 the campaign, and crowned Amherst with deserved 
 laurels. 
 
 Whilst the New Hampshire regiment was em- 
 ployed in cutting the new road, signs of hovering 
 Indians were frequently discovered, though none 
 were actually seen. But they took the family of 
 Joseph Willard from Number-four, and carried 
 them into Montreal, just before it was invested by 
 the British army. 
 
 The conquest of Canada gave peace to the fron- 
 tiers of New Hampshire, after a turbulent scene of 
 fifteen years in which, with little intermission, they 
 had been distressed by the enemy. Many captives 
 returned to their homes ; and friends who had long 
 been separated, embraced each other in peace. The 
 joy was heightened by this consideration, that the 
 country of Canada, being subdued, could no longer 
 be a source of terror and distress. 
 
 The expense of this war was paid by a paper cur- 
 rency. Though an act of parliament was passed in 
 1751, prohibiting the governors from giving their 
 assent to acts of assembly made for such a purpose; 
 yet, by a proviso, extraordinary emergencies were 
 excepted. Governor Wentworth was slow to take 
 advantage of this proviso, and construed the act in 
 a more rigid sense than others ; but his friend Shir- 
 ley helped him out of his difficulties. In 1755 paper 
 bills were issued, under the denomination of new 
 tenor ; of which fifteen shillings were equal in value 
 to one dollar. Of this currency the soldiers were 
 promised thirteen pounds ten shillings per month ; 
 but it depreciated so much in the course of the year, 
 that in the muster rolls their pay was made up at 
 fifteen pounds. In 1756 there was another issue 
 from the same plates, and their pay was eighteen 
 pounds. In 1757, it was twenty-five pounds. In 
 1758, they had twenty-seven shillings sterling. In 
 the three succeeding years they had thirty shillings 
 sterling, besides a bounty at tl e time of their enlist- 
 ment, equal to one month's pay. At length sterling 
 money became the standard of all contracts ; and 
 though the paper continued passing as a currency, 
 its value was regulated by the price of silver, and 
 the course of exchange. 
 
 It ought to be remembered, as a signal favour of 
 Divine Providence, that during this war the seasons 
 were fruitful, and the colonies were able to supply 
 their own troops with provisions, and the British 
 fleets and armies with refreshments of every kind 
 which they needed. No sooner were the operations 
 of the war in the northern colonies closed, than two 
 years of scarcity succeeded (1761 and 1762), in 
 which the drought of summer was so severe, as to 
 cut short the crops, and render supplies from abroad 
 absolutely necessary. Had this calamity attended 
 any of the preceding years of the war, the distress 
 must have been extreme, both at home and in the 
 camp. During the drought of 1761 a fire raged in the 
 woods, in the townships of Barrington and Roches- 
 ter, and passed over into the county of York, burn- 
 ing with irresistible fury for several weeks, and was 
 not extinguished till a plentiful rain fell, in August. 
 An immense quantity of the best timber was de- 
 stroyed by this conflagration. 
 
 For the succeeding part of the war a smaller body 
 of men was required to garrison the new conquests ; 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 503 
 
 whilst the British troops were employed in the West 
 India islands. The success which attended their 
 operations in that quarter brought the war to a 
 conclusion; and by the treaty of peace, though 
 many of the conquered places were restored, yet the 
 whole continent of North America remained to the 
 British crown, and the colonies received a reim- 
 bursement of their expenses. 
 
 The war being closed, a large and valuable tract of 
 country, situated between New England, New York, 
 and Canada, was secured to the British dominions; and 
 it became the interest of the governors of both the 
 royal provinces of New Hampshire and New York 
 to vie with each other, in granting this territory, and 
 receiving the emoluments arising from this lucrative 
 branch of their respective offices. The seeds of a 
 controversy on this subject had been already sown. 
 During the short peace which followed the preced- 
 ing war, (1749,) Governor Wentworth wrote to Go- 
 vernor Clinton, that he had it in command from the 
 king, to grant the unimproved lands within his go- 
 vernment ; that the war had prevented that progress 
 which he had hoped for in this business; but that 
 the peace had induced many people to apply for 
 grants in the western parts of New Hampshire, 
 which might fall in the neighbourhood of New York. 
 He communicated to him a paragraph of his com- 
 mission, describing the bounds of New Hampshire, 
 and requested of him a description of the bounds of 
 New York. Before he received any answer to this 
 letter, Wentworth, presuming that New Hampshire 
 ought to extend as far westward as Massachusetts 
 that is, to the distance of twenty miles east from 
 Hudson's river, granted, (1 750,) a township, six miles 
 square, called Bennington ; situate twenty-four miles 
 east of Hudson's river, and six miles north of the 
 line of Massachusetts. Clinton having laid Went- 
 worth's letter before the council of New York ; by 
 their advice answered him, that the province of New 
 York was bounded easterly by Connecticut river. 
 This claim was founded on a grant of King Charles 
 the Second ; in which, " all the land from the west 
 side of Connecticut river, to the east side of Dela- 
 ware bay," was conveyed to his brother, James, 
 Duke of York; by whose elevation to the throne, 
 the same tract merged in the crown of England, 
 and descended, at the Revolution, to King William 
 and his successors. The province of New York 
 had formerly urged this claim against the colony of 
 Connecticut; but, for prudential reasons, had con- 
 ceded that the bounds of that colony should extend 
 as far as a line drawn twenty miles east of Hudson's 
 river. The like extent was demanded by Massachu- 
 setts ; and, though New York affected to call this 
 demand " an intrusion," and strenuously urged 
 their right to extend eastward to Connecticut river, 
 yet the original grant of Massachusetts, being prior 
 to that of the Duke of York, was a barrier which 
 could not easily be broken. These reasons, how- 
 ever, it was said, could be of no avail to the cause 
 of New Hampshire, whose first limits, as described 
 in Mason's patent, did not reach to Connecticut 
 river; and whose late extent, by the settlement of 
 the lines in 1741, was no farther westward than " till 
 it meets with the king's other governments." Though 
 it was agreed, between the two governors, to sub- 
 mit the point in controversy to the king, yet the 
 governor of New Hampshire continued to make 
 grants on the western side of Connecticut river till 
 1754; when the renewal of hostilities not only put 
 a stop to applications, but prevented anv determin- 
 ation of the controversy by the crown. 
 
 During the war, the continual .passing of troops 
 hrough those lands caused the value of them to be 
 more generally known; and when, by the conquest 
 of Canada, tranquillity was restored, they were eagerly 
 sought by adventurers aud speculators. Wentworth 
 availed himself of this golden opportunity, and by 
 advice of his council, ordered a survey to be made of 
 Connecticut river for sixty miles, and three lines of 
 townships on each side to be laid out. (1761.) As 
 applications increased, the surveys were extended. 
 Townships of six miles square were granted to va- 
 rious petitioners; and so rapidly did this work go 
 on, that during the year 1761, no less than sixty 
 townships were granted on the west, and eighteen 
 on the east side of the river. Besides the fees unil 
 presents for these grants, which were undefined, a 
 reservation was made for the governor of 500 acres- 
 in each township, and of lots for public purposes. 
 These reservations were clear of all fees and charges. 
 (1763.) The whole number of grants ou the western 
 side of the river amounted to 138, and the extent 
 was from Connecticut river to twenty miles east of 
 Hudson, as far as that river extended northerly ; and 
 after that, westward to Lake Champlain. The rapid 
 progress of these grants filled the coffers of the go- 
 vernor. Those who had obtained the grants were 
 seeking purchasers in all the neighbouring colonies, 
 whilst the original inhabitants of New Hampshire, 
 to whom these lands had formerly been promised as 
 a reward for their merit in defending the country, 
 were overlooked in the distribution, unless they 
 were disposed to apply in the same manner as per- 
 sons from abroad ; or unless they happened to be in 
 favour. When remonstrances were made to the go- 
 vernor on this subject, his answer was, that the peo- 
 ple of the old towns had been formerly complimented 
 with grants in Chichester, Barnsted, and Gilman- 
 town, which they had neglected to improve ; and 
 that the new grantees were better husbandmen and 
 would promote the cultivation of the province. 
 
 The passion for occupying new lands rose to a 
 great height. These tracts were filled with emi- 
 grants from Massachusetts and Connecticut. Popu- 
 lation and cultivation began to increase with a ra- 
 pidity hitherto unknown; and from this time may 
 be dated the flourishing state of New Hampshire, 
 which before had been circumscribed and stinted iu 
 its growth by the continual danger of a savage enemy. 
 The grants on the western side of Connecticut 
 river alarmed the government of New York, who, 
 by their agent, made application to the crown, re- 
 presenting " that it would be greatly to the advan- 
 tage of the people settled on those lands, to be an- 
 nexed to New York;" and submitting the cause to 
 the royal decision. In the mean time, a proclama- 
 tion was issued by Lieut-Governor Golden, reciting 
 the grant of King Charles to the Duke of York, as- 
 serting the jurisdiction of New York as far eastward 
 as Connecticut river, and enjoining the sheriff of 
 the county of Albany to return the names of all 
 persons who, under colour of the New Hampshire 
 grants, held possession of lands westward of that 
 river. (1764.) This was answered by a proclama- 
 tion of Governor Wentworth, declaring the grant to 
 the Duke of York to be obsolete, and that the west- 
 ern bounds of New Hampshire were co-extensive 
 with those of Massachusetts and Connecticut, encou 
 raging the grantees to maintain their possessions, 
 and cultivate their lands; and commanding civil 
 officers to execute the laws and punish disturbers of 
 the peace. 
 
 The application from New York was referred to 
 
504 
 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the board of trade ; and upon their representation, 
 seconded by a report of a committee of the privy 
 council, an order was passed by the king in council, 
 declaring " the western banks of Connecticut river, 
 from where it enters the province of Massachusetts 
 bay, as far north as the forty-fifth degree of latitude, 
 to be the boundary line between the two provinces 
 of New Hampshire and New York." 
 
 This decree, like many other judicial determina- 
 tions, while it closed one controversy, opened another. 
 The jurisdiction of the Governor of New Hampshire, 
 and his power of granting land, were circumscribed 
 by the western bank of Connecticut river: but the 
 grantees of the soil found themselves involved in a 
 dispute with the government of New York. From 
 the words " to be/' in the royal declaration, two 
 very opposite conclusions were drawn. The govern- 
 ment supposed them to refer to the time past, and 
 construed them as a declaration that the river always 
 had been the eastern limits of New York; conse- 
 
 quently that the grants made by the governor of 
 New Hampshire were invalid, and that the lands 
 might be granted again. The grantees understood 
 the words in the future tense, as declaring Connecti- 
 cut river from that time to be the line of jurisdiction 
 only between the two provinces, consequently that 
 their grants, being derived from the crown, through 
 the medium of one of its governors, were valid. To 
 the jurisdiction they would have quietly submitted, 
 had no attempt been made to wrest from them their 
 possessions. These opposite opinions proved a source 
 of litigation for ten succeeding years; but as this 
 controversy belongs to the history of New York, it 
 is dismissed with one remark only : that though it 
 was carried on with a degree of virulence unfriendly 
 to the progress of civilization and humanity, within 
 the disputed territory, yet it called into action a 
 spirit of vigorous self-defence and hardy enterprise, 
 which prepared the nerves of that people for en- 
 countering the dangers of a more extensive revolution. 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 From the Discovery of the Colony to the surrender 
 in 1664. 
 
 Henry Hudson, an Englishman, in the year 
 1608, under a commission from James I., discovered 
 Long Island, New York, and the river which still 
 bears his name ; and afterwards sold the country, 
 or rather his right, to the Dutch, whose writers 
 contend, that Hudson was sent out by the East In- 
 dia Company in 1609, to discover a north-west pas- 
 sage to China; and that having first discovered 
 Delaware bay, he came hither, and penetrated up 
 Hudson's river, as far north as the latitude of forty- 
 three degrees. It is said, however, that there was 
 a sale, and that the English objected to it, though 
 they for some time neglected to oppose the Dutch 
 Kcttlement of the country. 
 
 In 1610, Hudson sailed again from Holland to 
 that country, called by the Dutch, New Nether- 
 land; and four years after, the states general granted 
 a patent to sundry merchants, for an exclusive 
 t ade on the north river, who in 1 614 built a fort, 
 ou the west side, near Albany, which was first com- 
 manded by Henry Christiaens. Captain Argal was 
 sent out by Sir Thomas Dale, governor of Virginia, 
 in the same year, to dispossess the French of the 
 two towns of Port Royal and St. Croix, lying on 
 each side of the bay of Fundy in Acadia, then 
 claimed as part of Virginia. In his return, he vi- 
 sited the Dutch on Hudson's river, who being un- 
 able to resist him, prudently submitted for the pre- 
 sent to the king of England, and under him to the 
 governor of Virginia. The very next year, they 
 erected a fort on the south-west point of the island 
 Manhattans, and two others in 1623 ; one called 
 Good Hope, on Connecticut river, and the other 
 Nassau, on the east side of Delaware bay. The 
 author of the account of New Netherland asserts, 
 that the Dutch purchased the lands on both sides of 
 that river in 1632, before the English were settled 
 in those parts ; and that they discovered a little fresh 
 
 river, farther to the east, called Varsche Riviertie, 
 to distinguish it from Connecticut river, known 
 among them by the name of Varsche Rivier, which 
 Vanderdonk also claims for the Dutch. 
 
 Determined upon the settlement of a colony, the 
 states general made a grant of the country, in 1621, 
 to the West India company. Wouter Van Twiller 
 arrived at Fort Amsterdam, now New York, and 
 took upon himself the government in June 1629. 
 His style, in the patents granted by him, was thus, 
 " We, director and council, residing in New Ne- 
 therland on the island Manhattans, under the go- 
 vernment of their high mightinesses, the lords states 
 general of the united Netherlands, and the privileged 
 West India company, &c." In his time the New Eng- 
 land planters extended their possessions westward as 
 far as Connecticut river. Jacob Van Curlet, the 
 commissary there, protested against it, and in the 
 second year of the succeeding administration, under 
 William Kieft, who appears first in 1638, a prohi- 
 bition was issued, forbidding the English trade at 
 Fort Good Hope, and shortly after, on complaint 
 of the insolence of the English, an order of council 
 was made for sending more forces there, to maintain 
 the Dutch territories. Dr. Mather confesses, that 
 the New England men first formed their design of 
 settling Connecticut river in 1635, before which 
 time they esteemed that river at least 100 miles 
 from any English settlement ; and that they first 
 seated themselves there in 1636, at Hartford, near 
 Fort Good Hope, at Weathersfield, Windsor, and 
 Springfield. Four years after, they seized the 
 Dutch garrison, and drove them from the banks of 
 the river, having first settled New Haven in 1638. 
 regardless of Kieft's protest against it. 
 
 The extent of New Netherland was to Delaware, 
 then called South river, and beyond it ; for in the 
 Dutch records, there is a copy of a letter from Wil- 
 liam Kieft, May 6, 1638, directed to Peter Minuit, 
 who seems, by the tenor of it, to be the Swedish 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 505 
 
 governor of New Sweden, asserting, " that the 
 whole south river of New Netherland had been in 
 the Dutch possession many years above and below, 
 beset with forts, and sealed with their blood." Which 
 Kieft adds, " has happened even during your ad- 
 ministration in New Netherland, and is so well 
 known to you." 
 
 The Dutch writers are not agreed in the extent 
 of Nova Belgia, or New Netherland ; some describe 
 it to be from Virginia to Canada ; and others inform 
 us, that the arms of the States General were erected 
 at Cape Cod, Connecticut, and Hudson's river, and 
 on the west side of the entrance into Delaware bay. 
 The author of an anonymous pamphlet gives Canada 
 river for a boundary on the north, and calls the 
 country, north-west from Albany, Terra Incognita. 
 
 In 1640, the English, who had overspread the 
 eastern part of Long Island, advanced to Oysterbay. 
 Kieft broke up their settlement in 1642, and fitted 
 out two sloops to drive the English out of Schuyl- 
 kill, of which the Marylanders had lately possessed 
 themselves. The instructions, dated May 22, to 
 Jan Jansen Alpendam, who commanded in that 
 enterprise, are upon record, and strongly assert the 
 right of the Dutch both to the soil and trade there. 
 The English from the eastward shortly after sent 
 deputies to New Amsterdam, for the accommodation 
 of their disputes about limits, to whom the Dutch 
 offered certain conditions, which it appears were not 
 acceded to. 
 
 The English daily extended their possessions, and 
 in 1643 the colonies of Massachusetts bay, Ply- 
 mouth, Connecticut, and New Haven, entered into 
 a league both against the Dutch and Indians, and 
 grew so powerful as to meet shortly after, upon 
 i design of extirpating the former. Massachusetts 
 bay declined this enterprise, which occasioned a let- 
 ter to Oliver Cromwell from William Hooke, dated 
 at New Haven, November 3, 1653, in which he com- 
 plains of the Dutch for supplying the natives with 
 arms and ammunition, begs his assistance with two 
 or three frigates, and that letters might be sent to 
 the eastern colonies, commanding them to join in an 
 expedition against the Dutch colony. Cromwell's 
 affairs would not admit of so distant an attempt, but 
 Richard Cromwell afterwards drew up instructions 
 to his commanders for subduing the Dutch there, 
 and wrote letters to the English American govern- 
 ments for their aid ; copies of which are preserved 
 in Thurloe's collection. 
 
 Peter Stuyvesant was the last Dutch governor, 
 and though he had a commission in 1646, he did not 
 begin his administration till May 27, 1647. The 
 inroads and claims upon his government kept him 
 constantly employed. New England on the east, 
 and Maryland on the west, alarmed his fears by their 
 daily increase; and about the same time Captain 
 Forrester, a Scotchman, claimed Long Island for 
 the dowager of Stirling. The Swedes too were per- 
 petually incroaching upon Delaware. Through the 
 unskilfulness of the mate of a vessel, one Deswyk, 
 a Swedish captain and super-cargo arrived in Rari- 
 tan river. The ship was seized, and himself made 
 prisoner at New Amsterdam. Stuyvesant's reasons 
 were that, in 1651, the Dutch built fort Casimir, 
 now called Newcastle on Delaware. The Swedes, 
 indeed claimed the country, and Printz their go- 
 vernor formally protested against the works. Risingh, 
 his successor, under the disguise of friendship, came 
 before the fortress, fired two salutes and landed 
 thirty men, who were entertained by the commandant 
 as friends; but he had no sooner discovered the 
 
 weakness of the garrison, than he made himself 
 master of it, seizing also upon all the ammunition, 
 houses, and other effects of the West India company, 
 and compelling several of the people to swear alle- 
 giance to Christina queen of Sweden. The Dutch, 
 in 1655, prepared to retake fort Casimir. Stuyvesant 
 commanded the forces in person, and arrived with 
 them in Delaware the 9th of September. A few- 
 days after he anchored before the garrison and landed 
 his troops. The fortress was immediately demanded 
 as Dutch property: Suen Scutz, the commandant, 
 desired leave to consult Risingh, which being re- 
 fused, he surrendered the 16th of September on ar- 
 ticles of capitulation. The whole strength of the 
 place consisted of four 14-pounders, five swivels, and 
 a parcel of small arms, which were all delivered to 
 the conquered. Fort Christina was commanded by 
 Risingh. Stuyvesant came before it, and Risingh 
 surrendered it upon terms the 25th of September. 
 The country being thus subdued, the Dutch governor 
 issued a proclamation, in favour of such of the 
 inhabitants as would submit to the new government, 
 and about thirty Swedes swore "fidelity and obe- 
 dience to the States General, the lords directors of 
 the West India company, their subalterns of the pro- 
 vince of New Netherland, and the director general 
 then, or thereafter established." Risingh and one 
 Elswych, a trader of note, were ordered to France, 
 or England, and the rest of the Swedish inhabitants 
 to Holland, and from thence to Gottenberg. The 
 Swedes being thus extirpated, the Dutch became 
 possessed of the west side of Delaware bay, after- 
 wards called " The three lower countries." 
 
 This country was subsequently under the com- 
 mand of lieut.-governors, subject to the controul of, 
 and commissioned by the director general at New 
 Amsterdam. Johan Paul Jaquet was the first vice- 
 director, or lieut.-governor, of South River. His 
 successors were Alricks, Hinojossa, and William 
 Beekman. These lieutenants had power to grant 
 lands, and their patents make a part of the ancient 
 titles of the present possessors. Alrick's commis- 
 sion of the 12th of April, 1657, shews the extent of 
 the Dutch claim on the west side of Delaware at 
 that time. He was appointed "Director general of the 
 colony of the South River of New Netherland, and the 
 fortress of Casimir, now called Niewer Amstel, with 
 all the lands depending thereon, according to the first 
 purchase and deed of release of the natives, dated 
 July 19, 1651, beginning at the west side of the 
 Minquaa, or Christina Kill, in the Indian language 
 named Suspccough, to the mouth of the bay, or 
 river, called Bompt-Hook, in the Indian language 
 Cannaresse; and so far inland as the bounds and 
 limits of the Minquaas land, with all the streams, &c. 
 appurtenances and dependencies." Of the country 
 northward of the Kell, no mention is made. Orders 
 in 1658 were given to William Beekman to purchase 
 Cape Hiulopen from the natives, and to settle and 
 fortify it, which, for want of goods, was not done till 
 the succeeding year. 
 
 In the year 1659, fresh troubles arose from the 
 Maryland claim to the lands on South River; and 
 in September, Colonel Nathaniel Utie, as commis- 
 sioner from Fendal, Lord Baltimore's governor, ar- 
 rived at Niewer Amstel from Maryland. The counry 
 was ordered to be evacuated, Lord Baltimore claim- 
 ing all the land between 38 and 40 degrees of lati- 
 tude from sea to sea. Beekman and his council 
 demanded evidence of his lordship's right, and offered 
 to prove the States General's grant to the West 
 India company, and the grant of the company to 
 
506 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 them; and proposed to refer the controversy to 
 the republics of England and Holland, praying 
 at the same time, three weeks to consult Stuyvesant 
 the general. The commissioner notwithstanding, a 
 few days after warned him to draw off, beyond the 
 latitude of 40 degrees; but Beekman disregarded 
 the threat. Col. Utie thereupon returned to Mary- 
 land, and an immediate invasion was expected. 
 
 Early in the spring of the year 1660, Nicholas 
 Valeth and Brian Newton were dispatched from 
 Fort Amsterdam to Virginia, in quality of ambas- 
 sadors, with full power to open a trade and conclude 
 a league, offensive and defensive, against the barba- 
 rians. Sir William Berkely, the governor, gave 
 them a kind reception, and approved their proposal 
 of peace and commerce, which Sir Henry Moody 
 was sent to agree upon and perfect. Four articles 
 to that purpose were drawn up, and sent to the go- 
 vernor for confirmation. Stuyvesant artfully en- 
 deavoured, at this treaty, to procure an acknowledg- 
 ment of the Dutch title to the country, which 
 Berkely as carefully avoided. This was his answer : 
 
 " Sir, I have received the letter you were pleased 
 to send me by Mr. Mills's vessel, and shall be ever 
 ready to comply with you, in all acts of neighbourly 
 friendship and amity. But truly, sir, you desire me 
 to do that, concerning your titles and claims to land 
 in this northern part of America, which I am in no 
 capacity to do ; for I am but a servant of the assem- 
 bly's : neither do they arrogate any power to them- 
 selves, farther than the miserable distractions of 
 England desire them to. For when God shall be 
 pleased in his mercy to take away and dissipate the 
 unnatural divisions of their native country, they will 
 immediately return to their own professed obedience. 
 What then they should do in matters of contract, 
 donation, or confession of right, would have little 
 strength or signification; much more presumptive 
 and impertinent would it be in me to do it, without 
 their knowledge or assent. We shall very shortly 
 meet again, and then, if to them you signify your 
 desires, I shall labour all I can to get you a satis- 
 factory answer. " I am, sir, 
 
 " Virginia, " Your humble servant, 
 
 " August 20, 1660. " WILLIAM BERKELY." 
 
 Governor Stuyvesant war a faithful servant of 
 the West India company : this is abundantly proved 
 by his letters to them, exciting their care of the co- 
 lony. In one, dated April 20, 1660, which is very 
 long and pathetic, representing the desperate situa- 
 tion of affairs on both sides of the New Netherlands, 
 he writes, " Your honours imagine, that the troubles 
 in England will prevent any attempt on these parts : 
 alas ! they are ten to one in number to us, and are 
 able, without any assistance, to deprive us of the 
 country when they please." On the 25th of June, 
 the same year, he informs them, that the demands, 
 encroachments, and usurpations of the English, give 
 the people here great concern. " The right to both 
 rivers," he says, " by purchase and possession, is our 
 own, without dispute. We apprehend that they, 
 our more powerful neighbours, lay their claims under 
 a royal patent, which we are unable hitherto to do 
 in your name." Colonel Utie being unsuccessful 
 the last year, in his embassy for the evacuation of 
 the Dutch possessions on Delaware, Lord Baltimore, 
 in autumn, 1660, applied by Captain Neal, his agent 
 to the West India company, in Holland, for an or- 
 der on the inhabitants of South River to submit to 
 his authority, which they absolutely refused, assert- 
 ing their right to that part of the colony. 
 
 The English, from New England, were every 
 
 day encroaching upon the Dutch. The following 
 letter from Stuyvesant to the West India company, 
 dated July 21, 1661, shews the state of the colony 
 at that time on both sides. " We have not yet be- 
 gun the fort on Long Island, near Oysterbay, be- 
 cause our neighbours lay the boundaries a mile and 
 a half more westerly than we do, and the more as 
 your honours, by your advice of December 24, are 
 not inclined to stand by the treaty of Hartford, and 
 propose to sue for redress on Long Island and the 
 Fresh Water river, by means of the States' Ambas- 
 sador. Lord Sterling is said to solicit a confirma- 
 tion of his right to all Long Island, and importunes 
 the present king to confirm the grant made by his 
 royal father, which is affirmed to be already ob- 
 tained. But more probable, and material, is the 
 advice from Maryland, that Lord Baltimore's pa- 
 tent, which contains the fourth part of South river, 
 is confirmed by the king, and published in print : 
 that Lord Baltimore's natural brother, who is a rigid 
 papist, being made governor there, has received 
 Lord Baltimore's claim and protest to your ho- 
 nours in council, (wherewith he seems but little 
 satisfied) and has now more hopes of success. We 
 have advice from England, that there is an invasion 
 intended against these parts, and the country soli- 
 cited of the king, the duke, and the parliament, is to 
 be annexed to their dominions ; and for that pur- 
 pose, they desire three or four frigates, persuading 
 the king, that the company possessed and held this 
 country under an unlawful title, having only ob- 
 tained of King James leave for a watering place on 
 Staten Island, in 1623." 
 
 In August 1663, a ship arrived from Holland at 
 South River, with new planters, ammunition, and im- 
 plements of husbandry. Lord Baltimore's son landed 
 a little after, and was entertained by Beekman at 
 Niewer Amstcl. This was Charles, the son of Ce- 
 cil, who in 1661, had procured a grant and con- 
 firmation of the patent passed in favour of his fa- 
 ther in 1632. The papistical principles of the Balti- 
 more family, the charge of colonizing, the parliament- 
 ary war with Charles I., and Cromwell's usurpation, 
 all conspired to impede the settlement of Maryland 
 till the year 1661. And these considerations ac- 
 count for the extension of the Dutch limits, on the 
 west side of Delaware bay. 
 
 While the Dutch were contending with their 
 European neighbours, they had the art always to 
 maintain a friendship with the natives, until the 
 war which broke out this year with the Indians at. 
 Esopus, now Ulster county. It continued, how- 
 ever, but a short season. The five nations never 
 gave them any disturbance, which was owing to 
 their continual wars with the French, who settled at 
 Canada in 1603. It has been before observed, that 
 Oliver Cromwell was applied to, for his aid in tho 
 reduction of this country, and that his son Richard 
 took some steps towards accomplishing the scheme : 
 the work was however reserved for the reign of 
 Charles II., an indolent prince, and entirely given 
 up to pleasure, who was driven to it more perhaps 
 by the differences then subsisting between England 
 and Holland, than by any motive that might reflect 
 honour upon bis prudence, activity, and public 
 spirit. Before this expedition, the king granted a 
 patent on the 12th of March, 1664, to his brother, 
 the Duke of York and Albany, for sundry tracts of 
 land in America, the boundaries of which, because 
 they have given rise to much controversy, it mav 
 not be improper to transcribe. 
 
 18 All that part of the main land of New England, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 507 
 
 beginning at a. certain place, called or known by 
 the name of St. Croix, next adjoining to New Scot- 
 land in America, and from thence extending along 
 the sea coast, unto a certain place called Pemaquie 
 or Pemequid, and so up the river thereof, to the 
 furthest head of the same, as it tendeth northward ; 
 and extending from thence to the river of Kimbe- 
 quin, and so upwards, by the shortest course, to the 
 river Canada northward : and also all that island, 
 or islands, commonly called by the several name or 
 names of Meitowacks, or Long Island, situate and 
 being towards the west of Cape Cod, and the narrow 
 Higansetts, abutting upon the main land, between 
 the two rivers, there called or known by the several 
 names of Connecticut and Hudson's river, together 
 also with the said river, called Hudson's river, and 
 all the land from the west side of Connecticut river, 
 to the east side of Delaware bay, and also, all those 
 several islands, called or known by the names of 
 Martin's Vineyard, or Nantuck's, otherwise Nan- 
 tucket : together, &c." 
 
 Part of this tract was conveyed by the duke to 
 John Lord Berkeley, baron of Stratton, and Sir 
 George Carteret, of Saltram in Devon, who were 
 then members of the king's council. The lease was 
 for the consideration of ten shillings, and dated the 
 23d of June, 1664. The release" dated the next 
 day, mentions no particular sum of money as a 
 consideration for the grant of the lands, which have 
 the following description : 
 
 " All that tract of land, adjacent to New England, 
 and lying and being to the westward of Long Island, 
 and bounded on the east part by the main sea, and 
 partly by Hudson's river ; and hath upon the west, 
 Delaware bay, or river, and extendeth southward to 
 the main ocean as far as Cape May, at the mouth 
 of Delaware bay ; and to the northward, as far as 
 the northermost branch of the said bay or river of 
 Delaware, which is forty-one degrees and forty mi- 
 nutes of latitude ; which said tract of land is here- 
 after to be called by the name or names of Nova 
 Caesarea, or New Jersey." 
 
 Thus the New Netherlands became divided into 
 New Jersey, (so called after the isle of Jersey, in 
 compliment to sir George Carteret, whose family 
 came from thence) and New York, which took its 
 name in honour of the Duke of York. 
 
 The Dutch inhabitants, by the vigilance of their 
 governor, were not unapprised of the designs of the 
 English court against them; for their records testify, 
 that on the 8th of July, " The general received in- 
 telligence from one Thomas Willett, an English- 
 man, that an expedition was preparing in England 
 against this place, consisting of two frigates of 40 
 and 50 guns, and a fly-boat of 40 guns having on 
 board 300 soldiers, and each frigate 150 men, and 
 that they then lay at Portsmouth, waiting for a 
 wind." News arrived also from Boston, that tV.ey 
 had already set sail. The burgomasters were there- 
 upon called into council, the fortress ordered to be 
 put into a posture of defence, and spies sent to Mil- 
 Ibrd and West Chester for intelligence. Boston 
 was in the secret of the expedition ; for the general 
 court had in May preceding, passed a vote for a 
 supply of provisions, towards refreshing the ships 
 on their arrival. They were four in number, and 
 resolved to rendezvous at Gardener's Island in the 
 Sound, but parted in a fog about the 20th of July. 
 Richard Nicolls and Sir George Carteret, two of the 
 commissioners, who were to take possession of the 
 country and reduce it>to the king's obedience, were 
 on board the Guyny, and fell in first with Cape Cod. 
 
 The winds having blown from the south-west, the 
 other ships, with Sir Robert Car, and Mr. Mavenick, 
 the remaining commissioners, were rightly concluded 
 to be driven to the eastward. After dispatching a 
 letter to Mr. Winthrop, the governor of Connecticut, 
 requesting his assistance, Col. Nicolls proceeded to 
 Nantasket, and thence to Boston. The other ships 
 got into Piscatavva. John Endicot, a very old 
 man, was then governor of Boston, and incapable of 
 business. The commissioners, therefore, had a con- 
 ference with the council, and earnestly implored the 
 assistance of that colony. Colonel Nicolls and Sir 
 George Carteret, in their letter from Boston to Sir 
 H. Bennet, secretary of state, complain much of the 
 backwardness of that province. The reasons urged 
 in their excuse were poverty and the season, it 
 being the time of harvest ; but perhaps disaffection 
 to the Stuart family, whose persecuting fury had 
 driven them from their native country, was the true 
 spring of their conduct. The king's success in the 
 reduction of the Dutch evidently opened him a door 
 to come at his enemies in New England, who were 
 far from being few; and whether this consideration 
 might not have given rise to the project itself, must 
 be left to conjecture. T. Dixwel, Esq., one of 
 Charles the First's judges, and excepted out of the 
 general pardon, lived many years at New Haven 
 unknown, in quality of a country merchant: Sir 
 Edmund Andross, in one of his tours through the 
 colony of Connecticut, saw him there at church, 
 and strongly suspected him to be one of the regicides. 
 In his last illness, he revealed himself to the minister 
 of the town, and ordered a small stone to be set at 
 the head of his grave, inscribed, " T. D. Esq." 
 While at New Haven, he went under the name 
 of John Davis. 
 
 On the 27th of July, Nicolls and Carteret made 
 a formal request in writing, "That the government 
 of Boston would pass an act to furnish them with 
 armed men, who should begin their march to the 
 Manhattans, on the 20th of August ensuing ; and 
 promised that, if they could get other assistance, 
 they would give them an account of ,it." The go- 
 vernor and council answered, that they would assemble 
 the general court, and communicate the proposal to 
 them. 
 
 From Boston, a second letter was written to Go- 
 vernor Winthrop in Connecticut, dated the 29th of 
 July, in which he was informed, that the other ships 
 were then arrived, and would sail with the first fair 
 wind, and he was desired to meet them at the west 
 end of Long Island. 
 
 One of the ships entered the bay of the North 
 River, several days before the rest; and as soon as 
 they were all come up, Stuyvesant sent a letter dated 
 19 30 (shewing the difference between the old and 
 new style) of August, at Fort Anhill, directed to the 
 commanders of the English frigates, by John Declyer, 
 one of the chief council, the Rev. John Megapolen- 
 sis minister, Paul Lunder Vander Grilft mayor, and 
 Mr. Samuel Megapolensis, doctor in physic, with the 
 utmost civility, to desire the reason of their approach 
 and continuing in the harbour of Naijarlij, without 
 giving that notice to the Dutch, which they ought. 
 
 Colonel Nicolls answered the next day with a 
 summons. 
 
 " To the honourable the governors and chief 
 council at the Manhattans. 
 
 " Right worthy Sirs, I received a letter bearing 
 date 19 30 of August, desiring to know the intent 
 of the approach of the English frigates; in return of 
 which. I think it fit to let you know, that his majesty of 
 
508 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Great Britain, whose right and title to these parts 
 of America is unquestionable, well knowing how 
 much it derogates from his crown and dignity to 
 suffer any foreigners, how near soever they be allied, 
 to usurp a dominion, and without his majesty's royal 
 consent to inhabit in these, or any other of his ma- 
 jesty's territories, hath commanded me, in his name, 
 to require a surrender of all such forts, towns, or 
 places of strength, which are now possessed by the 
 Dutch, under your commands; and in his majesty's 
 name, I do demand the town situate on the island, 
 commonly known by the name of Manhattoes, with 
 all the forts thereunto belonging, to be rendered 
 unto his majesty's obedience and protection, into 
 my hands. I am further commanded to assure you, 
 and every respective inhabitant of the Dutch nation, 
 that his majesty being tender of the effusion of 
 Christian blood, doth by these presents, confirm and 
 secure to every man his estate, life, and liberty, who 
 shall readily submit to his government. And all 
 those who shall oppose his majesty's gracious in- 
 tention, must expect all the miseries of a war which 
 they bring upon themselves. I shall expect your 
 answer by these gentlemen, Colonel George Carteret, 
 one of his majesty's commissioners in America; Capt. 
 Robert Needham, Captain Edward Groves, and Mr. 
 Thomas Delavall, whom you will entertain with 
 such civility as is due to them, and yourselves and 
 yours shall receive the same, from, 
 " Worthy Sirs, 
 
 " Your very humble Servant, 
 
 " Richard Nicolls." 
 
 " Dated on board his majesty's ship, the Guyny, 
 riding before Naych, the 20 31 of Aug. 1664." 
 
 Mr. Stuyvesant promised an answer to the sum- 
 mons the next morning, and in the mean time con- 
 vened the council and burgomasters. The Dutch 
 governor was a good soldier, and had lost a leg in 
 the service of the States. He would willingly have 
 made a defence; and refused a sight of the sum- 
 mons, both to the inhabitants and burgomasters, lest 
 the easy terms offered might induce them to capitu- 
 late. The latter, however, insisted upon a copy, 
 that they might communicate it to the late magis- 
 trates and principal burghers. They called together 
 the inhabitants of the Stadt-house, and acquainted 
 them with the governor's refusal. Governor Win- 
 throp, at the same time, wrote to the director and 
 his council, strongly recommending a surrender. 
 On the 22d of August, the burgomaster came again 
 into council, and desired to know the contents of 
 the English message from Governor Winthrop, which 
 Stuyvesant still refused They continued their im- 
 portunity, and he, in a fit of anger, tore it to pieces ; 
 upon which, they protested against the act, and all 
 its consequences. Determined upon a defence of 
 the country, Stuyvesant wrote a letter in answer to 
 the summons, which as it declares the Dutch claim, 
 must be given. 
 
 " My lords, Your first letter, unsigned, of the 20 
 31 of August, together with that of this day, signed 
 according to form, being the 1st of September, have 
 been safely delivered into our hands by your depu- 
 ties, unto which we shall say, that the rights of his 
 majesty of England unto any part of America here 
 about, among the rest, unto the colonies of Virginia, 
 Maryland, or others in New England, whether dis- 
 putable or not, is that, which for the present, we 
 have no design to debate upon. But that his ma- 
 jesty hath an indisputable right to all the lands in 
 the north parts of America, is that which the kings 
 of France and Spain will deny, as we absolutely do, 
 
 by virtue of a commission given to me by my lords 
 the high and mighty states-general, to be governor- 
 general over New Holland, the isles of Curacoa, 
 Bonaire, Aruba, with their appurtenances and de- 
 pendencies, bearing date the 26th of July, 1646. 
 As also by virtue of a grant and commission, given 
 by my said lords, the high and mighty states- 
 general, to the West India company, in the year 
 1621, with as much power, and as authentic, as his 
 said majesty of England hath given, or can give, to 
 any colony in America, as more fully appears by 
 the patent and commission of the said lords the 
 states-general, by them signed, registered, and sealed 
 with their great seal, which were shewed to your 
 deputies, Colonel George Carteret, Captain Robert 
 Needham, Captain Edward Groves, arid Mr. Thomas 
 Delavall; by which commission and patent, toge- 
 ther, (to deal frankly with you), and by divers 
 letters, signed and sealed by our said lords, the 
 states-general, directed to several persons, both 
 English and Dutch, inhabiting the towns and vil- 
 lages on Long Island, (which, without doubt, have 
 been produced before you by those inhabitants,) by 
 which they are declared and acknowledged to be 
 their subjects, with express command that they con- 
 tinue faithful unto them, under penalty of incurring 
 their utmost displeasure, which makes it appear 
 more clear than the sun at noon-day, that your first 
 foundation, viz. (that the right and title of his ma- 
 jesty of Great Britain to these parts of America is 
 unquestionable) is absolutely to be denied. More- 
 over, it is without dispute, and acknowledged by the 
 world, that our predecessors, by virtue of the com- 
 mission and patent of the said lords, the states-ge- 
 neral have, without controul and peaceably, (the 
 contrary never coming to our knowledge,) enjoyed 
 Fort Orange about forty-eight or fifty years, the 
 Manhattans about forty-one or forty-two years, the 
 South River forty years, and the Fresh Water 
 River about thirty-six years. Touching the second 
 subject of your letter, viz., His majesty hath com- 
 manded me, in his name, to require a surrender 
 of all such forts, towns, or places of strength, 
 which are now possessed by the Dutch, under your 
 command. We shall answer, that we are so con- 
 ident of the discretion and equity of his majesty of 
 jrrcat Britain, that in case his majesty were informed 
 of the truth, which is, that the Dutch came not into 
 hese provinces by any violence, but by virtue of 
 commissions from my lords the states-general; first 
 of all, in the years 1614, 1615, and 1616, up the 
 tforth River, near Fort Orange, where, to hinder 
 .he invasions and massacres commonly committed 
 )y the savages, they built a little fort; and after, in 
 ;he year 1622, and even to this present time, by 
 virtue of commissions and grant to the governors of 
 he West India company; and moreover, in the 
 fear 1656, a grant to the honourable the burgomas- 
 ers of Amsterdam, of the South River ; insomuch, 
 hat by virtue of the abovesaid commissions from the 
 ugh a'nd mighty states-general, given to the persons 
 nterested as aforesaid, and others, these provinces 
 lave been governed, and consequently enjoyed, as 
 also in regard of their first discovery, uninterrupted 
 >ossessions, and purchase of the lands of the princes, 
 latives of the country, and other private persons, 
 Chough gentiles,; we say we make no doubt, that if 
 lis said majesty of Great Britain were well informed of 
 these passages, he would be too judicious to grant 
 such an order, principally in a time when there is 
 so straight a friendship and confederacy between 
 our said lords and superiors, to trouble us in the 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 509 
 
 demanding and summons of the places and fort- 
 resses, which were put into our hands, with order to 
 maintain them, in the name of the said lords, the 
 states-general, as was made appear to your deputies, 
 under the names and seal of the said high and 
 mighty states -general, dated the 28th of July, 1646. 
 Besides what had been mentioned, there is little pro- 
 bability that his said majesty of England (in regard 
 (he articles of peace are printed, and were recom- 
 mended to us to observe seriously and exactly, by a 
 letter written to us by our said lords, the states-ge- 
 neral, and to cause them to be observed religiously 
 in this country), would give order touching so dan- 
 gerous a design, being also so apparent, that none 
 other than my said lords, the states-general, have 
 any right to these provinces, and consequently ought 
 to command and maintain their subjects; and in 
 their absence, we, the governor-general, are obliged 
 to maintain their rights, and to repel and take re- 
 venge of all threatenings, unjust attempts, or any 
 force whatsoever, that shall be committed against their 
 faithful subjects and inhabitants, it being a very 
 considerable thing to affront so mighty a state, al- 
 though it were not against an ally and confederate. 
 Consequently, if his said majesty (as it is fit) were 
 well informed of all that could be spoken upon this 
 subject, he would not approve of what expressions 
 were mentioned in your letter ; which are, that you 
 are commanded by his majesty to demand in his 
 name such places and fortresses as are in possession 
 of the Dutch under my government; which, as it ap- 
 pears by my commission before-mentioned, was 
 given me by my lords, the high and mighty states- 
 general. And there is less ground in the express 
 demand of my government, since all the world knows, 
 that about three years agone, some English frigates 
 being on the coast of Africa upon a pretended com- 
 mission, they did demand certain places under the 
 government of our said lords, the states-general, as 
 Cape Vert, river of Gambo, and all other places in 
 Guyny to them belonging. Upon which our said 
 lords, the states-general, by virtue of the articles of 
 peace, having made appear the said attempt to his 
 majesty of England, they received a favourable an- 
 swer, his said majesty disallowing all such acts of 
 hostility as might have been done, and, besides, 
 gave order that restitution should be made to the 
 East India company, of whatsoever had been pil- 
 laged in the said river of Gambo ; and likewise re- 
 stored them to their trade, which makes us think it 
 necessary, that a more express order should appear 
 unto us, as a sufficient warrant for us towards my 
 lords, the high and mighty states- general since by 
 virtue of our said commission we do, in these pro- 
 vinces, represent them, as belonging to them, and 
 not to the king of Great Britain, except his said 
 majesty, upon better grounds, make it appear to 
 our said lords, the states-general, against which 
 they may defend themselves as they shall think fit. 
 To conclude : we cannot but declare unto you, though 
 the governors and commissioners of his majesty have 
 divers times quarrelled with us about the bounds of 
 the jurisdiction of the high and mighty the states- 
 general, in these parts, yet they never questioned 
 \heir jurisdiction itself; on the contrary, in the year 
 J650, at Hartford, and the last year at Boston, they 
 treated with us upon this subject, which is a suffi- 
 rient proof that his majesty hath never been well 
 jiformed of the equity of our cause, insomuch as we 
 cannot imagine, in regard to the articles of peace 
 between the crown of England and the states-gene- 
 ral, (under whom there are so many subjects in 
 
 America, as well as Europe), that his said majesty 
 of Great Britain would give a commission to mo- 
 lest and endamage the subjects of my said lords the 
 states-general, especially such as, ever since fifty, 
 forty, and the latest thirty-six years have quietly 
 enjoyed their lands, countries, forts, and inherit- 
 ances ; and less, that his subjects would attempt any 
 acts of hostility or violence against them : and in 
 case you will act by force of arms, we protest and 
 declare, in the name of our said lords, the states- 
 general, before God and men, that you will act an 
 unjust violence, and a breach of the articles of peace, 
 so solemnly sworn, agreed upon, and ratified by his 
 majesty of England and my lords the states-gene- 
 ral ; and the rather for that to prevent the shedding 
 of blood, in the month of February last we treated 
 with Captain John Scott, (who reported he had a 
 commission from his said majesty), touching the 
 limits of Long Island, and concluded for the space 
 of a year, that in the meantime the business might 
 be treated on between the king of Great Britain 
 and my lords the high and mighty states-general : 
 and again, at present, for the hinderance and pre- 
 vention of all differences, and the spilling of inno- 
 cent blood, not only in these parts, but also in Eu- 
 rope, we offer unto you a treaty by our deputies, 
 Mr. Cornelius Van Kuyven, secretary and receiver 
 of New Holland, Cornelius Ste'enwych, burgomaster, 
 Mr. Samuel Megapolonsis, doctor of physic, and 
 Mr. James Cousseau, heretofore sheriff. As touch- 
 ing the threats in your conclusion we have nothing 
 to answer, only that we fear nothing but \\hat God, 
 (who is as just as merciful) shall lay upon us all 
 things being in his gracious disposal ; and \\c may 
 as well be preserved by him with small forces as 
 by a great army, which makes us to wish you all 
 happiness and prosperity, and recommend you to 
 his protection. My lords, your thrice humble, and 
 affectionate servant and friend, 
 
 " Signed, P. Stuyvesant. 
 
 " At the fort at Amsterdam, the 2d of September, 
 New Stile, 1664." 
 
 While the Dutch governor and council were con- 
 tending with the burgomasters and people in the 
 city, the English commissioners published a procla- 
 mation in the country, encouraging the inhabitants 
 to submit, and promising them the king's protection, 
 and all the privileges of subjects; and as soon as 
 they discovered by Stuyvesant's letter, that he was 
 averse to surrender, officers were sent to beat up for 
 volunteers in Middleborough, Ulissen, Jamaica, and 
 Hempsted. A warrant was also issued to Hugh 
 Hide, who commanded the squadron, to prosecute 
 the reduction of the fort, and an English ship then 
 trading here, was pressed into the service. These 
 preparations induced Stuveysant to write another 
 letter, on the 25th of August old style, wherein 
 though he declares that he would stand the stonr., 
 yet to prevent the spilling of blood, he had sent 
 John de Decker, counsellor of state, Cornelius Van 
 Ruyven, secretary and receiver, Cornelius Steenwych 
 major, and James Cousseau sheriff, to consult, if 
 possible, an accommodation. Nicolls, who knew 
 the disposition of the people, answered immediately 
 from Gravesend, that he would treat about nothing 
 but a surrender. The Dutch governor, the next 
 day, agreed to a treaty and surrender, on condition 
 the English and Dutch limits in America were 
 settled by the crown and the states-general. The 
 English deputies were Sir Robert Carr, George 
 Carteret, John Winthrop, governor of Connecticut, 
 Samuel Wyllys, one of the assistants or counsel of 
 
510 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 that colony, and Thomas Clarke, and John Pynchon, 
 commissioners from the general court of the Massa- 
 chusetts bay, who but a little before, brought an aid 
 from that province. What these persons agreed 
 upon, Nicolls promised to ratify. At eight o'clock 
 in the morning, of the 27th of August 1664, the 
 commissioners on both sides met at thegovernor's farm 
 and there signed the following articles of capitulation : 
 
 "These articles following were consented to by 
 the persons hereunder subscribed, at the governor's 
 bowery, August the 27th, old style, 1664. 
 
 " I. We consent that the States-general, or the 
 West India company, shall freely enjoy all farms 
 and houses (except such as are in the forts), and 
 that within six months, they shall have free liberty 
 to transport all such arms and ammunition, as now 
 does belong to them, or else they shall be paid for them. 
 
 "II. All public houses shall continue for the uses 
 which they are for. 
 
 ' III. All people shall still continue free denizens, 
 and shall enjoy their lands, houses, goods, where- 
 soever they are within this country, and dispose of 
 them as they please. 
 
 " IV. If any inhabitant have a mind to remove 
 himself, he shall have a year and six weeks from 
 this day, to remove himself, wife, children, servants, 
 goods, and to dispose of his lands here. 
 
 "V. If any officer of state, or public minister of 
 state, have a mind to go for England, they shall be 
 transported freight free, in his majesty's frigates, 
 when these frigates shall return thither. 
 
 " VI. It is consented to, that any people may 
 freely come from the Netherlands and plant in this 
 colony, and that Dutch vessels may freely come 
 hither, and any of the Dutch may freely return home, 
 or send any sort of merchandize home in vessels of 
 their own country. 
 
 "VII. All ships from the Netherlands, or any 
 other place, and goods therein, shall be received 
 here, and sent hence, after the manner which formerly 
 they were, before our coming hither, for six months 
 next ensuing. 
 
 " VIII. The Dutch here shall enjoy the liberty of 
 their consciences in divine worship and church dis- 
 cipline. 
 
 " IX. No Dutchman here, or Dutch ship here, 
 shall upon any occasion be pressed to serve in war 
 against any nation whatsoever. 
 
 " X. That the townsmen of the Manhattans shall 
 not have any soldiers quartered upon them, without 
 being satisfied and paid for them by their officers ; 
 and at this present, if the fort be not capable of 
 lodging all the soldiers, then the burgomasters, by 
 their officers, shall appoint some houses capable to 
 receive them. 
 
 " XL The Dutch here shall enjoy their own cus- 
 toms concerning their inheritances. 
 
 " XII. All public writings and records, which 
 concern the inheritances of any people, or the regle- 
 ment of the church or poor, or orphans, shall be 
 carefully kept by those in whose hands now they are, 
 and such writings as particularly concern the states 
 general, may at any time be sent to them. 
 
 " XIII. No judgment that has passed any judi- 
 cature here, shall be called in question, but if any 
 conceive that he hath not had justice done him, if 
 he apply himself to the states general, the other party 
 shall be bound to answer the supposed injury. 
 
 " XIV. If any Dutch living here, shall at any 
 time desire to travel or traffic into England, or any 
 place or plantation in obedience to his majesty of 
 England, or with the Indians, he shall have (upon 
 
 his request to the governor) a certificate that he is 
 a free denizen of this place, and liberty to do so. 
 
 " XV. If it do appear that there is a public en- 
 gagement of debt, by the town of the Manhattoes, 
 and a way agreed on for the satisfying of that en- 
 gagement, it is agreed, that the same way proposed 
 shall go on, and that the engagement shall be satisfied. 
 
 "XVI. All inferior civil officers and magistrates 
 shall continue as now they are (if they please), till the 
 customary time of new elections, and then new ones be 
 chosen by themselves, provided that such new-chosen 
 magistrates shall take the oath of allegiance to his ma- 
 jesty of England, before they enter upon their office. 
 
 " XVII. All differences of contracts and bargains 
 made before this day, by any in this country, shall 
 be determined according to the manner of the Dutch. 
 
 XVIII. If it do appear, that the West India 
 company of Amsterdam do really owe any sums of 
 money to any persons here, it is agreed that recog- 
 nition, and other duties payable by ships going for 
 the Netherlands, be continued for six months longer. 
 
 " XIX. The officers, military, and soldiers, shall 
 march out with their arms, drums beating, and 
 colours flying, and lighted matches; and if any of 
 them will plant, they shall have fifty acres of land 
 set out for them ; if any of them will serve as serv- 
 ants, they shall continue with all safety, and be- 
 come free denizens afterwards. 
 
 " XX. If at any time hereafter, the king of Great 
 Britain and the States of the Netherlands do agree 
 that this place and country be re-delivered into the 
 hands of the said states, whensoever his Majesty will 
 send his commands to re -deliver it, it shall immedi- 
 ately be done. 
 
 " XXI. That the town of Manhattans shall choose 
 deputies, and those deputies shall have free voices in 
 ail public affairs, as much as any other deputies. 
 
 " XXII. Those who have any property in any 
 houses in the fort of Aurania, shall (if they please) 
 slight the fortifications there, and then enjoy all 
 their houses, as all people do where there is no fort. 
 
 " XXIU. If there be any soldiers that will go 
 into Holland, and if the company of West India in 
 Amsterdam, or any private persons here, will tran- 
 sport them into Holland, then they shall have a safe 
 passport from Colonel Richard Nicolls, deputy go- 
 vernor under his royal highness, and the other com- 
 missioners, to defend the ships that shall transport 
 such soldiers, and all the goods in them, from any 
 surprisal or acts of hostility, to be done by any of 
 his majesty's ships or subjects. That the copies of 
 the king's grant to his royal highness, and the copy 
 of his royal highness's commission to Colonel Rich- 
 ard Nicolls, testified by two commissioners more, 
 and Mr. Winthrop, to be true copies, shall be de- 
 livered to the honourable Mr. Stuyvesant, the pre- 
 sent governor, on Monday next, by eight of the 
 clock in the morning, at the Old Miln, and these 
 articles consented to, and signed by Colonel Richard 
 Nicolls, deputy-governor to his royal highness, and 
 that within two hours after the fort and town called 
 New Amsterdam, upon the isle of Manhattoes, shall 
 be delivered into the hands of the said Colonel 
 Richard Nicolls, by the service of such as shall be 
 by him thereunto deputed, by his hand and seal. 
 John De Decker, Nich. Verleett, Samuel Megapo- 
 lensis, Cornelius Steenwych, Oloffe Stevens Van 
 Kortlant, James Cousseau, Robert Carr, George 
 Carteret, John Winthrop, Samuel Willys, Thomas 
 Clarke, John Pynchon. 
 
 " I do consent to these articles, 
 
 " Richard Nicolls/' 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 511 
 
 These articles, favourable as they were to the in- 
 habitants, wore however very disagreeable to the 
 Dutch governor, and he therefore refused to ratify 
 them till t\vo days after they were signed by the 
 commissioners. 
 
 The town of New Amsterdam, upon the reduction 
 of the island Manhattans, took the name of New 
 York. It consisted of several small streets, laid out 
 in the year 1656, and was not inconsiderable for 
 the number of its houses and inhabitants. The easy 
 terms of the capitulation promised their peaceable 
 subjection to the new government; and hence we 
 find that, in two days after the surrender, the Boston 
 aid was dismissed, with the thanks of the commis- 
 sioners to the general court. Hudson's and the 
 South river were, however, still to be reduced. Sir 
 Robert Carr commanded the expedition on Delaware, 
 and Cartcret was commissioned to subdue the Dutch 
 at fort Orange. The garrison capitulated on the 
 24th of September, and he called it Albany, in ho- 
 nour of the duke. While Carteret was here, he had 
 an interview with the Indians of the five nations, 
 and entered into a league of friendship with them. 
 The Dutch were sensible of the importance of pre- 
 serving an uninterrupted amity with those Indians, 
 for they were both very numerous and warlike. The 
 French "pursued quite different measures, and the 
 eruptions of those tribes, according to their own au- 
 thors, often reduced Canada to the brink of ruin. 
 Sir Robert Carr was equally successful on South 
 river, for he compelled both the Dutch and the 
 Swedes to capitulate and deliver up their garrisons 
 the 1st of October, 1664 ; and that was the day in 
 which the whole New Netherland became subject 
 to the English crown. Very few of the inhabitants 
 thought proper to remove out of the country. Gov- 
 ernor Stuyvesant himself held his estate and died 
 here. His remains were interred in a chapel which 
 he had erected on his own farm, at a small distance 
 from the city, afterwards possessed by his grandson 
 Gerardus Stuyvesant, a man of probity, who was 
 elected into the magistracy above thirty years suc- 
 cessively. For loyalty to the reigning family, and 
 a pure attachment to the protestant religion, the de- 
 scendants of the Dutch planters were exceeded 
 by none. 
 
 From the surrender in 1664, to the settlement at the 
 English Revolution of 1688. 
 
 Richard Nicolls being now possessed of the coun- 
 try, took the government upon him, under the style 
 of " deputy-governor under his royal highness the 
 Duke of York, of all his territories in America." 
 During his short continuance in it, he passed a vast 
 number of grants and confirmations of the ancient 
 Dutch patents, the profits of which must have been 
 very considerable. Among these, no one has oc- 
 casioned more animated contention, than that called 
 the Elizabeth Town Grant in New Jersey. 
 
 Besides the chief command of this province, Ni- 
 colls had, with Sir Robert Carr, Carteret, and Mave- 
 ricke, a commission from Charles II., dated the 
 26th of April, 1664, which, after a recital of disputes 
 concerning limits in New England, and stating that 
 addresses had been sent home from the Indian na- 
 tives, complaining of abuses received from the 
 English subjects, authorised all, or three, or two 
 of them, of which Nicolls was to be one, to visit the 
 New England colonies, and determine all complaints 
 military, civil, and criminal, according to their dis- 
 cretion, and such instructions as they might receive 
 from the crown. Hence we find, three of them had 
 
 a conference with several gentlemen from Connecti- 
 cut, respecting the limits of this and that colony. 
 The result was an adjudication, in these words : 
 
 " By virtue of his majesty's commission, we have 
 heard the difference, about the bounds of the patents 
 granted to his royal highness the Duke of York, 
 and his majesty's colony of Connecticut, and having 
 deliberately considered all the reasons alleged by 
 Mr. Allyn, sen., Mr. Gold, Mr. Richards, and Capt. 
 Winthrop, appointed by the assembly held at Hart- 
 ford, the 13th of October, 1664, to accompany John 
 Winthrop, Esq., the governor of his majesty's co- 
 lony of Connecticut, to New York, and to agree 
 upon the bounds of the said colony, why the said 
 Long Island should be under the government of 
 Connecticut, which are too long here to be recited, 
 we do declare and order, that the southern bounds of 
 his majesty's colony of Connecticut is the sea, and 
 that Long Island is to be under the government of 
 his royal highness the Duke of York, as is expressed 
 by plain words, in the said patents, respectively, 
 and also by virtue of his majesty's commission, and 
 the consent of both the governors and the gentlemen 
 above-named. We also order and declare, that the 
 crook or river called Mamaroneck, which is reputed 
 to be about thirteen miles to the east of West Ches- 
 ter, and a line drawn from the east point or side, 
 where the fresh water falls into the salt, at high water 
 mark, north-north-west to the line of the Massachu- 
 setts, be the western bounds of the said colony of 
 Connecticut, and all plantations lying westward of 
 that creek and line so drawn, to be under his royal 
 highness's government; and all plantations lying 
 eastward of that creek and line, to be under the 
 government of Connecticut. Given under our hands, 
 at James's Fort, in New York, on the island of 
 Manhattan, this first day of December, 1664 
 Richard Nicolls, George Carteret, S. Mavericke." 
 " We, the governor and commissioners of the general 
 assembly of Connecticut, do give our consent to the 
 limits and bounds above-mentioned, as witness our 
 hands Gold, John Winthrop, jun., John Win- 
 throp, Allen, sen., Richards." 
 
 At the time of this determination, about two-thirds 
 of Long Island were possessed by people from New 
 England, who had gradually encroached upon the 
 Dutch. As to the settlement between New York 
 and Connecticut on the main, it has always been 
 considered by the former as founded upon ignorance 
 and fraud. The town of Rye was settled under 
 Connecticut, and the grant from that colony is 
 bounded by this line of division. The station at 
 Mamaroneck was about 30 miles from New York, 
 from Albany 150. The general course of the river 
 is about north twelve or fifteen degrees east : and 
 hence it is evident, that a north-north-west line will 
 soon intersect the river, and consequently leave the 
 Dutch country, but a little before surrendered to 
 Colonel Carteret, out of the province of New York. 
 It has been generally esteemed that the Connecticut 
 commissioners in this affair took advantage of the 
 duke's agents, who were ignorant of the geography 
 of the country. 
 
 About the close of the year, the estate of the Dutch 
 West India company was seized and confiscated, 
 hostilities being actually commenced in Europe as 
 well as in America, though no declarations of war had 
 yet been published by either of the contending 
 parties. A great dispute between the inhabitants of 
 Jamaica on Long Island, which was adjusted by 
 Colonel Nicoll?, on the 2d of January, 1665, gave 
 rise to a salutary institution which has in part ob- 
 
512 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 tained ever since. The controversy respected Indian 
 deeds, and thenceforth it was ordained, that no pur- 
 chase from the Indians, without the governor's li- 
 cence executed in his presence, should be valid. The 
 strength and numbers of the natives rendered it 
 necessary to purchase their rights ; and to prevent 
 their frequent selling the same tract, it was expe- 
 dient, that the bargain should be attended with some 
 considerable solemnity. 
 
 Another instance of Col. Nicolls's prudence, was 
 his gradual introduction of the English methods of 
 government. It was not till the 12th of June, ] 665, 
 that he incorporated the inhabitants of New York, 
 under the care of a mayor, five aldermen and a 
 sheriff. Till this time, the city was ruled by a scout, 
 burgomasters, and schepens. 
 
 In March preceding, there was a great convention 
 before the governor at Hempstead, of two deputies 
 from every town on Long Island, empowered to bind 
 their constituents. The design of their meeting 
 was to adjust the limits of their townships for the 
 preservation of the public peace. 
 
 The war being proclaimed at London on the 4th 
 of this month, Nicolls received the account of it in 
 June, with a letter from the Lord Chancellor, in- 
 forming him that De Ruyter, the Dutch admiral, 
 had orders to visit New York. His lordship was 
 misinformed, or the admiral was diverted from the 
 enterprise, for the English peaceably held possession 
 of the country during the whole war, which was 
 concluded on the 21st of July, 1667, by the treaty 
 of Breda. Some are of opinion, that the exchange 
 made with the Dutch for Surinam, which they had 
 taken from us, was advantageous to the nation ; but 
 these judges do not consider, that it would have 
 been impossible for the Dutch to have preserved 
 this colony against the increasing strength of the 
 people in New England, Maryland, and Virginia. 
 
 After an administration of three years Nicolls re- 
 turned to England. The time during his short resi- 
 dence here, was almost wholly taken up in confirm- 
 ing the ancient Dutch grants. He erected no courts 
 of justice, but took upon himself the sole decision of 
 all controversies whatsoever. Complaints came be- 
 fore him by petition ; upon which he gave a day to 
 the parties, and after a summary hearing, pronounced 
 judgment. His determinations were called edicts, 
 and executed by the sheriffs he had appointed. It 
 is much to his honour that, notwithstanding all this 
 plenitude of power, he governed the province with 
 integrity and moderation. A representation from 
 the inhabitants of Long Island to the general court 
 of Connecticut, made about the time of the Revolu- 
 tion, commends him as a man of an easy and be- 
 nevolent disposition; and this testimonial is the 
 more to be relied upon, because the design of the 
 writers, was, by a detail of their grievances, to in- 
 duce the colony of Connecticut to take them under 
 its immediate protection. 
 
 Francis Lovelace, a colonel, was appointed by the 
 duke to succeed Nicolls in the government of the 
 province, which he began to exercise in May, 1667. 
 As he was a man of great moderation, the people 
 lived very peaceably under him, till the surrender 
 of the colony, which put an end to his power, and 
 is the only event that signalized his administration. 
 
 The ambitious designs of Louis XIV. against the 
 Dutch, gave rise to the war with the States-general 
 iu 1672. Charles II., a prince sunk in pleasures, 
 profligate, and poor, was easily detached from his 
 alliance with the Dutch, by the intrigues and pecu- 
 niary promises of the French king. The following 
 
 passage from Voltaire shews that his pretences for 
 entering into the war were groundless and trifling. 
 
 " The king of England, on his side, reproached 
 them with disrespect, in not directing their fleet to 
 lower the flag before an English ship; and they 
 were also accused in regard to a certain picture, 
 wherein Cornelius de Witt, brother to the pension- 
 ary, was painted with the attributes of a conqueror. 
 Ships were represented in the back ground of the 
 piece, either taken or burnt. Cornelius de Witt, 
 who had really had a great share in the maritime 
 exploits against England, had permitted this trifling 
 memorial of his glory ; but the picture, which was 
 in a manner unknown, was deposited in a chamber 
 wherein scarce any body ever entered. The Eng- 
 lish ministers who presented the complaints of their 
 king against Holland, in writing, therein mentioned 
 certain abusive pictures. The states, who always 
 translated the memorials of ambassadors into French, 
 having rendered abusive, by the words J'autifs trom- 
 peurs, they replied, they did not know what these 
 roguish pictures (ces tableaux trompeurs) were. In 
 reality, it never in the least entered into their 
 thoughts, that it concerned this portrait of one of 
 their citizens, nor did they ever conceive this could 
 be a pretence for declaring war." 
 
 A few Dutch ships arrived the year after on the 
 30th of July, 1673, under Staten Island, at the dis- 
 tance of a few miles from the city of New York. 
 John Manning, a captain of an independent com- 
 pany, had at that time the command of the fort, and 
 by a messenger sent down to the squadron, treache- 
 rously made his peace with the enemy. On that 
 very day the Dutch ships came up, moored under 
 the fort, landed their men, and entered the garrison, 
 without giving or receiving a shot. A council of 
 war was afterwards held at the Stadt-House, at which 
 were present commodores, Cornelius Evertse, jun. 
 and Jacob Benkes ; and captains, Anthony Colve, 
 Nicholas Boes, and Abraham Ferd. Van Zyll. 
 
 All the magistrates and constables from East 
 Jersey, Long Island, Esopus, and Albany, were im- 
 mediately summoned to New York ; and the major 
 part of them swore allegiance to the States-general, 
 and the prince of Orange. Colonel Lovelace was 
 ordered to depart the province, but afterwards ob- 
 tained leave to return to England with Commodore 
 Benkes. It has often been insisted on, that this 
 conquest did not extend to the whole province of 
 New Jersey ; but upon what foundation cannot be 
 discovered. From the Dutch records, it appears, 
 that deputies were sent by the people inhabiting the 
 country, even so far westward as Delaware river, 
 who in the name of their principals made a de- 
 claration of their submission ; in return for which, 
 certain privileges were granted to them, and ju- 
 dicatories erected at Niewer, Amstel, Upland, and 
 Hoer Kill. Colve's commission to be governor of 
 this country is worth printing, because it shews the 
 extent of the Dutch claims. The translation runs 
 thus :- 
 
 " The honourable and awful council of war, for 
 their high mightinesses the States-General of the 
 United Netherlands, and his serene highness the 
 Prince of Orange, over a squadron of ships, now at 
 anchor in Hudson's river in New Netherlands, to 
 all those who shall see or hear these, greeting. As 
 it is necessary to appoint a fit and able person to 
 carry the chief command over this conquest of New 
 Netherlands, with all its appendencies and depend- 
 encies from Cape Hinlopen on the south side of the 
 south or Delaware bay, and fifteen miles more soutb.- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 513 
 
 erly, with the said bay and South river included; 
 so as they were formerly possessed by the directors 
 of the city of Amsterdam, and after by the English 
 government, in the name and right of the Duke of 
 York; and further, from the said Cape of Hinlopen, 
 along the Great Ocean, to the east end of Long 
 Island and Shelter Island; from thence westward 
 to the middle of the Sound, to a town called Green- 
 wich, on the main, and to run landward in, north- 
 erly ; provided that such line shall not come within 
 ten miles of North river, conformable to a provincial 
 treaty made in 1650, and ratified by the States-ge- 
 neral, February 22, 1656, and January 23, 1664, 
 with all lands, islands, rivers, lakes, kills, creeks, 
 fresh and salt waters, fortresses, cities, towns, and 
 plantations therein comprehended. So it is, that, 
 we being sufficiently assured of the capacity of An- 
 thony Colve, captain of a company of foot, in the 
 service of their high mightinesses the States-gene- 
 ral of the United Netherlands, and his serene high- 
 ness the Prince of Orange, &c. By virtue of our 
 commission, granted us by their before-mentioned 
 high mightinesses and his highness, have appointed 
 and qualified, as we do by these presents appoint 
 and qualify, the said Captain Anthony Colve, to 
 govern and rule these lands, with the appendeucies 
 and dependencies thereof, as governor-general; to 
 protect them from all invasions of enemies, as he 
 shall judge most necessary ; hereby charging all 
 high and low officers, justices, and magistrates, and 
 others in authority, soldiers, burghers, and all the 
 inhabitants of this land, to acknowledge, honour, 
 respect, and obey the said Anthony Colve, as go- 
 vernor-general ; for such we judge necessary for the 
 service of the country, waiting for the approbation 
 of our principals. Thus done at Fort William Hen- 
 derick, the twelfth day of August, 1673. 
 
 " Signed by Jacob Benkes. 
 " Cornelius Evertse, jun." 
 The Dutch governor enjoyed his office but a very 
 short season; for on the 9th of February, 1674, the 
 treaty of peace between England and the States- 
 General was signed at Westminster; the sixth article 
 of which restored this country to the English. The 
 terms of it were generally, " That whatsoever coun- 
 tries, islands, towns, ports, castles, or forts have or 
 shall be taken on both sides, since the time that 
 the late unhappy war broke out, either in Europe 
 or elsewhere, shall be restored to their former lord 
 and proprietor, in the same condition they shall be 
 in, when the peace itself shall be proclaimed ; after 
 which time there shall be no spoil nor plunder of the 
 inhabitants, no demolition of fortifications, nor car- 
 rying away of guns, powder, or other military stores, 
 which belonged to any castle or fort at the time 
 when it was taken." 
 
 The lenity which began the administration of 
 Colonel Nicolls was continued under Lovelace. He 
 appears to have been a man rather of a phlegmatic 
 than an enterprising disposition, always pursuing 
 the common road, and scarce ever acting without 
 the aid of his council. Instead of taking upon him- 
 self the sole determination of judicial controversies, 
 after the example of his predecessor, he called to 
 his assistance a few justices of the peace. This, 
 which was called the court of assizes, was the prin- 
 cipal law judicatory in those times. It was a court 
 both of law and equity, for the trial of causes of 20/. 
 and upwards, and ordinarily sat but once a year. 
 Subordinate to this, were the town courts and ses- 
 sions; the former took cognizance of actions under 
 bl., and the latter of suits between that sum and 
 HIST. OF AMER. Nos. 65 & 66. 
 
 wenty pounds : seven constables and overseers were 
 udges in the first, and in the last the justices of the 
 peace, with a jury of seven men. The verdict of 
 the majority was sufficient. The legislative power 
 under the duke was vested entirely in the governor 
 and council. A third estate might then be easily 
 dispensed with, for the charge of the province was 
 small, and in a great measure defrayed by his royal 
 highness, the proprietor of the country. The man- 
 ner of raising public money was established by Co- 
 lonel Nicolls on the 1st of June, 1665. The high 
 sheriff issued a warrant annually to the high con- 
 stables of every district, and they sent theirs to the 
 petty constables; who, with the overseers of each 
 town, made a list of all male persons above sixteen 
 years of age, with an estimate of their rent and 
 personal estates, and then taxed them according to 
 certain rates, prescribed by a law. After the assess- 
 ment was returned to the high sheriff, and approved 
 by the governor, the constables received warrants 
 for levying the taxes by distress and sale. 
 
 Upon the conclusion of the peace in 1674, the 
 Duke of York, to remove all controversy respecting 
 his property, obtained a new patent from the king, 
 dated the 29th of June, for the lands granted in 
 1664, and two days afterwards commissioned Major, 
 afterwards Sir Edmond Andross, to be governor of 
 his territories in America. After the resignation of 
 this province, which was made to him by the Dutch 
 possessors, on the 31st of October following he called 
 a court-martial, to try Manning for his treacherous 
 and cowardly surrender. The articles of accusation 
 exhibited against him were in substance ; 
 
 I. That the said Manning, on the 28th of July, 
 1673, having notice of the approach of the enemy's 
 fleet, did not endeavour to put the garrison in a 
 posture of defence, but on the contrary slighted such 
 as offered their assistance. 
 
 II. That while the fleet was at anchor under Sta- 
 ten Island, on the 30th of July, he treacherously 
 sent on board to treat with the enemy, to the great 
 discouragement of the garrison. 
 
 III. That he suffered the fleet to moor under the 
 fort, forbidding a gun to be fired on pain of death. 
 
 IV. That he permitted the enemy to land without 
 the least opposition. 
 
 V. That shortly after he had sent persons to treat 
 with the Dutch commodores, he struck his flag, even 
 before the enemy were in sight of the garrison, the 
 fort being in a condition, and the men desirous to 
 fight. 
 
 VI. And lastly, that he treacherously caused the 
 fort gates to be opened, and cowardly and basely let 
 in the enemy, yielding the garrison without articles. 
 
 Such conduct, which Manning on his trial con- 
 fessed to be true, is less surprising than the lenity 
 of the sentence pronounced against him ; which was, 
 that, though he deserved death, yet because he har 1 
 since the surrender been in England, and seen the 
 king and duke, it was adjudged that his sword should 
 be broken over his head in public, before the city 
 hall, and himself rendered incapable of wearing a 
 sword, and of serving Lis majesty for the future, in 
 any public trust in the government. 
 
 This light censure is, however, no proof that Sir 
 Edmond was a man of a merciful disposition ; the 
 historians of New England, where he was afterwards 
 governor, justly transmit him to posterity, under the 
 odious character of a sycophant tool to the duke, 
 and an arbitrary tyrant over the people committed 
 to his care. He knew no law but the will of his 
 master, and Kirk and Jefferies were not fitter instru 
 
 3F 
 
514 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 ments than he to execute the despotic projects of 
 James II. 
 
 In the year 1675, Nicholas Renslaer, a Dutch 
 clergyman, arrived. He claimed the manor of Ren- 
 slaerwick, and was recommended by the duke to Sir 
 Edmond Andross for a living in one of the churches 
 at New York, or Albany, probably to serve the 
 popish cause, Niewenhyt, minister of the church at 
 Albany, disputed his right to administer the sacra- 
 ments, because he had received an episcopal ordi- 
 nation, and was not approved by the Chassis of Am- 
 sterdam, to which the Dutch churches hold them- 
 selves subordinate. In this controversy the governor 
 took the part of Renslaer, and accordingly sum- 
 moned Niewenhyt before him, to answer for his 
 conduct. This minister was treated with such sin- 
 gular contempt, and so frequently harassed by 
 fruitless and expensive attendances before the coun- 
 cil, that the dispute became interesting, and the 
 greater part of the people resented the usage he 
 met with. Hence we find, that the magistrates of 
 Albany soon after imprisoned llcnslacr) for several 
 dubious words (as they are called in the record) de- 
 livered in a sermon. The governor, on the other 
 hand, ordered him to be released, and summoned the 
 magistrates to attend him at New York ; warrants 
 were then issued to compel them to give security in 
 5000/. each, to make out good cause for confining 
 the minister. Leisler, who was one of them, refused 
 to comply with the warrant, and was thrown into 
 jail. Sir Edmond, fearful that a great party would 
 rise up against him, was at last compelled to dis- 
 continue his ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and to refer 
 the controversy to the determination of the consistory 
 of the Dutch church at Albany. It is perhaps not 
 improbable, that these popish measures sowed the 
 seeds of that aversion to the duke's government, 
 which afterwards produced those violent convulsions 
 in the province under Leisler, at the time of the 
 revolution, in favour of the Prince of Orange. 
 Another reason is assigned for the favour he met 
 with from the crown. It is said, that while Charles 
 II. was an exile, he predicted the day of his resto- 
 ration. The people of Albany had a high opinion 
 of his prophetic spirit, and many strange tales pre- 
 vailed there. The parson made nothing of his claim, 
 the manor being afterwards granted, by Col. Dongan, 
 to Killian Van Renslaer, a distant relation. This 
 extensive tract, by the Dutch called a colony, is an 
 oblong, extending twenty-four miles upon Hudson's 
 river, and as many on each side. The patent of 
 confirmation was issued by special direction from 
 the king, and is the most liberal in the privileges it 
 grants of any one in the province. 
 
 If Sir Edmond Andross's administration at New 
 York appears to be less exceptionable than while 
 he commanded at Boston, it was through want of 
 more opportunities to shew himself in his true light. 
 The main course of his public proceedings, during 
 his continuance in the province, was spent in the 
 ordinary acts of government, which then principally 
 consisted in passing grants to the subject, and pre- 
 siding in the court of assize, established by Colonel 
 Lovelace. The public exigences were now in part 
 supplied by a kind of benevolence ; the badge of bad 
 times ; this appears in an entry on the records, of 
 a letter of May 5, 1676, from Governor Andross, to 
 several towns of Long Island, desiring to know, 
 what sums they would contribute towards the war. 
 Near the close of his administration, he thought 
 proper to quarrel with Philip Carteret, who in 1680 
 exercised the government of East Jersey, under a 
 
 commission from Sir George Carteret, dated the 
 31st of July, 1675 ; Andross disputed his right, and 
 seized and brought him prisoner to New York; for 
 which it is said he lost his own government, but 
 whoever considers that Sir Edmond was immediately 
 preferred to be governor of Boston, will rather be 
 lieve, that the duke superseded him for some other 
 reasons. 
 
 Before proceeding to the succeeding administra- 
 tion, in which the Indian affairs began to have a 
 powerful influence upon the public measures, it may 
 not be improper to present the reader with a sum- 
 mary view of the history and character of the Five 
 Nations, by the Dutch called Maquaas, by the 
 French Iroquois, and by us, Five Nations, Six Na- 
 tions, and lastly the Confederates. They are greatly 
 diminished, and consist now only of about 1200 
 fighting men. These, of all the innumerable tribes 
 of savages, which inhabit the northern part of 
 America, are of most importance, both on account 
 of their vicinity and warlike disposition. Before the 
 last incorporation of the Tuscaroras, a people driven 
 by the inhabitants of Carolina from the frontiers of 
 Virginia, they consisted of five confederate canions. 
 The Tuscaroras were received upon a supposition, 
 that they were originally of the same stock with the 
 Five Nations, because there is some similitude be- 
 tween their languages. What in particular gave 
 rise to this league, and when it took place, are 
 questions which neither the natives, nor Europeans, 
 pretend to answer. Each of these nations is divided 
 into three families, or clans, of different ranks, bear- 
 ing for their arms, and being distinguished by the 
 names of, the tortoise, the bear, and the wolf. 
 Their instruments of conveyances are signed by sig- 
 natures, which they make with a pen, representing 
 these animals. 
 
 No people in the world perhaps have higher no- 
 tions than these Indians of military glory. All the 
 surrounding nations have felt the effects of their 
 prowess; and many not only became their tributa- 
 ries, but were so subjugated to their power, that 
 without their consent, they durst not commence 
 either peace or war. 
 
 Though a regular police for the preservation of 
 harmony within, and the defence of the state against 
 invasions from without, is not to be expected from 
 savages, yet perhaps they have paid more attention 
 to it than is generally allowed. Their government 
 is suited to their condition. A people whose riches 
 consist not so much in abundance, as in a freedom 
 from want ; who are circumscribed by no bound- 
 aries ; who live by hunting, and not by agriculture, 
 must always be free, and therefore subject to no 
 other authority than such as consists with the liberty 
 necessarily arising from their circumstances. All 
 their affairs, whether respecting peace or war, are 
 under the direction of their Sachems, or chief men. 
 Great exploits and public virtue procure the esteem 
 of a people, and qualify a man to advise in council, 
 and execute the plan concerted for the advantage 
 of his country ; thus whoever appears to the Indians 
 in this advantageous light, commences a Sachem 
 without any other ceremony. 
 
 As there is no other way of arriving at this dig- 
 nity, so it ceases unless an uniform zeal and activity 
 for the common good is uninterruptedly continued. 
 Some have thought it hereditary, but that is a mis- 
 take. The son is indeed respected for his father's 
 services, but without personal merit he can never 
 share in the government which, were it otherwise, 
 must sink into perfect disgrace. The children of 
 
UNITED STATES 
 
 515 
 
 such as are distinguished for their patriotism, moved 
 by the consideration of their birth, and the perpetual 
 incitements to virtue constantly inculcated into them, 
 imitate their father's exploits, and thus attain to 
 the same honours and influence ; which accounts for 
 the opinion that the title and power of Sachem is 
 hereditary. 
 
 Each of these republics has its own particular 
 chiefs, who hear arid determine all complaints in 
 council, and though they have no officers for the 
 execution of justice, yet their decrees are always 
 obeyed, from the general reproach that would follow 
 a contempt of their advice. The condition of this 
 people exempts them from factions, the common 
 disease of popular governments. It is impossible to 
 gain a party amongst them by indirect means ; for 
 no man has either honour, riches, or power to bestow. 
 
 All affairs which concern the general interest are 
 determined in a great assembly of the chiefs of each 
 canton, usually held at Onondago, the centre of their 
 country. UpoL emergencies they act separately, 
 but nothing can bind the league but the voice of the 
 general convention. 
 
 The French, upon the maxim of divide and govern, 
 tried all possible means to disunite these repub- 
 lics, and sometimes even sowed great jealousies 
 amongst them. In consequence of this plan, they 
 seduced many families to withdraw to Canada, and 
 there settled them in regular towns, under the com- 
 mand of a fort and the tuition of missionaries. 
 
 The manners of these savages are as simple as 
 their government. Their houses arc a few crotched 
 stakes thrust into the ground and overlaid with bark. 
 A fire is kindled in the middle, and an aperture left 
 at the top for the conveyance of the smoke. When- 
 ever a considerable number of those huts are col- 
 lected, they have a castle, as it is called, consisting 
 of a square without bastions, surrounded with pali- 
 sadoes. They have no other fortification ; and this 
 is only designed as an asylum for their old men, 
 their wives and children, whilst the rest are gone 
 out to war. They live almost entirely without care. 
 While the women, or squaws, cultivate a little spot 
 of ground for corn, the men employ themselves in 
 hunting. As to clothes, they use a blanket girt at 
 the waist, and thrown loosely over their shoulders ; 
 some of their women indeed have, besides this, a sort 
 of a petticoat, and a few of their men wear shirts ; 
 but the greater part of them are generally half-naked. 
 In winter, their legs are coveted with stockings of 
 blanket, and their feet with socks of deer skin. 
 Many of them are fond of ornaments, and their 
 taste is very singular. Some have rings affixed, 
 not only to their ears but their noses. Bracelets of 
 silver and brass round their wrists, are very common. 
 The women formerly plaited their hair, and tied it up 
 behind in a bag, perhaps in imitation of the beaus in 
 Canada. Though the Indians are capable of sus- 
 taining great hardships, yet they cannot endure 
 much labour, being rather fleet than strong. Their 
 men are taller than the Europeans, rather corpulent, 
 always beardless, because they pluck out the hairs. 
 The French writers, who say they have naturally 
 no beards, are mistaken ; and the reasons they assign 
 for it are ridiculous. They are strait-limbed, of a 
 tawny complexion, and black uncurled hair. In 
 their food they have no manner of delicacy, for 
 though venison is their ordinary diet, yet sometimes 
 they eat dogs, bears, and even snakes. Their cook- 
 ery is of two kinds, boiled or roasted ; to perform 
 the latter, the meat is penetrated by a short sharp 
 stick set in the ground, inclining towards the fire, 
 
 and turned as occasion, requires. They are hospi- 
 table to strangers, though few Europeans would 
 relish their highest favours of this kind, for they are 
 very dirty both in their garments and food. Every 
 man has his own wife, whom he takes and leaves at 
 pleasure ; a plurality, however, at the same time, is 
 by no means admitted among them. They have 
 been generally commended for their chastity, but 
 others say, on good authority, that they are very 
 lascivious, and that the women, to avoid reproach, 
 frequently destroy the fetus in the womb. They 
 are so perfectly free, that unless their children, who 
 generally assist their mother, may be called servants, 
 they have none. The men frequently associate 
 themselves for conversation, by which means they 
 not only preserve the remembrance of their wars 
 and treaties, but diffuse among their youths incite- 
 ments to a love of war, as well as instruction in all 
 its subtilties. 
 
 Since they became acquainted with the Europeans, 
 their warlike apparatus is a musket, hatchet, and a 
 long knife. To " take up the hatchet," is with them a 
 phrase signifying to declare war ; as on the contrary 
 "to bury it " denotes the establishment of a peace. 
 Their boys still accustom themselves to bows and 
 arrows, and are so dextrous in the use of them, that 
 a lad of sixteen will strike an English shilling five 
 times in ten, at twelve or fourteen yards distance. 
 Their men are excellent marksmen, both with the 
 gun and hatchet; their dexterity at the latter is 
 very extraordinary, for they rarely miss the object 
 though at a considerable distance. The hatchet in 
 the flight perpetually turns round, and yet always 
 strikes the mark with the edge. 
 
 Before they go out, they have a feast upon dog's 
 flesh and a great war dance. At these, the war- 
 riors, who are frightfully painted with vcrmillion, 
 rise up and sing their own exploits, or those of their 
 ancestors, and thereby kindle a military enthusiasm 
 in the whole company. The day after the dance, 
 they march out a few miles in a row, observing a 
 profound silence. The procession being ended, 
 they strip the bark from a large oak, and paint the 
 design of their expedition on the naked trunk. The 
 figure of a canoe, with the number of men in it, de- 
 termines the strength of their party; and by a deer, 
 a fox, or some other emblem painted at the head of 
 it, we discover against what nation they are gone 
 out. 
 
 The five nations being devoted to war, every art 
 is contrived to diffuse a military spirit through the 
 whole body of their people. The ceremonies attend- 
 ing the return of a party, seem calculated in par- 
 ticular for that purpose. The day before they enter 
 the village, two heralds advance, and at a small dis- 
 tance set up a yell, which by its modulation inti- 
 mates either good or bad news. If the former, the 
 village is alarmed, and an entertainment provided 
 for the conquerors, who in the mean time approach 
 in sight : one of them bears the scalps stretched over 
 a bow, and elevated upon a long pole. The boldest 
 man in the town comes out, and receives it, and in- 
 stantly flies to the hut were the rest are collected, 
 If he is overtaken, he is beaten unmercifully ; but 
 if he outruns the pursuer, he participates in the 
 honour of the victors, who at their first entrance 
 receive no compliments, nor speak a single word 
 till the end of the feast. Their parents, wives, and 
 children then are admitted, and treat them with the 
 profoundest respect. After these salutations, one of 
 the conquerors is appointed to relate the whole ad- 
 venture, to which the rest attentively listen without 
 
 3F2 
 
516 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 asking a question, and the whole concludes with a 
 savage dance. 
 
 The Indians never fight in the field, or upon 
 equal terms / but always sculk and attack by surprise, 
 in small parties, meeting every night at a place of 
 rendezvous. Scarce any enemy can escape them; 
 for, by the disposition of the grass and leaves, they 
 follow his track with great speed any where but over 
 a rock. Their barbarity is shocking to human na- 
 ture. Women and children they generally kill and 
 scalp, because they would retard their progress, but 
 the men they carry into captivity. If any woman 
 has lost a relation, and inclines to receive the pri- 
 soner in his stead, he not only escapes a series of 
 the most inhuman tortures, and death itself, but en- 
 joys every immunity they can bestow, and is es- 
 teemed a member of the family into which he is 
 adopted. To part with him would be the most ig- 
 nominious conduct, and considered as selling- the 
 blood of the deceased ; and, for this reason, it is not 
 without the greatest difficulty that a captive is re- 
 deemed. 
 
 When the Indians incline to peace, a messenger 
 is sent to the enemy with a pipe, the bowl of which 
 is made of soft red marble ; and a long reed, beau- 
 tifully painted, and adorned with the gay plumage 
 of birds, forms the stem. This is his infallible pro- 
 tection from any assault on the way. The envoy 
 makes his proposals to the enemy, who, if they ap- 
 prove them, ratify the preliminaries to the peace, 
 by smoking through the pipe, and, from that instant, 
 a general cessation of arms takes place. The French 
 call it a calumet. It is used, as far as can be learned, 
 by all the Indian nations on the continent. The 
 rights of it, are esteemed sacred, and have been only 
 invaded by the Flat Heads ; in just indignation for 
 which the confederates maintained a war with them 
 for near thirty years. 
 
 As to the language of the five nations, the best 
 account of it is contained in a letter from the Reve- 
 rend Mr. Spencer, who resided amongst them in the 
 year 1748, being then a missionary from the Scotch 
 society for propagating Christian knowledge. He 
 writes thus : 
 
 " Except the Tuscaroras, all the six nations speak 
 a language radically the same. It is very masculine 
 and sonorous, abounding with gutturals and strong 
 aspirations, but without labials. Its solemn grave 
 tone is owing to the generosity of its feet. 
 
 " The extraordinary length of Indian words, and 
 the guttural aspirations necessary in pronouncing 
 them, render the speech extremely rough and diffi- 
 cult. The verbs never change in their terminations, 
 as in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, but all their varia- 
 tions are prefixed. Besides the singular aud plural, 
 they have also the dual number. A strange trans- 
 position of syllables of different words is very com- 
 mon in the Indian tongue. 
 
 " The dialect of the Oneydas is softer than that of 
 the other nations ; and the reason is, because they 
 have more vowels, and often supply the place ot 
 harsh letters with liquids; instead of R, they always 
 use L : Rebecca would be pronounced Lequecca." 
 
 The art of public speaking is in high esteem 
 among the Indians, and much studied. They are 
 extremely fond of method, and displeased with an 
 irregular harangue, because it is difficult to be re- 
 membered. When they answer, they repeat the 
 whole, reducing it into strict order. Their speeches 
 are short, and the sense conveyed in strong meta- 
 phors. In conversation they are sprightly, but so- 
 lemn and serious in their messages relating to pub- 
 
 lic affairs. Their speakers deliver themselves with 
 surprising force, and great propriety of gesture. 
 The fierceness of their countenances, the flawing 
 blanket, elevated tone, naked arm, and erect stature, 
 with a half circle of auditors seated on the ground 
 and in the open air, cannot but impress upon the 
 mind a lively idea of the ancient orators of Greece 
 and Rome. 
 
 At the close of every important part of the speech, 
 ratifying an old covenant or creating a new one, a 
 belt is generally given, to perpetuate the remem- 
 brance of the transaction. These belts are about 
 four inches wide, and thirty in length. They con- 
 sist of strings of conque-shell beads fastened tog'ether. 
 Those beads, which passed for money, were called 
 by the Indians Wampum, and by the Dutch Se- 
 want; six beads were formerly valued at a styver. 
 There were always several poor families at Albany, 
 who supported themselves by coining this cash for 
 the traders. 
 
 With respect to religion, the Indians may be said 
 to be under the thickest gloom of ignorance. It' 
 they have any, which is much to be questioned, those 
 who affirm it, will find it difficult to tell us wherein 
 it consists. They have neither priest nor temple, 
 sacrifice nor altar. Some traces indeed appear of 
 the original law written upon their hearts ; but they 
 have no system of doctrines, nor any rites and modes 
 of public worship. They are sunk, unspeakably, 
 beneath the polite pagans of antiquity. Some con- 
 fused notions, indeed, of beings superior to them- 
 selves, they have ; but of the Deity, and his natural 
 and moral perfections, no proper or tolerable con- 
 ceptions ; and of his general and particular provi- 
 dence they know nothing. They profess no obli- 
 gations to him, nor acknowledge their dependence 
 upon him. Some of them, it is said, are of opinion 
 that there are two distinct, powerful beings, one able 
 to help, the other to do them harm. The latter 
 they venerate most, and some aDege, that they ad- 
 dress him by a kind of prayer. Though there are 
 no public monuments of idolatry to be seen in their 
 country, yet the missionaries have discovered coarse 
 imagery in wooden trinkets, in the hands of their 
 jugglers, which the converts deliver up as detestable. 
 The sight of them would remind an antiquary of 
 the Lares and Penates of the ancients, but no cer- 
 tain judgment can be drawn of their use. The In- 
 dians sometimes assemble in large numbers, and 
 retire far into the wilderness, where they eat and 
 drink in a profuse manner. These conventions are 
 called kenticoys. Some esteem them to be de- 
 bauched revels, or bacchanalia ; but those who have 
 privately followed them into these recesses give such 
 accounts of their conduct, as naturally lead one to 
 imagine that they pay a joint homage and supplica- 
 tion to some invisible being. If we suppose they 
 have a religion, it is worse than none, and raises 
 most melancholy ideas of their depraved condition. 
 
 As to the history of the Five Nations before their 
 acquaintance with the Europeans, it is involved in 
 the darkness of antiquity. It is said that their first 
 residence was in the country about Montreal ; and 
 that the superior strength of the Adirondacks, whom 
 the French call Algonquins, drove them into their 
 present possessions, lying on the south side of the 
 Mohawks river, and the great lake Ontario. To- 
 wards the close of those disputes, which continued 
 for a great series of years, the confederates gained 
 advantages over the Adirondacks, and struck a ge- 
 neral terror into all the other Indians. The Hurons 
 on the north side of the lake Erie, and the Cat In- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 517 
 
 dians on the south side, were totally conquered and 
 dispersed. The French, who settled Canada in 
 1603, took umbrage at their success, and began a 
 war with them which had well nigh ruined the new 
 colony. In autumn, 1665, M. Courcelles, the go- 
 vernor, sent out a party against the Mohawks. 
 Through ignorance of the country, and the want of 
 snow shoes, they were almost perished, when they 
 fell in with Schencetady. And even there the In- 
 dians would have sacrificed them to their barbarous 
 rage, had not Corlear, a Dutchman, interposed to 
 protect them. For this seasonable hospitality, the 
 French governor invited him to Canada, but he 
 was unfortunately drowned in his passage through 
 the lake Champlain. It is in honour of this man, 
 who was a favourite of the Indians, that the go- 
 vernors of New York, in all their treaties, were 
 addressed by the name of Corlear. Twenty light 
 companies of foot, and the whole militia of Canada, 
 marched the next spring into the country of the 
 Mohawks; but their success was very unequal to 
 the charge and labour of such a tedious march ol 
 700 miles, through an uncultivated desart ; for the 
 Indians, on their approach, retired into the woods, 
 leaviiig behind them some old sachems, who preferred 
 death to life, to glut the fury of their enemies. The 
 emptiness of this parade on the one hand, and the 
 Indian fearfulness of fire-arms on the other, broughl 
 about a peace in 1667, which continued for severa 
 years after. In this interval both the English anc 
 French cultivated a trade with the natives very pro 
 litable to both nations. The latter, however, were 
 most politic, and vigorous, and tilled the Indiar 
 country with their missionaries. The Sieur Perot 
 the very year in which the peace was concluded, tra 
 veiled above 1200 miles westward, making proselyte 
 of the Indians every where to the French interest 
 Courcelles appears to have been a man of art am 
 industry. He took every measure in his power fo 
 the defence of Canada. To prevent the eruption 
 of the Five Nations by the way of lake Champlain 
 he built several forts in 1665, between that and th 
 mouth of the river Sorel. In 1672, just before hi 
 return to France, under pretence of treating wit! 
 the Indians more commodiously, but in reality, a 
 Charlevoix expresses it, " to bridle them," he ob 
 tained their leave to erect a fort at Caderacqui, o 
 kike Ontario, which Count Frontenac, his successor 
 completed the following spring, and called after hi 
 own name. The command of it was afterwards give 
 to Mr. De la Salle, who, in 1678, rebuilt it wit 
 stone. This enterprising person, the same yeai 
 launched a bark of ten tons into the lake Ontaric 
 and another of sixty tons, the year after, into lak 
 Erie, about which time he enclosed with pallisadoe 
 a little spot at Niagara. 
 
 Though the Duke of York had preferred Colon 
 Thomas Dongan to the government of thisprovinc 
 on the 30th of September, 1682, he did not arriv 
 here till the 27tb of August in the following yea 
 He was a man of integrity, moderation, and polil 
 manners, and though a professed papist, may 
 classed among the best of the governors. 
 
 The people, who had been formerly ruled at th 
 will of the duke's deputies, began their first part 
 cipation in the legislative power under Colonel Don 
 gan, for shortly after his arrival, he issued orde 
 to the sheriffs to summon the freeholders for choosin 
 representatives, to meet him in assembly on the 17th 
 of October, 1683. Nothing could be more agreeable 
 to the people, who, whether Dutch or English, were 
 born the subjects of a free state ; nor indeed was the 
 
 jange of less advantage to the duke than to the 
 nhabitants. For such a general disgust had pre- 
 ailed, and in particular in Long Island, against 
 ic old form which Colonel Nicolls had introduced, 
 s threatened the total subversion of the public tran- 
 uillity. Colonel Dongan saw the disaffection of 
 ic people at the east end of the island, for he landed 
 icre on his first arrival in the country ; and to ex- 
 nguish the discontent, then impatient to burst 
 ut, gave them his promise, that no laws or rates 
 r the future should be imposed but by a general 
 ssembly. Doubtless, this alteration was agreeable 
 o the duke's orders, who had been strongly impor- 
 uned for it, as well as acceptable to the people, for 
 ,hey sent him soon after an address, expressing the 
 ighest sense of gratitude for so beneficial a change 
 n the government. It would have been impossible 
 or him much longer to have maintained the old 
 model over free subjects, who had just before formed 
 hemselves into a colony for the enjoyment of their 
 iberties, and had even already solicited the protec- 
 tion of the colony of Connecticut, from whence the 
 greatest part of them came. Disputes relating to 
 he limits of certain townships at the east end of 
 Long Island, sowed the seeds of enmity against 
 Dongan so deeply in the hearts of many who were 
 concerned in them, that their representation to Con- 
 necticut, at the revolution, contains the bitterest in- 
 ectives against him. 
 
 Dongan surpassed all his predecessors in a due 
 attention to affairs with the Indians, by whom 
 ic was highly esteemed. It must be remembered 
 :p his honour, that though he was ordered by the 
 duke to encourage the French priests who were 
 come to reside among the natives, under pretence of 
 advancing the popish cause but in reality to gain 
 them over to a French interest; yet he forbid the 
 five nations to entertain them. The Jesuits, how- 
 ever, had no small success. Their proselytes were 
 called praying Indians, or Caghnuagaes,and resided 
 afterwards in Canada, at the fall of St. Lewis, oppo- 
 ite to Montreal. This village was begun in 1671, 
 and consisted of such of the five nations as had 
 formerly been drawn away by the intrigues of the 
 French priests, in the times of Lovelace and An- 
 dross, who seem to have paid no attention to the 
 Indian affairs. It was owing to the instigation also 
 of these priests, that the five nations about this time 
 committed hostilities on the back parts of Mar)'- 
 land and Virginia, which occasioned a grand con- 
 vention at Albany, in the year 1684. Lord Howard 
 of Effingham, the governor of Virginia, was present, 
 and made a covenant with them for preventing fur- 
 ther depredations, towards the accomplishment of 
 which, Colonel Dongan was very instrumental. 
 
 While Lord Howard was at Albany, a messenger 
 from De la Barre, then governor of Canada, arrived, 
 complaining of the Senneca Indians, lor interrupt- 
 ing the French in their trade with the more distant 
 Indians, commonly included among us by the ge- 
 neral name of the Far Nations. Colonel Dongan, 
 to whom the message was sent, communicated it to the 
 Sennecas, who admitted the charge, but justified 
 their conduct, alleging, that the French supplied 
 arms and ammunition to the Twightwies, with whom 
 they were then at war. De la Barre, at the same 
 time, meditating nothing less than the total destruc- 
 tion of the five nations, proceeded with an army of 
 1 700 men to the lake Ontario. Mighty preparations 
 were made to obtain the desired success : fresh 
 troops were impoited from France, and a letter 
 procured from the duke of York to Colonel Dongau 
 
518 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 commanding him to lay no obstacles in the way. king, my master, has commanded me to make. He 
 The officers posted in the out forts, even as far as doth not wish them to force him to send a great 
 Messilimakinae, were ordered to rendezvous at army to Cadarackui fort, to begin a war which must 
 Niagara, with adl the western Indians they could be fatal to them. He would be sorry that this fort, 
 engage. Dongan, regardless of the duke's orders, that was the work of peace, should become the pri- 
 appriscd the Indians of the French designs, and son of your warriors. We must endeavour, on both 
 promised to assist them. After six weeks delay at sides, to prevent such misfortunes. The French, 
 fort Frontenac, during which time a great sickness who are the brethren and friends of the five nations, 
 occasioned by bad provisions, broke out in the will never trouble their repose, provided that the 
 French army, De la Barre found it necessary to satisfaction which I demand, be given ; and that the 
 conclude the campaign with a treaty, for which pur- treaties of peace be hereafter observed. I shall be 
 pose he crossed the lake, and came to the place extremely grieved, if my words do not produce the 
 which, from the distress of his army, was called La effect which I expect from them; for then I shall 
 Famine. Dongan sent an interpreter among the be obliged to join with the governor of New York, 
 Indians, by all means to prevent them from attend- who is commanded by his master to assist me, and 
 ing the treaty. The Mohawks and Sennecas ac- burn the castles of the five nations, and destroy you. 
 cordingly refused to meet De la Barre, but the Oney- This belt conh'rms my words." 
 does, Onondagas, and Cayugas, influenced by the Garrangula heard these threats with contempt, 
 missionaries, were unwilling to hear the interpreter, because he had learnt the distressed state of the 
 except before the priests, one La Main, and three French army, and knew that they were incapable 
 other Frenchmen, and afterwards waited upon the of executing the designs with which they set out ; 
 French governor. Two days after their arrival in and therefore, after walking five or six times round 
 the camp, Monsieur De la Barre addressing him- the circle, he answered the French governor, who 
 self to Garrangula, an Onoudaga chief, made the sat in an elbow chair, in the following strain : 
 following speech, the Indians and French officers at " Yonnondio, 1 honour you, and the warriors 
 the same time forming a circle round about him. that are with me likewise honour you. Your in- 
 " The king, my master, being informed that the terpreter has finished your speech; I now begin 
 five nations have often infringed the peace, has or- mine. My words make haste to reach your ears ; 
 dered me to come hither with a guard, and to send hearken to them. 
 
 Ohguesse to the Onondagas, to bring the chief Sa- " Yonnondio,-you must have believed, when you 
 chems to my camp. The intention of the great left Quebec, that the sun 'had burnt up all the 
 king is, that you and I may smoke the calumet of forests, which render our country inaccessible to the 
 peace together : but on this condition that you pro- French, or that the lakes had so far overflown the 
 mise me, in the name of the Sennecas, Cayugas, banks, that they had surrounded our castles, and 
 Onondagas, and Mohawks, to give entire satisfac- that it was impossible for us to get out of them, 
 tion and reparation to his subjects, and for the fu- Yes, Yonnondio, surely you must have dreamt so, 
 tare never to molest them. and the curiosity of seeing so great a wonder has 
 
 " The Sennecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneydoes, brought you so far. Now you are undeceived, since 
 and Mohawks, have robbed and abused all the trad- I and the warriors here present, are come to assure 
 ers that were passing to the Illinois and Miames, you, that the Sennecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oney- 
 and other Indian nations, the children of my king, does, and Mohawks, are yet alive. I thank you, in 
 They have acted, on these occasions, contrary to their name, for bringing back into their country the 
 the treaty of peace with my predecessor. I am or- calumet which your predecessor received from their 
 dered, therefore, to demand satisfaction, and to tell hands. It was happy for you, that you left under- 
 them that, in case of refusal, or their plundering ground that murdering hatchet that has been so 
 us any more, I have express orders to declare war. often died in the blood of the French. Hear, Yon- 
 This belt confirms my words. The warriors of the nondio, I do not sleep, I have my eyes open, and 
 five nations have conducted the English into the the sun which enlightens me discovers to me a 
 lakes which belong to the king, my master, and great captain at the head of a company of soldiers, 
 brought the English among the nations that are his who speaks as if he were dreaming. He says, that 
 children, to destroy the trade of his subjects, and to he only came to the lake to smoke on the great 
 withdraw these nations from him. They have car- calumet with the Onondagas. But Garrangula 
 ried the English thither, notwithstanding the pro- says, that he sees the contrary, that it was to knock 
 hibition of the late governor of New York, who fore- them on the head, if sickness had not weakened the 
 saw the risk that both they and you would run. I arms of the French. 
 
 am willing to forget those things, but if ever the like " I see Yonnondio raving in a camp of sick men, 
 shall happen for the future, I have express orders to whose lives the great spirit has saved, by inflicting 
 declare war against you. This belt confirms my this sickness on them. Hear, Yonnondio ! our wo- 
 words. Your warriors have made several barbarous men had taken their clubs, our children and old men 
 incursions on the Illinois and Umameis ; they have had carried their bows and arrows into the heart of 
 massacred men, women, and children, and have your camp, if our warriors had not disarmed them 
 made many of these nations prisoners, who thought and kept them back, when your messenger, Oh- 
 themselves safe in their villages in time of peace ; guesse, came to our castles. It is done, and I have 
 these people, who are my king's children, must not said it. Hear, Yonnondio ! we plundered none of 
 be your slaves ; you must give them their liberty, 1 the French, but those that carried guns, powder, 
 and send them back into their own country. If the and ball to the Twightwies and Chictaghicks, be- 
 five nations shall refuse to do this, I have express cause those arms might have cost us our lives. Herein 
 orders to declare war against them. This belt con- 1 we follow the example of the Jesuits, who stave all 
 firms my words. the kegs of rum brought to our castles, lest the 
 
 " This is what I have to say to Garrangula, that drunken Indians should knock them on the head, 
 he may carry tq the Sennecas, Onondagas, Oneydoes, Our warriors have not beaver enough to pay for all 
 Cayugas, an r ! Mohawks, the declaration which the j these arms that they have taken, and our old men 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 519 
 
 are not afraid of the war. This belt preserves my 
 words. 
 
 " We carried the English into our lakes, to trade 
 there with the Utawawas and Quatoghies, as the 
 Adirondacks brought the French to our castles, to 
 carry on a trade, which the English say is theirs. 
 We are born free ; wo neither depend on Yonnon- 
 dio nor Corlear. 
 
 " We may go where we please, and carry with 
 us whom we please, and buy and sell what we please : 
 if your allies be your slaves, use them as such, com- 
 mand them to receive no other but your people. 
 This belt preserves my words. 
 
 " We knocked the Twightwies and Chictaghicks 
 on the head, because they had cut down the trees of 
 peace, which were the limits of our country. They 
 have hunted beavers on our lands : they have acted 
 contrary to the customs of all Indians, for they left 
 none of the beavers alive, they killed both male 
 and female. They brought the Satanas into the 
 country, to take part with them, after they had con- 
 certed ill designs against us. We have done less 
 than either the English or French, that have usurped 
 the lands of so many Indian nations, and chased 
 them from their own country. This belt preserves 
 my words. 
 
 " Hear, Yonnondio, what I say is the voice of all 
 the five nations hear what they answer open your 
 ears to what they speak. The Sennecas, Cayugas, 
 Onondagas, Oneydoes, and Mohawks say, that when 
 they buried the hatchet at Cadarackui (in the pre- 
 sence of your predecessor) in the middle of the fort ; 
 they planted the tree of peace in the same place, to 
 be there carefully preserved, that, in place of a re- 
 treat for soldiers, that port might be a rendezvous 
 for merchants : that in place of arms and ammuni- 
 tion of war, beavers and merchandize should only 
 enter there. 
 
 " Hear, Yonnondio, take care for the future, that 
 so great a number of soldiers as appear there do not 
 choak the tree of peace planted in so small a fort. 
 It will be a great loss if, after it had so easily taken 
 root, you should stop its growth, and prevent its 
 covering your country and ours with its branches. 
 I assure you, in the name of the five nations, that 
 our warriors shall dance to the calumet of peace 
 under its leaves, and shall remain quiet on their 
 mats, and shall never dig up the hatchet, till their 
 brother Yonnondio or Corlear shall, either jointly 
 or separately, endeavour to attack the country which 
 the great spirit has given to our ancestors. This 
 belt preserves my words, and this other, the authority 
 which the five nations have given me." 
 
 Then Garrangula, addressing himself to Monsieur 
 La Main, said " Take courage Ohguesse, you have 
 spirit, speak, explain my words, forget nothing, tell 
 all that your brethren and friends say to Yonnondio 
 your governor, by the mouth of Garrangula, who 
 loves you, and desires you to accept of this present 
 of beaver, and take part with me in my feast, to 
 which I invite you. This present of beaver is sent 
 to Yonnondio, on the part of the five nations." 
 
 Enraged at this bold reply De la Barre, as soon 
 as the peace was concluded, retired to Montreal, 
 and ingloriously finished an expensive campaign, as 
 Dr. Golden observes, in a scold with an old Indian. 
 
 De la Barre was succeeded by the Marquis de 
 Nouville, colonel of the dragoons, who arrived with 
 a reinforcement of troops in 1685. The marquis 
 was a man of courage, and an enterprising spirit, 
 and not a little animated by the consideration, that 
 he was sent over to repair the disgrace which his 
 
 predecessor had brought upon the French colony. 
 The year after his arrival at Quebec, he wrote a 
 letter to the minister in France, recommending the 
 scheme of erecting a stone fort, sufficient to contain 
 four or five hundred men, at Niagara, not only to 
 exclude the English from the lakes, but to command 
 the fur trade, and subdue the five nations. Don- 
 gan, who was jealous of his designs, took umbrage 
 at the extraordinary supplies sent to fort Frontenac, 
 and wrote to the French governor, signifying that, 
 if he attacked the confederates, he would consider it 
 as a breach of the peace subsisting between the two 
 crowns ; and to prevent his building a fort at Nia- 
 gara, he protested against it, and claimed the coun- 
 try as dependent upon the province. De Nonville, 
 in his answer, denied that he intended to invade the 
 five nations, though the necessary preparations for 
 that purpose were then carrying on, and yet Char- 
 levoix commends him for his piety and uprightness. 
 Colonel Dongan, who knew the importance of the 
 Indian alliance, placed no confidence in the decla- 
 rations of the marquis, but exerted himself in pre- 
 paring the confederates for the war ; and the French 
 author just mentioned does him honour, while he 
 complains of him as a perpetual obstacle in the way 
 of the execution of their schemes. 
 
 De Nonville, to prevent the interruption of the 
 French trade with the Twiglitwies, determined to 
 divert the five nations, and carry the war into their 
 country. To that end, in 1687, he collected 2,000 
 troops, and 600 Indians, at Montreal, and issued 
 orders to all the officers in the more westerly coun- 
 try to meet him with additional succours at Niagara, 
 on an expedition against the Sennecas. An English 
 party, under one M'Gregory, at the same time was 
 gone out to trade on the lakes, but the French, not- 
 withstanding the peace then subsisting between the 
 two crowns, intercepted them, seized their effects, 
 and imprisoned their persons. Monsieur Fonti, com- 
 mandant among the Chictaghics, who was coming 
 to the general's rendezvous at Niagara, did the like 
 to another English party, which he met with in lake 
 Erie both which attacks were open infractions of 
 the treaty at Whitehall, executed in November, 
 1686; by which it was agreed, that the Indian trade 
 in America should be free to the English and French. 
 The five nations, in the mean time, were preparing 
 to give the French army a suitable reception. 
 Monsieur Compauie, with two or three hundred Ca- 
 nadians in an advanced party, surprised two villages 
 of the confederates, who, at the invitation, and on 
 the faith of the French, seated themselves down 
 about eight leagues from lake Fadarackui or Onta- 
 rio. To prevent their escape with intelligence to 
 their countrymen, they were carried to the fort, and 
 all but thirteen died in torments at the stake, sing- 
 ing, with an heroic spirit, in their expiring moments, 
 the perfidy of the French. The rest, according to 
 the express orders of the French king, were sent to 
 the gallies in Europe. The marquis having em- 
 barked his whole army in canoes, set out from the 
 fort at Cadurackui on the 23d of June, one half of 
 them passing along the north, and the other on the 
 south side the lake ; and both arrived the same day 
 at Tyronpequait, and shortly after set out on their 
 march towards the chief village of the Sennecas, at 
 about seven leagues distance. The main body was 
 composed of the regulars and militia, the front and 
 rear of the Indians and traders. The scouts ad- 
 vanced the second day on their march as far as the 
 corn of the village, and within pistol-shot of 500 
 iis, wlu lay upon their bellies, 
 
520 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 The French, who imagined the enemy were all fled, 
 quickened their march, to overtake the women and 
 old men. But no sooner had they reached the foot 
 of a hill, about a mile from the villages, than the 
 Sennecas raised the war shout, and in the same in- 
 stant charged upon the whole army both in the front 
 and rear. Universal confusion ensued. The bat- 
 talions divided, fired upon each other, and fled into 
 the wood. The Sennecas improved the disorder of 
 the enemy, till they were repulsed by the French 
 Indians. According to Charlevoix's account, which 
 may be justly suspected, the enemy lost but six 
 men, and had twenty wounded in the conflict. Of 
 the Sennecas, he says, sixty were wounded, and 
 forty-five slain. The marquis was so much dispi- 
 rited, that he could not be persuaded to pursue the 
 enemy that day ; which gave the Sennecas an op- 
 portunity to burn their village, and get off. Two 
 old men remained in the castle to receive the gene- 
 ral, and regale the barbarity of his Indian allies. 
 After destroying the corn in this and several other 
 villages, the army retired to the banks of the lake, 
 and erected a fort with four bastions on the south- 
 east side of the straights at Niagara, in which they 
 left one hundred men under the command of Le 
 Chevalier de la Troye, with eight months provisions; 
 but these being chiefly blocked up, all, except seven 
 or eight of them, who were accidentally relieved, 
 perished through famine. Soon after this expedition 
 Colonel Dongan met the five nations at Albany. 
 To what intent, appears from the speech he made 
 to them on the 5th of August, which is quoted, in 
 order to shew his vigilance and zeal for the province 
 committed to his care, and a sample of the mode of 
 conducting business. 
 
 " Brethren, I am very glad to see you here in 
 this house, and am heartily glad that you have sus- 
 tained no greater loss by the French, though I be- 
 lieve it was their intention to destroy you all, if they 
 could have surprised you in your castles. 
 
 " As soon as I heard their design to war with 
 you, I gave you notice, and came up hither myself, 
 that I might be ready to give all the assistance and 
 advice that so short a time would allow me. 
 
 " I am now about sending a gentleman to Eng- 
 land to the king, my master, to let him know that 
 the French have invaded his territories on this side 
 of the great lake, and warred upon the brethren, his 
 subjects. I therefore would willingly know, whether 
 the brethren have given the governor of Canada any 
 provocation or not ; and if they have, how, and in 
 what manner ; because I am obliged to give a true 
 account of this matter. This business may cause a 
 war between the king of England, and the French 
 king, both in Europe and here, and therefore I must 
 know the truth. 
 
 " I know the governor of Canada dare not enter 
 into the king of England's territories in a hostile 
 manner, without provocation, if he thought the bre- 
 thren were the king of England's subjects ; but you 
 have, two or three years ago, made a covenant chain 
 with the French, contrary to my command, (which 
 I knew could not hold long), being void of itself 
 among the Christians ; for as much as subjects (as 
 you are) ought not to treat with any foreign nation, 
 it not lying in your power. You have brought this 
 trouble on yourselves, and, as I believe, this is the 
 only reason of their falling on you at this time. 
 
 " Brethren, I took it very ill, that after you had 
 put yourselves into the number of the great king of 
 England's subjects, you should ever offer to make 
 peace or war, without my consent. You know that 
 
 we can live without you, but you cannot live without 
 us; you never found that I told you a lie, and I of- 
 ferred you the assistance you wanted, provided that 
 you would be advised by me ; for I know the French 
 better than any of you do. 
 
 " Now since there is a war begun upon you bv 
 the governor of Canada; I hope without any provo- 
 cation by you given ; I desire and command you, that 
 you hearken to no treaty but by my advice ; which 
 if you follow you shall have the benefit of the great 
 chain of friendship between the great king of Eng- 
 land and the king of France, which came out of 
 England the other day, and which I have sent to 
 Canada by Anthony le Junard : in the meantime I 
 will give you such advice as will be for your good ; 
 and will supply you with such necessaries as you 
 will have need of. 
 
 " First. My advice is, as to what prisoners of the 
 French you shall take, that you draw not their blood, 
 but bring them home, and keep them to exchange 
 for your people, which they have prisoners already, 
 or may take hereafter. 
 
 " Secondly. That if it be possible that you can 
 order it so, I would have you take one or two of 
 your wisest sachems, and one or two of your chief 
 captains, of each nation, to be a council to manage 
 all affairs of the war. They to give orders to the 
 rest of the officers what they are to do, that your 
 designs may be kept private; for after it comes 
 among so many people, it is blazed abroad, and your 
 designs are often frustrated; and those chief men 
 should keep a correspondence with me by a trusty 
 messenger. 
 
 " Thirdly. The great matter under consideration 
 with the brethren is, how to strengthen themselves, 
 and weaken the enemy. My opinion is, that the 
 brethren should send messengers to the Utawawas, 
 Twichtwies, and the further Indians, and to send 
 back likewise some of the prisoners of these nations, 
 if you have any left, to bury the hatchet, and to 
 make a covenant chain, that they may put away all 
 the French that are among them, and that you will 
 open a path for them this way, (they being the king 
 of England's subjects likewise, though the French 
 have been admitted to trade with them ; for all that 
 the French have in Canada, they had it of the great 
 king of England), that, by that means, they may 
 come hither freely, where they may have every thing 
 cheaper than among the French : that you and they 
 may join together against the French, and make so 
 firm a league, that whoever is an enemy to one, 
 must be to both. 
 
 " Fourthly. Another thing of concern is, that you 
 ought to do what you can to open a path for all the 
 north Indians and Mahikanders that are among the 
 Utawawas and further nations. I will endeavour to 
 do the same to bring them home; for, they not 
 daring to return home your way, the French keep 
 them there on purpose to join with the other nations 
 against you, for your destruction ; for you know, 
 that one* of them is worse than six of the others ; 
 therefore, all means must be used to bring them 
 home, and use them kindly as they pass through 
 your country. 
 
 " Fifthly. My advice further is, that messengers 
 go in behalf of all the five nations, to the Christian 
 Indians at Canada, to persuade them to come home 
 to their native country. This will be another great 
 means to weaken your enemy ; but if they will not 
 be advised, you know what to do with them. 
 
 " Sixthly. I think it very necessary foi the 
 brethren's security and assistance, and to the en- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 521 
 
 damaging the French, to buiid a fort upon the lake, 
 \vhere I may keep stores and provisions in case of 
 necessity ; and therefore I would have tho brethren 
 let me know what place will be most convenient 
 for it. 
 
 " Seventhly. I would not have the brethren keep 
 thrir corn in their castles, as I hear the Onondagas 
 do, but bury it a great way in the woods, where few 
 people may know where it is, for fear of such an 
 accident as happened to the Sennecas. 
 
 " Eighthly. I have given my advice in your ge- 
 neral assembly, by Mr. Dirk Wessels and Akus, the 
 interpreter, how you are to manage your parties, 
 and how necessary it is to get prisoners, to exchange 
 for your own men that are prisoners with the French, 
 and I am glad to hear that the brethren are so 
 united as Mr. Dirk Wessels tells me you are, and 
 that there was no rotten members nor French spies 
 among you. 
 
 " Ninthly. The brethren may remember my ad- 
 vice which I sent you this spring, not to go to Cada- 
 rackui ; if you had, they would have served you, as 
 they did your people that came from hunting thither, 
 for I told you that I knew the French better than 
 you did. 
 
 " Tenthly. There was no advice or proposition 
 that I made to tho brethren all the time that the 
 priest lived at Onondaga, but what he wrote to 
 Canada, as I found by one of his letters, which he 
 gave to an Indian to carry to Canada, but which 
 was brought hither; therefore, I desire the brethren 
 not to receive him, or any French priest any more, 
 having sent for English priests, with whom you may 
 be supplied to your content. 
 
 " Eleventhly. I would have the brethren look out 
 sharp, for fear of being surprised. I believe all the 
 strength of the French will be at their frontier 
 places, viz. at Cadarackui and Oniagara, where they 
 have built a fort now, and at Trois Rivieres, Mont- 
 real, and Chambly. 
 
 " Twelfthly. Let me put you in mind again, not 
 to make any treaties without my means, which will 
 be more advantageous for you, than your doing it 
 by yourselves^, for then you will be looked upon as 
 the king of England's subjects, and let me know, 
 from time to time, every thing that is done. 
 
 " Thus far I have spoken to you relating to the war." 
 
 Not long after this interview, a considerable party 
 of Mohawks and Mahikanders, or river Indians, be- 
 set fort Chambly, burnt several houses, and returned 
 with many captives to Albany. Forty Onondagas, 
 about the same time, surprised a few soldiers near 
 fort Frontenac, whom they confined instead of the 
 Indians sent home to the gallies, notwithstanding 
 the utmost address was used to regain them, by 
 Lamberville, a French priest, who delivered them 
 two belts, to engage their kindness to the prisoners, 
 and prevent their joining the quarrel with the Sen- 
 necas. The belts being sent to Colonel Dongan, he 
 wrote to De Nonville, to demand the reason of 
 their being delivered. Pere le Vaillant was sent 
 about the beginning of the year 1688, under colour 
 of bringing an answer, but in reality as a spy. Col. 
 Dongan told him, that no peace could be made with 
 the five nations, unless the Indians sent to the gal- 
 lies, and the Caghnuaga proselytes, were returned 
 to their respective cantons, the forts at Niagara and 
 Frontenac razed, and the Sennecas had satisfaction 
 made them for the damage they had sustained. 
 The Jesuit, in his return, was ordered not to visit 
 the Mohawks. 
 
 Dongan, who was fully sensible of the importance 
 
 of the Indian interest to the English colonies, was 
 for compelling the French to apply to him in all their 
 affairs with the five nations ; while they, on the other 
 hand, were for treating with them independent of 
 the English. For this reason, among others, he 
 refused them the assistance they frequently required, 
 till they acknowledged the dependence of the con- 
 federates on the English crown. King James, 
 a bigotted, popish, priest-ridden prince, ordered 
 his governor to give up this point, and to persuade 
 the five nations to send messengers to Canada, to 
 receive proposals of peace from the French. For 
 this purpose, a cessation of arms and mutual re- 
 delivery of prisoners was agreed upon. Near 1200 
 of the confederates attended this negociation at 
 Montreal, and in their speech to De Nonville, in- 
 sisted with great resolution upon the terms proposed 
 by Colonel Dongan to Father le Vaillant. The 
 French governor declared his willingness to put an 
 end to the war, if all his allies might be included in 
 the treaty of peace, if the Mohawks and Sennecaa 
 would send deputies to signify their concurrence, 
 and the French might supply fort Frontenac with 
 provisions. The confederates, accordingtothe French 
 accounts, acceded to these conditions, and the treaty 
 was ratified in the field. But a new rupture not 
 long after ensued, from a cause entirely unsuspected. 
 The Dinondadies had been inclined to trade with 
 the English at Missilimakinac, and their alliance 
 was therefore become suspected by the French. 
 Adario, their chief, thought to regain the ancient 
 confidence, which had been reposed in his country- 
 men, by a notable action against the five nations ; 
 and for that purpose put himself at the head of 100 
 men: nothing was more disagreeable to him, than 
 the prospect of peace between the French and the 
 confederates ; for that event would not only render 
 the amity of the Dinondadies useless, but give the 
 French an opportunity of resenting their late fa- 
 vourable conduct towards the English. Impressed 
 with these sentiments, out of affection to his country, 
 he intercepted the ambassadors of the five nations, 
 at one of the falls in Cadarackui river, killed some 
 and took others prisoners, telling them that the 
 French governor had informed him, that fifty war- 
 riors of the five nations were coming that way. As 
 the Dinondadies and confederates were then at war, 
 the ambassadors were astonished at the perfidy of 
 the French governor, and could not help communi- 
 cating the design of their journey. Adario, in pro- 
 secution of his crafty scheme, counterfeited the ut- 
 most distress, anger, and shame, on being made the 
 ignominious tool of De Nonville's treachery, and 
 addressing himself to Dekanesora, the principal am- 
 bassador, said to him, " Go, my brethren, I untie 
 your bonds, and send you home again, though our 
 nations be at war. The French governor has made 
 me commit so black an action, that I shall never be 
 easy after it, till the five nations shall have taken 
 full revenge." This outrage and indignity upon the 
 rights of ambassadors, the truth of which they did 
 not in the least doubt, animated the confederates to 
 the keenest thirst after revenge ; and accordingly 
 1200 of their men, on the 26th of July, 1688, landed 
 on the south side of the island of Montreal, while 
 the French were in perfect security; burnt their 
 houses, sacked their plantations, and put to the 
 sword all the men, women, and children, without 
 the skirts of the town. A thousand French were 
 slain in this invasion, and twenty-six carried into cap- 
 tivity and burnt alive. Many more were made pri- 
 soners in another attack in October, and the lower 
 
522 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, 
 
 part of the island wholly destroyed. Only three of 
 the confederates were lost, in all this scene of mi- 
 sery and desolation. 
 
 The foregoing account is from Dr. Golden, who 
 differs from Charlevoix, who says, that the invasion 
 was late in August, and the Indians 1500 strong ; 
 and the loss of the French only 200. 
 
 The news of this attack on Montreal no sooner 
 reached the garrison at the lake Ontario, than they 
 eet fire to the two barks which they had built there, 
 and abandoned the fort, leaving a match to 28 bar- 
 rels of powder, designed to blow up the works. The 
 soldiers went down the river in such precipitation, 
 that one of the battoes and her crew were all lost in 
 shooting a fall. The confederates in the mean time 
 seized the fort, the powder, and the stores ; and of 
 all the French allies, who were very numerous, only 
 the Nepicirinians and Kikabous adhered to them in 
 their calamities. The Utawawas and seven other 
 nations instantly made peace with the English ; and 
 but for the uncommon sagacity and address of the 
 Sieur Perot, the western Indians would have mur- 
 dered every Frenchman amongst them. Nor did the 
 distresses of the Canadians end here. Numerous 
 scouts from the five nations continually infested 
 their borders. The frequent depredations that were 
 made, prevented them from the cultivation of their 
 fields, and a distressing famine raged through the 
 whole country. Nothing but the ignorance of the 
 Indians, in the art of attacking fortified places, 
 saved Canada from being now utterly cut off. It 
 was therefore unspeakably fortunate to the French, 
 that the Indians had no assistance from the English, 
 and as unfortunate to us, that our colonies were 
 then incapable of affording succours to the confede- 
 rates, through the malignant influence of those exe- 
 crable measures, which were pursued under the in- 
 famous reign of king James the Second. Colonel 
 Dongan, whatever his conduct might have been in 
 civil affairs, did all that he could in those relating 
 to the Indians, and fell at last into the king's dis- 
 pleasure, through his zeal for the true interest of the 
 province. 
 
 While these things were transacting in Canada, 
 a scene of the greatest importance was opening at 
 New York. A general disaffection to the govern- 
 ment prevailed among the people. Papists began 
 to settle in the colony under the smiles of the go- 
 vernor. The collector of the revenues, and several 
 principal officers, threw off the mask, and openly 
 avowed their attachment to the doctrines of Rome. 
 A Latin school was set up, and the teacher strongly 
 suspected for a Jesuit. The people of Long Island, 
 who were disappointed in their expectation of the 
 favours promised by the governor on his arrival, 
 were become his personal enemies ; and in a word, 
 the whole body of the people trembled for the pro- 
 testant cause. Here the leaven of opposition first 
 began to work. Their intelligence from England, 
 ef the designs there in favour of the prince of Orange, 
 elevated the hopes of the disaffected. But no man 
 dared to act, till after the rupture in Boston. Sir 
 Edmond Andross, who was perfectly devoted to the 
 arbitrary measures of king James, by his tyranny 
 in New England had drawn upon himself the uni- 
 versal odium of a people animated with the love of 
 liberty, and in the defence of it resolute and cou- 
 rageous ; and therefore, when they could no longer 
 endure his despotic rule, they seized and imprisoned 
 him, and afterwards sent him to England. The 
 government, in the mean time, was vested in the 
 hands of a committee for the safety of the people, of 
 
 which Mr. Bradstreet was chosen president. Upon 
 the news of this event, several captains of the New 
 York militia convened themselves to concert mea- 
 sures in favour of the prince of Orange. Amongst 
 these, Jacob Leisler was the most active ; a man in 
 tolerable esteem among the people, and of a mode- 
 rate fortune, but destitute of every qualification ne 
 cessary for the enterprise. Milborne, his son-in- 
 law, an Englishman, directed all his councils, while 
 Leisler as absolutely influenced the other officers. 
 
 The first thing they contrived, was to seize the 
 garrison in New York; and the custom, at that 
 time, of guarding it every night by the militia, gave 
 Leisler a fine opportunity of executing the design. 
 He entered it with forty-nine men, and determined 
 to hold it till the whole militia should join him. Col. 
 Dongan, who was about to leave the province, then 
 lay embarked in the bay, having a little before re- 
 signed the government to Francis Nicholson, the 
 lieut.-governor. The council, civil officers, and ma- 
 gistrates of the city were against Leisler, and there- 
 fore many of his friends were at first fearful of 
 openly espousing a cause disapproved by the gentle- 
 men of figure. For this reason, Leisler's first de- 
 claration in favour of the prince of Orange was sub- 
 scribed only by a few among several companies of 
 the trained bands. While the people, for four days 
 successively, were in the utmost perplexity to de- 
 termine what part to choose, being solicited by Leis- 
 ler on the one hand, and threatened by the lieut.- 
 governor on the other, the town was alarmed with 
 a report, that three ships were coming up, with or- 
 ders from the prince of Orange. This falsehood was 
 very seasonably propagated to serve the interest of 
 Leisler; for on that day, the 3d of June, 1689, his 
 party was augmented by the addition of six captains 
 and 400 men in New York, and a company of 70 
 men from East Chester, who all subscribed a second 
 declaration, mutually covenanting to hold the fort 
 for that prince. Colonel Dongan continued till this 
 time in the harbour, waiting the issue of these com- 
 motions ; and Nicholson's party being now unable 
 to contend with their opponents, were totally dis 
 persed, the lieut.-governor himself absconding the 
 very night after the last declaration was signed. 
 
 Leisler being now in complete possession of the 
 fort, sent home an address to King William and 
 Queen Mary, as soon as he received the news of 
 their accession to the throne. It is a tedious, in- 
 correct, ill-drawn narrative of the grievances which 
 the people had endured, and the methods lately 
 taken to secure themselves, ending with a recogni- 
 tion of the King and Queen over the whole English 
 dominions. 
 
 This address was soon followed by a private letter 
 from Leisler to King William, which, in very broken 
 English, informs his majesty of the state of the gar- 
 rison, the repairs he had made to it, and the temper 
 of the people, and concludes with strong protesta- 
 tions of his sincerity, loyalty, and zoal. Jost Stoll, 
 an ensign, on the delivery of this letter to the king, 
 had the honour to kiss his majesty's hand, but 
 Nicholson the lieut.-governor, and one Ennis, an 
 episcopal clergyman, arrived in England before him ; 
 and by falsely representing the late measures in 
 New York, as proceeding rather from their aversion 
 to the church of England, than zeal for the prince 
 of Orange, Leisler and his party were deprived of 
 the rewards and notice which their activity for the 
 revolution justly deserved. For though the king 
 made Stoll the bearer of his thanks to the people 
 for their fidelity, he so little regarded Leisler's com- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 523 
 
 plaints against Nicholson, that he was soon after 
 preferred to the government of Virginia. Dongan 
 returned to Ireland, and succeeded to the earldom 
 of Limerick. 
 
 Leisler's sudden investure with supreme power 
 over the province, and the probable prospects of 
 King William's approbation of his conduct, could 
 not but excite the envy and jealousy of the late 
 council and magistrates, who had refused to join in 
 aiding the revolution ; and hence the spring of all 
 their aversion both to the man and his measures. 
 Colonel Bayard, and Courtland the mayor of the 
 city, were at the head of his opponents, and finding 
 it impossible to raise a party against him in the city, 
 they very early retired to Albany, and there endea- 
 voured to foment the opposition. Leisler, on the 
 other hand, fearful of their influence, and to extin- 
 guish the jealousy of the people, thought it prudent 
 to admit several trusty persons to a participation of 
 that power which the militia on the 1st of July had 
 committed solely to himself. In conjunction with 
 these, (who, after the Boston example, were called 
 the committee of safety) he exercised the govern- 
 ment, assuming to himself only the honour of being 
 president in their councils. This model continued 
 till the month of December, when a packet arrived 
 with a letter from the Lords Carmarthen, Hallifax, 
 and others, directed "To Francis Nicholson, Esq.; 
 or in his absence, to such as for the time being take 
 care for preserving the peace and administering the 
 laws, in their majesty's province of New York, in 
 America." This letter was dated the '29th of July, 
 and was accompanied with another from Lord Not- 
 tingham, dated the next day, which empowered 
 Nicholson to take upon him the chief command, 
 and to appoint for his assistance as many of the 
 principal freeholders and inhabitants as he should 
 think fit, requiring him also " to do every thing apper- 
 taining to the office of lieut. -governor, according to the 
 laws and customs of New York until further orders." 
 
 Nicholson having absconded before this packet 
 came to hand, Leisler considered the letter as di- 
 rected to himself, and from this time issued all kinds 
 of commissions in his own name, assuming the title 
 as well as authority of lieut.-governor. On the llth 
 of December, he summoned the committee of safety, 
 and, agreeably to their advice, swore the following 
 persons for his council. Peter de Lanoy, Samuel 
 Staats, Hendrick Jansen, and Johannes Vermilie, 
 for New York ; Gerardus Beekman, for King's 
 County ; Samuel Edsel, for Queen's County ; Tho- 
 mas Williams, for West Chester ; and William Law- 
 rence, for Orange County. 
 
 Except the eastern inhabitants of Long Island, 
 all the southern part of the colony cheerfully sub- 
 mitted to Leisler's command. The principal free- 
 holders, however, by respectful letters, gave him 
 hopes of their submission, and thereby prevented 
 his betaking himself to arms, while they were pri- 
 vately soliciting the colony of Connecticut to take 
 them under its jurisdiction. They had indeed no 
 aversion to Leisler's authority in favour of any other 
 party in the province, but were willing to be incor- 
 porated with a people, from whence they had origi- 
 nally colonized ; and therefore as soon as Connecti- 
 cut declined their request, they openly appeared to 
 be advocates for Leisler. At this juncture the Long 
 Island representation was drawn up. 
 
 The people of Albany, in the meantime, were 
 determined to hold the garrison and city for king 
 William, independent of Leisler, and on the 26th 
 of October, which was before the packet arrived 
 
 from Lord Nottingham, formed themselves into a 
 convention for that purpose. As Leisler's attempt 
 to reduce this country to his command, was the ori- 
 ginal cause of the future divisions in the province, and 
 in the end brought about his own ruin, it may not 
 be improper to give the resolution of the convention 
 at large, a copy of which was sent down to him. 
 
 " Peter Schuyler, mayor, Dirk Wessels, recorder, 
 Jan Wendal, Jan Jansen Bleeker, Claes Ripse, 
 David Schuyler, Albert Ryckman, aldermen. Kil- 
 lian V. Renslaer, justice, Captain Marte Gerritse, 
 justice, Captain Gerrit Teunisse, Dirk Teunisse, 
 justices, Lieutenant Robert Saunders, John Cuyler, 
 Gerrit Ryerse, Evert Banker, Rynier Barentse. 
 
 " Resolved, Since we are informed, by persons 
 coming from New York, that Captain Jacob Leisler 
 is designed to send up a company of armed men, 
 upon pretence to assist us in this country, who in- 
 tend to make themselves master of their majesties 
 fort and this city, and carry divers persons and chief 
 officers of this city prisoners to New York, and so 
 disquiet and disturb their majesties liege people; 
 that a letter be written to Alderman Levinus Van 
 Schaic, now at New York, and Lieutenant Jochim 
 Staets, to make narrow enquiry of the business, and 
 to signify to the said Leisler, that we have received 
 such information ; and withal acquaint him, that 
 notwithstanding we have the assistance of ninety- 
 five men from our neighbours of New England, who 
 are now gone for, and 100 men upon occasion, to 
 command, from the county of Ulster, which we think 
 will be sufficient this winter, yet we will willingly 
 accept any such assistance as they shall be pleased 
 to send for the defence of their majesties county of 
 Albany; provided they be obedient to, and obey 
 such orders and commands as they shall from time 
 to time receive from the convention ; and that by 
 no means they will be admitted to have the com- 
 mand of their majesties fort or this city ; which we 
 intend, by God's assistance, to keep and preserve 
 for the behoof of their majesties, William and Mary, 
 king and queen of England, as we hitherto have 
 done since their proclamation ; and if you hear that 
 they persevere with such intentions, so to disturb 
 the inhabitants of this county, that you then, in the 
 name and behalf of the convention and inhabitants 
 of the city and county of Albany, protest against 
 the said Leisler, and all such persons that shall make 
 attempt for all losses, damages, blood-shed, or what- 
 soever mischiefs may ensue thereon ; which you are 
 to communicate with all speed, as you perceive their 
 design." 
 
 Taking it for granted, that Leisler at New York, 
 and the convention at Albany, were equally affected 
 to the revolution, nothing could be more egregiously 
 foolish, than the conduct of both parties, who, by 
 their intestine divisions, threw the province into 
 convulsions, and sewed the seeds of mutual hatred 
 and animosity, which, for a long time after, greatly 
 embarrassed the public affairs of the colony. When 
 Albany declared for the Prince of Orange, there 
 was nothing else that Leisler could properly re- 
 quire : and rather than sacrifice the public peace of 
 the province to the trifling honour of resisting a 
 man who had no evil designs, Albany ought in pru- 
 dence to have delivered the garrison into his hands, 
 till the king's definite orders should arrive. But 
 while Leisler, on the one hand, was inebriated with 
 his new-gotten power, so on the other, Bayard, 
 Courtland, Schuyler, and others, could not brook a 
 submission to the authority of a man, mean in his 
 abilities, and inferior in his degree. Animated by 
 
524 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 these principles, both parties prepared, the one to 
 reduce, the other to retain, the garrison of Albany. 
 Mr. Livingston, a principal agent for the conven- 
 tion, retired into Connecticut, to solicit the aid of 
 that colony, for the protection of the frontiers against 
 the French. Leisler, suspecting that they were to 
 be used against him, endeavoured not only to pre- 
 vent these supplies, but wrote letters, to have Li- 
 vingston apprehended, as an enemy to the reigning 
 powers, and to procure succours from Boston, falsely 
 representing the convention as in the interest of the 
 French and king James. 
 
 Jacob Milborne was commissioned for the reduc- 
 tion of Albany. Upon his arrival there, a great 
 number of the inhabitants armed themselves, and 
 repaired to the fort, then commanded by Mr. Schuy- 
 ler, while many others followed the other members 
 of the convention to a conference with him at the 
 city hall. Milborne, to gain over the crowd, de- 
 claimed much against king James, popery, and arbi- 
 trary power; but his oratory was lost upon the 
 hearers, who, after several meetings, still adhered 
 to the convention. Milborne then advanced with a 
 fow men up to the fort, and Mr. Schuyler had the 
 utmost difficulty to prevent both his own men, and 
 the Mohawks, who were then in Albany, and per- 
 fectly devoted to his service, from firing upon Mil- 
 borue's party, which consisted of an inconsiderable 
 number. In these circumstances, he thought proper 
 to retreat, and soon after departed from Albany. 
 In the spring, he commanded another party upon 
 the same errand, and the distress of the country on 
 an Indian irruption, gave him all the desired success. 
 No sooner was he possessed of the garrison, than 
 most of the principal members of the convention 
 absconded. Upon which, their effects were arbitra- 
 rily seized and confiscated, which so highly exaspe- 
 rated the sufferers, that their posterity for a long 
 time vented the bitterest invectives against Leisler 
 and his adherents. 
 
 In the midst of those intestine confusions at New 
 York, the people of New England were engaged in 
 a war with the Owenagungas, Ourages, and Peno- 
 cooks. Between these and the Schakook Indians 
 there was then a friendly communication, and the same 
 was suspected of the Mohawks, among whom some 
 of the Owenagungas had taken sanctuary. This 
 gave rise to a conference between several commis- 
 sioners from Boston, Plymouth, and Connecticut, 
 and the five nations, at Albany, in September, 1689, 
 the former endeavouring to engage the latter against 
 those eastern Indians who were then at war with 
 the New England colonies. Tahajadoris, a Mohawk 
 sachem, in a long oration, answered the English 
 message, and, however improbable it may seem to 
 Europeans, repeated all that had been said the pre- 
 ceding day. The art they have in assisting their 
 memories is this. The sachem who presides has a 
 bundle of sticks prepared for the purpose, and at the 
 close of every principal article of the message de- 
 livered to them, gives a stick to another sachem, 
 charging him with the remembrance of it. By this 
 means the orator, after a previous conference with 
 the Indians, is prepared to repeat every part of the 
 message, and give it its proper reply. This custom 
 is invariably pursued in all their public treaties. 
 
 The conference did not answer the expectation 
 of the people of New England, the five nations dis- 
 covering a great disinclination to join in the hostilities 
 against the eastern Indians. To atone for which, 
 they gave the highest protestations of their willing- 
 ness to distress the French, against whom the Eng- 
 
 lish had declared war, on 7th of May preceding. 
 That part of the speech, ratifying their friendship 
 with the English colonies, is singularly expressed. 
 " We promise to preserve the chain inviolably, and 
 wish that the sun may always shine in peace over all 
 our heads that are comprehended in this chain. We 
 give two belts. One for the sun and the other for ils 
 beams. We make fast the roots of the tree of peace 
 and tranquillity, which is planted in this place. Its 
 roots extend as far as the utmost of your colonies : if 
 the French should come to shake this tree, we would 
 feel it by the motion of its roots, which extend into 
 our country. But we trust it will not be in the go- 
 vernor of Canada's power to shake this tree, which 
 has been so firmly and long planted with us." 
 The Indian conception of the league is couched 
 under the idea of a chain extended from a ship to a 
 tree, and every renewal of this league they call 
 brightening the chain. 
 
 Nothing could have been more advantageous to 
 the colonies, and especially to New York, than the 
 success of the five nations against Canada. The 
 miseries to which the French were reduced rendered 
 them secure against their inroads, till the work of 
 the revolution was in a great measure accomplished ; 
 aud to their distressed condition we must principally 
 ascribe the defeat of the French design of conquer- 
 ing the province. De Cailiers, who went to France 
 in 1668, first projected the scheme, and the troubles 
 in England encouraged the French court to make 
 the attempt. Caffiniere commanded the ships, which 
 sailed for that purpose from Rochfort ; subject, 
 nevertheless, to the Count de Frontenac, who was 
 general of the land foices, destined to march from 
 Canada by the route of Sorel river and the lake 
 Champlain. The fleet and troops arrived at Che- 
 bucta, the place of rendezvous, in September ; from 
 whence the count proceeded to Quebec, leaving or- 
 ders with Caffiniere to sail for New York, and con- 
 tinue in the bay in sight of the city, but beyond the 
 fire of the cannon, till the 1st of December, when, 
 if he received no intelligence from him, he was or- 
 dered to return to France, after unlading the am- 
 munition, stores, and provisions at Port-Royal, now 
 Annapolis. The count was in high spirits, and fully 
 determined upon the enterprise, till he arrived at 
 Quebec; where the news of the success of the five 
 nations against Montreal, the loss of his favourite 
 fort at lake Ontario, and the advanced season of the 
 year, defeated his aims, and broke up the expedition. 
 De Nonville, who was recalled, carried the news of 
 this disappointment to the court of France, leaving 
 the chief command of the country in the hands of 
 Count Frontenac. This gentleman was a man of 
 courage, and well acquainted with the affairs of that 
 country. He was then in the 68th year of his age, 
 and yet so far from consulting his ease, that in a few 
 days after he landed at Quebec, he re-embarked n 
 a canoe for Montreal, where his presence was abso- 
 lutely necessary, to animate the inhabitants and re- 
 gain their Indian alliances. A war between the 
 English and French crowns having broken out, the 
 count betook himself to every art for concluding a 
 peace between Canada and the five nations; and 
 for this purpose, the utmost civilities were shewn to 
 Taweraket and the other Indians, who had been sent 
 to France by De Nonville, and were now returned. 
 Three of those Indians, who doubtless were struck 
 with the grandeur and glory of the French monarch, 
 were properly sent on the important message of 
 conciliating the friendship of the five nations. These, 
 agreeably to their alliance with New York, sent two 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 525 
 
 sachems to Albany in December, with a notice that 
 a council for that purpose was to be held at Onon- 
 daga. It is a just reflection upon the people of 
 Albany, that they regarded the treaty so slightly, as 
 only to send four Indians and the interpreter with 
 instructions, in their name, to dissuade the con- 
 federates from a cessation of arms; while the French, 
 on the other hand, had then a Jesuit among the 
 Oneydoes. The council began on the 22d of Janu- 
 ary 1690, and consisted of eighty sachems. Sade- 
 kanaghtie, an Onondaga chief, opened the confer- 
 ence. The whole was managed with great art arid 
 formality, and concluded in shewing a disposition 
 to make peace with the French, without perfecting 
 it; guarding, at the same time, against the least 
 umbrage to the English. 
 
 Among other measures to detach the five nations 
 from the British interest, and raise the depressed 
 spirit of the Canadians, the Count de Frontenac 
 thought proper to send out several parties against 
 the English colonies. D'Aillebout, De Mantel and 
 Le Moyne commanded that against New York, con- 
 sisting of about 200 French and some Caghnuaga 
 Indians, who being proselytes from the Mohawks, 
 were perfectly acquainted with that country. Their 
 orders were, in general, to attack New York; but 
 pursuing the advice of the Indians, they resolved, 
 instead of Albany, to surprise Schenectady, a village 
 seventeen miles north-west from it, and about the 
 same distance from the Mohawks. The people of 
 Schenectady, though they had been informed of the 
 designs of the enemy, were in the greatest security ; 
 judging it impracticable for any men to march se- 
 veral hundred miles, in the depth of winter, through 
 the snow, bearing their provisions on their backs. 
 Besides, the village was in as much confusion as the 
 rest of the province ; the officers who were posted 
 there being unable to preserve a regular watch, or 
 any kind of military order. Such was the state of 
 Schenectady, as represented by Colonel Schuyler, 
 who was at that time mayor of the city of Albany, 
 and at the head of the convention. 
 
 After two and twenty days march, the enemy fell 
 in with Schenectady, on the 8th of February; and 
 were reduced to such streights, that they had thoughts 
 of surrendering themselves prisoners of war. But 
 their scouts, who were a day or two in the village 
 entirely unsuspected, returned with such encourag- 
 ing accounts of the absolute security of the people, 
 that the enemy determined on the attack. They 
 entered, on Saturday night about eleven o'clock, at 
 the gates, which were found unshut ; and, that every 
 house might be invested at the same time, divided 
 into small parties of six or seven men. The inhabit- 
 ants were in a profound sleep and unalarmed, till 
 their doors were broken open. Never were people 
 in a more wretched consternation. Before they 
 were risen from their beds, the enemy entered their 
 houses, and began the perpetration of the most in- 
 human barbarities. No tongue, says Col. Schuyler, 
 can express the cruelties that were committed. The 
 whole village was instantly in a blaze. Women 
 with child ripped open, and their infants cast into 
 the flames, or dashed against the posts of the doors. 
 Sixty persons perished in the massacre, and twenty- 
 seven were carried into captivity. The rest fled 
 naked towards Albany, through a deep snow which 
 fell that very night in a terrible storm; and twenty- 
 five of these fugitives lost their limbs in the flight 
 through the severity of the frost. The news of this 
 dreadful tragedy reaehed Albany about break of 
 day, and an universal dread seized the inhabitants 
 
 of that city, the enemy being reported to be 1,400 
 strong. A party of horse was immediately dis- 
 patched to Schenectady, and a few Mohawks then 
 in town, fearful of being intercepted, were with diffi- 
 culty sent to apprise their own castles. 
 
 The Mohawks were unacquainted with this bloody 
 scene till two days after it happened, our messengers 
 being scarce able to travel through the great depth 
 of the snow. The enemy, in the mean time, pillaged 
 the town of Schenectady till noon the next day, and 
 then wont off with their plunder, and about forty of 
 their best horses. The rest, with all the cattle they 
 could find, lay slaughtered in the streets. 
 
 The design of the French, in this attack, was to 
 alarm the fears of the Indian allies, by shewing that the 
 New York people were incapable of defending them. 
 Every art also was used to conciliate their friendship, 
 for they not only spared those Mohawks who were 
 found in Schenectady , but several other particular per- 
 sons, in compliment to the Indians, who requested that 
 favour. Several women and children were also re- 
 leased at the desire of Captain Glen, to whom the 
 French offered no violence; the officer declaring he 
 had strict orders against it, on the score of his wife's 
 civilities to certain French captives in the time of 
 Colonel Dongan. 
 
 The Mohawks, considering the deceptive arts of 
 the French, and that the Caghnuagas who were with 
 them were once a part of their own body, behaved 
 as well as could be reasonably expected. They 
 joined a party of young men from Albany, fell upon 
 the rear of the enemy, and either killed or captured 
 twenty-five. Several sachems, in the mean time, came 
 to Albany, and very affectingly addressed the inhabit- 
 ants, who were just ready to abandon the country ; 
 urging their stay, and exciting an union of all the 
 English colonies against Canada. Their sentiments 
 concerning the French, appear from the following 
 speech of condolence : " Brethren, we do not think, 
 that what the French have done can be called a 
 victory : it is only a farther proof of their cruel de- 
 ceit : the governor of Canada sent to Onondaga, and 
 talks to us of peace with our whole house ; but war 
 was in his heart, as you now see by woful experience. 
 He did the same, formerly, at Cadaracqui, and in 
 the Sennecas country. This is the third time he 
 has acted so deceitfully. He has broken open, our 
 house at both ends ; formerly in the Sennecas 
 country, and now here. We hope, however, to bo 
 revenged of them." 
 
 Agreeably to this declaration, the Indians soon 
 after treated the chevalier D'Eau and the rest of 
 the French messengers, who came to conclude the 
 peace proposed by Taweraket, with the utmost in- 
 dignity ; and afterwards delivered them up to the 
 English. Besides this, their scouts harassed the 
 borders of the enemy and fell upon a party of French 
 and Indians, in the river, about 120 miles above 
 Montreal, under the command of Louvigni, a cap- 
 tain who was going to Missilimakinac, to prevent 
 the conclusion of the peace between the Utawawas 
 and Quatoghies, with the five nations. The loss in 
 this skirmish was nearly equal on both sides. One 
 of the English prisoners was delivered to the Uta- 
 wawas, who ate him. In revenge for this barbarity, 
 the Indians attacked the island of Montreal at 
 Trembling Point, and killed an officer and twelve 
 men ; while another party carried off about fifteen 
 prisoners taken at Riviere Puante, whom they after- 
 wards slew through fear of their pursuers, and others 
 burnt the French plantations at St. Eurs. But 
 what rendered this year most remarkable was, the 
 
526 
 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 expedition of Sir William Phipps against Quebec. 
 He sailed up the river with a fleet of thirty-two sail 
 and came before the city in October. Had he im- 
 proved his time and strength, the conquest would 
 have been easy ; but by spending three days in idle 
 consultations, the French governor brought in his 
 forces, and entertained such a mean opinion of the 
 English knight, that he not only despised his sum- 
 mons to surrender, but sent a verbal answer, in which 
 he called king William an usurper, and poured the 
 utmost contempt upon his subjects. The messenger 
 who carried the summons insisted upon a written 
 answer, and that within an hour ; but the Count 
 De Frontenac absolutely refused it, adding, " I'll 
 answer your master by the mouth of my cannon, 
 that he may learn that a man of my condition is not 
 to be summoned in this manner." Upon this, Sir 
 William made two attempts to land below the town, 
 but was repulsed by the enemy, with considerable 
 loss of men, cannon, and baggage. Several of the 
 ships also cannonaded the city, but without any 
 success. The forts at the same time returned the fire, 
 and obliged them to retire in disorder. The French 
 writers, in their accounts of this expedition, univer- 
 sally censure the conduct of Sir William, though 
 they confess the valour of his troops. La Hontan, 
 who was then at Quebec, says, he could not have 
 acted in a manner more agreeable to the French, if 
 he had been in their interest. Among the causes of 
 the ill success of the fleet, the author of the life of 
 Sir William Phipps mentions the neglect of the 
 conjoined troops of New York, Connecticut, and 
 the Indians, to attack Montreal, according to the 
 original plan of operations. He says that they 
 marched to the lake, but there found themselves un- 
 provided with battoes, and that the Indians were 
 dissuaded from the attempt. By what authority these 
 assertions may be supported, does not appear. 
 Charlevoix says, the English colonial troops were 
 disappointed iii the intended diversion, by the small- 
 pox, which seized the camp, killed 300 men, and 
 terrified our Indian allies. 
 
 From the revolution to the second expedition against 
 Canada. 
 
 While the Indians were faithfully exerting them- 
 selves against the common enemy, Colonel Henry 
 Sloughter, who had a commission to be governor of 
 this pi'ovince, dated the 4th of January, 1689, ar- 
 rived, and published it on the 19th of March, 1691. 
 Never was a governor more necessary to the pro- 
 vince, than at this critical conjuncture ; as well for 
 reconciling a divided people, as for defending them 
 against the wiles of a cunning adversary. But either 
 through the hurry of the king's affairs, or the power- 
 ful interest of a favourite, a man was sent over ut- 
 terly destitute of every qualification for government 
 licentious in his morals, avaricious, and poor. The 
 council present at his arrival were Joseph Dudley, 
 Frederick Philipse, Stephen Van Courtland, Ga- 
 briel Mienville, Chudley Brook, Thomas Willet, 
 William Pinhorne. 
 
 If Leisler had delivered the garrison to Colonel 
 Sloughter, as he ought to have done, upon his first 
 landing, besides extinguishing, in a great degree, 
 the animosities then subsisting, he would doubtless 
 have attracted the favourable notice both of the 
 governor and the crown. But being a weak man, 
 he was so intoxicated with the love of power, that 
 though he had been well informed of Sloughter's ap- 
 pointment to the government, he not only shut him- 
 belf up in the fort with Bayard and Nichols, whom 
 
 he had, before that time, imprisoned, but refused to 
 deliver them up, or to surrender the garrison. From 
 this moment, he lost all credit with the governor, 
 who joined the other party against him. On the 
 second demand of the fort, Milborne and Delanoy 
 came out, under pretence of conferring with his 
 excellency, but in reality to discover his designs. 
 Sloughter, who considered them as rebels, threw 
 them both into gaol. Leisler, upon this event, 
 thought proper to abandon the fort, which Colonel 
 Sloughter immediately entered. Bayard and Nichols 
 ere now released from their confinement, and 
 sworn of the privy council. Leisler having thus 
 ruined his cause, was apprehended with many of 
 his adherents, and a commission of oyer and ter- 
 miner issued to Sir Thomas Robinson, Col. Smith, 
 and others, for their trials. 
 
 In vain did they plead the merit of their zeal for 
 king William, since they had so lately opposed his 
 governor. Leisler, in particular, endeavoured to 
 justify his conduct, insisting that Lord Nottingham's 
 letter entitled him to act in the quality of lieutenant- 
 governor. Whether it was through ignorance or 
 sycophancy, does not appear ; but the judges, in- 
 stead of pronouncing their own sentiments upon this 
 part of the prisoner's defence, referred it to the 
 governor and council, praying their opinion, whether 
 that letter, " or any other letters, or papers, in the 
 packet from Whitehall, can be understood, or in- 
 terpreted, to be and contain any power or direction 
 to Captain Leisler, to take the government of this 
 province upon himself, or that the administration 
 thereupon be holden good in law." The answer 
 was, as might have been expected, in the negative ; 
 and Leisler and his son were condemned to death 
 for high treason. These violent measures drove 
 many of the inhabitants, who were fearful of being 
 apprehended, into the neighbouring colonies, which 
 shortly after occasioned the passing an act of general 
 indemnity. 
 
 From the surrender of the province to the year 
 1683, the inhabitants were ruled by the duke's 
 governors and their councils, who, from time to time, 
 made rules and orders, which were esteemed to be 
 binding as laws. 
 
 Those acts, which were made in 1683, and after 
 the duke's accession to the throne, when the people 
 were admitted to a participation of the legislative 
 power, are for the most part decayed or lost. Few 
 minutes relating to them remain on the council 
 books, and none in the journals of the house. 
 
 As this assembly, in 1691, was the first after the 
 revolution, it may not be improper to take some 
 particular notice of its transactions. All laws made 
 antecedent, to this period, are disregarded both by 
 the legislature and the courts of law. In the collec- 
 tion of acts, published in 1752, the compilers were 
 directed to begin at this assembly. 
 
 It began the 9th of April, according to the writs 
 of summons issued on the 20th of March preceding. 
 The journal of the house opens with a list of the 
 members returned by the sheriffs. City and county 
 of New York James Graham, William Merret, Jac. 
 Van Courtlandt, Johannes Kip. City and county 
 of Albany -Derrick Wessels, Levinus Van Scayck, 
 County ofRichmond Elias Dukesbury, John Dally. 
 County of West Chester John Pell. County of 
 Suffolk Henry Pierson, Matthew Howell. Ulster 
 and Dutchess county Henry Beekman, Thomas 
 Garton. Queen's County John Bound, Nathaniel 
 Percall. King's County Nicholas Stillwell, John 
 Poland. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 527 
 
 The members for queen's county, being Quakers, 
 were afterwards dismissed for refusing the oaths di- 
 rected by the governor's commission ; but all the 
 rest were qualified before two commissioners ap- 
 pointed for that purpose. James Graham was elected 
 their speaker, and approved by the governor. The 
 majority of the members of this assembly were 
 against the measures which Leisler pursued in the 
 latter part of his time, and hence we find the house, 
 after considering a petition, signed by sundry per- 
 sons against Leisler, unanimously resolved, that his 
 dissolving the 4ate convention, and imprisoning se- 
 veral persons, was tumultuous, illegal, and against 
 their majesties right, and that the late depredations 
 on Schencctady were to be attributed to his usurp- 
 ation of all power. 
 
 They resolved against the late forcible seizures 
 made of effects of the people, and against the levy- 
 ing of money on their majesties subjects. And as 
 to Leisler' s holding the fort against the governor, 
 it was voted to be an act of rebellion. 
 
 The house having, by these resolves, prepared the 
 way of their access to the governor, addressed him 
 in these words : 
 
 " May it please your Excellency, We, their ma- 
 jesties most dutiful and loyal subjects, convened, by 
 their majesties most gracious favour, in general as- 
 sembly, in this province, do, in all most humble 
 manner, heartily congratulate your excellency, that 
 as, in our hearts, we do abhor and detest all the re- 
 bellious, arbitrary, and illegal proceedings of the 
 late usurpers of their majesties authority over this 
 province, so we do, from the bottom of our hearts, 
 with all integrity, acknowledge and declare, that 
 there are none that can or ought to have right to 
 rule and govern their majesties subjects here, but 
 by their majesties authority, which is now placed in 
 your excellency ; and therefore we do solemnly de- 
 clare that we will, with our lives and fortunes, sup- 
 port and maintain the administration of your ex- 
 cellency's government, under their majesties, against 
 all their majesties enemies whatsoever: and this we 
 humbly pray your excellency to accept, as the sin- 
 cere acknowledgment of all their majesties good 
 subjects, within this their province; praying for 
 their majesties long and happy reign over us, and 
 that your excellency may long live and rule, as ac- 
 cording to their majesties most excellent constitution 
 of governing their subjects by a general assembly." 
 
 Before this house proceeded to pass any acts, they 
 unanimously resolved, " That all the laws consented 
 to by the general assembly, under James. Duke of 
 York, and the liberties and privileges therein con- 
 tained, granted to the people, and declared to be 
 their rights, not being observed, nor ratified and ap- 
 proved by his royal highness, nor the late king, are 
 null and void, and of none effect ; and also, the se- 
 veral ordinances, made by the late governors and coun- 
 cils, being contrary to the constitution of England, 
 and the practice of the government of their majesties 
 other plantations in America, are likewise null and 
 void, and of no effect, nor force, within this province." 
 
 Among the principal laws enacted this session, 
 we may mention that for establishing the revenue, 
 which was drawn into precedent. The sums raised by 
 it were made payable into the hands of the receiver- 
 general, and issued by the governor's warrant. By 
 this means the governor became, for a season, inde- 
 pendent of the people, and hence we find frequent 
 instances of the assemblies contending with him for 
 the discharge of debts to private persons, contracted 
 on the faith of government. 
 
 Antecedent to the English revolution, innumera- 
 ble were the controversies relating to public town- 
 ships and private rights ; and hence an act was now 
 passed, for the confirmation of ancient patents and 
 grants, intended to put an end to those debates. A 
 law was also passed for the establishment of 
 courts of justice, though a perpetual act had been 
 made to that purpose in 1683, and the old court of 
 assize entirely dissolved in 1684. As this enacted 
 in 1691 was a temporary law, it was disputed by 
 some, whether the establishment of the courts for 
 general jurisdiction, by an ordinance, was consistent 
 with the preceding act, or the general rules of law. 
 Upon the erection of the supreme court, a chief jus- 
 tice, and four assistant judges, with an attorney-ge- 
 neral, were appointed. The chief justice, Joseph 
 Dudley, had a salary of 130/. per annum; Johnson, 
 the second judge, 100Z., and both were payable out 
 of the revenue ; but William Smith, Stephen Van 
 Courtlandt, and William Finhornc, the other judges, 
 and Newton, the attorney -general, had nothing al- 
 lowed for their services. 
 
 It has, more than once, been a subject of animated 
 debate, whether the people in this colony had a 
 right to be represented in assembly, or whether it 
 was a privilege enjoyed through the grace of the 
 crown. A memorable act passed this session, virtu- 
 ally declared in favour of the .former opinion upon 
 that and several other of the principal and distin- 
 guishing liberties of Englishmen ; but it was after- 
 wards repealed by the English parliament, in the 
 year 1697, by an act, entitled, " An act declaring 
 what are the rights and privileges of their majesties 
 subjects inhabiting within their province of New 
 York." 
 
 Colonel Sloughter proposed, immediately after the 
 session, to set out to Albany ; but as Leisler's party 
 were enraged at his imprisonment and the late 
 sentence against him, his enemies were afraid new 
 troubles would spring up in the absence of the go- 
 vernor ; for this reason, both the assembly and coun- 
 cil advised that the prisoners should be immediately 
 executed. Sloughter, who had no inclination to 
 favour them in this request, chose rather to delay 
 such a violent step, being fearful of cutting off two 
 men, who had vigorously appeared for the king, and 
 so signally contributed to the revolution. Nothing 
 could be more disagreeable to their enemies, whose 
 interest was deeply concerned in their destruction. 
 And therefore, when no other measures could pre- 
 vail with the governor, tradition informs us, that 
 Colonel Sloughter was invited to an entertainment, 
 and prevailed on, when intoxicated, to sign the death- 
 warrant, on the authority of which, before he reco- 
 vered his senses, the prisoners were executed. Leis- 
 ler's son afterwards carried home a complaint to 
 king William against the governor. His petition 
 was referred, according to the common course of 
 plantation affairs, to the lords commissioners of trade, 
 who, after hearing the whole matter, reported on 
 the llth of March, 1692, " That they were humbly 
 of opinion, that Jacob Leisler and Jacob Milborne, 
 deceased, were condemned and had suffered accord- 
 ing to law." Their lordships, however, interceded 
 for their families, as fit objects of mercy, and this 
 induced Queen Mary, who approved the report, on 
 the 17th of March, to declare, " That upon the 
 humble application of the relations of the said Jacob 
 Leisler and Jacob Milborne, deceased, her majesty 
 will order the estates of Jacob Leisler and Jacob 
 Milborne to be restored to their families, as objects 
 of her majesty's mercy." The bodies of these un- 
 
628 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 happy sufferers were afterwards taken up, and in- 
 terred, with great pomp, in the old Dutch church, 
 in the city of New York. Their estates were re- 
 stored to their families, and Leisler's children, in 
 the public estimation, were rather dignified than 
 disgraced, by the fall of their ancestor. 
 
 These distractions in the province so entirely en- 
 grossed the public attention, that the Indian allies, 
 who had been left solely to contend with the common 
 enemy, grew extremely disaffected. The Mohawks 
 ill particular highly resented this conduct, and, at 
 the instance of the Caghnuagas, sent a messenger 
 to Canada, to confer with Count Frontenac about a 
 peace. To prevent this, Colonel Sloughter had an 
 interview at Albany, in June, with the other four 
 nations, who expressed their joy at seeing a go- 
 vernor again in that place. They told him, that 
 their ancestors, as they had been informed, were 
 greatly surprised at the arrival of the first ship in 
 that country, and were curious to know what was in 
 its huge belly. That they found Christians in it, 
 and one Jacques, with whom they made a chain of 
 friendship, which they had preserved. All the In- 
 dians, except the Mohawks, assured the governor at 
 this meeting of their resolution to prosecute the 
 war. The Mohawks confessed their negotiations 
 with the French, that they had received a belt from 
 Canada, prayed the advice of the governor, and 
 afterwards renewed their league with all our colonies. 
 
 Sloughter soon after returned to New York, and 
 ended a short, weak, and turbulent administration, 
 for he died suddenly on the 23d of July, 1691. Some 
 were not without suspicions that he came unfairly 
 to his end ; but the certificate of the physician and 
 surgeons who opened his body, by an order of coun- 
 cil, confuted these conjectures, and his remains were 
 interred in Stuyvesant's vault, next to those of the 
 old Dutch governor. 
 
 At the time of Sloughter's decease, the govern- 
 ment devolved, according to the late act for declar- 
 ing the rights of the people of the province, on the 
 council, in which Joseph Dudley had a right to pre- 
 side; but they committed the chief command to 
 Richard Ingolsby, a captain of an independent com- 
 pany, who was sworn into the office of president on 
 the 26th of July, 1691. Dudley soon afterwards 
 returned to this province from Boston, but did not 
 think proper to dispute Ingolsby's authority, though 
 the latter had no title, nor the greatest abilities for 
 government, and was besides obnoxious to the party 
 who had joined Leisler, having been an agent in the 
 measures which accomplished his ruin. To the late 
 troubles, which were then recent, and the agree- 
 ment subsisting between the council and assembly 
 we must ascribe it, that the former tacitly acknow- 
 ledged Ingolsby's right to the president's chair; for 
 they concurred with him in passing several laws in 
 autumn and the spring following, the validity of 
 which was never disputed. 
 
 This summer Major Schuyler, with a party of 
 Mohawks, passed through the lake Champlain, and 
 made a bold irruption upon the French settlement 
 at the north end of it. De Callieres, the governor 
 of Montreal, to oppose him, collected a small army 
 of 800 men, and encamped at La Prairie. Schuyler 
 had several conflicts with the enemy, and slew about 
 300 of them, which exceeded in number his whole 
 party. The French, ashamed of their ill success, 
 attributed it to the want of order, too many desiring 
 to have the command. But the true cause was the 
 ignorance of their officers in the Indian manner of 
 fighting. They kept their men in a body, while the 
 
 English colonists posted themselves behind trees, 
 hidden from the enemy. Major Schuyler's design, 
 in this descent, was to animate the Indians and pre- 
 serve their enmity with the French. They, accord- 
 ingly, continued their hostilities against them, and, 
 by frequent incursions, kept the country in constant 
 alarm. 
 
 In the midst of these distresses, the French go- 
 vernor preserved his sprightliness and vigour, ani- 
 mating every body about him After he had nego- 
 tiated with the TJtawawas, who came to trade at 
 Montreal, he sent them home under the care of a 
 captain and 110 men; and to secure their attach- 
 ment to the French interest, gave them two Indian 
 prisoners, and, besides, sent very considerable pre- 
 sents to the western Indians, in their alliance. The 
 two captives were afterwards burnt. The five na- 
 tions, in the mean time, grew more and more in- 
 censed, and continually harassed the French bor- 
 ders. M. Beaucour, a young French gentleman, in 
 the following winter marched a body of about 300 
 men to attack them at the isthmus, at Niagara. In- 
 credible were the fatigues they underwent in this 
 long march over the snow, bearing their provisions 
 on their backs. Eighty men of the five nations 
 opposed the French party, and bravely maintained 
 their ground till most of them were cut off. In re- 
 turn for which, the confederates in small parties ob- 
 structed the passage of the French through lake On- 
 tario, and the river issuing out of it, and cut off their 
 communication with the western Indians. An In- 
 dian called Black Kettle commanded in these in- 
 cursions of the five nations, and his successes, which 
 continued the whole summer, so exasperated the count 
 that he ordered an Indian prisoner to be burnt alive. 
 The bravery of this savage was as extraordinary, as 
 the torments inflicted on him were cruel. He sang 
 his military achievements without interruption, 
 even while his barbarous executioners practised all 
 possible cruelties. They broiled his feet, thrust his 
 fingers into red-hot pipes, cut his joints, and twisted 
 the sinews with bars of iron. After this his scalp 
 was ripped off, and hot sand poured on the wound. 
 We cannot but shrink with horror and disgust from 
 the conduct of the French, who were boasting them- 
 selves the most, if not the only, civilized nation in 
 the world, and who, with all the advantages of edu- 
 cation, and professing Christianity, were surpassing 
 the Indians, whom they reviled as savages, in base 
 and remorseless atrocities. 
 
 In June, 1692, Captain Ingolsby met the five 
 nations at Albany, and encouraged them to perse- 
 vere in the war. The Indians declared their enmity 
 to the French in the strongest terms, and as heartily 
 professed their friendship to us. " Brother Cor- 
 lear," said the sachem, " we are all subjects of one 
 great king and queen, we have one head, one heart, 
 one interest, and are all engaged in the same war." 
 The Indians at the same time did not forget, at this 
 interview, to condemn the inactivity of the English, 
 telling them, that the destruction of Canada would 
 not make one summer's work against their united 
 strength, if vigorously exerted. 
 
 Colonel Benjamin Fletcher arrived with a com- 
 mission to be governor on the 29th of August, 1692, 
 which was published the next day, before the follow- 
 ing members, in council : Frederick Philipse, 
 Nicholas Bayard, Chudley Brooke, Thomas Willet, 
 Stephen Van Courtlandt, Gabriel Mienville, Wil- 
 liam Nicoll, and Thomas Johnson. 
 
 William Pinhorne, one of that board, being a 
 non-resident was refused the oaths ; and Joseph 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 529 
 
 Dudley, for the same reason, removed both from his 
 scat in council and his office of ch ef justice; Caleb 
 Heathcote and John Young succeeded them in 
 council ; and William Smith was seated in Dudley's 
 place on the bench. 
 
 Colonel Fletcher brought over with him a pre- 
 sent to the colony of arms, ammunition, and warlike 
 stores ; in gratitude for which, he exhorted the coun- 
 cil and assembly, who were sitting at his arrival, to 
 send home an address of thanks to the king. It 
 consists, principally, of a representation of the great 
 expense the province was continually at to defend 
 the frontiers, and praying his majesty's direction, 
 that the neighbouring colonies might be compelled 
 to join their aid for the support of Albany. The 
 following passage in it shews the sense of the legis- 
 lature, upon a matter which was afterwards very 
 much debated. " When these countries were pos- 
 sessed by the Dutch West-India company, they al- 
 ways had pretences (and had the most part of it 
 within their actual jurisdiction) to all that tract of 
 land (with the islands adjacent) extending from 
 the west side of Connecticut river to the lands lying 
 on the west side of Delaware bay, as a suitable por- 
 tion of land for one colony or government ; all which, 
 including the lands on the west of Delaware bay or 
 river, were in the duke of York's grant, from his 
 majesty King Charles II., whose governors also 
 possessed those lands on the west side of Delaware 
 bay or river. By several grants as well from the 
 crown, as from the duke, the said province has been 
 so diminished, that it is now decreased to a very 
 few towns and villages ; the number of men fit to 
 bear arms in the whole government not amounting 
 to 3,000, who are all reduced to great poverty." 
 
 Fletcher was by profession a soldier, a man of 
 strong passions, and inconsiderable talents, very 
 active, and equally avaricious. Nothing could be 
 more fortunate to him, than his early acquaintance 
 with Major Schuyler, at Albany, at the treaty for 
 confirmation of the Indian alliance, the autumn 
 after his arrival. No man then in the province un- 
 derstood the state of affairs with the five nations 
 better than Major Schuyler. He had so great an 
 influence over them, that whatever Quider, as they 
 called him (instead of Peter, which they could not 
 pronounce), recommended or disapproved, had the 
 force of a law. This power over them was sup- 
 ported, as it had been obtained, by repeated offices 
 of kindness, and his singular bravery and activity 
 in the defence of his country. These qualifications 
 rendered him singularly serviceable and necessary, 
 both to the province and the governor. For this 
 reason, Fletcher took him into his confidence, and 
 on the 25th of October raised him to the council 
 board. Under the tutelage of Major Schuyler, the 
 governor became daily more and more acquainted 
 with the Indian affairs; his constant application to 
 which procured and preserved him a reputation and 
 influence in the colony. Without this knowledge, 
 and which was all that he had to distinguish himself, 
 his incessant solicitations for money, his passionate 
 temper and bigoted principles, must necessarily have 
 rendered him obnoxious to the people, and kindled 
 a hot fire of contention in the province. 
 
 The old French governor, who found that all his 
 measures for accomplishing a peace with the five 
 nations proved abortive, was now meditating a blow 
 on the Mohawks. He accordingly collected an army 
 of 600 or 700 French and Indians, and supplied 
 them, with every thing necessary for a winter cam- 
 paign. They set out from Montreal on the 15th of 
 
 HIST. OF AMBR. Nos. 67 & 68. 
 
 January, 1693; and after a march attended with 
 incredible hardships, they passed by Schenectady on 
 the 6th of February, and, that night, captured five 
 men, and some women and children, at the first 
 castle of the Mohawks. The second castle was 
 taken with equal ease, the Indian inhabitants being 
 in perfect security, and for the most part at Sche- 
 nectady. At the third, the enemy found about forty 
 Indians in a war dance, designing to go out upon 
 some enterprise the next day. Upon their entering 
 the castle a conflict ensued, in whicn the French lost 
 about thirty men. Three hundred of the Indian 
 allies were made captives in this descent ; and, but 
 for the intercession of the savages in the French in- 
 terest, would all have been put to the sword. 
 
 The Indians were enraged, and with good reason, 
 at the people of Schenectady, who gave them no 
 assistance against the enemy, though they had notice 
 of their marching by that village. But this was 
 atoned for by the succours from Albany. Colonel 
 Schuyler voluntarily headed a party of 200 men, 
 and went out against the enemy. On the 15th of 
 February he was joined by near 300 Indians, ill 
 armed, and many of them boys. A pretended de- 
 serter, who came to dissuade the Indians from the 
 pursuit, informed him the next day, that the French 
 had built a fort, and waited to fight him ; upon which 
 he sent to Ingolsby, the commandant at Albany, as 
 well for a reinforcement, as for a supply of provi- 
 sions ; for the greatest part of his men came out 
 with only a few biscuits in their pockets, and at the 
 time they fell in with the enemy, on the 17th of the 
 month, had been several days without any kind of 
 food. Upon approaching the French army, sundry 
 skirmishes ensued ; the enemy endeavouring to 
 prevent Indians in alliance with the English from 
 felling trees for their protection. Capt. Syms, with 
 80 regulars of the independent companies, and a 
 supply of provisions, arrived on the 19th, but the 
 enemy had marched off the day before, in a great 
 snow storm. They, however, pursued them, and 
 would have attacked their rear, if the Mohawks had 
 not been averse to it. When the French reached 
 the north branch of Hudson's river, luckily for them, 
 a cake of ice served them to cross over it, the river 
 being open both above and below. The frost was 
 now extremely severe, and the Mohawks fearful of 
 an engagement; upon which Schuyler, who had 
 retaken about fifty Indian captives, desisted from the 
 pursuit on the 20th of February ; four of his men 
 and as many Indians being killed, and twelve 
 wounded. The Indians, at this time, were so dis- 
 tressed for provisions, that they fed upon the dead 
 bodies of the French ; and the enemy in their turn 
 were reduced, before they got home, to eat up their 
 shoes. The French in this enterprise lost 80 men, 
 and had above 30 wounded. 
 
 Fletcher's extraordinary dispatch up to Albany, 
 upon the first news of this descent, gained the es- 
 teem both of the public and the Indian allies. 
 
 The express reached New York on the 12th of 
 February, at ten o'clock in the night, and in less 
 than two day, the governor embarked with 300 
 volunteers. The river, which was heretofore very 
 uncommon at that season, was open. Fletcher 
 landed at Albany, and arrived at Schenectady the 
 17th of the month, which is about 160 miles from 
 New York ; but he was still too late to be of any 
 other use than to strengthen the ancient alliance. 
 The Indians, in commendation of his activity on the 
 occasion, gave him the name of Cayenguirugo, or 
 The great Swift Arrow. 
 
 3 G 
 
530 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 Fletcher re-turned to New York, and in March 
 met the assembly, who were so well pleased with his 
 fate vigilance, that besides giving him the thanks of 
 the house, they raised 6000/. for a year's pay of 300 
 volunteers and their officers, for the defence of 
 the frontiers. 
 
 As the greatest part of this province consisted of 
 Dutch inhabitants, all the governors, as well in the 
 duke's time as after the revolution of 1688, thought 
 it good policy to encourage English preachers and 
 schoolmasters in the colony. No man could be more 
 bent upon such a project than Fletcher, a bigot to 
 the episcopal form of church government. He, ac- 
 cordingly, recommended this matter to the assembly, 
 on his first arrival, as well as at their present meet- 
 ing. The house, from their attachment to the Dutch 
 language, and the model of the church of Holland, 
 secured by one of the articles of surrender, were en- 
 tirely disinclined to the scheme, which occasioned a 
 warm rebuke from the governor, in his speech at 
 the close of the session, in these words : " Gentle- 
 men, the first thing that I did recommend to you, 
 at our last meeting, was to provide for a ministry, 
 and nothing is done in it. There are none of you, 
 but what are big with the privileges of Englishmen 
 and Magna Charta, which is your right ; and the 
 same law doth provide for the religion of the church 
 of England, against sabbath-breaking and all other 
 profanity. But as you have made it last, and post- 
 poned it this session, I hope you will begin with it the 
 next meeting, and do somewhat to ward it effectually." 
 
 The news of the arrival of the recruits and am- 
 munition at Canada, the late loss of the Mohawks, 
 and the unfulfilled promises of assistance made from 
 time to time by the English, together with the in- 
 cessant solicitations of Milet, the Jesuit, all conspired 
 to induce the Oneydocs to sue for a peace with the 
 French. To prevent so important an event, Fletcher 
 met the five nations at Albany, in July 1693> with a 
 considerable present of knives, hatchets, clothing, 
 and ammunition, which had been sent over by the 
 crown for that purpose. The Indians consented to 
 a renewal of the ancient league, and expressed their 
 gratitude for the king's donation with singular 
 force. " Brother Cayenguarago, we roll and wallow 
 in joy, by reason of the great favour the great king 
 and queen have done us, in sending us arms and 
 ammunition at a time when we are in the greatest 
 need of them ; and because there is such unity 
 among the brethren.'' Col. Fletcher pressed their 
 delivering up to him Milet, the old priest, which 
 they promised, but never performed. On the con- 
 trary, he had influence enough to persuade all but 
 the Mohawks to treat about the peace at Onondaga, 
 though the governor exerted himself to prevent it. 
 
 Soon after this interview, Fletcher returned to 
 New York ; and, in September, met a new assem- 
 bly, of which James Graham was chosen speaker. 
 The governor laboured at this session to procure the 
 establishment of a ministry throughout the colony, 
 a revenue to his majesty for life, the repairing the 
 fort in New York, and the erection of a chapel. 
 That part of his speech, relating to the ministry, 
 was in these words : " I recommended to the former 
 assembly the settling of an able ministry, that the 
 worship of God may be observed among us ; for I 
 find that great and first duty very much neglected. 
 Let us not forget that there is a God that made us, 
 who will protect us if we serve him. This has been 
 always the first thing I have recommended, yefthe 
 last in your consideration. I hope you arc all satis 
 fied of the great necessity and duty that lies upon 
 
 you to do this, as you expect his blessing upon your 
 labours." The zeal with which this affair was re- 
 commended, induced the house, on the 12th of Sep- 
 tember, to appoint a committee of eight members, 
 to agree upon a scheme for settling a ministry in 
 each respective precinct throughout the province. 
 This committee made a report the next day, but it 
 was recommitted till the afternoon, and then de- 
 ferred to the next morning. Several debates arising 
 about the report in the house, it was again " recom- 
 mitted for further consideration." On the 15th ui' 
 September it was approved, the establishment being 
 then limited to several parishes in four counties, 
 and a bill ordered to be brought in accordingly ; 
 which the speaker (who, on the 18th of September, 
 was appointed to draw all their bills) produced on 
 the 19th. It was read twice on the same day, and 
 then referred to a committee of the whole house. 
 The third reading was on the 21st of September, 
 when the bill passed, and was sent up to the governor 
 and council, who immediately returned it with 
 an amendment, to vest his excellency with an epis- 
 copal power of inducting every incumbent, adding 
 to that part of the bill near the end, which gave the 
 right of presentation to the people, these words, 
 " and presented to the goveinor to be approved and 
 collated." The house declined their consent to the 
 addition, and immediately returned the bill, praying, 
 " that it may pass without the amendment, having, 
 in the drawing of the bill, had a due regard to the 
 pious intent of settling a ministry for the benefit of 
 the people." Fletcher was so exasperated with their 
 refusal, that he no sooner received the answer of the 
 house, than he convened them before him, and in 
 an angry speech broke up the session. That part 
 of it, relating to this bill, is given, because it is cha- 
 racteristic of the man and the times. 
 
 " Gentlemen, there is also a bill for settling a 
 ministry in this city and some other countries of the 
 government. In that very thing you have shewn a 
 great deal of stiffness. You take upon you, as if 
 you were dictators : I sent down to you an amend- 
 ment of three or four words in that bill, which, 
 though very immaterial, yet was positively denied. 
 I must tell you it seems very unmannerly. There 
 never was an amendment yet desired by the council 
 board but what was rejected. It is the sign of a 
 stubborn ill temper. 
 
 " But, gentlemen, I must take leave to tell you, 
 if you seem to understand by these words, that none 
 can serve without your collation or establishment, 
 you are far mistaken. For I have the power of col- 
 lating or suspending any minister, in my govern- 
 ment, by their majesties letters patent ; and whilst 
 I stay in the government, I will take care that 
 neither heresy, sedition, schism, or rebellion, be 
 preached among you, nor vice and profanity en- 
 couraged. It is my endeavour to lead a virtuous 
 and pious life amongst you, and to give a good ex- 
 ample : I wish you all to do the same. You ought 
 to consider, that you have but a third share in the 
 legislative power of the government; and ought not 
 to take all upon you, nor be so peremptory. You 
 ought to let the council have a share. They are in 
 the nature of the house of lords, or upper house ; 
 but you seem to take the whole power in your hands, 
 and set up for every thing. You have set a long 
 time to little purpose, and have been a great charge 
 to the country. Ten shillings a day is a large al- 
 lowance, and you punctually exact it. You have 
 been always forward enough to pull down the fees of 
 other ministers in the government. Why did you 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 531 
 
 not think it expedient to correct your own, to a more 
 moderate allowance ? 
 
 " Gentlemen, I shall say no more at present, but 
 that you do withdraw to your private affairs in the 
 country. 1 do prorogue you to the 10th of January 
 next, and you are hereby prorogued to the 10th day 
 of January next ensuing." 
 
 The violence of this man's temper is very evident 
 in all his speeches and messages to the assembly ; 
 and it can only be attributed to the ignorance of the 
 times, that the members of that house, instead of 
 asserting their equality, peaceably put up with his 
 rudeness. Certainly they deserved better usage at 
 
 afresh, and the assembly were obliged to augment 
 both their detachments and supplies. The Count 
 
 Frontenac now levelled his wrath 
 
 against 
 
 the Mohawks, who were more attached than any 
 other of the five nations to the interest of the pro- 
 vince ; but as his intentions had taken air, he pru- 
 dently changed his measures, and sent a party ot 
 300 men to the Isthmus at Niagara, to surprise those 
 of the five nations that might be hunting there. 
 Among a few that were met with, some were killed, 
 and others taken prisoners, and afterwards burnt at 
 Montreal. The allied Indians imitated the count's 
 example, and burnt ten Dewagunga captives. 
 
 his hands. For the revenue, established the last ) Colonel Fletcher and his assembly having conic 
 
 year, was, at this session, continued five years longer 
 than was originally intended. This was rendering 
 the governor for a time independent of the people. 
 For, at that day, the assembly had no treasure, but 
 the amount of all taxes went of course into the hands 
 of the receiver-general, who was appointed by the 
 crown. Out of this fund, monies were only issuable 
 by the governor's warrant; so that every officer in 
 the government, from Mr. Blaithwait, who drew 
 annually five per cent, out of the revenue, as audi- 
 tor-general, down to the meanest servant of the pub- 
 lic, became dependent, solely, on the governor. And 
 hence we find the house, at the close of every ses- 
 sion, humbly addressing his excellency for the trifling 
 wages of their own clerk. Fletcher was, notwith- 
 standing, so much displeased with them, that soon 
 after the prorogation he dissolved the assembly. 
 
 The members of the new assembly met according 
 to the writ of summons, in March, 1694, and chose 
 Colonel Peirson for their speaker, Mr. Graham 
 being left out at the election for the city. The 
 shortness of this session, which continued only to 
 the latter end of the month, was owing to the dis- 
 agreeable business the house began upon, of exami- 
 ning the state of the public accounts, and in parti- 
 cular the muster-rolls of the volunteers in the pay 
 of the province. They, however, resumed it again 
 in September, and formally entered their dissatis- 
 faction with the receiver-general's accounts. The 
 governor, at the same time, fostered the discontent, 
 by a demand of additional pay for the king's soldiers, 
 then just arrived, and new supplies for detachments 
 in defence of the frontiers. He at last prorogued 
 them, after obtaining an act for supporting 100 men 
 upon the borders. The same disputes revived again 
 in the spring, 1695 ; and proceeded to such lengths, 
 that the assembly asked the governor's leave to print 
 their minutes, that they might appeal to the public. 
 It was at this session, on the 12th of April, 1695, 
 that, upon a petition of five churchwardens and ves- 
 trymen of the city of New York, the house declared 
 it their opinion, " That the vestrymen and church- 
 wardens have power to call a dissenting protestant 
 minister, and that he is to be paid and maintained 
 as the act directs." The intent of this petition was 
 to refute an opinion which prevailed, that the late 
 ministry act was made for the sole benefit of epis- 
 copal clergymen. 
 
 The quiet, undisturbed state of the frontiers, while 
 the French were endeavouring to make a peace 
 with the five nations, and the complaints of the 
 volunteers, who had not received their pay, added 
 much to the unwillingness of the assembly to answer 
 Fletcher's perpetual demands of money. But when 
 the Indians refused to comply with the terms of 
 peace demanded by the French governor, which 
 were to suffer him to rebuild the fort at Cadaraqui, 
 and to include the Indian allies, the war broke out 
 
 to an open rupture in the spring, he called another 
 in June, of which James Graham was chosen speaker. 
 The Count Frontenac was then repairing the old 
 fort at Cadaraqui ; and the intelligence of this, and 
 the king's assignment of the quotas of the several 
 colonies for an united force against the French, were 
 the principal matters which the governor laid be- 
 fore the assembly. The list of the quotas was this: 
 Pennsylvania 80J., Massachusetts bay 350/., Mary- 
 land 160/., Virginia 240/., Rhode Island and Provi- 
 dence 48J., Connecticut V20L, and New York 200/. 
 
 As a number of forces were now arrived, the as- 
 sembly were ia hopes the province would be relieved 
 from raising any more men for the defence of the 
 frontiers ; and to obtain this favour of the governor, 
 ordered 1,OOOJ. to be levied, one-half to be presented 
 to him, and the rest he had leave to distribute among 
 the English officers and soldiers. A bill for this 
 purpose was drawn, but though his excellency thanked 
 them for their favourable intention, he thought it 
 not for his honour to consent to it. After passing 
 several iav/s, the session broke up in perfect har- 
 mony, the governor in his great grace recommending 
 it to the house, to appoint a committee to examine 
 the public accounts against the next sessions. 
 
 In September, Fletcher went up to Albany, with 
 very considerable presents to the Indians, whom he 
 blamed for suffering the French to rebuild the fort 
 at Cadaraqui, or Frontenac, which commands the 
 entrance from Canada into the great lake Ontario. 
 
 While these works were carrying on, the Dio- 
 nandadies, who were then poorly supplied by the 
 French, made overtures of a peace with the five 
 nations, which the latter readily embraced, because 
 it was owing to their fears of these Indians, who 
 lived near the lake Misilimachinac, that they never 
 dared to march with their whole strength against 
 Canada. The French commandant was fully sensible 
 of the importance of preventing this alliance. The 
 civilities of the Dionandadies to the prisoners, by 
 whom the treaty, to prevent a discovery, was nego- 
 ciated, gave the officer the first suspicion of it. One 
 of them had the unhappiness to fall into the hands 
 of the French, who put him to the most exquisite 
 torments, that all future intercourse with the Dio- 
 nandadies might be cut off. Dr. Golden, in just re- 
 sentment for this inhuman barbarity, published the 
 whole process from La Potherie's History of North 
 America, as follows : 
 
 " The prisoner being first made fast to a stake, so 
 as to have room to move round it, a Frenchman 
 began the horrid tragedy, by broiling the flesh of 
 the prisoner's legs from his toes to his knees, with 
 the red-hot barrel of a gun. His example was fol- 
 lowed by an Utawawa, who being desirous to outdo 
 the French in their refined cruelty, split a furrow 
 from the prisoners shoulder to his garter, and filling 
 
 it with gunpowder, set fire to it. 
 
 This gave him 
 3G2 
 
532 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 exquisite pain, and raised excessive laughter in his 
 tormentors. When they found his throat so much 
 parched, that he was no longer able to gratify their 
 ears with his howling, they gave him water, to enable 
 him to continue their pleasure longer. But at last 
 his strength failing, an Utawawa flayed off his scalp, 
 and threw burning hot coals on his skull. They 
 then untied him, and bid him run for his life. He 
 began to run, tumbling, like a drunken man. They 
 shut up the way to the east, and made him run 
 westward, the country (as they think) of departed 
 miserable souls. He had still force left to throw 
 stones, till they put an end to his misery by knock- 
 ing him on the head. After this every one cut a 
 slice from his body, to conclude the tragedy with a 
 feast." 
 
 From the time Colonel Fletcher received his in- 
 structions, respecting the quotas of these colonies 
 for the defence of the frontiers, he repeatedly, but 
 in vain, urged their compliance with the king's di- 
 rection ; he then carried his complaints against them 
 home to his majesty, but all his applications were 
 defeated by the agents of those colonies who re- 
 sided in England. As soon therefore as he had laid 
 this matter before the assembly, in autumn 1G95, 
 the house appointed William Nicol to go home in 
 the quality of an agent for this province, for which 
 they allowed him 1,000/. : but his solicitations proved 
 unsuccessful. Fletcher maintained a good corres- 
 pondence with the assembly, through the rest of his 
 administration; and nothing appears upon their 
 journals worth the reader's attention. 
 
 The French never had a governor in Canada so 
 vigilant and active as the Count de Frontenac. He 
 had no sooner repaired the old fort, called by his 
 name, than he formed a design of invading the coun- 
 try of the five nations, with a great army. For this 
 purpose, in 1696, he convened at Montreal all the 
 regulars, as well as militia, under his command; 
 the Owenagungas, Quatoghies of Loretto, Adiron- 
 dacks, Sokakies, Nipiciriniens, the converted pray- 
 ing Indians of the five nations, and a few Utawawas. 
 Instead of waggons and horses, (which are useless 
 in such a country as he had to march through) the 
 army was conveyed through rivers and lakes, in 
 light barks, which were portable, whenever the ra- 
 pidity of the stream and the crossing an isthmus 
 rendered it necessary. The count left La Chine, at 
 the south end of the island of Montreal, on the 7th 
 of July. Two battalions of regulars, under the com- 
 mand of Le Chevalier de Callieres, headed by a 
 numbe'i of Indians, led the van, with two small 
 pieces of cannon, the mortars, grenadoes, and am- 
 munition. After them followed the provisions; 
 then the main body, with the count's household, a 
 considerable number of volunteers and the engineer, 
 and four battalions of the militia commanded by 
 Monsieur de Ramezai, governor of Trois Rivieres*. 
 Two battalions of regulars and a few Indians, 
 under the Chevalier de Vaudrueil, brought up the 
 rear. Before the army went a parcel of scouts, to 
 descry the tracks and ambuscades of the enemy. 
 
 After 12 days march they arrived at Cadaracqui, 
 about 180 miles from Montreal, and then crossed 
 the lake to Oswego. Fifty men marched on each 
 side of the Onondaga river, which is narrow and 
 rapid. When they entered the little lake, the army 
 divided into two parts, coasting along the edges, 
 that the enemy might be uncertain as to the place 
 of their landing; and where they did land they 
 erected a fort. The Onondagas had sent away their 
 wives and children, and were determined to defend 
 
 their castle, till they were informed by a deserter 
 of the superioi strength of the French, and the na- 
 ture of bombs, which were intended to be used 
 against them and then, after setting fire to their 
 village, they retired into the woods. As soon as the 
 count heard of this, he marched to their huts in order 
 of battle; being himself carried in an elbow chair, 
 behind the artillery. With this mighty appaiatus 
 he entered it, and the destruction of a little Indian 
 corn was the great acquisition. A brave sachem, 
 then about 100 years old, was the only person who 
 tarried in the castle to salute the old general. The 
 French Indians put him to torment, which he en- 
 dured with astonishing presence of mind. To one 
 who stabbed him with a knife, he said, " you had 
 better make me die by fire, that these French dogs 
 may learn how to suffer like men: you Indians, 
 their allies, you dogs of dogs, think of me when 
 you are in like condition." " Never perhaps," says 
 Charlevoix, " was a man treated with more cruelty, 
 nor did any ever bear it with superior magnanimity 
 and resolution." This sachem was the only man, 
 of all the Onondagas, that was killed ; and had not 
 thirty-five Oneydoes, who waited to receive Vau- 
 drueil at their castles, been afterwards basely car- 
 ried into captivity, the count would have returned 
 without the least mark of triumph. As soon as he 
 began his retreat, the Onondagas followed, and an- 
 noyed his army by cutting off several batteaus. 
 
 This expensive enterprise, and the continual in- 
 cursions of the five nations on the country near 
 Montreal, again spread a famine through all Canada. 
 The count, however, kept up his spirits to the last ; 
 and sent out scalping parties, who infested Albany, 
 as the allied Indians did Montreal, till the treaty of 
 peace signed at Ryswick, in 1697. 
 
 Richard, Earl of Bellamont, was appointed to 
 succeed Colonel Fletcher in the year 1695, but did 
 not receive his commission till the 18th of June, 
 1697; and as he delayed his voyage till after the 
 peace of Ryswick, which was signed the 10th of Sep- 
 tember following, he was blown off the coast to Bar- 
 badoes, and did not arrive before the 2d of April, 1698. 
 
 During the late war the seas were extremely in- 
 fested with English pirates, some of whom sailed 
 out of New York ; and it was strongly suspected 
 that they had received too much countenance there, 
 even from the government, during Fletcher's ad- 
 ministration. His lordship's promotion to the chief 
 command of the Massachusetts bay and New Hamp- 
 shire, as well as this province, was owing partly to 
 his rank, but principally to the affair of the pirates ; 
 and the multiplicity of business to which the charge 
 of three colonies would necessarily expose him, in- 
 duced the earl to bring over with him John Nansan, 
 his kinsman, in the quality of lieutenant-governor. 
 When Lord Bellamont was appointed to the govern- 
 ment of these provinces, the king did him the ho 
 nour to say, " that he thought him a man of reso- 
 lution and integrity, and with these qualities more 
 likely than any other he could think of, to put a stop 
 to the growth of piracy." 
 
 Before the earl set out for America, he became 
 acquainted with Robert Livingston, Esq. who was 
 then in England, soliciting his own affairs before 
 the council and the treasury. The earl took occa- 
 sion, in one of his conferences with Mr. Livingston, 
 to mention the scandal the province was under on 
 account of the pirates. The latter, who confessed 
 it was not without reason, brought the earl ac- 
 quainted with one Kid, whom he recommended as 
 a man of integrity and courage, that knew the 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 533 
 
 pirates and their rendezvous,- and would undertake 
 to apprehend them, if the king would employ him 
 in a good sailing frigate of thirty guns and one 
 hundred and fifty men. The earl laid the proposal 
 before the king, who consulted the admiralty upon 
 that subject ; but this project dropped, through the 
 uncertainty of the adventure, and the French war, 
 which gave full employment to all the ships in the 
 navy. Mr. Livingston then proposed a private ad- 
 venture against the pirates, offering to be concerned 
 with Kid, a fifth part in the ship and charges, and 
 to be bound for Kid's execution of the commission. 
 The king then approved of the design, and reserved 
 a tenth share, to shew that he was concerned in the 
 enterprise. Lord Chancellor Somers, the duke of 
 Shrewsbury, the earls of Romney and Oxford, Sir 
 Edmund Harrison and others, joined in the scheme, 
 agreeing to the expense of 6000J. But the manage- 
 ment of the whole affair was left to Lord Bellamont, 
 who gave orders to Kid to pursue his commission, 
 which was in common form. Kid sailed from Ply- 
 mouth, for New York, in April 1696; and after- 
 wards turned pirate, burnt his ship, and came to 
 Boston, where the earl apprehended him. His lord- 
 ship wrote to the secretary of state, desiring that 
 Kid might be sent for. The Rochester man of war 
 was dispatched upon this service, but being driven 
 back, a general suspicion prevailed in England, 
 that all was collusion between the ministry and the 
 adventurers, who, it was thought, were unwilling 
 Kid should be brought home, lest he might discover 
 that the chancellor, the duke, and others, were con- 
 federate* in the piracy. The matter even proceeded 
 to such lengths, that a motion was made in the 
 house of commons, that all who were concerned in 
 the adventure might be turned out of their employ- 
 ments ; but it was rejected by a great majority. 
 
 The tory party, who excited these clamours, 
 though they lost their motion in the house, after- 
 ward impeached several whig lords; and, among 
 other articles, charged them with being concerned 
 in Kid's piracy. But these prosecutions served only 
 to brighten the innocency of those against whom 
 they were brought ; for the impeached lords were 
 honourably acquitted by their peers. 
 
 Lord Bellamont's commission was published in 
 council on the day of his arrival ; Colonel Fletcher, 
 who still remained governor under the proprietors 
 of Pennsylvania, and Lieut-Governor Nanfan being 
 present. The members of the council were Frederick 
 Philipse, Stephen Van Cortlandt, Nicholas Bayard, 
 Gabriel Mienvielle, William Smith, William Nicoll, 
 Thomas Willet, William Pinhorne, John Lawrence. 
 
 After the earl had dispatched Capt. John Schuyler, 
 and Dellius, the Dutch minister of Albany, to 
 Canada, with the account of the peace, and to solicit 
 a mutual exchange of prisoners ; he laid before the 
 council the letters from Secretary Vernon and the 
 East India company, relating to the pirates, inform- 
 ing that board that he had an affidavit, that Fletcher 
 had permitted them to land their spoils in this pro- 
 vince, and that Mr. Nicoll bargained for their pro- 
 tections, and received for his services 800 Spanish 
 dollars. Nicoll confessed the receipt of the money 
 for protections, but said it was in virtue of a late 
 act of assembly, allowing privateers on their giving 
 security ; but he denied the receipt of any money 
 from known pirates. One Weaver was admitted at 
 this time into the council chamber, and acted in the 
 quality of king's counsel, and in answer to Mr. 
 Nicoll, denied that there was any such act of assem- 
 bly as Le mentioned. After considering the whole 
 
 matter, the council advised his excellency to send 
 Fletcher home, but to try Nicoll in New York, be- 
 cause his estate would not bear the expense of a 
 trial in England. Their advice was never carried 
 into execution, which was probably owing to a want 
 of evidence against the parties accused. It is never- 
 theless certain, that the pirates were frequently in 
 the sound, and supplied with provisions by the in- 
 habitants of Long Island, who for many years after- 
 wards, were so infatuated with a notion that the 
 pirates buried great quantities of money along the 
 coast, that there is scarce a point of land, or an 
 island, without the marks of their cupidity. Some 
 credulous people ruined themselves by these re- 
 searches, and propagated a thousand idle fables, 
 afterwards passing current among the vulgar. 
 
 As Fletcher, through the whole of his administra- 
 tion, had been entirely influenced by the enemies of 
 Leisler; nothing could be more agreeable to the 
 numerous adherents of that unhappy man, than the 
 earl's disaffection to the late governor. It was fur 
 this reason, they immediately devoted themselves to 
 his lordship, as the head of their party. 
 
 The majority of the members of the council were- 
 Fletcher's friends, and there needed nothing more 
 to render them obnoxious to his lordship. Leisler's 
 advocates at the same time 'mortally hated them, 
 not only because they had imbrued their hands in 
 the blood of the principal men of their party, but 
 also because they had engrossed the sole confidence 
 of the late governor, and brought down his resent- 
 ment upon them. Hence, at the commencement of 
 the earl's administration, the members of the coun- 
 cil had everything to iear; while the party they 
 had depressed, began once again to erect its head 
 under the smiles of a governor who was fond of their 
 aid, as they were solicitous to conciliate his favour. 
 Had the earl countenanced the enemies, as well as 
 the friends of Leisler, which he might have done, 
 his administration would doubtless have been easier 
 to himself and advantageous to the province. But 
 his inflexible aversion to Fletcher prevented his 
 acting with that moderation, which was necessary 
 to enable him to govern both parties. The fire of 
 his temper appeared very early, on his suspending 
 Mr. Nicoll from the board of council, and obliging 
 him to enter into recognizance in 2,()UO/. to answer 
 for his conduct relating to the protections. But 
 his speech to the new assembly, convened on the 
 18th of May, gave the fullest evidence of his abhor- 
 rence of the late administration. Philip French 
 was chosen speaker, and waited upon his excellency 
 with the house, when his lordship spoke to them in 
 the following manner : 
 
 " I cannot but observe to you, what a legacy my 
 predecessor has left me, and what difficulties to 
 struggle with a divided people, an empty purse, a 
 few miserable, naked, half-starved soldiers, not half 
 the number the king allowed pay for, the fortifications, 
 and even the governor's house, very much out of 
 repair and in a word the whole government out of 
 frame. It hath been represented to the government 
 in England, that this province has been a noted re- 
 ceptacle of pirates, and the trade of it under no re- 
 striction, but the acts of trade violated by the neg- 
 lect and connivance of those whose duty it was to 
 have prevented it." 
 
 After this introduction, he puts them in mind that 
 the revenue was near expiring : " It would be hard," 
 he says, "if I that come among you with an honest 
 mind, and a resolution to be just to your interest, 
 should meet with greater difficulties, in the discharge 
 
534 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 of his majesty's service, than those that have gone 
 before me. I will take care there shall be no mis- 
 application of the public money. I will pocket 
 none of it myself, nor shall there be any embezzle- 
 ment by others ; but exact accounts shall be given 
 you, when, and as often, as you shall require." 
 
 It was customary with Fletcher to be present in 
 the field to influence elections ; and as the assembly 
 consisted at this time of but nineteen members, they 
 were too easily influenced to serve the private ends of 
 a faction. For that reason, his lordship was warm in 
 a scheme of increasing their number, at present to 
 thirty, and so in proportion as the colony became 
 more populous; and hence we find the following 
 clause in his speech : " You cannot but know, what 
 abuses have been formerly in elections of members 
 to serve in the general assembly, which tends to the 
 subversion of your liberties. I do therefore recom- 
 mend the making of a law to provide against it." 
 
 The house, though unanimous in a hearty address 
 of thanks to the governor for his speech, could scarce 
 agree upon any thing else. It was not till the be- 
 ginning of June, that they had finished the con- 
 troversies relating to the late turbulent elections; 
 arid even then six members seceded from the house, 
 which obliged his excellency to dissolve the assembly 
 on the 14th of June, 1698. About the same time, 
 the governor dismissed two of the council Pin- 
 horne for disrespectful words of the king, and Brouk 
 the receiver-general, who was also turned out of 
 that office, as well as removed from his place on the 
 bench. 
 
 In July, the disputes with the French, concerning 
 the exchange of prisoners, obliged his excellency to 
 go up to Albany. When the earl sent the account 
 of the conclusion of the peace to the governor of 
 Canada, all the French prisoners were restored, and 
 as to those among the Indians, he promised to order 
 them to be safely escorted to Montreal. His lord- 
 ship then added, " I doubt not, sir. that you on your 
 part will also issue an order to relieve the subjects 
 of the king, captured during the war, whether 
 Christians or Indians." 
 
 The count, fearful of being drawn into an implicit 
 acknowledgment that the five nations were subject 
 to the English crown, demanded the French prison 
 ers among the Indians to be brought to Montreal ; 
 threatening, at the same time, to continue the war 
 against the confederates, if they did not comply with 
 his request. After the earl's interview with them, 
 he wrote a second letter to the count, informing him, 
 that they had importunately begged to continue 
 under the protection of the English crown, professing 
 an inviolable subjection and fidelity to his majesty; 
 and that the five nations were always considered as 
 subjects, which, says his lordship, "can be manifested 
 to all the world by authentic and solid proofs." His 
 lordship added, that he would not suffer them to be 
 insulted, and threatened to execute the laws of Eng- 
 land upon the missionaries, if they continued any 
 longer in the five cantons. A resolute spirit run 
 through the whole letter, which concludes in these 
 words : " If it is necessary I will arm every man 
 in the provinces, under my government, to oppose 
 you; and redress the injury that you may perpe 
 trate against our Indians." The count, in his ans- 
 wer, proposed to refer the dispute to the commis 
 saries to be appointed according to the treaty o 
 Ryswick. The count misunderstood the treaty. N( 
 provision was made by it for commissaries to settle 
 the limits between the English and French posses 
 fions, but only to examine and determine the con 
 
 roverted rights and pretensions to Hudson's bay 
 The Earl of Bellamont continued the claim, insist- 
 ng that the French prisoners should be delivered 
 ip at Albany. 
 
 The French count dying while this matter was 
 ontroverted, Monsieur de Callieres, his successor, 
 ent ambassadors the next year to Onondaga, there 
 o regulate the exchange of prisoners, which was 
 accomplished without the earl's consent, and thus 
 he important point in dispute remained unsettled. 
 The Jesuit Bruyas, who was upon this embassage, 
 ffered to live at Onondaga; but the Indians refused 
 lis belt, saying that Corlear, or the governor of 
 ^ew York, had already offered them ministers for 
 heir instruction. 
 
 Great alterations were made in council at his ex- 
 cellency's return from Albany. Bayard, Meinvielle, 
 Willet, Townly, and Lawrence, were all suspended 
 n the 28th of September; and Colonel Abraham 
 Depeyster, Robert Livingston, and Samuel Staats, 
 ailed to that board. The next day, Frederick 
 Philipse resigned his seat, and Robert Walters was 
 sworn in his stead. 
 
 The new assembly, of which James Graham was 
 chosen speaker, met in the spring, His excellency 
 spoke to them on the 21st of March, 1699. 
 
 As the late assembly was principally composed of 
 ;\nti-Leislerians, so this consisted almost entirely of 
 the opposite party. The elections were attended 
 with great outrage and tumult, and many applica- 
 tions made relating to the returns ; but as Abraham 
 
 overneur, who had been secretary to Leisler, got 
 returned for Orange county, and was very active in 
 the house, all the petitions were rejected without 
 ceremony. 
 
 Among the principal acts passed in this session, 
 there was one for indemnifying those who were ex- 
 cepted out of the general pardon in 1691; another 
 against pirates ; one for the settlement of Milborne's 
 estate; and another to raise 1,500J. as a present to 
 his lordship, and 500/. for the lieut.-governor, his 
 kinsman ; besides which, the revenue was continued 
 for six years longer. A necessary law was also made 
 for the regulation of elections, containing the sub- 
 stance of the English statutes of 8 Hen. VI. c. 7, 
 and the 7 and 8 Will. III. 
 
 This assembly took also into consideration sundry 
 extravagant grants of land, which Colonel Fletcher 
 had made to several of his favourites. Among these, 
 two grants to Dellius, the Dutch minister, and one 
 to Nicholas Bayard, were the most considerable. 
 Dellius was one of the commissioners for Indian af- 
 fairs, and had fraudulently obtained the Indian deeds, 
 according to which the patents had been granted. 
 One of the grants included all the lands within 
 twelve miles on the east side of Hudson's river, and 
 extended twenty miles in length, from the north 
 bounds of Saraghtoga. The second patent, which 
 was granted to him in company with Pinhorne, 
 Bancker, and others, contained all the lands within 
 two miles on the Mohawks river, and along its banks 
 to the extent of fifty miles. Bayard's grant was 
 also for lands in that country, and very extravagant. 
 Lord Bellamout, who justly thought these great pa- 
 tents, with the trifling annual reservation of a few 
 skins, would impede the settlement of the country, 
 as well as alienate the affections of our Indian allies, 
 wisely procured recommendatory instructions from 
 the lords justices, for vacating those patents, which 
 was now regularly accomplished by a law, and Del- 
 lius thereby suspended from his ministerial function. 
 The earl having thus carried all his points at 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 535 
 
 Now York, set out for Boston in June, and after he 
 had settled his salary there, and apprehended the 
 pirate Kidd, returned again in the autumn. 
 
 The revenue being settled for six years, his lord- 
 ship had no occasion to meet the assembly till the 
 summer of the year 1700, and then indeed little else 
 was done than to pass a few laws. One for hanging 
 every popish priest that came voluntarily into the 
 province, which was occasioned by the great num- 
 ber of French Jesuits, who were continually prac- 
 tising upon the friendly Indians. By another, pro- 
 vision was made for erecting a fort in the country 
 of the Onondagas, but was repealed a few months 
 after the king's providing for that purpose. 
 
 The earl was a man of ability and polite manners ; 
 and being a mortal enemy to the French, as well as 
 a lover of liberty, he would doubtless have been of 
 considerable service to the colony; but he died there 
 on th 5th of March, in 1701, when he was but just 
 become acquainted with the country. 
 
 The earl of Bellamont's death was the source of 
 new troubles; for Nanfan, the lieut-governor, being 
 then absent in Barbadoes, a dispute arose among 
 the counsellors concerning the exercise of the pow- 
 ers of government. Abraham de Peyster, Samuel 
 Staats, Robert Walters, and Thomas Weaver, who 
 sided with the party that adhered to Leisler, insisted 
 that the government was devolved upon the council, 
 who had a right to act by a majority of voices ; but 
 Colonel Smith contended that all the powers of the 
 late governor were devolved upon him, as president, 
 he being the eldest member of that board. Colonel 
 Schuyler and Robert Livingston, who did not ar- 
 rive in town till the 21st of March, joined Mr. 
 Smith, and refused to appear at the council-board, 
 till nearly the middle of April. The assembly, 
 which was convened on the second of that month, 
 were in equal perplexity, for they adjourned from 
 day to day, waiting the issue of this rupture. Both 
 parties continuing inflexible, those members who 
 opposed Colonel Smith sent down to the house a 
 representation of the controversy, assigning a num- 
 ber of reasons for the sitting of the assembly, which 
 the house took into their consideration, and on the 
 16th of April resolved, that the execution of the 
 earl's commission and instructions, in the absence 
 of the lieut-governor, was the right of the council 
 by majority of voices, and not of any single mem- 
 ber of that board : and this was afterwards the opi- 
 nion of the lords of trade. The disputes, neverthe 
 less, continuing in the council, strenuously sup- 
 ported by Mr. Livingston, the house, on the 19th of 
 April, thought proper to adjourn themselves to the 
 first Tuesday in June. 
 
 In this interval, on the 18th of May, John Nan 
 fan, the lieut.-governor, arrived, and settled the con 
 troversy, by taking upon himself the supreme com 
 mand. 
 
 Mr. Nanfan brought the welcome intelligence 
 that the king had given 2,000/. sterling for the de 
 fence of Albany and Schenectady, as well as 500/ 
 more for erecting a fort in the country of Onondagas 
 And, not long after, an ordinance was issued, agree 
 ably to the special direction of the lords of trade 
 for erecting a court of chancery, to sit the h'rsl 
 Thursday in every month. By this ordinance the 
 powers of the chancellor were vested in the governor 
 and council, or any two of that board : commissions 
 were also granted, appointing masters, clerks, anc 
 a register : so that this court was completely organ 
 ised on the 2d of September, 1701. 
 
 Attwood, who was then chief justice of the supremi 
 
 court, was now sworn of the council. Abraham de 
 Peyster and Robert Walters were his assistants on 
 he bench ; and the former was also made deputy 
 auditor-general, under Mr. Blaithwait. Sampson 
 Shelton Broughton was the attorney-general, and 
 came into that office when Attwood took his seat on 
 the bench, before the decease of Lord Bellamont. 
 Both these had their commissions from England. 
 The lieut-governor, and the major part of the board 
 of council, together with the several other officers 
 above named, being strongly in the interest of the 
 Leislerian party, it was not a little surprising, that 
 Mr. Nanfan dissolved the late assembly on the 1st 
 of June. 
 
 Great were the struggles at the ensuing elections, 
 which, however, generally prevailed in favour of 
 those who joined Leisler at the revolution : and 
 hence, when the new assembly met on the 19th of 
 August, 1701, Abraham Governeur was elected for 
 their speaker. Dutchess was thought heretofore 
 incapable of bearing the charge of a representation : 
 but the people of that county, now animated by the 
 heat of the times, sent Jacob Rutsen and Adrian 
 Garretsen to represent them in assembly. 
 
 Mr. Nanfan, in his speech to the house, informs 
 them of the memr: iMe grant made to the crown, on 
 the 19th oi' July, by the five nations, of a vast tract 
 of land, to prevent the necessity of their submitting 
 to the French in case of a war ; that his majesty had 
 given out of his exchequer 2,500/. sterling for forts, 
 and 800Z. to be laid out in presents to the Indians; 
 and that he had also settled a salary of 300. on a 
 chief justice, and 150/. on the attorney-general, who 
 were both now arrived here. 
 
 The fire of contention, which had lately appeared 
 in the tumultuous elections, blazed out afresh in the 
 house. Nicoll, the late counsellor, got himself elected 
 for Suffolk, and was in hopes of being seated in the 
 chair : but Abraham Governeur was chosen speaker. 
 Several members contended, that he, being an 
 alien, was unqualified for that station. To this it 
 was answered, that he was in the province in the 
 year 1683, at the time of passing an act to natural- 
 ise all the free inhabitants, professing the Christian 
 religion ; and that for this reason, the same ob- 
 jection against him had been over-ruled at the last 
 assembly. In return for this attack, Governeur dis- 
 puted NicolFs right to sit as a member of that house ; 
 and succeeded in a resolve, that he and Mr. Wes- 
 sels, who had been returned for Albany, were both 
 unqualified, according to the late act, they being 
 neither of them residents in the respective counties 
 for which they were chosen. This occasioned an 
 imprudent secession of seven members, who had 
 joined the interest of Mr. Nicoll ; which gave their 
 adversaries an opportunity to expel them, and in- 
 troduce others in their stead. 
 
 Among the first opposers of Captain Leisler, none 
 was more considerable than Mr. Livingston. The 
 measures of the convention at Albany were very 
 much directed by his advice ; and he was peculiarly 
 obnoxious to his adversaries, because he was a man 
 of sense and resolution, two qualifications rarely to 
 be found united in one person at that period. Mr. 
 Livingston's intimacy with the late earl had, till 
 this time, been his defence against the rage of the 
 party which he had formerly opposed ; but as that 
 lord was now dead, and Mr. Livingston's conduct 
 in council, in favour of Colonel Smith, had given 
 fresh provocation to his enemies, they were fully 
 bent upon his destruction. It was in execution of 
 this scheme, that as soon as the disputed elections 
 
53G 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 were jver, the house proceeded to examine the state 
 of the public accounts, which they partly began at 
 the late assembly. 
 
 The pretence was, that he refused to account for 
 the public monies he had formerly received out of the 
 excise ; upon which, a committee of both houses ad- 
 vised the passing a bill to confiscate his estate, unless 
 he agreed to account by a certain day. But instead 
 of this, an act was afterwards passed to oblige him to 
 account for a sum amounting to near 18,000/. While 
 this matter was transacting, a new complaint was 
 forged, and he was summoned before another com- 
 mittee of both houses, relating to his procuring the five 
 nations to signify their desire that he should be sent 
 home to solicit their affairs. The criminality of this 
 charge could only be seen by his enemies. Besides, 
 there was no evidence to support it, and therefore 
 the committee required him to purge himself by his 
 own oath. Mr. Livingston, who was better ac- 
 quainted with English law and liberty than to 
 countenance a practice so odious, rejected the inso- 
 lent demand with disdain ; upon which the house, 
 by the advice of the committee, addressed the lieut.- 
 governor, to pray his majesty to remove him from 
 his office of secretary of Indian affairs, and that the 
 governor, in the meantime, would suspend him from 
 the exercise of his commission. Mr. Livingston's 
 reason for not accounting was truly unanswerable ; 
 his books and vouchers were taken into the hands 
 of the government, and detained from him. 
 
 It was at this favourable conjuncture that Jacob 
 Leisler's petition to the king, and his majesty's let- 
 ter to the late earl of Bellamont, were laid before 
 the assembly. Leisler, displeased with the report 
 of the lords of trade, that his father and his brother, 
 Milborne, had suffered according to law, laid his 
 case before the parliament, and obtained an act to 
 reverse the attainder. After which, he applied to 
 the king, complaining that his father had disbursed 
 about 4,000/., in purchasing arms and forwarding 
 the revolution; in consequence of which he procured 
 the following letter to Lord Bellamont, dated at 
 Whitehall the 6th of February, 16991700. 
 
 " My Lord, The king being moved upon the 
 petition of Mr. Jacob Leisler, and having a gracious 
 sense of his father's services and sufferings, and the 
 ill circumstances the petitioner is thereby reduced 
 to, his majesty is pleased to direct, that the same be 
 transmitted to your lordship, and that you recom- 
 mend his case to the general assembly of New 
 York, being the only place where he can be relieved, 
 and the prayer of his petition complied with. 
 " I am, my Lord, your Lordship's 
 
 " Most obedient and humble servant, 
 " JERSEY." 
 
 As soon as this letter and the petition were brought 
 into the house, the sum of 1,000/. was ordered to be 
 levied for the benefit of Mr. Leisler, as well as several 
 sums for other persons, by a bill for paying the debts 
 of the government; which, nevertheless, did not 
 pass into a law till the next session. Every thing 
 that was done at this meeting of the assembly, which 
 continued till the 18th of October, was under the in- 
 fluence of a party spirit ; and nothing can be a fuller 
 evidence of it than an incorrect, impertinent, ad- 
 dress to his majesty, which was drawn up by the 
 house at the close of the session, and signed by four- 
 teen of the members. It contains a tedious narra- 
 tive of their proceedings relating to the disputed 
 elections, and concludes with a little incense, to 
 regale some of the then principal agents in the pub- 
 lic affairs, in these words ; 
 
 " This necessary account of ourselves and oui un- 
 happy divisions, which we hoped the moderation of 
 our lieut. -governor, the wisdom, and prudence of 
 William Attwood, Esq. our chief justice, and Thomas 
 Weaver, Esq. your majesty's collector and receiver- 
 general, might have healed, we lay before your ma- 
 jesty with all humility, and deep sense of your ma- 
 jesty's goodness to us, lately expressed in sending 
 over so excellent a person to be our chief justice." 
 
 The news of the king's having appointed Lord 
 Cornbury to succeed the Earl of Bellamont, so 
 strongly animated the hopes of the Anti-Leislerian 
 party, that about the commencement of the year 
 1702, Nicholas Bayard promoted several addresses 
 to the king, the parliament, and Lord Cornbury, 
 which were subscribed at a tavern kept by one 
 Hutchins, an alderman of the city of New York. 
 In that to his majesty they assured him, " That the 
 late differences were not grounded on a regard to 
 his interest, but the corrupt designs of those who 
 laid hold on an opportunity to enrich themselves by 
 the spoils of their neighbours." The petition to the 
 parliament says, that Leisler and his adherents 
 gained the fort, at the revolution, without any oppo- 
 sition ; that he oppressed and imprisoned the people 
 without cause, plundered them of their goods, and 
 compelled them to flee their country, though they 
 were well affected to the prince of Orange. That 
 the Earl of Bellamont appointed indigent sheriffs, 
 who returned such members to the assembly as were 
 unduly elected, and in his lordship's esteem. That 
 he suspended many from the board of council, who 
 were faithful servants of the crown, introducing his 
 own tools in their stead. Nay they denied the au- 
 thority of the late assembly, and added, that the house 
 had bribed both the lieut.-governor and the chief 
 justice ; the one to pass their bills, the other to de- 
 fend the legality of their proceedings. A third ad- 
 dress was prepared to be presented to Lord Corn- 
 bury, to congratulate his arrival, as well to pre- 
 possess him in their favour, as to prejudice him 
 against the opposite party. 
 
 Nothing could have a more natural tendency to 
 excite the wrath of the lieut.-governor, and the re- 
 venge of the council and assembly, than the reflec- 
 tions contained in those several addresses. Nanfan 
 had no sooner received intelligence of them than he 
 summoned Hutchins to deliver them up to him, and 
 upon his refusal committed him to jail, on the 19th 
 of January ; the next day Nicholas Bayard, Rip 
 Van Dam, Philip French, and Thomas Wenham, 
 hot with party zeal, sent an imprudent address to 
 the lieut.-governor, boldly justifying the legality of 
 the address, and demanding his discharge out of 
 custody. We have before observed, that upon 
 Sloughter's arrival in 1691, an act was passed, to 
 recognise the right of King William and Queen 
 Mary to the sovereignty of this province. At the 
 end of that law, a clause was added in these words : 
 " That whatsoever person or persons shall, by any 
 manner of ways, or upon any pretence whatsoever, 
 endeavour, by force of arms or otherwise, to disturb 
 the peace, good and quiet of their majesties' govern- 
 ment, as it is now established, shall be deemed and 
 esteemed as rebels and traitors unto their majesties, 
 and incur the pains, penalties, and forfeitures, as 
 the laws of England have for such offences made 
 and provided." Under pretext of this law, which 
 Bayard himself had been personally concerned in 
 enacting, Mr. Nanfan issued a warrant for commit- 
 ting him to jail as a traitor on the 21st of January, 
 1702 ; and lest the mob should interpose, a company 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 537 
 
 of soldiers for a week after constantly guarded the 
 prison. 
 
 Through the uncertainty of the time of Lord 
 Cornbury's arrival, Mr. Nanfan chose to bring the 
 prisoner to his trial as soon as possible; and for 
 that purpose issued a commission of oyer and ter- 
 miner, on the 12th of February, to William Attwood 
 the chief justice, and Abraham de Peyster and Ro- 
 bert Walters, who were the puisne judges of the 
 supreme court ; and not long after Bayard was ar- 
 raigned, indicted, tried, and convicted of high trea- 
 son. Several reasons were afterwards offered in 
 arrest of judgment; but as the prisoner was un- 
 fortunately in the hands of an enraged party, Attwood 
 overruled what was offered, and condemned him to 
 death on the 16th of March. 
 
 Bayard applied to Mr. Nanfan for a reprieve, till 
 his majesty's pleasure might be known; and ob- 
 tained it, not without great difficulty, nor till after a 
 seeming confession of guilt was extorted. Hutchins. 
 who was also convicted, was bailed upon the pay- 
 ment of forty pieces of eight to the sheriff; but 
 Bayard, who refused to procure him the gift of a 
 farm of about 1,500/. value, was not released from 
 his confinement till after the arrival of Lord Corn- 
 bury, who not only gave his consent to an act for 
 reversing the late attainders, but procured the queen's 
 confirmation of it, upon their giving security accord- 
 ing to the advice of Sir Edward Northey, not to 
 bring any suits against those who were concerned 
 in their prosecution ; which the attorney-general 
 thought proper, as the act ordained all the proceed- 
 ings to be obliterated. 
 
 After these trials, Nanfan erected a court of ex- 
 chequer, and again convened the assembly, who 
 thanked him for his late measures, and passed an 
 act to outlaw Philip French, and Thomas Wenham, 
 who absconded from Bayard's commitment ; another 
 to augment the number of representatives, and se- 
 veral others which were, all but one, afterwards re- 
 pealed by Queen Anne. During this session, Lord 
 Cornbury being daily expected, the lieut.-governor 
 suspended Mr. Livingston from his seat in council, 
 and thus continued to abet Leisler's party to the 
 end of his administration. 
 
 Lord Cornbury's arrival opened a new scene. 
 His father, the earl of Clarendon, adhered to the 
 cause of the late abdicated king, and always refused 
 the oaths both to King William and Que'en Anne. 
 But the son recommended himself at the revolution, 
 by appearing very early for the prince of Orange, 
 being one of the first officers that deserted King 
 James's army. King William, in gratitude for his 
 services, gave him a commission for this govern- 
 ment, which upon the death of the king was renewed 
 by Queen Anne, who at the same time appointed 
 him to the chief command of New Jersey, the go- 
 vernment of which the proprietors had lately sur- 
 rendered into her hands. As Lord Cornbury came 
 to this province in very indigent circumstances, 
 hunted out of England by a host of hungry creditors, 
 he was bent upon getting as much money as he 
 could squeeze out of the purses of an impoverished 
 people. His talents were, perhaps, not superior to 
 the most inconsiderable of his predecessors ; but in 
 his zeal for the church he was surpassed by none. 
 With these bright qualifications he began his ad- 
 ministration on the 3d of May, 1702, assisted by a 
 council consisting of the following members : 
 
 William Attwood, William Smith, Peter Schuyler, 
 Abraham de Peyster, Samuel Staatt, Robert Wal- 
 ters, Thomas Weaver, Sampson Shelton Broughton, 
 
 Wolfgang William Romar, William Lawrence, 
 Gerardus Beekman, Rip Van Dam. 
 
 His lordship without the least disguise espousing 
 the anti-Leislerian faction, Attwood, the chief jus- 
 tice, and Weaver, who acted in quality of solicitor- 
 general, thought proper to retire from his frowns to 
 Virginia, whence they sailed to England; the former 
 concealing himself under the name of Jones, while 
 the latter called himself Jackson. Col. Heathcote 
 and Doctor Bridges succeeded in their places at the 
 council board. 
 
 The following summer was remarkable for an un- 
 common mortality, which prevailed in the city of 
 New York and makes a grand epoch among the 
 inhabitants, distinguished by the " time of the great 
 sickness." The fever killed almost every patient 
 seized with it, and was brought here in a vessel, 
 from St. Thomas in the West Indies, an island re- 
 markable for contagious diseases. On this occasion 
 Lord Cornbury had his residence and court at Ja- 
 maica, a pleasant village on Long Island, distant 
 about twelve miles from the city. 
 
 The inhabitants of Jamaica consisted at that time 
 partly of original Dutch planters, but mostly of 
 New England emigrants, encouraged to settle there 
 after the surrender by the Duke of York's conditions 
 for plantations, one of which was in these words : 
 " That every township should -be obliged to pay their 
 own ministers, according to such agreements as they 
 should make with them ; the minister being elected 
 by the major part of the householders and inhabi- 
 tants of the town." These people had erected an 
 edifice for the worship of Goa, and enjoyed a hand- 
 some donation of a parsonage-house and glebe, for 
 the use of their minister. After the ministry act 
 was passed by Col. Fletcher, in 1693, a few Episco- 
 palians crept into the town, and viewed the Presby- 
 terian church with a jealous eye. The town vote, 
 in virtue of which the building had been erected, 
 contained no clause to prevent its being hereafter 
 engrossed by any other sect. The episcopal party, 
 who knew this, formed a design of seizing the edifice 
 for themselves, which they shortly after carried into 
 execution, by entering the church between the 
 morning and evening service, while the Presbyterian 
 minister and his congregation were in perfect se- 
 curity, unsuspicious of the zeal of their adversaries 
 and a fraudulent ejectment on a day consecrated to 
 sacred rest. 
 
 Great outrage ensued among the people, for the 
 contention was animating and important. The ori- 
 ginal proprietors of the house tore up the seats, and 
 afterwards got th^ key and the possession of the 
 church, which were shortly after again taken from 
 them by force and violence. In these controversies 
 the governor abetted the episcopal zealots, and ha- 
 rassed the others by numberless prosecutions, heavy 
 fines, and long imprisonments ; through fear of 
 which many, who had been active in the dispute, 
 fled out of the province. Lord Cornbury's situation 
 should have prevented him from taking part in so 
 ignominious a quarrel ; but his lordship's sense of 
 honour and justice was as weak and indelicate as 
 his bigotry was violent and uncontrolable ; and 
 hence we find him guilty of an act implicating a 
 number of vices, which no man could have perpe- 
 trated without violence to the very slightest remains 
 of generosity and justice. When his excellency re- 
 tired to Jamaica, one Hubbard, the Presbyterian 
 minister, lived in the best house in the town. His 
 lordship begged the loan of it for the use of his own 
 family, and the clergyman put himself to uo small 
 
538 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 inconvenience to favour the governor's request; 
 but in return for the generous benefaction, his lord- 
 ship perfidiously delivered the parsonage-house into 
 the hands of the episcopal party, and encouraged 
 one Cardwell, the sheriff, a mean fellow who after- 
 wards put an end to his own life, to seize upon the 
 glebe, which he surveyed into lots and farmed for 
 the benefit of the episcopal church. These tyrannical 
 measures justly inflamed the indignation of the in- 
 jured sufferers, and that again the more embittered 
 his lordship against them. They resented, and he 
 prosecuted ; nor did he confine his pious rage to 
 the people of Jamaica. He detested all who were 
 of the same denomination ; nay, averse to every 
 sect except his own, he insisted that neither the 
 ministers nor schoolmasters of the Dutch, the most 
 numerous persuasion in the province, had a right to 
 preach or instruct without his licence ; and some of 
 them tamely submitted to his unauthoritative rule. 
 
 While his excellency was exerting his bigotry, 
 during the summer season, at Jamaica, the elections 
 were carrying on with great heat, for an assembly 
 which met him at that village, in the fall. It con- 
 sisted principally of the party which had been borne 
 down by the Earl of Bellamont and his kinsman ; 
 and hence we find Philip French, who had lately 
 been outlawed, was returned a representative for 
 New York, and William Nicoll elected into the 
 speaker's chaii. Several extracts from his lord- 
 ship's speech are laid before the reader, as a speci- 
 men of his temper and designs. " It was an ex- 
 treme surprise to me (says his lordship) to find this 
 province, at my landing at New York, in such a con- 
 vulsion as must unavoidably have occasioned its ruin, 
 if it had been suffered to go on a little longer. The 
 many complaints that were brought to me against 
 the persons I found here in power, sufficiently 
 proved against them, and the miserable accounts I 
 had of the condition of our frontiers, made me think 
 it convenient to delay my meeting you in general 
 assembly, till I could inform myself in some measure 
 of the condition of this province, that I might be 
 able to offer to your consideration some few of those 
 things which will be necessary to be done forthwith 
 for the defence of the country." 
 
 He then recommends their fortifying the port of 
 New York, and the frontiers ; adding, that he found 
 the soldiers naked and unarmed : after which, he 
 proposes a militia bill, the erection of public schools, 
 and an examination of the provincial debts and ac- 
 counts: and not only promises to make a faithful 
 application of the monies to be raised, but that he 
 would render them an account. The whole speech 
 is sweetened with this gracious conclusion : " Now, 
 gentlemen, I have no more to trouble you with, but 
 to assure you, in the name of the great queen of Eng- 
 land, my mistress, that you may safely depend upon 
 all the protection that good and faithful subjects can 
 desire or expect from a sovereign, whose greatest 
 delight is the welfare of her people, under whose 
 auspicious reign we are sure to enjoy what no nation 
 in the world dares claim but the subjects of Eng- 
 land; I mean, the free enjoyment of the best reli- 
 gion in the world, the full possession of all lawful 
 liberty, and the undisturbed enjoyment of our free- 
 holds and properties. These are some of the many 
 benefits which I take the inhabitants of this pro- 
 vince to be well entitled to by the laws of England ; 
 and I am glud of this opportunity to assure you, that 
 as long as I have the honour to serve the queen in 
 the government of this province, those laws shall be 
 put in execution, according to the intent with which 
 
 they were made ; that is, for the preservation and 
 protection of the people, and not for their oppression. 
 I heartily rejoice to see, that the free choice of the 
 people has fallen upon gentlemen, whose constant 
 fidelity to the crown, and unwearied application to 
 the good of their country, is so universally known." 
 
 The house echoed back an address of high com- 
 pliment to his lordship, declaring, " That, being 
 deeply sensible of the misery and calamity the coun- 
 try lay under at his arrival, they were not suffici- 
 ently able to express the satisfaction they had, both 
 in their relief and their deliverer." 
 
 Well pleased with a governor who headed their 
 party, the assembly granted him all his requests; 
 1,80U/. was raised, for the support of 180 men, to 
 defend their frontiers besides 2,000/. more, as a 
 present towards defraying the expenses of his voy- 
 age. The queen, by her letter of the 20th of April, 
 in the next year, forbad any such donations for the 
 future. It is observable, that though the county of 
 Dutchess had no representatives at this assembly, 
 yet such was then the known indigence of that now 
 populous and flourishing county, that but 18/. were 
 apportioned for their quota of these levies. 
 
 Besides the acts above-mentioned, the house 
 brought up a militia bill, and continued the revenue 
 to the 1st of May, 1709; and a law passed to esta- 
 blish a grammar-school, according to his lordship's 
 recommendation. Besides the great harmony that 
 subsisted between the governor and his assembly, 
 there was nothing remarkable, except two resolu- 
 tions against the court of chancery, moved by Mr. 
 Nanfan, occasioned by a petition of several disap- 
 pointed suitors, who were displeased with a decree. 
 The resolutions were in these words : " That the 
 setting up a court of equity in this colony, without 
 consent of general assembly, is an innovation with- 
 out any former precedent, inconvenient, and con- 
 trary to the English law." And again: " That the 
 court of chancery, as lately erected, and managed 
 here, was and is unwarrantable, a great oppression 
 to the subject, of pernicious example and conse- 
 quence ; that all proceedings, orders, and decrees 
 in the same, are, and of right ought to be, declared 
 null and void ; and that a bill be brought in accord- 
 ing to these two resolutions," which was done; but 
 though his lordship was by no means disinclined to 
 fix contempt on Nanfan's administration, yet as this 
 bill would diminish his own power, himself being 
 the chancellor, the matter was never moved farther 
 than to the order for the ingrossment of the bill 
 upon the second reading. 
 
 Though a war was proclaimed by England on the 
 4th of May, 1702, against France and Spain ; yet, as 
 the five nations had entered into a treaty of neutral- 
 ity with the French in Canada, this province, in- 
 stead of being harassed on its borders by the enemy, 
 carried on a trade very advantageous to all those 
 who were concerned in it. The governor, however, 
 continued his solicitations for money with unremit- 
 ted importunity ; and by alarming the assembly 
 which met in April, 1703, with his expectation of an 
 attack by sea, 1,500J. were raised, under pretence 
 of erecting two batteries at the Narrows; which, 
 instead of being employed for that use, his lordship, 
 notwithstanding the province had expended 22,000/. 
 during the late peace, ventuied to appropriate to 
 his private advantage. But while he was robbing 
 the public, he consented to several laws for the 
 emolument of the clergy. 
 
 Whether it was owing to the extraordinary saga- 
 city of the house, or their presumption that his lord- 
 
UN,TED STATES. 
 
 539 
 
 ship was as little to be trusted as any of his prede- 
 cessors, that after voting the above sum for the bat- 
 teries, they added, that it should be " for no other 
 use whatsoever," is left for the reader to determine. 
 It is certain they now began to see the danger of 
 throwing the public money into the hands of a re- 
 ceiver-general appointed by the crown, from whence 
 the governor, by his warrants, might draw it at his 
 pleasure. To this cause we must assign it, that in 
 an address to his lordship, on the 19th of June, 1703, 
 they desire and insist, that some proper and suffi- 
 " cient person might be commissioned treasurer, for 
 the receiving and paying such monies now intended 
 to be raised for the public use, as a means to ob- 
 struct misapplications for the future." Another 
 address was sent home to the queen, complaining of 
 the ill state of the revenue, through the frauds which 
 had formerly been committed, the better to facilitate 
 the important design of having a treasurer depend- 
 ent on the assembly. The success of these measures 
 will appear in the sequel. 
 
 Though the frontiers enjoyed the profoundest 
 tranquillity all the next winter, and 1,300/. had 
 been expended in supporting 100 fuzileers about 
 Albany, besides the four independent companies in 
 the pay of the crown, yet his excellency demanded 
 provisions for 150 men, at the next meeting of the 
 assembly, in April, 1704. The house having reason 
 to suspect that the several sums of eighteen and 
 thirteen hundred pounds, lately raised for the public 
 service, had been prodigally expended or embezzled, 
 prudently declined any further aids, till they were 
 satisfied that no misapplication had been made. For 
 this purpose they appointed a committee, who re- 
 ported that there was a balance of near 1,0001. due 
 to the colony. His lordship, who had hitherto been 
 treated with great complaisance, took offence at this 
 parsimonious scrutiny, and ordered the assembly to 
 attend him; when, after the example of Fletcher, 
 whom, excepting his superior activity, his lordship 
 mostly resembled, he made an angry speech, in 
 which he charges them with innovations never at- 
 tempted by their predecessors, and hopes they would 
 not force him to exert " certain powers" vested in 
 him by the queen. But what he more particularly 
 took notice of, was their insisting in several late 
 bills, upon the title of " general assembly," and a 
 saving of the " rights of the house," in a resolution 
 agreeing to an amendment for preventing delay ; 
 with respect to which, his lordship used these words : 
 " I know of no right that you have as an assembly, 
 but such as the queen is pleased to allow you." As 
 to the vote, by which they found a balance due to 
 the colony of 913Z. 15s., " it is true," (says his lord- 
 ship), " the queen is pleased to command me, in her 
 instructions, to permit the assembly, from time to 
 time, to view and examine the accounts of money, 
 or value of money, disposed by virtue of the laws 
 made by them ; but you can in no wise meddle with 
 that money ; but if you find any misapplication of 
 any of that money, you ought to acquaint me with 
 it, that I may take care to see those mistakes recti- 
 fied, which I shall certainly do." 
 
 The house bore these rebukes with the utmost 
 passiveness, contenting themselves with little else 
 than a general complaint of the deficiency of the 
 revenue, which became the subject of their parti- 
 cular consideration in the autumn. The governor, on 
 the one hand, then proposed an additional duty of 
 ten per cent, on certain goods not immediately im- 
 ported from Europe, to which the assembly, on the 
 other, was utterly averse, and as soon as they re- 
 
 solved against it, the very printer, clerk, and door- 
 keeper, were denied the payment of their salaries. 
 Several other demands being made for the public 
 debts, the house resolved to address his lordship for 
 an exact account of the revenue ; which, together 
 with their refusal to admit the council's amendment 
 of a money bill, gave him such high provocation, 
 that he was induced to dissolve an assembly, whose 
 prodigal liberality had justly exposed them to the 
 esentment of the people. The new assembly, which 
 met on the 14th of June, 1705, neglected the affair 
 of the revenue, and the additional duty, though his 
 ordship strongly recommended them both. Among 
 the principal acts passed at this meeting, is that for 
 :he benefit of the clergy, who were entitled to the 
 salaries formerly established by Colonel Fletcher; 
 which, though less than his lordship recommended, 
 was, doubtless, a grateful offering to his unceasing 
 zeal for the church, manifested in a part of his 
 speech at the opening of the session, in these words : 
 " The difficulties which some very worthy ministers 
 of the church of England have met with, in getting 
 the maintenance settled upon them by an act of the 
 eneral assembly of this province, passed in the 
 year 1693, moves me to propose to you the passing 
 an act, explanatory of the forementioned act, that 
 those worthy good men, who have ventured to come 
 so far, for the service of God in his church, and the 
 good and edification of the people, to the salvation 
 of their souls, may not for the future be vexed, as 
 some of them have been ; but may enjoy in quiet 
 that maintenance which was by a law provided for 
 them. I farther recommended to you, the passing 
 of an act to provide for the maintenance of some 
 ministers, in some of the towns at the east end of 
 Long Island, where I do not find any provision has 
 been yet made for propagating religion." 
 
 The harbour being wholly unfortified, a French 
 privateer actually entered it in 1705, and put the 
 inhabitants into great consternation. The assembly, 
 at their session in June, the next year, were not 
 disinclined, through the importunity of the people, 
 to put the city in a better posture of defence for the 
 future ; but being fully convinced, by his lordship's 
 embezzlement of 1,5001., formerly raised for two 
 batteries at the Narrows, and near 1,000. levied 
 for the protection of the frontiers, that he was no 
 more to be trusted with public monies, offered a bill 
 for raising 3,OOOJ. for fortifications, appointing that 
 sum to be deposited in the hands of a private per- 
 son of their own nomination ; but his excellency did 
 not pass ittill their next meeting in the autumn, when 
 he informed them that he had received the queen's 
 command, " to permit the general assembly to name 
 their own treasurer, when they raised extraordinary 
 supplies for particular uses, and which are no part 
 of the standing and constant revenue ; the treasurer 
 being accountable to the three branches of the le- 
 gislature, and the governor always acquainted with 
 the occasion of issuing such warrants." 
 
 His lordship's renewing the proposal of raising 
 fortifications at the Narrows, which he had himself 
 hitherto scandalously prevented, is a proof of his ex- 
 cessive effrontery and contempt of the people ; and 
 the neglect of the house to take the least notice, 
 either of that matter or the revenue, occasioned 
 another dissolution. 
 
 Before we proceed to the transactions of the new 
 assembly, which did not meet till the year 1708, it will 
 not be improper to lay before the reader the account 
 of a memorable proof of that persecuting spirit, which 
 influenced Lord Cornbury's whole administration. 
 
540 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 The inhabitants of the city of New York consisted 
 at this time of Dutch Calvinists, upon the plan of the 
 church of Holland French refugees, on the Geneva 
 model a few English Episcopalians and a still 
 smaller number of English and Irish Presbyterians, 
 who having neither a minister nor a church, used 
 to assemble themselves every Sunday at a private 
 house, for the worship of God. Such were the cir- 
 cumstances when Francis M'Kemie and John Hamp- 
 ton, two Presbyterian ministers, arrived in January, 
 1707. As soon as Lord Cornbury, who hated the 
 whole persuasion, heard that the Dutch had con- 
 sented to M'Kemie's preaching in their church, he 
 arbitrarily forbad it; so that the public worship on 
 the next sabbath was performed with open doors at 
 a private house. Mr. Hampton preached the same 
 day at the Presbyterian church in New Town, dis- 
 tant a few miles from the city. At that village both 
 these ministers were two or three days after appre- 
 hended by Cardwel the sheriff, pursuant to his lord- 
 ship's warrant for preaching without his licence. 
 From hence they were led in triumph a circuit of 
 several miles through Jamaica to New York. They 
 appeared before his lordship with an undaunted 
 courage, and had a conference with him, in which 
 it is difficult to determine whether his lordship ex- 
 celled in the character of a savage bigot, or an ill- 
 mannerly tyrant. The ministers were no lawyers, 
 or they would not have founded their justification on 
 the supposed extent of the English act of toleration. 
 They knew not that the ecclesiastical statutes had 
 no relation to this colony, and that its religious state 
 consisted in a perfect parity between protestants of 
 all denominatipns. They erroneously supposed that 
 all the penal laws extended to this province, and 
 relied for their defence on the toleration, offering 
 testimonials for their having complied with the act 
 of parliament in Virginia and Maryland, and pro- 
 mised to certify the house, in which M'Kemie had 
 preached, to the next sessions. His lordship's dis- 
 course with them was the more ridiculous, because 
 he had Bickley, the attorney-general, to assist him. 
 Against the extension .of the statute, they insisted 
 that the penal laws were limited to England, and so 
 also the toleration act, because the sole intent of it 
 was to take away the penalties formerly established. 
 But grant the position, and the consequence they 
 drew from it, it argues that his lordship and Mr. At- 
 torney were either very weak, or influenced by 
 evil designs. If the penal laws did not extend 
 to the plantations, then the prisoners were inno- 
 cent, for where there is no law there can be no 
 transgression ; but according to these incomparable 
 sages, if the penal laws and the toleration were 
 restricted to the realm of England, as they con- 
 tended, then the poor clergymen for preaching 
 without his licence, were guilty of a heinous 
 crime against his private unpublished instructions; 
 and for this cause he issued an informal precept to 
 the sheriff of New York, for their commitment to 
 jail till further orders. They continued in confine- 
 ment, through the absence of -Mompesson, the chief 
 justice, who was in New Jersey, six weeks and four 
 days ; but were then brought before him by a writ 
 of habeas corpus. Mompesson being a man of learn- 
 ing in his profession, and his lordship now apprised 
 of the illegality of his first warrant, issued another 
 on the very day of the teste of the writ, in which he 
 virtually contradicts what he had before insisted on at 
 his conference with the prisoners. For according to 
 this, they were imprisoned for preaching without 
 
 : " - r '**A as the toleration act required, though 
 
 they had offered themselves to the sessions during 
 their imprisonment. They were then bailed to the 
 next supreme court, which began a few days after. 
 Great pains were taken to secure a grand jury for 
 the purpose, and among those who found the indict, 
 ment, to their shame be it recorded, were several 
 Dutch and French protestauts. 
 
 Mr. M'Kemie returned to New York from Vir- 
 ginia, in June, and was now come to his trial on the 
 indictment found at the last court. As to Mr. 
 Hampton, he was discharged, no evidence being of- 
 fered to the grand jury against him. 
 
 Bickley, the attorney-general, managed the prose- 
 cution in the name of the queen ; Reignere, Nicoll, 
 and Jamison appeared for the defendant The trial 
 was held on the 6th of June, and being a cause of 
 great expectation, a numerous audience attended. 
 Roger Mompesson sat on the bench as chief justice, 
 with Robert Milward and Thomas Wenham for his 
 assistance. The indictment was in substance that 
 Francis M'Kemie, pretending himself to be a pro- 
 testant dissenting minister, contemning and endea- 
 vouring to subvert the queen's ecclesiastical supre- 
 macy, unlawfully preached without the governor's 
 licence first obtained, in derogation of the royal au- 
 thority and prerogative; that he used other rites 
 and ceremonies than those contained in the common 
 prayer book ; and lastly, that being unqualified by 
 law to preach, he nevertheless did preach at an ille- 
 gal conventicle ; and both these last charges were 
 laid to be contrary to the form of the English statutes. 
 For it seems that Mr. Attorney was now of opinion, 
 that the penal laws did extend to the American 
 plantations, though his sentiments were the very 
 reverse at the first debate before his excellency, 
 but Bickley was rather remarkable for a voluble 
 tongue, than a penetrating head or much learning. 
 To support this prosecution, he endeavoured to 
 prove the queen's ecclesiastical supremacy in the 
 colonies, and that it was delegated to her noble 
 cousin the governor; and hence he was of opinion, 
 that his lordship's instructions relating to church 
 matters had the force of law. He, in the next place, 
 contended for the extension of the statutes of uni- 
 formity, and upon the whole was pleased to say, that 
 he had no doubt the jury would find a verdict tor the 
 queen. Reignere, for the defendant, insisted that 
 preaching was no crime by the common law, that 
 the statutes of uniformity and the act of toleration 
 did not extend here, and that the governor's instruc- 
 tions were not laws. Nicoll spoke to the same pm* 
 pose, and so did David Jamison ; but M'Kemie con- 
 cluded the whole defence in a speech, which set his 
 capacity in a very advantageous light. The chief 
 justice, in his charge, advised a special verdict, but 
 the jury found no difficulty to acquit the defendant, 
 who, through the shameful partiality of the court, 
 was not discharged from his recognizance till they 
 had illegally extorted all the fees of his prosecution, 
 which together with his expenses, amounted to eighty- 
 three pounds seven shillings and sixpence. 
 
 Lord Cornbury was now daily losing the favour 
 of the people. The friends of Leisler held him in 
 the utmost abhorrence from the beginning : and 
 being all spies upon his conduct, it was impossible 
 for his lordship to commit the smallest crime un- 
 noticed. His persecution of the Presbyterians very 
 early increased the number of his enemies. The 
 Dutch too were fearful of his religious rage against 
 them, as he disputed their right to call and settle 
 ministers, or even schoolmasters, without his special 
 licence. His excessive avarice, his embezzlement 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 541 
 
 of the public money, and his sordid refusal to pay 
 his private debts, bore so heavily upon his reputa- 
 tion, that it was impossible for his adherents, either 
 to support him or themselves against the general 
 opposition. Such being the temper of the people, 
 his lordship did not succeed according to his wishes 
 in the new assembly, which met on the 19th of 
 August, 1708. The members were all against him, 
 and William Nicoll was again chosen speaker. 
 
 Among the several things recommended to their 
 consideration, the affair of the revenue, which was 
 to expire in May following, and the propriety of 
 making presents to the Indians, were the chief. The 
 house were not insensible of the importance of the 
 Indian interest, and of the infinite arts of the French 
 to seduce them from our alliance ; but suspicious 
 that his lordship, who heretofore had given himself 
 little concern about that matter, was seeking a fresh 
 opportunity to defraud the public, they desired him 
 to give them a list of the articles of which the pre- 
 sents were to consist, together with an estimate of 
 thecharge,before they would provide for that donation. 
 
 With respect to the revenue his lordship was not 
 so successful, for the assembly resolutely refused to 
 continue it ; though they consented to an act to dis- 
 charge him from a contract of 25(K and upwards, 
 which he had made with one Hanson for the public 
 service. Thomas Byerly was at that time collector 
 and receiver-general, and by pretending that the 
 treasury was exhausted, the debts of the govern- 
 ment were unpaid. This gave rise to many pe- 
 titions to the assembly to make provision for their 
 discharge. Colonel Schuyler, who had expended 
 large sums on the public credit, was among the 
 principal sufferers, and joined with several others in 
 an application to the house, that Byerly might be 
 compelled to account. The disputes relating to this 
 matter took up a considerable part of the session, 
 and were litigated with great heat. Upon the whole, 
 an act was passed for refunding 700/. which had been 
 misapplied. 
 
 The resolutions of the committee of grievances, 
 approved by the house, shew the general objections 
 of the people to his lordship's administration. These 
 were made at the beginning of the session, and yet 
 we find this haughty nobleman subdued by the opposi- 
 tion against him, and so dispirited through indigence, 
 and the incessant solicitations of his creditors, that 
 he not only omitted to justify himself, but to shew 
 even an impotent resentment. For after all the 
 censures of the house, he tamely thanked them for 
 passing the bill to discharge him from a small debt, 
 which they could not in justice have refused. The 
 resolutions were in these words : 
 
 " Resolved, That it is the opinion of this com- 
 mittee, that the appointing coroners in this colony, 
 without their being chosen by the people, is a griev- 
 ance, and contrary to law. 
 
 " Resolved, That it is, and always has been the 
 unquestionable right of every freeman in this colony, 
 that he hath a perfect and entire property in his 
 goods and estate. 
 
 " Resolved, That the imposing and levying of any 
 monies upon her majesty's subjects of this colony, 
 under any pretence or colour whatsoever, without 
 consent in general assembly, is a grievance, and a 
 violation of the people's property. 
 
 " Resolved, That for any officer whatsoever to 
 extort from the people extravagant and unlimited 
 fees, or any money whatsoever, not positively es- 
 tablished and regulated by consent in general as- 
 sembly, is unreasonable and unlawful, a great griev- 
 
 ance, and tending to the utter destruction of all 
 property in this plantation. 
 
 " Resolved, That the erecting a court of equity 
 without consent in general assembly is contrary to 
 law, without precedent, and of dangerous conse- 
 quence to the liberty and property of the subjects. 
 
 " Resolved, That the raising of money for the go- 
 vernment, or other necessary charge, by any tax, 
 impost, or burthen on goods imported, or exported ; 
 or any clog, or hindrance on traffic or commerce, is 
 found by experience to be the expulsion of many, 
 and the impoverishing of the rest of the planters, 
 freeholders, and inhabitants of this colony ; of most 
 pernicious consequence, which if continued will un- 
 avoidably prove the ruin of the colony. 
 
 " Resolved, That the excessive sums of money 
 screwed from masters of vessels trading here, un- 
 der the notion of port-charges, visiting the said ves- 
 sels by supernumerary officers, and taking extraordi 
 nary fees, is the great discouragement of trade, and 
 strangers coming amongst us, beyond the precedent 
 of any other port, and without colour of law. 
 
 " Resolved, That the compelling any man upon 
 trial by a jury, or otherwise, to pay any fees for his 
 prosecution, or any thing whatsoever, unless the 
 fees of the officers whom he employs for his neces- 
 sary defence, is a great grievance, and contrary to 
 justice." 
 
 Lord Cornbury was no less obnoxious to the 
 people of New Jersey, than t those of New York. 
 The assembly of that province, impatient of his ty- 
 ranny, drew up a complaint against him, which they 
 sent home to the queen. 
 
 Her majesty graciously listened to the cries of 
 her injured subjects, divested him of his power, and 
 appointed Lord Lovelace in his stead; declaring 
 that she would not countenance her nearest relations 
 in oppressing her people. 
 
 As soon as this nobleman was superseded, his credit- 
 ors threw him into the custody of the sheriff of New 
 York ; and he remained there till the death of his 
 father, when, succeeding to the earldom of Clarendon, 
 he returned to England. 
 
 The colonies never had a governor so universally 
 detested,nor a*ny one who so richly deserved public 
 abhorrence. In spite of his noble descent, his be- 
 haviour was trifling, mean, and extravagant. 
 
 It was not uncommon for him to dress himself in 
 a woman's habit, and then to patrole the fort in 
 which he resided. Such freaks of low humour ex- 
 posed him to the universal contempt of the people; 
 but their indignation was kindled by his despotic 
 rule, savage bigotry, insatiable avarice, and injus- 
 tice, not only to the public, but even his private 
 creditors. For he left some of the lowest tradesmen 
 in his employment unsatisfied in their just demands. 
 
 John Lord Lovelace, baron of Hurley, was ap- 
 pointed to this government in the spring, 1708, tut 
 did not arrive here till the 18th of December follow- 
 ing. Lord Cornbury's oppressive, mean adminis- 
 tion had long made the people very desirous for a 
 change; and therefore his successor was received 
 with universal joy. Having dissolved the general 
 assembly soon after his accession to the government, 
 he convened a new one on the 5th of April, 1709, 
 which consisted of members of the same interest 
 with the last, who re-elected William Nicoll. the former 
 speaker, into the chair. His lordship told them, at 
 the beginning of the session, " that he had brought 
 with him large supplies of soldiers and stores of war, 
 as well as presents for the Indians," than which no- 
 thing could be more agreeable to the people. He 
 
542 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 lamented the greatness of the provincial debts, and j rence, was the first projector of this enterprise, 
 
 the decay of public credit; but still recommended 
 their raising a revenue for the same term with that 
 established by the act in the llth year of the late 
 reign. He also pressed the discharge of the debts 
 of the government, and their examination of the 
 public accounts, " that it may be known (said he) 
 what this debt is, and that it may appear hereafter 
 to all the world that it was not contracted in my 
 time." This oblique reflection upon his predeces- 
 sor, who was now ignominiously imprisoned by his 
 creditors, was displeasing to nobody. 
 
 Though the assembly, in their answer, heartily 
 congratulated his lordship's arrival, and thanked 
 the queen for her care of the province, yet they 
 sufficiently intimated their disinclination to raise 
 the revenue, which the governor had requested. 
 " Our earnest wishes (to use the words of the ad- 
 dress) are, that suitable measures may be taken to 
 encourage the few inhabitants to stay in it, and 
 others to come. The just freedom enjoyed by our 
 neighbours by the tender indulgence of the govern- 
 ment, has extremely drained and exhausted us both 
 of people and stock ; whilst a different trpatment, the 
 wrong methods too long taken, and severities practised 
 here, have averted and deterred the useful part of 
 mankind from settling and coming hitherto." To- 
 wards the close, they assure him, " that as the be- 
 ginning of his government gave them a delightful 
 prospect of tranquillity, so they were come with 
 minds prepared to consult the good of the country, 
 and his satisfaction." 
 
 The principal matter which engaged the attention 
 of the assembly, was the affair of the revenue. Lord 
 Cornbury's conduct had rendered them utterly averse 
 to a permanent support for the future, and yet they 
 were unwilling to quarrel with the new governor. 
 They, however, at last agreed, on the 5th of May, 
 to raise 2,500J. to defray the charges of the govern- 
 ment to the 1st of May ensuing, 1,600/. of which 
 was voted to his excellency, and the remaining sums 
 towards a supply of firewood and candies to the 
 several forts in New York, Albany, and Schenec- 
 tady; and for payment of small salaries to the 
 printer, clerk of the council, and Indian interpreter. 
 
 This new project of providing, annually, for the 
 support of government, was contrived to prevent 
 the mischief, to which the long revenues had for- 
 merly exposed the colonists. But as it rendered the 
 governor, and all the other servants of the crown 
 dependent upon the assembly, a rupture between 
 the several branches of the legislature would doubt- 
 less have ensued ; but on the 9th of May, the very 
 day in which the vote passed the house, his lordship 
 died of a disorder contracted in crossing the ferry at 
 his first arrival in the city of New York. His lady- 
 remained long after his death, soliciting for the sum 
 voted to her husband ; but though the queen inter- 
 posed by a letter, in her behalf, nothing was allowed 
 till several years afterwards. 
 
 From the Canada expedition, in 1709, to the arrival 
 of Governor Burnet. 
 
 On the death of the governor, the chief command 
 devolved upon Richard Ingoldsby, the lieut-gover- 
 nor, the same who had exercised the government 
 several years before, upon the decease of Colonel 
 Sloughter. His short administration is remarkable, 
 not for his extraordinary talents, for he was a dull 
 man, but for a second fruitless attempt against Ca- 
 nada. Colonel Vetch, who had been several years 
 before at Quebec, and sounded the river of St. Law- 
 
 The ministry approved of it, and Vetch arrived in 
 Boston, and prevailed upon the New England colo- 
 nies to join in the scheme. After that, he came to 
 New York, and concerted the plan of operations 
 with Francis Nicholson, formerly lieut.-governor, 
 who, at the request of Ingoldsby, the council, the 
 assembly, Gurdon Saltonstal, the governor of Con- 
 necticut, and Charles Cockin, lieut.-governor of 
 Pennsylvania, accepted the chief command of the 
 provincial forces intended to penetrate into Canada 
 by way of lake Champlain. Impoverished as the 
 colonists were, the assembly joined heartily in the 
 enterprise. It was at this juncture the first act for 
 issuing bills of credit was passed; an expedient 
 without which they could not have contributed to 
 the expedition, the treasury being then totally ex- 
 hausted. Universal joy now brightened every man's 
 countenance, because all expected the complete re- 
 duction of Canada before the ensuing fall. Big 
 with the pleasing prospect of an event, which would 
 put an end to ail the ravages of an encroaching, 
 merciless enemy, extend the British empire, and 
 augment trade, the colonists exerted themselves to 
 the utmost for the success of the expedition. As 
 soon as the design was made known to the house, 
 twenty ship and house carpenters were impressed 
 into the service for building batteaus. Commis 
 sioners also were appointed to purchase provisions 
 and other necessaries, and empowered to break open 
 houses for that purpose; and to impress men, ves 
 sels, horses, and waggons, for transporting the 
 stores. Four hundred and eighty-seven men, be- 
 sides the independent companies, were raised, and 
 detached to Albany, by the 27th of June ; from 
 whence they advanced, with the main body, to the 
 Wood Creek. Three forts were built there, besides 
 many block-houses and stores for the provisions, 
 which were transported with great dispatch. The 
 province of New York (all things considered) had 
 the merit of having contributed more than any of 
 her neighbours towards this expedition. Pennsyl- 
 vania gave no kind of aid, and New Jersey was 
 only at the expense of 3,000/. One hundred bat- 
 teaus, as many birch canoes, and two of the forts, 
 were built entirely, and the other fort, for the most 
 part, at the charge of this government. All the 
 provisions and stores for the army were transported 
 at their expense ; and besides their quota of volun- 
 teers, and the independent companies, they pro- 
 cured and maintained 600 Indians, and victualled 
 1,000 of their wives and children at Albany during 
 the campaign. 
 
 Having thus put themselves to the expense of 
 above 20,000^. towards this enterprise, the delay of 
 the arrival of the fleet spread a general discontent 
 through the country ; and, early in the fall, the as- 
 sembly addressed the lieut.-governor, to recall their 
 forces from the camp. Vetch and Nicholson soon 
 after broke up the campaign, and retired to New- 
 Port, in Rhode Island, where there was a congress 
 of governors. Ingoldsby, who was invited to it, did 
 not appear, in compliance with the inclination of the 
 assembly, who, incensed at the public disappoint- 
 ment, harboured great jealousies of all the first pro- 
 moters of the design. As soon, therefore, as Lord 
 Sunderland's letters, which arrived here on the 21st 
 of October, were laid before the house, they re- 
 solved to send an address to the queen, to lay before 
 her a true account of the manner in which the pro- 
 vince exerted itself in the late undertaking. 
 
 Had this expedition been vigorously carried on, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 it doubtless would have succeeded. The public af- 
 fairs at home wore conducted by a wise ministry. 
 The allied army triumphed in repeated successes in 
 Flanders; and the court of France was in no con- 
 dition to give assistance to so distant a colony as 
 Canada. The Indians of the five nations were en- 
 g-aged, through the indefatigable solicitation of Co- 
 lonel Schuyler, to join heartily in the attempt ; aiid 
 the eastern colonies had nothing to fear from the 
 Omvenugunas, because those Indians had a little 
 before concluded a peace with the confederates. 
 In America every thing was ripe for the attack. 
 At home Lord Sunderland, the secretary of state, 
 Itad proceeded so far, as to dispatch orders to the 
 
 3ueen's ships at Boston, to hold themselves in rea- 
 iness, and the British troops were upon the point 
 of their embarkation. At this juncture, the news 
 arrived of the defeat of the Portuguese, which re- 
 ducing the allies to great streights, (he forces in- 
 tended fot the American adventure were then or- 
 dered to their assistance, and the thoughts of the mi- 
 nistry entirely diverted from the Canada expedition. 
 
 As there was not a man in the province who had 
 more extended views of the importance of driving 
 the French out of Canada than Colonel Schuyler, 
 so neither did any person more heartily engage in 
 the late expedition. To preserve the friendship of 
 the five nations, without which it would be impossi- 
 ble to prevent our frontiers from becoming a field of 
 blood, he studied all the arts of insinuating himself 
 into their favour. He gave them all possible en 
 couragement and assistance, and very much im- 
 paired his own fortune by his liberality to their 
 chiefs. They never came to Albany, but they re- 
 sorted to his house, and even dined at his table ; and 
 by this means he obtained an ascendancy over them, 
 which was attended with very good consequences to 
 the province ; for he could always, in a great de- 
 gree, obviate or eradicate the prejudices and jealou 
 sies by which the French Jesuits were incessantly 
 labouring to debauch their fidelity. 
 
 Impressed with a strong sense of the necessity of 
 some vigorous measures against the French, Colonel 
 Schuyler was extremely discontented at the late dis- 
 appointment; and resolved to make a voyage to 
 England, at his private expense, the better to incul- 
 cate on the ministry the absolute necessity of re- 
 ducing Canada to the crown of Great Britain. For 
 that purpose he proposed to carry home with him 
 five Indian chiefs. The house no sooner heard ol 
 his design, than they came to a resolution, which 
 in justice to his distinguished merit, ought not to be 
 suppressed. It was this: 
 
 " Resolved, nemine contradicente, that the hum 
 ble address of the lieut.-governor, council, and ge- 
 neral assembly of this colony to the queen, repre- 
 senting the present state of this plantation, be com 
 mitted to his charge and care, to be presented by 
 himself to her sacred majesty; he being a person 
 who not only in the last war, when he commanded 
 the forces of this colony in chief at Canada, but also 
 in the present, has performed faithful services to 
 this and the neighbouring colonies ; and behavec 
 himself in the offices with which ha has been in- 
 trusted, with good reputation, and the general satis- 
 faction of the people in these parts." 
 
 The arrival of the five sachems in England made 
 a great stir through the whole kingdom. The mob 
 followed them wherever they went, and small cuts 
 of them were sold among the people. The courl 
 was at that time in mourning for ths death of the 
 prince of Denmark : the sachems were therefore 
 
 Iressed in black under-clothes, after the English 
 nanner; but, instead of a blanket, they had each a 
 scarlet-in-grain cloth mantle, edged with "gold, thrown 
 )ver all their other garments. This dress was di- 
 rected by the dressers of the play-house, and given 
 jy the queen, who was advised to make a shew of 
 :hem. A more than ordinary solemnity attended 
 the audience they had of her majesty. Sir Charles 
 Cotterel conducted them, in two coaches, to St. 
 James's ; and the lord chamberlain introduced them 
 into the royal presence. Their speech, on the 19th 
 of April, 1710, was in these words : 
 
 " Great Queen, We have undertaken a long 
 voyage, which none of our predecessors could be 
 prevailed upon to undertake, to see our great queen, 
 and relate to her those things which we thought ab- 
 solutely necessary for the good of her, and us her 
 allies, on the other side of the water. 
 
 " We doubt not but our great queen has been ac- 
 quainted with our long and tedious war, in conjunc- 
 tion with her children, against her enemies the 
 French ; and that we have been as a strong wall for 
 their security even to the loss of our best men. We 
 were mightily rejoiced, when we heard our great 
 queen had resolved to send an army to reduce Ca- 
 nada, and immediately, in token of friendship, we 
 hung up the kettle, and took up the hatchet, and, 
 with one consent, assisted Colonel Nicholson in 
 making preparations on this side the lake; but, at 
 length, we were told our great queen, by some im- 
 portant affairs, was prevented in her design, at pre- 
 sent, which made us sorrowful, lest the French, 
 who had hitherto dreaded us, should now think us 
 unable to make war against them. The reduction 
 of Canada is of great weight to our free hunting; 
 so that if our great queen should not be mindful of 
 us, we must, with our families, forsake our country, 
 and seek other habitations, or stand neuter, either 
 of which will be much against our inclinations. 
 
 " In token of the sincerity of these nations, we 
 do, in their names, present our great queen with 
 these belts of wampum, and in hopes of our great 
 queen's favour, leave it to her most gracious con- 
 sideration." 
 
 While Colonel Schuyler was at the British court, 
 Captain Ingoldsby was displaced, and Gerardus Beek- 
 man exercised the powers of government, from the 
 10th of April, 1710, till the arrival of Brigadier 
 Hunter, on the 14th of June following. The coun- 
 cil then present were, Mr. Beekman, Mr. Van Dam, 
 Colonel Benslaer, Mr. Mompesson, Mr. Barbaru' 1 , 
 Mr. Philipse. 
 
 Hunter was a native of Scotland, and, when a 
 boy, put apprentice to an apothecary. He left his 
 master, and went into the army ; and, being a man 
 of wit and personal beauty, recommended himself 
 to Lady Hay, whom he afterwards married. In the 
 year 1707 he was appointed lieut.-governor of Vir- 
 ginia, but being taken by the French in his voyage 
 to that colony, he was "carried into France, and, 
 upon his return to England, appointed to succeed 
 to the government of the province of New York and 
 New Jersey. 
 
 Governor Hunter carried over with him near three 
 thousand palatines, who the year before fled to Eng- 
 land from the rage of persecution in Germany. 
 Many of these people settled in the city of New 
 York, where they built a Lutheran church. Others 
 settled on a tract of several thousand acres, in the 
 manor of Livingston. Their village there, called 
 i the camp, was one of the pleasantest situations on 
 J Hudson's river: opposite, on the west bank, were 
 
544 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 many other families of them. Queen Anne's libe- I 
 rality to these people was not more beneficial to( 
 them than serviceable to the colony. They behaved 
 themselves peaceably, and lived with great industry. 
 
 The late attempt to attack Canada proving abor- 
 tive, exposed the colony to consequences equally 
 calamitous, dreaded, and foreseen. While the pre- 
 parations were making to invade it, the French ex- 
 erted themselves in cajoling their Indian allies to 
 assist in the repulse ; and as soon as the scheme 
 dropped, numerous parties were sent out to harass 
 the English frontiers. These irruptions were prin- 
 cipally made on the northern parts of New England, 
 where the most savage cruelties were daily com- 
 mitted. New York had indeed hitherto escaped, 
 being covered by the Indians of the five nations ; 
 but the danger induced Governor Hunter, soon 
 after his arrival, to make a voyage to Albany, where 
 he met the confederate chiefs, and renewed the old 
 covenant. While there, he was strongly solicited 
 by the New England governments, to engage the 
 Indians in a war with those who were daily ra- 
 vaging their borders ; but he prudently declined a 
 measure, which might have exposed his own pro- 
 vince to a general devastation. A treaty of neu- 
 trality subsisted at that time between the confeder- 
 ates and the Canada French and their Indians; 
 which, depending upon the faith of lawless savages, 
 was at best but precarious, and yet the only security 
 we had for the peace of the borders. A rupture be- 
 tween them would have involved the colony in a 
 scene of misery, at a time of all others most unsea- 
 sonable. However the people of New England 
 might censure the governor, it was a proof of his 
 wisdom to refuse their request. For besides a want 
 of men and arms our forts were fallen down, and 
 the treasury exhausted. 
 
 The new assembly met at New York on the 1st 
 of September. Mr. Nicoll, the speaker, Mr. Living- 
 ston, Mr. De Lancey, and Colonel Morris, were the 
 members most distinguished for their activity in the 
 house. Mr. De Lancey was a protestant refugee, 
 a native of Caen in Normandy; and by marrying a 
 daughter of Mr. Courtlandt, connected with a family 
 then, perhaps, the most opulent and extensive of 
 any in the province. He was an eminent merchant, 
 and by a successful trade had amassed a very con- 
 siderable fortune. But of all these, Colonel Morris 
 had the greatest influence on public affairs. He was 
 a man of letters, and, though a little whimsical in 
 his temper, was grave in his manners and of pene- 
 trating parts. Being excessively fond of the so- 
 ciety of men of sense and reading, he was never 
 wearied at a sitting, till the spirits of the whole com- 
 pany were dissipated. From his infancy he had 
 lived in a manner best a lapted to teach' him the 
 nature of man, and to fortify his mind for the vicis- 
 situdes of life. He very early lost both his father 
 and mother, and fell under the patronage of his 
 uncle, formerly an officer of very considerable rank 
 in Cromwell's army, who, after the restoration, dis- 
 guised himself under the profession of quakerism, 
 and settled on a fine farm within a few miles of the 
 city, called after his own name, Morrisania. Being 
 a boy of strong passions, the general indications of 
 a fruitful genius, he gave frequent offence to his 
 uncle, and on one of these occasions, through fear 
 of his resentment, strolled away into Virginia, and 
 thence to Jamaica in the West Indies, where, to 
 support himself, he set up for a scrivener. After 
 several years spent in this vagabond life, he returned 
 again to his uncle, who received the young prodigal 
 
 with joy ; and, to reduce him to regularity, brought 
 about his marriage with a daughter of Mr. Graham, 
 a lady, with whom he lived above fifty years, in 
 the possession of every enjoyment which good sense 
 and polite manners in a woman could afford. The 
 greatest part of his life, before the arrival of Mr. 
 Hunter, was spent in New Jersey, where he sig- 
 nalised himself in the service both of the proprietors 
 and the assembly. He was one of the council in 
 that province, and a judge of the supreme court 
 there in 1692. Upon the surrender of the govern- 
 ment to Queen Anne, in 1702, he" was named to be 
 governor of the colony ; but the appointment was 
 changed in favour of Lord Cornbury, the queen's 
 cousin. The assembly employed him to draw up 
 their complaint against Lord Cornbury, and he 
 was made the bearer of it to the queen. Though 
 he was indolent in the management of his private 
 affairs, yet, through the love of power, he was al- 
 ways busy in matters of a political nature, and no 
 man in the colony equalled him in the knowledge 
 of the law and the arts of intrigue. From this cha- 
 racter the reader will easily perceive, that Governor 
 Hunter shewed his prudence in taking Mr. Morris 
 into his confidence, his talents and advantages ren- 
 dering him either a useful friend or formidable foe. 
 Such were the acting members of this assembly. 
 When Brigadier Hunter spoke to them, he recom- 
 mended the settling a revenue, the defence of the 
 frontiers, and the restoration of the public credit, 
 which Lord Cornbury had almost entirely destroyed. 
 To stifle the remaining sparks of ancient feuds, he 
 concluded with these words : " If any go about to 
 disturb your peace, by reviving buried parties or 
 piques, or creating new ones, they shall meet with 
 no countenance or encouragement from me ; and I 
 am sure they deserve as little from you." The ad- 
 dress of the house was perfectly agreeable to the 
 governor. They promised to provide for the sup- 
 port of government, and to restore the public credit, 
 as well as to protect the frontiers. In answer to 
 the close of his speech, they declared their hope, 
 " that such as excited party contentions might meet 
 with as little credit, and as much disgrace, as they 
 deserve." This unanimity, however, was soon in- 
 terrupted. Colonel Morris, for some warm words 
 dropped in a debate, was expelled the house ; and 
 soon after a dispute arose between the council and 
 assembly, concerning some amendments made by 
 the former, to a bill, " For the treasurer's paying 
 sundry sums of money." The design of it, in men- 
 tioning the particular sums, and rendering them 
 issuable by their own officer, was to restrain the go- 
 vernor from repeating the misapplications which 
 had been so frequent in a late administration. The 
 council, for that reason, opposed it, and adhered to 
 their amendments ; which occasioned a prorogation 
 on the 25th of November, after the passing of se- 
 veral other necessary laws. 
 
 Mr. Hunter cautiously avoided entering publicly 
 into the dispute between the two houses, till he 
 knew the sentiments of the ministry, and then 
 opened the spring sessions with a speech too singu- 
 lar not to be inserted. 
 
 "Gentlemen I hope you are now come with a 
 disposition to answer the ends of your meeting, that 
 is, to provide a suitable support for her majesty's 
 government here, in the manner she has been 
 pleased to direct ; to (indjout means to restore the 
 public credit, and to provide better for your own 
 security. 
 
 " They abuse you who tell you that you are hardly 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 545 
 
 dealt by in the augmentation of salaries. Her ma- 
 jesty's instructions, which I communicated to you 
 at our last meeting, might have convinced you, that 
 it was her tenderness towards her subjects in the 
 plantations, who suffered under an established cus- 
 tom of making considerable presents to their go- 
 vernors by acts of assembly, that induced her to allot 
 to each of them such a salary as she judged sufficient 
 for their support, in their respective stations, with 
 a strict prohibition of all such presents for the future ; 
 which instruction has met with a cheerful and grate- 
 ful compliance in all the other colonies. 
 
 " If you have been in any thing distinguished, it 
 is by an extraordinary measure of her royal bounty 
 and care. I hope you will make suitable returns, 
 lest some insinuations, much repeated of late years, 
 should gain credit at last, that however your resent- 
 ment has fallen upon the governor, it is the govern- 
 ment you dislike. 
 
 " It is necessary at this time that you be told also, 
 that giving money for the support of government, 
 and disposing of it at your pleasure, is the same 
 with giving none at all. Her majesty is the sole 
 judge of the merits of her servants. This right has 
 never yet been disputed at home, and should I con- 
 sent to give it up abroad, I should render myself 
 unworthy not only of the trust reposed in me, but of 
 the society of my fellow subjects, by incurring her 
 highest displeasure. If I have tired you by a long 
 speech, I shall make amends, by putting you to the 
 trouble of a very short answer. 
 
 " Will you support her majesty's government in 
 the manner she has been pleased to direct, or are 
 you resolved that burden shall lie still upon the go- 
 vernor, who cannot accuse himself of any thing that 
 may have deserved this treatment at ymir hands ? 
 
 "Will you take care of the debts of the govern- 
 ment? or, to increase my sufferings, must I con- 
 tinue under the torture of the daily cries of such as 
 have just demands upon you, and are in misery, with- 
 out the power of giving them any hopes of relief? 
 
 " Will you take more effectual care of your own 
 safety, in that of your frontiers ; or are you resolved 
 for the future to rely upon the security of an open 
 winter, and the caprice of your savage neighbours ? 
 I shall be very sorry if this plainness offends you. 
 I judge it necessary towards the establishing and 
 cultivating a good understanding betwixt us. I hope 
 it will be so construed, and wish heartily it may 
 have that effect." 
 
 Perplexed with this remarkable speech, the as- 
 sembly, after a few days, concluded that as his ex- 
 cellency had prorogued them in February, while he 
 was at Burlington, in the province of New Jersey, 
 they could not sit and act as a house ; upon which, 
 they were the same day dissolved. 
 
 The five Indian sachems, carried to England by 
 Colonel Schuyler, having seen all the curiosities in 
 London, and been much entertained by many per- 
 sons of distinction, returned to Boston with Commo- 
 dore Mart/a and Colonel Nicholson; the latter oi 
 whom commanded the forces designed against Port 
 Royal and the coast of Nova Scotia. In this enter- 
 prise the New England colonies, agreeable to their 
 wonted courage and loyalty, lent their assistance ; 
 and the reduction of the garrison, which was then 
 called Annapolis Royal, was happily completed on 
 the 2d of October, 1710. Animated by this and 
 some other successes in Newfoundland, Nicholson 
 again urged the prosecution of the scheme for the 
 reduction of Canada ; which having been strongly 
 recommended by the Indian chiefs, as the only 
 
 HIST. OF AMER. Nos. 69 & 70. 
 
 effectual means to secure the northern colonies, was 
 now again resumed. 
 
 Towards the execution of this project, 5,000 troops 
 from England and Flanders were sent over under 
 ;he command of Brigadier Hill, the brother of Mrs. 
 Masham, the queen's new confidant, on the disgrace 
 of the duchess of Marlborough. The fleet of trans- 
 ports, under the convoy of Sir Hovenden Walker, 
 arrived after a month's passage at Boston, on the 
 4th of June, 1711. The provisions with which they 
 expected to be supplied there being not provided, 
 the troops landed. Nicholson, who was to command 
 the land forces, came immediately to New York, 
 where Mr. Hunter convened the assembly on the 
 2d of July. The re-election of the same members 
 who had served in the last, was a sufficient proof of 
 the general aversion to the establishment of a re- 
 venue. Robert Livingston, junior, who married the 
 only daughter of Col. Schuyler, came in for Albany; 
 and together with Mr. Morris, who was again chosen 
 for the borough of West Chester, joined the govern- 
 or's interest. Brigadier Hunter informed the as- 
 sembly of the intended expedition, and the arrival 
 of the fleet and forces ; that the quota of this pro- 
 vince, settled by the council of war at New London, 
 was GOO private sentinels and their officers; besides 
 which, he recommended their making provision for 
 building batteaus, transporting the troops and pro- 
 visions, subsisting the Indians, and for the contin- 
 gent charges ; nor did he forget to mention the 
 support of government and the public debts. 
 
 The house was so well pleased with the design 
 upon Canada, that they voted an address of thanks 
 to the queen, and sent a committee to Nicholson, to 
 congratulate his arrival, and make an honourable 
 acknowledgment of his " sedulous application to her 
 majesty for reducing Canada." In a few days time 
 an act was passed for raising forces, and the assem- 
 bly by a resolution, according to the governor's ad- 
 vice, restricted the price of provisions to certain 
 particular sums. Bills of credit, for forwarding the 
 expedition, were now also struck to the amount of 
 10,000^., to be sunk in five years, by a tax on estates 
 real and personal. After these supplies were granted, 
 the governor prorogued the assembly, though no- 
 thing was done relating to the ordinary support of 
 government. 
 
 While these preparations were making at New 
 York, the fleet, consisting of twelve men of war, 
 forty transports, and six store ships, with forty 
 horses, a fine train of artillery and all manner of 
 warlike stores, sailed for Canada from Boston on 
 the 30th of July; and about a month afterwards 
 Nicholson appeared at Albany, at the head of an 
 army of 4,000 men, raised in New York, New Jersey, 
 and Connecticut : the several regiments being com- 
 manded by Colonel Ingoldsby, Colonel Whiting, and 
 Colonel Schuyler, the latter of whom procured 600 
 of the five nations to join the army. 
 
 The French in Canada were not unapprised of 
 these designs. Vaudreuil, the governor-general, 
 sent his orders from Montreal, to the Sieur Do 
 Beaucourt, to hasten the works he was about at 
 Quebec, and commanded that all the regulars and 
 militia should be held in readiness to march on the 
 first warning. Four or five hundred Indians, of the 
 more distant nations, arrived at the same time at 
 Montreal, with Messieurs St. Pierre and Tonti, who, 
 together with the Caughnuaga proselytes, took up 
 the hatchet in favour of the French. Vaudreuil, 
 after dispatching several Indians and two mission- 
 aries among the five nations, to detach them from 
 
 3H 
 
546 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the interest of New York, went to Quebec, which 
 Beaueourt the engineer had sufficiently fortified to 
 sustain a long siege. All the principal posts below 
 the city, on both sides of the river, were prepared 
 to receive the British troops in case of their landing. 
 On the 14th of August, Sir Hovenden Walker ar- 
 rived with the fleet in the mouth of St. Lawrence 
 river, and fearing to lose the company of the trans- 
 ports, the wind blowing fresh at north-west, he put 
 into Gaspy bay, and continued there till the 20th of 
 the same month. Two days after he sailed from 
 thence, the fleet was in the utmost danger, for they 
 had no soundings, were without sight of land, the 
 wind high at east-south-east, and the sky darkened 
 by a thick fog. In these circumstances the fleet 
 brought to by the advice of the pilots, who were of 
 opinion that if the ships lay with their heads to the 
 southward, they might be driven by the stream into 
 the midst of the channel; but instead of that, in two 
 hours after they found themselves on the north 
 shore among rocks and islands, and upon the point 
 of being lost. The men of war escaped, but eight 
 transports, containing 800 souls, officers, soldiers, 
 and seamen, were cast av/ay. Two or three days 
 being spent in recovering what they could from the 
 shore, it was determined, at a consultation of sea 
 officers, to return to some bay or harbour, till a fur- 
 ther resolution could be taken. On the 14th of 
 September they arrived at Spanish river bay, where 
 a council of war, consisting of land and sea officers, 
 considering that they had but ten weeks provision, 
 and judging that they could not depend upon a sup- 
 ply from New England, unanimously concluded, to 
 return home without making any further attempts; 
 arid they accordingly arrived at Portsmouth on the 
 9th of October, when the Edgar, a 70 gun ship, was 
 blown up, having on board above 400 men, besides 
 many persons who came to visit their friends. 
 
 As soon as the Marquis de Vaudreuil, by the ac- 
 counts of the fishermen and two other ships, had 
 reason to suspect that our fleet was returned, he 
 went to Chambly, and formed a camp of 3,000 men 
 to oppose Nicholson's army., intended to penetrate 
 Canada at that end. But he was soon informed 
 that our troops were returned, upon the news of the 
 disaster which had befallen the fleet, and that 
 the people of Albany were in the utmost conster- 
 nation. 
 
 Apprehensive thai the enemy would fall upon the 
 borders, as they afterwards really did, in small par- 
 ties, upon the miscarriage of the enterprise, Go- 
 vernor Hunter pressed the assembly, in autumn, to 
 continue a number of mn in pay the ensuing win- 
 ter, and to repair the out-forts. After the house 
 had passed several votes to this purpose his excel- 
 lency, during the session, went u^ to Albany to 
 withdraw the forces of the colony, and give orders 
 for the necessary repairs. 
 
 The public debts, by this unfortunate expedition, 
 were become greatly enhanced, and the assembly at 
 last entered upon measures for the support of the 
 government, and sent up to the council several bills 
 for that purpose. The latter attempted to make 
 amendments, which the other would not admit, and a 
 warm controversy arose between these two branches 
 of the legislature. The council assigned instances 
 that amendments had formerly been allowed ; and, 
 besides this argument, drawn from precedent, in- 
 sisted that they were a part of the legislature, con- 
 stituted as the assembly were " by the mere grace 
 of the crown;" adding, that the lords of trade had 
 determined the matter in tJ^ir favour. The house, 
 
 nevertheless, adhered to their resolutions, and ans- 
 wered in these words : 
 
 " It is true, the share the council have (if any) 
 iu the legislation, does not flow from any title they 
 have from the nature of that board, which is only to 
 advise ; or from their being another distinct state, 
 or rank of people iu the constitution, which they 
 are not, being all commons ; but only from the mere 
 pleasure of the prince signified in the commission. 
 On the contrary, the inherent right the assembly 
 have to dispose of the money of the freemen of this 
 colony does not proceed from any commission, let- 
 ters patent, or other grant from the crown; but 
 from the free choice and election of the people, who 
 ought not to be divested of their property (nor justly 
 can) without their consent. Any former conde- 
 scensions, of other assemblies, will not prescribe to 
 the council a privilege to make any of those amend- 
 ments, and therefore they have it not. If the lords 
 commissioners for trade and plantations did con- 
 ceive no reason why the council should not have 
 right to amend money bills, this is far from con- 
 cluding there are none. The assembly understand 
 them very well, and are sufficiently convinced of the 
 necessity they are in, not to admit of any encroach- 
 ment so much to their prejudice." 
 
 Both houses adhered obstinately to their respect- 
 ive opinions : in consequence of which, the public 
 debts remained unpaid, though his excellency could 
 not omit passing a bill for paying to himself 3,750 
 ounces of plate. 
 
 Upon the return of the fleet, Dudley, Saltonstal, 
 and Cranston, the governors of the eastern colonies, 
 formed a design of engaging the five nations in a 
 rupture with the French, and wrote on that head to 
 Mr. Hunter; who, suspicious that his assembly 
 would not approve of any project that might in- 
 crease the public debts, laid their letter before the 
 house ; and, according to his expectations, they de- 
 clared against the scheme. 
 
 About this time Colonel Hunter, by the advice of 
 his council, began to exercise the office of chancellor, 
 having, on the 4th of October, appointed Messrs. 
 Van Dam and Philipse, masters, Mr. Whilcman, 
 register, Mr. Harrison, examiner, and Messrs. 
 Sharpas and Broughton, clerks. A proclamation 
 was then issued, to signify the sitting of the court 
 on Thursday in every week. This gave rise to these 
 two resolutions of the house. 
 
 " Resolved, that the erecting a court of chancery, 
 without consent in general assembly, is contrary to 
 law, without precedent, and of dangerous conse- 
 quence to the liberty and property of the subjects. 
 
 " That the establishing fees, without consent in 
 general assembly, is contrary to law." The council 
 made these votes the subject of part of a long re- 
 presentation, which they shortly after transmitted 
 to the lords of trade, who, in a letter to the governor 
 in answer to it, approved of his erecting a court of 
 equity, and blamed the assembly, adding, " That 
 her majesty has an undoubted right of appointing 
 such, and so many courts of judicature in the planta- 
 tions, as she shall think necessary for the distribution 
 of justice." 
 
 At the next meeting, in May, 1712, Colonel 
 Hunter strongly recommended the public debts to 
 the consideration of the assembly, informing them, 
 that the lords of trade had signified their opinion, 
 with respect to the amending money bills, in favour 
 of the council. The house neglected the matters 
 laid before them, and the governor broke up the 
 sessions, bv a short prorogation of three days. After 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 547 
 
 which they soon passed an act for paying his excel- 
 ency 8,025 ounces of plate. Public affairs never 
 rrore a more melancholy aspect than at this juncture. 
 Among the five nations, many emissaries from 
 \he French were daily seducing them from the Bri- 
 tsh interest, and the late ill success gave such a 
 powerful influence to their solicitations, that the In- 
 ilians, even at Catt's Kill, sent a belt of wampum 
 to those in Dutchess county to prepare for a war. 
 The Sennecas and Shawanas were also greatly dis- 
 affected, and it was generally apprehended, that 
 they would fall upon the inhabitants along Hudson's 
 river. An invasion was strongly suspected by sea 
 on the city of New York, wliere they had been 
 alarmed, in April, by an insurrection of the negroes; 
 who, iu execution of a plot to set fire to the town, 
 had burnt down a house in the night, and killed 
 several people who came to extinguish the fire, for 
 which nineteen of them were afterwards executed. 
 But distressed as the colony then was, the assembly 
 were inflexibly averse to the establishment of a reve- 
 nue, which had formerly been wickedly misapplied 
 and exhausted. At the ensuing session, in the fall, Col. 
 Hunter proposed a scheme to the assembly, which 
 was, in substance, that the receiver-general should 
 give security, residing in the colony, for the due 
 execution of his office ; and every quarter account, 
 to the governor and council, for the sums he might 
 receive. That the creditors of the government should, 
 every three months, deliver in their demands to the 
 governor and council; when, if that quarter's reve- 
 nue equalled the amount of such debts, the go- 
 vernor, by the advice of council, should draw for it : 
 but if the revenue for that quarter should fall short 
 of the governor's demands, then the warrants were 
 to be drawn for so much only as remained, and the 
 creditors should afterwards receive new drafts for 
 their balances in the next quarter. That no war- 
 rant should be issued, until the quarterly account 
 of the revenue was given in ; but that then they 
 should be paid in course, and an action of debt be 
 given against the receiver-general iu case of refusal. 
 That he should account also to the assembly when 
 required, and permit all persons to have recourse 
 to his books. The house turned a deaf ear to this 
 plausible project, and, displeased with a letter from 
 the lords of trade favouring the council's claim to 
 amend money bills, they agreed upon an address to 
 the queen, protesting their willingness to support 
 her government, complaining of misapplications in 
 the treasury, intimating their suspicions that they 
 were misrepresented, arid praying an instruction to 
 the governor to give his consent to a law, for sup- 
 porting an agent to represent them at the court of 
 Great Britain. Provoked by this conduct, and to 
 put an end to the disputes subsisting between the 
 two houses, his excellency dissolved the assembly. 
 
 Before the meeting of the next assembly the peace 
 of Utrecht was concluded, on the 31st of March, 
 1713, a peace, in the judgment of many, disho- 
 nourable to Great Britain, and injurious to her al- 
 lies. We shall only merely refer to it with relation 
 to Indian affairs. Lord Bellamont, after the peace 
 at Ryswick, contended with the governor of Canada, 
 that the five nations ought to be considered as sub- 
 jects of the British crown, and the point was 
 disputed even after the death of Count Fronteuac. 
 It does not appear that any decision of that matter 
 was made between the two crowns, till the treaty of 
 Utrecht, the 15th article of which is in these words : 
 
 " The subjects of France inhabiting Canada, and 
 others, shall hereafter give no hindrance or molest- 
 
 ation to the live nations, or cantons of Indiana, sub- 
 ect to the dominion of Grout Britain, nor to tho 
 ither nations of America who are friends to th 
 same. In like manner, the subjects of Gru;\t Bri- 
 tain shall behave themselves peaceably towards the 
 Americans who are subjects or friends to France ; 
 and on both sides they shall enjoy full liberty of 
 going and coming on account of trade. Also the 
 natives of these countries shall, with the same li- 
 berty, resort, as they please, to the British arid 
 French colonies, for promoting trade on one side 
 and -the other, without any molestation or hind- 
 rance, either on the part of the British subjects, or 
 of the French. But it is to be exactly and distinctly 
 settled by commissaries, who are, and who ought to 
 be accounted, the subjects of Britain or of France." 
 In consequence of this treaty, the British crown 
 became entitled, at least for any claim that could 
 justly be interposed by the French, to the sovereignty 
 over the country of the five nations. 
 
 Brigadier Hunter was disappointed in his expec- 
 tations upon the late dissolution; for though the 
 elections were very hot, and several new members 
 came in, yet the majority were in the interest of the 
 late assembly, and on the 27th of May, 1713, chose 
 Mr. Nicoll into the chair. The governor spoke 
 to them with great plainness, informing them that 
 it would be in vain to endeavour to lodge the money 
 allotted for the support of government in any other 
 than the hands of the queen's officers. " Neverthe- 
 less (says he) if you are so resolved, you may put 
 the country to the expense of a treasurer, f(5r tho 
 custody of money raised for extraordinary uses." 
 He added, that he was resolved to pass no law, till 
 provision was made for the government. The mem- 
 bers were therefore reduced to the dilemma of pass- 
 ing a bill for that purpose, or breaking up immedi- 
 ately. They chose the former, and the governor 
 gave his assent to that, and an excise bill on strong 
 liquors, producing to the treasury about 1,000/. 
 per annum. After jf short recess, several other laws 
 were enacted in the autumn. But the debts of the 
 government still remained unnoticed, till the summer 
 of the year 1714. A long session was then almost 
 entirely devoted to that single affair. Incredible 
 were the numbers of the public creditors. New de- 
 mands were every day made; amounting to near 
 28,000/. To pay this prodigious sum, recourse was 
 had to the circulation of bills of credit to that value. 
 These were lodged in the hands of the province 
 treasurer, and issued by him only, according to the 
 directions of the act. 
 
 The news of the queen's death arriving in the 
 ensuing autumn, a dissolution ensued; and a new 
 house met in May, 1715, which continued only 
 to the 21st of July. For the governor being now 
 determined to subdue those whom he could not al- 
 lure, again dissolved the assembly. He succeeded 
 in his design ; for though Mr. Nicoll was re-elected 
 into the chair on the 9th of June, 1716, yet we 
 plainly perceive, by the harmony introduced be- 
 tween the several branches of the legislature, that 
 the majority of the house were now in the interest 
 of the governor. 
 
 An incontestible evidence of their good under- 
 standing appeared at the session in autumn, 1717 
 when the governor informed them of a mcmoria. 
 which had been sent home, reflecting upon his ad- 
 ministration. The house immediately voted an ad- 
 dress to him, which was conceived in terms of the 
 utmost respect, testifying their abhorrence of the 
 memorial, as a false and malicious libel. It was 
 
 3H 2 
 
548 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 supposed to be written by Mulford, a representative 
 for Suffolk county, who always opposed the mea- 
 sures that were taken to preserve the friendship of 
 the five nations, and foolishly projected a scheme 
 to cut them off. It was printed in England, and 
 delivered to the members at the door of the house 
 of commons, but never had the author's intended 
 effect. 
 
 It was at this meeting the council, on the 31st of 
 October, sent a message by Mr. Alexander, then 
 deputy secretary to the house, desiring them " to 
 appoint proper persons, for running the division 
 line between this colony and the province of New 
 Jersey, his excellency being assured the legislature 
 of the province of New Jersey will bear half the ex- 
 pense thereof." The assembly had a bill before 
 them at that time, which afterwards passed into a 
 law, for the payment of the remaining debts of the 
 government, amounting to many thousand pounds ; 
 in which, after a recital of the general reasons for 
 ascertaining the limits between New York and New 
 Jersey on the one side, and Connecticut on the 
 other, a clause was added to defray the expense of 
 those services. Seven hundred and fifty ounces of 
 plate were enacted " to be issued by warrant, under 
 the hand and seal of the governor of this province 
 for the time being, by and with the advice and con- 
 sent of his majesty's council, in such parts and por- 
 tions as shall be requisite for that service, when the 
 survey, ascertaining, and running the said line, 
 limit, and boundary, shall be begun and carried on 
 by the mutual consent and agreement of his excel- 
 lency and council of this province, and the proprie- 
 tors of the soil of the said province of New Jersey." 
 According to this law, the line " agreed on by the 
 surveyors and commissioners of each colony was to 
 be conclusive." Another sum was also provided by 
 the same clause, for running the line between New 
 York and Connecticut; and in the year 1719, an 
 act was passed for the settlement of that limit. 
 
 Whether it was because Mr. Nicoll was disgusted 
 with the governor's prevailing interest in the house, 
 or owing to his infirm state of health, that he desired, by 
 a letter to the general assembly, on the 18th of May, 
 1718, to be discharged from the speaker's place, is 
 uncertain. His request was readily granted, and 
 Robert Livingston, Esq., chosen in his stead. The 
 concord between the governor and this assembly 
 was now wound up to its highest pitch, as is evi- 
 denced by his last speech to the house on the 24th 
 of June, 1719, and their address in answer to it. 
 
 " Gentlemen, I have now sent for you, that you 
 may be witness to my assent to the acts passed 
 by the general assembly in this session. I hope 
 that what remains unfinished may be perfected by 
 to-morrow, when I intend to put a close to this session. 
 
 " I take this opportunity also to acquaint you, 
 that my late uncertain state of health, the care of 
 my little family, and my private affairs, on the other 
 side, have at last determined me to make use of 
 that license of absence, which has been some time 
 ago so graciously granted me ; but with a firm re- 
 solution to return to you again, if it is his majesty's 
 pleasure that I should do so; but if that proves 
 otherwise, I assure you that whilst I live I shall be 
 watchful and industrious to promote the interest 
 and welfare of this country, of which I think I am 
 under the strongest obligations for the future to ac- 
 count myself a countryman. 
 
 " I look with pleasure on the present quiet and 
 flourishing state of the people here, whilst I reflect 
 on that in which I found them at my arrival. As 
 
 the very name of party or faction seems to be for- 
 gotten, may it for ever lie buried in oblivion, and 
 no strife ever happen amongst you, but that laudable 
 emulation, who shall approve himself the most zea- 
 lous servant and most dutiful subject of the best of 
 princes, and most useful member of a well estab- 
 lished and flourishing community, of which you, 
 gentlemen, have given a happy example, which I 
 hope will be followed by future assemblies. I men- 
 tion it to your honour, and without ingratitude and 
 breach of duty I could do no less." 
 
 Colonel Morris and the new speaker were the 
 authors of the answer to this speech, though it was 
 signed by all the members. 
 
 "Sir, when we reflect upon your past conduct, 
 your just, mild, and tender administration, it 
 heightens the concern we have for your departure, 
 and makes our grief such as words cannot truly ex- 
 press. You have governed well and wisely, like a 
 prudent magistrate like an affectionate parent; and 
 wherever you go, and whatever station the divine 
 providence shall please to assign you, our sincere 
 desires and prayers for the happiness of you and 
 yours, shall always attend you. 
 
 " We have seen many governors, and may see 
 more ; and as none of those who had the honour to 
 serve in your station, were ever so justly fixed in 
 the affectwros of the governed, so those to come will 
 acquire no mean reputation, when it can be said of 
 them, their conduct has been like yours. 
 
 " We thankfully accept the honour you do us, in 
 catting yourself our countryman ; give us leave then 
 to desire, that you will not forget this as your country, 
 and if you can, make haste to return to it. 
 
 " But if the service of our sovereign will not ad- 
 mit of what we do earnestly desire, and his com- 
 mands deny us that happiness ; permit us to address 
 you as our friend, and give us your assistance, when 
 we are oppressed with an administration the reverse 
 of yours." 
 
 Colonel Hunter departing the province, the chief 
 command devolved, the 31st of July, 1719, on Peter 
 Schuyler, Esq., then the eldest member of the board 
 of council. As he had no interview with the assem- 
 bly during his short administration, in which he 
 behaved with great moderation and integrity ; there 
 is very little observable in his time, except a treaty 
 at Albany with the Indians, for confirming the an- 
 cient league ; and the transactions respecting the 
 partition line between New York and New Jersey ; 
 concerning the latter of which the following is a 
 summary. 
 
 The two provinces were originally included in 
 the grant of King Charles to the Duke of York. New 
 Jersey was afterwards conveyed by the duke to Lord 
 Berkley and Sir George Carteret. This again, by 
 a deed of partition, was divided into East and West. 
 Jersey, the former being released to Sir George 
 Carteret, and the latter to the assigns of Lord Berk- 
 ley. The line of division extended from Little Egg 
 Harbour to the North Partition Point on Delaware 
 river, and thus both those tracts became concerned 
 in the limits of the province of New York. The 
 original rights of Lord Berkley and Sir George 
 Carteret were vested in two different sets, consist- 
 ing each of a great number of persons, known by 
 the general name of the proprietors of East and 
 West Jersey, who, though they surrendered the 
 powers of government to Queen Anne, in the year 
 1702, still retained their property in the soil. These 
 were the persons interested against the claim of New 
 York. It is agreed on all sides, that the deed to 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 549 
 
 New Jersey was to be first satisfied out of that great 
 tract granted to the duke, and that the remainder 
 was the right of New York. The proprietors in- 
 sisted upon extending their northern limits to a line 
 drawn from the latitude of 41 40' on Delaware, to 
 the latitude of 41 on Hudson's river; and alleged 
 that before the year 1671, the latitude of 41 was 
 reputed to be fourteen miles to the northward of 
 Tappan Creek, part of those lands having been settled 
 under New Jersey till 1684. They farther con- 
 tended, that in 1684 or 1685, Dongan and Lawrie 
 (the former governor of New York, and the latter 
 of 'New Jersey) with their respective councils agreed, 
 that the latitude on Hudson's river was at the mouth 
 of Tappan Creek, and that a line from thence to the 
 latitude of 41 46' on Delaware should be the 
 boundary line. In 1686, Robinson, Wells, and 
 Keith, surveyors of the three several provinces, 
 took two observations, and found the latitude of 41 
 to be 1' and 25" to the northward of the Yonker's 
 mills, which is four miles and forty-five chains to 
 the southward of the mouth of Tappan Creek. But 
 against these observations the proprietors offered 
 sundry objections. It was not pretended by any of 
 the litigants, that a line according to the station 
 settled by Dongan and Lawrie was actually run ; 
 so that the limits of these contending provinces 
 must long have existed in the uncertain conjectures 
 of the inhabitants of both; and yet the inconve- 
 niences of this unsettled state, through the infancy 
 of the country, were very inconsiderable. In the 
 year 1701, an act passed in New York relating to 
 elections, which annexed Wagachemeck, and great 
 and little Minisirik, certain settlements near Dela- 
 ware, to Ulster county. The intent of this law was 
 to quiet disputes before subsisting between the in- 
 habitants of those places, whose votes were required 
 both in Orange and Ulster. The natural conclusion 
 from hence is, that the legislature of New York 
 then deemed those plantations not included within 
 the New Jersey grant. 
 
 Such was the state of this affair till the year 1717, 
 when provision was made by New York for running 
 the line. The same being done in New Jersey the 
 succeeding year, commissions for that purpose under 
 the great seals of the respective colonies, were issued 
 in May, 1719. The commissioners, by indenture 
 dated the 26th of July, fixed the North Station 
 Point on the northernmost branch of Delaware, 
 called the Fish Kill; and from thence a random 
 line was run to Hudson's river, terminating about 
 five miles to the northward of the mouth of Tappan 
 Creek. In August, the surveyors of East Jersey 
 met for fixing the station on Hudson's river. All 
 the commissioners not attending through sickness, 
 nothing further was done. What had already been 
 transacted, however, gave a general alarm to many 
 persons interested in several patents under New 
 York, who before imagined their rights extended to 
 the southward of the random line. The New York 
 surveyor afterwards declined proceeding in the work, 
 complaining of faults in the instrument which had 
 been used in fixing the North Station on Delaware. 
 The proprietors, on the other hand, thought they 
 answered his objections, and the matter rested with- 
 out much contention till the year 1740. Frequent 
 quarrels multiplying after that period, relating to 
 the rights of soil and jurisdiction southward of the 
 line in 1719, a probationary act was passed in New 
 Jersey, in February, 1748, for running the line ex- 
 parte, if the province of New York refused to join 
 in the work. The New York assembly soon after 
 
 directed their agent to oppose the king's confirma- 
 tion of that act, and it was accordingly dropped, 
 agreeably to the advice of the lords of trade, whose 
 report of the 18th of July, 1753, on a matter of so 
 much importance, it is thought right here to insert. 
 
 "To the king's most excellent majesty. 
 
 " May it please your majesty, We have lately 
 had under our consideration, an act passed in your 
 majesty's province of New Jersey in 1747-8, entitled 
 An act for running and ascertaining the line of par- 
 tition and division betwixt this province of New 
 Jersey, and the province of New York. 
 
 " And having been attended by Mr. Paris, so- 
 licitor in behalf of the proprietors of the eastern 
 division of New Jersey, with Mr. Hume Campbell 
 and Mr. Henley his counsel in support of the said 
 act ; and by Mr. Charles, agent for the province of 
 New York, with Mr. Forrester and Mr Pratt his 
 counsel against the said act, and heard what each 
 party had to offer thereupon; we beg leave humbly 
 to represent to your majesty, that the considerations 
 which arise upon this act are of two sorts, viz., such 
 as relate to the principles upon which it is founded, 
 and such as relate to the transactions and circura 
 stances which accompany it. 
 
 " As to the first, it is an act of the province of 
 New Jersey interested in the determination of the 
 limits, and in the consequential advantages to arise 
 from it. 
 
 " The province of New Jersey, in its distinct and 
 separate capacity, can neither make nor establish 
 boundaries : it can as little prescribe regulations for 
 deciding differences between itself and other parties 
 concerned in interest. 
 
 "The established limits of its jurisdiction and 
 territory are such as the grants under which it 
 claims have assigned. If those grants are doubtful, 
 and differences arise upon the constructions, or 
 upon the matters of them, we humbly apprehend 
 that there are but two methods of deciding them ; 
 either by the concurrence of all parties concerned 
 in interest, or by the regular and legal forms of ju- 
 dicial proceedings; and it appears to us, that the 
 method of proceeding must be derived from the im- 
 mediate authority of the crown itself, signified by 
 a commission from your majesty under the great 
 seal ; the commission of subordinate officers and of 
 derivative powers being neither competent nor ade- 
 quate to such purposes; to judge otherwise would 
 be, as we humbly conceive, to set up ex-parte de- 
 terminations and incompetent jurisdictions in the 
 place of justice and legal authority. 
 
 " If the act of New Jersey cannot conclude other 
 parties, it cannot be effectual to the ends proposed ; 
 and that it would not be effectual to form an abso- 
 lute decision in this case, the legislature of that 
 province seems sensible, whilst it endeavours to 
 leave to your majesty's determination the decision 
 of one point relative to this matter, and of consider- 
 able importance to it ; which power your majesty 
 cannot derive from them, without their having the 
 power to establish the thing itself, without the assist- 
 ance of your majesty. 
 
 " As we are of opinion, that the present act, with- 
 out the concurrence of other parties concerned in 
 interest, is unwarrantable and ineffectual ; we shall 
 in the next place consider what transactions and 
 proceedings have passed, towards obtaining such 
 concurrence. 
 
 "The parties interested, are your majesty and the 
 two provinces of New York and New Jersey. Your 
 majesty is interested with respect to your sovereignty, 
 
550 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 seigneurie, and property; and the said provinces 
 with respect to their government and jurisdiction. 
 
 " With regard to the transactions on the part of 
 New York, we beg leave to observe, that whatever 
 agreements have been made formerly between the 
 two provinces for settling their boundaries ; what- 
 ever acts of assembly have passed, and whatever 
 commissions have been issued by the respective go- 
 vernors and governments; the proceedings under 
 them have never been perfected, the work remains 
 unfinished, and the disputes between the two pro- 
 vinces subsist with as much contradiction as ever; 
 but there is a circumstance that appears to us to 
 have still more weight, namely, that those transac- 
 tions were never properly warranted on the part of 
 the crown : the crown never participated in them, 
 and therefore cannot be bound with respect to its 
 interests by proceedings so authorised. 
 
 " The interest which your majesty has in the de- 
 termination of this boundary, may be considered in 
 three lights : either as interests of sovereignty, re- 
 specting mere government ; of seigneurie, which re- 
 spect escheats, and quit-rents; or of property, as rela- 
 tive to the soil itself; which last interest takes place 
 in such cases, where either your majesty has never 
 made any grants of the soil, or where such grants 
 have, by escheats, reverted to your majesty. 
 
 " With regard to the first of these interests, viz. 
 that of sovereignty, it has been alleged to us in 
 support of the act, that it is not materially affected 
 by the question, as both provinces are under your 
 majesty's immediate direction and government; but 
 they stand in a very different light with respect to 
 your majesty's interest in the quit-rents and escheats ; 
 in both which articles the situation of the two pro- 
 vinces appears to us to make a very material altera- 
 tion ; for although the province of New Jersey is 
 not under regulations of propriety or charter with 
 respect to its government, yet it is a proprietary 
 province with respect to the grant and tenure of its 
 territory ; and consequently, as New York is not in 
 that predicament, the determination of the boundary 
 in prejudice to that province, will affect your ma- 
 jesty's interest with respect to the tenure of such 
 lands as are concerned in this question; it being 
 evident, that whatever districts are supposed to be 
 included in the limits of New Jersey, will immedi- 
 ately pass to the proprietors of that province, and 
 be held of them, by which means your majesty 
 would be deprived of your escheats, and the quit-rents 
 would pass into other hands, 
 
 " To obviate this objection, it has been alleged, 
 that the crown has already made absolute grants of 
 the whole territory that can possibly come in ques- 
 tion under the denomination of this boundary, and 
 reserved only trifling and inconsiderable quit-rents 
 on those grants. But this argument does not seem 
 to us to be conclusive, since it admits an interest in 
 your majesty, the greatness or smallncss of which is 
 merely accidental; and therefore does not affect the 
 essence of the question : and we beg leave to ob- 
 serve, that in the case of exorbitant grants with in- 
 considerable quit-rents; and where consequently it 
 may reasonably be supposed, that the crown has 
 been deceived in such grants by its officers ; your 
 majesty's contingent right of property in virtue of 
 your seigneurie, seems rather to be enlarged than 
 diminished. 
 
 " This being the case, it appears to us, that Go- 
 vernor Hunter ought not to have issued his commis- 
 sion for running the line above-mentioned, without 
 having previously received the royal direction and 
 
 instruction for that purpose ; and that a commission 
 issued without such authority can be considered, 
 with respect to the interests of the crown, in no 
 other light than as a mere nullity -. and even with 
 respect to New York, we observe, that the said 
 commission is questionable, as it does not follow the 
 directions of the above-mentioned act, passed in 1717, 
 which declares, that the commission to be issued, 
 shall be granted under the joint authority of the 
 governor and council of that province, 
 
 " But it has been further urged, that the crown 
 has since confirmed these transactions, either by 
 previous declarations or by subsequent acquiescence, 
 and consequently participated in them, so far as to 
 conclude itself: we shall therefore, in the next 
 place, beg leave to consider the circumstances urged 
 for this purpose. 
 
 " It has been alleged, that the crown, by giving 
 consent to the aforesaid act, passed in New York 
 in 1717, for paying and discharging several debts 
 due from that colony, &c., concluded and bound 
 itself, with respect to the subsequent proceedings 
 had under the commission issued by Governor 
 Hunter ; but the view and purport of that act appears 
 to us so entire, and so distinctly formed for the pur- 
 pose of raising money and establishing funds; so 
 various and so distinct from any consideration of the 
 disputes subsisting in the two provinces, with respect 
 to the boundaries; that we cannot conceive a single 
 clause in so long and so intricate an act, can be a 
 sufficient foundation to warrant the proceedings of 
 Governor Hunter subsequent to it, without a special 
 authority from the crown for that purpose; and 
 there is the more reason to be of this opinion, as 
 the crown, by giving its assent to that act, can be 
 construed to have assented only to the levying money 
 for a future purpose ; which purpose could not be 
 effected by any commission but from itself; and 
 therefore can never be supposed to have, thereby, 
 approved a commission from another authority, 
 which was at that time already issued, and carrying" 
 into execution, previous to such assent. 
 
 " We further beg leave humbly to represent to 
 your majesty, that the line of partition and division 
 between your majesty's province of New York and 
 colony of Connecticut, having been run and ascer- 
 tained, pursuant to the directions of an act passed 
 at New York for that purpose, in the year 1719, 
 and confirmed by his late majesty in 1723; the 
 transactions between the said province and colony, 
 upon that occasion, have been alleged to be similar 
 to, and urged as, a precedent, and even as an ap- 
 probation, of the matter now in question : but we 
 are humbly of opinion, that the two cases are mate- 
 rially, and essentially, different. The act passed 
 in New York, in 1719, for running and ascertain- 
 ing the lines of partition and division between that 
 colony and the colony of Connecticut, recites, that 
 in the year 1683, the governor and council of New 
 York, and the governor and commissioners of Con- 
 necticut, did, in council, conclude an agreement 
 concerning the boundaries of the two provinces; 
 that, in consequence of this agreement, commission- 
 ers and surveyors were appointed on the part of 
 each government, who did actually agree, deter- 
 mine, and ascertain, the lines of partition ; marked 
 out a certain part of them, and fixed the point from 
 whence the remaining pait should be run : that the 
 several things agreed on and done by the said com- 
 missioners, were ratified by the respective governors ; 
 entered on record in each colony, in March, 1700; 
 approved and confirmed by order of King William 
 
UNITED STATES, 
 
 551 
 
 the Third, in his privy council; and by his said 
 majesty's letter to his governor of New York. 
 From this recital it appears to us, that those trans- 
 actions were not only carried on with the participa- 
 tion, but confirmed by the express act and authority 
 of the crown ; and that confirmation made the found- 
 ation of the act passed, by New York, for settling 
 the boundaries between the two provinces ; of all 
 which authority and foundation the act, we now 
 lay before your majesty, appears to us to be entirely 
 destitute. 
 
 " Upon the whole, as it appears to us, that the 
 act in question cannot be effectual to the ends pro- 
 posed; that your majesty's interest may be mate- 
 rially affected by it, and that the proceedings on 
 which it is founded were not warranted in the first 
 instance by the proper authority, but carried on 
 without the participation of the crown : we cannot 
 think it adviseable to lay this act before your ma- 
 jesty, as fit to receive your royal approbation. 
 " Which is most humbly submitted, 
 
 " Dunk Halifax, 
 " J. Grenville, 
 
 Whitehall, " James Oswald, 
 
 July 18, 1753. " Andrew Stone." 
 
 From the year 1720 to the commencement of the ad- 
 ministration of Colonel Cosby. 
 
 William Burnet, Esq. took upon him the govern- 
 ment of this province, qn the 17th of September, 
 1720. The council named in his instructions were, 
 Colonel Schuyler, Colonel Depeyster, Captain Wal- 
 ter, Colonel Beckman, Mr. Van Darn, Colonel 
 Keathcote, Mr. Barbaric', Mr. Philipse, Mr. Byerly, 
 Mr. Clarke, Dr. Johnston, Mr. Harrison. 
 
 Mr. Burnet, as has been already observed, in the 
 account of his government of Massachusetts, was the 
 son of the famous Bishop Burnet. His fortune was 
 very inconsiderable, for he suffered much in the 
 South Sea scheme. While in England, he had the 
 office of comptroller of the customs at London, which 
 he resigned to Brigadier Hunter, as the latter, in 
 his favour, did the government of this and the co- 
 lony of New Jersey. Mr. Burnet's acquaintance 
 with that gentleman gave him an opportunity to 
 obtain good intelligence both of persons and mat- 
 ters in the colony. The brigadier recommended all 
 his old friends to the favour of his successor, and he 
 made few changes amongst them. Colonel Schuyler 
 and Mr. Philipse were, indeed, removed from the 
 council board by his representations, for their op- 
 posing, in council, the continuance of the assembly, 
 after his arrival. Mr. Morris, the chief justice, was 
 his principal confidant. Dr. Golden and Mr. Alex- 
 ander, two Scotch gentlemen, had the next place in 
 his esteem. They were both men of learning, good 
 morals, and solid parts. The former was well ac- 
 quai-nted with the affairs of the province, and parti- 
 cularly those which concerned the French in Ca- 
 nada and the Indjan allies. The latter was bred to 
 the law, and though no speaker, at the head of his 
 profession for sagacity and penetration ; and in ap- 
 plication to business no man could surpass him. 
 Nor was he unacquainted with the affairs of the 
 public, having served in the secretary's office, the 
 best school in the province for instruction in mat- 
 ters of government; because the secretary enjoyed 
 a plurality of offices, conversant with all the busi- 
 ness of the colony. Both those gentlemen were, by 
 Mr. Burnet, soon raised to the council-board, as 
 were also Mr. Morris, jun., Mr. Van Horn, whose 
 daughter he married, and Mr. Kennedy, who suc- 
 
 ceeded Byerly, both at the council-board and in 
 the office of receiver-general. 
 
 Of all the governors, none had such extensive and 
 just views of our Indian affairs, and the dangerous 
 neighbourhood of the French, as Governor Burnet, 
 in which Mr. Livingston was his principal assistant. 
 His attention to these matters appeared at the very 
 commencement of his administration ; for in his first 
 speech to the assembly, the autumn after his arrival, 
 he laboured to implant the same sentiments in the 
 breasts of the members; endeavouring to alarm 
 their fears, by the daily advances of the French, 
 their possessing the main passes, seducing the In- 
 dian allies, and increasing their new settlements in 
 Louisiana. 
 
 Chief justice Morris, whose influence was very 
 great in the house, drew the address in answer to 
 the governor's speech, which contained the follow- 
 ing passage, manifesting the confidence they re- 
 posed in him : " We believe that the son of that 
 worthy prelate, so eminently instrumental under our 
 glorious monarch, William the Third, in delivering 
 us from arbitrary power, and its concomitants, po- 
 pery, superstition, and slavery; has been educated 
 in, and possesses, those principles that so justly re- 
 commended his father to the council and confidence 
 of protestant princes; and- succeeds our former go- 
 vernor, not only in power, but inclination, to do us 
 good." 
 
 From an assembly, impressed with such favoura- 
 ble sentiments, his excellency had the highest reason 
 to expect a submissive compliance with every thing 
 recommended to their notice. The public business 
 proceeded without suspicion or jealousy, and nothing 
 intervened to disturb the tranquillity of the political 
 state. Among the most remarkable acts passed this 
 session, we may reckon that, for a five years' sup- 
 port; another for laying a duty of two per cent, 
 prime cost on the importation of European goods, 
 which was soon after repealed by the king; and a 
 third, for prohibiting the sale of Indian goods to 
 the French. The last of these was a favourite act 
 of the governor's, and though a law very advanta- 
 geous to the province, became the source of an un- 
 reasonable opposition against him, which continued 
 through his whole administration. From the conclu- 
 sion of the peace of Utrecht, a great trade was carried 
 on between Albany and Canada, for goods saleable 
 among the Indians. The chiefs of the confederates 
 wisely foresaw its ill consequences, and complained 
 of it to the commissioners of Indian affairs, who 
 wrote to Mr. Hunter, acquainting him of their dis- 
 satisfaction. The letter was laid before the house, 
 but no effectual step taken to prevent the mischief, 
 till the passing of this act, which subjected the 
 traders to a forfeiture of the effects sold, and the 
 penalty of 100Z. Mr. Burnet's scheme was to draw 
 the Indian trade into the colony's power; to ob- 
 struct the communication of the French with the 
 Indian allies, which gave them frequent opportuni- 
 ties of seducing them from their fidelity; and to re- 
 gain the Caofhnuagas, who became interested in their 
 disaffection, by being the carriers between Albany 
 and Montreal. Among those who were more im- 
 mediately prejudiced by this new regulation, the 
 importers of those goods from Europe were the chief; 
 and hence the spring of their opposition to the go- 
 vernor. Frequent reference being made to " com- 
 missioners of Indian affairs," it is necessary to de- 
 scribe the nature of their office. As the governors 
 resided at New York, it became necessary that some 
 persons should be commissioned, at Albany, to re- 
 
55'J 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 ceive intelligence from the Indians, and treat with 
 them upon emergencies., which gave rise to the office 
 of " commissioners of Indian affairs," who in gene- 
 ral, transacted all such matters as might be done by 
 the governor. They received no salaries, but con- 
 siderable sums were deposited in their hands for 
 occasional presents. There are regular minutes of 
 their transactions from the year 1675. These were 
 in separate quires, till 1751, when they were bound 
 up in four large volumes, in folio. And in them all 
 the Indian treaties are entered. The books were 
 kept by a secretary, commissioned in England. 
 The commandant at Oswego was generally a com- 
 missioner. The office would probably have been 
 more advantageous if the commissioners had not 
 been traders, than which nothing is more ignoble in 
 the judgment of the Indians. 
 
 All possible arts. were used, both here and in 
 England, to preserve the good temper of the assem- 
 bly. Brigadier Hunter gave the ministry such fa- 
 vourable accounts of the members, that Colonel 
 Schuyler, during his presidentship, had orders from 
 Mr. Secretary Craggs, neither to dissolve them him- 
 self, nor permit them to be dissolved ; and at the 
 spring session, in the year 1721, Mr. Burnet in- 
 formed them, that his continuance of them was 
 highly approved at home. Horace Walpole, the 
 auditor-general, who had appointed Mr. Clarke for 
 his deputy, thought this a favourable conjuncture 
 for procuring five per cent, out of the treasury. But 
 the house were averse to his application, and on the 
 2d of June, Abraham Depeyster, jun., was appointed 
 treasurer by the speaker's warrant, with the consent 
 of the governor, in the room of his father, who was 
 infirm ; upon which he entered into a recognizance 
 of 5;000/. to the king, before a judge of the supreme 
 court, for the faithful execution of his trust, which 
 was lodged in the secretary's office. The house, at 
 the same time, in an address, declared their willing- 
 ness that the treasurer should account ; but utterly 
 refused to admit of any draughts upon the treasury 
 for the auditor-general, who was constrained to de'- 
 pend entirely upon the revenue, out of which he re- 
 ceived about 200/. per annum. 
 
 Mr Burnet being well acquainted with the geo- 
 graphy of the country, wisely concluded, that it was 
 to the last degree necessary to get the command of 
 the great lake Ontario, as well for the benefit of the 
 trade, and the security of the friendship of the five 
 nations, as to frustrate the French designs, of con- 
 fining the English colonies to narrow limits along 
 the sea coast, by a chain of forts on the great passes 
 from Canada to Louisiana. Towards the subversion 
 of this scheme, he began the erection of a trading 
 house at Oswego, in the country of the Sennecas, in 
 1722 ; and recommended a provision for the resid- 
 ence of trusty persons among them, and the Onon- 
 dagas, which last possessed the centre of the five 
 cantons. This year was remarkable for a congress 
 of several governors and commissioners, on the re- 
 newal of the ancient friendship with the Indians at 
 Albany. Mr. Burnet prevailed upon them to send 
 a message to threaten the Eastern Indians with a 
 war, unless they concluded a peace with the Eng- 
 lish, who were very much harassed by their frequent 
 irruptions. On the 20th of May, in the year fol- 
 lowing, the confederates were augmented by their 
 reception of above eighty Nicariagas, besides wo- 
 men and children, as they had been formerly, by 
 the addition of the Tuscaroras. The country of the 
 Nicariagas was on the north side of Missilimakinack, 
 but the Tuscaroras possessed a tract of land near 
 
 the sources of James's river, in Virginia, from 
 whence the encroachments of the English induced 
 them to remove, and settle near the south-east end 
 of the Oneyda lake. 
 
 The strict union subsisting between the several 
 branches of the legislature, gave a handle to Mr. 
 Burnet's enemies to excite a clamour against him. 
 Jealousies were industriously sown in the breasts of 
 the people. The continuance of an assembly, after 
 the accession of a new governor, was represented as 
 an anti-constitutional project ; and though the af- 
 fairs of the public were conducted with wisdom and 
 spirit, many were so much imposed upon, that a 
 rupture between the governor and the assembly was 
 thought to be absolutely necessary for the weal and 
 safety of the community. But this was not the only 
 stratagem of those who were dissatisfied at the pro- 
 hibition of the French trade. The London mer- 
 chants were induced to petition the king for an 
 order to his governor, prohibiting the revival of tho 
 act made against it, or the passing any new law of 
 that tendency. The petition was referred to the 
 board of trade, and backed before their lordships, 
 with suggestions of the most notorious falsehoods. 
 The lords of trade prudently advised, that no such 
 directions should be sent to Mr. Burnet till he had 
 an opportunity of answering the objections against 
 the act. They were accordingly sent over to him, 
 and he laid them before his council. Dr. Coldeu 
 and Mr. Alexander exerted themselves in a me- 
 morable report in answer to them, which drew upon 
 them the resentment of several merchants who had 
 first excited the London petition, and laid the 
 foundation for a variance between their families, 
 which manifested itself on many occasions. As this 
 report illustrates the state of the colony at this period, 
 it is introduced. 
 
 " May it please your excellency, 
 
 " In obedience to your excellency's commands, 
 in council, the 29th of October, referring to us a 
 petition of several merchants in London, presented 
 to the king's most excellent majesty, against re- 
 newing an act passed in this province, entitled, ' An 
 ' act for encouragement of the Indian trade, and 
 ' rendering it more effectual to the inhabitants of 
 ' this province, and for prohibiting the selling of 
 ' Indian goods to the French.' As likewise the se- 
 veral allegations of the said merchants before the 
 right honourable the lords of trade and plantations, 
 we beg leave to make the following remarks. 
 
 " In order to make our observations the more 
 distinct and clear, we shall gather together the se- 
 veral assertions of the said merchants, both in their 
 petition, and delivered verbally before the lords of 
 trade, as to the situation of this province, with re- 
 spect to the French and Indian nations ; and observe 
 on them, in the first place, their being the foundation 
 on which all their other allegations are grounded. 
 Afterwards we shall lay before your excellency what 
 we think necessary to observe on the other parts of 
 the said petition, in the order they are in the peti- 
 tion, or in the report of the lords of trade. 
 
 " In their geographical accounts they say, ' Be- 
 ' sides the nations of Indians that are in the English 
 ' interest, there are very many nations of Indians, 
 4 who are at present in the interest of the French, 
 ' who lie between New York and the nations of 
 ' Indians in the English interest. The French and 
 ' their Indians would not permit the English In- 
 ' dians to pass over by their forts. The said act 
 ' restrains them (the five nations) from a free com- 
 ' merce with the inhabitants of New York. 
 
UNITED STATES 
 
 553 
 
 " ' The five Indian nations are settled upon the 
 ' banks of the river St. Lawrence, directly opposite 
 1 to Quebec, two or three hundred leagues distant 
 ' from the nearest British settlements in New York. 
 
 " ' They (the five nations of Indians) were two or 
 
 * three hundred leagues distant from Albany ; and 
 
 * that they could not come to trade with the Eng- 
 ' lish, but by going down the river St. Lawrence, 
 ' and from thence through a lake which brought 
 
 * them within eighteen leagues of Albany.' 
 
 " These things the merchants have thought it 
 safe for them, and consistent with their duty to his 
 sacred majesty, to say in his majesty's presence, 
 and to repeat them afterwards before the right ho- 
 nourable the lords of trade, though nothing can be 
 more directly contrary to the truth. For there are 
 no nations of Indians between New York and the 
 nations of Indians in the English interest, who are 
 now six in number, by the addition of the Tusca- 
 roras. The Mohawks (called Annies by the French), 
 one of the five nations, live on the south side of a 
 branch of Hudson's river, (not on the north side as 
 they are placed in the French maps) and but forty 
 miles directly west from Albany, and within the 
 English settlements; some of the English farms, 
 upon the same river, being thirty miles further west. 
 The Oneydas (the next of the five nations) lie like- 
 wise west from Albany, near the head of the Mo- 
 hawks river, about 100 miles from Albany. The 
 Onondagas lie about 130 miles west from Albany ; 
 and the Tuscaroras live partly with the Onondagas. 
 The Cayugas are about 160 miles from Albany ; and 
 the Sennecas (the furthest of all these nations) are 
 not above 240 miles from Albany, as may appear 
 from Mr. D' Isle's map of Louisiana, who lays down 
 the five nations under the name of Iroquois ; and 
 goods are daily carried from this province, to the 
 Sennecas, as well as to those nations that lie nearer, 
 by water all the way, except three miles (or in the 
 dry season five miles), where the traders carry over 
 land between the Mohawks river and the Wood 
 Creek, which runs into the Oneydas lake, without 
 going near either St. Lawrence river, or any of the 
 lakes upon which the French pass, which are en- 
 tirely out of their way. 
 
 "The nearest French forts or settlements to Al- 
 bany, are Chambly and Montreal, both of them 
 lying about north and by east from Albany, and 
 are near 200 miles distant from it. Quebec lies 
 about 380 miles north-east from Albany. So far is 
 it from being true, that the five nations are situated 
 upon the banks of the river St. Lawrence, opposite 
 to Quebec, that Albany lies almost directly between 
 Quebec and the five nations. And to say that these 
 Indians cannot come to trade at Albany, but by 
 going down the river St. Lawrence, and then into 
 a lake eighteen leagues from Albany (we suppose 
 they mean lake Champlain) passing by the French 
 forts, is to the same purpose as if they should say, that 
 one cannot go from London to Bristol, but by way 
 of Edinburgh. 
 
 "Before we go on to observe other particulars, 
 we beg leave further to remark, that it is so far from 
 being true, that the Indians in the French interest 
 lie between New York and our five nations of In- 
 dians ; that some of our nations of Indians lie be- 
 tween the Fench and the Indians, from whence the 
 French bring the far greatest quantity of their furs ; 
 for the Sennecas (whom the French call Sonontouons) 
 are situated between lake Erie and Cadaracqui lake, 
 (called by the French Ontario) near the great fall 
 of Niagara, by which all the Indians that live round 
 
 lake Erie, round the lake of the Hurons, round the 
 lake of the Illinois, or Michegan, and round the 
 great upper lake, generally pass in their way to 
 Canada. All the Indians situated upon the branches 
 of the Mississippi, must likewise pass by the same 
 place, if they go to Canada. And all of them like- 
 wise, in their way to Canada, pass by our trading- 
 place upon the Cadaracqui lake, at the mouth of the 
 Onondaga river. The nearest and safest way of 
 carrying goods upon the Cadaracqui lake, towards 
 Canada, being along the south side of that lake, 
 (near where our Indians are settled, and our trade 
 of late' is fixed) and not by the north side and Ca- 
 daracqui, or Frontenac fort, where the French are 
 settled. 
 
 " Now that we have represented to your excel- 
 lency, that not one word of the geography of these 
 merchants is true, upon which all their reasoning is 
 founded; it might seem needless to trouble your 
 excellency with any further remarks, were it not to 
 show with what earnestness they are promoting the 
 French interest, to the prejudice of all his majesty's 
 colonies in North America, and that they are not 
 ashamed of asserting any thing for that end, even 
 in the royal presence. 
 
 " First they say, ' that by the act passed in this 
 ' province, entitled, An act. for the encouragement 
 ' of the Indian trade, &c., all trade whatsoever is 
 ' prohibited in the strictest manner, and under the 
 ' severest penalties, between the inhabitants of New 
 ' York government, and the French in Canada.' 
 
 " This is not true ; for only carrying goods to 
 the French, which are proper for the Indian trade, 
 is prohibited. The trade, as to other things, is left 
 in the same state it was before that act was made, 
 as it will appear to any person that shall read it ; 
 and there are, yearly, large quantities of other 
 goods, openly carried to Canada, without any hind- 
 rance from the government of New York. What- 
 ever may be said of the severity and penalties in 
 that act, they are found insufficient to deter some 
 from carrying goods clandestinely to the French ; 
 and the legislature of this province are convinced, 
 that no penalties can be too severe to prevent a 
 trade, which puts the safety of all his majesty's sub- 
 jects of North America in the greatest danger. 
 
 " Their next assertion is, ' All the Indian goods 
 { have by this act been raised 25Z. to 30Z. per cent.' 
 This is the only allegation in the whole petition 
 that there is any ground for. Nevertheless, though 
 the common channel of trade cannot be altered 
 without some detriment to it in the beginning ; we 
 are assured from the custom-house books, that there 
 has been every year, since the passing of this act, 
 more furs exported from New York, than in the 
 year immediately before the passing of this act. 
 It is not probable that the greatest difference be- 
 tween the exportation of any year before this act, 
 and any year since, could so much alter the price of 
 beaver, as it is found to be this last year. Beaver 
 is carried to Britain from other parts besides New 
 York, and it is certain that the price of beaver is 
 not so much altered here by the quantity in our 
 market, as by the demand for it in Britain. But as 
 we cannot be so well informed here, what occasions 
 beaver to be in greater demand in Britain, we must 
 leave that to be enquired after in England. How- 
 ever, we are fully satisfied that it will be found to 
 be for very different reasons from what the merchants 
 
 " The merchants go on and say, ' Whereas, on 
 ' the other hand, this branch of the New York trade, 
 
554 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 ' by the discouragements brought upon it by this 
 ' act, is almost wholly engrossed by the French, who 
 ' have already by this act been encouraged to send 
 
 * proper European goods to Canada, to carry on 
 
 * this trade, so that should this act be continued, the 
 ' New York trade, which is very considerable, must 
 4 be wholly lost to us, and centre in the French. 
 ' Though New York should not furnish them, the 
 
 * French would find another way to be supplied 
 
 * therewith, either from some other of his majesty's 
 
 * plantations, or it might be directly from Europe. 
 ' Many of the goods, which the Indians want, being 
 
 * as easy to be had directly from France or Holland, 
 ' as from Great Britain.' 
 
 " This is easily answered, by informing your ex- 
 cellency, that the principal of the goods proper for 
 the Indian market, are only of the manufactures of 
 Great Britain, or of the British plantations, viz., 
 strouds, or stroud-waters, and other woollens, and 
 rum. The French must be obliged to buy all their 
 woollens (the strouds especially) in England, and 
 thence carry them to France, in order to their trans- 
 portation to Canada. 
 
 " The voyage to Quebec, through the bay of St. 
 Lawrence, is well known to be the most dangerous 
 of any in the world, and only practicable in the 
 summer months. The French have no commodities 
 in Canada, by reason of the cold and barrenness of 
 the soil, proper for the West India markets; and 
 therefore have no rum but by vessels from France, 
 that touch at their islands in the West Indies. New 
 York has, by reason of its situation, both as to the 
 sea and the Indians, every way the advantage of 
 Canada. The New York vessels make always two 
 voyages in a year from England, one in summer, 
 and another in winter, and several voyages in a year 
 to the West Indies. It is manifest, therefore, that 
 it is not in the power of the French to import any 
 goods near so cheap to Canada, as they are imported 
 to New York. 
 
 " But to put this out of all controversy, we need 
 only observe to your excellency, that strouds (with- 
 out which no considerable trade can be carried on 
 with the Indians) are sold at Albany for 101. a 
 piece ; they were sold at Montreal, before this act 
 took place, at 13/. 2*. 6d., and now they are sold 
 there for 25. and upwards; which is an evident 
 proof, that the French have not in these four years 
 time (during the continuance of this act), found out 
 any other way to supply themselves with strouds ; 
 and likewise that they cannot trade without them, 
 seeing they buy them at so extravagant a price. 
 
 " Jt likewise appears, that none of the neigh- 
 bouring colonies have been able to supply the French 
 with these goods, and those that know the geography 
 of the country, know it is impracticable to do it at 
 any tolerable rate, because they must carry their 
 goods ten times further by land than we need to do. 
 
 " We are likewise assured, that the merchants of 
 Montreal lately told Mr. Vaudreuil, their governor, 
 that if the trade from Albany be not by some means 
 or other encouraged, they must abandon that set- 
 tlement. We have reason therefore to suspect, that 
 these merchants (at least some of them) have been 
 practised upon ".->y *_he French agents in London ; 
 for no doubh, tas French will leave no method un- 
 tried to defeat the present designs of this govern- 
 ment, seeing they are more afraid of the conse- 
 ?uences ofthis trade between New York and the 
 ndians, than of all the warlike expeditions that 
 ever were attempted against Canada. 
 
 " But to return to the petitioners. ' They con- 
 
 ' ceive nothing can tend more to the withdrawing 
 ' the affections of the five nations of Indians from 
 ' the English interest, than the continuance of the 
 ' said act, which in its effects restrains them from 
 ' a free commerce with the inhabitants of New York, 
 ' and may too probably estrange them from the 
 ' English interest; whereas, by a freedom of com- 
 ' merce, and an encouraged intercourse of trade 
 ' with the French and their Indians, the English 
 ' interest might, in time, be greatly improved and 
 ' strengthened.' 
 
 " It seems to us a strange argument to say, that 
 an act, the whole purport of which is to encourage 
 our own people to go among the Indians, and to 
 draw the far Indians through our Indian country to 
 Albany (and which has truly produced these effects) 
 would, on the contrary, restrain them from a free 
 commerce with the inhabitants of New York, and 
 may too probably estrange thorn from the English 
 interest; and therefore that it would be much wiser 
 in us to make use of the French, to promote the 
 English interest ; and for which end, we ought to 
 encourage a free intercourse between them and our 
 Indians. The reverse of this is exactly true, in the 
 opinion of our five nations ; who, in all their public 
 treaties with this government, have represented 
 against this trade, as the building the French forts 
 with English strouds; that the encouraging a free- 
 dom of commerce with our Indians, and the Indians 
 round them, who must pass through their country 
 to Albany, would certainly increase both the Eng- 
 lish interest and theirs, among all the nations to 
 the westward of them; and that the carrying the 
 Indian market to Montreal in Canada, draws all 
 the far Indians thither. 
 
 " The last thing we have to take notice, is what 
 the merchants asserted before the lords of trade, viz. 
 ' That there has not been half the quantity of Euro- 
 ' pean goods exported since the passing of this act, 
 ' that used to be.' We are well assured, that this 
 is no better grounded than the above facts they as- 
 sert with the same positiveness. For it is well 
 known, almost to every person in New York, that 
 there has not been a less, but rather a greater, 
 quantity of European goods imported into this place, 
 since the passing of this act, than was at any time 
 before it, in the same space of time. As this ap- 
 pears by the manifests in the custom house here, 
 the same may likewise be easily proved by the cus- 
 tom house books in London. 
 
 " As all the arguments of the merchants run upon 
 the ill effects this act has had upon the trade, and 
 the minds of the Indians, every one of which we 
 have shewn to be asserted without the least foun- 
 dation to support them; there nothing now remains, 
 but to shew the good effects this act has produced, 
 which are so notorious in this province, that we 
 know not one person that now opens his mouth 
 against the act. 
 
 " Before this act passed, none of the people of 
 this province travelled into the Indian countries to 
 trade. We have now above forty young men, who 
 have been several times as far as the lakes trading, 
 and thereby become well acquainted not only with 
 the trade of the Indians, but likewise with their 
 manners and languages ; and those have returned 
 with such large quantities of furs, that great num- 
 bers are resolved to follow their example ; so that 
 we have good reason to hope, that in a little time 
 the English will draw the whole Indian trade of the 
 inland countries to Albany, and into the country of 
 the five nations. This government has built a pub 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 555 
 
 lie trading house upon Cataracqui lake, at Ironde- 
 quat, in the Sennecas land, and another is to be 
 built, next spring, at the mouth of the Onondagas 
 river. All the far Indians pass by these places, in 
 their way to Canada ; and they are not above half 
 so far from the English settlements as they are from 
 the French. 
 
 " So far it is from being true what the merchants 
 say, * That the French forts interrupt all communi- 
 * cation between the Indians and the English/ that 
 if these places be well supported, as they easily can 
 be from our settlements, in case of a rupture with 
 the French it will be in the power of this province 
 to intercept the greatest part of the trade between 
 Canada and the Indians round the lakes and the 
 branches of the Mississippi. Since this act passed, 
 many nations have come to Albany to trade, in 
 peace and friendship, whose names had not so much 
 as been heard of among us. In the beginning of 
 May, 1723. a nation of Indians came to Albany, 
 singing and dancing, with their calumets before 
 them, as they always do when they come to any 
 place where they have not been before. We do not 
 rind that the commissioners of Indian affairs, were 
 able to inform themselves what nation this was. 
 
 " Towards the end of the same month, eighty 
 men, besides the women and children, came to Al- 
 bany in the same manner. These had one of our 
 five nations with them for an interpreter, by whom 
 they informed the commissioners, that they were of 
 a great nation, called Nehkereages, consisting of 
 six castles and tribes; and that they lived near a 
 place, called by the French, Missimakinah, between 
 the upper lake and the lake of the Hurons. These 
 Indians not only desired a free commerce, but like- 
 wise to enter into a strict league of friendship with 
 us and our six nations, that they might be accounted 
 the seventh nation in the league; and being received 
 accordingly, they left their calumet, as a pledge of 
 their fidelity. In June another nation arrived, but 
 from what part of the continent we have not learned. 
 
 " In July the Twightwies arrived, and brought an 
 Indian interpreter of our nations with them, who 
 said, that they were called by the French, Miamies, 
 and that they lived upon one of the branches of the 
 river Mississippi. At the same time some of the 
 Tahsagrondie Indians, who live between lake Erie 
 and the lake Hurons, near a French settlement, did 
 come and renew their league with the English, nor 
 durst the French hinder them. In July this year, 
 another nation came, whose situation and name we 
 know not; and in August and September several 
 parties of the same Indians that had been here last 
 year : but the greatest numbers of these far Indians 
 have been met this year in the Indian country by 
 our traders, every one of them endeavouring to ge't 
 before another, in order to reap the profits of so ad- 
 vantageous a trade, which has all this summer long 
 kept about forty traders constantly employed, in 
 going between our trading places, in our Indian 
 country, and Albany. 
 
 " All these nations of Indians, who came to Al- 
 bany, said, that the French had told them many 
 strange stories of the English, and did what they 
 could to hinder their coming to Albany, but that 
 they had resolved to break through by force. The 
 difference on this score between the Tahsagrondie 
 Indians and the French (who have a fort, and set- 
 tlement there, called by them Le Droit) rose to 
 that height this summer, that Mr. Tonti, who com- 
 manded there, thought it proper to retire, and re- 
 turn to Canada with many of his men. 
 
 " We are, for these reasons, well assured, that 
 this year there will be more beaver exported for 
 Great Britain than ever was from this province in 
 one year; and that if the custom-house books at 
 London be looked into, it will be found, that there 
 will be a far greater quantity of goods for the Indi- 
 ans f strouds especially) sent over next spring, than 
 ever there was at any one time to this province. 
 For the merchants here tell us, that they have at 
 this time ordered more of these goods than ever was 
 done at any one time before. 
 
 " These matters of fact prove, beyond contradic- 
 tion, that this act has been of the greatest service to 
 New York, in making us acquainted with many 
 nations of Indians, formerly entirely unknown, and 
 strangers to us ; withdrawing them from their de- 
 pendance upon the French, and uniting them to 
 us and our Indians, by means of trade and mutual 
 offices of friendship. 
 
 " Of what great consequence this may be to the 
 British interest in general, as to trade, is apparent 
 to any body. It is no less apparent likewise, that 
 it is of the greatest consequence to the safety of all 
 the British colonies in North America. We feel, 
 too sensibly, the ill effects of the French interest in 
 the present war betwixt New England, and only one 
 nation of Indians supported by the French. .Of 
 what dismal consequences then might it be, if the 
 French should be able to influence, in the same 
 manner, so many and such numerous nations, as lie 
 to the westward of this province, Pennsylvania and 
 Maryland ? On the other hand, if all these nations 
 (who assert their own freedom, and declare them- 
 selves friends to those that supply them best with 
 what they want) be brought to have a dspendaace 
 upon the English (as we have good reason to hope 
 in a short time they will) the French of Canada, in 
 case of a war, must be at the mercy of the English. 
 
 " To these advantages must be added, that many 
 of our young men having been induced by this act to 
 travel among the Indians, they learn their manners, 
 their languages, and the situation of all their 
 countries, and become inured to all manner of fa- 
 tigues and hardships ; and a great many more being 
 resolved to follow their example, these young men, 
 in case of war with the Indians, will be of ten times 
 the service, that the same number of the common 
 militia can be of. The effects of this act have like- 
 wise so much quieted the minds of the people, with 
 respect to the security of the frontiers, that our set- 
 tlements are now extended above thirty miles fur- 
 ther west towards the Indian countries, than they 
 were before it passed. 
 
 " The only thing that now remains to answer, is 
 an objection which we suppose may be made. What 
 can induce the merchants of London to petition 
 against an act, which will be really so much for 
 their interest in the end ? The reason is, in all 
 probability, because they only consider their present 
 gain ; and that they are not at all concerned for the 
 safety of this country, in encouraging the most ne- 
 cessary undertaking, if they apprehended their profit 
 for two or three years may be lessened by it. This 
 inclination of the merchants has been so notorious, 
 that few nations, at war with their neighbours, have 
 been able to restrain them from supplying their ene- 
 mies with ammunition and arms. The Count D'Es- 
 trade, in his letters in 1638, says, that when the 
 Dutch were besieging Antwerp, one Beiland, who 
 had loaded four fly-boats with arms and powder for 
 Antwerp, being taken up by the prince of Orange's 
 order, and examined at Amsterdam, said boldly, 
 
556 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 that the burghers of Amsterdam had a right to trade 
 every where : that he could name a hundred that ( 
 were factors for the merchants at Antwerp, and that 
 he was one. ' That trade cannot be interrupted, 
 * and that for his part he was very free to own, that 
 4 if to get any thing by trade it was necessary to 
 4 pass through hell, he would venture to burn his 
 4 sails.' When this principle, so common to mer- 
 chants, is considered, and that some in this place 
 have got estates by trading many years to Canada, 
 it is not to be wondered, that they have acted as 
 factors for Canada in this affair, and that they have 
 transmitted such accounts to their correspondents in 
 London, as are consistent with the trust reposed in 
 them by the merchants of Canada. 
 
 44 In the last place, we are humbly of opinion, 
 that it may be proper to print the petition of the 
 merchants of London, and their allegations before 
 the lords of trade, together with the answers your 
 committee has made hitherto, in vindication of the 
 legislature of this province, of which we have the 
 honour to be a part, if your excellency shall approve 
 of our answers ; that what we have said may be ex- 
 posed to the examination of every one in this place, 
 where the truth of these matters of fact is best known, 
 and that the correspondents of these merchants may 
 have the most public notice to reply, if they shall 
 think it proper, or to disown, in a public manner, 
 that they are the authors of such groundless informa- 
 tions. All which is unanimously and humbly sub- 
 mitted by " Your excellency's 
 
 " Most obedient humble servants, 
 " R. Walter, Rip Van Dam, John Barbaric, Fr. 
 Harrison, Cadwallader Golden, James Alexander, 
 Abraham Van Home." 
 
 Governor Burnet transmitted this report to the 
 board of trade, and it had the intended effect. About 
 the latter end of the year 1724, an unfortunate dis- 
 pute commenced in the French church, of which, 
 because it had no small influence on the public af- 
 fairs of the government, we shall give a short account. 
 The persecutions in France which ensued upon 
 the revocation of the edict of Nantz, drove the pro- 
 testant subjects of Louis XIV. into the territories 
 of other princes. Many of them fled even into this 
 province : the most opulent settled in the city of 
 New York others went into the country and planted 
 New Rochelle and a few seated themselves at the 
 New Paltz in Ulster county. Those who resided 
 in New York soon erected a church, upon the prin- 
 ciples and model of that in Geneva ; and by their 
 growth and foreign accessions formed a congrega- 
 tion, for numbers and riches, superior to all but the 
 Dutch. They had two ministers. Rou, who was a 
 man of learning, but arrogant, luxurious, and pas 
 sionate. Moulinaars, his colleague, was distin- 
 guished for his mild spirit, dull parts, and regular 
 life. Rou despised his fellow -labourer, and for a 
 long time commanded the whole congregation, by 
 the superiority of his talents in the pulpit. The 
 other, impatient of repeated affronts and open con- 
 tempt, raised a party in his favour, and this year 
 succeeded in the election of a set of elders disposed 
 to humble the delinquent. Rou, being suspicious of 
 the design, refused to acknowledge them duly elected. 
 Incensed at this conduct, they entered an act in their 
 minutes, dismissing him from the pastoral charge ol 
 the church, and procured a ratification of the act 
 under the hands of the majority of the people. Go- 
 vernor Burnet had, long before this time, admitted 
 Rou into his familiarity on the score of his learning, 
 aud that consideration encouraged a petition to 
 
 lim from Rou's adherents, complaining against the 
 elders. The matter was then referred to a commit- 
 tee of the council, who advised that the congregation 
 should be abolished, to bring their differences to an 
 amicable conclusion. Some overtures, to that end, 
 were attempted, and the elders offered to submit the 
 ontroversy to the Dutch ministers. But Rou, who 
 knew that the French church without a synod was 
 unorganized, and could not restrain him, chose rather 
 to bring his bill in chancery before the governor. 
 
 Mr. Alexander was his counsel, and Mr. Smith, a 
 young lawyer, of the first reputation as a speaker, 
 appeared for the elders. He pleaded to the juris- 
 diction of the court, insisting, that the matter was 
 entirely ecclesiastical ; and, in the prosecution of 
 bis argument, entered largely into an examination 
 of the government of the protestant churches in 
 France. According to which, he shewed that the 
 consistory were the proper judges of the point in 
 dispute, in the first instance ; and that from thence 
 an appeal lay to a collogue, next to a provincial, 
 and last of all to a national synod. Mr. Burnet 
 nevertheless over-ruled the plea, and the defendants, 
 being fearful of a decree that might expose their 
 own estates to the payment of Rou's salary, thought 
 it adviseable to drop their debates, reinstate the mi- 
 nister, and leave the church. 
 
 All those who opposed Rou were displeased with 
 the governor ; among these Mr. De Lancey was the 
 most considerable for his wealth and popularity. 
 He was very rigid in his religious profession, one 
 of the first builders, and by far the most generous 
 benefactor, of the French church, and therefore left 
 it with the utmost reluctance. Mr. Burnet, before 
 this time, had considered him as his enemy, because 
 he had opposed the prohibition of the French trade ; 
 and this led him into a step, which, as it was a per- 
 sonal indignity, Mr. De Lancey could never recol- 
 lect without resentment. This gentleman was re- 
 turned for the city of New York, in the room of a 
 deceased member, at the meeting of the assembly in 
 September, 1725. When he offered himself for" the 
 oaths, Mr. Burnet asked him how he became a sub- 
 ject of the crown? he answered, that he was de- 
 nized in England, and his excellency dismissed him, 
 taking time to consider the matter. Mr. De Lan- 
 cey then laid before the house an act of a notary 
 public, certifying that he was named in a patent of 
 denization, granted in the reign of James the Se- 
 cond ; a patent of the same kind, under the great 
 seal of the province, in 1686; and two certificates, 
 one of his having taken the oath of allegiance, ac- 
 cording to an act passed in the colonies in 1683, and 
 another of his serving in several former assemblies. 
 The governor, in the meantime, consulted the chief 
 justice, and transmitted his opinion to the house, 
 who resolved in favour of Mr. De Lancey. Several 
 other new representatives came in, at this session, 
 upon the decease of the old members ; and Adolpli 
 Philipse, who had been, as we have seen some time 
 before, dismissed from the council-board, was elected 
 into the speaker's chair, in the absence of Mr. Li- 
 vingston. The majority, however, continued in the 
 interest of the governor; and consented to the re- 
 vival of the several acts, which had been passed for 
 prohibiting the French trade ; which, in spite of all 
 the restraints laid upon it, was clandestinely carried 
 on by the people of Albany. Oswego, nevertheless, 
 thrived: fifty-seven canoes went there this summer, 
 and returned with 738 packs of beaver and deer- 
 skins. 
 
 Nothing could more naturally excite the jealousy 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 557 
 
 of the French, than the erection of a new trading- 
 house at the mouth of the Onandaga river. Fear- 
 ful of losing a profitable trade, -which they had al- 
 most entirely engrossed, and the command of the 
 lake Ontario, they launched two vessels in it in 
 1726, and transported materials for building a large 
 store -house, and repairing the fort at Niagara. The 
 scheme was not only to secure to themselves the en- 
 trance into the west end of the lake, as they already 
 had the east, by the fraudulent erection of fort 
 Frontenac many years before ; but also to carry 
 their trade more westerly, and thus render Oswego 
 useless, by shortening the travels of the western In- 
 dians near 200 miles. Baron de Longueil, who 
 had the chief command in Canada, on the death of 
 the Marquis de Vaudreuil in October, 1725, was so 
 intent, upon this project, that he went, in person, to 
 the Onbndaga canton, for leave to raise the store- 
 house at Niagara : and as those Indians were most 
 of all exposed to the intrigues of the Jesuits, who 
 constantly resided amongst them ; he prevailed upon 
 them by fraud, and false representations, to consent 
 to it, for their protection against the English. But 
 as soon as this matter was made known to the other 
 nations, they declared the permission granted by 
 the Onondagas to be absolutely void ; and sent de- 
 puties to Niagara, with a message, signifying thai 
 the country in which they were at work 'belonged 
 solely to the Sennecas, and required them immedi- 
 ately to desist. The French, notwithstanding, were 
 regardless of the embassage, and pushed on theii 
 enterprise with all possible dispatch, while Joncaire 
 exerted all his address among the Indians, to pre- 
 vent the demolition of the works. Canada was very 
 much indebted to the intrigues of this man. He 
 had been adopted by the Sennecas, and was vvel 
 esteemed by the Ouondagas. He spoke the Indian 
 language, as Charlcvoix informs us, with a native 
 eloquence, and had lived amongst them, after theii 
 manner, from the beginning of Queen Anne's reign 
 All these advantages he improved for the interes 
 of his country; he facilitated the missionaries in 
 their progress through the cantons, and more than 
 - any man contributed to render their dependence 
 upon the English weak and precarious. Convince? 
 of this, Colonel Schuyler urged the Indians, at hi 
 treaty with them, in 1719, to drive Joncaire out o 
 their country, but his endeavours were fruitless. 
 
 The Jesuit, Charlevoix, does honour to Mr. Bur 
 net, in declaring that he left no stone unturned, t( 
 defeat the French designs at Niagara. Nor is i 
 much to be wondered at. For besides supplanting 
 his favourite trade at Oswego, it tended to the de 
 fection of the tive nations ; and, in case of a rup 
 ture, exposed the frontiers of cur southern colcmie 
 to the ravages of the French and their allies. Mr 
 Burnet, upon whom these considerations made th 
 deepest impression, laid the matter before the house 
 remonstrated against the proceedings to Longuei 
 in Canada, wrote to the ministry in England, wh 
 complained of them to the French court, and me 
 the confederates at Albany, endeavouring to con 
 vince them of the danger they themselves would b 
 in, from an aspiring, ambitious, neighbour. H 
 spoke first about the affair privately to the Sachems 
 and afterwards, in the public conference, infonne< 
 them of all the encroachments which the French 
 had made upon their fathers, and the ill usage the 
 had met with, according to La Potherie's account 
 published with the privilege of the French king, a 
 Paris, in 1722. He then reminded them of th 
 kind treatment they had received from the English 
 
 who constantly fed and clothed them, and never at- 
 empted any act of hostility to their prejudice, 
 ^his speech was extremely well drawn, the thoughts 
 ieing conceived in strong figures, particularly ex- 
 rcssive and agreeable to the Indians. The go- 
 ernor required an explicit declaration of their senti- 
 ments concerning the French transactions at Nia- 
 ara, and their answer was truly categorical. " We 
 peak now in the name of all the six nations, and 
 ome to you howling. This is the reason why we 
 lowl, that the governor of Canada encroaches on 
 ur land, and builds thereon." After which they 
 ntreated him to write to the krng for succour. 
 VIr. Burnet embraced this favourable opportunity 
 o procure from them a deed, surrendering their 
 country to his majesty, to be protected for their 
 use, and confirming their grant in 1701, concerning 
 which there was only an entry in the books of the 
 secretary for Indian affairs. Besides the territories 
 at the west end of lake Erie, and on the north side 
 of that, and the lake Ontario, which were ceded in 
 L701 ; the Indians now granted, for the same pur- 
 pose, all their habitations from Oswego to Cayahoga 
 river, which disembogues into lake Erie, and the 
 country extending sixty miles from the southern- 
 most banks of those lakes. Though the first sur- 
 render, through negligence, was not made by the 
 execution of a formal deed under seal; yet as it 
 was transacted with all the solemnity of a treaty, 
 and as the second surrender confirms the first, no 
 intermediate possession by the French could preju- 
 dice the British title derived by the cession 1701. 
 
 It happened very unfortunately, that his excel- 
 lency's hands were then more weakened than ever, 
 by the growing disaffection in the house. The in- 
 trigues of his adversaries, and the frequent deaths 
 of the members, had introduced such a change in 
 the assembly, that it was with difficulty he procured 
 a three years support. The clamours of the people 
 ran so high without doors for a new election, that 
 he was obliged to dissolve the house, and soon after 
 another dissolution ensued on the death of the king. 
 The French, in the meantime, completed their works 
 at Niagara, and Mr. Burnet, who was unable to do 
 any thing else, erected a fort, in 1727, for the pro- 
 tection of the post and trade at Oswego. This ne- 
 cessary undertaking was pregnant with the most 
 important consequences, not only to this but to all 
 the colonies; and though the governor's seasonable 
 activity deserved the highest testimonials of grati- 
 tude, he was obliged to build the fort at his private 
 expense; and a balance of 56J. principal, though 
 frequently demanded, remained long after due to 
 his estate. 
 
 Beauharnois, the governor of Canada, who super- 
 seded Longuiel, was so incensed at the building of 
 the fort, that he sent a written summons, in July, 
 to the officer posted there, to abandon it; and 
 though his predecessor had done the same a little 
 before at Niagara, in the county of the Sennecas, the 
 acknowledged subjects of the British crown, yet, 
 with a singular effrontery, he dispatched De la Chas- 
 saigne, a man of parts, and governor of Trois Ri- 
 vieres, to New York, with the strongest complaints 
 to Mr. Burnet upon that head. His excellency sent 
 him a polite, but resolute answer, on the 8th of Au- 
 gust, in which he refuted the arguments urged by 
 the French governor-general; and remonstrated 
 against the proceedings of the last year at Niagara. 
 The new assembly met in September, 1727, and 
 consisted of members all ill affected to the governor. 
 The long continuance of the last, the clamours which 
 
558 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 were excited by several late important decrees in 
 chancery, the affair of the French church, and es- 
 pecially'the prohibiting the Canada trade, were the 
 causes to which the loss of his interest is to be as- 
 cribed. Mr. Philipse, the speaker, was piqued at a 
 decree in chancery against himself, which very 
 much affected his estate ; and the members, who 
 were very much influenced by him, came, on the 
 25th of November, into the following resolutions. 
 Colonel Hicks, from the committee of grievances, 
 reported, " That as well by the complaints of se- 
 veial people, as by the general cry of his majesty's 
 subjects inhabiting this colony, they find that the 
 court of chancery, as lately assumed to be set up 
 here, renders the liberties and properties of the said 
 subjects extremely precarious ; and that by the vio- 
 lent measures taken in and allowed by it, some have 
 been ruined others obliged to abandon the colony 
 and many restrained in it, either by imprison- 
 ment or by 'excessive bail exacted from them not to 
 depart, even when no manner of suits are depend- 
 ing against them : and therefore are of opinion, that 
 the extraordinary proceedings of that court, and the 
 exorbitant fees and charges, countenanced to be 
 exacted by the officers and practitioners thereof, are 
 the greatest grievance and oppression this colony 
 hath ever felt : and that for removing the fatal con- 
 sequences thereof, they had come to several resolu- 
 tions, which being read, were approved by the house, 
 and are as follow : 
 
 " Resolved, that the erecting or exercising in this 
 colony, a court of equity or chancery (however it 
 may be termed) without consent in general assem- 
 bly, is unwarrantable, and contrary to the laws of 
 England, and a manifest oppression and grievance 
 to the subjects, and of pernicious consequence to 
 their liberties and properties. 
 
 " Resolved, that this house will at their next 
 meeting prepare, and pass, an act to declare and 
 adjudge all orders, ordinances, devices, and pro- 
 ceedings of the court, so assumed to be erected and 
 exercised as abovementioned, to be illegal, null, and 
 void, as by law and right they ought to be. 
 
 " Resolved, that this house, at the same time, will 
 take into consideration, whether it be necessary to 
 establish a court of equity or chancery in this colony ; 
 in whom the jurisdiction thereof ought to be vested, 
 and how far the powers of it shall be prescribed and 
 limited." 
 
 Mr. Burnet no sooner heard of these votes, than 
 he called the members before him and dissolved the 
 assembly. They occasioned, however, an ordinance 
 in the spring following, as well to remedy sundry 
 abuses in the practice in chancery, as to reduce the 
 f^es of that court, which, on account of the popular 
 clamours, were so much diminished, that ever after 
 it was abandoned by all gentlemen of eminence in 
 the profession. 
 
 We are now come to the close of Mr. Burnet's 
 administration, when he was appointed to the chief 
 command of Massachusetts. Though there had never 
 been a governor to whom the colony was so much in- 
 debted as to him ; yet the influence of a faction, in the 
 judgment of some, rendered his removal necessary 
 for the public tranquillity. Insensible of his merit, 
 many considered it as a most fortunate event; and 
 till the ambitious designs of the French king, with 
 respect to America, awakened attention to the ge- 
 neral welfare, Mr. Burnet's administration was as 
 little esteemed as that of the meanest of his prede- 
 cessors. 
 
 He was very fond of New York, and left it with 
 
 reluctance. His marriage connected him with a 
 numerous family, and, besides an universal acquaint- 
 ance, there were some gentlemen with whom he 
 contracted a strict intimacy and friendship. 
 
 The excessive love of money, a disease common 
 to all his predecessors, and to some who succeeded 
 him, was a vice from which he was entirely free. 
 He sold no offices, nor attempted to raise a fortune 
 by indirect means, for he lived generously, and 
 carried scarce any thing away with him but his 
 books. These and the conversation of men of let- 
 ters, were to him inexhaustible sources of delight. 
 His astronomical observation^ have been usei'ul ; 
 but by his comment on the Apocalypse, he exposed 
 himself to some harsh criticisms. 
 
 John Montgomerie, Esq., received the great seal 
 of this province from Mr. Burnet, on the 15th of 
 April, 1728, having a commission to supersede him 
 here and in New Jersey. The council board con- 
 sisted of Mr. Walters, Mr. Van Dam, Mr. Barbarie, 
 Mr. Clarke, Mr. Harrison, Dr. Colden, Mr. Alex- 
 ander, Mr. Morris, jun., Mr. Van Home, Mr. Pro- 
 vost, Mr. Livingston, Mr. Kennedy. 
 
 The governor was a Scotch gentleman, and bred 
 a soldier; but in the latter part of his life he had 
 little concern with arms, having served as groom of 
 the bed-chamber to George II. when prince of Wales. 
 This station, and a seat in parliament, paved the 
 way to his preferment in America. In his talents 
 for government he was much inferior to his prede- 
 cessor, for he had neither strength nor acuteness of 
 parts, and was but little acquainted with any kind 
 of literature. 
 
 All parties being weary of contention a calm en- 
 sued, and the governor's good humour helped to ex- 
 tinguish the discontent : having no particular scheme 
 to pursue, and confining himself to the exercise of 
 the common acts of government, the public affairs 
 flowed on in a very calm manner. 
 
 The two causes of dissension with the late admi- 
 ministration were carefully avoided by the preseut 
 governor, for he dissolved the assembly called by 
 his predecessor, before they had ever been convened ; 
 and as to the chancery he himself countenanced the 
 opposition to it, by declining to sit, till enjoined to 
 exercise the office of chancellor by special orders 
 from England. 
 
 He then obeyed the command, but not without dis- 
 covering his reluctance ; and modestly confessing 
 to the practisers, that he thought himself unquali- 
 fied for the station. Indeed the court of chancery 
 was evidently his aversion, and he never gave a 
 single decree in it, nor more than three orders ; and 
 these, both as to matter and form, were first settled 
 by the counsel concerned. 
 
 Mr. Philipse was chosen speaker of the assembly 
 which met on the 23d of July, and continued sitting 
 in perfect harmony till autumn. After his excel- 
 lency had procured a five years support, and several 
 other laws of less considerable moment, he went up 
 to Albany, and on the 1st of October, held a treaty 
 with the the six nations for a renewal of the ancient 
 covenant. He gave them great presents, and en- 
 gaged them in the defence of Oswego. Nothing 
 could be more seasonable than this interview ; for 
 the French, who viewed that important garrison and 
 the increasing trade there with the most restless 
 jealousy, prepared, early in the spring following, to 
 demolish the works. Governor Burnet gave the. 
 first intelligence of this design, in a letter to Colonel 
 Montgomerie, dated at Boston the 31st of March, 
 1729. The garrison was thereupon immediately re- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 559 
 
 inforcecl by a detachment from the independent 
 companies ; which together with the declared reso- 
 lution of the Indians to protect the fort, induced the 
 French to desist from the intended invasion. 
 
 Thus far the Indian affairs appeared to be under 
 a tolerable direction ; but these fair prospects were 
 soon obscured by the king's repealing, on the llth 
 of December, 1729, all the acts which Mr. Burnet, 
 with so much labour and opposition, procured for 
 the prohibition of an execrable trade between Albany 
 and Montreal. To whose intrigues this event is to 
 be ascribed, cannot be certainly determined. But 
 that it was pregnant with the worst consequences, 
 was soon sufficiently evinced. Nothing could more 
 naturally tend to undermine the trade at Oswego, 
 to advance the French commerce at Niagara, to 
 alienate the Indians from their fidelity to Great 
 Britain, and particularly to rivet the defection of 
 the Caghnuagas. For these residing on the south 
 side of St. Lawrence, nearly opposite to Montreal, 
 were employed by the French as their carriers, and 
 thus became interested against the colonists by mo- 
 tives of the most prevailing nature. One would 
 imagine that, after ail the attention bestowed on 
 this affair in the late administration, the objections 
 against this trading intercourse with Canada must 
 have been obvious to the meanest capacity ; and yet 
 from the time Mr. Burnet removed to Boston, it was 
 rather encouraged than restrained. 
 
 The year 1731 was distinguished only by the 
 complete settlement of the disputed boundary be- 
 tween this province and the colony of Connecticut. 
 An event, considering the colonizing spirit and ex- 
 tensive claims of the people of New England, of no 
 small importance, and concerning which it is pro- 
 per to give a succinct account. 
 
 The partition line agreed upon, in 1664, being 
 considered as fraudulent, or erroneous, a second 
 agreement, suspended only for the king's and the 
 duke's approbation, was concluded on the 23d of 
 November, 1683, between Colonel Dongan and his 
 counsel, and Robert Trent, Esq. then governor of 
 Connecticut, and several other commissioners ap- 
 pointed by that colony. The line of partition, then 
 agreed to be established, was to begin at the mouth 
 of Byram brook, "Where it falleth into the sound, 
 at a point called Lyon's Point, to go as the said 
 river runneth, to the place where the common road, 
 or wading-place, over the said river is ; and from 
 the said road or wading-place, to go north-north- 
 west into the country, as far as will be eight Eng- 
 lish miles from the aforesaid Lyon's Point; and 
 that a line of twelve miles being measured from the 
 said Lyon's Point, according to the line or general 
 course of the sound eastward : where the said twelve 
 miles endeth, another line shall be run from the 
 sound, eight miles into the country north-north- 
 west, and also, that a fourth line be run (that is to 
 say) from the northernmost end of the eight miles 
 line, being the third-mentioned line, which fourth 
 line with the first-mentioned line, shall be the bounds 
 where they shall fall to run; and that from the 
 easternmost end of the fourth-mentioned line (which 
 is to be twelve miles in length) a line parallel to 
 Hudson's river, in every place twenty miles distant 
 from Hudson's river, shall be the bounds there, be- 
 tween the said territories or province of New York, 
 and the said colony of Connecticut, so far as Con- 
 necticut colony doth extend northwards ; that is, to 
 the south line of the Massachusetts colony: only it 
 is provided, that in case the line from Byram brook's 
 mouth, north-north-west 8 miles, and the line that is 
 
 then to run twelve miles to the end of the third fore- 
 mentioned line of eight miles, do diminish or take 
 away land, within twenty miles of Hudson's river, 
 that then so much as is in land diminished of twenty 
 miles of Hudson's river thereby, shall be added out 
 of Connecticut bounds unto the line afore-mentioned, 
 parallel to Hudson's river and twenty miles distant 
 from it ; the addition to be made the whole length 
 of the said parallel line, and in such breadth, as 
 will make up, quantity for quantity, what shall be 
 diminished as aforesaid/' 
 
 Pursuant to this agreement some of the lines were 
 actually run out, and a report made of the survey, 
 which, on the 24th of February, 1684, was con- 
 firmed by the governor of each colony at Milford in 
 Connecticut. Here the matter rested, till a dispute 
 arose concerning the right of jurisdiction over the 
 towns of Rye and Bedford, which occasioned a so- 
 licitation at home ; and on the 28th of March, 1700, 
 King William was pleased to confirm the agree- 
 ment of 1683. 
 
 Nineteen years afterwards, a probationary act 
 was passed, empowering the governor to appoint 
 commissioners, as well to run the line parallel to 
 Hudson's river, as to re-survey the other lines and 
 distinguish the boundary. The Connecticut agent 
 ipposed the king's confirmation of this act, but it 
 was approved on the 23d of January, 1723. Two 
 years after, the commissioners and surveyors of both 
 colonies met at Greenwich, and entered first into an 
 agreement, relating to the method of performing 
 the work. 
 
 The survey was immediately after executed in 
 part, the report being dated on the 12th of May, 
 1725 ; but the complete settlement was not made 
 till the 14th of May, 1731, when indentures, certi- 
 fying the execution of the agreement in 1725, were 
 mutually signed by the commissioners and surveyors 
 of both colonies. Upon the establishment of this 
 partition, a tract of land lying on the Connecticut 
 side, consisting of above 60,000 acres, from its 
 figure called the Oblong, was ceded to New York, 
 as an equivalent for lands near the Sound sur- 
 rendered to Connecticut. 
 
 The very day after the surrender made by that 
 colony, a patent passed in London to Sir Joseph 
 Eyles and others, intended to convey the whole 
 Oblong. A grant posterior to the other was also 
 regularly made here to Hauley and company, of the 
 greatest part of the same tract, which the British 
 patentees brought a bill in chancery to repeal. But 
 the defendants filed an answer, containing so many 
 objections against the English patent, that the suit 
 remained unprosecuted, and the American pro- 
 prietors have ever since held the possession. Mr. 
 Harrison, of the council, solicited this controversy 
 for Sir Joseph Eyles and his partners, which con- 
 tributed in a great degree to the troubles so re- 
 markable in a succeeding administration. 
 
 Governor Montgomerie died on the 1st of July, 
 1731, and being a man of a kind and humane dis- 
 position, his death was not a little lamented. The 
 chief command then devolved upon Rip Van Dam, 
 Esq., he being the oldest counsellor, and an emi- 
 nent merchant of a fair estate, though distinguished 
 morfe for the integrity of his heart, than his capacity 
 to hold the reins of government. He took the oaths 
 before Mr. Alexander, Mr. Van Home, Mr. Ken- 
 nedy, Mr. De Lancey, and Mr. Courtlandt. 
 
 This administration is unfortunately signalised by 
 the memorable encroachment at Crown Point. The 
 French, in Canada, were always jealous of the in- 
 
560 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 creasing strength of tho English colonies ; and this 
 jealousy led them to concert a regular system of 
 conduct for their defence. To confine the English 
 to scant limits along the sea-coast was the grand ob- 
 ject they had long in view ; and seizing the important 
 passes from Canada to Louisiana, seducing the In- 
 dian allies, engrossing the trade, and fortifying the 
 routes into their country, were all proper expedients 
 towards the execution of their plan. By erecting 
 this new fort, they secured the absolute command of 
 lake Champlain, through which the colonists must 
 pass, if ever a descent were to be made upon Canada, 
 either to conquer the country, or harass its out- 
 settlements. The garrison was, at first, situated on 
 the east side of the lake, near the south end ; but 
 was afterwards built upon a commodious point on 
 the opposite side. Of all their infractions of the 
 treaty of Utrecht, none was more palpable than this. 
 The country belonged to the six nations, and the 
 very spot upon which this fort was erected was in- 
 cluded within a patent, to Dellius the Dutch mi- 
 nister of Albany, granted under the great seal of 
 this province in 1696. Through this lake the 
 French parties made their incursions upon Sche- 
 nectady, the Mohawks' castles, and Deerfield; and 
 the erection of this fort was apparently adapted to 
 facilitate the inroads of the enemy upon the frontiers 
 of the colonies of New York, Massachusetts, and 
 New Hampshire. For it served not only as an asy- 
 lum to fly to, after the perpetration of their inhu- 
 manities, but for a magazine of provisions and am- 
 munition; and though it was not much above 120 
 miles from the very city of Albany, yet by the con- 
 veyance through Sorel river and the lake, it could be 
 reinforced from Montreal in three or four days. 
 
 The Massachusetts government foresaw the dan- 
 gprous consequences of the French fort at Crown 
 Point, and Governor Belcher gave the first in- 
 formation of it, in a letter from Boston to Mr. Van 
 Dam. He informed him of the vote of the general 
 court, to bear their proportion of the charge of an 
 embassage to Canada, to forbid the works, and 
 pressed him to engage the opposition of the six na- 
 tions. Van Dam laid the letter before his council, 
 on the 4th of February, 1732 ; who, with singular 
 calmness, advised him to write to the commissioners 
 of Indian affairs, at Albany, ordering them to en- 
 quire whether the land belonged to the confederates 
 or the river Indians. Whether the governor ever 
 wrote to the commissioners, we have not been able to 
 discover; nor whether any complaint of the en- 
 croachment was sent home, according to the second 
 advice of council on the llth of February; who, 
 besides the first step, were now pleased to recom- 
 mend his transmitting Governor Belcher's letter and 
 the Boston vote to the several south-western colonies. 
 
 A very good scheme, in some measure, to repair 
 this supineness, was afterwards projected, by set- 
 tling the lands near lake George with protestant 
 Highlanders from Scotland. Captain Laughlin 
 Campbel, encouraged by a proclamation to that pur- 
 pose, came over in 1737, and ample promises were 
 made to him. He went upon the land, viewed, and 
 approved it ; and was entreated to settle there, even 
 by the Indians, who were taken with his Highland 
 dress. Mr. Clarke, the lieut.-governor, promised 
 him, in a printed advertisement, the grant of 30,000 
 acres of land, free from all but the charges of the 
 survey and the king's quit-rent. Confiding on the 
 faith of the government, Captain Campbel went 
 
 testant families, consisting of 423 adults, besides a 
 great number of children. Private faith and pub- 
 lic honour loudly demanded tho fair execution of a 
 project, so expensive to the undertaker and bene- 
 ficial to the colony. But it unfortunately dropped, 
 through the sordid views of some persons in power, 
 who aimed at a share in the intended grant ; to 
 which Campbel, who was a man of spirit, would not 
 consent. 
 
 Captain Campbel afterwards made an attempt to 
 redress himself, by an application to the colonial 
 assembly, and then to the board of trade in Eng- 
 land. The first proved abortive, and such were the 
 difficulties attending the last, that he left his colo- 
 nists to themselves ; and, with the poor remains of 
 his broken fortune, purchased a small farm in this 
 province. No man could have been better qualified 
 for such an undertaking. He had a high sense of 
 honour, excellent judgment, and was of a military 
 disposition. Upon the news of the rebellion in Scot- 
 land, he went home; fought under the duke, re- 
 turned to his family, and soon after died ; leaving a 
 widow and several children, who long felt the con- 
 sequences of his disappointments. 
 
 Mr. Van Dain finished his administration on the 
 1st of August, 1732; when William Colsby, Esq. 
 arrived, with a commission to govern this and the 
 province of New Jersey. 
 
 Having been the advocate, in parliament, of the 
 American colonies, he was at first popular, but soon 
 lost the affection and confidence of the people. By 
 his instigation, one Zenger, the printer of a news- 
 paper, was prosecuted for publishing an article, de- 
 clared to be derogatory to the dignity of his majes- 
 ty's government. He was zealously defended by 
 able counsel, and an independent jury gave a ver- 
 dict of acquittal. The people applauded their con* 
 duct, and the magistrates of the city of New York 
 presented to Andrew Hamilton, one of his defend- 
 ers, the freedom of the city, in a gold box, and 
 their thanks for " his learned and generous defence 
 of the rights of mankind, and the liberty of the press." 
 
 Governor Colsby died in 1736, and was succeeded 
 by George Clark, at that time senior counsellor, 
 but soon after appointed lieut-governor. Again 
 was revived the contest which had ended, twenty 
 years before, in the victory gained by Governor 
 Hunter over the house of representatives. The co- 
 lony being in debt, the house voted to raise the sum 
 of 6,000^. ; but, in order to prevent its misapplica- 
 tion, declared, that it should be applied to the pay- 
 ment of certain specified debts. Offended by this 
 vote, Clark resorted to the expedient which had 
 usually been adopted to punish or intimidate; he 
 immediately dissolved the assembly. 
 
 At the next election great exertions were made 
 by the opposing parties. The popular party was 
 triumphant. At their second session the house 
 voted an address to the lieut.-governor, which is 
 worthy of particular notice. In bold and explicit 
 language they state some of the vital principles of 
 free government, refer to recent misapplications of 
 money, and proceed : 
 
 " We therefore beg leave to be plain with your 
 honour, and hope you will not take it amiss when 
 we tell you, that you are not to expect that we will 
 either raise sums unfit to be raised, or put what we 
 shall raise into the power of a governor to misapply, 
 if we can prevent it ; nor shall we makeup any other 
 deficiencies than what we conceive fit and just to 
 
 home to Isla, sold his estate, and, shortly after, be paid ; nor continue what support or revenue we 
 transported, at his own expense, eighty-three pro- 1 shall raise, for any longer time than one year; nor 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 561 
 
 do we think it convenient to do even that, until 
 such laws are passed as we conceive necessary for 
 the safety of the inhabitants of this colony, who 
 have reposed a trust in us for that only purpose, and 
 which we are sure you will think it reasonable we 
 should act agreeably to ; and by the grace of God 
 we shall endeavour not to deceive them." 
 
 With a body of men, so resolute in asserting their 
 rights, the lieut.-governor wisely forbore to contend. 
 He thanked them for their address, and promised 
 his cordial co-operation in all measures calculated 
 to promote the prosperity of the colony. He gave 
 his assent to a law, providing for the more frequent 
 election of representatives; which law, however, 
 two years afterwards, was abrogated by the king. 
 
 But between a house of representatives and a 
 chief magistrate, deriving their authority from dif- 
 ferent sources, harmony could not long subsist. Mr. 
 Clark, in his speech at the opening of the next ses- 
 sion, declared that unless the revenue was granted 
 for as long a time as it had been granted by former 
 assemblies, his duty to his majesty forbade him from 
 assenting to any act for continuing the excise, or for 
 paying the colonial bills of credit. The house una- 
 nimously resolved, that it would not pass any bill 
 for the grant of money, unless assurance should be 
 given that the excise should be continued, and the 
 bills of credit redeemed. 
 
 The lieut-governor immediately ordered the mem- 
 bers to attend him. He told them that " their pro- 
 ceedings were presumptuous, daring, and unprece- 
 dented ; that he could not look upon them without 
 astonishment, nor with honour suffer the house to 
 sit any longer;" and he accordingly dissolved it. 
 Little more than a year had elapsed, since the 
 members were chosen ; but in that time they had, 
 by their firm and spirited conduct in support of the 
 rights of the people, merited the gratitude of their 
 constituents. 
 
 About this time, a supposed " negro plot" occa- 
 sioned great commotion and alarm in the city of 
 New York. The frequent occurrence of fires, most 
 of which were evidently caused by design, first ex- 
 cited the jealousy and suspicion of the citizens. 
 Terrified by danger which lurked unseen in the 
 midst of them, they listened with eager credulity to 
 the declaration of some abandoned females, that the 
 negroes had combined to burn the city, and make 
 one of their number governor. Many were ar- 
 rested and committed to prison. Other witnesses, 
 not more respectable than the first, came forward ; 
 other negroes were accused, and even several white 
 men were designated as concerned in the plot. 
 
 When the time of trial arrived, so strong was the 
 prejudice against the miserable negroes, that every 
 lawyer in the city volunteered against them. Igno- 
 rant and unassisted, nearly all who were tried were 
 condemned. Fourteen were sentenced to be burned, 
 eighteen to be hung, seventy-one to be transported, 
 and all these sentences were executed. Of the 
 whites two were convicted and suffered death. 
 
 All apprehension of danger having subsided, many 
 began to doubt whether any plot had in fact been 
 
 concerted. None of the witnesses were persons of 
 credit; their stories were extravagant and often con- 
 tradictory ; and the project was such as none but 
 fools or madmen would form. The two white men 
 were respectable ; one had received a liberal educa- 
 tion, but he was a catholic, and the prejudice against 
 catholics was too violent to permit the free exercise 
 of reason. Some of the accused were doubtless 
 guilty of setting fire to the city ; but the proof of 
 the alleged plot was not sufficiently clear to justify 
 the numerous and cruel punishments that were in- 
 flicted. 
 
 In April, 1740, the assembly again met. It had 
 now risen to importance in the colony. The ad- 
 herence of the representatives to their determination 
 not to grant the revenue for more than one year, 
 made annual meetings of the assembly necessary. 
 This attachment to liberty was mistaken for the 
 desire of independence. Lieut.-governor Clark, 
 in a speech delivered in 1741, alludes to " a jealousy 
 which for some years had obtained in England, that 
 the plantations were not without thoughts of throw- 
 ing off their dependence on the crown." 
 
 In 1743, George Clinton was sent over as go- 
 vernor of the colony. Like most of his predecessors 
 he was welcomed with joy; and one of his earliest 
 measures confirmed the favourable accounts which 
 had preceded him, of his talents and liberality. To 
 show his willingness to repose confidence in the peo- 
 ple, he assented to a bill limiting the duration of the 
 present and all succeeding assemblies. The house 
 manifested its gratitude by adopting the measures 
 he recommended for the defence of the province 
 against the French, who were then at war with 
 England. 
 
 In 1745, the savages in alliance with France 
 made frequent invasions of the English territories. 
 The inhabitants were compelled to desert Hosick; 
 Saratoga was destroyed; the western settlements of 
 New England were often attacked and plundered. 
 Encouraged by success, the enemy became more 
 daring, and small parties ventured within the su- 
 burbs of Albany, and there laid in wait for prisoners. 
 It is even said that one Indian, called Tomonwile- 
 mon, often entered the city and succeeded in taking 
 captives. 
 
 Distressed by these incursions, the assembly, in, 
 1746, determined to unite with the other colonies 
 and the mother country in an expedition against 
 Canada. They appropriated money to purchase 
 provisions for the army, and offered liberal bounties 
 to recruits. But the fleet from England did not 
 arrive at the appointed time ; the other colonies were 
 dilatory in their preparations, and before they were 
 completed, the season for military operations had 
 passed away. A sufficient account of which has been 
 already given in the histories of the other colonies. 
 
 Early in the next year a treaty was concluded, 
 and the inhabitants were for a short period relieved 
 from, the burdens and distresses of war. And no- 
 thing of very great importance took place from 
 this period, to the commencement of the revolu- 
 tionary war, of which a general history will be given. 
 
 HIST. OF AMER. Nos. 71 & 72. 
 
 31 
 
NEW JERSEY. 
 
 First settlers Acquirement by the English Lord 
 Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, proprietors Pur- 
 chase of Elizabeth Toun, and settlement of Newark, 
 Middletoum, and Shrewsbury Philip Carteret, go- 
 vernor Purchases from the Indians Capt. Berry, 
 deputy governor Currency Sir Georye Carieret's 
 additional instructions. 
 
 As the first settlement of this part of the United 
 
 tates, and the contests with tho foreign settlers have 
 
 Ireauy been sufficiently enlarged upon in the history 
 
 f the state of New York, we shall at first merely 
 
 ecapitulatc such events as are necessary to give a 
 
 connected view of its early colonization. 
 
 The first settlement of New Jersey was made by 
 the Danes, about the year 1624, at a place at the 
 mouth of the Hudson, about three miles west of New 
 York, called Bergen, from a city of that name in 
 Norway. Soon afterwards several Dutch families 
 seated themselves in the vicinity of New York. In 
 1625, a company was formed in Sweden, under the 
 patronage of King Gustavus Adolphus, for the pur- 
 pose of planting a colony in America. The next 
 year, a number of Swedes and Finns emigrated, and 
 purchased of the natives the land on both sides of 
 the river Delaware, but made their first settlement 
 on its western bank near Christina creek. 
 
 About the year 1640, the English began a planta- 
 tion at Elsmgburgh, on its eastern bank. The 
 Swedes, in concert with the Dutch, who then pos- 
 sessed New York, drove them out of the country. 
 The former built a fort on the spot whence the Eng- 
 lish had been driven ; and gaining thus the com- 
 mand of the river, claimed and exercised authority 
 over all vessels that entered it, even those of the 
 Dutch, their late associates. 
 
 They continued ia possession of the country, on 
 both sides of the Delaware, until 1655, when Peter 
 Stuyvesant, governor of the New Netherlands, hav- 
 ing obtained assistance from Holland, conquered 
 all their posts, and transported most of the Swedes 
 to Europe. The Dutch were now in possession of 
 the territory comprising, at this time, the states of 
 New Jersey, New York, and Delaware. 
 
 This extensive territory, however, soon changed 
 masters. King Charles II, having granted it to the 
 Duke of York, sent an armament in 1664 to wrest 
 it from the Dutch, which, after reducing New York, 
 proceeded to the settlements on the Delaware, 
 which immediately submitted. In the same year 
 the duke conveyed that portion of his grant, lying 
 between Hudson and Delaware rivers, to Lord 
 Berkeley and Sir George Carteret; as already nar- 
 rated in the history of New York. This tract was 
 called New Jersey, in compliment to Sir George, 
 who had been governor of the island of Jersey, and 
 had held it for King Charles in his contest with the 
 parliament. The two proprietors formed a consti- 
 
 tution for the colony, securing equal privileges and 
 liberty of conscience to all, and it consequently be- 
 came popular and rapidly increased. 
 
 In 1664, John Bailey, Daniel Denton, and Luke 
 Watson, of Jamaica, on Long Island, purchased of 
 certain Indian chiefs, inhabitants of Staten Island, 
 a tract of land, on part of which the town of Eliza- 
 beth now stands, and for which (on their petition) 
 Richard Nicolls, governor under the duke, granted 
 a patent to John Baker, of New York, John Ogden, 
 of Northampton, John Bailey, and Luke Watson, 
 and their associates, dated at fort James in New- 
 York, the 2d of December. This was before Lord 
 Berkeley's and Sir George Carteret' s title was 
 known ; and by this means, this part of the province 
 had some few very early settlements, and whether 
 even Middletovvu and Shrewsbury had not Dutch 
 and English inhabitants before, cannot now be as- 
 certained. About this time there was a great influx 
 of industrious and reputable farmers, the English 
 inhabitants from the west end of Long Island 
 almost generally removing to settle here, most of 
 whom fixed about Middletown, from whence by de- 
 grees they extended their settlements to Freehold 
 and its neighbourhood. To Shrewsbury there came 
 many families from New England ; and there were 
 soon four towns in the province, viz., Elizabeth, 
 Newark, Middletown, and Shrewsbury ; and these 
 with the adjacent country were in a few years plenti- 
 fully inhabited, by the accession of many Scotch, by 
 settlers from England, and those of the Dutch who 
 had remained, and also by some emigrants from the 
 neighbouring colonies. 
 
 Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret ap- 
 pointed Philip Carteret governor of New Jersey, 
 and gave him power, with the advice of the major 
 part of the council, to grant lands to all such as by 
 the concessions were entitled thereto ; and though 
 there is no provision in the concessions for bargain- 
 ing with the Indians, Governor Carteret on his ar- 
 rival thought it prudent to purchase their rights, 
 which was to be done for sums very inconsiderable, 
 in comparison with the damage a neglect might 
 have occasioned. Though the Indians about the 
 English settlements were not at this time consider- 
 able as to numbers, they were strong in their alli- 
 ances, and besides of themselves could easily annoy 
 the out-plantations ; and there having been before 
 several considerable skirmishes between the Dutch 
 and them, in which some blood had been spilt, they 
 were not considered to be friendly ; the governor 
 therefore ordered that the settlers were either tfl 
 purchase of the Indians themselves, or if the lands 
 were before purchased, they were to pay their pro* 
 portions. The event justified his caution; for a* 
 the Indians parted with the lands to their own satis- 
 faction, they became, instead of jealous enemies, 
 serviceable neighbours, and though frequent report* 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 563 
 
 of their coming to kill the white people sometimes 
 disturbed their repose, no instance occurs of their 
 hurting the English. 
 
 Governor Carteret did not arrive until the latter 
 end of the summer of 1665, during which time the 
 province was under Nicolls's jurisdiction. On the 
 arrival of the former, he summoned a council, 
 granted lands, and administered the government 
 according to the plan of the two chief proprie- 
 tors ; and took up his residence at Elizabeth Town, 
 to which it is said he gave the name after Eli- 
 zabeth, wife of Sir George Carteret. With him 
 came about thirty people, some of them servants, 
 who brought goods proper for the planting a 
 new country; and the governor soon afterwards 
 sent persons into New England and other places, 
 to publish the proprietors' terms, or concessions as 
 they were called, and to invite people to settle 
 there, upon which many soon came from thence ; 
 some settled at Elizabeth Town, others at Wood- 
 bridge, Piscatawa, and Newark. The ship that 
 brought the governor, having remained about six 
 months, returned to England, and the year after 
 made another voyage, Sundry other vessels were 
 from time to time sent by the proprietors with peo- 
 ple and goods, to encourage the planting and peo- 
 pling their lands. Thus the province of East New 
 Jersey increased in settlement, and continued to 
 grow till the invasion in 1673, when the Dutch 
 having got possession of the country, some stop was 
 put to the English government ; but the treaty 
 afterwards between Charles II. and the states-ge^ 
 neral at London, 1673-4, settled all general diffi 
 culties of that kind by the sixth article, which states 
 " That whatever country, island, town, haven, castle 
 or fortress, hath been, or shall be taken by eithe 
 party from the other since the beginning of the lat< 
 unhappy war, whether in Europe or elsewhere, am 
 before the expiration of the times above limited fo 
 hostility, shall be restored to the former owner in 
 the same condition it shall be in at the time o 
 publishing this peace." 
 
 Though the inhabitants were at variance amon 
 themselves, there was a constant resort of settler 
 between the years 1665 and 1673, which increase 
 even faster afterwards. The Elizabeth Town pur 
 chasers and others, setting up a right differing i: 
 some respects from that of the proprietors, an 
 other incidents of an inconsiderable natuie occur 
 ing, nourished by a more vindictive spirit on a 
 sides than was necessary or prudent, occasione 
 much disturbance. Carteret ailed for England i 
 the summer of 1672, and left Capt. John Berry as hi 
 deputy. He returned in 1674, and found the in 
 habitants more disposed to union among themselves 
 and bringing with him the king's proclamation, an 
 a fresh commission and instructions from Sir Georg 
 Carteret, he summoned the people, and had the 
 all published, which had a good effect towards re 
 storing his authority, and the public peace. H 
 remained governor till his death in 1682. In h 
 time the general assemblies and supreme courts si 
 at Elizabeth Town, and the councils generally 
 there the secretary's office, and most other publ 
 offices were held j and there also most of the office 
 of the government resided. 
 
 Eight white wampum, or four black, passed at th 
 time as a stiver; twenty stivers made what they call 
 a guilder, which was about sixpence currency. Th 
 white wampum was worked out of the inside of th 
 great conques into the form of a bead, and perforate 
 to string on leather. The black or purple was work* 
 
 ut of the inside of the mussell or clam-shell ; they 
 ere sometimes wove as broad as the hand, and about 
 70 feet long ; these the Indians call belts, and corn- 
 only gave and received at treaties, as seals of 
 cir friendship. For lesser matters a single string 
 given. Every bead is of a known value, and a 
 elt of a less number is made to equal one of a 
 reater, by so many as is wanting fastened to the 
 elt by a string. 
 
 Wampum was the chief currency of the country : 
 reat quantities had been formerly brought in, but 
 le Indians had carried so much away, it was now 
 rown scarce ; and this was thought to be owing to 
 ;s low value. To increase it, the governor and 
 ouncil at York issued a proclamation in 1673, that 
 nstead of eight white and four black, six white and 
 iree black wampums should pass in equal value as 
 
 stiver or penny; and three times so much the 
 alue in silver. This proclamation was published 
 t Albany, Eusopus, Delaware, Long Island, and 
 arts adjacent. 
 
 Mention has already been made that Sir George 
 Carteret, by his instructions to Governor Carteret, 
 onfirmed the original concessions, with additions 
 .nd explanations. These bore date the 13th of 
 Fuly, 1674: and, among other things, they directed 
 hat the governor and council should allow eighty 
 acres per head, to settlers above ten miles from the 
 ,ea, the Delaware, or other river navigable with 
 >oats ; and to those that settled nearer, sixty acres : 
 hat the land should be purchased from the Indians, 
 as occasion required, by the governor and council, 
 n the name of the proprietors, who were to be re- 
 mid by the settlers with charges : that all strays of 
 leasts at land, and wrecks at sea, should belong to 
 the proprietor; and that all persons discovering 
 any such thing, should have satisfaction for their 
 pains and care, as the governor and council might 
 think fit 
 
 Major Andross appointed governor at New York 
 Takes possession at Delaware Arrival of the first 
 English settlers to West Jersey, under the Duke of 
 York's title Lord Berkeley assigns his moiety of 
 New Jersey to Byllinge, and he in trust to others 
 Their letter and first commission New Jersey di- 
 vided into the provinces, East and West Jersey ; and 
 the declaration of the West Jersey proprietors. 
 
 About the month of October, 1674, Major Ed- 
 mund Andross arrived as governor, under the Duke 
 of York ; he soon after authorized Captain Cantwell 
 and William Tomm to take possession of the fort 
 and stores at New Castle, for the king's use, pursu- 
 ant to the late treaty of peace, and to take such 
 other measures for their settlement and repose at 
 New Castle, the Hoarkills, and other parts of Dela- 
 ware, as they thought best ; requiring them to be- 
 have towards the neighbouring colonies in an ami- 
 cable manner. 
 
 The half part of the province of New Jersey, 
 belonging to Lord Berkeley, was about this time 
 (1675) sold to John Fenwick, in trust for Edward 
 Byllinge and his assigns. Fenwick in 1675 ar- 
 rived from London after a good passage, and landed 
 at a pleasant spot situate near Delaware, by him 
 called Salem, probably from the peaceable aspect it 
 then bore. Ha brought with him two daughters 
 and many servants, two of which, Samuel Hedge 
 and John Adams, afterwards married his daughters; 
 the other passengers were, Edward Champness, 
 Edward Wade, Samuel Wade. John Smith and his 
 wife, Samuel Nichols, Richard Guy, Richard Noble, 
 
 312 
 
664 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Richard Hancock, John Pledger, Hipolite Lufever, 
 and John Matlock : these, and others with them, 
 were masters of families, and most of them quakers. 
 This was the first English ship that came with emi- 
 grants to West Jersey, and none followed for nearly 
 two years, owing probably to a difference between 
 Fenwick and Byllinge. 
 
 But this difference being settled to the satisfaction 
 of both parties, by the good offices of William Penn, 
 Byllinge agreed to present his interest in the pro- 
 vince of New Jersey to his creditors, as all that he 
 had left towards their satisfaction, and desired 
 Penn to join Gawen Lawrie and Nicholas Lucas 
 (two of his creditors) in becoming his trustees. 
 Penn, at first unwilling, was by the importunity of 
 some of the creditors prevailed on ; and with the 
 others accepting the charge, they became trustees 
 for one moiety or half part of the province, which 
 though then undivided, they soon sold a consider- 
 able number of shares of their propriety to different 
 purchasers, who thereupon became proprietors (ac- 
 cording to their different shares) in common with 
 them ; and it being necessary that some scheme 
 should be laid down, as well for the better distri- 
 bution of rights to land, as to promote the settle- 
 ment, and ascertain a form of government; terms 
 were drawn, mutually agreed on, and signed by 
 most part of the subscribers. It was next the busi- 
 ness of the proprietors who held immediately under 
 Lord Berkeley to procure a division of the province, 
 which after some time was effected; and then as an 
 expedient for the present well-ordering matters, 
 they wrote the following letter, which is inserted, as 
 containing at once an explanation of their conduct, 
 and as illustrative of the manners of the period. 
 
 " London, 26th of the 6th month, 1676. 
 "Richard Hartshorne, We have made use of 
 thy name in a commission and instructions, which 
 we have sent by James Wasse, who is gone in 
 Samuel Groome's ship for Maryland, a copy of which 
 is here inclosed ; and also a copy of a letter we have 
 sent to John Fenwick, to be read to him in pre- 
 sence of as many of the people that went with him 
 as may be; and because we both expect, and als 
 entreat, and desire thy assistance in the same, we 
 will a little shew things to thee, that thou mayest in- 
 form not only thyself, but friends there ; which in 
 short is as follows. 
 
 " 1st. We have divided with George Carteret, and 
 have sealed deeds of partition, -each to the other 
 and we have all that side on Delaware river fron 
 one end to the other ; the line of partition is from 
 the east side of little Egg Harbour, straight north 
 through the country, to the utmost branch of Dela 
 ware river, with all powers, privileges, and immu 
 nities whatsover ; ours is called New West Jersey 
 his is called New East Jersey. 
 
 " 2d. We have made concessions by ourselves 
 being such as friends here and there (we question 
 not) will approve of, having sent a copy of them by 
 James Wassc ; there we lay a foundation for afte 
 ages to understand their liberty as men and chris 
 tians, that they may not be brought into bondage, bu 
 by their own consent; for we put the power in th 
 people, that is to say, they to meet and choose on 
 honest man for each propriety, who hath subscribe 
 to the concessions ; all these men to meet as an as 
 sembly there, to make and repeal laws, to choose 
 governor, or a commissioner, and twelve assistants 
 to execute the laws during their pleasure ; so ever 
 man is capable to choose or be chosen. No man t 
 b. arrested, condemned, imprisoned, or molested i 
 
 is estate or liberty, but by twelve men of the 
 eighbourhood. No man to lie in prison for debt, 
 ut that his estate satisfy as far as it will go, and 
 e set at liberty to work. No person to be called 
 i question or molested for his conscience, or for 
 orshipping according to his conscience ; with many 
 lore things mentioned in the said concessions. 
 
 " 3. We have sent over by James Wasse, a com- 
 mission under our hands and seals, wherein we im- 
 ower thyself, James Wasse and Richard Guy, or 
 ny two of you, to act and do according to the in- 
 truclions, of which here is a copy ; having also 
 ent some goods, to buy and purchase some land of 
 ic natives. 
 
 " 4. We intend in the spring to send over some 
 more commissioners, with the friends and people 
 lat cometh there, because James Wasse is to re- 
 urn in Samuel Groom's ship for England : for 
 lichard Guy, we judge him to be an honest man, 
 et we are afraid that John Fenwick will hurt him, 
 nd get him to condescend to things that may not 
 e for the good of the whole ; so we hope thou wilt 
 alance him to what is just and fair, that John Fen- 
 wick betray him not, that things may go on easy 
 without hurt or jar, which is the desire of all friends; 
 ind we hope West Jersey will be soon planted, it 
 >eing in the minds of many friends to prepare for 
 heir going against the spring. 
 
 " 5. Having thus far given thee a sketch of things, 
 we come now to desire thy assistance, and the assist- 
 ance of other friends in your parts; and we hope it 
 will be at length an advantage to you there, both 
 upon truth's account, and other ways ; and in re- 
 jard many families more may come over in the 
 spring to Delaware side, to settle and plant, and 
 ,vill be assigned by us to take possession of their 
 ^articular lots ; we do intreat and desire, that thou, 
 snowing the country, and how to deal with the na- 
 :ives, we say, that thee and some other friends would 
 go over to Delaware side as soon as this comes to 
 your hands, or as soon as you can conveniently; 
 and James Wasse is to come to a place called New 
 Castle, on the other side of Delaware river, to stay 
 for thee, and any that will go with him ; and you 
 all to advise together and find out a fit place to 
 take up for a town, and agree with the natives for a 
 tract of land, and then let it be surveyed and di- 
 vided into one hundred parts, for that is the method 
 we have agreed to take, and we cannot alter it ; 
 and if you set men to work to clear some of the 
 ground, we would be at the charges ; and we do in- 
 tend to satisfy thee for any charge thou art at, and 
 for thy pains. This we would not have neglected ; 
 for we know, and you that are there know, that if 
 the land be not taken up before the spring, that 
 many people come over there, the natives will in- 
 sist on high demands, and so we shall suffer by 
 buying at dear rates, and our friends that cometh 
 over be at great trouble and charges until a place 
 be bought and divided, for we do not like the tract 
 of land John Fenwick hath bought, so as to make 
 it our first settlement ; but we would have thee and 
 friends there, to provide and take up a place on 
 some creek or river, that may lie nearer you, and 
 such a place as you may like ; for may be it may 
 come in your minds to come over to our side, when 
 you see the hand of the Lord with us, and so we 
 can say no more, but leave the thing with you, be- 
 lieving that friends there will have a regard to 
 friends settling, that it may be done in that way and 
 method, that may be for the good of the whole ; 
 rest thy friends, Gawen Laurie, William Penn, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 565 
 
 Nicholas Lucas, E. Byllinge, John Edridge, Ed- 
 moud Warner. 
 
 " London, the 18th of 6th month called 
 August, 1676. 
 
 " We whose names are hereunder subscribed, do 
 give full power, commission, and authority, unto 
 James Wasse, Richard Hartshorne, and liichard 
 Guy, or any two of them, to act and do for us ac 
 cording to the following instructions ; and we do 
 engage to ratify and confirm whatsoever they shall 
 do in prosecution of the same. 
 
 " 1. We desire you to get a meeting with John 
 Fenwick, and the people that went with him, (but 
 we would not have you tell your business,) until you 
 get them together; then shew and read the deed of 
 partition with George Carteret ; also the transac- 
 tions between William Penn, Nicholas Lucas, Ga- 
 wen Lawrie, John Edridge, and Edmond Warner, 
 and then read our letter to John Fenwick and the 
 rest, and shew John Fenwick he hath no power to 
 sell any land there, without the consent of John 
 Edridge and Edmond Warner. 
 
 " 2. Know of John Fenwick, if he will be willing 
 peaceably to let the land he hath taken up of the 
 natives be divided into one hundred parts, accord- 
 ing to our and his agreement in England, casting 
 lots for the same, we being willing that those who being 
 settled and have cultivated ground now with him, shall 
 enjoy the same, without being turned out, although 
 they fall into our lots : Always provided, that we be 
 reimbursed the like value and quantity in goodness 
 out of John Fen wick's lots : And we are also con- 
 tent to pay our ninetieth parts of what is paid to 
 the natives for the same, and for what James Wasse 
 hath purchased of John Fenwick, and he setting out 
 the same unto him, not being in a place to be al- 
 lotted for a town upon a river, but at a distance, and 
 the said John Fenwick allowing us the like value in 
 goodness in some other of his lots; we are willing 
 he shall possess the same from any claiming by or 
 under us ; and for the town lots we are willing he 
 enjoy the same as freely as any purchaser buying 
 of us. 
 
 " 3. Take informations from some that know the 
 soundings of the river and creeks, and that are ac- 
 quainted in the country ; and when James Wasse is 
 in Maryland, he may enquire for one Augustin, 
 who as we hear did sound most part of Delaware 
 river and the creeks. lie is an able surveyor; see 
 to agree with him to go with you up the river as far 
 as over against New Castle, or further if you can, 
 so far as a vessel of a hundred ton can go, for we 
 intend to have a way cut across the country to 
 Sandy-Hook, so the further up the way the shorter ; 
 and there, upon some creek or bay in some healthy 
 ground, find out a place fit to make a settlement 
 for a town ; and then go to the Indians and agree 
 with them for a tract of land about the said place, 
 of twenty or thirty miles long, more or less, as you 
 see meet, and as broad as you see meet. If it be to 
 the middle, we care not; only enquire if George 
 Carteret hath not purchased some there already, 
 that so you may not buy it over again. 
 
 " 4. Then lay out four or five thousand acres for 
 a town ; and if Augustin will undertake to do it rea- 
 sonably, let him do it, for he is the fittest man ; and 
 if he think he cannot survey so much, being in the 
 winter time, then let him lay out the less for a town 
 at present, if it be but two thousand acres, and let 
 hita divide it in a hundred parts ; and when it is 
 done, let John Fenwick, if he please, be there ; how- 
 ever, let him have notice : but, however, let some 
 
 of you be there to see the lots cast fairly by one 
 person that is not concerned. The lots are from 
 number one to a hundred, and put the same num- 
 bers of the lots on the partition trees for distinction. 
 
 " 5. If John Fenwick, and those concerned with 
 him, be willing to join with you in those things as 
 above, which is just and fair, then he or any of them 
 may go along with you in your business ; and let 
 them pay their proportion of what is paid to the na- 
 tives, with other charges : And so he and they may 
 dispose of their lots with consent of John Edridge 
 and Edmond Warner ; which lots are, 20, 21, 26, 
 27, 36, 47, 50, 57, 63, 72. 
 
 " 6. If John Fenwick and his people refuse to let 
 the land they have taken up of the natives be di- 
 vided, and refuse to join with you, you may let the 
 country know in what capacity John Fenwick 
 stands, that he hath no power over the persons or 
 estates of any man or woman more than any other 
 person. 
 
 " 7. What land you take of the natives, let it be 
 taken, viz. ninety parts for the use of William Penn, 
 Gawen Lawrie, and Nicholas Lucas, and ten parts 
 for John Edridge and Edmond Warner. 
 
 " 8. After you have taken the land as above, and 
 divided for a town or settlement, and cast lots for the 
 same as above ; then if any have a mind to buy one 
 or more proprieties, sell them at two hundred pound 
 specie, they taking their lots as theirs do; paying 
 to you in hand the value of fifty pounds in part of 
 a propriety, and the rest on sealing their convey- 
 ance in London, and so they may presently settle. 
 When any of the lots fall to us, that is to say, he 
 that buyeth a propriety may settle on any one lot 
 of ninety parts ; which said persons that buy and 
 what lots fall to them, there they may settle, and 
 acquaint us what numbers they are ; and if any will 
 take land to them and their heirs for ever, for every 
 acre taken up in a place laid out for a town, accord- 
 ing to the concessions, they are not to have above . 
 what shall fall by lot to a propriety in a town. 
 
 '' 9. What charges James Wasse is at, by taking 
 up the land of the natives, we do oblige to pay the 
 same unto him again, with what profits is usual 
 there upon English goods ; and he may pitch upon 
 two lots, one in each town, if they be taken up be- 
 fore he comes away to his own proper use, for his 
 trouble and pains. And we do also engage to allow 
 and pay what charges any of our commissioners 
 shall disburse in executing these our instructions, 
 to th?m or their assigns. 
 
 ' 10. Let us be advised by the first ship that 
 cometh for England, of all proceedings hereupon, 
 and write to the friends at Sandy Hook, letting them 
 know how things are, and that we have divided with 
 George Carteret, and that our division is all along on 
 Delaware river; and that we have made conces- 
 sions by ourselves, which we hope will satisfy friends 
 there. If John Fenwick, or any of the people with 
 him, dsire a copy of the deed of partition, let them 
 have it. 
 
 '11. We desire that our original deed maybe 
 kept in your own custody, that it may be ready to 
 shew unto the rest of the commissioners, whir:h we 
 ntend to send over in the spring, with full power 
 'or settling things, and to lay out land and dispose 
 upon it, and for the settling some method of govern- 
 ment accoi'dirig to the concessions. 
 
 '' 12. If you cannot get Augustin to go with you, 
 or that he be unreasonable in his demands; then 
 send a man to Thomas Bushroods, at Essex lodge, 
 n York river, for William Elliot, who writes to 
 
566 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Gawin Lawrie this year, and offered himself to be 
 surveyor, and tell him you had orders from said 
 Lawrie to send for him, and take him with you. 
 He will be willing to be there all winter, and will 
 survey and do other things. He had a good occu- 
 pation in Virginia, but was not able to keep it; he 
 is a fair conditioned sober man ; let him stay there 
 all winter, and order him something to live upon. 
 
 " 13. If the said Elliot go with you, give him di- 
 rections what to do. If you cannot stay till a place 
 for a town be surveyed, yet we think you may stay 
 until you have not only pitched upon a place for a 
 town, but also upon a place for a second town and 
 settlement, and have marked out the place round 
 about there, and let William Elliot divide both, 
 which no doubt but he may do before the spring, 
 that we send over more commissioners and people; 
 and if John Fenwick be willing to go on jointly with 
 you there, his surveyor may go along and help ours, 
 and the charges shall be brought in for both pro- 
 portionably on all. Mind this, and speak to Rich- 
 ard Guy, or Richard Hartshorne, and leave orders 
 with them to let William Elliot have provisions for 
 himself till spring, and we shall order them satisfac- 
 tion for the same ; and if there be no house near 
 the place you take up for the surveyors to lodge in, 
 then let there be a cottage built for them on the 
 place, and we will allow the charges. 
 
 " 14. And whei'eas there is tackling there already, 
 for fitting of a sloop as we judge, in the custody of 
 Richard Guy ; we also give you power if you see 
 meet, and that it be of necessary use and advantage 
 for the whole concern, you may order these ship- 
 carpenters to build a sloop suitable for these mate- 
 rials, and appoint them some provision for their food, 
 and for the rest of their wages they shall either 
 have it in a part of the sloop, or be otherwise satis- 
 fied in the spring of the year ; the said sloop to be 
 ordered and disposed upon by you until more com- 
 missioners come over with further instructions. 
 
 " 15. For the goods we have sent over with James 
 Wasse are to be disposed upon for purchasing land 
 from the natives or otherwise as need is, giving us 
 account thereof. 
 
 " Nicholas Lucas, Edmond Wai'ner, William 
 Penn, Gawin Lawrie, E. Byllinge." 
 
 The instrument for dividing the province being 
 agreed on by Sir George Carteret on the one part, 
 and the said E. Byllinge, William Penn, Gawen 
 Lawrie, and Nicholas Lucas on the other, they to- 
 gether signed a quintipartite deed, dated the 1st 
 day of July, 1676. 
 
 The line of division being thus far settled, each 
 took their own measures for further peopling and 
 improving their different shares. Sir George Car- 
 teret had greatly the advantage respecting improve- 
 ments, his part being (as we have seen) already 
 considerably peopled. The western proprietors 
 soon published a description of their moiety, on 
 which many removed thither ; but lest any should 
 not sufficiently weigh the importance of this under- 
 taking, and for other reasons, the three principal 
 proprietors published the following precautionary 
 cpistle. 
 
 " Dear friends and brethren, In the pure love 
 and precious fellowship of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 we very dearly salute you : Forasmuch as there was 
 a paper printed several months since, entitled, ' The 
 description of New West Jersey,' in the which our 
 names were mentioned as trustees for one undivided 
 moiety of the said province : And because it is al- 
 leged that some, partly on this account, and others 
 
 apprehending, that the paper by the manner of its 
 expression came from the body of friends, as a re- 
 ligious society of people, and not from particulars, 
 have through these mistakes weakly concluded that 
 the said description in matter and form might be 
 writ, printed and recommended on purpose to prompt 
 and allure people to dissettle and transplant them- 
 selves, as it is also by some alleged : And because 
 that we are informed, that several have, on that ac- 
 count, taken encouragement and resolution to trans- 
 plant themselves and families to the said province ; 
 and lest any of them (as is feared by some) should 
 go out of a curious and unsettled mind, and others 
 Lo shun the testimony of the blessed cross of Jesus, 
 of which several weighty friends have a godly jea- 
 lousy upon their spirits, lest an unwarrantable for- 
 wardness should act or hurry any beside or be- 
 yond the wisdom and counsel of the Lord, or the 
 freedom of his light and spirit in their own hearts, 
 and not upon good and weighty grounds, it truly 
 laid hard upon us, to let friends know how the mat- 
 ter stands, which we shall endeavour to do with all 
 clearness and fidelity. 
 
 ' 1. That there is'such a province as New Jersey, 
 is certain. 
 
 ; ' 2. That it is reputed of those who have lived 
 and have travelled in that country, to be wholesome 
 of air and fruitful of soil, and capable of sea-trade, is 
 also certain ; and it is not right in any to despise or 
 dispraise it, or dissuade those that find freedom from 
 the Lord, and necessity put them on going. 
 
 " 3. That the Duke of York sold it to those called 
 Lord Berkeley, baron of Stratton, and Sir George 
 Carteret, equally to be divided between them, is 
 also certain. 
 
 " 4. One moiety or half part of the said province 
 being the right of the said Lord Berkeley, w"as sold 
 by him to John Fenwick, in trust for Edward Byl- 
 linge, and his assigns. 
 
 " 5. Forasmuch as E. B. (after William Penn 
 had ended the difference between the said Edward 
 Byllinge and John Fenwick) was willing to present 
 his interest in the said province to his creditors, as 
 all that he had left him towards their satisfaction, he 
 desired William Penn (though every way uncon- 
 cerned) and Gawen Lawrie, and Nicholas Lucas, 
 two of his creditors, to be trustees for performance 
 of the same ; and because several of his creditors, 
 particularly and very importunately pressed William 
 Penn to accept of the trust for their sakes and se- 
 curity, we did all of us comply with those and the 
 like requests, and accepted of the trust. 
 
 " 6. Upon this we became trustees for one moiety 
 of the said province, yet undivided ; and after no 
 little labour, trouble, and cost, a division was ob- 
 tained between the said Sir George Carteret and us, 
 as trustees. The country is situated and bounded 
 as is expressed in the printed description. 
 
 "7. This now divided moiety is to be cast into 
 one hundred parts, lots, or proprieties; ten of which, 
 upon the agreement made betwixt E. Byllinge and 
 J. Fenwick, were settled and conveyed unto J. Fen- 
 wick, his executors and assigns, with a considerable 
 sum of money, by way of satisfaction for what he 
 became concerned in the purchase from the said 
 Lord Berkeley, and by him afterwards conveyed to 
 John Ejdridge and Edmond Warner, their heirs and 
 assigns* 
 
 " 8. The ninety parts remaining are exposed to 
 sale, on the behalf of the creditors of the said E. B. 
 And forasmuch as several friends are concerned as 
 creditors, as well as others, and the disposal of so 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 567 
 
 great a part of this country being in our hands ; we 
 did in real tenderness and regard to friends, and 
 especially to the poor and necessitous, make friends 
 the first offer, that if any of them, though particu- 
 larly those that being low in the world, and under 
 trials' about a comfortable livelihood for themselves 
 and families, should be desirous of dealing for any 
 part or parcel thereof, that they might have the refusal. 
 
 "9. 'This was the real and honest intent of our 
 hearts, and not to prompt or allure any out of their 
 places, either by the credit our names might have 
 with our people throughout the nation, or by repre- 
 senting the thing otherwise than it is in itself. 
 
 " As for the printed paper sometime since set forth 
 by the creditors, as a description of that province, 
 we say as to two passages in it, they are not so 
 clearly and safely worded as ought to have been, 
 particularly in seeming to limit the winter season to 
 so short a time ; when on further information, we 
 hear it is sometime longer and sometime shorter 
 than therein expressed; and the last clause relating 
 to liberty of conscience, we would not have any to 
 to think, that it is promised or intended to main- 
 tain the liberty of the exercise of religion by force 
 and arms, though we shall never consent to any the 
 least violence on conscience ; yet it was never de- 
 signed to encourage any to expect by force of arms 
 to have liberty of conscience fenced against invad- 
 ers thereof. ..; * 
 
 " 10. And be it known unto you all, in the name 
 and fear of Almighty God his glory and honour, 
 power and wisdom, truth and kingdom, is dearer to 
 us than all visible things ; and as our eye has been 
 single, and our heart sincere to the living God, in 
 this as in other things, so we desire all whom it may 
 concern, that all groundless jealousies may be judged 
 down and watched against, and that all extremes 
 may be avoided on all hands by the power of the 
 Lord : that nothing which hurts or grieves the holy 
 life of truth in any that goes or stays, may be ad- 
 hered to ; nor any provocations given to break pre- 
 cious unity. 
 
 " This am I, William Penn, moved of the Lord, 
 to write unto you, lest any bring a temptation upon 
 themselves or others ; and in offending the Lord 
 slay their own peace : " Blessed are they that can 
 see and behold him their leader, their ovderer. their 
 conductor and preserver, in staying or going : Whose 
 is the earth and the fullness thereof, and the cattle 
 upon a thousand hills." And as we formerly writ, 
 we cannot but repeat our request unto you, that in 
 whomsoever a desire is to be concerned in this in- 
 tended plantation, such would weigh the thing be- 
 fore the Lord, and not headily or rashly conclude on 
 any such remove ; and that they do not offer vio- 
 lence to the tender love of their near kindred and 
 relations ; " but soberly and conscientiously endea- 
 vour to obtain their good wills, the unity of friends 
 where they live ; that whether they go or stay, it 
 may be of good favour before the Lord (and good 
 people) from whom only can all heavenly and 
 earthly blessings come." This we thought good to 
 write for the preventing of all misunderstandings, 
 and to declare the real truth of the matter ; and so 
 we commend you all to the Lord, who is the watch- 
 man ofchis Israel. We are your friends and breth- 
 ren, Wm. Penn, Gawen Lawrie, Nicholas Lucas." 
 
 Arrival of more settlers to West Jersey their difficul- 
 ties their purchases from the Indians they lay 
 out a town some of their first sentiments of the 
 country, and an account of the Duke of York's two 
 
 last grants, being for the provinces East and West 
 New Jersey, separately. 
 
 Among other purchasers of the West Jersey lands, 
 were two companies, one made up of some friends 
 (quakers) in Yorkshire ; the other of some friends 
 in London: who each contracted for considerable 
 shares, for which they had patents. Thomas Hutch- 
 inson, Thomas Pierson, Joseph Helmsly, George 
 Hutchinson, and Mahlon Stacy, all of the county of 
 York, England, were principal creditors to E. 
 Byllinge, to whom several of the other creditors 
 made assigments of their debts, which together 
 amounted to the sum of 2,450/. sterling, and who 
 took in satisfaction of the said sum seven full equal 
 and undivided ninetieth parts of ninety equal and 
 undivided hundred parts of West Jersey ; and the 
 same was conveyed to them, and their heirs, by 
 William Penn, Gawen Lawrie, Nicholas Lucas, and 
 Edward Byllinge, by deed bearing date " the 1st of 
 the month called March, 1676." And by another 
 conveyance of the same date, from and to the same 
 persons, in satisfaction for other debts to the amonnt 
 of 1,050Z. sterling, three other full equal and undi- 
 vided ninetieth parts of the aforesaid ninety equal 
 undivided hundred parts of West Jersey were also 
 conveyed. In 1677, commissioners were sent by 
 the proprietors, with power to buy the lands of the 
 natives, to inspect the rights of such as claimed 
 property, and to order the lands laid out ; and in 
 general to administer the government, pursuant to 
 the terms. These commissioners were Thomas Olive, 
 Daniel Wills, John Kinscy, John Penford, Joseph 
 Helmsley, Robert Stacy, Benjamin Scott, Richard 
 Guy, and Thomas Foulke. They came in the Kent, 
 Gregory Marlow, master, being the second ship 
 from London, to the western parts. After a tedious 
 passage they arrived at New-Castle, the 16th of 
 June, old style. King Charles II, being in his 
 barge on the Thames, came along-side, seeing a 
 great many passengers, and when informed whither 
 they were bound, asked if they were all quakers, 
 and gave thm his blessing. They landed their 
 passengers, 230 in number, about Rackoon creek, 
 where the Swedes had some scattered habitations, 
 but they were too numerous to be all provided for 
 in houses ; some were obliged to lay their beds and 
 furniture in cow stalls, and apartments of that sort ; 
 among other inconveniences to which this exposed 
 them, the snakes were now plenty enough to be 
 frequently seen upon the hovels under which they 
 sheltered. Most of the passengers in this ship were 
 of those called quakers, some of good estates in Eng- 
 land. The commissioners had before left them, 
 and were by this time arrived at a place called 
 Chygoes Island (afterwards Burlington) their busi- 
 ness being to treat with the Indians about the land there 
 and to regulate the settlements, having not only the 
 proprietors but Governor Andross's commission for 
 that purpose ; for in their passage hither, they had 
 first dropped anchor at Sandy Hook, while the com- 
 missioners went to New York to acquaint him with 
 their design ; for though they had concluded the 
 powers they had from the proprietors were sufficient 
 to their purpose, they thought it a proper respect to 
 the Duke of York's commission, to wait on his go- 
 vernor upon the occasion ; he treated them civilly, 
 but asked them if they had any thing from the duke, 
 his master ? They replied, nothing particular ; 
 that he had conveyed that part of his country to 
 Lord Berkeley, and he to Byllinge, &c., in which 
 the government was as much conveyed, as the soil. 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 The governor replied, " All that will not clear me ; 
 if I should surrender without the duke's order, it is 
 as much as my head is worth ; but if you had but a 
 line or two from the duke, I should be as ready to 
 surrender it to you, as you would be to ask it." 
 Upon which the commissioners, instead of excusing 
 their imprudence in not bringing such an order, be- 
 gan to insist upon their right, and strenuously to 
 assert their independency : but Andross putting his 
 hand on his sword, told them that he should defend 
 the government from them till he received orders 
 from the duke, his master, to surrender it; he how- 
 ever softened, and told them he would do what was 
 in his power to make them easy, till they could 
 send home to get redress ; and "in order thereto, 
 would commission the same persons mentioned in 
 the commission they produced. This they accepted, 
 and undertook to act as magistrates under him, till 
 further orders came from England, and proceed in 
 relation to their land affairs, according to the me- 
 thods prescribed by the proprietors. 
 
 When arrived at their government, they applied 
 to the Swedes for interpreters between them and the 
 Indians. Israel Helmes, Peter Rambo, and Lacy 
 Cock, were recommended. By their help they made 
 a purchase from Timber Creek to Rankokas Creek, 
 another from Oldman's Creek to Timber Creek. 
 After this they got Henric Jacobson Falconbre, to 
 be their interpeter, and purchased from Rankokas 
 Creek to Assunpinck. But when they had agreed 
 upon this last purchase, they had not Indian goods 
 sufficient to pay the consideration, yet gave them 
 what they had, to get the deed signed ; they were 
 however obliged to agree with the Indians not to 
 settle till the remainder was paid. The deed for the 
 lands between Rankokas Creek and Timber Creek 
 bears date the l()th of September, 1677 ; that for the 
 lands from Oldman's creek to Timber creek the 
 27th of September, 1677, and that from Rankokas 
 creek to Assunpinck the 10th of Octooer, 1677. By 
 the consideration paid for the lands between Old- 
 man's and Timber creek, a judgment may be formed 
 of the rest. It consisted of 30 matchcoats, 20 guns, 
 30 kettles and one great one, 30 pair of hose, 
 20 fathom of duffolds, 30 petticoats, 30 narrow hose, 
 30 bars of lead, 15 small barrels of powder, 70 knives, 
 30 Indian axes, 70 combs, 60 pair of tobacco tongs, 
 60 scissars, 60 tinshaw looking-glasses, 120 awl- 
 blades, 120 fishhooks, 2 grasps of red paint, 120 
 needles, 60 tobacco boxes, 120 pipes, 200 bells, 100 
 Jews-harps, 6 anchors of rum. In the year 1703, 
 another purchase was made by the council of pro- 
 prietors of West-Jersey, of land lying above the 
 falls of Delaware ; another also about that time of 
 lands at the head of Rankokas river, and several 
 purchases afterwards included the whole of the lands 
 worth taking up in West- Jersey, except a few planta- 
 tions reserved to the Indians ; one of these in particu- 
 lar ought to be noted in this place, to the honour of 
 John Wills, sometime one of the council, by whose ad- 
 vice the Indian sachem, called king Charles, laid an 
 English right on a large plantation, atWeekpink, con- 
 taining a valuable tract of land, in the county of Bur- 
 lington, which is so contrived as to remain unalienable 
 from his posterity, who now enjoy the benefit of it. 
 
 Having travelled through the country and viewed 
 the land, the Yorkshire commissioners, Joseph 
 Helmsley, William Emley and Robert Stacy, on 
 behalf of the first purchasers, chose from the falls of 
 Delaware down, which was hence called the first 
 tenth ; the London commissioners, John Penford. 
 Thomas Oliye, Daniel Wills, and Benjamin Scott, 
 
 on behalf of the ten London proprietors, chosen at Ar- 
 wamus, (in and about where the town of Gloucester 
 now is) this was called the second tenth ; to begin 
 a settlement there, Olive sent up servants to cut hay 
 for cattle he had bought : when the Yorkshire com- 
 missioners found the others were like to settle at such 
 a distance, they told them if they would agree to 
 fix by them, they would join in settling a town in 
 pursuance of the charter brought with them from 
 England, and that they should have the largest 
 share, in consideration that they (the Yorkshire 
 commissioners) had the best land in the woods. 
 Being few, and the Indians numerous, they agreed 
 to it. The commissioners employed Noble, a sur- 
 veyor, who came in the first ship, to divide the spot. 
 After the main street was ascertained, he divided the 
 land on each side into lots; the easternmost among 
 the Yorkshire proprietors, the other among the Lon- 
 doners ; to begin a settlement, ten lots of nine acres 
 each, bounding on the west, were laid out, which 
 being done, some emigrants from Wickaco, chiefly 
 those concerned in the Yorkshire tenth, arrived the 
 latter end of October. The London commissioners 
 also employed Noble, to divide the part of the 
 island yet unsurveyed, between the ten London pro- 
 prietors, in the manner beforementioned. The town 
 thus by mutual consent laid out, was named at first 
 New Beverley, then Bridlington, which was ulti- 
 mately changed to Burlington. Some of the masters 
 of families that came in the ship last mentioned, and 
 settled in that neighbourhood, were Thomas Olive, 
 Daniel Wills, William Peachey, William Clayton, 
 John Crips, Thomas Eves, Thomas Harding, Thomas 
 Nositer, Thomas Fairnsworth, Morgan Drewet, Wil- 
 liam Pennton, Henry Jenings, William Hibes, Sa- 
 muel Lovett, John Woolston, William Woodmancy. 
 Christopher Saunders, and Robert Powell ; John 
 Wilkinson and William Perkins, were likewise with 
 theirfamiliespassengers,but dying on the voyage, the 
 latter were exposed to additional hardships, which were 
 however moderated by the care of their fellow emi- 
 grants. Perkins was early in life convinced of the 
 principles of those called Quakers, and lived well in 
 Leicestershire; but seeing an account of the country 
 written by Richard Hartshorne, and forming views 
 of advantage to his family, though in his 52d year, 
 he, with his wife, four children and some servants, 
 embarked in this ship; among the latter was one 
 Marshall, a carpenter, particularly serviceable in 
 fitting up habitations for the new comers ; but it 
 being late in the autumn when they arrived, the 
 winter was much spent before the work was begun ; 
 in the interim they lived in wigwams, built after the 
 manner of the Indians. Indian corn and venison, 
 supplied by the Indians, was their chief food. 
 These people were not then much corrupted with 
 strong liquors, but generally very friendly and 
 helpful to the English ; notwithstanding it was 
 thought endeavours had been used to make them 
 otherwise, by insinuations that the English sold them 
 the small pox in their matchcoats. This distemper 
 was among them, and a company getting together 
 to consult about it, one of their chiefs said, "In my 
 grandfather's time the small-pox came : In my 
 father's time the small-pox came ; and now in my 
 time the small-pox is come." Then stretching his 
 hands towards the skies, said, " it came from 
 thence." To this the rest assented. 
 
 The next ship which arrived was the Willing 
 Mind, which brought about sixty or seventy pas- 
 senders. Some settled at Salem, others at Burling- 
 ton ; among the fnrni'.'r uere J-unes Nevill, Henry 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 Salter and George Deacon, with their families. In 
 this year also arrived the Fly boat Martha, of Bur- 
 lington, Yorkshire, with 114 passengers, who de- 
 signed to settle the Yorkshire tenth. 
 
 In one of these ships, or about this time, arrived 
 John Kinsey, then a young man ; his father one of 
 the commissioners aforementioned, dying on his ar- 
 rival, the care of his family fell to him ; he was 
 afterwards a man of distinguished services in seve- 
 ral public stations ; and his son after him, of the 
 same name, was a chief justice of Pennsylvania. 
 Many that came servants, succeeded better than 
 some' that brought estates ; the first inured to indus- 
 try, and the ways of the country, became wealthy, 
 while the others 'were obliged to spend what they had 
 in the difficulties of first improvements ; and others 
 living too much on their original stock, for want of 
 sufficient care to improve their estates, have, in 
 many instances, dwindled to indigency and want. 
 
 The following letters from some of these early 
 emigrants and founders of this state, is inserted as 
 a document interesting to those who like to con- 
 template the first shoots of a vigorous and thriving 
 empire. 
 
 " From Burlington, in Delaware river, 
 the 26th of the 8th Month, 1677. 
 " Dear Friend, Through the mercy of God, we 
 are safely arrived at New Jersey ; my wife and all 
 mine are very well, and we have our healths rather 
 better here than we had in England ; indeed the 
 country is so good, that I do not see how it can 
 reasonably be found fault with : as far as I perceive, 
 all the things we heard of it in England, are very 
 true; and I wish that many people (that are in 
 straits) in England, were here. Here is good land 
 enough lies void, would serve many thousands of 
 families; and we think if they cannot live here, they 
 can hardly live in any place in the world ; but we 
 do not desire to persuade any to come, but such as 
 are well satisfied in their own minds. A town lot is 
 laid out for us in Burlington, which is a convenient 
 place for trade; it is about 115 miles up the river De- 
 laware ; the country and air seems to be very agree- 
 able to our bodies, and we have very good stomachs 
 to our victuals. Here is plenty of provision in the 
 country ; plenty of fish and fowl, and good venison 
 very plentiful, and much better than ours in Eng- 
 land; for it eats not so dry, but is full of gravy, like 
 fat young beef. You that come after us need not 
 fear the trouble that we have had, for now here is 
 land ready divided against you come. The Indians 
 are very loving to us, except here and there one, 
 when they have gotten strong lipuors in their heads, 
 which they now greatly love. But for the country, 
 in short, I like it very well ; and I do believe, that 
 this river of Delaware is as good a river as most in 
 the world : it exceeds the river of Thames by many 
 degrees. 
 
 " Here is a town laid out for twenty proprieties, and 
 a straight line drawn from the river side up the land, 
 which is to be the main street, and a market place 
 about the middle. The Yorkshire ten proprietors are 
 to build on one side, and the London ten the other 
 side ; and they have ordered one street to be made 
 along the river side, which is not divided with the 
 rest, but in small lots by itself; and every one that 
 hath any part in a propriety, is to have his share in 
 it. The town lots for every propriety will be about 
 ten or eleven acres, which is only for a house, 
 orchard and gardens; and the corn and pasture 
 ground is to be laid out in great quantities. 
 
 "I am thy loving friend, John Crips." 
 
 Thomas Hooten to his wife, dated 29th 8th 
 Month, 1677. 
 
 " My Dear, I am this present at the town calkd 
 Burlington, where our land is ; it is ordered to be a 
 town for the ten Yorkshire and ten London proprie- 
 tors. I like the place well ; our lot is the second 
 next the water side : It is like to be a healthful 
 place, and very pleasant to live in. I came hither 
 yesterday, being the 28th of October, with some 
 friends that were going to New York. I am to be 
 at Thomas Olive's house, till I can provide better for 
 myself: I intend to build a house, and get some 
 corn into the ground ; and I know not how to write 
 concerning thy coming, or not coming hither ; the 
 place I like very well, and believe that we may 
 live here very well : but if it be not made free, I 
 mean as to the customs and government, then it will 
 not be so well, and may hinder many that have de- 
 sires to come. But if those two things be cleared, 
 thou may take thy opportunity of coming this summer. 
 " Thomas Hooten. 
 
 The customs here referred to were those imposed at 
 New Castle, Delaware, upon all comers; the govern- 
 ment was yet administered by virtue of governor An- 
 dross's commission; both which were unexpected and 
 disagreeable; but these objections were soon removed. 
 William Clarke to the' proprietors. 
 
 " New Jersey, 20th 2nd Month, 1678. 
 
 " Dear Friends, I doubt not but it will be great 
 satisfaction to you, to hear of mine and the rest of 
 friends' passage to, and safe arrival in New Jersey : 
 we took ship the 16th of November, and- made the 
 land of New Jersey in thirty-four days. Now 
 friends, as to this country, there has been so much said 
 by several persons in commendation thereof, both 
 as to the increase of all sorts of grain and fruits ; 
 as also of the plenty of fish, fowl, deer, swine, &c. 
 that I shall not need to add any thing to it; but in 
 short, this I have to say, that I do not know any 
 one thing to fall short of what was reported of this 
 province, but that more might truly have been said 
 of its -pleasant situation, wholesome air, and gene- 
 ral and great increase of all things planted, and 
 especially of Indian corn, which is a very good and 
 serviceable grain many ways ; the English wheat 
 and barley primely good ; but rie and pease much 
 better than any I ever saw in England or Ireland. 
 I doubt not but you have had an account of all 
 other matters before this (by those who came to 
 Jersey before me) comes to your hands ; and I have 
 no other end in this, than keeping you from the 
 rash censures of poople that know it not ; as also 
 for the good and prosperity of this good country, &c. 
 
 " Directed for William Penn, Gawen Lawrie, or 
 Edward Byllinge. " William Clark." 
 
 John Cnps to his brother and sister. 
 
 "Burlington, in New-Jersey, upon the river Dela- 
 ware, the 19th of 4th Month, called June, 1678. 
 
 " Dear and loving brother and sister, I have 
 received both your letters, wherein I understand 
 your faith concerning this country is much shaken, 
 through several false reports given thereof; which 
 may be proved false under the hands of several 
 good friends ; I hope as worthy to be believed as 
 that reporter ; and such as have had more experi- 
 ence of this place than he had, or could have, in 
 so short a time ; besides he came among us shortly 
 after our coming hither, when things were not 
 settled in that order amongst us, as now they are ; 
 neither indeed did he find such entertainment from 
 some, as he expected ; which I suppose makes him 
 speak the worst he can devise of this place but I 
 
570 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 question not but this report will in a short time be 
 wiped away, some of which in my knowledge is 
 grossly untrue, as well as contradictions to his own 
 words ; for 1 remember when I travelled with him 
 through part of New-Jersey, he confessed that 
 much of this land was as good or better than the 
 land in Rhode-Island : and it is really my 
 judgment, that those people that cannot be con- 
 tented with such a country, and such land as this 
 is, they are not worthy to come here : and this I 
 can truly tell you, if I were now in England with 
 you (and which I should be very glad to see) yet 
 if all I had in the world would but bring me hither, 
 I would freely leave you and my native country, 
 and come to New-Jersey again; which I have said 
 many a time heretofore, but now write it under my 
 hand, and it's really the truth, whether you will 
 believe it or not ; and farther, I can truly tell you, 
 that I desire not, nor dare to write the least un- 
 truth, to draw you, nor any others to this place ; 
 but I am resolved, if I never see your faces more, 
 to leave you to your own freedom. But I hope you 
 are not insensible of my love and desires for you ; 
 though I am, I say, constrained to forbear persuad- 
 ing you, or anyone else against their own freedoms ; 
 yet I think it my duty to let you, and all men know 
 the truth of things as near as I can. Your letter 
 saith, ' it's reported the water is not so good as in 
 England.' I do not remember that ever I tasted 
 better water in any part of England, than the 
 springs of this place do yield ; of which is made 
 very good beer and ale ; and here is also wine and 
 cyder. And whereas your letter to me saith, ' se- 
 veral have come back from this country to Eng- 
 land :' Two or three I suppose ; there are lazy idle 
 persons that have done so ; but on the other hand, 
 here are several persons, men of estates, that have 
 been here, and have gone back to England, and 
 sold their estates and returned with their whole 
 families hither again ; which methinks should take 
 many of these scruples out of the way, if nothing 
 else were said or done in praise of this country ; 
 but I suppose there are many in England, that de- 
 sire to hear ill of this place, because they would 
 keep their friends there with them ; and they think 
 we never write enough of the bad properties of the 
 country, and vermin in it. Now this I may say, in 
 short, that here are bears, wolves, foxes, rattle- 
 snakes, and several other creatures, (I do believe 
 because I see the Indians have such skins to sell) 
 but I have travelled several hundreds of miles, to 
 and fro, and I never to my knowledge saw one of 
 those creatures, except two rattle-snakes, and I 
 killed them both ; I suppose the fear of those crea- 
 tures in England, is far worse to some there, than 
 the hurt of them is here ; and as for the musketto- 
 ily, we are not troubled with them in this place ; our 
 land for the most part lying high and healthy, and 
 they, for the most part, are in a low boggy ground. 
 Thomas Budd and his family are arrived ; the ship 
 lyeth before this town, that brought them ; I wish 
 you have not cause to repent that you came not 
 along with them ; they had a very good passage, and 
 so had the London ship ; they are both in the river 
 at this time. I understand by Thomas Budd, that 
 he did satisfy you as near as he could of the truth 
 of things here ; and you had as much reason to be- 
 lieve him, as that other person, and more too ; for 
 Thomas had far more experience of this place, than 
 he could have in the short time he was among us ; 
 so of these things I shall forbear to write any further 
 at present. John Crips." 
 
 " To the truth of the contents of these things, we 
 subscribe our names; Daniel Wills, Thomas Olive, 
 Thomas Harding, Thomas Budd, William Peachy." 
 
 In the latter end of 1678, the Shield arrived from 
 Hull with more emigrants, and dropped anchor be- 
 fore Burlington, being the first ship that came so far 
 up the Delaware, against Coaquanock (the Indian 
 name of the place where Philadelphia now stands). 
 Being a bold shore, she went so near in turning, 
 that part of the tackling struck the trees; some on 
 board then remarked it was a fine spot for a town. 
 A fresh gale brought her to Burlington ; she moored 
 to a tree, and the next morning the people came a- 
 shore on the ice, so hard had the river frozen. And 
 a second ship, full of emigrants, also arrived from 
 London. 
 
 It has already been stated in the account of New 
 York, that Charles II., on the re-delivery of their 
 provinces by the Dutch, after their short conquest 
 in 1673, to prevent any possibility of legal cavilling 
 that might arise upon a plea of the property being 
 thus alienated from the purchasers, granted new 
 letters patent bearing date the 29th day of June, 
 1674, to the Duke of York, for the several provinces, 
 which by the former letters patent had been granted 
 to him; of which New Jersey was a part. And in 
 1678, upon the application of the assigns of Lord 
 Berkeley, the duke make them a new grant of West 
 New Jersey ; and in like manner by an instrument 
 bearing date the 10th of October, granted the east- 
 ern moiety of New Jersey to the grandson of Sir 
 George Carteret. 
 
 Letters from some of the settlers of West Jersey and 
 arguments against the customs imposed at the Hoar 
 Kill by the governor of New York. 
 
 The following abstract of Mahlon Stacy's letter 
 to his brother Revell, and some others, dated " the 
 26th of the 4th month, 1680," will give the reader 
 the best idea of the state of the colony. 
 
 " But now a word or two of those strange reports 
 you have of us and our country; I affirm they are 
 not true, and fear they were spoke from a spirit of 
 envy. It is a country that produceth all things for 
 the support and sustenance of man in a plentiful 
 manner ; if it were not so, I should be ashamed of 
 what I have before written ; but I can stand, having 
 truth on my side, against and before the face of all 
 gainsayers and evil spies: I have travelled through 
 most of the places that are settled, and some that 
 are not, and in every place I find the country very 
 apt to answer the expectation of the diligent : I 
 have seen orchards laden with fruit to admiration, 
 their very limbs torn to pieces with the weight, 
 and most delicious to the taste, and lovely to be- 
 hold; I have seen an apple tree from a pippin 
 kernel, yield a barrel of curious cider ; and 
 peaches in such plenty, that some people took 
 their carts a peach gathering; I could not but 
 smile at the conceit of it. They are a very deli- 
 cate fruit, and hang almost like our onions that are 
 tied on ropes. I have seen and known this sum- 
 mer, forty bushels of bold wheat of one bushel 
 sown ; and many more such instances I could 
 bring, which would be too tedious here to mention. 
 We have from the time called May until Michael- 
 mas, great store of very good wild fruits, as straw- 
 berries, cranberries, and hurtleberries, which are 
 like our bilberries in England, but far sweeter, 
 they are very wholesome fruits. The cranberries 
 much like cherries for colour and bigness, which 
 may be kept till fruit come in again ; an excellent 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 571 
 
 sauce is made of them for venison, turkeys, and 
 other great fowl, and they are better to make tarts 
 than either gooseberries or cherries ; we have them 
 brought to our houses by the Indians in great 
 plenty. My brother Robert had as many cherries 
 this year as would have loaded several carts. It 
 is my judgment by what I have observed, that fruit 
 trees in this country destroy themselves by the very 
 weight of their fruit; as for venison and fowls, we 
 have great plenty. We have brought home to our 
 houses by the Indians, seven or eight fat bucks of 
 a day, aud sometimes put by as many ; having no 
 occasion for them, and fish in their season very 
 plenteous. My cousin Revell and I, with some of 
 my men, went last third month into the river to 
 catch herrings, for at that time they came in great 
 shoals into the shallows; we had neither rod nor 
 net, but after the Indian fashion made a round 
 pinfold, about two yards over and a foot high, 
 but left a gap for the fish to go in at. and made a 
 bush to lay in the gap to keep the fish in; and 
 when that was done, we took two long birches and 
 tied their tops together, and went about a stone's 
 cast above our said pinfold, then hawling these 
 birchen boughs down the stream, where we drove 
 thousands before us, but so many got into our trap 
 as it would hold, and then we began to hawl them 
 on shore as fast as three or four of us could, by two 
 or three at a time, and after this manner, in half 
 an hour, we could have filled a three bushel sack 
 of as good and large herrings as ever I saw; and 
 as to beef and pork, here is great plenty of it, and 
 cheap ; and also good sheep. The common grass 
 of this country feeds beef very fat; I have killed 
 two this year, and therefore I have reason to know 
 it; besides I have seen this fall, in Burlington, 
 killed, eight or nine fat oxen and cows on a market 
 day, and all very fat. And though I speak of her- 
 rings only, lest any should think we have little 
 other sorts, we have great plenty of most sorts of 
 fish that ever I saw in England ; besides several 
 other sorts that are not known there, as rocks, cat- 
 fish, shads, sheeps-heads, sturgeons : and fowls 
 plenty, as ducks, geese, turkies, pheasants, par- 
 tridges, and many other sorts that I cannot re- 
 member, and would be too tedious to mention. In- 
 deed the country, take it as a wildei'ness, is a brave 
 country, though no place will please all. But some 
 will be ready to say, he writes of conveniences but 
 not of inconveniences. In answer to those, I 
 honestly declare there is some barren land, as (I 
 suppose) there is in most places of the world, and 
 more wood than some would have upon their lands; 
 neither will the country produce corn without la- 
 bour, nor cattle be got without something to buy 
 them, nor bread with idleness ; else it would be a 
 brave country indeed ; and I question not, but all 
 then would give it a good word; for my part I like 
 it so well, I never had the least thought of return- 
 ing to England, except on the account of trade. 
 
 " Mahlon Stacy." 
 
 In a letter to William Cook, of Sheffield, and 
 others, Stacy wrote thus : 
 
 " This is a most brave place, whatever envy or 
 evil spies may speak of it ; I could wish you all 
 here. Burlington will be a place of trade quickly ; 
 for here is way for trade; I, with eight more, last 
 winter bought a good ketch of fifty tons, freighted 
 her out at our own charge, and sent her to Barbadoes, 
 and so to sail to Saltertugas, to take in part of her 
 lading in salt, and the rest in Barbadoes goods as 
 she came back; which said voyage she hath ac- 
 
 complished very well, and now rides before Bur- 
 lington discharging her lading, and so to go to tho 
 West Indies again ; and we intend to freight her 
 out with our own corn. We have wanted nothing 
 since we came hither, but the company of our good 
 friends and acquaintance ; all our people are very 
 well, and in a hopeful way to live much better than 
 ever they did, and not only so, but to provide well 
 for their posterity. They improve their lands and 
 have good crops; and if our Mends and country- 
 men come, they will find better reception than we 
 had by far at first, before the country was settled 
 as now it is. I know not one among the people 
 that desires to be in England again ; I mean since 
 settled. I wonder at our Yorkshire people, that 
 they had rather live in servitude, and work hard 
 all the year, and not to be three-pence the better at 
 the year's end, than stir out of the chimney-corner 
 and transport themselves to a place where, with the 
 like pains, in two or three years they might know 
 better things. 
 
 " I never repented my coming hither, nor yet 
 remembered thy arguments and out-cry against New 
 Jersey with regret. I live as well to my content, 
 and in as great plenty as ever I did, and in a far 
 more likely way to get an estate. Though I hear 
 some have thought I was too large in my former, I 
 affirm it to be true ; having seen more with mine 
 own eyes in this time since, than ever yet I wrote 
 of. "Mahlon Stacy." 
 
 From the Falls of Delaware, in West New Jer- 
 sey, the 26th of the 4th month, 1680. 
 
 The inhabitants of West Jersey, had hitherto 
 either pounded their corn, or ground it with hand 
 mills ; but about this time Olive had built his water 
 mill on his plantation, nigh Rankokas creek ; and 
 in this year Stacy finished his mill at Trenton. 
 These two were the only mills that ground for the 
 country several of the first years after their ar- 
 rival. 
 
 Though the passengers who had already come to 
 West Jersey, were well satisfied with the country, 
 things in general answering beyond their expecta- 
 tion, yet they were under one great inconvenience. 
 We have seen that the governor of New York had 
 very early imposed ten per cent, on all goods im- 
 ported at the Hoar Kill ; and on exports something 
 of the kind still subsisted: 5/. per cent being de- 
 manded of the settlers at their arrival or afterwards, 
 at the officer's pleasure; and that not according to the 
 prime cost of the goods, but upon the amount in the 
 invoice, as shipped in England. This was evi- 
 dently an arbitrary act, neither West Jersey nor 
 the Hoar Kill were legally under their jurisdiction ; 
 the settlers from the first complained of the hard- 
 ship, but bore it with tolerable patience till about 
 1680, when they had it redressed by the interposi- 
 tion of their friends in England, who applying to the 
 Duke of York, he referred the matter to counsel, 
 where it rested for a considerable time ; but at last 
 by the diligence of W. Penn. George Hutchinson, 
 and others, was reported in their favour. Sir John 
 Werden, on the Duke's behalf, wrote to have it 
 discontinued. The arguments used against this 
 duty or impost, may be seen by the following docu- 
 ment. 
 
 " To those of the duke's commissioners, whom he 
 has ordered to hear, and make report to him con- 
 cerning the customs demanded in New West Jer- 
 sey, in America, by his governor of New York. 
 
 "1. The king has granted to the Duke of York 
 a tract of laud in America, consisting of several 
 
572 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Indian countries, with such powers and authorities 
 as are requisite to make laws, and to govern and 
 preserve the territory when planted : but with this 
 restriction twice expressed, and several times re- 
 ferred to, viz., ' So always as the said statutes, or- 
 dinances, and proceedings be not contrary, but as 
 near as may be, agreeable to the laws, statutes, and 
 government of this our realm of England.' In 
 another place, thus, ' And further, it may be lawful 
 for our dearest brother, his heirs and assigns, by 
 these presents, to make, ordain, and establish all 
 manner of orders, laws, directions, instruments, and 
 forms of government, and magistrates fit and neces- 
 sary for the territory aforesaid :' but still with this 
 limitation, ' so always as the same be not contrary 
 to the laws and statutes of this our realm of Eng- 
 land, but as near as may be agreeable thereto.' 
 
 " 2. The Duke of York, by virtue of this grant 
 from the king to him, for a competent sum of money 
 (paid by the Lord John Berkeley and Sir George 
 Carteret), granted and sold to them a tract of land, 
 called now by the name of New Ccesarea, or New 
 Jersey; and that in as ample manner as it was 
 granted by the king to the duke. 
 
 " Thus then we come to buy that moiety which 
 belonging to Lord Berkeley, for a valuable con- 
 sideration, and in the conveyance he made us, 
 powers of government are expressly granted ; for 
 that only could have induced us to buy it; and the 
 reason is plain ; because to all prudent men the go- 
 vernment of any place is more inviting than the 
 soil ; for what is good land without good laws the 
 better the worse. And if we could not assure peo- 
 ple of an easy, and free, and safe government, both 
 with respect to their spiritual and worldly property ; 
 that is, an uninterrupted liberty of conscience, an in- 
 violable possession of their civil rights and freedoms, 
 by a just and wise government ; a mere wilderness 
 would be no encouragement, for it were a madness 
 to leave a free, good, and improved country, to 
 plant in a wilderness, and there adventure many 
 thousands of pounds, to give an absolute title to 
 another person to tax us at will and pleasure. This 
 single consideration, we hope, will excuse our desire 
 of the government ; not asserted for the sake of 
 power but safety; and that not only for ourselves, 
 but others, that the plantation might be encouraged. 
 
 " 3. The Lord Berkeley and Sir George Car- 
 teret, considering how much freedom invites, that 
 they might encourage people to transport them- 
 selves into those parts, made and divulged certain 
 concessions, containing a model of government : 
 Upon these several went, and are there planted; 
 the country was thus possessed, and the said go- 
 vernment uninterruptedly administered by the said 
 Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, or their 
 deputy, for several years ; during which time no 
 custom was demanded. 
 
 " 4. We dealt with the said Lord Berkeley, upon 
 the sight of these concessions, and the presumption 
 that neither he nor Sir George Carteret, would at- 
 tempt to act anything they had not power to do ; 
 much less, that they or either of them, would pre- 
 tend to sell a power they never had ; since that 
 would not only be a cheat to the people that dealt 
 with them for it, but an high affront to the duke. 
 
 " 5. The moiety of New Caesarea, or New Jersey, 
 thus bonght of the said Lord Berkeley, we dispose 
 of part of our interest to several hundreds of peo- 
 ple, honest and industrious ; these transport them- 
 selves, and with them such household stuff and 
 tools, as are requisite for planters to have. They 
 
 land at Delaware bay, the bounds of the country 
 we bought; the passage God and nature made to 
 it ; at their arrival they are saluted with a demand 
 of custom, of five per cent, and that not as the 
 goods may be there worth, but according to the in- 
 voice as they cost before shipped in England ; nor 
 did they take them as they came, but at pick and 
 choose, with some severe language to boot. This 
 is our grievance ; and for this we made our appli- 
 cation to have speedy redress, not as a burden 
 only, with respect to the quantum or the way of 
 levying it, or any circumstances made hard by the 
 irregularity of the officers, but as a wrong ; for we 
 complain of a wrong done us ; and ask yet with 
 modesty, quo jure ? Tell us the title by what right 
 or law are we thus used ; that may a little mitigate 
 our pain ? Your answer hitherto hath been this : 
 'That it was a conquered country; and that the 
 king, being the conqueror, he has power to make 
 laws, raise money, &c. and that this power Jure re- 
 yale, the king hath vested in the duke, and by that 
 right and sovereignty, the duke demands that cus- 
 tom we complain of.' But suppose the king were 
 an absolute conqueror in the case depending, doth 
 his power extend equally over his own English peo- 
 ple, as over the conquered ? Are not they some 
 of the letters that make up the word conqueror ? 
 Did Alexander conquer alone, or Csesar beat by 
 himself? No. Shall their armies of countrymen 
 and natives lie at the same mercy as the van- 
 quished, and be exposed to the same will and power 
 with their captive enemies ? The Norman duke, 
 more a conqueror of England, by his subjection to 
 our laws, and pretence to a title by them, than of 
 heraldry by his arms, used not the companions of 
 his victory so ill : Natural right and humane pru- 
 dence, oppose such doctrine all the world over ; 
 for what is it but to say, that people free by law 
 under their prince at home, are at his mercy in 
 the plantations abroad ; and why ? because he is a 
 conqueror there, but still at the hazard of the lives 
 of his own people, and at the cost and charge of 
 the public : We could say more, but choose to let 
 it drop. But our case is better yet; for the king's 
 grant to the Duke of York, is plainly restrictive to 
 the laws and government of England, and that 
 more than once, as is before expressed. Now the 
 constitution and government of England, as we 
 humbly conceive, are so far from countenancing 
 any such authority, as it is made a fundamental in 
 our constitution and government, that the King of 
 England cannot justly take his subjects' goods 
 without their consent . ' This needs no more to be 
 proved, than a principle ; 'tis jus indigene, an home- 
 born right, declared to be law by diverse statutes ; 
 as in the great charter, ch. 29, and 34 Edward III., 
 ch. 2 ; again, 25 Edward, ch. 7. Upon this were 
 many of the parliament's complaints grounded; 
 but particularly that of the same king's reign, at 
 is delivered by Matthew Westminster, in these 
 words :" [The manuscript copy whence this is 
 taken, is here defaced : It contains a number of 
 authorities from Bracton, Fortesque, the petition of 
 right, &c.j " To give up this (the power of making 
 laws) is to change the government, to sell, or rather 
 resign ourselves to the will of another; and that 
 for nothing : For under favour we buy nothing of 
 the duke, if not the riyht of an undisturbed colo- 
 nizing, and that as Englishmen with no dimunition, 
 but expectation of some increase of those freedoms 
 and privileges enjoyed in our own country ; for the 
 soil is none of his, 'tis the natives', by the jus yen- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 b/3 
 
 tium, by the law of nations ; and it would be an ill 
 argument to convert to Christianity, to expel instead 
 of purchasing them out of those countries: If then 
 the country be theirs, it is not the duke's; he can- 
 not sell it ; then what have we bought ? We are 
 yet unanswered in this point, and desire you to do 
 it with all due regard to the great honour and jus- 
 tice of the duke. If it be not the right of coloniz- 
 ing there, which way have we our bargain, that pay 
 an arbitrary custom, neither known to the laws of 
 England, nor the settled constitution of New York, 
 and those other plantations ? To conclude this 
 point, we humbly say, that we have not lost any 
 part of our liberty, by leaving our country ; for we 
 leave not our king, nor our government, by quit- 
 ting our soil ; but we transplant to a place given 
 by the same king, with express limitation to erect 
 no polity contrary to the same established govern- 
 ment, but as near as may be to it ; and this varia- 
 tion is allowed but for the sake of emergencies ; 
 and that latitude bounded with these words, for the 
 good of the adventurer and planter; which that ex- 
 action of custom can never be, in that it not only 
 varies to the discouragement and prejudice of the 
 planter, but contradicts his native laws, rights and 
 liberties, and lays a foundation for another sort of 
 government than that which was only known to 
 his fathers ; unto the just defence of which he is 
 engaged by nature and municipal laws : So far the 
 point of law. 
 
 " We shall now insist upon the equity of our 
 case : First, This very tax of five per cent, is a 
 thing not to be found in the duke's conveyances, 
 but an after-business ; a very surprize to the 
 planter, and such an one, as could they have fore- 
 seen, they would have sooner taken up in any other 
 plantation in America. In the next place, 
 
 " 2. New Jersey never paid custom before last 
 peace, and that peace re-invests every proprietor by 
 articles. Now we bought it when free, since which 
 time this imposition is born ; must we be subjected 
 to the payment of one tax, of greater value than the 
 country ? This in plain English, is under another 
 name, paying for the same thing twice over; nay, 
 had the soil been purchased of the Indians, by those 
 of whom we bought it, and given us ; it had been 
 dearly accepted, upon this condition, and with this 
 incumbrance ; but it was bought by us, and that for 
 a valuable consideration here ; and is now pur- 
 chased again of the natives there too ; this makes 
 our case extreme hard, and we pray relief. 
 
 " 3. Custom in all governments in the world, is 
 laid upon trade, but this upon planting is unprece- 
 dented. Had we brought commodities to these 
 parts to sell, made profit out of them, and returned 
 to the advantage of traders ; there had been some 
 colour or pretence for this exaction ; but to require 
 and force a custom from persons for coming to 
 their property, their own terra firma, their habita- 
 tions ; in short, for coming home, is without a paral- 
 lel ; this is paying custom not for trading, but 
 landing; not for merchandizing, but planting; in 
 very deed for hazarding ; for there we go ; carry 
 over our families and estates ; adventure both for 
 the improvement of a wilderness, and are not only 
 told we must pay hereafter out of our gains and 
 improvements, but must pay out of our poor stock 
 and principal, (put into goods) five pounds in the 
 hundred; and not as they are there worth, but as 
 they here cost ; and this for coming to plant : So 
 that the plain English of the tragedy is this, we 
 twice buy this moiety of New Jersey, first of Lord 
 
 Berkeley, and next of the natives ; and what for ? 
 the better to mortgage ourselves and posterity to 
 the duke's governors, and give them a title to our 
 persons and estates, that never had any before. 
 But pray consider, can there be a house without a 
 bottom ; or a plantation before a people ? if 
 not, can there be a custom before a trade ? Thus 
 much for the equitable part of our plea ; the next 
 and last, is the prudential. We do offer several 
 things in point of prudence, why the duke should 
 desist from the exaction : First, there can be no 
 benefit to a prince in America, there can be no 
 trade, without a people ; there will be no people 
 where there is no encouragement; nor can there 
 be any encouragement where people have not 
 greater privileges by going than staying; for if 
 their condition be not meliorated, they will never 
 forego the comfort of their kindred they must leave 
 behind them, nor forsake their native country, run 
 the hazard of the seas, nor lastly, expose them- 
 selves to the wants and difficulties of a wilderness ; 
 but on the contrary, if they have less privileges 
 there than at home, 'tis every way to worst them- 
 selves to go ; for they do not only pay custom here 
 for going, but there for arriving: which is not done 
 in any other plantation, even when our men go to 
 merchandize and not to plant, which is our case. 
 Besides there is no end of this power; for since we 
 are by this precedent, assessed without any law, 
 and thereby excluded our English right of common 
 assent to taxes ; what security have we of anything 
 we possess ? we can call nothing our own, but are 
 tenants at will, not only for the soil but for all our 
 personal estates ; we endure penury and the sweat 
 of our brows, to improve them at our own hazard 
 only. This is to transplant, not from good to better, 
 but from good to bad ; this sort of conduct has de- 
 stroyed government, but never raised one to any 
 true greatness ; nor ever will in the duke's terri- 
 tories, whilst so many countries equally good in soil 
 and air, surrounded with greater freedom and secur- 
 ity. Whereas if the duke please to make all planters 
 easy and safe in their liberty and property, such a 
 just and free government will draw in other places, 
 encourage persons to transplant into his country, 
 and his disbursements will soon be at an end ; his 
 revenues, with satisfaction to the people, presently 
 visibly augmented. Next this encouragement will 
 bring shipping and seamen, which not only takes off 
 abundance of idle people, but our native growth 
 and manufacture, and the export, of them; and the 
 import of the produce of these plantations, will in a 
 little time overflow, and advance the revenue of the 
 crown. Virginia and Barbadoes are proofs unde- 
 niable in the case. 
 
 " Lastly, the duke's circumstances, and the 
 people's jealousies considered, we humbly sub- 
 mit it, if there can be in their opinion, a 
 greater evidence of a design to introduce an ur.li- 
 mited government, than both to exact sue h an un- 
 terminated tax from English planters, and to conti- 
 nue it after so many repeated complaints ; and on 
 the contrary, if there can be anything so happy to the 
 duke's present affairs, as the opportunity he hath to 
 free that country with his own hand, and to make us 
 all owers of our liberty to his favour and justice ; 
 so will Englishmen here Inow what to hope for, by 
 the justice and kindness he shews to Englishmen 
 there ; and all men to see the just model of his go- 
 vernment in New York, to be the scheme and 
 draught in little, of his ad ministration in Old Eng- 
 land at large, if the crown should ever devolve upon 
 
574 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 his head. The conclusion is this, that for all these 
 reasons in law, equity and prudence, alleged ; you 
 would please to second our request to the duke, that 
 like himself, he would void this taxation, and put 
 the country in such an English and free condition, 
 that he may be as well loved and honoured, as feared 
 by all the inhabitants of his territory ; that being 
 great in their affections, he may be great by their 
 industry ; which will yield him that wealth, that 
 parent of power, that he may be as great a prince 
 by property as by title." 
 
 That this custom was now taken off, will, among 
 other things, appear by the following letter from 
 Samuel Jenings, directed to William Penn, Edward 
 Byllinge, or Gawen Lawrie. 
 
 " Dear Friends, This may give you an account 
 of mine and my families safe arrival in New Jersey, 
 with all the rest that came with us. I might say 
 something concerning our passage at sea, but I 
 wave it for want of time, and in fine may observe 
 all was well ; for which I bless God ; and the Lord 
 keep us all sensible of it, with the rest of his mer- 
 cies for ever. 
 
 " Dear friends, about six weeks since, we arrived 
 in Delaware river, where I expected to have met with 
 a combat, in the denial of customs. In our passage 
 at sea, I had communicated to all that had any con- 
 siderable cargo on board, the opinion of council, 
 concerning the illegal demand thereof, with what 
 else I thought might be for their information ; which 
 thus far prevailed, that most if not all concerned, 
 seemed resolved to deny the paying of custom here; 
 having paid all the king's duties in England. In 
 good time we came to anchor in Delaware, where 
 one Peter Alrick (who used to collect the customs) 
 came aboard, and brought a handsome present to our 
 commander, and sent for me into the round-house, 
 where they both were, and Peter told me he had no- 
 thing to say to us relating to customs ; he had no 
 commission for it, nor did he he know of any body 
 that had ; so we had all our goods safely landed 
 after this unexpected easy manner. 
 
 " In pursuance of the trust committed to me after 
 my arrival, I acquainted those nominated in the 
 commission with me of it ; but in a short time after 
 I received your letters, giving an account of a new 
 grant obtained, wherein the customs are taken off, a 
 free port confirmed, and the government settled on 
 Edward Byllinge ; which I doubt not will be very 
 acceptable to every honest man ; but as yet I have 
 not had time to let the people in general know it ; 
 and now seeing the ports are made legally free, and 
 the government settled, I would not have anything 
 to remain as a discouragement to planters. Here 
 are several good and convenient settlements already, 
 and here is land enough and good enough ibr many 
 more." Samuel Jenings. 
 
 New Jersey, the 17th of October, 1680. 
 
 The first form of government in West Jersey, under the 
 proprietors. The first laws they made. The regu- 
 lation relative to the partitioning of land. 
 
 The western part of New Jersey was now become 
 populous, by the accession of many settlers. Jen- 
 ings, who arrived in the latter end of 1680, received 
 a commission from Byllinge, (whom the proprietors 
 in England, as mentioned before, had chosen go- 
 vernor) to be his deputy. He called an assembly, 
 and with them agreed upon certain fundamental prin- 
 ciples for the government of the province as follows. 
 
 " Province of West New Jersey, in America, the 
 25th of the 9th Month called November, 1681. 
 
 " Forasmuch as it hath pleased God to bring us 
 nto this province of West New Jersey, and settle 
 us here in safety, that we may be a people, to the 
 praise and honour of his name, who hath so dealt 
 with us, and for the good and welfare of our posterity 
 to come. We, the governor and proprietors, free- 
 holders and inhabitants of West New Jersey, by- 
 mutual consent and agreement, for the prevention of 
 innovations and oppression, either upon us or our pos- 
 terity, and for the preservation of the peace and tran- 
 quility of the same ; and that all may be encouraged 
 to go on cheerfully in their several places, we do 
 make and constitute these our agreements, to be as 
 fundamentals to us, and our posterity, to be held in- 
 violable ; and that no person or persons whatsoever 
 shall or may make void or disannul the same, upon 
 any pretence whatsoever. 
 
 " 1 . That there shall be a general free assembly 
 for the province aforesaid, yearly and every year, 
 at a day certain, chosen by the free people of the 
 said province, whereon all the representatives for the 
 said province shall be summoned to appear, to con- 
 sider of the affairs of the said province, and to make 
 and ordain such acts and laws as shall be requisite 
 and necessary for the good government and pros- 
 perity of the free people of the said province ; and 
 (if necessity shall require) the governor for the time 
 being, with the consent of his council, may and shall 
 issue out writs to convene the assembly sooner, to 
 consider and answer the necessities of the people of 
 the said province. 
 
 " 2. That the governor of the province aforesaid, 
 his heirs or successors, for the time being, shall not 
 suspend or defer the signing, sealing and confirm- 
 ing of such acts and laws as the general assembly 
 (from time to time to be elected by the free people 
 of the province aforesaid) shall make or enact for 
 the securing of the liberties and properties of the 
 said free people of the province aforesaid. 
 
 " 3. That it shall not be lawful for the governor of 
 the said province, his heirs or successors, for the 
 time being, and council, or any of them, at any time 
 or times hereafter, to make or raise war upon any 
 account or pretence whatsoever, or to raise any mi- 
 litary forces within the province aforesaid, without 
 the consent and act of the general free assembly, for 
 the time being. 
 
 " 4. That it shall not be lawful for the governor 
 of the said province, his heirs or successors, for the 
 time being, and council, or any of them, at any time 
 or times hereafter, to make or enact any law or laws 
 for the said province, without the consent, act and 
 concurrence of the general assembly. And if the 
 governor for the time being, his heirs or successors, 
 and council, or any of them, shall attempt to make 
 or enact any such law or laws, of him or themselves, 
 without the consent, act and concurrence of the 
 general assembly ; that from thenceforth, he, they, 
 or so many of them, as shall be guilty thereof, shall 
 upon legal conviction, be deemed and taken for ene- 
 mies to the free people of the said province; and such 
 act so attempted to be made, to be of no force. 
 
 " 5. That the general free assembly, from time to 
 time, to be chosen as aforesaid, as the representa- 
 tives of the people, shall not be prorogued or dis- 
 solved, before the expiration of one whole year, to 
 commence from the day of their election, without 
 their own free consent. 
 
 " 6. That it shall not be lawful for the governor of 
 
 the said province, his heirs or successors, for the 
 
 ! time being, and council, or any of them, to levy or 
 
 raise any sum or sums of money, or any other tax 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 575 
 
 whatsoever ; without the act, consent and concur- 
 rence of the general Assembly. 
 
 " 7. That all officers of state or trust, relating to 
 the said Province, shall be nominated and elected by 
 the general free assembly for the time being, or by 
 their appointment ; which officer and officers, shall 
 be accountable to the general free assembly, or to 
 such as the said assembly shall appoint. 
 
 " 8. That the governor of the province aforesaid, 
 his heirs or successors, for the time being, or any of 
 them, shall not send ambassadors, or make treaties. 
 or enter into alliances, upon the public account of 
 the said province, without the consent of the said 
 general free assembly.. 
 
 " 9. That no general free assembly hereafter to be 
 chosen by the free people of the province aforesaid, 
 shall give to the governor of the said province for 
 the time being, his heirs or successors, any tax or 
 custom for longer time than for one whole year. 
 
 " 10. That liberty of conscience, in matters of faith 
 and worship towards God, shall be granted to all 
 people within the province aforesaid, who shall live 
 peaceably and quietly therein ; and that none of the 
 free people of the said province, shall be rendered in- 
 capable of office in respect of their faith and worship. 
 " Upon the governor's acceptance and perform- 
 ance of the proposals herein before expressed, we the 
 general free assembly, proprietors and freeholders oi 
 the province of West New Jersey aforesaid, do ac- 
 cept and receive Samuel Jenings, as deputy governor. 
 In testimony whereof I have hereunto/put my hand 
 and seal, the day and year above written."* 
 
 " Samuel Jenings, deputy governor. 
 Subscribed also " Thomas Olive, speaker." 
 This assembly was held from the 21st till the 28th 
 of November, and passed six and thirty laws (beside 
 the above) many of which were repealed in a few 
 years afterwards. The principal were to the follow 
 ing effect. That it should be the business of the go- 
 vernor and commissioners to see that all courts exe 
 cuted their offices, and to punish such officers as 
 should violate the laws. That lands legally taken up 
 and held, planted and possessed seven years, shoulc" 
 not be subject to alteration. That all offices of trus 
 should subscribe to do equal right and justice. Tha 
 no person should be condemned or hurt, without a 
 trial of twelve men ; and that in criminal cases, the 
 party arraigned to except against thirty-five, or more 
 upon valid reasons. That in every court, three jus 
 tices or commissioners at least, to sit and assist th 
 jury in cases of law, and pronounce the judgments t( 
 the jury. That false witnesses be fined, and dis 
 abled from being after admitted in evidence, or int 
 any public office in the province. That persons pro 
 secuting for private wrong (murder, treason an 
 theft excepted) might remit the penalty or punish 
 ment either before or after condemnation. Tha 
 juries should be summoned by the sheriff, and non 
 be compelled to fee an attorney to plead his cause 
 That all wills should be first proved and registered 
 and then duly performed. That upon persons d^ 
 intestate, and leaving a wife and child, or children 
 the governor and commissioners for the time being 
 should take security, that the estate should be dul; 
 administered, and the administrator to secure two 
 thirds for the child or children, the other to the wi 
 dow ; where there was no children, one moiety o 
 half the estate, was to go to the next of kin, th 
 other half to the widow ; always provided, such estat 
 exceeded one hundred pounds ; otherwise the widoA 
 to have the whole ; and in cases of leaving children 
 and no provision, the charge of bringing them up t 
 
 e paid out of the public stock. That felons should 
 make restitution fourfold, or as twelve of the neigh- 
 ourhood should determine; and such as hurt or 
 buse the person of any, to be punished according 
 o the nature of the offence. That whosoever pre- 
 umed, directly or indirectly, to sell any strong li- 
 uors to any Indian or Indians, should forfeit for 
 very such offence, the sum of three pounds. That 
 en men from Burlington, and ten from Salem, 
 hould be appointed to lay out and clear a road from 
 iurlingtou to Salem, at the public expence. That 
 wo hundred pounds should be equally levied and 
 .ppropriated for the charges of government, upon the 
 everal tenths, twenty pounds each ; every man to 
 >e assessed according to his estate ; and all handi- 
 rafts, merchants and others, at the discretion of the 
 issessors. Persons thinking themselves aggrieved, 
 ad the liberty of appealing to the commissioners of 
 he tenth they belonged to. The following regulations 
 elative to the possession of lands were also enacted. 
 " The methods of the commissioners for settling 
 nd regulation of lands. 
 
 " We whose names are hereunder written, com- 
 missioners nominated, elected, and chosen by the 
 general free assembly, proprietors and freeholders 
 of the province of West New Jersey, the 23d day 
 of November last past, for the settling and regulat- 
 ng of lands, and other concerns within the said 
 province ; do, by and with the approbation and con- 
 sent of the governor of the said province, and coun- 
 cil, in pursuance of the said trust in us reposed, 
 hereby fully agree upon these rules and methods 
 hereinafter following (that is to say) : 
 
 " 1. That the surveyor shall measure the front of 
 the river Delaware, beginning at Assunpink creek, 
 and from thence down to Cape May, that the point of 
 the compass may be found for the running the par- 
 tition lines between each tenth. 
 
 " '2. That each and every tenth, or ten proprieties, 
 shall have their proportion of front to the river De- 
 laware, and so far back into the woods as will make 
 or contain sixty-four thousand acres for their first 
 settlement, and for the subdividing the Yorkshire 
 and London two-tenths. 
 
 " 3. To allow three thousand and two hundred 
 acres where the parties concerned please to chuse 
 it within their own tenth ; to be taken up according 
 to the rules or methods following, viz. : One-eighth 
 part of a propriety, and so for smaller parts, to have 
 their full proportion of the said land in one place 
 (if they please) and greater purchasers or shares 
 not to exceed 500 acres to one settlement. 
 
 " 4. All lands so taken up and surveyed, shall 
 be seated within six months after it is so taken up ; 
 and if the same shall not be seated within the said 
 time, then such choice and survey shall be void, and 
 the same lands shall be free for any other purchaser 
 to take up ; provided he or they so taking up the 
 same, do, or shall seat it within one month after it 
 is so taken up. 
 
 "5. That no person or persons shall take up 
 lands on both sides of a creek, to one settlement, 
 except the commissioners for the time being, shall 
 see good cause for their so doing. 
 
 " 6. That no person or persons shall have more 
 than forty perches front to the river, or navigable 
 creek, for each and every one hundred acres, ex- 
 cept it fall upon a point, so that it cannot otherwise 
 be avoided ; and in such cases it shall be left to 
 the discretion of the commissioners then for the time 
 being. 
 
 " 7. That all lands be laid out on straight lines, 
 
576 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 that no vacancies be left between lands, but tha 
 they be joined one seat to another, except the com 
 missioners then for the time being, shall for goo 
 causes order it otherwise. 
 
 " 8. That all persons shall take their just propo 
 tions of meadow, which shall be laid forth at the di 
 cretion of the commissioners then for the time being 
 "9. That all persons who are already seatet 
 shall have liberty to make his settlement his choice 
 if he please ; provided he or they observe and folio 
 the rule or method herein prescribed. 
 
 " 10. That every proprietor shall have 400 acre 
 to a propriety, and so proportionably to lesser qua 
 tities for their town lot, over and above their afore 
 said 3,200 acres ; which may be taken any wher 
 within their own tenth, either within or without th 
 town bounds. 
 
 " II. That no person or persons who have already 
 taken up a town lot, shall have liberty to leave il 
 and take a lot elsewhere ; but shall keep the sam 
 he hath taken up as his town lot. 
 
 " 12. That Thomas Wright shall keep his settle 
 ment, containing 400 acres ; and that the cominis 
 sioners for Yorkshire side, shall allow to the town 
 bounds, 300 acres, to be taken up adjoining to th 
 town bounds, on Lazy Point, in lieu thereof. 
 
 " 13. That no purchaser shall take up more lam 
 within the town bounds, than belongs to his town 
 lot, by virtue of his purchase. 
 
 " 14. That no person or persons (who are no 
 purchasers to whom town lot or lots are given) shal 
 dispose of, or sell his or their said lot or lots of land 
 from their house or houses respectively ; and tha 
 if any such person or persons as aforesaid, shall dis 
 pose of, or sell such said lot or lots apart from hi: 
 or their said house or houses, then such said sale o 
 lot or lots shall be void and of no effect, and the same 
 lot or lots shall from thence become forfeit, to the 
 use of the town of Burlington, to be disposed o 
 therein at the discretion of the commissioners then 
 for the time being. 
 
 " 15. That no person or persons from hence for- 
 ward shall take up any land, without special order 
 from two or more of the commissioners for the time 
 being, first had and obtained. 
 
 '16. That all and every settlement and settle- 
 ments already made, which are not consonant and 
 agreeable to the rules and methods aforesaid, shall 
 be liable to regulation, according to the said rules 
 and methods. 
 
 " 17. That the proprietors who are yet remaining 
 in England, shall have notice that we find it neces- 
 sary for the speedy settlement of this province, and 
 for the interest of all concerned therein, to allow to 
 every propriety as aforesaid, 3,200 acres for our 
 first choice ; and in case much people shall come, 
 as may be reasonably expected, who have purchased 
 no land in England, and desire to settle amongst 
 us ; that then we reserve liberty to take up so much 
 land more as shall fall to every propriety, not ex- 
 ceeding 5,200 acres, which was allowed to us for 
 our first settlement. Provided nevertheless, that 
 none shall take up any proportion of land, but as 
 they shall settle it, or cause it to be settled, which is 
 to be done after the aforesaid 3,200 acres shall be 
 justly taken up and settled. 
 
 " 18. That all public highways shall be set forth, 
 at any time or times hereafter, at the discretion of 
 the commissioners for the time being, in or through 
 any lands taken up, or to be taken up ; allowing 
 the owners of such lands where such public high- 
 ways shall be laid forth, reasonable satisfaction at 
 
 the discretion of the commissioners, in lieu thereof. 
 
 " 19. Yet nevertheless, it is hereby commanded 
 and agreed by the authority aforesaid, that the 
 rules and methods herein before agreed on, shall 
 not make void or disannul all or any settlement or 
 settlements heretofore made, in the Yorkshire tenth, 
 who have seated according to a former agreement, 
 viz., not having taken up more than fifty perches for 
 each and every hundred acres on the river or navi- 
 gable creek, and having kept their due breadth and 
 bounds from the river or creek. 
 
 " Signed and sealed the 5th of December, 1681, 
 by Samuel Jenings, governor, Thomas Olive, Tho- 
 mas Budd, Robert Stacy, Benjamin Scott, Thomas 
 Gardiner, Daniel Wills, Mahlon Stacy, Thomas 
 Lambert. 
 
 " 20. That all persons who have already taken 
 up any lands, within the first and second tenth in 
 this province, shall bring in their deeds or writings, 
 to shew their title to such lands as they have taken 
 up, to Benjamin Scott, Robert Stacy, Thomas Budd, 
 and Thomas Gardiner, on or before the 12th day of 
 this instant January, next ensuing the day of the 
 date hereof. 
 
 " 21. That all person or persons hereafter to take 
 up land within the said first and second tenth, shall 
 first make application to the said Benjamin Scott, 
 Robert Stacy, Thomas Budd, and Thomas Gardiner, 
 or any two of them ; and shall also before the said 
 commissioners solemnly declare and aver, upon the 
 penalty of the law of perjury to pass against them, 
 that the quantity or portion of land contained in 
 their respective deeds or other writings, do really 
 and in good conscience belong and appertain to 
 him or them so requiring a warrant or warrants, for 
 laying forth his or their land, so as the said com- 
 missioners may be thereby satisfied with the just- 
 ness of his or their title thereto ; then, and not be- 
 fore, the said commissioners, or any two of them, shall 
 and may grant out a warrant to the surveyor or his 
 deputy, to lay out and survey the respective propor- 
 tion of land to him or them due and appertaining, 
 as aforesaid ; enjoining the surveyor or his deputy, 
 o make return of his said warrant and survey, at 
 he next court after such warrant granted, to be 
 leld at Burlington; that the same maybe registered 
 y order of the said court. 
 
 " 22. That all proprietors and purchasers, within 
 he said first and second tenths, shall and may have 
 iberty to take his and their full proportions of land 
 s before within is agreed upon, of the first and 
 econd choice in one place ; provided he or they so 
 oing take not up more than 500 acres of land in 
 ne settlement. 
 
 " Witness our hands and seals, the 14th day of 
 be llth month, 1681, Samuel Jenings, governor, 
 homas Olive, Robert Stacy, Thomas Budd, Daniel 
 ^Vills, Thomas Gardiner, Benjamin Scott." 
 
 inother ship arrives at West Jersey Proceedings of 
 the general assembly of West Jersey Sir George 
 Carteret's death Conveyance to the twelve eastern 
 proprietors Their proposals and regulations in 
 several respects; particularly in disposing of lands 
 and building a toivn at Ambo point The twelve 
 proprietors each take a partner, and thence are 
 called the twenty -f our ; to whom the Duke of York 
 makes a thiid and last grant The twenty-four 
 establish the council of proprietors of East Jersey, on 
 the footing it now is A general view of the im- 
 provements in East Jersey, in 1682 A compendium 
 of some of the jirst law s passed at Elizabeth-town 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 577 
 
 Doubts started whether the government of West 
 Jersey was granted with the soil Jenings continued 
 governor of West Jersey ; and laws passed there. 
 
 In the year 1682, a large ship, of 550 tons bur- 
 then, arrived at West Jersey, which got aground in 
 Delaware bay ; where, after laying eight days, by 
 a favourable wind and tide, it was got off; and 
 coming up the river, landed her passengers, being 
 360 in number, between Philadelphia and Burling- 
 ton on the Jersey shore. Their provisions being 
 nearly exhausted, they sent ten miles to an Indian 
 town near Rankokus creek, for Indian corn and 
 pease. The chief of this tribe being then there, 
 treated them kindly, and directed such Indians as 
 had provisions, to bring it in next morning, who ac- 
 cordingly brought plenty ; which being delivered 
 and put in bags, the messengers took leave of the 
 chief, who kindly ordered some of the Indians to 
 carry their bags for them to their canoes. 
 
 The assembly of West Jersey having, at their 
 last sitting, adjourned to the 1st of February this 
 year (1682) met ; but not being a full house, they 
 adjourned to the 14th, and then dissolved them- 
 selves without doing any business. Another being 
 called, sat from the 2d to the llth of the month fol- 
 lowing. The members returned by the sheriff for 
 the respective tenths, to serve in this assembly, 
 were, Thomas Olive, speaker, Mahlon Stacy, 
 Joshua Wright, John Lambert, Thomas Lambert, 
 William Emley, Godfrey Hancock, Daniel Leeds, 
 Thomas Wright, Samuel Borden, Robert Stacy, 
 Thomas Budd, Daniel Wills, sen., Thomas Gardi- 
 ner, John Crips, John White, John Chaffin, Ber- 
 nard Davenish, Isaac Marriott, William Peachy, 
 William Cooper, Mark Newby, Thomas Thackery, 
 Robert Zane, James Nevil, Richard Guy, Mark 
 Reeves, Richard Hancock, John Smith, John 
 Pledger, Edward Wade, George Deacon, and 
 Samuel Hedge. Hitherto the members had been 
 chosen by the electors from all the tenths indiscri- 
 minately ; but this assembly declared it their judg- 
 ment, and the judgment of those they represented, 
 that the most regular method for preserving the 
 liberty and property of the people by a free assem- 
 bly, was, that such of the ten proprieties, as were 
 now peopled, should each choose ten representa- 
 tives (and the others also as they became peopled), 
 and resolving, that twenty-four, the speaker one, 
 should make the quorum, they chose the council, 
 justices, commissioners for laying out land, and 
 other officers. 
 
 This done, the governor, council, and assembly, 
 passed sundry laws; by some of which it was en- 
 acted, that each of the ten proprietors should have 
 liberty to sell as far as 500 acres of land, within 
 their respective tenths, or take such other expedient 
 as they should judge fit, for defraying the public 
 charges, for the tenths respectively ; to which pur 
 pose, Mahlon Stacy and Thomas Lambert were ap- 
 pointed within the first or Yorkshire tenth ; Thomas 
 Budd and Thomas Gardiner, for the second or Lon- 
 don tenth ; William Cooper and Mark Newby for 
 the third or Irish tenth ; and Samuel Jenings and 
 Thomas Budd, within the remaining six tenths. As 
 for J. Fenwick, who owned the other tenth, they 
 seem not to have considered him. That the three 
 pounds fine, formerly imposed on such as sold rum 
 or other strong liquor to the Indians, should go one 
 half to the informer, the other to the public stock, 
 where the offence was given ; and that every 
 foreigner offending therein, should forfeit five 
 HIST. OF AMER. Nos. 73 & ?4. 
 
 lounds, to be disposed of in like manner. That for 
 he more convenient payment of small sums of 
 money, Mark Newby's coppers, called Patrick's 
 lalf-pence, should pass as half-pence current pay ; 
 provided he gave security to the speaker, for the use 
 )f the general assembly for the time being, that he, 
 lis executors and administrators would change them 
 on demand, and provided none were obliged to take 
 more than five shillings in one payment. That for 
 preventing clandestine and unlawful marriages, 
 justices should have power to solemnize them, the 
 parties having first published their intentions four- 
 teen days in some public place appointed for that 
 purpose ; any justice presuming to marry without 
 the consent or knowledge of parents or trustees (if 
 such consent could be reasonably obtained), was to 
 be fined at the discretion of the general assembly ; 
 of which marriage the register was to make public 
 entry of the day it was solemnized ; the births of 
 children, and decease of all persons, were also to be 
 entered in the public register of the respective 
 tenths ; and for preventing differences between 
 masters and servants, where no covenants were 
 made, all servants were to have, at the expiration 
 of their service, according to the custom of the 
 country, ten bushels of corn, necessary apparel, two 
 hoes and an axe. That all servants of full age, com- 
 ing into the province without indentures, or other 
 agreements, should serve four years, from the ship's 
 entry, (to take which entries custom-house officers 
 were before appointed,) and that all under the age 
 of one-and-twenty years, who came without inden- 
 tures, should within three months after their arrival, 
 be brought to the court, in the district where the 
 party resided ; which court was to appoint the time 
 of servitude. That for preventing deceits, lands 
 should pay debts, where personal estates were insuf- 
 ficient. That for encouragement of building a saw- 
 mil], one thousand acres should be sold to William 
 Frampton, to accommodate him with land for that 
 purpose ; and more as the governor and commis- 
 sioners should judge convenient. That for the bet- 
 ter settling and confirmation of lands, six of the 
 commissioners, with the governor, should (where 
 there was occasion) make an inspection into such 
 as were or should be taken up; that on finding these 
 legally located, they might after public notice in 
 the court, and no just reason to the contrary, con- 
 firm the same at the next court. That there should 
 be four courts of session held at Burlington and 
 Salem yearly. That the twenty pounds formerly 
 granted the governor, the five pounds to the speaker, 
 and the five pounds to the clerk, should be raised by 
 tax; nine pounds six shillings and eight-pence by 
 the Yorkshire, London, and Salem tenths each, 
 and forty shillings by the third tenth ; the whole, 
 being thirty pounds, was to be delivered to Thomas 
 Budd and Thomas Gardiner, in skins, corn, or 
 money; and the remainder of the two hundred 
 pounds, formerly directed to be raised to defray the 
 charges of government, to be a debt due from the 
 other proprieties. 
 
 The representatives of West Jersey were still an- 
 nually chosen ; and continued to be so until the 
 surrender of the proprietary government, in 1702. 
 The council, (who were justices ex-officio,) justices 
 of peace, and inferior officers of government, were 
 chosen by them ; the governor was appointed by 
 the proprietors, who governed them by a deputy, 
 till the succeeding year ; when the assembly, under- 
 standing that Byllinge, for some selfish reasons, in- 
 clined -to turn Jenings out, who had hitherto been 
 
 3 k 
 
578 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 deputy governor, to the general satisfaction of the go- 
 verned ; they undertook, by their choice, to continue 
 him governor of the province, pretending a right to do 
 this, because in the constitutions, power was given 
 to six parts in seven of the assembly, to make such 
 alterations for the public good, (the* laws of liberty 
 of conscience, of property, of yearly assemblies, of 
 juries, and of evidence, excepted) as they found ne- 
 cessary ; and that no advantage might be taken of 
 such judicial proceedings, as had not been exactly 
 agreeable to the concessions, they confirmed and 
 ratified them all. 
 
 About this time, the settlers in many parts were 
 exceedingly distressed for food; and several were 
 only supported by what they could procure with 
 their guns ; which, as powder and shot were some- 
 times very scarce, was but a precarious supply. 
 
 Sir George Carteret, sole proprietor of East Jer- 
 sey, who died in 1679, had, by will, ordered that 
 province to be sold, to pay his debts ; which was 
 done accordingly, by his widow and executors, by 
 indenture of lease and release, bearing date the 1st 
 and 2d of February, 1681-2, to William Penn, 
 Robert West, Thomas Rudyard, Samuel Groome, 
 Thomas Hart, Richard Mew, Thomas Wilcox, of 
 London, goldsmith, Ambrose Rigg, John Haywood, 
 Hugh Hartshorne, Clement Plumsted, and Thomas 
 Cooper, their heirs and assigns ; who were thence 
 called " the twelve proprietors." They being toge- 
 ther so seized, in this year (1682) published an ac- 
 count of the country, together with a fresh project 
 for a town, and their method of disposing of their lands. 
 
 Their plan was popular, and took much, espe- 
 cially among the Scotch, of whom many had already 
 arrived : and in this and some of the immediately 
 succeeding years, came many more. Among them 
 was George Keith, who some time after became 
 surveyor-general, and was accounted exceedingly 
 skilful. 
 
 The twelve proprietors did not long hold the pro- 
 vince to themselves, but by particular deeds, took 
 each a partner: their names were, James Earl of 
 Perth, John Drummond, Robert Barclay, Robert 
 Gordon, Aarent Sonmans, Gawen Lawrie, Edward 
 Byllinge, James Braine, William Gibson, Thomas 
 Barker, Robert Turner, and Thomas Warne; these 
 with the other twelve, were subsequently called 
 " the twenty-four proprietors." To them the Duke 
 of York made a fresh grant of East New Jersey, 
 bearing date the 14th of March, 1682. 
 
 This was the duke's third and last grant of East 
 Jersey ; soon after which, the twenty-four proprie- 
 tors, by an instrument under most of their hands, 
 established " a council of proprietors ;" and gave 
 them power to appoint, oversee, and displace all offi- 
 cers necessary for the management of their property ; 
 to take care of all lands belonging to the general 
 proprietors; to demise them for terms of years, and 
 to appoint dividends ; to examine the rights of the 
 particular proprietors who demanded their shares of 
 those dividends, and to grant warrants to the sur- 
 veyor-general (whom they chose themselves) for the 
 appropriating the quantity of acres due to such 
 share ; to sue trespassers upon the general proprie- 
 tors' land ; and in general, to manage the affairs 
 which related to the general proprietors. This 
 c ouncil always to consist of at least one-third of the 
 general proprietors, or their proxies ; and to have 
 two general meetings yearly, at Perth Amboy ; 
 uhichwere at first held immediately after the su- 
 pi erne courts there, but were afterwards altered to 
 the first Tuesday iu April,. and secopd in September. 
 
 The province of East New Jersey was now tolera- 
 bly settled; and it was reduced to some regularity, 
 as appears from the following accounts, published 
 by secretary Nicolls of New York, in 1682. 
 
 Shrewsbury, near Sandy Hook, adjoining the 
 river or creek of that name, was already a township, 
 consisting of several thousand acres, with large 
 plantations contiguous ; the inhabitants were com- 
 puted to be about 400. Lewis Morris, of Barbadoes, 
 had iron works and other considerable improvements 
 here. 
 
 Middletown was supposed to consist of 100 fami- 
 lies ; several thousand acres allotted for the town, 
 and many thousands for the several out-plantations : 
 John Bowne, Richard Hartshorne, and Nicholas 
 Davis, had each well improved settlements here ; a 
 court of sessions was held twice or thrice a-year, for 
 Middletown and Piscataway, and their jurisdictions. 
 Several plantations were settled on the north side of 
 Rariton river, below Piscataway ; several also 
 higher up Rariton, and about the Falls ; among 
 which John Palmer, of Staten Island. Thomas 
 Codrington, John Robinson, White and company, 
 and Edsall and Company, of New York, and captain 
 Corsen, had settlements ; some land was likewise 
 located by Millstone river, up Rariton, supposed to 
 be near the division line. 
 
 Woodbridge had several improved plantations in 
 it, and the country round ; Delaplairs, the surveyor- 
 general, was one of the settlers here. This town 
 claimed more privileges than others ; was incorpo- 
 rated by charter, and had erected a court-house and 
 prison (such as they were). There were here about 
 one hundred and twenty families ; a large quantity 
 of land in the town, and for the plantations round, 
 many thousand acres ; of which plantations there 
 were several on the north side of the river that di- 
 vides Elizabeth Town and Woodbridge. 
 
 At the entrance of the creek, on the north side, 
 called Carteret' s Point, north of Staten Island, were 
 other plantations, from Elizabeth Town to the bounds 
 of New York. Within Elizabeth Town claim, was 
 a settlement in partnership between the proprietor 
 Carteret, and governor P. Carteret ; the latter had 
 built a house and resided here ; the town was sup- 
 posed to consist of one hundred and fifty families. 
 
 On the north of Milford or Newark river, was a 
 large tract belonging to Kingsland and Sanfoord. 
 Higher up the river, another to captain Berrie ; who 
 dividing it, several plantations were soon settled on 
 it. Still further up the river, an island belonging to 
 Christopher Hoogland, of Newark ; above that again 
 was a large tract owned by Jacques Cartelayne, and 
 partners ; who now made some settlement. These 
 tracts were within the jurisdiction of Newark. New- 
 ark was then said to be a compact town, consisting 
 of about one hundred families. 
 
 Near the mouth of the bay, upon the side of Over- 
 prook creek, adjacent to Hackinsack river, several 
 of the rich valleys were then settled by the Dutch ; 
 and near Snakehill was a fine plantation, owned by 
 Pinhorn and Eickbe ; for half of which, Pinhoru 
 is said to have paid 5002. There were other settle- 
 ments on Hackinsack river; and on a creek near 
 it, Sarah Kiersted, of New York, had a tract given 
 her by an old Indian sachem, for services in inter- 
 preting between the Indians and Dutch, on which 
 several families were settled. John Berrie had a 
 large plantation, two or three miles above, where he 
 then lived, and had considerable improvements ; as 
 had also near him, his son-in-law Smith, and one 
 Baker from Barbadoes. On the west side of the 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 579 
 
 'creek, opposite to Berrie, were other plantations ; 
 but none more northerly. There was a considerable 
 settlement on Bergen Point, then called Constable 
 Hook, and first improved by Edsall, in Nicolls's 
 time. Other small plantations were improved along 
 Bergen Neck, to the east, between the Point and a 
 little village of twenty families. Further along lived 
 sixteen or eighteen families; and opposite New 
 York, about forty families were seated ; southward 
 from this, a few families settled together at a place 
 called the Duke's Farm ; and further up the country, 
 was a place called Hobuck, formerly owned by 
 a Dutch merchant, who, in the Indian wars with the 
 Dutch, had his wife, children and servants murdered 
 by the Indians, and his house and stock destroyed by 
 them ; but it was now settled again, and a mill erect- 
 ed there. Along the river side, to the north, were 
 lands settled by William Lawrence, Samuel Edsall 
 and captain Beinh'eld ; and at Haversham, near the 
 High Lands, governor Carteret had taken up two 
 large tracts ; one for himself, the other for Andrew 
 Campyue and company ; which were now but little 
 improved. The plantations on both sides of the 
 Neck, to its utmost extent, as also those at Hackin- 
 sack, were under the jurisdiction of Bergen Town, 
 situate about the middle of the Neck ; where was a 
 court held by select men or overseers, consisting 
 of four or more in number, as the people thought 
 best, chosen annually to try small causes, as had 
 been the practice in all the rest of the towns at first. 
 Two courts of sessions were held here yearly, from 
 which, if the cause exceeded twenty pounds, the 
 party might appeal to the governor, council and 
 court of deputies or assembly. 
 
 Bergen, a compact town, which had been fortified 
 against the Indians, contained about seventy families ; 
 its inhabitants chiefly Dutch, some of whom had 
 been settled there upwards of forty years. Upon the 
 whole there were at this time supposed to be about 
 seven hundred families settled in the towns of East 
 Jersey ; which, reckoning five to a family, were 
 3500 inhabitants; besides the out-plantations, which 
 were thought to contain half as many more, though 
 these could not be so well guessed at. 
 
 P. Cavteret continued governor of East Jersey 
 after the quint-partite division, till about the year 
 1681. His salary was generally 50/. a-year, paid 
 in country produce, at prices fixed by law, and some- 
 times four shillings a day besides, to defray his 
 charges while a sessions was held ; the wages of the 
 council and assembly during their sitting in legisla- 
 tion, was, to each member three shillings a day. 
 The rates for public charges were levied at two shil- 
 lings per head for every male above fourteen years old. 
 
 The council in 16G8 consisted of six, viz. Nicho- 
 las Verlet, Robert Bond, Robert Vanquellin, Daniel 
 Pierce, Samuel Edsall, William Pardon. 
 
 The assembly then consisted of twelve; the first 
 meu-.bers amounted only to the ten following : Cas- 
 per Steenmets, Baltazar Bayard, for Bergen. John 
 Ogden, sen., John Brackett, for Elizabeth Town. 
 Robert Treat, Samuel Svvarne, for Newark. John 
 Bishop, Robert Dennis, for Woodbridge. James 
 Grover, John Bound, for Middle town and Shrews- 
 bury. 
 
 The sessions were mostly held at Elizabeth Town, 
 but sometimes at Woodbridge, and once or more at 
 Middletown and Piscatawa. Some of the first laws 
 as published by the legislature at Elizabeth Town, 
 were to the following effect. That persons resisting 
 authority, should be punished at the discretion of 
 the court. That men from 16 to 60 years of age, 
 
 should provide themselves with arms, on penalty of 
 one shilling foi the first week's neglect, and two for 
 every week after. That for burglary or highway 
 robbery, the punishment should be, for the first of- 
 fence, burning. in the hand ; for the second, in the 
 forehead; in both, to make restitution ; and for the 
 third offence, death. For stealing, for the first of- 
 fence, treble restitution ; and the like for the second 
 and third offence, with such increase *of punishment 
 as the court saw cause, even to death, if the party 
 appeared incorrigible; but if not, and unable to 
 make restitution, they were to be sold for satisfac- 
 tion, or to receive corporal punishment. That con- 
 spiracies or attacks upon towns or forts, should be 
 death. That undutiful children, smiting or cursing 
 their father or mother, except provoked thereunto 
 for self-preservation, upon complaint of, and proof 
 from their parents, or either of them, should be pu- 
 nished with death. That in case of adultery, the 
 party to be divorced, corporally punished or ba- 
 nished, or either, or all of them, as the court 
 should judge proper. That for night-walking and 
 revelling after the hour of nine, the parties to be 
 secured by the constable or other officer till morning, 
 and then not giving a satisfactory account to the 
 magistrate, to be bound over to the next court, and 
 there receive such punishment, as should be inflicted. 
 That the meeting of the assembly should be always 
 on the first Tuesday in November, yearly, and 
 oftener, if the governor and council thought neces- 
 sary ; and that they should fix the governor's salary; 
 the deputies of each town to be chosen on the 1st 
 of January, according to the concessions ; any de- 
 puty absenting himself at such times, was to be fined 
 40s. for every day's absence. That 301. should be 
 levied for provincial charges, i. e. 5/. to be paid by 
 each town. That in winter, wheat should be five 
 shillings a bushel; summer, four and sixpence, 
 pease at three shillings and sixpence, Indian corn 
 at three shillings, rye at four shillings, barley at four 
 shillings, beef at two-pence halfpenny per pound, 
 and pork at three-pence halfpenny. That no son, 
 daughter, maid, or servant, should marry without 
 the consent of his or their parents, masters or over- 
 seers, without being three times published in some 
 public meeting or kirk, near the party's abode, or 
 notice being set up in writing at some public-house 
 near where they lived, for fourteen days before ; 
 then to be solemnized by some approved minister, 
 justice or chief officer, who, on penalty of 20/., and 
 to be put out of office, were to marry none who had 
 not followed those directions. That fornication 
 should be punished at the discretion of the court, by 
 marriage, fine, or corporal punishment; and that 
 no life should be taken but by virtue of some law, 
 and the proof of two or three witnesses. 
 
 There being doubts started, whether the govern- 
 ment of West New Jersey had been granted with 
 the soil, and reports to that effect being industriously 
 spread in the province, as well as in England, to 
 the prejudice of the possessor's title, as was ima- 
 gined ; the assembly in the spring this year (1682) 
 thought it their business to obviate this, and other 
 points, by unanimously resolving, as to the first, 
 " That the land and government of West New Jer- 
 sey were purchased together." And that as to the 
 question, -' Whether the concessions agreed upon 
 by the proprietors and people, and subscribed in 
 London and West Jersey, were agreed upon to be 
 the fundamentals and ground of the government of 
 West New Jersey, or not? Resolved in the affirmative, 
 nemiue contradicente : onlv John Feuwiek oxcepted 
 
 3K2 
 
580 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 his tenth ; which he said at that time was not under 
 the same circumstances, but now freely consenteth 
 thereto." 
 
 Jenings was at this assembly chosen governor, 
 having hitherto acted as Byllinge's deputy. The 
 commissioners and other officers of government, 
 being also chosen, they severally took their qualifi- 
 cations; and having agreed that the governor should 
 be chairman, or speaker ; that he should sit as a 
 member with them, and they together with the coun- 
 cil, and that the chairman should have a double vote, 
 passed sundry laws, among which was the following: 
 
 " And whereas it hath pleased God, to commit 
 this country and province into the hands of such 
 who (for the generality of them) are fearing God, 
 and painful and industrious in the promoting and 
 improving the said province ; and for the better 
 preventing of such as are profane, loose, and idle, 
 and scandalous, from settling amongst us, who are, 
 and will be, not only unserviceable, but greatly bur- 
 thensome to the province : It is therefore hereby 
 enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all person j 
 and persons, who shall transport him or themselves j 
 into this province, shall, within eighteen months \ 
 after he or they shall arrive in the said province, 
 procure and produce a certificate, under the hands ; 
 of such of that religious society, to whom he or they ] 
 did belong, or otherwise from two magistrates (if , 
 procurable), or two constables or overseers of the j 
 poor, with three or more creditable persons of the ; 
 neighbourhood, who inhabit or belong to the place 
 where he or they did last reside, as may give satis- ' 
 faction (that is to say), that he or they came not ; 
 clandestinely or fraudulently away ; and if unmar- ! 
 ried, that he or she are clear from former engage- ; 
 ments in that particular ; and also, that he or she ; 
 are such as live soberly and honestly, to the best of! 
 their knowledge; and that no justice shall presume 
 to marry any such person or persons, who shall \ 
 come into this province, before such certificate be ! 
 produced; or that it be laid before the governor or 
 two justices, and give them sufficient satisfaction \ 
 concerning their clearness ; and that all such per- ! 
 son and persons who shall settle in the said province, [ 
 and shall refuse or neglect to produce such certifi- j 
 cate as aforesaid, within the said eighteen months, 
 shall be fined at the discretion of the governor and ' 
 council of the said province, not exceeding 20/. ; the 
 same to be levied by distress and sale on the of- 
 fender's goods, and to be paid into the hands of the 
 treasurer of the said province." 
 
 Robert Barclay appointed governor of East Jsrsey, and 
 T. Rudyard, deputy Letters from Rudyard, and I 
 others, concerned in that settlement. 
 
 We have seen that the Scotch had a considerable I 
 share in the settlement of East Jersey, many of 
 whom settled about Amboy, and up the Rariton. 
 The twelve proprietors appointed Robert Barclay 
 (author of the Apology,) governor for life ; and Tho- 
 mas Rudyard (a lawyer or attorney in London, 
 noted for his assistance at the trial of Penn and 
 Mead,) deputy governor; which last arrived at his 
 government the latter end of last, or beginning of 
 this year (1683). His account of the country, soon 
 after his arrival, may not be unacceptable. The 
 following letters are given verbatim, as they are 
 the best, and indeed only accounts that give an 
 idea of the character and circumstances of the early 
 settlers. It must be remembered, with regard to the 
 style of composition, that most of the writers were 
 quakera. 
 
 "East Jersey, the 30th of the 3d month, 
 
 called May, 1683. 
 
 " Dear B. G. To be as particular in my turn, 
 were but thy due, yet I cannot promise so much ; 
 however, I may give thee some general account of 
 the province, and of our satisfaction with our pre- 
 sent lot, the short time I have experienced this : but 
 to give thee also, as thou desires, a character of 
 Pennsylvania and West Jersey, that will be a task 
 I must be excused to undertake, lest I give offence, 
 or at least bring me under censure as partial. Were 
 I not concerned in any of the provinces, I might 
 satisfy thy curiosity ; but being chiefly interested in 
 this, I'll be very cautious meddling with my neigh- 
 bours, more than here, one with another ; so I may 
 use my freedom with my neighbours, which they 
 take not ill, but not write what may be taken other- 
 ways. They lie so near adjacent, that they may be 
 said, in a sense, to be but one country ; and what's 
 said for one, in general may serve for all. I have 
 been at Burlington, and at Pennsylvania, as far as 
 Philadelphia, which lies about* twenty miles below 
 Burlington : that journey by land gave me some 
 view of all the provinces, and made me considerably 
 to estimate this of East Jersey, having some con- 
 veniencies esteemed by me, which the others are not 
 so plentifully furnished withal, viz., fresh and salt 
 meadows, which now are very valuable ; and no man 
 here will take up a tract of land without them, being 
 the support of their stock in winter, which other 
 parts must supply by store, and taking more care 
 for English grass. But know, where salt marshes 
 are not, there is no musketoes, and that manner of 
 land the more healthy ; and this was often answered 
 me, when I have been making comparisons. I must 
 tell thee their character in print, by all that reads it 
 here, is said to be modest, and much more might 
 have been said in it's commendation. We have 
 one thing more particular to us, which the others 
 want also, which is vast oyster banks, which is con- 
 stant fresh victuals, during the winter, to English as 
 well as Indians ; of these there are many all along our 
 coasts from the sea as high as against New York, 
 whence they come to fetch them ; so we are supplied 
 with salt fish at our doors,or within half a tide' s passage; 
 and fresh fish in abundance, in every little brook, as 
 pearch, trout, eels, &c., which we catch at our doors. 
 Provisions here are very plentiful, and people ge- 
 nerally well stocked with cattle. New York and 
 Burlington have hitherto been their market; few or 
 no trading men being here in this province : I be- 
 lieve it hath been very unhappy heretofore, under an 
 ill-managed government; and most of the people 
 are such who have been invited from the adjacent 
 colonies, by the goodness of its soil, and convenient 
 situation. At Amboy we are now building some 
 small houses, of 30 feet long and 1 8 feet broad, fit- 
 ting to entertain workmen, and such who will go 
 and build larger. The stones lie exceeding Well 
 and good up the Rariton river a tide's passage, and 
 oyster shells upon the point, to make lime withal ; 
 which will wonderfully accommodate us in building 
 good houses cheap warm for winter, and cool for 
 summer; and durable covering for houses are 
 shingles, oak, chesnut, and cedar ; we have plenti- 
 ful here of all the last endures a man's life, if he 
 lives to be old. There are five or six saw-mills going 
 up here this spring; two at work already, which 
 abates the price of boards half in half, and all other 
 timber for building ; for although timber costs no- 
 thing, yet workmanship by hand was London price, 
 or near upon it, and sometimes more ; which these 
 
UNITED STATES, 
 
 581 
 
 mills abate ; we buy oak and chesnut boards no 
 cheaper than last year. My habitation with Samuel 
 Groome is at Elizabeth Town, and here we came 
 first ; it lies on a fresh small river ; with a tide, ships 
 of 30 or 40 tons, come before our doors. Through- 
 out this town is good English grass, and bears a 
 very good burthen. We cannot call our habitations 
 solitary ; for, what with the public employ, I have 
 little less company at my house daily than I had in 
 George Yard, although not so many passers by my 
 doors. The people are generally a sober professing 
 people, wise in their generation, courteous in their 
 behaviour, and respectful to us in office among them. 
 As for the temperature of the air, it is wonderfully 
 suited to the humours of mankind, the wind and 
 weather rarely holding in one point, or one kind, for 
 tea days together ; it is a rare thing for a vessel to 
 be wind-bound for a week together, the wind seldom 
 holding in a point more than 48 hours; and in a 
 short time we have wet and dry, warm and cold 
 weather, which changes we often desire in England, 
 and look for before they come ; yet this variation 
 creates not cold, nor have we the tenth part of the 
 colds we have in England: I never had any since 
 I came, and in the midst of winter and frosts, could 
 endure it with less cloaths than in 'England, for ge- 
 nerally I go with the same cloaths I used to wear 
 in summer with you, but warm cloaths hurt not. 
 I bless the Lord, I never had better health, nor my 
 family; my daughters are very well improved in 
 that respect, and tell me they would not change 
 their place for George Yard, nor would I. People 
 here are generally settled where the tide reaches ; 
 and although this is good land and well timbered, 
 and plentifully supplied with salt marsh, yet there 
 is much better land up higher on the river, where 
 they may go up with small boats, where many now 
 are settling. There's extraordinary land, fresh 
 meadows overflowed in the winter time, that pro- 
 duces multitudes of winter corn ; and it's believed 
 will endure twenty, thirty, or fifty years ploughing, 
 without intermission, and not decay. Such land 
 there is at Esopus, on Hudson's river, which hath 
 bore winter corn about twenty years without help, 
 and is as good as at first, and better. William 
 Penn took a view of the land this last month when 
 here, and said he had never seen such before in his 
 life. All the English merchants, and many of the 
 Dutch, have taken, and are desirous to take up 
 plantations with us : our country here, called Ber- 
 gen, is almost Dutchmen; at a town called New- 
 ark, seven or eight miles hence, is made great 
 quantities of cider, exceeding any we can have 
 from New England, Rhode Island, or Long Island. 
 I hope to make twenty or thirty barrels out of our 
 orchard next year, as they have done who had it 
 before me; for that, it must be as Providence or- 
 ders. Upon our view and survey of Amboy point, 
 we find it extraordinary well situate for a great 
 town or city, beyond expectation ; at low water, 
 round about the point, are oysters of two kinds, 
 small as English, and others two or three mouth- 
 fulls, exceeding good for roasting and stewing ; the 
 people say, our oysters are good, and in season all 
 summer; the first of the third month I eat of them 
 at Amboy very good. The point is good lively land, 
 ten, some places twenty foot above the water mark. 
 About it are several coves, where vessels may lay 
 up conveniently ; besides, great ships of any burthen 
 may all ride before the town, land-locked against 
 all winds ; there Rariton river runs up, or rather 
 down, 50 for larger some say 100 miles, for small 
 
 boats. I saw several vines upon the point, which 
 produces, as they say, good grapes in their season ; 
 this country is very full of them, but being not pre- 
 sent profit, few regard them more than to pick 
 them as they lay in their way, when they are ripe. 
 We have store of clams esteemed much better than 
 oysters; on festivals the Indians feast with them; 
 there are shallops, but in no great plenty. Fish we 
 have great store, as our relation sets forth ; but 
 they are very good when catchcd (as the proverb 
 is). I have several barrels by me now, which are 
 good for our table and for sale. I brought a sea 
 net over with me, which may turn to good account; 
 sea nets are good merchandize here ; mine cost me 
 about four or five pounds, and can have twenty 
 pounds for it if I would sell it now. I may write 
 of many such matters in our province, which may 
 invite persons here ; but so am resolved to conclude, 
 knowing that, in probability, there is not an indus- 
 trious man, but by God's blessing may not only 
 have a comfortable, but plentiful supply of all things 
 necessary for this life ; with the salutation of my 
 true affection to all, &c., I rest thy affectionate 
 friend. " Thomas Rudyard." 
 
 Gawen Lawrie arrived this year (1683) as deputy- 
 governor of East Jersey, under Robert Barclay, and 
 chose a fresh council, of whom Richard Hartshorne 
 was one. There having been considerable disturb- 
 ances in the province, especially about Middletown 
 and Woodbridge, relating to town affairs ; their 
 prudent conduct contributed to the quiet of the pro- 
 vince. The two following letters, written soon after 
 Lawrie's arrival, contain, as well his sentiments of 
 the country, as some of the principal transactions of 
 those times. 
 
 Gawen Lawrie, to the proprietors at London. 
 " Elizabeth Town, 1st Month 2d, 1684. 
 
 " I took up several days with countrymen, and 
 others, to view the ground and water ; at last I 
 pitched upon a place, where a ship of 300 tons may 
 ride safely within a plank length of the shore, at 
 low water ; adjoining thereto is a piece of marsh 
 ground, about twelve perches broad, and twenty 
 perches long, and high land on each side like our 
 quays by London bridge ; this may be eauly cut 
 round, for small vessels to come to the quay, and lie 
 safe. Round this island I set out lots, one acre 
 a-piece, viz. four pole at the quay, and forty pole 
 backward ; from thence along the river near half a 
 mile. I laid out the like lots, very pleasant for 
 situation, where they can see the ships coming in 
 the bay of Sandy-hook, for near twenty miles ; the 
 ships may ride along by the town, as safe as at 
 London, just at the point by the town. Rariton 
 river runs up by the country, a great way; there 
 boats of forty tons may go ; and the river by the 
 town goes to New York, Hudson's river, Long 
 island, Staten island, and so to New England. 
 There is no such place in all England, for con- 
 veniency and pleasant situation : there are sixty 
 lots upon the river, and forty backward between 
 those and the river; and those backward, have a 
 highway 100 feet broad ; where I have laid out a 
 place for a market, with cross streets from the river 
 to the market ; where the town houses are to be 
 built. When this was done, I laid out 400 acres, to 
 be divided into forty-eight parts, viz. thirty-six to 
 each proprietor ; and those who have lots in the 
 town, I grant them half lots in this ; to pay for the 
 lots in the town, twenty pounds ; or if a half lot of 
 thirty-six acres, forty pounds. I laid 400 acres to 
 lie until the proprietors agree to divide it, as people 
 
582 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 come over. There are sixteen lots taken up by the 
 Scotch proprietors; and eight lots by the proprie- 
 tors that are here. There are twenty lots taken up 
 in the town, by other people. I engage with all, that 
 they shall build a house of thirty feet long, and 
 eighteen broad, and eighteen feet high to the rais- 
 ing ; to be finished within a year ; to pay for laying 
 out, forty shillings a lot, and four pence per annum 
 quit rent. There are several begun already to 
 build. I have laid out forty or fifty acres for the 
 governor's house. The highway and wharf between 
 the river to be 100 feet broad; and to leave a row 
 of trees along upon the river, before the houses, for 
 shade and shelter, exceeding pleasant. I have 
 agreed for two houses of like dimensions, to be built 
 for the proprietors ; and also a house for the go- 
 vernor, of sixty-six feet long, and eighteen broad ; 
 if the quit rents come in, I intend three or four 
 houses more for the proprietors. I can easily let 
 them. This work took me up five weeks. After I 
 had finished it, I set the people to work, Scottish 
 and English, about fifty persons ; some preparing 
 for building, others to clearing ground to get corn 
 sown this spring. Then came in a boat privately 
 to Elizabeth Town the 12th past. Next morning I 
 went to New York to visit the governor; staid 
 there two or three days ; he was very kind, and 
 promised a fair correspondence ; so I did not pub- 
 lish my commission until this day, before the coun- 
 cil ; they have been kind and courteous. Now is 
 the time to send over people for settling ; there are 
 30,000 acres of land in several places, belonging 
 to the proprietors, formerly taken up by Carteret : 
 so here is land enough. The Scots and William 
 Dockwra's people coming now and settling, ad- 
 vance the province more than it hath been ad- 
 vanced these ten years. Therefore, forthwith send 
 over some families and servants ; I shall presently 
 set them out land, and it will bring in considerable 
 profit, in a few years. Hero wants nothing but 
 people. There is not a poor body in all the pro- 
 vince ; here is abundance of provision ; pork and 
 beef at two-pence per pound ; fish and fowl plenty. 
 Oysters which I think would serve all England. 
 Wheat four shillings sterling per bushel ; Indian 
 wheat two shillings and six-pence per bushel : it is 
 exceeding good for food every way, pnd two or 
 three hundred fold increase. Cider good and plenty, 
 for one penny per quart. Good drink that is made 
 of water and molasses, stands in about two shillings 
 per barrel, wholesome like our eight shilling beer 
 in England. Good venison plenty, brought us in 
 at eighteen-pence the quarter : eggs at three-pence 
 per dozen. All things very plenty ; land as good 
 as ever I saw : vines, walnuts, peaches, strawber- 
 ries, and many other things plenty in the woods. 
 The proprietors have 150 or 200 acres, three miles 
 from the town, up Rariton river salt marsh, where I 
 intend to let the people of Amboy cut grass for hay, 
 until we otherwise order it by lots to them. I 
 reckon there is laid out for the town, governor's 
 house, and public highways, near or about 200 
 acres ; so there rests 1800 acres. I laid out 400 
 acres, as I said ; the rest to lie in common until 
 divided : I have put two houses in repair, upon the 
 river, called the point, two miles from Elizabeth 
 Town ; have let one of them, with ten acres of pas- 
 ture ground, and ten acres of woody ground, for 
 seven years, at twenty-six pounds per annum ; the 
 man to clear the ten' acres of woody ground, and 
 make it fit for ploughing or pasture. I intend to 
 let the other al*o, with some land. All the houses 
 
 Were like to drop down ; all the land lying without 
 fence ; and a barn quite fallen down, and destroyed . 
 another without any cover ; and that other next to 
 the house where I dwell, all to pieces ; and all the 
 fences and out-houses were down, but repaired be 
 fore I came. I am getting up a ferry-boat at 
 Perth, for men and horses, to go and come to Bur- 
 lington and Pennsylvania, and New York. Also I 
 am treating with one, to set up a house midway to 
 Burlington, to entertain travellers, and a ferry- 
 boat to go to New York ; all which is for promot- 
 ing Perth, that being the centre. Also you should 
 give me power to set out a line, between the go- 
 vernor of New York and us ; he calls on me for it, 
 because several plantations on the river are settled, 
 and we know not yet on what side they will fall ; 
 so I cannot at present mention all particulars, 
 which you must supply, by some general clauses or 
 words ; for it is not possible for you to understand 
 what is for the good of the province, as I do, that 
 am here ; and be not sparing to send over people, 
 it will bring you it again, with large profits ; for 
 here is a gallant plentiful country, and good land. 
 I have given you a large account of the little time 
 I have been here. I have none to write for me, 
 but you must send a copy of this to Scotland ; and 
 with it your further instructions, to be signed and 
 sent me forthwith. I will be bound till it come ; I 
 rest your friend, sic subscribitur, Gawen Lawrie." 
 The same to a friend in London. 
 
 " East Jersey, 1st Month 26th, 1684. 
 " I promised to write, but had not time till now; 
 I shall give thee a brief account of the country, no 
 fiction, but truth. It is beyond what I expected ; it 
 is situate in a good air, which makes it healthy ; and 
 there is great conveniency for travelling from places 
 through and about the province, in boats from a 
 small canoe, to vessels of thirty, forty or fifty tons, 
 and in some places one hundred : in the bay coming 
 up to Amboy-point, where the town of Perth is now 
 in building, a ship of three hundred ton may easily 
 ride close to the shore within a plank's length of the 
 houses of the town ; and yet the land there, nor other 
 in the province, is not low, swampy, marshy ground, 
 but pretty high ground, rising from the water side at 
 Amboy-point. The bank of the river is twenty feet, 
 in some places thirty, and in some forty feet high ; 
 and yet hath many conveniences for landing goods. 
 The soil is generally black, in some places a foot 
 deep, beareth great burdens of corn, and naturally 
 bringeth forth English grass : two years ploughing, 
 the ground is tender, and the ploughing is very easy. 
 The trees grow generally not thick, but some places 
 ten, in some fifteen, in some twenty-five or thirty 
 upon an acre ; this I find generally, but in some 
 particular places there is one hundred upon an acre ; 
 but that is very rare. The trees are very tall and 
 straight, the general are oak, beech, walnut; chesnuts 
 and acorns lie thick upon the ground, for want of 
 eating ; peaches, vines, strawberries and many other 
 sorts of fruit grow commonly in the woods ; there is 
 likewise gumtree, cedar, whitewood like our fir tree ; 
 walnuts, chesnuts and others lie thick on the 
 ground ; there is great plenty of oysters, fish, fowl ; 
 pork is two pennies the pound, beef and venison one 
 penny the pound, a whole fat buck for five or six 
 shillings ; Indian corn for two shillings and six-pence 
 per bushel, oats twenty-pence, and barley two shil- 
 lings per bushel, We have good brick earth, and 
 stones for building at Amboy, and elsewhere. The 
 country farm houses are built very cheap A car- 
 penter, with a man's own servants, builds the house; 
 
UNITED STATES 
 
 583 
 
 they have alt materials for nothing, except nails; 
 their chimneys are of stones ; they make their own 
 ploughs and carts for the most part, only the iron 
 work is very dear. The poorer sort set up a house 
 of two or three rooms themselves, after this manner; 
 the walls are of cloven timber, about eight or ten 
 inches broad, like planks, set one end to the 
 ground, and the other nailed to the raising, which 
 they plaster within ; they build a barn after the 
 same manner, and these cost not above 5/. a piece ; 
 and then to work they go. Two or three men in one 
 year will clear fifty acres, in some places sixty, and 
 in some more. They sow corn the first year, and 
 afterwards maintain themselves ; and the increase 
 of corn, cows, horses, hogs and sheep comes t"> the 
 landlord. Several merchants of New York have 
 left their several plantations there, to come to East 
 Jersey, two or three may join together, with may be 
 twelve, fifteen or twenty servants, and one overseer, 
 which cost them, nothing for the first year, except 
 some shoes, stockings and shirts. I have been to 
 see these plantations, and find they have a great 
 increase by them ; they maintain their families at 
 New York with all provisions, and sell a great deal 
 yearly ; and for servants, our English people are far 
 better husbandmen than the New Englanumen ; 
 the servants work not so much by a third as they do 
 in England, and I think feed much better ; for they 
 have beef, pork, bacon, pudding, milk, butter, and 
 good beer and cider for drink; when they are out 
 of their time, they have land for themselves, and 
 generally turn farmers for themselves. Servants' 
 wages are not under two shillings a-day, besides 
 victuals; and at Amboy-point two shillings and 
 six-pence per day. At Amboy we have one setting 
 up to make malt, but we want a brewer ; I wish 
 thou would scud over some to set up a brewhouse, 
 and a bakehouse to bake bread and biscuit; for a 
 biscuit-maker wemust have, to vend our meat to the 
 plantations. Send over some husbandmen and 
 country fellows that plough, sow, reap, thresh, and 
 look after cattle ; a carpenter or two, and a smith 
 for ploughs and horses ; and a cooper, which we want 
 very much : if thou will send a dozen of servants, 
 most of them countrymen, I will set thee out a gal- 
 lant plantation of 500 or 1000 acres, on a river side ; 
 but thou must send over some goods to stock it 
 withal: I desire thee to encourage some of our 
 friends, especially the proprietors, to send over some 
 servants to stock some land; and when they have 
 cleared it, if they have a mind to let it, here are 
 tenants to take it, and if they will sell it, here are 
 also purchasers. There is one man since I came 
 here, sold his plantation for 1500/. ; the whole was 
 1600 or 1800 acres, whereof only 120 acres were 
 cleared; upon which he had a house, garden, and 
 orchard, and barn planted. I know several men 
 who let cleared land at six shillings and eight-pence, 
 and at ten shillings the acre, yearly rent; which is 
 a good encouragement for sending over servants to 
 plant : I write not this as an idle story, but as 
 things really and truly are. I have sent for servants 
 myself to settle a farm ; for if the proprietors will 
 not do so, I see not what they can expect. The 
 Scots have taken a right course, they have sent over 
 many servants, and are likewise sending more ; they 
 have likewise sent over many poor families, and 
 given them a small stock ; and these families, some 
 for seven, some for ten years, give the half of their 
 increase to the landlord, except the milk, which the 
 tenant hath to himself. I have set them out laud, 
 and they are at work : I believe they will have forty 
 
 acres cleared this spring and this summer : I am to 
 set them out more, so that in a short time they will 
 have a great increase coming in. This will raise 
 the price of the land here, and is the reason that se- 
 veral from New York bounds come to me to take up 
 land, for they believe now this province will be im- 
 proving, and our land is better than theirs ; that 
 every proprietor's sending over ten people, will also 
 be a great advantage to himself; encourage others 
 to take up land and bring all the division that hath 
 been here, to an end ; for these men seeing that they 
 shall be balanced, are already more compliant than 
 they were ; now I have laid these things before thee, 
 and desire thee to impart them to some of the 
 proprietors and other friends, that they may consider 
 of the same. I am thy loving friend, sic subscribitur. 
 " GAWEN LAWRIE." 
 
 John Barclay, Arthur Forbes, and Gawen Lawrie,in 
 answer to certain queries of the Scots proprietors, say, 
 after describing the country, much in the same terms as 
 the foregoing letters, "We shall now answer as far as 
 we are capable, your queries. To the first we cannot 
 positively give an account of the whole length and 
 breadth of the province ; but we are informed that it 
 is a great deal broader than ye expected ; for those 
 that have travelled from the extent of our bounds on 
 Hudson's river, straight over to the Delaware, say it 
 is 100 miles, or upwards; we shall know that cer- 
 tainly after a while ; for the line betwixt us and 
 New York, is to be run straight over to Delaware 
 river, about three weeks hence ; and after that the 
 line betwixt us and West Jersey ; after which we 
 shall be able to give a true account of the bounds of 
 that province. 
 
 " When the bounds are so exactly laid out, we can 
 the easier guess at the number of acres, and by that 
 time may be able to give an account what number of 
 acres is already taken up ; but there is no fear of 
 want of land. 
 
 " The quantity of meadow ground, we cannot de- 
 termine, having travelled as yet, but little in the 
 province ; but wherever we have travelled there is 
 meadow in abundance, both on the water sides and 
 on the upland. 
 
 " There is also other good ground in some places, 
 great quantities free of wood, which is fit either for 
 corn or grass ; and the ground all over brings forth 
 good English grass naturally, after it is ploughed. 
 
 " There are also commons upon the country, but 
 what quantity we cannot tell ; there is little kept in 
 them save wild horses, which the people take up when 
 they have occasion : there is also land fit for pastur- 
 age for sheep ; and there is sheep in the country, 
 but what number the ablest planters have we know 
 not, but some we see have good flocks. 
 
 " An exact map of the country is not yet drawn, 
 nor can you quickly expect it, for it will take up a 
 great deal of time, charge, and pains to do it. 
 
 " There are also hills up in the country, but how 
 much ground they take up we know not ; they are 
 said to be stony, and covered with wood ; and be- 
 yond them is said to be excellent land. 
 
 " There be people of several sorts of religions, but 
 few very zealous ; the people, being mostly New 
 England men, do mostly incline to their way ; and 
 in every town there is a meeting-house, where they 
 worship publicly every week. They have no public 
 laws in the country for maintaining public teachers, 
 but the towns that have them, make way within 
 themselves to maintain them ; we know none that 
 have a settled preacher, that follows no other em- 
 ployment, save one town, Newark. 
 
,84 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA 
 
 " There are not many out-plantations that are not 
 within the bounds of some town ; yet there are some, 
 and those are the richest ; what number there are we 
 know not ; some have great quantities of land, and 
 abundance cleared. 
 
 " The richest planters have not above eight or ten 
 servants : they will have some of them a dozen 
 cows, yea, some twenty or thirty; eight or ten 
 oxen ; horses more than they know themselves, for 
 they keep breeding mares ; and keep no more horses 
 at home than they have occasion to work ; the rest 
 they let run in the woods both winter and summer, 
 and take them as they have occasion to use them. 
 Swine they have in great flocks in the woods ; and 
 sheep in flocks also ; but they let them not run in 
 the woods, for fear of being destroyed by wolves. 
 Their profit arises from the improvement of their 
 land, and increase of their bestial. 
 
 " There will be in most cf the towns already settled 
 at least 100 houses, but they are not built so regular 
 as the towns in our country ; so that we cannot 
 compare them with any town we know in Scotland. 
 Every house in the town hath a lot of four acres 
 lying to it ; so that every one building upon his 
 own lot, makes the town irregular and scattered. 
 Their streets are laid out too large, and the sheep 
 in the towns are mostly maintained in them ; they 
 are so large that they need no trouble to pave them. 
 
 " Betwixt Sandy Hook and Little Egg Harbour, 
 lie two towns, Middletown and Shrewsbury. There 
 is no land taken up that way, but what is (now) in 
 the bounds of these two towns ; what kind of land 
 it is we know not, having never travelled that way. 
 Barnagat or Burning-hole, is said to be a very good 
 place for fishing ; and there is some desiring to take 
 up land there, who inform us that it is good land, 
 and abundance of meadow lying to it. 
 
 " There are no fishermen that follow only that 
 trade, save some that go a whaling upon the coasts ; 
 and for other fish there is abundance to be had 
 every where through the country, in all the rivers ; 
 and the people commonly fish with long sieves or 
 long nets, and will catch with a sieve one, some- 
 times two barrels a day of good fish, which they salt 
 up mostly for their own use, or to sell to others. 
 
 " There are no ships belonging to this province 
 particularly, or built here, save one which Samuel 
 Groome built here the last summer, which stands 
 yet on the stocks (a stop being put to it by his 
 death) ; there is conveniency enough to build ships. 
 The ships in this part trade mostly to the West 
 India islands, and some to Newfoundland, where the 
 provision of this country vends. 
 
 " There is land here in several places, after it is 
 cleared and brought into a farm, set out for rents, 
 as in our country, at five, eight, and ten shillings 
 per acre, according to the goodness and situation 
 of the said land; and those that will be at the 
 charge to clear land, may get tenants to take upon 
 these terms ; but whether it will turn to good ac- 
 count or not, because little experienced as yet with 
 the charge of clearing of land, we will not positively 
 inform. 
 
 " There are several places of the country fit for 
 mills ; and several, both corn and saw mills, already 
 set up, and good encouragement to set up more. 
 
 "The acres are here reckoned according to the 
 English account, sixteen feet to the rood ; twenty 
 long and eight broad make an acre. One English 
 butt of wheat, which is eight English gallons, or 
 Scots quarts, commonly sows an acre ; two bushels 
 of barley also an acre ; and two bushels of oats an 
 
 acre and half. English peck, which is four English 
 quarts or Scotch shopens of Indian corn, plants one 
 acre. 
 
 " There are but few Indian natives in this country, 
 their strength is inconsiderable, they live in the 
 woods, and have small towns in some places far up 
 in the country; they plant a little Indian com, 
 shoot deer and other wild beasts and fowls for their 
 food. They have kings among themselves to govern 
 them; for religion they have none at all; they do 
 not refuse to sell lauds at occasion. The prices of 
 grain and other provisions here at present : Indian 
 corn two shillings and six-pence the bushel : wheat 
 four shillings ; rye three shillings ; oats one shilling 
 and eight-pence; beef one penny; pork two-pence; 
 venison one penny; mutton three-pence the pound, 
 this English measure and weight ; but mark, these 
 things being valued in this country money, there is 
 a fifth part difference betwixt it and sterling money; 
 so that wheat being valued here at four shillings the 
 bushel, is but three shillings and three-pence ster- 
 ling, and so of the rest proportionably. 
 
 " Here you have an account of things, as far as 
 we are capable to give at present ; with which we 
 hope you will be satisfied, while further opportunity 
 and better experience give us occasion to write 
 more ; and so we rest your friends and well-wishers 
 to all our countrymen ; sic subscribitur, 
 
 " Elizabeth-town, in East Jersey, the 29th of 
 
 the first month, called March, 1684. 
 
 " JOHN BARCLAY." 
 " ARTHUR FORBES." 
 
 " This I have heard read, and do also subscribe 
 to the truth thereof, and rest, G. L." 
 
 Manner of the West Jersey Government in 1684 
 Their unsettled state, and succession of governors- 
 Danger of suffering for u-ant of food in 1687 The 
 division line run by G. Keith; and agreement be- 
 tween the governors Coxe and Barclay-^ Alteration 
 in the manner of locating lands in West Jersey 
 No person in We&t Jersey to purchase from the In- 
 dians, without the consent of the council of propri- 
 etors; and instructions respecting deeds and war- 
 rants for taking up lands. 
 
 The assembly of West Jersey at their meeting, th-e 
 20th of March, this year (1684), chose Thomas Olive 
 governor, and chairman or speaker ; in both which 
 capacities he now acted; the several branches of the 
 legislature we have seen doing their business in 
 common together ; the choice of the people being 
 the foundation of the whole, whose representatives 
 were distinctly returned from their respective first, 
 second, third and Salem tenths, which were all the 
 tenths yet settled. At their first meetings they 
 chose the governor, council, commissioners to lay 
 out land, and all the other officers of government. 
 
 (1685.) Olive had been twice governor of West 
 Jersey before, and continued on the last choice in 
 that station for a year past; but Byllinge having 
 desisted from the claims which the assembly and 
 their constituents had thought unjust, and which 
 bad been the cause of their undertaking in opposi- 
 tion to him to choose the governor, and he in this 
 year sending a fresh commission to John Skeine to 
 be his deputy, the assembly and people submitted 
 :o him, though they had before refused William 
 Welsh in that capacity, while Byllinge continued, 
 what they considered, his unjust claim. 
 
 The year 1686 seems to have been a dangerous 
 one in East Jersey, if the law then passed against 
 wearing swords was properly founded. According 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 585 
 
 to that, several persons had received abuses, and 
 were put in great fear from quarrels and challenges; 
 to prevent which for the future, none were to give 
 a challenge, upon pain of six months' imprison- 
 ment, without bail or mainprize, and a ten pound 
 fine ; whoever accepted or concealed the challenge, 
 was also to forfeit ten pounds : no person was " to 
 wear any pocket-pistols, skeins, stilladers, daggers 
 or dirks, or other unusual weapons," upon pain of 
 five pounds forfeiture for the first offence, and for 
 the second to be committed; and on conviction, 
 imprisoned for six months, and moreover to pay a 
 fine of ten pounds : no planter was to go armed 
 with sword, pistol, or dagger, upon penalty of five 
 pounds. Officers, civil and military, soldiers in 
 service, and strangers travelling upon lawful occa- 
 sions, were excepted. 
 
 The settlers in both West Jersey, and Pennsyl- 
 vania, about the year 1687, were embarrassed on 
 account of their crops having in great part failed ; 
 several families were compelled to subsist on what 
 could be spared by such of their neighbours as were 
 better provided ; which was very little, in propor- 
 tion to the quantity requisite. Some near the rivers 
 had lived weeks upon fish, others were forced to 
 put up with herbs; but unexpectedly, in the midst 
 of their distress, a vessel arrived from New Eng- 
 land, bound to Philadelphia, laden with corn, which 
 proved an agreeable supply ; and this vessel meet- 
 ing with so good a market, others soon followed ; so 
 that the settlers were not afterwards exposed to such 
 extremities. 
 
 In this year, George Keith, surveyor-general of 
 East Jersey, by order of the proprietors there, at- 
 tempted to run the division line between East and 
 West Jersey ; pursuant to an award on the terms 
 established in the quintipartite deed. He began 
 with a line from Little Egg- harbour, north by west, 
 and three degrees five minutes more westerly, as the 
 compass then pointed for a part ; the line he ran 
 sixty miles in length, till he fell upon the corner of 
 Dobie's plantation, on the south branch of Rariton. 
 This, by order of the council of proprietors of West 
 Jersey, was subsequently, about the year 1721, tra- 
 versed by John Chapman, who was esteemed a care- 
 ful surveyor ; and upon the computation it appeared, 
 that the line at the time of his traverse, was north 
 sixteen degrees and forty-three minutes west, which 
 leaves a variation of two degrees and twenty three 
 minutes' in that thirty-four years. The remaining 
 part of Keith's line was from Dobie's plantation, 
 along the rear of that and other tracts and planta- 
 tions, as they were before patented and surveyed in 
 right of the proprietors of the eastern division of 
 New Jersey, until it intersects that part of the 
 norlh branch of Rariton river, which descends from 
 a fall of water, commonly called and known by the 
 Indian name of Allamitung, then running from that 
 point of intersection up the branch or stream of the 
 fall of Allamitung. 
 
 Upon the original running of this line, the western 
 proprietors thought too much of their best lands 
 were surveyed to the eastward j and were uneasy 
 with it. 
 
 In the autumn of 1688, the governors of East and 
 West Jersey, on behalf of each division, entered 
 into the following agreement. 
 
 " London, September 5, 1688. 
 
 " It is agreed this day, by Dr. Daniel Coxe, go- 
 vernor of the province of West Jersey, on behalf of 
 himself, and all the rest of the proprietors of that 
 province, on the one part ; and Robert Barclay, go- 
 
 vernor of the province of East Jersey, on behalf of 
 himself and all the rest of the proprietors of that 
 province, on the other part ; as followeth, viz. 
 
 " For the final determination of all differences, 
 concerning the deed of partition ; and all other dis- 
 putes and controversies about dividing the lands, 
 and settling the bounds between East and West 
 Jersey. 
 
 " 1. The line of partition run straight from Little 
 Egg-harbour, to the most westerly corner of John 
 Dobie's plantation, as it stands on the south branch 
 of Rariton river, shall be the bounds so far between, 
 East and West Jersey, and shall not be altered ; 
 but remain as it stands, on a printed draught of the 
 proprietors' lands, surveyed in East Jersey, and 
 drawn by John Reid, and since printed. 
 
 " 2. From thence to run along the back of the 
 adjoining plantations, until it comes to James Dun- 
 dass's plantation ; and from thence, at the most 
 north-westerly part thereof, a line to lie down with 
 a line on the back of those plantations, and so to 
 run north-eastward, till it touch the north branch of 
 Rariton river, as it is struck upon the map already ; 
 but saving the plantations already laid out, to be 
 within the line, if they happen to stand a little 
 more westerly than that line is marked. 
 
 " 3. From the north end of the line, where it 
 touches Rariton north branch-; thence forward the 
 largest stream or current of water belonging to the 
 said north branch, shall be the bound or partition ; 
 and so continuing along the same, unto the north 
 end thereof, for the bounds so far. 
 
 " 4. From the said north end of the branch, a 
 short straight line to run to touch the nearest part 
 of Passaick river ; and so following the course of 
 that river, continuing Poquanick river, so long as it 
 runs northerly or north-westerly ; those rivers still 
 to be the bounds between both provinces ; and if 
 Poquanick river do not run far enough to the lati- 
 tude of forty-one degrees ; then from the said river, 
 a straight line to be run northward to the latitude ; 
 and that to be the utmost north partition point, and 
 from the said point in a straight line due east to the 
 partition point on Hudson's river, between East 
 Jersey and New York: provided always, that all 
 plantations and tracts of land, laid out and surveyed, 
 before this agreement arrives in East Jersey, shall 
 remain to the parties concerned ; and the partition 
 shall so run as to include them within East Jersey 
 bounds. 
 
 " Lastly, Dr. Coxe doth covenant and promise, 
 to make good the agreements above written, and 
 warrant the title and quiet possession of all the lands 
 so to be appropriated to the proprietors of East Jer- 
 sey, according to the limits and bounds above-men* 
 tioned, against all persons that shall or may pre- 
 tend, or claim any interest to any of the said lands, 
 as West Jersey proprietors. And Robert Barclay 
 doth covenant and promise to make good the agree- 
 ment above written, and warrant the title and quiet 
 possession of lands, so to be appropriated, to the 
 proprietors of West Jersey, according to the limits 
 and bounds above-mentioned, against all persons 
 that shall or may pretend or claim any interest to 
 any of the said lands, as East Jersey proprietors. 
 For performance of all and every the respective 
 articles and covenants herein-mentioned, they do 
 mutually bind themselves, each to the other, in the 
 sum of 5,0001 , to be well and truly paid on the 
 areach of any of the clauses and covenants, herein 
 before-mentioned. In witness whereof, they ha /a 
 nterchangeably set their hands and seals, the day 
 
586 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 and year first above written. " Robert Barclay." 
 
 " Sealed and delivered in the presence of David 
 
 Hewling ; Stephen Lucock." 
 
 Notwithstanding this agreement, and that the 
 parties at several times seemed desirous the line 
 should be properly run out and fixed, the necessary 
 preliminaries could never be sufficiently settled; 
 those of East Jersey being thought by the western 
 proprietors to have the advantage. 
 
 In order to keep the transactions relative to the 
 division line together, we have advanced a year. 
 We must now return and notice the manner of lo- 
 cating the proprietors' lands in West Jersey ; the 
 divisions and sub-divisions of shares had multiplied 
 demands, and introduced a necessity for other mea- 
 sures than had been hitherto in practice ; accord- 
 ingly in 1687, the proprietors found it expedient to 
 appoint certain trustees and commissioners to settle 
 their matters. 
 
 On this arrangement afterwards was founded the 
 constitution of " The Council of proprietors of 
 West Jersey." The following minutes being some 
 of their first enactments, will give an example of 
 their powers and proceedings : 
 
 " At a meeting of several proprietors of West 
 Jersey, at Burlington, on the 6th day of the 7th 
 month, anno domini 1688," amongst a variety of 
 other matters, it is agreed, " That every proprietor, 
 and every person interested in proprieties, shall pay 
 to the use of Daniel Coxe, to any person appointed 
 to receive it, as a reimbursement for the money laid 
 out by him, in the Indian purchase lately made in 
 the lower counties, the sum of twelve shillings and 
 six-pence for every thousand acres, and so propor- 
 tionably to be taken up out of that purchase ; the 
 first year to begin the 1st day of April last past, and 
 from that time twelve months to advance eighteen- 
 pence upon every year ensuing, until the time that 
 the money aforesaid be paid for ; the land to be 
 laid out within the bounds of the same purchase, as 
 consideration for the monies disbursed by the said 
 Daniel Coxe in the said Indian purchase of the 
 whole tract, which, by the surveyor Andrew Robe- 
 son, is computed to be three hundred thousand acres 
 of good land, capable and worthy of improvements ; 
 which money being paid, the party so paying shall 
 be acquitted of all other payments on the considera- 
 tion aforesaid. 
 
 " That the surveyor for the time being, be en- 
 gaged not to set out any land within the limits of 
 this Indian purchase, until the money abovemen- 
 tioned be paid and secured as abovesaid. 
 
 " And it is further agreed, that for the land taken 
 tip by order of the said Dr. Coxe, above the falls of 
 Delaware, every proprietor taking up any part 
 thereof, shall pay to Dr. Coxe, or his order, the sum 
 of twenty-five shillings per thousand acres, and two 
 shillings and six-pence yearly consideration, till the 
 money be paid. 
 
 " It is agreed, ordered, and concluded by autho- 
 rity of the council abovesaid, that Samuel Jenings 
 be, and is hereby appointed commissioner, to exa- 
 mine all deeds, taking a minute of the same, and 
 issue warrants to the surveyor-general, for the sur- 
 veying and taking up of lands ; keeping a record 
 of the same, and this for the inhabitants within the 
 county of Burlington, or to any others as occasion 
 shall require. 
 
 "And it is ordered, that for the support of the 
 service, every warrant for land under one hundred 
 acres shall pay the sum of one shilling ; and one 
 hundred acres and above, under one thousand, shall 
 
 pay the sum of cighteen-ponce ; and one thousand 
 acres and upwards, shall pay th sum of two shil- 
 lings and six-pence. 
 
 "It is also ordered, that no person or persons 
 whatsoever, shall presume to purchase any land from 
 the Indians, without the consent of this council first 
 obtained, otherwise to be prosecuted as our common 
 enemy." 
 
 " At a meeting on the llth of the 8th month : 
 
 "Agreed and concluded, that all deeds granted 
 only by Edward Byllinge, in and before the year 
 1682, shall be adjudged and esteemed insufficient 
 for the commissioners to grant warrants upon." 
 
 " Instructions for the commissioners to observe 
 and follow, in their examining of deeds, and grant- 
 ing of warrants for the taking up of lands. 
 
 " 1. Agreed and ordered by the council aforesaid, 
 that the commissioners grant no warrants but upon 
 the producing of good deeds, authentic copies, or an 
 extract of the record of such deed under the regis- 
 ter's hand, &c. 
 
 " 2. That all deeds granted only by Edward Byl- 
 linge, in and before the year 1682, shall be accounted 
 insufficient for the commissioners to grant warrants 
 upon. 
 
 " 3. That there shall be given a particular war- 
 rant for every several deed, or particular purchase. 
 
 "4. That the president of the council for the time 
 being, shall, from time to time, grant warrants for 
 the commissioners, for the taking up of their own 
 lands. 
 
 ;l 5. That, the commissioners shall not direct their 
 warrants to the surveyor-general for the laying 
 forth of his own lands, but to some other person, at 
 the discretion of the commissioner that gives forth 
 the warrant. 
 
 "6. That every proprietor coming for a warrant, 
 shall first sign to an instrument, to be presented to 
 them for their compliance, to pay his and their re- 
 spective and proportionable share of such incident 
 charge, for the management of the proprietor's af- 
 fairs ; as in the said instrument here following, may 
 further appear. 
 
 'The form of the instrument to be signed by the 
 proprietors before they have warrants granted for 
 the taking up of their lands. 
 
 ' We the subscribers having taken into considera- 
 tion the necessity of the incident charges, that will 
 attend the council of proprietors, in the employ and 
 concern wherein we have placed and constituted 
 them, for the carrying on and discharging of those 
 inevitable charges that will follow upon the prosecu- 
 tion of our affairs ; we do therefore hereby bind, and 
 oblige ourselves, each for himself and not for one 
 another, to comply with and pay our proportions 
 respectively of the aforesaid charges, as our said 
 council shall from time to time give us an account 
 f, and find needful to be raised. In witness where- 
 of we have hereunto set our hands, the &c." 
 
 In the year 1691, Dr. Coxe conveyed the govern- 
 ment of West Jersey and territories, to " The West 
 Jersey Society," consisting of the following persons: 
 Sir Thomas Lane, knt., Michael Watts, Edward 
 Harrison, Thomas Skinner, James St. Johns, Ni- 
 cholas Hayward, Mordecai Abbot, Nicholas Bat- 
 ersby, Robert Curtis, John Juriu, Richard Bram- 
 lall, Robert Mitchell, Charles Mitchell, James 
 Boddington, John Gunston, Arthur Shallet, John 
 Lamb, William Wightman, Joseph Brooksbank, 
 William Thompson, Henry Harrington, John Love, 
 Thomas Phipps, Isaac Cocks, John Sweetable, Tho- 
 mas Bromfield, John Norton, Robert Hackshaw, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 587 
 
 John Bridges, Joseph Paise, Edward llichier, Wil- 
 liam Dunk, Edward Habberdfield, John Albersou, 
 Edward West, Edward Pauncefort, Obadiah Bur- 
 net, Francis Michel, Benjamin Steele, John Slaney, 
 Nehemiah Ervving, John Wilcocks, Richard Mayo, 
 Jonah Netteeway, William Brooks, Tracey Paunce- 
 fort, Joseph Allen, and Richard Greenaway- 
 
 A flood at Delaware falL Death and character of 
 Thomas Olive Commotions in East and West Jer- 
 sey Surrender of the two governments to Queen 
 Anne Her acceptance, and commission to Lord 
 Cornbury. 
 
 The first settlers of the Yorkshire tenth in West 
 Jersey, had several of them built upon the low lauds, 
 near the falls of Delaware, where they had lived, 
 and been improving for nearly sixteen years ; they 
 had been told by the Indians, that their buildings 
 were liable to be damaged by freshes, or springs, 
 and the situation of the place must have made it 
 probable. They had, however, got up several 
 wooden tenements and outhouses, which in the 
 spring were accordingly generally demolished. The 
 snows suddenly melting above, caused an uncom- 
 mon overflow of the river ; there have been many 
 great floods since, but none quite so high ; it came 
 upon them so unexpectedly, that many were in their 
 houses surrounded with water, and conveyed to the 
 opposite shore, by neighbours from thence, in canoes. 
 The water continued rising till it reached the upper 
 stories of some of their houses, then most, or all of 
 them gave way, and were dashed to pieces ; many 
 cattle were drowned; beds, kettles, and other fur- 
 niture were picked up on the shores below ; the 
 frights and damages were considerable ; two per- 
 sons in a house, carried away by the sweeping tor- 
 rent, lost their lives before they could be got out. 
 This casualty taught the owners to fix their habita- 
 tions on higher ground, and was what is commonly 
 called " the great flood at Delaware falls." 
 
 It was in the spring of this year that the proprietors 
 of West Jersey first appointed Col. Andrew Hamil- 
 ton to be their governor. And about this time also 
 died Thomas Olive, who since the first settlement 
 of West Jersey, had been a man of importance there; 
 he came over one of the London commissioners in 
 1677, was sometime governor, in which station he 
 behaved with great circumspection and prudence ; 
 while a common magistrate he had a ready method 
 of business, often performing the office with good ef- 
 fect, without any ceremony, on the stumps in his mea- 
 dows. He generally contrived to postpone sudden 
 complaints, till deliberation had shown them to be 
 justly founded, and then seldom failed of accommo- 
 dating matters without much expense to the parties. 
 He had been imprisoned and otherwise a sufferer 
 for religion in England ; and by his preaching and 
 writing, as well as other public and private conduct, 
 had gained the general love and esteem. 
 
 We have now arrived at the year 1701, a me- 
 morable era in New Jersey, on account of the dis- 
 turbances and confusions that agitated several par- 
 ties, and caused a total change in the form of go- 
 vernment. Each province had many and different 
 proprietors, who promoted separate schemes and 
 interests, which sometimes interfered with each 
 other. To facilitate particular purposes, one party 
 would have the choice and management of a go- 
 vernor, while another refused any but of their own 
 nomination, and a third objected to proposals from 
 either. In such a state of affairs moderate councils 
 could not be heard; a contaminating spirit of party 
 
 and discord took place of order and peace; every 
 expedient to restore union and regularity proved 
 unsuccessful ; and faction prevailed, and particular 
 animosities were nourished to that degree, that the 
 delays of time seemed only to give opportunity of 
 accumulating fresh occasions of disgust and uneasi- 
 ness ; a detail of particulars would be an ungrateful, 
 we hope an unnecessary task. The following in- 
 stance may suffice as a specimen of the whole. 
 
 Jeremiah Bass, (in the spring of 1698,) under a 
 pretence of a commission he had received from 
 some of the proprietors of East Jersey, with the 
 king's approbation, superseded Andrew Hamilton, 
 the then governor of both East and West Jersey ; 
 but in the next year it appeared that Bass had not 
 obtained the king's approbation of his commission, 
 nor was it granted by enough of the proprietors to 
 make it valid, which induced great numbers of the 
 inhabitants to refuse obedience to him, and to the 
 magistrates and officers by him appointed; some 
 persons being imprisoned for refusing obedience, it 
 was resented by others with great indignation, and 
 feuds and confusion followed. To accommodate 
 matters for the time, Andrew Hamilton was again 
 appointed governor by a fresh commission from 
 some of the proprietors ; but a great number re- 
 fused obedience to him, and the magistrates and 
 officers under him, in like manner, and for the same 
 reasons as they had refused Bass and those he ap- 
 pointed. The disorders in the Eastern division 
 during this time, made such an impression on the 
 minds of many, that they readily hearkened to 
 overtures made for a surrender of the government to 
 the crown. A considerable part of West Jersey 
 was also, for similar reasons, disposed to a resigna- 
 tion. The commotions in both, which had been in- 
 creasing for some years, now seemed to be arrived 
 to a crisis, and all things tended to a surrender of 
 the powers of the government; which was at length 
 brought about in the beginning of the next year. 
 
 Meanwhile sundry petitions and remonstrances 
 were sent home, complaining loudly of their grie- 
 vances and confusions, and praying redress. And 
 in 1702, a surrender was made to the queen, em- 
 powering her to elect a governor, which was imme- 
 diately accepted, and Edward Lord Viscount Corn- 
 bury, grandson to the great Chancellor Clarendon, 
 was appointed governor of New Jersey. His com- 
 mission, as follows, we give, together with the in- 
 structions, because they form, as it were, a new 
 constitution for the province. 
 
 " Anne, by the grace of God, of England, Scot- 
 land, France, and Ireland, Queen, defender of the 
 faith, &c. To our trusty and well beloved Edward 
 Hyde, Esq., commonly called Lord Cornbury, 
 greeting: Whereas in the government of that coun- 
 try, which was formerly granted by King Charles 
 II., under the name of Nova Csesaria, or New Jer- 
 sey, and which has since been subdivided by the 
 proprietors, and called East New Jersey, and West 
 New Jersey, such miscarriages have happened, that 
 the said country is fallen into disorder and confu- 
 sion; which has accordingly been represented to 
 our dearest brother the late king, in several peti- 
 tions, memorials and other papers, signed by the 
 general proprietors, and by great numbers of the 
 inhabitants ; arid by means of that disorder the 
 public peace and administration of justice, whereby 
 the properties of our subjects should be preserved 
 there, is interrupted and violated, and the guard 
 and defence of that country so totally neglected, 
 that the same is in imminent danger of being lost 
 
588 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 from the crown of England. And whereas the afore- 
 said proprietors, being sensible that the said country, 
 and our good subjects the inhabitants thereof, can- 
 not be defended and secured by any other means 
 than by our taking the government of the same 
 under our immediate care, have executed and made 
 a formal and entire surrender of their right, or pre- 
 tended right and title, to the government of that 
 country unto us. We therefore, reposing especial 
 trust and confidence in the prudence, courage, and 
 loyalty of you the said Lord Cornbury, out of our 
 especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, 
 have thought fit to constitute and appoint, and by 
 these presents do constitute and appoint, you the 
 said Lord Cornbury, to be our captain-general and 
 governor-in- chief, in and over the aforesaid country 
 of Nova Caesaria, or New Jersey, viz. the division 
 of East and West New Jersey, in America, which 
 we have thought fit to re-unite into one province, 
 and settle under one entire government. And we 
 do hereby require and command you, to do and exe- 
 cute all things in due manner that shall belong unto 
 your said command, and the trust we have reposed 
 in you, according to the several powers and direc- 
 tions granted or appointed you by this present com- 
 mission, and the instructions and authorities here- 
 with given you, or by such further powers, instruc- 
 tions or authorities as shall at any time hereafter 
 be granted, or appointed you under our signet and 
 sign manual, or by our order in our privy council, 
 and according to such reasonable laws and statutes 
 as shall be made and agreed upon by you, with the 
 advice and consent of the council and assembly of 
 our said province, under your government, in such 
 manner and form as is hereafter expressed. And 
 our will and pleasure is, that you the said Lord 
 Cornbury, having after the proclamation of these 
 cur letters patent, first taken the oaths appointed 
 by act of parliament to be taken instead of the oath 
 of allegiance and supremacy, and the oath men- 
 tioned in an act, entitled, ' An act to declare the 
 alteration in the oath appointed to be taken by the 
 act,' entitled, ' An act for the further security of his 
 majesty's person, and the succession of the crown in 
 the protestant line, and for the extinguishing the 
 hopes of the pretended Prince of Wales, and all 
 other pretenders and their open and secret abettors, 
 and for the declaring the association to be deter- 
 mined ;' as also the test mentioned in the act of 
 parliament made in the twenty-fifth year of the 
 reign of King Charles II., entitled, ' An act for 
 preventing dangers which may happen from popish 
 recusants ;' together with the oath for the due exe- 
 cution of the office and trust of our captain-general 
 and governor-in-chief, in and over our said province 
 of Nova Caesaria, or New Jersey, as well with re- 
 gard to the equal and impartial administration of 
 justice, in all causes that shall come before you, as 
 otherwise ; and likewise the oath required to be 
 taken by governors of plantations, to do the utmost 
 that the laws relating to the plantations be observed; 
 all which our council in our said province, or any 
 three of the members thereof, have hereby full 
 power and authority, and are required to administer 
 unto you ; and in your absence our lieutenant-go- 
 vernor, if there be any upon the place; you shall 
 administer unto each of the members of our said 
 council, as also to our lieutenant-governor, if there 
 be any upon the place, as well the oath appointed 
 by the act of parliament to be taken instead of the 
 oath of allegiance and supremacy, and the oath 
 mentioned in the said act, entitled,' ' An act to de- 
 
 clare the alteration in the oath appointed to be 
 taken by the act,' entitled, An act for the further 
 security of his majesty's person, and the succession 
 of the crown in the protestant line, &c.' as the fore- 
 mentioned test, and the oath for the due execution 
 of their places and trusts. And we do hereby give 
 and grant unto you, full power and authority, to 
 suspend any of the members of our said council 
 from sitting, voting, and assisting therein, if you 
 shall see just cause for so doing. And if it shall at 
 any time happen, that by the death, departure out 
 of our said province, or suspension of any of our 
 said counsellors, or otherwise, there shall be want- 
 ing in our said council, any three whereof we do 
 appoint to be a quorum, our will and pleasure is, 
 that you signify the same unto us by the first op- 
 portunity, that we may under our signet and sign 
 manual, constitute and appoint others in their 
 stead ; but that our affairs may not suffer at that 
 instant, for want of a due number of counsellors, if 
 ever it should happen that there should be less than 
 seven of them residing in our said province, we do 
 hereby give and grant unto you the said Lord Corn- 
 bury, full power and authority to choose as many 
 persons out of the principal freeholders, inhabitants 
 thereof, as will make up the full number of our said 
 council to be seven, and no more ; which persons 
 so chosen and appointed by you, shall be to all in- 
 tents and purposes counsellors in our said province, 
 until either they shall be confirmed by us, or that by 
 the nomination of others by us, under our sign 
 manual and signet, our said council shall have seven 
 or more persons in it. And we do hereby give and 
 grant unto you, full power and authority, with the 
 advice and consent of our said council from time to 
 time, as need shall require, to summon and call 
 general assemblies of the freeholders and planters 
 within your government, in manner and form as 
 shall be directed in our instructions which shall be 
 given you, together with this our commission. Our 
 will and pleasure is, that the persons thereupon 
 duly elected, by the major part of the freeholders 
 of the respective counties and places so returned, 
 and having before sitting taken the oaths appointed 
 by act of parliament to be taken instead of the oaths 
 of allegiance and supremacy, and the oath men- 
 tioned in the aforesaid act, entitled, ' An act to de- 
 clare the alteration in the oath appointed to be taken 
 by the act,' entitled, 'An act for the further security 
 of his majesty's person, and the succession of the 
 crown in the protestant line, and for extinguishing 
 the hopes of the pretended Prince of Wales, and all 
 other pretenders, and their open and secret abet- 
 tors, and for declaring the association to be deter- 
 mined;' as also the afore -mentioned test; which 
 oath you shall commissionate fit persons under our 
 seal of Nova Csesaria, or New Jersey, to adminis- 
 ter unto them, and without taking of which oaths 
 and subscribing the said test, none shall be capa- 
 ble of sitting though elected : shall be called and 
 held the general assembly of that our province, and 
 that you the said Lord Cornbury, by and with the 
 advice and consent of our council and assembly, or 
 the major part of them respectively, shall have' full 
 power and authority to make, constitute and ordain 
 laws, statutes, and ordinances, for the public poace, 
 welfare and good government of our said province, 
 and of the people and inhabitants thereof, and uch 
 others as shall resort thereto, and for the benefit of 
 us, our heirs and successors, which said laws, sta- 
 tutes, and ordinances are not to be repugnant, but 
 as near as may be, agreeable unto the laws and 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 589 
 
 statutes of this our kingdom of England; provided 
 that all such laws, statutes, and ordinances, of what 
 nature or duration soever, be within three months 
 or sooner, after the making thereof, transmitted to 
 us, under our seal of Nova Caesaria or New Jersey, 
 for our approbation or disallowance of them, as 
 also duplicates thereof by the next conveyance, or 
 in case any or all of them being not before con- 
 firmed by us, shall at any time be disallowed and 
 not approved, and so signified by us, our heirs or suc- 
 cessors, under our or their sign manual and signet, 
 or by order of our or their privy council, unto you 
 the said Lord Cornbury or to the commander-in- 
 chief of our said province for the time being, then 
 such and so many of them as shall be disallowed 
 and not approved "shall from henceforth cease, de- 
 termine, and become utterly void and of none ef- 
 fect, anything to the contrary thereof notwithstand- 
 ing. And to the end that nothing may be passed or 
 done by our said council or assembly, to the preju- 
 dice of our heirs and successors, we will and ordain, 
 that you the said Lord Corubury, shall have and 
 enjoy a negative power in the making and passing of 
 all laws, statutes, and ordinances as aforesaid. And 
 that you shall and may likewise from time to lime, 
 as you shall judge it necessary, adjourn, prorogue 
 and dissolve, all general assemblies. Our will and 
 pleasure is, that you shall and may use and keep 
 the public seal of our province of Nova Caesaria, or 
 New Jersey, for sealing all things whatsoever that 
 pass the great seal of our said province under your 
 government. And we do further give and grant 
 unto you the said Lord Cornbury, full power and 
 authority, from time to time, and at all times here- 
 after, by yourself, or by any other to be authorized 
 by you in that behalf, to administer and give the 
 oaths appointed by act of parliament, instead of the 
 oath of allegiance and supremacy, to all and every 
 such person and persons as you shall think fit, who 
 shall at any time or times pass into our said pro- 
 vince, or shall be resident or abiding there. And 
 do further give and grant unto you, full power and 
 authority, with the advice and consent of our said 
 council, to erect, constitute, and establish such and 
 so many courts of judicature and public justice 
 within our said province under your government, as 
 you and they shall think fit and necessary, for the 
 hearing and determining of all causes as well crimi- 
 nal as civil, according to law and equity, and for 
 awarding execution thereupon, with all reasonable 
 and necessary powers, authorities, fees and privi 
 
 do hereby give and grant unto you, full power and 
 authority, where you shall see cause, or judge any 
 offender or offenders in criminal matters, or any 
 fines or forfeitures due unto us, fit objects of our 
 mercy, to pardon all such offenders, and to remit all 
 such offences, fines and forfeitures, treasons and 
 wilful murder only excepted ; in which case you 
 shall likewise have power upon extraordinary occa- 
 sions, to grant reprieves to the offenders, until and 
 to the intent our royal pleasure may be known 
 therein. And we do by these presents, authorise 
 and impower you to collate any person or persons 
 to any churches, chapels, or other ecclesiastical be- 
 nefices within our said province, as often as any of 
 them shall happen to be void. And we do hereby 
 give and grant unto you the said Lord Cornbury, 
 by yourself, and by your captains and commanders 
 by you to be authorised, full power and authority to 
 levy, arm, muster, command, and employ all per- 
 sons whatsoever residing within our said province 
 of Nova Caesaria, or New Jersey, and as occasion 
 shall serve, them to transport from one place to 
 another for the resisting and withstanding of all 
 enemies, pirates, and rebels, both at sea and land, 
 and to transport such forces to any of our plantations 
 in America, if necessity shall require, for the defence 
 of the same, against the invasion and attempts of 
 any of our enemies, pirates and rebels, if there shall 
 be occasion, to pursue and prosecute in or out of 
 the limits of our said province and plantations, or 
 any of them ; and if it shall please God them to 
 vanquish, apprehend and take, and being taken, 
 either according to law to put to death, or keep and 
 preserve alive at your discretion, and to execute 
 martial law in time of invasion, insurrection, or 
 war, and to do and execute all and every other 
 thing and things, which to any captain-general and 
 governor-in-chief doth or ought of right to belong. 
 And we do hereby give and grant unto you full 
 power and authority, by and with the advice and 
 consent of our said council, to erect, raise, and 
 build in our said province of Nova Caesaria, or 
 New Jersey, such and so many forts, platforms, 
 castles, cities, boroughs, towns, and fortifications, as 
 you, by the advice aforesaid, shall judge necessary, 
 and the same or any of them, to fortify and furnish 
 with ordinance, ammunition, and all sorts of arms 
 fit and necessary for the security and defence of our 
 said province ; and by the advice aforesaid, the 
 same or any of them again to demolish or dismantle 
 as may be most convenient. And forasmuch as 
 
 leges belonging unto them ; and also to appoint many mutinies and disorders may happen, by per 
 
 and commissionate fit persons in the several parts 
 of your government, to administer the oaths ap- 
 pointed by act of parliament to be taken instead of 
 the oath of allegiance and supremacy, and the oath 
 mentioned in the aforesaid act, entitled, ' An act 
 to declare the alteration in the oath to be taken by 
 the act,' entitled, ' An act for the further security of 
 his majesty's person, and the succession of the 
 crown in the protestant line, &c.;' as also the test unto 
 such persons as shall be obliged to take the same. 
 And we do hereby authorise and empower you, to 
 constitute and appoint judges, and in cases requisite 
 commissioners of oyer and terminer, justices of the 
 peace, and other necessary officers and magistrates 
 in our said province, for the better administration 
 of justice, and putting the laws in execution, and to 
 administer, or cause to be administered unto them, 
 such oath or oaths as are usually given for the due 
 execution and performance of offices and places, and 
 for the clearing of truth in judicial causes. And we 
 
 ns shipped and employed at sea, during the time 
 of war ; to the end that such may be better governed 
 and ordered, we do hereby give and grant unto you 
 the said Lord Cornbury, full power and authority, 
 to constitute and appoint captains, lieutenants, 
 masters of ships, and other commanders and officers, 
 and to grant unto such captains, lieutenants, mas- 
 ters of ships, and other commanders, and officers, 
 commissions, to execute the law martial during the 
 time of war, and to use such proceedings, authori- 
 ties, corrections, executions, upon any offender or 
 offenders who shall be mutinous, seditious, disor- 
 derly, or any ways unruly at sea, or during the time 
 of their abode or residence in any of the ports, har 
 bours, 
 shall be 
 
 during the time of war as aforesaid. Provided, that 
 nothing herein contained shall be construed to the 
 enabling you, or any by your authority, to hold plea 
 or have any jurisdiction of any offence, cause, mat- 
 
 or quays of our said province, as the cause 
 e found to require, according to martial law, 
 
590 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 ter or thing committed or done upon the high sea 
 or within any of the harbours, rivers or creeks o 
 our said province under your government, by anj 
 captain, commander, lieutenant, master, officer, sea 
 men, soldier, or other person whatsoever, who shal 
 be in actual service and pay, in or aboard any o 
 our ships of war, or the vessels acting by immediate 
 commission or warrant from our high admiral o 
 England, under the seal of our admiralty, or from 
 the commissioners for executing the office of ou: 
 high admiral of England for the time being ; bu 
 that such captain, commander, lieutenant, master 
 officers, seamen, soldiers, and other persons offending 
 shall be left to be proceeded against as the merit o 
 their otfences shall require, either by commissior 
 under our great seal of England, as the statute o 
 the 28th of King Henry VIII. directs, or by com- 
 mission from our high admiral of England, or from 
 our commissioners for executing the office of our 
 high admiral of England, for the time being, ac- 
 cording to the act of parliament passed in the thir 
 teenth year of King Charles II., entitled, ' An act 
 for establishing articles and orders, for the regula- 
 ting and better government of his majesty's navy, 
 ships of war, and forces by sea,' and not otherwise 
 Provided nevertheless, that all disorders and mis- 
 demeanors committed 'on shore by any captain, com- 
 mander, lieutenant, master, officer, seaman, soldier, 
 or any other person whatsoever, belonging to any 
 of our ships of war, or other vessels acting by imme- 
 diate commission, or warrant from our high admiral 
 of England, under the seal of our admiralty, or from 
 our commissioners for executing the office of high 
 admiral of England, for the time being, may be tried 
 and punished according to the laws and place where 
 any such disorders, offences and misdemeanors, shall 
 be committed on shore, notwithstanding such of- 
 fender be in our actual service and in our pay on 
 board any such our ships of war or other vessels, 
 acting by immediate commission or warrant from 
 our high admiral, or from our commissioners for 
 executing the office of high admiral for the time 
 being as aforesaid, so as he shall not receive any 
 protection for the delaying of justice, for such of- 
 fences committed on shore, from any pretence of 
 his being employed in our service at sea. Our 
 will and pleasure is, that all publick money raised, 
 or that shall be raised, by any act hereafter to be 
 made within our said province, and issued out by 
 warrant from you, by and with the advice and con- 
 sent of our council, and disposed of by you for the 
 support of the government, and otherwise ; we do 
 hereby give you the said Lord Cornbury, full power 
 and authority to order and appoint fairs, marts, and 
 markets, as also such and so many ports, har- 
 bours, quays, havens, and other places for the con- 
 veniency and security of shipping, and for the load- 
 ing and unloading of goods and merchandize, as by 
 you, with the advice and consent of our said council, 
 shall be thought fit and necessary. And we do 
 hereby require and command all officers and magi- 
 strates, civil and military, and all other the inhabi- 
 tants of our said province, to be obedient, aiding 
 and assisting unto you the said Lord Cornbury, in 
 the execution of this our commission, and of the 
 powers and authorities herein contained; and in 
 case of your death or absence out of our said pro- 
 vince, to be obedient, aiding and assisting to such 
 person as shall be appointed by us, to be our lieu- 
 tenant-governor, or commander-in-chief of the said 
 province, to whom we do therefore by these pre- 
 sents, give and grant all and singular the privileges 
 
 and authorities aforesaid, to be by him executed and' 
 enjoyed during our pleasure, or until your arriral 
 within our said province : And if upon your death 
 or absence out of our said province, there be no per- 
 son upon the place commissionated or appointed by 
 us to be our lieutenant-governor, or commander-in- 
 chief of the said province ; our will and pleasure is, 
 that the then present council of our said province do 
 take upon them the administration of the govern- 
 ment, and execute this commission, and the several 
 powers and authorities herein contained, and that 
 such counsellor who shall be at the time of your 
 death or absence, residing within our said province, 
 and nominated by our instructions to you, before 
 any other at that time residing there, do preside in 
 our said council, with such privileges and preemi 
 nences as may be necessary in those circumstances, 
 for the due and orderly carrying on the public service 
 in the administration of the government as afore- 
 said, until our pleasure be further known, or until 
 your return. Lastly, we do hereby declare, ordain 
 and appoint, that you the said Lord Cornbury, shall 
 and may hold, execute, and enjoy the office and place 
 of captain-general and governor-in-chief, in and 
 over our province of Nova Csesaria, or New Jersey, to- 
 gether with all and singular th e powers and authorities 
 hereby granted unto you } for and during our will 
 and pleasure, from and after the publication of this 
 our commission. In witness whereof we have caused 
 these our letters to be made patents : Witness our- 
 self at Westminster, the 5th day of December, in 
 the first year of our reign." 
 
 Instructions from Queen Anne to Lord Cornbury. 
 
 " Instructions for our right trusty and well beloved 
 Edward Lord Cornbury, our captain-general and 
 governor-in-chief, in and over our province of 
 Nova Cffisaria, or New Jersey, in America. 
 Given at our Court at St. James's, the sixteenth 
 day of November, 1702, in the first year of our 
 reign. 
 
 " 1. With these our instructions you will receive 
 our commission under our great seal of England, 
 constituting you our captain-general and governor- 
 in-chief of our province of New Jersey. 
 
 " 2. You are with all convenient speed to repair 
 to our said province, and being there arrived, you. 
 are to take upon you the execution of the place 
 and trust we have reposed in you, and forthwith to 
 call together the following persons, whom we do by 
 these presents appoint and constitute members of 
 our council in and for that province, viz. Edward 
 Hunloke, Lewis Morris, Andrew Bowne, Samuel 
 Jenings, Thomas Revell, Francis Davenport, Wil- 
 iam Pinhorne, Samuel Leonard, George Deacon. 
 Samuel Walker, Daniel Leeds, William Sandford, 
 nd Robert Quarry, esquires. 
 
 " 3. And you are with all due solemnity, to 
 cause our said commission under our great seal of 
 England, constituting you our captain-general and 
 governor-in-chief as aforesaid, to be read and pub- 
 ished at the said meeting of our council, and to 
 ?ause proclamation to be made in the several most 
 mblic places of our said province, of your being 
 constituted by us our captain-general and govcrncr- 
 n-chief as aforesaid. 
 
 " 4. Which being done, you shall yourself take, 
 ,nd also administer to each of the members of our 
 aid council so appointed by us, the oaths appointed 
 >y act of parliament to be taken instead of the 
 iaths of allegiance and supremacy, and the oath 
 nentioned in an act, entitled, ' An act to declare 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 the alteration in the oath appointed to be taken by 
 the act,' entitled, ' An act for the further security of 
 his majesty's person, and the succession of the 
 crown in the protestant line. &c. ;' as also the test 
 mentioned in an act of parliament made in the 
 twenty-fifth year of the reign of King Charles II., 
 entitled, 'An act for preventing dangers which may 
 happen from popish recusants ;' together with an 
 oath for the due execution of your and their places 
 and trusts, as well with regard to the equal and im- 
 partial administration of justice in all causes that 
 
 thereof without good and sufficient cause. And in 
 case of suspension of any of them, you are to cause 
 your reasons for so doing, together with the charges 
 and proofs against the said persons, and their an- 
 swers thereunto (unless you have some extraordinary 
 reason to the contrary) to be duly entered upon the 
 council books ; and you are forthwith to transmit 
 the same, together with your reasons for not enter- 
 ing them upon the council books, (in case you do not 
 enter them) unto us and to our commissioners for 
 trade and plantations as aforesaid. 
 
 hii come before you, as otherwise, and likewise j " 13. You are to signify our pleasure unto the 
 the oath required to be taken by governors of plant- | members of our said council, that if any of them 
 ations, to do their utmost, that the laws relating to ! shall at any time hereafter absent themselves, and 
 the plantations be observed. continue absent above the space of two months to- 
 
 "5. You are forthwith to communicate unto our j gether from our said province without leave from 
 said council, such and so many of these our instruc- j you, or from our governor or commander-in-chief of 
 tions, wherein their advice and consent are mentioned j our said province, for the time being, first obtained; 
 to be requisite, as likewise all such others from time : or shall remain absent for the space of two years, or 
 to time, as you shall find convenient for our service the greater part thereof successively, without our 
 to be imparted to them. j leave given them under our royal sign manual; their 
 
 '' 6. And whereas the inhabitants of our said place or places in our said council, shall immediately 
 province have of late years been unhappily divided, thereupon become void, and that we will forthwith 
 and by their enmity to each other, our service and ; appoint others in their stead. 
 
 their own welfare have been very much obstructed ; "14. And in order to the better consolidating 
 you are therefore in the execution of our commis- and incorporating the two divisions of East and 
 sion, to avoid the engaging yourself in the parties ; West New Jersey, into and under one government, 
 which have been formed amongst them, and to use our will and pleasure is, that with all convenient 
 such impartiality and moderation to all, as may speed, you call together one general assembly for 
 best conduce to our service, and the good of the the enacting of laws for the joint and mutual good 
 colony. of the whole; and that the said general assembly 
 
 " 7. You are to permit the members of our said do sit in the first place at Perth Amboy, in East 
 council, to have and enjoy freedom of debate and New Jersey, and afterwards the same, or other the 
 vote, in all affairs of public concern, that may be ! next general assembly, at Burlington, in West New 
 debated in council. j Jersey ; and that all future general assemblies do 
 
 " 8. And although by our commission aforesaid, I sit at one or the other of those places alternately, or 
 we have thought fit to direct that any three of our (in cases of extraordinary necessity) according as 
 counsellors make a quorum, it is nevertheless our you with the advice of our foresaid council, shall 
 
 will and pleasure, that you do not act with a quorum 
 of less than five members, except in case of necessity. 
 " 9. And that we may be always informed of the 
 names and characters of persons" fit to supply the 
 vacancies which shall happen in our said council, 
 
 you are to transmit unto us, by one of our principal ! habitants, householders, of the city or town of Perth 
 secretarys of state, and to our commissioners for \ Amboy, in East New Jersey ; two by the inhabit- 
 trade and plantations, with all convenient speed, the j ants, householders, of the city and town of Burling- 
 names and characters of six persons, inhabitants of ton in West New Jersey ; ten by the freeholders of 
 
 think fit to appoint them. 
 
 " 15. And our further will and pleasure is, that 
 the general assembly so to be called, do consist of 
 four and twenty representatives, who are to be 
 chosen in the manner following, viz. two by the ' 
 
 the eastern division, and six other persons, inhabit- 
 ants of the western division of our said province, 
 wh<m you shall esteem the best qualified for that 
 trust ; and so from time to time when any of them 
 shall die, depart out of our said province, or become 
 otherwise unfit, you are to nominate unto us so many 
 other persons in their stead, that the list of twelve 
 persons fit to supply the said vacancies, viz., six out 
 of the east, and six out of the west division, as afore- 
 said, may be always compleat. 
 
 " 10. You are from time to time to send to us as 
 aforesaid, and to our commissioners for trade and 
 plantations, the names and qualities of any members 
 by you put into our said council, by the first conve- 
 niency after your so doing. 
 
 "11. And in the choice and nomination of the 
 members of our said council, as also of the principal 
 officers, judges, assistants, justices, and sheriffs, you 
 are always to take care that they be men of good 
 life, and well affected to our government, of good 
 estates and abilities, and not necessitous people or 
 much in debt. 
 
 ' 12. You are neithe* to augment nor diminish 
 the number of our said council, as it is hereby esta- 
 blished, nor to suspend any of the present members 
 
 East New Jersey, and ten by the freeholders of 
 West New Jersey ; and that no person shall be ca- 
 pable of being elected a representative by the free- 
 holders of either division, or afterwards of sitting in 
 general assemblies, who shall not have 1,000 acres 
 of land, of an estate of freehold in his own right, 
 within the division for which he shall be chosen; 
 and that no freeholder shall be capable of voting in 
 the election of such representative, who shall not 
 have 100 acres of land of an estate of freehold in 
 his own right, within the division for which he sh?ll 
 so vote : And that this number of representatives 
 shall not be enlarged or diminished, or the manner 
 of electing them altered, otherwise than by an act 
 or acts of the general assembly there, and confirmed 
 by the approbation of us, our heirs and successors. 
 
 " 16. You are with all convenient speed to cause 
 a collection to be made of all the laws, orders, rules, 
 or such as have hitherto served or been reputed 
 as laws amongst the inhabitants of our said pro- 
 vince of Nova Cfesaria, or New Jersey, and, to- 
 gether with our aforesaid council and assembly, you 
 are to revise, correct, and amend the same, as may 
 be necessary ; and accordingly to enact such and so 
 many of them, as by you with the advice of our said 
 
592 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 council and assembly, shall be judged proper and 
 conducive to our service, and the welfare of our said 
 province, that they may be transmitted unto us, in 
 authentic form, for our approbation or disallowance. 
 
 "17. You are to observe in the passing of the 
 said laws, and of all other laws, that the stile enact- 
 ing the same, be by the governor, council, and assem- 
 bly, and no other. 
 
 " 18. You are also as much as possible to observe, 
 in the passing of all laws, that whatever may be re- 
 quisite upon each different matter, be accordingly 
 provided for by a different law, without intermixing 
 in one and the same act, such things as have no 
 proper relation to each other; and you are espe- 
 cially to take care that no clause or clauses be in- 
 serted in, or annexed to any act, which shall be 
 foreign to what the title of such respective act imports. 
 
 " 19. You are to transmit authentic copies of the 
 forementioned laws that shall be enacted, and of all 
 laws, statutes, and ordinances, which shall at any time 
 hereafter be made or enacted within our said province, 
 each of them separately, under the public seal, unto 
 us, and to our said commissioners for trade and 
 plantations, within three months or by the first op- 
 portunity after their being enacted, together with 
 duplicates thereof by the next conveyance, upon 
 pain of our high displeasure, and of the forfeiture of 
 that year's salary, wherein you shall at any time, 
 or upon any pretence whatsoever, omit to send 
 over the said laws, statutes, and ordinances as 
 aforesaid, within the time above limited, as also of 
 such other penalty as we shall please to inflict. But 
 if it shall happen, that during time of war, no ship- 
 ping shall come from our said province, or other 
 our adjacent or neighbouring plantations, within 
 three months after the making such laws, statutes, 
 and ordinances, whereby the same may be trans- 
 mitted as aforesaid, then the said laws, statutes, and 
 ordinances are to be so transmitted as aforesaid, by 
 the next conveyance after the making thereof when- 
 ever it may happen, for our approbation or disallow- 
 ance of the same. 
 
 " 20. You are to take care, that in all acts or 
 orders to be passed within that our province in any 
 case for levying money or imposing fines and penal- 
 ties, express mention be made that the same is 
 granted or reserved to us, our heirs or successors, for 
 the public uses of that our province, and the support 
 of the government thereof, as by the said act or 
 orders shall be directed. 
 
 "21. And we do particularly require and com- 
 mand, that no money, or value of money whatso- 
 ever, be given or granted by any act or order of 
 assembly, to any governor, lieutenant-governor, or 
 commander-in-chief of our said province, which 
 shall not according to the stile of acts of parliament 
 in England, be mentioned to be given and granted 
 unto us, with the humble desire of such assembly, 
 that the same be applied to the use and behoof of 
 such governor, lieutenant-governor, or commander- 
 in-chief, if we shall so think fit; or if we shall not 
 approve of such gift or application, that the said 
 money or value of money, be then disposed of and 
 appropriated to such other uses as in the said act or 
 order shall be mentioned ; and that from the time 
 the same shall be raised, it remain in the hands of 
 the receiver of our said province until our royal 
 pleasure shall be known therein. 
 
 " 22. You shall also propose with the said gene- 
 ral assembly, and use your utmost endeavours with 
 them, that an act be passed for raising and settling 
 a public revenue for defraying the necessary charge 
 
 of the government of our said province, in which 
 provision be particularly made for a competent 
 salary to yourself, as captain-general and governor- 
 in-chief of our said province, and to other our suc- 
 ceeding captain-generals, for supporting the dignity 
 of the said office, as likewise due provision for the 
 salaries of the respective members of our council 
 and assembly, and of all other officers necessary 
 for the administration of that government. 
 
 " 23. Whereas it is not reasonable that any of 
 our colonies or plantations should by virtue of any 
 exemptions or other privileges whatsoever, be allow- 
 ed to seek and pursue their own particular advan- 
 tages, by methods tending to undermine and pre- 
 judice our other colonies and plantations, which 
 have equal title to our royal care ; and whereas the 
 trade and welfare of our province of New York, 
 would be greatly prejudiced, if not intirely ruined, 
 by allowing unto the inhabitants of Nova Csesaria, 
 or New Jersey, any exemption from those charges, 
 which the inhabitants of New York are liable to ; 
 you are therefore in the settling of a public revenue 
 as before directed, to propose to the assembly, that 
 such customs, duties, and other impositions be laid 
 upon all commodities imported or exported in or 
 out of our said province of Nova Caesaria, or New 
 Jersey, as may equal the charge that is or shall be 
 laid upon the like commodities in our province of 
 New York. 
 
 " 24. And whereas we are willing in the best 
 manner to provide for the support of the govern- 
 ment of our said province, by setting apart suffici- 
 ent allowances to such as shall be our governor or 
 commander-in-chief, residing for the time being 
 within the same ; our will and pleasure therefore is, 
 that when it shall happen, that you shall be absent 
 from the territories of New Jersey and New York, 
 of which we have appointed you governor, one full 
 moiety of the salary and of all perquisites and 
 emoluments whatsoever, which would otherwise 
 become due unto you, shall, during the time of your 
 absence from the said territories, be paid and satis- 
 fied unto such governor or commander-in-chief who 
 shall be resident upon the place for the time being, 
 which we do hereby order and allot unto him to- 
 wards his maintenance, and for the better support 
 of the dignity of that our government. 
 
 " 25. Whereas great prejudice may happen to 
 our service and the security of our said province 
 under your government by your absence from those 
 parts, without a sufficient cause and especial leave 
 from us ; for prevention thereof, you are not, upon 
 any pretence whatsoever, to come to Europe from 
 your government, without first having obtained 
 leave for so doing, under our signet and sign manu- 
 al, or by our order in our privy council. 
 
 " 26. You are not to permit any clause whatso- 
 ever to be inserted in any law for the levying money, 
 or the value of money, whereby the same shall not 
 be made liable to be accounted for unto us here in 
 England, and to our high treasurer, or to our com- 
 missioners of our treasury for the time being. 
 
 " 27. You are to take care that fair books of ac- 
 counts of all receipts and payments of all such 
 money be duly kept, and the truth thereof attested 
 upon oath, and that the said books be transmitted 
 every half year or oftner, to our high treasurer, or 
 to our commissioners of our treasury for the time 
 being, and to our commissioners for trade and 
 plantations, and duplicates thereof by the next 
 conveyance ; in which books shall be specified every 
 particular gum raised or disposed of, together with 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 593 
 
 the names of the persons to whom any payment j propose to the general assembly of our said province, 
 shall be made, to the end we may be satisfied of the the passing of such act or acts, whereby the right 
 
 right and due application of the revenue of our 
 said province. 
 
 " 28. You are not to suffer any public money 
 whatsoever, to be issued or disposed of otherwise 
 
 and property of the said general proprietors to the 
 soil of our said province may be confirmed to them, 
 according to their respective rights and title ; to- 
 gether with all such quit-rents as have been re- 
 
 than by warrant under your hand, by and with the served, or are or shall become due to the said general 
 advice' and consent of our said council; but the | proprietors, from the inhabitants of our said pro- 
 assembly may be nevertheless permitted from time , vince ; and all such privileges as are expressed in the 
 to time to view and examine the accounts of money conveyances made by the said duke of York, except- 
 disposed of by virtue of laws made ing only the right of government, which remains in 
 
 or value of money 
 
 by them, which you are 
 
 there shall be occasion. 
 
 to signify unto them as 
 
 And it is our express will and pleasure, 
 
 And you are further to take care, that by the 
 said act or acts so to be passed, the particular titles 
 and estates of all the inhabitants of that province, 
 
 that no law for raising any imposition of wines or I and other purchasers claiming under the said gene 
 
 other strong liquors, be made to continue for less 
 than one whole year; as also that all laws what- 
 soever for the good government and support of our 
 said province, be made indefinite, and without 
 limitation of time, except the same be for a tempo- 
 rary end, which shall expire and have its full effect 
 within a certain time. 
 
 " 30. And therefore you shall not re-enact any 
 law which shall have been once enacted there by 
 you, except upon very urgent occasions, but in no 
 case more than once without our express consent. 
 
 " 31. You shall not permit any act or order to 
 pass in our said province, whereby the price or 
 value of the current coin within your government, 
 (whether it be foreign or belonging to our domi- 
 nions) may be altered, without our particular leave 
 or direction for the same. 
 
 " 32. And you are particularly not to pass any 
 law or do any act, by grant, settlement, or other- 
 wise, whereby our revenue, after it shall be settled, 
 may be lessened or impaired, without our especial 
 leave or commands therein. 
 
 " 33. You shall not remit any fines or forfeitures 
 whatsoever, above the sum of ten pounds, nor dis- 
 pose of any escheats, fines or forfeitures whatsoever, 
 until, upon signifying unto our high treasurer, or 
 to our commissioners of our treasury for the time 
 
 being, and to our commiss 
 
 for trade and plant- 
 
 ations, the nature of the offence and the occasion 
 of such fines, forfeitures, or escheats, with the par- 
 ticular sums or value thereof, (whicli you are to do 
 with all speed) you shall have received our directions 
 therein; but you may in the mean time suspend 
 the payment of the said fines and forfeitures. 
 
 " 34. You are to require the secretary of our said 
 province, or his deputy for the time being, to fur- 
 nish you with transcripts of all such acts and pub- 
 lick orders as shall be made from time to time, 
 together with a copy of the journals of the council, 
 'to the end the same may be transmitted unto us, 
 and to our commissioners for trade and plantations 
 as above directed, which he is duly to perform, upon 
 pain of incurring the forfeiture of his place. 
 
 " 35. You are also to require feom the clerk of 
 the assembly, or other proper officer, transcripts 
 of all the journals and other proceedings of the said 
 assembly, to the end the same may in like manner 
 be transmitted as aforesaid. 
 
 " 36. Our will and pleasure is, that for the better 
 quieting the minds of our good subjects, inhabitants 
 of our said province, and for settling the properties 
 and possessions of all persons concerned therein, 
 either as general proprietors of the soil under the 
 first orginal grant of the said province, made by 
 the late King Charles II., to the late duke of 
 York, or as particular purchasers of any parcels of 
 land from the said general proprietors, you shall 
 
 HIST. OF AMER. Nos. 75 & 76. 
 
 ral proprietors, be confirmed and settled as of right 
 does appertain, under such obligations as shall tend 
 to the best and speediest improvement or cultivation 
 of the same. Provided always, that you do not 
 consent to any actor acts, to lay any tax upon lands 
 that lie unprofitable. 
 
 " 37. You shall not permit any other person or 
 persons besides the said general proprietors, or their 
 agents, to purchase any land whatsoever from the 
 Indians within the limits of their grant. 
 
 " 38. You are to permit the surveyors and other 
 persons appointed by the fore-mentioned general 
 proprietors of the soil of that province, for surveying 
 and recording the surveys of land granted by and 
 held of them, to execute accordingly their respective 
 trusts : And you are likewise to permit, and if need 
 be, aid and assist such other agent or agents, as 
 shall be appointed by the said proprietors for that 
 end, to collect and receive the quit-rents which are 
 or shall be due unto them, from the particular pos- 
 sessors of any parcels or tracts of land from time to 
 time. Provided always, that such surveyors, 
 agents or other officers appointed by the said gene- 
 ral proprietors, do not only take proper oaths for 
 the due execution and performance of their respec- 
 tive offices or employments, and give good and 
 sufficient security for their so doing, but that they 
 likewise take the oaths appointed by act of parlia"- 
 ment to be taken instead of the oaths of allegiance 
 and supremacy, and the oath mentioned in the 
 aforesaid act, entitled, 'An act to declare the alter- 
 ation in the oath appointed to be taken by the act,' 
 entitled, ' An act for the further security of his majes 
 ty's person and the succession of the crown in the 
 protestant line, and for extinguishing the hopes of 
 the pretended prince of Wales, and all other pre- 
 tenders, and their open and secret abettors, and 
 for declaring the association to be determined ;' as 
 also the fore-mentioned test. And you are more 
 particularly to take care that all lands purchased 
 from the said proprietors, be cultivated and im- 
 proved by the possessors thereof. 
 
 " 39. You shall transmit unto us, and to our com- 
 missioners for trade and plantations, by the first op- 
 portunity, a map with the exact description of our 
 whole territory under your government, and of the 
 several plantations that are upon it. 
 
 40. You are likewise to send a list of officers 
 employed under your government, together with all 
 public charges. 
 
 " 41. You shall not displace any of the judges, 
 justices, sheriffs, or other officers or ministers within 
 our said province, without good and sufficient cause 
 to be signified unto us, and to our said commission- 
 ers for trade and plantations ; and to prevent arbi- 
 trary removal of judges and justices of the peace, 
 vou shall not express any limitation of time iu the 
 
 3 L 
 
594 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 commissions which you are to grant, with the advice 
 and consent of the council of our said province, to 
 persons fit for those employments, nor shall you 
 execute yourself, or by deputy, any of the said 
 offices, nor suffer any persons to execute more offices 
 than one by deputy. 
 
 " 42. Whereas we are given to understand, that 
 there are several offices within our said province 
 granted under the great seal of England, and that 
 our service may be very much prejudiced by reason 
 of the absence of the patentees, and by their ap- 
 pointing deputies not fit to officiate in their stead ; 
 you are therefore to inspect the said offices, and to 
 inquire into the capacity and behaviour of the per- 
 sons now exercising them, and to report thereupon 
 to us, and to our commissioners for trade and plant- 
 ations, what you think fit to be done or altered in 
 relation thereunto ; and you are upon the misbe- 
 haviour of any of the said patentees, or their depu- 
 ties, to suspend them from the execution of their 
 places, till you shall have represented the whole 
 matter and received our directions therein; but 
 you shall not by colour of any power or authority 
 hereby or otherwise granted or mentioned to be 
 granted unto you, take upon you to give, grant or 
 dispose of any office or place within our said pro- 
 vince, which now is or shall be granted under the 
 great seal of England, any further than that you 
 may upon the vacancy of any such office or place, 
 or suspension of any such officer by you as aforesaid, 
 put in any fit person to officiate in the interval till 
 you shall have represented the matter unto us, and 
 to our commissioners for trade and plantations as 
 aforesaid, (which you are to do by the first oppor- 
 tunity) and till the iaid office or place be disposed 
 of by us, our heirs or successors, under the great 
 seal of England, or that our further directions be 
 given therein. 
 
 " 43. In case any goods, money, or other estate 
 of pirates, or piratically taken, shall be brought 
 in, or found within our said province of Nova- 
 Caesaria, or New Jersey, or taken on board any 
 ships or vessels, you are to cause the same to be 
 seized and secured until you shall have given us an 
 account thereof, and received our pleasure concern- 
 ing the disposal of the same : But in case such 
 goods or any part of them are perishable, the same 
 shall be publickly sold and disposed of, and the 
 produce thereof in like manner secured until our 
 further order. 
 
 "44. And whereas commissions have been granted 
 unto several persons in our respective plantations 
 in America, for the trying of pirates in those parts 
 pursuant to the act for the more effectual suppression 
 of piracy, and by a commission already sent to our 
 province of New York, you (as captain-general and 
 governor-in-chief of our said province of New York) 
 are empowered, together with others therein men- 
 tioned, to proceed accordingly in reference to our 
 provinces of New York, New Jersey, and Connec- 
 ticut ; our will and pleasure is, that in all matters 
 relating to pirates, you govern yourself according 
 to the intent of the act and commission aforemen- 
 tioned ; but whereas accessaries in cases of piracy 
 beyond the seas, are by the same act left to be 
 tried in England, according to the statute of the 
 second of King Henry VIII., we do hereby 
 further direct and require you to send all such ac- 
 cessaries in cases of piracy in our aforesaid pro- 
 vince of Nova Cajsaria or New Jersey, with the 
 proper evidences that you may have against them, 
 into England, in order to their being tried here. 
 
 " 45. You shall not erect any court or office of 
 judicature, not before erected or established, with- 
 out our especial order. 
 
 " 46. You are to transmit unto us and to our 
 commissioners for trade and plantations, with all 
 convenient speed, a particular account of all esta- 
 blishments of jurisdictions, courts, offices, and 
 officers, powers, authorities, fees and privileges, 
 which shall be granted or settled within the said 
 province, by virtue and in pursuance of our com- 
 mission and instructions to you our captain-general 
 and governor-in-chief of the same, to the end you 
 may receive our further direction therein. 
 
 " 47. And you are, with the advice and consent of 
 our said council, to take especial care to regulate 
 all salaries and fees belonging to places, or 
 paid upon emergencies, that they be within the 
 bounds of moderation, and that no exaction be 
 made on any occasion whatsoever; as also, that 
 tables of all fees be publickly hung up in all places 
 where such fees are to be paid ; and you are to 
 transmit copies of all such tables of fees to us, and 
 to our commissioners, for trade and plantations as 
 aforesaid. 
 
 " 48. Whereas it is necessary that our rights and 
 dues be preserved and recovered, and that speedy 
 and effectual justice be administered in all cases 
 relating to our revenue, you are to take care, that 
 a court of exchequer be called and do meet at all 
 such times as shall be needful, and you are to in- 
 form us and our commissioners for trade and plant- 
 ations, whether our service may require that a 
 constant court of exchequer be settled and esta- 
 blished there. 
 
 " 49. You are to take care that no man's life, 
 member, freehold, or goods be taken away or 
 harmed in our said province, otherwise than by es- 
 tablished and known laws, not repugnant to, but as 
 much as may be, agreeable to the laws of England. 
 
 " 50. You shall administer, or cause to be ad- 
 ministered, the oaths appointed by act of parliament 
 to be taken instead of the oaths of allegiance and 
 supremacy, and the oath mentioned in the aforesaid 
 act, entitled, ' An act to declare the alteration in 
 the oath appointed to be taken by the act,' entitled, 
 'An act for the further securityof his majesty's person, 
 and the succession of the crown in the protestant 
 line, and for extinguishing the hopes of the pre- 
 tended prince of Wales, and all other pretenders, 
 and their open and secret abettors, and for declar- 
 ing the association to be determined ;' as also the 
 fore-mentioned test, to the members and officers of 
 the council and assembly, and to all judges, justices, 
 and all other persons that hold any office or place of 
 trust or profit in the said province, whether by 
 virtue of any patent under our great seal of Eng- 
 land, or otherwise, without which you are not to 
 admit any person whatsoever into any publick office, 
 nor suffer those who have been admitted formerly 
 to continue therein. 
 
 " 51. You are to permit a liberty of conscience to 
 all persona (except papists) so they may be con- 
 tented with a quiet and peaceable enjoyment of the 
 same, not giving offence or scandal to the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 " 52. And whereas we have been informed, that 
 divers of our good subjects inhabiting those parts, 
 do make a religious scruple of swearing, and by 
 reason of their refusing to take an oath in courts of 
 justice and other places, are or may be liable to 
 many inconveniences ; our will and pleasure is, 
 that in order to their ease in what they conceive 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 595 
 
 to be matter of conscience, so far as may be consist- 
 ent with good order and government, you take 
 care, that an act be passed in the general assembly 
 of our said province, to the like effect as that passed 
 here in the seventh and eighth years of his majesty's 
 reign, entitled, ' An act, that the solemn affirm* 
 tion and declaration of the people called Quakers, 
 shall be accepted, instead of an oath in the usual 
 form,' and that the same be transmitted to us, and 
 to our commissioners for trade and plantations as 
 before directed. 
 
 " 53. And whereas we have been further informed, 
 that in the first settlement of the government of our 
 said province, it may so happen, that the number 
 of inhabitants fitly qualified to serve in our council 
 in the general assembly, and in other places of 
 trust or profit there, will be but small ; it is there- 
 fore our will and pleasure, that such of the said 
 people called quakers, as shall be found capable of 
 any of those places or employments, and accordingly 
 be elected or appointed to serve therein, may upon 
 their taking and signing the declaration of allegi- 
 ance to us in the form used by the same people 
 here in England, together with a solemn declaration 
 for true discharge of their respective trusts, be ad- 
 mitted by you into any of the said places or em- 
 ployments. 
 
 " 54. You shall send an account unto us, and to 
 our commissioners for trade and plantations, of the 
 present number of planters and inhabitants, men, 
 women and children, as well masters as servant"., 
 free and unfree, and of the slaves in our said pro- 
 vince, as also a yearly account of the increase or 
 decrease of them, and how many of them are fit to 
 bear arms in the militia of our said province. 
 
 " 55. You shall also cause an account to be kept 
 of all persons born, christened and buried, and 
 you shall yearly send fair abstracts thereof to us, 
 and to our commissioners for trade and plantations 
 as aforesaid. 
 
 " 56. You shall take care, that all planters and 
 Christian servants, be well and fitly provided with 
 arms, and that they be listed under good officers, 
 and when and as often as shall be thought fit, mus- 
 tered and trained, whereby they may be in a better 
 readiness for the defence of our said province under 
 your government ; and you are to endeavour to get 
 an act passed, (if not already done) for apportion- 
 ing the number of white servants to be kept by 
 every planter. 
 
 " 57. You are to take especial care, that neither 
 the frequency, nor unreasonableness of their 
 inarches, musters and trainings, be an unnecessary 
 impediment to the affairs of the inhabitants. 
 
 " 58. You shall not, upon any occasion whatso- 
 ever, establish, or put in execution, any articles of 
 war, or other law martial, upon any of our subjects, 
 inhabitants of our said province, without the advice 
 and consent of our council there. 
 
 " 59. And whereas there is no power given you 
 by your commission, to execute martial law in the 
 time of peace upon soldiers in pay, and that never- 
 theless it may be necessary that some care be taken 
 for the keeping of good discipline amongst those, 
 that we may at any time think fit to send into our 
 said province, (which may properly be provided for 
 by the legislative power of the same) you are there- 
 fore to recommend to the general assembly of our 
 said province, that they prepare such act or law 
 for the punishing of mutiny, desertion and false 
 musters, and for the better preserving of good dis- 
 cipline amongst the said soldiers, as may best 
 answer those ends. 
 
 "60. And whereas upon complaints that have 
 been made of the irregular proceedings of the cap- 
 tains of some of our ships of war, in the pressing of 
 seamen in several of our plantations; we have 
 thought fit to order, and have given directions to 
 our high-admiral accordingly, that when any cap- 
 tain or commander of any of our ships of war, in 
 any of our said plantations, shall have occasion for 
 seamen, to serve on board our ships under their 
 command, they do make their applications to the 
 governors, and commanders-in-chief of our planta- 
 tions respectively, to whom as vice-admirals, we are 
 pleased to commit the sole power of impressing 
 seamen in any of our plantations in America, or in 
 sight of any of them, you are therefore hereby re- 
 quired upon such application made to you, by anv 
 of the commanders of our said ships of war, within 
 our province of Nova Caesaria, or New Jersey, to 
 take care that our said ships of war be furnished 
 with a number of seamen that may be necessary 
 for our service on board them from time to time. 
 
 " 61 . And whereas together with other powers of 
 vice-admiralty, you will receive authority from 
 our dearest husband Prince George of Denmark, 
 our high-admiral of England, and of our plantations, 
 upon the refusal or neglect of any captain or com- 
 mander of any of our ships of war, to execute the 
 written orders he shall receive from you for our ser- 
 vice, and the service of our province under your 
 government, or upon his negligent or undue execu 
 tion thereof, to suspend him, such captain or com- 
 mander, from the exercise of his said office of captain 
 or commander, and to commit him into safe custody 
 either on board his own ship or elsewhere, at your 
 discretion, in order to his being brought to answer 
 for such refusal or neglect, by commission either 
 under our great seal of England, or from our high- 
 admiral, or our commissioners for executing the 
 office of our high-admiral of England for the time 
 being. 
 
 " 62. And whereas you will likewise receive 
 directions from our said dearest husband, as our 
 high-admiral of England, and of our plantations, 
 that the captain or commander, so by you suspended 
 shall during such his suspension and commit- 
 ment, be succeeded in his said office by such com- 
 mission or warrant officer of our said ship, appointed 
 by our said high-admiral of England, or by our 
 commissioners for executing the office of our high- 
 admiral of England for the time being, as by the 
 known practice and discipline of our navy, does 
 and ought to succeed him next as in case of death, 
 sickness, or other ordinary disability happening to 
 the commander oi ? any of our ships of war and not 
 otherwise, you standing also accountable for the 
 truth and importance of the crime and misdemea- 
 nor, for which you shall so proceed to the suspend- 
 ing of such our captain or commander ; you are not 
 to exercise the said power of suspending any such 
 captains or commanders of our ships of war, other- 
 wise than by virtue of such commission or authority 
 from our said high-admiral ; any former custom or 
 usage to the contrary notwithstanding. 
 
 " 63. Whereas it is absolutely necessary, that 
 we be exactly informed of the state of defence of 
 all our plantations in America, as well in relation 
 to the stores of war that are in each plantation, as to 
 the forts and fortifications there, and what more 
 may be necessary to be built for the defence and 
 security of the same ; you are so soon as possible, 
 to prepare an account thereof, with relation to our 
 said province of Nova Csesaria, or Nevr Jersey, in 
 
 3 L2 
 
596 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the most particular manner, and you are therein to 
 express the present state of the arms, ammunition, 
 and other stores of war, either in any publick ma- 
 gazines, or in the hands of private persons, together 
 with the state of all places either already fortified, 
 or that you judge necessary to be fortified for the 
 security of our said province" ; and you are to trans- 
 mit the said account to us, and to our commis- 
 sioners for trade and plantations by the first oppor- 
 tunity, and other like accounts yearly in the same 
 manner. 
 
 " 64. And that we may be the better informed 
 of the trade of our said province, you are to take 
 especial care, that due entries be made in all ports 
 in our said province of all goods and commodities, 
 their species or quantities imported or exported 
 from thence, with the names, burden, and guns of 
 all ships importing and exporting the same, also 
 the names of their commanders, and likewise ex- 
 pressing from and to what places the said ships do 
 come and go, a copy whereof the naval officer is 
 to furnish you with, and you are to transmit the 
 same unto us, or our high treasurer, or our com- 
 missioners of our treasury for the time being, and 
 to our commissioners for trade and plantations 
 quarterly, and duplicates thereof by the next con- 
 veyance. 
 
 "65. And whereas great losses have been sus- 
 tained by our subjects, trading to our plantations 
 in America, by ships sailing from tnose parts with- 
 out convoy, or without the company of other ships, 
 which might protect them from our enemies, by 
 which means many of them have been taken by the 
 French in their return to England ; to the end there- 
 fore theships of our subjectsmaybe the bettersecured 
 in their return home, you are to take care that dur- 
 ing this time of war, no ships trading to our pro- 
 vince of Nova Ca^saria, or New Jersey, be per- 
 mitted to come from thence to England, but in 
 fleets, or under the convoy or protection of some of 
 our ships of war, or at such a time as you shall re- 
 ceive notice from hence, of their meeting such con- 
 voys, as may be appointed for the bringing them 
 safe to some of our ports in this kingdom ; and in 
 case of any danger, you are to expect directions 
 from hence, what precautions shall be further ne- 
 cessary for their security. 
 
 " 66. You are likewise to examine what rates 
 and duties are charged and payable upon any goods, 
 imported or exported within our province of Nova 
 Csesaria, or New Jersey, whether of the growth or 
 manufacture of the said province or otherwise, and 
 to use your best endeavours for the improvement of 
 the trade in those parts. 
 
 "67. And whereas orders have been given for 
 the commissioning of fit persons to be officers of 
 our admiralty and customs in our several plantations 
 in America ; and it is of great importance to the 
 trade of this kingdom, and to the welfare of all our 
 plantations, that illegal trade be every where dis- 
 couraged : You are therefore to take especial care, 
 that the acts of trade and navigation be duly put in 
 execution ; and in order thereunto, you are to give 
 constant protection and all due encouragement to 
 the said officers of our admiralty and customs, in 
 the execution of their respective offices and trusts 
 within our territories under your government. 
 
 "68. You are from time to time to give an ac- 
 count as before directed, what strength your border- 
 ing neighbours have, be they Indians or others, by 
 sea and land, and of the condition of their planta- 
 tions, and what correspondence you do keep with them. 
 
 " 69. You shall take especial care, that God Al 
 mighty be devoutly and duly served throughout your 
 government, the book of common prayer as by law 
 established read each Sunday, and holy-day, and 
 the blessed sacrament administered according to the 
 rites of the church of England. 
 
 " 70. You shall be careful that the churches al- 
 ready built there, be well and orderly kept, and that 
 more be built, as the colony shall by God's blessing 
 be improved ; and that besides a competent main- 
 tenance to be assigned to the minister of each or- 
 thodox church, a convenient house be built at the 
 common charge for each minister, and a competent 
 proportion of land assigned to him, for a glebe and 
 exercise of his industry. 
 
 " 71. And you are to take care, that the parishes 
 be so limited and settled, as you shall find most con 
 venient for the accomplishing this good work. 
 
 " 72. You are not to prefer any minister to any 
 ecclesiastical benefice in that our province, without 
 a certificate from the right reverend father in God 
 the lord bishop of London, of his being conformable 
 to the doctrine and discipline of the church of Eng- 
 land, and of a good life and conversation. And if 
 any person already preferred to a benefice, shall ap- 
 pear to you to give scandal either by his doctrine 
 or manners, you are to use the best means for the 
 removal of him, and to supply the vacancy in such 
 manner as we have directed. 
 
 " 73. You are to give order, that every orthodox 
 minister within your government, be one of the 
 vestry in his respective parish, and that no vestry 
 be held without him, except in case of sickness, or 
 that after the notice of a vestry summoned, he omit 
 to come. 
 
 " 74. You are to enquire whether there be any 
 minister within your government, who preaches and 
 administers the sacrament in any orthodox church or 
 chapel, without being in due orders, and to give ac- 
 count thereof to the said lord bishop of London. 
 
 " 75. And to the end the ecclesiastical jurisdiction 
 of the said lord bishop of London, may take place in 
 our said province so far as conveniently may be, we 
 do think fit that you give all countenance and en- 
 couragement to the exercise of the same, excepting 
 only the collating to benefices, granting licences for 
 marriages, and probate of wills, which we have re- 
 served to you our governor, and the commander-in- 
 chief of our said province for the time being. 
 
 " 76. And you are to take especial care, that a 
 table of marriages established by the canons of the 
 church of England, be hung up in every orthodox 
 church, and duly observed, and you are to endea- 
 vour to get a law passed in the assembly of our said 
 province, (if not already done) for the strict observ- 
 ation of the said table. 
 
 " 77. You are to take care, that drunkenness and 
 debauchery, swearing and blasphemy, be discounte- 
 nanced and punished. And for the further discoun- 
 tenance of vice, and encouragement of virtue and 
 good living, (that by such example the infidels may 
 be invited and desire to partake of the Christian re- 
 ligion) you are not to admit any person to publick 
 trusts and employments in our said province under 
 your government, whose ill-fame and conversation 
 may occasion scandal. 
 
 " 78. You are to suppress the ingrossing of com- 
 modities as tending to the prejudice of that freedom 
 which commerce and trade ought to have, and to 
 settle such orders and regulations therein, with the 
 advice of the council, as may be most conducive to 
 the benefit and improvement of that colony. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 597 
 
 " 79. You are to give all due encouragement and 
 invitation to merchants and others, who shall bring 
 trade unto our said province, or any way contribute 
 to the advantage thereof, and in particular the royal 
 African company of England. 
 
 " 80. And whereas we are willing to recommend 
 unto the said company, that the said province may 
 have a constant and sufficient supply of merchant- 
 able Negroes, at moderate rates, in money or com- 
 modities ; so you are to take especial care, that pay- 
 ment be duly made, and within a competent time 
 according to their agreements. 
 
 " 81. And you are to take care, that there be no 
 trading from our said province to any place in 
 Africa, within the charter of the royal African com- 
 pany, otherwise than prescribed by an act of parlia- 
 ment, entitled, ' An act to settle the trade to Africa.' 
 
 " 82. And you are yearly to give unto us, and to 
 our commissioners for trade and plantations, an ac- 
 count of what number of Negroes our said province 
 is yearly supplied with, and at what rates. 
 
 " 83. You are likewise from time to time, to give 
 unto us, and to our commissioners for trade and 
 plantations as aforesaid, an account of the wants and 
 defects of our said province, what are the chief pro- 
 ducts thereof, what new improvements are made 
 therein by the industry of the inhabitants or planters, 
 and what further improvements you conceive may 
 be made, or advantages gained by trade, and in 
 what manner we may best advance the same. 
 
 "84. You are not to grant commissions of mar- 
 que or reprisals, against any prince or state, or their 
 subjects in amity with us, to any person whatsoever, 
 without our especial command. 
 
 " 85. Our will and pleasure is, that appeals be 
 made in cases of error from the courts in our said 
 province of Nova Caesaria, or New Jersey, unto you 
 and the council there ; and in your absence from 
 our said province, to our cormnanuer-in-chief for 
 the time being, and our said council in civil causes, 
 wherein such of our said council as shall be at that 
 time judges of the court from whence such appeal 
 shall be made to you our governor and council, or 
 to the commander-in-chief for the time being, and 
 council as aforesaid, shall not be admitted to vote 
 upon the said appeal, but they may nevertheless be 
 present at the hearing thereof, to give the reasons 
 of the judgment given by them, in the cause where- 
 in such appeal shall be made. Provided neverthe- 
 less, that in all such appeals, the sum or value ap- 
 pealed for excee'd 100/. sterling, and that security 
 be first duly given by the appellant to answer such 
 charges as shall be awarded in case the first sen- 
 tence be affirmed. 
 
 " 86. And if either party shall not rest satisfied 
 with the judgment of you, or the commander-in- 
 vhief for the time being, and council as aforesaid ; 
 Our will and pleasure is, that they may then appeal 
 unto us, in our privy council, provided the sum or 
 value so appealed for unto us, do exceed 2001. ster- 
 ling, and that such appeal be made within fourteen 
 days after sentence; and that good security be 
 given by the appellant, that he will effectually pro- 
 sooute the same, and answer the condemnation, as 
 also pay such costs and damages as shall be awarded 
 D) us, iu case the sentence of you, or the command- 
 er-in-chief for the time being, and council, be af- 
 firmed. And provided also, that execution be not 
 suspended by reason of any such appeal to us. 
 
 "87. You are also to permit appeals to us in 
 council, in all cases of fines imposed for misde- 
 meanors ; provided the fines so imposed, amount to 
 
 or exceed the value of 2001., the appellant first giv- 
 ing good security, that he will effectually prosecute 
 the same, and answer the condemnation, if the sen- 
 tence by which such fine was imposed in our said 
 province of Nova Caesaria, or New Jersey, shall be 
 confirmed. 
 
 " 88. You are, for the better administration of 
 justice, to endeavour to get a law passed (if not al- 
 ready done) wherein shall be set the value of men's 
 estates, either in goods or lands, under which they 
 shall not be capable of serving as jurors. 
 
 " 89. You shall endeavour to get a law passed 
 for the restraining of any inhuman severity, which 
 by ill masters or overseers may be used towards 
 thSir Christian servants, and their slaves, and that 
 provision be made therein, that the wilful killing of 
 Indians and Negroes may be punished with death, 
 and that a fit penalty be imposed for the maiming 
 of them. 
 
 " 90. You are also, with the assistance of the 
 council and assembly, to find out the best means to 
 facilitate and encourage the conversion of Negroes 
 and Indians to the Christian religion. 
 
 " 91. You are to endeavour with the assistance of 
 the council to provide for the raising of stocks, and 
 building of publick work-houses, in convenient places, 
 for the employing of poor and indigent people. 
 
 " 92. You are to propose an act to be passed in 
 the assembly, whereby the creditors of persons be- 
 coming bankrupts in England, and having estates 
 in our aforesaid province of New Jersey, may be re- 
 lieved and satisfied for the debts owing to them. 
 
 " 93. You are to encourage the Indians upon all 
 occasions, so as they may apply themselves to the 
 English trade and nation, rather than to any other 
 of Europe. 
 
 " 94. And whereas the preservation of the north- 
 ern frontiers of our province of New York, against 
 the attempts of any enemy by land, is of great im- 
 portance to the security of our other northern planta- 
 tions on the continent of America, and more especi- 
 ally of our said province of New Jersey, which lies 
 so near adjoining to our province of New York, 
 and the charge of erecting and repairing the for- 
 tifications, and of maintaining the soldiers neces- 
 sary for the defence of the same, is too great to be 
 borne by the single province of New York, without 
 due contributions from others concerned therein, for 
 which reason, we have upon several occasions, re- 
 quired such contributions to be made, and accord- 
 ingly settled a quota to regulate the proportions 
 thereof; you are therefore to take further care, to 
 dispose the general assembly of our said province 
 of New Jersey, to the raising of such other supplies 
 as are or may be necessary for the defence of our 
 province of New York, according to the significa- 
 tion of our will and pleasure therein, which has al- 
 ready been made to the inhabitants of New Jersey, 
 or which shall at any time hereafter be made to you 
 our governor, or to the commander-in-chief of our 
 said province for the time being. 
 
 " 95. And in case of any distress of any of our 
 plantations, you shall upon application of the re- 
 spective governors to you, assist them with what aid 
 the condition and safety of your government will 
 permit, and more particularly in case our province 
 of New York be at any time attacked by an enemy, 
 the assistance you are to contribute towards the de- 
 fence thereof, whether in men or money, is accord- 
 ing to the fore-mentioned quota or repartition, which 
 has already been signified to the inhabitants of our 
 foresaid province under your government, or ac- 
 
598 
 
 THE HISTORY Ol AMERICA. 
 
 cording to such other regulations as we shall here- 
 after make in that behalf, and signify to you or the 
 commander-in-chief of our said province for the 
 time being. 
 
 " 96. And for the greater security of our pro- 
 vince of New Jersey, you are to appoint fit officers 
 and commanders in the several parts of the country 
 bordering upon the Indians, who upon any invasion 
 may raise men and arms to oppose them, until they 
 shall receive your directions therein. 
 
 " 97. And whereas we have been pleased by our 
 commission to direct, that in case of your death or 
 absence from our said province, and in case there 
 be at that time no person upon the place commis- 
 sionated or appointed by us to be our lieutenant-go- 
 vernor or commander-in-chief, the then present 
 council of our said province, shall take upon them 
 the administration of the government, and execute 
 our said commission, and the several powers and 
 authorities therein contained in the manner therein 
 directed; it is nevertheless our express will and 
 pleasure, that in such case the said council shall 
 forbear to pass any acts, but what are immediately 
 necessary for the peace and welfare of our said 
 province, without our particular order for that 
 purpose. 
 
 " 98. You are to take cave, that all writs be is- 
 sued in our name throughout our said province. 
 
 " 99. Forasmuch as great inconveniences may 
 arise by the liberty of printing in our said province, 
 you are to provide by all necessary orders, that no 
 person keep any press for printing, nor that any 
 book, pamphlet, or other matters whatsoever be 
 printed without your especial leave and licence first 
 obtained. 
 
 " 100. And if any thing shall happen that may 
 be of advantage and security to our said province, 
 which is not herein, or by our commission to you 
 provided for, we do hereby allow unto you, with the 
 advice and consent of our council of our said pro- 
 vince, to take order for the present therein, giving 
 unto us by one of our principal secretaries of state, 
 and to our commissioners for trade and plantations, 
 speedy notice thereof, that so you may receive our 
 ratification if we shall approve of the same. 
 
 " 101. Provided always, that you do not by any 
 colour of any power or authority hereby given you, 
 commence or declare war, without our knowledge 
 and particular commands therein, except it be 
 against Indians, upon emergencies, wherein the 
 consent of our council shall be had, and speedy no- 
 tice given thereof unto us as aforesaid. . 
 
 " 102. And you are upon all occasions to send 
 unto us by one of our principal secretaries of state, 
 and to our commissioners for trade and plantations, 
 a particular account of all your proceedings, and of 
 the condition of affairs within your government. 
 
 " 103. And whereas the lords spiritual and tem- 
 poral in parliament, upon consideration of the great 
 abuses practised in the plantation trade, did by an 
 humble address, represent to his late majesty, the 
 great importance it is of, both to this our kingdom 
 and to our plantations in America, that the many 
 good laws which have been made for the govern- 
 ment of the said plantations, and particularly the 
 act passed in the seventh and eighth years of his 
 said majesty's reign, en litled, ' An act for prevent- 
 ing frauds, and regulaf ng abuses in the plantation 
 trade,' be strictly observed. You are therefore to 
 take notice, that whereas notwithstanding the many 
 good laws made from time to time, for preventing 
 frauds in the plantation trade, it is nevertheless 
 
 manifest, that very great abuses have been and con- 
 tinue still to be practised to the prejudice of the 
 same, which abuses must needs arise, either from 
 the insolvency of the persons who are accepted for 
 the security, or from the remissness or connivance 
 of such as have been, or are governors in the se- 
 veral plantations, who ought to take care, that those 
 persons who give bond should be duly prosecuted, in 
 case of non performance; we take the good of our 
 plantations and the improvement of the trade there- 
 of, by a strict and punctual observance of the seve- 
 ral laws in force concerning the same, to be of so 
 great importance to the benefit of this our kingdom, 
 and to the advancing of the duties of our customs 
 here, that if we shall be hereafter informed, tbat at 
 any time there shall be any failure in the due observ- 
 ance of those laws, within our foresaid province of 
 Nova Caesaria, or New Jersey, by any wilful fault 
 or neglect on your part, we shall look upon it as a 
 breach of the trust reposed in you by us, which we 
 shall punish with the loss of your place in that go- 
 vernment, and such further marks of our displeasure, 
 as we shall judge reasonable to be inflicted upon 
 you, for your offence against us, in a matter of 
 this consequence, that we now so particularly charg* 
 you with." 
 
 Lord Cornbury convenes the first general assembly 
 after the surrender His speech, their address, and 
 other proceedings Queen Anne's proclamation for 
 ascertaining the rates of coitt Lord Cornbury dis- 
 solves the assembly, and convenes a new one Its 
 proceedings and dissolution A summary of the 
 establishment and practice of the council of proprie- 
 tors of West Jersey Another assembly called. 
 
 (1703.) The distinction of the two provinces 
 East and West Jersey, being henceforth as to all 
 matters of government laid aside, and both united 
 in one under the name of Nova Csesaria, or New 
 Jersey ; we now enter upon a series of more regular 
 proceedings. 
 
 Contrary to the expectation of those concerned 
 in the surrender, we soon find them jointly strug- 
 gling for the preservation of their privileges against 
 the encroachments of a governor, who, if his abili- 
 ties had been equal to his birth and interest, must 
 be allowed to have been as formidable an antago- 
 nist in that capacity as any that ever proceeded to 
 the colonies ; besides being the son of a family that 
 had merited highly in the revolution, he was first 
 cousin to Queen Anne. With such interest, had he 
 desired to promote unanimity, instead of basely abet- 
 ting animosities, he had a fair opportunity of restoring 
 the public tranquillity, and of laying the foundation of 
 the prosperity of the province ; but that honourable 
 duty was reserved for another. 
 
 Lord Cornbury arrived in New Jersey in the 
 month of August, 1703. Having published his 
 commission at Amboy and Burlington, he returned 
 to his government of New York ; but soon came 
 back and convened the general assembly to meet 
 him at Perth Amboy,on the tenth of November. The 
 names of the first members of council after the sur- 
 render are in Lord Cornbury's instructions. The 
 first representatives were, for the eastern division. 
 Obadiah Bown, Jedediah Allen, Michael Howde^ 
 Peter Van Este, John Reid, John Harrison, Cor- 
 nelius Tuuison, Richard Hartshorne, Col. Richard 
 Townley. For the western division. Thomas 
 Lambert, William Biddle, William Stevenson, 
 Restore Lippincott, John Kay, John Hugg, jun., 
 Joseph Cooper, William Hall, John Mason, John 
 
UNITED STATES 
 
 589 
 
 Smith. For the town of Burlington. Peter Fret- 
 well, Thomas Gardiner. City of Perth Amboy. 
 Thomas Gordon, Miles Forster. The assembly 
 chose Thomas Gardiner, speaker, who was pre- 
 sented and accepted, and then, conformably to the 
 practice of parliament, made a demand of the par- 
 ticular privileges of assemblies as follows : 
 
 " That the members, with their servants, may 
 be free from arrests or molestation during the 
 sessions. 
 
 " That they have free access to your excellency's 
 person, when occasion requires. 
 
 " That they may have liberty of speech, and a 
 favourable construction of all debates that may arise 
 among them. 
 
 " That if any misunderstanding shall happen to 
 arise between the council and this house, that in 
 such a case a committee of the council may be ap- 
 pointed to confer with a committee of this house for 
 adjusting and reconciling all such differences. And, 
 
 " That these our requests may be approved of by 
 your excellency and council, and entered in the 
 council books." 
 
 The governor, in answer, told them, he granted 
 the three first as the just and undoubted right of the 
 house ; but rejected the fourth as an innovation, 
 and accordingly ordered an entry of the same in the 
 council-books ; which being done, he made the fol- 
 lowing speech to the council and general assembly. 
 
 " Gentlemen, The proprietors of East and West 
 New Jersey, having upon very mature considera- 
 tion, thought fit to surrender to her most sacred 
 majesty the great queen of England, my mistress, 
 all the powers of government which they supposed 
 were vested in them ; the queen has been pleased 
 to unite these formerly two provinces now into one, 
 under the name of Nova Caesaria or New Jersey ; 
 her majesty has been pleased graciously to honour 
 me with the trust of this government, and has com- 
 manded me to assure you of her protection upon all 
 occasions ; and you may assure yourselves, that 
 under her auspicious reign, you will enjoy all the 
 liberty, happiness, and satisfaction, that good sub- 
 jects can wish for; under a most gracious queen, 
 and the best laws in the universe, I mean the laws 
 of England, which all the world would be glad to 
 partake of, and none are so happy to enjoy, but those 
 whose propitious stars have placed them under the 
 most happily constituted monarchy : I will not ques- 
 tion, but that you, on your parts, will do all that 
 can be expected from faithful subjects, both for the 
 satisfaction of the queen, and the good and safety of 
 your country ; which must be attended with general 
 satisfaction to all people. 
 
 " In order to attain these good ends, I must 
 earnestly recommend it both to you, gentlemen of 
 her majesty's council, and you gentlemen of the 
 assembly, to apply yourselves heartily and seriously 
 to the reconciling the unhappy differences which 
 have happened in this province ; that as the queen 
 has united the two provinces, so the minds of all 
 the people may be firmly united in the service of 
 the queen, and good of the country ; which are all 
 one, and cannot be separated without danger of 
 destroying both. 
 
 " Gentlemen, you are now met in general assem- 
 bly, on purpose to prepare such bills to be passed 
 into laws, to be transmitted into England for her 
 majesty's approbation, as may best conduce to the 
 settling of this province upon a lasting foundation 
 of happiness and quiet; only I must recommend it 
 to you, that the bills you shall think fit to offer, 
 
 may not be repugnant to the laws of England, but 
 as much as may be, agreeable to them. 
 
 " I must recommend to you, gentlemen, in the 
 wording of your bills, to observe the stile of enact- 
 ing by the governor, council and assembly; and 
 likewise, that each different matter may be enacted 
 by a different law, to avoid confusion. 
 
 " In all laws whereby you shall think fit to grant 
 money, or to impose any fines or penalties, express 
 mention may be made, that the same is granted or 
 reserved unto her majesty, her heirs or successors, 
 for the public use" of this province, and the support 
 of the government thereof. 
 
 " Gentlemen, I am farther commanded by the 
 queen, to recommend it to you, to raise and settle 
 a revenue for defraying the necessary charges of the 
 government of this province, in order to support the 
 dignity of it. 
 
 " I am likewise commanded to recommend to 
 your care, the preparing one or more bill or bills 
 whereby the right and property of the general pro- 
 prietors to the soil of this province may be con- 
 firmed to them, according to their respective titles, to- 
 gether with al\ quit-rents and all other privileges as 
 are expressed in the conveyances made by the duke 
 of York ; except only the right of government, 
 which remains in the queen. 
 
 " Now, gentlemen, I have acquainted you with 
 some of those things which the queen is desirous to 
 have done : I shall likewise acquaint you, that her 
 majesty has been graciously pleased to grant to all 
 her subjects in this province, (except papists) liberty 
 of conscience. I must further inform you, that the 
 queen has commanded me not to receive any present 
 from the general assembly of this province ; and 
 that no person who may succeed me in this govern- 
 ment, may claim any present for the future, I ain 
 commanded to take care, that her majesty's orders 
 may be entered at large in the council books, and 
 the books of the general assembly. 
 
 " Now, gentlemen, I have no more to offer to 
 you at this time, only I recommend to you dispatch 
 in the matter before you, and unanimity in your 
 consultations, as that which will always best and 
 most effectually conduce to the good of the whole." 
 
 The governor's speech being read in the house, 
 produced the following address. 
 
 " May it please your excellency, 
 
 " I am commanded by this house, to return your 
 excellency our hearty thanks for your excellency's 
 many kind expressions to them, contained in your 
 excellency's speech ; and it is our great satisfaction, 
 that her majesty has been pleased to constitute your 
 excellency our governor. 
 
 " We are well assured the proprietors, by their 
 surrender of their rights to the government of this 
 province, have put us in circumstances much better 
 :han we were in under their administration, they 
 not being able to protect us from the villainies of 
 wicked men ; and having an entire dependance on 
 ler majesty, that she will protect us in the full en- 
 joyment of our rights, liberties and properties, do 
 thank your excellency for that assurance you are 
 pleased to give us of it, and think our stars have 
 been very propitious in placing us under the govern- 
 ment, and direction of the greatest of queens, and 
 the best of laws. And we do entreat your excel- 
 lency to believe, that our best endeavours shall not 
 be wanting to accomplish those things which shall 
 be for the satisfaction of the queen, the general 
 good of our country, and (if possible) to the univer- 
 sal satisfaction of all people. With our prayers to 
 
600 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the God of heaven, we shall join our utmost endea- 
 vours to unite our unhappy differences ; and hope 
 with the assistance of your excellency and council 
 it will not be impossible to accomplish that blessed 
 work. We shall follow the directions given in 
 your excellency's speech, with what dispatch the 
 nature of the things require ; and hope, that all 
 our consultations may conduce to the best and 
 greatest ends. 
 
 " Memorandum, that all the members of this 
 house do agree to the subject matter above written, 
 though several of them dissent from some of the 
 expressions therein contained." 
 
 This address presented, the assembly, after re- 
 gulating elections complained of, prepared several 
 bills ; one only received the governor's assent ; 
 which related to the purchasing of lands of the In- 
 dians, and had been prepared pursuant to an article 
 in Lord Cornbury's instructions. It prohibits pur- 
 chases or gifts of lands being made or received from 
 the Indians without licence of the proprietors, after 
 the 1st December, 1703, under penalty of forfeit- 
 ing forty shillings per acre ; it also was retrospect- 
 ive, and made void all Indian bargains, gifts, leases 
 or mortgages, without an English title, unless 
 covered with a propriety right in six months there- 
 after. 
 
 Tfte governor put an end to this session, Decem- 
 ber 13th, by observing to the assembly, that the 
 season being far advanced, it was absolutely neces- 
 sary to conclude business : that he wished the 
 several bills before himself and them could have 
 been dispatched ; but that the matters contained in 
 them were of so great moment, the difficulties so 
 many, and the time so short, that it' was impossible 
 to finish them : that being now acquainted with the 
 nature of those difficulties,they should come prepared 
 in the spring to remove them, and provide such good 
 laws as might effectually ascertain the rights of the 
 several proprietors, and fully secure every man's 
 property : these being the points which would most 
 conduce jto the peace and welfare of the colony, re- 
 commended the council and assembly to employ 
 their serious thoughts, that the most effectual means 
 to attain those desirable ends might be discovered, 
 and to point out other useful laws, and concludes 
 with observing, that they would ever find him ready 
 to consent to all such things as should be for the 
 good of the whole. 
 
 In 1704, great inconvenience was experienced 
 by the same coin bearing a different value in each 
 colony ; to remedy this by one general medium, 
 Queen Anne published her proclamation for as- 
 certaining the value of foreign coin in America; 
 which claims a place here. 
 
 " By the QUEEN. 
 " A proclamation for settling and ascertaining the 
 
 current rates of foreign coins in her majesty's 
 
 colonies and plantations in America. 
 
 " We having had under our consideration the 
 different rates at which the same species of foreign 
 coins do pass in our several colonies and plantations 
 in America, and the inconveniencies thereof, by the 
 indirect practice of drawing the money from one 
 plantation to another, to the great prejudice of the 
 trade of our subjects; and being sensible, that the 
 same cannot be otherwise remedied, than by reduc- 
 ing of all foreign coins to the same current rate 
 within all our dominions in America ; and the prin- 
 cipal officers of our mint having laid before us a 
 table of the value of the several foreign coins which 
 usually pass in payments in our said plantations, 
 
 according to the weipht aiul the HSSHVS niude 01 
 them in our mint, thereby sho'.ving ilie just prnpdr- 
 tion which each coin ought lo liavu to the other, 
 which is as followeth, viz Sevill pu.-< es of rigtn, 
 old plate, seventeen penny-weight, twelve grains, 
 | four shillings ;nul six-ponce : Sevill pieces of eight, 
 new pinto, fourteen penny-weight, three shillings 
 and seven-pence one farthing; Mexico pieces of eight, 
 seventeen penny-weight twelve grains, lour shillings 
 and six-pence ; pillar pieces of eight, seventeen 
 penny-weight twelve grains, four shillings and six- 
 pence three farthings; Peru pieces of eight, old 
 plate, seventeen penny-weight twelve grains, four 
 shillings and five-pence or thereabouts; cross dol- 
 lars, eighteen penny-weight, four shillings and foui- 
 pence three farthings; ducatoonsof Flanders, twenty 
 penny-weight and twenty-one grains, five shillings 
 and six-pence ; eau's of France or silver Lewis, 
 seventeen penny-weight twelve grains, four shillings 
 and six-pence ; crusadoes of Portugal, eleven penny- 
 weight four grains, two shillings and ten-pence one 
 farthing ; the silver pieces of Holland, twelve penny- 
 weight and seven grains, five shillings and two- 
 pence one farthing; old rix dollars of the empire, 
 eighteen penny-weight and ten grains, four shillings 
 and six-pence; the half, quarters and other parts in 
 proportion to their denominations ; and light pieces 
 in proportion to their weight. We have therefore 
 thought fit, for remedying the said inconveniencies, 
 by the advice of our council, to publish and declare, 
 that from and after the first day of January next 
 ensuing the date hereof, no Sevill, pillar, or Mexico 
 pieces of eight, though of the full weight of seven- 
 teen penny-weight and a half, snail be accounted, re- 
 ceived, taken or paid, within any of our said colo- 
 nies or plantations, as well those under proprietors 
 and charters, as under our immediate commission 
 and government, at above the rate of six shillings 
 per piece, current money, for the discharge of any 
 contracts or bargains to be made after the said first 
 day of January next ; the halves, quarters, and other 
 lesser pieces of the same coins, to be accounted, 
 received, taken, or paid in the same proportion; 
 and the currency of all pieces of eight of Peru, dol- 
 lars and other foreign species of silver coins, whether 
 of the same or baser alloy, shall after the said first 
 day of January next, stand regulated, according to 
 their weight and fineness, according and in propor- 
 tion to the rate before limited and set for the pieces 
 of Sevill, pillar and Mexico; so that no foreign 
 silver coin of any sort be permitted to exceed the 
 same proportion upon any account whatsoever. 
 And we do hereby require and command all our 
 governors, lieutenant-governors, magistrates,officers, 
 and all other our good subjects, within our said 
 colonies and plantations, to observe and obey our 
 directions herein, as they tender our displeasure. 
 Given at our castle at Windsor, the eighteenth day 
 of June, 1704, in the third year of oar reign." 
 
 Lord Cornbury met the assembly at Burlington 
 the 7th of September, and recommended the pre- 
 paring a bill to ascertain the rights of the general 
 proprietors to the soil of the province ; to settle a 
 fund for support of government; and a French 
 privateer having committed depredations on the 
 settlers about Sandy Hook, he thence took occasion 
 to press for a law to establish amilitia, and fix a watch- 
 house on the Navesink hills. The house took these 
 matters into consideration. It does not appear but 
 they intended to make such provision on those occa- 
 sions as suited the circumstances of the province, yet 
 their proceedings on the whole were not agreeable 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 cot 
 
 to the governor, and on the 28th, therefore, he ab- 
 ruptly sent for and dissolved them, and issued writs 
 for a new election, to meet at Burlington the 13th 
 of November following. This election was indus- 
 triously managed, and a majority of members pro- 
 cured to suit the views of the governor; they met 
 at the time, and being divided in the choice of a 
 speaker, Peter Fretwell and John Bowne, candi- 
 dates, and the votes equal, they called upon their 
 clerk, (William Anderson,) to give the castiag vote, 
 which he did for Fretwell, who was accordingl} 
 placed in the chair; then receiving the speech 
 they by an address complimented Lord Cornbury 
 with going through the affairs of government " with 
 great diligence and exquisite management, to the 
 admiration of his friends, and envy ofhis enemies ;" 
 and passed a bill to raise 2,OOOJ. per annum, by tax, 
 for support of government, to continue two years. 
 
 Several other laws were passed this session, and 
 amongst them one for establishing a militia, by the 
 unnecessary severity of which, those conscientiously 
 scrupulous of bearing arms in many parts were 
 great sufferers. 
 
 On the 12th of December, the governor adjourned 
 them till next year, with more encomiums on their 
 conduct, than many of them got from their consti 
 tuents on their return home ; during this whole ses- 
 sion, they had tamely suffered the arbitrary prac- 
 tices of the governor to deprive them of three of 
 their most substantial members, Thomas Gardiner, 
 Thomas Lambert, and Joshua Wright, under pre 
 tence of their not owning land enough to qualify 
 them to sit there, though they were known to be 
 men of sufficient estates ; and the same assembly at 
 their next meeting at Amboy, in 1705, themselves de- 
 clare, " the members had heretofore satisfied the house 
 of their being duly qualified to sit in the same ;" and 
 they were then admitted, when the purposes of their 
 exclusion were answered : this sitting was in Oc- 
 tober and November, but produced nothing of much 
 consequence ; the session which followed at the 
 same place in October, 1706, likewise proved un- 
 successful; and now the governor again dissolved 
 the assembly. 
 
 In the llth month this year (1706), the council 
 of proprietors for the western division, met accord- 
 ing to their usual practice ; there were present, 
 William Biddle, president. Samuel Jenings, George 
 Deacon, John Wills, William Hall, Christopher 
 Wetherill, and John Kay ; to this council, Lord 
 Cornbury sent an order to resolve him in certain 
 points proposed to them, which for some reasons 
 were postponed; but in the spring next year, he 
 sent for the council of proprietors to attend him in 
 council at Burlington, and there proposed sundry 
 questions on the same subject, demanding a catego- 
 rical answer to each ; they soon resolved him by 
 sending a summary of their constitution and esta- 
 blishment as follows : 
 
 " The answer delivered to the governor's three ques- 
 tions, delivered to him by the council of pro- 
 prietors. 
 
 " Whereas our governor the Lord Cornbury, was 
 pleased at our attending on him in council, the 13th 
 day of this instant May, to require answers to three 
 questions, viz., who was the council of proprietors* 
 the last year; and who are chosen for this year 
 1707, and to have the names of them? the second 
 is, what are the powers the said council pretend to 
 have ? the third, by whom constituted ? 
 
 " And in obedience thereto, we being part of the 
 trustees, or agents commonly called the council of 
 
 proprietors, are willing to give all the satisfaction 
 we are able, in humble answer to his lordship's re- 
 quirings, viz. : 
 
 " 1. The persons chosen for the last year tn serve 
 the proprietors as agents or trustees, were William, 
 Biddle, Samuel Jenings, George Deacon, John 
 Wills, and ChristopherWetherill, for the county of 
 Burlington; and John Reading, Francis Ceilings, 
 John Kay, and William Hall, of Salem, for the 
 county of Gloucester, and below ; and for this pre- 
 sent year 1707, William Biddle, Samuel Jenings, 
 Lewis Morris, George Deacon, John Wills, John 
 Kay, John Reading, Thomas Gardiner and Wil- 
 liam Hall of Salem. 
 
 " 2. In the year 1677, the first ship that came 
 here from England, which brought the first inhabit- 
 ants that came to settle in these remote parts, by 
 virtue of Byllinge's right, before she sailed, the pro- 
 prietors being met together at London, thought it 
 advisable to settle some certain method how the 
 purchasers of land from Byllinge, &c., should have 
 their just rights laid forth to them, concluded on a 
 number of persons, viz., Joseph Helmsly, William 
 Emly, John Penford, Benjamin Scott, Daniel Wills, 
 Thomas Olive, and Robert Stacy, as should be call- 
 ed commissioners, and they were first impowered to 
 purchase what land they could from the Indians, 
 and then to inspect all rights, as any lands were 
 claimed, and when satisfied therein, to order the 
 laying it out accordingly ; which commissioners 
 when arrived here, did forthwith make several pur- 
 chases of land, and acted as aforesaid, for some time, 
 till some of them being not longer able to struggle 
 with such hunger, and many other great hardships 
 as were then met withal, returned again for Eng- 
 land ; so for preventing confusion among the peo- 
 ple, the assembly took the trouble of it on them ; 
 this continued in practice till about the year 1687 ; 
 then the assembly having much other business, and 
 being not able to spend their time and money abroad, 
 would not longer be troubled with that business, as 
 was wholly belonging to the proprietors, and so 
 threw it out of the house, and told the proprietors 
 they might choose a convenient number of persons 
 of themselves to transact their own business : Ac- 
 cordingly the 14th of February, the same year, the 
 proprietors met at Burlington, and then and there 
 chose and elected eleven persons of themselves, to 
 act for the whole for the next ensuing year ; but 
 then finding that so many and at such distances 
 being hard to be got together, they next year chose 
 but nine, and accordingly signed instruments for 
 the confirming that constitution, of which his lord- 
 ship has a copy ; and the same methods have been 
 every year since practised to this present year 1707, 
 and in all this time no inconvenience hath arisen 
 from it, but on the contrary, much ease and advan- 
 tage to the proprietors; as by a further declaration 
 of many other of the proprietors under their hands, 
 is ready to be proved. 
 
 " Now as to the powers of those that are now and 
 have all along been, they are the same with the first 
 that came over from England in the year 1677 ; 
 that is to say, to purchase land of the Indians, with 
 the consent and advice of the said proprietors as 
 chose them, and to inspect the rights of every man 
 as shall claim any land, so that the same may be 
 surveyed to him or them ; and for the more easy 
 and speedy settling of the province, commissioners 
 lave been appointed in each county, to inspect all 
 rights as aforesaid; the said agents, trustees, or 
 counsel, also to choose a recorder, a surveyor-general, 
 
602 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 and rangers in each county, to range for the benefit 
 of the said general proprietors, and to appoint per- 
 sons to prevent the wasting and destroying of the 
 proprietors' timber, upon their unsurveyed lands, &c. 
 
 " The proprietors residing in England, have had 
 knowledge of a committee of the agents or trustees 
 of the proprietors Here, who were to act and nego- 
 tiate their affairs by their agents, from time to time, 
 acting in conjunction with them, as Adlord Boud, 
 John Tatham, agents to Doctor Coxe ; and when 
 Jeremiah Bass was agent, he acted with them also ; 
 after him, when our late Governor Hamilton was 
 made agent, he acted as one of the said agents, 
 trustees or counsel for several years, and was presi- 
 dent of the same ; and now Lewis Morris, as agent 
 to the society, is one of the said trustees or counsel ; 
 and not only the agents of the proprietors at home, 
 but any proprietor now hath, and have had liberty, 
 to come and meet with the said agents, trustees or 
 counsel, when he or they pleased. 
 
 " Lastly, as to the constitution of the said agents, 
 trustees, or committee, and by whom constituted ; 
 it is on certain days in the county of Burlington 
 and Gloucester, yearly and every year, they are 
 chosen by the proprietors. The above is as good an 
 account as we that are present are able to give, in 
 answer to what was required of us by his lordship, 
 and pray it may find acceptance as such ; but if any 
 further thing may seem needful to be answered, we 
 humbly pray it may for this time be suspended, till 
 the whole can be got together." 
 
 The writs for a new assembly were returnable to 
 Burlington the 5th of April, 1707. In this assembly 
 it soon appeared, Lord Cornbury had not the same 
 success in elections as in the last choice ; his con- 
 duct was arbitrary, and the people dissatisfied ; the 
 assembly chose Samuel Jenings, speaker, received 
 the governor's speech, and soon after resolved into 
 a committee of the whole house to consider griev- 
 ances ; this committee continued sitting from day 
 to day, till at length they agreed upon fifteen re- 
 solves, and by petition to the queen laid them be- 
 fore her, on the 8th of the month, called May, they 
 also represented their grievances to the governor 
 as follows : 
 
 " May it please the governor, 
 
 " We. her majesty's loyal subjects, the representa- 
 tives of the province of New Jersey, are heartily 
 sorry, that instead of raising such a revenue as is 
 by the governor (as we suppose by the queen's di- 
 rections) required of us, we are obliged to lay before 
 him the unhappy circumstances of this province : it 
 is a task we undertake not of choice, but necessity, 
 and have therefore reason to hope, that what we say 
 may meet with a more favourable reception. 
 
 " We pray the governor to be assured, it is our 
 misfortune extorts this procedure from us, and thai 
 we should betray the trust reposed in us by GUI 
 country, did we not endeavour to obtain relief. 
 
 " The governor encourages us to hope he will not 
 be deaf to our entreaties, nor by his denial render 
 our attempts for the best ends fruitless. 
 
 "We may not perchance rightly apprehend all 
 the causes of our sufferings, but have reason to think 
 some of them are very much owing to the governor's 
 long absence from this province, which renders it 
 very difficult to apply to him in some cases which 
 may need a present help. 
 
 " It were to be wished the affairs of New York 
 would admit the governor oftener to attend those o 
 New Jersey, he had not then been unacquainted 
 with our grievances; and we are inclined to believe 
 
 they would not have grown to so great a number. 
 " It is therefore, in the first place, humbly pre- 
 ented to the governor's consideration, that some 
 persons under sentence of death for murder, have 
 lot only remained till this time unexecuted, (they 
 jeing condemned not long after Lord Cornbury's 
 accession to this government) but often have been 
 uffeired to go at large ; it's possible the governor 
 las not been informed that one of those persons is 
 a woman who murdered her own ch.Ud ; another of 
 ;hem a woman who poisoned her husband. The 
 Jeeping of them so long has been a very great 
 charge, and how far it's a reflection on the publick 
 administration, to suffer such wretches to pass with 
 mpunity, we dare not say ; but sure the blood of 
 hose innocents cries aloud for vengeance, and just 
 Heaven will not fail to pour it down upon our al- 
 ready miserable country, if they are not made to 
 suffer according to their demerits. 
 
 " Secondly, we think it a great hardship, that 
 persons accused for any crime, should be obliged to 
 pay court fees, notwithstanding the jury have not 
 found the bill against them ; they are men generally 
 chose out of the neighbourhood, and should be the 
 most substantial inhabitants, who cannot well be 
 supposed to be ignorant of the character of the per- 
 son accused, nor want as good information as may 
 be had ; when therefore they do not find the bill, it 
 is very reasonable to suppose the accused person in- 
 nocent, and consequently no fees due from him; 
 we pray therefore, that the governor will give his 
 assent to an act of assembly to prevent the like for 
 the future ; otherwise no person can be safe from 
 the practices of designing men, or the wicked effects 
 of a vindictive temper. 
 
 " Thirdly, the only office tor probate of wills being 
 in Burlington, it must be very expensive and incon 
 venient for persons who live remote to attend it, 
 especially for the whole eastern division ; we there- 
 fore pray the governor will assent to an act to set- 
 tle such an office in each county, or at least in each 
 division of this province, and that the officers be 
 men of good estates, and known integrity in the 
 said county or division. 
 
 " Fourthly, that the secretary's office is not also 
 kept at Amboy, but that all the eastern division are 
 forced to come to Burlington, that have any busi- 
 ness at said office, is a grievance which we hope 
 the governor will take care to redress ; it seeming 
 inconsistent with the present constitution of govern- 
 ment established by the queen, which doth not ad- 
 mit one of the divisions of this province to enjoy 
 more privileges than the other ; we therefore entreat 
 the governor not to take it amiss, that we desire his 
 assent to an act to be passed to oblige the secretary 
 to keep the office at both places. 
 
 " Fifthly, the granting of patents to cart goods 
 on the road from Burlington to Amboy, for a cer- 
 tain number of years, and prohibiting others, we 
 think to be a grievance that is contrary to the sta 
 tute 21 Jac. I. c. 3. against monopolies ; and being 
 so, we doubt not, will easily induce the governor to 
 assent to an act to prevent all such grants for the 
 future ; they being destructive to that freedom which 
 trade and commerce ought to have. 
 
 " Sixthly, the establishing fees by any other 
 power or authority than by the governor, counsel 
 and representatives met in general assembly, we 
 take to be a great grievance, directly repugnant to 
 Magna Charta, and contrary to the queen's express 
 instructions in the governor's instructions, which 
 says, ' You are to take care that no man's life, 
 
UNITED S1ATES. 
 
 member, freehold, or goods, be taken away or harmed 
 in our province, under your government, otherwise 
 than by established and" known laws, not repugnant 
 to, but as near as much as may be, agreeable to the 
 laws of England ;' we therefore pray, that the go- 
 vernor will assent to an act to be passed to settle 
 fees ; without which we think no more can be legally 
 demanded, than the persons concerned by agree- 
 ment oblige themselves to pay. 
 
 " Seventhly, the governor putting the former pub- 
 lick records of the eastern division of this province 
 into the hands of Peter Sonman, pretended agent 
 to the proprietors, one that does not reside in the 
 province, nor has not given security for the well 
 and true keeping of them, as is by the queen di- 
 rected, and kept them so that her majesty's sub- 
 jects cannot have recourse to them ; and their being 
 carried out of the division, is a great and crying 
 grievance. They are the only evidences that one- 
 half of this province has to prove the titles to their 
 estates, and this house is humbly of opinion, they 
 ought to be so kept, that persons may have recourse 
 to them ; and in the hands of such of whose fidelity 
 there is no reason to doubt ; this being a thing so 
 reasonable, encourages us to request the governor 
 to assent to an act to be passed to put them in pro- 
 per hands for the future, that the country may not 
 be under the same disappointments they now are. 
 
 " These, governor, are some of the grievances 
 this province complains of, and which their repre- 
 sentatives desire may be redressed ; but there are 
 others of a higher nature, and attended with worse 
 consequences; they cannot be just to the governor, 
 themselves, or their country, should they conceal 
 them. We did expect when the government of the 
 Jersies was surrendered, to feel the benign influ- 
 ences of the queen's mild government, under her 
 more immediate administration, and to be protected 
 in the full enjoyment of our liberties and properties, 
 the last of which we thought ourselves something- 
 more secure in than some of the neighbouring plant- 
 ations, and had an entire dependance that her 
 majesty's royal bounty and goodness would never 
 be wanting to make us easy and happy, even be- 
 yond our wishes. It is cur misfortune, that we must 
 say, the success has not answered the expectation, 
 and the queen's subjects here have felt the reverse 
 of what they had most reason to hope ; that greatest 
 and best of princes is, without all peradventure, 
 ignorant of our pressures, or we had long since had 
 relief; she is too good to continue even the deserved 
 sufferings of the miserable, and has more of heaven 
 in her th in to hear the cry of those that groan under 
 oppression, and the unkind effects of mistaken 
 powe-, to whom we owe our miseries ; and what they 
 are the sequel shows. 
 
 " In the first place, the governor has prohibited 
 the proprietors' agents, commonly called the council 
 of proprietors, from granting any warrants for taking 
 up of land in the Western division of this province. 
 We cannot see by what law or reason any man's 
 property can be disposed of by the governor without 
 his consent. The proprietors when they surrendered 
 their government, did not part with their soil, and 
 may manage it as they think fit, and are not to 
 take directions from any person whatsoever, how 
 and when to do it; if any persons concerned be 
 grieved, the laws are open, by which disputes in 
 property are decided ; and he doubtless will not 
 be left remediless. We are very sorry the governor 
 gives us occasion to say, it is a great encroachment 
 on the proprietors' liberties ; but we are not sur- 
 
 prised al it, when a greater encroachment on our 
 liberties lead the way to it, and that was the go- 
 vernor's refusing to swear or attest three members 
 of the last assembly upon the groundless suggestions 
 of Thomas Revel and Daniel Leeds, two members 
 of the queen's council, by which they were kept 
 out of the assembly. We are too sensibly touched 
 with that procedure, not to know what must be the 
 unavoidable consequences of a governor's refusing 
 to swear which of the members of an assembly he 
 thinks fit ; but to take upon himself the power of 
 judging of the qualifications of assembly-men, and 
 to keep them out of the house (as the governor did 
 the aforesaid three members nigh eleven months till 
 he was satisfied in that point) after the house had 
 declared them qualified, is so great a violation of the 
 liberties of the people, so great a breach of the privi- 
 leges of the house of representatives, so much as- 
 suming to himself a negative voice to the freeholders' 
 election of their representatives, that the governor 
 is entreated to pardon us, if this is a different treat- 
 ment from what we expected : it is not the effects of 
 passionate heats, the transports of vindictive tempers, 
 but the serious resentments of a house of represent- 
 atives, for a notorious violation of the liberties of 
 the people, to whom they could not be just, iior 
 answer the trust reposed in them, should they de- 
 cline letting the governor know they are extremely 
 dissatisfied at so unkind a treatment, especially 
 when its causes and effects conspire to render it so 
 disagreeable. 
 
 " It is notoriously known, that many considerable 
 sums of money have been raised to procure the dis- 
 solution of the first assembly, to get clear of the 
 proprietors' quit-rents, and to obtain such officers as 
 the contributors should approve of; this house has 
 great reason to believe, the money so gathered was 
 given to Lord Cornbury, and did induce him to dis- 
 solve the then assembly, and by his own authority 
 keep three members out of the next assembly, 
 and put so many mean and mercenary men 
 into office ; by which corrupt practice, men of 
 the best estates are severely harassed, her ma- 
 jesty's good subjects in this province so impo- 
 verished, that they are not able to give that support 
 to her majesty's government as is desired, or as 
 they would be otherwise inclined to do ; and we 
 cannot but be very uneasy when we find by these 
 new methods of government, our liberties and pro- 
 perties so much shaken, that no man can say he is 
 master of either, but holds them as tenant by cour- 
 tesy an J at will, and may be stript of them at plea- 
 sure. Liberty is too valuable a thing to be easily 
 parted with, and when such mean inducements pro- 
 cure such violent endeavours to tear it from us, we 
 must take leave to say, they have neither heads, 
 hearts, nor souls, that are not moved with the 
 miseries of their country, and are not forward with 
 their utmost power lawfully to redress them. 
 
 " We conclude, by advising the governor to con- 
 sider what it is tha't principally engages the affec- 
 tions of a people, and he will find no other artifice 
 needful than to let them be unmolested in the en- 
 joyment of what belongs to them of right; and a 
 wise man that despises not his own happiness, will 
 earnestly labour to regain their love. 
 " By order of the house, 
 
 " SAMUEL JENINGS, Speaker/ 
 
 By this remonstrance may be seen much of the 
 history of the times, and that though matters were 
 carried to arbitrary lengths, there were not wanting 
 in the province men of discernment to see and la- 
 
604 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 ment the unhappy situation of their country, and 
 of spirit to oppose its greatest enemies : several 
 such were in this assembly, the speaker in particu- 
 lar, had very early known New Jersey, had lived 
 through many changes and commotions, to see great 
 alterations in it ; much concerned in public transact- 
 ions, he knew what belonged to a public character ; 
 he had governed the western part of the province 
 for several years, with integrity and reputation; 
 saw the advantages of a just confidence, and knew 
 it could not be acquired any other way ; that though 
 the office was in itself respectable, it was the honest 
 execution of it according to its dignity, that pro- 
 duced the intended service, and secured the appro- 
 bation of a kind but watchful mistress ; for such 
 Queen Anne was accounted to her governors. Jen- 
 ings was also undaunted, and Lord Cornbury on 
 his part exacted the utmost decorum ; while as 
 speaker he was delivering the remonstrance, the 
 latter frequently interrupted him with " stop, what's 
 that," &c., at the same time putting on a counte- 
 nance of authority and sternness, with intention to 
 confound him ; with due submission, yet firmness, 
 whenever interrupted, he calmly desired leave to 
 read the pas-sages over again, and did it with an 
 additional emphasis upon those most complaining; so 
 that on the second reading they became more ob- 
 servable than before : he at length got through, 
 when the governor desired the house to attend him 
 again " on Saturday next, at 11 o'clock, to receive 
 his answer;" he did not get ready till the 12th, 
 when sending for the house, he delivered his answer. 
 
 Lord Cornbury' s answer to the assembly's remonstrance. 
 
 " Gentlemen, On Thursday last I received a 
 paper from you, which you call a remonstrance ; I 
 then told you it was of an extraordinary nature, and 
 contained many particulars, which though they lay 
 open enough to receive an immediate answer, yet 
 because I would not put it in your power to say I 
 had given you a rash inconsiderate answer, I would 
 make no return to it till the Saturday following, at 
 which time I sent you word by the secretary, that 
 I should not expect your attendance till this day. 
 I shall not take notice of any thing in your pre- 
 amble, but the two last clauses of it;' in the first of 
 which you say, that you have reason to think that 
 some of your sufferings are owing to the governor's 
 long absence from this province, which renders it 
 very difficult to apply to him in some cases that may 
 need a present help : This is so far from being true, 
 that besides my being twice in this province every 
 year, and have never staid less than a month, some- 
 times six weeks, or more, the post goes every week 
 to New York, by which I may be easily informed 
 of any emergency; moreover, the lieut. -governor, 
 Colonel Ingoldsby, resides constantly in this pro- 
 vince, and would certainly have done right to any 
 persons that would have complained to him; which 
 makes tins allegation very frivolous. 
 
 " In the next clause-you say, that it were to be 
 wished that the affairs of New York would admit 
 the governor ot'tener to attend those of New Jersey 
 The affairs of New York have never hindered the 
 governor from attending those of New Jersey, 
 whenever it has been requisite ; and I can safely 
 say, I don't know of any grievances this province 
 labours under, except it be the having a certain 
 number of people in it, who will never be faithful 
 to, nor live quietly under any government, nor 
 suffer their neighbours to enjoy any peace, quiet, 
 or happiness, if they can help it. 
 
 " I now begin with your articles. 
 
 "Two women that have been condemned for 
 murdering, have not been executed, there having 
 appeared most notorious malice and revenge in 
 some people, who were zealous in these prosecutions; 
 the queen is the fountain of honour, justice, and 
 mercy; and as she is so, she may when she pleases 
 exert her mercy, either in reprieving or pardoning 
 any criminal. That power of pardoning and re 
 prieving after condemnation, the subjects of this 
 province, her majesty has been pleased to intrust 
 me with; and I am no ways accountable to any per- 
 son or number of persons whatsoever, for what I do 
 in those matters, but to the queen's majesty alone. 
 
 " As for what you say, with relation to the ap- 
 prehensions you have, that just Heaven will not fail 
 :o pour down vengeance upon your already miser- 
 able country, if these criminals are not made to 
 suffer according to their demerits : I am of opinion 
 that nothing has hindered the vengeance of just 
 heaven from falling upon this province long ago, 
 but the infinite mercy, goodness, long-suffering, and 
 forbearance of Almighty God, who has been abun- 
 dantly provoked by the repeated crying sins of a 
 perverse generation among us, and more especially 
 by the dangerous and abominable doctrines and the 
 wicked lives and practices of a number of people ; 
 some of whom, under the pretended name of Christ- 
 ians, have dared to deny the very essence and being 
 of the Saviour of the world. It is a strange thing, 
 that such an assembly of men as the representatives 
 of the people of this province are or ought to be, 
 should complain of any thing under the name of 
 hardship, before they had informed themselves 
 whether the thing they had a mind to complain of, 
 were really a hardship or not : this plainly is your 
 case at this time ; for if you had asked any man that 
 knows any thing of the practice of the law in Eng- 
 land, you would have found, that if any proceedings 
 had been carried on against any persons supposed 
 to be guilty, they have always paid the court fees, 
 notwithstanding the grand jury have not found the 
 bill ; and this is so known a practice, that it is not to 
 be disputed ; but when men will intermeddle with, or 
 pretend to things which they neither know nor un- 
 derstand, they cannot fail of misguiding themselves, 
 and misleading those that have a mind to be guided 
 by them. 
 
 " Indeed, if juries in this country were as they 
 ought to be, the supposition might in some measure 
 be allowed; but we find by woful experience, that 
 there are many men who have been admitted to 
 serve upon grand and petty juries, who have con- 
 vinced the world that they have no regard for the 
 oaths they take, especially among a sort of people, 
 who under a pretence of conscience, refuse to take 
 an oath ; and yet many of them, under the cloak of 
 a very solemn affirmation, dare to commit the 
 greatest enormities, especially if it be to serve a 
 friend, as they call him ; and these are the design- 
 ing men, and the vindictive tempers, of which all 
 the queen's good subjects ought to beware, and be 
 protected from ; and these are the crying sins 
 which will undoubtedly draw down the vengeance 
 of just Heaven upon thus province and people, if not 
 timely and seriously repented of. 
 
 "If I could persuade myself to wonder at any of 
 the enormities contained in this remonstrance (and 
 which I would do if it came from any other men), it 
 should be at this; because no reasonable man can 
 persuade himself to believe, that a number of men 
 chosen by their country to represent them, would 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 605 
 
 presume to complain of a thing as a grievance, 
 when the thing complained of is in fact not true ; 
 for the office of probate of wills is wherever the go- 
 vernor is, consequently not at Burlington only. 
 Ever since the queen has done me the honour to 
 entrust me with the government of this province, I 
 have never failed of being in the province twice 
 every year, once at Burlington and once at Amboy, 
 except the last year, that I had the unspeakable 
 misfortune of losing a wife, whom I loved as my 
 own soul, after a very long tedious sickness, during 
 which I am persuaded no reasonable man could ex- 
 pect I should leave her for any time ; and yet not- 
 withstanding that, I was twice at Amboy last year, 
 where anybody that had a will to prove, might have 
 had it done if they had pleased ; besides my being 
 twice every year in the province, considering the 
 remoteness of Cape May county and the county of 
 Salem, I did appoint a surrogate at Burlington, be- 
 fore whom any of the inhabitants of either division 
 might have had their wills proved ; I did not think 
 it necessary to appoint one in the Eastern division, 
 because the inhabitants of that division who are 
 most remote from New York, are within a very 
 easy day's journey of my surrogate at Burlington, 
 and much the major part of the people of that divi- 
 sion are within a small day's journey of New York, 
 where their private affairs daily call many of them, 
 and where any of them may have their wills proved 
 without any injury to, or encroachments upon their 
 properties, rights or privileges. This is so certain 
 a truth, that I am persuaded all judicious and im- 
 partial men will look upon this complaint to be 
 malicious, scandalous, and frivolous, contrived only 
 to amuse poor ignorant people with notions of griev- 
 ances ; when in truth there is no manner of cause of 
 complaint. Besides, what you desire is a direct 
 invasion of the queen's prerogative ; for it belongs 
 to her majesty alone to appoint who shall take 
 probate of wills, and grant letters of administra- 
 tion ; and that power the queen has been pleased to 
 vest in the governor ; and I am sure I will never so 
 far betray the trust her majesty has honoured me 
 with, as to sacrifice her prerogative loyal, to the 
 humours of any person or persons whatsoever. But 
 of all the people in the world, the quakers ought to 
 be the last to complain of the hardships of travel- 
 ling a few miles upon such an occasion, who never 
 repine at the trouble and charges of travelling 
 several hundred miles to a yearly meeting, where it 
 is evidently known, that nothing was ever done for 
 the good of the country, but on the contrary con- 
 tinual contrivances are carried on for the under- 
 mining of the government both in church and state. 
 " You have had as little regard to the truth of 
 matter of fact in this ccmplaint, as io some of the 
 rest ; for it is certain, that the secretary's office is 
 kept at Amboy, as well as at Burlington, as far as 
 the nature of the thing requires, and it can admit 
 of, for the records of the Eastern division, or at 
 least so many of them as the agent for the proprie- 
 tors of that division could hitherto recover from one 
 Thomas Gordon, into whose hands they were put 
 in the time of the proprietors' government, and who 
 has embezzled several of them, for which he must 
 be answerable : there is a supreme court held once 
 every year at Amboy, there is no more at Burlington ; 
 so that one division does not enjoy more privileges 
 and advantages than the other ; and you have no 
 more reason to desire a secretary's office to be set- 
 tled at Amboy, than the people of the county of 
 Cumberland would have, to desire a secretary of 
 
 state's office to be settled in their county, because 
 it is a great way for them to travel to London 
 when they have any business in the secretary's 
 office ; the thing is inconsistent in itself, to have 
 two secretaries' offices in the same province, and 
 consequently unreasonable, and I am pretty well 
 satisfied without precedent ; besides, I don't know 
 any body that can claim the right or power of ap- 
 pointing a secretary in this province but the queen, 
 and she has been pleased to appoint one under the 
 great seal of England, and her majesty is pleased 
 to think one sufficient, as undoubtedly it is ; but if 
 you had thought that another had been necessary, 
 it would have been much moie modest to have ac- 
 quainted me with it, that 1 might have humbly 
 represented it to her majesty, rather than to have 
 remonstrated that as a grievance, which is done in 
 pursuance of the queen's commands. But this is of 
 the same nature with the rest of your complaints, 
 contrived on purpose to amuse the poor ignorant 
 people with a notion of grievances, when in truth 
 there is not the least colour or cause of complaint. 
 I could wish, since you had a mind to colour this 
 complaint with the authority of an act of parliament 
 of England, that you had advised with some lawyer, 
 to know whether this could be any ways brought 
 under that statute, or can by any construction in 
 the world be called a monopoly ; but where a man 
 engrosses a commodity into his own hands, and im- 
 poses what unreasonable price he pleases upon that 
 commodity, or where a man is suffered to enjoy 
 any trade or occupation exclusive of others, to the 
 prejudice of the public, or particularly the hinder- 
 ing or burthening of trade ; the thing now com- 
 plained of is so far from being of that nature, that 
 it is directly contrary ; for by the patent now com 
 plained of, the subjects of this province have the 
 conveniency of sending such quantities of goods to 
 and from Burlington and Amboy, as their private 
 occasions, or the nature of their trade requires, at 
 reasonable and certain rates, and at certain times, 
 which they never could do before ; for before the 
 settling of this waggon, if any persons had occasion 
 to send any goods to or from either of those places, 
 they were forced to hire a waggon, though perhaps 
 they had not the tenth part of a load, and were 
 forced to pay such rates as the owners of the wag- 
 gon thought fit to impose upon them ; whereas at 
 present every body is sure once a fortnight to have 
 an opportunity of sending any quantity of goods, 
 great or small, at reasonable rates, without being 
 in danger of being imposed upon at the will of the 
 owner of the waggon ; and the settling of this wag- 
 gon is so far from being a grievance or a monopoly, 
 that by this means and no other, a trade has been 
 carried on between Philadelphia, Burlington, Amboy 
 and New York, which was never known before j 
 and in all probability would never have been, had 
 it not been for this certain convenient way of send- 
 ing such quantity of goods as people pleased from 
 place to place ; and in all the parts of Europe, 
 the having public carriages for goods has always 
 been esteemed of absolute necessity, and the want 
 of them has been looked upon as a hardship. But 
 it seems those things which in the wisest and best 
 governments in Europe, have not only been thought 
 convenient but esteemed of absolute necessity, are 
 found out by some of our wiser people here, to be 
 grievances and monopolies. This being undoubt- 
 edly true, it's plain the patent complained of cannot 
 come within the statute of the 21 Jac. I. chap. 3. 
 This 1 believe will be sufficient to convince all reft. 
 
60G 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 sonable men, how frivolous and unreasonable this 
 complaint is. I shall observe, that when I was 
 first applied to for a patent for the allowing this 
 waggon, which was by one Dellaman, who in Colo- 
 nel Hamilton's time was permitted to drive a wag- 
 gon for carrying goods, though under no regula- 
 tion, either with respect to times of going, or prices 
 for carrying goods, and then was no monopoly ; 
 before I would grant it, I did acquaint the council 
 with it, and desired them to let me know if they 
 apprehended any inconveniency in granting such a 
 patent; those gentlemen were all of opinion, there 
 could be no inconveniency in it, but rather a great 
 conveniency ; and indeed experience has proved 
 that opinion to be true ; nay, Mr. Lewis Morris 
 himself, the chief promoter of these unreasonable 
 and frivolous complaints at this time, who had the 
 honour to be one of her majesty's council, expressed 
 himself very fully to that purpose. Indeed, had that 
 gentleman ever been consistent with himself in any 
 two actions of his life, I should wonder how he 
 could so soon alter his opinion in a case of that na- 
 ture ; but his behaviour at all times having fully 
 convinced the world that he never was so, makes 
 me cease wondering. This clause of your remon- 
 strance is indeed of a more extravagant nature than 
 the former, for you presume to call that a great 
 grievance, and affirm it to be directly contrary to 
 magna charta, and contrary to the queen's express 
 directions in the governor's instructions r which is 
 most certainly exactly pursuant to, and in obedience 
 of the express words contained in the queen's instruct- 
 ions to the governor; so that you make the governor's 
 faithful obedience to the instructions the queen 
 has honoured him with, to be a great grievance ; 
 which is no less than accusing her most sacred 
 majesty, the best of queens, of commanding her 
 governor to do things which in themselves are great 
 grievances ; how grateful a return this is to her 
 majesty, for the repeated favours she has been 
 pleased to shew to this province and people, let the 
 world judge. 
 
 " That clause of my instructions which you recite 
 in this article, has no manner of relation to fees ; 
 indeed there is another clause in my instructions, 
 which directs how, and by whom, all fees shall be 
 settled, and the queen's commands have been ob- 
 served ; the words of the clause are those, ' And 
 you are, with the advice and consent of our said 
 council, to take especial care to regulate all salaries 
 and fees belonging to places, or paid upon emer- 
 gencies, that they be within the bounds of modera- 
 tion, and that no exaction be made'oa any occasion 
 whatsoever ; as also that tables of all fees be pub- 
 lickly hung up in all places where such fees are to 
 be paid, and you are to transmit copies of ail such 
 tables of fees to us, and to our commissioners for 
 trade and plantations as aforesaid ;' and I challenge 
 every one of you, and all mankind, to shew, how, 
 when, and where, any man's life, member, free- 
 hold, or goods have been taken away, or harmed in 
 this province, since it came under her majesty's 
 government, otherwise than by established and 
 known laws, not repugnant to, but as much as may 
 be, agreeable to the laws of England. When I 
 first read this clause, I could not imagine what it 
 was put in for, unless it were on purpose to arraign 
 the queen's express commands to me. First, Mr. 
 Sonmans is not the pretended agent, but the law- 
 fully constituted agent for the proprietors of the 
 Eastern division of this province, and has qualified 
 himself according to the queen's instructions to me, 
 
 and he does reside the greatest part of his time in 
 the province ; the records are not carried out of the 
 Eastern division, unless it be thoso which Thomas 
 Gordon has imbezzled ; but those that came to the 
 hands of Mr. Sonmans are kept at Amboy, where 
 any body may have recourse to them that will de- 
 sire it, at any reasonable hour; and the country 1* 
 not under any disappointment upon that account J 
 besides, the records of the Eastern division were put 
 into the hands of the proprietors' agent, by an order 
 from England, upon a complaint made in England, 
 that the records were not in the hands of the pro- 
 prietors' agents. 
 
 ' These, governor, are some of the grievances.' 
 " This is certainly one of the boldest assertions 
 that ever was made, especially when there appears 
 no manner of proof to make it out. When I read 
 these two clauses ; for there are two before you 
 come to enumerate these grievances of an higher 
 nature, and attended with worse consequences, I 
 expected to have found myself, or some other per- 
 sons intrusted with me in the administration of the 
 government over her majesty's subjects in this pro- 
 vince, not only accused, but made plainly appear, 
 by undeniable manifest proofs, beyond the possibi- 
 lity of a contradiction, to be guilty of the most 
 enormous crimes. Who can imagine when such a 
 body of men, as the representatives of a province, 
 venture to say,' that they did expect when the govern- 
 ment of the Jersies was surrendered, to feel the 
 influences of the queen's mild government under her 
 more immediate administration, and to be protected 
 in the full enjoyment of their liberties and proper- 
 ties ; the last of which they thought themselves a 
 little more secure in, than some of the neighbour- 
 ing plantations, and had an entire dependance 
 that her majesty's royal bounty and goodness would 
 never be wanting to make them easy and happy, 
 even beyond their wishes ; it is their misfortune, 
 that they must say, the success has not answered 
 the expectation; and the queen's subjects here have 
 felt the reverse of what they had most reason to 
 hope that the greatest and best of princes is without 
 all peradventure ignorant of their pressures, or they 
 had long since had relief ; she is too good to con- 
 tinue even the deserved sufferings of the miserable, 
 and has more of heaven in her, than not to hear the 
 cries of those that groan under oppression and the 
 unkind effects of mistaken power, to whom they 
 owe their misery' ; who would not, I say, after such 
 assertions, expect to see the governor proved guilty 
 either of treason, or betraying the trust reposed in 
 him by the queen, by depriving the subjects of their 
 lives, their estates or properties, or at least denying 
 them justice, and perverting the laws, to the op- 
 pression, instead of administering them for the 
 protection and preservation of the people committed 
 to his charge ? These or the like crimes manifestly 
 proved, are the only things that can justify men in 
 the accusing a governor of corrupt practice, and of 
 shaking the liberties and properties of the people ; 
 but if none of these things can be proved, but on 
 the contrary, it does appear plainly, that no one act 
 of severity, much less of injustice or oppression, has 
 been done since the government of this province 
 came under the queen, but that there has been an 
 impartial, just and equal administration of justice 
 observed thoughout the whole course of my govern- 
 ment, and that many acts of mercy have been ex- 
 tended to persons who deserved to be severely pu- 
 nished ; then what sort of creatures must these bold 
 accusers appear to be, in the eyes of all impartial 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 607 
 
 and judicious men ! That these are truths beyond 
 all contradiction, and which all the people of this 
 province know, I do challenge you. and every one 
 of you, to prove the contrary. And though I know 
 very well, that there are several unquiet spirits in 
 the province, who will never be content to live 
 quiet under any government but their own, and not 
 long under that neither, as appears by their methods 
 of proceeding when the government was in the 
 hands of the proprietors ; when many of these very 
 men who are now the remonstrancers,were in author- 
 ity, and used the most arbitrary and illegal methods 
 of proceeding over their fellow subjects that were 
 ever heard of; yet I am satisfied, there are very 
 few men in the province, except Samuel Jenings 
 and Lewis Morris, men known neither to have 
 good principles, nor good morals, who have ven- 
 tured to accuse a governor of such crimes, without 
 any proof to make out their accusation ; but they 
 are capable of any thing but good. 
 
 " But that the unreasonableness of these com- 
 plaints may appear the plainer, let us consider what 
 these enormities of mine are, that have turned the 
 benign influences of the queen's mild government 
 into oppression, and the unkind effect of mistaken 
 power. First, by the instructions her most sacred 
 majesty the queen has honoured me with, I am to 
 allow all such agents as the general proprietors 
 shall appoint, such agents qualifying themselves by 
 taking such oaths as the queen is pleased to direct, 
 and no others; no persons under the name of a 
 council of proprietors have ever tendered themselves 
 to take those oaths, consequently they are not capa- 
 ble of acting as agents. Besides, I say, those 
 people who call themselves a council of proprietors, 
 are a parcel of people, pretending to act by a power 
 derived from certain persons, who have no power 
 to grant ; the governor has therefore done in this 
 case nothing but his duty, in hindering, as far as 
 in him lay, that pretended council of proprietors 
 from acting illegally, which they have long done to 
 the prejudice of her majesty's subjects. This is a 
 truth I cannot doubt of, because, besides the other 
 reasons I have to satisfy me in that point, you have 
 voted my putting the records of the Eastern division 
 into the hands of Peter Sonmans, to be a grievance ; 
 though Mr. Sonmans has qualified himself long 
 ago; so that the council of proprietors not having 
 qualified themselves at all, is a much greater griev- 
 ance. By the queen's instructions to me, she is 
 pleased to direct, that no person shall be capable of 
 being elected a representative by the freeholders of 
 either division, or afterwards sitting in general 
 assembly, who shall not have one thousand acres of 
 land, of an estate of freehold in his own right, 
 within the division for which he shall be chosen ; 
 two gentlemen of the council informed me, that 
 three persons, whose names they then mentioned, 
 were not qualified; upon which I refused to take 
 their attestations (for they were all Quakers), and 
 in so doing, I did my duty. I recommended it to 
 the assembly at that time, to proceed, in the first 
 place, to inquire into that matter ; but they did not 
 think fit to do it, till they had sat about three weeks, 
 ind then they sent me a message, to desire those 
 rhree members might be sworn, for they were satis- 
 fied tney were qualified : I sent them word, that if 
 they would communicate to me the proofs which 
 had satisfied them, I should be ready to admit them ; 
 but that they would not do. In some few days the 
 assembly was adjourned to meet at Burlington, 
 Where they met at the time appointed, and sent me 
 
 the same message as they had done before ; I sent 
 them the same answer ; upon which they ordered 
 the three members to produce to me taa proofs of 
 their qualifications ; which haviug done, I admitted 
 them immediately, which I could not do before, 
 without breaking the queen's instructions ; so that 
 it was entirely through their own stubbornness that 
 they were not admitted sooner, and no intent or 
 desire of mine to keep them out. If I had had a 
 mind to keep any members out of the house, I could 
 have made objections which they could never have 
 answered; but such practices are below me; and it 
 is not true that I have made any violation of the 
 liberties of the people, nor have assumed to myself 
 a negative voice to the freeholders'* election of repre- 
 sentatives, as this house of representatives has lately 
 most notoriously done. But of that more anon. 
 
 *' Indeed the treatment I have met with from this 
 house of representatives, is far different from what I 
 and all reasonable men expected from most of them, 
 thinking them endowed with reason and common 
 justice to mankind ; but it is not different from what 
 I expected from Samuel Jenings and Lewis Morris, 
 two men notoriously known always to have been 
 disturbers of the quiet and peace of this province, 
 men always possessed with passionate heats, and the 
 transports of most vindictive tempers, but never 
 capable of such serious resentments as would become 
 a house of representatives, if there were any occasion 
 given them to show any ; how they have been able 
 to prevail with the major part of the house to join 
 with them, in destroying as far as in them lay, the 
 reputation of a gentleman who has the honour to 
 serve the queen as governor of this province, and is 
 so far from deserving such treatment from them, 
 that he has always done to the utmost of his power, 
 for the good, welfare and prosperity of this province 
 and people, and would have done much more if the 
 assembly would have put it into his power, by pre- 
 paring such bills as the governor at the beginning 
 of every sessions has recommended to them, and the 
 condition of the country required ; but that they 
 must answer for to God and their own consciences,, 
 and perhaps one day to me. 
 
 " Whether many considerable sums of money 
 have been raised or not, I know not ; and if they 
 were raised, for what intent and purpose they were 
 raised I know not; but this I know, that if any 
 money was raised, it was not given to me, nor was 
 ever any money offered to me to procure the dissolu- 
 tion of the first assembly, or to get clear of the pro- 
 prietors' quit- rents, or to obtain such officers as the 
 contributors should approve of, as is falsely alleged. 
 The reasons why I dissolved the first assembly were 
 evident to all mankind; for it was plain that house 
 never intended to do any thing for the support of 
 the queen's government, nor for the good of the 
 country; and indeed better could not be expected 
 from an assembly so corruptly chosen as that was ; 
 for some of the now remonstrancers, and some other 
 people, prevailed with Thomas Gordon, then sheriff 
 of the county of Middlesex, to refuse a poll when 
 demanded ; and when the people, injured by that 
 practice, complained to the house of representatives, 
 they had a day assigned them to be heard, but were 
 limited to bring but twenty witnesses ; the people 
 attended at the day appointed, with the number of 
 witnesses they were allowed to bring, but were then 
 by the house refused to be heard, not only by them- 
 selves but by their council, and their witnesses re- 
 fused to be examined ; though at the same time they 
 heard Thomas Gordon, who was complained against, 
 
608 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 and did examine some witnesses on his behalf; upon 
 which the petition of the complainants was dismissed 
 thereby supporting the illegal proceedings of the 
 sheriff; this was a violation of the rights of the peo- 
 
 Ele with a vengeance, and a sufficient reason (if 1 
 ad no other) for the dissolving that assembly, that 
 the people might once more have a free choice o 
 their representatives. As for getting clear of the 
 proprietors' quit-rents, it is such an absurdity to 
 mention, that nobody would be guilty of it bu( 
 Samuel Jenings and Lewis Morris ; for it is evident 
 that at the beginning of every sessions I have re- 
 commended to the assembly, to prepare a bill or 
 bills for settling the rights of the. proprietors, which 
 I suppose will be a full answer to that part ; and as 
 I know of no such men as contributors, so can I 
 have no such application made to me. I have not 
 knowingly put any mean or mercenary men into 
 office ; indeed, at my first coming into the govern- 
 ment of this province, I desired the gentlemen of 
 the council to recommend persons to me fit to be 
 put into offices, military and civil ; several of them 
 gave me lists, and amongst the rest Mr. Lewis 
 Morris gave me one, which I have still by me, in 
 which, indeed, by experience I find there are some 
 mean scandalous men; but I cannot accuse anybody 
 else of doing the like. Thus much I thought myself 
 obliged to say, in answer to your remonstrance, to 
 satisfy the world of the falsehood of your allegations 
 and the unreasonableness of your complaints. I 
 have said the less in answer to the scandalous reflect- 
 ions you have cast upon me, because I do not 
 doubt, but upon my most humble application to her 
 most sacred majesty the queen, she will be gra- 
 ciously pleased to allow me to take such measures 
 as may be most proper to procure me ample satis- 
 faction, for the great and extravagant injuries you 
 have done me. As for the advice you conclude 
 with, I shall only say, that I can never answer the 
 taking advice from men who do not know how to 
 govern themselves, and who have always opposed 
 the service of the queen, and the interest and good 
 of the country, which are inseparable. 
 
 " Now, gentlemen, I shall take notice to you of 
 some of your late unaccountable proceedings in this 
 assembly, which I can't pass by without a breach of 
 the trust reposed in me by her majesty ; and first, I 
 shall observe, that at the opening of the sessions, I 
 recommended to you the settling a revenue, and the 
 preparing several bills which I thought might be 
 useful for the country ; and I told you, that if you 
 found any thing else necessary to be provided for 
 by a law, you should always find me ready to agree 
 to any thing that might be reasonable ; but instead 
 of proceeding upon those things so necessary, that 
 they ought to have employed your first thoughts, 
 you have squandered away your time in hawking 
 after imaginary grievances, for the space of one 
 whole month, without making one step towards the 
 service of the queen, or the country ; you have pre- 
 sumed to take the queen's subjects into the custody 
 of the serjeant-at-arms, who are not members of 
 your house, which you can't lawfully do, and is a 
 notorious violation of the liberties of the people; 
 you have taken upon you to administer an oath to 
 one of your members, and have expelled him the 
 house for refusing to take an oath, which you could 
 not legally administer to him : this is most certainly 
 robbing that member of his property, and a most 
 notorious assuming to yourselves a negative voice 
 to the freeholders' election of their representatives, 
 for which there can be no precedent found. You 
 
 have arbitrarily taken upon you to command the 
 high sheriff of this county, to discharge a prisoner 
 who was in his custody, at the suit of one of the 
 queen's subjects; and he has been weak enough to 
 do it, for which he lies liable to be sued for an es- 
 cape, whenever the gentleman thinks fit to do it, 
 and from which you can't protect him: this is a no- 
 torious violation of the rights of the subjects, and a 
 manifest interruption of justice. You have taken 
 upon you to appoint one of your members to act as 
 clerk of the committee of the whole house, which 
 you have no power to do ; and the party officiating 
 is liable to be prosecuted for acting without lawful 
 authority, and without being qualified to act. These, 
 gentlemen, are some of the irregularities you have 
 been guilty of this sessions ; some of them are en- 
 croachments upon the queen's prerogative, the rest 
 are all notorious infractions upon the liberties and 
 properties of the people. 
 
 " I was going to conclude, with giving you some 
 wholesome advice, but I consider that will be but 
 labour lost, and therefore shall reserve it for per- 
 sons who I hope will make a right use of it." 
 
 The Assembly's reply to Lord Cornbury's answer to 
 their remonstrance. 
 
 The assembly did not immediately enter upon 
 the consideration of a reply, having before them 
 the treasurer, Peter Fauconier's accounts, in which 
 they found many articles extraordinary in their 
 nature, several of them being paid by the go- 
 vernor's, (Cornbury,) order only, and the whole 
 without vouchers ; they sent for the treasurer, who 
 when he attended, refused to lay his vouchers before 
 them without the governor's commands, whereupon 
 two members were sent to the governor, to desire 
 him to order the treasurer to lay the vouchers of his 
 accounts, and the orders for the payment of the 
 sums therein mentioned before them ; the governor 
 said he had already ordered it, though it was what 
 he could not legally do, because the lord-high-trea- 
 surer had appointed an auditor-general for the pro- 
 vince, and he not being in it, had deputed one to 
 audit the accounts, and that the treasurer was ac- 
 countable only to the lord-high-treasurer ; but if 
 the house was dissatisfied with any articles in the 
 accounts, and thought proper to apply to him, he 
 would satisfy them. This was not done ; and the 
 accounts, extraordinary as they were, remained un 
 settled till Hunter's administration several years 
 aftei-. Several bills of consequence were now also 
 under consideration; but Lord Cornbury, apprehen- 
 sive of the conduct of the house, adjourned it till 
 the next September, to meet him at Amboy. In the 
 October following they met accordingly, when the 
 first thing concluded on, was a reply to the fore- 
 going answer to their remonstrance ; and the 
 next, that they would raise no money till the go- 
 vernor consented to redress the grievances of the 
 country, which if he did, they would raise 1,50U/. 
 for support of government for one year. 
 
 On the 28th, the house sent a committee to ac- 
 tjuaint the governor, that having seen his answer to 
 their remonstrance in print, they thought it proper 
 to make a reply to it, and desired to know when he 
 would admit them to wait on him with it : the go- 
 vernor said, he would return an answer in due 
 ;ime ; they waited for his message till next day, and 
 ;hen concluding he intended to elude giving them 
 an opportunity of presenting it, sent a committee 
 with it, but he would not receive it ; upon which they 
 jrdered it to be entered in their journal, as follows : 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 09 
 
 " May it pleasa your excellency, 
 
 " We', the representatives of this her majesty's 
 province of New Jersey, finding her majesty's sub- 
 jects greatly, and as we are very well satisfied with 
 good reason, aggrieved, thought we could not .an- 
 swer the trust reposed in us by our country, should 
 we not endeavour to get those hardships removed 
 under which they labour. 
 
 " It was needless to hunt after imaginary grie- 
 vances, real ones in too great numbers presenting 
 themselves; and though from you we have missed 
 of obtaining that relief that the justice of our com- 
 plaints entitled us to, yet we do not despair of being 
 heard by her sacred majesty, at whose royal feet we 
 shall in the humblest manner lay an account of our 
 sufferings ; and however contemptible we are, or 
 are endeavoured to be made appear, we are per- 
 suaded her majesty will consider us as the repre- 
 sentatives of the province of New Jersey, who must 
 better know what are the grievances of the country 
 they represent than a governor can do, who regularly 
 ought to receive informations of that, kind from 
 them; and we do not doubt that glorious queen will 
 make her subjects here as easy and happy as she can. 
 
 " When we told your excellency, we had reason 
 to think some of our sufferings were very much 
 owing to your excellency's long absence from this 
 province, which rendered it very difficult to apply 
 to your lordship in some cases that might need a 
 present help, we spoke truth ; and notwithstanding 
 all your excellency has said of a month's or twelve 
 weeks in a year, and the weekly going of a post ; 
 we cannot be persuaded to believe, that nine months 
 and upwards in a year is not a long absence, espe- 
 cially when the seal of the province is carried and 
 kept out of the government all that time ; and the 
 Honourable Colouel Ingoldsby, the lieut.-governor, 
 so far from doing right, that he declined doing any 
 act of government at all ; whether he governs him- 
 self by your excellency's directions or not, we can- 
 not tell ; but sure we are, that this province being 
 as it were without government for above nine months 
 in a year, we must still think it a great grievance, 
 and not made less so by carrying the seal of the 
 province to New York, and laying her majesty's 
 subjects under a necessity of applying from the re- 
 motest part of this province, for three parts of the 
 year and better, to your excellency at fort Ann, in 
 New York, from which place most of the commis- 
 sions and patents granted during your excellency's 
 absence are dated (by what authority we shall not 
 inquire), notwithstanding a lieutenant-governor re- 
 sides in the province, and is by her majesty's com- 
 mission empowered to execute the queen's letters 
 patents, and the powers therein contained, during 
 your excellency's absence from this province of 
 New Jersey; without which powers given and duly 
 executed, a lieutenant-governor is useless and an 
 unnecessary charge ; and we cannot think that her 
 sacred majesty, who honoured that gentleman with 
 so great a mark of her royal favour, as giving him 
 a commission for lieutenant-governor of New Jersey, 
 did at the same time inhibit him from executing the 
 powers therein exprest. 
 
 "Things are sometimes best illustrated by their 
 contraries; and perhaps the most effectual way to 
 convince the world, that this complaint is frivolous 
 and untrue, as by your excellency alleged, would 
 be, for your excellency to bring the seal of the pro- 
 vince of Now York to Burlington, keep it there, 
 and do all the acts of government relating to the 
 province of New York, at Burlington, in New Jer- 
 
 HIST. OF AMER. Nos, 77 & 78. 
 
 sey, for above three-fourths of a year, and let the 
 lieutenant-governor reside at New York during that 
 time, without doing any act of government, adjourn 
 their assemblies on the very day, or day before they 
 are to meet, that they may not lose the advantage 
 of travelling to New York, from the remotest part 
 of that province, and at a time when it cannot be 
 done without the utmost prejudice to their affairs ; 
 it's hardly probable they would be pleased under 
 such an administration, notwithstanding the case of 
 informing your excellency every week by the post, 
 of any emergency that might happen. 
 
 " We are apt to believe, upon the credit of your 
 excellency's assertion, that there may be a number 
 of people in this province who will never be faithful 
 to, or live quietly under any government, nor suffer 
 their neighbours to enjoy any peace, quiet, or hap- 
 piness, if they can help it ; such people are pests in 
 all governments, have ever been so in this, and we 
 know of none who can lay a fairer claim to these 
 characters than many of your excellency's favourites. 
 
 " What malice and revenge were in the prose- 
 cution of the condemned persons, we don't know; 
 we never heard of any till now, and hardly can be 
 persuaded to believe it's possible there should be in 
 both the instances. 
 
 " It is not impossible, there . might be malice in 
 the prosecution of the woman who was condemned 
 for poisoning her husband, there not being (as is 
 said) plain proof of the fact, but it was proved she 
 had attempted it before more than once ; and there 
 were so many other concurring circumstances as 
 did induce the jury, who were of the neighbourhood 
 (and well knew her character) to find her guilty, 
 and it is hardly probable their so doing was an act 
 of malice. 
 
 " The woman who murdered her own child, did 
 it in such a manner, and so publicly, that it is un- 
 reasonable to suppose there could be any malice in 
 the prosecution of her, and we cannot think (not- 
 withstanding your excellency's assertions) that you 
 can or may believe there was. This woman was a 
 prisoner in the sheriff's custody for breach of the 
 peace, and going about some of the household affairs 
 the sheriff employed her in, with a knife in her hand, 
 her child who was something froward, followed her 
 crying; upon which the mother turned back to it 
 and cut its throat; but not having cut it deep 
 enough, the child still followed her all bloody, and 
 crying, O ! mother you have hurt me : the mother 
 turned back a second time and cut it effectually, 
 and then took it up and carried it to the sheriff or 
 his wife, at whose ieet she laid it. How far such a 
 wretch is entitled to the queen's favour, her majesty 
 can best tell when she is made acquainted with the 
 fact ; but sure we are, she never gave your excel- 
 lency the power of pardoning wilful murder: 
 whether your excellency has or has not reprieved 
 them, you best know, and are only accountable to 
 her majesty for your procedures therein ; though 
 we have too much reason to believe, the favourable 
 opinion your excellency has so publicly expressed 
 of her, has been a great reason to induce her to 
 make her escape, which she has done. We thought 
 it our duty, humbly to represent that matter to your 
 excellency's consideration, and had reason to be 
 apprehensive of the judgments of Almighty God, 
 whose infinite mercy has hitherto suspended the 
 execution of his justice, notwithstanding that great 
 provocations have been given him by impiety, pro- 
 phatieness, and debauchery, under the mask of a 
 pretended zeal for his tjlory, and love for his church, 
 
 3 M 
 
610 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 It is not our business to enter into religious contro- 
 versies ; we leave them to divines, who ought best 
 to understand things of that nature, and who may 
 perhaps inform us what is meant by denying the 
 very essence of the Saviour of the world. 
 
 " We cannot yet be persuaded, that an innocent 
 
 })erson should pay foes ; what the practice in Eng- 
 and is we did never inquire, but believe, that per- 
 sons acquitted by a grand jury do not pay those 
 extravagant fees they are made to pay here ; we 
 did not govern ourselves by the practice there, but 
 the unreasonableness of the thing ; and your excel- 
 lency does grant, that what we say is in some mea- 
 sure to be allowed, were the juries in this country 
 such as they ought to be; we hope they are, and 
 our experience has not convinced us, that persons 
 who under pretence of conscience refuse an oath, 
 have yet no regard for the oaths they take, as your 
 excellency says. The temptations to resentment 
 prove often too powerful, and irresistibly engage 
 us in unbecoming heats, and when the characters 
 of men are written with pens too deeply dipt in gall, 
 it only evinces a want of temper in the writer. Our 
 juries here are not so learned or rich as perhaps 
 they are in England ; but we doubt not full as ho- 
 nest. We thought the only office for probate of 
 wills was at Burlington, but your excellency has 
 convinced us, that it is wherever your excellency is, 
 and consequently may be at York, Albany, the east 
 end of Long Island, or in Connecticut, or New 
 England, or any place more remote should your 
 excellency's business or inclination call you there, 
 which is s'o far from making it less a grievance, that 
 it rather makes it more so ; and notwithstanding 
 those soft, cool, and considerate terms of malicious, 
 scandalous, and frivolous, with which your excel- 
 lency vouchsafes to treat the assembly of this pro- 
 vince, they are of opinion, that no judicious or im- 
 partial men will think it reasonable that the inhabit- 
 ants of one province should go into another to have 
 their wills proved, and take letters of administra- 
 tion at Fort Ann, from the governor of New York, 
 for what should regularly be done by the governor 
 of New Jersey in Jersey, to which place all the acts 
 of government relating to New Jersey are limited 
 by the queen's letters patents under the great seal 
 of England ; and when your excellency is absent 
 from New Jersey, to be executed by the lieutenant- 
 governor; and by the said letters patents not the 
 least colour of authority is given to your excellency, 
 to do any act of government relating to New Jer- 
 sey, any where but in Jersey ; nor is there any 
 instruction (that we know of) contradicting the 
 said letters patents any where upon record in this 
 province, to warrant your excellency's conduct in 
 that affair. If this be not cause, and just cause of 
 complaint, we do not know what is ; we are inclined 
 to believe the province of New York would think it 
 so, were they to come to Amboy or Burlington to 
 prove wills, &c. 
 
 " We do not think, that what we desire is an in- 
 vasion of the queen's right, but what her majesty, 
 without infringement of her prerogative royal, may- 
 assent to; and their late majesties of blessed 
 memory, did, by their governor Colonel Fletcher, 
 assent to an act made in New York, in the year 
 1692, entitled, ' An act for the supervising intes- 
 tates estates, and regulating the probate of wills, 
 and granting letters of administration ;' by which 
 the court of common pleas in the remote counties 
 of that province, were empowered to take the ex- 
 amination of witnesses to any will within their re- 
 
 spective counties, and certify the same to the secre- 
 tary's office ; and the judges of the several courts 
 in those remote counties, empowered to grant pro- 
 bates of any will, or letters of administration, to 
 any person or persons, where the estate did not ex- 
 ceed 50/.; what has been done there may with as 
 much reason be done here, without sacrificing the 
 queen's prerogative royal to the humours or caprices 
 of any person or persons whatsoever. 
 
 "It is the general assembly of the province of 
 New Jersey that complains, and not the quaker?, 
 with whose persons (considered as quakers) or 
 meetings we have nothing to do, nor are we con- 
 cerned in what your excellency says against them ; 
 they perhaps will think themselves obliged to vindi- 
 cate their meetings from the aspersions which your 
 excellency so liberally bestows upon them, and 
 evince to the world how void of rashness and incon- 
 sideration your excellency's expressions are, and 
 how becoming it is for the governor of a province to 
 enter the lists of controversy, with a people who 
 thought themselves entitled to his protection of them 
 in {he enjoyment of their religious liberties ; those 
 of them who are members of this house, have begged 
 leave, in behalf of themselves and their friends, to 
 tell the governor they must answer him in the words 
 of Nehemiah to Sanballat, contained in the 8th 
 verse of the 6th chapter of Nehemiah, viz., ' There 
 is no such thing done as thou sayest, but thou feign- 
 est them out of thine own heart.' 
 
 " We are so well assured the fact is true, that the 
 secretary's office is kept at Burlington only, that we 
 still are of opinion it is a grievance for the reasons 
 we have assigned ; the proprietors' records have not 
 any thing to do with the secretary's office, but is 
 an office wholly belonging to the proprietors, and 
 altogether at their disposal ; and is not a secretary's 
 office kept at Amboy, either as far as the nature of the 
 thing requires or can admit of, or any way at all. 
 
 " And as the assemblies and courts sit alternately 
 at Amboy and Burlington, so it is highly reasonable 
 the secretary's office should be kept alternately also 
 at both these places, or by deputy in one of them, 
 and may be very well done without making two se- 
 cretaries. 
 
 " Both this and the rest of our complaints are not 
 with design to amuse the people, but are just and 
 reasonable ; and we believe will by the people be 
 thought to be grievances till they are redressed ; 
 who can no more think it reasonable that all the 
 inhabitants of the Eastern division should come to 
 the office at Burlington, than that all of the Western 
 division should go to Amboy. 
 
 " We are still of opinion, the grant we complain 
 of is against the statute we mentioned, because it is 
 exclusive of others, and to the prejudice of the pub- 
 lic. It can never be thought reasonable to pro- 
 hibit any body to cart their own goods, or any body's 
 else, as by virtue of that grant has been done ; and 
 not only in the road from Amboy to Burlington, but 
 in the road from Shrewsbury ; and a patent may as 
 well be granted to "keep horses to hire, by which a 
 man may be hindered to ride his own. It is destruc- 
 tive to the common rights of men, and a great griev- 
 ance, and we had reason to endeavour to get it re- 
 dressed. 
 
 " It is true, a certain convenience for transporta- 
 tion of goods is no doubt of great use, and the profit 
 that accrues by such undertakings, is the motive 
 that induces any persons to be at the charge of 
 them, and providing fit carriages for that end, and 
 of ascertaining the times and prices of carrying ; 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 611 
 
 and the more providers of such carriages, the more 
 certain and cheap the transportation, and freest 
 from imposition ; and consequently the fewer car- 
 riages, the less certain and dearer, and the persons 
 under a necessity of using them more subject to be 
 imposed upon by the carrier ; now whether granting 
 by which others are excluded, waving the unlawful- 
 ness of it, be a means to increase the number of the 
 undertakers in that kind, or to lessen them, and 
 confine those who have any occasion to transport 
 goods, to give such price as he that has the patent 
 thinks fit to impose, we leave to all men of common 
 sense to judge ; and if experience may be admitted 
 to determine that matter, it is plain that transporta- 
 tion of goods, both by land and water, is dearer 
 than it was before the granting of that patent. It 
 is true, the certainty was not so great as now, for 
 now we are certain that a man cannot with his own 
 carts carry his own goods, but that if he does they 
 will be seized ; and if that be one of the conveni- 
 ences which the wise people in Europe think of ab- 
 solute necessity, we shall think it no irony to be 
 called wiser in differing from them, and calling them 
 monopolies as they are, and prejudicial to trade, and 
 especially that between York and Amboy, Burling- 
 ton and Philadelphia ; which did not owe its begin- 
 ning to your excellency's patent, but was begun 
 long before your excellency had any thing to do 
 with New Jersey, and in all probability had much 
 more increased were it not for that patent ; and we 
 believe whenever the gentlemen of the law will give 
 your excellency their true opinion of it, you will not 
 be long in doubt whether it is a monopoly or not. 
 We thought it a monopoly, as we do still, and a 
 grievance, as is also both that and other grants 
 made by your excellency at fort Ann in New 
 York, for any thing in Jersey. 
 
 "Your excellency has neither by birth nor ac- 
 quisition, a right to the sovereignty of New Jersey ; 
 nor have you any power of governing the queen's 
 subjects here, but what her majesty is pleased to 
 grant you by her letters patents, under the great 
 seal of England ; by which letters patents the 
 powers therein contained, are limited to that country, 
 which was formerly granted by King Charles II., 
 under the name of Nova Caesaria or New Jersey, 
 and which has since been subdivided by the proprie- 
 tors, and called East New Jersey, and West New 
 Jersey, and which her majesty is pleased to reunite 
 under one entire government, viz. ' The divisions 
 of East and West New Jersey, in America ; and in 
 case of your excellency's death, or absence from 
 that country, which was subdivided by the proprie- 
 tors, and called East New Jersey and West New 
 Jersey, the powers of government are lodged in 
 other hands,' Now either fort Ann and the city of 
 New York, is in that country granted by King 
 Charles II., and subdivided by the proprietors 
 thereof, and called East New Jersey and West New 
 Jersey ; or your excellency is absent from New 
 Jersey, when you are at fort Ann in New York ; 
 that fort Ann is in New Jersey, we believe, that 
 even your excellency will think impracticable to 
 persuade us to do so much violence to our reason as 
 to believe ; therefore your excellency when at fort 
 Ann, or any where in New York, is absent from 
 New Jersey ; and what the consequence is we need 
 not say, thinking the pretence of a power to do acts 
 of government relating to New Jersey, at fort. Ann, 
 in New York, to be so manifestly absurd, as to 
 need nothing further to be said against it, 
 
 44 There is nothing more common in the statutes 
 
 than the establishing fees, and we are of opinion 
 that all fees have been established by act of parlia- 
 ment ; and indeed it seems to us unreasonable they 
 should be established by any other authority ; for if 
 a governor, either with or without his council, can 
 appoint what sums of money shall be paid for fees, 
 he may make them large "enough to defray the 
 charge of government, without the formality of an 
 act of assembly, to raise a revenue for the necessary 
 support of the same ; and if it does not come up to 
 the taxing of the queen's subjects, without their 
 consent in assembly, we are to seek what does. 
 
 '" We cannot think the clause of your excellency's 
 instructions, which we have recited, to be so foreign 
 to the matter of fees, as your excellency says it is; 
 for the enforcing the payment of fees by any autho- 
 rity but that of the assembly's, is taking away a 
 man's goods otherwise than by established or known 
 laws, except the act of a governor and council be a 
 law, which we think is not, nor never intended by 
 the queen it should ; nor do we think, by the instruc- 
 tions your excellency mentions, you are to establish 
 fees ; but only to regulate those already appointed, 
 and to take care that no exaction was used ; but if 
 it did, your excellency has convinced the world, 
 that you do not think yourself bound by the queen's 
 instructions, but where the law binds also. 
 
 " As in the case of Ormston, -where nothing could 
 be more positive than her majesty's directions ; yet 
 your excellency did not think yourself ministerial, 
 or by not complying with her majesty's orders, that 
 you accused the best of queens, with commanding 
 her governor to do a thing which was not warranted 
 by law ; nor never inquired, whether the refusing 
 obedience to her commands, was a fit return for the 
 many favours she had bestowed upon you ; but go- 
 verned yourself in that singular instance as near as 
 you could by the law. The seventh clause was not 
 put in to arraign the queen's express commands to 
 your excellency ; but to complain of the great hai'd- 
 ships her majesty's subjects lay under, by your excel- 
 lency's putting the records there mentioned, into the 
 hands of Peter Sonmans, who is not the proprietors' 
 recorder, nor had no express command from the 
 queen to put the books into his hands ; and may in 
 part answer the challenge made by your excellency 
 in the last part of the next foregoing clause ; for your 
 excellency had commanded the said records to be 
 put into the hand of Mr. Bass, the queen's secretary ; 
 upon which, application was made to her majesty, 
 who was pleased to give an order in favour of the 
 proprietors; and without all peradventure, it was 
 intended they should be in the hands of the proprie- 
 tors' recorder, which Mr. Thomas Gordon was at 
 that time, and regularly is still, being constituted by 
 the majority of the proprietors in the Eastern- divi- 
 sion, and by your excellency sworn. Mr. John 
 Barclay was als'o by your excellency sworn, and i 
 proclamation issued in his favour ; since which Mr. 
 Peter Sonmans arrived from England, and upon 
 application to your excellency, was by your excel- 
 lency admitted receiver-general of the quit-rents, 
 and the proprietors' records by your excellency put 
 into his hands ; which, with submission, we think 
 could not be done regularly by your excellency. 
 For in the first place, they were constituted by the 
 majority of the proprietors, whose servants they 
 were, and to whom they were accountable, and to 
 none else. 
 
 " 2. These places were the properties of Mr. Tho- 
 mas Gordon and Mr. John Barclay ; and to deprive* 
 them of them, without due course of law, is what 
 
 3 M 2 
 
12 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 your excellency has no authority to do, nor can 
 have. 
 
 " 3. Whether they were made by the greater or 
 lesser part of the proprietors, your excellency was 
 no ways concerned, nor had any right of determin- 
 ing in the favour of either one or other, the law 
 being open to any who thought themselves ag- 
 grieved. 
 
 " 4. Those books and records were the properties 
 of the general proprietors ; and if your excellency 
 can dispossess any proprietor of them (for Thomas 
 Gordon was a proprietor), and put them into the 
 hands of another, you may by the same rule dis- 
 possess any one of their goods, and give them to 
 who you think fit, and any proprietor of their pro- 
 perty, and give it to which of the proprietors you 
 think fit, as is actually done by your excellency in 
 the case of Sonmans ; and was attempted with the 
 same violence in favour of Mr. Bass. It will not be 
 a sufficient answer to this, to say, Sonmans was 
 proprietors' agent; which whether he was or was 
 not, your excellency had no right to determine to 
 any other purpose but administering an oath to him, 
 after which he was of course to be allowed ; and so 
 ought as many agents as the proprietors made, who 
 were not accountable to your excellency for any 
 procedures in the proprietors' affairs, that were not 
 unlawful. 
 
 " 5. Soomans neither had, nor pretended to have, 
 at that time (whatever he has done since) any right 
 or colour of right, to be the proprietors' recorder, 
 not any mention being made of it in that very lame 
 commission he had ; and were he to have the top of 
 his pretences, it would but to be deputy to a person 
 in England ; and whether he has a right or not, is a 
 great question, and regularly only determinable at 
 the common law; but your excellency's shorter 
 method of procedure saves disputes of that kind. 
 If this be acting according to established and known 
 laws, not repugnant to, but as agreeable as may be, 
 to the laws of England ; if this be administering 
 those laws for the preservation and protection of 
 the people, we would be very gladly informed, what 
 perverting of them can be ; as to the matter of fact, 
 we aver it to be truth, that Mr. Sonmans did not 
 reside in the province, had not given security for 
 the keeping of those records, as by the queen is 
 positively directed, they were carried out of the 
 Eastern division, and were produced at the su- 
 preme court at Burlington at the time of our com- 
 plaint. 
 
 " Those things, and that gentleman's character, 
 are so well known, that it is needless to offer any 
 thing else in justification of that reasonable request 
 we made, that they might be so kept as her ma- 
 jesty's subjects might have recourse to them, and 
 in the hands of such of whose fidelity there is no 
 reason to doubt. 
 
 " These, may it please your excellency, were the 
 grievances we complained of; and they were but a 
 small number of many we could with equal justice 
 remonstrate ; and which, notwithstanding those soft, 
 cool, and considerate terms of false, scandalous, 
 and malicious, and other bitter invectives which 
 your excellency so often uses to the representative 
 body of a country; we are still of opinion, they are 
 not imaginary, but real grievances, not false, but 
 God knows too true ; and which it was our duty, 
 in discharge of the trust reposed in us, to get re- 
 dressed. 
 
 " Our sad experience has convinced us, that our 
 endeavours have not met with a tucccss answerable 
 
 to what might ressouably be our expectations, and 
 that instead of redressing the grievances of the 
 country, their number is increased. Before we 
 enumerated those grievances of a higher nature, 
 and attended with worse consequences, we first said, 
 the treatment the people of New Jersey had re- 
 ceived, was very different from what they had 
 reason to expect under the government of a queen 
 deservedly famous for her just, equal and mild ad- 
 ministration ; that the hardships they endured, were 
 not owing to her majesty, who they were well 
 assured, would by no means make any of her sub- 
 jects miserable, nor continue their misfortunes were 
 she acquainted with them, and in her power to give 
 them relief; but that the oppressions they groaned 
 under, were the unkind effects of mistaken power ; 
 and what these effects were, and who the cause of 
 them, we proceeded to show ; and if the instances 
 we there give be true, it will then appear to the 
 world, that the expressions we have used are the 
 softest could be chosen, and very far short of what 
 the nature of the thing could bear, and that these 
 bold accusers are a sort of creatures called honest 
 men, just to the trust reposed in them by the 
 country, who will not suffer their liberties and pro- 
 perties to be torn from them by any man, how great 
 soever, if they can hinder it. 
 
 " And that the reasonableness of our complaints 
 may appear the plainer, we shall consider what 
 your excellency has said in answer, and leave it to 
 our superiors, and to all just and impartial men, 
 whether we are not a people the most abused of any 
 of her majesty's subjects. 
 
 " As to the first instance, your excellency does 
 acknowledge the fact to be true, and offers the fol- 
 lowing reasons to justify your conduct to the council 
 ofproprietors. The first is, that by her majesty's 
 directions you are to allow of all such agents as the 
 general proprietors shall appoint, such agents qua- 
 lifying themselves by taking such oaths as the 
 queen is pleased to direct, and no other ; that no 
 persons under the name of a council of proprietors, 
 have ever tendered themselves to take such oaths ; 
 consequently they are not capable of acting as 
 agents. 
 
 " 2. That the council of proprietors are a people 
 pretending to act by a power derived from certain 
 persons 'who have no power to grant, and that this is 
 a truth, viz. that they are a people pretending to act 
 by a power derived from certain persons, who had 
 uo power to grant, your excellency is satisfied ; 
 besides other reasons, by this in particular, that the 
 assembly have voted to put the records into the 
 hands of Peter Sonmans, to be a grievance; whereas 
 their not qualifying themselves is a greater griev- 
 ance. To set this mattej in a true light, it will not 
 be improper to produce the words of the instruct- 
 ions, which are as follows : " You are to permit 
 the surveyors and other persons appointed by the 
 before-mentioned general proprietors of the soil of 
 that province, for surveying and recording the 
 surveys of lands granted by and held of them, to 
 execute accordingly their respective trusts. And 
 you are likewise to permit, and if need be, to aid 
 and assist such other agent or agents, as shall be 
 appointed by the said proprietors for that end, to 
 collect and receive the quit-rents, which are or 
 shall be due unto them, from the particular possessor 
 of any tracts or parcel of land from time to time ; 
 provided always, that such surveyors, agents, or 
 other officers appointed by the said general proprie- 
 tors, do not only take proper oaths for the due 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 613 
 
 execution and performance of their respective 
 offices and employments, and give good and suffici- 
 ent security for their so doing ; but that they like- 
 wise take the oaths appointed by act of parliament 
 to be taken instead of the oaths of allegiance and 
 supremacy ; as also the test, and subscribe the 
 before-mentioned association ; all which you are 
 accordingly to require of them, and not otherwise 
 to admit any person into any such office or employ- 
 ment.' After the proprietors had surrendered their 
 power of government, relating to their soil, they were 
 under a necessity of employing persons to survey 
 and record the surveys of lands granted by and 
 held of them ; and in the Eastern division, several 
 quit-rents being due to them, there was a necessity 
 of having one or more agents to collect and receive 
 those rents ; which persons (because the crown in- 
 tended that the proprietors by the surrender of their 
 government, should by no means be insecure in 
 their properties) your excellency was directed not 
 only to permit such officers to be and execute their 
 respective trusts, but also to aid and assist them, if 
 need were ; and because such offices were places of 
 trust, both with respect to the proprietors and the 
 inhabitants, it was directed, that they should take 
 proper oaths, and give good and sufficient security; 
 and that they who enjoyed those places of trust, 
 might be persons well affected to the present govern- 
 ment, there was especial care taken, to direct, that 
 they should lake the oaths appointed by act of 
 parliament to be taken, which your excellency was 
 to require of them, and not otherwise to admit them 
 to execute those trusts. From all which we observe, 
 first, that no agents are concerned in that instruct- 
 ion, but such as were to survey and record the 
 surveys of lands, and collect the quit-rents. 
 
 " 2. That the proprietors were not limited to 
 employ a certain number of agents, but might em- 
 ploy as many as they thought fit; all which your 
 excellency was to aid and assist if need were. 
 
 " 3. Your excellency was not to expect while 
 they tendered themselves to take the oaths appointed, 
 but to require them to take them, and upon their 
 refusal, not to admit them; for it was impossible they, 
 or any else, should deem themselves bound by the 
 queen's instructions to certain performances, ex- 
 cept such instructions had been made public, and 
 they made acquainted with it. 
 
 " Now, in the first place, your excellency never 
 published any such instruction, nor ever did require 
 those agents, called the council of proprietors, to 
 comply with it by taking any oaths. 
 
 " 2. The council of proprietors are not such 
 agents as the instructions mention. 
 
 " 3. Were that instruction binding, your excel- 
 lency has by no means complied with it; for the 
 surveyor appointed by the proprietors of the Western 
 division, has several times tendered himself to take 
 and subscribe according to her majesty's directions, 
 and has been refused. 
 
 "4. Mr. Sonmans, though a bankrupt, and his 
 powers disputed, was admitted to keep the records of 
 the Eastern division, and that without any security ; 
 and persons who were sworn to those places, and em- 
 ployed by proprietors, and a greater number, not 
 only not permitted to act, but deprived of their 
 places (with which your lordship had nothing to do) 
 without a due course of law, forcibly by your lord- 
 ship's directions. 
 
 " Lastly, the council of proprietors are attorneys 
 to private men, for the taking care of their several 
 properties, and are neither concerned in that in- 
 
 struction, nor bound by it ; if they were, we shall 
 not dispute how far that instruction may be a law to 
 your lordship, but we are sure it is so to nobody else, 
 but where the laws of the land bind without it; and 
 if so, it is no sufficient warrant to destroy any man's 
 property, or deprive him of the use of it, without 
 the judgment of his peers ; for your lordship cannot 
 but know if you do not, the last clause of the petition 
 of right will tell you that the queen's servants are to 
 serve her according to law, and not otherwise ; and 
 every gentleman of the law can inform your excel- 
 lency, if he pleased, that the queen's authority or 
 warrant produced (if you had done any such thing) 
 cannot justify the commission of an unlawful act, 
 which this certainly must be, except the law pro- 
 vides that no man must make an attorney but 
 with your lordship's approbation. As to the second 
 reason, to use your excellency's expressions, if we 
 could wonder at any thing your excellency has 
 done, it would be at the reason your excellency 
 gives, as much as at the action ; it being a plain pre- 
 tending to a right of judging solely who have a 
 right to their estates, and who not, and according 
 to that judgment to permit them to retain or force 
 them to part with their possessions ; for in the first 
 place, that matter was never brought before your 
 lordship, and what information you had (if you had 
 any) was private ; and we are told no freeman can 
 be dispossessed of his freehold but by judgment of his 
 peers, or the law of the land ; but here is at once a 
 determination that a number of proprietors, nigh 
 or above nine-tenths of the whole, have no right to 
 grant, and accordingly they are prohibited taking 
 up or disposing of their lands ; for the council of 
 proprietors are all proprietors themselves, except 
 Mr. Morris their president ; and we can't see but 
 any freeman, or number of freemen, in the province, 
 may be dispossessed by the same measures; for it is 
 but your lordship's saying, the persons they had 
 their lands from had no right to grant, and then or- 
 der the possessors to make no further improvements, 
 nor to dispose of any of their lands, and thus con- 
 clude them without the tedious formality of the old 
 magna charta way : and who is hardy enough to dis- 
 pute with a man that commands two provinces ? 
 
 " 2. What your excellency asserts, with relation 
 to the council of proprietors, viz., that they were 
 persons deriving a power from those who had no 
 right to grant, is what your excellency neither did 
 nor could know ; that you did not know it, no- 
 thing is more plain; because your excellency, some 
 days after your lordship's answ r er to our remon- 
 strance, summoned some of the council of proprie- 
 tors before yourself in council, and there asked 
 them the following questions : viz., First, who the 
 late council of proprietors were ? Secondly, who 
 were the present council of proprietors ? Thirdly, 
 who they derived their powers from ? Fourthly, 
 what their powers were ? By which it appears, your 
 excellency neither knew who the council of pro- 
 prietors were, what their powers were, nor who they 
 derived them from ; which is very far from knowing 
 whether the persons who gave them those powers 
 had power to grant or not ; and that your excel- 
 lency could not know is as plain ; because the deeds 
 of what proprietors are in this country you never 
 did see ; and those that are in England you could 
 not see. 
 
 " How your excellency is, from our voting the 
 putting the records into Mr. Sonnaan's hands to be 
 a grievance, satisfied that the persons from wham 
 the council of proprietors derive their power have 
 
614 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 no power to grant, is very much beyond our poor 
 capacities to understand, and may perhaps be of the 
 number of those unanswerable objections your lord- 
 ship tells us of in your answer. To the next clause, 
 your lordship justifies your proceedings with the 
 assembly-men as being your duty, and that what 
 you did was by virtue of the queen's instructions : 
 how far they will justify your excellency's conduct 
 is our next business to speak to ; but in the first 
 place we are obliged to your excellency for acknow- 
 ledging the matter of fact, which, though notoriously 
 known, was omitted to be entered in the journals of 
 this house, by your excellency's faithful servant, Mr. 
 William Anderson, late clerk of this house. 
 
 " By the queen's instructions, not the least colour 
 of authority is given to your excellency to be a 
 judge of the qualifications of assembly-men, so as to 
 admit or reject them ; which is not only a direct con- 
 tradiction to the very nature and being of assemblies, 
 but must render the liberties, lives, and properties 
 of the people entirely at your excellency's disposal, 
 which, as her majesty never intended, so without 
 doubt she never did intend by any instruction to 
 make so precarious ; and how well she'll be pleased 
 at wresting her instructions to authorize what we 
 are well satisfied she will be very far from counte- 
 nancing, time may inform us. This house could 
 not be so much wanting to themselves, and the pro- 
 vince they represent, as to omit taking notice of a 
 procedure, which tends to destroy the very being of 
 assemblies, by rendering them the tools of a go- 
 vernor's arbitrary pleasure, and the enemies instead 
 of the preservers of the liberties of their country ; 
 and we are well assured that nothing your excel- 
 lency has said, will persuade the world to believe, 
 that your excellency or any other governor has that 
 power you pretend to, or that it can be consistent 
 with tlie liberties of a free people. 
 
 "That there were considerable sums of money 
 raised; that most of them were raised with intent 
 and purpose to give to your lordship, to procure the 
 dissolution of the last assembly, and procure such 
 officers as the contributors should approve of; that 
 in all probability the money so raised was given to 
 your lordship ; that the assembly was dissolved ; 
 that the contributors were complied with as far as 
 could be ; that you did receive from Doctor John 
 Johnston '2001. upon the score of the proprietors of 
 the Eastern division of New Jersey, are such noto- 
 rious truths, that it is a vanity to deny them, and 
 will be believed notwithstanding all the force of 
 evasive arts to persuade to the contrary. And since 
 we have mentioned Doctor Johnston, it is not amiss 
 to inquire whether the services you were to do the 
 proprietors were such as your lordship ought, or 
 ought not to have done ; if they were such as you 
 ought to have done, you ought not to have taken 
 money for the doing of them ; if they were such as 
 you ought not to have done, much less ought your 
 lordship to have taken money ; and had you not 
 been more than ordinarily concerned in those pri- 
 vate contributions, without all peradventure would 
 have used all possible endeavours to have detected 
 the thing, and not given those public marks of your 
 favour to the persons most concerned in the per- 
 suading and procuring of them. 
 
 " As to what relates to the assembly, as your 
 lordship is not accountable to this house for what 
 reasons you dissolved them, neither is this house to 
 your lordship for their proceedings ; they acted as 
 became a house of representatives in the affair ot 
 Mr. Gordon, and what they did was not without 
 
 your lordship's approbation ; if that could add any 
 ;hing to the power they had. As to your excellency's 
 reflections on private men, it is below the repre- 
 sentative body of a province to take any further 
 notice of them, than to do that justice to the two 
 worthy members of this house, as to say, they both 
 have and deserve better characters than your ex- 
 cellency gives them ; and that the humblest appli- 
 cation you can make to her majesty will never in 
 duce her to grant you a power to use any means to 
 procure a satisfaction but what the laws allow of 
 without such application : we concluded by acquaint- 
 ing your excellency, that the way to engage the 
 affections of a people, was to let them be unmolested 
 in the quiet enjoyment of those things which belong 
 to them of right, and should have dated our happi- 
 ness from your excellency's complying with so rea- 
 sonable and just a desire ; to which your excellency 
 replied, that you could never answer taking advice 
 from men who did not know how to govern them- 
 selves, and who have always opposed the service of 
 the queen, and interest and good of their country. 
 We shall wave the admirable coolness of temper, 
 and considerateness of the reflection, and say, your 
 excellency could hardly have used plainer terms, to 
 tell us you will not let us be quiet in the enjoyment 
 of what belongs to us of right ; and your excellency's 
 proceedings since that, has effectually convinced 
 the world that we have not put a wrong construction 
 on your excellency's expressions. 
 
 "Are not her majesty's loyal subjects hauled to 
 gaols, and there lie without being admitted to bail ? 
 and those that are the conditions of their recogni- 
 sances are, that if your excellency approves not of 
 their being bailed they shall return to their prisons; 
 several of her majesty's good subjects forced to ab- 
 scond and leave their habitations, being threatened 
 with imprisonment, and no hopes of receiving the 
 benefit of the law; when your excellency's absolute 
 will is the sole measure of it. One minister of the 
 church of England, dragged by a sheriff from Bur- 
 lington to Amboy, and there kept in custody, with- 
 out assigning any reason for it, and at last hauled by 
 force into a boat by your excellency, and transported 
 like a malefactor, into another government, and 
 there kept in a garrison a prisoner, and no reason 
 assigned for these violent procedures, but your ex- 
 cellency's pleasure. Another minister of the church 
 of England, laid under a necessity of leaving the 
 province, from the reasonable apprehensions of 
 meeting with the same treatment ; no orders of men 
 either sacred or civil, secure in their lives, their 
 liberties, or estates ; and where these procedures 
 will end, God only knows. 
 
 " If these, and what we have named before, be 
 acts of mercy, gentleness, and good nature ; if this 
 be doing for the good, welfare, and prosperity of 
 the people of this province ; if this be the admiuiu 
 tering laws for the protection and preservation of 
 her majesty's subjects, then have we been the most 
 mistaken men in the world, and have had the falsest 
 notion of things ; calling that cruelty, oppression, 
 and injustice, which are their direct opposite?, and 
 those things slavery, imprisonment, and hardships, 
 which are freedom, liberty, and ease ; and must 
 henceforth take France, Denmark, the Muscovian, 
 Ottoman and Eastern empires, to be the best models 
 of a gentle and happy government 
 
 " Your excellency at last endeavours to persuade 
 the country, that the assembly instead of protecting 
 are invading the liberties of the people ; and if wo 
 might have the liberty of using some of your excel- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 615 
 
 lency's cool and considerate terms, perhaps the fol- 
 lowing instances might justify those expressions ; 
 but we leave that to just and impartial men, who 
 no doubt will apply them where they are most due. 
 " Your excellency asserts in the first place, ' you 
 have presumed to take the queen's subjects into 
 the custody of the serjeant-at-arms, who are not 
 members of your house, which you can't lawfully 
 do, and is a notorious violation of the liberties of 
 the people.' Answer : There is nothing more 
 known, than that the contrary to what your ex- 
 cellency says is true, and hardly a session of par- 
 liament but affords multitudes of instances, nay, 
 several instances can be produced during the time 
 of your excellency's being iu the house of commons ; 
 and what your excellency means by asserting a 
 thing which every body that knows any thing knows 
 is not so, we can't tell. 
 
 " Secondly, ' You have taken upon you to ad- 
 minister an oath to one of your members, and have 
 expelled him from the house for refusing to take an 
 oath which you could not legally administer to him ; 
 this is most certainly robbing that member of his 
 property, and a most notorious assuming to your- 
 selves a negative voice to the freeholders' election 
 of their representatives, for which there can be no 
 precedent found.' Answer: We never did admi- 
 nister an oath (though we think we have power so 
 to do) ; what oaths were administered were adminis- 
 tered by justices of the peace before us : we expelled 
 that member for several contempts, for which we 
 are not accountable to your excellency, nor nobody 
 else in this province : we might lawfully expel him, 
 and if we had so thought fit, might have rendered him 
 incapable of ever sitting in this house ; and of this 
 many precedents may be produced. We are the 
 freeholders' representatives : and how it's possible 
 we should assume a negative voice at the election 
 of ourselves, is what wants a little explanation to 
 make it intelligible. 
 
 " Thirdly, ' You have arbitrarily taken upon you 
 to command the high-sheriff of this county, to dis- 
 charge a prisoner who was in his custody at the suit 
 of one of the queen's subjects ; and he has been 
 weak enough to do it, for which he lies liable to be 
 sued for an escape whenever the gentleman thinks 
 fit to do it, and from which you can't protect him ; 
 this is a notorious violation of the right of the sub- 
 ject, and a manifest interruption of justice.' An- 
 swer : The person we ordered to be discharged, was 
 an evidence attending by order of the house, and 
 under the protection of this house ; who were only 
 wanting to themselves in not sending the high-sheriff 
 and lawyers to the same place,for daring to offer so pub- 
 lic an affront to the representative body of a country. 
 " Fourthly, ' You have taken upon you to ap- 
 point one of your members to act as clerk of the 
 committee of the whole house, which you have no 
 power to do, &c.' Answer : Your excellency has 
 been so very much mistaken in all the foregoing 
 clauses, that we have great reason to believe you 
 are so in this. This house has always till of late 
 made their own clerks, and your excellency cannot 
 show us any law why we may not do it still, should 
 we think fit to insist on it. We have made no en- 
 croachments on her majesty's prerogative royal, 
 nor never intended to do it, but shall to our utmost 
 study to preserve it, and honourably support her go- 
 vernment over us, and hope your excellency will 
 think it for the service of the queen to comply with 
 our reasonable desires ; which will very much en- 
 courage us so to do. 
 
 J" Divers of the members of this assembly being 
 of the people called Quakers, do assent to the mat- 
 ter and substance, but make some exception to the 
 style. " By order of the house, 
 
 " P. M. Die Veneris, " SAMUEL JEN INGS, 
 24 Octobris, 1707. " Speaker." 
 
 Memorial of the West Jersey proprietors residing in 
 England, to the lords commissioners for trade and 
 plantations The lieutenant-governor, until some of 
 the council, address the queen The last meeting of 
 assembly under Cornbury's administration They 
 continue their complaints Samuel Jenings' death 
 and character. 
 
 It being necessary to narrate the foregoing pro- 
 ceedings together, the following memorial has been 
 deferred a little out of course as to strict order of 
 time. The western proprietors residing in England 
 had much resented Lord Cornbury's treatment of 
 the inhabitants, especially in relation to the three 
 members being kept out of the assembly, by which 
 he gained a majority devoted to his measures; and 
 thus they complain. 
 " To the right honourable the lords commissioners 
 
 for trade and plantations. 
 " The humble memorial of the proprietors of the 
 
 Western division of the province of New Jersey, 
 
 in America. 
 
 " We humbly acknowledge your lordships' great 
 justice, in making the terms of our surrender of go- 
 vernment part of the Lord Cornbury's instructions 
 relating to the said province, and heartily wish his 
 excellency had given us occasion of acknowledging 
 his due observation of the instruction, instead of 
 troubling your lordships with a complaint of his 
 breach of them, which we are fully assured, from 
 undoubted testimonies, his excellency has made in 
 the following instances : and though he endeavours 
 to palliate his proceedings there, by frequently and 
 publicly asserting, that your lordships consented to 
 no terms upon our surrender; yet were that as great 
 a truth as it is a mistake, and those instructions had 
 been only of grace and favour, we conceive him to 
 be obliged, and ourselves entitled to his punctual 
 observation of them. 
 
 " It is one of the terms consented to by your 
 lordships, and one of his excellency's instructions 
 from your lordships, that the general assembly 
 shall consist of four-and-twenty representatives; 
 two to be chosen by the inhabitants, householders 
 of the city or town of Perth Amboy ; two by the 
 inhabitants, householders of the city or town of 
 Burlington ; ten to be chosen by the freeholders- of 
 the Eastern, and ten by the freeholders of the 
 Western division ; in which election, every elector 
 is to have one hundred acres of freehold land in his 
 own right, within the division for which he shall 
 choose ; and every person elected is to have one 
 thousand acres of freehold land in his own rigbt, 
 within the division for which he shall be chosen. 
 
 " This instruction, which we relied on as the 
 chief security of our estates in that province, his 
 excellency has not only violated, but has totally 
 destroyed that part of our constitution ; and in such 
 a manner as will render all assemblies a mere piece 
 of formality, and only the tools of a governor's 
 arbitrary pleasure. 
 
 " For setting which proceeding in a due light, 
 we must crave leave to lay before your lordships 
 the account we have received of it from our agent, 
 and other reputable persons of that province. 
 
 " An asaembly having been called and chosen, in 
 
616 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the year 1703, pursuant to your lordships' instruct- 
 ions, prepared bills for settling the rights of the 
 proprietors and planters, and for raising a revenue 
 of thirteen hundred pounds per annum, for three 
 years (which they knew was the utmost the country 
 could bear), for th support of the government ; but 
 his excellency requiring a greater sum, several per- 
 sons, our constant enemies and invaders of our 
 properties, and who therefore opposed the bill for 
 settling our rights, undertook to procure an as- 
 sembly more obedient to his excellency's demands ; 
 and by that and other arguments, which, out of 
 regard to his honour, we choose to wave the men- 
 tion of, prevailed upon him to dissolve that assembly, 
 and to call another to sit in November last ; the 
 writs were issued, and the election directed to be 
 made, in such haste, that in one of the writs the 
 qualification of the persons to be elected was 
 mmtted, and the sheriff of one county not sworn 
 till three days before the election, and many of the 
 towns had not any (much less due) notice of the day 
 of election ; but passing by these, and many other 
 illegal artifices used by those undertakers, to obtain 
 an assembly to their own humour, we shall insist 
 only upon one grand instance, which is not to be 
 parrallel'd in any of her majesty's plantations, and 
 could not have been attempted without his excel- 
 lency's encouragement, nor put in practice without 
 his concurrence. 
 
 " When this assembly was met, and attended his 
 excellency in council, in order to be sworn, Mr. 
 llevell and Mr. Leeds (two of the governor's 
 council, and of the undertakers to procure such an 
 assembly as they had promised), suspecting the 
 strength of their party, objected against three of 
 the members returned, as persons not having each 
 one thousand acres of land, and therefore unquali- 
 fied to serve in the assembly ; though these persons 
 had such estates in land, and were generally known 
 to have so, and at the time of their election had 
 convinced Revell and Leeds, who opposed them 
 under that pretence, of the truth of it ; and this 
 objection was not examinable or determinable by 
 his excellency or his council, or otherwise than in 
 the house of representatives, who are the only pro- 
 per judges of their own members ; yet his excel- 
 lency, upon this bare suggestion of Revell and 
 Leeds, refused to swear these members, and ex- 
 cluded them from sitting to serve their country ; 
 this attempt was seconded by another trick of Revell 
 and Leeds, who immediately sent the following 
 note to the house of representatives. 
 
 " 'To the honourable the house of representatives. 
 
 " ' Gentlemen, We underwritten, supposing we 
 /iad good reason to charge three of the persons 
 returned to serve as representatives in this general 
 assembly ; but upon due consideration find it diffi- 
 cult to come to a true determination thereof, until 
 we can by further inquiry find the truth of what 
 we have been informed of; we therefore humbly 
 desire fourteen days time further, that we may be 
 able more fully to inform this house therein, which 
 we humbly suppose at present cannot reasonably 
 he expected from us ; we subscribe ourselves your 
 humble supplicants, THOMAS REVELL. 
 
 " ' Nov. 15, 1704 DANIEL LEEDS/ 
 
 " The counties for which they were chosen to 
 serve, expressed a great dissatisfaction at the ex- 
 clusion of their members ; and these and several 
 other representatives delivered an address to his 
 excellency, for having them admitted to their right ; 
 which met with no other reception, than being 
 
 called a piece ofinsolen.ee and ill manners. 
 
 " By this exclusion of three members, and the 
 contempt of the address for their admission, the 
 undertakers gained a majority by one in the house 
 of representatives, who adjourned the hearing of 
 this case, until they had reaped the fruits of their 
 iniquity, and accomplished the ends for which it 
 was contrived ; for whilst this case was depending, 
 a bill for taking away the qualifications of electors 
 and the elected, and placing the right of choosing 
 and being chosen in the freeholders generally, 
 without any express value of their estates, was pre- 
 pared and passed, wherein there is this remarkable 
 and self-condemning declaration of his excellency's 
 proceedings, viz. that representatives met in general 
 assembly are and shall be the judges of the qualifi- 
 cations of their own members. 
 
 " After this and one other act, which we shall 
 hereafter take notice of in its proper place, were 
 passed, a day of hearing was allowed to the three 
 excluded members, and notice of it given to Revell 
 and Leeds, who would not vouchsafe to appear ; 
 but having already obtained their ends, graciously 
 signified by a message, their mistake in their ob- 
 jection to those members. 
 
 " The house proceeded in the inquiry, and by 
 deeds and other authentic proofs, was so fully 
 satisfied of the estates of the excluded members, and 
 that llerell and Leeds had been convinced thereof, 
 at the time of their elections, that the house unani- 
 mously declared them duly qualified, and sent two 
 of their body to acquaint his excellency of it, and 
 to pray they might be sworn; but his excellency, 
 whether out of a desire of assuming the glory of his 
 arbitrary proceeding wholly to himself, or of mak- 
 ing the country sensible that notwithstanding the 
 act so lately passed, declaring the house judges of 
 their own members ; he was resolved to exercise 
 that power for the future ; or for what other reason 
 we know not, told those messengers he must be 
 satisfied of their qualifications, as well as the house ; 
 and still keeps them out of the assembly. 
 
 " This we conceive to be the assuming a negative 
 voice to the freeholders' election of their represen- 
 tatives ; and such an invasion of the rights of the 
 assembly, as will, if tolerated or connived at, place 
 the whole legislature in the governor ; for if he can, 
 at his pleasure, reject three representatives, he may 
 reject all, and make what laws he thinks fit without 
 the formality of an assembly ; but if this notorious 
 violation of our constitution had not been made by 
 him, and the assembly had consisted of its full pro- 
 portion of duly elected members, we conceive, ani 
 are advised, that his excellency had no authority, 
 nor any probable colour from his instructions for 
 passing this act; for though the instruction relating 
 to the election of general assemblies, allows an alte- 
 ration by act of assembly, of the number of the 
 representatives, and the manner of their being 
 elected, it leaves no power to the general assembly 
 to alter the qualifications of the electors or elected j 
 which was intended to be a standing and unalter- 
 able part of the constitution, as most agreeable to 
 the constitution of England, where the electors of 
 knights of the counties must have a certain fixed 
 freehold ; and the elected are generally the princi- 
 pal landed men of their respective counties; but 
 the alteration now made was intended to put the 
 election representatives into the hands of the mean- 
 est of the people, who being impatient of any su- 
 periors, will never fail to choose such from amongst 
 themselves as may oppress us. and destrov our rights 
 
UNITED STATE*. 
 
 617 
 
 " It is another term of our surrender, and an in- 
 struction to his excellency, that no act should be 
 made to lay a tax upon unprofitable lands ; but his 
 excellency has encouraged and assented to a bill in 
 this last assembly, for taxing (without distinction) 
 all lauds belonging to the inhabitants there, and to 
 all others not inhabiting there who have settled any 
 plantations, either by tenants, servants, or negroes; 
 it is objection enough to this act, that there is no 
 other colony in America wherein uncultivated lands 
 are taxed ; and as this act was intended, so none 
 more effectual could have been contrived to preju- 
 dice the country in general, or the proprietors in 
 particular ; for if any man has a thousand or 
 more acres of laud, which he can neither manure 
 nor sell (as most of the first planters have), he must 
 pay a tax for this land which may eat up the great- 
 est part of the profit of what he can and does culti- 
 vate, or he must desert the whole ; and if we, who 
 have great tracts of land of many thousand acres to 
 sell, let or settle but a few acres to maintain our 
 agents or servants, we must pay a tax for all the 
 residue, which yields us nothing. In consequence 
 of this act several persons who had agreed with our 
 agent for lands, have renounced their bargains, and 
 removed into other countries, where they can pur- 
 chase great tracts of land, and preserve them for their 
 posterity to settle on ; and we, unless relieved from 
 this oppression, must deliver up our lands or our 
 purses. This tax is imposed by the act passed in 
 the assembly for raising a revenue of '2,000/. per 
 annum, for two years, for the support of her ma- 
 jesty's government within that province ; and we 
 have great reason to believe it to be part of the re- 
 turn promised by the undertakers to his excellency, 
 for his dissolving the former assembly, and curtail- 
 ing the last of three members. 
 
 " It is another term of our surrender, and an in- 
 struction to his excellency, that the surveyors and 
 other persons appointed by us, for surveying and 
 recording the surveys of land granted and sold by 
 us, shall be permitted to execute their trusts ; but 
 his excellency has taken upon him, even contrary 
 to the advice of his council, to appoint fees for 
 patenting lands, which has created an opinion in 
 the people, that the power of granting lands is in 
 him, has lessened the credit of our title to lands 
 and encouraged the planters to dispute our right. 
 
 " His excellency has ordered all public books, 
 records and papers, to be delivered by our late 
 cretary to Mr. Bass, our great debtor, and therefore 
 our avowed enemy, and has carried our records oi 
 deeds and conveyances out of the province ; by 
 this method the proprietors of both the divisions are 
 deprived of all means to justify their past admini- 
 stration of the evidences of their grants of lands to 
 the purchasers under them (all the surveys and 
 patents being recorded in those books), and will de- 
 stroy the office of our register, or at least will disable 
 him to perform his duty in some cases ; which by 
 acts of general assembly he is obliged to do. 
 
 " It is a further term of our surrender, and in- 
 structions to his excellency, that all officers be ap- 
 pointed by advice of the council; but his excellency 
 has constituted several officers without such advice, 
 and particularly a sheriff of Burlington, who was 
 therefore suspended by order of council, and yel 
 continued to act under his lordship's appointment. 
 
 " We are further informed, that his excellency 
 hath put several mean and contemptible persons 
 into the commission of the peace, particularly one 
 ****** whom he knew to be under prosecution for 
 
 elony ; and has given commissions in the militia to 
 others, who have no estate in the province, and there- 
 fore are not like to be zealous in the defence of it. 
 
 " It is matter of some wonder to us, that after so 
 many acts of despotic power, his excellency did not 
 assume to himself, or obtain from the last assembly, 
 an authority of licencing any persons to purchase 
 Sands from the Indians, but condescends to apply to 
 your lordships for an alteration of his instructions 
 in that particular ; there wants only the breach of 
 this instruction to complete the ruin of our interests 
 n New Jersey, and we humbly hope your lordships 
 will not enable him to give that finishing stroke. 
 This instruction, founded upon the right which the 
 crown of England claims by the law of nations to 
 all countries discovered by English subjects, \vas 
 intended to assert that right against the pretences 
 of many planters, who set up the Indians' title in 
 competition with it ; and if that right be taken from 
 the grantees of the crown, all patents and grants of 
 the whole main land of North America, have been 
 only royal frauds under the sanction of the great 
 seal of England, and no man will ever after pur- 
 chase lands under that title. 
 
 " His excellency was lately so fully satisfied of 
 the policy and reasonableness of asserting this right 
 to the crown and its grantees, that in the year 1703, 
 he recommended and assented to an act of assem- 
 bly, for restraining all persons besides the proprie- 
 tors from purchasing lands from the Indians under 
 great penalties, and for vacating all such purchases 
 formerly made, unless the purchasers took a fresh 
 grant from the proprietors ; of which act we humbly 
 pray your lordships' perusal. 
 
 " We are purchasers for ready money, under a 
 grant from King Charles II., and are willing to sell 
 our lands and the Indians' title to it at reasonable 
 rates, according to the goodness of the soil and 
 situation, and ought not to be compelled to accept 
 a quit-rent (much less a quit-rent to be let by other 
 persons than ourselves, as his excellency proposes) 
 instead of selling for ready money ; nor ought our 
 properties to be at the disposal of a governor. It 
 is not the want of a power in the planters to pur- 
 chase lands from the Indians, but the taxing of 
 uncultivated lands, and overturning the constitution 
 for assembly-men, that has occasioned those persons 
 mentioned by his excellency, to remove to Penn- 
 sylvania and other colonies. 
 
 " May it please your lordships ; 
 
 " The usage we have received from his excel- 
 lency is so contrary to the terms of our surrender 
 of government, to the assurances we had from your 
 lordships of the due observance of them, and to the 
 plain instructions given by your lordships to his 
 excellency ; that we humbly hope it will not be 
 thought any immodesty or want of duty in us, to 
 protest, as we do protest, against all the proceedings 
 of the last assembly, wherein by the arbitrary ex- 
 clusion of three members without any just excep- 
 tion, the country was not duly represented, and to 
 beg your lordships' intercession with her majesty, 
 that the acts passed in that assembly may not bo 
 confirmed by her royal assent. 
 
 " We further pray, that Colonel Lewis Morris, 
 who has been a second time suspended from his 
 place in council, by his excellency, only for using 
 the freedom which every member of the council is 
 entitled to, and ought to exercise, of opposing any 
 bill brought before them, if he conceives it preju- 
 dicial to the interest either of the country in general, 
 or of any particular persons, may be restored ; and 
 
618 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 that your lordships will please to place in the room 
 of such as are dead, some of the persons following 
 viz., Mr. Miles Foster, Mr. Richard Townley, Mi 
 Hugh Huddy, Mr. William Hall, and Mr. Job 
 Harrison, who are men of known integrity an 
 estates; and as a further security of our estate 
 there, and that no persons may at any time be ac 
 mitted of the governor's council, or to be in th 
 commission of the peace, or of the militia, but sue 
 who have real estates in the province suitable t 
 their stations, and who reside there. 
 
 "Signed by Thomas Lane, Paul Dominique 
 John Bridges, Robert Mitchel, Thomas Burrow 
 Francis Mitchel, Eben. Jones, Joseph Broosbank 
 John Norton, J. Bennet, E. Richier, Tho. Skinner 
 Richard Greenaway, Joseph Collins, Cha. Mitche] 
 Joseph Micklethwait, Tho. Lewes, Wm. Snelling.' 
 Two days after Lord Cornbury had refused t 
 receive the assembly's reply, he sent for them; ani 
 though several important bills were unfinished, ad 
 journed the house to the spring next year. No 
 receiving the reply in form, he escaped the neces 
 sity of attempting to clear up what he could not d< 
 with justice or equity. As very glaring facts con 
 firmed the truth of the charges against him, h( 
 thought the most effectual way of avoiding them was 
 to lodge a complaint with the queen; accordingly 
 'his adherent the lieutenant- governor Ingoldsby 
 with some of the council, signed and privately 
 transmitted an address as follows. 
 
 " To the queen's most excellent majesty. 
 " The humble address of the lieutenant-governo 
 and council of Nova Caesaria or New Jersey, in 
 America. 
 
 " May it please your majesty ; 
 " We the lieutenant-governor and council o 
 your majesty's province of Nova Caesaria or New 
 Jersey, having seriously and deliberately taken 
 into consideration the proceedings of the present 
 assembly or representative body of this province, 
 thought ourselves bound, both in duty and con- 
 science, to testify to your majesty, our dislike and 
 abhorrence of the same ; being very sensible, that 
 the unaccountable humours and pernicious designs 
 of some particular men, have put them upon so 
 many irregularities, with intention only to occa- 
 sion divisions and distractions, to the disturbance 
 of the great and weighty affairs which both your 
 majesty's honour and dignity, as well as the peace 
 and welfare of the country, required. Their high 
 encroachments upon your majesty's prerogative 
 royal ; notorious violations of the rights and liber- 
 ties of the subjects ; manifest interruptions of 
 justice, and most unmannerly treatment of his 
 excellency the Lord Cornbury, would have induced 
 us sooner to have discharged our duty to your ma- 
 jesty, in giving a full representation of the unhappy 
 circumstances of this your majesty's province and 
 government ; had we not been in hopes that his 
 excellency the Lord Cornbury's full and ample 
 answer to a most scandalous libel, called the re- 
 monstrance of the assembly of Nova Ceesaria or 
 New Jersey, which was delivered to the governor 
 by the assembly at Burlington in May last, would 
 have opened the eyes of the assembly, and brought 
 them back to their reason and duty ; but finding 
 that those few turbulent and uneasy spirits in the 
 assembly have still been able to influence and 
 amuse the judgments of many well-meaning men in 
 that body, as appears by another late scandalous 
 and infamous libel, called, ' The reply of the house 
 of representatives of the province of New Jersey, 
 
 to an answer made by his excellency Edward 
 Viscount Cornbury, governor of the said province, 
 to the humble remonstrance of the aforesaid house : 
 We are now obliged humbly to represent to your 
 majesty the true cause, which we conceive may 
 lead to the remedy of these confusions. 
 
 " The first is owing to the turbulent, factious, 
 uneasy, and disloyal principles of two men in that 
 assembly, Mr. Lewis Morris, and Samuel Jenings, a 
 quaker; men notoriously known to be uneasy under 
 all government; men never known to be consistent 
 with themselves ; men to whom all the factions and 
 confusions in the government of New Jersey and 
 Pennsylvania for many years are wholly owing ; 
 men that have had the confidence to declare in open 
 council, that your majesty's instructions to your 
 governors in these provinces shall not oblige or 
 bind them, nor will they be concluded by them, 
 further than they are warranted by the law, of which 
 also they will be the judges; and this is done by 
 them (as we have all the reason in the world to 
 believe) to encourage not only this government, but 
 also the rest of your governments in America, to 
 throw off your majesty's royal prerogative, and 
 consequently to involve all your dominions in this 
 part of the world, and the honest, good and well- 
 neaning people in them, in confusion, hoping 
 thereby to obtain their wicked purposes. 
 
 " The remedy for all these evils, we most humbly 
 propose, is, that your majesty will most graciously 
 [)lease to discountenance those wicked designing 
 nen, and show some dislike to this assembly's pro- 
 ceedings, who are resolved neither to support this 
 your majesty's government by a revenue, nor take 
 :are to defend it by settling a militia. The last 
 libel, called ' the reply, &c.' came out so suddenly, 
 that as yet we have not had time to answer it in a*U 
 ts particulars ; but do assure your majesty it is for 
 he most part false in fact, and that part of it which 
 carries any face of truth, they have been malicious 
 and unjust in not mentioning the whole truth ; which 
 rould have fully justified my Lord Cornbury's just 
 conduct. 
 
 " Thus, having discharged this part of our duty, 
 vhich we thought at present incumbent upon us, we 
 >eg leave to assure your majesty, that whenever we 
 hall see the people of this province labour under any 
 hing like a grievance, we shall, according to our 
 luty, immediately apply to the governor, with our 
 est advice for the redress of it ; and we have no 
 eason yet to doubt of a ready compliance in him ; 
 we shall not be particular, but crave leave to refer 
 o his excellency's representation of them to the 
 ight honourable the lords commissioners for trade 
 nd plantations. 
 
 " The strenuous asserting of your majesty's pre- 
 ogative royal, and vindicating the honour of your 
 overnor the Lord Cornbury, will, in our humble 
 pinion, be so absolutely necessary at this juncture, 
 iiat without your so doing, your majesty will find 
 ourself deceived either in expectation of a revenue 
 or support of the government, or militia for its 
 efence. 
 
 " In hopes your majesty will take these important 
 lings into your consideration, and his excellency 
 
 Lord Cornbury, with all the members of your 
 najesty's council, into your royal favour and pro- 
 ection ; we shall conclude with our most fervent 
 rayers to the Most High, to lengthen your days, 
 nd increase your glories; and that ourselves in 
 articular, and all others in general, who reap the 
 enefit of your majesty's most gentle and happy 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 619 
 
 government, may be, and ever continue the most 
 loyal and dutiful of subjects to the most glorious 
 and best of queens. 
 
 " Richard Ingoldsby, William Pinhorne, R. 
 Mompeson, Thomas Revell, Daniel Leeds, Daniel 
 Coxe, Richard Townley, Robert Quarry, William 
 Sandford." 
 
 On the 5th of May, 1708, the assembly met at 
 Burlington. Jenings their speaker being indis- 
 posed, Thomas Gordon was chosen to succeed him. 
 They received the speech ; and delivered their 
 address the 12th ; which containing the old story 
 of grievances, so displeased the governor, that he 
 immediately adjourned them to the September fol- 
 lowing, to meet at Amboy, but in the interval dis- 
 solved them ; and being himself soon after super- 
 seded, he met them no more ; the business of the 
 last session began by his telling them in his speech : 
 " It was the great desire he had to see the service of 
 the queen, and good of the province carried on, 
 supported and provided for, that induced him to 
 call them together ; to prepare and pass such laws 
 as were proper; and that he might not be wanting 
 in his duty, he should point out what he thought 
 required their immediate notice ; the first was a bill 
 for support of government ; that the revenue the 
 queen expected was 1500/. per annum, to continue 
 21 years ; next the reviving or le-enacting the mili- 
 tia bill, which was likely soon to expire ; that he 
 had every session since he had been governor, re- 
 commended the passing a bill or bills for confirm- 
 ing the right and property of the soil of the pro- 
 vince to the general proprietors, according to their 
 respective rights and titles ; as also to settle and 
 confirm the particular titles and estates of all the 
 inhabitants of the province, and others, claiming 
 under the proprietors ; that he was still of opinion, 
 such a bill would best conduce to the improvement, 
 as well as peace and quiet of the province ; that he 
 had last year recommended the passing of bills for 
 erecting and repairing prisons and court-houses in 
 the different counties, and the building of bridges in 
 places where they were wanting, by general tax ; 
 and as late experience had taught the necessity of 
 settling the qualifications of jurymen, he desired 
 they would prepare bills for these purposes; and 
 revive such of the acts of assembly passed in the 
 time of the proprietary government as would be of 
 use, that they might be presented for the queen's 
 approbation." 
 
 The assembly in their address on this occasion, 
 declared, they then were, and always had been ready 
 and desirous to support the government to the ut- 
 most of their poor abilities ; that they were heartily 
 sorry for the misunderstanding between the govern- 
 or and them ; that about twelve months ago they 
 had humbly represented to him, some of the many 
 grievances their country laboured under ; most of 
 which they were sorry to say, yet remained, and 
 daily increased ; that they found the queen's good 
 subjects of the province were continually prose- 
 cuted by informations, upon frivolous pretences, 
 which rendered that excellent constitution of grand 
 juries useless ; and if continued, would put it in the 
 power of an attorney-general to raise his fortune 
 upon the ruin of his country. 
 
 That they found it a great charge to the country, 
 that juries and evidences were brought from remote 
 parts of the province, to the supreme courts at 
 Burlington and Amboy : that it was a great griev- 
 ance that the practice of the law was so precarious, 
 that innocent persons were prosecuted upon inform- 
 
 ations, and actions brought against several of the 
 queen's subjects, in which the gentlemen licenced 
 to practise the law were afraid to appear for them ; 
 or if they appeared, did not discharge their duty to 
 their clients, for fear of being suspended, without 
 being convicted of any crime deserving it, or 
 reason assigned ; as was done at Burlington, in 
 May last, to the damage of many of the queen's 
 good subjects. 
 
 That they found the representatives of this her 
 majesty's province so slighted, and their commands 
 so little regarded, that the clerk of the crown had 
 refused to issue a writ for the electing a member 
 wanting in their house ; they hoped he would con- 
 sider, and remove these and many other inconve- 
 niences and grievances that the province laboured 
 under; which would enable them to exert the ut- 
 most of their abilities, in supporting her majesty's 
 government, and would make them happy under 
 the mild and meek administration of a great and 
 glorious queen ; that they doubted not, were her 
 majesty rightly informed of the poverty and circum- 
 stances of their country, and that their livelihoods 
 depended upon the seasons o'i the year; their most 
 gracious sovereign would pity their condition, and 
 never expect the settlement of any support of go- 
 vernment, further than from one year to another. 
 
 That they found the present militia bill so great a 
 grievance to their country, they could never think 
 of reviving or re-enacting it, as it now was; though 
 they were heartily willing to provide for the defence 
 of their country, which they hoped might be done 
 with greater ease to the people ; that they had been, 
 and still were endeavouring to answer her majesty's 
 commands, in confirming the right and property of 
 the soil of the province to the general proprietors, 
 according to their respective rights sud titles; and 
 likewise to confirm and settle the particular titles 
 and estates of all the inhabitants, and other pur- 
 chasers, claiming under the proprietors ; but 
 though they had several times met in general as- 
 sembly, they had not opportunity to perfect it; 
 they acknowledge the favour of being put in mind 
 of providing prisons, court-houses, and bridges, 
 where such were wanting, which they should take 
 into consideration. 
 
 That they had a bill for settling the qualifications 
 of juries, prepared last sitting at Amboy, and should 
 now present it; and thanking him for reminding 
 them of reviving their former laws, say, they had 
 before appointed a committee for that end ; but 
 were impeded by Bass, the secretary, positively 
 refusing to let them have the perusal of them ; and 
 that as they had always used their utmost endea- 
 vour in the faithful service of the queen, and for 
 the benefit of the country, so they should still con- 
 tinue to do it with all the dispatch they were ca- 
 pable of. 
 
 Here we part with Lord Cornbury's administra- 
 tion. We have in the history of New York wit- 
 nessed his arbitrary and injudicious conduct in that 
 province, and also had the particulars of his degra- 
 dation and ultimate departure from the colonies. 
 
 We now also part with his opponent S. Jenings; 
 whose indisposition continued about twelve mouths 
 before his death. His many services have occasi- 
 oned him to be often mentioned. His religion was 
 that of the quakers; and he was, very young, an 
 approved minister among them. His influence was 
 entirely grounded on reliance on his sincerity, pro- 
 bity, and abilities. It is reported of him, that he 
 was of an obliging, affectionate disposition, yet 
 
620 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 of a hasty warm temper; that he, notwithstanding, 
 controlled it with circumspection and prudence, so 
 that few occasions escaped to the disadvantage of 
 his character, or of any cause he engaged in ; that 
 he saw the danger to which his natural impetuosity 
 exposed him; knew his preservation lay in a close 
 attention to his cooler prospects, and diligently 
 guarding his failing, experienced the benefit in 
 many trying events ; that his integrity and fortitude 
 in all stations were acknowledged ; that his judg- 
 ment was the rule of his conduct, and by what can 
 now be gathered, this seems to have been but seldom 
 injudiciously founded : that alive to the more ge- 
 nerous emotions of a mind formed to benevolence 
 and acts of humanity, he was a friend to the wroiiged 
 and the unhappy ; tender, compassionate, disinter- 
 ested, and with great opportunities left- but a small 
 estate ; that abhorring oppression in every shape, 
 his whole conduct discovered a will to relieve and 
 befriend mankind, far above the littleness of party 
 or sinister views ; that his sentiments of right and 
 liberty were formed on principles adapted to the 
 improvement of a new country, or indeed any 
 country ; that he was, notwithstanding all this, 
 sometimes thought pertinacious, but chiefly on ac- 
 count of his political attachments ; but in these in- 
 stances, better knowledge of his principles, and the 
 sincerity with which he acted, totally effaced those 
 impressions, and left him friends where none were 
 expected. Much of his time, as we have seen, was 
 long devoted to the public, and with such a desire 
 to be useful, occasions were not wanting. West Jer- 
 sey and Pennsylvania (where he resided many 
 years), and New Jersey after the surrender, for 
 near twenty-eight years successively, were repeated 
 witnesses of his conduct in various capacities. Like 
 all philanthropists he met with ingratitude ; but 
 although all his endeavours were not successful, he 
 survived personal animosity in a great measure, and 
 lived just long enough to see public affairs emerg- 
 ing from an unpromising state of litigation and con- 
 troversy to more quiet than had been known for 
 many years. His three daughters (who were all 
 the children he left) intermarried with three bro- 
 thers of the name of Stephenson, whose posterity 
 long resided in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. 
 
 In the latter end of this year (1708) a new as- 
 sembly was elected ; but upon the new governor's 
 arrival it was dissolved. 
 
 Lord Lovelace arrives as governor His death; is suc- 
 ceeded by the Lieutenant-governor Ingoldsby Ar- 
 rival of Governor Hunter The aid for the expedi- 
 tion to Canada A new assembly chosen, 
 
 John Lord Lovelace, baron of Hurley, being ap- 
 pointed to succeed Lord Cornbury, he summoned 
 the council to meet him at Bergen, December 20, 
 1708, published his commission, and met a new as- 
 sembly in the spring at Perth Amboy, and informed 
 them by speech : 
 
 " That he was very sensible of great difficulties 
 attending the honourable employment in which her 
 majesty had placed him, and he hoped they would 
 never fail to assist him to serve the queen and her 
 people; that her majesty had shown in the whole 
 course of her reign (a reign glorious beyond ex- 
 ample) how much she aimed at the good and pros- 
 perity of her people ; having with indefatigable 
 pains united her two kingdoms of England and 
 Scotland, and continued the same application to 
 unite the minds of all her subjects; that this was 
 her great care, and ought to be the care of those 
 
 whom she deputed to govern the distant provinces, 
 not happy enough by situation to be under her more 
 immediate government ; that as he could not set 
 before him a better pattern, he should endeavour to 
 recommend himself to them, by following, as far as 
 he was able, her example ; that he should not give 
 them any just cause of uneasiness under his admi- 
 nistration, and hoped they would bear with one 
 another ; that past differences and animosities ought 
 to be buried in oblivion, and the peace and welfare 
 of the country only pursued by each individual ; 
 that her majesty would not be burthensome to her 
 people ; but there being an absolute necessity that 
 the government be supported, he was directed to 
 recommend that matter to their consideration ; that 
 they knew best what the province could conveniently 
 raise for its support, and the easiest methods of 
 raising it; that the making a law for putting the 
 militia on a better footing than it at present stood, 
 with as much ease to the people as possible, required 
 their consideration; that he should always be ready 
 to give his assent to whatever laws they found ne- 
 cessary for promoting religion and virtue, for the 
 encouragement of trade and industry, and dis- 
 couragement of vice and profaneness, and for any 
 other matter or thing relating to the good of the 
 province." 
 
 The assembly in their turn told the governor by 
 addre^, that they esteemed it their great happiness 
 that Ler majesty had placed a person of so much 
 temper and moderation over them, and made no 
 question he would surmount every difficulty with 
 honour and safety. 
 
 That her majesty's reign would make a bright 
 leaf in history ; that it was the advantage of the 
 present, and would be the admiration of future ages, 
 not more for her success abroad than prudence at 
 home ; that though their distance had and might 
 sometimes be disadvantageous to them, yet they ex- 
 perienced the effect of her princely care, in putting 
 an end to the worst administration New Jersey 
 ever knew, by sending him, whose government 
 would always be easy to her majesty's subjects here, 
 and satisfactory to himself, whilst he followed so 
 great and good an example. 
 
 That they had no animosities with one another, 
 but firmly agreed to do themselves and their country 
 justice; that they were persuaded none that de- 
 served public censure would have a shave in his 
 esteem, and doubted not of meeting with his hearty 
 concurrence in every measure that conduced to 
 peace and good order. 
 
 That they should support the government to the 
 utmost of their abilities, and most willingly so at a 
 time when they were freed from bondage and ar- 
 bitrary encroachments, and were convinced that vice 
 and immorality would no more receive the public 
 countenance and approbation. 
 
 They assured him all his reasonable desires would 
 be commands to them; and promised it should be 
 their study to make his administration as easy and 
 happy as they could. 
 
 The session lasted a month, in which business went 
 on with unusual smoothness : the assembly obtained 
 from the governor a copy of the address from the 
 lieutenant-governor and council to the queen, in 
 1707; they thanked him for the favour, and re- 
 quested he would desire the lieutenant-governor, 
 and all that signed the address, to attend him at 
 such time as he thought fit to appoint, to prove their 
 allegations; and that the house might have leave to 
 {be present, and have opportunity of making their 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 621 
 
 defence, in order to clear themselves from such 
 imputations. 
 
 The governor showed a ready inclination to grant 
 this request, and appointed a day for a hearing ; 
 but hy the artifices of those concerned, it was 
 evaded from time to time : whether they at last 
 gained their point does not appear. 
 
 Most of the inhabitants of New Jersey now 
 pleased themselves with the prospect of happy times ; 
 with a change of governors followed a change of 
 measures and favourites ; impartiality and candour 
 succeeded trick and design ; the tools of the former 
 administration having nothing but the protection of 
 that to support them, sunk into neglect. 
 
 It had been Lord Cornbury's weakness to en- 
 courage men that would flatter his vanity, and bend 
 to his humours and measures these were sure of 
 his favour; but the case was otherwise now. Such 
 of the former favourites as yet continued in the 
 council, were not without their share of disestecm ; 
 even the confidence which had been usually put in 
 that board, on passing the support bill, was discon- 
 tinued. The assembly declaring to Lovelace, that 
 though they had an entire confidence in his justice 
 and prudence, respecting the disposition of the 
 money for support of government, they " had not 
 that confidence in the gentlemen that were now of 
 her majesty's council ;" and that this was the rea- 
 son they had altered the former method, and there- 
 fore requested he would favourably represent it to 
 the queen in their behalf. 
 
 The law regulating the qualification of represent- 
 atives to serve in general assembly was now passed; 
 the substance of this and the additional one passed 
 at a different session, but in the same year, is, that 
 every voter shall have 100 acres of land in his own 
 right, or be worth 50Z. current money; that the 
 person elected shall have 1,000 acres in his own 
 right, or be worth 500/. current money, in personal 
 estate ; that the representatives and electors shall 
 be freeholders, and have estates sufficient to qualify 
 him or them in the division where electing or 
 chosen ; that the house of representatives shall be 
 judges of the qualification of their members ; that 
 the same forfeitures shall attend undue returns as 
 in England; and that no person shall be chosen a 
 representative, who with his family does not reside 
 in the province. 
 
 The inhabitants had begun with reason to promise 
 themselves happier times than heretofore, but, to 
 their great disappointment, Lord Lovelace died with- 
 in a few days afterwards, and the administration 
 devolved on the Lieutenant-governor Ingoldsby, who 
 laid before the assembly the design of the crown, 
 respecting an expedition against Canada, under the 
 Colonels Nicholson and Vetch, and for which they 
 immediately voted 3,000/. for the service, by an 
 emission of paper bills of credit, but did not now 
 pass the bill. 
 
 The lieutenant-governor adjourned them for a 
 few weeks, and then told them he had given them 
 another opportunity of doing their duty to her ma- 
 jesty, and what their country required at their hands. 
 
 That he found in their votes at last sitting a re- 
 solve for raising 3,000/. for her majesty's service ; 
 that this was now become a debt, and they had only 
 to consider of ways and means of raising it ; and 
 that a proper application was made for the paying 
 of their quota of men appointed for reducing Canada. 
 
 The assembly prepared three bills, one for raising 
 3,OOOJ., another for enforcing its currency, and a 
 third for the encouragement of volunteers going on 
 
 the Canada expedition ; these bills having received 
 the governor's assent, the house was adjourned to 
 the 1st of November, to meet at Burlington ; ip 
 November ihey met- accordingly, but deferred busi- 
 ness till December, when they sat ten weeks, passed 
 eighteen bills, were then adjourned, and afterwards 
 prorogued from time to time, till dissolved by Go- 
 vernor Hunter in 1710. 
 
 As the accounts of both the expeditions against 
 Canada have been enlarged on sufficiently in the 
 preceding histories, we shall not enter on them here, 
 especially as New Jersey only afforded its aid with 
 the above-mentioned contribution. 
 
 Brigadier Hunter arrived governor in the sum- 
 mer of 1710, and called a new assembly on the 6th 
 of December ; they chose John Kay, of Gloucester, 
 speaker, and received the governor's speech, which 
 was as follows : 
 
 " Gentlemen I am little used to make speeches, 
 so you shall not be troubled with a long one ; if 
 honesty is the best policy, plainness must be the 
 best oratory ; so to deal plainly with you, so long as 
 these unchristian divisions which her majesty has 
 thought to deserve her repeated notice, reign amongst 
 you, I shall have small hopes of a happy issue to 
 our meeting. 
 
 " This is an evil which every .body complains of, 
 but few take the right method to remedy it ; let 
 every man begin at home, and weed the rancour out 
 of his own mind, and the work is done at once. 
 
 " Leave disputes of property to the laws, and in- 
 juries to the avenger of them; and like good sub- 
 jects and good Christians, join hearts and hands for 
 the common good. 
 
 " I hope you all agree in the necessity of support- 
 ing the government, and will not differ about the 
 means ; that it may the better deserve your support, 
 I shall endeavour to square it by the best rule that 
 I know, that is the power from whence it is derived ; 
 which all the world must own to be justice and good- 
 ness itself. 
 
 " There are several matters recommended to you 
 by her majesty, to be passed into laws, which I 
 shall lay before you at proper seasons ; and shall 
 heartily concur with you in enacting whatsoever 
 may be requisite for the public peace and welfare, 
 the curbing of vice, and encouraging of virtue. 
 
 " If what I have said, or what I can do, may- 
 have the blessed effect I wish for, I shall bless the 
 hour that brought me hither ; if I am disappointed, 
 1 shall pray for that which is to call me back, 
 for all power except that of doing good is but a 
 burthen." 
 
 On the reception of this speech, the assembly 
 voted the following address. 
 
 " May it please your excellency, 
 
 " We sincerely congratulate your accession to the 
 government of this province, and hope the long 
 wished-for time is come, in which the unchristian 
 causes of our divisions will be taken away, which 
 we persuade ourselves you will be as willing as we 
 conceive you are able to do, by divesting a few de- 
 signing men of that authority, which they use to 
 the worst purposes. 
 
 " We have experienced repeated instances of her 
 majesty's care over us; among which one was, the 
 sending the good Lord Lovelace, who put an end 
 to an administration, the then assembly of this pro- 
 vince, with great justice stiled the worst New 
 Jersey had ever known ; that good man lived long 
 enough to know how much the province had been 
 oppressed, though not to remove the causes. An- 
 
622 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 other instance of her majesty's royal favour, we 
 esteem, is the sending your excellency to govern 
 us, and we persuade ourselves your conduct will 
 evince it so to be. 
 
 " We hope great things from you, and none but 
 what are just ; let not ill men be put or continued 
 in power to oppress ; let her majesty's subjects 
 enjoy their liberties and properties, according to 
 the laws, and let not those laws be warpt to gratify 
 the avarice or resentment of any, and then we may 
 safely leave disputes of property to them ; this, we 
 are humbly of opinion, is the greatest honesty, and 
 we make no question you esteem it to be the best 
 policy. 
 
 " We always thought it equally reasonable to 
 support a government, and to deny that support to 
 tyranny and oppression ; we should be glad our 
 abilities would come up to what we esteem your 
 merits : what we are able to do, shall be sincerely 
 done, and in as agreeable a manner as we are 
 capable ; all your desires, which we doubt not will 
 be reasonable, shall be commands to us, who will 
 be always ready to join in any thing that may con- 
 duce to the public benefit, and your own ; and 
 hope you may never want will and power to punish 
 wickedness and vice, and encourage true religion 
 and virtue ; which if you do, we shall esteem you 
 our deliverer, and posterity shall mention your 
 name with honour. 
 
 " Divers members of this assembly, being of the 
 people called quakers, concur to the substance of 
 this address, with their usual exception to the stile." 
 
 This session continued more than two months ; 
 the governor and assembly agreed cordially, but a 
 majority of the council differed from both, notwith- 
 standing an accession of several new members. 
 
 Ever since the surrender, the province had been 
 involved in great confusion, on account of the 
 people called quakers being denied to serve on 
 juries, under pretence that an oath was absolutely 
 necessary ; the inhabitants in many parts, were 
 chiefly such, and juries could not be got without 
 them ; the assembly seeing the confusion that had 
 and would unavoidably follow such refusal, passed 
 a bill for ascertaining the qualification of jurors, 
 and enabling the people called quakers to serve 
 on them, &c. and another respecting the affirma- 
 tion. The reports of the committee will, among 
 other things, show the conduct of the council on 
 this occasion. 
 
 " The house, according to order, resolved itself 
 into a committee of the whole house, to consider 
 further of the papers laid before this house by his 
 excellency ; and after some time spent therein, 
 Mr. Speaker resumed the chair, and Doctor John- 
 ston reported from the said committee, that the 
 43d article of her majesty's instructions being read, 
 requiring an act to be passed, for settling the pro- 
 perties and possessions of all persons concerned in 
 this province ; they do think it to be a matter of 
 the greatest concern, for the quieting the minds of 
 the people and making the province happy, and do 
 think it will be to no purpose at present to spend 
 time about such a bill, seeing the council has 
 put them out of all hopes of having any such act 
 to pass. 
 
 " Doctor Johnston also reported from the said 
 committee, that the 60th article of her majesty's 
 instructions being read, requiring an act to be 
 passed, for those people that make a religious 
 scruple of swearing, to the like effect of that passed 
 in the 7th and 8th of King William III. in Eng- 
 
 land, so far as may be consistent with good order 
 and government ; that the house have already sent 
 up such an act to the council for their concurrence, 
 as near to the like effect as the circumstance of this 
 colony will admit ; which the council rejected with- 
 out committing the same. 
 
 " And further, that the 94th article of her ma- 
 jesty's instructions being read, requiring an act to 
 be passed ascertaining qualifications of jurors; that 
 the same was included in the bill, entitled, 'An act 
 for ascertaining the qualifications of jurors, and 
 enabling the people called quakers to serve on 
 them, &c.' which the council rejected without com- 
 mitting the same, as is reported before to the 60th 
 article. 
 
 " And that he was desired to move, that they 
 might have leave to sit again." 
 
 By this report, it seems the assembly had no ex- 
 pectation of obtaining these matters this session ; 
 they took into consideration the militia act, passed 
 in Lord Cornbury's time, by which the quakers in 
 many parts of the province had been greatly op- 
 pressed; they appointed Doctor Johnston, Isaac 
 Sharp, Jacob Spicer, William Sandford, John Reid, 
 and Robert Wheeler, a committee, " to prepare 
 and bring in a bill, for explaining an act of this 
 province, past in the third year of her majesty 
 Queen Anne, entitled, ' An act for settling the mili- 
 tia of this province, and for relieving persons ag- 
 grieved thereby.' " 
 
 A bill was brought in, and sundry officers who 
 had been more rigorous in distressing than the 
 law warranted, were sent for, to answer for their 
 conduct at the bar of the house, and ordered to 
 render an account of the goods distrained ; this 
 gone through, the bill passed, in which provision 
 was made for the relief of the sufferers ; but the 
 council rejected it, as they had done the other 
 bills. 
 
 They next took into consideration the address 
 got up by the partisans of Lord Cornbury, which 
 has been already given, and made the following re- 
 solutions with regard to it. 
 
 " A copy of a paper entitled, 'The humble address 
 of the lieutenant-governor and council of Nova 
 Ceesaria or New Jersey, in America, to the queen's 
 most excellent majesty ; signed by Richard In- 
 goldsby, William Pinhorne, Roger Mompesson, 
 Thomas Revell, Daniel Leeds,Daniel Coxe,Richard 
 Townly, William Sandford, and Robert Quarry, 
 in the year .1707;' was read in the house; and 
 being taken into consideration, the question was 
 put, whether the said humble address (as it is called) 
 of the lieutenant-governor and council to the queen's 
 most excellent majesty, be a false and scandalous 
 representation of the representative body of this 
 province, or not ? it was carried in the affirmative. 
 A motion being made, and the question being put, 
 whether this house do address her majesty for the 
 justification of the proceedings of the represent- 
 ative body of this province, in the present and 
 former assemblies, or not ? it was carried in the 
 affirmative. 
 
 " A motion being made, and the question being 
 put, whether any person that has signed the above- 
 mentioned false and scandalous representation of 
 the representative body of this province be a fit 
 member to sit in this house, unless he acknowledge 
 his fault to this house, or not ? it was carried in the 
 negative. 
 
 " Major Sandford, one of the members of this 
 house, having acknowledged that he signed the 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 623 
 
 above-mentioned address to her majesty, was asked 
 if he would acknowledge his fault to this house for 
 the same ? His answer was, he signed it as he was 
 one of her majesty's council, and was only account- 
 able to her majesty for the same; wherefore the 
 question was put, whether Major Sandford be ex- 
 pelled this house for the same, or not ? It was car- 
 ried in the affirmative. 
 
 " Ordered, that Major Sandford be expelled this 
 house, for signing a false and scandalous paper, 
 called the humble address of the lieutenant-governor 
 and council to her majesty, in the year 1707 ; and 
 he is expelled this house accordingly." 
 
 Representation of the Assembly to Governor Hunter ; 
 and kis Answer. 
 
 Pursuant to the resolutions of the house, an ad- 
 dress was prepared and sent to the queen, and a 
 representation to Governor Hunter. This last is a 
 particular answer to the charges, and was as followeth : 
 " The humble representation of the general assem- 
 bly of her majesty's province of New Jersey. 
 "To his excellency Robert Hunter, Esq., captain- 
 general and governor-in-chief of the provinces of 
 New Jersey and New York, in America, and 
 vice-admiral of the same, &c- 
 
 " May it please your excellency ; 
 " When the Lord Lovelace was pleased to let the 
 representative body of this province know, that her 
 majesty desired to be informed of the causes of the 
 differences between the gentlemen of the council and 
 them, nothing could be more satisfactory ; because 
 they entirely depended, that a person of so much 
 justice and veracity would put things in their true 
 light ; and had he lived long enough to have com- 
 plied with her majesty's commands, we had not now 
 been under the necessity of laying the following 
 representation before your excellency. 
 
 " We are very sorry we have so much reason to 
 say, it was lately our misfortune to be governed by 
 the Lord Cornbury, who treated her majesty's sub- 
 jects here not as freemen who were to be governed 
 by laws, but as slaves, of whose persons and estates 
 he had the sole power of disposing. Oppression 
 and injustice reigned every where in this poor, and 
 then miserable, colony ; and it was criminal to com- 
 plain or seem any way sensible of these hardships 
 we then suffered; and whatever attempts were made 
 for our relief, not only pioved ineffectual, but was 
 termed insolence, and flying in the face of authority 
 The most violent and imprudent stretches for arbi 
 trary power were stamped with the great name o 
 the queen's prerogative royal ; and the instruments 
 and strenuous assertors of that tyranny were the 
 only persons, who in his esteem and their own 
 were for supporting her majesty's government 
 bribery, extortion, and a contempt of laws, both hu 
 man and divine, were the fashionable vices of thai 
 time ; encouraged by his countenance, but more by 
 his example; and those who could most daringly 
 and with most dexterity trample upon our liberties 
 had the greatest share both in the government o: 
 this province and his favour. This usage we bore 
 with patience a great while, believing that the mea. 
 sures he took proceeded rather from want of inform 
 ation or an erroneous judgment, than the depravity 
 of his nature ; but repeated instances soon con- 
 vinced us of our mistaken notions; and that he was 
 capable of the meanest things, and had sacrificed 
 his own reputation, the laws, and our liberties, t< 
 his avarice. No means were left uuessayed tha 
 gave hopes of gratifying that sordid passion: the 
 
 country was filled with prosecutions by informations 
 )f the attorney-general, contrary to law: those of 
 icr majesty's subjects who are called quakers, were 
 severely harassed, under pretence of refusing obe- 
 dience to an act of assembly for settling the militia 
 of this province, when neither the letter nor meaning 
 of that act justified the severities used on that ac- 
 count ; the measures that were then taken, being 
 chiefly such as the implacable malice of their adver- 
 saries suggested. The rights of the general pro- 
 prietors, which upon the surrender of the govern- 
 ment were promised to be preserved inviolable to 
 ;hem, and which her majesty, by her instructions, 
 aad taken all possible care to do, were by him in- 
 vaded in a very high degree ; their papers and re- 
 gisters, being the evidences they had to prove their 
 iitles to their lands and rents, violently and arbi- 
 trarily forced from them, and they inhibited from 
 selling or disposing of those lands; by which means 
 their titles were made precarious, the value of land 
 through the whole province fell very much, and a 
 great stop was put to the settlement and improve- 
 ment of it : to be short, all ranks and conditions of 
 men grossly abused, and no corner of the country 
 without complaints of the hardships they suffered 
 from the exercise of a despotic and mistaken power. 
 An administration so corrupt, so. full of tyranny and 
 oppression in all its parts, induced the assembly to 
 have a regard to the cries of that unhappy country 
 they represented, and to endeavour (if possible) some 
 redress ; and accordingly, in a most humble manner, 
 remonstrated to his lordship their grievances, who 
 was of opinion their remonstrance lay open to a 
 very ready answer; but that he might give them no 
 occasion to say he had done it with heat and passion, 
 he took some few days to do it; but with what coolness 
 and temper it was done, those who have seen it can 
 judge ; they both lie before your excellency. (No. 1 
 and 2.) Some time after, the assembly were ad- 
 journed; and when we met again, made a reply to that 
 answer, which reply (No. 3) lies before your excel- 
 lency ; but neither the one nor the other procured the 
 desired effects ; on the contrary, the number of our 
 grievances was increased, some of the most con- 
 siderable of our inhabitants deserted the province, 
 and many of those that remained thought them- 
 selves unsafe in it ; the only hopes they had was the 
 arrival of the Lord Lovelace, which supported their 
 sinking spirits, and gave them an expectation of 
 better days. 
 
 " Upon the first sitting of the assembly, after his 
 arrival, he communicated to them a paper, called, 
 ' The address of the lieutenant-governor and council 
 of New Jersey.' It was no surprise to us to find 
 any thing indecent or virulent proceeding from such 
 men ; but it was with some concern we beheld what 
 endeavours they had used, to render her most gra- 
 cious majesty disaffected with her honest and loyal 
 subjects here, by accusations which were not only 
 false, but what they knew to be so at the time of 
 their writing of them, and which we had made ap- 
 pear to be so, had they not used evasions and shifts 
 to avoid coming to the test, in the time of Lord 
 Lovelace, and while the assembly was sitting ; then 
 they seemed to be for reconciling matters, and bury- 
 ing every thing in oblivion, in hopes their own deeds 
 of darkness might partake of the same covering ; 
 and hoped the sweetness of that noble lord's temper, 
 and inclinations to peace, might secure them from 
 that examine which was necessary to expose them 
 n their true colours; and how much on that occa- 
 ion they fawned and flattered, appears by au address 
 
624 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 of theirs to him, which for the peculiarity of the 
 language (and we might say the unintelligibleness 
 of the terms) ought never to be forgotten. It be- 
 gins thus : ' Your lordship has not one virtue or 
 more, but a complete accomplishment of all perfec- 
 tions, &c. ;' and at the same time they were deifying 
 him (if such an address could do it) they were ca- 
 balling and articling against him, triumphed in his 
 death, and have barbarously treated his memory ; 
 and notwithstanding the laws of heaven and nature, 
 (as they are pleased to express themselves) and all 
 the fine things they say of you, added to the justness 
 of your administration, they'll give you the same 
 treatment when they can ; the knowledge we have 
 of their practices has made us trespass a little 
 longer on your excellency's patience than we at 
 first designed : but to return to the address, we be- 
 lieve the gentlemen of the council have transmitted 
 something to one of her majesty's secretaries of 
 state, which they called proofs, and with all the se- 
 crecy they could, hoping it may obtain at that dis- 
 tance, especially when backed by some whose in- 
 terest it is, that all they have said be credited. To 
 prevent the ill consequences that may attend the 
 belief of what they have said, or indeed can say, 
 we shall endeavour to prove every article of the said 
 address false; and that the subscribers knew several 
 of them to be so at the time of their signing ; what 
 we say is public, not carried on in darkness, to 
 prevent that reply, which the gentlemen concerned 
 to justify themselves, and upon the spot, may make 
 if they can. 
 
 " We begin with the title of the address; which 
 is, ' The humble address of the lieutenant-governor 
 and council of Nova Csesaria or New Jersey in 
 America.' 
 
 " This carries a falsehood in the very front of it ; 
 for it was no act of council ; but signed by some in 
 the Western, and by others in the Eastern division 
 of New Jersey, by one or two in New York, at dif- 
 ferent times, being privately carried about by a 
 messenger of my Lord Cornbury's; and some were 
 raised out of their beds to sign it ; it never passed 
 the council; was never minuted in the council- 
 books, and the lieutenant-governor has several 
 times protested he signed it without ever reading 
 it. The gentleman of the council cannot deny the 
 truth of this; if they do, we can prove it; but to 
 justify themselves, they say it was signed by the 
 lieutenant-governor and the gentlemen of the coun- 
 cil, though not in council. So that it's plain they 
 designed to abuse the queen, by giving it the stile of 
 an act of council, which her majesty and every 
 body that reads it would take to be so, when 
 they knew in their consciences it was not so ; but 
 that their malice or servile fears induced them to 
 sign it, and may not improperly be called, forging 
 an act of council; it's apparent that Roger Mom- 
 pesson, Esq. signed it by himself; that it was 
 brought to him as an act of council, and that as 
 such he thought himself obliged to sign it, as by his 
 reasons for signing it appears ; which reasons could 
 have had no weight, had he not understood it to be 
 so ; for he owns he never examined into the parti- 
 culars of it. 
 
 "The first article is, ' We the lieutenant-governor 
 and council of her majesty's province of Nova 
 Caesaria or New Jersey, having seriously and deli- 
 berately taken into consideration the proceedings of 
 the present assembly or representative body of this 
 province, thought ourselves bound, both in duty and 
 conscience, to testify to your majesty our dislike 
 
 and abhorrence of the same.' This is true, if sign- 
 ing any thing without reading or examining into the 
 particulars of it, and by some between sleeping and 
 waking, be arguments of seriousness and delibera- 
 tion, otherwise not ; except by the words ' seriously* 
 and 'deliberately,' be meant, their resolutions on all 
 occasions to do what the Lord Cornbury commanded 
 them; as indeed their signing this address, and 
 their conduct in every other thing, did but too 
 plainly evince, to be the only seriousness and deli- 
 beration they were capable of. When Col. Quarry 
 signed that address, we believe he was misled, and 
 depended too much on the credit of others ; we must 
 do him the justice to own, that he has of late de- 
 clined joining with them in many of their hot and 
 rash ;methods, aud behaves himself at present like 
 a man of temper, who intends the service of the 
 queen and good of the country. These addressers 
 tell her majesty, that they were in duty and con- 
 science bound to testify their dislike and abhorrence 
 of the same to her. Had they abhorred falsehood, 
 and discharged their duty as in conscience they were 
 bound to do, in refusing to join with the Lord 
 Cornbury, in all his arbitrary and unjust measures, 
 and particularly in that scandalous address (pardon 
 the expressions), the country would not have had 
 that just cause to complain, as now they have, and 
 in probability always will, while they continue in 
 their present stations. There were no proceedings 
 in that assembly that any honest man had reason to 
 dislike ; and their endeavours for the good of the 
 country deserve the highest praise, and ought 
 never to be forgotten by New Jersey. 
 
 " The second article is, ' That the unaccountable 
 humours and pernicious designs of some particular 
 men, have put them upon so many irregularities, 
 with intention only to occasion divisions and dis- 
 tractions, to the disturbance of the great and 
 weighty affairs which her majesty's honour and 
 dignity, and the peace and welfare of the country, 
 required.' The so many irregularities are, we 
 suppose, what the Lord Cornbury mentioned in his 
 answer to their remonstrance ; which that house 
 replied to ; as may be seen in their reply ; and 
 whether they were irregularities or no. the world 
 can judge : but be they what they will, the address- 
 ors are never able to prove that the unaccountable 
 humours of some particular men put them upon 
 them; they may indeed boldly say they did, and if 
 that will do, they may say again, that it was with 
 intention to occasion divisions, &c. ; but that neither 
 proves that any particular men influenced that 
 assembly, nor that the intentions of doing so were 
 as they say ; that being impossible for them to 
 know ; and if we may be allowed to know the in- 
 tentions of that assembly, they were far otherwise 
 than what the addressers represent them to have 
 been. 
 
 " The 3d article was, ' That we had highly en* 
 croached upon her majesty's prerogative royal.' 
 
 " The 4th, ' That we had notoriously violated the 
 rights and liberties of the subject.' 
 
 " The 5th, ' That we had manifestly interrupted 
 justice.' 
 
 " These three articles are what the Lord Corn- 
 bury, in his answer to the remonstrance, charges 
 that assembly with, which are fully answered in 
 the aforesaid reply, and proved to be false charges; 
 and this the addressers knew w r hen they signed the 
 address, if ever they read the reply or address 
 (which is very much to be questioned) ; and we be- 
 lieve, if the truth were known, notwithstanding 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 625 
 
 their pretensions to seriousness and deliberation, 
 tney had little more hand in it than setting their 
 hands to it, as we shall endeavour to evince. It is 
 undeniably true, that it was signed at different times, 
 and in different places ; it then must be true, that 
 it was brought ready drawn to the signers, and it's 
 very probable that they did not read it, certainly 
 not" with any consideration. The lieutenant go- 
 vernor, as we observed before, has owned he did not ; 
 and the late chief justice, Roger Mompesson, Esq., 
 a man as likely to read and consider as any of 
 them, owns under his hand, he never did examine 
 the particulars of it ; which is, in other words, own- 
 ing he did not read it ; and it's not very likely the 
 rest should. These three articles are the very 
 words used by the Lord Cornbury in his answer : 
 the whole address seems to be an abridgement of 
 that answer, several sentences the same, the stile 
 i he same, and the same vein of intemperance and 
 ill nature through them both ; and in all likelihood 
 done by his lordship, who made the addressers 
 father whatever his lordship was ashamed to own 
 
 " The Gth article is, * That the remonstrance was 
 a most scandalous libel.' 
 
 " The 7th, 'That the Lord Cornbury made a full 
 and ample answer to it.' 
 
 " The 8th, ' That the reply of the house of repre- 
 sentatives of the province of New Jersey, was a 
 scandalous and infamous libel ;' and they add, on 
 thai head,' this last libel came out so suddenly, that 
 they had not time, as yet, to answer it in all its 
 particulars.' 
 
 " Certainly it is impossible that ever men in 
 their right wits, after reading such an address, 
 should sign it ! Was it ever known, that any book 
 or paper wrote by a house of commons, was called a 
 Libel, and a most scandalous and infamous libel ? 
 If the gentlemen had intended to show their talents 
 of railing and abusive language ; they could hardly 
 have taken a more effectual way, than by that ad- 
 dress-, which if it prove nothing else, proves them 
 to be very much masters of those qualifications ; 
 but we cannot be of opinion, that their calling the 
 remonstrance or reply a libel, proves them to be 
 so ; nor had they any reason to expect it would be 
 taken by her majesty, for any thing more than a 
 demon stratiba of their want of temper ; for if those 
 two papers were libels, then the house of represent- 
 atives might have been punished for them, or at 
 least prosecuted ; and if so, any vote, resolve, ad- 
 dress or remonstrance that they made, or any other 
 bouse of representatives could make, would subject 
 the said house of representatives (the authors of 
 them) to the same inconvenieucy, whenever the 
 gentlemen of the council were pleased to call them 
 so. This is so contrary to the known practice of 
 England, to the laws, to the rights and privileges of 
 the house, that it is a needless labour to prove, 
 either that the gentlemen never read what they 
 signed, or knew" what they signed to be false a't 
 the time of their signing of it. But to say a 
 little more, the remonstrance and reply are so 
 far from being false, that they are most true. 
 Several of the facts are owned by the Lord Corn- 
 bury, and where he either evades or denies them, 
 they are made out in the reply. His bribery was 
 proved by a crowd of evidences in the house ; and 
 whatever else is charged upon him, he knew to 
 be true ; and it is neither in the power of his full 
 and ample answer, nor even of the address itself, 
 to persuade the contrary. The assembly say indeed 
 in their remonstrance, ' Had the affairs of New 
 
 HIST, or AMEK. Nos. 79 80. 
 
 York admitted his Lordship ol'tcncr to attend those" 
 of New Jersey, he had not then been unacquainted 
 with their grievances ; and that they were inclined 
 to believe they would not have grown to so great a 
 number.' This, perhaps, may be one of the false- 
 hoods the addressers mean ;" and truly it ought to 
 be acknowledged, that the then assembly had no 
 reason to believe hisLovdship's presence in this pro- 
 vince would have any other effect, than the increas- 
 ing, instead of diminishing their grievances : but 
 when the addressers say, that the ' reply came so 
 suddenly out, that as yet, they had uo't time to 
 answer it in all its particulars ;' they seem to imply, 
 that they had answered it in some of them ; which 
 has not been done, no, not as yet, though it has 
 been out above three years. And, ' its coming out 
 so suddenly, &c.' is a great mistake, to say no, worse 
 of it ; for it had been out above six months before 
 their address was signed. This is another proof 
 that they never read the address before they signed 
 it; or if they did, that they knew what they signed 
 to was false, at the time of their signing. 
 
 " The 9th article is, 'That these disturbances arc 
 owing wholly to Mr. Lewis Morris and Samuel 
 Jenings, men of turbulent, factious, uneasy and 
 disloyal principles ; men notoriously known to be 
 uneasy under all government, and men never known 
 to he consistent with themselves.' 
 
 " The 10th article is, ' That to these men are 
 owing all the factions and confusions in the govern 
 ments of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.' 
 
 " These articles are not only the stile of the Lord 
 Cornhury's answer to the renlonstrance ; but for the 
 most part the very words. If Mr. Morris and Mr, 
 Jenings were such men as the addressers say they 
 are, viz. turbulent and factious, uneasy under all 
 government, and the causers of the factions and 
 confusions of New Jersey and Pennsylvania; then 
 certainly to continue thus turbulent, &c. evinced they 
 were not inconsistent with themselves, but con- 
 stantly pursued the same measures. This was an 
 expression the Lord Cornbury was very fond of, and 
 very much used, and the addressors here have been 
 but the parrots of his thoughts ; and all they have 
 said of these gentlemen (one of whom is in his grave 
 viz. Mr. Jenings) is a notorious abuse ; for what- 
 ever was done by the assembly (if it's their pro- 
 cedures they call disturbances) was not done either 
 by the influence of Mr. Morris or Mr. Jenings. but 
 from a just sense of their duty, in discharge of the 
 trust reposed iii them by the country, and to pre- 
 vent the ill effects of an arbitrary and unjust use of 
 power, by the Lord Cornbury, so much encouraged 
 by the slavish compliances of the addressors, men 
 never known to be consistent with themselves, nor 
 we fear never will. 
 
 " We should not trouble your excellency longer 
 on this head, did we not know this is an article 
 which the addressors think they can justify, and 
 which they suppose will prove a sufficient defence 
 for all they have said ; therefore, to put this matter 
 in some measure out of dispute, we say, in the first 
 place, that should they be able to prove what they 
 say in that article, yet it would not justify their 
 other accusations, nor the severe reflections they 
 have unjustly made on the representative body of 
 this province. 2dly, It plainly appears by the jour- 
 nals of the house, that the assembly insisted rn the 
 same things when neither Mr. Morris nor Mr. 
 Jenings were among them ; and now endeavour to 
 evince to your excellency, that their proceedings 
 were reasonable. 3dly, The disturbances in Jer "* 
 
 3 N 
 
626 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA 
 
 or Pennsylvania, ascribed to Mr. Morris or Mr. 
 Jenings, were no other than the opposition of an 
 unlawful and unjust authority, and that during the 
 proprietors' government, before it was surrendered 
 to the queen ; so not a fit matter to have been at 
 that time seriously and deliberately meddled with 
 by the addressers, and could be done with no other 
 intent but to mislead the queen into a belief that 
 Pennsylvania and New Jersey were then disturbed 
 by these gentlemen. 4thly, We do not find that 
 ever Mr. Morris was concerned at all, even during 
 that time, in the Western division of New Jersey or 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 " The llth article is, ' That this is done with de- 
 sign to throw off the queen's prerogative royal, and 
 consequently to involve all her majesty's dominions 
 in this part of the world, and the honest and good 
 well-meaning men in them, in confusion, hoping 
 thereby to obtain their wicked purposes.' 
 
 " It is evident from this article, that the accusa- 
 tions of Mr. Morris and Mr. Jenings were to mis- 
 lead the queen into such a belief as we have in- 
 stanced : 1st, from their using the term (is done) 
 being in the present tense : 2dly, they assigned the 
 reason why it is done, viz., not only to encourage 
 this government, but all the governments in America, 
 to throw off her majesty's preiogative royal, and as 
 a consequence of that, to involve all her dominions 
 in this part of the world, &c., in confusion ; which 
 is, in plain English, throwing off our allegiance, and 
 revolting from the crown of England : the addressors, 
 in the first place, suppose all the plantations on the 
 continent of America inclinable to a revolt when- 
 ever they have an opportunity; or at least it* they 
 don't believe it themselves, would have the queen 
 believe so, and be apprehensive of some danger 
 from it ; which, if, she had, it's natural enough to 
 suppose such severe methods would have been 
 taken, as would prevent any such thing ; so that 
 what the addressors have said, is not only an accu- 
 sation of all the plantations in America of want of 
 loyalty and affection to her majesty but an en- 
 deavour to alienate her affections from them We 
 thank God it has not had the ill effects they intended, 
 and hope no representation founded on the malice 
 of any men, ever will; but that the authors of them 
 may always meet with as little credit as they deserve. 
 Can it be thought, or could the addressors them- 
 selves ever seriously and deliberately think, that 
 the province of New Jersey (one of the most in- 
 considerable of all her majesty's colonies, and the 
 most incapable of making any defence, having no 
 fortification that exceeds a stone house, and of them 
 but very few; a great part of whose people are 
 quakers, who by their principles are against fight- 
 ing,) would be so unaccountably mad, as to throw off 
 their allegiance (especially to be the first in doing 
 it) and expose themselves to unavoidable ruin and 
 destruction ? Whoever can seriously think this, 
 and with deliberation assert it, ought very seriously, 
 and without much deliberation, to be confined to the 
 society of mad-men, as persons that can seriously 
 and deliberately believe and say any thing; which 
 is all we shall say to this ridiculous, as well as mali- 
 cious charge, and pass to the 12th article ; than 
 which nothing more untrue, and knowingly so, 
 could be asserted, as we shall by what follows make 
 out ; the article runs thus : ' That the assembly are 
 resolved neither to support the queen's governmenl 
 with a revenue, nor defend it by settling a militia. 
 " Now it is plain that this house never did denj 
 to raise a sufficient support for the government, anc 
 
 ook proper care concerning the militia, as by the 
 everal acts for those ends does more largely appear ; 
 nay, when the expedition against Canada was on 
 "oot, we gave 3,000/. for that end, over and above 
 he support of government ; and the casting vote 
 or the raising that money, and the settling the 
 militia now, was given by Mr. Hugh Middleton, one 
 reputed a quaker ; so that it will very easily appear, 
 ,hat accusation of the addressors was not onlv very 
 untrue, but that they knew it to be so at the time 
 of their signing it ; nay more, we shall make it ap- 
 >ear, that the gentlemen of the council have used 
 ;heir utmost endeavours to defeat the government 
 >f a necessary support, and to frustrate, as much as 
 n them lay, the expedition against Canada ; so that 
 ;he accusation lies most justly against them, and 
 not against us ; for the acts for the support of the 
 government, and settling the militia, made in the 
 ime of the good Lord Lovelace, were passed by 
 hem with the greatest difficulty ; and the act fo'r 
 raising 3,000/., towards carrying on the expedition 
 against Canada, was, at their direction, by Elisha 
 Lawrence and Gershom Mott, two of their tools, 
 who were members of this house, (and were not 
 quakers) voted out, and who on the first and second 
 reading voted for it, concealing their design of voting 
 against it, till the time of their voting; and not 
 ';>eing quakers, were not suspected of voting against 
 t, otherwise care had been taken to put it out of 
 Jieir power; and to make it appear that it was done 
 with design, by direction of the lieutenant-governor 
 and council, to cast a reflection on the house, and 
 ;o justify their allegations in their address, even at 
 the expense of defeating the expedition ; the Lieu- 
 ;enant-governor Colonel Ingoldsby, though assured 
 by the speaker and other members of the house, that 
 if the house was prorogued but for twenty-four 
 hours, care should be taken the bill should pass ; 
 who presently after did, notwithstanding, adjourn 
 the house from the 13th of June to the 28th of July 
 following ; a time so long, that if the house and 
 council had been never so willing, the season would 
 by that time have been so far advanced, that it had 
 been of no use then to have raised either men or 
 money towards that expedition, as the lieutenant- 
 governor and council very well knew ; and had not 
 the honourable Colonel Nicholson, and Colonel 
 Vetch, in an extraordinary manner, pressed the call- 
 ing the house sooner than the time appointed, viz., 
 on the 23d day of June, neither money nor men 
 had been raised on that account: this, we think, 
 comes up to a demonstration, that these gentlemen, 
 rather than not gratify their resentments, and give 
 some colour of justifying what they had said, chose 
 to sacrifice the service of the queen, and the com- 
 mon good, on so extraordinary an occasion, to their 
 private piques: and indeed their procedures ever 
 since have confirmed the country in that opinion, 
 and exposed their conduct to a just censure, and 
 showed that they have been so far from ' endeavour- 
 ing (as they say, in the last article) by application 
 to the governor to remove the grievances, if any 
 were ;' that if their best advice was at any time of- 
 fered, it was rather how to continue and render 
 them more intolerable. We are sorry we have so 
 much reason to say this as we have ; but a long and 
 uninterrupted series of despotic and arbitrary go- 
 vernment exacts it from us ; and which we are sure 
 they will, to their power, continue as long as to the 
 great misfortune of this colony, they remain in any 
 places of public trust. 
 
 " To enter into a detail of their several nial- ad- 
 
UNITED STATES, 
 
 627 
 
 ministrations, it would take up more time than we 
 can at present spare, and stretch the bounds of this 
 representation to too great a length. We have al- 
 ready laid before your excellency some proofs against 
 Mr. Hall, one of the council, of his extortion, and 
 imprisoning and selling the queen's subjects ; who, 
 if they had been guilty of the crimes alleged against 
 them, ought to have been prosecuted accordingly, 
 and not discharged on any hopes of private gain ; 
 and if not guilty, ought not to have been laid in prison 
 and in irons, and by those hardships forced to be- 
 come his servants, rather than endure them. But 
 a. man that could, after taking up adrift several 
 casks of flour, deny them to the owner, and sell 
 Ihem, Is capable of any thing that is ill ; and how 
 fit for so honourable a post as one of her majesty's 
 council, or indeed any other place of trust in this 
 government, is most humbly submitted to your ex- 
 cellency's consideration. 
 
 " Were there nothing against Mr. Peter Son- 
 mans but his being indicted for perjury, from which 
 by a packed jury he was cleared, as appears by the 
 memorial (No. 4.), there being but too much reason 
 to believe he was justly accused, it would be no 
 mean reason to lay him aside from her majesty's 
 council ; it being some sort of reflection to continue 
 a person even supposed guilty of so heinous a crime 
 in so high a post, which her majesty in a particular 
 manner has endeavoured to secure the honour of, 
 by directing in her instructions, that 'no person 
 necessitous or much in debt shall be of it ;' much 
 less a person known to be a bankrupt, as Sonmans 
 is, and who at this time, and for some years past, 
 has lived in open attd avowed adultery, in contempt 
 of the laws, which his being in power not only pro- 
 tects him from being punished, but enables him to 
 carry on his wicked designs, by imposing on the 
 honest and simple people, who suspect no trick from 
 a person of his rank ; as appears by the depositions 
 relating to the Amboy petition against Doctor 
 Johnston and Mr. Reid ; and to stretch and warp 
 the laws to the manifest prejudice, ruin, and un- 
 doing of many of her majesty's subjects, whose com- 
 plaints from the several parts of the province, (so 
 unfortunate as to be under his direction,) we make 
 no doubt have long ere this reached your excellency's 
 ears ; and which, we persuade ourselves, will, when 
 your excellency is satisfied with the truth of them, 
 have their proper effects. 
 
 " The courts of law in which the gentlemen of 
 the council were judges, instead of being a protect 
 ion and security to her majesty's subjects, of their 
 liberties and properties, in disputes that came be- 
 fore them, became the chief invaders and destroy- 
 ers of them both ; and what should have been the 
 greatest benefit, proved the greatest grievance, as 
 we shall instance in a few of the many things we 
 could : And first, notwithstanding her majesty, for 
 the ease of her subjects here, has been pleased to 
 appoint the supreme court of this province to be 
 held alternately at Amboy in the Eastern, anc 
 Burlington in the Western division of this province : 
 yet the causes of one division are tried in the other^ 
 and juries and evidences carried for that end, at the 
 great and needless charge of those concerned, as 
 well as great expense and loss of time to the peopl 
 in general, who can receive no benefit by the 
 courts being held alternately, if the ends for which 
 they are so held, be not answered, and causes triec 
 in the same division to which they do belong ; be 
 sides, it is a practice of very mischievous conse 
 quence, making the people entirely depend on anc 
 
 je subject to the judges of the said court, who can 
 by that method lay any persons they do not like, 
 under the necessity of being at the before-mentioned 
 charge, and make them that way sensible of their 
 esentments ; which, as we have instanced, they 
 lave been too ready and willing on all occasions to 
 do. Secondly, the writ of habeas corpus, the un- 
 doubted right, as well as great privilege of the suk- 
 ect, was by William Pinhorne, Esq., second jUdgto 
 )f the supreme court, denied to Thomas Gordon, 
 Esq., then speaker of the assembly; and, who notwith- 
 standing the station he was in, was kept fifteen hours 
 a prisoner, Until he applied by the said Pinhorne's 
 son, an attorney-at-law, and then, and not before, 
 ic was admitted to bail ; which fact, as well as other 
 :hings, may appear by the said Gordon's case (No. 
 >.), now laid before your excellency. The proceed- 
 ings against a person in that station, and at that 
 ;ime, made it but too evidently appear, that the said 
 Pinhorne would not stick to join with the Lord 
 Dornbury iu the most daring and violent measures, 
 to subvert the liberties of this country ; and cannot 
 be looked on by this house, or any succeeding as- 
 sembly, duly considering the procedure and the ad- 
 dress above mentioned, afterwards signed by him, 
 but as a person ready and willing on any occasion 
 to attempt upon their liberties, and overthrow them, 
 it' he can ; and how safe we can think ourselves 
 while he continues in power to hurt, is most humbly 
 submitted. 
 
 " Many persons prosecuted upon informations, 
 have been, at their excessive charge-, forced to at- 
 tend court after court, and not brought to trial, 
 when there was no evidence to ground such informa- 
 tions on ; but they kept prisoners, in hopes that some 
 might be in time procured ; and two of them, to 
 wit, David Johnston and his wife, after some weeks' 
 imprisonment, not admitted to bail till they entered 
 into a recognisance, the condition of which was, 
 ' That if the Lord Cornbury was dissatisfied with 
 admitting them to bail, upon notice thereof signi- 
 fied to them, they should return to their imprison- 
 ment:' his lordship was dissatisfied, and Leeds and 
 Revell, who took the recognisance^ sent their orders 
 to them to return according to the condition of it. 
 
 " Actions have been suffered to continue, after 
 the persons in whose names they were brought, 
 have in open court disavowed them, declaring they 
 had never given orders for any such actions to be 
 brought. 
 
 " Actions upon frivolous pretences have been 
 postponed, and the trials delayed to serve particular 
 persons, when the juries and evidences were all 
 ready, and attending on the trials. 
 
 " Though it be the right of the subject, by proper 
 writSj to remove actions from any inferior to a su- 
 perior court ; yet at the court of sessions held at 
 Burlington, in December 1709, Col. Daniel Coxe, 
 Col. Hugh Huddy, Col. Thomas Revell, and Daniel 
 Leeds, Esq., justices of the said county, did reject a 
 writ of certiorari, obtained by Mr. George Willocks, 
 and allowed by Roper Mompesson, chief justice, 
 and committed said Willocks till he entered into 
 recognisance, to appear at the next court of oyer 
 and terminer. , 
 
 " The case of Peter Blacksfield, who, by a mis- 
 take or design, was divested of his estate, and ruined, 
 is so well known to your excellency, that we need 
 say nothing more about it. 
 
 " The people called quakers, who are by her ma- 
 jesty admitted to plates of the most considerable 
 trust within this province, are sometimes admitted 
 
 3N2 
 
628 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 to be evidences ; as one Mr. Beaks, a quaker, was in 
 a capital case against one Thomas Bates, at a court 
 of oyer and terminer, held by Justice Mompesson, 
 Col. Coxe, Col. Huddy, and others ; on which evi- 
 dence he was condemned to be executed ; and gome- 
 times they have been refused to be .jurors or evi- 
 dences, either in civil or criminal cases; so that their 
 safety, or receiving the benefit of her majesty's fa- 
 vour, seems not to depend on the laws, or her direct- 
 ions, but the humours and caprices of the gentle- 
 men who were judges of the courts. We, with all 
 humanity, take leave to inform your excellency, 
 that the Western division was settled by those peo- 
 ple, who combated with all the inconveniences at- 
 tending a new settlement ; and with great difficulty 
 and charge have, from a wilderness, improved it to 
 be what you now see it is ; there are great numbers 
 of them in it, and should they not be admitted as 
 evidences or jurors, they would be very unsafe; for 
 it is in the power of ill men to come into their re- 
 ligious assemblies, and murder as many as they 
 please, and with impunity, though looked on by 
 hundreds of quakers; or break open their houses 
 and rob with safety : and the encouragement the 
 gentlemen of the council have given to the meanest 
 of the people, to abuse them, confirms us in the 
 opinion, that there wants not those who have will 
 enough to perpetrate the greatest mischiefs on that 
 people, when they can escape the punishment due 
 to their crimes. 
 
 " The procedure of the whole body of the council, 
 in relation to Mr. Barclay, is a demonstration of 
 their arbitrariness and partiality, as by his case, 
 now laid before your excellency, will more fully 
 appear. When he produced a commission before 
 them, from the proprietors in England, which 
 superseded that lame one given to Mr. Soninans; 
 they (as appears by an order of council) took the 
 said commission from him ; than which nothing 
 could be more arbitrary and unjust ; for that com- 
 mission was the property of Mr. Barclay, and he 
 had the right of executing the powers of it ; and if 
 any persons were aggrieved, or the commission not 
 good, the law was open to dispute it ; and a copy oi 
 it Rent to the queen would have answered all the 
 just ends that sending the original could do. Il 
 was indeed a short way of determining in favour ol 
 Peter Sonmans, and putting it out of the power oi 
 Mr. Barclay to right himself during that admini- 
 stration. The gentlemen may call this a strenuous 
 asserting of the queen's prerogative royal ; but we 
 can call it by no other name than an open robbery, 
 'committed in their judicial capacity, under a pre- 
 tence of authority; than which nothing could be 
 worse, or of more pernicious consequence. 
 
 " To conclude, all persons not friends to the 
 gentlemen of the council, or some of them, were 
 sure in any trial at law to suffer ; every thing was 
 done in favour of these that were : justice was ba- 
 nished, and trick and partiality substituted in its 
 place ; no man was secure in his liberty or estate ; 
 but both subjected to the caprices of an inconsiderate 
 party of men in power, who seemed to study nothing 
 more than to make them as precarious as possible 
 Your excellency's coming, has put a check to tha 
 violent torrent of injustice and oppression, that bor< 
 down every thing before it; and we hope, tha 
 during your administration, ill men will not have 
 authority to hurt, nor their representations gain any 
 credit with a person so able to discern the motives 
 of them ; which are no other than the gratification 
 of their own resentments, even at the price of the 
 
 >ublic safety, as we have in great measure already 
 >roved ; and their proceedings now do plainly con- 
 irm what we have offered : for what can be the in- 
 ent of rejecting our bills without committing of 
 hem, but to irritate us to that degree, that nothing 
 might be done, either towards the support of the go- 
 vernment, or the settling of a militia, that they might 
 lave wherewithal to justify themselves in what they 
 lave said of us ? What was the cause of their re- 
 ecting the bill for preventing of corruption in 
 courts of justice, but the consciousness of their own 
 crimes, and the fears they had of that examine, 
 which must necessarily have exposed their conduct 
 to a due censure ? What was it that made them 
 :hrow out the bill against bankrupts (though made 
 by her majesty's express direction), and profess them- 
 selves against any bill whatsoever on that head, but 
 :he dread they had of feeling the just consequences 
 of it themselves ? Nay, one of them, William Pin- 
 horne, Esq., by name, was pleased to say, it was 
 with horror and amazement he beheld a bill with 
 that title ; we are not so fond of the bill as it was 
 drawn, but that we would have readily joined with 
 the council in any reasonable amendments, had 
 they offered them ; but we think no honest man 
 could be against a bill that makes the estates of 
 persons becoming bankrupts, liable to pay their just 
 debts ; and we hope New Jersey won't long be a 
 sanctuary for such. The bill, entitled, ' An act for 
 enabling persons aggrieved by an act for settling 
 the militia of this province,' was, to make the dis- 
 tresses unreasonably and illegally made on pretence 
 of the militia act, returnable to the owners, and to 
 punish the persons that did it; but this they will 
 not pass, knowing that so just an act would be at- 
 tended with consequences they can by no means 
 bear; the instruments of that oppression being to 
 be protected by them at any rate, and nothing to 
 be heard against them, because they were officers of 
 the government, though their practices were never 
 so unreasonable or unjust, and her majesty's sub- 
 jects left remediless, and must patiently sit down, 
 after having their houses and plantations plundered, 
 and their persons abused by a crew of needy and 
 mercenary men, under pretence of law ; but it was 
 such persons as were useful to them, and such they 
 must, for their own safety, protect. It is for this 
 reason they combine together to secure, as far as 
 they are able, Jeremiah Bass, their clerk, the secre- 
 tary of this province, and prothonotary of the su- 
 preme court; in all these offices his pen is to be 
 directed by them; they dread an honest man in these 
 offices. How he has behaved himself, is in some 
 measure known to your excellency, especially in the 
 case of Dennis Linch, the Maidenhead people, and 
 Peter Blacksfield ; the two last are notorious mal- 
 versations in his office, and appear under his hand, 
 and by the minute books of the supreme court; and 
 it is no excuse in him, when men are turned out of 
 their estates and ruined, to say, it was a mistake; 
 if such an excuse would do, it is very easily made 
 on any occasion; and in this province can be safe 
 when such a person continues in offices of so great 
 trust. All the original copies of the laws passed in 
 the time of the just Lord Lovelace, are somehow or 
 other made away with. Bass offers to purge himself 
 by his oath, that he has them not, nor knows any 
 thing of them ; and it may be so, for aught we know; 
 but in this province where he is known, it is also 
 known, that few men ever believed his common 
 conversation, and several juries have refused to 
 credit his oaths ; he corroborates what he says with 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 629 
 
 the evidence of Peter Sonmans, one of the council, 
 a person once indicted for perjury ; and how he was 
 cleared, the aforesaid memorial makes out ; so that 
 we do not think him a person of sufficient credit to 
 determine that point. It is certain that the secre- 
 tary's office is the place those laws ought to be in, 
 and he ought not on any pretence to have parted 
 with them out of the province. It is certain the 
 lieutenant-governor ought, within three months 
 after the passing of them, to have sent copies of 
 them to the lords commissioners for trade and plant- 
 ations, and duplicates of them by the next convey 
 ance after ; and this under pain of her majesty's 
 highest displeasure, and the forfeiture of that year' 
 salary, on which he should on any pretence whatso- 
 ever omit the doing of it : how comes it then about 
 that neither the secretary Bass, nor Mr. Cockrill, 
 private secretary to the Lord Lovelace, and who 
 lived six months after his master's death, was never 
 examined about them ? Mr. Cockrill could have 
 cleared up that matter while alive, if the lieutenant- 
 governor could be thought so grossly to neglect what 
 he knew to be his duty ; why did not Mr. Bass ap- 
 ply to him in all that time for those laws ? If he 
 had parted with them, as he pretends, so much 
 against his will, it was very natural to suppose he 
 would have used the utmost application to get them 
 again ; yet no one inquiry is said to be made after 
 them, either by Bass or the lieutenant-governor, of 
 the Lady Lovelace, who staid in New York long 
 after the death of her lord, or of his secretary ; nor 
 no noise at all made about them till this time, so 
 long after the arrival of your excellency : can any 
 body think it was the interest of either the Lord or 
 Lady Lovelace, or his secretary, or any of his lord- 
 ship's friends, to destroy a law which gave the Lord 
 Lovelace 800J., and without which he could not 
 have it ? But it does appear to be the interest of 
 the lieutenant-governor and his friends to destroy 
 it ; for they had got an act passed, which took from 
 the Lord Lovelace 330/, of that money, arid gave it 
 to the lieutenant-governor ; and 270/. more of it was 
 given to him for the support of the government. 
 Had he sent the act made in favour of the Lord 
 Lovelace to the queen for her approbation or dis- 
 allowance, and her majesty had approved of it, as 
 in all probability she would have done, then the act 
 made in Colonel Ingoldsby's favour had been void ; 
 but had the other gone home first, there was an ex- 
 pectation it might pass, the quceft knowing no more 
 about the first act, than that a vote had passed in 
 favour of the Lord Lovelace, 
 
 " And to make it plainly appear, that Colonel 
 Ingoldsby and the gentlemen of the council were 
 apprehensive of the danger of sending those acts to 
 England, to the act we have now past, for making 
 the printed copies as effectual as if the originals 
 were in the secretary's office, that your excellency 
 ir,ay be enabled to transmit them to her majesty, 
 they have added a pi'ovidiug clause, that the act 
 made in Col. Ingoldsby's tune (\y lich takes that 
 money from the Lord Lovelace) s' all not by this 
 act we have past, be made void in tne whole or any 
 part thereof, but continue in full force and virtue 
 as if this, act had never been made. This amend- 
 ment they insist on, though they knew, and do know, 
 we will never agree to a clause so foreign to the 
 title and intent of the bill ; but this is done by them 
 with design that the bill shall not pass, by which 
 means her majesty will be without authentic copies 
 of the acts during that good lord's administration ; 
 and they hope will confirm the acts past in Colonel 
 
 Ingoldsby's time. What we have said on this head, 
 shows very plainly who are the persons that ought, 
 with most reason to be charged, with the making 
 away those original laws. 
 
 " We are concerned we have so much reason to 
 expose a number of persons, combined to do New 
 Jersey all the hurt that lies in their power. Her 
 majesty has been graciously pleased to remove Col. 
 Richard Ingoldsby from being lieutenant-governor, 
 and we cannot sufficiently express our gratitude for 
 so singular a favour ; and especially for appointing 
 your excellency to be our governor. We have all 
 the reason in the world to be well assured, you will 
 not forget that you are her subject, but will take 
 care that justice be duly administered to the rest of 
 her subjects here ; which can never be done while 
 William Pinhorne, Roger Mompesson, Daniel Coxe, 
 Richard Townley, Peter Sonmans, Hugh Huddy, 
 and William Hall, or Jeremiah Bass, Esqrs., con- 
 tinue in places of trust within this province ; nor 
 can we think our liberties or properties safe while 
 they do; but if they aie continued, must with our 
 families desert the province, and seek some safer 
 place of abode. We shall wait till your excellency 
 can transmit accounts of the state of this colony to 
 her majesty, and assure you that we will on all oc- 
 casions very readily, to our power, comply with her 
 majesty's directions, and be wanting in nothing 
 that may conduce to make your administration 
 happy, both to yourself and us. 
 
 " Signed by order of the house of representatives, 
 
 " WILLIAM BRADFOKD, Clerk." 
 " Die Veneris, A. M. 9 Feb. 1710." 
 
 This representation was received kindly by the 
 governor; he answered, "that her majesty had 
 iven him directions to endeavour to reconcile the 
 differences that were in this province; but if he could 
 not, that he should make a just representation to 
 her ; and that he did not doubt, but that upon the 
 representation he should make, her majesty would, 
 take such measures as should give a general satis- 
 faction." 
 
 The governor accordingly backing the remon- 
 strance to the queen, got all the counsellors re- 
 moved that were pointed out by the assembly, as the 
 cause of their grievances, and their places supplied 
 3y others. The business of this session being finish- 
 ed, the governor prorogued the ht/use. 
 
 A session of general assembly A second expedition 
 to Canada Meeting of a New Assembly Last 
 session in Hunter'* time An act passed for run- 
 ning the division line between East and West Jersey 
 William Bicrnet arrives as governor Is succeeded 
 by John Montgomerie, Esq. Lewis Morris appointed 
 Governor, separate from New York~ Affairs until 
 the revolution. 
 
 Governor Hunter convened the assembly in 
 ;he summer, 1711, and opened business, with 
 celling them, " That, her majesty's instructions 
 which he was commanded to communicate, would 
 discover the. reason of his calling them together at 
 his time; and that he doubted not the matters 
 herein contained would be agreeable to them, arid 
 he success profitable. 
 
 " That the fleet and forces destined for the reduc- 
 ion of Canada were arrived in good health and 
 condition, and would proceed in a little time ; that 
 vhat was required on their parts, was the levying in 
 ach division 180 effective private men, besides 
 officers, and to provide for their encouragement, 
 lay, and provisions, as well as transportation over 
 
630 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the lakes, and other incidental charges attending 
 the service." 
 
 The assembly resolved to encourage this expedi- 
 tion, by raising to the value of 12,500 ounces of plate, 
 in bills of credit, to be sunk, together with the for- 
 mer 3000/., by a subsequent tax ; and provided bills 
 fur raising volunteers to go on the expedition, and 
 ibr remitting the money. 
 
 The governor passed the bills, and dismissed 
 tlvnn with thanks, for the cheerful dispatch they 
 had given. 
 
 This wa,s the second expedition against Canada, 
 the particulars of which have been fully given in 
 the. preceding histories. 
 
 In 1712 died Thomas Gardiner, of Burlington, 
 several times mentioned before; he was well ac- 
 quainted with public business, a good surveyor, and 
 useful member of society ; several years one of the 
 council, treasurer of the Western division, and the 
 first speaker of assembly after the union of the go- 
 vernments of East and West Jersey. 
 
 The 7th of December, 1713, the governor called 
 the assembly, and next day informed them, that he 
 was glad to see them after so long an absence, and 
 believed they were not sorry to meet him in so 
 good company ; that the tender regard her majesty 
 had to their quiet, in particular at a time when she 
 had blessed the world with a general peace, called 
 for their pious endeavours, and could not fail of 
 meeting the returns due from the most grateful 
 people, to the best and most indulgent princes ; 
 that he was persuaded the efforts of such as had 
 been removed from places of trust by the queen, at 
 their request, would be too impotent to destroy the 
 peace, by breaking that mutual confidence, or dis- 
 turbing that harmony, that then subsisted between 
 the several branches of the legislature ; that full of 
 this confidence, he recommended to their immediate 
 care, the providing for past arrears, and future 
 support of her majesty's government, the discoun- 
 tenancing vice and immorality, the improvement 
 of trade and encouragement for planting and 
 peopling the province ; that this could not be bet- 
 ter effected than by a law to affirm and ascertain the 
 respective properties of the proprietors and people, 
 if they thought it practicable. 
 
 That the gentlemen of the present council, hav- 
 ing no views or interests differing from theirs, if 
 they would agree to frequent and amicable confer- 
 en,ces with them, or a number of them, upon all 
 matters under deliberation, it would save much 
 time and effectually disappoint all contrivances of 
 their enemies j " Who. in return for their being at 
 present no counsellors, had ridiculously endeavoured 
 to Persuade some that they were n,o assembly." 
 
 The assembly replied, " That they were indeed 
 glad to meet him in such good company ; and as the 
 persons who had hitherto obstructed the welfare of 
 their country, were removed, they presumed on his 
 favour oftener than heretofore ; they acknowledged 
 themselves under the greatest obligatious to the best 
 of queens, and hoped their actions would demon- 
 strate they were not ungrateful." 
 
 Among other bills passed this session, was that 
 entitled, " An act that the solemn affirmation and 
 declaration of the people called quakers, shall be 
 accepted instead of an oath in the usual form, and 
 for qualifying and enabling the said people to serve 
 as jurors, and to execute any office or place of 
 trust or profit within this province." 
 
 This bill was introduced on the governor's com- 
 municating to the house tbo queen's instruction on 
 
 that head, after it was fully adjusted by the council 
 and assembly; the second enacting clause was 
 thought to be designedly left out by the secretary, 
 who had it to engross, and it so passed the council 
 without being perceived ; but on reading it again 
 in the assembly it was discovered, and the secre- 
 tary making his acknowledgment at the bar of the 
 house, it passed over. This act continued till the 
 year 1732, and then was supplied by another. 
 
 Other laws were also passed; and this session 
 concluded to mutual satisfaction. 
 
 " I thank you," says the governor in his conclud- 
 ing speech to the house, " for what has been done 
 this sessions for the support of this her majesty's 
 overnment, and do not doubt, but that you will 
 receive ample thanks from those who sent you, for 
 the many good laws that have been passed ; some 
 things that in their nature were acts of favour, I 
 have agreed that they thould be made acts of as- 
 sembly, that your share may be greater in the 
 rateful acknowledgment of your country. 
 
 " I hope my conduct has convinced the world, (I 
 cannot suppose you want any further conviction) 
 that I have no other view than the peace and pros- 
 perity of this province ; if such a few as are enemies 
 to both, are not to be reduced by reason, I shall 
 take the next best and most effectual measure to 
 do it." 
 
 The government was conducted in so quiet a 
 manner that we find no public transactions to notice, 
 until the year 1716, when Governor Hunter met a 
 new assembly at Perth Amboy, in the spring, who 
 chose Colonel Daniel Coxe, speaker; being pre- 
 sented and accepted, the governor by speech in- 
 formed them, 
 
 " That the dissolution of one assembly by the 
 demise of the late queen, of another by the arrival 
 of a new patent from the present king, (George I.) 
 constituting him governor of the province, and of 
 a third by reason of a circumstance well known, 
 together with the long sessions at York, and his 
 necessary attendance on the service of the frontiers, 
 had been the occasion of putting off their meeting 
 till now; that on his part he brought with him a 
 firm purpose for the advantage of the subject and 
 service of the crown ; which, (says he) ' I have 
 ever pursued, and now bid a fair defiance to the 
 most malicious to assign one single instance in which 
 I have acted counter to what I now profess, notwith- 
 standing the false and groundless accusations and 
 insinuations to the contrary, from two persons ou 
 the other side, who pretended to have been in- 
 structed from this ; which though they met with 
 that contempt at home they deserved, I could not 
 without injustice to myself let pass unmeiitioned 
 here." ' 
 
 The assembly being now convened at Amboy, 
 when it ought in turn to have been at Burlington, 
 were determined to remonstrate against the infringe- 
 ment of the usual custom of alternately meeting at 
 each of those places, and accordingly represented 
 to the governor, that in the year 1709, an act was 
 passed, entitled, " An act for ascertaining the place 
 of the sitting of the representatives, to meet in 
 general assembly ;" that in March, 1710. (he afore- 
 said act was confirmed, finally enacted and ratified 
 by her late majesty, with the advice of her privy- 
 council, and transmitted to him (the governor) by 
 the lords commissioners for trade and plantations, 
 the 16th of said month. 
 
 That as they found themselves entirely inclina- 
 ble to pay all due regard and obedience to his 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 631 
 
 majesty's and the governor's commands, so they 
 could not but think it their duty to maintain the 
 known established laws of the province. 
 
 And as that law had the royal sanction, and had 
 gone through all the usual forms both here and 
 in Great Britain, necessary to the confirming and 
 perpetuating of it, they were of opinion it was still 
 in force. 
 
 The governor replied, That his majesty's in- 
 structions, which were laws to him, having restored 
 that affair to the just and equal footing upon which 
 it was put by, and at the time of the surrender of the 
 government by the proprietors, he could not give 
 his consent to any alteration, or give way to any 
 thing that might elude the intent and purpose of 
 that instruction without giving juster grounds of 
 complaint against him than he had hitherto given ; 
 and that he had reasons of great weight, which made 
 it impracticable for him to hold either council or 
 assembly at Burlington at this time. 
 
 The dispute being principally founded on the new 
 commission to the governor, upon the accession of 
 King George I. to the throne ; the assembly thought 
 proper to let it drop, and pursue what was before 
 them at the place where they were then convened : 
 matters however did not proceed agreeably ; the 
 speaker disliked the governor, and influenced many 
 of the members : and the governor perceiving that 
 there was no prospect of their answering the design 
 of their meeting at that time, prorogued them. 
 
 He summoned them to meet again at Amboy on 
 the 14th of May, when only nine members appear- 
 ing, they waited five days, and then presented an 
 address, requesting the governor would take such 
 methods as he should see meet, to cause the absent 
 members to attend the service ; he sent warrants 
 to several of them, commanding their attendance, 
 as they would answer the contrary at their peril; 
 four presently appeared, and there being now thir- 
 teen met, the governor sent for them, and recom- 
 mended their meeting at the house and choosing a 
 speaker, (for their speaker was absent among the 
 rest) in order to enable themselves to send their 
 serjeant-at-arms for those that were still absent. 
 
 The thirteen met the 21st, but the speaker being 
 still absent, they proceeded to a new choice, and 
 placed John Kinsey in the chair. 
 
 This done, and the new speaker presented, the 
 governor delivered the following speech : 
 " Gentlemen, 
 
 " The last time you were here upon the like oc- 
 casion, I told you, that I thought fit to approve of 
 whatever choice you thought fit to make of a speaker. 
 I now tell you that I heartily approve of the worthy 
 choice you have made. 
 
 " As the conduct of that gentleman, who last 
 filled the chair, sufficiently convinced you of a com- 
 bination between him and his associates, to de- 
 feat all the purposes of your present meeting ; I 
 hope, and cannot doubt but it will open the eyes of 
 all such as by his and their evil acts, and sinistrous 
 practices, ha,ve been misled and imposed upon ; so 
 that for the future, here, they will not find it so easy 
 a matter to disturb the peace of the country. 
 
 " I must refer you to what \ said at the opening 
 of the assembly ; but harvest drawing near, I am 
 afrajid you'll hardly have time for more business 
 than what is absolutely and immediately requisite ; 
 that is the support of the government, and the pub- 
 lic credit ; you know that the date of the currency 
 of your bills of credit is near expiring, so there will 
 be wanting a new law to remedy the evil that must 
 
 attend the leaving the country without a currency 
 for ordinary uses, as well as trade. 
 
 " ROBERT HUNTER." 
 
 The house then examined into the conduct of 
 their late speaker, and the absent members, who on 
 the question were all at different times severally 
 expelled for " contempt of authority and neglect 
 of the service of their country," and writs issued 
 for new elections. 
 
 The 8th of next month, soon after the speaker's 
 exclusion, but before the other members were ex- 
 pelled, the assembly presented their address as 
 follows : 
 
 " May it please your excellency, 
 
 " Your administration has been a continued 
 series of justice and moderation, and from your past 
 conduct we dare assure ourselves of a continuation 
 of it, and we will not be wanting in our endeavours 
 to make suitable returns, both in providing a hand- 
 some support of the government, and of such a 
 continuance as may demonstrate to you and the 
 world, the sense we have of our duty and your 
 worth. 
 
 " The gentleman, our late speaker, has added 
 this one instance of folly to his past demeanour, 
 to convince us and the world, that in all stations, 
 whether of a counsellor, a private man, or a repre- 
 sentative, his study has been to disturb the quiet and 
 tranquillity of this province, and act in contempt of 
 laws and government; we are sensible of the effects 
 it has had, and may have on the public peace ; and 
 our expulsion of him, we hope, evinces that we are 
 not the partisans of his heat and disaffection to the 
 present government. We are very sorry he has been 
 capable to influence so many into a combination 
 with him, to make effectual his ill purposes ; but 
 we hope it is rather the effect of weakness than 
 malice, and that their eyes are now so much opened 
 that they'll return to their duty, and join with us in 
 providing for the public credit, and whatever else 
 may make this province happy, and your excel- 
 lency easy." 
 
 Next the assembly resolved, " That the late 
 members whom they had expelled, should not sit as 
 members of the house if they should be returned on 
 a new election, during this sessions of assembly." 
 
 Notwithstanding this resolve, several of the same 
 members were returned ; but refused seats in the 
 house, and the electors obliged to choose over 
 again. 
 
 The governor then prorogued them to the 3d of 
 October. In November the same house met at Cros- 
 wicks, the small-pox being at Burlington ; the go- 
 vernor opened the business of this session by telling 
 them, That supporting government and public cre- 
 dit, required their immediate deliberation ^ that 
 they knew the funds for the first hM expired fi.fteer 
 months ago, and that the other had suffered much 
 by the obstinacy of some in refusing the payment of 
 taxes, or remissness in others in collecting or put- 
 ting the laws in execution, sufficient (if duly ex- 
 ecuted) to have answered the end., and in a great 
 measure prevented or remedied that evil ; that he 
 doubted not they were now met with a good disposi- 
 tion, as well as in full freedom, all clogs and bars 
 being removed, to pursue to effect the good ends of 
 their meeting, an,d to make good their engagements 
 and promises in several addresses ; that the true 
 interest of the people and government were the 
 same, to wit, a government of laws ; that no other 
 deserved the name; Jiiat this was never separated, 
 or separable but in imagination by men of craft, 
 
032 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 such as were either abettors of lawless power on the 
 one hand, or confusion and anarchy on the other; 
 that the first was not the case of this province, and 
 \ve had well-grounded hopes that all endeavours 
 towards the latter were ceased. 
 
 This session proved long and fruitful, continuing 
 above two months ; and sixteen public and private 
 bills received the governor's assent. 
 
 In 1718 died Samuel Smith, one of the members 
 of assembly for Burlington; he had sought happi- 
 ness in obscurity, but being against his inclination 
 called to this and other public stations, he passed 
 through them with a clear reputation. In private 
 life he was inoffensive, benevolent, and respected. 
 
 This year was remarkable for an uncommon 
 storm of hail : which fell larger than had been remem- 
 bered before in the provinces, and killed many wild 
 pigeons, and other birds, and did considerable 
 damage. 
 
 (1719.) In the spring Governor Hunter again met 
 the assembly at Perth Amboy ; but, at the desire 
 of the members, their private affairs interfering, 
 they were adjourned to the winter, when meeting, 
 he represented, 
 
 " That the revenue was some time since expired; 
 that when this came under consideration, he de- 
 sired an augmentation of the officers' salaries ; that 
 in former acts they were so scanty and so retrenched 
 from what they had been, that the officers were not 
 enabled to perform their respective dutic?. 
 
 " That the assembly of N ew York had passed an 
 act for running the division line betwixt this pro- 
 vince; and that upon supposition, that another for 
 the same purpose would be passed here ; that the 
 justice due to the proprietors and the disturbances 
 among the people, made such a law immediately 
 necessary; that he had formerly recommended 
 their providing for an agent at the court of Great 
 Britain, and now repeated it; that the lords com- 
 missioners for trade had in several of their letters 
 complained of the want of one ; that this was the 
 only province i-n his majesty's dominions that had 
 none ; that by means of this omission their business 
 in England stood still ; that that could not be de- 
 layed without danger or loss to the public, since his 
 administration had been negotiated by persons em- 
 ployed by him. at his own very great expense, 
 which he hoped they would consider; that as to 
 projects of trade, he had no reason to change his 
 opinion since they last met; that to this subject he 
 referred them on what he then spoke." 
 
 The assembly said in their address, " That they 
 were not insensible the present circumstances of 
 the goveinment as well as of the country, made 
 their meeting necessary, notwithstanding the ri- 
 gour of the season ; that they were not unmindful 
 that the revenue was expired, nor of their duty in 
 a reasonable support ; that they were willing to pass 
 an act for running the division line betwixt this pro- 
 vince and New York ; but conceived the expense 
 of that affair belonged to the proprietors of the con- 
 tested lands ; that they were very sensible an agent 
 for the province at the court of Great Britain was 
 very necessary, but were sorry the circumstances of 
 the province were such, that they could not make 
 u suitable provision for so useful an officer ; and 
 that they would readily come into any measures 
 that might be effectual to promote the trade and 
 prosperity of the province." 
 
 This session produced eleven public and private 
 bills ; among them was one for running and ascer- 
 taining the division line betwixt New Jersey and 
 
 New York; but this act was never put iu execution 
 further than fixing the north partition point ; this 
 was done by indenture made the 25th of July, 1719, 
 between II. Walter, Isaac Hicks and Allane Jarrat, 
 surveyor-general, on the part of New York; John 
 Johnston and George Willocks, on behalf of East 
 Jersey ; Joseph Kirkbride and John Reading, en. 
 behalf of West Jersey ; and James Alexander, sur- 
 veyor-general, on behalf of both East and West 
 Jersey : these commissioners and surveyors duly 
 authorized, met at the place, and after many obser- 
 vations of the latitude, unanimously, by the deed 
 aforesaid, fixed the north partition point on the 
 northernmost branch of Delaware ; which they found 
 to be that branch called the Fish Kill. This done, 
 the commissioners for West Jersey thought they 
 were not further concerned ; the others, though 
 both greatly interested in having it settled, left it in 
 uncertainty till 1764, when by acts of assembly of 
 both colonies, it was referred to be finally settled 
 and determined by commissioners to be appointed 
 by the crown. Another act also passed for running 
 and ascertaining the line of division between East 
 and West Jersey. 
 
 The beginning of the summer this year (1719) 
 afforded a fair prospect of a plentiful harvest, and 
 much was expected from a great crop in the ground ; 
 but an unseasonable quantity of rain coming on, it 
 proved very bad, and many lost their corn entirely; 
 it was long called the wet harvest. 
 
 (1720.) We are now come to the end of Governor 
 Hunter's administration, who resigned in favour of 
 William Burnet (son of the celebrated bishop), and 
 returned to England ; he nad a ready art at pro- 
 curing money, few loved it more ; and this foible 
 it is said drew him into schemes, gaming, and con- 
 siderable losses. His address here was engaging 
 and successful, he assented to most of the laws the 
 people wanted, and filled the offices with men of 
 character. He had before, so early as the year 
 1705, been appointed lieutenant-governor of Vir- 
 ginia, under George earl of Orkney, and was on 
 his voyage thither taken prisoner to France. 
 
 The assembly at the sessions last mentioned, 
 fixed for salary and incidental charges 600Z. per 
 annum ; for two years this had been the accustomed 
 support, since the surrender, except once in Lord 
 Cornbury's time ; 500/. was provided in the succeed- 
 ing administrations, till Lewis Morris, in 1738, 
 became governor of New Jersey, separate from 
 New York ; when it was augmented to 1000/ per 
 annum, and 60/. house-rent, with 500/. addition the 
 first year, for expenses attending his voyage, &c. 
 
 Governor Burnet met the assembly soon after his 
 arrival, but little business was then thought neces- 
 sary, nor did they very well agree ; that house had 
 been continued a long time, and were now dis- 
 solved, and writs issued for a new election. 
 
 The members returned were convened early in 
 the spring 1721 ; they chose Dr. John Johnston, 
 speaker. 
 
 The governor opened the assembly with the fol- 
 lowing speech : 
 " Gentlemen, 
 
 " The choice which the country has made of you 
 to represent them, gives me a happy opportunity of 
 knowing their sentiments ; now when they have 
 been fully informed of mine in the most public man- 
 ner, I have no reason to doubt, that after so much 
 time given them to weigh and consider every par- 
 ticular, you bring along with you their hearty reso- 
 lutions to support his majesty's government, in 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 such au ample and honourable manner as will be- j gratitude, and obedience to their sovereign King 
 come you to offer, and me to accept; and in doing | George, his issue, and magistrates in their respect- 
 
 this, I must recommend to you not to think of me, 
 so much as of the inferior officers of this government, 
 who want your care more, and whose salaries have 
 hitherto amounted to a very small share of the pub- 
 lic expense. I cannot neglect this occasion of con- 
 gratulating you upon the treasures lately discovered 
 in the bowels of the earth, which cannot fail of cir- 
 culating for the general good, the increase of trade, 
 and the raising the value of estates ; and now you 
 are just beginning to taste of new blessings, I can- 
 not but remind you of those which you have so long 
 enjoyed, and without which all other advantages 
 would but have increased your sufferings, under a 
 Popish king and a French government. 
 
 " You can ascribe your deliverance from these to 
 nothing but the glorious revolution, begun by King 
 William III., of immortal memory, and completed by 
 the happy accession of his present majesty, King 
 George, to the throne of Great Britain, and his 
 entire success against his rebellious subjects at 
 home, and all his enemies abroad. 
 
 " To this remarkable deliverance, by an over- 
 ruling hand of Providence, you owe the preservation 
 of your laws and liberties, the secure enjoyment of 
 your property, and a free exercise of religion, ac- 
 cording to the dictates of your conscience. These 
 invaluable blessings are so visible among us, and 
 the misery of countries where tyranny and persecu- 
 tion prevail, so well known, that I need not mention 
 them, to raise in your minds the highest sense of 
 your obligations to serve God, to honour the king, 
 and love your country. " W. BURNET." 
 
 The assembly presented the following address : 
 " May it please your excellency; 
 
 " We gladly embrace this opportunity to assure 
 your excellency, that our sentiments and those we 
 represent, arc one and the same, cheerfully to de- 
 monstrate our loyalty to our sovereign King George, 
 and submission to his substitute, and readiness to 
 support his government over us in all its branches, 
 in the most honourable manner the circumstances 
 of this province will allow ; which we hope your 
 excellency will accept of, though it fall short of 
 what the dignity of his majesty's governor and the 
 inferior officers of the government might expect, 
 were the province in a more flourishing condition. 
 
 " W T e thankfully acknowledge your excellency's 
 congratulation, and doubt not when the imaginary 
 treasures (except Mr. Schuyler's) become real, the 
 country will not be wanting in their duty to his ma- 
 jesty, in making your excellency and the officers of 
 the government partakers of the advantage. 
 
 " We doubt not but your excellency will extend 
 your goodness to countenance any proposal that may 
 tend to the public utility. 
 
 " We hope your excellency will excuse us in fall- 
 ing short of words, to express our thankful acknow- 
 ledgements to God Almighty and those under him, 
 who have been instruments in working deliverance 
 to that glorious nation to which we belong, from 
 popery, tyranny, and arbitrary power, wishing it 
 may always be supplied with great and good men, 
 that will endeavour their utmost to maintain his 
 majesty's royal authority, and assert and defend the 
 laws, liberties; and properties of the people, against 
 all foreign and domestic invaders. 
 
 " We beg your excellency to believe the sincerity 
 of our thoughts, that there are none of his majesty's 
 subjects that entertain hearts more loyal and af- 
 fectionate, and desire more to testify their duty, 
 
 ive degrees, than do the representatives of his ma- 
 jesty's province of New Jersey. 
 
 " JOHN JOHNSTON, Speaker." 
 
 Sundry bills were prepared this sessions ; among 
 these, one had a title too singular to be omitted 
 " An act against denying the divinity of our Saviour 
 Jesus Christ, the doctrine of the blessed Trinity, the 
 truth of the Holy Scriptures, and spreading atheistical 
 books." Assemblies in the colonies have rarely 
 troubled themselves with these subjects, perhaps 
 never before or since ; it probably arose from the 
 governor's motion, who had a turn that way, and 
 had himself written a book to unfold some part of 
 the apocalypse ; the bill was however rejected on the 
 second reading in the assembly. The sessions con- 
 tinued near two months, the support was settled at 
 500/. a-year, for five years; the governor after 
 passing that, and several other bills, dismissed the 
 house with the following speech : 
 
 " Gentlemen, I have so many reasons to thank 
 you for your proceedings in this affair, that should I 
 mention them all, time would not suffice me ; two I 
 cannot but acknowledge in a most particular man- 
 ner; the acts for the cheerful and honourable sup- 
 port, and for the security of his majesty's govern- 
 ment in this province. 
 
 " I cannot but say, that I look upon the latter as 
 the noblest present of the two ; as I think honour 
 always more than riches. The world will now see 
 the true cause of our misunderstandings in the last 
 assembly, and that we met in the innocency and 
 simplicity of our hearts ; that the enemy had sown 
 such seeds of dissension among us, that defeated all 
 our good purposes, and made us part with a wrong 
 notion of one another. 
 
 " It has pleased God now to discover the truth, 
 and no man in his sober senses can doubt that the 
 hand of Joab was then busy, as it is now certain 
 that it has at this time. 
 
 " It is a peculiar honour to me to be thus justified 
 in all my conduct by the public act of the whole 
 legislature ; and God knows my heart, that I am 
 not fond of power, that I abhor all thoughts of re- 
 venge, and that I study to keep a conscience void 
 of offence towards God and towards man. 
 
 " After the publication of the acts, I desire you 
 to return to your house, and after having entered 
 this speech in your minutes, to adjourn yourselves 
 to the 1st day of October next; that though it is 
 not probable we should meet so soon, it may not be 
 out of our power if occasion should be. 
 
 " May ft, 1722. " W. BURNET." 
 
 Governor Burnet, after this, continued to preside 
 over New York and New Jersey till 1727 ; when 
 he was removed to Boston, and succeeded by John 
 Montgomerie, Esq. 
 
 In 1727 the following act was passed, which 
 though but short, was ultimately found to be of great 
 importance. 
 
 " An act for the limitation of actions, and for avoid- 
 ing suits in law. 
 
 " For quieting men's estates and avoiding of suits : 
 Be it enacted by the governor, council, and general 
 assembly of this province, and it is hereby enacted 
 by the authority of the same, That all the statutes 
 now in force, in that part of Great Britain, called 
 England, concerning the limitation of actions, real 
 and personal, shall, and are hereby declared to be 
 in force in this province from the publication here- 
 of, as fully and effectually as if every of them were 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 herein at length repeated and enacted ; any law, 
 usage, or custom to the contrary in any wise not- 
 withstanding." 
 
 The following extracts from the proceedings of 
 the house of assembly of the colony of New Jersey, 
 show the first steps towards getting a separate go- 
 vernor appointed. 
 
 " Die Jovis, 9th of January, 1728. A motion 
 being made, whether the having a distinct governor 
 for New Jersey be, in the opinion of the house, for 
 the advantage of the province, or not ? A debate 
 arising thereon, and the question being put, the 
 previous vote was demanded, whether that question 
 be now put or not ? It was carried in the affirma- 
 tive: and then the question was put, whether the 
 having a distinct governor for New Jersey be, in 
 the opinion of the house, for the advantage of the 
 province, or not ? It was carried in the affirmative. 
 Then the house adjourned till three o'clock, P. M. 
 
 " Three o'clock, P. M., the house met according 
 to adjournment. Resolved, nemine contradicente, 
 that the house will enter into consideration, what 
 may be the most effectual method for obtaining a 
 distinct governor for this province hereafter ; and 
 it is ordered, that Mr. Kinsey, Mr. Stacy, Mr. 
 Lambert, Mr. Eaton, Mr. Sonmans, and Mr. Bon- 
 nell, wait on his excellency and council, with this 
 and the last resolve, and desire their concurrence 
 therein, and a conference touching the manner 
 most likely to effect it ; and withal, to signify to 
 the governor and that board, that it is in nowise the 
 intention of this house to give him the least un- 
 easiness (were it in their power) during the time 
 he may continue in commission ; but only to take 
 such measures as may best conduce to the end 
 aforesaid, when his commission may determine by 
 the king's pleasure or otherwise ; and this they con- 
 ceive a duty incumbent upon them. Then the house 
 adjourned till to-morrow, nine o'clock, A. M. 
 
 " To the king's most excellent majesty. 
 " The humble petition of the representatives of the 
 province of New Jersey, in America, in general 
 assembly convened. 
 
 " Most gracious sovereign, 
 
 " We, your majesty's most loyal and dutiful sub- 
 jects, the representatives of your province of New 
 Jersey, in general assembly convened, by the early 
 care your majesty has been pleased to show for the 
 general benefit of all your people, are animated to 
 believe, that nothing which may contribute to the 
 advantage and prosperity of this, (though small and 
 distant) part of your dominions, will be denied us ; 
 we therefore beg leave thus to approach your royal 
 presence, in discharge of that duty we owe to your 
 majesty and to our country, in the most humble 
 manner here to represent: 
 
 44 That the inhabitants of this colony (formerly 
 a proprietary government), since the surrender 
 thereof to the crown, have always been under the 
 same governor with your majesty's province of New 
 York; that we humbly apprehend it would much 
 more conduce to the benefit of this province, and 
 no prejudice to that of New York, were their go- 
 vernors, as are the governments, distinct. 
 
 " It is a peculiar happiness many of our fellow 
 subjects enjoy, to be near your royal person, and to 
 partake of the immediate influence of so good a go- 
 vernment; but since our distance deprives us of 
 that great benefit, it might (we humbly conceive) 
 in some degree be recompensed, by having a per- 
 son clothed with your majesty's authority constantly 
 residing amongst us. This we cannot expect while 
 
 under the same governor with New York ; that go 
 vernment necessarily taking up so much of our 
 governor's time, that but a small part of it can fall 
 to our share ; and his residence being chiefly there, 
 renders applications to him from hence, on ordi- 
 nary occasions, difficult, and in extraordinary cases 
 (however willing) he may be unable to relieve un- 
 til the affairs of that province will permit his coming 
 into New Jersey. 
 
 "Under the like difficulties, (and for the like 
 reason) we have laboured in respect to our princi- 
 pal officers, who have formerly been inhabitants of 
 that colony ; which not only renders them less use- 
 ful in their several stations, but by spending their 
 salaries there, drained us of money, which would 
 otherwise have circulated amongst us. 
 
 " Our having the same governor with the colony 
 of New York at first, was (as we humbly conceive) 
 because this province was then in its infancy, the 
 inhabitants few, and it might justly have been 
 thought too heavy a burthen to maintain a governor 
 of our own ; but since we are now much more nu- 
 merous, and are as able and willing to support 
 one, as divers of our neighbouring colonies, who en 
 joy that benefit; we are humbly of opinion, the 
 granting this colony such a governor, might tend to 
 increase our wealth, and put us in a condition to 
 emulate our neighbours in trade and navigation. 
 
 " We entreat your majesty to believe, that no- 
 thing we here say proceeds from any dissatisfaction 
 to our present governor ; on the contrary, we are 
 well pleased with his government, and desire it may 
 continue during your royal pleasure; but all we 
 humbly ask, is, that when your majesty shall think 
 fit to put a period to his government, you will then 
 graciously condescend to bestow a distinct governor 
 on this your colony of New Jersey. 
 
 " That your majesty may long live to enjoy the 
 crown you wear with ease and delight, exceeding 
 in honour your illustrious ancestors ; that when you 
 part with an earthly diadem, it may be to receive a 
 crown more permanent and glorious, and that Great 
 Britain, and these your dominions, may be always 
 happy in a sovereign, whose virtues are so con- 
 spicuous (as in duty we are bound), shall be the 
 prayers of, may it please your majesty, 
 
 " Your majesty's most dutiful and'most loyal 
 
 subjects. 
 " By order of the house, 
 
 " JOHN KINSEY, jun., Speaker." 
 " Divers of the members of this assembly being 
 of the people called quakers, concur to the matter 
 and substance of this address, but make some ex- 
 ception to the stile." 
 
 This petition proceeding in the usual routine to 
 the lords of trade, they made, after a considerable 
 delay, the following report upon it. 
 " To the right honourable the lords of the com- 
 mittee of his majesty's most honourable privy 
 council. 
 
 " My Lords, We have considered the humble 
 petitions of the president and council, the speaker, 
 and several members of the assembly, of his ma- 
 jesty's province of New Jersey; of the grand jury 
 of the said province, and Mr. Richard Partridge, 
 agent for New Jersey ; together with two other 
 papers annexed to the last-mentioned* petition ; all 
 of them referred to us by your lordships on the 24th 
 day of May last ; humbly praying, for the reasons 
 contained, that when his majesty shall nominate a 
 governor for the province of New York, the province 
 of New Jersey may not be included in his commis 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 635 
 
 ion, but that his majesty would be graciously 
 pleased to appoint a separate governor for the said 
 province of New Jersey. 
 
 " We have considered the reasons given by the 
 petitioners for this separation, and upon the best 
 information we have been able to procure, we take 
 leave to acquaint your lordships, that the allega- 
 tions of the several petitions appear to be of great 
 consequence ; and we cannot doubt but that a sepa- 
 rate governor, whom the province is willing to sup- 
 port, would be a means to give a quicker dispatch 
 to their public affairs, to increase their trade and 
 number of people, and very much advance the in- 
 terest of the province. 
 
 "Wherefore we are humbly of opinion, that his 
 majesty may be graciously pleased to comply with 
 the prayer oi' these petitions. 
 
 " We are, my lords, your lordship's most obedient 
 and most humble servants, " T. PELHAM, 
 ' Whitehall, " ORL. BKIDGMAN, 
 
 Aug. 5, 1736." " JA. BRUDEXELL." 
 
 lu 1731 Governor Montgomerie had died ; to him 
 
 had succeeded William Cosby, Esq., who continued 
 until his death in 1731 ; and then the government 
 had devolved on the president of the council, John 
 Anderson, Esq., who also died two weeks after his 
 assumption of the government. He was succeeded 
 by John Hamilton, Esq., who governed two years ; 
 until, after much delay, the wishes of the province 
 were gratified by the granting a separate commis- 
 sion to Lewis Morris, Esq., who in 1738 was ap- 
 pointed governor of New Jersey only, and a sepa- 
 rate governor was allowed to New York. This was 
 the last public transaction of any great impoitance, 
 until the revolutionary war. The seclusion from 
 the Indian frontier, and the thriving nature of the 
 colony, caused public affairs to proceed very calmly; 
 and this province, therefore, furnishes no further ma- 
 terials for history, until it took its share in the great 
 contest for national independence. At the time we 
 leave it, it possessed a population of about 40,000 
 souls; and a general desire for mental improve- 
 ment had manifested itself in the foundation of a 
 college, called Nassau Hall, at Princeton. 
 
 CONNECTICUT. 
 
 Tfie patent of Connecticut The discovery of Connecti- 
 cut river Description of other rivers Plymouth 
 and Dutch houses Prospects of trade upon the 
 river. 
 
 The great Plymouth company (of which a suffici- 
 ent account has already been given) wished to make 
 grants of their lands as fast as they could find pur- 
 chasers ; and the persecution of the non-conformists 
 was so severe in England, that men of fortune, as 
 well as others, were anxious to provide, for them- 
 selves and their friends, a retreat in America. 
 
 On the 19th of March, 1631, Robert earl of 
 Warwick, president of the council of Plymouth, 
 under his hand and seal, granted and confirmed to 
 the Honourable William Viscount Say and Seal, 
 Robert Lord Brook, Robert Lord Rich, Charles 
 Fiennes, Esq. Sir Nathaniel Rich, Sir Richard 
 Saltonstall, and others, to the number of eleven, 
 and to their heirs, assigns, and associates, for ever, 
 " All that part of New England, in America, which 
 lies and extends itself from a river there, called 
 Narraganset river, the space of forty leagues upon 
 a straight line near the sea-shore, towards the south- 
 west, west and by south, or west as the coast 
 lieth towards Virginia, accounting three English 
 miles to the league, and all and singular the lands 
 and hereditaments whatsoever, lying and being 
 within the bounds aforesaid, north and south in 
 latitude and breadth, and in length and longitude 
 of, and within all the breadth aforesaid, throughoul 
 all the main lands there, from the Western ocean 
 to the south seas; and all lands, grounds, soil, 
 wood and wood-lands, ground, havens, ports, creeks 
 and rivers, waters, fishings and hereditaments what- 
 soever, lying within the said space, and every parl 
 and parcel tnereof ; and also, all islands lying in 
 America aforesaid, in the said seas, or either o: 
 them, on the western or eastern coasts, or jiarts of 
 
 the said tracts of land, by these presents to be given 
 or granted." The council of Plymouth, the pre- 
 ceding year, 1630, granted this whole tract to the 
 Earl of Warwick, and it had been confirmed to him 
 by a patent from King Charles I. 
 
 This is the original patent of Connecticut. The 
 settlers of the two colonies of Connecticut and New 
 Haven were the patentees of Viscount Say and 
 Seal, Lord Brook, and their associates, to whom 
 the patent was originally given. 
 
 President Clap describes the extent of the tract, 
 conveyed by this patent, in the words following : 
 " All that part of New England which lies west 
 from Narraganset river, a hundred and twenty miles 
 on the sea-coast ; and from thence, in latitude and 
 breadth aforesaid, to the South sea. This grant 
 extends from Point Judith to New York ; and from 
 thence, in a west line to the south sea : and if we 
 take Narraganset river in its whole length, this 
 tract will extend as far north as Worcester : it com- 
 prehends the whole of the colony of Connecticut, 
 and much more." Neal, Douglass, Hutchinson, 
 and all ancient historians and writers, have repre- 
 sented all the New England grants as extending 
 west from the Atlantic ocean to the south sea. In- 
 deed the words of the patent are most express, de- 
 claring its extent to be south-west or west, to- 
 wards Virginia, to be in length and longitude 
 throughout all the main lands to the South sea. 
 
 And from this construction of the patents, con- 
 gress have taken a formal surrender of the unap- 
 propriated western lands from particular states, 
 and from Connecticut no less than from others. 
 
 The first discovery of Connecticut was of its 
 principal river and the fine meadows lying upon its 
 bank. Whether the Dutch at New Netherlands, or 
 the people of New Plymouth, were the first disco 
 verers of the river, is not certain. Both the English 
 
636 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 and Dutch claimed to be the first discoverers, and 
 both purchased and made a settlement of the lands 
 upon it nearly at the same time. 
 
 In 1631, Wahquimacut, a sachem upon the river 
 Connecticut, made a journey to Plymouth and 
 Boston, earnestly soliciting the governors of each 
 of the colonies to send men to make settlements 
 upon the river. He represented the exceeding 
 fruitfulness of the country, and promised that he 
 would supply the English, if they would make a 
 settlement there, with corn annually, and give them 
 eighty beaver skins. He urged that two men might 
 be sent to view the country. Had this invitation 
 been accepted, it might have prevented the Dutch 
 claim to any part of the lands upon the river, and 
 opened an extensive trade, in hemp, furs, and 
 deer skins, with all the Indians upon it, aud far 
 into Canada. 
 
 The governor of Massachusetts treated the sachem 
 and his company with generosity, but paid no fur- 
 ther attention to his proposal. Mr. Winslow, the 
 governor of Plymouth, judged it worthy of more at- 
 tention. It seems, that soon after he went to Con- 
 necticut, and discovered the river and the adjacent 
 parts. The commissioners of the united colonies, 
 in their declaration against the Dutch, in 1653, 
 say, " Mr. Winslow, one of the commissioners for 
 Plymouth, discovered the fresh river when the 
 Dutch had neither trading-house nor any pretence 
 to a foot of land there." 
 
 It very soon appeared that the earnestness with 
 which the Indian sachem solicited the English to 
 make settlements on the river, originated in the 
 distressed state of the river Indians. Pekoah, at 
 that time the great sachem of the Pequims, or Pe- 
 quots', was conquering them, and driving their 
 sachems from that part of the country. The In- 
 dian king imagined that, if he could persuade the 
 English to make settlements there, they would de 
 fend him from his too powerful enemies. * 
 
 (1632.) The next year, the people of New Ply- 
 mouth made more particular discoveries upon thi 
 river, and found a place near the mouth of the little 
 river, in Windsor, at which they judged a trading 
 house might be erected, which would be advanta 
 geous to the colony. 
 
 The Indians represented that the river Connecti 
 cut extended so far north, and so near the grea 
 lake, that they passed their canoes from the lak 
 into it ; and that from the great swamps about th 
 lake came most of the beaver in which they traded 
 One of the branches of Onion river, in Vermont 
 is within ten miles of Connecticut river. This wa 
 anciently called the French river. The French am 
 Indians from Canada came by this river, and from 
 this into Connecticut, when they made their attack 
 on the northern frontiers of New England an 
 Connecticut. 
 
 Connecticut river has its source in that gran 
 ridge of mountains which divides the waters of New 
 England and Canada, and extends north-easterl 
 to the gulf of St. Lawrence. The source of it 
 highest branch is in about 45 degrees and a half, o 
 46 degrees of north latitude. Where it enters Ne 1 
 England, in 45 degrees of north latitude, it is te 
 rods in breadth, and in running sixty miles furthe; 
 it becomes twenty-four rods wide. It forms th 
 boundary line between New Hampshire and Vermon 
 about two hundred miles. Thence running throug 
 the states of Massachusetts and Connecticut, it di 
 embogues its waters into Long Island sound, b< 
 tweeu Saybrook and Lyme. It runs with a gent! 
 
 ow, as its course is between three and four hun- 
 red miles. Its breadth through Connecticut, as a 
 .edium, is between a hundred rods and half a mile, 
 n the high spring floods it overflows its banks, 
 nd in some places is nearly two miles in breadth. 
 s its banks are generally low, it forms and ferti- 
 ses a vast tract of the finest meadow; in which a 
 one is scarcely to be found. The general course 
 f this beautiful river, above, and between the 
 tates of New Hampshire and Vermont, is nearly 
 outh-west. At a small distance from its mouth is 
 bar of sand, apparently formed by the conflux of 
 ic river and tide. Upon this there are but ten feet 
 f water at full tide. The bar is at such a distance 
 rom the mouth of the river, that the greatest floods 
 o not increase the depth of the water. This is 
 ome obstruction to navigation, but any vessel, 
 hich can pass the bar, may proceed without ob- 
 truction as far as Middletown, thirty miles from 
 he sound ; and vessels of eighty, and a hundred 
 ons, go up to Hartford, fifty miles from the river's 
 uouth. By means of locks and cuts, at the falls, 
 t is now navigable for boats, more than three 
 undred miles. 
 
 In Connecticut there is one exception to the 
 owness of the river's banks. About three miles 
 elow Middletown the river makes its way through 
 wo mountains, by which its breadth is contracted 
 o about forty rods. This occasions the waters, 
 ometimes, in the spring floods, to lise, even at 
 iartford, twenty feet above the common surface 
 >f the river. This, for the length of its course, its 
 gentle flow, its excellent waters, the rich and ex- 
 .ensive meadows which it forms, and the immense 
 quantities of fish, with which it abounds, is one of 
 ;he finest rivers in New England. 
 
 None of the ancient adventurers, who discovered 
 he great continent of North America, or New Eng- 
 and, made any discovery of this river ; and it does 
 not appear that it was known to any civilized nation, 
 until some years after the settlement of the English 
 and Dutch, at Plymouth and New Netherlands. 
 
 From this fine river, which the Indians called 
 Quonehtacut, or Connecticut, (in English, the long 
 river,) the colony originally took its name ; and 
 it may be accounted one of the principal sources of 
 its wealth. 
 
 The Housatonick and the little or Farmington 
 river, westward of it, and Pequot river, now called 
 the Thames, on the east, are also considerable 
 sources of its prosperity. The Housatonick, now 
 commonly called Stratford river, has two principal 
 branches. One rises in Lanesborough. and the 
 other in Windsor, in the county of Berkshire, in 
 Massachusetts. When ij; enters Connecticut, be- 
 tween Salisbury and Canaan, it is about fifty rods 
 wide, and running through the whole length of the 
 colony, it flows into the sound between Milford 
 and Stratford. It is navigable twelve miles to 
 Derby. Between Milford and Stratford it is about 
 eighty rods wide, and there is about four fathoms of 
 water. Were it not obstructed, by a bar of shells, 
 at the mouth, it would admit large ships. Between 
 Salisbury and Canaan is a cataract where the water 
 of the whole river falls perpendicularly sixty feet. 
 The fall produces a perfectly white sheet of water, 
 and various rainbows. 
 
 The Naugatuck, or Waterbury river, is another 
 considerable branch of the Housatonick. Its source 
 is in Torrington and running through Harwinton, 
 Plymouth and Waterbury, it empties itself into the 
 Housatonick at Derby. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 637 
 
 The little, or Farmington river rises in Becket, 
 in Massachusetts, crosses the boundary line be- 
 weeu the colonies at Hartland, and passing through 
 Berkhempsted and New Hartford, runs south below 
 the centre of Farmington ; then, making a remark- 
 able turn, it runs back nearly a north course twelve 
 or fourteen miles into Simsbury, where it turns 
 easterly, and running into Windsor, discharges 
 its waters into Connecticut river nearly in the 
 centre of the town. This formerly was replenished 
 with all kinds of fish in as great a profusion as Con- 
 necticut. The numerous dams, which more lately 
 have been erected upon it, have very greatly ob- 
 structed their passage. 
 
 Pequot river, or the Thames, empties into the 
 sound at New London. It is navigable fourteen 
 miles to Norwich landing. Here it loses its name, 
 and branches into Shetucket on the east, and Nor- 
 wich, or little river, on the west. About a mile 
 from the mouth of the little river is a romantic 
 cataract. 
 
 The Shetucket, which name it bears as far only 
 as the southern boundary of Windham, is formed 
 fey the Willamantick and Quenibaug rivers. The 
 Willamantick has its source in Massachusetts, 
 enters Connecticut at Stafford, and is the boundary 
 line between Tolland and Wellington, Coventry 
 and Mansfield, and passing by Windham, loses 
 fctsself in the Shetucket. Quenibaug rises in Brim- 
 field, in Massachusetts, and passing through Stur- 
 bridge and Dudley, crosses the line between that 
 state and Connecticut, at Thompson ; and dividing 
 Pomfret from Killingly, Canterbury from Plainfield, 
 and Lisbon from Preston, flows into the Shetucket. 
 
 The colony is watered and fertilized by numerous 
 other rivers, of less extent and utility. 
 
 As the people of Plymouth had explored Con- 
 necticut river, and fixed upon a place convenient 
 for building and commerce, and found the original 
 proprietors of the soil desirous of their making set- 
 tlements among them, they judged it an affair worthy 
 of public and immediate attention. 
 
 In July, 1633, Mr. Winslow and Mr. Bradford 
 therefore made a journey to Boston, to confer with 
 Governor Winthrop and his council, on the subject. 
 Governor Winslow and Mr. Bradford proposed it to 
 them, to join with Plymouth, in a trade to Connec- 
 ticut for hemp and beaver, and to erect a house for 
 the purposes of commerce. It was represented as 
 necessary, to prevent the Dutch from taking pos- 
 session of that fine country, who, it was reported, 
 were about to build upon the river ; but Governor 
 Winthrop -declined the motion : objecting that it 
 was not jumper to make a plantation there, because 
 there were three or four thousand warlike Indians 
 upon the river ; and because the bar at the mouth 
 of it was stich, that small pinnaces only could pnter 
 it at high water; and because that, seven months 
 in the year, no vessels could go into it, by reason of 
 the ice. and the violence of the stream. 
 
 The Plymouth people therefore determined to 
 undertake the .enterprise at their own risk. Pre- 
 parations were made for erecting a trading-house, 
 and establishing a small company upon the river. 
 In the mean time, the master of a vessel from Mas- 
 sachusetts, who was trading at New Netherlands, 
 showed to Walter Van Twiller, the Dutch governor, 
 the commission which the English had to trade and 
 sHttle in New England; and that, his majesty the 
 king of England had granted all these parts to his 
 own subjects. He therefore desired that the Dutch 
 would not build at Connecticut. This appears to 
 
 have been done at the direction of Governor Win- 
 throp ; for, in consequence of it, the Dutch governor 
 wrote a very complaisant letter to him, in which he 
 represented, that the lords, the States-general, had 
 granted the same country to the West India com- 
 pany. He requested, therefore, that the English 
 would make no settlements at Connecticut, until 
 the affair should be determined between the court 
 of England and the States-general: This appears 
 to have been a piece of policy in the Dutch go- 
 vernor to keep the English still, until the Dutch had 
 got a firm footing upon the river. 
 
 Several vessels, this year, went into Connecticut 
 river to trade. John Oldham, from Dorchester, and 
 three men with him, also travelled through the 
 wilderness to Connecticut, to view the country and 
 trade with the Indians. The sachem upon the river 
 made him most welcome, and gave him a present 
 in beaver. He found that the Indian hemp grew 
 spontaneously in the meadows, in great abundance : 
 and he purchased a quantity of it; \\hich upon trial, 
 appeared much to exceed the hemp which grew in 
 England. 
 
 William Holmes, of Plymouth, with his company, 
 having prepared the frame of a house, with boards 
 and materials for covering it immediately, put them 
 on board a vessel, and sailed for Connecticut. 
 Holmes had a commission from the governor of 
 Plymouth, and a chosen company, to accomplish his 
 design. When he came into the river, he found 
 that the Dutch had got in before him, made a light 
 fort, and planted two pieces of cannon ; this was 
 erected at the place since called Hartford. The Dutch 
 forbid Holmes' going up the river, stood by their 
 cannon, ordered him to strike his colours, or they 
 would fire upon him : but he was a man of spirit, 
 assured them that he had a commission from the go- 
 vernor of Plymouth to go up the river, and that he 
 must obey his orders : they poured out their threats, 
 but he proceeded, and landing on the west side of 
 the river, erected his house (October 1633) a little 
 below the mouth of the little river, in Windsor. The 
 house was covered with the utmost dispatch, and 
 fortified with palisadoes. The sachems, who were 
 the original owners of the soil, had been driven 
 from this part of the country, by the Pequots ; and 
 were now "carried home on board Holmes' vessel. 
 Of them the Plymouth people purchased the land, 
 on which they erected their house. This, Governor 
 Wolcott says, was the first house erected in Con- 
 necticut. The Dutch, about the same time, erected 
 a trading- house at Hartford. 
 
 It was with great difficulty that Holmes and his 
 company erected and fortified their house, and kept 
 it afterwards. The Pequot Indians were offended 
 at their bringing home the original proprietors, and 
 the Dutch that they had settled there, and were 
 about to rival them in trade, and in the possession 
 of those excellent lands upon the river: they were 
 obliged therefore to combat both, and to keep a con- 
 stant watch upon them. 
 
 The Dutch, before the Plymouth people took pos- 
 session of the river, had invited them, in an ami- 
 cable manner, to trade at Connecticut ; but when 
 they were apprised that they were making prepara- 
 tions for a settlement there, they repented of the 
 invitation, and spared no exertions to prevent them. 
 
 On the 8th of June, 1634, the Dutch had sent 
 Jacob Van Curter, to purchase lands upon the Con- 
 necticut. He made a purchase of about twenty 
 acres at Hartford, of Nepuquash, a Pequot leader. 
 Of this the Dutch took possession in October, and 
 
638 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 on the 25th of the month, Curler protested against 
 William Holmes, the builder of the Plymouth house. 
 Some time afterwards, the Dutch governor, Walter 
 Van Twiller, of fort Amsterdam, dispatched a rein- 
 forcement to Connecticut, designing to drive Holmes 
 and his company from the river. A band of seventy 
 men, under arms, with banners displayed, assaulted 
 the Plymouth house, but they found it so well forti- 
 fied, and the men who kept it so vigilant and de- 
 termined, that it could not be taken without blood- 
 shed : they therefore came to a parley, and finally 
 returned in poace. 
 
 The people of New Plymouth had carried on a 
 trade upon Connecticut river for nearly two years 
 before they erected a trading-house. They found 
 the country to be excellent, and the trade profitable ; 
 but that, were there a house and company to re- 
 ceive the commodities which were brought down 
 from the inland country, the profits would be much 
 greater. The country abounded with beaver. The 
 Dutch purchased not less than ten thousand skins 
 annually. Plymouth and Massachusetts people 
 sometimes sent, in a single ship, for England, a 
 thousand pounds sterling worth of otter and beaver 
 skins. The extent of Connecticut river, the numer- 
 ous Indians upon it, and the easy communication 
 which they had with the lakes, and natives of 
 Canada, gave an extensive opening for a trade in 
 furs, skins, corn, hemp, and all kinds of commodities 
 which the country afforded. 
 
 This was a year of great sickness at Plymouth. 
 They lost twenty of their people. Some of them 
 were their principal and most useful inhabitants. 
 
 The state of the country of Connecticut when th? set- 
 tlement of the colony commenced Its trees and 
 fruits Its animals Number, situation, genius, 
 manners, arms, utensils, and wars of the Indians. 
 
 When the English became first acquainted with 
 that tract comprised within the settled part of Con- 
 necticut, it was a vast wilderness. Except in places 
 where the timber had been destroyed, and its growth 
 prevented by frequent fires, the groves were thick 
 and lofty. The Indians so often burned the country, 
 to take deer and other wild game, that in many of 
 the plain, dry parts of it, there was but little small 
 timber. Where lands were thus burned there grew 
 bent grass, or as some called it, thatch, two, three, 
 and four feet high, according to the strength of the 
 land. This, with other combustible matter, which 
 the fields and groves produced, when dry, in the 
 Spring and fall, burned with violence and killed all 
 the small trees. The large ones escaped, and gene- 
 rally grew to a notable height and magnitude. In 
 this' manner the natives so thinned the groves, that 
 they were able to plant their corn and obtain a crop. 
 
 The constant fall of foliage, with the numerous 
 kinds of weeds and wild grass, which annually died 
 and putrified on the lands, yielded a constant ma- 
 nure, and exceedingly enriched them. Vegetation 
 was rapid, and all the natural productions of the 
 (country luxuriant. 
 
 It abounded with the finest oaks of all kinds, with 
 chestnut, walnut, and wild cherry trees, with all kinds 
 of maple, beech, birch, ash, and elm. The butter- 
 nut tree, buttonwood, basswood, poplar, and sassa- 
 fras trees, were to be found generally upon all tracts 
 in Connecticut. White, yellow, and pitch pine 
 white and red cedar, hemlock and spruce, grew 
 plenteou.sly in many places. In the north am 
 north-western part of the colony were excellent grove 
 of pine, with spruce and fir trees. The white woo( 
 
 ree also, notable for its height and magnitude 
 making excellent boards and clapboards, was the 
 natural growth of the country. In some towns white 
 wood trees have grown in great abundance. All 
 >ther kinds of small trees, of less utility, common 
 ,o New England, flourished in Connecticut. 
 
 The country abounded with a great variety of 
 wild fruit. In the groves were walnuts, chestnuts, 
 mtternuts, hazlenuts and acorns in great abund- 
 ance. Wild cherries, currants and plums, were 
 natural productions. In the low lands, on the 
 >anks of the rivers, by the brooks and gutters, there 
 was a variety and plenty of grapes. The country 
 also abounded with an almost endless variety of es- 
 culent and medicinal berries, herbs and roots. Among 
 he principal and most delicious of these were straw- 
 berries, blackberries of various kinds, raspberries, 
 dewberries, whortleberries, bilberries, blueberries 
 and mulberries. Cranberries also grew plenteously 
 n the meadows, which when well prepared furnish 
 a rich and excellent sauce. Juniperberries, bar- 
 )enies and bayberries, which are of the medicinal 
 cind, grow spontaneously in Connecticut. The 
 alter is an excellent and useful berry, producing 
 a most valuable tallow. It is of a beautiful green, 
 and has a fine perfume. Beside these, there was a 
 profusion of various other kinds of berries of less 
 consideralion. Some even of these, however, are 
 very useful in various kinds of dyes and in certain 
 medicinal applications. 
 
 The earth spontaneously produced ground nuts, 
 artichokes, wild leeks, onions, garlics, turnips, 
 wild pease, plantain, radish, and other esculent 
 roots and herbs. 
 
 Among the principal medicinal vegetables of 
 Connecticut are the blood root, seneca snake root, 
 iquorice root, dragon root, pleurisy root, spikenard, 
 elecampane, Solomon's seal, sarsaparilla, senna, bit- 
 tersweet, ginseng, angelica, masterwort, motherwort, 
 ungwort, consumption root, great and small canker 
 weed, high and low centaury, sweet and blue flag, 
 elder, maidenhair, pennyroyal, celandine, mallow, 
 marsh mallow, slippery elm, adder's tongue and rattle- 
 snake weed. Indeed a great proportion of the roots 
 and plants of the country, with the bark, buds and 
 roots of many of the trees, are used medicinally. 
 There is a great variety of plants and flowers, the 
 names and virtues of which are not known. 
 
 The country was no less productive of animals 
 than of natural fruit. In the groves there were 
 plenty of deer, moose, fat bears, turkeys, herons, 
 partridges, quails, pigeons, and other wild game, 
 which were excellent for food. There were surh 
 incredible numbers of pigeons in New England, 
 when the English became first acquainted with it, 
 as filled them with a kind of astonishment. Such 
 numerous and extensive flocks would be seen flying 
 for some hours, in the morning, thai they would 
 obscure the light. An American historian writes, 
 " It passeth credit, if but the truth were written." 
 
 Connecticut abounded in furs. Here were otters, 
 beaver, the black, grey, and red fox, the racoon, 
 mink, musk-rat, and various other animals, of the 
 fur kind. The wolf, wild cat, and other animals, 
 common in New England, were equally so in Con- 
 necticut. Wolves were numerous in all parts of 
 New England, when the settlements commenced, 
 and did great damage to the planters, killing their 
 sheep, calves, and young cattle. 
 
 The country afforded an almost incredible plenty 
 of water-fowl, namely, wild geese, and ducks of all 
 kinds, wigeons, sheldrapes, bvoadbills, and teal of 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 639 
 
 various sorts, which were both wholesome and pa- 
 latable. 
 
 There was also a great variety, and an abundance 
 of fish. Connecticut river, in particular, was noted 
 for excellent salmon. 
 
 As Connecticut abounded in wild animals, so it 
 did also with wild and savage men. In no part of 
 New England were the Indians so numerous, in 
 proportion to the extent of territory, as in Connec- 
 ticut. The sea-coast, harbours, bays, numerous 
 ponds and streams, with which the country abound- 
 ed, the almost incredible plenty of fish and 
 fowl which it afforded, were exceedingly adapted 
 to their convenience and mode of living. Its fer- 
 tility and the excellence of its waters, naturally col- 
 lected them in great numbers to this tract. Neither 
 wars, nor sickness, had so depopulated this as they 
 had some other parts of New England. 
 
 From the accounts given of the Connecticut In- 
 dians, they cannot be estimated at less than twelve 
 or sixteen thousand. They might possibly amount 
 to twenty. They could muster, at least, tl:ree or 
 four thousand warriors. It was supposed, in 1633, 
 that the River Indians only could bring this number 
 into the field. These were principally included 
 within the ancient limits of Windsor, Hartford, 
 Weatherstieid, and Middletown. Within the town 
 of Windsor only, there were ten distinct tribes, or 
 sovereignties. About the year 1670, their bowmen 
 were reckoned at two thousand. At that time, it 
 was the general opinion, that there were nineteen 
 Indians, in that town, to one Englishman. There 
 was a great body of them in the centre of the town. 
 They had a large fort a little north of the plat on 
 which the first meeting-house was erected. On the 
 east side of the river, on the upper branches of the 
 Podunk, they were very numerous. There were 
 also a great number in Hartford. Besides those on 
 the west side of the liver, there was a distinct tribe 
 in East Hartford. These were principally situated 
 upon the Podunk, from the northern boundary of 
 Hartford, to its mouth, where it flows into the Con- 
 necticut. Totanimo, their first sachem with whom 
 the English had any acquaintance, commanded two 
 hundred bowmen. These were called the Podunk 
 Indians. 
 
 At Mattabesick, now Middletown, was the great 
 sachem Sowheag. His fort, or castle, was ou the 
 high ground, facing the river, and the adjacent 
 country, on both sides of the river, was his sachem- 
 dom. This was extensive, comprehending the 
 ancient boundaries of Weathersfield, then called 
 Pyquaug, as well as Middletown. Sequin was saga- 
 more at Pyquaug, under Sowheag, when the English 
 began their settlements. On the east side of the 
 river, in the tract since called Chatham, was a 
 considerable clan, called the Wongung Indians. 
 At Machemoodus, now called East Haddam, was 
 a numerous tribe, famous for their pawaws, and 
 worshipping of evil spirits. South of these in the 
 easternmost part of Lyme, were the western Ne- 
 hanticks. These were confederate with the Pequots. 
 South and east of them, from Connecticut river to 
 the eastern boundary line of the colony, and north- 
 east or north, to its northern boundary line, lay the 
 Pequot and Moheagan country. This tract was 
 nearly thirty miles square, including the counties 
 of New London, Windham, and the principal part 
 of the county of Tolland. 
 
 Historians have treated of the Pequots and Mo- 
 heagans as two distinct tribes, and have described 
 the Pequot country as lying principally within the 
 
 three towns of New London, Groton, and Stoning- 
 ton. All the tract above this, as far north and 
 east as has been described, they have represented 
 as the Moheagan country. Most of the towns in 
 this tract, if not all of them, hold their lands by 
 virtue of deeds from Uncas, or his successors, the 
 Moheagan sachems. It is, however, much to be 
 doubted whether the Moheagans were a distinct 
 nation from the Pequots. They appear to have 
 been a part of the same nation, named from the 
 place of their situation. Uncas was evidently of 
 the royal line of the Pequots, both by his father and 
 mother; and his wife was daughter of Tatobam, one 
 of the Pequot sachems. He appears to have been 
 a leader, or petty sachem, under Sassacus, the 
 great prince of the nation. When the English first 
 came to Connecticut, he was in a state of rebellion 
 against him, in consequence of some misunderstand- 
 ing between them ; and of little power or conse- 
 quence among the Indians. 
 
 The Pequots were by far the most warlike na- 
 tion in Connecticut, or even in New England. The 
 tradition is, that they were originally an inland 
 tribe ; but, by their prowess, came down and settled 
 themselves in that fine country along the sea-coast, 
 from Nehantick to Narraganset bay. When the 
 English began their settlements at Connecticut, 
 Sassacus had twenty-six sachems, or principal war- 
 captains, under him. The next to himself, in dig- 
 nity, was Mononottoh. The chief seat of these In- 
 dians was at New London and Groton. New 
 London was their principal harbour, and called 
 Pequot harbour. They had another small harbour 
 at the mouth of Mystic river. Their principal fort 
 was on a commanding and most beautiful eminence, 
 in the town of Groton, a few miles south-easterly 
 from fort Griswold. It commanded one of the finest 
 prospects of the sound and the adjacent country 
 which is to be found upon the coast. This was the 
 royal fortress, where the chief sachem had his re- 
 sidence. He had another fort near Mystic river, a 
 few miles to the eastward of this, called Mystic fort. 
 This was also erected upon a beautiful hill, or emi- 
 nence, gradually descending towards the south and 
 south-east. The Pequots, Moheagans, and Nehan- 
 ticks, could, doubtless, muster a thousand bowmen. 
 The Pequots only were estimated at seven hundred 
 warriors. Upon the lowest computation we there- 
 fore find at least three thousand warriors on tha 
 river Connecticut, and in the eastern part of the 
 colony. If we reckon every third person a bowman, 
 as some have imagined, then the whole number of 
 Indians, in the town and tract mentioned, would 
 be nine thousand ; but if there were but one to four 
 or five, as is most probable, then there were twelve 
 or fifteen thousand. 
 
 West of Connecticut river and the towns upon it, 
 there were not only scattered families in almost 
 every part, but, in several places, great bodies of 
 Indians. At Simsbury and New Hartford they were 
 numerous; and upon those fine meadows, formed 
 by the meanders of the little river at Tunxis, now 
 Farmington, and the lands adjacent, was another 
 very large clan. There was a small tribe at Guil 
 ford, under the sachem squaw, or queen, of Menun 
 katuck. At Branford and East Haven there was 
 another. They had a famous burying-ground at 
 East Haven, which they visited and kept up with 
 mu^h ceremony for many years after the settlement 
 of New Haven. At Milford, Derby, Stratford, Nor- 
 walk, Stamford, and Greenwich, their numbers were 
 formidable. At Milford, the Indian name of which 
 
340 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA 
 
 was Wopowage, there were great numbers; not 
 only in the centre of the town, but south of it, at 
 Milford point. On the west part of the town was 
 another party. They had a strong fortress, with 
 flankers at the four corners, about half a mile north 
 of Stratford ferry. This was built as a defence 
 against the Mohawks. At Turkey hill, in the north- 
 west part of Milford, there was another large set- 
 tlement. 
 
 In Derby there were two large clans. And there 
 was one at Paugusset. This last clan erected a 
 strong fort against the Mohawks, situated on the 
 bank of the river, nearly a mile above Derby ferry. 
 
 At the falls of Naugatuck river, four or five miles 
 above, was another tribe. At Stratford, the Indi- 
 ans were equally, if not more numerous. In that 
 part of the town only which is comprised within 
 the limits of Huntington, their warriors, after the 
 English had knowledge of them, were estimated at 
 three hundred ; and, before this time, they had been 
 much wasted by the Mohawks. 
 
 The Indians at Stamford and Greenwich, and in 
 that vicinity, probably were not inferior in num- 
 bers to those at Stratford. There were two or three 
 tribes of Indians in Stamford when the English 
 began the settlement of the town. In Norwalk 
 were two petty sachemdoms; so that within these 
 towns there was a large and dangerous body of savages. 
 These, with the natives between them and Hudson's 
 river, gave extreme trouble to the Dutch. The 
 Norwalk and Stamford Indians gave great alarm, 
 and occasioned much expense to the English, after 
 they made settlements in that part of the colony. 
 In the town of Woodbury there were also great 
 numbers of Indians. The most numerous body of 
 them was in that part of the town, since named 
 South Britain. 
 
 It would doubtless be a moderate computation to 
 reckon all these different clans at a thousand war- 
 riors, or four or five thousand people. There must, 
 therefore, have been sixteen, and it may be, twenty 
 thousand Indians in Connecticut when the settle- 
 ment of it commenced. 
 
 East of Connecticut were the Narraganset In- 
 dians : these were a numerous and powerful body. 
 When the English settled Plymouth, their fighting 
 men were reckoned at three or four thousand. Fifty 
 years after this time, they were estimated at two 
 thousand. The Pequots and Narragansets maintained 
 perpetual war, and kept up an implacable animosity 
 between them. The Narragansets were the only 
 Indians in the vicinity of the Pequots which they 
 had not conquered. To these their very name was 
 dreadful. They said Sassacus was "all one God; 
 no man could kill him." 
 
 On the north-easterly and northern part of the 
 colony were the Nipmuck Indians. Their principal 
 seat was about the great ponds in Oxford, in Mas- 
 sachusetts, but their territory extended southward 
 into Connecticut more than twenty miles. This 
 was called the Wabbequasset and Whetstone coun- 
 try ; and sometimes, the Moheagau conquered 
 country, as Uncas had conquered and added it to 
 his sachemdom. 
 
 The Connecticut, and indeed all the New Eng- 
 land Indians, were large, straight, well-proportioned 
 men. Their bodies were firm and active, capable 
 of enduring the greatest fatigues and hardships. 
 Their passive courage was almost incredible. When 
 tortured in the most cruel manner, though flayed 
 alive, though burnt with fire, cut or torn limb from 
 *imb, they would not groan, or show any signs of 
 
 distress ; and in some instances they would glory 
 over their tormentors, saying that their hearts would 
 never be soft until they were cold, and representing 
 their torments as sweet as Englishmen's sugar. 
 When travelling in summer, or winter, they re- 
 garded neither heat nor cold. They were exceed- 
 ingly light of foot, and would travel or run a very 
 great distance in a day. Mr. Williams says, "I 
 have known them run between eighty and a hundred 
 miles in a summer's day, and back again within two 
 days." As they were accustomed to the wood, 
 they ran in them nearly as well as on plain ground. 
 They were exceedingly quick-sighted, to discover 
 their enemy, or their game, and equally artful to 
 conceal themselves. Their features were tolerably 
 regular. Their faces were generally full as broad 
 as those of the English, but flatter ; they have a 
 small, dark-coloured good eye, coarse black hair, 
 and a fine white set of teeth. The Indian children, 
 when born, are nearly as white as the English child- 
 ren; but as they grow up, their skin grows darker, 
 and becomes nearly of a copper colour. The shapes 
 both of the men and women, especially the latter, 
 are excellent. A crooked Indian is rarely if ever 
 to be seen. 
 
 The Indians in general were quick of apprehen- 
 sion, ingenious, and when pleased, nothing could 
 exceed their courtesy and friendship. Gravity and 
 eloquence distinguished them in council, address 
 and bravery in war. They were not more easily 
 provoked than the English ; but when once they 
 had received an injury, it was never forgotten. In 
 anger they were not, like the English, talkative and 
 boisterous, but sullen and revengeful. Indeed, when 
 they were exasperated, nothing could exceed their 
 revenge and cruelty. When they have fallen into 
 the power of an enemy, they have not been known 
 to beg for life, nor even to accept it when offered 
 them. They have seemed rather to court death. 
 They were exceedingly improvident. If they had a 
 supply for the present, they gave themselves no 
 trouble for the future. The men declined all labour, 
 and spent their time in bunting, fishing, shooting, 
 and warlike exercises. They were excellent marks- 
 men, and rarely missed their game, whether running 
 or flying. 
 
 They imposed all the drudgery upon their women, 
 who gathered and brought home their wood, planted, 
 dressed, and gathered in their corn ; bore home 
 the venison, fish and fowl which the men took in 
 hunting ; and when they travelled, carried the child- 
 ren, packs, and provisions ; they submitted patiently 
 to such treatment, considering it as the hard lot of 
 the women, and repaid the ungenerous usage with 
 smiles and good humour. The Indian men cared 
 little for their children when young, and were sup- 
 posed at certain times to sacrifice them to the devil. 
 
 The Indian women were strong and masculine } 
 and as they were more inured to exercise and hard- 
 ship than the men, were even more firm and capable 
 of fatigue and suffering than they. They endured 
 the pains of child-bearing without a groan. It was 
 not uncommon for them, soon after labour, to take 
 their children upon their backs and travel as they 
 had done before. 
 
 The clothing of the Indians in New England was 
 the skins of wild beasts. The men threw a light 
 mantle of skins over them, and wore a small flap, 
 but were not very punctilious. The women were 
 much more modest; and wore a coat of skins girt 
 about their loins, which reached down to their hams, 
 which they never put off in company. If tho hu* 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 641 
 
 band chose to sell his wife's beaver petticoat, she j squashes were the only eatables for which they la- 
 could not be persuaded to part with it, until he had 
 provided another of some sort. 
 
 In the winter, their blanket of skins, which hung 
 loose in the summer, was tied or wrapped more 
 closely about them. The old men in the severe sea- 
 sons also wore a sort of trowsers made of skins, and 
 fastened to their girdles. They wore shoes without 
 heels, which they called mockasins. These were 
 made generally of moose hide, but sometimes of 
 buck-skin. They were shaped entirely to the foot, 
 gathered at the toes and round the ankles, and mad 
 fast with strings. 
 
 Their ornaments weie pendants in their cars and 
 nose, carved of bone, shells, and stone. These were 
 in the form of birds, beasts, and fishes. They also 
 wore belts of wampompeag upon their arms, over 
 their shoulders and about their loins. They cut 
 their hair into various antic forms and stuck them 
 with feathers. They also, by incisions into which 
 they conveyed a black or blue unchangeable dye, 
 made on their cheeks, arms, and other parts of their 
 bodies, the figures of moose, deer, bears, wolves, 
 hawks, eagles, and all such living creatures as were 
 most agreeable to their fancies. These pictures 
 were indelible, and lasted during life. The sachems, 
 on great days, when they designed to show them- 
 selves in the full splendour of majesty, not only 
 covered themselves with mantles of moose, or deer 
 skins, with various embroideries of white beads, and 
 with paintings of different kinds; but they wore the 
 skin of a bear, wild cat, or some terrible creature, 
 upon their shoulders and arms. They had also 
 necklaces offish-bones, and painting themselves in 
 a frightful manner, made a most ferocious and hor- 
 
 appearance. The warriors who, on public 
 
 rible 
 
 occasions, dressed themselves in the most wild and 
 
 terrific forms, were considered as the best men. 
 
 The Indian houses or wigwams were, at best, but 
 poor smoky cells. They were constructed generally 
 like arbours of small young trees, bent and twisted 
 together, and so curiously covered with mats or 
 bark, that they were tolerably dry and warm. The 
 Indians made their fire in the centi-e of the house, 
 and there was an opening at the top which emitted 
 the smoke. For the convenience of wood and 
 water, these huts were commonly erected in groves, 
 near some river or spring. When the wood failed, 
 the family removed to another place. 
 
 They lived in a miserable manner: their, food 
 was coarse and simple, without any kind of season- 
 ing : they had neither spice, salt, bread, nor butter, 
 cheese, nor milk ; and they drank nothing better 
 than water : they fed on the flesh and entrails of 
 moose, deer, bears, and all kinds of wild beasts and 
 fowls ; on fish, eels, and creeping things. In the 
 hunting and fishing seasons, they had venison, 
 moose, fat bears, racoons, geese, turkeys, ducks, and 
 fish of all kinds. In the summer, they had green 
 corn, beans, squashes, and the various fruits which 
 the country naturally produced. In the winter they 
 subsisted on corn, beans, fish, nuts, groundnuts, 
 acorns, and the very gleanings of the grove. 
 
 They had no set meals, but like other wild crea- 
 tures, ate when they were hungry, and could find 
 any thing to satisfy the cravings of nature. Some 
 times they had little or nothing for several days ; 
 but when they had provisions, they feasted. If they 
 fasted for some time, they were sure at the next 
 meal to make up for all they had lost before. They 
 
 boured. The earth was both their seat and their 
 table. With trenchers, knives, and napkins, they 
 had no acquaintance. 
 
 Their household furniture was of small value. 
 Their best bed was a mat or skin ; they had neither 
 chair nor stool. They ever sat upon the ground, 
 commonly with their elbows upon their knees : this 
 is the manner in which their great warriors and 
 counsellors now sit, even in the most public treaties 
 with the English. A few wooden and stone vessels 
 and instruments serve all the purposes of domestic 
 life. They had no steel nor iron instrument. Their 
 knife was a sharp stone, shell, or kind of reed, which 
 they sharpened in such a manner, as to cut their 
 hair, make their bows and arrows, and serve for 
 all the purposes of a knife. They had axes of stone, 
 somewhat similar in shape to ours ; but with this 
 difference, that they were made with a neck in- 
 stead of an eye, and fastened with a withe, like a 
 blacksmith's chisel. They had mortars and stone 
 pestles, and chisels ; and great numbers of these 
 have been found in the country, and kept by the 
 people as curiosities. They dressed their corn 
 with a clamshell, or with a stick, made flat and 
 sharp at one end. These were all the utensils which 
 they had, either for domestic use, or for hus- 
 bandry. 
 
 Their arts and manufactures were confined to a 
 very narrow compass. Their only weapons were 
 bows and arrows, the tomahawk and the wooden 
 sword or spear. Their bows were of the common 
 construction : their bowstrings were made of the 
 sinews of deer, or of the Indian hemp. Their ar- 
 rows were constructed of young elder-sticks, or of 
 other straight sticks and reeds ; and were headed 
 with a sharp flinty stone, or with bones. The ar- 
 row was cleft at one end, and the stone or bone was 
 put in and fastened with a small cord. The toma- 
 hawk was a stick of two or three feet in length, with 
 a knob at one end : sometimes it was a stone hat- 
 chet, or a stick, with a piece of deer's horn at one 
 end, in the form of a pick-axe. Their spear was a 
 straight piece of wood, sharpened at one end, 
 and hardened in the fire, or headed with bone or 
 stone. 
 
 With respect to navigation, they had made no 
 improvements beyond the construction and ma- 
 nagement of the hollow trough or canoe. They 
 made their canoes of the chestnut, whitewood, and 
 pine trees. As these grew straight to a great length, 
 and were exceedingly large as well as tall, they 
 constructed some, which would carry sixty or eighty 
 men : these were first rates ; but commonly they 
 were not more than twenty feet in length, aud two 
 in breadth. The Pequots had many of these, in 
 which they passed over to the Islands for plunder. 
 
 The construction of these, with such miserable 
 tools as the Indians possessed, was a great curiosity. 
 When they had found a tree to their purpose, to 
 fell it they made a fire at the root, and kept burn- 
 ing it and cutting it with their stone axe, until it 
 fell ; then they kindled a fire at such a distance 
 from the butt as they chose, and burned it off 
 again. By burning and working with their axe, 
 and scraping with sharp stones and shells, they 
 made it hollow and smooth. In the same manner 
 they shaped the ends, and finished it. 
 
 They constructed nets, twenty and thirty feet in 
 length, for fishing ; especially for the purpose of 
 
 had but little food from the earth, except what it catching sturgeon : which were wrought with cords 
 i,pontaueously produced. Indian corn, beans and of Indian hemp, twisted by the hands of the women. 
 HUT. OF AMER. Nos. 81 & 82. 3 O 
 
642 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 They had also hooks made of flexible bones, which 
 they used for fishing. 
 
 With respect to religion and morals, the Indians 
 in New England were in the most deplorable con- 
 dition. They believed, according to the most re- 
 ceived accounts, that there was a great Spirit, or 
 God, whom they called Kitchtan. They imagined 
 that he dwelt far away in the south-west, and that 
 he was a good God. But they worshipped a great 
 variety of other gods. They paid homage to the five 
 and water, thunder and lightning, and to whatever 
 they imagined to be superior to themselves, or ca- 
 pable of doing them an injury. They paid their 
 principal homage to Hobbamocko; who they ima- 
 gined was an evil spirit and did them mischief ; and 
 so, from fear, they worshipped him, to keep him in 
 good humour. They appeared to have no idea of a 
 Sabbath, and not to regard any particular day more 
 than another. But in times of uncommon distress, 
 by reason of pestilence, war, or famine, and upon 
 occasion of great victories and triumph, and after the 
 in-gathering of the fruits, they assembled in great 
 numbers, for the celebration of their superstitious 
 rites. The whole country, men. women and children, 
 came together upon these solemnities. The manner 
 of their devotion was, to kindle large fires in their 
 wigwams, or more commonly in the open fields, 
 and to sing and dance round them in a wild arid 
 violent manner. Sometimes they would all shout 
 aloud, with the moat antic and hideous notes. They 
 made rattles of shells, which they shook, in a wild 
 and violent manner, to fill up the confused noise. 
 After the English settled in Connecticut, and they 
 could purchase kettles of brass, they used to strain 
 skins over them, and beat upon them, to augment 
 their wretched music. They often continued these 
 wild and tumultuous exercises incessantly, for four 
 or five hours, until they were worn down and spent 
 with fatigue. Their priests, or powaws, who led 
 in these exercises, were dressed in the most, odd 
 and surprising manner, with skins of odious and 
 frightful creatures about their heads and bodies : 
 they sometimes sang, and then broke forth into 
 strong invocations, with starts and strange motions 
 and passions: when they paused, the other Indians 
 groaned, making wild and doleful sounds. At these 
 times, they sacrificed their skins, Indian money, 
 and the best of their treasures. These were taken 
 by the powaws, and all cast into the fires and con- 
 sumed together. After the English came into the 
 country, and they had hatchets and kettles, they 
 sacrificed them in the same manner. The English 
 were also persuaded that they sometimes sacrificed 
 their children, as well as their most valuable com- 
 modities. No Indians in Connecticut were more 
 noted for these superstitions than those of Wopo- 
 wage and Machemoodus. Milford people observing 
 an Indian child, nearly at one of these times of 
 their devotion, dressed in an extraordinary manner, 
 with all kinds of Indian finery, had the curiosity to 
 inquire what could be the reason. The Indians 
 answered, that it was to be sacrificed, and the peo- 
 ple supposed that it was given to the devil. The 
 evil spirit, which the New England Indians called 
 Hobbamocko, the Virginia Indians called Okee. So 
 deluded were these unhappy people, that they be- 
 lieved these barbarous sacrifices to be absolutely 
 necessary ; and imagined that unless they appeased 
 and conciliated their gods in this manner, they 
 would neither suffer them to have peace, nor har- 
 vests, fish, venison, fat bears, nor turkeys ; but 
 would visit them with a general destiuction. 
 
 With respect to morals, they were indeed misera- 
 bly depraved. Mr. Williams and Mr. Callender, 
 who, at an early period, were acquainted with the 
 Indians in Rhode Island, Mr. Hooker, and others, 
 have represented them as sunk into the lowest state 
 of moral turpitude, and as the very dregs of human 
 nature. Though the character which they gave 
 them was, in some respects, exaggerated and ab- 
 surd, yet it cannot be denied that they were wor- 
 hippers of evil spirits, liars, thieves, and murder- 
 ers. They certainly were insidious and revengeful, 
 almost without a parallel ; and they wallowed in 
 gross sensualities. Groat pains were taken with the 
 Nanaganset and Connecticut Indians, to civilize 
 them, and tench them Christianity ; but the sachems 
 rejected the Gospel with indignation and contempt. 
 They would not suffer it to be preached to their 
 subjects. Indeed, both made it a public interest 
 to oppose its propagation among them. Their 
 policy, religion, and manners were directly opposed 
 to its pure doctrines and morals. 
 
 The manner of their courtship and marriages 
 manifested their impurity. When a young Indian 
 wished for marriage, he presented the girl with 
 whom he was enamoured, with bracelets, belts, and 
 chains of wampum. If she received his presents, 
 they cohabited together for a time, upon trial, and 
 if they were pleased Avith each other, they were 
 joined in marriage ; but if, after a few weeks, they 
 were not suited, the man, leaving his presents, 
 quitted the girl, and sought another mistress, and 
 she another lover. In this manner they courted, 
 until two met who were agreeable to each other. 
 Before marriage the consent of the sachem was ob- 
 tained, and he always joined the hands of the young 
 pair in wedlock. 
 
 The Indians, although they indulged in other in- 
 tercourse, had one wife, who was the governess of 
 the family, and whom they generally kept during 
 life. In cases of adultery* the husband either put 
 away the guilty wife, or satisfied himself by the in- 
 fliction of some severe punishment. Husbands and 
 wives, parents and children, lived together in the 
 same wigwams, without any different apartment, 
 and made no great privacy of such actions as the 
 chaster animals keep from open view. 
 
 The Indian government, generally, was absolute 
 monarchy. The will of the sachem was his law. 
 The lives and interests of his subjects were at his 
 disposal. But in all important affairs, he consulted 
 his counsellors. When they had given their opin- 
 ions, they deferred the decision of every matter to 
 him. Whatever his determinations were, they ap- 
 plauded his wisdom, and without hesitation obeyed 
 his commands. In council, the deportment of the 
 sachems was grave and majestic to admiration. 
 They appeared to be men of great discernment and 
 policy. Their speeches were cautious and politic. 
 The conduct of their counsellors and servants was 
 profoundly respectful and submissive. 
 
 The counsellors of the Indian kings in New Eng- 
 land were termed the paniese. These were not 
 only the wisest, but largest and bravest men to be 
 found among their subjects. They were the imme- 
 diate guard of their respective sachems, who made 
 neither war nor peace, nor attempted any weighty 
 affair, without their advice. In war, and all great 
 enterprises, dangers, and sufferings, these discovered 
 a boldness and firmness of mind exceeding all the 
 other warriors. 
 
 To preserve this order among the Indians, great 
 pains were taken. The stoutest and most promising 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 643 
 
 boys were chosen, and trained up with peculiar care, 
 in the observation of certain Indian rites and cus- 
 toms. They were kept from all delicious meats, 
 trained to coarse fare, and made to drink the juice 
 
 the crimes nor the punishments are esteemed so in- 
 famous, among the Indians, as to groan or shrink 
 under suffering. The sachems were so absolute in 
 their government, that they contemned the limited 
 
 of bitter herbs, until it occasioned violent vomitings. | authority of the English governors. 
 They were beaten over their legs and shins with The Indians had no kind of coin ; but they had 
 through brambles and | a sort of money, which they called wampum, or 
 
 sticks, and made to run 
 thickets, to make them hardy, am. 
 
 as the Indians 
 
 said, to render them more acceptable to Hobba- 
 
 raocko. 
 
 These paniese, or ministers of state, were in league 
 with the priests, or powaws. To keep the people in 
 awe, they pretended, as well as the priests, to have 
 converse with the invisible world, and that Hob- 
 barnocko often appeared to them. 
 
 Among the Connecticut Indians, and among all 
 the Indians in New England, the crown was here- 
 ditary, always descending to the eldest son. When 
 there was no male issue, the crown descended to the 
 female. The blood-royal was held in such venera- 
 tion, that no one was considered as heir to the crown 
 but such as were royally descended on both sides. 
 When a female acceded to the crown, she was called 
 the sunk squaw, or queen squaw. There were many 
 petty sachems, tributary to other princes, on whom 
 they were dependant for protection, and without 
 whose consent they made neither peace, war, nor 
 alliances with other nations. 
 
 The revenues of the crown consisted in the con- 
 tributions of the people. They carried corn, and 
 the first fruits of their harvest of all kinds, beans, 
 squashes, roots, berries, and nuts, and presented 
 them to their sachem. They made him presents of 
 flesh, fish, fowl, moose, bear, deer, beaver, and 
 other skins. One of the paniese was commonly ap- 
 pointed to receive the tribute. When the Indians 
 
 brought it, he 
 out to them, am 
 
 notice to his sachem, who went 
 by good words and somo small gifts, 
 
 expressed his gratitude. BY these contributions, his 
 table was supplied ; so that he kept open house for 
 all strangers and travellers. Besides, the prince 
 claimed an absolute sovereignty over the seas within 
 his dominion. Whatever was stranded on the coast, 
 all wrecks and whales floating on the sea, and taken, 
 were his. In war, the spoils of the enemy, and all 
 the women and royalties of the prince conquered, 
 belonged to him who made the conquest. 
 
 The sachem was not only examiner, judge, and 
 
 wampumpeag, which, as has been observed before, 
 consisted of small beads, most curiously wrought out 
 of shells, and perforated in the centre, so that they 
 might be strung on belts, in chains and bracelets. 
 These were of several sorts. The Indians in Con- 
 necticut, and in New England in general, made 
 black, blue, and white wampum. Six of the white 
 beads passed for a penny, 
 or blue ones for the same. 
 
 and three of the black 
 The five nations made 
 
 of justice between one man and another. In cases 
 of dishonesty, the Indians proportioned the punish- 
 ment to the number of times in which the delinquent 
 had been found guilty. For the first offence, he 
 was reproached for his villany in the most disgrace- 
 ful manner ; for the second, he was beaten with a 
 cudgel upon his naked back. If he still persisted 
 in his dishonest practices, and was found guilty a 
 third time, he was sure, besides a sound drubbing, 
 to have his nose slit, that all men might know and 
 avoid him. Murder was, in all cases, punished with 
 death. The sachem whipped the delinquent and 
 slit his nose, in cases which required these punish- 
 ments ; and he killed the murderer, unless he were 
 at a great distance. In this case, in which execu- 
 tion could not be done with his own hands, he sent 
 his knife, by which it was effected. The Indians 
 would not receive any punishment which was not 
 capital, from the hands of any except their sachems. 
 They would neither be beaten, whipped, nor slit by 
 an officer: but their prince might inflict these 
 punishments to the greatest extremity, and they 
 would neither run, cry, nor flinch. Indeed, neither 
 
 another sort, which were of a purple colour. The 
 white beads were wrought out of the inside of 
 the great conches, and the purple out of the inside 
 of the muscle shell. They were made perfectly 
 smooth, and the perforation was done in the 
 neatest manner. Indeed, considering that the 
 Indians had neither knife, drill, nor any steel or 
 iron instrument, the workmanship was admirable. 
 After the English settled in Connecticut, the In- 
 dians strung these beads on belts of cloth in a very 
 curious manner. The squaws made caps of cloth 
 rising to a peak over the top of the head, and the 
 fore part was beautified with wampum, curiously 
 wrought upon them. The six nations now weave 
 and string them in broad belts, which they give in 
 their treaties, as a confirmation of their speeches 
 and the seals of their friendship. 
 
 The Indians of Connecticut and New England, 
 although consisting of a great number of different 
 nations and clans, appear all to have spoken radi- 
 cally the same language. 
 
 The Indians in Connecticut, and in all parts of 
 New England, made great lamentations at the burial 
 of their dead. Their manner of burial was to dig 
 holes in the ground with stakes, which were made 
 broad and shai-pened at one end. Sticks were laid 
 across the bottom, and the corpse, which was pre- 
 viously wrapped in skins and mats, was let down 
 upon them. The arms, treasures, utensils, paint, 
 and ornaments of the dead, were buried with them, 
 and a mound of earth was raised upon the whole. 
 In some instances the Indians appear to have used 
 
 executioner, in all criminal cases, but in all matters a kind of embalming, by wrapping the corpse in 
 
 large quantities of a strong scented red powder. In 
 some parts of New England, the dead were buried in 
 a sitting posture with their faces-towards the east. 
 The women on these occasions painted their faces 
 with oil and charcoal, and while the burial was per- 
 forming, they, with the relatives of the dead, made 
 the most hideous shrieks, howlings, and lament- 
 ations. Their mourning continued, by turns, at night 
 and in the moi'ning, for several days^ During this 
 term all the relatives united in bewailing the dead. 
 
 When the English began the settlement of Con- 
 necticut, all the Indians both east and west of Con- 
 necticut river, were tributaries, except the Pequots, 
 and some few tribes which were in alliance with 
 them. The Pequots had spread their conquests 
 over all that part of the state east of the river. 
 They had also subjugated the Indians on the sea- 
 coast, as far eastward as Guilford. Uncas there- 
 fore, after the Pequots were conquered, extended 
 his claims as far as Hammonasset, in the eastern 
 part of that township. The Indians in these parts 
 were therefore tributaries to the Pequots. 
 
 The Mohawks had not only carried their conquests 
 
 302 
 
644 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 as far southward as Virginia, but eastward, as far 
 as Connecticut river. The Indians therefore, in 
 the western parts of Connecticut, were their tribu- 
 taries. Two old Mohawks, every year or two, 
 might be seen issuing their orders and collecting 
 their tribute, with as much authority and haughti- 
 ness as a Roman dictator. 
 
 It is indeed difficult to describe the dread of this 
 terrible nation, which had fallen on all the Indians 
 in the western parts of Connecticut. If they neg- 
 lected to pay their tribute, the Mohawks would come 
 down against them, plunder, destroy, and carry them 
 captive at pleasure ; and when they made their ap- 
 pearance in the country, the Connecticut Indians 
 would instantly raise a cry from hill to hill, a Mo- 
 hawk ! a Mohawk ! and fly without attempting the 
 least resistance. The Mohawks would cry out, in 
 the most terrible manner, in their language, import- 
 ing " We are come, we are come, to suck your 
 blood." When the Connecticut Indians could not 
 escape to their forts, they would immediately flee 
 to the English houses for shelter, and sometimes 
 the Mohawks would pursue them so closely as to 
 enter with them, and kill them in the presence of 
 the family. If there was time to shut the doors they 
 never entered by force, nor did they, upon any oc- 
 casion, do the least injury to the English. When 
 they came into this part of the country for war, they 
 used their utmost art to keep themselves undis- 
 covered. They would conceal themselves in swamps 
 and thickets, watching their opportunity, and then 
 on a sudden rise upon their enemies and kill or cap- 
 ture them, before they had time to make any 
 resistance. 
 
 About the time when the settlement of New Ha- 
 ven commenced, or not many years after, they 
 came into Connecticut, and surprised the Indian 
 fort at Paugusset. To prevent the Connecticut 
 Indians from discovering them, and that not so 
 much as a track of them might be seen, they marched 
 in the most secret manner, and when they came 
 near the fort travelled wholly in the river. Secret- 
 ing themselves near the fort, they watched their 
 opportunity, and suddenly attacking it, with their 
 dreadful yellings and violence, they soon took it by 
 force, and killed and captured whom they pleased. 
 Having plundered and destroyed, at their pleasure, 
 they returned to their strong holds west of Albany. 
 
 The Indians in Connecticut who were slaugh- 
 tered and oppressed, either by the Pequots or Mo- 
 hawks, were generally friendly to the settlement of 
 the English among them ; as they expected, by 
 their means, to be defended against their terrible 
 and cruel oppressors. They also found themselves 
 benefitted by trading with them; thus furnishing 
 themselves with knives, hatchets, axes, hoes, kettles 
 and various instruments and utensils which they 
 prized ; and t|iey found a much better market for 
 their furs, corn, poultry, and all their vendible 
 commodities. The English were also careful to 
 treat them with justice and humanity, and to make 
 such presents to their sachems and great captains 
 as should keep them in good humour. By these 
 means the English lived in tolerable peace with 
 all the Indians in Connecticut, except the Pequots, 
 for about forty years. 
 
 The Indians, at their first settlement, performed 
 many acts of kindness towards them. They in- 
 structed them in the manner of planting and dress- 
 ing the Indian corn : carried them upon their backs 
 through rivers and waters; gave them much useful 
 information respecting the country, and when the 
 
 English or their children were lost in the woods, 
 and were in danger of perishing with hunger or 
 cold, they conducted them to their wigwams, fed 
 them, and restored them to their families and pa- 
 rents ; they often also supplied them with corn, 
 when suffering from famine. 
 
 The people at Dorchester, Watertown and Newtown, 
 finding themselves straitened in the Massachusetts, 
 determine to remove to Connecticut -Debates in 
 Massachusetts relative to their removal The general 
 court at first prohibit it, but afterwards give its 
 consent The people remove and settle the towns of 
 Windsor, Hartford and Weathersfield Hardships 
 and losses of the first winters. 
 
 (1634.) Such numbers were constantly emigrat- 
 ing to New England, in consequence of the per- 
 secution of the puritans in England, that the 
 people at Dorchester, Watertown and Newtown, in 
 Massachusetts, began to be much straitened by the 
 accession of new planters. By those who had been 
 at Connecticut, they had received intelligence of 
 the excellent meadows upon the river, and they 
 therefore determined to remove, and once more brave 
 the dangers and hardships of making new settle- 
 ments. 
 
 Upon application to the general court for the 
 enlargement of their boundaries, or for liberty to 
 remove, they, at first, obtained consent for the 
 latter. However, when it was afterwards disco- 
 vered that their determination was to plant a new 
 colony at Connecticut, there arose a strong opposi- 
 tion ; so that when the court convened in Septem- 
 ber, there was a warm debate on the subject, and 
 a great division between the houses. Indeed, the 
 whole colony was affected with the dispute. 
 
 Mr. Hooker (a clergyman who had left England 
 from persecution.) took up the affair and pleaded for 
 the people. He urged, that they were so straitened 
 for accommodations for their cattle, that they could 
 not support the ministry, neither receive, nor as- 
 sist any more of their friends who might come 
 over to them. He insisted that the planting of 
 towns so near together was a fundamental error in 
 their policy. He pleaded the fertility and happy 
 accommodations of Connecticut: urged that settle- 
 ments upon the river were necessary to prevent the 
 Dutch and others from possessing themselves of so 
 fruitful and important a part of the country ; and 
 that the minds of the people were strongly inclined 
 to plant themselves there. 
 
 On the other side it was insisted, that in point of 
 conscience they ought not to depart, as they were 
 united to the Massachusetts as one body, and bound 
 by oath to seek the good of that commonwealth; 
 and that on principles of policy it could not, by 
 any means, be granted: and it was further pleaded, 
 that as the settlements in the Massachusetts were 
 new and weak, they were in danger of an assault 
 from their enemies : that the departure of Mr. 
 Hooker and the people of those towns would not 
 only draw off many from the Massachusetts, but 
 prevent others from settling in the colony. Be- 
 sides, it was said, according to Scriptural phrase, 
 that the removing of a candlestick was a great judg- 
 ment: and that by suffering it they should expose 
 their brethren to great danger, both from the Dutch 
 and Indians. Indeed, it was affirmed that they 
 might be accommodated by the enlargements of- 
 fered them by the other towns. After a long 
 and warm debate, the governor, two assistants, and 
 a majority of the representatives, were for granting 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 645 
 
 liberty for Mr. Hooker and the people to transplant 
 themselves to Connecticut. The deputy-governor, 
 however, and six of the assistants were in the nega- 
 tive, and so no vote could be obtained. This made 
 a considerable ferment, not only in the general 
 court, but in the colony ; so that Mr. Cotton was 
 desired to preach on the subject to quiet the court 
 and the people of the colony. 
 
 Individuals, however, were determined to prose- 
 cute the business, and made preparations effectually 
 to carry it into execution ; and it appears that some 
 of the Watertown people went this year (1634) to 
 Connecticut, and erected a few huts at Pyquag, 
 now Weathersfield, in which a small number of men 
 made a shift to winter : at least this is the tradition, 
 and the Rev. Mr. Meeks, of Weathersfield, in his 
 manuscript says, Weathersfield is the oldest town 
 on the river. 
 
 (1635.) While the colonists were thus prosecuting 
 the business of settlement in New England, the 
 Right Honourable James, Marquis of Hamilton, 
 obtained a grant from the council of Plymouth, 
 April 20th, 1635, of all that tract of country which 
 lies between Connecticut river and Narraganset 
 river and harbour, and from the mouths of each of 
 the said rivers northward 60 miles into the country. 
 However, by reason of its interference with the 
 grant to the Lord Say and Seal, Lord Brook, &c., 
 or for some other reason, the deed was never exe- 
 cuted. The Marquis made no settlement upon the 
 land, and the claim became obsolete. 
 
 The next May (1635), the Newtown people, de- 
 termining to settle at Connecticut, renewed their 
 application to the general court, and obtained liberty 
 to remove to any place which they should choose, 
 with this proviso, that they should continue under 
 the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts ; and conse- 
 quently a number cf Mr. Warham's people went 
 this summer into Connecticut, and made prepara- 
 tions to bring their families, and make a permanent 
 settlement on the river. The Watertown people 
 gradually removed, and prosecuted their settlement 
 at Weathersfield. At the same time, the planters 
 at Newtown began to make preparations for remov- 
 ing to Hartford the next spring. Meanwhile, 
 twenty men arrived in Massachusetts, sent over by 
 Sir Richard Saltonstall, to take possession of a great 
 quantity of land in Connecticut, and to make settle- 
 ments under the patent of Lord Say and Seal, with 
 whom he was a principal associate. The vessel in 
 which they came over, on her return to England, 
 in the fall, was cast away on the isle Sable. 
 
 As the Dorchester men had now set down at 
 Connecticut, near the Plymouth trading-house, 
 Governor Bradford wrote to them, complaining of 
 their conduct, as injurious to the people of Ply- 
 mouth, who had made a fair purchase of the Indians, 
 and taken a prior possession. 
 
 The Dutch also, alarmed by the settlements mak- 
 ing in Connecticut, wrote to Holland for instruct- 
 ions and aid, to drive the English from their settle- 
 ments upon the river. 
 
 The people at Connecticut having made such pre- 
 parations as were judged necessary to effect a per- 
 manent settlement, began to remove their families 
 and property. On the 15th of October, 1635, about 
 sixty men, women, and children, with their horses, 
 cattle, and swine, commenced their journey from 
 the Massachusetts, through the wilderness, to Con- 
 necticut river. After a tedious and difficult jour- 
 ney, through swamps a,nd rivers, over mountains 
 and rough ground, which were passed with great 
 
 difficulty and fatigue, they arrived safely at the 
 places of their respective destination. They were 
 so long on their journey, and so much time and 
 pains were spent in passing the river, and in getting 
 their cattle over, that, after all their exertions, 
 winter came upon them before they were prepared, 
 which was the occasion of much distress and damage. 
 
 Nearly at the same time, Mr. John Winthrop, 
 son of Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts, ar- 
 rived at Boston, with a commission from Lord Say 
 and Seal, Lord Brook, and other noblemen and 
 gentlemen interested in the Connecticut patent, to 
 erect a fort at the mouth of Connecticut river ; arid 
 their lordships sent over men, ordnance, ammuni- 
 tion, and 2,000/. sterling, for the accomplishment 
 of their design. 
 
 Mr. Winthrop was directed, by his commission, 
 immediately on his arrival, to repair to Connecti- 
 cut, with fifty able men, and to erect the fortifica- 
 tions, and to build houses for the garrison, and others 
 who might choose to go to settle in Connecticut. They 
 were first to build houses for their then present ac- 
 commodation, and after that, such as should be suit- 
 able for the reception of persons of property ; the 
 latter were to be erected within the fort, and it was 
 required that the planters, at the beginning, should 
 settle themselves near the mouth of the river, and 
 set down in bodies, that they might be in a situa- 
 tion for intrenching and defending themselves. The 
 commission made provision for the reservation of a 
 thousand or fifteen hundred acres of good land, for 
 the maintenance of the fort, as nearly adjoining to 
 it as might be convenient. 
 
 Mr. Winthrop, having intelligence that the Dutch ' 
 were preparing to take possession of the mouth of 
 the river, as soon as he could engage twenty men, 
 and furnish them with provisions, dispatched them 
 in a small vessel, of about thirty tons, to prevent 
 their getting the command of the river, and to ac- 
 complish the service to which he had been appointed. 
 A few days after the party, sent by Mr. Winthrop, 
 arrived at the mouth of the river, a Dutch vessel ap- 
 peared off the harbour, from New Netherlands, 
 sent on purpose to take possession of the entrance 
 of the river, and to erect fortifications ; but the 
 English had, by this time, mounted two pieces of 
 cannon, and prevented their landing, and thus pre- 
 served to themselves this fine tract of country. 
 
 Mr. Winthrop was appointed governor of the 
 river Connecticut, and the parts adjacent, for the 
 term of one year. He erected a fort, built houses, 
 and made a settlement, according to his instructions. 
 One David Gardiner, an expert engineer, assisted 
 in the work, planned the fortifications, and was ap- 
 pointed lieutenant of the fort. Mr. Davenport also, 
 and others, who afterwards settled New Haven, 
 were active in this affair, and hired Gardiner in be- 
 half of their lordships. 
 
 As the settlement of the three towns on Connec- 
 ticut river was began before the arrival of Mr. Win- 
 throp, and the design of their lordships to make 
 plantations upon it was known, it was agreed that 
 the settlers on the river should either remove, upon 
 full satisfaction made, by their lordships, or else 
 sufficient room should be found for them and their 
 companies at some other place. 
 
 The winter set in this year much sooner than 
 isual, and the weather was stormy and severe. By 
 the 15th of November, Connecticut river was frozen 
 over, and the snow was so deep, and the season so 
 tempestuous, that a considerable number of the 
 cattle, which had been driven on from the Massa- 
 
646 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 chusetts, could not be brought across the river. The 
 people had so little time to prepare their huts and 
 houses, and to erect sheds and shelters for their 
 cattle, that the sufferings of man and beast were 
 extreme. Indeed, the hardships and distresses of 
 the first planters of Connecticut scarcely admit of a 
 description. To carry much provision or furniture 
 through a pathless wilderness, was impracticable. 
 Their principal provisions and household furniture 
 were, therefore, put on board several small vessels, 
 which, by reason of delays and the tempestuousriess of 
 the season, were either cast away or did not arrive. 
 Several vessels were wrecked on the coasts of New 
 England, by the violence of the storms. Two shal- 
 lops laden with goods, from Boston to Connecticut, 
 in October, were cast away on Brown's island, near 
 the Gurnet's nose ; and the men, with every thing 
 on board, were lost. A vessel, with six of the Con- 
 necticut people on board, which sailed from the 
 river for Boston, early in November, was, about the 
 middle of the month, cast away in Manamet bay. 
 The men got on shore, and, after wandering ten 
 days in deep snow and a severe season, without 
 meeting with any human being, arrived, nearly 
 spent with cold and fatigue, at New Plymouth. 
 
 By the latter end of November, or beginning of 
 December, provisions generally failed in the settle- 
 ments on the river. Some of the settlers driven by 
 hunger, attempted their way, in this severe season, 
 through the wilderness, from Connecticut to Massa- 
 chusetts ; but of thirteen, in one company, who 
 made this attempt, one, in passing the rivers, fell 
 through the ice, and was drowned; and the other 
 twelve were ten days on their journey, and would 
 all have perished, had it not been for the assistance 
 of the Indians. Indeed, such was the distress in 
 general that, by the 3d and 4th of December, a 
 considerable part of the new settlers were obliged 
 to abandon their habitations. Seventy persons, 
 men, women, and children, were necessitated, in 
 the extremity of winter, to go down to the mouth of 
 the river, to meet their provisions, as the only ex- 
 pedient to preserve their lives. Not meeting with 
 the vessels which they expected, they all went on 
 board the Rebecca, a vessel of about sixty tons; 
 which two days before was frozen in twenty miles 
 up the river ; but by the falling of a small rain and 
 the influence of the tide, the ice became so broken, 
 and was so far removed, that they made a shift to 
 get out ; the vessel ran, however, upon the bar, and 
 the people were forced to unlade it to get it off: it 
 was then reladen, and in five days reached Boston. 
 
 The people who kept their stations on the river 
 suffered in an extreme degree. After all the help 
 they were able to obtain by hunting, and from the 
 Indians, they were obliged to subsist on acorns 
 malt, and grains. Numbers of the cattle, which 
 could not be got over the river before winter, livec 
 through without any thing but what they found in 
 the woods and meadows. They wintered as well 
 or better, than those which were brought over, ant 
 for which all the provision was made, and pains 
 taken, of which the owners were capable. However, 
 a great number of cattle perished. The Dorchester 
 or Windsor people lost, in this single article, about 
 200/. sterling, and their other losses were very con 
 siderable. 
 
 It is difficult to describe, or even to conceive, the 
 apprehensions and distresses of a people, in these 
 circumstances : all the horrors of a dreary wilder 
 ness spread themselves around them. They wer 
 encompassed with numerous fierce and cruel tribes 
 
 f wild and savage men, who could have easily 
 lestroyed them in their feeble and distressed condi- 
 ion. They had neither bread for themselves, nor 
 children ; neither habitations nor clothing conveni- 
 t-nt for them. Whatever emergency might happen, 
 hey were cut off, both by land and water, from any 
 uccour or retreat. 
 
 For a few years after the settlements on the river 
 commenced, they bore the same name with the towns 
 n the Massachusetts, whence the first settlers came. 
 
 (1636.) The Connecticut planters at first settled 
 under the general government of the Massachusetts, 
 jut they held courts of their own, which consisted 
 of two principal men from each town ; and, on great 
 and extraordinary occasions, these were joined with 
 committees, as they were called, consisting of three 
 men from each town. These courts had power to 
 ;ransact all the common affairs of the colony, and 
 with their committees, had the power of making 
 war and peace, and treaties of alliance and friend- 
 hip with the natives within the colony. 
 
 The first court in Connecticut was holden at 
 Newtown, April 26th, 1636. It consisted of Roger 
 Ludlow, Esq., Mr. John Steel, Mr. William Swain, 
 Mr. William Phelps, Mr. William Westwood, and 
 Mr. Andrew Ward. Mr. Ludlow had been one of 
 the magistrates of Massachusetts in 1630, and in 
 1631 had been chosen lieutenant-governor of that 
 colony. At this court it was ordered, that the in- 
 habitants should not sell arms nor ammunition to 
 the Indians. Various other affairs were also trans- 
 acted relative to the good order, settlement, and de- 
 fence of these infant towns. 
 
 Several of the principal gentlemen interested in 
 the settlement of Connecticut, Mr. John Haynes, 
 who at this time was governor of Massachusetts, 
 Mr. Henry Wolcott, Mr. Wells, the ministers of 
 the churches, and others, had not yet removed into 
 the colony. As soon as the spring advanced, and 
 the travelling would admit, the hardy men began 
 to return from the Massachusetts to their habitations 
 on the river. No sooner was the grass sufficiently 
 grown, that cattle could live in the woods, and ob- 
 structions removed from the river, so that vessels 
 could go up with provisions and furniture, than the 
 people began to return in large companies to Con- 
 necticut ; and many who had not removed the last 
 year, prepared, with all convenient dispatch, for a 
 journey to the new settlements upon the river. 
 
 About the beginning of June, Mr. Hooker, Mr. 
 Stone, and about a hundred men, women, and child- 
 ren took their departure from Cambridge, and tra- 
 velled more than a hundred miles, through a track- 
 less wilderness, to Hartford. They had no guide 
 but their compass ; made their way over mountains, 
 through swamps, thickets, and rivers, which were 
 not passable but with great difficulty. They drove 
 with them 160 head of cattle, and by the way sub- 
 sisted on the milk of their cows. Mrs. Hooker 
 was borne through the wilderness upon a litter. The 
 people generally carried their packs, arms, and 
 some utensils. They were nearly a fortnight on 
 their journey. This adventure was the more re- 
 markable, as many of this company were persons of 
 property, who had lived in England in luxury and 
 affluence, and were entire strangers to fatigue and 
 danger. 
 
 The removal of Dorchester people to Windsor is 
 said to have been disagreeable to their ministers ; 
 but, as their whole church and congregation re- 
 moved, it was necessary that they should go with 
 them. However, Mr. Maverick died in March, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 647 
 
 before preparations were made for his removal. He 
 expired in the 60th year of his age. He was 
 characterized as a man of great meekness, and 
 as laborious and faithful in promoting the welfare 
 both of the church and commonwealth. Mr. War- 
 ham removed to Windsor in September, but he did 
 not judge it expedient to bring his family until bet- 
 ter accommodations could be made for their recep- 
 tion. Soon after the removal of Mr, Warham from 
 Dorchester, a new church was gathered in that 
 town, and Mr. Mather was ordained their pastor, 
 Mr. Phillips, pastor of the church at Watertown, 
 did not remove to Weathersfield. Whether it was 
 against his inclination, or whether the people did 
 not invite him, does not appear. They chose Mr. 
 Henry Smith for their minister, who came from 
 England in office. 
 
 The colony of New Plymouth professed them- 
 selves to be greatly aggrieved at the conduct of the 
 Dorchester people, in settling on the lands, where 
 they had made a purchase, and where they had de- 
 fended themselves and that part of the country 
 against the Dutch. .They represented that it had 
 been a great injury to them that the Dutch and 
 Indians had given 'them so much trouble as they 
 had done, but that it was still more grievous to be 
 supplanted by their professed friends. Mr. Win- 
 slow of Plymouth made a journey to Boston, in the 
 spring, before Governor Hay lies and some other 
 principal characters removed to Connecticut, with 
 a view to obtain compensation for the injury done 
 to the Plymouth men, who had built the trading- 
 house upon the river. The Plymouth people de- 
 manded a sixteenth part of the lands and 100 
 pounds as a compensation ; but the Dorchester peo- 
 ple would not comply with their demands. There 
 however appeared to be so much justice in making 
 them some compensation for the purchase they had 
 made, and the good services which they had done, 
 that sometime after, the freeholders of Windsor 
 gave them fifty pounds, forty acres of meadow, and 
 a large tract of upland for their satisfaction. 
 
 At a court holden at Dorchester, it was ordered, 
 that every town should keep a watch, and be well 
 supplied with ammunition. The constables were 
 directed to warn the watches in their turns, and to 
 make it their care that they should be kept accord- 
 ing to the direction of the court. They also were 
 required to take care that the inhabitants were 
 well furnished with arms and ammunition, and 
 kept in a constant state of defence. And at a third 
 court, therefore, holden at Watertown, an order 
 was given, that the inhabitants of the several towns 
 should train once a month, and the officers were 
 authorized to train those who appeared very unskil- 
 ful more frequently, as circumstances should require. 
 The courts were holden at each town by rotation, 
 according to its turn. 
 
 A settlement was made, this year, at Springfield, 
 by Mr. Pyncheonand his company from Roxbury. 
 This for about two years was united in govern- 
 ment with the towns in Connecticut. In Novem- 
 ber, Mr. Pyncheon for the first time appears among 
 the members of the court. 
 
 All the powers of government, for nearly three 
 years, seem to have been in the magistrates, of 
 whom two were appointed in each town. These 
 gave all orders, and directed all the affairs of the 
 plantation. The freemen appear to have had no 
 voice in making the laws, or in any part of the go- 
 vernment, except in some instances of general and 
 and uncommon concern. In these instances, com- 
 
 mittees were sent from the several towns. Juries 
 were employed in jury cases, from the first settle- 
 ment of the colony. 
 
 This was a summer and year of great and various 
 labours, demanding the utmost exertion and dili- 
 gence. Many of the planters had to remove them- 
 selves and effects from a distant colony. At the 
 same time, it was absolutely necessary that they 
 should obtain a tolerable harvest to prevent the 
 recurrence of the distresses and losses of the pre- 
 ceding year. It was of equal importance to the 
 planters, not only to make roads for their particular 
 convenience, but from town to town ; that on any 
 emergency they might immediately assist each 
 other. But it was with great difficulty that these 
 purposes could be at first accomplished. The plant- 
 ers had not been accustomed to felling the groves, 
 to clearing and cultivating new lands. They were 
 strangers in the country, and knew not what kinds 
 of grain would be most congenial with the soil, and 
 produce the greatest profits, nor had they any ex- 
 perience how the ground must be cultivated that it 
 might yield a plentiful crop. They had few oxen, 
 or instruments for husbandry. Every thing was to 
 be prepared, or brought from a great distance, and 
 procured at a dear rate. Besides all these labours 
 and difficulties, much time was taken up in con- 
 stant watchings, trainings, and preparations for the 
 defence of themselves and children. The Pequots 
 had, already, murdered a number of the English ; 
 some of the Indians, in Connecticut, were their 
 alljes ; and they had maintained a great influence 
 over them all. They were a treacherous and de- 
 signing people; so that there could be no safety 
 but in a constant preparation for any emergency. 
 
 Some of the principal characters, who undertook 
 this great work of settling Connecticut, and were 
 the civil and religious fathers of the colony, were 
 Mr. Haynes, Mr. Ludlow, Mr. Hooker, Mr. War- 
 ham, Mr. Hopkins, Mr. Wells, Mr. Willis, Mr. 
 Whiting, Mr. Wolcott, Mr. Phelps, Mr. Webster, 
 and Captain Mason. These were of the first class 
 of settlers, and all, except, the ministers, were 
 chosen magistrates or governors of the colony. Mr. 
 Swain, Mr. Talcott, Mr. Steel, Mr. Mitchell, and 
 others, were from Boston. Mr. John Haynes, Mr. 
 Hooker, Mr. Hopkins, Mr. Stone, Mr. George 
 Wyllys, Mr. Wells, Mr. Whiting, Mr. Thomas 
 Webster, and Mr. John Talcott, were ail of Hart- 
 ford. Mr. Ludlow, Mr. Henry Wolcott, Mr. War- 
 ham, Mr. William Phelps, and Captain John Ma- 
 son, were some of the principal planters of Wind- 
 sor. Mr. William Swain, Mr. Thurston Rayner, 
 Mr. Henry Smith, Mr. Andrew Ward, Mr. Mit- 
 chell, and Mr. John Deming, were some of the 
 chief men who settled the town of Weathersfield. 
 These were the civil and religious fathers of the 
 colony. They formed its free and happy constitu- 
 tion, were its legislators, and some of the chief pil- 
 lars of the church and commonwealth. They, with 
 many others of the same excellent character, em- 
 ployed their abilities and their estates for the pros- 
 perity of the colony. 
 
 While the three plantations on the river were 
 making the utmost exertions for a permanent set- 
 tlement, Mr. Winthrop was no less active, in erect- 
 ing fortifications and convenient buildings at its 
 entrance. Though he had, the last year, sent on 
 one company after another, yet the season was so 
 far advanced, and the winter set in so early, and 
 with sut.'h severity, that little more could be done 
 than just to keep the station. When the spring 
 
648 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMEKICA. 
 
 advanced, the works were, therefore, urged on with 
 eagerness. Mr. Winthrop and his people were 
 induced, not only in faithfulness to their trust, but 
 from fears of a visit from the Dutch, and from the 
 state of that warlike people, the Pequots in the 
 vicinity, to hasten and complete them with the 
 utmost dispatch. A good fort was erected, and a 
 number of houses were built. Some cattle were 
 brought from the Massachusetts for the use of the 
 garrison. Small parcels of ground were improved, 
 and preparations made for a comfortable sub- 
 sistence and good defence. 
 
 There were, at the close of this year, about two 
 hundred and fifty men in the thre'e towns on the 
 river, and there were twenty men in the garrison, 
 at the entrance of it, under the command of .Lieu- 
 tenant Gardiner. The whole consisted, probably, 
 of about eight hundred persons, or of a hundred and 
 sixty or seventy families. 
 
 The war with the Pequots Their defeat A second 
 expedition against them conjointly with Massachu- 
 setts The great swamp fight The Pequots subdued 
 The survivor* incorporated with the Moheayans 
 and Narragansets, and their name extinguished. 
 
 (1634.)The Indians in general were jealous of the 
 English, from the first settlement of New England, 
 and wished to drive them from the country ; but va- 
 rious circumstances combined to frustrate their de- 
 signs. And it was nearly sixteen years before they 
 commenced open hostilities upon their English neigh- 
 bours. But no sooner had the latterbegun to trade 
 and make settlements at Connecticut, than the 
 warlike Pequots or Pequods, began to assault them. 
 
 In 1634 a number of Indians, who were not 
 native Pequots, but a tribe in confederacy with 
 them, murdered a Captain Stone and a Captain 
 Norton, with their whole crew, consisting of eight 
 men ; and afterwards plundered and sunk the vessel. 
 
 The November following, the Pequots sent a 
 messenger to Boston, to desire peace with the En- 
 glish ; and made an offer of a great quantity of 
 beaver skins and wampumpeag, to persuade the 
 governor to enter into a league with them. The 
 governor replied, that the Pequots must send men 
 of more importance, and that he would then treat 
 with them. Consequently the Pequots sent two 
 messengers carrying a present, and earnestly solicit- 
 ing peace : and the governor assured them, that 
 the English were willing to be at peace with them ; 
 but insisted, that, as they had murdered Captain 
 Stone and his men, they must deliver up the mur- 
 derers, and make full compensation. The messen- 
 gers pretended that Captain Stone had used the 
 Indians ill, and provoked them to kill him : that 
 their sachem, who was concerned in the affair, had 
 been killed by the Dutch, and that the Indians who 
 perpetrated the murder, were all dead but two ; and 
 that, if they were guilty, they would desire their 
 sachem to deliver them up to justice. They offered 
 to concede all their right at Connecticut river if 
 the English should desire to settle there ; and en- 
 gaged to assist them as far as was in their power, 
 in "making their settlements; and they also promised 
 that they would give the English four hundred 
 fathoms of wampum, forty beaver, and thirty otter 
 skins. After mature deliberation, the governor 
 and his council entered into a treaty with them, on 
 the conditions which they had proposed. The En- 
 glish were to send a vessel with cloths, to trade 
 with them fairly, as with friends and allies. 
 
 The reason for their so earnestly soliciting peace 
 
 was, that the Narragansets were making war upon 
 them ; and the Dutch, to revenge some injuries, 
 had killed one of their sachems, with several of 
 their men, and captured a number more. They 
 artfully suggested to the governor and council of 
 Massachusetts, their desire that they would be me- 
 diators between them and the Narragansets ; and 
 intimated, that part of the present which they were 
 to send, might be given to them for the purpose 
 of obtaining a reconciliation. Such was their 
 notion of honour, that though they wished for peace 
 with their enemy, yet they would not directly offer 
 any thing for that purpose. This treaty was signed 
 by the parties, (1635,) but hostages were not taken 
 to secure the performance of the articles, and the 
 Pequols never performed one of them : and they 
 afterwards became more hostile than ever. 
 
 (1636.) The next year, one John Oldharn, who 
 had been trading at Connecticut, being also mur- 
 dered near Block Island, the governor and council 
 of Massachusetts dispatched Captain Endicott, 
 with ninety volunteers, to avenge these murders 
 and demand reparation. The Narraganset sachems 
 in consequence sent home Mr. Oldham's two boys, 
 and made such satisfaction as the English ac- 
 cepted ; but the other Indians would make no com- 
 pensation ; and Captain Endicott was, therefore, 
 instructed to proceed to Block Island, put the men 
 to the sword, and take possession of the island ; 
 and only spare the women and children. Then to- 
 proceed to the Pequots and demand the surrender 
 of the murderers of Captains Stone and Norton, 
 and of the other Englishmen who were of their com- 
 pany : and also a thousand fathoms of wampum for 
 damages, and a number of their children for hosta- 
 ges, until the murderers should be delivered, and 
 satisfaction made. He sailed from Boston August 
 25th, and after a slight skirmishing with the In- 
 dians, who quickly tied, he ravaged their country, 
 destroying their wigwams, and their corn. 
 
 Sassacus and the other leaders of the Pequots 
 were men of daring spirits ; who had conquered 
 and governed the nations around them without con- 
 trol. They viewed the English as intruders, who 
 had made settlements in Connecticut without their 
 consent, and brought home the Indian kings whom 
 they had conquered, and restored to them their 
 authority and lands. Excited by these circum- 
 stances, and more particularly by Endicott's late 
 expedition, they determined to endeavour to ex- 
 tirpate the English. For this purpose, they con- 
 ceived the plan of uniting the Indians generally 
 against them ; and spared no art to make peace 
 with the Narragansets, who for a time hesitated: 
 but the goveinor of Massachusetts, to secure them, 
 sent for Miantonimoh, their chief sachem, and 
 entered into a treaty ; that there should be a firm 
 peace between them and the English, and their 
 posterity: that neither party should make peace 
 with the Pequots, without the consent of the other : 
 that they should not harbour the Pequots, and that 
 they should return all fugitive servants, and deliver 
 over to the English, or put to death all murderers. 
 The English were to give them notice, when they 
 went out against the Pequots, and they were to 
 furnish them with guides. It was also stipulated, that 
 free trade should be maintained between the parties. 
 
 The Pequots now began a series of petty hostili- 
 ties against the settlers, and continued to harass 
 and distress them for many months ; occasional 
 skirmishes taking place when the settlers could come 
 in contact with them. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 649 
 
 (1637.) The circumstances of the Connecticut 
 settlers at this time wore a most gloomy aspect. 
 They had sustained great losses in cattle aiid goods 
 in the preceding years, and even this year they Vf?rs 
 unfortunate with respect to their cattle. They had 
 no hay but what they cut from the spontaneous pro- 
 ductions of an uncultivated country ; and to make 
 good English meadows was a work of time. The 
 wild, coarse grass, which the people cut, was often 
 mowed too late, and but poorly made, and they had 
 not always a sufficient quantity even of this : they 
 had no corn, or provender, with which they could 
 feed them ; and, amidst the multiplicity of affairs, 
 which, at their first settlement, demanded their at- 
 tention, they could not provide such shelters for 
 them as were necessary during the long and severe 
 winters of this northern climate. Some of their 
 cattle were lost, and those which lived through 
 the winter were very meagre ; provisions were very 
 coarse and scanty; and the people were not only 
 inexperienced in the husbandry of the country, but 
 had not above ten, if so many, ploughs in the whole 
 colony, and were consequently obliged to use hoes, 
 which rendered cultivation exceedingly slow and 
 laborious. Valuable as money was, a good cow 
 could not be purchased under 3W. ; a pair of bulls 
 or oxen not under 40/. A mare from England or 
 Flanders, sold at 30/. ; and Indian corn at about fts. 
 a bushel : and labour, and other articles bore a pro- 
 portionable price. 
 
 In addition to all these difficulties, an insidious 
 and savage enemy was destroying the lives and 
 property of the colonists, attempting to raise the 
 numerous Indian tribes of the country against them, 
 and threatening the utter ruin of the whole colony. 
 The inhabitants were in a feeble state, and few in 
 number ; they wanted all their men at home, to 
 prosecute the necessary business of the plantations, 
 and had not a sufficiency of provisions for them- 
 selves; and there would therefore be the greatest 
 difficulty in furnishing a small army with provisions 
 abroad : they could neither hunt, fish, nor cul- 
 tivate their fields, nor travel at home, or abroad, 
 but at the peril of their lives ; they were obliged to 
 keep a constant watch by night and day, to go 
 armed to their daily labours, and to the public 
 worship ; and they lay down and rose up in fear 
 and danger : if they had raised a party of men 
 and sent them to fight the enemy on their own 
 ground, it would have rendered the settlements pro- 
 portionably weak at home. 
 
 In this important crisis, a court was summoned 
 at Hartford, on Monday the 1st of May. As they 
 were to deliberate on matters in which the lives of 
 the subjects and the very existence of the colony 
 were concerned, the towns for the first time sent 
 committees. The spirited measures adopted by this 
 court, render the names of the members worthy of 
 perpetuation. The magistrates were Roger Ludlow, 
 Esq., Mr. Welles, Mr. Swain, Mr. Steel, Mr. Phelps, 
 and Mr. Ward. The committees were Mr. Whi- 
 ting, Mr. Webster, Mr. Williams, Mr. Hull, Mr. 
 Chaplin, Mr. Talcott, Mr. Geffords, Mr. Mitchell, 
 and Mr. Sherman. 
 
 The court, on mature deliberation, considering 
 that the Pequots had killed nearly thirty of the 
 English ; that they had tortured and insulted their 
 captives in the most horrible manner; that they 
 v/ere attempting to engage all the Indians to unite 
 for the purpose of extirpating the English ; and the 
 danger the whole colony was in, unless some decisive 
 blow could be immediately given their enemies, de- 
 
 termined that an offensive war should be carried 
 on against them, by the three towns of Windsor, 
 Hartford, and Weathersfield ; and they voted that 
 90 men should be raised forthwith 42 from Hart- 
 ford, 30 from Windsor, and 18 from Weathersfield. 
 Notwithstanding the necessities and poverty of the 
 people, all necessary supplies were voted for this 
 little army ; and no sooner was this resolution 
 adopted, than the people prosecuted the most vigo- 
 rous measures to carry it into immediate and effect- 
 ual execution. 
 
 The report of the slaughter and horrid cruelties 
 practised by the Fequots against the people of Con- 
 necticut, roused the other colonies to unanimous 
 and spirited exertioEs against the common enemy; 
 and Massachusetts determined to send 200, and 
 Plymouth 40 men, to assist Connecticut in prose- 
 cuting the war. Captain Patrick with 40 men was 
 sent forward, before the other troops, from Massa- 
 chusetts and Plymouth, could be ready to march, 
 with a view that he might seasonally form a junct- 
 ion with the party from Connecticut. 
 
 On Wednesday, the 10th of May, the troops from 
 Connecticut fell down the river for the fort at Say- 
 brook. They consisted of 90 Englishmen, and about 
 70 Moheagau and river Indians* ; who embarked on 
 board a pink, a pinnace, and a shallop. The In- 
 dians were led by Uncas, sachem of the Moheagans, 
 and the whole was commanded by Captain John 
 Mason, who had been bred a soldier in the old 
 countries. The Rev. Mr. Stone, of Hartford, went 
 as chaplain. After a variety of dangers and hard- 
 ships, this small band of settlers succeeded in dis- 
 persing the Pequots ; and in about three weeks 
 from the time they embarked at Hartford, they re- 
 turned again to their respective habitations. They 
 were received with the greatest exultation. As the 
 people had been deeply affected with their danger, 
 and full of anxiety for their friends, while nearly 
 half the effective men in the colony were in service, 
 upon so hazardous an enterprise, the safe return of 
 so many of their children and neighbours filled 
 them with exceeding joy and thankfulness. Few 
 enterprises have ever been achieved with more per- 
 sonal good conduct; by seventy-seven brave men 
 Connecticut was saved, and the most warlike and 
 terrible Indian nation in New England defeated 
 and ruined. The Pequots were, indeed, so panic- 
 struck, that burning their wigwams and destroying 
 their fort, they fled and scattered into various parts 
 of the country. Sassacus, Mononotto, and seventy 
 or eighty of their chief counsellors and warriors, 
 took their route towards Hudson's river. 
 
 Just before Captain Mason went out upon the ex- 
 pedition against the Pequots, the Dutch performed 
 a very neighbourly office for Connecticut. Twc 
 girls, who had been captured at Weathersfield, had, 
 through the humanity and mediation of Mononotto's 
 squaw, been spared from death, and kindly treated. 
 The Dutch governor, receiving intelligence of their 
 circumstances, determined to redeem them at any 
 rate, and dispatched a sloop to Pequot harbour for 
 that purpose, to make large offers for their redemp- 
 tion, but the Pequots would not accept them ; but 
 the Dutch had a number of Pequots on board, and 
 they offered the Pequots six of their own men for 
 the two maids ; who were accepted, and the young 
 women were restored. The Massachusetts' govern- 
 ment sending some assistance, the war was re- 
 newed against the remaining Pequots ; and a final 
 victory gained, called "the great swamp fight," 
 near Fairfield 
 
650 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 The Pequot women and children, who had been 
 captured, were divided among the troops. Some 
 were carried to Connecticut, and others to the Mas- 
 sachusetts; the latter state sent a number of the 
 women and boys to the West Indies, and sold them 
 for slaves. It was supposed that about seven hun- 
 dred Pequots were destroyed. The women who were 
 captured, reported that thirteen sachems had been 
 slain, and that thirteen yet survived; among the 
 latter were Sassacus and Mononotto, the two chief 
 sachems ; who with about twenty of their best men 
 fled to the Mohawks, and carried off with them 
 wampum to the amount of 500/. The Mohawks 
 ultimately surprised and slew them all except Mo- 
 nonotto. The scalp of Sassacus was sent to Con- 
 necticut in the autumn, and Mr. Ludlow and seve- 
 ral other gentlemen going into Massachusetts, in 
 September, carried a lock of it to Boston as a rare 
 sight, and a sure demonstration of the death of their 
 mortal enemy. 
 
 Among the Pequot captives were the wife and 
 children of Mononotto ; she was particularly no- 
 ticed by the English for her great modesty, hu- 
 manity, and good sense , and made it as her only 
 request, that she might not be injured either as to 
 her offspring or personal honour; and as a requital of 
 her kindness to the captured maids, her life and the 
 lives of her children were not only spared, but they 
 were particularly recommended to the care of Go- 
 vernor Winthrop ; who gave charge for their pro- 
 tection and kind treatment. 
 
 After the swamp-fight, the Pequots became so 
 weak and scattered, that the Narragansets and Mo- 
 heagans constantly killed them, and brought in 
 their heads to Windsor and Hartford ; and those 
 who survived were so hunted and harassed, that a 
 number of their chief men repaired to the Eng- 
 lish, at Hartford, for relief; and offered, if their 
 lives might be spared, that they would become the 
 servants of the English, and be disposed of at their 
 pleasure. This was granted, and the court inter- 
 posed for their protection. 
 
 (1638.) Uncas and Miantonimoh, with the Pe- 
 quots, by the direction of the magistrates of Con- 
 necticut, met at Hartford ; and it was demanded by 
 them, how many of the Pequots were yet living ? 
 they answered, about two hundred, besides women 
 and children. The magistrates then entered into a 
 firm covenant with them, to the following effect : 
 that there should be perpetual peace between Mian- 
 tonimoh and Uncas, and their respective Indians ; 
 and that all past injuries should be remitted, and 
 for ever buried : that if any injuries should be done 
 in future by one party to the other, that they should 
 not immediately revenge it, but appeal to the Eng- 
 lish to do them justice. It was stipulated, that they 
 should submit to their determination, and that if 
 either party should be obstinate, that then they 
 might enforce submission to their decisions. It was 
 further agreed, that neither the Moheagans, nor 
 Narragansets should conceal, or entertain any of 
 their enemies ; but deliver up or destroy all such 
 Indians as had murdered any English man or wo- 
 man. The English then gave the Pequot Indians 
 to the Narragansets and Moheagans; eighty to 
 Miantonimoh, twenty to Ninnigret, and the other 
 hundred to Uncas; to be received and treated as 
 their men. It was also covenanted, that the Pe- 
 quots should never more inhabit their native country 
 nor be called Pequots, but Narragansets and Mo- 
 heagans. It was also further stipulated, that neither 
 the Narragansets, nor Moheagans should possess any 
 
 part of the Pequot country without the consent of the 
 English. The Pequots were to pay a tribute at Con- 
 necticut annually, of a fathom of wampumpeag 
 for every Sannop, of half a fathom for every young 
 man, and of a hand for every male papoose. On 
 these conditions the magistrates, in behalf of the 
 colony, stipulated a firm peace with all the Indians. 
 The conquest of the Pequots struck all the In- 
 dians in New England with terror, and they were 
 possessed with such fear jf the displeasure and arms 
 of the English, that they had no open war with 
 them for nearly forty years. This happy event 
 gave great joy to the colonies; and a day of public 
 thanksgiving was appointed. 
 
 Effects of the war Great scarcity Settlement of New 
 Haven Plantation covenant Means for the de- 
 fence of the colony Captain Mason made major- 
 general Civil constitution of Connecticut, formed 
 by voluntary compact First general election at 
 
 na magistrates Irene, 
 incipal laws of the cole 
 
 rights of the people, and principal LOWS oj me colony 
 Constitution and laws of New Haven Purchase 
 and settlement of several towns in Connecticut and 
 New Haven. 
 
 (1638.) Though the war with the Pequots was 
 now happily terminated, yet the effects of it were 
 severely felt by the inhabitants ; and the conse- 
 quences were, scarcity and a debt, which, in the 
 low state of the colony, it was exceedingly difficult 
 to pay. Almost every article of food or clothing 
 was purchased at the dearest rate ; and the planters 
 had not yet reaped any considerable advantage from 
 their farms. Such a proportion of their labourers 
 had been employed in the war, and the country was 
 so uncultivated, that all the provision which had been 
 raised, or imported, was in no measure proportion- 
 ate to the wants of the people. The winter was 
 uncommonly severe, which increased the distress of 
 the colony. The snow lay from the 4th of Novem- 
 ber until the 23d of March, and it was, at some 
 times, 3 and 4 feet deep. The court at Connecti- 
 cut foreseeing that the people would be in great 
 want of bread, contracted with a Mr. Pyncheon for 
 500 bushels of Indian corn, which he was to pur- 
 chase of the Indians, and a greater quantity if it 
 could be obtained. The inhabitants were prohibited 
 to bargain for it privately, and limited to certain 
 prices, lest it should raise the price, while he was 
 making the purchase. A committee was also ap- 
 pointed by the court, to send a vessel to Narragan- 
 set, to buy of the natives in that quarter. But not- 
 withstanding every precaution which was taken, the 
 scarcity became such, that corn rose to the extra- 
 ordinary price of twelve shillings by the bushel; and 
 twelve shillings sterling at that time was doubtless 
 equal to eighteen or twenty shillings lawful money. 
 In this distressing situation a committee was sent to 
 an Indian settlement called Pocomtock, since Deer- 
 field, where they purchased such quantities, that the 
 Indians came down to Windsor and Hartford with 
 fifty canoes at one time, laden with Indian corn. 
 The people considered this as a great deliver- 
 ance ; and those who, in England, had fed on the 
 finest wheat, were thankful for such coarse fare as 
 Indian bread, for themselves and children. 
 
 In this low state of the colony, the court found it 
 necessary to order the towns immediately to furnish 
 themselves with magazines of powder, lead, and 
 shot, and every man to be completely armed, and 
 furnished with ammunition. The court were also 
 obliged to impose a tax of 550/., to be collected iin 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 651 
 
 mediately, to defray the expenses of the war ; and 
 this appears to have been the first public tax in 
 Connecticut. Agawam, since named Springfield, 
 though it sent no men to the war, yet bore its pro- 
 portion of the expense. The first secretary and 
 treasurer appears to have been Mr. Clement Chap- 
 lin ; who was authorized to issue his warrants for 
 gathering the tax which had been imposed in the 
 following ratio : Agawam, 867. 16s., Windsor, 158/. 
 2. f Hartford, 251 /. 2*., and Weathersfield 124/. 
 
 Captain John Mason was appointed major-gene- 
 ral of the militia of Connecticut ; and the reverend 
 Mr. Hooker was desired to deliver him the military 
 staff. The general was directed to call out the 
 militia of each town, ten times in a year, to in- 
 struct them in military discipline ; and received out 
 of the public treasury 40 pounds annually for his 
 services. 
 
 As it was of the highest importance to the colony 
 to cultivate peace, and a good understanding with 
 the Indians, laws were enacted to prevent all per- 
 sons from offering them the least private insult or 
 abuse. 
 
 While the planters of Connecticut were thus 
 exerting themselves in prosecuting and regulating 
 the affairs of that colony, another was projected and 
 settled at Quinnipiack, (sometimes spelt Quillipi- 
 ack, and Quinnepioke,) afterwards called New 
 Haven. On the 26th of July, 1637, Mr. John 
 Davenport, Mr. Samuel Eaton, Theophilus Eaton 
 and Edward Hopkins, Esquires, Mr. Thomas Greg- 
 son, and many others of good characters and for- 
 tunes, had arrived at Boston. Mr. Davenport had 
 been a famous minister in the city of London, and 
 was a distinguished character for piety, learning, 
 and good conduct Many of his congregation, on 
 account of the esteem which they had for his person 
 and ministry, followed him into New England. 
 Mr. Eaton and Mr. Hopkins had been merchants 
 in London, possessed great estates, and were men 
 of eminence for their abilities and integrity. The 
 fame of Mr. Davenport, and the reputation and pro- 
 perty of the principal gentlemen of this company, 
 made the people of Massachusetts exceedingly de- 
 sirous of their settlement in their state, and great 
 pains were taken, not only by particular persons 
 and towns, but by the general court, to fix them in 
 the colony. Charlestown made them large offers ; 
 and Newberry proposed to give up the whole town 
 to them ; and the general court offered them any 
 place which they should choose ; but they were de- 
 termined to plant a distinct colony. By the pursuit 
 of the Pequots to the westward, the Connecticut 
 settlers became acquainted with that fine tract along 
 the shore, from Saybrook to F airfield, and with its 
 several harbours. It was represented as fruitful, 
 and happily situated for navigation and commerce : 
 and the company therefore projected a settlemeni 
 in that part of the country. 
 
 In the autumn of 1637, Mr. Eaton, and others 
 who were of the company, made a journey to Con 
 necticut, to explore the lands and harbours on th< 
 sea-coast, and pitched upon Quinnipiack for th< 
 place of their settlement ; where they erected a 
 poor hut, in which a few men subsisted through the 
 winter. 
 
 On the 30th ef March, 1638, Mr. Davenport 
 Mr. Prudden, Mr. Samuel Eaton, and Theophilu 
 Eaton, Esq., with the people of their company, saile( 
 from Boston for Quinuipiack ; and in about a fort 
 night arrived at their desired port. On the 18th 
 of April, they kept their first Sabbath in the place 
 
 .'he people assembled under a large spreading oak, 
 ,nd Mr. Davenport preached to them from the sixth 
 hapter of Matthew. 
 
 One of the principal reasons which these colonists 
 ssigned for their removing from Massachusetts, 
 was, that they should be more out of the way and 
 rouble of a general governor of New England, who, 
 1 this time, was an object of great fear in all the 
 dantations. What foundation there was for the 
 lope of exemption from the control of a general 
 governor, by this removal, had one been sent, does 
 lot appear. It is probable that the motive which 
 md the greatest influence with the principal men, 
 was the desire of being at the head of a new govern- 
 ment, modelled, both in civil and religious matters, 
 
 reeably to their own opinions. It had been an 
 
 servation of Mr. Davenport's, that whenever a 
 reformation had been effected in the church, in any 
 part of the world, it had rested where it had been 
 eft by the reformers. It could not be advanced 
 another step. He was now embarked in a design 
 f forming a civil and religious constitution, as near 
 s possible to Scripture precept and example. The 
 rincipal gentlemen, who had followed him into 
 America, had the same views. In laying the foun- 
 lations of a new colony, there wafe a fair probability 
 that they might accommodate all matters of church 
 and commonwealth to their own feelings and senti- 
 ments. But in the Massachusetts, the principal 
 men \\ere lixed in the chief seats of government, 
 which they were likely to keep, and their civil and 
 religious polity was already formed. Besides, the 
 antinomian controversy and sentiments, which had 
 taken such root at Boston, were exceedingly dis- 
 agreeable to Mr. Davenport, and the principal gen- 
 tlemen of his company, and he had taken a decided, 
 though prudent part, against them. 
 
 Soon after they arrived at Quinnipiack, in the 
 close of a day of fasting and prayer, they entered 
 nto what they termed a plantation-covenant. In 
 this they solemnly bound themselves, "That, as in 
 matters that concern the gathering and ordering of 
 a church, so also in all public offices, which con- 
 cern civil order, as choice of magistrates and officers, 
 making and repealing laws, dividing allotments of 
 inheritance, and all things of like nature, they 
 would, all of them, be ordered by the rules which 
 the Scripture held forth to them." This was adopted 
 as a general agreement, until there should be time 
 for the people to become more intimately acquainted 
 with each other's religious views, sentiments, and 
 moral conduct ; which was supposed to be necessary 
 to prepare the way for their covenanting together, 
 as Christians, in church and state. 
 
 The aspects of nature on the country, about this 
 time, were very gloomy, and especially unfavour- 
 able to new plantations! The spring, after a long 
 and severe winter, was unusually backward. Scarcely 
 any thing grew, for several weeks. The planting 
 season was so cold that the corn rotted in the ground, 
 and the people were obliged to re-plant two or three 
 times. But at length the warm season came on, 
 and vegetation exceeded all their expectations. 
 
 On the first of June, between the hours of three 
 and four in the afternoon, there was a great and 
 memorable earthquake throughout New England. 
 It came with a report like continued thunder, or 
 the rattling of numerous coaches upon a paved 
 street. The shock was so great, that in many places, 
 the tops of the chimneys were thrown down, and the 
 pewter fell from the shelves. It shook the waters 
 and ships in the harbours, and all the adjacent 
 
652 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 islands. The duration of the sound and tremour was 
 about four minutes, and the earth was unquiet for 
 nearly twenty days. The weather was clear, the 
 wind westerly, and the course of the earthquake 
 from west to east. 
 
 The planters at Quinnipiack determined to make 
 an extensive settlement ; and, if possible, to main- 
 tain perpetual peace and friendship with the In- 
 dians. They, therefore, paid an early attention to 
 the making of such purchases and amicable treaties 
 as might most effectually answer their designs. 
 
 On the 24th of November, 1638, Theophilus 
 Eaton, Esq. Mr. Davenport, and other English 
 planters, entered into an agreement with Momau- 
 guin, sachem of that part of the country, and his 
 counsellors, respecting the lands. The articles of 
 agreement were to this effect : 
 " That Momauguin is the sole sachem of Quinni- 
 piack, and had an absolute power to alieue and 
 dispose of the same. That, in consequence of the 
 protection which he had tasted, by the English, 
 from the Peouots and Mohawks, he yielded up all 
 his right, title, and interest to all the land, rivers, 
 ponds, and trees, with all the liberties and appur- 
 tenances belonging to the same, unto Theophilus 
 Eaton, John Davenport, and others, their heirs 
 and assigns forever. He covenanted, that neither 
 he, nor his Indians, would terrify, nor disturb the 
 English, nor injure them in any of their interests ; 
 but that, in every respect, they would keep true 
 faith with them." 
 
 The English covenanted to protect Momauguin 
 and his Indians, when unreasonably assaulted and 
 terrified by other Indians ; and that they should 
 always have a sufficient quantity of land to plant 
 on, upon the east side of the harbour, between that 
 and Saybrook fort They also covenanted, that by 
 way of free and thankful retribution, they gave 
 unto the said sachem, and his council and company, 
 twelve coats of English cloth, twelve alchymy 
 spoons, twelve hatchets, twelve hoes, two dozen o 
 knives, twelve porringers, and four cases of French 
 knives and scissars. 
 
 This agreement was signed and legally executed 
 by Momauguin and his council on the one part, anc 
 Theophilus Eaton and John Davenport on the 
 other. Thomas Stanton, who was the interpreter 
 declared in the presence of God, that he had faith 
 fully acquainted the Indians with the said articles 
 and returned their answers. 
 
 In December following, they made another pur 
 chase of a large tract, which lay principally north 
 of the former', of Montowese, sou of the grea 
 sachem at Mattabeseck, ten miles in length, nortl 
 and south, and thirteen miles in breadth. It ex 
 tended eight miles east of the river Quinnipiack 
 and five miles west of it towards Hudson's river 
 and included all the lands within the ancient limit 
 of the old towns of New Haven, Branford, anc 
 Wallingford, and almost the whole contained in the 
 present limits of those towns, and of the towns o 
 East Haven, Woodbridge, Cheshire, Hamden, an 
 North Haven. For this last tract of ten miles nortl 
 and south, and thirteen east and west, the Englis 
 gave thirteen coats, and allowed the Indians grounc 
 to plant, and liberty to hunt within the lands 
 These have since been made out of the three ol 
 towns. 
 
 The New Haven adventurers were the most opu 
 lent company which came into New England, an 
 they designed to plant a capital colony. They lai 
 out their town-plat in squares, designing it for 
 
 reat and elegant city. In the centre was a large, 
 eautiful square, which was encompassed with 
 thers, making nine in the whole. 
 
 The first principal settlers were Theophilus Eaton, 
 2sq. Mr. Davenport, Mr. Samuel Eaton, Mr. 
 'homas Gregson, Mr. Robert Newman, Mr. Mat- 
 icw Gilbert, Mr. Nathaniel Turner, Mr. Thomas 
 ''ugill, Mr. Francis Newman, Mr. Stephen Good- 
 ear, and Mr. Joshua Atwater. 
 
 Mr. Eaton had been deputy-governor of the East 
 ndia company, and was three years himself in the 
 ast Indies, and had served the company so well, 
 tiat he received from them presents of great value, 
 le had also been on an embassy from the court of 
 England to the king of Denmark. He was origi- 
 ally a London merchant, who had, for many years, 
 raded to the East Indies, had obtained a great 
 state, and brought over a large sum of money into 
 "Jew England. Others were merchants of good 
 istates, and they designed to have founded a great 
 r ad ing city. 
 
 There appears no act of civil, military, or eccle- 
 iastical authority during the first year ; nor is there 
 any appearance that this colony was ever straitened 
 'or bread, as the other colonies had been. 
 
 Mr. Prudden, and his company, who came with 
 Mr. Davenport, -continued the first summer at 
 Quinnipiack, and were making preparations for the 
 ettlement of another township. 
 
 When Mr. Davenport removed to Quinnipiack, 
 VIr. Hopkins came to Hartford, and soon after in- 
 corporated with the settlers at Connecticut. 
 
 The inhabitants of the three towns upon Connec- 
 icut river, finding themselves without the limits of 
 ;he Massachusetts' patent, conceived the plan of 
 'orming themselves, by voluntary compact, into a 
 distinct commonwealth ; and on the 14th of Janu- 
 ary, 1639, all the free planters convened at Hart- 
 ? ord, and, on mature deliberation, adopted a con- 
 stitution of government. They introduce their 
 constitution, with a declaration, that for the esta- 
 blishment of order aiid government, they associated, 
 and conjoined themselves to be one public state or 
 commonwealth ; and did, for themselves and suc- 
 cessors, and such as should be, at any time joined to 
 them, confederate together, to maintain the liberty 
 and purity of the Gospel, which they professed, and 
 the discipline of the churches, according to its in- 
 stitution; and in all civil affairs, to be governed 
 according to such laws as should be made agree- 
 ably to the constitution, which they were then about 
 to adopt. 
 
 The constitution, which then follows, ordains, 
 that there shall be, annually, two general courts, 
 or assemblies ; one on the second Thursday in April, 
 and the other on the second Thursday in Septem- 
 ber : that the first shall be the court of election, 
 in which shall be annually chosen, at least, six 
 magistrates, and all other public officers. It or- 
 dains, that a governor should be chosen, distinct 
 from the six magistrates, for one year, and until 
 another should be chosen and sworn : and that the 
 governor and magistrates should be sworn to a faith- 
 ful execution of the laws of the colony, and in cases 
 in which there was no express law established, to 
 be governed by the Divine word. Agreeably to the 
 constitution, the choice of these officers was to be 
 made by the whole body of the freemen, convened 
 in general election. It provided, that all persons 
 who had been received as members of the several 
 towns, by a majority of the inhabitants, and had 
 taken the oath of fidelity to the commonwealth, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 653 
 
 should be admitted freemen of the colony. It re- 
 quired that the governor and magistrates should b 
 elected by ballot; the governor by the greates 
 number of votes, and the magistrates by a majority 
 However, it provided, that if it should so happen a 
 any time that six should not have a majority, tha 
 in such case those who had the greatest number o 
 suffrages should stand as duly elected for that year 
 No person might be governor, unless he were 
 member of some regular church, and had previousl 
 been a magistrate in the colony. Nor could an 
 man be elected to the office more than once in tw 
 years. No one could be chosen into the magistral 
 who was not a freeman of the colony, and had been 
 nominated either by the freemen or the genera 
 court. The assembly were authorized to nominal 
 in cases in which they judged it expedient. Neithe 
 the governor, nor magistrates, might execute any 
 part of their office until they had been publicl; 
 sworn, in the face of the general assembly. 
 
 The constitution also ordained, that the severa 
 towns should send their respective deputies to the 
 election : and that when it was finished, they shoul 
 proceed to do any public service, as at any othe 
 courts: and that the assembly, in September, shouk 
 be for the enacting of laws, and other public ser 
 vices. It authorized the governor, either by himsel 
 or his secretary, to issue his warrants for calling the 
 assemblies, one month at least, before the time o 
 their appointed meetings. Upon particular emer- 
 gencies, he might convene them in seventeen days_ 
 or even upon shorter notice, stating the reasons in 
 his warrant. Upon the reception of the governor's 
 warrants, in April and September, the constables 
 of the respective towns were obliged to warn all the 
 freemen to elect and send their deputies. 
 
 The constitution ordained, that the three towns 
 of Windsor, Hartford, and Weathersfield should 
 each of them send four deputies to every genera] 
 court; and that the other towns, which should be 
 added to the colony in future, should send such a 
 number as the court should determine, proportionate 
 to the body of their freemen ; declared the deputies 
 to be vested with the whole power of the respective 
 towns which they represented ; authorized them to 
 meet separately, and determine their own elections, 
 to fine any person who should obtrude himself upon 
 them, when he had not been duly chosen, and to 
 fine any of their members for disorderly conduct. 
 when they were assembled : and it further provided, 
 that in case the governor and the major part of the 
 magistrates should, upon any urgent occasion, neg- 
 lect or refuse to call an assembly, the freemen 
 should petition them to summon one ; and if, upon 
 the petition of a major part of the freemen in 
 the colony, they still refused or neglected, then 
 the constables of the several towns should, upon the 
 petition of the major part of the freemen, convoke 
 an assembly. It also ordained, that when this 
 assembly was convened, it should have power of 
 choosing a moderator ; and when it was thus formed, 
 should exercise all the powers of any other general 
 assembly. Particularly it was authorized to call 
 any court, magistrate or any other person before 
 it, and to displace, or inflict penalties according to 
 the nature oi' the offence. 
 
 All general assemblies, called by the governor, 
 were to consist of the governor, four magistrates, 
 and the major part of the deputies. When there 
 was an equal vote, the governor had a casting voice. 
 The constitution also provided, that no general 
 court should be adjourned or dissolved, without the 
 
 consent of a major part of the members : and that, 
 whenever a tax was laid upon the inhabitants, the 
 sum to be paid by each town should be determined 
 by a committee, consisting of an equal number from 
 each of the respective towns. 
 
 The form of oaths to be administered to the go- 
 vernor and magistrates was also adopted in the ge- 
 neral convention of the free planters. Such was 
 the original constitution of Connecticut, which was 
 so sensibly framed, that it has continued with little 
 alteration to the present time. 
 
 Agreeably to the constitution, the freemen con- 
 vened at Hartford, on the second Thursday in April, 
 and elected their officers for the year ensuing. John 
 Haynes, Esq. was chosen governor, and Roger 
 Ludlow, George Wyllys, Edward Hopkins, Tho- 
 mas Wells, John Webster and William Phelps, 
 Esqs., were chosen magistrates. Mr. Ludlow, the 
 first of the six magistrates, was deputy-governor. 
 Mr. Hopkins was chosen secretary, and Mr. Wells 
 treasurer. 
 
 The deputies sent to this first Connecticut ge- 
 neral assembly, were Mr. John Steele, Mr. Spen- 
 cer, Mr. John Pratt, Mr. Edward Stebbins, Mr. 
 Gaylord, Mr. Henry Wolcott, Mr. Stoughton, Mr. 
 Ford, Mr. Thurston Rayner, Mr.. James Boosy, Mr. 
 George Hubbard, and Mr. Richard Crab. 
 
 The general assembly proceeded as they had 
 leisure, and as occasion required, to enact a system 
 of laws. The laws at first were few, and time was 
 taken to consider and digest them. The first statute 
 in the Connecticut code is a kind of declaration, or 
 bill of rights. It ordains, that no man's life shall 
 be taken away ; no man's honour or good name be 
 stained ; no man's person shall be arrested, restrain- 
 ed, banished, dismembered, nor anywise punished : 
 That no man shall be deprived of his wife or child- 
 ren ; no man's goods or estate shall be taken away 
 from him, nor anywise endangered, tinder colour o'f 
 law, or countenance of authority, unless it should be 
 by the virtue of some express law of the colony 
 warranting the same, established by the general 
 court, and sufficiently published ; or in case of the 
 defect of such law, in any particular case, by some 
 clear and plain rule of the Word of God, in which 
 ;he whole court shall concur. It was also ordained, 
 hat all persons in the colony, whether inhabitants 
 or not, should enjoy the same law and justice with- 
 ut partiality or delay. These general precepts 
 bore the same aspect, and breathed the same spirit 
 of liberty and safety, with respect to the subjects 
 universally, which is exhibited in the constitution. 
 
 The planters of Quinnipiack continued more than 
 a year without any civil or religious constitution, 
 ir compact, further than had been expressed ia 
 heir plantation-covenant. 
 
 Meanwhile, Mr. Henry Witfield, William Leet, 
 3sq., Samuel Desborough, Robert Kitchel, William 
 Chittenden, and others, who were part of Mr. Daven- 
 jort's and Mr. Eaton's company, arrived from Eng- 
 and to assist them in their new settlement. These 
 vere principally from Kent and Surrey, in the vi- 
 cinity of London. Mr. Whitfield's people, like Mr. 
 Davenport's, followed him into New England. 
 There were now three ministers, with many of the 
 ncmbers of their former churches and congrega- 
 ions, collected in this infant colony, and combined 
 n the same general agreement. 
 
 On the 4th of June, all the free planters at Quin- 
 lipiack convened in a large barn of Mr. Newman's, 
 nd, in a very formal and solemn manner, proceeded 
 o lay the foundations of their civil and religious polity. 
 
654 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Mr. Davenport introduced the business, by a ser- 
 mon from the words of David, " Wisdom htih 
 builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven 
 pillars." His design was to show, that the church, 
 the house of God, should be formed of seven pillars, 
 or principal brethren, to whom all the other mem- 
 bers of the church should be added. After a solemn 
 invocation of the Divine Majesty, he proceeded to 
 represent to the planters, that they were met to con- 
 sult respecting the settlement of civil government 
 according to the will of God, and for the nomination 
 of persons, who, by universal consent, were in all 
 respects the best qualified for the foundation-work 
 of a church. He enlarged on the great importance 
 of the transactions before them, and desired that 
 no man would give his voice in any matter until he 
 fully understood it ; and that all would act without 
 respect to any man, but give their vote in the fear 
 of God. He then proposed a number of questions, 
 in consequence of which the following resolutions 
 were passed. 
 
 1. "That the Scriptures hold forth a perfect rule 
 for the direction and government of all men in all 
 duties which they are to perform to God and men, 
 as well in families and commonwealth, as in matters 
 of the church. 
 
 2. ''That as inmatters which concerned the gather- 
 ing and ordering of a church, so likewise in all 
 public offices which concern civil order, as the 
 choice of magistrates and officers, making and re- 
 pealing laws, dividing allotments of inheritance, 
 and all things of like nature, they would all be go- 
 verned by those rules which the Scripture held 
 forth to them. 
 
 3. " That all those who had desired to be received 
 as free planters, had settled in the plantation, with 
 a purpose, resolution, and desire that they might 
 be admitted into church fellowship according to 
 Christ. 
 
 4. " That all the free planters held themselves 
 bound to establish such civil order as might besi 
 conduce to the securing of the purity and peace o 
 the ordinance to themselves and their posterity ac 
 cording to God." 
 
 When these resolutions had been passed, and the 
 people had bound themselves to settle civil govern 
 ment according to the Divine word, Mr. Davenpor 
 proceeded to represent to them, what men they 
 must choose for civil rulers according to the Divine 
 word, and that they might most effectually secure 
 to them and their posterity a just, free, and peace 
 able government. Time was then given to discus 
 and deliberate upon what he had proposed. Afte 
 full discussion and deliberation, it was determined 
 
 5. "That church members only should be fre 
 burgesses ; and that they only should choose magis 
 trates among themselves, to have power of transact 
 ing all the public civil affairs of the plantation : 
 making and repealing laws, dividing inheritances 
 deciding of differences that may ariee, and doing 
 things and businesses of like nature." 
 
 That civil officers might be chosen, and govern 
 ment proceed according to these resolutions, it wa 
 necessary that a church should be formed. With 
 out this there could be neither freemen nor magis 
 trates. Mr. Davenport therefore proceeded to mak 
 proposals relative to the formation of it, in such 
 manner, that no blemish might be left on the " be 
 gainings of church work." It was then resolved t 
 this effect : 
 
 6. " That twelve men should be chosen, that the 
 fitness for the foundation-work might be tried, an 
 
 at it should be in the power of those twelve men 
 choose seven to begin the church." 
 It wai agreed that if seven men could not be 
 und among the twelve qualified for the foundation- 
 ork, that such other persons should be taken into 
 e number, upon trial, as should be judged most 
 uitable. The form of a solemn charge, or oath, 
 as drawn up and agreed upon at this meeting to 
 e given to all the freemen. 
 
 Further, it was ordered, that all persons, who 
 .ould be received as free planters of that corpora- 
 on, should submit to the fundamental agreement 
 bove related, and in testimony of their submission 
 lould subscribe their names among the freemen, 
 ixty-three subscribed on the 4th of June, and there 
 ere added soon after about fifty other names, 
 ^.fter a proper term of trial, Theophilus Eaton, Esq., 
 dr. John Davenport, Robert Newman, Matthew 
 ilbert, Thomas Fugill, John Punderson, and Jere- 
 iah Dixon, were chosen for the seven pillars of 
 ne church. 
 
 October 25th, 1639, the court, as it is termed, 
 onsisting of these seven persons only, convened, 
 nd after a solemn religious address, they proceeded 
 o form the body of freemen, and to elect their civil 
 fficers. 
 
 In the first place, all former trust, for managing 
 tie public affairs of the plantation, was declared to 
 ease, and be utterly abrogated. Then all those 
 who had been admitted to the church after the 
 gathering of it, in the choice of the seven pillars, 
 md all the members of other approved churches, 
 vho desired it, and offered themselves, were admit- 
 ed members of the court A solemn charge was 
 hen publicly given them, to the same effect as the 
 reemen's charge, or oath, which they had pre- 
 riously adopted. The purport of this was nearly 
 he same with the oath of fidelity, and with the free- 
 men's administered at the present time. Mr. Da- 
 venport expounded several Scripture texts to them, 
 describing the character of civil magistrates given 
 n the sacred oracles. To this succeeded the elect- 
 on of officers. Theophilus Eaton, Esq. was chosen 
 governor, Mr. Robert Newman, Mr. Matthew Gil- 
 >ert, Mr. Nathaniel Turner, and Mr. Thomas Fu- 
 ill, were chosen magistrates. Mr. Fugill was also 
 chosen secretary, and Robert Seely, marshal. 
 
 Mr. Davenport gave Governor Eaton a charge in 
 open court, from Deuteronomy i. 16, 17, "And I 
 charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the 
 causes between your brethren, and judge righteously 
 between every man and his brother, and the stranger 
 that is with him. Ye shall not respect persons in 
 judgment, but ye shall hear the small as well as the 
 !jreat ; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man, for 
 the judgment is God's : and the cause that is too 
 bard for you, bring it unto me and I will hear it." 
 
 It was decreed, by the freemen, that there should 
 be a general court annually, in the plantation, on 
 the last week in October, which was ordained a 
 court of election in which all the officers of the 
 colony were to be chosen. This court determined, 
 that the Word of God should be the only rule for 
 ordering the affairs of government in that common- 
 wealth. 
 
 This was the original constitution of New Haven. 
 All government was originally in the church, and 
 the members of the church elected the governor, 
 magistrates, and all other officers. The magistrates, 
 at first, were no more than assistants of the governor, 
 and they could not act in every sentence or determina- 
 tion of the court. No deputy governor was chosen, nor 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 655 
 
 were any laws enacted except the general resolutions 
 which have been noticed ; but as the plantation en- 
 larged, and new towns were settled, new orders 
 were given ; the general court received a new form, 
 laws were enacted, and the civil polity of this juris- 
 diction gradually advanced, in its essential parts, to 
 a near resemblance of the government of Connecticut. 
 
 While these affairs were transacted at Quinni- 
 piack, or New Haven, plantations commenced at 
 Wopowage and Menunkatuck, now named Milford 
 and Guilford. Wopowage was purchased February 
 12th, 1639, and Menunkatuck the September fol- 
 lowing, and both were settled this year. The 
 churches of Mr. Prudden and Mr. Whitfield were 
 formed upon the plan of Mr. Davenport's; each 
 consisting of seven principal men, or pillars ; and 
 they appear to have been gathered at the same time. 
 The planters were in the original agreement made 
 in Mr. Newman's barn, on the 4th of June. The 
 principal men or pillars in the town of Wopowage 
 were Mr. Peter Prudden, William Fowler, Edmund 
 Tapp, Zechariah Whitman, Thomas Buckingham, 
 Thomas Welch, and John Astwood. The principal 
 planters of Menunkatuck were Henry Whitfield, 
 Robert Kitchel, William Leet, Samuel Desborough, 
 William Chittenclen, John Bishop, and John Caf- 
 finge. The lands in Milford and Guilford, as well 
 as in New Haven, were purchased by these princi- 
 pal men, in trust, for all the inhabitants of the re- 
 spective towns and townships. Every planter, after 
 paying his proportionate part of the expenses, arising 
 from laying out and settling the plantation, drew a 
 lot or lots of land, in proportion to the money or 
 estate which he had expended in the general pur- 
 chase, and to the number of heads in his family. 
 These principal men were judges in the respective 
 towns, composing a court, to judge between man 
 and man, divide inheritances and punish offences 
 according to the written word, until a body of laws 
 should be established. 
 
 Most of the principal settlers of Milford were 
 from Weathersfield. They first purchased of the 
 Indians all that tract which lies between New Haven 
 and Stratford river, and between the sound on the 
 south, and a stream called Two-mile brook on the 
 north, which is the boundary line between Milford 
 and Derby. This tract comprised all the lands 
 within the' old township of Milford, and a small part 
 of the township of Woodbridge. The planters made 
 other purchases which included a large tract on the 
 west side of Stratford river, principally in the town- 
 ship of Huntingtoa. In the first township meeting 
 in Milford the number of free planters, or of church 
 members, was forty-four. 
 
 It may not be improper here to notice that the 
 word "town" when used of settlements in the United 
 States, is generally synonymous with the English 
 word "township," it including a district round the 
 principal village ; which is mostly, but not always, 
 of the same name as the township. 
 
 The Indians were so numerous in this plantation, 
 that the English judged it necessary for their own 
 safety, to compass the whole town-plat, including 
 nearly a mile square, with a fortification. It was 
 so closely enclosed with strong palisadoes, as entirely 
 to exclude the Indians from that part of the town. 
 
 The purchasers of Guilford agreed with the In- 
 dians, that they should move off from the lands 
 which they had purchased ; and according to agree- 
 ment they soon all removed from the plantation. 
 
 The number of the first free planters appears to 
 have been about forty. They were all husbandmen 
 
 and it was at great expense and trouble that they 
 obtained even a blacksmith to settle in the planta- 
 tion. As they were from Surrey and Kent, in Eng- 
 land, they took much pains to find a tract of land 
 resembling that from which they had removed. 
 They therefore finally pitched upon Guilford, which, 
 toward the sea, where they made the principal set- 
 tlement, was low, moist, rich land, liberal indeed to 
 the husbandman, especially the great plain south of 
 the town, which had been already cleared and en- 
 riched by the natives. The vast quantities of shells 
 and manure, which, in a course of ages, they had 
 brought upon it from the sea, had contributed much 
 to the natural richness of the soil. There were also 
 nearly adjoining to this, several necks, or points of 
 land, near the sea, clear, rich, and fertile, prepared 
 for immediate improvement. These, with the in- 
 dustry of the inhabitants, soon afforded them a com- 
 fortable subsistence. 
 
 At the same time when these settlements com- 
 menced, two new ones were made under the juris- 
 diction of Connecticut. 
 
 Mr. Ludlow, who went with the troops in pursuit 
 of the Pequots, to Sasco, the great swamp in Fair- 
 field, was so pleased with that fine tract of country, 
 that he soon projected the scheme of a settlement 
 in that part of the colony; and this jear, he, with 
 a number of others, began a plantation at Un- 
 quowa, which was the Indian name of the town. 
 At first there were but about eight or ten families, 
 who, probably, removed from Windsor, with Mr. 
 Ludlow, who was the principal planter. Very soon 
 after, another company came from Watertown and 
 united with Mr. Ludlow and the people from Wind- 
 sor. A third company removed into the plantation 
 from Concord ; so that the inhabitants soon became 
 numerous, and formed themselves into a distinct 
 township, under the jurisdiction of Connecticut. 
 The first adventurers purchased a large tract of 
 land of the natives, and soon after Connecticut ob- 
 tained charter privileges, the general assembly 
 gave them a patent. The township comprises the 
 four parishes of Fairfield, Green's Farms, Green- 
 field and Reading ; and part of the parish of Strat- 
 field. The lands in this tract are excellent, and at 
 an early period the town became wealthy and re- 
 spectable. 
 
 Settlements commenced the same year at Cup- 
 heag and Pughquonnuck, since named Stratford. 
 That part which contains the town-plat, and lies 
 upon the river, was called Cupheag, and the west- 
 ern part, bordering on Fairfield, Pughquonnuck. 
 It appears that settlements were made in both these 
 places at the same time. Mr. Fairchild, who was 
 a principal planter, and the first gentleman in the 
 town vested with civil authority, came directly 
 from England. Mr. John and Mr. William Curtiss 
 and Mr. Samuel Hawley were from Roxbury, and 
 Mr. Joseph Judson and Mr. Timothy Wilcoxson 
 from Concord, in Massachusetts. These were the 
 first principal persons in the town and church of 
 Stratford. A few years after the settlement com- 
 menced, Mr. John Birdseye removed from Milford, 
 and became a man of eminence both in the town 
 and church. There were also several of the chief 
 planters from Boston, and Mr. Samuel Wells, with 
 his three sons, John, Thomas and Samuel, from 
 Weathersfield. Mr. Adam Blackman, who had 
 been episcopally ordained in England, and a 
 preacher of some" note, first at Leicester, and after 
 wards in Derbyshire, was their minister, and one 
 of the first planters. It is said that he was fol- 
 
656 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 lowed by a number of adherents into this country, 
 to whom he was so dear, that they said to him, in 
 the language of Ruth, " Intreat us not to leaye 
 thee, for whither thou goest we will go; thy people 
 shall be our people, and thy God our God." These, 
 doubtless, collected about him in this infant settlement. 
 
 The whole township was purchased of the natives, 
 but, at first, Cupheag and Pughquonnuck only ; 
 where the settlements began. The purchase was 
 not completed until 1672; and there was a reser- 
 vation of good lands at Pughquonnuck, Golden-hill, 
 and another place, called Coram, for the improve- 
 ment of the Indians. 
 
 The township is bounded upon the east by the 
 Housatonick, or Stratford river ; on the south by 
 the Sound ; by Fairfield on the west ; and New- 
 town on the north. It comprises the four parishes 
 of Stratford, Ripton, North Stratford and New 
 Stratford, and a considerable part of Stratfield. The 
 lands in this town, like those inFairfield, are good,and 
 its situation is exceedingly beautiful and agreeable. 
 
 While these plantations were forming in the 
 south-western part of Connecticut, another com- 
 menced on the west side of the mouth of Connecti- 
 cut river. A fort had been built here in 1G35 and 
 1636, and preparations had been made for the re- 
 ception of persons of property ; but the war with 
 the Pequots, the uncultivated state of the country, 
 and the low condition of the colony, prevented 
 people coming from England, to take possession of 
 a township, and make settlements in this tract ; 
 and until this time, there had been only a garrison 
 of about twenty men in the place, who had made 
 some small improvement of the lands, and erected a 
 few buildings in the vicinity of the fort. But about 
 Midsummer, Mr. George Fenwick, with his wife 
 and family, arrived in a ship of 250 tons ; and 
 another ship came in company with him ; both des- 
 tined to Quinnipiack. Mr: Fenwick and others 
 came over with a view to take possession of a large 
 tract upon the river, in behalf of their lordships, the 
 original patentees, and to plant a town at the mouth 
 of the river. A settlement was soon made, and 
 named Saybrook, in honour of their lordships, Say 
 and Seal and Brook. Mr. Fenwick, Mr. Thomas 
 Peters,(who was the first minister in the plantation,) 
 Captain Gardiner, Thomas Leffingwell, Thomas 
 Tracy, and Captain John Mason, were some of the 
 principal planters ; but the names of Hunting- 
 ton, Baldwin, Reynolds, Backus, Bliss, Waterman, 
 Hyde, Post, Smith, and almost all the names af- 
 terwards to be found at Norwich, are to be found 
 among the first inhabitants of Saybrook. The go- 
 vernment of the town was entirely independent of 
 Connecticut, for nearly ten years, until after the 
 purchase made of Mr. Fenwick in 1644. It was 
 first taxed bv the colony in the October session, 
 1645; and it appears by the tax imposed, that the 
 proportion of the towns of Hartford, Windsor, and 
 Weathersfield, were to this as six to one. The 
 settlement did not increase to any considerable de- 
 gree until about the year 1646, when Mr. James 
 Fitch, a young gentleman, was ordained to the 
 pastoral care of the church and congregation ; and 
 a considerable number of families from Hartford 
 and Windsor removed and made settlements in the 
 township. Irs original boundaries extended east- 
 ward five miles beyond the river, and from its mouth 
 northward six miles ; including a considerable part 
 of the town of Lyme ; westward they extended to 
 Hammonasset, the Indian name of the tract com- 
 prised in the limits of Killingworth, and north 
 
 eight miles from the sea. Mr. Fenwick and Cap- 
 tain Mason were magistrates, and had the prin- 
 cipal government of the to'.vn. 
 
 Great difficulties had arisen the last vear be- 
 tween the English at Pyquaug, now Weathersfield, 
 and Sowheag and his Indians. It was discovered 
 that some of the Indians of Pyquaug, under Sow- 
 heag, had been aiding the Pequots in the destruc- 
 tion which they had made there the preceding year, 
 and were instrumental in bringing them against the 
 town. Sowheag entertained the murderers, and 
 treated the people of Weathersfield with haughtiness 
 and insult. The court at Connecticut, on hearing 
 the differences, determined, that, as the English at 
 Weathersfield had been the aggressors, and gave 
 the first provocation, the injuries which Sowheag 
 had done should be forgiven, and that he should, 
 on his good conduct for the future, be restored to 
 their friendship. Mr. Stone and Mr. Goodwin were 
 appointed a committee to compromise all differences 
 with him. However, as Sowheag could not, by 
 any arguments, or fair means, be persuaded to give 
 up the murderers, but continued his outrages against 
 the English, the court, this year, determined that 
 a hundred men should be sent down to Mattabeseck, 
 to take the delinquents by force of arms. The court 
 ordered that their friends at Quinnipiack should 
 be certified of this resolution, that they might adopt 
 the measures necessary for the defence of the plant- 
 ations. It was also determined to have theirhadvice 
 and consent in an affair of such general concernment. 
 
 Governor Eaton and his council fully approved of 
 the design of bringing the delinquents to con- 
 dign punishment ; but they disapproved of the man- 
 ner proposed by Connecticut. They feared that it 
 would be introductive of a new Indian war; which 
 they represented would greatly endanger the new- 
 settlements, and be many ways injurious and 
 distressing; as they wanted peace, and all their 
 men and money, to prosecute the design of planting 
 the country. They also represented that a new war 
 would not only injure the plantations in these re- 
 spects, but would prevent the coming over of new 
 planters, whom they expected from England ; and 
 they were, therefore, determinately against seeking 
 redress by an armed force ; and Connecticut, 
 through their influence, receded from the resolution 
 which they had formed with respect to Sowheag 
 and Mattabeseck. 
 
 Nevertheless, as the Pequots had violated their 
 covenant, and settled at Pawcatuck, in the Pequot 
 country, the court dispatched Major Mason, with 
 forty men, to drive them off, burn their wigwams, 
 and bring away their corn. Uncas, with a hundred 
 men and twenty canoes, assisted in the enterprise. 
 When they arrived at Pawcatuck bay, Major Ma- 
 son met with three of the Pequot Indians, and sent 
 them to inform the others of the design of his com- 
 ing, and what he should do, unless they would 
 peaceably desert the place ; they promised to give 
 him an immediate answer, but never returned. 
 
 The major sailed up a small river, landed, and 
 beset the wigwams so suddenly, that the Indians 
 were unable to carry off either their corn or trea- 
 sures ; and some of the old men had not time to 
 make their escape. As it was now the Indian har- 
 vest, he found a great plenty of coin. 
 
 While Uncas's Indians were plundering the wig- 
 wams, about sixty others came rushing down a hill 
 towards them. The Moheagans stood perfectly 
 still, and spoke not a word, until they came within 
 about thirty yards of them; then, shouting and 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 G57 
 
 yelling, in their terrible manner, they ran to meet 
 them, and fell upon them striking with bows and 
 cutting with knives and hatchets, in their mode oi 
 fighting. The Major made a movement to cut off 
 their retreat, which they perceived, and instantly 
 fled ; but as it was not desired to kill, or irritate them 
 more than was absolutely necessary, the English 
 did not fire upon them. Seven were captured ; and 
 they behaved so outrageously, that it was designed 
 to take off their heads ; but one Otash, a Narragan- 
 set sachem, brother to Miantonimoh, pleaded that 
 they might be spared, because they were his bro- 
 ther's men, who was a friend to the English. He 
 offered to deliver the heads of so many murderers 
 in lieu of them ; and considering that no blood had 
 been shed, and that the proposal tended both to 
 mercy and peace, the request was granted, and 
 they were committed to the care of Uncas until the 
 conditions should be performed. 
 
 The light of the next morning no sooner appeared, 
 than it discovered 300 Indians in arms on the oppo- 
 site side of the creek ; who, alarmed at the appear- 
 ance of the settlers, fled, and secreted themselves 
 behind rocks and trees. The colonists called to 
 them, representing their desire of speaking with 
 them; and Major Mason acquainted them with the 
 Pequots' breach of covenant with the English, as 
 they were not to settle or plant in any part of their 
 country. The Indians replied, that the Pequots 
 were good men, and that they would fight for them, 
 and protect them. Major Mason replied, it was not 
 far to the head of the creek ; that he would meet 
 them there, and they might try what they could do 
 at fighting; to which the Indians answered, they 
 would not fight with Englishmen, for they were 
 spirits ; but they would fight with Uncas.' The 
 Major assured them, that he should spend the day 
 in burning wigwams, and carrying off the corn, and 
 they might fight when they had an opportunity. 
 The colonists beat up their drums, and fired the'ir 
 wigwams ; and then loaded their bark with Indian 
 corn ; and Uncas's Indians, the twenty canoes in 
 which they passed to Pawcatuck, and thirty more, 
 which they took from the Indians there, with kettles, 
 trays, mats, and other Indian luggage, and returned 
 in safety. 
 
 During those transactions in Connecticut, the 
 Dutch, at New Netherlands, were increasing in 
 numbers and strength. A new governor, William 
 Kieft, a man of 'ability and enterprise, had arrived 
 at their seat of government ; and had prohibited the 
 English trade at the fort of Good Hope, in Hartford, 
 and protested against the settlement at Quinnipiack. 
 These circumstances gave some alarm to the settlers 
 in Connecticut ; and the court at Hartford appoint- 
 ed a committee to go down to the mouth of the river, 
 to consult with Mr. Fenwick, relative to a general 
 confederation of the colonies, for mutual offence 
 and defence. The Deputy-governor Mr. Ludlow, 
 Mr, Thomas Wells, and Mr. Hooker, went upon this 
 business ; and they were also instructed to confer 
 with Mr. Fenwick relative to the patent. The 
 court approved of the conduct of the committee ; 
 and with respect to the article of confederation, de- 
 clared its willingness to enter into a mutual agree- 
 ment of offence and defence, and of all offices of 
 love between the colonies. Mr. Fenwick was in 
 favour of a union of the New England colonies ; 
 but with respect to the patent of the river, it was 
 agreed that the affair should rest until the minds 
 of the noblemen and gentlemen particularly inter- 
 ested could be more fully known. 
 HIST. OF AMER. Nos. 83 84. 
 
 Governor Hayues and Mr. Wells were appointed 
 to repair to Pughquonnuck, and administer the oath 
 of fidelity to the inhabitants ; to admit such of them 
 as were qualified to the privileges of freemen ; and 
 to appoint officers for the town, both civil and mili- 
 tary ; and they were also authorized to invite the 
 freemen to send their deputies to the general courts 
 at Hartford. It was not unusual for the general as- 
 sembly to fine its members. Mr. Ludlow, the 
 deputy-governor, was fined for absence, and for his 
 conduct at Pughquonnuck ; and it was, probably, 
 on account of the displeasure of the court towards 
 him that this committee was appointed. 
 
 At an adjourned general assembly, the court in- 
 corporated the several towns in the colonies, vesting 
 them with full powers to transact their own affairs. 
 It was enacted, that they should have power to 
 choose, from among themselves, three, five, or seven 
 of their principal men, to be a court for each town. 
 One of the three, five, or seven, was to be chosen 
 moderator. The major part of them, always includ- 
 ing him, constituted a quorum. A casting voice 
 was allowed him, in cases in which there was an. 
 equal division. He, or any two of the court, were 
 authorized to summon the parties to appear at the 
 time and place appointed, and might grant execu- 
 tion against the party offending. They were au- 
 thorized to determine all matters of trespass or debt, 
 not exceeding forty shillings. An appeal might be 
 made from this court, at any time before execution 
 was given out ; and it was appointed to sit once in 
 two months. 
 
 It was ordained, that every town should keep a 
 public ledger, in which every man's house and 
 lands, with the boundaries and quantity, according 
 to the nearest estimation, should be recorded. All 
 lands also granted and measured to any man after- 
 wards, and all bargains and mortgages of lands 
 were to be put on record, and until this was done 
 they were to be of no validity. The towns were 
 also empowered to dispose of their own lands ; which 
 was the origin of the privileges of particular towns 
 "n Connecticut. 
 
 Besides the court in each town, there was the 
 court of magistrates, termed the particular court, 
 which held a session once in three months. To this 
 ay all appeals from the other courts ; and in this 
 were tried all criminal causes, and actions of debt 
 exceeding forty shillings, and all titles of land. In- 
 deed, this court possessed all the authority, and did 
 all the business now possessed and done by the 
 county and superior courts ; and for a considerable 
 time they were vested with such discretionary powers, 
 as none of the courts at this day would venture to 
 exercise. 
 
 Nepaupuck, a famous Pequot chieftain, who had 
 frequently stained his hands in English blood, was 
 condemned by the general court at Quinnipiack, 
 for murder. It appeared, that in the year 1637, he 
 killed John Finch, of Weathersfield, and captured 
 one of Mr. Swain's daughters; and that he had also 
 assisted in killing the three men, who were going 
 down Connecticut river in a shallop. His head 
 was cut off, and set upon a pole in the market-place. 
 It will, doubtless, hardly be granted, in this en- 
 lightened age, that the subjects of princes, killing 
 men by their orders, in war, ought to be treated as 
 murderers ; and though the first planters of New 
 England and Connecticut were men of eminent 
 piety and strict morals, yet, like other good men, 
 they were subject to misconception and influence of 
 passion. Their beheading sachems, whom they 
 
 3P 
 
658 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 took in war, killing the male captives, and enslav- 
 ing the women and children of the Pequots, after 
 it was finished, was treating them with a cruelty 
 which, on the benevolent principles of Cnristianity, 
 it will be difficult ever to justify. The executing 
 of all those as murderers who were active in killing 
 any of the English people, and obliging all the In- 
 dian nations to bring in such persons, or their 
 heads, was an act of severity unpractised at this day 
 by civilized and Christian nations ; and the decapi- 
 tation of their enemies, and the setting their heads 
 upon poles, was a kind of barbarous triumph, too 
 nearly symbolizing with the examples of uncivilized 
 nations. The further we are removed from every 
 resemblance of these, and the more deeply we im- 
 bibe those divine precepts, " Love your enemies : 
 Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, 
 do ye even so to them," the greater will be our 
 dignity and happiness. 
 
 The progress of purchase, settlement, and law, in the 
 colonies of Connecticut and New Haven The efftct 
 of the conquest of the Pequots on the natives, and 
 the manner in which tliey were treated Purchases 
 of them Towns settled Divisions at Weather sfield 
 occasion the settlement of Stamford Contests with 
 the Dutch and Indians 'Capital laws of Connecti- 
 cutThe confederation of the United Colonies 
 Further contests with the Indians Precautions of 
 the colonies to prevent war The Dutch apply to 
 New Haven for assistance, 
 
 (1640.) Although the conquest of the Pequots 
 extended the claim of Connecticut, to a great pro- 
 portion of the lands in the settled part of the colony, 
 yet to remove all grounds of complaint or uneasi- 
 ness, the English planters made fair purchases of 
 almost the whole tract of country within the settled 
 part of Connecticut. 
 
 After the conquest of the Pequots, in consequence 
 of the covenant made with Uncas, in 1638, and the 
 gift of a hundred Pequots to him, he became im- 
 portant. A considerable number of Indians col- 
 lected to him, so that he became one of the principal 
 sachems in Connecticut, and even in New England ; 
 and he was able to raise four or five hundred war- 
 riors. As the Pequots were now conquered, and as 
 he assisted in the conquest, and was a Pequot him- 
 self, he laid claim to all that extensive tract called 
 the Moheagan or Pequot country. Indeed, it seems 
 he claimed, and was allowed to sell some part of 
 that tract which was the principal seat of the Pe- 
 quots. The sachems in other parts of Connecticut, 
 who had been conquered by the Pequots, and made 
 their allies, or tributaries, considered themselves, 
 by the conquest of this haughty nation, as restored 
 to their former rights. They claimed to be inde- 
 pendent sovereigns, and to have a title to all the 
 lands which they had at any time before possessed. 
 The planters, therefore, to show their justice, and 
 to maintain the peace of the country, from time to 
 time, purchased of the respective sachems and their 
 Indians all the lands which they settled, excepting 
 the towns of New London, Groton, and Stonington, 
 which were considered as the peculiar seat of the 
 Pequot nation. The inhabitants of Windsor, Hart- 
 ford, and Weathersfield, either at the time of their 
 settlement, or soon after, bought all those extensive 
 tracts which they settled, of the native original pro- 
 prietors of the country. Indeed, Connecticut plant- 
 ers generally made repeated purchases of their 
 lands. The colony not only bought the Moheagan 
 country of Uncas, but afterwards all the particular 
 
 towns were purchased again, either of him or his 
 successors, when the settlements in them commenced. 
 Besides, the colony was often obliged to renew its 
 leagues with Uncas and his successors, the Moheagan 
 sachems ; and to make new presents and take new 
 deeds, to keep friendship with the Indians and pre- 
 serve the peace of the country : and was obliged to 
 defend Uncas from his enemies, which was an oc- 
 casion of no small trouble and expense. The laws 
 obliged the inhabitants of the several towns to re- 
 serve to the natives a sufficient quantity of planting 
 ground; and they were allowed to hunt and fish 
 upon all the lands no less than the English. 
 
 The colonies made laws for their protection from 
 insult and fraud ; and the inhabitants suffered them to 
 erect wigwams, and to live on the very lands which 
 they had purchased of them ; and to cut their fire- 
 wood on their uniuclosed lands, for more than a 
 whole century after the settlements began. The 
 lands, therefore, though really worth nothing at that 
 time, cost the planters very considerable sums, be- 
 sides the purchase of their patents and the right of 
 pre-emption. 
 
 In purchasing the lands and making settlements, 
 in a wilderness, the first planters of Connecticut 
 expended great estates. It has been the opinion 
 of the best judges, who have had the most perfect 
 acquaintance with the ancient affairs of the colony, 
 that many of the adventurers expended more, in 
 making settlements in Connecticut, than all the 
 lands and buildings were worth, after all the im- 
 provements which they had made upon them. 
 
 At the general election in Connecticut, this year, 
 Mr. Hopkins was chosen governor, and Mr. Haynes 
 deputy-governor ; and Mr. Ludlow was chosen ma- 
 gistrate in the place of Mr. Hopkins. The other 
 magistrates were the same who were elected the 
 last year; and the same governor, deputy-governor 
 and magistrates, who were in office at New Haven 
 the last year, were re-elected for this. 
 
 As the colonists, both in Connecticut and New 
 Haven, were the patentees of Lord Say and Seal, 
 Lord Brook, and the other gentlemen interested in 
 the old Connecticut patent, and as that patent 
 covered a large tract of country, both colonies were 
 desirous of securing the native title to the lauds, 
 with all convenient dispatch ; and several large pur- 
 chases were made this year both by Connecticut 
 and New Haven. 
 
 Connecticut made presents to Uncas, the Mohea- 
 
 fan sachem, to his satisfaction, and on the 1st of 
 eptember, 1640, obtained of him a clear and ample 
 deed of all his lands in Connecticut, except the 
 lands which were then planted. These he reserved 
 for himself and the Mohcagans. The same year, 
 Governor Haynes, in behalf of Hartford, made a 
 purchase of Tunxis, including the towns of Farm- 
 ington and Southington, and extending westward 
 as far as the Mohawk country. 
 
 The people of Connecticut, about the same time, 
 purchased Waranoke and soon began a plantation 
 there, since called Westfield. Governor Hopkins 
 erected a trading-house, and had a considerable in- 
 terest in the plantation. 
 
 Mr. Ludlow made a purchase of the pastern part 
 of Norwalk, between Saugatuck and Norwalk rivers ; 
 Captain Patrick bought the middle part of the town- 
 ship, and a few families seem to have planted them- 
 selves in about the time of these purchases ; but 
 it was not properly settled until about the year 1651, 
 when the planters made a purchase of the western 
 part. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 659 
 
 About the same time, Robert Feaks and Daniel j 
 Patrick bought Greenwich, which purchase was 
 made in behalf of New Haven, but through the in- 
 trigue of the Dutch governor, and the treachery of 
 the purchasers, the first inhabitants revolted to the 
 Dutch. They were incorporated and vested with 1 
 town privileges by Peter Stuyvesant, governor of! 
 New Netherlands. The inhabitants were driven ' 
 off by the Indians, in their war with the Dutch, and 
 made no great progress in the settlement until after 
 Connecticut obtained the charter, and they were 
 taken under the jurisdiction of this colony. 
 
 Captain Howe and other Englishmen, in behalf 
 of Connecticut, purchased a large tract of the In- 
 dians, the original proprietors, on Long Island. 
 This tract extended from the eastern part of Oyster 
 bay to the western part of Howe's or Holines's 
 bay to the middle of the great plain. It lay on the 
 northern part of the island and extended southward 
 about half its breadth. Settlements were immedi- 
 ately begun upon the lands ; and by the year 1642, 
 had made considerable advancement. 
 
 New Haven made a purchase of all the lands 
 at Rippowams, of Ponus and Toquamske, the two 
 sachems of that tract, which contained the whole 
 town of Stamford. A reservation of planting ground 
 was made for the Indians. 
 
 Another large purchase, sufficient for a number 
 of plantations, was made by Captain Turner, agent 
 for New Haven, on both sides of Delaware bay or 
 river, with a view to trade, and for the settlement 
 of churches. The colony of New Haven erected 
 trading-houses upon the lands, and sent nearly fifty 
 families to make settlements upon them. The 
 settlements were made under the jurisdiction of 
 New Haven, and in close combination with that 
 colony in all their fundamental articles. 
 
 It also appears that New Haven, or their con- 
 federates, purchased and settled Yennycock, South- 
 hold, on Long Island; and Mr. John Youngs, who 
 had been a minister at Hingham in England, came 
 over, with a considerable part of his church, and 
 here fixed his residence. He gathered his church 
 anew, on the 21st of October, and the planters 
 united themselves with New Haven ; however, they 
 soon departed from the rule of appointing none to 
 office, or of admitting none to be freemen, but mem- 
 bers of the church. New Haven insisted on this as 
 a fundamental article of their constitution, and they 
 were, therefore, for a time obliged to conform to 
 this law of the jurisdiction. Some of the principal 
 men were the Reverend Mr. Youngs, Mr. William 
 Wells, Mr. Barnabas Horton, Thomas Mapes, 
 John Tuthill and Matthias Corwin. 
 
 Laws were enacted, both by Connecticut and 
 New Haven, prohibiting all purchases of the In- 
 dians, by private persons, or companies, without 
 the consent of their respective general courts. These 
 were to authorize and direct the manner of every 
 purchase. 
 
 The general court, at New Haven, this year, made 
 a grant of Totoket to Mr. Samuel Eaton, brother 
 of Governor Eaton, upon condition of his procuring 
 a number of his friends, from England, to make a 
 settlement in that tract of country. 
 
 At this court it was decreed, that the plantation 
 at Quinnipiack should be called New Haven. 
 
 (1641.) At the general election, this year, at 
 Hartford, John Haynes, Esq. was chosen governor, 
 and George Wyllys, Esq. deputy-governor. Mr. 
 Hopkins was chosen magistrate, and the other prin- 
 cipal officers were re-elected. 
 
 The brethren of the cLuich at Weathersfield 
 removed without their pastor, the Rev. Mr. Phil- 
 lips ; and, having no settled minister at first, fell 
 into unhappy contentions and animosities; which 
 continued for a number of years, and divided the 
 inhabitants of the town, as well as the brethren of 
 the church ; and they were the means of scattering 
 the inhabitants, and of the formation of new settle- 
 ments and churches in other places. Great pains 
 were taken, by the ministers on the river, to com- 
 pose the differences and unite the church and town ; 
 but they were unable to effect a union ; and Mr. 
 Davenport and some of the brethren of the church 
 at New Haven were sent for, to advise and attempt 
 a reconciliation ; who gave advice somewhat differ- 
 ent from that which had been given by the minis- 
 ters and churches on the river ; and, it seems, sug- 
 gested the expediency of one of the parties removing 
 and making a new settlement, if they could not by 
 any means be united among themselves. Some 
 were pleased with the advice, others disliked it, and 
 the parties could not agree which of them should 
 remove. The church, which consisted of seven 
 members only, was divided three against four. The 
 three claimed to be the church, and therefore 
 pleaded, that they ought not to remove, but the 
 four, as they were the majority, insisted that it was 
 their right to stay. 
 
 The church at Watertown,as they had not dis- 
 missed their brethren at Weathersfield, from their 
 care, judged it their duty to make them a visit, 
 and to attempt to heal the divisions which had 
 sprung up among them. For this benevolent pur- 
 pose, several of the brethren made a journey to 
 Connecticut ; but they succeeded no better in their 
 endeavours than those who had been before them. 
 It now appeared to be the opinion, that it was ex- 
 pedient for one of the parties to remove, but it 
 could not be agreed which of them should be ob- 
 liged igain to make a new settlement. At length 
 a number of principal men, who were the most 
 pleased with the advice of Mr. Davenport and the 
 New Haven brethren, and to whom the govern- 
 ment of that colony was most agreeable, determined 
 to remove, and settle in combination with New 
 Haven. 
 
 Therefore, Mr. Andrew Ward and Mr. Robert 
 Coe of Weathersfield, in behalf of themselves and 
 about twenty other planters, purchased Rippowams 
 of New Haven ; and the whole number obliged 
 themselves to remove, with their families, the next 
 year, before the last November. This spring the 
 settlement commenced. The principal planters 
 were the Rev. Mr. Richard Dentou, Mr. Matthew 
 Mitchel, Mr. Thurston Rayner, Mr. Andrew Ward, 
 Mr. Robert Coe, and Mr. Richard Gildersleve. Mr. 
 Denton was among the first planters of the town, 
 and continued their minister about three or four 
 years. After that time he removed with part of his 
 church and congregation to Hempstcd ; and set- 
 tled that town about the year 1643 or 1644. 
 
 At the general election, this year, (1641,) in 
 New Haven, Theophilus Eaton, Esq. was chosen 
 governor, and Mr. Stephen Goodyear deputy-go- 
 vernor. The magistrates were Mr. Gregson, Mr. 
 Robert Newman, Mr. Matthew Gilbert, and Mr. 
 Wakeman ; and Thomas Fugill was appointed 
 secretary, and Mr. Gregson treasurer. 
 
 Upon the general election, (1642,) at Hartford, 
 there was a considerable change with respect to 
 civil officers. George Wyllys, Esq. was elected 
 governor, and Roger Ludlow, Esq. doputy-govern- 
 
 3P2 
 
660 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 or. Eight magistrates were chosen for Connecti- 
 cut. This is the first instance of more than six. 
 The magistrates were John Haynes, Esq. Mr. 
 Phelps, Mr. Webster, Captain Mason, Mr. Wells, 
 Mr. Whiting, Edward Hopkins, Esq. and Mr. Wil- 
 liam Hopkins. 
 
 The Indians were exceedingly troublesome this 
 year ; and as it was suspected that they were form- 
 ing a combination for a general war, all trading with 
 them, in arms or any instruments of iron, was ex- 
 pressly prohibited, both by Connecticut and New 
 Haven. Each colony concerted measures of de- 
 fence ; and a constant watch was kept in all the 
 plantations ; and on the Sabbath a strong guard was 
 set at the places of public worship. 
 
 At this court, the magistrates were desired to 
 write to the Dutch, and, as far as possible, to pre- 
 vent their vending arms and ammunition to the na- 
 tives, and to settle all disputes between them and 
 the colony with respect to claims. But notwithstand- 
 ing all their endeavours, the Dutch behaved with 
 great insolence, and did much damage to both the 
 English colonies. 
 
 The Dutch, at Hartford, gave entertainment to 
 fugitives from the English ; helped them when con- 
 fined to fiie off their irons ; and persuaded servants 
 to run from their masters and then gave them enter- 
 tainment. They purchased goods which had been 
 stolen from the English, and would not return them, 
 and assisted criminals in breaking gaol. 
 
 Besides these misdemeanors at Hartford, the 
 Dutch governor, William Kieft, caused the English 
 settlements on Long Island, which had now ad- 
 vanced, on the lands purchased by Captain Howe, 
 as far as Oyster bay, to be broken up ; and some of 
 the English planters were forcibly seized and im- 
 prisoned, and others driven from their settlements. 
 
 To the colony of New Haven the Dutch were still 
 more hostile and injurious. Notwithstanding the 
 fair purchases which that colony had made, by their 
 agents at Delaware, Governor Kieft, without any 
 legal protest or warning, dispatched an armed force, 
 and with great hostility burned the English trad- 
 ing-houses, violently seized and for a time detained 
 their goods, and would not give them time to take 
 an inventory of them ; they also took the company's 
 boat, and a number of the English planters, and 
 kept them as prisoners. The damages done the 
 English at Delaware were estimated at a thousand 
 pounds sterling. 
 
 The same year the Swedish governor and Dutch 
 agent uniting in a crafty design against Mr. Lam- 
 berton, a principal gentleman of New Haven, made 
 an injurious attempt upon his life. They accused 
 him of having joined in a plot with the Indians to 
 cut off the Swedes and Dutch; and attempted, by 
 giving his men strong drink, and by threatenings 
 and allurements, to influence them to bear testi- 
 mony against him. They proceeded so far as to 
 jmprison and try him for treason ; and when, not- 
 withstanding these unfair means, and that they 
 were both his accusers and judges, they could not 
 find any evidence against him, they arbitrarily im- 
 posed a fine upon "him, for trading at Delaware, 
 though within the limits of the purchase and juris- 
 diction of New Haven. 
 
 At another time, when Mr. Lamberton was occa- 
 sionally at Manhatoes, in the capacity of an agent 
 for New Haven, the Dutch governor, Kieft, by- 
 force and threatenings compelled him to give an 
 account of all his beaver, within the limits of New 
 Haven, at Delaware, and to pay an impo 
 
 the whole. The Dutch did other damages, and in 
 suited the English in various other instances. Both 
 Connecticut and New Haven, from year to year, 
 complained and remonstrated against them, but 
 could obtain no redress. 
 
 While the colonies were increasing in numbers 
 and settlements, progress in law and jurisprudence, 
 in the regular establishment of courts and the times 
 of their sessions, was also necessary for the advance- 
 ment, order and happiness of the respective juris- 
 dictions. 
 
 This, so far as the numerous affairs of the colo- 
 nies would permit, was an object of special atten- 
 tion. The capital laws of Connecticut were, this 
 year, nearly completed and put upon record. The 
 several passages of Scripture on which they were 
 founded were particularly noticed in the statute. 
 Thev were twelve in number, and to the following? 
 effect. 
 
 If any man or woman shall have or worship any 
 God but the true God, he shall be put to death. 
 Deut. xiii. 6. xvii. 21. Exodus xxii. 2. 
 
 If any person in this colony shall blaspheme the 
 name of God the Father, Son, or Holy Ghost, with 
 direct, express, presumptuous or high-handed blas- 
 phemy, or shall curse in like manner, he shall be 
 put to death. Levit. xxiv. 15, 16. 
 
 If any man or woman be a witch, that is, hath or 
 consulted with a familiar spirit, they shall be put to 
 death. Exodus xxii. 18. Levit. xx. 22. Deut 
 xviii. 10, 11. 
 
 If any person shall commit wilful murder, upon 
 malice, hatred or cruelty, not in a man's own de- 
 fence, nor by casualty against his will, he shall be 
 put to death. Exodus xxi. 12, 13, 14. Numbers 
 xxxv. 30, 31. 
 
 If any person shall slay another through guile, 
 either by poisoning, or other such devilish practices, 
 he shall be put to death. Exodus xxi. 14. 
 
 For the remainder, see Leviticus xx. 11, 12, 13, 
 14, 15, 16. Also Deut. xxii. 25. Exodus xxi. 16, 
 and Deut, xix. 16, 18, 19. 
 
 It was also enacted, that if any person should 
 conspire against the commonwealth, attempt an 
 insurrection, invasion, or rebellion against it, he 
 should be put to death. 
 
 Wilful arson, the cursing and smiting of father 
 or mother, and notorious stubbornness in children, 
 after a certain age, were, soon after, made capital 
 offences, by the laws of the colony, and added to 
 the list of the capital laws. 
 
 Before this time, incontinence and wanton beha- 
 viour had been prmished with whipping at the tail 
 of the cart, by fining, or obliging the delinquents 
 to marry, at the discretion of the particular courts. 
 
 The general court approved of what the particular 
 courts had done, in these cases, and authorized 
 them in future to punish such delinquents by fines, 
 by committing them to the house of correction, or 
 by corporal punishment, at the discretion of the 
 court. 
 
 As some loose persons deserted the English settle- 
 ments, and lived in a profane manner, a law was en- 
 acted, that all persons who should be convicted of 
 this crime should be punished with three years' im- 
 prisonment, at least in the house of correction, with 
 line, or corporal punishment, as the particular 
 court should direct. 
 
 (1643.) At a general court in New Haven, April 
 5, considerable progress was made in the laws and 
 government of that colony. Deputies were admitted 
 st upon to the court, and an addition was made to the 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 661 
 
 number of magistrates. Stamford, for the first time, 
 sent Captain John Underbill and Mr. Richard Gild- 
 ersleve to represent the town. Mr. Mitchel and 
 Mr. Rayner were nominated for magistrates in 
 Stamford. Mr. Rayner was appointed by the court. 
 Captain Underbill, Mr. Mitchel, Mr. Andrew Ward, 
 and Mr. Robert Coe were appointed assistant 
 judges to Mr. Rayner. This court was vested with 
 the same powers as the court at New Haven, and 
 was the first instituted in Stamford. Mr. William 
 Leet and Mr. Desborough were admitted magis- 
 trates for Menunkatuck, and that plantation was 
 named Guilford. 
 
 This year John Haynes, Esq. was elected go- 
 vernor, and Mr. Hopkins deputy-governor. Mr. 
 Wolcott and Mr. Swain wore chosen magistrates; 
 and Mr. Phelps and Mr. William Hopkins were 
 not elected. Mr. Whiting was chosen treasurer, 
 and Mr. Wells secretary. It appears to have been 
 customary, for a number of years, to choose the se- 
 cretary and treasurer among the magistrates. 
 
 Juries appear to have attended the particular 
 courts, in Connecticut, from their first institution. 
 They seem to have been regularly enrolled about 
 the year 1641. or 1642. But the particular courts 
 found great difficulties with respect to their proceed- 
 ings. There were no printed laws for the inhabit- 
 ants to study, and many of the common people had 
 attended very little to law and evidence. The jury, 
 therefore, very often would be so divided that they 
 could not agree upon any verdict; and when they 
 were agreed, it did not always appear to the court 
 that they brought in a just one. A rather extra- 
 ordinary law therefore passed this court, regulating 
 the juries. The court decreed that the jury should 
 attend diligently to the case, and to the evidence ; 
 and if they could not all agree in a verdict, they 
 should offer their reasons upon the case to the court, 
 and the court should answer them, and send out the 
 jury again. If, after deliberating upon the case, they 
 could not bring in a joint verdict, it was decreed 
 that it should be determined by a major vote; and 
 that this should, to all intents and purposes, be 
 deemed a full and sufficient verdict; upon which 
 judgment should be entered, and execution, and all 
 other proceedings should be as though there had 
 been a joint verdict of the jury. It was also pro- 
 vided, that if the jury should be equally divided, 
 six and six, they should represent the case to the 
 court, with their reasons, and a special verdict 
 should be drawn, and a major vote of the court, or 
 magistrates, should determine the cause, and all 
 matters respecting it should be as though there had 
 been a joint verdict of the jury. 
 
 At this court it was ordained that a grand jury 
 of twelve men should attend the particular courts, 
 annually, in May and September, and as often as 
 the governor and court should judge expedient. It 
 was also enacted, that the grand jury should be 
 warned to give their attendance. This is the first 
 notice of a grand jury, at any court. 
 
 A general confederation of the New England 
 colonies had been proposed, and in agitation for 
 several years. In 1638, articles of union for amity, 
 offence and defence, mutual advice and assistance, 
 upon all necessary occasions, were drawn, and for 
 further consideration referred to 1639. Connecticut 
 and Mr. Fenwick agreed to confederate for these 
 purposes. From this time Connecticut had annually 
 appointed some of her principal men to go to Mas- 
 sachusetts to complete the designed confederacy. 
 Governor Haynes and Mr. Hooker, in 1639, were 
 
 nearly a month in Massachusetts, labouring to carry 
 t into effect. New Haven paid equal attention to 
 an affair so important to the colonies. The circum- 
 stances of the English nation, and the state of the 
 colonies in New England, at this time, made it a 
 natter of urgent necessity. For the accommodation 
 of particular companies, the colonies had extended 
 :heir settlements upon the rivers and sea-coasts 
 much further, and had made them in a more scat- 
 tered manner, than was at first designed. No aid 
 could be expected from the parent country, let 
 emergencies be ever so pressing. The Dutch had 
 so extended their claims, and were so powerful and 
 hostile, as to afford a just ground of general alarm. 
 All the plantations were compassed with numerous 
 tribes of savage men. The Narragansets appeared 
 hostile, and there were the appearances of a general 
 combination among the Indians in New England, 
 to extirpate the English colonies. There were, not- 
 withstanding its utility, impediments in the way of 
 effecting even so necessary and important a union. 
 The Massachusetts was much more numerous and 
 powerful than the other colonies, and it was in vari- 
 us respects more respectable and important; it was 
 therefore a matter of difficulty to form a union 
 upon equal terms. The other colonies were not 
 willing to unite upon unequal terms, and there were 
 also disputes between Connecticut and Massachu- 
 setts. The colony of Massachusetts claimed part 
 of the Pequot country, on the account of the assis- 
 tance which they afforded in the Pequot war. There 
 was also a difference with respect to the boundary 
 line between Massachusetts and Connecticut. Both 
 colonies claimed the towns of Springfield and West- 
 field, and these difficulties retarded the union. 
 
 However, -Connecticut, New Haven, and Ply- 
 mouth, all dispatched commissioners to Boston, in 
 May, at the time of the session of the general court. 
 The commissioners from Connecticut were, Governor 
 Haynes and Mr. Hopkins ; Mr. Fenwick, from Say- 
 brook ; Governor Eaton and Mr. Gregson, from 
 New Haven; Mr. Winslow and Mr. Collier, from 
 Plymouth. The general court of Massachusetts 
 appointed Governor Winthrop, Mr. Dudley, and 
 Mr. Bradstrcet, of the magistrates; and of the depu- 
 ties, Mr. Hawthorne, Mr. Gibbons, and Mr. Tyng. 
 There appeared, at this time, a spirit of harmony 
 and mutual concession among the commissioners, 
 and on the 19th of May, 1643, the articles were 
 completed and signed. " The commissioners were 
 unanimous in adopting them ; but those from Ply- 
 mouth did not sign them, as they had not been au- 
 thorized by the court; but at the meeting of the com- 
 missioners in September, they came vested with 
 plenary powers, and signed them. 
 
 The commissioners, in the introductory part, de- 
 clare, with respect to the four colonies of Massa- 
 chusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven, 
 and the plantations under their respective jurisdic- 
 tions, that, as they all came into these parts of 
 America with one and the same end and aim, to 
 advance the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 enjoy the liberties of the Gospel in purity and peace, 
 they conceived it their bounden duty to enter into 
 a present confederation among themselves, for mu- 
 tual help and strength in all future concernments ; 
 that, as in nation and religion, so in other respects 
 they be and continue one, and henceforth be called 
 by the name of " The United Colonies of New Eng- 
 land." 
 
 They declare, that the said united colonies, for 
 themselves and their posterity, did, jointly and se- 
 
662 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 verally, enter into a firm and perpetual league of 
 friendship and amity, of offence and defence, mu- 
 tual aid and succour, upon all just occasions, both 
 for preserving and propagating the truth and liberty 
 of the Gospel, and for their own mutual safety and 
 welfare. 
 
 The articles reserved to each colony an entire 
 and distinct jurisdiction. By them, no two colonies 
 might be united in one, nor any other colony be re- 
 ceived into the confederacy, without the consent of 
 the whole. 
 
 Each colony was authorized to send two commis- 
 sioners annually, always to be church members, to 
 meet on the first Monday in September, first at 
 Boston, then at Hartford, New Haven, and Ply- 
 mouth. This was to be the annual order, except 
 that two meetings successively were always to be at 
 Boston. 
 
 The commissioners, when met, were authorized 
 to choose a president from among themselves, for 
 the preservation of order. They were vested with 
 plenary powers for making war and peace, laws and 
 rules of a civil nature and of general concern. Es- 
 pecially to regulate the conduct of the inhabitants 
 towards the Indians, towards fugitives, for the ge- 
 neral defence of the country, and for the encourage- 
 ment and support of religio'n. 
 
 The expense of all wars, offensive or defensive, 
 was to be borne in proportion to the number of the 
 male inhabitants in each colony, between sixteen 
 and sixty years of age. 
 
 Upon notice from three magistrates of any of the 
 colonies of an invasion, the colonies were immediately 
 to send assistance, the Massachusetts a hundred, 
 and each of the other colonies forty-five men. If a 
 greater number was necessary, the commissioners 
 were to meet and determine the number. 
 
 All determinations of the commissioners, in which 
 six were agreed, were binding upon the whole. If 
 
 themselves, and to secure the peace and rights of 
 the country : it was one of the principal means of 
 the preservation of the colonies, during the civil 
 wars and unsettled state of affairs in England : and 
 it was the grand source of mutual defence in Philip's 
 war, and of the most eminent service in civilizing 
 the Indians, and propagating the Gospel among 
 them. The union subsisted more than forty years, 
 until the abrogation of the charters of the New Eng- 
 land colonies, by King James the Second. 
 
 The Indians were so tumultuous and hostile, that 
 its whole influence was necessary to prevent a gene- 
 ral war. The troubles originated in the ambitious 
 and perfidious conduct of Miantonimoh, chief sa- 
 chem of the Narragansets. After the Pequot war, 
 he attempted to set himself up as universal sachem 
 over all the Indians in New England ; and without 
 regard to the league made between him, the 
 English, and the Moheagans, at Hartford, in 1638, 
 when the Pequots were divided between him, and 
 Uncas, he warred against him : and at the same 
 time used all the arts of which he was master, by 
 presents and intrigue, to inflame the other Indians, 
 and excite a general insurrection against the En- 
 glish plantations. 
 
 Connecticut was for making war immediately, 
 and sent pressing letters to the court at Boston, 
 urging that a hundred men might be sent to Say- 
 brook fort, to assist against the enemy, as circum- 
 stances might require : but the court of Massachu- 
 setts pretended to doubt of the facts alleged, acd 
 would not consent. In the mean time Miantonimoh 
 hired one of Uncas's men to assassinate him : who 
 made an attempt in the spring, and shot Uncas 
 through his arm : and then ran off to the Narragan- 
 sets, reporting, through the Indian towns, that he 
 had killed Uncas. But when it was known that 
 : Uncas was only wounded, Miantonimoh and the 
 j Pequot reported that Uncas had cut through his 
 
 there were a majority, yet under six, the affair was arm with a flint, and then charged the Pequot with 
 to be referred to the general court, of each colony, shooting him. However, Miantonimoh soon after 
 
 and could not be obligatory, unless the courts unani- 
 
 mously concurred. 
 
 No colony might enga 
 
 in a war, without the 
 
 consent of the whole union, unless upon some urgent 
 and sudden occasion. Even in such case, it was to 
 be avoided as far as possible, consistent with the ge- 
 neral safety. 
 
 If a meeting were summoned, upon any extraor- 
 dinary occasion, and the whole number of commis- 
 sioners did not attend, any four who were met, 
 might, in cases which admitted of no delay, deter- 
 mine upon a war, and send to each colony for its 
 proportion of men. A number, however, less than 
 six could not determine the justice of a war, nor have 
 power to settle a bill of charges, nor make levies. 
 
 If either of the confederates should break any 
 article of the confederation, or injure one of the 
 other colonies, the affair was to be determined by 
 the commissioners of the three other confederates. 
 
 The articles also made provision, that all servants 
 running from their masters, and criminals flying 
 
 pprehending 
 he might be 
 
 going to Boston, in company with the Pequot who 
 had wounded Uncas, the governor and magistrates, 
 upon examination, found clear evidence that the 
 Pequot was guilty of the crime, with which he had 
 been charged. They had designs of a 
 him and sending him to Uncas, that 
 punished : but Miantonimoh pleaded that he might 
 be suffered to return with him, and promised that 
 he would send him to Uncas. Indeed, he so ex- 
 culpated himself, and made such fair promises, that 
 they gave up their design, and permitted them to 
 depart in peace ; and about two days after, Mian- 
 tonimoh murdered the Pequot on his return, that 
 he might make no further discovery of his treache- 
 rous conduct. 
 
 About the same time much trouble arose from 
 Sequassen, a sachem, upon Connecticut river. Seve- 
 ral of his men killed a principal Indian belonging to 
 Uncas ; and he. or some of his warriors, had also 
 waylaid Uncas himself, as he was going down the 
 river, and shot several arrows at him. Uncas made 
 
 from justice, from one colony to another, should, | a complaint to the governor and court at Connecti 
 upon demand, and proper evidence of their character, | cut, of these outrages ; andGovernor Haynes and the 
 as fugitives, be returned to their masters, and to the I court took great pains to make peace between Un- 
 colonies whence they had made their escape ; that j cas and Sequassen. Upon hearing their several 
 in all cases law and justice might have their course, stories, it appeared that Uncas required that six of 
 
 This 
 
 union of the highest consequence to 
 
 the New England colonies : it made them formid- 
 
 Sequassen's men should be delivered to him, for the 
 murder of his man, because he was a great man. 
 
 able to the Dutch and Indians, and respectable ! Governor Haynes and the court laboured to dis- 
 among their French neighbours: it was happily suade Uncas from his demand of six men for one ; 
 adapted to maintain a general harmony among J and urged him to be satisfied upon Sequassen's 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 663 
 
 delivering up the murderer; and at length, with 
 much persuasion and difficulty, Uncas consented to 
 accept of the murderer only. But Sequassen would 
 not agree to deliver him ; as he was nearly allied to 
 Miantonimoh, and one of his peculiar favourites ; and 
 Sequassen chose rather to fight, and was overcome 
 by Uncas, who killed a number of his men and 
 burned his wigwams. 
 
 Miantonimoh, without consulting the English, 
 according to agreement, without proclaiming war, 
 or giving Uncas the least information, raised an 
 army of nine hundred, or a thousand men, and 
 marched against him. Uncas's spies discovered 
 the army at some distance, and gave him intelli- 
 gence ; and although he was unprepared, he col- 
 lected between four and five hundred of his bravest 
 men ; and having marched three or four miles, the 
 armies met upon a large plain. When they had 
 advanced within bow-shot of each other, Uncas had 
 recourse to a stratagem, with which he had previ- 
 ously acquainted his warriors. He desired a parley, 
 and both armies halted in the face of each other ; 
 and Uncas, advancing in the front of his men, ad- 
 dressed Miantonimoh to this effect: "You have a 
 number of stout men with you, and so have I with 
 me. It is a great pity that such brave warriors 
 should be killed in a private quarrel between us 
 only. Come like a man, as you profess to be, and 
 let us fight it out. If you kill me, my men shall be 
 yours ; but if I kill you, your men shall be mine :" 
 to which Miantonimoh replied, " My men came to 
 fight, and they shall fight." Uncas fell instantly 
 on the ground, and his men discharged a shower of 
 arrows upon the Narragansets ; and, without a mo- 
 ment's interval, rushing upon them in the most 
 furious manner, with their hideous Indian yell, put 
 them immediately to flight. Tho Moheagans pur- 
 sued the enemy with the same fury and eagerness 
 with which they commenced the action ; and the 
 Narragansets were driven down rocks and preci- 
 pices. Some of Uncas's bravest men, who were 
 most light of foot, coming up with Miantonimoh, 
 pulled him back, impeding his flight, and passed 
 him. that Uncas might take him ; who rushing for- 
 ward, like a lion greedy of his prey, seized him by 
 his shoulder : he found he was now in the power of 
 the man whom he had hated, and had attempted to 
 destroy ; but he sat down sullen and spake not a 
 word. Uncas gave the Indian whoop and called up 
 his men, who were behind, to his assistance ; and the 
 victory was completed. Among the -prisoners were 
 a brother of Miantonimoh and two sons of Canoni- 
 cus, a chief sachem of the Narragansets. Two of 
 Miantonimoh's captains, who formerly were Uncas's 
 men, but had treacherously deserted him, discover- 
 ing his situation, took him and carried him to Un- 
 cas, expecting in this way to reconcile themselves 
 to their sachem ; but Uncas and his men slew them. 
 Miantonimoh made no request, either for himself 
 or his men ; but continued in the same sullen, 
 speechless mood. Uncas, demanded of him why he 
 would not speak ; saying, " Had you taken me, I 
 should have besought you for my life." And although 
 the sullen chieftain would not ask it, he gave him his 
 life, and returned with great triumph to Moheagan, 
 carrying his captive as an illustrious trophy of his 
 victory. 
 
 One Samuel Gorton and his company had pur- 
 chased lands of Miantonimoh, under the jurisdiction 
 of Massachusetts and Plymouth ; and expected to 
 be vindicated in their claims, by him, against those 
 colonies, and against the Massachusetts and Ply- 
 
 mouth sachems, who were the original proprietors ; 
 therefore, when the news of Uncas's victory, and of 
 the capture of Miantonimoh, arrived at Providence, 
 they sent to him to deliver Miantonimoh, threatening 
 him that the power of the English should be em- 
 ployed against him, if he refused to comply. Uncas, 
 therefore, carried his prisoner to Hartford, to ad- 
 vise with the governor and magistrates, with respect 
 to his conduct in such a situation, who were of the 
 opinion that, as there was no open war between 
 them and the Narragansets, it was not prudent for 
 them to intermeddle with the quarrel ; but advised 
 that the whole affair should be referred to the com- 
 missioners of the united colonies at their meeting in 
 September. 
 
 When Miantonimoh came to Hartford, he most 
 earnestly pleaded to be left in the custody of the 
 English : expecting more safety and better treat- 
 ment with them. Uncas consented to leave him at 
 Hartford, but insisted that he should be kept as 
 his prisoner. 
 
 On the 7th of September, the commissioners met 
 at Boston. Governor Winthrop and Thomas Dud- 
 ley, Esquires, were commissioners for Massachu- 
 setts; George Fenwick a.nu Edward Hopkins, 
 Esquires, for Connecticut; and Theophilus Eaton 
 and Thomas Gregsou, Esquires, for New Haven. 
 Governor Winthrop was chosen President. The 
 whole affair of Uncas and Miantonimoh was laid 
 before the commissioners, and the facts already re- 
 lated, were, in their opinon, fully proved; not only 
 his attempts upon the life of Uncas, but that he had 
 been the principal author of inflaming and stirring 
 up the Indians to a general confederacy against all 
 the English plantations : it also appeared that, in- 
 stead of delivering the Pequot, who had shot Uncas, 
 as he promised in open court, he had murdered 
 him on the road from Boston to Narraganset ; and 
 it was also affirmed that the Narragansets had sent 
 for the Mohawks, and that they were come within 
 a day's journey of the English settlements, and 
 were kept back only by the capture of Miantonimoh : 
 and that they were waiting for his release, to 
 prosecute their designs against the English, or 
 Uncas, or against both, as the Indians should 
 determine. The commissioners laid the affair be- 
 fore five or six of the principal ministers in Massa- 
 chusetts, and took their advice relative to the law- 
 fulness and justice of putting him to death; who 
 gave it as their opinion, that he ought to be put to 
 death; and thereupon the commissioners resolved, 
 That as it was evident that Uncas could not be 
 safe, while Miantonimoh lived ; but that, either by 
 secret treachery or open force, his life would be 
 continually in danger, he might justly put such a 
 false and blood-thirsty enemy to death." They de- 
 termined Uncas should not do it in any of the Eng- 
 lish plantations, but in his own jurisdiction ; and 
 at the same time advised that no torture or cruelty 
 should be exercised in the manner of his execution. 
 They also determined that if the Narragansets, or 
 any other Indians, should unjustly assault Uncas, 
 on account of the execution of Miantonimoh, the 
 English should, upon his desire, assist him against 
 such violence. 
 
 Governor Winthrop writes, " It was clearly dis- 
 covered to us that there was a general conspiracy 
 among the Indians to cut off all the English ; and 
 that Miantonimoh was the head and contriver of it : 
 that he was of a turbulent and proud spirit, and 
 would nevei- be at rest ; and that he had killed the 
 Pequot contrary to his promise." 
 
664 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 The commissioners had received intimations, that 
 the Narragansets had it in contemplation to capture 
 one or more of them, with a view to the redemption 
 of Miantoiiimoh; and their determination respect- 
 ing his execution was therefore kept as a profound 
 secret, until after the return of the commissioners 
 of Connecticut and New Haven, lest it should in- 
 flame and encourage them to make the attempt. 
 
 Previously to the meeting of the commissioners, 
 the Dutch governor had written a letter to Governor 
 Winthrop, containing high congratulations on the 
 union of the colonies, and at the same time making 
 grievous complaints of Connecticut and New Haven, 
 as having committed insufferable injuries against 
 the Dutch, and as having given misinformation re- 
 specting them to their agent in Europe ; and he de- 
 sired a categorical answer from Governor Winthrop, 
 whether he would aid or desert them, that he might 
 know who were his friends, and who were his ene- 
 mies. The governor, after consulting with some 
 few of his council, who were at hand, wrote an an- 
 swer in part to the Dutch governor, reserving to 
 himself one more full at the session of the general 
 court. He represented his sorrow for the differ- 
 ences which had arisen, between the Dutch and his 
 brethren at Hartford, suggesting that they might be 
 settled by arbitrators, either in England, Holland, 
 or America ; observed, that by the articles of con- 
 federation each colony was obliged to seek the 
 safety and welfare of the other colonies, no less than 
 its own ; hoped that this would not interrupt the 
 friendship which had subsisted between them and 
 the Dutch; stated that the controversy at Hartford 
 was for a small piece of land only, which, in so vast 
 a continent as this, was of too little value to make 
 a breach between protestauts so related in profes- 
 sion and religion as the Dutch and English were ; 
 and finally desired that each party would carefully 
 avoid all injuries, until the differences between, them 
 should be amicably accommodated by an impartial 
 hearing and adjudication, either in Europe or 
 America. 
 
 The affair was then brought before the commis- 
 sioners. Governor Eaton and Mr. Gregson com- 
 plained of the outrages which the Dutch had com- 
 mitted against the persons and property of the 
 English, within the limits of New Haven, at Dela- 
 ware, and in other places, and made proof of the 
 injuries of which they complained. The conduct of 
 the Dutch towards Connecticut was also laid before 
 the commissioners by Governor Hopkins and Mr. 
 Fenwick. 
 
 Upon which the president was directed to write 
 a letter, in the name of the commissioners, to the 
 Dutch governor, stating the particular injuries 
 which the Dutch had done the English colonies, 
 and to demand satisfaction. It was also directed, 
 that as Governor Winthrop had in part answered 
 the Dutch governor's letter respecting Connecticut, 
 he would now, in further answer to it, particularize 
 the injuries done, both to Connecticut and New 
 Haven, and demand an answer; and he was also au- 
 thorized to assure the Dutch, that as they would not 
 wrong others, so neither would they desert their con- 
 federates in a just cause. 
 
 The Indians at this period were beginning to ac- 
 quire the use of fire-arms. The French, Dutch, and 
 others, for the sake of gain, were vending them 
 arms and ammunition; and they were in such a 
 tumultuous and hostile state, as had the appearance 
 of a general war. The commissioners, therefore, 
 gave orders that the militia, in the several colonies. 
 
 should be frequently trained, and completely furnish- 
 ed with arms and ammunition. All the companies 
 were to be mustered and reviewed four times in 
 year ; and it was ordered that all the towns should 
 prepare magazines, in proportion to the number of 
 their militia. 
 
 The commissioners having given the necessary 
 directions for the execution of Miantonimoh, and 
 for the general safety of the country, dispersed and 
 returned to their respective colonies. 
 
 Immediately upon the return of the commission- 
 ers of Connecticut and New Haven, Uncas, with a 
 competent number of his most trusty men, was or- 
 dered to repair forthwith to Hartford; where he 
 was made acquainted with the determination of the 
 commissioners, and, receiving his prisoner, marched 
 with him to the spot where he had been taken. At 
 the instant they arrived on the ground, one of 
 Uncas's men, who marched behind Miautonimoh, 
 split his head with a hatchet, killing him at a single 
 stroke. He was probably unacquainted with his 
 fate, and knew not by what means he fell. Uncas 
 cut out a large piece of his shoulder, and ate it in 
 savage triumph ; saying, " it was the sweetest meat 
 he ever ate, it made his heart strong." 
 
 The Moheagans, by the order of Uncas, buried 
 him at the place of his execution, and erected a 
 great heap, or pillar, upon his grave. This event 
 gave the place the name of Sachem's Plain. Two 
 Englishmen were sent with Uncas to witness that 
 execution was done, and to prevent all torture 
 and cruelty in the manner of its performance ; and 
 Connecticut and New Haven, agreeably to the di- 
 rection of the commissioners, sent a party of soldiers 
 to Moheagan, to defend Uncas against any assault 
 which might be made upon him by the Narragansets, 
 in consequence of the execution of their sachem. 
 
 Governor Winthrop, at the same time, according 
 to the orders which he had received from the com- 
 missioners, dispatched messengers to Canonicus, 
 the Narraganset sachem, and the Narraganset In- 
 dians, to certify to them that the English had noticed 
 their perfidy, in violating the league between them 
 and the English, from time to time, notwithstanding 
 the English had treated them with love and integrity. 
 These messengers assured them, that they had disco- 
 vered their mischievous plots, in joining with Mianto- 
 nimoh, in purchasing aid of the Indians, and by gifts, 
 threats, and allurements, exciting them to a con- 
 federacy to root out the whole body of the English ; 
 represented to them their treachery in waging war 
 with Uncas, contrary to their express covenant with 
 him and with the English ; and justified the execu- 
 tion of Miantonimoh, by Uncas, as he was his lawful 
 captive, and as he had practised treachery and 
 murder against him and his subjects; and insisted 
 that it was both just and agreeable to the practice 
 of the Indians in similar cases, and necessary for 
 the safety of Uncas, the peace of the country, and 
 even of the Narragansets themselves. While they 
 firmly and fully represented these facts to them, 
 they, in the name of the united colonies, tendered 
 them peace and safety ; and assured them that they 
 would defend Uncas and all their allies, whether 
 English or Indians, in their just rights ; and if they 
 desired peace, they would exercise equal care and 
 friendship towards them. 
 
 The commissioners gave orders, that Connecticut 
 should provide for the defence of Uncas against any 
 assault of the Narragansets, or any other Indians. 
 
 Upon the general election at New Haven, in 
 October, Governor Eaton and Mr. Stephen Good- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 665 
 
 year were re-elected governoi and deputy-governor 
 Mr. William Fowler and Mr. Edward Tapp were 
 elected magistrates for Milford, and Thurston Ray- 
 ner for Stamford. This year, for the first time, the 
 general court at New Haven, are distinctly recorded 
 and distinguished by the names of governor, deputy 
 governor, magistrates, and deputies. 
 
 It appears that the plantation at Yennycock had 
 not fully attended to the fundamental article of ad- 
 mitting none to be free burgesses but members of 
 the church ; and it was therefore at this general court 
 decreed, " That none should be admitted free bur- 
 gesses in any of the plantations but such as were 
 members of some approved church in New England: 
 that such only should have any vote in elections; 
 and that no power for ordering any civil affairs 
 should be put into the hands of any but such." 
 
 It was also enacted, that each town in the juris- 
 diction should choose their own judges in ordinary 
 cases ; who were authorized to judge in civil cases 
 not exceeding twenty shillings, and in criminal 
 cases, in which the punishment did not exceed set- 
 ting the delinquent in the stocks, whipping him, or 
 fining not exceeding five pounds. If there were a 
 magistrate, or magistrates, in the towns in which 
 these town-coutts were holden, then the magistrate, 
 or magistrates, were to sit in the court, and judg- 
 ment was to be given with a due respect to their 
 advice. From these courts, there was liberty of ap- 
 peal to the court of magistrates. 
 
 It was granted, that all the free burgesses in the 
 plantations should vote in the choice of governors, 
 magistrates, secretary, and treasurer ; and also that 
 each town should have a magistrate, if they desired 
 it, chosen from among their own free burgesses. 
 
 At this general court, a court of magistrates was 
 appointed, consisting of all the magistrates in the 
 jurisdiction. They were to meet twice, annually, at 
 New Haven, on the Mondays preceding the gene- 
 ral courts in April and October ; and were authorized 
 to receive appeals from the plantation-courts, and 
 to try all important causes, civil and criminal. 
 Every magistrate was obliged, on penalty of a fine, 
 to give his attendance. Four magistrates consti- 
 tuted a quorum. All judgments of the court were 
 to be determined by a major vote. All trials were 
 decided by the bench. It does not appear that juries 
 were ever used in the colony of New Haven. 
 
 The court enacted, that there should be two gene- 
 ral courts for this colony, to meet at New Haven, 
 on the first Wednesday in April, and the last in 
 October, annually. It was decreed, that the gene- 
 ral court should consist of a deputy-governor, ma- 
 gistrates, and two deputies from each town. In the 
 last of these general courts, a governor, deputy-go- 
 vernor, magistrates, secretary, treasurer, and mar- 
 shal, or high sheriff, were to be annually chosen. 
 The governor, or, in his absence, the deputy- go- 
 vernor, had power to call a general court, upon 
 pressing emergencies, and whenever it might be 
 necessary. All the members were obliged to attend, 
 upon penalty of twenty shillings fine in case of de- 
 fault. It was ordained, that in this court should 
 subsist the supreme power of the commonwealth; 
 and particularly that it should, " with all care and 
 diligence, endeavour to maintain the purity of re- 
 ligion, and to suppress all irreligion, according 
 to the best light they could obtain from the divine 
 oracles, and by the advice of the elders and churches 
 in the jurisdiction, so far as it might concern the 
 civil power." 
 
 The Dutch were this year exceedingly harassed 
 
 and distressed by the Indians, and made application 
 to Governor Eaton and the general court, soliciting 
 that a hundred men might be raised in the planta- 
 tions for their assistance against such barbarous 
 enemies. 
 
 The war between the Dutch and Indians arose 
 from a drunken Indian, in his intoxication, having 
 killed a Dutchman. The Dutch demanded the 
 murderer, but he was not to be found; and they 
 then made application to their governor to avenge 
 the murder ; who, judging it would be unjust or un- 
 safe, considering the numbers of the Indians, and 
 the weak and scattered state of the Dutch settle- 
 ments, neglected to comply with their repeated 
 solicitations. In the mean time the Mohawks, as 
 the report was, excited by the Dutch, fell suddenly 
 on the Indians, in the vicinity of the Dutch settle 
 ments, and killed nearly thirty of them. Others 
 fled to the Dutch for protection ; and one Marine, 
 a Dutch captain, getting intelligence of their state, 
 made application to the Dutch governor, and ob- 
 tained a commission to kill as many of them as it 
 should be in his power ; and collecting a company 
 of armed men, he fell suddenly upon the Indians', 
 and made a promiscuous slaughter of men, women 
 and children, to the number of seventy or eighty. 
 This instantly roused the Indians, in that part of 
 the country, to a furious and bloody war. In the 
 spring, and beginning of the summer, they burnt the 
 Dutch out-houses ; and driving their cattle into 
 their barns, they burned the barns and cattle toge- 
 ;her ; killed twenty or more of the Dutch people, 
 and pressed so hard upon them that they were ob- 
 liged to take refuge in their fort, and to seek help 
 of the English. The Indians upon Long Island 
 united in the war with those on the main, and 
 burned the Dutch houses and barns. The Dutch 
 governor in this situation invited Captain Under- 
 lill from Stamford to assist him in the war ; Ma- 
 rine, the Dutch captain, was so exasperated with 
 ;his proceeding that he presented his pistol at the 
 governor, and would have shot him, but was pre- 
 vented : one of Marine's tenants however discharged 
 lis musket at the governor, and the ball just missed 
 lim ; upon which the governor's sentinel shot the 
 .enant dead upon the spot. The Dutch, who at first 
 were clamorous for a war with the Indians, were 
 now, when they experienced the loss and dangers 
 if it, so irritated at the governor, for the orders 
 which he had given, that he could not trust himself 
 among them, and he was obliged to keep a constant 
 guard of fifty Englishmen about his person. In tho 
 iummer and fall the Indians killed fifteen more of 
 he Dutch people, and drove in all the inhabitants 
 f the English and Dutch settlements, west of 
 Stamford. 
 
 In prosecution of their works of destruction, they 
 made a visit to the neighbourhood where Mrs. Hut- 
 chinson, who had been so famous at Boston, for her 
 Antinomian and familistical tenets, had made a set- 
 tlement. The Indians at first appeared with the 
 ame friendship with which they used to frequent 
 her house ; but they murdered her and all her 
 'amily, Mr. Collins, her son-in-law, and several 
 )ther persons, belonging to other families in the 
 neighbourhood, to the number of eighteen; and 
 with an implacable fury, prosecuted the destruct- 
 on of the Dutch, and of their property, in all 
 ,hat part of the country. They killed and burned 
 heir cattle, horses and barns without resistance ; 
 ind having destroyed the settlements in the country, 
 ,hey passed over to the Dutch plantations on Long 
 
660 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Island, doing all the mischief of which they were 
 capable. The Dutch, who escaped, were confined 
 to their fort, and were obliged to kill and eat their 
 cattle, for their subsistence. 
 
 Governor Eaton and the general court having 
 maturely considered the purport of the Dutch go- 
 vernor's letter, rejected the proposal for raising men 
 and assisting in the war against the Indians. Their 
 principal reasons were, that joining separately in 
 war, was prohibited by the articles of confedera- 
 tion ; and that they were not satisfied that the 
 Dutch war with the Indians was just. Nevertheless 
 it was determined, that if the Dutch needed corn 
 and provisions for men or cattle, by reason of the 
 destruction which the Indians had made, the court 
 would give them all the assistance in its power. 
 
 The Indians at Stamford caught too much the 
 spirit of the Western Indians in their vicinity, who 
 were at war with the Dutch ; and appeared so tu- 
 multuous and hostile, that the people at Stamford 
 were in great fear that they should soon share the 
 fate of the settlements to the westward of them. 
 They wrote to the general court at New Haven, that 
 in their apprehensions there were just grounds of a 
 wai with those Indians, and that if their houses 
 should be burned, because the other plantations 
 would not consent to war, they ought to bear the 
 damage. 
 
 The Narraganset Indians were enraged at the 
 death of their sachem. The English were univer- 
 sally armed. The strictest watch and guard was 
 kept in all the plantations. In Connecticut every 
 family, in which there was a man capable of bearing 
 arms, was obliged to send one completely armed, 
 every Sunday, to defend the places of public wor- 
 ship ; and indeed all places wore the aspect of a 
 general war. 
 
 Public fasts appointed Indians continue hostile, and 
 commit murder Acts of the commissioners respecting 
 them Branford settled Towns in Connecticut 
 Message of the commissioners to the Narragansets 
 Their agreement respecting Uncas Long Island 
 Indians taken under the protection of the United 
 Colonies Massachusetts claims part of the Pequot 
 country and Waranoke Determination of the com- 
 missioners respecting said claim Agreement with 
 Mr. Fenwick relative to Saybrook fort and the ad- 
 jacent country Fortifications advanced Ertraor- 
 dinary meeting of the commissioners to suppress the 
 outrages of the Narragansets War proclaimed and 
 troops sent against them They treat and prevent 
 war Fail field objects to a jury of six Controversy 
 with the Dutch The Indians plot against the life of 
 Governor Hopkins and othar principal gentlemen at 
 Hartford Damages at Windsor Battle between 
 the Dutch and Indians Losses of New Haven 
 Dispute with Massachusetts relative to the impost at 
 Saybrook Mr. Winthrop's claim of the Nehantic 
 country Settlement of accounts between the colonies. 
 
 (1644.) The affairs both of Old and New England 
 wore so gloomy an aspect at this time, that the 
 pious people in the colonies judged extraordinary 
 fasting and prayer to be their indispensable duty. 
 The flames of civil discord were kindled in England, 
 and the tumultuous and hostile state of the natives 
 in the united colonies threatened them with a bloody 
 and merciless Indian war. The general court of 
 Connecticut therefore ordained a monthly fast, 
 through the colony, to begin on Wednesday the 
 6th of January. New Haven had before appointed 
 a fast at the same time in all the plantations in that 
 
 jurisdiction ; and, indeed, this was practised through- 
 out the united colonies, during (he civil wars in 
 England. The colonists sympathized with their 
 brethren, in their native country, and conformed 
 to them in their days of humiliation and prayer. 
 
 The freemen of Connecticut and New Haven ex- 
 hibited a remarkable example of steadiness in the 
 election of civil officers. Nearly the same persons 
 were chosen annually into places of principal trust 
 as long as they lived. This year Edward Hopkins, 
 Esq. was chosen governor, and John Haynes, Esq. 
 deputy-governor. The other magistrates were the 
 same as they had been the last year, except Mr. 
 William Swain, who was chosen into the magis- 
 tracy. Mr. Haynes and Mr. Hopkins were gene- 
 rally elected, alternately governor and deputy-go- 
 vernor, during their respective lives. The reason 
 of this annual change of them, from governor to 
 deputy-governor, was because the constitution pro- 
 hibited the choice of the same governor more than 
 once in two years. 
 
 At New 'Haven, Governor Eaton was annually 
 elected to the office of governor during his life ; and 
 Mr. Stephen Goodyear was generally chosen dep- 
 uty-governor. 
 
 The Indians were no more peaceable this year 
 than they were the last. Those in the western part 
 of Connecticut still conducted themselves in a hos- 
 tile manner. In the spring they murdered a man 
 belonging to Massachusetts, between Fairfield and 
 Stamford ; and atiout six or eight weeks aftei the 
 murder was discovered, the Indians promised to de- 
 liver the murderer, at Uncoway, if Mr. Ludlow 
 would appoint men to receive him. Mr. Ludlow 
 sent ten men for that purpose ; but as soon as the 
 Indians came within sight of the town, they, by 
 general consent, unbound the prisoner and suffered 
 him to escape. The English were so exasperated at 
 this insult, that they immediately seized on eight or 
 ten of the Indians, and committed them to prison. 
 There was among them one or two sachems ; and 
 consequently the Indians arose in great numbers 
 about the town, and exceedingly alarmed the peo- 
 ple both at Fairfield and Stamford. Mr. Ludlow 
 wrote to New Haven for advice ; and the court de- 
 sired him to keep the Indians in durance, and as- 
 sured him of immediate assistance, should it be 
 necessary. A party of twenty men were draughted 
 forthwith, and prepared to march to Stamford upon 
 the shortest notice. The Indians were held in cus- 
 tody, until four sachems, in those parts, appeared 
 and interceded for them, promising that if the 
 English would release them, they would within a 
 month deliver the murderer to justice. 
 
 Not more than a month after their release, an 
 Indian went boldly into the town of Stamford, and 
 made a murderous assault upon a woman in her 
 house. Finding no man at home, he took up a 
 lathing hammer, and approached her as though ha 
 were about to put it into her hand ; but as she was 
 stooping down to take her child from the cradle, he 
 struck her upon the head; she fell instantly ; and 
 he then struck her twice with the sharp part of the 
 hammer, which penetrated her skull. Supposing 
 her to be dead, he plundered the house, and made his 
 escape, but soon after, the woman so far recovered 
 as to describe the Indian, and his manner of dress. 
 Her wounds, which at first appeared to be mortal, 
 were finally healed ; but her brain was so affected, 
 that she lost her reason 
 
 At the same time, the Indians rose in those parts 
 with the most tumultuous and hostile appearances. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 667 
 
 They refust-d to come to the English, or to have any 
 treaty with them; they appeared, in a very alarm- 
 ing manner, about several of the plantations, firing 
 their pieces, and exceedingly terrifying the inhabit- 
 ants ; and they deserted their wigwams, and neg- 
 lected to weed their corn. Most of the English 
 judged it unsafe to travel by land, and some of the 
 plantations were obliged to keep a strong guard 
 and watch, night and day; and as they had not 
 numbers sufficient to defend themselves, they made 
 application to Hartford and New Haven for assist- 
 ance ; which both sent aid to the weaker parts of 
 their respective colonies. New Haven sent help to 
 Fairfield and Stamford, as they were much nearer 
 to them than to Connecticut. 
 
 After a great deal of alarm and trouble, the In- 
 dian, who had attempted the murder of the woman, 
 was delivered up, and executed at New Haven. 
 The executioner cut off his head with a falchion ; 
 but from want of dexterity he gave the Indian eight 
 blows before he effected the execution ; and the in- 
 trepid savage sat erect and motionless until his head 
 was severed from his body. 
 
 Both the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven 
 were put to great expense this year in defending 
 themselves, and they were obliged to bear the whole 
 charge, as the measures adopted for their defence, 
 were taken by the order of their respective legisla- 
 tures, and not by the direction of the commissioners. 
 The unhappy divisions which continued at Wea- 
 thersfield occasioned another settlement under the 
 jurisdiction of New Haven. As Mr. Eaton, to 
 whom Totoket had been granted, in 1640, had not 
 performed the conditions of the grant, New Haven, 
 for the accommodation of a number of people at 
 AVeathersfield, made a sale of it to Mr. William 
 Swain, and others of that town ; who sold it at the 
 price which it cost them, stipulating with Mr. Swain 
 and his company that they should unite with that 
 colony in all the fundamental articles of govern- 
 ment. The settlement of the town immediately 
 commenced. At the same time, Mr. Abraham 
 Pierson, with a part of his church and congregation, 
 from Southampton, on Long Island, removed and 
 united with the people of Weathersfield in the set- 
 tlement of the town. A regular church was soon 
 formed, and Mr. Pierson was chosen pastor. The 
 town was named Branford. Mr. Swain was the 
 principal planter, and a few years after was chosen 
 one of the magistrates of the colony of New Haven, 
 as he had previously been of the colony of Connecticut. 
 The meeting of the commissioners this year was 
 at Hartford. Mr. Simon Bradstreet and Mr. Wil- 
 liam Hawthorne were commissioners from the Mas- 
 sachusetts; Mr. Edward Winslow and Mr. William 
 Brown, from Plymouth; Governor Hopkins and 
 Mr. George Fenwick, from Connecticut; and Go- 
 vernor Eaton and Mr. Thomas Gregson, from New 
 Haven. 
 
 No sooner was the meeting opened, than a pro- 
 posal was made by the commissioners from Massa- 
 chusetts, directed by their general court, that the 
 commissioners from that colony should always have 
 preference to the commissioners of the other colonies 
 and be allowed to subscribe first, in the same order 
 in which the articles of confederation had been signed 
 Upon consideration of the proposal, the commis 
 sioners were unanimously of the opinion, that no 
 such thing had either been proposed, granted, or 
 practised, by the commissioners of the other juris 
 dictions, in any of their former meetings, though 
 the articles had been subscribed in the presence o:~ 
 
 the general court of the Massachusetts. They re- 
 solved, that the commission was free, and might not 
 receive any thing but what was expressed by the 
 articles of confederation, as imposed by any general 
 court. Nevertheless, they determined that on ac- 
 count of their respect to the Massachusetts, they 
 willingly granted that their commissioners in that 
 and in all future meetings should subscribe first, 
 after the president, and the commissioners of the 
 other colonies in such order as they were named in 
 the articles ; viz. Plymouth, Connecticut, and New 
 laven. 
 
 The Indians were this year almost every where 
 roublesome, and in some places in a high state 01 
 tostility. In Virginia they generally rose, and 
 made a most horrible massacre of the English ; and 
 t was imagined that there was a general combina- 
 ion among the southern and New England Indians 
 o destroy all the colonies. The Narraganset In- 
 iians, regardless of all their covenants with the 
 English and with Uncas, continued in acts of con- 
 tant hostility against the latter, and so oppressed 
 he sachems and Indians under the protection of 
 he Massachusetts, that they were obliged to dis- 
 patch a party of men for their defence and assist- 
 nce, in fortifying against these oppressors. 
 
 The commissioners immediately sent Thomas 
 Stanton, their interpreter, and Nathaniel Willet, 
 nto the Narraganset and Moheagan countries, with 
 >articular instructions to their respective sachems. 
 They were instructed to acquaint the sachems, that 
 he commissioners were then met at Hartford; and 
 ;hat if they would appear and lay their respective 
 grievances before them, they would judge impar- 
 ially between them : that the commissioners had 
 leard the report which they had spread abroad con- 
 cerning Uncas, that he had taken a ransom, in part, 
 ? or Miantonimoh, and afterwards had put him to 
 death ; and that he refused to return the ransom. 
 They were directed to assure them, that Uncas ut- 
 terly denied the charge: that, nevertheless, if they 
 ould go themselves, or send some of their principal 
 men to Hartford, the commissioners would impar- 
 ;ially hear this, and all other differences subsisting 
 aetween them and the Moheagans, and assist them 
 in the settlement of an amicable correspondence 
 between the two nations ; and that the parties should 
 tiave a safe passage to and from Hartford, without 
 any injury from the English. According to their 
 nstructions, they demanded of both parties? that 
 they should commit nc acts of hostility against each 
 other in their travels to Hartford, nor on their re- 
 turn to their respective countries ; and that all 
 hostilities against each other's plantations should 
 cease during the hearing and treaty proposed. If 
 either of the parties should refuse to go or send to 
 Hartford, the treaty made in 1638 was to be urged 
 against them, and their engagements not to go to 
 war with each other until they had acquainted the 
 English with their grievances, and taken their ad- 
 vice. Directions were given that it should be de- 
 manded of the party refusing, what their designs 
 were ? Whether they were for peace or war ? 
 Whether they designed to perform their treaties 
 made with the English of Massachusetts and Con- 
 necticut ? Or whether they considered them as all 
 broken and void? The interpreter was charged 
 fully to state ail these articles to the Indians, and, 
 having taken their answers in writing, to read them 
 to the sachems, that they might understand and 
 acknowledge them to be the very answers which 
 they bad given. 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 In consequence of this message, the Narraganset 
 Indians sent one of their sachems, with other chief 
 men, to prove their charge against Uncas, and to 
 treat with the English. They also bound them- 
 selves to confirm what their deputies should do in 
 their name. Uncas also made his appearance, 
 and the commissioners went into a full hearing of 
 all differences between the parties. Upon heaving 
 the case, the commissioners found that there never 
 had been any agreement between the Narragansets 
 and Uncas for the redemption of Miantonimoh, 
 nor anything paid, in whole or in part, for his ran- 
 som. 'Notwithstanding, they declared that if the 
 Narragansets should hereafter be able to prove what 
 they had alleged against Uncas, that they would 
 order him to make full satisfaction. They also re- 
 solved, that neither the Narragansets nor Nehan- 
 ticks should make any war or assault upon Uncas, 
 or any of his men, until thoy should make proof of 
 the. pretended ransom, and thztt Uncas had refused 
 to make them satisfaction. 
 
 The Narraganset sachem and his counsellors, 
 upon consultation together, stipulated, in behalf of 
 the Narraganset and Nehantick Indians, that no 
 hostility should be committed against Uncas, or any 
 of his Indians, until after the next year's time of 
 planting corn. They also covenanted, that before 
 they began war they would give thirty days' notice, 
 either to the governor of Massachusetts or Con- 
 necticut. Thus, for the present, by the vigorous 
 and prudent exertions of the colonies and their 
 commissioners, an Indian war was prevented. 
 
 Yoncho, Wiantanse, Moughmatow, and Weena- 
 ganinim, sachems of Monhauset and its vicinity, on 
 Long Island, with their companies, appeared before 
 the commissioners, and represented that they anc 
 the Long Island Indians had been tributaries to 
 the English ever since the Pequot war, and tha 
 they had never injured the English nor the Dutch 
 but had been friendly to both. They therefore 
 desired a certificate of their relation to the English 
 and to be taken under the protection of the unitec 
 colonies. Upon this representation, the commis 
 sioners gave them a certificate, and declared tha 
 it was their desire, while they continued peaceable 
 and did not intermeddle with the quarrels of othe 
 Indians, that they and their companies might enjoi 
 ample peace, without any disturbance from the 
 English, or any in connexion or friendship with 
 them. 
 
 In this meeting, the commissioners of Massachu 
 setts laid claim to part of the Pequot country, or 
 the footing of joint conquest ; and desired that a 
 division of the country might be made, 01 some 
 way prescribed, by which the affair might be com 
 promised. 
 
 Mr. Fenwick, in behalf of himself, and the noble 
 men and gentlemen in England, particularly in 
 terested in the lands in question, pleaded, tha 
 nothing in their absence might be determinec 
 against their title. He insisted that Pequot har 
 bour, and the lands in the adjacent country, wer 
 of great consequence to the gentlemen interested in 
 the Connecticut patent; and said they had a specia 
 respect to them, in their consultations, relative to a 
 plantation in these parts. 
 
 The commissioners judged that a convenien 
 time ought to be given to those noble personages t< 
 plead their right, and that all patents of equa 
 authority ought to have the same construction, bot 
 with reference to propriety and jurisdiction. 
 The commissioners of Massachusetts also mad 
 
 laim to Waianoke, now Westficld, as lying within 
 he limits of their patent. Mr. Fenwiek, at tho 
 ame time, claimed it as covered by the patent of 
 Connecticut. However, as it appeared to the com- 
 missioners that Mi-. Femvick hud promised, before 
 his meeting, either to clear his title to Waranoke, 
 r submit to the government of Massachusetts, they 
 etermined that Waranoke, with Mr. Hopkins's 
 rading-house, and the other houses and lands in 
 hat plantation, should be under the jurisdiction of 
 Massachusetts, until it should be made evident to 
 rljich colony they belonged ; but that the propriety 
 f the land should belong to the purchasers, pro- 
 ided it should not exceed two thousand acres. 
 
 The Reverend Mr. Shepard wrote to the commis- 
 ioners, representing the necessity of further assist- 
 ance for the support of scholars at Cambridge, 
 whose parents were needy, and desired them to en- 
 tourage a general contribution through the colonies. 
 The commissioners approved the motion ; and, for 
 ;he encouragement of literature, recommended it to 
 .he general courts in the respective colonies, to take 
 t into their consideration, and to give it general 
 encouragement. The genera?! courts adopted the 
 recommendation, and contributions of grain and 
 irovisions were annually made, through the united 
 colonies, for the charitable end proposed. 
 
 At this meeting a plan was concerted by the 
 commissioners for a general trade with the Indians, 
 by a joint stock. It was proposed to begin the trade 
 with a stock of five or six thousand pounds, and to 
 increase it to twenty thousand or more ; and that 
 each general court should approve and establish 
 the trade, with peculiar privileges, for the term of 
 twenty years : but it was never adopted. It seems 
 it did not agree with the views of the general court 
 of Massachusetts ; and this, notwithstanding the 
 confederation, rendered all the determinations of 
 the commissioners void, which were not agreeable 
 to their views and interests. 
 
 As the Indians were numerous, and began to 
 learn the use of fire-arms, all trading with them, in 
 any of the united colonies, in guns, ammunition, 
 swords, or any warlike instruments, directly or in- 
 directly, was prohibited, upon the penalty of a fine 
 of twenty times the value of the articles thus unlaw- 
 fully sold. It was also recommended to the several 
 courts, to prohibit all vending of arms and ammu- 
 nition to the French or Dutch, because they imme- 
 diately disposed of them to the Indians; and every 
 smith was forbidden to mend a gun or any warlike 
 instrument for an Indian, under a severe penalty. 
 
 Southampton, on Long Island, was, by the ad- 
 vice of the commissioners, taken under the juris- 
 diction of Connecticut. This town had been settled 
 in 1640 ; by the inhabitants of Lynn, in Massachu- 
 setts, who had become so straitened at home, that 
 about the year 1639 they contracted with the agent 
 of Lord Sterling for a tract of land on the west 
 end of Long Island. They also made a treaty with 
 the Indians, and began a settlement, but the Dutch 
 gave them so much trouble, that they were obliged 
 to desert it, and remove further eastward ; and 
 they ultimately collected nearly a hundred families, 
 and made a permanent settlement at Southamp- 
 ton. By the advice of the general court of Massa- 
 chusetts, they entered into a combination among 
 themselves to maintain civil government; and a 
 number of them regularly formed themselves into 
 church state, before they removed to the island, and 
 called Mr. Abraham Pierson, who had been a mi 
 nister in Yorkshire, in England, to be their pastor. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 669 
 
 Upon his arrival in New England, he became a 
 member of the church at Boston, whence he was 
 called to the work of the ministry at Southamp- 
 ton. This year he removed with part of his church 
 to Brantbrd ; as it seems that they were not pleased 
 that the town had put itself under the jurisdiction 
 of Connecticut. 
 
 This year a committee, consisting of the go- 
 vernor, deputy-governor, and several other gentle- 
 men, were appointed by the general court of Con- 
 necticut, to treat with George Fenwick, Esquire, 
 relative to the purchase of Saybrook fort, and of all 
 guns, buildings, and lands in the colony, which he, 
 aud the lords and gentlemen interested in the 
 patent of Connecticut, might claim. The next 
 December they came to an agreement with Mr. 
 Fenwick to the following effect : 
 
 " Articles of agreement made and concluded 
 betwixt George Fenwick, Esquire, of Saybrook 
 fort, on the one part, and Edward Hopkins, John 
 Haynes, John Mason, John Steele, and James 
 Boosy, for, and on the behalf of the jurisdiction of 
 Connecticut river, on the other part, the 5th of 
 December, 1644. 
 
 " The said George Fenwick, Esq. doth make 
 over to the use and behoof of the jurisdiction of 
 Connecticut river, to be enjoyed by them for ever, 
 the fort at Saybrook, with the appurtenances : all 
 the land upon the river Connecticut; and such 
 lands as are yet undisposed of shall be ordered and 
 given out by a committee of five, whereof George 
 Fenwick, Esq. is always to be one. The said 
 George Fenwick doth also promise, that all the 
 lands from Narraganset river, to the fort of Say- 
 brook, mentioned~in a patent granted by the Earl 
 of Warwick, to certain nobles and gentlemen, shall 
 fall in under the jurisdiction of Connecticut, if it 
 come into his power." 
 
 On the part of Connecticut it was stipulated, 
 " That the said George Fenwick, Esq. should enjoy 
 all the housing belonging to the fort for the space 
 of ten years. And that a certain duty on corn, 
 biscuit, beaver, and cattle, which should be exported 
 from the river's mouth should be paid to him during 
 the said term." 
 
 Upon the 4th of February, 1645, the general 
 court of Connecticut confirmed this agreement with 
 Mr. Fenwick, and passed an act imposing a duty of 
 two-pence per bushel upon all grain, six-pence upon 
 every hundred weight of biscuit, and a small duty 
 upon all beaver exported from the mouth of the 
 river, during the term of ten years, from the first 
 day of March ensuing. It was also enacted, that 
 an entry should be made of all grain laden on 
 board any vessel, of the number of bushels, and of 
 the weight of biscuit, and that a note of the same 
 be delivered to Mr. Fenwick, upon the penalty of 
 forfeiting the one half of all such grain and biscuit 
 as should be put on board and not thus certified. 
 The colony, on the whole, paid Mr. Fenwick 
 1,600. sterling, merely for the jurisdiction right, or 
 for the old patent of Connecticut. The general 
 court, the next July, ordered that a tax of two hun- 
 dred pounds should be levied on the plantations in 
 the colony, to defray the charge of advancing the 
 fortifications at Saybrook fort. A committee was 
 appointed, at the same time, to bargain with Mr. 
 Griffin for that purpose, and to make provision for 
 the immediate completion of the fortifications in 
 view. A letter was also dispatched from the court 
 to Mr. Fenwick, desiring him, if his circumstances 
 would permit, to make a voyage to England, to 
 
 obtain an enlargement of the patent, and to pro- 
 mote other interests of the colony. 
 
 Notwithstanding the unwearied pains the com- 
 missioners of the colonies, and the colonies them- 
 selves, had taken to prevent hostilities among the 
 Indians, and to preserve the peace of the country, 
 the perfidious Narragansetswere continually waging 
 war. Pessacus and the Narraganset Indians, in 
 violation of all their treaties, had repeatedly in- 
 vaded the Moheagan country and assaulted Uncas 
 in his fort. They had killed and taken numbers of 
 his men, and so pressed him, that both Connecticut 
 and New Haven were obliged to dispatch parties 
 of men to his assistance, to prevent the enemy 
 from completely conquering him and his country. 
 
 Governor Winthrop therefore called a special 
 meeting of the commissioners, at Boston, on the 
 28th of June, 1645. Governor Winthrop and Mr. 
 Herbert Pelham were commissioners for Massa- 
 chusetts, Mr. Thomas Prince and Mr. John Brown 
 for Plymouth, Edward Hopkins and George Fen- 
 wick, Esquires, for Connecticut, Governor Eaton 
 and Mr. Stephen Goodyear for New Haven. 
 
 Immediately on the meeting of the commissioners, 
 they dispatched messengers into .the Narraganset 
 and Moheagan countries ; who were charged to ac- 
 quaint the sachems and Indians of the respective 
 tribes, that if they would go to Boston the commis- 
 sioners would impartially hear and determine all 
 their differences ; and that, however the treaty 
 might end, they should be allowed to go and return 
 in safety. The sachems, at first, seemed to give 
 some fair speeches, but finally determined that they 
 would neither go nor send to Boston. The Narra- 
 gansets insulted and abused the messengers, and 
 uttered threats against the English. One of the 
 sachems declared that he would kill their cattle 
 and pile them in heaps ; and that an Englishman 
 should no sooner step out at his doors than the Indians 
 would kill him. He declared that whoever began 
 the war, he would continue it ; and that nothing 
 should satisfy him but the head of Uncas ; and the 
 messengers were obliged to return without effecting 
 any good purpose. Mr. Williams, of Rhode Island, 
 wrote to the commissioners, assuring them that an 
 Indian war would soon break out; and that, as a 
 preparative, the Narragausets had concluded a neu- 
 trality with Providence and the towns upon Aquid- 
 ney Island. 
 
 These reports roused the English ; and the com- 
 missioners, considering that the Narragansets had 
 violated all their treaties 3 and highly insulted the 
 united colonies and abused their messengers, deter- 
 mined that an immediate war with them was both 
 justifiable and necessary. 
 
 However, as they wished to act with prudence as 
 well as spirit, and to give general satisfaction in 
 an affair of such moment, they desired the advice of 
 the magistrates, elders, and a number of the prin- 
 cipal military officers in the Massachusetts. These 
 assembled, and were unanimously of the opinion, 
 that their engagements obliged them to defend 
 Uncas and the Moheagans : that the defence which 
 they were obliged to give, according to the common 
 acceptation of such engagements, extended not 
 barely to the defence of Uncas and his men in their 
 fort, but to his estate and liberties ; and that the 
 aid to be given must be immediate, or he would be 
 totally ruined. 
 
 It was therefore determined that a war with 
 the Indians was just, that the case should be stated 
 in short, and war, with the reasons of it, be pro- 
 
70 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 claimed. A day of fasting and prayer was appoint- 
 ed on the 4th of September ; and it was resolved, 
 that 300 men should be forthwith raised, and sent 
 against the enemy. Massachusetts were to furnish 
 190, Plymouth and Connecticut 40 each, and New 
 Haven 30. As the troops from Connecticut and 
 New Haven, who had assisted in defending Uncas, 
 the former part of the summer, were about to re- 
 turn to their respective colonies, 40 men were im- 
 pressed in the Massachusetts, and marched in three 
 days, completely armed and victualled. These were 
 commanded by Humphry Atherton. Orders were 
 dispatched to the troops to be raised in Connecticut 
 and New Haven, to join them at Moheagan. A 
 commission was forwarded to Captain Mason to 
 take the command of all the troops, until the whole 
 army should form a junction. The chief command 
 of the army was given to Major Edward Gibbons, 
 of Massachusetts. He was instructed not only to 
 defend Uncas, but to invade and distress the Narra- 
 gansets and Nehan ticks, with their confederates. 
 He had instructions to offer them peace ; and if 
 they would receive it upou honourable terms, he, 
 with his officers, had power to make a treaty with 
 them. If they would neither fight nor make peace, 
 the commander had orders to build forts in the Ne- 
 hantick and Narraganset country; to which he 
 might gather the enemy's corn and goods, as far as 
 it should be in his power. 
 
 The Narragansets had sent a present to Governor 
 Winthrop, of Boston, desiring that they might have 
 peace with the English, but wage war with Uncas, 
 and avenge the death of Miantonimoh. The go- 
 vernor refused to receive the present upon such 
 terms ; but the messengers, by whom it was carried, 
 urging that they might leave it until they could 
 consult their sachems, he suffered it to be left with 
 him. The commissioners ordered, that it should be 
 immediately returned ; and Captain Hurding, Mr. 
 Wilbore, and Benedict Arnold, were sent into the 
 Narraganset country, to return the present, and to 
 assure Pessacus, Canonicus, Janimo, and the other 
 sachems of the Narraganset and Nehantick Indians, 
 that they would neither receive their presents, nor 
 give them peace, until they should make satisfac- 
 tion for past injuries, and give security for their 
 quiet conduct for the future. They were to inform 
 the Indians that the English were ready for war, 
 and that if war was their choice they would direct 
 their affairs for that purpose ; and at the same time 
 they had orders to assure them, that if they would 
 make satisfaction for the damages which they had 
 done, and give security for their peaceable conduct 
 in time to come, they should know that the English 
 were as desirous of the peace, and as tender of the 
 blood of the Narragausets, as they had ever been. 
 
 The messengers prosecuted their journey with 
 great dispatch, and brought back word that Pessa- 
 cus, chief sachem of the Narragansets, and others, 
 were coming to Boston forthwith, vested with full 
 powers to treat with the commissioners. The mes- 
 sengers, though sent on purpose to carry back the 
 present, and to assure the Indians that the English 
 would not receive it, returned with it to Boston. 
 They also wrote to Captain Mason, acquainting him 
 that there were hopes of peace with the Indians. 
 
 The commissioners, therefore, while they acknow- 
 ledged the pains and expedition with which they 
 had accomplished their journey, censured them for 
 not attending to their instructions. Especially, they 
 judged them worthy of censure for bringing back 
 the present, and for writing to Captain Mason. 
 
 The latter, they imagined, could have no other 
 effect than to retard his operations. 
 
 The Indians finding that an army was coming 
 into the heart of their country, made haste to meet 
 the commissioners, and ward off the impending blow. 
 A few days after the return of their messengers, 
 Pessacus, Meeksamo, the eldest son of Canonicus, 
 and Wytowash, three principal sachems of the Nar- 
 ragansets, and Awashequen, deputy of the Nehan- 
 ticks, with a large train, arrived at Boston. 
 
 They at first denied and excused many particu- 
 lars which the commissioners charged upon them. 
 They insisted on the old story of the ransom', and 
 proposed to make a truce with Uncas, until the 
 next planting time, or for a year. The commis- 
 sioners assured them, that matters were now come 
 to a crisis, and that they would accept of no such 
 terms. They charged the Indian sachems with 
 their perfidious breach of treaties, with the injuries 
 they had done to Uncas, with their insults to the 
 English, and with the great trouble and expense to 
 which they had put them, to defend Uncas and 
 maintain the peace of the country. The Indians 
 finally, though with great reluctance, acknowledged 
 their breach of treaties ; and one of the sachems pre- 
 sented the commissioners with a stick, signifying 
 by that token that he submitted the terms of war 
 and peace into their hands, and wished to know 
 what they required of the Indians. 
 
 The commissioners represented to them, that the 
 charge and trouble which they had brought on the 
 colonies was very great, besides all the loss and 
 damages which Uncas had sustained. They charged 
 all these upon their infraction of the treaties which 
 they had made with the colonies, and with Uncas. 
 They assured the Indians, that though two thousand 
 fathom of white wampum would by no means be 
 equal to the expense to which they had put the 
 colonies, entirely by their violation of their treaties; 
 yet, to show their moderation, they would accept of 
 that sum for all past damages. It was required 
 that they should restore to Uncas all the captives 
 and canoes which they had taken from him; that 
 they should submit all matters of controversy be- 
 tween them and Uncas to the commissioners at 
 their next meeting; and that they should maintain 
 perpetual peace with the English, and all their sub- 
 jects and allies. Finally, hostages were demanded 
 as a security for the performance of the treaty. 
 These, indeed, were hard terms. The Indians made 
 many exceptions to them ; but as they knew the 
 English were gone into their country, and were 
 fearful that hostilities would be commenced, even 
 while the treaty was pending, they submitted to 
 them. Some abatement was made as to the times 
 of payment at first proposed, and it was agreed that 
 Uncas should restore to the Narragansets all cap- 
 tives and canoes which he had taken from them. 
 This gave the Narragansets and Nehanticks some 
 ease ; but it was with great reluctance that they 
 finally signed the articles. 
 
 On the 30th of August the articles were signed, 
 and the Indians left several of their number, as 
 hostages, until the children, who had been agreed 
 upon for a permanent security, should be delivered. 
 The troops which had been raised were disbanded, 
 and the day appointed for a general fast was cele- 
 brated as a day of general thanksgiving. 
 
 New Haven, this year, appointed Mr. Gregson 
 their agent to the parliament in England, to procure 
 a patent for the colony. The court at New Haven 
 voted that it was a proper time to join with Con- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 671 
 
 necticut, iu procuring a patent from parliament 
 for these parts. It appears that both Connecticut 
 and New Haven, at this time, had it in contempla- 
 tion to obtain charters from parliament for their 
 respective jurisdictions; but Mr. Fenwick, who 
 had been desired to undertake a voyage for this 
 purpose, in behalf of Connecticut, did not accept 
 the appointment, and Mr. Gregson was lost at sea. 
 In consequence of these circumstances, and the 
 state of affairs in England afterwards, the business 
 rested until after the restoration. 
 
 This year Tunxis was named Farmington. At 
 this time there were in the colony of Connecticut 
 eight taxable towns ; Hartford, Windsor, Weathers- 
 field, Stratford, Fairfield, Saybrook, Southamp- 
 ton, and Farmington. In the colony of New Haven 
 were six; New Haven, Milford, Guilford, South- 
 hold, Stamford, and Branford. 
 
 In 1646 there was an alteration in the act re- 
 specting juries. In 16 14, an act had passed autho- 
 rizing the court of magistrates to increase or miti- 
 gate the damages given by verdict of the jury. It 
 was now enacted, that whatever alterations should 
 be made of this kind, at any time, should be made 
 in open court, in the presence both of the plaintiff 
 and defendant, or upon affidavit made, that they 
 had been summoned to appear. 
 
 At this court the town of Fairfield made objections 
 to that part of the act passed in 1644, which ad- 
 mitted of a jury of six. They insisted on twelve 
 jurymen in all cases triable by a jury ; but con- 
 sented, that eight out of twelve should bring in a 
 verdict. It does not appear that a jury of six was 
 ever empannelled after this time. The laws were 
 soon after revised, and ordained a jury of twelve in 
 all cases which required a jury. 
 
 The commissioners of the united colonies met 
 this year at New Haven. The Dutch continuing 
 their injurious conduct against the English, com- 
 plaints were made to the commissioners of the re- 
 cent and repeated insults and damages which they 
 had received from them. Instead of making them 
 the least satisfaction for past injuries, they pro- 
 ceeded to new instances of insolence and abuse. 
 Kieft wrote a most imperious letter to Governor 
 Eaton, charging him and the people at New Haven 
 with an insatiable desire of possessing that which 
 belonged to the Dutch nation. He affirmed, that 
 contrary to ancient league?, between the kings of 
 England and the States General, contrary to the 
 law of nations, and his protestations, they had indi- 
 rectly entered upon the limits of New Netherlands. 
 He therefore protested against them, as breakers of 
 the peace and disturbers of the public tranquillity. 
 Indeed he proceeded so far as to threaten, that if 
 the English at New Haven did not restore the 
 places which they had usurped, and repair the 
 losses which the Dutch had sustained, that they 
 would, by such means as God should afford, recover 
 them. He affirmed that the Dutch would not view 
 it as inconsistent with the public peace, but should 
 impute all the evils which might ensue, to the 
 English. 
 
 Governor Eaton replied to this letter, that the 
 colony under his government had never entered 
 upon any land to which the Dutch had any known 
 title : that, notwithstanding all the injuries received 
 from the Dutch, and the very unsatisfying answers 
 which their governor had given from time to time, 
 the colony, in his apprehensions, had done nothing 
 inconsistent with the law of God, the law of nations, 
 nor with the ancient leagues subsisting between 
 
 England and Holland. He therefore assured him, 
 that the colony would cheerfully submit all differ, 
 ences, between them and the Dutch, to an impartial 
 hearing and adjudication, either in Europe or 
 America. 
 
 The Dutch at Hartford maintained a distinct 
 and independent govepnment. They resisted the 
 laws of the colony, and counteracted the natural 
 rights of men. They inveigled an Indian woman 
 who, having been liable to public punishment, fled 
 from her master ; and though her master demanded 
 her as his property, and the magistrates, as a crimi- 
 nal, on whom the law ought to have its course, yet 
 they would not restore her. The Dutch agent at 
 Hartford resisted the guard ; drew his rapier upon 
 the soldiers, and broke it upon their arms. Ho 
 then escaped to the fort, and there defended him- 
 self with impunity. 
 
 The commissioners of Connecticut and NewHaven 
 made complaint of these insults and misdemeanors 
 to the commissioners of the united colonies, and 
 laid open the whole conduct of the Dutch towards 
 them. They represented, that in answer to their 
 complaints of past injuries, they had, instead of 
 satisfaction, received nothing but injury and abuse. 
 
 The commissioners, upon a deliberate view of 
 the case, wrote to the Dutch governor, stating how 
 they had written to him from time to time ; and, in 
 consideration of the great necessity for peace, had 
 attempted to compromise the differences which had 
 so long subsisted between the Dutch and their con- 
 federates. They observed to the governor, that ho 
 had returned nothing but an ignoramus, with an 
 offensive addition, which they left to his review and 
 better consideration. They stated the affair at 
 Hartford, and observed, that had the Dutch agent 
 been slain, in the insolent affront which he had 
 given, his blood would have been upon his own 
 head. They assured him, that his agent and the 
 company at Hartford had proceeded to an intoler- 
 able state of conduct : that they had forcibly taken, 
 away their cattle from authority, and made an as- 
 sault upon a man who had legally sought justice for 
 damages which he had sustained : that they struck 
 him, and in a hostile manner took his team and 
 loading from him. The commissioners noticed the 
 letter of the Dutch governor to the colony of New 
 Haven, and manifested their approbation of the 
 answer which Governor Eaton had given. They 
 expressed their hopes that it would give satisfaction; 
 and concluded by observing, that to prevent all 
 inconveniences which might arise from any part of 
 the proceedings, they had sent an express, by whom 
 they wished to receive such an answer as might 
 satisfy them of his concurrence with them, to em- 
 brace and pursue righteousness and peace. 
 
 Several of the English who had traded with tho 
 Dutch, had not been able to recover their just debts, 
 and Governor Kieft would not afford them that as- 
 sistance which was necessary for the obtaining of 
 justice. Mr. Whiting, of Connecticut, complained 
 that an action had been carried against him at 
 Manhatoes in his absence, and when he had no 
 agent to exhibit his evidence, or plead his cause; 
 and also, that upon demanding a just debt, long 
 since due frorn the Dutch, the governor neglected 
 to give him that assistance which was necessary for 
 the recovery of his right. 
 
 The commissioners wrote also to Governor Kieft 
 on this subject; desiring him to grant Mr. Whiting 
 a review in the case specified, and proper assistance 
 in the recovery of his debts from the Dutch; and 
 
672 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 assured him, that all the colonies would grant simi- 
 jar favours to the Dutch in all their courts. 
 
 By their express, the commissioners received two 
 jetters from the Dutch governor, in answer to what 
 they had written, couched in the same offensive 
 strain as the former letters. He denied that the 
 woman who had been detained by the Dutch at 
 Hartford, was a servant, with many other facts 
 which had been stated by the commissioners : and 
 instead of submitting the affairs in dispute to a 
 fcgal decision, either in Europe or America, he 
 still threatened to avenge the injuries of which he 
 complained, by force of arms. With respect to 
 other matters of special importance, he passed them 
 without the least notice. He compared the com- 
 missioners to eagles which soar aloft, and always 
 despise the little fly ; but he assured them, that the 
 Dutch by their arms would manfully pursue their 
 rights. He then finished his letters in this remark- 
 able manner : " We protest against all you com- 
 missioners, met at the Red Mount,as against break- 
 ers of the common league, and also infringers of 
 the rights of the lords, the states, our superiors, in 
 that you have dared, without our express and special 
 consent, to hold your general meeting; within the 
 limits of New Netherlands." The Dutch called 
 New Haven the Red Mount, and the Red Hills, 
 from the appearance of the rocks west and north of 
 the town. 
 
 The commissioners made a short reply, assuring 
 the Dutch governor, that they could prove the facts 
 which they had stated to him in their letters ; and 
 that the woman whom the Dutch had detained, was 
 a servant, and an important part of her master's 
 property ; that she had fled from civil justice, and, 
 by the confession of Mr. David Provost, Dutch 
 agent at Hartford, had been defiled. They insisted 
 that the conduct of the Dutch at Hartford was in- 
 tolerable, and complained that he had given no 
 orders, to redress the grievances which they had 
 mentioned. They also complained that he had 
 made no reply to so many important articles, con- 
 cerning which they had written to him. With re- 
 jpect to the protest, with which he had closed his 
 tetter, they observed that though it was offensive, 
 yet it agreed with the general strain of his writing; 
 and that he had no more reason to protest against 
 their boldness in holding their session at New Ha- 
 ven, than they had to protest against his boldness 
 in the protest which he had sent them. 
 
 This year a plot was concerted among the In- 
 dians, for the destruction of a number of the prin- 
 cipal inhabitants of Hartford. Sequassen, a petty 
 sachem upon the river, hired one of the Waronoke 
 Indians to kill Governor Hopkins and Governor 
 Haynes, with Mr. Whiting, one of the magistrates. 
 Sequassen's hatred of Uncas was insatiable, and 
 probably was directed against these gentlemen on 
 account of the just and faithful protection which 
 ihey had afforded him. The plan was, that the 
 Waranoke Indian should kill them, and charge the 
 murder upon Uncas, and by that means engage the 
 English against him to his ruin. After the massa- 
 cre of these gentlemen, Sequassen and the mur- 
 derer were to make their escape to the Mohawks. 
 Watohibrough, the Indian hired to perpetrate the 
 murder, after he had received several girdles of 
 wampum as part of his reward, considering how j 
 Bushheag, the Indian who attempted to kill the ; 
 woman at Stamford, had been apprehended and ex- j 
 ecuted at New Haven, conceived that it would be j 
 dangerous to murder English sachems : he also re i 
 
 volved in his mind, that if the English should not 
 apprehend and kill him, he should always be afraid 
 of them, and have no comfort in his life ; and also 
 recollected, that the English gave a reward to the 
 Indians who discovered and brought in Bushheag. 
 He therefore determined, it would be better to dis- 
 cover the plot than to be guilty of so dangerous an 
 action; and he came to Hartford a few days after 
 he had received the girdles, and discovered the plot. 
 Nearly at the same time the Waranoke Indians did 
 much damage to the people at Windsor, burning up 
 their tar and turpentine, and destroying their tools 
 and instruments to the value of 100/. or more. The 
 magistrates at Hartford issued a warrant, and ap- 
 prehended the Indian whom they supposed to be 
 guilty; but the Indians rose and made an assault 
 upon the officers, and rescued him. 
 
 Upon complaint and evidence of these misde- 
 meanors, the commissioners sent messengers to 
 Sequassen, demanding his appearance at New 
 Haven, and they ordered that if he would not vo- 
 luntarily appear, all means consistent with the pre- 
 servation of his life should be used to take him. 
 Messengers were also sent to Waranoke to the 
 Indians who had done the mishief at Windsor, with 
 orders to seize the delinquents, and bring them off, 
 if they judged they could do it with safety ; but 
 Sequassen had art enough to keep out of their 
 hands, and those who had done the damage could 
 not be found. The messengers were insulted, and 
 the Indians boasted of their arms, primed and 
 cocked their pieces in their presence, and threat- 
 ened that if a man should be carried away, they 
 would all rise. 
 
 The commissioners, on the whole, judged it not 
 expedient, in the state in which the Indians then 
 were, to proceed any further than to resolve, that 
 if any Indian or Indians, of what plantation soever, 
 should do any damage to the English colonies, or to 
 any of their inhabitants, that upon due proof of it, 
 they would, in a peaceable manner, demand satis- 
 faction. But if any sagamore, or plantation of 
 Indians, should hide, convey away, entertain, or 
 protect such offender or offenders, that then the 
 English would demand satisfaction of such Indian 
 sagamore or plantation, and do themselves justice, 
 as they might upon all such offenders. At the 
 same time they declared that they would keep 
 peace and amity with all other Indians. This reso- 
 lution was to be made known to the Waranoke 
 Indians in particular. 
 
 The Indians, at particular times, were very mis- 
 chievous, and gave much trouble to all the planta- 
 tions. Some time after the settlement at Milford, 
 the Indians set all the adjacent country on fire ; 
 and it was supposed that their design was to burn 
 the town : but the inhabitants were so fortunate as 
 to stop the fires at the swamps and brooks which 
 surround it on the west and north, by which means 
 the town was preserved. 
 
 The Mohawks, though not hostile to the English, 
 by coming down and murdering the Connecticut 
 Indians, put the plantations in fear, and gave them 
 not a little trouble. Some years after the settle- 
 ment of Milford, they came into the town, and 
 secreted themselves in a swamp, about half a mile 
 east of Stratford ferry, with a view to surprise the 
 Indians at the fort. The English accidentally dis- 
 covering them, gave notice of it to the Milford In- 
 dians : who set up the war whoop, and collected 
 such numbers that they ventured to attack them ; 
 and the Mohawks were overpowered, and several of 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 673 
 
 them taken. One stout captive the Milfo'rd In- 
 dians determined to kiil by famine and torture; 
 and they therefore stripped him naked and tied 
 him up in the salt meadows, for the musquitoes to 
 torment, and hunger to destroy him. An English- 
 man, one Hine, finding him in this pitiable condi- 
 tion, loosed and fed him, and enabled him to make 
 his escape; which humane action very much con- 
 ciliated the Mohawks towards the English, and es- 
 pecially towards the family of the Hines, whom, it 
 is said, they ever afterwards particularly noticed, 
 and treated with uncommon friendship. 
 
 The Narraganset and Nehantick Indians neg- 
 lected to perform ;my part of the treaty which they 
 had made the last year. They neither paid the 
 wampum stipulated, nor met the commissioners at 
 New Haven, to settle the dirFereiv.-es between them 
 and Uncas ; nor restored the captives nor canoes 
 taken from him, nor made him any compensation 
 for the damages which thoy had done him. They 
 had attempted to deceive the English with respect 
 to the hostages ; and instead of the children of their 
 sachems and chief men, whom they agreed to de- 
 liver, they made an attempt to impose upon them 
 children of the lowest rank ; and even to this time 
 they had not brought those whom they had pro- 
 mised. They were still intriguing with the Mo- 
 hawks, and by presents and various arts attempting 
 to engage them against the English colonies. The 
 commissioners judged that they had just occasion 
 to avenge the injuries which they had received, 
 and to seek a recompense by force of arms. How- 
 ever, that they might show their love of peace, and 
 their forbearance towards these barbarians, they 
 dispatched another message to them ; in which a 
 full representation was made of the.se particulars; 
 and they were assured that the commissioners were 
 apprised of their intrigues, an;l that in the eyes of 
 all the colonies they had rendered themselves a 
 perfidious people. 
 
 The war between the Dutch and Indians con- 
 tinuing, a great and general battle: was fought be- 
 tween them in that part of Horseneck commonly 
 known by the name of Strickland's plain. The 
 action was long and severe, both parties fighting 
 with firmness and obstinacy. The Dutch, with 
 much difficulty, kept the field, and the Indians wi;h- 
 drew. Great numbers were slain on both sides, and 
 the graves of tiie dead, for a century or more, ap- 
 peared like a number of small hills. 
 
 The New Haven colon ista having been disappoint- 
 ed in trade, and having sustained great damages at 
 Delaware, and the Lirgo estates which they brought 
 into New England vapidly dec-lining this year, made 
 uncommon exertions to retrieve their former losses. 
 Combining their money and labours, they built a 
 ship at Rhode Island of 150 tons, and freighted her 
 for England with the best part of their commercial 
 estates ; and Mr. Gregson, Captain Turner, Mr. 
 Lamberton, and five or six of their principal men 
 embarked on board. They sailed from New Haven 
 in January, 1647 ; and were obliged to cut through 
 the ice to get out of the harbour : the ship founder- 
 ed at sea, and was never heard of after she sailed. 
 This, with the former losses which the company had 
 sustained, broke up all their expectations with re- 
 spect to trade ; and as they conceived themselves 
 disadvantageous!} 7 situated for husbandry, they 
 adopted the design of leaving the country. They 
 were invited to Jamaica, in the West Indies ; and 
 also to Ireland : where they entered into treaties for 
 the city of Galloway, which they designed to have 
 
 HIST. OF AMER. Nos. 85 86 
 
 settled as a small province for themselves. Never- 
 theless they were disappointed with respect to all 
 these designs ; and their posterity, whom they feared 
 would be reduced to beggary, became ultimately 
 respectable landholders, and flourished no less than. 
 their neighbours. 
 
 (1647.) At the election, this year, at Hartford, 
 nine magistrates were chosen. Mr. Cosmore and 
 Mr. Howe were elected for the first time. The other 
 magistrates were the same as in the preceding years. 
 
 At this session of the general court, an explana- 
 tion or addition was made to the tenth fundamental 
 article. By this article, as it stood, it was the 
 opinion of some, that no particular court could be 
 holden unless the governor and four magistrates 
 were present. It was therefore decreed, that the 
 governor or deputy-governor, with two magistrates, 
 should have power to keep a particular court, ac- 
 cording to the laws established; and, that in case 
 neither the governor, nor deputy-governor, should 
 be present, or able to sit, if three magistrates should 
 meet and choose one of themselves moderator, they 
 might keep a particular court, which to all intents 
 and purposes should be deemed as legal as if the 
 governor or deputy-governor were present. All 
 orders contrary to this were repealed. 
 
 As tobacco, about this time, was coming into use 
 in the colony, a yery curious law was made for its 
 regulation or suppression, by which it was ordered, 
 that no person under twenty years of age, nor any 
 other, who had not already accustomed himself to 
 the use of it, should take any tobacco until he had 
 obtained a certificate from under the hand of an 
 approved physician that it was useful for him, and 
 until he had also obtained a licence from the court. 
 All others, who had addicted themselves to the use 
 of it, were prohibited from taking it in any com- 
 pany, or at their labours, or in travelling, unless 
 ten miles at least from any company ; and though 
 not in company, not more than once a day, upon 
 pain of a fine of six-pence for every such offence. 
 One substantial witness was to be a sufficient proof 
 of the crime. The constables of the several towns 
 were to make presentment to the particular courts, 
 and it was ordered that the fine should be paid 
 without gainsaying. 
 
 At a court in June, it was ordered, that the fort 
 and guns at Saybrook should be delivered to Cap- 
 tain John Mason, and that he should give Mr. Fen- 
 wick a receipt for the premises. At the desire of 
 the people there, Captain Mason was appointed to 
 the chief command of the fort, and was authorized 
 to govern all the soldiers and inhabitants of the 
 town ; and to call them forth and put them in such 
 array as might be necessary for the general defence 
 of the country. Orders were given that the fortifi- 
 cations should be repaired, and that the country rate 
 of Saybrook should be appropriated to that purpose. 
 
 This court granted to the soldiers of the respective 
 train-bands in the colony the privilege of choosing 
 their own officers, to be commissioned by the court. 
 
 The conduct of the Narraganset and Nehantick 
 Indians was so treacherous and hostile, that at 
 Midsummer an extraordinary meeting of the com- 
 missioners was called at Boston. The commission- 
 ers were, Thomas Dudley and John Endicot, 
 Esquires, from Massachusetts ; Mr. William Brad- 
 ford and Mr. John Brown, from Plymouth ; Gover- 
 nor Hopkins and Captain John Mason, from Con- 
 necticut; Governor Eaton and Mr. Goodyear, from 
 New Haven. Thomas Dudley was chosen pre- 
 sident. 
 
 3Q 
 
674 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 The Narraganset and Nehantick Indians had not 
 only neglected the performance of every part of 
 their treatier, vith the English, but were, by all 
 their arts, plotting against them. By their wam- 
 pum they were hiring all the Indian nations round 
 about them to combine against the colonies; and 
 had sent messengers and presents to the Mohawks, 
 to engage them in the general confederacy. As this 
 faithless conduct was the occasion of the meeting, 
 the commissioner's immediately dispatched messen- 
 gers to Pessacus, Ninigrate, Webetomaug, and all 
 their confederates, to declare to them their breach 
 of covenant, and to demand their attendance at 
 Boston. The messengers were instructed to assure 
 them, that if they did not appear, they would send 
 to them no more. Pessacus owned that he had 
 broken covenant, and said it was the constant grief 
 of his spirit. He pretended he would gladly go to 
 Boston, but he was unwell, and could not travel. 
 This was a mere pretence, as there was no appear- 
 ance of indisposition upon him. He excused himself 
 for not keeping the treaty, because he was frightened 
 into it by the sight of the English army, which was 
 about to invade his country ; and he represented that 
 he was in fear if he did not make it, the English 
 would follow him home and kill him. He declared, 
 however, that he would send his whole mind by 
 Ninigrate, and that he would abide by whatever he 
 should transact in the affair. 
 
 On the 3d of August, Ninigrate, with two of 
 Pessacus's men, and a number of the Nehantick 
 Indians, arrived at Boston. When Ninigrate came 
 before the commissioners, he pretended great igno- 
 rance of the treaties between the English and the 
 Indians. He declared that he knew no cause why 
 the Narragansets should pay so much wampum. He 
 said they owed nothing to the English. The com- 
 missioners acquainted him, that it was on account 
 of their breach of treaty, and the great charge 
 which by that means they had brought on the 
 colpnies, that the Narragansets engaged to pay 
 such a quantity. Well knowing his deceit, they 
 charged him as being the very man who had been 
 the principal cause of all their trouble and expense, 
 relative to the Indians. They declared to him 
 that he was the sachem who had threatened to pile 
 their cattle in heaps, and to kill every Englishman 
 who should step out at his doors. At so home a 
 charge, which he could not deny, he was not a lit- 
 tle chagrined. However, he excused the matter 
 with as much art as possible. With respect to the 
 wampum, he declared that the Narragansets had 
 not a sufficiency to pay the sum required. The com- 
 missioners replied that the Narragansets were a 
 great nation, and that they could at any time, upon 
 short notice, pay a greater amount than they de- 
 manded. They considered it a matter of policy, as 
 far as was consistent with justice, to strip them of 
 their wampum, to prevent their hiring the Mo- 
 hawks, and other Indians to join with them in a 
 general war against the colonies ; and therefore 
 insisted that the whole sum should be paid. Nini- 
 grate, after he had taken time to consult with his 
 council, the other deputies who were with him, 
 answered that he was determined to give the colo- 
 nies full satisfaction ; and desired ten days to send 
 messengers to Narraganset, to collect the wampum 
 due, and offered himself a hostage until their re- 
 turn. The messengers returned with no more than 
 two hundred fathoms. Ninigrate imputed this to 
 his absence ; and begged for liberty to return, pro- 
 mising that if the whole sum should not be paid by 
 
 the next spring, the commissioners might take his 
 head, and seize his country. The commissioners 
 agreed with him, that if within twenty days he 
 would deliver a thousand fathoms of wampum, and 
 the remainder which was due by the next planting 
 time, they would dismiss him. They also, for his 
 encouragement, acquainted him, that although they 
 might justly put the hostages to death for their de- 
 lays and breach of covenant, yet they would forth- 
 with deliver them to him ; and if they should find 
 him punctual to his engagements, they would 
 charge former defects to Pessacus. These terms 
 he gladly accepted. 
 
 The commissioners from Connecticut, the last 
 year, made complaint that Mr. Pyncheon and the 
 inhabitants at Springfield refused to pay the impost 
 which had been imposed by Connecticut for the 
 maintenance of the fort at Saybrook. The com- 
 missioners judged that the fort was of great conse- 
 quence to the towns on the river ; but as the affair 
 of the impost had not been laid before the general 
 court of Massachusetts, and as the commissioners 
 of that colony had no instructions respecting it, a 
 full hearing had been deferred to this meeting. 
 
 Meanwhile, the general court of the Massachu- 
 setts had taken up the affair, and passed a number 
 of resolutions respecting the impost. These are a 
 curiosity, exhibiting a lively picture of human na- 
 :ure, and, in the course of conduct consequent upon 
 ;hem, will afford a general specimen of the manner 
 in which the Massachusetts anciently treated her 
 sister colonies. The resolutions were at this meet- 
 ng laid before the commissioners, and were to the 
 following effect. 
 
 1. That the jurisdiction at Hartford had not a 
 legal power to force any inhabitant of another juris- 
 diction to purchase any fort or lands out of their 
 jurisdiction. 
 
 2. That it was injurious to require custom for the 
 maintenance of a fort which is not useful to those of 
 whom it was demanded. 
 
 3. That it was unequal for Connecticut to impose 
 a custom upon their friends and confederates, who 
 have no more benefit of the river, by the exporting 
 or importing of goods, than strangers of another 
 nation, who, though they lived in Hartford, paid 
 none. 
 
 4. That the propounding and standing upon an 
 imposition of custom, to be paid at the river's mouth, 
 by such as were of our jurisdiction, hindered our 
 confederation ten years, and there was never any 
 paid to this day ; and that now to impose it upon 
 them, after their confederation, would put them 
 upon new thoughts. 
 
 5. That it appeared to them very hard that any 
 of their jurisdiction should be forced to such a dis- 
 advantage as would necessarily enslave their pos- 
 terity, by imposing such rates and customs, as 
 would either constrain them to depart from their 
 habitations, or weaken their estates ; especially as 
 they were with the first who took possession of the 
 river, and were at great charge of building, &c 
 which if they had foreseen they would not have made 
 a plantation at that place. 
 
 6. If Hartford jurisdiction shall make use of 
 their power over any of ours, we have the same 
 power to imitate them in the like kind, which they 
 desired might be forborne on both sides These re- 
 solutions were signed by the secretary of the 
 colony 
 
 Mr. Hopkins replied in behalf of Connecticut, 
 that the first article laboured under a great mistake 
 
UNITED STATES, 
 
 675 
 
 that the imposition was neither to buy lands nor th 
 fort. He observed also, that it was not material t 
 what purpose an impost was applied if it were lawfu 
 in itself, and did not exceed the bounds of modera 
 tion. With respect to the second article, he sai 
 that it impeached all states and nations of injustic 
 no less than Connecticut ; that their practice in a] 
 similar cases warranted the impost. He urge( 
 that for twelve years the fort at Saybrook had been 
 of special service to Springfield ; and that it was s 
 still, and might be for a number of years to come 
 He therefore insisted that it was strictly just tha 
 the inhabitants of that town should pay the impost 
 He said he was willing to risk the case and have i 
 decided on the principles of strict justice. Tin 
 third article he observed was a mere presumption 
 and had no just foundation ; besides, if it wen 
 founded, he argued that the comparison was no 
 equal. The whole of the fourth article he said wa: 
 a mistake ; that the confederation was completed h 
 about five years from the first mentioning of it, am 
 that it was not retarded by the means suggested 
 nor were they ever mentioned. With reference tf 
 the fifth article, he replied, that all taxes weakenei 
 states, and if this v.ere aground of objection agains 
 the impost, then no tax or impost could ever b< 
 laid. He insisted that the impost was just anc 
 moderate, and therefore could not enslave the in- 
 habitants of Springfield. The towns in Connecticut 
 he observed, were settled before Springfield, and 
 that town had been at no expense in making settle- 
 ments more than the towns in Connecticut. He 
 said if Connecticut at any time should become ex- 
 orbitant in its impositions upon any of the colonies, 
 they would find a remedy in the confederation. With 
 reference to the last article, he declared his willing- 
 ness in all similar cases to submit to the like im- 
 position. 
 
 The commissioners upon a full hearing, deter- 
 mined that it was of weighty consideration to all 
 the plantations upon the river, that thn mouth of it 
 should be secured, and a safe passage for goods up 
 and down the river be maintained, though at some 
 expense ; and, that as Springfield enjoyed the be- 
 nefit, the inhabitants should pay the impost of two- 
 pence per bushel for corn, and a penny on the 
 pound for beaver, or twenty shillings upon every 
 hogshead. Nevertheless, out of respect and tender- 
 ness to the Massachusetts, it was resolved that 
 Springfield, or the general court, might have the 
 liberty of exhibiting further reasons against the im- 
 post if any should occur. 
 
 At this meeting, Mr. John Winthrop, of Pequot, 
 laid claim to the whole country of the western Ne- 
 hanticks, including a considerable part of the town 
 of Lyme. He represented that he obtained the 
 title to this large tract partly by purchase, and 
 partly by deed of gift, before the Pequot war. He 
 petitioned the commissioners to this effect -."Whereas 
 I had the land at Nehantick by deed of gift and 
 purchase from the sachem before the Pequot war, 
 I desire the commissioners would confirm it unto 
 me, and clear it of all claims of English and In- 
 dians, according to the equity of the case." As he 
 had no deed nor writing respecting the land, he 
 produced the testimony of three Nehantick Indians ; 
 who testified that before the Pequot war, Sashions, 
 their sachem, called all his men together, and told 
 them that he was determined to give his country to 
 the governor's son, who lived at Pattaquassetj or 
 Pamaquasset, (Saybrook,) and that his men gave 
 their consent; that afterwards he went to Mr. Win- 
 
 throp, at Pattaquasset, and when he came back* 
 said that he had granted all his country to the go- 
 vernor's son ; and also, that he had received coats 
 for it, which they saw him bring home. Three En- 
 glishmen also testified that they had heard the In- 
 dians report the same concerning the grant of the 
 Nehantick or Neanticut country to Mr. Winthrop. 
 Thomas Stanton deposed, that he remembered Sa- 
 shions, sachem of the Nehanticks, did give his 
 country to Mr. John Winthrop, before the Pequot 
 war, and that he was interpreter in that business. 
 
 The commissioners of Connecticut pleaded against 
 the claim of Mr. Winthrop, that his purchase bore 
 no date ; that the tract pretended to be purchased 
 or given was not circumscribed within any limits ; 
 and that it did not appear that the Indian who 
 granted the lands had any right in them; that 
 the grant was verbal, and at most could be but 
 a vague business. They also urged that it did not 
 appear but. that Mr. Winthrop purchased the lands 
 for the noblemen and gentlemen, in whose service 
 he was at that time employed ; and that as the lands 
 had been conquered at the hazard and expense of 
 Connecticut before Mr. Winthrop made known his 
 claim, whatever it was, it was then dormant, and of 
 no validity. They further insisted, that, as they 
 were not prepared to give a full answer, no decision 
 might be made until Connecticut should be fully 
 heard with respect to the premises. 
 
 The commissioners declined any decision of the 
 controversy ; but it does not appear that Mr. Win- 
 Lhrop ever after prosecuted his claim. As it seems 
 Mr. Winthrop about this time had a design of pur- 
 hasing Long Island, the commissioners took occa- 
 ion to inform him, that the Island was already 
 under engagements for considerable sums of money 
 ;o a number of persons in Connecticut and New 
 Haven ; and represented that any title which 
 might be derived from Mr. Cope, would be very 
 >recarious, as he had confessed a short time before 
 lis death. 
 
 The commissioners this year brought in the num- 
 )er of polls in the several colonies, and made a set- 
 lement of their accounts. The whole expenditure 
 >f the confederates was 1043J. 10s. There was due 
 o Connecticut 155/. 17s. Id. which the colony had 
 expended in the general defence, more than its pro- 
 >ortion; and New Haven had expended 71. more 
 han its proportion. This was exclusive of all the 
 expense which these two colonies had borne in de- 
 ending themselves against the Indians at Stamford 
 md its vicinity, and in attempting to bring the 
 murderers of the English to condign punishment. 
 Massachusetts and Plymouth paid the balance to 
 Connecticut and New Haven. 
 
 Peter Stuyvesant, who the last year had been 
 
 ppointcd governor of New Netherlands, arrived 
 
 his year at Manhadoes, and commenced his go- 
 
 ernment of the Dutch settlements. The commis- 
 
 ioners wrote him a long letter of congratulation ; 
 
 ut complained that the Dutch sold arms and am- 
 
 lunition to the Indians, and even in the English 
 
 lantations ; and desired that an immediate stop 
 
 might be put to so dangerous a trade. They made 
 
 omplaint also that the Dutch had laid so severe 
 
 n impost upon all goods, as greatly discouraged 
 
 rading with them, while all the harbours in the 
 
 n'tcd colonies were open and free to them. 
 
 This winter the fort and buildings at Saybrook 
 
 [accountably took fire, and, with some goods, were 
 
 estroyed. The damage was estimated at more 
 
 an a thousand nonnds. 
 
 3Q2 
 
676 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 Settlement of New London Salaries first granted to 
 civil (ifficers Troubles with the Narragansvt In- 
 dians Rhode Island petitions to be united iviih the 
 colonies in confederation The Massachusetts re- 
 sume the affair of the impost Mr. Westerhouse com- 
 plains of the seizure of his vessel by the Dutch, in 
 the harbour of New Haven Murders committed by 
 the Indians; resolutions respecting the murderers 
 Body of laws compiled Debates relative to the set- 
 tlement of Delaware The Pequots revolt from 
 Uncas, and petition the English Resolution re- 
 specting them Mr. Westerhouse petitions to make 
 reprisals from the Dutch Letter to the Dutch go- 
 vernor Further altercations respecting the impost 
 -Final issue of that affair The conduct of the 
 Massachusetts upon its decision, and the declaration 
 of the commissioners respecting it Their treatment 
 of Connecticut respecting the line between the colo- 
 nies TJie court of Connecticut determine to avenge 
 the death of John Whitmore. 
 
 (16 18.) The last year several persons had begun 
 settlements at Pequot harbour, where lots had been 
 laid out for them, but part of them were soon dis- 
 couraged and left the plantation. This year Mr. 
 Richard Blinman, who had been a minister in Eng- 
 land, removed from Gloucester to this new setttle- 
 ment ; in consequence of which a considerable ad- 
 dition was made to the number who had kept their 
 station ; and by the next year there was such an 
 accession, that the inhabitants consisted of more 
 than forty families. Some of the principal men 
 were John Winthrop, Esq., the Rev. Mr. Blinman, 
 Thomas Minot, Samuel Lothrop, Robert Allyn, and 
 James Avery. For their encouragement, the gene- 
 ral court granted them a three years' exemption from 
 all colonial taxation. Mr. Winthrop was authorized 
 to superintend the affairs of the plantation. The 
 next year a court was appointed for the trial of 
 small causes ; the judges of which were Mr. Win- 
 throp, Thomas Minot, and Samuel Lothrop. The 
 Indian name of the place was Nameaug, alias 
 Towawog; but in 1654 the whole tract, now com- 
 prised within the towns of New London and Groton, 
 was called Pequot, from the name of the harbour 
 and original inhabitants ; and by that name it was 
 known for about four years. On the 24th of March, 
 1G58, the assembly passed an act respecting it, 
 which is so curious and characteristic of the feelings 
 of the early settlers, as to be worthy of quotation. 
 
 " Whereas, it hath been the commendable prac- 
 tice of the inhabitants of all the colonies of these 
 parts, that as this country hath its denomination 
 from our dear native country of England, and 
 thence is called New England ; so the planters, in 
 their first settling of most new plantations, have 
 given names to those plantations of some cities and 
 towns in England, thereby intending to keep up, 
 and leave to posterity, the memorial of several 
 places of note there, as Boston, Hartford, Windsor, 
 York, Ipswich, Braintree, Exeter; this court con- 
 sidering, that there hath yet no place in any of the 
 colonies been named in memory of the city of Lon- 
 don, there being a new plantation within this juris- 
 diction of Connecticut, settled upon that fair river 
 Mcheagan, in the Pequot country, being an excel- 
 lent harbour and a fit and convenient place for 
 future trade, it being also the only place which the 
 English in these parts have possessed by conquest, 
 and that upon a very just war, upon that great and 
 warlike people, the Pequots, we therefore, that we 
 might thereby leaveto posterity that we have memory 
 
 of that renowned city of London, from whence we 
 had our transportation, have thought fit, in honour 
 I to that famous city, to call the said plantation New 
 London." The name of the river was also changed, 
 and called the Thames. 
 
 Until this time the governors and magistrates 
 appear to have served the people for the pure honour 
 and love of the public good ; but the general court 
 now took the affair into their consideration, and 
 granted the governor 30/. annually; the same sum 
 was also voted for the deputy-governor, who had 
 presided the preceding year : and these appear to 
 have been the first salaries given to any civil officers 
 ip the colony, and to have been a compensation for 
 the expense of the office, rather than for the ser- 
 vice performed. 
 
 Upon the election at Hartford, Mr. Hopkins was 
 chosen governor, arid Mr. Ludlow deputy-governor. 
 Mr. Haynes supplied the vacancy made by the ad- 
 vancement of Mr. Ludlow, and Mr. Cullick was 
 elected magistrate and secretary in the place of Mr. 
 Whiting. 
 
 In September the commissioners of the united 
 colonies assembled at Plymouth; their names were 
 John Endicot and Simon Bradstreet, from Massa- 
 chusetts ; William Bradford and John Brown, from 
 Plymouth ; Governor Hopkins and Roger Ludlow, 
 from Connecticut ; Governor Eaton and John Ast- 
 wood, from New Haven. 
 
 The Indians, both in the Nehantick and Narra- 
 ganset country, and in the western parts of Con- 
 necticut, had been more perfidious and outrageous 
 this year than at any time since the Pequot war ; 
 and instead of performing the promises which they 
 had made the last year, hired the Mohawk and Po- 
 comtock Indians to unite with them in an expedi- 
 tion for the total destruction of Uncas and the Mo- 
 heagans. The Pocomtocks made preparations and 
 assembled for the purpose ; but waited several days 
 for the arrival of the Mohawks, who were to have 
 joined them at that place. The Narragansets and 
 Nehanticks removed their old men, women, and 
 children into swamps and fastnesses, and prepared 
 an army of 800 men, who were to form a junction 
 with the Mohawks and Pocomtocks, in Connecticut, 
 near the Moheagans. 
 
 The governor and council, apprised of their de- 
 signs, dispatched Thomas Stanton, their interpreter, 
 and others to Pocomtock ; who found the Pocom- 
 tocks actually met in arms, and waiting for the ar- 
 rival of the Mohawks ; and they learnt that the Mo- 
 hawks had 400 fire-arms, and plenty of ammunition. 
 The Pocomtocks acknowledged that they had heen 
 hired by the Narragansets, which proved a con- 
 federacy, which was justly alarming to the colony ; 
 but several happy circumstances united their in- 
 fluence to frustrate this formidable combination ; 
 and the early discovery of the designs of the enemy, 
 by the people of Connecticut, and the precautions 
 which were taken, had a great effect. The Pocom- 
 tocks and Mohawks were assured that the English 
 would defend Uncas against all his enemies, and 
 would avenge all injuries which they should do him: 
 the Mohawks had one or two of their sachems and a 
 number of their men killed by the French, and 
 therefore did not proceed ; and the Pocomtocks did 
 not choose to march without them : the Narragan- 
 sets, thus deserted, were afraid to proceed ; and 
 the expedition failed. 
 
 The Narragansets not only plotted against the 
 united colonies, but committed many outrages 
 against the people of Rhode Island , where they 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 677 
 
 made forcible entries into the houses, struck and 
 abused the owners, and stole and purloined their 
 goods. At Warwick especially, they were exceed- 
 ingly troublesome, having killed in that plantation 
 about a hundred cattle, exclusive of other injuries 
 which they did to the inhabitants ; and the Rhode 
 Islanders were so harassed, that they made appli- 
 cation, by their representatives, to the commissioners 
 to be admitted to the confederation of the united 
 colonies. 
 
 The commissioners replied, that they perceived 
 their state to be full of confusion and danger, and 
 that they were desirous of giving them both advice 
 and help ; but added, that as the plantation made at 
 Rhode Island fell within the limits of the ancient 
 patent granted to the colony of New Plymouth, 
 they could not receive them as a distinct confederate; 
 they therefore proposed, that if the Rhode Islanders 
 would acknowledge themselves to be within the lim- 
 its of Plymouth colony, they would advise how they 
 might be 'received on equitable terms, with a tender 
 regard for their convenience ; and that they would 
 afford them the same advice and protection which 
 they did the other plantations within the united 
 colonies. 
 
 The commissioners sent messengers again to the 
 Narraganset and Nehuntick Indians, to remonstrate 
 with them, and demand the arrears of wampum which 
 were yet unpaid. Their outrages against the in- 
 habitants of Rhode Island were particularly noticed, 
 and the sachems were peremptorily charged to keep 
 their men under better government. 
 
 The general court of Massachusetts was by no 
 means pleased with the determination of the com- 
 missioners, the last year, relative to the impost to 
 be paid at. Saybrook ; and a committee was there- 
 fore appointed to draw up an answer to the obser- 
 vations and pleadings of Governor Hopkins before 
 the commissioners at their former sessions. 
 
 The committee introduced their answer with a 
 number of questions relative to the articles of con- 
 federation ; some of which were calculated to ex- 
 hibit them as entirely contemptible; others related 
 to the power of the commissioners, and to the degree 
 in which obedience was due to their determinations. 
 They inquired whether a non-compliance with the 
 orders of the commissioners would be a breach of 
 the articles of confederation ? and complained that 
 they had not a greater number of commissioners, as 
 Massachusetts was much larger than the other colo- 
 nies : they proposed that they should have the pri- 
 vilege of sending three commissioners, and that the 
 meetings of the confederates should be triennial; 
 and proceeded to a long reply to the arguments of 
 Governor Hopkins, and attempted to vindicate the 
 reasons which they had given before against the im- 
 post. In addition to what they had formerly offered, 
 they endeavoured to show that if Springfield was 
 benefitted by the fort at Saybrook, and ought to 
 pay the impost on that account, that New Haven, 
 Stamford, and all the towns on that side of the 
 river, ought also to pay; because they had been 
 already benefitted, and might be hereafter : and if 
 this was the case, as they pleaded, they objected 
 against the commissioners of New Haven as dis- 
 qualified to judge in the case : they also objected 
 against the decision of the commissioners, because 
 it was made, as they said, without a sight of the 
 Connecticut patent: they insisted, that if the patent 
 had been produced, there might have been some 
 clause which would have helped their case ; and 
 pleaded a priority of possession. They affirmed, 
 
 that the first possession of Saybrook fort was taken 
 by Mr. John Wiuthrop, in November, .1635, and 
 their possession was before that: for those who 
 went from Watertown, Cambridge, Roxbury, and 
 Dorchester, the summer before, took possession in 
 their name and right; and had a commission of 
 government from them, and some ordnance for their 
 defence ; and, in fine, they urged that if the impost 
 were lawi'ul, it was not expedient; and that they could 
 view it in no other light than as a source of con- 
 tention, to interrupt their union and brotherly love. 
 This document was adopted by the general court. 
 
 Governor Hopkins and Mr. Ludlow, in reply oh 
 the part of the Connecticut commissioners, insisted 
 on the answers which had been given the last year to 
 the arguments of the general court of the Massachu- 
 setts ; they attempted to show, that notwithstanding 
 all which had been urged, the arguments in favour 
 of the impost remained unanswered, and in their 
 full force ; they observed, that whatever propositions 
 might have been made by the Massachusetts, in 
 1638, with respect to the exemption of plantations 
 under theii government from an impost, nothing 
 was ever granted upon that head ; and that affairs 
 were now in a very different state from what they 
 were at the time of the confederation : they urged, 
 that now the charge of the fort and garrison at 
 Saybrook lay upon the colony, which was not the 
 case at that time ; and that nothing could be fairly 
 pleaded from the circumstances in which the colo- 
 nies confederated. With respect to priority of 
 right, and the commission which had been mention- 
 ed, they observed that the commission of govern 
 ment was taken, talvo jure, ol the interest of tht 
 gentlemen who had the patent of Connecticut ; this 
 commission taking rise from the desire of the people 
 that removed, who judged it inexpedient to go away 
 without any frame of government, not from any 
 claim of the Massachusetts' jurisdiction over them 
 by virtue of patent. With reference to the decision 
 of the commissioners, without seeing the Connecti- 
 cut patent, they observed that a copy of it was ex- 
 hibited at the time of the confederation ; that it had 
 been well known to many ; and that the Massachu- 
 setts in particular knew that it had recently been 
 owned by the honourable committee of parliament; 
 and that equal respect and power had been given 
 by it to all within its limits, as had been either to 
 Massachusetts or Plymouth, within the limits of 
 theii respective patents. As to the inexpediency 
 of the impost, as tending to disturb the peace and 
 brotherly love subsisting between the colonies, they 
 replied, that it was their hope and earnest desire 
 that in all the proceedings of the confederation, 
 truth and peace might embrace each other. But 
 they insisted, that pleading for truth and righteous- 
 ness ought by no means to disturb peace or bro- 
 therly affection. Indeed, they maintained, that 
 things which were rational and consistent with 
 truth and righteousness, should never be an occa 
 sion of offence to any. 
 
 The commissioners of Connecticut, at this time, 
 produced an authentic copy of their patent, and 
 Governor Hopkins offered to attest it upon oath. 
 As this was the third year since the affair of the 
 impost had been litigated before the commissioners, 
 it was urged, that it might have a final issue, agree 
 able to truth and righteousness. Governor Hop- 
 kins and Mr. Ludlow disputed the southern bound- 
 ary of Massachusetts, and claimed Springfield as 
 lying within the limits described in the patent of 
 Connecticut. 
 
678 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 The commissioners judged that the objections of- 
 fered against the gentlemen from New Haven were 
 insufficient, and the commissioners from Massachu- 
 setts gave them up : and after a full hearing and 
 mature deliberation on the whole matter, the former 
 order, in favour of Connecticut, was confirmed. 
 
 Notwithstanding the congratulatory letter which 
 the commissioners addressed to Stuyvesant, the 
 Dutch governor, at their last session, he proved a 
 very disagreeable neighbour : he gave no answer to 
 the complaints which had been stated to him in 
 their letter ; and he transmitted no account of the 
 customs laid upon the English merchants, nor of 
 the cases in which the Dutch made seizures, so that 
 it was extremely difficult to know on what terms 
 they could trade, or how to escape fines and seizures. 
 By his order, a vessel of Mr. Westerhouse, a Dutch 
 merchant and planter at New Haven, was seized 
 while riding at anchor within the harbour, who pre- 
 ferred a complaint to the commissioners ; and proved 
 that when he sailed from Virginia, he made a full 
 payment of all the customs. The commissioners 
 wrote to the Dutch governor on the subject, and re- 
 monstrated against such a flagrant insult to the 
 united colonies, and against the injustice done to 
 Mr. Westerhouse; and at the same time protested 
 against the Dutch claim to all the lands, rivers, and 
 streams, from Cape Henlopen to Cape Cod ; and 
 asserted their right to all the lands and plantations 
 in the united colonies, as anciently granted by the 
 kings of England to their subjects, and since pur- 
 chased by them of the Indians as the original pro- 
 prietors. At the same time they assured him, that 
 they expected satisfaction, both for the injury and 
 affront in taking a ship out of one of their harbours : 
 they represented in strong terms the absolute neces- 
 sity of a meeting for the adjustment of the differ- 
 ences between the Dutch and the united colonies ; 
 and professed themselves to be inclined to pursue all 
 proper counsels for that purpose ; and added, as his 
 letters to them, as well as to the governors of Massa- 
 chusetts and New Haven, had been expressed in 
 very indeterminate language, they wished him to 
 be more explicit; they avowed their determination, 
 that until such time as the Dutch should come to an 
 amicable settlement of the points in controversy, 
 neither their merchants nor mariners should enjoy 
 any privilege, in any of the English plantations or 
 harbours, either of anchoring, searching, or seizing, 
 more than the English did at the Manhadoes; and 
 declared that if, upon search, they should find arms 
 and ammunition on board any of the Dutch ships, 
 for the mischievous purpose of vending them within 
 the limits of the united colonies to the Indians, they 
 would seize them until further inquiry and satisfac- 
 tion should be made; and that they would treat the 
 Dutch mariners and merchants in the English har- 
 bours and plantations in the same manner in which 
 the English had been treated by them. 
 
 Soon after the meeting of the commissioners, Mr. 
 John Whitmore, of Stamford, a worthy man, and 
 one of the representatives of the town in the general 
 court at New Haven, was murdered by the Indians. 
 
 (1649.) At the general election in Connecticut, 
 Mr Haynes was chosen governor, and Mr. Hop- 
 kins deputy-governor. Mr. Ludlow took his place 
 again among the magistrates ; and the other officers 
 remained as they had been the preceding year. 
 
 In consequence of the burning of the old fort at 
 Saybrook, a new one was begun the last year at a 
 place called the new fort hill ; and at this session of 
 the assembly, orders were given for the erecting of 
 
 a new dwelling-house in the fort, and for complet 
 ing the works and buildings at Saybrook. The 
 magistrates were empowered to impress suitable 
 hands for carrying the business into effect, and ap- 
 propriations were made for that purpose. 
 
 As the commissioners of Massachusetts, in their 
 pleadings before the commissioners of the united 
 colonies at their last session, had expressed their 
 doubts whether the act of Connecticut, imposing 
 a duty upon certain articles exported from Connec- 
 ticut river, had any respect to the inhabitants of 
 Springfield, the general court declared that they 
 had particular respect to them, as under the go 
 vernmentof the Massachusetts. They also resolved, 
 that, in their most serious judgment, nothing was 
 imposed on them more than was strictly just, or 
 than had been imposed on themselves ; and that 
 they ought to submit to the impost; and further 
 declared, that the execution of the act, with respect 
 to their brethren at Springfield, had been deferred, 
 only that the judgment of the commissioners of the 
 other colonies might be had on the premises. The 
 assembly also resolved, that they were not satisfied 
 that Springfield was within the true limits of the 
 Massachusetts' patent ; and expressed their earnest 
 wishes that the line might be speedily and fully set- 
 tled, in righteousness and peace. It was finally 
 ordered, that these resolutions should be laid before 
 the commissioners at their next meeting. 
 
 Mr. Ludlow, who had for several years succes- 
 sively been desired by the general court to make a 
 collection of the laws which had been enacted, and 
 to revise, digest, and prepare a body of laws for the 
 colony, had now completed the work, and at this 
 session a code was established. 
 
 Until this time, punishments in many instances 
 had been uncertain and arbitrary ; and had been 
 left wholly to the discretion of the court. Defama- 
 tion had in some instances been punished by fines, 
 repeated scourging, and imprisonment. For viola- 
 tion of the Sabbath, there is an instance of imprison- 
 ment during the pleasure of the court. Want of 
 chastity in single persons was sometimes punished 
 by setting the delinquent in the pillory, and by 
 whipping him from one town to another. But, from 
 this time, the laws in general became fixed, and the 
 punishment of particular crimes were specified. 
 
 The statute now required a jury of twelve meu : 
 that in cases in which they were doubtful with re- 
 spect to law, they should bring in a non liquet, or 
 special verdict ; and that matter of law should be 
 determined by the bench, as it is at the present 
 time. But if, after the jury had been sent out re- 
 peatedly, the court judged they had mistaken the 
 evidence and brought in a wrong verdict, they were 
 authorized in civil cases to empannel a new jury. 
 The court also retained the power of lessening and 
 increasing the damages given by the jury, as they 
 judged most equitable. All cases of life, limb, or 
 banishment were determined by a special jury of 
 twelve able men, and a verdict could not be ac- 
 cepted unless the whole jury were agreed. From 
 this time Connecticut had the appearance of a well 
 regulated commonwealth. 
 
 An extraordinary meeting of the commissioners 
 was held this year at Boston ; the members of which 
 were Thomas Dudley, Esq., Mr. Simon Bradstreet, 
 William Bradford, Esq., Mr. John Brown, Edward 
 Hopkins, Esq., Mr. Thomas Wells, Governor Ea- 
 ton, and Mr. John Astwood. 
 
 Governor Eaton, in behalf of the colony of New 
 Haven, proposed that effectual measures might be 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 679 
 
 immediately adopted for the settlement of De 
 laware bay. The title which a number of mer- 
 chants at New Haven had to extensive tracts 
 on both sides of the river, by virtue of purchases 
 from the Indians, was laid before the commis- 
 sioners ; and the fertility of the soil, the healthi- 
 ness of the country, the convenience of the several 
 rivers, the great advantages of settlements, and 
 a well regulated trade there, not only to New 
 Haven, but to all the New England colonies, were 
 strongly represented. 
 
 The commissioners, after a full hearing and ma- 
 ture deliberation, were of the opinion, that the cir- 
 cumstances of the colonies were such, that it would 
 not be prudent at that time, by any public act, to 
 encourage the settlement of those tracts. Besides 
 the contest with the Dutch and the danger of involv- 
 ing the colonies in war, it was observed that they 
 had scarcely sufficient numbers of men at home for 
 their own defence, and the prosecution of the neces- 
 sary affairs of their respective plantations ; and it 
 was therefore recommended to the merchants and 
 gentlemen at New Haven, either to settle or sell 
 the lands which they possessed there. The commis- 
 sioners also resolved, that if any persons in the uni- 
 ted colonies should attempt, without their consent, 
 to make settlements on the lands, or to do any thing 
 injurious to the rights of the purchasers, that they 
 would neither own nor protect them in their unjust 
 attempts. 
 
 The murder of Mr. Whitmore, and the other 
 murders which the Indians had committed against 
 the English, were fully considered : and the com- 
 missioners resolved that the guilty should be deli- 
 vered up ; and it' they were not, that the sachem at 
 Stamford, or his son, should be apprehended and 
 kept in prison, until they should be secured, and 
 justice have its course. 
 
 Some time before the meeting of the commis- 
 sioners, the Indians upon Long Island perpetrated 
 a murder at Southhold ; and having risen in a hostile 
 manner for several days round the town, the inha- 
 bitants were obliged to arm and stand upon their 
 defence against them for a considerable time; and 
 afterwards to keep a strong and vigilant guard by 
 night. The town was not only exceedingly alarmed 
 and distressed, but put to great expense ; and they 
 therefore made application to the commissioners for 
 relief; who would not consent that the colonies in 
 general should bear any of the charge in such in- 
 stances ; and determined in this case, as they had 
 done before with respect to the other towns in the 
 jurisdictions of Connecticut and New Haven, which 
 had suffered in the like manner, and had been ob- 
 liged to bear all the expense of defending Stamford 
 and other places. 
 
 The Narraganset and Nehantick Indians still per- 
 sisted in their murderous designs against Uncas, 
 and in their perfidious conduct towards the colonies ; 
 and the alarming aspect of affairs, with respect to 
 them, was the occasion of this extraordinary meet- 
 ing. An Indian who was hired by the Narraganset 
 and Nehantick sachems to kill Uncas, as he was 
 going on board a vessel in the Thames, ran him 
 through the breast with a sword ; but though the 
 wound at first was judged to be mortal, Uncas finally 
 recovered. At this meeting he presented himself 
 before the commissioners, and complained of the 
 assault made upon him; and affirmed, that these 
 sachems had hired the Mohawks and other Indians 
 against him, as well as an assassin to kill him se- 
 Tetly. He complained also that the Narragansets 
 
 had neither restored his canoes nor his captives, as 
 had been expressly demanded- and stipulated ; and 
 prayed that, as he had ever been friendly and faith- 
 ful to the colonies, they would provide for his safety, 
 avenge these outrages, and do him justice. Nini- 
 grate was examined before the commissioners on 
 these points ; and it was proved, by the confession 
 of the Mohawks themselves, that the Narragansets 
 had hired them against Uncas. The colonies were 
 at the same time alarmed with the report, that one 
 of the brothers of Sauacus. or his son, was about to 
 marry the daughter of Niaigrate ; and it was con- 
 jectured, that the Narraganset and Nehantick In- 
 dians were concerting a plan to collect the scattered 
 remains of the Pequots, and to set them up as a 
 distinct nation with the son, or brother of Sassa- 
 cus, at their head. 
 
 The Pequots, who had been given to Uncas, had 
 now for more than two years revolted from him, and 
 lived separately, as a distinct clan : in 1647 they 
 had complained to the commissioners that Uncas 
 and the Moheagans had abused them; and repre- 
 sented that, though they had submitted and been 
 faithful to him, assisted him in his wars, been es- 
 teemed as his men, and paid him tribute, he had 
 nevertheless grossly injured them: they said that 
 he had required tribute of them, from time to time, 
 upon mere pretences ; and that since they had been 
 put under him, they paid him wampum forty times : 
 hat upon the death of one of his children, he gave 
 lis squaw presents, and ordered them to comfort 
 ler in the same way ; and that they presented her 
 with a hundred fathom of wampum : that Uncas was 
 ileased, and promised that for the future he 
 would esteem and treat them as Moheagans ; but 
 that notwithstanding this engagement, they were 
 wronged every way, and deprived of their just rights. 
 Obachickquid, one of their chief men, complained 
 hat Uncas had taken away his wife and used her as 
 lis own ; and they proved that Uncas had wounded 
 some of them, and plundered the whole company ; 
 they therefore prayed that theEnglish wouldinter 
 >ose for their relief, and take them under their 
 >rotection. 
 
 The commissioners found these charges so well 
 upported, that they ordered Uncas to be reproved, 
 and decreed that he should restore Obachickquid 
 is wife, and pay damages for the injuries he had 
 lone the Pequots ; and also fined him a hundred 
 'athom of wampum. Nevertheless, as it had been 
 letermined by Connecticut that the name of the 
 ?equots should be extinguished, and that they 
 hould not dwell in their own country, it was re- 
 olved that they should return, and be in subjection 
 o Uncas ; but he was directed to receive them 
 without revenge, and to govern them with moder- 
 ation in all respects, as he did the Moheagans. They 
 did not however return to Uncas ; but annually pre- 
 ented their petition to the commissioners to be 
 ;aken under the protection of the English, and to 
 become their subjects; pleading, that though their 
 ribe had done wrong and were justly conquered, 
 et that they had killed no English people; and 
 hat Wequash had promised them, if they would 
 flee their country, and not injure the colonies, that 
 hey would do them no harm. To relieve them, as 
 ar as might be consistent with former determina- 
 ,ions, the commissioners recommended it to Con- 
 ecticut to provide some place for them, which 
 might not injure any particular town, where they 
 might plant and dwell together ; but at the same 
 irne they were directed to be iu subjection to 
 
G80 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Uncas ; and he was again enjoined to govern them 
 with impartiality and kindness. 
 
 Mr. Westerhouse about this time renewed his 
 complaint respecting the seizure of his vessel in 
 the harbour of New Haven : and alleged, that be- 
 sides the loss of his vessel, and the advantages of 
 trading, the prime cost of his goods was 2UOO/. ; 
 and that, after repeated application to the Dutch 
 governor, he had not been able to obtain the least 
 compensation; he had therefore petitioned the go- 
 vernment of New Haven, that some Dutch vessel 
 might be taken by way of reprisal ; and now peti- 
 tioned the commissioners for liberty to make reprisals, 
 by way of indemnification, until he should obtain 
 satisfaction. 
 
 Though the commissioners declared against the 
 injustice of the seizure, and regretted both the in- 
 sult done to the united colonies, and the damages 
 sustained by Mr. Westerhouse, yet they declined 
 granting him a commission to make reprisals, judg- 
 ing it expedient first to negotiate. 
 
 They therefore wrote to the Dutch governor, 
 that Mr. Westerhouse had applied to them for a 
 commission to make reprisals, and that they had 
 not granted his petition, as they wished first to ac- 
 quaint him with the motion, and to represent to 
 him the equity of making reprisals, unless justice 
 should be done him some other way : they again 
 avowed their claim to all parts of the united colo- 
 nies ; asserted the right of New Haven to Delaware 
 bay, and assured him that it would not be given up : 
 they also complained of his letter the last year, as in 
 various respects unsatisfactory ; and that with regard 
 to that dangerous trade of arms and ammunition 
 carried on with the Indians at fort Aurania and in 
 the English plantations, it was wholly silent : they 
 observed, that all differences between them and the 
 Dutch might have been amicably settled, had it 
 pleased him to attend the meeting of the commis- 
 sioners at Boston, according to the invitation 
 which they had given him; but as that was not 
 agreeable to him, they avowed their designs of mak- 
 ing provision for their own safety. 
 
 To prevent the vending of arms and ammunition 
 to the Indians in the united colonies, they passed 
 the following resolve : " That after due application 
 hereof, it shall not be lawful for any Frenchman, 
 Dutchman, or person of any foreign nation, or any 
 Englishman living among them, or under the go- 
 vernment of any of them, to trade with any Indian 
 or Indians within this jurisdiction, either directly 
 or indirectly, by themselves or others, under the 
 penalty of confiscation of all such goods and vessels 
 as shall be found so trading, or the true value 
 thereof, upon just proof of any goods or vessels so 
 traded or trading." 
 
 The gentlemen from Massachusetts, at this meet- 
 ing, again brought forward the dispute between 
 them and Connecticut relative to the impost ; and 
 pretended that Mr. Fenwick, some years before, 
 had promised to join with them in running the line ; 
 but that as he had not done it, and it had now been 
 done by them, at their own expense, and to their 
 satisfaction, it ought to be satisfactory to all others, 
 who could make no legal claim to the adjacent 
 lands ; which they insisted Connecticut could not, 
 because they had no patent. 
 
 The commissioners from Connecticut denied the 
 facts which had been stated; and insisted that Mr. 
 Fenwick never had agreed to run the line with them ; 
 and that their running the line at their own ex- 
 pense was not owing to any defect of his, nor on 
 
 the part of Connecticut ; for they ran the line a 
 year before the dispute with Mr. Fenwick respect- 
 ing Waranoke ; besides, they said, what he pro- 
 mised at that time was not to run the line, but to 
 clear his claim to that plantation. With respect to 
 the patent, they acknowledged they had not in- 
 deed exhibited the original, but a true copy, to the 
 authenticity of which Mr. Hopkins could give oath: 
 they observed it was well known that they had a pa- 
 tent ; that the original was in England, and could 
 not then be exhibited ; and that the Massachusetts 
 insisting on this point was an entire bar to the ami- 
 cable settlement of the line between the colonies. 
 Mr. Hopkins insisted that the southerly extent of 
 the Massachusetts patent ought first to be mutually 
 settled ; then he proposed that the line should be 
 run by skilful men, mutually chosen, and at the 
 mutual expense of the colonies. The commissioners 
 from Connecticut indeed declared, that it was evi- 
 dent, beyond all doubt, that Springfield at first 
 was settled in combination with Connecticut ; and 
 that it had been acknowledged to be so even by the 
 colony of Massachusetts ; but they affirmed, that 
 when propositions were sent by Governor Winthrop, 
 to the plantations upon the river in 1637, relative 
 to a confederation of the New England colonies, 
 Mr. Pyncheon, in prosecution of that design, was 
 in 1638 chosen and sent as a commissioner from 
 Connecticut, to act in their behalf; that it was at 
 this time, and never before, that he suggested his 
 apprehensions that Springfield would fall within the 
 limits of Massachusetts ; and that this was received 
 as a fact without any evidence of what had been 
 alleged; they also expressed it as their full per- 
 suasion, that Mr. Pyncheon's representations and 
 motion at that time originated from private discon- 
 tent, in consequence of a censure laid upon him 
 by the general court of Connecticut; they con- 
 cluded by expressing their earnest wishes, that 
 both the government of the Massachusetts and their 
 commissioners would consider that they did not 
 comply with the advice of the commissioners relative 
 to the present dispute ; and that they insisted upon 
 what they knew could not at that time be obtained: 
 they charged them with an unwillingness to submit 
 the differences subsisting between them and Con- 
 necticut, to the mature and impartial judgment of 
 the commissioners of the other colonies, according 
 to the true intent of the confederation ; and, in a 
 very modest and respectful manner, they referred 
 it to the serious consideration of their brethren of 
 the Massachusetts, whether their conduct was not 
 directly contrary to the articles and design of the 
 confederates, to which they all ought to pay a con- 
 scientious regard. 
 
 The commissioners finally decided the contro- 
 versy in favour of Connecticut; upon which the 
 gentlemen from Massachusetts produced an order 
 of their general court, passed by way of retaliation, 
 imposing a duty upon all goods belonging to any of 
 the inhabitants of Plymouth, Connecticut, or New 
 Haven, imported within the castle, or exported 
 from any part of the bay. 
 
 The commissioners from Plymouth, Connecticut 
 and New Haven, in consequence of this extraordi- 
 nary act, drew up the following declaration and 
 remonstrance, addressed to the general court of 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 " A difference between the Massachusetts and 
 Connecticut, concerning an impost at Saybrook, 
 required of Springfield, having long depended, the 
 commissioners hoped, according to the advice at 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 681 
 
 Plymouth, might at this meeting have been satis- 
 fyingly issued ; but upon the perusal of some late 
 orders made by the general court of the Massachu- 
 setts, they find that the line on the south side of the 
 Massachusetts jurisdiction is neither run, nor the 
 place whence it should be run agreed : that the 
 original patent for Connecticut, or an authentic 
 exemplification thereof, (though Mr. Hopkins hath 
 offered upon oath to assert the truth of the copy by 
 himself presented,) is now required; and that a 
 burthensome custom is by the Massachusetts lately 
 imposed, not only upon Connecticut, interested in 
 the impost at Saybrook, but upon Plymouth and 
 New Haven colonies, whose commissioners as arbi- 
 trators, according to an article in the confederation, 
 have been only exercised in the question, and that 
 upon the desire of the Massachusetts, and have im- 
 partially, according to their best light, declared 
 their apprehensions ; which custom and burthen 
 (grievous in itself) seems the more unsatisfying 
 and heavy, because divers of the Massachusetts' de- 
 puties who had a hand in making the law, acknow- 
 ledge, and the preface imports it, that it is a return 
 or retaliation upon the three colonies for Saybrook; 
 and the law requires it of no other English, nor of 
 any stranger of what nation soever. How far the 
 premises agree with the law of love, and with the 
 tenor and import of the articles of confederation, 
 the commissioners tender and recommend to the 
 serious consideration of the general court for the 
 Massachusetts : and in the mean time desire to be 
 spared in all future agitations respecting Springfield." 
 
 Governor Hutchinson observes, that this law was 
 produced to the dishonour of the colony: that had 
 the Massachusetts imposed a duty upon goods from 
 Connecticut only, they might at least have had a 
 colour to justify them ; but that extending their re- 
 sentment to the other colonies, because their com- 
 missioners had given judgment against them, ad- 
 mitted of no excuse : it was a mere exertion of 
 power, and a proof of their great superiority, which 
 enabled them in effect to depart from the union, 
 whenever they found it to be for their interest : if 
 it had been done by a single magistrate, it would 
 have been pronounced tyrannical and oppressive ; 
 and he finally observes, that in all ages and coun- 
 tries communities of men have done that, of which 
 most of the individuals of whom they consisted, 
 would, acting separately, have been ashamed. 
 
 The Massachusetts treated Connecticut in the 
 same ungenerous manner, with respect to the line 
 between the colonies. In 1642 they employed one 
 Nathaniel Woodward and Solomon Saft'ery, whom 
 Douglass calls two obscure sailors, to run the line 
 between them and Connecticut, who arbitrarily 
 fixed a boundary, at the exact point to which three 
 miles south of every part of Charles river would 
 carry them ; thence by water they proceeded up 
 Connecticut river, and setting up their compass in 
 the same latitude as they supposed, declared that 
 the line struck the chimney of one Bissell's house, 
 the most northern building then in the town of 
 Windsor ; and this included a whole range of towns 
 south of the true line between the colonies. Con- 
 necticut considered the boundary fixed as entirely 
 arbitrary, and six or eight miles further south than 
 it ought to have been ; and imagined that the error 
 at Windsor was still greater, as no proper allow 
 ance had been made for the variation of the needle : 
 they viewed the manner in which this had been ef- 
 fected, as contrary to all the rules of justice, and to 
 the modes in which differences of that magnitude 
 
 ought to be accommodated : the utmost extent of 
 Narraganset river was their north line, and they 
 were persuaded that this would run so far north as 
 to comprehend the town of Springfield, and other 
 towns in the same latitude ; and therefore neither 
 Connecticut, nor the commissioners of the united 
 colonies, considered any boundary as properly set- 
 tled whence the line should be run, nor any line run 
 between the colonies. 
 
 Connecticut wished to have the southern bound- 
 ary of Massachusetts mutually settled and the line 
 run, at the joint expense of the two colonies; but 
 Massachusetts would neither consent to this, nor 
 even allow that the copy of the Connecticut patent 
 was authentic ; and for nearly 70 years they en- 
 croached upon this colony, and settled whole towns 
 within its proper limits. 
 
 The general court of Connecticut adopted the re- 
 commendation of the commissioners, with respect 
 to the prohibition of all trading of foreigners among 
 the Indians of the united colonies ; and made the 
 penalty to be the confiscation of all vessels and 
 goods employed in such trade. 
 
 The court also, after conferring with New Haven, 
 determined to avenge the murder of John Whit- 
 more, of Stamford ; and considered under all the 
 circumstances, and the conduct of the Indians in 
 the town, and bordering upon it, resolved that it 
 was lawful to make war upon them ; and it was 
 therefore ordered that 50 men should be imme- 
 diately drafted, armed, and victualled, for the pur- 
 pose of bringing the murderers to punishment, or 
 of arresting other Indians, until the delinquents 
 should be delivered to justice. These spirited mea- 
 sures appear to have had the desired effect; and the 
 Indians at Stamford it seems became peaceable, 
 and there is nothing further upon the records re- 
 specting any trouble with them. 
 
 Court of Election at Hartford Grants to Captain 
 Mason" Message to NinigruteThe line is Jlxed 
 between tlie English and Dutch plantations Agree- 
 ments with Mr. Fenwick occasion general uneasiness 
 An act for the encouragement of seeking and im- 
 proving mines Norwalk and Mattabeseck settled 
 The colony of New Haven make another attempt to 
 settle at Delaivarft The Dutch governor seizes the 
 company, and frustrates the design French com- 
 missioners from Canada War determined with the 
 Dutch and Indians Massachusetts prevents it 
 Alarm and distress of the plantations Appeal to 
 Cromwell and the parliament for assistance The 
 tumultuous state of the settlements. 
 
 (1650.) Upon the election at Hartford, Mr. Hop- 
 kins was chosen governor, and Mr. Haynes deputy- 
 governor. Mr. Clark was added to the magistrates. 
 The court now consisted of thirty-two members; the 
 governors, ten assistants, and twenty deputies. 
 
 The court had granted 1,000 acres of land to 
 Captain Mason, for his good services in the Pequot 
 war ; 500 to himself, and 500 to be given to his five 
 best officers and soldiers; and it was now ordered, 
 that the 500 acres granted to the soldiers should be 
 laid out for them at Pequot, or in the Neanticut 
 country. The next year the court made a grant of 
 Chippachauge island, in Mystic bay, and 110 acres 
 of land at Mystic to the captain. 
 
 The commissioners Mr. Simon Bradstreet and 
 Mr. William Hawthorne, Mr. Thomas Prince and 
 Mr. John Brown, and Governors Hopkins and 
 Haynes, Eaton and Goodyear, met September 5th, at 
 Hartford. Governor Hopkins was chosen president. 
 
682 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 As the Narragansets still neglected to pay the 
 tribute which had been so many years due, the com- 
 missioners dispatched Captain Atherton, of Massa- 
 chusetts, with twenty men, to demand and collect the 
 arrears ; and he was authorized if they should not be 
 paid, to seize on the best articles he could find, to 
 the full amount of what was due ; or on Pessacus, 
 the chief sachem, or any of his children, and carry 
 them off. Upon his arrival among the Narragan- 
 sets, he found the sachem recurring to his former 
 arts, putting him off with deceitful and dilatory an- 
 swers, and not suffering him to approach his pre- 
 sence ; and at the same time collecting his warriors 
 about him. The captain, therefore, marched directly 
 to the door of his wigwam, where, posting his men, 
 he entered himself with his pistol in his hand, and 
 seizing Pessacus by the hair of his head, drew him 
 from the midst of his attendants, declaring that if 
 they should make the least resistance he would dis- 
 patch him in an instant; this decisive measure gave him 
 such an alarm, that he immediately paid all the arrears. 
 
 Ninigrate, sachem of the Nehanticks, continuing 
 his perfidious practices, began to lay claim to the 
 Pequot country, and appeared to be concerting a 
 plan to recover it from the English. Captain Ather- 
 ton therefore paid him a visit according to his in- 
 structions, and assured him that the commissioners 
 were no strangers to his intrigues, in marrying his 
 daughter to the brother of Sassacus ; in collecting 
 the Pequots under him as though he designed to 
 become their head ; and in his claims and attempts 
 respecting the Pequot country ; and remonstrated 
 against his conduct as directly opposite to all the 
 covenants subsisting between him and the English 
 colonies ; and having in this spirited manner ac- 
 complished his business, he returned in safety. 
 
 Meanwhile Stuyvesant, the Dutch governor, ar- 
 rived at Hartford. He had been often invited to 
 attend the meeting of the commissioners, with a 
 view to the accommodation of the difficulties sub- 
 sisting between him and the English colonies ; but 
 he chose to treat by writing, and on the 13th of 
 September he commenced his correspondence with 
 the commissioners. In his letter he complained of 
 the encroachments made upon the West India com- 
 pany, and the injuries done them both by Connecti- 
 cut and New Haven ; and pretended that the Dutch, 
 in behalf of that company, had purchased the lands 
 upon the river of the native Americans, before any 
 other nation had bought them, or laid any claim to 
 them. He therefore demanded a full surrender 
 of those lands, and such compensation as the nature 
 of the case required : he also complained of the act 
 of prohibiting all foreigners to trade in the English 
 colonies, and that the English sold goods so cheap 
 to the natives, as to ruin the trade for other nations : 
 and concluded with intimations of his willingness to 
 settle a general provisional line between the Dutch 
 and English plantations, by a joint writing to their 
 superiors in England and Holland, or by the deci- 
 sion of agents mutually chosen and empowered for 
 that purpose. 
 
 The commissioners, observing that his letter was 
 dated at New Netherlands, replied, that they would 
 not treat unless he would alter the name of the 
 place whence he wrote ; he answered, that if they 
 would not date at Hartford, he would not at New- 
 Netherlands, but at Connecticut. They consented 
 that he should date at Connecticut, but claimed a 
 right for themselves to date at Hartford. He gave 
 up the right of dating at the Netherlands, and the 
 treaty proceeded. 
 
 The commissioners replied to his complaints, to 
 the effect, that their title to Connecticut river and 
 the adjacent country had been often asserted, and 
 made sufficiently evident both to the Dutch and 
 English ; and that they hoped amply to prove their 
 title to what they enjoyed by patent, purchase, and 
 possession : consequently they insisted that they 
 had made no encroachments on the honourable 
 West India company, nor done them the least in- 
 jury : they affirmed, that they knew not what the 
 Dutch claimed, nor upon what grounds , that at 
 some times they claimed all the lands upon the 
 river, and at oth'ers a part only ; that their claim 
 was founded sometimes upon one statement, and at 
 other times upon another; and that it had been so 
 various and uncertain, as to involve the whole affair 
 in obscurity. With respect to trade, they observed 
 that they had the same right to regulate it within 
 their jurisdiction, which the Dutch, French, and 
 other nations had to regulate it, within their respec- 
 tive dominions : that their merchants had a right 
 to deal with the natives on such terms as they 
 pleased ; and that they presumed they did not trade 
 to their own disadvantage. They also gave inti- 
 mations that if the then present treaty should suc- 
 ceed agreeably to their wishes, they might recon- 
 sider the act of trade, and repeal the prohibition 
 respecting foreigners. 
 
 They then proceeded to a lengthy and particular 
 statement of the grievances they suffered from the 
 Dutch ; particularly representing those which have 
 been already noticed, with several other more re- 
 cent injuries. Especially, that the Dutch agents 
 had gone off from Hartford without paying for the 
 goods which they had taken up : that their success- 
 ors had refused to make any settlement of their ac- 
 counts ; and that the Dutch governor had not 
 obliged them to make payment : that the Dutch 
 bought stolen goods, and would make no compensa- 
 tion to the English, whose property they were ; and 
 that they had not only formerly helped criminals to 
 file off their irons and make their escape, but that 
 they had been guilty of a recent instance of similar 
 conduct ; and that a Dutch servant had lately as- 
 sisted a criminal, committed for a capital offence, 
 to break gaol and make his escape ; and that the 
 Dutch called him to no account for so gross a mis- 
 demeanor. 
 
 Various letters passed, and several days were 
 pent, in these altercations, and at last the commis- 
 sioners chose Mr. Bradstreet, of Massachusetts, and 
 Mr. Prince, of Plymouth, as arbitrators to hear 
 and compose all differences with respect to injury 
 and damages ; to make provisional boundaries in 
 all places where their respective limits were contro- 
 verted, and to settle a just and free correspondence 
 between the parties. The Dutch governor chose 
 Thomas Willet and George Baxter for the same 
 purpose. And both parties, in the most ample 
 manner, authorized the arbitrators to hear and de- 
 termine, in a full and absolute manner, all differ- 
 ences between the two nations in this country. 
 
 The arbitrators, after a full hearing of the parties, 
 came to the following determination, which they 
 drew up in the following form of an agreement. 
 
 ' Articles of an agreement, made and concluded 
 at Hartford, upon Connecticut river, September 
 19th, 1650, betwixt the delegates of the honoured 
 commissioners of the united English colonies, and 
 the delegates of Peter Stuyvesant, governor-gene- 
 ral of New Netherlands. 
 
 ' 1. Upon a serious consideration of the differ- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 683 
 
 ences and grievances propounded by the two Eng- 
 lish colonies of Connecticut and New Haven, and the 
 answer made by the Dutch governor, Peter Stuyve- 
 sant, Esq., according to the trust and power com- 
 mitted to us, as arbitrators and delegates betwixt 
 the said parties : we find that most of the offences 
 or grievances were things done in the time, or by 
 the order and command of Mons. Kieft, the former 
 governor, and that the present honourable governor 
 is not prepared to make answer to them ; we there- 
 fore think meet to respite the full consideration and 
 judgment concerning them, till the present governor 
 may acquaint the H. M. (High and Mighty) States 
 and West India company with the particulars, that 
 so due reparation may accordingly be made. 
 
 "2. The commissioners for New Haven com- 
 plained of several high and hostile injuries which 
 they, and others of that jurisdiction, have received 
 from and by order of the aforesaid Mons. Kieft, in 
 Delaware bay and river, and in their return thence 
 as by their former propositions and complaints may 
 more fully appear ; and besides the English right, 
 claimed by patent, presented and showed several 
 purchases they have made on both sides the river 
 and bay of Delaware, of several large tracts of land 
 unto, and somewhat above the Dutch house or fort 
 there, with the consideration given to the said sa- 
 chems and their companies tor the same, acknowledg- 
 ed and cleared by the hands of the Indians, who they 
 affirmed were the true proprietor?, and testified by 
 many witnesses. They also affirmed, that according 
 to the best of their apprehensions, they have sus- 
 tained 1,OOOZ. damage there, partly by the Swedish 
 governor, but chiefly by order from" Mons. Kieft. 
 And therefore required due satisfaction, and a 
 peaceable possession of the aforesaid lands, to en- 
 joy and improve according to their just rights. The 
 Dutch governor, by way of answer, affirmed and 
 insisted on the title and right to Delaware, or the 
 south river as they call it, and to the lands there, as 
 belonging to the H. M. States and West India com- 
 pany, and professed he must protest against any 
 other claim ; but is not provided to make any such 
 proof, as in such a treaty might be expected, nor 
 had he commission to treat or conclude any thing 
 therein. Upon consideration whereof, we, the said 
 arbitrators or delegates, wanting sufficient light to 
 issue or determine any thing in the premises, are 
 necessitated to leave both parties in statu quo prius, 
 to plead and improve their just interest at Dela- 
 ware, for planting or trading as they shall see cause; 
 only we desire that all proceedings there, as in 
 other places, may be carried on in love and peace 
 till the right may be further considered and justly 
 issued, either in Europe or here, by the two states 
 of England and Holland. 
 
 " 3. Concerning the seizing of Mr. Westerhouse's 
 ship and goods, about three years since, in New 
 Haven harbour, upon a claim to the place, the ho- 
 noured governor, Peter Stuyvcsant, Esq., professed 
 that what passed in writing that way was through 
 error of his secretary, his intent not being to lay 
 any claim to the place, and withal affirming that 
 he had orders to seize any Dutch ship, or vessel, in 
 any of the English colonies or harbours, which 
 should trade there without express licence or com- 
 mission. We therefore think it meet, that the com- 
 missioners of New Haven accept and acquiesce in 
 this answer." 
 
 " Concerning the bounds and limits betwixt the 
 English united colonies, and the Dutch province 
 of New Netherlands, we agree as followeth 
 
 " I. That upon Long Island, a line run from the 
 westernmost part of Oyster bay, and so a straight 
 and direct line to the sea, shall be the bounds be- 
 twixt the English and Dutch there, the easterly 
 part to belong to the English, and the westernmost 
 to the Dutch. 
 
 " 2. The bounds upon the main to begin at the 
 west side of Greenwich bay, being about four miles 
 from Stamford, and so to run a northerly line 20 
 miles up into the country, and after, as it shall be 
 agreed, by the two governments of the Dutch and 
 New Haven, provided the said line come not within 
 ten miles of Hudson's river. And it is agreed that 
 the Dutch shall not, at any time hereafter, build 
 any house or habitation within six miles of the said 
 line; the inhabitants of Greenwich to remain (till 
 further consideration thereof be had) under the go- 
 vernment of the Dutch. 
 
 " 3. The Dutch shall hold and enjoy all the 
 lands in Hartford, that they are actually possessed 
 of, known and set out by certain marks and bounds, 
 and all the remainder of the said land on both sides 
 of Connecticut river, to be and remain to the En- 
 glish there. 
 
 " And it is agreed, that the aforesaid bounds and 
 limits, both upon the island -and main, shall be 
 observed and kept inviolable, both by the English 
 of the united colonies, and all the Dutch nation, 
 without any encroachment or molestation, until a 
 full and final detprmination be agreed upon in Eu- 
 rope, by the mutual consent of the two states of 
 England and Holland. 
 
 " And in testimony of our joint consent to the 
 
 several foregoing conclusions, we have hereunto set 
 
 our hands this 19th day of September, Anno Dom. 
 
 1650. " SIMON BKADSTUEET, THOMAS PRINCE, 
 
 " THOMAS WILLET, GEORGE BAXTER." 
 
 The Dutch governor promised also, and his 
 agents, Messrs. Willet and Baxter, engaged for 
 him, that Greenwich should be put under the go- 
 vernment of New Haven, to whom it originally 
 belonged. It was also agreed, that the same line 
 of conduct which had been adopted with respect to 
 fugitives, by the united colonies, in the eighth ar- 
 ticle of confederation, should be strictly observed 
 between them and the Dutch, in the province of 
 New Netherlands. The Dutch governor also ac- 
 quainted the commissioners, that he had orders 
 from Europe to maintain peace and good neigh- 
 bourhood with the English in America; and he 
 proceeded so far as to make proposals of a nearer 
 union and frindship between the Dutch and the 
 united colonies, but the commissioners declined 
 acting upon these proposals, without consulting 
 their constituents ; and recommended the consider- 
 ation of them to their respective general courts. 
 
 While this settlement with the Dutch seemed to 
 give a favourable aspect to the affairs of the colo- 
 nies, there arose a great and general uneasiness in 
 Connecticut relative to the agreements which had 
 been made with Mr. Fen wick, and as to the state of 
 the accounts between him and the colony. By the 
 first agreement, besides the impost on several arti- 
 cles exported from the mouth of the river for ten 
 years, the people were obliged to pay one shilling 
 annually for every milch cow and mare in the co- 
 lony, and the same sum for every swine killed 
 either for market or private use. Springfield re- 
 fused to pay the impost ; and i-t seems that Con- 
 necticut was obliged by the conduct of Massachu- 
 setts, to repeal the act relating to the imposition. 
 By reason of the controversy which arose between 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Connecticut and Massachusetts, and some other 
 circumstances, several of the towns during the two 
 first years paid but a small proportion of what had 
 been stipulated; and the colony therefore, on the 
 17th of February, 1646, had made a new agreement 
 with Mr. Fenwick, which was to the effect ; 
 That, instead of all former grants, he should receive 
 from the colony annually, one hundred and eighty 
 pounds for ten year? ; he was to collect what was 
 due from Springfield, and to enjoy certain profits 
 arising from the beaver trade; and a hundred and 
 seventy or eighty pounds was also to be paid to him 
 from Saybrook and one or two newly settled towns. 
 The whole amount appears to have been more than 
 2000'., which th.pi colony paid for the right of juris- 
 diction, and the ordnance, arms and stores at the fort. 
 (1651.) As different apprehensions had arisen 
 respecting these agreements, and the state of affairs 
 between Mr. Fenwick and the colony, the general 
 court appointed committees to meet at Saybrook to 
 ascertain them ; and to quiet the minds of the peo- 
 ple, notice was given to every town of the time and 
 place of the meeting of the committees, and each 
 was authorized to send representatives to hear the 
 disputes and report the issue, with the reasons of it, 
 to their constituents. 
 
 Mr. John Winthrop, at the election, was chosen 
 into the magistracy. The assembly consisted of 
 thirty-four members, twelve magistrates and twenty 
 two deputies. 
 
 The colony of Rhode Island at this time gave 
 great trouble to her neighbours, by giving enter- 
 tainment to criminals and fugitives ; and Connecti- 
 cut found it so prejudicial to the course of justice 
 and to the rights of individuals, that the court re- 
 solved to recommend the consideration of the affair 
 to the commissioners of the united colonies. 
 
 About this time also, Augustus Harriman, a Dutch 
 trader, with his vessel, was seized by the people 
 of Saybrook for illicit trade with the Indians. Th< 
 court fined him 4QL and confiscated his vessel ane 
 cargo ; and made him give a statement in writing 
 that he had been well treated. 
 
 Mr. Winthrop imagining that Connecticut con- 
 tained mines and minerals, which might be im 
 proved to his great advantage, as well as to thi 
 public emolument, induced the assembly to pas 
 the following act. 
 
 '' Whereas in this rocky country, among thesi 
 mountains and rocky hills, there are probabilitie 
 of mines of metals, the discovery of which may b 
 of great advantage to the country, in raising a stapL 
 commodity ; and whereas John Winthrop, Esq 
 doth intend to be at charges and adventure for th 
 search and discovery of such mines and minerals 
 for the encouragement thereof, and of any that shal 
 adventure with the said John Winthrup, Esq. ii 
 the said business, it is therefore ordered by th 
 court, that if the said John Winthrop, Esq. sha! 
 discover, set upon, and maintain such mines o 
 lead, copper or tin; or any minerals, as antimony 
 vitriol, black lead, alum,' stone salt, salt springs 
 or any other the like, within this jurisdiction; an 
 shall set up any work for the digging, washing an 
 melting, or any other operation about the sai 
 mines or minerals, as the nature thereof requireth 
 that then the said John Winthrop, Esq. his heirs 
 associates, partners or assigns, shall enjoy for eve 
 said mines, with the lands, wood, timber and watei 
 within two or three miles of said mines, for th 
 necessary carrying on of the works, and maintain 
 ing of the workmen, and provision of coal for th 
 
 me : provided it be not within the bounds of anv 
 wn already settled, or any particular persons pro- 
 erty ; and provided it be not in, or bordering upon 
 ny place, that shall or may by the court be judged 
 t to make a plantation of." 
 
 Though the eastern and middle parts of Norwalk 
 ad been purchased more than ten years, yet there 
 ad been only a few scattering inhabitants within 
 ts limits. But the last year upon the petition of 
 Nathan Ely and Richard Olmstead, the court gave 
 "berty for its settlement, and ordained that it should 
 e a town by the name of Norwalk. The western 
 art of it was purchased on the loth of February, 
 'he inhabitants at this time consisted of about 
 wenty families. About four years after, the general 
 ourt vested them with town privileges. 
 
 The settlement of Mattabeseck also commenced 
 bout the same time: the principal planters of which 
 re re from England, Hartford, and Weathersfield : 
 . number also joined from Rowley, Chelmsford, and 
 Woburn, in Massachusetts ; and by the close of this 
 ear it became considerably settled. In November, 
 653, the general court gave it the name of Middle- 
 own ; and twenty years after the number of shares 
 was fixed at fifty -two ; which was the whole number 
 f the householders at that period, within the town. 
 
 The agreement made the last year with the Dutch 
 governor, and his professions of amity, encouraged 
 he English to prosecute the settlement of the lands 
 which they had purchased in the vicinity of the 
 Dutch; and fifty men from New Haven and Toto- 
 ket made preparations to settle their lands at Dela- 
 ware ; and accordingly this spring, they hired a 
 vessel to transport themselves and their effects into 
 ;hose parts. They had a commission from Governor 
 Eaton, and he wrote an amicable letter to the 
 Dutch governor, acquainting him with their de- 
 ign ; assuring him, that according to the agree- 
 ment at Hartford, they would settle upon their own 
 lands, and give no disturbance to their neighbours. 
 A letter of the same import was also addressed to 
 him from the governor of Massachusetts. But no 
 sooner had Governor Stuyvesant received the let- 
 ters, than he arrested the bearers, and committed 
 them close prisoners under guard. Then sending 
 for the master of the vessel to come on shore that 
 he might speak with him, he arrested and committed 
 him ; and others as they came on shore to visit and 
 assist their neighbours, were also confined. The 
 Dutch governor desired to see their commission, 
 promising it should be returned when he had taken 
 a copy ; but when it was demanded back of him, 
 he would not return it; nor would he release the 
 men from confinement until he had forced them to 
 give it under their hands, that they would not pro- 
 secute their voyage ; but without loss of time return 
 to New Haven ; at the same time threatening, that 
 if he should afterwards find any of them at Dela- 
 ware, he would not only seize their goods, but 
 send them prisoners into Holland. He also caused 
 a considerable part of the estate of the inhabitants 
 of Southampton to be attached, and would not suffer 
 them to remove it within the jurisdiction of the En- 
 glish. Upon these violent proceedings, Captain 
 Tapping, Mr. Fordham, and others, complained, 
 and petitioned the commissioners for redress. 
 
 The commissioners met this year at New Haven. 
 The members were Mr. Bradstreet, Captain John 
 Hawthorne, Mr. John Brown, Mr. Timothy Hather- 
 ly, Governor Hopkins. Mr. Ludlow, and Governors 
 Eaton and Goodyear. Governor Eaton was chosen 
 president. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 Jasper Crane and William Tuttle, in behalf o 
 themselves, and many others, inhabitants of New 
 Haven and Totoket, also presented a petition to 
 the commissioners, complaining of the treatment 
 which they had received from the Dutch governor, 
 and representing that they had sustained more than 
 300/. damage, besides the insult and injury done to 
 the united colonies ; they represented that the 
 Dutch had seized upon, and were about to fortify 
 the very lands which they had bought of the origina 
 proprietors at Delaware : that, had it not been for 
 the injustice and violence of the Dutch, the New 
 England colonies might have been greatly enlarged 
 by settlements in those parts ; that the Gospel might 
 have been published to the natives, and much good 
 done, not only to the colonies at present, but t 
 posterity . they also represented, that the Dutch 
 were, by gifts and art, enticing the English to make 
 settlements under their jurisdiction ; and insisted, 
 that suffering them thus to insult the English, and 
 to seize on lands to which they could show no just 
 claim, would encourage them to drive them from 
 their other settlements, and to seize on their lands 
 and property whenever they pleased; and that it 
 would make them contemptible among the natives, 
 as well as among all other nations ; they, therefore, 
 pressed the commissioners to act with spirit, and 
 immediately to redress the injuries which had been 
 done to them and the colonies. 
 
 The commissioners declined acting against the 
 Dutch, without previously attempting to obtain re- 
 dress by negotiation. They wrote to Stuyvesant, 
 insisting that he had acted in direct contravention 
 of the agreement at Hartford, and noticed that in a 
 letter to Governor Eaton, he had threatened force 
 of arms and bloodshed to any who should go to 
 make settlements upon their lands at Delaware, to 
 which he was unable to show any claim ; they re- 
 presented to him, how unjustifiable it appeared at 
 Hartford, not only to the commissioners, but even 
 to the arbitrators of his own choosing ; they charged 
 him with a breach of the engagement of Mr. Willet 
 and Mr. Baxter, in his behalf, with respect to the 
 restoration of Greenwich to the government of New 
 Haven ; they remonstrated against his conduct, in 
 imprisoning the people of New Haven and Totoket, 
 in detaining their commission and frustrating their 
 voyage ; and also in beginning to erect fortifications 
 upon the lands of the New Haven people at Dela- 
 ware ; they affirmed, that they had as good a right, 
 to the Manhadoes as the Dutch had to those lands ; 
 declared that the colonies had just cause to vindi- 
 cate and promote their interests, and to redress the 
 injuries which had been done to their confederates; 
 and finally protested, that whatever inconveniences 
 or mischief might arise upon it would be wholly 
 chargeable to his unneighbourly and unjust conduct. 
 At the same time, for the encouragement of the 
 petitioners, they resolved, that if at any time within 
 twelve months they should attempt the settlement 
 of their lands at Delaware, and at their own charge 
 transport 150 or at least 100 men, well armed, with 
 a good vessel or vessels for such an enterprise, with 
 a sufficient quantity of ammunition, and warranted 
 by a commission from the authority at New Haven ; 
 that then, if they should meet with any opposition 
 from the Dutch or Swedes, they would afford them 
 a sufficient force for their defence. They also re- 
 solved, that all English planters at Delaware, either 
 from New Haven, or any other of the united colo- 
 nies, should be under the jurisdiction of New Haven. 
 The Pequots among the Mohcagans and Narra- 
 
 gansets, aud those who had removed to Long Island, 
 had to this time neglected to pay any part of the 
 tribute, which had been stipulated at Hartford, in. 
 1638, upon condition that the English would spare 
 their lives and defend them from their enemies; 
 and the general court had therefore given orders, 
 that it should be collected forthwith, and had ap- 
 pointed Captain Maton to go to Long Island, and 
 demand it of the Pequots there, as well as of those 
 in other places. 
 
 Uncas, with a number of the Moheagans, and of 
 Ninigrate's men, in consequence presented himself 
 before the commissioners, and in behalf of the Pe- 
 quots paid a tribute of about 300 fathoms of wam- 
 pum ; aud then, in their name, demanded why this 
 tribute was required ? how long it was to continue ? 
 and whether it must be paid by the children yet 
 unborn ? 
 
 The commissioners answered, that by covenant 
 it had been annually due ever since the year 1638: 
 that after a just war, in which the Pequots were 
 conquered, the English, to spare as far as might 
 be the blood of the guilty, accepted of a small tri- 
 bute as expressed in the covenant; they insisted 
 that they had a right to demand it as a just debt ; 
 and observed that twelve years' tribute was now due, 
 reckoning only to the year 1650 ; but that to show 
 their lenity and encourage the Pequots, if they 
 would behave themselves peaceably, and pay the 
 tribute agreed upon, for ten years, reckoning from 
 1650, they would give them all which was due for 
 past years ; and that at the expiration of the ten years 
 they and their children should be free. This, it 
 seems, they thankfully accepted, and afterwards be- 
 came as faithful friends to the English as the Mo- 
 heagans, and assisted them in their wars with other 
 Indians, especially in that against Philip and the 
 Narragansets. 
 
 While the commissioners were at New Haven, 
 two French gentlemen, Monsieur Godfrey and Mon- 
 sieur Gabriel Druillets, arrived in the capacity of 
 commissioners from Canada. They had been sent 
 by the French governor, Monsieur D'Aillebout, 
 to treat with the united colonies ; and presented 
 three commissions, one from Monsieur D'Aillebout, 
 another from the council of New France, and a 
 third to Monsieur Gabriel Druillets, who had been 
 authorized to publish the doctrines and duties of 
 Christianity among the Indians. 
 
 In behalf of the French in Canada, and the 
 christianized Indians in Acadia, they petitioned for 
 aid against the Mohawks and warriors of the six 
 nations ; and urged that the war was just, as the 
 Mohawks had violated the most solemn leagues, 
 and were perfidious and cruel : that it was a holy 
 war, as the Acadians were converted Indians, and 
 the Mohawks treated them barbarously because 
 of their Christianity ; and insisted that it was a 
 common concern to the French and English na- 
 tions, as the war with the six nations interrupted 
 the trade of both with the Indians in general. 
 
 Monsieur Druillets, who appeared to be a man of 
 address, opened the case to the best advantage, dis- 
 playing all his art, and employing his utmost ability 
 to persuade the commissioners to engage in the war 
 against the six nations. He urged, that if they 
 would not consent to join in the war, they would at 
 [east permit the enlistment of volunteers in the , 
 united colonies for the French service, and grant 
 them a free passage through the colonies, by land 
 or water, as the case might require, to the Mohawk 
 country . he also pleaded, that the christianized In- 
 
C86 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 dians might be taken under the protection of the 
 united colonies, and made large promises of the 
 ample compensation which the French would make 
 the colonies for these services ; promising, if these 
 points could be gained, they would enter imme- 
 diately upon a treaty for the establishment of a free 
 trade between the French and English in all parts 
 of America. 
 
 The reply of the commissioners exhibits policy 
 and prudence; showing that they were not ignorant 
 of men, nor of the arts of negotiation. They an- 
 swered, that they looked upon such Indians-as had 
 received the yoke of Christ, with a different feeling 
 than upon those who were still heathens ; that they 
 pitied the Acadians, but saw no way to help them 
 without exposing the English colonies and their 
 own neighbouring Indians to war ; and that some 
 of those Indians professed Christianity no less than 
 the Acadi'ans : that it was their desire, by all just 
 means, to keep peace with all men, even with these 
 barbarians ; and that they had no occasion for war 
 with the Mohawks, who in the war with the Pequots 
 had shown a real respect to the English colonies, 
 and had never since committed any hostility against 
 them : that they felt a readiness to perform all offices 
 of righteousness, peace, and good neighbourhood 
 towards the French colony; but that they could 
 not permit the enlistment of volunteers,nor the march- 
 ing of the French and their Indians through the 
 colonies, without giving grounds of offence and war 
 to the Mohawks, and exposing both themselves and 
 the Indians whom they ought to protect; that the 
 English engaged in no war until they were satisfied 
 that it was just, nor until peace had been offered on 
 reasonable terms, and had been refused : that the 
 Mohawks were neither in subjection to the English, 
 nor in league with them; so that they had no means 
 of informing themselves what they could say in their 
 own vindication ; that they were exceedingly dis- 
 satisfied with that mischievous trade, which the 
 French and Dutch had carried on, and still con- 
 tinued with the Indians in vending them arms and 
 ammunition, by which they were encouraged, not 
 only against the Christian Indians and catechumens, 
 but against all Christians in Europe as well as 
 America; but if all other difficulties were removed, 
 they represented, they had no such short and con- 
 venient passage by land or water, as might be had by 
 Hudson's river to fort Aurania and beyond, in the pos- 
 session of the Dutch ; and they concluded by ob- 
 serving, that the honoured French deputies, as they 
 conceived, had full powers to settle a free trade be- 
 tween the English and French colonies ; but if, for 
 reasons best known to themselves, it was designed 
 to limit the English by the same restraints and pro- 
 hibitions to which the unprivileged French were 
 subjected, not suffering them to trade until they 
 had obtained a particular licence from the governor 
 and company of New France, they must wait a 
 more favourable opportunity for negotiation; but 
 whenever such an opportunity should offer, they in- 
 timated they should readily embrace it. 
 
 The commissioners, apprehending that there was 
 little prospect of obtaining a redress of their griev- 
 ances from the Dutch, by remonstrance and nego- 
 tiation, wrote to Mr. Winslow, agent for Massachu- 
 setts in England, on the subject; and desired Mr. 
 Winslow to inquire how the parliament and council 
 of state esteemed the ancient patents, and how any 
 engagements of the colonies against the Dutch, for 
 the defence of their rights, would be viewed by the 
 parliament. 
 
 The people at New Haven persisted in their pur 
 pose of making, if possible, a permanent settlement 
 upon their lands at Delaware. They were sensible 
 that such was the situation of their affairs, that a 
 leader, who was not only a politician, but a man of 
 known courage, military skill and experience, would 
 be of great importance to the enterprise ; and there- 
 fore made application to Captain Mason to remove 
 with them to Delaware, and take on him the ma- 
 nagement of the company ; and it seems he had a 
 design of complying with their requests, but the 
 general court at Connecticut would not consent; and 
 unanimously desired him to entertain no thoughts 
 of changing his situation, which frustrated the design. 
 
 The grand list of the colony appears this year, for 
 the first time, upon the records, but contains the 
 lists of seven towns only; the others either paying 
 no taxes, or their lists not being completed and re- 
 turned. The amount of the whole was 75,492. 
 10s. 6d.; and it appears that the townships at this 
 period were not, upon an average, more than equal 
 to the common parishes at this day. 
 
 (1052.) At the general election in Connecticut, 
 the former magistrates were re-elected. 
 
 The commencement of hostilities the last year, 
 between England and Holland, the perfidious ma- 
 nagement of the Dutch governor, and the appre- 
 hensions of the rising of the Indians, spread a 
 general alarm through the colony. 
 
 The assembly convened on the 30th of June, and 
 adopted several measures tor the common safety; 
 and orders were given, that the cannon at Saybrook 
 should be well mounted on carriages ; that the fort 
 should be supplied with ammunition ; and that the 
 inhabitants who were scattered abroad should collect 
 their families into it, and hold themselves in a state 
 of readiness for their common defence. 
 
 The Indians in the vicinity of the several planta- 
 tions, within the colony, were required to give testi- 
 mony of their friendship and fidelity to the English, 
 by delivering up their arms to the governor and 
 magistrates ; and those who refused were to be 
 considered as enemies. 
 
 (1653.) S'uyvesant, the Dutch governor, made no 
 satisfaction for former injuries, but added new in- 
 sults and grievances to those which were past ; again 
 revived the claims which he had renounced at Hart- 
 ford ; and though he restrained the Dutch from 
 open hostility, yet he used all his arts with the In- 
 dians to engage them to attack the English colo- 
 nists ; and in March, discovery was made that he 
 was conniving with the Indians for the extirpation 
 of the English colonies. An extraordinary meeting 
 of the commissioners was immediately called, at 
 which were Governor Endicott, Mr. William Haw- 
 thorne, William Bradford, Esq., Mr. John Brown, 
 Mr. Ludlow, Captain Cullick, Governor Eaton, and 
 Captain John Astwood. Governor Endicott was 
 chosen president. 
 
 Upon a close attention to the reports which had 
 been spread, and a critical examination of the evi- 
 dence, all the commissioners, except those of the 
 Massachusetts, were of the opinion that there had 
 been a plot concerted by the Dutch governor and 
 the Indians, for the destruction of the English colo- 
 nies. Ninigrate, it appeared, had spent the winter 
 at the Manhadoes, with Stuy vesant, on the business ; 
 and had been over Hudson's river among the western 
 Indians; had procured a meeting of the. sachems; 
 made ample declarations against the English ; and 
 solicited their aid against the colonies. He was 
 brought back in the suring in a Dutch sloop, with 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 687 
 
 arms and ammunition from the Dutch governor ; 
 and the Indians, for some hundreds of miles, ap- 
 peared to be disaffected and hostile. Tribes, which 
 before had been always friendly to the English, be- 
 came inimical ; and the Indians boasted that they 
 were to have goods from the Dutch at half the price 
 for which the English sold them, and powder as 
 plenty as the sand. The Long Island Indians tes- 
 tified to the plot ; and nine sachems, who lived in 
 the vicinity of the Dutch, sent their united testi- 
 mony to Stamford, "that the Dutch governor had so- 
 licited them, by promising them guns, powder, swords, 
 wampum, coats, and waistcoats, to cut off the Eng- 
 lish;" the messengers who were sent, declared, 
 " they were as the mouth of the nine sagamores 
 who all spake they would not lie :" and one of the 
 nine sachems afterwards came to Stamford, with 
 other Indians, and testified the same. The plot 
 was also confessed by a Wampeag and a Narragan- 
 set Indian, and was confirmed by Indian testimonies 
 from all quarters. It was expected that a Dutch 
 fleet would arrive, and that the Dutch and Indians 
 would unite in the destruction of the English plan- 
 tations ; and it was rumoured that the time for the 
 massacre was fixed upon the day of the public elec- 
 tion, when the freemen would be generally from 
 home. 
 
 The country was exceedingly alarmed, especially 
 Connecticut and New Haven. They were greatly 
 hindered in their ploughing, sowing, planting, and 
 in all their affairs, and were worn down with con- 
 stant watching and guarding, and put to great ex- 
 pense for the common safety. 
 
 Six of the commissioners were satisfied that they 
 had just grounds of war with the Dutch; and drew 
 up a general declaration of their grievances for the 
 satisfaction of the people. They also stated the 
 evidence they had of the conspiracy, which they 
 supposed was then in hand ; but determined, never- 
 theless, before they commenced hostilities against 
 the Dutch, to acquaint the governor with the dis- 
 covery which they had made, and to give him an 
 opportunity of answering for himself. 
 
 In the mean time letters arrived from the Dutch 
 governor, in which he appeared with great confi- 
 dence absolutely to deny the plot which had been 
 charged upon him, and offered to go or send to 
 Boston to clear his innocence ; or desired that some 
 persons might be deputed and sent to the Manha- 
 does, to examine the charges and receive his an- 
 swers; but other letters arrived at the same time 
 confirming the evidence of the conspiracy, and re- 
 presenting that the Indians were urged to carry it 
 into execution. 
 
 The commissioners determined to send agents to 
 the governor; and with the utmost dispatch made 
 choice of Francis Newman, one of the magistrates 
 of New Haven, Captain John Leveret, afterwards 
 governor of Massachusetts, and Mr. William Davis, 
 whom they vested with plenary powers to examine 
 the whole affair, and to receive the governor's an- 
 swer, according to his own proposals. 
 
 Stuyvesant, in bis letters, pretended to express 
 his astonishment that the English should give credit 
 to Indian testimony ; and the commissioners there- 
 fore, in their reply, charged him with making use of 
 heathen testimony against New Haven ; and ob- 
 served that Kieft, his predecessor, had used Indian 
 testimonies against the English in a strange manner, 
 in a case of treason, and life or death ; they also 
 acquainted him with the bloody use which the Dutch 
 governor and his council had made of the confession 
 
 of the Japanese, against Captain Towerson and the 
 English Christians at Amboyna, though it was ex- 
 torted by torture. At the same time they wrote to 
 Monsieur Montague and Captain Newton, who 
 were of the Dutch governor's council, that his 
 protestations of innocence gave them no satisfaction ; 
 and charged the treasurer as well as the governor 
 with the plot ; and demanded satisfaction for past 
 injuries, and security for the future. 
 
 While their agents were employed at the Manha- 
 does, they determined on the number of men to be 
 raised in case of a war; and for the first expedition 
 they resolved to send out five hundred ; and ap- 
 pointed Captain Leveret to the chief command. 
 They also determined, that, should they engage in 
 war with the Dutch, the commissioners of the united 
 colonies should meet at New Haven, to give all 
 necessary directions respecting the expedition, and 
 to order the war in general. 
 
 Notwithstanding the fair proposals which Gover- 
 nor S;uyvesant had made, he would submit to no 
 examination by the agents any further than a com- 
 mittee of his own appointing should consent; two 
 of which committee were persons who had been 
 complained of for misdemeanors at Hartford ; and 
 one of them had been confined for his crimes. 
 The agents conceived that the very proposal of such 
 persons as a committee was a high affront to them, 
 to the united colonies, and to the English nation. 
 But in addition to this, the Dutch governor would 
 not suffer the witnesses to speak unless they were 
 previously laid under such restraints as would pre- 
 vent all benefit from their evidence. The agents 
 therefore not only objected to the committee, and 
 declined all connexion with them, but remonstrated 
 against the restraints proposed to be laid on the 
 witnesses ; and finding that nothing could be ef- 
 fected with respect to the design of their agency, 
 they in a spirited manner demanded satisfaction for 
 insults and injuries past, and security against future 
 abuse, and took leave of the Manhadoes. 
 
 As they returned they took various testimonies 
 respecting the plot; some from the Indians, and 
 others from the English, sworn before proper au- 
 thority ; but before their return the commissioners 
 were dispersed, and the general elections were 
 finished. The courts at Connecticut and New Ha- 
 ven voted their respective quotas of men, appointed 
 their officers, and gave orders that all necessary 
 preparations should be made for the designed ex- 
 pedition. 
 
 On the election at Hartford, the foraier officers 
 were re- chosen. The time of election, at New 
 Haven, had been changed from October to May; 
 and this year was on the 25th of the month. The 
 governors were the same as they had been for seve- 
 ral years, Eaton and Goodyear. The magistrates 
 were, Mr. William Fowler, Mr. John Astwood, 
 William Leet, Esq., Mr. Joshua Atwater, and Mr. 
 Francis Newman. Mr. Atwater was treasurer, and 
 Mr. Newman secretary. 
 
 Immediately on the return of the agents from 
 the Manhadoes, the general court of Massachusetts 
 summoned another extraordinary meeting of the 
 commissioners, at Boston, about the latter end of 
 May. The commissioners were the same who com- 
 posed the last meeting, except Mr. Bradstreet, in 
 the room of Governor Endicott, who was obliged to 
 attend the general court. 
 
 The agents made a report of the treatment which 
 they had received from the Dutch, and of such evi. 
 dence as they had taken of the plot on their return. 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 The commissioners were also certified that the In- 
 dians on Long Island had charged the fiscal 
 (treasurer) with the plot ; and that Captain Under- 
 hill, having reported what the Indians declared, 
 was seized and carried by a guard of soldiers from 
 Flushing to the Manhadoes, where he was confined 
 by the fiscal, until what he had reported was affirmed 
 to his face: then he was dismissed without trial, and 
 all his charges borne. No sooner had the agents 
 taken theii departure from the Manhadoes, than 
 the captain, because he had been active in exhibit- 
 ing the evidence of the Dutch and Indian conspi- 
 racy, notwithstanding all the important services he 
 had" rendered the Dutch, was ordered to depart. 
 The commissioners received a letter from him May 
 24th, representing the extreme danger in which he 
 and all the English were, assuring them, that as 
 necessity had no law, he had, li'ke Jeptha, put his 
 life in his hand to save English blood ; and that he 
 was waiting their orders, with loyalty to them and 
 the parliament, to vindicate the rights of the nation. 
 The Dutch demanded that all the English among 
 them should take an oath of fidelity to them; which, 
 in case of war, might have compelled them to fight 
 against their own nation. 
 
 The people of Hampstead, at the same time, repre- 
 sented that they were in the utmost danger, and 
 wrote in the most pressing manner for arms and 
 ammunition to defend themselves. Letters were 
 also sent from Connecticut and New Haven, with 
 intelligence that the Dutch governor, by presents of 
 wampum, coats, and other articles, was exciting 
 the Mohawks and various Indian tribes to rise and 
 attack the English, both on Long Island and 
 on the main. 
 
 A long letter from the Dutch governor was also 
 received, in which, in general terms, he excused him- 
 self relative to the plot ; but he gave no encourage- 
 ment to hope for the least satisfaction ; or that the 
 colonies should be more safe from injury and insult 
 for the future. Indeed he still insulted them, re- 
 newing the claims, both to Connecticut and New 
 Haven, which he had given up at Hartford. 
 
 All the commissioners voted for war against the 
 Dutch, excepting Mr. Bradstreet, who was under 
 the influence of the general court of Massachusetts, 
 who were using all their arts to oppose the commis- 
 sioners, and prevent open hostility. The commis- 
 sioners, however, so strenuously urged the justice 
 and necessity of an immediate war with the Dutch, 
 and so spiritedly remonstrated against the conduct 
 of the court, as violators of the articles of union, 
 that they appointed a committee of conference with 
 them, and desired that a statement of the case might 
 be made, and the advice of the elders taken on the 
 subject. The committee of the court were Major 
 Denison and Captain Leveret. 
 
 The commissioners replied, that their former de- 
 claration, their letter to the Dutch governor, and 
 the evidence before them, afforded clear and suffi- 
 cient light in the affair, but, nevertheless, they ap- 
 pointed Captain Hawthorne, Mr. Bradford, and 
 Governor Eaton, a committee to confer with the 
 gentlemen appointed by the court of Massachusetts. 
 Governor Eaton drew up a statement of the case 
 in behalf of the committee of the commissioners ; 
 but the committee from the general court, would not 
 consent to it, and drew up another statement of 
 their own. Undei the influence of tne general court, 
 and the different representation which their com- 
 mittee had made, the elders gave their opinion : 
 
 " That the proofs and presumptions of the execra- 
 
 ble plot, tending to the destruction of so many of 
 the dear saints of God, imputed to the Dutch go- 
 vernor and the fiscal, were of such weight as to in- 
 duce them to believe the reality of it ; yet they were 
 not so fully conclusive as to clear up a'present pro- 
 ceeding to war before the world ; and to bear up 
 their hearts with that fulness of persuasion, which 
 was meet in commending the case to God in prayer, 
 and to the people in exhortations; and that it 
 would be safest, for the colonies to forbear the use of 
 the sword ; but advised to be in a posture of defence 
 and readiness for action, until the mind of God 
 should be more clearly known, either for a more 
 settled peace, or manifest grounds of war." 
 
 In the mean time all the commissioners, except 
 Mr. Bradstreet, continued determined for war. 
 Governor Eaton insisted that the Dutch had for 
 many years during a succession of governors, rmu- 
 tiplied injuries and hostile affronts with treachery 
 and falsehood against the English, to their very 
 great damage : that these injuries had been fully 
 and repeatedly represented to them, and satisfac- 
 tion demanded"; yet that nothing had been received 
 in return but dilatory, false and offensive answers : 
 he observed that the governor and his associates 
 had been formerly suspected and accused of insti- 
 gating the Indians against the English ; and that 
 now a treacherous and bloody plot had been disco- 
 vered, and charged upon him and his fiscal, by 
 more witnesses than could have been expected ; that 
 by it the peace of the country had been disturbed, 
 their own lives, the lives of their children, and all 
 their connexions, had been in constant jeopardy : 
 that though they had allowed the Dutch governor a 
 fair opportunity of clearing himself, of making sa- 
 tisfaction, and securing the colonies for the future ; 
 yet that by his conduct he had increased the evi- 
 dence of his guilt ; and that he had given the colo- 
 nies no security for their future peace and safety ; 
 nor had they the least reason to expect any : that 
 the English, under the jurisdiction of the Dutch, 
 were in the most immediate danger, not only from 
 them, but the Indians, through their instigation, De- 
 cause they would not submit to an oath to join with 
 them in fighting against their own nation : that the 
 insolence, treachery, and bitter enmity which the 
 Dutch had manifested against the nation of England, 
 and all the English abroad as they had opportunity, 
 were sufficient to assure them that as soon as the 
 States-general should be able to send a small fleet 
 to the Manhadoes, the colonists could not be safe, 
 either in their persons or property, by land or sea : 
 and further, that the state of the commonwealth of 
 England and of the colonies was such as called for 
 war; and that if either of the colonies should refuse 
 to join in it against the common enemy, and if any 
 of the plantations through such refusal should be 
 destroyed, the guilt of such blood would lie upon 
 them. 
 
 Some faithful people in the Massachusetts were 
 entirely opposed to the conduct of their general 
 court, and ventured to express their opinion. The 
 Rev. Mr. Norris, of Salem, sent a writing to the 
 commissioners, representing the necessity of a war ; 
 and urged that if the colonies in their then present 
 circumstances should neglect to engage in it, it 
 would be a declaration of their neutrality in the 
 contest ; might be viewed in that light by the par- 
 liament ; and be of great and general disservice to 
 their interests : that the spending of so much time 
 in parleys and treaties, after all the injuries they had 
 received, and while the enemy was insulting them, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 089 
 
 and fortifying against them, would make them con- 
 temptible" among the Indians: that it was dishonour- 
 ing God, in whom they professed to trust, and bring- 
 ing a scandal among themselves; and insisted that 
 as their brethren had sent their moan to them, and 
 desired their assistance, if they should refuse, th 
 curse of the angel of the Lord against Meroz would 
 come upon them : and this he said he presented in 
 the name of many pensive hearts. 
 
 But nothing could induce the Massachusetts to 
 unite with their brethren in a war against the 
 Dutch ; the general court, in direct violation of the 
 articles of confederation, resolved that no determi- 
 nation of the commissioners, though they should all 
 agree, should bind the general court to join in an 
 offensive war, which should appear to such general 
 court to be unjust. This declaration gave great 
 uneasiness to the commissioners, and to the sister 
 colonies ; and it nearly effected a dissolution of their 
 union. The commissioners finding that the Massa- 
 chusetts would not submit to their determination, nor 
 afford any assistance to her confederates, dissolved. 
 
 In this important crisis, Governor Haynes called 
 a special court on the 25th of June, which resolved, 
 that the fears and distresses of the English, border- 
 ing upon the Dutch, and the damages which they 
 had sustained, should be forthwith represented to the 
 magistrates in Massachusetts : that the opinion of 
 the court respecting the power of the commissioners 
 to make war, and the reasons of their opinion should 
 be communicated : they also determined that their 
 messengers should humbly pray that war might be 
 carried on against the Dutch, according to the deter- 
 mination of the commissioners. The messengers 
 were also instructed to use their influence, that 
 three magistrates might have power to call a meet- 
 ing of the commissioners at Hartford or New Ha- 
 ven, to conduct the affairs of the war as occasion 
 might require ; but if this could not be obtained 
 they were to desire that liberty might be given to 
 enlist volunteers in the Massachusetts, for the de- 
 fence of the colonies. 
 
 Governor Haynes and Mr. Ludlow were ap- 
 pointed to confer with Governor Eaton and his 
 council on the subject. The court at New Haven 
 were no less clear and unanimous in the opinion of 
 the power of the commissioners to declare war and 
 make peace than the general court at Connecticut ; 
 and that all the colonies were absolutely bound by 
 their determination. Both colonies united in send- 
 ing the messengers, and in the purport of their mes- 
 sage ; but nothing more could be obtained than 
 the calling of another meeting of the commissioners 
 at Boston; who met on the llth of September; 
 and at which the resolutions of the general courts of 
 Connecticut and New Haven were produced, ex- 
 pressing their entire approbation of the determina- 
 tion of the commissioners, and remonstrating against 
 the declaration of the general court of Massachu- 
 setts, and the sense which they had put on the 
 articles of confederation. 
 
 The general court of Massachusetts returned for 
 answer, that since their brethren of the other colo- 
 nies had apprehensions different from theirs, they 
 judged it might conduce most to peace to wave the 
 point in controversy; and at the same time intimated 
 they had no occasion to answer them. 
 
 The commissioners refused to accept this as an 
 answer ; and insisted that they had ample powers 
 from all the other colonies to determine in all affairs 
 of peace and war; and that this was consistent 
 with the grammatical and true sense of the articles of 
 
 HIST. OF AMER. Nos. 87 88. 
 
 confederation; and that it was totally inconsistent, 
 not only with the articles of union, "but with the 
 welfare of the colonies, that they should be at so 
 much expense and trouble to meet and deliberate 
 on the general interests of the confederates, if their 
 determinations were to be annulled by one court 
 and another. 
 
 The Massachusetts court, on their part, insisted, 
 that the determinations of the commissioners could 
 not bind them to a war which they could rw)t deem 
 to be just ; and that it was inconsistent with the 
 liberties of the colonies, that their decisions should 
 compel them to action. 
 
 The commissioners replied, that no power could 
 bind men to do that which was absolutely unlawful ; 
 but that their authority was as absolute, with respect 
 to war and peace, as any authority could be ; and 
 that it was their province only to judge of the 
 justice of the cause : they maintained that it could 
 be no infringment of the rights of the colonies to 
 be bound by the acts of their own agents, vested with 
 plenary powers for those very acts; and represented 
 the religious and solemn manner in which the con- 
 federation was made ; that by its express words, it 
 was a perpetual league for thejn and their posterity, 
 in which their eight commissioners, or any six of 
 them, should have full power to determine all affairs 
 of war and peace, leagues, aids, c. : that every 
 article had been examined, not only by a committee 
 of the four general courts, but by the whole court 
 of Massachusetts, at the time when it was com- 
 pleted : that many prayers were addressed to Heaven 
 for its accomplishment, while it was under conside- 
 ration; and that the carrying of it into execution 
 had been an occasion of abundant thanksgiving: 
 that after practising upon it for ten years, the colo- 
 nies had experienced the most salutary effects, to 
 the great and general advantage of all the confeder- 
 ates : that the violation of it would be matter of 
 great sin in the presence of God, and of scandal 
 before men ; and they referred it to the serious con- 
 sideration of the general court, whether they would 
 not, in his sight who knew all hearts, be guilty of 
 this sin and scandal? 
 
 The general court earnestly requested that they 
 would drop the dispute, and enter upon business, 
 and their commissioners also pressed the same. 
 But, with a spirit of magnanimity and firmness, 
 becoming their character, they utterly refused ; de- 
 termining, to a man, after drawing a remonstrance 
 against the Massachusetts, to return to their respec- 
 tive colonies, and leave the event with the supreme 
 ruler. 
 
 No sooner had the general court intelligence of 
 what was transacting, than they dispatched a writ- 
 ing to the commissioners, apparently retracting all 
 which they had before advanced in opposition to 
 them ; but it was expressed in very doubtful Ian 
 guage. However, upon the reception of this, they 
 proceeded to business. 
 
 Ninigrate, ever since the Pequot war, had been 
 the common pest of the colonies : he had violated 
 all his contracts with them ; had fallen on the Long 
 Island Indians,who were in alliance with theEnglish, 
 and slain many of them ; and carried others, men, 
 women, and children into captivity : and by his 
 hostilities, he gave alarm and trouble to the En- 
 glish plantations on the island, in the neighbour- 
 hood of the Indians. When messengers had been 
 sent to him, demanding that he would return the cap- 
 tives, and desist from war, he absolutely refused ; and 
 would give no account of his conduct; and he had now 
 
 3R 
 
C90 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 spent the winter with the Dutch governor, in con- 
 certing measures against the PJnglish colonies ; and 
 had been beyond Hudson's river spiriting up the 
 Indians there, as well as in other quarters, to a 
 general rising against them. The commissioners 
 therefore declared war against him, and appointed 
 the number of men and officers for the service. 
 They also again resolved upon war against the 
 Dutch, and ail the commissioners joined in these 
 resolutions except Mr. Bradstreet ; but they were 
 to no purpose. The general court refused to bear 
 any part in the war against either. 
 
 The commissioners protested against the members 
 of the court of Massachusetts, as violators of the 
 confederation ; and pressed it as an indispensable 
 duty to avenge the blood of innocents, who had de- 
 pended on them for safety, and had suffered on the 
 account of their faithfulness to the colonies, to re- 
 cover their wives and children from captivity ; to 
 protect their friends from the insults of barbarous 
 and bloody men ; and to vindicate the honour of 
 themselves and of the nation. 
 
 The Massachusetts nevertheless persisted in their 
 opposition to the commissioners, and would bear no 
 part in the war. Their desertion of their confeder- 
 ates was matter of great injury and distress to them, 
 especially to the people of Connecticut and New 
 Haven ; who were not only obliged to put up with 
 all former insults arid damages from the Dutch, but 
 after they had been at great expense in fortifying 
 and guarding against the Dutch and Indians, and 
 had been worn down with anxiety and watching, 
 from the very opening of the spring, were still left 
 to their fears, and obliged to combine together for 
 mutual defence, in the best manner of which they 
 were capable. 
 
 The general courts of Connecticut and New Ha- 
 ven were convoked soon after the return of the 
 commissioners. That, at New Haven met. on the 
 12th of October, and the court at Connecticut on 
 the 25th of November. Both considered the court 
 of Massachusetts as having wilfully violated the 
 articles of union ; and the general court at New- 
 Haven expressly resolved, "that the Massachusetts 
 had broken their covenant with them, in acting 
 directly contrary to the articles of confederation." 
 
 Both colonies therefore determined to seek re- 
 dress from the commonwealth of England ; Captain 
 Astvvood was appointed agent to the Lord-protector 
 Cromwell, and parliament, to represent their state, 
 and to solicit ships and men for the reduction of the 
 Dutch. Connecticut and New Haven conferred 
 together, by their committees, and letters were sent 
 iu the name of both the general courts, containing 
 a complete statement of their circumstances. The 
 address concluded in the words following : " That 
 unless the Dutch be either removed, or so far at 
 least subjected, that the colonies may be free from 
 injurious affronts, and secured against the dangers 
 and mischievous effects which daily grow upon them 
 by their plotting with the Indians, and furnishing 
 them with arms against the English ; and that the 
 league and confederation between the four united 
 English colonies be confirmed and settled accord- 
 ing to the true sense, and till this year the continued 
 interpretation of the articles, the peace and com- 
 fort of these smaller western colonies, will be much 
 hazarded and more and more impaired. But as 
 they conceive it their duty thus fully to represent 
 their afflicted condition to your excellency, so they 
 humbly leave themselves, with the remedies, to your 
 consideration, and wisdom." 
 
 As Governor Hopkins was now in England, he 
 was desired to give all assistance in his power to 
 the agent whom they had agreed to send; and Con- 
 necticut dispatched letters to the parliament, to 
 General Monk and Mr. Hopkins. 
 
 As Stamford was a frontier town, a guard of men 
 was dispatched for its defence ; and Connecticut 
 and New Haven provided a frigate of ten or twelve 
 guns, with forty men, to defend the coast against 
 the Dutch, and to prevent Ninigrate and his In- 
 dians from crossing the sound, in prosecution of his 
 hostile designs against the Indians in alliance with 
 the colonies. 
 
 The towns bordering upon the Dutch, on Long 
 Island, were in great distress and alarm. Captain 
 Underbill sent to his friends at Rhode Island for 
 assistance ; and, with such Englishmen as he could 
 obtain, made the best defence in his power ; but 
 Hampstead and some other towns were still con- 
 tinually harassed, and suffered much damage and 
 insult from the Dutch. 
 
 The Dutch, at New Netherlands, waited only for 
 a reinforcement from Holland to attack and reduce 
 the English colonies; and it was reported and 
 feared, that when the signals should be given from, 
 the Dutch ships, the Indians would rise, fire the 
 English buildings, and begin their work of de- 
 struction. 
 
 Providence, however, combined a number of cir- 
 cumstances for the preservation of the exposed 
 colonies. The defeat of the Dutch fleet by the 
 English, and the spoil which they made upon their 
 trade, prevented the arrival of the expected rein- 
 forcements ; the Indians could not be united ; and 
 many of the sachems said, the English had done 
 them no injury, and they would not fight them ; and 
 the early intelligence, received by the colonies, of 
 the plans which they and the Dutch were concert- 
 ing, and the constant watch and guard which the 
 plantations had maintained, disconcerted them. 
 
 Other calamities however arose. Some of the 
 towns, and many of the people, in the colonies of 
 Connecticut and New Haven, were so dissatisfied 
 that the war was not prosecuted against the Dutch, 
 according to the resolution of the commissioners, 
 that they were with great difficulty restrained from 
 open mutiny and rebellion. Stamford and Fairfield 
 in particular became very disorderly; the former 
 complaining that the government was bad, and the 
 charges unreasonable, and that they were neglected 
 and deprived of their just privileges; and they sent 
 to the general court at New Haven, desiring them 
 to piosecute the war against the Dutch. They 
 also resolved to raise a number of men, and prayed 
 for permission to enlist volunteers in the several 
 towns. Fairfield held a meeting on the subject, 
 and determined to prosecute the war, and appointed 
 Mr. Ludlow commander-in-chief. He had been 
 one of the commissioners at the severaLoneetings 
 relative to the affair, and had been very zealous 
 and active for the war ; and conceiving himself and 
 the town in imminent danger, unless the Dutch 
 could be removed from the neighbourhood, too 
 hastily accepted of. the appointment. Robert Bas- 
 set and John Chapman, who were the heads of this 
 party, attempted to foment insurrections, and, with- 
 out any instructions or authority, to raise volunteers 
 for an expedition against the Netherlands. 
 
 The general court at New Haven judged that the 
 season was too far advanced to undertake the enter- 
 prise, but nevertheless determined to consult Con- 
 necticut, and to proceed or not as the council there 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 691 
 
 should judge most expedient ; who decided that as 
 it was now the latter part of November, ships and 
 men could not be seasonably provided. 
 
 Deputy-governor Goodyear and Mr. Newman, 
 who were dispatched to Stamford to compose the 
 minds of the people, called a meeting of the town, 
 and laboured to quiet them ; but could make no 
 impression upon them until they read an order of 
 the committee of parliament, requiring that the 
 plantations should be in subjection to the authority 
 of their respective jurisdictions, which appeared to 
 have some good effect. But as the inhabitants had 
 been at great expense, not only in watching and 
 guarding the town, but in erecting fortifications 
 about the meeting-house, they insisted that the 
 colony should bear a part of the expense, and pro- 
 vide a guard during the winter T he public bur- 
 thens this year were great; the expenses of the 
 colony of New Haven being about 400/. The 
 court made some abatements in favour of Stamford; 
 but Basset and Chapman were punished for attempt- 
 ing to make an insurrection in the colony, and 
 others were bound in large bonds to their good be- 
 haviour. The general court of Connecticut, at their 
 session in November, ordered that 201. should be 
 paid to the support of a fellowship in Cambridge 
 college. 
 
 The. death and character of Governor Haynes The 
 freemen of Connecticut meet, and appoint a mo- 
 derator Mr. Ludlow removes to Virginia The 
 spirited conduct of the people at Milford in recover- 
 ing Afanning's vessel The freemen add to the 
 fundamental articles Fleet arrives at Boston for 
 the reduction of the Dutch The colonies agree to 
 raise men to assist the armament from England 
 Peace prevents the expedition The general court 
 at New Haven charge the Massachusetts with a 
 breach of the confederation They refuse to join in 
 a war against Ninigrate, and oblige Connecticut 
 and New Haven to provide for the defence of them- 
 selves and their allies Ninigrate continuing his 
 hostile measures, the commissioners send messengers 
 to him His answer to them They declare war, 
 and send an army against him The art of Massa- 
 chusetts, and the deceit of Major Willard, defeat 
 the designed expedition The number of rateable 
 polls, and the amount of the list of Connecticut 
 The Pequots are taken under their protection 
 Ninigrate persisting in his hostilities against the 
 Indians upon Long Island, the general court adopt 
 measures for the defence of the Indians and the 
 English Inhabitants there New Haven complete 
 and print their laws The answer of New Haven to 
 the protector's invitation, that they would remove to 
 Jamaica Reply of the commissioners to the Dutch 
 governor Uncas embroils the country Deaths and 
 characters of Governors Eaton and Hopkins Settle- 
 ment of Stonington Mr. Winthrop chosen governor 
 The third fundamental article is altered by the 
 freemen Mr. Fitch and his church and people re- 
 move to Norwich Final settlement of accounts with 
 ths heirs of Mr. Fenwick Deputy-governor Mason 
 resigns the Moheagan lands to the colony. 
 
 (1654.) The colony sustained a great loss this 
 year in the death of Governor Haynes. He had 
 from the beginning employed his estate and labours 
 for its emolument, and bore a large share in its 
 hardships and dangers. He was a gentleman, origin- 
 ally from the county of Essex, in England, where 
 he had an elegant seat, called Copford Hall, worth 
 1,00(M. sterling a-year. He came into New Eng- 
 
 land with the Rev. Mr. Hooker, in 1632, and settled 
 with him first at Cambridge in Massachusetts. His 
 distinguished abilities, prudence, and piety so re- 
 commended him to the people, that in 1635 he was 
 chosen governor of Massachusetts ; and he was not 
 considered in any respect inferior to Governor Win- 
 throp. His growing popularity, and the fame of 
 Mr. Hooker, who, as to strength of genius, and his 
 lively and powerful manner of preaching, rivalled 
 Mr. Cotton, were supposed to have had no small 
 influence upon the general court, in their granting 
 liberty to Mr. Hooker and his company to remove 
 to Connecticut. 
 
 Mr. Hopkins was in England, and the colony 
 had neither governor nor deputy-governor present 
 to act in its behalf. The freemen therefore in 
 February convened at Hartford, and elected Mr. 
 Thomas 'Wells moderator of the general court, until 
 a governor should be chosen. 
 
 About this time there happened a great contro- 
 versy between Uncas and the inhabitants of New 
 London, relative to their respective limits ; and the 
 inhabitants carried the dispute so far as to rise and 
 take possession of his forts and many of his wig- 
 wams; but the assembly interposed and gave orders, 
 that the Indians should not be injured, and that the 
 people should be accountable for all damages which 
 they had done them; and a committee was ap- 
 pointed to fix the boundaries between New London 
 and Uncas, and to compose all differences between 
 the parties. 
 
 Nearly at the same time the colony received an 
 order from the English parliament, requiring that 
 the Dutch should be treated, in all respects, as the 
 declared enemies of the commonwealth of England. 
 In conformity to this order, the general court was 
 convened, and an act passed sequestering the Dutch 
 house, lands, and property of all kinds at Hartford, 
 for the benefit of the commonwealth; and the court 
 also prohibited all persons whatsoever from improv- 
 ing the premises, by virtue of any former claim, 
 or title, Had, made, or given by any of the Dutch 
 nation, or any other person, without their approbation. 
 
 In the proclamation for a general fast this spring, 
 the great breach sustained by the colony, in the 
 death of the governor ; the alienation of the colo- 
 nies, on account of the violation of the articles of 
 confederation ; the spreading of erroneous opin- 
 ions in the churches ; the mortality which had 
 been among the people of Massachusetts ; and the 
 calamitous state of the English nation, were parti- 
 cularized as matters of humiliation. 
 
 The colony was this year deprived of Mr. Ludlow, 
 one of its chief magistrates. He was one of the 
 most zealous for prosecuting the war against the 
 Dutch, and no one was more displeased that the 
 colonies did not follow the determinations of the 
 commissioners ; he might apprehend himself to be 
 particularly in danger at Fairfield ; and besides, he 
 had taken a very hasty and unadvised step in ac- 
 cepting the command of men to go against the 
 Dutch without any legal appointment ; and he had, 
 no doubt, apprehensions on that account, or at least 
 that the freemen would neglect him ; and for some, 
 or all of these reasons, about this time, he removed 
 with his family to Virginia. He was clerk of the 
 town of Fairfield, and carried off their records and 
 other public writings. He came originally from, 
 the west of England with Mr. Warham and his 
 company ; and in 1630 he was chosen into the ma- 
 gistracy of the Massachusetts' company, and iu 
 1634, deputy-governor of that colony ; he had been 
 
692 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 twice elected deputy-governor of Connecticut, and 
 was every year magistrate or deputy- governor, from 
 his first coming into the colony in 1635, until the 
 time of his departure. He appears to have been 
 distinguished for his abilities, especially his know- 
 ledge of the law, and the rights of mankind ; and 
 he rendered most essential services in forming the 
 original civil constitution, and in compiling the 
 first Connecticut code, printed at Cambridge in 
 1672 : had he but possessed a happier temper, he 
 would have been the idol of the people, and shared 
 in all the honours which they could have given him. 
 Nearly about the same lime, an affair happened 
 in which the people of Milford exhibited a noble 
 spirit of zeal and enterprise. One Captain Man- 
 ning, master of a ten-gun ship had been apprehend- 
 ed for an unlawful trade with the Dutch, at the Mari- 
 hadoes ; and while the affair was upon trial before 
 the court at New Haven, his men ran off with the 
 ship from Milford harbour; but the people com- 
 pletely armed and manned a vessel, with so much 
 dispatch, that they pressed hard upon the ship be- 
 fore she could reach the Dutch island ; and the men 
 perceiving they must be taken, unless they immedi- 
 ately abandoned the ship, made their escape in their 
 boat ; the ship thus left adrift, was recovered, and 
 brought into Milford harbour, and, with all her 
 goods, condemned as a lawful prize. 
 
 At the general election, MJ. "Hopkins, though in 
 England, was chosen governor. Mr. Wells was 
 appointed deputy-governor. Mr. Webster, Mr. 
 Mason, Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Cullick, Mr. Wolcott, 
 Mr. Clark, Mr. Wyllys, son of George Wyllys, 
 and Mr. John Talcott, were elected magistrates. 
 Mr. Cullick was secretary, and Mr. Talcot treasurer. 
 At this court, the freemen passed the following 
 resolution as an addition to the fundamentals of 
 their constitution : " That the major part of the 
 magistrates, in the absence of the governor and de- 
 puty-governor, shall have power to call a general 
 court; and that any general court being legally 
 called and met, the major part of the magistrates 
 and deputies then met in the absence of the gover- 
 nor and deputy-governor, shall have power to 
 choose unto, and from among themselves, a mode- 
 rator, which being done, they shall be deemed as 
 legal a general court as if the governor or deputy- 
 governor were present." 
 
 At the election in New Haven, the only altera- 
 tion in public officers was the addition of Mr. Sa- 
 muel Eaton, of New Haven, to the magistrates, and 
 the choice of Mr. Benjamin Fenn, in the room of 
 Captain John Astwood. 
 
 About the same time, in answer to the petitions 
 of Connecticut and New Haven, Major Sedgwick 
 and Captain Leveret arrived at Boston, from En- 
 gland, with a fleet of three or four ships, and a 
 small number of land-forces, sent by Cromwell the 
 lord-protector, for the reduction of the Dutch. On 
 the 8th of June, Governor Eaton received a letter 
 from the protector, certifying that he had sent 
 ships and ammunition for the assistance of the colo- 
 nies ; and with this came a letter from Major Sedg- 
 wick and Captain Leveret, requesting that com- 
 missioners might be sent immediately from each of 
 the governments, to consult with them on the ob- 
 jects of the designed expedition. Mr. William 
 Leet and Mr. Jordan were appointed commission- 
 ers for New Haven ; and were authorized to engage, 
 in behalf of that jurisdiction, to furnish all the men 
 and provisions which it could spare. An embargo 
 was laid on all provisions, and every measure adopted 
 
 that the utmost assistance might be given in the 
 enterprise; and such was the zeal of the general 
 court, that they instructed their commissioners to 
 engage the assistance of that colony, though no 
 other, except Connecticut, should join with them. 
 
 On the 13th of June, the general court of Con- 
 necticut convened at Hartford, and appointed Ma- 
 jor John Mason and Mr. Cullick commissioners. 
 They were directed to proceed with the utmost dis- 
 patch to Boston ; and, in behalf of Connecticut, to 
 engage any number of men, if possible not ex- 
 ceeding two hundred, but rather than the expedition 
 should fail, four or five hundred. 
 
 The general court of Massachusetts was convoked 
 on the 9th of June, but did not agree to raise any 
 nen themselves ; but they granted liberty, never- 
 heless, for Major Sedgwick and Captain Leveret to 
 raise five hundred volunteers. The commissioners 
 finally agreed upon 800 men, as sufficient for the 
 enterprise. The ships were to furnish two hundred 
 soldiers ; three hundred volunteers were to be 
 raised in Massachusetts; two hundred men were to 
 be sent from Connecticut ; and a hundred and thirty- 
 three from New Haven. But while preparations 
 ere making with vigour and dispatch, the news of 
 peace between England and Holland prevented 
 all further proceedings relative to the affair. 
 
 The total defeat of the Dutch fleet, the loss of 
 Admiral Tromp and a great number of their mer- 
 chantmen, made the Dutch in earnest for peace ; 
 and it was expeditiously concluded on the 5th of 
 April. The news of it arrived in America almost 
 as soon as the fleet; and the commander-in-chief 
 therefore employed his forces, with the Massachu- 
 setts volunteers, in dispossessing the French from 
 Penobscot, St. John's, and the adjacent coast. 
 This was doubtless one object of the expedition, 
 and not undertaken without orders from the pro- 
 tector. 
 
 It w r as not expected that there would have been 
 any meeting of the commissioners this year ; as 
 Massachusetts had violated the articles of union, 
 and the colonies had protested against them, as 
 breakers of the most solemn confederation. The 
 general court of Massachusetts had also represented 
 to the other colonies, that the articles needed ex- 
 planation and emendation, that they might be con- 
 sistent with the rights of the several general courts; 
 and indeed it had proposed a meeting of the com- 
 missioners for that purpose ; but the other colonies 
 viewed the articles as perfectly intelligible, and con- 
 sistent with the rights of the confederates ; and they 
 therefore rejected the motion. The general court 
 of New Haven had voted that there was no occasion 
 for appointing commissioners that year. 
 
 On the 5th of July, Governor Eaton received a 
 letter from the general court of the Massachusetts, 
 waving an answer to the letter jointly written from 
 the general courts of Connecticut and New Haven, 
 and lamely excusing their non-compliance with the 
 resolution of the commissioners, on the account of 
 their not being able to apprehend the justice of the 
 war with the Dutch and Ninigrate. They com 
 plained of the other colonies, for treating them as 
 violators of the confederacy ; professed themselves 
 to be passionately desirous of its continuance, ac- 
 cording to the genuine construction of the articles ; 
 and gave notice that they had chosen commission- 
 ers, and had determined to empower them as had 
 been usual. 
 
 The general court at New Haven replied, that 
 they and the other colonies had justly charged them 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 693 
 
 with a violation of their covenant, and urged, that, 
 according to their own interpretation of the articles, 
 they stood responsible to them for the infraction ; 
 and that, according to the eleventh article of the 
 confederation, they were to be treated by them ac- 
 cording to the magnitude of their fault; that her 
 sister colonies had not only condemned their con- 
 duct, but had sent messengers and taken proper 
 pains to inform them, and adjust the difference be- 
 tween them ; but that they had treated them in a 
 very disagreeable manner, and their endeavours 
 had been to no good purpose ; but added that, never- 
 theless, if the combination might be again firmly 
 settled, according to the original intention and 
 grammatical sense of the articles, they would, with- 
 out further satisfaction, forgetting what was past, 
 cheerfully renew their covenant, and send their 
 commissioners to meet, at any time and place, for 
 that end. This wa? subscribed by the secretary, 
 and sent to Hartford, to be subscribed by the gene- 
 ral court of Connecticut; and to be transmitted in 
 the name of each of the colonies to the Massachu- 
 setts; and this it seems was done. 
 
 As the general court of the Massachusetts would 
 not join with the confederated colonies against Nini- 
 grate, he prosecuted the war against the Long 
 Island Indians, and it was supposed that his design 
 was to destroy both those Indians and the Mohea- 
 gans ; for which purpose he had hired (he Mohawks, 
 Pocomtocks, and Wampanoags, afterwards called 
 Philip's Indians, to assist him. By a collection of 
 such numbers of Indiana from tha westward, north- 
 ward, and eastward, the general peace of the country 
 would have been greatly endangered, and the Long 
 Island Indians, who had put themselves under the 
 protection of the English, exposed to a total extir- 
 pation. They had already been obliged, not only 
 to fortify themselves, and to use every precaution 
 for their own defence, but to suffer the loss of many 
 of their people, who had been already either slain 
 or captured. 
 
 The deputy-governor and council of Connecticut 
 judged it an affair of such importance, that they 
 determined to dispatch Major Mason, with ammu- 
 nition, and a number of men, to the assistance of the 
 Indians upon the Island : and the deputy-governor 
 and Mr. Clark acquainted Governor Eaton with 
 their views and determination, and desired that 
 the colony of New Haven would send Lieutenant 
 Seely, with a detachment of men, and with supplies 
 of ammunition, to second their design. The court 
 of New Haven complied with the desire of Connec- 
 ticut ; and Lieutenant Seely had orders to join 
 Major Mason at Saybrook. They were instructed 
 to sequent the Montauket Indians, that the colo- 
 nies made them that present of ammunition, wholly 
 for their own defence, and not to enable them to 
 injure Ninigrate, or any other Indians, unless they 
 should make an attack upon them ; and that, while 
 they continued faithful to the English, they would 
 bj their friends. It was at the same time ordered 
 that, if Ninigrate should invade the Long Island 
 Indians, the English officers should use their en- 
 deavours to persuade them to peace, and to refer 
 their differences to the decision of the commission- 
 ers ; but if he would fight, they were commanded 
 to defend themselves, and the Indians in alliance 
 with the colonies, in the best manner they could. 
 
 In September the commissioners convened at 
 Hartford. They consisted of the following gentle- 
 men, Mr. Simon Bradstreet, Major Deuison, Mr. 
 Thomas Prince, Mr. John Brown, Major Mason, 
 
 Mr. John Webster, Governor Eaton, and Mr. 
 Francis Newman. Governor Eaton was chosen 
 president. They immediately dispatched messen- 
 gers to Ninigrate, demanding his appearance at 
 Hartford, and the payment of the tribute so long 
 due for the Pequots under him ; and on the 18th, 
 Mr. Jonathan Gilbert returned, and made a report 
 of Ninigrate's answer, in the following words : 
 
 ' Concerning the Long Island Indians, he an- 
 swered, wherefore should he acquaint the commis- 
 sioners, as the Long Island Indians began with, 
 him, and had slain a sachem's son, and sixty of his 
 men ; and therefore he will not make peace with 
 the Long Islanders; but doth desire that the En- 
 glish will let him alone ; and that the commissioners 
 would not request him to go to Hartford; for he 
 hath done no hurt. "What should he do there.? If 
 our governor's son were slain, and several other 
 men, would you ask counsel of another nation, how 
 and when to right yourselves ? And added, that 
 he would neither go nor send to Hartford. Con- 
 cerning the upland Indians, his answer was, that 
 they were his friends, and came to help him against 
 the Long Islanders, who had' killed several of his 
 men. Wherefore should he acquaint the commis- 
 sioners of it ? He did but right his own quarrel, 
 which the Long Islanders began with him." With, 
 respect to the tribute due for the Pequots, though 
 he had never paid it, yet he pretended there was 
 none due. 
 
 The commissioners considering his perfidious con- 
 duct the last year, his present answer, and that 
 lenity and forbearance had been an encouragement 
 of his insolence and barbarity, ordered forty horse- 
 men, and two hundred and seventy infantry to be 
 raised, to chastise his haughtiness. The Massa- 
 chusetts were to raise the forty horsemen, and a 
 hundred and fifty-three footmen ; Connecticut forty- 
 five, and New Haven thirty-one. Orders were also 
 given, that twenty horse from Massachusetts, twenty- 
 four men from Connecticut, and sixteen from New 
 Haven, should be immediately dispatched into the 
 Nehantick country ; and the commissioners nomi- 
 nated Major Gibbons, Major Denison, or Captain 
 Atherton, to the chief command ; leaving it, in com- 
 plaisance to the general court of Massachusetts to 
 appoint which of the three should be most agreeable 
 to them; but the Massachusetts' court rejecting these 
 who were men of known spirit and enterprise, 
 appointed Major Willard. The commissioners in- 
 structed him to proceed with such troops as should 
 be found at the place of general rendezvous, by the 
 13th of October, directly to Ninigrate's quarters, 
 and demand of him the Pequots, who had been put 
 under him, and the tribute which was due ; and if 
 Ninigrate should not deliver them and pay the tri- 
 bute, he was required to take them by force. He 
 was also instructed to demand of Ninigrate a ces- 
 sation from all further hostilities against the Long 
 Islanders ; and if he would not comply with these 
 demands, he had express orders to subdue him ; 
 and if a greater number of men should be found 
 necessary, his instructions were to send for such a 
 number as he should judge sufficient to carry the 
 expedition into effect. The place of rendezvous 
 was at Thomas Stanton's, in the Narraganset 
 country ; but when the major arrived there, he found 
 that Ninigrate had fled into a swamp, at fourteen or 
 tifteen miles distance from the army, and had left 
 his country, corn, and wigwams, without defence; 
 which might have been laid waste, without loss or 
 danger ; but the major neglected the opportunity. 
 
694 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 About a hundred Pequots took this opportunity 
 to renounce the government of Ninigrate, and to 
 put themselves under the protection and government 
 of the English. 
 
 The major, on his return, pleaded in excuse, that 
 his instructions were equivocal, and the season for 
 inarching unfavourable. The commissioners, how- 
 ever, were very dissatisfied, and observed to him, 
 " That while the army was in the Narraganset 
 country, Ninigrate had his mouth in the dust ; and 
 that he would have submitted to any reasonable 
 terms which might have been imposed upon him ;" 
 and they charged the major with neglecting an op- 
 portunity of humbling his pride ; and referred it to 
 his consideration what satisfaction ought to be ex- 
 pected from him, and those of his council, who ad- 
 vised and joined with him in his measures. 
 
 (1655.) Governor Hutchinson has observed, that 
 Major Willard was a Massachusetts man, and al- 
 though that colony had so far complied with the 
 rest, as to join in sending out the forces, yet they 
 were still desirous of avoiding an open war. This 
 was the second time of their preventing a general 
 war, contrary to the minds of six of the commis- 
 sioners of the other colonies. 
 
 The whole number of rateable persons in the 
 colony of Connecticut this year was 775, and the 
 grand list was 79,073/. By the number of persons, 
 and the amount of the lists in each town, an idea 
 may be formed of their proportion to each other. 
 Towns. Persons. Estates. 
 
 Hartford, 177 19,609 
 
 Windsor, 165 15,833 
 
 Weathersfield, 113 12,602 
 
 Fairfield, 94 8,634 
 
 Saybrook, 53 4,437 
 
 Stratford, 72 7,958 
 
 Farmington, 46 5,519 
 
 Middletown, 31 2,172 
 
 Norwalk 24 2,309 
 
 775 79,073 
 
 Upon the election at Hartford, Thomas Wells, 
 
 Esq. was chosen governor, and Mr. John Webster, 
 
 deputy-governor. The magistrates elected, were 
 
 Mr. Hopkins, Mr. Mason, Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Wol- 
 
 cott, Mr. Cullick, Mr. Clark, Mr. Wyllys, Mr. Tal- 
 
 cott, Mr. John Cosmore, and Mr. Thomas Tapping 
 
 Mr. Cullick was secretary, and Mr. Talcott treasurer. 
 
 At the general election in New Haven, this year, 
 
 there was no alteration of their officers. 
 
 The Pequots persevering in their petitions to be 
 taken under the protection and government of the 
 English, the commissioners this year granted their 
 request ; and places of residence were subsequently 
 appointed for them by the general court of Con- 
 necticut, about Pawcatuck and Mistic rivers. They 
 were allowed to hunt on the lands west of the latter, 
 and were collected together in these two places, and 
 an Indian governor was appointed over them in each 
 place. General laws were made for their govern- 
 ment. Blasphemy, murder, witchcraft, and con- 
 spiracy against the colonies, were prohibited upon 
 pain of death ; and sabbath-breaking, adultery, and 
 drunkenness, were prohibited under proper penal- 
 ties ; he who stole was required, on conviction, to 
 pay double damages : they were prohibited to make 
 war with other Indians, or to join with them in their 
 wars, unless it were in their own just defence, with- 
 out the consent of the commissioners of the united 
 colonies ; and they were obliged to submit to the 
 Indian governors, whom they should appoint over 
 
 them, and pay them the same tribute which they 
 had stipulated to pay to the English. 
 
 After the return of Major Willard and the troops 
 under his command, from the Narraganset country, 
 N migrate assumed his former animosity, and con- 
 tinued the war against the Indians upon Long 
 Island. Mr. Thomas James, minister of Easthamp- 
 ton, Captain Tapping of Southampton, Captain Un- 
 derbill and others, wrote to the commissioners, that 
 both the English and Indians on the Island were in 
 a calamitous and distracted condition, and in im- 
 minent danger on account of his constant hostilities. 
 They assured them, that the Indians upon the Is- 
 land could not hold out much longer, but must sub- 
 mit themselves and their country to the Narragan- 
 sets, unless they should have some speedy assistance; 
 and entreated them to consult some effectual mea- 
 sures to prevent such a calamity. 
 
 In con&equence of this intelligence they ordered 
 that a vessel, well armed and manned, should lie in 
 the road between Neanticut and the Island, to watch 
 the motions of Ninigrate ; and if he should attempt 
 to pass the sound, to stave and destroy his canoes. 
 Captain John Youngs was appointed to command 
 this vessel of observation ; and was authorized to 
 draught men from Saybrook and New London, as 
 emergencies might require. An encouraging mes- 
 sage was sent to the Montauket sachem, acquaint- 
 ing him with the measures the English were taking 
 for his defence ; and the commissioners sent him a 
 supply of ammunition. Provision was also made 
 that South and East Hampton, with all the adjacent 
 towns, should be completely furnished with all 
 articles necessary for war ; and orders were given 
 that if the Indians could not maintain their ground, 
 in any assault, they should flee towards some of the 
 neighbouring towns ; and that if the enemy should 
 pursue them within two miles of any of the settle- 
 ments, the inhabitants should immediately repair to 
 their assistance. Intelligence of these resolutions 
 was dispatched to the Narragansets, as well as the 
 Long Islanders. 
 
 All the united colonies were exceedingly offended 
 at the conduct of Major Willard, except the Massa- 
 chusetts, under whose influence he was supposed to 
 act ; and the general court at New Haven resolved, 
 that he had not followed his instructions in the ex- 
 pedition against Ninigrate; but that they were 
 willing to suspend their judgment, with respect to 
 the measures to be taken with him, until they should 
 be certified of the opinions of the other confederates. 
 Whatever their opinions or wishes were. Major 
 Willard was safe under the wing of the Massachu- 
 setts ; and Connecticut and New Haven had prin- 
 cipally to bear the unhappy consequences of his 
 perfidious conduct; and they were obliged the next 
 year, at their own expense, to continue the com- 
 mission of Captain Youngs to cruise between the 
 main and Long Island, to prevent the designs of 
 Ninigrate; and they also found it necessary to 
 furnish both men and provisions for the defence of 
 the Islanders. 
 
 Governor Eaton had been desired to perfect a 
 code of laws for the colony of New Haven ; and for 
 his assistance in the compilation, he was requested 
 by the general court to consult the Rev. Mr. Cot- 
 ton's discourse on civil government in a new plan- 
 tation, and the laws of Massachusetts. Having ac- 
 complished the work, and the laws having been 
 examined and approved by the elders of the juris- 
 diction, they were presented to the members of the 
 general court, who ordered that 500 copies should 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 695 
 
 be printed ; and the copy was sent to England tha 
 the impression might be made under the inspectioi 
 of Governor Hopkins, who procured them to b 
 printed at his own expense, and sent back th 
 number proposed, with some other valuable book 
 as a present. The laws were distributed to th 
 several towns in the jurisdiction. 
 
 This year died Henry Wolcott, Esq., in the 78tl 
 year of his age. He was the owner of a good estat* 
 in Somersetshire, in England; and his youth, it i 
 said, was spent in gaiety and country pastimes ; bu 
 afterwards, under the instructions of Mr. Edwarc 
 Elton, his mind was entirely changed, and turne 
 to religious subjects. As the puritans were then 
 treated with great severity, he sold about 8,000/ 
 worth of estate in England, and arrived in Nev 
 England with Mr. Warham, in May 1630, and set 
 tied first at Dorchester, in Massachusetts. In 1636 
 he removed to Windsor, and was one of the princi 
 pal planters of that town ; and was chosen into the 
 magistracy in 1643. He left an estate in Englam 
 which rented at about 60/. a-year, which the familj 
 for some time enjoyed ; but it was afterwards sold 
 After his decease, some one of his descendants was 
 annually chosen into the magistracy for a term o: 
 nearly eighty years, until the year 1754, when Go. 
 vernor Wolcott left the chair. 
 
 At the election in Connecticut, Mr. John Webstei 
 was chosen governor, and Mr. Wells deputy-go- 
 vernor. This was the only alteration in the magis- 
 tracy. 
 
 (1656.) At New Haven the former governors 
 and magistrates were re- chosen ; and Mr. John 
 Wakeman was appointed treasurer. The general 
 court took great pains to put the colony in a state 
 of defence. Orders were given for the raising a 
 troop of sixteen horse in the five towns upon the 
 sea-coast, with complete arms and furniture, who, 
 for their encouragement, were exempted from taxa- 
 tion, and from training with the foot, and were to 
 enjoy all the privileges of troopers in Massachusetts. 
 This was the first troop in any part of Connecticut. 
 It was also ordered, that all the common soldiers 
 should be trained to shooting at a mark; that they 
 should be furnished with ammunition for that pur- 
 pose at the public expense, and that prizes should 
 be prepared for the best marksmen ; and the soldiers 
 were directed to play at cudgels, and at the broad 
 sword, that they might know how to defend them- 
 selves and their country. 
 
 The protector, Cromwell, having conquered Ja- 
 maica, made it a favourite object to remove the 
 people of New England to that island ; and art- 
 fully represented, that they had as great an induce- 
 ment to transport themselves from New England to 
 Jamaica, as they had for emigrating from Old Eng- 
 land to New, for the advancement of their interests; 
 and he likewise represented, that it would have a 
 tendency to the destruction " of the man of sin :" 
 he wrote particularly to New Haven on the subject, 
 and sent them a copy of his instructions relative to 
 the affair. 
 
 Governor Eaton had, some time before this, laid 
 the letters received on this subject before the gene- 
 ral court. The several plantations in the colony 
 had been made acquainted with their contents, and 
 the deputies had been desired to return their opinion 
 to the court, and after a long and serious debate, the 
 court resolved, " That though they could not but 
 acknowledge the love, care, and tender respect of 
 his highness, the Lord Protector, to New England 
 in general, and to this colony in particular, yet, for 
 
 divers reasons, they cannot conclude that God calls 
 them to a present remove thither." And the go- 
 vernor was desired to write to the lord-protector, 
 acknowledging his great care and love towards the 
 colony. 
 
 The commissioners of the united colonies, who 
 this year held their meeting at Plymouth, received 
 a very plausible letter from Stuyvesant, the Dutch 
 governor, expressing his joy that God had quenched 
 the bloody war between the Dutch and the English, 
 in Europe; and expressing his warm desires that it 
 might redound to the great advantage of the sub- 
 jects of the two nations in these remote parts of the 
 earth, he solicited a nearer union between the Dutoh 
 and the united colonies ; and at the same time cer- 
 tified, that he had received a ratification of the 
 agreement made at Hartford, in 1650, under the 
 seal of the High and Mighty States of the United 
 Bolgic Provinces ; and desired that time and place 
 might he appointed for delivering and interchanging 
 the ratifications. 
 
 The governor was so well known to the commis- 
 sioners, that neither the plausibility of his letter, 
 nor the very Christian manner in which it was writ- 
 ten, made any deep impression upon them. They 
 replied, in short, that the peace was matter of joy 
 to them, and they wished the continuance of it in 
 Europe, and in all the plantations abroad ; and gave 
 assurances that the preservation of it should be their 
 constant endeavour. Nevertheless, they gave no 
 intimation that they desired a nearer union, or to 
 ratify the agreement : and observed, that no repara- 
 tion for the damages had been made the colonies, 
 and that they had not heard that he designed to 
 make any ; that they heard he yet laid claim to 
 Oyster bay, and that he had made no proper resig- 
 nation of Greenwich ; and therefore desired him to 
 be explicit on these points. 
 
 The last year, complaints were made to the court 
 at New Haven, that the inhabitants of Greenwich 
 were under little government, and behaved them- 
 selves in a lawless manner. They acknowledged to 
 drunkenness among themselves, and among the In- 
 dians, by i-eason of which damages were done to 
 hemselves and to the towns in the vicinity, and the 
 lublic peace was disturbed. They also received 
 ihildren and servants who fled from the correction 
 f their parents and masters, and unlawfully joined 
 persons in wedlock, with other misdemeanors. 
 
 Upon this, the general court asserted their right 
 o Greenwich, and ordered the inhabitants to sub- 
 nit to their jurisdiction ; but they continued much 
 n the same state, and sent a letter to the court in 
 May denying their jurisdiction, and refusing any 
 ubjection to the colony, unless they should be com- 
 iclled to it by the parliament. The court therefore 
 esolved, that unless they should appear before the 
 ourt, and make submission by the 25th of June, 
 tichard Crab and others, who were the most stub- 
 iorn among them, should be arrested and punished 
 ccording to law; and they ultimately subjected 
 bemselves to the government of New Haven. 
 
 Uncas, though friendly to the English, appears to 
 ave been a turbulent sachem, who by his violent 
 onduct and provoking language was often embroil- 
 ng the country, and bringing trouble upon himself 
 nd the colonies. He inade an assault upon the 
 3 odunk Indians at Hartford; and he, or his brother, 
 nvaded the Norwootucks ; he upbraided the Narra- 
 ansets with their slaughtered sachems, and chal- 
 enged them to fight; and among other instances 
 f misconduct, he proved treacherous to the Mon- 
 
696 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 taukct sachem, and joined with Ninigrate in his 
 perfidious practices. By these means the country 
 was so disquieted, that it was with great difficulty 
 the commissioners maintained the general peace ; 
 who at last interposed, and obliged Uncas to make 
 restitution to the Indians whom he had injured, and 
 prohibited his making war without their consent and 
 advice; but after all "their precautions, the country 
 was still more alarmed the next year. 
 
 (1657.) In April, the Indians committed a horrid 
 murder at Farmington, and besides Mesapano, who 
 was the principal actor, the Norwootuck and Po- 
 comtock Indians were supposed to be accomplices ; 
 and the Montaukets, after all the trouble and ex- 
 pense which the English had been at for their de- 
 ' fence, became tumultuous, and did great damage to 
 the inhabitants of Southampton. 
 
 The general court at Hartford gave orders that 
 the Indians, who perpetrated the murder at Farm- 
 ington, should be apprehended, and that the sachems 
 of the Pocomtock and Norwootuck Indians should 
 deliver up the delinquents among them ; and Major 
 Mason was ordered with a detachment to Long Is- 
 land, to bring the Indians there to a just and peace- 
 able conduct, and adjust affairs between them and 
 the English. 
 
 At the general election in Connecticut, 1657, Mr. 
 John Winthrop was elected governor, and Mr. 
 Thomas Wells deputy-governor. Mr. Webster was 
 chosen the first magistrate. The other officers were 
 the same who had been appointed the last year. 
 The freemen, at the election in New Haven, made 
 no alteration in their magistrates. 
 
 The general court at Hartford this year was un- 
 commonly thin, consisting of twenty-two members 
 only. The danger of the plantations, and of par- 
 ticular families, from the hostile state of the In- 
 dians, appears to have been the reason of this 
 slender assemblage. The Montaukets, Moheagans, 
 Narragansets, and Norwootucks, engaged in im- 
 placable wars with each other, and often pursued 
 one another into the English plantations, and even 
 into the houses, and killed each other in the pre- 
 sence of the families, to their great alarm and asto- 
 nishment. Uncas was so pressed by the Narragan- 
 sets, that Connecticut was obliged to send men to 
 his fortress to assist him in defending himself against 
 them, and the Narragansets consequently, in several 
 instances, threatened and plundered the inhabitants 
 of Connecticut. 
 
 In consequence, when the commissioners met in 
 September, they sent messengers to the Indians ge- 
 nerally, commanding them to cease from war, until 
 their grievances, and the grounds of their conten- 
 tions, should be heard : they assured them that they 
 would hear and determine impartially, without fa- 
 vouring any of the parties ; and represented to them 
 the covenants which they had made with the Eng- 
 lish, and the entire inconsistency of their conduct 
 with those engagements. 
 
 This year the colony of New Haven, and indeed 
 all the New England colonies, sustained a heavy 
 loss in the death of Governor Eaton. He was a 
 minister's son, born in England, at Stony Stratford, 
 in Oxfordshire, and was brought up as an East India 
 merchant, and was sometime deputy-governor of 
 the company trading to the East Indies. For se- 
 veral years he was agent for the king of England 
 at the court of Denmark ; and after his return he 
 was a merchant of great business and respectabiMty 
 in the city of London. Upon the persecution of 
 the puritans by Laud, he left his native country 
 
 and came into New England with Mr. Davenport, 
 his minister, in 1637 ; and was one of the original 
 patentees of the Massachusetts, and soon after his 
 arrival was chosen one of the magistrates of that 
 colony; and on the settlement of New Haven he 
 was chosen governor of that colony, and was annu- 
 ally re-elected until his death. He is represented 
 as a comely man, and the impartiality with which 
 he administered justice was exemplary. In honour 
 to his memory, and the good services which he had 
 rendered the colony, his funeral charges were borne, 
 and a handsome monument erected at the public 
 expense. 
 
 Nearly at the same time died his son-in-law, Ed- 
 ward Hopkins, Esq., for a number of years governor 
 of Connecticut, where he conducted the affairs of 
 government with great integrity, and was universally 
 beloved. He was a man of exemplary piety and 
 charity ; and besides the relief he dispensed to the 
 poor with his own hands, he gave considerable 
 sums pf money to others to be disposed of to chari- 
 table purposes. When he went into England, on 
 the occasion of his brother's death, who had been 
 warden of the English fleet, he designed to return 
 again to his family and friends in New England; 
 but he was very soon particularly noticed, and. 
 made first warden of the fleet in the room of his 
 brother. He was then chosen commissioner of the 
 admiralty and navy, and finally member of parlia- 
 ment. These unexpected preferments altered hig 
 designs, and determined him to send over for his 
 family, and to spend the remainder of his days in 
 his native country; but his constitution was entirely 
 wasted, and he died in the 58th year of his age. ; 
 
 His will was highly expressive of that publii 
 spirit and charity which had so distinguished hiir 
 in life. A part of his estate in New England way 
 disposed of to charitable purposes ; and to hij 
 friends ; and the remainder he bequeathed to his 
 " father, Theophilus Eaton, Esq., Master John Da- 
 venport, Master John Cullick, and Master William 
 Goodwin, in full assurance of their trust and faith- 
 fulness, in disposing of it according to the true in- 
 tent and purpose of him, the said Edward Hopkins, 
 which was to give some encouragement in those 
 foreign plantations, for the breeding up of hopeful 
 youths, in a way of learning, both at the grammar- 
 school and college, for the public service of the 
 country, in future times." He also made a dona- 
 tion of 500/. more, out of his estate in England, to 
 the said trustees, in further prosecution of the same 
 public ends, " for the upholding and promoting the 
 kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, in those parts of 
 the earth." This last donation was considered as 
 made to Harvard-college, and, by virtue of a de- 
 cree in chancery, was paid in 1710. The interest 
 given in New England was estimated at about 
 1000/. sterling ; and was appropriated to the sup- 
 port of the grammar-schools in New Haven, Hart- 
 ford, and Hadley. The money originally belonged 
 to New Haven and Hartford; but as a considera- 
 ble number of the people of Hartford afterwards 
 removed to Hadley, and were principal settlers of 
 that town, they received their proportion of the 
 donation. 
 
 (1658.) At a general court in Hartford, March 
 llth, 1658, a troop of thirty horsemen was esta- 
 blished in Connecticut, and Richard Lord was ap- 
 pointed captain. 
 
 This year there was a very considerable altera- 
 tion with respect to governors and the council, both 
 in Connecticut and New Haven. At the electioa 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 G97 
 
 in Connecticut, Thomas Wells, Esq., was elected 
 governor, and John Winthrop, Esq., deputy- go- 
 vernor. To the magistrates last year, who were 
 again re-chosen, there was an addition of Mr. Mat- 
 thew Allen, Mr. Phelps, Mr. John Wells, Mr. Treat, 
 Mr. Baker, Mr. Mulford, and Mr. Alexander 
 Knowles. There appear to have been sixteen 
 magistrates, and twenty-six deputies ; making forty- 
 two members. 
 
 On the election at New Haven, Mr. Francis 
 Newman was chosen governor, and William Leet, 
 deputy-governor. Mr. Jasper Crane was added to 
 the magistrates, and Mr. William Gibbard was ap- 
 pointed secretary. 
 
 This year a considerable settlement was made in 
 the tract between the Mistic and Pawcatuck rivers; 
 formerly called Pequot, and originally belonging 
 to New London. The first man who had settled 
 upon this spot, was William Cheesebrough, from 
 Rehoboth, in 1649: when a complaint was exhi- 
 bited against him for carrying on an illicit trade 
 with the Indians, for repairing their arms, and 
 endangering the public safety ; and the general 
 court of Connecticut declared that they had a clear 
 title to those lands ; summoned him before them ; 
 and reprimanded him for settling upon them with- 
 out their approbation ; for withdrawing himself from 
 Christian society and ordinances ; and for unlaw- 
 fully trading with and assisting the Indians. He 
 confessed his faults; but pleaded, in excuse, that 
 he had been encouraged by Mr. Winthrop, who 
 claimed a right at Pawcatuck ; and as he gave 
 bonds for his good conduct, he was allowed to con- 
 tinue upon the land ; and the court promised him, 
 that if he would procure a sufficient number of 
 planters, they would give them all proper encou- 
 ragement, in making a permanent settlement. 
 About ten or twelve families this year made set- 
 tlements in that quarter ; and finding that there 
 was a controversy between Connecticut and the 
 Massachusetts, with respect both to title and juris- 
 diction, they, on the 30th of June, entered into a 
 voluntary contract to govern themselves, and con- 
 duct their affairs in peace, until it should be deter- 
 mined to which colony they should submit. The 
 principal planters were George Denison, Thomas 
 Stanton, Thomas Shaw, William Elisha, and Sam- 
 uel Cheeseborugh, and Moses and Walter Palmer. 
 These, with some others, were signers of the vo- 
 luntary compact. 
 
 At the meeting of the commissioners, the Massa- 
 chusetts claimed that tract of country, by virtue of 
 the assistance which they afforded Connecticut in the 
 conquest of the Pequots. The commissioners re- 
 solved, " That the determination did arise only 
 from the several rights of conquest, which were not 
 greatly different ; yet that being tender of any in- 
 convenience which might arise to those who were 
 already possessed, either by commission from Mas- 
 sachusetts or Connecticut, in any part thereof, 
 should they be put off their improvements ; also, 
 upon inquiry, finding that the Pequot country, 
 which extended from Nehantick to Wekapaug, 
 about ten miles eastward from Mistic river, may 
 conveniently accommodate two plantations, did, 
 respecting things as they then stood, conclude, that 
 Mistic river be the bounds between them, as to pro- 
 priety and jurisdiction, so far as conquest may give 
 title. Always provided, that such as are already 
 accommodated, by commission of either of the said 
 governments, or have grants of any tracts of land, 
 n either side of the Mistic river, be not molested 
 
 in any of their possessions or rights, by any other 
 grants." 
 
 Upon the petition of the planters the general 
 court of the Massachusetts made them a grant of 
 eight miles from the mouth of Mistie river towards 
 Wekapaug, and eight miles northward into the 
 country, and uamed the plantation Southerton. It 
 continued under the government of Massachusetts 
 until after Connecticut obtained a royal charter. 
 
 This was a year of great sickness and mortality 
 in Connecticut, and in New England in general. 
 Religious controversies at the same time ran high, 
 and gave great trouble to church and common- 
 wealth ; and the Indians continued their wars with 
 implacable animosi.y. The commissioners em- 
 ployed all their wisdom and influence to make 
 peace ; but they could not reconcile those barba- 
 rians : and the crops were light, and it was a year 
 of fear, perplexity, and sorrow. 
 
 (1659.) John Winthrop, Esq. was chosen gover- 
 nor of Connecticut for the year 1659, and Thomas 
 Wells, Esq. deputy-governor. Captain Tapping 
 and Mr. Robert Bond were elected magistrates, in, 
 the room of Mr. Knowles and Mr. Mulford. 
 
 At the election in New Haven, the same gover- 
 nor and council were re-chosen , and indeed little 
 alteration was made with respect to them, until the 
 union of that colony with Connecticut. 
 
 At the October session, Cromwell bay, or Se- 
 tauket, on Long Island, at the desire of the inha- 
 bitants, was admitted as a member of the jurisdic- 
 tion of Connecticut 
 
 (1660.) Mr. John Winthrop was re- chosen gorer- 
 nor. This was the first time that any governor had 
 been elected to that office more than once in two 
 years. Major Mason was advanced to the place of 
 deputy-governor. The magistrates were Mr. Henry 
 Clark, Mr. Wyllys, Mr. Phelps, Mr. Allen, Mr. 
 Treat, Mr. Gould, Mr. Tapping, Mr. Ogden, Mr. 
 Bond, Mr. Daniel Clark, and Mr. Taicott. Mr. 
 Daniel Clark was secretary, and Mr. Taicott trea- 
 surer. 
 
 Mr. Webster and Mr. Wells appear now to be no 
 more. They bad been annually chosen into the 
 magistracy, for about twenty years, and both had 
 the honour of the chief seat of government. 
 
 At this election, the freemen having found by 
 long experience that the clause in the third funda- 
 mental article, incapacitating any person to be 
 chosen governor more than once in two years, was 
 prejudicial rather than advantageous to the colony, 
 resolved, that there should be liberty for the annual 
 choice of the same person as governor, or of any 
 other whom they should judge best qualified to serve 
 the commonwealth. 
 
 During the wars between Uncas and the Narra- 
 gansets, the latter besieged his fort near the bank 
 of the Thames, until his provisions were nearly ex- 
 hausted, and he found that he and his men must 
 soon perish, by famine or sword, unless he could 
 obtain speedy relief ; but he found means of com- 
 municating his danger to the scouts, who had been 
 sent out from Saybrook fort ; and he represented the 
 great danger the English in those parts would be in 
 immediately, if they should suffer the Moheagans 
 to be destroyed. 
 
 Upon this intelligence, one Thomas LefKngwell, 
 an ensign at Saybrook, an enterprising, bold man, 
 loaded a canoe with beef, corn, and peas, and, 
 under cover of the night, paddled from Saybrook 
 into the Thames, and had the address to get the 
 whole into the fort ; and the enemy soon perceiving 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, 
 
 that Uncas was relieved, raised the siege. For this 
 service, Uncas gave Leffingwell a deed of a great 
 part, if not of the whole town of Norwich ; and in 
 June, 1659, Uncas, with his two sons, Owaneco 
 and Attawanhood, by a more formal and authentic 
 deed, made over to Leffingwell, John Mason, Esq., 
 the Rev. James Fitch, and others, consisting of 
 thirty-five proprietors, the whole township of Nor- 
 wich, which is about nine miles square ; and the 
 company gave Uncas and his sons about seventy 
 pounds, as a further compensation for so large and 
 fine a tract. \ 
 
 Preparations were immediately made for its settle- 
 ment; and this spring, (1660,') the Rev. James 
 Fitch, with the principal part of his church and con- 
 gregation, removed from Saybrook, and planted 
 the town of Norwich. Three or four planters joined 
 them from New London, and two or three from 
 the towns of Plymouth and Marshfield, in Massa- 
 chusetts ; in 1663 the general assembly ordered 
 that the deed should be recorded ; and the limits 
 were afterwards ascertained, and the town received 
 a patent of the whole. ' 
 
 The Moheagans were a great defence, and of es- 
 sential service to the town for many years ; as they 
 kept out their scouts and spies, and so constantly 
 watched their enemies, that they gave the earliest 
 notice of their approach. The hostile Indians at 
 one time came near to the town, upon the Sabbath, 
 with a design to make a descent upon it; but view- 
 ing it from an eminence, and seeing the Moheagan 
 huts, they were intimidated, and went off without 
 doing the least damage. 
 
 This year the town of Huntington, upon Long Is- 
 land, was received as a member of the Connecticut 
 jurisdiction. 
 
 The general court ordered, that grand jurors 
 should be appointed in every town to make present- 
 ment of all breaches of law, in their respective 
 towns ; the presentments to be made to the particu- 
 lar court in May and October. 
 
 The accounts with the heirs of George Fenwick 
 had not been closed, nor discharges given, relative 
 to the purchase made of the fort at Saybrook, and 
 the old patent of Connecticut ; which was the occa- 
 sion of great uneasiness among the people ; and the 
 three towns of Hartford, Windsor, and Weathers- 
 field, presented petitions to the general court, pray- 
 ing that the accounts might be adjusted, and the 
 colony discharged. In consequence, a large com- 
 mittee was appointed to make a complete settle- 
 ment with the said heirs ; who having prepared the 
 accounts for a final adjustment, the general court, 
 at their session in October, authorized them, in 
 their behalf, to perfect and confirm the writings; 
 and the governor was authorized, in their name, to 
 affix the public seal of the colony to those which 
 were to be delivered to Captain Cullick, and Eliza- 
 beth his wife, heirs of the said George Fenwick, 
 Esq., and to receive of them the writings, to be de- 
 livered to the court, in favour of the colony. Ac- 
 cordingly, on the 7th of October, the colony dis- 
 charged Captain Cullick and his wife, and their 
 heirs, and they gave an ample discharge to the 
 colony of Connecticut, from all sums of money due 
 to Fenwick, by virtue of the agreements made with 
 Mr. Fenwick. 
 
 Thus, after the term of sixteen years, from the 
 first, and fourteen from the second agreement with 
 Mr. Fenwick, the colony completed a settlement 
 respecting the fort and lands holden by him ; and 
 became legally possessed of the tract conveyed to 
 
 the lords and gentlemen severally named in the 
 patent. Upon a final adjustment of the accounts, 
 it appeared that Mr. Cullick and the heirs of Mr. 
 Fenwick were indebted 500/. sterling to the colony, 
 which had been paid them, more than what was 
 due according to the original agreements with Mr 
 Fenwick. 
 
 John Mason, Esq., now deputy-governor, had 
 some time since been authorized, in behalf of the 
 colony, to purchase of Uncas all the lands which he 
 had reserved for himself and the Moheagans, in the 
 deed of 1640, under the name of planting-giounds ; 
 and having effected the purchase, he made a sur 
 render of the lands, in the presence of the general 
 court. The following is the minute of the trans- 
 action : 
 
 " Hartford, session of the general court, March 
 14, 1660 (i. e. 1661, according to the present mode 
 of dating). 
 
 " The jurisdiction power over that land, which 
 Uncas and W T awequa have made over to Major 
 Mason, is by him surrendered to this colony. Never- 
 theless, for the laying out of those lands in farms, or 
 plantations, the court doth leave it in the hands of 
 Major Mason. It is also ordered and provided, 
 with the consent of Major Mason, that Uncas and 
 Wawequa, and their Indians and successors, shall 
 be supplied with sufficient planting-ground at all 
 times, as the court sees cause, out of that land. 
 And the Major doth reserve to himself a compe- 
 tency to make a farm." 
 
 For want of form, and a more legal manner of 
 conveyance, with respect to those lands, originated 
 the memorable Mason case, or controversy, as it 
 was called ; which continued about seventy years, 
 and was an occasion of great trouble and expense 
 to the colony. 
 
 The general court of Connecticut declare their loi/alty 
 and submission to Charles II. ; determine to address 
 his majesty, and apply for charter privileges Go- 
 vernor Winthrop is appointed the colony's ayetd 
 Regicides condemned Whalley and Gojjf'e arrive at 
 Boston' The. kiny proclaimed Governor Winthrop 
 obtains the charter of Connecticut J^'r.vi (jocernur 
 and council under the charter Representation of 
 the constitution it ordains, and the privileges it con- 
 veys Difficulties of the colony of New Haver, 
 Charier of Connecticut arrives Proceeding* of 
 Connecticut in consequence of the charter They 
 extend their jurisdiction to all places within the 
 limits of their patent, and challenge New Haven 
 colony, as under their jurisdiction Controi-<.'i:<i/ 
 between the two colonies Settlement of KiliiiK/- 
 u-orth Patent of the Duke of York Colonel Ni- 
 chols and commissioners arrive, reduce all the Dut'-h 
 settlements Their extraordinary powers Impor- 
 tant crisis of Connecticut Boundaries between 
 Connecticut and New York Union of Connecticut 
 and New Haven. 
 
 (1660.) The colony having purchased the patent, 
 and the government of England having been settled 
 in Charles II. and parliament, the general court 
 determined to make application for a charter under 
 the royal signature. They therefore avowed their 
 allegiance to the king ; declared that all the inhabi 
 tants of this colony were his faithful subjects ; and 
 that it was necessarv ^o petition him for his grace, 
 and the continuance and confirmation of their rights 
 and privileges. The court resolved, that the 500'. 
 due from Mr. Cullick should be appropriated to tho 
 prosecution of their application for a patent. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 699 
 
 (1661.) At the session in May, a petition to the 
 king was presented by the governor, and approvec 
 by the general court. That it might, however, be 
 made as perfect as possible, the governor and deputy- 
 governor, Mr. Wyllys, Mr. Allen, Mr. Warham 
 Mr. Stone, Mr. Hooker, Mr. Whiting, and the se- 
 cretary, were appointed a committee for its emenda- 
 tion ; and they were authorized to make all such 
 alterations as they should judge expedient, provided 
 the substance of it were retained; they were also 
 directed to write letters to any noble personages in 
 England, to whom it might be expedient to make 
 application, and to transact whatever might be ne- 
 cessary respecting the petition and the procurement 
 of a patent. 
 
 Governor Winthrop was appointed agent to pre- 
 sent the petition to his majesty, and to transact all 
 affairs in England, respecting the general welfare 
 of the colony ; and he had particular instructions 
 from the general court for the management of the 
 business of his agency ; and was specially directed 
 to obtain the consent, and take the advice of the 
 nobles and gentlemen who had been interested in 
 the old patent of Connecticut; and to engage the 
 friendship and influence of all those who might be 
 active and serviceable with respect to the interests 
 of the colony. 
 
 In the petition to his majesty, it was represented 
 that the greatest part of the colony had been pur- 
 chased and obtained by great and valuable con- 
 siderations ; that some other part thereof had been 
 obtained by conquest ; and that it had with great 
 difficulty, at the sole endeavours, expense, and 
 charges of themselves and their associates, under 
 whom they claimed, been subdued and improved, 
 and thereby become a considerable enlargement and 
 addition to his majesty's dominions and interests in 
 New England. 
 
 At the same time a letter was addressed to Lord 
 Say and Seal, representing the encouragements 
 which their fathers and some of their surviving as- 
 sociates received from him, to transplant themselves 
 into the inland parts of this vast wilderness, and 
 their assurances of his patronage and favour ; they 
 also stated that Mr. George Fenwick, several years 
 after he had taken possession of the entrance of 
 Connecticut river, determining to return to Eng- 
 land, proposed to sell the fort at Saybrook, with all the 
 buildings and appurtenances there, together with all 
 the lands upon the river as far eastward as Narragan- 
 set bay, with the right of jurisdiction, to the colony. 
 They represented that this, at first, was strenuously 
 opposed by many of the inhabitants, as they ima- 
 gined bis lordship, and the other noble patentees, 
 had very bountiful intentions towards them ; and 
 that such a procedure would be extremely contrary 
 to their designs. Nevertheless, that afterwards, as 
 some of those gentlemen, who had the greatest in- 
 terest in the affections of their lordships, were re- 
 moved by death ; and as Mr. Fenwick pretended 
 to be the only patentee, and threatened that unless 
 the colony would purchase the lands on his own 
 terms, he would either impose duties upon the peo- 
 ple, or sell the premises to the Dutch, they finally 
 agreed with him and paid him 1,600/. for them ; 
 as the only way in which the peace and safety of 
 the community could be preserved. As a further 
 matter of grievance they complained, that besides this 
 great abuse, Mr. Fenwick had given them no legal 
 document to oblige himself or his heirs to fulfil his 
 engagements ; and that they had nothing to secure 
 them in the enjoyment of their rights and privileges 
 
 as a distinct commonwealth. They further made 
 complaint of encroachments made upon them on 
 the north by the Massachusetts, and by them and 
 others towards the Narragansets; and that they 
 knew not how to support their claims, or ascertain 
 their boundaries, without a patent. 
 
 The only alteration which had been made at the 
 election, this year, in Connecticut, was the choice 
 of Mr. Thurston Rayner into the magistracy; but at 
 New Haven the alteration was very considerable. 
 
 Francis Newman, Esq., who had succeeded Go- 
 vernor Eaton in the chief seat of government, was 
 now dead. He had been for many years secretary 
 under the administration of Governor Eaton, and 
 was well acquainted with the affairs of the colony ; 
 and is represented as a man of piety and unblemished 
 morals, happily imitating his predecessors both in 
 public and private life. 
 
 Upon the election William Leet, Esq. was chosen 
 governor, and Mr. Matthew Gilbert, deputy-go- 
 vernor. Mr. Benjamin Fenn, Mr. Robert Treat, 
 Mr. Jasper Crane, Mr. John Wakeman, and Mr. 
 William Gibbard, were elected magistrates. The 
 spirit of republicanism however was so high at New 
 Haven, that several of them would not accept their 
 appointments and take the oaths prescribed. Mr 
 
 akemau and Mr. Gibbard utterly refused. Mr. 
 Fenn was hardly prevailed with to accept his office; 
 but he at last took the oath, with this previous ex- 
 planation, that it was only with reference to the 
 articular laws of that colony ; and that if any thing 
 foreign should present, it should give no offence if 
 ie should decline acting. Mr. James Bishop was 
 chosen secretary, and Mr. Robert Allen, treasurer. 
 
 It was about this time that Whalley and Goffe, 
 ;wo of Charles I.'s judges, then lately proclaimed as 
 regicides, sought refuge in New Haven ; but as an 
 account has already been given of this transaction 
 n the history of Massachusetts, we shall only thus 
 refer to it he're. 
 
 The New Haven assembly excused themselves 
 or not making an address or application to his ma- 
 esty, because it was to them a new and unprece- 
 dented affair, and they were ignorant of the proper 
 brm ; and that they could not agree in one which 
 might be acceptable : and as the form in which the 
 .olony of Massachusetts made their submission to 
 he king had been laid before them, they declared, 
 hat it was to their satisfaction, and th-at from their 
 icarts they acknowledged and said the same ; and 
 hey promised full subjection and entire allegiance 
 o his majesty King Charles II. Upon making this 
 iubmission and declaration, they supplicated for the 
 same immunities and privileges with their sister 
 colonies, and declared their expectations of the full 
 enjoyment of them. 
 
 At the same time they declined making any par- 
 icular address to the king, on account of their 
 liability to procure a proper agent to present it to 
 lis majesty ; and in their embarrassment, they de- 
 iired the general court of Massachusetts to represent 
 ,hem to the king as cordially owning and complying 
 with their address, as though it had been said and 
 made by themselves. They expressed their opinion 
 >f the necessity of a general agent for New Eng- 
 and, to supplicate the royal favour to defeat the 
 designs of their enemies, and to procure for them 
 ill acts of indemnity and grace ; and agreed to bear 
 ,hoir proportionable part of the expense, and they 
 mmediately sent an agent to Boston. One great 
 cause of complaint against the colonies, had been 
 heir not proclaiming the king. But as he had now 
 
700 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 been proclaimed in all the other colonies in New 
 England, the general couit at New Haven judged 
 it expedient formally to proclaim him there. 
 
 The form was curious. It was expressed in the 
 following concise words : " Although we have not 
 received any form of proclamation, by order from 
 his majesty or council of state, for proclaiming his 
 majesty in this colony, yet the court taking en- 
 couragement from what has been done in the rest 
 of the united colonies, hath thought fit to declare 
 publicly, and proclaim, that we do acknowledge his 
 royal highness Charles II., king of England, Scot- 
 land, France, and Ireland, to be our sovereign lord 
 and King ; and that we do acknowledge ourselves, 
 the inhabitants of this colony, to be his majesty's 
 loyal and faithful subjects." 
 
 About this time, it seems, Governor Winthrop 
 took his passage for England ; and on his arrival 
 there, he made application to Lord Say and Seal, 
 and other friends of the colony, for their counte- 
 nance and assistance. 
 
 Lord Say and Seal, who appears to have been 
 the only nobleman living, who was one of the origi- 
 nal patentees of Connecticut, received the address 
 from the colony most favourably, and gave Gover- 
 nor Winthrop all the assistance in his power. The 
 governor was a man of address, and arrived in En- 
 gland at a fortunate time for Connecticut ; Lord 
 Say and Seal, the great friend of the colony, had 
 been particularly instrumental in the restora- 
 tion ; and was made lord privy seal ; and the Earl 
 of Manchester, another friend of the puritans, and 
 of the rights of the colonies, was chamberlain of his 
 majesty's household. He was also an intimate 
 friend of Lord Say and Seal, and had been united 
 with him in defending the colonies, and pleading 
 for their establishment and liberties. Mr. Win- 
 throp had an extraordinary ring, which had been 
 given his grandfather by King Charles I., which he 
 presented to the king ; and which, it is said, ex- 
 tremely pleased him. Under these circumstances, 
 the petition of Connecticut was presented, and was 
 received with unusual favour. 
 
 Upon the 20th of April, 1662, were granted the 
 letters patent, conveying the most ample privileges, 
 and confirming the whole tract of country, granted 
 by Charles I. to the earl of Warwick, and which 
 was the next year by him consigned to Lord Say and 
 Seal, Lord Brook and others. The patent granted 
 the lands in free and common socage ; and the facts, 
 stated and pleaded in the petition, were recognised 
 in the charter, nearly in the same form of words, as 
 reasons of the royal grant, -and of the ample privi- 
 leges which it conveyed. 
 
 It ordained, that John Winthrop, John Mason, 
 Samuel Wyllys, Henry Clarke, Matthew Allen, 
 John Tapping, Nathan Gould, Richard Treat, 
 Richard Lord, Henry Wolcott, John Tulcott, 
 Daniel Clarke, John Hogden, Thomas Wells, 
 Obadiah Bruen, John Clark, Anthony Hawkins, 
 John Deming, and Matthew Canfield, and all such 
 others as then were, or should afterwards be ad- 
 mitted and made free of the corporation, should 
 for ever after be one body corporate and politic, in 
 fact and name, by the name of the " Governor and 
 Company of the English colony of Connecticut 
 ID New England in America;" and that by the 
 lame name they and their successors should have 
 perpetual succession. They were capacitated, as 
 persons in law, to plead and be impleaded, to de- 
 fend and be defended, in all suits whatsoever : to 
 purchase, possess, lease, grant, demise, and sell 
 
 lands, tenements, and goods, in as ample a manner 
 as any of his majesty's subjects or corporations in 
 England. And it ordained, that there should be, 
 annually, two general assemblies; one holden on 
 the second Thursday in May, and the other on the 
 second Thursday in October; each to consist of the 
 governor, deputy governor, and twelve assistants, 
 with two deputies from every town or city. John 
 Winthrop was appointed governor, and John Mason, 
 deputy-governor, and the gentlemen named above, 
 magistrates, until a new election should be made. 
 
 The company were authorized to have a common 
 seal, to appoint judicatories, make freemen, con- 
 stitute officers, establish laws, impose fines, assem- 
 ble the inhabitants in marshal array for the com- 
 mon defence, and to exercise martial law in all 
 cases in which it might be necessary. And it was 
 specially ordained, that all the king's subjects in 
 the colony should enjoy all the privileges of free 
 and natural subjects within the realm of England ; 
 and that the patent should always have the most 
 favourable construction for the benefit of the gover- 
 nor and company. 
 
 The charter did not come over until after the 
 election, which took place on the 15th of May; 
 when the freemen made no alteration in their 
 officers. 
 
 Many of the colony of New Haven appear to 
 have been exceedingly opposed to Charles II., and 
 to the royal instructions which they had received ; 
 and it had been with great difficulty that the go- 
 vernor and council had managed the government in 
 such a manner as to keep peace among the people, 
 and not incur the displeasure of the king and his 
 council; and although they had done as little as 
 possible in conforming to his majesty's orders, yet 
 they had done more than was pleasing to all ; and 
 there had been great complaints and tumults. 
 
 Governor Leet, therefore, at the court of election, 
 represented to them the great difficulties and dan- 
 gers of the year past, and the Divine goodness to- 
 wards them, in the continuation of their civil and 
 religious privileges; acknowledged himself to be 
 subject to many imperfections, yet professed that, 
 in his office, he had acted conscientiously, consult- 
 ing the common safety and happiness ; declared his 
 readiness to give the reasons of his conduct to any 
 brother, or brethren, who would come to him in 
 an orderly manner ; and acknowledged their kind 
 affection and patience towards him in covering and 
 passing by his infirmities. 
 
 Upon this the election proceeded, and he was 
 chosen governor, and Matthew Gilbert deputy-go- 
 vernor. Mr. William Jones and Mr. William Gib- 
 bard were chosen magistrates for New Haven ; Mr. 
 Benjamin Fenn and Mr. Robert Treat, for Milford ; 
 and Mr. Jasper Crane, for Branford. Several of 
 the magistrates took the oath this year, with the 
 explanations and exceptions which they had made 
 the last. 
 
 Before the session of the general assembly of 
 Connecticut, in October, the charter was brought 
 over; and as the governors and magistrates, ap- 
 pointed by the king, were not authorized to serve 
 after this time, a general election was appointed 
 on the 9th of October. John Winthrop, Esq. was 
 chosen governor, and John Mason, Esq. deputy 
 governor. The magistrates were, Matthew Allen, 
 Samuel Wyllys, Nathan Gould, Richard Treat, 
 John Ogden, John Topping, John Talcott, Henry 
 Wolcott, Daniel Clarke, and John Allen, Esquires, 
 Mr. Baker, and Mr. Sherman. John Talcott, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 701 
 
 Esq. was treasurer, and D. Clarke, Esq. secretary. 
 
 Upon the day of the election, the charter was 
 publicly read to the freemen, and declared to be- 
 long to them and their successors. They then pro- 
 ceeded to make choice of Mr. Wyllys, Mr. Talcott, 
 and Mr. Allen, to receive the charter into their 
 custody, and to keep it in behalf of the colony ; and 
 it was ordered, that an oath should be administered 
 by the court, to the freemen, binding them to a 
 faithful discharge of the trust committed to them. 
 
 The general assembly established all former 
 officers, civil and military, in their respective places 
 of trust ; and enacted, that all the laws of the co- 
 lony should be continued in full force, except such 
 as should be found contrary to the tenor of the 
 charter. It was also enacted, that the same colony 
 seal should be continued. 
 
 The major part of the inhabitants of Southhold, 
 several of the people at Guilford, and of the towns 
 of Stamford and Greenwich, tendering their per- 
 sons and estates to Connecticut, and petitioning to 
 enjoy the protection and privilege* of this common- 
 wealth, were accepted by the assembly, and pro- 
 mised the same protection and freedom, which were 
 common to the inhabitants of the colony in gene- 
 ral. At the same time, it was enjoined those, to 
 conduct themselves peaceably, as became Chris- 
 tian?, towards their neighbours, who did not submit 
 lo the jurisdiction of Connecticut; and that they 
 should pay all taxes due to the ministers, with all 
 other public charges then due. A message was also 
 sent to the Dutch governor, certifying him of the 
 charter, granted to Connecticut, and desiring him 
 by no means to trouble any of his majesty's subjects 
 within its limits, with impositions, or prosecutions 
 from that jurisdiction. 
 
 The assembly gave notice to the inhabitants of 
 Winchester, that they were comprehended within 
 the limits of Connecticut ; and required that they 
 should conduct themselves as peaceable subjects. 
 
 It was also resolved, that the inhabitants of Mis- 
 tic and Pawcatuck should no more exercise any 
 authority, by virtue of commissions from any other 
 colony, but should elect their town officers, and 
 manage all their affairs according to the laws of 
 Connecticut. It was also resolved that this and 
 some other towns should pay twenty pounds each 
 towards defraying the expense of procuring the 
 charter. It appears from the appropriations made, 
 and taxes imposed, to pay the charges of Governor 
 Winthrop's agency, that the charter cost the colony 
 about thirteen hundred pounds sterling. 
 
 Huntingdon, Setauket, Oyster Bay, and all the 
 towns upon Long Island, were obliged to submit to 
 the authority, and govern themselves agreeably to the 
 laws of Connecticut ; and a court was instituted at 
 Southhold, consisting of Captain John Youngs, and 
 the justices of South and East Hampton. And it 
 was also resolved, that all the towns, which should 
 be received under their jurisdiction, should bear 
 their equal proportion of the charge of the colony, 
 in procuring the patent. 
 
 As the charter included the colony of New Ha- 
 ven, Mr. Matthew Allen, Mr. Samuel Wyllys, and 
 the Rev. Messrs. Stone and Hooker, were ap- 
 pointed a committee, to proceed to New Haven, 
 and to treat with their friends there, respecting an 
 amicable union of the two colonies; which they ac- 
 cordingly did ; and after a conference with the go- 
 vernor, magistrates, and principal gentlemen in 
 the colony, left the following declaration to be com- 
 municated to the freemen. 
 
 " We declare, that through the providence of the 
 Most High, a large and ample patent, and therein 
 desirable privileges and immunities from his ma- 
 jesty, being come to our hand, a copy whereof we 
 have left with, you to be considered, and yourselves 
 upon the sea-coast being included and interested 
 therein, the king having united us in one body po- 
 litic, we, according to the commission wherewith 
 we are intrusted by the general assembly of Con- 
 necticut, do declare in tfieir name that it is both 
 their and our earnest desire That there may be a 
 happy and comfortable union between yourselves 
 and us, according to the tenor of the charter ; 
 that inconveniences and dangers may be prevented, 
 peace and truth strengthened and established, 
 through our suitable subjection to the terms of the 
 patent, and the blessing of God upon us therein." 
 
 To which the authority of New Haven made the 
 following reply: 
 
 " We have received and perused your writings, 
 and heard the copy read of his majesty's letters pa- 
 tent to Connecticut colony ; wherein, though we 
 do not find the colony of New Haven expressly in- 
 cluded, yet to show our desire that matters may be 
 issued in the conserving of peace and amity, with 
 righteousness between them and us, we shall com- 
 municate your writing, and a copy of the patent, to 
 our freemen, and afterwards, with convenient speed, 
 return their answer. Only we desire that the issu- 
 ing of matters may be respited, until we may re- 
 ceive fuller information from Mr. Winthrop, or 
 satisfaction otherwise ; and that in the mean time 
 this colony may remain distinct, entire, and unin- 
 terrupted as heretofore : which we hope you will 
 see cause lovingly to consent unto ; and signify the 
 same to us with convenient speed." 
 
 On the 4th of November, the freemen of the co- 
 lony of New Haven, convened in general court ; 
 when the governor communicated the writings to 
 the court, and ordered a copy of the patent to be 
 read ; and after a short adjournment for consider- 
 ation in an affair of so much importance, the free- 
 men met again, and proceeded to a large discussion 
 of the subject. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Davenport was entirely opposed to 
 a union with Connecticut ; and proceeded, there- 
 fore, to offer a number of reasons why the inhabi- 
 tants of New Haven could not be included in the 
 patent of that colony, and for which they ought by 
 no means voluntarily to form a union. He pro- 
 mulgated his reasons in writing, for the considera- 
 tion of the freemen ; wherein it was insisted, that 
 New Haven had been owned as a distinct govern- 
 ment, not only by her sister colonies, by the par- 
 liament, and the protector, during their administra- 
 tion, but by his majesty King Charles II. That it was 
 against the express articles of confederation, by 
 which Connecticut was no less bound than the 
 other colonies: that New Haven had never been 
 certified of any such design as their incorporatioir 
 with Connecticut ; and that they had never been 
 heard on the subject. It was further urged, that 
 had it been designed to unite them with Connecti- 
 cut, some of their names at least would have been 
 pat into the patent with the other patentees ; but 
 none of them were there; and it was urged, that it 
 would be incompatible both with their honour and 
 most essential interests to consent to a union. 
 
 Governor Leet excused himself from speaking on 
 the subject, desiring rather to heai the freemen 
 speak their minds freely, and to act themselves. 
 After the affair had been fully debated, the free- 
 
702 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, 
 
 men resolved that an answer to Connecticut should 
 be drawn up under the following heads. 
 
 " 1. Bearing a proper testimony against the great 
 sin of Connecticut, in acting so contrary to righte- 
 ousness, amity, and peace. 
 
 " 2. Desiring that all further proceedings, rela- 
 tive to the affair, might be suspended until Mr. 
 Winthrop should return, or they might otherwise 
 obtain further information and satisfaction. 
 
 " 3. To represent, that they could do nothing in 
 the affair until they had consulted the other con- 
 federates." 
 
 The freemen appointed all their magistrates and 
 elders, with Mr. Law, of Stamford, a committee 
 to draw up an answer to the general assembly of 
 Connecticut; and they were directed to subjoin the 
 weighty arguments which they had against a 
 uinion ; and if these should not avail, they were di- 
 rected to prepare an address to his majesty, pray- 
 ing for relief. 
 
 The committee consequently drew up a long let- 
 ter, in which they declared, that they did not find 
 any command in the patent, to dissolve covenants, 
 and alter the orderly settlement of New England ; 
 nor a prohibition against their continuance as a dis- 
 tinct government. They represented, that the con- 
 duct of Connecticut, in acting at first without them, 
 confirmed them in those sentiments ; and that the 
 way was still open for them to petition his majesty, 
 and obtain immunities, similar to those of Connec 
 ticut. They declared, that they must enter their 
 appeal from the construction which Connecticut pul 
 upon the patent ; and desired that they might nol 
 be interrupted in the enjoyment of their distinct 
 privileges. They solicited, that proceedings relativ 
 to a union might rest, until they might obtain 
 further information, consult their confederates, am 
 know his majesty's pleasure concerning them. 
 
 The committee then proceeded to represent th< 
 unreasonable and injurious conduct of Connecticu 
 towards them, in beginning to exercise jurisdiction 
 within their limits, before they had given them an) 
 intimations that they were included in their char 
 ter ; before they had invited them to an amicable 
 union ; and before they had any representation it 
 their assembly, or name in their patent. Thej 
 urged, that in such a procedure, they had encou 
 raged division, and given countenance to disaffectec 
 persons : that they had abetted them in slighting 
 solemn covenants and oaths, by which the peace o 
 the towns and churches in that colony was greatl) 
 disturbed. Further, they insisted, that by thi 
 means, his majesty's pious designs were counter 
 acted, and his interests disserved : that great scanda 
 was brought upon religion before the natives, " an 
 the beauty of a peaceable, faithful and brotherl 
 walking exceedingly marred among themselves.' 
 They also represented that these transactions wer 
 entirely inconsistent with the engagements of Go 
 vernor Winthrop, contrary to his advice to Con 
 necticut, and tended to bi'ing injurious reflection 
 and reproach upon him. They earnestly praye 
 for a copy of all which he had written to the deputy 
 governor and company on the subject; declare 
 themselves exceedingly injured and grieved; an 
 entreated the general assembly of Connecticut t 
 adopt speedy and effectual measures to repair th 
 breaches which they had made, and to restore thei 
 to their former state, as a confederate and siste 
 colony. 
 
 Connecticut made no reply to this letter ; but at 
 general assembly, bolden March llth, 1663, aj 
 
 Dinted the deputy-governor, Messrs. Matthew and 
 ohn Allen, and Mr. John Talcott, a committee to 
 eat with their friends at New Haven on the sub- 
 ict of a union. But the hasty measures which 
 ic general assembly had taken, in admitting the 
 isaffected members of the several towns, under the 
 urisdiction of New Haven, to their protection, and 
 
 the privileges of freemen of their corporation, 
 nd in that way beginning to dismember that colony 
 efore they had invited them to incorporate with 
 icm, had so soured their minds and prejudiced 
 lem, that this committee had no better success 
 lan the former. 
 
 In consequence of the claims of Connecticut, and 
 f what had passed between the two colonies, Go- 
 ernor Leet called a special assembly at New Ha- 
 en, on the 6th of May ; when it was proposed to 
 
 court, whether, considering the present state of 
 ae colony, and the affairs depending between them 
 nd Connecticut, any alteration should be made 
 with respect to the time or manner of their election ? 
 ?he freemen resolved that no alteration should be 
 made. They then determined upon a remonstrance, 
 r declaration, being sent to the general assembly 
 f Connecticut ; in which they gave an historical 
 iccount of the ends of their coming, with their bre- 
 hren in the united colonies, into New England, 
 ind of the solemn manner in which these colonies 
 ad confederated ; and repeated many of their for- 
 mer complaints against Connecticut. The court 
 ilso affirmed, that they were necessitated to bear 
 ;estimony against the appointment of constables and 
 other officers, in the towns under their jurisdiction, 
 and the dismembering of their colony, by receiving 
 heir disaffected people under the protection of a 
 egislature distinct from theirs, and in which they 
 lad no representation ; and remonstrated against it, 
 as distracting the colony, destroying the comfort, 
 and hazarding the lives and liberties of their confe- 
 derates ; and as giving great offence to their con- 
 sciences, and as matter of high provocation and 
 complaint before God and man. 
 
 While these affairs were transacted in the colo- 
 nies, the petition and address of New Haven, to 
 ihe king, arrived in England ; upon which Governor 
 Winthrop, who was yet there, by the advice of the 
 friends of both colonies, agreed, that no injury 
 should be done to New Haven, and that the union 
 and incorporation of the two colonies should be vo- 
 luntary ; and he therefore, on the 3d of March, 1663, 
 wrote to the deputy-governor and company of Con- 
 necticut, informing them of his engagements to the 
 agent of New Haven; and that, before he took out 
 the charter, he had given assurance to their friends 
 that their interests and privileges should not be in- 
 jured by the patent. He represented, that they 
 were bound by the assurances he had given ; and 
 therefore wished them to abstain from all further 
 injury and trouble of that colony ; and imputed 
 what they had done to their ignorance of the engage- 
 ments which he had made ; and at the same time, 
 intimated his assurance, that, on his return, he 
 should be able to effect an amicable union of the 
 colonies. 
 
 At the election in Connecticut, Mr. Howell and 
 Mr. Jasper Crane were chosen magistrates, instead 
 of Mr. John Allen and Mr. John Ogden. Mr. John 
 Allen was appointed treasurer. 
 
 Connecticut now laid claim to West Chester, and 
 sent one of their magistrates to cite the inhabitants 
 to the choice of their officers, and to administer the 
 proper oaths to such as they should elect. They 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 703 
 
 also extended their claim to the Narraganset country, 
 and appointed officers for the government of the in- 
 habitants at Wickford. 
 
 Notwithstanding the remonstrance of the court at 
 New Haven, their appeal to the king, and the 
 engagements of Governor Winthrop, Connecticut 
 pursued the affair of a union in the same manner 
 in which it was begun ; and at a session of the gene- 
 ral assembly, August 19th, 1663, the deputy-gover- 
 nor, Mr. Wyllys, Mr. Daniel Clarke, and Mi. 
 John Allen, were appointed a committee to treat 
 with their friends of New Haven, Milford, Guilford, 
 and Branford, relative to their incorporation with 
 Connecticut. Provided they could not effect a 
 union by treaty, they were authorized to read the 
 charter publicly at New Haven, and to make decla- 
 ration to the people there, that the assembly could 
 not but resent their proceedings as a distinct juris- 
 diction, since they were evidently included within 
 the limits of the charter, granted to the corporation 
 of Connecticut ; and they were instructed to pro- 
 claim that the assembly desired, and could not but 
 expect, that the inhabitants of New Haven, Milford, 
 Guilford, Branford, and Stamford, would yield sub- 
 jection to the government of Connecticut. 
 
 At the meeting of the commissioners in Septem- 
 ber, New Haven was owned by the colonies as a 
 distinct confederate ; and Governor Leet and Mr. 
 Fenn, who had been sent. from that jurisdiction, 
 exhibited a complaint against Connecticut of the 
 injuries which they had done by encroaching upon 
 their rights, receiving their members under their 
 government, and encouraging them to disown their 
 authority, to disregard their oath of allegiance, and 
 to refuse all attendance on their courts. They fur- 
 ther complained that Connecticut had appointed 
 constables in several of their towns, to the great dis- 
 quiet and injury of the colony; and prayed that 
 effectual measures might be taken to redress their 
 grievances, to prevent further injuries, and secure 
 their rights as a distinct confederate. 
 
 Governor Winthrop and Mr. John Talcott, com- 
 missioners from Connecticut, replied, that in their 
 opinion New Haven had no just grounds of com- 
 plaint ; that Connecticut had never designed them 
 any injury, but had made to them the most friendly 
 propositions, inviting them to share with them 
 freely in all the important and distinguishing privi- 
 leges which they had obtained for themselves ; that 
 they had sent committees amicably to treat with 
 them; that they were still treating, and would 
 attend all *ust and friendly means of accommo- 
 dation. 
 
 The commissioners of the other colonies having 
 fully heard the parties, determined that as the co- 
 lony of New Haven had been " owned in the arti- 
 cles of confederation as distiru t from Connecticut, 
 and having been so owned by the colonies jointly 
 in the present meeting, in all their actings, they 
 may not by any acts of violence have their liberty 
 of jurisdiction infringed by any other of the united 
 colonies, without breach of the articles of confede- 
 ration ; and that where any act of power hath been 
 exerted against their authority, that the same ought 
 to be recalled, and their power reserved to them 
 entire, until such time as in an orderly way it 
 shall be otherwise disposed." With respect to the 
 particular grievances mentioned by the commis- 
 sioners of New Haven, the consideration of them 
 was referred to the next meeting of the commission- 
 ers at Hartford. 
 
 The extending of the claims of Connecticut to all 
 
 the plantations upon Long Island, to West Chester, 
 and the neighbouring towns, alarmed Stuyvesant, 
 the Dutch governor ; and he therefore appeared be- 
 fore the commissioners at Boston, and complained 
 of the infraction of the articles of agreement, con- 
 cluded at Hartford, between the English and Dutch, 
 and desired the commissioners to determine whe- 
 ther they considered those articles as binding or 
 not. As this complaint more especially respected 
 Connecticut, Governor Winthrop and Mr. Talcott 
 replied in behalf of their constituents ; and pleaded, 
 that, as it was an affair of great concernment, and. 
 as Connecticut had not been informed of any such 
 complaint, and they had no instructions relative to 
 the subject, the decision of it might be deferred 
 until the next meeting of the commissioners. 
 
 The commissioners resolved, that saving their 
 allegiance to his majesty, and his claim to the lands 
 in controversy, and the right of Connecticut co- 
 lony, by virtue of their charter, they did for them- 
 selves esteem the articles of agreement in 1650 to 
 be binding, and that they would not countenance 
 the violation of them ; and they advised the parties 
 concerned to refer all matters respecting the subject 
 to the next meeting of the commissioners ; and in 
 the mean time recommended that the articles of 
 agreement should be observed, and that all persons 
 in the places in controversy should be acquitted 
 from penalties and damages on the account of their 
 having resisted the authority of the Dutch. 
 
 Connecticut was now attacked from all quarters. 
 While the colony was without a royal grant, its 
 neighbours made encroachments with impunity ; 
 and now, when it extended its claims, by virtue of 
 regal authority, they all complained, and took all 
 possible advantage of former encroachments and 
 decisions, at times when they could plead no such 
 authority ; and as all the united colonies, except 
 Plymouth, were affected by the claims of the co- 
 lony, so they were mutually interested in opposing 
 and determining against them. 
 
 As Connecticut had new claimed Pawcatuck, or 
 Southerton, and prohibited the exercise of any au- 
 thority there, except such as was derived from the 
 legislature of that colony, the inhabitants had exhi- 
 bited three addresses to the general court of Massa- 
 chusetts, petitioning for relief and protection ; and 
 the commissioners from Massachusetts, Mr. Brad- 
 street and Mr. Danforth, laid the complaints and 
 petitions before the commissioners of the other co- 
 lonies, and prayed for relief, according to the provi- 
 sion made in such cases, in the articles of confe- 
 deration. 
 
 The court of commissioners advised that the affair 
 should be deferred for the present; that Connecti 
 cut should apply to the general court of the Massa- 
 chusetts for an amicable settlement ; and that, if 
 this should not be effected, the aggrieved party 
 might make application to the commissioners at 
 their next meeting. In the mean time, they ad- 
 vised that affairs at Southerton should be managed 
 according to their former decisions. 
 
 When the general assembly of Connecticut as- 
 sembled in October, they paid particular attention 
 to these occurrences ; and notwithstanding all that 
 had happened relative to New Haven, the following 
 act passed. 
 
 " This court doth declare, that they can do no 
 less for their own indemnity, than to manife&c their 
 dissatisfaction with the plantations of New Haven, 
 Milford, Guilford, Stamford, and Branford, in their 
 distinct standing from us in point of government; 
 
704 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 it being directly opposite to the tenor of the charter 
 lately granted to our colony of Connecticut, in which 
 these" plantations are included. We do also expect 
 their submission to our government, according to 
 our charter, and his majesty's pleasure therein 
 expressed ; it being a stated conclusion with the 
 commissioners, that jurisdiction right goeth with 
 patent. And whereas, the aforesaid people of New 
 Haven, Milford, Guilford, Stamford, and Bran- 
 ford, pretend they have power of government dis- 
 tinct from us, we do hereby declare, that our coun- 
 cil will be ready to attend them, or a committee of 
 theirs ; and if they can rationally make it appear 
 that they have such power, and that we have 
 wronged them according to their complaints, we 
 shall be ready to attend them with due satisfaction." 
 
 The assembly appointed a committee to compose 
 a letter to the gentlemen at New Haven, and to 
 enclose to them the preceding resolution. 
 
 Agents were sent to this assembly from the Man- 
 hadoes, to treat with the legislature, relative to the 
 differences subsisting between them and the Dutch ; 
 and a petition at the same time was presented from 
 the English plantations upon Long Island, in the 
 vicinity of the Dutch, praying for the protection 
 and privileges of the corporation of Connecticut. 
 Upon which the assembly resolved, " that, as they 
 were solicitous to maint in the interests and peace 
 of his majesty's subjects, and yet to attend all ways 
 of righteousness, so that they might hold a friendly 
 correspondence with their neighbours at the Man- 
 hadoes, they would for the present forbear all acts 
 of authority towards the English plantations on the 
 west end of Long Island, provided the Dutch would 
 forbear to exercise any coercive power towards 
 them ; and this court shall cease from further at- 
 tendance unto the premises, until there be a sea- 
 sonable return from the General Stevenson, to those 
 propositions his messengers carried with them, or 
 until there be an issue of the difference between 
 them and us. And in case the Dutch do unjustly 
 molest or offer violence unto them, we declare that 
 we shall not be willing to see our countrymen, his 
 majesty's natural born subjects, and his interests 
 interrupted or molested by the Dutch or any others; 
 but we shall address ourselves to use such just and 
 lawful means as God shall in his wisdom offer to 
 our hands for their indemnity and safety, until his 
 majesty our sovereign lord the king shall please to 
 declare his royal pleasure for their future settlement." 
 
 As Governor Winthrop was now returned from 
 England, the assembly embraced the first opportu- 
 nity to present him with the thanks of the colony 
 for the great pains he had taken, and the special 
 services he had rendered it, in procuring the 
 charter. 
 
 The legislature, determining to secure as far as 
 possible the lands within the limits of their charter, 
 authorized one Thomas Pell to purchase of the In- 
 dian proprietors all that tract between West Ches- 
 ter and Hudson's river, and the waters which made 
 the Manhadoes an island ; and resolved that it 
 should be added to West Chester. 
 
 On the towns on the west end of Long Island pe- 
 titioning to be under the government of Connecti- 
 cut, the assembly declared, that as the lines of 
 their patent extended to the adjoining islands, they 
 accepted those towns under their jurisdiction. 
 
 It was resolved in October, that Hammonasset 
 should be a town ; and the same month, twelve plant- 
 ers, principally from Hartford, Windsor, and Guil- 
 ford^ fixed their residence there. It was subsequently 
 
 named Killingworth ; and in 1703, the assembly 
 gave them a patent, confirming to the proprietors 
 all the lands within the limits of the town. The 
 name originally designed was Kennelworth, and 
 thus it is written for some years on the records of 
 the colony, but by mistake it was recorded Killing- 
 worth, and this name finally prevailed. 
 
 While these affairs were transacted in Connecti- 
 cut, the colony of New Haven persisted in their 
 opposition to an incorporation with that govern- 
 ment; and on the 22d of October, their general 
 court convened, and Governor Leet stated, that since 
 the meeting of the commissioners, the committee 
 had written to Connecticut. " That as the commis- 
 sioners had unanimously established the confedera- 
 tion, and the distinct and entire jurisdiction of each 
 confederate colony, they judged that it would not 
 be unacceptable to present to their general assembly 
 a request, that they would act in conformity to the 
 advice of the commissioners, and recall all former 
 acts, inconsistent with their determinations. They 
 insisted, that a compliance with their wishes would 
 be no obstruction to an amicable treaty ; but that 
 its tendency would be sooner to effect the union, 
 which they desired : that it could by no means en- 
 danger their patent, nor any of their chartered 
 rights ; and that they had the countenance of all the 
 confederates, to apologize for them in their present 
 request, and in maintaining their rights as a dis- 
 tinct jurisdiction." Governor Leet further informed 
 the court that their committee had desired an an- 
 swer to their letter, before the present session of 
 their general court, and previously to their answer- 
 ing the proposals made to them by Connecticut. 
 
 The freemen of the colony of New Haven were 
 not only opposed to an incorporation with Connec- 
 ticut, but even to treating with them, under the 
 then present circumstances ; and the court, after a 
 long and serious debate, considering that the gene- 
 ral court of Connecticut had not complied with their 
 request, but still claimed a right of jurisdiction 
 over them, and countenanced the malcontents in 
 their several towns, were decidedly against any 
 further treaty ; and consequently a resolution was 
 adopted. " That no treaty be made by this colony 
 with Connecticut, before such acts of power, ex- 
 erted by them upon any of our towns, be revoked 
 and recalled, according to the honourable Mr. Win- 
 throp's letter engaging the same, the commission- 
 ers' determination, and our frequent desires." 
 
 The court ordered that the magistrates, or other 
 officers where there were no magistrates, should 
 issue warrants according to law, to attach the per- 
 sonal estate of those who upon legal demand had 
 refused, or should refuse, to make payment of their 
 rates. It was provided, that in case of resistance 
 and forcible rescue, violence should not be used to 
 the shedding of blood, unless it were in a man's 
 own del'ence. The court further determined to make 
 application to the English government, and to peti- 
 tion the king for a bill of exemption from the go- 
 vernment of Connecticut, and to leave the affaii 
 of procuring a patent to the wisdom of their agents 
 in England, as they should judge to be most ex- 
 pedient. 
 
 A tax of 300/. was levied upon the colony, for 
 the purpose of enabling them to prosecute this 
 affair ; and a day of extraordinary fasting and 
 prayer was appointed to supplicate Diviue mercy to 
 direct them to the proper means of obtaining an es 
 tablished and permanent enjoyment of their just 
 rights and privileges. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 705 
 
 The affairs of the colony of New Haven were 
 now exceedingly embarrassed, and approached to 
 an important crnis. The colony was much in debt : 
 many were disaffected with the government, and 
 refused to pay any thing for its support: and when 
 the officers attempted to collect the taxes which had 
 been imposed, they repaired to Connecticut for 
 protection ; and with too little appearance of justice 
 or brotherly affection, were protected by its legisla- 
 ture. Indeed the colony was so reduced, that it 
 could not pay the stated salaries of its principal 
 officers; and while the court expressed their ardent 
 desire to pay the salaries which had been usual, yet 
 they found they were not able to give the governor 
 more than forty pounds, and the deputy-governor j 
 not more than ten. 
 
 No sooner did the officers begin to distrain the 
 rates of those who refused to pay, than it produced 
 the most alarming and dangerous consequences. 
 One John Rossiter of Guilford and his son, who had j 
 both been punished for misdemeanors by the autho- 
 rity of the colony of New Haven, made a journey 
 to Hartford, and obtained two of the magistrates of 
 Connecticut , a constable, and several others to come 
 down to Guilford on the night of the 30th of Decem- 
 ber. By firing a number of guns in the night, they 
 greatly alarmed and disturbed the town ; and some 
 of the men from Connecticut were rough, and used 
 violent and threatening language. In such a crisis, ! 
 Governor Leet judged it expedient to send immedi- ' 
 ately to Branfo r d and New Haven for assistance ; \ 
 and both those towns were alarmed in the night, | 
 arid forwarded men to the aid of the governor ; and j 
 the governor and magistrates conducted affairs with 
 such moderation and prudence, that no mischief j 
 was done ; and the gentlemen from Connecticut re- j 
 monstrated agair st collecting taxes from those who j 
 had been taken under the protection of that colony, j 
 and desired New Haven to suspend the affair for 
 further consideration. 
 
 Governor Leet therefore convoked a special court 
 at New Haven on the 7th of January, 1664 ; and 
 opened the public business by acquainting the court 
 that it was the earnest desire of the magistrates 
 from Connecticut, and of Mr. Rossiter and his sou, 
 that the act of the general court of New Haven, re- 
 lative to the distraining of taxes, might be suspended 
 until there could be another conference between the 
 colonies; at which they were in expectation that 
 all difficulties might be amicably settled. He also 
 laid before the court the representations which the 
 gentlemen from Connecticut had made of the great 
 danger there would be in carrying that act into ex- 
 ecution, in direct opposition to the authority of Con- 
 necticut ; and it was desired that the court would 
 maturely consider the affair. 
 
 The court insisted that all former treaties with 
 Connecticut had been without any good effect ; and 
 persisted in the resolution, that, until the members, 
 which had been so unrighteously taken from them, 
 should be restored, they would hold no further treaty 
 with that colony. Mr. Davenport and Mr. Street 
 were appointed to make a draught of their griev- 
 ances, to be transmitted to the general assembly of 
 Connecticut; and they drew up a long and sensible 
 remonstrance, which they termed " New Haven 
 case stated." The subject was introduced with a 
 declaration ; that it was their deep sense of the in- 
 juries which the colony had suffered by the claims 
 and encroachments which had been made upon then- 
 just prerogatives and privileges, which had induced 
 them, unanimously, though with great reluctance, 
 
 HIST. OF AMEK. Nos. 89 90. 
 
 to declare their grievances to them; and they pro- 
 ceeded then to declare that they settled at New 
 Haven, with the consent of Connecticut ; had pur- 
 chased the whole tract of land, which they bad set- 
 tled upon the sea-coast, of the Indians, the original 
 proprietors of the soil ; and had quietly possessed it 
 nearly six-and twenty years: that they had ex- 
 pended great estates, in clearing, fencing, and cul- 
 tivating the lands, without any assistance from Con- 
 necticut ; and had formed themselves, by voluntary 
 compact, into a distinct commonwealth. They then 
 cited a great variety of instances in which Connecti- 
 cut, the united colonies, the parliament, and pro- 
 tector, the king, and his council, had owned them 
 as a distinct colony; and they insisted, that notwith- 
 standing they had now procured a patent including 
 New Haven, not only without their concurrence, 
 but contrary to their desire previously expressed ; 
 and contrary to the express articles of the confede- 
 ration, and to their own engagements, not to include 
 them in the charter : further they affirmed, that 
 Mr. Winthrop, before his departure for England, 
 had by his letters given assurance that it was not 
 designed to include New Haven in the patent; and 
 that the magistrates of Connecticut had agreed, that 
 if the patent should include them, they should be at 
 full liberty to incorporate with them or not, as should 
 be most agreeable to their inclinations : they al- 
 leged that, contrary to all the premises, to justice, 
 to good faith, to brotherly kindness, to the peace 
 and order of church and commonwealth, Connecti- 
 cut, even in their first assembly, proceeded to the 
 dismemberment of the colony of New Haven, by 
 receiving its members from Stamford, Guilford, and 
 Southhold; that after such dismemberment, they 
 had preposterously pretended to treat with them re- 
 lative to a union ; and that after a conference with 
 the committee from Connecticut, and the reading 
 of their charter, it did not appear that they were 
 so much as mentioned, or that it had any reference 
 to them : they declared that, in a full persuasion of 
 his majesty's pleasure, to continue them a distinct 
 jurisdiction, they had assured the committee of their 
 design to appeal to him, and know his royal pur- 
 pose ; that though they immediately sent their ap- 
 peal, yet that out of tender respect to the peace 
 and honour of Mr. Winthrop, they advised their 
 friends in England to acquaint him with their pa- 
 pers, that he might adopt some effectual expedient 
 to compromise the unhappy differences between the 
 two colonies ; and that it was on the account of Mr. 
 Winthrop's engagements to their friends, that 
 their rights and interests should not be disquieted 
 nor injured, that the appeal to his majesty was then 
 suspended. From a statement of these, and some 
 Other facts and circumstances, they attempted to 
 demonstrate their rights as a distinct colony, and 
 the injustice, unfaithfulness, ingratitude, and cru- 
 elty of Connecticut, in their claims upon them, and 
 in the manner of their prosecuting them. Their 
 beginning to dismember their colony, by receiving 
 and protecting their subjects and malcontents, pre- 
 vious to any treaty with them ; their appointing 
 officers, creating: animosities, and raising alarms in 
 their several towns, were especially insisted on as 
 contrary to all their covenants, as brethren and con 
 federate's, and contrary to all order, peace an, 11 
 justice. 
 
 The general assembly of Connecticut, at their 
 session in May, avowed their claim to Long Island, 
 as one of the adjoining islands mentioned in their 
 charter, except some preceding right should appear, 
 
 3 S 
 
706 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 approved by his majesty ; and officers were ap- 
 pointed by the court at Hampstead, Jamaica, New- 
 town, Flushing, Oyster Bay, and all the towns 
 upon the west end of the island. 
 
 Upon the general election at New Haven, the 
 freemen proceeded to the choice of their civil of- 
 ficers, as had been usual. Governor Leet was re- 
 chosen, and Mr. William Jones was elected deputy- 
 governor. Matthew Gilbert, Esq. the former de- 
 puty-governor, Mr. Benjamin Fenn, Mr. Jasper 
 Crane, Mr. Treat, and Mr. Nash, were appointed 
 magistrates. The two last would not accept the 
 office. The governor and deputy-governor were 
 chosen commissioners for the next meeting at 
 Hartford. 
 
 The colony was now become so weak, and the 
 affairs of it so embarrassed, by the claims and pro- 
 ceedings of Connecticut, that the general court 
 either did no business, or judged it expedient to 
 put nothing upon record. At this crisis an event 
 took place, which alarmed all the New England co- 
 lonies, and at once changed the opinions of the 
 commissioners, and of New Haven, with respect to 
 their incorporation with Connecticut. King Charles 
 II., on the 12th of March, 1664, gave a patent to 
 his brother the Duke of York and Albany, of several 
 extensive tracts of land in North America, the 
 boundaries of which are given in the account of this 
 transaction in our notice of New York ; as are also 
 the results of the Dutch war. 
 
 The short time the king's commissioners stayed 
 at Boston, before they proceeded upon their ex- 
 pedition against the Dutch, was sufficient to disco- 
 ver something of their extraordinary powers, and 
 gave such a notion of the high and arbitrary manner 
 in which they proceeded, as spread a general alarm, 
 and awakened in the colonies serious apprehensions 
 for their liberties. Mr. Whiting, who was at Bos- 
 ton, and learned much of their temper, was sent 
 back in haste to give information of the danger, in 
 which it was apprehended the colonies all were ; to 
 advise New Haven to incorporate with Connecticut 
 without delay; and to make a joint exertion for 
 the preservation of their chartered rights. This 
 was pressed, not only as absolutely necessary for 
 New Haven, but for the general safety of the 
 country. 
 
 In consequence of this intelligence, a general 
 court was convened at New Haven on the llth of 
 August, 1664; and Governor Leet communicated 
 the intelligence which he had received from their 
 friends at Boston. He acquainted them that Mr. 
 Whiting and Mr. Bull had made a visit to New 
 Haven, and in their own names, and in behalf of 
 the magistrates of Connecticut, pressed their imme- 
 diate subjection to their government ; and the court 
 was further certified, that after some treaty with 
 those gentlemen, their committee had given an an- 
 swer, purporting, that if Connecticut would, in his 
 majesty's name, assert their claim to the colony of 
 New Haven, and secure them in the full enjoyment 
 of all the immunities which they had proposed, and 
 engage to make a united exertion, for the preserva- 
 tion of their chartered rights, they would make 
 their submission. After a long debate the court re- 
 solved, that if Connecticut should come and assert 
 their claim, as had been agreed, they would submit 
 until the meeting of the commissioners of the united 
 colonies. The magistrates and principal gentlemen 
 of the colony seem to have been sensible, not only 
 of the expediency, but necessity of an incorporation 
 with Connecticut ; but the opposition, however, was 
 
 so general among the people, that nothing further 
 could be effected. 
 
 The court of commissioners was so near at hand, 
 that Governor Winthrop and his council adjudged it 
 nrtt expedient to make any further demands upon 
 New Haven until their advice could be known. 
 However, when the general assembly met early in 
 September, the^ presented a remonstrance against 
 the sitting of Governor Leet and Deputy-governor 
 Jones with the commissioners ; and declared in it 
 that New Haven was not a colony, but a part of 
 Connecticut, and avowed their claim to it as such. 
 They insisted, that owning that as a colony distinct 
 from Connecticut, after his majesty had, by his let- 
 ters patent, incorporated it with that colony, was 
 inconsistent with the king's pleasure ; would endan- 
 ger the rights of all the colonies, and especially the 
 charter-rights of Connecticut ; and at the same 
 time declared that they would have a tender regard 
 to their friends and brethren at New Haven, and 
 exert themselves to accommodate them with all the 
 immunities and privileges which were conveyed by 
 their charter. 
 
 On the first of September, the court of commis- 
 sioners met at Hartford ; and the commissioners from 
 New Haven were allowed their seats with the other 
 confederates ; and the case between them and Con- 
 necticut was fully heard ; and though the court did 
 not approve of the manner in which Connecticut 
 had proceeded, yet they earnestly pressed a speedy 
 and amicable union of the two colonies. To remove 
 all obstructions on their part, the commissioners 
 recommended it to the general courts of Massachu- 
 setts and Plymouth, that, in case the colony of New 
 Haven should incorporate with Connecticut, they 
 might then be owned as one colony, and send two 
 commissioners to each meeting; and that the de- 
 terminations of any four of the six should be equally 
 binding on the confederates, as the conclusions of 
 six out of eight had been before. It was also pro- 
 posed to the court, that the meeting, which of course 
 had been at New Haven, should be at Hartford ; 
 and it was determined that their meetings for the 
 future should be triennial. 
 
 In compliance with the advice of the commission- 
 ers, Governor Leet convened the general Court at 
 New Haven, on the 14th of September, and com- 
 municated the advice which had been given, and 
 papers from the committee of Connecticut, ad- 
 vising and urging them to unite ; who referred it to 
 their most serious consideration, whether, if the 
 king's commissioners should visit them, they would 
 not be much better able to vindicate their liberty 
 and just rights in union with Connecticut, under a 
 royal patent, than in their then present circum- 
 stances ; but after the fullest discussion of the sub- 
 ject, no vote for union or treaty could be obtained. 
 
 New Haven and Branford were more fixed and 
 obstinate in their opposition to an incorporation 
 with Connecticut than any of the other towns in 
 that colony ; Mr. Davenport and Mr. Pierson seem 
 to have been among its chief supporters ; and they, 
 with many of the inhabitants of the colony, were 
 more rigid, with respect to the terms of church com- 
 munion, than the ministers and churches of Con- 
 necticut generally were. The ministers and churches 
 of the latter were, a considerable number of them, 
 in favour of the propositions of the general council, 
 which met at Cambridge, in 1662, relative to the 
 baptism of children, whose parents were not in full 
 communion ; the ministers and churches of New 
 Haven were universally and completely against 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 707 
 
 them. Mr. Davenport, and others of that colon 
 were of opinion, that all government should be i 
 the church ; and no person could be a freema 
 there, unless he were a member in full commu 
 nion. But in Connecticut, all orderly persons pos 
 sessing a freehold to a certain amount, might b 
 made free of the corporation. Those who were s 
 strong in the opposition, were doubtless jealous tha 
 a union would mar the purity and order of thei 
 churches, and have a bad influence on the civil ad 
 ministrations. The removal of the seat of govern 
 ment; the apprehension which some had of losiiij 
 their places of trust and general influence ; wit! 
 strong prejudices and passions against Connecticut 
 on account of the injuries which it was conceived i 
 had done the colony, all operated in forming thi 
 opposition. 
 
 This event, however, was approaching, and grew 
 more and more urgent. Milford at this time broke 
 off from them, and would not send either magis 
 trate or deputies to the general court; and Mr 
 Richard Law, a principal gentleman at Stamford 
 also deserted them. 
 
 In this state of affairs, the general assembly o 
 Connecticut met on the 13th of October. It was an 
 important crisis with the colony ; and there havi 
 been few instances of so many important objects o 
 consideration at one time presenting themselves tc 
 a colonial legislature. Their liberties were not only 
 in equal danger with those of their sister colonies, 
 from the extraordinary powers and arbitrary dispo- 
 sitions and measures of the king's commissioners, but 
 the Duke of York, a powerful antagonist, had re- 
 ceived a patent, covering Long Island, and all that 
 part of the colony west of Connecticut river : the 
 Massachusetts were encroaching upon them on their 
 northern and eastern boundaries : William aad Ann, 
 the duke and duchess of Hamilton, had petitioned 
 his majesty to restore to them the tract of country 
 granted to their father, James, marquis of Hamil- 
 ton, in the year 1635 ; and his majesty had on the 
 6th of May, 1664, referred the case to the determi- 
 nation of Colonel Nichols and the other commis- 
 sioners ; and in addition to all these, the state of 
 affairs with New Haven was unsettled. 
 
 In these circumstances, the legislature viewed it as 
 a point of extreme importance to conciliate the 
 commissioners, and obtain the good graces of the 
 king; and for this purpose, they ordered a present 
 of five hundred bushels of corn, to be made to the 
 king's commissioners ; and a large committee was 
 appointed to settle the boundaries between Connec- 
 ticut and the duke of York ; and a committee, con- 
 sisting of Mr. Allen, Mr. Wyllys, Mr. Talcott, and 
 Mr. Newbury, was also appointed to settle the 
 boundary line between this colony and Massachu- 
 setts, and between Connecticut and Rhode Island. 
 
 Mr. Sherman, Mr. Allen, and the secretary, were 
 authorized to proceed to New Haven, and by order 
 of the general assembly, " in his majesty's name, to 
 require the inhabitants of New Haven, Milford, 
 Branford, Guilford, and Stamford, to submit to the 
 government established by his majesty's gracious 
 grant to this colony, and to receive their answer;" 
 and they had instructions to declare all the freemen 
 in those towns, free of the corporation of Connecti- 
 cut; and to make all others, in the respective towns 
 mentioned, qualified according to law, freemen of 
 Connecticut, and they were directed to administer 
 to them the freeman's oath. They were also autho- 
 rized to make declaration, that the assembly in- 
 vested William Leet and William Jones, Esquires, 
 
 Mr. Gilbert, Mr. Fenn, Mr. Crane, Mr. Treat, and 
 Mr. Law, with the powers of magistracy ; to go- 
 vern their respective plantations agreeably to the 
 laws of Connecticut, or such of their own 'laws as 
 were not inconsistent with the charter, until their 
 session in May next ; and it was likewise pro- 
 claimed, that all other officers, civil and military, 
 were established in their respective places ; and 
 that cognisance should not be taken of any case 
 which had been prosecuted to a final adjudication, 
 in any of the courts of that colony. 
 
 Governor Winthrop, Mr. Allen, Mr. Gould, Mr. 
 Richards, and John Winthrop, the committee ap- 
 pointed to settle the boundaries between Connecti- 
 cut and New York, waited on the commissioners 
 upon York Island ; and after they had been fully 
 heard in behalf of Connecticut, the commissioners 
 determined, " That the southern bounds of his ma- 
 jesty's colony of Connecticut is the sea ; and that 
 Long Island is to be under the government of his 
 royal highness the duke of York, as is expressed 
 by plain words in the said patents respectively. We 
 also order and declare, that the creek or river 
 called Mamaronock, which is reputed to be about 
 twelve miles to the east of West Chester, and a line 
 drawn from the east point or side, where the fresh 
 water falls into the salt at high- water mark, north- 
 north-west, to the line of Massachusetts, be the 
 western bounds of the said colony of Qpnnecticut; 
 and the plantations lying westward of that creek, 
 and line so drawn, to be under his royal highness's 
 government ; and all plantations lying eastward of 
 that creek and line, to be under the government of 
 Connecticut." 
 
 In consequence of the acts of Connecticut, and the 
 determination of the commissioners, relative to the 
 boundaries of the colony, a general court was called 
 at New Haven with the freemen, and as many of 
 the inhabitants of the colony as chose to attend, on 
 the 13th of December, 1664; when the following 
 resolutions were unanimously passed. 
 
 " 1. That, by this act or vote, we be not under- 
 stood to justify Connecticut's fonner actings, nor 
 any thing disorderly done by their own people oa 
 such accounts. 
 
 " 2. That, by it we be not apprehended to have 
 any hand in breaking or dissolving the confederation. 
 
 " 3. Yet, in loyalty to the king's majesty, when 
 an authentic copy of the determination of his ma- 
 esty's commissioners is published, to be recorded 
 with us if thereby it shall appear to our committee 
 that we are by his majesty's authority now put un- 
 der Connecticut patent, we shall submit by a neces- 
 sity brought upon us by the means of Connecticut 
 aforesaid ; but with a salvo jure of our former rights 
 and claims, as a people, who have not yet been 
 icard in point of plea." 
 
 The members of the court then present, the elders 
 f the colony, with Mr. John Nash, Mr. James 
 Bishop, Mr. Francis Bell, Mr. Robert Treat, and 
 VIr. Richard Baldwin, were appointed a committee 
 o consummate a union between the colonies. 
 
 Several letters passed between the committees of 
 he two colonies on the subject, in which the com- 
 nittee of New Haven signified that the officers in 
 hat colony would continue to act in their respec- 
 ive offices, and expressed their good designs and 
 wishes towards Connecticut, and their loyalty to 
 is majesty. They also represented their expecta- 
 ions that the governor and company, according to 
 leir engagements, would give them all the advan 
 ages aud privileges which they could do, consist- 
 
 3S 2 
 
708 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 ent with the patent, and their desires still to con- 
 tinue the confederation. 
 
 The committee of Connecticut, in answer to New 
 Haven, assured them of their willingness to bestow 
 on them all the privileges granted in their charter ; 
 and pleaded the necessity and importance of theii 
 incorporation with Connecticut, as they were nearly 
 in the centre of the colony, as an apology for the 
 measures which they had taken. They also ex- 
 pressed their strong desire that New Haven should 
 cordially unite with them, and by no means view it 
 as amattar of constraint ; that mutual candour might 
 be exercised ; and that all reflections and past con- 
 duct, disagreeable to either of them, be entirely 
 buried and for ever forgotten. 
 
 (1665.) The general assembly of Connecticut ap- 
 pointed no committee to meet with that chosen by 
 the general court of New Haven ; and of this their 
 committee complain in their last letter. However, at a 
 session of theirs, the 20th of April, 1665, they passed 
 several resolutions for the further completion of the 
 union ; among which it was resolved, that William 
 Leet, and William Jones, Esquires, Mr. Benjamin 
 Fenn, Mr. Matthew Gilbert, Mr. Jasper Crane, 
 Mr. Alexander Bryan, Mr. Law, and Mr. Robert 
 Treat, should stand in the nomination for magis- 
 trates at the next election. They also passed the 
 following declaration : " That all acts of the autho- 
 rity of Nyw Haven, which had been uncomfortable 
 to Connecticut, should never be called to an ac- 
 count, but be buried in perpetual oblivion." 
 
 The king's commissioners presented the follow- 
 ing propositions, or requisitions from his majesty, to 
 this assembly. 
 
 " 1 . That all householders inhabiting this colony, 
 take the oath of allegiance, and that the adminis- 
 tration of justice be in his majesty's name. 
 
 " 2. That all men of competent estates and of 
 civil conversation, though of different judgments, 
 may be admitted to be freemen, and have liberty to 
 choose, or to be chosen officers, both military and 
 civil. 
 
 " 3. That all persons of civil lives may freely 
 enjoy the liberty of their consciences, and the wor- 
 ship of God in that way which they think best ; 
 provided that this liberty tend not to the disturbance 
 of the public, nor to the hinderance of the mainte- 
 nance of ministers, regularly chosen, in each respec- 
 tive parish or township. 
 
 " 4. That all laws, and expressions in laws, de- 
 rogatory to his majesty, if any such have been made 
 in these troublesome times, may be repealed, al- 
 tered, and taken off the file." 
 
 The assembly answered in the manner following : 
 
 " .1. That according to his majesty's pleasure, 
 expressed in our charter, our governor formerly ap- 
 pointed meet persons to administer the oath of alle- 
 giance, who have, according to their order, adminis- 
 tered the said oath to several persons already ; and 
 the administration of justice among us hath been, is, 
 and shall be, in his majesty's name. 
 
 " 2. That our order for the admission of freemen 
 is consonant with that proposition. 
 
 " 3. We know not of any one that hath been 
 troubled by us for attending his conscience, provided 
 he hath not disturbed the public. 
 
 " 4. We know not of any law, or expressions of 
 law, that are derogatory to his majesty among us ; 
 but if any such be found, we count it our duty to 
 repeal, alter, and take them off the file ; and to this 
 we attended upon the receipt of our charter." 
 
 About this time the council gave the following 
 
 answer to the commissioners relative to the claim 
 and petition of the duke of Hamilton : " That the 
 grant of Connecticut to the nobk-s and gentlemen, of 
 whom they purchased, was several years prior to the 
 marquis of Hamilton's : that with great difficulty they 
 had conquered a potent and barbarous people, who 
 spread over a great part of that tract of country, 
 which he claimed; and that it was but a small com- 
 pensation for the blood and treasure which they had 
 expended in conquering it, and defending it for his 
 majesty's interest, against the Dutch and other 
 foreigners : that they had peaceably enjoyed that 
 tract for about thirty years: that they had with 
 great labour and expense cultivated the lands to 
 their own and his majesty's interest ; and that his 
 majesty, of his grace, had been pleased to confirm it 
 to them by his royal charter, in which these reasons 
 had been recognised." 
 
 They at the same time solicited their honours the 
 commissioners, to present their humble acknowledg- 
 ments to his majesty for his abundant grace, in the 
 granting of their charter, and for his gracious letter, 
 sent them by his commissioners, re-ratifying their 
 privileges, civil and ecclesiastical. 
 
 At the general election, May llth, 1665, when 
 the two colonies of Connecticut and New Haven 
 united in one, the following gentlemen were chosen 
 into office. John Winthrop, Esq. was elected ga- 
 vernor, John Mason, Esq. deputy-governor, and 
 Matthew Allen, Samuel Wyllys, Nathan Gould, 
 John Talcott, Henry Wolcott, John Allen, Samuel 
 Sherman, James Richards, William Leet, William 
 Jones, Benjamin Fenn, and Jasper Crane, Esquires, 
 magistrates. John Talcott, Esq. was treasurer, and 
 Daniel Clark secretary. A proportionable number 
 of the magistrates were of the former colony of New 
 Haven; all the towns sent their deputies ; and the 
 assembly appears to have been very friendly 
 
 This assembly enacted, that Hastings and Rye 
 should be one plantation, by the name of Rye ; and 
 county courts were first instituted by that name. It 
 was enacted, that there should be two county courts 
 holden annually in New Haven ; one on the second 
 Thursday in June, the other on the third Thursday 
 in November; the court to consist of five judges, 
 two magistrates, and three justices of the quorum. 
 A similar court was appointed at New London ; and 
 the following October, that was made a distinct 
 county. 
 
 At the session in October, a county court was 
 appointed at Hartford instead of the quarterly courts ; 
 which was to be holden annually in the months of 
 March and September. The county courts had cog- 
 nisance of all cases except those of life, limb, or 
 banishment; but in cases of more than twenty shil- 
 lings, the law required that a jury should be einpan- 
 nelled. At the same time, a superior court was 
 appointed to be holden at Hartford, the Tuesday 
 before the session of the general assembly in May 
 and October ; which was to consist of eight magis- 
 trates at least, and always to be attended with a 
 jury. In this court were tried all appeals from the 
 several county courts, and all capital actions, of 
 life, limb, and banishment. 
 
 All the towns, formerly under the jurisdiction of 
 New Haven, were satisfied with the union of the 
 colonies, except Branford ; where Mr. Pierson and 
 almost his whole church and congregation were so 
 displeased, that they soon removed into N ewark, in 
 NewJersey ; and carried off the records of the church 
 and town, and after it had been settled about five- 
 and-twenty years, left it almost without inhabitants. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 709 
 
 For more than twenty years from that time, there 
 \vas not a church formed in the town ; but people 
 from various parts of the colony gradually moved 
 iato it, and purchased the lands of the first plant- 
 ers, so that in about twenty years it became re-set-, 
 tied ; and in 1685 it was re-invested with town 
 privileges. 
 
 The union of the colonies was a happy event. It 
 greatly contributed to the convenience, strength, 
 peace, and welfare of the inhabitants of both, and 
 of their posterity; greater privileges New Haven 
 could not have enjoyed, had they been success- 
 ful in their applications to his majesty ; and after 
 much expense, they might have failed in their at- 
 tempts and lost their liberties, or have been joined 
 to Connecticut at last. Had they remained a dis- 
 tinct colony, the charges of government would have 
 been greater ; and their situation, in so central a 
 part of the colony, would have been extremely in- 
 convenient, especially for Connecticut. 
 
 War was proclaimed this year in London, in the 
 month of March, between England and Holland ; 
 and intelligence had been given to the colony, that 
 De Ruyter the Dutch admiral had orders to visit 
 New York. The colony was alarmed, and put into 
 a state of defence; but the admiral was diverted 
 from the enterprise, and the year passed in peace. 
 It was now thirty years since the settlement of the 
 colony commenced, yet after the defalcation of 
 Long Island, it consisted of nineteen towns only 
 which paid taxes. The grand list was no more than 
 153,620 16*. bd. 
 
 A view of the churches of Connecticut and New Ha- 
 ven Ecclesiastical laws Care to diffuse general 
 knowledge; its happy influence Attempts to Jo and 
 a college at New Hacen No sectaries in Connecti- 
 cut nor Neiv Haven until after the union Deaths 
 and characters of several of the first ministers 
 Dissensions in the church Laws against the Qua- 
 kers A synod proposed and convened Dissensions 
 continued at Hartford and at Weathersfield Set- 
 tlement of Hadley Synod at Boston. 
 
 Connecticut, no less than other parts of New 
 England, was settled with a particular view to re- 
 ligion. It was the design of the first planters to 
 erect churches in the strictest conformity to Scrip- 
 ture example ; and to transmit evangelical purity, 
 in doctrine, worship, and discipline, with civil and 
 religious liberty to their posterity. And to see how 
 far they accomplished their desire, we must in 
 some degree retrace the period already travelled 
 over, and view it with regard entirely to ecclesias- 
 tical concerns. 
 
 The first churches, though their numbers were 
 small, and they had to combat all the hardships, 
 dangers, and expense of new settlements, com- 
 monly supported two able experienced ministers : 
 with the first three churches settled in Connecticut, 
 there were at Hartford, the Rev. Mr. Hooker and 
 Mr. Stone; at Windsor, Mr. Warham and Mr. 
 Hewet; and at Weathersfield, Mr Prudden, in 1638, 
 while his people were making preparations to re- 
 move from New Haven to Milford. To the garri- 
 son at Saybrook fort, Mr. John Higginson, son of 
 the Rev. Mr. Higginson, of Salem, preached three 
 or four of the first years. At New Haven, at first 
 were Mr. Davenport and Mr. Samuel Eaton, bro- 
 ther to Governor Eaton. At Milford, Mr. Prudden 
 was pastor, and the church invited Mr. John Sher- 
 man, afterwards minister of Watertown, in Massa- 
 chusetts, to be their teacher ; but he declined their 
 
 invitation, and that church never had but one settled 
 minister at the same time. The Rev. Mr. Whit- 
 field was pastor of the church at Guilford, and about 
 the year 1641 Mr. Higgiuson removed from Say- 
 brook, and became teacher, as an assistant to Mr. 
 Whitfield in that church. After Mr. Prudden left 
 Weathersfield, Mr: Henry Smith was elected, and 
 ordained pastor of the church and congregation in 
 that town. About the time that Mr. Higginson left 
 Saybrook, the Rev. Mr. Thomas Peters became 
 chaplain to Colonel Fenwick, and the people there. 
 Upon the removal of Mr. Eaton from New Haven, 
 Mr. William Hook was installed teacher, as an as- 
 sistant of Mr. Davenport. The six first towns in 
 Connecticut and New Haven enjoyed the constant 
 labour of ten able ministers. This was as much as 
 one minister to about fifty families, or to two hun- 
 dred and sixty or seventy souls. As other towns 
 settled, churches were gathered, and ministers in- 
 stalled or ordained. Mr. Jones was chosen pastor 
 at Fairfield, Mr. Adam Blackmail, at Stratford, 
 and Mr. Richard Denton, at Stamford. Mr. Abra- 
 ham Pierson was pastor of the church at Branfurd, 
 and it seems one Mr. Brucy assisted him as a 
 teacher for some time. Fourteen or fifteen of these 
 ministers had been episcopally ordained in England 
 before they came into America. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Richard Blynman, first pastor of 
 the church at New London, was also ordained in 
 England. After he came into this country, he set- 
 tled first, as pastor of the church at Gloucester, in 
 Massachusetts ; and from thence he removed to New 
 London in 1648. 
 
 From these reverend fathers, the ministers of 
 Connecticut trace their ordinations ; especially from, 
 Mr. Hooker, Mr. Warham, Mr. Davenport, and 
 Mr. Stone. 
 
 With respect to their religious sentiments, and 
 those of their followers, they were puritans; a name 
 given, says Fuller, "to abuse pious people, who endea- 
 voured to follow the minister with a pure heart, and 
 laboured for a life pure and holy." When armini- 
 anism began to prevail, in the latter part of the 
 reign of James I., those who were calvinistic were 
 termed doctrinal puritans ; and it was finally used, 
 as a stigma for all Christians who were strict in 
 morals, calvinistic in sentiment, and unconformed 
 to the liturgy, ceremonies, and discipline of the 
 established church. 
 
 This was truly thr character of the first ministers 
 and churches in this colony ; who were strictly cal- 
 vinistic, agreeing in doctrine with their brethren of 
 the established church, and with all the protestant 
 reformed churches. In discipline, they were con- 
 gregationalists, and dissented from the national 
 establishment ; but they firmly believed that it was 
 the sole prerogative of Christ to direct the mode of 
 worship and discipline in his own house. They were 
 persuaded, that the Scriptures were a perfect rule, 
 not only of faith and manners, but of worship and 
 discipline ; and that all churches ought to be formed 
 entirely after the pattern exhibited in the New 
 Testament. 
 
 Some of the ministers of Connecticut were dis- 
 tinguished for literature, piety, and ministerial gifts. 
 Mr. Hooker, Mr. Davenport, Mr. Stone, and some 
 others, were men of great learning and abilities : 
 and all were of the strictest morals. Mr. Neal, after 
 giving a catalogue of the ministers who first illumi- 
 nated the churches of New England, bears this tes- 
 timony concerning them. " I will not say that all 
 the ministers mentioned were men of the first rate 
 
710 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 for learning, but I can assure the reader, they had 
 a better share of it than most of their neighbouring 
 clergy at that time : they were men of great sobri- 
 ety afad virtue, plain, serious, affectionate preach- 
 ers, exactly conformable to the doctrine of the 
 church of England, and took a great deal of pains to 
 promote a reformation of manners in their several 
 parishes." They not only fasted and prayed fre- 
 quently with their people in public, but kept many 
 days of secret fasting, prayer, and self-examination, 
 in their studies; and some of them, it seems, fasted 
 and prayed in this private manner every week. Be- 
 sides the exercises on the Lord's day, they preached 
 lectures, not only in public, but from house to 
 house ; and they were diligent and laborious in 
 catechising and instructing the children and young 
 people, both in public and private. 
 
 The people who followed them into the wilder- 
 ness, were their spiritual children, who imbibed the 
 same spirit and sentiments, and esteemed them as 
 their fathers. Many of them were men of property, 
 as Haynes, Hopkins, Wyllys, Ludlow, Wolcott, 
 Eaton, Gregson, Desborough, Leet, and others, 
 who were governors and magistrates in their respec- 
 tive colonies. The people in general were pious, 
 and strictly moral; and instances of intemperance, 
 wantonness, Sabbath-breaking, fraud, or any other 
 gross immorality, for many years, were rarely found 
 among them. 
 
 It was the opinion of the principal divines, who 
 first settled New England and Connecticut, that in 
 every church, completely organized, there was a 
 pastor, teacher, ruling elder, and deacons. These 
 distinct offices they imagined were clearly taught 
 in certain passages of the Epistles ; and from these 
 they argued the duty of all churches, which were 
 able to be thus furnished. In this manner were the 
 churches of Hartford, Windsor, New Haven, and 
 other towns organized ; but those churches which 
 were not able to support a pastor and teacher, had 
 their ruling elders and deacons. Their ruling elders 
 were ordained with no less solemnity than their 
 pastors and teachers. Where no teacher could be 
 obtained, the pastor performed the duties, both of 
 pastor and teacher. It was the general opinion, 
 that the pastor's work consisted principally in ex- 
 hortation, in working upon the will and affections ; 
 and to this the whole force of his studies was to be 
 directed ; that by his judicious, powerful, and af- 
 fectionate addresses he might win his hearers to 
 the love and practice of the truth ; but the teacher 
 \vas doctw in ecclesia, whose business it was to teach, 
 explain, and defend the doctrines of Christianity. 
 
 The business of the ruling elder was to assist the 
 pastor in the government of the church. He was 
 particularly set apart to watch over all its members ; 
 to prepare and bring forward all cases of discipline ; 
 to visit and pray with the sick ; and, in the absence 
 of the pastor and teacher, to pray with the congre- 
 gation, and expound the Scriptures. 
 
 The pastors and churches of New England main 
 tained, with the reformed churches in general, that 
 bishops and presbyters were only different names 
 for the same office ; and that all pastors, regularly 
 separated to the Gospel ministry, were Scripture bi- 
 shops. They also insisted, agreeably to the primi- 
 tive practice, that the work of every pastor was 
 confined principally to one particular church anc 
 congregation, who could all assemble at one place 
 whom he could inspect, and who could all unite to- 
 gether in acts of worship and discipline. Indeed. th( 
 first ministers of Connecticut and New England a 
 
 irst maintained, that all the 
 was confined to his own church and congregation : 
 and that the administering of baptism and the 
 Lord's supper in other churches was irregular. 
 
 With respect to ordination, they h e ld that it did 
 not constitute the essentials of the ministerial office. 
 ' Ordination is an approbation of the officer, and 
 lolemn setting and confirmation of him in his office, 
 jy prayer, and laying on of hands," says- Mr. Hooker. 
 [t was viewed by the ministers of New England, 
 as no more than putting the pastor elect into office, 
 or a solemn recommending of him and his labours 
 to the blessing of God. It was the general opinion 
 :hat elders ought to lay on hands in ordination, if 
 there were a presbytery in the church ; but if there 
 were not, the church might appoint some other 
 elders, or a number of the brethren to that service. 
 
 It was acknowledged that synods or general coun- 
 cils were an ordinance of Christ, and in some 
 cases expedient and necessary : that their business 
 was to give light and counsel in weighty concerns, 
 and bear testimony against corruption in doctrines 
 and morals. While it was granted, that their de- 
 terminations ought to be received with reverenee, 
 and not to be counteracted, unless apparently re- 
 pugnant to the Scriptures, it was insisted that they 
 had no juridical power. The churches of Connecti- 
 cut originally maintained, that the right of choosing 
 and settling their ministers, of exercising discipline 
 and performing all juridical acts was in the church, 
 when properly organized ; and they denied all ex- 
 ternal or foreign power of presbyteries, synods, 
 general councils, or assemblies. Hence they were 
 termed congregational churches. 
 
 The fathers of Connecticut, as to polities, were 
 republicans. They rejected with abhorrence the 
 doctrines of the divine right of kings, passive obe- 
 dience, and non-resistance. With Sidney, Hamp. 
 den, and other great thinkers, they believed that all 
 civil power and government was originally in the 
 people ; and upon these principles they formed 
 their civil constitutions. 
 
 The churches of New Haven, Milford, and Guil- 
 ford, were formed first by the choice of seven per- 
 sons, from among the brethren, who were termed 
 the pillars. A confession of faith was drawn up, to 
 which they all assented, as preparatory to their co- 
 venanting together in church estate. They then 
 entered into covenant, first with God, to be his 
 people in Christ, and then with each other, to walk 
 together in the strict and conscientious practice of 
 all Christian duties, and in the enjoyment of all the 
 ordinances and privileges of the church of Christ. 
 The confessions of faith contained a summary of 
 Christian doctrine, and were strictly calvinistic. 
 The covenants were full, solemn, and impressive, 
 importing, " that they avouched the Lord Jehovah, 
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to be their sovereign 
 Lord and supreme Good ; and that they gave them- 
 selves up to him, through Jesus Christ, in the way 
 and on the terms of the covenant of grace." They 
 covenanted with each other to uphold the divine 
 worship and ordinances, in the churches of which 
 they were members ; to watch over each other as 
 brethren; to bear testimony against all sin; and to- 
 teach all under their care to fear and serve the Lord. 
 The other brethren joined themselves to the seven 
 pillars, by making the same profession of faith, and 
 covenanting in the same manner. The members, 
 previously to their covenanting with each ther, gave 
 one another satisfaction with respect to their r^ 
 pentance, faith, and purposes of holy living. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 It appears that the churches of New Haven and 
 Milford were gathered to the seven pillars, on the 
 22d of August, 1639. The tradition is, that soon 
 after, Mr. Davenport was chosen pastor of the 
 church at New Haven ; and that Mr. Hooker and 
 Mr. Stone came and assisted in his installation. 
 Mr. Prudden was installed pastor of the church at 
 Milford, April 8th, 1640, upon a day of solemn 
 fasting and prayer. Imposition of hands was per- 
 formed by Zechariah Whitman, William Fowler, 
 and Edmond Tapp. They were appointed to this 
 service by the other brethren of the church. The 
 installation was at New Haven, and it seems that, 
 the hands of the brethren were imposed in the 
 presence of Mr. Davenport and Mr. Eaton. 
 
 Though the members of Mr. Whitfield's church 
 were, in the original agreement, at New Haven, 
 engaged to embody into church estate, in the 
 same manner as New Haven and Milford churches 
 did, yet they delayed the completion of the work 
 for a considerable time. Probably, it was because 
 their company were not yet all arrived. But in 
 April, 1643, Mr. Whitfield, Mr. Higginson, Mr. 
 Samuel Desborough, Mr. William Leet, Mr. Jacob 
 Sheaf, Mr. John Mipham, and Mr. John Hoadley, 
 were elected the seven pillars. On the 19th of 
 June, all the other church members were gathered 
 unto these seven persons. Mr. Higginson, who 
 had been preaching about two years at Guilford, 
 with Mr. Whitfield, was, at this time, elected 
 teacher in that church. Mr. Whitfield had not 
 separated from the episcopal church when he came 
 into New England ; but as he came over in orders, 
 and his church came generally with him, there 
 are no intimations of his installation. 
 
 The circumstance of the seven pillars in these 
 three churches appears to have been peculiar to 
 them; and there are no intimations of it in the 
 formation of any other churches. The churches in 
 the other towns were gathered, by subscribing si- 
 milar confessions of faith, and covenanting toge- 
 ther in the same solemn manner, upon days of 
 fasting and prayer. Neighbouring elders and 
 churches were present on those occasions, assisted 
 in the public solemnities, and gave their consent. 
 When new members were admitted to full commu- 
 nion in any of the first churches of Connecticut, 
 they gave satisfaction to the brethren of their sin- 
 cere repentance towards God, and faith in Christ. 
 They commonly made a relation of their religious 
 expediences, and were then admitted to full com- 
 munion, by a public profession of their faith, and 
 by covenanting in the manner which has been re- 
 presented. 
 
 Mr. Eaton continued but a short time at New 
 Haven, and then returned to England. Mr. Wil- 
 liam Hook succeeded him as teacher in the chui'ch. 
 Mr. Denton, after spending three or four years at 
 Stamford, removed to Hampstead on Long Island ; 
 and upon his removal the church sent two of their 
 members to seek a minister. They travelled on foot, 
 through the wilderness, to the eastward of Boston, 
 where they found Mr. John Bishop, who left Eng- 
 land before he had finished his academical studies, 
 and had completed his education in this country ; 
 and they engaged him to go with them to Stamford; 
 and he travelled with them on foot ; and continued 
 with them, in the ministry, nearly fifty years. 
 
 Mr. Peters, after preaching three or four yeai-s 
 at Saybrook, returned to England ; and in 1646 a 
 church was formed in that town, by the direction 
 and assistance of the Rey. Mr. Hooker and some 
 
 other ministers. At the same time Mr. James 
 Fitch, who had perfected his theological studies, 
 under the direction of Mr. Hooker, was ordained 
 their pastor. The tradition is, that though Mr. 
 Hooker was present, yet that hands were imposed 
 by two or three of the principal brethren, whom 
 the church had appointed to that service. 
 
 On the 13th of October, 1652, a church was 
 gathered at Farmington, and Mr. Roger Newton 
 was ordained pastor ; and the same year, Mr. Tho- 
 mas Han ford began to preach at Nor walk, and 
 some time after a church was formed in the town, 
 and Mr. Han ford ordained pastor. 
 
 In 1660, Mr. Fitch and the greatest part of his 
 church removed to Norwich. Mr. Thomas Buck- 
 ingham succeeded him in the ministry at Saybrook. 
 A council of ministers and churches assisted at his 
 ordination, but the imposition of hands was per- 
 formed by the brethren, as it had been before in 
 the ordination of Mr. Fitch. The council consi- 
 dered it as an irregular proceeding, but the brethren 
 were so tenacious of what they esteemed their light, 
 that it could not be prevented without much incon- 
 venience. 
 
 These fifteen churches were the whole number 
 formed in the colony, and in which ministers had 
 been installed or ordained, at the time of the union. 
 The settlements and churches upon Long Island 
 had been adjudged to the jurisdiction of New York ; 
 and there wei'e several other towns which paid taxes, 
 where churches were not formed, nor pastors or- 
 dained; namely, Stonington, Middletown, Green- 
 wich, and Rye. Nevertheless, at the two former 
 there was constant preaching; and the general court 
 would not suffer any new plantation to be made which 
 would not support an able, orthodox preacher. 
 
 At Stonington, Mr. Zechariah Brigden officiated 
 about three years, until his death in 1663. To 
 him succeeded Mr. James Noyes, the same year, 
 who preached more than fifty-five years in the 
 town, but he was not ordained until more than ten 
 years after his first preaching to the people. 
 
 At Middletown, Mr. Nathaniel Collins was preach- 
 ing, but not ordained. Mr. Stow also preached 
 there, before, or with, Mr. Collins. Greenwich 
 and Rye were but just come under the jurisdiction 
 of Connecticut, and not in circumstances for the 
 support of ministers; and had only occasional 
 preaching for a considerable time. 
 
 At the time of the union the colony contained 
 about 1,700 families, eight or nine thousand inha- 
 bitants, and they constantly enjoyed the instruc- 
 tions of about twenty ministers. Upon an average, 
 there was as much as one minister to every eighty- 
 five families, or to about 430 souls ; and in some of 
 the new plantations, thirty families supported a 
 minister, and commonly there were not more than 
 forty when they called and settled a pastor; and 
 in several of the first churches there were often not 
 more than nine or ten male members. Exclusive 
 of Hartford, Windsor, New Haven, and Guilford, 
 there appears to have been none in which there 
 were more than sixteen or seventeen male commu- 
 nicants at their formation. 
 
 The most perfect harmony subsisted between the 
 legislature and the clergy. Many of the latter who 
 first came into the country had good estates, and 
 assisted their poorer brethren and parishioners in 
 making new settlements. They possessed a very 
 great proportion of the literature of the colony 
 and were the principal instructors of youth. They 
 had given a striking evidence of their integrity and 
 
'12 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 self-denial, iu emigrating into this rough and dis- 
 tant country, for the sake of religion, and were 
 faithful and zealous in their labours ; and many of 
 these circumstances combined to give them an un- 
 common influence over their hearers, of all ranks 
 and characters. For many years they were con- 
 sulted by the legislature, in all affairs of import- 
 ance, civil or religious : they were appointed on 
 committees, with the governors and magistrates, to 
 advise and assist them in the most delicate and im- 
 portant concerns of the commonwealth. 
 
 The ministers and churches of Connecticut ab- 
 horred the Antinomian heresy, which so distracted 
 the church at Boston, and some others in the Mas- 
 sachusetts; and in the first general council in New 
 England (1638), Mr. Hooker and Mr. Davenport 
 bore a noble testimony against the prevailing spirit 
 of that time. 
 
 Iu the next general council (1648) in New Eng- 
 land, ten years after, the ministers and churches of 
 Connecticut and New Haven were present, and 
 united in the form of discipline which it recom- 
 mended. And in this discipline the churches of 
 New England, in general, abided for more than 
 thirty years; which, with the ecclesiastical laws, 
 formed the religious constitution of the colonies. 
 
 In the " platform," as it is termed, it is declared 
 to be evident, " That necessary and sufficient 
 maintenance is due to ministers of the word, from 
 the law of nature and nations, the law of Moses, 
 the equity thereof, and also the rule of common 
 reason:" that it is matter of indispensable duty, a 
 debt due, and not an affair of alms or free gift. 
 " That not only members of churches, but all who 
 are taught in the word, are to contribute unto him 
 that teacheth in all good things : and that the ma- 
 gistrate is to see that the ministry be duly provided 
 for." 
 
 An early provision was therefore made, by law, 
 in Massachusetts and Connecticut, for the support 
 of the ministry; and in the latter all persons were 
 obliged, by law, to contribute to the support of the 
 church, as well as of the commonwealth. All rates 
 respecting the support of ministers, or any ecclesi- 
 astical affairs, were to be made and collected in the 
 same manner as the rates of the respective towns ; 
 and special care was taken, that all persons should 
 attend the means of public instruction. The law- 
 obliged them to be present at the public worship 
 on the Lord's-day, and upon all days of public 
 fasting and prayer, and of thanksgiving, appointed 
 by civil authority, on penalty of a fine of five 
 shillings for every instance of neglect. The con- 
 gregational churches were adopted and established 
 by law ; but provision was made that all sober, or- 
 thodox persons, dissenting from them, should, upon 
 the manifestation of it to the general court, be al- 
 lowed peaceably to worship in their own way. It 
 was enacted, " That no persons within this colony 
 shall in any wise embody themselves into church 
 estate, without consent of the general court, and 
 approbation of neighbouring elders." The laws 
 also prohibited that any ministry or church admi- 
 nistration should be entertained, or attended, by 
 the inhabitants of any plantation in the colony, 
 distinct and separate from, and in opposition to, 
 that which was openly and publicly observed and 
 dispensed by the approved minister of the place ; 
 except it was by the approbation of the court and 
 neighbouring churches. The penalty for every 
 breach of this act was bl. 
 
 The court declared, that the civil authority esta- 
 
 blished in the colony, "Had power and liberty to 
 see the peace, ordinances, and rules of Christ ob- 
 served in every church, according to his word; 
 and also to deal with any church member in a way 
 of civil justice, notwithstanding any church relation, 
 office, or interest." The law also provided, that 
 no church censure should degrade or depose any 
 man from any civil dignity, office, or authority, 
 which he should sustain in the colony. 
 
 In the grant of all new townships, special care 
 was taken by the legislature, that the planters 
 should not be without a minister, and the stated 
 administration of Gospel ordinances ; and every 
 town, consisting of fifty families, was obliged, by 
 the laws, to maintain a good school, in which read- 
 ing and writing should be well taught; and in 
 every county-town a good grammar-school was insti- 
 tuted ; and large tracts of land were given, and appro- 
 priated by the legislature, to afford them a perma- 
 nent support. 
 
 The select men of every town were obliged, by 
 law, to keep a vigilant eye upon all the inhabitants, 
 and to take care that all the heads of- families 
 should instruct their children and servants to read 
 the English tongue well ; and that once every week 
 they should catechise them in the principles of re- 
 ligion. The penalty for every instance of neglect 
 in this respect was twenty shillings for any family 
 so neglecting. The select men were also autho- 
 rized to take care that all families should be well 
 furnished with bibles, orthodox catechisms, and 
 books on practical godliness ; and it was provided 
 by the legislature, that the capital laws should be 
 taught weekly in every family. 
 
 The colony of New Haven, from the beginning, 
 made provision for the interests of religion, learn- 
 ing, and the good conduct of the inhabitants, with 
 no less zeal than Connecticut. 
 
 The care and piety of the first planters did not 
 rest here ; but they were careful, as soon as their 
 circumstances would permit, to found public semina- 
 ries, in which young men might be instructed in 
 the liberal arts, prepared for the ministry, and all 
 places of importance, in civil or religious life ; but 
 as Connecticut and New Haven were not able, of 
 themselves, at first to erect a college, they united 
 with Massachusetts, and contributed to the sup- 
 port of that at Cambridge by frequent private 
 j contributions, and money from the public treasury ; 
 ! and for a course of years the inhabitants educated 
 I their sons at that university. 
 
 By these means knowledge, at an early period, 
 | was generally diffused among people of all ranks ; 
 I and the advantages of this public and private in- 
 : struction, and constant attention to the morals, in- 
 : dustry, and good conduct of the inhabitants, have 
 j been made manifest in the high degree of civil, 
 ; ecclesiastical, and domestic peace and order, which, 
 ' for so long a period, have rendered them eminent 
 among their neighbours. 
 
 Cambridge " platform," in connexion with the 
 ecclesiastical laws, was the religious constitution of 
 Connecticut, for about sixty years, until the compi- 
 lation of the Saybrook agreement. 
 
 The colony of New Haven, sensible of the im- 
 portance of public seminaries, and of the inconve- 
 nience of sending their sons to so great a distance 
 as Cambridge for an education, at an early period, 
 attempted the founding of a college ; and a propo- 
 ' sal for this purpose was made to the general court, 
 i in 1654; and Uie next year, at the session in May, 
 New Haven made a donation of 300/., and Milford 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 713 
 
 p*>posed to give 1001. more, for the encouragement 
 of the design. The court proposed it to the depu- 
 ties of the other towns to inquire, and make report 
 what they would give; and Mr. Davenport, who 
 was the principal promoter of the affair, about the 
 same time, wrote to Governor Hopkins, who was 
 then in England, upon the subject; and, it seems, 
 solicited his assistance. Soon after, some lands 
 were given by the people of New Haven for the 
 further encouragement of so laudable an under- 
 taking ; and upon these favourable prospects, the 
 legislature, in 1659, proceeded to institute a gram- 
 mar-school at New Haven ; and it was ordered, 
 that 401. annually should be paid out of the public 
 treasury for its support ; and 1001. were also ap- 
 propriated for the purchase of books for the school. 
 In 1660 the donation of Governor Hopkins having 
 come into the possession, and being at the disposal 
 of Mr. Davenport, he, on the 30th of May, surren- 
 dered it into the hands of the general court, for the 
 purpose of founding a college. He proposed that 
 this donation should be united with the lands which 
 had been already given, and with such other dona- 
 tions as might be made by the legislature, for the 
 same purpose. The elders of the several churches 
 in the colony were nominated as trustees. As Mr. 
 Davenport was the only surviving legatee of Gover- 
 nor Hopkins, with respect to that part of the dona- 
 tion which had fallen to the share of New Haven, 
 he desired that, for the better discharge of the 
 trust which had been reposed in him, he might have 
 a negative upon the corporation, with respect to 
 the disposal of that, whenever he could exhibit sub- 
 stantial reasons, that it was about to be applied to 
 any purpose contrary to the design of the donor. 
 
 The general court thankfully accepted the dona- 
 tion, upon the terms on which it had been surren- 
 dered : they appropriated the lands which had been 
 given to New Haven to the support of the college ; 
 agreed to collect the money given by Governor 
 Hopkins ; and besides all other grants previously 
 made, enacted that a 1001. stock should be paid in 
 from the treasury of the colony, in such time and 
 manner as the court should order : it was also or- 
 dained, that both the grammar-school and college 
 should be at New Haven. One Mr. Peck was ap- 
 pointed master of the school ; but this and the col- 
 lege were of short continuance. The troubles in 
 which the colony was involved by the claims of 
 Connecticut, and the defection of such numbers of 
 their inhabitants, so impoverished and weakened it, 
 that a support could not be obtained for the instruc- 
 tor; and he became discouraged, and the court 
 gave up the school ; and, by the same means, the 
 design of a college also miscarried. After the 
 union, the colony made further provision for a 
 grammar-school, and all the lands and money, 
 which had been given for that and the college, were 
 appropriated to its support; and the school revived, 
 and has continued to the present time. 
 
 For a long course of years the churches enjoyed 
 great peace and harmony. 
 
 Mr. Hewett, teacher in the church at Windsor, 
 died September 4th, 1644: and the Rev. Thomas 
 Hooker, the father and pillar of the churches in 
 Connecticut, died July 7th, 1647, in the 61st year 
 of his age. He was born in England, at Marshfield, 
 in the county of Leicester, in 1586 ; and appears to 
 have been educated at Emmanuel-college, Cant- 
 bridge, England. Afterwards he was promoted to 
 a fellowship in the same college, where he acquit- 
 ted himself with such ability and faithfulness, as 
 
 commanded universal approbation and applause. 
 While at college, in his youth, he was visited with 
 those strong convictions of sin which characterized 
 the Puritans. He was naturally a man of strong 
 and lively passions ; but obtained a happy govern- 
 ment of himself. In his day he was one of the 
 most animated and powerful preachers in New 
 England ; and in his sermons he insisted much on 
 the application of redemption ; was searching, ex- 
 perimental, and practical. In conversation he was 
 pleasant and entertaining, but always grave ; and 
 he was exceedingly prudent in the management of 
 church discipline. It was not an uncommon in- 
 stance with him to give away five or ten pounds at a 
 time to poor widows, orphans, and necessitous people; 
 and at a certain time, when there was a great 
 scarcity at Southampton, upon Long Island, Mr. 
 Hooker, with some friends who joined with him, 
 sent the people a small vessel, freighted with seve- 
 ral hundred bushels of corn for their relief. In 
 family religion and government he was strict and 
 prudent. He died of an epidemical fever, which 
 prevailed that year in the country, and when dying, 
 said, " I am going to receive mercy." He closed 
 his own eyes, and appeared to die with a smile in 
 his countenance. 
 
 Mr. Henry Smith, first pastor of the church at 
 Weathersfield, died in 1648, and was succeeded by 
 the Rev. Jonathan Russell. The Rev. Mr. Prud- 
 den died in 1656, in the 56th year of his age. Be- 
 fore he came into New England, he was a preacher 
 "n Herefordshire, and on the borders of Wales. 
 His ministry was attended with uncommon success; 
 and when he came to Connecticut, it seems that 
 many good people followed him, that they might 
 enjoy his pious ministrations. He had the character 
 of a most zealous preacher, and had a singular talent 
 for reconciling contending parties, and maintaining 
 peace among his neighbours. 
 
 He was succeeded by Mr. Roger Newton, who 
 removed from Farrnington, and was installed at 
 Milford, August 22d, 1660. Hands were imposed 
 at his installation, by Zechariah Whitman, ruling 
 elder, deacon John Fletcher, and Robert Treat, 
 who were appointed to that service by the brother- 
 lood. Mr. Samuel Hooker, son of the famous Mr. 
 Hooker, of Hartford, succeeded Mr. Newton at 
 Farmington. He was ordained in July, 1661. 
 These deaths were all before the charter. There 
 were also a number of removals of some of the 
 principal ministers. The Rev. Mr. Whitfield, after 
 ae had laboured eleven years with the people at 
 Guildford, returned again to England. Some time 
 n the year 1650 he took leave of his flock and con- 
 rregation, and embarked for his native country. 
 Hie was exceedingly beloved by his congregation, 
 and they accompanied him to the water's side with 
 many tears. He had a large family of nine chil- 
 dren, whom he supported principally out of his own 
 estate, as most of his people were poor ; but finding 
 hat his estate was much exhausted, and that he 
 must still labour under many and great inconveni- 
 ences, if he continued in this country ; and having 
 numerous and pressing invitations to return to 
 England, he at last complied. Before he came 
 o Connecticut he enjoyed one of the best church 
 ivings in England, at Okely, in Surrey. His 
 rharity was happily proportioned to his opulence ; 
 and while he was at Okely he procured another 
 ious and able preacher, that he might go abroad 
 ind give assistance to other churches and poor 
 >eoplc. While he was in England his house waa 
 
714 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 a place of resort for the distressed ; and though he 
 was, for twenty years, a conformist, yet his house 
 was a place of retreat for Mr. Cotton, Mr. 
 Hooker, Mr. Goodwin, and other pious non-con- 
 formists. After he came into New England, he 
 expended much of his interest in assisting his poor 
 people; and was a popular preacher, delivering 
 himself with a peculiar dignity and solemnity. 
 After his return to England, he appears to have 
 finished his life in the ministry, at the city of Win- 
 chester. In consequence of Mr. Whitfield's estate 
 and expenses, in purchasing and settling the plan- 
 tation, and of Mr. Fenwick's gift of the eastern 
 part of the township to him, a large portion of the 
 best land in the town was allotted to him. On his 
 return to England he offered, upon very low terms, 
 to sell all his lands to the town. But the people 
 were poor, and imagined they should soon follow 
 their pastor, and neglected to purchase. Mr. 
 Whitfield, therefore, sold them to Major Robert 
 Thompson, in England, by whose heirs they have 
 been holden, to the great damage of the town, to 
 this time. 
 
 Several of the principal men returned to Eng- 
 land with Mr. Whitfield ; particularly Mr. Samuel 
 Desborough, Mr. Jordan and others. Mr. Desbo- 
 rough, after his return, was made lord-keeper of 
 the great seal, and one of the seven counsellors of 
 the kingdom of Scotland. 
 
 Mr. Higginson continued his ministry, as teacher 
 in the church at Guilford, until about the year 1659, 
 when, upon the death of his father, he returned to 
 Salem, and succeeded him in the pastoral office, 
 over the church in that town. 
 
 Mr. William Hook, who for about fourteen years 
 had been teacher in the church at New Haven, 
 about the year 1655 returned to England. Mr. 
 Eaton and Mr. Hook have been represented as men 
 of great learning and piety, and as possessing ex- 
 cellent pulpit talents. A writer of Mr. Eaton's 
 character, says, " he was a very holy man, a per- 
 son of great learning and judgment, and a most 
 incomparable preacher." As he dissented from Mr. 
 Davenport, with respect to the form of civil govern- 
 ment; his brother, Governor Eaton, advised him 
 to remove. After his return to England, he became 
 pastor of a church at Duckenfield, in the parish of 
 Stockport, in Cheshire. Mr. Hook, after his re- 
 turn, was sometime minister at Exmouth, in Devon- 
 shire ; and then master of the Savoy, in the Strand, 
 London, and chaplain to the greatest man then in 
 the nation. After the restoration, he was silenced 
 for non-conformity, May 24th, 1662; and on the 
 21st of March, 1667, he died in the vicinity of 
 London. Mr. Eaton was a companion with him in 
 tribulation ; for soon after the restoration of Charles 
 II., he was silenced, and suffered persecution. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Blynman, after he had laboured 
 about ten years in the ministry at New London, in 
 1658, removed to New Haven ; but after a short 
 stay in that town, he took shipping and returned to 
 England ; and lived, to a good old age, in the city of 
 Bristol. 
 
 Mr. Nicholas Street succeeded Mr. Hook, as 
 teacher in the church, at New Haven, about the 
 year 1659 ; and Mr. Blynman was succeeded in 
 office at New London, by Mr. Gershom Bulkley, 
 from Concord, in Massachusetts. 
 
 The first ministers in the colonies being thus dead 
 or removed, and a new generation risen up, who 
 had not all imbibed the sentiments and spirit of j 
 their pious fathers, alterations were insisted on with 
 
 respect to church discipline and baptism; and great 
 dissensions arose in the churches. They began first 
 in the church at Hartford, not many years after Mr. 
 Hooker's decease. The origin of 'them appears to 
 have been a difference between the Rev. Mr. Stone 
 and Mr. Goodwin, the ruling elder in the church, 
 upon some nice points of Congregationalism. It 
 seems, that some member had been admitted, or 
 baptism administered, which Elder Goodwin con- 
 ceived to be inconsistent with the rights of the bro- 
 therhood, and the strict principles of the congrega- 
 tional churches ; and perhaps he imagined himself 
 not to have been properly consulted and regarded. 
 Thus not only this church became divided and in- 
 flamed with the controversy, but it spread into 
 almost all the neighbouring churches, which inter- 
 ested themselves in the controversy, some taking 
 one side, and some another, as their connexions, 
 prejudices, and particular sentiments led them ; 
 and finally the whole colony became affected with 
 the dispute, and the general court particularly in- 
 terested themselves in the affair. The brethren in 
 the church at Hartford became so inflamed, and 
 imbibed such prejudices and uncharitable feelings 
 towards each other, that it was with great difficulty 
 they could be persuaded to keep together; and to 
 prevent an entire division of the church, it appears, 
 that about the years 1654 and 1655, several coun- 
 cils of the neighbouring elders and churches were 
 called to compose the differences between the par- 
 ties. They laboured to satisfy them with respect 
 to the points in controversy; but the brethren at 
 Hartford imagined, that all the elders and churches 
 in Connecticut and New Haven were prejudiced 
 in favour of one party or the other, and therefore 
 they would not hear their advice. For this reason, 
 it was judged expedient to call a council from the 
 other colonies ; and sometime in the year 1656, a 
 number of elders and churches from Massachusetts 
 came to Hartford, and gave their opinion and 
 advice to the church and the aggrieved brethren ; 
 but as the church did not comply with the result, 
 the parties became more alienated and embittered ; 
 and Elder Goodwin was joined by Governor Web- 
 ster, Mr. Whiting, Mr. Cullick, and other princi- 
 pal gentlemen at Hartford, in defending what they 
 esteemed the true principles of Congregationalism. 
 
 Meanwhile, there was a strong party in the co- 
 lony of Connecticut, who were for admitting all 
 persons of a regular life to a full communion in the 
 churches, upon their making a profession of the 
 Christian religion,without any inquiry with respect 
 to a change of heart ; and for treating all baptized 
 persons as members of the church : some carried 
 the affair still further, and insisted, that all persons 
 who had been members of churches in England, or 
 had been members of regular ecclesiastical parishes 
 there, and supported the public worship, should be 
 allowed to enjoy the privileges of members in full 
 communion in the churches of Connecticut ; and 
 they also insisted, that all baptized persons, upon 
 owning the covenant, as it was called, should have 
 their children baptized, though they came not to 
 the Lord's table. 
 
 Numbers of them took this opportunity to intro- 
 duce into the assembly a list of grievances, on ac- 
 count of their being denied their just rights and 
 privileges by the ministers and churches. A dis- 
 pate had arisen in the churches and congregations, 
 relative to the choice of a pastor ; and it was urged, 
 that it did not belong to the churches solely to choose 
 the pastor for themselves and the congregation ; 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 715 
 
 but as the inhabitants in general had an equal con- 
 cern for themselves and their children,with the mem- 
 bers of the church, in the qualifications of their 
 pastor, and as they were obliged to contribute their 
 proportion to his support, they had a just right to 
 give their voice in his election. The denying them 
 this right was considered as a great grievance ; and 
 many of the churches, and some or other of the 
 members in all of them, it seems, maintained that 
 the choice of a pastor belonged to them solely, 
 exclusive of the congregation: that there was no 
 Scripture example of any person's ever giving a 
 suffrage in the choice of a pastor but members of 
 the church : that pastors were ordained over the 
 churches only, and were termed the elders, pastors, 
 and angels of the churches. These, and a number 
 of other points were now warmly agitated in the 
 colony ; and the general state of the country was 
 greatly altered from what it was at its first settle- 
 ment. The people then were generally church 
 members, and eminently pious. They loved strict 
 religion, and followed their ministers into the wil- 
 derness for its sake ; but with many of their children, 
 and with others who had since emigrated into this 
 country, it was not so. They had made no open 
 profession of religion, and their children were not 
 baptized; which created uneasiness in them, as 
 well as in their ministers. They wished for the 
 honours and privileges of church members for them- 
 selves, and baptism for their children ; but they 
 were not persuaded that they were " regenerated," 
 and knew not how to comply with the rigid terms 
 of the congregational churches. A considerable 
 number of the clergy, and the churches in general, 
 zealously opposed all innovations, and exerted them- 
 selves to maintain the first practice and purity of 
 the churches ; and hence dissensions arose. 
 
 The general court, it seems, with a view to recon- 
 cile the church at Hartford, and to compose difficul- 
 ties, which were generally rising in the colony, at 
 their session in May, 1656, took the affair into 
 their serious consideration. They appointed a com- 
 mittee, consisting of Governor Webster, Deputy- 
 governor Wells, Mr. Cullick, and Mr. Talcott, all 
 of Hartford, to consult with the elders of the colony 
 respecting the grievances complained of; and to 
 desire their assistance in making a draft of the 
 heads of them, that they might be presented to the 
 general courts of the united colonies for their ad- 
 vice ; and the general courts were desired to give 
 their answers with as much expedition as possible. 
 
 While the churches were thus divided, they were 
 alarmed by the appearance of the Quakers ; a num- 
 ber of whom arrived at. Boston, in July and August, 
 and had been committed to the common gaol. A 
 great number of their books had been seized with a 
 view to burn them ; and in consequence of their 
 arrival, and the disturbance they had made at Bos- 
 ton, the commissioners of the united colonies, at 
 their court in September, recommended it to the 
 several general courts, " That all Qaakers, Ranters, 
 and other notorious heretics, should be prohibited 
 coming into the united colonies ; and that, if any 
 should come, or arise amongst them, they should 
 be forthwith secured, and removed out of all the 
 jurisdictions." 
 
 In conformity to this recommendation, the gene- 
 ral court of Connecticut, in October, passed the 
 following act: " That no town within this jurisdic- 
 tion, shall entertain any Quakers, Ranters, Ada- 
 mites, or such like notorious heretics; nor suffer 
 them to continue in them above the space of four- 
 
 teen days, upon the penalty of five pounds per weeK, 
 for any town entertaining any such person*: but the 
 townsmen shall give notice to the two next magis- 
 trates, or assistants, who shall have power to send 
 them to prison for securing them, until they can 
 conveniently be sent out of the jurisdiction. It is 
 also ordered, that no master of a vessel shall land 
 any such heretics ; but if they do, they shall be com- 
 pelled to transport them again out of the colony, by 
 any two magistrates or assistants, at their first set- 
 ting sail from the port where they landed them; 
 during which time, the assistant or magistrate shall 
 see them secured, upon penalty of twenty pounds 
 for any master of any vessel that shall not trans- 
 port them as aforesaid." 
 
 The court at New Haven passed a similar law : 
 and in 1658 both courts made an addition to this 
 law, increasing the penalties and prohibiting all 
 conversation of the common people with any of those 
 heretics, and all persons from giving them any en- 
 tertainment, upon the penalty of five pounds. The 
 law, however, was of short continuance, and no- 
 thing of importance appears to have been trans- 
 acted upon it, in either of the colonies. 
 
 Upon the representations made of the grievance 
 which had been matter of complaint to the general 
 courts of the confederate colonies, the court of Mas- 
 sachusetts advised that a general council should be 
 called, and sent letters to the other courts, signify 
 ing their opinion. The general court of New Haven 
 wrote an answer to the grievances, and to the QUPS 
 tions proposed respecting them ; which they supposed 
 sufficient : but the general court of Connecticut, 
 nevertheless, on the 26th of February, 1657, deter- 
 mined to have a general council ; and they ap- 
 pointed Mr. Warham, Mr. Stone, Mr. Blynman, 
 and Mr. Russell, to meet the elders, who should be 
 delegated from the other colonies at Boston, the 
 next June ; and to assist in debating the questions 
 proposed by the general court of Connecticut, or 
 any of the other courts, and report the determi- 
 nation of the council to the general court. 
 
 The church at Hartford continuing their conten- 
 tions, the court directed the elders, who were going 
 to Boston, to confer with the several ministers in the 
 Massachusetts, who had been of the council, relative 
 to the circumstances of that church, and to desire 
 them to come to Connecticut, and give their assist- 
 ance in council at Hartford. The court also directed 
 the church there to send for the former council : 
 and to state the matters with which they were not 
 satisfied ; and if this council should not be so happy 
 as to give them satisfaction, then they were di- 
 rected to invite Mr. Sherman of Watertown, and 
 several other ministers from the Massachusetts, to 
 make a visit at Hartford, and attempt the healing 
 of the breach made in the church there. 
 
 Governor Webster, Mr. Cullick, and Mr. Steel 
 dissented from the resolution of the assembly, and 
 declared, in open court, that it did not appear tc 
 them that the measures adopted by the court were 
 any where directed by the Divine word, or calcu 
 lated to restore peace to the churches. They ap- 
 pear to have been of the aggrieved brethren at 
 Hartford, and satisfied with the result of the former 
 council, to which the church did not submit. They 
 doubtless judged it more agreeable to Scripture and 
 reason, and especially to the principles of congrega 
 tional churches, to choose a council for themselves 
 when they should judge it expedient, than to nave 
 one imposed upon them by legislative authority. 
 The general court at New Haven were utterly 
 
716 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 opposed to a general council; and, upon receiving 
 a letter from the Massachusetts, inviting them to 
 send a number of their elders to assist in the coun- 
 cil, they, in a long letter, remonstrated against it, 
 and excused themselves from sending any of their 
 ministers. They represented, that the petition and 
 questions, exhibited to the general court of Con- 
 necticut, were unwarrantably procured, and of 
 dangerous tendency : that they heard the petition- 
 ers were confident that they should obtain great 
 alterations both in civil government and church 
 discipline : that they had engaged an agent to prove, 
 " That parishes in England, consenting to and 
 continuing meetings to worship God, were true 
 churches," and that the members of those parishes, 
 coming into New England, had a right to all church 
 privileges; though they made no profession of a 
 work of faith and holiness upon their hearts : they 
 expressed their apprehensions, that a general coun- 
 cil at that time would endanger the peace and 
 purity of the churches : they acquainted the gene- 
 ral court of Massachusetts that they had sent an 
 answer to all the questions proposed to the court ol 
 Connecticut; and that it was their opinion that the 
 legislature and elders of that colony were sufficient 
 to determine all those points without any assistance 
 from abroad : they observed that, on account of the 
 removal of Mr. Whitfield and Mr. Hook, and the 
 late death of Mr. Prudden, their elders could not 
 be spared; and with their letter, they sent the 
 answers, which they had given to the questions to 
 be debated, and they entreated the court and their 
 elders seriously to consider them. They desired 
 that, as the court had formed their civil polity and 
 laws upon the Divine word, and as the elders and 
 churches had gathered and received their discipline 
 from the same, they would exert themselves to pre- 
 serve them inviolable : and observed that, consider- 
 ing the htate of affairs in Connecticut, unless the 
 general court of Massachusetts should firmly ad- 
 here to their then constitution, and the counci" 
 should have the Divine presence with them, their 
 meeting might be of the most unhappy consequence 
 to the churches. 
 
 The colonies of Connecticut and Massachusetts 
 persisted in calling a general council; and the 
 questions proposed for discussion, as they stanc 
 upon the records, are the following : 
 
 1. Whether federal holiness, or covenant interest 
 be not the proper ground of baptism ? 
 
 2. Whether communion of churches, as such, be 
 not warrantable by the word of God? 
 
 3. Whether the adult seed of visible believers 
 not cast out, be not true members, and subjects o 
 church watch ? 
 
 4. Whether ministerial officers are not as trul 
 bound to baptize the visible disciples of Christ, pro 
 videntially settled among them, as officially * 
 preach the word ? 
 
 5. Whether the settled inhabitants of the country 
 being members of other churches, should have thei 
 children baptized amongst us, without themselve 
 first orderly joining in churches here ? 
 
 6. Whether membership, in a particular insti 
 tuted church, be not essentially requisite, under th 
 Gospel, to entitle to baptism ? 
 
 7. Whether adopted children, and such as ar 
 bought with money, are covenant seed ? 
 
 8. Whether things new and weighty may b 
 managed, in a church, without concurrence of offi 
 cers, and consent of the fraternity of the sam 
 church ? And if things of conimon concernmen 
 
 len how far the consent of neighbouring churches 
 to be sought ? 
 
 9. Whether it doth not belong to the body of a 
 wn, collectively taken, jointly to call him to be 
 it-ir minister, whom the chuch shall choose to be 
 
 eir officer? 
 
 10. Whether the political and external adminis- 
 ation of Abraham's covenant be not obligatory to 
 ospel churches ? 
 
 11. Unto whom shall such persons repair, that 
 re grieved at any church process or censure ; or 
 helher they must acquiesce in the church's cen- 
 
 ure to which they belong ? 
 
 12. Whether the laying on of hands in ordina- 
 ation belong to presbyters or brethren ? 
 
 13. Whether the church, her invitation and 
 lection of an officer, or preaching elder, necessi- 
 dtes the whole congregation to sit down satisfied, 
 s bound thereby to accept him as their minister, 
 hough invited and settled without the town's con- 
 ent? 
 
 14. What is the Gospel way to gather and settle 
 hurches ? 
 
 15. From whom do ministers receive their com- 
 nission to baptize ? 
 
 16. Whether a synod hath a decisive power? 
 
 17. Whether it be not justifiable, by the word of 
 lod, that civil authority indulge congregational 
 
 nd presbyterian churches, and their discipline in 
 he churches ? 
 
 It appears, by the records, that several other 
 questions were proposed, but these are all which 
 are to be found upon them. 
 
 The council convened at Boston, June 4th, 1657, 
 and, after a session of a little more than a fortnight, 
 rave an elaborate answer to twenty-one questions. 
 The elders from Connecticut brought back an au- 
 hentic copy of the result of the council, and pre- 
 sented it to the general court, at a session on the 
 L2th of August; and the court ordered, that copies 
 hould be sent forthwith to all the churches in the 
 colony; and if any of them should have objections 
 gainst the answers which had been given, they 
 were directed to transmit them to the general 
 court, at the session in October. 
 
 The answers were afterwards printed in London, 
 under the title of " A disputation concerning church 
 members and their children." Several of the ques- 
 tions involve each other; but the principal one 
 was that respecting baptism and church member- 
 ship ; and an answer to this, in effect, answered a 
 considerable part of the other questions. With 
 respect to this latter, it was asserted, " That it was 
 the duty of infants, who confederated in their pa- 
 rents, when grown up unto years of discretion, 
 though not fit for the Lord's supper, to own the 
 covenant they made with their parents, by entering 
 thereinto, in their own persons ; and it is the duty 
 of the churches to call upon them for the perform- 
 ance thereof; and if, being called upon, they shall 
 refuse the performance of this great duty, or other- 
 wise continue scandalous, they are liable to be cen- 
 sured for the same by the church. And in case 
 they understand the ground of religion, and are not 
 scandalous, and solemnly own their covenant in 
 their own persons, wherein they give up themselves 
 and their children unto the Lord, and desire bap- 
 tism for them, we see not sufficient cause to deny 
 baptism unto their children." 
 
 The answer to this question was, in effect, an 
 answer to the other respecting the right of towns to 
 vote in the election of ministers ; for if they were 
 
UNITED STATES 
 
 717 
 
 aH members of the church by baptism, and under 
 its discipline, they doubtless had a right to vote 
 with the church in the election of their pastor. 
 Indeed, there was no proper ground of distinction 
 between them and the church ; and hence, it seems, 
 the answer to that question was to this effect, " That 
 though it was the right of the brotherhood to choose 
 their pastor, and though it was among the arts of 
 antichrist to deprive them of this powe~, yet they 
 ought to have a special regard to the baptized, by 
 the covenant of God, under their watch." 
 
 The decisions of the council do not appear to 
 have had any influence to reconcile, but rather to 
 inflame the churches; and a number of ministers, 
 and the churches pretty generally, viewed this as a 
 great innovation, and entirely inconsistent with 
 the principles on which the churches of New Eng- 
 gland were originally founded, and with the princi- 
 ples of Congregationalism. 
 
 The church at Hartford, and the aggrieved bre- 
 thren, instead of being satisfied and reconciled, ap- 
 peared to be thrown into a state of greater aliena- 
 tion and animosity ; and the aggrieved soon after 
 withdrew from Mr. Stone and the church, and were 
 about forming a union with the church at Weathers- 
 field. Among them were Governor Webster, Mr. 
 Goodwin, ruling elder in the church, Mr. Cullick, 
 and Mr. Bacon, principal men both in the church 
 and town. Mr. Stone and the church were about 
 to proceed against the receders, but the general 
 court interposed, and passed an act, prohibiting the 
 church at Hartford to proceed any further against 
 the members who had withdrawn from their com- 
 munion, and prohibited those members to join 
 with the church at Weathersfield, or any other 
 church, until further attempts should be made for 
 their reconciliation with their brethren. By the 
 act it appears, that the churches in the colony were 
 generally affected with the dispute at Hartford, and 
 viewed it as a common cause, with respect to all the 
 congregational churches ; and it exhibits, in so 
 strong a point of light, the authority which the ge- 
 neral court imagined they had a right to exercise 
 over the churches, and the spirit of those times, as 
 to deserve to be quoted. It was as follows : " This 
 court orders, in reference to the sad difficulties that 
 are broken out in the several churches in this colony, 
 and in special, betwixt the church at Hartford and 
 the withdrawers ; and to prevent further troubles 
 and sad consequences, that may ensue from the 
 premises to the whole commonwealth, that there be, 
 from henceforth, an utter cessation of all further 
 prosecution, either oil the church's part at Hartford 
 towards the withdrawers from them; and, on the 
 other part, that those that have withdrawn from the 
 church at Hartford, shall make a cessation in pro- 
 secuting their former propositions to the church at 
 Weathersfield, or any other church, in reference to 
 their joining there, in church relation, until the 
 matters in controversy betwixt the church at Hart- 
 ford and the withdrawn members, be brought to an 
 issue, in that way the court shall determine." 
 
 The court having desired the elders of the colony 
 to meet them, and assist in adopting some measures 
 by which the divisions in the churches, and especi- 
 ally in that at Hartford, might be healed, adjourned 
 about a fortnight; but assembled again on the 
 24th of March. Whether the elders met them, or 
 not, does not appear ; but the advice of the assem- 
 bly at this time was, that Mr. Stone, with the 
 church and brethren who had withdrawn, should 
 meet together; and, in a private conference, if 
 
 possible, agree upon some terms by which they 
 might be reconciled. Governor Wells, and Depu- 
 ty-governor Winthrop were appointed to meet 
 with them, and employ their wisdom and influence 
 to make peace. 
 
 It seems, that the church did not comply with 
 this advice ; or if there were any meeting of the 
 parties, nothing was done to effect an accommoda- 
 tion ; and it appears that Mr. Stone viewed the 
 withdrawn brethren as in the hands of the church 
 at Hartford, and the matters to be determined as 
 not lying before any council or the general court; 
 and he would not admit that he, or the church, had 
 counteracted the advice of the former council ; and 
 therefore, at the session in May, petitioned that 
 the following propositions might be entered upon 
 the records of the colony, and that the withdrawn 
 brethren, or some person whom they should ap- 
 point, would dispute them with him in the presence 
 of the court. 
 
 " 1. The former council, at Hartford, June 26. 
 is utterly cancelled, and of no force. 
 
 4i 2. There is no violation of the last agreement, 
 (made when the reverend elders of the Massachu- 
 setts were here,) either by the church of Christ at 
 Hartford, or their teacher. 
 
 " 3. The withdrawn brethren have offered great 
 violence to the fore-mentioned agreement. 
 
 " 4. The withdrawn brethren are members of 
 the church of Christ at Hartford. 
 
 " 5. Their withdrawing from the church is a sin 
 exceeding scandalous and dreadful, and of its own 
 nature destructive to this and other churches. 
 
 " 6. The controversy between the church of 
 Christ at Hartford, and the withdrawn persons, is 
 not in the hands of the churches, to be determined 
 by them. " SAMUEL STONE." 
 
 It does not appear that the court gave their con- 
 sent, that the propositions should be disputed before 
 them, or that they enacted any thing at this court 
 respecting the affairs of the church, or the brethren 
 who had withdrawn ; but at a session, in August, 
 they insisted that the church and aggrieved bre- 
 thren should meet together, according to their for- 
 mer advice, and debate their difficulties among 
 themselves, and that the points in controversy should 
 be clearly stated. 
 
 At this time a complaint was exhibited against 
 Governor Webster, Mr. Cullick, Elder Goodwin, 
 and others, who had withdrawn from their brethren ; 
 but the court would not hear it at that time ; and 
 ordered, that if the church and brethren would not 
 agree to meet together and debate their differences 
 among themselves, each party should choose three 
 as indifferent elders as could be found ; who should 
 afford all the light and assistance in their power, 
 towards settling the differences according to the 
 Divine oracles; and that both parties should peace- 
 ably submit to their advice ; and if either of the 
 parties should refuse to make choice of three gen- 
 tlemen, for the design proposed, the court deter- 
 mined to choose for them. The church rejected the 
 proposal, and the court chose Mr. Cobbett, Mr. 
 Mitchel, and Mr. Danforth, for them ; and as a re- 
 serve, if either should fail, Mr. Brown was chosen. 
 The aggrieved brethren chose Mr. Davenport, Mr. 
 Norton, and Mr. Fitch; and, as a reserve, Mr. 
 Street. The council were to meet on the 17th of 
 September ; but the church, it seems, would not 
 send for the council, and so it did not assemble. 
 
 At a session of the general court the next year, 
 March 9th, 1659, it was determined, that as its past 
 
718 
 
 THE H (STORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 labours to promote unanimity at Hartford had been 
 frustrated by the non-compliance of the parties, the 
 secretary, in the name of the court, should desire 
 the elders, who had been formerly appointed, to 
 meet at Hartford on the 3d of June succeeding, 
 and afford their assistance in healing the breach 
 which had been made there. It was also enacted, 
 that the church at Hartford, and the brethren who 
 had withdrawn, should jointly bear the expenses of 
 the former council, and of making provision for 
 that which had been then appointed. 
 
 The council consisted of the elders and churches 
 ol Boston, Cambridge, Charlestown, Ipswich, Ded- 
 ham, and Sudbury; who assembled, according to 
 appointment, and were zealous in their labours to 
 soften the minds and conciliate the affections of the 
 parties ; and though they did not effect a reconci- 
 liation, yet they brought the brethren much nearer 
 together than they had been, and left the church 
 and town in a better state than they had enjoyed 
 for years before. 
 
 On the 15th of June the court assembled, and 
 perceiving the good effects of this council, desired 
 the same gentlemen to meet again at Hartford, on 
 the 19th of August; and upon the choice and 
 desire of the brethren who had withdrawn, the Rev. 
 John Sherman, and the church at Watertown, and 
 the elder and church at Dorchester, were also in- 
 vited to come with them. 
 
 The general court, in this state of the controversy, 
 ordered the heads of the complaint, which had been 
 exhibited against the withdrawn brethren, to be 
 drawn up and sent to them, and they were required 
 to appear before the court in October, and answer 
 to them. The church agreed to the whole council, 
 and the aggrieved to seven of them. The general 
 court ordered, that both parties should submit to 
 the judgment of the council, and that it should be a 
 final issue. 
 
 The council convened again at Hartford, and so 
 far composed the difficulties which had so long sub- 
 sisted, as to prevent a separation at that time ; and 
 some of the chief characters were soon removed by 
 death. Mr. Cullick went to Boston, and a consi- 
 derable number to Hadley ; and, by these means, 
 the church was restored to a tolerable state of peace 
 and brotherly affection ; but it was viewed by some 
 of its own members, and others, as having, in some 
 degree, departed from the strict principles of the first 
 congregational churches in New England; and 
 seems afterwards to have divided nearly on the same 
 grounds. 
 
 Doctor Mcther, in his Magnalia, represents that 
 it was difficult, even at the time of the controversy, to 
 find what were the precise points in dispute. In- 
 deed, what the particular act or sentiment in Mr. 
 Stone or the church was, which gave Elder Goodwin 
 disgust, and began the dissension, does not fully 
 appear. Nothing however is more evident, from 
 the questions propounded, which it appears were 
 drawn by the very heads of the parties, and by the 
 gentlemen chosen by the disaffected brethren, and 
 rejected by the church, than that the whole contro- 
 versy respected the qualifications for baptism, church 
 membership, and the rights of the brotherhood. Mr. 
 Stone's ideas of Congregationalism appear to have 
 bordered more on presbyterianism, and less on in- 
 dependence, than those of the first ministers in the 
 country in general; as his definition of Congrega- 
 tionalism was, " That it was a speaking aristocracy 
 in the face of a silent democracy." 
 
 The Hartford controversy was, for its circum- 
 
 stances, duration, and obstinacy, the most remark- 
 able of any in its day ; and it affected all the churches, 
 and insinuated itself into all the affairs of societies, 
 towns, and the whole commonwealth. Dr. Mather, 
 in his figurative style, says, " From the fire of the 
 altar, there issued thunderings and lightnings, and 
 earthquakes, through the colony;" which was con- 
 sidered as very remarkable, as the church at Hart- 
 ford had been famous for its instruction, peace, and 
 brotherly love. 
 
 The commissioners of the united colonies, in Sep- 
 tember, 1656, wrote a friendly and pacific letter on 
 the subject: in which they say, " We have, with 
 much sorrow of heart, heard of- your differences, 
 and that the means attended hitherto, for composing 
 them, have proved ineffectual. We cannot but be 
 deeply sensible of the sad effects and dreadful con- 
 sequences of dissensions, heightened and increased 
 in a church of such eminence for light and love;" 
 and they represented to them, that though all the 
 churches sympathized with them, yet they them- 
 selves would be sure, in the first place, to ftel the 
 smart; and they most earnestly exhorted them not 
 only to be exceedingly cautious of all further provo- 
 cations, but to employ all their wisdom and exer- 
 tions for a reconciliation. 
 
 The proclamation for a public thanksgiving in 
 November, recognised the success of the council, in 
 composing the difficulties at Hartford, as an event 
 demanding public joy and praise. The church at 
 Weathersfield interested themselves in the dispute 
 at Hartford, and became divided and contentious; 
 and some of the brethren exhibited a complaint to 
 the court against Mr. Russell, for joining with the 
 church in excommunicating one of the brethren, as 
 it was alleged, without giving him a copy of the 
 complaint exhibited against him, and without ac- 
 quainting him with his crime. The general court 
 ordered, that Mr. Russell should be reproved for 
 acting contrary to the usage of the churches; and 
 the brethren were divided with respect to their 
 church state. Some insisted, that they were no 
 church, because they had never been gathered ac- 
 cording to Gospel order; or if they had been a 
 church, that the members of it had moved away in 
 such a manner, as had destroyed its very existence: 
 and many were inviolably attached to Mr. Russell, 
 while others strenuously opposed him. 
 
 In this state of affairs, the general court appointed 
 the elders and churches of Hartford and Windsor, 
 a council to hear the difficulties which had arisen in 
 the church and town ; but the parties could not be 
 reconciled ; and Mr. Russell removed to Hadley, 
 where he and a number of his warm friends from 
 Hartford and Weathersfield planted a new town and 
 church. The general court resolved, that a church 
 had been regularly gathered at Weathersfield by 
 the consent of the general court, and approbation 
 of neighbouring elders; and that, though divers of 
 the members had removed to other places, yet the 
 brethren there were the true and undoubted church 
 of Weathersfield, and so to be accounted, notwith- 
 standing any thing which might appear. Thus ter- 
 minated the controversy; and Mr. Bulkley, in 
 1666, removed from New London, and succeeded 
 Mr. Russell in the pastoral office. The same year, 
 Mr. Simon Bradstreet, from Charlestown, came to 
 New London, and took the pastoral charge of the 
 church there. 
 
 About the time of Mr. Russell's removal from 
 Weathersfield, the minds of the people at Middle- 
 town became alienated from Mr. Stow, who appears 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 719 
 
 to have been the first minister in that town ; and a 
 committee of ministers and civilians, appointed by 
 the general court, dismissed him, on account of the 
 evil temper of the people towards him. 
 
 Many of the ministers and of the people in the 
 country were for extending baptism, according to 
 the determination of the general council in 1657 ; 
 but the churches were so generally and warmly op- 
 posed to it, that it could not be effected without a 
 synod; and as this and the "consociation" of 
 churches were favourite points, which a large num- 
 ber of the clergy and principal civilians in Massa- 
 chusetts and Connecticut wished to carry, the gene- 
 ral court of Massachusetts appointed a synod of all 
 the ministers in that colony, to deliberate and 
 decide on those points. The questions proposed 
 were, 
 
 1. Who are the subjects of baptism ? 
 
 2. Whether, according to the word of God, there 
 ought to be a consociation of churches ? 
 
 The council met at Boston, in September, 1662 ; 
 and their answer to the first question was substan- 
 tially the same with that given by the council in 
 1657 ; and they declared, " That church member.*, 
 who were admitted in minority, understanding the 
 doctrine of faith, and publicly professing their 
 assent thereunto, not scandalous in life, and 
 solemnly owning the covenant before the church, 
 wherein they give up themselves and children to the 
 Lord, and subject themselves to the government of 
 Christ in his church, their children are to be bap- 
 tized." They further resolved, " That the members 
 of orthodox churches, being sound in the faith, and 
 not scandalous in life, and presenting due testimony 
 thereof, these occasionally coming from one church 
 to another, may have their children baptized in 
 the church whither they came, by virtue of commu- 
 nion of churches." And they also gave their opinion 
 in favour of the consociation of churches. 
 
 However, the council were not unanimous ; seve- 
 ral learned and pious men protested against the de- 
 termination relative to baptism. The Rev. Charles 
 Chauncey, president of Harvard-college; Mr. In- 
 crease Mather, afterwards doctor in divinity; Mr. 
 Mather, of Northampton ; and others, were warmly 
 in the opposition ; and President Chauncey wrote a 
 tract against the resolution respecting baptism, en- 
 titled Antisynodalia; and Mr. Increase Mather 
 also wrote in opposition to the council; and Mr. 
 Davenport, and all the ministers in the colony of 
 New Haven, and numbers in Connecticut, were 
 against the resolutions. The churches were more 
 generally opposed to them than the clergy. 
 
 The general court of Connecticut took no notice 
 of the synod, nor of the dispute, but left the elders 
 and churches at liberty to act as they pleased : these 
 were attempting to form a union with New Haven; 
 and, as the ministers and churches of that colony 
 were unanimous in their opposition to the synod", 
 the court probably judged it impolitic at that time 
 to act any thing relative to these ecclesiastical 
 points. 
 
 While the churches were agitated with these dis- 
 putes, Mr. Stone died in England, July 20th, 1663. 
 He had his education at Emmanuel-college, in the 
 university of Cambridge ; and was eminently pious 
 and exemplary ; abounded in fastings and prayer, 
 and was a most strict observer of the Christian Sab- 
 bath. Preparatory to this, he laboured to abstract 
 himself on the Saturday evening, and was careful 
 not to- speak a word which was not serious ; and 
 spent much tiuie in the instruction of his family, 
 
 commonly delivering to them the sermon which he 
 designed to preach on the morrow, or some other, 
 which might be best calculated for their instruction 
 and edification. His sermons were doctrinal, re- 
 plete with sentiment, and concisely and closely 
 applied. He was esteemed one of the most accurate 
 and acute disputants of his day ; and was celebrated 
 for his wit, pleasantry, and good humour. 
 
 All the original ministers of Connecticut and 
 New Haven, except Mr. Warham and Mr. Daven- 
 port, had now finished their course, or returned to 
 England ; and most of their brethren, who composed 
 the first hurches,slept with them in the dust ; and the 
 first governors and magistrates were now also dead. 
 
 The next year the general court of Connecticut 
 came to a resolve, with a view to enforce the reso- 
 lution of the synod in the words following : 
 
 " This court understanding by a writing presented 
 to them from several persons of this colony, that 
 they are aggrieved, that they are not entertained in 
 church fellowship, this court having duly considered 
 the same, desiring, that the rules of Christ may be 
 attended, do commend it to the ministers and 
 churches in this colony, to consider whether it be 
 not their duty to entertain all such persons, who 
 are of an honest and godly conversation, having a 
 competency of knowledge in the principles of reli- 
 gion, and shall desire to join with them in church 
 fellowship, by an explicit covenant ; and that they 
 have their children baptized: and that all the chil- 
 dren of the church be accepted and accounted real 
 members of the church ; and that the church ex- 
 ercise a due Christian care and watch over them : 
 and that when they are grown up, being examined 
 by the officer, in the face of the church, it appear 
 in the judgment of charity, that they be duly quali- 
 fied to participate in that great ordinance of the 
 Lord's supper, by their being able to examine them- 
 solves and discern the Lord's body, such persons 
 be admitted to full communion. 
 
 *' The court dcsireth the several officers of the 
 respective churches would be pleased to consider, 
 whether it be not the duty of the court to order the 
 churches to practise according to the premises, if 
 they do not practise without such order. If any 
 dissent from the contents of this writing, they are 
 desired to help the court, with such light as is with 
 them, the next session of this assembly." 
 
 The secretary was directed to send a copy of this 
 resolution to all the ministers and churches in the 
 colony ; and the elders and churches who would not 
 comply with the proposed innovation, had not only 
 to combat the arguments and influence of the synod, 
 but the influence of the uneasy people in the congre- 
 gations, and of the general court; but it was but 
 slowly, and with great difficulty, that the practice 
 of owning the covenant, and baptizing the children 
 of parents who did not enter into full communion, 
 and attend both the sacraments, was introduced. 
 But few churches for many years admitted the prac- 
 tice, and some never did ; and it appears that, not- 
 withstanding tbe influence of the general court, and 
 the resolutions of the synods, or general councils, 
 a majority of the churches in Connecticut were 
 against it. They imagined that such a latitude in 
 baptism, and admission of members to communion, 
 would subvert the very design for which the churcheb 
 of New England were planted. 
 
 The discipline and usages of the Connecticut 
 churches continued yet 'or some time nearly in the 
 same situation in which they had been from the be- 
 ginning. The clergy and churches were strict itt 
 
720 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the admission of members to full communion ; and 
 those who were admitted, generally made a public 
 relation of their Christian sentiments. 
 
 The elders and churches were exceedingly strict, 
 with respect to those whom they ordained; examin- 
 ing them not only in the three learned languages 
 and doctrinal points of theology, with respect to 
 cases of conscience, and their ability to defend 
 Christianity and its doctrines against infidels', but 
 with respect to their own sentiments of religion. 
 All those who were to be ordained over any church, 
 previously to their separation to the sacred office, 
 satisfied the brotherhood of their spiritual birth, and 
 were admitted to their communion and fellowship ; 
 and none were ordained, or installed over any 
 church, until they had been admitted to its full com- 
 munion and fellowship ; and they were also strict in 
 the formation of churches ; none could be formed, 
 nor any minister ordained, without liberty from the 
 general court, and the approbation of the neighbour- 
 ing elders and churches. 
 
 From the preceding view, it appears that before 
 the union there were fifteen churches in Connecticut, 
 exclusive of those which had been formed upon Long 
 Island ; and that there had been thirty-one ministers 
 in the colony ; of whom about twenty-five or twenty- 
 six had been installed or ordained; and that twenty- 
 one were ministering to the people at the time of the 
 union ; nineteen of whom had been installed or or- 
 dained. The other two, Mr. Noyes and Mr. Collins, 
 were afterwards settled in the ministry, in the towns 
 where for some years they had been labouring. 
 
 Conduct of the king's commissioners Counties and 
 county courts regulated Governor Winthrop's estate 
 freed from taxation Towns settled' Controversy 
 with Rhode Island The grounds of it Courts ap- 
 pointed in the Narraganset country Laws revised 
 and printed War with the Dutch Claims and con- 
 duct of Major Edmund Andross, Governor of New 
 York Protest against him Conduct of Captain 
 Thomas Bull Proclamation respecting the insult 
 received from Major Andross Philip's war Cap- 
 tains Hutchinson and Lothrop surprised and slain 
 Treachery of the Springfield Indians Hadley at- 
 tacked by the enemy The assembly make provision 
 for the defence of Connecticut Expedition against 
 the Narraganset Indians The reasons of it The 
 great swamp Jight Loss of men Courage exhibited, 
 and hardships endured Captain Pierce and his 
 party cut off- Nanunttenoo taken Success of Cap- 
 tains Denison and A very Captain Wadsworth and 
 his party slain Death and character of Governor 
 Winthrop Success of Major Talcott Attack upon 
 Hadley The enemy beaten and begin to scatter 
 They are pursued to Housatonick Sachem of Qua- 
 baug and Philip killed Number of the enemy before 
 the war Their destruction Loss of the colonies 
 Connecticut happy in preserving its own towns and 
 assisting its neighbours 
 
 (1665.) After the reduction of the Dutch settle- 
 ments, Colonel Nichols fixed his residence at New 
 York, to manage the affairs of government; and 
 Sir Robert Carr, Cartwrith, and Maverick, the 
 other commissioners, went to Boston, and proceeded 
 upon the business of their commission. After they 
 had communicated their instructions to the general 
 court, and made a number of requisitions inconsist- 
 ent with the chartered rights of the colony, and 
 some inconsistent with the rights of conscience and 
 of the churches, they went from Boston to Narra- 
 ganset ; aud held courts at Warwick and Southerton, 
 
 and spent a considerable time in hearing the com- 
 plaints of the Indians, in determining the titles of 
 the English to their lands; and without any colour 
 of authority from their commission, undertook to 
 make a new province; and amongst other arbitrary 
 resolves, decided that the deed of the Rhode Islanders, 
 from the Indians, was of no force. Captain Ather- 
 ton, and others, had made a large purchase of the 
 Indians in Narragauset, east of Pawcatuck river, 
 and the planters had put themselves under the go- 
 vernment of Connecticut ; but the commissioners 
 determined that Captain Atherton's deed was not 
 legal, because there was no mention of the sum 
 which he had paid. However, as it appeared that a 
 full consideration had been paid the Indians for the 
 lands, the commissioners ordered the natives to pay 
 to the purchasers a certain quantity of wampum, 
 and the planters to move off from the lands ; and as 
 the Narraganset sachems had in 1664, made their 
 subjection to the king of England, acknowledging 
 themselves to be his subjects, they declared that the 
 country belonged to his majesty, and that in future 
 it should be called " the king's province ;" and they 
 determined, that no person of what colony soever 
 should presume to exercise any authority within that 
 tract, except those who should be authorized by them, 
 until his majesty's pleasure should be known. They 
 also further decreed, that the king's province should 
 extend westward to the middle of Pawcatuck river, 
 and northward as far as the south line of Massachu- 
 setts ; and in the plenitude of their power, they also 
 ordered that the Pequots, to whom the general as- 
 sembly of Connecticut had, agreeably to a resolu 
 tion of the commissioners of the united colonies, 
 assigned a tract of land on the east of Pawcatuck, 
 should be removed and settled in some other place, 
 which the assembly should appoint west of that river ; 
 and they came to these important decisions, with- 
 out giving Connecticut any notice, or ever hearing 
 what reasons the colony had to offer against them. 
 
 When they had finished their business in Narra- 
 ganset, they returned to Boston ; and there proceeded 
 in the same arbitrary manner. They came to no 
 determination with respect to the claim of the duke 
 of Hamilton, but returned the answer of Connecticut 
 to the king, and made a very friendly report to him 
 of the manner in which they had been received by 
 the colony of Connecticut, and of the loyalty and 
 attachment of the people to his royal person ; and 
 in consequence the king sent a gracious letter to the 
 colony ; in which he says, " We cannot but let you 
 know how much we are pleased. Although your 
 carriage doth of itself most justly deserve our praise 
 and approbation, yet it seems to be set off with more 
 lustre by the contrary deportment of the colony of 
 Massachusetts. We shall never be unmindful of 
 this your loyal and dutiful behaviour." 
 
 At the general election, May llth, 1666, the' 
 former governor and council were re-elected. 
 
 The general assembly at this session proceeded 
 to ascertain the limits of the counties and the busi- 
 ness of the county courts ; and it was enacted, that 
 the towns upon the river, from the north bounds of 
 Windsor, with Farmington, to thirty miles inland, 
 should be one county, to be called the county of 
 Hartford ; and that from Pawcatuck river, with 
 Norwich, to the west bounds of Hammonasset, 
 should be one county, by the name of the county of 
 New London; and that from the east bounds of 
 Stratford to the western boundary of the colony, 
 be another county, to be known by the name of the 
 county of Fail-field. The county courts were to 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 721 
 
 consist of one magistrate at least, and of two jus 
 ticesof the quorum; and if three magistrates were 
 present, they were authorized to proceed to business, 
 though the justices were absent. The probation of 
 wills and all testamentary matters, which before had 
 been transacted in the court of magistrates, were 
 referred to the county courts, with the liberty of 
 appeal to the superior court. 
 
 lu 1667, no alteration was made with respect to 
 the governor and council, but Governor Winthrop, 
 at first declined his office ; and the assembly ap- 
 pointed a committee, and desired to know the rea- 
 sons of his desire to leave the chair ; and they re- 
 ported the reasons to the assembly ; which it seems 
 were, that the expense of his office was such, that he 
 could not, consistently with his duty to himself and 
 family, continue in it, without some further allow- 
 ance from the colony. The assembly continued their 
 earnest desire, that he would accept the trust to 
 which he had been chosen ; and to enable him to 
 support his office with dignity, the legislature freed 
 all his estate in the colony from taxation, and 
 granted him 1101. out of the public treasury. Upon 
 these encouragements, in connexion with the desire 
 and unanimity of the freemen, he consented to ac- 
 cept his appointment. 
 
 About the year 1664, settlements had commenced 
 on the east side of Connecticut river, upon the tract, 
 on that side, which originally belonged to the town 
 of Saybrook; and in May, 1667, the inhabitants 
 were so increased, that the assembly made them a 
 distinct town by the name of Lyme. The Indian 
 name for the eastern part of the town was Nehan- 
 tick. 
 
 At the election in 1668 the freemen elected Mr. 
 Alexander Bryan, Mr. James Bishop, Mr. Anthony 
 Hawkins, and Mr. Thomas Wells, magistrates, in- 
 stead of Mr., Matthew Allen, Mr. Sherman, Mr. 
 Crane, and Mr. Clark. 
 
 In this and the next year several new settlements 
 were made and new towns incorporated; and on 
 the 20th of May, 1662, a purchase was made of the 
 Indians, of a township of land termed thirty miles 
 island; the Indian name of the tract, east of the 
 river, was Machemoodus. The original proprietors 
 were twenty-eight ; who began their settlements on 
 the west side of the river, and the inhabitants were 
 so increased, that in the session in October, 1668, 
 the plantation was vested with town privileges, and 
 named Haddam. The extent of the township was 
 six miles east and west of the river. 
 
 About the same time a settlement was made at 
 Massacoe. In April, 1644, the general court of 
 Connecticut had given liberty to Governors Hopkins 
 and Haynes to dispose of the lands upon Tunxis 
 river, called Massacoe, to such of the inhabitants of 
 Windsor as they should judge expedient ; and in 
 1647 the court resolved that Massacoe should be 
 purchased by the country, and a committee was ap- 
 pointed to dispose of it to such of the inhabitants of 
 Windsor as they should choose; and a purchase of 
 the lands was made of the Indians, and settlemente 
 b?gan under the town of Windsor. The plantation, 
 at first, was considered as an appendix or part of 
 that town : but in the session in May, 1670, it was 
 enacted, that Massacoe should be a distinct town, 
 by the name of Symsbury; and the limits were 
 ordered to be ten miles northward from the north 
 bounds of Farmington, and ten miles westward from 
 the western bounds of Windsor. 
 
 About the same time New Haven village was in- 
 coiporated and made a town, by the name of "Wal- 
 
 HIST. OF AMKR. Nos. 91 & 92 
 
 lingford. The purchase of the town had been made 
 by Governor Eaton, Mr. Davenport, and other 
 planters of New Haven, in December, IG38; but 
 the settlement was not projected until 1669 ; when 
 a committee was appointed by the town of New 
 Haven, vested with powers to manage the \vhole 
 affair of the settlement; which held the lands in 
 trust, and acted in all the affairs of the town, as 
 trustees, until May 1672, when the trust was re- 
 signed to the town. 
 
 .At the general election, May 1670, William 
 Leet, Esq. was chosen deputy-governor, and Major 
 Mason, who for many years had been deputy-gover- 
 nor, was chosen the first magistrate. 
 
 Until this time the great body of the freemen had 
 annually convened at Hartford, upon the day of 
 election, to make choice of the governor, magis- 
 trates, and civil officers, appointed by charter, to be 
 elected on that day ; but the freemen were now be- 
 come so numerous, and it had been found to be so 
 expensive and inconvenient, that it was judged ne- 
 cessary to alter the mode of election ; and the as- 
 sembly resolved, " That henceforth all the freemen 
 of this jurisdiction, without any further summons, 
 from year to year, shall or may upon the second 
 Thursday in May, yearly, in person or in proxy, at 
 Hartford, attend and consummate the election of 
 governor, deputy-governor, and assistants, and such 
 other public officers as his majesty hath appointed, 
 by our charter, then yearly to be chosen:" at the 
 same time a law was made, regulating the freemen's 
 meetings and the mode of election, nearly the same 
 with that respecting the election at the present time. 
 
 While the colony was thus extending its settle- 
 ments, and regulating its internal police, great dis- 
 sensions arose respecting the boundaries between 
 Connecticut and Rhode Island; aud from year to 
 year Connecticut had appointed committees to settle 
 the boundary line between the colonies, but all their 
 attempts had been unsuccessful. 
 
 In 1668 the assembly appointed Mr. Wyllys, and 
 Mr. Robert Thompson, of London, by petition or 
 otherwise, to represent the affair to his majesty, and 
 obtain a resolution respecting the boundary line ; but 
 nothing decisive, however, was effected ; and mean- 
 while, the conduct of Rhode Island was such, that 
 the general assembly of Connecticut declared it to 
 be intolerable, and contrary to the settlement made 
 by his majesty's commissioners ; and the assembly, 
 therefore, in May 1670, appointed Mr. Leet, the 
 deputy-governor, John Allen, and James Richards, 
 Esquires, Captain John Winthrop, and Captain 
 Benjamin Newbury, a committee to meet at New 
 London, the June following, to treat with such gen- 
 tlemen from Rhode Island as should be sent, pro- 
 perly authorized to act in the affair; and concern- 
 ing the injuries which the inhabitants of that colony 
 had done to the people of Connecticut. They were 
 not only vested with plenary powers to compromise 
 these difficulties, but, in case the commissioners 
 from Rhode Island would not agree to some equita- 
 ble mode of settlement, to reduce the people of 
 Squamacuck and Narraganset to obedience to this 
 colony ; and were also authorized to hold courts in 
 the Pequot and Narraganset country, and to hear 
 and determine all cases of injury which had been 
 done to the inhabitants of Connecticut, according 
 to law ; and to appoint all officers, necessary for 
 the peaceable government of that part of the colony. 
 
 The commissioners of the two colonies met at 
 New London, but could effect no settlement of the 
 controversy; as the commissioners from R*hode 
 
 3 T 
 
722 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Island insisted that Pawcatuck river was their 
 boundary, according to the express words of their 
 charter; and those from Connecticut, that their 
 charter, which was prior to that of Rhode Island, 
 bounded them easterly upon Narraganset Bay and 
 river, and that the Pequot country, which they had 
 conquered, extended ten miles east of Pawcatuck ; 
 and that therefore they had a right to that part, 
 both by charter and conquest. As no agreement 
 could be effected, the committee from Connecticut 
 went into the Narraganset country, and read the 
 charter at Wickford, and the plantations east of 
 Pawcatuck river; and, in the name of the general 
 assembly of Connecticut, demanded the submission 
 and obedience of the people to its authority and 
 laws; and appointed officers for the good govern- 
 ment of the people. 
 
 Both colonies had something plausible to plead. 
 The case, when truly stated, seems to be, that the 
 old patent of Connecticut, to Lord Say and Seal, 
 Lord Brook, and their associates, bounded the tract 
 conveyed eastward, by Narraganset Bay and river ; 
 and the charter granted in April 1662, gave the same 
 boundaries as the old patent in 1631 ; but Pawca- 
 tuck river was never known by the name of Nar- 
 raganset river, and it made no bay; consequently 
 the mouth of it, and the sea there, could not be 
 called Narraganset bay. But when Mr. John Clark 
 was in England, as agent for the colony of Rhode 
 Island, in 1663, there arose much difficulty between 
 him and Mr. Winthrop, respecting the boundaries 
 between the two colonies ; and they were advised, 
 by their friends, to submit the controverted points 
 to arbitrators, in England, to which they consented; 
 and consequently William Breereton, Esq., Major 
 Robert Thompson, Captain Richard Deane, Captain 
 John Brookhaven, and Doctor Benjamin Worseley, 
 were mutually chosen to hear and determine the dis- 
 putes ; and they came to the following determina- 
 tion : 
 
 " First, That a river there commonly called and 
 known by Pawcatuck river, shall be the certain 
 bounds between those two colonies, which said river 
 shall, for the future, be also called alias Narragance 
 or Narraganset river. 
 
 " Secondly, If any part of that purchase at Qui- 
 nebaug doth lie along upon the east side of the 
 river, that goeth down by New London, within six 
 miles of the said river, that then it shall wholly be- 
 long to Connecticut colony, as well as the rest which 
 lieth on the western side of the aforesaid river. 
 
 " Thirdly, That the proprietors and inhabitants 
 of that land about Mr. Smith's trading-house, 
 claimed or purchased by Major Athertou, Captain 
 Hutchinson, Lieutenant Hudson, and others, or 
 given unto them by Indians, shall have free liberty 
 to choose to which of those colonies they will belong. 
 
 " Fourthly, That propriety shall not be altered 
 nor destroyed, but carefully maintained through the 
 said colonies." 
 
 To this the two agents, John Winthrop and John 
 Clark, Esquires, interchangeably set their hands 
 and seals, as an agreement finally terminating the 
 controversy between them, on the 7th of March, 
 .1663 ; and, in consequence, the charter of Rhode 
 Island, granted July 8th, 1663, bounded that colony 
 westward by Pawcatuck river, and ordained, with 
 particular reference to the agreement, which is re- 
 cognised in the charter, that this river should be 
 called alias Narragance or Narraganset river; and 
 that the same shall be holden by the colony oi 
 Rhode Island, " any grant, or clause in a late grant, 
 
 ,o the governor and company of Connecticut co- 
 ony in America, to the contrary thereof, in any 
 wise notwithstanding." 
 
 The proprietors mentioned in the agreement, 
 made choice of the government of Connecticut, July 
 3d, 1663, and were taken under the jurisdiction 
 nd protection of this colony. 
 
 Connecticut insisted, that Mr. Winthrop's agency 
 was finished before the agreement with Mr. Clark, 
 and that he had never received any instructions 
 ? rom the colony, authorizing him to enter into any 
 such compact; and it was also pleaded, that his 
 majesty could not re-grant that which he had pre- 
 viously granted to Connecticut; at the same time 
 Rhode Island insisted on the agreement between 
 Mr. Winthrop and Mr. Clark, and on the limits 
 granted in the charter of that colony ; and hence 
 arose a controversy between the colonies, which 
 ontinued more than sixty years. 
 
 Governor W T inthrop, at the session in October, 
 again proposed a resignation of his office, and de- 
 sired the consent and approbation of the general 
 assembly, who were utterly opposed to it ; and 
 through the influence of the houses he was persuaded 
 to keep the chair; and, at the next session, a salary 
 of 15U/. was granted him, and, at various times 
 after, several valuable tracts of land. These consi- 
 derations, with the great unanimity and esteem of 
 he freemen, prevailed with him to continue in, 
 office until his death. 
 
 In 1671 the former officers were all re-chosen. 
 
 During eighteen or twenty years, attempts had 
 been making to settle a township at Paugasset ; and 
 about the year 1663, it appears that Governor Good- 
 year, and several other gentlemen in New Haven, 
 made a purchase of a considerable tract there. 
 About the year 1654 some few settlements were 
 made; and the next year, at the session in October, 
 the planters presented a petition to the general 
 couit at New Haven, to be made a distinct town, 
 and to order their affairs independently of the other 
 towns. The court granted their petition ; gave 
 them liberty to purchase a tract sufficient for a 
 township ; released them from taxes ; and appointed 
 Richard Baldwin moderator to call meetings, and 
 conduct the affairs of the plantation. At the next 
 court, however, Mr. Prudden, and the people of 
 Milford, made such strong remonstrances against 
 the act, that the court determined the people at 
 Paugasset should continue, as they had been, under 
 the town of Milford, unless the parties should come 
 to an agreement, respecting the incorporation of 
 the inhabitants there into a distinct township. In 
 1657 and 1659 a purchase was made of the lands of 
 the chief sagamores, Wetanamow and Raskenute; 
 and the purchase appears to have been confirmed 
 afterwards by Okenuck, the chief sachem. Some 
 of the first planters were Edward Wooster, Edward 
 Riggs, Richard Baldwin, Samuel Hopkins, Thomas 
 Langdon, and Francis French ; who preferred a 
 petition to the general assembly of Connecticut, 
 praying for town privileges, in 1671. The assembly 
 determined that their south bounds should be the 
 north line of Milford, and that they should extend 
 their limits twelve miles northward, to a place 
 called the notch. For their encouragement, it was 
 promised that, as soon as there should be thirty 
 families in the plantation, they should be vested 
 with town privileges ; and about four years after, 
 (Oct. 1675,) they renewed their application; re- 
 
 E resenting that they then consisted of twelve fami- 
 es, and that eleven more were about moving di 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 723 
 
 rectly into the plantation : that they had procured 
 a minister, built him a house, and made provision 
 for the enjoyment of Divine ordinances; and, upon 
 these representations, the assembly formed them 
 into a town, by the name of Derby. 
 
 Major John Mason, who for many years had been 
 deputy-governor, and rendered many important 
 services to the colony, being far advanced in years, 
 and visited with many infirmities, about this time 
 excused himself from the service of the common- 
 wealth; and at the next election, May 9th, 1672, 
 Mr. John Nash was chosen magistrate, to fill the 
 vacancy made by his resignation. 
 
 Until this time the colony had kept their laws in 
 manuscript, and had promulgated them, by sending 
 copies to be publicly read in the respective towns ; 
 and this year the first code of Connecticut was pub- 
 lished. It was printed at Cambridge, in Massachu- 
 setts; and consisted of between seventy and eighty 
 pages of print, and of nearly the same number of 
 blank pages in small folio. The preface is written 
 in the most religious manner, sufficiently solemn 
 for an introduction to a body of sermons ; of which 
 the following introduction is a specimen : " To our 
 beloved brethren and neighbours, the inhabitants 
 of Connecticut, the general court of that colony 
 wish grace and peace in our Lord Jesus." It re- 
 cognises the design of the first planters, " who," as 
 the court express it, " settled these foundations," 
 for the maintaining of " religion according to the 
 Gospel of our Lord Jesus ;" which it declares " ought 
 to be the endeavour of all those that shall suc- 
 ceed to uphold and encourage unto all generations." 
 The assembly enacted, that every family should 
 have a law book ; and in the blank pages all the 
 laws enacted after 1672 were inserted in writing, 
 until the year 1699, when the book was filled up. 
 
 At the election, May 8th, 1673, Robert Treat, 
 Esq. was chosen into the magistracy; and, at the 
 same court, Richard Smith was appointed a com- 
 missioner at Narraganset, and vested with the pow- 
 ers of magistracy through that country. A court of 
 commissioners was also instituted there, which had 
 cognisance of all cases not exceeding twenty pounds, 
 provided that all such as exceeded forty shillings 
 should be tried by a jury. A commissioner, or as 
 we term the same officer, a justice of the peace, was 
 appointed at Pettyquamscot. 
 
 As war had been declared in England the last 
 year against the Dutch, the colony was put into a 
 state of defence ; and a troop of horse was raised in 
 each county. On the 30th of July a small Dutch 
 fleet, under the command of Commodores Cornelius 
 Everste, and Jacob Benkes, arrived at New York ; 
 and one John Manning, who commanded the fort 
 and island there, treacherously delivered them up 
 to the enemy, without firing a gun, or attempting 
 the least resistance; and the inhabitants of New 
 York and New Jersey generally submitted to the 
 Dutch without opposition. About the same time 
 the Dutch captured a vessel of Mr. Sillick's of this 
 colony, near one of the harbours of the western 
 towns. 
 
 A special assembly was convoked at Hartford, on 
 the 7th of Angust; and orders were immediately 
 issued, that the respective troops in the colony, 
 with 500 dragoons, should be ready for service ; 
 and that all the trainbands should be complete in 
 their arms. The same day, Mr. James Richards 
 and Mr. William Roswell were dispatched with a 
 letter from the assembly to the Dutch commodores, 
 to know their further intentions ; and the assembly 
 
 remonstrated against their conduct, in capturing 
 Mr. Sillick's vessel, and in demanding the submis- 
 sion of his majesty's English subjects, upon Long 
 Island, and that they should take the oath of allegi- 
 ance to the States-general; they declared that the 
 united colonies were, by his majesty, constituted 
 the defenders of the lives and liberties of his sub- 
 jects, in these parts of his dominions, and assured 
 them that they would be faithful to their trust. The 
 governor, deputy-governor, and a number of the 
 council, were appointed a committee of war, to act 
 as emergencies should require. 
 
 The Dutch commanders returned a soldier-like 
 answer to the messengers and letter from Connecti- 
 cut, purporting that they had a commission to do all 
 damages in their power to their enemies, by land 
 and sea : that they had summoned the towns upon 
 Long Island to submit to them ; and that unless 
 they should comply, they would reduce them to 
 their subjection by force of arms : that as the vessel 
 they had taken was their enemy's, it was strange to 
 them that any questions were proposed concerning 
 it: and that while they doubted not of the faithful- 
 ness of the united colonies in defending their ma- 
 jesty's subjects, they should not be less zealous and 
 faithful in the service of the States-general. 
 
 On the llth of August the committee of war, 
 which met at Hartford, appear to have apprehended 
 an immediate invasion ; as they gave orders that 
 the whole of the militia of the colony should be 
 ready to march at an hour's warning, to any place 
 which might be attacked. They also made such 
 arrangement of the dragoons, and sent such assist 
 ance to their friends upon Long Island, as pre- 
 vented an invasion of any part of the colony, and 
 the plunder and destruction of the English upon 
 the island. 
 
 On the meeting of the assembly, in October, 
 letters were sent to Massachusetts and Plymouth, 
 to solicit their united assistance against the Dutch, 
 and to know their opinion relative to proclaiming 
 war, arid engaging in offensive operations against 
 them; and Mr. John Banks was sent express to 
 the Dutch commanders, with a spirited remonstrance 
 against the conduct of the Dutch, who had threat- 
 ened the towns on the island with destruction, by 
 fire and sword, unless they would submit and swear 
 allegiance to the States-general. They had sent 
 ships and an armed force towards the east end of 
 the island to subdue the people, but had been pre. 
 vented ; and the assembly assured them that they 
 knew how to avenge themselves upon their planta- 
 tions, and not only so, but upon their head-quar- 
 ters, if the colonies should rise, and warned them of 
 the consequences of injuring the English towns 
 upon the island. 
 
 Connecticut, upon consulting their confederates, 
 found it to be the general opinion to act offensively 
 against the Dutch; and, consequently, a special 
 assembly was called on the 26th of November, and 
 war was immediately proclaimed against them; by 
 which it was determined, that an expedition should 
 be undertaken against New York, in conjunction 
 with the other confederates. Major Treat was ap- 
 pointed to command the troops from Connecticut. 
 
 The Dutch not only threatened the English towns 
 on the island with destruction, but, it seems, made 
 several descents upon it, with a view to attack them : 
 however, by the assistance of the troops from Con- 
 necticut, they were, in all instances, repulsed, and 
 driven from the island; and before suitable prepa- 
 rations could be made for an attack upor the Dutch. 
 
 3T2 
 
724 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 at their head-quarters, the season was too far ad- 
 vanced for military operations; and early in the 
 spring the news of a general pacification between 
 England and Holland prevented all further pro- 
 ceedings of this kind. The whole militia of the 
 colony, at this time, amounted to no more than 
 2,070 men; one-fourth of which, it seems, were 
 mounted as dragoons, and employed for the defence 
 of the colony, and of his majesty's English subjects 
 upon Long Island. 
 
 The only alteration made by the election in 1674 
 was the choice of Thomas Topping, Esq. instead of 
 Mr. Hawkins. 
 
 As the inhabitants of Long Island had been pro- 
 tected and governed the latter part of the last year 
 by Connecticut, they made application, at this as- 
 sembly, for the further enjoyment of its protection 
 and government ; and the legislature accepted them, 
 and appointed officers in the several English towns, 
 as they had done at their session the preceding Oc- 
 tober. 
 
 Upon the application of the town of Wickford 
 and other plantations in Narraganset, the legislature 
 took them under the government of this colony ; 
 and a court was instituted at Stonington, for the 
 government of the people in Narraganset, that " they 
 might not live in dissolute practices, to the dis- 
 honour of God, of the king and nation, and to the 
 scandalizing of the very heathens." 
 
 The legislature, in 1672, granted liberty to Mr. 
 Sherman, Mr. William Curtiss, and their associates, 
 to make a plantation at Pomperaug; and such a 
 number of settlements had been made there, in 
 about two years, that the assembly, in May 1674, 
 enacted that it should be a township, by the name 
 of Woodbury. 
 
 Scarcely had the colonies recovered from one ca- 
 lamity and danger, before new and more terrible 
 causes of alarm and danger presented themselves ; 
 and not only Connecticut, but all the New England 
 colonies, approached a most distressing and im- 
 portant period, in which their very existence was 
 endangered. 
 
 Upon the pacification with the Dutch, the Duke 
 of York, to remove all doubt and controversy re- 
 specting his property in America, took out a new 
 patent from the king, Juue 29th, 1674, granting 
 the same territory described in the former patent ; 
 and two days after he commissioned Major, after- 
 wards Sir Edmund Andross, so be governor of New 
 York, and all his territories in these parts. The 
 major was a mere tool of the duke, and a tyrant 
 over the people. We have already, in the history 
 of New York, pourtrayed his despotic and unjust 
 conduct. We have also already given the history 
 of the war with the Indians, usually called Philip's 
 war, in the account of the previous colonies; so 
 that it is only necessary to repeat the circumstances 
 which may appertain more particularly to Connec- 
 ticut. 
 
 Notwithstanding the priority of the patent of 
 Connecticut to the Duke of York's, and the deter- 
 mination of his majesty's commissioners about ten 
 years before, Andross set up the duke's claim to all 
 that part of the colony which lies to the westward of 
 Connecticut river, and he threatened the colony 
 with an invasion; and, at the same time, Philip, 
 sac&em of the Wampanoags, commenced his hosti- 
 lities against the colonies. 
 
 On the 20th of June, 1675, his Indians attacked 
 bwanzey, one of the frontier towns of New Plymouth, 
 and insulted the English, rifled their houses, and 
 
 killed their cattle. Four days after they killed 
 nine, and wounded seven of the inhabitants; but 
 the troops of that colony marched immediately to 
 the defence of the town; and ra four days they 
 were reinforced with several companies from Boston. 
 On the 2Sth the troops were drawn forth against 
 the enemy ; who instantly fled before them for a 
 mile or two, and took refuge in a swamp ; and the 
 next day Major Savage arrived with more troops, 
 and a general command from Boston. He marched 
 the army into the Indian towns, to surprise their 
 head-quarters, and give them battle upon their own 
 grounds; but they found the enemy's towns, and 
 even the seat of Philip, deserted with marks of the 
 utmost precipitation. As the Indians fled, they 
 marked their route with the burning of buildings, 
 the scalps, hands, and heads of the English, which 
 they had taken off and fixed upon poles by the way- 
 side. As the troops could not come up with the 
 enemy, they returned to their head-quarters at 
 Swanzey. 
 
 About the same time it was discovered that Major 
 Andross was about to make a hostile invasion of the 
 colony, and to demand a surrender of its most im- 
 portant posts to the government of the duke of 
 York ; and detachments from the militia were there- 
 fore sent, with the utmost expedition, to New Lon- 
 don and Saybrook. Captain Thomas Bull, of 
 Hartford, commanded the party sent to Saybrook. 
 
 About the 8th or 9th of July the people of that 
 town were surprised by the appearance of Major 
 Andross, with an armed force, in the sound, making 
 directly for the fort; as they had received no intel- 
 ligence of the affair, nor instructions from the go- 
 vernor and council, how to conduct themselves upon 
 such an emergency, they were at first unde- 
 termined whether to make any resistance or not; 
 but they did not hesitate long; and the fort was 
 manned, and the militia of the town drawn out for 
 its defence. At this critical juncture Captain Bull, 
 with his company, arrived, and the most vigorous 
 exertions were made for the defence of the fort and 
 town; and on the llth, Major Andross, with seve- 
 ral armed sloops, drew up before the fort, hoisted 
 the king's flag on board, and demanded a surrender 
 of the fortress and town ; but Captain Bull raised 
 the king's colours in the fort, and arranged his men 
 in the best manner ; and appeared determined and 
 desirous for action. The major did not like to fire 
 on the king's colours, and perceiving that, should he 
 attempt to reduce the town by force, it would be a 
 bloody affair, judged it expedient not to fire upon 
 the troops; but he, nevertheless, lay off the fort all 
 that day, and part of the next. 
 
 The critical state of the colony had occasioned 
 the meeting of the assembly at Hartford, on the 9th 
 of July ; which immediately proceeded to draw up 
 a declaration, or protest, against the major, in the 
 words following : 
 
 " Whereas, we are informed that Major Edmund 
 Andross is come with some considerable force into 
 this his majesty's colony of Connecticut, which might 
 be construed to be in pursuance of his letter to us, 
 to invade or intrude upon the same, or upon some 
 part of our charter limits and privileges, and so to 
 molest his majesty's good subjects, in this juncture 
 when the heathen rage against the English, and by 
 Sre and sword have destroyed many of his majesty's 
 *ood subjects, our neighbours of Plymouth colony, 
 and still are carrying their heads about the country, 
 as trophies of their good success ; and yet are pro- 
 ceeding further in their cruel designs against the 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 725 
 
 English; in faithfulness to our royal sovereign, and 
 in obedience to his majesty's commands, in his gra- 
 cious charter to this colony, we can do no less than 
 publicly declare and protest against the said Major 
 Edmund Andross, and these his illegal proceedings, 
 as also against all his aiders and abettors, as dis- 
 turbers of the peace of his majesty's good subjects 
 in this colony ; and that his and their actions, in 
 this juncture, tend to the encouragement of the hea- 
 then to proceed in the effusion of Christian blood, 
 which may be very like to be the consequence of his 
 actions, and which we shall unavoidably lay at his 
 door, and use our utmost power and endeavour (ex- 
 pecting therein the assistance of Almighty God) to 
 defend the good people of this colony from the said 
 Major Andross his attempts ; not doubting but his 
 majesty will countenance and approve our just pro- 
 ceedings therein, they being according to the com- 
 mission we have received from his majesty in his 
 gracious charter to this colony ; by which power and 
 trust so committed unto us, we do again forewarn 
 and advise the said Major Andross, and all his aiders 
 and abettors, to forbear and desist such forenamed 
 unjust and unwarrantable practices, as they expect 
 to answer the same, with all such just damages and 
 costs as may arise or accrue thereby. And we do 
 further, in his majesty's name, require and command 
 all the good people, his majesty's subjects of this 
 colony of Connecticut, under our present govern- 
 ment, utterly to refuse to attend, countenance or 
 obey the said Major Edmund Andross, or any under 
 him, in any order, instruction, or command, diverse 
 from or contrary to the laws and orders of this co- 
 lony here established, by virtue of his majesty's 
 gracious charter, granted to this colony of Connec- 
 ticut, as they will answer the contrary at their 
 peril. God save the king." 
 
 This was voted unanimously ; and was sent by an 
 express to Saybrook, with instructions to Captain 
 Bull to propose to Major Andross the reference of 
 the affair in dispute to commissioners, to meet in 
 any place in this colony which he should choose ; 
 and early in the morning of the 12th of July, the 
 major desired that he might have an interview with 
 the ministers and chief officers. Imagining proba- 
 bly, that if he could read the duke's patent and his 
 own commission, it would make an impression upon 
 the people, and that he should gain by art that which 
 he could not by force of arms. He was allowed to 
 come on shore with his suit ; but meanwhile the 
 express arrived with the protest, and instructions 
 from the assembly ; and Captain Bull and his offi- 
 cers, with the officers and gentlemen of the town, 
 met the major at his landing, and acquainted him 
 that they had at that instant received instructions to 
 tender him a treaty, and to refer the whole matter 
 in controversy to commissioners, capable of deter- 
 mining it according to law and justice. The major 
 rejected the proposal, and forthwith commanded, in 
 his majesty's name, that the duke's patent, and the 
 commission which he had received from his royal 
 highness, should be read ; but Captain Bull com- 
 manded him, in his majesty's name, to forbear read- 
 ing; and when his clerk attempted to persist in 
 reading, the captain repeated his command with 
 such a voice and manner as convinced the major it 
 was not safe to proceed. The captain then ac- 
 quainted him that he had an address from the assem- 
 bly to him, and read the protest. Finding he could 
 make no impression upon the officers or people, and 
 that the legislature of the colony were determined to 
 defend themselves, in the possession of their char- 
 
 tered rights, he gave up his design of seizing tho 
 J fort; and represented the protest as a slender affair 
 and an ill requital of his kindness ; tut said, how-, 
 ever, he should do no more. The militia of the 
 town guarded him to his boat, and going on board 
 he soon sailed for Long Island. 
 
 The general assembly upon receiving an account 
 of the major's conduct, came to the following reso- 
 lution. 
 
 " This court orders that thjs declaration shall 
 forthwith be sent forth to the several plantations, 
 sealed with the seal of the colony, and signed by the 
 secretary, to be there published. 
 
 " Forasmuch as the good people of his majesty's 
 colony of Connecticut have met with much trouble 
 and molestation from Major Edmund Andross, his 
 challenge and attempts to surprise the main part of 
 said colony, which they have so rightfully obtained, 
 so long possessed and defended against all invasions 
 of Dutch and Indians, to the great grievance of his 
 majesty's good subjects in their settlements, and to 
 despoil the happy government by charter from his 
 majesty granted to themselves, and under which 
 they have enjoyed many halcyon days of peace and 
 tranquillity to their great satisfaction, and to the 
 content of his majesty, graciously expressed by 
 letters to them, so greatly engaging their loyalty 
 and thankfulness, as makes it intolerable to be put 
 off from so long and just settlement under his ma- 
 jesty's government by charter. Hereupon, for the 
 prevention of misrepresentations into England, by 
 the said Major Andross against us for our refusal, 
 and withstanding his attempts made with hostile ap- 
 pearances to surprise us at Saybrook, while we were 
 approaching towards a savage Indian enemy that 
 had committed much outrage and murder by fire and 
 sword upon our neighbours about Plymouth ; this 
 court have desired the honourable John Winthrop 
 and James Richards, Esquires, or either of them, 
 (intending a voyage to England upon their own 
 occasions,) to take with them the narrative and 
 copies of all the transactions betwixt us, and to give 
 a right understanding for clearing our innocence, 
 and better securing our enjoyments as occasion 
 shall offer." 
 
 Notwithstanding every precaution and exertion of 
 the colonies, the Indians continued plundering, burn- 
 ing, killing, and capturing the colonists, and kept 
 the whole country in continual fear and alarm ; 
 especially the inhabitants of Massachusetts, Ply- 
 mouth, and Rhode Island. 
 
 Besides other damages not so considerable, Cap- 
 tain Hutchinson, who had been sent with a party of 
 horse to treat with the Nipmuck Indians, was drawn 
 into an ambush near Brookfield, and mortally 
 wounded; and sixteen of his company were killed. 
 The enemy then rushed in upon the town, and 
 burnt all the dwelling-houses except one, which was 
 defended by the garrison, until it was reinforced 
 two days after by Major Willard ; when they retired, 
 having burned twenty dwelling-houses, with all the 
 barns and out-houses, and killed all the cattle and 
 horses which they could find. In September, Had- 
 ley, Deerfield, and Northfield, on Connecticut river, 
 ere attacked, and numbers of the inhabitants killed 
 and wounded; and most of the buildings in Deer- 
 field were burnt, and Northfield was soon after 
 abandoned to the enemy. There were a number of 
 skirmishes about the same time in that part of the 
 country, in which the English on the whole were 
 losers. Captain Beers was surprised near North 
 field, by a large body of the enemy, and he and 
 
726 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 twenty of his party were killed ; and the officers 
 who commanded in that quarter, finding that by 
 sending out parties they sustained continual loss 
 and disappointment, and effected nothing of import- 
 ance, determined to collect a magazine at Hadley, 
 -and garrison the town. At Deerfield, there were 
 about three thousand bushels of wheat in stack 
 which it was resolved to thresh out, and bring down 
 to Hadley; and while Captain Lothrop, with a 
 chosen corps of young men, the flower of the county 
 of Essex, was guarding the teams employed in this 
 service, seven or eight hundred Indians suddenly 
 attacked him; and though he fought with great 
 bravery, yet he fell with nearly his whole party. 
 Ninety or a hundred men being killed on the spot. 
 Captain Mosely, who was stationed at Deerfield, 
 marched to reinforce Captain Lothrop, but arriv- 
 ing too late was obliged to fight the whole body of 
 the enemy for several hours, until Major Treat 
 of Connecticut, with about a hundred and sixty 
 Englishmen and Moheagan Indians, marched to his 
 assistance, and put the enemy to flight. The fall of 
 Captain Lothrop and such a fine body of men, was 
 a heavy loss to the country ; especially to the county 
 of Essex, filling it with great aud universal lamen- 
 tation. 
 
 The commissioners about the middle of Septem- 
 ber, ordered 1000 men to be raised for the general 
 defence, 500 of which were to be dragoons with long 
 arms. Connecticut was required to raise 315 men 
 for her proportion ; and a considerable part of this 
 force was employed by Connecticut, under Major 
 Treat, for the defence of the upper towns. Captain 
 Watts had been sent with a company to Deerfield 
 some time before. 
 
 During the term of about forty years, the Indians 
 in the vicinity of Springfield had lived in the great- 
 est harmony with the English, and still made the 
 strongest professions of friendship ; yet about this 
 time they conspired with Philip's warriors for the 
 destruction of that town. At the distance of about 
 a mile from it they had a fort ; and the evening be- 
 fore they made their assault, they received into it 
 about three hundred of Philip's warriors ; but one 
 Toto, a Windsor Indian, betrayed the plot, and 
 dispatches were immediately sent off from Windsor 
 to Springfield, and to Major Treat, who lay at West- 
 field with the Connecticut troops, to apprise them 
 Of the danger. The people at Springfield were so 
 strongly persuaded of the friendship of those Indians, 
 that they would not credit the report ; and one Lieu- 
 tenant Cooper, who commanded there, was so infatu- 
 ated, that as soon as the morning appeared, instead 
 of collecting his men and preparing for the defence 
 of the town, he, with another man, rode out with a 
 design to go to the fort and discover the truth of the 
 report. He soon met the enemy, who killed his 
 companion, and shot several balls through his body ; 
 but as he was a man of great strength and courage, 
 he kept his horse, though mortally wounded, until he 
 reached the first garrison-house and gave the alarm. 
 The enemy immediately commenced a furious attack 
 upon the town, and began to set fire to the build- 
 ings ; and the inhabitants were in the utmost con- 
 sternation ; having no one to command them, and 
 must soon have all fallen a bloody sacrifice to a 
 merciless foe, had not Major Treat appeared to 
 their relief; who upon receiving intelligence of the 
 designs of the enemy, marched without loss of time ; 
 but meeting with considerable hinderance in crossing 
 the river for want of boats, his arrival was not in 
 time to prevent the attack. He soon, however, drove 
 
 off the enemy and saved the inhabitants, and a coo 
 siderable part of the town. But great damage had 
 been done ; no less than thirty dwelling-houses, 
 besides barns and out-houses, having been burned. 
 Major Pyncheon and Mr. Purchas sustained each 
 the loss of a thousand pounds ; and Mr. Pelatiah 
 Glover, minister of the town, lost his house, with a 
 large and excellent library. 
 
 In this stage of the war, the general assembly of 
 Connecticut convened, October 14th ; and sensible 
 of the good conduct of Major Treat, in defending 
 the colony and the towns on Long Island against 
 the Dutch, and in relieving Captain Mosely and 
 Springfield, returned him public thanks, appointed 
 him to the command of all the troops to be raised in 
 the colony, to act against the enemy, and desired 
 his acceptance of the service. 
 
 . Upon intelligence from the Rev. Mr. Fitch, that a 
 large body of the enemy were approaching the 
 town of Norwich, Major Treat was directed to march 
 thither for the defence of that part of the colony ; 
 but soon after his orders were countermanded, and 
 he proceeded to Northampton ; where he arrived in 
 time to render his country another piece of important 
 service. The enemy had been so elated with their 
 various successes, that having collected about eight 
 hundred of their warriors, they made a furious 
 attack upon Hadley ; and almost every part of the 
 town was assaulted at the same instant ; but it was 
 defended by officers and men of vigilance and spirit, 
 so that the enemy every where met with a warm re- 
 ception. Several parties of the Massachusetts' troops 
 who were in the neighbouring garrisons, flew to thei; 
 assistance, and Major Treat advancing with his 
 usual dispatch from Northampton, soon attacked 
 them with his whole force, and they were put to a 
 total flight; and they sustained such loss, and were 
 so disheartened, that from this time the main body 
 of them left that part of the country, and held their 
 general rendezvous in Narraganset. Some few, 
 however, remained, doing damage as they had op- 
 portunity, and keeping the people in constant 
 alarm. 
 
 From the intelligence communicated to the gene- 
 ral assembly of Connecticut during the October 
 session, it appeared that the enemy had designs 
 upon almost all the frontier towns in the colony ; 
 and each county was therefore required to raise 
 sixty dragoons, complete in arms, horses and ammu- 
 nition, for the immediate defence of the colony, 
 wherever their services might be necessary. Captain 
 A very was appointed to the command of forty Eng- 
 lishmen from the towns of New London, Stoning- 
 ton and Lyme, with such a number of Pequots as 
 be should judge expedient, for the defence of that 
 part of the country, and the annoyance of the 
 enemy as occasion should present. Captain John 
 Mason was appointed to command another party of 
 twenty Englishmen, and the Moheagan Indians; 
 and these parties were ordered to post themselves in 
 the best manner to guard the eastern towns, and to 
 act conjointly or separately as emergencies should 
 require. An army of one hundred and twenty dra- 
 goons was appointed to act against the enemy under 
 the command of Major Treat ; and it was ordered 
 that all the towns should be fortified, and that every 
 town should provide the best places of defence of 
 which it was capable, for the security of the women 
 and children, who were directed to repair to them, 
 upon the first intimations of danger. The inhabi- 
 tants of the towns on the frontiers, who were few in 
 number, and most exposed, were advised to remove 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 727 
 
 their best effects, and people unable to defend them- 
 selves to retire into the more populous parts of the 
 colony, where they would be in a more probable 
 state, of safety. 
 
 The proportion whichConnecticut sent to the united 
 army of the confederate states, was 315 English- 
 men and 150 Moheagan and Pequot Indians ; which 
 were divided into five companies, commanded by 
 Captains Seely, Gallup, Mason, Watts, and Mar- 
 shall; the corps being commanded by Major Treat; 
 and the honourable Josiah Winslow, Esq., governor 
 of New Plymouth, was appointed commander in 
 chief. The orders of the commissioners to Connec- 
 ticut were issued at Boston, the 12th of November; 
 by which :t was required that the troops should ren- 
 dezvous at New London, Norwich, and Stonington, 
 by the 10th of December. 
 
 The Connecticut troops arrived at Pettyquamscot, 
 on the 17th of December; where there had been a 
 number of buildings in which the troops expected to 
 have been covered and kindly entertained ; but the 
 enemy, a day or two before, had killed ten men and 
 five women and children, and burned all the houses 
 and barns. The next day they formed a junction 
 "with the Massachusetts and Plymouth forces. We 
 shall not recapitulate the history of this war, except 
 only in such particulars as relates to Connecticut. 
 
 Of the 300 Englishmen from Connecticut, eighty 
 were killed and wounded ; twenty in Captain Seely's, 
 twenty in Captain Gallup's, seventeen in Captain 
 Watts's, nine in Captain Mason's, and fourteen in 
 Captain Marshall's company. Of these about forty 
 were killed or died of their wounds. About half the 
 loss in this bloody action fell upon Connecticut. 
 The legislature of the colony, in a representation of 
 the services they had performed in the war, say, 
 " In that signal service, the fort fight in Narragan- 
 set, as we had our full number in proportion with 
 the other confederates, so all say they did their full 
 proportion of service. Three noble soldiers, Seely, 
 courageous Marshall, and bold Gallup, died in the 
 bed of honour ; and valiant Mason a fourth captain, 
 had his death's wound. There died many brave 
 officers and sentinels, whose memory is blessed; 
 and whose death redeemed our lives. The bitter 
 cold, the tarled swamp, the tedious march, the strong 
 fort, the numerous and stubborn enemy they con- 
 tended with, for their God, king and country, be 
 their trophies over death. He that commanded our 
 forces then, and now us, made no less than seven- 
 teen fair shots at the enemy, and was thereby as oft 
 a fair mark for them. Our mourners over all the 
 colony witness for our men, that they were not un- 
 faithful in that day." It is the tradition that major, 
 afterwards Governor Treat, received a ball through 
 the brim of his hat, and that he was the last man 
 who left the fort in the dusk of the evening, com- 
 manding the rear of the army. The burning the 
 wigwams, the shrieks and cries of the women and 
 children, and the yelling of the warriors, exhibited 
 a most horrible and affecting scene, so that it greatly 
 moved some of the soldiers ; and many of them were 
 visited with strong scruples of conscience, feeling it 
 to be contrary to the Gospel, to have waged the war 
 with the Indians, to the burning them in their wig- 
 wams. 
 
 The Connecticut troops having sustained such a 
 loss of officers, and being so disabled, Major Treat 
 judged it necessary to return to Connecticut, where 
 he might recruit them, and cover them with more 
 convenience than could possibly be done in that 
 part of the country. The wounded men who were [ 
 
 not able to travel, were put on board vessels and 
 carried to Rhode Island. The Connecticut troops 
 in their March from Stonington to Pettyquamscoi,* 
 killed six and captured seven of the enemy ; and on 
 their journey home, killed and captured about thirty 
 more. 
 
 The Massachusetts and Plymouth troops kept the 
 field the greater part of the winter, and the Indians 
 still continued their hostilities. 
 
 In February, 1676, a number of volunteers from 
 Conn-ecticut, belonging principally to New London, 
 Norwich, and Stonington, formed themselves into 
 companies under Major Palms, Captain George 
 Denison. Capt. James Avery, and Captain John Stan 
 ton, for the annoyance of the enemy. They engaged 
 a number of Moheagans, Pequots, and Narragansets, 
 to be associates with them for the sake of plunder, 
 and other rewards. The Moheagans were com- 
 manded by Onecho, one of the sons of Uncas; the 
 Pequots by Cassasiuamon, their chief; and the Nar- 
 ragansets, consisting of about twenty men, by Cata- 
 pazet. These latter were Ninigrate's men, who in 
 time past had given the colonies so much trouble ; 
 but at this time they remained quiet, and would not 
 join the other Narraganset sachems. 
 
 The principal seat of Ninigrate was at Westerly, 
 which formerly belonged to Stonington. He put 
 himself under the English, and he and his Indians 
 were the only ones who were not destroyed or driven 
 from that part of the country. 
 
 These companies began to range the Narraganset 
 country, and harass the enemy, the latter part of 
 February, and continued making their incursions 
 from that time until the enemy were driven from 
 hose quarters. As soon as one company returned, 
 another went out immediately, so as to keep the 
 enemy in continual alarm. Their success was ad- 
 mirable. 
 
 Captain Denison, of Stonington, on the 27th of 
 March, began a very successful incursion into the 
 country. 
 
 NanunUenoo, orCanonnchet, the head sachem of 
 all the Narragansets, son of Miantonimoh, inheritor 
 of all his pride, and of his hatred towards the Eng- 
 lish, had ventured down from the northern wilderness 
 to Seaconk, near the seat of Philip, to procure 
 seed-corn, to plant the towns which the English had 
 deserted upon Connecticut river. He lately had 
 been aiding in the slaughter of a Captain Pierce 
 and his men ; and after Captain Denison and his 
 party had wearied themselves for several days in 
 seeking them, they came upon their tracts near 
 Biackston's river, and soon discovered by a squaw 
 whom they took, that Nanunttenoo was in a wigwam 
 not far distant. The captain made dispositions im- 
 mediately to surprise him; and some of his party 
 discovering them, ran off with great precipitation ; 
 but one more faithful than the rest entered the wig- 
 wam and acquainted him with his danger. He in- 
 stantly fled with all his speed ; but Catapazet, the 
 friendfylndian chief, suspecting from the manner of his 
 running, that it was Nanunttenoo, gave chase with 
 as much eagerness as he fled ; and the other Indians 
 joined in the pursuit. They pressed him so hard 
 that he soon threw off his blanket, and then his 
 silver laced coat, which had been given him at Bos- 
 ton : his pursuers, like blood-hounds, employed their 
 utmost exertions to seize him; and at length his 
 foot slipped upon a smooth stone as he was plunging 
 through a river, and he fell and wetted his gun : 
 one Monopoide, a Pequot, -outrunning the other 
 Indiaxs, leaped into the river after him, and soon 
 
728 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 laid hold upon him ; and although he was a powerful 
 man, and of great courage, yet he made no resist- 
 ance. One Robert Stanton, a young man, was the 
 first Englishman who came up to him. He asked 
 him several questions; but this haughty sachem, 
 looking with disdain upon his youthful countenance, 
 replied, in broken English, " You too much child ; 
 no understand matters of war Let your captain 
 come ; him I will answer." This party, in about 
 sixteen days, killed and took nearly fifty of the 
 enemy, without the loss of a single man ; among 
 whom was this chief, and a number of counsellors 
 and war captains. 
 
 Nanunttenoo would not accept of life when offered 
 upon the condition that he should make peace with 
 the English ; nor would he so much as send one of 
 his counsellors to make a single proposal for that 
 and when he was told that it was deter- 
 to put him to death, he said, " He liked it 
 well ; that he should die before his heart was soft, 
 or he had spoken any thing unworthy of himself." 
 He was shot by the Moheagan sachem, and the 
 principal Pequots, at Stonington. 
 
 These brave volunteers and their flying parties 
 had, at this time, killed and captured 44 of the enemy, 
 and, before the end of April, 76 more; among j 
 whom was another celebrated sachein. They made 
 in the spring, summer, and autumn, ten or twelve 
 expeditions, in which they killed and captured 230 
 of the enemy, took 50 muskets, and brought in 
 160 bushels of their corn. They drove all the Nar- 
 raganset Indians out of their country, except those 
 at Westerly under Ninigrate; and in all these ex- 
 peditions they had not one man killed or wounded. 
 
 While Connecticut had the happiness of giving a 
 check to the war, the colony sustained a heavy loss 
 
 pur 
 mi 
 
 irpose ; 
 itfed to 
 
 Dny s 
 
 in the death of Governor Winthrop . He had been 
 chosen one of the commissioners from Connecticut, 
 the May preceding, to the court of the commission- 
 ers of the united colonies ; and upon the meeting of 
 this court, early in the spring, he went to Boston, 
 where he was taken sick, and died, April 5th, 1676, 
 in the seventy-first year of his age. He was ho- 
 nourably interred at Boston, in the same tomb with 
 his father. 
 
 He was the eldest son of the honourable John 
 Winthrop, Esq. the first governor of Massachusetts, 
 and was born at Groton in England, in 1605. His 
 father gave him a liberal education at the University 
 of Cambridge, in England; and afterwards sup- 
 ported him some years at the University of Dublin, 
 in Ireland. As travelling was then considered a 
 necessary accomplishment to a young gentleman, 
 he travelled into France, Holland, Germany, Italy, 
 and Turkey. With these advantages he returned 
 to England, not only a great scholar, rich in expe- 
 rience and literature, but a most accomplished gen- 
 tleman. He was a puritan of distinguished piety 
 and morals ; and, after his return from his travels, 
 he came into New England, with his father's family, 
 in 1631, and was chosen one of the magistrates of 
 the colony of Massachusetts. He afterwards returned 
 into England ; and in 1635 came back with a com- 
 mission to erect a fort at the mouth of Connecticut 
 river,. and to be governor of that part of the country. 
 In 1651 he was chosen one of the magistrates of 
 Connecticut; and in 1657 he was elected governor, 
 and the next year deputy-governor. In 1659 he 
 was again chosen governor; from which time he 
 was annually re-chosen to that office, until his 
 death. He was one of the greatest chemists and 
 
 of philosophical transactions, and one of the 
 distinguished characters in New England. He 
 rendered many important services to the colony, 
 and died greatly and universally lamented. 
 
 At the election, May llth, William Lect, Esq. 
 was chosen governor, and Robert Treat, Esq. de- 
 puty-governor. Captain John Mason was chosen 
 magistrate, to fill the vacancy made by the ad- 
 vancement of Major Treat to the office of deputy- 
 governor. No alteration was made with respect to 
 the other officers. 
 
 The assembly voted 350 men, who, with the 
 friendly Indians, were to be a standing army. 
 Major John Talcott was appointed to the chief 
 command ; and the Rev. Gershom Bulkley, of 
 Weathersfield, was appointed surgeon, and Mr. 
 James Fitch, chaplain. Mr. Bulkley was esteemed 
 as one of the greatest physicians and surgeons then 
 in Connecticut The assembly ordered that the 
 surgeon and chaplain should be of the council of 
 war. 
 
 Major Talcott, on his appointment to the com 
 mand of the army, resigned the office of treasurer, 
 and William Pitkin, Esq. was appointed to that 
 office by the assembly. 
 
 The first general rendezvous of the army this 
 year was at Norwich; from whence Major Talcott 
 marched in the beginning of June, with about 
 250 English soldiers, and 200 Moheagan and Pequot 
 Indians, towards the Wabaquasset country, scour- 
 ing the woods through that long tract. They found 
 the fort and wigwams at Wabaquasset and the 
 country every where deserted. Nothing more, 
 therefore, could be done than demolish the Indian 
 fortress, and destroy about fifty acres of corn which 
 the enemy had planted. On the 5th of June the 
 army marched to Chanagongum, in the Nipmuck 
 country; where they killed nineteen Indians, and 
 took thirty-three captives. They then proceeded to 
 Quabaug,*or Brookfield, and thence to Northamp- 
 ton. This was a long march, in which the troops 
 suffered greatly for want of provisions; and it 
 has ever since, in Connecticut, been known by the 
 name of the long and hungry march. Major Tal- 
 cott expected to have met with the Massachusetts 
 forces at Brookfield, or in that vicinity, but they 
 did not arrive. 
 
 On the 12th of June, four days after the arrival 
 of the Connecticut troops at Northampton, about 
 700 Indians made a furious attack upon Hadley ; 
 but Major Talcott, with his party, soon appeared 
 for the relief of the garrison, and drove off the 
 enemy. 
 
 Some time after, the Massachusetts forces arrived, 
 and, in conjunction with Major Talcott and his 
 soldiers, scoured the woods on both sides the river, 
 as far as the falls at Deerfield; but the enemy, by 
 this time, had made their escape from that part of 
 the country. They, however, broke up their fish- 
 eries, destroyed their fish and other stores, recovered 
 some stolen goods, and returned, without effecting 
 any thing very important. 
 
 After Major Talcott had spent about three weeks 
 in service upon the river, he left that quarter, and 
 marched through the wilderness, towards Providence 
 and the Narraganset country; and on the 1st of 
 July came near a large body of the enemy, of whom 
 he captured four. Two days after, Major Talcott 
 surprised the main body of them, by the side of a 
 large cedar swamp ; where he made such a dispo- 
 sition of his men, and attacked them so suddenly, 
 
 physicians of his age, a member of the Royal Society I that a coiwiderable number v;erc killed, and taken 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 729 
 
 on the spot, and the remainder were driven into the 
 swamp, which the troops encompassed ; and, after an 
 action of two or three hours, killed and took 171 more. 
 
 The troops then marched to Providence, and 
 invested the neck there, and afterwards Warwick 
 neck; in which places they killed and captured 
 67. About the 5th of July the army returned to 
 Connecticut ; and, in their route, took 60 more of 
 the enemy. From about the beginning of April to 
 the 6th of July, the Connecticut volunteers, and the 
 troops under Major Talcott, killed and captured 
 about 420 of the enemy. 
 
 The enemy, about this time, fell into a state of 
 division and fear. They found that, by attempting 
 to destroy their English neighbours, they had ut- 
 terly ruined themselves; and a complication of 
 evils conspired for their destruction. The destruc- 
 tion of their fort and principal stores, in the dead 
 of winter, the burning of their wigwams, and bring- 
 ing off their corn and beans, in all parts of the 
 country, put them to inexpressible hardships and 
 distresses. They had been able to plant but little 
 in the spring ; and what they had planted, the Eng- 
 lish had destroyed ; they had been driven from the 
 sea and rivers, and cut off from almost every kind 
 of subsistence; they had been obliged to lie in 
 swamps and marshes; to feed on horse-flesh, and 
 unwholesome food; all which engendered diseases: 
 so that they became utterly reduced and disheart- 
 ened. They could not keep together in any consi- 
 derable bodies, for want of sustenance ; and were 
 pursued and hunted from swamp to swamp, and 
 from one lurking place to another; so that in July 
 and August they began to come in to the English 
 in large bodies, and surrender themselves to the 
 mercy of their conquerors. 
 
 Major Talcott, after his return from Narraganset, 
 having recruited his men a short time in Connecti- 
 cut, took his station at Westfield ; and while he lay 
 there, a large body of the enemy was discovered 
 fleeing to the westward. He pursued them, and on 
 the third day, about half way between Westfield 
 and Albany, discovered them lying on the west side 
 of Housatonick river, entirely secure. It was 
 judged too late in that day to attack them to any 
 purpose; and the army, therefore, retreated, and 
 lay upon their arms, in great silence, during the 
 night. Towards morning, the troops were formed 
 in two divisions ; one of which was ordered to 
 pass the river below the enemy, and to advance and 
 compass them in on that side ; and the other party, 
 creeping silently up to the east bank of the river, 
 were to lie prepared instantly to fire, when they 
 should receive the signal from the other division, 
 who, when they had reached their ground, were to 
 fire a single gun. But this well contrived plan was 
 in some measure disconcerted. An Indian had left 
 his companions asleep, and proceeded down the 
 river to catch fish ; and, as the division on the west 
 side of the river was advancing to surround the 
 enemy, he discovered them, and cried out, " Awan- 
 nux, Awannux." Upon this, one of the party fired, 
 and killed hirn on the spot; and the other division, 
 on the east bank of the river, supposing this to be 
 the signal gun, discharged upon the enemy, as they 
 were rising in surprise, or lay upon the ground, and 
 killed and wounded a great number of them. Those 
 who were not killed, or disabled by wounds, instantly 
 fled, leaving their camp, baggage, provisions, and 
 many of their arms ; but as the division on the west 
 side had not advanced to the ground designed, be- 
 fore the alarm was given, the enemy made their 
 
 escape with much less damage than they could 
 otherwise have done. The troops pursued them for 
 some distance, but the woods were so extremely 
 thick, that they were compelled soon to return. 
 The sachem of Quabaug or Brookfield was killed, 
 and 44 other Indians were killed and taken. 
 
 This dreadful and distressing war, in which so 
 many of these miserable Indians perished, victims 
 to their want of civilization, was put an end to by 
 the death of Philip, the great sachem, in August 
 (1676). After this event the Indians in this part 
 of the country generally submitted to the English, 
 or fled and incorporated with distant nations. 
 
 Connecticut offered the same conditions to these 
 Indians upon their submission, which had been, 
 given to the Pequots. That they should have life, 
 liberty, protection, and ground to plant ; some princi- 
 palincendiaries and murderers beingexcepted. They 
 disdained, however, to accept the terms, and the 
 Nipmucks, Nashawas, Pocomtocks, and the Hadley 
 and Springfield Indians, fled to the French and 
 their Indians, in Canada; and about 200 of them, 
 after their surprise at Housatonick river, fled to the 
 Moheaganders, upon Hudson's river. 
 
 When Philip began the war, he and his kinswo- 
 man Wetamoe had about 500 warriors, and the 
 Narragansets nearly 2,000; and the Nipmuck, 
 Nashawa, Pocomtock, Hadley, and Springfield 
 Indians, were considerably more numerous. It is 
 probable, therefore, that there were about 3,000 
 warriors combined for the destruction of the New 
 England colonies, exclusive of the eastern Indians ; 
 but the war terminated in their entire conquest, 
 and almost total extinction ; and, at the same time, 
 opened a wide door to extensive settlement and po- 
 pulation. 
 
 This, however, in its connexion with the war 
 with the eastern Indians, which commenced about 
 the same time, was the most impoverishing and dis- 
 tressing of any which New England has ever expe- 
 rienced, from its first settlement to the present time. 
 The war with the eastern Indians continued until 
 the spring of the year 1678. The enemy killed and 
 captured great numbers of the people, and nearly 
 twenty fishing vessels, with their crews, and most of 
 the settlements in those parts were swept away, and 
 the country was reduced to their domination. 
 
 About 600 of the inhabitants of New England, 
 the greatest part of whom were the flower and 
 strength of the country, either fell in battle, or were 
 murdered by the enemy, and there were few fami- 
 lies or individuals who had not lost some near rela- 
 tive or friend. Twelve or thirteen towns in Mas- 
 sachusetts, Plymouth, and Rhode Island, were ut- 
 terly destroyed, and others greatly damaged; and 
 about 600 buildings, chiefly dwelling-houses, were 
 consumed with fire ; and an almost insuperable debt 
 was contracted by the colonies, at a time when their 
 numbers, dwellings, goods, cattle, and all their re* 
 sources, were greatly diminished. 
 
 The foregoing statement is made from an ac- 
 curate enumeration of the various numbers men- 
 tioned, in the ancient histories of the lives lost, and 
 of the towns and buildings burned. But as there 
 were, doubtless, many persons killed, and others 
 who died of their wounds, not mentioned in those 
 accounts, they must have exceeded the number here 
 stated. The histories of those times rarely mention 
 the burning of barns, stores, and out-houses; and 
 sometimes there is notice of the burning of part of 
 a town, and of the buildings in such a tract, without 
 any specification of the number. All the buildings 
 
730 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 in Narraganset, from Providence to Stonington, a 
 tract of about 50 miles, were burned, or otherwise 
 destroyed, by the enemy, but the number is not 
 mentioned. The loss of buildings must therefore 
 have been much greater than has been mentioned. 
 The militia of Connecticut, in 1675, amounted to 
 2,250 men. Of these, the commissioners required 
 315, as their proportion of the 1,000 men then to 
 be raised. If the proportion was just, there were 
 about 7,150 of the militia of the united colonies; 
 and reckoning every fifth man a soldier, and five 
 persons to every family, there were 7,150 families, 
 and 35,750 inhabitants, at that time in the united 
 colonies. According to this estimation, about one 
 fencible man in eleven was killed, and every eleventh 
 family was burnt out ; or an eleventh part of the 
 whole militia, and of all the buildings of the united 
 colonies, were swept away by this predatory war. 
 This greatly exceeded the loss in the war of inde- 
 pendence with Great Britain, in proportion to the 
 numbers and wealth of the United States. 
 
 Connecticut, indeed, had suffered little, in com- 
 parison with her sister colonies. Her towns and 
 inhabitants had been preserved from the ravages of 
 the enemy ; but about a seventh part of the whole 
 militia was out upon constant service, besides the 
 volunteers; and a great proportion was obliged to 
 watch and guard the towns at home. Many towns 
 were necessitated to fortify themselves with an en- 
 closure of palisades, and to prepare and fortify par 
 ticular dwellings for garrison-houses, to which the 
 aged people, women, and children, might repair, in 
 case of attack. For three years after the war com- 
 menced, the inhabitants paid eleven-pence in the 
 pound, upon the grand list, exclusive of all town 
 and parish taxes ; and, after the war was finished, 
 they had a considerable debt to discharge. The 
 colony, nevertheless, was comparatively fortunate 
 The numerous Indians within it were not only peace 
 able, but the Moheagans and Pequots were of great 
 service in the war. It had not one party of men 
 surprised and cut off during the war; nor did it 
 sustain any considerable loss of men at any time, 
 except in taking the fort in Narraganset. At the 
 same time the legislature and people were happy, in 
 giving seasonable and powerful assistance to their 
 confederates, and in repeatedly rescuing whole town 
 and parties, when in the most imminent danger. 
 
 Measures adopted to discharge the public debt, and 
 settle the country in peace The reasons of the 
 colony's claim to Narraganset The former settlers 
 and owners of land there apply to Connecticut for 
 protection Major Treat goes to the upper towns 
 upon Connecticut river, to treat with the Indians 
 Fasts appointed through New England Act con- 
 earning the conquered lands in Narraganset A T a 
 vigation act grievous to the colonies Governor Lee 
 takes the oath respecting trade and navigation 
 Answers to queries from the lords of trade and plan 
 tations Protest against Sir Edmund Andross's claim 
 to Fisher's Island Character of Governor Leet 
 Commissioners appointed by his majesty to examine 
 and make report concerning all claims to the Nar 
 raganset country, or king's province 'They repor 
 in favour of Connecticut Answers to the renewed 
 claim of the duke of Hamilton, and opinions on th 
 case Connecticut congratulates the arrival of Co- 
 lonel Dungan, governor of New York, and agree 
 with him respecting the boundary line between tha 
 colony and Connecticut Petition to King Jame 
 II. Settlement of Waterbury Quo n-arrant 
 
 against the colony The assembly petition hit ma- 
 jesty to continue their charter privileges Sir Ed- 
 mund Andross made governor of New England- 
 Arrives at Hartford, and takes the government, by 
 order of his majesty The oppression and cruelty of 
 his administration. 
 
 Connecticut had now conquered the Narraganset 
 ountry, and, in conjunction with the other confe- 
 erates, terminated the war in this part of New 
 England. The legislature, therefore, addressed 
 hemselves to discharge the public debt ; to settle 
 he friendly Indians in a state of peace among them- 
 elves, and with the colonies ; and to extend their 
 ettlements in the Narraganset country, as well as 
 n other parts of their jurisdiction. To discharge 
 he public debt, they levied a tax of eight-pence in 
 he pound, upon the whole list of the colony, in 
 October annually, during the term of two years. 
 They appointed a committee to hear all affairs, 
 which the Moheagans, Pequots, and Narragansets, 
 under Ninigrate, or Ninicraft, had to lay before 
 hem ; and to do whatever they should judge expe- 
 dient to promote peace among them, and to pre- 
 serve their friendship and attachment to the Eng- 
 ish. For their encouragement, the legislature 
 granted liberty for them to hunt, in all the con- 
 quered lands, during their pleasure; and authorized 
 them to kill and destroy any of the enemy who 
 should return to their country, without submitting 
 ;o the colony, and accepting the terms which had 
 aeen offered them. 
 
 At the election in May 1677, there was no alter- 
 ation in the legislature, excepting the choice of 
 Andrew Leet, Esq. into the magistracy, instead of 
 Oaptain John Mason, who died the September be- 
 fore, of the wounds he had received in taking the 
 Narraganset fort. The same governor, deputy-go- 
 vernor, and magistrates were re-elected for several 
 years successively. A committee was appointed by 
 ;he assembly, to settle all affairs of government in 
 the Narraganset country, and to report what places 
 there were there adapted to the purpose of planting 
 new towns. 
 
 As the Rhode Islanders had deserted the country, 
 in the war, and had done nothing in the defence of 
 it, and as the Connecticut volunteers had driven the 
 enemy entirely from that extensive tract, the legis- 
 lature determined to plant and govern it, as part of 
 this colony. 
 
 For various reasons they considered the act of 
 the king's commissioners, determining that Rhode 
 Island and Narraganset should be a province for the 
 king, as a mere nullity ; that commission gave no 
 power to make new colonies ; and it required that 
 Colonel Nichols should always be one of the council, 
 that any of its acts might be valid ; but he was not 
 present at that determination; and Colonel Nichols 
 himself, with two or three of his council, afterwards 
 reversed that judgment. 
 
 In the same point of light th-ey viewed the agre* 
 ment with Mr. Clark, as it was subsequent to Ms 
 Winthrop's obtaining the Connecticut charter ; aflik. 
 moreover, that agreement was entirely alien from 
 the business of his agency, and without any instruc- 
 tions or authority from the colony. It was also con- 
 sidered as a nullity in another point of light, as the 
 charter to Rhode Island recognised and had refe- 
 rence to one article of the agreement only, and at 
 Rhode Island had never submitted to one of thfc 
 other articles ; but in direct contravention of them,, 
 they had invaded the property of the settlers name? 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 731 
 
 in it, wantonly carried off the productions of their 
 lands and fruits of their labours, driven off their cat- 
 tle, forced the inhabitants from their possessions, 
 burned their fences, and even pulled down their 
 houses. They had claimed jurisdiction over them, 
 after they had in the year 1663 chosen to belong to 
 Connecticut, and formally put themselves under the 
 government of that colony ; and had not regarded 
 the agreement even with respect to the boundaries, 
 but attempted to extend their limits beyond what 
 was expressed in the charter. Besides, when the 
 king had previously granted that tract to Connecti- 
 cut, there remained in law and reason no further 
 right in him to that country. He had nothing there 
 further to grant; and therefore he could grant no- 
 thing there to Rhode Island. Connecticut well 
 knew that Pawcatuck never was called Narraganset 
 river, and that the Narragansets never extended 
 their claims so far westward ; but that Pawcatuck, 
 and the country some miles to the east of it, be- 
 longed to the Pequots. For these reasons, the legis- 
 lature considered their title and claim to this part 
 of the colony as clear and just, as to any other. 
 
 Elisha Hutchinson, William Hudson, and others, 
 their associates, claiming a large tract in the Pe- 
 quot and Narraganset country, applied to the gene- 
 ral assembly for their assistance and protection, 
 against Rhode Island, in the re-settlement of their 
 lands ; and the assembly determined to extend their 
 protection and government to them. 
 
 At the session in October, the upper towns upon 
 Connecticut river sent messengers to the assembly, 
 acquainting them that there were considerable 
 bodies of Indians collected together in their vicinity ; 
 and that they made proposals of peace. They there- 
 fore solicited the assembly to send Major Treat, 
 the deputy-governor, with a detachment of 40 men, 
 to Northampton, to treat with them, or to defend 
 those towns as occasion might require. The as- 
 sembly complied with the request, and the deputy- 
 governor proceeded immediately te Northampton ; 
 and was instructed, in the first place, to use his ut- 
 most endeavours for the redemption of the captives, 
 with money, goods, or by any other means in his 
 power. The terms of peace which he was autho- 
 rized to propose, were life and liberty, upon the sub- 
 mission of the Indians to the English, in the several 
 places where they should be settled. It does not 
 appear that many of the northern Indians accepted 
 the terms proposed, or ever returned to their for- 
 mer places of abode ; and little more appears to 
 have been effected by the treaty, than the redemp- 
 tion of some of the captives. 
 
 (1678.) The colonies at this time had many 
 enemies, and the most injurious complaints and un- 
 favourable representations were made of them in 
 England. Edward Randolph, especially, was in- 
 defatigable in his complaints against them, and in 
 aggravating whatever he imagined might serve to 
 their disadvantage. He came over to Boston, in 
 1676, and annually, in person or by writing, made 
 complaints against them; and generally returned 
 to England in the autumn, and in the spring or 
 summer returned fraught with new mischief. He 
 busied himself among other affairs in complaining 
 of the colonies for their opposition to the acts of 
 trade and navigation ; and unhappily for Great Bri- 
 tain and the colonies, they were suffering under an 
 arbitrary prince, inimical to the civil and religious 
 rights of his subjects. His ear was open to com- 
 plaints against those who did not cheerfully submit 
 to his despotic impositions j and he readily promoted 
 
 tho.se who made them. The colonies knew how 
 affairs were conducted in England, and were deeply 
 apprehensive of the danger they were in, of a total 
 deprivation of their liberties. 
 
 The commissioners of the united colonies, in these 
 circumstances, recommended a general fast to the 
 confederate colonies to humble themselves for their 
 offences, and to pray for the Divine favour in the 
 continuation of their just rights and privileges ; and 
 in consequence of this recommendation, the general 
 assembly of Connecticut appointed the third Tues- 
 day in November a public fast, in union with their 
 confederates, to humble themselves, and pray for 
 the purposes recommended. 
 
 The general assembly at their session in May 
 1679, to prevent the people of Rhode Island, and 
 other intruders, from taking up lands in Narragan- 
 set, enacted, that none of the conquered lands should 
 be taken up or laid out into farms, without special 
 and express order from them. 
 
 The Rhode Islanders in the time of danger had 
 deserted the country and bore no part in the war ; 
 but as soon as the inhabitants, who had settled under 
 Connecticut, began to return to their former settle- 
 ments, to build upon their lands, and cultivate their 
 farms under the government of this colony, the 
 legislature of Rhode Island began to usurp authority 
 and practise their former vexations. 
 
 John Cranston, Esq., governor of Rhode Island, 
 held a court in Narraganset, in September, and 
 made attempts to introduce the authority and officers 
 of Rhode Island into that part of Connecticut; and 
 the general assembly, in October, protested against 
 his usurpation, and declared his acts to be utterly 
 void. They also prohibited all the inhabitants to 
 receive any office from the legislature of Rhode Is- 
 land, or to yield obedience to its authority. 
 
 (1680.) The acts of trade and navigation were ex- 
 ceedingly grievous to the colonies; who viewed 
 them as utterly inconsistent with their chartered 
 rights ; and were extremely unwilling to submit to 
 them. Massachusetts never would fully submit ; 
 but as it was matter of great and continual com- 
 plaint against the colonies, and as his majesty in- 
 sisted on the respective governors taking the oath, 
 respecting trade and navigation, it was judged ex- 
 pedient that Governor Leet should take it in the 
 presence of the assembly ; and it was accordingly 
 administered to him, at the session in May 1680. 
 
 This assembly ordered that a letter should be 
 written to the general court of Massachusetts, de- 
 siring their concurrence in mutually settling the line 
 between that colony and Connecticut; and it was 
 requested, that the court would appoint a committee 
 fully authorized for that purpose, to join with one 
 from Connecticut vested with similar powers. If the 
 general court of the Massachusetts should refuse to 
 comply with this proposal, then the governor and 
 his council, with such as they should appoint to 
 that service, were authorized to run the line with- 
 out them. 
 
 The lords of trade and plantations having trans- 
 mitted a number of queries to the governor and com- 
 pany, the governor and council were desired to 
 answer them; and by their answers, it appears, 
 that there were 26 towns in the colony: that 
 the militia, including horse and foot, consisted, 
 in 1679, of 2,507 men: that the annual exports were 
 about 9,OOOZ. : that there were in the colony about 
 twenty small merchants trading to Boston, New 
 York,' Newfoundland, and the West Indies : and 
 that its shipping consisted of four ships, three pinks, 
 
732 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 eight sloops, and other small vessels, amounting in 
 the whole to 27, the tonnage of which was only 1,050. 
 The number of inhabitants is not mentioned, but, 
 from the number of the militia, it must have been 
 nearly 12,000. To one of the inquiries, the follow- 
 ing answer is given : " If so be Hartford, New 
 London, New Haven, and Fairfield, might be made 
 free ports, for fifteen or twenty years, it would be a 
 means to bring trade there, and much increase the 
 navigation and wealth of this poor colony." 
 
 About this time, Sir Edmund Andross, governor 
 of New York, asserted his right of jurisdiction over 
 Fisher's Island, as included in the duke of York's 
 patent. 
 
 Upon this claim, the legislature of the colony 
 asserted, " that the said island was a part and 
 member of this colony of Connecticut, and under 
 the government thereof; and that they have ever 
 exercised, and shall, and will exercise government 
 there, as occasion shall require ; and do hereby 
 declare and protest against Sir Edmund Andross, 
 and all other persons, their claims, or exercise of 
 any authority or government, on. or over the said 
 island." 
 
 At the election in 1683, Major Robert Treat was 
 chosen governor,and James Bishop deputy-governor. 
 The former magistrates were generally re-chosen ; 
 but by reason of several vacancies which had been 
 made,' Captain Robert Chapman, Captain James 
 Fitch, Mr. Samuel Mason, and Mr Joseph Whiting, 
 were elected magistrates. The change of governors 
 was occasioned by the death of Governor Leet, who 
 after faithfully serving the colonies for many years, 
 had now finished his course. 
 
 The Governor William Leet, Esq. was bred a 
 lawyer in England, and was for a considerable time 
 clerk of a bishop's court. In this service he became 
 acquainted with the conduct of the bishops towards 
 the puritans, with the pleas, and serious conversa- 
 tion and conduct of the latter when arraigned before 
 them. He observed the great severity which the 
 court exercised towards them, for going to hear good 
 sermons in the neighbouring parishes when they had 
 none at home, and what light matters they made of 
 licentious and gross sins, and how much better per- 
 sons guilty of such crimes were treated than the 
 puritans. This brought him to a serious considera- 
 tion of the affair, and to acquaint himself more tho 
 roughly with the doctrines and discipline of the 
 puritans. In consequence of this he became a pu- 
 ritan, left the bishop's court, and in 1638 came 
 into New England with Mr. Whitfield and his com- 
 pany. He was one of the seven pillars of his church. 
 In 1643, he was chosen magistrate for the colony ol 
 New Haven, and was annually re-elected until 
 May 1658. He was then chosen deputy-governor 
 of that colony, in which office he continued until he 
 was elected governor in 1661. He continued chief 
 magistrate of that colony until the union in 1665 
 He was then chosen one of the magistrates of Con- 
 necticut. In 1669, he was elected deputy-governor, 
 and was annually re-elected until 1676, when he 
 was chosen governor of Connecticut. During the 
 term of 40 years, he was magistrate, deputy-gover- 
 nor, or governor of one or other of the colonies. In 
 both colonies he presided in times of the greatest 
 difficulty, yet always conducted himself with such 
 integrity and wisdom, as to meet the public appro- 
 bation. After he was chosen governor of Connecti- 
 cut, he removed to Hartford, where he died full o 
 years and good works. He left a numerous offspring 
 As there had been long disputes relative to th< 
 
 ^arraganset country, and as the king, in conse- 
 [uence of the act of his commissioners in 1665, 
 laimed it as his province, commissioners were ap- 
 >ointed to hear and determine all titles and claims 
 especting that tract; and on the 7th of April, 1683, 
 Cing Charles II. granted a commission to Edward 
 ^ranfield, Esq., lieutenant-governor of New Hamp- 
 hire, William Stoughton, Joseph Dudley, Edward 
 landolph, Samuel Shrimpton, John Fitz Win- 
 hrop, Edward Palms, Nathaniel Saltonstall, and 
 Tohn Pyncheon, jun. Esquires, or any three of 
 hem, of whom Edward Cranfield, or Edward Ran- 
 dolph, was to be of the quorum, " to examine and 
 nquire into the respective claims and titles, as well 
 >f his majesty, as of all persons and corporations 
 whatsoever, to the immediate jurisdiction, govern- 
 ment, or propriety of the soil of a certain tract of 
 and within his majesty's dominion of New Eng- 
 and, called the king's province, or Narraganset 
 country; and to call before them any person, or 
 >ersons, and to search records as they shall find re- 
 quisite, and the proceedings therein, with th* opi- 
 nions upon the matters that shall be examined by 
 '-hem, to state, and with all convenient speed report 
 -hereof to make to his majesty." 
 
 The commissioners convened on the 22d of Au- 
 gust, 1683, at the house of Richard Smith, in the 
 Narraganset country; where they summoned all 
 persons and corporations, in whatever place, who 
 were concerned in the title or government of that 
 country, to appear before them, and to produce all 
 charters, deeds, records, letters, and orders from 
 bis majesty and council, or of any of his commission- 
 ers, to the respective colonies, governors, or go- 
 vernments, which might give information on the 
 subject. At the time'and place appointed, the re- 
 cords represent, " that there was the greatest ap- 
 pearance of the most ancient English and Indians, 
 then living, to testify the truth of their knowledge," 
 respecting the matters then to be determined. 
 
 The commissioners, having fully heard every 
 thing respecting the claims and title to that part of 
 New England, adjourned to Boston, and there made 
 a report to his majesty in an ample manner, declar- 
 ing that the government of it belonged to Connecti- 
 cut. The following is an abstract of such parts of 
 the report as affected Connecticut. 
 
 ' In humble obedience to your majesty's com- 
 mands, we, your majesty's commissioners, have seri- 
 ously considered the several claims before us. We 
 find that your majesty, by your letters patent, dated 
 at Westminister, the 23d of April, in the fourteenth 
 year of your majesty's reign, granted to the governor 
 and company of Connecticut, and their successors, 
 all that part of your dominions in New England, 
 bounded on the east by Narraganset bay, where the 
 said river falls into the sea, and on the north by the 
 line of the Massachusetts plantation, and on the 
 south by the sea. 
 
 * We have also had information, that some time 
 after your majesty's grant and said patent was sent 
 to your colony of Connecticut, the said country of 
 the Narraganset was likewise, by patent, granted by 
 your majesty to the governor and company of Rhode 
 Island plantation, and is, by charter, bounded by a 
 river called Pawcatuck, which by said charter is 
 for ever to be accounted and called the Narraganset 
 river : and this latter grant of your majesty to 
 Rhode Island seems to be founded upon advice sub- 
 mitted to by John Winthrop, Esq., said to be agent 
 for Connecticut colony, and Mr. John Clark, agent 
 for Rhode Island : to which Connecticut plead, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 that Mr. Winthrop's agency for them ceased, when 
 he had obtained and sent the patent to them ; and 
 that no submission or act of his could invalidate, 
 or deprive them of any of the benefits graciously 
 granted by your majesty's charter : and that, not- 
 withstanding the seeming boundaries, set by said 
 articles, signed by Mr. Winthrop and Mr. Clark, it 
 is in the same articles provided, that the proprie- 
 tors and inhabitants of the Narraganset country 
 should choose to which of the two governments to 
 belong, and that they unanimously chose and sub- 
 jected to the government of Connecticut. 
 
 " With humble submission, we cannot see any 
 cause to judge that the said Pawcatuck river anci- 
 ently was, or ought to be, called or accounted the 
 Narraganset river. 
 
 " 1. Because it lies some miles within the Pequot 
 country, a nation, till extirpated by the English, 
 often, or always at war with the Narragansets, and 
 to which territories the Narragansets never pre- 
 tended. 
 
 " 2. Because Pawcatuck river falls into the sea 
 many miles westward of any part of Narraganset 
 bay, which is the river anciently called Narragan- 
 set river, both because it on the eastward washes 
 and bounds the whole length of the Narraganset 
 country ; and for that Plymouth colony, which hath 
 now been planted near threescore years, have ever 
 since bounded themselves according to the sense and 
 meaning, or limitation of their patent, by the same 
 bay, called Narraganset river, towards the south. 
 
 " Thus, after most strict and impartial inquiry 
 and examination, having stated, we most humbly 
 lay before your majesty the several original claims 
 and pretensions offered to us with respect to the pro- 
 priety, both of jurisdiction and soil in your majes- 
 ty's province, or Narraganset country; and in fur- 
 ther obedience to your said commission, have seri- 
 ously weighed and considered all evidences, pleas, 
 proofs, and allegations, &c. and with most humble 
 submission and reservation of your majesty's right, 
 offer our opinions, that by virtue of your said letters 
 patent, granted to Connecticut, jurisdiction in, auc 
 through the said province, or Narraganset country, 
 of right belongs to the colony of Connecticut ; anc 
 that propriety of soil, as derived from Mr. Winthrop 
 and Major Atherton, is vested upon the heirs an 
 assigns of said Mr. Winthrop, the heirs of Thomas 
 Chiffinch, Esq., Major Atherton, Mr. Richard Smith. 
 Mr. Simon Lynde, Mr. Elisha Hutchinson, Mr 
 John Saffin, Mr. Richard Wharton and partners. 
 
 " Finally, we hold it our duty humbly to inform 
 your majesty, that so long as the pretensions of th 
 Rhode Islanders to the government of the said pro- 
 vince continue, it will much discourage the settle 
 ment and improvement thereof; it being very im 
 probable, that either the aforenamed claimers, 01 
 others of like reputation and condition, will remove 
 their families, or expend their estates under so loos 
 and weak a government. 
 
 " Your majesty's most loyal and obedient subjects 
 
 "EDWARD CRANFIELD, WILLIAM STOUGHTON 
 
 SAMUEL SHRIMPTON, JOHN PYNCHEON, jun. 
 
 NATHANIEL SALTONSTALL. 
 
 " Boston, Oct. 20th, 1683." 
 
 Connecticut had no sooner gained their poin 
 
 against the claims of the king and Rhode Island 
 
 than they were obliged to compete with a new anta 
 
 gonist. Edward Randolph, Esq. on the 30th o 
 
 June, 1683, had received a power of attorney from 
 
 William and Ann, duke and duchess of Hamilton 
 
 and James, earl of Arrau, son and heir of William 
 
 nd Ann, and grandson of James, marquis of Ha- 
 nilton, to sue for and recover their right and interest 
 n lands, islands, houses, and tenements, in New Eng- 
 and ; and he appeared before the commissioners at 
 Boston, and in the name of the said duke, duchess, 
 and earl, claimed the lands which they supposed 
 lad been granted to their ancestor, in the deed of 
 1635. 
 
 This renewed claim of that tract of country oc- 
 casioned answers from the proprietors of the lands, 
 and from Connecticut, with several opinions on the 
 case. The following is their substance. 
 
 Mr. Saftin, in November, in behalf of the pro- 
 prietors, replied : 
 
 " The ends aimed at and propounded in the king's 
 charter to the great council of Plymouth, was the 
 propagation of the Gospel among the heathen, and 
 the enlargement of his majesty's empire, by planta- 
 tion ; and whatsoever grants were made by said 
 council, were founded upon those considerations; 
 which being not pursued, rendereth all grants of 
 land void. Qwi sentit commodum, incommodum sen- 
 ire debet et onus. (He who enjoys the benefit of a 
 grant, ought to bear its disadvantage and burthen.) 
 And it doth not appear that his grace (as other 
 patentees,) did transport any person, or plant any 
 colony, nor used any other means, either to instruct 
 the natives, or purchase their right in the lands, or 
 appointed any agent to take possession, in order to 
 the improvement of the same. But it is probable, 
 that the duke, understanding a former patent was 
 granted by the council of Devon, to the Lords Say 
 and Brook, &c. in and about the year 163J, and 
 purchased and improved by the colony of Connecti- 
 cut, might divert him from any procedure therein. 
 The copy of said patent, as we have been informed, 
 when exhibited by John Winthrop, Esq. before the 
 king in council, the then Lord-chancellor Hyde 
 declared the Lords Say and Brooke's title to be 
 good and unquestionable; and upon that interest, 
 we presume, it was that Connecticut made applica- 
 tion to his majesty, and that then charter was 
 granted ; the Lords Say and Brook, and partners, 
 having expended 9,000/. in settlement of the landa 
 claimed by his grace ; and had made considerable 
 improvements and fortifications upon the lands in 
 several places, divers years before the date of Duke 
 Hamilton's grant. 
 
 " Our present gracious sovereign, &c. hath, by 
 his royal letters, manifested his approbation of the 
 purchase, possession, and improvement of his loyal 
 subjects, the proprietors here. The said proprietors 
 have been necessarily engaged in a bloody war 
 with the Indians, in their late rebellion. 
 
 " We further humbly offer, that, in regard that 
 the copy of the duke's deed, presented by Mr. 
 Randolph, in behalf of his grace, seems to have no 
 signification of any hand or seal affixed to it, nor 
 mention made of any witnesses, said to be the ori- 
 ginal instrument, (yet affirmed to be a true copy 
 thereof,) it may be presumed the said original deed 
 was never completed according to law." 
 
 And the governor and council of Connecticut 
 answered, December 13th, 1683, as follows : 
 
 " As to the substance of the duke's claim, so far 
 as it concerns us, it is preceded, some years, by a 
 grant from the right honourable Robert earl of 
 Warwick, to the Lord Say, and other persons of 
 honour and credit, March 19th, 1631, whereas his 
 grace's deed was made four years after, viz, on the 
 20th of April, 1635. 
 
 " By virtue of his majesty's grant to Lords Say, 
 
734 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Brook, &c. they, and their assigns, our predecessors 
 did, at their own proper charge, about the year 
 1634, begin to enter upon the said lands, and so 
 have continued ever since, in actual possession and 
 improvement thereof, without challenge or claim 
 from Duke Hamilton: which improvement hath 
 been with great cost, hazard, and labour of his ma- 
 jesty's subjects; yet, by the blessing of God, and 
 his majesty's grace, hath, in a good measure, an- 
 swered the ends of those grants or patents ; as the 
 propagating the Christian religion, and the increase 
 and enlargement of his majesty's empire : of all 
 which his grace Duke Hamilton hath, in these 
 parts, done nothing that we know of. 
 
 " His present majesty, understanding the condi- 
 tion of his subjects in this colony, upon our humble 
 address, April 23d, 1662, was graciously pleased to 
 grant us a charter, for holding the lands therein 
 granted firm, to us and our successors for ever; 
 and in his letters, dated April 23d, 1664, sent to us 
 by his majesty's honourable commissioners, he is 
 pleased to call his grant a renewing of our charter, 
 which must relate to that grant made by the earl of 
 Warwick, in the year 1631 ; for we had no other, 
 before his majesty's grant and confirmation afore- 
 said. 
 
 " Under these securities and encouragements, we 
 laid out our estates, labours, &c. and suddenly after 
 our first settling we were engaged in a bloody war, 
 anno 37, with the Pequots, which was chargeable 
 and expensive to us. Also, in the year 1675, a 
 great people, who inhabited the Narraganset coun- 
 try, rose up against his majesty's subjects, who 
 were planted in these parts, slew many of them, 
 burnt their houses, and destroyed their cattle, 
 whereby we were engaged in another bloody war, 
 which was the cause of great expense of blood and 
 treasure, (his grace Duke Hamilton being no par- 
 taker with us in any of those expenses, or helper of 
 Us therein,) and by the assistance of Almighty God, 
 and countenance of his majesty, in both these fore- 
 mentioned wars, we overcame our enemies that rose 
 up against us, without which all our grants would 
 have been of little benefit to us. 
 
 " It is required by his majesty's good laws, as in 
 the 21st of King James, 16th, that the duke, and 
 all others, should have sued out his claims : the 
 reason of which law, as it is very great, so it is 
 pleadable on our account; for it being latent unto 
 us, for nearly 50 years, would prove our ruin, if 
 thereupon our property be altered. Had the duke's 
 grace, or his predecessors timeously set his claim, 
 in competition with Lord Say's patent, that we had 
 Itirchased, the people had known how to have ap- 
 jilied themselves ; but after half a century's settle- 
 ment, as aforesaid, we hope his majesty will be 
 pleased to secure the same to his good subjects here. 
 " We desire that we may have a more fit oppor- 
 tunity to make a more full answer, and to present 
 our proofs. 
 
 " Per order of the governor and council, 
 " signed per me, 
 
 " JOHN ALLEN, Secretary." 
 Some years after, several opinions, by gentlemen 
 eminent for their learning in the law, were given 
 ou the case, both as it respected the duke of Ha- 
 milton and the colony of Rhode Island. 
 
 Sir Francis Pemberton, having largely stated the 
 case between Connecticut and the duke of Hamil- 
 ton, says, " Marquis Hamilton, nor his heirs, or 
 any deriving from him, have ever had possession, or 
 laid out any thing upon the premises, nor made 
 
 any claim, in said country, until the year 1683, 
 which was about 48 years after said grant, the said 
 heir by his attorney, claimed the said lands, at Bos- 
 ton in New England, which is above 70 miles from 
 the premises, and in another country. 
 
 " The heir of said Marquis Hamilton, after three- 
 score and two years, demands the said premises, or 
 a quit-rent. I am of the opinion, that the heir of 
 M. H. after such purchases, and so long quiet en- 
 joyment of them, &c. ought not to recover any oi 
 the lands or grounds or quit-rents out of them. 
 
 " I am of opinion, that these purchasers, by 
 virtue of their purchases, and so long and uninter- 
 rupted possession under them, have an, undoubted 
 right and title to these grounds and lands, and the 
 buildings and improvement of them, and ought not 
 now, after so much money laid out upon them, and 
 such enjoyment of them, to be disturbed in their 
 possession of them. FRANCIS PEMBERTON." 
 
 Mr. Trevor having stated the case between Con- 
 necticut and Rhode Island, gives his opinion to the 
 lords of trade and plantations in the words follow- 
 ing : " I am humbly of opinion, that this grant to 
 Rhode Island is void in law, because the country of 
 Narraganset bay was granted before to Connecticut, 
 and that therefore the government of Narraganset 
 bay doth, of right, belong to Connecticut, and not 
 to Rhode Island: all which is humbly submitted to 
 your honour's great wisdom. 
 
 " Oct. 28, 1696. " THOMAS TREVOR." 
 
 The aspects of the colony this year (1683) were 
 exceedingly gloomy. Besides the dangers which 
 threatened them, with respect to their civil and re- 
 ligious privileges, the people were visited with great 
 sickness and mortality ; and the instances of death 
 among the clergy were uncommonly numerous. 
 The fruits of the field were also diminished, and the 
 inhabitants in various ways impoverished and dis- 
 tressed. 
 
 The general assembly, in October, considered the 
 Divine dispensations so afflictive, as to demand 
 their deepest humiliation ; and a general fast was 
 appointed, and the people called upon to repent 
 and humble themselves. The proclamation is in- 
 troduced in these words, " Whereas it is evident to 
 all who observe the footsteps of Divine Providence, 
 that the dispensations of God towards his poor wil- 
 derness people, have been very solemn, awful, and 
 speaking, for many years past; and particularly 
 towards ourselves in this colony, this present year, 
 by occasion of general sickness in most places, and 
 more than ordinary mortality in some, as also ex- 
 cessive rains and floods in several plantations, short- 
 ening us in our enjoyments; and considering also 
 the holy hand of God, in bereaving so many churches 
 and congregations of a settled ministry, whereby 
 they are left, and have been, some of them, a long 
 time, as sheep without a shepherd, as if the Lord 
 "ntended, for our sins, to quench the light of our 
 Israel." 
 
 Colonel Dungan, having lately arrived at New 
 York, the assembly, in November, appointed Major 
 Nathan Gould, Captain John Allen, and Mr. Wil- 
 iam Pitkin, a committee, to congratulate him upon 
 his arrival, at his seat of government .; and to agree 
 with him upon a settlement of boundaries between 
 :he colonies. The committee were instructed not 
 ;o exceed his demands of twenty miles east of Hud- 
 sou's river: to examine his powers to treat, and if 
 hey were only conditional, to treat with him upon 
 he same terms They were directed to insist that 
 there was no mistake with respect to the rise of the 
 
UNITED STATES 
 
 735 
 
 line at Memoronock ; and if they should be obliged 
 to give up jurisdiction at any place, to preserve pro- 
 perty inviolably to the proprietors ; and to insist on 
 the former line, unless it should, in any place, ap- 
 proach nearer to Hudson's river than the distance 
 of twenty miles. In fine, they were required to 
 make his honour sensible that the former line was 
 legal and firm, and that the present settlement -was 
 solely for the purpose of promoting peace and a good 
 correspondence between his majesty's colony of 
 Connecticut and the duke's territories, and their 
 successive governors. 
 
 As the colony had been certified by letters from 
 the king, of a conspiracy against himself and the 
 duke of York, the assembly addressed him on the 
 subject. They declared, in the strongest terms, their 
 utmost abhorrence of all plots against his royal per- 
 son and government: that they prayed for kings 
 and all men, and especially for his majesty, and all 
 in authority under him : that they feared God and 
 honoured the king ; and in such suppliant language 
 as follows, they prayed for the continuance of their 
 chartered rights. 
 
 " Most dread sovereign, we humbly pray the 
 continuance of your grace and favour in the full en- 
 joyment of those former privileges and liberties you 
 have, out of your princely grace and bounty, be- 
 stowed upon us in your royal charter, granted this 
 corporation, that our poor beginnings may prosper, 
 under your shadow, to the glory of God, and the en- 
 largement of your majesty's dominions." 
 
 The number of persons giving in their lists, Oct. 
 1683, was 2,735, and the grand list was 159,385/. 
 
 The committee appointed to agree with Colonel 
 Dungan, with respect to the line of partition be- 
 tween Connecticut and New York, came to an 
 agreement respecting it November 28th, 1683 ; 
 when it was agreed, " That the line should begin at 
 Byram river, where it falleth into the sound at a 
 point called Lyon's point, to go as the said river 
 runneth to the place where the common road, or 
 wadinjr place, over the said river is ; and from the 
 said road or wading place, to go north north-west 
 into the country, as far as will be eight English 
 miles from the aforesaid Lyon's point ; and that a 
 line of twelve miles, being measured from the said 
 Lyon's point, according to the line or general course 
 of the sound eastward, where the said twelve miles 
 endeth, another line shall be run from the sound, 
 eight miles into the country, north north-west, and 
 abo that a fourth line be run, (that is to say,) from 
 the northernmost end of the eight miles line, being 
 the third mentioned line, which fourth line, with 
 the first mentioned line, shall be the bounds where 
 they shall fall to run ; and that from the eastern- 
 most end of the fourth mentioned line, (which is to 
 be twelve miles in length,) a line parallel to Hud- 
 son's rivr, in every place twenty miles distant from 
 Hudson's river, shall be the bounds there, between 
 the said territories or province of New York, and 
 the said colony of Connecticut, so far as Connecti- 
 cut colony doth extend northwards ; that is to the 
 south line of the Massachusetts colony : only it is 
 provided, that in case the line from Byram brook's 
 mouth, north north-west eight miles, and the line, 
 that is then to run twelve miles to the end of the 
 third fore-mentioned line of eight miles, to diminish 
 or take away land within twenty miles of Hudson's 
 river, that then so much as is in land diminished of 
 twenty miles of Hudson's river thereby shall be 
 added out of Connecticut bounds unto the line afore- 
 
 miles distant from it ; the addition to be made the 
 whole length of the said parallel line, and in such 
 breadth as will make up quantity for quantity, what 
 shall be diminished as aforesaid." 
 
 The assembly in the session of May, 1684, ap- 
 proved of this agreement, and appointed Major Na- 
 than Gould, Mr. Jehu Burr, and Mr. Jonathan 
 Selleck, to lay out the lines according to the stipu- 
 lation ; and they accordingly were run, and on the 
 24th of February, 1685, were ratified by Governor 
 Dungan and Governor Treat. 
 
 Great complaints had been made in England 
 against the colonies for harbouring pirates; and 
 that no laws had been made against them ; and a 
 letter had been written to the governor and com- 
 pany, by Lyonel Jenkins, Esq., complaining of this 
 neglect, and demanding, in the king's name, that a 
 law should forthwith be made against piracy. A 
 special assembly was consequently called on the 5th 
 of July, and a law enacted against it, and a copy of 
 it forwarded immediately to his majesty's secretary 
 of state. 
 
 At the election 1685, Giles Hamlin was chosen 
 into the magistracy, in the place ot Mr. Topping, 
 who seems to have died about this time. 
 
 The legislature at this session addressed a letter 
 of condolence to his majesty King James II. on 
 account of the death of his brother King Charles II., 
 and congratulating him on his peaceful accession to 
 the throne of his ancestors. They presented him 
 with the strongest assurances of their loyalty and 
 attachment to his royal person and government; 
 and at the same time, sensible of their danger under 
 a prince of his character, they most humbly be- 
 sought him to continue to them their civil and reli- 
 gious privileges, and that he would preserve to them 
 the peaceable enjoyment of their property. 
 
 Upon the petition of a number of the inhabitants 
 of Farmiugton, presented to the assembly in 1673, 
 a committee was appointed to view Mattatock, and 
 report to the assembly, whether a plantation might 
 not be made in that tract ; and in May 1674, the 
 committee reported that it was a place sufficient to 
 accommodate 30 families. Upon this report, a com- 
 mittee was appointed to settle a plantation there ; 
 and the settlement commenced. The number of 
 shares was about 28 ; and on May 13th, 1686, they 
 appear to have been vested with town privileges, by 
 the name of Waterbury. 
 
 The despotic conduct of Charles II., in his latter 
 years, and of James, at the commencement of his 
 reign, are well known. The latter particularly, as 
 we have already seen, extended his tyranny to the 
 colonies ; and in July 1685, a quo warranto was 
 issued against the governor and company of Connec- 
 ticut, requii'ing their appearance before him, within 
 eight days of St. Martin's, to show by what warrant 
 they exercised certain powers and privileges. 
 
 The governor having received intelligence of the 
 measures adopted against the colony on the 6th of 
 July, 1686, called a special assembly, to consult 
 what might be done for the preservation of the just 
 rights of the colony; and the assembly, after most 
 serious deliberation, addressed a letter in the most 
 suppliant terms to his majesty, beseeching him to 
 pardon their faults in government, and continue 
 them a distinct colony, in the full enjoyment of their 
 civil and religious privileges ; they especially be- 
 sought him to recall the writ of quo warranto, whicjr 
 they heard had been issued against them, though i 
 had not yet arrived : they pleaded the charter wiuti 
 
 mentioned, parallel to Hudson's river, and twenty i they received of his royal brother, and his commeiv 
 
730 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 dation of them, for their loyalty, in his gracious 
 letters, and his assurances of the continuance of 
 their civil and religious rights ; and they made the 
 strongest professions of loyalty, and of their con- 
 stant supplications to the Supreme Ruler, that he 
 would save and bless his majesty. 
 
 On the 21st of July, 1686, two writs of quo war- 
 ranto, brought over by Edward Randolph, that in- 
 defatigable enemy of the colonies, were delivered 
 to Governor Treat. The time of appearance before 
 his majesty was passed before the writs arrived. 
 
 Upon the reception of the writs, and a letter from 
 Richard Normansel, one of the sheriffs of London, 
 the governor immediately convoked another special 
 assembly, which met on the 28th of July ; and the 
 assembly appointed Mr. Whiting to be their agent, 
 to present their petition to the king. He was in- 
 structed to represent the time of the colony's re- 
 ceiving the quo warrantos, and of the impossibility 
 of its making its appearance at the time appointed : 
 and also the great injury which the colonists would 
 sustain, by the suspending their charter rights ; 
 and especially by a division of the colony. If Con- 
 necticut could not be continued a distinct govern- 
 ment, he was instructed to supplicate his majesty to 
 continue to them the enjoyment of their property, 
 their houses and lands, and especially their religious 
 privileges. 
 
 On the 28th of December, another writ of quo 
 warranto was served on the governor and company, 
 bearing date October 23d, requiring their appear- 
 ance before his majesty " within eight days of the 
 purification of the Virgin." Though the writs gave 
 no proper time for the appearance of the colony, 
 and consequently no time at all ; yet they declared 
 all its chartered rights vacated, upon its not appear- 
 ing at the time and place ; and the design was to 
 re-unite all the colonies to the crown. That. James 
 II. was an obstinate and bigoted tyrant, few at the 
 present day dispute. Nearly 50 corporations in 
 England, and the corporation of the Bermudas had 
 had their charters taken from them. The charter of 
 Massachusetts had been vacated, and Rhode Island 
 had submitted to the king. A general government 
 had been appointed over all New England, except 
 Connecticut. By the commission, instituting this 
 general government, Connecticut was totally ex- 
 cluded from all jurisdiction in the Narraganset 
 country, or king's province. 
 
 The governor and company of Connecticut, how- 
 ever, in these discouraging circumstances, spared no 
 pains, nor omitted any means for the preservation of 
 their chartered rights. A special assembly was 
 called on the 26th of January, 1687, after the re- 
 ception of the third writ of quo warranto, to delibe- 
 rate on the measures to be adopted in the then pre- 
 sent circumstances of the colony ; but little more, 
 however, was done, than to desire the governor and 
 council to transact all business, which they should 
 judge necessary and expedient, further to be done 
 for the preservation of their privileges. 
 
 The election in May proceeded regularly, but the 
 assembly did nothing important. Fear and hesita- 
 tion appear to have attended the legislature ; and 
 they knew not what course to steer, with safety, 
 either to themselves or their constituents. They, 
 with the colony in general, were in great apprehen- 
 sion, lest, after all their expense and dangers in 
 settling and defending the country, and all their 
 self-denial and sufferings for the sake of enjoying 
 the worship and ordinances of Christ, according to 
 the Gospel, they should not only be deprived of all 
 
 their civil and religious liberties, but even of their 
 houses and lands; as they felt that there was no 
 security for any thing under a prince like James 
 II. ; ho had indeed in his letters promised them the 
 preservation of all their liberties ; yet without any 
 fault on their part, he was arbitrarily wresting them 
 from their hands. It is difficult to conceive, and 
 much more to express, the anxiety experienced in 
 this terrible crisis. 
 
 Mr. Whiting exerted himself in England to pro- 
 cure all the influence, and make all the opposition he 
 possibly could, against a general governor of the 
 colonies, and especially to prevent the suspension 
 of the government of Connecticut, according to char- 
 ter; but he found his utmost exertions to be in 
 vain ; and he wrote to the governor, January 15th, 
 1687, that if the governor and council would defend 
 their charter at law, they must send over one or 
 more from among themselves. A special assembly 
 was called upon the reception of the agent's letter, 
 which convened on the 15th of June, to deliberate 
 on the expediency of sending another agent ; but 
 matters appeared so unfavourable, that it was deter- 
 mined not to send another ; and Mr. Whiting was 
 thanked for his services in favour of the colony, and 
 desired to continue them. 
 
 Mr. Dudley, while president of the commissioners, 
 had written to the governor and company, advising 
 them to resign the charter into the hands of his ma- 
 jesty, and promising to use his influence in favour 
 of the colony. His commission was superseded by 
 a commission to Sir Edmund Andross to be gover- 
 nor of New England ; who arrived at Boston on 
 the 19th of December, 1686. The next day his 
 commission was published, and he took on him the 
 administration of government ; and soon after his 
 arrival he wrote to the governor and company, that 
 he had a commission from his majesty, to receive 
 their charter, if they would resign it ; and he pressed 
 them, in obedience to the king, and as they would 
 give him an opportunity to serve them, to resign it 
 to his pleasure. At this session of the assembly, the 
 governor received another letter from him, acquaint- 
 ing him that he was assured by the advice which he 
 had received from England, that judgment was by 
 that time entered upon the quo warranto against 
 their charter, and that he soon expected to receive 
 his majesty's commands respecting them. He urged 
 them, as he represented it, that he might not be 
 wanting in serving their welfare, to accept his majes- 
 ty's favour, so graciously offered them, in a present 
 compliance and surrender. Colonel Dungan also 
 used his influence to persuade them to resign, and 
 put themselves under his government ; but the co- 
 lony insisted on their charter rights, and on the pro- 
 mise of King James, as well as of his brother, to 
 defend and secure them in the enjoyment of their 
 privileges and estates; and would not surrender 
 their charter to either. However, in their petition 
 to the king, in which they prayed for the continu- 
 ance of their chartered rights, they desired, if this 
 could not be obtained, and it should be resolved to 
 pu them under another government, that it might 
 be under Sir Edmund's, as the Massachusetts had 
 been their former correspondents and confederates, 
 and as they were acquainted with their principles 
 and manners ; and this was construed into a resig- 
 nation, though nothing could be further from the 
 design of the colony. 
 
 The assembly met as usual in October, and the 
 government continued according to charter, until 
 the last of the month. About this time Sir Edmund, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 737 
 
 with his suit, and more than 60 regular "troops 
 came to Hartford, when the assembly were sitting, 
 demanded the charter, and declared the govern- 
 ment under it to be dissolved. The assembly were 
 extremely reluctant and slow with respect to any 
 motion to bring it forth ; and the tradition is, that 
 Governor Treat strongly represented the great ex- 
 pense and hardships of the colonists in planting the 
 country ; the blood and treasure which they had 
 expended in defending it, both against the savages 
 and foreigners ; to what hardships and dangers he 
 himself had been exposed for that purpose ; and 
 that it was like giving up his life, now to surrender 
 the patent and privileges so dearly bought, and so 
 long enjoyed. The important affair was debated and 
 kept in suspense until the evening, when the char- 
 ter was brought and laid upon the table, where the 
 assembly were sitting ; but by this time great 
 numbers of people were assembled, and men suffici- 
 ently bold to undertake whatever might be neces- 
 sary. The lights were instantly extinguished, and 
 one Captain Wadsforth, of Hartford, in the most 
 silent and secret manner, carried off the charter, 
 and secreted it in a large hollow tree, fronting the 
 house of the Hon. Samuel Wyllys, then one of the 
 magistrates of the colony. All remained peaceable 
 and orderly; and the candles were officiously re- 
 lighted ; but the patent was gone, and no discovery 
 could be made of it, or of the person who had con- 
 veyed it away. Sir Edmund from henceforth as- 
 sumed the government, and the records of the co- 
 lony were closed in the following words. 
 . " At a general court at Hartford, October 31st, 
 1G87, his excellency, Sir Edmund Andross, knight, 
 and captain-general and governor of his majesty's 
 territories and dominions in New England, by order 
 from his majesty, James II., king of England, 
 Scotland, France, and Ireland, the 31st of October, 
 1687, took into his hands the government of the 
 colony of Connecticut, it being, by his majesty, 
 annexed to Massachusetts, and other colonies under 
 his excellency's government. Fixis.' 1 
 
 Sir Edmund appointed officers, civil and military, 
 through the colony, according to his pleasure. He 
 had a council, at first, consisting of about 40 per- 
 sons, and afterwards, of nearly 50; and four of 
 this number, Governor Treat, John Fitz Winthrop, 
 Wait Winthrop, and Joha Allen, Esquires, were of 
 Connecticut. 
 
 Sir Edmund began his government with the most 
 flattering professions of his regard to the public 
 safety and happiness. He instructed the judges to 
 administer justice, as far as might be consistent 
 with the new regulations, according to the former 
 laws and customs ; but he soon laid a restraint upon 
 the liberty of the press ; and then, one far more 
 grievous upon marriage; which was prohibited, 
 unless bonds were previously given, with sureties, 
 to the governor; that were to be forfeited, in case 
 it should afterwards appear that there was any law- 
 ful impediment to the marriage. Magistrates only 
 were allowed to join people in wedlock ; and the 
 governor not only deprived the clergy of the perqui- 
 site from marriages, but soon suspended the laws for 
 their support, and would not suffer any person to be 
 obliged to pay any thing to his minister; and also 
 menaced the people, that if they resisted his will, 
 their meeting-houses should be taken from them, 
 and that any person who should give two pence to a 
 non-conformist minister, should be punished. 
 
 The fees of all officers, under this new administra- 
 tion, were exorbitant. The common fee for the 
 
 HIST, OF AMER. Nos. 93 & 94. 
 
 probate of a will was 50s.; the administrators, 
 how distant soever, were obliged to appear at Bos- 
 ton, to transact all business relative to the set- 
 tlement of estates; a grievous oppression of the poor 
 people. 
 
 We have already enlarged upon Andross's arbi- 
 trary proceedings, in the hi-story of Massachusetts; 
 upon which colony it appears he most fully vented 
 his despotism. Connecticut had been less obnox- 
 ious to government; and as it was further re- 
 moved from the seat of government, was less 
 under the notice and influence of this arbitrary 
 governor. 
 
 ,*.. Governor Treat was a father to the people, and 
 felt for them in their distressed circumstances ; and 
 the other gentlemen, who were of the council, and 
 had the principal management of affairs in Connec- 
 ticut, were men of principle and patriotism. They 
 took advantage of Sir Edmund's first instructions, 
 and as far as they possibly could, consistently with 
 the new regulations, governed the colony according 
 to the former laws and customs. The people were 
 patient and peaceable ; but they were no strangers 
 to what was transacted in the neighbouring colonies, 
 and expected soon fully to share with them, in all 
 their miseries. It was generally believed, that An- 
 dross was a papist; that he had employed the Indi- 
 ans to ravage the frontiers, and supplied them with 
 ammunition ; and that he was making prepara- 
 tions to deliver the country into the hands of the 
 French. 
 
 All the motives to great actions, to industry, eco- 
 nomy, enterprise, wealth, and population, were in a 
 manner annihilated; and a general inactivity per- 
 vaded the whole public body. Liberty, property, 
 and every thing which ought to be dear to men, 
 every day, grew more and more insecure ; and all 
 the colonies were in a state of general despondency, 
 with respect to the restoration of their privileges, 
 and the truth of the maxim, " when the wifrked 
 beareth rule the people mourn," was every where 
 exemplified in a striking manner. 
 
 Revolution in New England Connecticut resume their 
 government Address to King William Troops 
 raised for the defence of the eastern settlements in 
 New Hampshire and the province of Maine French 
 and Indian war Schenectady destroyed Connec- 
 ticut dispatch a reinforcement to Albany Expedi- 
 tion against Camda The land army retreats, and 
 the enterprise proves unsuccessful Leisler's abuse 
 of Major General Winthrop The assembly of Con- 
 necticut approve the general's conduct Thanks are 
 returned to Mr. Mather, Agent Whiting, and Mr. 
 Porter Opinions respecting the charter, and the 
 legality of Connecticut's assuming their government 
 Windham settled The Mohawk castles are surprised, 
 and the country alarmed Connecticut send troops 
 to Albany Colonel Fletcher, governor of New York, 
 demands the command of the militia of Connecti- 
 cut The colony petition King William on the sub- 
 ject -Colonel Fletcher comes to Hartford, and, in 
 person, demands that the legislature submit the mi- 
 litia to his command; but they refuse Captain 
 Wadsit'orth prevents the reading of hit commission, 
 and the colonel judges it expedient to leave the co- 
 lony The case of Connecticut relative to the militia 
 stated His majesty determines in favour of the 
 colony Committees are appointed to settle the boun- 
 dary line between Connecticut and Massachusetts 
 General Winthrop returns, and receives public 
 thanks Congratulation of the earl of Bellamonl, 
 
 3 U 
 
738 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 appointed governor of New York and Massachu- 
 setts Dispute with Rhode Island continues Com- 
 mittee to settle the boundaries Expenses of the 
 war Peace. 
 
 Scarcely any thing could be more gloomy and 
 distressful than the state of public affairs in New 
 England at the beginning of the year 1689. But 
 on the 5th of November, 1688, the prince of Orange 
 Lad landed at Torbay, in England ; and immediately 
 published a declaration of his design, in visiting the 
 kingdom. A copy of this was received at Boston, 
 by one Mr. Winslow, a gentleman from Virginia, 
 in April 1689; and Governor Andross and his 
 council were so alarmed with the news, that they 
 ordered Mr. Winslow to be arrested, and committed 
 to gaol, for bringing a false and traitorous libel into 
 the country. They also issued a proclamation, com- 
 manding all the officers and people to be in readi- 
 ness to prevent the landing of any forces, which 
 the prince of Orange might send into that part of 
 America; but the people, who groaned under their 
 burthens, secretly wished and prayed for success to 
 his glorious undertaking. The leaders in the coun- 
 try determined quietly to wait the event; but the 
 great body of the inhabitants had less patience; 
 tjnd stung with past injuries, and encouraged at the 
 first intimations of relief, the fire of liberty re-kin- 
 dled, and the flame, which for a long time had been 
 smothered in their bosoms, burst forth with irresis- 
 tible violence. 
 
 On the 18th of April the inhabitants of Boston 
 and the adjacent towns rose in arms, made them- 
 selves masters of the castle, seized Sir Edmund An 
 dross and his council, and persuaded the old governor 
 and council, at Boston, to resume the government. 
 
 On the 9th of May, 1689, Governor Robert Treat 
 Deputy-governor James Bishop, and the former ma 
 gistrates, at the desire of the freemen, resumed the 
 government of Connecticut; and Major-genera" 
 John Winthrop was, at the same time, chosen int< 
 the magistracy, to complete the number appointee 
 by charter. The freemen voted, that, for the pre 
 sent safety of that part of New England called Con 
 necticut, the necessity of its circumstances so requi 
 ring, " they would re-establish government, as i 
 was before, and at the time when Sir Edmund An 
 dross took it, and so have it proceed, as it did be 
 fore that time, according to charter; engaging them 
 selves to submit to it accordingly, until there shoul 
 be a legal establishment among them." 
 
 The assembly having met, came to the followin^ 
 resolution : " That whereas this court hath been in 
 terrupted in the management of the government i 
 this colony of Connecticut, for nineteen month 
 past, it is now enacted, ordered, and declared, tha 
 all the laws of this colony, made according to char 
 ter, and courts constituted for the administration o 
 government, as they were before the late interrup 
 tion, shall be of full force and virtue for the future 
 and until this court shall see cause to make furthe 
 and other alterations, according to charter." The 
 then confirmed all military officers in their respec 
 ive posts, and proceeded to appoint their civil ofh 
 cers, as had been customary at the May session. 
 
 It was expected that it might soon be necessar 
 to transact matters of the highest importance, r 
 specting the most essential rights of the colony 
 and the deputies therefore resolved, that if occasio 
 should require any thing to be acted respecting the 
 charter, the governor should call the assembly, and 
 not leave the affair with the council. 
 
 Upon the 26th of May a ship arrived at Boston, 
 ith advice that William and Mary were proclaimed 
 ng and queen of England. The joyful news soon 
 cached Connecticut ; and a special assembly wa 
 ailed, which convened on the 13th of June. On 
 le same day, William and Mary were proclaimed 
 ith great ceremony and joy ; and never was there 
 reater or more general joy in New England, 
 ban upon their accession to the throne of Great 
 Jritain. 
 
 The legislature addressed his majesty in the most 
 yal manner; and presented their grateful acknow- 
 edgments to him, for his zeal for the welfare of the 
 ation, and for the protestant interest. At the same 
 ime, they stated their charter privileges, and the 
 manner in which Sir Edmund Andross had sup- 
 ressed their government ; and they prayed for his 
 majesty's directions, and his gracious confirmation 
 f their charter rights. It was ordered, that Mr. 
 Whiting should present their address. 
 
 Meanwhile a revolution had been made at New 
 fork; where one Captain Jacob Leisler had as- 
 umed the government of that province, and kept 
 he fort and city in behalf of King William. He 
 ad written to Connecticut, and solicited assistance 
 n ^defending the province ; and the assembly ap- 
 >ointed Major Gould, and Captain James Fitch, to 
 roceed to New York, and confer with Leisler and 
 lis council relative to the defence of the frontiers. 
 The committee, with Captain Leisler, were autho- 
 rized to determine the number of men to be employed, 
 .nd the measures to be adopted for that purpose; 
 and in consequence of their determination, the go- 
 ernor and council dispatched Captain Bull, with a 
 company, to Albany, for the defence of that part of 
 he country, and to assist in a treaty with the five 
 nations, with a view to secure their friendship and 
 attachment, as far as possible, to the English colo- 
 nies ; a detachment of men was also sent for the 
 defence of the fort and city of New York. 
 
 While the French and Indians were threatening 
 he northern frontiers, the eastern Indians were 
 :arrying on their depredations in the eastern parts 
 of New England ; and in September a special as- 
 sembly was called on that account. Commissioners 
 were appointed to consult with the commissioners of 
 the other colonies, relative to the war in those parts ; 
 and as it was imagined the Indians there had been 
 injured by Governor Andross and his officers, the 
 commissioners were instructed to inquire into the 
 grounds of the war with them ; and if it should ap- 
 pear that they had been injured, to use their utmost 
 influence, that justice might be done them, and the 
 country quieted in that way. But if they found the 
 war to be just and necessary, they were authorized 
 to engage the colony's full proportion of men, un- 
 less it should amount to more than 200. Two com- 
 panies were afterwards appointed to that service, 
 under the command of Captains George Denison 
 and Ebenezer Johnson. 
 
 At the session in October it was resolved, that in 
 consequence of the great expense of the colony, in 
 defending his majesty's subjects in other parts, it 
 was necessary to withdraw the aid which they had 
 sent to New York. 
 
 At this general court, the law respecting the 
 choice of the governors and magistrates was enacted 
 nearly in the words in which it now stands; but it 
 instituted a mode of nomination different from the 
 present ; which was to be made on the third Tues- 
 day in March annually, and the votes were to be 
 carried to Hartford by the constables of the county 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 739 
 
 towns, and on the last Tuesday in the month were, 
 by them, to be sorted and counted ia the council- 
 chamber. 
 
 While the revolution delivered the nation from 
 vassalage and popery, it involved it in an immediate 
 war with. France, and the colonies in a French and 
 Indian war ; and a large number of troops, and a 
 considerable fleet, were sent from France, in 1689, 
 with a special view to the reduction of New York. 
 But as we have already given an account of this 
 war in the previous histories, we shall not enlarge 
 on it here. 
 
 A special assembly was held on the llth of April, 
 1690, when letters were laid before the assembly 
 from Massachusetts, soliciting that soldiers might be 
 sent from Connecticut, to guard the upper towns 
 upon Connecticut river; and that there might be a 
 general meeting of commissioners from the several 
 colonies at Rhode Island, to consult the common 
 defence. There were also letters from Captain 
 Leisler, at New York, and from Colonel Schuyler, 
 and other principal gentlemen at Albany, urging, 
 that Captain Bull and the soldiers there might be 
 continued, and that reinforcements might be for- 
 warded for the defence of that place and the adja- 
 cent country ; and it was also urged, that Connec- 
 ticut would unite with the other colonies, in raising 
 an army for the reduction of Canada. 
 
 The assembly determined, that there was a ne- 
 cessity for their utmost exertions to prevent the set- 
 tlement of the French, at Albany ; and it was re- 
 solved, that two companies, of 100 inen each, should 
 be raised and sent forward for that purpose. The 
 colony also gave assistance to the frontier towns of 
 Massachusetts upon the river. 
 
 For the defence of Connecticut, it was ordered 
 that a constant watch should be kept in the several 
 towns, and that all the males in the colony, except 
 the aged and infirm, should keep guard in their 
 turns ; and if the aged and infirm were registered at 
 more than 501. in the list, they were obliged to pro- 
 cure a man, in their turns, to watch and guard in 
 their stead. 
 
 Though the colony had received no instructions 
 from King William, confirming their charter, or 
 directing the mode of government, yet at the gene- 
 ral election, the freemen proceeded, as had been 
 usual, to the choice of their officers ; and Robert 
 Treat, Esq. was re-chosen governor, and James 
 Bishop, Esq. deputy-governor. Samuel Wyllys, 
 Nathan Gould, William Jones, John Allen, Andrew 
 Leet, James Fitch, Samuel Mason, Samuel Talcott, 
 John Burr, William Pitkin, Nathaniel Stanley, 
 and Daniel Witherell, Esquires, were chosen ma- 
 gistrates. 
 
 At this session of the assembly, that part of Wea- 
 thersfield which lay on the east side of Connecticut 
 river, was made a distinct town, by the name of 
 Glastenbury. 
 
 The proposed meeting of commissioners was holden 
 at New York, instead of Rhode Island, ou the 1st 
 of May, 1690. The commissioners from Connecti- 
 cut, were Nathan Gould, and William Pitkin, Es- 
 quires. 
 
 Though General Winthrop, who had been ap- 
 pointed commander-in-chief, had acted in perfect 
 conformity to the agreement of the commissioners, 
 at New York, and to the instructions which had 
 been given him, and though he. had taken all his 
 measures by the advice of his officers, in repeated 
 councils of war, yet Leisler, Milborn, and their 
 party, were filled with the utmost rage and madness 
 
 at a retreat he thought necessary. Leisler, how- 
 ever, took advantage of the general, after the army 
 had crossed Hudson's river, and lay encamped on the 
 west side of it, and arrested and confined him, that he 
 might try him by a court-martial of his own ap- 
 pointment He was some days under the arrest; 
 but when he was brought to trial, the Mohawks, 
 who were in the camp, crossed the river and brought 
 him off, with great triumph, and to the universal 
 joy of the army. Leisler, Milborn, and their party, 
 were so enraged with some of the principal gentle- 
 men in Albany, who were of the general's council, 
 that they were obliged to flee to Connecticut for 
 safety ; and Livingston and others resided some 
 time at Hartford. Leisler also confined the com- 
 missary of the Connecticut troops, so that the army 
 suffered for want of his assistance. 
 
 This was viewed by Connecticut as a most illegal 
 proceeding; not only highly injurious to General 
 Winthrop and the colony, but to all New England. 
 The governor and council remonstrated against his 
 conduct, and demanded the release of General 
 Wiuthrop and their commissary; and declared, 
 that it belonged not to him to judge of the general's 
 conduct, but to the colonies in general; that it was 
 inconsistent with the very instructions which he 
 had subscribed with his own hand ; and that, if he 
 proceeded in his unprecedented and violent mea- 
 sures, they would leave him and New York to them- 
 selves, without any further aid from Connecticut, 
 let the consequences be what they might. 
 
 At the general court, in October, a narrative of 
 the conduct of the general was exhibited, attested 
 by the officers of the army, and by numbers of the 
 principal gentlemen of Albany ; and attested answers 
 of the Indians to the several councils of war, with 
 such other evidence as the assembly judged proper 
 to examine, were heard. Upon a full examination 
 of the affair, the assembly resolved : " That the ge- 
 neral's conduct in the expedition had been with 
 good fidelity to his majesty's interest, and that his 
 confinement at Albany, on the account thereof, de- 
 served a timely vindication, as being very injurious 
 and dishonourable to himself, and the colonies of 
 New England, at whose instance he undertook that 
 difficult service ;" and the court appointed two of the 
 magistrates, in their name, " To thank the general 
 for his good service to their majesties, and to this 
 colony, and assure him, that, on all seasonable oc- 
 casions, they would be ready to manifest their good 
 sentiments of his fidelity, valour, and prudence." 
 The assembly made him a grant of 40J. as a pre- 
 sent, which they desired him to accept, as a further 
 testimonial of their entire approbation of his services. 
 
 Besides the troops employed in the expedition 
 against Canada, Connecticut maintained a company 
 upon the river, for the defence of the towns in 
 Hampshire; and upon an alarm ia the winter, the 
 governor and council dispatched a company to 
 Deerfield, for the protection of that and the neigh- 
 bouring towns. 
 
 At the election in May 1691, all the former officers 
 were re-elected. 
 
 On the account of the death of. the Deputy-gover- 
 nor James Bishop, Esq., a special assembly was 
 convened, on the 9th of July, 1691 ; when William 
 Jones, Esquire, was chosen deputy-governor, and 
 Captain Caleb Stanley, magistrate. 
 
 The Rev. Increase Mather, of Boston, was a 
 most faithful friend to the liberties of his country ; 
 and though he was agent for the Massachusetts, yet 
 he was indefatigable in his labours, and, as opportu- 
 
 3U2 
 
7*40 
 
 THE HISTOR1 OF AMERICA. 
 
 nity presented, performed essential services for the 
 other colonies. At the accession of William and 
 Mary he had prevented the bill for establishing the 
 former governors of New England; and he had united 
 all his influence with Mr. Whiting for the bene- 
 fit of Connecticut. One Mr. James Porter had also 
 been very serviceable to the colony ; and the assem- 
 bly, therefore, ordered that a letter of thanks should 
 be addressed to both those gentlemen, for the ser- 
 vices which they had rendered the colony. They 
 were also desired to use their influence to obtain 
 from his majesty a letter, approving of their admi- 
 nistration of government, according to charter, as 
 legal ; and expressing his determination to protect 
 them in the enjoyment of their civil and religious 
 privileges. 
 
 The violation of the charters in England had been 
 declared illegal and arbitrary; and the charter of 
 the city of London, and those of other corporations 
 in Great Britain, had been restored. The case of 
 Connecticut, respecting their charter, had been 
 stated, and the opinions of gentlemen of the law 
 had been given relative to the legality of the go- 
 vernment assumed by the colony, as follows : 
 
 " Query, Whether the charter belonging to Con- 
 necticut, "in New England, is, by means of their 
 involuntary submission to Sir Edmund Andross's 
 government, void in law, so as that the king may 
 send a governor to them, contrary to their charter 
 privileges, when there has been no judgment en- 
 tered against their charter, nor any surrender there- 
 of upon record ? 
 
 " I am of opinion that such submission, as is put, 
 in this case, doth not invalidate the charter, or any 
 of the powers therein, which were granted under 
 the great seal ; and that the charter not being sur- 
 rendered under the common seal, and that surren- 
 der duly enrolled of record, nor any judgment of 
 record entered against it, the same remains good 
 and valid in law; and the said corporation may 
 lawfully execute the powers and privileges thereby 
 granted, notwithstanding such submission, and ap- 
 pointment of a governor as aforesaid, 
 
 " 2d August, 1690. EDWARD WARD. 
 
 " I am of the same opinion, J. SOMEKS. 
 
 " I am of the same opinion ; and as this matter 
 is stated there is no ground of doubt. 
 
 " GEO. TREBY." 
 
 The people at the eastward, in New Hampshire 
 and the province of Maine, had been extremely dis- 
 tressed by the war, and a very great proportion of 
 them driven from their settlements ; and it had also 
 been found exceedingly difficult to persnade men to 
 keep garrison for the defence of that part of the 
 country. The general court of Connecticut, there- 
 fore, appointed a contribution through the colony 
 for the encouragement of the soldiers who should 
 keep garrison there, and for the relief of poor fami- 
 lies, which had kept their stations, or been driven 
 from them by the ravages of the enemy. The clergy 
 were directed to exhort the people to liberal con- 
 tributions for these charitable purposes. The num- 
 ber of persons this year, rateable in the colony, was 
 3,109, and the grand list 183,159/. 
 
 At the election, May 1692, William Jones, Esq. 
 was chosen deputy-governor by the freemen. Mr. 
 Caleb Stanley and Mr. Moses Mansfield were chosen 
 magistrates. Governor W T inthrop and the other 
 magistrates were the same they had been the year 
 before. 
 
 The French, the last year, while the troops were 
 employed in the expedition against Canada, made 
 
 a descent upon Block Island, plundered the houses, 
 and captured most of the inhabitants. This greatly 
 alarmed the people of New London, Stonington, 
 and Saybrook; and detachments of the militia were 
 sent to the sea-port towns for their defence. The 
 assembly, therefore, about this time ordered that 
 New London should be fortified; and that the forti- 
 fications at Saybrook should be repaired. 
 
 In February 1693, dispatches were sent to Con- 
 necticut, acquainting Governor Treat, that the 
 French had invaded his majesty's territories, and 
 taken the fortresses of his allies ; and a demand was 
 made of 200 men, complete in their arms, to march 
 forthwith to Albany. 
 
 A special assembly was called on the 21st of Fe- 
 bruary, 1693, and it was ordered that 150 men 
 should be sent immediately to Albany, or any other 
 place which the governor should judge to be most 
 for his majesty's interest. Fifty of the troops marched 
 for Albany the next day. 
 
 Scarcely had the assembly dispersed, before 
 another express arrived, from Sir William Phipps, 
 requiring a corps of 100 English men, and 50 In- 
 dians, to assist in the defence of the eastern settle- 
 ments, in the province of Maine and Massachusetts ; 
 and on the 6th of March another special assembly 
 was convened, and the legislature granted a cap- 
 tain's company of 60 English men, and about 40 
 Indians, under the command of Captain William 
 Whiting. 
 
 Major-general Fitz John Winthrop was chosen 
 magistrate at the election, which was the only alter- 
 ation made among the magistrates this year. 
 
 The general court ordered a letter to be addressed 
 to the governor of Massachusetts, once more desir- 
 ing him and that colony amicably to join with Con- 
 necticut in running the partition line between the 
 two colonies; and William Pitkin, Esq., Mr. Samuel 
 Chester, and Captain William Whiting, were ap- 
 pointed a committee to run the line. They had in- 
 structions to begin, according to the express words 
 of the patent of Massachusetts, three miles south of 
 every part of Charles river, and thence to run to the 
 westernmost bounds of Symsbury. 
 
 Colonel Benjamin Fletcher,* governor of New 
 Yorkywho had arrived at the seat of his government, 
 Augusv, 29th, 1692, had received a commission en- 
 tirely inconsistent with the charter rights and safety 
 of the colonies ; being vested with plenary powers 
 of commanding the whole militia of Connecticut and 
 the neighbouring provinces. He consequently in- 
 sisted on the command of the militia of Connecticut ; 
 but as this was expressly given to the colony by 
 charter, the legislature would not submit to his re- 
 quisition. They, however, judged it expedient to 
 refer it to the freemen, whether they would address 
 a petition to his majesty, praying for the continu- 
 ance of the militia in the power of the colony, ac- 
 cording to their charter, and for the continuance 
 and preservation of all their chartered rights and 
 privileges. There were 2,180 persons, or suffrages 
 for addressing his majesty, and the freemen de- 
 clared, that they would bear their proportionable 
 charge with the rest of the colony, in prosecuting 
 the affair to a final issue. 
 
 At a special assembly, September 1st, 1693, the 
 court appointed a petition to be drafted, to be pre- 
 sented to his majesty King William, on the subject; 
 and Major-general Fitz John Winthrop was ap- 
 pointed agent to present the petition, and employ 
 his best endeavours for the confirmation of all the 
 chartered privileges of the colony. He was desired, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 741 
 
 &s soon as possible to take his passage to England, I terms with him respecting the mililia, until his ma- 
 and upon his arrival there, to lay the business as I jesty's pleasure should be further known ; but no 
 expeditiously as might be, before his majesty, and I terms could be made with him short of an explicit 
 prosecute the affair to an issue, with all convenient I submission of the militia to his command, 
 dispatch. On the 26th of October, he came to Hartford, 
 
 lie was instructed to make a full representation I while the assembly were sitting, and in his majesty's 
 of the great hardships, expense, and dangers of the name, demanded their submission of the militia to 
 inhabitants, in planting and defending the colony; his command, as they would answer it to his ma- 
 and that these had been born wholly by themselves, I jesty ; and that they would give him a speedy an- 
 without any assistance from the parent country : 1 swer in one word, Yes, or No. He subscribed'him- 
 that it would endanger and ruin the colony if the I self his majesty's lieutenant, and commander-in- 
 nailitia should be taken from it, and commanded by I chief of the militia, and of all the forces by sea or 
 strangers at the distance of N ew York and Boston : I land, and of all the forts and places of strength in 
 that it would wholly incapacitate them to defend I the colony of Connecticut. He ordered the militia 
 themselves, their wives, and children : that before I of Hartford under arms, that he might beat up for 
 they could obtain instructions from such a distance, I volunteers ; and it was judged expedient to call the 
 upo'n any sudden emergency, the colony might be I trainbands in Hartford together; but the assembly 
 depopulated and ruined: that a stranger at a dis- 1 insisted, that the command of the militia was ex- 
 tance might not agree with the governor and coun- 1 pressly vested by charter in the governor and com- 
 cil in employing the militia for the defence of the I pany ; and that they could by no means, consist- 
 property, lives, and liberties of the subjects ; and I ently with their just rights and the common safety, 
 that the life and support of the laws, and the very I resign it into any other hands ; and they further 
 existence of their civil constitution depended on the I insinuated, that his demands were an invasion of 
 militia. He was also instructed further to represent I their essential privileges, and subversive of their 
 the state of the militia of Connecticut, with respect I constitution. 
 
 to its difference from that of the militia of England : I Upon this, Colonel Bayard, by the governor's 
 that from the scattered state and small number off command, sent a letter into the assembly, declaring 
 the inhabitants, it had been necessary that all males, I that the governor had no design upon the civil rights 
 from sixteen years of age, should belong to the I of the colony ; but would leave them in all respects 
 militia, and be made soldiers, so that if the militia I as he found them; he then tendered a commission 
 were taken from the colony, there would be none I to Governor Treat, empowering him to command 
 left but magistrates, ministers, physicians, aged and I the militia of the colony ; and declared that the 
 infirm people, to defend their extensive sea-coasts I governor insisted, that they should acknowledge it 
 and frontiers; and that giving the command of the I an essential right, inherent in his majesty, to com- 
 militia to the governor of another colony, was, in I mand the militia ; and that he was determined not 
 effect, to put their persons, interests, and liberties I to set his foot out of the colony until he had seen his 
 entirely into his power. The agent was also directed I majesty's commission obeyed: and that he would 
 to represent the entire satisfaction of the colony with I issue his proclamation, showing the means he had 
 the present government, and the great advantages I taken to give satisfaction to his majesty's subjects 
 resulting from it : that giving the command of the I of Connecticut, and that he should distinguish the 
 militia to the governor of another province, would I disloyal. 
 
 exceedingly endanger, if not entirely destroy that I The assembly, nevertheless, would not give up 
 general contentment, and all the advantages thence I the command of the militia ; nor would Governor 
 arising to his majesty and his subjects : that out of I Treat receive a commission from Colonel Fletcher. 
 3000 freemen in the colony, 2,200 actually met, I The trainbands of Hartford assembled, and, as the 
 and gave their suffrages for the present address ; I tradition is, while Captain Wadsworth, the senior 
 and that the greatest part of the other 800 were for I officer, was walking in front of the companies, and 
 it, but were by their particular affairs prevented from I exercising the soldiers, Colonel Fletcher ordered his 
 attending at the respective meetings, when the I commission and instructions to be read. Captain 
 suffrages were taken : that the inhabitants were uni- 1 Wadsworth instantly uttered the command, " Beat 
 versally for the revolution; and that in the whole I the drums;" and there was such d, roaring of them 
 colony, there were not more than four or five mal- 1 that nothing else could be heard. Colonel Fletcher 
 contents. He was also charged to assure his ma- I commanded silence; but no sooner had Bayard 
 jesty, that the militia should be improved with the I made an attempt to read again, than Wadsworth 
 utmost prudence and faithfulness for his majesty's I cried, " Drum, drum, I say." The drummers un- 
 service, in the defence of the frontiers of Massachu- I derstood their business, and instantly beat up with 
 setts and New York; and to lay before him what | all the art of which they were masters. " Silence! 
 
 silence !" said the colonel ; but no sooner was there 
 a pause, than Wadsworth again cried with great 
 
 the colony had already done ; especially for the pro- 
 vince of New York, in their late distressed condi- 
 tion. That for its defence, and the securing of the I vehemence, " Drum ! drum ! I say ;" and turning to 
 five nations in his majesty's interest, they had ex- 1 his excellency, said, " If I am interrupted again 1 will 
 pended more than 3000/., and lost a number of their I make the sun shine through you in a moment." He 
 men ; and further, General Winthrop was directed, so I spoke with such energy in his voice and meaning in 
 far as might be judged expedient, to plead the rights I his countenance, that no further attempts were made 
 granted in the charter, especially that of command- I to read or enlist men ; and such numbers of people 
 ing the militia, and the common usage, ever since I collected together, and their spirits appeared so 
 the grant of the charter, for a long course of years. I high, that the governor and his suit judged it 
 The colony wished to serve his majesty's interest, I expedient soon to leave the town and return to 
 and as far as possible, consistently with' their char- 1 New York. 
 
 tered rights, to maintain a good understanding with I The assembly at this sitting granted 500/. to sup- 
 Governor Fletcher; and William Pitkin, Esq. was, I port Major-general Winthrop in his agency at the 
 therefore, sent to New York, to treat and make | court of Great Britain. 
 
742 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 On the 7th of February, 1694, a special assembly 
 \vas called in consequence of a letter from King 
 William, relative to the fortifying of Albany; and 
 in compliance with his majesty's requisition, the 
 assembly granted 600. to be paid into the hands of 
 Colonel Fletcher, for the defence of Albany ; and a 
 rate of one penny on the pound was levied to raise 
 the money. 
 
 The rateable polls in the colony were at this 
 time about 2,347, and the grand list 137,G46/. 
 
 For the defence of the plantations in New York, 
 and the towns upon the river, in the county of 
 Hampshire, the assembly ordered, that the commis- 
 sioned officers, who were the nearest to the places, 
 which should at any time be attacked, should dis- 
 patch immediate succours to them ; andprovision was 
 also made that the several detachments of the mili- 
 tia should be furnished with all articles necessary 
 for their marching in any emergency, upon the 
 shortest notice. 
 
 Major-general Winthrop arrived safe in England, 
 and presented the petition, with which he had been 
 entrusted, to his majesty; and a statement of the 
 case of Connecticut was drawn and laid before the 
 king; in which, besides the facts stated in the in- 
 structions of Mr. Winthrop, it was alleged that in 
 the charter, granted by King Charles, the command 
 of the militia was, in the most express and ample 
 manner, given to the colony ; and that the gover- 
 nor had always commanded it for the common safety : 
 that in the charter there was a clause for the most 
 beneficial construction of it for the corporation ; 
 and another of non olstante to all statutes repugnant 
 to said grant. It was also represented, that who- 
 ever commanded the persons in a colony would also 
 command their purse, and be the governor of the 
 colony : that there was such a connexion between 
 the civil authority and the command of the militia, 
 that one could not subsist without the other : that it 
 was designed to govern the colonies in America, as 
 nearly as might be in conformity to the laws of En- 
 gland; and that the king and his lieutenants ceuld 
 not draw out all the militia of a county ; but a cer- 
 tain part only, in proportion to its numbers and 
 wealth. It was therefore pleaded, that Governor 
 Fletcher's commission ought to be construed with 
 the same restriction : that were not the command 
 of the king and his lieutenants restricted by acts of 
 parliament, the subjects could not be free ; and 
 that for the same reason, Governor Fletcher's com- 
 mand ought to be restrained by the laws of Connec- 
 ticut, so far as they were not repugnant to the laws 
 of England. It was further stated, that it was im- 
 possible for Governor Fletcher so well to judge of 
 the dispositions and abilities of each town and divi- 
 sion in Connecticut, or be so much mastej of the 
 affections of the people in time of need, as those who 
 dwelt among them and had been chosen to command 
 them; and therefore he could not be so well quali- 
 fied for the local and ordinary command of the mili- 
 tia ; nor serve the interests of his majesty, or the 
 colony in that respect, so satisfactorily and effec- 
 tually as its own officers. 
 
 His majesty's attorney and solicitor-general gave 
 their opinion in favour of Connecticut's command 
 ing the militia; and on the 19th of April, 1694, his 
 majesty in council determined according to the re- 
 port which they had made. The quota of Connecti- 
 cut, during the war, was fixed at 120 men, to be at 
 the command of Governor Fletcher, and the rest o: 
 the militia to be commanded as had been usual by 
 the governor of Connecticut. 
 
 Upon the solicitations of Governor Fletcher and 
 Sir William Phipps, agents and a number of troops 
 were sent to attend a treaty with the five nations : 
 ;he expense of which to the colony was about 400/. 
 
 A committee was appointed again in the May 
 session, to run the partition line between Connecti- 
 cut and Massachusetts. Massachusetts was invited 
 :o join with them, but as that court refused, the com- 
 mittee of Connecticut, by the direction of the as- 
 sembly, ran the line without them and in October 
 1695, the general assembly renewed their applica- 
 tion to the general court of Massachusetts, entreat- 
 ng them to unite amicably in running the boundary 
 Line, or to agree to it, as it had been run by Con- 
 necticut. They stated how it ran, and what en- 
 croachments they had made upon the colony. The 
 Massachusetts insisted, however, upon the old line, 
 made by Woodward and Saffery, and would not take 
 any measures to accommodate the difference. 
 
 At the court of election, May 1G9G, Eleazer 
 Kimberly was chosen secretary ; and upon the re- 
 quisition of Governor Fletcher, a compan) of GO 
 men were ordered to Albany, under the command of 
 Captain William Whiting; whilst 40 dragoons were 
 also forwarded to the county of Hampshire, for the 
 security of the inhabitants in that part of Massa- 
 chusetts. 
 
 About this time the town of Danbury was incor- 
 porated ; the whole number of families amounted to 
 only 24. 
 
 At the general court, May 1697, Colonel Hut- 
 chinsou and Captain Byfield were sent from Boston, 
 to solicit the raising of such a number of troops a 
 should enable Massachusetts to attack the eastern 
 enemy at their head-quarters. The legislature judged 
 themselves unable to furnish such a number, as 
 would be necessary for that purpose, in addition to 
 the troops they must raise for the defence of their 
 own frontiers of New York, and the county of 
 Hampshire ; but agreed to furnish a party of about 
 60 Englishmen and 40 Indians, to range the woods, 
 near the walk of the enemy, and to defend the fron- 
 tiers of the county of Hampshire. 
 
 At a general assembly, January 22d, 1698, an 
 alteration was made in the constitution of the county 
 court ; by which it was provided, that it should con- 
 sist of one chief judge and four justices of the quo- 
 rum in each county, appointed by the assembly. 
 
 Major-general Fitz-John Winthrop, having re- 
 turned from his successful agency at the court of 
 Great Britain, was received with great joy, by the 
 legislature and the people in general; and the as- 
 sembly presented him with their thanks for the good 
 services he had rendered to the government: and as 
 a further testimonial of the high sense which they 
 entertained of his merit, fidelity, and labours for 
 the public, they voted him a gratuity of 300/. 
 
 On the 18th of June, 1697, Richard, earl of Bel- 
 lamont, having received his commission to be go- 
 vernor of New York and Massachusetts, and being 
 every day expected at New York ; the general court 
 of Connecticut were desirous to display their respect, 
 and to conciliate his good graces ; and to that end 
 appointed General Winthrop, Major Jonathan Sil- 
 lick, and the Rev. Gurdon Saltonstall, upon the 
 first notice of his arrival at New York, to wait upon 
 him, and in the name of the general assembly of 
 Connecticut, to congratulate him. 
 
 Notwithstanding the determination of Lieutenant- 
 governor Cranfield, and the king's commissioners, 
 and the report to his majesty concerning the right 
 of Connecticut to the Narraganset country, the cou- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 743 
 
 troversy between Connecticut and Rhode Island still 
 continued ; and the king would not confirm the 
 judgment and report of the commissioners. The 
 Rhode Islanders, though they had violated every 
 article of the agreement between Mr. Winthrop and 
 Mr. Clark, were yet ready to plead it against Con- 
 necticut, whenever it should suit their convenience. 
 A letter from the lords of trade and plantations was 
 laid before the assembly, advising Connecticut to a 
 settlement of boundaries with that colony ; and upon 
 this recommendation, the general court appointed 
 Major James Fitch, Captain Daniel Witherell, and 
 the Rev. James Noyes, commissioners to treat with 
 Rhode Island, and to attempt an amicable settle- 
 ment. 
 
 The peace of Ryswick, September llth, 1697, 
 once more delivered Great Britain and her colonies 
 from the calamities of war ; and the Americans re- 
 joiced at the return of peace. Connecticut had 
 been happy in the preservation of her frontiers, in 
 the loss of few men, and in the effectual aid which 
 she had given to her sister colonies ; but neverthe- 
 less, the war had been very expensive, and exceed- 
 ingly vexatious. 
 
 Governor Fletcher caused the colony much unne- 
 cessary trouble and expense ; as upon almost every 
 rumour of danger, he would send on his expresses 
 to Connecticut ; and the governor and council, and 
 sometimes the assembly, were obliged to meet, and 
 dispatch troops to some place ; and by these con- 
 tinual false alarms, he almost wore out the gover- 
 nor and council with meetings, and harassed the 
 militia. The whole colony was so harassed with his 
 vexatious management, that the governor wrote to 
 Mr. Winthrop, while he was in England, desiring 
 him to represent his conduct to his majesty, and 
 pray for relief. 
 
 But these miseries were now at an end. The 
 successful agency of General Winthrop, his safe 
 return to his country, the blessings of peace, and 
 the appointment and arrival of the earl of Bella- 
 mont to the government of the neighbouring pro- 
 vinces, united their influence to diffuse universal 
 joy; and the legislature appointed a day of public 
 thanksgiving. 
 
 General Winthrop is elected governor* The assembly 
 divide and form into two houses 'Purchase and set- 
 tlement of several towns The boundary line between 
 Connecticut and New York surveyed and fixed-- 
 Attempts for running and establishing the line be- 
 tween Massachusetts and Connecticut Owaneco and 
 the Moheagans claim Colchester and other tracts in 
 the colony Attempts to compose all differences with 
 them Grant to the volunteers The assembly en- 
 acts, that the session in October shall for the 
 future be in New Haven An act enlarging the 
 boundaries of New London, and acts relative to 
 towns and patents Measures adopted for the de- 
 fence of the colony Appointment of king's atttor- 
 neys Attempts to despoil Connecticut of its charter 
 Bill for re-uniting the charter governments to 
 the crown Sir Henry Ashurst petitions against, 
 and prevents the passing of the bill -Governor Dud- 
 ley. Lord Cornbury, and other enemies conspire 
 against the colony They exhibit grievous complaints 
 against it Sir Henry Ashurst defends the colony, 
 and defeats their attempts Quakers petition Mo- 
 heagan case Survey and bounds of the pretended 
 Afoheagan country Dudley's court at Stoning ton 
 The colony protest against it Dudley's treatment of 
 the colony Judgment against it-*-Pelition to her 
 
 majesty on the subject New commissions are granted 
 Act in favour of the clergy State of the colony. 
 
 At the election in 1698, there was a consider 
 able alteration in the legislature. Major-general 
 Fitz-John Winthrop, by his address, and the suc- 
 cess of his agency in England, had rendered himself 
 so popular, that he was elected governor; and the 
 former governor, Treat, who had for many years 
 presided, and who had grown old in the service of 
 the colony, was elected deputy-governor ; William 
 Jones, Esq., who for a number of years had been 
 deputy-governor, was left out of the council. Mr. 
 Joseph Curtis was chosen magistrate, to fill the 
 vacancy made by the preferment of General Win- 
 throp. 
 
 Until the session in October 1698, the assembly 
 consisted of but one house, and the magistrates and 
 deputies appear to have acted together ; but at this 
 time it was enacted, that the general assembly 
 should consist of two houses: that the governor, or, 
 in his absence, the deputy-governor and magistrates, 
 should compose the first, which should be called the 
 upper house : that the other should consist of the 
 deputies, regularly returned from the several towns 
 in the colony, which should be called the lower 
 house. This house was authorized to choose a 
 speaker to preside, and when formed, to make such 
 officers and rules as they should judge necessary for 
 their own regulation. It was also enacted, that no 
 act should be passed into a law of this colony, nor 
 any law, already enacted, be repealed, nor any 
 other act, proper to this general assembly, be passed, 
 except by the consent of both houses. 
 
 At the general court, in October, an act passed, 
 regulating the county court; which ordained, that it 
 should consist of one chief judge, and two justices 
 of the quorum. 
 
 In 1699 the governor and deputy-governor were 
 re-elected; and Richard Christopher was chosen 
 into the magistracy, and Captain Joseph Whiting, 
 treasurer. 
 
 At this session the lower house, for the first time, 
 formed separately, and chose Mr. John Chester 
 speaker, and Cap'tain William Whiting clerk. At 
 this assembly an act was passed, exempting the 
 clergy from taxation ; and several enactments were 
 made", relative to the settlement of new townships. 
 
 In June 1659, Governor Winthrop obtained 
 leave of the assembly to purchase a large tract at 
 Quinibaug; and soon after, he made a purchase 
 of Allups, alias Hyemps, and Mashaushawit, the 
 Indian proprietors, of the lands comprised in the 
 townships of Plainfield and Canterbury, lying on 
 both sides of Quinibaug river. There were some 
 few families on the lands at the time of the purchase ; 
 but the planters were few, until the year 1689, when 
 a number of people, chiefly from Massachusetts, 
 made a purchase of the heirs of Governor Winthrop, 
 and began settlements in the northern part of the 
 tract. At their session, in May 1699, the general 
 assembly vested the inhabitants with town privi- 
 leges ; and the next year it was named Plainfield. 
 
 The legislature, in the October session, 1698, 
 enacted, that a new plantation should be made at 
 Jeremy's farm ; which it was determined should be 
 bounded southerly byLyme, westerly by Middletown, 
 and easterly by Norwich and Lebanon. This was 
 usually termed the plantation at twenty mile river. 
 The settlement began about 1701 ; and in 1703, the 
 assembly gave the planters a patent, confirming to 
 them the whole tract. Some of the principal plant- 
 
744 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 ors were the Rev. John Bulkley, Samuel Gilbert, 
 Michael Taintcr, Samuel Northam, John Adams, 
 Joseph Pomeroy, and John Loomis. 
 
 At the same sessioa a plantation was granted, 
 upon the petition of the inhabitants of Guilford, at a 
 place called Cogingchaug; which was bounded 
 northerly by Middletown, easterly by Haddam, 
 westerly by Wallingford, and southerly by Guilford. 
 The petitioners were 31, but few of them moved on 
 to the lands ; and for this reason, the settlement 
 went on but slowly. The two first planters were 
 Caleb Seward and David Robinson, from Guilford; 
 and some others afterwards removed from the same 
 town, and made settlements there. May llth, 1704, 
 it was named Durham; but the number of inha- 
 bitants was very small; and in 1707 they did not 
 exceed fifteen. The inhabitants held meetings, and 
 acted as a town, but were not incorporated with 
 town privileges, until May 1708; and after this 
 time t&e plantation increased rapidly. There was 
 a great accession of inhabitants from Northampton, 
 Stratford, Milford, and other towns. 
 
 Committees were again appointed, at the session 
 in October, to attempt a settlement of the bounda- 
 ries between Massachusetts and Connecticut, and 
 between this colony and Rhode Island ; but, like all 
 former ones, they were unsuccessful. 
 
 March 28th, 1700, the king, in council, confirmed 
 the agreement made between Connecticut and New 
 York, in 1683, respecting the boundary line between 
 the two colonies. New York neglected, however, 
 to run the line; and Connecticut, therefore, about 
 twelve years after, applied to Governor Hunter, to 
 appoint commissioners to complete the running of 
 the line, and mark it with proper bounds. He laid 
 the affair before the legislature of New York; but 
 as they would adopt no measures for that purpose, 
 and as there was no appearance that they ever in- 
 tended to do so, Connecticut presented a petition to 
 George the First, praying that he would issue his 
 royal commands to his government of New York, 
 that they should forthwith appoint commissioners, 
 in concert with Connecticut, to complete the run- 
 ning of the line, and the erecting of proper monu- 
 ments. In consequence of this, the legislature of 
 New York, in 1719, passed an act, empowering 
 their governor to appoint commissioners to run the 
 line parallel to Hudson's river, to re-survey the 
 former lines, and to distinguish the boundary; and 
 in May 17'25, the commissioners and surveyors of 
 the two colonies met at Greenwich, and, having 
 agreed upon the manner in which the work should 
 be accomplished, the survey was executed, in part, 
 immediately, and a report of what they had done 
 was made to the respective legislatures of Connecti- 
 cut and New York. On the 14th of May 1731, a 
 complete settlement was made ; and by the parti- 
 tion line, finally established, Connecticut ceded to 
 New York a tract of 60,000 acres, as an equivalent 
 for lands which New York had surrendered to Con- 
 necticut, lying upon the sound. This tract, from 
 its figure, has been called the Oblong. 
 
 But to return. In 1700 the governor and coun- 
 cil were all re-elected. 
 
 Many acts of violence, since the last session of 
 the assembly, had been committed against the inha- 
 bitants of Windsor and Simsbury, by the people of 
 Enfield and Suffield ; who had made encroachments 
 two miles upon the land of those towns. 
 
 To compose these difficulties, the assembly ap- 
 pointed William Pitkin, Esq., Mr. John Chester, 
 and Mr. William Whiting, a Committee, with ple- 
 
 nary powers, to address the general court of Massa- 
 chusetts, and to represent to them the readiness of 
 the legislature of Connecticut, to join with them in 
 any just measures for an amicable settlement of the 
 boundary line. The court of Massachusetts ap- 
 pointed Colonel Hutehinson, Mr. Taylor, Mr. An- 
 thrum, and Mr. Prout, a committee, but with limit- 
 ed powers, to fiud the southernmost line of Massa- 
 chusetts, run by Nathaniel Woodward and Solomon 
 Saffery. The general court also, on the 5th of 
 June, passed an act, in answer to the proposal made 
 by Connecticut, in which they insisted on the line 
 run by Woodward and Saffery ; who were termed 
 skilful and approved artists. The court also, in 
 their act, insisted that all grants made by them to 
 the inhabitants of Woodstock, or of any other place, 
 should remain good and valid to the grantees, though 
 the places should be found south of the line of Mas- 
 sachusetts ; and to these hard terms the committee 
 acceded, upon the condition that all the grants 
 made by Connecticut, to the inhabitants of Wind- 
 sor and Simsbury, should be acknowledged as valid, 
 and the land granted be reserved to the proprietors. 
 But the court of Massachusetts would not concede 
 even this; and no accommodation could therefore 
 be effected. 
 
 The general court of Massachusetts determined 
 to rely upon, and maintain the line run by their 
 sailors, in 1642; and insisted that it had been the 
 boundary between the colonies for nearly 60 years: 
 that the colony of Connecticut was bounded on the 
 south line of Massachusetts, which they said was 
 not an imaginary, but well known line ; and also 
 pleaded, that Mr. Wiuthrop, when he procured the 
 charter, knew that to be the line, and that no other 
 could be intended. 
 
 Connecticut, on the other hand, maintained that 
 the south line of Massachusetts, according to the 
 express words of their charter, was a line running 
 due west from a point, or station, three miles south 
 of every part of Charles river; and that the station 
 fixed by Woodward and Saffery was too far south. 
 It was also insisted that, even allowing Woodward's 
 and Saffery's station to be right, a due west line 
 from it would run far north of Bissell's ferry- 
 house at Windsor. The committee, appointed by 
 the court of Massachusetts, reported that the line 
 would run north of Bissell's house; yet the court of 
 Massachusetts would not run the line, nor come to 
 any accommodation ; but insisted on the line as it 
 had been run by them in 1642, and on Connecticut's 
 ceding their rights to all the lands which they had 
 granted, whether they lay north or south of said 
 line. 
 
 Though Colchester held their lands from the 
 colony, which claimed by virtue of Uncas's deed 
 in 1640, Major Mason's purchase, in behalf of 
 the colony, and surrender of the lands in the pre- 
 sence of the general assembly, and by virtue of 
 Joshua's will; and though the inhabitants had 
 deeds from Owaneco, and the Moheagan sachems, 
 covering the whole tract, yet they met with great 
 difficulties, in the settlement of the town from Owa- 
 neco and the Moheagans, who were made uneasy, 
 and incited to mischief by designing men. The 
 Masons, Daniel Clark, Nicholas Hallam, Major 
 Palms, Major Fitch, and others, about this time, 
 conceived the plan of obtaining a large tract of 
 land, comprising Colchester, part of Lyme, and 
 New London, Plainfield, Canterbury, and Wind- 
 ham, for themselves; and imagined that the sur- 
 render of Major Mason, in the general assembly. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 743 
 
 was not legal, and that the circumstances of those 
 early transactions were so far obliterated from the 
 memory of the living, that they should be able to 
 recover in law all the lands made over by Uncas, to 
 Major Mason, acting as agent of the colony in 1659. 
 
 The legislature, though they considered their 
 title to the lands in the colony legal and indubita- 
 ble, yet judged it expedient, rather than to have 
 any difficulty with the Indians, to treat with them; 
 and the governor and council being appointed a 
 committee for these purposes, were instructed to 
 obtain a quit claim of the Indians upon reasonable 
 terms, and to advise the inhabitants, with respect 
 to their settlements. Captain Samuel Mason, who 
 was one of the magistrates, was particularly desired 
 (o use his influence with the Indians to promote the 
 design, and quiet the planters. 
 
 From the first settlement of the colony, it had 
 been customary to make grants of land to officers, 
 soldiers, and others, who had been specially ser- 
 viceable to the colony ; and grants had been made 
 to Major Mason, to his officers and soldiers, in the 
 Pequot war. This encouraged the volunteers, who 
 had performed such signal services in the Narra- 
 ganset war, to make application to the assembly 
 for the grant of a new township, as an acknowledg- 
 ment of their good services; and upon the petition 
 of Captain Thomas Leffingwell, of Norwich, and 
 Mr. John Frink, of Stonington, in behalf of them- 
 selves and other volunteers, the general assembly, 
 in October 1696, granted them a township, of six 
 miles square, to be taken up in the conquered lauds ; 
 and a committee having surveyed the lands, and 
 made their report to the assembly, four years after, 
 a township was confirmed to the petitioners, by the 
 name of Voluntown. It was bounded by a due 
 north line, from the pond at the head of Pawcatuck 
 river to Greenwich path, thence west to the bounds 
 of Preston, thence bounded by Preston and Sto- 
 nington to Pawcatuck river, and thence by the river 
 to the pond, the first-mentioned bounds. Nineteen 
 years after, the assembly granted an addition of a 
 considerable tract on the north part of the township. 
 
 In 1701 Governor Winthrop and Deputy-gover- 
 nor Treat were re-chosen. The magistrates were 
 Andrew Leet, James Fitch, Samuel Mason, Daniel 
 Witherel, Nathaniel Stanley, Moses Mansfield, 
 John Hamlin, Nathan Gould, William Pitkin, 
 Joseph Curtis, John Chester, and Josiah Rossiter, 
 Esquires. Joseph Whiting, Esq. was re-elected 
 treasurer, and Eleazar Kimberly, secretary. 
 
 Ever sinoe the union of the colonies the assem- 
 bly had convened at Hartford, both in May and 
 October ; but at this session an act passed, that the 
 assembly, in October, should be holden at the usual 
 time in New Haven ; and it was also enacted, that 
 the court of magistrates which had been commonly 
 holden at Hartford in October should, for the future, 
 be holden at New Haven, on the first Tuesday of 
 the same month. A respectable committee was ap- 
 pointed again this year, to make a settlement of the 
 boundary line with Rhode Island, and committees 
 were appointed, from year to year, for the same 
 purpose, but all attempts for a long time were un- 
 successful. 
 
 The election in 1702 made no alteration in the 
 legislature. 
 
 The inhabitants of Windham having agreed upon 
 a division of that town, on the 30th of January, 1700, 
 the assembly, at this session, confirmed the agree- 
 ment, and enacted that Windham should be divided 
 into two towns, and that the town at the north end 
 
 should be called Mansfield ; and the following May 
 the assembly vested them with distinct town privi- 
 leges; and granted patents, at the fame time, to 
 both townships. The Indian name of Mansfield 
 was Nawbesetuck. Settlements had been made 
 here soon after they commenced at Windkam, 
 
 Danbury had been surveyed for a town in 1693, 
 soon after a plantation was made upon the lands. 
 Some of the principal planters were James Beebee, 
 Thomas Taylor, Samuel and James Benedict, John 
 Hoit, and Josiah Starr. The general court, at this 
 session, gave them a patent, granting them a town- 
 ship, extending eight miles in length, north and 
 south, and six miles in breadth, according to the 
 original survey. 
 
 In October the general assembly was holden at 
 New Haven. 
 
 The colony having received intelligence of tho 
 death of King William, and a gracious letter from 
 Queen Anne, voted that a letter should be addressed 
 to her majesty, congratulating her upon her happy 
 accession to the throne of her ancestors, and ex- 
 pressing their thanks for the favourable notice she 
 had taken of the colony. 
 
 The only alteration made by the election, in May 
 1703, was "the choice of Peter Burr, Esq. into the 
 magistracy. 
 
 At this assembly an addition was made to the 
 town of New London of all that tract, lying north 
 of the former bounds, included in a line drawn from 
 the north-eastern corner of Lyme, to the south- 
 western corner of Norwich, as it goes down to 
 trading cove ; and a patent was, at the same time, 
 given to the inhabitants, confirming this and all 
 other parts of the town to them for ever. 
 
 At the same session it was enacted, that all the 
 townships in this colony, to which the assembly had 
 given patents, should remain a full and clear es- 
 tate, with all the privileges and immunities therein 
 granted, in fee simple to the proprietors, their heirs 
 and assigns for ever ; and it was also enacted, that 
 all lands sequestered, and given to public or private 
 uses, should remain for ever, for the ends for which 
 they had been given. 
 
 England, Germany, and Holland, in May 1702, 
 declared war against France and Spain; and, con- 
 sequently, the American colonies were again in- 
 volved in a French and Indian war; and the legis- 
 lature, at the session in October, found it necessary 
 to adopt measures for the safety of the country. A 
 requisition was made by Governor Dudley, and the 
 general court of Massachusetts, of a detachment of 
 100 men, to assist them in the war against the 
 eastern Indians ; and soldiers were detached, and 
 sent forth for the defence of the western towns in 
 Connecticut. A committee of war was appointed to 
 send troops into the county of Hampshire, in Mas- 
 sachusetts, and to the frontier towns in this colony, 
 as emergencies should require. 
 
 At this assembly it was enacted, that the town of 
 Plainfield should be divided, and that the inhabi- 
 tants on the west side of the river should be a dis- 
 tinct town, by the name of Canterbury. It appears 
 that the settlement of this tract commenced about 
 the year 1690. The principal settlers, from Con- 
 necticut, were Major James Fitch and Mr. Solomon 
 Tracy, from Norwich, Mr. Tixhall Ellsworth and 
 Mr. Samuel Ashley, from Hartford ; but much the 
 greatest number jpere from Newtown, Woburn, 
 Dorchester, Barnstable, and Medfield, in Mas- 
 sachusetts ; among whom were John, Richard, 
 and Joseph Woodward, William, Obadiah, and 
 
746 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Joseph Johnson, Josiah and Samuel Cleaveland, 
 Elisha Paine, Paul Davenport, and Henry Adams. 
 
 On the 15th of March, 1704, a special assembly 
 was convened to provide for the common safety ; 
 and to prevent mischief from the allied Indians, and 
 preserve them from being corrupted and drawn 
 away by the enemy, both the civil and military 
 officers in the respective towns were directed to 
 take special care of them ; to keep them within their 
 own limits, and not to suffer them, upon their peril, 
 to remove from the places which should be assigned 
 them, nor to hold any correspondence with the 
 enemy, or any foreign Indians, nor by any means 
 to harbour them. A premium of ten pounds was also 
 proposed as an encouragement to every friendly In- 
 dian who should bring in and deliver up one who 
 was an enemy. 
 
 Orders were given requiring every particular 
 town, in the colony, to convene and determine upon 
 the manner of fortifying and defending themselves ; 
 and in case of any sudden attack or invasion, the 
 commissioned officers in the several towns were au- 
 thorized to detach and send forth any number of 
 soldiers, not exceeding half the militia, to repel 
 and pursue the enemy. It was resolved that a 
 grand scout should be employed by the committee 
 of war upon the frontiers, for the discovery and an- 
 noyance of the enemy ; and until this could be sent 
 forth, it was determined that small scouts from the 
 frontier towns should be constantly kept out, to dis- 
 cover and give notice of the motions of the enemy. 
 It was ordered that the 100 men solicited by the 
 Massachusetts, should be raised forthwith, to act 
 against the Eastern Indians, and that Governor 
 Dudley should be requested to call them out imme- 
 diately. A detachment of 60 men was ordered for 
 the public service, principally with a view to the 
 defence of the county of Hampshire, to be under 
 the command of the committee of war in Connecti- 
 cut, and the commanding officer in that county. 
 
 At the court of election, May 1704, the former 
 governors and magistrates were re-chosen. John 
 Alien, Esq. was chosen magistrate, to fill the va- 
 cancy made by the death of Moses Mansfield, Esq. 
 
 Committees were appointed in the several counties 
 to meet together, to consult and determine upon 
 the best measures for the general defence and 
 safety. 
 
 As the deserting or giving up of any place would 
 encourage the enemy, and materially effect the 
 welfare of the colony, it was enacted, that if any 
 persons or families, in any of the frontier towns, 
 should desert their habitations or places of resi- 
 dence without leave from the assembly, they should 
 xbrfeit their freehold of lands and tenements in that 
 place ; and it was further enacted, that if any male 
 person, of the age of sixteen years, should so re- 
 move from any frontier town, he should pay a fine 
 of 101., and that the fine should be applied to the 
 defence of the town from which he had removed. 
 
 Good policy required, that as great a number of 
 the friendly Indians as possible should be employed 
 in the public service ; and gentlemen were, there- 
 fore, appointed to enlist them as volunteers. Re- 
 wards were given for this purpose ; as the Indians 
 were the best troops to scout and range the woods ; 
 and in proportion as they offered themselves, En- 
 glishmen, whose labours were much more useful, 
 were kept at home. 
 
 Besides the 100 men dispatched to the eastward, 
 400 were raised for the defence of this colony, and 
 of the county of Hampshire j who were required to 
 
 be always ready ; and that they might be com 
 pletely so both in summer and winter, it was ordered, 
 that they should be furnished with snow shoes, that 
 they might travel and run upon the snow. A num- 
 ber of men in every town were obliged to prepare 
 themselves in this manner. 
 
 For the maintenance of good morals, the sup- 
 pression of vicious and disorderly practices, and the 
 preservation of the common peace, the assembly or- 
 dered, that a sober religious man be appointed by 
 the county court, in each of the counties, to be an 
 attorney for her majesty, to prosecute all criminal 
 offenders. 
 
 The colony at this time was in the most critical 
 situation ; as it was not only in danger, and put to 
 great expense on account of the war, but it was 
 continually harassed by the demands of Joseph 
 Dudley, Esq., governor of Massachusetts, and of 
 Lord Cornbury, governor of New York and the 
 Jerseys, for men and money, as they pretended for 
 the defence of their respective governments. 
 
 At the same time the colony had a number of 
 powerful enemies, who, by misrepresentation ana 
 every other artifice in their power, were seeking to 
 deprive them both of their lands and all their char- 
 tered rights and privileges. Governor Dudley, 
 Lord Cornbury, and their instruments, combined 
 together to despoil the colony of its charter, and 
 subject it entirely to their government ; and it ap- 
 pears, from the letters and acts on file, that Dudley 
 wished to unite all New England under his own go- 
 vernment. At the same time, it seems he flattered 
 Lord Cornbury, that if they could effect the re-union 
 of all the charter governments to the crown, ho 
 should not only have the government of the southern 
 colonies, but of Connecticut. Dudley was a man of 
 great intrigue and duplicity, as we have already 
 seen in the account of Massachusetts. He had been 
 connected with Sir Edmund Andross in the govern- 
 ment of New England, and was an enemy to all the 
 chartered rights of the colonies ; and while he was 
 soliciting the government of Massachusetts, he had 
 a view to the government of all New England. As 
 he had conceived this plan as early as the latter part 
 of the reign of King William, he opposed whatever 
 he suspected would operate against it, and prevent 
 the suspension of all government by charter ; and 
 when he found, therefore, that Sir Henry Ashurst 
 was appointed agent for Connecticut, he opposed his 
 undertaking the agency with all his influence, be- 
 cause he knew his friendship to the colonies, and 
 that he was a powerful man. He united all his in- 
 fluence with the court party, and the enemies to the 
 liberties of the colonies, to vacate all the charters in 
 America ; and so far succeeded, that in the latter 
 part of the reign of King William, a bill was pre- 
 pared for re-uniting all the charter governments to 
 the crown ; and early in the reign of Queen Anne, 
 it was brought into parliament. It imported, that 
 the charters given to the several colonies in New 
 England, to East and West New Jersey, Pennsyl- 
 vania, Maryland, Carolina, the Bahama and Lucay 
 Islands, were prejudicial and repugnant to the trade 
 of the kingdom, and the welfare of his majesty's 
 subjects in the other plantations, and to his ma- 
 jesty's revenue arising -from the customs. It also 
 further alleged, that irregularities, piracies, and 
 unlawful trade, were countenanced and encouraged 
 by the authority in the chartered colonies ; and it 
 therefore enacted, " That all and singular, the 
 clauses, matters, and things, contained in any char- 
 ters, or letters patent, granted by the great seal 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 747 
 
 of England, by any of his royal predecessors, b 1 
 his present majesty, or the late queen, to any of the 
 said plantations, or to any persons in them, shouli" 
 be utterly void, and of none effect." It furthe 
 enacted, " that all such power, authority, privileges 
 and jurisdictions should be, and were re-united 
 annexed to, and vested in his majesty, his heirs anc 
 successors, in right of the crown of England, to al 
 intents and purposes, as though no such charters 
 or letters patent had been had or made." 
 
 Sir Henry Ashurst, viewing the act as unjust 
 and subversive of the civil and religious rights o 
 the colony, preferred a petition to the' House o 
 Lords, representing " that said bill would, do greal 
 injustice to the inhabitants of Connecticut : that it 
 would make void the charter granted to the colony 
 by King Charles II. : that the government was b) 
 said charter granted to them, and was so interwoven 
 with their property, that it could not be taken away 
 without exposing them to the utmost confusion, i 
 not to utter ruin : that the inhabitants had never 
 been accused of mal-administration, piratical or un- 
 lawful trade ; and that their case was different from 
 his majesty's other plantations in America. He, 
 therefore, humbly prayed to be heard by his council, 
 at the bar of the house in their behalf." In conse- 
 quence of this, it was granted, May 3d, 1701, that 
 the petitioner should be heard against the bill. 
 
 Sir Heury was a zealous man, had honourable 
 connexions, and his influence at court was very 
 considerable ; and he raised all the opposition to the 
 passing of the bill in his power. Representations 
 were made not only of the ample rights and privi- 
 leges granted to Conuecticutjby charter, but that they 
 were granted for important considerations, and par- 
 ticular services performed : that the inhabitants, at 
 great expense and danger, had purchased, subdued, 
 and planted an extensive country ; had defended it 
 against the Dutch, French, and other enemies ol 
 the nation; had enlarged his majesty's dominions, 
 and increased commerce,: that the charter not only 
 gave the inhabitants powers of government, but 
 secured the title of their lands and tenements; and 
 that, under these circumstances, the passing of the 
 bill would be an act of great injustice ; would be 
 ruinous to the colony, and prejudicial to the gene- 
 ral interest. It was insisted, that it would be still 
 more arbitrary and unjust, as the colony had not 
 been even accused of mal-administration, piratical 
 or illegal practices, or so much as heard on the sub- 
 ject ; and it was pleaded, that the colony had ever 
 been loyal and obedient, and if any irregularities or 
 inadvertencies should finally be found ft the govern- 
 ment, they would, on the first notice of them, un- 
 doubtedly be reformed. At the same time, the taking 
 away of so many charters was at once calculated to 
 destroy all confidence in the crown, in royal patents 
 and promises ; to discourage all further enterprise in 
 settling and defending the country ; to create uni- 
 versal discontent and disaffection in the colonies; 
 and to produce effects much more prejudicial to the 
 nation, than any of those which were then matter of 
 complaint; and it would also afford an alarming 
 precedent to all the chartered corporations in En- 
 gland. These various considerations operated so 
 powerfully against the bill, that it could not be 
 carried through the houses. 
 
 Governor Dudley and Lord Cornbury, however, 
 were not discouraged. They determined to make a 
 more open and powerful opposition to the charter 
 rights of Connecticut ; and they determined as much 
 stress had been laid on the argument, that Con- 
 
 necticut had never been accused of .mal-administra- 
 tion, piracy, or any illegal trade, to invalidate it 
 by a direct impeachment of the colony of high mis- 
 demeanors. They were both powerful enemies, 
 and the colony had enemies among themselves. Ni' 
 cholas Hallam, Major Palms, Captain Mason, 
 Daniel Clark, and others-, had either appealed to 
 England against the colony, or were scheming to 
 possess themselves of large tracts of land, and for 
 that purpose, were encouraging the Moheagan con- 
 troversy. Hallam had appealed to England against 
 the colony, and lost his cause ; and the king, in 
 council, had established the judgment given against 
 him in the courts of Connecticut. Major Palms, 
 who had married the daughter of John Winthrop, 
 Esq., the first governor of Connecticut, under the 
 charter, had imagined himself injured by the admi- 
 nistrators on the governor's estate, and had brought 
 an action against them ; and losing his cause before 
 the courts in this colony, he had appealed to En- 
 gland. He was particularly irritated against 1 the 
 colony, and against his brother-in-law, Fitz-John 
 Winthrop, Esq., then governor of the colony. These 
 malcontents all united their influence, by the gross- 
 est misrepresentations, to injure the colony in its 
 most essential interests. 
 
 Lord Cornbury was poor, and not unwilling by 
 any means to get money. He had made a demand 
 of 450. upon the colony, for the defence of New 
 York ; but Connecticut judged that it was not their 
 duty to comply with his demand, as their expenses 
 already were as great as the colony was able to bear. 
 
 Dudley and Cornbury, therefore, proceeded to 
 draw up articles of complaint against the colony ; 
 and Dudley employed one Bulkley to write a folio 
 book, which he termed " the Doom or Miseries of 
 Connecticut;" in which he not only exceedingly 
 misrepresented and criminated the colony, but ex- 
 patiated on the advantages of a general-governor of 
 New England, and highly recommended the govern- 
 ment of Sir Edmund Andross. 
 
 Among other complaints, the principal articles 
 particularly charged, were, summarily these : that, 
 the governor did not observe the acts of trade and 
 navigation, but encouraged illegal commerce and 
 piracy : that the colony was a receptacle of pirates, 
 encouraged and harboured by the government : that 
 the government harboured and protected soldiers, 
 seamen, servants, and malefactors, who made their 
 escape from other places, and would not deliver 
 them up when demanded. It was also charged 
 against the colony that it harboured great numbers 
 of young men from Massachusetts and New York, 
 where they were obliged to pay taxes for the expenses 
 of the war, and induced them to settle there, princi- 
 pally, because it imposed no taxes for that purpose : 
 ;hat the colony would not furnish their quota for the 
 fortification of Albany and New York, and the as- 
 sistance of Massachusetts Bay, against the French, 
 and Indians : and that if any of her majesty's sub- 
 "ects of the other colonies sued for debt in any 
 f the courts of the colony, no justice could be done 
 hem, if the debt were against any of its inhabi- 
 tants. It was also charged, that Connecticut, under 
 the colour of their charter, made capital laws ; tried 
 murders, robberies, and other crimes, and punished 
 with death and banishment ; and that their courts 
 f judicature were arbitrary and unjust ; that the 
 egislature would not suffer the laws of England to 
 )e pleaded in their courts, unless it were to serve 
 heir own purposes : that they had refused to grant 
 appeals to her majesty in council, and had given 
 
748 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 "great vexation to those who had demanded them : 
 that the government had refused to submit to her 
 majesty, and to his royal highness's commission of 
 vice admiralty, and for commanding its militia ; 
 and had defeated the powers which had been given 
 to the governors of her majesty's neighbouring 
 colonies for that purpose. Finally, it was charged 
 that the legislature had made a law, that Christians, 
 who were not of their communion, should not meet 
 to worship God without licence from their assembly, 
 which law extended even to the church of England, 
 as well as to Christians of other denominations tole- 
 rated in England. 
 
 While Governor Dudley was thus attempting the 
 ruin of the colony in the court of England, he kept 
 up the appearance of the most entire friendship to- 
 wards it, in this country ; and in a letter, of about 
 the same date with his complaints, thanked the 
 legislature for the 'great supplies which they had 
 given him and the colony. 
 
 The general assembly" had appointed the most re- 
 spectable committees, and taken great pains to 
 compromise all difficulties with Owaneco and the 
 Moheagans; and though they had made repeated 
 purchases and obtained ample deeds of their lands, 
 yet, rather than have any uneasiness among the 
 Indians, they offered Owaneco such a sum of money 
 as was entirely satisfactory to him ; but Mason and 
 the other malcontents, who .wished to possess the 
 Indian lands, would not suffer him to accept it, and 
 frustrated all attempts for an accommodation. 
 
 While Mason and other enemies were practising 
 these arts in Connecticut, Hallam, assisted by 
 Dudley and his party, with other malcontents on both 
 sides of the water, was making grievous complaints 
 in England, of the injustice and cruelty of the 
 colony towards Owaneco, in driving him from his 
 lands, and depriving the Moheagans even of their 
 planting-grounds. It was pretended, that in the 
 late grant and patent to the town of New London, 
 the legislature had conveyed away all his lands in 
 that quarter, whereas particular care was taken, 
 both in the grant and patent, to secure all the pro- 
 perty and privileges of the Moheagans. The as- 
 sembly had taken the most faithful and tender care 
 of them, from the first settlement of the colony to 
 that time ; and according to their agreement with 
 Major Mason, then deputy-governor of the colony, 
 when he resigned the Moheagan land to the as- 
 sembly, they granted him a farm of 500 acres, and 
 it was laid out to him at a place called by the In- 
 dians, Pomakuk. They had also reserved a fine 
 tract of land, of between 4 and 5000 acres to 
 the Moheagans to plant on, which was much more 
 than sufficient for that purpose; but the repre- 
 sentations which these evil-minded men were 
 constantly making to Owaneco and his people, at 
 some times made them uneasy, and some of them 
 probably imagined that they were really injured 
 At the same time, the affair was so represented in 
 England, as made impressions on the minds of many 
 very unfavourable to the colony. 
 . In this situation of affairs, Hallam, assisted b) 
 the malcontents in England and America, preferret 
 a complaint and petition to her majesty, Queen 
 Anne, representing, that the sachems of the Mo- 
 heagan tribe of Indians were the original and chie 
 proprietors of all the lands in the colony : that the) 
 were a great people, and had received and treatec 
 the first planters in a peaceable and friendly manner 
 that for an inconsiderable value, they had granted 
 their lands to them, reserving to themselves a smal 
 
 arcel only for planting-ground ; and that the gene- 
 al assembly of Connecticut h*d passed an act by 
 vhich they had taken that from them, which, until 
 hat time, they had always enjoyed. For these 
 easons it was prayed that her majesty would appoint 
 Commissioners to examine into all these matters, 
 nd into all the other injuries and violences which 
 lad been done to the Moheagans, and to determine 
 respecting them according to equity. 
 
 The queen, imposed upon and deceived by these 
 epresentations, and not waiting to give the colony 
 in opportunity to be heard, on the 19th of July, 
 704, granted a commission to Joseph Dudley, Esq., 
 he great enemy of the colony, Thomas Povey, Esq., 
 ieutenant-governor of Massachusetts, Major Ed- 
 ward Palms, and others, to the number of twelve, 
 authorizing them to hear and determine the whole 
 affair, reserving liberty to either to appeal to her 
 majesty in council. 
 
 At the session in May, a respectable committee 
 was appointed, with ample powers, to examine into 
 all the complaints of Owaneco and the Moheagan 
 [ndians, and to report to the assembly in October. 
 The committee appointed time and place, and at- 
 empted to accomplish the business for which they 
 lad been appointed ; but Captain Mason, whom 
 Owaneco had chosen for his guardian, had skill 
 enough to frustrate the design ; by making a journey 
 :o Boston, at the very time, and Owaneco would do 
 nothing without him. In the mean time the com- 
 mission was granted by the queen, and the colony 
 were unhappily drawn into a long and expensive 
 controversy. 
 
 The Masons claimed the lands purchased by their 
 ancestor, Deputy-governor John Mason, by virtue 
 of a deed given to him by Uncas, in 1659, while he 
 acted as agent of the colony, and denied the legality 
 of the surrender which he had made of them in the 
 general assembly, the next year. They insisted, 
 that it respected nothing more than the jurisdiction 
 right, and that the title to the soil was vested in 
 their family, as guardians or overseers of the In- 
 dians ; but while they pretended great concern for 
 the Indians, their sole object was to hold all those 
 lands included in the deed for themselves and others, 
 who had united with them in prosecution of the af- 
 fair against the colony. 
 
 Sir Henry Ashurst, wishing to preserve the im- 
 portant privileges of the colony, had taken pains to 
 postpone the hearing of the complaints against it, as 
 far as possible, that the governor and company might 
 have intelligence concerning them, and send their 
 answer; but on the 12th of February, 1705, the 
 hearing came on before her majesty in council. 
 Governor Dudley and Lord Cornbury had spared 
 no trouble to carry their point before her majesty ; 
 and the former had been careful to procure and lay 
 before her an opinion of the attorney-general, in 
 King William's reign, " that he might send a go- 
 vernor to Connecticut." Further, to prepare the 
 way for the decision which he wished, he procured 
 another opinion of the attorney and solicitor-gene- 
 ral, .respecting the case of Connecticut, as it then 
 appeared, " that if it were as Governor Dudley had 
 represented, there was a defect in the government: 
 that the colony was not able to defend itself, and in 
 imminent danger of being possessed by the queen's 
 enemies : and that in such case, the queen might 
 send a governor for civil and military government ; 
 but not to alter the laws and customs." 
 
 The queen had directed Sir Henry to appear and 
 show reasons, if any he had, why she should not 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 749 
 
 appoint a governor over the colony ; and as he con- 
 sidered every thing dear to it at stake, he made 
 exertions in some measure proportionate to the mag- 
 nitude of the cause. Lord Paget, a man of great 
 influence, was his brother by marriage, and he was 
 related to, or intimately connected with other prin- 
 cipal characters at court ; and he obtained all the 
 influence which he possibly could, either by himself 
 or his connexions, in favour of the colony. He re- 
 tained two of the best council in England ; both 
 members of parliament, possessing an estate of a 
 1000/. a year. He stood firm against all the charges 
 of Dudley, Lord Cornbury, Congreve, and others, 
 against the colony, and by his counsel for an hour 
 and a half, defended it against all the art and 
 intrigue of its adversaries, and all the law learning 
 and eloquence of the attorney and solicitor-general. 
 
 As Connecticut was entirely ignorant of the 
 charges brought against it, and no information or 
 evidence could be thence obtained, Sir Henry and 
 his council were compelled to employ such means as 
 were in their power. They amply stated the rights 
 and privileges granted by the royal charter, the 
 territory it conveyed, and the powers with which it 
 vested the governor and company. They showed, 
 that these patents were confirmed by a non obstante, 
 and were always to be construed in the most favourable 
 light for the grantees. It was demonstrated, that 
 the legislature were vested with ample powers to 
 make laws, criminal and capital, as well as civil ; 
 to inflict banishment, death, and all other capital 
 punishments, in all capital cases, no less than in 
 others. It was also represented, that the gover- 
 nors, or commanders in chief, were, by charter, 
 vested with plenary powers to assemble in martial 
 array, and put in warlike posture the inhabitants of 
 the 'colony, for their defence, and to commission 
 others for the like purposes. It was also clearly 
 shown that, by charter, they had the same right to 
 fish, trade, and do all other business, and enjoy all 
 other privileges, by land and sea, which any other 
 of her majesty's subjects had a right to do, or en- 
 joy. It was therefore urged, that all those matters, 
 charged against the colony, respecting their making 
 capital laws, and inflicting capital punishments, 
 whether death or banishment, were no crimes ; but 
 things which the legislature not only had a right, 
 but were bound in faithfulness to do, as circum- 
 stances might require. For the same reason, it 
 was also insisted, that the colonies claiming a right 
 to command their own militia, and defeating the 
 designs of the governors of the other colonies, who 
 wished to command it, were no crimes. It was in- 
 sisted, that doing them was no more than defending 
 themselves in the enjoyment of their legal rights. 
 
 With respect to the irregularity and injustice of 
 the courts in Connecticut, it was observed, that ge- 
 neral charges deserved no reply : that it did not ap- 
 pear that what was charged was any thing more 
 than mere hearsay and clamour ; but it was pleaded 
 that, on the contrary, they had substantial evidence 
 of the justice of the courts in Connecticut. That 
 several appeals had been made to her majesty, from 
 the judgment of those courts : that these had been 
 different cases, and in every instance the judgments 
 given by the courts in Connecticut had been ap- 
 proved by her majesty, and the lords committee of 
 council. This, it was said, was a notable evidence 
 of their justice ; and that, so far as appeared, there 
 had been no injustice or irregularity in any one 
 ^ourt iu the colony. 
 
 With respect to Governor Dudley's complaint, 
 
 that Connecticut did not furnish the men which he 
 demanded, and that of Lord Cornbury, that it did 
 not comply with his demands for money, it was 
 answered, that it did not appear from the charter, 
 that the colony was obliged to comply with those 
 requisitions: that the governors of other colonies 
 had no right to command the legislature and people 
 of Connecticut; and that they were under no obli- 
 gations to obey them, any further than it should be 
 required by her majesty. It was further observed, 
 with respect to the money, that it appeared from 
 his lordship's letter, that the general assembly of 
 Connecticut had taken the requisition into their 
 consideration, and had determined to know her ma- 
 jesty's pleasure, before they gave away their money. 
 It was affirmed, that there was nothing disloyal in 
 such a determination : that the colony had a right 
 to grant, or not to grant, their money, as they judged 
 it expedient or not : that they had a right to know 
 the purpose for which they granted it; and that 
 their referring it to her majesty's pleasure, was au 
 implication of their obedience to it, whenever it 
 should be known. 
 
 With reference to Connecticut's harbouring de- 
 serters, malefactors, pirates, and the like, it was 
 observed, that it was a general charge of little 
 weight, and deserved no answer. It was affirmed 
 to be a common thing, even in England, for sol- 
 diers and others to go from one country into another, 
 and not to be found; yet it might not be any crime 
 or fault in the country where they secreted them- 
 selves. As to Captain Matthews's finding two sol- 
 diers at Stamford, and sending for Majur Silleck to 
 secure them, it did not appear that there was the 
 least fault in the major. It was evident, from his 
 lordship's letter, that he went to Stamford, that the 
 soldiers were brought, and that, while the major 
 and Matthews were conversing together in a pri- 
 vate room, they made their escape. It was said, it 
 might be more the fault of Matthews than of Silleck; 
 for it did not appear that Matthews was kept there 
 by any force or constraint, but was examining into 
 the affair, or talking generally upon the subject. 
 
 With relation to the complaint of Lord Cornbury, 
 in his letter of June 1703, " that he laboured under 
 great misfortunes, in relation to the neighbouring 
 provinces : that the coast of Connecticut is opposite 
 to two-thirds of Long Island; by which means they 
 filled all that part of the island with European 
 goods, cheaper than their merchants could, because . 
 they paid duties, and those of Connecticut paid 
 none ; nor would they be subject to the acts of na- 
 vigation ; by which means there had been no trade be- 
 tween the city of New York and the east end of Long 
 Island, from whence the greatest part of the whale 
 oil came ; and that it was difficult to persuade those 
 people that they belonged to that province," it was 
 replied, that there appeared to be no fault in Con- 
 necticut in this respect. It was maintained, that 
 the inhabitants had a right to trade where they 
 pleased, if it were not repugnant to the laws of Eng- 
 land. It also was pleaded, that there was no evidence 
 that they had been guilty of any illegal trade or 
 practices ; and that they were a poor people, and 
 carried on little trade. 
 
 In a letter of the same date with the former his 
 lordship had observed, " that he was satisfied this 
 vast continent, which might be made very useful to 
 England, if right, measures were taken, would never 
 be so, till all the propriety and charter governments 
 were brought under the crown." To this it was re- 
 plied, that this might, or it might not be the case ; 
 
750 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 that the same, as circumstances might be, might be 
 said of all the charters in England. 
 
 It was, however, much insisted on, that the at- 
 torney and solicitor-general had reported, " that 
 her majesty might appoint a governor for Connec- 
 ticut." To this the council for the colony answered, 
 that the report was hypothetical, founded on the 
 supposition that the colony was not able to defend 
 itself, and was in danger of falling into the hands of 
 her majesty's enemies ; but that there was no evi- 
 dence of these facts. It did not appear, they said, 
 that Connecticut was in a more defenceless state, 
 or in greater danger of becoming a prey to her ma- 
 jesty's enemies than any of the other colonies ; and 
 it was pleaded, that the attorney and solicitor-ge- 
 neral had not reported, that either of these was t'nt. 
 case, and therefore their opinion could not be made 
 a plea for sending a governor to Connecticut. 
 
 Further, it was strenuously maintained, that it 
 was an essential right of every individual and cor- 
 poration to be heard before they were condemned ; 
 and that the governor and company of Connecticut 
 ought to be heard upon the articles exhibited against 
 them, before any judgmentbe formed respecting them. 
 It was observed, that governors, who, by enlarging 
 their own territories, might increase their honours 
 and profits, were apt to complain : that they were 
 under peculiar temptations, especially at such a dis- 
 tance, where it was so difficult to make inquiry, and 
 obtain the truth: that there was more reason to 
 suspect the governors complaining, than the gover- 
 nor of Connecticut, who acted with a council and 
 an assembly. It was therefore affirmed, that there 
 was every reason that the colony should be heard 
 in its own defence. If either the governor of New 
 England or New York were impeached, and the 
 same complaints made against them, said the coun- 
 sel, which they have brought against Connecticut, 
 her majesty would do nothing with respect to them 
 until they had been heard. It would be contrary 
 to all law and reason ; much more so, to treat a 
 whole colony in this manner, in a case in which 
 their charter might be forfeited, and their fortunes 
 ruined. It was observed, that governors appointee 
 during pleasure, often committed barbarous acts to 
 enrich themselves; and that they had nothing to 
 lose but their office ; whereas the colony of Connec 
 ticut was of great substance, and had every thing t< 
 lose : that even in ordinary cases, in which th< 
 character and property of one man only were con 
 cerned, nothing was determined, but upon sufficien 
 evidence, given upon oath, and that it could never b< 
 reasonable to condemn a colony upon mere sugges 
 tions : that it might appear, upon a full examination 
 that the governor of Connecticut was much bette 
 qualified to govern than the governor of New Yorl 
 or Massachusetts. It was therefore pleaded, tha 
 the articles of complaint might be sent to the gover 
 nor and company of Connecticut, and that the; 
 might have an opportunity to answer for themselves 
 that there could be no danger in this ; and if an 
 irregularities should be found in the management o 
 their government, they would most certainly reforr 
 and obey her majesty's commands. 
 
 Upon this full hearing, it was determined that th 
 lords of trade should draw out the principal article 
 of complaint, and send a copy of them to the gover 
 nor of Connecticut, and to the two principal com 
 plainants, Governor Dudley and Lord Cornbury 
 
 overnor Dudley and Lord Cornbury were also di- 
 jcted to transmit their evidence of the articles 
 Barged, publicly and legally taken. 
 By this means, Dudley, Cornbury, and their abet- 
 rs, were caught in their own snare, their selfish- 
 ess and duplicity were made to appear, in a strong 
 oint of light, and their whole scheme at once totally 
 uined. They were totally unable to support the 
 larges which they had brought against the colony, 
 t the same time, the legislature of Connecticut 
 ould produce the most substantial evidence, that 
 ic very reverse of what had been pretended, was true, 
 'hey had the last, and this year between 500 and 
 00 men in actual service. Four hundred of this 
 umber had been employed, principally in the de- 
 ence of Massachusetts and New York. The com- 
 ittee of war, consisting of the governor, most of 
 ie council, and other principal men in the colony, 
 ad met, with officers and commissioners from Mas- 
 achusetts, and most harmoniously united with them 
 n opinion, and measures for the common defence, 
 legislature were not only able to prove these 
 acts, from the records of the colony, and from the 
 esolutions of the committee of war, but what was 
 till more confounding to Governor Dudley, to pro- 
 luce a letter of his, under his own hand and signa- 
 ure, acknowledging their generous and prompt as- 
 iistance in the war, and thanking them for the aid 
 which they had given him. They produced sub- 
 stantial evidence, that when they had scarcely 20001. 
 n circulating medium, in the whole colony, they 
 lad, in three years, expended more than that sum 
 n the defence of her majesty's provinces of Massa- 
 chusetts and New York. They were able to evince, 
 that they had shown the utmost loyalty and at- 
 tachment to the queen ; been punctual in their ob- 
 servance of the acts of trade and navigation ; had 
 not been pirates themselves, nor at any time har- 
 aoured pirates, deserters, servants, or criminals 
 among them. 
 
 With respect to appeals to her majesty, the le- 
 gislature affirmed, that they had not refused to ad- 
 ult them, only in cases in which proper security, or 
 sufficient bondsmen had not been offered. In the 
 of Major Palms, which seem to have been 
 the only instances of which complaint had been 
 made, the court judged that the security offered was 
 insufficient. The men who offered themselves to 
 be bound appeared to have little or no property. 
 As to the vexations complained of, these respected 
 the obtaining of copies of the judgments of the 
 courts in his case. It seems he applied to the as- 
 sembly for them, but the assembly declined giving 
 them, insisting that it was not their province to 
 give copies of the doings of other courts. He was 
 therefore referred to the courts in which the judg- 
 ments had been given. 
 
 In the appeals of Major Palms, and in all other 
 instances, the judgments of the courts in Connecti- 
 cut were finally established; and upon a full exa- 
 raination of the complaints, they appeared not only 
 groundless, but invidious. The loyalty, justice, and 
 honour of the colony appeared more conspicuous 
 than they had done before : but it was some time 
 before the evidence of the true state of the case 
 could be collected and transmitted to England. 
 
 Meanwhile, Dudley and Cornbury never lost 
 sight of their object, but vigorously prosecuted the 
 design of subverting the government. There had 
 
 and that Connecticut should send their answer, with j been, nearly 50 years before, a law enacted against 
 evidence respecting the several articles, legally j the quakers, but it does not appear that it had ever 
 taken, and sealed with the public seal of the colony, been acted upon in Connecticut, and was, at that 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 751 
 
 time, become obsolete. It appears 'by a letter of 
 the governor's, to Sir Henry Ashurst, that he did 
 not know of one person, then in the colony, who 
 was acknowledged to be a quaker; but Governor 
 Dudley, by some means, obtained a copy of the law, 
 and procured a publication of it in Boston. The 
 knowledge of it was communicated to the quakers 
 in England, and they were incited to petition for a 
 repeal of the law of Connecticut against the qua- 
 kers. A petition, about the beginning of April, was 
 preferred to her majesty on the subject, reciting this 
 law, and representing, that it was calculated to ex- 
 tirpate their friends from that part of her majesty's 
 dominion, and praying that she would disallow the 
 said law. Sir Henry Ashurst presented a petition 
 to the lords of trade and plantation, to whom the 
 petition of the quakers had been referred, praying 
 them to advise her majesty to come to no determi- 
 nation on the subject, until the colony should have 
 notice of the petition, and have time to send their 
 answer. He represented, that the law was made 
 against Adamites and Ranters : that it was become 
 obsolete, and quakers lived as peaceably in Connec- 
 ticut as in any of her majesty's plantations. He re- 
 presented to their lordships, that there had been 
 more complaints exhibited against this poor colony, 
 in three or four years, without any crime proved, 
 than had been before from the time of its first settle- 
 ment, which made him believe that there were dis- 
 affected persons, who were attempting by all means 
 to make them weary of their charter government : 
 that before the appointment of a certain governor 
 for New England, the colony had enjoyed uninter- 
 rupted peace for many years, and would have done 
 to that time, had it not been for his misrepresenta- 
 tions. He assured them, that he had been informed 
 that Governor Dudley had, about two years before, 
 ordered the act against the quakers to be printed in 
 Boston, on purpose that the quakers in England 
 might join with his other instruments in clamours 
 against Connecticut, to deprive it of its charter pri- 
 vileges. 
 
 Her majesty, upon the advice of the lords of 
 trade and plantations, declared the act against the 
 quakers null and void, without giving the colony a 
 hearing. 
 
 Sir Henry Ashurst, writing to the colony soon 
 after, says, " You see how you are every way at- 
 tacked." 
 
 The enemies of the colony in Connecticut and 
 New England were no less active than those on the 
 other side of the water. As they had obtained a 
 commission for the trial of the case between Connec- 
 ticut and the Moheagans, they spared no pains to 
 carry their point; and on the 5th of July, 1705, 
 Captain John Chandler, in behalf of Owaneco, 
 Captain Samuel Mason, Hallam, and others, who 
 interested themselves in recovering the lands from 
 the colony, began the survey of the Moheagan 
 country, and having accomplished the work, drew 
 a map of it, with a view to the trial, before Dudley's 
 court, which was approaching. The governor sent 
 an officer and prohibited his entering upon the sur- 
 vey ; but the party gave large bonds to indemnify 
 him, and he proceeded notwithstanding. The boun- 
 daries, as surveyed and reported by Chandler, Cap- 
 tain John Parke, Edward Culver, and Samuel 
 S terry, who assisted him, were on the south from a 
 large rock in Connecticut river, near eight mile 
 island in the bounds of Lyme, eastward, through 
 Lyme, New London, and Grotou, to Ah-yo-sup- 
 suck, a pond in the north-eastern part of Stoning- 
 
 ton ; on the east, from this pond northward, to 
 Mah-man-suck, another pond, thence to Egunk- 
 sank-a-poug, whetstone hills ; from thence to Man- 
 hum-squeeg, the whetstone country. From this 
 boundary, the line ran south-west a few miles to Ac- 
 quiunk, the upper falls in Quinibaug river. Thence 
 the line ran a little north of west, through Pomfret, 
 Ashford, Willington, and Tolland, to Mo-she-nup- 
 suck, the notch of the mountain, now known to be 
 the notch in Bolton mountain. From thence the 
 line ran southerly, through Bolton, Hebron, and 
 East Haddam, to the first-mentioned bounds. This 
 it appears was the Pequot country, to the whole of 
 which the Moheagans laid claim, after the conquest 
 of the Pequot nation, except some part of 'New 
 London, Groton, and Stonington, which had been 
 the chief seat of that warlike tribe. The Mohea- 
 gans claimed this tract as their hereditary country, 
 and the Wabbequ asset territory, which lay north 
 of it, they claimed by virtue of conquest. 
 
 On the 23rd of August, 1705, the court of com- 
 missioners, appointed by her majesty, to examine 
 into the affair of the Moheagan lands, convened at 
 Stonington. Writs had been previously issued, 
 summoning the governor and company, with the 
 claimers of lands in controversy, and all parties con- 
 cerned, to attend at time and place. The court 
 consisted of Joseph Dudley, Esq., president, Edward 
 Palms, Giles Sylvester, Jahleel Brenton, Nathaniel 
 Byfield, Thomas Hooker, James Avery, John 
 Avery, John Morgan, and Thomas Leffingwell. 
 
 It seems that the governor and general assembly of 
 Connecticut had not been served with a copy of the 
 commission, by which the court was instituted, and 
 viewed it as a court of inquiry only, to examine 
 and make report to her majesty, and not to try and 
 determine the title of the lands in dispute. The 
 committee appointed by the assembly, to appear 
 before the court, were conditionally instructed. 
 Provided the court was instituted for inquiry only, 
 they were to answer and show the unreasonableness 
 of the Moheagan claims, and the false light in which 
 the affair had been represented ; but if the design 
 was to determine with respect to the title of the co- 
 lony, they were directed to enter their protest against 
 the court, and withdraw. All inhabitants of the co- 
 lony, personally interested in any of the lands in 
 controversy, were forbidden to plead or make any 
 answer before the court. 
 
 Governor Winthron addressed the following letter 
 to the president. 
 
 " New London, August 21st, 1705. 
 
 " Sir, I understand by your excellency's letter 
 of July 3()th, your intentions to be at Stonington, 
 on the 23d instant, to hear the complaints of Owa- 
 neco against this government. I have, therefore, 
 in obedience to her majesty's commands, directed 
 and empowered William Pitkin, John Chester, Elea- 
 zar Kimberly, Esquires, Major William Whiting, 
 Mr. John Elliot, and Mr. Richard Lord, 'to wait on 
 your excellency, and show the unreasonableness of 
 those complaints, and the unpardonable affront put 
 upon her majesty, by that false representation, and 
 the great trouble to yourself thereby ; and I con- 
 clude, in a short hearing, your excellency will be 
 able to represent to her majesty, that those com- 
 plaints are altogether groundless. The gentlemen 
 shall assist your excellency's inquiry, in summon- 
 ing such persons as you shall please to desire, and 
 all things else, reserving the honour and privileges 
 of the government." 
 
 When the committee came before the court, they 
 
752 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 perceived that they determined to try the title of the 
 colony to the lands, and judicially to decide the 
 whole controversy ; and they resolved, therefore, 
 not to make any answer or plea before them, but to 
 protest against their proceedings. The protest is 
 entered as follows : 
 
 " To his excellency, Joseph Dudley, Esq., cap- 
 tain-general and governor-in -chief of her ma- 
 jesty's colony of Massachusetts Bay, &c. 
 
 " We, the commissioners of her majesty's colony 
 of Connecticut, are obliged, by our instructions from 
 this government, to certify your excellency, that, 
 in obedience to her majesty's commands to this co- 
 lony, we are ready to show the injustice of those com- 
 plaints against the government, made by Owaneco, 
 to her majesty in council, if your excellency sees 
 good that the complaints be produced, (provided the 
 commissioners mentioned in her majesty's commis- 
 sion, with your excellency, be qualified to act as 
 members of the court of inquiry constituted thereby,) 
 that'so your excellency and commissioners may, upon 
 inquiry, be enabled to make such a true and just re- 
 port of the matters of fact, mentioned in said com- 
 plaints to her majesty, as you shall see meet. But 
 if your excellency (as appears to us,) does construe 
 any expressions 'in the said commission, so as to 
 empower the said commissioners, by themselves, to 
 inquire and judicially determine concerning the 
 matter in controversy, mentioned in the said com- 
 plaint, concerning the title of land or trespass, and 
 do resolve to proceed accordingly, as we cannot but 
 judge it to be contrary to her majesty's most just 
 and legal intentions, in said commission ; so we 
 must declare against and prohibit all such proceed- 
 ings, as contrary to* law and to the letters patent 
 under the great seal of England, granted to this her 
 majesty's colony, and contrary to her majesty's 
 order to this government, concerning the said com- 
 mission "and complaint, as well as to the krroivn 
 rights of her majesty's subjects, throughout all her 
 dominions, and such as we cannot allow of. We 
 only add, that it seems strange to us, that your ex- 
 cellency should proceed in such a manner, without 
 first communicating your commission to the general 
 assembly of this her majesty's colony. 
 
 " WILLIAM PITKIN, &c. 
 
 ' August 24th, 1705." 
 
 The inhabitants who had deeds of the lands in 
 controversy, made default as well as the colony ; but 
 the court proceeded to an exparte hearing. Owaneco, 
 Mason, Hallam, and their council, produced such 
 papers and evidence, and made such representations 
 as they pleased, without any person to confront 
 them; and after such a partial hearing of one day 
 only, the court determined against the colony, and 
 adjudged to Owaneco and the Moheagans a tract of 
 land called Massapeag, lying in the town of New 
 London ; and another tract of about 1 100 acres in 
 the northern part of the town, which the assembly 
 had granted as an addition to that township, in 
 1703. The court also adjudged to them a tract in 
 the town of Lyme, two miles in breadth, and nine 
 miles in length, with the whole tract contained in 
 the town of Colchester. The court ordered Connec- 
 ticut immediately to restore all those lands to Owa- 
 neco, and filed a bill of cost against the colony of 
 573J. 12*. 8d. Thus a cause of such magnitude, in 
 which the essential interests of a whole colony, and the 
 fortunes of hundreds of individuals, were concerned, 
 was carried wholly by intrigue and the grossest mis- 
 representations. The commission was granted by 
 her majesty, upon an ex parts hearing, upon the 
 
 representation of the enemies of the colony; and the 
 men who carried on the intrigue, were appointed 
 judges in their own case. Without hearing the case, 
 contrary to all reason and justice, they gave judg- 
 ment against the colony, and hundreds of indivi- 
 duals ; and they gave away lands holden by con- 
 quest, purchased, ancient deeds from the original 
 proprietors, well executed and recorded by charter, 
 acts, and patents from the assembly, and by long 
 possession. The chief judge had been using all his 
 art and influence to ruin the colony, and was now 
 supposed to be scheming fora portion of its lands, as 
 well as for the government ; Major Palms had been 
 a long time in controversy with the colony, was ex- 
 ceedingly imbittered against it, and against the go- 
 vernor, his brother-in-law ; and others of the com- 
 missioners were supposed to be confederate with 
 Mason and Clarke, and interested in the lands in 
 controversy. Hallam, Clarke, and several of the 
 commissioners were witnesses and judges in their 
 own cause, and heard themselves, and no others. 
 Owaneco was placed in state on the right hand of 
 the president, and the colony were treated worse 
 than criminals. 
 
 After the court had given judgment against the 
 colony, on the 24th of August, they spent three 
 days in hearing such complaints as Owaneco, Ma- 
 son, and other persons interested in the lands, or 
 inimical to the colony, were pleased to make ; and 
 when they had heard all the complaints and misre- 
 presentations which they had to make, they repre- 
 sented to her majesty, that Owaneco complained he 
 was disseised of a tract of land, containing about 
 7000 acres, called Mamaquaog, lying northward of 
 Windham ; of another tract called Plainfield, and 
 considerable skirts and parcels of land, encroached 
 upon and taken in by the towns of Lebanon, Wind- 
 ham, and Canterbury. The court prohibited all her 
 majesty's subjects fron entering upon, or improving 
 any of those lands, until a further hearing and de- 
 termination of the case ; and further, in the pleni- 
 tude of their power, they appointed Captain John 
 Mason to be trustee or guardian to Owaneco and 
 his people, and to manage all their affairs ; and they 
 represented, from the evidence of Major James 
 Fitch and Captain John Mason, that the colony had 
 left the Indians no land to plant on, and that they 
 consisted of 150 warriors, 100 of whom had been 
 in the actual service of the country that very year. 
 
 These Indians were enlisted, and sent out by the 
 colony of Connecticut, and went as cheerfully into 
 service this year as they had done at any time be- 
 fore; which gave demonstrative evidence," that there 
 was no general uneasiness among the Moheagans. 
 Had there been, two-thirds of their warriors would 
 not have enlisted into the service of the government; 
 and indeed Owaneco himself was uneasy only when 
 the Masons, Clarke, Fitch, Hallam, and others, 
 made him so ; who were scheming to deprive him 
 and the Moheagans of their lands. So far was it 
 from being true, that Connecticut had injured them, 
 or taken their lands from them, they had treated 
 them with great kindness, defended them by their 
 arms, and at their own expense, and prevented 
 their being orerpowered by their enemies. They 
 had left them a fine tract of land, of between 4 and 
 5000 acres, between New London and Norwich ; 
 and both in the grant and patent to New London, 
 there was an express reservation of all the rights 
 and property of the Indians. The colony had not 
 only reserved lands for the Moheagans, but for all 
 other Indians in it, to plant upon; and suffered 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 753 
 
 them to hunt, fish, and fowl in all parts of it, and 
 even to build their wigwams, and cut such wood 
 and timber as they needed, in any of their unin- 
 closed lands. 
 
 Dudley's court, having finished such business as 
 was agreeable to its wishes, adjourned until the next 
 May ; but it never met again ; and before that time, 
 the intrigue and duplicity of Governor Dudley and 
 the malcontents became so evident, that all their 
 designs were frustrated. 
 
 The assembly, at their session in October, ap- 
 pointed a committee to examine into all matters re- 
 specting the Indians, and the complaints which had 
 been made against the colony, and, as soon as pos- 
 sible, to transmit a particular and full answer to 
 their agent. They were instructed fully to ac- 
 quaint him with a true statement of the Moheagan 
 case, and of the whole management of Dudley and 
 his court. They were to represent that Dudley, 
 Palms, and others of the commissioners, were in- 
 terested, and parties in the cause, and to insist, 
 that the manner in which the commission was pro- 
 cured to Governor Dudley, Major Palms, and 
 others, was matter of intrigue, and the whole pro- 
 cess arbitrary and illegal. 
 
 Sir Henry Ashurst, on receiving the papers rela- 
 tive to the case, presented a petition to her majesty, 
 representing the title of the colony to all the lands 
 in controversy, by conquest, purchase, royal charter, 
 long possession and improvement; and further, 
 that Uncas, when the English became first ac- 
 quainted with him, was a revolted Pequot, expelled 
 his country, and had not a sufficient number of men 
 to make a hunt; and that the lands reserved to 
 him were not reserved to him in consequence of any 
 right of his, but was a matter of mere permission : 
 that Joseph Dudley, Esq., Hallam, Palms, the Ave- 
 rys, Morgan, and Leffingwell, had grants of several 
 parts of the controverted lands, and, in their own 
 names, or in the name of John Mason, were at- 
 tempting to set up their titles to them : that Dud- 
 ley and Hallam, by misrepresentation, had obtained 
 a commission from her majesty, by surprise, under 
 the great seal of England, directed to the said Dud- 
 ley, Palms, the two Averys, Morgan, Leffingwell, 
 and others, most of whom were of Dudley's and 
 Hallam's denomination, and under his influence; 
 and that in the court, thus instituted, they were the 
 accusers, parties, and judges: that they had assumed 
 to themselves jurisdiction, in a summary way, to 
 try her majesty's petitioners' titles to their lands, 
 and to evict and disseise them of their freeholds, 
 properties, and ancient possessions, without any 
 legal process, or so much as the form of a trial. 
 All which, it was represented, tended to the destruc- 
 tion of all the rights of the colony, and was directly 
 contrary to divers acts of parliament, made and 
 provided in such cases ; and the agent, therefore, 
 in behalf of the colony, appealed from the judgment 
 of the said court to her majesty, in council, and 
 prayed that the case might be heard before her. 
 
 In consequence of this petition, her majesty, 
 some time after, appointed a commission of review ; 
 and the affair was kept in agitation nearly 70 years ; 
 but it was always, upon a legal hearing, determined 
 in favour of the colony. The final decision was by 
 Gi-orge the Third, in council. 
 
 The commissioners of review, in 174.3, not only 
 determined the title of the lands to be in the colony 
 of Connecticut, but " That the governor and com- 
 pany had treated the said Indians with much hu- 
 manity at all times ; and had, at all times, provided 
 
 HIST. OF AMEB. Nos. 95 96. 
 
 them with a sufficiency, at least, of lands to plant 
 on ; and that no act, or thing appeared, either be- 
 fore the judgment of Joseph Dudley, Esq. or since, 
 by which they, the said governor and company, had 
 taken from the Indians, or from their sachem, any 
 tracts of land to which the Indians or their sachem 
 had any right, by reservation, or otherwise, either 
 in law or equity." 
 
 The agent of the colony petitioned her majesty 
 in its behalf, to hear the complaints exhibited by 
 Governor Dudley and his accomplices, that it might 
 have an opportunity of demonstrating how false and 
 groundless they were ; and he also prayed, that as 
 Dudley had surprise^ her, to grant a commission of 
 high powers to the subversion of the rights of her 
 loyal subjects, and contrary to her gracious inten- 
 tions towards them, and had abused her name and 
 authority to serve his own dark designs, that her 
 majesty would, in some exemplary manner, dis- 
 countenance the said Dudley and his abettors. 
 
 However, it does not appear that Dudley or Lord 
 Cornbury were ever obliged to bring forward any 
 evidence in support of the charges which they had 
 exhibited, or that her majesty, by any public act, 
 discountenanced their intrigue and falsehood. They 
 had such powerful friends at court, that they seem 
 to have palliated, and kept the affair, as far as pos- 
 sible, out of public view; and it seems to have been 
 passed by without any further examination. 
 
 There was no alteration made in the legislature 
 at the election in 1706. 
 
 The assembly adopted the same measures for the 
 defence of Connecticut and the neighbouring colo- 
 nies, which they had done the year preceding; and 
 the same officers were appointed, and the same 
 number of men sent into the field. 
 
 The colony had assurances from their agent, Sir 
 Henry Ashurst, that they had a clear right to com- 
 mand their own militia; that the governors of the 
 neighbouring colonies had no right to command 
 their men, or money; and that this was the opinion 
 of the best council in the nation. He also assured 
 them, that they were under no obligations to them, 
 to do any thing more, than to furnish such quotas 
 as her majesty should require. 
 
 At the session in October, the assembly passed 
 the following act in favour of the clergy, " That all 
 the ministers of the Gospel that now are, or here- 
 after shall be settled in this colony, during the con- 
 tinuance of their public service in the Gospel minis- 
 try, shall have their estates, lying in the same town 
 where they dwell, and all the polls belonging to their 
 several families exempted, and they are hereby ex. 
 empted and freed from being entered in the public 
 lists and payment of rates." By virtue of this act, for 
 the encouragement of the clergy of this colony, they 
 have always from that, to the present time, been 
 exempted from taxation. The legislature had be- 
 fore released their persons from taxation, but not 
 their families and estates. 
 
 The colony, at this period, was in very low cir- 
 cumstances. Its whole circulating cash amounted 
 only to about 2000J. Such had been its expense in 
 the war, and in defending itself against the attempts 
 of its enemies in England and America, that the 
 legislature had been obliged to levy a tax, in about 
 three years, of more than two shillings in the pound, 
 on the whole list of the colony. The taxes were 
 laid and collected in grain, pork, beef, and other 
 articles of country produce ; which were transported 
 to Boston and the West Indies, and by this means 
 money and bills of exchange were obtained, to pay 
 
 3 X 
 
754 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the bills drawn upon the colony in England, and to 
 discharge its debts at home. These poor circum- 
 stances, and the misrepresentations, abuse, and 
 dangers from their enemies, were endured with an 
 exemplary magnanimity; and under the pressure 
 of all this expense and danger, they cheerfully sup- 
 ported the Gospel ministry and ordinances, in 
 their respective towns and parishes. They con- 
 templated their dangers and deliverances with 
 thanksgiving, and rejoiced in the enjoyment of 
 their privileges. 
 
 The country is alarmed Means of defence- New 
 townships granted and settled The Rev. Gurdon 
 Saltonstall chosen governor Act empowering the 
 freemen to choose the governor from among them- 
 selves at large Acts relative to the settlement of the 
 boundary line with Massachusetts Garrisons erected 
 in the towns on the frontiers Expedition against 
 Canada First emission of paper money Address 
 to her majesty Loss of the colony at Wood Creek 
 Expedition against Port Royal Acts respecting the 
 superior court Settlement of the boundary line be- 
 tween Massachusetts and Connecticut Return of 
 peace Toums settled under Massachusetts State 
 of the colony. 
 
 Such reports of the preparations of the French 
 and Indians, to make a descent upon some part of 
 New England, were spread abroad, about the be- 
 ginning of the year 1707, as gave a general alarm 
 to the country; and on the 6th of February, 1707, 
 a council of war, consisting of the governor, most 
 of the council, and a considerable number of the 
 chief military officers in the colony, convened at 
 Hartford. A letter was received from Deputy-go- 
 vernor Treat, and another from Major Schuyler at 
 Albany, giving intelligence that the French and 
 Indians, in their interest, were about to make a de- 
 scent upon New England; and information was 
 also communicated, that suspicions were enter- 
 tained that the Pohtatuck and Owiantuck Indians 
 designed to join the French and Indians from Ca- 
 nada. 
 
 The committee resolved, that the western fron- 
 tier towns, Simsbury, Waterbury, Woodbury, and 
 Danbury, should be fortified with all possible dis- 
 patch ; and as Waterbury had sustained great losses 
 by inundations, it was further resolved, for their en- 
 couragement to fortify their houses strongly, that 
 the governor and council would use their influence 
 with the assembly, that their country rates should 
 be abated. It was also resolved, that each of these 
 towns should keep a scout of two faithful men, to be 
 sent out every day to discover the designs of the 
 enemy, and give intelligence should they make their 
 appearance near the frontier towns. 
 
 To prevent damages from the Pohtatuck and 
 Owiantuck Indians, Captain John Minor and Mr. 
 John Sherman were appointed to remove them to 
 Stratford and Fairfield; and if from sickness or 
 any other cause they could not be removed, it was 
 ordered that a number of their chief men should be 
 carried down to those towns, and kept as hostages 
 to secure the fidelity of the rest. 
 
 On the 2d of April a special assembly was con- 
 vened in consequence of letters from Governor 
 Dudley ; who had proposed to send an army of 
 1000 men against L'Acadia, and requested Con- 
 necticut to join with Massachusetts in the expedi- 
 tion. 
 
 After the affair had been maturely considered, 
 the assembly determined not to comply with the 
 
 proposal; and the reasons given were, that they had 
 lot been consulted, nor had had any opportunity of 
 consenting to the expedition : that the neighbour- 
 ing colonies, who were equally interested in the 
 expedition with themselves, were not called upon 
 to do any thing; ar?d that the vast expense of de- 
 Fending the county of Hampshire and their own 
 frontiers, incapacitated them to join in the enter- 
 prise. 
 
 At the general election this year the governor 
 anfl council were all re-elected. 
 
 Upon the petition of John Pratt, Robert Chap- 
 man, John Clark, and Stephen Post, appointed a 
 committee in behalf of the legatees of Joshua Uncas, 
 the assembly granted a township which they named 
 Hebron ; the settlement of which began in June 
 1704. The first settlers were William Shipmau, 
 Timothy Phelps, Samuel Filer, Caleb Jones, Ste- 
 phen Post, Jacob Root, Samuel Curtis, Edward 
 Sawyer, Joseph Youngs, and Benoni Trumbull ; 
 who came from Windsor, Saybrook, Long Island, 
 and Northampton. The settlement went on but 
 slowly ; partly on account of the opposition made by 
 Mason and the Moheagans, and partly in conse- 
 quence of the extensive tracts claimed by proprie- 
 tors, who made no settlements. But several acts 
 of the assembly were made, and committees ap- 
 pointed, to encourage and assist the planters ; and 
 by these means they so increased in numbers and 
 wealth, that in about six or seven years they were 
 enabled to erect a meeting-house, and settle a mi- 
 nister among them. 
 
 At the session in October the assembly granted a 
 township to Nathan Gould, Peter Burr, Captain 
 John Wakeman, Jonathan Sturges, and other in- 
 habitants of the town of Fairfield, bounded southerly 
 on Danbury, easterly on New Milford, and westerly 
 upon the colony line. It extended fourteen miles 
 northward from Danbury; and was afterwards 
 named New Fairfield. The war, for several years, 
 prevented all attempts for the settlement of this 
 tract. 
 
 As the frontier towns had exhibited much zeal in 
 fortifying themselves agreeably to the directions of 
 the governor and council, the assembly made them 
 a liberal compensation. 
 
 About this time the colony sustained a great loss, 
 in the death of the honourable Fitz-John Winthrop, 
 Esq.. and a special assembly was convoked on the 
 17th of December, by Deputy-governor Treat, at 
 New Haven, for the purpose of electing another go- 
 vernor; which ordered that the votes of both houses 
 should be mixed before they were sorted and counted, 
 and that the majority of voces should determine the 
 choice. And in this method the Reverend Gurdon 
 Saltonstall was chosen governor. 
 
 Four of the magistrates, the speaker of the house, 
 with three of the other deputies, were appointed a 
 committee to acquaint him with the choice, and so- 
 licit his acceptance of the important trust to which 
 he had been chosen ; and a letter was addressed to 
 him by the assembly, desiring him to accept of the 
 choice which they had made, and, with the com- 
 mittee appointed to wait on him, to answer the let- 
 ters of their agent, and transact whatever the exi- 
 gencies of the government might require. A letter 
 was also addressed to his church and congregation 
 at New London, acquainting them with the call, which 
 the assembly imagined Mr. Saltonstall had to leave 
 the ministry, andlo dispose them to submit to sucii a 
 dispensation. The magistrates, upon Mr. Salton 
 stall's acceptance of the trust to which he had beea 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 755 
 
 chosen, were directed to administer to him the oath 
 of the governor, and the oath respecting trade and 
 navigation; and on the first of January, 1708, Go- 
 vernor Saltonstall accepted of his office, and took 
 the oaths appointed by law. 
 
 This assembly repealed the law which required that 
 the governor should always be chosen from among the 
 magistrates in nomination, and gave liberty for the 
 freemen to elect him from among themselves at 
 large ; and, consequently, at the election, May 13th, 
 1708, Governor Saltonstall was chosen governor by 
 the freemen. Nathan Gould, Esq. was elected De- 
 puty-governor; the former magistrates were re- 
 chosen, aad Mr. John Haynes, for the first time, 
 was elected one of the council. The former trea- 
 surer and secretary were re-chosen. 
 
 A township was granted, in the course of this 
 session, at Pohtatuck, afterwards named Newtown. 
 
 Connecticut, for a long course of years, had been 
 at great trouble and expense, in attempting the 
 settlement of the boundary line between this colony 
 and Massachusetts; and the inhabitants of Windsor 
 and Simsbury had been often exceedingly injured, 
 in their persons and property, by the people of 
 Suffield and Enfield, more especially by the former ; 
 who had not only encroached upon their lands and 
 cut down their timber, but often seized upon their 
 tar and turpentine, and even upon their persons, 
 and forcibly carried them to Suffield ; and in con- 
 sequence of these outrages, great animosities had 
 arisen between the inhabitants of these towns, arid 
 many lawsuits had been commenced. The assem- 
 bly, as far as possible, to terminate these evils, 
 enacted, that commissioners should be appointed, 
 with full powers, to run the line with such commis- 
 sioners as Massachusetts should appoint for that 
 purpose. These commissioners were directed to 
 take care that the line should be run by skilful ar- 
 tists, with good instruments ; and to take their sta- 
 tion three miles south of every part of Charles river, 
 whence Mr. James Taylor and the commissioners of 
 this colony ran the line in 1702; and to run thence 
 a due west line, and to make and set up substantial 
 marks and monuments in the line between the colo- 
 nies. And to prevent all further contention, it was 
 enacted, that the inhabitants of Windsor, Simsbury, 
 Suffield, and Enfield, should not make any im- 
 provement on the contested lands, until the line 
 should be run and settled ; and also, that all suits 
 should rest until the county court at Hartford, in 
 October. But it was at the same time provided, 
 that the court of Massachusetts should give the 
 same orders to the people of that province, who 
 claimed upon the line, and should immediately unite 
 with Connecticut in settling the boundary between 
 the colonies. 
 
 It was also further enacted, that, upon running 
 the line, all the most ancient grants made to the 
 proprietors, by either government, should give title 
 and property to the settlers on either side of the 
 line ; and that unless the court of Massachusetts 
 would agree to the running of the line in this man- 
 ner, a petition should be addressed to her majesty, 
 praying her to give orders that the divisional line 
 might be run. 
 
 The assembly, at this session, ordered that a 
 township should be laid out east of Woodstock, eight 
 miles in length, and six in breadth; the inhabitants 
 of which district were vested with the privileges of 
 a distinct town, by the name of Killingly. At this 
 session the assembly ordered, " that the ministers of 
 the Gospel preach a sermon to the freemen, on the 
 
 day appointed by law to choose their civil rulers, in 
 the towns where they meet, proper for their direc- 
 tion in the work before them ;" which seems to have 
 been the oiigin of preaching freemen's meeting 
 sermons in Connecticut. 
 
 The affairs of the war were conducted this year 
 in the same manner as they had been the preceding. 
 Colonel William Whiting commanded a body of 
 horse and infantry in the county of Hampshire, and 
 scouting parties and garrisons were maintained on 
 the frontiers of the colony. 
 
 At the session in October, it was enacted, that 
 two garrisons should be maintained, at the public 
 expense, at Simsbury, and two at Waterbury ; and 
 garrisons were to be kept at Woodbury and Dan- 
 bury, as the council of war should judge expedient. 
 
 At the election in 1709, Mr. Saltonst*!! was re- 
 chosen governor, and Nathan Gould, deputy-gover- 
 nor. The magistrates were Daniel Witherell, Na- 
 thaniel Stanley, John Hamlin, William Pitkin, 
 John Chester, Joseph Curtis, Josiah Rossrter, Richard 
 Christopher, Peter Burr, John Allen, John Haynes, 
 and Samuel Eells, Esquires; and Captain Joseph 
 Whiting was treasurer, and Caleb Stanley secretary, 
 
 A letter was laid before this assembly from her 
 majesty, relative to an expedition against the French 
 in Canada, an account of which has already been 
 sufficiently given in the histories of the previous 
 colonies. 
 
 The legislature of Connecticut voted and raised 
 their quota, of 350 men, with cheerfulness and ex- 
 pedition ; and Colonel Whiting was appointed to 
 command them. The assembly also voted an ad- 
 dress of thanks to her majesty, for her royal care 
 and favour to the colonies, in devising means for 
 the removal of an enemy, by whom the colonies had 
 been so great and repeated sufferers. 
 
 This undertaking, which proved so fruitless, was 
 a great loss and expense to the colonies; but Con- 
 necticut only sustained the loss of about 90 men. 
 
 This expedition occasioned the first emission of 
 paper money in Connecticut; which was ordered 
 at a special assembly, on the 8th of June, by the 
 following enactment: 
 
 " It is resolved, that to assist in the expedition, 
 for want of money otherwise to carry it on, there be 
 forthwith imprinted a certain number of bills of 
 credit on the colony, in suitable sums, from two shil- 
 lings to 5/., which, in the whole, shall amount to 
 the sum of 8000/. and no more." It was also enacted, 
 that the bills should be issued from the treasury as 
 money, but should be received in payments at one 
 shilling on the pound better than money ; one 
 half only to be signed and issued at first, a'nd the 
 other to remain unsigned, until it should be found 
 necessary to put it into circulation ; and taxes were 
 imposed for the calling in of one half of it within 
 the term of one year, and the .other at the expira- 
 tion of two years. 
 
 Notwithstanding the war, the colony made pro- 
 gress in settlement; and in 1708 John Belden, 
 Samuel Keeler, Matthew Seymour, Matthias St. 
 John, and other inhabitants of Norvvalk, to the num- 
 ber of 25, purchased a large tract, between that 
 town and Danbury, bounded west on the partition 
 line between Connecticut and New York. The 
 purchase was made of Catoonah, the chief sachem, 
 and other Indians, who were the proprietors of that 
 part of the country ; and the deed bears date Sep- 
 tember 30th, 1708. At this session it was ordained 
 that it should be a distinct township, by the name 
 of Ridgefield. 
 
 3X2 
 
756 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 The only alteration made, by the election, in 
 
 1710, was the choice of Matthew Allen, Esq. in the 
 place of Daniel Witherell, Esq. 
 
 As we have very fully related the particulars of 
 the war of this period in the account of Massachu- 
 setts, we shall proceed with the home affairs of 
 Connecticut. 
 
 In May 1711, Joseph Taicott was chosen into the 
 magistracy in the place of Josiah Rossiter, Esq. ; 
 and an important alteration was also made respect- 
 ing the superior court; which until this time had 
 been holden at two places only, Hartford and New 
 Haven, and at two terms annually; which was 
 found to occasion much expense and inconvenience ; 
 and it was therefore resolved, that the superior court 
 should sit twice annually, in each of the counties, 
 and that all actions should be tried in the county in 
 which they originated. 
 
 This assembly also made a grant of a township at 
 a place called Pohtatuck, from a river of that name 
 upon which part of it lies. At this session it was in- 
 corporated and named Newtown. 
 
 When the assembly met in October, an address 
 was prepared to be presented to her majesty repre- 
 senting the exertions of the colony in her service, 
 condoling her on the disappointment with respect to 
 the expedition, and praying for the continuance of 
 her favour to the colony. 
 
 A township had been given several years previous 
 to this period by Uncas, sachem of the Moheagans, 
 lying north of Lebanon and west of Mansfield, to 
 certain legatees in Hartford ; and the donation was 
 approved by the assembly. The legatees conveyed 
 their right to William Pitkin, Joseph Taicott, Wil- 
 liam Whiting, and Richard Lord, to be a committee 
 to lay out the township and make settlements on the 
 lands; and on the 9th of May, 1706, the general 
 assembly had authorized those gentlemen to act as 
 a committee for this purpose ; and on October llth, 
 
 1711, this committee was re-appointed, with one 
 Nathaniel Rust, who had already settled upon the 
 lands, more effectually to carry into execution the 
 design of their former appointment ; and the town- 
 ship, at the same session, was named Coventry. Na- 
 thaniel Rust and some others first settled in the 
 town about the year 1700 ; but the settlement of it 
 has generally been dated from 1709 ; as in that year 
 a number of householders from Northampton and 
 other places, moved into the town, and the inhabit- 
 ants were so increased in about two years, that they 
 were now incorporated with the privileges of other 
 towns. 
 
 In consequence of letters from Governor Dudley, 
 of Boston, and from General Nicholson, relative to 
 the unsuccessfulness of the late expedition, a special 
 assembly was called, November 3d, 1711. The 
 design of which was to consult the best means of 
 acquainting her majesty truly how the affair was ; 
 what exertioae the colonies had made, and that it 
 was not through any fault of theirs that the enter- 
 prise was frustrated ; and it was resolved, that the 
 colonies should make a joint representation, and 
 that the pilots should be sent to England, to be ex- 
 amined concerning the unfortunate naval expedition 
 against Canada. The assembly accordingly deter- 
 mined that John Mayhew, of New London, who 
 was the only pilot from Connecticut, should forth- 
 with proceed to Great Britain, with the pilots from 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 The election in 1712 made little or no alteration 
 with respect to public officers; and nothing very 
 material appears to have been transacted this year. 
 
 The legislature made the usual provision for the 
 lefenceof this colony and the county of Hampshire. 
 
 Nathan Gould, Esq. the deputy-governor, was 
 appointed chief Judge of the superior court ; and 
 William Pitkin, Richard Christopher, Peter Burr, 
 and Samuel Eells, Esquires, were appointed assist- 
 ant judges. In the absence of the deputy-governor, 
 William Pitkin was appointed chief jndge ; and in 
 case either of the other judges were absent, any one 
 of the magistrates was authorized to sit in his stead. 
 Until this time, the judges of the superior court had 
 been allowed nothing more than the fees of it; and an 
 act was therefore passed at the October session, 
 that the judges for the time being, upon laying 
 their accounts before the assembly, should be al- 
 lowed an honourable compensation for their ex- 
 penses and services. 
 
 About this time, the inhabitants of New Milford 
 were incorporated and vested with town privileges. 
 
 Ab&tt this time, William Partridge, Esq. of New- 
 bury, and Jonathan Belcher, of Boston, opened a 
 copper mine at Simsbury : and for their encourage 
 ment, the assembly exempted the miners, operators, 
 and labourers from military duties, for the term of 
 four years. 
 
 At the election in May 1713, Mr. John Sher- 
 man, who had been some time speaker of the 
 lower house, was chosen into the magistracy. 
 
 In October 1687, a grant of lands, commonly 
 called the Mashamoquet purchase, had been made 
 by the general assembly, to Major James Fitch, 
 Lieutenant William Ruggles, Mr. John Gore, Mr. 
 John Pierpont, Mr. John Chandler, Mr. Benjamin 
 Sabin, Mr. Samuel Craft, Mr. John Grosvenor, Mr. 
 Joseph Griffin, Mr. Samuel and John Ruggles, and 
 Mr. Nathan Wilson ; most of whom were planters 
 from Roxbury, in Massachusetts ; and some of 
 whom had moved on to the lands in 1686, before the 
 grant was made; and ultimately in the year 1713, 
 the inhabitants were incorporated and vested with 
 town privileges : and the name was changed from 
 Mashamoquet to Pomfret. 
 
 In 1708, the assembly of Connecticut had deter- 
 mined, that, unless the province of Massachusetts 
 would accept of the terms which they had proposed, 
 relative to the line between them, they would make 
 application to her majesty, desiring that orders 
 might be given, that Massachusetts forthwith should 
 mutually join with Connecticut in running and set- 
 tling the boundary line between the colonies ; but 
 Massachusetts at that time would not consent to run 
 the line as it had been proposed ; and would not 
 even grant that there had been any mistake in run- 
 ning it; and insisted, if there had, that, as it had 
 been ran so long before the charter was granted to 
 Connecticut, and they had been in possession of the 
 lands in controversy for 66 years, and several towns 
 and plantations had been settled upon them, it was 
 not then reasonable to draw it into question. The 
 assembly of Connecticut, therefore, in 1709, ap- 
 proved a letter, addressed to the lords of trade, 
 giving reasons why the line run by Woodward and 
 
 affery ought not to be established; and it seems to 
 been the determination of the legislature to 
 
 have 
 
 have appealed to her majesty with respect to the 
 partition line ; but several circumstances finally pre- 
 vented their so doing. Governor Dudley who 
 was a man of great duplicity, had many friends and 
 great influence at court; and Connecticut had none. 
 Sir Henry Ashurst, also their agent for many years, 
 appears now to have been no more ; and they had 
 not yet sufficient time to fix. upon and have nroof of 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 757 
 
 the fidelity and ability of another in his place ; the 
 colony was poor, and Jiad been put to great expense 
 in defending itself against the complaints of Gover 
 nor Dudley, Lord Cornbury, and other enemies, 
 and against the claims of Mason and his party ; anc 
 the English ministry were high tories, and inimica 
 to all charter governments. The legislature were 
 therefore apprehensive that their enemies were 
 again concerting measures to deprive them of all the 
 privileges which they had so dearly bought ; and as 
 Massachusetts in some measure agreed to the terms 
 proposed in 1708, it was, under all the circum- 
 stances, judged most expedient to make the besl 
 settlement which could be obtained, without an ap- 
 peal to England. 
 
 Consequently upon the 13th of July, 1713, com- 
 missioners, fully empowered from each of the colo- 
 nies, came to an arrangement which was adopted by 
 each court. As they were both careful to secure the 
 property to the persons to whom they had made 
 grants of lands, and to maintain the jurisdiction over 
 the towns which they had respectively settled ; it was 
 expressly stipulated as a preliminary, that the towns 
 should remain to the governments by which they had 
 been settled ; and that the property of as many acres 
 as should appear to be gained by one colony from 
 the other, should be conveyed out of other unim- 
 proved land, as a satisfaction or equivalent. With 
 respect to about two miles, claimed by Windsor 
 upon the town of Suffield, concerning the validity 
 of which there had been a long contest, it was agreed", 
 that if the tract fell within the line, it should be- 
 long to Connecticut. 
 
 On running the line, it was found at Connecticut 
 river, to run 90 rods north of the north-east bounds 
 of Suffield ; and it appeared that Massachusetts had 
 encroached upon Connecticut 107,793 acres, run- 
 ning a due-west line from Woodward's and Saffery's 
 station ; and Massachusetts, therefore, made a grant 
 of such a quantity of land to Connecticut, which 
 was accepted as equivalent ; and the whole was sold 
 in sixteen shares, in 1716, for the sum of 683J. New 
 England currency ; a little more than a farthing per 
 acre, and shows of what small value land was es- 
 teemed at that day. It affords also a striking de- 
 monstration, that, considering the expense of pur- 
 chasing them of the natives, and of defending them, 
 they cost originally often ten times their value. 
 The money was applied to the use of the college. 
 
 Notwithstanding the long and expensive contro- 
 versy of Connecticut with the colony of Rhode Island, 
 relative to the Narraganset country, and notwith- 
 standing the king's commissioners, and lawyers, of 
 the greatest note, determined, that the title was un- 
 doubtedly in the governor and company of this co- 
 lony, yet it was judged expedient to give up the 
 claim. Lands were of so little value, and contro- 
 versies before the king and council so expensive, and 
 the event so uncertain, that the legislature deter- 
 mined rather to comply with Governor Winthrop's 
 and Clark's agreement, than to prolong the contro- 
 versy. The court party, both in King William's 
 and Queen Anne's reign, appeared reluctant to 
 establish the charter limits of Connecticut at Narra- 
 ganset river and bay ; otherwise they would have 
 advised to establish the judgment of the king's com- 
 missioners. The court probably were influenced by 
 political principles ; and the establishment of the 
 eastern boundary of Connecticut at Narraganset 
 river and bay, would have ruined Rhode Island, by 
 reducing them to limits too small for a colony. Con- 
 necticut was, doubtless, fully sensible of these dis- 
 
 positions of the sovereigns and court of Great Bri- 
 tain, and it probably operated as a strong motive to 
 induce them to give up their claim. 
 
 In October 1702, a committee had been appointed 
 to make a complete settlement of the boundary line 
 between the colonies, reserving to all persons con- 
 cerned, their entire property in lands and buildings, 
 according to the agreement of Governor Winthrop 
 and Mr. Clark ; and on the 12th of May, 1703, the 
 committees from the two colonies had agreed, " that 
 the middle channel of Pawcatuck river, alias Nar- 
 raganset river, as it extends from the salt water up- 
 wards, till it comes to the mouth of Ashaway river, 
 where it falls into the said Pawcatuck river, and 
 from thence to run a straight line till it meet with 
 the south-west bounds or corner of Warwick grand 
 purchase, which extends 20 miles due west from a 
 certain rock, lying at the outmost point of Warwick 
 neck, which is the south-easterly bounds of said pur- 
 chase ; and from the said south west bounds, or 
 corner of said purchase, to run upon a due north 
 line, till it meet with the south line of the province 
 of Massachusetts Bay, in New England : this to be, 
 and for ever remain to be, the fixed and stated line 
 between the said colonies of Connecticut and Rhode 
 Island. Always provided, and it is hereby intended, 
 that nothing in the afore-mentioned agreement, or 
 any clause thereof, shall be taken or deemed to be 
 the breach or making void of the fourth article in 
 the agreement made between the agents of the said 
 colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island, viz. John 
 Winthrop, Esq. and Mr. Daniel Clark, for main- 
 taining property, dated April 7th, 1663, but that 
 the same shall be kept and justly performed, accord- 
 ing to the true intent and meaning thereof; and 
 that all former grants and purchases, granted by, or 
 made within either of the colonies, and all other 
 ancient grants confirmed by the authority of Con- 
 necticut colony within the township of Westerly, in 
 the colony of Rhode Island, shall be duly preserved 
 and maintained, as fully and amply to all intents 
 and purposes, as if they were lying or continued 
 within the bounds of the colony, by the authority of 
 which it was granted or purchased'." But notwith- 
 standing this agreement, Rhode Island, about this 
 time, disowned its authenticity, pretending that their 
 commissioners were not empowered to conclude fully 
 and finally upon such settlement; and the cause was 
 beard by the king in council, some years after, and 
 decided according to the agreement of the commis- 
 sioners as stated above ; and subsequently, on Sep- 
 tember 27th, 1728, the line was finally ascertained 
 and distinguished by proper monuments and bounda- 
 ries. Roger Wolcott, James Wadsworth, and 
 Daniel Palmer, on the part of Connecticut, and 
 William Wanton, Benjamin Ellery, and William 
 Jenks, in behalf of Rhode Island, being the com- 
 mittees for running and final fixing of the line. 
 
 No colony, perhaps, had ever a better right to 
 he lands comprised in its original patent than Con- 
 necticut, yet none has been more unfortunate with 
 respect to the loss of territory. Charles II., in 
 favour of his brother the duke of York, granted a 
 jreat part of the lands contained within its original 
 imits to him, and the legislature, for fear of offend- 
 ng those royal personages and losing their charter, 
 jave up Long Island, and agreed to the settlement 
 of the boundary line with the king's commissioners; 
 and for the reasons which have been suggested they 
 ost a considerable tract on the north, and on the 
 east. Indeed, considering the enemies and difficul- 
 ies with which they had to combat, it is astonish- 
 
758 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 ing that they retained so much territory, and so 
 firmly defended their rights and privileges. 
 
 The peace of Utrecht was signed by the plenipo- 
 tentiaries of Great Britain and France, March 30th, 
 1713 ; and official accounts of the pacification and 
 orders for immediately proclaiming the peace were 
 received by the governor of Connecticut, on the22d 
 of August ; and the governor having called together 
 the deputy-governor and council, they on the 26th, 
 made a formal proclamation of peace between the 
 two nations. 
 
 Upon the pacification with France, the Indians 
 buried the hatchet, and peace once more gladdened 
 the colonies, 
 
 Connecticut had not been less fortunate in this, 
 than in former wars. A single town had not been 
 lost, nor had any considerable number of the inha- 
 bitants fallen by the hands of the enemy. In Philip's, 
 King William's, and this war, only the buildings 
 and part of the effects of one town, Simsbury, were 
 destroyed ; the inhabitants of which, according to 
 tradition, when consisting of about 40 families, sup- 
 posing themselves in danger of a surprise, buried a 
 considerable part of their effects, and generally re- 
 moved back to Windsor; and the enemy, finding 
 the town nearly deserted, fell upon it, burned the 
 buildings, and captured several of the inhabitants. 
 When the people moved back, such an alteration 
 had been made by the burning of the buildings and 
 the growth of weeds and bushes, that the parti- 
 cular spot in which they had buried their effects 
 could not be found, and they were never recovered. 
 This most y>robably was in the spring of 1676, 
 when the Narraganset and other Indians appeared 
 in strong parties upon the river above. 
 
 The expense of the last war was very consider- 
 able. Some years the colony paid a tax of aboul 
 stcven-penee and eight-pence in the pound, on the 
 whole list of the colony ; and it was' found neces- 
 sary to issue at several times, from June 1709, to 
 October 1713, 33.500/. in bills of credit. Provi 
 sion had been made by acts of assembly, for the 
 calling in of the whole, within the term of aboul 
 seven years from the termination of the war ; ant 
 20,000/. only were in circulation in October 1713 
 The emissions were all in the same form, and, by a 
 law of the colony, the bills of each were to be re 
 ceived in all payments at the treasury, at five pei 
 cent, better than money, or more than expresset 
 en the face of the bill; and in all other payments 
 it was enacted, that they should be received ai 
 money; and so small was the sum, and such was tin 
 advance at which the bills were received at the trea 
 sury, that they appear to have suffered little or m 
 depieciation. As some of the small bills had been 
 altered, and the sum expressed made greater than 
 in the original ones, the assembly passed an act for 
 calling them all in, and emitting 20,000/. in new 
 bills, which the treasurer was directed to issue. 
 
 After pursuing the history of the colony from it 
 first settlements, it appears, that notwithstanding 
 the many difficulties which it had to combat with, it 
 advance was considerable ; as the following list wil 
 prove. 
 
 Counties and Towns, October 8th, 1713. 
 
 County of 
 
 Hartford. 
 
 Hartford, 
 
 Weathersfield, 
 
 Windsor, 
 
 Farmington, 
 
 Middletown, 
 
 Time of 
 Settlement. 
 1635 
 1634 
 1635 
 1644 
 1651 
 
 County pf Time of 
 
 Hartford. Settlement 
 
 Simsbury, 1650 
 
 Haddam, 1668 
 Glastenbury made 
 
 a town, 1690 
 
 Waterbury, 1686 
 
 n(i/ of Time of County of Time of 
 
 tford. Settlement. New Haven. Settlement. 
 
 Vindham, 1692 New Haven, 1638 
 
 'lainfield, 1689 Milford, 1639 
 
 iast Haddam, 1713 Guilford, 1639 
 
 lanterbury, 1703 Branford, 1644 
 
 lansfield, 1703* Wallingford, 1670 
 
 Colchester, 1699 East Haven, 1607 
 
 Hebron, 1704* Derby, 1675 
 
 Willingly, 1708* Durh'am, 1699 
 
 Coventry. 1709* New Milford. 1713* 
 
 County of County of 
 
 Veu> London. Fairfield. 
 
 :w London, 1648 Fairfield, 1639 
 
 Saybrook, 1639 Stratford, 1639 
 
 Norwich, 1660 Greenwich, 1640 
 
 Lyme, 1667 Stamford, 1641 
 
 3tonington, 1658 Norwalk, 1651 
 
 illingworth, 1663 Woodbury incor- 
 
 reston, 1686 porated, 1674 
 
 jebanon incorpo- Danbury, 1693 
 
 rated 1697 Newtown incorpo- 
 
 Voluulown, 1700 rated, 1711* 
 
 r'omfret intorpo- Ridgefield incor- 
 
 rated, 1713* porated, 1709* 
 
 It was customary with the assembly, from the 
 irst settlement of the colony, to release the infant 
 .owns two, three, or four years, at first, from all 
 axes to the commonwealth ; and especially while 
 they were building meeting-houses and settling mi- 
 nisters ; and for these reasons, the eight towns 
 marked with asterisks, at this time, appear to have 
 been released from public taxation. 
 
 Attempts had been made for the settlement of 
 Ashford ; and two families moved on to the lands in 
 1710, but it was not incorporated until October 
 1714. The assembly had also appointed committees, 
 and passed several acts respecting the settlement of 
 New Fairfield, but it does not appear to have been 
 incorporated at this time. Exclusive of the towns 
 on Long Island, and some others in New York, and 
 the town of Westerly, in Rhode Island, Connec- 
 ticut had settled 45 towns under its own jurisdic- 
 tion ; 40 of which sent deputies. The house of re- 
 presentatives, when full, consisted of 80 members. 
 The grand list of the colony was 281,083/. The 
 militia consisted of a regiment in each county, and 
 amounted to nearly 4000 eifective men. The num- 
 ber of inhabitants was about 17,000. 
 
 The shipping consisted of two brigantines, about 
 20 sloops, and some other small vessels; the num- 
 ber of seamen did not exceed ] 20. 
 
 There were three considerable towns in the colony 
 under the government of Massachusetts, Suffield, 
 Enfield, and Woodstock. Suffield and Enfield were 
 part of Springfield, which had been purchased by 
 Mr. Pyncheon and his company, of the natives, the 
 original proprietors of the soil. This township was 
 of great extent ; and at first it was supposed to be- 
 long to Connecticut, and it always would, had not 
 the boundary line been fixed contrary to the expecta- 
 tions of the first planters. In 1670, a grant of 
 Suffield had been made to Major John Pyncheon, 
 Mr. Elizur Holyoke, Mr. Thomas Cooper, Mr. 
 Benjamin Cooley, George Cotton, and Rowland 
 Thomas, by the general court of Massachusetts, as 
 a committee to lay it out aud plant a township ; and 
 about that time it was settled, and incorporated with 
 town privileges. Enfield was settled by people 
 from Massachusetts, about the year 1681 ; and a 
 grant of the township, which is six miles square, 
 was made to several planters about two years before. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 We take this opportunity of giving a brief ac- 
 count of the courts of Connecticut. 
 
 The general court or assembly usually met in 
 May and October ; when the sessions generally did 
 not exceed ten or twelve days. The expense of the 
 two sessions annually hardly amounted to 400/. ; 
 the salary of the governor was 200/., and that of 
 the deputy-governor 50/. ; and the whole expense of 
 government probably did not exceed 8001. an- 
 nually. 
 
 The superior court was made ambulatory in 1711 ; 
 and at the May session, 1711, it was enacted, that 
 " there should be one superior court of judicature over 
 the whole colony : that this court should be holden 
 annually, within and for the county of Hartford on 
 the third Tuesdays in March and September : within 
 and for the county of New Haven, on the second 
 Tuesdays in March and September : within and for 
 the county of Fairh'eld, at Fairfield, on the first 
 Tuesdays in March and September ; and within and 
 for the county of New London on the fourth Tues- 
 days in said months." 
 
 This court consisted of one chief judge and four 
 other judges, three of whom made a quorum. The 
 judges of the court were all magistrates. William 
 Pitkin, Esq. was chief judge ; and Richard Chris- 
 topher, Peter Burr, Samuel Eells, and John Haynes, 
 Esquires, assistant judges. The salary of the chief 
 judge was ten shillings a day while on the public ser- 
 vice; and the others were allowed the fees, by law, 
 payable to the bench. 
 
 At the session in May 1665, counties were first 
 established; and from that time each county had a 
 court of its own; which consisted of a chief judge 
 and four justices of the quorum. 
 
 In each county there was also a court of probates, 
 consisting of one judge and a clerk ; in which all 
 testamentary affairs were managed ; and from this 
 court appeals might be had to the county court. 
 One of the magistrates of the county was commonly 
 judge of this court. It met frequently, and business 
 was transacted with ease and dispatch, and with 
 little expense. 
 
 The manufacturers of Connecticut at this time 
 were very inconsiderable ; there was but one clothier 
 in the colony ; and the utmost he could do was to 
 full the cloth which was made ; and a great propor- 
 tion of it was worn without shearing or pressing. 
 
 The trade of the colony was also very inconsider- 
 ble ; and its foreign commerce was scarcely any 
 thing. The only articles exported directly to 
 Great Britain were turpentine, pitch, t?.r, and fur; 
 which more generally were sent directlj to Boston 
 or New York, and were exchanged for 4uch Euro- 
 pean goods as were consumed in the colony. The 
 principal trade was with Boston, New York, and 
 the West India Islands. To the two former of which 
 the merchants traded in the produce of the colony, 
 wheat, rye, barley, Indian corn, peas, pork, beef, 
 and fat cattle. To the West Indies the merchants 
 exported horses, staves, hoops, pork, beef, and cat- 
 tle ; and in return received rum, sugar, molasses, 
 cotton wool, bills of exchange, and sometimes small 
 sums of money. But little more was imported, than 
 was found necessary for home consumption. 
 
 At this period there was not a printer in the co- 
 lony ; and consequently a great proportion of the 
 laws were only in manuscript. The assembly had 
 now desired the governor and council to procure a 
 printer to settle in the colony ; and it was deter- 
 mined to revise and print the laws. The council 
 obtained Mr. Timothy Green, a descendant of Mr. 
 
 Samuel Green of Cambridge in Massachusetts, th 
 first printer in North America; and the assembly, 
 for his encouragement, agreed that he should be 
 printer to the governor and company, and that he 
 should have 5(k, the salary of the deputy-governor, 
 annually. He was to print the election sermons, 
 the proclamations for fasts and thanksgivings, and 
 such laws as were enacted at the several sessions of 
 the assembly. In 1714, he arrived in Connecticut, 
 and fixed his residence at New London ; and he 
 and his descendants were for a great number of 
 years, printers to the governor and company of 
 Connecticut. 
 
 It appears that one Thomas Short, a printer, had 
 previously settled, though not officially, at New 
 London about the year 1709 ; and that in 1710, he 
 printed Saybrook Platform, and soon after died. 
 
 In the period to which we have arrived, almost 
 all the east side of Connecticut was settled. Ash- 
 ford, Tolland, Stafford, Bolton, and two or three 
 other towns have been settled in that part of the 
 colony, and the greatest part of the county of Lich- 
 field since ; but the settlement of the latter has been 
 attended with little difficulty in comparison with 
 what was experienced in the planting and defending 
 of the former. 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS OF CONNEC- 
 TICUT, Jrom 1666 to 1714. 
 
 The general assemo^y appoint a synod to determine 
 points of religious controversy The ministers de- 
 cline meeting under the name of a synod The as- 
 sembly alter the name, and require them to meet as 
 a general assembly of the ministers and churches of 
 Connecticut Seventeen questions were proposed to 
 the assembly to be discussed and answered The 
 assembly of ministers and churches meet and discuss 
 the questions The legislature declare that they had 
 not been decided, and give intimations that they did 
 not desire that the ministers and churches of Connec- 
 ticut should report their opinion upon them They 
 express their desires of a larger council from Massa- 
 chusetts and New Plymouth The Rev. Mr, Daven- 
 port removes to Boston Dissension at Windsor Mr. 
 Bulkley and Mr. Fitch are appointed by the assembly 
 to devise some way in which the churches might walk 
 together, notwithstanding their different opinions 
 relative to the subjects of baptism, church communion, 
 and the mode of church discipline The church at 
 Hartford divides, and Mr. Whiting and his adherents 
 are allowed to practise upon congregational principles 
 The church at Stratford allowed to divide, and 
 hold distinct meetings Mr. Walker and his hearers, 
 upon advice, remove and settle the town of Woodbury 
 Deaths and characters of the Rev. Messrs. John 
 Davenport and John Wdrham General attempts 
 fora reformation of manners Religious state cf the 
 colony in 1680 Attempts for the instruction and 
 christianizing of the Indians in Connecticut Act of 
 the legislature respecting Windsor The people there 
 required peaceably to settle and support Mr. Mather 
 'Owning or subscribing the covenant introduced at 
 Hartford College founded, and tiustees incorpo- 
 rated-^ Worship according to the mode of the church 
 of England performed, in this colony, first at Strat- 
 ford Episcopal church gathered thei* Act of as- 
 sembly requiring the ministers and churches of Con- 
 necticut to meet and form a religious constitution 
 They meet and compile the Saybrook Platform- 
 
760 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Articles of discipline Act of the legislature adopt- 
 ing the Platform Associations ; consociations Ge- 
 neral association Its recommendations relative to 
 the examination of candidates for the ministry, and 
 of pastors elect previous to their ordination Minis- 
 ters, churches, and ecclesiastical societies in Connec- 
 ticut, in 1713. 
 
 (1666.) Although the legislature of Connecticut, 
 during the controversy respecting the union of the 
 colonies, judged it expedient to transact nothing re- 
 lative to the religious controversies then in the coun- 
 try, yet, as soon as the union was well established, 
 they entered seriously upon measures to bring them 
 to a final issue; and, for this purpose, they passed 
 the following act : 
 
 " This court doth conclude, to consider of some 
 way or means to bring those ecclesiastical matters, 
 that are in difference in the several plantations, to 
 an issue, by stating some suitable accommodation 
 and expedient thereunto. And do therefore order, 
 that a synod be called to consider and debate those 
 matters; and that the questions presented to the 
 elders and ministers that are called to this synod, 
 shall be publicly disputed to an issue. And this 
 court doth confer power to this synod, being met 
 and constituted, to order and methodize the dispu- 
 tation, so as may most conduce, in their apprehen- 
 sion, to attain a regular issue of their debates." 
 
 The court ordered that all the preaching elders, 
 or ministers, who were or should be settled in this 
 colony, at the time appointed for the meeting of the 
 synod, should be sent to, to attend as members of 
 it : and it was also ordered, that Mr. Mitchell, Mr. 
 Brown, Mr. Sherman, and Mr. Glover, of Massa- 
 chusetts, should be invited to assist as members of 
 the synod ; that upon the meeting of a majority of 
 the preaching elders in the colony, they should pro- 
 ceed as a synod ; and that the questions proposed 
 by this assembly, should be the questions to be dis- 
 puted. The meeting of the synod was appointed 
 on the third Wednesday in May 1667; and the 
 secretary was directed to transmit to all the ministers 
 in this colony, and those invited from the Massachu- 
 setts, a copy of this act of assembly, and of the 
 questions to be disputed. 
 
 It seems, that the ministers had objections to 
 meeting as a synod, and to the order of the assem- 
 bly vesting them with synodical powers ; and the 
 legislature, to relieve this difficulty, in their May 
 session, judged it expedient to alter the name of the 
 council, and to call it an assembly of the ministers 
 of Connecticut, called together by the general court, 
 for the discussing the questions stated, according to 
 their former order. 
 
 The assembly of ministers convened at the time 
 appointed, and having conversed on the questions, 
 and voted not to dispute them publicly, adjourned 
 until the autumn, determining then to meet again, 
 and make their report, should it be the desire of the 
 legislature. The questions were the same which 
 had been exhibited ten years before, and have al- 
 ready been given. The churches continued in 
 their former strict method of admitting members to 
 their communion, and maintained their right to 
 choose their ministers, without any control from the 
 towns or parishes of which they were a part ; and it 
 does not appear, that one church in the colony had 
 yet consented to the baptism of children, upon their 
 parents owning the covenant, as it was then called ; 
 and it Was insisted, as necessary to the baptism of 
 children, that one of the parents, at least, should be 
 
 a member in full communion with the church, and 
 in regular standing. 
 
 It seems, that the assembly's particularly inviting 
 the gentlemen from the Massachusetts, in their 
 name, to attend the general assembly of ministers 
 and churches, was to enlighten and soften the minds 
 of the ministers of Connecticut in those points, and 
 to obtain a majority in the assembly for a less rigid 
 mode of proceeding. Mr. Mitchell was the most 
 powerful disputant of his day, in New England, in 
 favour of the baptism of children, upon their parents 
 owning the covenant, though they neglected to obey 
 and honour Christ, in attending the sacrament o'f 
 the Lord's Supper. It appeared, however, that this 
 party were not able to carry any point in the as- 
 sembly, and that the questions were not likely to be 
 determined according to the wishes of the majority 
 of the legislature ; and measures were therefore 
 adopted to prevent the meeting and result of the as- 
 sembly, at their adjournment in the autumn. 
 
 In September, the commissioners of the united 
 colonies met at Hartford, and they interposed in 
 the affair; and resolved, " That when questions 
 of public concernment, about matters of faith and 
 order, do arise in any colony, that the decision 
 thereof should be referred to a synod, or council of 
 messengers of churches, indifferently called out of 
 the united colonies, by an orderly agreement of all 
 the general courts ; and that the place of meeting 
 be at or near Boston," which vote was, doubtless, 
 obtained by the art of those gentlemen, among the 
 civilians and ministers, who wished to prevent the 
 meeting of the assembly of ministers, and their re- 
 sulting upon the questions. 
 
 The reverend elders, Warham, Hooker, and Whi- 
 ting, in a writing under their hands, represented to 
 the assembly, at their session in October, that it was 
 the desire of the assembly of ministers, that there 
 might be a more general meeting of ministers from 
 Massachusetts, to assist in the consideration and de- 
 cision of the questions proposed; and it was also 
 represented to the assembly, that though they and 
 others were for disputing the questions publicly, and 
 offered to do it, yet the major part of the assembly 
 refused the offer. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Bulkley and Mr. Haynes, on the 
 other hand, in a letter addressed by them to the as- 
 sembly, represented that the assembly had autho- 
 rized a major part of the ministers to methodize the 
 proceedings of the assembly, and that a majority 
 were against a public disputation of the questions : 
 that it was considered it would dishonour God, dis- 
 serve the peace and edification of the churches, and 
 the general interests of religion; and it was judged 
 most expedient to deliberate upon and decide the 
 questions among themselves, as was usual in coun- 
 cils, without a public disputation. They therefore 
 observed, that whatever offers were made them to 
 dispute the questions publicly, they could not con- 
 sisiently do it. as it was contrary to a major vote of 
 the assembly of the ministers, and, in their opinion, 
 would prejudice the interest of the churches. With 
 respect to the present application, made by Messrs. 
 Warham, Hooker, and Whiting, they observed, 
 that it appeared strange to them, as a considerable 
 number of the ministers were positively against it, 
 and others were neuter, and not in the vote for a 
 more general council; and that it was the vote of 
 the assembly of ministers, to meet again on the third 
 Wednesday in October. They assured the legisla- 
 ture, that they were ready and determined to obey 
 all their lawful commands ; and they desired infor- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 761 
 
 mation from them, whether the assembly of minis- 
 ters should meet again, according to adjourn- 
 ment, or not ? The general assembly voted, that 
 the questions had not been decided, and desired the 
 several churches and plantations in the colony to 
 send their teaching elders, at their own expense, to 
 sit in council, with such of the elders of Massachu- 
 setts and Plymouth as should be appointed, to con- 
 sider and determine the points in controversy. The 
 assembly desired, that the general court of Massa- 
 chusetts might be certified of the affair, and would 
 appoint time and place for the meeting of a synod, 
 if they should judge it expedient 
 
 Whether the assembly really wished to have a 
 general council, or whether this was only a matter 
 of policy to prevent a determination of the questions 
 contrary to their wishes, is not certain. No general 
 council, however, was called; nor does it appear 
 that any motion was made afterwards for that pur- 
 pose ; and indeed the legislature seem to have felt 
 a conviction, that the clergy and churches would 
 not give up their private opinions, in faith and prac- 
 tice, to the decisions of councils ; that honest men 
 would often think differently, and that they could 
 not be convinced and made of one mind by disputing ; 
 and no further attempts were ever made by them, to 
 bring those points to a public discussion. 
 
 While these affairs were transacting in Connecti- 
 cut, a remarkable transaction took place in the first 
 church at Boston, the most considerable church in 
 New England. Their pastor, the Rev. Mr. Wilson, 
 was one of the synod in 1662, and one who had 
 adopted its determinations relative to the subjects 
 of baptism. His church also appeared to have 
 consented to the practice of admitting persons to 
 own their covenant, and bring their children to 
 baptism ; but, nevertheless, after Mr. Wilson's de- 
 cease, they elected the Rev. Mr. Davenport, of New 
 Haven, for their pastor. He had publicly written 
 against the synod, and was one of the most strict 
 and rigid ministers, with respect to the admission of 
 members to full communion, the subjects of bap- 
 tism, and with respect to church discipline in New 
 England. He had now arrived nearly to 70 years 
 of age, yet, in J667, upon the application of the 
 church and congregation at Boston, he accepted 
 their invitation, and the next year removed to that 
 capital. He bad been about 30 years minister at New 
 Haven, and was greatly esteemed and beloved by his 
 flock ; and this circumstance, with his advanced period 
 of life, made his removal very remarkable. His 
 church and people were exceedingly unwilling that 
 he should leave them, and, it seems, never formally 
 gave their consent : and the result, on the whole, 
 was unfortunate. It occasioned a separation from 
 the first church in Boston ; and the church and con- 
 gregation at New Haven, for many years, remained 
 in an unsettled state, unable to unite in the choice 
 of any person to take the pastoral charge of them. 
 
 The town of Windsor had, for many years, been 
 almost in perpetual controversy, relative to the set- 
 tlement of a minister ; and after Mr. Warham be- 
 came advanced in years he wished for a colleague, 
 to assist him in ministerial labours. Various 
 young gentlemen were invited to preach in the 
 town ; but this occasioned a violent controversy on 
 each election ; and it appears that their passions 
 were so inflamed, that, occasionally at of tKeir meet- 
 ings, their language and deportment were unbro- 
 therly and irritating. One Mr. Chauncey was 
 preaching in the town, and parties were warmly en- 
 gaged for and against him ; when the general as- 
 
 sembly enacted, " That all the freemen and house- 
 holders in Windsor and Massacoe should meet at 
 the meeting-house, on Monday morning next, (Oc- 
 tober 10th, 1667,) by sun an hour high, and bmi 
 in their votes for a minister to Mr. Henry Wolcott : 
 that those who were for Mr. Chauncey to be the 
 settled minister of Windsor, bring in a written pa- 
 per, and those who were not for him, to give in a 
 paper without any writing upon it : that the inha- 
 bitants, during the meeting, forbear all discourse 
 and agitation of any matter, which may serve to 
 provoke and disturb each other's spirits, and when 
 the meeting is over return to their several occasions." 
 
 Mr. Wolcott reported to the assembly the state 
 of the town, that there were 86 votes for Mr. Chaun- 
 cey, and 55 against him ; and the assembly, upon 
 the petition of the minor party, and a full view of 
 the state of the town, gave them liberty to settle an 
 orthodox minister among themselves, and to the 
 church and majority of the town to settle Mr. 
 Chauncey, if they judged it expedient; and it was 
 enacted, that the minority should pay Mr. Chauncey 
 until they should obtain another minister to preach, 
 and reside in the town. Mr. Chauncey was not 
 finally ordained, but the affair was carried so far, 
 that a separation was soon after made in*the church, 
 and a distinct church was formed by the minority ; 
 and the town continued in. this divided state for 
 about sixteen years. 
 
 (1668.) The legislature, having given over all 
 further attempts to compose the divisions in the co- 
 lony, by public disputations and the decisions of 
 general councils, determined to pursue a different 
 course. They conceived the design of uniting the 
 churches in some general plan of church commu- 
 nion and discipline, by which they might walk, not- 
 withstanding their different sentiments, in points of 
 less importance ; and, with this view, an act passed, 
 authorizing the Rev. Messrs. James Fitch, Gershom 
 Bulkley, Joseph Elliot, and Samuel Wakeman, to 
 meet at Saybrook, and devise by what means this de- 
 sirable purpose might be effected. This appears to 
 have been the first step towards forming a religious 
 constitution; and from this time it became more 
 and more a general object of desire and pursuit, 
 though many years elapsed before it was accom- 
 plished. 
 
 Notwithstanding the divisions in the church at 
 Hartford, some years since, had been so far com- 
 posed and healed, that it had been kept together 
 until this time, yet there were various sentiments 
 among the brethren and between the ministers, re- 
 lative to the qualifications of church members, the 
 subjects of baptism, and the mode of discipline. 
 Mr. Whiting, and part of the church, were zealous 
 for the strictly congregational way, as it has been 
 called, practised by the ministers and churches, at 
 their first coming into New England; and Mr. 
 Haynes and a majority of the congregation were 
 not less engaged against it. The difference became 
 so great, that it was judged expedient, both by an 
 ecclesiastical council and the assembly, that the 
 church and town should be divided ; and an eccle- 
 siastical council having first advised to a division, 
 the general assembly, in October 1669, passed the 
 following act: 
 
 " Upon the petition presented by Joseph Whi- 
 ting, &c. to this court, for a distinct walking in con- 
 gregational church order, as hath been settled ac- 
 cording to the council of the elders, the court doth 
 commend it to the church at Hartford to take some 
 effectual course, that Mr. Whiting, &c. may prac- 
 
762 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 tise the congregational way, without disturbance, 
 either from preaching or practice, diversely to their 
 just offence; or else to grant their loving consent 
 to their brethren to walk distinct, according to such 
 their congregational principles ; which this court 
 allows liberty in Hartford to be done. But if both 
 these be refused and neglected by the church, then 
 these brethren may, in any regular way, relieve 
 themselves without offence to this court." 
 
 And the following February (1670), Mr. Whi- 
 ting and his adherents resolved and covenanted in 
 the manner following, and formed the second church 
 in Hartford. 
 
 " Having had the consent and countenance of 
 the general court, and the advice of an ecclesiasti- 
 cal council to encourage us in embodying as a church 
 by ourselves, accordingly upon the day of comple- 
 ting our distinct state (viz. February 12th, 1669-70), 
 this paper was read before the messengers of the 
 churches, and consented to by ourselves : viz. 
 
 " The holy providence of the Most High so dis- 
 posing, that public opposition and disturbance hath, 
 of late years, been given, both by preaching and 
 practice, to the congregational way of church order, 
 by all manner of orderly establishments settled, 
 and for a long time unanimously approved, and 
 peaceably practised in this place, all endeavours 
 also (both among ourselves and from abroad) with 
 due patience therein, proving fruitless and unsuc- 
 cessful to the removing of that disturbance; We, 
 whose names are after mentioned, being advised by 
 a council of the neighbouring churches, and allowed 
 also by the honourable general court, to dispose 
 ourselves into a capacity of distinct walking, in 
 order to a peaceable and edifying enjoyment of all 
 God's holy ordinances, Do declare, that according 
 to the light we have hitherto received, the fore-men- 
 tioned congregational way (for the substance of it) 
 as formerly settled, professed and practised, under 
 the guidance of the first leaders of this church of 
 Hartford, is the way of Christ ; and that as such we 
 are bound in duty carefully to observe and attend 
 it, until such further light (about any particular 
 points of it) shall appear to us from the Scripture, 
 as may lea'd us, with joint or general satisfaction, to 
 be otherwise persuaded. Some main heads or prin- 
 ciples of which congregational way of church order 
 are those that follow: viz. 
 
 1. " That visible saints are the only fit matter, 
 and confederation the only form of a visible church. 
 
 2. " That a competent number of visible saints, 
 (with their seed) embodied by a particular cove- 
 nant, are a true, distinct, and entire church of 
 Christ. 
 
 " 3. That such a particular church, being orga- 
 nized, or having furnished itself with those officers 
 which Christ hath appointed, hath all power and 
 privileges of a church belonging to it. 
 
 " In special, 
 
 " 1. To admit or receive members. 
 
 " 2. To deal with, and if need be, reject offenders. 
 
 " 3. To administer and enjoy all other ecclesias- 
 tical ordinances within itself. 
 
 " 4. That the power of guidance, or leading, be- 
 longs only to the eldership, and the power of judg- 
 ment, consent, or privilege, belongs to the fraternity, 
 or brethren in full communion. 
 
 " 5. That communion is carefully to be main- 
 tained between the churches of Christ according to 
 his order. 
 
 " 6. That counsel, in cases of difficulty, is to be 
 sought and submitted to accordiasr to God." 
 
 Having made this declaration, the brethren pro 
 ceeded to covenant in the following manner : 
 
 " Since it hath pleased God, in his infinite mercy, 
 to manifest himself willing to take unworthy sinners 
 near unto himself, even into covenant relation to 
 and interest in him, to become a God to them, and 
 avouch them to be his people, and accordingly to 
 command and encourage them to give up themselves 
 and their children also to him; 
 
 " We do, therefore, this day, in the presence of 
 God, his holy angels, and this assembly, avouch the 
 Lord Jehovah, the true and living God, even God 
 the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, to be our 
 God, and give up ourselves and ours also unto him, 
 to be his subjects and servants; promising through 
 grace and strength in Christ, (without whom we can 
 do nothing,) to walk in professed subjection to him 
 as our Lord and Lawgiver, yielding universal obe- 
 dience to his blessed will, according to what disco- 
 veries he hath made, or shall hereafter make, of the 
 same to us ; in special, that we will seek him in all 
 his holy ordinances, according to the rules of the 
 Gospel, submitting to his government in this parti- 
 cular church, and walking together therein, with all 
 brotherly love and mutual watchfulness, to the build- 
 ing up of one another in faith and love unto his 
 praise. All which we promise to perform, the Lord 
 helping us, through his grace in Jesus Christ." 
 
 Nearly at the same time, when the contention! 
 commenced in the church at Hartford, the people 
 at Stratford fell into the same unhappy state of con- 
 troversy and division. During the administrations 
 of Mr. Blackman, their first pastor, the church and 
 town enjoyed great peace, and conducted their ec- 
 clesiastical affairs with great unanimity. However, 
 he was far advanced in years, and about the year 
 1663 became very infirm, and unable to perform his 
 ministerial labours ; and the church therefore ap- 
 plied to Mr. Israel Chauncey, son of the president, 
 Charles Chauncey, of Cambridge, to make them a 
 visit and preach among them; and a majority of 
 the church and town chose him for their pastor, 
 and in 1665 he was ordained; but a large and re- 
 spectable part of the church and town were opposed 
 to his ordination. To reconcile them, it was agreed, 
 that if, after hearing Mr. Chauncey a certain time, 
 they should continue dissatisfied with his ministry, 
 they should have liberty to call and settle another 
 minister, and have the same privileges in the meet 
 ing-house as the other party. Accordingly, after 
 hearing Mr. Chauncey the time agreed upon, and 
 not being satisfied with his ministerial conduct, they 
 invited Mr. Zechariah Walker to preach to them, 
 and finally chose him for their pastor. He was or- 
 dained to the pastoral office in a regular manner, by 
 the Rev. Mr. Haynes and Mr. Whiting, the minis- 
 ters of Hartford, some time about the year 1667, or 
 1668; and both ministers performed public worship 
 in the same house. Mr. Chauncey performed his 
 services at the usual hours, and Mr. Walker was 
 allowed two hours in the middle of the day ; but after 
 some time, it so happened that Mr. Walker con- 
 tinued his service longer than usual; and Mr. 
 Chauncey and his people coming to the house, and 
 finding that Mr. Walker's exercises were not 
 finished, retired to a private house, and there per- 
 formed their afternoon devotions. They were, 
 however, so much displeased, that the next day 
 they went over to Fairfield, and exhibited a com- 
 plaint to Major Gould, one of the magistrates, 
 against Mr. Walker. The major, upon hearing the 
 whole case, advised pacific measures, aud that Mr 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 763 
 
 Walker should be allowed three hours for the time o 
 his public exercises. 
 
 In May 1669, the general assembly advised the 
 town to grant Mr. Walker full three hours for his 
 exercises, until the next assembly in October ; am 
 in the mean time, the parties were directed to cal 
 an able council to give them advice and assistance 
 and if possible to reconcile them. All attempts for a 
 reconcilation, however, were unsuccessful ; and both 
 parties became more fixed in their opposition to each 
 other, and their feelings and conduct more anc 
 more unbrotherly ; till at length Mr. Chauncey anc 
 the majority excluded Mr. Walker and his hearers 
 themeeting-ho:;s>, and they convened and worshippec 
 in a private dwelling. 
 
 Governor Winthrop, disturbed by the controversy 
 and animosities subsisting in the town, advised that 
 Mr. Walker and his church and people should re- 
 move, and that a tract of land, for the settlement ol 
 a new township, should be granted for their encou- 
 ragement and accommodation ; and Mr. John Sher- 
 man, Mr. William Curtiss, and their associates, 
 were authorized to begin a plantation at Pomperaug. 
 Consequently, Mr. Walker and his people removed 
 and settled the town of Woodbury, about the years 
 1673 and 1674. 
 
 The tradition is, that Mr. Walker and his church 
 were not so independent, in their principles, as the 
 church of Stratford ; and that Mr. Walker was a 
 more experimental preacher than Mr. Chauncey. 
 Mr. Chauncey was learned and judicious ; and they 
 both ultimately became sensible that their conduct 
 towards each other, during the controversy at Strat- 
 ford, had not in all instances been brotherly, and 
 after some time, made concessions to each other, 
 and became perfectly reconciled. 
 
 During these transactions, those venerable fathers, 
 who had been singularly instrumental in planting 
 the churches of Connecticut and New England, the 
 Rev. John Davenport, and the Rev. John Warham, 
 finished their course. Mr. Davenport died at Boston, 
 of an apoplexy, March 15th, 1670, in the 73d year 
 of his age. He was born in England, in the city 
 of Coventry, in Warwickshire, 1597. His father 
 was mayor of the city ; and at fourteen years of age, 
 he was said to be very religiously affected, and was 
 admitted into Brazen Nose-college, Oxford. When 
 he was nineteen, he became a constant preacher in 
 the City of London ; and appears from his early life 
 to have been a man of public spirit, planning and 
 attempting to serve the general welfare of the 
 church. About the year 1626, he united with Dr. 
 Gouge, Dr. Sibs, and Mr. Offspring, the lord 
 mayor of London, the king's sergeant-at-law, and 
 with several other attorneys and citizens, in a design 
 of purchasing impropriations, and with the profits 
 of them, to maintain a constant, able, and laborious 
 ministry, in those parts of the kingdom where the 
 poor people were destitute of " the word and ordi- 
 nances ;" and such incredible progress was made in 
 this charitable design, that all the church-lands, in the 
 hands of laymen, would have been soon honestly 
 recovered to the immediate service of the reformed 
 religion ; had not Laud, viewing the undertaking 
 with a jealous eye, lest it might serve the cause of 
 non-conformity, caused a bill to be exhibited in the 
 exchequer chamber, by the king's attorney-general, 
 against the feoffees, who had the management of 
 the affair ; and by this means, an act of court was 
 procured, condemning the proceedings, as danger- 
 ous to the church and state. The feoffments and 
 contrivances made to the charitable design, were 
 
 declared to be illegal, the company was dissolved, 
 and the money was confiscated to the use of his ma- 
 jesty. But as the affair met with general approba- 
 tion, and multitudes of devout people extremely 
 resented the conduct of the court, the crime was 
 never prosecuted. Laud, however, watched Mr. 
 Davenport with a jealous eye, and as he soon after 
 discovered inclinations to non-conformity, he marked 
 him out as an object of his vengeance. Mr. Daven- 
 port, therefore, to avoid the storm, by the consent 
 of his people, resigned his pastoral charge in Cole- 
 man-street ; hoping by this means to enjoy a quiet 
 life; but he found his expectations sadly disap- 
 pointed ; for he was so constantly harassed by one 
 busy and furious pursuivant after another, that he 
 was obliged to leave the kingdom and retire into 
 Holland ; and in 1 633, he arrived at Amsterdam, 
 and at the desire of the people, who met him on his 
 way, became colleague pastor with the aged Mr. Pa- 
 get. After about two years, thinking that he could 
 not conscientiously administer baptism in the loose 
 way, to all sorts of children, practised in the Dutch 
 churches, he desisted from his ministry at Amster- 
 dam. While he was in this, city, he received 
 letters from Mr. Cotton, at Boston, acquainting 
 him, that the order of the churches and common- 
 wealth was then so settled in New England, by com- 
 mon consent, " that it brought into his mind the 
 new heaven and the new earth, wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness." He therefore returned to London, 
 and having shipped himself with a number of pious 
 people, came into New England; where he was 
 a preacher of the Gospel about 54 years, nearly 30 
 of which were spent at New Haven. He is charac- 
 terized as a hard student and universal scholar ; as 
 laborious, prudent, exemplary, minister; as an 
 excellent preacher, speaking with a gravity, energy, 
 and agreeableness, of which few of his brethren were 
 capable. 
 
 The Rev. John Warham survived Mr. Davenport 
 )ut a short time. He expired on the 1st of April, 
 [670; having been for about 40 years a minister in 
 England ; six at Dorchester, and 34 at Wind- 
 sor. He was distinguished for piety and the strictest 
 morals ; yet at times was subject to great gloomi- 
 ness and religious melancholy ; and such were his 
 apprehensions at some times, that when he adminis- 
 ,ered the Lord's supper to his brethren, he did not 
 participate with them, fearing, as he said, " that the 
 seals of the covenant did not belong to him." It is 
 said he was the first minister in New England who 
 used notes in preaching ; yet he was applauded by 
 lis bearers, as one of the most animated and ener- 
 ;etic preachers of his day; and was considered as 
 ne of the principal fathers and pillars of the 
 churches of Connecticut. 
 
 (1676.) After the close of the war with Philip 
 and the Narraganset Indians, the general assembly 
 ecommended it to the ministers through the colony, 
 ' to take special pains to instruct the people in the 
 duties of religion, and to stir up and awaken them to 
 repentance, and a general reformation of manners.'* 
 They also appointed a day of solemn fasting and 
 >ray'er, to supplicate the Divine aid, that they might 
 )e enabled to repent, and sincerely amend their 
 ways ; and the same measures were recommended 
 at the May session the next year, and the people 
 were called " to humiliation and prayer, under a 
 deep sense of the abounding of sin and the dark 
 ispects of Providence." 
 
 The general court, about three years after, for 
 he more effectual preservation and propagation 
 
764 
 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 of religion to posterity, recommended it to the mi- 
 nistry of this colony upon the Lord's-day, to cate- 
 chise" all the youth in their respective congregations, 
 under twenty years of age, in the assembly of divines, 
 or some other orthodox catechism; and to continue 
 and increase unity in religious sentiments among 
 the people, and that they might have the advan- 
 tage of participating in the variety of ministerial 
 gifts, it was also recommended to the ministers, to 
 attend a weekly lecture in each county, on Wednes- 
 day, in such manner as they should judge most 
 subservient to these purposes. 
 
 The religious state of the colony at this time, is 
 stated in an answer to the queries of the lords of 
 trade and plantations, to the following effect: 
 
 " Our people in this colony are some of them 
 strict congregational men, others more large congre- 
 gational men, and some moderate presbyterians. 
 The congregational men of both sorts, are the great- 
 est part of the people in the colony. There are four 
 or five seventh-day men, and about so many more 
 quakers. 
 
 " Great care is taken for the instruction of the 
 people in the Christian religion, by ministers cate- 
 chising of them, and preaching to them twice every 
 Sabbath-day, and sometimes on lecture days; and 
 by masters of families instructing and catechising 
 their children and servants, which they are required 
 to do by law. In our corporation are 26 towns, 
 and 21 churches. There is in every town in the 
 colony a settled minister, except in two towns newly 
 begun." In some towns there were two ministers; 
 so that there w r ere, on the whole, then about the 
 same number of ministers as of towns ; and there 
 was about one minister upon an average, to every 
 460 persons, or to about 90 families. 
 
 While settlements and churches were forming in 
 various parts of the colony, and the English inha- 
 bitants were providing for their own instruction, 
 some n^ains were taken to instruct and christianize 
 the Connecticut Indians ; and a law was made, 
 obliging those under the protection of the govern- 
 ment to keep the Christian Sabbath. The Rev. Mr. 
 Fitch was particularly desired to teach Uncas and 
 his family Christianity ; and a large Bible, printed 
 in the Indian language, was provided and given to 
 the Moheagan sachems, that they might read the 
 Scriptures. When the council of ministers met at 
 Hartford in 1657, the famous Mr. Elliot, hearing 
 of the Podunk Indians, desired that the tribe might 
 be assembled, that he might " have an opportunity 
 of offering Christ to them for their Saviour." 
 
 By the influence of some principal gentlemen, 
 they were persuaded to come together at Hartford, 
 and Mr. Elliot preached to them in their own lan- 
 guage, and laboured to instruct them concerning 
 their Creator and Redeemer. When he had finished 
 his sermon, and explained the matter to them, he 
 desired an answer from them, whether they would 
 accept of Jesus Christ for their Saviour, as he had 
 been offered to them ? But their chief men, with 
 great scorn and resentment, utterly refused ; and 
 said the English had taken away their lands, and 
 Were attempting now to make them servants. 
 
 Mr. Stone and Mr. Newton, before this time, had 
 both been employed at the desire of the colony, to 
 teach the Indians in Hartford, Windsor, Farming- 
 ton, and that vicinity ; and one John Minor was 
 employed as an interpreter, and was taken into Mr. 
 Stone's family, that he might be further instructed 
 and prepared for that service. Catechisms were 
 prepared by Mr. Elliot and others, in the Indian 
 
 anguage, and spread among the Indians ; and the 
 lev. Mr. Pierson, it seems, learned the Indian lan- 
 guage, and preached to the Connecticut Indians. A 
 :onsiderable sum was allowed him by the commis- 
 ioners of the united colonies ; and a sum was also 
 granted by them, for the instruction of the Indians 
 n the county of New Haven. The ministers of the 
 .several towns where Indians lived, instructed them 
 as they had opportunity ; but all attempts for chris- 
 tianizing the Indians in Connecticut were attended 
 with little success ; they were engaged a great part 
 if their time in such implacable wars among them- 
 elves, were so totally ignorant of letters and the 
 Snglish language, and the English ministers in 
 general were so entirely ignorant of their dialect, 
 hat it was extremely difficult to teach them. Not 
 3ne Indian church was ever gathered by the En- 
 jlish ministers in Connecticut; but several Indians, 
 lowever, in one town and another, became Chris- 
 ians, and were baptized and admitted to full com- 
 munion in the English churches. Some few were 
 admitted into the church at Farmington, and some 
 nto the church at Derby ; and one of the sachems 
 )f the Indians at Naugatuck Falls, was a member 
 )f the church at Derby, and it has been said that he 
 was a sober, well-conducted man. Some few of the 
 Moheagans have professed Christianity, and been 
 many years since admitted to full communion in the 
 north church in New London. 
 
 There was an Indian school formerly kept at Far- 
 mington, at the expense of the socioty for propaga- 
 ting Christian knowledge among the Indians ; and 
 the number of Indian scholars was sometimes fifteen 
 or sixteen. 
 
 The Gospel, however, had by far the most happy 
 effect upon the Quinibaug, or Plainfield Indians, of 
 any in Connecticut. They ever lived peaceably with 
 the English, and about the year 1745, in the time 
 of the great awakening and reformation in New En- 
 gland, they became greatly affected with the truths 
 of the Gospel, professed Christianity, and gave the 
 strongest evidence of a real conversion. They were 
 entirely reformed as to their manner of living ; and 
 became temperate, which it had before been found 
 utterly impossible to effect by any other means; 
 they held religious meetings, and numbers of them 
 formed into church state, and had the sacraments 
 administered to them. 
 
 Upon the assembly's granting liberty to the minor 
 party in Windsor to call and settle an orthodox mi- 
 nister, they immediately called one Mr. Woodbridge 
 to preach among them; who with Mr. Chauncey 
 continued to preach, one to one party, and the other 
 to the other, from 1667 to 1680. Several councils 
 had been called to advise and unite the parties, but 
 it seems none had judged it expedient to ordain 
 either of the gentlemen ; 'but after a separation of 
 about ten years, a council advised, that both minis- 
 ters should leave the town, and that the churches 
 and parties should unite, and call and settle one 
 minister over the whole. As the parties did not 
 submit to this advice, it seems that another council 
 was called three years afterwards, May 1660, which 
 gave the same advice, but the parties did not com- 
 ply ; and the general assembly (Oct. 14, 1680,; 
 therefore interposed aud passed the following act: 
 " This court having considered the petition of 
 some of the Windsor people, and the sorrowful condi- 
 tion of the good people there, and finding, that 
 notwithstanding all means of healing afforded them, 
 they do remain in a bleeding state and condition, 
 do find it necessarv for this court to exert their 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 765 
 
 authority towards issuing or putting a stop to the 
 present troubles there; and this court do hereby 
 declare, that they find all the good people of Wind- 
 sor obliged to stand to, and rest satisfied with the 
 advice and issue of the council they chose to hear 
 and issue their matters; which advice being given, 
 and now presented to the court, dated January 1677, 
 this court doth confirm the same, and order that 
 there be a seasonable uniting of the second society 
 in Windsor with the first, according to order of 
 council, by an orderly preparation for their admis- 
 siou; and if there be objection against the life or 
 knowledge of any, then it be according to the coun- 
 cil's advice heard and issued by Mr. Hooker and 
 the other moderator's successor; and that both the 
 former ministers be released : and that the com- 
 mittee appointed to seek out for a minister, with the 
 advice of the church and town collectively, by their 
 major vote, do vigorously pursue the procuring of 
 an able, orthodox minister, qualified according to 
 the advice of the governor and council, and ministers, 
 May last ; and all the good people of Windsor are 
 hereby required to be aiding and assisting therein, 
 and not in the least to oppose and hinder the same, 
 as they will answer the contrary at their peril." 
 
 In consequence of this act, Mr. Samuel Mather 
 was invited to preach to the people, and about two 
 years after was ordained to the pastoral office over 
 the whole town ; and the two parties were generally 
 united in him, and to complete the union of the 
 town and churches, the assembly enacted, " That 
 the people at Windsor should quietly settle Mr. 
 Mather, and communicate to his support: that 
 such as, on examination, should satisfy Mr. Mather 
 of their experimental knowledge, should, upon pro- 
 per testimony of their good conversation, be admit- 
 ted on their return from the second church." 
 
 Notwithstanding the result of the synod in 1662, 
 and the various attempts which had been made to 
 introduce the practice of what has been generally 
 termed " owning the covenant," it does not appear 
 to have obtained in the churches of this colony until 
 the year 1696; when it appears first to have been 
 introduced by Mr. Woodbridge, at Hartford. The 
 covenant proposed, bearing date, February 1696, is 
 as follows : 
 
 " We do solemnly, in the presence of God and 
 this congregation, avouch God, in Jesus Christ, to 
 be our God, one God, in three persons, the Father, 
 the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and that we are by 
 nature children of wrath, and that our hope of 
 mercy with God is only through the righteousness 
 of Jesus Christ, apprehended by faith; and we do 
 freely give up ourselves to the Lord, to walk in com- 
 munion with him, in the ordinances appointed in 
 his holy word, and to yield obedience to all his 
 commandments, and submit to his government. 
 And whereas, to the great dishonour of God, scan- 
 dal of religion, and hazard of the damnation of 
 many souls, drunkenness and uncleanness are pre- 
 vailing amongst us, we do solemnly engage before 
 God, this day, through his grace, faithfully and con- 
 scientiously to strive against these evils, and the 
 temptations leading thereunto." 
 
 Sixty-nine persons, male and female, subscribed 
 this in February ; on the 8th of March, in a fort- 
 night after, 83 more subscribed; and in about a 
 month, the number of subscribers amounted to 192 ; 
 which appears to have been nearly the whole body 
 of young people in that congregation. 
 
 The same practice was, about the same time, or 
 not many years after, introduced into the other 
 
 church, and the practice of owning the covenant by 
 people, and offering their children to baptism, was 
 gradually introduced into other churches. 
 
 The practice of the ministers and churches at 
 Hartford, in some respects, was different from that 
 in the others. The ministers, Mr. Woodbridge and 
 Mr. Buckingham, with their deacons, went round 
 among the young people and warned them, once 
 every year, to come and publicly subscribe, or own 
 the covenant; and when such persons as had owned 
 or subscribed it came into family state, they pre- 
 sented their children to baptism, though they made 
 no other profession of religion, and neglected Uie 
 sacrament of the Lord's supper, and other duties 
 peculiar to members in full communion. In other 
 churches the covenant was owned by persons some- 
 times before marriage, but more generally not until 
 they became parents, and wished to have baptism 
 administered to their children. 
 
 The practice of making a relation of Christian 
 experiences, and of admitting none to full commu- 
 nion, but such as appeared to be Christians indeed, 
 yet prevailed ; and the number of church members, in 
 full communion, was generally small ; and in those 
 churches where the owning of' the covenant was not 
 practised, great numbers of children were unbaptized. 
 
 While the inhabitants and churches in Connecti- 
 cut were constantly increasing, and the calls for a 
 learned ministry to supply the churches became 
 more and more urgent, a number of the ministers 
 conceived the purpose of founding a college in Con- 
 necticut; that by this means they might educate 
 young men, from among themselves, for the sacred 
 ministry, and for various departments in civil life, 
 and diffuse literature and piety more generally 
 among the people. The clergy, and people in ge- 
 neral, by long experience, found the great inconve- 
 nience of educating their sons at so great a distance 
 as Cambridge, and in carrying so much money out 
 of the colony ; and began to be aware that a well 
 founded college might not only serve the interests 
 of the churches in this government, but in the 
 neighbouring colonies, where there were no colleges 
 erected ; and not only prevent a large sum of money 
 annually from being carried abroad, but bring some- 
 thing considerable into it, from the extensive coun- 
 try around them. 
 
 The design was first concerted in 1698, by the 
 Rev. Messrs. Pierpont of New Haven, Andrew of 
 Milford, and Russell of Branford; who were the 
 principal persons iu carrying the affair into imme- 
 diate execution. The following ten of the principal 
 ministers in the colony were nominated as trustees, to 
 found, erect, and govern a college : the Reverend 
 Messrs. James Noyes of Stonington, Israel Chaun- 
 cey of Stratford, Thomas Buckingham of Saybrook, 
 Abraham Pierson of Killingworth, Samuel Mather 
 of Windsor, Samuel Andrew of Milford, Timothy 
 Woodbridge of Hartford, James Pierpont of New 
 Haven, Noadiah Russell of Middletown, and Joseph 
 Webb of Fairfield. 
 
 In 1700 these gentlemen assembled at New Ha- 
 ven, and formed themselves into a body or society, 
 to consist of eleven ministers, including a rector, 
 and determined to found a college in the colony of 
 Connecticut; and they had another meeting the 
 same year, at Branford, and then founded the uni- 
 versity of Yale-college. Each gentleman gave a 
 number of books, and laying them upon a table, 
 pronounced words to this effect: " I give these 
 books for the founding of a college in this colony;" 
 and the trustees took possession of them, and an 
 
766 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA 
 
 pointed Mr. Russell of Branford to be keeper of 
 their library. About 40 volumes in folio were thus 
 given. 
 
 Various other donations, both of books and money, 
 were soo-n after made, by which a good foundation 
 was laid for a public seminary ; but doubts arising 
 whether the trustees were vested with a legal capa- 
 city for the holding of lands, and whether private 
 donations and contributions would be sufficient to 
 effect the great design which they had in view, it 
 was, upon mature deliberation, determined to make 
 application to the legislature for a charter of incor- 
 poration. The draught of which was made by the 
 honourable Judge Sewall, and Mr. Secretary Ad- 
 dington of Boston ; and it was presented to the ge- 
 neral assembly with a petition signed by a large 
 number of ministers and other principal characters 
 in the colony, representing, " That from a sincere 
 regard to, and zeal for, upholding the Protestant re- 
 ligion, by a succession of learned and orthodox men, 
 they had proposed that a collegiate school should be 
 erected in this colony, wherein youth should be 
 instructed in all parts of learning, to qualify them 
 for public employments in church and civil state ; 
 and that they had nominated ten ministers to be 
 trustees, partners or undertakers, for the founding, 
 endowing, and ordering the said school." The 
 gentlemen were particularly named, and it was de- 
 sired that full liberty and privilege might be granted 
 to them for that end. 
 
 To facilitate the design, the honourable James 
 Fitch, Esq. of Norwich, one of the council, before 
 the petition was heard, made a formal donation 
 tinder his hand, stating, " the great pains and 
 charge the ministers had been at in setting up a 
 collegiate school; and therefore to encourage a 
 work so pleasing to God, and beneficial to posterity, 
 he gave a tract of land, in Killingly, of about 600 
 acres; and all the glass and nails which should be 
 necessary to build a college-house and hall." 
 
 The general assembly, at their session in October 
 1701, incorporated the trustees nominated, granting 
 them a charter, and vesting them with all powers 
 and privileges necessary for the government of a 
 college, the holding of lands, and the employment 
 of all money and estates which might be given for 
 the benefit of the college ; and the charter ordained 
 that the corporation should consist of ministers only, 
 and that none should be chosen trustees under the 
 age of 40 years; and their number was not, at any 
 time, to exceed eleven, nor be less than seven. The 
 assembly made them an annual grant of 120/. equal 
 to about 60/. sterling. 
 
 The trustees, animated with their charter privi- 
 leges, and the countenance of the legislature, met 
 the next November, at Saybrook, and chose the 
 Rev. Abraham Pierson of Killingworth, rector of 
 the college, and the Rev. Samuel Russell was 
 chosen a trustee, to complete the number of the cor- 
 poration. They also made rules for the general 
 government and instruction of the collegiate school ; 
 amongst which it was ordered, " That the rector 
 take special care, as of ihe moral behaviour of the 
 students at all times, so, with industry, to instruct 
 and ground them well in theoretical divinity; and 
 to that end, shall neither by himself, nor by any 
 other person whomsoever, allow them to be in- 
 structed in any other system or synopsis of divinity, 
 than such as the trustees do order and appoint: but 
 shall take effectual care, that said students be weekly 
 (at such seasons as he shall see cause to appoint) 
 caused memoriter to recite the assembly's catechism 
 
 in Latin, and Dr. Ames's Theological Theses, of 
 which, as also Ames's Cases of Conscience, he shall 
 make, or cause to be made, from time to time, such 
 explanations as may, through the blessing of God, 
 be most conducive to their establishment in the 
 principles of the Christian Protestant religion. 
 
 ' The rector shall also cause the Scriptures daily, 
 except on the Sabbath, morning, and evening, to be 
 read by the students at the times of prayer in the 
 school, according to the laudable order and usage 
 of Harvard-college, making expositions upon the 
 same; and upon the Sabbath shall expound prac- 
 tical theology, or cause the non-graduated stu- 
 dents to repeat sermons : and in all other ways, ac- 
 cording to the best of his discretion, shall, at all 
 times, studiously endeavour, in the education of the 
 students, to promote the power and purity of reli- 
 ion, and the best edification of these New Eng- 
 land churches. ' 
 
 At this meeting it was debated whore to fix the 
 college ; and although the trustees were not fully sa- 
 tisfied or agreed on the most convenient place, yet 
 they fixed- upon Saybrook, until, upon further con- 
 sideration, they should have sufficient reason to alter 
 their opinion. They desired the rector to remove 
 himself and family to Saybrook ; and until that 
 could be effected, they ordered that the scholars 
 should be instructed, at or near the rector's house, 
 in Killingworth. The corporation made various 
 attempts to remove the rector to Saybrook, but his 
 people were entirely opposed to it, and such other 
 impediments were in the way, that it was not ef- 
 fected; and the students continued at Killingworth 
 during his life ; and the library, consequently, was 
 removed from Branford, to the "rector's house. 
 
 The ministers had been several years in effecting 
 their plan, and a number of young men had been 
 preparing for college, under the instructions of seve- 
 ral of the trustees ; and as soon as the college be- 
 came furnished with a rector and tutor, eight of 
 them were admitted, and put into different classes, 
 according to the proficiency which they had re- 
 spectively made ; some of whom, in a year or two, 
 became qualified for a degree. 
 
 The first commencement was at Saybrook. Sep- 
 tember 13th, 1702. The following gentlemen ap- 
 pear, at this time, to have received the degree of 
 master of arts, Stephen Buckingham, Salmon Treat, 
 Joseph Coit, Joseph Moss, Nathaniel Chauncey, 
 and Joseph Morgan ; four of whom had previously 
 graduated at Cambridge. They all became minis- 
 ters of the Gospel, and three of them, Mr. Bucking- 
 ham, Mr. Moss, and Mr. Chauncey, were afterwards 
 fellows of the college. 
 
 To avoid charge and other inconveniences, for 
 some years at first, the commencements were pri- 
 vate; and Mr. Nathaniel Lynde, of Saybrook, ge- 
 nerously gave a house and land for the use of the 
 college, so long as it should be continued in that 
 town. For the further encouragement and accom- 
 modation, in 1703, there was a general contribution 
 through the colony, to build a college-house at Say- 
 brook, or any other place wherever it should finally 
 be judged most convenient to fix the college. 
 
 During the term of about 70 years from the set- 
 tlement of Connecticut, the congregational had 
 been the only mode of worship in the colony; but 
 the society for propagating the Gospel in foreign 
 parts, in 1704, fixed the Rev. Mr. Muirson as a 
 missionary at Rye. Some of the people at Stratford 
 had been educated in the church of England mode 
 of worship, and administering of the ordinances, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 767 
 
 and others were not pleased with the rigid doctrines 
 and discipline of the New England churches, and 
 they made an earnest application to Mr. Muirson to 
 make a visit at Stratford, and preach and baptize 
 among them ; and accordingly in the year 1706, he 
 came to Stratford, accompanied with Colonel Heath- 
 cote, a gentleman zealously engaged in promoting 
 the episcopal church. It appears that the ministers 
 and people, in that and the adjacent towns, were 
 alarmed at his coming, and took pains to prevent 
 their neighbours and families from hearing him ; 
 but the novelty and other circumstances brought 
 together a considerable assembly ; and Mr. Muirson 
 baptized 25 persons, principally adults. This was 
 the first step towards introducing the church worship 
 into this colony. In April 1707, he made another 
 visit to Stratford ; when Colonel Heathcote accom- 
 panied him as before ; and he preached at this time 
 at Fairfield, as well as at Stratford; and in both 
 towns baptized a number of children and adult per 
 sons. Both the magistrates and ministers opposed 
 the introduction of episcopacy, and advised the peo- 
 ple not to attend the preaching of the church mis- 
 sionaries ; but the opposition only increased the zeal 
 of the church people ; and Mr. Muirson, after this, 
 made several journeys to Connecticut, and itinerated 
 among the people. But there was no missionary 
 from the society fixed in Connecticut, until the year 
 1722, when Mr. Pigot was appointed missionary at 
 Stratford. The churchmen at first, in that town, 
 consisted of about fifteen families, among whom were 
 a few husbandmen, but much the greatest number 
 were tradesmen who had been born in England, 
 and came and settled there ; some of whose neigh- 
 bours joined them, so that Mr. Pig^ot had twenty com- 
 municants, and about 150 hearers. In 1723, Christ- 
 church in Stratford was founded, and the Rev. Mr. 
 Johnson was appointed to succeed Mr. Pigot. 
 
 The first plan of the college was very formal and 
 minute, drawn in imitation of the ancient protestant 
 colleges and universities in France. It was pro- 
 posed that it should be erected by a general synod of 
 the consociated churches of Connecticut; that it 
 should be under the government of a president and 
 ten trustees, seven of whom were to be a quorum ; 
 and that the synod should have the nomination of 
 the first president and trustees, and have a kind of 
 general influence in all future elections, that the 
 governors might be preserved in orthodox senti- 
 ments. It was designed also, that the synod should 
 agree upon a confession of faith, to which the pre- 
 sident, trustees, and tutors should, upon their ap- 
 pointment to office, be required to give their con- 
 sent; and that the college should be called the 
 school of the church ; and that the churches should 
 contribute to its support. 
 
 Though this plan was not formally pursued, yet 
 at a meeting of the trustees at Guilford, March 17th, 
 1 703, they wrote a circular letter to the ministers, 
 proposing " to have a general synod of all the 
 churches in the colony of Connecticut, to give their 
 joint consent to the confession of faith, after the ex- 
 ample of the synod in Boston, in 1680 ;" and as this 
 proposal was universally acceptable, the churches 
 md ministers of the several counties met in a con- 
 sociated council, and gave their assent to the West- 
 minster and Savoy confessions of faith. It seems, 
 that they also drew up certain rules of ecclesiastical 
 union in discipline, as preparatory to a general 
 synod which they had still in contemplation. 
 
 The Cambridge platform, which for about 60 
 years had been the general plan of discipline and 
 
 church fellowship in New England, made no pro- 
 vision for the general meeting of ministers, or for 
 their union in associations or in consociations, yet 
 at an early period they had a general meeting, 
 both in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and be^an 
 to form into associations. Their annual meetings 
 were at the times of the general election at Boston 
 and Hartford; at which period they had handsome 
 entertainment at the public expense. In these gene- 
 ral meetings, they went into consultations respect- 
 ing the general welfare of the churches, the sup- 
 plying them with ministers, providing for their 
 stated enjoyment of Divine ordinances, and the 
 preservation of their peace and order. The general 
 interests of literature were also consulted, and some- 
 times measures were adopted to assist the poor and 
 afflicted in particular instances of distress ; and also 
 the civilizing and christianizing the Indians. 
 
 The ministers of particular neighbourhoods, in 
 various parts of the country, held frequent meetings 
 for their mutual assistance, and to instruct and ad- 
 vise the churches and people as circumstances re- 
 quired ; and this was particularly the practice in 
 Connecticut. 
 
 The venerable Mr. Hooker was a great friend to 
 the meeting and consociation of ministers anl 
 churches, as a grand mean of promoting purity, 
 union, and brotherly affection, among the ministers 
 and churches ; and during his life the ministers in 
 the vicinity of Hartford had frequent meetings at 
 his house. About a week before his death, he ob- 
 served with great earnestness, " We must agree 
 upon constant meetings of ministers, and setile the 
 consociation of churches, or else we are undone. "And 
 soon after his decease, ministers in various parts of 
 New England, and especially in Connecticut, began 
 to establish constant meetings, or associations, in 
 particular vicinities, and agreed on the business to 
 be done, and the manner in which they would 
 proceed. 
 
 They did not, however, all adopt the same mode. 
 Some of the meetings or associations fasted and 
 prayed, and discussed questions of importance for 
 mutual instruction and edification. A moderator 
 was chosen to conduct the business of the meetings 
 with order and decency, to receive all communica- 
 tions which might be made from the churches, or 
 other similar meetings, and to call the associated 
 brethren together on particular emergencies. 
 
 Some of the associations were very formal and 
 particular in covenanting together, and in fixing 
 the business which should be transacted by them. 
 They covenanted to submit to the counsels, reproofs, 
 and censures of the associated brotherhood ; and 
 that they would not forsake the association, nor neg- 
 lect the appointed meetings without sufficient reasons. 
 They also engaged, that in the meetings they would 
 debate questions immediately respecting themselves 
 and their conduct : that they would hear and consi- 
 der all cases proposed to them from neighbouring 
 churches or individuals ; answer letters directed to 
 them from particular churches or persons ; and dis- 
 cuss any question which had been proposed at a 
 preceding meeting. In some of these associations, 
 it was agreed to meet statedly once in six weeks or 
 two months ; and as the design was for their own 
 mutual improvement and the advancement of Chris- 
 tianity in general, the associations attended a lecture 
 in the parishes in which they convened for the in- 
 struction and edification of the people. In Connec- 
 ticut, after the resolution of the assembly in 1680,. 
 the ministers had county meetings every week. 
 
768 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 But th'ese associations and meetings were merely 
 voluntary, countenanced by no ecclesiastical con- 
 stitution, attended only by such ministers, in one 
 place and another, as were willing to associate, 
 and could bind none but themselves. The churches 
 might advise with them if they chose it, or neglect 
 it at pleasure. There was no regular way of intro- 
 ducing candidates to the improvement of the 
 churches, by the general consent either of them- 
 selves or the elders ; and when they had finished 
 their collegiate studies, if they imagined themselves 
 qualified, and could find some friendly gentleman 
 in the ministry to introduce them, they began to 
 preach, without any examination or recommendation 
 from any body of ministers or churches. If they 
 studied with any particular minister after they had 
 received the honours of college, that minister intro- 
 duced them into the pulpit at pleasure, without the 
 general consent and approbation of their brethren ; 
 but many considered this to be too loose a practice, 
 in a matter of such immense importance to the Divine 
 honour, the reputation of the ministry, and the 
 peace and edification of the churches ; and degrees 
 at college were esteemed no sufficient evidence of 
 men's piety, knowledge of theology, or ministerial 
 gifts and qualifications. 
 
 Besides, it was generally conceded, that the state 
 of the churches was lamentable with respect to their 
 general order, government, and discipline ; and 
 that for the want of a more general and energetic 
 government, many churches ran into confusion ; 
 that councils were not sufficient to relieve the ag- 
 grieved and restore peace ; and as there was no 
 general rule for the calling of councils, council was 
 called against council, and opposite results were 
 given upon the same cases, to the injury of the 
 authority of councils, and of religion. 
 
 For the removal of these inconveniences, there 
 were many in the New England churches, not only 
 among the clergy, but other gentlemen of principal 
 character, who earnestly wished for a nearer union 
 among the churches ; and a great majority of the 
 legislature and clergy in Connecticut were for the 
 association of ministers, and the consociation of 
 churches. The synod, in 1662, had given their 
 opinion fully in favour of the consociation of churches; 
 and the heads of agreement drawn up and assented 
 to by the united ministers in England, called pres- 
 byteriau and congregational, in 1692, had made 
 their appearance in Connecticut; and, in general, 
 were highly approved. The Vllth article of agree- 
 ment, under the head of the ministry, makes ex- 
 press provision for the regular introduction of can- 
 didates for the ministry; and the united brethren 
 say, " It is expedient, that they who enter on the 
 work of preaching the Gospel, be not only qualified 
 for the communion of saints; but also that, except 
 in cases extraordinary, they give proof of their gifts 
 and fitness for the said work, unto the pastors of the 
 churches of known abilities, to discern and judge 
 of their qualifications; that they may be sent forth 
 with solemn approbation and prayer; which we 
 judge needful, that no doubt may remain concern- 
 ing their being called unto the work; and for pre- 
 venting, as much as in us lieth, ignorant and rash 
 intruders." And in these articles it is also agreed, 
 " that in so great and weighty a matter, as the 
 calling and choosing a pastor, we judge it ordina- 
 rily requisite, that every such church consult and 
 advise with the pastors of the neighbouring congre- 
 gations." 
 
 la this state of the churches, the legislature passed 
 
 an act, at their session in May 1708, requiring the 
 ministers and churches to meet and form an eccle- 
 siastical constitution ; and the intentions and wishes 
 of the assembly will, in the best manner, be dis- 
 covered by their own act, which is in the words fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 " This assembly, from their own observation, and 
 the complaint of many others, being made sensible 
 of the defects of the discipline of the churches of 
 this government, arising from the want of a more 
 explicit asserting of the rules given for that end in 
 the Holy Scriptures; from which would arise a 
 permanent establishment among ourselves, a good 
 and regular issue in cases subject to ecclesiastical 
 discipline, glory to Christ, our head, and edification 
 to his members ; hath seen fit to ordain and require, 
 and it is by the authority of the same ordained and 
 required, that the ministers of the several counties, 
 in this government shall meet together, at their re- 
 spective county towns, with such messengers as the 
 churches to which they belong shall see cause to 
 send with them, on the last Monday in June next; 
 there to consider and agree upon those methods 
 and rules for the management of ecclesiastical dis- 
 cipline, which by them shall be judged agreeable 
 and conformable to the word of God, and shall, at 
 tfce same meeting, appoint two or more of their 
 number to be their delegates, who shall all meet 
 together at Saybrook, at the next commencement 
 to be held there; where they shall compare the re- 
 sults of the ministers of the several counties, and 
 out of and from them, to draw a form of ecclesiasti- 
 cal discipline, which, by two or more persons dele- 
 gated by them, shall be offered to this court, at 
 their session at New Haven, in October next, to be 
 considered of and confirmed by them : and the ex- 
 pense of the above-mentioned meetings shall be 
 defrayed out of the public treasury of this colony. 
 A true copy of the record. 
 
 " Test. ELEAZER KIMBERLY, Secretary." 
 
 According to the act of the assembly, the minis- 
 ters and churches of the several counties convened, 
 at the time appointed, and made their respective 
 drafts for discipline, and chose their delegates for 
 the general meeting at Saybrook, in September; 
 and the ministers and messengers chosen for this 
 council, and its result, will appear from the follow- 
 ing minutes : - 
 
 " At a meeting of delegates from the councils of 
 the several counties of Connecticut colony, in New 
 England, in America, at Saybrook, Sept. 9th, 1708, 
 
 PRESENT, 
 
 From the council of Hartford county : The Rev. 
 Timothy Woodbridge. Noadiah Russell and Ste- 
 phen Mix. Messenger, John Haynes, Esq. 
 
 From the council in Fairfield county : The Rev. 
 Charles Chauncey and John Davenport. Messen- 
 ger, deacon, Samuel Hoyt. 
 
 From the council in New London county : -The 
 Rev. James Noyes, Thomas Buckingham, Moses 
 Noyes, and John Woodward. ' Messengers, Robert 
 Chapman, deacon, William Parker. 
 
 From the council of New Haven county : The 
 Rev. Samuel Andrew, James Pierpont, and Samuel 
 Russell. 
 
 " The Rev. James Noyce and Thomas Bucking- 
 ham being chosen moderators. The Rev. Stephen 
 Mix and John Woodward beinjj chosen scribes. ' 
 
 " In compliance with an order of the general as- 
 sembly, May 13th, 1708, after humble addresses to 
 the throne of grace for the Divine presence, assist- 
 ance, and blessing upon us, having our eyes upon 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 769 
 
 the word of God and the constitution of our churches, 
 "We agree that the confession of faith owned and 
 assented unto by the elders and messengers assem- 
 bled at Boston, in New England, May 12th, 1680, 
 being the second session of that synod, be recom- 
 mended to the honourable general assembly of this 
 colony, at the next session, for their public testi- 
 mony' thereunto, as the faith of the churches of this 
 colony. 
 
 " We agree also, that the heads of agreement as- 
 sented to by the united ministers, formerly called 
 presbyterian and congregational, be observed by 
 the churches throughout this colony. 
 
 " And for the better regulation of the adminis- 
 tration of church discipline, in relation to all cases 
 ecclesiastical, both in particular churches and coun- 
 cils, to the full determining and executing the rules 
 in all such cases, it is agreed, 
 
 " I. That, the elder, or elders of a particular 
 church, with the consent of the brethren of the 
 same, have power, and ought to exercise church 
 discipline, according to the rule of God's word, in 
 relation to all scandals that fall out within the same. 
 And it may be meet, in all cases of difficulty, for 
 the respective pastors of particular churches, to take 
 idvice of the elders of the churches in the neigh- 
 bjarhood, before they proceed to censure in such 
 cases. 
 
 " II. That the churches which are neighbouring 
 to each other, shall consociate for mutual affording 
 to each other such assistance as may be requisite, 
 upon all occasions ecclesiastical. And that the 
 particular pastors and churches, within the respective 
 counties in this government, shall be one conso- 
 ciation, (or more, if they shall judge meet), for the 
 end aforesaid. 
 
 " III. That all cases of scandal, that fall out 
 within the circuit of any of the aforesaid consocia- 
 tions, shall be brought to a council of the elders, 
 and also messengers of the churches within the said 
 circuit, i. e. the churches of one consociation, if 
 they see cause to send messengers, when there shall 
 be need of a council for the determination of them. 
 " IV. That, according to the common practice of 
 our churches, nothing shall be deemed an act or 
 judgment of any council, which hath not the act of 
 the major part o^the elders present concurring, and 
 such a number of the messengers present, as makes 
 the majority of the council : provided that if any 
 such church shall not see cause to send any messen- 
 gers to the council, or the persons chosen by them 
 shall not attend, neither of these shall be any ob- 
 struction to the proceedings of the council, or inva- 
 lidate any of their acts. 
 
 " V. That when any case is orderly brought be- 
 fore any council of the churches, it shall there be 
 heard and determined which (unless orderly removed 
 from thence) shall be a final issue ; and all parties 
 therein concerned shall sit down and be determined 
 thereby. And the council so hearing, and giving 
 the result or final issue, in the said case, as afore- 
 said, shall see their determination or judgment duly 
 executed and attended, in such way or manner as 
 shall, in their judgment, be most suitable and 
 agreeable to the word of God. 
 
 " VI. That if any pastor and church doth obsti- 
 nately refuse a due attendance and conformity to 
 the determination of the council, that hath the cog- 
 nisance of the case, and determineth it as above, 
 after due patience used, they shall be reputed guilty 
 of scandalous contempt, and dealt with as the rule of 
 God's word in such case doth provide, and the sen- 
 HIST. OF AMER. Nos. 97 & 98. 
 
 tence of non-communion shall be declared against 
 such pastor and church. And the churches are to 
 approve of the said sentence, by withdrawing from 
 the communion of the pastor and church, which so 
 refused to be healed. 
 
 " VII. That, in case any difficulties shall arise 
 in any of the churches in this colony, which cannot 
 be issued without considerable disquiet, that church 
 in which they arise, (or that minister or member 
 aggrieved with them,) shall apply themselves to the 
 council of the consociated churches of the circuit to 
 which the said church belongs; who, if they see 
 cause, shall thereupon convene, hear, and deter- 
 mine such cases of difficulty, unless the matter 
 brought before them shall be judged so great in the 
 nature of it, or so doubtful in the issue, or of such 
 general concern, that the said council shall judge 
 best that it be referred to a fuller council, consisting 
 of the churches of the other consociation within the 
 same county, (or of the next adjoining consociation 
 of another county, if there be not two consociations 
 in the county where the difficulty ariseth,) who, to- 
 gether with themselves, shall hear, judge, determine, 
 and finally issue such case, according to the word 
 of God. 
 
 " VIII. That a particular church, in which any 
 difficulty doth arise, may, if they see cause, call a 
 council of the consociated churches of the circuit 
 to which the church belongs, before they proceed 
 to sentence therein ; but there is not the same li- 
 berty to an offending brother to call the council, 
 before the church to which he belongs proceed to 
 excommunication in the said case, unless with the 
 consent of the church. 
 
 " IX. That all the churches of the respective 
 consociations shall choose, if they see cause, one or 
 two members of each church, to represent them in 
 the councils of the said churches, as occasion may 
 call for them, who shall stand in that capacity till 
 lew be chosen for the same service, unless any 
 church shall incline to choose their messengers 
 anew, upon the convening of such councils. 
 
 " X. That the minister or ministers of the county 
 towns, or where there are no ministers in such 
 towns, the two next ministers to the said town shall, 
 as soon as conveniently may be, appoint time and 
 place for the meeting of the elders and messengers 
 of the churches in said county, in order to their 
 forming themselves into one or more consociations, 
 and notify the time and place to the elders and 
 churches of that county who shall attend at the same, 
 the elders in their persons, and the churches by 
 their messengers, if they see cause to send them. 
 Which elders and messengers, so assembled in 
 council, as also any other council hereby allowed of, 
 shall have power to adjourn themselves, as need 
 shall be, for the space of one year, after the begin- 
 ning or first session of the said council, and no 
 longer. And that minister who was chosen at the 
 last session of any council to be moderator, shall, 
 with the advice and consent of two more elders, (or 
 n case of the moderator's death, any two elders of 
 the same consociation,) call another council within 
 the circuit, when they shall judge there is need 
 thereof. And all councils may prescribe rules, as 
 occasion may require, and whatever they judge 
 needful within their circuit, for the well performing 
 and orderly managing the several acts, to be at- 
 tended by them, or matters that come under their 
 cognisance. 
 
 " XI. That if any person or persons, orderly 
 complained of to a council, or that are witnesses to 
 
 3 Y 
 
770 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 such complaints, (having regular notification to ap- 
 pear,) shall refuse, or neglect so to do, in the 
 place, and at the time specified in the warning 
 given, except they or he give some satisfying reason 
 thereof to the said council, they shall be judged 
 guilty of scandalous contempt. 
 
 "XII. That the teaching-elders of each county 
 shall be one association, (or more if they see cause,) 
 which association or associations shall assemble 
 twice a year, at least, at such time and place as 
 they shall appoint, to consult the duties of their 
 office, and the common interest of the churches, 
 who shall consider and resolve questions and cases 
 of importance which shall be offered by any among 
 themselves or others ; who also shall have power of 
 examining and recommending the candidates of the 
 ministry to the work thereof. 
 
 " XIII. That the said associated pastors shall 
 take notice of any among themselves, that may be 
 accused of scandal or heresy, unto or cognisable 
 by them, examine the matter carefully, and if they 
 find just occasion shall direct to the calling of the 
 council, where such offenders shall be duly pro- 
 ceeded against. 
 
 " XIV. That the associated pastors shall also be 
 consulted by bereaved churches, belonging to their 
 association, and recommend to such churches such 
 persons as may be fit to be called and settled in the 
 work of the Gospel ministry among them. And if 
 such bereaved churches shall not seasonably call 
 and settle a minister among them, the said asso- 
 ciated pastors shall lay the state of such bereaved 
 church before the general assembly of this colony, 
 that they may take order concerning them, as shall 
 be found necessary for their peace and edification. 
 
 " XV. That it be recommended as expedient, 
 that all the associations in this colony do meet in a 
 general association by their respective delegates, 
 one or more out of each association, once a year, 
 the first meeting to be at Hartford, at the general 
 election next ensuing the date hereof, and so annu- 
 ally in all the counties successively, at such time 
 and place, as they the said delegates shall in their 
 annual meetings appoint." 
 
 The confession of faith, heads of agreement, and 
 these articles of discipline having unanimously 
 passed, and been signed by the scribes, were pre- 
 sented to the legislature the succeeding October, for 
 their approbation and establishment; upon which 
 they passed the following adopting act. 
 
 At a general court holden at NewHaven, Oct. 1708. 
 
 " The reverend ministers, delegates from the 
 elders and messengers of this government, met at 
 Saybrook, September 9th, 1708, having presented 
 to this assembly a confession of faith, and heads of 
 agreement, and regulations in the administration 
 of church discipline, as unanimously agreed and 
 consented to by the elders and churches in this 
 government ; this assembly doth declare their great 
 approbation of such an happy agreement, and do 
 ordain, that all the churches within this government, 
 that are, or shall be, thus united in doctrine, wor- 
 ship, and discipline, be, and for the future shall be 
 owned and acknowledged established by law ; pro- 
 vided always, that nothing herein shall be intended 
 or construed to hinder or prevent any society or 
 church, that is or shall be allowed by the laws of 
 this government, who soberly differ or dissent from 
 the united churches hereby established, from exer- 
 cising worship and discipline in their own way, ac- 
 cording to their consciences. A true copy. 
 " Test ELEAZER KIMBERLY, Secretary." 
 
 Though the council were unanimous in passinp 
 he platform of discipline, yet they were not all of 
 me opinion : some being for high consociational 
 government, and in their sentiments nearly presby- 
 erians ; others were much more moderate and 
 ather verged on independency ; but as they were 
 exceedingly desirous of " keeping the unity of the 
 ipirit in the bond of peace," they exercised great 
 brbearance towards each other. 
 
 As it was stipulated that the heads of agreement 
 should be observed through the colony, they were 
 an important mean of reconciling numbers to the 
 constitution, as they did not carry points so far as 
 he articles of discipline ; and did not make the judg- 
 ments of councils decisive, in all cases, but only 
 maintained, that particular churches ought to have 
 a reverential regard to their judgment, and not to 
 dissent from it without apparent grounds from the 
 word of God. Neither did they give the elders a 
 negative in councils over the churches ; but even in 
 some instances gave more latitude than the articles 
 f discipline ; and consequently served to reconcile 
 such elders and churches, as were not for a rigid 
 consociational government. 
 
 Notwithstanding the Savoy confession was adopted, 
 as the faith of the Connecticut churches, yet by 
 adopting the heads of agreement, it was agreed, that 
 
 ith respect to soundness of judgment in matters of 
 ? aith, it was sufficient, " That a church acknowledge 
 :he Scriptures to be the word of God, the perfect 
 and only rule of faith and practice, aud own either 
 the doctrinal part of those commonly called the arti- 
 cles of the church of England, or the confession or 
 catechisms, shorter or longer, compiled by the 
 assembly at Westminster, or the confession agreed 
 on at the Savoy, to be agreeable to the said rule." 
 
 The Saybrook platform, thus unanimously recom- 
 mended by the elders and messengers of the churches, 
 and adopted by the legislature, as the religious con- 
 stitution of the colony, met with a general reception, 
 though some of the churches were extremely op- 
 posed to it. 
 
 Though Messrs. Andrew, Pierpont, and Russell, 
 were influential characters there, yet it is observ- 
 able that the churches in the county of Norwich 
 sent no messengers to the synod ; and the tradition 
 is that the church and people were so offended with 
 their minister, Mr. John Woodward, for consenting 
 to it, that they never would forgive him and be re- 
 conciled : but made such opposition to his ministry, 
 that by the advice of council, he resigned it and 
 left the town. 
 
 The elders and messengers of the county of Hart- 
 ford met in council at Hartford, the next February, 
 and formed into two distinct consociations and asso- 
 ciations for the purposes expressed in the constitu- 
 tion ; and the ministers and churches of the other 
 three counties afterwards formed themselves into 
 consociations and associations. There were there- 
 fore, soon after, five consociations and the same 
 number of associations in the colony. The associa- 
 tions met annually by a delegation of two elders 
 from each, in a general association, which had 
 a general advisory superintendency over all the 
 ministers and churches in the colony ; and its advice 
 has generally been acceptable to the minister^ and 
 churches, and cheerfully carried into execution. 
 The meeting of the general association was anciently 
 in September ; but the time of meeting, after some 
 years, was altered to the third Tuesday in June. 
 
 The corporation of the college having now ob- 
 tained a confession of faith, adopted by the churches 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 771 
 
 and legislature of the colony ; the trustees and 
 officers of the college, upon their introduction to 
 office, were required to give their assent to it, and 
 to the Westminster confession and catechisms. 
 
 But before this could be effected, Mr. Pierson, 
 the president, was dead ; having died on the 5th of 
 March 1707, to the unspeakable loss and affliction 
 both of the college and the people of his charge. 
 He was educated at Harvard- college, where he 
 graduated, 1668. He appears first to have settled 
 in the ministry at Newark in New Jersey ; and 
 thence came to Killingworth, and was installed in 
 J694. He had the character of being a hard stu- 
 dent, a good scholar, and a great divine. He was 
 greatly respected as a pastor, and he instructed and 
 governed the college with general approbation. 
 Upon his death, the Rev. Mr. Andrew was chosen rec- 
 tor pro tempore ; and the senior class were removed 
 to Milford, to be under his immediate instruction 
 until the commencement ; and the other students 
 were removed to Saybrook, and put under the care 
 and instruction of two tutors. 
 
 The ministers of Connecticut were exceedingly 
 attentive to the morals and qualifications of those, 
 whom they recommended to the improvement of the 
 churches, or ordained to the pastoral office ; and 
 the general association in 171*2, agreed upon the 
 following rules, and recommended them to the con- 
 sideration of the several associations for their appro- 
 bation and concurrence. 
 
 " Rules agreed upon for the examination of can- 
 didates for the ministry. 
 
 " Agreed upon, that the person to be examined 
 eoncerning his qualifications for the evangelical 
 ministry, shall be dealt with in his examinations, 
 with all candour and gentleness. 
 
 " 1. That he be able to give satisfaction to the 
 association examining him, of his skill in the He- 
 brew, Greek, and Latin tongues. 
 
 " 2. That he be able to give satisfaction to the 
 association examining him, of his skill i-n Logic and 
 Philosophy. 
 
 " 3. He" shall be examined what authors in divi- 
 nity he hath read ; and also concerning the main 
 grounds or. principles of the Christian religion; and 
 shall therein offer just matter of satisfaction to the 
 association examining him; and shall give his assent 
 to the confession of faith publicly owned and de- 
 clared to be the confession of the faith of the united 
 churches of this colony. 
 
 " 4. That if the life and conversation of the per- 
 son to be examined be not well known to the associ- 
 ation examining him, then said person shall offer 
 sufficient evidence to said association of his sober 
 and religious conversation. 
 
 " 5. That the person to be examined shall pub- 
 licly pray, and also preach in the presence of the 
 association examining him, from some text of Scrip- 
 ture which shaU be given him by said association, 
 
 and at such time and place as they shall appoint, in 
 order to prove his gifts for the ministerial Work. 
 
 " Rules relating to the ordination of a person to 
 the work of the ministry. 
 
 " Agreed, 1. In case of ordination, those who are 
 to ordain ought to be satisfied, that the person to be 
 ordained is apt to teach, and of his inclination to 
 the work of the ministry. 
 
 " 2. That they shall be satisfied with his prudence 
 and fitness for the management of so great a trust, 
 as that of the work of the ministry. 
 
 " 3. The persons to ordain shall be satisfied, that 
 his preaching and conversation be acceptable to the 
 people over whom he is to be ordained. 
 
 " 4. That he shall be able to explain such texts 
 of Scripture as shall be proposed to him. 
 
 " 5. That he shall be able to resolve such practi- 
 cal cases of conscience as shall be proposed to him. 
 
 " 6. That he shall show, to the satisfaction of the 
 pastors to ordain him, his competent ability to refute 
 dangerous errors, and defend the truth against 
 gainsayers. 
 
 " 7. That he shall give his consent to the church 
 discipline of this colony as established bylaw; yet 
 the pastors to ordain are not to be too severe and 
 strict with him to be ordained, upon his sober dis- 
 sent from some particulars in said discipline. 
 
 About this time a very valuable addition of books 
 was made to the college library at Saybrook. In 
 1713, Sir John Davie, of Groton, gave a good collec- 
 tion ; and the next year a much greater donation 
 was made by the generosity and procurement of 
 Jeremiah Dummer, Esq. of Boston; who was then 
 in London, in the capacity of an agent for several 
 of the New England colonies. He sent over above 
 800 volumes ; of which 120 were procured at his owu 
 charge ; and the rest were from gentlemen in En- 
 gland, through his solicitation and influence ; Sir 
 Isaac Newton, Sir Richard Blackmore, Sir Richard 
 Steele, Doctors Burnet, Halley, Bentley, Kennet, 
 Calamy, and Edwards, and the Rev. Mr. Henry 
 and Mr.Whiston ; severally gave a collection of their 
 own works, and Governor Yale added about 40 
 volumes. The library now consisted of about 900 
 volumes 
 
 The number of ordained ministers in the colony, 
 in J714, exclusive of those in the towns under the 
 government of Massachusetts, was 43 ; and upon the 
 lowest computation there was as much as one or- 
 dained minister to every 400 persons, or to every 
 80 families. 
 
 We have now brought the history of this colony, 
 both as to its ecclesiastical and civil affairs, to a pe- 
 riod in which it was firmly settled ; and we shall 
 therefore discontinue giving a separate account of. 
 it ; as the public acts, of any consequence, in which 
 it was afterwards engaged, have been sufficiently 
 noticed in the histories of the more important neigh- 
 bouring colonies. 
 
 3 Y 2 
 
RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE. 
 
 As Robertson has given all the important parti- 
 culars which are known of this small state, in his 
 introductory view of New England, and as the poli- 
 tical events in which it was engaged have been 
 already sufficiently enlarged upon in the histories 
 of the surrounding colonies, we have little more to 
 add than a brief account of its internal constitution 
 and domestic policy. 
 
 We have already seen that Roger Williams, who 
 was banished from Massachusetts, for avowing the 
 doctrine, that the civil magistrate is bound to grant 
 equal protection to every denomination of Christians, 
 a doctrine too liberal for the age in which he lived, 
 repaired to Seeconk, where he procured a grant of 
 land from the Indians. Being informed, by the go- 
 vernor of Plymouth, that the land was within the 
 'imits of that colony, he proceeded to Mooshausic, 
 where in 1636, with those friends who followed him, 
 he began a plantation. 
 
 He purchased the land of the Indians, and in 
 .grateful acknowledgment of the kindness of Heaven, 
 he called the place Providence. Acting in confor- 
 mity with the wise and liberal principle, for avow- 
 ing and maintaining which he had suffered banish- 
 ment, he allowed entire freedom of conscience to 
 all who came within his borders. And to him must 
 be given the glory of having first set a practical ex- 
 ample of the equal toleration of all religious sects in 
 the same political community. 
 
 His benevolence was not confined to his civilized 
 brethren. He laboured to enlighten, improve and 
 conciliate the savages. He learned their language, 
 travelled among them, and gained the entire con- 
 fidence of their chiefs. He had often the happiness, 
 by his influence over them, of saving from injury 
 the colony that had proclaimed him an outlaw and 
 driven him into the wilderness. 
 
 In 1638, William Coddington, and seventeen 
 others, being persecuted for their religious tenets in 
 Massachusetts, followed Williams to Providence. 
 By his advice, they purchased of the Indians the 
 island of Aquetnec, now called Rhode Island, and 
 removed thither. Coddington was chosen their 
 judge, or chief magistrate. The fertility of the soil, 
 and the toleration of all Christian sects, attracted 
 numerous emigrants from the adjacent settlements. 
 
 When the New England colonies, in 1643, formed 
 their memorable confederacy, Rhode Island applied 
 to be admitted a member. Plymouth objected ; as- 
 serting that the settlements were within her bounda- 
 ries. The commissioners decided that Rhode Island 
 might enjoy all the advantages of the confederacy 
 if she would submit to the jurisdiction of Plymouth 
 She declined, proudly preferring independence to 
 all the benefits of dependent union. 
 
 In 1644, Williams, having been sent to Englanc 
 as agent for both settlements, obtained of the Ply- 
 mouth company a patent for the territory, and per- 
 mission for the inhabitants to institute a government 
 for themselves. In 1647, delegates chosen by th< 
 freemen held a general assembly at Portsmouth 
 
 rganized a government, and established a code of 
 aws. The executive power was confided to a presi- 
 lent and four assistants ; and upon the applications 
 >f the inhabitants, Charles II., in 1663, granted 
 he following charter to Rhode Island and Provi- 
 dence Plantations. 
 
 CHARLES II., by the grace of God, &c. To all. 
 o whom these presents shall come greeting. Whereas 
 xe have been informed by the petition of our trusty 
 and well-beloved subjects, Jhn Clarke, on the be- 
 half of Benedict Arnold, William Brenton, William 
 
 oddington, Nicholas Easton, William Boulston, 
 Tohn Porter, John Smith, Samuel Gorton, John 
 Weekes, Roger Williams, fc Thomas Olney, Gregory 
 Dexter, John Cogeshall, Joseph Clarke, Randall 
 rloulden, John Greene, John Roome, Samuel Wild- 
 jore, William Field, James Barker, Richard Tew, 
 Thomas Harris, and William Dyre, and the rest of 
 the purchasers and free inhabitants of our island, 
 called Rhode Island, and the rest of the colony of 
 Providence Plantations, in the Narraganset bay, 
 n New England, in America, that they, pursuing 
 with peace and loyal minds their sober, serious, and 
 religious intentions, of godly edifying themselves 
 and one another in the holy Christian faith and wor- 
 ship, as they were persuaded, together with the 
 gaining over and conversion of the poor ignorant 
 Indian natives in those parts of America, to the sin- 
 cere profession and obedience of the same faith and 
 worship, did not only by the consent and good en- 
 couragement of our royal progenitors, transport 
 themselves out of this kingdom of England into 
 America; but also since their arrival there, after 
 their first settlement among other our subjects in 
 those parts, for the avoiding of discord and those 
 many evils which were likely to ensue upon those 
 our subjects not being able to bear in those remote 
 parts their different apprehensions in religious con- 
 cernments ; and in pursuance of the aforesaid ends 
 did once again leave their desirable stations and 
 habitations, and with excessive labour and travail, 
 hazard and charge, did transplant themselves into 
 the midst of the Indian natives, who, as we are in- 
 formed, are the most potent princes and people of 
 all that country ; where, by the good providence of 
 God (from whom the plantations have taken their 
 name), upon their labour and industry, they have 
 not only been preserved to admiration, but have in- 
 
 reased and prospered, and are seised and possessed 
 by purchase and consent of the said natives, to their 
 full content, of such lands, islands, rivers, harbours, 
 and roads, as are very convenient both for planta- 
 tions, and also for building of ships, supply of pipe- 
 staves, and other merchandise, and which lie very 
 commodious in many respects for commerce, and to 
 accommodate our southern plantations, and may 
 much advance the trade of this our realm, and 
 greatly enlarge the territories thereof; they having, 
 by near neighbourhood to, and friendly society with 
 the great body of the Narraganset Indians, given 
 them encouragement of their own accord, to subject 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 773 
 
 themselves, their people and lands, unto us ; whereby, 
 as is hoped, there may in time, by the blessing of 
 God upon their endeavours, be laid a sure founda- 
 tion of happiness to all America. And whereas, in 
 their humble address, they have freely declared, 
 that it is much on their hearts (if they be permitted) 
 to hold forth a lively experiment, that a most flou- 
 rishing civil state may stand, and best be maintained, 
 and that among our English subjects, with a full 
 liberty in religious concernments; and that true 
 piety, rightly grounded upon Gospel principles, will 
 give the best and greatest security to sovereignty, 
 and will lay in the hearts of men the strongest obli- 
 gations to true loyalty ; now, know ye, that we 
 being willing to encourage the hopeful undertaking 
 of our said loyal and loving subjects, and to secure 
 them in the free exercise and enjoyment of all their 
 civil and religious rights appertaining to them, as 
 ou-r loving subjects; and to preserve unto them that 
 liberty in the true Christian faith and worship of 
 God which they have sought with so much travail, and 
 with peaceable minds and loyal subjection to our 
 royal progenitors and ourselves to enjoy ; and be- 
 cause some of the people and inhabitants of the same 
 colony cannot, in their private opinion, conform to 
 the public exercise of religion according to the 
 liturgy, form, and ceremonies of the Church of En- 
 gland, or take or subscribe the oaths and articles 
 made and established in that behalf; and for that 
 the same, by reason of the remote distances of those 
 places, will, as we hope, be no breach of the unity 
 and uniformity established in this nation, have there- 
 fore thought fit, and do hereby publish, grant, or- 
 dain, and declare, that our royal will and pleasure 
 i.s, that no person within the said colony, at any 
 time hereafter, shall be any wise molested, punished, 
 disquieted, or called in question, for any differences 
 in opinion in matters of religion, who do not actually 
 disturb the civil peace of our said colony; but that 
 all and every person and persons may, from time to 
 time, and at all times hereafter, freely and fully 
 have and enjoy his and their own judgments and 
 consciences, in matters of religious concernment, 
 throughout the tract of land hereafter mentioned, 
 they behaving themselves peaceably and quietly, 
 and not using this liberty to licentiousness and pro- 
 I'iiucness, nor to the civil injury or outward disturb- 
 ance of others, any law, statute, or clause therein 
 contained, or to be contained, usage or custom of 
 this realm, to the contrary hereof, in any wise not- 
 withstanding. And that they may be in the better 
 capacity to defend themselves in their just rights 
 and liberties, against all the enemies of the Chris- 
 tian faith, and others, in all respects, we have fur- 
 ther thought fit, and at the humble petition of the 
 persons aforesaid, are graciously pleased to declare, 
 that they shall have and enjoy the benefit of our 
 tote act of indemnity, and free pardon, as the rest 
 of our subjects in other our dominions and territories 
 nave ; and to create and make them a body politic 
 or corporate, with the powers or privileges herein- 
 after mentioned. And accordingly, our will and 
 pleasure is, and of our especial grace, certain know- 
 ledge, and mere motion, we have ordained, consti- 
 tuted, and declared, and by these presents, for us, 
 our heirs and successors, do ordain, constitute, and 
 declare, that they the said William Brenton, Wil- 
 liam Coddington, Nicholas Easton, Benedict Ar- 
 nold, William Boulston, John Porter, Samuel 
 Gorton, John Smith, John Weekes, Roger Wil- 
 liams, Thomas Olney, Gregory Dexter, John Coge- 
 thall, Joseph Clarke, Randall Houlden, John 
 
 Greene, John Roome, William Dyre, Samuel Wild- 
 bore, Richard Tew, William Field, Thomas Har- 
 ris, James Barker, Rainsborrow, Wil- 
 liams, and John Nixon and all such others as are 
 now, or hereafter shall be admitted, free of the 
 company and society of our colony of Providence 
 Plantations, in the Narraganset bay, in New En- 
 gland, shall be, from time to time, and for ever 
 hereafter, a body corporate and politic, in fact and 
 name, by the name of the governor and company 
 of the English colony of Rhode Island and Provi- 
 dence Plantations, in New England, in America; 
 and that by the same name, they and their succes- 
 sors shall 'and may have perpetual succession, and 
 shall and may be persons able and capable in the 
 law to sue and be sued, to plead and be impleaded, 
 to answer and to be answered unto, to defend and to 
 be defended, in all and singular suits, causes, quar- 
 rels, matters, actions, and things, of what kind or 
 nature soever ; and also to have, take, possess, ac- 
 quire, and purchase lands, tenements, or heredita- 
 ments, or any goods or chatties, and the same to 
 lease, grant, demise, alien, bargain, sell, and dis- 
 
 Eose of, at their own will and pleasure, as other our 
 ege people of this our realm of England, or any 
 corporation or body politic within the same, may 
 lawfully do : and further, that they the said gover- 
 nor and company, and their successors, shall and 
 may, for ever hereafter, have a common seal, to 
 serve and use for all matters, causes, things, and 
 affairs whatsoever, of them and their successois, and 
 the same seal to alter, change, break, and make 
 new from time to time, at their will and pleasure, as 
 they shall think fit. And further, we will and or- 
 dain, and by these presents, for us, our heirs and 
 successors, do declare and appoint, that for the bet- 
 ter ordering and managing of the affairs and busi- 
 ness of the said company and their successors, there 
 shall be one governor, one deputy-governor, and 
 ten assistants, to be from time to time constituted, 
 elected, and chosen out of the freemen of the said 
 company for the time being, in such manner and 
 form as is hereafter in these presents expressed ; 
 which said officers shall apply themselves to take 
 care for the best disposing and ordering of the gene- 
 ral business and affairs of and concerning the 
 lands and hereditaments herein after mentioned to 
 be granted, and the plantation thereof, and the go- 
 vernment of the people there. And for the better 
 execution of our royal pleasure herein, we do, for 
 us, our heirs and successors, assign, name, consti- 
 tute and appoint, the aforesaid Benedict Arnold to 
 be the first and present governor of the said com- 
 pany, and the said William Brenton to be the de- 
 puty-governor, and the said William Boulston, John 
 Porter, Roger Williams, Thomas Olney, John 
 Smith, John Greene, John Cogeshall, James Bar- 
 ker, William Field, and Joseph Clarke, to be the 
 ten present assistants of the said company, to con- 
 tinue in the said several offices respectively, until 
 the first Wednesday which shall be in the month of 
 May now next coming. And further, we will, and 
 by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, 
 do ordain and grant, that the governor of the said 
 company for the time being, or in his absence, by 
 occasion of sickness or otherwise, by his leave or 
 permission the deputy-governor for the time being, 
 shall and may, from time to time, upon all occasions, 
 give order for the assembling of the said company, 
 and calling them together, to consult and advise of 
 the business and affairs of the said company ; and 
 that for ever hereafter, twice in every year, that is 
 
774 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 to say, on every first Wednesday in the month of 
 May," and on every last Wednesday in October, or 
 oftener, in case it shall be requisite, the assistants, 
 and such of the freemen of the said company, not 
 exceeding six persons from Newport, four persons 
 for each of the respective towns of Providence, 
 Portsmouth, and Warwick, and two persons for 
 each other place, town, or city, who shall be from 
 time to time thereunto elected or deputed by the 
 major part of the freemen of the respective towns 
 or places for which they shall be so elected or de- 
 puted, shall have a general meeting or assembly, 
 then and there to consult, advise and determine, in 
 and about the affairs and business of the said company 
 and plantations. And further, we do of our especial 
 grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, give 
 and grant unto the said governor and company of 
 the English colony of Rhode Island and Providence 
 Plantations, in New England, in America, and 
 their successors, that the governor, or, in his ab- 
 sence, or by his permission, the deputy-governor of 
 the said company for the time being, the assistants, 
 and such of the freemen of the said company as shall 
 be so aforesaid elected or deputed, or so many of 
 them as shall be present at such meeting or assem- 
 bly as aforesaid, shall be called the general assem- 
 bly; and that they, or the greatest part of them 
 then present, whereof the governor or deputy-go- 
 vernor, and six of the assistants at least, to be seven, 
 shall have, and have hereby given and granted unto 
 them full power and authority, from time to time, and 
 at all times hereafter, to appoint, alter, and change 
 such days, times, and places of meeting, and gene- 
 ral assembly, as they shall think fit : and to choose, 
 nominate, and appoint such and so many persons as 
 they shall think fit, and shall be willing to accept 
 the same, to be free of the said company and body- 
 politic, and them into the same to admit ; and to 
 elect and constitute such offices and officers, and to 
 grant such needful commissions as they shall think 
 fit and requisite, for ordering, managing, and dis- 
 patching of the affairs of the said governor and 
 company, and their successors; and from time to 
 time to make, ordain, constitute, or repeal such laws, 
 statutes, orders, and ordinances, forms and ceremo- 
 nies of government and magistracy, as to them shall 
 seem meet, for the good and welfare of the said 
 company, and for the government and ordering of 
 the lands and hereditaments hereinafter mentioned 
 to be granted, and of the people that do, or at any 
 time hereafter shall inhabit, or be within the same ; 
 so as such laws, ordinances, and constitutions so 
 made, be not contrary and repugnant unto, but as 
 near as may be, agreeable to the laws of this our realm 
 of England, considering the nature and constitution 
 of the place and people there ; and also to appoint, 
 order, and direct, erect and settle such places and 
 courts of jurisdiction, for hearing and determining 
 of all actions, cases, matters, and things, happening 
 within the said colony and plantation, and which 
 shall be in dispute, and depending there, as they 
 shall think fit ; and also to distinguish and set 
 forth the several names and titles, duties, powers, 
 and limits, of each court, office and officer, superior 
 and inferior ; and also to contrive and appoint such 
 forms of oaths and attestations, not repugnant, but 
 as near as may be agreeable, as aforesaid, to the 
 laws and statutes of this our realm, as are conve- 
 nient and requisite, with respect to the due admi- 
 nistration of justice, and due execution and dis- 
 charge of all offices and places of trust, by the per- 
 sons that shall be therein concerned; and also to 
 
 regulate and order the way and manner of all elec- 
 tions to offices and places of trust, and to prescribe, 
 limit, and distinguish the number and bounds of all 
 places, towns, and cities, within the limits and 
 bounds hereinafter mentioned, and not herein par- 
 ticularly named, who have, or shall have the power 
 of electing and sending of freemen to the said ge- 
 neral assembly; and also to order, direct, and au- 
 thorize the imposing of lawful and reasonable fines, 
 mulcts, imprisonments, and executing other punish- 
 ments, pecuniary and corporal, upon offenders and 
 delinquents, according to the course of other cor- 
 porations within this our kingdom of England : and 
 again, to alter, revoke, annul, or pardon, under 
 their common seal, or otherwise, such fines, mulcts, 
 imprisonments, sentences, judgments, and condem- 
 nations, as shall be thought fit ; and to direct, rule, 
 order, and dispose all other matters and things, and 
 particularly that which relates to the making of 
 purchases of the native; Indians, as to them shall 
 seem meet; whereby our said people and inhabi- 
 tants in the said plantations may be so religiously, 
 peaceably, and civilly governed, as that by their 
 good life and orderly conversation they may win 
 and invite the native Indians of the country to the 
 knowledge and obedience of the only true God and 
 Saviour of mankind; willing, commanding, and 
 requiring, and by these presents, for us, our heirs 
 and successors, ordaining and appointing, that all 
 such laws, statutes, orders, and ordinances, instruc- 
 tions, impositions, and directions, as shall be so 
 made by the governor, deputy, assistants, and free- 
 men, or such number of them as aforesaid, and 
 published in writing under their common seal, shall 
 be carefully and duly observed, kept, performed, 
 and put in execution, according to the true intent 
 and meaning of the same. And these our letters 
 patent, or the duplicate or exemplification thereof, 
 shall be to all and every such officers, superior or 
 i-nferior, from time to time, for the putting of the 
 same orders, laws, statutes, ordinances, instructions, 
 and directions, in due execution against us, our 
 heirs and successors, a sufficient warrant and dis- 
 charge. And further, our will and pleasure is, and 
 we do hereby for us, our heirs and successors, esta- 
 blish and ordain, that yearly, once in the year for 
 ever hereafter, namely, the aforesaid Wednesday in 
 May, and at the town of Newport or elsewhere, if 
 urgent occasion do require, the governor, deputy- 
 governor, and assistants of the said company, and 
 other officers of the said company, or such of them 
 as the general assembly shall think fit, shall be in 
 the said general court or assembly, to be held from, 
 that day or time, newly chosen for the year ensuing, 
 by the greater part of the said company for the time 
 being, as shall be then and there present. And if 
 it shall happen that the present governor, deputy- 
 governor, and assistants, by these presents appointed, 
 or any such as shall hereafter be newly chosen into 
 their rooms, or any of them, or any other the officers 
 of the said company, shall die, or be removed from, 
 his or their several offices or places before the said 
 general day of election (whom we do hereby declare 
 for any misdemeanor or default to be removeablo by 
 the governor, assistants, and company, or such 
 greater part of them, in any of the said public 
 courts to be assembled as aforesaid), that then, and 
 in every such case, it shall and may be lawful to 
 and for the said governor, deputy-governor, assist- 
 ants, and company aforesaid, or such greater part 
 of them so to be assembled, as is aforesaid, in any of 
 their assemblies, to proceed to a new election of one 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 775 
 
 or more of their company, in the room or place, 
 rooms or places, of such officer or officers so dying 
 or removed, according to their directions. And 
 immediately upon and after such election or elec- 
 tions made of such governor, deputy-governor, as- 
 sistant or assistants, or any other officer of the said 
 company, in manner and form aforesaid, the autho- 
 rity, office, and power before given to the former 
 governor, deputy-governor, and other officer and 
 officers so removed, in whose stead and place new 
 shall be chosen, shall, as to him and them, and 
 every of them respectively, cease and determine. 
 Provided always, and our will and pleasure is, That 
 as well such as are by these presents appointed to 
 be the present governor, deputy-governor and as- 
 sistants of the said company, as those which shall 
 succeed them, and all other officers to be appointed 
 and chosen as aforesaid, shall, before the undertaking 
 the execution of the said offices and places re- 
 spectively, give their solemn engagement, by oath 
 or otherwise, for the due and faithful performance 
 of their duties in their several offices and places, 
 before such person or persons as are by these pre- 
 sents hereafter appointed to take and receive the 
 same ; that is to say, the said Benedict Arnold, who 
 is hereinbefore nominated and appointed the present 
 governor of the said company, shall give the afore- 
 said engagement before William Brenton, or any 
 two of the said assistants of the said company, unto 
 whom we do, by these presents, give full power and 
 authority to require and receive the same ; and the 
 said William Brenton, who is hereby before nomi- 
 nated and appointed the present deputy-governor 
 of the said company, shall give the aforesaid en- 
 gagement before the said Benedict Arnold, or any 
 two of the assistants of the said company, unto whom 
 we do, by these presents, give full power and au- 
 thority to require and receive the same ; and the 
 said William Boulston, John Porter, Roger Wil- 
 liams, Thomas Olney, John Smith, John Greene, 
 John Cogeshall, James Barker, William Field, and 
 Joseph Clarke, who are hereinbefore nominated and 
 appointed the present assistants of the company, 
 shall give the said engagement to their offices and 
 places respectively belonging, before the said Bene- 
 dict Arnold and William Brenton, or one of them, 
 to whom respectively we do hereby give full power 
 and authority to require, administer, or receive the 
 same. And further, our will and pleasure is, that 
 all and every other future governor, or deputy-go- 
 vernor, to be elected and chosen by virtue of these 
 presents, shall give the said engagement before two 
 or more of the said assistants of the said company 
 for the time being, unto whom we do, by these pre- 
 sents, give full power and authority to require, ad- 
 minister, or receive the same ; and the said assist- 
 ants, and every of them, and all and every other 
 officer or officers, to be hereafter elected and chosen 
 by virtue of these presents, from time to time, shall 
 give the like engagements to their offices and places 
 respectively belonging, before the governor or de- 
 puty-governor for the time being ; unto which said 
 governor or deputy-governor we do, by these presents, 
 give full power and authority to require, administer, 
 or receive the same accordingly. And we do like- 
 wise for us, our heirs and successors, give and grant 
 unto the said governor and company, and their suc- 
 cessors, by these presents, that for the more peace- 
 able and orderly government of the said plantations, 
 it shall and may be lawful for the governor, deputy- 
 governor, assistants, and all other officers and mi- 
 nisters of the said company, in the administration 
 
 of justice and exercise of government in the said 
 plantations, to use, exercise, and put in execution, 
 such methods, rules, orders, and directions, not 
 being contrary and repugnant to the laws and sta- 
 tutes of this our realm, as have been heretofore 
 given, used, and accustomed in such cases respec- 
 tively, to be put in practice, until at the next or 
 some" other general assembly, especial provision 
 shall be made in the cases aforesaid. And we do 
 further, for us, our heirs and successors, give and 
 grant unto the said governor and company, and 
 their successors, by these presents, that it shall and 
 may be lawful to and for tne said governor, or, in 
 his absence, the deputy-governor and major part of 
 the said assistants for the time being, at any time 
 when the said general assembly is not sitting, to 
 nominate, appoint and constitute such and so many 
 commanders, governors, and military officers, as to 
 them shall seem requisite, for the leading, conduct- 
 ing, and training up the inhabitants of the said 
 plantations in martial affairs, and for the defence 
 and safeguard of the said plantations ; and that it 
 shall and may be lawful to and for all and every 
 such commander, governor, and military officer, 
 that shall be so as aforesaid', or by the governor, or 
 in his absence the deputy-governor and six of the 
 assistants, and major part of the freemen of the 
 said company present at any general assemblies, 
 nominated, appointed, and constituted, according 
 to the teneur of his and their respective commissions 
 and directions,- to assemble, exercise in arms, mar- 
 shal, array, and put in warlike posture, the inhabi- 
 tants of the said colony, for their especial defence 
 and safety ; and to lead and conduct the said inha- 
 bitants, and to encounter, repulse, and resist by- 
 force of arms, as well by sea as by land, to kill, slay, 
 and destroy, by all fitting ways, enterprises, and 
 means whatsoever, all and every such person or 
 persons as shall at any time hereafter attempt, or 
 enterprise the destruction, invasion, detriment, or 
 annoyance of the said inhabitants or plantations; 
 and to use and exercise the law martial in such 
 cases only as occasion shall necessarily require; 
 and to take and surprise, by all ways and means 
 whatsoever, all and every such person and persons, 
 with their ship or ships, armour, ammunition, or 
 other goods of such persons as shall in hostile man- 
 ner invade or attempt the defeating of the said 
 Elantation, or the hurt of the said company and iu- 
 abitants ; and upon just causes to invade and de- 
 stroy the natives, Indians, or other enemies of the 
 said colony. Nevertheless, our will and pleasure 
 is, and we do hereby declare to the rest of our co- 
 lonies in New England, that it shall not be lawful 
 for this our said colony of Rhode Island and Provi- 
 dence Plantations, in New England, in America, 
 to invade the natives inhabiting within the bounds 
 and limits of their said colonies, without the know- 
 ledge and consent of the said other colonies. And 
 it is hereby declared, that it shall not be lawful to 
 or for the rest of the colonies to invade or molest 
 the native Indians, or any other inhabitants, inha- 
 biting within the bounds or limits hereafter men- 
 tioned (they having subjected themselves unto us, 
 and being by us taken into our special protection), 
 without the knowledge and consent of the governor 
 and company of our colony of Rhode Island and 
 Providence Plantation. Also our will and pleasure 
 is, and we do hereby declare unto all Christian 
 kings, princes, and states, that if any person, which 
 shall hereafter be of the said company or plantation, 
 or any other by appointment of the said governor 
 
776 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 and company for the time being, shall at any time 
 or times hereafter rob or spoil, by sea or land, or do 
 any hurt, or unlawful hostility, to any of the sub- 
 jects of us, our heirs and successors, or to any of 
 the subjects of any prince or state being then in 
 league with us, our heirs and successors ; upon 
 complaint of such injury done to any such prince 
 or state, or their subjects, we, our heirs and suc- 
 cessors, will make open proclamation, within any 
 parts of our realms of England fit for that purpose, 
 that the person or persons committing any such rob- 
 bery or spoil shall, within the time limited by such 
 proclamation, make full restitution or satisfaction 
 of all such injuries done or committed, so as the 
 said prince, or others so complaining, may be fully 
 satisfied and contented ; and if the said person or 
 persons who shall commit a-ny such robbery or spoil, 
 shall not make satisfaction accordingly, within such 
 time so to be limited, that then we, our heirs and 
 successors, will put such person or persons out of 
 our allegiance and protection ; and that then it 
 shall and may be lawful and free for all princes, or 
 others, to prosecute with hostility such offenders, 
 and every of them, their and every of their procu- 
 rers, aiders, abettors, and counsellors, in that be- 
 half. Provided also, and our express will and 
 pleasure is, and we do by these presents, for us, our 
 heirs and successors, ordain and appoint, that these 
 presents shall not in any manner hinder any of our 
 loving subjects whatsoever from using and exercising 
 the trade of fishing upon the coast of New England, 
 in America, but that they, and every or any of them, 
 shall have full and free power and liberty to con- 
 tinue and use the trade of fishing upon the said 
 coast, in any of the seas thereunto adjoining, or any 
 arms of the sea, or salt water, rivers and creeks, 
 where they have been accustomed to fish, and to 
 build and set upon the waste land belonging to the 
 said colony and plantations such wharfs, stages, and 
 workhouses, as shall be necessary for the salting, 
 drying and keeping of their fish to be taken or got- 
 ten upon that coast. And further, for the encou- 
 ragement of the inhabitants of our said colony of 
 Providence Plantation to set upon the business of 
 taking whales, it shall be lawful for them, or any of 
 them having struck a whale, dubertus, or other 
 great fish, it or them to pursue unto that coast, and 
 into any bay, river, cove, creek or shore, belong- 
 ing thereto, and it or them, upon the said coast, or 
 in the said bay, river, cove, creek, or shore belong- 
 ing thereto, to kill and order for the best advan- 
 tage, without molestation, they making no wilful 
 waste or spoil ; anything in these presents con- 
 tained, or any other matter or thing to the contrary 
 notwithstanding. And further also, we are graci- 
 ously pleased, and do hereby declare, that if any of 
 the inhabitants of our said colony do set upon the 
 planting of vineyards, (the soil and climate both 
 seeming naturally to concur to the production of 
 wines) or be industrious in the discovery of fishing- 
 banks in or about the said colony, we will, from 
 time to time, give and allow all due and fitting 
 encouragement therein, as to others in cases of 
 like nature. And further, of our more ample 
 grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, we 
 have given and granted, and by these presents, 
 for us. our heirs and successors, do give and grant 
 unto the said governor and company of the English, 
 colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation, 
 in the Narraganset bay, in New England, in Ame- 
 rica, and to every inhabitant there, and to every 
 person and persons trading thither, and to every 
 
 such person or persons as are or shall be free of the 
 said colony, full power and authority, from time to 
 time, and at all times hereafter, to take, ship, Hans- 
 port, and carry away, out of any of our realms and 
 dominions, for and towards the plantation and de- 
 fence of the said colony, such and so many of our 
 loving subjects and strangers, as shall or will wil- 
 lingly accompany them in and to their said colony 
 and plantation, except such person or persons as are 
 or shall be therein restrained by us, our heirs and 
 successors, or any law or statute of this realm ; 
 and also to ship and transport all and all manner of 
 goods, chattels, merchandise, and other things what- 
 soever, that are or shall be useful or necessary for 
 the said plantations, and defence thereof, and usu- 
 ally transported, and not prohibited by any law or 
 or statute of this our realm ; yielding and paying 
 unto us our heirs and successors, such the duties, 
 customs and subsidies, as are or ought to be paid or 
 payable for the same. And further, our will and 
 pleasure is, and we do for us, our heirs and succes- 
 sors, ordain, declare and grant unto the said gover- 
 nor and company, and their successors, that all and 
 every the subjects of us, our heirs and successors, 
 which are already planted and settled within our 
 said colony of Providence Plantation, or which 
 shall hereafter go to inhabit within the said colony, 
 and all and every of their children which have been 
 born there, or which shall happen hereafter to be 
 born there, or on the sea going thither or returning 
 from thence, shall have and enjoy all liberties 
 and immunities of free and natural subjects, within 
 any the dominions of us, our heirs and successors, 
 to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatso- 
 ever, as if they and every of them were born within 
 the realm of England. And further know ye, that we, 
 of our more abundant grace, certain knowledge, and 
 mere motion, have given, granted and confirmed, 
 and by these presents, for us, our heirs and suc- 
 cessors, do give, grant and confirm unto the said 
 governor and company, and their successors, all that 
 part of our dominions in New England in America, 
 containing the Nehantick and Nanhygausett, alias 
 Narraganset bay, and countries and p'arts adjacent, 
 bounded on the west, or westerly, to the middle or 
 channel of a river there, commonly called and known 
 by the name of Pawcatuck, alias Pawcawtuck river, 
 and so along the said river, as the greater or middle 
 stream thereof reacheth or lies up into the north 
 country, northward unto the head thereof, and from 
 thence by a straight line drawn due north, until it 
 meet with the south line of the Massachusetts co- 
 lony, and on the north or northerly, by the afore- 
 said south or southerly line of the Massachusetts 
 colony or plantation, and extending towards the 
 east or eastwardly three English miles, to the 
 east and north-east of the most eastern and 
 north-eastern parts of the aforesaid Narragan- 
 set bay, as the said bay lieth or extendeth itself 
 from the ocean on the south or southwardly, unto 
 the mouth of the river which runneth towards the 
 town of Providence, and from thence along the east- 
 wardly side or bank of the said river (higher called 
 by the name of Seacunck river), up to the falls 
 called Patucket Falls, being the most westwardly 
 line of Plymouth colony; and so from the said falls, 
 in a straight line due north, until it meet with the 
 aforesaid line of the Massachusetts colony, and 
 bounded on the south by the ocean, and in parti- 
 cular the lands belonging to the towns of Providence, 
 Patuxit, Warwicke, Misquammacock, alias Pawca- 
 tuck, and the rest upon the main land, in the tract 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 777 
 
 aforesaid, together with Rhode Island, Blocke 
 Island, and all the rest of the islands and banks in 
 the Narraganset bay, and bordering upon the coast 
 of the tract aforesaid (Fisher's island only excepted), 
 together with all firm lands, soils, grounds, havens, 
 ports, rivers, waters, fishings, mines royal, and all 
 other mines, minerals, precious stones, quarries, 
 woods, wood-grounds, rocks, slates, and all and 
 singular other commodities, jurisdictions, royalties, 
 privileges, franchises, pre-eminencies, and heredita- 
 ments whatsoever, within the said tract, bounds, 
 lands, and islands aforesaid, to them or any of them 
 belonging, or in any wise appertaining. To have 
 and to hold the same unto the said governor and 
 company, and their successors for ever, upon trust, 
 for the use and benefit of themselves and their as- 
 sociates, freemen of the said colony, their heirs and 
 assigns. To be holden of us, our heirs and suc- 
 cessors, as of the manner of East Greenwich, in our 
 county of Kent, in free and common soccage, and not 
 in capite, nor by knight's service. Yielding and pay- 
 ing therefore to us, our heirs and successors, only 
 the fifth part of all the ore of gold and silver, which 
 from time to time, and at all times hereafter, shall 
 be there gotten, had or obtained, in lieu and satis- 
 faction of all services, duties, fines, forfeitures, made 
 or to be made, claims or demands whatsoever, to be 
 to us, our heirs or successors, therefore or there- 
 about rendered, made or paid ; any grant or clause, 
 in a late grant to the governor and company of 
 Connecticut colony in America, to the contrary 
 thereof in any wise notwithstanding ; the aforesaid 
 Pawcatuck river having been yielded after much 
 debate, for the fixed and certain bounds between 
 these our said colonies, by the agents thereof; who 
 have also agreed, that the said Pawcatuck river shall 
 also be called alias Narrogancett or Narrogansett 
 river, and to prevent future disputes that otherwise 
 might arise thereby, for ever hereafter shall be con- 
 strued, deemed, and taken to be the Narrogancett 
 river, in our late grant to Connecticut colony, men- 
 tioned as the easterly bounds of that colony. And 
 further, our will and pleasure is, that in all matters 
 of public controversies, which may fall out between 
 our colony of Connecticut and Providence Planta- 
 tion, to make their appeal therein to us, our heirs 
 and successors, for redress in such cases, within this 
 our realm of England: and that it shall be lawful 
 to and for the inhabitants of the said colony of Pro- 
 vidence Plantation, without lett or molestation, to 
 pass and repass with freedom into and through the 
 rest of the English colonies upon their lawful and 
 civil occasions, and to converse, and hold commerce, 
 and trade with such of the inhabitants of our other 
 English colonies as shall be willing to admit them 
 thereunto, they behaving themselves peaceably 
 among them; any act, clause, or sentence, in anv 
 of the said colonies provided, or that shall be pro- 
 vided, to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. 
 And lastly, we do for us, our heirs and successors, 
 ordain and grant unto the said governor and com- 
 pany, and their successors, by these presents, that 
 these our letters patents shall be firm, good, effec- 
 tual, and available, in all things in the law, to all 
 intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever, ac- 
 cording to our true intent and meaning hereinbe- 
 fore declared ; and shall be construed, reputed, and 
 adjudged in all cases, most favourably on the be- 
 half, and for the best benefit and behoof of the said 
 governor and company, and their successors, al- 
 though express mention, &c. In witness, &c. Per 
 if sum Reyem. 
 
 In 1665 they authorized, by law, the seizure of 
 the estates of Quakers, who refused to assist in de- 
 fending the colony ; but this law being generally 
 condemned by the people, was never executed. 
 
 When Andross was made governor of New Eng- 
 land, he behaved in the arbitrary manner which has 
 already been so fully related in the previous pages; 
 he dissolved the charter government of Rhode Island, 
 and ruled the colony, with the assistance of a coun- 
 cil appointed by himself. After he was imprisoned 
 at Boston, the freemen met at Newport, and voted 
 to resume their charter. All the officers, who three 
 years before had been displaced, were restored. 
 
 The benevolence, justice, and pacific policy of 
 Williams secured to the colony an almost total ex- 
 emption from Indian or other hostility, and it there- 
 fore affords little of a political nature to record. 
 
 From a long period after the year 1710 a conti- 
 nual contest existed respecting an almost continual 
 system of creating a capital by the negotiating of a 
 paper currency. The sums thus created were far 
 more than sufficient for the purposes of commerce, 
 and indeed, in many instances, were created in op- 
 position to the wishes of the mercantile interest, for 
 the purpose of supplying the state with money, and 
 filling the pockets of a set of venal wretches, with- 
 out subjecting them to the necessity of earning of it 
 by their d'ligence, so that the history of the go- 
 vernment of this state for 70 years is a history of 
 base peculation by means of a paper money currency, 
 which was so contrived, that amongst themselves it 
 came out at about two and a half per cent, interest, 
 and they lent it to the neighbouring colonies at ten 
 per cent, as barefaced a cheat as ever was practised. 
 The interest of these public iniquitous frauds went, 
 one quarter to the several townships to defray their 
 charges, the other three quarters were lodged in the 
 treasury, to defray the charges of government. 
 These measures deprived the state of great numbers 
 of its worthy and most respectable inhabitants ; had 
 a very pernicious influence upon the morals of the 
 people ; deprived many of their just dues, and oc- 
 casioned a ruinous stagnation of trade ; but an effi- 
 cient government has effectually abolished this ini- 
 quitous system, and the confidence lost by it has 
 been recovered by a steady and rigid attachment to 
 an integrity of conduct in all their concerns. 
 
 It now remains but to give a brief account of the 
 internal state of this settlement. 
 
 Rhode Island is the only state of the union that 
 is without a written constitution, the government 
 being founded on the provisions of the foregoing 
 charter. The legislature of this state consists of 
 two branches a senate or upper house, "composed 
 often members, besides the governor and deputy- 
 governor, who were called in the charter assistants 
 and a house of representatives, composed of deputies 
 from the several towns. The members of the legis- 
 lature are chosen twice a year; and there are two 
 sessions of this body annually, viz. on the first Wed- 
 nesday in May, and the last Wednesday in October. 
 
 The supreme executive power is vested in a go- 
 vernor, or, in his absence, in the deputy-governor, 
 who, with the assistants, secretary, and general 
 treasurer, are chosen annually in May by the suf- 
 frages of the people. The governor presides in the 
 upper house, but has only a single voice in enacting 
 laws. Suffrage is universal. 
 
 There is one supreme judicial court, composed of 
 five judges, whose jurisdiction extends over the whole 
 state, and who holds two courts annually in each 
 county. 
 
778 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 lu each county there is an inferior court of com- 
 mon pleas and general sessions of the peace, held 
 twice a year for the trial of causes, not capital, 
 arising within the county, from which an appeal 
 lies to the supreme court. 
 
 This smallest state of the union is only about 42 
 miles in average length, and its mean breadth only 
 about 29 miles. It is bounded on the north and 
 east by the state of Massachusetts, on the south by 
 the Atlantic ocean, and on the west by the state of 
 Connecticut. 
 
 It is as healthful a country as any part of North 
 America. The winters in the maritime parts are 
 milder than in the inland country; the air being 
 softened by a sea vapour, which also enriches the 
 soil. The summers are delightful, especially on 
 Rhode Island, where the extreme heats, which pre- 
 vail in other parts of America, are allayed by cool 
 and refreshing breezes from the sea. 
 
 Rhode Island, from which the state takes its 
 name, is thirteen miles in length; its average 
 breadth is about four miles. It is divided into three 
 townships, Newport, Portsmouth, and Middletown. 
 This island, in point of soil, climate and situation, 
 may be ranked among the finest and most charming 
 in the world. In its most flourishing state it has been 
 called by travellers the Eden of America. Provi- 
 dence in many parts is equally pleasant, the whole 
 country being beautifully variegated and plentifully 
 watered. 
 
 There is but one mountain in this state, which is in 
 the town of Bristol, called Mount Hope or (Haup) ; 
 there is nothing in its appearance to claim particu- 
 lar attention. 
 
 Among the rivers the following deserve particular 
 notice. Providence and Taunton rivers, both of 
 which fall into Narraganset bay, the former on the 
 west, the latter on the east side of Rhode Island. 
 Providence river rises partly in the Massachusetts, 
 and is navigable as far as Providence for ships of 
 900 tons, 30-miles from the sea. Taunton river is 
 navigable for small vessels to Taunton. The com- 
 mon tides rise about four feet. 
 
 Fall river is small, rising in Freetown, and pass 
 ing through Tiverton. The line between the states 
 of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, passes Fall 
 river bridge. Patuxet river rises in Mashapogpond, 
 and five miles below Providence empties into Nar- 
 raganset bay. Pautucket river, called more nor- 
 therly Blackstone's river, empties into Seekhonck 
 river, four miles N.N.E. from Providence, where 
 are the falls hereafter described, over which is 
 bridge, on the post-road to Boston, and 40 miles 
 from thence. The confluent stream empties into 
 Providence river, about a mile below Weybossett, or 
 the great bridge. Naspatucket river falls into the 
 bay about one mile and a half N.W. of Weybosset 
 bridge. Moshassuck river falls into the same bay, 
 three-fourths of a mile north of the bridge. These 
 rivers united form Providence river, which, a 
 few miles below the town, receives the name of 
 Narraganset bay, and affords fine fish, oysters, and 
 lobsters in great plenty ; the bay makes up from 
 south to north between the mam land on the east 
 and west. It embosoms many fertile islands, the 
 appearance of which and of the circumjacent country 
 in the spring and summer seasons, either from the 
 land or water, is extremely beautiful and charming ; 
 the principal of these, besides Rhode Island, are 
 Canonnicut, Prudence, Patience, Hope, Dyers and 
 Hog Island. The first of these, viz. Canonnicut 
 Island, lies west of Rhode Island, and is six miles 
 
 in length, and about one mile in breadth ; it was 
 purchased of the Indians in 1657, and incorporated 
 by an act of assembly by the name of the Island of 
 Jamestown in 1678. 
 
 Prudence island is nearly or quite as large as 
 Canonnicut, and lies north of it, and is a part of the 
 township of Portsmouth. 
 
 Block island, called by the Indians Manisses, is 
 21 miles S.S.W. from Newport, and is the southern- 
 most land belonging to the state ; it was erected into 
 a township, by the name of New Shoreham, in 1672. 
 The inhabitants of this island were formerly noted 
 for making good cheese ; and they catch conside- 
 rable quantities of cod fish round the ledges near 
 the island. \ 
 
 The harbours in thi.x state are, Newport, Provi- 
 dence, Wickford, Patuxet, Warren, and Bristol, 
 all of which are advantageous, and several of them 
 commodious. For the safety and convenience of 
 sailing into Narraganset bay and the harbour of 
 Newport, a light-house was erected in 1749 on 
 Beavertail, at the south end of Canonnicut Island ; 
 the diameter of the base is 24 feet, and of the top 
 thirteen feet ; the height from the ground to the top 
 of the cornice is 50 feet, round which is a gallery, 
 and within that stands the lantern, which is about 
 eleven feet high and eight feet in diameter. The 
 ground the light-house stands on is about twelve 
 feet above the surface of the sea at high-water. 
 
 This state, generally speaking, is a country for 
 pasture, arid not for grain ; in Rhode Island alone 
 many thousand sheep are fed, besides neat cattle 
 and horses, and a like proportion in many other 
 parts of the state. It however produces corn, rye, 
 barley, oats, and in some parts wheat sufficient for 
 home consumption ; and the various kinds of grasses, 
 fruits, culinary roots and plants in great abundance, 
 and in good perfection, and cider is made for expor- 
 tation. The north-western parts of the state are 
 but thinly inhabited, and are more rocky and barren 
 than the other parts. The tract of country lying 
 between South Kingston and rtie Connecticut line, 
 called the Narraganset country, is excellent grazing 
 land, and is inhabited by a number of wealthy far- 
 mers, who raise some of the finest neat cattle in 
 New England, weighing from 16 to 1800 cwt. 
 They keep large dairies, and make both butter and 
 cheese of the best quality and in very large quanti- 
 ties for exportation. Narraganset has been famed 
 for an excellent breed of pacing horses, remarkable 
 for their speed and hardiness, and for enduring the 
 fatigues or a journey ; this breed of horses has, how- 
 ever, much depreciated of late, the best mares 
 having been purchased by the people from the 
 westward. 
 
 The interior of the earth offers a large recompense 
 to the industrious adventurer. Iron ore is found in 
 great plenty in several parts of the state. The iron 
 works on Patuxet river, twelve miles from Provi- 
 dence, are supplied with ore from a bed four miles 
 and a half distant, which lies in a valley, through 
 which runs a brook; the brook is turned into a 
 new channel, and the ore pits are cleared of water 
 by a steam-engine. 
 
 At Diamond Hill, in the county of Providence, 
 which is so called from its sparkling and shining 
 appearance, there are a variety of peculiar stones, 
 more curious than at present they appear to be use- 
 ful ; but not far from this hill, in the township of 
 Cumberland, is a copper mine, mixed with iron 
 strongly impregnated with loadstone, of which some 
 large pieces have been found in the neighbourhood : 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 779 
 
 however no method has yet been discovered to 
 work it to advantage, or rather, no one has ye 
 been found with sufficient spirit to engage in an un 
 dertaking, which, though it might be attended with 
 difficulty at first, could hardly fail, ultimately, o 
 yielding an ample recompense. 
 
 An abundance of limestone is found, particularly 
 in the county of Providence, of which large quanti- 
 ties of lime are made and exported. This limestone 
 is of different colours, and is the true marble, of the 
 white, plain, and variegated kinds ; it takes a fine 
 polish, and works equal to any in America. 
 
 There are several mineral springs, to one o! 
 which, near Providence, many people resort to bathe 
 and drink the water. 
 
 The rivers and waters are equally productive; in 
 the rivers and bays are plenty of sheeps-head, black- 
 fish, herring, shad, lobsters, oysters and clams ; anc 
 around the shores of Rhode Island, besides those 
 already mentioned, are cod, halibut, mackerel, bass 
 haddock, c. to the Amount of more than /Odiffeienl 
 kinds, so that in the seasons of fish the markets pre- 
 sent a continual scene of bustle and hurry. Rhode 
 Island is indeed considered by travellers as the 
 best fish market, not only in the United States, bul 
 in the world. 
 
 This state is divided into five counties, riz. New- 
 port, Providence, Washington, Bristol and Kent : 
 which are subdivided into the following 30 townships 
 Newport County. 
 
 Newport, Portsmouth, New Shoreham, James 
 Town, Middletown, Tiverton, Little Compton. 
 Providence County. 
 
 Providence, Smithfield, Scituate, Glocester, Cum- 
 berland, Cranston, Johnston, North Providence, 
 Foster. 
 
 Washington County. 
 
 Westeily, North Kingston, South Kingston 
 Charlestovvn, Exeter, Richmond, Hopkinton. 
 Bristol County. 
 
 Bristol, Warren, Barrington. 
 Kent County. 
 
 Warwick, East Greenwich, West Greenwich. 
 Coventry. 
 
 Newport lies in lat. 41 35' ; and was first settled 
 by Mr. William Coddiugton, afterwards governor, 
 and the father of Rhode Island, with seventeen 
 others, in 1639. Its harbour, which is one of the 
 finest in the world, spreads westward before the 
 town ; the entrance is easy and safe, and a large 
 fleet may anchor in it, and ride in perfect security. 
 The town lies north and south upon a gradual ascent 
 as you proceed from the water, and exhibits a beau- 
 tiful view from the harbour, and from the neighbour- 
 ing hills which lie westward upon the main. West 
 of the town is Goat Island, on which is a fort. Be- 
 tween this island and Rhode Island is the harbour. 
 Front or Water street is a mile in length. 
 
 Providence is situated in lat. 41 51' on both sides 
 of Providence river, is 35 miles from the sea, and 
 30 miles N. by W. from Newport ; it is the oldest 
 town in the state ; Roger Williams and his company 
 were its first settlers in 1636. 
 
 This town is divided into two parts by the river, 
 and connected by a bridge, formerly called Wey- 
 bosset, from a high hill of that name which stood 
 near the west end of the bridge, but which is now 
 removed, and its base built upon ; its situation 
 affording a prospect of all vessels leaving and enter- 
 ing the harbour, renders it a pleasant place of re- 
 sort in the summer. Ships of almost any size sail 
 up and down the channel, which is marked out by 
 
 stakes erected at points, shoals, and beds lying in 
 the river, so that strangers may come up to the 
 town without a pilot. In 1764 there were belonging 
 to the county of Providence 54 sail of vessels, con- 
 taining 4320 tons; they have much increased since. 
 
 This town suffered by the Indian war of 1G75, 
 when a number of its inhabitants removed to Rhode 
 Island for shelter. In the revolutionary war the 
 case was reversed ; many of the inhabitants of that 
 island removed to Providence. 
 
 Bristol is a pleasant thriving town, about six- 
 teen miles north of Newport, on the main ; part of 
 the town was destroyed hy the British, but it has 
 since been rebuilt; it has an episcopal and acongre- 
 
 Eational church. This town is noted for raising 
 irge quantities of onion and other roots. A num- 
 ber of vessels are owned by the inhabitants, and 
 they carry on a considerable trade to Africa, the 
 West Indies, and to different parts of the United 
 States. 
 
 Warren is also a flourishing town, has a very 
 lucrative trade with the West Indies and other 
 places, and a considerable portion of business in 
 ship-building. 
 
 Little Compton, called by the Indians Seconnet, 
 is said to be the best cultivated township in the 
 state, and affords a greater supply of provisions for 
 market, such as meats of the several kinds, but- 
 ter, cheese, vegetables, &c. than any other town of 
 its size. The inhabitants, who are an industrious 
 and sober people, and in these respects an example 
 worthy the notice and imitation of their brethren in 
 some other parts of the state, manufacture linen 
 and tow cloth, flannels, &c. of an excellent quality, 
 and in considerable quantities for sale. 
 
 About four miles north-east of Providence lies a 
 small village called Pautucket, a place of some 
 trade, and famous for lamprey eels, Through this 
 village runs Pautucket river, which empties into 
 Seekhonck river at this place : in this river is a 
 beautiful fall of water ; directly over the falls a 
 bridge has lately been built, which is a work of con- 
 siderable magnitude and much ingenuity, which di- 
 vides the commonwealth of Massachusetts from the 
 state of Rhode Island. The fall in its whole length 
 is upwards of 50 feet ; the water passes through 
 several chasms in a rock which runs diametrically 
 across the bed of the stream, and serves as a dam to 
 the water. Several mills have also been erected 
 upon these falls, and the spouts and channels which 
 have been constructed to conduct the streams to 
 their respective wheels, and the bridge, have taken 
 very much from the beauty and grandeur of the 
 scene, which would otherwise have been extremely 
 romantic. 
 
 In the town of Middletown> on Rhode Island, 
 about two miles from Newport, is a place called 
 Purgatory ; it joins to the sea on the east side of the 
 island ; it is a large cavity or opening, in a high 
 bed of rocks, about twelve feet in diameter at top, and 
 about 40 feet deep before you reach the water, of 
 which, as it joins the sea, it has always a large depth. 
 The rocks on each side appear to have been once 
 united, and were probably separated by some con- 
 vulsion in nature, 
 
 Before the revolutionary war, the merchants 
 mported from Great Britain dry goods; from 
 Africa slaves ; from the West Indies, sugars, coffees, 
 and molasses, and from the neighbouring colonies 
 umber and provisions. With the bills which 
 :hey obtained in Surinam and the Dutch Wesj 
 India islands, tfaey paid their merchants in En. 
 
780 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 gland; their sugars they carried to Holland; the 
 slaves from Africa they carried to the West Indies, 
 together with the lumber and provisions procured 
 from their neighbours ; the rum distilled from the 
 molasses was carried to Africa to purchase negroes ; 
 with their dry goods from England they trafficked 
 with the neighbouring colonies. By this kind of cir- 
 cuitous commerce they subsisted and grew rich ; but 
 the war, and some other events have had a great, 
 and in many respects, an injurious effect upon the 
 trade of this state. The slave trade, which was a 
 source of wealth to many of the people in Newport, 
 and in other parts of the state, has happily been 
 abolished ; the legislature have passed a law pro- 
 hibiting ships from going to Africa for slaves, and 
 selling them in the West India islands; and the 
 oath of one seaman belonging to the ship is suffi- 
 cient evidence of the fact. 
 
 The town of Bristol carries on a considerable 
 trade to Africa, the West Indies, and to different 
 parts of the United States ; but by far the greatest 
 part of the commerce of this state is at present car- 
 ried on by the inhabitants of the flourishing town of 
 Providence. 
 
 The exports from the state are flax-seed, lumber, 
 horses, cattle, beef, pork, fish, poultry, onions, but- 
 ter, cheese, barley, grain, spirits, and cotton and linen 
 goods. The imports consist of European and West 
 India goods, and logwood from the bay of Honduras. 
 The constitution of this state admits of no reli- 
 gious establishments any further than depends upon 
 the voluntary choice of individuals : all men pro- 
 fessing to believe in one Supreme Being, are equally 
 protected by the laws, and no particular sect can 
 claim pre-eminence. This unlimited liberty in re- 
 ligion is one principal cause why there is such a 
 variety of religious sects in Rhode Island. The 
 Baptists are the most numerous of any denomina- 
 tion in the state ; these, as well as the other Baptists 
 in New England, are chiefly upon the Calvinistic 
 plan as to doctrines, and Independents in regard to 
 church government. There are, however, some who 
 profess the Arminian tenets, others observe the 
 Jewish, or Saturday Sabbath, from a persuasion that 
 it was one of the ten commandments, which they 
 plead are all in their nature moral, and were never 
 abrogated in the New Testament, and must, at least, 
 be deemed of equal validity for public worship, as 
 any day particularly set apart by Jesus Christ and 
 his apostles. These are called Sabbatarian or Se- 
 venth-day Baptists. 
 
 The other religious denominations in Rhode 
 Island are, Congregationalists, Friends or Quakers, 
 Episcopalians, Moravians, and Jews. Besides these, 
 there are a considerable number of the people, who 
 can be reduced to no particular denomination 
 making no external profession of any religion, nor 
 attending any place of public worship. 
 
 In many towns public worship is much neglected 
 by the greater part of the inhabitants ; they pay no 
 taxes for the support of ecclesiastics of any denomi- 
 nation ; and a peculiarity which distinguishes this 
 state from every other Protestant country in the 
 known world, is, that no contract formed by the mi- 
 nister with his people, for his salary, is valid in 
 law ; so that ministers are dependent wholly on the 
 integrity of the people for their support, since their 
 salaries are not recoverable. It ought, however, to 
 be observed, that ministers in general are liberally 
 maintained, and none who merit it have much rea- 
 son to complain for want of support. 
 
 Throughout the whole of the late war with Great 
 
 Britain, the inhabitants of this state manifested a 
 patriotic spirit ; their troops behaved gallantly, and 
 hey are honoured in having produced the second 
 general in the field. 
 
 The literature of this state is confined princi- 
 pally to the towns of Newport and Providence. 
 At the latter is Brown University ; formerly called 
 Rhode Island-college. The charter for founding 
 this seminary of learning was granted by the gene- 
 ral assembly of the state, by the name of the " Trus- 
 tees and Fellows of the College or University, in 
 Lhe English colony of Rhode Island and Providence 
 Plantations," in 1764, in consequence of the peti- 
 :ion of a large number of the most respectable cha- 
 racters in the state. By the charter, the corporation 
 of the college consists of two separate branches, 
 with distinct, and respective powers. The num- 
 ber of trustees is 36, of whom 22 are Baptists, five 
 of the denomination of Friends, five Episcopa- 
 lians, and four Congregationalists. The same pro- 
 portion of the different denominations to continue in 
 perpetuum. The number of fellows (inclusive of the 
 president, who is a fellow ex officio) is twelve, of 
 whom eight are Baptists, the others chosen indiscri- 
 minately from any denomination. The concurrence 
 of both branches, by a majority of each, is neces- 
 sary for the validity of an act, except adjudging and 
 conferring degrees, which exclusively belongs to the 
 fellowship as a learned faculty. The president 
 must be a Baptist: professors and other officers of 
 instruction are not limited to any particular deno- 
 mination. There is annually a general meeting of 
 the corporation on the first Wednesday in Septem- 
 ber, at which time the public commencement is held. 
 
 It was first founded at Warren, in the county of 
 Bristol, but in the year 1770 the college was re- 
 moved to Providence, wheie a large, elegant build- 
 ing was erected for its accommodation, by the ge- 
 nerous donations of individuals, mostly from the 
 town of Providence. And in 1804 it received its 
 present name of Brown University; a wealthy in- 
 dividual of that name having, by a donation of 
 5000 dollars, gained the right of having his name 
 given to it, in accordance to a clause in its charter, 
 which decreed that it should receive the name of 
 any liberal benefactor. It is situated on a hill to 
 the east of the town; and while its elevated situa- 
 tion renders it delightful, by commanding an ex- 
 tensive, variegated prospect, it furnishes it with a 
 pure, salubrious air. The edifice is of brick, four 
 stories high, 150 feet long, and 46 wide, with a 
 projection often feet each side. It has an entry 
 lengthwise, with rooms on each side. There are 48 
 rooms for the accommodation of students, and eight 
 larger ones for public uses. The roof is covered 
 with slate. 
 
 This institution is under the instruction of a pre- 
 sident, a professor of divinity, a professor of natural 
 and experimental philosophy, a proi'essor of mathe- 
 matics and astronomy, a professor of natural his- 
 tory, and three tutors. Nearly all the funds of the 
 college are at interest in the treasury of the state, 
 and amount to almost 2000/. 
 
 At Newport there is a flourishing academy, under 
 the direction of a rector and tutors. 
 
 In 1752 a marine society was established at New- 
 port, for the purpose of relieving distressed widows 
 and orphans of maritime brethren, and such of their 
 society as may need assistance. 
 
 This state contained, in 1730, 15,302 whites, and 
 2,633 blacks; in 1748, 29,755 whites, and 4,373 
 blacks; and in 1761,35,939 whites, and 4,697 blacks. 
 
PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE. 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 i [As the great man who gave his name to the first 
 of these colonies was the entire foundation of that 
 extensive state, it will not be irrelevant to com- 
 mence our history of it with a slight account of the 
 life of its illustrious legislator.] 
 
 William Penn was the eldest son of Sir William 
 Penn, who served both under the Parliament, and 
 King Charles II., in several of the highest mari- 
 time offices. Sir William, born in Bristol in the 
 year 1621, was the son of Captain Giles Penn, 
 several years consul for the English, in the Medi- 
 terranean ; and of the Penns of Penns-lodge, in 
 Wiltshire, and the Penns of Penn, in the county of 
 Buckinghamshire, and by his mother, from the Gil- 
 berts, in Somersetshire, originally from Yorkshire. 
 
 He was addicted from his youth to maritime af- 
 fairs, and made captain at 21 years of age; rear- 
 admiral of Ireland at 23; vice-admiral of Ireland at 
 25; admiral to the Straits at 29; vice-admiral of 
 England at 31 ; and general in the first Dutch war 
 at 32. Whence returning, anno 1655, he was re- 
 turned to parliament for Weymouth. In 1660 he 
 was made commissioner of the admiralty and navy, 
 governor of the town and fort of Kingsail, vice-ad- 
 miral of Munster, and a member of that provincial 
 council; and anno 1664, he was chosen great cap- 
 tain-commander under the duke of York, in that 
 signal and most successful fight with the Dutch fleet. 
 
 He shortly after this took leave of the sea, 
 but continued in his other employments until 1669; 
 at which time, through bodily infirmities, occa- 
 sioned by his arduous life, he withdrew from public 
 affairs; and died at Wanstead, in Essex, on the 
 16th of September, 1670, in the 49th year of his 
 age; leaving a large estate, in England and Ire- 
 la'nd, to his son William; to whom he was per- 
 fectly reconciled, after the great displeasure he had 
 before conceived at his joining in religious society 
 with the Quakers: " Thus," says his son, " from a 
 lieutenant he passed through all the eminent offices 
 of sea employment, and arrived to that of general 
 about the 30th year of his age; in a time full of the 
 biggest sea actions that any history mentions ; and 
 when neither bribes nor alliance, favour nor affec- 
 tion, but ability only, could promote." Having ac- 
 quitted himself with honour and fidelity in all 
 his public offices, after the restoration he was 
 knighted by King Charles II., and became a peculiar 
 favourite of James, duke of York ; whose friend- 
 ship was, after his death, continued to his son; 
 which, in a particular manner, he requested of the 
 duke, on his death-bed. His wife was the daughter 
 of John Jasper, a Dutch merchant, at Rotterdam. 
 
 The celebrated William Penn, son and heir of 
 the above-mentiened Sir William, or Admiral Penn, 
 and the first proprietor and governor of Pennsyl- 
 vania, was born in London, on the 14th of October, 
 1614. He was endowed with an excellent capacity ; 
 
 and his father, from the favourable prospects which 
 he had of advancing him, was induced to give him 
 a liberal education ; and about the fifteenth year of 
 his age he was entered a student at Christ' s-church- 
 college, Oxford. 
 
 " At this time more particularly," says the writer 
 of his life, " began to appear in him a disposition 
 of mind after true spiritual religion; of which, be- 
 fore he had received some sense and taste, through 
 the ministry of Thomas Loe, a preacher under the 
 denomination of a Quaker. In this place, he, and 
 certain students of that university, withdrawing 
 themselves from the national way of worship, held 
 private meetings for the exercise of religion ; where 
 they both preached and prayed among themselves; 
 which gave great oft'ence to the heads of the col- 
 lege. He being then but sixteen years of age, 
 was fined for non-conformity ; and, at last, for his 
 persevering in the like religious practices, was ex- 
 pelled the college." 
 
 After he returned home, he still retained the 
 same turn of mind; which his father, judging likely 
 to be a great obstacle to his advancement, endea- 
 voured, by every means, to correct. But, after 
 having used both argument and even bodily chas- 
 tisement, without success, he was .so far incensed 
 against him, that he turned him out of his house. 
 
 Young Penn's patience surmounted this outrage, 
 till his father's affection had subdued his anger; 
 who then sent him to France in company with some 
 distinguished young men, who were about making 
 the grand tour. He continued there a considerable 
 time, aud his mind was diverted from all serious 
 thoughts of religion. He acquired a knowledge of 
 the French language, and became a very accom- 
 plished and fashionable young man ; and his father, 
 on his return, consequently received him with 
 great satisfaction. 
 
 About the year 1664 his spiritual conflict is said 
 to have been very great : his natural inclination, his 
 lively and active disposition, his accomplishments, 
 his father's favour, the respect of his friends and 
 acquaintances, strongly tempted him to embrace 
 the pleasures of the world, which he fought against 
 with earnest supplication. But in the year 1666, 
 and the 22nd of his age, his father committed to his 
 management a considerable estate in Ireland, which 
 occasioned his residence in that country; and there 
 being at Cork a religious meeting of the people 
 called Quakers, he was thoroughly and effectually 
 convinced of their principles, by means of the 
 preaching of one Thomas Loe, who ten years be- 
 fore had made a great impression upon him ; and 
 he thenceforward constantly attended the religious 
 meetings of that people, even through the heat of 
 persecution. 
 
 Being again at a meeting in Cork, in the year 
 1667, he, with many others, was apprehended, and 
 carried before the mayor, who, observing that his 
 dress was not that usually worn by the Quakers, 
 
782 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 would have set him at liberty, upon bond, for his 
 good behaviour ; but he refused to take advantage 
 of the offer, and was, with about eighteen others, 
 committed to prison. During his residence in Ire- 
 land he had formed an intimate acquaintance with 
 many of the nobility and gentry ; and being now a 
 prisoner, he wrote a letter, on the occasion, to the 
 earl of Orrery, lord-president ofMunster; in which 
 he informed him of his situation, pleaded his inno- 
 cence, and boldly exhibited the inconsistency with 
 true Christianity, as well as the ill policy, of such 
 kind of persecution, especially in Ireland. The 
 earl immediately ordered his discharge : but his 
 imprisonment was so far from terrifying him, that 
 it strengthened him in his resolution of a closer 
 union with that people, whose religious innocence 
 appeared to be the only crime for which they suf- 
 fered. 
 
 His more openly joining with the Quakers 
 brought on him a great deal of odium. His father 
 sent for him home; and upon his return, though 
 there was no great alteration in his dress, yet his 
 manners were manifest indications of the truth of 
 the information which his father had received. 
 " And here my pen," says the writer of his life, " is 
 diffident of her abilities to describe that most pa- 
 thetic and moving contest between his father and 
 him. His father, by natural love, principally aim- 
 ing at his sou's temporal honour; he, guided by a 
 divine impulse, having chiefly in view his own 
 eternal welfare ; his father, grieved to see the well- 
 accomplished son of his hopes, now ripe for worldly 
 promotion, voluntarily turn his back on it; he, no 
 less afflicted, to think that a compliance with his 
 earthly father's pleasure was inconsistent with an 
 obedience to his heavenly one ; his father pressing 
 his conformity to the customs and fashions of the 
 times; he modestly craving leave to refrain from 
 what would hurt his conscience; his father ear- 
 nestly entreating him, and, almost on his knees, 
 beseeching him to yield to his desire; he, of a 
 loving and tender disposition, in extreme agony of 
 spirit, to behold his father's concern and trouble ; 
 his father threatening to disinherit him ; he hum- 
 bly submitting to his father's will therein ; his 
 father turning his back on him in anger; he lift- 
 ing up his heart to God for strength, to support him 
 in that time of trial !" 
 
 During this contest, the same writer mentions 
 one very remarkable instance, among others, of his 
 sincerity. " His father, finding him too fixed to be 
 brought to a general compliance with the customary 
 compliments of the times, seemed inclinable to have 
 borne with him, in other respects, provided he 
 would be uncovered in the presence of the king, 
 the duke, and himself; this being proposed, he de- 
 sired time to consider of it ; which his father sup- 
 posing to be with an intention of consulting his 
 friends, the Quakers, about it, he assured him that 
 he would see the face of none of them, but retire to 
 his chamber, till he should return him an answer. 
 Accordingly he withrew, and, having humbled him- 
 self before God, with fasting and supplication, to 
 know his heavenly mind and will, he became so 
 strengthened in his resolution, that, returning to 
 his father, he humbly signified, that he could not 
 comply with his desire therein. 
 
 " Whan all endeavours proved ineffectual to 
 shake his constancy, and his father saw himself ut- 
 terly disappointed of his hopes, he could no longer 
 endure him in his sight, but turned him out of doors 
 the second time. Thus exposed to the charity of 
 
 his friends, having no other subsistence (except 
 what his mother privately sent him), he endured 
 the cross with a Christian patience and magnani- 
 mity, comforting himself with the promise of Christ ; 
 ' Verily I say unto you, there is no man, that hath 
 left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or chil- 
 dren, for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not 
 receive manyfold more, in this present time, and 
 in the world to come, life everlasting.' 
 
 " After a considerable time, his steady perseverance 
 evincing his integrity, his father's wrath became 
 somewhat mollified, so that he winked at his return 
 to, and continuance in his family; and though he 
 did not publicly seem to countenance him, yet, 
 when imprisoned for being at meetings, he privately 
 used his interest to get him released. 
 
 " About the year 1668, being the 24th of his age," 
 continues his biographer, " he first appeared in the 
 work of the ministry, rightly called to, and quali- 
 fied for, that office ; being sent of God to teach 
 others what himself had learned of him ; commis- 
 sioned from on high to preach to others that holy 
 self-denial which himself had practised ; to recom- 
 mend to all that serenity and peace of conscience 
 which himself had felt; walking in the light, to 
 call others out of darkness; having drank of the 
 water of life, to direct others to the same fountain ; 
 having tasted of the heavenly bread, to incite all 
 men to partake of the same banquet ; being re- 
 deemed by the power of Christ, he was sent to call 
 others from under the dominion of Satan, into the 
 glorious liberty of the sons of God, that they might 
 receive remission of sins, and an inheritance among 
 them that are sanctified through faith in Jesus Christ." 
 
 About this time he published several of his first 
 compositions now extant in his printed works ; one 
 of which, entitled, "The Sandy Foundation shaken," 
 was written in consequence of a dispute which he 
 had in London with one Vincent, a presbyter. In 
 this he exposed the vulgar notion of the Trinity, 
 and some other religious tenets ; which gave so 
 much offence to those in power in the church, that 
 they immediately took the old method of reforming 
 what they called error, by their strongest argument 
 viz. " An order for imprisoning him in the Tower of 
 London ;" where he was under close confinement, 
 and even denied the visits of his friends. But yet 
 his enemies did not obtain his conversion ; for when, 
 after some time, his servant brought him word, that 
 the bishop of London was resolved he should either 
 publicly recant, or die a prisoner, he made this reply : 
 "All is well : I wish they had told me so before ; since 
 the expecting a release put a stop to some business : 
 thou mayest tell my father, who, I know, will ask 
 thee these words; that my prison shall be my 
 grave, before I will budge a jot; for I owe my 
 conscience to no mortal man. I have no need to 
 fear: God will make amends for all. They are 
 mistaken in me ; I value not their threats and reso- 
 lutions : for they shall know I can weary out their 
 malice and peevishness; and in me shall they all 
 behold a resolution above fear ; conscience above 
 cruelty ; and a baffle put upon all their designs, by 
 the spirit of patience, the companion of all the tri- 
 bulated flock of the blessed Jesus, who is the author 
 and finisher of the faith that overcomes the world, 
 yea, death and hell too. Neither great nor good 
 things were ever attained without loss and hard- 
 ships. He that would reap and not labour must 
 faint with the wind, and perish in diappointments : 
 but a hair of my head shall not fall without the 
 providence of my Father, that is over all. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 " A spirit warmed with the love of God," says 
 the writer of his life, " and devoted to his service, 
 ever pursues its main purpose: he, being now re- 
 strained from preaching, applied himself to writing ; 
 several treatises were the fruits of his solitude, par- 
 ticularly that excellent one, entitled, ' No cross, no 
 crown ;' a book, which, tending to promote the 
 general design of religion, was well accepted, and 
 soon past several impressions." 
 
 He also, in the year 1669, wrote from the Tower 
 a letter to Lori Arlington, then principal secretary 
 of state, by whose warrant he was committed, in vin- 
 dication of his innocence, and to remove some asper- 
 sions cast upon him ; in this letter, with gi'eat bold- 
 ness, and elegance of style, he pleads the reason- 
 ableness of toleration in religion, shows the extreme 
 injustice of his imprisonment, and declares his firm 
 resolution to suffer, rather than give up his cause ; 
 he likewise requests the secretary to lay his case 
 before the king, and desires he may be ordered a 
 release; but, if that should be denied, he entreats 
 the favour of access to the royal presence, or at 
 least, that the secretary himself would please to 
 give him a full hearing, &c. And in order to clear 
 himself from the aspersions cast on him, in relation 
 to the doctrines of the Trinity, the incarnation, and 
 satisfaction of Christ, he published a little book called, 
 " Innocency with her open face," by way of apology 
 for the " Sandy foundation shaken ;" in which apology 
 he so successfully vindicated himself, that soon after 
 its publication, he was discharged from his impri- 
 sonment ; which had been of about seven months 
 continuance. 
 
 In the latter part of the summer this year, he went 
 again to Ireland; and being arrived at Cork, he there 
 visited his friends the Quakers, who were in prison, 
 for their religion, attended the meetings of his so- 
 ciety, and afterwards went from thence to Dublin ; 
 where an account of his friends' sufferings being 
 drawn up, by way of address, it was by him pre- 
 sented to the lord-lieutenant. 
 
 During his stay in Ireland, though his business, 
 in the care of his father's estate, occupied a consi- 
 derable part of his time, yet he frequently attended, 
 and preached in the meetings of his friends, espe- 
 cially at Dublin and Cork ; in one of which places 
 he usually resided. He also wrote during his resi- 
 dence there, several treatises, and took every op- 
 portunity in his power to solicit those in authority, 
 in behalf of his friends in prison : and, in the begin- 
 ning of 1670, through his repeated applications to 
 the chancellor, the Lord Arran, | and the lord-lieu- 
 tenant, an order of council was obtained for their 
 release. Having settled his father's affairs to his 
 satisfaction, and done his friends, the Quakers, many 
 services, he shortly after returned to England. 
 
 In the year 1670 was passed the Conventicle act, 
 which prohibited the meetings of the dissenters, 
 under severe penalties. The rigour of this law was 
 immediately executed upon the Quakers ; who not 
 being used to give way in the cause of religion, were 
 most exposed. Being kept out of their meeting- 
 house in Gracechurch-street by force, they met in the 
 street itself, as near it as they could ; and William 
 Penn, preaching there, was apprehended, and by a 
 warrant, dated the 14th August, 1670, from Sir 
 Samuel Starling, the lord mayor, committed to 
 Newgate ; and at the next sessions at the Old Bailey, 
 was, together with William Mead, indicted for being 
 present at, and preaching to, an unlawful, seditious 
 and riotous assembly. At his trial he made such an 
 excellent defence, as discovered at once both the 
 
 pirit of an Englishman, and the undaunted mag" 
 lanimity of a Christian ; insomuch that notwith" 
 landing the most partial menaces of the bench, the 
 ury acquitted him. The trial itself was soon after 
 mnted; and it exhibits a signal instance of the 
 attempts of the ignorance and tyranny of that time. 
 Tt may be seen in his printed works. 
 
 Not long after this famous trial, and his discharge 
 Vom Newgate, his father died, entirely reconciled 
 .o his sou ; to whom, as before observed, he left a 
 ood estate. His death-bed declarations and ex- 
 lortations are very remarkable, and may be seen 
 'n Penn's treatise, entitled, " No cross, no crown," 
 imong the sayings of other eminent persons. 
 
 He was about this time employed in defence of 
 lis religious principles, in a public dispute with one 
 Jeremy Ives, a celebrated Baptist; and afterwards in 
 he December of the same year, being at Oxford, and 
 observing the cruel usage and persecutionwhich his in- 
 nocent friends suffered there from the junior scholars, 
 oo much by the connivance of their superiors, he 
 wrote a letter to the vice-chancellor, on the subject. 
 
 In the winter this year, he also, while residing at 
 Peun in Buckinghamshire, published a book, en- 
 titled, " A reasonable caveat against Popery ;" 
 wherein he both exposes and confutes many errune- 
 ous doctrines of the church of Rome, and establishes 
 he opposite truths, by sound arguments ; a work 
 alone sufficient, on the one hand, to wipe off the 
 calumny cast upon him, of being a favourer of the 
 Romish religion ; and on the other, to show, that 
 his principle being for an universal liberty of con- 
 science, he would have had it extended, even to the 
 papists themselves, under a security of their not 
 persecuting others. 
 
 In March 1671, while he was preaching at a reli- 
 fjious meeting of his friends in Wheeler-street, Lon- 
 don, he was forcibly seized by a party of soldiers, 
 sent thither for that purpose, and carried to the 
 Tower, by an order from the lieutenant. In his ex- 
 amination, on this occasion, before the lieutenant 
 of the Tower, Sir John Robinson, Starling the lord 
 mayor, and others, his behaviour was very spirited. 
 It may be seen in the printed account of his life, 
 prefixed to his literary works ; in which, as the 
 lieutenant's words and conduct appear imperious, 
 and manifestly inimical, so his replies were smart, 
 and bold: and, on the lieutenant's charging him 
 with his having been as bad as other people, and 
 that both at home and abroad, he received this re- 
 markable answer from W. Penn, viz. " I make this 
 bold challenge to all men. women and children upon 
 earth, justly to accuse me, with ever having seen me 
 drunk, heard me swear, utter a curse, or speak one 
 obscene word (much less that I ever made it my 
 practice), I speak this to God's glory, that has pre- 
 served me from the power of those pollutions, and 
 that, from a child, begot a hatred in me towards 
 them. But there is nothing more common, than 
 when men are of a more severe life than ordinary, 
 for loose persons to comfort themselves with the 
 conceit, ' that they were once as they are,' as if there 
 were no collateral, or oblique line of the compass, 
 or globe, men may be said to come from to the 
 Arctic pole, but directly and immediately from the 
 Antartic. ' Thy words shall be thy burden, and I 
 trample thy slander, as dirt under my feet.' " 
 
 He was sent prisoner to Newgate for six months ; 
 where, during his confinement, he wrote several 
 treatises, and occasional pieces of controversy, ex- 
 tant in his works ; and the parliament being about 
 to take measures for enforcing with greater severity 
 
784 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the aforesaid conventicle act, he whose freedom o 
 spirit a prison could not confine from advocating 
 the cause of liberty, wrote from the same place the 
 following paper, directed, 
 
 " To the high court of Parliament. 
 " Forasmuch as it hath pleased you to make an 
 act, entitled, ' An act for suppressing seditious con- 
 venticles, the dangerous practices of seditious secta- 
 ries, &c.' and that, .under pretence of authority 
 from it, many have taken the ungodly liberty o 
 plundering, pillaging and breaking into houses, to 
 the ruin and detriment of whole families, not re- 
 garding the poor, the widow and the fatherless, be- 
 yond all precedent, or excuse; and, that we are 
 informed it is your purpose, instead of relaxing your 
 hand, to supply the defects of that act, by such ex- 
 planatory clauses as will inevitably expose us to the 
 fury and interest of our several adversaries; thai 
 under pretence of answering the intents of the said 
 act, will only gratify their private humours, ami 
 doubtless extend it beyond its original purpose, to 
 the utter destruction of us, and our suffering friends. 
 
 " We, therefore, esteem ourselves obliged, in 
 Christian duty, once more to remonstrate. 
 
 " First, That we own civil government, or magis- 
 tracy, as God's ordinance, for the punishment of 
 evil-doers, and the praise of them that do well; and 
 though we cannot comply with those laws that pro- 
 hibit us to worship God, according to our consci- 
 ences, as believing it to be his alone prerogative, to 
 preside in matters of faith and worship, yet we both 
 own and are ready to yield obedience to every ordi- 
 nance of man, relating to human affairs, and that 
 for conscience sake. 
 
 " Secondly, That we deny and renounce, as a 
 horrible impiety, all plots and conspiracies, or to 
 promote our interest, or religion, by the blood and 
 destruction of such as dissent from us, or yet those 
 that persecute us. 
 
 " Thirdly, That in all revolutions we have de- 
 meaned ourselves with much peace and patience 
 (disowning all contrary actings), notwithstanding the 
 numerous prosecutions of cruel and ungodly men ; 
 which is a demonstration of our harmless behaviour, 
 that ought not to be of little moment with you. 
 
 Fourthly, That as we have ever lived most peace- 
 ably under all the various governments, that have 
 *been since our first appearance (notwithstanding 
 we have been as their anvil to smite upon), so we do 
 hereby signify, that it is our fixed resolution to con- 
 tinue the same ; that where we cannot actually 
 obey, we patiently shall suffer, (leaving our inno- 
 cent cause without daring to love ourselves unto the 
 death, for our blessed testimony's sake,) thereby 
 manifesting to the whole world, that we love God 
 above all, and our neighbours as ourselves. 
 
 " If this prevails not with /you to suspend your 
 thoughts of reinforcing your former act, we do desire 
 that we, or some of our friends, 'may receive a free 
 hearing from you (as several of us had upon the first 
 act for uniformity), having many great and weighty 
 reasons to offer^against all such severe proceedings, 
 to the end all wrong measures of us, and of our prin- 
 ciples maybe rectified; and, that you, being better 
 informed of both, may remove our heavy burdens, 
 and let the oppressed go free ; for such moderation 
 will be well pleasing both to God and good men. 
 
 " From us who are prisoners, at Newgate (for 
 conscience sake), on behalf of ourselves, and all our 
 suffering friends in England, &c. 
 
 " WILLIAM PENN, and several others. 
 "Newgate, second month, 1671." 
 
 His six months' imprisonment in Newgate, being 
 expired, he was sot at liberty, and shortly after went 
 into Holland and Germany. Of his business, or 
 services, at this time, in these countries, we find no 
 particular account, besides some small memoran- 
 dums made in his journal of his subsequent travels 
 afterwards into those countries. 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1672, and the 28th 
 of his age, he married Gulielma Maria Springett, 
 daughter of Sir Wiliaii Sprinsett, formerly of Dar- 
 ling in Sussex; who was killed in the time of the 
 civil wars, at the siege of Bamber; and whose' 
 widow was afterwards married to Isaac Penington, 
 of Peter's Chalfont, in Buckinghamshire; in whose 
 family her daughter was brought up ; a young woman, 
 of an excellent disposition, and agreeable per- 
 son. Afterwards, fixing upon a convenient habita- 
 tion at Rickmcrsworth, in Hertfordshire, he re- 
 sided there with his family, often visiting the meet- 
 ings of his friends. 
 
 In the September of 1672, he visited his friends 
 in Kent, Sussex, and Surrey ; of which his memo- 
 randums furnish us with a proof of that singular in- 
 dustry which the dissenting ministers exercise m 
 the discharge of their office ; for in the space of 21 
 days, he with his companion were present at, and 
 preached to, as many assemblies of people, at dis- 
 tant places, viz. Rochester, Canterbury, Dover, 
 Deal, Folkstone. Ashford, and other places in Kent ; 
 at Lewes, Horsham, Stenning, &c. in Sussex ; and 
 at Charlevvood and Ryegatf in Surrey. " Great was 
 their service in these counties;" says the writer of 
 his life, " their testimonies, effectual to the strength- 
 ening of their friends, silencing of gainsayers, and 
 to a general edification, were received by the people 
 with joy, and openness of heart; and themselves 
 in the performance of their duty, filled with spiritual 
 consolation." Penn gives the following account of 
 their last meeting in that journey, being at Ryegate : 
 " The Lord sealed up our labours and travels ac- 
 cording to the desire of my soul and spirit, with his 
 heavenly refreshments, and sweet living power and 
 word of life, unto the reaching of all, and consola- 
 ting our own hearts abundantly ;" and he concludes 
 his narrative with saying : " And thus hath the 
 Lord been with us, in all our travels for his truth ; 
 and with his blessings of peace are we returned; 
 which is a reward beyond all worldly treasure." 
 
 About this time many opposers of the Quakers, 
 some of whom being dissenters themselves, who had 
 enough to do in time of persecution, by a cautious 
 privacy, which they called Christian prudence, to 
 secure their heads from the storm, began, under the 
 sun-shine of the king's indulgence, to peep out, and 
 [in the words of the writer of Penn's life) by gain- 
 saying the truth, to make its defence necessary ; so 
 that he had plenty of controversial exercise for his 
 pen, the remainder of this year, and the two next 
 ensuing ; which produced several valuable treatises, 
 extant in his works, together with many remark- 
 able and excellent letters and epistles, written both 
 ;o single persons, and collective bodies, in England, 
 Holland, Germany and elsewhere ; which, as they 
 are principally of a religious, and some of them of a 
 political nature, may likewise be seen in his printed 
 writings.",' Among these appears the following letter 
 o a Roman Catholic, viz. 
 
 " My Friend, 
 
 " Christ Jesus did redeem'a people with his most 
 >recious blood, and the ancient church of Rome, 
 imong other churches, was one ; but as the sea 
 oses and gets, and as prosperity changes its sta- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 785 
 
 tion, so the chastity of the church of Rome is 
 lost; she having taken in principles and discipline, 
 that are not of Christ, neither can be found in the 
 Holy Scriptures. 
 
 " If thou wert to die, wouldest not thou leave a 
 plain will to thy children ? so have Christ and his 
 apostles, in the Scriptures. Read, and thou mayest 
 behold the simplicity, purity, meekness, patience, 
 and self-denial of those Christians and churches. 
 They are Christ's that take up his cross to the 
 glory and spirit of this world; which the church of 
 Rome lives in. Behold the pride, luxury, cruelty, 
 that have, for ages, been in that church, even the 
 heads and chieftains thereof! It is a mistake to 
 think that Christ's church, which has lost its hea- 
 venly qualifications, because it once was. What 
 is become of Antioch, Jerusalem, &c. both churches 
 of Christ, and before Rome? Nor is it number, 
 (the devil has that;) nor antiquity, (for he has 
 that;) but Christ-likeness, and conformity to Jesus; 
 who hath divorced those that have adulterated ; and 
 though he had left but two or three (though there 
 were thousands), yet he would be in the midst of 
 them : and they have been in the wilderness, people 
 crying in sackcloth. The generality declined from 
 Christ's spirit ; and it was lost, and the teachings 
 of it : and then came up form, without power, and 
 a wrathful spirit, to propagate it; and this made 
 up the great whore, that looked like the Lamb's 
 bride, Christ's church, but was not; which God will 
 judge. Remember that God was not without a church, 
 though the natural church and priesthood of the Jews 
 apostatized : so in the case of the church of Rome. 
 
 " Now is the Lord raising up his old power, and 
 giving his spirit, and moving upon the waters (the 
 people), that out of that state all may come, and 
 know God in spirit, and Christ, his Son; whom 
 he has sent into the people's hearts, a true light. 
 And, my friend, build not upon fancies, nor the 
 traditions of men, but Christ the sure foundation, 
 as he appears to thee, in thy conscience ; that thou 
 mayest feel his power to redeem thee, up to him- 
 self, out of the earthly, sensual spirit, to know thy 
 right eye plucked out, the true mortification ; and 
 this brings thee to the church of the first-born, that 
 is more divine and noble than an outward glittering 
 church, that is inwardly polluted : for know, as thou 
 sowest, thou reapest in the great day of account. 
 So to God's spirit, in thy own conscience, do 1 re- 
 commend thee, that leads out of all evil, and quick- 
 ens thee to God, as thou obeyest it, and makes thee 
 a child of God, and an heir of glory. I am in much 
 haste, and as much love, " Thy true Friend, 
 
 "WILLIAM PENN. 
 " London, ninth October, 1675." 
 
 In the year 1676 he became one of the principal 
 persons concerned in settling West New Jersey, 
 in America ; as we have already seen in the historv 
 of that colony. About this time also he wrote to 
 some persons of great rank in Germany, as appears 
 in his works; encouraging them to a perseverance 
 in the paths of virtue and true religion ; with the 
 love, of which he had understood their minds were 
 happily and divinely inspired. 
 
 In the year 1677 he travelled into Holland and 
 Germany, in company with several of his friends, 
 the Quakers, on a religious visit, to these countries; 
 of which there is extant, in his works, an account 
 or journal, written by himself, in a plain and simple 
 style. It does not appear to have been originally 
 intended to be published ; for, in the preface to its 
 first publication, he says, " It was written for my 
 
 HIST. OF AMER. Nos. 99 & 100. 
 
 own, and some relations, and particular friends' sa- 
 tisfaction, as the long time it hath lain silent doth 
 shew, but a copy, that was found among the late 
 countess of Conway's papers, falling into the hands 
 of a person that much frequented that family, he 
 was earnest with me, both by himself and others, 
 to have leave to publish it for a common good," &c. 
 In this account are included several letters, epistles, 
 and religious productions, written during his tra- 
 vels, to persons of eminence and others, whom he 
 either visited in person, or writing. It is continued 
 from the 22d of July, 1677, when he left home, to 
 the 1st of November, when he returned to his habi- 
 tation, at Worminghurst, in Sussex. 
 
 In this journal mention is made of his having re- 
 ligious meetings, or paying personal visits, at Rot- 
 terdam, Leyden, Haerlam, and Amsterdam; in 
 which last place he made some stay, being em- 
 ployed there in assisting to regulate and settle the 
 affairs of his religious society in that city; and from 
 thence he wrote to the king of Poland,- in favour of 
 his persecuted and suffering friends, the Quakers, 
 at Dantzic. He was also at Naerden, Osnaburgh, 
 and Herwerden ; in the last of- which places he had 
 religious meetings and agreeable conversation with 
 the Princess Elizabeth Palatine and others. He 
 visited Paderborn, Cassel, and Frankfort; where 
 he made some stay, and wrote an epistle, " To the 
 churches of Jesus throughout the world," &c. From 
 thence he went through Worms to Crisheim, where 
 he found a meeting of his friends, the Quakers ; 
 and wrote to the princess before mentioned, and 
 the countess of Homes, two Protestant ladies of 
 great virtue and quality, at Herwerden. Thence 
 by Frankenthall to Manheim; from which place 
 he wrote to the prince elector Palatine of Heydel- 
 burgh. He was likewise at Mentz and many other 
 places on the Rhine; as Cullen, Duysburgh, &c. 
 But, on account of his being a Quaker, he was pro- 
 hibitjed to enter into Mulheim by the Graef, or earl 
 of Br'uch and Falkensteyn, lord of that country ; on 
 which occasion he wrote to him from Duysburgh, a 
 sharp letter of reproof and advice; and to his 
 daughter, the countess, a virtuous and religious lady, 
 at Mulheim, on whose account his visit there was 
 principally intended, he sent a consolatory epistle. 
 
 He then visited Wesel, Rees, Emrick, Cleve, 
 Nimeguen, Lippenhusen, Groningen, Embden, Bre- 
 men, and the Hague; and many of these places 
 several times, frequently writing letters of advice 
 and religious comfort to religious persons of great 
 quality and others. At the last-mentioned place he 
 corrected and finished several long epistles, of a 
 religious nature ; which were written and intended 
 for the press, both in his first and second journey iu 
 Germany; and which are now extant in his works. 
 From the Hague he went to Delft, Wonderwick, 
 and so to the Briel ; and from thence by the packet, 
 to Harwich, and so home. 
 
 After his return from Germany, the Quakers being 
 harassed with severe prosecutions in the exchequer, 
 on penalties of 201. per month, or two-thirds of their 
 estates, by laws made against Papists, but unjustly 
 exerted upon them ; Penn solicited the parliament 
 for redress of those grievances, and presented peti- 
 tions, on the occasion, both to the lords and commons; 
 where, upon being admitted to a hearing before a 
 committee, on the 22d of the month called March, 
 1 678, he made the following speeches : 
 
 " If we ought to believe that it is our duty, ac- 
 cording to the doctrine of the Apostle, to be always 
 ready to give an account of the hope that is in us, 
 
 3 Z 
 
786 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 and that to every sober and private inquirer; cer- 
 tainly much more ought we to hold ourselves obliged 
 to declare, with all readiness, when called to it by 
 so great authority, what is not our hope, especially 
 when our very safety is eminently concerned in so 
 doing, and that we cannot decline this discrimina- 
 tion of ourselves from Papists, without being con- 
 scious to ourselves of the guilt of our own suffer- 
 ings ; for that must every man needs be, that suffers 
 mutely, under another character than that, which 
 truly and properly belongeth to him, and his belief. 
 That which giveth me a more than ordinary right 
 to speak, at this time, and in this place, is the great 
 abuse, that I have received, above any other of my 
 profession ; for, of a long time I have not only been 
 supposed a Papist, but a seminary, a Jesuit, an 
 emissary of Rome, and in pay from the Pope, a man 
 dedicating my endeavours to the interest and ad- 
 vancement of that party. Nor hath this been the 
 report of the rabble, but the jealousy and insinua- 
 tion of persons otherwise sober and discreet: nay, 
 some zealous for the Protestant religion, have been 
 so far gone in this mistake, as not only to think ill 
 of us, and to decline our conversation, but to take 
 courage to themselves, to prosecute us for a sort of 
 concealed Papists ; and the truth is, what with one 
 thing, and what with another, we have been as the 
 wool-sacks, and common whipping-stock of the king- 
 dom ; all laws have been let loose upon us, as if the 
 design were not to reform, but to destroy us, and 
 that not for what we are, but for what we are not. 
 It is hard, that we must thus bear the stripes of an- 
 other interest, and be their proxy in punishment ; 
 but it is worse, that some men can please themselves 
 in such a sort of administration. 
 
 " I would not be mistaken, I am far from think- 
 ing it fit that Papists should be whipped for their 
 consciences, because I exclaim against the injustice 
 of whipping Quakers for Papists : no, for though 
 the hand pretended to be lifted up against ttoem, 
 hath (1 know not by what direction) lit ^eavy upon 
 us, and we complain; yet we do not mean, that 
 any should take a fresh aim at them, or that they 
 must come in our room ; for we must give the 
 liberty we ask, and cannot be false to our princi- 
 ples, though it were to relieve ourselves ; for we 
 have good will to all men, and would have none 
 suffer for a truly sober and conscientious dissent, 
 on any hand : and I humbly take leave to add, that 
 those methods, against persons so qualified, do not 
 seem to me to be convincing, or indeed adequate to 
 the reason of mankind ; but this I submit to your 
 consideration. 
 
 " To conclude, 1 hope we shall be held excused 
 of the men of that profession, in giving this dis- 
 tinguishing declaration, since it is not with design 
 to expose them ; but, first, to pay that regard, we 
 owe to the inquiry of this committee ; and, in the 
 next place, to relieve ourselves from the daily spoil 
 and ruin, which now attend and threaten many 
 hundreds of families, by the execution of laws that 
 we humbly conceive were never made against us." 
 
 He afterwards made a second speech to the com- 
 mittee as follows : 
 
 " The candid hearing, our sufferings have re- 
 ceived from the committee, and the fair and easy 
 entertainment that you have given us, oblige me to 
 add what ever can increase your satisfaction about 
 us. I hope you do not believe, I would tell you a 
 lie ; I am sure I should choose an ill time and place 
 to tell it in ; but, I thank God it is too late in the 
 day for that. There are some here that have known 
 
 me fom.erly ; I believe they will say, I never was 
 that man ; and it would be hard, if after a volun- 
 tary neglect of the advantages of this world, I 
 should sit down, in my retirement, short of common 
 truth. 
 
 " Excuse the length of my introduction, it is for 
 this I make it. I was bred a Protestant, and that 
 strictly too : I lost nothing by time or study ; for 
 years, reading, travel and observations made the 
 religion of my education the religion of my judg- 
 ment: my alteration hath brought none to that be- 
 lief; and though the posture lam in may seem odd, 
 or strange to you, yet I am conscientious ; and (till 
 you know me better) I hope your charity will rather 
 call it my unhappiness than my crime. I do tell 
 you again, and here solemnly declare, in the pre- 
 sence of Almighty God, and before you all, that 
 the profession I now make, and the society I now 
 adhere to, have been so far from altering that Pro- 
 testant judgment I had, that I am not conscious to 
 myself of having receded from an iota of any one 
 principle, maintained by those first Protestants and 
 reformers of Germany, and our own martyrs, at 
 home, against the Pope, and See of Rome. 
 
 " On the contrary, I do, with great, truth, assure 
 you, that we are of the same negative faith with the 
 ancient Protestant church, and upon occasion, shall 
 be ready by God's assistance to make it appear, 
 that we are of the same belief, as to the most funda- 
 mental positive articles of her creed too. And, 
 therefore it is, we think it hard, that though wo 
 deny, in common with her, those doctrines of Rome, 
 so zealously protested against, from whence the 
 name Protestants ; yet that we should be so unhappy 
 as to suffer, and that with extreme severity, by those 
 very laws on purpose made against the maintainers 
 of those doctrines, we do so deny. We choose no 
 suffering, for God knows what we have already suf- 
 fered, and how many sufficient and trading families 
 are reduced to great poverty by it. We think our- 
 selves a useful people : we are sure we are a peace- 
 able people ; but, if we still suffer, let us not suffer 
 as Popish recusants, but as Protestant dissenters. 
 
 " But I would obviate another objection, and 
 that none of the least, that hath been made against 
 us, viz. ' That we are enemies to government in gene- 
 ral, and particularly disaffected to this we live under.' 
 I think it not amiss, but very seasonable, yea, my 
 duty, now to declare to you (and that I do with 
 good conscience, in the sight of the Almighty God), 
 first, that we believe government to be God's ordi- 
 nance ; and next, that this present government is 
 established by the providence of God, and law of 
 the land, and that it is our Christian duty readily to 
 obey it, in all just laws; and wherein* we cannot 
 comply, through tenderness of conscience, in all 
 such cases, not to revile, or conspire against the 
 government, but, with Christian humility and pa- 
 tience, tire out all mistakes about us ; and wait their 
 better information; who, we believe, do as unde- 
 servedly as severely treat us ; and I know not what 
 greater security can be given by any people, or how 
 any government can be easier from the subjects 
 of it, 
 
 " I shall conclude with this; that we are so far 
 from esteeming it hard, or ill, that the house hath 
 put us upon this discrimination, that, on the con- 
 trary, we value it as we ought to do, for a high 
 favour, (and cannot choose but see, and humbly 
 acknowledge God's providence therein,) that you 
 should give us this fair occasion to discharge our- 
 selves of a burden we have, not with more patience 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 787 
 
 than injustice, suffered but too many years under ; 
 and I hope our conversation shall always manifest 
 the grateful resentment of our minds, for the justice 
 and civility of this opportunity ; and so I pray God 
 direct you." 
 
 The committee agreed to insert in a bill, then 
 depending, a proviso, or clause, for relief, in the 
 case complained of; and it passed the House of 
 Commons : but before it had gone through the House 
 of Lords, it was quashed by a sudden prorogation 
 of the parliament. 
 
 About this time (1679) and the following year, 
 the people's minds being disturbed with rumours of 
 plots, apprehensions of a French invasion, and de- 
 signs to subvert the Protestant religion, and intro- 
 duce Popery, he wrote and published several pieces 
 by way of advice to his friends, the Quakers, in par- 
 ticular ; among which was published, in the year 
 1679, the excellent treatise, entitled, " An address 
 to Protestants of all persuasions," &c. And in the 
 year 1681, there being a fresh persecution against 
 his friends, the Quakers, in the city of Bristol, he 
 wrote them the following epistle (which is here in- 
 serted as a characteristic specimen of him and his 
 style of writing) : 
 
 " To the friends of God in the city of Bristol. 
 
 "This sent to be read among them, when as- 
 sembled to wait upon the Lord. 
 " My beloved in the Lord, 
 
 " I do hereby send amongst you the dear and ten- 
 der salutation of my unfeigned love, that is held in 
 the fellowship of the lasting Gospel of peace, that 
 has many years been preached and believed amongst 
 you, beseeching the God and Father of this glorious 
 day of the Son of man, to increase and multiply his 
 grace, mercy and peace among you ; that you may 
 be faithful, and abound in every good word and work, 
 doing and suffering what is pleasing unto God ; that 
 you may prove what is that good and acceptable 
 and perfect will of God ; which it becomes you to be 
 found daily doing ; that so an entrance may be ad- 
 ministered unto you abundantly into the kingdom of 
 our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, that is an ever- 
 lasting kingdom. My beloved brethren and sisters, 
 be not cast down at the rage of evil men, whose 
 anger works not the righteousness of God; and 
 whose cruelty the Lord will limit. Nothing strange, 
 or unusual, is come to pass, it makes well for them, 
 that eye the Lord in and through these sufferings : 
 there is food in affliction, and though the instru- 
 ments of it cannot see it, all shall work together 
 for good to them that fear the Lord: keep your 
 ground in the truth, that was, and is the saints' vic- 
 tory. They that shrink, go out of it ; it is a shield 
 to the righteous : feel it, and see, I charge you by 
 the presence of the Lord, that you turn not aside 
 the Lord's end towards you, in this suffering, by 
 consulting with flesh and blood, in easing your ad- 
 versaries ; for that will load you. Keep out of base 
 bargainings, or conniving at fleshly evasions of the 
 cross. Our Captain would not leave us such an ex- 
 ample : let them shrink that know not why they 
 should stand; we know, in whom we have believed : 
 he is mightier in the faithful, to suffer and endure 
 to the end, than the world, to persecute : call to 
 mind those blessed ancients, ' That by faith over- 
 came of old, that endured cruel mockings and 
 scourgings, yea moreover, bonds and imprisonments, 
 that accepted not deliverance (to deny their testi- 
 mony), that they might obtain a better resurrec- 
 tion :' They were stoned ; they were tempted ; they 
 vrere sawn asunder ; they were slain With the sword ; 
 
 but ye have not so resisted unto blood ; and it suffi- 
 ceth, I hope, to you, that the Lord knoweth how to 
 deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve 
 the unjust unto the day of judgment, to be punished; 
 when it may be truly said, ' It shall go well with 
 the righteous, but very ill with the wicked.' The 
 Lord God, by his power, keep your hearts living 
 to him ; that it may be your delight to wait upon 
 him, and receive the bounty of his love ; that, being 
 fed with his daily bread, and drinking of his cup of 
 blessing, you may be raised above the fear and trou- 
 ble of earthly things and grow strong in him, who 
 is your crown of rejoicing ; that, having answered 
 his' requirings, and walked faithfully before 'him, 
 you may receive in the end of your days, the wel- 
 come sentence of gladness. Eternal riches are be- 
 fore you, an inheritance incorruptible : press after 
 that glorious mark : let your minds be set on things 
 that are above, and when Christ, that is the glory 
 of his poor people, shall appear, they shall appear 
 with him in glory ; when all tears shall be wiped 
 away, and there shall be no more sorrow, or sigh- 
 ing," but they that overcome, shall stand as Mount 
 Sion, that cannot be removed. 
 
 " So, my dear friends and brethren, endure, that 
 you may be saved, and you shall reap, if you faint 
 not. What should we be troubled for ? our king- 
 dom is not of this world, nor can be shaken by the 
 overturning here below. Let all give glory to God 
 on high, live peaceably on earth, and show good 
 will to all men ; and our enemies will at last see 
 they do they know not what, and repent, and glo- 
 rify" God our heavenly Father. O ! great is God's 
 work on earth. Be universal in your spirits, and 
 keep out all straightness and narrowness : look to 
 God's great and glorious kingdom, and its prospe- 
 rity : our time is not our own, nor are we our own : 
 God hath bought us with a price, not to serve our- 
 selves, but to glorify him, both in body, soul and 
 spirit ; and, by bodily sufferings for the truth, he 
 is glorified : look to the accomplishing of the will 
 of God, in these things ; that the measure of Christ's 
 sufferings may be filled up in us, who bear about 
 the ' dying of the Lord Jesus ;' else our suffering 
 is in vain. Wherefore, as the flock of God, and 
 family and household of faith, walk with your loins 
 girded,being sober,hoping to the end, for the grace and 
 kindness, which shall be brought unto you, at the 
 revelation of Jesus Christ, to whom you and your's 
 are committed : his precious Spirit minister unto 
 you, and his own life be shed abroad plefcteously 
 among you, that you may be kept blameless to the 
 end. I am your friend and brother in the fellow- 
 ship of the suffering for truth, as it is in Jesus, 
 
 "WILLIAM PENN. 
 
 " Worminghurst, 24th of the twelfth month, 1681." 
 Having thus far pursued his biography, and hav- 
 ing already, in the history of New Jersey, given an 
 account of the share he took in settling that colony, 
 we shall attend him in the settlement and coloniza- 
 tion of his province of Pennsylvania. 
 William Perm's tfhief design in the colonization of 
 Pennsylvania Cause and manner of obtaining the 
 grant King Charles H.'s royal charter to William 
 Penn Boundary between Maryland and Pennsyl- 
 vania, with the real extent and content of the latter 
 The King's declaration Account of the pro- 
 vince, terms of sale for land, and conditions of settle- 
 ment published, with advice to the adventurers 
 Free society of traders, fyc. 
 
 On the death of Admiral Penn, there was a large 
 
 3 Z 2 
 
788 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 sum of money due from the government to him; 
 much of which he himself had advanced for the 
 sea service; and the rest was for arrears in his 
 pay. In consequence of this debt, William Penn, 
 in the summer of the year 1680, petitioned Charles 
 II., that letters patent might be granted him, for a 
 tract of land in America, lying north of Maryland ; 
 en the east, bounded by Delaware river ; on the 
 west limited as Maryland; and northward to extend 
 as far as plautable. 
 
 (1681.) This was first laid before the privy-coun- 
 cil, and afterwards the lords of the committee of 
 trade and plantations. After several meetings on 
 the occasion, in which the objections from the duke 
 of York, by his agent, Sir John Werden, as pro- 
 prietor of that tract of land, since called the coun- 
 ties of New Castle, Kent, arid Sussex, on Delaware; 
 and from the Lord Baltimore, proprietor of Alary- 
 land, were fully hoard and debated ; the Lord Chief 
 Justice North,' and the attorney-general, Sir Wil- 
 liam Jones, being consulted both respecting the 
 grant itself, and also the form, or mariner of making 
 it, the affair was at length decided in William 
 Penn's favour; and he was, by charter, dated at 
 Westminster, the 4th day of March, 1681, made 
 and constituted full and absolute proprietor of all 
 that tract of land and province, now called Penn- 
 sylvania, and invested with the powers of govern- 
 ment of the same. 
 
 This charter is as follows : 
 " The charter of Charles II., of England, Scotland, 
 France, and Ireland, king, defender of the faith, 
 &c. unto William Penn, proprietary and gover- 
 nor of the province of Pennsylvania, 
 " Charles, by the grace of God, king of England, 
 Scotland, France, and Ireland, defender of thr 
 faith, &c. to all, to whom these presents shall come 
 greeting : 
 
 " Whereas our trusty and well-beloved subject 
 William Penn, Esq., son and heir of Sir William 
 Penn, deceased (out of a commendable desire t( 
 enlarge our British empire, and promote such usefu 
 commodities as may be of benefit to us and our do 
 minions, as also to reduce the savage natives, by 
 just and gentle manners, to the love of civil society 
 and Christian religion), hath humbly besought leav< 
 of us, to transport an ample colony unto a certain 
 country, hereinafter described, in the parts of Ame 
 rica not yet cultivated and planted ; and hath like 
 wise so humbly besought our royal majesty to give 
 grant, *and confirm all the said country, with cer 
 tain privileges and jurisdictions, requisite for the 
 good goTernment and safety of the said country an 
 colony, to him, and his heirs for ever. 
 
 " I*. Know ye, therefore, that we (favouring the 
 petition and good purpose of the said William Penn 
 and having regard to the memory and merits of hi 
 late father, in divers services, and particularly t 
 his conduct, courage, and discretion, under ou 
 dearest brother, James, duke of York, in that signa 
 battle and victory, fought and obtained against th 
 Dutch fleet, commanded by the Heer Van Opdam, in 
 the year 16o5 : in consideration thereof, of our spe 
 cial grace; certain knowledge, and mere motion 
 have given and granted, and, by this our presen 
 charter, for us. our heirs and successors, do give an 
 grant unto the said William Penn, his heirs an 
 assigns, all that tract, or part of laud in America 
 with the islands therein contained, as the same f 
 bounded, on the east by Delaware river, from twelv 
 miles distance northwards of New Castle town 
 unto the 43d degree of northern latitude, if the sai 
 
 ver doth extend so far northward, but if the said 
 ver shall not extend so far northward, then, by itia 
 aid river, so far as it doth extend; and from the 
 ead of the said river, the eastern bounds are to be- 
 et ermined by a meridian line, to be drawn from 
 he head of the said river, unto the said 43d degree. 
 "he said land to extend westward five degrees in 
 ongitude, to be computed from the said eastern 
 ouiuls; and the said lands to be bounded on thtr 
 orth by the beginning of the 43d degree of nor- 
 tiern latitude, and on the south by a circle, drawn 
 t twelve miles distance from New Castle, north- 
 ward and westward, unto the beginning of the 1 
 Oth degree of northern latitude ; and then by a 
 traight line westward to the limits of longitude 
 bove mentioned. 
 
 ' II. We do also give and grant unto the said 
 
 William Penn, his heirs and assigns, the free, and 
 
 ndisturbed use, and continuance in, and passage 
 
 nto, and out of all and singular ports, harbours, 
 
 ays, waters, rivers, isles, and inlets, belonging unto, 
 
 r leading to, and from, the country, or islands 
 
 aforesaid, and all the soils, lands, fields, woods, un- 
 
 lerwoods, mountains, hills, fenns, isles, lakes, rivers, 
 
 aters, rivulets, bays, and inlets, situated, or being 
 vithin, or belonging to, the limits, or bounds, afore- 
 aid, together with the fishing of all sorts offish, 
 whales, sturgeon, and all royal, and other fishes, iit 
 he seas, bays, inlets, waters, or livers, within the 
 ^remises, and all the fish taken therein ; and also all 
 veins, mines, minerals and quarries, as well dis- 
 covered as not discovered, of gold, silver, gemms, 
 and precious stones, and all other whatsoever, be it 
 stones, metals, or of any other thing or matter 
 whatsoever, found, or to be found, within the coun- 
 try, isles, or limits aforesaid. 
 
 " III. And him, the said William Penn, his 
 icirs and assigns, we do by this our royal charter, 
 for us, our heirs and successors, make, create, and 
 constitute the true and absolute proprietary of the 
 country aforesaid, and of all other the premises; 
 saving always to us, our heirs and successors, the 
 faith and allegiance of the said William Penn, his 
 heirs and assigns, and of all other proprietaries, 
 tenants and inhabitants, that are, or shall be, within 
 the territories and precincts aforesaid ; and saving 
 also unto us, our heirs and successors, the sove- 
 reignty of the aforesaid country; to have, hold, 
 possess, and enjoy the said tract of land, country, 
 isles, inlets, and other the premises, unto the said 
 William Penn, his heirs and assigns for ever, to be 
 holden of us, our heirs and successors, kings of 
 England, as of our castle of Windsor, in the county 
 of Berks, in free and common soccage, by fealty 
 only, for all services and not in capite, or by knight 
 service: yielding and paying therefore to us, our 
 heirs and successors, two beaver skins, to be deli- 
 vered at our castle of Windsor, on the 1st day of 
 January in every year ; and also the fifth part of 
 all gold and silver oar, which shall, from time to 
 time, happen to be found within the limits aforesaid, 
 clear of all charges. And of our further grace-, 
 certain knowledge, mere motion, We have thought 
 fit to erect, and we do hereby erect, the aforesaid 
 country and islands into a province and seigniory, 
 and do' call it Pensilvania, and so from henceforth 
 will have it called. 
 
 " IV. And, for as much as, we have hereby made 
 and ordained the aforesaid William Penn, his heirs 
 and assigns, the true and absolute proprietaries of 
 all the lands and dominions aforesaid, Know ye, 
 therefore, that we (reposing special trust and con- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 789 
 
 fidence in the fidelity, wisdom, justice, and provi 
 dent circumspection of the said William Penn) fo; 
 us, our heirs and successors, do grant free, full, ant 
 absolute power, by virtue of these presents, to him 
 and his heirs, to his, and their deputies and lieute- 
 nants, for the good and happy government of the 
 said country, to ordain, make, and enact, and, 
 under his and their seals, to publish any laws what- 
 soever, for the raising of money for public uses o 
 the said province, or tor any other end, appertain 
 ing either unto the public state, peace, or safety o 
 the said country, or unto the private utility of par- 
 ticular persons, according unto their best discretion, 
 and with the advice, assent, and approbation of the 
 freemen of the said country, or the greater part of 
 them, or of their delegates, or deputies, whom, for 
 the enacting of the said laws, when, and as often a? 
 need shall require, we will that the said William 
 Penn, and his heirs, shall assemble, in such sort 
 and form, as to him and them shall seem best, and 
 the same laws duly to execute, unto and upon all 
 people, within the said country and limits thereof. 
 
 " V. And we do likewise give and grant unto the 
 said William Penn, and to his heirs, and their de- 
 puties and lieutenants, full power and authority to 
 appoint and establish any judges and justices, ma- 
 gistrates, and other officers whatsoever, (for the 
 probates of wills, and for the granting of adminis- 
 tration within the precincts aforesaid, and with what 
 power soever, and in such form, as to the said Wil- 
 liam Penn, or his heirs shall seem most convenient:) 
 also to remit, release, pardon, and abolish (whether 
 before judgment or after) all crimes and offences 
 whatsoever, committed within the said country, 
 against the laws (treason and wilful and mali- 
 cious murder only excepted, and, in those cases, to 
 grant reprieves, until our pleasure may be known 
 therein), and to do all and every other thing and 
 things, which unto the complete establishment of 
 justice, unto courts and tribunals, forms of judica- 
 ture, and manner of proceedings do belong, al- 
 though, in these presents, express mention be not 
 made thereof; and by jiulges, by them delegated, to 
 award process, hold pleas, and determine, in all 
 the said courts and tribunals, all actions, suits, and 
 causes whatsoever, as well criminal as civil, personal, 
 real, and mixt ; which laws, so as aforesaid, to be 
 published, our pleasure is, and so we enjoin, re- 
 quire, and command, shall be most absolute and 
 available in law ; and that all the liege people and 
 subjects of us, our heirs and successors, do observe 
 and keep the same inviolably in those parts, so far 
 as they concern them, unde'r the pain therein ex- 
 pressed, or to be expressed. Provided, nevertheless, 
 That the same laws be consonant to reason, and 
 not repugnant or contrary, but (as near as conve- 
 niently may be) agreeable to the laws and statutes, 
 and rights of this our kingdom of England ; and 
 saving and reserving to us, our heirs and successors, 
 the receiving, hearing, and determining of the ap- 
 peal and appeals of all, or any person, or persons, 
 of, in, or belonging to the territories aforesaid, or 
 touching any judgment to be there made, or given. 
 " VI. And, for as much as, in the government 
 of so great a country, sudden accidents do often 
 happen, whereunto it will be necessary to apply 
 remedy, before the freeholders of the said province, 
 or their delegates, or deputies, can be assembled, to 
 the making of laws ; neither will it be convenient, 
 that instantly upon every such occasion, so great a 
 multitude should be called together : therefore (for 
 the better government of the baid country) we will 
 
 and ordain, and by these presents, for us, our heirt 
 and successors, do grant unto the said William 
 Penn and his heirs, by themselves, or by their ma- 
 gistrates and officers, in that behalf, duly to be or- 
 dained, as aforesaid, to make and constitute tit and 
 wholesome ordinances, from time to time, within the 
 said country to be kept and observed, as well for 
 the preservation of the peace, as for ttie better go- 
 vernment of the people there inhabiting ; and pub- 
 licly to notify the same to all persons whom the 
 same doth, or may any ways concern. Whirh ordi- 
 nances our will and pleasure is shall be observed 
 inviolably within the said province, under the pains 
 therein to be expressed, so as the said ordinances 
 be consonant to reason, and be not repugnant nor 
 contrary, but (so far as conveniently may be) agree- 
 able with the laws of our kingdom of England, and 
 so as the said ordinances be not extended, in any 
 sort, to bind, change, or take away the right, or in- 
 terest of any person, or persons, for, or in, their 
 life, members, freehold, goods, or chattels. And our 
 farther will and pleasure is, Tiiat the laws for re- 
 gulating and governing of property within the said 
 province, as well as for tiie descent and enjoyment 
 of lands, as like-wise fur the enjoyment and succes- 
 sion of goods and chattels, and likewise as to felo- 
 nies, shall be, and continue the same, as they shall 
 be for the time being by the general course of the 
 law in our kingdom of England, until the said laws- 
 shall be altered by the said William Penn, his heirs, 
 or assigns, and by the freemen of the said province,, 
 their delegates, or deputies, or the greater part of 
 them. 
 
 " VII. Affd to the end that the said William 
 Penn, or his heirs, or other the planters, owners, or 
 inhabitants of the said province may not, at any 
 time hereafter (by misconstruction 'of the power 
 aforesaid) through inadvertency, or design, depart 
 from that faith and due allegiance, which by the 
 laws of this our realm of England, they and all our 
 subjects, in our dominions and territories, always 
 owe to us, our heirs and successors, by colour of any 
 extent, or largeness of powers hereby given, or pre- 
 tended to be given, or by force or colour of any 
 laws hereafter to be made, in the said province, by 
 virtue of any such powers; our further will and 
 pleasure is, that a transcript or duplicate of all laws 
 which shall be so, as aforesaid, made and published 
 within the said province, shall, within five years 
 after the making thereof, be transmitted and deli- 
 vered to the privy-council, for the time being, of us, 
 our heirs and successors: and if any of the said 
 laws, within the space of six months after that 
 they shall be so transmitted and delivered, be de- 
 clared by us, our heirs and successors, in our, or 
 their privy -council, inconsistent wiih the sove- 
 reignty, or lawful prerogative of us, our heirs and 
 successors, or contrary to the faith and allegiance 
 due to the legal government of this realm, from the 
 said William Penn, or his heirs, or of the planters 
 and inhabitants of the said province, and that there, 
 upon any of the said laws shall be adjudged and 
 declared to be void by us, our heirs and successors, 
 under our or their privy seal, that then, and from 
 thenceforth such laws, concerning which such judg- 
 ment and declaration shall be made, shall become 
 void : otherwise the said laws, so transmitted, shall 
 remain and stand in full force, according to the true 
 ntent and meaning thereof. 
 
 " VIII. Furthermore, that this new colony may 
 he more happily increase by the multitude of people 
 esorting thither; therefore we, for us, our heirs 
 
790 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 and successors, do give and grant by these presents, 
 power, licence, and liberty unto all the liege people 
 and subjects, both present and future, of us, our 
 heirs and successors (excepting those, who shall 
 be especially forbidden), to transport themselves and 
 families unto the said country, with such conveni- 
 ent shipping, as, by the laws of this our kingdom of 
 England, they ought to use, and with fitting provi- 
 sion ; paying only the customs therefore due, and 
 there to settle themselves, dwell and inhabit and 
 plant, for the public, and their own private ad- 
 vantage. 
 
 " IX. And furthermore, that our subjects may be 
 the rather encouraged to undertake this expedition, 
 with ready and cheerful minds, know ye, That we, 
 of our special grace, certain knowledge, and mere 
 motion, do give and grant, by virtue of these pre- 
 sents, as well unto the said William Penn, and his 
 heirs, as to all others, who shall, from time to time, 
 repair unto the said country, full licence to lade 
 and freight in any ports whatsoever of us, our .heirs 
 and successors, according to the laws made, or to 
 be made, within our kingdom of England, and unto 
 the said country, by them, their servants or assigns, 
 to transport all and singular their goods, wares and 
 merchandizes, as likewise all sorts of grain whatso- 
 ever, and all other things whatsoever, necessary for 
 food or clothing not prohibited by the laws and 
 statutes of our kingdom and dominions, to be carried 
 out of the said kingdom, without any let, or moles- 
 tation of us, our heirs and successors, or of any of the 
 officers of us, our heirs or successors ; saving always 
 to us, our heirs and successors, the legal imposi- 
 tions, customs, or other duties and payments for the 
 said wares and merchandizes, by any law or statute, 
 due, or to be due to us, our heirs and successors. 
 
 " X. And we do further, for us, our heirs and 
 successors, give and grant unto the said William 
 Penn, his heirs and assigns, free and absolute power, 
 to divide the said country and islands into towns, 
 hundreds and counties, and to erect and incorporate 
 towns into burroughs, and burroughs into cities, and 
 to make and constitute fairs and markets therein, 
 with all other convenient privileges and immunities, 
 according to the merits of the inhabitants, and the 
 fitness of the places, and to do all, and every other 
 thing and things, touching the premises, which to 
 him, or them, shall seem meet aud requisite ; albeit 
 they be such, as of their own nature might other- 
 wise require a more special commandment and war- 
 rant, than, in these presents, is expressed. 
 
 " XL We will also, and, by these presents, for 
 us, our heirs and successors, we do give and grant 
 licence, by this our charter, unto the said William 
 Penn, his heirs and assigns, and to all the inhabi- 
 tants and dwellers in the province aforesaid, both 
 present and to come, to import or unlade, by them- 
 selves or their servants, factors, or assigns, all mer- 
 chandizes and goods whatsoever, that shall arise oi 
 the fruits and commodities of the said province, 
 either by land or sea, into any of the ports of us, 
 our heirs or successors, in our kingdom of England, 
 and not into any other country whatsoever : and we 
 give him full power to dispose of the said goods, in 
 the said ports ; and, if need be, within one year 
 after the unlading of the same, to lade the said 
 merchandize and goods again, into the same or other 
 ships, and to transport the same into any other 
 countries, either of our dominions, or foreign, ac- 
 cording to law; provided always, that they pay 
 such customs and impositions, subsidies and duties 
 for the same, to us, our heirs and successors, as the 
 
 rest of our subjects of our kingdom of England, for 
 the time being, shall be bound to pay, and do ob- 
 serve the acts of navigation and other laws, in that 
 behalf made. 
 
 " XII. And further more, of our ample and special 
 grace, certain knowledge and mere motion, we do, 
 tor us, our heirs and successors, grant unto the 
 said William Penn, his heirs and assigns, full and 
 absolute power and authority, to make, erect and 
 constitute within the said province, and the isles and 
 nlets aforesaid, such and so many sea-ports, har- 
 bours, creeks, havens, keys, and other places, for 
 discharging and unlading of goods and merchan- 
 dize, out of the ships, boats, and other vessels, and 
 landing them unto such, and so many places, and 
 with such rights, jurisdictions, liberties and privi- 
 leges, unto the said ports belonging, as to him and 
 them shall seem most expedient; and that all, and 
 singular the ships, boats, and other vessels which 
 shall come for merchandize and trade into the said 
 province, or out of the same, shall be laden, or un- 
 laden, only at such ports as shall be created and 
 constituted by the said William Penn, his heirs or 
 assigns (any use custom or thing to the contrary 
 notwithstanding). Provided that the said William 
 Penn and his heirs, and the lieutenants and gover- 
 nors, for the time being, shall admit and receive in 
 and about all such havens, ports, creeks and keys, 
 all officers and their deputies who shall, from time 
 to time, be appointed for that purpose by the far- 
 mers, or commissioners of our customs for the time 
 being. 
 
 " XIII. And we do further appoint and ordain, 
 and by these presents for us, our heirs and succes- 
 sors, we do grant unto the said William Penn, his 
 heirs and assigns, that he the said William Penn, 
 his heirs and assigns, may, from time to time, for 
 ever, have and enjoy the customs and subsidies in the 
 ports, harbours and other creeks, and places afore- 
 said, within the province aforesaid, payable, or due 
 for merchandize and wares there to be laded and 
 unladed, the said customs and subsidies to be rea- 
 sonably assessed, upon any occasion by themselves 
 and the people there, as aforesaid to be assembled, 
 to whom we give power by these presents, for us, 
 our heirs and successors, upon just cause, and due 
 proportion to assess and impose the same ; saving 
 unto us, our heirs and successors, such impositions 
 and customs, as by act of parliament, are, and shall 
 be appointed. 
 
 " XIV. And it is our further will and pleasure, 
 that the said William Penn, his heirs and assigns, 
 shall, from time to time, constitute and appoint an 
 attorney, or agent, to reside in, or near our city of 
 London ; who shall make known the place where he 
 shall dwell, or may be found, unto the clerks of 
 our privy-council for the time being, or one of thorn, 
 and shall be ready to appear in any of our courts at 
 Westminster, to answer for any misdemeanor, that 
 shall be committed, or by any wilful default, or neg- 
 lect, permitted by the said William Penn, his heirs 
 or assigns, against the laws of trade and navigation ; 
 and after it shall be ascertained, in any of our 
 courts, what damages we, or our heirs, or succes- 
 sors, shall have sustained by such default or neglect 
 the said William Penn, his heirs or assigns, shall 
 pay the same within one year after such taxation, 
 and demand thereof from such attorney ; or in case 
 there shall be no such attorney by the space of one 
 year, or such attorney shall not make payment of 
 such damages, within the space of a year, and answer 
 such other forfeitures aud penalties, within the said 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 791 
 
 time, as by acts of parliament, in England, arc ai 
 shall be provided according to the true intent an 
 meaning of these presents; then it shall be lawfi 
 for us, our heirs and successors, to seize and r 
 sume the government of the said province or countr 
 and the same to retain, until payment shall be mac 
 thereof: but notwithstanding any such seizure, i 
 resumption of the government, nothing concernu 
 the propriety or ownership of any lands, tenement 
 or other hereditaments, goods or chatties of any 
 the adventurers, planters or owners, other than th 
 respective offenders there, shall any ways be affecte 
 or molested thereby. 
 
 " XV. Provided always, and our will and plea 
 sure is, that neither the said William Penn, no 
 his heirs, nor any other, the inhabitants of the sai 
 province, shall, at any time hereafter, have or main 
 tain any correspondence with any other king, princ 
 or state, or with any of their subjects, who shal 
 then be in war against us, our heirs and successors 
 nor shall the said William Penn, or his heirs o 
 any other inhabitants of the said province, mak< 
 war, or do any act of hostility against any othe 
 king, prince or state, or any of their subjects, wh< 
 snail then be in league or amity with us, our heir 
 and successors. 
 
 " XVI. And because, in so remote a country, an 
 situate near many barbarous nations, the incursions 
 as well of the savages themselves, as of other ene 
 mies, pirates and robbers, may probably be feared; 
 therefore we have given, and for us, our heirs ane 
 successors, do give power by these presents, to the 
 said William Penn, his heirs and assigns, by them- 
 selves, or their captains, or other their officers, to levy 
 muster and train all sorts of men, of what condi- 
 tion soever, or wheresoever born, in the said pro- 
 vince of Pennsylvania for the time being, and to 
 make war, and to pursue the enemies and robbers afore- 
 said, as well by sea as by land, even without the 
 limits of the said province, and, by God's assistance, 
 to vanquish and take them ; and being taken, to put 
 them to death by the law of war, or to save them, at 
 their pleasure, and to do all and every other thing, 
 which unto the charge and office of a captain-gene- 
 ral of an army belongeth, or hath accustomed to 
 belong, as fully and freely as any captain-general 
 of an army hath ever had the same. 
 
 " XVII. And furthermore, of our special grace, 
 and of our certain knowledge and mere motion, we 
 have given and granted, and, by these presents, 
 for us, our heirs and successors, do give and grant 
 unto the said William Penn, hi* heirs and assigns, 
 full and absolute power, licence and authority, that 
 he, the said William Peun, his heirs and assigns, 
 from time to time hereafter for ever, at his or their 
 own will and pleasure, may assign, alien, grant, de- 
 mise, or enfeoff of the premises so many, and such 
 parts and parcels to him, or them, that shall be 
 willing to purchase the same, as they shall think 
 fit ; to have and to hold to them, the said person or 
 persons willing to take and purchase, their heirs 
 and assigns, in fee simple, or fee tail, or for the term 
 of life, lives, or years, to be held of the said William 
 Penn, his heirs or assigns, as of the said seigniory 
 of Windsor, by such services, customs, or rents, as 
 shall seem meet to the said William Penn, his heirs 
 or assigns, and not immediately of us, our heirs or 
 successors. 
 
 " XVIII. And to the same person or persons, and 
 to all and every of them, we do give and grant, by 
 these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, li- 
 cence, authority and power, that such person or 
 
 persons, may take the premises, or any parcel 
 thereof, of the aforesaid William Penn, his heirs or 
 assigns, and the same to hold to themselves, their 
 heirs and assigns, in what estate of inheritance so- 
 ever, in fee simple, or in fee tail, or otherwise, as to 
 him the said William Peun, his heirs or assigns, 
 shall seem expedient : the statute made in the 
 parliament of Edward, the son of King Henry, 
 late King of England, our predecessor (commonly 
 called the statute, ' Quia Emptores Ten-arum',' 
 lately published in our kingdom of England), in any 
 wise notwithstanding. 
 
 " XIX. And by these presents, we give and grant 
 licence unto the said William Penn and his heirs, 
 and likewise to all, and every such person or per- 
 sons, to whom the said William Penn, or his heirs, 
 shall, at any time hereafter, grant any estate, or in- 
 heritance, as aforesaid, to erect any parcels of land, 
 within the province aforesaid, into manors, by and 
 with the licence, to be first had and obtained for 
 that purpose, under the hand and seal of the said 
 William Penn, or his heirs; and, in every of the 
 said manors, to have and hold a court-baron, with 
 all things whatsoever, which to a court-baron do be- 
 ong, and to have and to hold view of frank pledge, 
 c or the conservation of the peace, and the better go- 
 vernment of those parts, by themselves, or their 
 stewards, or by the lords for the time being, of the 
 manors to be deputed, when they shall be erected, 
 and* in the same, to use all things belonging to the 
 fievr of frank pledge. And we do further grant 
 iccnce and authority, that every such person or 
 )ersons, who shall erect any such manor or manors, 
 .s aforesaid, shall, or may, grant all, or any part 
 f his said land to any person or persons, m fee 
 imple, or any other estate of inheritance to be held 
 f the said manors respectively, so as no further 
 enure shall be created, but that upon all further, or 
 ther alienations thereafter to be made, the said 
 ands so aliened shall be held of the same lord and 
 is heirs, of whom the aliener did then before hold, 
 nd by the like rents and services, which were be- 
 ore due and accustomed. 
 
 " XX. And furthermore, our pleasure is, and by 
 
 icse presents, for us, otir heirs and successors, 
 
 e do covenant and grant to and with the said 
 
 William Penn, his heirs and assigns, that we, our 
 
 eirs and successors, shall, at no time hereafter 
 
 et or make, or cause to be set or made, any inipo- 
 
 tion, custom, or other taxation, rate, or contri- 
 
 ution whatsoever, in and upon the dwellers and 
 
 nhabitants of the aforesaid province, for their lands, 
 
 inements, goods, or chattels, within the said pro- 
 
 ince, or in and upon any goods and merchandises 
 
 ithin the province, or to be laden, or unladen 
 
 ithin the ports, or harbours of the said province, 
 
 nless the same be 'with the consent of the proprie- 
 
 ary, or chief governor, or assembly, or by act of 
 
 >arliament in England. 
 
 " XXI. And our pleasure is, and for us, our 
 ;irs and successors, we charge and command, that 
 is our declaration shall be from henceforth, from 
 me to time, be received and allowed, in all our 
 mrts, and before all the judges of us, our heirs, 
 nd successors, for a s-ufficient lawful discharge, pay- 
 ent and acquittance ; commanding all the officers 
 nd ministers of us, our heirs and successors, and 
 ijoining them upon pain of our highest displeasure, 
 at they do not presume, at any time, to attempt 
 iy thing to the contrary of the premises.or that they 
 i, in any sort, withstand the same ; but, that they be", 
 
 all times, aiding and assisting, as is fitting, to 
 
792 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the said William Penn, and his heirs, and unto the 
 inhabitants and merchants of the province aforesaid, 
 their servants, ministers, factors, and assigns, in the 
 full use and fruition of the benefit of this our charter. 
 
 " XXII. And our farther pleasure is, and we do 
 hereby, for us, our heirs and successors, charge and 
 require, That, if any of the inhabitants of the said 
 province, to the number of twenty, shall, at any time 
 hereafter, be desirous, and shall, by any writing, or 
 by any person deputed by them, signify such their 
 desire to the bishop of London, for the time being, 
 that any preacher, or preachers, to be approved of 
 by the said bishop, may be sent unto them, for their 
 instruction; that then such preacher, or preachers, 
 shall and may reside within the said province, with- 
 out any denial, or molestation whatsoever. 
 
 " XXIII. And, if perchance hereafter any doubt 
 or question should arise concerning the true sense 
 and meaning of any word, clause, or sentence, con- 
 tained in this our present charter, we will, ordain, 
 and command, that, at. all times, and in all things, 
 such interpretation be made thereof, and allowed, in 
 any of our courts whatsoever, as shall be adjudged 
 most advantageous and favourable unto the said 
 William Penn, his heirs and assigns : provided al- 
 ways no interpretation be admitted thereof, by which 
 the allegiance due unto us, our heirs and successors, 
 may suffer any prejudice or diminution; although 
 express mention be not made in these presents of 
 the true yearly value, or certainty of the premises, 
 or any part thereof, or of other gifts and grants, 
 made by us, and our progenitors, or predecessors, 
 unto the said William Penn : any statute, act, ordi- 
 nance, provision, proclamation, or restraint, hereto- 
 fore had, made, published, ordained, or provided, or 
 any other thing, cause, or matter whatsoever, to the 
 contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding. In 
 witness whereof we have caused these our letters to 
 be made patent: witness ourself, at Westminster, 
 the 4th day of March, in the 33d year of our reign, 
 annoque Domini, 1681. " By writ of privy seal, 
 
 " PIGOTT." 
 
 By the first section of this charter the extent and 
 boundary of the province are expressed in such plain 
 terms, that it might reasonably be supposed they 
 could not easily be misunderstood: three degrees of 
 latitude, included and bounded, between the begin- 
 ning of the 40th. and the beginning of the 43d de- 
 gree of north latitude, equal to about 208 English 
 statute miles, north and south, with five degrees of 
 longitude, westward from Delaware river, which, in 
 the parallel of 41 degrees, are equal to nearly 265 
 miles, east and west, are as clearly and manifestly 
 expressed to be granted to the proprietary of Penn- 
 sylvania, as words can do it; and we are otherwise 
 sufficiently certified that the same space, or quantity 
 of land, was intended by the king to be included in 
 the said grant; yet the dispute between the proprie- 
 taries of Maryland and Pennsylvania, on this point, 
 was afterwards remarkable, and of many years con- 
 tinuance ; occasioned by each of the respective pro- 
 prietaries claiming to himself the whole space, or 
 extent of the land, contained in the 40th degree 
 of latitude; which was the north boundary o 
 Maryland, by patent of that province ; and which, 
 though prior to that of Pennsylvania, specifies, or 
 assigns, no particular part of the said degree, for 
 the boundary, as the Pennsylvania grant doth : 
 which space, or degree, containing near 70 Englis-h 
 miles in breadth, north and south, and in length 
 westward, so far as Maryland extends, was no small 
 matter to occasion a dispute. 
 
 But notwithstanding the clearness of the terms, 
 by which the boundary between the said provinces 
 is expressed in their respective charters, as above 
 mentioned, yet this dispute was, at length, in the 
 year 1732, finally settled, chiefly in favour of Mary- 
 land ; by fixing the said boundary between the two 
 provinces, only fifteen miles due south of the most 
 southerly part of Philadelphia, or in the parallel of 
 39 degrees, 44 minutes nearly, instead of 39 degrees, 
 or at the beginning of the 40th degree, as mentioned 
 and intended by charter ; which renders the real 
 extent of Pennsylvania, north and south, only about 
 155 miles, instead of 208, and makes the square 
 miles, in the province about 41,000, and the num- 
 ber of acres, 26,288,000. 
 
 In consequence of this charter, on the second day 
 of the ensuing April, the king issued a declaratioa 
 to the inhabitants and planters of Pennsylvania, 
 expressive of the grant, describing the bounds of 
 the province, and enjoining them to yield all due 
 obedience to the proprietary, &c. according to the 
 powers granted by the said charter. 
 
 Penn, having obtained these necessary requisites, 
 immediately published such an account of the pro- 
 vince as could then be given ; with the royal char- 
 ter, and other information, offering easy terms of 
 sale for lands, viz. 40 shillings sterling for 100 acres, 
 and one shilling per annum for ever; and good 
 conditions of settlement, to such as chose to be ad- 
 venturers in the new country. 
 
 To this offer and invitation to the people, he 
 added such Christian advice, as indicated a rea. 
 concern both for their temporal and eternal felicity, 
 which he closed in these words : 
 
 " To conclude, I desire all my dear country- 
 folks, who may be inclined to go into those parts, to 
 consider seriously the premises, well as the in- 
 conveniency as future ease and plenty; that so> 
 none may move rashly, or from a fickle, but from 
 a solid mind ; having, above all things, an eye to 
 the providence of God, in the disposing of them- 
 selves ; and I would further advise all such, at least, 
 to have the permission, if not the good liking, of 
 their near relations ; for that is both natural, and a 
 duty incumbent upon all. And by this will natu- 
 ral affections be preserved, and a friendly and pro- 
 fitable correspondence between them; in all which 
 I beseech Almighty God to direct us; that his bless- 
 ing may attend our honest endeavours; and then 
 the consequence of all our undertakings will turn 
 to the glory of his great name, and all true happi- 
 ness to us and our posterity. Amen." 
 
 On publishing these proposals, a great number of 
 purchasers soon appeared in London, Liverpool, 
 and especially about Bristol ; among whom were 
 James Claypole, Nicholas Moore, Philip Forde, and 
 others, who formed a company, called " The free 
 society of Traders in Pennsylvania." These last- 
 mentioned persons, with William Sharloe, Edward 
 Pierce, John Simcock, Thomas Bracey, and Ed- 
 ward Brooks, having purchased 20,000 acres of 
 land, in trust for the said company, published arti- 
 cles of trade, and entered into divers branches 
 themselves; which were soon improved upon by 
 others. 
 
 Conditions, or concessions published Sailing of the 
 first ship for Pennsylvania 'Joseph Kirkbride, tifc.- 
 The proprietor's manner of treating the Indians 
 His letter to them First frame of government and 
 laws published Part of the preface to the same~ 
 Purport of the frame, and one of the laws Duktqf 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 793 
 
 York's deed of release to William Penn The ter- 
 ritories obtained, &fc. Boundary between the terri~ 
 lories and Maryland. 
 
 The proprietary, having already made conside- 
 rable sales of land, agreed wilh the adventurers 
 and purchasers on the first deed of settlement, which 
 itself may be regarded as an essay towards a con- 
 stitution of government, according to the powers 
 granted him by charter. It consists chiefly of cer- 
 tain rules of settlement, of treating the Indians 
 with justice and friendship; and of keeping the 
 peace, agreeable to the customs, usages, and laws 
 of England, to be observed on their arrival in the 
 country, and there to be altered as occasion should 
 require. This compact was published under the 
 title of " Certain conditions or concessions, agreed 
 upon by William Penn, proprietary and governor 
 of the province of Pennsylvania; and those who 
 a-re the adventurers and purchasers in the same 
 province, the llth of July, 1681." One of the sti- 
 pulations in this instrument very particularly shows 
 the provident care and knowledge of the proprietary 
 in a matter, whose continued neglect will doubtless 
 in future be found more important to the country 
 than has been imagined, viz. 
 
 " That in clearing the ground, care be taken to 
 leave one acre of trees for every tive acres cleared, 
 especially to preserve oak and mulberries for silk 
 and shipping." 
 
 Three ships sailed for Pennsylvania this year ; 
 two from London, and one from Bristol. The John 
 and Sarah, from London, commanded by Henry 
 Smith, is said to have been the first that arrived 
 there; the Amity, Richard Dimon, master, from 
 the same place, with passengers, was blown off, to 
 the West Indies ; and did not arrive at the province 
 till the spring of the next year ; the Bristol Factor, 
 Roger Drew, commander, arrived at the place where 
 Chester now stands, on the llth of December; 
 where the passengers, seeing some houses, went on 
 shore, at Robert Wade's landing, near the lower side 
 of Chester Creek ; and the river having been frozen 
 up that night, the passengers remained there all the 
 winter. Among the passengers in these ships were 
 John Otter, Nathaniel Allen, and Edmund Lovett, 
 with their families ; and several servants of Gover- 
 nor Penn. Joseph Kirkbride, then a boy, being 
 one of them, who afterwards became a person of im- 
 portance in. the province. He is an instance, among 
 many others that might be given, in the early time 
 of this country, of advancement from a low beginning 
 to rank of eminence and esteem, through industry, 
 with a virtuous and prudent conduct. The difficul- 
 ties, hardships, and trials of many of the well-disposed 
 early settlers, however low in the world, rather vi- 
 sibly tended to their promotion, and in some res- 
 pects rendered them more useful and worthy mem- 
 bers of society in this new country ; while others, 
 even possessed of handsome patrimonies at first, but 
 more improvident, and less accustomed to encounter 
 with such difficulties, more commonly went to ruin, 
 or^were reduced to indigence. And several worthy 
 persons, who had not been used to labour, found, 
 by grievous experience, that a dependence on such 
 inheritances, even with otherwise prudent economy, 
 in the early time of this country, where servants 
 could scarcely be had, did not answer here, as 
 in Europe ; so that for a series of years, those of 
 the more wealthy who emigrated, and had before 
 been used to a different manner of life, sometimes 
 lost much of what they had possessed, and were re- 
 
 duced to greater miseries and trials than the poorer 
 and more laborious part of the settlers, who were 
 generally more numerous, and got estates. 
 
 In one of these ships sailed also William Mark- 
 ham, a relation of the proprietary ; whom he had 
 appointed his deputy-governor, and joined with him 
 certain commissioners, to confer with the Indians, 
 or Aborigines of the country, respecting their lands j 
 and to confirm with them a league of peace. These 
 commissioners were strictly enjoined to treat the 
 natives with all possible justice and humanity. 
 
 To cultivate a good understanding with these 
 natives was a matter of sound policy; but Penn 
 appears to have acted from higher and more dis- 
 interested motives ; for he never received from the 
 province any pecuniary advantage, during a period 
 of near 37 years' continuance from this time; but 
 even lost much of his other property by it. His 
 ideas were too exalted to be confined within the 
 narrow view of a temporary interest alone, and his 
 conduct respecting these poor and savage people 
 declared his regard for universal justice, and the 
 natural rights of mankind; ever tending to impress 
 on their minds a proper sense ofeternal justice, and 
 the happy effects of kindness and peace. A speci- 
 men of his manner of treating these people appears 
 in the following letter which he sent them by his 
 first deputy and commissioners: 
 
 " London, the 1 8th of the eighth month, (Oct.) 1 681 . 
 
 " My Friends, There is a great God and power, 
 that hath made the worl<l, and all things therein ; 
 to whom you and I, and all people owe their being, 
 and well-being; and to whom you and I must one 
 day give an account for all that we do in the world. 
 
 "This great God hath written his law in our hearts, 
 by which we are taught and commanded to love and 
 help, and do good to one another. Now this great 
 God hath been pleased to make me concerned in 
 your part of the world ; and the king of the coun- 
 try, where I live, hath given me a great province 
 therein ; but I desire to enjoy it with your love and 
 consent ; that we may always live together, as 
 neighbours and friends; else what would the great 
 God do to us, who hath made us, not to devour and 
 destroy one another, but to live soberly and kindly 
 together in the world ? Now I would have you well 
 observe, that I am very sensible of the unkindness 
 and injustice that have been too much exercised 
 towards you by the people of these parts of the 
 world; who have sought themselves, and to make 
 great advantages by you, rather than to be examples 
 of goodness and patience unto you ; which I hear 
 hath been a matter of trouble to you, and caused 
 great grudging and animosities, sometimes to the 
 shedding of blood ; which hath made the great God 
 angry. But I am not such a man; as is well known 
 in my own country. I have great love and regard 
 towards you; and desire to win and gain your love 
 and friendship by a kind, just, and peaceable life ; 
 and the people I send are of the same mind, and 
 shall, in all things, behave themselves accordingly; 
 and, if in any thing, any shall offend you, or your 
 people, you shall have a full and speedy satisfaction 
 for the same, by an equal number of just men, on 
 both sides ; that, by no means you may have just 
 occasion of being offended against them. 
 
 " I shall shortly come to you myself; at which 
 time we may more largely and freely confer and 
 discourse of these matters ; in the mean time I 
 have sent my commissioners to treat with you about 
 land, and a firm league of peace ; let me desire you, 
 to be kind to them, and the people, and receive 
 
794 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 these presents and tokens, which I have sent you, 
 us a testimony of my good will to you, and my re- 
 solution to live justly, peaceably, and friendly with 
 you. " I am your loving Friend, 
 
 " WILLIAM PENN." 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1682, Penn pub- 
 litiht-d his frame of government, and certain laws 
 agreed on in Eugland, by himself and the purchasers 
 under him, entitled " The frame of the government 
 of the province of Pennsylvania, in America; to- 
 gether with certain laws 'agreed upon in England 
 by the governor, and divers freemen of the afore- 
 said province. To be further explained and con- 
 firmed there by the first provincial council that 
 shall be held, if they see meet." 
 
 In the preface to this frame is exhibited a sketch 
 of the author's sentiments on the nature of govern- 
 ment, in general, his reflections on the different modes 
 of it, and his inducement for forming his. After 
 having quoted several parts of the Scriptures, relative 
 to government, he proceeds, in the following words : 
 
 " This settles the divine right of government be- 
 yond exception, and that for two ends ; first, to ter- 
 rify evil-doers; secondly, to cherish those that do 
 well; which gives government a life beyond cor- 
 ruption ; and makes it as durable in the world as 
 good men shall be. So that government seems to 
 me a part of religion itself; a thing sacred in its 
 institution and end. For, if it does not directly re- 
 move the cause, it crushes the effects of evil; and 
 is, as such, a lower, yet an emanation of the same 
 divine power, that is both author and object of pure 
 religion ; the difference lying here ; that the one is 
 more free and mental, the other more corporal and 
 compulsive in its operation: but that is only to 
 evil-doers ; government itself being otherwise as 
 capable of kindness, goodness, and charity, as a 
 more private society. 
 
 " They weakly err, that think there is no other 
 use of government than correction; which is the 
 coarsest part of it : daily experience tells us, that 
 the care and regulation of many other affairs, more 
 soft, and daily necessary, make up much the greater 
 part of government; and which must have followed 
 the peopling of the world, had Adam never fallen ; 
 and will continue among men, on earth, under the 
 highest attainments, they may arrive at, by the coming 
 of the blessed second Adam, the Lord from heaven." 
 
 As to the modes, he further observes," I do not 
 find a model in the world, that time, place, and 
 some singular emergencies have not necessarily al- 
 tered ; nor is it easy to frame a civil government 
 that shall serve all places alike." " Any govern- 
 ment is free to the people under it (whatever be the 
 frame) where the laws rule, and the people are a 
 party to those laws ; and more than this is tyranny, 
 olygarchy, or confusion. 
 
 " There is hardly one frame of government in 
 the world so ill designed by its first founders, that, 
 in good hands, would not do well enough ; and his- 
 tory tells us the best, in ill ones, can do nothing 
 that is great and good; witness the Jewish and 
 Roman states. Governments, like clocks, go from 
 the motion men give them; and as governments 
 are made and moved by men, so by them are they 
 ruined too. Wherefore, governments rather depend 
 upon men, than men upon governments. Let men 
 be good, and the government cannot be bad ; if it 
 be ill, they will cure it. But, if men be bad, let 
 government be never so good, they will endeavour 
 to warp and spoil it to their tarn." " That, there- 
 fore, which makes a good government, must keep it, 
 
 viz. men of wisdom and virtue ; qualities that, be* 
 cause they descend not with worldly inheritances, 
 must be carefully propagated by a virtuous educa- 
 tion of youth ; for which after ages will owe more 
 to the care and prudence of founders, and the suc- 
 cessive magistracy, than to their parents, for their 
 private patrimonies. 
 
 ' These considerations" (several of which we 
 omit) " of the weight of government, and the nice 
 and various opinions about it, made it uneasy to me 
 :o think of publishing the ensuing frame, and con- 
 ditional laws, foreseeing both the censures they will 
 meet with from men of differing humours and en- 
 gagements, and the occasion they may give of dis- 
 course beyond my design. 
 
 " But, next to the power of necessity (which is a 
 solicitor that will take no denial), this induced me 
 :o a compliance, that we have (with reverence to 
 God, and good conscience to men), to the best of 
 our skill, contrived and composed the frame and 
 laws of this government, to the great end of govern- 
 ment, viz. ' To support power in reverence with 
 the people, and to secure the people from the abuse 
 of power ;' that they may be free by their just obe- 
 dience, and the magistrates honourable, for their 
 just administration ; for liberty without obedience 
 is confusion ; and obedience without liberty is sla- 
 very. To carry this evenness, is partly owing to 
 the constitution, and partly to the magistracy : where 
 either of these fail, government will be subject to 
 convulsions; but where both arewanting.it must 
 be totally subverted : then, where both mjet, the 
 government is like to endure; which I humoly pray, 
 and hope, God will please to make the lot of this of 
 Pennsylvania. Amen." 
 
 The "frame" itself consisted of 24 articles; and 
 the laws were 40. By the former the government 
 was placed in the governor and freemen of the pro- 
 vince, in the form of a provincial council, and gene- 
 ral assembly. By them conjunctively all laws were 
 to be made, all officers appointed, and all public 
 affairs transacted. Seventy-two was the number of the 
 council, to be chosen by the freemen ; and though 
 the governor, or his deputy, was to be perpetual pre- 
 sident, he had but a treble vote. One-third part of 
 them was, at first, to be chosen for three years, one- 
 third for two years, and one-third for one year; in 
 such manner, that there might be an annual succes- 
 sion of 24 new members, each to continue three 
 years, and no longer. The general assembly was, 
 the first year, to consist of all the freemen, after- 
 wards of 200, and never to exceed 500. And this 
 charter, or form of government, was not to be 
 altered, changed, or diminished, in any part, or 
 clause of it, without the consent of the governor, his 
 heirs, or assigns, and six parts of seven of the free- 
 men, in provincial council and assembly. And to 
 the same power only was the alteration of the laws 
 made subject : these laws were of the nature of an 
 original compact between the proprietary and the 
 freemen ; and as such, were reciprocally received 
 and executed : one of them was, 
 
 " That all persons living in this province, who 
 confess and acknowledge the one Almighty and 
 Eternal God to be the creator, upholder and ruler 
 of the world, and that hold themselves obliged, in 
 conscience, to live peaceably and justly in civil 
 society, shall, in no ways, be molested, or preju- 
 diced, for their religious perswasion, or practice, in 
 matters of faith and worship ; nor shall they be 
 compelled, at any time, to frequent, or maintain, 
 any religious worship, place, or ministry whatever." 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 795 
 
 Moreover, the proprietary, to prevent all future 
 claim, or even pretence of claim, that might be 
 made, of the province by the duke of York, or his 
 heirs, obtained of him his deed of release for the 
 same, dated the 2 1st of August, 1682. 
 
 Besides, as an additional territory to the province, 
 
 tion of himself from xome undue reflections The 
 proprietor purchases lands of the Indians, and trait* 
 them with great justice and kindness. 
 
 American coast, as is supposed about Egg Harbour, 
 in New Jersey. 
 
 In passing up the Delaware, the inhabitants, con- 
 sisting of English, Dutch and Swedes, indiscrimi- 
 nately met the proprietary, with demonstrations of 
 joy. He landed at Newcastle, on the 24th of Octo- 
 ber ; and next day had the people summoned to the 
 
 Penn had, for a considerable time past, been 
 making preparation for his voyage to America ; 
 
 he also this year, 1682, procured of the duke of which being at last accomplished, in the month 
 York, his right, title and interest, in that tract of of August this year, (1682,) accompanied by a 
 land, afterwards called " The three lower counties number of his friends, he went on board the ship 
 on Delaware,"and since " The State of Delaware," Welcome, of 300 tons burden, Robert Greenaway, 
 extending from the south boundary of the province, I commander ; and on the 30th of the same month, 
 and situated on the western side of the river and he wrote, from the Downs, " a valedictory epistle to 
 bay of Delaware, to Cape Henlopeu, beyond, or England," containing " A salutation to all faithful 
 south of Lewistown ; which, by the duke, were made friends." 
 
 over to William Penn, his heirs and assigns, by two The number of passengers in this ship was about 
 deeds of feoffment, dated August 24, 1682. The I 100, mostly Quakers ; the major part of whom were 
 first deed was for the town of Newcastle, alias Dela- 1 from Sussex, the proprietary's place of residence, 
 ware town, and a district of twelve miles round it, In their passage, many of them were taken sick of 
 as far as the river Delaware ; in the second, of the the small-pox ; and about 30 of their number died, 
 same date, was comprehended that tract of land, from In this trying situation, the acceptable company of 
 twelve miles south of Newcastle to the Hoarkills, William Penn is said to have been of singular ad- 
 otherwise called Cape Henlopen, divided into two vantage to them, and his kind advice and assistance 
 counties, Kent and Sussex ; which, with Newcastle of great service, during their' passage ; so that in 
 district, were commonly called the territories of the main, they had a prosperous voyage ; and in 
 Pennsylvania ; or the three lower counties upon little more than six weeks, came in sight of the 
 Delaware. 
 
 These territories were a part of the country, called ! 
 New Netherland, when in possession of the Dutch, 
 and included in the duke of York's second patent for 
 that country, after its surrender by treaty of peace 
 to the I^giish, in 1674, which extended westward 
 of Delaware river. 
 
 The determining and fixing the precise boundary I court-house ; where, after possession of the country 
 between this territory and Maryland, as well as that was legally rendered him, he made a speech to the 
 between the respective provinces, becoming after- old magistrates, and the people, signifying to them 
 wards a subject of dispute between William Penn the design of his coming, the nature and end of go- 
 and the Lord Baltimore, will hereafter more fully vernment, and of that more particularly which he 
 appear in the course of this history. For, though came to establish ; assuring them of their spiritual 
 prior to making out the grant of both the province and temporal rights ; liberty of conscience, and civil 
 and territory, the Lord Baltimore was duly in- freedoms ; and, recommending them to live in so- 
 formed, fully heard, and all his objections answered, briety and peace, he renewed the magistrates* corn- 
 on the subject, before the lords of trade and planta- missions. 
 
 tions ; where the precise southern boundary of Penn- To form some idea of the proportion of the differ- 
 sylvauia, as expressed in the charter, must neces- ent sorts of people, on the west side of Delaware, 
 sarily have been mentioned to him, as appears by about this time, or prior to William Penn's ar- 
 the minutes of the committee of the said board ; yet rival, on the lands, granted him, it may be noted, 
 he afterwards claimed not only the whole territory that the Dutch then had a meeting place, for reli- 
 of the lower counties, but also one degree of north gious worship, at Newcastle ; the Swedes, three ; 
 latitude included in the grant of Pennsylvania, as one at Christeen, one at Teuecum, and one at Wico- 
 coming within his patent. I coa (now in the suburbs of Philadelphia). The 
 
 The boundary and extent of the former was deter- Quakers had three, viz. one at Upland, or Chester, 
 mined by an order of council, the king being pre- one at Shackamaxon, or about where Kensington 
 sent, in November 1685; but it was long before it I now stands, in the vicinity of Philadelphia, and one 
 was put in execution, said to be occasioned princi- near the lower falls of Delaware, 
 pally by the delays and obstructions of the Lord Penn proceeded to Upland, now called Chester ; 
 Baltimo're. But the line or boundary between the I where, on the 4th December (about three months 
 two provinces does not appear to have been pre- 1 after his sailing fromEngland)he called an assembly; 
 cisely and finally fixed during the life of William which consisted of equal numbers of members for 
 Penn; or, till the year 1732; which will be men- 1 the province, and the three lower counties, called 
 tioued in its proper place. I the territories ; that is, for both of them, so many 
 
 I of the freemen as thought proper to appear, accord- 
 
 Penn sails for Pennsylvania Writes a valedictory I ing to the 16th article of the frame of government. 
 epistle to his friends in England Arrives in the I This assembly chose Nicholas Moore, who was 
 Delaware His reception in the country Holds an I president of the free society of traders, for their 
 assembly at Upland, (Chester) Passes an act of chairman, or speaker ; and received as ample sa- 
 union between the province and territory Natura- tisfaction from the proprietary, as the inhabitants 
 lizes the foreigners Passes the laws agreed on in of Newcastle had done ; for which they returned 
 England, in form Preamble to said laws with I him their grateful acknowledgments. The Swedes, 
 their titles He visits New York and Maryland ; I for themselves, deputed Lacy Cock to acquaint him, 
 and treats wilh the Lord Baltimore, respecting the I " That they would love, serve and obey him with 
 boundaries Extracts from two of his letters, respect- 1 all they had ;" declaring, < that it was the best day 
 ing his employment in the country, and in vindica- \ they ever saw." 
 
796 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 At this assembly an act of union was passed, an- 
 nexing the three lower counties to the province, in 
 legislation, on the 7th day of December, 1682; like- 
 wise an act of settlement, in reference to the frame 
 of government which, with some alterations, was 
 thereby declared to be accepted and confirmed. 
 
 The Dutch, Swedes, and other foreigners were 
 then naturalized : and all the laws, agreed on in 
 England, with some small alterations, were passed 
 in form. 
 
 The preamble to and titles of these laws were as 
 follow : 
 
 " The great law : or, the body of laws of the pro- 
 vince of Pennsylvania and 'territories thereunto 
 belonging, passed at an assembly, held at Ches- 
 ter, alias Upland, the seventh day of the tenth 
 mouth, called December, 1682. 
 " Whereas, the glory of God Almighty, and the 
 good of mankind, is the reason and end of govern- 
 ment ; and therefore government itself is a vener- 
 able ordinance of God ; and for as much as it is 
 principally desired and intended by the proprietary 
 and govemor, and freemen, pf the province of Penn- 
 sylvania, and territories thereunto belonging, to 
 make and establish such laws, as shall best preserve 
 true Christian and civil liberty, in opposition to all 
 unchristian, licentious and unjust practices, whereby 
 God may have his due, Cajsar, his due, and the 
 people, their due, from tyranny and oppression, on 
 the one side, and insolence and licentiousness, on 
 the other ; so that the best and firmest foundation 
 may be laid, for the present and future happiness 
 of both the governor, and the people of this pro- 
 vince and territories aforesaid, and their posterity. 
 Be it enacted by William Penn, proprietary and 
 governor, by and with the advice and consent of 
 the deputies of the freemen of this province, and the 
 counties aforesaid, in general assembly met, and by 
 the authority of the same, that these following chap- 
 ters and paragraphs be the laws of Pennsylvania 
 and territories thereof: 
 
 " 1. Concerning liberty of conscience. 2. Con 
 
 cerning qualifications of officers, &c. 3. Against 
 
 sweaing by God, Christ, or Jesus. 4. Against swear 
 
 ing by any other thing or name. 5. Against speaking 
 
 profanely of God, Christ, Spirit or Scripture. 6 
 
 Against cursing. 7. Against defiling the marriag 
 
 bed. 8 Against incest. 9. Against sodomy ant 
 
 bestiality. 10. Against rape, or ravishment. 11 
 
 Against bigamy. 12. Against drnnkenness. 13 
 
 Against suffering drunkenness. 14. Against health 
 
 drinking. 15. Against selling, or exchanging, o 
 
 rum, brandy, or other strong liquors to the Indians 
 
 16. Against wilful firing of houses. 17. Agains 
 
 breaking into, or taking any thing out of houses. 
 
 18. Lands and goods of thieves and felons, &c. liable 
 
 &c. 19. Against fore-cable entry. 20. Against un 
 
 lawful assemblies and riots. 21. Against assaultin 
 
 or menacing of parents. 22. Against assaulting o 
 
 menacing of magistrates. 23. Against assaulting o 
 
 menacing of masters. 24. Against assault and bat 
 
 tery. 25. Against duels. 26. Against liotous sport 
 
 and practices, as plavs, &c. 27. Against playin 
 
 at cards, dice, lotteries, &c. 28. Against sedition 
 
 29. Against speaking slightly, or abusing of ma 
 
 gistrates or officers. SO.Against reporters, defamen 
 
 and spreaders of false news. 31. Against clamorou 
 
 persons, scolders and railers. 32. Provision for th 
 
 poor. 33. Prices of beer and ale. 34. Measure 
 
 and weights. 35. Names of days and months. 
 
 36. "Witnesses lying. 37. Pleadings, processes an 
 
 records, to be in English. 38. Trials in civil an 
 
 criminal cases. 39. Fees and salaries, bribery and 
 extortion. 40. Fines to be moderate, &c. 41. Nu- 
 merous suits avoidable. 42. Arrest of a person de- 
 parting the province, how. 43. Promises, bargains 
 nd agreements. 44. Charters, gifts, grants, con- 
 yances, bills, bonds and specialties, deeds, &c havr 
 on to be recorded. 45. What wills shall convey 
 nds, as well as chattels 46. Wills of non compos 
 cntis void. 47 Reg s:ry for wills, &c. 48. Registry 
 r servant*, &c. 49. Factors, and their employ. 50. 
 gainst defacers, corrupters and embezzlers, ofchar- 
 rs, conveyances and records, &c. 51. How lands 
 :id goods shall pay debti. 5?. What prisoners oail- 
 ble. 53. Jails and jailers. 54 Prisons to be work- 
 ouses. 55. Wrongful imprisonment. 56. Where 
 le penalty is either a sum of money or iinprison- 
 ent, the magistrate shall inflict which he will. 
 7. Freemen, who. 58. Elections. 59. No money 
 r goods, by way of tax, custom or contribution, to 
 e raised or paid, but by law. 60. Laws shall be 
 rinted and taught in schools. 61. All other things 
 ot provided for herein, are referred to the gover- 
 or and freemen from time to time." 
 The following extracts from a letter of Penn's 
 ated, Chester on Delaware, 29th of the tenth 
 nonth, 1682 ; are given as descriptive of the 
 ountry, and as characteristic of its first benevolent 
 egislator. 
 
 I bless the Lord, I am very well, and much sa- 
 isfied with my place and portion ; yet busy enough ; 
 laving much to do, to please all; and yet to have 
 ,n eye to those, that are not here to please them- 
 elves. 
 
 " I have been also at New York, Long Island, 
 5ast Jersey and Maryland ; in which I have had 
 rood and eminent service for the Lord, &c. 
 
 I am now casting the country into -townships, 
 or large lots of land. I have held an assembly ; in 
 which many good laws are passed; we could not 
 afely stay till the spring for a government. Ihave 
 annexed the lower counties (lately obtained) to the 
 rovince ; and passed a general naturalization for 
 strangers ; which hath much pleased the people. 
 As to outward things, we are satisfied; the land 
 jood, the air clear and sweet, the springs plentiful, 
 and provision good, and easy to come at; an innu- 
 merable quantity of wild fowl and fish; in fine, here 
 s what an Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would be well 
 contented with ; and service enough for God ; for 
 he fields are here white for harvest. O ; how sweet 
 s the quiet of these parts, freed from the anxious and 
 troublesome solicitations, hurries and perplexities 
 of woeful Europe ; and God will thin her ; the day 
 hastens upon her," &c. 
 
 Blessed be the Lord, that of 23 ships none mis- 
 carried: only two or three had the small-pox; else 
 healthy and swift passages, generally such as have 
 not been known ; some but 28 days, and few longer 
 than six weeks: blessed be God for it: who is good 
 to us, and follows us with his abundant kindness : 
 my soul fervently breathes, that in his heavenly 
 guiding wisdom, we may be kept; that we may 
 serve him in our day, and lay down our heads in 
 peace, &c. 
 
 " P. S. Many women, in divers of the ships 
 brought to bed; they and their children do well." 
 
 The meeting continued only three days ; and not- 
 withstanding the great variety of dispositions in, and 
 the inexperience of this assembly, yet a perfect 
 unanimity prevailed among them. 
 
 The proprietary, prior to his meeting this assem- 
 bly, appears to have paid a visit to New York, and 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 797 
 
 immediately a ter the adjournment oi' it, ho we n't ti 
 Maryland ; where he was kindly received by the 
 Lord Baltimore, and the principal persons of that 
 colony. There the two proprietaries held a confer- 
 ence respecting the fixing and settling the bounda- 
 ries between the two provinces : but the severe part 
 of the season coming on, and there being no appear- 
 ance of speedily determining the affair, after two 
 days spent on the occasion, they appointed to meet 
 again in the spring, and William Penn took his 
 leave and departed, the Lord Baltimore accompany- 
 ing him several miles, to the house of one William 
 Richardson ; from whence he proceeded two miles 
 further, to a religious meeting of his friends, the 
 Quakers, at the house of Thomas Hooker ; and from 
 thence to Choptu.uk, on the eastern side of Chesa- 
 peake bay ; where was an appointed meeting of per- 
 sons of various ranks and qualities. 
 
 Penn thus proceeded with much fatigue, difficulty 
 and expense to settle the province, establish the go- 
 vernment, and cultivate a good understanding with 
 his neighbours ; though not without enemies and 
 oppositions of diferent kinds, as will hereafter more 
 fully appear; and that, even from some who had 
 been his friends ; as may be seen by the following 
 extract from an old printed accouut of his life, 
 viz. " Nor was the advancement of himself, or 
 family, in worldly wealth and grandeur, his aim in 
 the administration of government ; but, in the 
 greatest honour of his public station, he still re- 
 tained the meekness and humility of a private Chris- 
 tian ; the sincerity of his intentions, and with what 
 zeal and ardour he pursued a general good, are best 
 expressed by his own words, in a letter written in 
 Pennsylvania, the latter part of this year, (1682) 
 to a person, who had unduly reflected on him, viz. 
 
 " ' I could speak largely of God's dealings with 
 me, in getting this thing; what an inward exercise 
 of faith and patience it cost me in passing. The 
 travail was mine, as well as the debt and cost ; 
 through* the envy of many, both professors, false 
 friends, and profane : my God hath given it me in 
 the face of the world ; and it is to hold it in true 
 judgment, as a reward of my sufferings: and that is 
 seen here, whatever some despisers may say or 
 think. The place God hath given me ; and I never 
 felt judgment for the power I kept, but trouble for 
 what I parted with. It is more than a worldly title, 
 or patent, that hath cloathed me in this place. 
 
 " ' Keep thy place ; I am in mine ; I have served 
 the God of the whole earth since I have been in it ; 
 nor am I sitting down in a greatness, that I have 
 denied. I am day and night spending my life, my 
 time, my money, and am not six-pence enriched 
 by this greatness: costs iu getting, settling, trans- 
 portation and maintenance, now in a public man- 
 ner, at my own charge, duly considered, to say no- 
 thing of my hazard, and the distance I am from a 
 considerable estate, and, which is more, my dear 
 wife and poor children. 
 
 " ' Well, the Lord is God of righteous judgment : 
 had I sought greatness, I had stayed at home ; where 
 the difference between what I am here, and was 
 offered, and could have been there, in power and 
 wealth, is as wide as the places are : No, I came 
 for the Lord's sake, and therefore have I stood to 
 this day, well and diligent, and successful, blessed 
 by his power. " Nor shall I trouble myself to tell 
 thee what I am to the people of this place, in tra- 
 vails, watchings, spendings, and my servants every 
 way freely, not like a selfish man ; I have many- 
 witnesses. To conclude, it is now in friends' 
 
 nands ; through my travail, faith and patience it 
 came. If friends here keep to God, in the justice, 
 mercy, equity, and fear of the Lord, their enemies 
 will be their foot-stool : if not, their heirs and my 
 heirs too, will lose all ; and desolation will follow :" 
 but blessed be the Lord, we are well, and live in 
 the dear love of God, and the fellowship of his tender 
 heavenly spirit ; and our faith is for ourselves and 
 one another, that the Lord will be with us, a king- 
 and counsellor for ever. Thy ancient, though 
 grieved Friend, WILLIAM PENN.' 
 
 " ' Chester, 5tn of the twelfth month, 
 (Feb.) 1682 (1683).'" 
 
 The proprietary having now returned from Ma- 
 ryland to Coaquannock, the place so called by the 
 Indians, where Philadelphia now stands, began to 
 purchase lands of the natives ; whom he treated 
 with great justice and sincere kindness, in all his 
 dealings and communications with them ; ever 
 giving them full satisfaction for all their lands, and 
 the best advice for their real happiness ; of which 
 their future conduct showed they were very sensible; 
 and the country afterwards felt the benefit. 
 
 It was at this time (1683), that he first entered 
 personally into that lasting friendship with the Indi- 
 ans, which ever afterwards continued between them ; 
 and for the space of more than 70 years was never 
 interrupted ; or, so long as the Quakers, to whom, even 
 long after his death, they always continued to show 
 the greatest regard, retained power in the govern- 
 ment sufficient to influence a friendly and just con- 
 duct towards them, and to prevent, or redress such 
 misunderstandings and grievances, as occasionally 
 happened between them, and any of the inhabitants 
 of the province, &c. A firm peace was now reci- 
 procally concluded between Penn and the Indians ; 
 and both parlies mutually promised to live together 
 as brethren, without doing the least injury to each 
 other. This was solemnly ratified by the usual token of 
 a u chain of friendship and covenant indelible, never 
 to be broken, so long as the sun and moon endure.'* 
 
 Of this kind of conference he afterwards had 
 many others, and some on a religious account, du- 
 ring both times of his residence in the country. 
 His conduct, in general, to these people, was so 
 engaging, his justice^in particular so conspicuous, 
 and the council and advice which he gave them were so 
 evidently for their advantage, that he became thereby 
 very much endeared to them ; and it made such a deep 
 impression, that his name and memory will scarcely 
 ever be effaced, while they continue a people. 
 
 That they retain a remembrance of these transac- 
 tions, and hand them, by tradition, from father to 
 son, many instances have since more particularly 
 shown. At a conference between Governor Keith 
 and the five nations, held at Conestogo, in Penn- 
 sylvania, in 1721, the chief speaker, with a coun- 
 tenance, which showed great respect, said : 
 
 " They should never forget the council that Wil- 
 liam Penn gave them ; and that though they could 
 not write, as the English did, yet they could keep, 
 in the memory, what was said in their councils ;" 
 and at the treaty renewed, in the year following, at 
 Albany, they mentioned the name of William Penn 
 with great affection, calling him a " good man ;" and, 
 as their highest compliment to Governor Keith, 
 they used this expression, " we esteem and love 
 you as if you were William Penn himself:" telling 
 nim, " Brother Onas," (which in their language 
 signifies a Pen, and by which name they call the 
 governors of Pennsylvania ever since it was first 
 settled by William Penn,) " we are glad to hear 
 
798 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the former treaties which we have made with Wil- 
 liam Penn repeated to us again." 
 
 Upon the governor's replying, " That he desirec 
 this visit, and the covenant- chain, which is hereby 
 brightened, may be recorded in everlasting remem- 
 brance, to be sent down to your and our children, to 
 last as long as the mountains and rivers, and while 
 the sun and moon endure :" they answered, " We 
 desire that peace and tranquillity, which is now 
 established between us, may be as clear as the sun, 
 shining in its lustre, without any cloud or darkness ; 
 and that the same may continue for ever." 
 
 These instances, among many others, that might 
 be given, together with the consequent correspond- 
 ing behaviour of these people, may show what a 
 grateful remembrance they retained of Penn's con- 
 duct towards them; and what a happy influence a 
 just and friendly treatment has on the most savage 
 minds. 
 
 Arrivals of colonists in the first year, and early times, 
 with their general character- Some of their settle- 
 ments, and rapid improvements Their difficulties 
 and hardships Part of the planter's speech to his 
 neighbours and countrymen Richard Toumsend's 
 testimony respecting the prosperity of Pennsylvania 
 frSm the first settlement of it, for above 40 years. 
 
 Within the first year, after the proper requisites 
 for a regular settlement were obtained, between 
 20 and 30 sail of ships, with passengers, arrived 
 in the province, including those which came before, 
 and about the same time with the proprietary. The 
 settlers amounted to such a large number, that the 
 parts near Delaware were peopled in a very rapid 
 manner, even from about the falls of Trenton, down 
 to Chester, near 50 miles on the river; besides the 
 settlements in the lower counties, which, at the 
 same time, were very considerable : for the first 
 settlements, for the most part, were made near the 
 river, according to the different shares of land, which 
 were respectively allotted for each settler; as may 
 be seen in an old map of the first settled parts of 
 the province. 
 
 As the first colonists, and those who followed, for 
 a number of years afterwards, were more generally 
 of the religious people called Quakers; and in their 
 native country had suffered much on account of 
 their religion, both in person and property, through 
 the persecuting bigotry of those times ; so, on their 
 arrival, their great and primary concern is said to 
 have been the continuance and support of their re- 
 ligious public worship, in every part of the country, 
 where they made settlements, in such manner*as 
 their situation and circumstances then permitted ; 
 and though the generality of them were not ranked 
 among the rich and great, yet many had valuable 
 estates, were of good familiesfcand education ; and 
 were mostly sober, industrious, and substantial peo- 
 ple, of low or moderate fortunes, but of good reputa- 
 tion and character. 
 
 The first most considerable English settlement in 
 Pennsylvania proper, is said to have been near the 
 lower falls of the river Delaware, in Bucks county ; 
 where the* Quakers had a regular and established 
 meeting for religious worship, before the country 
 bore the name of Pennsylvania : some of the inha- 
 bitants there having settled by virtue of patents, 
 from Sir Edmund Andross, governor of New York. 
 
 The early settlers appear in general to have been 
 provident and cautious in their removal; so that 
 rashness and inconsidcration, so common in new 
 attempts of this kind, was not very common among 
 
 them. Many of them Brought servants, and had 
 provided themselves with food and clothing for such 
 a space of time after their arrival, as, it might be 
 reasonably supposed their care and industry would 
 afterwards procure necessary subsistence in the 
 province : besides, sufficient quantities of household 
 furniture, utensils, implements, and tools, and ne- 
 cessary trades and occupations, were previously pro- 
 vided and brought by not a few of them. 
 
 The nature of both their religious and civil 
 system and conduct in general was so reasonable 
 and liberal, that, as they became known, great 
 numbers of people were induced to flock to the pro- 
 vince from different parts of Europe, and in such a 
 rapid manner, to colonize and improve it, as had 
 scarcely ever been paralleled in any other country 
 at so great a distance from the parent states, or 
 civilized part of the world. 
 
 In this, and the two next succeeding years, ar- 
 rived ships with passengers or settlers from Lon- 
 don, Bristol, Ireland, Wales, Cheshire, Lancashire, 
 Holland, Germany, c. to the number of about fifty 
 sail. 
 
 Among those from Germany, were some Friends, 
 or Quakers, from Krisheim or Cresheim, a town not 
 far from Worms. They had been early convinced 
 of the religious principles of the Quakers, by the 
 preaching of William Ames, an Englishman ; for 
 which they had bore a public testimony there, till 
 the present time ; when they all removed to Penn- 
 sylvania, and settled about six or seven miles dis- 
 tant from Philadelphia, at a place which they called 
 German Town. 
 
 " This removal," says Sewell, in his history of the 
 Quakers, " did not seem to be without a singular 
 direction of "Providence: for not long after a war 
 ensued in Germany, where the Palatinate was al- 
 together laid waste by the French, and thousands 
 of families were bereft of their possessions, and re- 
 duced to poverty." 
 
 Among those adventurers and settlers who ar 
 rived about this time were also many from Wales, 
 of those who are called Ancient Britons, and mostly 
 Quakers ; most of whom were of the original or 
 early stock of that society there. They had early 
 purchased of the proprietary, in England, forty 
 thousand acres of land. 
 
 Those who came at present took up so much of it 
 on the west side of Sculkil river, as made the three 
 townships of Merion, Haverford, and Radnor; and 
 in a few years afterwards, their number was so much 
 augmented as to settle the three other townships of 
 New Town, Goshen, and Uwchland. After which 
 they continued still increasing, and became a nu 
 merous and flourishing people. 
 
 Notwithstanding the precaution which many of 
 these adventurers had used, in bringing provisions 
 and other necessaries with them for a certain time, 
 yet it cannot be reasonably supposed that the arrival 
 of such a large number of people in a wilderness, 
 within the space of two or three years, would not 
 necessarily be attended with inconveniencies and 
 difficulties. Though the European inhabitants in 
 the country, prior to their arrival, were kind and 
 assisting, yet they were very few, mostly new 
 settlers, and consequently were but* meanly pro- 
 vided, either with provisions or other accommoda- 
 ions ; insomuch that sometimes, for many years 
 afterwards, the scarcity which was experienced 
 among them of the former caused very alarming 
 apprehensions. 
 
 Amidst many minute accounts, the following may 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 799 
 
 give some idea of the early circumstances of the 
 province : 
 
 John Scarborough, of London, coach-smith, ar- 
 rived in the country in 1682, with his son John, 
 then a youth, and settled in Middletown in Bucks 
 county, among the first in those parts, where he 
 remained about two years, and then embarked for 
 his native country, with intention to bring over his 
 wife and family ; having suffered much by persecu- 
 tion for his religion in England, being a Quaker. 
 
 During his residence in Pennsylvania, provisions 
 were sometimes scarce in the part where he re- 
 sided ; but the wild pigeons came in such great 
 numbers, that the air was sometimes darkened by 
 their flight ; and flying low, they were frequently 
 knocked down, as they flew in great quantities, by 
 those who had no other means to take them ; 
 whereby they supplied themselves, and having 
 salted those which they could not immediately use, 
 they preserved them both for bread and meat. 
 
 Thus they were supplied several times during the 
 first two or three years, till they had raised by their 
 industry food sufficient out of the ground ; for the 
 tilling of which at that time they used hoes, having 
 neither horses nor ploughs. The Indians were re- 
 markably kind, and assisted them, frequently sup- 
 plying them with such provisions as they could 
 spare, and other kindnesses. 
 
 John Scarborough, having placed v his son under 
 the care of a friend, sailed for England ; but he 
 never returned. His wife, who was not a Quaker, 
 being unwilling to leave her native country, and 
 
 Eersccution beginning to cease, he afterwards gave 
 is possessions in Pennsylvania to his son, whom 
 he had left in the province, with a strict charge, 
 when it should be in his power, to be kind to the 
 poor Indians for the favours he had received from 
 them ; which his son faithfully observed and com- 
 plied with, and is said to have been a worthy man 
 and of good character. 
 
 John Chapman came from England in 1684. 
 The ship iu which he came, by reason of bad 
 weather, put into Maryland, where he met with 
 Phineas Pemberton, whose father-in-law, James 
 Harrison, had purchased in Bucks county, Penn- 
 sylvania, five thousand acres of land, part of it in 
 Wright's town ; hence Chapman getting intelli- 
 gence of that part of th; country, afterward settled 
 there. He went from Maryland with his family, 
 first to Phineas Pemberton's plantation, near the 
 falls of Delaware, who had now made a convenient 
 settlement, and entertained the new comers with 
 much kindness. From hence Chapman went to 
 his purchase in Wright's Town, where, within 
 about twelve months afterwards, his wife had 
 two sons at one time, whence he called the place 
 Twins Borough. 
 
 At this time Chapman's place was the furthest 
 back in the woods of any English settlement ; and 
 the Indians, being then numerous, much frequented 
 his house in great companies, and were very kind 
 to him and his family, as well as to those who came 
 after him ; often supplying them with corn and 
 other provisions, which in those early times, more 
 especially in that part of the country, were very 
 scarce, and hard to be procured. 
 
 In one of these scarce times J. Chapman's eldest 
 daughter, Mara, supplied his family by an incident 
 unexpected. Being near Neshaminy creek, which 
 runs into the Delaware, she heard an unusual 
 noise, like that of something in distress ; upon 
 search, she found a large buck, which had disen- 
 
 gaged himself from a wolf that a little before had 
 seized on him, and had fled to the creek for safety, 
 under a high bank : the buck stood still till she took 
 the halter from the horse on which she rude, and 
 with a stick put it over his horns, whereby she se- 
 cured him till assistance came, on which the wolf 
 retired : such incidents as this in those times 
 were considered as providential favours. 
 
 Abraham and Joseph Chapman, the twins before 
 mentioned, when boys, about nine or ten years old, 
 going out one evening to seek their cattle, met an 
 Indian in the woods, who told them to go back, 
 else they would be lost. Soon after this they took 
 his advice, and went back ; but it was quite night 
 before they got home, where they found the Indian; 
 who, being careful lest they should lose themselves; 
 had repaired thither in the night to see if they had 
 returned. And their parents, about that time going 
 to the. yearly meeting at Philadelphia, and leaving 
 a young family at home (they being Quakers), the 
 Indians came' every day, to see whether any thing 
 was amiss among them. Such, in many instances, 
 was the kind treatment and behaviour of the natives 
 or aborigines of this country to the English, in 
 their first and early settlement of it. 
 
 The first business of the settlers after their ar- 
 rival, was to land their property, and put it under 
 such shelter as could be found ; then, while some of 
 them got warrants of survey, for taking up so much 
 land as was sufficient for immediate settling, others 
 went further into the woods, to the different places 
 where their lands were laid out; often without any 
 path or road to direct them ; for scarce any were 
 to be found above two miles from the water-side, 
 nor any sign of a European ever having been there. 
 As to the Indians, they seldom travelled so regularly 
 as to be traced or followed by footsteps, except per- 
 haps, from one of their towns to another ; and their 
 huntings were rather like ships at sea, without any 
 track or path. So that all the country, further than 
 about two miles distant from the river (excepting 
 the Indians' moveable settlements), was an entire 
 wilderness, producing nothing for the support of 
 human life but the wild fruits and animals of the 
 woods. 
 
 The lodgings of- some of these settlers were, at 
 first, in the woods ; a chosen tree was frequently all 
 the shelter they had against the inclemency of the 
 weather, and this sometimes late in the autumn, and 
 even in the winter season.- The next coverings of 
 many of them were, either caves in the earth, or 
 such huts erected upon it as could be most expedi- 
 tiously procured, till better houses were built ; for 
 which they had no want of timber. 
 
 It is impossible that these first adventurers and 
 settlers could at once obtain a proper method of im- 
 proving this wilderness ; and it is equally certain, that 
 the great difference between the finally cultivated 
 and open countries, with the near connexions which 
 many of them had left behind, and the appearance 
 of a wild and woody desert, with which they had 
 now to encounter among savages, must have created 
 in them very forcible emotions, and made at first 
 strong impressions on their minds. The considera- 
 tion likewise of the long and painful labour, and 
 inevitable disappointments and hardships, which, 
 more or less, were naturally inseparable from such 
 undertakings, and for a series of years must neces- 
 sarily be endured, before a comfortable subsistence 
 could be procured in the country, and a sufficient 
 portion of land brought into proper order for that 
 purpose, must undoubtedly have been very affecting to 
 
800 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 n considerate people, in this new, remote, and solitary 
 situation. But the soil was fertile, the air in general 
 pure and healthy ; the streams of water were good and 
 plentiful, wood for fire and building in abundance ; 
 and, as they were a religious people, knowing their 
 views in this their undertaking to be good, they 
 cheerfully underwent all difficulties of this nature, 
 and Providence blessed their industry. 
 
 In a short anonymous treatise, printed and pub- 
 lished " by Andrew Sowle, in Shoreditch, 1684," 
 the views and motives of some of these early colo- 
 nists are detailed in a very characteristic manner. 
 We give the introductory part, as a specimen of the 
 modes of thought and habits of these modern patri- 
 archs. 
 
 " The Planter's speech to his neighbours and coun- 
 trymen of Pennsylvania, East and West Jersey, 
 and to all such as have transported themselves 
 into new colonies, for the sake of a quiet and 
 1 retired life. 
 
 '< My dear friends and countrymen, 
 
 " Though it may seem very impertinent and un- 
 necessary to go about to repeat to you the occasions 
 and motives that inclined you to abandon the land 
 of your nativity, and those comfortable outward 
 employments and accommodations which most of 
 you had there, and to adventure yourselves to the 
 hazards of a long voyage at sea, to come to this 
 remote part of the world ; yet, lest you should forget 
 those inducements as often it happens, that men, 
 by a slothful negligience, or ignorance, after some 
 tract of time, fall from their first love, and blindly 
 hurry themselves into the very same mischiefs which 
 they intended to avoid, and build up again what 
 they justly endeavoured to destroy, not foreseeing 
 the future ill consequences of their present (supposed 
 innocent) actings I shall take leave briefly to men- 
 tion some few of those weighty causes which I am 
 confident, originally swayed your spirits to this 
 transplantation, and those good ends, for the ob- 
 taining of which, you chiefly removed hither. 
 
 " The motives of your retreating to' these new 
 habitations, I apprehend (measuring your senti- 
 ments by my own) to have been, 
 
 " 1. The desires of a peaceable life, where we 
 might worship .God, and obey his law with freedom, 
 according to the*dictates of the divine principle, 
 unincumbered with the mouldy errors of fierce 
 invasions of tradition, politic craft, covetous, or am- 
 bitious cruelty, &c. 
 
 " 2. That we might here, as on a virgin elysian 
 shore, commence, or improve, such an innocent 
 course of life as might unload us of those outward 
 cares, vexations, and turmoils, which before we were 
 always subject unto, from the hands of self-designing 
 and unreasonable men. 
 
 " 3. That, as Lot, by flying to little Zoar, from 
 the ungodly company of a more populous, magnifi- 
 cent dwelling, we might avoid both being grieved 
 vith the sight of infectious, as well as odious exam- 
 ples, of horrid swearings, cursings, drunkenness, 
 gluttony, uncleanness, and all kinds of debauchery, 
 continually committed with greediness ; and also 
 escape the judgments threatened to. every land pol- 
 luted with such abominations. 
 
 " 4. That, as trees are transplanted from one soil 
 to another, to render them more thriving and better 
 bearers, so we here, in peace and secure retire- 
 ment, under the bountiful protection of God, and in 
 the lap of the least adulterated nature, might every 
 one the better improve his talent, and bring forth 
 
 more plenteous fruits, to the glory of God, and pub- 
 lic welfare of the whole creation. 
 
 '5. And lastly, That in order hereunto, by our 
 holy doctrine, and the practical teachings of our 
 exemplary, abstemious lives, transacted in all hu- 
 mility, sobriety, plainness, self-denial, virtue, and 
 honesty, we might gain upon those thousands of 
 poor dark souls scattered round about us, (and com- 
 monly, in way of contempt and reproach, called 
 heathens,) and bring them, not only to a state of 
 civility, but real piety ; which effected, would turn 
 to a more satisfactory account, than if, with the 
 proud Spaniards, we had gained the mines of 
 Potosi, and might make the ambitious heroes, whom 
 the world admires, blush for their petty and shame- 
 ful victories, which only tend to make their fellow- 
 creatures slaves to those that are already the devil's 
 vassals : whereas hereby we might release millions 
 from the chains of Satan, and not only teach them 
 heir rights as men, and their happiness when Chris- 
 tians, but bring them from the power of darkness 
 'nto the marvellous light, and the glorious liberty of 
 the sons of the Most High. 
 
 " These thoughts, these designs, my friends, were 
 those that brought you hither ; and so far only 
 as you pursue and accomplish them, you obtain the 
 end of your journey. If these be neglected, though 
 your ports and rivers were full of trading ships, 
 your land never so populous, and loaded with most 
 vendible commodities, yet I would be bold to say, 
 that your plantations were in a most unthriving 
 condition ; that like men in a fever, tumbling from 
 one side of the bed to the other, you have shifted 
 your dwelling, but not recovered your health ; nor 
 are one inch nearer your proposed happiness in 
 America than in Europe ; and have travelled some 
 thousands of miles, to as little purpose as the Je- 
 suits into Japan and China, or foolish pilgrims, in 
 their tedious, vain, journeys to Comppstella, Lo- 
 re tto, or Jerusalem. 
 
 " Our business, therefore, here, in this new land, 
 s not so much to build houses, and establish facto- 
 ries, and promote trade and manufactories, that may 
 enrich ourselves, (though all these things, in their 
 due place, are not to be neglected.) as to erect 
 temples of holiness and righteousness, which God 
 may delight in; to lay such lasting frames and 
 foundations of temperance and virtue, as may sup- 
 port the superstructures of our future happiness, 
 both in this and the other world. 
 
 " In order to these great and glorious ends, it 
 will well become, nay, it is the indispensable duty of 
 all that are superiors amongst us, to make laws, and 
 imitate customs that may tend to innocency, and a 
 harmless life; so as to avoid and prevent all op- 
 pression and violence, either to men or beasts; 
 by which we shall strengthen the principle of 
 well-doing, and qualify the fierce, bitter, envious, 
 wrathful spirit; which (as it is said of fire and 
 water in the extremes,) is a good servant, but a bad 
 master," &c. 
 
 In the remainder of this curious tract many par- 
 ticulars are proposed, as fundamentals for future 
 laws and customs, tending principally to establish 
 a higher degree of temperance, and original simpli- 
 city of manners. Every thing of a military nature, 
 even the use of warlike implements, is not only dis- 
 approved, but also all violence, or cruelty towards, 
 and the wanton killing of, the inferior living crea- 
 tures, with the eaiting of animal food, are also 
 strongly advised against. All which customs or 
 laws are proposed, " to the end that a higher de- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 801 
 
 gree of love, perfection and happiness might more 
 universally be introduced and preserved among 
 maf.kind." 
 
 The first comers after their arrival soon cleared 
 land enough to make way for a crop of Indian corn, 
 in the succeeding spring ; and in a year or two, thoy 
 began upon wheat and other grain ; thus they went 
 on improving, till they got into a comfortable way 
 of living; so that many of them were blessed both 
 with the necessaries and conveniences of life beyond 
 their expectation ; and lived to a good old age. The 
 following extract from the testimony of one of them, 
 a Quaker, gives a lively idea of their circum- 
 stances. 
 " The testimony of Richard Townsend, showing 
 
 the providential hand of God, to him and others, 
 
 from the first settlement of Pennsylvania, to this 
 
 day. (About the year 1727.) 
 
 "Whereas King Charles II. in t.he year 1681, 
 was pleased to grant this province to William Penn, 
 and his heirs for ever ; which act seemed to be an 
 act of Providence to many religious, good, people ; 
 and the proprietor, William Penn, being one of the 
 people called Quakers, and in good esteem among 
 them and others, many were inclined to embark 
 along with him, for the settlement of this place. 
 
 " To that end, in the year 1682 several ships 
 being provided, I found a concern on my mind to 
 embark with them, with my wife and child ; and 
 about the latter end of the sixth month, having set- 
 tled my affairs in London, where I dwelt, I went on 
 board the ship Welcome, Robert Greenaway, com- 
 mander, in company witn my worthy friend, Wil- 
 liam Peun ; whose good conversation was very ad- 
 vantageous to all the company. His singular care 
 was manifested in contributing to the necessities of 
 many, who were sick of the small-pox, then on 
 board ; out of which company about 30 died. After 
 a prosperous passage of about two months, having 
 had in that time many good meetings on board, we 
 arrived here. 
 
 " At our arrival, we found it a wilderness ; the 
 chief inhabitants were Indians, and some Swedes ; 
 who received us in a friendly manner : and though 
 there was a great number of us, the good hand of 
 Povidence was seen in a particular manner ; in that 
 provisions were found for us by the Swedes and 
 Indians, at very reasonable rates, as well as brought 
 from divers other parts, that were inhabited before. 
 
 " Our first concern was to keep up and maintain 
 our religious worship ; and, in order thereunto, we 
 had several meetings in the houses of the inhabit- 
 ants ; and one boarded meeting-house was set up, 
 where the city was to be, near Delaware ; and, as 
 we had nothing but love and good-will, in our hearts, 
 one to another, we had very comfortable meetings, 
 from time to time ; and after our meeting was over, 
 we assisted each other in building little houses, for 
 our shelter. 
 
 " After some time I setup a mill on Chester creek ; 
 which I brought ready framed from London ; which 
 served for grinding of corn, and sawing of boards; 
 and was of great use tons. Besides, I, with Joshua 
 Tittery, made a net, and caught great quantities of 
 fish ; which supplied ourselves and many others ; so 
 that, notwithstanding it w r as thought near 3000 per- 
 sons came in the first year, we were so providen- 
 tially provided for, that we could buy a deer for about 
 two shillings, and a large turkey for about one 
 shilling, and Indian corn for about two shillings 
 and six-pence per bushel. 
 
 " And, as our worthy proprietor treated the In- 
 HIST. or AMER. Nos. 101 & 102. 
 
 dians with extraordinary humanity, they became 
 very civil and loving to us, and brought in abundance 
 of venison. As, in other countries, the Indians were 
 exasperated by hard treatment, which hath been the 
 foundation of much bloodshed, so the contrary treat- 
 ment here hath produced their love and affection. 
 
 " About a year after our arrival, there came in 
 about twenty families from high and low Germany, 
 of religioiis, good people ; who settled about six 
 miles from Philadelphia, and called the place Ger- 
 mautown. The country continually increasing, peo- 
 ple began to spread themselves further back. ' Also 
 a place called North Wales, was settled by many of 
 the Ancient Britons, an honest inclined people, 
 although they had not then made a profession of the 
 truth as held'by us, yet, in a little time, a large con- 
 viucement was among them ; and divers meeting- 
 houses were built. 
 
 " About the time in which Germantown was laid 
 out, I settled upon my tract of land which I had 
 purchased of the proprietor in England, about a 
 mile from thence ; where I set up a house and a 
 corn-mill ; which was very useful to the country, 
 for several miles round : but there not being plenty 
 of horses, people generally brought their corn on 
 their backs many miles ; I remember one man had 
 a bull so gentle, that he used to bring his corn on 
 him, instead of a horse. 
 
 " Being now settled about six or seven miles 
 from Philadelphia, where leaving the principal body 
 of friends, together with the chief place of provi- 
 sions as before mentioned, flesh-meat was very scarce 
 with me for some time; of which I found the want. 
 I remember I was once supplied by a particular 
 instance of Providence, in the following manner . 
 
 " As I was in my meadow mowing grass, a young 
 deer came and looked on me ; I continued mowing, 
 and the deer in the same attention to me ; upon, 
 which I laid down my scythe, and went towards him; 
 upon which he ran off a small distance ; I went to 
 my work again, and the deer continued looking on 
 me ; so that several times I left my work, to go to- 
 wards him ; but he still kept himself at a distance ; 
 at last, as I was going towards him, and he looking 
 on me did not mind his steps, but ran forceably 
 against the trunk of a tree, and stunned himself so 
 much, that he fell ; upon which I ran forward, and 
 getting upon him, held him by the legs : after a 
 great struggle, in which I had almost tired him out, 
 and rendered him lifeless, I threw him on my 
 shoulders, holding him fast by the legs, and witlx 
 some difficulty, from his fresh struggling, carried 
 him home, about a quarter of a rnile to my house ; 
 where by the assistance of a neighbour, who hap- 
 pened to be there, and killed him for me ; he proved 
 very serviceable to my family. I could relate seve- 
 ral other acts of Providence, of this kind, but omit. 
 them for brevity. 
 
 " As people began to spread, and improve their 
 lands, the country became more fruitful; so that 
 those, who came after us, were plentifully supplied ; 
 and with what we abounded we began a small trade 
 abroad. And as Philadelphia increased, vessels 
 were built, and many employed. Both country and 
 trade have been wonderfully increasing to this day ; 
 so that, from a wilderness, the Lord, by his good 
 hand of Providence, hath made it a fruitful field : on 
 which to look back, and observe all the steps, would 
 exceed my present purpose ; yet, being now in the 
 84th year of my age, and having been in this country 
 near " 46 years, and my memory pretty clear, con- 
 cerning the rise and progress of the province, I cau 
 4 A 
 
802 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 do no less than return praises to the Almighty, when 
 I look back and consider his bountiful hand, not 
 only in temporals, but in the great increase of our 
 meetings; wherein he hath many times manifested 
 his great loving-kindness m reaching to, and con- 
 vincing many persons of the principles of truth ; and 
 those that were already convinced and continued 
 faithful, were not only blessed with plenty of the 
 fruits of the earth, but also with the dew of Heaven. 
 I am engaged in my spirit, to supplicate the con- 
 tinuance thereof to the present rising generation ; 
 that, as God hath blessed their parents, the same 
 blessing may remain on their offspring to the end of 
 time : that it may be so is the hearty desire and 
 prayer of their ancient and loving friend, 
 
 " RICHARD TOWNSEND." 
 
 Foundation of the city of Philadelphia Province and 
 territory divided into counties First general assem- 
 bly at Philadelphia in 1683 Proceedings of the 
 assembly Second charter, or frame of government 
 A seal for each county ; thejirst sheriff's First 
 grand and petit jury, with their business, &fc. 
 Further account of the situation and plan of Phi- 
 ladelphia Penn's letter to the free society of 
 traders, yiviny an account of Pennsylvania at that 
 time. 
 
 In the latter part of this year, 1682, the propri- 
 etary having finished his business with the Indians, 
 undertook, with the assistance of his surveyor-gene- 
 ral, Thomas Holme, to lay out a place for the city : 
 and the ground which was chosen for that purpose, 
 was claimed by some Swedes ; to whom he gave, in 
 exchange for it, a larger quantity of land at a small 
 distance. 
 
 The situation of this place, being where Phila- 
 delphia now stands, along the western side of the 
 river Delaware, then exhibited an agreeable pros- 
 pect ; it had a high and dry bank next the water, 
 with a high shore, ornamented with a flue view of 
 pine trees growing upon it. 
 
 In this bank many of the first and early adven- 
 turers had caves, or holes for their residence, be- 
 fore any houses were built, or better accommoda- 
 tions prepared for them. The firs! house erected on 
 this plot of ground, was built by George Guest, 
 and was not finished at the time of the proprietor's 
 arrival. 
 
 Soon afterwards many small houses were erected. 
 Penn^himself had a large mansion-house, built on 
 his manor of Pennsbury, near the side of Delaware, 
 a few miles below the falls of Trenton, and about 
 26 above the city : which appears to have been un- 
 dertaken before his arrival, and intended for his 
 reception. Here afterwards he sometimes resided, 
 and had meetings and conferences with the Indians, 
 both on a religious and civil account. 
 
 About this time also the proprietor, with the con- 
 sent of the purchasers under him, divided the pro- 
 vince and territories, each into three counties; those 
 of the province were called the counties of Bucks, 
 Philadelphia, and Chester ; those of the territories, 
 Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex. For which having 
 appointed sheriffs, and other proper officers in each 
 county, he issued writs for the election of members 
 of council and assembly, conformable to the cons' : - 
 tution at that time. 
 
 He met the council on the 10th of March, 1683, 
 O. S. at Philadelphia, and the assembly two days 
 afterwards. The number of the members for both 
 the council and assembly consisted of twelve, out of 
 each county ; three for the council, and ninf for the 
 
 assembly, making in all 72. Those of the council 
 were : 
 
 William Markham, Christopher Taylor, Thomas 
 Holme, Lacy Cock, William Haige, John Moll, 
 Ralph Withers, John Simcock, Edward Cantwell, 
 William Clayton, William Biles, James Harrison, 
 William Clark, Francis Whitewell, John Richard- 
 son, John Hillyard. 
 The members of assembly for each county were : 
 
 For Bucks. William Yardley, Samuel Darke, 
 Robert Lucas, Nicholas Walne, John Wood, John 
 Clowes, Thomas Fitzwater, Robert Hall, James 
 Boyden. 
 
 For Philadelphia. John Songhurst, John Hart, 
 Walter King, Andros Binkson, John Moon, Thomas 
 Wynne, Speaker, Griffith Jones, William Warner, 
 Swan Swanson. 
 
 For Chester. John Hoskins, Robert Wade, 
 George Wood, John Blunston, Dennis Rochford, 
 Thomas Bracy, John Bezer, John Harding, Joseph 
 Phipps. 
 
 For Kent. John Biggs, Simon Irons, Thomas 
 Hassold, John Curtis, Robert Bedwell, William 
 Windsmore, John Brinkloe, Daniel Brown, Be 
 nony Bishop. 
 
 For Newcastle. John Cann, John Darby, Va- 
 lentine Hollingsworth, Gasparus Herman, John 
 Dehoaef, James Williams, William Guest, Peter 
 Alrick, Henrick Williams. 
 
 For Sussex. Luke Watson, Alexander Draper, 
 William Futcher, Henry Bowman, Alexander Mo- 
 leston, John Hill, Robert Bracy, John Kipshaven, 
 Cornelius Verhoof. 
 
 The following are the only particulars to be found 
 respecting the characters of these members of this 
 first provincial council and assembly, which met at 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 Captain William Markham, from London, was a 
 relation of the proprietor. He was afterwards some- 
 times his secretary, aud sometimes his deputy-go- 
 vernor. He appears to have been a useful person, 
 of good education, character and ability; and to 
 have possessed the proprietor's confidence and 
 esteem. 
 
 Christopher Taylor, who is said to have been a 
 person of excellent character and ability, was born 
 in Yorkshire, where he had a good education, and 
 wrote well in the Latin language. He was an emi- 
 nent preacher among the Quakers; and composed 
 several works in defence of their religious principles 
 in England, as well as his brother, Thomas Taylor. 
 He died in 1696. 
 
 Captain Thomas Holme came from Waterford, in 
 Ireland. He was a Quaker, and surveyor-general 
 of the province, appointed by commission from the 
 proprietor, of the 18th April, 1682. 
 
 Lacy Cock appears to have been one of the Swede 
 settlers, prior to William Penn's arrival. 
 
 John Simcock came from Ridley, in Cheshire, 
 England, where he had suffered much for his reli- 
 gion, being a Quaker preacher. He had a good 
 education, was one of the proprietor's first commis- 
 sioners of property, and one of his most trusty 
 friends in the government. Sometimes he was 
 speaker of the assembly ; and is said to have been a 
 very worthy and serviceable person, in the province 
 till his death. He lived in Chester county ; and 
 died on the 27th of January, 1702. 
 
 William Biles was a preacher among the Quakers, 
 among the first settlers there ; where he appears to 
 have taken up land, under Governor Andross, of 
 New York, prior to William Penn's grant of the 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 803 
 
 province. He is said to have been a very useful I it' extraordinary propositions should sometimes be 
 person both in the civil and religious line ; being 
 often in the council and assembly, &c. 
 
 James Harrison, who came from Boulton, in Lan 
 cashire, was also one of the proprietor's first com 
 missioners of property ; and was for many years 
 with him as agent at Peusbury ; he was a man 
 good education, and a preacher among the Quakers. 
 William Haige had been a merchant in London. 
 Ralph Withers came from Bishop's Canning in 
 Wiltshire ; and Griffith Jones, from Surrey. 
 
 Francis Whitewell, who was counsellor for Kent 
 county, is said to have been a very serviceable per- 
 son in the government, among the first and early 
 settlers ; a preacher among the Quakers ; and every 
 way a very useful and worthy member of society. 
 He died in the year 1684 ; and William Darval was 
 chosen counsellor in his stead. 
 
 Thomas Wynne was speaker of the assembly, 
 during the two first years, and was at other times a 
 member of it He was one of the people called 
 Quakers, a preacher among them, and came from 
 North Wales ; a person of note and good character. 
 He died in the latter part of the year 1692 ; and was 
 the author of some works written in defence of the 
 Quakers, in his native country. 
 
 John Moon was originally of Lancashire, in Eng- 
 land, afterwards of Bristol; he also was an author 
 of works in defence of the Quakers. 
 
 John Songhurst came from Sussex, in England, 
 and was a preacher among the Quakers. He died 
 in West Jersey, and was buried in Philadelphia, in 
 1688. 
 
 Though the charter of privileges, or frame of go- 
 vernment, required a greater number than were now 
 returned to &erve in council and assembly, yet it 
 was left to be explained and confirmed by the go- 
 vernor, his heirs and assigns, and by the freemen 
 of the province and territories. And it being found 
 inconvenient to return the full complement pre- 
 scribed by the charter, the freemen depended upon 
 the proprietor's construction of their choice in a 
 favourable manner; and alleged their reasons, 
 both in the sheriffs' returns, and also by petitions 
 and addresses, for choosing only twelve for each 
 county, as sufficient to compose both the council 
 and assembly; and declared that the number re- 
 turned, namely, three for the council, and nine for 
 the assembly, from each county, had in them the 
 power of the whole freemen of the province and 
 territories, and consequently, of serving in these ca- 
 pacities. 
 
 It was accordingly requested of the governor, 
 that this alteration might not deprive the people of' 
 the benefit of their charter, though it might seem to 
 be returned to him again, by not being accepted so 
 largely as granted. Upon which the governor an- 
 swered, " That they might amend, alter, or add, for 
 the public good; and that he was ready to settle 
 such foundations as might be for their happiness, 
 according to the powers vested in him." 
 
 These preliminaries being settled, the different 
 branches of the legislature proceeded according to 
 the method prescribed in their charter of privileges ; 
 namely, that the governor and provincial council 
 should propose to the assembly, and prepare all 
 bills, which they, at any time, should think proper 
 to be passed into laws consistent with the powers 
 granted in the king's letters patent. 
 
 In such popular and inexperienced councils, 
 where every man may propose any thing, which he 
 fancies will tend to the public good, it is no wonder 
 
 made ; and though many singularities of this nature 
 do not appear to have occurred in this province, yet, 
 -probably, the two following, which are said to have 
 -been made, at this time, may be so considered. 
 First, that young men should be obliged to marry 
 at, or before a certain age. Second, that two sorts 
 of clothes only should be worn; one for winter, and 
 the other for summer. Of the propositions which 
 were now made, some were agreed to, and some 
 rejected: but the principal business transacted this 
 session, was the alteration of the charter of liber- 
 ties, called the frame of government, which had 
 before been in agitation. 
 
 At a council held the 20th of March, the speaker, 
 and two members of assembly attending with some 
 bills which had been sent to them, the governor and 
 council desired a conference with the whole house 
 and freemen, about the charter. Upon their at- 
 tending, the governor asked them, " Whether they 
 chose to have the old charter, or a new, one ?" They 
 unanimously requested a new one, with such amend- 
 ments as had already been debated and agreed on. 
 To which the governor consented, and made a 
 speech to them on the occasion; in which he de- 
 clared their duty, and his own willingness to oblige 
 them. Next day the house sent Griffith Jones, and 
 Thomas Fitzwater, two of their members, with a 
 written message to the governor, containing their 
 thankful acknowledgments for his kind speech, and 
 gratefully embracing his offers, respecting what they 
 desired to be inserted iu their charter. 
 
 A committee of each house was thereupon ap- 
 pointed to draw up the charter, with amendments. 
 Those of the council were, John Moll, for New- 
 castle; Francis Whitewell, for Kent; William 
 Clark, for Sussex; James Harrison, foi Bucks; 
 William Clayton, for Chester; and Thomas Holme, 
 for Philadelphia. The committee of assembly were : 
 James Williams, for Newcastle; Benony Bishop, 
 for Kent; Luke Watson, for Sussex; Thomas Fitz 
 water, for Bucks ; Dennis Rochford, for Chester ; 
 and Thomas Wynne, the speaker, for Philadelphia 
 county. 
 
 At a council held the 30th of March, this year, 
 the charter being prepared and read, signed, sealed, 
 and delivered by the governor, was received by 
 James Harrison, Thomas Wynne, and another 
 member, on behalf of the assembly and freemen, 
 who returned the old one to the governor, with the 
 hearty thanks of the whole house. 
 
 By this charter the provincial council was to con 
 sist of eighteen persons, three from each county; 
 and the assembly was to be composed of 36 ; men 
 of most note for virtue, wisdom, and ability; by 
 whom, with the governor, all laws were to be made, 
 officers chosen, and public affairs transacted, in the 
 manner therein expressed. 
 
 This charter continued in force till after the re- 
 volution in England; a'nd though in some parts, it 
 was formed upon a generous plan ; yet all the laws 
 were thereby still to be prepared and proposed by 
 the governor and council; and the number of as- 
 semblymen were to be increased at their pleasure. 
 This charter, with another which followed in the 
 year 1696, seemed to be only preparatory to the 
 last charter of privileges, granted in 1701. 
 
 This was the last affair transacted at the session 
 of 1683 ; which continued 22 days. The governor 
 and council, among other regulations, established a 
 seal for each county, viz. for Philadelphia an an- 
 
 chor; for Bucks a 
 
 tree and vine; for Chester 
 4 A2 
 
804 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 plough; for Newcastle a cassia; for Kent three ears 
 of Indian corn; and for Sussex a wheat-sheaf. 
 
 The first sheriffs appointed for each county were : 
 for Philadelphia, John Test; Chester, Thomas 
 Usher; Bucks, Richard Noble; New Castle, Ed- 
 mund Cantwell; Kent, Peter Bowcomb; Sussex, 
 John Vines. 
 
 The first grand jury in Pennsylvania was sum- 
 moned on the 2nd of May, this year (1683), upon 
 some persons accused of issuing counterfeit silver 
 money. The governor and council sat, as a court 
 of justice, on the occasion. The names of those 
 empannelled and attested to serve on the grand jury 
 were, Thomas Lloyd, foreman, Enoch Flower, Ri- 
 chard Wood, John Harding, John Hill, Edward 
 Louff, James Boyden, Nicholas Walne, John James, 
 John Vanborson, Robert Hall, Valentine Hollings- 
 worth, Alexander Draper, John Louff, John Wale, 
 Samuel Darke, John Parsons, John Blunston, 
 Thomas Fitzwater, William Guest, John Curtis, 
 Robert Lucas, Henry Jones, and Caleb Pusey. 
 
 A bill or bills, being found by the grand jury, a 
 petty jury was therefore empanuelled and attested ; 
 whose names were : John Claypoole, foreman, Ro- 
 bert Turner, Robert Ewer, Andrew Binkson, John 
 Barnes, Joseph Fisher, Dennis Rochford, William 
 Howell, Walter King, Benjamin Whitehead, Tho- 
 mas Rouse, and David Breiutnall. 
 
 They convicted a person, whose name was Pick- 
 ering, and two others, his accomplices, of coining 
 and stamping silver in the form of Spanish pieces, 
 with the alloy of too much copper in it. Upon 
 which Pickering's sentence, as principal, was, " that 
 for this high misdemeanor, whereof his country 
 had found him guilty, he should make full satisfac- 
 tion, in good and current pay, to every person, who 
 should, within the space of one month, bring in any 
 of this false, base, and counterfeit coin," which the 
 next day was to be called in by proclamation, 
 <! according to their respective proportions ; and that 
 the money brought in should be melted down before 
 it was returned to him ; and that he should pay a 
 fine of 40/. towards the building of a court-house, 
 stand committed till the same was paid, and after- 
 wards find security for his good behaviour." 
 
 This, and all other affairs before the council being 
 finished, and the members returned to their habita- 
 tions, the proprietary applied himself to finish his 
 plan, and regulate the streets of his favourite city, 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 This city is situated 40 degrees, or more pre- 
 cisely 39 degrees, 56 minutes, 54 seconds, north 
 from the equator, and about 75 degrees, or more ac- 
 curately 5 hours, minutes, 35 seconds, west from 
 London, on the west side of the river Delaware ; 
 which river, at this place, is near one mile broad, at 
 the distance of about 40 leagues from the sea, 
 along the course of the river and bay. The river 
 Sculkil, which is a branch of the Delaware, and 
 here runs nearly parallel to it, at the distance of 
 two miles westward, is broad and deep enough for 
 large ships at this place; but, on account of a sand- 
 bar at its mouth, where it enters the Delaware, 
 about four miles below the city, its navigation for 
 large vessels is obstructed : and it has falls about 
 five miles above the city, to which the tide runs, 
 and no further. Over which falls, or rocks, at cer- 
 tain times, in floods and freshes, boats and small 
 craft pass down to the city, with country produce, 
 as iron, wheat, flour, &c. from the interior parts of 
 the province. The tide rises in the Delaware gene- 
 rally about six feet at the city, and flows near 30 
 
 miles above it, to the falls at Trenton, on the Jersey 
 shore, and is navigable all the way for large shipping, 
 as far as that place. 
 
 The original plan of this city, as confirmed by 
 charter, dated October 25th, 1701, extends, in 
 length, between the river Delaware, on the east, 
 and Sculkil, on the west of it, about two miles ; and 
 is, in breadth, one mile nearly on each river. The 
 streets, which run right, and exactly parallel to 
 each other, nearly east and west, from river to river, 
 are nine in number, and they are intersected at 
 right angles by 23 others, running nearly parallel 
 with the rivers, north and south; none being less 
 than 50, nor more than 100 feet broad. 
 
 The proprietor likewise assigned five squares 
 within this plan for the public use of the city, with 
 other beneficial regulations; whose future great 
 importance to the city having since not been suffi- 
 ciently considered and attended to, some of them 
 have either been neglected or violated. 
 
 The largest public square, at the centre, it is said, 
 was intended to contain ten acres of land ; the other 
 four eight acres each. In the original plan by 
 Thomas Holme, surveyor-general, the proportions, 
 dimensions, and situations of all the original squares 
 and streets, with the names of the latter, then given 
 them, and still generally retained, are exhibited, as 
 well as in the following description of it, viz. 
 
 The distances of the streets from each other, 
 from east to west, with their names and dimensions, 
 are : feet. 
 
 From Delaware Front-street to Second-street . 396 
 
 Second-street to Third-street 496 
 
 Third to Fourth 396 
 
 Fourth to Fifth 396 
 
 Fifth to Sixth 396 
 
 Sixth to Seventh 396 
 
 Seventh to Eighth * 396 
 
 Eighth to Ninth 396 
 
 Ninth to Tenth 396 
 
 Tenth to Eleventh 396 
 
 Eleventh to Broad-street 528 
 
 Ten streets, 50 feet each 500 
 
 Distance from Delaware Front-street to Broad- 
 street 5088 
 
 Distance from Sculkil Front-street to Broad- 
 street 5088 
 
 Broad-street 100 
 
 Distance on High-street, between the two 
 Front-streets of Delaware and Sculkil, ex- 
 clusive of the said two streets, and their 
 distances from each river, equal to two 
 
 miles, wanting 304 feet 10,276 
 
 The distances, names, and dimensions of all the 
 streets, from north to south, are : 
 
 feet. 
 
 From Vine-street to Sassafras-street 612 
 
 Sassafras to Mulberry 614 
 
 Mulberry to High 663 
 
 High to Chestnut 497 
 
 Chestnut to Walnut 510 
 
 Walnut to Spruce 821 
 
 Spruce to Pine 468 
 
 Pine to Cedar 652 
 
 Seven streets, 50 feet each 350 
 
 High-street 100 feet, Mulberry-street, 66 feet 166 
 
 Distance from Cedar-street to Vine-street, in- 
 clusive, equal to one mile and 73 feet, north 
 and south nearly, including all the streets . 5353 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 805 
 
 Perm, having finished what related to this excel- 
 lent plan by the latter end of August, or the begin- 
 ning of September, to the general satisfaction of 
 those concerned, wrote a letter to the committee of 
 the " Free society of traders in London," giving 
 some account of it, and the country in general, with 
 such observations as the short space of time he had 
 resided, and his hurry of business, in it, had per- 
 mitted him to make. 
 
 As it exhibits a specimen of the author's capacity 
 for attending to a variety of objects at the same time, 
 and is the best account, though only an imperfect 
 sketch, of the original state of the province, of its 
 Aborigines, and its natural history, we insert it. 
 " A letter from William Penn, proprietor and go- 
 vernor of Pennsylvania, in America, to the com- 
 mittee of the free society of traders of that pro- 
 vince, residing in London : containing a general 
 description of the said province, its soil, air, 
 water, seasons, and produce, both natural and 
 artificial, and the good increase thereof. With 
 an account of the natives, or aborigines. 
 
 " My kind Friends, 
 
 " The kindness of yours, by the ship Thomas 
 and Ann, doth much oblige me ; for by it I perceive 
 the interest you take in my health and reputation, 
 and the prosperous beginning of this province ; 
 which you are so kind as to think may much depend 
 upon them. In return of which I have sent you a 
 long letter, and yet containing as brief an account 
 of myself, and the affairs of this province, as I have 
 been able to make. 
 
 " In the first place I take notice of the news you 
 sent me ; whereby 1 find some persons have had so 
 little wit, and so much malice, as to report my death; 
 and, to mend the matter, dead a Jesuit too. One 
 might have reasonably hoped, that this distance, 
 like death, would have been a pioteetion against 
 spite and envy ; and, indeed, absence being a kind 
 of death, ought alike to secure the name of the ab- 
 sent as the dead; because they are equally unable, as 
 such, to defend themselves : but they that intend 
 mischief, do not choose to follow good rules to effect 
 it. However, to the great sorrow and shame of the 
 inventors, I am still alive, and no Jesuit; and, I 
 thank God, very well. And, without injustice to 
 the authors of this, I may venture to infer, that they 
 that wilfully and falsely report, would have been 
 glad it had been so. But I perceive many frivolous 
 and idle stories have been invented since my de- 
 parture from England; which, perhaps, at this 
 time, are no more alive than I am dead. 
 
 " But, if I have been unkindly used by some I 
 left behind me, I found love and respect enough 
 where I came ; an universal kind welcome, every 
 sort in their way. For, here are some of several 
 nations, as well as divers judgments : nor were the 
 natives wanting in this; for their kings, queens, 
 and great men, both visited and presented me ; to 
 whom I made suitable returns, &c. 
 
 " For the province, the general condition of it, 
 take as followeth : 
 
 " I. The country itself, its soil, air, water, seasons, 
 and produce, both natural and artificial, is not to be 
 despised. The land containeth divers sorts of earth, 
 as sand, yellow and black, poor and rich : also 
 gravel, both loamy and dusty ; and, in some places, 
 a fast fat earth, like our best vales in England, es- 
 pecially by inland brooks and rivers : God, in his 
 wisdom, having ordered it so, that the advantage 
 of the country are divided ; the back lands being 
 generally three to one richer than those that lie by 
 
 navigable rivers. We have much of another soil ; 
 and that is a black hazel-mould, upon a stony, or 
 rocky bottom. 
 
 " II. The air is sweet and clear, the heavens 
 serene, like the south parts of France, rarely over- 
 cast ; and, as the woods come, by numbers of peo- 
 ple, to be more cleared, that itself will refine. 
 
 "III. The waters are generally good; for the 
 :ivers and brooks have mostly gravel and stony bot- 
 toms ; and in number hardly credible. We have 
 also mineral waters, that operate in the same man- 
 ner with Barnet and North Hall, not two miles 
 rom Philadelphia 
 
 " IV. For the seasons of the year having, by 
 God's goodness, now lived over the coldest and hot- 
 test that the oldest liver in the province can re- 
 member, I can say something to an English under- 
 landing. 
 
 " First, of the fall ; for then I came in : I founa 
 it, from the 24th of October to the beginning of 
 December, as we have it usually in England in 
 September, or rather like an English mild spring. 
 From December, to the beginning of the month 
 called March, we had sharp frosty weather; not 
 foul, thick, black weather, as our north-east winds 
 bring with them, in England ; but a sky as clear as 
 in summer, and the air dry, cold, piercing, and 
 hungry; yet I remember not that I wore more 
 clothes than in England. The reason of this cold 
 is given, from the great lakes that are fed by the 
 fountains of Canada. The winter before was as 
 mild, scarcely any ice at all ; while this, for a few 
 days, froze up our great river Delaware. From 
 that month, to the month called June, we enjoyed 
 a sweet spring; no gusts, but gentle showers, and 
 a fine sky. Yet, this I observe, that the winds here, 
 as there, are more inconstant, spring and fall, upon 
 that turn of nature, than in summer or winter. 
 From thence, to this present month (August), 
 which endeth the summer (commonly speaking), 
 we have had extraordinary heats, yet mitigated 
 sometimes by cool breezes. The wind, that ruleth 
 the summer season, is the south-west ; but spring, 
 fall, and winter, it is rare to want the north-western 
 seven days together. And whatever mists, fogs, or 
 vapours, foul the heavens by easterly, or southerly 
 winds, in two hours time are blown away ; the one 
 is followed by the other: a remedy that seems to 
 have a peculiar providence in it to the inhabitants; 
 the multitude of trees, yet standing, being liable to 
 retain mists and vapours; and yet not one quarter 
 so thick as I expected. 
 
 " V. The natural produce of the country, of ve- 
 getables, is trees, fruits, plants, flowers. The trees 
 of most note are the black walnut, cedar, cypress, 
 chestnut, poplar, gum-wood, hickory, sassafras, ash, 
 beech, and oak of divers sorts, as red, white, and 
 black ; Spanish chestnut, and swamp, the most du- 
 rable of all. Of all which there is plenty for the 
 use of man. 
 
 " The fruits that I find in the woods are the 
 white and black mulberry, chestnut, walnut, plums, 
 strawberries, cranberries, hurtleberries, and grapes 
 of divers sorts. The great red grape (now ripe), 
 called by ignorance, the fox grape, because of the 
 relish it hath with unskilful palates, is in itself an 
 extraordinary grape ; and by art, doubtless, may 
 be cultivated to an excellent wine, if not so sweet, 
 yet little inferior to the Frontiniac, as it is not 
 much unlike in taste, ruddiness set aside; which, in 
 such things, as well as mankind, differs the case 
 much. There is a white kind of Muskadel, and a 
 
ace 
 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 little black grape, like the cluster grape of England, 
 not yet so ripe as the other ; but they tell me when 
 ripe, sweeter, and that they only want skilful Vine- 
 rons to make good use of them. I intend to venture 
 on it with my Frenchman, this season, who shews 
 some knowledge in those things. Here are also 
 peaches very good, and in great quantities; not an 
 Indian plantation without them ; but whether natu- 
 rally here at first, I know not. However, one may 
 have them by bushels, for little : they make a plea- 
 sant drink ; and I think not inferior to any peacb 
 you have in England, except the true Newington. 
 It is disputable with me, whether it be best to fall to 
 fining the fruits of the country, especially the grape, 
 by the care and skill of art, or send for foreign stems 
 and sets, already good and approved. It seems 
 most reasonable to believe, that not only a thing 
 groweth best, where it naturally grows,' but will 
 hardly be equalled by another species of the same 
 kind, that doth not naturally grow there. But, to 
 solve the doubt, I intend, if God give me life to try 
 both, and hope the consequence will be as good wine, 
 as any European countries of the same latitude do 
 yield. 
 
 " VI. The artificial produce of the country is 
 wheat, barley, oats, rye, peas, beans, squashes, 
 pumkins, water-melons,' musk-melons, and all herbs 
 and roots, that our gardens in England usually bring 
 forth." 
 
 Edward Jones, son-in-law to Thomas Wynne, liv- 
 ing on the Sculkil, had, with ordinary cultivation, 
 for one grain of English barley, 70 stalks and ears 
 of barley : and it is common in this country, from 
 one bushel sown, to reap 40, often 50, and some- 
 times 60. And three pecks of wheat sow an acre 
 here. 
 
 " VII. Of living creatures ; fish, fowl, and the 
 beasts of the woods ; here are divers sorts, some for 
 food and profit, and some for profit only : for food 
 as well as profit, the elk, as big as a small ox ; 
 deer bigger than ours; beaver, raccoon, rabbits, 
 squirrels ; and some eat young bear, and commend 
 it. Of fowl of the land, there is the turkey (40 
 and 50 pounds weight) which is very great ; phea- 
 sants, heath-birds, pigeons and partridges in abun- 
 dance. Of the water, the swan, goose, white and 
 grey ; brands, ducks, teal, also the snipe and curloe, 
 and that in great numbers ; but the duck and teal 
 excel ; nor so good have I ever eat in other countries. 
 Of fish, there is the sturgeon, herring, rock, shad, 
 cats-head, sheeps-head, eel, smelt, pearch, roach ; 
 and in inland rivers, trout, some say salmon, above 
 the falls. Of shell-fish, we have oysters, crabs, 
 coccles, conchs and muscles ; some oysters six 
 inches long; and one sort of coccles as big as the 
 stewing oysters ; they make a rich broth. The 
 creatures for profit only, by skin or fur, and that 
 are natural to these parts, are the wild-cat, panther, 
 otter, wolf, fox, fisher, minx, musk-rat; and of the 
 water, the whale, for oil ; of which we have good 
 store; and two companies of whalers; whose boats 
 are built, will soon begin their work ; which hath 
 the appearance of a considerable improvement : 
 to say nothing of our reasonable hopes of good cod 
 in the bay. 
 
 " Vlli. We have no want of horses ; and some 
 are very good, and shapely enough ; two ships have 
 been freighted to Barbadoes with horses and pipe 
 staves, since my coming in. Here is also plenty o 
 cow-cattle, and some sheep ; the people plow mostl) 
 with oxen. 
 
 " IX. There are divers plants, tljat not only the 
 
 Indians 'ell us, but we have had occasion to prove, 
 by swellings, burnings, cuts, &c. that they are of 
 great virtue, suddenly curing the patient ; and, for 
 smell, I have observed several, especially one, the 
 wild myrtle ; the other I know not what to tail, but 
 arc most fragrant. 
 
 " X. The woods are adorned with lovely flowers, 
 for colour, greatness, figure and variety. I have 
 seen the gardens of London best stored with that 
 sort of beauty, but think they may be improved by 
 mr woods : I have sent a few to a person of quality 
 his year for a trial. 
 
 " Thus much of the country ; next of the natives 
 ir aborigines. 
 
 " XI. The natives I shall consider, in thejir per- 
 ons, language, manners, religion and government, 
 pith my sense of their original. For their persons, 
 hey are generally tall, straight, well built, and of 
 ingular proportion ; they tread strong and clever ; 
 ind mostly walk with a lofty chin. Of complexion 
 lack, but by design ; as the gipsies in England. 
 They grease themselves with bear's fat clarified; 
 and using no defence against sun, or weather, their 
 ikins must needs be swarthy. Their eye is little and 
 )lack, not unlike a straight looked Jew. The thick 
 ip and flat nose, so frequent with the East Indians 
 and blacks, are not common to them : for I have 
 seen as comely European like faces among them of 
 30th, as on your side the sea ; and truly an Italian 
 complexion hath not much more of the white ; and 
 he noses of several of them have as much of the 
 Roman. 
 
 " XII. Their language is lofty, yet narrow ; but, 
 ike the Hebrew in signification, full ; like short- 
 land in writing, one word serveth in the place of 
 three, and the rest are supplied by the undersUnd- 
 ng of the hearer : imperfect in their tenses, want- 
 ng in their moods, participles, adverbs, conjunc- 
 tions, interjections. I have made it my business to 
 understand it, that I might not want an interpreter, 
 on any occasion ; and I must say, that I know not 
 a language spoken in Europe, that hath words of 
 more sweetness, or greatness in accent and empha- 
 sis than theirs ; for instance, Octocockon, Ran cocas, 
 Oricton, Shak, Marian, Poquesien ; all which are 
 names of places; and have grandeur in them. 
 Of words of sweetness, 'anna', is mother; ' issimus', 
 a brother; ' netcap,' friend ; 'usqueoret,' very good; 
 ' pane,' bread ; ' metsa,' eat ; ' matta,' no ' hatta,' to 
 have ; ' payo,' to come ; Sepassen, Passijon, the 
 names of places; Tamane, Secane, Menanse, Seca- 
 tereus, are the names of persons ; if one ask them 
 for any thing they have not, they will answer 'mat- 
 ta ne hatta;' which to translate, is, ' not I have;' in- 
 stead of, ' I have not.' 
 
 " XIII. Of their customs and manners there is 
 much to be said ; I will begin with children ; so 
 soon as they are born, they wash them in water ; 
 and while very young, and in cold weather to 
 choose, they plunge them in the rivers, to harden 
 and embolden them. Having wrapt them in a 
 clout, they lay them on a straight thin board, a lit- 
 tle more than the length and breadth of the child, 
 and swaddle it fast upon the board, to make it 
 straight ; wherefore all Indians have flat heads ; 
 and thus they carry them at their backs. The chil- 
 dren will go very young, at nine months commonly ; 
 they wear only a small clout round their waiste, till 
 they are big : if boys, they go a fishing, till ripe for 
 the woods ; which is about fifteen ; then they hunt ; 
 and after having given some proofs of their man- 
 hood, by a good return of skins, they may marry ; 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 807 
 
 else it is a shame to think of a wife. The girls stay 
 With their mothers, and help to hoe the ground, 
 plant corn, and carry burdens ; and they do well 
 to use them to that young, which they must do when 
 they are old; for the wives are the true servants of 
 the husbands ; otherwise the men are very affection- 
 ate to them. 
 
 '' XIV. When the young women are fit for mar- 
 riage, they wear something upon their heads, for 
 an advertisement, but so, as their faces are hardly 
 to be seen, but when they please. The age they 
 marry at if women, is about thirteen and fourteen ; 
 if men, seventeen and eighteen ; they are rarely 
 older. 
 
 " XV. Their houses are mats, or barks of trees, 
 set on poles, in the fashion of an English barn ; 
 but out of the power of the winds ; for they are 
 hardly higher than a man ; they lie on reeds or 
 grass. In travel they lodge in the woods about a 
 great fire, with the mantle of duffils they wear by 
 day, wrapt about them, and a few boughs stuck 
 round them. 
 
 " XVI. Their diet is maize or Indian corn, divers 
 ways prepared ; sometimes roasted in the ashes ; 
 sometimes beaten and boiled with water ; which 
 they call ' homine ;' they also make cakes, not un- 
 pleasant to eat. They have likewise several sorts 
 of beans and pease, that are good nourishment; and 
 the woods and rivers are their larder. 
 
 " XVII. If an European comes to see them, or 
 calls for lodging at their house or wigwam, they 
 give him the best place, and first cut. If they 
 come to visit us, they salute us with an ' Itah ;' which 
 is as much as to say, good be to you, and set them 
 down; which is mostly on the ground, close to their 
 heels, their legs upright ; it may be they speak not 
 
 a word, but observe all passages, 
 any thing to eat or drink, well : 
 
 If you give them 
 for they will not 
 
 ask; and be it little or much, if it be with kindness 
 they are well pleased, else they go away sullen, but 
 say nothing. 
 
 " XVIII. They are great concealers of their own 
 resentments; brought to it, I believe, by the re- 
 venge that hath been practised among them. In 
 either of these they are not exceeded by the Italians. 
 A tragical instance fell out since I came into the 
 country : a king's daughter thinking herself slighted 
 by her husband in suffering another woman to lie 
 down between them, rose up, went out, plucked a 
 root out of the ground and ate it; upon which she 
 immediately died : and for which, last week, he made 
 an offering to her kindred, for atonement, and 
 liberty of marriage ; as two others did to the kindred 
 of their wives, that died a natural death. For, till 
 widowers have done so, they must not marry again. 
 Some of the young women are said to take undue 
 liberty before marriage, for a portion : but when 
 married, chaste. When with child thej know their 
 husbands no more till delivered; and during their 
 month, they touch no meat they eat but with a 
 stick, lest they should defile it; nor do their hus- 
 bands frequent them, till that time be expired. 
 
 " XIX. But, in liberality they excel ; nothing is 
 too good for their friend : give them a fine gun, 
 coat, or other thing, it may pass twenty hands be- 
 fore it sticks : light of heart, strong affections, but 
 soon spent. The most merry creatures that live, 
 feast and dance perpetually ; they never have much, 
 nor want much : wealth circulateth like the blood ; 
 all parts partake; and though none shall want 
 what another hath, yet exact observers of property. 
 Some kings have sold, others presented me with 
 
 several parcels of land: the pay, or presents I made 
 them, were not hoarded by the particular owners ; 
 but the neighbouring kings, and their clans being 
 present when the goods were brought out, the par- 
 ties chiefly concerned, consulted what and to whom 
 they shall give them. To every king then, by the 
 hands of a person for that work appointed, is a pro- 
 portion sent, so sorted and folded, and with that 
 gravity, that is admirable. Then that king subdi- 
 videth it in like manner among his dependants, 
 they hardly leaving themselves an equal share with 
 one of their subjects : and be it on such occasions as 
 festivals, or at their common meals, the kings distri- 
 bute, and to themselves last. They care for little, 
 because they want but little ; and the reason is, a 
 little contents them. In this they are sufficiently 
 revenged on us : if they are ignorant of our plea- 
 sures, they are also free from our pains. They are 
 not disquieted with bills of lading and exchange, 
 nor perplexed with chancery suits, and exchequer 
 reckonings. We sweat and toil to live; their plea- 
 sure feeds them ; I mean their hunting, fishing and 
 fowling; and this table is spread every where. They 
 eat twice a day, morning and evening ; their seats 
 and table are the ground. Since the Europeans 
 came into these parts, they are grown great lovers 
 of strong liquors, rum especially ; and for it ex- 
 change the richest of their skins and furs. If they 
 are heated with liquors, they are restless till they 
 have enough to sleep; that is their cry, 'some more, 
 and I will go to sleep ;' but when drunk, one of the 
 most wretched spectacles in the world. 
 
 "XX. In sickness, impatient to be cured; and 
 for it, give any thing, especially for their children ; 
 to whom they are extremely natural. They drink 
 at those times, a teran, or decoction of some roots 
 in spring water ; and if they eat any flesh, it must 
 be of the female of any creature. If they die, they 
 bury them with their apparel, be they man or wo- 
 man ; and the nearest of kin fling in something pre- 
 cious with them, as a token of their love : their 
 mourning is blacking of their faces ; which they 
 continue for a year. They are choice of the graves 
 of their dead ; for, lest they should be lost by time, 
 and fall to common use, they pick off the grass, 
 that grows upon them, and heap up the fallen earth 
 with great care and exactness. 
 
 XXI. These poor people are under a dark night 
 
 di 
 
 without the help of metaphysics : for they say, 
 ' There is a great king that made them, who dwells 
 in a glorious country, to the southward of them ; and 
 that the souls of the good shall go thither, where 
 they shall live again.' Their worship consists of 
 two parts,, sacrifice and cantico. Their sacrifice is 
 their first fruits; the first and fattest buck they kill, 
 goeth to the fire ; where he is all burnt, with a 
 mounful ditty of him that performeth the ceremony;, 
 but with such marvellous fervency, and labour of 
 body, that he will even sweat to a foam. The other 
 part is their cantico, performed by round dances, 
 sometimes words, sometimes songs, then shouts ; 
 two being in the middle that begin ; and by singing, 
 and drumming on a board, direct the chorus. Their 
 postures in the dance are very antick and differing, 
 but all keep measure. This is done with equal 
 earnestness and labour, but great appearance of 
 joy. In the fall, when the corn cometh in, they be- 
 gin to feast one another. There have been two great 
 festivals already; to which all come, that will. I 
 was at one myself: their entertainment was a great 
 
 n things relating to religion, and have scarce the tra- 
 lition of it : yet they believe a God and immortality, 
 
808 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 seat by a spring, under some shady trees, and I treated them well, they should never do him, or his, 
 twenty bucks, with hot cakes of new corn, both any wrong.' At every sentence of which they 
 wheat and beans; which they make up in a square shouted, and said, Amen, in their way. 
 form, in the leaves of the stem, and bake them in " XXIV. The justice they have is pecuniary : in 
 the ashes ; and after that they fall to dance. But case of any wrong, or evil fact, be it murder itself, 
 they that go must carry a small present in their they atone by feasts, and presents of their wam- 
 money ; it may be sixpence ; which is made of the pum ; which is proportioned to the quality of the 
 bone of a fish : the black is with them as gold; the offence, or person injured, or of the sex they are of. 
 white, silver ; they call it all wampum. For, in case they kill a woman they pay double ; 
 
 "XXII. Their government is by kings; which and the reason they render is, ' That she breedeth 
 they call ' sachama;' and those by succession, but children; which men cannot do.' It is rare that 
 always of the mother's side. For instance, the chil- they fall out, if sober; and, if drunk, they forgive 
 dren'of him, who is now king, will not succeed, but it, saying, ' It was the drink, and not the man, that 
 his brother by the mother, or the children of his abused them.' 
 
 sister, whose sons (and after them the children of " XXV. We have agreed that, in all differ- 
 her daughters) will reign ; for no woman inherits. I ences between us, six of each side shall end the 
 The reason they render for this way of descent, is, matter. Do not abuse them, but let them have 
 that their issue may not be spurious. justice, and you win them. The worst is, that they 
 
 " XXIII. Every king hath his council; and are the worse for the Christians ; who have propa- 
 that consists of all the old and wise men of his gated their vices, and yielded them tradition for ill, 
 nation ; which, perhaps, is 200 people. Nothing of I and not for good things. But as low an ebb as 
 moment is undertaken, be it war, peace, selling of these people are at, and as inglorious as their own 
 land, or traffic, without advising with them; and I condition looks, the Christians have not outlived 
 which is more, with the young men too. It is admira- their sight, with all their pretensions to a higher 
 ble to consider how powerful the kings are, and yet manifestation. What good, then, might not a good 
 how they move by the breath of their people. 1 1 people graft, where there is so distinct a knowledge 
 have had occasion to be in council with them, upon I left between good and evil? I beseech God to in- 
 treaties for land, and to adjust the terms of trade, cline the hearts of all that come into these parts, to 
 Their order is thus : the king sits in the middle of outlive the knowledge of the natives, by a fixt obe- 
 a half moon, and hath his council, the old and wise, dience to their greater knowledge of the will of God; 
 on each hand ; behind them, or at a little distance, I for it were miserable, indeed, for us to fall under 
 sit the younger fry, in the same figure. Having I the just censure of the poor Indian conscience, 
 consulted and resolved their business, the king or- while we make profession of things so far tran- 
 dered one of them to speak to me ; he stood up, scending. 
 
 came to me, and, in the name of his king, saluted " XXVI. For their original, I am ready to be- 
 me ; then took me by the hand, and told me, ' He lieve them of the Jewish race ; I mean, of the stock 
 was ordered by his king to speak to me; and that of the ten tribes; and that, for the following rea- 
 now it was not he, but the king, that spoke; be- sons: first, they were to go to a ' land not planted, 
 cause what he should say was the king's mind.' I nor known ;' which, to be sure, Asia and Africa 
 He first prayed me, ' To excuse them, that they were, if not Europe ; and he that intended that ex- 
 had not complied with me, the last time, he feared traordinary judgment upon them, might make the 
 there might be some fault in the interpreter, being 1 passage not uneasy to them, as it is not impossible 
 neither Indian nor English : besides it was the In- I in itself, from the easternmost parts of Asia, to the 
 dian custom to deliberate, and take up much time 1 westernmost of America. In the next place ; I find 
 in council, before they resolve ; and that if the I them of the like countenance, and their children of 
 young people, and owners of the land had been as I so lively resemblance, that a man would think him- 
 ready as he, I had not met with so much delay." I self in Duke's-place, or Berry-street, in London, 
 Having thus introduced his matter, he fell to the I when he seeth them. But this is not all ; they agree 
 bounds of the land they had agreed to dispose of, I in rites; they reckon by moons; they offer their 
 and the price; which now is little and dear; that j first fruits; they have a kind of feast of tabernacles; 
 which would have bought twenty miles, not baying 1 they are said to lay their altar upon twelve stones; 
 now two. During the time that this person spoke, I their mourning a year ; customs of women, with 
 not a man of them was observed to whisper or { man 
 smile ; the old, grave ; the young, reverent in their 
 deportment. They speak little, but fervently, and 
 with elegance. I have never seen more natural sa- 
 gacity, considering them without the help (I was 
 
 other things that do not now occur, 
 o much for the natives ; next, the old planters 
 will be considered in this relation, before I come to 
 our colony, and the concerns of it. 
 
 " XXVII. The first planters in these parts were 
 
 going to say, the spoil) of tradition; and he will de- the Dutch; and soon after them, the Swedes and 
 serve the name of wise, that outwits them in any I Finns. The Dutch applied themselves to traffic ; 
 treaty about a thing they understand. When the the Swedes and Finns to husbandry. There were 
 purchase was agreed, great promises passed between I some disputes between them some years; the Dutch 
 us, ' of kindness and good neighbourhood, and that I looking upon them as intruders upon their purchase 
 the Indians and English must live in love as long I and possession \ which was finally ended in the 
 as the sun gave light :' which done, another made surrender made by John Rizeing, the Swedish go- 
 a speech to the Indians, in the name of all the sa- vernor, to Peter Styvesant, governor for the states 
 chamakers, or kings; first, to tell them what was of Holland, anno 1655. 
 
 done; next, to charge and command them, 'To "XXVIII. The Dutch inhabit mostly those parts 
 love the Christians, and particularly live in peace of the province that lie upon, or near the bay; and 
 with me, and the people under my government ; the Swedes the freshes of the river Delaware. There 
 that many governors had been in the river; but is no need of giving any description of them; who are 
 that no governor had come himself to live and stay better known there than here; but they are a plain, 
 here bef re ; and having now such an one, that had j strong, industrious people j yet have made no great 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 80& 
 
 progress in culture or propagation of fruit-trees ; as 
 if they desired rather to have enough, than plenty, 
 or traffic. But I presume the Indians made them 
 the more careless, by furnishing them with the 
 means of profit, to wit, skins and furs, for rum, and 
 such strong liquors. They kindly received me, as 
 well as the English, who were few, before the peo- 
 ple concerned with me came among them. I must 
 needs commend their respect to authority, and kind 
 behaviour to the English; they do not degenerate 
 from the old friendship, between both kingdoms. 
 As they are people proper and strong of body, so 
 they have fine children, and almost every house full; 
 rare to find one of them without three or four boys, 
 and as many girls ; some six, seven or eight sons 
 And I must do them that right ; I see few young 
 men more sober and laborious. 
 
 " XXIX. The Dutch have a meeting place, for 
 religious worship, at Newcastle; and the Swedes, 
 three ; one at Christina, one at Tenecum ; and one 
 at Wicoco, within half a mile of this town. 
 
 " XXX. There rests that I speak of the condi- 
 tion we are in, and what settlement we have made : 
 in which I will be as short as I can ; for I fear, and 
 not without reason, that I have tried your patience 
 with this long story. The country lieth bounded 
 on the east, by the river and bay of Delaware, and 
 eastern sea ; it hath the advantage of many creeks, 
 or rivers rather, that run into the main river or 
 bay ; some navigable for great ships, some for small 
 craft. Those of most eminency are, Christina, 
 Brandywine, Skilpot, and Sculkil; any one of 
 which have room to lay up the royal navy of England ; 
 there being from four to eight fathom water. 
 
 " XXXI. The lesser creeks or rivers, yet conve- 
 nient for sloops and ketches of good burden, are 
 Lewis, Mespilion, Cedar, Dover, Cranbrook, Fe- 
 versham and Georges, below ; and Chichcster, Ches- 
 ter, Toacawny, Pammapecka, Portquessin, Neshi- 
 menck and Pennberry, in the freshes ; many lesser 
 that admit boats and shallops. Our people are 
 mostly settled upon the upper rivers; which are 
 pleasant and sweet, and generally bounded with 
 good land: the planted part of the province and 
 territories is cast into six counties, Philadelphia, 
 Buckingham, Chester, Newcastle, Kent and Sussex ; 
 containing about 4000 souls. Two general assem- 
 blies have been held, and with such concord and 
 dispatch, that they sat but three weeks ; and, at 
 least, 70 laws were passed without one dissent, in 
 any material thing. But of this, more hereafter, 
 being yet raw and new in our gear. However, I can- 
 not forget their singular respect to me, in this in- 
 fancy of things ; who, by their own private expences, 
 so early considered mine, for the public, as to present 
 me with an impost upon certain goods imported and 
 exported. Which after my acknowledgment of their 
 affection, I did as freely remit to the province, and 
 the traders to it. And' for the well government of 
 tne said counties, courts of justice are established in 
 every county, with proper officers, as justices, sheriffs, 
 clerks, constables, &c., which courts are held every 
 two months. But to prevent law suits, there are 
 three peace makers chosen by every county court, 
 in the nature of common arbitrators, to hear and 
 end differences betwixt man and man. And spring 
 and fall there is an orphans' court, in each county, 
 to inspect and regulate the affairs of orphans and 
 widows. 
 
 " XXXII. Philadelphia, the expectation of those 
 that are concerned in this province, is at last laid 
 out, to the great content of those here, that are 
 
 any ways interested therein. The situation is a 
 neck of land, and lieth between two navigable rivers, 
 Delaware and Sculkil ; whereby it hath two fronts 
 upon the water, each a mile ; and two from river 
 to river. Delaware is a glorious river ; but the 
 Sculkil, being 100 miles boatable above the falls, 
 and its course north-east, towards the fountain of 
 Susquahanna (that tends to the heart of the pro- 
 vince, and both sides our own) it is like to Be a 
 great part of the settlement of this age. I say little 
 of the town itself, because a platform will be shewn 
 you by my agent ; in which those who are pur- 
 chasers of me, will find their names and interests. 
 But this I will say, for the good providence of God, 
 that, of all the many places I have seen in the world, 
 I remember not one better seated ; so that it seems 
 to me to have been appointed for a town, whether 
 we regard the rivers, or the conveniency of the 
 coves, docks, springs, the loftiness and soundness 
 of the land, and the air, held by the people of these 
 parts to be very good. It is advanced, within less 
 than a year, to about four score houses and cottages, 
 such as they are; where merchants and handicrafts 
 are following their vocations as fast as they can, 
 while the country men are close at their farms ; 
 some of them got a little winter corn in the ground 
 last season ; and the generality have had an hand- 
 some summer crop, and are preparing for their win- 
 ter corn. They reaped their barley this year in the 
 month called May ; the wheat in the month follow- 
 ing : so that there is time, in these parts, for another 
 crop of divers things before the winter season. We 
 are daily in hopes of shipping to add to our number ; 
 for, blessed be God, here is both room and accommo- 
 dation for them : the stories of our necessity being 
 either the fear of our friends, or the scare-crows of 
 our enemies : for the greatest hardship we have suf- 
 fered, hath been salt meat ; which by fowl in win- 
 ter, and fish in summer, together with some poultry, 
 lamb, mutton, veal, and plenty of venison the best 
 part of the year, hath been made very passable. I 
 bless God, 1 am fully satisfied with the country and 
 entertainment I got in it : for I find that particular 
 content, which hath always attended me, where 
 God in his providence hath made it my place and 
 service to reside. You cannot imagine my station 
 can be, at present, free of more than ordinary busi- 
 nes ; and as such, I may say, it is a troublesome 
 work. But the method things are putting in, will 
 facilitate the charge, and give an easier motion to 
 the administration of affairs. However, as it is some 
 men's duty to plow, some to sow, some to water, and 
 some to reap ; so it is the wisdom, as well as the 
 duty of a man, to yield to the mind of Providence, 
 and' cheerfully, as well as carefully, embrace and 
 follow the guidance of it. 
 
 " XXXIII. For your particular concern, I might 
 entirely refer you to the letters of the president of 
 the society ; but this I will venture to say, your pro- 
 vincial settlements, both within and without the 
 town for situation and soil, are without exception. 
 Your city lot is a whole street, and one side of a 
 street from river to river, containing near 100 acres, 
 not easily valued ; which is besides your 400 acres, 
 in the city liberties, part of your 20,000 acres in the 
 country. Your tannery hath such plenty of bark, 
 the saw mill, for timber, and the place of the glass- 
 house, are so conveniently posted for water carriage, 
 the city lot, for a dock, and the whalery, for a sound 
 and fruitful bank, and the town Lewis," by it, to help 
 your people, that, by God's blessing, the affairs of 
 the society will naturally grow in their reputation, 
 
810 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 and profit. I am sure, I have not turned my back 
 upon any offer, that tended to its prosperity ; and 
 though I am ill at projects, T have sometimes put in 
 for a share with her officers, to countenance and 
 advance her interest. You are already informed 
 what is fit for you further to do ; whatsoever tends 
 to the promotion of wine, and to the manufacture 
 of linen, in these parts, I cannot but wish you to 
 promote ; and the French people are most likely, in 
 both respects, to answer that design. To that end 
 I would advise you to send for some thousands of 
 plants out of France, with some able Vinerons, and 
 people of the other vocation. But because I believe 
 you have been entertained with this, and some other 
 profitable subjects by your President, I shall add 
 no more, but to assure you, that I am heartily in- 
 clined to advance your just interest, and that you 
 will always find me your kind cordial friend, 
 
 "WILLIAM PENN. 
 " Philadelphia, the 16th of the 
 
 sixth month, called August, 1683." 
 
 The dispute between Penn and Lord Baltimore, respect- 
 ing the boundaries between their territories Penn's 
 letter to the Lords of plantations Lord Baltimore's 
 commission to Colonel George Talbot, with a demand 
 of the latter William Penn's answer to said de- 
 mand Incursion from Maryland, attempting forci- 
 ble entry Difficulty to restrain the Indians from 
 strong liquors. 
 
 Penn's endeavours, on his first arrival, to culti- 
 Tate a friendly understanding with his neighbour, 
 the Lord Baltimore, and to get the boundaries be- 
 tween their respective provinces amicably deter- 
 mined, have already been mentioned ; for which 
 purpose likewise it appears he had appointed his 
 relation and deputy, Captain William Markham, to 
 treat with the said lord proprietary of Maryland, 
 before he arrived himself; and afterwards repeatedly 
 used attempts for the same end. But these endea- 
 vours had not all the desired success, which, so far 
 as appears, might have been reasonably expected. 
 
 The anxiety of the proprietary of Pennsylvania 
 for a good, convenient, and independent communi- 
 cation, by water, between his province and the sea, 
 for the benefit of its trade, appears to have been 
 his principal reason for fixing his southern boundary 
 by charter, so far south, as the beginning of the 
 fortieth degree of north latitude, intending thereby 
 to include, at least, so much of the head, or upper 
 part, of Chesapeake bay, within his province, as 
 would furnish, from thence, a good and sufficient 
 communication to the ocean, as well as by the Dela- 
 ware. The nature and state of the controversy, 
 about this time, between the two proprietaries, on 
 this subject, more fully appear from the following 
 letter of Penn to the lords of the committee of plan- 
 tations, in London ; to which board the Lord Balti- 
 more seems to have previously applied. 
 
 " Philadelphia, the 14th of the sixth month, 1683. 
 
 " Though it be a duty, I humbly own, to inform 
 the lords of the committee of plantations, of what 
 concerns his majesty's interest in the success of this 
 
 Srovince, I thought myself equally obliged to be 
 iscreet and cautious in doing it. To write, then, 
 there was need, and not to trouble persons of their 
 honour and business, with things trivial, at least, raw 
 and unfinished for their view. This hitherto put 
 me by giving any account of the state of our affairs, 
 to say nothing of the mighty difficulties I have la- 
 boured under, in the settlement of six-and-twenty 
 
 sail of people, to content, within the space of one 
 year ; which makes my case singular and excusable, 
 above any other of the king's plantations. 
 
 " But because my agent has informed me that 
 the proprietor of Maryland has been early in his 
 account of our conference about fixing our bounds, 
 and made a narrative of my affairs, as well before, 
 as at that time, a little to my disadvantage, and the 
 rather, because my silence might be interpreted 
 neglect, I am necessitated to make some defence 
 for myself; which, as it will not be hard to make, 
 so I hope it will be received as just. 
 
 " 1 humbly say, then, first, that it seemed to me 
 improper to trouble the lords with my transactions 
 with this proprietor, till we were come to some result ; 
 which wewere not: for we parted till spring; and 
 even then were but to meet about the methods of 
 our proceedings. 
 
 " Next, This narrative was taken by the lord's 
 orders, without my consent or knowledge, in acoruer 
 of a room by one of his own attendants. 
 
 " And, lastly, upon when notice was given of this 
 usage, I complained to him, he promised, upon his 
 word and honour, it should go not farther; and 
 that it was for his own satisfaction he did it ; I told 
 him that mitigated the thing a little ; but if he 
 should divulge it before I saw and agreed to the 
 copy, he must pardon me, if I looked upon it as a 
 most unfair practice. What that lord has done, 
 and what to call it, I leave to my betters ; but the 
 surprise and indigestion of the whole will, I hope 
 excuse me of neglect, or disrespect : for though I 
 am unceremonious, 1 would, by no means, act the 
 rude, or undutiful. 
 
 " This said, I humbly beg that I may give a brief 
 narrative of the matter, as it then passed, since has 
 been, and now stands, without the weakness and 
 tautology his relation makes me guilty of. 
 
 " So soon as I arrived, which was on the 24th of 
 October last, I immediately dispatched two persons 
 to the lord Baltimore, to ask of his health, offer kind 
 neighbourhood, and agree a time of meeting the 
 better to establish it. While they were gone of this 
 errand, I went to New York, that I might pay my 
 duty to the duke, in the visit of his government and 
 colony. At my return, which was towards the end 
 of November, I found the messengers, whom I had 
 sent to Maryland, newly arrived, and the time fixed, 
 being the 19th of December. I prepared myself in 
 a/ew days for that province. The llth of the month 
 I came to west river ; where I met the proprietor, 
 attended suitable to his character; who took the 
 occasion, by his civilities, to shew me the greatness 
 of his power : the next day we had conference 
 about our business of the bounds, both at the same 
 table, with our respective members of council. 
 
 " The first thing I did was to present the king's 
 letter ; which consisted of two parts : One, that the 
 lord Baltimore had but two degrees; and the other, 
 that beginning at Watkins's point, he should ad- 
 measure his said degrees, at 60 miles to a degree. 
 This being read by him, first privately, then publicly, 
 he told me, the king was greatly mistaken, and that 
 he would not leave his patent, to follow the king's 
 letter, nor could a letter void his patent ; and by 
 that he would stand. 
 
 " This was the substance of what he said from 
 first to last, during the whole conference. To this 
 I answered, the king might be misinformed rather 
 than mistaken, and that I was afraid the mistake 
 would fall on his side ; for though his patent begins 
 at Watkins's point, and goes to the fortieth degree 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 811 
 
 of north latitude, yet it presumed that to lie in the 
 38th ; else Virginia would be wronged, which should 
 extend to that degree; however, this I assured him, 
 that when I petitioned the king for five degrees 
 north latitude, and that petition was referred to the 
 lords of the committee of plantations ; at that time 
 it was urged by some present, that the Lord Balti- 
 more had but two degrees ; upon which the lord 
 president, turning his head to me, at whose chair I 
 stood, said, ' Mr. Penn, will not three degrees serve 
 your turn ?' I answered, * I submit both the what 
 and how, to the honourable board. 
 
 " To this his uncle, and chancellor, returned, 
 that to convince me his father's grant was not by 
 degrees, he had more of Virginia given him, but 
 being planted, and the grant intending only land 
 not planted, or possessed, but of savage natives, he 
 left it out, that it might not forfeit the rest, of 
 which the Lord Baltimore takes no notice in his 
 narrative, that I remember. But, by that answer, 
 he can pretend nothing to Delaware; which was at, 
 and before the passing of that patent, bought and 
 planted by the Dutch ; and so could not be given : 
 but if it were, it was forfeited, for not reducing it, du- 
 ring twenty years under the English sovereignty, of 
 which he held it ; but was at last reduced by the 
 king, and therefore his, to give as he pleaseth. 
 
 " Perceiving that my pressing the king's letter 
 was uneasy, and that I had determined myself to 
 dispose him with utmost softness to a good compli- 
 ance, I waved that of the two degrees, and pressed 
 the admeasurement only, the next part of the letter: 
 for though it were two degrees and a half from Wat- 
 kins's point to 40 degrees, yet let it be measured at 
 GO miles to a degree, and I would begin at 40 de- 
 grees, fall as it would : my design was, that every 
 degree being 70 miles, I should get all that was 
 over 60, the proportion intended the Lord Balti- 
 more, by the grant and computation of a degree, at 
 that time of the day: thus he had enjoyed the full 
 favour intended him, and I had gained a door of 
 great importance to the peopling and improving of 
 his majesty's province. 
 
 " But he this also rejected ; I told him it was 
 not the love or need of the land, but the water ; that 
 he abounded in what I wanted, and access and 
 harbouring even to excess ; that I would not be 
 thus importunate, but for the importance of the 
 thing, to save a province; and because there was 
 no proportion in the concern ; if I were a hundred 
 times more urgent and tenacious, the case would 
 excuse it; because the thing insisted on was more 
 than ninety-nine times more valuable to me than 
 to him ; to me the head, to him the tail. I added, 
 that if it were his, and he gave it me, planting it 
 would recompense the favours, not only by laying 
 his country between two thriving provinces, but the 
 ships, that come yearly to Maryland for tobacco, 
 would have the bringing of both our people and 
 merchandize; because they can afford it cheaper; 
 whereby Maryland would, for one age or two, be 
 the mart of trade. But this also had no other en- 
 tertainment, but hopes that I would not insist on 
 these things at our next meeting ; after three days 
 time we parted, and I returned to this province. 
 
 " When the spring came I sent an express to 
 pray the time and place, when and where I should 
 meet him, to effect the business, we adjourned to at 
 that time. I followed close upon the messenger, 
 that no time might be lost. But the expectation he 
 twice had of the Lord Culpepper's visit, disap- 
 pointed any meeting on our affairs, till the month 
 
 called May; he then sent three gentlemen to let 
 me know he would meet me at the head of the bay 
 of Chesapeak ; I was then in treaty with the kings 
 of the natives for land ; but three days after we met 
 ten miles from Newcastle, which is 30 from the 
 bay. I invited him to the town, where, having en- 
 tertained him, as well as the town could afford, on 
 so little notice, and finding him only desirous of 
 speaking with me privately, I pres'sed that we 
 might, at our distinct lodgings, sit severally with 
 our councils, and treat by way of written memorials ; 
 which would prevent the mistakes or abuses that 
 may follow from ill designs, or ill memory ; but he 
 avoided it, saying, ' He was not well, and the 
 weather sultry, and would return with what speed 
 he could, reserving any other treaty to another sea- 
 son.' Thus we parted, at that time. I had been 
 before told by divers, that the said Baltimore had 
 issued forth a proclamation, to invite people, by 
 lower prices, and greater quantities of land, to plant 
 in the lower counties; in which the duke's goodness 
 had interested me. as an inseparable benefit to this 
 whole province. I was not willing to believe it; 
 and, the being in haste, I omitted to ask him: but 
 I had not been long returned before two letters 
 came from two judges of two of the country courts.that 
 such a proclamation was abroad, that the people 
 too hearken to it, but yet prayed my directions. I 
 bade them keep their ground, and not fear, for the 
 king would be judge. Upon this I dispatched to 
 the Lord Baltimore three of my council, with the 
 clerk of it: as they went they got an authentic 
 copy, under the hand of one of his sheriffs, to whom 
 an original had been directed : but, as the last ci- 
 vility, I would yield him, I forbad them to seem to 
 believe any thing but what they had from his own 
 mouth. Thus they delivered my letter. 
 
 " At first he denied any such proclamation, turn- 
 ing to two gentlemen of his council, who stood by, 
 he asked them if they remembered any such thing ? 
 They also denied it. Upon which the persons I 
 sent'produced the attested copy ; which refreshing 
 heir memories, they confessed there was such a 
 proclamation. 
 
 ' But the Lord Baltimore told them that it was 
 bis ancient form, and he only did it to renew his 
 claim, not that he would encourage any to plant 
 there. They then prayed him to call it in, lest any 
 trouble should ensue : but he refused it. This was 
 during a civil treaty, without any demand made, 
 and after the place had been many years in the 
 quiet possession of the duke. What to call this I 
 still humbly refer to my superiors. For his pre- 
 tensions to those parts I have thoroughly instructed 
 my agent ; who, I hope, will be able to detect them 
 of weakness and inconsistency. This is a true, 
 though brief, narrative of the entertainment, I have 
 had from that lord, in the business between us. 
 
 ' And because I have, as in duty joined, sent 
 an agent extraordinary to wait upon the king and 
 his ministers, in the affairs of this province (so soon 
 as I could make any settlement in it) I shall only 
 humbly pray leave to hint at two or three things, 
 relating to the business depending between this 
 lord and myself, about finding the 40th degree of 
 north latitude. 
 
 ' I. That I have common fame on my side, 
 grounded upon ancient and constant judges, that 
 the 40th degree of north latitude lieth about Boles's 
 Isle. This the Lord Baltimore himself hath not 
 denied; and the country confesseth; and I shall, 
 when required, prove by some able masters of ships. 
 
812 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 " II. If this were an error, it is grounded upon 
 such skill and instruments, as gave measure to the 
 fame in which his patent was granted: and if he 
 hath got upon Virginia by that error, he should not 
 get upon me by an exacter knowledge, considering 
 that Carolina, which endeth by degrees, would as 
 much advance upon Virginia, if the reputed latitude 
 of unprejudiced times should take no place ; for, by 
 advancing her bounds twenty miles, by a new in- 
 strument, beyond the place ; which hath been ge- 
 nerally taken for 36f degrees; and Virginia not 
 being equally able to advance upon Maryland, be- 
 cause of its being at a place certain, she will be 
 greatly narrowed between both. 
 
 " III. I therefore most humbly pray, that the 
 judgment of ancient times, by which persons at the 
 distance of England from America, have governed 
 themselves, may conclude that the lord's bounds, 
 or that he may measure his two degrees according 
 to the scale and computations of those times, which 
 was 60 miles to a degree ; or, if it be allowed that 
 he had not his grant by degrees, that, at last, I 
 might not lose the benefit of admeasurement, as be- 
 fore mentioned, from Watkin's-point, in whatever 
 degree of latitude that shall be found, to the 40th 
 degree of north latitude, which I humbly take the 
 more courage to press, because a province lieth at 
 stake, in the success of it. 
 
 " I have only humbly to add, that the province 
 hath a prospect of an extraordinary improvement, 
 as well by divers sorts of strangers, as English sub- 
 jects ; that, in all acts of justice, we name and ve- 
 nerate the king's authority; that I have followed 
 the bishop of London's counsel, by buying, and not 
 taking away the natives' land; with whom I have 
 settled a very kind correspondence. I return my 
 most humble thanks for your former favours, in the 
 passing of my patent, and pray God reward you, I 
 am most ready to obey all your commands, accord- 
 ing to the obligations of them, and beseech you to 
 take this province into your protection, under his 
 majesty and him, whom his goodness hath made 
 governor of it, into your favours, for that I am, 
 with most sincere devotion, noble lords, your thank- 
 ful, faithful friend and servant, to my power, 
 
 " WILLIAM PENN." 
 
 The nature and state of this controversy, about 
 this time, further appear by the following papers, 
 viz : 
 
 " Charles, Lord Baltimore, absolute lord and pro- 
 prietary of the province of Maryland and Ava- 
 lon, &c. To our dear cousin and counsellor, Co- 
 lonel George Talbot, Esq., (L.S.) 
 " Reposing special confidence in your wisdom 
 and integrity, I hereby nominate and appoint, and 
 iuipower you to repair forthwith to the Sculkil at 
 Delaware ; and, in my name, to demand of William 
 Penn, Esq., or of his deputy, all that part of the 
 land on the west side of the said river, that lieth to 
 the southward of the 40th degree, northern latitude, 
 according to an east line, run out from two obser- 
 vations, the one taken the 10th of June, 1682, and 
 the other the 27th of September, 1682, in obedience 
 to his majesty's commands, expressed in a letter of 
 the 2d of April 1681 ; which commands were, at 
 that time, rejected by the agents of the said Penn 
 (notwithstanding that by several letters and wri 
 tings under their hands, it may appear they pro- 
 mised a compliance with his majesty's commands 
 aforesaid), and for which you shall do herein, this 
 shall be to you a sufficient power. Given under 
 
 my hand and seal, the 17th day of September, anno 
 1683. " C. BALTIMORE. 
 
 " Vera copia attestata per me, 
 
 " GEORGE TALBOT." 
 
 " By virtue of his lordship's commission, whereof 
 the above is a true copy, I, George Talbot, do, in 
 ;he name of the right honourable Charles, Lord 
 Baltimore, absolute lord and proprietary of Mary- 
 and and Avalon, demand of you, Nicholas Moore, 
 deputy to William Penn, Esq., all the land lying 
 on the west side of Delaware river, and to the south- 
 ward of the 40th degree of northerly latitude, ac- 
 cording to a line run east, from two observations, 
 he one taken the 10th of June, 1682, and the other 
 m the 27th of September, 1682, in obedience to 
 lis majesty's commands, expressed in a letter, the 
 2d of April, 1681; which commands were at that 
 ime rejected by the said William Penn's agents, 
 notwithstanding that by several letters and other 
 writings, under their hands, it appears that they 
 >romised compliance to his majesty's commands 
 aforesaid. The land so claimed by me for the Lord 
 Baltimore's use, being part of the said province of 
 Maryland, granted to his lordship's father by King 
 harles I., of sacred memory, and now wrongfully 
 letained by the said William Penn, from his lord- 
 hip. And, in witness, that I make this demand, 
 have hereunto set my hand and seal, the 24th day 
 if September, 1683. GEORGE TALBOT. (L. S)"" 
 Penn, being at New York, at the time of this de- 
 mand, after his return, made the following answer, 
 iz. 
 
 ; An answer to a demand made to Nicholas Moore, 
 as my deputy, by Colonel George Talbot, the 24th 
 of September, 1683, in pursuance of a commis- 
 sion, from the Lord Baltimore, proprietary of 
 Maryland and Avalon, dated the 17th of the 
 same month. 
 
 " The demand being grounded upon the commis- 
 sion, I will take things in their order, and begin 
 with the commission. 
 
 ' The Lord Baltimore doth commissionate Colonel 
 Talbot to go to the west side of the Skulkil to de- 
 mand of William Penn, Esq., or his deputy, all 
 [hat part of land on the west side of that river that 
 lieth to the south of the 40th degree of northerly 
 latitude. 
 
 " I. I answer, it seems very slight, abrupt, and 
 unprecedented for any person that is in the quality 
 of a proprietary of a country, to send to another in 
 the same circumstance, any extraordinary messen- 
 ger, agent, or commissioner, without some letter or 
 memorial, to state the demand, with the reasons of 
 it ; the practice of the greatest princes, and might 
 therefore (I conceive) be the condescension of lesser 
 seigniories. 
 
 " II. In the next place, William Penn. Esq., 
 and the said Penn (the language of the commis- 
 sion), is not my American style, nor that which 
 belongs to me, in the matter in question ; for, as 
 such, I keep no deputies. 
 
 " III. I live not on the west side of Skulkil, nor 
 any deputy of mine ; and I conceive Colonel Talbot 
 could not, by that commission, come to the east side, 
 to make his demand; which yet he did. 
 
 " IV. I was absent, and at New York, when 
 this commissioner came ; and I never did, nor never 
 will, commission any deputy to treat and conclude 
 away my inheritance, without my particular direction 
 and command ; though, if I were to go for England, 
 I would not disown the laws he should make in my 
 absence, for public good, when I came back. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 813 
 
 " V. Colonel Talbot is directed, in the commis- 
 sion, to make the demand, according to a line, said 
 to be run, in obedience to his majesty's command, 
 in his letter of the 2d of April, 1681 ; but I say tha 
 no line is yet run in obedience to his majesty's com- 
 mand ; for the letter expressly saith, that the Lord 
 Baltimore, or his agent, shall, together with my 
 agent, agree to the latitude, and then run the line 
 and bound the provinces accordingly ; which is no 
 yet done : for those observations, and the line run 
 by them, are performed by the Lord Baltimore, and 
 his agents only, and therefore not according to his 
 majesty's command, in his letter of the 2d of April, 
 1681, nor, in my opinion, common equity; for 1 
 knew nothing of them. 
 
 " VI. To say (as his commission doth) that my 
 commissioners refused to comply with the said let- 
 ter, is hard for me to do ; since the chiefest of them 
 brought it in my favour. But the truth is (if they 
 say true, and circumstances favour them), the thing 
 is improbable ; for the Lord Baltimore would have 
 had them agreed to have taken an observation upon 
 the riv^r Delaware, when as the king's letter 
 (stating my bounds as they are expressed in my 
 patent) begins twelve miles above Newcastle, upon 
 the west side of Delaware river, and so to run to 
 the 43d degree of north latitude upon the said river ; 
 which makes it impossible that the Lord Baltimore 
 could come within those limits to take an observa- 
 tion, or run a line in pursuance of his majesty's 
 commands, in the said letter ; since taking an ob- 
 servation on Delaware river (which, say they, he 
 pressed) is a plain violation of it. They further 
 say, that they never refused, but pressed the taking 
 of an observation according to his majesty's letter, 
 which is grounded on the bounds of my patent; 
 and when the Lord Baltimore and my agent had 
 agreed to meet at Newcastle, and to proceed ac- 
 cording to his majesty's letter, it is true that my 
 agent came not, and as true, saith he, that the 
 reason was the Lord Baltimore called immediately 
 at Chichester, alias, Marcus Hooks, as he went to 
 Newcastle, and forbad the inhabitants to pay me 
 quit-rent, and named the place by a new name, 
 before any line was run, or any observation agreed ; 
 which being a declared breach of the king's com- 
 mands, and theirjtreaty, in the opinion of my agent, he 
 refused to meet the next day about a matter, the Lord 
 Baltimore had in such a manner already determined. 
 " VII. But what fault soever they were in, sure 
 I am, that before an observation was agreed, or any 
 line was run, I came in, and suddenly after waited 
 upon the Lord Baltimore. I presented him with 
 another letter from his majesty, which he was so far 
 from complying with, that he looked upon the 
 king as mistaken, and set his patent in direct op- 
 position ; and to this day would never hear of com- 
 plying with it in either of the two points it related 
 to ; that is to say, his having but two degrees, and 
 that beginning them at Watkins's point, he should 
 admeasure them, at sixty miles to a degree, to ter- 
 minate the north bounds of his province, Now, in 
 my opinion, it was not proper to ground his pro- 
 ceedings upon a former letter, in neglect of a later 
 advice and command from his majesty : nor doth it 
 look very just to make the caution or neglect of an 
 agent, in the absence of his principal, a reason 
 to proceed against his principal, when present 
 with other instructions, without due regard had to 
 him or his allegations. And I must say, that at 
 Newcastle, when I pressed the Lord Baltimore to 
 sit in one house with his council, and I would sit 
 
 with mine in another, that we might treat by written 
 memorials under our hands, to prevent mistakes, ill 
 memory, or ill will, he refused, alleging he was 
 not well ; I did then tell him I would wave what 
 force or advantage I thought I had by the second 
 letter, and proceed to meet him at the place he 
 desired, which was the head of Chesapeak bay, and 
 there try to find the fortieth degree of north latitude, 
 provided he would first please to set me a gentle- 
 manly price ; so much per mile, in case I should 
 have no part of the bay by latitude ; that so I might 
 have a back port to this province. This I writ, 
 according to his desire, and sent after ; him to sell 
 he refused, but started an exchange of part of that 
 bay for the lower counties on the bay of Delaware. 
 This, I presume, he knew I could not do, for his 
 royal highness had the one half, and I did not prize 
 the thing I desired at such a rate. Soon after this 
 meeting, I understood that he had issued forth a 
 proclamation some time before, to invite people to 
 plant those parts in my possession, under his royal 
 highness; and that also before any demand had 
 been made, or our friendly treaty ended ; which I 
 took so ill, in right of his royal highness, and that 
 which his goodness had made mine, that I sent com- 
 missioners (first to know the truth of it from his 
 own mouth, before I would credit the intelligence 
 I had received, and, if true) to complain of the 
 breach of our friendly treaty, and that it might be 
 repaired ; which he hath taken so ill (how de- 
 servedly let the whole world judge), that he hath 
 sent me letters of a very coarse style, such as in- 
 deed could not be answered without those terms 
 which unbecome men in our public stations, who, 
 in the midst of all disagreements, ought to manage 
 themselves with coolness and exact civility; and if 
 in this I have at any time been short, let me but 
 know it, and I, that think it a meanness of spirit to 
 justify an error when committed, am not too stiff 
 to ask him pardon. Here I left him, expecting his 
 news when he came to the head of the bay, in Sep- 
 tember, as I thought he promised me ; but instead 
 of that, an observation is taken, a line run, and 
 trees marked, without my notice, and a demand 
 made thereupon, and all grounded on his majesty's 
 letter of the 2d of April, 168] ; in which I must 
 again say, I find no such direction, which bringeth 
 me to the demand itself. 
 
 :< VIII. To the demand, viz., Of all that land 
 on Delaware river to fhe south of the 40th degree 
 of north latitude, I have this to say, that it is very 
 odd the demand should be made several months 
 after the proclamation was put forth, to encourage 
 people to plant most of the parts demanded ; but 
 much more strange, that after the Lord Baltimore 
 had declared under his hand, that he did not by that 
 intend to break our amicable treaty, he should, 
 without further provocation given, proceed to 
 demand those parts ! Certainly, this was not in- 
 tended to continue our friendship ; nor did it look 
 with common decency, that Colonel Talbot should 
 not think me worth leaving a letter at my house, 
 where he lodged, when he went away, as well as 
 the land worth such a demand. But, indeed, his 
 arriage all along shews he came to defy me, not 
 treat me like either a neighbour or gentleman. A 
 sudden change amusing the king's people, under 
 my charge, by threats, or drawing them off their 
 obedience by degrading mine, and invitations to the 
 Lord Baltimore's government. This I found at my 
 return in his conduct (though not in his commis- 
 sion) as some of the people do aver. 
 
814 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 " IX. But, in the next place, the Lord Baltimore 
 hath no warrant to run his line to the river of De- 
 laware, neither by the king's letter nor his own 
 patent, if he peruseth them well, where he will find 
 the bay, but not the river, of Delaware. 
 
 " X. The land demanded is not a part of the 
 province of Maryland, as is expressed in the de- 
 mand; for it is in the jurisdiction of Delaware (alias 
 Newcastle) which is by several acts of the assembly 
 of Maryland, distinguished and disowned from 
 being any part of that province. 
 
 "XL The Lord Baltimore hath no land given 
 him by patent, but what was unplanted of any but 
 savage nations ; and this west side of the river Dela- 
 ware, before, and at the passing of his patent, was 
 actually bought and possessed by a civil and Chris- 
 tian people, in amity with the crown of England ; 
 and by the treaty of peace in 1653, between the 
 English and Dutch, it was part of one article of the 
 treaty, that the Dutch should enjoy those territories, 
 iu America, of which this was a member ; and we 
 uo know, foreign actions of that time and kind con- 
 tinued firm after his majesty's restoration ; for Ja- 
 maica still remains to us ; and Dunkirk itself was 
 not rendered, but sold. To be short, I conceive, 
 it is more for the Lord Baltimore's honour and 
 safety, that it should be so, as I say, than other- 
 wise : for if he claimeth what was possessed of the 
 Dutch, on Delaware river, south of the 40th de- 
 gree of north latitude, as what was lawfully under 
 the English sovereignty, how cometh he to suffer 
 part of his province to remain under a strange and 
 foreign sovereignty to that, under which he held 
 his claim. 
 
 " XII. But, if the Lord Baltimore had a just 
 pretence to this river, and former possession too, 
 which he never had, yet being by the Dutch taken, 
 and by the king taken from the Dutch, it becomes 
 the conqueror's : for, it is known, that, if any of 
 our English merchants ships be taken, and possessed 
 but 24 hours, by an enemy, if retaken by the crown, 
 they are prize : and this place was more than 24 
 years in the hands of the Dutch. This made his 
 royal highness take out fresh patents, upon the 
 opinion of council (since the last conquest) for his 
 territories in America. Nor is the Lord Baltimore 
 in the condition of an ordinary subject (in whose 
 favour something might be alledged); for he hath 
 regalia, principality, though subordinate to the king, 
 as his style shews ; and I conceive he is bound to 
 keep his own dominions, or else lose them ; and if 
 lost to a foreigner, and taken by the sovereign, the 
 sovereign hath the right ; another conqueror could 
 plead. This is the present jus gentium, and law of 
 nations ; which in foreign acquests prevaileth ; and 
 the king accordingly has granted it, under his 
 great seal of England, to his royal highness. And, 
 if there were no truth in this, but the Lord 
 Baltimore's patent were title good enough for what 
 was actually another's before, and which he never 
 enjoyed since, Connecticut colony might put in for 
 New York, as reasonably as the Lord Baltimore 
 can for Delaware, their patent having that part of 
 the Dutch territories within its bounds, on the same 
 mistake. 
 
 " XIII. I shall conclude with this, that the king, 
 by articles of peace, between him and the states of 
 Holland, is the allowed owner of all that territory 
 in America, once called New Netherland ; of which 
 this is a part. He hath been graciously pleased to 
 grant it by two patents, and this, in controversv, 
 by one, under the great seal of England, to his 
 
 dearest brother, James, duke of York and Albany, 
 &c. And his royal highness, out of his y.inccly 
 goodness, and singular regard, he was pleased to 
 have, to the services and losses of my deceased 
 father, hath interested me in part of the same ; go 
 that he is lord, (and I am tenant) of him I hold, 
 and to him I pay my rent ; and for him I improve, 
 as well as myself ; and, therefore, 1 must take 
 leave to refer the Lord Baltimore to his royal high- 
 ness; who is a prince, doubtless, of too much honour 
 to keep any man's right, and of too great resolu- 
 tion, to deliver up his own ; whose example I am 
 resolved to follow." 
 
 " Philadelphia, 4th of October, 1683." 
 Such appears to have been the state of this contro- 
 versy, at this time. The year 1684 commenced 
 with an incursion of a party of people from Mary- 
 land, making forcible entry on several plantations 
 into the " Lower counties :" upon which the gover- 
 nor and council, at Philadelphia, sent a copy of 
 the preceding answer to the Lord Baltimore's de- 
 mand, with orders to William Welch, to use his 
 influence, for ^instating the persons, who had been, 
 dispossessed ; and in case mild measures would not 
 do. he was directed legally to prosecute the invaders : 
 but the former method appears at present to have 
 answered the intention ; for no more of this kind of 
 conduct was heard of till the next month ; when 
 some of the inhabitants were again threatened with 
 the same outrages, in case of their refusal to yield 
 obedience to Lord Baltimore. The government 
 issued a declaration, showing Penn's title, and such 
 other requisites as were thought most likely to pre- 
 vent such illegal proceedings in future. 
 
 It is likewise observable about this time, that the 
 methods then used, and the law, which had been 
 made, tc prevent strong liquors from being sold to 
 the Indians, did not fully answer the intention ; 
 for these people, notwithstanding, through some un- 
 principled persons among the European settlers, in 
 a clandestine manner, still procured them. The 
 governor, therefore, seeing >the great difficulty, if 
 not the absolute impossibility, of debarring them 
 from these liquors, called a number of them together, 
 and proposed, that, on condition they would be con- 
 tent to be punished, as the English were, in con- 
 sequence of drunkenness, they should not be hin- 
 dered from the use of them ? This they readily 
 agreed to ; and would probably have been willing to 
 endure much greater punishment on these terms ; 
 so great is their love of strong liquors. The best 
 methods that prudence could dictate, had been 
 used, as it was thought, and much advice given them 
 to inculcate an abhorrence of the vice of drunken- 
 ness, but too generally without that effect, which 
 was desired ; their appetite having so much the pre- 
 valency over their reason, and their sensual desires, 
 above their better understanding, that while they 
 saw and acknowledged the means used for their 
 real interest in this affair, to be good, they lived in 
 the continued violation of them. 
 
 The proprietary obliged to return to England Com- 
 missions the provincial council to act in his absence, 
 fyc. His letter at his departure Oldmixon't 
 account Thomas Langhorne Death of Charlet 
 II., and succession of James II. to the crown of 
 England, with Penn's interest and service at court 
 The dispute between Penn and Lord Baltimore, 
 respecting the boundary of the territories decided, 
 $c. Boundary lines between the counties of the 
 province ascertained Proceedingi of th<s assembly 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 815 
 
 against N. Moore, J. Bridges and P. Robinson 
 Means used to instruct the Indians State of the 
 province. 
 
 C1684.) Perm continued in Pennsylvania and 
 sometimes in the adjacent province of New Jersey, 
 and other neighbouring places, till the beginning 
 or the summer this year, settling and establishing 
 the government, and assisting his friends, the 
 Quakers, in regulating th? affairs and economy of 
 their religious society; and he most probably would 
 have continued to reside here much longer, had not 
 the dispute, between him and the Lord Baltimore, 
 and other important affairs, called him to England 
 where his enemies, taking the advantage of his ab- 
 sence, had thrown his affairs into a critical situa- 
 tion, and rendered his presence absolutely ne- 
 cessary. 
 
 Upon this he signed a commission, empowering 
 the provincial council to act in the government in 
 his stead; of which Thomas Lloyd was president; 
 who also had a commission to keep the great seal. 
 Nicholas Moore, William Welch, William Wood, 
 Robert Turner, and John Eckley, were commis- 
 sioned to be provincial judges for two years. The 
 commission was as follows: 
 " William Penn, proprietary and governor of the 
 
 province of Pennsylvania, and territories there- 
 unto belonging, 
 
 " To my trusty and loving friends, Nicholas 
 Moore, William Welch, William Wood, Robert 
 Tu ner, and John Eckley, greeting : 
 
 " Reposing special confidence in your justice, 
 wisdom, and integrity, I do, by virtue of the king's 
 authority, derived unto me, constitute you provin- 
 cial judges for the province and territories, and any 
 legal number of you, a provincial court of judica- 
 ture, both fixt and circular, as is by law directed; 
 giving you, and every of you, full power to act 
 therein according to the same, strictly charging 
 you, and every of you, to do justice to all, and of all 
 degrees, without delay, fear, or reward; and I do 
 hereby require all persons within the province and 
 territories aforesaid, to give you due obedience and 
 respect, belonging to your station in the discharge 
 of your duties: this commission to be in force du- 
 ring two years, ensuing the date hereof; you, and 
 every of you, behaving yourselves well therein, and 
 acting according to the same. Given at Philadel- 
 phia, the 4th of the sixth month, 1684, being the 
 3'jth year of the king's reign, and the fourth of my 
 government, WILLIAM PENN." 
 
 Thomas Lloyd, James Claypoole, and Robert 
 Turner, were empowered to sign patents, and grant 
 warrants for lands ; and William Clark had a ge- 
 neral commission, to be justice of the peace through- 
 out the province and territories. Other justices 
 being likewise appointed, and all things settled in a 
 promising and prosperous condition, the proprietary, 
 on the 12th of the sixth month, 1G84, sailed for 
 England. 
 
 Oldmixon says, " the friendship and civility of 
 the Pennsylvanian Indians are imputed to Mr. 
 Penn, the proprietor's extreme humanity and bounty 
 to them ; he having laid out some thousands of 
 pounds, to instruct, support, and oblige them. There 
 are ten Indian nations within the limits of his pro- 
 vince; and the number of souls of these barbarians 
 is computed to about 6000. The number ef the 
 inhabitants of Swedish, or Dutch extraction may be 
 about 3000 souls." " Having made a league of amity 
 wilt nineteen Indian nations, between them and all 
 
 the English in America; having established good 
 laws, and seen his chief city so well inhabited, that 
 there were then near 300 houses, and 2,500 souls in. 
 it, besides twenty other townships, he returned to 
 England, leaving William Markham, Esq., secre- 
 tary, Mr. Thomas Holme, survey or- general; and 
 the administration in the hands of the councilj whose 
 president was Thomas Lloyd, Esq., who. by virtue 
 of his office, held the government several years," &c. 
 But prior to his entirely leaving the country, he 
 wrote from on board the ship, in which he sailed, 
 the following most affectionate farewell, to be com- 
 municated to those whom he left behind; which, as 
 a memorial of the father of this country, among 
 many others, may, in part, show to posterity his 
 real concern for the true happiness of the people, 
 both in their temporal and spiritual capacity, and 
 the prosperity of the country in every respect. 
 " For T. Lloyd, J. Claypoole, J. Simcock, C. Tay- 
 lor, and J. Harrison, to be communicated in 
 meetings in Pennsylvania, &c. among friends : 
 
 " Dear Friends, 
 
 " My love and my life is to you and with you ; 
 and no water can quench it,- nor distance wear it 
 out, or bring it to an end. I have been with you, 
 cared over you, and served you with unfeigned 
 love; and you are beloved of me, and near to me, 
 beyond utterance. I bless you, in the name and 
 power of the Lord; and may God bless you with his 
 righteousness, peace and plenty, all the land over. 
 Oh, that you would eye him in all, through all, and 
 above all the works of your hands; and let it be 
 your first care how you may glorify God in your 
 undertakings : for to a blessed end are you brought 
 hither; and if you see and keep but in "the sense of 
 that Providence, your coming, staying, and im- 
 proving will be sanctified ; ' but if any forget God, 
 and call not upon his name, in truth, he will pour 
 out his plagues upon them ; and they shall know 
 who it is that judgeth the children of men.' 
 
 " Oh, now you are come to a quiet land, provoke 
 not the Lord to trouble it. And now liberty and 
 authority are with you, and in your hands, let the 
 government be upon his shoulders, in all your 
 spirits ; that you may rule for him, under whom 
 the princes of this world will, one day, esteem it 
 their honour to govern and serve, in their places. 
 I cannot but say, when these things come mightily 
 upon my mind, as the Apostles did, of old, ' What 
 manner of persons ought we to be, in all godly con- 
 versation ! ' Truly, the name and honour of the 
 Lord are deeply concerned in you, as to the discharge 
 of yourselves, in your present stations ; many eyes 
 being upon you : and remember, that, as we have 
 been belied about disowning the true religion, so, 
 of all government, to behold us exemplary and 
 Christian, in the use of that, will not only stop our 
 enemies, but minister conviction to many, on that 
 account, prejudiced. Oh, that you may see and 
 know that service, and do it, for the Lord, in this 
 your day : 
 
 " And, thou, Philadelphia, the virgin settlement 
 of this province, named before thou wert born, what 
 love, what care, what service, and what travail has 
 there been, to bring thee forth, and preserve thee 
 from such as would abuse and defile thee ! 
 
 " Oh, that thou mayest be kept from the evil, that 
 would overwhelm thee ; that, faithful to the God of 
 thy mercies, in the life of righteousness, thou may- 
 est be preserved to the end : my soul prays to God 
 for thee, that thou mayest stand in the day of trial, 
 that thy children may be blessed of the Lord, and 
 
si r> 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 thy people saved by his power ; my love to thee 
 has been great, and the remembrance of thee affects 
 mine heart and mine eye ! The God of eternal 
 strength keep and preserve thee, to his glory and 
 thy peace. 
 
 " So, dear friends, my love again salutes you all, 
 
 wishing that grace, mercy, and peace, with all 
 
 temporal blessings, may abound richly among you ; 
 
 so says, so prays, your friend and lover in the truth, 
 
 " WILLIAM PENN. 
 
 " From on board the Ketch Endeavour, 
 the sixth month, 1684." 
 
 In England, on the sixth of February, 1685, 
 King Charles II. died; and was succeeded by 
 his brother, James, duke of York, a professed 
 Papist. The people were thereupon filled with 
 great apprehensions and fears, lest, according to the 
 usual practice of those religious devotees, who would 
 compel all people under their power to their own 
 mode of religion, as in the pers2cuting days of Queen 
 Mary, he should endeavour, by the ruin of the 
 Protestant, to establish the Popish, power and hie- 
 rarchy in the nation. So that had the proprietary 
 of Pennsylvania at this time fomented the general 
 uneasiness, by encouraging multitudes, then greatly 
 alarmed, he most probably might, as himself said, 
 " Have put many more thousands of people into his 
 province, as well as pounds into his pocket than he 
 did." 
 
 But the actions of Penn appear to have had more 
 noble and generous motives than those of private 
 interest, or of a party only; and, from that friend- 
 ship and intimacy which he had with the king 
 while duke of York, he now employed his interest 
 with him, not only for the relief of his suffering 
 friends, the Quakers (who then had long filled the 
 gaols through the nation, on account of their religion), 
 but also for the benefit of such other persons as 
 were in distress or difficulty, without distinction of 
 sect or party. Ke also, there is no doubt, in his 
 private and friendly capacity advised the king both 
 for his own real interest, and for that of the nation 
 in general ; however much real advice was perverted 
 or neglected by that infatuated monarch. 
 
 For his more convenient attendance, therefore, 
 at court, and for the easier performance of these 
 acts of humanity, friendship, charity, and general 
 service to his country, as well as his own private 
 concerns, in the year 1685, he fixed his resilience 
 near Kensington ; all which gave occasion to the 
 ignorant, and his malicious enemies, to impute to 
 him things in which he was no way concerned. 
 
 Lord Baltimore's agent had, in the year 1683, 
 petitioned Charles II., that no fresh grant of land, 
 in the territories of Pennsylvania, might pass 
 in favour of Penn, till that nobleman's case had 
 been heard. This petition was referred to the lords 
 of the committee of trade and plantation; which, 
 after many attendances and examinations of both 
 parties, made a report to James II; who, in No- 
 vember 1685, by an order of council, determined 
 the affair between them; by ordering a division to 
 be made of all that tract of land between Dela- 
 ware and Chesapeake bay, from the latitude of cape 
 Henlopen, to the south boundary of Pennsylvania, 
 into two equal parts ; of which that share on Dela- 
 ware was assigned to the king ; and that on Chesa- 
 peake, to the Lord Baltimore. 
 
 This division was, by the king, in council, or- 
 dered immediately to be made ; but its execution 
 being many years delayed, Queen Ann was twice 
 petitioned for a further hearing ; which being ob- 
 
 tained, the first order of council, of 1685, was, by 
 the queen, ratified and confirmed, in all its parts, 
 and commanded to be put in execution, without 
 further delay. 
 
 In consequence, this territory, which before had 
 been divided by William Penn, into the three 
 counties of Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex, became 
 bounded on the east, by the river and bay of Dela- 
 ware, and partly by the ocean ; on the south, by an 
 east and west line, drawn a few miles south of the 
 Indian river, in latitude about thirty-eight and a 
 half; which line extends half-way between the 
 ocean, on the east, and Chesapeake bay on the west, 
 35 miles; and from thence on the west of the said 
 counties, by a right line nearly in a north direc- 
 tion to the south boundary of Pennsylvania; which 
 is in a parallel of about fifteen miles due south 
 of Philadelphia ; so that the said line touches the 
 arch of a circle, drawn at twelves miles distance 
 from Newcastle to the river Delaware ; and thence 
 from the end of the said line, on the north-eastward, 
 to the river Delaware, by the said arch. ' 
 
 Hence the breadth of these counties, east and 
 west, continues to decrease from their south boun- 
 dary, where it is 35 miles, till it is only about 
 twelve miles, at, or near the border of Pennsylva- 
 nia. The said north and south line, from lati- 
 tude 38 degrees, 30 minutes, to 39 degrees, 41 
 minutes, is about 85 miles ; but, in consideration of 
 the space, included in the north part of the circle's 
 arch, the whole territory may probably be near 
 90 miles in length ; this, multiplied by 23, the mean 
 breadth, gives 2070 square miles ; which last 
 number, multiplied by 640, the number of acres in 
 one square mile, produces 1,324,800, or above one 
 million and a quarter of acres, in this territory ; 
 now known as the state of Delaware. 
 
 At a council held in Philadelphia, on the first 
 day of the second month, 1685, present Thomas 
 Lloyd, president, and nine others, the lines of sepa- 
 ration between the county of Philadelphia and those 
 of Bucks and Chester were confirmed, according to 
 the proprietary's desire, signified to some of his 
 friends before he left the province. 
 
 Nicholas Moore, from London, one of the pro- 
 vincial judges, being first in commission, took place, 
 as prior judge; or in the style of later times, as 
 chief justice of the province, and was a member of 
 assembly. Though he appears to have been a per- 
 son of good and useful abilities, and esteemed by 
 the proprietary, yet being accused of mal-practices, 
 he fell under the displeasure of the house; and they 
 impeached him in form, by a declaration exhibited 
 to the council on the 15th of May, this year, con- 
 sisting of ten articles ; besides saving to themselves 
 the liberty of adding more; and concluded with a 
 request, that he might be removed from his great 
 offices and trust, and be made to answer to the 
 crimes and misdemeanors which were brought 
 against him. 
 
 The council having received the assembly's charge 
 against Moore, ordered several of their members to 
 acquaint him with the accusation, and to request his 
 appearance before the council next day ; but he not 
 appearing at the time appointed, the articles against 
 him were read a second time, and notice given to 
 the Assembly, that they were willing to hear their 
 proofs. The speaker, John White, Abraham Man, 
 Thomas Usher, John Blunston, William Barry, and 
 Samuel Gray, were appointed managers, for the 
 house on the occasion ; who supporting the charge, 
 the president and council sent a second notice to 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 81? 
 
 Moor to appear at the council-chamber on the 19th 
 but he still neglecting, after some time of delaj 
 notice was again sent him by a cotfncil convene 
 on the 2d ot the fourth month following, " That h 
 desist and cease from further acting, in any plac 
 of authority, or judicature, till the articles of im 
 peachment exhibited against him bj the assemblj 
 be tried, or, that satisfaction be ~nade to the board. 
 There does not appear to be any record of wha 
 these articles, or crimes and misdemeanors were 
 which, undoubtedly, could not be without rea 
 foundation : but, from circumstances, it seems rea 
 sonable to apprehend there might have been som 
 animosities and disagreement, or misunderstanding 
 among some of the persons in authority at this time 
 by which things might have been exaggerated : thi 
 appears, in part, from Moore's obstinacy, in refus 
 ing to appear before the council, and also from some 
 letters of the proprietary, in which he seems not t( 
 have been well pleased with part of these proceed 
 ings against him : for N. Moore, after this, was in* 
 stituted and continued by the proprietary, in 1686 
 and 1687, one of his commissioners of government 
 a place of the highest honour and trust, till hi< 
 death, about two years after this time ; in which 
 office there appears no objection from any party 
 against his conduct. 
 
 The assembly had before this, on the 13th of May 
 showed an instance of their own authority, in ex 
 polling, or rather suspending one of their members 
 during the session, viz. John Bridges, of Kent 
 county, for contemptuous language to the house, 
 expressed in assembly, and refusing to make sub- 
 mission; but upon his altering his mind the nexl 
 day, and making acknowledgment, &c. for his of 
 fence, he was reinstated. 
 
 And on the 18th Patrick Robinson, clerk of the 
 provincial circular courts, being admitted into the 
 house of assembly, and requested to produce the 
 records of said courts ; but he denying the same, 
 and joining withMoore, was for his contempt of the 
 authority of the house, disobedience to their or- 
 ders, and abusing the assembly, committed to the 
 sheriffs custody, during the pleasure of the house, 
 and voted " A public enemy tothe province of Penn- 
 sylvania and territories thereof, and a violator of the 
 privileges of the freemen, in assembly met." 
 
 The following are extracts from the letters re- 
 ferred to; in one of which, dated, Worminghurst, 
 the 1st of February, 1687, to Thomas Lloyd, 
 he says, 
 
 " Since my return from Germany and Hoi- 
 Jand, where I had blessed service for the Lord, I 
 have visited the north and north-west parts of this 
 kingdom ; as Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Stafford- 
 ihire, Darbyshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, West- 
 moreland, Bishoprick and Yorkshire ; and the Lord 
 Wras with me, in a sweet and melting life, to my 
 great joy and friends', refreshment." 
 
 " I rejoice that God has preserved your health 
 so well, and that his blessings are upon the earth ; 
 but grieved at the bottom of my heart fo'r the heats 
 and disorders among the people," &c. " This quar- 
 rel about the society," (meaning the free society of 
 traders, of which N. Moore was president) " has 
 made your great guns heard hither : I blame no- 
 thing, nor the society here, to be sure ; but I could 
 wish Dr. Moore and P. R. could have been softened, 
 and that J. Cl. (probably J. Claypoole) had been 
 more composed;" " that may be a mighty politi- 
 cal vice, that is not a moral one." " Because thy 
 commission may expire, in the opinions of some, as 
 His?, or AMER. Nn. 103 & 101. 
 
 to president of the council, with thy membership, I 
 have considered how to supply that defect, and that 
 of thy absence; and that is another sort of deputa- 
 tion than before; which comes by the bearer, Ed- 
 ward Blackfan. I entreat thee to consider of the trua* 
 reason of our unhappiness, of that side, among our 
 magistrates: is it not their self-value, and slighting 
 power in one another ? Oh, this preference is, in 
 religious and civil societies, the bane of concord, that 
 is the means of true happiness. Men should be 
 meek, humble and grave : that draws reverence and 
 love together : this wise and good men will do. Is 
 any out of the way ? They should not so much look 
 at his infirmity, as take care, they are not also 
 overtaken, eying how many good qualities the of- 
 fender has to serve the public ; cind not cast a whole 
 apple away, for one side being defective. The 
 Lord God of peace and power, by his blessed grace, 
 each and lead his people, in his own blameless path 
 to the end." 
 
 In another to the same, dated Worminghurst, 
 6th of June, 1687, he speaks thus : 
 
 " Though I write in general, I was willing to 
 salute thee in particular, hoping that this will find 
 hee and thine well, and at your ease, in poor 
 Pennsylvania, where nothing on my part, in my 
 >ower, shall be wanting to make you so : I do be- 
 eech thee to travail in the spirit of meekness, 
 and of the precious, gentle wisdom of God, that is 
 easily entreated, and works its way through the hard- 
 Jst rocks, to quiet and calm and determine ; and 
 eaving things to my coming too much : next, 
 emember this, that though the politic ancients over- 
 ooked many ill things rather than, by the severity 
 )f punishment, to discourage planting their new 
 jolonies, or any sort from settling among them ; 
 vet, we, that have our eye to another home, whose 
 lue we have been taught to look for, as the reason 
 >f all true prosperity; and that it has ever been ac- 
 ording to our faith, are to act, as in his sight, and 
 Discharge ourselves as righteous men, against all 
 nrighteousness ; wherefore, pray, let the law have 
 ts course ; as for Dr. Moore and P. Robinson, 
 he persons esteemed the most unquiet and cross to 
 riends, try what is possible to quiet them ; endea- 
 our by private visits and admonitions to sweeten 
 hem ; much good may come of it. The Lord God 
 f endless power bless you, and furnish you, to his 
 iraise." 
 
 On the 14th of September, James Harrison, James 
 Claypoole, and Arthur Cooke were nominated by 
 be council, to be provincial judges ; but Harrison 
 nd Cooke refusing to serve, and Claypoole being 
 irevented by sickness, the council, in order to an- 
 wer the expectation of such persons as were c n- 
 erned in appeals, agreed to receive them, and to 
 it for the decision of differences themselves, at the 
 me appointed for the court to sit ; which was on 
 he 24th. After this, at their triennial election, 
 ccording to charter, being in part new chosen, they, 
 y fresh commissions, appointed the several officer? 
 f government. 
 
 In this year, 1685. the Quakers, in their yearly 
 leeting, at Burlington, in West Jersey, took addi- 
 onal measures to prevent all persons in their soci- 
 ty, from selling strong liquors to the Indians, 
 .bout the same time, by particular appointment, 
 ley also had a religious meeting with them, as they 
 equently had before ; to inform and instruct them 
 n the principles of Christianity, and the practice 
 * a true Christian life. 
 
 The Indians generally heard patiently what was 
 4 B 
 
818 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 said to them on this subject, and seemed affected 
 with it for a time ; but, for the most part, it ap- 
 peared to make no very durable impression, on 
 their minds, fur the proper regulation of their pas- 
 sions and appetites ; which, at last, too generally 
 seemed to prevail over convictions of this nature, 
 and their better knowledge. 
 
 Many preachers of this religious society, from 
 abroad, often had meetings, and serious discourse 
 with them for this purpose ; as well as those who 
 had settled in the country, particularly, Samuel 
 Jennings, Thomas Olive, William Penn and others, 
 from time to time, laboured to inculcate into them 
 a just sense of the benefit of a Christian life arid 
 conduct. 
 
 The following letter from the proprietary to the 
 magistrates, concerning ordinaries, with some others 
 about this time, indicate the existence of some irre- 
 gularities and abuses in the province, and his anx- 
 iety to have them redressed, viz : 
 " Friends, 
 
 " There is a cry come over into these parts against 
 the number of drinking-houses, and looseness, that 
 is committed in the caves." [Note, these caves 
 were some of the first habitations of the new settlers, 
 under William Penn, till they got better erected; 
 they were made in the bank, along the side of De- 
 laware, where the city now stands, which then was 
 higher ground.] " I am pressed in my spirit, being 
 very apt to believe too many disorders, in that re- 
 spect, strictly to require, that speedy and effectual 
 care be taken : First, to reduce the number of or- 
 dinaries,or drinking-houses ; and that without respect 
 to persons : Such to be continued, that are most 
 tender of God's glory, and the reputation of the go- 
 vernment; and that all others, presuming to sell, 
 be punished according to law : I desire you to 
 purge these caves in Philadelphia; they are mine 
 by licence and time : The three years are expired ; 
 I would have the suspected forthwith ordered to 
 get up housing elsewhere ; and the empty caves to 
 accommodate the poor families, that may come 
 over ; though they must not stand long before men's 
 doors. Whatever you do, let virtue be cherished, 
 and those that show to fear God, by a life according 
 to it, be countenanced, and the evil person re- 
 buked ; that God, who blesseth those that fear him, 
 and call upon his name in all lands, may bless and 
 preserve you. And though this be particularly ad- 
 dressed to you, let the magistrates of other towns 
 have it to read among them. I add no more, but 
 my desires to the God of all our tender mercies to 
 be with you all, in your duties and places, to his 
 glory, and your praise and Deace Amen. 
 Your very loving friend, . WM. PENN." 
 
 The following was endorsed on the copy of the 
 above letter, viz. 
 
 " These are to certify, that notwithstanding seve- 
 ral within this county of Philadelphia, keep ordi- 
 naries, and sell strong liquors by retail, yet not 
 one of them hath any licence for their so doing. 
 
 "WILLIAM MARKHAM." 
 
 The following is an extract from an original let- 
 ter, in the proprietary's own hand-writing, dated, 
 " sixth month 1685," and directed to ThomasLloyd, 
 John Simcock, Christopher Taylor, James Harri- 
 son, and Robert Turner. Speaking of some per- 
 sons in the government, and certain disorders, 
 he says, 
 
 " I am sorry at heart for your animosities ; can- 
 not more friendly and private courses be taken, to 
 set matters to right, in an infant province, whose 
 
 steps are numbered and watched? For the love of 
 God, me, and the poor country, be not so govern- 
 mentish, so noisy, and open, in your dissatisfac- 
 tions ; some folks love hunting in government it- 
 self." " It is an abominable thing to have three 
 warrants for one purchase; 'tis oppression that my 
 soul loaths; I do hereby require it, that P. L.be called 
 to account for requests and \varrants,&c. for town-lot, 
 liberty-lot, and the rest of the purchase. Why not 
 one warrant for all, at least, for liberty-lot, and the 
 remainder ? This is true and right oppression : be- 
 sides, several things and sums are set down, that 
 are not in law, nor in my regulations," &c. 
 
 Perm's employment in Europe Emigrants from Hol- 
 land and Germany Five commissioners of ttate 
 created The proprietor's instructions to them His 
 beneficent employment in Enyland for the Quakers, 
 Sfc. Letter to Lloyd False alarm of an Indian 
 insurrection Caleb Vussey Captain John Black- 
 well, Deputy Governor The proprietary's instruc- 
 tions to him He meets the assembly, disagrees with 
 the council, and returns to England Institution of 
 the first public grammar-school in Pennsylvania. 
 
 In the year 1686 Penn published a further ac- 
 count of the province of Pennsylvania, wrote seve- 
 ral pieces on religious subjects, chiefly in defence of 
 toleration in religion, (extant in his works) and ap- 
 pears to have been in Germany and Holland, as 
 well as much engaged in various services for his 
 friends, the Quakers, and in promoting religion and 
 virtue in different places, personally, in his native 
 country ; at the same time continuing his care and 
 endeavours for the benefit, happiness, and prospe- 
 rity of his province, though absent, by means of 
 written directions and advice, from time lo time, for 
 the prevention of disorders, and the redressing of 
 such things as appeared inconsistent with the real 
 interest of the colony. 
 
 But his great expense and generosity, in the 
 original settlement of the province, as well as after- 
 wards, were so very considerable, compared to his 
 private fortune, that, even before this time, he be- 
 gan to feel the effects to such a degree, that in his 
 letters to some of his friends there, he was obliged 
 to complain of the slowness and deficiency of the 
 returns. 
 
 In answer to a remonstrance and address to him, 
 respecting the front and bank lots in Philadelphia, 
 dated " 3d six month, 1684," he says, " I have made 
 the most purchases, and been at the greatest charge 
 of any proprietary and governor in America," &c. 
 
 In a letter dated Bristol, " 5th of nine month, 
 1695," directed to A. Cook, J. Simcock, S Carpen- 
 ter, J. Goodson, S. Richardson, R.Turner, Ph. Pern 
 berton, and D. Lloyd, Pennsylvania, he declares, 
 " I must say, that what I have spent upon the pro- 
 vince, as governor and planter, is the foundation of 
 my present incurnbrance ; as P. F. (Philip Ford) 
 knows, and asserted to the lords of plantations lately, 
 to be 4,000/. more than the whole that I ever received 
 for lands, besides what it has cost me here," &c. 
 
 In a letter to Thomas Lloyd, dated " seventh 
 month, 1686," he complains, that at that time " his 
 quit-rents were at least 500J. per annual value, and 
 then due, though he could not get one penny." 
 " God is my witness," says he. in the same letter, 
 " I lie not ; I am above 6000/. out of pocket, more 
 than ever 1 saw by the province, and throw in my 
 pains, care, and hazard of life, and leaving of my 
 family and friends, to serve them," &c. 
 
 In a letter to James Harrison dated, London, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 819 
 
 ' 23d of seventh month, 1686," speaking of his goin 
 to his province, he says, " Besides, that the coun 
 try think not on my supply, and I resolve never t 
 act the governor, and keep another family and ca 
 pacity upon my private estate; if my table, cellar 
 and stable may be provided for, with a barge an( 
 yatch, or sloop, for the service of governor and go 
 vernment, I may try to get hence ; for, in the sigh 
 of God, I can say I am 5000/., and more, behim 
 hand, more than ever I received, or saw, for land 
 in that province," &c. " There is nothing my sou 
 breathes more for in this world, next my dear fa 
 mily's life, than that I may see poor Pennsylvani. 
 again ;" " but I cannot force my way hence, am 
 see nothing done on that side, inviting," &c. 
 
 In, or about this year, 1686, arrived in the pro 
 vince many Friends, or Quakers, and others from 
 Holland and Germany; who settled among their 
 friends at German-town, near Philadelphia, am 
 increased that settlement, which was begun in 1683 
 Some of those who now came, having sufferec 
 considerably by fire, soon after their arrival, were 
 assisted by the Friends, in the city and county of 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 The proprietary found much inconvenience arose 
 from his commission of the power of government to 
 so many persons as the council consisted of, and, 
 not being well pleased with part of their conduct, or 
 management, declared, " that the charter was forfeited, 
 if he would take advantage at it;" " and in another 
 letter to the same, about this time, he complains, 
 That the provincial council neglected, or slighted, 
 bis letters to them; that he had religiously conse- 
 crated his pains in a prudent manner, but it was 
 not valued, understood, or kept to ; so that the 
 charter was over and over again forfeited, if he 
 would take advantage at it; that they entirely 
 neglected the supply which they had promised him ; 
 which, in consequence of his great expense, on ac- 
 count of the province, was one cause that kept him 
 from Pennsylvania; declaring, " That he would 
 not spend his private estate to discharge a..puhlic 
 station." Hence, in the latter part of the year 
 1686, by a fresh commission, he contracted the 
 number of his representatives, or of the executive 
 part of the government, to five persons only, viz. 
 Thomas Lloyd, Nicholas Moore, James Claypoole, 
 Robert Turner, and John Eckley, constituting and 
 styling them commissioners of state, or, of the go- 
 vernment of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Both the cause of their institution, and the nature 
 of their office, in part, appear from the following 
 instructions : 
 
 " William Penn, proprietor and governor, 
 " To my trusty and well beloved friends, Thomas 
 Lloyd", Nicholas Moore, James Claypoole, Robert 
 Turner, and John Eckley, or any three of them 
 at Philadelphia : 
 
 " Trusty, and well-beloved, I heartily salute you; 
 lest any should scruple the termination of President 
 Lloyd's commission, with his place in the provincial 
 council, and to the end that there may be a more 
 constant residence of the honorary and governing 
 part of the government, for the keeping all things 
 in good order, I have sent a fresh commission of 
 deputation to you, making any three of you a quorum, 
 to act in the execution of laws, enacting, disannul- 
 ling, or varying of laws, as if I myself were there 
 present, reserving to myself the confirmation of what 
 is done, and my peculiar royalties and advantages. 
 
 " First, You are to oblige the provincial council 
 to their charter attendance; or to take such a 
 
 council as you think convenient, to advise and as- 
 sist you in the business of the public: for I will no 
 more endure their most slothful and dishonourable 
 attendance, but dissolve the frame, without any 
 more ado : let them look to it, if further occasion be 
 given. 
 
 " Secondly, That you keep to the dignity of your 
 station, in council and out; but especially to suffer 
 no disorder in the council, nor the council and as- 
 sembly, or either of them, to entrench upon the 
 powers and privileges remaining yet in me. 
 
 " Thirdly, That you admit not any parleys, or 
 open conferences, between the provincial council 
 and assembly: but one, with your approbation, 
 propose, and let the other consent or dissent, ac- 
 cording to charter. 
 
 " Fourthly, That you curiously inspect the past 
 proceedings of both, and let me know in what they 
 have broken the bounds, or obligations of their 
 charter. 
 
 " Fifthly, That you, this very next assembly ge- 
 neral, declare my abrogation of all that has been 
 done since my absence; and so,. of all the laws, but 
 the fundamentals; and that you immediately dis- 
 miss the assembly, and call it again ; and pass such 
 of them afresh, with such alterations as you and 
 they shall see meet; and this, to avoid a greater in- 
 conveniency ; which I foresee, and formerly com- 
 municated to Thomas Lloyd. 
 
 " Sixthly, Inspect the qualifications of members 
 in council and assembly; and see they be accord- 
 ng to charter; and especially of those that have 
 :he administration of justice; and whatever you do, 
 et the point of the laws be turned against impiety, 
 and your severe brow upon all the troublesome and 
 exatious, more especially trifling, appealers. 
 
 " You shall shortly have a limitation from the 
 
 dng ; though you have power with the council and 
 
 assembly to fix the matter and manner of appeals 
 
 as much as to do any justice, or prevent any dis- 
 
 rder in the province at all. 
 
 " Seventhly, That till then 1 have sent you a 
 reclamation to that effect, according to the powers 
 )f ordinance making, and declared in my letters 
 latent, which you may expose as you please. 
 
 " Eighthly, Be most just, as in the sight of the 
 11-seeing, all-searching God; and before you let 
 our spirits into an affair, retire to him (who is not 
 ar away from every one of you ; by whom kings 
 eign, and princes decree justice) that he may give 
 rou a good understanding, and government of your- 
 elves, in the management thereof; which is that 
 vhich truly crowns public actions, and dignifies 
 hose that perform them. You shall hear further 
 rom me by C. King ; the ship is ready to sail, so 
 hall only admonish you in general, that, next to 
 he preservation of virtue, have a tender regard to 
 eace, and my privileges, in which enact from time 
 o time. Love, forgive, help, and serve one another ; 
 nd let the people learn by your example, as well 
 s by your power, the happy life of concord. So 
 ommending you to God's grace and keeping, I bid 
 ou heartily farewell. Given at Worminghurst, in 
 )ld England, the first of the twelfth month, 1686." 
 During most of the time of Penn's absence from 
 is province, till the reign of William III., though 
 ot many public transactions, nor proceedings of 
 much importance and notoriety, appear to have 
 assed in Pennsylvania besides those which respect 
 le labour and advantages of an industrious people, 
 n the colonisation of the country, and laying a 
 oundation for future greatness, by facilitating and 
 
 4B2 
 
820 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 multiplying the reasonable enjoyments and bless- 
 ings of life j yet its eminent founder was not the less- 
 active and beneficial to mankind in another depart- 
 ment; and his suffering friends, the Quakers, in 
 Great Britain, experienced the effect of his attend- 
 ance and solicitations at court in their favour : 
 where his frequent access to the king brought him 
 into suspicion of being a disguised Jesuit, and under 
 unjust censures and imputations ; as if he had been 
 an adviser, and contributed to those arbitrary mea- 
 sures which that impolitic king, James II., pursued : 
 whereas his generous plan of liberty, so far as his 
 power extended, and his otherwise well known prin- 
 ciples of government, were as contrary to those of 
 the king as could possibly be, and his religion no 
 less opposite. 
 
 Nevertheless he was not only infamously aspersed 
 and abused in print, on these accounts, by many 
 illiberal and slanderous works, published against 
 him, and some of them, even, in his own name, but 
 also censured by some persons of good understand- 
 ing and character ; who, in many respects, were his 
 friends, but not thoroughly knowing him, fell into 
 the like suspicions. An instance of which appears 
 in Dr. Tillotson, afterwards archbishop of Canter- 
 bury ; but by means of a friendly epistolary corre- 
 spondence between them on the subject, in the year 
 1686, as appears in Penn's life prefixed to his 
 printed works, Dr. Tillotson was fully convinced 
 of, and as freely acknowledged his mistake. 
 
 Penn continued to distinguish himself in the cause 
 of an impartial toleration in religion, both in wri- 
 ting, and also by assiduous personal solicitations at 
 court, as a strenuous and unwearied advocate for 
 that undoubted right of mankind; of which he, and 
 his friends, the Quakers, had, through the persecu- 
 tion and bigoted spirit of those times, been long un- 
 justly deprived. Hence, in the fore part of this 
 year, in consequence of the king's proclamation 
 for a general pardon, " about 1300 of these people, 
 most of whom had been imprisoned divers years, for 
 their religion, were set at liberty." And in April, 
 the next following year, 1687, came forth the king's 
 declaration for liberty of conscience, suspending 
 the execution of all penal laws, in matters ecclesi- 
 astical. 
 
 For this temporary relief from <rruel suffering, by 
 the intolerant and unjust laws of those times, they 
 who had endured most oppression and persecution, 
 undoubtedly had the greatest reason to be thankful : 
 and whatever were the supposed views of the go- 
 vernment thereby, in too much favouring a Popish 
 party, yet, for the Quakers to refuse, or reject the 
 restitution of that natural right of mankind, and 
 most undoubted privilege of English people, and all 
 peaceable subjects, merely because it might be made 
 an ill use of by others, and was not done in due 
 form, would certainly have been the highest absur- 
 dity : .and for those, who had suffered more deeply 
 than all others, not to acknowledge and commend 
 the redress of such a crying and intolerable griev- 
 ance and affliction, as they had endured in respect 
 to themselves, so long and so laboriously solicited 
 by them, of the preceding king and parliament, in 
 vain, would have showed the greatest ingratitude 
 and insensibility ; more especially, as it was scarcely 
 possible for them to be in a much worse condition 
 even under a Popish hierarchy itself, than they hac 
 for many years endured, both under Cromwell 
 Charles II. and their parliaments, to this time 
 without being able to obtain redress any other way . 
 wherefore, at their next annual assembly, held in 
 
 Condon in the third month, this year the Quakers 
 Irew up an address of thanks to the king, and de- 
 luted Penn and others to present it. 
 
 In the summer of the year 1687, W. Penn, by 
 ome of his letters to his friends in Pennsylvania, 
 eems to have been with the king, in a progress 
 hrough Berkshire, Glocestershire, Worcestershire, 
 hropshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, 
 )xfordshire, and Hampshire : during which journey 
 le had several religious meetings with the people; 
 nd in some places, where the king appears to have 
 >een present, particularly in Chester. 
 
 While Penn was thus variously and importantly 
 imployed in England, his province needed his pre- 
 cnce ; and Thomas Lloyd, who ever since the pro- 
 >rietary's departure had chiefly presided in the 
 mblic affairs, and sustained the weight and care of 
 hem, under the different appointments, excepting 
 wo short intermissions, in which Thomas Holme and 
 iVilliam Clark supplied his absence, wanted to be 
 lischarged from the burden; and, before this time 
 lad solicited to be released, by the appointment of 
 another person in his room : but a suitable person 
 or such an appointment was not easy to be found; 
 and the proprietary appears to have been sensible 
 of jt, by his manner of writing at different times, to 
 lis friends in the province, expressing his ardent 
 desire for his prosperity, and to reside in it himself; 
 n one of which to Thomas Lloyd, about this time, 
 \e says, " No honour, interest, or pleasure, in this 
 jart of the world, shall be able to check my desires 
 o live and die among you ; and, though to my grief, 
 my stay is yet prolonged on private and public ac- 
 counts, yet, depend upon it, Pennsylvania is my 
 worldly delight, and end of all places on the earth. 
 
 " Now, though I have, to please thee, given thee 
 
 quietus from all public business, my intention is to 
 constitute thee deputy-governor, and two, in the 
 character of assistants; either of whom and thyself, 
 ;o be able to do all as fully as I myself can do ; only 
 [ wait thy consent to the employment ; of which 
 advise me," &c. ; and again, " by all that is reve- 
 rent, tender, and friendly, 1 beseech thy care, con- 
 descension and help, for that poor province. I am 
 here, serving God and friends, and the nation; 
 
 hich I hope God will reward to mine and you," &c. 
 
 Notwithstanding the friendly disposition which, 
 from the beginning, had been wisely cultivated and 
 established by the proprietary and inhabitants, or 
 first settlers, of the province, with the Indians, and 
 afterwards pursued in such manner, as to leave no 
 reasonable cause for fears and suspicions between 
 them ; yet, as in all countries turbulent persons are 
 found, whose delight is, if possible, to disturb the 
 public tranquillity; so we find, in the infancy of 
 this colony, when justice, peace, and harmony so 
 universally predominated, it was possible, neverthe- 
 less, for idle reports, and groundless rumours, to 
 take place, and gain so far on unguarded minds, as 
 to create very alarming apprehensions respecting 
 the Indians. The consideration of their large num- 
 bers at that time, in proportion to the fewness of the 
 European settlers, rather favouring such apprehen- 
 sions ; of which we have the following instance. 
 
 In, or about the year 1688, the inhabitants of 
 Philadelphia, and places adjacent, were alarmed 
 with the report of an intended insurrection of the 
 Indians to cut off all the English on an appointed 
 day. This was communicated by two Indian women 
 of West Jersey, to an old Dutch inhabitant near 
 Chester, to be on the next fourth day of the week. 
 Several Friends, or Quakers, upon hearing this re- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 821 
 
 port, being conscious of their just conduct towards | dians and English ; and as he made all, so his love 
 
 the Indians, and sensible of nothing that could 
 reasonably disgust them, endeavoured to appease 
 the people's fears. The fourth day having arrived, 
 about ten o'clock in the night, a messenger arrived 
 at Chester, out of the woods, and told the people, 
 that three families about nine miles distant, which 
 he named, were all cut off by the Indians. This re- 
 port coming to a Friend, then at Chester, about 
 midnight he took with him two young mem on 
 horseback, to the place, in order to examine into 
 the truth of the affair. They found the three houses, 
 but no body in them, and yet no signs of murder ; 
 their inhabitants, alarmed in a similar manner, had 
 fled to the houses of their parents, at Ridley creek, 
 about a mile from thence. The master of one of 
 these families being from home, had been informed 
 500 Indians were actually collected at Naaman's 
 creek, iu pursuit of their design to kill the En- 
 glish ; and as he was hastening to his house, he 
 thought he heard his boy crying out, and saying, 
 " What shall I do, my dame is killed !" Upon which, 
 instead of going home, to know the certainty of the 
 affair, he ran off, to acquaint the government at 
 Philadelphia ; but being met by a person of more 
 prudence than himself, before he got to the city, he 
 was persuaded by him to return. 
 
 The report notwithstanding soon arrived at the 
 city; and was told with such alarming circumstances, 
 that a messenger was immediately dispatched to 
 Marcus Hook, near the said Naaman's creek, to 
 inquire the truth of it. He quickly returned and 
 confirmed the report, but with this variation ; that 
 it was at Brandywine creek, at an Indian town, 
 where the 500 Indians were assembled ; and, tha 
 they, having a lame king, had carried him away 
 with all their women and children. These circum" 
 stances rendered the affair still more alarming, and, 
 with many, amounted to a certainty. 
 
 The council were at that time sitting at Phila- 
 delphia on other affairs, when one of them, a 
 Quaker, supposed to be Caleb Pusey, a much 
 esteemed public man., who lived in Chester county, 
 voluntarily offered himself to go to the place, pro- 
 vided they would name five others to accompany 
 him, without weapons ; which being soon agreed 
 on, they rode to the place ; but, instead of meeting 
 with 500 warriors, they found the old king quietly 
 lying with his lame foot along on the ground, and 
 his head at ease on a kind of pillow, the women at 
 work in the field, and the children playing toge- 
 ther. 
 
 When they had entered the wigwam, the king 
 presently asked them very mildly, " What they all 
 came for?" They told him the report which the 
 Indian women had raised ; and asked him, whether 
 the Indians had any thing against the English ? 
 He appeared much displeased at the report, and 
 said, "The women ought to be burnt to death ; and 
 that they had nothing against the English ;" add- 
 ing, " 'Tis true there are about Ibl. yet behind of 
 our pay for the land, which William Penn bought, 
 but ai you are still on it, and improving it, to your 
 own use, we are not in haste for our pay ; but when 
 the English come to settle it, we expect to be paid." 
 This, the messengers thinking vpry reasonable, 
 told him, they should undoubtedly be paid for their 
 laud. 
 
 One of the company further expressed himself to 
 the Indian king, in the following manner : " That 
 the great God, who made the world, and all things 
 therein, consequently made all mankind, both In- 
 
 was extended to all ; which, was plainly shown, 
 by his causing the rain and dews to fall on the 
 ground of both Indians and English alike ; that it 
 might equally produce what the Indians, as well as 
 what the English sowed or planted in it, for the 
 sustenance of life ; and also by his making the sun 
 to shine equally on all, both Indians and English, 
 to nourish them ; and that seeing the great Being, 
 which made them all, extended his love thus to 
 all, so they were mutually bound to love oue 
 another." 
 
 The king answered, " What they had said was 
 true ; and as God has given you corn, I would advise 
 you to get it in; (it being then harvest time) for 
 we intend you no harm;" They parted amicably; 
 and the messengers, returning, put an end to the 
 people's fears. 
 
 In consequence of a request from Thomas Lloyd, 
 to be released from the public affairs of the govern- 
 ment, in the latter part of the year 1688, Captain 
 John Blackwell succeeded to his office of lieutenant- 
 governor. He was a person whom Penn seems to 
 have highly esteemed ; and, at the time of his ap- 
 pointment, was in New England. His commission 
 was transmitted to him with the following docu- 
 ment. 
 
 (L. s.) " Instructions for Lieutenant Governor 
 Blackwell, or whom else they may concern. 
 
 " I. That things be transacted fn my name, by 
 the style of my patent only, viz. absolute proprie- 
 tary of Pennsylvania, &c. if not contrary to the 
 charter and laws of the province, as I suppose not. 
 
 " II. That commissions signed and sealed by me 
 here shall be sufficient warrants and directions to 
 pass them under the great seal. 
 
 " III. To collect the laws that are in being, and 
 end them over to me, in a stitched book, by the 
 very first" opportunity ; which I have hitherto often, 
 and so much, in vain, desired. 
 
 " IV. To be careful that speedy, as well as tho- 
 rough and impartial justice be done ; and virtue in 
 all cherished, and vice in all punished. 
 
 " V. That fines be in proportion, both to the 
 fault and ability of the party, that so they may be 
 paid. 
 
 " VI. That feuds between persuasions, or nations, 
 or countries, be suppressed and extinguished, if 
 any be ; and, if none, that by a good conduct, they 
 may be prevented. 
 
 " VII. That the widow, orphan, and absent may 
 be particularly regarded, in their rights; for their 
 cry will be loudest in all ears; but, by absent, 1 
 mean such as are so of necessity. 
 
 " VIII. To countenance the commissioners of 
 property, where land is unseated, or people are un- 
 ruly in their settlements, or comply not with rea- 
 sonable obligations, about bounds, banks, timber, 
 &c. For though we come to a wilderness, it was 
 not that we should continue it so, 
 
 " IX. That the sheriff's of their respective counties 
 be charged with the receipt of my rents, fines, &c. 
 as they do in England, and give security to the re- 
 ceiver-general, for the same. 
 
 " X. To have a special care, that sheriffs and 
 clerks of (he peace impose not upon the people ; 
 and that the magistrates live peaceably and soberly ; 
 for I could not endure one loose, or litigious per- 
 son in authority. Let them be men having some 
 fear of God, and hating covetousness, whatever be 
 their persuasion : to employ others is to profane an 
 ordinance of God. 
 
822 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 " XL That care be taken of the roads and high- 
 ways in the country ; that they might be straight 
 and commodious for travellers; for I understand 
 they are turned about by the planters; which is a 
 mischief that must not be endured. 
 
 " XII. Consider hy what means, or methods, the 
 good and prosperity of the plantation may be pro- 
 moted ; what laws, in being, are unnecessary or de- 
 fective, and what are wanting ; and in each par- 
 ticular hereof let me have advice as distinctly, and 
 as speedily as may be. 
 
 " XIII. Rule the meek meekly; and those that 
 will not be ruled, rule with authority ; and God Al- 
 mighty prosper all honest and prudent endeavours. 
 Given at London, this 25th of the seventh month, 
 1688. WILLIAM PENN." 
 
 Blackwell met the assembly in May 1689 ; but 
 on account of some misunderstanding or dissension 
 between him and some of the council, the public 
 affairs were not managed with the desired harmony 
 and satisfaction ; and but little was done during his 
 administration,which continued only till the February 
 following, when he returned to England ; and the 
 government of the province, according to charter, 
 devolved again on the council, Thomas Lloyd being 
 president. 
 
 The appointment of Blackwell, who was not a 
 Quaker, to be deputy-governor, appears by the pro- 
 prietary's letters to his friends, in the province, to 
 have been, because no suitable person, who was of 
 that society, would undertake the office; that his 
 views thereby were more for the public good, than 
 his own private interest; which, he declares, he was 
 sorry were not answered according to his expecta- 
 tion ; and that notwithstanding he was apprehensive 
 occasion had been given by some particulars in the 
 province, for this misunderstanding, yet that he had 
 auly regarded their complaints, and afforded them 
 suitable relief. 
 
 The year 1689 gave rise to the Friends' public 
 school in Philadelphia; which afterwards, in the 
 year 1697, upon the petition of Samuel Carpenter, 
 Edward Shippen, Anthony Morris, James Fox, Da- 
 vid Lloyd, William Southby, and John Jones, in 
 behalf of themselves and others, to Deputy Markham, 
 was first incorporated by charter; and, after that, 
 confirmed by a fresh patent from William Penn, 
 dated the 25th of October, 1701; and also by 
 another, dated the 22d of the fifth month, 1708; 
 whereby the corporation was, " For ever thereafter 
 to consist of fifteen discreet and religious persons, 
 of the people called Quakers, by the name of ' The 
 overseers of the public school, found in Philadel- 
 phia, at the request, cost, and charges of the people 
 called Quakers;' " but its last and present charter, 
 from William Penn, confirming all the preceding 
 charters, and further extending the corporation with 
 larger powers and privileges, &c. is dated the 29th 
 of November, 1711: wherein the overseers, nomi- 
 nated and appointed, were Samuel Carpenter, the 
 elder, Edward Shippen, Griffith Owen, Thomas 
 Story, Anthony Morris, Richard Hill, Isaac Norris, 
 Samuel Preston, Jonathan Dickinson, Nathan Stan- 
 bury, Thomas Masters, Nicholas Wain, Caleb Pu- 
 sey, Rowland Ellis, and James Logan ; by which 
 charter the overseers were afterwards to be chosen 
 by the corporation. 
 
 This was the first institution of the kind in 
 Pennsylvania, intended not only to facilitate the 
 acquisition of the more generally useful parts of 
 knowledge, but to promote a love of more extensive 
 learning. The poorer people were instructed gratis. 
 
 For these laudable purposes, a number of the 
 principal inhabitants of Philadelphia, being Quakers, 
 in July of this year, agreed with George Keith, who 
 then resided at Freehold (now called Monmouth) 
 in New Jersey, to undertake the charge. He ac- 
 cordingly removed to Philadelphia, and was the 
 first master of that school; but continued only about 
 one year. He was a native of Aberdeen, in Scot- 
 land, a man of learning, and had gained a celebrity 
 among the Quakers. He came to East Jersey many 
 years before this time; was afterwards surveyor- 
 general of that division; and, in 1687, he ascer- 
 tained and marked the line of division between 
 East and West Jersey. His salary for officiating 
 in this school was 50/. per annum, with a house for 
 his family to live in, a school-house provided, and 
 the profits of the school beside, for one year. For 
 two years more his school was to be made worth 
 1201. per annum, if he thought fit to stay so long; 
 he was to teach the poor gratis. He continued in 
 this station about one year, and then his usher, 
 Thomas Makin, was, at his desire, appointed to suc- 
 ceed him. 
 
 The terms for teaching at this period appear, oy 
 the following extract from the journals of council. 
 " Tenth month, 26th, 1683, Enoch Flower under- 
 takes to teach school in the town of Philadelphia on 
 the following terms, viz. : 
 
 " To learn to read English, four shillings by the 
 quarter; to write, six shillings by ditto; to read, 
 write, and cast accounts, eight shillings by the 
 quarter: boarding a scholar, that is to say, diet, 
 lodging, washing, and schooling, IQl. for one whole 
 year." 
 
 Perm's difficulties after the revolution in England 
 Disagreement between the province and territories 
 Declaration of the council, and other proceedings 
 relating to the difference Two deputy-governors 
 The proprietor's concern at this difference Fur- 
 ther proceedings of the province A promulgated 
 bill Letter to the proprietary, Sfc. 
 
 It has already been observed that, during most 
 of the time since the proprietary's return to Eng- 
 land, in 1684, much of his public action and 
 service were in that nation; and that his intimacy 
 at court, and friendship with James II., which 
 his great obligation to that royal family, and the 
 situation of his own circumstances, may easily ac- 
 count for, exposed him to many unjust censures; but 
 in the year 1688, upon the change of government, 
 bis affairs there began to have a very different, and 
 more unfavourable aspect. The attempts which 
 had been made by the king, in favour of popery 
 and arbitrary pow er, had occasioned the measures 
 of the revolution, which now began to take place in 
 the government there, by means of the prince of 
 Orange, " who," says Penn's biographer, " landed 
 at Torbay, in Devonshire, on the 5th of November, 
 1688, to the great joy of the English nation. Many 
 of King James's officers and army soon joined the 
 prince; and the king, perceiving the hearts of the 
 people alienated from him, withdrew himself, and 
 went over to France. Hence,' by a convention, 
 called shortly after, the said prince of Orange, and 
 the Princess Mary, his consort, King James's daugh- 
 ter, were declared king and queen of England, c., 
 and were proclaimed on the 13th of February, 
 1688-9. 
 
 " Upon this turn of the times, Penn's late friend- 
 ship at court having rendered him suspected of dis- 
 affection to the present government, ou the 10th of 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 823 
 
 December 1688, when he was walking in White- 
 hall, he was sent for by the lords of the council, 
 hthen sitting; though nothing appeared against 
 him, and he himself assured them, ' That he had 
 done nothing, but what he could answer before God, 
 and all the princes in the world; that he loved his 
 country, and the Protestant religion above his life, 
 and never acted against either ; that all he ever 
 aimed at, in his public endeavours, was no other 
 than what the prince himself had declared for ; that 
 King James was always his friend, and in gratitude, 
 he was the king's, and did ever as much as in him 
 lay, influence him to his true interest.' Notwith- 
 standing they obliged him to give securities for his 
 appearance the first day of the next term, which he 
 did ; and he was then continued on the same secu- 
 rity, to Easter-term following ; on the last day of 
 which, nothing having been laid to his charge, he 
 was cleared in open ( ourt. 
 
 " In the year 1690, he was again brought be- 
 fore the lords of the council, upon an accusation of 
 holding a correspondence with the late King James ; 
 and they requiring sureties for his appearance, he 
 appealed to King William himself ; who after a 
 conference of near two hours, inclined to acquit 
 him, but, to please some of the council, he was held 
 upon bail for a while ; and, in Trinity-term, the 
 same year, was again discharged. 
 
 " He was attacked a third time, and his name 
 inserted in a proclamation, dated July the 18th, 
 1690 ; wherein he, with divers others, to'the number 
 of eighteen, were charged with adhering to the 
 kingdom's enemies; but proof failing respecting 
 him, he was again cleared by order of the King's- 
 bench court, at Westminster, in the last day of 
 Michaelmas-term, 1690. 
 
 " Being now again at liberty, he proposed to go 
 a second time to Pennsylvania, and published pro- 
 posals in print, for another settlement there. He 
 had so far prepared for this transportation that an 
 order for a convoy was granted him by the secretary 
 of state, when his voyage was prevented by a fresh 
 accusation against him, backed with the oath of one 
 William Fuller, a wretch, afterwards by parliament 
 declared a cheat and impostor ; and a warrant was 
 thereupon granted for his apprehension ; which he 
 narrowly escaped, at his return from the funeral of 
 George Fox, the first preacher among the Quakers, 
 on the 16th of January, 1691." 
 
 In a letter to Thomas Lloyd, dated " England, 
 the 14th of June, 1691," he writes as follows : 
 " Dear Friend, 
 
 " My love in the unchangeable truth salutes thee 
 and thine, and the friends and family of God in 
 those parts, desiring your temporal and everlasting 
 welfare, with an unfeigned affection. 
 
 " By this time thou wilt have heard of the re- 
 newal of my troubles, the only let of my return, 
 being in the midst of my preparations, with a great 
 company of adventurers, when they fell upon me. 
 The jealousies of some, and unworthy dealing of 
 others have made way for them ; but under and 
 over it all, the ancient rock has been my shelter and 
 comfort; and I hope yet to see your faces, with our 
 ancient satisfaction. The Lord grant, if it be for 
 his glory, whojse I desire to be, in all conditions ; 
 for this world passeth away, and the form and beauty 
 of it fadeth ; but there are eternal habitations for 
 the faithful; among whom I pray that my lot may 
 be, rather than among the princes of the earth. 
 
 " I hope I need not U'-ge my circumstances to 
 excite thy love care and concern for me and my 
 
 suffering interest in that country. I know thou hast 
 better learned Christ and Cato, if I may so say, and 
 wilt embrace such an opportunity to chuse to express 
 thy friendship and sincerity ; nor is uncertainty and 
 changeableness thy fault; wherefore I will say no 
 more, but desire that my afflictions may cease, if 
 not cure your animosities, or discontents within 
 yourselves, if yet they have continued; and that 
 thou wilt both in government, and to my commis- 
 sioners of property, yield thy assistance all thou 
 canst. By all this God may prepare me to be fitter 
 for future service, even to you there. I ask the 
 people forgiveness for my long stay ; but when I con- 
 sider how much it hap been my great loss, and for 
 an ungrateful generation, it is punishment ! It has 
 been 20.000Z. to my damage in the country, and 
 above 10,OOOZ. here, and to the province 500 families; 
 but the wise God, that can do what he pleases, as 
 well as see what is in man's heart, is able to requite 
 all; and I amperswaded, all shall yet work together 
 for good, in this very thing, if we can overlook all 
 that stands in the way of our views Godward, in 
 public matters. See that all be done prudently and 
 numbly ; and keep down irreverence and looseness, 
 and cherish industry and sobriety. The Lord God 
 Almighty be with you, and amongst you, to his 
 praise and your peace. Salute me to John Simcock, 
 R. Turner, A. Cook, T. Janny, Ph. Pemberton, 
 S. Richardson, W. Yardly, the Welch Friends, and 
 Plymouth Friends, indeed to all of them. 
 
 " Thou hast heard of our great loss of dear John 
 Burnyeat, and Robert Lodge, one in Ireland, and 
 t'other in England, in about the same week; and 
 Robert Barclay, Th. Salthouse, and dearly beloved 
 George Fox since : he died at Henry Gouldney's, 
 by Gracious-street meeting-house ; where he preached 
 his farewell the first-day, and departed the third, 
 at night, between nine and ten. I was with him ; 
 he earnestly recommended to me his love to you all ; 
 and said/ William, mind our poor Friends in Ame- 
 rica;' he died triumphantly over death, very easily 
 foresaw his change; he was buried on the sixth-day ; 
 like a general meeting ; 2000 people at his burial, 
 Friends and others : I was never more public than 
 that day; I felt myself easy; he was got into his 
 Inn, before the storm that is coming overtook him; 
 and that night, very providentially I escaped the mes- 
 senger's hands : I shall add only, that the Friends 
 have had an extraordinary time, this general meet- 
 ing ; so that God supplied that visible loss with his 
 glorious presence. R. Davies there, but not thy 
 brother. In sincere love I bid thee, thy wife and 
 family, and friends farewell, 
 
 " Thy true friend, 
 
 " WILLIAM PENN." 
 
 Though the proprietary had, both by charter 
 and otherwise, endeavoured to connect the province 
 and territories of Pennsylvania, in legislation and 
 government, so as to form one general assembly'; 
 yet the jealousies, and difference of sentiment in 
 some cases, which afterwards arose between the 
 representatives of each part, in their legislative ca- 
 pacity, tended to create separate interests ; and these 
 d'ssensions between them, were frequently the oc- 
 casion of great unea<jiness to him ; whose view was 
 always to keep them united, judging it most for 
 their interest as well as his own. 
 
 The irregularities which ensued, or were at- 
 tempted, in the year 1690, after Blackwell's depar- 
 ture for England, in consequence of this difference, 
 appear by the following declaration of the council, 
 and other public proceedings 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 (L.s.) " By the President and Council of Pennsyl- 
 vania and counties annexed. 
 
 " Present, 
 
 " Thomas Lloyd, President. 
 " John Simcock, Samuel Richardson, 
 
 " William Clark, Griffith Jones, 
 
 " Arthur Cook, Thomas Duckett, 
 
 " William Stockdale, Griffith Owen. 
 
 " William Yardley, 
 
 " Whereas, the provincial council, according to 
 the powers of the present commission of govern- 
 ment, have, at their first sitting, chosen a presi- 
 dent, and have since, in* a legislative council, 
 continued him, till they should see cause to alter 
 their choice ; and having likewise ordered the suc- 
 ceeding councils to be called by him, or, in his 
 absence, by notice sent by six members from this 
 place ; yet, notwithstanding, these members, Wil- 
 liam Clark, Luke Watson, Griffith Jones, John 
 Brinkloe, John Cann, Johannes D'Kaes, did pri- 
 vily meet together, in the couricil-room, upon the 
 21st instant, without signifying the least syllable of 
 their intentions of having a council, either to Tho- 
 mas Lloyd, the elected and continued president, or 
 to any member of the province ; and there in an 
 irregular and undue manner, have presumed to act, 
 as a council, and have issued forth pretended com- 
 missions, for constituting provincial judges, con- 
 trary to the express letter of the laws, and have no- 
 minated some therein, who, under their present 
 circumstances, are unqualified for that station ; as, 
 upon occasion, shall be made appear; and have 
 voted extravagant and contradictory orders. This 
 board, having well considered their disorderly and 
 unprecedented way of meeting, cannot but entirely 
 disallow and disown their so clandestine meeting, 
 to be a council ; for should such a proceeding be in 
 the least countenanced, the consequence thereof 
 would unavoidably introduce a rupture and confusion 
 in the present frame of government: for, by the 
 Bame reason that any six members privately met, 
 without notice had from, or given to, any of the rest, 
 may represent the governor and council in this 
 place, by the same methods, two other six members 
 elsewhere may represent two governors and coun- 
 cils more, at the same time, in this government ; which 
 is an absurdity not to be tolerated. And further, 
 this council being under an obligation of asserting 
 the governor's power and authority, lodged in a re- 
 gular provincial council, and for the undeceiving of 
 many well-minded persons, who otherwise may be 
 abused by their late sitting, have unanimously, by 
 this instrument in writing, declared this to be our 
 sense and judgment, that all entries, orders, and 
 commissions made and given forth by the aforesaid 
 six members, at the council-room, upon the 21st 
 instant, are hereby deemed null, and of no force. 
 Whereof all magistrates, officers, and other persons 
 concerned in this government, are to take notice 
 accordingly. Given at Philadelphia, 25th of the 
 ninth month, 1690. THOMAS LLOYD, President." 
 
 This disagreement appears afterwards to have in- 
 creased, and, in the fore part of the year 1691, pro- 
 ceeded to greater extremes. The following proposals, 
 said to be made to the provincial council by Griffith 
 Jones and William Clark, in behalf, and for the 
 ease and satisfaction of the inhabitants of the three 
 lower counties, or the territories, may further show 
 the views of the members for the said counties, in 
 this affair, viz : 
 
 " I That there be forthwith a writ issued forth, 
 
 for choosing a member of council for the county of 
 Sussex, in the room of Thomas Clifton. 
 
 ' II. That the commissions given out by both 
 councils, for judges, be wholly laid aside; and that 
 the inhabitants of the three lower counties may re- 
 commend to the council two persons to be commis- 
 sionated for judges, to act the next spring, and that 
 to continue no longer. 
 
 " III. That, at the next legislative council, a 
 bill be proposed by the council, to enable the nine 
 members of the lower counties, or any six of them, 
 to appoint three judges to act in that station, in the 
 said three counties, and that there be also three for 
 the province always provided; that the judges do 
 act by the laws of Pennsylvania. 
 
 ' IV. That for the ease of the charge there be a 
 dispensing with the meeting of the assembly, unless 
 it be for the confirming of these alterations. 
 
 ' V. That all other officers be, from time to time, 
 appointed by the said nine members of the three 
 lower counties, or any six of them, to act there; and 
 that no other officers may be imposed upon them. 
 
 ;< VI. That the fairs for Newcastle be confirmed 
 unto them. All which being by you granted, we 
 hope may be a means to keep things quiet ; which 
 shall be diligently endeavoured by your real friends, 
 although otherwise represented or suspected." 
 
 The proprietary, whether to gratify, or indulge the 
 humour of the colony, and thereby induce a coa- 
 lescence of the two parties, or with whatever other 
 design, (which, no doubt, was well intended,) had 
 left to the choice of the council three different me- 
 thods, or modes, of the executive part of govern- 
 ment, viz. either that of the council, of five com- 
 missioners, or of a deputy-governor. This affair, 
 with other matters, being about that time agitated 
 in council, and the province, or the majority, in- 
 clining to the last of these methods, seven members, 
 for the lower counties, viz. William Clark, John 
 Cann, John Brinkloe, John Hill, Richard Halliwell, 
 Albertus Jacobs, and George Martin, drew up and 
 signed a formal protest, or declaration, directed to 
 the members of council, of the province of Penn- 
 sylvania; dated " Philadelphia, the first of the se- 
 cond month, 1691 ;" in which they declared, 
 
 " I. That the mode of the five commissioners was 
 the most agreeable to them, or to the counties which 
 they represented. 
 
 " II. That the commission of the council was the 
 next, though much less convenient, than that of the 
 five commissioners; on account of the encroach- 
 ments thereby made upon their rights and privileges 
 by the province, in imposing officers upon them, 
 without their consent or approbation. 
 
 " III. That the method of a deputy-governor was 
 the most disagreeable and grievous of any ; on ac- 
 count of the choice of all officers being placed in a 
 single person, and the expense or charge of his sup- 
 port : therefore they would not agree to accept of 
 that commission. 
 
 " IV. But that, rather than the country should 
 be without government, they would consent to that 
 of the council; provided no officers whatever were 
 imposed upon any of the three lower counties, with- 
 out the consent of the respective members of coun 
 cil for these counties. 
 
 " V. That they desired to excuse themselves for 
 not agreeing to have these things put to the vote ; 
 which, they said, they had experienced, the mem- 
 bers for the province would scarce ever do, till they 
 were sure it would go against them. 
 
 " VI. That they, in behalf of the lower counties, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 825 
 
 protested against the acceptance of any commission, 
 but that of the five persons, and resolved, that should 
 the province act otherwise, they would govern them- 
 selves by the commission, then in force, till the 
 proprietary's pleasure should be known therein." 
 And thereupon they immediately withdrew their at- 
 tendance. 
 
 What just or sufficient cause they had for this 
 conduct, does not clearly appear : it gave many of 
 the members of the provincial council, as well as 
 the proprietary himself, much concern and unea- 
 siness; and great endeavours were used, and much 
 pains taken by both, to reconcile them; but not with 
 all the desired success : their greatest ostensible ob- 
 jection against this commission of a deputy-gover- 
 nor, which the province most inclined to, appeared 
 to be the expense of his support, and their jealousy 
 of having their officers removed; and, to relieve 
 their apprehensions in these respects, at President 
 Lloyd's request, John Simcock, John Bristow, John 
 Delavall, with David Lloyd, went after them to 
 Newcastle, to endeavour to obtain their return, but 
 in vain. 
 
 Hence, upon the province preferring the choice 
 of a deputy-governor, contrary to the wish of the 
 territories, and Thomas Lloyd being preferred to 
 that office, (which he appears to have accepted with 
 some reluctance,) the proprietary appointed him 
 governor of the province ; and the secretary, Wil- 
 liam Markham, who appears to have joined and 
 retired with the protesting members in their abrupt 
 separation, was appointed over the lower counties, 
 under certain restrictions. 
 
 This division of the legislature appears to have 
 been much against the proprietary's mind ; who 
 seems to have apprehended dangerous, if not fatal 
 consequences from it. He blamed, or, at IcasX, ap- 
 peared displeased with Thomas Lloyd's conduct in 
 accepting of a partial choice, or that of the province 
 only, as if it were in his power to have prevented 
 this division ; but the provincial council excused 
 him in a letter to the proprietary, and entirely ex- 
 culpated him from being accessary to, or in any 
 manner promoting this disagreement; throwing the 
 whole blame on the territory men : they declared, 
 that, instead of being a gainer by any public offices, 
 which he had held, Thomas Lloyd had wasted, or 
 considerably injured his estate 'thereby ; that, as he 
 was well known to be a lover and promoter of con- 
 cord and union, and preferred a private life, so, 
 " He never accepted of that commission, but by the 
 importunity of his friends, or, at the earnest re- 
 quest of the province itself." This letter was 
 signed by Arthur Cook, John Simcock, Samuel 
 Richardson, James Fox, George Murrie, and Samuel 
 Carpenter. 
 
 The province and territories continued in this 
 manner, about two years ; or, till the arrival of 
 Governor Fletcher of New York, in April 1693 ; and 
 though they managed better in this situation than 
 the proprietary at first seems to have expected 
 from it, and with more harmony than they had done 
 for some time before ; nevertheless, it will hereafter 
 appear that the continued refractoriness of the terri- 
 tories, in their refusing to accept of the new char- 
 ter, in 1701, was at length the occasion of their 
 total separation from the province in legislation. 
 
 The revolution and measures taken by the pro- 
 vince, in consequence of this conduct of the territo- 
 ries, with the form of the legislative proceeding,inthe 
 deputyship of Governoi Lloyd, which commenced 
 about May 1691, and under the charter then in 
 
 force are, in part, exhibited by the following pro- 
 mulgated bills, which appear to have been passed 
 into laws, in the same year. 
 
 " The deputy-governor and freemen of the pro- 
 vince of Pennsylvania, in council met at Philadel- 
 phia, on the 17th day of the sixth month, 1691, 
 have prepared and published, according to law and 
 charter, these following bills, for the notice and 
 concurrence of the freemen in assembly to meet, the 
 tenth day of the seventh month next, at Philadel- 
 phia aforesaid, in the form and style of laws, then 
 and there to be confirmed, amended, or rejected, as 
 the general assembly in their wisdom shall see 
 meet. 
 
 " At an assembly held at Philadelphia, the tenth 
 day of the seventh month, anno dom. 1691. 
 
 " Whereas, by an act of general assembly held at 
 Chester, alias Upland, in the tenth month, 1682, 
 it is, among other things, enacted by the proprie- 
 tary and governor of this province of Pennsylvania, 
 with the advice and consent of the deputies of the 
 freemen of the same province and counties annexed, 
 in the said assembly met, that the counties of New- 
 castle, Jones and Whorekills, alias Deal, should 
 be annexed, and are thereby annexed, unto the 
 province of Pennsylvania, as of the proper territory 
 thereof; and the people therein should be governed 
 by the same laws, and enjoy the same privileges, 
 in all respects, as the inhabitants of Pennsylvania 
 did, or should, enjoy from time to time, as by the 
 same act, more at large appears : but, lest the said 
 proprietary and freemen of the said province should, 
 by the said union, be deprived of the immunities 
 and powers then before invested in them, apart 
 from the said annexed counties, by virtue of the 
 king's letters patent, and first charter of liberties, 
 or should otherwise be impeded or obstructed, in 
 any act of government, which might relate to the 
 public good, justice, peace and safety of the said 
 province, which might not so immediately concern 
 the territories, it was at the same general assembly, 
 further enacted, that all matters and things, not 
 therein provided for, which should, or might con- 
 cern the public good, justice, peace and safety of 
 the said province, and the raising and imposing 
 tax"es, customs, duties, or charges whatsoever, should 
 be, and are, thereby referred to the order, prudence 
 and determination of the governor and freemen of 
 the said province, from time to time ; which said 
 laws have been sithence continued in, and by, the 
 succeeding general assemblies. Now, for as much 
 as the present state and emergency of this govern- 
 ment requires some speedy provision, for the sup- 
 port and safety thereof, and for the better establish- 
 ing the justice and peace of the same, by reason of 
 the breach, that the representatives of the said an- 
 nexed counties have lately made, in wilfully absent- 
 ing themselves from their charteral attendance in 
 the last legislative council and assembly, and de- 
 clining their other incumbent duties and services to 
 the present constitutions of this province ; as also, 
 in opposing and tumultuously preventing the elec- 
 tion of new members to supply the neglect of the 
 said absenting representatives, withstanding all pro- 
 vincial acts of government, and denying the powers 
 of the same: therefore, for preventing all doubts 
 and scruples concerning the meeting, sitting and 
 proceeding of this present general assembly, ' Be 
 it declared and enacted,' and it is declared and en- 
 acted by the deputy-governor, with the assent of 
 the representatives of the freemen of the said pro- 
 vince, in general assembly met, by the king and 
 
826 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 queen's authority, that the meetings of council, 
 since the dissent and refusal aforesaid, of the repre 
 sentatives of the said annexed counties, and the 
 meetings of the deputy-governor and representa 
 tives of the province, in provincial council and as> 
 sembly met, on the tenth day of the third month 
 last past, at Philadelphia, and now sitting in this 
 present general assembly, are the provincial counci" 
 and assembly of this province of Pennsylvania ; 
 and are hereby declared, enacted and adjudged so 
 to be, to all intents, constructions and purposes, 
 notwithstanding the absence of the representatives 
 of the said counties annexed. And. for removing 
 all objections that may arise concerning the vali- 
 dity, force and continuation of the laws of this go- 
 vernment, ' be it further enacted, by the authority 
 aforesaid,' that all these laws, that were made, con- 
 tinued and stood unrepealed at the last general as 
 sembly, held at Newcastle, in the year 1690, are 
 hereby declared and enacted to stand in force, and 
 be continued respectively, until the publication of 
 other laws, which shall be made by the next gene- 
 ral assembly of this province. Ex per David Lloyd, 
 Cl. Council." 
 
 As this division had occasioned much anxiety to 
 the proprietary, of which both parties were sensi- 
 ble, so to relieve him, at least in part, from his ap- 
 prehensions and uneasiness on that account, in the 
 fore part of the year 1692, the two deputies and their 
 councils unitedly wrote to him the following letter : 
 From the council-room at Philadelphia, the 6th 
 of the second month, 1692. 
 
 " Worthy Governor, 
 
 " These few lines we hope may much ease thy 
 mind in reference to thy exercises, concerning the 
 affairs of thy government here, by informing thee, 
 that, with unanimous accord, we rest satisfied with 
 thy two deputations, sent for executive government 
 of the province, and counties annexed : and thy 
 deputies concurring amicably at this time, to act 
 as one general government, in legislation, we have 
 proceeded in the preparing jointly some few bills; 
 that thereby our present united actings may be as 
 well published, as the respective services of the go- 
 vernment answered. What particular transactions 
 of moment, which have occurred upon our calm 
 debates of the choice of three, we refer to the minutes 
 for thy satisfaction. We heartily wish thee well; 
 and, with longing expectations, desire thy speedy 
 return unto us ; where, we doubt not, but thou wilt 
 find a most grateful reception and better face of 
 affairs, than may seem to thee there, at this dis- 
 tance : so bidding thee adieu, at this time we remain, 
 " Thy faithful and well-wishing friends, 
 " THOMAS LLOYD, 
 " WILLIAM MARKHAM. 
 
 " Arthur Cook, John Cann, Jos. Growdon, John 
 Delavall, Rich. Halliwell, Griffith Owen, George 
 Martin, Win. Jenkins, John Bristow, Alburtus 
 Jacobs, Hugh Roberts, Sa. Gray, Samuel Lewis, 
 Richard Wilson, William Biles." 
 
 Schism and separation between George Keith and the 
 Quakers His conduct afterwards Some judicial 
 proceedings against him, 8fc. The magistrates' de- 
 claration of the reasons for these proceedings Penn 
 depriaed of the government by King William and 
 Queen Mary Their commission to Fletcher, gover- 
 nor of New York Fletcher's letter to Deputy Lloyd. 
 
 In the year 1691 an affair happened among the 
 Quakers, in this part of the world, which gave them 
 much uneasiness and trouble in their religious ca- 
 
 pacity, more especially in this province, and the 
 neighbouring places. This was the difference and 
 separation between them and George Keith befox; 
 mentioned. He had been an eminent preacher and 
 writer among them for many years ; and had pul - 
 lished several well-written treatises in defence of 
 their religious principles, yet extant. He was a 
 man of quick natural parts, and considerable lite- 
 rary abilities; acute in argument, and very ready 
 and able in logical disputations, and nice distinctions, 
 on theological subjects; but was said to be of an 
 irritable temper, and overbearing disposition; not 
 sufficiently indued with the moderation and charity 
 that is the distinguishing characteristic of true 
 Christianity: of which he himself had not only made 
 strong profession, but also, in his younger years, 
 as appears by his writings, had a good understand- 
 ing. His great confidence in his own superior abi- 
 lities seems to have been one, if not the chief in- 
 troductory cause of this unhappy dispute. He is 
 said to have had too much virulence in argument 
 and disputation on religioiis points of controversy, 
 and sometimes to have exhibited an unbecoming 
 vanity on gaining any advantage over his oppo- 
 nents, even prior to the schism between him and 
 his friends: for having, some time before, been on 
 a visit to New England, he is represented as having 
 indulged his natural propensity, among the preach- 
 ers and inhabitants there, in a very extravagant 
 manner: which disposition of mind, from that time 
 forward, appeared to have so far got the ascendancy 
 over him, that, on his return, he began to exhibit 
 the same, even among his friends, beginning with 
 finding fault, proposing and urging new regulations, 
 in the society, in respect of the discipline of it, and 
 complaining, " There was too great a slackness 
 therein." Upon his friends not readily joining 
 with him and his proposals, in the manner he ex- 
 pected, he became still more captious, and more 
 disposed to seek matters of reproach and offence 
 against many in the society, and to make the worst 
 of them; charging some of his friends, who were 
 generally well esteemed and approved ministers, 
 with preaching false doctrine ; and it is said, even 
 n points contrary to what himself had formerly held 
 ind declared in his writings, in defence of the 
 Quakers and their principles. He found fault with 
 tiis friends being in the magistracy, and their exe- 
 cuting the penal laws against malefactors, as being 
 'nconsistent with their religious- profession ; and, 
 n short, contended that he and such as joined w j;h 
 lim, were the true Quakers, and all the rest, who 
 opposed him, were apostates. 
 
 These were the principal allegations, which, in 
 the beginning of the dispute, he appears to have 
 made against the Quakers. The principal ermrs, 
 f not the whole, with which we find him charged by 
 ,hem, at that time, appear to be his over-bearing 
 emper, and unchristian disposition of mind, in 
 Crossly vilifying and disparaging certain members 
 )f the society, who were universally and highly ap- 
 mived among them, and entirely rejecting their 
 advice and judgment; the consequence of an over- 
 eated and intemperate zeal: which, at last, pro- 
 ceeded so far as to occasion such a breach, that, on 
 he 20th of June, 1692, " a declaration, or testimony 
 if denial," was drawn up against him, at a meeting 
 if the ministers of the society at Philadelphia: 
 wherein both he and his conduct were publicly dis- 
 wned by them. This declaration was confirmed 
 t the next following general yearly meeting, held 
 at Burlington, the 7th of September. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 827 
 
 He drew off a large number of people with him 
 tome of considerable account, in the society; an 
 set up separate meetings, in several places. Thes 
 called themselves Christian Quakers and Friends 
 boasted of their large numbers, and looked upor 
 the rest as apostates; many books were written 
 and much altercation and dispute ensued, on bot 
 sides 
 
 He appealed, or complained, to the yearly meet 
 ing of the society, in London, against the Quaker 
 of Pennsylvania, who had disowned him, and ap 
 peared there in person; where he was confronte< 
 by divers from the province. But, in this place, i 
 is said, his passion and violence so far prevailec 
 over him, and his demeanour was so indecorous ati< 
 outrageous, that notwithstanding all possible en 
 deavours for a reconciliation, his denial was there 
 finally confirmed. 
 
 He thenceforward became a public and bitter 
 enemy, as far as in him lay, against the Quakers, 
 in general; preaching and writing against them 
 with all imaginable virulency : in which he appeared 
 afterwards to be employed by their adversaries, for 
 that purpose ; for having joined with the episcopal 
 clergy in England, and served there for some time, 
 as a vicar, ordained by the bishop of London, he 
 afterwards returned to America; where, as a cler- 
 gyman, in orders, he officiated in his new function 
 for about twelve months ; and, having there given 
 the Quakers all the annoyance in his power, he re- 
 turned again to England by way of Virginia. In 
 this visit, it is said, he was generally slighted, both 
 by those who before had been his adherents, and 
 others ; and that his conduct was so glaringly in- 
 consistent with his former pretensions, and his be- 
 haviour towards the Quakers so manifestly arising 
 from a malignant disposition of mind, and disap- 
 pointed malice, that notwithstanding his superior 
 abilities, he was universally despised. 
 
 After his return to England, he was fixed in a 
 benefice in Sussex ; and continued to write against 
 his former friends, as a bitter enemy ; but, as far as 
 appears, with a sinking reputation. At last, on his 
 death-bed, from a well authenticated account, it is 
 asserted, he thus expressed himself: " I wish I had 
 died when I was a Quaker; for then I am sure it 
 would have been well with my soul." 
 
 This schism made a great disturbance in the pro- 
 vince for a time, and in some other places, among 
 the Quakers; yet many, or the major part, of those 
 persons, who had thus separated themselves, through 
 the conduct of this person, are said to have re- 
 turned soon after to the society. 
 
 But because Keith had, by abusive language and 
 printed publications, vilifying several persons in the 
 magistracy, drawn upon himself some judicial pro- 
 ceedings ; some persons have been disposed to 
 charge the Quakers " with persecution for religion ;" 
 and as this appears to be the only case, in which 
 their enemies pretend to have just ground to accuse 
 them of this evil, we shall therefore endeavour to 
 lay before the reader such an account of this trans- 
 action, as the acccounts remaining of it will permit. 
 In the beginning of the year 1691, a person named 
 
 gistrates who granted this warrant being Quakers, 
 George Keith, and his party, soon after took occa- 
 sion from thence to represent it as inconsistent with 
 their principles against fighting. He called Tho- 
 mas Lloyd, the deputy-governor, who was ac- 
 counted a person of a mild temper and deportment, 
 good sense, and umblemished character, and whose 
 unwearied endeavours to serve him, are said to have 
 merited a different treatment, " An impudent man, 
 and a pitiful governor;" asking him, " Why he 
 did not send him to gaol ?" and telling him, " His 
 back had long itched for a whipping ; and that he 
 would print and expose them all over America, if 
 not over Europe ;" and one of the magistrates, who 
 was well known to be a modest and peaceable man, 
 he opprobriously called, " An impudent rascal." 
 
 In addition to this, he had published several 
 virulent pieces ; one of which indecently reflected 
 on the above-mentioned transaction, and on several 
 of the principal magistrates in their judicial capa- 
 city ; and thereby lessening the authority of the 
 magistracy, in the view of the lower sort of people, 
 
 ho began thereupon to take greater liberties ; 
 wherefore the printers, William Bradford and 
 John M'Comb, who had published it, were by a 
 
 arrant from five magistrates, viz. Arthur Cook, 
 Samuel Jenings, Samuel Richardson, Humphrey 
 Vlurray and Robert Ewer, taken up, examined, and 
 upon their contemptuous behaviour to the court and 
 "ustices in their examination, and upon their refusal 
 o give security, to answer at court, the usual prac- 
 ,ice in all similar occasions, they were committed; 
 and though they were under no confinement, being 
 sntirely at large, on their bare word only, yet, 
 which seems to have been done by them, to answer 
 ome particular design) at a certain time, having 
 Dccasion to sign a paper, when they could not be 
 admitted into the prison itself, it is said, they got 
 nto the entry of it, and there dated, and signed the 
 aid paper, as from the prison. But they were soon 
 lischarged, without being brought to a trial. 
 
 George Keith and Thomas Budd were also pre- 
 ented by the grand jury of Philadelphia, as authors 
 if another book, of the like tendency, in the follow- 
 ng words, viz. " We, of the grand jury, do present 
 ieorge Keith and Thomas Budd, as authors of a 
 )ook, entitled, * The plea of the innocent,' where 
 n page third, about the latter end of the same, they, 
 lie said George K^ith and Thomas Budd, defam- 
 ngly accused Samuel Jenings, he being a judge 
 nd a magistrate of this province, of being too high 
 nd imperious in worldly courts, calling him impu- 
 ent, presumptuous and insolent man, greatly ex- 
 osing his reputation, and of an ill precedent, and 
 ontrary to the law, in that case made and pro- 
 ided." 
 
 The lenity of the magistracy is said to have been 
 ery remarkable towards the actions and behaviour 
 fall these people, when compared with the provoca- 
 ons given ; which, by apparent design, had not only 
 een, but also still continued to be, so extremely 
 otorious and abusive, as well as derogatory to the 
 rincipal persons in authority, in their judicial ca- 
 >acity, that, it is said, the rabble became greatly 
 
 Babit, with some others, stole a small sloop from a | encouraged thereby, to despise and inveigh against 
 wharf in Philadelphia ; and in going down the river I the acts of government, and to render it more and 
 with it, committed many robberies ; of which intel- more difficult to bring offenders to justice ; it was, 
 ligence being early given to the magistrates, three therefore, thought proper that this presentment 
 of them gave out a warrant, in the nature of a hue ! should be prosecuted ; so the matter was brought to 
 and cry to take them, in order to bring them to a I trial, and the parties fined 5/. each; but the fines 
 legal trial and punishment; and by virtue of which j were never exacted. 
 they were taken, and brought to justice. The uui- j All possible art and means were said to be used, 
 
828 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 by the enemies to the Quakers, the disaffected to 
 the administration, and the more libertine part of 
 the people, to magnify these judicial proceedings, 
 and to represent them as being on a religious ac- 
 count; and with great assiduity and artifice, they 
 were by these propagated as such, both at home and 
 abroad ; upon which the magistrates published the 
 reasons of iheir conduct, in the following paper, viz : 
 " At a private sessions held for the county of Phi- 
 ladelphia, the '25th of the sixth month, 1692, before 
 Arthur Cook, Samuel Jenings, Samuel Richardson, 
 Humphrey Murray, Anthony Morris, Robert Ewer, 
 justices ol the county. 
 
 " Whereas the government of this province being, 
 by the late king of England's peculiar favour, vested, 
 and since continued, in Governor Penn, who thought 
 fit to make his, and our worthy friend, Thomas 
 Lloyd, his deputy-governor, by, and under whom 
 the magistrates do act, in the government ; and 
 whereas it hath been proved before us, that George 
 Keith, being a resident here, did, contrary to his 
 duty, publicly revile the said deputy-governor, by 
 calling him an impudent man, telling him, ' He 
 was not fit to be a governor, and that his name 
 would stink;" with many other slighting and abu- 
 sive expressions, both to him and the magistrates ; 
 (and he that useth such exorbitancy of speech to- 
 wards our said governor may be supposed will easily 
 dare to call the members of council and magistrates 
 impudent rascals, as he hath lately called one, in an 
 open assembly, that was constituted by the proprie- 
 tary to be a magistrate), and he also charges the 
 magistrates, who are ministers here, with engrossing 
 the magisterial power into their hands, that they 
 might usurp authority over him; saying also, ' He 
 hoped in God he should shortly see their power 
 taken from them ;' all which he acted in an indecent 
 manner. 
 
 " And further, the said George Keith, with seve- 
 ral of his adherents, having, some few days since, 
 with unusual insolence, by a printed sheet, called 
 ' An appeal,' &c. traduced and vilely misrepresented 
 the industry, care, readiness, and vigilance of some 
 magistrates and others here, in their late proceed- 
 ings against the privateers, Babit and his crew, in 
 order to bring them to condign punishment ; whereby 
 to discourage such attempts for the future; and 
 have thereby also defamed and arraigned the deter- 
 minations of the principal judicature, against mur- 
 derers; and not only so, but also by wrong insinua- 
 tions, have laboured to possess the readers of their 
 pamphlet, that it is inconsistent for those who are 
 ministers of the Gospel to act as magistrates; which, 
 if granted, will render our said proprietary incapa- 
 ble of the powers given him by the said king's let- 
 ters patent; and so prostitute the validity of every 
 act of government, more especially in the executive 
 part thereof, to the courtesy and censure of all fac- 
 tious spirits, and male-contents, under the same. 
 
 " Now, forasmuch as we, as well as others, have 
 born, and still do patiently endure, the said George 
 Keith and his adherents, in their many persona" 
 reflections against us, and their gross revilings of our 
 religious society, yet we cannot without the violation 
 of our trust to the king and government, as also to 
 the inhabitants of this government, pass by or con^ 
 nive at such part of the said pamphlet and speeches 
 that have a tendency to sedition and disturbance o 
 the peace, as also to the subversion of the presen 
 government, or to the aspersion of the magistrate 1 
 thereof. 
 
 " Therefore, for the undeceiving of all people, we 
 
 have thought fit, by this public writing, not only to 
 signify that our procedure against the persons now 
 in the sheriff's custody, as well as what we intend 
 against others concerned, (in its proper place) 
 espects only that part of the said printed sheet 
 vhich appears to have the tendency aforesaid, and 
 not any part relating to differences in religion ; but 
 also these are to caution such who are well affected 
 :o the security, peace, and lejjal administration of 
 ustice in this place, that they give no countenance 
 o any revilers or contemners of authority, magi*- 
 rates or magistracy ; as also to warn all other 
 >ersons that they forbear the further publishing 
 and spreading of the said pamphlets, as they will 
 answer the contrary at their peril. 
 
 " Given under our hands, and seal of the county, 
 he day, year, and place, aforesaid." 
 
 This affair of George Keith gave much concern 
 o Penn, who appeared at first rather to have cen- 
 ured part of these proceedings against him ; whom 
 e regarded as his old friend, more especially his 
 .rial, at which by some of his letters, he appeared 
 o be much displeased : but after he was made fully 
 icquainted with the nature and circumstances of 
 he whole transaction, and was convinced of George 
 ieith's change of conduct, he appears to have been 
 as active as others in endeavouring to clear the 
 society from the imputation of being the cause of the 
 unhappy schism. But the difference between the 
 province and territories continued still much to affect 
 lira, and to increase his apprehensions of very dis- 
 agreeable consequences, as appears by his manner 
 of writing to some of the principal persons in the 
 administration about this time. 
 
 It cannot reasonably be imagined that the court 
 of King William could be very favourably disposed 
 to a person, who had been so much in the friend- 
 ship of the late king; and although King William 
 himself seems to have had a great regard for him, 
 and although his known general great humanity 
 and Christian spirit, rendered him respected among 
 men of opposite principles, both in religion and 
 politics ; yet his enemies, when his young colony 
 most needed his presence, managed in the year 
 1692 to deprive him of the gorernment of Penn- 
 sylvania and the territories ; the king granting the 
 following commission to Benjamin Fletcher, Go- 
 vernor of New York, dated October the 21st, 1692, 
 to take them under his government. ' 
 
 " William and Mary, by the grace of God, King 
 and Queen of England, Scotland, France, and 
 Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. 
 
 " To aur trusty and well-beloved Benjamin 
 Fletcher, Esquire, our Captain-general and Com- 
 mander-in-chief of our province of New York, and 
 the territories depending thereon, in America, 
 greeting : 
 
 " Whereas, by our commission, under our great 
 seal of England, bearing date the eighteenth day of 
 March, in the fourth year of our reign, we have 
 constituted and appointed ydu, the said Benjamin 
 Fletcher, to be our captain-general and governur- 
 in-chief, in and over our province of New Y'ork, 
 and the dependencies thereon in America ; and have 
 thereby granted unto you full power and authority, 
 with the advice and consent of our council, as need 
 shall require, to summon and call general assem- 
 blies of the inhabitants, beincr freeholders within the 
 said province, according to the usage of the pro- 
 vince of New York; and that the persons there- 
 upon duly elected by the major part of the free- 
 holders of the respective counties and places, and so 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 829 
 
 returned, aiid having before their sitting taken the 
 oaths appointed by act of parliament, to be taken 
 instead of the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, 
 and subscribed the test; and without taking and 
 subscribing whereof none shall be capable of sitting, 
 though elected, shall be called the general assembly 
 of that our said province, and have thereby granted 
 unto you, the said Benjamin Fletcher, by and with 
 the consent of our said council and assembly, or the 
 major part of them, full power and authority to 
 make, constitute, and ordain laws, statutes, and 
 ordinances for the public peace, welfare, and good 
 government of our said province, and of the people 
 and inhabitants thereof; which said laws, statutes, 
 and ordinances are to be, as near as may be, agree- 
 able to the laws and statutes of this our kingdom of 
 England ; provided that all such laws, statutes, and 
 ordinances be, within three months or sooner after 
 the making thereof, transmitted unto us, under our 
 seal of New York, for our approbation or disallow- 
 ance of the same ; and in case any, or all of them, 
 not before confirmed by us, shall at any time be 
 disallowed and not approved, and so signified by us, 
 our heirs and successors, under our or their sign 
 manual or signet, or by order of our or their 
 privy-council unto you, the said Benjamin Fletcher, 
 or to the commander-in-chief of the province of 
 New York, for the time being, then such and so 
 many of them as shall be so disallowed and not ap- 
 proved, shall from thenceforth cease, determine, and 
 become utterly void, and of none effect : and to the 
 end that nothing may be passed or done by our said 
 council and assembly to the prejudice of us, our 
 heirs, and successors, we have hereby willed and 
 ordained that you, the said Benjamin Fletcher, shall 
 have and enjoy one negative voice in the making 
 and passing of all laws, statutes, and ordinances, as 
 aforesaid ; and that you shall and may, from time 
 to time, as you shall judge it necessary, adjourn, 
 prorogue, and dissolve all general assemblies 
 aforesaid. 
 
 " We, therefore, reposing special trust and con- 
 fidence in tlie prudence, courage, and loyalty of 
 you, the said Benjamin Fletcher, to be our captain- 
 general and governor-in-rhief, in and over our pro- 
 vince of Pennsylvania, and in the country of New- 
 castle, and all the tracts of land depending thereon 
 in America, and we do accordingly, by these pre- 
 sents, command and require you to take the said 
 province and country under your government, and 
 for the better ordering, governing, and ruling over 
 said province and country, and the tracts and terri- 
 tories depending thereon, we do hereby give and 
 grant unto you, the said Benjamin Fletcher, all and 
 every the like powers and authorities, as in our said 
 commission, bearing date the eighteenth day of 
 March, in the fourth year of our reign, are given, 
 granted, and appointed you, for the ruling and 
 governing our province of New York, to be exer- 
 cised in like manner by you, the said Benjamin 
 Fletcher, in and over our said province of Penn 
 sylvania, and the country of Newcastle, and the 
 territories and tracts of land, depending thereon in 
 America." 
 
 Governor Fletcher, who received this commis- 
 sion in the commencement of 1693, immediately 
 repaired to his new government, having first notified 
 his intention by the following letter. 
 
 " To the honourable Thomas Lloyd, Esq., de- 
 puty-governor of Pennsylvania. 
 
 " Sir, Having received their majesties' com' 
 mission, under the great seal, for the government o 
 
 Pennsylvania, and being required to make a speedy 
 epair to that province, I think fit to acquaint you, 
 hat I propose to begin my journey from home, on 
 Monday, the 24th instant, and desire the council, 
 and principal freeholders may have notice; that 
 .heir majesties' commands may be communicated 
 o them, so soon as I arrive, which, I hope, may be 
 the '29th, " I am, Sir, your very loving friend, 
 
 " BENJAMIN FLETCHER. 
 " New York, April the 19th, 1693." 
 Governor Fletcher arrives at Philadelphia Council*! 
 address to the governor Proceedings of the gover- 
 nor and assembly, fyc. The defence of Albany 
 Assembly's address to the governor, with his answer 
 The assembly's remonstrance, u-ith other proceed- 
 ings A law for the support nf government, fyc. 
 Assembly's petition to the governor Resolve of the 
 assembly, and protest of some of its members Go- 
 vernor t Fletcher dissolves the assembly, appoints 
 William Markham his deputy, and departs for New 
 York Death of the former deputy-governor, Tho- 
 mas Lloyd. 
 
 (1693.) Colonel Fletcher arrived at Philadelphia 
 with more of ceremony than had been usually seen 
 before in Pennsylvania; and the persons in the 
 present administration appear to have given up the 
 government to him, without any notification, or 
 order to them, either from the crown, or the proprie- 
 tary ; for which, afterwards, in a letter to certain of 
 them, Penn seems to have blamed their conduct, 
 pecially that of his Deputy Lloyd; but yet con- 
 ceiving they intended for the best, he excused them. 
 He likewise wrote to Fletcher himself, cautioning 
 him to beware of meddling with it, in the present 
 circumstances, and reminding him of his particular 
 obligation to him. 
 
 This the proprietary having mentioned in a letter 
 o his friends in the province; the following an- 
 swer, respecting the governor of New York, was 
 returned by six of them, viz. Arthur Cook, John 
 Simcock, James Fox, Samuel Richardson, George 
 Murrie, and Samuel Carpenter, dated Philadelphia, 
 the 18th of January, 1694, " That if the said letter 
 (to Fletcher) had come in time (as we are informed), 
 be would hardly have proceeded so far in taking this 
 government; and, therefore, we could hare wished 
 t had come sooner, if haply it had been a means to 
 prevent so great trouble and loss to thee and us; 
 who are (as we stand related) great sharers with 
 thee, in all things tending to the hurt of the pro- 
 ice." 
 
 Governor Fletcher, soon after his arrival, called 
 an assembly : prior to which, a dispute, arising 
 between him and the council, respecting the 
 mode of electing and convening them, occasioned 
 the following address to him, from the members of 
 the council, delivered on the 29th of April, viz : 
 
 " To Benjamin Fletcher, captain-general, and 
 governor-in-chief," &c. 
 
 " The humble address of the freemen of the pro- 
 vince of Pennsylvania, presented by their delegates, 
 members of the provincial council, sheweth, 
 
 " That, whereas the late King Charles II., in the 
 33d year of his reign, by letters patent, under the 
 great seal of England, did, for the consideration 
 therein mentioned, grant unto William Penn and 
 his assigns, this colony, or tract of land, erecting 
 the same into a province, calling it Pennsylvania, 
 and constituting the said William Penn absolute 
 proprietary of the said province, saving (among 
 other things) the sovereignty thereof, with power 
 also, by virtue of the said royal charter, to the said 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 William Penn, his deputies and lieutenants, to 
 make laws, with the advice and assent of the free- 
 men of the said province, or the greatest part of 
 them, or of their delegates, or deputies, whom, 
 for the enacting of the said laws, wnen, as often as 
 need required, he, the said William Penn, should 
 assemble, in such sort, as to him should seem best, 
 with divers other great powers, immunities and pri- 
 vileges, in the same charter contained, which, rela- 
 tion being thereunto had, may more at large appear. 
 
 " By virtue, and in pursuance whereof the said 
 proprietary, William Penn, with the advice and 
 consent of the freemen of this province, in general 
 assembly met, at Philadelphia (in 1683), did enact, 
 that the time for the meeting of the freemen, to 
 choose their deputies, to represent them in provin- 
 cial council, and general assembly, should be on 
 the 10th day of the first month, yearly ; and the 
 members chosen for the provincial council (consist- 
 ing of three persons out of each county), should give 
 their attendance within twenty days after election, 
 in order to propose bills ; and the members of as- 
 sembly, being six out of each county, should meet 
 on the tenth of the third month, called May, yearly, 
 in order to pass those proposed bills into laws ; but 
 in case any of the said members should either be of 
 ill fame, or wilfully absent from their service, or 
 happen to die. it is provided by another law (made 
 in 1684), that it shall be lawful for the proprietary 
 and governor, within ten days after knowledge of 
 the same, to issue out a writ to the sheriff of the 
 county, for which the party was chosen immediately 
 to summon the freemen to elect another member, &c. 
 
 " Now, forasmuch as the present emergency of 
 affairs in this province may require a general as- 
 sembly to be speedily called, and since we conceive 
 it hath pleased the king and queen so far to coun- 
 tenance our laws and constitution as to direct the 
 present governancy to rule thereby, until the laws 
 be duly made, to alter or amend the same ; 
 
 " We therefore earnestly desire, that no other 
 measures may be taken for electing, or convening, 
 cur legislative power, than our recited laws and con- 
 stitutions of this government prescribe, the rather 
 for that the said king did, by his letters patent, en- 
 join, require, and command, that the laws made, as 
 aforesaid, should be most absolute and available in 
 law, and that all the liege people and subjects of 
 the said late king, his heirs and successors, should 
 observe and keep the same inviolable in these parts. 
 Joseph Growdon, John Bristow, John Delavall, 
 John Simcock, Hugh Roberts, Samuel Lewis, Ri- 
 chard Hough." 
 
 The assembly, being met on the 16th of May, 
 presented their speaker, Joseph Growdon, to the 
 governor for his approbation ; who being accepted, 
 the oaths and tests were presented to the whole house, 
 in the manner of other governments, under the im- 
 mediate administration of the crown: but some of 
 the members being scrupulous of taking oaths, and 
 refusing to be sworn, were indulged with subscrib- 
 ing to the declarations and professions, rrentioned 
 in the act of parliament, for liberty of conscience, 
 made in the first year of King William and Queen 
 Mary. This the governor told them was an act of 
 grace, and not of right, so as to be drawn into prece- 
 dent in future. 
 
 It does not appear that either the proprietary, or 
 the people of Pennsylvania, had forfeited those rights 
 and privileges, whose enjoyment had been the com- 
 pact of their settlement of the province; of which 
 privileges, those which respected their religious or 
 
 conscientious scruples were the chief; but the con- 
 trary rather is manifest. For, notwithstanding what 
 was alleged for depriving the proprietary of the 
 government, it was well known that the suspicion 
 of his adhering too much to King James was 
 the chief, if not the only cause for rendering him 
 incapable of attending so properly to it, as it seemed 
 at that time to require : but nothing was ever proved 
 to confirm what was alleged against him, in that 
 respect ; though it injured him so far as to oblige 
 him for a time to secrete himself, and to be ab- 
 sent too long from his province ; from which some 
 disorders occurred, that in all pobability would other- 
 wise have been prevented ; but none of such mag- 
 nitude as to prevent the regular administration of 
 justice, as seems to have been alleged by the ene- 
 mies of the prosperity of the province ; much less 
 to give just occasion for depriving the colonists of 
 their dearly bought rights and privileges, granted 
 by charter, confirmed by laws, and familiarized by 
 custom ; though it might be called a favour to enjoy 
 them where power alone has the rule, without having 
 any regard to justice. For notwithstanding the 
 governor was changed, yet it was presumed the 
 government, or constitution, was not to be violated 
 or altered, and that the inhabitants of Pennsylvania 
 had as just a right to be governed according to the 
 usages of Pennsylvania, and their own laws then in 
 force, as those of New York had to be governed 
 according to the usage of that province, though their 
 usages were different, so long as justice was equally 
 well administered by the former, as by the latter, 
 and in a manner more agreeable to them. 
 
 The assembly, however, in consideration of the 
 present circumstances of affairs, thought it most 
 prudent to submit, though not consistent with a pri- 
 vilege, to which, in their apprehension, they had a 
 right, and below the justice of their claim; and, for 
 the present, acknowledged the same as an act of grace 
 and favour proceeding from the justice and kindness 
 of the governor. 
 
 The assembly being qualified, the governor com- 
 municated to them a letter, which he had received 
 in the last year from the queen, setting forth, 
 that the expense for the preservation and defence of 
 Albany against the French, had been intolerable 
 to the inhabitants there ; and that, as it was a fron- 
 tier by which several of the other colonies were in 
 some measure defended, it was thought reasonable 
 that those colonies should assist the 'government of 
 New York in the maintenance and defence of it 
 during the war. 
 
 The first question put by the assembly after their 
 meeting, was, " How far the laws of the province, 
 and constitution of the government, founded on the 
 powers of the king's letters patent to the proprietary, 
 William Penn, were in force ?" upon which it was 
 unanimously resolved, "That the laws of this pro- 
 vince, that were in force and practice before the ar- 
 rival of this present governor, are still in force ; and 
 that the assembly have a right humbly to move the 
 governor for a continuation or confirmation thereof." 
 Accordingly the following address was drawn up and 
 presented to the governor : 
 
 " To Benjamin Fletcher, Esquire, Captain-gene- 
 ral and Governor-in-chief, of the province of Penn- 
 sylvania, and country of Newcastle, 
 
 " The humble address of the freemen of said 
 province and country, Sheweth, 
 
 " That since it hath pleased the king and queen, 
 that the absence of our proprietary's personal atten- 
 dance in this government should be superseded by 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 831 
 
 thee, or thy lieutenant, we, the representatives of the 
 freemen of the said province and territories ( with 
 due respect to the powers of thy commission, am 
 nearly acknowledgment of thy good-will, care, anc 
 tenderness towards us), do readily acquiesce with 
 the king's pleasure therein, earnestly beseeching 
 that our procedure in legislation may be according 
 to the usual method and laws of this government 
 founded upon the late king's letters patent; which 
 we humbly conceive to be yet in force, and therefore 
 we desire the same may be confirmed unto us, as 
 our rights and liberties. And we, with all faithful- 
 ness and sincerity, do give what assurance we are 
 capable of, in the present circumstances we are, to 
 answer the queen's letter, and thy request, accord- 
 ing to our ability. 
 
 " Third month 17th, 1693." 
 To which the governor returned the following an 
 swer : 
 
 " Gentlemen, 
 
 " I, with the council, have considered your ad- 
 dress, and am sorry to find your desires grounded 
 upon so great mistakes. The absence of the propri- 
 etary is the least cause mentioned in their majesties' 
 letters patent, for their majesties asserting their un- 
 doubted right of governing their subjects in this 
 province. There are reasons of greater moment; 
 as, the neglects and miscarriages in the late admi- 
 nistration ; the want of necessary defence against the 
 enemy, and the danger of being lost from the crown. 
 " The constitution of their majesties' government, 
 and that of Mr. Peun, are in a direct opposition 
 one to the other ; if you will be tenacious in stick- 
 ling for this, it is a plain demonstration use what 
 words you please that indeed you decline the other. 
 " I shall readily concur with you' in doing any- 
 thing that may conduce to your safety, prosperity, 
 and satisfaction, provided your requests are consist- 
 ent with the laws of England, their majesties' let- 
 ters patent, and the trust and confidence their ma- 
 jesties have reposed in me. 
 
 "Time is very precious to me: I hope you will 
 desist from all unnecessary debates, and fall in ear- 
 nest upon those matters I have already mentioned to 
 you, and for which you are principally convened." 
 
 The debates of the house, upon this answer to 
 their address, produced the following remonstrance 
 to the governor : 
 
 " To Benjamin Fletcher, Esquire, Captain-gene- 
 ral, and Governor-in-chief, in and over the province 
 of Pennsylvania, country of Newcastle, and tracts 
 of land depending; 
 
 " The remonstrance of the freemen of the said 
 province and country, in assembly met, 
 
 " Humbly sheweth, 
 
 " That having, with all dutiful respect, read and 
 considered the governor's answer to cur address this 
 morning, we, in answer thereunto, with submission 
 say, we conceive that our desires were not grounded 
 on mistakes, in relation to the proprietary's absence. 
 " But, as to the other clause, mentioned by the 
 governor, of their majesties asserting their un- 
 doubted right of governing their subjects in this 
 province, &c. we, with all readiness and cheerfulness, 
 own accordingly to the right of the king and queen, 
 whose prosperity and happy reign we heartily de- 
 sire ; and as to the other reasons rendered, for su- 
 perseding our proprietary's goveinancy, we appre- 
 hend they are founded on misinformations : for the 
 courts of justice were open in all counties in this 
 government, and justice duly executed, from the 
 highest crimes of treason and murder, to the detei- 
 
 mining the lowest differences about property, before 
 the date or arrival of the governor's commission ; 
 neither do we apprehend that the province was in 
 danger of being lost from the crown, although the 
 government was in the hands of some whose prin- 
 ciples were not for war ; and we conceive that the 
 present governancy hath no direct opposition (with 
 respect to the king's government here in general) 
 to our proprietary, William Penn's, though the 
 exercise of thy authority at present supersedes that 
 of our said proprietary ; nevertheless we readiy 
 own thee for our lawful governor, saving to our- 
 selves, and those whom we represent, our and their 
 just rights and privileges. 
 
 " JOSEPH GROWDON, Speaker. 
 " The 17th of the Third month, 1693." 
 What reply the governor made, or whether he 
 gave any, does not appear ; but the assembly having 
 thus asserted their privileges, proceeded to enact 
 sundry laws. One for the support of government; 
 and such others as were thought necessary, either 
 to be renewed, or repealed for the public good. The 
 law for the support of government, was entitled, 
 " An act for granting to King William and Queen 
 Mary the rate of one penny per pound upon the 
 clear value of all real and personal estates, and six 
 shillings per head upon such as are uot otherwise 
 rated by this act, to be employed by the governor 
 of this province of Pennsylvania, and territories 
 thereof, for the time being, towards the support of 
 this government." 
 
 These enactments were sent up to the governor and 
 council, and were detained by them for sometime, to 
 see what the assembly would do, in consequence of 
 the queen's letter respecting the maintenance of Al- 
 bany. This delay, with the governor's asserting, 
 " that the assembly should have no account of the 
 rill (of supply, or for the support of government) till 
 they came in a full house before him, to give the last 
 sanction to the laws;" and, "that he saw nothing 
 would do, but an annexion to New York," induced 
 the house to send the following petition to the governor. 
 " To Benjamin Fletcher, Esq. Captain-general 
 and Governor-in-chief. in and over the province of 
 Pennsylvania, country of Newcastle, and tracts of 
 and depending. 
 
 " The humble petition of the freemen of the said 
 province and country, in assembly met, 
 
 " Sheweth, 
 
 " Thai they being deeply sensible of the many 
 nconveniences that may attend a misunderstand'- 
 ng between the governor and freemen, do earnestly 
 desire all occasions may be taken away, and with 
 all humility, beg the governor would be pleased, in 
 ender regard to the trust, lodged in the said repre- 
 entatives, to condescend so far, as to inform them, 
 ^hich of their bills the governor will accept, amend, 
 ir reject ; that by knowing which of the said bills are 
 disliked by the governor, the assembly may dispose 
 hernselves to acquiesce with the governor's pleasure, 
 >r endeavour to satisfy the governor and council with 
 he reasonableness of the said bills ; which being done, 
 will remove all doubts and troubles from our minds, 
 apon that occasion, and we shall proceed with cheer- 
 \ilness to finish this general assembly, to the 
 :ing's honour, and the general satisfaction of the 
 governor and government. 
 "Third month, 31st, 1693." 
 
 Notwithstanding the gentle terms of this petition, 
 he assembly unanimously resolved, " That all bills 
 ent to the governor and council, in order to be 
 imeudod, ought to be returned to this house, to 
 
832 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 have their further approbation, upon such amend- 
 ments, before they can have their final assent, to 
 pass into laws ;" and there was a party in the house, 
 who strenuously asserted their undoubted rights, as 
 founded on their then present charter of privileges, 
 but, being the smaller number, all they could do 
 terminated in the following protest: 
 
 " Philadelphia, Fourth month 1st, 1693. 
 " We whose names are hereunto subscribed, re- 
 presentatives of the freemen of this province, in as- 
 sembly, do declare, it is the undoubted right of this 
 house to receive back from the governor and council 
 all such bills as are sent up for their approbation, 
 or amendments, and debate the same, as the body 
 of the bills, and that the denial of that right is de- 
 structive to the freedom of making laws ; and we 
 do also declare, it is the right of the assembly, that 
 before any bill for supplies be presented for the last 
 sanction, aggrievances ought to be redressed: 
 therefore, we, with protestation (saving our just 
 rights in assembly), do declare, that the assent of 
 such of us as were for sending up the bill, for the 
 supply this morning, was merely in consideration 
 of the governor's speedy departure, but that it should 
 not be drawn into example, or precedent for the 
 luture. 
 
 " David Lloyd, James Fox, John Swift, John 
 White, George Maris, Samuel Richardson, John 
 Simcock, Samuel Preston, Samuel Carpenter, 
 Henry Paynter." 
 
 According to the assembly's petition the governor 
 sent back several 'bills, with his objections, for amend- 
 ments ; which being agreed to, were afterwards 
 passed. And the rolls of such old laws, as the as- 
 sembly did not think fit to repeal, to prevent any 
 d ubt of their being in force, being sent up to 
 him, were signed by him, for confirmation. After 
 which he dissolved the assembly, by their own ad 
 vice, and departed for his government at New York, 
 having first appointed William Markham, lieute- 
 nant-governor in his stead. 
 
 From the sums raised by the tax of one penny in 
 the pound, as exhibited in the votes of assembly, 
 may pretty nearly be estimated the value of all the 
 private estates and property at that time in the 
 province and territories : 
 
 Counties. Sums. 
 
 Philadelphia 314 11 11 
 
 Newcastle 143 15 
 
 Sussex 101 1 9 
 
 Kent 88 2 10 
 
 Ches^r 65 7 
 
 Buck 48 4 1 
 
 Total 760 16 2 
 *- 
 
 (1691.) During Governor Fletcher's administra 
 tion here, he appears to have been several times in 
 the province, but never long at one time. He me 
 the assembly again in May 1694 ; and, in a messagi 
 to them, dated Philadelphia, May 23d, 1694, ac 
 quaints them, 
 
 " That ho had been disappointed in meeting them 
 sooner, according to his intention, and direction 
 given for calling the assembly ; by reason of being 
 under a necessity to repair to Albany, on intima 
 tion given, that the five nation Indians, which hat 
 been so long faithful to the English, were now de 
 bauched to the French interest, and entering into a 
 league with the governor of Canada ; which was a 
 matter of the highest importance to the neighbour 
 ing colonies, and required his utmost abilities am 
 application to prevent. 
 
 4 That he was come to lay the whole affair before 
 hem, assuring them, that their own Indians here 
 would be compelled to join the fatal confederacy. 
 
 " That, in consequence hereof, he had seen 80 
 ne farms all deserted about Albany. 
 
 " That the Jerseys had done more for the common 
 iefence than all the other adjacent provinces. 
 
 " That he considered their principles, that they 
 
 ould not carry arms, nor levy money, to make war, 
 
 hough for their own defence, yet he hoped they 
 
 would not refuse to feed the hungry and cloath the 
 
 naked; that was, to supply the Indian nations with 
 
 uch necessaries, as may influence their continued 
 
 riendship to these provinces. 
 
 " Lastly, that he was ready, as far as in him lay, 
 onsistent with the rules of loyalty, and a just regard 
 o liberty and property, to redress their grievances 
 f they had any." , 
 
 During this, and the succeeding session, in Sep- 
 ember this year, several laws were passed, which 
 jnds the administration of Governor Fletcher. 
 
 What return was made by the house to his re- 
 quest, in the latter part o'f the above message, does 
 not clearly appear ; it only appears that, in a letter 
 f Penn's, dated " Bristol, fifth of the ninth month, 
 1695," which seems to allude to part of the present 
 proceedings, he observes and complains of " there 
 jeing factious persons in the colony, that disturbed 
 >r threatened the tranquillity of the government ;" 
 and he blames the province " for refusing to send 
 money to New York, for what he calls a common 
 defence, urging their compliance, and expressing 
 the danger of their oversetting the government 
 again by such refusal;" which, before that time, 
 was restored to him, Markham being his deputy. 
 
 In a postscript to this letter, he adds, " I must 
 say that what I have spent upon the province, as 
 governor and planter, is the foundation of my 
 present incumbrauce, as Ph. F. (Philip Ford) 
 knows, and asserted to the lords of plantation* 
 lately, to be 4,000/. more in the whole, than I ever 
 received for lands, besides what it has cost me here." 
 On the 10th of September this' year (1694) died 
 Thomas Lloyd, the proprietary's late deputy- 
 governor, aged about 54 years. His father was a 
 person of some fortune and rank, of an ancient 
 family and estate called Dolobran, in Montgomery- 
 shire, in North Wales. This, his son Thomas 
 Lloyd, was a younger brother, and was educated in 
 the best schools, from which he was removed to the 
 University of Oxford, where he is said to hare made 
 considerable proficiency ; and, being endowed with 
 good natural capacity, and an amiable disposition, 
 he attracted the regard and esteem of persons ot 
 influence, and was afterwards in the way to con- 
 siderable preferment; but he joined the Quakers, 
 and renounced all worldly considerations for that 
 peace of mind, which he believed to be the effect of 
 true religion, and* became a highly esteemed 
 preacher in that society. In consequence of 
 which, having suffered much unmerited reproach, 
 persecution, and loss of property in his native 
 country, he afterwards removed to Pennsylvania, 
 among" the first or early settlers, and was one of 
 Penn's most intimate friends. He was mostly one 
 of the principal persons in the government from his 
 first arrival, and of very great service in the public 
 affairs : yet he is said to have accepted of the 
 eminent offices, which at different times he held in 
 the administration, entirely from motives of public 
 spirit. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 8*3 
 
 P*nn cleared of the accusation* againtt him, and hit 
 government restored- Death of his wife, Gulitlma 
 Maria He commissions William Markham his 
 lieutenant-governor His useful employment in Eng- 
 landHit second marriage Dtath of his eldest 
 ton, Springett Proceedings of the assembly in 
 1696- Their remonstrance, Sfc. Further proceed- 
 ings of the legislature ; wfterein a bill of settlement 
 is agreed to and passed, called the third frame of 
 government, fyc* State oj the province about this 
 time A proclamation. 
 
 We now return to Penn ; who, in the latter part 
 of the year 1693, through the mediation of his 
 friends, the lords, Rochester, Ranelagh and Sidney, 
 in which the Lord Somers, the duke of Buckingham, 
 and Sir John Trenchard also assisted, was admitted 
 to make his justification; which he did so effec- 
 tually, that he was not only readily acquitted of the 
 charge against him, but also had his government 
 restored. 
 
 The three first-mentioned lords went to the king, 
 on the 25th of November, and represented to him 
 Penn's case, " As not only hard, but oppressive ; 
 that there was nothing against him, but what im- 
 postors, or those that were fled, or that had, since 
 their pardon, refused to verify (and asked William 
 Penn pardon, for saying what they did), alleged 
 against him; that they (the said lords) had long 
 known William Penn, some of them 30 years, and 
 had never known him to do an ill thing, but many 
 good offices ; and that, if it was not for being thought 
 to go abroad in defiance of the government, he 
 would have done it two years ago; that he was, 
 therefore, willing to wait to go about his business as 
 before, with leave, that he might be the better re- 
 spected, in the liberty he took to follow it." 
 
 To which the king answered, " That William 
 Penn was his old acquaintance, as well as theirs ; 
 that he might follow his business as freely as ever; 
 and that he had nothing to say to him." Upon 
 which they pressed him to command one of them to 
 declare the same to the secretary of state, Sir John 
 Trenchard; or that, if he came to him, he might 
 signify the same to him; which the king readily 
 did ; and the Lord Sidney, as Penn's nearest friend, 
 was to tell the secretary; which being done, the 
 secretary, after speaking himself, and having orders 
 from the king, appointed Penn a time to meet him 
 at home; who then (November 30th), in company 
 with the marquis of Winchester, told him, " He 
 was as free as ever," adding, " That he doubted not 
 his prudence about his quiet living, so he assured 
 him he should not be molested, or injured, in any 
 of his affairs, at least while he held that post." 
 
 Soon after this Penn lost his wife, Gulielma 
 Maria, who died in February 1694, with whom 
 he had lived, in the utmost tenderness, about 
 21 years; her excellent character is recorded by 
 himself in hig printed works. He was reinstated in 
 his government of Pennsylvania by letters patent, 
 dated 20th day of August, in the sixth year of the 
 reign of William and Mary, 1694; after which he 
 sent a commission to William Markham, constitu- 
 ting him his lieutenant-governor of Pennsylvania 
 and territories, dated " ninth month 24th, 1694." 
 
 Now for several years successively his beneficent 
 services, and useful actions in his native country, 
 particularly to his own religious society, are repre- 
 sented to have been very considerable ; in which time 
 he published many useful treatises, on different sub- 
 tects ; and he was likewise a solicitor to the gorern- 
 
 HIST. OF AMKR. No. 105 & 106. 
 
 ment for the relief of his friends, the Quakers, in 
 the case of oaths. 
 
 On the 5th of March, 1696, he consummated his 
 second marriage, at Bristol, with Hannah, the 
 daughter of Thomas Callowhill, and granddaughter 
 of Dennis Hollister, an eminent merchant of that 
 city. She was said to be a religious young woman, 
 of excellent qualities ; with whom he lived during 
 the rest of his life ; and had issue by her, four sons 
 and one daughter. 
 
 In the April 1696, his eldest son, by his former 
 wife, named Springett, died at Worminghurst, in 
 Sussex, of a consumption, in the 21st year of his 
 age; a most promising young man. After this 
 William Penn paid a religious visit to his friends, 
 the Quakers, in Ireland, accompanied by John 
 Everett and Thomas Story ; who were likewise two 
 eminent preachers in that society; and he wrote 
 several treatises in vindication of his religious prin- 
 ciples, &c. till the year 1699, when he began to 
 make preparation to revisit his province of Penn- 
 sylvania. 
 
 William Markham being, by the proprietary, after 
 his restoration, constituted or appointed his deputy- 
 governor, as before observed, first under that ap- 
 pointment, met a council on the 20th of April, and 
 an assembly, on the 10th of September, 1695; 
 which, after they had sat some time, appear to have 
 been unexpectedly dissolved by Markham. The 
 form of the writ for calling that assembly was as 
 follows : 
 
 " (L. s.) William Markham, Esq. governor undet 
 Willam Penn, absolute proprietary of the province 
 of Pennsylvania and counties annexed, to Arthur 
 Meston, sheriff of the county of Kent, greeting: 
 
 " Whereas, their sacred Majesties William and 
 Mary, by the grace of God, king and queen of En- 
 gland, Scotland, France and Ireland, defenders of 
 the faith, &c., did, by their letters patent, under 
 the great seal of England, bearing date the 21st 
 day of October, in the fourth year of their reign, 
 for the reasons therein expressed, find it absolutely 
 necessary to take the government of said province 
 of Pennsylvania into their own hands, and under 
 their immediate care and protection ; and, therefore, 
 did constitute and appoint Benjamin Fletcher, Esq. 
 captain-general, and governor-in-chief of their ma- 
 jesties' province of New York, to be captain-gene- 
 ral, in and over their said majesties' province of 
 Pennsylvania, and country of Newcastle, and all 
 the tracts of land depending thereon in America, 
 thereby commanding and requiring him, the said 
 Benjamin Fletcher, to take the said province of 
 Pennsylvania and country under his government; 
 who accordingly took the same under his govern- 
 ment, by publication of the said letters patent, in 
 the town of Philadelphia, upon the 26th of April, 
 1693 : and whereas, their sacred majesties have 
 since been most graciously pleased, by their letters 
 patent, under the great seal of England, bearing 
 date the 20th day of August, in the sixth year of their 
 reign, for the reasons therein expressed, to restore 
 the said William Penn, proprietary of the said 
 province of Pennsylvania and territories, unto the 
 administration of the government thereof: and, 
 whereas, the said William Penn has been pleased, 
 by his commission, under his hand and seal of the 
 said province, bearing date the 29th day of the 
 ninth month, 1694, to constitute me governor under 
 him, of the said province of Pennsylvania, and 
 counties annexed, strictly charging and command- 
 ing me, to govern according to th known laws and 
 4 C 
 
&34 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 usages thereof. I, therefore, by virtue of the said 
 power and authority, derived unto me, command 
 you, that forthwith you summon all the freemen of 
 your said county, to meet upon the tenth day of 
 April, at the usual place of meeting, then and there, 
 according to law and charter, to choose three per- 
 sons to serve in provincial council, one for three 
 years, one for two years, and one other for one 
 year ; and six persons to serve as members of as- 
 sembly ; and upon the election of members of coun- 
 cil, to acquaint them to attend me on the 20th day 
 of April next, at Philadelphia, to form a provincial 
 council, to advise with me in matters relating to the 
 government ; whereof they are not to fail ; and 
 make return of the names of the said freemen, so to 
 be chosen, and of this writ, into the secretary's 
 office, for the said province and territories, at and 
 before the said 20th day of April next ; hereof fail 
 not at your peril ; and for your so doing this shall 
 be your sufficient warrant. 
 
 " Given under my hand and seal of the province, 
 this 26th day of March, annoque regni regis et re- 
 ginae, Gulielmi et Mariae, nunc Angliae, &c. sep- 
 timo, in the fourteenth year of the proprietary's 
 government, annoque Domini 1695. 
 
 " WILLIAM MARKHAM." 
 
 After this he called another assembly, to meet at 
 Philadelphia, on the 26th of October, 1696. This 
 assembly chose John Simcock of Chester, for their 
 speaker ; and, in a message to the governor, they 
 observed, that though he had convened them by his 
 writs, not so conformable to their charter, as they 
 could desire (which was upon Fletcher's plan), yet 
 they had obeyed the same, and considered what he 
 had laid before them, viz. " To answer the late 
 queen's letter, and the proprietary's promise upon 
 his restoration to the government ;" respecting 
 which they told him, " That they were unanimously 
 ready and willing to perform their duty therein, so 
 far as in them lay, if the governor would settle them 
 in their former constitution, enjoyed before the go- 
 vernment was committed to Governor Fletcher's 
 trust;" which affairs, with the proceedings of the 
 last assembly, appear more fully in the following re- 
 monstrance : 
 
 "To William Markham, governor under William 
 Penn, proprietor of the province of Pennsylvania, 
 and territories thereunto belonging, 
 
 " The remonstrance of the freemen of the said 
 province and territories, convened in assembly, by 
 virtue of the governor's writs, at Philadelphia, the 
 28lh of October, in the eighth year of King Wil- 
 liam's reign over England, &c. annoque Domini 
 1696. 
 
 " Humbly sheweth, 
 
 " That, whereas, the late King Charles II., by his 
 royal charter, made in the 33d year of his reign, 
 under the great seal of England, was pleased to 
 signify, that William Penn (out of a commenda- 
 ble desire to enlarge the British empire, and pro- 
 mote such useful commodities as might be of benefit 
 to the king and his dominions, as also to induce the 
 savage nations, by gentle and just manners, to the 
 love of civil society, and the Christian religion) had 
 humbly sought leave to transport an ample co- 
 lony into this country ; wherefore, the said king, 
 favouring the petition, and good purpose of the said 
 Willim Penn, did, in and by the said charter, for 
 him. his heirs and successors', give and grant unto 
 the said William Penn, his heirs and assigns, all 
 this said country, and tract of land, called Pennsyl- 
 vania, and constituted him, the said William Penn, 
 
 absolute proprietor thereof, vesting him, and such 
 as were to be adventurers with him, the settlers and 
 inhabitants of said province, with divers powers, pri- 
 vileges and immunities, under the reservations, pro- 
 visos and restrictions, in the said charter specified ; 
 charging all officers, &c. to bo, at all times aiding 
 and assisting to the said William Penu, and unto 
 the said inhabitants and merchants of the said pro- 
 vince, in the full use and fruition of the benefits of 
 the said charter. 
 
 " In pursuance whereof the said William Penn, 
 aud divers substantial persons, who first embarked 
 ith him, in that so commendable a design, did 
 soon afterwards (by the advice of learned councu) 
 conclude upon a certain frame of government, con- 
 sistent with the powers of the said patent, but suit- 
 able with the religious persuasion of the major part 
 of the undertakers, and well accommodated to all. 
 This model, together with the franchises and im- 
 munities expressly granted by the aforesaid letters 
 patent to the people, did induce them to conceive 
 (and, we hope, upon just grounds too) that since 
 the king had been so favourably pleased to incor- 
 porate them, and in so great a measure, connected 
 the people's privileges with their properties, that 
 they could not be any more divested of the one, than 
 the other, but by due course of law, and proved more 
 than ordinary motives to incline several hundreds to 
 transport themselves and families into this country, 
 out of divers parts; so that this province hath not 
 been at first populated under William Penn's go- 
 vernment, with transported felons, or criminals, 
 but mostly the people called Quakers, men of truth 
 and sobriety, having visible estates and credit in 
 the world ; who, with no less desires of that free- 
 dom, to answer the end of the king's grant, (with 
 respect to propagating the Christian religion) were 
 made willing to leave their native land, part with 
 their friends and near relations, and remove them- 
 selves into the wilderness, hoping to enjoy their said 
 privileges and liberties, more than any prospect, 
 they had of worldly advantage, or preferment; and 
 when they arrived here, exposed themselves and 
 tender families to great hardships (attending the 
 hazard and inconvenienciesof a new plantation), ex- 
 hausted their estates, and have not been at all 
 chargeable to the crown, in so considerable a settle- 
 ment, as is well known ; but before they could tho- 
 roughly come into a comfortable way of living, and 
 put themselves into a capacity to -pay either their 
 particular, or public debts, this government be- 
 came (it seems) as the butt of our neighbour's envy ; 
 who, misrepresenting things at home, did obtain a 
 commission from the king and queen, constituting 
 Colonel Fletcher, commander-in-chief over this pro 
 vince and territories; who, during his governancy, 
 diverted the course of our legislative procedure, and 
 introduced another method ; and continued the 
 same, until the said king and queen were favour- 
 ably pleased, by their letters patent, to restore the 
 said proprietary to the administration of the govern- 
 ment of this province and territories ; upon which 
 restoration, the power and authority, which Colonel 
 Fletcher had made use of, to lay aside our charteral 
 rights and privileges, were by the said patent deter- 
 mined, and made void. 
 
 " Wherefore, the proprietary thought fit to au- 
 thorize thee to act according to the known laws 
 and usages of this government: in pursuance whereof 
 thou wast pleased to issue forth thy writs, directed 
 to the respective sheriffs of this province and terri- 
 tories, commanding them to summon all the free- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 835 
 
 men of the respective counties to meet upon the 
 tenth day of the month called April, 1695, in the 
 usual place of meeting, then and there, according 
 to law and charter, to choose three persons in each 
 county, to serve in provincial council, one for three 
 years, one for two years, and the other for one year; 
 and six persons out of each county to serve as mem 
 bcrs of assembly. In obedience to which writs 
 elections were made, and a general assembly began 
 to be held here, on the tenth day of September, 
 1695 : and, truly, those of us, that attended that ser- 
 vice, were glad, when thou so frequently expressed 
 thy readiness to confirm our rights and privileges, 
 adding, ' That thou wouldest not so much as endea- 
 vour to diminish them ;' which gave further encou- 
 ragement to the then representatives ; who with 
 much alacrity, and dutiful acknowledgments of 
 the king's justice and favour, in restoring the said 
 proprietary to his rights, did proceed to manifest 
 their affections to the king, as well as their readi- 
 ness to answer his expectations, about supporting 
 this government, so far as in conscience they could, 
 according to their ability, and circumstances of 
 affairs ; and so agreed to make an assessment of 
 money, upon all estates within this province and 
 country, for the support of government ; which, 
 together with the 250Z. sterling, thentofore raised, 
 and made payable to Colonel Fletcher, toward the 
 support of this government, and not expressly ap- 
 pointed for any other particular use, they, the said 
 representatives, humbly desired might be deemed 
 and taken, instead of the assistance required from 
 this country ; the same being in answer to the late 
 queen's letter, so far as, in conscience and abilities, 
 they could comply therewith ; and so perfected the 
 bill, ready for thy passing ; having joined therewith 
 only one bill, modelled with thy approbation, and 
 corrected according to thy own direction, contain- 
 ing some fundamental liberties, which we look upon 
 to be as much the people's rights, as the land they 
 hold. 
 
 " But, instead of giving thy sanction to those 
 bills, thou hast, contrary to the tenor of said writs, 
 and against our legislative rights and privileges, un- 
 dertaken to dissolve both council and assembly; 
 which, we understand, was so surprising and unex- 
 pected to the said representatives, that they had 
 neither time to explain their real intentions, in what 
 they urged and insisted on, or opportunity to see 
 the minutes of their journal perfected ; whereby 
 their proceedings might have been more fully and 
 fairly rendered. 
 
 " And we are given to understand, and those of 
 us that were concerned in that dissolved assembly, 
 do declare, ' That where any thing has been there 
 voted, about proceeding in legislation, without the 
 formality of promulgating bills, according to char- 
 ter, it was chiefly to expedite the passing of the 
 money-bill, to answer the late queen's letter, in 
 manner aforesaid, and not intended to be brought 
 into example, unless agreed on, to be inserted in 
 the other bill, or new act of settlement.' And we 
 also understand, that where mention was then made 
 of any difficulty, or inconvenience, in resuming the 
 charter, it was but in circumstantials, and had re- 
 spect only to the time of meeting, number of mem- 
 bers, and such like, not that we then did, or do now, 
 think that the people had any way forfeited, or lost 
 the benefit and privileges in those branches thereof, 
 which direct that this government, according to the 
 powers of the king's patent, and the late duke of 
 York's deeds of feoffment, should consist of the pro- 
 
 prietary, governor and freemen of the said province 
 and territories, and in form of a provincial council 
 and assembly, chosen by the people ; and that the 
 governor, or his deputy, should perform no act of 
 state that relates to the justice, trade, treasury, or 
 safety of the province and territories, but by the 
 advice of the said provincial council; and such 
 other fundamental parts of the said charter, where- 
 with we are invested by virtue of the king's letters 
 patent, for restoring the proprietary. 
 
 " Now, for as much as thou hast refused to pass 
 the said bill, or new act of settlement, and not in- 
 clined to the advice of thy assistant, in issuing forth 
 writs, for chusing members of council and assem- 
 bly, on the last charteral day of election, but used 
 thy endeavours to discourage the people then to 
 elect, and hast now convened us, contrary to our 
 former usage, notwithstanding we still hold our- 
 selves concerned to embrace this opportunity, as 
 we are, and shall be, ready upon all occasions to 
 express our duty and affection to the king, for hig 
 justice and favours to the government, and our well- 
 wishes to thyself, we desire thee to take some speedy 
 course to establish us in our Just rights and privi- 
 leges, whereby we may be in a fit posture effectually 
 to answer and observe the king's command, relating 
 to this government, and the proprietary's engage- 
 ments in that behalf, so far as our religious per- 
 suasions can admit. 
 
 " Signed by order of the House, 
 
 " JOHN SIMCOCKE, Speaker." 
 It does not appear what particular answer the 
 
 overnor gave to this remonstrance; but the speaker, 
 with the house, waited upon him, at his desire ; to 
 whom he delivered a letter from the late Governor 
 Fletcher, requesting money, for the relief of the 
 Indians at Albany. Upon which, on the 31st of 
 October, 1696, a committee of the house, being 
 joined by a committee of the council, in order to 
 answer the queen's letter, and preserve the peo- 
 ple's privileges, agreed in recommending, " That 
 the governor, at the request of the assembly, 
 would be pleased to pass an act (of settlement, 
 must be understood), with a salvo to the proprietary 
 and people ; and that he would also issue out his 
 writs, for choosing a full number of representatives, 
 on the 10th day of the first month next, to serve in 
 provincial council and assembly, according to the 
 charter, until the proprietary's pleasure be known 
 ;herein ; and that, if the proprietary shall disap- 
 prove the same, then this act shall be void, and no 
 ways prejudicial to him, nor the people, in relation 
 o the validity or invalidity of the said charter." 
 This was unanimously approved by the assembly; 
 and a bill of settlement, and a money bill were 
 .hereupon agreed upon, and passed. 
 
 The money bill was for raising 300/., for the sup- 
 >ort of government, and relieving the distressed In- 
 dians, inhabiting above Albany, in answer to the 
 queen's letter; which money, being immediately 
 wanted was therefore borrowed, until it could be 
 aised by the act, and remitted to Colonel Fletcher, 
 at New York, to be applied to the use intended. 
 
 The bill of settlement being finished, besides four 
 ithers passed by Markham, it thence became the 
 hird frame of government ; and, being afterwards 
 enforced by some other laws, it continued in force 
 ill the year 1701. By this charter, or frame of 
 government, the council was to consist of only two 
 nembers out of each county, and the assembly of 
 bur: making in all twelve members of council, and 
 24 of the assembly. 
 
 4 C 2 
 
83f 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 In the year 1697, Governor Fletcher, of New 
 York, in a letter to Markham, informed him, that 
 the 300/., sent last, year, was expended in contin- 
 gencies, to feed and clothe the Indians, as was de- 
 aired ; and that he requested further assistance. A 
 committee of the council and assembly, to whom 
 the affair was referred, in their report, in answer to 
 this letter, expressed their acknowledgments for his, 
 and that government's regard and candour to them, 
 in applying that money to the use intended ; but, 
 as to further supply at present, they urged the in- 
 fancy, poverty, and incumbered state of the colony, 
 in excuse for non-compliance ; at the same time, 
 declaring their readiness to observe the king's fur- 
 ther commands, according to their religious persua- 
 sions and abilities. 
 
 (1698.) From about this time, till the arrival of 
 the proprietary, in the latter part of the year 1699, 
 the accounts of the public affairs appear defective, 
 or not many of much importance occur. The pro- 
 vince seems, at that time, to have enjoyed a state 
 of great tranquillity and prosperity, v/hen compared 
 with that of other countries; but it cannot be sup- 
 posed, without some of those difficulties, which al- 
 ways attend the settlement of new colonies. And, 
 as prosperity and success create envy in malignant 
 minds, so we find, in this province, that whatever 
 was a little amiss at any time, was greatly exag- 
 gerated, and its strue state misrepresented, either 
 by those who were natural enemies to its prospe- 
 rity, or by discontented spirits within it, both in 
 early time and since. 
 
 But however the base may endeavour to cover 
 themselves, by mixing among those of reputation, 
 and the dishonest screen their character, by asso- 
 ciating with the honest, yet something of this ma- 
 lignity of mind in some persons out of the province, 
 besides what might, in reality, have been wrong in 
 it, soems to have administered occasion for the fol- 
 lowing proclamation, published in the year 1698: 
 
 " By the governor and council of the province of 
 Pennsylvania, and counties annexed. 
 " A Proclamation, 
 
 " Whereas our proprietary hath lately given us 
 to understand of sundry accusations, or complaints, 
 against this government, for conniving at illegal 
 trade and harbouring of pirates ; as also of the re- 
 ports that are gone to England, about the growth 
 of vice and looseness here. . 
 
 " As to the former, it is evident that they are 
 the effects of the envy and emulation of those, who, 
 by such unfair and indirect means, would accom- 
 plish their designs against this government : for 
 that we are satisfied the generality of the people, 
 merchants and traders of this province and territo- 
 ries, are innocent and clear of those imputations. 
 And this country so posited, Philadelphia is become 
 the road, where sailors and others do frequently pass 
 and repass between Virginia and New England, so 
 that it cannot be avoided, but the bad, as well as 
 the good, will be entertained in such an intercourse ; 
 and since common charity obliges us not to pre- 
 sume any persons guilty (especially of such great 
 enormities), till by some legal probability they ap- 
 pear so to be ; and though we find that the magis- 
 trates, and people in general, are, and have been, 
 ready, and perhaps more active and conscientious 
 to serve the king and his officers, against all un- 
 lawful trade and piracy, when any such offences 
 have, by any means, come to their knowledge, than 
 any of those neighbouring colonies, who have been 
 fr qureinonious agaixt, in that behalf; yet we 
 
 gaiMt 
 
 can. do no less than, pursuant to our proprietary'i 
 commands, put all in mind of their respective duties ; 
 that there be no just cause for such complaints. 
 
 " And, as concerning vice, we also find, that the ' 
 magistrates have been careful and diligent to sup- 
 press it ; but their endeavours have been sometimes 
 ineffectual therein ; by reason that the ordinaries, 
 or drinking-houses, especially in Philadelphia, grow 
 too numerous, and the keepers thereof disorderly, 
 and regardless of the tenor and obligations of their 
 licenses, whereby they prove ungrateful to the go- 
 vernor, and a reproach to the government. 
 
 " Therefore, these are strictly to charge and 
 command all magistrates and officers whatsoever, 
 within the province and territories, as they regard 
 the honour of God, and their allegiance to the king, 
 faithfully to put in execution all the acts, or laws 
 of trade and navigation, and also the laws and sta- 
 tutes extant against piracy, whenever there is any 
 such occasion; and to use their utmost diligence 
 and care in preventing, suppressing, and punishing 
 all vice, disorders, and loose living, wheresoever, 
 and in whomsoever it shall appear. And to that 
 end it is, by the governor and council, ordained 
 that, from and after the first day of March next 
 ensuing, the justices of the peace of each county, 
 in the province and territories, at their respective 
 general or private sessions, nominate and pitch 
 upon such and so many ordinary keepers, or inn- 
 holders, within the respective counties, as they shall 
 be well assured will keep orders, and discourage 
 vice : and the governor is pleased to condescend that 
 he will license those so approved of by the justices, 
 and will permit no other, to keep taverns, inns, or 
 drinking-houses, within this government, than such 
 as shall be so recommended, from time to time. 
 
 " And we further strictly charge and command 
 all persons, within this government, as they will 
 answer the contrary at their peril, that they give 
 due assistance to the magistrates and officers afore- 
 said, in putting the said laws in execution, and 
 suppressing vice, that the wrath of God, and the 
 king's displeasure may not be drawn upon this poor 
 country. Dated at Philadelphia, the 12th day of 
 the twelfth month, February, being the ninth year 
 of the year of William III., of Englan !, &c. King, 
 anno Domini, 1697-8. 
 
 " Signed by order of the governor and council, 
 " Per PATBICK- ROBINSON." 
 
 Penn, with his wife and family, sail foT Pennsylva* 
 nia^ Yellow Fever in Pennsylvania Proceedings of 
 the governor and assembly against piracy and illicit 
 trade The proprietary's concern for the benefit of 
 the Indians and Negroes, with the measures used 
 Money requested of the assembly for the fortifica- 
 tions on the frontiers of New York Assembly's 
 address to the proprietary on this occasion Articlet 
 of agreement bettfeen Penn and the Indians about 
 Susquehanna, fyc. 
 
 In the August of 1699, Penn, with his wife and 
 family, took shipping for Pennsylvania; and, on 
 the third day of the following month, from on board 
 the ship, lying in Cowes' road, near the Isle of 
 Wight, he took his farewell of his friends, in a va- 
 ledictory epistle, directed to all the people called 
 Quakers, in Europe. Ke sailed on the ninth of 
 the same mouth; and was near three months at 
 sea ; so that he did not arrive in Pennsylvania until 
 the beginning of December, when a dangerous and 
 contagious distemper, called the yellow fever, having 
 raged in the province, and carried off great number* 
 
UNITEP STATES. 
 
 837 
 
 df pco"ple, had ceased. This remarkable sickness, 
 which, ia the latter part of this year, had caused a 
 great mortality in Philadelphia, had, for some time 
 before, been very fatal in the West India Islands. 
 
 Thomas Story, who had accompanied Penn tolre- 
 land, in the last year, 1698 ; a man of ability, and after- 
 wards of much utility, to the province, first arrived 
 in Pennsylvania, in, or about this year, by way of 
 Virginia, on a religious visit to the colonies. In his 
 journal of his life, speaking of this sickness, at Phi- 
 ladelphia, where he was then, he says : " Great 
 was the Majesty and Hand of the Lord, great was 
 the fear, that fell upon all flesh ; I saw no lofty, 
 or airy countenance, nor heard any vain jesting, 
 to move men to laughter ; nor witty repartee, to 
 raise mirth ; nor extravagant feasting, to excite 
 the lusts and desires of the flesh above measure ; 
 but every face gathered paleness, and many hearts 
 were humbled, and countenances fallen and sunk, 
 as such that waited every moment, to be summoned 
 to the bar, and numbered to the grave." 
 
 The proprietary and his family were received 
 with universal joy by the inhabitants, which was 
 greatly increased when it was known that he in- 
 tended iixing his residence among them, during the 
 remainder of his life. 
 
 Soon after his arrival he met the assembly; but 
 it being then a very rigorous season, much public 
 business does not appear to have been transacted ; 
 except attempting to discourage piracy and illicit 
 trade; for which principally, they seem to have 
 been convened. Penn strongly represented to them 
 the odium to which the government was exposed on 
 this account ; and the obligations, which he was 
 under, to his superiors to correct it. Two laws 
 were passed immediately, and measures taken to 
 clear the government from all unjust imputations 
 the kind. 
 
 In the March of 1700, Penn, at the monthly meet- 
 ing of his friends, the Quakers, in Philadelphia, re- 
 presented his anxiety respecting the negroes and 
 Indians; exhorting and pressing them to a full dis- 
 charge of their duty, in reference to them; but 
 more especially urging, that they might as frequently 
 as possible have the advantage of attending reli- 
 gious meeting, and the benefit of being duly informed 
 in the Christian religion. A meeting was conse- 
 quently appointed more particularly for the negroes 
 once every month; and means were used to have 
 more frequent meetings with the Indians; Penn 
 taking part of the charge upon himself, particularly 
 the mode of conducting it, and the procuring of in- 
 terpreters. 
 
 The next assembly was convened at Philadelphia, 
 on the 10th of May ; which was dissolved in 
 the month following, and another was convened at 
 Newcastle, in October. The upper counties, or the 
 province, being dissatisfied with the charter, which 
 had been passed by Markham, in 1696, part of the 
 business of these assemblies was the consideration 
 and preparation of a new one, better adapted to 
 their inclinations and circumstances. 
 
 The proprietary had several meetings with the 
 different assembles, during his residence in the 
 province ; wherein a great variety of public busi- 
 ness was transacted with much general satisfaction. 
 Part of which was the framing "a body of laws, and 
 the new and last charter of privileges ; the latter of 
 which was not finished until the October of the fol- 
 lowing year. 
 
 The number of laws passed by the proprietary, 
 during his stay this time in the country, was 
 
 100; of which the major part were passed at New- 
 castle. 
 
 In the spring of the year 1701, the sea-coast ap- 
 pears to have been so infested by pirates, as well as 
 the dangers consequent on a French war, that the 
 governor and council issued the following order, for 
 the prevention of any surprise in that respect : 
 
 " At a council held in Philadelphia, the 2d of 
 the fourth month, 1701. 
 
 " Present, the proprietor and governor, Edward 
 Shippen, Samuel Carpenter, Thomas Story, Grif- 
 fith Owen, Caleb Pusey. 
 
 " For the greater security of this province and 
 territories, and for preventing, as far as may be, 
 surprises by vessels from sea. 
 
 " Ordered, That the magistrates, for the county 
 of Sussex, shall appoint, and take care that a con- 
 stant watch and ward be kept, on the hithermost 
 cape, near Lewis, in the said county: and in case 
 any vessel appear from the sea, that may with good 
 grounds be suspected of evil designs against any 
 part of the government. 
 
 " Ordered, That the said watch shall forthwith 
 give notice thereof, with as exact a description and 
 account of the vessel, as possibly they can, to the 
 sheriff of the said county; who is required imme- 
 diately to dispatch a messenger, express, with the 
 same to the county of Kent; from thence to be 
 forwarded from sheriff to sheriff, through every 
 county, till it be brought to the government at Phi- 
 ladelphia; which watch and expresses shall be a 
 provincial charge. " Signed by order, 
 
 " JAMES LOGAN, Secretary." 
 
 In the beginning of August 1701, the proprietary 
 acquainted the assembly, " That the occasion of 
 his calling them, at that time (though it was with 
 reluctance, considering the seasou), was, to lay be- 
 fore them the king's letter, requiring 350/. sterling, 
 from this government, towards the fortifications in- 
 tended on the frontiers of New York ; and though 
 he might have something else to lay before them, 
 yet he deferred all till they had considered this 
 point." 
 
 After considering and debating on the subject of 
 this letter, the assembly excused themselves, at pre- 
 sent, with complying with the requisition, by the 
 following address to the proprietary : 
 
 " To William Penn, proprietary and governor of 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 " The humble address of the Assembly. 
 
 " May it please our proprietary and governor, 
 
 " We, the freemen of the province and territo- 
 ries, in assembly met, having perused the king's 
 letter, requiring a contribution of 350J. sterling, to- 
 wards erecting of forts on the frontiers of New 
 York, &c., and having duly weighed and considered 
 our duty and loyalty to our sovereign, do humbly 
 address and represent that, by the reason of the in- 
 fancy of this colony, and the great charge and cost 
 the inhabitants have hitherto been at, in the settle- 
 ment thereof, and because of the late great bums of 
 money, which have been assessed on the province 
 and territories, by way of impost and taxes, besides 
 the arrears of quit-rents, owing by the people, aur 
 present capacity will hardly admit of levying of 
 money at this time. And further, taking into con- 
 sideration, that the adjacent provinces have hitherto 
 (as far as w can understand) done nothing in this 
 matter; we are, therefore, humbly of opinion, and 
 accordingly move, that the further consideration of 
 the king's letter may be referred to another meet- 
 ing of assembly, or until more emergent occasions 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA 
 
 shall require our further proceedings therein. In 
 the mean time we earnestly desire the proprietary 
 would candidly represent our conditions to the king, 
 and assure him of our readiness (according to our 
 abilities) to acquiesce with, and answer his com- 
 mands, so far as our religious persuasions shall per- 
 mit, as becomes loyal and faithful subjects so to 
 do." 
 
 Though the assembly appeared not unwilling to 
 contribute to the common defence, if the circum- 
 stances of the colony would permit; and although 
 the proprietary himself particularly urged a compli- 
 ance in his speech to the next following assembly ; 
 yet the nature of this requisition to such a young 
 colony, considering the principles upon which it was 
 primarily planted and founded, seems to indicate, 
 that it was not without enemies at court. The pa- 
 cific principles and motives of Penn, and of the 
 first and early adventurers in settling this wilder- 
 ness, could not possibly be less known at this time, 
 to the administration at home, than they were be- 
 fore, to the persons in power, when the charter was 
 granted by Charles II.; which expressly mentions, 
 as motives, " A commendable desire of William 
 Penn to enlarge our English empire, and promote 
 such useful commodities as may be of benefit to us, 
 and our dominions, and also to reduce the savage 
 natives, by gentle and just manners, to the love of 
 civil society, and Christian religion ;" and there- 
 fore it was judged extremely hard that they should be 
 called on for a. contribution which was contrary to 
 their well-known and long avowed principles. 
 
 In the April of 1701, Connoodaghtoh, king of 
 the Susquehanna, Minquays or Conestogo Indians ; 
 Wopaththa (alias Opessah), king of the Shawanese, 
 Weewhinjough, chief of the Ganawese, inhabiting 
 near the head of the Potomack ; also Ahookassongh, 
 brother to the emperor (or great king of the Onon- 
 dagoes), of the five nations, having arrived at Phi- 
 ladelphia, with other Indians of note, &c., in num- 
 ber about 40, after a treaty, and several speeches 
 between them and Penn in council, the following 
 deed was solemnly ratified : 
 
 " Articles of agreement, intended, made, con- 
 cluded and agreed upon at Philadelphia, the 23d day 
 of the second month, called April, 1701, between 
 William Penn, proprietary and governor of the 
 province of Pennsilvania, and territories thereunto 
 belonging, on the one part, and Connoodaghtoh, 
 king of the Indians, inhabiting upon, and about the 
 river Susquehanna, in the said province, and Wi- 
 daagh (alias Orettyagh ;) Koqueash and Andaggy, 
 Junekquagh, chiefs of the said nations of Indians ; 
 and Wopaththa, king, and Lemoytungh and Pe- 
 moyajoaagh, chiefs of the nations of the Shawanna 
 Indians; and Ahookassongh, brother to the em- 
 peror, for, and in behalf of the emperor ; and Wee- 
 whinjough, Chequittayh, Takyewsan and Woapras- 
 koa, chiefs of the nations of the Indians, inhabiting 
 in and about the northern part of the river Poto- 
 mack, in the said province, for, and in behalf of 
 themselves and successors, and their several nations 
 and people, on the other part, as followeth : 
 
 " That, as hitherto there hath always been a 
 good understanding and neighbourhood between the 
 said William Penn, and his lieutenants, since hii 
 first arrival in the said province, and the severa 
 nations of Indians, inhabiting in and about the same 
 so there shall be, for ever hereafter, a firm and last 
 ing peace continued between William Penn, his heirs 
 and successors, and all the English, and other Chris- 
 tian inhabitants of the said province and the saic 
 
 kings and chiefs, and their successors, and all the 
 several people of the nations of Indians aforesaid ; 
 and that they shall, for ever hereafter, be as one 
 lead, and one heart, and live in true friendship 
 and amity, as one people. 
 
 ' Item, That the said kings and chiefs (each for 
 limself, and his people engaging) shall, at no time, 
 mrt, injure, or defraud, or suffer to be hurt, in- 
 ured, or defrauded, by any of their Indians, any 
 nhabitant, or inhabitants of the said province 1 , either 
 heir persons or estates ; and that the said William 
 Penn, his heirs and successors, shall not suffer to 
 
 done, or committed, by any of the subjects of En- 
 gland, within the said province, any act of hostility, 
 >r violence, wrong or injury to, or against any of 
 he said Indians ; but shall, on both sides, at all 
 times, readily do justice, and perform all acts and 
 offices of friendship and good-will, to oblige each 
 ther to a lasting peac<% as aforesaid. 
 
 " Item, That all and every of the said kings and 
 chiefs, and all and every particular of the nations 
 mder them, shall, at all time?, behave themselves 
 regularly and soberly, according to the la\vs of this 
 government, while they live near, or among the 
 hristian inhabitants thereof, and that the said 
 [ndians shall have the full and free privileges and 
 mmunities of all the said laws, as any other inha- 
 bitant; they duly owning anrt acknowledging the 
 authority of the crown of England, and government 
 of this province. 
 
 ' Item, That none of the said Indians shall, at 
 any time, be aiding, assisting, or abetting any other 
 nation, whether Indians, or others, that shall not, at 
 such time, be in amity with the crown of England, 
 and with this government. 
 
 " Item, That, if, at any time, any of the said 
 Indians, by means of evil-minded persons, and 
 sowers of sedition, should hear any unkind or dis- 
 advantageous reports of the English, as if they had 
 evil designs against any of the said Indians, in such 
 case, such Indians shall send notice thereof to the 
 said William Penn, his heirs, or successors, or their 
 lieutenants, and shall not give credence to the said 
 reports, till by that means they shall be fully satis- 
 fied concerning the truth thereof ; and that the said 
 William Penn, his heirs and successors, or their 
 lieutenants, shall at all times, in such case, do the 
 like by them. 
 
 " Item, That the said kings and chiefs, and their 
 successors, shall not suffer any strange nations of 
 Indians to settle, or plant, on the further side of 
 Susquehanna, or about Potomack river, but such as 
 are there already seated, nor bring any other In- 
 dians into any part of this province, without the 
 special approbation and permission of the said Wil- 
 liam Penn, his heirs and successors. 
 
 " Item, That, for the prevention of abuses, that 
 are too frequently put upon the said Indians, in 
 trade, the said William Penn, his heirs and succes- 
 sors, shall not su|Fer, or permit, any person to trade, 
 or converse with any of the said Indians, but such as 
 shall be first allowed and approved, by an instru- 
 ment under the hand and seal of him, the said 
 William Penn, or his heirs, or successors, or their 
 lieutenants ; and that the said Indians shall suffer 
 no person whatsoever to buy or sell, or have com- 
 merce with any of them, the said Indians, but such 
 as shall first be approved, as aforesaid. 
 
 " Item, That the said Indians shall not sell, or 
 dispose of any of their skins, peltry or furs, or any 
 other effects of their hunting, to any person or per- 
 sons whatsoever, out of the said province, nor to any 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 %39 
 
 other person, but such as shall be authorised to trade 
 with them, as aforesaid : and, that for their encou- 
 ragement, the said William Penn, his heir's and suc- 
 cessors, shall take care to have them, the said In- 
 dians, duly furnished with all sorts of necessary 
 goods, for their use at reasonable rates. 
 
 " Item, That the Potornack Indians, aforesaid, 
 with their colony, shall have free leave of the said 
 William Pcnn, to settle upon any part of Potomack 
 river, within the bounds of this province: they 
 stiictly observing and practising all, and singular 
 the articles aforesaid, to them relating. 
 
 " Item, The Indians of Couestogo, upon, and 
 about, the river Su?quehanna, and more especi- 
 ally, the said Connoodaghtoh their king, doth fully 
 agree to, and. by these presents, absolutely ratify 
 the bargain and sale of lands, lying near and about 
 the said river, formerly made to the said William 
 Penn, his heirs and successors ; and since, by 
 Orettyagh and Andaggy, Junckquagh, parties to 
 these presents, confirmed to the said William Penn, 
 his heirs and successors, by a deed, bearing date, 
 the 13th day of September last, under their hands 
 and seals, duly executed. And the said Connoo- 
 daghtoh doth, for himself and his nation, covenant 
 and agree, that he will at all times be ready further 
 to confirm, and make good the said sale, according 
 to the tenor of the same ; and that the said Indians 
 of Susquehanna shall answer the said William 
 Penn, his heirs and successors, for the good beha- 
 viour and conduct of the said Potoraack Indians ; 
 and for their performing the several articles herein 
 expressed. 
 
 " Item, The said William Penn doth hereby pro- 
 mise, for himself, his heirs and successors, that he 
 and they will, at all times, shew themselves true 
 friends and brothers to all, and every of the said 
 Indians, by assisting them with the best of their 
 advices, directions and counsels, and will, in all 
 things, just and reasonable, befriend them; they 
 behaving themselves as aforesaid, and submitting to 
 the laws of this province, in all things, as the En- 
 glish and other Christians therein do ; to which 
 they, the said Indians, hereby agree and oblige 
 themselves, and their posterity for ever. 
 
 " In witness whereof, the said parties have, as a 
 confirmation, made mutual presents to each other; 
 the Indians, in five parcels of skins, and the said 
 William Penn, in several English goods and mer- 
 chandizes, as a binding pledge of the premises, 
 never to be broken or violated; and, as a further 
 testimony thereof, have also to these presents set 
 their hands and seals, the day and year above 
 written." 
 
 The proprietary having subsequently represented 
 to the council the great abuses committed in the 
 Indian trade, with the dangers and disadvantages 
 which might arise from thence to the province ; and 
 having proposed, that proper measures should be 
 concerted for its regulation, it was resolved, " that 
 some effectual method should be agreed on and used 
 for carrying on the trade by a certain number, or 
 company of persons, with a joint stock, under cer- 
 tain regulations and restrictions, more particularly 
 in regard to spirituous liquors sold them; which 
 company should use all reasonable means and en- 
 deavours to induce the Indians to a true sense of a 
 proper value and esteem of the Christian religion, 
 by setting before them good examples of probity 
 and candour, both in commerce and behaviour ; and 
 that care should be taken to have them duly in- 
 structed in the fundamentals of Christianity." 
 
 Perm's motives fr>r returning to England His speech 
 to the assembly, with their answer He takes leave 
 
 oj the Indians Disagreement between ilia province 
 and territories revived The proprietary endeavours 
 to reconcile them His letter to the assembly, urging 
 their agreement The last charter of Pennsylvania 
 The proprietary also grants a charter to the city of 
 Philadelphia Andrew Hamilton of New Jersey 
 being constituted deputy-governor, and James Lo- 
 gan secretary of the province, Penn sails for En- 
 gland. 
 
 It was thought, from some circumstances, that the 
 proprietary's real intention at this time, was to spend 
 the remainder of his life in his province ; but during 
 his absence from England, it appears that measures 
 were in agitation there for reducing both his, and 
 the other proprietary governments in America, into 
 regal ones, under pretence of advancing the prero- 
 gative of the crown, and the national advantage ; 
 and a bill for that purpose was actually brought 
 into the House of Lords. Upon this;, such of the 
 owners of land in Pennsylvania, as were then in 
 England, immediately represented the hardship of 
 their case to the parliament, soliciting time for 
 Perm's return, to answer for himself; and dis- 
 patched to him an account of the affair, and pressed 
 his return as soon as possible ; with which he found 
 it indispensably necessary to comply. This first 
 occasioned his summoning the assembly, which 
 agreed to the charter of privileges before mentioned ; 
 to whom, on the 16th of September, 1701, he made 
 the following speech : 
 " Friends, 
 
 " You cannot be more concerned than I am, at 
 the frequency of your service in assembly, since I 
 am very sensible of the trouble and charge it con- 
 tracts upon the country : but the motives being con- 
 sidered, and that you must have met of course in 
 the next month, I hope you will not think it an 
 hardship now. 
 
 " The reason that hastens your sessions, is the 
 necessity I am under, through the endeavours of 
 the enemies of the prosperity of this country, to 
 go for England, where, taking advantage of my 
 absence, some have attempted by false, or unrea- 
 sonable charges, to undermine our government, and 
 thereby the true value of our labours and prosperity. 
 Government having been our first encouragement, 
 I confess, I cannot think of such a voyage without 
 great reluctancy of mind, having promised myself 
 the quietness of a wilderness, and that I might stay 
 so long, at least with you, as to render every body 
 entirely easy and safe. For my heart is among you, 
 as well as my body, whatever some people may 
 please to think : and no unkindness, or disappoint- 
 ment shall (with submission to God's providence) 
 ever be able to alter my love to the country, and 
 resolution to return, and settle my family and 
 posterity in it: but having reason to believe, I can 
 at this time, best serve you and myself on that side 
 of the water, neither the rudeness of the season, nor 
 tender circumstances of my family, can over-rule my 
 inclinations to undertake it. 
 
 " Think, therefore, (since all men are mortal) 
 of some suitable expedient and provision, for your 
 safety, as well in your privileges, as property, and 
 you will find me ready to comply with whatsoever 
 may render us happy, by a nearer union of our 
 interests. 
 
 " Review again your laws ; propose new ones, 
 that may better your circumstances ; and what you 
 
40 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 do, do it quickly, remembering that the parliament 
 its the end of next month ; and that the sooner I 
 am there, the safer, I hope, we shall be here. 
 
 " I must recommend to your serious thoughts 
 and care the king's letter to me, for the assistance 
 of New York, with 350/. sterling, as a frontier go- 
 vernment; and therefore exposed to a much greater 
 expense, in proportion to other colonies; which I 
 called the last assembly to take into their consi- 
 deration, and they were pleased, for the reasons 
 then given, to refer to this. 
 
 " I am also to tell you the good news of the gover- 
 nor of New York's happy issue of his conferences 
 with the five nations of Indians ; that he hath not 
 only made peace with them, for the king's subjects 
 of that colony; but (as I had by some letters before 
 desired him) for those of all other governments un- 
 der the crown of England, on the continent of 
 America, as also the nations of Indians within these 
 respective colonies; which certainly merits our ac- 
 knowledgments. 
 
 " I have done, when I have told you, that unani- 
 mity and dispatch are the life of business, and that 
 I desire and expect from you, for your own sakes ; 
 since it may so much contribute to the disappoint- 
 ment of those that too long have sought the ruin of 
 our young country." 
 
 To this speech the assembly replied in the follow- 
 ing address : 
 
 " May it please the Proprietary and Governor, 
 
 " We have, this day, in our assembly, read thy 
 speech, delivered yesterday in council ; and, having 
 duly considered the same, cannot 1m t be under a 
 deep sense of sorrow, for thy purpose of so speedily 
 leaving us, and at the same time taking notice of 
 thy paternal regard to us, and our posterity, the 
 freeholders of this province and territories annexed, 
 in thy loving and kind expressions of being ready 
 to comply with whatsoever expedient and provisions 
 shall offer, for our safety, as well in privileges as 
 property, and what else may render us happy, in a 
 nearer union of interests ; not doubting the per- 
 formance of what thou hast been so lovingly pleased 
 to promise, we do, in much humility, and, as a token 
 of our gratitude, return unto thee, the unfeigned 
 thanks of this house. Subscribed by order of the 
 house, JOSEPH GROWDON, Speaker." 
 
 After this the assembly presented to him another 
 address, consisting of 21 articles. It respected his 
 successor in the government, and the confirmation 
 of certain privileges, therein specified. To every 
 one of which he made a special answer. The first 
 of these articles, so far as regarded a proper person 
 to succeed him as deputy, being particularly insisted 
 on, he condescended so much as to make them an 
 offer, to nominate a substitute themselves. From 
 which, acknowledging the favour offered them, they 
 excused themselves; declaring they did not thiirk 
 themselves qualified for the choice, and desired to 
 leave it to his pleasure. The remainder of the pe- 
 tition of this address, so far as the proprietary 
 thought proper to comply with it, was either after- 
 wards granted, in the two charters of the province 
 and city, then in agitation or otherwise mutually 
 agreed." 
 
 The sachems of the Susquehanna and Shawanna, 
 and other Indians, having come to Philadelphia to 
 take leave of the proprietary, on the 7th of October, 
 he spoke to them in council, and told them, " That 
 the assembly was then enacting a law, according to 
 their desire," to prevent their being abused by sell- 
 ing of rum among them; that h requested them to 
 
 unite all their endeavours, and their utmost extr. 
 tion, in conjunction with those of the government, 
 to put the said law in execution." 
 
 At the same time he likewise informed them, 
 " That now this was like to be his last interview 
 with them, at least before his return ; that he had 
 always loved and been kind to them; and ever 
 should continue so to be, not through any politic 
 design, or, on account of self-interest, but from a 
 most real affection :" " And he desired them, in 
 his absence, to cultivate friendship with those whom 
 he should leave behind in authority ; as they would 
 always, in some degree, continue to be so to them, 
 as himself had ever been; lastly, that be had 
 charged the members of council, and then also re- 
 newed the same charge, that they should, in all re- 
 spects, be kind to them, and entertain them with 
 all courtesy and demonstrations of good-will, as 
 himself had ever done: which the said member* 
 promised faithfully to observe; then, after making 
 them some presents, they withdrew." 
 
 But during these transactions, and while th 
 charter of privileges was under consideration and 
 preparing, the disagreement, which had before ap- 
 peared between the members of assembly for the 
 province, and those for the territories, began again 
 to exhibit itself, and tend to an open rupture. The 
 territory men were said to have been for obtaining 
 some exclusive powers, particular to themselves, 
 which, being thought unreasonable, could not, there- 
 fore, be granted ; and not being able to carry their 
 point, on the 10th instant, the members for the 
 territories abruptly left the house; declaring their 
 intention of returning to their respective homes. 
 But, on the 14th, most of them appeared before th 
 proprietary in council, remonstrating against some 
 proceedings of the assembly, on the 10th instant, 
 which they declared were in their consequence* 
 highly injurious and destructive to the privileges of 
 the " lower counties," and which, consistent with 
 their duty to their constituents, they apprehended 
 they could not sit to see carried into effect; and there- 
 fore they informed the governor they thought it best 
 for them to depart to their respective habitations. 
 
 The proprietary inquired into the affair, and 
 heard and answered all their reasons and objections; 
 and then told them, " ThaJ he took this their con* 
 duct very unkind, even to himself in particular.'* 
 
 At another meeting of the proprietary and mem- 
 bers of council, on the same day, the assembly 
 being sent for, both those for the province, and the 
 secluding members appeared ; and the proprietary 
 told them, " That his time being short, he must 
 come briefly to the point; that it was no small 
 wound to him, to think, that at the earnest desire 
 of the lower counties, as well as the good-will of 
 the upper, he had engaged in an undertaking, 
 which cost him, ^at least, two or three thousand 
 pounds to unite them, and yet, that they should now 
 endanger that union, and divide, after they had 
 been recognised as one, not only by the king's com- 
 mission to Governor Fletcher, but also by his let- 
 ters patent, far his own restoration, and the king's 
 several letters: he therefore would not have any 
 thing resolved on, but what, was considerate and 
 weighty, lest it should look as unkind, and now, at 
 his departure, carry a very ill report of them to 
 England." 
 
 The territory members objected, that they werw 
 great sufferers by that act of union, however it wa 
 at first intended ; and could not support th burden 
 of the charge. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 841 
 
 The proprietary replied, " They were free to 
 jreak off, and might act distinctly by themselves ;" 
 at which they seemed pleased, and expressed their 
 satisfaction; " but then," continued the proprietary, 
 " it must be upon amicable terms, and a good un- 
 derstanding; that they must first resolve to settle 
 the laws; and that, as the interest of the province 
 and that of those lower counties would be insepara- 
 bly the same, they should both use a conduct con 
 sistent with that relation," &c. 
 
 They appear to have remained obstinate, by the 
 following letter of the proprietary ; which was sent 
 the next day, to the speaker, to be communicated 
 to the whole house. 
 
 " Friends, 
 
 " Your union is what I desire ; but your peace, 
 and accommodating one another, is what I must 
 expect from you : the reputation of it is something ; 
 the reality much more. And I desire you to re- 
 member and observe what I say : yield in circum- 
 stantials, to preserve essentials ; and, being safe in 
 one another, you will always be so in esteem with 
 me. Make me not sad, now I am going to leave 
 you ; since it is for you, as well as for, 
 
 " Your friend and proprietary and governor, 
 " WILLIAM PENN." 
 " October 15th, 1701." 
 
 The proprietary's influence and authority appear 
 to have prevailed on them, to a present accommo- 
 dation, with the provision, in the following charter, 
 for a conditional separation, if they chose it, within 
 the space of three years. 
 
 In May 1700, the former charter had been sur- 
 rendered into the hands of the proprietary and go- 
 vernor, by six parts in seven of the assembly ; and 
 on the 28th day of October 1701, just before his 
 departure, the council, the assembly of the province, 
 and several of the principal inhabitants of Philadel- 
 phia attending, he presented them with their last 
 charter of privileges, which is as follows : 
 
 " The Charter of Privileges, 
 " Granted by William Penn, Esq., to the inhabi- 
 tants of Pennsylvania and territories. 
 
 " William Penn, proprietary and governor of the 
 province of Pennsylvania, and territories thereunto 
 belonging to all, to whom these presents shall come, 
 sendeth greeting : 
 
 " Whereas, King Charles II., by his letters pa- 
 tent, under the great seal of England, bearing date 
 the fourth day of March, in the year 1680, was 
 graciously pleased to give and grant unto me, and 
 my heirs and assigns for ever, this province of 
 Pennsylvania, with divers great powers and juris- 
 dictions, for the well government thereof. 
 
 " And whereas, the king's dearest brother, James, 
 duke of York and Albany, &c. by his deeds of feoff- 
 ment, under his hand and seal, duly perfected, 
 bearing date the 24th day of August, 1682, did grant 
 unto me, my heirs and assigns, all that tract of 
 land, now called the territories of Pennsylvania, 
 together with powers and jurisdictions for the good 
 government thereof. 
 
 " And whereas, for the encouragement of all the 
 freemen and planters that might be concerned in 
 the said province and territories, and for the good 
 government thereof, I, the said William Penn, in 
 the year 1683, for me, my years and assigns, did 
 grant and confirm unto all the freemen, planters 
 and adventurers then-in, divers liberties, franchises 
 and properties, as, by the said grant, entitled, " The 
 frame of the government of the province of Penn- 
 sylvania and territories thereunto btlonging, in 
 
 America," may appear; which charter, or frame, 
 being found, in some parts of it, not so suitable to the 
 present circumstances of the inhabitants, was, m 
 the third month, in the year 1700, delivered up to 
 me, by six parts of seven of the freemen of this 
 province and territories, in general assembly met, 
 provision being made in the said charter for that 
 end and purpose. 
 
 " And whereas, I was then pleased to promise 
 that I would restore the said charter to them again, 
 with necessary alterations, or, in lieu thereof, give 
 them another, better adapted to answer the present 
 circumstances and conditions of the said inhabitants ; 
 which they have now by the representatives, in ge- 
 neral assembly met, at Philadelphia, requested me 
 to grant. 
 
 " Know ye therefore, That, for the further well- 
 being, and good government of the said province 
 and territories ; and in pursuance of the rights and 
 powers before mentioned, I, the said William Penn, 
 do declare, grant and confirm unto all the freemen, 
 planters and adventurers, and other inhabitants 
 of, and in, the said province and territories there- 
 unto annexed, for ever. 
 
 " I. Because no people can be truly happy, 
 though under the greatest enjoyment of civil liber- 
 ties, if abridged of the freedom of their consciences, 
 as to religious profession and worship; and Almighty 
 God being the only Lord of conscience, Father of 
 lights and spirits ; and the author, as well as object 
 of all divine knowledge, faith and worship, who 
 only doth enlighten the mind, and persuade and 
 convince the understandings of people, I do hereby 
 grant and declare that no person or persons, in- 
 habiting this province or territories, who shall con- 
 fess and acknowledge one Almighty God, the Crea- 
 tor, upholder, and ruler of the world ; and profess 
 him, or themselves obliged to live quietly under the 
 civil government, shall be in any case molested, or 
 prejudiced in his or their person, or estate, because 
 of his or their conscientious persuasion, or practice, 
 nor be compelled to frequent, or maintain, any re- 
 ligious worship, place or ministry, contrary to his, 
 or their mind, or to do or suffer any other act, or 
 thing contrary to their religious persuasion. 
 
 " And that all persons, who also profess to be- 
 lieve in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, shall 
 be capable (notwithstanding their other persua- 
 sions, or practices in point of conscience and re- 
 ligion) to serve this government in any capacity, 
 both legislatively and executively, he, or they so- 
 lemnly promising, when lawfully required, allegi- 
 ance to the king, as sovereign, and fidelity to the 
 proprietary and governor, and taking the attests, 
 as now established by law, made at Newcastle, in 
 the year 1700, entitled, ' An act directing the at- 
 tests of several officers and ministers,' as now 
 amended and confirmed this present assembly. 
 
 ' II. For the well-governing of this province 
 and territories, there shall be an assembly, yearly 
 chosen by the freemen thereof, to consist of four 
 persons out of each county, of most note for virtue, 
 wisdom and ability (or of a greater number at any 
 time, as the governor and assembly shall agree), 
 upon the first day of October, for ever ; and shall 
 sit on the fourteenth of the same month at Phila- 
 delphia, unless the governor and council, for the 
 time being, shall see cause to appoint another place, 
 within the said province or territories : which as- 
 sembly shall have power to choose a speaker, and 
 other their officers ; and shall be judges of the qua- 
 lifications and elections of their own members , sit 
 
842 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 upon their own adjournments, appoint committees ; j tavern, or house of public entertainment, but such 
 propose bills, in order to pass into laws ; impeach who are first recommended to him, under the hands 
 
 criminals and redress grievances ; aud shall have 
 all other powers and privileges of an assembly, ac- 
 cording to the rights of the freeborn subjects of En- 
 gland, and as is usual in any of the king's planta- 
 tions in America. 
 
 " And if any county, or counties shall refuse, or 
 neglect to choose their respective representatives, 
 as aforesaid, or if chosen, do not meet to serve in 
 assembly, those, who are so chosen and met, shall 
 have the full power of an assembly, in as ample a 
 manner as if all the representatives had been chosen 
 and met, provided they are not less than two-thirds 
 
 of the whole number, that ought to meet 
 
 " And, that the qualifications of electors and 
 elected, and all other matters and things relating to 
 elections of representatives to serve in assemblies, 
 though not herein particularly expressed, shall be 
 and remain, as by a law of this government, made 
 at Newcastle, in the year 1700, entitled, ' An act 
 to ascertain the number of members of assembly, 
 and to regulate the elections.' 
 
 " III. That the freemen in each respective county, 
 at the time and place of meeting, for electing their 
 representatives, to serve in assembly, may, so often 
 as there shall be occasion, choose a double number 
 of persons, to present to the governor, for sheriffs 
 and coroners, to serve for three years if they so long 
 behave themselves well, out of which elections and 
 presentments the governor shall nominate and com- 
 missionate one for each of the said offices, the third 
 after such presentment, or else the first named 
 such presentment, for each office as aforesaid, shall 
 stand and serve in that office for the time before 
 respectively limited : in case of death and default 
 such vacancies shall be supplied by the governor, 
 to serve to the end of the said term. 
 
 " Provided always, ' That, if the said freemen 
 shall at any time neglect, or decline to choose a 
 person, or persons, for either, or both the aforesaid 
 offices, then, and in such case, the persons that are, 
 or shall be, in the respective offices of sheriffs or 
 coroners, at the time of election, shall remain there- 
 in, until they shall be removed by another election 
 as aforesaid. 
 
 " And, that the justices of the respective coun- 
 ties shall, or may nominate, or present to the go- 
 vernor, three persons, to serve for clerk of the peace 
 for the s-aid county, when there is a vacancy ; one 
 of wriich the governor shall commissionate within 
 ten days after such presentment, or else the firs 
 nominated, shall serve in the said office, during 
 good behaviour. 
 
 " IV. That the laws of this government t-hall be 
 in this style, viz. ' By the governor, with the conseni 
 and approbation of the freemen in general assem 
 bly met,' and shall be, after confirmation by th( 
 governor, forthwith recorded in the rolls-office, anc 
 kept at Philadelphia; unless the governor and as 
 sembly shall agree to appoint another place. 
 
 " V. That all criminals shall have the same pri 
 vileges of witnesses and council as their prosecutors 
 " VI. That no person or persons shall, or may 
 at any time hereafter, be obliged to answer an) 
 complaint, matter, or thing whatsoever relating t 
 property, before the governor and council, or in 
 any other place, but in the ordinary courts of jus 
 tice, unless appeals thereunto shall be hereafter b 
 law appointed. 
 
 " VII. That no person within this governmen 
 shall be licensed by the governor to keep ordinary 
 
 fthe justices of the respective counties, signed in 
 pen court; which justices are, and shall be, hereby 
 mpowered to suppress and forbid any person keep- 
 ng such public house, as aforesaid, upon their misbe- 
 aviour, on such penalties, as the law doth, or shall 
 irect; and to recommend others, from time to 
 ime, as they shall see occasion. 
 
 " VIII. If any person, through temptation, or 
 
 melancholy, shall destroy himself, his estate, real 
 
 nd personal, shall, notwithstanding, descend to 
 
 is wife and children, or relations, us i; he had died 
 
 d natural death ; aud if any person shall be de- 
 
 troyed or killed by casualty, or accident, there shall 
 
 >e no forfeiture to the governor by reason thereof. 
 
 "' And no act, law, or ordinance whatsoever shall, 
 at any time, hereafter be made or done, to alter, 
 :hange, or diminish the form, or effect of this 
 :harter, or of any part, or clause, therein, contraiy 
 ,o the true intent, and meaning thereof, without tho 
 consent of the governor, for the time being, and six 
 >arts of seven of the assembly met. 
 
 ' And, because the happiness of mankind de- 
 pends so much upon the enjoying o* liberty of their 
 consciences, as aforesaid, I do hereby solemnly de- 
 clare, promise and grant, for me, my heirs and as- 
 signs, that the first article of this charter, relating 
 ;o liberty of conscience, and every part and clause 
 therein, according to the true intent and meaning 
 thereof, shall be kept, and remain, without any al- 
 ;eration, inviolably for ever. 
 
 " And lastly, I, the said William Penn, proprie- 
 :ary and governor of the province of Pennsylvania, 
 and territories thereunto belonging, for myself my 
 icirs and assigns, have solemnly declared, granted, 
 and confirmed, aud do hereby solemnly declare, 
 *rant, and confirm, that neither I, my heirs or 
 assigns, shall procure or do any thing, or things, 
 whereby the liberties in this charter contained and 
 expressed, nor any part thereof, shall be infringed 
 or broken : and if any thing shall be procured or 
 done, by any person or persons, contrary to these 
 presents, it shall be held of no force or effect. 
 
 ' In witness whereof, I, the said William Peun, 
 of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, have uuto this 
 charter of liberties set my hand and broad seal, this 
 28th day of October, in the year of our Lord, 1701, 
 being the thirteenth year of the reign of King 
 William III., over England, Scotland, France, and 
 Ireland, &c., and the 21st year of my government." 
 
 " And, notwithstanding the closure and test of 
 this present charter, as aforesaid, I think fit to add 
 this following proviso thereunto, as part of the 
 same, that is to say, That, notwithstanding any 
 clause or clauses in the above-mentioned charter, 
 obliging the province and territories to join together 
 in legislation, I am content, and do hereby declare, 
 that if the representatives of the province and terri- 
 tories shall not hereafter agree to join together in 
 legislation, and that the same shall be signified to 
 me, or my deputy, in open assembly, or otherwise 
 from under the hands and seals of the representa- 
 tives, for the time being, of the province and terri- 
 tories, or the major part of either of them, at any 
 time within three years from the date hereof, that, 
 in such case, the inhabitants of each of the three 
 counties of this province shall not have less than 
 eight persons to represent them in assembly, for 
 the province; and the inhabitants of the town of 
 Philadelphia (when the said town is incorporated) 
 two persons, to represent them in assembly; and 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 84* 
 
 the inhabitants of each county in the territories shall 
 have as many persons to represent them in a dis- 
 tinct assembly for the territories as shall be by 
 them requested as aforesaid. 
 
 " Notwithstanding which separation of the pro- 
 vince and territories, in respect of legislation, I do 
 hereby promise, grant and declare, that the inhabit- 
 ants of both province and territories shall separately 
 enjoy all other liberties, privileges and benefits 
 granted jointly to them in this charter, any law, 
 usage, or custom of this government heretofore 
 made and practised, or any law made and passed 
 by the general assembly to the contrary hereof not- 
 withstanding. "WILLIAM PENN." 
 
 " This charter of privileges being distinctly read 
 in assembly, and the whole, and every part thereof, 
 being approved of, and agreed to by us, we do thank- 
 fully receive the same from our proprietary and go- 
 vernor of Philadelphia, this 28lh day of October, 
 1701. 
 
 " Signed on behalf, and by order of the assembly, 
 per JOSEPH'GROWDON, Speaker. 
 
 " Edward Shippen, Phineas Pemberton, Samuel 
 Carpenter, Griffith Owen, Caleb Pusey, Thomas 
 Story, proprietary and governor's council." 
 
 The proprietary likewise by letters patent, under 
 the gieat seal, bearing even date with this charter, 
 established a council of state for the province and 
 territories, " To' consult and assist the proprietary 
 himself, or his lieutenants, or deputies, with the best 
 of their advice and counsel, in public affairs ami 
 matters relating to the government, and to the 
 peace, well-being and safety of the people thereof; 
 and, in the absence of the proprietary, or upon the 
 lieutenant's death, or incapacity, to exercise all, 
 and singular, the powers of government," &c. 
 
 Moreover before the proprietary left the country, 
 he favoured the town of Philadelphia, then become 
 very considerable, and in a flourishing condition, 
 with a particular memorial of his benevolence, by 
 granting the inhabitants likewise a charter of privi- 
 leges, for its particular regulation. 
 
 By this deed, Philadelphia is constituted a city, 
 bounded, incorporated and endowed with certain 
 privileges and immunities. Edward Shippen was 
 appointed the first mayor; Thomas Story, the re- 
 corder, and Thomas Farmer, sheriff; and the first 
 town-clerk, and clerk of the peace, court and couits, 
 as appointed in this charter, was Robert Ashton. 
 The first aldermen thereby appointed, were Joshua 
 Carpenter, Griffith Jones, Anthony Morris, Joseph 
 Wilcox, Nathan Stanbury, Charles Read, Thomas 
 Masters, and William Carter. 
 
 The first common-council-men were, John Parsons, 
 William Hudson, William Lee, Nehemiah Allen, 
 Thomas Paschall, John Budd, junior, Edward 
 Smont, Samuel Buckley, James Atkinson, Penti- 
 cost Teague, Francis Cook, and Henry Badcock. 
 The Mayor to be chosen annually, by at least five of 
 the aldermen, and nine of the common-council ; 
 whose number was to be unlimited ; and they w r ere 
 afterwards to be chosen, in the same manner, by 
 themselves, or by the corporation ; consisting of the 
 mayor, recorder, aldermen, and common-council- 
 men, by The name of, " The mayor and common- 
 alty of Philadelphia, &c." 
 
 Having constituted Andrew Hamilton, Esq. one of 
 the proprietors of East New Jersey, and some time 
 governor of both East and West New Jersey, his 
 deputy-governor, Penn sailed for England ; James 
 Logan being, by commission, appointed secretary of 
 the province, and clerk of the council 
 
 King William dies, and is succeeded by Queen Anne 
 Penn in favour at court Governor Hamilton's ad- 
 ministration and death Province and territories 
 irreconcilable They agree to a separation in legis- 
 lation Edward Shippen, president of the council 
 Resolve of the provincial assembly after separation- 
 John Evans arrives as deputy- governor, and endea- 
 vours to reunite the province and territories in legis- 
 lation, but in vain The governor displeased with 
 the assembly of the pronince David Lloyd Gover- 
 nor's proclamation for raising a militia He meets 
 the assembly of the territories at Newcastle The 
 provincial assembly remonstrate to the proprietary- 
 The governor's speech in 1705 A very different 
 assembly elected, and more harmony succeeds 
 Thomas Chalkley's visit to the Indians at Connes- 
 togo, with a memorial of him Pennsylvania af- 
 fected in times of war, on account of the Quakert' 
 principles, 
 
 Penn arrived at Portsmouth, about the middle of 
 December. But after his return to England, the 
 bill before mentioned, for reducing the proprietary 
 governments into regal ones, which, through the 
 solicitations of his friends, had been postponed, was 
 entirely dropt. Soon after this, or, on the 18th of 
 March 1702, King William died ; and the Princess 
 Anne, succeeding to the throne, commenced her 
 reign ; and Penn being in her favour, was often at 
 court; and on that account, he took lodgings at 
 Kensington. 
 
 Governor Hamilton's administration in Pennsyl- 
 vania, after the proprietary's departure, continued 
 only till the February in the next following year, 
 when he died. The principal part of his time 
 was taken up in endeavouring a union between 
 the province and territories. For this purpose Ha- 
 milton laboured much with them, and used many 
 arguments to induce them to unite, but without suc- 
 cess. Upon his death the government devolved on 
 the council, Edward Shippen being president. 
 
 During the period of this dispute for a union be- 
 tween the representatives of the province and terri- 
 tories, not much other public business of importance 
 appears to have been transacted. The latter per- 
 sisted in an absolute refusal to join with the former, 
 in legislation, till it was finally, in the year 1703, 
 agreed and settled between them, that they should 
 compose different and distinct assemblies, entirely 
 independent of each other ; pursuant to the liberty 
 allowed by a clause in the charter for that purpose. 
 
 The province now, by charter, also claimed a sepa- 
 rate representative of its own, consisting of eight 
 members for each of the three counties, and two for the 
 city of Philadelphia; which members, being in Oct. 
 1703, convened and duly qualified according to law, 
 their first resolution was in the following words : 
 
 " Resolved, That the representatives, or dele- 
 gates, of the freeholders of this province, according 
 to the powers granted by the proprietary and gover- 
 nor, by his charter, dated the 28th day of October, 
 anno Domini 1701, may meet in assembly, on the 
 14th day of October yearly, at Philadelphia, or else- 
 where, as shall be appointed by the governor and 
 council, for the time being ; and so continue on 
 their own adjournments, from time to time, during 
 the year of their service, as they shall find occasion, 
 or think fit, for preparing bills, debating thereon, 
 and voting in order to their being passed into laws ; 
 appointing committees, redressing of grievances, 
 and impeaching of criminals, as they shall sec 
 meet, in as ample a manner as any of the assem- 
 
844. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 blies of this province and territories have hitherto at 
 any time done, or might legally do, as effectually, 
 to all intents and purposes, as any of the-neighbour- 
 ing governments, under the crown of England, have 
 power to do, according to the rights and privileges 
 of the freeborn subjects of England, as near as may 
 be, respecting the infancy of the government, and 
 the capacities of the people : and that the said as- 
 sembly, as often as the governor for the time being 
 shall require, attend on him, in order to legislation ; 
 and to answer all other just ends of assemblies, in 
 any emergencies, or reasons of state ; but shall not 
 be subject at any time to be by him adjourned, pro- 
 rogued, or dissolved." 
 
 After this, when the president and council pro- 
 posed to confer with the assembly about a proper 
 time to meet again, the latter assumed the power 
 of adjourning wholly to themselves ; and upon the 
 president and council's objecting against this ex- 
 tent of the assembly's claim of sitting wholly upon 
 their own adjournments, &c., they immediately ad- 
 journed themselves to the 1st day of the ensuing 
 May, without giving the council any further time 
 to confer with them about it. 
 
 Such was the state of affairs, when John Evans, 
 who was appointed deputy-governor by the proprie- 
 tor, with the queen's royal approbation, on the 
 death of Andrew Hamilton, arrived in the province, 
 in February, 1704; and having first augmented the 
 number of the members of council, in April con- 
 vened the representatives both of the piovince and 
 territories, at the same time and place, in the coun- 
 cil-chamber in Philadelphia. 
 
 Governor Evans, notwithstanding the agreement 
 made between the province and territories, before 
 his arrival, respecting their future separation, in le- 
 gislation, renewed the attempt for uniting them. 
 
 On this the members of the territories, who before 
 appeared to have principally occasioned the division, 
 now seemed inclined to accept the charter on cer- 
 tain conditions, and to unite with the members of 
 the province ; but the latter, who had so long been 
 hampered with the refractory behaviour of the 
 former, now, in their turn, absolutely refused to be 
 connected with them; and adhered to their prior 
 agreement for a separation. 
 
 Thus all negotiation on this head came to an 
 end; and the assembly of the province incurred 
 the governor's displeasure, by refusing to comply 
 with his recommendation ; which, with the disputes 
 that afterwards arose between them, on three bills 
 proposed by the assembly, one to confirm the 
 great charter of privileges of the province, another 
 to confirm that of the city of Philadelphia, and a 
 bill of property, which the governor refused to pass, 
 without such amendments as the assembly would 
 not agree to, occasioned such a misunderstanding 
 between the governor and the house, that but little of 
 moment appears to have been transacted during 
 the sittings of this, and the next succeeding assem- 
 bly ; at the head of both which appeared David 
 Lloyd, as speaker. 
 
 In the latter part of the year 1704, Governor 
 Evans met the assembly of the lower counties at 
 Newcastle; which was the first assembly that had 
 acted there in legislation, independent of the pro- 
 vince. Prior to the proprietary's departure, he had 
 published a proclamation, to raise a militia, among 
 those whose religious persuasion did not prevent 
 their bearing of arms ; it being in the time of the 
 war between England, France, and Spain. 
 
 But, from what had already passed between the 
 
 governor, and the assembly of the province, the latter 
 fell into such an ill humour, that in August, 1704, 
 they privately drew up a remonstrance, in a letter 
 to the proprietary ; which was said to be filled with 
 complaints, highly reflecting, even on the proprie- 
 tary himself, as well as the deputy-governor, Evans, 
 and the secretary, James Logan. And some time 
 after, when the governor heard of this, he, by a 
 written message to the house, required a copy of it; 
 which occasioned further misunderstandings. 
 
 The effect which these proceedings had with 
 the proprietary in England, may, in part, appear 
 from the governor's speech to the assembly, in th 
 early part of the year 1705, wherein he says; 
 
 " The proprietary, gentlemen, is su tar from 
 agreeing with your opinion in these matters, that 
 he is gieatly surprised to see, instead of suitable 
 supplies, for the maintenance of government, and 
 defraying public charges, for the public safety, time 
 only lost (while his constant expenses run on) in 
 disputes upon heads, which he had as fully settled 
 before his departure, as could on the best precau- 
 tions, be thought convenient, or reasonable, even 
 at a time when he was leaving you in doubt whether 
 it would be possible to divert the bill, then moving 
 in parliament, for annexing all these governments 
 to the crown ; which being now diverted, and him- 
 self secure in the possession of his right, so long as 
 his circumstances shall render the administration 
 of it practicable, he is the more astonished to find 
 you, for whose sakes chiefly, and not his own, he 
 has undergone the late fatigues, and expensive 
 troubles, in maintaining it, express no greater 
 sense of gratitude, than has hitherto appeared. 
 
 " The proprietary also further assures us, that 
 had those three bills (of which copies were sent 
 home) been passed into acts here, they would cer- 
 tainly have been vacated by her majesty, being 
 looked on by men of skill, to whom they have been 
 shewn, as very great absurdities; but, what I must 
 not be silent in is, that he highly resents that hei- 
 nous indignity, and most scandalous treatment he 
 has met with, in a letter directed not only to him- 
 self, but also to be shown to some other persons, 
 disaffected to him, in the name of the assembly and 
 people of this province, of which I have formerly 
 demanded a copy, bui was then denied it, under pre- 
 tence (when it was too late) that it should be re- 
 called : if that letter was the act of the people truly 
 represented, he thinks such proceedings are suffi- 
 cient to cancel all obligations of care over them; but 
 if done by particular persons only, and 'tis an im- 
 posture in the name of the whole, he expects the 
 country will purge themselves, and take care that 
 due satisfaction be given him. 
 
 " The proprietary (who, it is well known, has 
 hitherto supported this government) upon such 
 treatment as he has met with, is frequently solicited 
 to resign and throw up all, without any further care ; 
 but his tenderness to those in the place, whom he 
 knows to be still true and honest, prevails with him 
 to give the people yet an opportunity of shewing 
 what they will do, before all be brought to a closing 
 period. 
 
 " Methods have been taken to provoke him to 
 this, that there might be the greater shew of blame 
 for it, when done, though it could not be avoided ; 
 but assure yourselves, that he will be justified by all 
 reasonable men, for withdrawing the exercise of his 
 care over those, that being so often invited to it, 
 take so little of themselves." 
 
 The nature and consequence of these dispute! 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 845 
 
 appear to have caused a considerable change in th< 
 choice of the membprs of the next elected assembly 
 in October 1705; of which Joseph Growdon was 
 speaker. 
 
 This assembly acted so very different from the 
 two last preceding, as to produce a much better un 
 dcrstanding between them and the governor, in 
 consequent e of which a great number of laws wer 
 passed, and the public affairs of the government, for 
 a time, bore a more favourable and promising aspect 
 In this year, 1705, Thomas Chalkley, a preacher 
 among the Quakers, paid a religious visit to the 
 Indians, at Conestogo, near the river Susquehanna 
 in Pennsylvania, in company with some of his 
 friends, of the same religious society. The Indians, 
 who consisted chiefly of Senecas and Shawanese, 
 received them with great kindness : they were much 
 affected by their visit, more especially a certain 
 woman of eminence among them, who appeared to 
 have authority, and spoke much in their councils; 
 the reason for' which was, when the Indians were 
 asked, one of them replied, " Because some women 
 are wiser than some men, and that she was an em- 
 press among them." She told Thomas Chalkley, 
 and the other friends, that she looked upon the'ir 
 coming to be more than natural; because they 
 did not come to buy nor sell, nor yet gain, but in 
 love and respect to them, and desired their welfare 
 both here and hereafter. She related to them a 
 dream which she had three days before ; which, 
 being interpreted, was, " That she was in London, 
 and that London was the finest place she ever saw, 
 (it was like Philadelphia, but much larger,) and she 
 went across six streets, and in the seventh she saw 
 William Penn preaching to the people, which was a 
 great multitude; and both she and William Penn 
 rejoiced to see each other : after the meeting she 
 went to him, and he told her, that in a little time 
 he would come over and preach to them also; of 
 which she was very glad : and now, she said, her 
 dream was fulfilled ; for one of his friends was come 
 to Breach to them." And she advised the Indians to 
 hear and treat the frieuds kindly ; which they ac- 
 cordingly did. 
 
 This one instance, among many which might be 
 given, is here mentioned, to show the love and re- 
 gard these people had for the memory of William 
 Penn; as the consequence of his just and kind 
 treatment of them; and the sense which they had 
 of his regard for their real good and true happiness. 
 England was now at war with France and Spain; 
 iu consequence of which no part of the British do- 
 minions could be entirely exempt from danger. In 
 all times of war Pennsylvania is said to have been 
 exposed more or less to difficulties, on account of 
 the Quakers, who were the most important and con- 
 siderable part of the inhabitants, being principled 
 against war of every kind : but then, in consequence 
 of their pacific conduct, it was manifest, more happy 
 effects were produced, in proportion as the arts of 
 peace in a sober and industrious people are prefe- 
 rable to those of war; though they were strenuously 
 opposed, as well by the internal as by the external 
 enemies of the constitution of the province ; and 
 that both through ignorance and design. 
 
 Governor Evans's disposition and conduct Hit treat- 
 ment of the Quakers' principles on war False 
 alarm at Philadelphia Fort and exactions at New~ 
 castle Assembly's address to the governor Further 
 proceeding and dispute between the governor and 
 *u*mblyA*sembly ditpleased with the tecretcry, 
 
 James Logan -The amembly impeach the secretary 
 Headfofa remonstrance to the proprietor Diffi- 
 culties of the proprietor about this time. 
 (1705.) Governor Evans appears to have been 
 an active young man, zealous to promote what he 
 thought the service and interest of the proprietary 
 required, but not sufficiently studying the genius 
 and disposition of the people over whom he presided. 
 His zeal to push his own views in somethings, con- 
 trary to those of the assembly, tended to produce 
 such extreme opposition and dislike between them, 
 as might have had fatal effects; and his private 
 life and conduct are represented to have been such 
 as rendered him offensive to a sober and religious 
 people. He was not said to want ingenuity nor 
 abilities so much as a proper application of them. 
 But his disappointment, on his first arrival, in not 
 being able tu prevail on the assembly of the province 
 to admit of a reunion with that of the territories, 
 which he had so much set his mind upon, appear to 
 have occasioned his imprudently joining with the 
 assembly of the latter in some acts which seemed 
 more calculated to inconvenience the province, than 
 for any real utility to either. 
 
 He had endeavoured to form a militia through 
 the government, but, so far as appears, not with mu<5h 
 success. He knew the Quakers' principles were 
 against bearing arms and war, yet he appears to 
 have regarded and treated the principles of the 
 Quakers, in respect to self-defence, as a mere opinion 
 which would never endure a serious trial; and by 
 'he following imprudent scheme and experiment, 
 nstead of answering any useful intention to the 
 public, he is said not only to have alienated the 
 Quakers further from him, but also highly disgusted 
 such of the people in general as were not concerned 
 n the contrivance or execution of it. 
 
 (1706.) The governor, in conjunction with Robert 
 French, of Newcastle, Thomas Clark, an attorney, 
 if Philadelphia, and some others- of his associates, 
 t is said, for their diversion, and to try the disposi- 
 .ion of the people, -but most probably that of the 
 Quakers chiefly, concerted a scheme to raise and 
 arry on a false alarm, in order most effectually to 
 errify the inhabitants by a sudden surprise, and 
 hereby oblige them to have recourse to arms for their 
 defence. 
 
 It was at the time of the fair in Philadelphia, on 
 
 he 16th of May, 1706, that this plot was put in ex- 
 
 cution. French acted at Newcastle, by sending up 
 
 a messenger to the governor at Philadelphia, in 
 
 he greatest haste and apparent consternation, to 
 
 acquaint him that a number of vessels were then 
 
 actually in the river, and as high up as a place which 
 
 ic named. Upon this news, immediately the go- 
 
 ernor acted his part; find, by his emissaries, made it 
 
 irculate through the city ; while himself with a 
 
 drawn sword in his hand, ou horseback, rode through 
 
 he streets, in seeming great commotion, and com- 
 
 nauded and entreated oeople of all ranks to assist 
 
 n the emergency. 
 
 The stratagem in part succeeded ; and the sud- 
 lenness of the surprise threw many of the people 
 nto very great fright and consternation, insomuch 
 hat it is said some threw their plate and most valu- 
 able effects down their wells, that others hid them- 
 elvs in the best manner they could, while many 
 etired further up the river, with what they could 
 uost readily carr off ; so that some of the creekg 
 eenned full of boats and small craft; those of a 
 arger size running as far as Burlington, and some 
 n'gher up the river. 
 
846 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 But the design, it is said, was suspected by the 
 more considerate part of the people, even at the 
 beginning ; and endeavours were used to prevent its 
 taking effect ; but the conduct and artifice of the 
 governor, with the help of his numerous assistants, 
 and the easy credulity, common to the more incon- 
 siderate part of the people, very much frustrated 
 these endeavours. 
 
 James Logan, the secretary, though he was one 
 of the people called Quakers, was accused or sus- 
 pected of being privy to the affair. He denied the 
 charge ; but endeavoured to excuse the governor ; 
 which rendered him the more suspected. The de- 
 sign, though it had such a considerable effect, turned 
 out entirely contrary to the expectation of the au- 
 thors and promoters of it ; for the people were soon 
 undeceived ; and when they saw how grossly they 
 had been imposed upon, many of them so highly 
 resented it, that the authors and promoters were 
 now obliged to secure their own safety from the 
 fury of an enraged populace. 
 
 As to the Quakers, it is said the principal part of 
 them were attending their religious meeting as 
 usual on that day of the week, even in the midst of 
 the confusion ; and, as if they were aware of the 
 design, behaved themselves so far consistently, that 
 only four persons, who had any pretence to be 
 accounted of that society, appeared under arms, 
 at the place of rendezvous appointed on the occa- 
 sion. 
 
 With this action, whereby the governor rendered 
 himself odious to the generality of the inhabitants 
 of Philadelphia, may be mentioned the following; 
 by which he incurred, in a particular manner, the 
 displeasure of the trading part of the province. 
 
 Soon after the assembly of the territories had met, 
 independently of the province, the governor pro- 
 posed to them the building a fort at Newcastle; 
 upon which a law was passed there, entitled, " An act 
 for erecting and maintaining a fort for her majesty's 
 service, at the town of Newcastle upon Delaware." 
 This law imposed a duty of half-a-pound of gun- 
 powder, for every ton, on all vessels, except ships of 
 war; the major part was not owned by persons re- 
 siding on -the river and bay of Delaware ; and by it 
 all vessels, both inward and outward, were obliged 
 to stop, drop anchor, and the commander to go on 
 shore, make report, and have leave to pass, from 
 the commanding officer of the said fort, under pe- 
 nalty of paying five pounds ; besides twenty shil- 
 lings for the first gun, thirty for the second, and 
 forty for every gun afterwards, that should be fired 
 on the occasion, in case of neglect, hesides the for- 
 feiture of five pounds, for contempt. 
 
 This law was considered as a manifest infraction 
 of the privileges granted by the royal charter, and 
 still more so, from the manner in which it was put 
 in execution ; for they had legally an undoubted 
 right to the free use of the river and bay; and the 
 violent means which became necessary to enforce 
 so unjust a law, soon became a great nuisance, and 
 an intolerable grievance to the trading part of Penn- 
 sylvania, and others concerned in its commerce. 
 Besides, it was alleged, that the fort itself, as it was 
 situated and circumstanced, had it been under better 
 management, and more warrantable direction, could 
 not possibly be much security to the river, nor pro- 
 tection to the vessels that might happen to be chased 
 or assaulted in it. 
 
 The city of Philadelphia was much concerned at 
 these proceedings, and the traders were highly in- 
 censed at this invasion of their immunities ; aud 
 
 accordingly endeavours were used to have the affair 
 properly redressed, but without success. 
 
 At length Richard Hill, one of the governor's 
 council, a bold man, arid of considerable abilities 
 and influence in the province, together with Isaac 
 Norris and Samuel Preston, all Quakers, and men 
 of the first rank and esteem, were determined to 
 try to remove this nuisance, by a different method 
 from any that had been yet attempted. 
 
 Hill had a vessel, named the Philadelphia ; then 
 loaded and just going out to sea ; but doubting of 
 his captain's resolution to pass the fort, without 
 submitting to the imposition, he, in company with 
 the other two, went in the vessel down the river, 
 and dropt anchor a little before they came to the 
 fort ; Norris and Preston went on shore, to inform 
 the officers, at the fort, that the vessel was regu- 
 larly cleared ; and to use such persuasion, as they 
 were capable of, that she might pass without inter- 
 ruption, &c., but to no purpose. Hill, therefore, 
 taking command of the sloop, stood to the helm, 
 and passed the fort, without receiving any damage, 
 though the firing was kept up till he was clear ; 
 and the guns were pointed in such a direction, 
 that a shot went through the mainsail. As soon 
 as the sloop was got clear of the fort, John 
 French, the commander of it, put off in a boat, 
 manned and armed, in order to bring her to, in 
 that manner; when he came along side, Hill or- 
 dered a rope to be thrown him, upon which they 
 fastened the boat, and French went on board ; the 
 rope was then immediately cut, and the boat falling 
 a stern, French was conducted a prisoner to the 
 cabin ; who pleaded his indisposition of body: upon 
 which Hill asked him, " If that really was the case, 
 why did he come there ?" Lord Cornbury, governor 
 of New Jersey, and as such claiming to be vice-ad- 
 miral of the river Delaware, happened at that time 
 to be at Salem, a little lower down, on the Jersey 
 side of the river; and to him the prisoner was con- 
 veyed, to give an account of his conduct. In this 
 place, after French, in a coarse manner, had been, 
 sufficiently reprimanded by Lord Cornbury, upon a 
 suitable submission and promises made, he was at 
 length dismissed, but not without marks of derision 
 from some of the attendants. 
 
 This put a finishing stroke to these proceedings at 
 the fort of Newcastle ; and thus ended the enterprise. 
 But Hill did not suffer the affair to rest here ; for, 
 accompanied by a large number of the inhabitants 
 of Philadelphia, he attended the general assembly ; 
 and, by petition, laid the affair before them ; which 
 produced an address to the governor, from the 
 house, without so much as one dissenting vote, 
 dated the 10th of May, 1707, highly resenting these 
 proceedings. And it does not appear that they 
 were afterwards continued. 
 
 The act of assembly, for establishing courts of 
 judicature in the province, in the year 1701, having 
 been repealed I y the crown, the governor, in order 
 to supply the intention of that act, for the regulation 
 of courts, recommended to the consideration of the 
 house, the draught of a bill, which be had prepared 
 for that purpose. This the assembly not only re- 
 jected, but drew up one themselves, instead of it, so 
 widely different, that the governor and they were 
 not able to agree to it. Some of the enactments 
 being described by the governor, as tending- to 
 " break in upon the proprietary's powers of govern- 
 ment, or his just interest." After much dispute 
 and altercation, and time spent to no purpose, the 
 governor proceeded, by an ordinance, in such case 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 847 
 
 provided in the royal charter, to open the courts of 
 justice, till better provision and regulation should 
 be made by act of assembly. 
 
 The house- being disappointed in not carrying 
 their point, in the manner they desired, were very 
 much chagrined. They were headed by David Lloyd, 
 their speaker, as before mentioned, a person of great 
 esteem, popularity, and good character. He had 
 been brought up to the law ; but through most of his 
 public conduct, appears to have distinguished him- 
 self in nothing so much, as by his constant opposi- 
 tion to the claims of the proprietary. Having failed 
 in this contest with the governor, the assembly were 
 determined, if possible, to take their revenge on 
 the secretary, James Logan, who was also one of 
 the council ; and they accordingly pointed the force 
 of their resentment against him ; whom they re- 
 garded in great measure, as the cause of their mis- 
 carriage in the bill of courts, and of much of the 
 misunderstanding between them and the governor. 
 
 James Logan was a man of considerable abilities, 
 and was perhaps exceeded by few, in the pro- 
 vince, in that respect. He espoused and firmly sup- 
 ported the proprietary's interest, and had great in- 
 lluence in the council; but to persons of inferior 
 abilities, he is represented by some to have con- 
 ducted himself iu a manner which rendered him 
 somewhat unpopular, and sometimes provoked his 
 enemies to carry their animosity against him to un- 
 warrantable extremes. 
 
 The nature and length of this, and other disputes, 
 with the odium, which some parts of the governor's 
 private conduct are said to have created, very 
 much lessened his authority, and raised the spirit 
 of party to a higher degree than had been known 
 before. The consequence of which was, proceed- 
 ings more or less indefensible on both sides: a de- 
 tail of which, as they are published in the journals, 
 or votes of the house of assembly of those limes, 
 would be too tedious here to be minutely stated. 
 They produced a number of accusations against 
 the secretary ; which the assembly styled " articles of 
 impeachment." Upon these the assembly took mea- 
 sures to impeach him in form, before the governor, 
 as an evil counsellor, and guilty of high misde- 
 meanors. But through the governor's management 
 and protection, they were not able to effect any 
 thing further against him ; and there is on record 
 his petition to the governor and council, requesting 
 that proper measures should be taken to clear his 
 character from the false representations and gross 
 abuses of the assembly, by a fair trial. 
 
 The assembly being thus repulsed in respect to 
 Logan, were still more exasperated ; and so much 
 were they displeased with the governor's conduct, 
 that they were determined to endeavour to have him 
 removed. For this purpose, therefore, in the sum- 
 mer of the year J707, the assembly drew up a re-- 
 monstrance to the proprietary, containing the parti- 
 culars of his alleged mal-administration, with a 
 complaint against James Logan; the principal of 
 which have already been mentioned. In this re- 
 monstrance, after having reminded the proprietary 
 of their former complaints, in the year 1704, they 
 further represent : 
 
 " The lieutenant-governor's abominable and un- 
 warrantable conduct with the Indians, on a visit to 
 them, at Conestogoe. 
 
 '' His refusing to pass the bill of courts, without 
 their agreeing to his amendments ; though they only 
 left two of his objections unremoved ; and his set- 
 ting up courts by his ordinance. 
 
 " His refusal to try the secretary upon their im- 
 peachment, by questioning his own authority to 
 judge, and their's to impeach, in the method they 
 proposed. 
 
 " His imposition on the trade of the province, by 
 means of the law passed at Newcastle; whereby he 
 unjustly exacted large sums of the people ; with the 
 abuses and consequences of the said law. 
 
 " Certain unjustifiable and oppressive proceed- 
 ings, respecting the militia, which he had formed, 
 according to his proclamation before mentioned. 
 
 " His refusing to pass a bill in the year 1704, to 
 explain and confirm the charter of the city of Phila- 
 delphia. The multiplying of taverns and ale-houses 
 in the city, as nurseries of vice, by his means ; and 
 his imposing licences on the keepers of those houses, 
 without law, or precedent. 
 
 " His refusing to pass a bill in 1704, for explain- 
 ing and confirming the charter of privileges of the 
 province ; his rejecting the people's choice of sheriff 
 and coroner, for the city and county of Philadelphia, 
 in said year, contrary to the said charter: his 
 licencing several taverns and ale-houses in Phila- 
 delphia, against, and without the recommendation 
 of the city magistrates ; with his sending a message 
 to dismiss the assembly, on their complaining of 
 his conduct against the form and effect of said char- 
 ter, and known usage, &c. 
 
 " His appropriating certain monies to his own 
 use which the assembly intended otherwise ; and 
 his secreting the objections of the lords of trade to 
 certain laws which had been repealed; whereby 
 they fell again into the same error. 
 
 " The project and consequences of the false 
 alarm. 
 
 " The abritrary exaction of twelve shillings from 
 every master of a vessel outward hound, for a ' let- 
 pass,' notwithstanding their being cleared, accord- 
 ing to the acts of navigation. 
 
 " His permitting French Papists to trade with, 
 and reside among the Indians, and their wicked be- 
 haviour among them. 
 
 " His granting a commission for privateering, in 
 1706. 
 
 " His beating and evilly treating Solomon Cres- 
 son, the constable, for doing his duty at a tavern, 
 in one of his midnight revels; though he knew not 
 that the governor was there. 
 
 " His excesses and debaucheries, to the great 
 encouragement of wickedness, and weakening the 
 hands of the magistrates, by his ill example, &c." 
 
 And against the secretary, James Logan, it was 
 alleged, 
 
 " That he knew the above-mentioned alarm was 
 false ; but, instead of using such means as were in 
 his power to prevent it, he,- by his conduct, under 
 pretence of coming at the truth of the affair, made 
 it worse. 
 
 " That, as commissioner of property, to manage 
 the proprietary's land affairs, he had detained cer- 
 tain deeds for "lands, from the owners unjustly ; and 
 to some persons, denied patents for their lands, 
 to which they were entitled. 
 
 " That he had appointed wood-rangers at large, 
 over the located lands of the inhabitants, in com- 
 mon with those of the proprietary ; for which he 
 had no right ; in which accordingly they took up 
 strays, &c. in an indiscriminate manner; which 
 ought to have been restricted solely to the proprie- 
 tary's lands." 
 
 The " remonstrance" whence these were extracted, 
 was sent to their agents, George Whitehead, Wil- 
 
848 
 
 THE HISTORY OP AMERICA. 
 
 liam Mead, and Thomas Lover, in London ; with a 
 very angry letter, to be communicated to the pro- 
 prietary. 
 
 The governor, having intelligence of what was 
 going forward in the assembly, by a message to the 
 house, required them to lay before him the address 
 or representation, which he was informed they in- 
 tended to send to England; and desired they 
 would not presume to send any thing of that nature 
 out of the government, till the same had been fully 
 communicated to him, according to justice, and the 
 practice of other governments. This had no effect 
 with them; and the assembly adjourned to the 23d 
 of September. 
 
 On the first of October, at the anniversary 
 election, the choice of representatives, in assembly, 
 falling mostly on the same persons, as in the pre- 
 ceding year, consequently but little of moment was 
 done in the public affairs of the government, be- 
 sides the continuation of the former disputes and 
 altercations, respecting the bill of courts, and the 
 other obnoxious parts of the governor's administra- 
 tion; whence both sides became less disposed to 
 unite in any salutary purpose, for the public good. 
 
 But it is observed of these proceedings; that al- 
 though the parties were very free with each other's 
 conduct, yet they kept within the rules of decorum; 
 and, in all their differences, both parties, in the 
 strongest terms, professed their sincerest desires and 
 intentions thereby, for the service of their country ; 
 and that they had nothing so much in view, in these 
 proceedings, as the real and best advantage of the 
 community. 
 
 In this state continued the affairs of the province 
 till the beginning of the year 1709, when the as- 
 sembly's complaints to the proprietary having 
 proved effectual, Governor Evans was removed from 
 the administration, and Charles Gookin succeeded 
 him in the government. 
 
 It appears not improbable, but that the proprie- 
 tary for some time past must have been under no 
 small uneasiness and difficulty respecting bis pro- 
 vince. His great generosity and expense, in set- 
 tling it, with his other acts of beneficence, and the 
 attention due to such a series of conduct, had so far 
 impaired his estate in Europe, and involved him in 
 debt, that in the year 1708, in order to pay the 
 same, he borrowed from certain of his friends a large 
 sum of money ; for which he mortgaged the province. 
 
 Besides, it cannot be supposed, but that the na- 
 ture of the disputes between the assembly and his 
 deputy-governor must have been very disagreeable 
 to him ; for, notwithstanding what appears to have 
 been defective in the conduct of the latter, it was 
 then visible, and more so afterwards, in part of the 
 transactions of some of these assembles, that a dis- 
 contented and factious disposition was increasing 
 in the province; endeavouring to render the go- 
 vernment uneasy to him. It is certain that, had 
 the proprietary made use of the means, then ab- 
 solutely in his power, and which would have been 
 to his immediate advantage, he might have disposed 
 of the government to the crown ; to which his pri- 
 vate circumstances, the solicitations of the ministry, 
 and this conduct in the province, so much incited 
 him. 
 
 Governor Gookin arrives Assembly's address to the 
 governor They continue their former animosity 
 The governor'* answer; to which the assembly re- 
 ply The council's address to the governor The 
 owsinWy displeased with the council, and present a 
 
 remonstrance of grievances to the governor Tht 
 governor's speech to the assembly, containing a mili- 
 tary requisition in 1709. 
 
 Governor Gookin arrived at Philadelphia, in the 
 first month, March, 1709. The proprietary, in a 
 letter to his friends in the province, recommended 
 him as a person of experience and moderation, as 
 well as of good character and abilities; descended 
 of a good family in Ireland ; and that, having taken 
 leave of a military life, and his native country, he 
 came with intention, if he found the place agreeable 
 to his expectation, to settle, and spend the remain- 
 der of his life and fortune in the province. 
 
 The assembly was sitting at the time of his ar- 
 rival, and immediately presented him with the fol- 
 lowing congratulatory address. 
 
 " The address of the representatives of the free- 
 men of the province of Pennsylvania, in assembly 
 met, the 9th day of the month called March, 1709, 
 presented to Charles Gookin, Esq., by the queen's 
 royal approbation, lieutenant-governor of the said 
 province, &c. 
 
 " May it please the Governor, 
 
 " Having this opportunity, we can do no less 
 than congratulate thy seasonable accession to this 
 government, and render our most grateful acknow- 
 ledgments to the queen, for her gracious acceptance 
 of the proprietary's nomination of thee, to supply 
 his absence, and to him, for constituting a person of 
 so fair a character, furnished, as we hope, with a 
 full resolution, as well as power, to redress the grie- 
 vances, and remove the oppressions that this poor 
 province has, for some time, laboured under, occa- 
 sioned by the irregular administration of the late 
 deputy-governor; who was too much influenced by 
 evil counsel; to which the miseries and confusion 
 of the state, and divisions in the government, are 
 principally owing. 
 
 " We are ready to represent such of those public 
 grievances as are laid before us, or occur to our 
 knowledge, in particular articles, and bring them to 
 a proper examen; but, perceiving by thy message 
 to the house yesterday, that thou art not ready, at 
 this time, to proceed with us to business, we shall 
 take leave only to mention some of those things, of 
 which the public weal of this country loudly calls 
 for a most earnest application and speedy redress. 
 
 " In the first place, we are to- lay before thee 
 that of the false alarm in May 1706; wherein the 
 late governor was chief actor; and for which he is 
 highly chargeable; having shot at the queen's sub- 
 jects, putting many of the inhabitants of this town 
 in danger of their lives, and forced great quantities 
 of powder and lead from the owners, and gave it to 
 such as wasted it, when he knew there was no occa- 
 sion to use it; whereby he deprived the place of 
 what ammunition might be ready for those, that 
 had freedom to make use of it for their defence in 
 case of an attack. 
 
 " The next is that notorious act of hostility he 
 committed by firing shot at the queen's subjects 
 passing by Newcastle in the river, upon their lawful 
 trade to and from this port. 
 
 " We mention these, as they are, in our opinion, 
 offences of a deep dye, and committed against the 
 queen's crown and dignity, as well as against the 
 peace, and ought to be charged upon him, before he 
 departs this province; but the method of the prose- 
 cution against him we submit to thy prudent care 
 and discretion, and we shall be ready to do what it 
 proper on our part*. 
 
UNITED STATES 
 
 849 
 
 "That the treasurer (S. Carpenter) of the last 
 tax has refused to comply with the directions of 
 the assembly in paying the public debts, according 
 to the respective orders drawn upon him, and signed 
 by the speaker; and that the collectors of the said 
 tax who neglected their duty in gathering the same, 
 have not been obliged thereunto, according as the 
 act of assembly in that case directs, and more par- 
 ticularly the collector of the city and county of Phi- 
 ladelphia. 
 
 " That the courts of judicature of this province 
 have been, and are, erected by ordinances of the 
 governor and council, against the advice, and with- 
 out the assent of the assembly ; which we complain 
 of as a great oppression and aggrievance to the peo- 
 ple we represent, and desire the same may be 
 speedily redressed, and the bill prepared for the 
 establishing courts, with other useful bills, ready to 
 be presented to the governor, maybe considered. 
 
 " We are given to understand that thou brought 
 some commands from the queen to this government, 
 as well as instructions from the proprietary, relating 
 to the public, which, with a copy of thy commission, 
 and the royal approbation, we desire may be com- 
 municated to this house at our next meeting, which 
 we intend on the 20th day of the next month, and 
 shall adjourn accordingly, unless it be thy pleasure 
 to call us sooner ; which we shall be ready to comply 
 with, not only in expectation of a speedy redress of 
 our grievances, but to settle by law, how money shall 
 be paid upon contracts made, before the new cur- 
 rency of money takes effect. 
 
 " Signed by order of the House, 
 
 " DAVID LLOYD, Speaker." 
 
 Thus, by the assembly's very first address to Go- 
 vernor Gookin, were the former animosities con- 
 tinued ; for the principal and ruling members of 
 the house were still the same, who had so long been 
 accustomed to complain of grievances, or imagine 
 things of that kind. Evans's wrong or impru- 
 dent conduct had made such deep impression on 
 their minds, and disposed them so much to a discon- 
 tented and angry disposition, that in some of their 
 representations, they appear not only to have ex- 
 aggerated what might truly be called grievances, 
 but also complained of many things as such, which, 
 according to the laws and constitution, could not pro- 
 perly come under that name. 
 
 The governor gave a reply to the assembly's ad- 
 dress on the 13th of April ensuing, as follows : 
 
 " Gentlemen, 
 
 " It would have proved a much greater satisfac- 
 tion to me, if at this first time of my speaking to 
 you, I had nothing to take notice of, but what I 
 myself might have to lay before you; but. your ad- 
 dress, presented to me in March last, when you 
 sent me notice that you were sitting, will, before 
 we proceed to any other business, require some 
 answer ; in which I will be plain and short, as the 
 matter will bear. 
 
 " I thank you, gentlemen, for your congratula- 
 tions, and do assure you, that I come with full reso- 
 lutions on my part, to employ the power, with which 
 the proprietary has thought fit to honour me, and 
 her majesty has graciously pleased to approve of, to 
 render the people of this government as happy and 
 easy as is possible for me, in ail things that shall 
 concern their true interest, and be to their real ad- 
 vantage. I have enquired what might be meant by 
 those aggrievances, oppressions and confusions, 
 which you complain of, and whatsoever I shall meet 
 with, that deserves those names, shall have my 
 HIST. OF AMER. Nos. 107 & 108. 
 
 ready concurrence to remove them, as far as they 
 shall appear ; but I must say, that I believe, one 
 effectual method, to free all people from the appre- 
 hensions of grievances, will be to lay all former 
 animosities and jealousies asido, and, for the future, 
 apply themselves to such business as they are con- 
 cerned in for the public, with a freedom and open- 
 ness of temper, and an unbiassed inclination to 
 promote the common good, without any other par- 
 ticular view : if we should be so fortunate as to take 
 example from her majesty's glorious administration 
 of her dominions at home, and that of her par- 
 liament, we should not fail of being extremely 
 happy. 
 
 " As to those two past actions of my immediate 
 predecessor, of which you complain, I can only 
 inform you, that they were both well known in 
 Britain, before I left it ; and that I had no direc- 
 tions to make any enquiry into them ; and that, 
 upon the best advice I can receive here, I find they 
 will not properly fall under my cognizance, in the 
 station I am placed in, and therefore cannot think 
 it fit to concern myself with them. 
 
 " But I am obliged to observe to you that the 
 council of the province, now with me, think them- 
 selves very unjustly treated by' the mention you 
 have made of them, if they (as it is generally un- 
 derstood) be intended by the evil counsel, of which 
 you have taken notice ; and therefore will take the 
 liberty to vindicate themselves, as you will see, by 
 their application to me ; to which I refer you. 
 
 " The charge against the treasurer, (S. Carpen- 
 ter,) I find is occasioned by his and the council's 
 understanding the act of assembly, by which the 
 money, that comes into his hands, has been granted, 
 somewhat differently from what the present and late 
 houses of representatives have done : he pleads the 
 law, as his best direction ; and you cannot but 
 agree that it is fit that this alone (I mean the law,) 
 ought to determine the matter. As far as I have 
 hitherto been able, I have pressed the collection of 
 the taxes, and shall continue the best of my care, 
 until they be finished. 
 
 " The method of establishing courts by the go- 
 vernor and council, was also well understood in 
 Great Britain, and was approved of there, as being 
 grounded on unquestionable powers, granted the 
 proprietary. The bill formerly proposed by the 
 assembly for that purpose, which is now before the 
 board, has not been allowed of; but seeing the pre- 
 sent establishment, which was drawn, as I am in- 
 formed, according to the plan laid down in that 
 bill, carries some inconveniences with it, and re- 
 quires an alteration. I shall be ready to agree to 
 any other reasonable bill, that you shall hereafter 
 propose, for settling courts of judicature, in such a 
 regular method, as may be a lasting rule for hold- 
 ing them. 
 
 ' I have no instructions, gentlemen, from her 
 majesty, that will concern you ; those from the 
 proprietary being to myself, as occasion offers, and 
 where it may be proper, I shall acquaint you with 
 the particulars. I have ordered copies of my com- 
 mission, and her majesty's approbation to be pre- 
 pared and delivered to you. 
 
 " I should now propose to your serious considera- 
 tion some other matters of the highest importance, 
 without which government cannot long subsist ; as 
 a due provision for the support of it, and for the 
 security of the people ; but what I shall principally 
 recommend to you, at this time, is the latter part 
 of the last paragraph of your address, viz. To pre- 
 4 D 
 
850 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 pare a bill for settling by law, how money shall Le 
 paid upon contracts made, and to be made, before 
 the uew currency of money takes effect : this, as I 
 find, by the great uneasiness of the people, is a 
 matter that will require a very speedy provision, 
 and, therefore, hope you will find such just and equal 
 methods for it> as neither the debtors, on the one 
 hand, nor creditors on the other, may suffer by the 
 alteration ; to which I desire you may forthwith 
 proceed, with as little loss of time as is possible ; 
 after which we may have opportunity to enter into 
 consideration of such other matters as may naturally 
 fall before you." 
 
 The governor's speech produced an answer from 
 the assembly on the 14th; in which, besides insist- 
 ing on what they had before advanced, they dis- 
 tinguished what they meant in their address, when 
 they said, " The late governor was too much in- 
 fluenced by evil counsel," by expressly throwing the 
 whole blame on James Logan, and some other per- 
 sons, who were not of the governor's council. They 
 also promised to make due provision for the support 
 of government; and agreed to consider and pre- 
 pare the bill, which the governor recommended, as 
 a very necessary part of their business ; and then 
 they hoped and expected a redress of their griev- 
 ances. 
 
 The following is the council's address to the go- 
 vernor, in reference to the " evil counsel," men- 
 tioned in the address of the assembly. 
 
 " To the honourable Charles Gookin, Esq. lieu- 
 tenant-governor of the province of Pennsylvania, 
 and counties of Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex, on 
 Delaware. 
 
 " May it please the Governor, 
 
 '' We, the members of council for the said pro- 
 vince, who attended the board during the adminis- 
 tration of the late lieutenant-governor, upon view- 
 ing the address presented by the assembly on the 
 9th day of March last, think ourselves obliged to 
 observe, that in the first paragraph of it, complain- 
 ing of aggrievances and oppressions, which, they 
 say, this province has, for some time laboured under, 
 occasioned by the irregular administration of the 
 late deputy-g'overnor, they have thought fit to add 
 these words, ' who was too much influenced by evil 
 counsel ;' to whom the miseries and confusions of 
 the state, and divisions in the government, are prin- 
 cipally owing. 
 
 " It was long, may it please the governor, before 
 we could induce ourselves to believe, that men, so 
 well acquainted with the characters of most of us, in 
 our several stations in the country, could possibly 
 intend us by the charge, until, by the observations 
 of others, we were forced to take a nearer notice of 
 the expressions; upon which we are sorry to find, 
 that the word counsel, as there used, together with 
 the general construction of the sentence, seems not 
 to admit of any other interpretation, but that to us 
 principally is owing whatever the assembly has 
 thought fit to complain of, or can reduce, under the 
 general terms they have used: if they will disavow 
 any such intention, we shall crave no other satis- 
 faction ; but, if not, we must then desire that they, 
 and all men concerned in these affairs, may know, 
 
 " That, notwithstanding the proprietary and late 
 lieutenant-governor, according to the established 
 rules in all governments whatsoever, from the most 
 polite to the most, barbarous, nations in the world, 
 finding themselves under a necessity of having a 
 council about them, to advise with, in affairs of 
 government, have thought fit to choose us for that 
 
 service, in which, according to our several solemn 
 engagements, we have acquitted ourselves, to the 
 aest of our judgments and abilities, yet not one of 
 us receives, or ever expects, any other advantage 
 by it, than the satisfaction of having discharged 
 our duties to the country we live in, and to advance 
 the prosperity and happiness of it, as much as may 
 lie in our power. We have no salaries, nor allow- 
 ance paid us by the country for this, nor offices of 
 profit to encourage us; what we do is at our own 
 expense of time, trouble, and charge, and upon our 
 own estates is all our dependence, which, giving us 
 as good an interest in the country as others can 
 pretend to, and being out of the reach of any pos- 
 sible views different from the good of the whole, no 
 man, without a manifest violence to his reason, can 
 imagine but that we are as much concerned, and, 
 therefore, would be as careful to prevent and divert 
 any miseries, confusions, or divisions, that may 
 threaten the province, as any other set of men 
 whatsoever; so that this charge from the assembly, 
 f levelled against us, is not only unjust, but will be 
 
 udged, we believe, exceedingly ungrateful, by all 
 that impartially consider us, and our circumstances, 
 among our neighbours. 
 
 ' After this general accusation, involving us in 
 all things that have -been irregularly committed, or 
 that any person can think so to have been, they 
 enumerate four particulars, which they call ag- 
 
 rievances. To the two first we have nothing to 
 say; and we hope no man can believe that any one 
 of us was so much as privy to them, much less that 
 we advised them ; we here solemnly declare, each 
 for himself, that we did not. The other two we ac- 
 knowledge ourselves to be concerned in, and shall 
 always justify: that is, first, That we advised the 
 treasurer to take his directions from the law alone, 
 and without regard to the partial order of the as- 
 sembly to the contrary, to make his payments in 
 equal portions ; which, we hope, cannot be ac- 
 counted a grievance: and in the next, To prevent 
 the greatest of all possible grievances, the want of 
 public justice, of which, by the measures taken by 
 the assembly of that time, the country was long de- 
 prived ; we advised the governor to make use of 
 the powers with which he was unquestionably vested, 
 to open the courts again, and to restore the courts 
 of justice to the oppressed country ; which had long 
 languished through the want of it, until they could 
 be otherwise established. Men unacquainted with 
 affairs of this kind, and who must take their infor- 
 mation from others, may be imposed on by persons 
 of design, and believe that to be irregular, which, in 
 itself, is a most wholesome and necessary act; but 
 we can, with assurance, affirm, that we had full sa- 
 tisfaction, from men of the best abilities, that what 
 we advised and concurred in this matter, was regu- 
 lar, just, and legal. 
 
 " Upon the whole, may it please the governor, 
 though, on the one hand, we shall be exceedingly 
 unwilling to have any misunderstanding with the re- 
 presentatives of the people, well knowing it to be 
 an unhappiness, that all reasonable measures should 
 be taken to prevent; yet, on the other, we shall not, 
 by any contrivances, be diverted from discharging 
 the trust reposed in us. during our continuance in 
 this station, with honour and justice, to the best oi 
 our abilities; but, from time to time, shall offer to 
 the governor snch advice as we shall judge most 
 conducive to the general good of the province ; in 
 the wel't'are of which we are so nearly concerned, in 
 our several private interests; and in the meantime, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 851 
 
 hope we may justly expect to be secured from ca- 
 lumny and misrepresentation. 
 
 " Edward Shippen, Samuel Carpenter, Joseph 
 Growdon, Jasper Yeates, Samuel Finney, William 
 Trent, Caleb Pusey, Richard Hill. 
 
 " With an exception to what is said of offices of 
 profit, though I enjoy none, as a member of council, 
 I sign this. " JAMES LOGAN. 
 
 " Philadelphia, April 13, 1709." 
 
 The governor having laid this representation of 
 the council before the assembly, it produced an ad- 
 dress to him, by way of answer, from the house. 
 In this they blamed the council, for seeming to ap- 
 ply to themselves, in general, what was meant by 
 the words evil counsel; of which, they said, they 
 had given their explanation before, in their answer 
 to the governor's speech. They were displeased at 
 the council's declaring they had nothing to say re- 
 specting the two particulars of Evans's conduct, 
 mentioned in the assembly's address, viz. That of 
 the false alarm, in 1 706. and the affair at Newcas- 
 tle. As to the other two points, in regard to the 
 councils advising the treasurer and the governor, 
 as they acknowledge themselves to have done; the 
 assembly appeared incensed at the council's pre- 
 suming to do the former, as it was not properly 
 their office ; and they censured them for opposing 
 the late assembly in their advice to the governor, on 
 the bill of courts, and their assenting, at the same 
 time, to the governor's ordinance, for carrying into 
 execution the same thing, and so nearly in the 
 same manner, that the said bill was intended to do; 
 in short, they were angry that the council should 
 present, (in their words, patronize) such an address, 
 so opposite to the views of the house, and declared, 
 they considered it as an indignity offered to them, 
 as well as to the late assembly. 
 
 After this was laid before the governor, the as- 
 sembly presented a remonstrance, complaining of 
 many circumstances which they styled grievances, 
 and requesting his concurrence to remove and re- 
 dress the same. Some of these seem to have been 
 very trifling, and to have been complained of to 
 gratify the temper of the house ; the rest have al- 
 ready been mostly mentioned. 
 
 The resentment of Lloyd, the speaker, against 
 Logan, and the ready devotion of the house to his 
 humour, are represented to have had too much 
 place, in some of these transactions. It is scarcely 
 to be doubted that there was real occasion, in some 
 cases, to complain of grievances, which demanded 
 proper attention and relief; but the word "griev- 
 ance" was become common, and so often used, that 
 its proper application seems not always to have 
 been sufficiently attended to. 
 
 After having presented their remonstrance, the 
 house adjourned ; and at their next meeting, on the 
 1st of June, the governor made them the following 
 speech, viz. 
 
 " Gentlemen, 
 
 " The queen, for the good of her subjects of the 
 provinces, has fitted out an expedition with great 
 expense, for the retaking of Newfoundland, and for 
 the conquest of Canada, and has entrusted Colonel 
 Vetch with her majesty's letters to the respective 
 governors, and instructions to agree on proper mea- 
 sures, for putting her majesty's designs in execu- 
 tion. Boston, lihode Island and Connecticut, have 
 outdone her majesty's expectations ; and I hope we 
 shall not be wanting in our duty. 
 
 " The quota for this province is 150 men, besides 
 officers, to be victualled and paid, as those of the 
 
 other governments ; the charge, I suppose, will 
 amount to about 4000J. 
 
 " Perhaps it may seem difficult to raise that num- 
 ber of men, in a country where most of the inhabi- 
 tants are obliged, by their principles, not to make 
 use of arms ; but if you will raise, for the support of 
 government, the sum demanded, I do not doubt 
 getting the number of men, whose principles allow 
 the use of them, and commissioners may be ap- 
 pointed for disposal of the country's money ; that 
 the people may be satisfied, that the money is ap- 
 plied to no other use than this expedition. 
 
 " I must recormnend to you the present circum- 
 stances of the three lower counties ; you are not 
 now falsely alarmed; Newcastle seems the only 
 place proper to make any defence; I find them 
 ready and willing to do any thing in their power for 
 the good of the country, and look on themselves as 
 a frontier to you, though a weak one; and if they 
 perish, in all probability, your destruction will not 
 be far off; therefore, in my opinion, it is your inter- 
 est, that they be furnished with all things necessary 
 to oppose the enemy. 
 
 " I have only to add, that, as all private affairs 
 ought to be postponed to her majesty's immediate 
 service, so it will not consist with my duty to hearken 
 to any proposals, or enter into any business with 
 you, till her majesty's commands be complied with ; 
 and, therefore, desire you will give this affair all 
 possible dispatch." 
 
 The assembly vote a present to the queen Tlie gover- 
 nor 1 not satisfied with their offer ; and they adjourn 
 Proceedings of the next meeting of assembly' 
 They agree to augment the sum, voted before to the 
 queen and request the governor's concurrence to 
 divers bills Further dispute between the governor 
 and assembly ; with reasons of the former for not 
 agreeing with the latter ; upon which they remon- 
 strate to the governor, and are much displeased with 
 the secretary, James Logan Proceedings between 
 the governor, and the next assembly Their pro- 
 ceedings against James Logan They are disap- 
 pointed in their design against him by the governor 
 The secretary goes to England, 8fc. 
 
 The assembly having considered the governor's 
 speech, several of the members consulted a number 
 of their principal constituents ; and in their address, 
 or answer to the governor, they declared, 
 
 " That were it not, that the raising of money to 
 hire men to fight (or kill one another) was matter 
 of conscience to them, and against their religious 
 principles, they should not be wanting, according 
 to their abilities, to contribute to those designs." 
 They expressed their regard and loyalty to the 
 queen, and their prayer for the long continuance of 
 her reign, and concluded, " That, though they could 
 not, for conscience sake, comply with the furnishing 
 a supply for such a defence, as the governor pro- 
 posed, yet, in point of gratitude to the queen, for 
 her great and many favours to them, they had re- 
 solved to raise a present of 500/." &c. 
 
 To this they added, in their address, " That 
 they humbly hoped he would be pleased to accept 
 this, as a testimony of their unfeigned loyalty, and 
 thankful acknowledgment for her grace 'and cle- 
 mency towards them, and the rest of her subjects ; 
 and though the meanness of the present were such 
 as was unworthy of the favour of her acceptance, 
 (which indeed, said they, was caused not through 
 want of good-will, and loyal affection, but by in- 
 ability and poverty, occasioned by great, losses, late 
 
 4 D 2 
 
852 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 taxes misapplied, lowness of the staple commo- 
 dities of the country, great damp upon trade, and 
 their neighbours' non-compliance with the queen's 
 proclamation for reducing the coin,) yet they hoped 
 she would be graciously pleased to regard the hearty 
 and cordial affections of them, her poor subjects, in- 
 stead of a present of value ; and to prevent mis- 
 application thereof, they had agreed, that it should 
 be -accounted part of the queen's revenue. 
 
 " They, therefore, humbly entreated the gover- 
 nor to put a candid construction upon their pro- 
 ceedings, and represent them favourably to their 
 gracious sovereign the queen ; to whom they 
 trusted they should ever approve themselves 
 (though poor) her most loyal and dutiful sub- 
 jects," &c. 
 
 The governor was dissatisfied with this answer, 
 principally on account of the smallness of the sum ; 
 and, in reply, represented the urgent necessity of 
 their further exerting themselves, on the occasion. 
 But the assembly pleaded their poverty and inabi- 
 lity, and adhered to their resolve of presenting the 
 queen with 500., requesting the governor to con- 
 sider the nature of such a refusal, and of his inter- 
 posing between them and their sovereign, in such 
 a case. 
 
 The governor again, in his turn, pressed their 
 compliance to a more general contribution, de- 
 claring his present conduct in the affair, to be his 
 indispensable duty, in consequence of the queen's 
 letter ; and of the utmost importance to them, to 
 secure her favour, and disappoint those who de- 
 sired a dissolution of the present government. 
 
 After this several messages and answers passed 
 between the governor and assembly, on the subject, 
 but without any effect; for the house, being de- 
 termined to adhere to their resolve, declared, 
 that, as the governor had refused to give his assent 
 to their proposal of raising the 500Z., above men- 
 tioned, and to proceed to other business, till it was 
 now late in the season, they would adjourn till the 
 harvest was over. 
 
 Of this the governor, being informed by a writ- 
 ten message from the house, it produced further 
 altercation ; the governor being determined to pro- 
 ceed to no other business till that of the queen was 
 first settled ; and the house declaring, they woulc 
 not agree to the governor's proposal of raising 
 money, either directly or indirectly, for the expedi 
 tion to Canada, for the reasons they had given 
 yet they continued their resolution of raising 500/. 
 as a present to the queen, and intended to prepan 
 a bill for that purpose, at their next meeting, on 
 the 15th day of August next; to which time they 
 adjourned. 
 
 The governor convened the assembly before the 
 time, to which they had adjourned ; and told them 
 " That their enemies, having plundered Lewistown 
 watered in the bay, and sounded it as they passei 
 along, gave alarming apprehensions of a neare 
 visit ; and that he demanded some provision to bi 
 immediately made, in case of emergency." " Tha 
 the chiefs of several Indian nations, being in town 
 a supply was immediately requisite, to make them 
 a suitable present ; that the importance of thei 
 friendship, and the easy terms of maintaining il 
 were sufficiently evident." " That, pf the money 
 which had been appropriated for tha-t use, now no 
 thing remained for a present to them ; and that 
 though money could not so suddenly be raised, a 
 the case required, yet they might find means t 
 procure credit, so as that they might not go awa 
 
 mpty." " That there was no manner of provi- 
 on for the governor's support ; that the proprie- 
 iry, on whom the assembly had too often had ex- 
 ectation in the case, had, by his late hard treat- 
 nent, from some whom he had too far trusted, 
 een entirely disabled (were it in itself reason- 
 ble) to continue any such provision ; conse- 
 uently their immediate resolution was absolutely 
 ecessary to contribute what was proper in this 
 oint; otherwise they must expect a change that 
 ould prove more chargeable." 
 
 The assembly expressed their concern for what 
 ad happened at Lewistown ; and stated that the 
 overnor was already acquainted how far the ge- 
 erality of the people of the province could op- 
 ose such an attempt. They wondered that, after 
 uch large sums, raised for the support of govern- 
 ment, they were notwithstanding left so unprovided, 
 s the governor had represented; and they earnestly 
 equested his assistance to call the late governor 
 nd secretary to account for the money, which, they 
 aid, should have been applied to the use of the pub- 
 ic. To the 500J., which they had already voted, they 
 greed to add 300/. more for the other necessary 
 xpenses, besides 200/. towards the governor's sup- 
 iort. They intimated thoir expectation of his con- 
 urrence to redress their grievances, and recom- 
 nended to his consideration a number of bills, pre- 
 lared by former assemblies, and agreed to by the 
 >resent; of which one was for establishing courts; 
 o all which they desired to have his concurrence, 
 r to know his objections. 
 
 These bills were twelve in number ; their titles 
 were, 1. For establishing courts of judicature, in 
 .he province. 2. For regulating and establishing 
 'ees. 3. For confirming patents and grants, and 
 o prevent law-suits. 4. For empowering religious 
 societies, towns, &c., to buy, hold and dispose of 
 and, &c. 5. Of privilege to a freeman. 6. To 
 oblige witnesses to give evidence, and to prevent 
 Vise swearing. 7. To prevent the sale of ill-tanned 
 eather. 8. That no public-bouse or inn, withiu 
 Lhe province, be kept without licence. 9. Against 
 menacing, and assault and battery. 10. To pre- 
 vent disputes, which may hereafter arise about 
 dates of conveyances, and other instruments and 
 writings. 11. For the more effectual raising of 
 levies, in the several counties of the province, and 
 the city of Philadelphia, and appropriating the 
 same, 12. For the priority of the payment of debts 
 to the inhabitants of this province. 
 
 The governor, in reply, acknowledged he was 
 sensible, that many inhabitants of the province could 
 not, in any case, bear arms ; so he did not propose it 
 to them, but only a necessary supply in money, 
 without engaging any man against his religious 
 persuasion. That, in regard to what they had said 
 respecting Colonel Evans and the secretary, he 
 could not understand it ; the former having affirmed, 
 he received only what was directly allowed by the 
 assembly for his own support, and thought himself 
 not at all accountable for it; and thai the secretary 
 seemed to wonder what should induce the house to 
 name him upon that occasion ; there being none of it 
 payable to him, but for his own services as an offi- 
 cer. That he thanked them, for taking his support 
 into their consideration, hoping future provision of 
 that kind would be made more easy ; and that he 
 would readily agree to any thing consistent with his 
 duty, and the trust reposed in him. 
 
 That, respecting the bills, the proprietary was 
 not at all opposed to establishing courts by law, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 853 
 
 yet his instructions would not permit him to agree 
 to those points in the bill/ which broke in, either 
 upon his powers in government, or his just interest; 
 why such a bill should interfere with these, he could 
 not see ; but as he was willing to agree to a bill, for 
 the ease and security of the people, in that respect, 
 properly regulated, and on his part, to do his duty, 
 so he hoped they would be careful to offer him no- 
 thing that he could not assent to, without a viola- 
 tion of his honour and trust. He recommended their 
 reviewing the bills, passed by the former assemblies; 
 and thanked them for the provision, which they 
 had made for the Indians. This speech concluded 
 the sessions. 
 
 The assembly at their next sitting in August, not- 
 withstanding the governor's warning, still remained 
 tenacious of their own method, and adhered to their 
 former claims. Upon which, at their next meeting, 
 on the 28th of Sept., he sent them a written message, 
 which concludes with the following paragraph : 
 
 " But now, gentlemen, I must be so plain as to 
 tell you, that, though I have been very desirous to 
 see all these matters brought to a ripeness, that 
 they might actually be passed into laws, yet, until 
 I see the country as ready to discharge their duty, 
 in providing for my support, in the administration, 
 independent of anj supply from the proprietary, who, 
 as I told you before, cannot now (were it even rea- 
 sonable) spare any part of his estate here, to that 
 purpose, I shall account myself very unjust to the 
 duty I owe myself, if I concur in any other public 
 act in legislation, though truly inclinable to do all, 
 for the advantage of the public, that can reasonably 
 be expected from me : but a governor cannot lie 
 under a greater obligation to the people, than they 
 do to him ; nor can that be accounted a free gift 
 from them, which is but their indispensable duty ; 
 for at this time, there is no support for a governor 
 in this government, but what must be granted by an 
 act of an assembly. You have told me, that'you 
 had voted 500/. to the queen, 300/. for the service 
 of the public, and 200Z. to me ; and you have lately 
 informed me, that when I had passed the other acts, 
 the speaker would present a bill to me, for raising 
 that money. It is possible when the others were 
 passed, the speaker might do so ; but, can it, in 
 reason, be expected, that, while you show so un- 
 precedented and unusual a diffidence, on your side, 
 that you would not so much as let me see the bill, 
 but hi private, nor allow, that it should, upon any 
 terms, be communicated to the council, with whom 
 I am to advise, (though you cannot but be sensible, 
 that, should I design it, yet it is not in my power 
 to pass a bill into a laAV, until the speaker has signed 
 it.) which is usually done at the time of passing it. 
 Could it be expected, I say, that I should pass all 
 that you desired of me, and then depend on your 
 presenting that bill? Or, can it be thought reason- 
 able, or, for the security of the public, that I should 
 pass an act, for raising and applying SQOL for 
 several uses, besides those 200J. said to be granted 
 to me, without taking proper advice upon it, of 
 those, whom the discharge of my duty, as well as my 
 inclinations, obliges me to consult, in all public mat- 
 ters ; nor that I should have it in my power to ob- 
 ject to, or alter, any part of the whole bill, after it 
 is presented ? No, gentlemen, &s I have no designs 
 but what are plain and honest, so I must expect a 
 suitable treatment; and, therefore, I now desire 
 you faithfully to lay before the people, whom you 
 represent, and to whom you are returning, what I 
 have here said to you ; and. upon this occasion, 
 
 assure them from me. that unless they take care to 
 grant a requisite support, and in such a manner, 
 as is fit to be accepted, I shall not at all think my- 
 self concerned to attend the affairs of the public, in 
 legislation ; and what measures the proprietary will 
 find himself obliged to take at home, I have for- 
 merly sufficiently hinted to you ; but as I shall not 
 be wanting, on my side, to concur in any thing that 
 is reasonable, so I hope, the next time I meet the 
 representatives of the people, we shall have such 
 confidence in each other, and they will so far con- 
 sider their duty, and take such methods, for effect- 
 ing business, that all things necessary may be con- 
 cluded to our mutual satisfaction, for the true ad- 
 vantage and benefit of this province." 
 
 By this plain declaration of the governor, the as- 
 sembly easily perceived, to their great mortification, 
 that, in consequence of the proprietary's instruc- 
 tions, the governor could not pass any bill without 
 the advice or approbation of his council; which, 
 how reasonable soever it might appear in itself, was 
 deemed to have no foundation in the royal charter ; 
 by which the whole power of legislation was under- 
 stood to be vested in the governor, and the repre- 
 sentatives of the people. This the house observed 
 in their remonstrance to the governor the next day, 
 declaring, that had they known he was so restricted, 
 they would neither have given him, nor themselves, 
 so much trouble as they had done : they likewise 
 complained of some other matters, that were not 
 redressed : but their greatest resentment appears, 
 in this remonstrance, to be against the secretary, 
 Logan ; against whom is exhibited, in a very angry 
 manner, a long complaint ; representing him as the 
 grand obstacle of their proceedings ; and, that, 
 though they had endeavoured to reduce him within 
 proper bounds, yet, by reason of his great influence 
 with the governor and proprietary, he was now ad- 
 vanced above their power ; obstructing all their 
 public transactions, and treating the members of the 
 house with insult and abuse. 
 
 In the October following, the same members of as- 
 sembly were principally re-elected, and David 
 Lloyd was again chosen speaker. The governor, in 
 his speech on the 17th, after having mentioned 
 several other affairs, which were yet unfinished, 
 pressed their making due provision for the support 
 of the lieutenancy of the government, and concluded 
 his speech as follows : 
 
 " Gentlemen, you are met for no other end, than 
 to serve the country, whom you represent ; I hope, 
 therefore, you will study all possible means, that 
 may contribute to the real happiness of that : which, 
 I believe, you will find may be much promoted by 
 improving a good understanding between you arid 
 me, in our respective stations. 
 
 " I would not willingly look back upon some of 
 the proceedings of the last house, only from thence 
 I must give you a necessary caution, to dwell less 
 than has been done on that general language of 
 evil counsel, or counsellors, generally used as an 
 artful method, lo strike at the counselled ; but with 
 me, I believe, without occasion; or that of griev- 
 ances and oppressions, words, by God's blessing, 
 understood by few (I find) in this province, who 
 form them not in their own imaginations; for I 
 assure you, gentlemen, if we are not as happy as 
 the circumstances of the place will admit, it lies 
 much in your power to make us so; of which I 
 hope you will consider, and use your endeavours 
 accordingly, with a full resolution to remove what- 
 ever may stand in the way. 
 
854 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 " I have already said, that I would not look back 
 to the proceedings of the last house ; but the secre- 
 tary has found himself so much aggrieved by their 
 remonstrance, that he has presented for my perusal 
 a long defence ; in which I shall not think myself 
 any further concerned, than to observe to you, that, 
 to my surprise, he has charged the speaker of that 
 house with some proceedings, which, if true, will re- 
 quire your consideration, and some further mea- 
 sures to be taken upon them; for which reason, I 
 have ordered him to lay a copy of them before 
 you; and I must say, if that representation be well 
 grounded, I cannot see that, under this government, 
 such a person can be accounted fit for that station ; 
 but at present I shall no further enquire into it, 
 only recommend to you, to proceed with diligence, 
 in whatever is incumbent on you, in your stations, 
 as well in this as in all other matters that may con- 
 cern the welfare of the public, and honour of this 
 government, as now established." 
 
 This the assembly replied to the next day; tell- 
 ing the governor that, among other things, they also 
 had under consideration the making provision for 
 his support; and, after having made some angry 
 reflections against the secretary, whom they consi- 
 dered, in great measure, as the cause of the misun- 
 derstanding between them and the governor, they 
 proceeded to say; " But, may it please the gover- 
 nor, we beg leave to observe, that the duty incum- 
 bent on us, to contribute to this general support of 
 the lieutenancy, is grounded upon a condition pre- 
 cedent; so that the people, according to the funda- 
 mental rules of the English government, are not 
 obliged to contribute to the support of that adminis- 
 tration, which affords them no redress when their 
 rights are violated, their liberties infringed, and 
 their representative body affronted and abused : 
 hence it is, that that branch of the legislative autho- 
 rity seldom move to give supplies till their aggriev- 
 ances are redressed, and reparation made, for the 
 indignities they meet with from the other branch 
 of the same authority. 
 
 " We are very sensible that the end of our meet- 
 ing is to serve the country; and we assure the go- 
 vernor there shall be nothing wanting on our parts 
 to promote it, and improve a good understanding 
 between him and us, in our respective stations : 
 but let not the language of the representatives of 
 the people, about evil counsellors, grievances, and 
 oppressions, be irksome to the governor; for we 
 shall not answer the true end of our meeting, nor 
 discharge our duty and trust to those that sent us, 
 if we be silent, and not insist upon redressing those 
 things that are amiss, with a resolution to use our 
 endeavours to remove what appears to stand in the 
 way. 
 
 " We have, with all the application, this short 
 time could allow, informed ourselves of the pro- 
 ceedings of the late assemblies, and find no just 
 grounds for the governor to suppose that their com- 
 plaints of evil counsel or counsellors have been used 
 as methods to strike at him; but we believe it was 
 their care, as we find it to be ours, that the gover- 
 nor may not be imposed on, or prevailed with, to 
 adhere to evil counsel, and render his actings in- 
 consistent. 
 
 " We suppose it needless to be more express than 
 the late assembly have been, to demonstrate what 
 an enemy the secretary has been to the welfare of 
 this province ; and how abusive he has been to the 
 representatives of the people ; so that we can do no 
 less than repeat the request of former assemblies, to 
 
 have him removed from the governor's council; 
 which we doubt not will be a most effectual means to 
 improve a good understanding between thee and us. 
 
 " If the governor will look back, and duly consi- 
 der the complaints and remonstrances of the late 
 assemblies, it will appear, that grievances and op- 
 pressions are words, which are formed upon just 
 complaints; and for which the country wants re- 
 dress; so that what the governor supposes, on that 
 head, is not candid towards the representatives of 
 the people. 
 
 " May it please the governor, whatever might be 
 the occasion, or design of the last clause in thy 
 speech, we are of opinion it was not well timed; for 
 if the secretary's charge against our speaker had 
 any weight, it should have been propounded as an 
 objection against the assembly's choice of him for 
 speaker : but, after thou hadst declared thy appro- 
 bation of their choice, that thou shouldst'be pre- 
 vailed upon so far to patronise the secretary's insi- 
 nuation against the speaker, as to make it a part of 
 thy speech to us, before we had seen or hoard the 
 charge, we can do no less than resent it, as an in- 
 dignity offered to this house; for though we are 
 men that cannot be much meaner in the governor's 
 eye than we are in our own esteem, yet we must 
 put him in mind that, since the royal charter com- 
 mits this part of the legislative authority to our care, 
 we ought to have the regard due to our stations." 
 
 After this the governor went to Newcastle; and 
 in the meantime the assembly adjourned. On their 
 meeting again, about the beginning of November, 
 the secretary, Logan, intending to go to England, 
 presented to them a petition, requesting that prepa- 
 ration might be made for his trial, upon the im- 
 peachment of a former assembly, in the year 1706. 
 They therefore proceeded to his case, and took into 
 consideration his defence; and his charge against 
 their speaker, David Lloyd, mentioned in the go- 
 vernor's speech. They carried their resentment so 
 far in the affair, that they actually issued out a 
 warrant to the high sheriff of the city and county of 
 Philadelphia, signed by the speaker, for apprehending 
 the secretary, and for committing him to the county 
 gaol of Philadelphia, as tfrey said," For his offence, 
 in reflecting upon sundry members of this house in 
 particular, and the whole house in general, charging 
 the proceedings of this assembly with unfairness 
 and injustice." But, by 'A-supersedeas from the go- 
 vernor, the execution of it was prevented, to tl:e 
 great displeasure of the assembly ; as appears by 
 their resolves, in the minutes of the house; wherein 
 they assert, " That this measure of the governor 
 was illegal and arbitrary." 
 
 The temper and disposition of the house now 
 were such, that it does not appear any further transac- 
 tions passed between the governor and this assembly. 
 
 But the secretary, by reason of his useful abilities, 
 and faithful services to the proprietary, was so tho- 
 roughly fortified in both his and the governor's es- 
 teem and confidence, that he was above the power 
 of his opponents. He prosecuted his voyage to 
 England; and with such perseverance and ability 
 vindicated himself, and so far succeeded against the 
 violence of the opposition, that he not only survived 
 the storm, and continued in his offices, but also was 
 afterwards president of the province ; and discharged 
 the office with much reputation to himself and sa- 
 tisfaction to the public, as will hereafter appear; 
 and after a wise recess of many years from public 
 affairs, at last, in the year 1751, honourably closed 
 his days. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 655 
 
 Party spirit endanger* the government and constitu 
 tionThe proprietor's letter to the assembly respect 
 ing their late transactions An entire new assembly 
 elected in October 17 10 Harmony between the go- 
 vernor and this assembly productive of more ayree 
 able and better consequences, fyc. Proceedings Oj 
 the legislature in consequence of an express fron 
 England, received by the governor, relating to a> 
 expedition against Canada The queen's letter Oj 
 instructions to him The assembly vote 2000/. fo, 
 the queen's use Tlie next year produces a chan(/( 
 in the assembly The proprietor agrees to dispose Oj 
 the government to the queen; and is seized with a, 
 apoplexy Wine and mm imported in 1712 Set 
 tlnment of New Garden and London Grove, it 
 Chester county Samuel Carpenter The governor', 
 u-rit for summoning the assembly Altercation be 
 tween them. 
 
 This province appears to have been never entirely 
 without a discontented party in it; who thought it 
 their duty and interest constantly to oppose the 
 proprietary, in all cases indiscriminately, vvher 
 either his power or interest was concerned; am 
 though frequently but small and weak, yet they 
 were sufficiently able to embarrass the public pro- 
 ceedings, and endanger the general tranquillity; 
 and having, for a number of years past, by conti- 
 nual complaints of great and numerous grievance 
 utiredressed, excited the minds of many well-disposed 
 persons in the province, they at last obtained a ma- 
 jority in the assembly against him. 
 
 The increase of this opposition seems principally 
 to have arisen from the proprietary's absence, and 
 trusting his affairs too much to deputies; to which 
 the nature and necessity of his situation and cir- 
 cumstances, in these times, particularly obliged him. 
 
 The opposition against Penn at last drew from him 
 the following letter to the assembly. 
 
 " London, 29th, 4th mo. 1710. 
 " My old Friends, 
 
 " It is a mournful consideration, and the cause of 
 deep affliction to me, that I am forced, by the op- 
 pressions and disappointments which have fallen to 
 my share in this life, to speak to the people of that 
 province, in a language I once hoped I should 
 never have occasion to use. But the many trou- 
 bles and oppositions that I have met with from 
 thence, oblige me, in plainness and freedom, to ex- 
 postulate with you, concerning the causes of them. 
 
 " When it pleased God to open a way for me to 
 settle that colony, I had reason to expect a solid 
 comfort from the services, done to many hundreds of 
 people ; and it was no small satisfaction to me, that 
 I have not been disappointed in seeing them pros- 
 per, and growing up to a flourishing country, blessed 
 with liberty, ease, and plenty, beyond what many 
 of themselves could expect; and wanting nothing 
 to make themselves happy, but what, with a right 
 temper of mind, and prudent conduct, they might 
 give themselves. But, alas ! as to my part, instead 
 of reaping the like advantages some of the greatest 
 of my troubles have arose from thence ; the many- 
 combats I have engaged in ; the great pains, and 
 incredible expense, for your welfare and ease, to 
 the decay of my former estate; of which (however 
 some there would represent it) I too sensibly feel 
 the effects ; with the undeserved opposition I have 
 met with from thence, sink me into sorrow ; that, if 
 not supported by a superior hand, might have over- 
 whelmed me long ago. And I cannot but think it 
 hard measure that, while that has proved a land of 
 
 freedom and flourishing, it should become to me, by 
 whose means it was principally made a country, the 
 cause of grief, trouble, and poverty. 
 
 " For this reason I must desire you all, even of 
 all professions and degrees, for although all have not 
 been engaged in the measures that have been taken, 
 yet every man who has an interest there, is, or 
 must be, concerned in them, by their effects ; I must, 
 therefore, I say, desire you all, in a serious and 
 true weightiness of mind, to consider what you are, 
 or have been doing ; why matters must be carried 
 on with these divisions and contentions, and what 
 rsal causes have been given on my side for that op- 
 position to me, and my interest, which I have met 
 with ; as if I were an enemy, and not a friend, after 
 all I have done and spent, both here and there : 
 I am sure I know not of any cause whatsoever. Were 
 I sensible you really wanted any thing of me, in the 
 relation between us, that would make you happier, 
 I should readily grant it, if any reasonably man 
 would say it were fit for you to demand ; provided 
 you would also take such measures as were tit for 
 me to join with. 
 
 " Before any one family had transported them- 
 selves thither, I earnestly endeavoured to form such 
 a model of government as might make all concerned 
 in it easy ; which, nevertheless was subject to be 
 altered, as there should be occasion. Soon after 
 we got over, that model appeared, in some parts of it, 
 to be very inconvenii nt, if not impracticable; the 
 numbers of members, both in the council and 
 assembly, were much too large; some other matters 
 also proved inconsistent with the king's charter to 
 me : so that, according to the power reserved for 
 an alteration, there was a necessity to make one, 
 in which, if the lower counties were brought in, it 
 was well known, at that time, to be on a view of 
 advantage to the province itself, as well as to the 
 people of those counties, and to the general satis 
 faction of those concerned, without the least appre- 
 hension of any irregularity in the method. 
 
 " Upon this they had another charter passed, 
 nemine c.ontradicente ; which I always desired might 
 be continued, while you yourselves would keep up 
 to it, and put it in practice ; and many there know 
 much it was against my will, that upon my last 
 going over, it was vacated. But after this was laid 
 aside (which indeed was begun by yourselves, in 
 Colonel Fletcher's time) I, according to my en- 
 gagement, left another, with all the privileges that 
 were found convenient for your good government ; 
 and if any part of it has been, in any case, infringed, 
 it was never by my approbation. I desired it might 
 be enjoyed fully. But though privileges ought to 
 be tenderly preserved, they should not, on the other 
 hand, be asserted under that name to a licentious- 
 ness : the design of government is to preserve good 
 order; which may be equally broke in upon by the 
 turbulent endeavours of the people, as well as the 
 overstraining of power in a governor. I designed 
 the people should be secured of an annual fixed 
 dection and assembly ; and that they should have 
 he same privileges in it that any other assembly 
 las in the queen's dominions ; among all which this 
 s one constant rule, as in the parliament here, 
 hat they should sit on their own adjournments; 
 mt to strain this expression to a power to meet at 
 all times during the year, without the governor's 
 concurrence, would be to distort government, to 
 >reak the due proportion of the parts of it, to 
 establish confusion in the place of necessary order, 
 and make the legislative the executive part of go- 
 
856 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 vernment. Yet, for obtaining this power, I per- 
 ceive, much time and money has been spent, and 
 freat struggles have been made, not only for this, 
 ut some other things, that cannot at all be for 
 the advantage of the people to be possessed of; par- 
 ticularly the appointing of judges ; because the 
 administration might, by such means, be so clogged, 
 that it would be difficult, if possible, under our cir- 
 cumstances, at some times to support it. As for my 
 own part, as I desire nothing more than the tran- 
 quillity and prosperity of the province and govern- 
 ment in all its branches, could I see that any of 
 these things that have been contended for would 
 certainly promote these ends, it would be a matter of 
 indifference to me how they were settled. But see- 
 ing the frame of every government ought to be regu- 
 lar in itself, well proportioned and subordinate in its 
 parts, and every branch of it invested with sufficient 
 power to discharge its respective duty for the sup- 
 port of the whole, I have cause to believe that 
 nothing could be more destructive to it, than to take 
 so much of the provision and executive part of the 
 government out of the governor's hands, and lodge 
 it in an uncertain collective body ; and more espe- 
 cially since our government is dependent, and I am 
 answerable to the crown if the administration should 
 fail, and a stop be put to the course of justice. On 
 these considerations I cann<5t think it prudent in 
 the people to crave these powers ; because not only 
 I, but they themselves, would be in danger of suf- 
 fering by it; could I believe otherwise, T should 
 not be against granting any thing of this kind that 
 were asked of me, with any degree of common pru- 
 dence and civility. But, instead of finding cause 
 to believe the contentions that have been raised 
 about these matters, have proceeded only from mis- 
 takes of judgment, with an earnest desire, notwith- 
 standing, at the bottom, to serve the public (which, 
 I hopo, has still been the inducement of several 
 concerned in them) I have had but too sorrowful a 
 view and sight to complain of the manner in which 
 I have been treated. The attacks on my reputation, 
 the many indignities put upon me, in papers sent 
 over hither, into the hands of those who could not 
 be expected to make the most discreet and charitable 
 tise of them ; the secret insinuations against my 
 justice, besides the attempt made upon my estate; 
 resolves past in the assemblies, for turning my quit- 
 rents, never sold by me, to the support of government ; 
 my lands entered upon, without any regular method ; 
 my manors invaded, (under pretence I had not 
 duly surveyed them,) and both these by persons 
 principally concerned in these attempts against me 
 here ; a right to my overplus land unjustly claimed 
 by the possessors of the tracts, in which they are 
 found; my private estate continually exhausting, 
 for the support of that government, both here and 
 there ; and no provision made for it by that coun- 
 try ; to all which I cannot but add, the violence 
 that has been particularly shewn to my secretary; 
 of which, (though I shall, by no means, protect him 
 in any thing he can be justly charged with, but 
 suffer him to stand or fall by his own actions.) I 
 cannot but thus far take notice that, from all these 
 charges I have seen or heard of, against him, I 
 have cause to believe that, had he been as much in 
 opposition to me as he has been understood to stand 
 for me, he might have met with a milder treatment 
 from his prosecutors ; and, to think that any man 
 should be the more exposed there, on my account, 
 and, instead of finding favour, meet with enmity, for 
 his being engaged in my service, is a melancholy 
 
 consideration ! In short, when I reflect on all these 
 heads, of which I have so much cause to complain, 
 and, at the same time, think of the hardships I, and 
 my suffering family, have been reduced to, in no 
 small measure, owing to my endeavours for. and 
 disappointments from, that province, I cannot but 
 mourn the unhappiness of my portion, dealt to me 
 from those of whom I had reason to expect much 
 better and different things; nor can I but lament 
 the unhappiness that too many of them are bring- 
 ing on themselves, who, instead of pursuing the 
 amicable ways of peace, love and unity, which I at 
 first hoped to find in that retirement, are cherishing 
 a spirit of contention and opposition ; and, blind to 
 their own interest, are oversetting that foundation 
 on which your happiness might be built. 
 
 " Friends, the eyes of many are upon you; the 
 people of many nations of Europe look' on that 
 country as a land of ease and quiet, wishing to 
 themselves, in vain, the same blessings they con- 
 ceive you may enjoy : but to see the use you make 
 of them, is no less the cause of surprise to others, 
 while such bitter complaints and reflections are seen 
 to come from you, of which it is difficult to conceive 
 even the sense or meaning. Where are the dis- 
 tresses, grievances, and oppressions, that the papers 
 sent from thence, so often say you languish under ! 
 while others have cause to believe you have hitherto 
 lived, or might live, the happiest of any in the 
 queen's dominions? 
 
 " Is it such a grievous oppression, that the courts 
 are established by my power, founded on the king's 
 charter, without a law of your making, when upon 
 the same plan you propose ? If this disturb any, 
 take the advice of other able lawyers on the main, 
 without tying me up to the opinion of principally 
 one man, whom I cannot think so very proper 
 to direct in my affairs (for, I believe, the late 
 assembly have had but that one lawyer amongst 
 them,) and I am freely content you should have 
 any law, that, by proper judges, should be found 
 suitable. Is it your oppression that the officers' fees 
 are not settled by an act of assembly ? No man 
 can be a greater enemy to extortion than myself: 
 do, therefore, allow such fees as may reasonably 
 encourage fit persons to undertake these offices, 
 and you shall soon have (and should have always 
 cheerfully had) mine, and I hope, my lieutenant's 
 concurrence and approbation. Is it such an op- 
 pression, that licences for public-houses have not 
 been settled, as has been proposed? It is a certain 
 sign you are strangers to oppression, and know 
 nothing but the name, when you so highly bestow 
 it on matters so inconsiderable; but that business, 
 I find, is adjusted. Could I know any real oppres- 
 sion you lie under, that is in iny power to remedy 
 (and what I wish you would take proper measures 
 to remedy, if you truly feel any such,) I would be 
 as ready, on my part, to remove them, as you to 
 desire it; but according to the best judgment I can 
 make of the complaints, I have seen (and you once 
 thought I had a pretty good one,) I must, in a deep 
 sense of sorrow, say, that I fear, the kind hand of 
 Providence, that has so long favoured and protected 
 you, will, by the ingratitude of many there to the 
 great mercies of God, hitherto shown them, be, at 
 length, provoked to convince them of their un- 
 worthiness; and by changing the blessings, that 
 so little care has been taken, by the public, to 
 deserve, into calamities, reduce those that have 
 been so clamorous, and causelessly discontented, 
 to a true, but smarting sense of their duty. I write 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 857 
 
 not this with a design to include all; I doubt not, 
 many of you have been burdened at, and can by 
 no means join in the measures that have been 
 taken ; but while such things appear under the 
 name of an assembly, that ought to represent the 
 whole, I cannot but speak more generally than 1 
 would desire, though I am not unsensible what 
 methods may be used to obtain the weight of such 
 a name. 
 
 " I have already been tedious, and shall now, 
 therefore, briefly, say, that the opposition I have 
 met with from thence must, at length, force me 
 to consider more closely of my own private and 
 sinking circumstances, in relation to that province. 
 In the mean time, I desire you all seriously to 
 weigh what I have wrote, together with your duty 
 to yourselves, to me, and to the world, who have 
 their eyes upon you, and are witnesses of my early 
 and earnest care for you. I must think there is a 
 regard due to me, that has not of late been paid ; 
 pray, consider of it fully, and think soberly what 
 you have to desire of me, on the one hand, and 
 ought to perform to me, on the other; for, from 
 the next assembly, I shall expect to know what 
 you resolve, and what I may depend on. If I 
 must continue my regards to you, let me be en- 
 gaged to it by a like disposition in you towards me. 
 But, if a plurality, after this, shall think they owe 
 me none, or no more than for some years I have 
 met with, let it, on a fair election, be so declared, 
 and I shall then, without further suspense, know 
 what I have to rely upon. God give you his 
 wisdom and fear to direct you, that yet our poor 
 country may be blessed with peace, love, and in- 
 dustry, and we may once more meet good friends, 
 and live so to the end ; our relation, in the truth, 
 having but the same true interest. 
 
 " I am, with great truth, and most sincere re- 
 gard, your real Friend, as well as just Proprietor 
 and Governor. 
 
 " WILLIAM PENN." 
 
 What reply was made to this letter does not ap- 
 pear; but notwithstanding what might have been 
 thought deficient or amiss, on the proprietary's 
 side, the serious nature of it could not but affect 
 the considerate part of the assembly with more 
 regard for the father of their country, now, in his 
 declining age, and for his difficult situation, oc- 
 casioned originally and principally on account of 
 it ; and consequently in the next annual election of 
 the members of the assembly, in October 1710, an 
 entire new house was elected, of which Richard Hill 
 became speaker. 
 
 The governor, in his speech to the house, told 
 them, " That he did not doubt it was obvious to 
 every one's understanding, why he could not agree 
 with the last assembly; but, as he took them to 
 have different sentiments, they might promise them- 
 selves, that his ready assent to all bills, drawn up 
 for the public good, would not be wanting; and 
 that, as he had often expressed his resolution of 
 settling among them, he could have no aims, 
 contrary to the interest of the people : that thus a 
 confidence might be established in each other, he 
 hoped they would cheerfully proceed with their 
 bills, and make such provisions for the support of 
 the government as consisted with the character 
 that the province justly bore, in all her majesty's 
 dominions. He concluded with recommending 
 them to dispatch, and cautioning them to avoid 
 the expense of a long sitting; a practice, that 
 some former assemblies, by giving way to, had left a 
 
 debt upon the country, that, perhaps, they would 
 not very easily discharge." 
 
 The good understanding which subsisted between 
 the governor and this assembly was productive of 
 much more satisfactory proceedings, and salutary 
 effects, than had been experienced for some years 
 before ; and many laws were mutually agreed on, 
 and passed during the winter. 
 
 In the summer of the year 1711, Governor Goo- 
 kin, having received an express from England, re- 
 specting the expedition against Canada, convened 
 the assembly, and acquainted them with the prepa- 
 rations of the northern colonies for that end. 
 
 He recommended them to exert themselves, suit- 
 ably on the occasion, not to be behind their northern 
 neighbours, in answering the queen's expectation, 
 and to enable him to raise and support the quota of 
 men, assigned this province, or else, that, they would 
 make an equivalent ; and he laid before the house 
 certain papers, with the queen's instructions to him, 
 relative to the affair ; which last were as follows : 
 " Anne R. 
 
 " Trusty and well beloved, we greet you well. 
 Whereas, we have sent our instructions to our go- 
 vernors of New York and New Jersey, and of the 
 Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire, relating 
 to an expedition, we design to make against the 
 common enemy, the French, inhabiting North 
 America. And whereas, we have directed our said 
 governors, and Francis Nicholson, Esq., to com- 
 municate to you such part of our said instructions, 
 as relates to the province under your command. Our 
 will and pleasure is, that you do, in all things, con- 
 form yourself to the said instructions. And we do 
 hereby command you to be aiding and assisting in 
 carrying on the said expedition : and, in order 
 thereunto, that you do meet our said governors, 
 and the said Francis Nicholson, at such place, and 
 at such time, as they shall, for that purpose, signify 
 unto you ; and that you put in execution such things, 
 as shall then be resolved to be acted and done, on 
 your part; in doing of which, we do expect you to 
 use the utmost vigour and diligence ; and for so 
 doing this shall be your warrant : so we bid you 
 farewell. 
 
 " Given at our court, at St. James's, the 31st day 
 of February, 1710-11, in the ninth year of our 
 reign. 
 
 " By her majesty's command, H. ST. JOHN. 
 
 " To our trusty and well beloved, the governor, 
 or lieutenant-governor, or commander-in-chie^ for 
 the time being, of our province, of Pennsylvania, 
 in America." 
 
 The congress of governors, or council of war, 
 met accordingly at New London, in Connecticut, 
 where the several quotas, or proportions, expected 
 from each colony, were fixed; but on account of 
 the short space of time, and great distance, Gover- 
 nor Gookin could not attend it, nor properly repre- 
 sent the state and ability of the province ; and the 
 assembly of Pennsylvania thought the colony over- 
 rated : for this province particularly was constantly 
 at a considerable expense, for the preservation of the 
 friendship of the Indians, in such manner, as was 
 very important and interesting to all the neighbour- 
 ing governments, and the general utility; they ne- 
 vertheless voted 2000/., to be raised upon the in- 
 habitants of the province, for the queen's use, by a 
 tax of five-pence half-penny per pound, on estates, 
 and 20s. per head, on single freemen : and a bill 
 for that purpose was passed by the governor. 
 
 In the assembly, elected October 1711, there was 
 
858 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 a considerable change of members ; and David 
 Lloyd's name again appears among them; but 
 Richard Hiil was chosen speaker. 
 
 The governor, in a speech to the house, this win- 
 ter, represented; that the proprietary, in his letters 
 to him, had signified his desire to serve the people 
 of this province, and left it to themselves to think 
 on the means that might best conduce to their own 
 quiet and interest : at the same time, offering his 
 ready concurrence to any thing of that nature, which 
 they should propose, consistent with the honour and 
 interest of the crown, of the proprietary, and of the 
 public welfare ; and recommending to their consi- 
 deration, that, as to himself, he had been above three 
 years engaged in the affairs of the province, and 
 almost so long in it, that what he had received from 
 the public, appeared by the acts of the last assem- 
 bly; and was far short of what the proprietary 
 led him to expect from the people. 
 
 The house, in answer, thankfully acknowledged 
 the proprietary's kind regard, and desires to serve 
 them, with the governor's offered and ready con- 
 currence to what should contribute to that end. 
 They promised to take care of the governor's sup- 
 port ; and accordingly, afterwards agreed on a pro- 
 vision as was mutually satisfactory. 
 
 The year 1712 was remarkable for two things, 
 respecting Pennsylvania ; the first was, an agree- 
 ment for the sale of the government of it, and the 
 territories, to Queen Anne, by the proprietary ; the 
 most probable inducements for which have already 
 been alluded to : for though a temporary alteration 
 was made the last year in the assembly's conduct, 
 respecting him, yet it appears he thought it most 
 prudent, in this manner, to extricate himself from 
 the debt and difficulties, in which the province had 
 too much involved him. The second was a failure 
 of his faculties, supposed to be caused by an apo- 
 plexy ; which rendered him incapable of public bu- 
 siness, and consequently disabled him from exe- 
 cuting a surrender of the government, according to 
 agreement. 
 
 Governor Gookin, in his speech to the assembly, 
 on the 15th of October this year, of which Isaac 
 N orris was speaker, stated, that the proprietary, in 
 a letter to a member of the council, had .sign i lied 
 his intentions of surrendering the government, in 
 a lew months; in consequence of which he had 
 reason to believe, he should not be continued go- 
 vernor under the crown ; he declared his readiness 
 to serve them, during the short time he should pro- 
 bably be in the administration; and he requested 
 them to take effectual measures, to have ready, when 
 called for, the sum granted by the late assembly ; 
 that the debts incurred, on account of the Indian 
 treaties, might be immediately discharged, and that 
 the Indians, then in town, be well satisfied; who 
 had proposed, in behalf of the five nations, to es- 
 tablish a free and open trade between them, for the 
 future. He declared, that, as to himself, he had but 
 a melancholy prospect; that, after all he could 
 hope for, and his administration over, he should 
 find himself a great loser, by coming to Pennsylva- 
 nia ; which, as they probably would be the last as- 
 sembly that he should meet, he recommended to 
 their serious consideration, especially the expense 
 of his return. 
 
 The house, in answer, acquainted the gover- 
 nor; that, it being inconvenient, at that season, 
 for them to attend in assembly, they intended to 
 adjourn, and appoint a committee, to inspect the 
 public accounts, and to prepare matters for the bet- 
 
 ter dispatch of business, at their next meeting; 
 and recommending the care of the Indians to the 
 governor and council, according to the law, the 
 house adjourned. 
 
 In the printed votes of assembly, this year, ap- 
 pears the following account of the wine and rum 
 imported into the province, taken from the naval 
 officer, and laid before the house, on the 6th of Fe- 
 bruary, 1713; which may give some idea of this 
 branch of trade in the province at that time. 
 Wine imported since the 2bth Rum imported, 
 of March, 1711, from the 574 Hhds., 
 
 place of growth. 360 Tierces, 
 
 441 Pipes, 183 Barrels, 
 
 13 Hhds., I Kilderkin, 
 
 23 Qr. Casks. 200 Gallons, 
 
 From other places. 1 Pipe, 
 
 48 Pipos, 19 Casks, 
 
 2 Hhds., y Puncheons, 
 
 2 Qr. Casks. 4 Groce Bottles. 
 
 In the year 1712, John Lowdon, John Miller, 
 Michael Lightfoot, James Starr, Thomas Garnet, 
 and other Friends, or Quakers, settled in New Gar- 
 den, in Chester county. The first of these, John 
 Lowdon, died at Abingdon, Philadelphia county, in 
 1714. He came from Ireland about the year 1*711, 
 was an eminent preacher among the Quakers, tra- 
 velled much in that service, and was much beloved. 
 
 In October 1713, Joseph Growdon was speaker 
 of the assembly; and on the 15th of the mouth the 
 governor, in a speech, informed them; that the go- 
 vernment was not yet surrendered; and that, being 
 still invested with the proprietary powers, he was 
 ready to use them for the welfare of the people, in 
 all their reasonable expectations; and that he took 
 this opportunity to give the country his thanks for 
 the care taken for his support, by the last assembly, 
 and hoped its continuance. 
 
 In October 1714, David Lloyd was again chosen 
 speaker of the assembly; and notwithstanding, in 
 the beginning of their year, they had several ses- 
 sions, yet nothing material was concluded between 
 them and the governor: they, therefore, on the 26th 
 of the first month, adjourned themselves to the latter 
 part of September, 1715; but before that time, 
 early in the spring, the governor summoned them, 
 by the following writ: 
 
 " Charles Gookin, Esq. lieutenant-governor o* 
 the province of Pennsylvania, &c. To the sheriff Sic. 
 Pennsylvania, ss. 
 
 " Whereas the assembly of this province, in the 
 month of March last, divers matters of the greatest 
 weight and importance before them, which required 
 to be dispatched for the public good and safety, 
 notwithstanding thought fit, without my consent or 
 approbation, to adjourn themselves to the latter end 
 of their yearly sessions; by which means, the ex- 
 pectations of all good people, who depended on a 
 uitable provision to be then forthwith made, to an- 
 swer the several exigencies of the government, be- 
 came entirely disappointed. The great inconve- 
 niences of which must still continue unremedied 
 until another assembly be chosen, unless they are 
 called together before the time of their said ad- 
 journment. These, therefore, are (by and with the 
 advice of the council) to require and command you, 
 ;hat you forthwith summon all the representatives, 
 chosen in your county for the said assembly, that 
 ,hey meet me at Philadelphia the second day of 
 May next, to proceed to the dispatch of the said 
 affairs, and such other matters as I may have occa- 
 sion to lay before them; and without delay make 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 .850 
 
 return of this writ into the secretary's office. Given 
 under my hand and lesser seal of the said province, 
 at Philadelphia, the 16th day of April, Anno Do- 
 mini, 1715." 
 
 The assembly met, in pursuance of this writ, 
 which appears to throw some reflection on the man- 
 ner of their adjournment. Ill humour and alterca- 
 tion, which, during the latter part of the preceding 
 year, had been increasing between the governor 
 and the assembly, appeared now again too much to 
 prevail between the different branches of the legis- 
 lature. 
 
 The governor addressed the house with a speech, 
 blaming their adjournment to near the end of their 
 year, without his consent; their leaving the great ex- 
 igencies of government unprovided for; their being 
 the cause of so long an obstruction of the admin- 
 istration of justice, with its consequences, by their 
 refusing to accommodate the bills, prepared for that 
 purpose, so that it might be in his power to pass the 
 same ; and their neglect of making provision for 
 his support. 
 
 The assembly, on their side, threw the blame 
 upon the governor, for his refusing to pass the bills 
 as they had prepared them, to answer the exigencies 
 of the province, and the support of the administration. 
 They, notwithstanding, afterwards so far agreed, that 
 the governor passed a considerable number of laws 
 before the end of the month. 
 
 In the year 1714, Francis Swain, John Smith, 
 Joseph Pennock, William Pusey, and other Friends, 
 or Quakers, settled at London Grove, in Chester 
 county. 
 
 The assembly's address to the governor respecting 
 tumults, fyc. in Philadelphia, with his answer An 
 Indian treaty held in Philadelphia in 1715 The 
 assembly's address to George I. The governor dis- 
 agrees with both the council and assembly The 
 assembly's representation to Governor Gookin, con- 
 taining a variety of matters, in 1716- 
 
 In the summer of the year 1715, there was a 
 complaint made in the house, of frequent tumults 
 being raised in Philadelphia, under the pretence 
 of supporting and abetting one Francis Philips, 
 who had been indicted for high crimes and mis- 
 demeanors ; upon which the assembly presented to 
 the Governor the following address : 
 
 " To Charles Gookin, Esq., Lieutenant-governor 
 of the province of Pennsylvania, &c. The address 
 of the representatives of the freemen of the said 
 province, in general assembly met, the 10th day of 
 June, 1715. 
 
 " May it please the Governor, 
 
 " We were in hopes, that the opening of the 
 courts of justice might have been a means to put 
 a stop to those tumults, which frequently happened 
 in this city, since the beginning of our session, so 
 that our meeting now would have been to crown 
 our labours with a general satisfaction. 
 
 " But, to our great disappointment, we un- 
 derstand, by credible information, that some of 
 those who occasioned those tumults, in order to 
 annoy their opposite party, are now levelling their 
 malignity against the magistrates of this city and 
 county, and endeavouring to prevail with the go- 
 vernor to be of opinion, that here is no power to 
 bring to trial a certain clergyman, who is charged 
 by indictment, at the king's suit, for committing 
 fornication, against the king's peace, and the law 
 of this province, &c. 
 
 " We desire the governor to consider, that for- 
 
 nication, and such like offences, which, in other 
 places, may be of ecclesiastical connusauce, are, 
 by the laws of this province, made triable in the 
 quarter sessions ; and as our laws are, by the 
 royal charter, to be inviolably observed; so the 
 governor and magistrates are bound in duty to 
 cause the same to be put in execution : therefore 
 we are of opinion, that whoever doth, or shall 
 assert, or endeavour to incense, or persuade, the 
 governor, or any other, that the court of quarter 
 sessions, as by law established, hath no cognizance 
 of the said offences, are, and shall be, deemed ene- 
 mies to the governor and government of this 
 province. 
 
 " And now, may it please the governor to take 
 speedy care, by such ways and means, as may be 
 effectual to discourage and suppress the said tu- 
 mults, and disperse all tumultuous gatherings of 
 people in this city; and more especially those, 
 who shall endeavour to weaken the hands of the 
 magistrates in the discharge of their duty, or shall 
 speak, or act in derogation to their authority, or 
 shall in anywise attempt to screen or rescue the 
 said malefactor from the course of justice. 
 
 " As we have been, and hope shall be, willing 
 to support the tjovernment, so we are earnestly 
 concerned that the king's subjects may be pro- 
 tected under thy administration ; and for that end 
 we do insist that thou wilt be pleased to cause the 
 laws to be duly put in execution ; and to counte- 
 nance, and not discourage the magistrates and 
 officers, in the discharge of their duties ; that so the 
 people may be reduced to their former obedience, 
 and application for redress elsewhere prevented. 
 
 " We also desire that persons be commissionated, 
 and courts called for speedy trial of those criminal 
 causes now depending." 
 
 The governor returned the following answer. 
 " Gentlemen, 
 
 " The tumults, that have hitherto happened, 
 I have immediately endeavoured to quell, and I 
 hope with good effect; the courts are now opened; 
 the administration of justice is restored; and if 
 any should be so audacious as to oppose the ma- 
 gistrates, they should not want my countenance 
 and assistance to suppress the attempt: I am sorry 
 it should be surmised to the assembly by any, that 
 those who show a malignity to the magistracy could 
 have grounds of hope to prevail with me to favour 
 them ; on the contrary, they shall find (if there be 
 any such) that I shall exert all the authority with 
 which I am invested, to support the proprietary 
 powers of government, and the magistrates, in the 
 execution of the laws, and full discharge of their 
 duty. 
 
 " The commissions, that are not yet issued, will 
 be forthwith expedited." 
 
 Joseph Growden was chosen speaker of the as- 
 sembly, elected in October, 1715. At the first 
 meeting of this assembly, in the same month, the 
 governor acquainted them with his intention of re- 
 turning to England in the spring ; on which ac- 
 count he had written to the proprietary for his leave, 
 and to some other persons of note, to procure him 
 the king's licence of absence for twelve months ' 
 this notice he gave them, that they might dispatck 
 such necessary business, while he was with them, as 
 could not be done without a governor present. 
 
 Queen Anne having died in the last year, this 
 assembly drew up and sent to England, the fol- 
 lowing address to the king, on his accession to the 
 throne. 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 " To George, King of Great Britain, &c. 
 " The humble address of the representatives of 
 the freemen of the province of Pennsylvania, in as- 
 sembly met, the first of the month called May, 
 1716. 
 
 " Gracious Sovereign, 
 
 " Though by divers concurring causes, and par- 
 ticularly the great indisposition of our proprietary 
 and governor-in-chief of this province, we have been 
 hitherto, to our great trouble, prevented the oppor- 
 tunity of expressing to the king our sincere joy, for 
 his happy and peaceable accession to the throne of 
 his ancestors, and thereby securing to all his pro- 
 testant subjects the full enjoyment of their religious 
 and civil rights; yet none could be more sensible 
 of the great blessing, nor express a warmer zeal for 
 his service, in their earliest approaches, than, at 
 all times since, has filled our thankful breasts; and 
 although we had not the desired advantage of ex- 
 pressing these our sentiments, yet we became the 
 easier under that disappointment, by accounting 
 the majority of this province included in that gene- 
 ral application, made by their friends at London, 
 in behalf of the whole community, wherein our 
 thoughts, with their own, were most truly repre- 
 sented. 
 
 " Such has been the king's goodness, not only ex- 
 pressed in his first generous royal declaration, and 
 repeatedly since from the throne, but more power- 
 fully exerted through a most wise and steady admi- 
 nistration, in pursuing every measure, that might 
 contribute to the safety and happiness of his people ; 
 in making the known laws the invariable rule of his 
 government; in restoring the honour of the British 
 nation abroad; and in procuring for his subjects 
 such advantages, in commerce, as could scarce be 
 hoped for, after they had been so unhappily given 
 away, that even the remotest parts of the king's great 
 dominions feel the benign influences of his paternal 
 affection to the whole, and are laid under doubled 
 obligations to make the utmost returns of gratitude, 
 as well as obedience, for their happiness, under his 
 auspicious reign. 
 
 " It is, therefore, the more surprising, that there 
 should be any of the British race, within that island, 
 so lost to all sense of their own interest, as well as 
 their engaged duty to a prince of the most conspi- 
 cuous and most consummate virtues, as to express 
 the least uneasy murmurs, much less to rise in an 
 open and unnatural rebellion ; for the suppression 
 of which, by the great wisdom and vigilance of the 
 king and his ministry, and faithfulness of his ser- 
 vants, we do, with hearts full of the sincerest gra- 
 titude and joy, return our most humble acknow- 
 ledgments to the Fountain of infinite goodness and 
 mercy, that has so eminently appeared in the sup- 
 port of the royal throne, established on the lasting 
 foundation of justice, and to the confusion of all the 
 detestable machinations, vainly formed against it. 
 
 " As for us, our known principles are so essen- 
 tially interwoven with the protestant interest of 
 Great Britain, and our greatest concerns do so 
 entirely depend on the preservation of thy person 
 and royal issue, long to reign over us, that we 
 cannot possibly separate our own welfare from the 
 indispensable duty of showing ourselves with the 
 most hearty affection, thy loyal and most obedien 
 subjects. 
 
 " That confusion and disappointment may attenc 
 all the wicked devices of thy enemies; that the 
 minds of thy people may be composed, and univer- 
 sally inspired with the same spirit of love and obedi 
 
 mce, as that, wherewith we now approach thy 
 hrone; and that the watchful providence of Al- 
 mighty God may always attend the king, and con- 
 irm the wisdom and justice of his rightful govern- 
 ment over us, is the most sincere and unfeigned 
 lesire of the king's humble and dutiful subjects. 
 " Signed by order of the House, 
 
 " JOSEPH GROWDON, Speaker. 
 In October following, Richard Hill was chosen 
 peaker of the new assembly ; during whose sessions 
 not much of public importance, in a legislative ca- 
 >acity, for the benefit of the province, seems to 
 lave been transacted : for the governor, about this 
 ime, appears to have differed, in sentiment, not 
 >nly with the representatives of the people, in his 
 refusing to qualify Quakers for magistrates, and in 
 )ther important affairs, but he also disagreed with 
 he council. 
 
 He had repeatedly charged the present speaker 
 )f the assembly, who was then also mayor of the 
 ;ity of Philadelphia, and James Logan, the secre- 
 tary of the province, men in high office and trust, 
 with disaffection to the king ; of which they com- 
 plained to the assembly ; but he refused to give 
 either them or the house any satisfaction or proofs 
 for what he had asserted. 
 
 The assembly, therefore, declared it their opi- 
 nion, that the charge was groundless, and seemed 
 to be intended to render these persons obnoxious 
 to the English government. 
 
 But these, and some other matters of complaint, 
 more fully appear in the following " representation " 
 which was presented to the governor in the Novem- 
 ber of this year ; and a duplicate of it was sent to 
 Great Britain. 
 
 '' To Charles Gookin, Esq., Lieutenant-gover- 
 nor of the province of Pennsylvania, &c. 
 
 " A representation of the freemen of the said 
 province, in general assembly met, the third of the 
 ninth month, 1716. 
 
 " May it please the Governor, 
 
 " When our proprietary and governor in chief 
 first obtained a grant of this province from the 
 crown, and a numerous colony of industrious peo- 
 ple settled therein, we are well assured it was his 
 inclination, as well as visible interest, to render 
 them as safe as possible, under his administration. 
 
 " And, as his religious persuasion, as a dissen- 
 ter from the established church of England, was 
 well known, and therefore those of the same pro- 
 fession made a great part of the first adventurers 
 with him, it cannot be doubted but that he would 
 ever think himself obliged to provide that they 
 should enjoy, in Pennsylvania, at least, equal ease 
 and privileges with any other English subjects of 
 the same rank, in any of the king's dominions. 
 
 " Accordingly when necessitated to be absent 
 from us, as he has, for the most part been, he took 
 care, from time to time, to appoint such persons, 
 to be his deputies in the government, in whose 
 moderation and tenderness towards his friends, as 
 well as loyalty to the crown, and justice to all its 
 subjects, he believed he might confide. 
 
 " When the governor, therefore, first brought 
 over the proprietary's commission of deputation 
 for the government, we could not doubt but that, 
 being the proprietary's choice, and acting solely by 
 powers, derived from him, he would steadily pursue 
 the measures, that had generally been taken from 
 our first settlement, and endeavour to make all the 
 subjects of the crown, under the proprietary's go- 
 vernment, equally secure and easy. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 861 
 
 " Oh this expectation, confirmed by the proprie- 
 tary's letters of recommendation, the assemblies, 
 not doubting the governor's good intentions towards 
 them, freely discharged what was incumbent on 
 them, and it is hoped, in no small measure, to the 
 governor's satisfaction. 
 
 " Nor while the proprietary's health and former 
 abilities happily continued, had the inhabitants much 
 reason to complain> but that the governor made the 
 proprietary's directions from home, as far as they 
 could be obtained, and the advice of those the pro- 
 prietary had instructed here, the rule (in great 
 measure) of his conduct, in what related to the pro- 
 prietary's interest, or government, and to the privi- 
 leges of the people. 
 
 " But whether it be now owing to the disconti- 
 nuance of those orders and directions, which has fol- 
 lowed on the late great and melancholy change in 
 the proprietary's health, or to some unhappy advice 
 from others, or to any new formed views, we know 
 not; but this house of representatives, soon after 
 their first meeting, finding the governor had, at 
 length, so far lost sight of the obligations he lay 
 under to his principal and constituent, as to enter 
 on measures inconsistent with his interest, and our 
 constitution, and the liberties of the people, we 
 judged it our indispensable duty to apply, to the go- 
 vernor for redress ; who declaring his opinion to be 
 such as would not admit of any, we desired, with 
 due submission, that he would be pleased to suffer 
 the reasons of that opinion to be argued before him ; 
 but finding, to our trouble, that all our endeavours 
 were in vain, we think ourselves obliged, in the dis- 
 charge of the trust reposed in us, fully to represent the 
 fatal consequences, as well as the unreasonableness, 
 of those measures, to the end that a proper relief 
 may be obtained; without which the greater part of 
 the inhabitants of this province must be rendered 
 miserable ; which we humbly offer as follows : 
 
 " Those who accompanied the proprietary in the 
 settlement of this colony, being chiefly (as has al- 
 ready been observed) of those called Quakers, who, 
 lying under some hardships in their native country, 
 because, for conscience-sake, they could not comply 
 with the laws there, for taking oaths, expected that, 
 by virtue of'the powers of legislation granted by 
 the crown to the proprietary and them, they might, 
 after the hazard and toil of their removal hither, be 
 capable of enjoying the privileges of English sub- 
 jects, without violation of their religious principles. 
 " Accordingly the proprietary and assemblies 
 provided laws, by which those people might be ena- 
 bled to hold any offices (there being but few others 
 at that time to fill them), or to give evidence in any 
 case whatsoever. 
 
 " Some disputes afterwards arising on this sub- 
 ject, the late queen, by her order in council, dated 
 the 21st of January, 1702, was pleased to extend to 
 this province the affirmation allowed to the Quakers 
 in England, by the seventh and eighth of William 
 III., not only for the purposes intended by that in 
 "England, but also for the qualification of magistrates 
 tfid officers; and the same being from thence ap- 
 \lied to other cases, this order, on the repeal of our 
 <wn acts, in a great measure supplied what was 
 necessary in this point for the administration oi 
 justice. 
 
 " But the act of parliament itself being near its 
 expiration, it was found necessary, as well on that. 
 as some other considerations, to establish, by an 
 act of the province, the qualifications of officers, an 
 the manner of giving evidence, by affirmation ; and 
 
 he governor (upon the assembly's performing the 
 conditions proposed them) passed acts for that, as 
 well as other purposes, to answer the exigencies of 
 ;he government. 
 
 " That the said affirmation-acts should liave full 
 brce, according to the intention of them, of such 
 mportance to the ease and security of the whole 
 rovince, that it could scarcely be supposed, any 
 person amongst us, who professed even the most 
 Blender regard for the people's welfare, would at- 
 erapt to deprive them of the advantages thereof. 
 
 " It is, therefore, the more surprising, that the 
 governor himself (from whose station, and the trust 
 reposed in him, by our proprietary, the most tender 
 concern for the safety and well-being of all his ma- 
 esty's subjects, under his care, might reasonably 
 e expected) should be the principal, if not the first 
 person in the government, who would render the 
 intention of those acts void to us, though passed by 
 limself into laws so lately before, by publicly de- 
 claring his opinions, in such manner, as would 
 render the said acts repugnant to the laws of En- 
 gland, and repealed by the act of parliament of the 
 first of his present majesty ; in -pursuance of which 
 opinion, he has refused to qualify such persons for 
 offices, that could not take the oath, according to 
 the law of England. 
 
 " The consequence of which is, that as no Quaker 
 n Great Britain is qualified or permitted to give 
 evidence, in any criminal causes, or serve on any 
 juries, or bear any office, or place of profit, in the 
 government ; so, should the same hold, in this co- 
 lony, not only the great number of the first adven- 
 turers, with their descendants, of the same profes- 
 sion, are to be wholly excluded from having any 
 part, or share in the administration of justice, and 
 the execution of the laws of the country, (which, as 
 it would be a general inconvenieucy, so would it 
 throw the burden too heavily on a few of the inhabi- 
 tants,) but, what is of no less importance, for the 
 security of those of other professions, the greatest 
 outrages and barbarities, against any person, may 
 be committed, in the face of any number of Quakers, 
 and the malefactors, though brought to trial, must 
 escape with impunity, for want of legal evidence, if 
 that of the Quakers is not to be so accounted ; of 
 which the governor cannot forget a very memorable 
 instance, when, (at a time, that unhappily there 
 was no act of the province, for an affirmation, but 
 the queen's order was thought sufficient, during that 
 interval, for all but capital cases,) it is presumed a 
 murderer escaped the sentence, that was due to 
 him, for want of such evidence, as was esteemed 
 legal, though more than one Quaker appeared in 
 court, who were witnesses to the fact 
 
 " But, besides these inconveniencies, however 
 great, there remains one further consequence of 
 that construction of the act, which, perhaps, the 
 governor is not sufficiently advised of; which is, 
 That, if no Quaker, In Great Britain, nor the plan- 
 tations, can bear any office, or place of profit in 
 the government, some may judge it a natural in- 
 ference, that the proprietary himself is equally af- 
 fected by it ; and then all powers derived from him, 
 as well those lodged in the governor, by his de- 
 putation, as the magistracy and inferior officers, 
 fall together. 
 
 " Having thus far pointed out the destructive 
 consequences of that opinion, should it fully take 
 place in this province, we judge it, in the next 
 place, incumbent on us, in duty to the governor, 
 and for the discharge of the trust, reposed iu us, by 
 
862 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 those we represent, to offer to the consideration ol 
 the governor, and all others concerned, such reasons 
 as have occurred to us, in our enquiry into this 
 head ; which we hope (with submission) will render 
 it incontestably evident that the affirmation-acts ol 
 this province are in full force ; and are neither re- 
 pealed, nor affected by any act of parliament, that 
 has come to our knowledge : but that the governor 
 is obliged to take care that the same be equally, 
 with any other act, put duly in execution. 
 
 " By the same royal charter of King Charles II., 
 by which this province, with licence to transport an 
 ample colony thereunto, was granted to our proprie- 
 tary, and the governor-in chief, the said king grants 
 to him and his heirs, &c., power to make laws jointly 
 with the people ; and directs the force and limita- 
 tion of them, in the following words, as they stand 
 in divers parts of said charier, but are here col- 
 lected, viz. 
 
 " We, reposing special trust and confidence in 
 the fidelity, wisdom, justice and provident circum- 
 spection of the said William Penn, for us and our 
 heirs and successors, do grant free, full and abso- 
 lute power, by virtue of these presents, to him and 
 his heirs, and their deputies and lieutenants, for 
 the good and happy government of the said coun- 
 try, to ordain, make, enact, and, under his and 
 their seals, to publish any law whatsoever, for 
 raising of money, for the public uses of the said pro- 
 vince, or for any other end, &c., by and with the 
 advice, assent and approbation of the freemen of 
 the said country, or the greater part of them, or 
 of their delegates, &c., and the same laws duly to 
 execute unto and upon all people within the said 
 country, and limits thereof; which laws, so as 
 aforesaid to be published, our pleasure is, and so 
 we enjoin, require and command, shall be most 
 absolute and available in law : and that all the 
 liege people and subjects of us, our heirs and 
 successors, do observe and keep the same inviola- 
 bly in those parts, so far as they concern them, 
 under the penalties therein expressed, or to be ex- 
 pressed. Provided nevertheless, That the said laws 
 be consonant to reason, and be not repugnant, or 
 contrary, but as near as conveniently may be, 
 agreeable to the laws, statutes and rights of this 
 our kingdom of England. And our further will and 
 pleasure is, That the laws for regulating and go- 
 verning property, within the said province, as well 
 for the descent and enjoyment of lands, as like- 
 wise for the enjoyment of succession of goods and 
 chattels, and likewise felonies, shall be and con- 
 tinue the same as they shall be, for the time being, 
 by the general course of the law, in our kingdom 
 of England, until the said laws shall be altered 
 by the said William Penn, his heirs and assigns, 
 and by the freemen of the said province, their de- 
 legates, or their deputies, or the greater part of 
 them. And to the end that the said William Penn 
 his heirs, or others, the planters, owners, or in- 
 habitants of the said province, may not, at any 
 time hereafter, by misconstruction of the powers 
 aforesaid, through inadvertency, or design, depart 
 from that faith, and due allegiance, which, by 
 the laws of this our realm of England, they, and 
 all our subjects, in our dominions and territories, 
 always owe unto us, our heirs and successors, &c. 
 Our further will and pleasure is, That a transcript 
 or duplicate of all laws, which shall be, as aforesaid, 
 made and published, within the said province, shall, 
 within five years after the making thereof, be trans- 
 mitted and delivered to the privy-council for the 
 
 time being, of us, our heirs and successors; and if 
 any of the said laws, within the space of six month8, 
 after they shall be so, as aforesaid, transmitted and 
 delivered, be declared by us, our heirs and succes- 
 sors, in our or their privy-council, inconsistent with 
 the sovereignty, or lawful prerogative of us, our 
 heirs, or successors, or contrary to the faith and 
 allegiance due, by the legal government of this 
 realm, from the said William Penu, or of the 
 planters, or inhabitants of this province ; and that 
 thereupon any of the said laws shall be adjudged 
 and declared to be void, by us, our heirs or suc- 
 cessors, under our, or their privy seal, that then, 
 and from thenceforth, such laws, concerning which 
 such judgment and declaration shall be made, shall 
 become void, otherwise the said laws so trans- 
 mitted, shall remain and stand in full force, accord- 
 ing to the true intent and meaning thereof. 
 
 " Pursuant to these powers, the said acts of this 
 province, for an affirmation, were made and pub- 
 lished. And though a considerable part of the five 
 years, limited in the charter, is yet uuexpired, the 
 same have been duly transmitted; nor have we 
 heard any thing, but that they are, or may be, well 
 approved of; having reason to hope that they con- 
 tain nothing, for which (according to the tenor of 
 the said royal charter) they ought to be declared 
 void ; and, therefore, are of as full force, as abso- 
 lute and available, and to be observed and kept as 
 inviolably as any law whatsoever, that can be 
 enacted in this province, and ought accordingly to 
 be as duly executed by the governor, to the full ex- 
 tent thereof. 
 
 " But the governor, in answer to a resolution of 
 this house, of the 18th of October last, which was, 
 That the royal charter makes the acts of this pro- 
 vince most absolute and available in law, until 
 repealed by the king, is pleased to say, That he 
 joins with the assembly in this resolve, provided 
 the laws are not repugnant to the laws of England ; 
 and, by the following paragraph, in the same an- 
 swer, which is, That he allows the laws of the pro- 
 vince had settled the qualifications of magistrates 
 and other officers, until the publication of the act of 
 King George, relating thereto, he has, at last, 
 thought fit to give so much under his hand, as his 
 opinion, the natural construction whereof is, that 
 the said affirmation-acts of this province (being the 
 subject then in hand) were repugnant to the laws 
 of England, and repealed by the said act of par- 
 liament. 
 
 " But this we humbly offer, That, if it must be 
 termed repugnant, because it differs from, or is not 
 the same with, the act of parliament, then the clause 
 of the royal charter, which grants power to the go- 
 ernor and assembly here to alter the laws of Eng- 
 land, for the descent of lands, enjoying estates, and 
 punishing felonies, in the province (as is above re- 
 cited from the said charter) appears to be useless 
 and vain. 
 
 " But it is further to be considered, That, as the 
 :erm repugnant always implies an absolute opposi- 
 ion, or contrariety, in matter, it cannot be said 
 that an act of this province, which enables those, 
 called Quakers, to serve in offices, upon juries, and 
 o be evidence in all cases (the cin . umstances of 
 he country requiring that it should be so), is con- 
 ;rary to an act of Great Britain, which enables them 
 only to give evidence in civil cases; these two dif- 
 fer, it is true, and so it was certainly considered 
 and expected, at the time of the royal grant, that 
 our acts might, in some measure, differ from those 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 863 
 
 in England; otherwise those in England would 
 suffice ; and no such power for altering them 
 needed to have been granted : on the contrary, 
 the act of this province, pursuant to the directions 
 of that royal charter, is as nearly agreeable, as to 
 our conveniency may be, to the statute provided for 
 Quakers in Great Britain. 
 
 " But the governor, we presume, could not in- 
 tend, by his answer, That this act, at the time 
 of passing it, was repugnant to any of the laws 
 of England, though it differed from them, for in 
 that, certainly, he could not have given it his sanc- 
 tion ; it must, therefore, be meant, that it is be- 
 come repugnant only since the supposed publication 
 of the British act, which he conceives repealed it ; 
 or, to state what can be alledged on that head, in 
 its full force, and the plainest terms it will bear, 
 that the act of the first of King George, entitled, 
 ' An act for making perpetual an act of the seventh 
 and eighth years of the reign of his late majesty, 
 King William III., entitled, An act, that the so- 
 lemn affirmation and declaration of the people called 
 Quakers, should be accepted instead of an oath, in 
 the usual form, &c.,' extends to this province that 
 act of King William, by these words in the last 
 clause of it, viz. ' Provided always,' That so much of 
 this act, as relates to the affirmations to be made by 
 the people called Quakers, shall be extended to that 
 part of Great Britain, called Scotland, for ever, and 
 to the plantations belonging to the crown of Great 
 Britain^ for five years, &c. Therefore, that, as the 
 Quakers are not permitted by that act, in Great 
 Britain, to hold offices, serve on juries, or be evi- 
 dence in criminal cases, so, by its being extended 
 to the plantations, they are as effectually disabled 
 there, and that all acts of this province, for quali- 
 fying Quakers, in these cases, are, by the superior 
 force of this act of parliament, repealed, and made 
 utterly void. 
 
 " But when the language of the act itself comes to 
 be considered, the whole seeming force of this ob- 
 jection will, we presume, entirely disappear; the 
 clause of limitation, in the seventh and eighth of 
 William III., is in these words: ' Provided, and 
 be it enacted, That no Quaker, or reputed Quaker, 
 shall, by virtue of this act, be qualified or permitted 
 to give evidence, in any criminal causes, to serve 
 on any juries, to bear any office, or place of profit, 
 in the government, any thing in this act contained 
 to the contrary notwithstanding.' Upon which we 
 conceive that Brigadier Hunter, governor, under 
 liis majesty, of the provinces of New York and New 
 Jersey, has (in a case parallel with ours) observed, 
 in his printed declaration on that subject, under 
 the title of, 'An answer to what has been offered, 
 as argument against the validity and force of an 
 act of assembly, entitled, An act, that the solemn 
 affirmation and declaration of the people called 
 Quakers, &c.' passed in the province of New Jersey, 
 in the thirteenth year of the reign of Queen Anne, 
 to be of such force, as to be worthy our recital : in 
 which, after he has observed, in general, in the 
 following words : c Into what a woful condition 
 must the plantations be plunged, if such laws as 
 shall, by a legislature lawfully constituted by virtue 
 of letters patent, under the broad seal, be enacted 
 for the good government and ease of the subjects 
 there, shall, by implication, or construction, be 
 deemed to be repealed !' &c. he is pleased to say, 
 that act of assembly is not so much as, by implica- 
 tion, repealed; for the words of that act, upon 
 which they lay the stress of the argument, are these, 
 
 ' Provided, that no Quaker shall, by virtue of this 
 act, be qualified, &c.' Now I know no Quaker, con- 
 tinues that gentleman, that pretends he is, or can, 
 by virtue of that act, be qualified ; but I believe 
 every Quaker thinks that he is, or may be, qualified 
 by an act of assembly, entitled, ' An act, that the 
 solemn affirmation and declaration of the people 
 called Quakers, &c.' passed in the province, and 
 sent home, &c. It is as plain as words can make 
 it. that that act, of the seventh and eighth of King 
 William, has no negative, but upon itself, and con- 
 sequently cannot be alledged in bar to any laws 
 already enacted, in the plantations, or even such as 
 may be enacted ; for by these letters patent, which 
 gave a being to this government and legislature, all 
 such laws, as shall be enacted by the governor, 
 council and assembly, are declared to be in full 
 force from the time of enacting. 
 
 " The same worthy gentleman and governor is 
 further pleased, in the said print, to publish an in- 
 struction from the late queen, in whose reign that 
 act of assembly was made, directing him to pass 
 such an act in New Jersey ; by which instruction 
 her majesty was pleased further' to declare her will 
 and pleasure, ' That such of the people called 
 Quakers, as shall be found capable of serving in her 
 council, the general assembly, and in other places 
 of trust and profit, in New Jersey, and accordingly 
 be elected, or appointed, to serve therein, may, 
 upon their taking and signing the declaration of 
 allegiance to her majesty, in the form used by the 
 same people in England, toegther with a solemn de- 
 claration of the true discharge of their respective 
 trusts, be admitted by the governor to any of the 
 said places or employments.' And he adds, ' That 
 the same instructions are, word for word, also con- 
 tained in his present majesty's instructions to the 
 governor, dated the 1st of July, 1715.' By which 
 it appears, that both the late queen was, and his 
 present majesty is, willing that the people called 
 Quakers, immediately under their government, in 
 New Jersey, should enjoy the full privileges which 
 are craved here, as due to the people, we represent, 
 by their chartered rights, under the government of 
 our proprietary, William Penn. 
 
 " To this we may add what has also been ob- 
 served, on the same subject, by the chief justice of 
 New Jersey, in his speech, delivered at the supreme 
 court in May last, at Burlington, which is also 
 printed; wherein he clearly gives his opinion in 
 law, very nearly in the same terms the gover- 
 nor had done before, and then proceeds, in these 
 words, viz : 
 
 " ' The act of parliament of Great Britain is an 
 enlargement of the Quakers' privileges to what it 
 never was before ; it makes that perpetual to them, 
 in England, which before was temporary and ex- 
 pired, or near expiring, by its own limitation, car- 
 ries the same into that part of Great Britain, called 
 Scotland, where it was not before, and makes it 
 perpetual there, and into the plantations generally 
 for five years.' This does no way hinder, but that, 
 by virtue of the act of assembly of the province 
 (which is a municipal law thereof), the Quakers, or 
 reputed Quakers, are qualified to be of juries and 
 evidence, and bear offices of trust and profit in the 
 government ; nor, but that they may be so qualified 
 hereafter, by any other law hereafter to be made, 
 for that, or the like purpose, although by virtue of 
 that act of parliament, they are not so qualified. 
 
 " Having thus far stated this point, we shall now 
 leave it; but that we are obliged to give the sense 
 
864 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 of this house to that part of the governor's answer 
 to our resolves, in which he is pleased to say, That 
 though he was of opinion he could not be safe in 
 giving any qualification but an oath, yet by a dedi- 
 mus they (the officers and witnesses) might have 
 been qualified as the law directs. 
 
 " On which we must humbly observe, That though 
 it may be very certain a dedimus potestatem, duly 
 issued by the governor, is no less sufficient in law, 
 for administering qualifications to any officer, than 
 the governor's act, in his own person; which, not- 
 withstanding the governor has not of late, that we 
 know of, condescended to, but refused to admit such 
 of those called Quakers, as, by virtue of the pro- 
 prietary's charter to the people, were elected to 
 serve in certain offices, until that more remarkable 
 case of the last qualification of the mayor of Phila- 
 delphia; yet no such dedimus will answer the exi- 
 gencies of this government, should the governor's 
 opinion obtain : for should it be taken for granted, 
 that the affirmation-act of this province is actually 
 repealed by the act of parliament, then all such qualifi- 
 cations will be construed illegal, whether given by 
 himself, or other persons empowered by him. And 
 as the judges of the supreme court have rendered 
 their reasons to the house, for their not proceeding 
 to try the criminals, now in the respective gaols of 
 this province, viz. ' That they cannot think it pru- 
 dent to proceed, by virtue of the governor's com- 
 mission to them, in opposition to his opinion, in so 
 tender a point as the lives of his majesty's subjects :' 
 so all others must be discouraged in cases of such 
 vast consequence ; for no dedimus will make that 
 act sufficient, that is in itself illegal. 
 
 " It has, by this time we hope, clearly appeared, 
 from what has been offered, That the opinion of 
 the governor is (with submission) neither founded 
 on law nor reason ; but from hence we cannot 
 but desire the governor may be induced more 
 seriously and maturely to consider how unac- 
 countable and astonishing it must appear to man- 
 kind, that, while such a person as Governor Hun- 
 ter, who holds his commission -directly from the 
 crown, is accountable to no other principal, nor 
 under obligations to any called a Quaker, as a su- 
 perior, has thought it necessary, in the discharge of 
 his trust, to publish his reasons, in such a manner, 
 for removing mistakes, and allaying the disturb- 
 ances from thence fomented ; at the same time, 
 though such an example be set to us, at no greater 
 distance, than the other bank of Delaware, our 
 proprietary, William Penn's lieutenant, in the 
 province of Pennsylvania, should be drawn into 
 measures so injurious, not only to the interest of 
 his principal, from which he derives his power, 
 but to the very being of the constitution, over 
 which he is entrusted to preside. We heartily 
 wish we could, by any construction, find other 
 causes, to which these procedures might be im- 
 puted, than a formed design ; but we are justly 
 alarmed at some other late proceedings of the go- 
 vernor, which, as they have naturally fallen under 
 our notice, we think ourselves also obliged, in duty, 
 to represent : 
 
 " When the house had chosen their speaker, 
 and the governor, without any objection, approved 
 their choice, they proceeded to take the usual 
 qualifications as the law, in that case, directs ; but 
 upon the rumours, that had been spread, of persons 
 disaffected to his present majesty, that this house 
 might give the utmost expressions, they could of 
 their loyalty, they, by a message to the governor, 
 
 requested to know, if besides what they had taken as 
 usual, the governor had any directions from Great 
 Britain, or any other qualification to offer to the 
 bouse ; to which he was pleased to answer, ' he had 
 not:' the house notwithstanding resolved to neg- 
 lect no part of their duty, but to give all the as- 
 surances of their loyalty, in their power, thought fit 
 unanimously to take and subscribe the test, called 
 the abjuration, every one, in the way prescribed to 
 them by the several acts of parliament, according 
 to their religious persuasions, and then proceeded 
 to the business before them. 
 
 " But being informed that the governor had, 
 at divers time, and to sundry persons, charged the 
 present mayor of the city of Philadelphia, now 
 speaker of the house, as a person disaffected to 
 his majesty. King George ; and that he further 
 alledged, the only cause of difference betwixt him 
 and the said mayor, was, because the governor 
 would not agree to proclaim the Pretender, or 
 words to the same effect; the house conceived 
 themselves obliged, in duty to his said majesty, to 
 enquire into the grounds of this heinous charge, 
 that, in case there should be any found, they might 
 purge themselves of the scandal. 
 
 " Accordingly, having, in a committee of the 
 whole house, taken full proofs, that the governor 
 had so charged the speaker, and finding, by the 
 same evidence, that he had, in the same manner, 
 also charged James Logan, secretary of the pro- 
 vince, they, by a message, desired of the governor, 
 that he would be pleased to lay before the house his 
 grounds for these accusations ; but he returned no 
 other answer, than, ' That he thought himself not 
 obliged to render any reasons to the house for his 
 accusation, but would do it at the board at home ;' 
 and the members, sent on the message, could not 
 persuade him to give any leasons here. 
 
 " The house thereupon judged it still the more 
 incumbent on them to enquire fully into the mat- 
 ter ; and accordingly they, by a written message, 
 informed the governor, That, being under a deep 
 concern, on all occasions, to show their loyalty, as 
 faithful subjects to King George, they could by no 
 means think themselves discharged of their duty, 
 without further enquiring into the truth of the re- 
 port, which they had received, and acquainted the 
 governor with, which affected their speaker and 
 another person, bearing considerable offices and 
 trusts, in the government ; and finding the gover- 
 nor's answer to the last message concerning the 
 same, not satisfactory, they further acquainted him, 
 that the house intended immediately to resolve into 
 a committee, in order to enquire into that matter, 
 and that the said committee would be desirous to 
 receive from the governor, or any other person, any 
 information concerning the same, in order to pro 
 ceed to the extent of what is their duty, and purge 
 the house of any member, or members thereof, that 
 may appear, or shall be found guilty of disloyalty 
 to the king, or disaffection to his government, under 
 which the house unanimously declared themselves 
 extremely happy, and well satisfied. 
 
 " But the governor, though another message 
 was sent to him, to crave his answer, could not be 
 prevailed on to give any, but that he bad nothing 
 to lay before them ; the house notwithstanding, 
 while formed into a committee for that purpose, 
 proceeded to make the utmost enquiries in their 
 power ; but could not find the least ground to sus- 
 pect the persons charged, or to believe the accusa- 
 tions against them, had any manner of foundation. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 " Now what sentiments can be formed of such 
 a conduct, in a person, acting in so exalted a sta- 
 tion, the house must acknowledge themselves to be 
 at a loss to determine ! But the house would con- 
 sider it, as no small happiness to the whole pro- 
 vince, could they be assured that the governor had 
 no design, by his representations to any board, at 
 home, to raise a merit to himself, on the ruin of 
 others ; who, could they be heard there, and fully 
 known, might be found as faithful and loyal, in 
 their stations, to the present establishment and 
 succession, as any of the king's subjects whatso- 
 ever. 
 
 " Had the governor believed the speaker to be 
 such a person as he has thought fit to render him, 
 it was doubtless incumbent on the governor to ex- 
 cept against him, when first presented by the house 
 In that station, or had he suspected either the 
 speaker, or any other member, to be disaffected to 
 the king, it might be no less expected, that he 
 should have recommended to the house, the further 
 qualification of the abjuration, as a test to them: 
 but, if the speaker of the house of representatives 
 of Pennsylvania, and others acting in the great 
 trusts, are to be rendered to the ministry, or to any 
 board, as persons so notoriously disaffected, as the 
 governor's charges imply, and this without the least 
 proof offered here, though so importunately, and 
 yet dutifully solicited, it will force all thinking 
 persons on apprehensions, that there is more in- 
 tended by it, than can safely be acknowledged here, 
 where things and persons are better known than 
 can possibly be at such a distance, as the other side 
 of the ocean. 
 
 " Having proceeded to such a length, on these 
 two important subjects, we should now chuse to 
 bring this representation to a period, but that the go- 
 vernor's written answer to another message from the 
 house exacts our notice ; in which he is pleased to 
 say, That he is given to understand, (for which he 
 thinks fit to quote the language of former assemblies, 
 and some of the council,) that this house did not 
 design to make laws, nor raise any money this ses- 
 sion, but upon terms inconsistent with the gover- 
 nor's duty and safety to comply with. To which the 
 justest reply we can, at present return, is, That 
 this house came together with no other views, than 
 to discharge their duty in all respects, to the best 
 of their skill and power ; and they have nothing to 
 crave of the governor, but what they firmly believe 
 is not only his duty, but for his honour and safety, 
 to grant them : they would willingly have proceeded 
 to enquire what further laws may be necessary for 
 the well being of the province in general, the go- 
 vernor having told us, in his speech, That, if we 
 should have any other bills to offer, that might be 
 for the interest and tranquillity of the people, he 
 should be ready to pass them, and promised himself, 
 that he would make a return suitable to their cir- 
 cumstances, and the advantages they will receive 
 by them : but in his next written message, he in- 
 formed the house, ' That he disagreed from both the 
 council and assembly, in his opinion, upon a point 
 of such importance to the security, as well as tran- 
 quillity of the people, that no bill of ours can be 
 of more to us :' the purport of which was, that he 
 declared (in opposition to both council and assem- 
 bly,) that one of the last laws, he himself had passed, 
 which most nearly affected us, was void, and this 
 by construction only ; we could not, therefore, find 
 aay encouragement from the governor's proposals 
 to us, to think any other bill, we could offer, was 
 
 HIST. OF AMER. Nos. 109 & 110. 
 
 worth the soliciting, and much less deserving, a 
 further consideration. 
 
 To this we must not omit adding, That we find 
 judgment was given against oae Hugh Lowdon, at 
 the court of common pleas, in September last, where- 
 upon the said Hugh Lowdon, giving way to the 
 greatest resentment and rage, vowed revenge, at the 
 utmost hazards, against the aforesaid speaker and 
 secretary (being two of the justices of that court), 
 and having furnished himself with pistols, way-laid 
 them, at their doors, and meeting the speaker the 
 same night, he presented at him a pistol loaden with 
 bullets; although, by the overruling hand of Pro- 
 vidence, no further mischief ensued. As this at 
 temjit could not but raise a horror in the hearts of 
 all good men, we find the said Lowdon was bound 
 over to the court, now sitting, and indictments were 
 found against him, for the same ; at which the go- 
 vernor, instead of protecting the magistrates, in the 
 discharge of their trusts, has now thought fit to 
 grant Noli Prosequi's, in the said Lowdon's favour, 
 in the same manner he had formerly done for one 
 Francis Phillips (that scandal to his order,) when\ 
 indicted and prosecuted for notorious crimes, after 
 all the neighbouring clergy had disowned him. 
 Which proceedings, as they rendered the adminis- 
 tration contemptible, so we also justly fear they 
 will encourage ill-minded men to the same attempts, 
 in hopes of the like favour. 
 
 " But, to sum up the whole, we can truly say, 
 we are extremely troubled, that we cannot enjoy 
 the same happiness, that most of our neighbours 
 respectively do, of seeing our governor take such 
 measures, as should, by an agreeable force, sway 
 the people's inclinations, to render him easy, in all 
 respects ; which can be effected by no means so 
 powerfully, as first rendering them easy, in the en- 
 joyment of those privileges, which they have an un- 
 do'ubted right to : and we are but two well assured, 
 that the only cause of a failure herein, is the go- 
 vernor's mistake, since the proprietary's indisposi- 
 tion, in the choice of his advisers ; who, whatever 
 views they may at present form, will at length be 
 found the sole occasion of all the disappointments 
 that may fall to the governor's portion ; for even, 
 though acting by commission, immediately from the 
 crown, he would have the same injured people to 
 deal with." 
 
 Governor GooJdn is superseded by Sir William Keith 
 Concern at the great influx of foreigners Dr. 
 Griffith Owen Address of the governor and as- 
 sembly to the king Great harmony between the go- 
 vernoj and assembly Penn's death and character. 
 
 (1717.) It does not appear that Governor Gookin 
 made any reply to this representation ; but in the 
 March following, by a written message to the house, 
 he took his last leave of them, in full assurance, 
 that he should soon be superseded ; and without 
 making any remarks on their conduct, he recom- 
 mended to their consideration the charge of his re- 
 turning to seek another employment ; declaring, that 
 the uncertainty of his being provided for at home ; 
 the thoughts of what he had left, to serve the pro- 
 prietary and the province, and the disappointments 
 he had met with, so filled his mind, that they would 
 excuse his not saying any more. 
 
 The assembly gave him 2001. on the occasion ; 
 and on the 1st of May following, he was superseded 
 by Sir William Keith ; who, by summons, convened 
 the assembly on the 19th of August, 1717 
 
 Sir William Keith was a man of popular address, 
 4 E 
 
866 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Wich, after so much altercation between the as- 
 sembly and the two preceding governors, Evans 
 and Gookin, had the more effect, and rendered his 
 administration the more acceptable to the province. 
 The following was his first speech to the assembly : 
 " Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the Assembly, 
 " Being informed, upon my arrival here, that 
 the season of harvest, then at hand, could not well 
 permit you to meet me, in your representative ca- 
 pacity, until that busy time be over ; I did, out of a 
 tender regard for your interests, then .delay the sa- 
 tisfaction I still proposed to myself, in meeting with 
 this present assembly f and I will always endeavour 
 to make the time you must necessarily bestow on 
 the public service, as easy and pleasant to your- 
 selves as, I hope, it will be profitable and satisfac- 
 tory to the country in general. 
 
 " If an affectionate desire, to oblige and serve 
 the people of this province, can qualify me, in their 
 good opinions, for the station wherein I am now 
 placed, I may then expect that the country's and 
 the governor's interest will be effectually established 
 upon one bottom, as that he, who truly wishes well 
 to either, cannot but find himself engaged to serve 
 both; and you yourselves may easily infer the 
 warmth of my inclinations towards the service and 
 prosperity of this country. 
 
 " First, From the expensive application last 
 year, by which I carefully introduced to his royal 
 highness, the prince of Wales, then regent, the 
 humble address of the assembly to the king, in 
 such manner, as freely to obtain his royal high- 
 ness's most gracious assurance, that the people 
 called Quakers, were a body of loyal subjects, for 
 whom the king had great regard; and that his 
 highness was sorry the king was not then present 
 to receive so good an address ; but that the Quakers 
 might, at all times, depend on his highness's good- 
 will, to serve the,m, in any thing they had to ask of 
 his royal father. 
 
 . " Then, the diligence wherewith I obtained, at a 
 considerable charge, the commission of governor, 
 without any other certain prospect, or advantage, 
 but only that I should be thereby enabled more ef- 
 fectually to serve you. 
 
 " And lastly, by the great fatigue I have under- 
 gone, since my arrival here, that no opportunity 
 might be slipped, to encourage virtue, and promote 
 the general good of your country ; but these consi- 
 derations are trifles, compared with the indispensa 
 ble obligation, that is of necessity upon you, to sup 
 port the dignity and authority of this government 
 by such a reasonable and discreet establishment, as 
 the nature of the thing, and your own generosit) 
 will direct. 
 
 " And whatsoever you shall think fit to do, in 
 that kind, pray let it uo longer bear the undeserve( 
 and reproachful name of a burden upon the people 
 but rather let your governor be enabled to relievi 
 the country from real burdens, by putting it in hi 
 power to direct a better economy, and more fruga 
 management of such taxes as would answer the use 
 for which they are intended, if not squandered b 
 the bare-faced partiality and unprofitable expense o 
 the officers appointed to assess and collect the same 
 " Gentlemen, I doubt not but you will take th 
 first opportunity, under a new administration, t 
 examine the state of your laws, in order to reviv 
 some that are obsolete, or expired; and to mak 
 sucn alterations and additions as shall be found ne 
 cessary for perfecting the constitution, and goo 
 ord of government in this province. 
 
 For that end I am, on my part, ready to concur 
 ith you, in every thing, which you can possibly 
 esire, or expect from a governor, who conscien 
 ously intends to observe, and steadilv resolves to 
 ursue the duty of his office." 
 
 Two days after the assembly presented him the 
 llowing address : 
 
 " The address of the freemen of Pennsylvania, in 
 ssembly met, in answer to the governor's speech of 
 e 20th instant. 
 
 " May it please the Governor, 
 
 " We gladly embrace this first opportunity to 
 ingratulate the governor's happy and safe arrival 
 
 us, with an eye to that good Providence, which 
 reserved him and his family from pirates; who, 
 t that time, much infested our coast; some of 
 horn (as we are informed) waited with hopes of 
 is falling into their hands. 
 
 " This house, maturely considering the gover- 
 or's speech, find themselves obliged, in duty, to 
 ake grateful acknowledgments for the governor's 
 
 nder regards to the interest of the public. 
 
 " The governor's affectionate desire to oblige 
 nd serve the people of this province doth, and 
 aall, meet with dutiful returns, in all matters that 
 ome before us ; and this house will contribute all 
 n their power to preserve the interest of the go- 
 ernor and people upon one bottom. 
 
 " And as we must acknowledge the people of this 
 rovince to stand highly obliged to the governor's 
 pplication and care, in presenting to the prince, 
 ben regent, the humble address of the assembly 
 if this province, so we gladly take this occasion to 
 onfess the warmth of our hearts, in loyalty, duty, 
 ,nd affection to the king and royal family, and en- 
 reat the governor, upon all occasions, so to repre- 
 ent us. 
 
 " We cannot but express the pleasure and great 
 atisfaction of this house, in that the proprietary 
 lath been pleased to place, and his majesty to ap- 
 >rove of, so worthy a gentleman, in commission 
 >ver us ; and hope our behaviour, and that of all the 
 eople of this province, will always be such as may 
 ireserve the good inclinations of the governor to 
 erve the country; an instance whereof we have in 
 the fatiguing journeys he hath taken, in the late 
 lot season, to promote the good of those under his 
 government. 
 
 ' As the governor was pleased to defer calling 
 us, for the sake of harvest, so we crave leave to ob- 
 serve to him, that seed-time being just at hand, it will 
 ae a great inconveniency to many of the members to 
 stay long at this season, so that we do not undertake, 
 at this sitting, to enter upon an examination of our 
 laws, or any business that will require length of 
 time, but depend upon the governor's resolves and 
 ajood intentions to oblige the people, by concurring 
 with any thing they can reasonably desire for their 
 service. 
 
 ;< We, on our part, being fully satisfied, in our 
 duty of supporting, as far as in us lies, the dignity 
 and authority of this government, have at this time 
 voted, nemine contradicente, that the sum of 5002 
 shall be given to the governor, and paid out. of the 
 first public money that shall arise, by any means, in 
 the treasury; and, to make it more certain, are 
 now preparing a bill, which will be offered to the 
 governor, (or augmenting the public stock." 
 
 To this address the governor made the following 
 reply. 
 
 " Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the Assembly, 
 " I received a very affectionate address from pur 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 867 
 
 house ; for which I heartily thank you ; and the 
 generous acknowledgment, you have been pleased 
 to make of my late endeavours to serve this country, 
 cannot but greatly encourage me diligently to carry 
 on the same public service, in all its parts. 
 
 " Your dutiful expressions of loyalty and affection 
 to the king and royal family, shall be carefully re- 
 presented by me to his majesty, and his servants, 
 in the ministry ; and while the spirit of unanimity, 
 and so amiable a temper, with respect to govern- 
 ment, is continued and preserved amongst you, I 
 will take upon me to say, that you may be firmly 
 assured of the king's favourable countenance, and 
 gracious condescension, in all our applications to 
 the throne. 
 
 " Gentlemen, since you have observed to me, that 
 it will be inconvenient for you to enter upon any 
 business now, which may detain you from your 
 urgent affairs, at this time, in the country, I cannot 
 but condescend that you may make such an adjourn- 
 ment, as you think will best suit with the season 
 of the year ; for I shall still have a great regard to 
 the opinion, as well as the advantage and ease, of 
 so good an assembly." 
 
 The assembly, which was elected in October, 
 1717, chose William Trent speaker. About which 
 time, the great influx of foreigners, into the pro- 
 vince, created such alarm, that the governor, in his 
 speech to the house, after recommending their re- 
 vising and amending their laws, proposed to their 
 consideration, whether some regulation might not 
 be necessary, in regard to the unlimited numbers 
 of foreigners coming without licence from the king, 
 or leave of the government. On which affair, the 
 assembly, in their reply, likewise expressed their 
 concern ; and desired that the governor would either 
 appoint a committee of the council, to join with 
 one of the assembly, or proceed as he thought best. 
 
 As the governor had lately written to the secre- 
 tary of state, on the affair, the further consideration 
 of it was, for the present, deferred, in expectation 
 of advice from England. Having been desired by 
 the assembly to give them his assistance, in the 
 revisal of their laws, he willingly complied with 
 their request. 
 
 In the spring of the year 1718, he proposed to 
 join with the house, in the following address to the 
 king ; which was drawn up by him, and laid before 
 the assembly, for their concurrence ; to which, with 
 some alteration, or amendment, and an exception 
 to the style of it, (not being in the Quaker mode,) 
 they acceded; and it being signed by the governor, 
 and speaker of the assembly, it was accordingly for- 
 warded to Great Britain. 
 
 " To the King's most excellent Majesty. 
 
 " The humble address and representation of the 
 governor and general assembly, of your majesty's 
 province of Pennsylvania, met at Philadelphia, the 
 day of May, 1718. 
 
 " Most gracious Sovereign, 
 
 " We, your majesty's most dutiful and loyal sub- 
 jects and servants, being filled with a dutiful and 
 just sense of that tender care and concern, which 
 your majesty has, on every occasion, been pleased 
 to express, for the peace and prosperity of all your 
 people, do, with profound humility and submission, 
 presume to address your sacred majesty, in behalf 
 of your majesty's good subjects, the people of this 
 province, whom we have the honour, at this time, 
 to represent, in a legislative capacity. 
 
 "' May it, therefore, please your majesty to know, 
 that, in the year 1681, this colony was settled by 
 
 a considerable number of English subjects, called 
 Quakers, under the care, encouragement and di- 
 rection of William Penn, Esq., our proprietary and 
 governor-in-chief. 
 
 " That the persecution, which, in those days, 
 prevailed against Protestant dissenters, in England, 
 was the principal motive and reason, why the ilrst 
 settlers of this country removed their estates and 
 families hither, where they might quietly and 
 peaceably enjoy that innocent liberty of conscience, 
 which they conceived to be every man's natural 
 right. 
 
 " That, by the unwearied application, industry 
 and expense of the inhabitants, this colony is now 
 increased to a considerable body of people, whereof 
 the majority continue to remain in the society of 
 Friends, called Quakers. 
 
 " That, such being the peculiar and distinguish- 
 ing circumstance of this, from any other colony 
 under his majesty's dominions, in America, the 
 offices of government must, of necessity, be supplied, 
 and the powers executed, by those of the Quaker's 
 persuasion, intermixed with suqh others, as are to 
 be found here, in the communion of the Church of 
 England, and good Protestant subjects, well affected 
 to your majesty, and your government. 
 
 " That the happy influence of your majesty's most 
 equal and Just administration, every where, has 
 perfectly united our hearts and minds to contribute 
 our utmost endeavours, for carrying on the business 
 of the government of this province, in such manner, 
 as may be most agreeable and acceptable to your 
 majesty, and your ministry at home. 
 
 " That, for this end we have laboured, more ge- 
 nerally of late, to regulate the proceedings in our 
 courts of judicature, as near as possibly could be 
 done, to the constitution and practice of the laws of 
 England. 
 
 " That, from many years experience, we are not 
 only convinced that the solemn affirmation allowed 
 in Great Britain, to the people called Quakers, doth 
 in all respects, and in every case, here, answer the 
 legal and essential purposes of an oath, but also the 
 growing condition of this colony, which brings 
 great numbers of people yearly from Europe, to 
 reside among us. 
 
 " The multitude of pirates abroad, and other loose 
 vagrant people, who are daily crowding in, to shel- 
 ter themselves undei the peaceable administration 
 of this government; and the absolute necessity 
 there is to punish such, as shall dare to oppose, and 
 break through the known laws of society and huma- 
 nity, lays us under the greatest obligations, with 
 security to our lives, as well as the just maintenance 
 of your majesty's royal authority over us, not to 
 reject or despise the solemn affirmation, allowed to 
 the Quakers ; without which, we humbly beg leave 
 to assure your majesty, judges, juries, nor evidences, 
 sufficient, could never yet be found here, in the 
 most criminal and notorious cases. 
 
 " That formerly, it having been found impracti- 
 cable to keep and preserve the public peace, within 
 this government, any other way than by admitting 
 the solemn affirmation, in all cases whatsoever, to 
 have the same force and effect in law as an oath, 
 upon a representation thereof to the board of trade, 
 the late Queen Anne, by an order in council, dated 
 the 21st of January, 1703, was pleased to direct, in 
 the alternative, viz. ' That all persons, acting in 
 any judicial, or other offices, within this province of 
 Pennsylvania, and three lower counties upon Dela- 
 ware, should be obliged to take an oath, or, in lieu 
 
 4 E 2 
 
868 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 thereof, the solemn affirmation allowed in England, 
 to the people called Quakers, and that, in all their 
 public and judicial proceedings, the said judges and 
 officers shall be obliged to administer the oaths ap- 
 pointed by law, or the said attestation.' 
 
 " That the Quakers, in general, having approved 
 themselves to be an industrious and quiet people, 
 most heartily attached to your majesty's royal per- 
 son and government, your loyal subjects of that 
 persuasion, in this province, do humbly hope that 
 your majesty will vouchsafe to indulge their tender 
 consciences, in the case of oaths, with the same free- 
 dom that has been granted to them by your royal 
 predecessors, and thereby we shall be effectually 
 enabled to perform our respective duties, in pre- 
 serving your majesty's peace, within the jurisdic- 
 tion of this province, and to enforce the just regard 
 and obedience, due unto your royal authority, as 
 becomes, may it please your majesty, your majes- 
 ty's most loyal, most faithful, and most obedient 
 subjects and servants." 
 
 This affair of the " solemn affirmation of the 
 Quakers," appears not to have been finally settled, 
 or fixed to the satisfaction of the province, and ac- 
 cording to that right, which the inhabitants thought 
 themselves justly entitled to, until the year 1725. 
 
 At the conclusion of this session, near the ap- 
 proach of harvest, the Governor Keith, in his 
 speech, highly complimented the assembly, on ac- 
 count of the valuable and wholesome laws, which 
 (he says) " were composed with so much care, by 
 your diligent application, and the great temper and 
 perfect unanimity wherewith the public affairs had 
 been carried on, through all the parts of the admi- 
 nistration of the government, for the last twelve 
 months; and which must, by that time, have con- 
 vinced all reasonable men among them, of the many 
 and great advantages that such a harmony secures 
 to the commonwealth." 
 
 On the 30th of July, 1718, at Rushcomb, near 
 Twyford, in Buckinghamshire, in England, ,died 
 the truly honourable proprietary and founder of the 
 province of Pennsylvania, William Penn,aged about 
 74 years. He had, in the year 1712, as before-men- 
 tioned, been seized with some fits of an apoplectic 
 kind ; which, for the last six years of his life, had 
 so affected his faculties, especially his memory, as 
 to render him, in great measure, incapable of pub- 
 lic business ; which, with the gradual decline of his 
 strength of body, continued to increase till the close 
 of his life. Notwithstanding this affliction, he is 
 said to have been often sensible and intelligent; 
 and, by his behaviour and expressions, manifested that 
 he retained, till his death, the happy enjoyment of 
 that divine and mental felicity which resulted from 
 the nature of his religion, and manner of life. 
 
 Much of his character may be seen in the prece- 
 ding^ history ; and he is represented by those who 
 had the best opportunity of being acquainted with 
 his true character and real merit, to have been- a 
 man of great penetration and foresight ; and a sincere 
 lover of truth. He possessed great natural abilities 
 and considerable acquirements ; which he ever ren- 
 dered subservient to the great interests of religion 
 and virtue. His manners were gentle and en- 
 gaging, and his powers of pleasing considerable. 
 
 He may be considered as one of the" most power- 
 ful instruments, in removing much of that supersti- 
 tious bigotry and ignorance which, for ages, had 
 overspread, and, even till his time, remained, in a 
 very remarkable manner, to darken the minds of 
 all ranks of people ; and was one of the first to in- 
 
 troduce, in their stead, especially among the higher 
 class of men, a more liberal and rational way of 
 thinking on religious subjects. 
 
 Actuated by the same principles, and induced by 
 the*same 'motives of universal benevolence and im- 
 piovement; he, in the much admired effects of his 
 civil polity and government, eminently exemplified 
 to the world, by what means war, violence, and in- 
 justice may be made to give way to peace, and 
 Christian equity and beneficence. 
 
 His printed works exhibit his manner of writing, 
 and the nature of his compositions. His style is 
 easy and agreeable, yet strong and nervous; with- 
 out affectation, and not laboured with that tedious 
 formality of expression, which, about his time, was 
 so much the mode. His periods are generally short, 
 yet full and flowing, and he insensibly gains upon 
 his reader, by the simplicity of his expression, and 
 the force of his reasoning. 
 
 Persons have not been wanting who have been 
 disposed to censure him, on account of the con- 
 duct of some of his lieutenant-governors; and to 
 charge him with withholding many advantages, 
 which they apprehend were in his power to have 
 granted the province. But before these accusations 
 are received, a due consideration should be made of 
 his restricted means, and of the smallness of his for- 
 tune. When these are fully considered; when it 
 is recollected that he impaired his private property, 
 devoted his time, and all his energies to the pro- 
 vince, and to the sect he so dearly loved; and when 
 all the difficulties he had to contend with, of a poli- 
 tical, religious, and private nature, are fully con- 
 templated, he must stand forth as one of those ele- 
 vated characters whose lives are a blessing to man- 
 kind.. 
 
 Perm's will State of his agreement with Queen Anne, 
 for the sale of the government, Sfc. Governor and 
 assembly's conduct, on hearing of the proprietor'* 
 decease Claims of the late proprietor's family* 
 Conduct of the governor and assembly, respecting 
 said claim The Indians of Pennsylvania attacked 
 by some foteign Indians Proceedings of the go- 
 vernor and assembly Governor Keith, with the a$- 
 sembly's consent, establishes a court of chancery, 
 Sfc. The governor endeavours to prevent ill conse- 
 quences among the Indians A treaty with the In- 
 dians at Connestogo. 
 
 (1718.) The late proprietary left his estate in En- 
 gland and Ireland, amounting to the yearly value 
 of 1500J. sterling, and upwards, to William Penn. 
 his eldest surviving son and heir, by Gulielma 
 Maria, his first wife, and to the issue of that mar 
 riage ; which, at the time of making his last will, in 
 1712, besides his said son William Penn, and his 
 daughter Laetitia, appears to have consisted of three 
 grand-children, Gulielma Maria, Springett and 
 William, the children of his son William. He could, 
 therefore, make no provision, out of the said estate, 
 for the payment of his debts, which were very con- 
 siderable ; nor for his widow, (his second wife,) 
 and his offspring by her; who were named, John, 
 Thomas, Margaret, Richard, and Dennis, and were 
 all minors. 
 
 His estate in Europe, at this time, was esteemed 
 of more value than all his property in America, 
 especially under its then encumbrance of the mort- 
 gage of 1708. He disposed of the latter in the 
 following manner: 
 
 " My eldest son being well provided for by a set- 
 tlement of his mother's, and my father's estate, I 
 
UNITED STATES 
 
 869 
 
 give and devise the rest of my estate, in manner 
 following. The government of my province of Penn- 
 sylvania and territories thereunto belonging, and 
 powers relating thereunto, I give and devise to the 
 most honourable, the earl of Oxford, and Earl Mor- 
 timer, and to William, Earl Powlett, so called, and 
 their heirs, upon trust, to dispose thereof to the 
 Queen, or any other person, to the best advantage 
 they can, to be applied, in such manner as I shall 
 hereafter direct. I give and devise to my dear wife, 
 Hannah Penn, and her father Thomas Callowhill, 
 and to my good friends, Margaret Lowther, my dear 
 sister, and to Gilbert Heathcote, physician, Samuel 
 Waldenfield, John Field, and Henry Gouldney, all 
 living in England, and to my friends, Samuel 
 Carpenter, Richard Hill, Isaac Norris, Samuel 
 Preston, and James Logan, living in, or near Penn- 
 sylvania, and to their heirs, all my lands, tene- 
 ments and hereditaments, whatsoever rents, and 
 other profits, situate, lying and being in Pennsyl- 
 vania, and the territories thereunto belonging, or 
 elsewhere in America, upon trust, that they shall 
 sell, and dispose of, so much thereof, as shall be 
 sufficient to pay all my just debts, and from and 
 after payment thereof, shall convey to each of the 
 three children of my son, William Penn, Gulielraa 
 Maria, Springett and William, respectively, and 
 to their respective heirs, 10,000 acres of land, in 
 some proper and beneficial place, to be set out by 
 my trustees aforesaid. All the rest of my lands and 
 hereditaments whatsoever, situate, lying, or being 
 in America, I will, that my said trustees shall con- 
 vey to, and amongst my children, which I have by 
 my present wife, in such proportion, and for such 
 estates as my said wife shall think fit ; but before 
 such conveyance shall be made to my children, I 
 will, that my said trustees shall convey to my 
 daughter Aubrey, whom I omitted to name before, 
 10,000 acres of my said lands, in such places, as my 
 said trustees shall think fit. All my personal estate, 
 in Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, and arrears of rent 
 due there, I give to my said dear wife, whom I make 
 my sole executrix, for the equal benefit of her, and 
 her children." 
 
 The following is a codicil to his will, in his own 
 hand writing. " Postscript, in my own hand, as a 
 further testimony of my love to my dear wife, I, of 
 my own mind, give unto her, out of the rents of 
 America, viz. Pennsylvania, 300/. a year, for her 
 natural life ; and for her care and charge over my 
 children, in their education ; of which she knows 
 my mind ; as also, that I desire they may settle, at 
 least, in good part, in America. wher I leave them 
 so good an interest, to be for their inheritance from 
 generation to generation ; which the Lord preserve 
 and prosper, Amen." 
 
 Penn, about the time of making his will, had of- 
 fered the government of Pennsylvania for sale to 
 Queen Anne ; with whom afterwards an agreement 
 was actually made, for disposing of it, for 12,OOOZ. ; 
 of which sum, on the 9th of September, 1712, or 
 soon after, he received 1000/. But after this, and 
 before a surrender of the government was effected, 
 he was, hy sickness, rendered incapable of execu- 
 ting the agreement; so that the government, at the 
 time of his decease, still remained to be vested in 
 the aforesaid earls, in trust, by virtue of his will. 
 But it appears, that upon his eldest son, and heir at 
 law, William Penn, claiming the government of 
 the province, after his father's death; the question 
 arose, whether, what was devised to the said earls, 
 to be sold, should be accounted part of the real, or 
 
 personal," estate of the testator ; the earls, therefore, 
 declined to act, in their trust, without the decree of 
 the court of chancery, for their indemnity ; which 
 decree, the lords commissioners, of the treasury de- 
 clared, was absolutely necessary, before the residue 
 of the said 12,000/. could be paid to the executrix 
 Hannah Penn. 
 
 The news of the long-expected death of the pro- 
 prietary appears not to have reached Pennsylvania 
 till after the election, and first sitting of the assem- 
 bly, in October 1718; of which assembly Jonathan 
 Dickinson was chosen speaker. Governor Keith, 
 on his being presented to him, made the following 
 speech : 
 
 " Mr. Speaker, 
 
 " The modesty and candour of your deportment, 
 for many years, in public business, has at this time, 
 in the two most eminent stations, justly determined 
 the choice both of the city and country in general, 
 and this flourishing city, in particular, upon you, 
 sir. 
 
 " And, from this beginning, I promise myself, 
 that, by your prudent example -and conduct, they 
 will at last be persuaded heartily to unite, in all 
 such matters as .plainly tend to the honour and ad- 
 vantage of the province," &c. 
 
 When the account arrived of the death of Penn, 
 though it was provided by a law of the province, 
 that, on the death of the proprietary, the lieutenant- 
 governor, for the time being, should continue the 
 government as usual, till further order, from the 
 king, or from the heirs of the said proprietary, or 
 governor-in-chief ; yet Sir William Keith immedi- 
 ately thereupon, not only consulted the council, but 
 also laid the minute of the council thereon before 
 the assembly at their next meeting, in December, re- 
 questing their sentiments on the same. The house, 
 after mentioning their deep sorrow at the proprie- 
 tary's death, highly approved of both the council's 
 advice, and the governor's conduct in the affair, 
 and begged him to continue his authority. 
 
 It was before stated, that notwithstanding the 
 plain terms of the late proprietary's last will, his 
 eldest son, or heir at law, William Penn, after his 
 father's decease, laid claim to the government of 
 the province; which claim was continued by his 
 eldest son, Springett, after the death of his father; 
 who is said to have died at Liege, about the year 
 1720. 
 
 The conduct of Governor Keith, and the pro- 
 vincial assembly, respecting this claim, appears by 
 the speech of the former to the house, in May 1719, 
 with their answer, as follows : 
 
 ' Gentlemen of the Council, Mr. Speaker, and 
 Gentlemen of the Assembly, 
 
 " According to my promise, I have called you 
 together, in order to acquaint you, that I lately re- 
 ceived a commission from the honourable William 
 Peun, Esq., as our governor-in-chief, with instruc- 
 tions to publish his accession to the government, by 
 advice of the council, in the most solemn manner; 
 which said commission and instructions, with the 
 minute of council thereupon, I have ordered to be 
 laid before you. 
 
 ;< Since that I have seen the probate of the late 
 proprietary's last will and testament, in the hands of 
 Mr. Secretary Logan, whereby the powers of 
 government over this province seem to be de- 
 vised in trust, after a peculiar manner ; and I am 
 told these differences are not likely to be speedily 
 adjusted. 
 
 " Gentlemen, my duty to the crown unquestiona- 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 bly obliges me, while in this station, at all times to 
 use my utmost diligence, in preserving the good 
 order and peace of the government, and to keep 
 the king's subjects of this colony firm in their alle- 
 giance, and dutiful obedience to his most excellent 
 majesty, and our sovereign lord, King George; to 
 the end, therefore, that this may be done, with the 
 greatest cheerfulness and unanimity, and likewise 
 that all due respect might be paid to Mr. Penn, and 
 every other branch of the late proprietary's family, 
 I must desire that you will assist me with your opi- 
 nions and advice ; which, I doubt not, will have the 
 same weight with all parties concerned in Britain, 
 as you may be assured it will ever have with me. 
 
 " I have received a message from the Indian 
 chiefs of Conestogoe, by a letter to Mr. Secretary 
 Logan ; which informs us, that our Indian hunters 
 had been attacked, near the head of Potowmack ri- 
 ver, by a considerable body of southern Indians, 
 come out to war with the five nations, and the In- 
 dian settlements of Susquehanna. They have killed 
 several of our people, and alarmed them all ; so that 
 the careful attention and vigilance of this govern- 
 ment was never more called upon than at this junc- 
 ture ; and much will depend upon your unanimous 
 and speedy resolutions to support the administration 
 in all its parts." 
 
 To this the assembly returned the following an- 
 swer: 
 
 " To the honourable William Keith, Esq., Lieute- 
 nant-governor of the province of Pennsylvania, &c. 
 
 " The address of the representatives of the free- 
 men of the said province, in assembly met, in an- 
 swer to his speech of the 7th instant. 
 " May it please the Governor, 
 
 " The memory of the honourable William Penn, 
 our late proprietary and governor-in-chief, being 
 dear to us, we cannot but have a just and due re- 
 gard to his family, and should account it our happi- 
 ness to be govsrned by a branch thereof, under the 
 most auspicious reign of our royal sovereign, King 
 George. 
 
 " And since the governor has been pleased to 
 shew so great a regard to the advice of the repre- 
 sentative body of the freemen of this province, as to 
 consult them in a matter which so highly concerns 
 them, we must acknowledge is a great condescen- 
 sion, and an additional instance of his known af- 
 fection to this colony, with kind inclinations to 
 preserve the public peace and weal of this govern- 
 ment 
 
 " The contents of those instruments and writings, 
 which the governor was pleased to lay before this 
 house, brought us under a very deep concern, how 
 to assist him with advice, suitable to the present 
 emergency; for we find the first part of the proprie- 
 tary's will seems to vest a trust in the noble lords 
 there named, in order to accomplish the treaty of 
 surrender of this government to the crown, which 
 was begun by our late proprietary. 
 
 " And though that trust may occasion various 
 opinions in law and equity, yet that does not so 
 much affect us as the want of ascertaining the terms, 
 which we have been always given to expect would 
 accompany the surrender, in favour of the people 
 called Quakers, who embarked with the said pro- 
 prietary, in the laudable design of this considerable 
 addition of the British empire; and, therefore, 
 think it our duty, at this juncture, to claim those 
 rights and favours, which have been promised us. 
 
 " The governor well knows that the present ad- 
 ministration of this government, since the proprie- 
 
 tary's decease, is supported by a law, confirmed by 
 her late majesty, Queen Anne ; and by virtue thereof 
 is to continue till further order from the king, or 
 the heirs of the said late proprietary and governor ; 
 and notwithstanding the great regard the governor 
 has to the commission sent him by the said proprie- 
 tary's heir at law, yet since that heir seems not, by 
 the aforesaid will, invested with the powers of go- 
 vernment ; but the devise thereof, made to the said 
 lords, being allowed by his own council to be good; 
 and since it doth not appear that commission is at- 
 tended with the necessary requisites, directed by 
 acts of parliament, for qualifications of persons con- 
 cerned in such stations, and security of plantation- 
 trade, we conceive it will contribute to the peace of 
 this government, and be safe for the governor, that 
 he, for the present, forbear to publish the said com- 
 mission ; and hope there will be no just occasion 
 given, if the governor should wave superseding the 
 powers given him by the said heir at law, until he 
 receive the pleasure of the said trustees, or has the 
 lord chancellor's decree for his direction ; the 
 rather, because we understand that an amicable suit 
 is depending in chancery betwixt the executrix, 
 and heir at law, in order to settle both their claims 
 to this government. We heartily join with the 
 governor in his good resolutions, to preserve the 
 good order and peace of the government, and loy- 
 alty of his majesty's subjects, in this colony. 
 
 " As touching the attack lately made upon our 
 neighbouring Indians, we hope the governor hath 
 already taken proper measures in that affair, to- 
 wards quieting their minds, and will use his utmost 
 endeavours to prevent such incursions upon them, 
 for the future, by due representations to the neigh- 
 bouring governments, and persuasions to our Indi- 
 ans, not to give further provocations, but that they 
 will fall in with more peaceable inclinations; as 
 the same will contribute to their ease and safety, 
 and obtain the friendship and protection of this go- 
 vernment ; and this house gives the governor assu- 
 rance, that the necessary charges thereof shall be 
 provided for; and that it is their full purpose to 
 support the administration, to the best of their 
 power. Signed, by order of the house, 
 
 JONATHAN DICKINSON, Speaker,?' 
 
 The affair of the government appears to have 
 been subsequently settled in favour of the younger 
 branch of the family : the different parties, in the 
 meantime, mutually agreeing to unite in the ne 
 cessary appointments and management of the go- 
 vernment of the province, till the chancery suit 
 should be determined: so that not only the province 
 itself, which was vested for the use of the younger 
 children by him; but also the government of it 
 afterwards descended to John, Thomas, and Richard 
 Penn, the surviving sons of the younger branch of the 
 family ; who were thenceforward the proprietaries. 
 
 In October 1719, William Trent, being chosen 
 speaker of the new assembly, the governor pre- 
 sented them with the royal assent to a very import- 
 ant law to the province, which had been passed by 
 him in May 1711, entitled, " An act for the ad- 
 vancement of justice, and more certain administra- 
 tion thereof." The success of which he assured 
 them was chiefly owing to the good correspondence 
 that had hitherto subsisted between him and the 
 representatives of the people. To which the house, 
 in reply, expressed their lasting obligations to the 
 governor, for his extraordinary diligence, in so 
 speedily getting the royal approbation to the said 
 law, and for his care and services on other occasions. 
 
UNITED STATES 
 
 871 
 
 In the spring of the year 1720, the governor 
 made the following proposal to the assembly : 
 
 " Upon some representations, that have been 
 made to me, that a court of equity, or chancery, 
 was very much wanted in this government, I thought 
 proper to consult the opinions of gentlemen learned 
 in the law, and others of good judgment ; who all 
 agree, that neither we, or the representative body 
 of any of his majesty's colonies, are invested with 
 sufficient powers to erect such a court, or that the 
 office of chancellor can be lawfully executed by any 
 person whatsoever, except him, who, by virtue of 
 the great seal of England, may be understood to 
 aet as the king's representative, in the place ; but 
 the opinion of your house, of what may be with safety 
 done, for your country's service, in this case, shall 
 principally direct my conduct." 
 
 The assembly agreed to the necessity of such a 
 court ; only, in their address, they requested, that 
 such members of the council, as had heard the same 
 cause, in any inferior court, might be exempt from 
 being assistants in the said court. And from this 
 compliance a court of chancery was established in 
 Pennsylvania, by the following proclamation. 
 
 " By Sir William Keith, Bart., Governor of the 
 province of Pennsylvania, and the counties of New- 
 castle, Kent, arid Sussex, upon Delaware. 
 " A Proclamation : 
 
 " Whereas complaint has been made, That, courts 
 of chancery, or equity, though absolutely necessary, 
 in the administration of justice, for mitigating, in 
 some cases, the rigour of the laws, whose judgments 
 are tied down to fixed and unalterable rules, and 
 for opening a way to the right and equity of a 
 cause, for which the law cannot, in all cases, make 
 a sufficient provision, have, notwithstanding, been 
 too seldom regularly held, in this province, in such 
 manner as the aggrieved subjects might obtain the 
 relief, which by such courts ought to be granted. 
 And whereas, the representatives of the freemen of 
 this province, taking the same into consideration, 
 did, at their last meeting in assembly, request me, 
 that I would, with the assistance of the council, 
 open and hold such a court of equity, for this pro- 
 vince : to the end, therefore, that his majesty's good 
 subjects may no longer labour under these incon- 
 veniences, which are now complained of, I have 
 thought fit, by and with the advice of the council, 
 hereby to publish and declare, that with their as- 
 sistance, I propose (God willing) to open and hold 
 a court, of chancery, or equity, for the province of 
 Pennsylvania, at the court-house of : Philadelphia, 
 on Thursday, the 25th day of this instant, August ; 
 from which date the said court will be, and remain, 
 always open for the relief of the subject, to hear and 
 determine all such matters, arising within this pro- 
 vince aforesaid, as are regularly cognizable before 
 any court of chancery, according to the laws and 
 constitution of that part of Great Britain, called 
 England ; and his majesty's judges of his supreme 
 courts, and all other, whom it may concern, are re- 
 quired to take notice hereof, and to govern them- 
 selves accordingly. 
 
 " Given at Philadelphia, the tenth day of August, 
 
 in the seventh year of the reign of our Sovereign 
 
 Lord, George, king of Great Britain, France, and 
 
 Ireland, defenderof the faith, annoque Domini 1720. 
 
 " WILLIAM KEITH." 
 
 (1721.) Of the assembly, which was elected in 
 October, this year, Isaac Norris was speaker ; and the 
 usual good understanding appears to have continued 
 Detween the different branches of the legislature. 
 
 It will have been observed, from what passed be- 
 tween the governor and the assembly, in the begin- 
 ning of the year 1719, that the disagreement which 
 happened about that time, between the southern 
 Indians, and those of Pennsylvania and more north- 
 ward, demanded the attention of the government; 
 and consequently the governor, in the spring of 
 this year, 1721, made a journey into Virginia, on 
 this account; and also held a treaty, in Penn- 
 sylvania, with the Indians of different nations, 
 after his return : of which the following is an extract, 
 from the printed account of it, published at that 
 time in Philadelphia. " The particulars of an 
 Indian treaty, at Conestogoe, between his Excel- 
 lency Sir William Keith, Bart., governor of Penn- 
 sylvania, and the deputies of the Five Nations. 
 
 " The Indian village of Conestogoe lies about 
 70 miles distant, almost directly west of the city ; 
 and the land thereabouts being exceeding rich, it 
 is now surrounded with divers fine plantations, or 
 farms; where they raise quantities of wheat, barley, 
 flax and hemp, without the help of any dung. 
 
 " The company, who attended the governor, con- 
 sisted of between 70 and 80 horsemen ; many of 
 them well armed ; and, at his return from Cones- 
 togoe, he was waited upon, at the upper ferry of 
 Sculkil river, by the mayor and aldermen of this 
 city, with about 200 horse. 
 
 " On the 5th of July, the governor arrived at 
 Conestogoe, about noon ; and in the evening, went 
 to Captain Civility's cabbin; where four deputies 
 of the Five Nations, and a few more of their people, 
 came to see the governor ; who spoke to them by an 
 interpreter, to the following purpose, viz. 
 
 " That this being the first time that the Five 
 Nations had thought fit to send any of their chiefs 
 to visit him, he had come a great way from home 
 to bid them welcome ; that he hoped to be better 
 acquainted, and hold a further discourse with them, 
 before he left the place. 
 
 " They answered, That they were come a long 
 way, on "purpose to see the governor, and to speak 
 with him ; that they had heard much of him, and 
 would have come here before now ; but that the 
 faults, or mistakes, committed by some, of their 
 young men, had made them ashamed to show their 
 faces ; but now, that they had seen the governor's 
 face, they were well satisfied with their journey, 
 whether any thing else was done, or not. 
 
 " The governor told them, That to-morrow morn- 
 ing he designed to speak a few words to his brothers 
 and children, the Indians of Conestogoe, and their 
 friends, upon Susquehanna ; and desired that the 
 deputies of the Five Nations might be present, in 
 council, to hear what is said to them. 
 
 " Conestogoe, July 6th, 1721. 
 
 " Present, Sir William Keith, Bart, governor. 
 Richard Hill, Jonathan Dickinson, Caleb Pusey, 
 and Colonel John French, Esqrs., James Logan, 
 Esq. secretary. 
 
 " The governor spoke to the Conestogoe Indian?, 
 as follows, viz. 
 
 " My Brothers and Children, 
 
 " So soon as you sent me word, that your near 
 friends and relations, the chiefs of the Five Na- 
 tions, were come to visit you, I made haste, and 
 am come to see both you and them, and to assure 
 all the Indians of the continuance of my love to 
 them. 
 
 " Your old acquaintance and true friend, the 
 great William Penn, was a wise man ; and, there- 
 fore, he did not approve of wars among the Indians 
 
572 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 whuin he loved ; because it wasted and destroyed 
 their people ; but always recommended peace to the 
 Indians, as the surest way to make them rich and 
 strong, by increasing their numbers. 
 
 " Some of you can very well remember since 
 William Penn, and his friends, came first to settle 
 among you, in this country : it is but a few years, 
 and like as yesterday, to an old man ; nevertheless, 
 by following that great man's peaceable counsels, 
 this government is now become wealthy and power- 
 ful, in great numbers of people. And though many 
 of our inhabitants are not accustomed to war, and 
 dislike the practice of men killing one another ; 
 yet you cannot but know, I am able to bring seve- 
 ral thousands into the field, well armed, to defend 
 both your people and ours, from being hurt by any 
 enemy, that durst attempt to invade us. 
 
 " However, we do not forget that William Penn 
 often told us, that the experience of old age, which 
 is true wisdom, advises peace ; and I say to you, 
 that the wisest man is also the bravest man : for he 
 safely depends on his wisdom ; and there is no true 
 courage without it. 
 
 " I have so great a love for you, my dear bro- 
 thers, who live under the protection of this govern- 
 ment, that I cannot suffer you to be hurt, no more 
 than I would my own children. I am but just now 
 returned from Virginia ; where I wearied myself 
 in a long journey, both by land and water, only to 
 make peace for you, my children, that you may 
 safely hunt in the woods, without danger, from 
 Virginia, and the many Indian Nations, that are at 
 peace with that, government. But the governor of 
 Virginia expects, that you will not hunt within the 
 great mountains, on the other side of Potowmack 
 river; being a small tract of land, which he keeps 
 for the Virginia Indians, to hunt in : and ke pro- 
 mises that his Indians shall not come any more on 
 this side Potowmack, or behind the great mountains 
 this way, to disturb your hunting. And this is the 
 condition I have made for you ; which I expect you 
 will firmly keep, and not break it on any conside- 
 ration whatsoever. 
 
 " I desire that what I have now said to you may 
 be interpreted to the chiefs of the Five Nations 
 present : for as you are a part of them, they are, in 
 like manner, one with us, as you yourselves are; 
 and, therefore, our counsels must agree, and be 
 made known to one another : for our hearts should 
 be open, that we may perfectly see into one an- 
 other's breasts. And that your friends may speak 
 to me freely, tell them I am willing to forget the 
 mistakes, which some of their young men were guilty 
 of, amongst our people. I hope they will grow wiser 
 with age. and hearken to the grave counsels of their 
 old men ; whose valour we esteem, because they are 
 wise ; but the rashness of their young men is alto- 
 gether folly." 
 
 " At a council held at Conestogoe, July 7th, 1721. 
 
 " Present, Sir William Keith, Bart. Governor. 
 Richard Hill, Jonathan Dickinson, Caleb Pusey, 
 and Colonel John French, Esqrs., James Logan, 
 secretary, with divers gentlemen. 
 
 " Sinnekae's Nation. Ghesaont, Awennoot. 
 
 " Onondagoe's Nation. Tannawree, Skeetowass. 
 
 " Cayoogoe's Nation. Sahoode, Tchehughque. 
 
 " Smith, the Ganawese Indian, interpreter from 
 the Mingoe language to the Delaware. 
 
 " John Cartlidge, Esq. and Mr. James le Tort, 
 interpreters from the Delaware into English. 
 
 " Ghesaont, in the name, and on the behalf of 
 
 all the Five Nations, delivered himself, in speaking 
 to the governor, as follows : 
 
 " They were glad to see the governor, and his 
 council at this place ; for they had heard much of 
 the governor in their towns, before they came from 
 home ; and now they find him to be what they had 
 then heard of him, viz. their friend and brother, 
 and the same as if William Penn were still amongst 
 them. 
 
 " They assure the governor and council, that 
 they had not forgot William Penn's treaties with 
 them ; and that his advice to them was still fresh 
 in their memories. 
 
 " Though they cannot write, yet they retain every 
 thing, said in their councils, with all the nations 
 they treat with ; and preserve it as carefully in their 
 memories, as if it was committed in our method to 
 writing. 
 
 " They complain that our traders, carrying goods 
 and liquors up Susquehanna river, sometimes meet 
 with their young people going out to war, and treat 
 them unkindly, not only refusing to give them a 
 dram of their liquor, but use them with ill language, 
 and call them dogs, c. 
 
 " They take this unkindly ; because dogs have 
 no sense, or understanding : whereas they are men, 
 and think that their brothers should not compare 
 them to such creatures. 
 
 " That some of our traders calling their young 
 men by these names, the young men answered; ' If 
 they were dogs, they might act as such ;' where* 
 upon they seized a cag of liquor, arid ran away 
 with it." 
 
 This seems to be told in their artful way, to ex- 
 cuse some small robberies, that had been committed 
 by their young people. 
 
 Then laying down a belt of wampum upon the 
 table, he proceeded and said, 
 
 " That all their disorders arose from the use of 
 rum, and strong spirits ; which took away their 
 sense and memory ; that they had no such liquors 
 among themselves ; but were hurt with what we 
 furnished them ; and therefore desired ttfat no more 
 of that sort might be sent among them." 
 
 He produced a bundle of dressed skins and 
 said, 
 
 " That the Five Nations faithfully remember all 
 their ancient treaties ; and now desire that the 
 chain of friendship, between them and us, may be 
 made so strong, as that none of the links can ever 
 be broken." 
 
 Presents another bundle of raw skins, and ob 
 serves, 
 
 " That a chain may contract rust with lying, and 
 become weaker ; wherefore, he desires it may now 
 be so well cleaned, as to remain brighter and 
 stronger, than ever it was before." 
 
 Presents another parcel of skins and says, 
 
 " That, as in the firmament, all clouds and dark- 
 ness are removed from the face of the sun, so they 
 desire that all the misunderstandings may be fully 
 done away ; so that when they, who are now here, 
 shall be dead and gone, their whole people, with 
 their children and posterity, may enjoy the clear 
 sun-shine of friendship with us for ever ; without 
 any thing to interpose, or obscure it." 
 
 Presents another bundle of skins, and says, 
 
 " That, looking upon the governor, as if William 
 Penn was present, they desire, that, in case any dis- 
 orders should hereafter happen between their young 
 people and ours, we would not be too hasty in re- 
 senting any such accident, until their council and 
 
UMTED STATES. 
 
 87S 
 
 ours can have some opportunity to treatamicably upon 
 ** ; and so to adjust all matters, as that the friend- 
 ship between us may still be inviolably preserved. 
 
 " Presents a small parcel of dressed skins, and 
 desires, 
 
 " That we may now be together as one people ; 
 treating one another's children kindly and affection- 
 ately, on all occasions. 
 
 " He proceeds and says, 
 
 " That they consider themselves, in this treaty, 
 as the full plenipotentiaries and representatives of 
 the Five Nations ; and they look upon the gover- 
 nor, as the great king of England's representative : 
 an;l, therefore, they expect that every thing now 
 stipulated will be made absolutely firm and good, 
 on both sides. 
 
 " Presents a bundle of bear-skins, and says, 
 
 " That having now made a firm league with us, 
 as becomes our brothers, they complain that they get 
 too little for their skins and furs, so as they cannot 
 live by their hunting; they desire us, therefore, to 
 take compassion on them, and contrive some way 
 to help them, in that particular. 
 
 " Presenting a few furs, he speaks only as from 
 himself, to acquaint the governor, 
 
 i! Thai the Five Nations having heard that the 
 governor of Virginia wanted to speak with them, 
 he himself, with some of his company, intended to 
 proceed to Virginia, but do not know the way how 
 to get safe thither. 
 
 " On the 8th of July, the governor and his coun- 
 cil, at the house of John Cartlidge, Esq., near Co- 
 nestogoe, having advised upon, and prepared a pro- 
 per present, in return for that of the Indians, and 
 in confirmation of his speech, according to custom, 
 in such cases, which consisted of a quantity of strowd 
 match-coats, gunpowder, lead, biscuit, pipes and to- 
 bacco, adjourned to Conestogoe the place of treaty." 
 
 " At a council, held at Conestogoe, July 8th, 
 1721. P. M. 
 
 " Present, the same as before ; with divers gen- 
 tlemen attending the governor, and the chiefs of the 
 Five Nations ; being all seated in council, and the 
 presents laid down before the Indians, the governor 
 spoke to them, by an interpreter, in these words : 
 " My Friends and Brothers, 
 
 " It is a gr^at satisfaction to me, that I have this 
 opportunity of speaking to the valiant and wise Five 
 Nations of Indians, whom you tell me, you are fully 
 empowered to represent. 
 
 " I treat you, therefore, as if all these nations 
 were here present; and you are to understand, what 
 I now say, to be agreeable to the mind of our great 
 Monarch, George, the king of England, who bends 
 his care to establish peace amongst all the mighty 
 nations of Europe ; unto whom all the people, in 
 these parts, are, as it were, but like one drop, out of 
 a bucket, so that what is now transacted between us, 
 must be laid up, as the words of the whole body of 
 your people and our people, to be kept in perpetual 
 remembrance. 
 
 " I am also glad to find that you remember what 
 William Penn formerly said to you. He was a great 
 and a good man : his own people loved him ; he 
 loved the Indians, and they also loved him. .He 
 was as their father ; he would never suffer them to 
 be wronged ; neither would he let his people enter 
 upon any lands, until he had first purchased them of 
 the Indians. He was just, and therefore the In- 
 dians loved him. 
 
 " Though he is now removed from us ; yet his 
 children and people, following his example, will 
 
 always take the same measures ; so that his and our 
 posterity will be as a long chain, of which he was 
 the first link; and when one link ends, another 
 succeeds, and then another; being all firmly bound 
 together in one strong chain, to endure for ever. 
 
 " He formerly knit the chain of friendship with 
 you, as the chief of all the Indians, in these parts; 
 and lest this chain should grow rusty, you now 
 desire it may be scoured, and made strong, to bind 
 us, as one people, together. We do assure you, it 
 is, and has always been, bright on our side ; and so 
 we will ever keep it. 
 
 " As to your complaint of our traders, that they 
 have treated some of your young men unkindly, I 
 take that to be said only by way of excuse for the 
 follies of your people, thereby endeavouring to per- 
 suade me, that they were provoked to do what you 
 very well know they did; but, as I told our own 
 Indians, two days ago, I am willing to pass by 
 all these things ; you may therefore be assured, that 
 our people shall not offer any injury to yours ; or, 
 if I know that they do, they shall be severely pu- 
 nished for it. So you must, in like manner, strictly 
 command your young men, that they do not offer 
 any injury to ours. For when they pass through 
 the utmost skirts of our inhabitants, where there 
 are no people yet settled, but a few traders, they 
 should be more careful of them, as having separated 
 themselves from the body of their friends, purely to 
 serve the Indians more commodiously with what 
 they want. 
 
 " Nevertheless, if any little disorders should at 
 any time hereafter arise, we will endeavour that it 
 shall not break, or weaken the chain of friendship 
 between us : to which end, if any of your people 
 take offence, you must, in that case, apply to me, or 
 to our chiefs. And when we have any cause to 
 complain, we shall, as you desire, apply to your 
 chiefs, by our friends, the Conestogoe Indians; but, 
 on both sides, we must labour to prevent every 
 thing of this kind as much as we can. 
 
 " You complain that our traders come into the 
 path of your young men, going out to war, and 
 thereby occasion disorders among them : I will, 
 therefore, nay friends and brothers, speak very 
 plainly to you on this head. 
 
 " Your young men come down Susquehanna 
 river, and take their road through our Indian 
 towns and settlements, and make a path between 
 us and the people, against whom they go out to 
 war. Now, you must know, that the path this 
 way leads them only to the Indians, who are in 
 alliance with the English; and first to those who 
 are in a strict league of friendship with the gover- 
 nor of Virginia; just as these, our friends arid 
 children, who are settled among us, are in league 
 with me and our people. 
 
 " You cannot, therefore, make war upon the In- 
 dians, in league with Virginia, without weakening 
 the chain with the English: for, as yve would not 
 suffer these, our friends and brothers of Conestogoe, 
 and upon the river, to be hurt by any persons, 
 without considering it as done to ourselves; so the 
 governor of Virginia looks upon the injuries done 
 to his Indian brothers and friends as if they were 
 done to himself. And you very well know, that 
 though you are five different nations, yet you are 
 but one people ; so as that any wrong done to 
 one nation is received as an injury done you all. 
 
 " In the same manner, and much more so, it is 
 with the English, who are all united under on<; 
 great king, who has more people, in that one town, 
 
874 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 where he lives, than all the Indians in North Ame- 
 rica, put together. 
 
 " You are in league with New York, as your 
 ancient friends, and nearest neighbours ; and you 
 are in league with us, by treaties often repeated, 
 and by a chain which you have now brightened. 
 As, therefore, all the English are but one people, 
 you are ac'trially in league with all the English go- 
 vernments, and must equally preserve the peace 
 with all, as with one government. 
 
 " You pleased me very much, when you told me 
 that you were going to treat with the governor of 
 Virginia. Your nations formerly entered into a 
 very firm league with that government ; and, if you 
 have suffered that chain to grow rusty, it is time to 
 scour it; and the Five Nations have done very 
 wisely to send you there for that purpose. 
 
 " 1 do assure you the governor of Virginia is a 
 great and a good man; he loves the Indians, as 
 his children, and so protects and defends them ; for 
 he is very strong, having many thousand Christian 
 warriors under his command ; whereby he is able to 
 assist all those who ave in any league of friendship 
 with him. Hasten, therefore, my friends, to brighten 
 and strengthen the chain with that great man ; for 
 he desires it, and will receive you kindly. He is 
 my great and good friend; I have been lately with 
 him; and since you say you are strangers, I will 
 give you a letter to him, to inform him of what we 
 have done, and of the good design of your visit to 
 him and this country. 
 
 " My friends and brothers, I told you two days 
 ago, that we must open our breasts to each other; 
 I shall, therefore, like your true friend, open mine 
 yet further to you, for your good. 
 
 " You see that the English, from a very small 
 people, at first, in these parts, are, by peace amongst 
 themselves, become a very great people amongst 
 you, far exceeding the number of all the Indians we 
 know of. 
 
 " But while we are at peace, the Indians con- 
 tinue to make war upon one another; and destroy 
 each other, as if they intended that none of their 
 people should be left alive; by which means you 
 are, from a great people, become a very small peo- 
 ple ; and yet you will go on to destroy yourselves. 
 
 " The Indians of the south, though they speak a 
 different language, yet they are the same peo 
 pie, and inhabit the same land, with those of the 
 north. We therefore cannot but wonder how you, 
 that are a wise people, should take delight in putting 
 an end to your race: the English, being your true 
 friends, labour to prevent this. We would have 
 you strong, as a part of ourselves: for, as our 
 strength is your strength, so we would have yours 
 to be as our own. 
 
 " I have persuaded all my brethren, in these 
 parts, to consider what is for their good ; and not 
 to go out any more to war; but your young men, 
 as they come this way, endeavour to force them 
 And because they incline to follow the counsels of 
 peace, and the good advice of their true friends, your 
 people use them ill, and often prevail with them to 
 go out, to their own destruction. Thus it was, that 
 their town ofConestogoe lost their good king not 
 long ago; and thus many have been lost. Their 
 young children are left without parents; their 
 wives without husbands ; the old men, contrary to 
 the course of nature, mourn the death of their young; 
 the people decay, and grow weak ; we lose our deai 
 friends, and are afflicted. And this is chiefly owing 
 fco your young men. 
 
 " Surely, you cannot propose to get either riche*, 
 )r possessions, by going thus out to war: for when 
 'ou kill a deer you have the flesh to eat, and the 
 kin to sell; but when you return from war, you 
 >ring nothing home but the scalp of a dead man; 
 who, perhaps, was husband to a kind wife, and 
 ather to tender children, who never wronged you; 
 hough, by losing him, you have robbed them of 
 heir help and protection; and, at the same time, 
 jot nothing by it. 
 
 " If I were not your friend, I would not take Ihe 
 rouble of saying all these things to you; which I 
 desire may be fully related to all your people, when 
 r ou return home, that they may consider in time 
 what is for their own good. And, after this, if any 
 will be so madly deaf and blind, as neither to hear 
 nor see the danger before them, but will go out to 
 destroy, and be destroyed, for nothing, I must de- 
 sire that such foolish young men would take another 
 )ath, and not pass this way, amongst our people, 
 vhose eyes I have opened; and they haVe wisely 
 learkened to my advice. So that I must tell you 
 plainly, as I am their best friend, and this govern- 
 ment is their protector, and as a father to them, we 
 will not suffer them any more to go out, as they 
 lave done, to their destruction. I say again we 
 will not suffer it; for we have ihe counsel of wis- 
 dom amongst us, and know what is for their good. 
 For though they are weak, yet they are our bre- 
 thren ; we will therefore take care of them, that 
 they be not misled with ill counsel. You mourn 
 when you lose a brother; we mourn when any of 
 them are lost; to prevent which they shall not be 
 suffered to go out, as they have done, to be de- 
 stroyed by war. 
 
 ' My good friends and brothers, I give you the 
 same council, and earnestly desire that yoa will 
 follow it, since it will make you a happy people. I 
 give you this advice, because I am your true friend ; 
 but I much fear you hearken to others, who never 
 were, and never will be, your friends. 
 
 " You know very well, that the French have been 
 your enemies, from the beginning; and though they 
 made peace with you 22 years ago, yet, by subtle 
 practices, they still endeavour to ensare you. They 
 use arts and tricks, and tell you lies, to deceive you ; 
 and if you would make use of your own eyes, and 
 not be deluded by their Jesuits and interpreters, you 
 would see this yourselves : for you know they have 
 no goods of any value, these several years past, ex- 
 cept what has been sent to them from the English 
 of New York, and that is now all over. 
 
 They give fair speeches, instead of real services ; 
 and as, for many years, they attempted to destroy 
 you in war, so they now endeavour to do it in peace ; 
 for when they persuade you to go out to war against 
 others, it is only that you may be destroyed your- 
 selves ; which we, as your true friends," labour to 
 prevent ; because we would have your numbers in- 
 crease, that you may grow strong, and that we may 
 be all strengthened in friendship and peace to- 
 gether. 
 
 " As to what you have said of trade, I suppose 
 the great distance, at which you live from us, has 
 prevented all commerce between us and your peo- 
 ple. We believe those, who go into the woods, and 
 spend all their time upon it, endeavour to make 
 the best bargains they can, for themselves ; so, on 
 your part, you must take care to make the best 
 bargains you can with them. But we hope our 
 traders do not exact ; for we think that a strowd 
 coat, or a pound of powder, is now sold for no mor 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 875 
 
 buck-skins than fonnerlyv Beaver, indeed, is not, 
 nf late, so much used in Europe ; and, 1 therefore, 
 toes not give so good a price ; and we deal but 
 very little in that commodity. But deer-skins sell 
 very veil among us ; and I shall always take care 
 that the Indians be not wronged. But, except other 
 measures be taken to regulate the Indian trade 
 every where, the common method used in trade will 
 still be followed ; and every man must take care of 
 himself; for thus I must do myself, when I buy any 
 thing from our own people; if I do not give them 
 their price, they will keep it; for we are a free 
 people. But if you have any further proposals to 
 make about these affairs, I am willing to hear and 
 consider them ; for it is my desire that the trade be 
 well regulated to your content. 
 
 " I am sensible rum is very hurtful to the In- 
 dians ; we have made laws, that none should be car- 
 ried amongst them ; or, if any is, that it should be 
 staved, and thrown upon the ground ; and the In- 
 dians have been ordered to destroy all the rum, 
 that comes in their way, but they will not do it ; 
 they will have rum; and when we refuse it, they 
 will travel to the neighbouring provinces and fetch 
 it; their own women go to purchase it, and then 
 sell it amongst their own people, at excessive rates. 
 I would gladly make any laws to prevent this, that 
 could be effectual; but the country is so wide, the 
 woods are so dark and private, and so far out of my 
 sight, if the Indians themselves do not prohibit their 
 own people, there is no other way to prevent it ; 
 for my part, I shall readily join in any measures, 
 that can be proposed, for so good a purpose. 
 
 " I have now, my friends and brothers, said all 
 that I think can be of service at this time, and 
 I give you these things here laid before you, to con- 
 firm my words, viz. Five coats, 20 pounds of pow- 
 der, 40 pounds of lead, for each of the Five Nations ; 
 that is, 25 coats, 100 pounds of powder, and 200 
 pounds of lead, in the whole ; which I desire may 
 be delivered to them, with these words in my name, 
 and on behalf of this province : I shall be glad to 
 see often some of your chief men, sent in the name 
 of all the rest ; and desire you will come to Phi- 
 ladelphia, to visit our families, and our children 
 born there, where we can provide better for you, 
 and make you more welcome ; for people always 
 receive their friends best at their own houses. I 
 heartily wish you well on your journey, and good 
 success in it. And when you return home, I desire 
 you will give my very kind love, and the love of all 
 our people, to your kings, and to all their people. 
 
 " Then the governor rose from his chair ; and 
 when he had called Ghesaont, the speaker, to him, 
 he took a coronation medal of the king, and pre- 
 sented it to the Indian in these words : 
 
 " That our children, when we are dead, may not 
 forget these things, but keep this treaty, between 
 us, in perpetual remembrance, I here deliver to 
 you a picture in gold, bearing the image of my great 
 master, the king of all the English ; and when you 
 return home, I charge you to deliver this piece into 
 the hands of the first man, or greatest chief of all the 
 Five Nations, whom you call Kannygooah, to be 
 laid up and kept, as a token to our children's chil- 
 dren ; that an entire and lasting friendship is now 
 established for ever, between the English, in this 
 country, and the great Five Nations." 
 
 The governor's concern to promote the country's benefit, 
 4* c - Proceedings in consequence of the barbarous 
 murder of an Indian Divers useful laws passed, 
 
 urith snme of their titles, Sfc. Increase of law-suitt 
 Regulation of bread and flour Paper currency 
 scheme first introduced in 1722 Advocated by 
 the governor, and favoured by the generality of 
 the people ; but disliked by some Sentiments 
 of several gentlemen and merchants, relating to 
 a paper currency, presented to the assembly 
 Answer to these sentiments, Sfc. Governor Keith's 
 judgment on the same subject, in writing, to the 
 assembly Reply to the answer to the above senti- 
 ments, 8fc. 
 
 Of the assembly, elected in Oct. 1721, Jeremiah 
 Langhorne was speaker ; to which assembly, in the 
 winter, the governor, in his speech, intimated the 
 necessity of their united and diligent application to 
 restore the planter's credit, without discouraging the 
 merchant, by whose industry alone, he says, "Their 
 trade must be supported wi'th a sufficient currency 
 of cash." He then proceeded : " My mind is so fully 
 bent upon doing this province some effectual service, 
 that I have lately formed the design of a considerable 
 settlement amongst you, in order to manufacture 
 and consume the grain ; for which there is, at this 
 time, no profitable market abroad ; and although 
 this project will doubtless, at first, prove very charge- 
 able and expensive to me, yet, if it meets with 
 your approbation, and the good will of the people, 
 I am well assured it cannot fail of answering my 
 purpose, to do a real service to the country, and 
 every interest and concern of mine shall ever be 
 built on that bottom." 
 
 The house acknowledged, " His zeal to restore 
 the planter's credit, with his just care of the mer- 
 chant, who, of late, with others equally, had laid 
 under the greatest disadvantages for want of a suffi- 
 cient currency of cash, as appeared to them, from the 
 melancholy complaints of the people, declaring they 
 would readily fall in with any scheme that should 
 appear to them conducive to a remedy." 
 
 In the spring of the year 1722, an Indian was 
 barbarously killed, within the limits of the province, 
 somewhere above Conestogoe. This murder was 
 supposed to be perpetrated by one or two persons, 
 of the name of Cartlidge. The governor having 
 commissioned James Logan, and Col. John French, 
 two of his council, to go to Conestogoe, to inquire 
 into the affair, after their return, at the request of 
 the assembly, laid their report ef it before them. 
 The house, in their address to the governor, ex- 
 pressed their utmost concern on this affair : they 
 " gratefully acknowledged, and highly commended 
 the governor's prudent conduct, and steady admi- 
 nistration of justice ; but more especially at that 
 time, on an occasion of the greatest importance to the 
 peace and safety of the government, by his empower- 
 ing two gentlemen of his council so able and pru- 
 dent, on the present emergency ; whose wise con- 
 duct (said they) is very conspicuous fro-na their re- 
 port laid before the house by the governor." 
 
 They earnestly requested the governor to persist 
 in his laudable endeavour, to bring the aggressors 
 to condign punishment, with all possible speed, lest, 
 by delay of justice, the Indians should be induced 
 to withdraw their allegiance to the crown of Great 
 Britain, and be provoked to do themselves justice, 
 in a manner that might be of most dangerous con- 
 sequence. They also urged, t( That he would ad- 
 vise with his counsel, in making treaties with them ; 
 for, as they are some of the principal inhabitants 
 of this government, we have no reason to doubt but 
 they will be concerned for the good of the same." 
 
876 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMEKIC'A. 
 
 They likewise mentioned the repeated request of 
 the Indians, that strong liquors should not be 
 carried, nor sold among them ; with the petition of 
 sundry inhabitants of the province, to the same 
 import; which the laws hitherto made, in that case, 
 had not been able to prevent; and they, therefore, 
 requested the advice and assistance of the governor 
 and council therein. 
 
 The governor declared, " That he had carefully 
 endeavoured to follow the late honourable proprie- 
 tary's steps in such affairs; to keep the natives al- 
 ways in a lively and perfect remembrance of his 
 love to them, and to build all their treaties of peace 
 with them, upon the same principles and maxims of 
 good policy, which he used and maintained when 
 he was here himself." He likewise assured the 
 house that he had at that time all the probability, 
 which the nature of the case would admit of, of 
 settling matters again agreeably with the Indian 
 nations. 
 
 Great pains w-ere taken in the affair of the mur- 
 der; and an Indian messenger, Satcheecho, was 
 dispatched to the five nations ; the suspected per- 
 sons were committed to prison; and the governor, 
 with two of the council, met and treated with the 
 five nations at Albany, respecting it; and presents 
 were made to the Indians. The five nations de- 
 sired that the Cartlidges should not suffer death ; 
 and the affair was, at length, amicably settled. 
 
 Among the laws passed by the governor, this 
 year, for improving the produce of the province, 
 meliorating its staple commodities, then in bad 
 credit at foreign markets, and for other purposes, 
 were the following: " An act to prohibit the selling 
 of rum, and other strong liquors, to the Indians, and 
 to prevent abuses that may happen thereby." 
 
 " An act for encouraging the making good beer, 
 and for the consumption of grain in the province." 
 " An act to prevent the exportation of flour not mer- 
 chantable." " An act for laying a duty on negroes 
 imported into this province." " An act for encou- 
 raging and raising of hemp in this province," and 
 others of a like tendency. 
 
 Joseph Growdon wa? speaker of the assembly 
 elected in October 1722. The governor, in his 
 speech to this assembly, on the first of February, 
 1723, recommended them to direct their atten- 
 tion to the multiplicity of expensive and vexatious 
 law-suits, which had arisen of late in an unprece- 
 dented manner. 
 
 In consequence of the governor's representation, 
 the committee of grievances, on the same month, 
 made their report as follows, taken from the printed 
 votes : 
 
 " We have examined the sheriff's docquet, and 
 find that, 
 From September 1715, to September 1716, the 
 
 number of writs are 431 
 
 From September 1717, to September 1718. .. 588 
 From September 1719, to September 1729 . . 627 
 
 From September 1721, to September 1722 847 
 
 From September to December, 1722 250 
 
 Several laws were passed, which appear to have 
 the desired effect, and to have remedied the evils 
 complained of. 
 
 He also urged, " That, for the sake of the whole 
 country, who must live >?y the product and manu- 
 facture of grain, it was absolutely necessary, that 
 the making good bread and flour, be so regulated, 
 as to recover their lost credit in the market iu the 
 West Indies; upon which their whole traffic en- 
 Urely depended." 
 
 About this time the province appears to have 
 been under great difficulties, respecting the decay 
 of its trade and credit, and the want of a sufficient 
 circulating medium or currency ; for the relief of 
 which many proposals were made. Among others, that 
 of paper money was now introduced ; which occa- 
 sioned considerable debate. 
 
 The governor was a strong advocate for a paper 
 currency, and took great pains to promote it; with 
 whom appeared to join the generality of the people. 
 But the persons of property and influence did not 
 like the scheme. Their dislike was chiefly founded 
 on the difficulty of preserving that kind of cur- 
 rency from depreciation; which they saw had in 
 general occasioned mischievous and fraudulent con- 
 sequences in other provinces; they also disapproved 
 of the mode proposed, of issuing and conducting the 
 same. So that their opposition was not so much 
 against a paper credit, properly guarded and con- 
 ducted, as against fraud, or those modes of mana- 
 ging it, which had been so ruinous in other places. 
 Hence, in the February of this year, when the 
 scheme was under consideration of the assembly, 
 Isaac Norris and James Logan, in the name and 
 behalf of several gentlemen and merchants, pre- 
 sented the following sentiments thereon, in writing, 
 to the house. 
 
 " To the honourable house of representatives of 
 the province of Pennsylvania. 
 
 " Being admitted, upon our address to the house, 
 presented yesterday, to exhibit any further senti- 
 ments, in relation to a paper credit, now vigorously 
 pressed to be established by law; we accordingly 
 offer the following heads, which may be supported 
 by solid arguments, when the house thinks fit to 
 require them. 
 
 " First, That as this province derives all its powers 
 from, and is wholly dependent on the kingdom of 
 Great Britain, it will be the highest wisdom in our 
 legislature, upon all exigencies, to direct themselves 
 by the same prudent and just measures which the 
 parliaments of that kingdom have always pursued, 
 in the like cases; in whom nothing has been more 
 conspicuous than a most strict care, that no subject 
 should lose by the coin, or public credit of the 
 kingdom. 
 
 " Secondly, That as, when the nation was most 
 grievously distressed, in the time of a dangerous 
 and expensive war, by a general debasing of their 
 current coin, the parliament would hearken to no 
 proposal (though many were made) for relieving 
 the state, by raising the new minted money to a 
 higher value; but, under the vastest difficulties, 
 renewed it. at the same weight and fineness, to 
 pass at the former rates; which they have unalter- 
 ably kept to. And further, by the sum of l,200,000/. 
 made good to private persons all the loss of ex- 
 changing their clipped and debased coin, for the 
 new milled money, which was delivered out at a par 
 to them: so the like justice and prudence requires 
 that no further alteration, than what the parlia- 
 ment has made here, should, on any terms, be ad- 
 mitted, in the value of our gold and "silver, but that 
 it still continue, as it now passes. 
 
 " Thirdly, That, as the parliament, as often as 
 they found it necessary to issue bills of credit, called 
 exchequer bills, or notes, took the utmost care, to 
 keep them equal in value with silver, by giving the 
 Bank of England, when they fell into any discount, 
 vast sums of money, to receive those bills as their 
 own, and to exchange them with ready cash, on the 
 demaud of the bearer : so it appears absolutely ne- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 877 
 
 cessary, that if bills of credit be raised here, due 
 care should be taken (since we can have no such 
 banks in this province, as are in Europe, whose 
 rules are to pay down ready money for their bills, 
 upon demand,) to establish them on so just a foun- 
 dation, that, while in being, they may still continue 
 of the same value with real money, according to the 
 rates, at which they are at first issued. 
 
 " Fourthly, That, if those bills be issued on any 
 easier terms to the receiver, than gold, or silver 
 would be, if it were to be paid, or lent out of the 
 treasury, by how much easier these terms are by 
 so much, at least, will the bills fall in value; for 
 credit has its own laws, as unalterable in themselves, 
 as those of motion, or gravity are, in naiure, and 
 which, such as are versed in these affairs in Europe, 
 as carefully consider. 
 
 " Fifthly, That the schemes most commonly 
 talked of, for lending out sums, to be discharged by 
 annual payments, equal to, or not much exceeding, 
 the interest, for a certain number of years, without 
 paying any principal, are partial and unjust, and 
 would be destructive to public credit ; because the 
 consideration given is not an equivalent to the sum 
 received. 
 
 "For instance, should 100J. be lent out, to be 
 discharged, by the payment only of 8/. annually, 
 for sixteen years; were such an annuity to be bought, 
 according to the known rules for purchasing estates. 
 it would here be worth no more than 70/. 16s. and 
 3d. in ready money ; nor is an annuity for 9/. 10*. 
 per annum, for twelve years, worth more than 7 1/. 
 12s. In either of these cases, the borrower, could 
 he discharge debts of that value with it, though he 
 were to pay the annuity in gold and silver, would 
 gain near 301. by the loan, but no other person 
 would feel the least advantage by it : now, if no 
 man would let out his own money on these terms, none 
 ought to desire it so of the public ; the credit of 
 which is of vastly greater importance than that of any 
 private persons; because a failure in it affects the 
 fortune of every individual in his money, the me- 
 dium of his commerce and dealing. 
 
 " Sixthly, That all such projects are either ex- 
 ceedingly weak, or unjust ; for the paper money is 
 to be lent either to all, who shall desire it, on a 
 tender of the security proposed, or to some only : 
 if to all (as it is natural for all men to desire what 
 they may gain by,) it will be impracticable to strike 
 enough, to answer all demands ; or, if it were struck, 
 it would, because of its quantity, become of little, 
 or no value ; if to a few only, what tribunal can be 
 erected, to judge and distinguish, who of the king's 
 subjects are to be admitted to the favour, and who 
 to be rejected? If the poor only are to be the objects, 
 they have not security to give, or, if they had, per- 
 haps they have as little merit as any : commonly 
 people become wealthy by sobriety and industry, 
 the most useful qualifications in a commonwealth, 
 and poor by luxury, idleness and folly. What 
 rules then can be found for dispensing the public 
 favours ? 
 
 " Seventhly, That by these schemes, the more 
 the currency, or paper money falls in value (by 
 which word falling, is meant the rising of gold, 
 silver, English goods, and all other commodities, 
 in nominal value, which is the certain proof of the 
 other's falling,) the greater is the borrower's advan- 
 tage ; for the more easily will he pay his annuity; 
 so that he may happen, by virtue of the act, to dis- 
 charge, with the value of 20Z., a debt of 100Z., due 
 to the man, who, perhaps, kindly lent him the money, 
 
 to relieve him in distress, or honestly sold him his 
 land, or goods, at their real value, at the time of 
 lending, or sale. 
 
 " Eighthly.That all those deceive themselves, who, 
 because gold and silver may be had at NewYoik, 
 or other places, in exchange for their paper money, 
 suppose that the one, therefore, is as good as the 
 other, unless the silver can be had at eight shillings 
 per ounce, or the gold at six shillings per penny, 
 weijjht, at New York, as they were rated at the 
 first striking of their bills ; but when their silver 
 brings from nine to ten shillings per ounce, and 
 their light pistoles pass at 28*., or higher, then bills 
 are truly so much fallen in value, as the others are 
 advanced. So, in Carolina, silver is to be purchased 
 for their bills, but it is at 30s. per ounce, though 
 they were struck, as is said, at seven shillings 
 on ly ! 
 
 " These being premised as general heads, what 
 next follows, is to point out what are conceived to 
 be the only means of supporting the credit of such a 
 currency, if issued. 
 
 " First, That the whole sum struck be but small, 
 and just sufficient, to pass from hand to hand, for a 
 currency. 
 
 " Secondly, That it be not continued for any 
 longer time ; for the paper will wear out, and it will 
 not be so easy to exchange it for new, as some have 
 imagined ; which, it is much to be doubted, will be 
 found impracticable : besides, the sooner it is to 
 expire, the more easily will people be satisfied to 
 take it. But further, our laws can continue in 
 force no longer than five years, without the royal 
 approbation. 
 
 " Thirdly, That care be taken to force the sink- 
 ing of it in course, and in a just manner, by mea- 
 sures, that shall render it absolutely necessary for 
 the public to have it sunk; which, it is conceived, 
 none of the methods hitherto discoursed of will 
 effect. These heads, may it please the house, are 
 what we have at present humbly to offer to your con- 
 sideration, on this subject." 
 
 A few days after this was presented to the house, 
 the governor also delivered them his sentiments, in 
 writing, on the same subject, as follows : 
 
 " Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the Assembly, 
 
 "I have, at your request, very carefully considered 
 the resolutions of the house, upon your journals, 
 relating to public credit ; and also some things, 
 which, I find, have been offered to you upon the 
 same subject. 
 
 " Credit may, no doubt, be compared to the ma- 
 thematics, in so far as both sciences will admit of 
 deducing solid conclusions from self-evident and 
 clear principles ; and yet, by the subtilty of an 
 artist, truth, or falsehood, in either of them, is often 
 so wrapped up and involved, that it is lost unto, or 
 misapprehended by the plainest, and, generally 
 speaking, much the honestest part of mankind. 
 
 " But the common necessity, and general interest 
 of the whole body of the people, being a subject of 
 importance on which we ought to speak plainly, 
 and act freely, I shall, without any preamble, or 
 disguise whatever, communicate my thoughts to 
 you, in the simplest, and most intelligible manner 
 that I can. 
 
 " First, If it be true that the riches and prospe- 
 rity of this province chiefly depend on the manufac- 
 ture of provisions, and the exchanging of that 
 manufacture, with other things to advantage, it 
 will also be true, that whatever increases the one, 
 and at the same time, encourages the other, will 
 
87S 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 justly deserve the name of a public good ; and the 
 majority of those, employed in such manufacture 
 and exchange, have therein a rijht to be considered 
 as the body of the people, whom you represent. 
 
 " Secondly, It is evident, that, where there is no 
 public debt, and a real value, in lands, to be 
 pledged, paper money may, if there is occasion for 
 it, be struck to advantage, without any risk at all ; 
 for though perhaps it may contribute to hurt some 
 weak people, in the ill management of their private 
 affairs, yet, while any unfrugal person is lost to the 
 community, and is succeeded by one more industri- 
 ous than he, the public cannot suffer by such a 
 change. 
 
 " Thirdly, If, in the case of a paper currency 
 among us, it should happen to follow (as it may be 
 supposed it will) that silver and gold will be kept 
 up for remittances to Great Britain, we shall then 
 have no other means of dealing with one another, 
 but the paper: should the quantity, therefore, be 
 less than is necessary to circulate our home trade, 
 in its natural course, usurers and sharpers would 
 have the same opportunity as they have now, to lie 
 at catch for bargains, and make a monopoly of trade, 
 by engrossing the current money into their hands. 
 
 " Fourthly.. The very essence and nature of credit, 
 as well as the practice and experience of the great- 
 est banks in Europe, directs all such bills to be is- 
 sued at something less than the common interest, 
 for that is, in effect, a premium by the public, to 
 encourage their circulation : and whosoever is pleased 
 to say, that the bank of Amsterdam loses credit, by 
 lending money at two per cent., or the bank of 
 England, by lending money at four per cent, shall 
 scarce prevail with me to think the assertion worthy 
 of any answer. 
 
 " Fifthly, I am not of opinion with those gentle- 
 men, who are pleased to alledge, that the value of 
 silver at New York, which, in the month of Sep- 
 tember last, was from eight shillings and six-pence 
 to eight shillings and nine-pence, is occasioned by 
 their paper; for, in this province, where there never 
 has been any paper yet, from five to ten per cent, 
 has, for several years, been given in exchange for 
 silver. And as to their computation of gold, the 
 gentlemen, perhaps, have not had occasion of late 
 to be informed, that the heaviest pistoles in York go 
 at no more than 28s., and smaller, or cut gold, at 
 the common standard value in that province ; where, 
 it is believed, the people could not possibly carry 
 on half the quantity of their present trade and busi- 
 ness without the help of paper. 
 
 " Sixthly, I must also take leave to differ in opi- 
 nion with those who, without enquiry, and by whole- 
 sale, are pleased to condemn all schemes of lending 
 m.oney, to be discharged by annual payments; for 
 I truly think that method will not only suit the 
 different circumstances and conveniency of the peo- 
 ple best, but in all respects will prove the safest and 
 most profitable, as well as equal; and my reasons 
 for it are these : 
 
 " First, Whatever quantity be issued, if one-fifth, 
 sixth, or tenth part of the sum, according to the 
 time for which it is to last, must necessarily come 
 into office every year, it may be lent out again, at 
 five per cent, for any time within the term, to such 
 persons as had no place, or opportunity, to come 
 into the first loan : by which means all the fright- 
 ful, odd things mentioned in the gentlemen's sixth 
 observation, will presently vanish; for every man, 
 in this case, according to his ability, may, if he 
 thinks fit, share in that advantage ; which the pub- 
 
 lic most generously and prudently offers to the ne- 
 cessities of the people. 
 
 : ' Secondly, If so great a share of the whole comes 
 in yearly tp the office, in order to be lent out again, 
 it will, in a great measure, prevent engrossing, and 
 help the circulation considerably ; it will also give 
 more frequent opportunity of discovering frauds, 
 and gradually increase the public stock and reve- 
 nue of the bank ; and by that means it will demon- 
 strably sink the original sum, within the time pre- 
 fixed ; that is to say, the paper, at the end of that 
 term, will either be found in the office, or its value 
 in cash, ready to pay what shall then happen, by 
 accident, to be yet abroad. 
 
 " Seventhly,*If too great a security is demanded 
 for the loan of public money, I think it will, in a 
 great measure, frustrate the design of relieving 
 many of the middling, or most industrious, sort of 
 the people ; wherefore it is my opinion, that one- 
 half of the value of ground rents may very safely 
 be lent to those who are willing and able to give 
 such security. 
 
 " Eighthly, If, upon further consideration, you 
 find that the sum intended may be issued to better 
 advantage, for a longer time, I think the objection, 
 that our acts can only subsist five years, without 
 being approved, is of no weight; for besides, that 
 it would not be very civil, to suppose that the legis- 
 lative authority here would deliberately go upon 
 any act of that importance, or indeed of any kind, 
 which we had the least cause to suspect would oe 
 disagreeable to his majesty, or the sentiments of his 
 ministry: we know very well it is in his majesty's 
 royal power and prerogative, to repeal and make 
 void, at any time, all acts of assembly, to be made, 
 or passed in America : and, for my part, if I did 
 not, in my conscience, believe that the act, now 
 proposed, would be made on such a rational, just 
 and equal foot, as would rather claim his majesty's 
 gracious favour, in assenting to it, than render it 
 obnoxious to his impartial justice, I should neither 
 have given myself nor you this trouble. 
 
 " Gentlemen, these are most frankly and sin- 
 cerely my present sentiments of the matter before 
 you ; and, as I do not find myself inclined to dis- 
 pute, and much less to shew any stiffness or obsti 
 nacy in an affair of such a general concern, I shall 
 very much rely on your diligent circumspection 
 and care, for the good of your country, being still 
 ready and willing to give you all the assistance in 
 my power. *' WILLIAM KEITH." 
 
 The assembly's conduct in the affair of a paper cur- 
 rency Further account of the Pennsylvania paper 
 currency, till 1749 Governor Keith violates hit 
 instructions from the proprietary Reasons given for 
 and against the same The widow Penn's answer to 
 the remonstrance of the assembly'^Disputes after- 
 wards relative to the proprietor's instructions. 
 
 (1723.) In this important affair the assembly 
 proceeded with the utmost caution; for having the 
 examples and mistakes of the other colonies before 
 their eyes, they saw the principal thing which they 
 had to guard against, was the depreciation of their 
 bills; which nothing could so much effect as an 
 over-quantity, defect of solid security, and of proper 
 provision to recall and cancel them ; so in this, their 
 first experiment of the kind, they issued only 15,000/. 
 on such terms as appeared most likely to be effec- 
 tual to keep up their credit, and gradually to re- 
 duce and sink them. The act for this purpose 
 was passed by the governor, on the second of Marcb. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 879 
 
 1723. But, from the advantage which was soon 
 experienced by this emission, together with the in- 
 sufficiency of the sum, the government was induced, 
 m the latter end of the same year, to emit 30,OOOJ. 
 more, on the same terms. 
 
 But, that it may appear with what caution this 
 province at first advanced in this affair, it may not 
 be improper in this place to give the following re- 
 port, drawn up by the assembly of Pennsylvania, in 
 November, 1739, upon a requisition from the go- 
 vernment in Great Britain, to have the state of the 
 paper currency, with the rates of passing, buying, 
 and selling gold and silver, in the British colonies, 
 from the year 1700, to that time, laid before the 
 parliament. 
 
 " An account of the several acts, passed in the pro- 
 vince of Pennsylvania, for creating, or issuing 
 paper bills, or bills of credit, with the account of 
 those bills, and the value thereof, in money of Great 
 Britain ; and the provision made for sinking, or dis- 
 charging the same, together with the sum of bills 
 tbat have been sunk, or discharged ; also the sum 
 of bills subsisting, or passing in payment, at this 
 time, with the amount of the value thereof, in money 
 of Great Britain. 
 
 " In the year 1723, two acts were passed for crea- 
 ting the first bills of credit, by which 45,0002. were 
 issued ; and for the effectual discharging, or sinking 
 the said bills, it was therein provided and enacted, 
 that a real estate in fee simple, of double the value 
 of the sum lent out, should be secured in an office 
 erected for that purpose; and that the sums so lent 
 out should be annually repaid into the office, in 
 such equal sums or quotas, as would effectually sink 
 the whole capital sum of 45,0002., within the time 
 limited by the aforesaid acts; which sum, being 
 computed in silver, as it was then received, and 
 paid, among us, and reduced to sterling money of 
 Great Britain, amounts to 29,0902. 13s. 4rf. ; but in 
 the year 1726, the sum of 6,1102. 5*., part of the 
 capital sum of 45,0002. by virtue of the two afore- 
 said acts, being totally sunk and destroyed, the 
 province found themselves greatly straightened by 
 means thereof, and likely to become subject to many 
 disappointments and losses, for want of a sufficient 
 medium in trade, if the remaining quotas or pay- 
 ments should continue to be sunk, according to the 
 direction of the acts; therefore, an act was then passed 
 for continuing the remaining sum of 38,8892. 15s. 
 for. and during the term of eight years, by re-emit- 
 ting, or lending out again, the quotas or sums, to 
 be paid in by the respective borrowers, on the same 
 securities and provisions as were directed by the 
 former acts. 
 
 " The bills of credit, emitted in the year 1723, 
 being thus reduced by the sinking of the aforesaid 
 sum, and the inhabitants of the province growing 
 exceeding numerous, through the importation of 
 foreigners, and others settling among us ; by which 
 means the trade became greatly enlarged; and the 
 difficulties still increased, and the province found 
 themselves under the necessity of making an addi- 
 tion to those bills of credit ; and accordingly, in the 
 year 1729, the further sum of 30,000/. was then 
 created, and issued upon the same security of real 
 estates, in fee simple, to be mortgaged in double 
 the value of the sum lent ; and to be paid in by 
 yearly quotas, arid sunk and destroyed as the for- 
 mer acts passed in the year 1723,' had provided 
 and directed in the case. 
 
 " In the year 1731, the acts for issuing bills of 
 crddit, passed in the year 1723, being nearly ox- 
 
 pired, and the annual quotas remaining due, on the 
 said acts, by virtue thereof, being at this time to 
 be sunk and destroyed, which would unavoidably 
 have involved the merchants, as well as farmers, in 
 new difficulties, and laid the province under a ne- 
 cessity of making new acts of assembly, for emit- 
 ting more bills of credit in lieu thereof, an act was 
 then passed for continuing the value and currency 
 of those bills, for the term of eight years, by lend- 
 ing out the same, as they became due, with the 
 same provisions, and on the same real securities 
 provided for, and directed by, the former acts. 
 
 " The amount of the bills of credit, in the present 
 year, 1739, by virtue of the several aforesaid acts, 
 amounting only to 69,8892. 15s., from the daily in- 
 crease of the inhabitants, and the continued impor- 
 tation of foreigners among us, being found by ex- 
 perience to fall short of a proper medium for nego- 
 tiating our commerce, and for the support of go- 
 vernment, an act was passed for creating and is- 
 suing a further sum of 11,110/. 5s., and for con- 
 tinuing the whole amount of our bills of credit, for 
 a short time of years, under the same real securities, 
 and with the same provisions and limitations as di- 
 rected by the former acts; by means of which ad- 
 ditional sum, the whole amount of the bills of credit, 
 current in the province, is at this time 80,0002. : 
 which sum being computed, as now purchased here, 
 and reduced to sterling money of Great Britain, 
 makes 50,1962. Yet, notwithstanding merchants 
 and others have given some advance, to purchase 
 gold and silver, we are assured, from experience, 
 that difference arises only from the balance of our 
 trade with Great Britain being in our favour, by 
 means of the far greater quantity of English goods 
 imported into this province, since the creating ami 
 issuing our bills of credit; for the adventurers ad- 
 vancing the price of their commodities, and, en- 
 couraged by meeting with a ready sale, became 
 great gainers, while wheat, flour, and all the valu- 
 able produce of the province, continued at or near 
 the usual prices, and are, at this time, to be pur- 
 chased with our bills of credit, as low, or lower, than 
 has been almost ever known, when gold and silver 
 were the medium of our trade ; and all tradesmen, 
 hired servants, and other labourers have always 
 been, and are still, paid at the same rates, and no 
 more, for their labour, than they formerly received, 
 before the creating or issuing our bills of credit." 
 
 To the above account, respecting the paper cur- 
 rency of Pennsylvania, it may be added, That, by 
 another report of the house of assembly, made in 
 the year 1749, it appears, that no more was issued 
 till the year 1746 : that, in the year 1745, an act of 
 assembly was passed for continuing the currency of 
 the aforesaid 80,0002. for sixteen years ; during the 
 first ten years whereof, the whole sum to be kept 
 up, by lending out or re-mitting the yearly quotas, 
 or payments, as they became due ; and, after the 
 expiration of ten years, one-sixth part of the whole 
 sum to be paid in yearly, and sunk or destroyed. 
 That, in the year 1746, an act was passed, giving 
 5,0002. to the king's use, to be sunk in ten yearly 
 payments of 5002. each ; so that the whole amount 
 of bills of credit, current in the province at that time 
 (1749),was only 85,0002., then equal to 53, 3332.6s. 8e/. 
 sterling money of Great Britain : which sum, in the 
 said report, is asserted to be much too small to 
 carry on the trade of the province, which of late 
 years had very much increased ; but that neverthe- 
 less it was of great utility and advantage, as fai as 
 It Rrentj that their payments, at that time, were 
 
880 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 made to Great Britain chiefly in gold and silver, 
 which for several years had passed current in the 
 province, at 8s. tid. per ounce for silver, and (Jl. 5.. 
 per ounce for gold, &c. 
 
 With the above report of the state of the payer 
 currency of Pennsylvania was likewise, at the same 
 time, the following account of the rates of gold and 
 silver coin delivered to the governor, as drawn up 
 by the same committee of Ue house, who made the 
 above-said report, viz. : 
 
 "An account of the several rates of gold and 
 silver coin, and what prices they were accounted, 
 received, taken, and purchased at, and sold for, by 
 the ounce; and what rates gold and silver coin are 
 purchased at, and sold for, by the ounce, at this time. 
 " From the year 1700 to the year 1709, gold was 
 received and paid, at bl. 10s. per ounce, and silver 
 at 9s. 2d. per ounce. 
 
 " From the year 1709 to the year 1720, gold was 
 received and paid, at bl. 10s. per ounce, and silver 
 at 6s. 10d. per ounce. 
 
 " From the year 1720 to the year 1723, gold was 
 received and paid, at 5/. 10s. per ounce, and silver 
 coin w-as purchased with gold at 7s. 5d. per ounce. 
 
 " From the year 1723 to the year 1726, gold was 
 purchased,,and sold at 6/. 6s. 6d. per ounce, and sil- 
 ver at 8s. 3d. per ounce. 
 
 " From the year 1726 to the year 1730, gold was 
 purchased at 6/. 3s. 9cZ. per ounce, and silver at 
 8s. Id. per ounce. 
 
 " From the year 1730 to the year 1738, gold was 
 purchased and sold at 6/. 9s. 3d., and silver at 8*.9d. 
 per ounce. 
 
 " And now in this present year, 1739, gold is pur- 
 chased and sold at 6/. 9s. 3d. by the ounce, and silver 
 at 8s. Qd. per ounce. Submitted to the correction 
 of the house, by Isaac Norris, Thomas Leech 
 Abraham Chapman, James Morris, John Kearsley, 
 Israel Pemberton. 
 
 " Philadelphia, November 23, 1739." 
 
 We now return to our narrative. 
 
 In October 1723, David Lloyd was electee 
 
 speaker of the assembly, and in the year next fol 
 
 lowing William Biles was in the same office ; during 
 
 which time, the usual cordiality appears to have 
 
 subsisted between the two branches of the legis 
 
 lature. 
 
 The governor, Sir William Keith, appears mani 
 festly, riot only in his administration, but also in hi; 
 general conduct, to have been a great seeker of po 
 pularity; and he both possessed and practised thos 
 arts, which seldom fail to please the populace. B 
 so doing, he doubtless very frequently benefitte< 
 the colony, but it appears about this time that h 
 violated the constitution, by his eagerness to receiv 
 public approbation; courting the assembly, an 
 neglecting the council. It was one of the funda 
 mental regulations, " That he should pass no laws 
 nor transact any thing of moment relating to th 
 public affairs, without the advice and approbatio 
 of the council; which instruction, on his ap 
 pointment to the government, he had obliged him 
 self inviolably to observe, but now encouraged b 
 the assembly, he declared it to be illegal, and pel 
 sisted in hi's not being bound by any restraint 
 that nature. 
 
 This conduct in the latter end of the year 172 
 caused much dispute in the province, tending un 
 happily further to divide the interests of the proprie 
 taries and the people. The chief actors in this con 
 troversy were principally the governor and Davj 
 Uoy-1 on the one side and on the other Jame 
 
 Logan, the secretary, and agent to the proprietary's 
 family. 
 
 The governor, with those who opposed the pro- 
 prietary interest, being the more numerous, ad- 
 vanced, " That the power of legislation was, by the 
 royal charter, solely and entirely vested irl the pro- 
 rietary, or in his deputy, with the representatives 
 F the people ; that, as the latter, or the delegates, 
 f the people, in their legislative capacity, were so 
 ar from being liable to be bound, or restrained by, 
 ny instructions from their constituents, that their 
 cts were absolutely binding upon them ; so neither 
 as the former, or the proprietary, any just autho- 
 ity to lay restrictions upon his deputy (whose acts 
 re also equally binding upon his principal), to 
 linder him from acting, as he pleased, in conjunc- 
 ion with the other part of the legislature ; and con- 
 equently all instructions of this nature were void 
 n themselves ; that, moreover, by the present 
 barter of privileges, granted by the proprietary to 
 he people, the council was no part of the legisla- 
 ure; and, therefore, had no right to interfere in 
 icts of government, so as to be a restraint upon the 
 rovernor therein." 
 
 The proprietary's friends, on the other hand, al- 
 eged the reasonableness and justice, and indeed 
 he absolute necessity of such a council, or of the 
 ouncil's having such a check on the deputy-go- 
 vernor, both for the safety of the proprietary, and 
 even the further security of the people; besides 
 he constant practice of the first proprietary, 
 William Penn, and its consistency with the nature 
 of an English constitution. " For," said they, 
 ' in all the royal governments, the governors are 
 the king's deputies, or representatives; and there 
 s not one of them in America, who is not bound by 
 similar, and much more extensive instructions, in 
 reference to their respective councils, notwithstand- 
 ng their office of deputy, and representative capa- 
 city. That, in the absence of the proprietary, 
 for a lieutenant and temporary governor, to be left 
 to act without any check from a council, was very 
 unsafe not only for the proprietary, but, if duly 
 considered, less secure to the people themselves." 
 That, by the royal charter, " The full and absolute 
 power of legislation was vested in the proprietary, 
 or in his deputy, with the advice, assent, and ap- 
 probation of the freemen, or their delegates, to be 
 assembled for that purpose, in such sort and form, 
 as to the said proprietary and them shall seem 
 best;" but that the assembly, by the present charter 
 of privileges, are tut authorized to advise, but only 
 to enact; as, for that purpose, the council was es- 
 tablished by the original proprietary. 
 
 The governor strenuously maintained the debate, 
 and persisted in his conduct, till he was superseded 
 in the government by Patrick Gordon, in the sum- 
 mer of the year 1726: before which time, in the 
 month of March preceding, James Logan, in order 
 to terminate the dispute, presented to the assembly 
 a paper, in which he thus expressed himself: 
 
 " James Logan never alledged that the council 
 of this province, under the present constitution, is 
 a part of its legislative authority; or that, as a 
 council, they are otherwise concerned in it, than in 
 conjunction with the governor at the board, or in 
 committees and conferences, by his appointment and 
 direction; or that an act, passed by the governor 
 and assembly, without the council, is not of as 
 much force as if it had their concurrence and ap- 
 probation: but, even David Lloyd himseit has 
 fully acknowledged their part in it, in thes word* 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 881 
 
 of his print, viz. ' that he never knew any so sense- 
 less, as to say, that the governor is excluded (by 
 law or charter) of having a council, to advue and 
 assist in legislation;' beyond which no man ever 
 asserted they have a right in this province. 
 
 " And whether the proprietary can lay his deputy 
 under restrictions, is now rendered fully intelligible 
 to every capacity by the governor himself, in reduc- 
 ing the case to this narrow point, viz., ' That the 
 greatest of deputies can break their instructions ; 
 and that they are liable to be removed for it ;' be- 
 yond which the mutter will not bear a further argu- 
 ment. 
 
 '' All other attempts, therefore, fo labour these 
 points, can only tend to continue dishonourable dis- 
 putes in the government, and engage the whole 
 country in quarrels, that can no otherwise affect it, 
 than by involving it in reproach, and heaping pro- 
 vocations on the proprietary's family." 
 
 By the widow Penn's answer to the assembly's 
 remonstrance of the 20th of March, 1725, on this 
 affair (which remonstrance is mentioned, but not 
 ins rted, in the printed votes of the house), both the 
 design of the proprietaries, and also the views of 
 the persons, who were principally concerned in thus 
 representing the same^ are further intimated as 
 follows : 
 
 " To the representatives of Pennsylvania, in ge- 
 neral assembly met. 
 
 " It gave me no small concern, when I received 
 the remonstrance of the 20th of March, 1725, 
 from the late house of representatives of the freemen 
 of the province of Pennsylvania, with their resolu- 
 tion, that some part of a private letter of instruc- 
 tions, sent by me to the late deputy-governor, was 
 contrary to the liberties and privileges, granted by 
 charter to the people of that province ; and my con- 
 cern was the greater, when I considered, that, as 
 their happiness had ever been the peculiar care of 
 my late husband, in his life-time, so the continuance 
 of it has been no less the desire of myself, and the 
 whole family, ever since his death. I purposed long 
 ere this time to have answered that remonstrance, 
 but finding my sincere intentions to preserve peace 
 and unanimity in the province, had been manifestly 
 perverted, to the great, disquiet of the people ; and 
 that, too by those whose duty it was to have acted 
 another part, I was willing to lay hold of a more 
 favourable opportunity, (when you might be left to 
 your own prudent deliberations, without being in- 
 iluenced to misinterpret the good intentions of the 
 family towards you,) to assure you, that, if at any time 
 I fall short of doing any thing that may advance 
 your interest and reputation, it must proceed only 
 i'rom my not having it in my power. And as to that 
 part of my letter, which was made use of to procure 
 that remonstrance, I do acknowledge it was designed 
 as a cautionary direction, or limitation, upon the 
 acting governor ; but without the least apprehension 
 that it could ever have been construed, by the as- 
 sembly, as any design upon the liberties of the free- 
 men of Pennsylvania : because the council, accord- 
 ing to its constitution, either is, or ought to be, 
 composed of persons of the best circumstances and 
 abilities, residing and inhabiting within the said 
 province ; and whose interest must, without all 
 doubt, be the same with your own, and that of the 
 people whom you represent. Nor was this instruc- 
 tion any other, but in effect, the same with what 
 had ever been given by my late husband, your pro- 
 prietor, to all his deputy-governors: and (without 
 mentioning the unhappy occasion given, for writing 
 HIST. OF AMER. Nos. Ill 113. 
 
 | that letter) I was the rather induced to renew this 
 instruction, because by the proceedings of your own 
 . hou -c, but a few years ago, it appears, the then as- 
 , semhly expressed a very particular concern at the 
 deputy-governor** declining to take the advice of 
 i the council, upon the bills sent to him from their 
 j nous?, to be passed into laws : and, therefore, I must 
 conclude, that, if in this, you had been entirely left 
 to have followed the resolutions of your own judg- 
 ments, you would have continued of the same sen- 
 liments, and have judged it a very necessaiy instruc- 
 tion at that time, all circumstances considered; (but 
 more especially if you had been aware of what has 
 happened but too plainly since,) that this very re- 
 monstrance was obtained with debign to wrest the 
 government out of the hands of the proprietor's 
 family ; and by that means, at once to deprive you 
 of those valuable privileges, secured to you, as well 
 by the royal charter, granted to the late proprietor, 
 as by the several grants and laws made by him, 
 under the same ; for the preservation of which you 
 express so just a concern : and I do assure you, it is 
 not easy for me to say, whether for your safety, or 
 my own, I am better pleased that this attempt upon 
 the rights of our family, and your privileges, has 
 proved unsuccessful: and, without saying any more 
 of that piece of management, I hope, we shall, all of 
 us, learn to cultivate and maintain so entire an 
 agreement, and mutual good understanding, as may 
 preserve us from ever becoming a prey to designing 
 men ; who, it is evident (notwithstanding their fair 
 pretences,) consider none of us in any other light, 
 than to serve their own ends and purposes, even, 
 though at the expence of all that is valuable to us. 
 My age, and low state of health make it tedious and 
 difficult for me to apply my thoughts to business ; 
 and, therefore, I shall add no more, but that the 
 governor, appointed by my grandson, with the con- 
 currence and consent of the family, is, for his pru- 
 dence, well recommended to us here, and hath in 
 charge from us, as much as lies in his power, to do 
 every thing, which he lawfully may, to make you a 
 happy people ; which we apprehend to be the 
 surest way to advance the interest of our family in 
 Pennsylvania, as well as most agreeable to my own 
 inclination and desires. 
 
 " HANNAH PKNN. 
 
 " London, 20th April, 1726." 
 
 To conclude the subject of the lawfulness of pro- 
 prietary instructions, or of this kind of restrictions, 
 in this case, though it take us beyond the present 
 time, it is observable that the government of Penn- 
 sylvania was absolute 1 y as much the property and 
 estate of the proprietary under the crown, as the soil 
 thereof. It was however subsequently contended, 
 " That the power given to the deputy-governors of 
 Pennsylvania, by the royal charter of makiug laws, 
 with the advice and consent of the assembly, for 
 public uses, &c., according to their best discretion 
 is taken away by the proprietary instructions en- 
 forced by penal bonds, and restraining ihe deputy 
 from the use of his best discretion." To this the 
 proprietaries, Thomas and Richard Penn, by their 
 agent, Ferdinand John Paris, in November 1758, 
 answered ; " As long as instructions are constantly 
 given to every person entrusted with the govern- 
 ment of any British colony ; (and bonds also re- 
 quired from every such person, for observance of 
 such instructions,) as long as instructions are con- 
 stantly given to all persons whatsoever, executing, 
 even the regal government of his majesty's king- 
 doms, during the royal absence ; as long as these 
 4 F 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 proprietaries are repeatedly commanded by the 
 crown, upon the nomination of each successive lieu- 
 tenant-governor, to give instructions to such lieutc- 
 tenant; and as long as a lieutenant-governor may, 
 by his misbehaviour (if left entirely to his discre- 
 tion), bring the proprietaries' estate and franchises 
 into danger; so long the proprietaries must con- 
 tend to give instructions to, and take bonds from, 
 their lieutenant-governors." - 
 
 Affirmation, fyc. instead of an oath, established in 
 Pennsylvania Quakers' grateful address to the kiny 
 on tke occasion Custom of the Quakers appearing in 
 courts of justice u-ith their huts on their heads inter- 
 rupted and restored Their address to the governor, 
 and his compliance with their request He is super- 
 sededin the government by Patrick Gordon, in 172G 
 Governor Gordon's administration State of Penn- 
 sylvania about this time. 
 
 Tiie use of an affirmation, instead of an oath, was 
 one of those privileges, for the enjoyment of which 
 Pennsylvania was first settled by the Quakers; and 
 which they had enjoyed uninterrupted for above 
 twenty years. But after the resumption of the go- 
 vernment, on the laws being revised, in 1700 and 
 1701, the law respecting the manner of giving evi- 
 dence, with many others, was remitted to Queen 
 Anne, in council, in 1705; when the said law was 
 repealed; not with design to deprive the Quakers 
 of the privilege, but solely on account of its making 
 the punishment for false affirming greater than the 
 law of England required for false swearing. 
 
 The repealing of this law occasioned much difficulty 
 among the Quakers in the province ; and numerous 
 attempts were made, from time to time, for reviving 
 their privilege, but without success, till the year 
 1725, when an act, prescribing the forms of decla- 
 ration of fidelity, abjuration, and affirmation, in- 
 stead of the forms before required, having been 
 passed in the province, was ratified by the king in 
 council; and thereby became perpetual. 
 
 The Quakers, in New Jersey, were, for a consi- 
 derable time, subject to similar difficulties, upon 
 the same account; though the equity of their right 
 to an affirmation, in their own form, was as old as 
 the constitution; and, in fact, the settlement of the 
 province primarily depended upon the enjoyment 
 of that religious and civil liberty, of which this was 
 a part: yet means were found to put a considerable 
 interruption to this just and reasonable privilege; 
 which, at length, finally terminated in the act of 
 the fusi year of George II. ; which act was con- 
 firmed, and rendered perpetual, by the king in 
 council, on the 4th of May, 1732. 
 
 The assembly of the province of Pennsylvania, 
 in the year 1725, and also the Quakers, from their 
 yearly meeting, at Philadelphia, separately, to ma- 
 nifest their gratitude for the royal confirmation of 
 the affirmation act of Pennsylvania, addressed the 
 king on the subject. The address of the latter was 
 as follows : 
 
 " To our gracious sovereign, George, king of 
 Great Britain, &c. 
 
 " The humble address of his Protestant subjects, 
 called Quakers, from their yearly meeting held at 
 Philadelphia, in the province of Pennsylvania, the 
 21st day of the 7th month, 1725. 
 
 *' In an humble sense of the many blessings and 
 virtues which flow from the Divine Being, dis- 
 pensed to the nations and people, over whom he 
 hath been pleased to establish so gracious a prince, 
 great, in his goodness and love to his people, great, 
 
 u the benignity of his reign, which reaches to the 
 most distant of his subjects, and great in the sight 
 uf the nations round about. 
 
 " If any of the present age should yet, through 
 wantonness or wickedness, shut their eyes, and not 
 see, or be thankful for such happiness, ages to 
 come will look upon it with admiration ; and kings 
 may set before them the example : posterity may 
 mark it in their annals ; and if ever again attempts 
 should be made upon true liberty and the laws, 
 princes may find the mistake and dishonour in such 
 endeavours, in former times, and remark thy reign, 
 as the way to true grandeur. 
 
 " We have great cause, among the rest of our 
 fellow subjects, to express our affection and duty to 
 our sovereign, and to be, as we truly are, particu- 
 larly thankful for the royal assent to an act of this 
 province, entitled, ' An act for the prescribing forms 
 of declaration of fidelity, abjuration, and affirmation, 
 instead of the forms heretofore required in such cases." 
 
 " This benevolence of our king, in a matter, 
 which so nearly touches the conscience, makes deep 
 impressions on our hearts; but to the Almighty, 
 who sees them, do we earnestly pray for the long 
 continuance of his reign, and that an increase of 
 blessings may be showered down on his person and 
 throne, and that his posterity may be established 
 therein." 
 
 With the restoration of the enjoyment of this 
 privilege to the Quakers in Pennsylvania, may be 
 mentioned that of another, viz. the liberty of ap- 
 pearing covered, or with their hats on their heads 
 (according to their usual custom every where), in 
 all courts of judicature. 
 
 The institution of a court of chancery in the pro- 
 vince, in the year 1720, has been already men- 
 tioned. At this court, in which Sir William Keith 
 was president, John Kinsey, a Quaker, and a law- 
 yer of eminence, who was afterwards chief justice 
 of Pennsylvania, was, in the year 1725, obliged, in 
 the way of his business, to attend ; where appearing 
 with his hat on his head, according to the usual 
 manner of that people, the president ordered it to 
 be taken off; which was accordingly done. His 
 friends, the Quakers, took the affair under conside- 
 ration ; and soon after, at their quarterly meeting, 
 in Philadelphia, appointed a committee to wait on 
 the governor; and, in a respectful manner, to re- 
 quest him to continue the privilege, to which the 
 Quakers conceived themselves legally entitled, ' of 
 appearing in courts, or otherwise, in their own way, 
 according to their religious persuasion ;' an address 
 being accordingly prepared, was presented to the 
 president, Governor Keith; which, with the entry 
 made thereon, by his order in the court of chancery, 
 and certified by the register, is as follows : 
 
 " To Sir William Keith, baronet, governor of 
 the province of Pennsylvania, &c 
 
 " The humble address of the people called Qua- 
 kers, by appointment of their quarterly meeting, 
 held in 'Philadelphia, for the city and county, 2d of 
 the 2d month, 1725. 
 
 " May it please the governor, 
 
 " Having maturely considered the inconveniencies 
 and hardships which we are apprehensive all those 
 of our community may be laid under, who shall be 
 required, or obliged, to attend the respective courts 
 of judicature in this province, if they may not be 
 admitted without first having their hats taken off 
 from their heads by an officer ; as we understand 
 was the case of our "friend, John Kinsey, when the 
 governor was pleased to command his to be taken 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 883 
 
 off, before ho could be admitted to speak, in a case 
 depending at the court of chancery, after that h< 
 had declared that he could not, for conscience 
 comply with the governor's order to himself, to th< 
 same purpose; which being altogether new anc 
 unprecedented in this province, was the more sur- 
 prising to the spectators, and, as we conceive (how- 
 ever slight some may account it), has a tendency 
 to the subversion of our religious liberties. 
 
 ' This province, with the powers of government, 
 was granted by King Charles II. to our proprietor, 
 who, at the time of the said grant, was known to 
 dissent from the national way of worship in divers 
 points, and particularly in that part of outward be- 
 haviour, of refusing to pay unto man the honour, 
 that he, with all others of the same profession, be- 
 lieved to be due only to the Supreme Being; and 
 they on all occasions have supported their testi- 
 mony, so far as to be frequently subjected to the 
 insults of such as required that homage. 
 
 "That the principal part of those who accom 
 panied our said proprietor in his first settlement of 
 this colony, with others of the same profession who 
 have since retired into it, justly conceived, that by 
 virtue of said powers granted to our proprietor, 
 they should have a free and unquestioned right to 
 the exercise of their religious principles, and their 
 persuasion in the aforementioned point, and all 
 others, by which they were distinguished from those 
 of other professions; and it seems not unreasonable 
 to conceive an indulgence intended by the crown, 
 in graciously leaving the modelling of the govern- 
 ment to him and them, in such manner as may best 
 suit their circumstances ; which appears to have 
 been an early care in the first legislators, by seve- 
 ral acts, as that for liberty of conscience; and 
 more particularly, by a law of the province, passed 
 in the 13th year of King William, chap, xcii., now 
 in force : it is provided that, in all courts, all per- 
 sons, uf all persuasions, may freely appear ' in their 
 own way,' and ' according to their own manner,' 
 and there personally plead their own cause, or, if 
 unable, by their friends; which provision appears to 
 be directly intended to guard against all excep- 
 tions to any persons appearing ' in their own way,' 
 as our friend did, at the aforesaid court. 
 
 (J Now, though no people can be more ready, or 
 willing, in all things essential, to pay all due regard 
 to superiors, and honour the courts of justice, and 
 those who administer it, yet in such points as inter- 
 fere with our conscientious persuasion, we have 
 openly and firmly borne our testimony in all coun- 
 tries and places where our lots have fallen. 
 
 " We must, therefore, crave leave to hope, from 
 the reasons here humbly offered, that the governor, 
 when he has fully considered them, will be of 
 opinion with us, that we may justly and modestly 
 claim it as a right, that we, and our friends, should 
 at all times be excused, in the government, from 
 any compliances against our conscientious persua- 
 sions, and humbly request that ht would for the 
 future account it as such to us, thy assured well- 
 wishing friends. 
 
 " Signed by appointment of the said meeting, 
 Richard Hill, Richard Hayes, Morris Morris, An- 
 thony Morris, Evan PJvans, John Goodson, Row- 
 land Ellis, Reese Thomas, Samuel Preston, Wil- 
 liam Hudson. 
 
 " The 10th May, 1725." 
 
 " On consideration had of the humble address 
 presented to the governor, this day read in open 
 court, from the quarterly meeting of the people 
 
 called Quakers, for the city and county of Philadel- 
 phia, it is ordered, that the said address be filed 
 with the register, and that it be made a standing 
 rule of the court of chancery for the province of 
 Pennsylvania, in all time to come, that any practi- 
 tioner of the law, or other officer, or person what- 
 soever, professing himself to be one of the people 
 called Quakers, may and shall be admitted, if they 
 so think fit, to speak, or otherwise officiate, and ap- 
 ply themselves, decently unto the said court, with- 
 out being obliged to observe the usual ceremony of 
 uncovering their heads, by having their hats taken 
 off, and such privilege hereby ordered and granted 
 to the people called Quakers, shall at no time here- 
 after be understood, or interpreted, as any con- 
 tempt, or neglect, of the said court, and shall be 
 taken only as an act of conscientious liberty, of 
 right appertaining to the religious persuasion of 
 the said people, and agreeable to their practice in 
 all civil affairs of life. 
 
 " By Sir William Keith, Chancellor." 
 
 Governor Keith, by his popular behaviour and 
 administration, which, in many cases, had been. 
 highly beneficial to the province, had so much in- 
 gratiated himself in the favour of many of the peo- 
 ple, that upon intelligence of his intended removal 
 rom the government, they were much displeased, 
 and petitioned the assembly to make him a gra- 
 tuity : and even after his removal chose him for 
 a member of assembly, which he accepted. 
 
 Whatever might have been his motives for his 
 popular conduct, and although he may have been 
 anxious to gratify those whom he governed, more 
 hau was just and prudent, yet it is most cer- 
 tain that the real interest of the province of Penn- 
 sylvania was much indebted to his care and ma- 
 nagement. 
 
 After he was superseded by Patrick Gordon, in 
 ;he summer of the year 1726, he resided some 
 ;ime in the province ; very injudiciously using all 
 lis power to divide the inhabitants and distress the 
 proprietary family ; till at length having rendered 
 limself odious to the people, as he had done before 
 ;o the proprietaries, he returned to England, 'and it 
 s said, died in poverty at London about the year 
 1749. 
 
 Patrick Gordon appears to have first met the as- 
 embly of Pennsylvania, in the beginning of Au- 
 ust 1726, though he arrived in the province with 
 lis family some time before. But during the early 
 >art of his administration, for two or three years, 
 he public transactions were not a little disturbed by 
 ;he faction created by Sir William Keith. Gor- 
 lon's administration was distinguished by modera- 
 ion and prudence through a great variety of pub- 
 ic and important transactions. The author of a 
 mblication, entitled " The importance of the Bri- 
 ish plantations in America to these kingdoms, &c. 
 sonsidered," London, 1731; gives the following 
 account of the colony about this period : 
 
 " That Pennsylvania, which has not any pecu- 
 iar staple (like Carolina, Virginia, and Mary- 
 and), and was begun to be planted so late as 
 680, should at present have more white inhabit- 
 ints in it than all Virginia, Maryland, and both the 
 Carolinas, is extremely remarkable ! And although 
 he youngest colony on the continent, they have, 
 >y far, the finest capital city ot all British Ame- 
 ica, and the second in magnitude. The causes 
 sually assigned for this vast increase of white 
 )eople in so short a time, are these, viz. First, their 
 ind treatment of the Indians, their neighbours;* 
 
 4 F 2 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 hereby rendering that province absolutely safe 
 from their attempts. Some indeed have gone so 
 far as to assert, that they are the only British co- 
 lony that have treated the poor native Indians with 
 humanity : for that no other British colony admits 
 of the evidence of an Indian against a white man : 
 nor are the complaints of Indians against white 
 men duly regarded in other colonies; whereby these 
 poor people endure the most cruel treatment from 
 the very worst of our own people without hope of 
 redress ! And all the Indian wars in our colonies 
 were occasioned by such means. Secondly, the ex- 
 cellency of Pennsylvania's laws ; whereby property 
 is effectually secured to all its inhabitants. Thirdly, 
 the unlimited toleration for all manner of religious 
 persuasions, without permitting any claims to ec- 
 clesiastical power to take place. All men, who are 
 Protestants, are indifferently eligible to the magis- 
 tracy and legislature, let their private opinions be 
 what they will, without any religious test. 
 
 " The product of Pennsylvania for exportation, 
 is wheat, flour, biscuit, barrelled beef and pork, 
 bacon, hams, butter, cheese, cider, apples, soap, 
 myrtle-wax candles, starch, hair-powder, tanned 
 leather, bees'-wax, tallow-candles, strong beer, lin- 
 seed oil, strong waters, deer-skins, and other peltry, 
 hemp, (which they have encouraged by an addi- 
 tional bounty of three half-pence per pound weight, 
 over and above what is allowed by act of parlia- 
 ment,) some little tobacco, lumber, (i. e. sawed 
 boards, and timber for building of houses, cypress 
 wood, shingles, cask-staves and headings, masts 
 and other ship timber,) also drugs of various sorts, 
 (as sassafras, calamus aromaticus, snake-root, &c.) 
 Lastly, (adds our author,) the Pennsylvanians build 
 about 2000 tons of shipping a year for sale, over 
 and above what they employ in their own trade ; 
 which may be about 6000 tons more. They send 
 great quantities of corn to Portugal and Spain, fre- 
 quently selling their ships as well as cargo ; and 
 the produce of both is sent thence to England, 
 where it is always laid out in goods and sent home 
 to Pennsylvania. They receive no less than from 
 4000 to 6000 pistoles from the Dutch isle of Cura- 
 <Joa alone, for provisions and liquors. And they 
 trade to Surinam in the like manner, and to the 
 French part of Hispaniola, as also to the other 
 French sugar islands ; from whence they bring 
 back molasses, and also some money. From Ja- 
 maica they sometimes return with all money and no 
 goods ; be'cause their rum and molasses are so dear 
 there. And all the money they can get from ail 
 parts, as also sugar, rice, tar, pitch, &c. is brought 
 to England, to pay for the manufactures, &c. they 
 carry home from us; which (he affirms)' has not, 
 for many years past, been less than 150,000/. per 
 annum. They trade to our provinces of New Eng- 
 land, Virginia, Maryland, and Carolina, and to all 
 the islands in the West Indies (excepting the 
 Spanish ones), as also to the Canaries, Madeira, and 
 the Azores isles ; likewise to Newfoundland for fish ; 
 which they carry to Spain, Portugal, and up the 
 Mediterranean, and remit the money to England, 
 which, one way or other, may amount to 60,000/. 
 
 Ssarly ; but without their trade to the French and 
 utch colonies in the West Indies, they could not 
 remit so much to England ; neither could they 
 carry on their trade with the Indians if they did 
 not take off the rum and molasses, as well as su- 
 gars of those colonies, in part of payment of the 
 cargoes they carry thither." 
 
 Thomas Penn arrives in the province in 1732 As- 
 sembly's address to him, with his answer Bounda 
 ries between Pennsylvania and Maryland John 
 Penn arrives in 1734 The assembly's address to 
 him, with his answer Lord Baltimore attempts to 
 obtain of the king the territories Death of John 
 Penn and Governor Gordon Administration of 
 the Council, James Logan, President Benjamin 
 Franklin Arrival of Governor Thomas His ad- 
 ministration Andrew Hamilton's speech to the 
 assembly. 
 
 In August, 1732, Thomas Penn, one of the pro- 
 prietaries from England, arrived in the province, 
 where he continued a number of years. On the 
 15th of the month the assembly "presented him 
 with the following address: 
 
 " To the honourable Thomas Penn, Esq., one 
 of the proprietaries of the province of Pennsyl- 
 vania. 
 
 "The humble address of the representatives of 
 the freemen of the said province, in general assem- 
 bly met. 
 
 " May it please our honourable Proprietary. 
 
 "At the same time that we acknowledge the 
 goodness of Divine Providence in thy preserva- 
 tion, we do most sincerely congratulate' thee upon 
 thy safe arrival into the province of Pennsylvania. 
 
 "Our long and ardent desires to'see one of our 
 honourable proprietaries amongst us are now ful- 
 filled ; and it is with pleasure we can say thou art 
 arrived at a time when the government is in perfect 
 tranquillity, and that there seems to be no emula- 
 tion amongst us, but who shall, by a peaceable and 
 dutiful behaviour, give the best proof of the sense 
 they have of the blessings derived to us under our 
 late honourable proprietary your father, whose 
 goodness to his people deserves ever to be remem- 
 bered with gratitude and affection. 
 
 " Be pleased to accept of our best wishes for 
 thy health and prosperity ; and give us leave to say, 
 as no discouragements, nor any artifices of ill men, 
 have hitherto been able to deter the good people of 
 Pennsylvania from a firm adherence to your ho- 
 nourable family, so we shall always, to the utmost 
 of our power, support and maintain that govern- 
 ment, under which we do, with all gratitude, ac- 
 knowledge we enjoy so many valuable privileges." 
 
 To which the proprietor returned the following 
 answer : 
 
 " That he heartily thanked the house for their 
 affectionate address ; and that, as he looked upon 
 the interest of Pennsylvania, and that of his fa- 
 mily to be inseparable, the house might assure it- 
 self, that it should be his study to pursue those 
 measures which had rendered the name and govern- 
 ment of his father so grateful to the good people of 
 this province." 
 
 In the year 1732, on the 12th of May, a commis- 
 sion was signed by John, Thomas, and Richard 
 Penn, the proprietaries of Pennsylvania, directed 
 to Governor Gordon, Isaac Norris, Samuel Pres- 
 ton, James Logan, and Andrew Hamilton, Esqs., 
 and to James Steel and Robert Charles, gentlemen, 
 appointing them, or any three, or more of them, 
 commissioners, " with full power on the part of 
 the said proprietaries, for the actual running, 
 marking, and laying out the boundary lines be- 
 tween both the province and territories of Pennsyl- 
 vania and Maryland, according to articles of agree- 
 ment, indented, made and concluded upon the 10th 
 of May, in the same year, between Charles, Lord 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 Baltimore, the proprietary of Maryland, and the 
 above-mentioned proprietaries of Pennsylvania." 
 And an instrument of the same tenour and date was 
 executed by Lord Baltimore, directed to Samuel 
 Ogle, Charles Calvert, Philemon Lloyd, Michael 
 Howard, Richard Bennit, Benjamin Tasker and 
 Mathew Tilghman Ward,Esquircs,appointing them, 
 or any six, five, four or three of them commission- 
 ers, for the same purposes. 
 
 In these articles, it is stipulated " That a due 
 east, and west line shall be drawn from the ocean, 
 beginning at cape Henlopen, which lies south of 
 cape Cornelius, upon the eastern side of the Penin- 
 sula ; and thence to the western side of the Penin- 
 sula, which lies .upon Chesapeak bay, and as far 
 westward as the exact middle of that part of the 
 Peninsula, where the said line is run. 
 
 " That from the western end of the said east and 
 west line, in the middle of the Peninsula, -a strait 
 line shall run northward up the said Peninsula, till it 
 touch the western part of the periphery, or arch, 
 of a circle, drawn twelve English statute miles distant 
 from Newcastle, westward towards Maryland, so as 
 to make a tangent thereto, and there the said strait 
 line shall end. 
 
 " That from the northern end of the last men- 
 tioned strait line drawn northward, a line shall be 
 continued due north, so far as to that parallel of 
 latitude, which is fifteen English statute miles due 
 south of the most southern part of the city of Phila- 
 delphia. 
 
 " That in the said parallel of latitude, fifteen 
 miles due south from Philadelphia, and from the 
 northern end of the last mentioned north and south 
 line, a line shall be run due west across Susque- 
 hanna river to the western boundary of Pennsyl- 
 vania ; or so far at present, as is necessary, which 
 is only about 25 miles westward of the said 
 river, &c. 
 
 " All which lines to be the boundaries between 
 the respective provinces of Maryland and Pennsyl- 
 vania, including the territories of the latter." 
 
 Notwithstanding this agreement, the perform- 
 ance was long obstructed by altercation between 
 the parties, about the mode of doing it; said to have 
 been occasioned principally by the proprietary of 
 Maryland. The inhabitants on the Pennsylvania 
 side, were consequently sometimes exposed to un- 
 reasonable demands from Maryland ; and it was not 
 finally executed till the year 1762; when it was 
 agreed to employ two ingenious mathematicians, 
 Charles Mason, and Jeremiah Dixon, after their 
 return from the Cape of Good Hope ; where they 
 had been to observe the transit of Venus, in the 
 year 1761. Stone pillars were erected, to render 
 the boundaries more durably conspicuous. 
 
 In October 1734, John Penn, the eldest of the 
 proprietaries, and a native of Pennsylvania, arrived 
 from England. The assembly, on the 16th instant, 
 presented the following address to him. 
 
 " To the honourable John Penn, Esq., one of the 
 proprietaries of the province of Pennsylvania, &c. 
 
 " The address of the representatives of the free- 
 men of the said province, in general assembly met. 
 " May it please the Proprietary. 
 
 " Excited by affection and gratitude, we cheer- 
 fully embrace this opportunity of congratulating 
 thee on thy safe arrival to the place of thy nativity. 
 When we commemorate the many benefits, bestowed 
 on the inhabitants of this colony, the religious and 
 civil liberties we possess, and to whom these valu- 
 able nrivileges, under God arid the king, are owing, 
 
 we should be wanting to ourselves, and them that 
 we represent, did we not do justice to the memory 
 of thy worthy ancestor, a man of principles truly 
 humane, an advocate for religion and liberty. 
 
 " What may we not hope for from the son of so 
 great a man, educated under his i.are, and influ- 
 enced by his example ! May his descendants in- 
 herit his virtues as well as his estate, and long con- 
 tinue a blessing to Pennsylvania. 
 
 " Signed, by order of the house, 
 
 " ANDREW HAMILTON, Speaker." 
 
 To which he returned the following answer : 
 " Gentlemen. 
 
 '' I return you my hearty thanks for this affection- 
 ate address. The kind regard you express for the 
 memory of my father is most agreeable to me ; and, 
 as it was always his desire, so it is strongly my in- 
 clination, to do every thing in my power, that can 
 promote the happiness and prosperity of this pro- 
 vince." 
 
 In the summer of the year 1735, Governor Gordon 
 received accounts from England, that application 
 had been made to the king by the Lord Baltimore, 
 proprietor of Maryland, for obtaining a grant, or 
 confirmation, of the three lower counties on Dela- 
 ware, and a part of Pennsylvania, as lands within 
 the descriptive part of the charter, granted to his 
 ancestors ; and that his application had been op- 
 posed both by a petition, presented to the king by 
 Richard Penn, one of the proprietaries of Pennsyl- 
 vania, and also by a representation from the Quakers, 
 in behalf of the province and territories, &c., upon 
 which occasion the assembly drew up an address to 
 the king. 
 
 This affair seems to have hastened the return of 
 the proprietor John Penn, to England; who soon 
 after this time left the country ; upon which, about 
 the middle of September, the assembly presented 
 him with the following address : 
 
 " To the honourable John Penn, Esq., one of the 
 proprietaries of the province of Pennsylvania. 
 
 " The humble address of the representatives of 
 the freemen of the said province, in general as- 
 sembly met. 
 
 " May it please the Proprietary, 
 
 " That just esteem and grateful sense, which the 
 people of this province have always retained for the 
 memory of thy honourable father, our late proprie- 
 tary and governor, raised in them the strongest de- 
 sires to see some of the descendants of that great 
 man among us. 
 
 " As his wise example gave us just reason to hope, 
 so it was our daily wishes, that his virtues, as well a, 
 his estate, might descend to his posterity. And it 
 is with pleasure we can now say, it was not in vain 
 we promised ourselves from thee that affection and 
 regard, which is natural for a good man to have for 
 the place of his nativity. 
 
 " That humility, justice and benevolence, which 
 has appeared in thy conduct since thy arrival here, 
 has very deservedly gained thee the esteem and af- 
 fections of the people ; and we do, with truth say, 
 thy leaving us at this time, gives an universal con- 
 cern to the inhabitants of this province. 
 
 " May thy voyage be prosperous, and thy success 
 equal to the justness of thy cause ; and may we soon 
 have the happiness of seeing thee return a blessing 
 to thy native country : and give us leave to hope, 
 that, thou wilt, upon every occasion, join thy favour- 
 able sentiments towards the people of this place, 
 with those of thy honourable brother, who, by his 
 stay here, will have frequent opportunities of doing 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 what will always endear your honourable family t 
 the freemen of Pennsylvania." 
 
 To which the proprietary returned the following 
 answer: 
 
 " Gentlemen, I am very sensible of the concern 
 you express for me, and am obliged to you for thi 
 kind address. I am glad of this opportunity o 
 seeing the representatives of the freemen of Penn 
 sylvania, at my departure ; and you may be assurei 
 I shall make it my particular care to do every thing 
 in my power that may advance the interest of thi 
 my native country." 
 
 John Penn, of whom the inhabitants of Penn 
 sylvania appear to have conceived a favourable opi 
 nion, and great expectations, never returned; bu 
 died unmarried, in October 1746; and, by his will 
 left all his part of the province, which consisted o 
 two shares, or half, to his brother Thomas, who, 
 from that time forward, with the youngest brother 
 Richard, became the sole proprietaries. 
 
 Governor Gordon, after a prudent and prosperous 
 administration of about ten years, died in the sum- 
 mer of 1736 ; when the government devolved on 
 the council, James Logan being president; a per 
 son of experience and ability. 
 
 Benjamin Franklin, afterwards the famous Dr, 
 Franklin of Philadelphia, is first mentioned as being 
 chosen clerk to the assembly, in October 1736; for 
 which office he petitioned the house in succession 
 to Joseph Growdon. 
 
 President Logan, in conjunction with the council, 
 appears to have had occasion, among other things, 
 to exert his abilities in the management of the In- 
 dians ; among whom he had great influence. The 
 claims of Maryland also upon the Pennsylvanians, 
 who were settled near the place where the boundary 
 line ought to have been marked out before this 
 time, and the disturbances arising from the govern 
 ment and people of Maryland on that account, gave 
 much uneasiness and trouble to many inhabitants 
 who were settled within the bounds o'f Pennsylva- 
 nia ; but in general the public affairs seem to have 
 been well conducted for two years, that is until the 
 arrival of George Thomas, as governor, in the sum- 
 mer of the year 1738. 
 
 Governor Thomas appears to have been a man of 
 abilities and resolution, but, in some things, did not 
 sufficiently understand the nature and genius of the 
 people over whom he presided : in the early part of 
 his administration his conduct seems to have been 
 satisfactory to the country ; but afterwards, the war 
 commencing between England and Spain, about 
 the year 1740, his manner of urging some military 
 demands, with which the assembly, being chiefly 
 Quakers, could not comply, intioduced much alter- 
 cation and dispute for some years. 
 
 He first met the assembly of Pennsylvania in 
 August 1738; and in his first speech to the house, 
 on the 8th of that month, informed them he had 
 been appointed to the government above a year be- 
 fore; but his embarkation was impeded by unex- 
 pected delays, made by Lord Baltimore's objecting 
 against the proprietaries of Pennsylvania appoint- 
 ing a governor over the three lower counties; which 
 objection, after some time, was disregarded, and his 
 appointment, both over the province, and the said 
 counties, approved by the king. 
 
 In the August of 1739, the speaker of the assem- 
 bly, Andrew Hamilton, took leave of the house, on 
 account of his age and infirmities, with the follow- 
 ing speech : 
 
 " I would beg leave to observe to you, that it is 
 
 not to the fertility of our soil, and the commodious- 
 ness of our rivers, that we ought chiefly to attribute 
 the great progress this province has made, within 
 so small a compass ofyears, in improvements, wealth, 
 trade, and navigation, and the extraordinary increase 
 of people, who have been drawn hither, from almost 
 every country in Europe; a progress which much 
 more ancient settlements on the main of America 
 cannot, at present, boast of; no, it is principally, 
 and almost wholly, owing to the excellency of our 
 constitution ; under which we enjoy a greater share 
 both of civil and religious liberty than any of our 
 neighbours. 
 
 " It is our great happiness that, instead of trien- 
 nial assemblies, a privilege, which several other 
 colonies have long endeavoured to obtain, ours are 
 annual ; and, for that reason, as well as others, less 
 liable to be practised upon, or corrupted, either with 
 money or presents. We sit upon our own adjournments 
 when we please, and as long as we think necessary ; 
 and we are not to be sent a packing, in the middle 
 of a debate, and d'sabled from representing our 
 just grievances to our gracious sovereign, if there 
 should be occasion ; which has often bee-u the fate 
 of assemblies in other places. 
 
 " We have no officers but what are necessary; 
 none but what earn their salaries, and those gene- 
 rally are either elected by the people, or appointed 
 by their representatives. 
 
 " Other provinces swarm with unnecessary offi- 
 cers, nominated by the governors ; who often make 
 it a main part of their care to support those officers, 
 (notwithstanding their oppressions) at all events. 
 
 hope it will ever be the wisdom of our assemblies 
 to create no great offices nor officers, nor indeed 
 any officer at all, but what is really necessary for 
 the service of the country, and to be sure to let the 
 people, or their representatives, have, at least, a 
 share in their nomination or appointment. This 
 will always be a good security against the mischie- 
 vous influence of men holding places at the pleasure 
 f the governor. 
 
 " Our foreign trade and shipping are free from 
 all imposts, except those small duties, payable to 
 lis majesty, by the statute laws of Great Britain. 
 The taxes which we pay for carrying on the public 
 ervice are inconsiderable; for the sole power of 
 aising and disposing of the public money for the 
 upport of government, is lodged in the assembly; 
 who appoint their own treasurer; and to them 
 lone he is accountable. Otru>r incidental taxes 
 are assessed, collected and applied by persons annu- 
 ally chosen by the people themselves. Such is our 
 iappy state, as to our civil rights. 
 
 Nor are we less happy in the enjoyment of a 
 >erfect freedom as to religion. By many years ex- 
 erience we find, that an equality among religious 
 ocieties, without distinguishing any one s*ct with 
 ;reater privileges than another, is the most effectual 
 lethod to discourage hypocrisy, promote the prac- 
 ice of the moral virtues, and prevent the plagues 
 nd mischiefs that always attend religious squab- 
 ling. 
 
 "This is our constitution ; and this constitution 
 
 was framed by the wisdom of Mr. Penn, the first 
 
 roprietary and foun'der of this province; whose 
 
 barter of privileges, to the inhabitants of Pennsyl- 
 
 ania, will ever remain a monument of his benevo- 
 
 ence to mankind, and reflect more lasting honour 
 
 n his descendants, than the largest possessions. 
 
 n the framing this government he reserved no 
 
 powers to himself, or his heirs, to oppress the 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 887 
 
 people, no authority, but what is necessary for our 
 protection, and to hinder us from falling into anar- 
 chy; and therefore (supposing we could persuade 
 ourselves, that all our obligations to our great law- 
 giver, and his honourable descendants, were entirely 
 cancelled, yet) our own interests should oblige us 
 carefully to support the government, on its present 
 foundation, as the only means to secure to ourselves 
 and our posterity the enjoyment of those privileges, 
 and the blessings flowing from such a constitution, 
 under which we cannot fail of being happy, if the 
 fault is not our own. 
 
 " Yet I have observed that in former assemblies 
 there have been men who have acted in such a 
 manner, as if they utterly disregarded all those in- 
 estimable privileges, and (whether from private 
 pique and personal dislike, or through mistake, I 
 will not determine) have gone great lengths in 
 risking our happiness, in the prosecution of such 
 measures as did not at all square with the professions 
 they frequently made, of their love to our government. 
 
 " When I reflect on the several struggles which 
 many of us, now present, have had with those men, 
 in order to rescue the constitution out of their 
 hands, which, through their mistakes (if they really 
 were mistakes), was often brought on the brink of 
 destruction, I cannot help cautioning you, in the 
 most earnest manner, against all personal animosity 
 in public consultations, as a lock, which if not 
 avoided, the constitution will, at some time or other, 
 infallibly split upon." 
 
 This able man died in the latter end of the sum- 
 mer, 1741. He had served in several considerable 
 stations, both in the government of Pennsylvania 
 and Delaware, with honour and integrity. He 
 was a lawyer of considerable practice for many 
 years; and acquired much reputation in that pro- 
 fession. 
 
 Conduct of Governor Thomas respecting the enlisting 
 soldiers Assembly's address to Thomas Penn Ri- 
 otous election in 1742 Indian affairs in Governor 
 Thomas's administration He resigns the govern- 
 ment in 1747 Succeeding administration and go- 
 vernors Disputes as to money-bills and quit-rems 
 Conclusion, 
 
 During the administration of Governor Thomas, 
 it is observed that the enlisting of indented or 
 bought, servants for soldiers, was first permitted to 
 be carried into execution, before the act of parlia- 
 ment in that case was made. The number of 
 bought and indented servants, who were thus taken 
 from their masters, as appears by the printed votes 
 of the assembly, were about 276; whose masters 
 were compensated by the assembly for their loss 
 sustained thereby, to the amount of about 2,588. 
 
 This enlistment being disagreeable and injurious 
 to many of the inhabitants, and contrary to ancient 
 usage, John Wright, one of the people called Qua- 
 kers, a worthy magistrate of Lancaster county, and 
 a member of assembly, having spoken freely against 
 it in the assembly, was, with many others, dismissed 
 from his office as a judge ; but having got previous 
 intelligence of the intention, he came to the court 
 in May 1741, and took his leave, in a valedictory 
 speech. 
 
 Thomas Penn, one of tne proprietaries, being 
 about to return to England, the assembly, in the 
 August of 1741, presented him with the following 
 address : 
 
 " May it please the Proprietary, 
 
 !t Gratitude to the first founder of our present 
 
 happy constitution, the regard paid to his merit, 
 and the hopes of continued obligations from his de- 
 scendants, united the desires of many of the inhabi- 
 tants of this province to see one of them at least 
 settled within it : this was evident in the joy, which 
 discovered itself in the minds of all sorts and de- 
 rees of men, on thy arrival among us. 
 
 " In transacting of public affairs (as in those 
 which are private), a diversity of sentiments may 
 have appeared, sometimes among ourselves, some- 
 times perhaps with our proprietaries; and yet, as 
 our different sentiments have been the result of 
 honest minds, whose determinations (though possi- 
 bly mistaken) were intended for the public good, it 
 ought not, nor hath, erased those ties of gratitude, 
 which we desire may ever remain between the de- 
 scendants of our late worthy proprietary, and the 
 freemen of this province. 
 
 " The welfare of the inhabitants of this colony, 
 and that of our proprietary family, seem to us mu 
 tually to depend on each other, and therefore it is 
 not to be wondered at, that we are so desirous of 
 their residence among us : it being reasonable to 
 think we are most secure from any attempts on our 
 liberties, when the administration of government, 
 and the management of the public affairs of the 
 province are under the immediate inspection of 
 those, whose interest it is to preserve our constitu- 
 tion from any encroachments. 
 
 " These considerations, as we are informed, the 
 proprietary is determined to leave us, afford not 
 the most pleasing reflections ; but, as we presume, 
 the affairs of the family render it necessary, and 
 are in hopes that either he himself, or some other 
 of our proprietaries, will, in a little time return, it 
 behoves us to acquiesce under it. Whatever little 
 differences in opinion may have happened, we hope 
 the proprietaries will believe the freemen of this 
 province retain that regard which is due to them ; 
 and would be glad of any proper opportunity of de- 
 monstrating it : and such is our confidence in the 
 proprietary family, that if any attempt shall be 
 made to the prejudice of those rights (which under 
 our gracious king we now happily enjoy), they will, 
 to the utmost of their power, oppose it, and thereby 
 lay us under like obligations for the continuance 
 of those privileges which we readily own are due to. 
 their worthy ancestor, for bestowing them. 
 
 " As the welfare of this province hath so near a 
 dependance on that of our proprietary family, our 
 interest and duty enjoin our particular concern for 
 them ; give us leave, therefore, on this occasion, to 
 express our hearty desires for thy prosperous voyage, 
 and safe return among us." 
 
 To this address, the proprietary answered as 
 follows : 
 
 " Gentlemen, I thank you for the regard shewn 
 to my family in this address, and for your good 
 wishes for my prosperous voyage. 
 
 " As I am "very sure both my brothers and myself 
 have the true interest of the inhabitants of this pro- 
 vince very much at heart, you may rest assured we 
 will oppose any attempts that may be made on their 
 just rights, wliich we think it is our indispensible 
 duty to support. 
 
 " The affairs of my family now call me to Eng- 
 land ; and I cannot, at our parting, better evidence 
 my regard for you, than to recommend it to you to 
 act, in your station, as good subjects to the king, 
 really sensible of the benefits you enjoy under his 
 mild and equal administration ; and that you will 
 take such measures for the defence of this provicee 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 as the present posture of affairs abroad require, in 
 which you will have ail the assistance from the go- 
 vernor, that can be expected from a gentlerr.an 
 in his station, who has no view, but the king's 
 honour, and the security of your constitution. 
 " August 20th, 1741." 
 
 Thomas Prnn, ou the death of his brother John, 
 in 1746, became the principal proprietor, and pos- 
 sessed three -fourths of the province. He lived 
 the longest of the three brothers ; but he appears 
 never to have been very popular in the province : 
 he is said, in general, to have conducted himself 
 rather too reservedly towards the people, and to 
 have been too solicitous of his private interest. 
 
 In the fifth year of Governor Thomas's adminis 
 tration, in October 1742, at the annual election, 
 for the members of assembly, in Philadelphia, hap- 
 pened such an instance of the unwarrantable effect 
 of party spirit, as, at that time, made a lasting im- 
 pression on the minds of many of the inhabitants. 
 
 Liberty, which had long been conspicuous in the 
 province,' and of which the early inhabitants had, 
 in general, so long showed themselves worthy, by 
 not making an improper use of it, had drawn great 
 numbers or' various .sorts of people into the country ; 
 many of whom were persons of very different princi- 
 ples and manners from those of the generality of the 
 more early settlers, and many of their successors 
 and descendants. Hence, in succeeding years, cer- 
 tain symptoms of an approaching change in this 
 valuable blessing, began to grow more and more 
 conspi( uous, through the formation and increase of 
 party, among many of the later inhabitants ; who 
 in their elections for members of assembly, fomented 
 the spirit of opposition against the " old interest," 
 and the defenders of the established constitution of 
 the province. 
 
 In the year 1742, a large number of sailors from 
 the shipping in the river Delaware, during the time 
 of election, armed with clubs, unexpectedly ap- 
 peared, in a tumultuous manner, and made a riot, at 
 the place of election, knocking down a great num- 
 ber of the people, both magistrates, constables and 
 others, worthy and reputable inhabitants, who op- 
 posed them ; and, by violence having cleared the 
 ground, several of the people were curried off as 
 dead. This ferocious conduct was repeated upon 
 the return of the electors; till at last, many of the 
 inhabitants, being enraged, took measures to force 
 them into their ships, and near 5U of them into 
 prison; but they were soon discharged: for it after- 
 wards appeared that they had Been privately em- 
 ployed by some party leaders. 
 
 During Governor Thomas's administration, the 
 Indian affairs seem mostly to have been well ma- 
 naged, and peace continued with that people ; 
 which had always been a matter of great importance, 
 as well as expense to this province. But, as before 
 observed, his ardour in pressing some matters of a 
 military nature, appears to have introduced unpro- 
 fitable altercation between him and the assembly ; 
 but afterwards for many years before his resignation, 
 which was in the summer of the year 1747, a much 
 better understanding existed between them. 
 
 In consequence of Governor Thomas's resigna- 
 tion, the administration, as usual, devolved on the 
 council, Anthony Palmer being president, till No- 
 vember 1748; when Jaines Hamilton, of Pennsyl-" 
 vania, arrived governor from England ; a gentle- 
 man of considerable fortune in the province, and 
 well esteemed by the people : the son of Andrew 
 Hamilton, before mentioned. 
 
 Governor Hamilton Continued till his resignation 
 in October 1754; when ho was succeeded in the 
 government, by Robert Hunter Morris of New 
 Jersey, son of Lewis Morris, who had been governor 
 of that province. 
 
 In the year 1756, William Denny from England, 
 succeeded Governor Morris ; and continued in the 
 administration till 1759 : at which time he was suc- 
 ceeded by James Hamilton, second time governor ; 
 who continued till 1763. 
 
 During the administration of these latter gover- 
 nors, the party politics of the colony ran very high, 
 relative to the paper currency, and to the exemp- 
 tion of the proprietaries' lands from taxation. We 
 have not thought it necessary to enter into the viru- 
 lent disputes whkh agitated the legislature on 
 these hotly contested subjects ; but to give some idea 
 of them, we append the following document, which 
 Franklin ^ays, in his account of the conduct of the 
 assembly iu this contest, contains " as full a vindi- 
 cation of themselves and their conduct, as is in the 
 power of thoughts and v/ords to express ; and con- 
 sequently as full an exposition of the claims and de- 
 mands brought against them." 
 
 " Report of a committee of assembly, September 
 23, 1756. 
 
 " In obedience to the order of the house, we have 
 considered the proprietaries' eleventh, twelfth, and 
 21st instructions, relating to money bills, and now 
 offer such remarks thereon as occur to us. 
 
 " The preamble to the eleventh instruction sets 
 forth,' That the interest money arising from the loan 
 of bills of credit in this province,was intended by the 
 proprietaries, and the house of representatives, to 
 be applied for the publick service of the province, 
 and of the inhabitants thereof, and should therefore, 
 under the direction of the same power that raises it, 
 be most carefully applied to those purposes, as a 
 greater security to the people against misapplica- 
 tions, than if it was intrusted only to one branch of 
 the legislature ; and such was the ancient practice 
 in their said province.' That the interest money 
 was intended to be applied for the publick service of 
 the province, and of the inhabitants thereof, is un- 
 doubtedly right ; but that it was ever the ' practice,' 
 or that there was ever even a single instance of the 
 proprietaries or their deputies having a vote in the 
 application of the interest money, we must abso- 
 lutely deny. Their consent to the disposition is not 
 required iu any of our loan acts from the beginning 
 to this day, the constant tenor of those laws being, 
 that the ' interest money shall be disposed of as 
 the assembly of this province shall from time to time 
 order and direct.' Their consent was never asked, 
 unless in the acceptance of presents made them out 
 of that interest, which could not be forced on them 
 without their consent; and that kind of application 
 they have indeed been graciously pleased to consent 
 to from time to time, to the amount of above 30,000/. 
 given to themselves out of that fund and the excise. 
 If this was a misapplication, and we know of no 
 other, the power they contend for would not have 
 prevented it; for 'tis scarce probable they should 
 ever disapprove or refuse to sign acts, votes or re- 
 solves, which they thought so just and reasonable. 
 
 " And indeed, had these presents been always as 
 regular as the seasons, and never intermitted, be 
 the conduct of the governor ever so inconsistent with 
 the publick good, your committee have reason to be- 
 lieve, this new instruction had never been formed 
 or thought of. But since the representatives of the 
 people have dared to signify their disapprobation of 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 889 
 
 a governor's measures, by withholding those tokens 
 of their esteem, affection and gratitude, which were 
 constantly given when they found themselves well 
 governed ; this instruction is thought necessary to 
 be inforced. Not for the greater security of the 
 people against misapplication ; for they never com- 
 plained of any ; but to compel your continuance of 
 those presents; to compel an addition to them, for 
 they are thought too small; and to compel the pay- 
 ment of what they are pleased to call the arrears of 
 such presents to any governors from whom they 
 have at any time been withheld. For if the people's 
 money cannot be disposed of for their own benefit, 
 without the proprietary or bis deputy's consent, the 
 passage of the bill, or the approbation of the re- 
 solve, must be facilitated, as the proprietaries were 
 pleased to tell us on a former occasion, by a regard 
 to their interest, that is, by putting at the same 
 time into their private pockets whatever share of the 
 publick money they shall be pleased to insist on, 
 under the specious name of salary or support ; though 
 by the quit-rents, and even by their other fees 
 and perquisites, established by law or taken by cus- 
 tom, they have already a support much more than 
 sufficient. 
 
 " The money arising by the interest of the bills of 
 credit, as well as that arising by the excise, is paid 
 wholly by the people. To dispose of their own 
 money, by themselves or their representatives, is, 
 in our opinion, a natural right, inherent in every 
 man, or body of men, antecedent to all laws. The 
 proprietaries pay no part of this money, and 
 therefore can have no right to a share in the power 
 of disposing of it. They might as reasonably claim 
 a right to a negative in the disposition of every 
 man's private fortune, and for the same reasons, to 
 wit, the man's greater security, and to prevent mis- 
 application ; nay, the reasons would be stronger, 
 bodies of men not being generally so apt to mis- 
 apply their money, as single prodigals. The people 
 have never complained that any such misapplication 
 has been made by their representatives : on the 
 contrary, they have shewn their approbation of the 
 conduct of the assembly in this tender point, by long 
 repeated annual elections of the same men to the 
 same trust in the same office. They have always 
 seen their money disposed of, from time to time, for 
 the advantage and honour of the pub'.ick, or for the 
 king's immediate service, and they had reason to 
 be contented with the disposition^ "The public cre- 
 dit has been constantly preserved, and every man 
 who served the government, has been always duly 
 and readily paid : bat if this new-claimed negative 
 in the proprietaries takes place, the people will not 
 have it in their power to reward the man that serves 
 them, or even to pay the hire of the labourer that 
 works for them, without the governor's leave first 
 purchased; much less will they be allowed to sup- 
 port an agent in England to defend their rights, or 
 be able to pay the expence of prosecuting their com- 
 plainls when oppressed. And to prevent their doing 
 this, is, we conceive, another main view of this 
 instruction. 
 
 " In short, it does not appear to your committee 
 that this extraordinary instance of the proprietary's 
 care of the people's money, to prevent its being 
 wasted by their own representatives, was for the 
 people at all necessary. Those representatives them- 
 selves are a part of the people, and must bear a 
 share of their burdens. For their own sakes, there- 
 fore, as well as to recommend themselves to the 
 esteem and regard of their constituents, it is highly 
 
 probable they will execute that trust, as they always 
 have done, with justice, prudence and frugality ; with 
 freedom to the king's service, and grateful genero- 
 sity to governors that sincerely seek their welfare, 
 and do not join with the proprietaries to oppress 
 them. But this instruction might perhaps be ne- 
 cessary to extort those grants to governors which 
 they have been pleased to stile salary, and render 
 that certain, which before depended on the good 
 will of the people : for how else can the proprie- 
 taries be sure of that share of those grants, which, 
 by their private contracts sometimes made with 
 their governors, is (if report says true,) to be paid 
 to themselves ? 
 
 " The proprietaries are however willing to permit 
 the renewal of the 80,000/., which is now to sink in 
 a few years, and even the adding 40,OOOJ. more, 
 the whole to be emitted on loan, provided, that the 
 eleventh instruction be complied with, ' and half 
 the power of applying the interest reserved to them-, 
 and provided, that all rents and quit-rents due, or to 
 be due or payable to them, be always paid accord- 
 ing to the rate of exchange at the times of payment 
 between Philadelphia and London, or some other 
 sufficient provision enacted in lieu thereof, as was 
 done by a former act.' Your committee cannot 
 help observing here, that the proprietaries' tender- 
 ness for their own interest appears in this instruc- 
 tion much stronger than their care for that of the 
 people. Very great emoluments arise to them by 
 emissions of paper money on loan, and the interest 
 money is a tax they are clear of. They are there- 
 fore willing the quantity should be encreased ; but 
 whatever advantages they receive from it, they are 
 resolved to suffer no disadvantage from any occa- 
 sional depreciation : for they will always be paid 
 their rents and quit-rents, according to the rate of 
 exchange between Philadelphia and London. By 
 the original agreements, those rents and quit-rents 
 were to be paid in sterling money (or the vslue in 
 coin current,) to the proprietary receivers in the 
 province. A bill of exchange, besides the sterling 
 sum conveyed, includes all the freight, risk and 
 expense of conveying that sum in specie to London. 
 Now we conceive the people are not, nor can in 
 justice or reason be, obliged to transmit their rents 
 to London, and pay them there to the proprietaries. 
 If the proprietaries should think fit to remove to 
 China, they might as justly add to their demand the 
 rate of exchange between London and Canton : 
 this therefore is extortion, and ought never to be 
 allowed in any future act, nor an equivalent made 
 for it. For had that equivalent been really given as 
 a matter of justice, and not extorted, as purchase 
 money for the law, it would have been extended to 
 the re'nts of private landlords, as well as those of 
 the proprietaries. Besides, the great sums to be 
 yearly remitted to them in London, for which no 
 returns come back to the country, naturally tend to 
 raise the exchange ; and even put it in the power 
 of their agents to raise it occasionally, just before 
 the periodical times of payment (to the great injury 
 of the people), and to lower it again at their plea- 
 sure ; a dangerous power this, if no inconvenience 
 can arise to themselves by the rjse of exchange ! 
 The depreciation of money in every country where 
 it happens, is a common calamity. The proprie- 
 tary estate ought not to be exempt from it, at the 
 xpence of all other estates. There are many fixed 
 ground-rents, and other rents arising in the pro- 
 vince belonging to the people, and due to private 
 estates. These rents have as much right to be con- 
 
890 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 sidered, and their deficiency, in case of deprecia- 
 tion, provided for out of the publick funds, as those 
 of the proprietaries. But of these they take no 
 care, so their own are secured. It appears, how- 
 ever, to your committee, that all rents in the 
 country ought to be on the same footing, with re- 
 gard to any loss by the depreciation of its cur- 
 rency, since that is less likely ever to happen which 
 it is the interest of all to prevent. 
 
 " Your committee now come to the twenty-first 
 instruction, by the preamble of which it is insinu- 
 ated, as if acts for provincial taxes had been com- 
 mon in this province, and that the proprietary's 
 estate had been always exempted in such acts ; 
 whereas the truth is, that there never were but two 
 or three, and those in the early times of the pro- 
 vince, when the proprietary's circumstances were 
 low, hisi affairs encumbered, and the quit-rents so 
 small, as to be insufficient for his support, and 
 therefore they were not only exempted from any 
 part of such tax, but duties and licence fees were 
 granted to help them out. For more than 40 years, 
 as the excise and interest money have been sufficient 
 for support of government, no provincial taxes 
 have been levied (in this very instruction, a little 
 lower, they themselves acknowledge none have 
 been raised in their time), and the proprietary 
 estate has vastly encreased : those licence fees are 
 also vastly encreased, and yet they still receive 
 them. But that their estate should now be exempt 
 from provincial taxes, raised for the defence of that 
 very estate, appears to us extreamly unreasonable. 
 During the distress of the family, there was like- 
 wise a voluntary subscription among the people to 
 pay the proprietary's passage to England: they 
 may from thence as justly claim a right of having 
 their expences borne by the public whenever they 
 cross the seas. But when those aids were granted 
 to the old proprietary, he had a much better claim 
 to them than his sons; for he undertook to act as 
 an agent and advocate for his people, in England ; 
 to defend and secure their rights and privileges ; 
 not like his successors, to abolish and destroy them. 
 
 "The instruction farther says, that ' since the ex- 
 piration of those former laws, no aid hath ever 
 been granted by the assembly to them as proprie- 
 taries.' As proprietaries, what right have they to 
 aids? Are they not hereditary governors of the 
 province ? and while they have indulged them- 
 selves with an almost constant residence in Eng- 
 land, remote from their country, and greatly to its 
 inconvenience and prejudice, have not the assem- 
 blies constantly supported their deputy, sent by the 
 proprietaries ^o do what they ought themselves to 
 have done in person ; though he was often an im- 
 perfect deputy, restrained in those powers which 
 should always subsist and be present in every go- 
 vernment for the common welfare ? But they are 
 pleased to say, ' they have voluntarily and chear- 
 t'ully expended several considerable sums of their 
 own money for the advancement of the province.' 
 This they said likewise to a former assembly, and 
 the answer was, ' We are unacquainted with these 
 expences ; let the accounts be laid before us, and 
 whatever expenc appears to have been made for 
 the service of the province shall be allowed, and 
 repaid with thanks.' Those accounts have never 
 yet appeared ; and till they do, we think they 
 ought not to be made the foundation of any claim 
 whatever. 
 
 " They say' farther, ' that they had no reason to 
 suspect that the assembly would deviate so much 
 
 from the former usage, as to pretend, by any act of 
 theirs, to charge the proprietary estate in the pro- 
 vince with the burden of any taxes.' Amazing ! 
 If the assembly deviated from the former usage, 
 by taxing their own estates, and those of their 
 constituents (their usual funds failing) why should 
 they not deviate in the same manner in taxing the 
 proprietary estate ? And what are the particular 
 merits of this family, that when the whole British 
 nation, when every estate in the kingdom, as well 
 as in this province, is taxed, towards the recovery 
 and defence of their estate in Pennsylvania, that 
 very estate alone should be exempted, and they so 
 confident of its right to an exemption, as to have 
 no reason to suspect the assembly would attempt to 
 tax it. 
 
 " But it seems ' the assembly have represented 
 them in an untrue light, as if unwilling to assist 
 the publick, by contributing towards the defence of 
 the country, though no application had ever once 
 been made to them for that purpose.' How far 
 they are placed in an untrue light on this account, 
 will, we presume, appear before we finish this re- 
 port. It appears too, by a report of a former com- 
 mittee. They likewise say, ' no application was ever 
 once made to them for their assistance towards the 
 defence of the country.' Heretofore it was thought 
 that the country was best defended by maintaining 
 peace and a good understanding with the Indians. 
 This was done from year to year by expensive and 
 repeated presents. The proprietary reaped great 
 advantages from this good understanding and these 
 presents, in his bargains with the Indians for lands. 
 The expences grew yearly more and more heavy, 
 and repeated humble applications were made to the 
 proprietaries, that they would be pleased to bear a 
 part, but without success. They vouchsafed indeed 
 an answer to the last application, but it was to re- 
 ject it with the utmost pride and scorn, claiming an 
 inherent right of exemption of their estate from all 
 public charges whatsoever, in virtue of their being 
 governors as well as proprietaries. And the Sixty 
 Thousand Pound Bill is called an attempt of the as- 
 sembly, by ' an act of theirs,' to charge the proprie- 
 tary estate, as if they had presumed to do it aloue, 
 by their own authority. The assembly could not pos- 
 sibly think of taxing the proprietary estate, without 
 the consent of the proprietaries by their deputy ; 
 the bill was therefore another humble application 
 to the proprietaries for their consent to a thing so 
 reasonable : and the very stile of it was, ' we pray 
 that it may be enacted.' But that prayer could 
 not be granted, though the province was on the 
 brink of ruin. And yet it seems the proprietaries 
 were not 'unwilling;' though their deputy do- 
 clared they had expressly restrained him even by 
 the words of his commission ! The bill, however, 
 is stigmatized with the character of ' most unjust 
 and extraordinary.' Thus it is, when men judge 
 in their own cases. These gentlemen think it un- 
 just to tax their estates, though all the world thinks 
 otherwise. As provincial taxes had not been usual, 
 it might be so far extraordinary ; but the mode of 
 taxation was by no means extraordinary, being the 
 same with that of raising our county rates and le- 
 vies, long used and approved by the province. And 
 the taxing of proprietary lands is ust-d both in New 
 Jersey and Maryland; and located unimproved 
 lands have formerly been taxed in this province. 
 Had such been taxed every where from the first 
 settlement of America, we conceive it would have 
 tended to the increase of the inhabitants ; and the 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 891 
 
 greater strength of the colonies ; for then such im- 
 mense quantities of land would not have been mo- 
 nopolized and lain dormant, but people would more 
 easily have obtained settlements, and been seated 
 closer together. 
 
 "But the proprietaries would have it understood, 
 that it is not for their own sake only, that they object 
 to the Fifty Thousand Pound Bill which was refused, 
 or the Sixty Thousand Pound Act that passed. 
 They are tenderly concerned for the estates of others. 
 No part of the lands of a delinquent, who refuses or 
 neglects to pay his tax, ought, in their opinion, to be 
 sold for payment ; though lands in America are by act 
 of parliament made liable to be sold for discharge of 
 debts, and were almost always so here by the laws of 
 this province. If lands, or parts of land may be sold 
 to satisfy private, why not publick debts ? And 
 though it be unusual in England, it has long been 
 the practice, as we are informed, in several of the 
 colonies, particularly in New England. But they 
 say, a ' tax of one shilling in the pound, on the 
 whole value, is what never was laid, nor can possi- 
 bly be paid, in any country.' Strange ! may not 
 a country in imminent danger give a twentieth 
 part of their estates to save the other nineteen ? Is 
 it impossible even to give a half, or three-fourths, 
 to save the other half or quarter ? May they not 
 even give nineteen parts to save the twentieth ? 
 The proprietary's gift of 5000*., they afterwards 
 say, is twenty times more than their tax, if fairly 
 and equally assessed, could by that bill have 
 amounted to. If so, it is possible to give the whole 
 twenty parts. But it has always been understood, 
 that estates are not to be taxed to the full value 
 they might singly sell for. In the same bill it was 
 provided, that located unimproved lauds should not 
 be valued in the rates at more than 15*. per 100 
 acres ; when it is well known, that the proprietary's 
 lowest price for wild lands on the frontiers, is 
 15*. 10*. per hundred; and that the located un- 
 improved lands in their manors, are, some of 
 them valued at 300*. or 400*. per 100; they may 
 therefore well say, that 'if that tax had been 
 fully assessed, it must have amounted to many 
 times the sum ;' but then their next assertion is 
 somewhat inconsistent, viz. : That the bill laying 
 this tax was ' most unjustly calculated for the pur- 
 pose of putting it in the power of the assessors to 
 tax the proprietary estates up to the full value, 
 and to ease other persons, by taxing them so lightly 
 as only to make up the residue of the 50,000*., in 
 which case, much the greatest part of the burden 
 might have been laid on the proprietary estates 
 alone.' The value of the proprietary estate has 
 long, for prudential reasons, been kept a profound 
 secret ; and the proprietaries have lately given 
 5000*. rather than submit it to the inquiry of the as- 
 sessors. But your committee conceive some light 
 may be obtained on that head, from this part of the 
 instruction compared with the Fifty Thousand Pound 
 Bill. By that bill, their wild, unsurveyed, or unlo- 
 cated lands, which are many millions of acres, were 
 not to be taxed at all, thoug'h they never sell any of 
 them for less than 15*. 10s. per 100 acres. Their 
 taxable estate consists chiefly in located (though 
 uncultivated) tracts and manors, and in the re- 
 served quit-rents arising from the lands they have 
 sold. These manors and tracts are generally 
 choice, being of the best lands, picked out of every 
 new purchase from the Indians by their surveyors, 
 before the office is opened, and laid by for a market, 
 not to be disposed of till all the surrounding lands 
 
 are sold and settled. This has increased their value 
 prodigiously, so that they are now, one with an- 
 other, valued at more than 300*. per 100: yet by 
 the bill, they were not to be taxed as worth more 
 than 15*. per 100. And they own, that by the 
 .same bill, ' their quit-rents were to be taxed in 
 the same manner as other estates,' consequently, as 
 great an abatement to be made in the valuation. 
 And yet by this same bill, under this very moderate 
 valuation of their estate, they say, it would have 
 been in the power of the assessors to have laid 
 much the greatest part of the burden on their 
 estates alone. Now, much the greatest part of 
 50,000*. may be 40,000*. ; but we will say (for mo- 
 deration's sake) it is only 30,000*., and that sum 
 might have been raised by that bill, on the proprie- 
 tary estates, in two years, by a tax of one shilling 
 in the pound, i.e. 15,000*. per annum. The shil- 
 lings in 15,000*. are 300,000, consequently, their 
 estates at that low valuation are worth 300,000*. 
 But if you multiply that valuation by twenty, to 
 bring it nearer the truth, those estates must amount 
 to 6,000,000*., exclusive of their wild lands as 
 aforesaid. If this computation be too high, they 
 may be able hereafter to show its mistakes. At 
 present we conceive the consequences fairly drawn 
 from facts and their own premises. And yet this 
 their enormous estate is, by their instructions, to 
 be exempted, while all their fellow-subjects groan 
 under the weight of taxes for its defence ! it being 
 the first attacked in the present war, and part of it 
 on the Ohio, the prize contended for by the enemy. 
 For though they, towards the end of this instruc- 
 tion, pretend to be ' most ready and willing to bear 
 a just proportion along with their tenants in any 
 necessary tax for the defence of the province,' yet 
 this appears clearly to be a mere pretence, since 
 they absolute 1 }- except their quit-rents, and their 
 located unimproved lands, their fines, and the pur- 
 chase-monies they have at interest ; that is, in a 
 manner, their whole estate, as your committee 
 know of little they have left to be taxed, but a 
 ferry-house or two, a kitchen, and a dog-kennel. 
 
 " But unimproved lands should not, in our pro- 
 prietaries' opinion, pay any taxes, because ' they 
 yield no annual profit.' This may deceive people 
 in England (where the value of land is much at a 
 stay), as they are unacquainted with the nature of 
 landed estates in growing plantations. Here new 
 lands, without cultivation, without fencing, or so 
 much as cutting down a tree, being reserved and 
 laid by for a market till the surrounding lands are 
 settled, improve much more in yearly value even 
 than money at interest upon interest. Thirty years 
 ago, the best and richest lands near the proprietary's 
 Conestogoe manor, were worth and sold for about 
 40*. per 100 acres. That manor was then laid our. 
 and reserved, containing near 17,000 acres : and 
 now the lands of that very manor, which, though so 
 long located, have never yet been cultivated, will 
 sell for 350*. per 100 acres ; which is near nine for 
 one, or 800 per cent, advance ! Can an estate 
 thus producing 25 per cent, per annum on the 
 prime cost, be with any propriety called, ' an 
 estate yielding no annual profit?' Is it not a well- 
 known practice in the colonies, to lay out great 
 sums of ready money for lands, without the least 
 intent of cultivation, but merely to sell them again 
 hereafter? Would people follow this practice if 
 they could not make more profit of their money in 
 that way than by employing it in improvement of 
 land, in trade, or in putting it to interest, though 
 
892 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 interest in the plantations is from six to ten per 
 cent. Does not such land, though otherwise unim- 
 proved, improve continually in its value ? How 
 mean and unjust is it then, in these gentlemen, to 
 attempt to conceal the advantages of this kind of 
 estate, and screen it from taxes, by lurking under 
 the ambiguous and deceitful terms, of unimproved 
 lands, and lands yielding no annual profit ? 
 
 " Meanly unjust indeed, in this instance, do they 
 appear to your committee ; who cannot but observe, 
 that the proprietaries, knowing their own inclina- 
 tions to screen their own estates, and load those of 
 the people, from thence suspected the people might 
 be equally unjust, and intend, by the Fifty Thousand 
 Pound Bill, to ease their estates, and load those of 
 the proprietaries. ' The bill, say they, appears to 
 us to be most unjustly calculated, for the purpose of 
 putting it in the power of persons, wholly chosen 
 by the people, to tax our estates up to the full value 
 therein mentioned, and to ease other persons by 
 taxing them so lightly, as only to make up the re- 
 sidue that might be wanted to complete the 50,UOO/. 
 In which case the persons chosen by the people 
 might have laid by much the greatest part of the 
 burden upon our estates alone.' Had they intended 
 to raise much the greatest part of the tax of 50,000. 
 on the proprietaries' estate, would the house so rea- 
 dily have accepted of 5000. in lieu of their share 
 of that tax ? But why this suspicion of the assem- 
 bly ? What instance of injustice can the proprieta- 
 taries charge them with, that could give ground for 
 such a supposition ? If they were capable of "such 
 an intention, and an endeavour to get iniquity es- 
 tablished by a law, must they not be the most unjust 
 and dishonest of men ? The assessors, it is true, 
 are chosen by the people ; they always were so by 
 our Jaws ; and let a man's estate be ever so great, 
 he has but one vote in the choice of them : but 
 have the proprietaries no friends in the province? 
 What is become of all their dependants and expect- 
 ants ; those in place, or hoping for places; the 
 thousands in their debt; the mortgagors at their 
 mercy ? Will none of these, out of love, or hope, 
 or fear, vote for honest assessors, that may take 
 care the proprietary is not oppressed by the weight 
 of an unjust tax? Could the assembly be certain, 
 that the whole people were so wicked, as to join in 
 choosing aud trusting sets of dishonest assessors, 
 merely to wrong the proprietary ? Are there no 
 laws in the province against perjury? Are not the 
 assessors by law to be sworn or affirmed to as- 
 sess themselves and all others impartially? and 
 have they not always been chosen as men of note 
 for probity and justice ? What a dark prospect 
 must a man's own heart afford him, when he can 
 from thonce form such ideas of the hearts of a whole 
 people ! A people famous throughout the world 
 for the justice and equity of their laws, the purity 
 of their manners, their humanity and hospitality to 
 strangers, their affection to their late honoured 
 proprietary, their faithfulness in their manufactures 
 and produce, and uprightness in all their dealings ! 
 and to whose virtue and industry these very gentle- 
 men owe all their present greatness ! 
 
 " The proprietaries are pleased farther to say, 
 ' That the laying taxes on the real value of the fee- 
 simple, and the sale of land for the payment of 
 taxes, are contrary to the laws and statutes of Great 
 Britain.' Your committee cannot find that any 
 laws or statutes were ever made in Great Britain 
 to regulate the mode of laying taxes in the planta- 
 tions; and if there are none such, our bill could not 
 
 be contrary to what never existed. In Virginia 
 the taxes are laid on slaves, and paid in tobacco; 
 and every colony has its own mode of taxation, 
 suited to its own circumstances, almost all different 
 from each other, as well as from that used in Eng- 
 land. But different from, and contrary to, we 
 conceive to be distinct and different things; other- 
 wise many of our laws, even those which have been 
 approved at home, and received the royal assent, 
 are contrary to the laws of England. But, as we 
 said before, the laws of England themselves make 
 lands liable to pay debts in the colonies ; and there- 
 fore to sell them, or a part of them, to pay public 
 debts, is not contrary to, but conformable with, the 
 laws of England. 
 
 " But the proprietaries ' cannot find that the quit- 
 rents reserved to the crown, in any of the other 
 American colonies, have ever been taxed towards 
 the raising any supplies granted in those colonies ; 
 and indeed those quit-rents are generally so small, 
 (meaning the king's quit-rents, we suppose, for 
 their own surely are large enough), that little or no 
 land tax would be due or payable on them, if arising 
 in Great Britain, &c.' If your committee are 
 rightly informed, the king's quit-rents in the other 
 colonies, are applied to public purposes, generally 
 for the service of the colony that raises them. When 
 our proprietaries shall think fit to apply those arising 
 here in the same manner, we believe no assembly 
 will attempt to tax them. The smallness of the 
 parts we cannot conceive to be a good reason for not 
 taxing the whole. Where every man worth less 
 than twenty shillings a year is exempt from taxes, 
 he who enjoys a thousand a year might, as well as 
 our proprietaries, plead to be excused, for that his 
 income is only 20,000s., each of which shillings is 
 far within the sum exempted by law. In the whole, 
 though what arises from each estate be no great 
 sum, their quit-rents must amount to a very great 
 revenue; and their speaking of them in the diminu- 
 tive terms of very small quit-rents or acknowledg- 
 ments, is only to amuse and deceive. They are 
 property ; and property should pay for its own pre- 
 servation. They ought therefore to be taxed to the 
 defence of the country. The proprietaries indeed 
 say a land tax was unnecessary, as there are many 
 other ways of raising money. They would doubtless 
 choose any way in which their estate could not be 
 included. But what are those mauy other ways? 
 Britain, an independent state, can lay infinite du- 
 ties, on all foreign wares, and imported luxuries. 
 We are suffered little foreign trade, and almost all 
 our superfluities are sent us from Britain itself. 
 Will she permit us to discourage their importation 
 by heavy imposts? or to raise funds by taxing tier 
 manufactures ? A variety of excises and duties 
 serve only to multiply offices and officers, and to 
 make a part of the people pay for another part who 
 do not choose to pay. No excise or duty was ever 
 a fair and equal tax on property. The fairest, as 
 the proprietaries themselves have acknowledged, is 
 a poundage on all real and personal estate, accord- 
 ing to its value. 
 
 " We are now to hear of the generosity of the pro- 
 prietaries, who, as they say, 'were so far from desiring 
 not to contribute to the defence and support of his 
 majesty's rights and dominions, that immediately 
 on the first notice of the defeat of General Brad- 
 dock, they had sent over an order upon their re- 
 ceiver-general, to pay 5, GOO/., as a free gift towards 
 the defence of the said province.' We may pre- 
 sume to at-k why, when they knew tho 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 893 
 
 were continually worried to give money, and the 
 bills in which it was offered as constantly rejected; 
 
 happy situation, the prostiate condition of our 
 bleeding country, the knife of the savages at her 
 
 why did they not unmanacle ' eir governor, and at throat, our soldiers ready to mutiny for want of pay 
 the same time set an example of zeal for the coin- j and necessaries, our people flying in despair from 
 mon cause by a generous gift on their part, before j the frontier for want of protection, the assembly was 
 they heard of that defeat ? Why not, as soon as j compelled (like Solomon's true mother), to wave 
 they knew he was sent to America? Why not, on ' " 
 Washington's defeat, or before his first expedition, 
 
 as soon as ever their province was attacked, and 
 
 they learnt that tho enemy had built a fort in it? 
 
 But the truth is, the order was sent, not immediately 
 
 on the news of Braddock's defeat ; the date of the 
 
 order will show that it was a month after that news 
 
 arrived in England. But it was immediately after 
 
 they had advice, that the governor had refused a 
 
 grant of 50,000/. to the crown for the defence of 
 
 the proprietaries' province, because their estate was 
 
 taxed in the bill, alledging restrictions from them 
 
 on that head ; against which all the world exclaimed, 
 
 and an universal odium was falling on their heads, 
 
 and the king's wrath justly dreaded ; then it was, 
 
 that the boasted order issued. And yet, as soon as | proprietary estate disproportionately, &c.' is, to our 
 
 their fears subsided, it was sincerely repented, and 
 
 every underhand step taken to get the act, in which 
 
 their gift was fixed, disapproved at home ; though, 
 
 her right, to alter our money-bills, abridge our free 
 grant to the crown by one half, and, in short, to 
 
 receive and enact a law not agreeable to our judg- 
 ments, but such as was made for us by the proprie- 
 tary instructions, and the will and pleasure of the 
 governor's council; whereby our constitution, and 
 the liberties of our country are wounded iu the 
 most essential part, and even violated and destroyed. 
 We have reason to confide, however, in the justice 
 of our sovereign and a British parliament, that this 
 tyranny shall not long subsist; and we hope no 
 time will be lost in making the proper application. 
 
 " In tine, we must say, in justice to the house, 
 that the proprietary's charge against the assembly, 
 as ' being inclined by their authority to tax the 
 
 if they had succeeded, when the bills emitted were 
 
 poor soldiers, who had received them in pay for 
 their services, would have been ruined, and multi- 
 
 knowledge, groundless and unjust. They had as 
 little inclination as authority to wrong him. They 
 have not, it seems, authority enough to oblige him 
 to do justice. As to their inclination, they bear 
 
 abroad, and in the hands of the publick, many of the everyone of them, and maintain, the character of 
 
 honest men. When the proprietaries shall be truly 
 willing to bear an equitable part of the publick 
 burden ; when they shall renounce their exorbitant 
 
 tudes of others greatly injured. And, after all, this 
 
 free gift, to be immediately paid, is not yet paid, j demand of rent a's the exchange shall then be ; 
 
 though more than a year is elapsed since the order 
 was given ; and contracts entered into by the com- 
 missioners in confidence of receiving that money, 
 are yet unsatisfied, to the loss and disappointment 
 of many, and great detriment to the service. 
 
 " However, if we will have a land tax, they are 
 pleased to form a bill for us, or at least to direct 
 what clauses shall be in, and what shall not be in 
 it, thus violating the most essential right of the 
 commons in a British constitution ! and with this 
 particular injunction, that the tax shall be laid for 
 no more than one year; and shall not exceed four 
 shillings in the pound ou the income; which, esti- 
 mating estates at twenty years' purchase, is about a 
 fifth of a twentieth, or, in plainer words, a hundredth 
 part of the value. Perhaps this may be well enough 
 in times of tranquillity; but when a province is 
 invaded, must it be given up to the enemy if a tax 
 of the hundredth penny is not sufficient to save it? 
 Yes, that is our present situation ; for the proprie- 
 taries' instructions are, it seems, unalterable. Their 
 governor is bound to observe and inforc* them, 
 and must see the king's province perish before his 
 eyes, rather than deviate from them a single tittle. 
 This we have experienced within a few days, when 
 advantage being cruelly takeu of our present un- 
 
 make restitution of the money which they have 
 exacted from the assemblies of this province, and 
 sincerely repent of their extortion, they may then, 
 and not till then, have some claim to the same noble 
 
 title" 
 
 In the year 
 
 John Penn, son of Richard 
 
 Penn, one of the proprietaries, succeeded Governor 
 Hamilton, in the administration, and continued till 
 1771 : when the government devolved on the coun- 
 cil, James Hamilton being president for a short 
 time ; till in the latter part of the same year, Ri- 
 chard Penn, brother of Johu Peun, arrived from 
 England, invested with the powers of government. 
 
 Richard Penn was superseded in the administra- 
 tion by his brother, John Penn, who became a se- 
 cond time governor of the province, in the latter 
 part of the year 1771. 
 
 In the early part of the revolutionary war the 
 people adopted a new constitution, by which the 
 proprietor was excluded from all share in the go- 
 vernment. He was offered, and finally accepted 
 the sum of 570,000 dollars, in discharge of all quit- 
 rents due from the inhabitants. 
 
 We have thus brought down the history of Penn- 
 sylvania to that period from whence we intend to 
 give a collective history of all the states. 
 
MARYLAND. 
 
 Origin Government First settlers House of assem- 
 bly Laws Ingle's insurrection Power of taxa- 
 tionState during the protectorate On the acces- 
 sion of William and Mary Inspection of t/ie 
 church Establishment of the Protestant church 
 Value of the colony to the proprietary General 
 view of it. 
 
 THE history of Pennsylvania has necessarily in- 
 eluded so much of the affairs of this state, owing to 
 the dissension of the proprietors, that we shall be 
 very brief in our present notice. 
 
 This state was granted by a patent of King 
 Charles I., June 30, 1632, to George Culvert, 
 Baron of Baltimore, in Ireland, who had been 
 obliged, on account of the French government, to 
 abandon the province of Avalon, in Newfoundland, 
 after having expended 25,000/. in its advancemf-nt. 
 
 The government of this province was by charter 
 vested in the proprietary ; but it appears that he 
 either never exercised these powers alone, or but 
 for a short time; for we find, in 1637, that the 
 freemen rejected a body of laws drawn u-p in Eng- 
 land, and transmitted by his lordship, in order to 
 be passed for the government of the province. In 
 the place of these they proposed 42 bills to be 
 enacted into laws, by the consent of the proprie- 
 tary : these were, however, never enacted, at least 
 they are not on record. 
 
 The first emigration to Maryland consisted of 
 200 gentlemen, of considerable fortune and rank, 
 with their adherents, chiefly Roman Catholics, who 
 hoped to enjoy liberty of conscience under a pro- 
 prietary of their own profession. They sailed from 
 England in November 1632, and landed in Mary- 
 land the beginning of 1633. The honourable Leo- 
 nard Calvert, brother to Lord Baltimore, who was 
 the first governor, very wisely and justly purchased, 
 by presents of various goods, the rights of the In- 
 dians, and with their free consent took possession 
 of their town, which he called St. Mary's. The 
 country was settled with so much ease, and fur- 
 nished with so many conveniences, that emigrants 
 repaired thither in such numbers, and the colony 
 soon became populous and flourishing. 
 
 In 1638 a law was passed, constituting the first re- 
 gular house of assembly, which was to consist of such 
 representatives, called burgesses, as should be elected 
 pursuant to writs issued by the governor. These 
 burgesses possessed all the powers of the persons 
 fleeting them; but any other freemen, who did not 
 assent to the election, might take their seats in 
 jerson. Twelve burgesses or freemen, with the 
 lieutenant-general and secretary, constituted the 
 assembly or legislature. This assembly sat at St. 
 Mary's. 
 
 Slavery seems to have gained an early establish- 
 ment in Maryland, for an act of this assembly de- 
 scribes " the people" to consist of all Christian 
 inhabitants, " slaves only excepted." The perse- 
 cuting laws which were passed by the Virginians, 
 
 soon after this period, against the Puritans, made 
 the latter emigrate in considerable numbers to Ma- 
 ryland, that they might enjoy, under a Popish pro- 
 prietary, that liberty of conscience of which they 
 were deprived by their fellow Protestants. 
 
 In 1642 it was enacted, that ten members of the 
 assembly, of whom the governor and six burgesses 
 were to be seven, should be a house ; and if sickness 
 should prevent that number from attending, the 
 members present should mike a house. 
 
 In 1644 one Ingle excited a rebellion, forced the 
 governor to fly to Virginia for aid and protection, 
 and seized the records and great seal ; the last of 
 which, with most of the records of the province, 
 were lost or destroyed. From this period, to the 
 year 1647, when order was restored, the proceed- 
 ings of the province are involved in almost impene- 
 trable obscurity. 
 
 In July 1648, the house of assembly, or more 
 properly, the burgesses, requested that they might 
 be separated into two branches the burgesses by 
 themselves, with a negative upon bills. This was 
 not granted by the lieutenant-general at that time; 
 bat in 1650 an act was passed, dividing the assem- 
 bly into two houses ; the governor, secretary, and 
 any one or more of the council, formed the upper 
 house; the delegates from the several hundreds, 
 who now represent the freemen, formed the lower 
 house. At this time there were in the province but 
 two counties, St. Mary's, and the Isle of Kent, but 
 another (Ann Arundel) was added the same ses- 
 sion. This was during the administration of Go- 
 vernor Stone. 
 
 In this year there was also passed " an act 
 against raising money without the consent of the 
 assembly." It enacted, " That no taxes shall be 
 assessed or levied on the freemen of the province 
 without their own consent, or that of their deputies, 
 first declared in a general assembly." The printed 
 words and early date of this Maryland act are 
 worthy of particular notice. The acts of the gene- 
 ral assembly and governor were of the same force 
 in their own province as acts of parliament in Eng- 
 land, and could not be repealed without the concur- 
 ring assent of the proprietary or his deputy, with the 
 other two estates. 
 
 In 1654, during Cromwell's usurpation in Eng- 
 land, an act was passed, restraining the exercise of 
 the Roman Catholic religion. This must have been 
 procured by the mere terror of Cromwell's power, 
 for the first and principal inhabitants were Catho- 
 lics. Indeed the power of Cromwell was not esta- 
 blished in Maryland without force and bloodshed. 
 His friends and" foes came to an open rupture, an 
 engagement ensued, Governor Stone was taken 
 prisoner, and condemned to be shot ; this sentence, 
 however, was not executed, but he was kept a long 
 time in confinement. 
 
 In March 1658, Josiah Fendall, Esq. was appointed 
 lieutenant-general of Maryland, by commission 
 from Oliver Cromwell; he dissolved the upper 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 895 
 
 house, and surrendered the powers of government 
 into the hands of the delegates. 
 
 Upon the restoration it reverted to Lord Balti- 
 more, who, about the year 1GG2, sent over his son, 
 Charles Calvert, to be his governor of the province, 
 he having previously obtained a confirmation of the 
 grant of 1631. This gentleman, who was after- 
 wards himself Lord Baltimore, proved one of the 
 best governors that any English plantation ever 
 had in America. Though he was a Roman Catho- 
 lic, he passed an act of the assembly, by which all 
 Christians of every denomination had liberty to 
 settle in the province ; and his administration was 
 so mild, moderate, and impartial, that the English 
 inhabitants of Maryland, so early as the year 1665, 
 amounted to 16,000. Even the Indian nations sub- 
 mitted to his authority; and when a chief called 
 N-xocosco, was chosen what they call emperor of 
 Piscataway, his election was not thought to be valid, 
 till it was confirmed by the governor of Maryland. 
 In every other respect he kept his promises of pro- 
 tection and encouragement to the Protestants as 
 well as the Papists ; nor is there, during all the 
 time of his long government, (for he resided there 
 twenty years,) a single instance of an invasion upon 
 the rights, properties, or privileges of any indi- 
 vidual. 
 
 Sir William Berkeley, a violent royalist, was at 
 this time governor of Virginia, where many severe 
 laws passed against the dissenters. This son of the 
 church of England drove great numbers of them into 
 Maryland, where they were received with open 
 arms, and kindly entertained by the popish proprie- 
 tary. In the year 1677, the Indian war in Vir- 
 ginia communicated itself, but in a very small de- 
 gree, to Maryland, and tranquillity was soon restored 
 all over that province by the proprietary's wisdom 
 and moderation. The comprehensive maxims of 
 Lord Baltimore did not suit those of James II. when 
 he mounted the throne of England. Though he 
 had granted liberty of conscience to all the sectaries 
 in Great Britain, that he might the more easily 
 establish the Roman Catholic religion there, yet his 
 popish counsellors suggested to him, that such a 
 toleration ought not to take place in a province 
 where the bulk of the people were already Roman 
 Catholics. A resolution was therefore taken to de- 
 prive Lord Baltimore of the right to nominate a 
 governor to his province of Maryland. Even after 
 the revolution, the design of taking from him the 
 right of nominating the governor of Maryland was 
 still pursued. Advantage of the acts of parliament 
 against Papists was taken against him, but Lord 
 Baltimore had the spirit to dispute his right inch 
 by inch at the council-board; and though his lord- 
 ship retained that of proprietary, he was deprived 
 of that of naming a governor, or a council, which 
 power was vested in the crown. King William 
 appointed Sir Edmund Andros to the government 
 of Maryland. This gentleman called together an 
 assembly in 1692, who recognised the right of King 
 William and Queen Mary to the crown, and to pre- 
 vent any inconveniences arising from the alteration 
 of the judicature in the province, an act was passed, 
 confirming all law proceedings, excepting where 
 there was any error in process or pleas. When an 
 act of parliament passed concerning the succession of 
 declared Papists to paternal inheritances, the Balti- 
 more family very wisely declared themselves Pro- 
 testants, and were ever after eminently attached to 
 the existing constitution in church and state. 
 
 Sir Edmund Andros was succeeded in the govern- 
 
 ment of Maryland by Colonel Nicholson, who passed 
 the act of confirmation above mentioned ; in which 
 there is a proviso, that nothing in the act should 
 justify Sir Edmund Andros in taking and disposing 
 of the public revenues, or debar the assembly, or 
 any other person, of their right or claims to the 
 same. The proprietary enjoyed, as before, the re- 
 venues of the province, arising by grants from the 
 assemblies, the exportation of tobacco, the sales of 
 uncultivated and unpurchased lands, and various 
 other articles ; all which constituted a very consi- 
 derable income. Maryland preserved the p'rivilege 
 of not submitting her laws to Great Britain for 
 confirmation, as long as it was subjected to that 
 kingdom. It was natural for the government of 
 England, after the revolution, when the crown had 
 appropriated to itself the appointment of the gover- 
 nor, to inquire more minutely into the state of 
 Maryland than into that of any other of the Ameri- 
 can colonies, both as to its ecclesiastical and civil 
 constitution. In 1692 it was thought proper that 
 the bishop of London should appoint a commissary 
 in Maryland, and he made choice of Dr. Thomas 
 Bray, who went thither to inspect the church affairs 
 of the province, which he found in great disorder, 
 through the influence of the Papists on the one hand, 
 and that of the Quakers on the other. An act of the 
 assembly that same year, divided the then counties 
 into 30 parishes, sixteen of which were supplied 
 with ministers, provided with livings. By the doc- 
 tor's care likewise, the people were furnished with 
 many books of Protestant practical devotion, and 
 sereral chapels were erected. The stipends allowed 
 to the ministers were fixed by a perpetual law to be 
 according to the taxable individuals in each parish. 
 Every Christian male of sixteen years old, Knd Ne- 
 groes, male and female, above that age, to pay 
 40 pounds of tobacco yearly to the minister, to be 
 levied by the sheriff, and thereby each minister, one 
 with another, would have an income of about 20,000 
 pounds weight of tobacco, equivalent to about 
 100/. sterling a year. This encouragement was 
 greatly owing to Colonel Nicholson's zeal ; for be- 
 fore his time the people of the colony had never 
 seen any divines of the church of England, except- 
 ing some itinerent preachers, whose morals were a 
 reproach to their profession. This neglect had given 
 the papists, and the other sectaries, a great sway 
 over the bulk of the people ; but in a few years the 
 latter were so well reconciled to the church of En- 
 gland, that it became the chief religion in the pro- 
 vince; and their audiences were even crowded. 
 
 Colonel Nicholson left his government with a 
 good character, and was succeeded by Colonel Na- 
 thaniel Blakiston, who promised to tread in the 
 steps of his predecessors ; but he was obliged to re- 
 turn to England for the recovery of his health ; and, 
 in 1703, her majesty was pleased to appoint Colonel 
 William Seymour to be governor. This gentleman, 
 in his passage to Maryland, in the Dreadnought 
 man of war, was forced to put into Barbadoes, and, 
 being afterwards driven off the coasts of Maryland, 
 t was above eight months from his departure from 
 England before he arrived at his government. He 
 likewise had a good character : and the most re- 
 markable of the succeeding governors were the Colo, 
 nels Corbet and Hunt, Mr. Calvert, Mr. Bladen, and 
 Mr. Ogle. The allowance of the governor's salary 
 was by agreement, with the proprietary, and there- 
 fore uncertain ; but the value of the proprietary's 
 own revenue was very considerable. His original 
 ]uit-rent was fixed at two shillings sterling a year 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 for every 100 acros. In time ho patented vacant 
 lands for double that sum, and at last he endea- 
 voured to raise the quit-rent to ten shillings for every 
 100 acres; but failed in the attempt, though there is 
 little room to doubt, that in the subsequent flourish- 
 ing state of Maryland ho may have received that 
 sum. .Some years after the assembly, with the con- 
 sent of the lord-proprietary, granted him in lieu of 
 his quit-rents for three years, a revenue of three 
 shillings and sixpence sterling duty on every hogs- 
 head of tobacco, to be paid by the shipper. By this 
 expedient the landed interest was cased of the 
 burden of quit- rents; but this scheme did not hold. 
 The lord-proprietary, by this new method of collec- 
 tion, received no more than 5000/, a year ; and 
 therefore, upon the expiration of the three years, 
 he reverted to the revenue arising from his quit- 
 rents. Besides those, he had large estates in many 
 parts of the province, which he let to farm. 
 
 The situation of Maryland, which secured it in a 
 great measure from the rapine and incursions of the 
 Indians, has at all times preserved it in a tolerable 
 state of tranquillity ; and consequently it affords but 
 little subject for history ; the natives having wisely 
 applied themselves to the culture of their country. 
 And as the remaining portion of its history until 
 the revolutionary war, is best learnt in the progress 
 of its domestic affairs, we shall conclude this part 
 of our account with a slight view of its interaal 
 condition. 
 
 This state is situated between 38 and 40 degrees 
 north latitude; its length is about 134 miles, and 
 its breadth 110. It is bounded on the north by the 
 state of Pennsylvania; on the east by the state of 
 Delaware ; and on the south-east and south by the 
 Atlantic ocean ; and a line drawn from the ocean 
 over the peninsula (dividing it from Accomack 
 county in Virginia,) to the mouth of the Potomac 
 river ; thence up the Potomac to its source ; thence 
 by a north line till it intersects the southern bound- 
 ary of Pennsylvania, in latitude 39 43' 18" ; so 
 that it has Virginia on the south, south-west and 
 west ; it contains about 14,000 square miles, of 
 which from one-sixth to one-fourth is water. 
 
 The climate is in general mild and agreeable, 
 suited to agricultural productions, and a great vari- 
 ety of fruit trees : the air in the interior of the 
 country is salubrious, and favourable to the inha- 
 bitants, who in the hilly parts are as healthy as in 
 any part of the Union ; but in the flat lauds in the 
 neighbourhood of marshes and stagnant waters, as 
 in the other southern states, they are subject to in- 
 termittent and other complaints common to swampy 
 situations. 
 
 East of the blue ridge of mountains, which 
 stretches across the western part of this state, the 
 land, like that in all the southern states, is gene- 
 rally level and free of stones; and appears to have 
 been made much in the same way; of course the 
 soil must be similar, and the natural growth not 
 remarkably different. 
 
 The ground is uniformly level and low in most 
 of the counties on the eastern shore, and conse- 
 auently covered in many places with stagnant water, 
 except where it is intersected by numerous creeks. 
 Here also are large tracts of marsh, which, during 
 the day, load the atmosphere with vapour, that 
 again falls in dew in the close of the summer and 
 fall seasons. 
 
 Chesapeake bay divides this state into the eastern 
 and western divisions. This bay, the largest in the 
 United States, affords many good fisheries, and is 
 
 remarkable for the excellence of its crabs, and also 
 for a particular species of wild duck, called Canvas- 
 back. In a commercial view, this bay is of im- 
 mense advantage to the state ; it receives a num- 
 ber of large rivers. From the eastern shore in Mary- 
 land, among 'other smaller ones, it receives the 
 Pocomoke, Nantikoke, Choptank, Chester and Elk 
 rivers ; from the north, the rapid Susquehanna ; 
 and from the west, the Patapsco, Severn, Patuxent 
 and Potomac, half of which is in Maryland, and half 
 in Virginia. Except the Susquehanna and Potomac, 
 these are small rivers. Patapsco river is but about 
 30 or 40 yards wide at the ferry, just before it 
 empties into the basin upon which Baltimore stands ; 
 its source is in York county, in Pennsylvania ; its 
 course is southwardly till it reaches El'kridge land- 
 ing, about eight miles westward oi' Baltimore; it 
 then turns eastward, in a broad bay-like stream, by 
 Baltimore, which it leaves on the north, and passes 
 into the Chesapeake. 
 
 The entrance into Baltimore harbour, about a 
 mile below Fell's Point, is hardly a pistol-shot a cross, 
 and of course may be easily defended against naval 
 force. 
 
 Severn is a short, inconsidr-rable river, passing by 
 Annapolis, which it leaves to the south, emptying 
 by a broad mouth into the Chesapeake. 
 
 Patuxent is a larger river than the Patapsco ; it 
 rises in Ann Arundel county, and runs south-east- 
 wardly, and then east into the bay, fifteen or twenty 
 miles north of the mouth of the Potomac. There 
 are also several small rivers, such as the Wighcoco- 
 mico, Eastern Branch, Munocasy and Conegochea- 
 gue, which empty into the Potomac from the Mary- 
 land side. 
 
 The soil of the good land in Maryland is of such 
 a nature and quality as to produce from twelve to 
 sixteen bushels of wheat, or from 20 to 30 bushels 
 of Indian corn per acre. Ten bushels of wheat, and 
 fifteen bushels of corn per acre, may be the annual 
 average crops in the state at largp. 
 
 Wheat and tobacco are the staple commodities. 
 Tobacco is generally cultivated in sets, by negroes, 
 in the following manner: the seed is sown in beds 
 of fine mould, and transplanted the beginning of 
 May ; the plants are set at the distance of three or 
 four feet from each other, and are hilled and kept 
 continually free of weeds : when as many leaves 
 have shot out as the soil will nourish to advantage, 
 the top of the plant is broken off. which prevents 
 its growing higher : it is carefully kept clear of 
 worms, and the suckers, which put out between the 
 leaves, are taken off al proper times, till the plant 
 arrives at perfection, which is in August : when the 
 leaves turn of a brownish colour, and .begin to be 
 spotted, the plant is cut down and hung up to dry, 
 after having sweated in heaps one night. When'it 
 can be handled without crumbling, which is always 
 in moist weather, the leaves are stripped from the 
 stalk, and tied in bundles, and packed for exporta- 
 tion in hogsheads, containing 800 or 900 pounds, 
 No suckers nor ground leaves are allowed to be 
 merchantable. An industrious person may ma- 
 nage 6000 plants of tobacco, which yield 10UO/., and 
 four acres of Indian corn. 
 
 In the interior country, on the uplands, consider- 
 able quantities of hemp and flax are raised. In 
 1751, in the month of October, no less than 60 
 waggons loaded with flax seed came down to Balti- 
 more from the back country. 
 
 Two articles are said to be peculiar to Maryland, 
 viz. the genuine white wheat, which grows in Kent, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 897 
 
 Queen Ann's and Talbot counties, on the easier 
 shore, and which degenerates in other places, an 
 the bright kite's foot tobacco, which is produced < 
 Elkridge, on the Patuxent, on the western shore. 
 Among other kinds of amber is the oak, of severs 
 kinds, which is of a straight grain, and easily rivt 
 into staves for exportation. The black walnut is i 
 demand for cabinet, tables and other furniture. Th 
 apples of this state are large, but mealy ; th 
 peaches plenty and good : from these the inhabitant 
 distil cider and peach brandy. 
 
 In Worcester county a species of grape-vine, of 
 peculiar kind, has been discovered. The b?rk is o 
 a gray colour, very smooth, and the wood of a firm 
 texture. They delight in a high sandy soil, but wi 
 thrive very well in the Cyprus swamps. The leaf i 
 very much like that of the English grape-vine, sue, 
 as is propagated in the gardens near Philadelphi 
 for table use. The grape is much larger than th 
 English, of an oval shape, and when quite ripe, i 
 black, adorned with a number of pale red specks 
 which on handling rub off. The pulp is a little lik 
 the fox grape, but in taste more delicious. Thes 
 grapes are ripe in October, and yield an incredibl 
 quantity of juice, which, with proper management 
 would no doubt make a valuable wine. 
 
 There is an immense quantity of these vine 
 growing on the beach, open to the sea ; and the; 
 are also found in great plenty upou the ridges am 
 in the swamps. 
 
 The forests abound with nuts of various kinds 
 which are collectively called mast ; on this masi 
 great numbers of swine are fed, which run wild in 
 the woods: these swine, when fatted, are caught, 
 killed, barrelled, and exported in great quantities, 
 This traffic formerly was carried on to a very con- 
 siderable extent. Mines of iron ore are found in 
 several parts of this state, of a superior quality. 
 
 This state is at present divided into nineteen 
 counties, eleven of which are on the western shore 
 of Chesapeake bay, viz. Hartford, Baltimore, Ann 
 Arundel, Frederick, Alleghany. Washington, Mont- 
 gomery, Prince George, Calvert, Charles and St. 
 Mary's; and eight on the eastern shore, viz. Cecil, 
 Kent, Queen Ann, Caroline, Talbot, Somerset, 
 Dorchester and Worcester. The principal towns 
 in this state are as follow : 
 
 Annapolis (city) is the capital of Maryland, and 
 the wealthiest town of its size in America : it is 
 situated at the mouth of Severn river, and was origi 
 nally known by that name, which was changed for 
 its present one in 1694, when it was made a port 
 i,o\vn, and the residence of a collector and naval 
 officer it stands on a healthy spot, 30 miles south 
 of Baltimore, in north latitude 39 2' : it is a place 
 of but little note in the commercial world. The 
 houses, about 300 in number, are generally large 
 and elegant, indicative of great wealth ; the num- 
 ber of inhabitants do not exceed 2500. The de- 
 sign of those wha planned the city was to have the 
 whole in the form of a circle, with the streets like 
 radii, beginning at the centre where the state-house 
 stands, and thence diverging in every direction. The 
 principal part of the buildings are arranged agree- 
 ably to this awkward and stupid plan. It has a state 
 house, which is an elegant building. 
 
 Baltimore has had the most rapid growth of any 
 town on the continent, and is the fourth in size and 
 the fifth in trade in the United States. It lies in 
 latitude 39 21', on the north side of Patapsco river, 
 round what is called the basin, in which the water, 
 at common tides, is about five or six feet deep. Bal- 
 HIST. OK AMEK. Nos. 113 & 114. 
 
 timore is divided into the town and Fell's Point by 
 a creek, over which are two bridges. At Fell's- 
 point the water is deep enough for ships of burden ; 
 but small vessels only go up to the town. The situ- 
 ation of the town is low, and was formerly un- 
 healthy ; but the increase of houses, and of course 
 of smoke, the tendency of which is to destroy or 
 dispel damp and unwholesome vapours, and the 
 improvements that have been made, particularly 
 that of paving the streets, have rendered it tolerably 
 healthy. 
 
 Market-street is the principal street in the town, 
 and runs nearly east and west a mile in length, 
 parallel with the water ; this is crossed by several 
 other streets leading from the water, a number of 
 which, particularly Calvert, South and Gay-streets, 
 are well built. North and east of the town the land 
 rises and affords a fine prospect of the town and 
 bay. 
 
 George-town stands on the bank of the Potomac 
 river, about 160 miles from its entrance into 
 Chesapeake bay. The ground on which it stands is 
 very broken, being a cluster of little hills, which, 
 though at present elevated considerably above the 
 surface of the river, were probably at some former 
 aeriod overflowed ; as at the depth of eight or ten 
 eet below the surface marine shells have been 
 bund. 
 
 Frederick-town is a fine flourishing inland town, 
 >f upwards of 300 houses, built principally of brick 
 ind stone, and mostly on one broad street . it is 
 ituated in a fertile country, about four miles south 
 if Catokton mountain, and is a place of considerable 
 rade : it has four places for public worship ; one 
 or Presbyterians, two for Dutch Lutherans and 
 Ualvinists, and one for Baptists ; besides a public 
 ?aol and a brick market-house. 
 
 Hagars-town is but little inferior to Frederick- 
 own, and is situated in the beautiful and well cul- 
 ivated valley of Conegocheague, and carries on a 
 onsiderable trade with the western country. 
 
 Elkton is situated near the head of Chesapeake 
 >ay, on a small river which bears the name of the 
 own. It enjoys great advantages from the carry- 
 ng iraue between Baltimore and Philadelphia, and 
 be tides ebb and flow up to the town. 
 
 The Roman Catholics, who were the first settlers 
 n Maryland, are the most numerous religious sect. 
 besides these, there are Protestant Episcopalians, 
 English, Scotch, and Irish Presbyterians, German 
 /alvinists, German Lutherans, Friends, Baptists, 
 Vlethodists, Menonists and Nicolites, or New Qua- 
 ers, who all enjoy liberty of conscience. 
 
 There are many very respectable families in Bal- 
 more, who are hospitable to strangers, and maintain 
 
 friendly and improving intercourse with each 
 
 ther; but the bulk of the inhabitants, are collected 
 
 oin almost all quarters of the world, bent on the 
 
 ursuit of wealth, varying in their habits, their 
 
 manners, and their religions. 
 
 The inhabitants, except in the populous towns, 
 ve on their plantations, often several miles distant 
 rom each other. To an inhabitant of the middle, 
 nd especially of the eastern states, which are 
 lickly populated, they appear to live very retired 
 nsocial lives. The effects of this comparative soli- 
 ude are visible in the countenances, as well as in 
 le manners and dress of many of the country peo- 
 e. One observes comparatively little of that 
 teerful sprightlinflss of look and action, which is 
 e invariable and genuine offspring of social inter- 
 iurse ; nor do you find that attention paid to dress 
 4 G 
 
898 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 which is common, arid which custom has rendered 
 necessary among people who are liable to receive 
 company almost every day : unaccustomed, in a 
 great measure, to frequent and friendly visits, they 
 ofttn suffer too much negligence in this respect. As 
 the negroes perform all their manual labour, their 
 masters are left to saunter away life in sloth, and 
 too often in ignorance. These observations, how- 
 ever, must in justice be limited to the people in the 
 country, and to those particularly whose poverty or 
 parsimony prevents their spending a part of their 
 time in populous towns, or otherwise mingling with 
 the world; and with these limitations, they will 
 equally apply to all the southern states. The inha- 
 bitants of the populous towns and those from the 
 country who have intercourse with them, are, in 
 their manners and customs, intelligent and agree- 
 able. 
 
 That pride which grows on slavery, and is habi- 
 tual to those who, from their infancy, are taught to 
 believe and feel their superiority, is a visible cha- 
 racteristic of the inhabitants of Maryland ; but with 
 
 this characteristic we must not fail to connect that 
 of hospitality to strangers, which is equally univer- 
 sal and obvious. Many of the women possess all 
 the amiable, and many of the elegant accomplish- 
 ments of their sex. 
 
 Furnaces for running iron ore into pigs and hol- 
 low ware, and forges to refine pig-iron into bars, 
 are numerous, and worked to great extent and profit. 
 This is the only manufacture of importance carried 
 on in the state, except it be that of wheat into flour 
 and curing tobacco. 
 
 The trade of Maryland is principally carried on 
 from Baltimore, with the other states ; with the 
 West Indies, and with some parts of Europe. To 
 these places they send annually many thousand 
 hogsheads f tobacco, besides large quantities of 
 wheat, flour, pig-iron, lumber, and corn ; beans, 
 pork, and flax seed in smaller quantities ; and re- 
 ceive in return, clothing for themselves and negroes, 
 and other dry goods, wines, spirits, sugars, and other 
 West Indian commodities. 
 
 VIRGINIA. 
 
 ROBERTSON, in the fragments he has left on the 
 United States, has entered so fully into the history 
 of Virginia that there is little left for us to add. 
 The settlement of this colony is the most important 
 part of its history ; and from the Eaglish revolution 
 of 1688, to the commencement of the American 
 struggle for emancipation, there is little of an his- 
 torical nature. Its position, remote from the settle- 
 ments of the French in Canada, and of the Spa- 
 niards in Florida, was favourable to its quiet. New 
 England and New York on the one hand, Georgia 
 and the Carolinas on the other, protected it from 
 savage incursions. Its affairs were administered by 
 governors appointed by the king, and representa- 
 tives chosen by the people. 
 
 The laudable efforts of these representatives to 
 arrest the progress of slavery in the colony, ought 
 not to be passed over in silence. Convinced of its 
 inhumanity, and foreseeing the dreadful evils which 
 it -must produce, they often passed laws prohibiting 
 the importation of slaves ; but those who were higher 
 in authority, yielding to the wishes of merchants 
 engaged in the abominable traffic, persisted with 
 criminal obstinacy in withholding their assent. En- 
 gland, not America, is responsible for the wretched- 
 ness which her kings and her officers were often 
 importuned, but refused, to avert. 
 
 As we have little to say therefore on political 
 matters, we shall give what we have, intermingled 
 with an account of its physical condition ; which is 
 the more necessary, as it took so vigorous a share 
 in the great struggle for emancipation ; to the nar- 
 ration of which we are hastening. 
 
 This state is situated between 75 25' and 83o 40' 
 west longitude, and 36<> 40', and 40o 43' north lati- 
 tude. Its length is about 370 miles, and its breadth 
 about 200. It is bounded on the east by the Atlantic 
 and Maryland, on the north by Ohio, Pennsylva- 
 
 nia and Maryland; on the south by Carolina and 
 Tennessee, and west by Ohio and Kentucky. 
 
 In an extensive country, it will be expected toat 
 the climate is not the same in all its parts. It is 
 remarkable that, proceeding on the same parallel of 
 latitude westerly, the climate becomes colder in like 
 manner as when you proceed northwardly. This 
 continues to be the case till you attain the summit 
 of the Alleghany, which is the highest land between 
 the ocean and the Mississippi. From thence, de- 
 scending in the same latitude to the Mississippi, the 
 change reverses ; and, if we may believe travellers, 
 it becomes warmer there than it is in the same lati- 
 tude on the sea side. Their testimony is strength- 
 ened by the vegetables and animals which subsist 
 and multiply there naturally, and do not on the sea- 
 coast. 
 
 That fluctuation between heat and cold, so de- 
 structive to fruit, in the spring season, prevails less 
 in Virginia than in Pennsylvania ; nor is the over- 
 flowing of the rivers in Virginia so extensive or so 
 frequent at that season, as those of the New Eng- 
 land states; because the snows in the former do not 
 lie accumulating all winter, to be dissolved all at 
 once in the spring, as they do sometimes in the 
 latter. In Virginia, below the mountains, snow 
 seldom lies more than a day or two, and seldom a 
 week ; and the large rivers seldom freeze over. 
 The fluctuation of weather, however, is sufficient to 
 render the winters and springs very unwholesome, 
 as the inhabitants during those seasons have to walk 
 m almost perpetual mire. 
 
 The months of June and July, though often the 
 hottest, are the most healthy in the year. The 
 weather is then dry, and less liable to change than, 
 in August and September, when the rain com- 
 mences, and sudden variations take place. 
 
 On the sea-coast the land is low, generally within 
 
UNITED STATES 
 
 twelve feet of the level of the sea, intersected in al 
 directions with salt creeks and rivers, the heads of 
 which form swamps and marshes, and fenny ground, 
 covered with water in wet seasons. The unculti- 
 vated lands are covered with large trees and thick 
 underwood. The vicinity of the sea, and salt creeks 
 and rivers, occasion a constant moisture and 
 warmth of the atmosphere ; so that although under 
 the same latitude, 100, or 150 miles in the country, 
 deep snows and frozen rivers frequently happen, for 
 a short season, yet here such occurrences are con- 
 sidered as phenomena; for these reasons, the trees 
 are often in bloom as early as the last of February ; 
 from this period, however, till the end of April, the 
 inhabitants are incommoded by cold rains, piercing 
 winds, and sharp frosts, which subject them to the 
 inflammatory diseases, known here under the names 
 of pleurisy and peripneumony. 
 
 The whole country, below the mountains, is level, 
 and seems, from various appearances, to have 
 been once washed by the sea. The land, between 
 York and James rivers, is very level, and its 
 surface about 40 feet above high-water mark. It 
 appears, from observation, to have arisen to its 
 present height, at different periods far distant from 
 each other, and that at these periods it was washed 
 by the sea; for near York Town, where the banks 
 are perpendicular, you first see a stratum, inter- 
 mixed with small shells, resembling a mixture of 
 clay and sand, and about five feet thick ; on this 
 lie, horizontally, small white shells, cockle, clam, 
 &c. an inch or two thick ; then a body of earth si- 
 milar to that first mentioned, eighteen inches thick; 
 then a layer of shells and another body of earth ; on 
 this a layer of three feet of white shells, mixed with 
 sand, on which lies a body of oyster-shells, six feet 
 thick, which are covered with earth to the surface. 
 The oyster-shells are so united by a very strong 
 cement, that they fall only when undermined, and 
 then in large bodies, from one to twenty tons weight : 
 they have the appearance on the shore of large rocks. 
 
 These appearances continue in a greater or less 
 degree in the banks of James river, 100 miles from 
 the sea ; the appearances then vary, and the banks 
 are filled with sharks' teeth, bones of large and 
 small fish petrified, and many other petrifactions, 
 some resembling the bones of land and other ani- 
 mals, and also vegetable substances. These ap- 
 pearances are not confined to the river banks, but 
 are seen in various places in gullies at considerable 
 distances from the rivers. In one part of the state, 
 for 70 miles in length, by sinking a well, you ap- 
 parently come to the bottom of what was formerly 
 a watercourse. And even as high up as Botetourt 
 county, among the Alleghany mountains, there is a 
 tract of land, judged to be 40,000 acres, surrounded 
 on every side by mountains, which is entirely co- 
 vered with oyster and cockle-shells, and, by some 
 gullies, they appear to be of considerable depth. 
 A plantation at Day's point, on James river, of as 
 many as 1000 acres, appears at a distance as if 
 covered with snow, but on examination the white 
 appearance is found to arise from a bed of clam 
 shells, which, by repeated plowing, have become 
 fine, and mixe<? with the earth. 
 
 It is worthy of notice, that the mountains in this 
 state are not solitary, and scattered confusedly over 
 the face of the country; but commence at 'about 
 150 miles from the sea-coast, and are disposed in 
 ridges one behind another, running parallel with 
 the sea-coast, though rather approaching it as they 
 advance north-eastwardly. To the south-west, as 
 
 the tract of country between the sea-coast and the 
 Mississippi becomes narrower, the mountains con- 
 verge into a single ridge ; which, as it approaches 
 the gulf of Mexico, subsides into plain country, 
 and gives rise to some of the waters of that gulf, 
 and particularly to a river called Apalachicpla, 
 probably from the Apalachies, an Indian nation for- 
 merly residing on it. Hence the mountains giving 
 rise to that river, and seen from its various parts, 
 were called the Apalachian mountains, being in fact 
 the end or termination only of the great ridges pass- 
 ing through the continent. European geographers, 
 however, have extended the same northwardly as far 
 as the mountains extended ; some giving it after their 
 separation into different ridges, to the Blue Ridge, 
 others to the north mountains, others to the Alle- 
 ghany, others to the Laurel Ridge, as may be seen 
 in their different maps. But none of these ridges 
 were ever known by that name to the inhabitants, 
 either native or emigrant, but as they saw them so 
 called in European maps. In the same direction 
 generally are the veins of lime-stone, coal, and other 
 minerals hitherto discovered; and so range the 
 falls of the great rivers : but the courses of the 
 great rivers are at right angles with these. James 
 and the Potomac penetrate through all the ridges oi 
 mountains eastward of the Alleghany, which is broken 
 by no watercourse. The passage of the Potomac 
 through the Blue Ridge is perhaps one of the most stu 
 pendous scenes in nature. You stand on a very high 
 point of land. On your right comes up the Shenan- 
 doah, having ranged along the foot of the mountain 
 100 miles to seek a vent; on your left approaches 
 the Potomac, in quest of a passage also : in the 
 moment of their junction they rush together against 
 the mountain, rend it asunder, and pass off to the 
 sea. The first glance of this scene hurries us into the 
 opinion, that this earth has been created by degrees, 
 that the mountains were formed first, that the rivers 
 began to flow afterwards; that in this place par- 
 ticularly they have been dammed up by the Blue 
 ridge of mountains, and have formed an ocean 
 which filled the whole valley; that continuing to 
 rise, they have at length broken over at this spot, 
 and have torn the mountain down from its summit 
 to its base. The piles of rock on each hand, but 
 particularly on the Shenandoah, the evident marks 
 of their disruption and avulsion from their beds by 
 the most powerful agents of nature, corroborate the 
 impression: but the distant finishing which nature 
 bas given to the picture, is of a very different cha- 
 racter. It is a true contrast to the fore ground ; it 
 is as placid and delightful, as that is wild and tre- 
 mendous. For the mountain, being cloven asunder, 
 presents to the eye, through the cleft, a small catch 
 of smooth blue horizon, at an infinite distance, in 
 the plain country, inviting you, as it were, from the 
 riot and tumult roaring around, to pass through the 
 breach, and participate of the calm below. Here 
 the eye ultimately composes itself; and that way, 
 too, the road actually leads. You cross the Poto- 
 mac above the junction, pass along its side througl 
 the base of the mountain for three miles, its terribla 
 precipices hanging in fragments over you, and 
 within about twenty miles reach Frederick Town, 
 and the fine country round it. 
 
 The Ouasioto mountains are 50 or 60 miles wide 
 at the gap. These mountains abound in coal, lime, 
 and free-stone ; the summits of them are generally 
 covered with a good soil, and a variety of timber; 
 and the low intervale lands are rich, and remarkably 
 well watered. 
 
 4 G 2 
 
900 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 An inspection of a map will give a better idea o 
 the geography of the rivers, than any description in 
 writing. Their navigation, however, may be im 
 perfectly noted. 
 
 Roahoke, so far as it lies within this state, is no 
 where navigable but for canoes, or light batteaux 
 and even for these, in such detached parcels, as to 
 have prevented the inhabitants from availing them- 
 selves of it at all. 
 
 James river, and its waters, afford navigation as 
 follows : the whole of Elizabeth river, the lowest ol 
 those which run into James river, is a harbour, and 
 would contain upwards of 300 ships. The channel 
 is from 150 to 200 fathoms wide, and at common 
 flood-tide affords eighteen feet water to Norfolk. 
 The Strafford, a 60 gun ship, went there, lighten- 
 ing herself across the bar at Sowell's point. The 
 Fier Rodrigue, pierced for 64 guns, and carrying 
 50, went there without lightening. Craney island, 
 at the mouth of this river, commands its channel 
 tolerably well. 
 
 Nansemond river is navigable to Sleepy Hole, 
 for vessels of 250 tons ; to Suffolk, for those of 100 
 tons; and to Milner's, for those of 25. Pagan 
 creek affords eight or ten feet water to Smithfield, 
 which admits vessels of twenty tons. Chickahominy 
 has at its mouth a bar, on which is only twelve feet 
 water at common flood-tide. Vessels passing that, 
 may go eight miles up the river; those of ten feet 
 draught may go four miles further, and those of six 
 tons burthen twenty miles further. 
 
 The Appamattox may be navigated as far as 
 Broadways, by any vessel which has crossed Harri- 
 son's bar in James river; it keeps eight or nine 
 feet water a mile or two higher up to Fisher's bar, 
 and four feet on that and upwards to Petersburg, 
 where all navigation ceases. 
 
 James river itself affords harbour for vessels of 
 any size at Hampton road, but not in safety through 
 the whole winter ; and there is navigable water for 
 them as far as Mulberry island. A 40-gun ship 
 goes to James-town, and, lightening herself, may 
 pass to Harrison's bar, on which there is only fifteen 
 feet water. Vessels of 250 tons may go to War- 
 wick; those of 125 go to Rocket's, a mile below 
 Richmond ; from thence is about seven feet water 
 to Richmond; and about the centre of the town, 
 four feet and a half, where the navigation is inter- 
 rupted by falls, which, in a course of six miles de- 
 scend about 80 feet perpendicular : above these it 
 is resumed in canoes and batteaux, and is prosecuted 
 safely and advantageously to within ten miles of the 
 Blue Ridge ; and even through the Blue Ridge a 
 ton weight has been brought; and the expense 
 would not be great, when compared with its ob- 
 ject, to open a tolerable navigation up Jackson's 
 river and Carpenter's creek, to within 25 miles of 
 Howard's creek of Green Briar, both of which have 
 then water enough to float vessels into the Great 
 Kanhawa. 
 
 The Rivanna, a branch of James river, is navi- 
 gable for canoes and batteaux to its intersection 
 with the south-west mountains, which is about 22 
 miles. 
 
 York river, at York-town, affords the best har- 
 bour in the state for vessels of the largest size. The 
 river there narrows to the width of a mile, and is 
 contained within very high banks, close under 
 which the vessels may ride. It holds four fathom 
 water at high tide for 25 miles above York to the 
 mouth of Ponpotank, where the river is a mile and 
 half wide, and the channel only 75 fathoms, and 
 
 passing under a high bank. At the confluence of 
 Pamunkey and Mattapony it is reduced to three 
 fathoms depth, which continues up Pamunkey to 
 Cumberland, where the width is 100 yards, and up 
 Mattapony to within two miles of Frazier's ferry, 
 where it becomes two and a half fathoms deep, and 
 holds that about five miles. Pamunkey is then ca- 
 pable of navigation for loaded flats to Brockman's 
 bridge, 50 miles above Hanover-town and Matta- 
 pony, to Downer's-bridge, 70 miles above its mouth. 
 Piankatank, the little rivers making out of Mob- 
 jack bay, and those of the eastern shore, receive 
 only very small vessels, and these can but enter 
 them. Rappahannock affords four fathoms water to 
 Hobbe's Hole, and two fathoms from thence to 
 Fredericksburg, 110 miles. 
 
 The Potomac is seven and a half miles wide at 
 the mouth; four and a half at Nomony bay; three 
 at Aquia ; one and a half at Hallooing point ; one 
 and a quarter at Alexandria. Its soundings are 
 seven fathoms at the mouth ; five at St. George's 
 island ; four and a half at Lower Matchodic ; three 
 at Swan's point, and thence up to Alexandria; 
 thence ten feet water to the falls, which are thirteen 
 miles above Alexandria. The tides in the Potomac 
 are not very strong, excepting after great rains, 
 when the ebb is pretty strong, then there is little 01 
 no flood ; and there is never more than four or five 
 hours flood, except with long and strong south 
 winds. 
 
 The distance from the capes of Virginia to the 
 termination of the tide-water in this river is above 
 300 miles, and navigable for ships of the greatest 
 burden, nearly that distance. From thence this 
 river, obstructed by four considerable falls, extends 
 through a vast tract of inhabited country towards its 
 source. These falls are, 1st, The Little Falls, three 
 miles above tide-water, in which distance there is 
 a fall of 36 feet ; 2nd, The Great Falls six miles 
 higher, where is a fall of 76 feet in one mile and a 
 quarter; 3rd, The Seneca Falls, six miles above the 
 former, which form short, irregular rapids, with a 
 ? all of about ten feet ; and 4th, The Shenandoah 
 Falls, 60 miles from the Seneca, where is a fall of 
 about 30 feet in three miles: from which last, fort 
 
 umberland is about 120 miles distant. The ob- 
 structions which are opposed to the navigation above 
 and between these falls are of little consequence. 
 
 The great Kanhawa is a river of considerable 
 note for the fertility of its land, and still more, as 
 .eading towards the head waters of James river. 
 The Great Falls are 90 miles above the mouth, be- 
 .ow which are only five or six rapids, and these 
 passable, with some difficulty, even at low water. 
 Prom the falls to the mouth of Green Briar is 100 
 miles, and thence to the lead mines 120 : it is 280 
 ards wide at its mouth. 
 
 The Little Kanhawa is 150 yards wide at the 
 mouth : it yields a navigation of ten miles only. 
 
 Besides the rivers we have now mentioned, there 
 are many others of less note, nevertheless the state 
 does not abound with good fish ; sturgeon, shad 
 and herring are the most plentiful; perch, sheeps- 
 lead, drum, rock fish, and trout, are common ; De- 
 ides these, they have oysters, crabs, shrimps, &c. 
 n abundance. The springs in this state are almost 
 nnumerable. In Augusta there is a remarkable cas- 
 ade, it bears the name of the Falling Spring. It 
 s a water of James river, where it is called Jack- 
 on's river, rising in the warm spring mountains 
 about twenty miles south-west of the warm spring, 
 and flowing into that valley. About three quarters 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 901 
 
 of a mile from its source it falls over a rock 200 fee 
 into the valley below. The sheet of water is broken 
 in its breadth by the rock in two or three places, 
 but not at all in its height. Between the sheet and 
 rock, at the bottom, you may walk across dry 
 This cataract will bear no comparison with that o 
 Niagara, as to the quantity of water composing it, 
 the sheet being only twelve or fifteen feet wide 
 above, and somewhat more spread below ; but it is 
 half as high again. 
 
 The soil below the mountains seems to have ac- 
 quired a character for goodness which it by no 
 means deserves. Though not rich, it is well suited 
 to the growth of tobacco and Indian corn, and parts 
 of it for wheat. Good crops of cotton, flax, and 
 hemp are also raised ; and in some counties they 
 have plenty of cider, and exquisite brandy, distilled 
 from peaches, which grow in great abundance upon 
 the numerous rivers of the Chesapeake. 
 
 The planters, before the war, paid their principal 
 attention to the culture of tobacco, of which there 
 used to be exported, generally, 55,000 hogsheads a 
 year. Since the revolution they have turned their 
 attention more to the cultivation ot wheat, Indian 
 corn, barley, flax, and hemp. 
 
 Horned, or neat cattle, are bred in great numbers 
 in the western counties of Virginia, as well as the 
 states south of it, where they have an extensive 
 range, and mild winters, without any permanent 
 snows. They run at large, are not housed, and 
 multiply very fast. 
 
 The gentlemen of this state, being fond of plea- 
 sure, have taken much pains to raise a good breed 
 of horses, and have succeeded in it beyond any of 
 the other states in the Union. They are more ele- 
 gant, and will perform more service than the horses 
 of the northern states. 
 
 With respect to subterraneous productions, Vir- 
 ginia is the most pregnant with minerals and fossils 
 of any state in the Union. Mr. Jefferson mentions a 
 lump of gold ore of about four pounds weight found 
 near the falls of Ilappahannock river, which yielded 
 seventeen pennyweights of gold, of extraordinary 
 ductility ; but no other indication of gold has been 
 discovered in its neighbourhood. 
 
 On the great Kauhawa, opposite to the mouth of 
 Cripple creek, and also about 25 miles from the 
 southern boundary of the state, in the county of 
 Montgomery, are mines of lead. The metal is 
 mixed, sometimes with earth, and sometimes with 
 rock, which requires the force of gunpowder to open 
 it ; and is accompanied with a portion of silver, but 
 too small to be worth separation under any process 
 hitherto attempted there. The proportion yielded 
 is from 50 to 80 pounds of pure lead from 100 pounds 
 of washed ore. The most common is that of 60 
 to the 100 pounds. The veins are sometimes most 
 flattering ; at others they disappear suddenly and 
 totally. They enter the side of the hill, and pro- 
 ceed horizontally. 
 
 A mine of copper was opened in the county of 
 Amherst, on the north side of James river, and 
 another in the opposite county, on the south side ; 
 but were discontinued. There are also several iron 
 mines in this state. 
 
 The country, on both sides of James river, from 
 fifteen to twenty miles above Richmond, and for 
 several miles northward and southward, is replete 
 with mineral coal of a very excellent quality. Being 
 in the hands of many proprietors, pits have been 
 opened and worked to an extent equal to the de- 
 mand. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson informs us, that he has known one 
 instance of an emerald found in this country. Ame- 
 thysts have been frequent, and crystals common; 
 yet not in such numbers any of them as to be 
 worth seeking. 
 
 There is very good marble, and in very great 
 abundance, on James river, at the mouth of Rock- 
 fish : some white, and as pure as one might expect 
 to find on the surface of the earth ; but generally 
 variegated with red, blue, and purple. 
 
 But one vein of lime-stone is known below the 
 Blue Ridge ; its first appearance is in Prince Wil- 
 liam, two miles below the Pignut ridge of moun- 
 tains ; thence it passes on nearly parallel with that, 
 and crosses the Rivanna about five miles below it, 
 where it is called the South-west ridge; it then 
 crosses Hardware, above the mouth of Hudson's 
 creek, James river, at the mouth of Rockfish, at 
 the marble quarry before spoken of, probably runs 
 up that river to where it appears again at Ross's 
 iron works, and so passes off south-westwardly by 
 Flat creek of the river Otter: it is never more than 
 100 yards wide. From the Blue ridge westwardly 
 the whole country seems to be founded on a rock of 
 lime-stone, besides infinite quantities on the sur- 
 face, both loose and fixed : this is cut into beds, 
 which range as the mountains' and sea-coast do, 
 from south-west to north-east, the lamina of each 
 bed declining from the horizon towards a parrallel- 
 ism with the axis of the earth. Mr. 'Jefferson, 
 being struck with this observation, made, with a 
 quadrant, a great number of trials on the angles of 
 their declination, and found them to vary from 22 
 to 60 degrees ; but averaging all his trials, the re- 
 sult was within one-third of a degree of the eleva- 
 tion of the pole, or latitude of Ihe place, and much 
 the greatest part of them taken separately were lit- 
 tle different from that; by which it appears, that 
 these lamina are in the main, parallel with the axis 
 of the earth. In some instances, indeed, he found 
 them perpendicular, and even reclining the other 
 way; but these were extremely rare, and always 
 attended with signs of convulsion, or other circum- 
 stances of singularity, which admitted a possibility 
 of removal from their original position. These trials 
 were made between Madison's cave and the Potomac. 
 Near the eastern foot of the north mountain are 
 mmense bodies of schist, containing impressions of 
 shells in a variety of forms. Mr. Jefferson received 
 petrified shells of very different kinds, from the first 
 sources of the Kentucky, which bore no resemblance 
 to any he had ever t een on the tide waters. It is 
 said, that shells are found in the Andes, in South 
 America, 15,000 feet above the level of the ocean. 
 
 There is great abundance, more especially when 
 /ou approach the mountains, of stone of white, blue, 
 )rown, and other - colours, fit for the chisel, good 
 mill-stone, such also as stands the fire, and slate- 
 stone. We are told of flint, fit for gun-flints on 
 he Meherrin in Brunswick, on the Mississippi, be- 
 ween the Ohio and Kaskaskia, and on others of the 
 western waters. Isinglass, or mica, is in several 
 )laces ; loadstone also, and an asbestos of a ligneous 
 ,exture, is sometimes to be met with. 
 
 Marble abounds generally. A clay, of which; 
 ike the Stourbridge in England, bricks are made, 
 which will resist Jong the action of fire, has been 
 'ound on Tuckahoe creek of James river, and no 
 doubt will be found in other places. Chalk is said 
 ,o be in Botetourt and Bedford. In the latter 
 :ounty is some earth, believed to be gypseous. 
 Ochres are found in various parts. 
 
902 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 In the lime-stone country are many caves, the 
 earthly floors of which are impregnated with nitre. 
 On Rich creek,a branch of the great Kanhawa, about 
 60 miles below the lead mines, is a very large one, 
 about twenty yards wide, and entering a hill a quar- 
 ter or half a mile. The vault is of rock, from nine 
 to fifteen or twenty feet above the floor. Mr. Lynch, 
 who gives this account, undertook to extract the 
 nitre. Besides a coat of the salt which had formed 
 on the vault and floor, he found the earth highly 
 impregnated to the depth of seven feet in some 
 places, and generally of three, every bushel yielding 
 on an average three pounds of nitre. Mr. Lynch 
 having made about 1000/. of the salt from it, con- 
 signed it to some others, who have since made large 
 quantities. They hav done this by pursuing the 
 cave into the hill, never trying a second time the 
 earth they have once exhausted, to see how far or 
 soon it receives another impregnation. At least 
 fifty of these caves are worked on the Greenbriar, 
 and there are many of them known on Cumberland 
 river. 
 
 There are several medicinal springs, some of 
 which are indubitably eflicacious, while others seem 
 to owe their reputation as much to fancy, and change 
 of air and regimen, as to their real virtues. Few of 
 them have undergone a chemical analysis in skilful 
 hands, or been so far the subject of observation, as 
 to have produced a reduction into classes, of the 
 disorders which they relieve ; it is in our power to 
 give little account of them. 
 
 In the lime-stone country there are many caverns 
 of very considerable extent. The most noted is called 
 Maddison's cave, and is on the north side of the 
 blue ridge, near the intersection of the Rockingham 
 and Augusta line with the south fork of the southern 
 river of Shenandoah. It is in a hill of about 200 feet 
 perpendicular height, the ascent of which, on one 
 side, is so steep, that you may pitch a biscuit from 
 its summit into the river which washes its base. The 
 entrance of the cave is, in this side, about two-thirds 
 of the way up. It extends into the earth about 300 
 feet, branching into subordinate caverns, sometimes 
 ascending a little, but more generallv descending, 
 and at length terminates in two different places, at 
 basins of water of unknown extent, and which ap- 
 pear to be nearly on a level with the water of the 
 river. The water in these basins is always cool, it 
 is never turbid, iior does it rise or fall in times of 
 flood or drought. It is probably one of the many 
 reservoirs with which the interior parts of the earth 
 are supposed to abound, and which yield supplies 
 to the fountains of water, distinguished from others 
 only by its being accessible. The vault of this cave 
 is of solid lime-stone, from 20 to 40 or 50 feet high, 
 through which water is continually percolating. 
 This, trickling down the sides of the cave, has in- 
 crusted them over in the form of elegant drapery ; 
 and dripping from the top of the vault, generates 
 on that, and on the base below, stalactites of a co- 
 nical form, some of which have met and formed 
 massive columns. 
 
 Another of these caves is near the north moun- 
 tain, in the county of Frederick. The entrance 
 into this is on the top of an extensive ridge. You 
 descend 30 or 40 feet, as into a well, from whence 
 the cave then extends nearly horizontally, 400 feet 
 into the earth, preserving a breadth of from 20 to 50 
 feet, and a height of from five to twelve feet. Mr. 
 Jefferson observes, that after entering this cave a 
 few feet, the mercury, which in the open air was at 
 50, rose to 57- of Fahrenheit's thermometer, an- 
 
 swering to ll p of Reaumur' s,and it continued at that 
 to the remotest parts of the cave. The uniform tem- 
 perature of the cellars of the observatory of Paris, 
 which are 90 feet deep, and of all subterranean ca- 
 vities of any depth, where no chymical agents may 
 be supposed to produce a factitious heat, has been 
 found to be 10 of Reaumur, equal to 54| of Fahren- 
 heit. The temperature of the cave above mentioned 
 so nearly corresponds with this, that the difference 
 may be ascribed to a difference of instruments. 
 
 At the Panther gap, in the ridge which divides 
 the waters of the Cow and Calf pasture, is what is 
 called the blowing cave. It is in the side of a hill, is 
 of about 100 feet diameter, and emits constantly a 
 current of air of such force, as to keep the \veeas 
 prostrate to the distance of 20 yards before it. This 
 current is strongest in dry frosty weather, and 
 weakest in long periods of rain. Regular inspira- 
 tions and expirations of air, by caverns and fissures, 
 have been probably enough accounted for, by sup- 
 posing them combined with intermitting fountains, 
 as they must of course inhale the air while the re- 
 servoirs are emptying themselves, and again emit 
 it while they are filling. But a constant issue of 
 air, only varying in its force as the weather is drier 
 or damper, will require a new hypothesis. There 
 is another blowing cave in the Cumberland moun- 
 tain, about a mile from where it crosses the Caro- 
 lina line. All we know of this is, that it is not 
 constant, and that a fountain of water issues from it, 
 
 The natural bridge is on the ascent of a hill, 
 which seems to have been cloven through its length 
 by some great convulsion. The fissure, just at the 
 bridge, is by some admeasurements 270 feet deep, 
 by others only 205. It is about 45 feet wide at the 
 bottom, and 90 feet at the top ; this of course de- 
 termines the length of the bridge, and its height 
 from the water. Its breadth in the middle is about 
 60 feet, but more at the ends, and the thickness of 
 the mass at the summit of the arch about 40 feet, 
 but more at the ends, and 90 feet at the top. A 
 part of this thickness is constituted by a coat of earth, 
 which gives growth to many large trees. The re- 
 sidue, with the hill on both sides, is solid rock of 
 lime-stone. The arch approaches the semi-elliptical 
 form ; but the larger axis of the ellipsis, which would 
 be the cord of the arch, is many times longer than 
 the transverse. Though the sides of this bridge are 
 provided in some parts with a parapet of fixed rocks, 
 yet few men have resolution to walk to them and 
 look over into the abyss. You involuntarily fall on 
 your hands and feet, creep to the parapet and peep 
 over it. If the view from the top be painful and 
 intolerable, that from below is delightful in an equal 
 extreme. This bridge is in the county of Rockbridge, 
 to which it has given name, and affords a public 
 and commodious passage over a valley, which cannot 
 be crossed elsewhere for a considerable distance. 
 The stream passing under it is called Cedar creek : 
 it is a water of James river, and sufficient in the 
 driest seasons to turn a grist mill, though its foun- 
 tain is not more than two miles above. There is a 
 natural bridge similar to the above, over Stock 
 creek, a branch of Peleson river, in Washington 
 county. 
 
 This state is divided into 103 counties, comprised 
 within two districts, Eastern and Western. 
 
 There are no townships in this state, and very 
 few towns of consequence, owing, probably, to the 
 intersection of the country by navigable rivers, 
 which brings the trade to the doors of the inhabi- 
 tants, and prevents the necessity of their going in 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 903 
 
 quest of it to a distance. Williamsburgh, which, 
 till the year 17bO, was the seat of government, 
 never contained above 1800 inhabitants, and Nor- 
 folk, the most populous town then in Virginia, con- 
 tained but 6000. The towns, or more properly vil- 
 lages or hamlets, are as follow : 
 
 On James river and its waters Norfolk, Ports- 
 mouth, Hampton, Suffolk, Smithfield, Williams- 
 burgh, Petersburgh, Richmond, the seat of govern- 
 ment, Manchester, Charlottesville, New London. 
 On York river and its waters, York, Newcastle, 
 Hanover. On Rappahannock, Urbanna, Port 
 Royal, Fredericksburgh, Falmouth. On Potomac 
 and its waters. Dumfries, Colchester, Alexandria, 
 Winchester, Staunton. 
 
 Norfolk is the emporium for all the trade of the 
 Chesapeake bay and its waters ; and a canal of eight 
 or ten miles brings to it all that of Albemarle 
 sound and its waters. Secondary to this place, are 
 the towns at the head of the tide waters, to wit, Pe- 
 tersburg on Appamattox, Richmond on James river, 
 Newcastle on York river, Fredericksburgh on the 
 Rappahannock, and Alexandria on the Potomac. 
 
 Mount Vernon, the celebrated seat of President 
 Washington, is pleasantly situated on the Virginia 
 bank of the Potomac, where it is nearly two miles 
 wide, and is about 280 miles from the sea, and 
 127 from Point Look-out, at the mouth of the river. 
 The area of the mount is 200 feet above the surface 
 of the river, and, after furnishing a lawn of five 
 acres in front, and about the same in rear of the 
 buildings, falls off rather abruptly on those two 
 quarters. On the north end it subsides gradually 
 into extensive pasture-grounds ; while on the south 
 it slopes more steeply in a shorter distance, and ter- 
 minates with the eoach-house, stables, vineyard, and 
 nurseries. On either wing is a thick grove of differ- 
 ent flowering forest trees. Parallel with them, on 
 the land side, are two spacious gardens, into which 
 one is led by two serpentine gravel walks, planted 
 with weeping willows and shady shrubs. The man- 
 sion-house itself (though much embellished by, yet 
 not perfectly satisfactory to the chaste taste of Wash- 
 ington,) appears venerable and convenient. A lofty 
 portico, 96 feet in length, supported by eight pil- 
 lars, has a pleasing effect when viewed from the 
 water ; the whole assemblage of the green-house, 
 school-house, offices and servants' halls, when seen 
 from the land-side, bears a resemblance to a rural 
 village ; especially as the lands on that side are laid 
 out somewhat in the form of English gardens, in 
 meadows and grass grounds, ornamented with little 
 copses, circular clumps and single trees. A small 
 park on the margin of the river, where the English 
 fallow-deer and the American wild deer are seen 
 through the thickets, alternately with the vessels as 
 they are sailing along, add a romantic and pictu- 
 resque appearance to the whole scenery. On the 
 opposite side of a small creek to the northward, an 
 extensive plain, exhibiting corn-fields and cattle 
 grazing, affords in summer a luxuriant landscape ; 
 while the blended verdure of woodlands and culti- 
 vated declivities, on the Maryland shore, variegates 
 the prospect in a charming manner. 
 
 Fredericksburgh, in the county of Spotsylvania, 
 is situated on the south side of Rappahannock river, 
 110 miles from its mouth, and contains about 500 
 houses, principally on one street, which runs nearly 
 parallel with the river. 
 
 Richmond, in the county of Henrico, is the pre- 
 sent seat of government, and stands on the north 
 side of James river, just at the foot of the falls, and 
 
 contains upwards of 16,000 inhabitants. Part of the 
 houses are built upon the margin of the river, con- 
 venient for business ; the rest are upon a hill which 
 overlooks the lower part of the town, and commands 
 an extensive prospect of the river and adjacent 
 country. The new houses are well built. A large 
 state-house, or capitol, has lately been erected on 
 the hill. The lower part of the town is divided by 
 a creek, over which is a convenient bridge. A 
 bridge between 300 and 400 yards in length has 
 been thrown across James river, at the foot of the 
 fall, by Colonel Mayo. 
 
 Petersburgij, 25 miles southward of Richmond, 
 stands on the south side of Appamattox river, and 
 contains a population of about 8000. There is no 
 regularity, and very little elegance, in Petersburgh ; 
 it is merely a place of business. It is very un- 
 healthy, being shut out from the access of the winds 
 by high hills on every side. This confined situation 
 has such an effect upon the constitutions of the in- 
 habitants, that they very nearly resemble those of 
 hard drinkers ; hence, in the opinion of physicians, 
 they require a considerable quantity of stimulating 
 aliments and vinous drinks, to keep up a balance 
 between the several functions of the body. 
 
 Like Richmond, Williamsburgh, and Norfolk, if, 
 is a corporation ; and Petersbutgh city comprehends 
 a part of three counties. The celebrated Indian 
 Queen Pocahonta, from whom descended the Ran- 
 dolph and Bowling families, formerly resided at this 
 place. Petersburgh and its suburbs contain about 
 3000 inhabitants. 
 
 Williamsburgb, 60 miles eastward of Richmond, 
 is situated between two creeks ; one falling into 
 James river, the other into York river. The dis- 
 tance of each landing-place is about a mile from the 
 town, which, with the disadvantage of not being 
 able to bring up large vessels, are the reasons why 
 it never flourished. It is regularly laid out in pa- 
 rallel streets, with a square in th'e centre, through 
 which runs the principal street, east and west, about 
 a mile in length, and more than 100 feet wide. At 
 the ends of this street are two public buildings, the 
 college and capitol : besides these, there is an epis- 
 copal church, a prison, a hospital for lunatics, and 
 the palace ; all of them extremely indifferent. In 
 the capitol is a large marble statue, the likeness of 
 Narbone Berkley, Lord Botetourt, a man distin- 
 guished for his love of piety, literature and good 
 government, and formerly governor of Virginia : it 
 was erected at the expense of the state some time 
 since the year 1791. The capitol is little better 
 than in ruins, and this elegant statue is exposed to 
 the rudeness of negroes and boys, and is shamefully 
 defaced. The unprosperous state of the college, but 
 principally the removal of the seat of government, 
 have contributed much to the decline of this city. 
 
 York-town, thirteen miles eastward from Wil- 
 liamsburgh, and fourteen from Monday's point at 
 the mouth of the river, situated on the south side of 
 York river, has been rendered famous, by the cap- 
 ture of Lord Cornwallis and his army, on the 19th 
 of October, 1781, by the united forces of France 
 and America. 
 
 James-town deserves notice as the site of the 
 earliest English settlements in the United States ; 
 it is now quite desolate. It was situated on the 
 James river, in a most picturesque country. 
 
 Before the war, the inhabitants of this state paid 
 but little attention to the manufacture of their own 
 clothing, and it has been thought they used to ira 
 port &s much as seven-eighths of their clothing. 
 
904 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Before the warthis state exported one year with 
 another, according to the best information that could 
 be obtained, as follows : 
 
 Amount in Dollars. 
 
 55,000 hhds of lOOlb. of tobacco 1,650,000 
 
 800,000 bushels of wheat 666,666 
 
 600,000 bushels of Indian corn 200,000 
 
 Shipping 100,000 
 
 Masts, planks, skantling, shingles 
 
 and staves 
 
 30,000 barrels of tar, pitch, and 
 
 pentine 
 
 180 hhds. of 6001b. Peltry, viz. 
 skins of deer, beavers, otters, 
 musk-rats, racoons, foxes, &c 
 
 4,000 barrels of pork 
 
 Flax-seed, hemp, and cotton 
 Pit-coal and pig iron 
 5,000 bushels of peas 
 1,000 barrels of beef. 
 Sturgeon, white shad, herring 
 Brandy, from peaches and apples 
 
 and whiskey 
 
 Horses... 
 
 '*'? 
 RJ 
 
 66,666 
 40,000 
 
 42,000 
 
 40,000 
 8,000 
 6,666 
 3,333 
 3,333 
 3,333 
 
 1,666 
 1,666 
 
 2,833,329 
 
 This sum is equal to eight hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand pounds Virginia money, six hundred and fifty- 
 seven thousand one hundred forty-two gnineas. 
 
 In the year 1758, this state exported 70,000 hogs- 
 heads of tobacco, which was the greatest quantity 
 ever produced in this country in one year. But its 
 culture has fast declined since the commencement 
 of the war, and that of wheat taken its place. The 
 price which it commands at market will not enable 
 the planter to cultivate it. Were the supply still 
 to depend on Virginia and Maryland alone, as its 
 culture becomes more difficult, this price would 
 rise, so as to enable the planter to surmount those 
 difficulties and to live. But the western country on 
 the Mississippi, and the midlands of Georgia, hav- 
 ing fresh and fertile lands in abundance, and a 
 hotter sun, are able to undersell these two states, 
 and will oblige them in time to abandon the raising 
 of tobacco altogether. And a happy obligation for 
 them it will be. It is a culture productive of infinite 
 wretchedness. Those employed in it are in a con- 
 tinued state of exertion beyond the powers of nature 
 to support. Little food of any kind is raised by 
 them, so that the men and animals on these farms 
 are badly fed, and the earth is rapidly impoverished. 
 The cultivation of wheat is the reverse in every cir- 
 cumstance. Besides clothing the earth with her- 
 bage, and preserving its fertility, it feeds the la- 
 bourers plentifully, requires from them only a mo- 
 
 derate toil, except in the season of harvest, raises 
 great numbers of animals for food and service, and 
 diffuses plenty and happiness among the whole. It 
 is easier to raise 100 bushels of wheat than 1000 
 weight of tobacco, and it is worth more when pro- 
 duced. 
 
 It is not easy to say what are the articles either of 
 necessity, comfort, or luxury, which cannot be 
 raised here, as every thing hardier than the olive, 
 and as hardy as the fig, may be raised in the open 
 air. 
 
 The college of William and Mary was founded in 
 the time of King William and Queen Mary, who 
 granted to it 20,000 acres of land, and a penny a 
 pound duty on certain tobaccos exported from Vir- 
 ginia and Maryland, which had been levied by the 
 statute of 25 of Charles II. The assembly also gave 
 it, by temporary laws, a duty on liquors imported, 
 and skins and furs exported. From these resources 
 it received upwards of 3000/. The buildings are of 
 brick, sufficient for an indifferent accommodation 
 of perhaps lUO students. By its charter it was to 
 be under the government of 20 visitors, who were 
 to be its legislators, and to have a president and 
 six professors, who were incorporated: it was al- 
 lowed a representative in the general assembly. 
 Under this charter, a professorship of the Greek and 
 Latin languages, a professor of mathematics, on* 
 of moral philosophy, and two of divinity, were esta- 
 blished. To these were annexed, for a sixth profes- 
 sorship, a considerable donation by Mr. Boyle of 
 England, for the instruction of the Indians, and 
 their conversion to Christianity : this was called the 
 professorship of Brafferton, from an estate of that 
 name in England, purchased with the moneys given. 
 The admission of the learners of Latin and Greek 
 filled the college with children : this rendering it 
 disagreeable to the young gentlemen already pre- 
 pared for entering on the sciences, they desisted 
 from resorting to it, and thus the schools for mathe- 
 matics and moral philosophy, which might have been 
 of some service, became of very little use. The re- 
 venues too were exhausted in accommodating those 
 who came only to acquire the rudiments of science. 
 After the revolution, the visitors having no power 
 to change those circumstances in the constitution of 
 the college which were fixed by the charter, and 
 being therefore confined in the number of professor- 
 ships, undertook to change the objects of the pro- 
 fessorships. They excluded the two schools for divi- 
 nity, and that for the Greek and Latin languages, 
 and substituted others ; so that at present they stand 
 thus a professorship for law and police ; anatomy 
 and medicine ; natural philosophy and mathematics ; 
 moral philosophy, the law of nature and nations, 
 the fine arts : modern languages ; for the Brafferton. 
 
NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA AND GEORGIA. 
 
 Original grant to Sir Robert Heath First settlers 
 from Virginia and Massachusetts Charter granted 
 Lord Clarendon and others Locke's constitutional 
 code Governor Sayle Difficulties of the early set- 
 tlers Foundation of Charlestown Sir John Tea- 
 mans, governor Treaty with Spain Formation of 
 a legislature Contentions with the Spaniards Do- 
 mestic dissensions Arrival of Dutch settlers Go- 
 vernor West Description of the country- Governor 
 Morton Fresh settlers on account of the religious 
 persecution in England and France Mode of ga- 
 thering turpentine Governor Colleton Civil com- 
 motions Seth Soshel usurps the governorship Is 
 deposed. 
 
 IN 1630, Charles t. granted to Sir Robert Heath 
 all the territory between 30 and 36 of north la- 
 titude, and extending from the Atlantic ocean to 
 the South sea, by the name of Carolina. Under this 
 grant, no settlement was made. Between 1640 
 and 1650, persons suffering from religious intoler- 
 ance in Virginia, fled beyond her limits, and with- 
 out licence from any source, occupied that portion 
 of North Carolina, north of Albemarle sound. They 
 found the winters mild and the soil fertile. Ao their 
 cattle and swine procured their own support in the 
 woods and multiplied fast, they were enabled, with 
 little labour, to live in the enjoyment of abundance. 
 Their number was annually augmented; they ac- 
 knowledged no superior upon earth, and obeyed no 
 laws but those of God and nature. 
 
 In 1661, another settlement was made, near the 
 mouth of Clarendon river, by adventurers from 
 Massachusetts. The land being sterile and the 
 Indians hostile, they, in 1663, abandoned it; but 
 immediately afterwards, their place was supplied 
 by emigrants from Barbadoes. 
 
 In the year 1662, Edward, earl of Clarendon, 
 George, duke of Albemarle, William, Lord Craven, 
 John, Lord Berkeley, Antony, Lord Ashley, Sir 
 George Carteret, Sir William Berkeley, and Sir 
 John Colleton, being apprized of the excellent soil 
 of this country, united and formed a project for 
 planting a colony in it. Upon application to the 
 crown for a charter, Sir Robert Heath having neg- 
 lected to comply with the condition of his patent, 
 Charles granted them all the lands lying between 
 31 and 36 of north latitude. Two years after- 
 wards he confirmed this grant, and by a second 
 charter enlarged the boundaries of it, from the 29th 
 degree of north latitude to 36 30", and from these 
 points on the sea-coast westward in parallel lines to 
 the Pacific ocean. Of this immense region the king 
 constituted them absolute lords and proprietors, 
 saving to himself, his heirs and successors, the so- 
 vereign dominion of the country. At the same time 
 he invested them with all the rights, jurisdiction, 
 royalties, privileges and liberties within the bounds 
 of their province, to hold, use and enjoy the same, 
 in as ample a manner as the bishop of Durham did 
 in that county palatine in England. This province 
 
 they were to hold and possess of the king, his heirs 
 and successors, as of his manor of East Greenwich 
 in Kent, not in capite, or by knight's service, but 
 in free and common soccage. 
 
 These absolute lords and proprietors were by 
 their charter empowered to enact, and, under their 
 seal, to publish any laws or constitutions they judged 
 necessary to the public state of the province, with 
 the assent, advice, and approbation of the freemen 
 of the colony ; to constitute counties, baronies, and 
 colonies within the province; to erect courts of ju- 
 dicature, and appoint civil judges, magistrates, and 
 officers; to erect forts, castles, cities, and towns; 
 to make war ; to levy, muster, and train men to the 
 use of arms, and, in cases of necessity, to exercise the 
 martial law; to confer titles of honour, only they 
 must be different from those conferred on the people 
 of England; to build harbours, make ports, and 
 enjoy customs and subsidies, which they, with the 
 consent of the freemen, should impose on goods 
 loaded and unloaded ; reserving the fourth part of 
 the gold and silver ore found within the province to 
 the crown. By the said charter the king granted 
 them the patronage and advowson of all churches 
 and chapels, to hold and exercise the same rights, 
 powers, and privileges as the bishop of Durham did 
 in England : but as it might happen that several of 
 the inhabitants could not in their private opinions 
 conform to the exercise of religion, according to 
 the liturgy and ceremonies of the church of Eng- 
 land ; the proprietors had power and authority 
 granted them, to allow the inhabitants of the pro 
 vince such indulgences and dispensations as they 
 should think reasonable ; and no person, to whom 
 such liberty should be granted, was to be molested, 
 punished, or called in question for any differences 
 in speculative opinions with respect to religion ; so 
 that all persons, of what denomination soever, had 
 liberty to enjoy their own judgments and consciences 
 in religious concerns, provided they disturbed not 
 the civil order and peace of the province. And as 
 the assembly of freeholders could not be immedi- 
 ately called, the proprietors had power granted 
 them to make such orders and ordinances as might 
 be necessary to the government of the people, 
 and the preservation of peace, and as were not re- 
 pugnant to the laws and statutes of England. Li- 
 berty was given to the king's liege subjects to 
 transport themselves and families to settle the pro- 
 vince, only they were to remain immediately sub- 
 ject to the crown of England, and to depend thereon 
 for ever; and were not compellable to answer to 
 any cause or suit in any other part of his majesty's 
 dominions but in England and Wales. 
 
 Agreeably to the powers with which the proprie- 
 tors were invested by their charter, they began to 
 frame a system of laws for the government of their 
 colony ; in which arduous task they called in the 
 great Locke to their assistance. A model of go- 
 vernment, consisting of no less than 120 different 
 articles, was framed by this learned man, which 
 
906 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 they agreed to establish, and to the careful ob- 
 servance of which, to bind themselves and their 
 heirs for ever. But there is danger of error, where 
 speculative men of one country attempt to sketch 
 out a plan of government for another, in a different 
 climate and situation. This legislator must be 
 acknowledged to have possessed great abilities and 
 merit ; yet his fine-spun system proved in effect 
 useless and impracticable. Several attempts were 
 afterwards made to amend these fundamental con- 
 stitutions, but all to little purpose ; the inhabitants, 
 sensible of their impropriety, and how little they 
 were applicable to their circumstances, neither by 
 themselves, nor by their representatives in assem- 
 bly, ever gave their assent to them as a body of 
 laws, and therefore they obtained not the force of 
 fundamental and unalterable laws in the colony. 
 What regulations the people found applicable and 
 useful, they adopted at the request of their gover- 
 nors ; but observed them on account of their own 
 proprietv and necessity, rather than as a system of 
 laws imposed on them by British legislators. 
 
 As the proprietors were so fond of these consti- 
 tutions, and expressed so much zeal for their esta- 
 blishment, it may not be improper to give a short 
 and imperfect view of them, especially such as were 
 allowed to take place in the government of the 
 colony. The eldest of the eight proprietors was 
 always to be palatine, and at his decease was to be 
 succeeded by the eldest of the seven survivors. This 
 palatine was to sit as president of the palatine's 
 court, of which he and three more of the proprietors 
 made a quorum, and had the management and exe- 
 cution of all the powers of their charter. This pa- 
 latine's court was to stand in room of the king, and 
 give their assent or dissent to all laws made by the 
 legislature of the colony. The palatine was to have 
 power to nominate and appoint the governor, who, 
 after obtaining the royal approbation, became his 
 representative in Carolina. Each of the seven 
 proprietors was to have the privilege of appointing 
 a deputy to sit as his representative in parliament, 
 and to act agreeably to his instructions. Besides a 
 governor, two other branches, somewhat similar to 
 the old Saxon constitution, were to be established, 
 an upper and lower house of assembly; which 
 three branches were to be called a parliament, and 
 to constitute the legislature of the country. The 
 parliament was to be chosen every two years. No 
 act of the legislature was to have any force unless 
 ratified in open parliament during the same session, 
 and even then to continue no longer in force than 
 the next biennial parliament, unless in the mean 
 time it were ratified by the hands and seals of the 
 palatine and three proprietors. The upper house 
 was to consist of the seven deputies, seven of the 
 oldest landgraves and cassiques, and seven chosen 
 by the assembly. As in the other provinces, the 
 lower house was to be composed of the representa- 
 tives from the different counties and towns. Seve- 
 ral officers were also to be appointed, such as an 
 admiral, a secretary, a chief justice, a surveyor, a 
 treasurer, a marshal, and register; and besides 
 these, each county was to have a sheriff and four 
 justices of the peace. Three classes of nobility 
 were to be established, called barons, cassiques, and 
 landgraves ; the first to possess twelve, the second 
 24, and the third 48,000 acres of land, and their 
 possessions were to be unalienable. Military offi- 
 cers were also to be nominated, and all inhabitants, 
 from sixteen to 60 years of age, as in the times of 
 feudal government, when summoned by the gover- 
 
 nor and grand council, were to appear under arms, 
 and, in time of war, to take the field. 
 
 With respect to religion, three terms of commu- 
 nion were fixed : First, to believe that there is a 
 God : Secondly, That he is to be worshipped : and, 
 Thirdly, that it is lawful, and the duty of every 
 man when called upon by those in authority to 
 bear witness to the truth. Without acknowledging 
 which, no man was to be permitted to be a freeman, 
 or to have any estate or habitation in Carolina. 
 But persecution for observing different modes and 
 ways of worship was expressly forbid, and every 
 man was to be left full liberty of conscience, and 
 might worship God in that manner which he in his 
 private judgment thought most conformable to the 
 divine will and revealed word. This was the opi- 
 nion of Mr. Locke with respect to religious matters. 
 He chose the word of God for his rule of life, and 
 used to say, " That, at the day of judgment, it 
 would not be asked whether he was a follower of 
 Luther or Calvin; but whether he embraced the 
 truth in the love of it." 
 
 Notwithstanding these preparations, several years 
 elapsed before the proprietors of Carolina made any 
 serious efforts towards its settlement. In 1667 they 
 fitted out a ship, gave the command of it to Captain 
 William Sayle, and sent him out to bring them 
 some account of the coast. In his passage, Captain 
 Sayle was driven by a storm among the Bahama 
 islands, which accident he improved to the purpose 
 of acquiring some knowledge of them ; particularly 
 the island of Providence, which he judged might be 
 of service to the intended settlement of Carolina : 
 for, in case of an invasion from the Spaniards, this 
 island, fortified, might be made to serve either as a 
 check to the progress of their arms, or a useful re- 
 treat to unfortunate colonists. Leaving Providence, 
 he sailed along the coast of Carolina, where he ob- 
 served several large navigable rivers emptying 
 themselves into the ocean, and a flat country co- 
 vered with woods. He attempted to go ashore in 
 his boat, but observing some savages on the banks 
 of the rivers, he was obliged to drop his design ; 
 and, after having explored the coast and the mouth 
 of the rivers, he took his departure, and returned to 
 England. 
 
 His report to his employers, as might naturally 
 be expected, was favourable. He praised their 
 possessions, and encouraged them to engage with 
 vigour in the execution of their project. His ob- 
 servations respecting the Bahama islands induced 
 them to apply to the king for a grant of them. 
 Charles bestowed on them by patent all those islands 
 lying between the 22nd and 27th degrees of north 
 latitude. Nothing then remained but to make pre- 
 parations for sending a colony to Carolina. Two 
 ships were procured, on board of which a number 
 of adventurers embarked, with provisions, arms, 
 and utensils requisite for building and cultivation. 
 William Sayle, who had visited the country, was 
 appointed the first governor of it, and received a 
 commission, bearing date July 26, 1669. The ex- 
 penses of this first embarkation amounted to 12,000/., 
 which vigorous effort was a proof that the proprie- 
 tors entertained no small hopes with respect to 
 their palatinate. The number of men, however, 
 must have been inconsiderable, and no ways ade- 
 quate to the undertaking, especially when we con- 
 sider the multitude of savages that ranged through 
 that extensive wilderness. 
 
 In what place Governor Sayle first landed is un- 
 certain ; but he was dissatisfied with his first situa- 
 
UNITED STATES 
 
 907 
 
 tion, and, moving to the southward, took possession 
 of a neck of land between Ashley and Cooper rivers. 
 The earliest instructions we have seen upon record 
 were directed to the governor and council of Ashley 
 river, in which spot the first settlement was made 
 that proved permanent and successful. This place, 
 however, was more eligible for the convenience of 
 navigation than for the richness of its soil. But to 
 struggle amidst a complication of difficulties and 
 dangers was the lot of such adventurers; to sur- 
 mount which, at this early period, no small degree 
 of fortitude, patience, and perseverance must have 
 been requisite. 
 
 The difficulties of the first settlers of Carolina 
 must have equalled, if not surpassed, every thing 
 of the kind to which men in any age have been 
 exposed. To fell the trees of the thick forest, 
 and build habitations fof themselves, would probably 
 be their first employment, before they began to 
 clear their spots of ground for raising the necessaries 
 of life. In such a low country, and warm climate, 
 even this task must have been a considerable bur- 
 den. But Carolina, like other level countries, over- 
 flowed with water, is productive of many disor- 
 ders, such as putrid fevers, agues, dysenteries, and 
 the like ; and to fix habitations on such places 
 where the exhalations from stagnated waters and 
 marshy swamps poisoned the air, must have ren- 
 dered them extremely unwholesome. During the 
 summer months the climate is so sultry, that no 
 European, without hazard, can endure the fatigues 
 of labouring in the open air : for the most part, the 
 weather, during this season, is very clear and serene, 
 excepting when a thunder-storm happens, which 
 cools the air, suddenly stops perspiration, and be- 
 comes exceedingly dangerous to labourers of little 
 precaution. Besides, the violent heat continues 
 through the night, and denies the weary workman 
 the natural refreshment of sleep. The autumn in- 
 troduces cool evenings and mornings, while the noon- 
 day is intolerably warm; which change, together 
 with the thick fogs that commonly fall at this 
 season, render it the most unhealthy division of 
 the year. In winter, though the degree of cold is 
 not so great as in the more northern climates of 
 America, yet it is severely felt by the human body, 
 exhausted and relaxed with the summer heat ; and 
 when the wind shifts suddenly from any quarter to 
 the north-west or north, it blows extremely sharp 
 and piercing, brings along with it sometimes frost 
 and snow, and renders the wannest clothing requi- 
 site. The spring is the most temperate and delight- 
 ful season of the year : it begins early, and diffuses 
 its enlivening influence over the fields and forests. 
 Experience had not yet taught the young colonists 
 the methods either of improving the advantages, or 
 guarding against the disadvantages of the climate, and 
 therefore it is no wonder that they found themselves 
 involved at this period in a complication of hardships. 
 
 To enhance their distress, they were surrounded 
 with tribes of warlike savages-, who viewed them 
 with a jealous eye, and were by no means pleased 
 at the encroachments made on their natural pos- 
 sesions. The tribes called Stonoes and Westoes 
 were particularly troublesome. The colonists, in- 
 deed, were furnished with arms and ammunition 
 f . om the storehouse of the proprietors, yet as they 
 lived in the midst of perpetual alarms, their condi- 
 tion must have been deplorable. Nor did the mus- 
 ket give those strangers to the woods such an ad- 
 vantage over the bow and arrow in the hands of 
 the Indians, as some people may be apt to imagine. 
 
 The savage, quick-sighted, and accustomed to per- 
 petual watchfulness, springs from his den behind a 
 bush, and surprises his enemy with the pointed ar- 
 row before he is aware of danger. He ranges 
 through the trackless forest like the beasts of prey, 
 and safely sleeps under the same canopy with the 
 wolf and bear. His vengeance is concealed, and 
 sends the tidings in the fatal blow. The first set- 
 tlers were obliged to stand in a continual posture of 
 defence ; and as they could not be supposed to un- 
 derstand the political methods of managing their 
 barbarous neighbours, they must have been sub- 
 jected to all the hardships arising from their igno- 
 rance, and dangerous condition. 
 
 While one party was employed in raising their 
 little habitations, another was always kept under 
 arms, to watch the motions of these Indians. The 
 governor shared those hardships along with his fel- 
 low-adventurers, and by his example animated and 
 encouraged them to perseverance. The only fresh 
 provisions they could procure were fish from the 
 river, and what game they could kill with their 
 gun. While the settlers were struggling under the 
 difficulties inseparable from the first state of coloni- 
 zation, the ship Blessing, belonging to the proprie- 
 tors, commanded by Captain Matthias Halstead, 
 happily arrived, and brought -them, a seasonable 
 supply of necessaries. At the same time deputies 
 from the other proprietors came over, to assist the 
 governor in the discharge of the duties of his office. 
 They brought with them 23 articles of instruction, 
 called Temporary Agrarian Laws, intended for the 
 equitable division of lands among the people ; but 
 whatever difficulties or inconveniencies might occur 
 in the execution of them, the governor had direc- 
 tions to represent them to the proprietors, who had 
 reserved to themselves the sole power of making al- 
 terations in them. At the same time, the governor 
 received a plan of a magnificent town, to be laid 
 out on the neck of land between the two rivers, to 
 be called Charles-town, in honour of the king. 
 Captain Halstead was employed, during his stay, in 
 sounding the rivers, for the benefit of navigation, 
 which were found sufficiently deep, and excellently 
 calculated for the purposes of trade. 
 
 About this time, the duke of Albemarle, who was 
 the first palatine, died, and was succeeded by the 
 earl of Craven, as eldest proprietor. John Locke, 
 Sir John Yeamans, and James Carteret, were 
 created landgraves, to make part of the nobility 
 required by the fundamental constitutions. Sir 
 John was the eldest son and heir of Robert Yea- 
 mans, alderman of Bristol, who was imprisoned and 
 executed in 1 643, by order of Nathaniel Fienes, son 
 to Lord Say, who had been appointed governor of 
 Bristol by the parliament. His son, Sir John, was 
 afterwards advanced to the dignity of baronet by 
 King Charles II., in 1664, as a reward for the 
 steady loyalty and heavy sufferings of his father. 
 But as the violence of the preceding times, which 
 had deprived Sir John of his father, had also in- 
 jured him in his private fortune, he embarked for 
 the island of Barbadoes, at that time in a flourishing 
 condition, to hide his poverty from his acquaintance 
 in England, and endeavour to acquire a fortune 
 suitable to his dignity. When Carolina was settled, 
 having received a grant of a large tract of land 
 from the proprietors, he, with several respectable 
 followers, retired to that infant colony, to forward, 
 by his presence and example, the interest of hi 
 generous and beloved friends, from whom he had 
 received great encouragement and assistance 
 
008 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 (A. D. 1671.) Soon after his arrival in Carolina, 
 Governor Sayle fell a sacrifice to the hardships of 
 the climate. Upon his death the council met, and 
 Sir John claimed the office of vice-palatine in con- 
 sequence of his rank, being the only landgrave resi- 
 dent in the colony. But the council, who were 
 empoweied to elect a governor in such a case, chose 
 to prefer Joseph West, until a special appointment 
 arrived from England. West was a popular man, 
 much esteemed among the colonists for his activity, 
 courage, and prudence. However, he did not long 
 remain in office, for the first vessel that arrived 
 from England brought a commission to Sir John 
 Yeamans, constituting him governor of the colony. 
 
 Reasons of state contributed to render those new 
 settlements reasonably useful and important to the 
 king* By this time several of the settlers in Vir 
 ginia and Barbadoes had been successful, and hav 
 ing surmounted the difficulties attending the firs 
 state of colonization, were living in easy and plen. 
 tiful circumstances. The lands of Carolina were 
 esteemed equal, if not superior in value, to those o 
 the northern colonies. Here the ministers of the 
 king could provide for his friends without any 
 expense to the nation, and by this means not only 
 secured their attachment, but also extended his 
 power. Grants of land were allowed them in Caro- 
 lina by the proprietors, where it was thought they 
 might in time enrich themselves, and become bene- 
 ficial to the commerce and navigation of the mother 
 country. 
 
 From this period every year brought new adven 
 turers to Carolina. The friends of the proprietors 
 were invited to it, by the flattering prospects of 
 obtaining landed estates at an easy rate; and others 
 took refuge there from the rigour of their creditors. 
 It cannot be deemed wonderful if many of them 
 were disappointed, especially such as emigrated 
 with sanguine expectations, the manners and vices 
 of the city were bad qualifications for rural industry, 
 and rendered some utterly unfit for the frugal sim- 
 plicity and laborious task of the first state of culti- 
 vation. Nor could the Puritans, who settled before 
 them, promise themselves much greater success than 
 their neighbours : though more rigid and austere in 
 their manners, and more religiously disposed, their 
 scrupulosity about trifles and ceremonies, and their 
 litigious dispositions, created trouble to all around 
 them, and disturbed that general harmony so neces- 
 sary to the welfare and prosperity of the young 
 settlement. From the various principles which ac- 
 tuated the populace of England, and the different 
 sects who composed the first settlers of Carolina, 
 nothing less could be expected, but that the seeds of 
 division should be imported into that country with 
 its earliest inhabitants. 
 
 Before the year 1667, there is no mention made 
 of America in any treaty between England and 
 Spain: but a few years after Carolina was settled, 
 Sir William Godolphin concluded a treaty with 
 Spain, in which, among other articles, it was 
 agreed, " That the king of Great Britain should 
 always possess, in full right of sovereignty and pro- 
 perty, all the countries, islands, and colonies, lying 
 and situated in the West Indies, or any part of 
 America, which he and his subjects then held and 
 possessed, insomuch that they neither can nor ought 
 thereafter to be contested on any account whatso- 
 ever." The Bucaniers, who had for many years 
 infested Spanish America, were now cut off from 
 all future protection from the English government 
 iu their hostile invasions of these dominions, and all 
 
 commissions formerly granted to such pirates, were 
 recalled and annulled. By this treaty, the freedom 
 of navigation in these American seas was opened to 
 both nations; and all ships in distress, whether 
 from storms, or the pursuit of enemies and pirates, 
 taking refuge in places belonging either to Britain 
 or Spain, were to be treated with humanity, to meet 
 with protection and assistance, and to be permitted 
 to depart without molestation. These things merit 
 particular notice, as by this treaty Spain evidently 
 gave up all future pretensions to the country of 
 Carolina granted to the proprietors by the king 
 and this freedom of navigation, provided for in such 
 express terms, was violated, as we shall afterwards 
 see, by the Spaniards, and proved the occasion of a 
 destructive war between the two nations. Not long 
 after this, a treaty of neutrality between Britain 
 and France was also concluded ; by which negotia- 
 tions the possessions of Great Britain, France, and 
 Spain, in the western world, were better ascer- 
 tained ; and the freedom of commerce and naviga- 
 tion was more firmly established by those three 
 great potentates, than had taken place in any for- 
 mer period. 
 
 In Carolina Sir John Yeamans had entered on 
 the government with an uncommon zeal for the suc- 
 cess of the settlement, and a grateful anxiety to 
 discharge the duties of his trust with fidelity and 
 honour. The proprietors, fond of their new form of 
 government, had instructed him to use his endea- 
 vours to introduce it, as the most excellent of its 
 kind, and wisely adapted to promote the prosperity 
 and happiness of the people. Accordingly, Sir 
 John summoned the people together, ordered the 
 fundamental constitutions to be read, and represen- 
 tatives to be elected. The province was divided 
 into four counties, called Berkeley, Colleton, Cra- 
 ven, and Carteret counties. The people, who had 
 hitherto lived under a kind of military government, 
 now began to form a legislature for establishing civil 
 regulations. Ten members were elected as repre- 
 sentatives for Colleton, and ten for Berkeley coun- 
 ties. A committee, consisting of Stephen Bull, 
 Ralph Marshal, and William Owen, were nominated 
 for framing some public regulations. Three acts 
 were proposed by them as beneficial ; the first, to 
 prevent persons leaving the colony ; the second, to 
 prohibit all men from disposing of arms and ammu- 
 nition to Indians; and the third, for the regular 
 Building of Charles-town. 
 
 Notwithstanding the public treaty already men- 
 :ioned, a religious society of the Spanish nation 
 aid claim to the large territory of Florida, not only 
 on the foot of prior discovery, but also by virtue of 
 a grant from the pope; and the garrison kept at 
 Augustine regarding the British settlement as an 
 encroachment on their possessions, were disposed to 
 hrow every difficulty in the way of the Carolineans, 
 n order to compel them to relinquish the country. 
 They encouraged indented servants to leave their 
 nasters, and fly to them for liberty and protection. 
 They instilled into the savage tribes the most un- 
 'avourable notions of British heretics, and urged 
 hem on to the destruction of the colony. Good po- 
 icy required that the governor should keep a watch- 
 ul eye on the motions of such neighbours, and guard 
 lis weak aud defenceless colony against the perni- 
 ious designs of their Spanish rivals. Some men he 
 liscovered who were attempting to entice servants 
 o revolt; these were ordered to receive so many 
 tripes. Others, in defiance of the feeble power of 
 he magistrate, took to such courses as were subver- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 909 
 
 sive of public peace and justice. Except a few ne- 
 groes whom Sir John Yeamans and his followers 
 brought along with them from Barbadoes, there were 
 no labourers but Europeans for the purposes of cul- 
 ture. Until the fields were cleared, cattle could 
 afford the planters no assistance ; and hard indeed 
 was the task of these labourers while employed in fell- 
 ing the large and lofty trees, exposed to the heat of 
 an inclement sky, and the terrors of barbarous 
 enemies. After all, the provisions they raised were 
 exposed to the plundering parties of savage neigh- 
 bours, and one day often robbed them of the dear- 
 boughtfruits of their whole year's toil. 
 
 During the government of Sir John Yeainans a 
 civil disturbance broke out among the colonists, 
 which threatened the ruin of the settlement. At 
 such a distance it was very difficult for the proprie- 
 tors to furnish their colony with regular supplies ; 
 and the spots of sandy and barren land they had 
 cleared poorly rewarded their toil. Small was the 
 skill of the planter; and European grain, which they 
 had been accustomed to sow, proved suitable to 
 neither soil nor climate. The emigrants being now, 
 from sad experience, sensible of difficulties insepara- 
 ble from their circumstances, began to murmur 
 against the proprietors, and to curse the day they 
 left their native land, to starve in a wilderness. 
 While they gathered oysters for subsistence with 
 one hand, they were obliged to carry their muskets 
 for self-defence in the other. A great gun had been 
 given to Florence O'Sullivan, which he placed on 
 an island situated at the mouth of the harbour, to 
 alarm the town in cases of invasion from the Spa- 
 niards. O'Sullivan deserted his island, being ready 
 to perish with hunger, and joined the discontented 
 party in the town. The people became seditious 
 and ungovernable, and threatened to compel the 
 governor to relinquish the settlement : even one 
 Culpepper, the surveyor-general, joined them in 
 their complaints and murmurs. The greatest pru- 
 dence and courage were requisite to prevent tumults, 
 and animate the colonists to perseverance. Florence 
 O'Sullivan was taken up by the marshal on a charge 
 of sedition, and compelled to find security for his 
 future good behaviour. One sloop, commanded by 
 Joseph Harris, was dispatched to Virginia, another 
 to Barbadoes, to bring provisions. Happily before 
 their return a seasonable supply arrived from En- 
 gland, together with a number of new settlers, which 
 revived the drooping spirits of the people, and en- 
 couraged them to engage in more vigorous efforts. 
 The governor, sensible of the hardships the people 
 had suffered, the more readily forgave them for their 
 past misconduct: but as Culpepper held an office 
 from the proprietors, he sent him to England to be 
 tried by them for joining the people in treasonable 
 conspiracies against the settlement. 
 
 The garrison at Augustine having intelligence 
 from servants who fled to them of the discontented 
 and miserable situation of the colony in Carolina, 
 advanced with a party under arms as far as the 
 island of St. Helena, to dislodge or destroy the set- 
 tlers. Brian Fitzpatrick, a noted villain, treacher- 
 ously deserted his distressed friends on purpose to 
 join their enemies. However, Sir John Yeamans 
 having received a reinforcement, set his enemies at 
 defiance. Fifty volunteers, under the command 
 of Colonel Godfrey, marched against the Spaniards, 
 who, on his approach, evacuated the island of St. 
 Helena, and retreated to Augustine. 
 
 At this period, to form alliances with Indian tribes 
 was an object of great importance with the go- 
 
 vernor and council ; and one circumstance proved fa- 
 Tourable to the colony at the time of its settlement. 
 The Westoes, a powerful and numerous tribe, who 
 harboured an irreconcileable aversion to the white 
 faces of strangers, would have proved a dangerous 
 enemy to them, had not their attention been occu- 
 pied by the Serannas, another Indian nation. A 
 bloody war between these two tribes fortunately for 
 the settlers was carried on with such fury, that in 
 the end it proved fatal to both. This served to pave 
 the way for the introduction and establishment of 
 this British settlement, which otherwise might have 
 shared the same unhappy fate with the first adven- 
 turers to Virginia. Many tribes besides might no 
 doubt have extirpated the colony, but it is proba- 
 ble the governor studied by every means to avoid 
 giving them any provocation, and to conciliate their 
 affection and esteem. 
 
 After the conquest of the Dutch settlements in 
 New York, many of the Dutch colonists, who were 
 discontented with their situation, had formed reso- 
 lutions of moving to other provinces. The proprie- 
 tors of Carolina offered them lands and encourage- 
 ment in their palatinate, and sent their ships Bless- 
 ing and Phoenix, and brought a number of Dutch 
 families to Charlestown. Stephen Bull, surveyor- 
 general of the colony, had instructions to mark out 
 lands on the south-west side of Ashley river for their 
 accommodation. There each of the Dutch emigrants 
 drew lots for their propeity, and formed a town, 
 which was called James-town. This was the first 
 colony of Dutch who settled in Carolina, whose in- 
 dustry surmounted incredible hardships, and whose 
 success induced many from Holland afterwards to 
 follow them to the western world. The inhabitants 
 of James-town, afterwards finding their situation 
 too narrow and circumscribed, in process of time 
 spread themselves through the country, and the 
 town was totally deserted. 
 
 About the year 1674, Sir John Yeamans having 
 his health much injured by the climate, and his in- 
 defatigable labours for the success of the settlement, 
 returned to Barbadoes, where he died. After his 
 departure the grand council again chose Joseph 
 West governor; and the palatine confirmed the 
 election. A meeting of all the freemen was called 
 at Charles-town, where they elected representatives, 
 for the purpose of making laws for the government 
 of the colony. Thomas Gray, Henry Hughes, 
 Maurice Mathews, and Christopher Portman, were 
 chosen deputies from the people, and took their seat 
 at the upper house of assembly. These new mem- 
 bers were obliged to take an oath, that they should 
 show equity and justice to both rich and poor, 
 without favour or affection ; that they should ob- 
 serve the laws of England, and those that should 
 hereafter be established in the colony ; that they 
 should obey the rules and directions of the proprie- 
 tors ; that they should not divulge the secrets of the 
 grand council, without sufficient authority from 
 that board. A question being put, whether the de- 
 puties of the proprietors should take the same oath ? 
 it was judged unnecessary, as they held their ap- 
 pointments during pleasure, and were immediately 
 answerable to the proprietors for their conduct. The 
 colony at this time had its governor, and its upper and 
 lower house of assembly, which three branches took 
 the name of parliament, agreeably to the constitu- 
 tion. This was the first parliament that passed 
 acts which are ratified by the proprietors, and found 
 on record in the colony. 
 
 It might have been expected, that these adven 
 
910 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 turers, who were all embarked on the same design, 
 would be animated by one spirit, and zealous above 
 all things to maintain harmony and peace among 
 themselves ; they had all the same hardships to 
 encounter, the same enemies to fear, and the same 
 cause, the prosperity of the settlement, to promote. 
 In such circumstances, the governor had good reason 
 to hope, that one common desire of safety would 
 pervade the whole colony ; yet the contrary effect 
 took place. The most numerous party in the 
 country were dissenters, of various denominations, 
 from the established church of England ; a number 
 of cavaliers also having received grants from the 
 proprietors, had now brought over their families and 
 effects, and joined the Puritans in Carolina. The 
 royalists were looked upon by the proprietors with a 
 partial eye, and met with great indulgence and en- 
 couragement; by which means they thrust them- 
 selves into offices of trust and authority. The Pu- 
 ritans, on the other hand, viewed them with the eye 
 of envy and jealousy, and having suffered from them 
 in England, could not bear to see the smallest share 
 of power committed to them in Carolina. Hence 
 the seeds of strife and division, which had been 
 imported into the colony, began to spring forth. 
 No common dangers or difficulties could blot out 
 of their memories the prejudices and animosities 
 contracted in England: the odious terms of dis- 
 tinction were revived and propagated among the 
 people, and while one party were attached to the 
 church of England, the other, who had fled from 
 the rigour of ecclesiastical power, were jealous above 
 all things of religious liberties, and could bear no 
 encroachment on them. The governor found that 
 matters of religion were tender points, and there- 
 fore wisely avoided all deliberations about them, 
 choosing rather to leave every man to his free choice, 
 than propose an establishment of any kind, which 
 he saw would occasion trouble and division among 
 the people. 
 
 Another source of difficulty arose to government 
 from the different manners of these colonists. The 
 sober and morose Puritans, were made the objects of 
 ridicule by the royalists, and all the powers of wit were 
 employed in exposing them to public derision and 
 contempt. The Puritans, on the other band, pos- 
 sessed of no small share of rancour, and exaspe- 
 rated by their licentious manners and grievous abuse, 
 violently opposed their influence among the people. 
 Governor West, observing those dissensions break- 
 ing out in the settlement, was at no small pains to 
 keep them within the bounds of moderation, but 
 having a council composed of ambitious cavaliers, 
 was unable entirely to check the disorder. In spite 
 of his authority, the Puritans were treated with inso- 
 lence and neglect, and the colony, distracted with 
 domestic differences, were ill prepared for defence 
 against external enemies ; or to provide for their 
 own wants. 
 
 At this unfavourable juncture, the Indians from 
 Stono, came down in straggling parties, and plun- 
 dered the plantations of the scanty fruits of labour 
 and industry. Being accustomed to the practice of 
 killing whatever came in their way, they ranked 
 the planters' hogs, turkeys and geese among their 
 game, and freely preyed upon them. The planters 
 as freely made use of their arms in defence of their 
 property, and several Indians were killed during 
 their depredations. This occasioned a war, and the 
 Indians poured their vengeance indiscriminately, as 
 usual, on the innocent and guilty, for the loss of 
 their friends. Governor West found it necessary to 
 
 encourage and reward such of the colonists as would 
 take the field against them for the public defence. 
 Accordingly, a price was fixed on every Indian 
 the settlers should take prisoner, and bring to 
 Charlestown. These captive savages were disposed 
 of to the traders, who sent them to the West Indies, 
 and there sold them for slaves. This traffic was 
 indeed an inhuman method of getting rid of trouble- 
 some neighbours. 
 
 Though Carolina lies in the same latitude with 
 some of the most fertile countries on the globe, yet 
 many local circumstances concur to occasion a dif- 
 ference between it and Palestine, the North of 
 Egypt, or the dominions in the same latitude in 
 China. Besides the bleak mountains, frozen lakes, 
 and the large uncultivated territory over which the 
 north and north-west winds blow in winter, by which 
 they are rendered dangerous ; when the extreme 
 heat of summer is united with a low marshy soil, 
 where the water stagnates, and the effluvia arising 
 from it thicken and poison the air, it must prove the 
 occasion of a numberless list of fatal distempers. 
 The winds in Carolina are changeable and erratic, 
 and, about the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, 
 commonly boisterous. In summer, they are sultry 
 and suffocating ; in winter, cold and dry. Beyond 
 doubt, the flat maritime part is a most unhealthy 
 situation, and the first settlers could scarcely have 
 been cast ashore in any quarter of the globe where 
 they could be exposed to greater hazards from the 
 climate. 
 
 Yet the country, low and unhealthy as it is, af- 
 fords many advantages for commerce and navigation. 
 As you approach towards the shore, the sea gradu- 
 ally ebbs, which furnishes good soundings for the 
 help of navigators. For 80 and in some places 100 
 miles from the Atlantic, the country is an even plain ; 
 no rocks, nor stones, nor scarce a hill of any height 
 are to be seen. Backwards from this the lands begin 
 to rise gradually into little hills and beautiful ine- 
 qualities, which continue increasing in height and 
 variation until you advance to the Apalachian moun- 
 tains, 300 miles and more from the sea. Here a 
 vast ridge of mountains begins, which give rise to 
 four large rivers, called by their Indian names, Ala- 
 tahama, Savanna, Santee and Pedee. Among the 
 hills these rivers are composed of different branches, 
 and run in a rapid course ; but lose their velocity 
 when they reach the plains, through which they 
 glide smoothly along, in a serpentine course, to the 
 ocean. Up these large rivers the tide flows a con- 
 siderable way, and renders them navigable for ships, 
 brigs, sloops and schooners, and smaller craft force 
 their way still higher than the tide flows. Besides 
 these large rivers, the hills in the heart of the country 
 give rise to others of a secondary size, such as Oget- 
 chee, Cusaw, Cambahee, Edisto, Ashley, Cooper, and 
 Black rivers ; all which are also navigable many 
 miles from the ocean. The coast is also checkered 
 with a variety of fine islands, around which the sea 
 flows, and opens excellent channels, for the easy 
 conveyance of produce to the market. 
 
 By the different trees which cover the lands the 
 soil is distinguished, which in some places is very 
 rich, and in others very poor. Where the pine-trees 
 grow the ground is sandy and barren, and produces 
 Uttle except in rainy seasons. The oaks and hicko- 
 ries grow in a lower and richer soil, running in 
 narrow streaks through the different eminences; 
 which grounds, when cleared and cultivated, amply 
 reward the planter. The cypresses and canes re- 
 quire a still deeper and more miry soil, which it 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 911 
 
 exceedingly fruitful, having had the fruits and fo- 
 liage of trees from the higher grounds flowing into 
 it from the creation. The river swamp-lands, by 
 proper culture and judicious management, are of 
 inexhaustible fertility. The savannas and open 
 plains are of a deep fat mould, which, when drained 
 and freshened, become also fruitful, and excellent 
 parts of a plantation. The marshy grounds, some 
 of which are fresh, and others salt, are much neg- 
 lected, yet they yield a kind of grass grateful to 
 some animals, and are used as yet only for pas- 
 turage. Many years elapsed before the planters found 
 out the different grains suited to these different 
 soils. The soil of the hilly country differs from all 
 these ; for there, in the valleys between the hills, a 
 black and deep loam is found, probably formed of 
 rotten trees and vegetables, which the showers and 
 floods have carried into them from the adjacent 
 heights. Marble, clay, chalk, and gravel grounds 
 are also observed among these hills, in the middle 
 of the country, and a variety of soil nearly similar 
 to that found in Europe. 
 
 No earthquakes, such as are commonly known in 
 the West India islands, have ever been felt here ; 
 but whirlwinds sometimes have made avenues through 
 the thick forests, by levelling the loftiest trees, or 
 sweeping them away before them. These terrible 
 blasts are generally confined to a narrow tract, and 
 run in an oblique and crooked direction. Hurri- 
 canes have also often visited the country, and through 
 such low and flat lands have spread their desolation 
 far and wide. 
 
 In travelling along the coast of Carolina, partly 
 by water and partly by land, the stranger has an 
 excellent view of its natural beauties. At a dis- 
 tance the marshes and savannas appear like level 
 meadows, with branches or creeks of the sea run- 
 ning through them. On one hand the evergreen 
 pines appear, and engross almost the whole higher 
 lands of the country ; on the other the branching 
 oaks and stately hickories appear ; a grove covered 
 with cypress; laurels, palmetoes, beech, and mul- 
 berry-trees, all growing wild. In the spring the 
 dogwood, cherry-trees, and many other blossoms, 
 together with the jessamines, perfume the air; while 
 luxuriant vines climb over the loftiest trees, and 
 bushes, or shrubs of lower growth, fill up the thickets. 
 
 At this early period the savage hunters were 
 masters of the woods. Numbers of deer, timorous 
 and wild, ranged through the trees, and herds of 
 buffaloes were found grazing in the savannas ; and 
 the feathered tribes were more remarkable for the 
 splendour of their plumage than the harmony of their 
 notes ; there was also an abundance of reptiles and 
 insects. 
 
 The alligator, probably a species of the crocodile, 
 is found here nigh the rivers and ponds, and is very 
 destructive to young creatures about a plantation. 
 The bear is a fierce animal, but in many respects a 
 rich prize to the Indian hunter. The beaver is also 
 a native of Carolina, and his fur is a precious article 
 of American commerce. The racoon and opossum 
 are also natives of the country, and are scarcely 
 found in any other continent. The leopard, the 
 panther, the wolf, the fox, the rabbit, wild and pole- 
 cats, are all found in the country. Squirrels of 
 various kinds and different hues are numerous ; one 
 of which is called the flying-squirrel, not from .its 
 having wings like a bird, but from its being fur- 
 nished with a fine loose skin between its fore and 
 hind legs, which it contracts or expands at pleasure, 
 and which buoys it up, and enables it to spring 
 
 from branch to branch, at consideraole distances, 
 with great mmbleness. 
 
 In the mouth of the rivers, and on the coast, the 
 shark, the porpoise, the sword, the guarr, and devil 
 fishes, are all found, but in no respects rendered 
 useful. However, the sea-coast and rivers furnish 
 a variety of fine fish for human use, both of the salt 
 and fresh-water kinds. The angel-fish, so called 
 for their uncommon splendour; the sheephead, so 
 named from its having teeth like those of sheep; 
 the cavalli, the mullet, the whiting, the plaice, and 
 young bass, are all esteemed delicate food. Besides 
 these, porgy, shads, trout, stingre, drum, cat, and 
 black fish, are all used, and taken in great abun- 
 dance. The fresh-water rivers and ponds furnish 
 stores of fish, all of which are excellent in their 
 season. The sturgeon and rock-fish, the fresh-water 
 trout, the pike, the bream, the carp and roach, are 
 all fine fish, and found in plenty. Near the sea- 
 shore vast quantities of oysters, crabs, shrimps, and 
 other shell-fish, may be taken, and sometimes a kind 
 of turtle. 
 
 Besides eagles, falcons, cormorants, gulls, buz- 
 zards, hawks, herons, cranes, marsh-hens, jays, 
 woodpeckers; there are wild turkeys, pigeons, black- 
 birds, woodcocks, little partridges, plovers, curlews, 
 and turtle-doves, in great numbers; and also incre- 
 dible flocks of wild geese, ducks, teal, snipes, and 
 rice-birds. There has been found here, near rivers, 
 a bird of an amazing size, thought to be a species of 
 the pelican. Under its beak, which is very long, it 
 is furnished with a large bag, which it contracts, or 
 lets loose at pleasure, to answer the necessities or 
 conveniencies of life. The summer duck is a well 
 known and beautiful creature, and has got this 
 name to distinguish it from others of the same spe- 
 cies, which continue not in the country during the 
 summer months, but search for a cooler retreat. 
 The mocking-bird of Carolina is a fine bold crea- 
 ture, which mimics the various voices of the forest, 
 both in captivity, and in the enjoyment of natural 
 freedom. The red bird is exceedingly beautiful, 
 and has a soft melodious note, but with few varia- 
 tions. The humming-bird is remarkable for its 
 small size, flies from flower to flower like a bee, and 
 is sometimes caught by children while lying buried 
 in a large flower, of which it sucks the juice : its 
 nest is very curious, and discovers amazing art and 
 contrivance. These are some of the feathered in- 
 habitants of this forest, among which there is little 
 melody, and, were it otherways, the music would all 
 be lost, by the continual croaking of frogs, which 
 swarm in millions over the flat country. 
 
 There is no reptile merits more particular notice 
 than the rattle-snake, which is one of the most for- 
 midable living creatures. It is fortunately fur- 
 nished with a tail which makes a rattling noise, and 
 no doubt was intended to warn every other creature 
 of the danger of approaching nigh it ; although it 
 is harmless unless provoked. It is never the ag- 
 gressor, and flies from man ; but when pursued, and 
 it finds it cannot escape, it instantly gathers it- 
 self into a coil, and prepares for self-defence. It 
 has a sharp and sparkling eye, and quickly sees 
 any person approaching towards it, and winds its 
 course out of the way into some thicket or concealed 
 place. The greatest danger is, when it is inadver- 
 tently trampled on, as it lies coiled among the long 
 grass, or thick bushes. On each side of the upper 
 jaw there are two long fangs, which are hollow, and 
 through which the poison is injected into the wound. 
 When it penetrates a vein or nerve, sudden death 
 
912 
 
 THE H1STQRY OF AMERICA. 
 
 ensues, unless some remedy be instantly applied. The 
 usual symptoms from the bite are acute pains from 
 the wound, inflammatory swellings round it, sickness 
 at the stomach, and convulsive vomitings. The 
 Indians, as quickly as possible, after being bit, swal- 
 low a strong dose of the decoction of snake-root, 
 which is found every where growing in the woods ; 
 this causes a plentiful vomit ; and at the same time, 
 having sucked the poison out of the wound, they 
 chew a little snake-root, and apply it externally to 
 it. This remedy, when applied in time, sometimes 
 proves efficacious. Besides the rattle-snake, the 
 black and brown vipers have fangs, and are also 
 venomous. The horn-snake is also found here, 
 which takes its name from a horn in the tail, with 
 which it defends itself, and strikes with great force 
 into every aggressor. This reptile is also deemed 
 very venomous, and the Indians, when wounded by 
 it, usually cut out the part wounded as quickly as 
 possible, to prevent the infection spreading through 
 the body. There are, besides these, a variety of 
 other snakes, such as the green, the chicken, the 
 copperbelly, the wampum, the coach- whip and corn- 
 snakes ; all of which are esteemed harmless. 
 
 The insects in Carolina are innumerable, as might 
 naturally be expected from the heat of the climate, 
 and the moistness of the soil. Bees are found in seve- 
 ral places, and they choose the hollow trees for their 
 habitation, but whether they have been imported or 
 not is uncertain. The fire-fly, is so called from its 
 emitting sparks of fire in the night, resembling 
 flashes from the strokes of steel upon flint. About 
 the beginning of summer, when these insects are 
 very numerous, they almost illuminate the woods. 
 Millions of pestiferous gnats, called musquitoes, are 
 hatched during the summer, and swarm over the 
 country in such numbers, that, during the day, it 
 requires no small trouble for the inhabitants to de- 
 fend themselves in every quarter against them ; and 
 during the night, gauze pavilions are necessarily 
 used, to exclude them from their beds, without which 
 it is impossible to get any rest. The sand-flies are 
 also vexatious insects, and exceedingly minute ; yet, 
 wherever they bite, their poison occasions itching 
 and painful inflammation. Besides these, there 
 are ticks, flies, wasps, and many more insects which 
 are very troublesome. To these plagues, with which 
 this country is cursed, we may also add the water 
 wood-worms, which infest the rivers as far as the 
 salt-water flows, eat the bottoms of vessels into the 
 form of honeycombs, and prove extremely destruc- 
 tive to shipping. 
 
 About the year 1682, Governor West having in- 
 curred the displeasure of the proprietors, Joseph 
 Morton, who had lately been created a landgrave, 
 received a commission from Lord Craven, investing 
 him with the government of the colony. About the 
 same time, Joseph Blake sold his estate in England, 
 and with his family and several substantial followers 
 retired to Carolina. Lord Cardross also, a noble- 
 man of Scotland, having formed a project for carry- 
 ing over some of his countrymen to Carolina, em- 
 barked with a few families, and made an attempt to 
 establish a colony on Port Royal Island : but ob- 
 serving the government in a confused and fluctua- 
 ting state, he soon after returned to Britain. The 
 island on which he left his few followers having ex- 
 cellent conveniencies for navigation, was a place of 
 all others in the country the most advantageous for 
 a settlement ; but, to effect it, a greater number of 
 emigrants was absolutely requisite. The Spaniards 
 sent an armed force, and dislodged the Scotch set- 
 
 tlers, aftei which no attempts were mado for manv 
 years towards establishing a colony in that quarter. 
 
 The proprietors of Carolina had instructed Go- 
 vernor Morton to take all Indians within 400 miles 
 of Charlestown under his protection, and to treat 
 them with humanity arid tenderness ; but such in- 
 structions were very disagreeable to many of the 
 people, especially to those members of the council 
 who were concerned in the Indian trade, and there- 
 fore great opposition was raised to the execution of 
 them. Maurice Mathews, James Moore, and Arthur 
 Middleton, members of the council, warmly opposed 
 the governor, while he proposed regulations for the 
 peaceable management of Indians, and considered 
 the proprietors as strangers to the interest of their 
 colony by such impolitic restrictions. The people 
 who had lost some friends and relations by the sa- 
 vages were also greatly irritated against them, 
 and breathed nothing but vengeance and impla- 
 cable resentment. These members of the coun- 
 cil were removed from it for their disobedience ; 
 nevertheless they had such influence among the 
 people, as to occasion great trouble to the governor, 
 and totally to subvert his authority ; in consequence 
 of which, Joseph West appeared again at the head 
 of the colony, and gave his assent to several laws 
 made in it. During which time the people followed 
 their former practice, of inveigling and kidnapping 
 Indians wherever they found them, and shipped 
 them off to the West Indies, without any restraint 
 from government. 
 
 Soon after, Governor West was superseded by Sir 
 Richard Kirle, an Irish gentleman, who died six 
 months after his arrival in the country. After his 
 decease, Colonel Robert Quarry was chosen his suc- 
 cessor. During the time of his government, a num- 
 ber of pirates put into Charlestown, and purchased 
 provisions with their Spanish gold and silver. These 
 public robbers, instead of being taken and tried by 
 the laws of England, were treated with great civility 
 and friend?hip, in violation of the laws of nations. 
 Whether the governor was ignorant of the treaty 
 made with Spain, by which England had withdrawn 
 its former toleration from these plunderers of the 
 Spanish dominions ; or whether he was afraid to 
 bring them to trial from the notorious courage of 
 their companions in the West Indies, we have not 
 sufficient authority to affirm; but it is certain, that 
 Charles II. for several years after the restoration, 
 connived at their depredations, and many of them 
 performed such actions as, in a good cause, had 
 justly merited honours and rewards. Even as the 
 case was, Charles, out of mere whim, knighted 
 Henry Morgan, a Welchman, who had plundered 
 Porto Bello and Panama, and carried off large 
 treasures from them. This body of plunderers 
 was for several years so formidable in the West 
 Indies, that they struck a terror into every quarter 
 of the Spanish dominions. Their gold and silver, 
 which they lavishly spent in the colony, ensured to 
 them a kind reception among the Carolineans, who 
 opened their ports to them freely, and furnished 
 them with necessaries. They could purchase the 
 favour of the governor, and the friendship of the 
 people, for what they deemed a trifling consideration. 
 Leaving their gold and silver behind them,for clothes, 
 arms, ammunition and provisions, they embarked in 
 quest of more. However, the proprietors, having 
 intelligence of the encouragement given to pirates 
 by Governor Quarry, dismissed him from the office 
 he held ; and, in 1685, Landgrave Joseph Morton 
 was reinstated in the government of the colony. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 913 
 
 During the reign of James II., the hardships unde 
 which the people of Britain laboured, and thi 
 troubles they apprehended, brought much strengtl 
 to the colonies. The unsuccessful or unfortunate 
 are easily induced to emigrate ; but the oppressec 
 and persecuted are driven from their country, how- 
 ever closely their affections may cleave to it. Such 
 imprudent attempts were made by this prince 
 against what the nation highly revered, that many 
 Protestants deserted it, preferring the hardships of 
 the first state of colonization abroad to oppression al 
 home. 
 
 The next acquisition America gained, was from th 
 revocation of the edict of Nantz ; inconsequence ol 
 which the flames of persecution broke out in France, 
 and drove many of its best subjects out of that king- 
 dom. These Protestant refugees were beneficial 
 in many respects to England and Holland, and served 
 greatly to promote the trade and manufactures ol 
 these nations. Among the other colonies in America 
 which reaped advantage from this impolitic measure 
 of France, Carolina had a large share. Many of the 
 Protestant refugees, having purchased lands from 
 the proprietors, embarked with their families for 
 that colony, and proved some of its best and most 
 industrious inhabitants. 
 
 The progress in cultivation which the colonists of 
 Carolina had yet made was small, and the heat of 
 the climate, and the labours of the field, had proved 
 fatal to many of them. Yet their cattle increased 
 in an amazing manner, and thrived exceedingly 
 well in the ibrests. Having little winter, the woods 
 furnished them with both shelter and provisions all 
 the year; neither houses nor attendants were pro- 
 vided for them, but each planter's cattle, distin- 
 guished only by his mark, every where grazed with 
 freedom. Hogs still fared better, and increased 
 faster. The woods abounded with acorns, and roots 
 of different kinds, on which they fed and fattened, 
 and were reckoned most excellent food. Stocks of 
 cattle, at this period, were a great object with the 
 planters, for several reasons. Little labour was re- 
 quisite to raise and render them profitable. The 
 planters were at no trouble in building houses for 
 them, nor at any expense in feeding them. If 
 either cattle or hogs were fed, it must only have 
 been intended to accustom them to keep nigh their 
 owner's abode, or to return under his eye every 
 evening. Besides, a planter fond of hunting might 
 supply his family with game through the year, with 
 which the woods abounded, and save his stock. 
 Horses were also bred in the same manner, and 
 though they degenerated greatly, they multiplied 
 fast. No part of the world could prove more fa- 
 vourable to poultry of all kinds. By the trade of 
 the colony to the West Indies, they had rum and 
 sugar in return for their lumber and provisions ; 
 arid England supplied them with clothes, arms, am- 
 munition, and utensils, for building and cultivation, 
 in exchange for their deer-skins, furs, and naval 
 stores. 
 
 Turpentine is the gum in a liquid state of that 
 species of the pine-tree called the pitch-pine, ex- 
 tracted by incision and the heat of the sun, while 
 the tree is growing. The common manner of ob- 
 taining it is as follows. About the first of January 
 the persons employed in making turpentine begin 
 to cut boxes in the trees, a little above the ground, 
 and make them large or small, in proportion to the 
 size of the tree ; the box of a large tree will hold 
 two English quarts, of a middling tree one, and of 
 a small one, a pint. About the middle of March, 
 
 HIST, or AMBR. Nos. 115 & 116. 
 
 when the weather becomes warm, they begin to 
 
 bleed, which is done by cutting about an inch into 
 the sap of the tree with a joiner's hatchet; these 
 
 channels made in the green standing tree, are 
 framed so as to meet in a point where the boxes are 
 made to receive the gum ; then the bark is peeled 
 off that side of the tree which is exposed to the sun, 
 that the heat may extract the turpentine. After 
 bleeding, if rain should happen to fall, it not only 
 condenses the sap, but also contracts the orifices of 
 the vessels that discharge the gum, and therefore 
 the trees must be bled afresh. About fourteen days 
 after bleeding, the boxes will be full of turpentine, 
 and must be emptied into a barrel. When the 
 boxes are full, an able hand will fill two barrels in 
 a day. A thousand trees will yield at every ga- 
 thering about two barrels and a half of turpentine, 
 and it may be gathered once every fourteen days, 
 till the frost comes, which chills the sap, and obligeg 
 the labourer to apply to some other employment, until 
 the next season for boxing shall approach. The 
 oil of turpentine is obtained by distillation; and 
 rosin is the remainder of the turpentine, after the oil 
 is distilled from it. 
 
 From the same pine-trees tar and pitch are also 
 made, but by a different mode of operation. " For 
 extracting tar they prepare a circular floor of clay, 
 declining a little towards the centre, from which 
 there is laid a pipe of* wood, extending almost hori- 
 zontally two feet without the circumference, and so 
 let into the ground, that its upper side may be level 
 with the floor : at the outer end of this pipe they 
 dig a hole large enough to hold the barrels of tar, 
 which, when forced out of the wood, naturally runs 
 to the centre of the floor as the lowest part, and 
 from thence along the pipe into the barrels. Mat- 
 ters being thus prepared, they raise upon the clay 
 floor a large pile of dry pine-wood split in pieces, 
 and enclose the whole pile with a wall of earth, 
 leaving only a little hole in the top, where the fire 
 is to be kindled ; when that is done, and the en- 
 closed wood begins to burn, the whole is stopped 
 up with earth, that there may be no flame, but 
 only heat sufficient to force the tar out of the wood, 
 and make it run down to the floor. They temper 
 the heat as they think proper, by thrusting a stick 
 through the wall of earth, and le'tting the air in at 
 as many places as they judge necessary. As to 
 pitch, it is nothing more than the solid part of the 
 tar separated from the liquid by boiling." 
 
 As Carolina abounds with this kind of pine trees, 
 vast quantities of pi^ch, tar, and turpentine might 
 lave been made in it. At this early period the set- 
 tlers, having little strength to fell the thick forest, 
 and clear the lands for cultivating grain, naturally 
 applied themselves to such articles as were in de- 
 mand in England, and for procuring which moderate 
 
 abour was requisite. Lumber was a bulky article, 
 and required a number of ships to export it. Naval 
 stores were more valuable and less bulky, at the same 
 time that the labour necessary to obtain them was 
 easier, and more adapted to European constitution 
 The province as yet could supply Britain with 
 
 ery inconsiderable -quantity of naval stores; bit 
 by encouraging the planters in preparing them, the 
 expense of its vast importations from the Baltic might 
 jave been in some measure saved to the nation. 
 
 Though Governor Morton was possessed of a 
 considerable share of wisdom, and was connected 
 with several respectable families in the colony, yet 
 o inconsistent were his instructions from England, 
 nth the prevailing views and interests of the people, 
 
 4 H 
 
914 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 that he was unable, without great trouble, to execute 
 the duties of his trust. He was a man of a sober 
 and religious temper of mind, and had married a 
 Mr. Blake's sister, lately arrived from England, by 
 which alliance it was hoped the hands of government 
 would be strengthened, and a check given to' the 
 more licentious and irregular party of the people. 
 His council was composed of John Boone, Maurice 
 Mathews, John Godfrey, Andrew Percival, Arthur 
 M'iddleton, James Moore, and others; some of 
 whom differed widely from him in opinion with re- 
 spect to public measures, and claimed greater in- 
 dulgences for the people than he had authority to 
 grant. Hence two parties arose in the colony : 
 one in support of the prerogative and authority of 
 the proprietors, the other in defence of the liberties 
 of the people. The former contended, that the laws 
 and regulations received from England respecting 
 government ought to be strictly and implicitly ob- 
 served: the latter kept in view their local circum- 
 stances, and maintained, that the freemen of the 
 colony were under obligations to observe them only 
 so far as they were consistent with the interest of 
 individuals, and the prosperity of the settlement. 
 In this situation of affairs, no governor could long 
 support his power among a number of bold adven- 
 turers, who improved every hour for advancing 
 the interest, and could bear no restraints which 
 had the least tendency to defeat their favourite riews 
 and designs : for whenever he attempted to inter- 
 pose his feeble authority, they insulted his person 
 and complained of his administration, till he was 
 removed from his office. 
 
 The proprietors also finding it prudent to change 
 their governor so soon as he became obnoxious to 
 the people, James Colleton at this time was ap- 
 pointed to supersede Joseph Morton. He was a bro- 
 ther to Sir Peter Colleton, one of the proprietors, but 
 was possessed neither of his address nor abilities for 
 the management of public affairs. He left Barba- 
 does and retired to Carolina, where he built an ex- 
 cellent house on Cooper river, in hopes of settling 
 in that country, and long enjoying, by the influ- 
 ence of his brother, the emoluments of his office in 
 tranquillity and happiness. To give him the greater 
 weight, he was created a landgrave of the colony, to 
 which dignity 48,000 acres of land were uualienably 
 annexed : but to his mortification he soon found, 
 that the proprietary government had acquired but 
 little firmness and stability, and, by his imprudence 
 and rigour, fell into still greater disrespect and 
 contempt. 
 
 About the year 1687, having called an assembly 
 of the representatives, he proposed to make some 
 new regulations respecting the government of the 
 colony. Having examined the fundamental consti- 
 tutions, and finding the people disposed to make 
 many objections to them, he thought proper to no- 
 minate a committee, to consider wherein they were 
 improper or defective, and to make such alterations 
 and amendments in them as they judged might be 
 conducive to the welfare of the country. This com- 
 mittee consisted of the Governor, Paul Grimball, the 
 secretary, William Dunlop, Bernard Schinking, 
 Thomas Smith, John Far, and Joseph Blake. Ac- 
 cordingly, by these men a new code of laws was 
 framed, consisting of many articles different from 
 the former, which they called " Standing Laws," 
 and transmitted to England for the approbation of 
 the proprietors. These standing laws, however, the 
 proprietors rejected, and insisted on thfi observance 
 of the fundamental constitution* ; and all the while 
 
 the people treated both with equal indifference and 
 neglect. 
 
 At this early period a dissatisfaction with the pro- 
 prietary government appeared, and began to gain 
 ground among the people. A dispute having arisen 
 between the governor and the house of assembly 
 about the tenures of lands and the payment of quit- 
 rents, Landgrave Colleton determined to exert his' 
 authority, in compelling the people to pay up their 
 arrears of quit-rents, which, though very trifling and 
 inconsiderable, were burdensome, as not one acre 
 out of a thousand of these lands for which quit-rents 
 were demanded yielded them any profit. For this 
 purpose, he wrote to the proprietors, requesting them 
 to appoint such deputies as he knew to be most fa- 
 vourably disposed towards their government, and 
 would most readily assist him in the execution of 
 his office. Hence the interest of the proprietors and 
 that of the people were placed in opposition, and the 
 more rigorously the governor exerted his authority, 
 the more turbulent the people became. At last they 
 proceeded to avowed usurpation : they issued writs in 
 their own name, and held assemblies in opposition 
 to the governor and the authority of the proprietors. 
 Letters from England, containing deputations to 
 persons obnoxious to the people, they seized and 
 suppressed, and appointed other men better affected 
 to the popular cause. Paul Grimball, the secretary 
 of the province, they imprisoned, and forcibly took 
 possession of the public records. The militia act 
 they refused to settle, because recommended by the 
 governor, even though their own security depended 
 on it. In short, the little community was turned 
 into a scene of confusion, and every man acted as 
 he thought proper, without any regard to legal au- 
 thority, and in contempt of the governor and other 
 officers of the proprietors. 
 
 Landgrave Colleton, mortified at the loss of power, 
 and alarmed at the bold and seditious spirit of the 
 people, was not a little perplexed what step to take in 
 order to recall them to the obedience of legal authority. 
 Gentle means he perceived would be vaia and in- 
 effectual. One expedient was suggested, which he 
 and his council flattered themselves might be pro- 
 ductive of the desired effect, and induce the people 
 through fear to return to his standard, and stand by 
 the person who alone had authority to punish mutiny 
 and sedition, which was to proclaim the martial law, 
 and try to maintain by force of arms the proprietary 
 jurisdiction. Accordingly, without acquainting the 
 people with his design, he caused the militia to be 
 drawn up, as if some danger had threatened the 
 country, and publicly proclaimed the martial law at 
 their head. His design, however, did not long re- 
 main a secret, and when discovered, served only to 
 exasperate the people the more. The members of 
 the assembly met, and taking this measure snifter 
 their deliberation, resolved, that it was an encroach- 
 ment upon their liberties, and an unwarrantable ex- 
 ertion of power, at a time when the colony was in 
 no danger from any foreign enemy. The governor, 
 howerer, insisted on the articles of war, and triedr-- 
 to carry the martial law into execution ; but the 
 disaffection was too general to admit of such a re- 
 medy. In the year 1690, at a meeting of the re- 
 presentatives, a bill was brought in and passed, for 
 disabling Landgrave James Colleton from holding 
 any office, or exercising any authority, civil or 
 military, within the province : and so outrageous 
 were they against him, that they gave him notice, 
 that in a limited time, he must depart from the 
 country. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 915 
 
 During these public commotions Seth Sothell 
 pretending to be a proprietor by virtue of some re- 
 gulations lately made in England, usurped the go- 
 vernment of the colony. At first the people seemed 
 disposed to acknowledge his authority, while the 
 current of their enmity ran against Landgrave Col- 
 leton ; and as he had stood forth as an active and 
 leading man in opposition to that governor, and 
 ratified the law for his exclusion and banishment : 
 but afterwards, finding him to be void of every prin- 
 ciple of honour and honesty, they persecuted him 
 also with deserved and implacable enmity. Such 
 was the insatiable avarice of this usurper, that his 
 popularity was of short duration. Every restraint of 
 common justice and equity was trampled upon by him; 
 and oppression, such as usually attends the exal- 
 tation of vulgar and ambitious scramblers for power, 
 extended her rod of iron over the distracted colony 
 The fair traders from Barbadoes and Bermuda were 
 seized as pirates by order of this popular governor, 
 and confined until such fees as he was pleased to 
 exact were paid him : bribes from felons and trai- 
 tors were accepted to favour their escape from the 
 hands of justice : plantations were forcibly taken 
 possession of, upon pretences the most frivolous 
 and unjust, and planters were compelled to give 
 bonds for large sums of money, to procure from him 
 liberty to remain in possession of their property. 
 These, and many more acts of the like atrocious 
 nature, did this rapacious governor commit, during 
 the short time of his administration, to increase his 
 fees as governor and proprietor. At length the 
 people, weary of his impositions and extortions, 
 agreed to take him by force, and ship him off for 
 England. To his other vile qualities he added 
 meanness of spirit, and humbly begged of them 
 liberty to remain in the country, promising to sub- 
 mit his conduct to the trial of the assembly at their 
 first meeting. When the assembly met, thirteen 
 different charges were brought against him, and all 
 supported by the strongest evidence : upon which, 
 being found guilty, they compelled him to abjure 
 the government and country for ever. An account 
 of his conduct was drawn up and sent to the pro- 
 prietors, which filled them with indignation. He 
 was ordered to England, to answer the accusations 
 brought against him before the palatine's court, 
 and, in case of refusal, was given to understand it 
 would be taken as a further evidence and confirma- 
 tion of his guilt. The law for disabling Landgrave 
 James Colleton from holding any authority, civil 
 or military in Carolina, was repealed, and strict 
 orders were sent out to the grand council, to sup- 
 port the power and prerogative of the proprietors. 
 To compose the minds of the people, they declared 
 their detestation of such unwarrantable and wanton 
 oppression, and protested that no governor should 
 ever be permitted to oppress them; enjoining them, 
 at the same time, to return to the obedience of their 
 magistrates, and subjection to legal authority. 
 
 Hitherto this little community had been a scene 
 of continual contention and misery. The funda- 
 mental constitutions, which the proprietors thought 
 the most excellent form of government possible, 
 had been little regarded. The governors had been 
 either ill qualified for their office, or the instructions 
 given them had been unacceptable to the people. 
 The inhabitants, far from living in friendship and 
 harmony among themselves, had also been seditious 
 and ungovernable. Indeed, while the proprietary 
 government continued to be thus weak and un- 
 stable, its authority could be little respected; and 
 
 while the encouragement given to civil officers and 
 magistrates was trifling and inconsiderable, men of 
 judgment and ability would not throw away their time 
 and pains for supporting the honour and authority 
 of others, which might be otherwise employed to 
 purposes more advantageoxis to themselves. The 
 titles of Landgraves and Cassiques did not compen- 
 sate for the loss of such time and labour, especially 
 when they were only joined with large tracts of 
 land which, for want of hands, must lie uncultivated. 
 The money arising from quit-rents and the sale of 
 lands was inconsiderable, hard to be collected, and 
 by no means adequate to the support of government. 
 The proprietors were unwilling to involve their 
 English estates for the improvement of American 
 property ; and hence their government was feeble 
 and ill supported in Carolina. 
 
 The French refugees Philip Ludwell, governor- 
 Harsh treatment of the refugees Juries chosen by 
 ballot Pirates favoured by the colonists Thomas 
 Smith, governor The planting of rice introduced 
 The employment of negroes Indians' complaints 
 John Archdale, governor His new regulations 
 Joseph Blake, governor The French in Florida- 
 Refugees incorporated by law Depredations of 
 pirates Calamities of the province James Moore, 
 governor Lord Granville, palatine An established 
 church projected Expedition against Augustine 
 The first paper currency Expedition against the 
 Apaluchian Indians System of culture in the co- 
 lony. 
 
 The French Protestant refugees met with encou- 
 ragement in England after King William's acces- 
 sion to the throne, and the parliament voted J5,0(JO/. 
 sterling, to be distributed among persons of rank, 
 and all such as through age or infirmities were 
 unable to support themselves or families. To arti- 
 ficers and manufacturers encouragement was offered 
 in England and Ireland, which contributed much to 
 the improvement of the silk and linen manufactures 
 of these kingdoms. To husbandmen and merchants 
 agreeable prospects were opened in the British co- 
 lonies; and, in 1690, the king sent a large body of 
 these people to Virginia. Lands were allotted them 
 on the banks of St. James's river, which, by their 
 industry, they soon improved into excellent estates. 
 Others purchased lands from the proprietors of Ca- 
 rolina, transported themselves and families to that 
 quarter, and settled a colony on Santee river. 
 Others, who were merchants and mechanics, took 
 up their residence in Charlestown, and followed 
 their different occupations. At this period these 
 new settlers were a great acquisition to Carolina. 
 They had taken the oath of allegiance to the king, 
 and promised fidelity to the proprietors. They 
 were disposed to look on the colonists, whom they 
 had joined, in the favourable light of brethren and 
 fellow-adventurers, and though they understood not 
 the English language, yet they were desirous of 
 living in peace with their neighbours, and willing 
 to stand forth on all occasions of danger with them, 
 for the common safety and defence. 
 
 About the same time Philip Ludwell, a gentleman 
 from Virginia, being appointed governor of Caro- 
 lina, arrived in the province. Sir Nathaniel John- 
 son, who had been general of the Leeward Islands 
 in the rei^n of King James, being created a Cassique 
 of Carolina, after the revolution retired to that 
 country, and took his seat as a member of the coun- 
 cil. The proprietors having found the fundamental 
 constitutions disagreeable to the people, and inef- 
 
 4H2 
 
916 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 fectual for the purposes of government, repealed all 
 their former laws and regulations, excepting those 
 called Agrarian Laws, and sent out a new plan of 
 government to Mr, Ludwell, consisting of 43 arti- 
 cles of instruction, for the better management of 
 their colony. The inhabitants, who had been long 
 in a turbulent state, were enjoined to obedience ; 
 but liberty was granted to the representatives of the 
 people to frame such laws as they judged necessary 
 10 the public welfare, which were to continue in force 
 for two years, but no longer, unless they were in 
 the mean time ratified and confirmed by the pala- 
 tine and three more proprietors. Lands for the 
 cassiques and landgraves were ordered to be marked 
 out in square plats, and freedom was granted them 
 to choose their situation. Hitherto the planters re- 
 mained utter strangers to the value and fertility of 
 the low lands, the swamps were therefore carefully 
 avoided, and large tracts of the higher lands, which 
 were esteemed more precious, were surveyed, and 
 marked out for estates by the provincial nobility. 
 
 Governor Ludwell, who was a man of great hu- 
 manity, and considerable knowledge and experi- 
 ence in provincial affairs, by themany indulgences he 
 was authorized to grant, had the good fortune to 
 allay the ferment among the people, and reconcile 
 them to the proprietors. But this domestic tran- 
 quillity was of short duration. New sources of dis- 
 content broke out from a different quarter. He had 
 instructions to allow the French colony settled in 
 Craven county, the same privileges and liberties 
 with the English colonists. Several of the refugees 
 being possessed of considerable property in France, 
 had sold it, and brought the money with them to 
 England. Having purchased large tracts of land 
 with this money, they sat down in more advanta- 
 geous circumstances than the poorer part of English 
 emigrants. Some of them, who had gone to the 
 northern provinces, hearing of the kind treatment 
 and great encouragement their brethren had received 
 in Carolina, joined their countrymen there. Hav- 
 ing clergymen of their own persuasion, for whom 
 they entertained the highest respect and veneration, 
 they were disposed to encourage them as much as 
 their narrow circumstances would admit. Governor 
 Ludwell received the foreigners with great civility, 
 and was not a little solicitous to provide them with 
 settlements equal to their expectations. While these 
 refugees were entering on the hard task of clearing 
 and cultivating spots of land, encouraging and re- 
 lieving each other as much as was in their power, 
 the English settlers began to revive the odious dis- 
 tinctions and rooted antipathies of the two nations, 
 and to consider them as aliens and foreigners, en- 
 titled by law to none of the privileges and advantages 
 of natural-born subjects. The governor had instruc- 
 tions to allow them six representatives in assembly ; 
 which privilege the Englishmen considered as con- 
 trary to the English laws, and beyond the power of 
 the proprietors to grant; and instead of considering 
 these persecuted strangers as fellow-labourers, they 
 began to execute the laws of England respecting 
 aliens in their utmost rigour against them. Their 
 turbulent spirits thought it a degradation to receive 
 laws in common with Frenchmen, who they said 
 were the favourers of a system of slavery and abso- 
 lute government. In this unfavourable light they 
 were held forth to the people, to their great preju- 
 dice, and the occasioning no small jealousies and ap- 
 prehensions in the colony. 
 
 The refugees, alarmed at these proceedings, and 
 discouraged at the prospect of being deprived of all 
 
 the rights and liberties of British subjects, began to 
 suspect that the oppression of England would fall 
 heavierupon them than that of France from which they 
 had fled. Dejected at the thoughts of labouring they 
 knew not for whom, if their children could not reap 
 the fruits of their labours, or if their estates should 
 escheat to the proprietors at their decease, they 
 could consider themselves only as deceived and' im- 
 posed upon by false promises and prospects ; and 
 after holding several consultations among them- 
 selves about their deplorable circumstances, they 
 agreed to state their case before the proprietors, and 
 beg their advice. In answer to which the proprie- 
 tors instructed Governor Ludwell to inform them, 
 " that they would enquire what does in law qualify 
 an alien born for the enjoyment of the rights and 
 privileges of English subjects, and in due time let 
 them know ; that, for their part, they would take 
 no advantages of the present grievous circumstances 
 of the refugees ; that their lands should descend to 
 such persons as they thought proper to beqeath 
 them ; that the children of such as had been married 
 in the same way were not deemed bastards in En- 
 gland, nor could they be considered as such in Ca- 
 rolina, where such unlimited toleration was allowed 
 to all men by their charter." Though this served 
 in some measure to compose the minds of the refu- 
 gees, yet while the people harboured prejudices 
 against them, the relief was only partial ; and at the 
 next election of members to serve in assembly, Craven 
 county, in which they lived, was not allowed a single 
 representative. 
 
 From the first settlement of the colony, the com- 
 mon method of obtaining lands in it was by pur- 
 chase, either from the proprietors themselves, or 
 from officers commissioned by them, who disposed 
 of them agreeably to their directions. Twenty 
 pounds sterling for 1000 acres of land, and more or 
 less, in proportion to the quantity, was commonly 
 demanded, although the proprietors might accept of 
 any acknowledgment they thought proper. The emi- 
 grants having obtained warrants, had liberty to go 
 in search of vacant ground, and to fix upon such 
 spots as they judged most valuable and convenient. 
 This was surveyed, and marked out to them, accord- 
 ing to the extent of their purchase, and plats and 
 grants were signed, registered and delivered to 
 them, reserving one shilling quit-rent for every 100 
 acres, to be paid annually to the proprietors. Such 
 persons as could not advance the sum demanded by 
 way of purchase, obtained lands on condition of 
 paying one penny annual-rent for every acre Ito the 
 landlords. The former, however, was the common 
 method of obtaining landed estates in Carolina^ and 
 the tenure was a freehold. The refugees naving 
 purchased their estates, and meeting with sucn harsh 
 treatment from the colonists, were greatly uiscou- 
 raged, and became apprehensive, notwithstanding 
 the promises of the proprietors, that they haoxinly^ 
 escaped one abyss of misery to plunge themselves 
 deeper into another. 
 
 About this time 40 men arrived in a privateer, 
 called the Royal Jamaica, who had been engaged 
 in a course of piracy, and brought into the country 
 a great quantity of Spanish gold and silver. These 
 men were allowed to enter into recognisances for 
 their good behaviour for one year, with securities, 
 till the governor should hear whether the proprietors 
 would grant them a general indemnity. At another 
 time a vessel was shipwrecked on the coast, the crew 
 of which openly and boldly confessed, they had 
 been on the Red sea plundering the dominions or 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 917 
 
 the Great Mogul: an assertion which proved a 
 unfortunate to themselves as it was apparently in 
 correct ; for it is difficult to say when the Mogul em 
 pire was extended to the Red Sea : it probably mean 
 the ships of that monarch. The proprietors wer 
 disposed to consider piracy in an inimical manner 
 and therefore instructed Governor Ludwell to chang 
 the form of electing juries, and required that al 
 pirates should be tried and punished by the laws o 
 England made for the suppression of piracy. Befon 
 such instructions reached Carolina, the pirates, by 
 their money and freedom of intercourse with the 
 people, had so ingratiated themselves into the public 
 favour, that it was become no easy matter to bring 
 them to trial, and dangerous to punish them as thei 
 deserved. The courts of law became scenes of al 
 tercation, discord and confusion. Bold and seditious 
 speeches were made from the bar, in contempt of the 
 proprietors and their government. Since no par- 
 dons could be obtained but such as they had autho- 
 rized the governor to grant, the assembly took the 
 matter under deliberation, and fell into hot debates 
 among themselves about a bill of indemnity. When 
 they found the governor disposed to refuse his assent 
 to such a bill, they made a law empowering magis- 
 trates and judges to put in force the habeas corpus 
 act made in England. Hence it happened, that 
 several of those pirates escaped, purchased lands 
 from the colonists, and took up their residence in 
 the country. While money flowed into the colony 
 in this channel, the authority of government was a 
 barrier too feeble to stem the tide, and prevent such 
 illegal practices. At length the proprietors, to gra- 
 tify the people, granted an indemnity to all the 
 pirates, excepting those who had been said to have 
 plundered the Great Mogul, most of whom found 
 means of making their escape out of the country. 
 
 In this community there subsisted a constant 
 struggle between the people and the officers of the 
 proprietors : the former claiming great exemptions 
 and indulgences, on account of their indigent and 
 dangerous circumstances; the latter being anxious 
 to disharge the duties of their trust, and to comply 
 with the instructions of their superiors. When 
 quit-rents were demanded, some refused payment, 
 and others had nothing to offer. When actions 
 were brought against all those who were in arrears, 
 the poor planters murmured and complained among 
 themselves, and were discontented at the terms of 
 holding their lands, though, comparatively speak- 
 ing, easy and advantageous. It was impossible for 
 any governor to please both parties. The fees also 
 of their courts and sheriffs were such, that, in all 
 actions of small value, they exceeded the debt to be 
 recovered by them. To remedy this inconvenience, 
 the assembly made a law for empowering justices of 
 the peace to hear, and finally to determine, all causes 
 of 40s. sterling value and under. This was equally 
 agreeable to the people, as it was otherwise to the 
 officers of justice. At length, to gratify the planters, 
 the governor proposed to the assembly, to consider 
 of a new form of a deed for holding lands, by which 
 he encroached on the prerogative of the proprietors, 
 who had reserved to themselves the sole power of 
 judging in such a case, incurred their displeasure, 
 and was soon after removed from the government. 
 
 To find another man equally well qualified for the 
 trust, was a matter at this time of no small difficulty 
 to the proprietors. Thomas Smith, possessed of 
 considerable property, was much esteemed by the 
 people for his good sense and sobriety ; and such a 
 person they deemed would be the most proper to 
 
 succeed Ludwell, as he would naturally be both 
 zealous and active in promoting the prosperity of 
 the settlement. Accordingly a patent was sent out 
 to him, creating him a landgrave, and, together 
 with it, a commission, investing him with the go- 
 vernment of the colony. Mr. Ludwell returned to 
 Virginia, happily relieved from a troublesome office, 
 and Landgrave Smith, under all possible advantages, 
 entered on it. He was previously acquainted with 
 the state of the colony, and with" the tempers and 
 complexions of the leading men in it. He knew 
 that the interest of the proprietors, and the prospe- 
 rity of the settlement were inseparably connected ; 
 and he was disposed to allow the people, struggling 
 under many hardships, every indulgence consistent 
 with the duties of his trust. No stranger could 
 have been appointed to the government that could 
 boast of being in circumstances equally favourable 
 and advantageous. 
 
 About this time a fortunate accident happened, 
 which occasioned the introduction of rice into Ca- 
 rolina, a commodity which was afterwards found 
 very suitable to the climate and soil of the country. 
 A brigantine, from the island of Madagascar, touch- 
 ing at that place in her way to Britain, came to 
 anchor off Sullivan's island. There Landgrave 
 Smith, upon an invitation from the captain, paid 
 lim a visit, and received from him a present of a 
 >ag of seed-rice, which he said he had seen growing 
 n eastern countries, where it was deemed excellent 
 food, and produced an incredible increase. The 
 governor divided his bag of rice between Stephen 
 3ull, Joseph Woodward, and some other friends, 
 who agreed to make the experiment, and planted 
 heir small parcels in different soils. Upon trial 
 ,hey found it answer their highest expectations. 
 Some years afterwards, Mr. Du Bois, treasurer to 
 he East India Company, sent a bag of seed-rice to 
 Carolina, which, it is supposed, gave rise to the dis- 
 inction of red and white rice, which are both cul- 
 ivated in that country. Several years, however, 
 (lapsed, before the planters found out the art of 
 >eating and cleaning it to perfection, or discovered 
 hat the lowest and richest lands were best adapted 
 o the nature of the grain ; yet, from this period, 
 he colonists persevered in planting it, and every 
 r ear gave them greater encouragement. From this 
 mall beginning did the staple commodity of Caro- 
 ina take its rise, which soon became the chief sup- 
 >ort of the colony, and its great source of opulence, 
 besides provisions for man and beast, as rice em- 
 >loys a number of hands in trade, it became also a 
 ource of naval strength to the nation, and of course 
 more beneficial to it, than even mines of silver and 
 old. 
 
 With the introduction of rice planting into ihlt 
 ountry, and the fixing upon it as its staple commc- 
 ity, the necessity of employing African slaves for 
 ic purpose of cultivation was coupled ; a circum- 
 iance which could only be justified if their labour 
 ad been voluntary, and they had been induced to 
 ettle in a climate not unsuitable to their constitution. 
 
 During the government of Cromwell in England, 
 onsiderations of mercantile profit became connected 
 rith those of government. After the conquest of 
 amaica, it was resolved, that the nation should 
 lake a commercial profit of every colony that had 
 een, or should be, planted in the western world 
 it the restoration the same turn in politics was also 
 dopted, and the parliament which brought about 
 lat great event made a law, by which it was enacted, 
 jat no sugar, cotton, wool, indigo, ginger, fustic 
 
918 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 upon Tweed, upon pain of forfeiture of ship and 
 ; that, for every vessel sailing from England, 
 
 or other dyeing wood, of the growth of any English 
 plantation in Asia, Africa, or America, should be 
 transported to any other place than to some English 
 plantation, ^r to England, Ireland, Wales, and Ber- 
 wick 
 goods 
 
 Ireland, Wales, and" Berwick upon Tweed," bond 
 shall be given, with security of 1000J. or 2000/. ster- 
 ling, money of Great Britain, that if she load any of 
 the said commodities at such plantations, she shall 
 bring them to some port of these English dominions. 
 And for every vessel coming to the said plantations 
 the governor shall, before she be permitted to load, 
 take such bond as aforesaid, that she shall carry 
 such commodities to England, Ireland, Wales, or 
 Berwick upon Tweed. This laid the foundation of what 
 was afterwards called " enumerated commodities;" 
 and to these already mentioned, rice, hemp, copper- 
 ore, beaver-skins, and naval stores, were afterwards 
 added, and, with some exceptions, subjected to the 
 same restraint. 
 
 This navigation law, though it cramped the trade 
 of the colonies, yet has been attended with many 
 beneficial consequences to Britain: and while it 
 maintained the supreme power of legislation through- 
 out the empire, and wisely regulated the trade and 
 commerce of its foreign settlements, it might reap 
 many and substantial advantages from them. It 
 might render them a market for its own manufac- 
 tures, and at the same time supply itself with such 
 commodities as its northern climate obliged it to 
 purchase from other nations. By such means it 
 might enlarge commerce and trade, at the same time 
 it increased its naval strength. Colonies planted in 
 the same latitude with the parent state, raising the 
 same productions, and enjoying the same privileges, 
 must in time be both detrimental and dangerous ; 
 for while they drain it of inhabitants, they are 
 growing strong upon its ruins. They meet at the 
 same market with the same commodities, a compe- 
 tition arises between them, and occasions jealousies, 
 quarrels, and animosities. 
 
 From Carolina indeed Britain had less to fear 
 than from the more northern colonies, as the lati- 
 tude was more remote, and the soil better suited to 
 different productions. Here the people naturally 
 engaged in pursuits different from those of the mother- 
 country, and a mutual exchange of commodities and 
 good offices would of consequence the more necessa- 
 rily take place. They might barter their skins, furs, 
 and naval stores, for clothes, arms, ammunition, and 
 
 from 
 
 utensils necessary for cultivation, impoi'ted 
 England. They might send their provisions, lum- 
 ber, and Indian captives to the West Indies, and 
 receive the luxuries of these islands, and the refuse 
 of their cargoes of slaves, in return, without any 
 prejudice to Britain : for as the two climates differed 
 greatly, they were of consequence adapted to differ- 
 ent articles of produce. To such staples the first 
 views of the planters ought to have been chiefly di- 
 rected, and, for their encouragement in raising them, 
 premiums from the proprietors might have been at- 
 tended with the most beneficial effects. 
 
 Before this time the Carolineans had found out 
 the policy of setting one tribe of Indians against 
 another, on purpose to save themselves. By trifling 
 presents they purchased the friendship of some tribes, 
 whom they employed to carry on war with others, 
 which not only diverted their attention from them, 
 but encouraged them to bring captives to Charles- 
 town, for the purpose of transportation to the West 
 Indies, and the advantage of trade. 
 
 In the year 1G93, twenty Cherokee chiefs waited 
 on Governor Smith, with presents and proposals of 
 friendship, craving the protection of government 
 against the Esaw and Congaree Indians, who had 
 destroyed several of their towns, and taken a num- 
 ber of their people prisoners. They complained 
 also of the outrages of the Savanna Indians, for 
 selling their countrymen, contrary to former regu- 
 lations established among the different tribes ; and 
 begged the governor to restore their relations, and 
 protect them against such insidious enemies. The 
 governor declared to them, that there was nothing 
 he wished for more than friendship and peace with 
 the Cherokee warriors, and would do every thing 
 in his power for their defence : that the prisoners 
 were already gone, and could not be recalled ; but 
 that he would for the future take care that a stop 
 should be put to the custom of sending them out of 
 the country. At the same time the Chihaw king 
 complained of the cruel treatment he had received 
 from John Palmer, who had barbarously beat and 
 cut him with his broad-sword. In answer to which 
 charge Palmer was contumacious, and protested, in 
 defiance and contempt of both governor and council, 
 that he would again treat him in like manner upon 
 the same provocation ; for which he was ordered 
 into custody, until he asked pardon of the house, 
 and found security for his future peaceable beha- 
 viour to the Indians. Such instances of harsh 
 treatment serve to account for many outrages of In- 
 dian nations, who were neither insensible to the 
 common feelings of human nature, nor ignorant of 
 he grievous frauds and impositions they suffered in 
 the course of traffic. By some planters indeed they 
 were used with greater humanity, and employed as 
 servants to cultivate their lands, or hunt for^ fresh 
 provisions to their families; and as the woods 
 abounded with deer, rabbits, turkeys, geese, ducks, 
 snipes, &c., which were all accounted game, an ex- 
 pert hunter was of great service in a plantation, 
 nd could furnish a family with more provisions than 
 they could consume. 
 
 With respect to government, Carolina still re- 
 mained in a confused and turbulent state. Com- 
 plaints from every quarter were made to the gover- 
 nor, who was neither able to quiet the minoVnf the 
 people, nor afford them the relief they wanted. IKhe 
 French refugees were uneasy that there was no prb- 
 vincial law to secure their estates to the heirs of theijr 
 body, or the next in kin, and were afraid that the/r 
 lands at their death would escheat to\he proupie- 
 
 ith- 
 
 e proj 
 ;~-ftofvv 
 
 tors, and their children become beggars 
 standing their industry and application ; and con- 
 cluded that, in such case, the sooner they removed 
 from the colony the better it would be for themselves 
 and their posterity. The English colonists not only 
 kept up variances among themselves, but also per- 
 plexed the governor with their complaints of hard- 
 ships and grievances. At last Landgrave Smith 
 wrote to the proprietors, and frankly told them, that 
 he despaired of ever uniting the people in interest 
 and affection ; that he and many more, weary of the 
 fluctuating state of public affairs, had resolved to 
 leave the province; and that he was convinced 
 nothing would bring the settlers to a state of tran- 
 quillity and harmony but the arrival of one of the 
 proprietors, with full powers to redress grievances, 
 and settle differences. 
 
 The proprietors, astonished at the discontented and 
 turbulent spirit of the people, y-t anxious to pre- 
 vent the settlement from being deserted and ruined, 
 resolved to try the remedy Smith had suggested; 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 919 
 
 and accordingly selected Lord Ashley, to visit Caro- 
 lina, and invested him with full powers to establish 
 such regulations as he judged most conducive to the 
 peace and welfare of the colony. Lord Ashley, how- 
 ever, having either little inclination to the voyage, 
 or being detained in England by business of greater 
 consequence, John Archdale agreed to embark in 
 his place. Archdale was a man of considerable know- 
 ledge and discretion, a Quaker, and a proprietor; 
 and great trust was reposed in him, and much was 
 expected from his negotiations. 
 
 In the mean time Landgrave Smith having re- 
 signed his charge, Daniel Blake was chosen gover- 
 nor, until the pleasure of the proprietors was known. 
 To no great a height had the antipathy of the English 
 settlers to the French refugees now grown, that they 
 insisted on their total exclusion from a voice in the 
 legislature ; and for this purpose an address was pre- 
 pared and signed by a great number of them, and 
 presented to Governor Blake, praying that the re- 
 fugees might not only be denied the privilege of 
 suiting as members of the legislative body, but also 
 of a vote at their election, and that the assembly 
 might be composed only of English members, chosen 
 by Englishmen. Their request, however, being con- 
 trary to the instructions of the proprietors, Blake, it 
 is probable, judged beyond his power to grant, and 
 therefore matters relating to them continued in the 
 same unsettled state, until the arrival of Governor 
 Archdalo, which happened about the middle of the 
 year 1695. 
 
 The arrival of this pious man occasioned no small 
 joy among all the settlers, who crowded about him, 
 each expecting some favour or indulgence. Amidst 
 the general joy, private animosities and civil discord 
 seemed for a while to lie buried in oblivion. The 
 governor soon found, that three interesting matters 
 demanded his particular attention. The first was, 
 to restore harmony and peace among the colonists 
 themselves ; the second, to reconcile them to the 
 jurisdiction and authority of the proprietors; and the 
 third, to regulate their policy and traffic with the In- 
 dian tribes. For these purposes be summoned his 
 council for advice, and the commissions to the dif- 
 ferent deputies were read. The members appointed 
 were Joseph Blake, Stephen Bull, James Moore, 
 Paul Grimball, Thomas Carey, John Beresford, and 
 William Hawett. All former judges of the courts, 
 officers of the militia, and justices of the peace, were 
 continued in their respective offices. But such was 
 the national antipathy of the English settlers to the 
 poor French refugees, that Archdale found their 
 total exclusion from all concern in legislature was 
 absolutely necessary to the peaceable convocation of 
 the delegates, and therefore issued writs directing 
 them only to Berkley and Colleton counties. Ten 
 members for the one, and ten for the other, all En- 
 glishmen, were accordingly chosen by the freemen 
 of the same nation. At their meeting the governor 
 made a seasonable speech to both houses, acquaint- 
 ing them with the design of his appointment, his re- 
 gard for the colony, and great desire of contributing 
 towards its peace and prosperity. They, in return, 
 presented affectionate-addresses to him, and entered 
 on public business with great temper and unanimity. 
 Many matters of general concern, by the gover- 
 nor's sensible discretion, were settled to the satisfac- 
 tion of all, excepting the French refugees. The 
 price of lands and the form of conveyances were fixed 
 by law. Three years' rent was remitted to those who 
 held land by grant, and four years to such as held 
 them by survey, without grant. Such lands as had es- 
 
 cheated to the proprietors, were ordered to be let out 
 or sold for their lordships' benefit. It was agreed 
 to take the arrears of quit-rents either in money or 
 commodities, as should be most easy and convenient 
 for the planters. Magistrates were appointed, for 
 hearing all causes between the settlers and Indians, 
 and finally determining all differences between them. 
 Public roads were ordered to be made, and water 
 passages cut, for the more easy conveyance of pro- 
 duce to the market. Some former laws were altered, 
 and such new statutes made as were judged requisite 
 for the good government and peace of the colony. In 
 short, public affairs began to put on an agreeable 
 aspect, and to promise fair towards the future pro- 
 gress and welfare of the settlement. But as for the 
 French refugees, all the governor could do for them 
 was, to recommend it to the English freeholders to 
 consider them in the most friendly and compassion- 
 ate point of light, and to treat them with lenity and 
 moderation. 
 
 No man could entertain more benevolent senti- 
 ments, with respect to the ignorant savages, than 
 Governor Archdale ; his compassion for them was 
 probably one of the weighty motives which induced 
 him to undertake the voyage to this country. To 
 protect them against insults, and establish a fair 
 trade and friendly intercourse "with them, were re- 
 gulations which both humanity required, and sound 
 policy dictated. But such was the rapacious spirit 
 of individuals, that it could be curbed by no autho- 
 rity. Many advantages were taken of the ignorance 
 of Indians in the way of traffic. The seizing and 
 selling them for slaves to the West Indian planters, 
 the colonists could not be prevailed on entirely to 
 resign, without much reluctance. At this time a war 
 raged between two Indian nations, the one living in 
 the British, the other in the Spanish territories. The 
 Yamassees, a powerful tribe in Carolina, having 
 made an incursion into Florida, took a number of 
 Indians prisoners, whom they brought to Charles- 
 town for sale to the provincial traders to Jamaica 
 and Barbadoes. Governor Archdale no sooner heard 
 of their arrival, than he ordered the Spanish Indians 
 to be brought to him, and finding that they had been 
 instructed in the rites and principles of the Catholic 
 religion, he represented it as an atrocious crime to 
 sell Christians of any denomination. To maintain 
 a good understanding between the two provinces, he 
 sent the prisoners to Augustine, and along with 
 them the Yamassee warriors, to treat of peace with 
 the Indians of Florida. The Spanish governor wrote 
 a letter to Mr. Arohdale, thanking him for his hu- 
 manity, and expressing a desire to live on terms of 
 friendship and peace with the Carolineans. In con- 
 sequence of which, Governor Archdale issued orders 
 to all Indians in the British interest, to forbear mo- 
 lesting those under the jurisdiction of Spain. Ths 
 two kings being at that time confederates, the like 
 orders were issued at St. Augustine, and in a short 
 time they were attended with beneficial effects. Such 
 wise steps served not only to prevent slaughter and 
 misery among these savages themselves, but an En- 
 glish vessel being accidentally shipwrecked on the 
 coast of Florida, the Indians did the crew no harm, 
 but, on the contrary, conducted them safe to Augus- 
 tine, where the commandant furnished them with 
 provisions, and sent them to the English settle- 
 ments. 
 
 Governor Archdale did not confine his views to 
 the establishment of a good correspondence with the 
 Indian nations on the south of this settlement, but 
 extended them also to those on the north side of it. 
 
920 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Stephen Bull, a member of the council and an In- 
 dian trader, at his request entered into a treaty of 
 friendship with the Indians living on the coast of 
 North Carolina. This proved also favourable for 
 some adventurers from New England, who were 
 soon after the conclusion of the treaty shipwrecked 
 on that coast. These emigrants got all safe to land, 
 but rinding themselves surrounded by barbarians, 
 expected nothing but instant death. However, to 
 defend themselves in the best manner they could, 
 they encamped in a body on the shore, and drew up 
 an intrenchmcnt around them ; where they remained 
 until their small stock of provisions was almost ex- 
 hausted. The Indians, by making signs of friend- 
 ship, frequently invited them to quit their camp ; 
 but they were afraid to trust them, until hunger 
 urged them to run the hazard at all events. After 
 they came out, the Indians received them with great 
 civility, and not only furnished them with provisions, 
 but also permitted some of them peaceably to travel 
 over land to Charlestown, to acquaint the governor 
 with their misfortune. Upon which a vessel was sent 
 to North Carolina, which brought them to Cooper 
 river, on the north side of which, lands were allotted 
 them for their accommodation ; and they formed that 
 bettlement afterwards known by the name of Christ's- 
 church parish. 
 
 About the same time, two Indians of different 
 tribes being intoxicated with liquor, a vice which they 
 learned from the English settlers, quarrelled at 
 Charlestown, and the one murdered the other. Among 
 these barbarians, not to avenge the death of a friend 
 is considered as pusillanimous, and whenever death 
 ensues, drunkenness, accident, or even self-defence, 
 are in their eyes no extenuation of the crime. The 
 relations of the deceased, hearing of his death, im- 
 mediately came to Charlestown, and demanded sa- 
 tisfaction. Governor Archdale, who had confined 
 the murderer, being desirous to save his life, offered 
 them a compensation ; but they refused it, and in- 
 sisted on blood for blood, and death for death, ac- 
 cording to the law of retaliation. To prevent the 
 quarrel spreading wider among them, he was obliged 
 to deliver the prisoner up to punishment and death. 
 While they were conducting him to the place of ex- 
 ecution, his king, coming up to him, enjoined him, 
 since he must die, to stand and die like a man ; add- 
 ing, at the same time, that he had often warned him 
 of the danger of rum, and now he must lose his life 
 for neglecting his counsel. When he had advanced 
 to the stake* to which he was to be fastened, he de- 
 sired that they would not bind him, promising not to 
 stir a foot from the spot ; and accordingly he did not, 
 but with astonishing resolution braved the terrors of 
 death. 
 
 It may now be thought a matter of surprise by 
 some men, especially by such as know the advan- 
 tages of agriculture, that the proprietors of Carolina, 
 who were men of knowledge, and zealous for the in- 
 terest and improvement of the colony, paid so little 
 regard to the only thing upon which the subsistence 
 of the inhabitants and the success of the settlement 
 depended. Instead of framing codes of laws, and 
 modelling the government of the country on princi- 
 ples of speculation, in which men are always in 
 danger of error, especially when tiring in a different 
 climate, far remote from the country they mean to 
 govern ; had they established a plantation in it for 
 the particular purpose of making experiments, to find 
 out what productions were most suitable to the soil 
 and climate ; this would have been of more real use 
 lhan all the visionary laws they ever framed. The 
 
 first planters were men of little knowledge or sub- 
 stance, many of them utter strangers to the arts of 
 agriculture ; and those who had been accustomed to 
 husbandry in Europe, followed the same rules, and 
 planted the same grain in Carolina, as they had 
 formerly done in England ; which were by no means 
 adapted to the climate. They proceeded in their old 
 method, exhausted their strength in fruitless efforts, 
 without presuming to imagine, that different arti- 
 cles of produce, and a deviation from the European 
 modes .of cultivation, could be beneficial. Hence 
 the planters, though they had lands on the easiest 
 terms, remained poor ; and the fault was occasioned 
 more by their ignorance and inexperience than by 
 the climate or soil. 
 
 Governor Archdale having finished his negotia- 
 tions in Carolina, made preparations for returning 
 to England. During his time, though the govern- 
 ment had acquired considerable respect and stability, 
 yet the differences among the people still remained. 
 Former animosities were rather smothered for awhile 
 than extinguished, and were ready on the first oc- 
 casion to break out again with greater violence. Be- 
 fore he embarked, the council presented to him an 
 address, to be transmitted to the proprietors, express- 
 ing the deep sense they had of their lordships' pater- 
 nal care for their colony, in the appointment of a 
 man of such abilities and integrity to the government, 
 who had been so happily instrumental in establish- 
 ing its peace and security. They told them, they had 
 now no contending factions in government, or clash- 
 ing interests among the people, excepting what re- 
 spected the French refugees ; that, by the gover- 
 nor's prudent conduct, they hoped all misunder- 
 standings between their lordships and the colonists 
 were now happily removed ; that they would for the 
 future cheerfully concur with them in every measure 
 for the speedy population and improvement of the 
 country ; that they were now levying money for 
 building fortifications, to defend the province against 
 foreign attacks, and that they would strive to main- 
 tain harmony and peace among themsei^es. Gover- 
 nor Archdale received this address with peculiar sa- 
 tisfaction, and promised to present it to the proprie- 
 tors on his arrival in England. Being empowered 
 to nominate a lieutenant-governor, he made choice 
 of Joseph Blake, for his successor, and embarked for 
 England about the close of the year 16%.^ 
 
 After Mr. Archdale's arrival in England, he laid 
 this address, together with a state of the country, 
 and the regulations he had established in it, before 
 the proprietors, and showed them the necessity of 
 abolishing many articles in the constitutions, and 
 framing a new plan of government. Accordingly, 
 they began to compile new constitutions ; and from his 
 information and intelligence 41 different articles 
 were drawn up and sent out by Robert Daniel, for 
 the better government of the colony. But when the 
 governor laid these new laws before the assembly for 
 their assent and approbation, recommending the 
 careful perusal and consideration of them, they 
 treated them as they had done the former constitu- 
 tions, and, instead of taking them under delibera- 
 tion, modestly laid them aside. 
 
 A treaty of peace having been concluded between 
 England and France, a project was formed by Louis 
 XIV. for establishing a French colony at the mouth 
 of the great river Mississippi. To that immense ter- 
 ritory lying to the eastward of that river, and extend- 
 ing along the back of the Appalachian mountains, 
 from the Mexican seas to Canada, he laid claim, 
 which, in honour of him, was afterwards called 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 921 
 
 Louisiana. Some discerning men in England early 
 warned thenation of danger to the British settlements 
 from a French colony established in this quarter; 
 yet many years elapsed before they began to feel the 
 inconvenience arising from it. It was foreseen, that, 
 besides the Spaniards, another competitor for power 
 and dominion would spring up, in a situation where 
 they had a fair opportunity of engrossing the trade 
 and affections of Indian tribes, and harassing the 
 weakest frontiers of the British colonies : and doubt- 
 less, from the influence and address of the French- 
 men among Indians, the English settlers had more 
 to fear, than from the religious zeal and bigotry of 
 the indolent Spanish settlers. 
 
 John, earl of Bath, having succeeded Lord Craven 
 as Palatine, several persons of character and influ- 
 ence in Carolina were by him created landgraves ; 
 among whom were Edmund Ballenger, John Bayley, 
 and Kobert Daniel ; and Edmund Bohun was ap- 
 pointed chief justice of the colony. About the same 
 time Nicholas Trott, a learned and ambitious man, 
 left the Bahama islands, and took up his residence 
 in Carolina. Numbers from different quarters con- 
 tinued to resort to this country, and, notwithstand- 
 ing its warm and unhealthy climate, the flattering 
 prospects of landed estates induced men to run every 
 risk ; and the proprietors neglected no means 
 which they judged conducive towards its speedy po- 
 pulatinn. 
 
 With respect to the French refugees, the national 
 antipathies among the colonists now began to abate, 
 who, from their quiet and inoffensive behaviour, 
 began to entertain more favourable sentiments of 
 them. Along with their neighbours they had de- 
 fied the dangers of the desert, and given ample proofs 
 of their fidelity to the proprietors, their love to the 
 people, and their zeal for the success of the colony. 
 They had cleared little spots of land for raising the 
 necessaries of life, and in some measure surmounted 
 the difficulties of the first state of colonization. Yet 
 none of them could boast of great success, excepting 
 one man who had taught the Indians dancing and 
 music, for which arts they discovered an amazing 
 fondness, and liberally rewarded him for his instruc- 
 tions. At this favourable juncture the refugees, by 
 the advice of the governor and other friends, peti- 
 tioned the legislature to be incorporated with the 
 freemen of the colony, and allowed the same privi- 
 leges and liberties with those born of English pa- 
 rents. Accordingly an act passed for making all 
 aliens free, for enabling them to hold lands, and to 
 claim the same as heirs to their ancestors, who should 
 take the oath of allegiance to King William. With 
 this condition the refugees joyfully complied, and 
 the proprietors, without scruple, ratified the law; 
 in consequence of which, the French and English 
 settlers, united in interest and affection, and have 
 ever since lived together in harmony and peace. 
 
 Though every person enjoyed liberty of conscience 
 with respect to religion, yet as the proprietors were 
 Episcopalians, the tendency of their government 
 leaned towards that mode of religious worship. Go- 
 vernor Blake, though a dissenter himself, possessed 
 the most liberal sentiments towards men of a differ- 
 ent persuasion. During his time a bill was brought 
 into the assembly, for allowing the episcopal minister 
 of Charlestown, and his successors for ever, a salary 
 of 150f. sterling, together with a house, glebe, and 
 two servants. Samuel Marshal, a pious and learned 
 man, being the episcopal minister at that time, whose 
 prudence and ability had gained him great esteem 
 from Christians of all denominations, the bill passed 
 
 with less opposition. The Dissenters who found a large 
 body of the people, conscious of the amiable charac- 
 ter and great merit of the man, acquiesced in the 
 measure ; and as no motion had been made respect- 
 ing any established church, they seemed apprehensive 
 of no ill consequences from it. However, soon after 
 this, when the design of the proprietors became more 
 evident, this party, jealous above all things of their 
 religious liberties, took the alarm, and opposed the 
 establishment of the church of England amongst 
 them with such violence, as occasioned no small 
 ferment for many years in the colony. 
 
 About this time the coast of Carolina was infested 
 with pirates, who hovered about the mouth of Ashley 
 river, and obstructed the freedom of trade. In the 
 last year of the seventeenth century, the planters 
 had raised more rice than they could find vessels to 
 export. Forty-five persons, from different nations, 
 Englishmen, Frenchmen, Portuguese, and Indians, 
 had manned a ship at the Havanna, and entered on 
 a cruise of piracy. While they were on the coast of 
 Carolina, the people felt severely the pernicious ef- 
 fects of that lawless trade, which in former times 
 they were too apt to encourage. Several ships be- 
 longing to Charlestown were taken by them, who 
 sent the crews ashore, but kept the vessels as their 
 prizes. At last, having quarrelled among them- 
 selves about the division of the spoil, the English- 
 men proving the weaker party, were turned adrift 
 in a long-boat. They landed at Sewee bay, and 
 from thence travelled over land to Charlestown, 
 giving out that they had been shipwrecked, and for- 
 tunately escaped to shore in their boat. But, to 
 their disappointment and surprise, no less than three 
 masters of ships happened to be at Charlestown at 
 the time, who had been taken by them, and knew 
 them ; upon whose testimony the pirates were in- 
 stantly taken up, tried, and condemned, and seven 
 out of nine suffered death. 
 
 During the autumn of the same year, a dreadful 
 hurricane happened at Charlestown, which did great 
 damage, and threatened the total destruction of the 
 town. The lands on which it is built being low and 
 level, and not many feet above high-water mark, 
 the swelling sea rushed in with amazing impetuosity, 
 and obliged the inhabitants to fly for shelter to the 
 second stories of their houses. Happily few lives 
 were lost in the town ; but a large vessel, called the 
 Rising Sun, belonging to Glasgow, and commanded 
 by James Gibson, which had come from Darien 
 with part of the unfortunate Scotch settlers, at the 
 time of the storm rode at anchor off the bar. This 
 ship the hurricane drove from her anchor, and dashed 
 to pieces against the sand-banks, and every person 
 on board perished. 
 
 Nor was this the only disaster which distinguished 
 this year in the annals of Carolina. A fire broke 
 also out in Charlestown, and laid the most of it in 
 ashes. The small-pox raged through the town, and 
 proved fatal to multitudes of the younger population. 
 
 To complete their distress, another infectious dis- 
 temper broke out, and carried off a great number of 
 people, among whom were Chief Justice Bohun, 
 Samuel Marshal, the episcopal clergyman, John 
 Ely, the receiver-general, Edward Rawlins, the 
 provost-marshal, and almost one half of the members 
 of assembly. Never had the colony been visited 
 with such general distress and mortality. Few fa- 
 milies escaped a share of the public calamities. Al- 
 most all were lamenting the loss, either of their ha- 
 bitations by fire, or of friends or relations by the 
 infectious maladies. Discouragement and despair 
 
022 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 oppressed every one. Many of the survivors could 
 think of nothing but abandoning a country in which 
 there was so little prospect of success, health, or 
 happiness. They had heard of Pennsylvania, and 
 how pleasant and flourishing a province it was de- 
 scribed to be, and therefore were determined to em- 
 brace the first opportunity that offered of retiring to 
 it with the remainder of their families and effects. 
 
 Governor Blake, deeply sensible of the public 
 distress, tried every means of alleviating the misery 
 of the people, and encouraging them to perseverance; 
 but the members of assembly who survived, became 
 so negligent about public affairs, that he found him- 
 self under a necessity of dissolving the house, and 
 calling another, hoping that they might be more 
 zealous and active in concerting measures for the 
 public relief. Of this new assembly Nicholas Trott, 
 whose talents had raised him above the level of his 
 fellow-representatives, was made speaker, and who 
 warmly espoused the cause of the people, in opposi- 
 tion to the interest of the proprietors. The governor 
 and council claimed the privilege of nominating 
 public officers, particularly a receiver-general, until 
 the pleasure of the proprietors was known. The 
 assembly, on the other hand, insisted that it belonged 
 to them. This occasioned several messages between 
 the two houses, and much altercation. However, 
 the upper house appointed their officer. The lower 
 house resolved, that the person appointed by them 
 was no public receiver, and that whoever should pre- 
 sume to pay money to him as such, should be deemed 
 an int'ringer of the privileges of assembly, and an 
 enemy to the country. Trott flatly denied they 
 could be called an upper house, though they thus 
 styled themselves, as they differed in the most 
 essential circumstances from the house of lords 
 in England; and this led the assembly to call 
 them the proprietors' deputies, and to treat them 
 with indignity and contempt, by limiting them to 
 a day to pass their bills, and to an hour to answer 
 their messages. At this time Trott was eager in 
 the pursuit of popularity, and by his uncommon abi- 
 lities arid address succeeded in a wonderful manner. 
 Never had any man, in so short a time, so tho- 
 roughly engrossed the public favour and esteem, or 
 carried matters with so high a hand, in opposition 
 to the proprietary counsellors. 
 
 About the close of the year 1700, Governor Blake 
 died, and a dispute arose in the upper house about 
 the succession to the government. Joseph Morton, 
 as eldest landgrave, claimed the preference, until 
 the pleasure of the palatine was known. But James 
 Moore, a needy, forward, and ambitious man, stood 
 forth in competition, and, by activity and art, gained 
 a number over in support of his pretensions. He 
 objected to Landgrave Morton, because he had ac- 
 cepted a commission from King William, to be judge 
 of the court of vice-admiralty, while, at the same 
 time, he held one of the proprietors to the same 
 office : this Moore and his friends declared to be a 
 breach of the trust reposed in him, and that he might 
 with equal propriety have accepted of a commission 
 from King William to be governor, while he held 
 that office of the proprietors. Landgrave Morton 
 replied, that there was a necessity for holding a 
 commission from the king to be judge of the court 
 of vice-admiralty, because it did not appear from the 
 charter that the proprietors could empower their 
 judge to try persons for acts committed without the 
 bounds of their colony, and that with such jurisdiction 
 the judge of the admiralty ought for many reasons 
 always to be vested. However, the upper house 
 
 deemed the objection offeree sufficient to set Morton 
 aside, and James Moore was chosen successor to 
 Governor Blake. From which period the colony 
 may date the beginning of further jealousies and 
 troubles, which continued for several years, and ob- 
 structed its progress in improvement. Various in- 
 trigues crept into the seat of government, and seve- 
 ral encroachments were made on the liberties and 
 privileges of the people, both civil and religious. 
 
 King William, though he maintained the power 
 of the established church, yet often discovered a 
 secret attachment to Presbyterians, and on all occa- 
 sions treated them with lenity and moderation. 
 Hence many of the more zealous friends to the 
 church of England, alarmed at the prospects of its 
 dangerous situation, became eagerly bent, not only 
 in support of its constitution, but even of its minu- 
 test forms, usages, and vestments. Lord Granville, 
 among the rest, after he was called up to the house 
 of peers, had there distinguished himself as an in- 
 flexible bigot for the high church, having been early 
 taught to entertain the most supercilious contempt 
 for dissenters of all denominatioos. Being now also 
 palatine of Carolina, he soon discovered that the 
 establishment of episcopacy, and the suppression of 
 all other modes of religious worship in that country, 
 was the chief object of his zeal and attention. James 
 Moore being considered as a man more fit than 
 Landgrave Morton for assisting him in the accom- 
 plishment of his favourite design, the more easily 
 obtained a confirmation of his election to the go- 
 vernment. 
 
 Here it may not be improper to observe, that se- 
 veral eminent men had appeared in England, who, 
 pitying the miserable state of the western world with 
 respect to religion, had proposed some public-spi- 
 rited design for the propagation of the Gospel among 
 the heathens on that vast continent. Robert Boyle, 
 no less distinguished for his eminent piety than uni- 
 versal learning, had been appointed by Charles II. 
 governor of a corporation established foY^he propa- 
 gation of the Christian religion among Indians, the 
 natives of New England and parts adjacent, in 
 America. Queen Mary afterwards discovered a great 
 desire for enlarging their plan, and for this purpose 
 gave a bounty of 200/. sterling, annually, to support 
 missionaries in that quarter. Dr. Gomptoru bishop 
 of London, was at pains to procure an stccolmt of the 
 state of religion among the English colonies, from a 
 persuasion of the necessity of beginning this cha- 
 ritable work among them; and Dr. Thomas Bray, 
 his commissary in Maryland, furnished him with one 
 suited to excite sympathy and compassion in every 
 pious and generous breast. At length Dr. Tennison, 
 archbishop of Canterbury, undertook the laudable 
 design, applied to the crown, and obtained a char- 
 ter, incorporating a society for the propagation of 
 the Gospel in foreign parts. The nation in general 
 entered into the design with their usual ardour for 
 all benevolent institutions. From different parts 
 large benefactions were received by this society, aad 
 it was soon enabled to support a number of missio- 
 naries in the plantations. Religious books were pur- 
 chased, and sent out to different provinces, and Ca- 
 rolina among the rest received a number of them. 
 A law passed for instituting a public library in the 
 province, to remain under the care and custody of 
 the episcopal minister of Charlestown. Edward 
 Marston at this time took the charge of it, and was 
 disposed to contribute every thing in his power to- 
 wards rendering: it generally useful. But the dis- 
 | senters, from the choice of the books, most of which 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 923 
 
 were wrote by episcopal divines, aud in defence of 
 the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the church 
 of England, soon perceived the intention of the so- 
 ciety, and a library framed on such a narrow foun- 
 dation was treated with neglect, and proved utterly 
 ineffectual for promoting the desired end. 
 
 About this time the number of inhabitants in the 
 colony amounted to between 5000 and 6000, besides 
 Indians and negroes. In Charlestown they had one 
 minister of the church of England, and another of 
 the church of Scotland ; but in the country there 
 was no such thing as public worship, nor schools for 
 the education of children ; and peuple living thus 
 scattered through a forest, were likely in time to 
 sink by degrees into the same state of ignorance 
 and barbarism with the natural inhabitants of the 
 wilderness. To supply these destitute colonists with 
 proper means of instruction, called for the first at- 
 tention of the society ; for as Indians and negroes 
 would naturally take their first religious impressions 
 from, their neighbours, to begin at this place was 
 like paving the way for extending wider the bene- 
 fits of instruction. 
 
 To prepare the province for the charitable assist- 
 ance of this society, it was judged necessary to have 
 the church of England established in it by a pro- 
 vincial law, and the country divided into different 
 parishes. The palatine imagined that these internal 
 troubles and differences, by which the colony had 
 hitherto been agitated, and the government ren- 
 dered feeble and fluctuating, were occasioned by the 
 clashing sentiments of the people with respect to 
 religion. To remedy this evil, he perceived that 
 some bond of union was necessary, to carry on pub- 
 lic measures with ease and success ; and religion 
 had been deemed the firmest cement of every state. 
 He knew that the episcopal form of church govern- 
 ment was more favourable to monarchy and the civil 
 constitution than the Presbyterian, as in it a chain 
 of dependence subsists, from the highest to the lowest 
 in the church. While therefore he instructed Go- 
 vernor Moore to study all possible means of per- 
 suading the assembly to acquiesce in that form con- 
 tained in the fundamental constitutions, he was 
 equally zealous for an established church, that the 
 wheels of their government might be no more clogged 
 by religious dissensions. 
 
 But as a great majority of the colonists were dis- 
 senters, who had fled from England, on account of 
 rigorous acts of uniformity, their minds were ill dis- 
 posed to admit of any establishment. Their former 
 prejudices they had not yet thrown aside; their 
 hardships in England they had not yet forgot. Their 
 private opinions respecting religion were various as 
 their different complexions, and unlimited toleration 
 was granted to all by the charter. They could hear 
 of no proposals about an established church, and the 
 palatine, at such an unseasonable time, showed more 
 zeal than prudence or good policy in attempting to 
 introduce it among them. The governor found them 
 inflexible and obstinate in opposing such a measure; 
 and the people even began to repent of having passed 
 a law for fixing a salary for ever on the rector of 
 the episcopal church, and considered it as a step to 
 further encroachments. 
 
 The great object with Governor Moore was to im- 
 prove his time, not knowing how long his precarious 
 power might last, for bettering his indigent circum- 
 stances. It appeared to him, that the traffic in In- 
 dians was the shortest way to riches. He therefore 
 granted commissions to several persons, to assault 
 and capture as many Indians as they could, and re- 
 
 solved to turn the profits of such trade to his own 
 private emolument. Not contented with this base 
 and cruel method of acquiring wealth, he formed a 
 design for engrossing the whole advantages arising 
 to the colony from their commerce with Indian na- 
 tions. For this purpose a bill was brought into the 
 assembly for regulating the Indian trade, and drawn 
 up in such a manner as would cause all the profits 
 of it to centre in his hands. But Nicholas Trott, 
 Robert Stephen, and others, proved to the assembly 
 the pernicious tendency of such a bill, and therefore 
 it was thrown out. At which Governor Moore being 
 highly offended, dissolved the house, in hopes of 
 procuring another more favourable to his private 
 views and interests. 
 
 At the election of the next assembly the governor 
 aud his friends exerted all their power and influence 
 to bring in men of their own. Nicholas Trott, who 
 had hitherto appeared in the opposition, being now 
 appointed attorney-general, threw all his influence 
 and weight into the scale of government, turned his 
 back on his former friends, and strongly supported 
 that tottering fabric which he had formerly endea- 
 voured to pull down. Charlestown, where all free- 
 holders met to give their suffrages, at the time of this 
 election was a scene of riot, intemperance, and con- 
 fusion. The sheriff, having instructions so to do, 
 admitted every person to vote ; the members of Col- 
 leton county say, even common sailors, servants, 
 foreigners, and mulattoes. Such freeholders as stood 
 forth in opposition to the governor's party, were 
 abused and insulted. At length, when the poll was 
 closed, one half of the persons elected were found to 
 be men of neither sense nor credit ; but being the 
 chosen creatures of the governor, it was his business 
 to prevent all inquiry into the conduct of the sheriff, 
 and the qualifications of such members. 
 
 At this time Carteret county was inhabited only 
 by Indians ; but in Colleton county there were no 
 less than 200 freeholders, who had a right to vote 
 for delegates to assembly. The principal plantations 
 in it were those of the late Sir John Yeamans, 
 Landgraves Morton, Ballenger, and Axtell, and those 
 of Blake, Boone, Gibbes, Schinking, and others. 
 The people of this county being highly offended at 
 the manner of election, particularly the arts and in- 
 trigues practised, and the riot and intemperance per- 
 mitted at it, drew up a representation of the whole 
 transaction, and transmitted it to the proprietors in 
 England : but the palatine was too deeply concerned 
 in promoting those measures of which tney com- 
 plained, to grant them any favourable answer. In 
 Berkley county the principal settlements were those 
 of Sir Nathaniel Johnson, Governor Moore, Land- 
 graves West, Smith, Bayley, and Daniel ; together 
 with those belonging to Godfrey, Mathews, Izard, 
 Colleton, Grimball, &c. ; several of whom were also 
 dissatisfied with the public proceedings. But Craven 
 county being composed of French refugees, these 
 having little knowledge of the English language, 
 were easily managed ; and many indeed supported the 
 governor purely out of affection to the proprietors. In 
 short, the house consisted of 30 members, one half 
 of whom were elected from the dregs of the people, 
 utter strangers to public affairs, and in every respect 
 unqualified for sitting as provincial legislators. 
 
 In the mean time, a rupture took place in Europe 
 between England and Spain, which turned the at- 
 tention of the colony to a different object, and af- 
 forded Governor Moore an opportunity of exercising 
 his military talents, and a new prospect of enriching 
 himself by Spanish plunder or Indian captives. Ac- 
 
924 
 
 THR HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 cordingly, instead of private disputes among them- 
 gelves, he proposed to the assembly an expedition 
 against the Spanish settlement at Augustine. Many 
 of the people, from mercenary motives, applauded 
 the proposal ; however, men of cool reflection, hav- 
 ing yet had no intelligence of the declaration of war, 
 were averse from rushing into any hazardous enter- 
 prise, until they had certain advice of it from En- 
 gland. As the expedition was projected, contrary 
 to the opinion and inclination of many Carolineans, 
 without any recent provocation from the Spanish 
 garrison; it is probable that the governor engaged 
 in it chiefly from views of private emolument. Flo- 
 rida, he assured the people, would be an easy con- 
 quest ; and treasures of gold and silver were held 
 out to them as the rewards of valour. In vain did 
 some members of the assembly oppose it, by repre- 
 senting the province as weak, and ill provided for 
 warlike enterprises, and by hinting at the many 
 hazards and difficulties always attending them ; in 
 vain did they urge the strength of the Spanish fort, 
 and the expenses incurred by a fruitless and perhaps 
 bloody expedition : such men were called enemies to 
 their country, and represented as pusillanimous 
 wretches, who were utter strangers to great and glo- 
 rious undertakings. Accordingly, a great majority 
 of the assembly declared for the expedition, and a 
 sum of '20001. sterling was voted for the service of 
 the war. Six hundred Indians were engaged, who, 
 being fond of warlike exploits, gladly accepted of 
 arms and ammunition offered them for their aid and 
 assistance. Six hundred provincial militia were 
 raised, and schooners and merchant- snips were im- 
 pressed, for transports to carry the forces. Port 
 Royal was fixed upon as the place of general ren- 
 dezvous, and there, in September 1702, the gover- 
 nor, at the head of his troops, embarked in an ex- 
 pedition equally rash and fool-hardy on one side, as 
 it was well known and unprovoked on the other. 
 
 While these preparations were going on in Caro- 
 lina, the Spaniards, apprised of the governor's de- 
 sign, were making ready for their defence. In the 
 plan of operations it had been agreed, that Colonel 
 Daniel, who was an officer of spirit, should go by the 
 inland passage with a party of militia and Indians, 
 and make a descent on the town from the land, while 
 the governor with the main body should proceed by 
 sea, and block up the harbour. Colonel Daniel lost 
 no time, but advanced against the town, entered and 
 plundered it before the governor got forward to his 
 assistance. But the Spaniards having laid up pro- 
 visions for four months in the castle, on his approach 
 retired to it, with all their money and most valuable 
 effects. Upon the arrival of Governor Moore, the 
 place was invested with a force against which the 
 Spaniards could not appear, and therefore kept them- 
 selves shut up in their strong hold. The governor 
 finding it impossible to dislodge them without such 
 artillery as are necessary to a siege, dispatched a 
 sloop to Jamaica, on purpose to bring cannon, bombs, 
 and mortars, for attacking the castle ; and Colonel 
 Daniel embarked and sailed with the greatest expe- 
 dition to bring them. During his absence two Spa- 
 nish ships, the one of 22 guns and the other of six- 
 teen, appearing off* the mouth of the harbour, struck 
 such a panic into the governor, that he instantly 
 raised the siege, abandoned his ships, and made a 
 precipitate retreat to Carolina by land. In conse- 
 quence of which the Spaniards in the garrison were 
 not only relieved, but the ships, provisions, and am- 
 munition, belonging to the Carolineans, fell also into 
 their hands. Colonel Daniel, ou his return, stand- 
 
 ing in for the harbour of Augustine, found to hia 
 surprise the siege raised, arid made a narrow escape 
 from the enemy. 
 
 Military expeditions rashly undertaken, conducted 
 by a headstrong and inexperienced officer, and ex- 
 ecuted by raw and ill-disciplined troops, very rarely 
 succeed. We are not able to account for the gover- 
 nor's conduct in raising this siege, after he had been 
 a month in possession of the town, unless he was in 
 immediate wan*, of provisions or ammunition, or his 
 men, having little confidence in his abilities, threa- 
 tened to desert him: for if the Spanish ships drew 
 more than ten feet water, which it is probable they 
 must have done, they could not come over the bar 
 to injure him : if they landed their men, yet still 
 his force was superior to that of the enemy, and he 
 might at least have risked a battle on such grounds, 
 before he made an inglorious retreat. The Indians 
 were averse from leaving the field, without scalps, 
 plunder, or glory. It is true, the Spanish ships of 
 war might have prevented Colonel Daniel from gel- 
 ting into the harbour with the supply of military 
 stores, yet the coast was large, and afforded many 
 more places for landing them. The governor had In- 
 dians to hunt for provisions for his men, and it was 
 by no means impossible to have starved the garrison' 
 and compelled them to surrender. What then can be 
 thought of a commander, who, on the first appearance 
 of a little danger, abandoned his station, however ad- 
 vantageous, and tamely yielded up, not only the town, 
 but also his own ships and provisions to the enemy. 
 
 Upon his return to Carolina many severe reflec- 
 tions were thrown out against him, as might natu- 
 rally have been expected ; but especially by that 
 party who opposed the enterprise. It is true, it 
 proved not a bloody expedition, the goternor having 
 lost no more than two men in it; yet it entailed a 
 debt of QQQQl. sterling on a poor colony, which, at 
 that period, was a grievous burthen. The provin- 
 cial assembly, who during the absence of the gover- 
 nor, had been under prorogation, novNcnet, to con- 
 cert ways and means for discharging this public 
 debt. Great dissensions and confusion prevailed 
 among them ; but the governor, having a Dumber 
 of men under arms to whom the country s^ood in- 
 debted, despised all opposition, and silenced the 
 malcontents by threats and compulsion. A bill 
 was brought into the assembly for stamping bills of 
 credit, to answer the public expence, which were to 
 be sunk in three years by a duty laid upon liquors, 
 skins, and furs. In this measure all parties acqui- 
 esced, as it fell easy on private persons, at the same 
 time that it satisfied the public creditors. This was 
 the first paper money issued in Carolina, and, for 
 five or six years after the emission, it passed in the 
 country at the same value and rate with the sterling 
 money of England. How, in process of time, it 
 increased in quantity and sunk in value ; how it was 
 deemed useful by debtors and prejudicial by credi- 
 tors, we shall afterwards have occasion more parti- 
 cularly to demonstrate. At present it may suffice 
 to observe, that it was absolutely necessary to sup- 
 port the public credit, and the most practicable me- 
 thod the colony had of defraying the expenses in- 
 curred by the unsuccessful expedition. 
 
 Notwithstanding his past misfortunes, Governor 
 Moore, fond of warlike exploits, had still in view 
 the striking some blow that might distinguish his 
 administration. The Appalachian Indians, by their 
 connexion with the Spaniards, had become insolent 
 and troublesome. Mr. Moore determined to chas- 
 tise them, and for this purpose marched at the head 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 926 
 
 of a body of white men and Indian allies, into th<3 unwholesome effluvia from an' oozy bottom and stag- 
 heart of their settlements. Wherever he went he I nated water poison the atmosphere. They sow it 
 carried fire and sword along with him, and struck a I in April, or early in May, and reap in the latter 
 terror into his enemies. The towns of the unhappy end of August, or in the mouth of September. After 
 tribes who lived between the rivers Alatamaha and which it is dried and carried to the barn-yard, and 
 Savanna he laid in ashes, captured many savages, I built in stacks, in like manner as the corn in Europe, 
 and obliged others to submit to the English govern- 1 After this it is threshed, winnowed, and ground in 
 ment. The governor received the thanks of the I mills made of wood, to free the rice from the husk, 
 proprietors for his courage, who acknowledged that Then it is winnowed again, and put into a wooden 
 the success of his arms had gained their province a mortar, and beat with large wooden pestles, which 
 reputation ; but, what was of greater consequence to labour is so oppressive and hard, that the firmest 
 him, he wiped off the ignominy of the Augustine nerves and most vigorous constitutions sink under it. 
 expedition, and procured a number of Indian slaves, To free it from the dust and flour occasioned by 
 whom he employed to cultivate his fields, or sold for pounding, it is sifted first through one sieve, and 
 his own profit and advantage. I then, to separate the small and broken rice from the 
 
 About this time Sir Nathaniel Johnson introduced large, through another. Last of all, it is put into 
 the raising of silk into the country, which is an arti- large barrels of enormous weight, and carried to the 
 cle of commerce exceedingly profitable, and, by market. During the whole tedious process of its 
 proper encouragement, might have been made very preparation, much care and great strength are re- 
 beneficial both to the colony and the mother country, quisite, and many thousands of lives from Africa 
 Mulberry-trees grew spontaneously in the woods, I have been sacrificed, in order to furnish the world 
 and thrived as well as other natural productions, with this commodity. 
 The great demand for silk in Britain made it an 
 object of the highest consequence; and an article so 
 profitable, and so easily raised, ought to have en- 
 gaged the attention of the proprietors. 
 
 To the culture of cotton the climate and soil were 
 equally favourable. It might have been planted on 
 lands newly cleared, or on light and sandy grounds, 
 such as the maritime parts of Carolina, which are 
 by no means unsuitable to the production. The seeds 
 are commonly sown about two feet and a half asun- 
 der, and grow up like other plants. Indeed the fields 
 require to be kept clean, and the fresh earth care- 
 fully thrown around the plant, to defend it against 
 the winds; but this is no difficult task, and might 
 be performed by hands incapable of more severe la- 
 bour. When the pods burst, cotton is gathered, and 
 separated from the seeds ; which is the most tedious 
 and troublesome part of the business requisite. This 
 article also, though not of importance enough to 
 
 have engrossed the whole attention of the colonists, I Nathaniel Johnson received a commission from John, 
 might nevertheless, in conjunction with other staples, Lord Gran ville, investing him with the government of 
 have been rendered profitable and useful. Carolina, to which office a salary of 200^. was annexed, 
 
 Instead of these and several other articles, to to be paid annually by the receiver-general of the co- 
 which the views of the planters in the weaker and I lony. This gentleman had not only been bred a soldier 
 earlier state of the colony ought to have been turned I from his youth, but had been also a member of the 
 in some degree, we find from this period the culture I house of commons, and was well qualified for the 
 of rice engrossing their whole strength and atten- trust. But it being suspected that he was no friend 
 tion. This commodity being an article of provision, I to the revolution, the proprietors could not obtain 
 was indeed likely always to find a good market ; I her majesty's approbation of him; but on his under- 
 yet it was scarcely possible to have fixed on a staple taking to qualify himself for the office in such a 
 which required more severe labour during the whole manner as the laws uf England required, to give se- 
 process of its preparation. The warm climate and curity for his observing the laws of trade and navi- 
 low lands were doubtless well adapted to the nature I gation, and obey such instructions as should be sent 
 of the grain, after experience had taught the hus- 1 out from time to time by her majesty, he was ulti- 
 bandman to clear and cultivate the swampy grounds mately accepted; and the lords commissioners of 
 for that purpose : yet it is certain that the planters trade and plantations T .vere ordered to take care that 
 long went on with this article, and exhausted their I good and sufficient security be given by him. 
 strength in raising it on higher lands, which poorly I With respect to his own conduct in the govern- 
 rewarded them for their toil. After clearing the ment of the colony, he had instructions from the 
 lands they commonly plant it in furrows made with proprietors to follow such rules as had been given 
 a hoe, about eighteen inches asunder. When the to former governors, in the fundamental constitutions 
 seed is sown, the fields must be carefully kept clear and temporary laws entered upon record, and to be 
 of noxious weeds, which retard its growth, and the guided by the same as far as in his judgment he 
 earth must also be laid up to the root of the rice, to might think expedient. He was required, with the 
 facilitate its progress. No work can be imagined advice and assistance of his council, carefully to re- 
 more pernicious to health, than for men to stand in view the constitutions, and such of them as he should 
 water mid-leg high, and often above it, planting and think necessary to the better establishment of go- 
 weeding rice ; while the scorching heat of the sun vernment, and calculated for the good of the people, 
 renders the air they breathe ten or twenty degrees 1 he was ordered to lay before the assembly for their 
 botter than the human blood, and the putrid and J concurrence and assent. He was to use his endea- 
 
 Sir Nathaniel Johnson appointed governor The church 
 of England established by law TJie inhabitants re- 
 monstrate against it -Lay commissioners appointed 
 The ads ratified by the proprietors The petition of 
 dissenters to the house of lords'Resolutions of the 
 house of lords Their address to the queen The 
 queen's answer A project formed for invading Ca- 
 rolina A Spanish and French invasion repulsed 
 Missionaries sent out by the society in England 
 Lord Craven, palatine Edward Tynte, governor 
 The revenues of the colony The invasion of Ca- 
 nada A French colony planted in Louisiana A 
 colony of palatines settled Robert Gibbes, governor- 
 Charles Craven, governor An Indian war in North 
 Carolina The Tuskorora Indians conquered Bank- 
 bills established Trade infested by piratet Several 
 English statutes adopted. 
 
 On the accession of Anne to the English throne, Sir 
 
926 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 vours to dispose of their lands ; but to take nothing 
 less than VOl. for 1000 acres; and, in all future 
 grants, to make them escheat to the proprietors, un- 
 less a settlement was made on them within the space 
 of four years. He was to take special care that the 
 Indians be not abused or insulted, and to study the 
 most proper methods of civilizing them, and creating 
 a firm friendship with them, in order to protect the 
 colony against the Spaniards in the neighbourhood. 
 He was to transmit to England exact copies of all 
 laws passed, accounts of the lands sold, &c. 
 
 It has already been observed, that the colony was 
 in a wretched state with respect to religion. The 
 first emigrants from England, retained indeed for a 
 little time some sense of it, and showed some respect 
 for the ordinances of the Gospel: but their children, 
 born in a wilderness, where there was not so much 
 as even the semblance of public worship, were likely 
 to grow up in ignorance, and to live entirely void 
 of all sense of religion. The proprietors were either 
 unable to furnish them with the proper means of in- 
 struction, or they were unwilling to bear the expense 
 of it, having as yet received little recompense for the 
 past charges of the settlement. Not only the emi- 
 grants from England, but also those from France 
 and Holland, were much divided in their private 
 opinions with respect to modes of religious worship ; 
 and for this reason all governors, excepting the last, 
 had prudently deferred interfering in a matter which 
 would occasion uneasiness and confusion among the 
 settlers. Still, however, the establishment of the 
 c hurch of England in Carolina was the chief object 
 in view with the proprietors. The palatine was a 
 bigoted zealot for this mode of ecclesiastical worship 
 and government : the governor was strongly at- 
 tached to it. James Moore, who was made receiver- 
 general, and Nicholas Trott, the attorney-general, 
 were also men of the same complexion. These men, 
 assisted by a majority of the council, now began to con- 
 cert measures with art and skill, and to pursue them 
 with firmness and resolution, for accomplishing this 
 end, and gratifying the earnest desire of the pa- 
 latine. 
 
 It was not, however, without some difficulty, and 
 considerable struggles,that the keen opposition raised 
 by dissenters, who now plainly perceived their de- 
 sign, and who had an irreconcileable aversion from 
 episcopacy, could be overcome. This the governor 
 and his party foresaw, and therefore it became ne- 
 cessary first to exert themselves to secure a majority 
 in the assembly in favour of the measure they had in 
 view. Hitherto the riotous proceedings at'the for- 
 mer election had been overlooked, and the rioters, 
 by the countenance and protection of the preceding 
 governor, had escaped prosecution. The grand jury 
 represented this neglect as a grievance to the court ; 
 but the judge told them, " That was a matter which 
 lay before the governor and council, his superiors." 
 When the complaint was made to the governor in 
 council, he replied, " That these irregularities hap- 
 pened before his appointment to the government, 
 but that he would take care to prevent them for the 
 time to come." Notwithstanding this declaration, 
 if we may believe the dissenters, at the following 
 election still greater irregularities prevailed. By 
 the same undue influence and violence the governor 
 and his adherents gained their point, and secured a 
 majority in the house ; so that a species of corruption 
 had now infected the great fountain of liberty, the 
 election of representatives. 
 
 It would appear that some of the colonists at this 
 period had distinguished themselves by loose princi- 
 
 ples and licentious language, and had treated some 
 of the fundamental doctrines of the Christian religion 
 with the ridicule and contempt of professed infide- 
 lity. To bring an odium upon this class of dissen- 
 ters, and to discourage such licentious practices, a 
 bill was brought into the new assembly for the sup- 
 pression of blasphemy and profaneness ; by which 
 bill, whoever should be convicted ofhaving spoken 
 or written any thing against the Trinity, or the di- 
 vine authority of the Old or New Testament, by the 
 oath of two or more credible witnesses, were to be 
 made incapable, and disabled in law to all intents 
 and purposes, of being members of assembly, or of 
 holding any office of profit, civil or military, within 
 the province : and whoever should be convicted of 
 such crimes the second time, were also to be disabled 
 from suing or bringing any action of information in 
 any court of law or equity, from being guardian to 
 any child, executor or administrator to any person ; 
 and without bail suffer imprisonment for three years. 
 Which law, notwithstanding its pretended motive, 
 savoured not a little of an inquisition, and intro- 
 duced a species of persecution ill calculated to an- 
 swer the end for which it was intended. To punish 
 men guilty of blasphemy and profaneness in this 
 way, instead of bringing their crimes into public 
 disrepute and abhorrence, served rather to render 
 their persons objects of compassion, and induce men 
 to pity them on account of their sufferings. 
 
 However, had Sir NathanielJohnson stopt here, 
 many reasons might have been urged in his vindica- 
 tion ; but he had other measures in view, much more 
 unpopular and oppressive. He looked upon dissen- 
 ters of every denomination as enemies to the consti- 
 tutions of both church and state, and therefore, to 
 subvert their power and influence, or compel them 
 to uniformity of sentiment, another bill was brought 
 into the assembly, framed in sucll^. manner as to ex- 
 clude them entirely from the heuse\pf representa- 
 tives. This bill required every manXwho should 
 hereafter be chosen a member of assembly, to take 
 the oaths and subscribe the declaration appointed by 
 it, to conform to the religion and worship of the 
 church of England, and to receive the^acrament of 
 the Lord's Supper, accordingto'tke-rfghts and usage 
 of that church ; a qualification which dissenters con- 
 sidered as having a manifest tendency to rob them 
 of all their civil rights or religious liberties. To carry 
 this bill through the house, all the art and influence 
 of the governor and his party were requisite. In 
 the lower house it passed by a majority of one vote, 
 and in the upper house Landgrave Joseph Morton 
 was refused liberty to enter his protest against it. 
 At this juncture no bill could have been framed more 
 inconsistent with the rights and privileges of the 
 freemen, and more pernicious to the interest and 
 prosperity of the country. The dissenters, who were a 
 numerous and powerful body of the people, were 
 highly offended, and raised a great outcry against it. 
 Seeing themselves reduced to the necessity of receiv- 
 ing laws from men whose principles of civil and ec- 
 clesiastical government they abhorred, and subjected 
 to greater hardships than they suffered in England, 
 many had formed resolutions of abandoning the co- 
 lony. Loud clamours wore not only heard without 
 doors, but jealousies and discontent filled the hearts 
 of many within them, not of dissenters only, but also 
 of those who adhered to the church. 
 
 In this distracted state of the colony, the inhabi 
 tants of Colleton county, composed chiefly of dis- 
 senters, met and drew up a state of their grievous 
 circumstances, which they resolved to transmit to 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 927 
 
 the proprietors, praying their lordships to repeal 
 this oppressive act. John Ash, one of the most zoa- 
 lous men in the opposition, agreed to embark for 
 England as agent for the aggrieved party, computed 
 to be at least two-thirds of the whole inhabitants of 
 the colony. The governor and his friends, apprized 
 of this design, used all possible means to prevent 
 him from obtaining a passage in any ship belonging 
 to Carolina. Upon which Ash went to Virginia, to 
 which province his instructions were conveyed to 
 him, and from thence he set sail for England. 
 
 After his arrival he waited on Lord Granville, the 
 palatine, acquainting him with the design of his 
 message ; but met with a very cold reception. That 
 nobleman was too deeply concerned in bringing 
 about that establishment against which Ash came to 
 .complain, favourably to listen to his representations. 
 Accordingly, after staying some time in London, 
 and giving the proprietors all the information in his 
 power relating to public affairs, the only satisfaction 
 he could obtain from the palatine was, that he should 
 cause his secretary to write to the governor an ac 
 count of the grievances and hardships of which Mr. 
 Ash complained, and require an answer from him 
 with respect to them. Mr. Ash, observing how the 
 palatine stood affected, and despairing of success, 
 immediately began to draw up a representation of 
 their case, which he intended for the press : but be- 
 fore he had finished it he was taken sick, and died ; 
 and his papers fell into his enemies' hands. He was 
 a man of a warm and passionate temper, and pos- 
 sessed of all those violent sentiments which ill usage, 
 disappointment, and oppression, naturally kindle 
 in the human breast. His representation, intended 
 as an appeal to the nation in general, for the suffer- 
 ings of the people under the tyrannical proprietary 
 government, was full of heavy charges against the 
 governor and his party in Carolina, and bitter re- 
 flections on their conduct, which he considered as 
 in the highest degree injurious to the colony. 
 
 Without doubt the lords proprietors planned this 
 establishment with a view to the peaceful influence 
 it wuuld have upon the civil government of the 
 country, as the preamble to the act expressly indi- 
 cates. Their feeble and fluctuating state required 
 the assistance and authority of an established church, 
 and the sanction of religion, to give it more weight 
 and influence with the people. How far the mea- 
 sures adopted served to promote the desired end, and 
 were consistent with prudence and good policy, will 
 afterwards more clearly appear. 
 
 Sir Nathaniel Johnson having advanced so far, 
 was determined to proceed in spite of every obstacle 
 thrown in his way. He instituted what the inhabitants 
 of Carolina took to be a high-commission court, like 
 that of King James II. It was enacted, that twenty 
 lay-persons be constituted a corporation for the ex- 
 ercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, with full power 
 to deprive ministers of their livings at pleasure, not 
 for immorality only, but also for imprudence, or on 
 account of unreasonable prejudices taken against 
 them. In vain did many persons complain of this 
 institution, as tearing the ecclesiastical jurisdiction 
 out of the hands of the bishop of London, in whose 
 diocese the whole British colonies in America were 
 included. The governor, bent on carrying into ex- 
 ecution the favourite plan of the palatine, paid little 
 regard to the uneasy apprehensions of the people. 
 According to the act for erecting churches, the co- 
 lny was divided into ten parishes ; seven in Berkley, 
 two in Colleton, and one in Craven counties. Money 
 was provided for building churches ; lands were 
 
 granted for glebes and churchyards ; and salaries for 
 the different rectors were fixed and appointed, pay- 
 able from the provincial treasury. When these bills 
 were transmitted to England, to be ratified and con- 
 firmed by the proprietors, John Archdale opposed 
 them, and insisted, that the dissenters of Carolina 
 had not yet forgot the hardships they suffered in En- 
 gland from acts of uniformity ; that the right of pri- 
 vate judgment in religious matters was the birthright 
 of every man ; that undisturbed liberty of conscience 
 was allowed to every inhabitant of Carolina by the 
 charter ; that acts of conformity, with penalties an- 
 nexed to them, have in general proved destructive 
 to the cause they were intended to promote, and 
 were utterly inconsistent with Protestant principles ; 
 and therefore that these bills, so unpopular and 'op- 
 pressive in Carolina, ought tot e repealed, as contrary 
 to sound policy and religious freedom. The majo- 
 rity of the proprietors, however, did not view them 
 in this light, and the debate ran high between them. 
 At length the palatine, equally tyrannical as bigoted, 
 put an end to the dispute, by telling Mr. Archdale : 
 " Sir, you are of one opinion, I am of another ; our 
 lives may not be long enough to end the controversy. 
 I am for the bills, and this is the party that I will 
 head and support." In consequence of which the 
 acts were ratified by four proprietors, and the follow- 
 ing letter was sent to Sir Nathaniel Johnson : " Sir, 
 the great and pious work which you have gone through 
 with such unwearied and steady zeal, for the honour 
 and worship of Almighty Gnd, we have also finally 
 perfected on our part ; and our ratification of that 
 act for erecting churches, &c., together with duplicates 
 of all other dispatches, we have forwarded to you by 
 Captain Flavel." 
 
 The episcopal party having now got their favou- 
 rite form of divine worship established by law in Ca- 
 rolina, began to erect churches in such situations as 
 were most centrical and convenient for the settlers ; 
 and to supply them with clergymen, application was 
 made to the society in England for the propagation 
 of the Gospel. The dissenters, despairing of all hopes 
 of redress from the proprietors, became greatly dis- 
 couraged, and could not brook the thoughts of being 
 again subjected to the same miseries which had com- 
 pelled them to leave their native country. Some 
 were for transporting their families and effects im- 
 mediately to Pennsylvania, in order to sit down under 
 Penn's free and indulgent government; others pro- 
 posed an application to the house of lords in En- 
 gland, praying them to intercede with her majesty 
 for their relief. For this purpose a petition was drawn 
 up, and carried over by Joseph Boone to England. 
 Several merchants in London, after Boone's arrival, 
 being convinced of the illegal means by which those 
 grievous acts were brought to pass, and of their 
 pernicious consequence to trade, joined the petition- 
 ers. Accordingly, about the beginning of the year 
 1706, the following petition was presented to the 
 house of lords : setting forth, " That when the pro- 
 vince of Carolina was granted to the proprietors, for 
 the better peopling of it, express provision was made 
 in the charter for a toleration and indulgence of all 
 Christians, in the free exercise of their religion ; that, 
 in the fundamental constitutions, agreed to be the 
 form of government by the proprietors, there was 
 also express provision made, that no person should 
 be disturbed for any speculative opinion in religion, 
 and that no person should, on account of religion, 
 be excluded from being a member of the general as- 
 sembly, or from any other office in the civil admi- 
 nistration. That the said charter, being given soon 
 
928 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 after the happy restoration of King Charles II., and 
 re-establishment of the church of England by the 
 act of uniformity, many of the subjects of the king- 
 dom who were so unhappy as to have some scruples 
 about conforming to the rites of the said church, did 
 transplant themselves and families into Carolina ; 
 by means whereof the greatest part of the inhabitants 
 there were Protestant dissenters from the church of 
 England, and through the equality and freedom of the 
 said fundamental constitutions, all the inhabitants 
 of the colony lived in peace, and even the ministers 
 of the church of England had support from Protestant 
 dissenters, and the number of inhabitants and the 
 trade of the colony daily increased, to the great im- 
 provement of her majesty's customs, and the mani- 
 fest advantage of the merchants and manufactures 
 of the kingdom. 
 
 " But that, in the year 1703, when a new assem- 
 bly **+ to be chosen, which, by the constitution, is 
 chosen once in two years, the election was managed 
 with very great partiality and injustice, and all sorts 
 of people, even aliens, Jews, servants, common 
 sailors and negroes were admitted to vote at elec- 
 tions : that, in the said assembly, an act was passed 
 to incapacitate every person from being a member 
 of any general assembly that should be chosen for 
 the time to come, unless he had taken the sacrament 
 of the Lord's Supper, according to the rites of the 
 church of England ; whereby all Protestant dissenters 
 are made incapable of being in the said assembly ; 
 and yet, by the same act, all persons who shall take 
 an oath that they have not received the sacrament 
 in any dissenting congregation for one year past, 
 though they have not received it in the church of 
 England, are made capable of sitting in the said as- 
 sembly : that this act was passed in an illegal man- 
 ner, by the governor calling the assembly to meet 
 the 26th of April, when it then stood prorogued to 
 the 10th of May following: that it hath been rati- 
 fied by the lords proprietors in England, who refused 
 to hear what could be offered against it, and con- 
 trary to the petition of 170 of the chief inhabitants 
 of the colony, and of several eminent merchants 
 trading hither, though the commons of the same 
 assembly quickly after passed another bill to repeal 
 it, which the upper house rejected, and the governor 
 dissolved the house. 
 
 " That the ecclesiastical government of the colony 
 is under the bishop of London ; but the governor 
 and his adherents have at last done what the latter 
 often threatened to do, totally abolished it : for the 
 same assembly have passed an act, whereby twenty 
 lay-persons, therein named, are made a corporation 
 for the exercise of several exorbitant powers, to the 
 great injury and oppression of the people in general, 
 and for the exercise of all ecclesiastical jurisdiction, 
 with absolute power to deprive any minister of the 
 church of England of his benefice, not only for im- 
 morality, but even for imprudence, or incurable 
 prejudices between such minister and his parish; 
 and the only minister of the church established in 
 the colony, Mr. Edward Marston, hath already been 
 cited before their board, which the inhabitants of the 
 province take to be a high ecclesiastical commis- 
 sion-court, destructive to the very being and essence 
 of the church of England, and to be held in the 
 utmost detestation and abhorrence by every man 
 that is not an enemy to our constitution in church 
 and state. 
 
 " That the said grievances daily increasing, your 
 petitioner Joseph Boone is now sent by many prin- 
 cipal inhabitants and traders of the colony, to re- 
 
 present the languishing and dangerous situation of 
 it to the lords proprietors ; but his application to 
 them has hitherto had no effect : that the ruin of 
 the colony would be to the great disadvantage of the 
 trade of this kingdom, to the apparent prejudice of 
 her majesty's customs, and the great benefit of the 
 French, who watch all opportunities to improve their 
 own settlements in those parts of America." 
 
 After reading this petition in the house of lords, 
 the palatine desired to be heard by his council, which 
 was granted, and the further consideration of the 
 matter was postponed for one week. Then having 
 heard what Lord Granville had to offer in his be- 
 half, the lords agreed to address her majesty in 
 favour of the distressed petitioners of Carolina. 
 They declared that, after having fully and maturely 
 weighed the nature of the two acts passed in Caro- 
 lina, they found themselves obliged in duty to her 
 majesty, and in justice to her subjects, (who, by the 
 express words of the charter, were declared to be 
 the liege people of the crown of England, and to 
 have a right to all the liberties, franchises, and pri- 
 vileges of Englishmen), to come to the following re- 
 solutions : " First, That it is the opinion of this 
 house, that the act of assembly in Carolina, lately 
 passed there, signed-and sealed by John, Lord Gran- 
 ville, for himself, Lord Carteret, and Lord Craven, 
 and by Sir John Colleton, four of the proprietors of 
 that province, in order to the ratifying of it, entitled, 
 An act for the establishment of religious worship in 
 the province, according to the church of England, &c. 
 so far forth as the same relates to the establishing a 
 commission for the displacing of rectors and minis- 
 ters of the churches there, is not warranted by the 
 charter granted to the proprietors, as being not con- 
 sonant to reason, repugnant to the laws of the realm, 
 and destructive to the constitution of the church of 
 England. Secondly, That it is the opinion of this 
 house, that the act of assembly in Carolina, entitled, 
 An act for the more effectual preservation of the 
 government of the province, by requiring all persons 
 that shall hereafter be chosen members tof the com- 
 mons house of assembly, and sit in thq same, to 
 take the oaths and subscribe the declaration ap- 
 pointed by this act, and to cohformtpxthe religious 
 worship in this province, according the church of 
 England, and to receive the sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper, according to the rites and usage of the said 
 church, &c. is founded on falsity in matter of fact, is 
 repugnant to the laws of England, contrary to the 
 charter of the proprietors, is an encouragement to 
 atheism and irreligion, destructive to trade, and tends 
 to the depopulation and ruin of the province." 
 
 After which resolutions the house addressed her 
 majesty in the following words : " We, your ma- 
 jesty's dutiful subjects, having thus humbly pre- 
 sented our opinion of these acts, we beseech your 
 majesty to use the most effectual methods to deliver 
 the said province from the arbitrary oppressions 
 under which it now lies, and to order the authors 
 thereof to be prosecuted according to law; at the 
 same time we represent to your majesty, how much 
 the powers given by the crown have been abused 
 by some of your subjects, justice requires us to ac- 
 quaint your majesty, that some of the proprietors 
 absolutely refused to join in the ratification of these 
 acts. We humbly beg permission to inform your 
 majesty, that other great injustices and oppressions 
 are complained of in the petition ; but the nature of 
 the fact requiring a long examination, it was not 
 possible for the house to find time for, so near the 
 conclusion of the session ; and therefor* we presume, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 929 
 
 with all fluty, to lay the petition itself before your 
 majesty, at the same time we present our address. 
 We cannot doubt but your majesty, who from the 
 beginning of your reign has shown so great a con- 
 cern and tenderness for all your subjects, will ex- 
 tend your compassion for those distressed people, 
 who have the misfortune to be at so great a distance 
 from your royal person, and not so immediately 
 under your gentle administration. Your majesty 
 is fully sensible of what great consequence the 
 plantations are to the crown of England, and to the 
 trade of your subjects, and therefore we rest as- 
 sured, that as your majesty will have them all under 
 your royal care, so, in particular, you will be gra- 
 ciously pleased to find out and prosecute the most 
 effectual means for the relief of the province of Ca- 
 rolina." 
 
 To which address the queeh returned the follow- 
 ing answer: " I thank the house for laying these 
 matters so plainly before me: I am sensible of what 
 great consequence the plantations are to England, 
 and will do all in my power to relieve my subjects 
 in Carolina, and protect them in their just rights." 
 But as it likewise appeared that some of the pro- 
 prietors themselves had refused to approve of the 
 acts, the matter was further referred to the lords of 
 trade and plantations; who, after examination, 
 found that all the charges brought against the pro- 
 vincial government and the proprietors were well 
 grounded; and represented further to her majesty, 
 that the making of such laws was an abuse of the 
 powers granted to the proprietors by the charter, 
 and will be a forfeiture of it, and humbly begged 
 that she would be pleased to give directions for re- 
 assuming the same into her majesty's hands, by a 
 tcire facias in the court of queen's bench. The 
 queen approved of their representation, and after 
 declaring the laws null and void, for the effectual 
 proceeding against the charter by way of quo war- 
 ranto, ordered her attorney and solicitor-general to 
 inform themselves fully concerning what may be 
 most effectual for accomplishing the same, that she 
 might take the government of the colony, so much 
 abused by others, into her own hands, for the better 
 protection of her distressed subjects. Here, how- 
 ever, the matter was dropt for the present, and no 
 further steps were taken against the charter of the 
 proprietors, or for the relief of the people. 
 
 In the mean time the distant colonists, though 
 they had heard nothing of what had passed in Eng- 
 land relating to those grievous acts, became daily 
 more sensible of their oppressive nature and perni- 
 cious consequence. Several settlers had left the 
 country on account of them, and moved to Pennsyl- 
 vania. Archibald Stobo, a Presbyterian minister in 
 Charlestown, who had warmly opposed this esta- 
 blishment from the beginning, had also convinced 
 many who remained of the severities and hardships 
 the dissenters in England had suffered from the ri 
 gors of the episcopal government. Several circum- 
 stances proved favourable to Stobo's opposition; he 
 possessed those talents which render a minister con- 
 spicuous and respected, and the people that party-zeal 
 which becomes violent from persecution. To his 
 treasures of knowledge and excellent capacity for 
 instruction, he added uncommon activity and dili- 
 gence in the discharge of the various duties of his 
 sacred function. He had a natural aversion to the 
 episcopal jurisdiction, and no minister of the colony 
 had engrossed so universally the public favour and 
 esteem. The governor and his adherents found it 
 necessary to sow the seeds of division among his 
 
 HIST. OF AMB*. Nos, 117 & 118. 
 
 followers, and, from maxims of policy, to magnify 
 his failings, in order to ruin his great power and 
 influence. 
 
 But the presbyterian party were not the only mal- 
 contents during these unwarrantable proceedings of 
 the legislature. Many wise and religious men of all 
 denominations condemned them, as grievous and 
 impolitic, and opposed the acts of assembly. Even 
 the society for propagating the Gospel in England 
 disapproved of them, and resolved not to send any 
 missionaries to Carolina, until the clause relating to 
 lay -commissioners was annulled. So that all im- 
 partial men, in some measure, condemned the acts, 
 and seemed to detest both the factious men who 
 framed them, and the method by which they had 
 been promoted in the province. 
 
 At length, from these domestic troubles the atten- 
 tion of the people was drawn off, and turned towards 
 a more important object, their common defence 
 against foreign enemies. The war between Great 
 Britain and France and Spain still raged in Eu- 
 rope. The governor received advice of a project 
 framed for invading Carolina, and had instructions 
 to put the country in the best posture of defence. 
 The Spaniards pretended a right to it on the foot of 
 prior discovery, considering it as a part of Florida, 
 and had now determined by force of arms to assert 
 their right. Sir Nathaniel Johnson, as a military 
 commander, was well qualified for his duty. No 
 sooner had he received intelligence of the designs 
 of his enemy, than he set all hands to work upon the 
 fortifications, appointed a number of gunners to each 
 bastion, and held frequent musters to train the men 
 to the use of arms. A storehouse was prepared, 
 and a quantity uf ammunition laid up in it. to be 
 ready on the first emergency. A small fort, called 
 Fort Johnson, was erected on James's island, and 
 several great guns mounted on it. Trenches were 
 cast up on White Point, and other places where 
 they were thought necessary. A guard was sta- 
 tioned on Sullivan's island, with orders to kindle a 
 number of fires opposite to the town, equal to the num- 
 ber of ships they might spy on the coast. And every 
 prudent regulation was made to prevent a surprise. 
 
 Carolina. was at this juncture the southern frontier 
 of the British empire in America; but the colony, 
 although it had acquired some degree of strength, 
 was yet in a feeble state to resist an enemy of force 
 and enterprise. From its situation there was reason 
 to apprehend that the French and Spaniards would 
 attack it, as it would fall an easier conquest than 
 the more populous northern settlements ; and before 
 this time a plan had been concerted at the Havanna 
 for invading it. Mons. ie Feboure, captain of a 
 French frigate, together with four more armed sloops, 
 encouraged and assisted by the Spanish governor of 
 that island, had already set sail for Charlestown. 
 To facilitate the conquest of the province, he had 
 directions to touch at Augustine, and carry from 
 thence such a force as he judged adequate, to the 
 enterprise. Upon his arrival at Augusfhie, he had 
 intelligence of an epidemical distemper wnich raged 
 at Charlestown, and had swept off a vast number of 
 inhabitants. This animated him to proceed with 
 greater expedition. Imagining the town to be in a 
 weak and defenceless state, and that the militia in 
 the country would be averse from coming nigh it, 
 through fear of the fatal infection, he took on board 
 a considerable number of forces at Augustine, and 
 made all the sail he could for Carolina. 
 
 Before this time, a Dutch privateer, formerly be- 
 longing to New York, by order of the goveinor of 
 
 41 
 
HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Carolina, had been refitted at Charlestowu for cruis- 
 ing on the coast. The command had been given to 
 Captain Stool, who was sent out on purpose to in- 
 tercept the supplies regularly sent to Augustine 
 from the Havauna. After being out a few days he 
 returned, and brought advice of having engaged a 
 French sloop off the bar of Augustine ; but upon 
 seeing four more ships advancing, made all the sail 
 he could for Charlestown, and thus narrowly escaped 
 falling into the enemy's hands. Scarcely had he 
 delivered the news, when nve separate smokes ap- 
 peared on Sullivan's island, as a signal to the town 
 that the same number of ships were observed on the 
 coast. 
 
 Sir Nathaniel Johnson being at that time at his 
 plantation, several miles from town, Lieutenant- 
 Colonel William Rhett, commanding-officer of the 
 militia, immediately ordered the drums to beat, and 
 the whole inhabitants to be put under arms. A mes- 
 senger was dispatched with the ne.ws to the governor, 
 and letters to all the captains of the militia in the 
 country, to fire their alarm-guns, raise their compa- 
 nies, and with all possible expedition march to the 
 assistance of the town. 
 
 In the evening the enemy's fleet came the length 
 of Charlestown bar; but as the passage was intri- 
 cate and dangerous, they did not think it prudent 
 to venture over it while the darkness of the night 
 approached, and therefore hovered on the coast all 
 night within sight of land. Early next morning 
 the watchmen stationed on Sullivan's island observed 
 them a little to the southward of the bar, manning 
 their galleys and boats, as if they intended to land 
 on James's island ; but there having come to an 
 anchor, they employed their boats aU that day in 
 sounding the south bar : which delay was of great 
 service to the Carolineans, as it afforded time for 
 the militia in the country to march to town. 
 
 The same day Sir Nathaniel Johnson, the gorer- 
 nor, came to Charlestown, and found the inhabitants 
 in great consternation ; but he inspired them with 
 fresh confidence and resolution. Martial law was 
 proclaimed at the head of the militia ; and the ne- 
 cessary orders were sent to the Indian tribes in al- 
 liance with the colony, which brought a number of 
 them to his assistance. As a contagious distemper 
 raged in Charlestown, the governor judged it im- 
 prudent to expose his men to the infection,' and 
 therefore held his head-quarters about half a mile 
 distant from town. In the evening a troop of 
 horse, commanded by Captain George Logan, and 
 two companies of foot, under the command of Major 
 George Broughton, reached the capital, and kept 
 diligent watch during the night. The next morning 
 a company from James's island, under the command 
 of Captain Drake, another from Wando, under Cap- 
 tain Fenwick, and five more commanded by Cap- 
 tains Cantey, Lynch, Hearn, Longbois, and Sea- 
 brook, joined the militia of the town ; so that the 
 whole force of the province, with the governor at 
 their head, was now collected together in one place. 
 
 The day following, the enemy's four ships and a 
 galley came over the bar, with all their boats out for 
 landing their men, and stood directly for the town, 
 having the advantages of a fair wind and strong tide. 
 When they had advanced so far up the river as to 
 discover the fortifications, they cast anchor a little 
 above Sullivan's island. The governor, observing 
 the enemy approaching towards the town, marched 
 his men into it to receive them ; but finding they 
 had stopt by the way, he had time to call a council of 
 WM, m whiofi it was agreed to put some great guns on 
 
 board of such ships as wen- in the harbour, and em- 
 ploy the sailors in their own way, for the bettor <i 
 fence of the town. William Rhett, a man poss 
 of considerable conduct and spirit, received a coin- 
 mission to be vice-admiral of this little fleet, and 
 hoisted his flag on board of the Crown galley. 
 
 The enemy observing them employed in making all 
 possible preparations for resistance, sent up a flag of 
 truce to the governor, to summon him to surrender. 
 George Evans, who commanded Granville bastion, 
 received their messenger at his landing from the 
 boat, and conducted him blindfolded into the fort, 
 until the governor was in readiness to receive him. 
 In the meantime the governor, having drawn up 
 his men in such a manner as to make them appear 
 to the greatest advantage, received the French officer 
 at their head; and having first shown him one fort 
 full of men, he then conducted him by a different 
 route to another, giving the same men time to go 
 by a shorter way, and be drawn up beforehand : 
 and there, having given him a view of his strength, 
 he demanded the purport of his message. The offi- 
 cer told him, that he was sent by Mons. le Feboure, 
 admiral of the French fleet, to demand a surrender 
 of the town and country, and their persons prison- 
 ers of war ; and that his orders allowed him no more 
 than one hour for an answer. Governor Johnson 
 replied, that there was no occasion for one minute 
 to answer that message : he told him, he held the 
 town and country for the queen of England ; that 
 he could depend on his men, who would sooner die 
 than surrender themselves prisoners of war; that 
 be was resolved to defend the country to the last 
 drop of his blood against the boldest invader, and 
 he might go when he pleased, and acquaint Mons. le 
 Feboure with his resolution. 
 
 The day following, a party ofHhe enemy went 
 ashore on James's island, and burnt ihe houses on 
 a plantation by the river side. Another party, 
 consisting of 160 men, landed on the\ opposite 
 side of the river, and burnt two vessels i)n Dears- 
 by's creek, and set fire to his storehouse/ Sir Na- 
 thaniel Johnson, from such beginnings/perceiving 
 that they were determined to carry'fire and sword 
 wherever they went, doubled his diligence for the 
 defence of the town. He ordered Captain Drake 
 and his company, with a small party of Indians, to 
 James's island, to defend their properties on that 
 side. Drake marched against them, but before he 
 could bring up his men, the Indians, whom he could 
 keep under no control, and who ran through the 
 woods with their usual impetuosity, had driven the 
 invaders to their boats. Then advice was brought 
 to town, that the party who landed on Wando Neck 
 had killed a number of hogs and cattle, and were 
 feasting on the plunder. To prevent their further 
 progress into the country, and give them a check if 
 possible, Captain Cantey, with 100 chosen men 
 was ordered to pass the river privately in the night 
 and watch their motions. Before break of day the 
 captain came up with them, and finding them in a 
 state of security, with fires lighted around them, 
 surrounded and surprised them with a sharp fire 
 from every quarter; in consequence c' vhich they 
 were put in confusion and fled, and a Considerable 
 part being killed, wounded, and drowned, the re- 
 mainder surrendered prisoners of war. 
 
 Having by this blow considerably weakened the 
 force of the enemy, and being encouraged and ani- 
 mated by their success at land, the Carolineans de- 
 termined also to try their fortune by sea. Accord- 
 ingly William Rhett set sail with his fleet of six 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 931 
 
 small ships, and proceeded down the river to the place 
 where the enemy rode at anchor; but the French 
 perceiving this fleet standing towards them, in great 
 haste weighed anchor, and sailed over the bar. For 
 some days nothing more was heard of them ; but, to 
 make sure, the governor ordered Captain Watson, 
 of the Sea Flower, out to sea, to examine whether 
 or not the coast was clear. The captain returned 
 without seeing the enemy, but observing some men 
 on shore whom they had left behind, he took them 
 on board and brought them to town. These men 
 assured the governor that the French were gone. 
 In consequence of which, orders were given for the 
 martial law to cease, and the inhabitants began to 
 rejoice at their happy deliverance. 
 
 However, before night, certain advice was brought 
 that a ship of force was seen in Sewee bay, and 
 that a number of armed men had landed from her at 
 that place. Upon examination of the prisoners the 
 governor found that the French expected a ship of 
 war, with Mons. Arbuset their general, and about 
 200 men more to their assistance. The governor 
 ordered Captain Fenwick to pass the river, and 
 march against them by land ; while Rhett, with the 
 Dutch privateer and a Bermuda sloop armed, sailed 
 round by sea, with orders to meet him at Sewee bay. 
 Captain Fenwick came up with the enemy, and 
 briskly charged them, who, though advantageously 
 posted, after a few volleys gave way, and retreated 
 to their ship ; and soon after Rhett coming to his as 
 sistance, the French ship struck without tiring a shot. 
 Rhett, being obliged by contrary winds to remain 
 all that day in Sewee bay, dispatched John Barnwell, 
 a volunteer, to the governor, with an account of their 
 success; and next morning, the wind changing, he 
 returned to Charlestown with his prize, and about 
 90 prisoners. 
 
 Thus ended Mous. le Feboure's invasion of Caro- 
 Lna, little to his own honour as a commander, or to 
 the credit and courage of his men. It is probable he 
 expected to find the province in a defenceless situa- 
 tion, and that the governor would instantly surrender 
 on his appearance before the town. But the gover- 
 nor was a man of approved courage and conduct; 
 the militia acted with the spirit of men who had not 
 only the honour of the province, but also their whole 
 properties at stake, and amazing success crowned 
 their endeavours. Out of 800 men who came against 
 this little colony, near 300 were killed and taken 
 prisoners ; among the latter were Mons. Arbuset, 
 their Commander-in-chief by land, with several sea- 
 officers, who together offered 10,000 pieces of eight 
 for their ransom. On the other hand, the loss sus- 
 tained by the provincial militia was incredibly small. 
 The governor publicly thanked them for the unani- 
 mity and courage they had shown in repelling the 
 invaders : and received from the proprietors soon 
 after the following letter. " We heartily congratu- 
 late you on your great and happy success against the 
 French and Spaniards ; and for your eminent cou- 
 rage and conduct in the defence and preservation of 
 our province, we return you our thanks, and assure 
 you, that we shall always retain a just sense of your 
 merit, and will take all opportunities to reward your 
 signal services." 
 
 About this time the long-projected union between 
 England and Scotland took place in Britain. Among 
 the number of articles which composed this impor- 
 tant and beneficial treaty, it was agreed, " That all 
 the subjects of the united kingdom of Great Britain 
 should from, and after this union, have full freedom 
 and intercourse of trade and navigation to and from 
 
 any port or place in the said united kingdom, and 
 the dominions and plantations thereunto belonging ; 
 and that there should be a communication of all 
 rights, privileges, and advantages which do or may 
 belong to the subjects of either kingdom, except 
 where it is otherwise expressly agreed in these arti- 
 cles." Unfortunately, however, two modes of reli- 
 gious worship were established in the nation, which 
 served to perpetuate differences among the more stiff 
 and rigid partisans of both the episcopalian and 
 presbyterian churches. In respect to the essential 
 principles and doctrines of religion, they are the 
 same in both churches, and the difference between 
 them lies in the modes of worship and government, 
 in usages, vestments, forms, and ceremonies, matters 
 of little consequence. As the greatest part of the emi- 
 grants to America carried along with them prejudices 
 against the established modes, and discovered a ten- 
 dency towards a republican form of church govern- 
 ment, they in process of time acquired so much 
 strength, that the various colonial governments, 
 when engaged in support of the established church, 
 were often weakened by it, and rendered unable 
 to answer the ends of their appointment. 
 
 About this time the society incorporated by King 
 William, having received large benefactions for the 
 purpose of propagating the Gospel, began to exert 
 themselves for sending over., and maintaining mis- 
 sionaries in the plantations. As some colonies were 
 totally destitute of the means of instruction, and 
 others ill provided with ministers, and unable to sup- 
 port them, the society considered the British sub- 
 jects as the primary objects of their charity. To 
 prevent the influence of Roman-catholic mission- 
 aries among the heathens was a secondary end in 
 view with this charitable corporation, who were also 
 to improve every favourable opportunity for the in- 
 struction and conversion of negroes and Indians. 
 While a number of missionaries were ordained for 
 the northern colonies, Samuel Thomas was sent out 
 to Carolina for the instruction of the Yamassee In- 
 dians ; and to supply the different parishes, several 
 more missionaries were on the passage to the pro- 
 vince. The society had written to Sir Nathaniel 
 Johnson, expressing their zeal for the interest of re- 
 ligion, and earnest desire for spreading the know- 
 ledge of the Gospel among the inhabitants of the 
 British colonies, and their hopes of his concurrence 
 towards the accomplishment of their excellent de- 
 sign. Upon the receipt of which the governor sum- 
 moned a meeting of his council, and sent an answer 
 to the corporation in the following words: " We 
 could not omit this opportunity of testifying the 
 grateful sense we have of your most noble Christian 
 charity to our poor infant church in this province, 
 expressed by the generous encouragement you have 
 been pleased to give to those who are coming as mis- 
 sionaries, the account of which we have just now re- 
 ceived by our worthy friend and minister Mr. Tho- 
 mas, who, to our great satisfaction, is now arrived. 
 The extraordinary hurry we are in, occasioned by 
 the late invasion attempted by the French and Spa- 
 niards, from whom God hath miraculously delivered 
 us, hath prevented our receiving a particular ac- 
 count from Mr. Thomas of your bounty, and also 
 hath not given us leisure to view your missionaries' 
 instructions, either in regard to what relates to them 
 or to ourselves : but we shall take speedy care to 
 give them all due encouragement, and the venera- 
 ble society the utmost satisfaction. There is nothing 
 so dear to us as our holy religion, and the interest 
 of the established church, in which we have been. 
 
 412 
 
932 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 happily educated; we therefore devoutly adore God : s 
 providence in bringing, and heartily thank your 
 society in encouraging, so many missionaries to come 
 among us. We promise your honourable society it shall 
 be our daily study to encourage their pious labours, 
 to protect their persons, to revere their authority, to I 
 improve by their ministerial instructions, and, -is soon 
 as possible, to enlarge their annual salaries. When 
 we have placed your missionaries in their several 
 parishes according to your directions, and received ! 
 from them an account of your noble benefaction of I 
 books for each parish, we shall then write more oar 4 - j 
 iicular and full. In the mean time, we beg youi I 
 honourable society to accept of our hearty gratitude, 
 and be assured of our sincere endeavour to concur 
 with you in the noble design of propagating Christ's 
 holy religion." 
 
 Soon after the missionaries arrived, and were set- 
 tled in their respective parishes, Edward Marston, 
 minister at Charlestown, died, and Mr. Thomas, 
 whom the governor intended for his successor, did 
 not long survive him: in consequence of whose 
 death, the governor and council applied by letters 
 to the society, requesting further supplies, particu- 
 larly a learned and prudent man, to take the charge 
 of the capital. The archbishop of Dublin recom- 
 mended Gideon Johnston to them as a person for 
 whose diligence and ability he dared to be answer- 
 able, and doubted not but he would execute the 
 duty required in such a manner as to merit the ap- 
 probation of every one 'with whom he should be 
 concerned. Accordingly, Mr. Johnston being made 
 commissary to the bishop of London for the province 
 of Carolina, and having fifty pounds a-year settled 
 on him from the society, embarked for Ciiarlestown. 
 On his arrival he had almost lost, his life in going 
 ashore : the ship in which he sailed being obliged to 
 come to an anchor off the bar to wait the return of 
 the tide, and Mr. Johnston, with several more pas- 
 sengers, being impatient to get to land, went on 
 board of the small boat to go up to the town ; but a 
 sudden gust of wind arising, drove the boat upon a 
 sand-bank, where they lay two days, almost perish- 
 ing with hunger and thirst, when some persons ac- 
 cidentally discovered and relieved them. 
 
 Mr. Johnston was not the only pe-rson that shared 
 of the charitable fund; for live more ministers were 
 settled in the country, to each of whom an allowance 
 of 50. a-year, besides their provincial salary, was 
 given by this incorporated society. Two thousand 
 volumes of books were also sent to be distributed 
 among the people by these missionaries, for their 
 private use and instruction. As the church of Eng- 
 land, however, continued to be considered as the 
 established religion of the province ; and as all the 
 ministers sent out by this society were of that per- 
 suasion, the dissenters concluded that the society 
 intended more the propagation of episcopacy than 
 of Christianity. 
 
 About the close of the year 1707, Lord Graaville, 
 the palatine, died, and was succeeded in that high 
 dignity by William, Lord Craven. The death of 
 that nobleman, by whose instruction and encourage 
 meat the several violent stops tor the establishment 
 and support of the church of England in Carol i 
 had been taken, was now likely to produce some 
 change in the future state of public affairs. Though 
 the governor and his friends still maintained a ma- 
 . jority in the house of assembly, yet, from the num- 
 ber and temper of the dissenters, they were not 
 without some suspicions of seeing (he fabric, which 
 they had with such uncommon iudustry been erect- 
 
 ing, totally overturned. While many episcopalians 
 in England were terrified with the prospects of dan- 
 ger to their church, the Carolineans took the alarm, 
 and passed an act for its security in that province. 
 The preamble of which was to the following effect: 
 " Whereas the church of England has of late been 
 so happily established among us. fearing that by the 
 succession of a new governor this church may be 
 either undermined or wholly subverted, to prevent 
 which calamity falling upon us, be it enacted, That 
 this present assembly shall continue to sit two years, 
 and for the time and term of eighteen months, after 
 the cnange of government, whether by the death of 
 the present governor, or the succession of another 
 n his time." 
 
 About the end of the year 1708, Colonel Edward 
 Tynte received a commission from Lord Craven, in- 
 vesting him with the government of the colony. 
 About the same time Charlc-s Craven, brother to the 
 palatine, was made secretary to the province. Du- 
 ring the time Sir Nathankl Johnson had governed 
 the country, it had not only been, threatened with a 
 formidable invasion, but also torn to pieces with 
 factions and divisions, which bad much retarded its 
 progress and improvement. Great confusion among- 
 he people had been occasioned by the violent stretch 
 if power in favour of an ecclesiastical establishment. 
 The new palatine, sensible of those things, instructed 
 Governor Tynte to adopt such healing measures as 
 would be most conducive to the welfare of the settle- 
 ment. Soon after his arrival he received a letter 
 from the proprietors to the following effect : " We 
 hope by this time you have entered upon your go- 
 vernment of our province of Carolina, and therefore 
 we earnestly require your endeavours to reconcile 
 the minds of the inhabitants to^ach other, that the 
 name of parties, if any yet remains among them, 
 may be utterly extinguished: for we can by no 
 means doubt, but their unanimous concurrence with 
 our endeavours for their prosperity, will most ef- 
 fectually render Carolina as flourishing/a colony as 
 any in America." The kite palatineytrom a mix- 
 ture of spiritual and political pwde^^fespised all dis- 
 senters, as the enemies of both the hierarchy and 
 monarchy, and believed the state could only be se- 
 cure, while the civil authority was lodged in the 
 hands of high-church men. Lord Craven possessed 
 not the same intolerant spirit, and thought those 
 Carolineans, who maintained liberty of conscience, 
 merited greater indulgences from them ; and, though 
 a friend to the church of England, he always was 
 doubtful whether the minds of the people were ripe 
 for the introduction of that establishment; and he 
 therefore urged lenity and toleration. 
 
 The expenses incurred by the French invasion, 
 though it terminated much to the honour of the Ca- 
 rolineans, fell heavy on the colony, still in a poor 
 and languishing condition. No taxes as yet had 
 been laid on real or personal estates : the revenues 
 of the colony were all raised by duties laid on spiri- 
 tuous liquors, sugar, molasses, and a few other ar- 
 ticles imported ; and on deer-skins and furs exported. 
 The amount of these several duties was applied to- 
 wards defraying the charges of government, such 
 as raising and repairing fortifications, paying the 
 governor's salary, maintaining garrisons, providing 
 military stores, and salaries to ten ministers of the 
 church of England, and sinking bills of credit 
 stamped for answering the extraordinary expenses 
 of the province. Eight thousand pounds had been 
 issued for defraying the public expenses occasioned, 
 by the French invasion ; aud the act laying an ina- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 933 
 
 Position on furs, skins, and liquors, was continued, 
 for the purpose of cancelling these bills of credit. 
 From this time forward there was a gradual rise in 
 exchange and produce, owing, as many thought, to 
 the emission and establishment of paper currem-y 
 in the province. Before this period, French and 
 Spanish gold and silver, brought into the country 
 by pirates, privateers, and the over-balance of trade 
 with the West Indies, answered all the purposes of 
 internal commerce, and very little English coin was 
 circulating in the country. However, soon after 
 this emission, 50 per cent, advance was given by 
 the merchants for what English money there was ; 
 that is to say, for 1002. English coin, they gave 150/. 
 paper currency of Carolina. 
 
 A fierce war still continued between England and 
 France in Europe, and the success which had at- 
 tended an expedition against Acadia, had encou- 
 raged the British administration to enter on bolder 
 undertakings in America. The French in Canada 
 were numerous and strong ; and Lord Godolphin, 
 convinced of the necessity of maintaining a superi- 
 ority over them, formed the design of attacking 
 Quebec, of which a sufficient account has already 
 been given. 
 
 In the year following the French planted a co- 
 lony at the mouth of the great river Mississippi. 
 Louis XIV. thought proper to grant a territory of 
 vast extent in that quarter to Secretary Crozat, by 
 which he evidently encroached on lands belonging 
 to the proprietors of South Carolina. Though the 
 Carolineans had not a little to fear from a settlement 
 in such a situation, yet Crozat was allowed to take 
 peaceable possession, without any complaints from 
 the proprietors, or opposition from the British go- 
 vernment. From this period a new competitor for 
 the affection and interest of Indian nations arose, 
 more active and enterprising than the Spaniards, 
 whose motions the Carolineans had good reason to 
 watch with a jealous and vigilant eye. 
 
 About the same time application was made to the 
 proprietors for lands in Carolina, by a number of 
 Palatines harassed in Germany by the calamities 
 of a tedious war, and reduced to circumstances of 
 great indigence and misery. The proprietors wisely 
 judging, that by such acquisitions the vaiue of their 
 lands would increase, and the strength of their set- 
 tlement would be promoted, determined to give 
 every possible encouragement to such emigrants. 
 Ships were provided for their transportation. In- 
 structions were sent to Govenor Tynte to allow 100 
 acres of land for every man, woman, and child, free 
 of quit-rents for the first ten years; but, at the ex- 
 piration of that term, to pay one penny per acre 
 annual rent for ever, according to the usages and 
 customs of the province. Upon their arrival Go- 
 vernor Tynte granted them lands in North Carolina, 
 where they settled, and flattered themselves with 
 having found in the dreary wilderness a happy re- 
 treat from the storms and desolations of war raging 
 in Europe. 
 
 However, like many others, Governor Tynte had 
 scarcely time to learn the real state of the country, 
 in order to establish proper regulations in it, before 
 he died. After his death, a competition arose in the 
 council about the succession. One party declared 
 for Robert Gibbes, and another for Thomas Brough- 
 toii. Gibbes, however, carried his election, and for 
 a little while stood at the head of the colony. Du- 
 ring his time, we know nothing remarkable that 
 happened. An act of assembly passed ior appoint- 
 ing commissioners, empowering them to take sub- 
 
 scriptions and collect public contributions for build- 
 ing a church at Charlestown. Water passages were 
 carried southward to Port- royal, for the ease and 
 convenience of passengers by sea, and money was 
 provided for building public bridges, and establish- 
 ing ferries, for the accommodation of travellers by 
 land. 
 
 But as it appeared to the proprietors, that bri- 
 bery and corruption had been used by Robert Gibbes 
 to gain his election to the government, he was not 
 permitted to continue long in that oiiice ; they for- 
 bade their receiver-general to pay him any salary, 
 and ordered the ' money due to be transmitted to 
 Richard Shelton their secretary in England. A 
 commission was sent out to Charles Graven, a man 
 of great knowledge-, courage, and integrity, by his 
 brother, investing him with the government of the 
 colony. His council was compo^'d of Thomas 
 Broughton, Ralph Izard, Charles Hart, Samuel 
 Eveleigh, Arthur Midtiltnon, &c. ; all men of con- 
 siderable property and experience in provincial 
 affairs. The assembly in his time was not elected, 
 as formerly, in a riotous and tumultuary mannf-r, 
 but with the utmost quietness and regularity, and 
 procee.-led to their deliberations with great temper 
 and mutual friendship. The governor had instruc- 
 tions to defend the province against the French and 
 Spaniard?, and for that purpose to form and culti- 
 vate the firmest friendship and alliance with the 
 Indians ; to promote fisheries and manufactures, 
 which was certainly an absurd and ridiculous in- 
 struction ; for while they had so much land, agri- 
 culture was evidently more profitable and beneficial 
 to both the possessors and proprietors of the pro- 
 vince. He was required to overlook the courts, and 
 take special care dhat justice be equitably adminis- 
 tered, and that no interruptions or delays attend the 
 execution of the laws : he was ordered to employ 
 eight men to sound Port-royal river for the benefit 
 of navigation, and to fix on the most convenient 
 spot for building a town, with a harbour nigh it; 
 and to transmit all acts of assembly made from time 
 to time to England, for the proprietors' approbation 
 or disapprobation, and sucn other public matters as 
 appeared to him of general concern and utility, he 
 was required carefully to study and promote. 
 
 In the year 1712, after Governor Craven had as- 
 sumed the management of the colony, a dangerous 
 conspiracy was formed by the Indians of North 
 Carolina against the poor settlers in that quarter. 
 The cause of the quarrel we have not been able 
 clearly to find out; probably they were offended at 
 the encroachments made on their hunting lands. 
 The powerful tribes of Indians called Corees, Tus- 
 cororas, and several more, united, and determined 
 to murder or expel the European invaders. As 
 usual, they carried on their bloody design with amaz- 
 ing cunning and profound secrecy. Their chief town 
 they had, in the first place, surrounded with a 
 wooden breast-work, for the security of their own 
 families. Here the different tribes met together to 
 the number of 1,200 bowmen, and formed their hor- 
 rid plot. From this place 9f rendezvous they sent 
 out small parties, who entered the settlements, un- 
 der the mask of friendship, by different roads. At 
 the change of the full moon all of them had agreed 
 to begin their murderous operations, on the saaie 
 night. When that night came, they entered the 
 planters" houses, demanded provisions, and mur- 
 iered men, women, and children, without mercy or 
 distinction. To prevent the alarm spreading through 
 the settlement, they raa from house to house, spread- 
 
934 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 ing slaughter among the scattered families wherever 
 they went. None of the colonists, during the fatal 
 night, knew what had befallen their neighbours, 
 until the barbarians had reached their own doors. 
 About Roanock 137 settlers fell a sacrifice to their 
 savage fury the first night; among whom were a 
 Swiss baron, and almost all the poor Palatines who 
 had lately come into the country. Some, however, 
 who had hid themselves in the woods, having escaped, 
 next morning gave the alarm to their neighbours, 
 and prerented the total destruction of that colony. 
 Every family had orders speedily to assemble at one 
 place, and the militia, under arms, kept watch day 
 and night around them, until the news of the sad 
 disaster reached the province of South Carolina. 
 
 Happy was it for the distressed North Carolineans 
 that Govenor Craven lost no time in collecting and 
 dispatching a force to their assistance and relief. 
 The assembly voted 40002. for the service of the war. 
 A body of militia, consisting of 600 men, under the 
 command of Colonel Barnwell, marched against the 
 savages. Two hundred and eighteen Cherokees, 
 under the command of Captains Harford and Turs- 
 tons; 79 Creeks, under Captain Hastings; 41 Ca- 
 tabaws, under Captain Cantey ; and 28 Yamassees, 
 under Captain Pierce, being furnished with arms, 
 joined the Carolineans in this expedition. The way 
 was dreadful, at this time, in the wilderness through 
 which Colonel Barnwell had to march. It was not 
 possible for his men to carry a sufficient quantity of 
 provisions, together with arms and ammunition, 
 along with them, or to have these things provided 
 at different stages by the way. There was no road 
 through the woods upon which either horses or car- 
 riages could conveniently pass ; and his little army 
 had every kind of hardship and danger to encounter. 
 In spite of every difficulty, Barnwell, however, ad- 
 vanced against them, employing his Indian allies 
 to hunt for provisions to his men by the way. At 
 length, having come up with the savages, he at- 
 tacked them, and being much better supplied with 
 arms and ammunition than his enemy, he did great 
 execution among them. In the first battle he killed 
 300 Indians, and took about 100 prisoners. After 
 which the Tuscororas retreated to their town, within 
 a wooden breast-work ; there Barnwell surrounded 
 them, and having killed a considerable number, 
 forced the remainder to sue for peace : some of his 
 men being wounded, and others having suffered 
 much by constant watching, and much hunger and 
 fatigue, the savages the more easily obtained their 
 request. In this expedition it was computed that 
 Barnwell killed, wounded, and captured near 1000 
 Tuscororas. The remainder, who escaped, soon 
 after this heavy chastisement, abandoned their coun- 
 try, and joined a northern tribe of Indians on the 
 Ohio river. Of Barnwell's party five Carolineans 
 were killed, and several wounded : of his Indians, 
 36 were killed, and between 60 and 70 wounded. 
 In justice to this officer it must be owned, never had 
 any expedition against the savages in Carolina been 
 attended with such hazards and difficulties, nor had 
 the conquest of any tribe of them ever been more 
 general and complete. 
 
 Although the expedition to North Carolina was 
 well conducted, and proved as successful as the most 
 sanguine could have expected, yet the expense the 
 public had incurred by it fell heavy on the province, 
 the revenues of which were inconsiderable, and not 
 at all adapted for such important and extensive en- 
 terprises. But as great good feeling at this time 
 subsisted between the governor arid assembly, 
 
 they were well disposed to concur with him ia 
 every measure for the public safety and relief. 
 The stamping of bills of credit had been used as the 
 easiest method of defraying these expenses incurred 
 for the public defence : however, at this time, the 
 legislature thought proper to establish a public bank, 
 and issued 48,000/. in bills of credit, called bank- 
 bills, for answering the exigencies of government, 
 and for the convenience of domestic commerce. This 
 money was to be lent out at interest, on landed or 
 personal security ; and, according to the tenour of 
 the act for issuing the same, it was to be sunk gra- 
 dually, by 4000/. a year ; which sum was ordered to be 
 paid annually by the borrowers, into the hands of 
 commissioners appointed for that purpose. After 
 the emission of these bank-bills, the rate of exchange 
 and the price of produce quickly rose, and in the first 
 year advanced to 150, in the second to 200 per cent. 
 
 With respect to the utility of this paper money, 
 the planters and merchants, according to their dif- 
 ferent views and interests, were divided in opinion. 
 The former, who, for the most part, stood indebted 
 to the latter, found that this provincial currency 
 was not only necessary to answer the exigencies of 
 government, but also very useful and convenient in 
 the payment of private debts. This money being 
 local, in proportion as it increased in quantity, it 
 raised the nominal price of provincial commodities : 
 and became of course prejudicial to creditors, in pro- 
 portion as it was profitable to debtors ; for though it 
 depreciated 50 per cent, in a year, during which 
 time the planters stood indebted to the merchants, 
 the next year such creditors were obliged to take it 
 in payment, or produce, which had advanced in price, 
 according to the quantity of money in circulation. 
 By the acts of assembly which established these bills 
 of credit, the currency was securfed, and made a 
 tender in law in all payments ; so thatif the creditor 
 refused this money before witnesses offered to him, 
 the debt was discharged from the minutje of his re- 
 fusal. Besides, the planters knew, that in a trad- 
 ing country gold and silvery by varJtius channels, 
 would make their way out of itf-^hen they answer 
 the purposes of remittance better than produce : 
 paper-money served to remedy this inconvenience, 
 and to keep up the price of provincial commodities, 
 as it could not leave the colony, and answered the 
 purpose for paying private debts as well,or rather bet- 
 ter, than gold and silver. As the trade of the countrv 
 increased, no doubt a certain quantity of money was 
 necessary to carry it on with ease and freedom ; but 
 when paper bills are permitted to increase beyond 
 what are necessary for commercial ease and utilitv, 
 they sink in value ; and in such a case creditors lose 
 in proportion to their depreciation. 
 
 In Carolina, as well as in the other British colonies 
 in America, the greatest part of the gold and silver 
 current was foreign coin, and the different assemblies 
 settled their value from time to time, by laws pecu- 
 liar to each province. To remedy the inconve- 
 niences arising from the different rates at which the 
 same species of foreign coin passed in the several 
 colonies and plantations, Queen Anne, in the sixth 
 year of her reign, had thought fit, by her royal pro- 
 clamation, to settle and ascertain the current rate of 
 foreign coin in all her colonies. The standard at 
 which currency was fixed by this proclamation, was 
 at 133/. 6s. Sd. per cent. ; but this regulation, how 
 ever convenient and advantageous to trade, was af- 
 terwards little regarded in these provinces, and the 
 confusion of current money continued and prevailed. 
 
 After the emission of this great quantity of bank- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 Carolina, and speedy rise of the price of pro- 
 duce m consequence of it, the merchants of London, 
 to whom the colony stood indebted, judging it pre 
 judicial to trade, complained of it to the proprietors. 
 They perceived that the trade of the country, by this 
 means, would be carried on entirely without silver 
 or gold ; and although their factors in Carolina might 
 raise the price of British commodities and manufac- 
 tures, equal to the advanced price of the produce, 
 yet it might be for their interest sometimes to take 
 gold and silver rather than produce in return fo 
 their British goods. They considered the issuing of 
 such bank-notes as a violation of the laws of En- 
 gland, and prevailed on the proprietors to write Go- 
 vernor Craven a letter to the following effect : " We 
 have heard complaints from several hands of an act 
 you have passed, called the Bank Act. We do re 
 commend to you to consider of some expedient for 
 preventing the mischievous consequences of that act, 
 lest, upon further complaints, we be forced to repeal 
 it. The act is exclaimed against by our London 
 merchants as injurious to trade, as an infringement 
 and violation of the laws of Great Britain, and made 
 almost in opposition to the act of the sixth of Queen 
 Anne. Therefore we expect, for preventing such 
 complaints for the future, that you will endeavour, 
 as much as in you lies, to reduce that paper credit, 
 pretended to be established in your bank act, and 
 that you will strictly put in execution the aforesaid 
 act of Queen Anne." 
 
 As the trade of the colony had of late years con- 
 siderably increased, and was almost entirely carried 
 on in British ships, its protection was an object 
 which demanded the attention either of the proprie- 
 tors or the British administration. The war in 
 Europe had engrossed the care of the latter, and the 
 former were either unable or unwilling to bear the 
 expense of its protection. They had leased their 
 property in the Bahama islands to a company of 
 merchants, which, turning out to little account, the 
 Island of Providence became a receptacle for vaga- 
 bonds and villains of all nations. From this place 
 of rendezvous a crew of desperate pirates had been 
 accustomed to push out to sea, and, in defiance of 
 the laws of nations, to obstruct navigation. The 
 trade of Carolina and that of the West Indies suf- 
 fered greatly from their depredations. For five 
 years after this period those lawless robbers reigned 
 as the masters of the Gulf of Florida, plundering 
 and taking ships of every nation. North Carolina, 
 by the conquest of its maritime tribes of Indians, 
 had also become a refuge for those rogues, who car- 
 ried their prizes into Cape Fear river, or Providence, 
 as best suited their convenience or interest. Their 
 success induced bold and rapacious spirits to join 
 them, and in time they became so formidable, that 
 no inconsiderable force was requisite to suppress 
 them. 
 
 After a long and expensive war, a treaty of peace 
 and commerce was concluded between Britain, 
 France and Spain in Europe ; and orders were sent 
 to all the colonies to desist from acts of hostility. Go- 
 vernor Craven, deeply interested in the prosperity 
 of Carolina, now turned his attention to improve the 
 blessings of peace, and to diffuse a spirit of industry 
 and agriculture throughout the settlement. The 
 lands in Granville county were found upon trial rich 
 and fertile, and the planters were encouraged to im- 
 prove them. Accordingly a number of plantations 
 were settled in the neighbourhood of Indian nations, 
 with whom the Governor studied to cultivate afriendly 
 correspondence. For the purposes of trade some men 
 
 took up their residence in their towns, and furnished 
 them with clothes, arms, and ammunition, in ex- 
 change for their furs and deer-skins. An agent was 
 appointed to superintend the affairs of Indian tribes, 
 and to conciliate by all possible means their friend- 
 ship and esteem. Several interior regulations, con- 
 ducive to the peace and prosperity of the colony, 
 were also established. The colonists, as an eminent 
 writer has observed, in general carry with them so 
 much of the English law as is applicable to their 
 local circumstances and situation ; such as, the ge- 
 neral rules of inheritance, and of protection from 
 personal injuries. What may be proper to be ad- 
 mitted, and what are necessary to be rejected, is 
 judged and determined, in the first instance, by the 
 provincial judicature, then subject to the approba- 
 tion or disapprobation of the proprietors; and s<* 
 far of the British parliament, that nothing may b... 
 attempted by them derogatory to the sovereignty 
 and supreme jurisdiction of the mother country. At 
 this time Governor Craven obtained the assent of 
 the general assembly, to make several English sta- 
 tutes of the same force in Carolina as if they had 
 been enacted in it. The people regarded him as a 
 wise and indulgent parent, and wished to copy the 
 spirit of their laws from the English original, although 
 they received their obligation and authoritative force 
 from their being the laws of the colony. 
 
 About this time Nicholas Trott, the chief justice 
 of the colony, returned from England, where he had 
 been for some time engaged in the settlement of pri- 
 vate affairs. During his stay in Britain he had en- 
 grossed the favour of the proprietors, who finding 
 him to be a man of great abilities, professed a high 
 respect for him, and afterwards desired his assistance 
 and advice in every case respecting the future ma- 
 nagement of their colony. They advanced his salary 
 to 1002. a year, and he agreed to carry on a regular 
 correspondence with their secretary, and to give 
 them the best intelligence with respect to their pro- 
 vincial affairs. Trott having thus secured the con- 
 fidence of the proprietors in England, soon after he 
 came to Carolina, began to plume himself on his 
 advantageous circumstances, and to treat his former 
 friends in the colony with great arrogance. On the 
 other hand, they watched his conduct with an envi- 
 )us and malignant eye, and seemed to desire nothing 
 more than to humble his pride and destroy his influ- 
 ence. To this fatal difference may be ascribed se- 
 veral future jealousies and disturbances with which 
 the colonists were harassed, and which terminated 
 in the total subversion of the proprietary govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Intention of government towards the colonies Indian 
 war Application to the crown for relief Harsh 
 conduct of the proprietors Robert Daniel, deputy- 
 governor Lord Carteret, Palatine Disaffection 
 towards the proprietors Robert Johnson, governor 
 The depredations of the pirates Their extirpation 
 Difficulties arising from a paper currency In- 
 dians inimical Complaints ayainst Chief Justice 
 Trott The consequences .of it Invasion by the 
 Spaniards An association formed against the pro- 
 prietors. 
 
 During the reign of Anne, the lords commis- 
 ioners of trade and plantations, from the contentions 
 that prevailed in some of the colonies, had taken 
 occasion to look more narrowly than formerly into 
 the state of proprietary governments in America, in 
 order to form a plan for purchasing and uniting 
 t^iem more closely to the crown. They easily per- 
 
936 
 
 THE HISTORY UF AMERICA. 
 
 eeived the advantage of beginning this negotiatio 
 as soon as possible, for the sooner the purchase wa 
 made, the easier it would be obtained. Accordingly 
 they wrote to the proprietors of each colony, ac 
 quainting them, it was her majesty's pleasure an 
 command, that all governors of her foreign planta 
 tions do transmit to them frequent and full informa 
 tion of the state of their respective colonies, as we] 
 in respect to the administration of government an 
 justice, as to their progress in trade and improve 
 ments. The queen, though no friend to non-con 
 formists, had also afforded relief to the distressec 
 dissenters of Carolina, and publicly disapproved o 
 some oppressive acts to which they had been sub 
 jected. This served to encourage a spirit of dis 
 content among the Carolineans at the proprietar) 
 government, and induced them to turn to the crown 
 at every future period, when they thought themselves 
 aggrieved. 
 
 During the same year in which Britain was oc 
 cupied by a civil contest, the colony of Carolina 
 was visited with a terrible Indian war, which threat 
 ened its total extirpation. The numerous and pow. 
 erful tribe of Indians called Yamassees, probably al 
 the instigation of the Spaniards at Augustine, were 
 the most active in promoting this conspiracy against 
 the settlement, though every tribe around was more or 
 less concerned in it. The Yamassees possessed alarge 
 territory lying backward from Port-royal island, on 
 the north-east side of Savanna river, which is called 
 Indian Land. By the Carolineans this tribe had 
 long been esteemed as friends and allies, who had 
 admitted a number of traders into their towns, and 
 several times assisted the settlers in their warlike 
 enterprises. Of all other Indians they were believed 
 to harbour in their minds the most irreconcileable 
 enmity to Spaniards. For many years they had been 
 accustomed to make incursions into the Spanish 
 territories, and to wage war with the Indians within 
 their bounds. In their return from these southern 
 expeditions, it had been a common practice with 
 them to lurk in the woods round Augustine, until 
 they surprised some Spanish prisoners, on whom 
 they exercised the most wanton barbarities; some- 
 times cutting them to pieces slowly, joint by joint, 
 with knives and tomahawks ; at other times burying 
 them up to the neck under ground, then standing 
 at a distance, and marking at their heads with their 
 pointed arrows ; and, at other times, binding them 
 to a tree, and piercing the tenderest parts of their 
 bodies with sharp-pointed sticks of burning wood, 
 which last, because the most painful and excruci- 
 ating method of torture, was the most common 
 among them. 
 
 To prevent such barbarities, the legislature of Ca- 
 rolina passed a law, offering a reward of 5/. for every 
 Spanish prisoner these Indians should bring alive to 
 Charlestown; which law, though it evidently pro- 
 ceeded from motives of humanity, yet, in the event, it 
 proved very inconsistent with good policy : for, in 
 consequence of this act, the Yamassees brought seve- 
 ral Spaniards, at different times, to Charlestown, 
 where they claimed the reward for their prisoners, 
 and delivered them up to the governor. Charles 
 Craven, who was no less distinguished for humanity 
 than valour, used to send back such prisoners to Au- 
 gustine, charging the Spanish government with the 
 expenses of their passage, and the reward to the 
 Yamassees. 
 
 For twelve months before the war broke out, the 
 traders among the Yamassees observed that their 
 chief warriors went frequently to Augustine, and re- 
 
 turned loaded with presents; but were not appre- 
 hensive of any ill consequence from such generosity. 
 John Fraser, an honest Scotch Highlander, who 
 lived among the Yamassees, and traded with them, 
 had often heard these warriors tell with what kind- 
 ness they had been treated at Augustine. One had 
 received a hat, another a jacket, and a third a coat, 
 all trimmed with silver lace. Some got hatchets, 
 others great knives, and almost all of them guns 
 and ammunition, to prepare them for striking some 
 great and important blow. These warriors told 
 Fraser, that they had dined with the governor at 
 Augustine, and washed his face, (a ceremony used 
 by Indians as a token of friendship), and that now 
 the Spanish governor was their king, and not the 
 governor of Carolina. Still, however, the Caroli- 
 neans remained secure, and, having such confidence 
 in the Indians, dreaded no ill consequences from 
 this new intercourse. They knew the antipathy of 
 the Yamassees to the Spaniards, and their fondness 
 for presents, but suspected no plot against the set- 
 tlement by their allies. 
 
 It was a common thing for the traders who 
 resided among these savages to single out a war- 
 rior of authority, and to court his favour with tri- 
 fling presents. Among the Yamassees one named 
 Sanute was Fraser's friend, who, with his fellow- 
 warriors, had also been at Florida, and shared the 
 Spaniards insidious liberality. During his absence, 
 Mr. Fraser had married a fine woman ; and Sanute, 
 who had a great regard for him, after his return home 
 came to his house, and brought along with him some 
 sweet herbs, to show the lady a mark of respect, 
 agreeably to an Indian custom. So soon as he en- 
 tered the habitation of his friend, he called for a 
 basin of water, in which he braufed the herbs, and 
 first washed Mrs. Fraser's face and hands, and then 
 putting his own hands upon his breast, told her, 
 that, for the future, he would communicate to her all 
 be knew in his heart. She, in return/thanked him, 
 and made him some present.^ Accordingly, about nine 
 days before hostilities commemJecl; Sanute came to 
 Mrs. Fraser's house, and told her, that the English 
 were all wicked heretics, and would go to hell, and 
 that the Yamassees would also follow them, if they 
 suffered them to live in their country ; that now the 
 governor of Augustine was their king; that there 
 would be a terrible war with the English, and they 
 mly waited for the bloody stick to be returned from 
 be Creeks before they began it. He told them, 
 hat the Yamassees, the Creeks, the Cherokees, and 
 many other nations, together with the Spaniards, 
 were all to engage in it ; and advised them to 'fly to 
 "harlestown with all they had, and if their own boat 
 vas not large enough to carry them, he would lend 
 hem his canoe. He added, that the Spanish go- 
 vernor told him that there would soon be a war 
 again with the English, and that while they attacked 
 he Carolineans by land, he would send to Spain 
 or a fleet of ships to block up the harbour, so that 
 not a man or woman of them should escape. He 
 ,lso stated that, if they were determined to stay, 
 nd run all hazards, he, to prevent torture, would 
 laim the privilege of performing the last friendly 
 iffice to them, which was to kill them with his own 
 lands. Fraser still entertained some doubts, but 
 is wife being terrified, he resolved at all events to 
 et out of the way, and accordingly, without delay, 
 ut his wife, his child, and most valuable effects, 
 nto his boat, and made his escape to Charlestown. 
 While the time drew nigh in which this plot was 
 o be put in execution, Captain Nairn, agent for 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 937 
 
 Indian affairs, and many traders, resided at Pocota- 
 ligo, the largest town belonging to the Yamassees. 
 Fraser, probably either discrediting what he had 
 heard, or from the hurry and confusion which the 
 alarm occasioned, unfortunately had not taken time 
 to communicate the intelligence he had received to his 
 friends, who remained in a state of false security in 
 the midst of their enemies. The case of the scattered 
 settlers on the frontiers was equally lamentable, who 
 were living under no suspicions of danger. However, 
 on the day before the Yamassees began their bloody 
 operations, Captain Nairn and some of the traders 
 observing an unusual gloom on their savage coun- 
 tenances, and apparently great agitations of spirit, 
 which to them prognosticated approaching mischief, 
 went to their chief men, begging to know the cause 
 of their uneasiness, and promising, if any injury 
 had been done them, to give them satisfaction. 
 The chiefs replied, they had no complaints to make 
 against any one, but intended to go hunting, early 
 the next morning. Captain Nairn accordingly went 
 to sleep, ami the traders retired to their huts, and 
 passed the night in seeming friendship and tranquil- 
 lity. But next morning, about the break of day, 
 being the J5th day of April, 1715, all were alarmed 
 with the cries of war. The leaders were all out un- 
 der arms, calling upon their followers, and proclaim- 
 ing aloud designs of vengeance. The young men 
 flew to their arms, and, in a few hours, massacred 
 above 90 persons in Pocotaligo town and the neigh- 
 bouring plantations ; and many more must have 
 fallen a sacrifice on Port-royal Island, had they not 
 been warned of their danger. Mr. Burrows, a cap- 
 lain of the militia, after receiving two wounds, by 
 swimming one mile and running ten, escaped to 
 Port-royal and alarmed the town. A vessel hap- 
 pening fortunately to be in the harbour, the inhabi- 
 tants in great hurry repaired on board, and sailed 
 for Charlestosvn ; only a few families of planters on 
 that island, not having timely notice, fell into their 
 hands, some of whom they murdered, and others 
 they made prisoners of war. 
 
 While the Yamassees, with whom the Creeks and 
 Apallachians had joined, were advancing against 
 the southern frontiers, and spreading desolation and 
 slaughter through the province ; the Indians on the 
 northern borders also came down among the settle- 
 ments in formidable parties. The Carolineans had 
 foolishly entertained hopes of the friendship of the 
 Congarees, the Catawbas and Cherokees ; but they 
 soon found that they had also joined in the conspi- 
 racy, and declared for war. It was computed that 
 the southern division of the enemy consisted of 
 above 6000 bowmen, and the northern of between 
 fiOO and 1000. Indeed every Indian tribe, from 
 Florida to Cape Fear river, had joined in this con- 
 federacy for the destruction of the settlement. 
 The planters scattered here and there had no time 
 to gather together in a body, sufficiently strong to 
 withstand such numbers ; but each consulting his 
 safety, in great hurry and consternation fled to the 
 capital. Every one who came in brought the go- 
 venior different accounts of the number and strength 
 of the savages, insomuch that even the inhabitants 
 of Charlestown were doubtful of their safety, and en- 
 tertained the most discouraging apprehensions of 
 their inability to repel a force so great and for- 
 midable. In the muster-roll there were no more 
 than 1200 men fit to bear arms, but as the town 
 had several forts into which the inhabitants might 
 retreat, the governor, with this small force, resolved 
 iti inarch into the woods against the enemy. He 
 
 j proclaimed martial law, and laid an embargo on all 
 ' ships, to prevent either men or provisions from leav- 
 ing the country. He obtained an act of assembly, 
 empowering him to impress men, and seize arms, 
 ammunition, and stores, wherever they were to be 
 found, to arm such trusty negroes as might be ser- 
 viceable at a juncture so critical, and to prosecute 
 the war with the utmost vigour. Agents were sent 
 to Virginia and England, to solicit assistance ; bills 
 were stamped for the payment of the army, and 
 other necessary expenses ; Robert Daniel was ap- 
 pointed deputy-governor in town, and Charles Cra- 
 ven, at the head of the militia, marched to the coun- 
 try against the largest body of savages. 
 
 In the mean time, the Indians on the northern 
 quarter had made an inroad as far as a plantation 
 belonging to John Hearne, about 50 miles from 
 town, and entered his house in a seemingly peace- 
 able and friendly manner; but afterwards pretend- 
 ing to be displeased with the provisions given them, 
 murdered him and every person in it. Thomas 
 Barker, a captain of militia, having intelligence of 
 the approach of these Indians, collected a party, 
 consisting of 90 horsemen, and advanced against 
 them : but by the treachery of an Indian, whom 
 he unluckily trusted, he was led into a dangerous 
 ambuscade in a thicket, where a large party of In- 
 dians lay concealed on the ground. Barker having 
 advanced into the middle of them before he was 
 aware of his danger, the Indians sprung from their 
 concealments, and fired upon his men on every side. 
 The captain and several more fell at the first onset, 
 and the remainder in confusion were obliged to re- 
 treat. After this advantage, a party of 400 Indians 
 came down as far as Goose Creek. Every family 
 there had fled to town, except in one place, where 
 70 white men and 40 negroes had surrounded them- 
 selves with a breast-work, and resolved to remain 
 and defend themselves in the best manner they could. 
 When the Indians attacked them they were dis- 
 couraged, and rashly agreed to terms of poace ; and, 
 baving admitted the enemy within their works, this 
 poor garrison were barbarously butchered: after 
 which the Indians advanced still nigher to town ; 
 but at length meeting with Captain Chicken and the 
 whole Goose Creek militia, they were repulsed, and 
 obliged to retreat into the wilderness. 
 
 By this time the Yamassees, with their confede- 
 rates, had spread destruction through the parish of 
 St. Bartholomew, and advancing downwards as far 
 as Stono, they burned the church at that place, to- 
 gether with every house on the plantations by the 
 way. John Cochran, his wife, and four children ; 
 Mr. Bray, his wife, and two children ; and six more 
 men and women, having found some friends among 
 ;hem, were spared for some days ; but, while at- 
 ;empting to make their escape from them, they were 
 retaken and put to death. Such as had no friends 
 among them were tortured in the most shocking 
 manner, the Indians seeming to neglect their pro- 
 gress towards conquest on purpose to assist in tor- 
 menting their enemies. We forbear to mention the 
 various tortures inflicted on such as fell into their 
 merciless fangs : none can be pleased with the re- 
 ation of such horrid cruelties, but the man who, 
 with a smile of satisfaction, can be the spectator of 
 a Spanish auto de fe, or such savage hearts as are 
 steeled against every emotion of humanity and 
 compassion. 
 
 By this time Governor Craven, being no stranger 
 o the ferocious temper of his enemies, and their 
 horrid cruelly to prisoners, was advancing against 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 them by slow and cautious steps, always keeping 
 the strictest guard round his army. He knew well 
 under what advantages they fought among their 
 native thickets, and the various wiles and strata- 
 gems they made use of in conducting their wars ; 
 and therefore was watchful above all things against 
 sudden surprises, which might throw his followers 
 into disorder, and defeat the end of his enterprise. 
 The fate of the whole province depended on the suc- 
 cess of his arms, and his men had no other alterna- 
 tive left but to conquer or die a painful death. As 
 he advanced the straggling parties fled before him, 
 until he reached Saltcatchers, where they had pitched 
 their great camp. Here a sharp and bloody battle 
 ensued from behind trees and bushes, the Indians 
 hooping, hallooing, and giving way one while, and 
 then again and again returning with double fury to 
 the charge. But the governor, notwithstanding 
 their superior number, drove them before him like 
 a flock of wolves. He expelled them from their 
 settlement at Indian-land, pursued them over Sa- 
 vanna river, and rid the province entirely of this 
 formidable tribe of savages. What number of his 
 army he lost, or of the enemy he killed, we have 
 not been able particularly to learn ; but in this In- 
 dian war near 400 innocent inhabitants of Carolina 
 were murdered by these wild barbarians. 
 
 The Yamassees, after their defeat and expulsion, 
 went directly to the Spanish territories in Florida, 
 where they were received with bells ringing and 
 guns firing, as if they had come victoriously from 
 the field ; from which circumstance, together with 
 the encouragement afterwards given them to settle 
 in Florida, there is too good reason to believe, that 
 this horrid massacre was contrived by Spaniards, 
 and carried on by their encouragement and assis- 
 tance. Two prisoners, whom they had saved and 
 carried to Augustine along with them, Mrs. Sisson 
 and Mrs. Macartey, afterwards reported to the Ca- 
 rolineaus the news of this kind reception the In- 
 dians met with from the Spaniards. On the other 
 hand, though the province of Carolina suffered 
 much at this time, yet the governor had the good for- 
 tune to prevent its total destruction. From the 
 lowest state of despondency, Charlestown, on the 
 governor's return to it, was raised to the highest 
 pitch of joy. He entered it with some degree of 
 triumph, receiving from all such applauses as his 
 wise conduct and unexpected success justly merited. 
 Indeed his prosperous expedition had not only dis- 
 concerted the most formidable conspiracy ever 
 formed against the colony, but also placed the in- 
 habitants in general, however much exposed indi- 
 viduals might be to small scalping parties, in a state 
 of greater security and tranquillity than they had 
 hitherto enjoyed. 
 
 However, from that period in which the Yamas- 
 see Indians were compelled to take up their resi- 
 dence in Florida, they harboured in their breasts the 
 most inveterate ill-will and rancour to all Caroli- 
 ueans, and watched every opportunity of pouring 
 their vengeance on them. Being furnished with 
 arms and ammunition from the Spaniards, they 
 often broke out on small scalping parties, and in- 
 fested the frontiers of the British settlement. A 
 party of them caught one William Hooper, and killed 
 him by torture, by cutting off one joint of his body 
 after another, until he expired ; and another party 
 surprised Henry Quinton, Thomas Simmons, and 
 Thomas Parmenter, and also tortured them to 
 death. Dr. Rose afterwards fell also into their 
 hands, whom they cut across his uose with their 
 
 tomahawk, and having scalped him left him on the 
 spot for dead ; but he happily recovered of his wounds. 
 In short, the emissaries of St. Augustine, disap- 
 pointed in their sanguinary design of suddenly de- 
 stroying the settlers in Carolina, had now no other 
 resource left but to employ the vindictive spirit of 
 the Yamassees against the* defenceless frontiers of 
 the province. In these excursions, it must be con- 
 fessed, they were too successful, for many poor set- 
 tlers at different times fell a sacrifice to their insati- 
 able revenge. 
 
 During the time of this hard struggle with In- 
 dians, the legislature of Carolina had made applica- 
 tion to the proprietors, representing to them the 
 weak state of the province, the deplorable dangers 
 which hung over it, and begging their paternal help 
 and protection; but being doubtful whether the 
 proprietors would be inclined to involve their En- 
 glish estates in debt for supporting their property 
 in Carolina, in so precarious a situation, they in- 
 structed their agent, in case he failed of success from 
 them, to apply to the king for relief. The mer- 
 chants entered cordially into the measure for making 
 application to the crown, and considered it as the 
 most effectual expedient for retrieving their credit 
 in England, lost by the dangers which threatened 
 the country, and the pirates that infested the coast. 
 They perceived at once the many advantages which 
 would accrue to them from being taken under the 
 immediate care and protection of the crown. Ships 
 of war would soon clear the coast of sea-robbers, and 
 give free scope to trade and navigation. Forces by 
 land would overawe the warlike Indians, prevent 
 such dreadful attempts for the future, and they would 
 reap the happy fruits of public peace and security. 
 The inhabitants in general were much dissatisfied 
 with living under a government uiiable to protect 
 them, and what rendered their case] still more la- 
 mentable, prevented the interposition of the crown 
 for their defence, and th^refore^were very unani- 
 mous in the proposed application to the crown. 
 
 About the middle of the year 1715 the agent for 
 Carolina waited on the proprietors, with a represen- 
 tation of the heavy calamities under which their co- 
 lony laboured from the ravages of barbarous enemies, 
 and the depredations of lawless pirates. He ac- 
 quainted them, that the Yamassees, by the influ- 
 ence of Spanish emissaries, had claimed the whole 
 lands of the country as their ancient possessions, 
 and conspired with many other tribes to assert their 
 right by force of arms, and therefore urged the ne- 
 cessity of sending immediate relief to the colony. But 
 not being satisfied with the answer he received, he pe- 
 titioned the house of commons in behalf of the dis- 
 tressed Carolineans. The commons addressed the 
 king, praying for his kind interposition and immediate 
 assistance to the colony. The king referred the matter 
 to the lords commissioners of trade and plantations. 
 The lords of trade made an objection, that the pro- 
 vince of Carolina was one of the proprietary govern- 
 ments, and were of opinion, that, if the nation 
 should be at the expense of its protection, the go- 
 vernment ought to be vested in the crown. Upon 
 which Lord Carteret wrote them a letter to the fol- 
 lowing effect :" We the proprietors of Carolina 
 having met on this melancholy occasion, to our 
 reat grief find, that we are utterly unable of our- 
 selves to afford our colony suitable assistance in this 
 conjuncture, and unless his majesty will graciously 
 please to interpose, we can foresee nothing but the 
 utter destruction of his majesty's faithful subjects in 
 those parts." The lords of trade asked Lord Carteret 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 933 
 
 what sum might be necessary for that service, and 
 wnether the government of the colony should nol 
 devolve on the crown, if Great Britain should agree 
 to bear the expense of its defence. To which Lord 
 Carteret replied, " The proprietors humbly sub- 
 mitted to his majesty's great wisdom, what sum ol 
 money he should be pleased to grant for their assist- 
 ance ; and in case the money advanced for this pur- 
 pose should not be in a reasonable time repaid, they 
 humbly conceived that then his majesty would have 
 an equitable right to take the government under 
 his immediate care and protection." 
 
 The same year a bill was brought into the house 
 of commons in England, for the better regulation 
 of the charter and proprietary governments in Ame- 
 rica, and of his majesty's plantations there; the 
 chief design of which was, to reduce all charter and 
 proprietary governments into regal ones. Men of 
 obseryation had long foreseen the rapid increase of 
 American colonies, and wisely judged, that it would 
 be for the interest of the kingdom to purchase them 
 for the crown as soon as possible. At different times 
 the government, in the reigns of King William and 
 Queen Anne, held treaties with the proprietors for 
 this purpose : but some obstacles always came in the 
 \vay, or some accidents occurred, which prevented 
 a tinal agreement, and at this time the other colo- 
 nies being at variance as to the same proposal, the 
 design was for the present abandoned. 
 
 It is remarkable, that the proprietors of Carolina, 
 at the time they obtained their charter, as is expressly 
 mentioned in it, were excited to form that settle- 
 ment by their zeal for the propagation of the Chris- 
 tian faith among the Indians of America : yet, to 
 their shame it must be confessed, that they never 
 used any endeavours for this laudable purpose, or 
 they had been utterly fruitless and ineffectual. At 
 this time, indeed, the society incorporated for pro- 
 pagating the Gospel maintained several missionaries 
 in Carolina, as well as in the northern provinces. 
 The parishes of St. Helen's, St. Paul's, Christchurch, 
 St. Andrew's, St. James's, and St. John's, were all 
 supplied with ministers from this charitable corpora- 
 tion, who were instructed to use their best endeavours 
 for spreading the Gospel among the heathens in 
 their neighbourhood, and received an annual allow- 
 ance from the society for that purpose ; yet we have 
 not. been able to learn that these heathens ever 
 reaped the smallest advantage from them The 
 Spaniards, though they have often made use of the 
 more severe and rough means jf conversion, and 
 erected the standard of the cross in a field of blood, 
 yet they have also been exceedingly diligent and 
 assiduous in teaching heathens the principles of the 
 Catholic religion. In point of policy, this zeal was 
 more praise-worthy than English negligence : for 
 such barbarians would certainly have been much 
 easier tamed and civilized by mild instruction than 
 by force of arms. The Tumican and Apallachian 
 Indians, before Governor Moore's inroads among 
 them, had made some advances towards civilization, 
 and paid, by means of'instruction from Roman Ca- 
 tholic missionaries, strict obedience to the Spanish 
 government at Augustine. Had the proprietors of 
 Carolina erected schools, for the instruction of young 
 Indians in the language, manners and religion of 
 the English nation, such an institution might have 
 been attended with the most beneficial effects. For 
 while the children of such savages were living among 
 the colonists, they would have been like so many 
 hostages to secure the good-will and peaceable be- 
 haviour of their parents ; and when they returned 
 
 *o the nation to which they belonged, their know. 
 Wge of the English language and customs would, 
 W the future, have rendered all commercial treaties 
 and transactions between them easy and practicable. 
 Besides, they would have had all the prejudices of edu- 
 cation in favour of the English manners and govern- 
 ment, which would have helped both to fortify them 
 against the fatal influence of Spanish rivals, and to 
 render them more firm and steady to the British 
 interest. 
 
 Although the Yamassee war had terminated much 
 to the honour of the Carolineans, yet the fatal effects 
 of it were long and heavily felt by the colony. Many 
 of the planters had no negroes to assist them in rais- 
 ing provisions for their families, and those persons 
 who had negroes, could not be spared to overlook 
 them, so that the plantations were left uncultivated, 
 and the produce of the year was very inconsiderable. 
 The men being more solicitous about the safety of 
 their families than the increase of their fortunes, 
 purchased bills of exchange at any price, to send 
 with them to the northern provinces, in order to 
 procure for them there the necessaries of life. The 
 provincial merchants being much indebted to those 
 in London, the latter were alarmed at the dangers 
 which hung over the colony, and pressed them much 
 for remittances. The Indians, who stood indebted 
 to the merchants of Carolina for 10,000^., instead of 
 paying their debts, had cancelled them, by murder- 
 ing the traders, and abandoning the province. No 
 remittances could be made, but in such commodities 
 as the country produced, and all hands being en- 
 gaged in war, rendered them very scarce, and con- 
 sequently extremely dear. To answer the public 
 exigences of the province, large emissions of paper 
 currency were also requisite. Hence the rate of 
 exchange arose to an extravagant height. The pro- 
 vince was indebted no less than 80,000/., and at the 
 same time obliged to maintain garrisons on the fron- 
 tiers for the public defence, which served to increase 
 the debt. While struggling amidst these hardships, 
 the merchants of London complained to the proprie- 
 tors of the increase of paper money, as injurious to 
 trade ; in consequence of which they strictly ordered 
 their governor to reduce it. All which served to 
 aggravate the distress of the poor colonists, and 
 caused them to murmur against their landlords for 
 want of cempassion, and to become not a little disaf- 
 fected to their government. 
 
 The next step taken by the legislature of Carolina, 
 served to widen the difference. The Yamassees 
 being expelled from Indian land, the assembly passed 
 two acts to appropriate those lands gained by con- 
 quest for the use and encouragement of such of his 
 majesty's subjects as should come over and settle 
 upon them. Extracts of these acts being sent to 
 England and Ireland, and published among the peo- 
 ple, 500 men from Ireland transported themselves 
 to Carolina, to take the benefit of them ; which in- 
 flux was a great acquisition at this juncture, and 
 served to strengthen these frontiers against future 
 incursions from barbarians. But the beneficial con- 
 
 posing of them as they thought fit. Not long after- 
 wards, to the utter ruin of the Irish emigrants, and 
 in breach of the provincial faith to them, the pro- 
 prietors ordered the Indian lands to be surveyed for 
 their own use, and run out in large baronies ; by 
 which harsh usage the old settlers, having lost the 
 protection of the new comers, deserted their planta- 
 
940 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 tions, and again left the frontiers open to the enemy ; they took care to send to England such representa- 
 as for the unfortunate Irish emigrants, having spent tions of them as could not fail to render them the 
 the little money they had, many of them reduced to objects of the proprietors' disapprobation. Indeed 
 misery, perished, and the remainder moved to the the act respecting elections had broke in upon a 
 northern colonies. former law, which had been ratified in England, 
 
 About this time Governor Craven, having re- and never repealed by the same authority. The 
 ceived advice from England of Sir Antony Craven's consequence was, both those bills in a little time 
 death, intimated to the proprietors, that the affairs were sent back repealed, by an instrument under 
 of his family required his presence, and obtained the proprietors' hands and seals. The colonists, far 
 their leave to return to Britain. No governor had from being pleased with the former conduct of their 
 ever gained more general and deserved regard from landlords, now became outrageous, and spoke boldly 
 the Carolineans, nor had any man ever left the pro- of their tyranny, bad policy, and want of compas- 
 vince whose departure was more universally re- sion for distressed freemen. Being still exposed to 
 gretted. Having appointed Robert Daniel deputy- incursions from the sanguinary and vindictive Ya- 
 governor, he embarked for England about the end massees, furnished with arms and ammunition from 
 of April, 1716. While the man-of-war rode at the Spaniards, they were obliged to maintain a corn- 
 anchor near the bar, Mr. Gideon Johnston, with pany of rangers, to protect the frontiers against 
 about 30 more gentlemen, went into a sloop to take them. Three small forts were erected at Congarees, 
 leave of their much-esteemed governor, and sailed Savanna, and Apalachicola, for the public defence, and 
 with him over the bar. On their return a storm money was required for the payment of garrisons, 
 arose, the sloop was overset, and Mr. Johnston, Presents of considerable value were also necessary, 
 being lame of the gout and in the hold, was drowned, to preserve the friendship of other Indian tribes. 
 The other gentlemen, who were upon deck, saved These public expenses eat up all the fruits of the 
 themselves by swimming to the land. poor planter's industry. The law appropriating the 
 
 Before Governor Craven arrived in England, profits of the Indian trade for the public protection 
 John, Lord Carteret, had succeeded to the dignity had been repealed ; the public credit was at so low 
 of Palatine. Nicholas Trott, who was chief justice Ian ebb, that no man would trust his money in the 
 of Carolina, received a warrant from this nobleman, provincial treasury. None would risk their lives in 
 empowering him to sit also as judge of the provincial defence of the colony without pay, and the province, 
 court of vice-admiralty. William Rhett, who was oppressed with a load of debt, was utterly unable to 
 Trott's brother-in-law, and receiver-general, was furnish the necessary supplies. The people com- 
 likewise made comptroller of his majesty's customs plained of the insufficiency of that government which 
 in Carolina and Bahama Islands. The many offices could not protect them, and at the same time pro- 
 of trust and emolument which these two men held, vented the interposition of the\crown for this pur- 
 together with their natural abilities, gave them great pose. Governor Daniel himself joined them in 
 weight and influence in the province, especially at their complaints, and every one seemed ardently to 
 the election of members to serve in assembly. When I wish for those advantages which /other colonies en- 
 the provincial assembly met, a bill was brought into joyed, under the immediate carg and protection of a 
 the house for the better regulation of the Indian I powerful sovereign. 
 
 trade, nominating commissioners, and empowering I In this discontented and unhappy state Robert 
 them to apply the profits arising from it to the public Johnson found the Carolineans, when he arrived with a 
 benefit and defence, and passed with little opposi- commission from Lord Carteret, bearing date April 
 tion. As the colonists had been accustomed to 30, 1717, investing him with the government of the 
 choose all their members of assembly atCharlestown, province : to which office a salary of 4001. sterling 
 at which election great riots and tumults had often was now annexed. He was son to Sir Nathaniel John- 
 happened ; to remedy this disorder, another bill was I son, who formerly held the same office, and who had 
 brought into assembly for regulating elections ; in left him an estate in Carolina. This new governor was 
 which, among other things, it was enacted, " That a man of sense and integrity ; but came out with such 
 every parish should send a certain number of repre- instructions as were ill adapted to the circumstances 
 sentatives, in all not exceeding 36 ; that they should and situation of the colony. Soon after his arrival 
 be balloted for at the different parish churches, or he perceived the disaffection of the people to the pro- 
 some other convenient place, on a day to be men- prietary government, and the many difficulties with 
 tioned in the writs, which were to be directed to the which he should have to struggle in the faithful dis- 
 church- wardens, who were required to make returns charge of his duty. His council consisted of Tho- 
 of the members elected." This was a popular act, mas Broughton, Alexander Skene, Nicholas Trott, 
 as the inhabitants found it not only allowed them Charles Hart, James Kinloch, Francis Yonge, &c., 
 greater freedom, but was more conformable to the some of whom were highly dissatisfied with the harsh 
 practice in England, and more convenient for the I treatment of the proprietors. After calling an as- 
 settlers than their former custom of electing all I sembly, the governor, as usual, signified to them 
 members in town. his esteem for the people, his love to the province, 
 
 By this time the struggle between the proprietors and his resolutions of pursuing such measures as 
 and possessors of the soil, which had long subsisted, might be judged most conducive to its peace and 
 and in which the officers intrusted with supporting prosperity. The assembly, in answer, expressed 
 their lordships' power and prerogative always found great satisfaction with appointing a man of so good 
 themselves deeply interested, was become more se- a character to that high office ; but, at the same 
 rious. Those popular acts, but particularly the lat- time, were not insensible of the oppression of their 
 ter, gave great offence to some members of the landlords, nor of the many hardships they had to 
 council, who plainly perceived its tendency to ruin expect under their weak and contemptible' govern- 
 their influence at elections, and of course the power ment. 
 
 of the proprietors. Among others, Trott and Rhett About this time some merchants and masters of 
 strenuously opposed the bills. Though they were ships, trading to America and the West Indies, 
 not able to prevent their passing in Carolina, yet | having suffered much from the deoredations of pi> 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 941 
 
 rates, complained to the king in council of the heavy 
 losses the trade of the nation had sustained from 
 them. In consequence of which the king issued a 
 proclamation, promising a pardon to all pirates 
 who should surrender themselves in the space of 
 twelve months, and at the same time ordered to sea 
 a force for suppressing them. As they had made 
 the island of Providence their common place of re- 
 sidence. Captain Woodes Rogers sailed against this 
 island, with a few ships of war, and took possession 
 of it for the crown. Except one Vane, who, with 
 about 90 more, made their escape in a sloop, all the 
 pirates took the benefit of the king's proclamation, 
 and surrendered. Captain Rogers having made 
 himself master of the island, formed a council in it, 
 and appointed officers, civil and military, for the 
 better government of its inhabitants. He built some 
 forts for its security and defence, and so ordered 
 matters, that, for the future, the trade of the West 
 Indies was well protected against this lawless crew. 
 . Though the pirates on the island of Providence 
 were crushed, those of North Carolina still remained, 
 and were equally insolent and troublesome. Vane, 
 who escaped from Captain Rogers, had taken two 
 ships bound from Charlestown to London. A pirate 
 sloop of ten guns, commanded by Steed Bonnet, 
 and another commanded by Richard Worley, had 
 taken possession of the mouth of Cape Fear river. 
 which place was now the principal refuge left for 
 these robbers. Their station there was so conve- 
 nient for blocking up the harbour of Charlestown, 
 that thr trade of the colony was greatly obstructed 
 by them. No sooner had one crew left the coast 
 than another appeared, so that scarcely one ship 
 coming in or going out escaped them. Governor 
 Johnson resolving to check their insolence, fitted 
 out a ship of force, gave the command of it to Wil- 
 liam Rhett, and sent him out to sea for the protec- 
 tion of trade. Rhett had scarcely got over the bar, 
 when Stee4 Bonnet perceived him, but finding he 
 was more than match for him, made all the sail he 
 could for his refuge in Cape Fear river. Thither 
 Rhett followed him, took the sloop, and brought 
 the commander, and about 30 men with him, to 
 Charlestown. Soon after this Governor Johnson 
 himself embarked, and sailed in pursuit of the other 
 sloop of six guns, commanded by Richard Worley, 
 which, after a desperate engagement off the bar of 
 Charlestown, was also taken. The pirates fought 
 ferociously, until they were all killed or wounded, 
 excepting Worley and another man, who were like- 
 wise dangerously wounded. These two men, together 
 with their sloop, the governor brought into Charles- 
 town, where they were instantly tried, condemned, 
 and executed, to prevent their dying of their wounds. 
 Steed Bonnet and his crew were also tried, and all, 
 except one man, hanged, and buried on White Point, 
 below high-water mark. 
 
 Governor Johnson, formerly a popular man, was 
 now become much more so, by his courage, and the 
 success attending his expedition against the pirates. 
 This check, together with that they received among 
 the islands, served to extirpate these buccaniers, 
 who had declared war against all mankind; and 
 had reduced themselves to a savage state of society. 
 But these two expeditions from Carolina, though 
 crowned with success, cost the province upwards of 
 10,000/., an additional burden which, at this junc- 
 ture, it was ill qualified to support. 
 
 At the same time, Governor Johnson had instruc- 
 tions to reduce the paper currency circulating in 
 the province, of which the mercantile interest loudly 
 
 complained, as injurious to trade. He recommended 
 to the assembly to consider of means for sinking it, 
 and told them they were bound in honour and jus- 
 tice to make it good. The Indian war had occa- 
 sioned a scarcity of provisions ; by the large emis- 
 sions of paper-money it sunk in value, and the price 
 of produce arose to an exorbitant height. As the 
 value of every commodity is what it will bring at 
 market, so the value of paper-money is according 
 to the quantity of commodities it will purchase. 
 Both rice and naval stores, however high, by dou- 
 bling the quantity of paper-money, though the com- 
 modities remained the same as formerly, became still 
 much higher. The merchants and money-lenders 
 were losers by those large emissions ; and the plant- 
 ers indebted to them, on the other hand, were gain- 
 ers by them. Hence great debates arose in the 
 assembly about paper-money, between the planting 
 and mercantile interests. At this time the governor, 
 however, had so much influence as to prevail with 
 the assembly to pass a law for sinking and paying 
 off their paper-credit in three years, by a tax on 
 lands and negroes. This act, on its arrival in Eng- 
 land, gave great satisfaction both to the proprie- 
 tors and people concerned in trade, and the gover- 
 nor received their thanks for his attention to the 
 commercial interests of the country. 
 
 This compliance of the assembly with the gover- 
 nor's instructions from England, and the good hu- 
 mour in which they at present appeared to be, gave 
 him some faint hopes of reconciling them by degrees 
 to the supreme jurisdiction of the proprietors. But 
 their good temper was of short duration, and the 
 next advices from England destroyed all his hope* 
 of future agreement. The planters finding that the 
 tax-act fell heavy on them, began to complain of 
 its injustice, and to contrive means for eluding it, 
 by scamping more bills of credit. The proprietors 
 having information of this, and also of a design 
 formed by the assembly to set a price on country 
 commodities, and make them at such a price a good 
 tender in law for the payment of all debts, they 
 strictly enjoined their governor not to give his as- 
 sent to any bill framed by the assembly, nor to ren- 
 der it of any force in the colony, before a copy of 
 the same should be laid before them. About the 
 same time the king, by his order in council, signi- 
 fied to the proprietors, that they should repeal an 
 act passed in Carolina, of pernicious consequence 
 to the trade of the mother country, by which a duty 
 of ten per cent, was laid on all goods of British ma- 
 nufacture imported into that province. Accordingly 
 this act, together with that for regulating elections, 
 and another for declaring the right of assembly for 
 the time being to nominate a public receiver, were 
 all repealed, and sent to Governor Johnson in a let- 
 ter, which enjoined him instantly to dissolve the 
 present assembly and call another, to be chosen in, 
 Charlestown, according to the ancient usage and 
 customs of the province. The proprietors con- 
 sidered themselves as the head of the legislative 
 body, who had not only power to put a negative on 
 all laws made in the colony of which they disap- 
 proved, but also to repeal such as they deemed of 
 pernicious consequence. 
 
 Governor Johnson, sensible of the discontent 
 which prevailed among the people at the proprietary 
 government, and the ill consequences that would 
 attend the immediate execution of his orders, sum- 
 moned his council, to whom he communicated his 
 orders and instructions from England. They were 
 most of them much surprised at them, but Trolt 
 
942 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 probably knew from what they derived their origin, 
 and to whose influence the repeal of those laws 
 ought to be ascribed. But as the assembly were at 
 that time deliberating about the means of paying 
 the provincial debt contracted by the expedition 
 against the pirates, and other contingent charges 
 of government, it was agreed to postpone the disso- 
 lution of the house until the business then before 
 them should be finished. However, the repeal of 
 the duty-law being occasioned by an order from the 
 king iu council, they resolved to acquaint the assem- 
 bly immediately with the royal displeasure at that 
 clause of the law laying a duty on all goods manu- 
 factured in Great Britain, and recommended it to 
 them to make a new act, leaving out that clause 
 which had given offence. Meanwhile, though great 
 pains were taken to conceal the governor's instruc- 
 tions from the people, yet by some means they were 
 divulged, and kindled violent flames among them. 
 The assembly entered into a warm debate about the 
 proprietors' right of repealing laws passed with the 
 assent of their deputies. Many alleged, that the 
 deputation given to them was like a power of attor- 
 ney sent to persons at a distance, authorizing them 
 to act in their stead ; and insisted, that, according 
 to the charter, they were bound by their assent to 
 acts, as much as if the proprietors themselves had 
 been present, and ratified and confirmed them. 
 
 While the colony was thus harassed by rigorous 
 landlords, to enhance their misery, their savage 
 neighbours were again making incursions into theijr 
 settlements. At this time a scalping party pene- 
 trated as far as the Euhah lands, where having sur- 
 prised John Levit and two of his neighbours, they 
 knocked out their brains with their tomahawks. 
 They then seized Mrs. Borrows and one of her chil- 
 dren, and carried them off with them. The child, 
 by the way, finding himself in barbarous hands, be- 
 gan to cry, upon which they put him to death. The 
 distressed mother, being unable to refrain from tears 
 while her child was murdered before her eyes, was 
 given to understand, that she must not weep, if she 
 desired not to share the same fate. Upon her arri- 
 val at Augustine she would have been immediately 
 sent to prison, but one of the Yamassee kings de- 
 clared he knew her from her infancy to be a good 
 woman, interceded for her liberty, and begged she 
 might be sent home to her husband. This favour, 
 however, the Spanish governor refused to grant, 
 and the garrison seemed te triumph with the Indi- 
 ans in the number of their scalps. When Mr. Bor- 
 rows went to Augustine to procure the release of his 
 wife, he also was imprisoned along with her, where 
 he soon after died : but she survived all these hard- 
 ships to give a relation of her barbarous treatment. 
 After her return to Carolina, she reported to Gover- 
 nor Johnson, that the Huspah king, who had taken 
 her prisoner and carried her off, informed her, he 
 had orders from the Spanish governor to spare no 
 white man, but to bring every negro alive to Au- 
 gustine ; and that rewards were given to Indians 
 for their prisoners, to encourage them to engage in 
 such rapacious and murderous enterprises. 
 
 The Chief Justice Trott being suspected of hold- 
 ing a private correspondence with the proprietors, 
 to the prejudice of the Carolineans, had incurred 
 their dislike. Richard Allein, Whitaker, and other 
 practitioners of the law, charged him with many ini- 
 quitous practices. No less than 31 articles of com- 
 plaint against him were presented to the assembly, 
 setting forth, among other things, " That he had 
 been guilty of many partial judgments ; that he had 
 
 contrived many ways to multiply and increase his 
 fees, to the great grievance of the subject, and con- 
 trary to acts of assembly ; that he had contrived a 
 fee for continuing causes from one term to another, 
 and put off the hearing of them for years; that he 
 took upon him to give advice in causes depending 
 in his courts, and did not only act as counsellor in 
 that particular, but also had drawn deeds between 
 party and party, some of which had been contested 
 before him as chief-justice, and in determining of 
 which he had shewn great partialities ; with many 
 more particulars ; and, lastly, complaining, that the 
 whole judicial power of the province was lodged in 
 his hands alone, of which it was evident he had 
 made a very ill use, he being at the same time sole 
 judge of the courts of Common Pleas, King's Bench, 
 and Vice-Admiralty; so that no prohibition could 
 be lodged against the proceedings of the court, he 
 being obliged, in such a case, to grant a prohibition 
 against himself; he was also, at the same time, a 
 member of the council, and of consequence a judge 
 of the court of Chancery." 
 
 These articles of complaint, though they took their 
 rise from the bar, were well grounded, and were 
 supported by strong evidence before the assembly. 
 But as the judge held his commission from the pro- 
 prietors, he denied that he was accountable to the 
 assembly for any part of his conduct in his judicial 
 capacity ; and declared that he would be answer- 
 able no where but in England. The assembly, 
 however, sensible that he held his commission only 
 during good behaviour, sent a message to the go- 
 vernor and council, requesting they would join them 
 in representing his partial anS unjust conduct in his 
 office to the proprietors, praying them either to re- 
 move him from his seat in thV courts of justice, or 
 at least to grant him onlypne jurisdiction, and the 
 people liberty of appeat"ffom his judgments. The 
 governor and major part of the council, convinced 
 of the mal-administration of the judge, agreed to 
 join the commons in their representation. But 
 being sensible of the great interest the chief-justice 
 had with their lordships, they judged it most pru- 
 dent to send one of their counsellors to England 
 with their memorial, that it might find greater 
 credit and weight, and the more certainly procure 
 redress ; and Francis Yonge, a man of considerable 
 abilities, who had been present at all their debates, 
 was selected, who set sail for England, and arrived 
 in London early in the year 1719. 
 
 Soon after his arrival, he waited on Lord Carteret, 
 the Palatine ; but as his lordship was preparing to 
 set out on an embassy to the court of Sweden, he 
 referred him to the other proprietors for an answer 
 to his representations. When the proprietors met, 
 Yonge presented to them a memorial, setting forth, 
 " That he had been appointed by the governor and 
 council of South Carolina, to lay before them, not 
 only several acts of assembly passed there during 
 their last sessions for their approbation, but also to 
 inform them of the reasons that induced the gover- 
 nor and council to defer the dissolution of the as- 
 sembly, in consequence of their lordships' com- 
 mands ; that he was instructed to shew their lord- 
 ships the arguments between the upper and lower 
 houses of assembly, touching their lordships' right 
 of repealing laws ratified and confirmed by their de- 
 puties ; and presented to them a speech made by 
 Chief-Justice Trott at a general conference of both 
 houses, together with the answer of the commons to 
 it, and the several messages that passed between 
 them, which he hoped would shew their lordships, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 that, no arguments or endeavours were wanting on 
 tneir part to assert the right the proprietors had of 
 repealing laws not ratified by them. 
 
 " At the same time, he was desired to request 
 their lordships to augment their secretary's salary, 
 to allow the members of the council so much money 
 for the time and expense of attending the council 
 on their service ; to establish custom-house officers 
 at Beaufort ; to grant 6000 acres of land to the three 
 garrisons at Congarees, Savanna Town, and Apala- 
 chicola; and liberty of appealing from erroneous 
 judgments in law, which at that time the people had 
 not, the whole judicial power in all the provincial 
 courts being lodged in the hands of one man." He 
 then delivered to them a letter from Governor John- 
 son, the articles of complaint against Chief Justice 
 Trott, and the joint address of the governor, council, 
 and assembly, praying to have him removed entirely 
 from the bench, or confined to a single jurisdiction. 
 
 This memorial, however, was far from satisfying 
 the proprietors, some of whom inferred from it, that 
 the people were solicitous to search for causes of dis- 
 satisfaction, with a view to shake off the proprietary 
 authority. Their letters from Trott served to con- 
 firm the truth, which intimated that Yonge, though 
 an officer of the proprietors, by chicanery had as- 
 sisted the people in forming plausible pretences for 
 that purpose. For three months Youge attended 
 the Palatine's court, to give the board all possible 
 information about the state of affairs in their colony, 
 and to accomplish the ends of his appointment; but, 
 after all, he was given to understand, that the busi- 
 ness on which he was sent was extremely disagree- 
 able to them; that the trouble he had taken, and 
 the office he had accepted as agent for the people, 
 were inconsistent with his duty as one of their de- 
 puties. They declared their displeasure with the 
 members of the council who had joined the lower 
 house in their complaints against Trott, and re- 
 moved them from the board, appointing others in 
 their place, and increasing the number of members; 
 and told Yonge, that he also would have been de- 
 prived of his seat but for the high respect they had 
 for Lord Carteret, the absent Palatine, whose de- 
 puty he was. With respect to Chief Justice Trott, 
 they had too much confidence in his fidelity and ca- " 
 pacity to remove him from his office. On the con- 
 trary, they sent him a letter, thanking him for his 
 excellent speech in defence of their right of repeal- 
 ing all laws made in the colony ; together with a 
 copy of the articles of complaint brought against 
 him, on purpose to give him an opportunity of vin- 
 dicating himself; at the same time acquainting him, 
 that it was their opinion and order, that he should 
 withdraw from the council-board whenever appeals 
 from his judgments in the inferior courts shall be 
 brought before the governor and council as a court 
 of chancery. 
 
 How far Governor Johnson, in their opinion, had 
 deviated from his duty, in joining the other branches 
 of the legislature in their representation, may be 
 learned from the following letter from the proprie- 
 tors, brought over to him by Yonge : " Sir, we have 
 received and perused your letters and all your pa- 
 pers, delivered us by your agent Mr. Vfonge; and 
 though we are favourably inclined in all our thoughts 
 relating to our governor, yet we must tell you, we 
 think you have not obeyed the orders and directions 
 given you to dissolve that assembly, and call another 
 forthwith, according to the ancient usage and custom 
 of the province, and to publish our repeals of the 
 acts of assembly immediately upon the receipt of 
 
 our orders aforesaid ; but we shall say no more or 
 that subject now, not doubting but our governo 
 will pay more punctual obedience to our orders fo 
 the future. 
 
 " The lords proprietors' right of confirming an<5 
 repealing laws was so particular a privilege granted 
 them by the charter, that we can never recede from 
 it; and we do assure you we are not a little sur- 
 prised that you have suffered that prerogative of 
 ours to be disputed. 
 
 " We have sent you herewith an instruction under 
 our hands and seals, nominating such persons as we 
 think fit to be of the council with you, six of whom 
 and yourself, and no less number, to be a quorum. 1 
 Upon your receipt of this we hereby require you to 
 summon the said council, that they may qualify 
 themselves according to law, and immediately sit 
 upon the despatch of business. We also send you 
 the repeal of the acts of assembly, which we order 
 you to publish immediately upon the receipt of this. 
 We do assure Mr. Johnson, that we will stand by 
 him in all things that relate to the just execution of 
 his office, and we are confident that he will perform 
 his duty to us, and support our power and preroga- 
 tive to the best of his abilities. If the assembly 
 chosen according to your pretended late act is not 
 dissolved, as we formerly ordered; and a new assem- 
 bly elected, pursuant to the act formerly confirmed 
 by the proprietors, you are forthwith commanded to 
 dissolve that assembly, and to call another, accord- 
 ing to the above-mentioned act ; arid so we bid you 
 heartily farewell." 
 
 Such was the result of Yonge's negotiation in 
 England. Governor Johnson, who was well ac* 
 quainted with the prevailing temper and discontented 
 spirit of the people, plainly perceived, upon receiv- 
 ing these new orders and instructions, what difficul- 
 ties would attend the execution of them. The flame 
 was already kindled, and nothing could be imagined 
 more likely to add fuel to it than such rigour and 
 oppression. The governor indeed had received in- 
 structions, but had not sufficient power to enforce 
 them. Determined, however, to comply with their 
 commands, he summoned his council of twelve men 
 whom the proprietors had nominated, who were 
 William Bull, Ralph Izard, Nicholas Trott, Charles 
 Hart, Samuel Wragg, Benjamin de la Consiliere, 
 Peter St. Julien, William Gibbons, Hugh Butler, 
 Francis Yonge, Jacob Satur, and Jonathan Skrine, 
 some of whom refused, and others qualified them- 
 selves to serve. Alexander Skene, Thomas Brough- 
 ton, and James Kinloch, members of the former 
 council, being now left out of the new appoint- 
 ment, were disgustdd, and joined the people. The 
 present assembly was dissolved, and writs were 
 issued for electing another in Charlestown. The 
 duty-act, from which the clergy were paid, the gar- 
 risons maintained, and the public debts in general 
 were defrayed, was repealed ; as was the law re- 
 specting the freedom of election, by which the colo- 
 nists were obliged to have recourse to the old, in- 
 convenient, and tumultuous manner of elections in 
 Charlestown ; and also the act declaring the right 
 of the commons to nominate a public receiver, was 
 declared to be contrary to the usage and custom of 
 Great Britain. All laws respecting the trade and 
 shipping of Great Britain, which any future assembly 
 might pass, the governor had instructions to refuse bis 
 assent to, till approved by the proprietors. The pro- 
 vincial debts incurred by the Indian war, and the 
 expedition against pirates, not only remained un- 
 paid, but no more bills of credit were allowed to be 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 stamped. This council of twelve, instead of seven 
 men, which was appointed, the colonists considered 
 as an innovation in the proprietary government ex- 
 ceeding the power granted their lordships by their 
 charter, and therefore subjecting them to a juris- 
 diction foreign to the constitution of the province. 
 The complaints of the whole legislature against Chief 
 Justice Trott were not only disregarded, but that 
 mail, whom they considered as an enemy to the 
 country, was privately caressed and publicly ap- 
 plauded. All these things the colonists considered 
 as aggravated grievances, and what rendered them 
 the more intolerable was the circumstance of being 
 deprived of all hopes of redress. 
 
 It may be thought somewhat unaccountable and 
 astonishing, that the proprietors should have per- 
 sisted in measures so disagreeable and oppressive of 
 themselves, and so manifestly subversive of their 
 authority and power. Many were the hardships 
 from the climate, and the danger from savages, with 
 which the poor colonists had to struggle; yet their 
 landlords, instead of rendering their circumstances 
 as easy and comfortable as possible, seemed rather 
 bent on crossing their humours and doubling their 
 distress. The people could now no longer regard 
 them as concerned for the welfare of their colony, 
 but as tyrannical legislators. But, perhaps the 
 miseries the colonists suffered ought to be ascribed 
 to their lordships' shameful inattention to provincial 
 affairs, rather than to their tyrannical disposition. 
 Lord Carteret, the Palatine, held high offices of 
 trust under the crown, which occupied his chief 
 study and attention. Some of the proprietors were 
 minors, others possessed estates in England, the im- 
 provement of which engrossed their whole care and 
 delight. Having reaped little or nothing from their 
 American possessions, and finding them every year 
 becoming more troublesome and expensive, it is pro- 
 bable they trusted the affairs of their colony to sub- 
 ordinates who were no ways interested in their pros- 
 perity and success. With these Chief Justice Trott 
 had established a correspondence, of whose wisdom 
 and abilities the proprietors entertained the highest 
 opinion, and in whose integrity and fidelity they 
 placed unlimited confidence. He held of them many 
 offices of trust and emolument, which, together with 
 his haughty and overbearing conduct, rendered him 
 the object of popular envy and clamour. The colo- 
 nists needed indulgence from their circumstances 
 and situation ; Trott, being totally dependent on 
 the proprietors, for the tenure of his office and the 
 payment of his salary, strongly supported their power 
 and prerogative ; and hence arose those struggles 
 between the proprietors and people, which were 
 daily growing more serious and violent. 
 
 About this time a rupture having taken place be- 
 tween the courts of Great Britain and Spain, a pro- 
 ject for attacking South Carolina and the island of 
 Providence was formed at the Havanna, and pre- 
 parations were making there for the expedition. 
 Governor Johnson, having received advice from 
 England of this design, resolved immediately to put 
 the province in a posture of defence. For this pur- 
 pose he summoned a meeting of council, and pro- 
 posed a voluntary subscription, beginning with a 
 generous offer himself, as an example to others. He 
 declared that one day's delay might prove fatal to 
 the province ; and recommended unanimity and 
 dispatch. The assembly replied, that a subscription 
 was needless, as the income of the duties would be 
 sufficient to answer the purpose intended. The Go- 
 vernor objected, that the duty-law had been repealed, 
 
 and none other yet framed in its place. To which tne 
 assembly answered, they had resolved to pay no re- 
 gard to those repeals, and that the public receiver 
 had orders from them to sue every man that should 
 refuse to pay as that law directed. Chief Justice 
 Trott told them, if any action or suit should be 
 brought into his courts on that law, he would give 
 judgment for the defendant. In short, the contest 
 between the two houses at this meeting was so 
 warm, that the conference broke up before any 
 thing was concluded with regard to the public safety. 
 The assembly were obstinate, and seemed deter- 
 mined to hazard the loss of the province to the Spa- 
 niards, rather than yield to the council, and ac- 
 knowledge the proprietors' right of repealing their 
 laws. 
 
 Governor Johnson, however, at such a juncture 
 judging it prudent to be always in the best posture 
 of defence, for uniting the strength of the province 
 called a meeting of the field-officers of the militia, 
 ordered them to review their regiments, and fixed a 
 place of general rendezvous. Indeed such was the 
 uneasy and distracted state of the colony, that the 
 Spaniards could scarcely have attacked it at a time 
 more seasonable for obtaining an easy conquest. 
 At this meeting the field-officers of the militia re- 
 ceived their orders with their usual submission, and 
 called together the different regiments, on pretence 
 of training the men to expert use of arms. But be- 
 fore this time the members chosen to serve in as- 
 sembly, though they had not met in their usual and 
 regular way at Charle^town, had nevertheless held 
 several private meeting^ in the country, to concert 
 measures for revolting fro.m their allegiance. They 
 had drawn up a form of an association for uniting 
 the whole province in opposition to the proprietary 
 government, which was proposed to the people at 
 this public meetmg r of the militia, as an opportunity 
 the most favourable forprocuring a general subscrip- 
 tion. The people, oppressed and discontented, with 
 eagerness embraced the proposal, and, almost to a 
 man, subscribed the association, promising to stand 
 by each other 'in defence of their rights and privi- 
 leges, against the tyranny of the proprietors and 
 their officers. This confederacy was formed with 
 such secrecy and dispatch, that before it reached 
 the governor's ears, almost, the whole inhabitants 
 were concerned in it. The assembly, after having 
 thus brought the people in general to back them, 
 had then nothing to do but to proceed, in taking 
 such bold and vigorous steps as seemed best calcu- 
 lated for accomplishing their end. 
 
 The people's encouragement to revolt Proceedings of 
 the convention The assembly dissolved Proceed- 
 ings of the people James Moore, governor The 
 declaration of the convention The invasion from 
 Spain defeated Francis Nicolso?i, governor 
 George I. recognised as sovereign The regulation 
 of Indian affairs The trial of the family of Du- 
 tartre Progress of the colony Arthur Middleton, 
 president A dispute concerning the boundaries 
 Reprisals on the Spaniards Encroachment of the 
 French in Louisiana The province purchased for 
 the crown. 
 
 At the election of assembly in Charlestown, Trott 
 and Rhett, who formerly had such influence, were 
 now become so obnoxious that they could not bring 
 one man into the house. Alexander Skene, for- 
 merly excluded from the council, was elected a 
 member of this new assembly, which was chosen on 
 purpose to oppose the civil officers, considering him- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 elf as ill-used by the proprietors, became zealous 
 against the government. This man, together with 
 several other members of assembly, held frequent 
 meetings, to consider their grievances, and flattered 
 themselves with the hopes, that the king would take 
 the colony under his care as soon as they renounced 
 allegiance to the proprietors. And as the time drew 
 near in which they expected an attack from a power- 
 ful nation, they concluded that the province needed 
 assistance of the crown at the present, more than 
 ar any former time. They had convinced the peo- 
 ple of the many advantages of the British constitu- 
 tion, and the great happiness of those colonies which 
 were under the immediate care and protection of the 
 crown, insomuch that they now eagerly desired to 
 enjoy the same privileges. 
 
 To these secret meetings Governor Johnson, who 
 lived at his plantation several miles from Charles- 
 town, was an entire stranger, until he received the 
 following letter, bearing date November 28, 1719, 
 and signed by Alexander Skene, George Logan, 
 and William Blakeway. " Sir, we doubt not but 
 you have heard of the whole province entering into 
 an association to stand by their rights and privileges, 
 and to get rid of the oppression and arbitrary deal- 
 ings of the lords proprietors. As we always bore 
 you the greatest deference and respect imaginable, 
 we take this opportunity to let you know, that the 
 committee of the people's representatives were last 
 night appointed to wait on you this morning, to ac- 
 quaint you, that they have come to a resolution to 
 have no regard to the proprietors' officers, nor their 
 administration : and withal to beg, that your honour 
 will hold the reins of government for the king, till 
 his majesty's pleasure be known. The great value 
 the whole country express for your honour's person, 
 makes them desirous to have nobody but yourself to 
 govern them ; and as you must be convinced, that 
 no persons can be more passionately fond of your go- 
 vernment than ourselves, we hope you will not take 
 amiss any advice given by faithful and affectionate 
 friends ; and therefore we take the liberty to tell 
 you freely, we are of opinion that your honour may 
 take the government upon you, upon the offer of 
 the people, for the king, and represent to the pro- 
 prietors, that rather than the whole country should 
 be in confusion, and want a governing power, you 
 Leld it for their lordships, though you were obliged 
 to comply with the colonists, who were unanimously 
 of opinion they would have no proprietors' govern- 
 ment. We could wish for a longer and better op- 
 portunity to explain this matter to you ; but it is 
 impossible, for the gentlemen will be with you in 
 two hours at farthest. We heartily wish your honour 
 the utmost success, let it go which way it will ; but 
 beg leave to observe, that your compliance will not 
 only be the greatest satisfaction to the province in 
 general, but also to your humble servants." 
 
 This letter, though fraught with the highest pro- 
 fessions of respect to the governor, he nevertheless 
 considered as an insult; but especially the advice, 
 which he deemed both highly derogatory to his in- 
 tegrity as a man, and his fidelity as a governor. 
 The letter, however, served to give him notice of 
 the association, and the resolution of the people, 
 which it was his duty by all means possible to defeat. 
 For this purpose he hastened to town, and sum- 
 moned his council, to take their advice in a case so 
 unexpected andalarming. Meeting accidentally with 
 Alexander Skene, he informed him that the com- 
 mittee who were appointed to wait on him had 
 changed their minds, and were gone to their respec- 
 
 Hrsx, OF AMER. Nos. 119 & 120. 
 
 tive places of abode. The Governor, nevertheless, 
 informed his council of the association, and required 
 their advice and assistance about the most effectual 
 methods of breaking it up, and supporting the pro- 
 prietary government. He perceived that, although 
 he was called governor, yet Trott ruled the province, 
 and therefore resolved to (^o nothing without his ad 
 vice, that he might be equally responsible with the 
 rest for the ill consequences which he was apprehen- 
 . sive would attend their future proceedings. The 
 council were not a little perplexed what step to take ; 
 . but as the committee had Altered their intention of 
 waiting on the governor, they were of opinion that 
 no notice should betaken of their proceedings, until 
 the assembly should meet in a legal manner, and 
 bring it regularly before them ; hoping that the peo- 
 ple might drop their dangerous resolution. 
 
 In the mean time the members of assembly were 
 using their utmost diligence among the people of 
 the province to keep them firm to their purpose, 
 having got almost every person, except the officers 
 of the proprietors and a few of their friends, to sign 
 the association. All agreed to support whatever their 
 representatives should do for disengaging the colony 
 from the yoke of, the proprietors, and putting it 
 under the government of the king. Having thus 
 fortified themselves by the union of the inhabitants, 
 the assembly met on purpose to take more decisive 
 steps; and being apprehensive that the governor 
 would dissolve them, so soon as their proceedings 
 reached his ears, they instantly came to the follow- 
 ing resolutions : " First, That the several laws pre- 
 tended to be repealed are still in force within the 
 province, and could not be repealed and made void 
 and null but by the general assembly of this pro- 
 vince, and that all public officers and others do pay 
 due regard to the same accordingly. Secondly, That 
 the writs, whereby the representatives here met 
 were elected, are illegal, because they are signed 
 by such a council as we conceive the proprietors 
 have not a power to appoint; for that this council 
 does consist of a greater number of members than 
 that of the proprietors themselves, which we believe 
 is contrary to the design and original intent of their 
 charter, and approaching too near the method taken 
 by his majesty and his predecessors in his planta- 
 tions, whom they ought not to pretend to imitate or 
 follow, his majesty not being confined to any num- 
 ber of counsellors, but as he thinks fit*; but the pro- 
 prietors as subjects, we believe, are bound by their 
 charter. Thirdly, That we the representatives can- 
 not act as an assembly, but as a convention dele- 
 gated by the people, to prevent the utter ruin of this 
 government, if not the loss of the province, till his 
 majesty's pleasure be known ; and, lastly, That the 
 lords proprietors have by such proceedings unhinged 
 the frame of their government, and forfeited their 
 right to the same ; and that an address be prepared, 
 to desire the honourable Robert Johnson, our pre- 
 sent governor, to take the government upon him in 
 the king's name, and to continue the administra- 
 tion thereof until his majesty's pleasure be known." 
 Agreeably to the last resolution, an address was 
 drawn up, signed by Arthur Middleton as president, 
 and 22 members of the convention. The governor 
 having sent them a message, acquainting them ihat 
 he was ready with his council to receive and order 
 them to choose a speaker, they came to the upper 
 house in a body, and Arthur Middleton addressed 
 the governor in the following manner : " I am or- 
 dered by the representatives of the people here pre- 
 sent to tell you, that, according to your honour's 
 
 4K 
 
THE HISTORf OF AMERICA. 
 
 order, we are come jo w3i'. on you : I am further or- 
 dered to acquaint you, that we own your honour as 
 our governor, you being approved by the king ; and 
 as there was once in this province a legal council, 
 representing the proprietors as their deputies, which 
 being now altered, we do not look on the gentlemen 
 present to be a legal council ; so I am ordered to 
 tell you, that the representatives of the people do 
 disown them as such, and will not act with them on 
 any account." 
 
 The governor and council, struck with astonish- 
 ment at the boldness of the convention, and sus- 
 pecting that they were supported by the voice of 
 the people, were greatly puzzled what measures 
 they should take to recall them to the obedience of 
 legal authority. Some were for violent measures ; 
 but others were of opinion, that the defection was 
 too general to admit of such a remedy, and that 
 gentle expostulations would have more effec,. But, 
 the only fund for repairing the fortifications being 
 lost by the repeal of the general duty-law, money 
 must be provided for the public protection. If t-he 
 governor dissolved the house, how could the pro- 
 vince be put in a posture of defence against a Spa- 
 nish invasion, with which it was threatened. If he 
 should suffer them to sit while they had resolved that 
 the proprietors had forfeited their right to the go- 
 vernment, and refused on any account to act with 
 his council, he might be chargeable with a breach 
 of his trust. The result of their deliberations was, 
 a message from the governor and council, desiring 
 a conference with the house of assembly. To which 
 they returned for answer, that they would not re- 
 ceive any message or paper from the governor in 
 conjunction with these gentlemen he was pleased 
 to call his council. Finding them thus inflexible 
 and resolute, the governor was obliged to give way 
 to the current, and therefore, in two days afterwards, 
 sent for them in his own name, and spoke to them 
 to the following effect : 
 
 " When I sent for you the other day, I intended 
 to have desired you to have chosen your speaker, 
 to be presented to me as usual, and then I proposed 
 to have spoke to you in the following manner : 
 
 " Your being met together at a time when there 
 was never more occasion for a ready dispatch of 
 public business, and a good harmony betwixt the 
 upper and louver house, I must recommend that to 
 you; and nothing will be wanting on my part to 
 promote a good understanding betwixt the lords 
 proprietors and the people, at present (to my great 
 affliction) I fear too much interrupted : I must, 
 therefore, in the first place, recommend to you, that 
 you will, without delay, or other matter intervening, 
 fall upon proper methods for raising money for 
 finishing the repairs of the fortifications, and pro- 
 riding stores of war, which are much wanted. The 
 intelligence which I have of the designs of our ene- 
 mies, which makes this work so necessary, shall be 
 laid before you. 
 
 " I am sorry the lords proprietors have been in- 
 duced (by a necessity, to defend and support their 
 just prerogatives) at this juncture to disannul some 
 of your laws ; if they had not thought the letting 
 those acts subsist might have rendered their right 
 of repeal precarious, they would have suffered them 
 still to continue. I hope from you, therefore, a re- 
 spectful behaviour towards them, that we may not 
 feel any more their displeasure in so sensible a man- 
 ner, as the loss (in ibis time of need) of our duty- 
 Jaw, and whi -h has also occasioned an injunction 
 to me and th? council, from acting with an assembly 
 
 who shall dispute their lorpships' undoubted right 
 of repealing laws, and appointing officers civil aud 
 military. 
 
 " I find some are jealous and uneasy on account 
 of rumours spread, that you design to alter the tax- 
 act, for sinking your paper currency. Public credit 
 ought to be sacred, and it is a stand'ing maxim, That 
 no state can subsist longer than their credit is main- 
 tained : I hope therefore you have no such inten- 
 tions, which would put me under a necessity of do- 
 ing what I have never yet done; I mean, disagree- 
 ing with you. I expect therefore you will make 
 good what the public is answerable for, and proceed 
 to such farther methods for paying our debts, as 
 shall be both honourable and proper, and best adapt- 
 ed to our circumstances. 
 
 " The alaim from the soutnward, about five months 
 since, obliged me to be in a posture of defence, and 
 occasioned some charges, the accounts of which 
 shall be laid before you ; and I desire you will pro- 
 vide for the discharge of them : I think also the mi- 
 litia-acts want some amendments, and that you 
 should contrive to keep a good watch in Charlestown. 
 
 " This is what I intended to have recommended 
 to you : but Mr. Middleton's telling me, in the 
 name of the rest, that you would not act with, and 
 your surprising message since, that you will not re- 
 ceive anything from me, in conjunction with my 
 council, has made it necessary for me to take this 
 occasion of talking with that plainness and freedom 
 so extraordinary^ proceeding of yours requires. 
 And, first, I must lake notice of your message, 
 wherein you say, ybu own me as governor, be- 
 cause I am approved] of by the king ; but that you 
 disown the council/to be a legal one, nor will act 
 with them x n_ajjy' / account whatsoever ; and this is 
 subscribed by all your members : but, upon examin- 
 ing, I find it to be pretty dark and evasive, and 
 seems as if you would avoid expressing in plain 
 terms, what I have too much cause to fear is your 
 design, I mean, to renounce all obedience to the 
 lords proprietors : and this I cannot but think you 
 propose from all your words and actions. You s'ay, 
 you acknowledge me, because I am approved of by 
 the king ; but you take no notice of my commission 
 from the proprietors, which is what makes me go- 
 vernor. The confirmation of the king only signifies 
 his majesty's approbation of the person the lords 
 proprietors have constituted ; but it is my commis- 
 sion and instruction from them, that not only grants, 
 but limits my power, and contains the rules by which 
 I must act, and are to warrant and vouch my ac- 
 tions ; therefore, to avoid declaring in express terms 
 your renouncing the lords' power, and at the same 
 time doing it in effect, is to create perpetual doubts 
 and disputes, and is not acting with that sincerity 
 and plainness which ought to be used in all public 
 debates, and especially in matters of so great con- 
 cern as this is, and upon which so great conse- 
 quences depend. 
 
 " I do require and demand of you, therefore, and 
 expect you will answer me in plain and positive 
 terms, whether you own the authority of the lords 
 proprietors as lords of this province, and having 
 authority to administer or authorise others to admi- 
 nister the government thereof; saving the allegi- 
 ance of them and the people to his most sacred ma- 
 jesty King George ? Or, whether you absolutely 
 renounce all obedience to them, and those commis- 
 sioned and authorised by them ? Or, whether you 
 admit their general power, and only dispute that 
 particular branch of their authority, in constituting 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 947 
 
 a council after the manner they have now done ? 
 If you deny their general power and authority in 
 this province, and say, that their lordships have 
 forfeited their charter, as Mr. Berrisford asserted, 
 and you all acquiesced in ; then I demand of you, 
 that you signify wherein the lords have forfeited 
 their charter, and what particular branch thereof 
 they have broken : and I demand of you, that sup- 
 posing (not granting) they have made a forfeiture 
 of their charter, by what power do you presume to 
 renounce their authority, and to model a govern- 
 ment out of your own heads, before such time as 
 that, by a court having lawful jurisdiction of the 
 same, it shall be adjudged that the lords have made 
 a, forfeiture of their charter, and that the powers 
 granted them are null and void ? If the king is of 
 opinion, that any corporation or society have made 
 a forfeiture of the rights and powers granted by 
 their charter, although his majesty may have the ad- 
 vice of his attorney and solicitor-general, and his 
 judges and council learned in the law, that such a 
 forfeiture has been made (and this he may more 
 reasonably depend on than any advice or assurance 
 you can have) ; yet, notwithstanding this, and his 
 supreme authority as king, he never dispossessed 
 the persons of the powers granted them, before a 
 quo warranto or some other process had been brought, 
 and judgment obtained against the same. And if 
 the king doth not assume such a power, by what 
 authority do you assume it ? 
 
 " I desire you farther to consider the consequence 
 that attends that assertion, Of the charter being for- 
 feited, before judgment is given upon the same. 
 For if it be so, then the forfeiture must be from the 
 time that the fact was committed that caused the 
 forfeiture ; and then you must remember, that, by 
 the charter, the lords have granted to them, not 
 only the power of ordering the government, but 
 also the lands are granted to them by the said 
 charter ; so that if there is a forfeiture of the rights 
 and prerogatives of the government, there is also 
 a forfeiture of their rights to the lands ; and so all 
 grants made by their authority of any lands, since 
 the fact committed that caused the forfeiture, ac- 
 cording to your own doctrine and assertion, must 
 be null and void ; and therefore, how many persons' 
 titles to their lands will become void, I leave you 
 to consider. And though, it may be, you will as- 
 sign some new late fact, that you say will cause 
 such a forfeiture, by which you may think to avoid 
 the ill consequence that attends the titles to the 
 lands ; yet know, that the facts that you assign may 
 not be the only ones that may be thought to have 
 made the forfeiture of their charter. And if your 
 present assertion is true, that they may be dispos- 
 sessed before a judgment ; it may be, other persons 
 may assign other causes of the forfeiture, besides 
 those which you assign, which may have been com- 
 mitted many years ago : for you cannot but know 
 there have been persons in the province, that, for 
 several years past, have publicly asserted, that the 
 lords have done facts, for which their charter was 
 become forfeited. Which if so, I leave you to con- 
 sider what a gate you will leave open to call in 
 question, nay, utterly destroy, several hundreds of 
 people's titles to their lands. And though you have 
 most unjustly and untruly suggested to the people, 
 to create a prejudice in them to the lords proprie- 
 tors, that their lordships designed to dispute their 
 titles to their lands ; yet, by this assertion and prac- 
 tice, you are the persons that will not only call in 
 question, but effectually destroy their titles. 
 
 " And if you persist in disowning the council as 
 now authorised, then I desire you further to con- 
 sider, in what capacity I can act with you, and to 
 what purpose you pretend to sit and transact the 
 public business of the province. You know very 
 well I am not able to join with you in passing anv 
 law without the consent of my council ; and surely 
 you cannot pretend to pass laws without me : and 
 what an absolute occasion there is now to pass some 
 laws, that the province may be put in a posture of 
 defence, and the contingent charges thereof de- 
 frayed, I leave you seriously to consider, and hone 
 you will not lose the whole province to the enemy, 
 for your own humours. 
 
 " But I am further to tell you, that, in case you 
 continue to deny the authority of the council, you 
 cannot properly style yourselves the representatives 
 of the people ; for you know very well you were cho- 
 sen members of assembly, pursuant to, and by vir- 
 tue of, the writs signed by myself and council ; for 
 it is not the people's voting for you that makes you 
 become their representatives; the liege people of 
 this, or any other province, have no power to con- 
 rene and clause their representatives, without being 
 authorised so to do by some writ or order coming 
 from authority lawfully impowered. And if you 
 pretend that the writs signed by me, as governor, 
 were sufficient : to that I answer, that I do not pre- 
 tend to any such authority, but jointly, and with 
 the consent of my council, it being the express 
 words of my commission ; nor did I sign the writs 
 in any other capacity than in conjunction with my 
 council, who also signed the same. But if my sign- 
 ing the writs were sufficient authority for the people 
 to chuse you, then you must allow, that as the 
 power lies solely in me to call you, it lies also solely 
 in me to dissolve you ; and therefore, if by your ac- 
 tions you will force me to make use of that power, 
 I do hereby publicly protest and declare, you only 
 must be answerable for the ill consequences thai 
 may attend such a dissolution, and for the loss o-? 
 the lives and estates of the king's subjects in this 
 province by any attack that may be made upon 
 them by our public enemies, the Spaniards, or from, 
 the Indians, by reason of the province's not being 
 put into such a posture of defence as it ought, and 
 would, if you proceeded to transact the public busi- 
 ness under a lawful authority; and this I would 
 have you seriously to consider of. 
 
 " Notwithstanding stories that have been indus- 
 triously spread to prepossess the people, that you are 
 the only persons who stand up for their rights and 
 privileges ; by which, it may be, you have so far 
 engaged them in your favour, that you may have 
 their assistance to enable you to commit any act of 
 force or violence upon the government, and the au- 
 thority of the lords proprietors ; yet know, and b 
 assured, that the matters in dispute are of that cou 
 sequence, that they must and will be decided by an 
 authority in England, having lawful jurisdiction of 
 the same ; and that there it must be law and right 
 that must justify your claims, and not the consent and 
 approbation of the people of Carolina, who will have 
 no weight there, but the right and merit of the cause. 
 
 " I must farther mention to you, that it is noto- 
 riously known, you have promoted two forms of as- 
 sociations, and have persuaded the people to sign 
 them. How far you can be justified at home, be- 
 hoves you to consider : but as I am satisfied no mat- 
 ter of such public concern ought to be carried on 
 without my knowledge, so I do hereby require and 
 demand of vou, an attested copv of both associa 
 ' 4K2 
 
948 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 tious ; and though it may not concern me to have 
 the names of every individual person that has signed 
 them, yet 1 do insist upon it, that you do acquaint 
 me which of your own members have signed both, 
 or either of them, as also the names of such persons 
 who have commissions, or hold any places civil or 
 military under their lordships, or of sach persons 
 who practise the law in their lordships' courts, and 
 have signed them. 
 
 " To what is here demanded of you I do require 
 your plain and positive answer in express terms, 
 and that you do in writing give me the same in a 
 body, and under your hands." 
 
 This long and elaborate speech, which was also 
 given them in writing, they were not long in con- 
 sidering, but returned with the following message : 
 " We have already acquainted you, that we would 
 not receive any message or paper from your honour, 
 in conjunction with the gentlemen you are pleased 
 to call your council ; therefore we must now again 
 repeat the same, and beg leave to tell you, that the 
 paper your honour read and delivered to us, we take 
 no notice of, nor shall we give any farther answer 
 to it but in Great Britain." 
 
 Immediately after this they came with the follow- 
 ing address to the governor, publicly avowing their 
 resolution to cast off all obedience to the proprietary 
 government, and urging and entreating him to comply 
 with their desire, and take upon him the government 
 of the province m the name of the king. " It is 
 with no small concern that we find ourselves obliged 
 to address your nonour, in a matter which nothing 
 but the absolute necessity of self-preservation could 
 at this juncture have prevailed on us to do. The 
 reasons are already by us made known to your ho- 
 nour and the world, therefore we forbear to rehearse 
 them ; but proceed to take leave to assure you, that 
 it is the greatest satisfaction imaginable to us, to 
 find throughout the whole country that universal 
 affection, deference, and respect, the inhabitants 
 bear to your honour's person, and with what pas- 
 sionate desire they wish for a continuance of your 
 gentle and good administration ; and since we, who 
 are intrusted with, and are the assertors of their 
 rights and liberties, are unanimously of opinion, 
 that no person is fitter to govern so loyal and obe- 
 dient a people to his sacred majesty King George, 
 so we most earnestly desire and iulreat your honour, 
 to take upon you the government of -this province, 
 in his majesty's name, till his pleasure shall be 
 known ; by which means we are convinced, that 
 this (at p.vsent) unfortunate colony may flourish, 
 as well as those who feel the happy influence of his 
 majesty's immediate care. 
 
 ' As the \ ell-being and preservation of this pro- 
 vince depe.. s greatly on your honour's complying 
 with our requests, so we flatter ourselves, that you 
 who have expressed so tender a regard for it on ali 
 occasions, and particularly in hazarding your own 
 person in an expedition against the pirates, for its 
 defence, an example seldom found in governors ; so 
 we hope, Sir, that you will exert yourself at this 
 juncture for its support; and we promise your ho- 
 nour, on our parts, the most faithful assistance o 
 persons duly sensible of your honour's great good- 
 ness, and big with the hopes and expectation of his 
 majesty's countenance and protection. And we 
 farther beg leave to assure your honour that we 
 will, in the most dutiful manner, address his mosl 
 sacred majesty King George, for the continuance o 
 your government over us, under whom we doubt no 
 to b* a happj people." 
 
 To this flattering address the governor returned 
 he following answer: " I am obliged to you for 
 four good opinion of me : but I hold my commission 
 rom the true and absolute lords and proprietors of 
 ,his province, who recommended me to his majesty, 
 and I have his approbation ; it is by that commission 
 and power I act, and I know of no power or autho- 
 rity can dispossess me of the same, but those only 
 who gave me those authorities. In subordination to 
 hem I shall always act, and to my utmost maintain 
 heir lordships 5 just power and prerogatives, without 
 encroaching on the people's rights and privileges. 
 : do not expect or desire any favour from you, only 
 hat of seriously taking into ypur consideration the 
 approaching danger of a foreign enemy, and the 
 steps you are taking to involve yourselves and this 
 >rovince in anarchy and confusion." 
 
 The representatives having now fully declared 
 heir intentions, and finding it impossible by all their 
 address to win over the governor to a compliance 
 with their measures, began to treat him with neglect. 
 He, on the otherhaud, perceiving that neither harsh 
 nor gentle means could recall them to their allegi- 
 ance to the proprietors, issued a proclamation for 
 dissolving the house, and retired to the country. 
 The representatives ordered his proclamation to be 
 torn from the marshal's hands, and proceeded next 
 to avowed usurpation. They met upon their own 
 authority, and in direct opposition to that of the 
 proprietors, and cho^e Colonel James Moore their 
 governor; who was a\ man of a bold and turbulent 
 disposition, and excellently qualified for being A 
 popular leader. To /Governor Johnson he was no 
 friend, having beep-lby him removed from his com- 
 mand of the ^niima, for espousing the cause of the 
 people : to the proprietors he was an inveterate 
 enemy. In every new enterprise he had been a 
 Tolunteer, and in whatever he engaged he conti 
 nued to his purpose steady and inflexible. A day 
 was fixed by the convention for proclaiming him, in 
 name of the king, governor of the province, and or- 
 ders were issued for directing all officers, civil and 
 military, to continue in their different places and em- 
 ployments, till they should hear further from them 
 Governor Johnson, some time before this, had ap- 
 pointed a day for a general review of the provincial 
 militia; and the convention, that they might have 
 the opportunity of the people being under arms, and 
 ready to forward their scheme, fixed on the same 
 day for publicly proclaiming Moore. The governor, 
 however, having intelligence of their design, sent 
 orders to Colonel Parris, the commander of the mi- 
 litia, to postpone the review to a future day. Parris,, 
 though a zealous friend to the revolution, assured 
 him his orders should be obeyed. Notwithstanding 
 this assurance, on the day fixed, when Governor 
 Johnson came to town, he found to his surprise the 
 militia drawn up in the market-square, the colours 
 flying at the forts, and on board all the ships in the 
 harbour, and great preparations making for the 
 proclamation. Exasperated at the insults offered to 
 his person and authority, he could scarcely command 
 his temper. Some he threatened to chastise for 
 flying in the face of government, to which they had 
 sworn allegiance and fidelity ; with others he rea- 
 soned, and endeavoured to recall them by represent- 
 ing the fatal consequences that would certainly at- 
 tend such rash proceedings. But advancing to Par- 
 ris, who had betrayed him, he asked him how he 
 durst appear in arms contrary to his orders ? and 
 commanded him, in the king's name, instantly to 
 disperse his men. Colonel Parris replied, he 'was 
 
UNITED STATUS. 
 
 949 
 
 obeying the orders of the convention ; and the go- 
 vernor, in great rage, walked up towards him ; upon 
 which Parris iminediately commanded his men to 
 present, and bid him at the peril of life advance no 
 nearer. The governor expected, during this strug- 
 gle, that some friends would have adhered to him, 
 especially such as held offices of profit and trust 
 uuder the proprietors, or that the militia would have 
 laid down their arms at his command : but he was 
 disappointed ; for all either stood silent, or kept firm 
 to the standard of the convention. However, to 
 amuse him, and prevent his taking any rash step 
 in the heat of passion, John Lloyd, one of their 
 party, was sent, out of pretence of friendship, to walk 
 and converse with the governor. Vain indeed were 
 the efforts of a single arm, in so general a defection. 
 Even Trott and Rhett, in this extremity, forsook him, 
 and kept at a distance the silent and inactive spec- 
 tators of their masters' ruined authority. 
 
 Alter this the members of convention attended, 
 and, escorted by the militia, publicly marched to the 
 fort, and there declared James Moore governor of 
 the province, in the name of the king, which was 
 followed by the loudest acclamations of the populace. 
 Upon their return, they next proceeded to the elec- 
 tion of twelve counsellors, of whom Sir Hoveuden 
 Walker was made president ; so that they had now 
 a governor, council and convention of their own 
 election. In consequence of which the delegates 
 met, and published their declaration to the follow- 
 ing effect : " Whereas the proprietors of this pro- 
 vince have of late assumed to themselves an arbi- 
 trary and illegal power, of repealing such laws as 
 the general assembly of this settlement have thought 
 fit to make for the preservation and defence thereof, 
 and acred in many other things contrary to the laws 
 of England, and the charter to them and us, free- 
 men, granved; whereby we are deprived of those 
 measures we had taken for the defence of the settle- 
 ment, being the south-west frontier of his majesty's 
 territories in America, and thereby left naked to the 
 attacks of our inveterate enemies and next-door 
 neignbours the Spaniards, from whom, through the 
 Divine Providence, we have had a miraculous de- 
 liverance, and daily expect to be invaded by them, 
 according to the repeated advices we have from time 
 to time received from several places : and whereas, 
 pursuant to the instructions and authorities to us 
 given, aid trust in us reposed by the inhabitants of 
 this settlement, and in execution of the resolutions 
 by us made, we did in due form apply ourselves in 
 a whole body, by an address, to the honourable 
 Robert Johnson, appointed governor of this province 
 by the lords proprietors, and desired him, in name 
 of the inhabitants of this province, to take upon him 
 the government of the same, and in behalf of his 
 majesty the king of Great Britain, France, and Ire- 
 land, until his majesty's pleasure had been known, 
 which the said governor refusing to do, exclusive 
 of the pretended power of the lords proprietors over 
 the settlement, has put us under the necessity of ap- 
 plying to some other person, to take upon him, as 
 governor, the administration of all the affairs civil 
 and military within the settlement, in the name and 
 for the service of his most sacred majesty, as well as 
 making treaties, alliances and leagues with any 
 nation of Indians, until his majesty's pleasure herein 
 be further known : and whereas James Moore, a per- 
 son well affected to his present majesty, and also zea- 
 lous for the interest of the settlement, now in a sink- 
 ing condition, has been prevailed with, pursuant to 
 ucb our application, to take upon him, in the king's 
 
 name, and for the king's service and satV-tv of the 
 settlement, the above-mentioned charge and trust : 
 we therefore, whose names are hereunto subscribed, 
 the representatives and delegates of his majesty's 
 lipge people and free-born subjects of the said settle- 
 ment, now met in convention at Charlestown, in 
 their names, and in behalf of his sacred majesty 
 George, by the grace of God king of Great Britain, 
 France, and Ireland, in consideration of his former 
 and many great services, having great confidence 
 in his firm loyalty to our most gracious King George, 
 as well as in his conduct, courage, and other great 
 abilities; do hereby declare the said James Moore, 
 his majesty's governor of this settlement, invested 
 with all the powers and authorities belonging and 
 appertaining to any of his majesty's governors in 
 America, till his majesty's pleasure herein shall be 
 further known. And we do hereby for ourselves, in 
 the name and on the behalf of the inhabitants of the 
 said settlement, as their representatives and dele- 
 gates, promise and oblige ourselves most solemnly 
 to obey, maintain, assist and support the said James 
 Moore, in the administration of all affairs civil and 
 military within this settlement, as well as in the ex- 
 ecution of all his functions aforesaid, as governor for 
 his'sacred majesty King George. And further, we 
 do expect and command, 'that all officers, both civil 
 and military within the settlement, do pay him all 
 duty and obedience as his majesty's governor, as 
 they shall answer to the contrary at their utmost 
 peril. Given under our hand, at the convention, 
 this 2lstday of December, 1719." 
 
 Governor Johnson, after this public and solemn 
 declaration, perceiving his power totally overthrown, 
 and the current too violent and strong for him to 
 withstand, had little hopes of recalling them to the 
 obedience of proprietary authority. Still, however, 
 he flattered himself, that they would not long re- 
 main in a state of union among themselves. The 
 first unpopular step of their governor might create 
 disturbance and disaffection ; the first difference 
 among the leading men might divide them into 
 parties : he determined to wait for such occurrences, 
 and to improve them towards recovering his power 
 and command. In the mean time he called together 
 the civil officers of the proprietors, and ordered them, 
 to secure the public records, and shut up all offices 
 against the revolters and their adherents. 
 
 That the proprietors in England might have notice 
 of what had happened through a proper channel, 
 Governor Johnson drew up a state of the whole pro- 
 ceedings, and transmitted it them. To the same 
 purpose he wrote to the lords commissioners of trade 
 and plantations, who were no friends to the proprie- 
 tary governments in America, and waited for such 
 a favourable season as now offered in Carolina to 
 purchase every one of them for the crown. 
 
 In the mean time the members of the popular le- 
 gislature were proceeding with all diligence in re- 
 gulating the public affairs. The representatives of 
 the people took a dislike to the name of a convention, 
 as different from that of the other regal governments 
 in America, and therefore voted themselves an as- 
 sembly, and assumed the power of appointing all 
 public officers. In place of Nicholas Trott, they 
 made Richard Allein chief justice. Another per- 
 son was appointed provincial secretary, in the room 
 of Charles Hart. But William Rhett and Francis 
 Yonge, by being obsequious to the revolters, secured 
 to themselves the same offices they held from the 
 proprietors. Colonel Barnwell was chosen agent for 
 the province, and embarked for England, with in* 
 
950 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 structions and orders to apply only to the king, to 
 lay a state of their public proceedings before him, 
 praying him to take the province under his immedi- 
 ate care and protection. A new duty-law and others 
 for raising money to defray the various expenses of 
 government were passed. The fortifications at 
 Charlestown they ordered to be immediately re- 
 paired, and William Rhett, whom every one es- 
 teemed a friend to the revolution, was nominated 
 inspector-general of the repairs. To their new go- 
 vernor they voted 2500J., and to their chief-justice 
 8001. current money, as yearly salaries. To their 
 agent in England 100QL sterling was transmitted ; 
 and to defray those and the other expenses of govern- 
 ment, a law was passed for laying a tax on lands 
 and negroes, to raise 30,OOOZ. Carolina money, for 
 the service of the current year. In short, this po- 
 pular assembly imposed such burthens on their con- 
 stituents, as under the proprietary government would 
 have been deemed intolerable grievances. 
 
 In consequence of the tax-act, when they began 
 to levy those heavy taxes, Governor Johnson and 
 some of his party refused to pay, giving for reason, 
 that the act was not made by lawful authority. On 
 account of his particular circumstances, Mr. Johnson 
 was exempted; but they resolved to compel every 
 other person to submit to their jurisdiction, and yield 
 implicit obedience to their laws. They forcibly seized 
 the effects or negroes of such as refused, sold them 
 at public auction, and applied the money for the 
 payment of their taxes. Thus, in spite of all op- 
 position, they established themselves in the full pos- 
 session of government, both in their legislative and 
 executive capacities. 
 
 Governor Johnson, though obliged to'stand at a 
 distance, carefully observed'their progress, and was 
 not a little mortified by their great success. He 
 however still persisted in throwing every obstacle 
 in their way : he wrote to William Rhett, who was 
 not ,only the proprietors' receiver -general, but also 
 comptroller of the customs, a letter ; informing him, 
 that, " as the people had found means to hinder all 
 masters of ships from coming to him as the governor 
 for clearances, and from clearing in the lawful se- 
 cretary's offices, notwithstanding the laws of trade 
 made such neglects the forfeiture of ship and cargo, 
 and the naral officer, by his orders, did all he could 
 to induce them to act according to law : and as he 
 was sensible that the defection was so general, and 
 his authority so depressed, that he had no power left 
 to punish them for disobedience ; he therefore could 
 think of no other way to oblige them to their duty 
 but by stopping their obtaining clearances from the 
 custom-house officers, until they paid their duty to 
 him as the lawful governor of the province. He 
 therefore desired Mr. Rhett would consult his powers 
 and instructions as surveyor and comptroller of the 
 customs, and act in this affair as he should think 
 agreeable to them, to the laws of trade, and to the 
 service of his majesty, and of the lords proprietors." 
 Indeed it must be acknowledged, had Rhett so far 
 consulted the interest of the proprietors, as to have 
 commanded the officers of the customs to do their 
 duty, according to the governor's project, it would 
 have given the revolters no small trouble. They 
 would have had the mortification to see the masters 
 of ships disowning their authority, and going only 
 to that office where they could obtain authentic and 
 legal clearances ; and the fees due to the governor 
 and secretary would also have gone in their usual 
 channel. But Rhett's enmity to the governor, and 
 his prospects of profit from the prevailing party, 
 
 induced him to neglect the duties of his station. He 
 had already joined, or at least seemed to join, the 
 revolters, being determined to retain at all events 
 his places of profit and emolument. The counte- 
 nance and encouragement he had given the people, 
 they considered as a justification of their measures ; 
 and though they had passed a vote, that no person 
 who held an office under the proprietors should be 
 permited to continue in it, yet, as they found Rhett 
 so obsequious to their views, they thought proper to 
 dispense with it for an acquisition of such impor- 
 tance. They not only allowed him to continue in 
 his former offices, but also made him lieutenant- 
 general of the militia, and overseer to the works in 
 repairing the fortifications. So that, instead of giving 
 assistance to Governor Johnson for supporting the 
 interest and power of the proprietary government, 
 he deserted him. 
 
 Rhett, nevertheless, to the astonishment of every 
 one, still maintained his credit with the proprietors, 
 and had the art to persuade them he had done all 
 out of zeal for the service of his majesty, and for the 
 good of the province. He wrote them two letters, 
 giving them an account of all that had happened, 
 and assuring them he had accepted of a commission 
 from Mr. Moore, in order the more effectually to 
 promote their interest, v by giving him an opportu- 
 nity of conversing freely with the people, and per- 
 suading them to return to their duty and allegiance. 
 He represented the inflexibility of Governor Johnson 
 as one source of the discontent and defection of the 
 people, and \utterly inconsistent with good policy. 
 The proprietdiss^belieyjea him, and such was their 
 confidence in his Tionour and fidelity, that they sent 
 him the following letter expressing their approba- 
 tion of his conduct : " We have received your let- 
 ters, wherein you give us a melancholy account of 
 the present confused government of our province, 
 and of the great consternation of the inhabitants, 
 from the dreadful apprehension they have of a fo- 
 reign invasion. But since they have been so un- 
 fortunate as to bring themselves into so much con- 
 fusion, we are not a little pleased that your zeal for 
 the service of his majesty, and the safety of the 
 province, has engaged you to take upon you the 
 command of the forces; for as, by your command of 
 the said forces, you formerly defended and saved the 
 country from the insults of an invading enemy, so 
 we doubt not but you will again use your utmost 
 skill to free your same fellow-subjects from the im- 
 minent danger they at present labour under. And 
 since you have taken upon you the same command, 
 we earnestly entreat you, that, with the greatest ap- 
 plication, you will continue your endeavours in that 
 command for the safety and preservation of the pro- 
 vince, until you shall hear farther from us: we wish 
 you all imaginable success, and bid you heartily 
 farewell." 
 
 In the mean time Governor Johnson received cer- 
 tain advice, that the Spaniards had sailed from the 
 Havanna with a fleet of fourteen ships, and a force 
 consisting of 1200 men, against South Carolina and 
 Providence Island, and it was uncertain which of 
 the two they would first attack. At this time of im- 
 minent danger the governor again attempted to re- 
 call the people to subjection and obedience, and sent 
 the following letter to the convention: " I flatter 
 myself that the invasion which at present threatens 
 the province, has awakene'd a thought in you of the 
 necessity there is of the forces acting under lawful 
 authority and commission. The inconveniences and 
 confusion of not admitting it are so oovious, Z need 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 95, 
 
 net mention them. I have hitherto borne the in- 
 dignities put upon me, and the loss I sustain by 
 being out of my government, with as much temper 
 as the nature of the thing will admit of, till such 
 time as his majesty's pleasure shall be known. But 
 to have another man to assume my authority when 
 danger threatens the province, and action is ex- 
 pected, and to be deprived of the opportunity of 
 serving the public in my station, as I am indispen- 
 sably bound to do upon such occasions, I being an- 
 swerable to the king for any neglect regarding the 
 welfare of the province, is what I cannot patiently 
 endure. I am willing with my council to consult 
 and advise with you for the good and safety of the 
 country in this time of imminent danger, as a con- 
 vention of the people, as you first called yourselves ; 
 nor do I see, in this present juncture of affairs, any 
 occasion for formality in our proceedings, or that I 
 explain by whose authority I act in grants of com- 
 missions or other public orders. Mr. Moore's com- 
 mission you have given him does not pretend to say 
 that it is derived from the king. You have already 
 confessed I am invested with some authority of which 
 you approve, and that is enough. What I insist 
 upon is, to be allowed to act as governor, because I 
 have been approved of by the king. I do not ap- 
 prehend there is any necessity of doing any thing at 
 present but what relates to military affairs; and I 
 do believe people will be better satisfied, more ready 
 to advance necessaries, to trust the public, and obey 
 my commands, by virtue of the king's authority 
 which I have, if left to their libertj, than the orders 
 of any other person in the province ; and in a short 
 time we may expect his majesty's pleasure will be 
 known. If my reasons have not the weight with 
 you I expect they should, you ought at least to put 
 it to the vote, that, if a majority should be against 
 it, I may have that to justify myself to the king and 
 the world, who ought to be satisfied that I have done 
 all I can for serving the country, and discharging 
 the duty of my station." 
 
 By this letter Governor Johnson thought to alarm 
 and terrify the people, by representing the dange- 
 rous consequences of military operations under un- 
 lawful authority; but they remained firm to their 
 purpose, and the convention, without taking any 
 notice of it, continued to do business with Mr. Moore 
 as they had begun. Sir Hovenden Walker, the 
 president of their council, being disgusted at their 
 proceedings, left them, and retired to his plantation; 
 but they chose Richard Allein in his stead, and pro- 
 ceeded to concert measures for the public defence. 
 They proclaimed martial law, and ordered all the 
 inhabitants of the province to Charlestown for its 
 defence. All the officers of the militia accepted 
 their commissions from Mr. Moore, and engaged to 
 stand by him against all foreign enemies. For two 
 weeks the provincial militia were kept under arms 
 at Charlestown every day, expecting the appearance 
 of the Spanish fleet; which they, were informed had 
 sailed from the Havanna. Happily for them, to acquire 
 possession of both sides of the gulf of Florida, and se- 
 cure the navigation through this stream, the Spaniards 
 had resolved first to attack Providence, and then 
 to proceed against Carolina : but by the conduct 
 and courage of Captain Rogers, at that time gover- 
 nor of the island, they met with a sharp repulse at 
 Providence, and soon after they lost the greatest part 
 of their fleet in a storm. 
 
 The Spanish expedition having thus proved abor- 
 tive, the Flamborough man of war, commanded by 
 Captain Hildesley, returned to her station at Charles- 
 
 town from Providence island. About the same 
 time his majesty's ship Phoenix, commanded by 
 Captain Pierce, arrived from a cruise. The com- 
 manders of these two men-of-war were caressed by 
 both parties, but they publicly declared for Governor 
 Johnson, as the magistrate invested with legal au- 
 thority. Charles Hart, secretary of the province, by 
 orders from the governor and council, had secreted 
 and secured the public records, so that the revolters 
 could not obtain possession of them. The clergy 
 refused to marry without a licence from Governor 
 Johnson, as the only legal ordinary of the province. 
 These inconveniences having begun to operate, ren- 
 dered several of the people more cool in their affec- 
 tion for the popular government. At this juncture 
 Governor Johnson, with the assistance of the cap- 
 tains and crews of the ships of war, made his last 
 and boldest effort for subjecting the colonists to his 
 authority. He brought up the ships of war in front 
 of Charlestown, and threatened their capital with 
 immediate destruction, if they any longer refused 
 obedience to legal authority. But the people having 
 both arms in their hands for defence, and forts in 
 their possession to which they could retreat, bid de- 
 fiance to his power, and showed him plainly that 
 they were neither to be won by flattery, nor terrified 
 by threats, to submit their necks any more to the 
 proprietary yoke ; and therefore, for the future, 
 Governor Johnson dropt all thoughts of making any 
 more attempts for that purpose. 
 
 Nicholas Trott now observing the frame of the 
 proprietary government totally destroyed, and a 
 rival judge planted in his room, resolved to return 
 to England. But before he embarked he wrote to 
 Governor Johnson, acquainting him with his resolu- 
 tion, and promising, if he would contribute towards 
 defraying his expenses, he would give the proprie- 
 tors such a favourable account of his conduct and 
 services, as would ensure to him the continuance of 
 his office. But the governor being no stranger to 
 the character of the judge, and being convinced that 
 both the revolt of the people, and subversion of go- 
 vernment, were in a great measure to be ascribed to 
 his pernicious policy and secret correspondence 
 with his friend the secretary to the proprietors, dis- 
 dainfully rejected his interest and friendship. To 
 which disrespect for the judge, however, Mr. John- 
 son attributed many of the injurious suspicions the 
 proprietors entertained of his honour and fidelity, 
 and that shameful neglect with which he was after- 
 wards treated by them. They had written him no 
 answer to his letters respecting the violent steps the 
 people had taken, or ever informed him whether 
 his conduct during those popular commotions had 
 met with their approbation or disapprobation. Some 
 of them even alleged that he was privy to the do- 
 signs of the malcontents ; and gave them too much 
 countenance and indulgence; but every principle 
 of honour, duty, and interest forbade such a con- 
 nivance, and the upright and respectable character 
 he maintained rendered such suspicions unmerited. 
 That he should join with a disaffected multitude in 
 schemes of opposition, to divest himself of his go- 
 vernment, was a thing scarcely to be supposed. 
 That he should first connive at the subversion of 
 the proprietary government, and afterwards refuse 
 to govern them for the king, when solicited so to do 
 by the representatives and whole body of the people 
 was a thing very improbable. When he arrived in 
 the province, he found the inhabitants discontented 
 and unhappy, but little suspected they had any 
 views of renouncing their allegiance to the proprie- 
 
95* 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 tors ; and the various arts the people used to con- 
 ceal from him their designs, were proofs they had 
 every thing to fear, and nothing to hope for from 
 their governor. The many attempts made to defeat 
 their measures were also evidences of his fidelity to 
 their lordships, and firmness in support of their go- 
 vernment. He indeed differed with Trott and Rhett, 
 the two favourites of the proprietors, and perhaps 
 to this, among other causes, the neglect with which 
 he was treated by their lordships may be ascribed. 
 For as they discovered on all occasions such a par- 
 tial regard to these men, and placed such unlimited 
 confidence in them, the person who differed from 
 them, however fair and unblemished his character, 
 however firmly attached to their interest, was not 
 likely, in such circumstances of difficulty, to escape 
 all injurious suspicions. 
 
 In the mean time the agent &>r Carolina had pro- 
 cured a hearing from the lords of the regency and 
 council in England, the king being at that time 
 in Hanover; who gave it as their opinion, that 
 the proprietors had forfeited their charter, and or- 
 dered the attorney-general to take out a scire facias 
 against it In consequence of which, in September 
 1720, they appointed General Francis Nicolson 
 provisional governor of the province, with a com- 
 mission from the king. Nicolson was a man pos- 
 sessed of honourable principles ; and was generous, 
 bold, and resolute. He had been governor of 
 several different colonies, and it was thought his 
 knowledge and experience in provincial affairs would 
 render him well qualified for the important trust. 
 He knew his duty as commander and chief, and was 
 afraid of neither dangers nor difficulties in the exe- 
 cution of it; a warm friend to the king, and deeply 
 concerned for the prosperity of his country. 
 
 About the beginning of the year 1721, Francis 
 Nicolson arrived in Carolina, and having the sane 
 tion of the British government for his appointment, 
 Mr. Johnson acquiesced in his authority, and made 
 no more efforts in behalf of the lords proprietors 
 The people in general congratulated one another 
 on the happy change, and received General Nicol 
 son with the most uncommon and extravagant de- 
 monstrations of joy. The voice of murmur and 
 discontent, together with the fears of danger and 
 oppression, were now banished from the province. 
 Happy under the royal care, they resolved to forge! 
 all former animosities, and divisions, and bury al 
 past offences in eternal oblivion. From a confused 
 and distracted state they now looked upon them- 
 selves as happily delivered, and anticipated in ima- 
 gination all the blessings of freedom and security, 
 followed by industry and plenty, approaching, anc 
 as it were ready to diffuse their happy influence over 
 the country 
 
 Soon after his arrival, Governor Nicolson issuec 
 writs for the election of a new assembly, who now 
 entered with great temper and cheerfulness on thi 
 regulation of provincial affairs. They chose Jame 
 Moore, their late popular governor, speaker of the 
 house, of whom the governor declared his entire ap 
 probation. The first business they engaged in, wa 
 to make an act, declaring they recognised and ac 
 knowledged his sacred majesty King George, to bi 
 the rightful sovereign of Great Britain, France, anc 
 Ireland, and of all the dominions and provinces be 
 longing to the empire, and in particular his un 
 doubted right to the province of Carolina. All ac 
 tions and suits at law commenced on account of th 
 late administration of James Moore by particula 
 gersons, creating misunderstandings and animosi 
 
 es among the people, were declared void and null, 
 ill his majesty's pleasure touching such adminis- 
 ration shall be known ; but all judicial proceedings 
 inder the same administration were confirmed ; 
 shich acts were at this time judged proper and ne- 
 essary for establishing harmony and tranquillity 
 .mong the inhabitants. The two parties formerly 
 ubsisting, the one composed of a few adherents to 
 governor Johnson, and the other of the followers of 
 Fames Moore, Nicolson had the good fortune to 
 unite, and, by the wisdom and equity of his admi- 
 nistration, to render both equally happy and con- 
 ented under the royal government and protection. 
 
 Before Governor Nicolson left England,. a sus- 
 pension of arms between Great Britain and Spain 
 lad been published, and, by the treaty of peace 
 which afterwards took place, it was stipulated that 
 all subjects and Indians living under their different 
 urisdictions should cease from acts of hostility. 
 Orders were sent out to Don Antonie-N-ayidez, go- 
 vernor of Florida, to forbear molesting the\Caroli- 
 neans; and the British govej>nor had also iWruc- 
 ;ionsto cultivate the friendship and good-will Jof the 
 Spanish subjects and Indians of Florida. In/conse- 
 quence of which, Governor Nicolson, who was no 
 stranger to the manners of savages, resolved to ap- 
 ply himself with great zeal and spirit to the regula- 
 :ion of Indian affairs, and to enter into treaties of 
 friendship and alliance with the different tribes 
 around the settlement. As most of their troubles 
 from Indians had been occasioned by Europeans 
 aking possession of lands claimed by them, without 
 their permission or consent ; the first object that 
 demanded his attention was to fix the limits and ex- 
 tent of their territories, and then to forbid encroach- 
 ments on their hunting-grounds. With these views 
 be sent a message to the Cherokees, (a powerful 
 nation, computed at this time to consist of no less 
 than 6000 bowmen,) acquainting them, that he had 
 presents to make them, and would meet them at the 
 borders of their territories, to hold a general con- 
 gress with them, in order to treat of mutual friend- 
 ship and commerce. They were rejoiced at the pro- 
 posal, and immediately the chiefs of 37 different 
 towns set out to meet him. 
 
 At this congress the governor having made them 
 several presents, and smoked the pipe of peace with 
 them, marked the boundaiies of the lands between 
 them and the English settlers. He regulated all 
 weights and measures, that justice might be done 
 them in the way of traffic. He appointed an agent 
 to superintend their affairs, and, to unite them under 
 a common head, proposed to nominate one warrior 
 as commander and chief of the whole nation, before 
 whom all complaints were to be laid, and who was 
 to acquaint the governor with every injury done 
 them. With the consent of all present a leader of 
 the name of Wrosetasatow was declared chief war- 
 rior of the Cherokee nation, with full power to punish 
 all guilty of depredations and murders, and to ob- 
 tain satisfaction for every injury done to Indians 
 from the British settlers. After which the Indians 
 returned to their towns, highly pleased with their 
 new ally. The governor then proceeded to conclude 
 another treaty with the Creeks, who were also a 
 numerous and formidable nation. He likewise ap- 
 pointed an agent to reside among them, whese busi- 
 ness was to regulate Indian affairs in a friendly and 
 equitable manner, and fixed on Savanna river as 
 the boundary of their hunting-lands, beyond which 
 no settlements were to extend. 
 
 Having now secured the province as well as pos- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 953 
 
 sible against the external foes, Governor Nicolson 
 turned his attention next to internal regulations, 
 particularly to such as respected the religious in- 
 struction of the people. For though he was bred a 
 soldier, and was profane and passionate himself, yet 
 he was not insensible of the great advantage of reli- 
 gion to government and society. The number of 
 inhabitants in each parish being considerably in- 
 creased, it was found necessary to enlarge several 
 churches for their accommodation. The inhabitants 
 of St. Paul's parish, many of whom had their houses 
 burnt, and who had otherwise suffered heavy losses in 
 the Yamassee war, were obliged to apply to the 
 public for assistance in this laudable design. The 
 parish of St. George was separated from that of St. 
 Andrews by an act of assembly, and a new church 
 was built at a small village called Dorchester, by 
 public allowance and private contributions. The 
 inhabitants in and about Georgetown, who had long 
 lived without the benefit of public worship, insomuch 
 that the appearance of religion among them had 
 almost entirely vanished, claimed particular atten- 
 tion. To erect a church in this quarter the governor 
 proposed a private subscription, and set the exam- 
 ple by largely contributing towards -the public insti- 
 tution. He made application to the society in En- 
 gland for propagating the Gospel, and they supplied 
 the province with clergymen, giving each of them 
 a yearly allowance over and above the provincial 
 salary. As no public schools had yet been instituted 
 the governor urged also the necessity of such es- 
 tablishments. It was alleged, that the want of 
 early instruction was one of the chief sources of im- 
 piety and immorality, and if they continued any 
 longer to neglect the rising generation, they would 
 soon have a race of white people in the country 
 equally ignorant as the red Indians. Animated by 
 the example, and assisted by the generosity of their 
 governor, the colonists therefore earnestly engaged 
 in providing seminaries for the religious education 
 of youth. Besides general contributions, several 
 particular legacies were also left for this purpose. 
 Mr. Whitmarsh left 500J. tc St. Paul's parish, for 
 founding a free- school in it. Mr. Ludlam, the so- 
 ciety's missionary at Goose-creek, bequeathed all 
 his estate, which'was computed to amount to 2000/. 
 Carolina currency, for the same purpose. Richard 
 Beresfords, by his will, bequeathed the annual pro- 
 fits of his estate to be paid to the vestry of St. 
 Thomas parish in trust, until his son, then eight 
 years of age, should arrive at the age of 21 years ; 
 directing them to apply one-third of the yearly pro- 
 fits of this estate for the support of one or more 
 schoolmasters, who should teach reading, accounts, 
 mathematics, and other liberal learning; and the 
 other two-thirds for the support, maintenance, and 
 education of the poor of that parish. The vestry 
 accordingly received from this estate 6500J. Caro- 
 lina money, for promoting those pious and charita- 
 ble purposes. The society in England sent out 
 teachers, money and books, and assisted greatly, 
 by their zeal and bounty, towards the religious in- 
 struction of the people ; and in Charlestown, and 
 in several other parishes in the country, public 
 schools were built and endowed. 
 
 We have now to relate an instance of the torce 
 of enthusiasm, which, like the Antinomian schism, 
 and the belief in witchcraft, which disturbed Bos- 
 ton, a few years before, may be traced to the frenzy 
 that the study of abstruse theological doctrines very 
 often led the early dissenters into. We give it in 
 the words of a cotemporary writer : 
 
 " The family of Dutartres consisting of four sons 
 and four daughters, were descendants of French 
 refugees, who came into Carolina after the revo- 
 cation of the edict of Nantz. They lived in Orange- 
 quarter, and though in low circumstances always 
 maintained an honest character, and were esteemed 
 by their neighbours, persons of blameless and irre- 
 proachable lives. But at this time a strolling Mora- 
 vian preacher happening to come to that quarter 
 where they lived, insinuated himself into their family, 
 and partly by conversation, and partly by the wri- 
 tings of Jacob Behmen, which he put into their 
 hands, filled their heads with wild and fantastic ideas. 
 Unhappily for the poor family those strange notions 
 gained ground on them, insomuch that in one year 
 they began to withdraw themselves from the ordi- 
 nances of public worship, and all conversation with 
 the world around them, and strongly to imagine they 
 were the only family upon earth who had the know- 
 ledge of the true God, and whom he vouchsafed to 
 instruct, either by the immediate impulses of his 
 Spirit, or by signs and tokens from heaven. At 
 length it came to open visions and revelations. God 
 raised up a prophet among them, like unto Moses, 
 to whom he taught them to hearken. This prophet 
 was Peter Rombert, who had married the eldest 
 daughter of the family when a widow. To this man 
 the author and governor of the world deigned to re- 
 veal, in the plainest manner, that the wickedness 
 of man was again so great in the world, that as in 
 the days of Noah he was determined to destroy all 
 men from off the face of it, except one family whom 
 he would save for raising up a godly seed upon earth. 
 This revelation Peter Rombert was sure of, and felt 
 it as plain as the wind blowing on his body, and the 
 rest of the family, with equal confidence and pre- 
 sumption, firmly believed it. 
 
 " A few days after this, God was pleased to reveal 
 himself a second time to the prophet, saying, Put 
 away the woman whom thou hast for thy wife, and 
 when I have destroyed this wicked generation, I 
 will raise up her first husband from the dead, and 
 they shall be man and wife as before, and go thou 
 and take to wife her youngest sister, who is a virgin, 
 so shall the chosen family be restored entire, and the 
 holy seed preserved pure and undefiled in it. At 
 first the father, when he heard of this revelation, 
 was staggered at so extraordinary a command from, 
 heaven ; but the prophet as-sured him that God would 
 give him a sign, which accordingly happened ; upon 
 which the old man took his youngest daughter by 
 the hand, and gave her to the wise prophet immedi- 
 ately for his wife, who without further ceremony 
 took the damsel to his bed. Thus for some time 
 they continued in acts of incest and adultery, until 
 that period which made the fatal discovery, and in- 
 troduced the bloody scene of blind fanaticism and 
 madness. 
 
 ' Those deluded wretches were so far possessed 
 with the false conceit of their own righteousness and 
 loliness, and of the horrid wickedness of all others, 
 that they refused obedience to the civil magistrate, 
 and all laws and ordinances of men. Upon pretence 
 that God commanded them to bear no arms, they 
 not only refused to comply with the militia law, but 
 ilso the law for repairing the high-ways. After long 
 brbearance, Mr. Simmons, a worthy magistrate, 
 and the officer of the militia in that quarter, found 
 t necessary to issue his warrants for levying the 
 penalty of the laws upon them. But by this time 
 Judith Dutartre, the wife t-he prophet obtained by 
 revelation, proving with child, another warrant was 
 
954 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 issued for bringing her before the justice to be exa- 
 mined, and bound over to the general sessions, in 
 consequence of a law of the province, framed for 
 preventing bastardy. The constable having received 
 his warrants, and being jealous of meeting with no 
 good usage in the execution of his office, prevailed 
 on two or three of his neighbours to go along with 
 him. The family observing the constable coming, 
 and being apprised of his errand, consulted their 
 prophet, who soon told them that God commanded 
 them to arm, and defend themselves against perse- 
 cution, and their substance against the robberies of 
 ungodly men ; assuring them at the same time that 
 no weapon formed against them should prosper. 
 Accordingly they did so, and laying hold of their 
 arms, fired on the con-stable and his followers, and 
 drove them out of their plantation. Such behaviour 
 was not to be tolerated, and therefore Captain Sim- 
 mons gathered a party of militia, and went to pro- 
 tect the constable in the execution of his office. 
 When the deluded family saw the justice and his 
 party approaching, they shut themselves up in their 
 house, and firing from it like furies, shot Captain 
 Simmons dead on the spot, and wounded several of 
 his party. The militia returned the fire, killed one 
 woman within the house, and afterwards forcibly en- 
 tering it, took the rest' prisoners siy i-u number and 
 brought them to Charlestown. 
 
 " At the court of general sessions, held in Sep- 
 tember 1724, three of them were brought to trial, 
 found guilty and condemned. Alas! miserable 
 creatures, what amazing infatuation possessed them! 
 They pretended they had the Spirit of God leading 
 them to all truth, they knew it and felt it : but this 
 spirit, instead of influencing them to obedience, pu- 
 rity, and peace, commanded them to commit rebel- 
 lion, incest, and murder. What is still more asto- 
 nishing, the principal persons among them, I mean 
 the prophet, the father of the family, and Michael 
 Boneau, never were convinced of their delusion, but 
 persisted in it until their last breath. During their 
 trial they appeared altogether unconcerned and se- 
 cure, affirming that God was on their side, and 
 therefore they feared not what man could do unto 
 them. They freely told the incestuous story in open 
 court in all its circumstances and aggravations, with 
 a good countenance, and very readily confessed the 
 facts respecting their rebellion and murder, with 
 which they stood charged, but pled their authority 
 from God in vendication of themselves, and insisted 
 they had done nothing in either case but by his ex- 
 press command. 
 
 " As it is commonly the duty of clergymen to visit 
 persons under sentence of death, both to convince 
 them of their error and danger, and prepare them 
 for death by bring them to a penitent disposition ; 
 Alexander Garden, the episcopal minister of Charles- 
 town, to whom we are indebted for this account, at- 
 tended those condemned persons with great dili- 
 gence and concern. What they had affirmed in 
 the court of justice, they repeated and confessed to 
 him in like manner in the prison. When he began 
 to reason with them, and to explain the heinous 
 nature of their crimes, they treated him with disdain. 
 Their motto was, Answer him not a word ; who is he 
 that should presume to teach them, who had the 
 Spirit of God speaking inwardly to their souls. In 
 all they had done, they said they had obeyed the 
 voice of God, and were now about to suffer martyr- 
 dom for his religion. But God had assured them, 
 that he would either work a deliverance for them, 
 or raise them up from the dead on the third day. 
 
 These things the three men continued confidently to 
 believe, and notwithstanding all the means used to 
 convince them of their mistake, persisted in the 
 same belief until the moment they expired. At their 
 execution they told the spectators with seeming tri- 
 umph, they should soon see them again, for they 
 were certain they should rise from the dead on the 
 third day. 
 
 " With respect to the other three, the daughter 
 Judith being with child, was not tried, and the two 
 sous, David and John Dutartre, about eighteen and 
 twenty years of age, having been also tried and 
 condemned, continued sullen and reserved, in hopes 
 of seeing those that were executed rise from the 
 dead, but being disappointed, they became, or at 
 least seemed to become, sensible of their error, and 
 were both 'pardoned. Yet not long afterwards one 
 of them relapsed into the same snare, and murdered 
 an innocent person, without either provocation or 
 previous quarrel, and for no/tftlierr&ason, as he 
 confessed, but that God had/commanded\ him so to 
 do. Being a second time/brought to trial, he was 
 found guilty of murder, and condemned. /Mr. Gar- 
 den attended him again under the secontt sentence, 
 and acknowledged, with great appearance of success. 
 No man could appear more deeply sensible of his 
 error and delusion, or could die a more sincere and 
 hearty penitent on account of his horrid crimes. 
 With great attention he listened to Mr. Garden, 
 while he explained to him the terms of pardon and 
 salvation proposed in the Gospel, and seemed to die 
 in the humble hopes of mercy, through the all-suffi- 
 cient merits of a Redeemer." 
 
 Thus ended this wretched scene of fanaticism, ia 
 which seven persons lost their lives : one being killed, 
 two murdered, and four executed for the murders ; 
 a signal and melancholy instance of the extrava- 
 gance and madness to which an inflamed imagina- 
 tion will excite weak minds. 
 
 About this time the number of white inhabitants, 
 including men, women, and children, was computed 
 to amount to 14,000, an increase, in the space of 54 
 years after the arrival of the first colony, very in- 
 considerable, and occasioned, no doubt, both by the 
 unhealthiness of the climate, and by the discourage- 
 ments and difficulties which prevailed during the 
 proprietary government. The province now fur- 
 nished the inhabitants with provisions in abundance, 
 and exported what it could spare to the West Indies. 
 The white inhabitants lived frugally, as luxury had 
 not yet crept in among them, and, except a little 
 rum and sugar, tea and coffee, were contented with 
 what their plantations afforded. Maize and Indian 
 peas seemed congenial with the soil and climate : 
 and as they had been cultivated by the savages for 
 provision, they were found also to be excellent food 
 for European labourers, and more wholesome and 
 nourishing than rice. Maize does not thrive on a 
 watery soil, but on dry and loose land. As the use 
 of the plough could not be introduced until the lands 
 were cleared of the roots of trees, to prepare a field 
 for planting it required great labour. Ridges were 
 commonly made with the hoe about five feet asunder, 
 upon the top of which the seed was planted three 
 inches deep. One gallon of maize will sow an acre, 
 which, with skilful management on good lands, will 
 yield in favourable seasons from 30 to 50 bushels. 
 While it grows it requires to be frequently weeded, 
 and the earth carefully thrown up about the root of 
 the plant, to facilitate its progress. As it rises high, 
 at the root of it the Indian peas are usually planted, 
 which climb up its stalk like a vine, so* that the 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 955 
 
 lands yield a double crop. From the stem of maize 
 large blades spring, which the planters carefully 
 gather, and which, when properly cured, the horses 
 or cattle will prefer before the finest hay. These 
 two articles, maize and Indian peas, together with 
 the Spanish potatoes, were the chief subsistence of 
 their unhappy slaves, consisting chiefly of negroes 
 and a few Indians, and who, at this time, men, wo- 
 men, and children, amounted to between 16,000 
 and 20,000. 
 
 In the year 1724, 439 slaves, and also British 
 goods and manufactures of different kinds, to the 
 amount of between 50,000 and 60,OOOJ. sterling, 
 were imported into the province. In exchange for 
 these slaves and commodities, 18,000 barrels of rice, 
 and about 52,000 barrels of pitch, tar and turpen- 
 tine, together with deer-skins, furs, and raw silk, 
 were exported to England. This trade was carried 
 on almost entirely in British ships, and employed 
 a number of hands. The Carolineans also traded to 
 the West Indies, and several small ships and sloops 
 were employed in carrying provisions, lumber, staves 
 and naval stores to these islands, which they bar- 
 tered for sugar, rum, molasses, coffee, cotton, and 
 Spanish gold and silver. To New England, New 
 York, and Pennsylvania, they sent some rice, hides, 
 deer-skins, tar and pitch, and had in exchange, flour, 
 salt fish, fruit, beer, and cider. 
 
 All the gold and silver that came into the pro- 
 vince from the West Indies was commonly sent into 
 Britain, to answer the merchants' demands there ; 
 and bills of credit continued increasing and circu- 
 lating, for the convenience of domestic commerce : 
 40,000/. were issued during Nicolson's government, 
 over and above former emissions, by which increase 
 the exchange with Britain, and the price of produce 
 arose in one year from 500 to 600 per cent. This 
 has never failed to be the consequence of issuing 
 large quantities of paper-money in Carolina : for 
 whenever this currency was permitted to increase 
 beyond what was necessary for the purposes of com- 
 merce, it sunk in value, and proportionably in- 
 creased the nominal price of provisions and labour ; 
 and of course shouldit by any accident be diminished, 
 the price would again fall. Besides this, when the 
 imports happened to exceed the exports, the great 
 demand for bills of exchange raised the price of 
 them, and helped to increase the depreciation of the 
 current money of the province. 
 
 Among other traders, at this time Othneal Beale 
 commanded a ship in the Carolina trade ; and while 
 sailing from Charlestown to London, not being pro- 
 vided with a Mediterranean pass, he was taken by 
 an Algerine rover, who determined to carry him to 
 Barbary, and for this purpose took the English 
 sailors on board,. and manned Captain Beale's ship 
 with Algerines, giving them orders to follow him to 
 the Mediterranean sea. Soon after, a storm arising 
 in the night separated the two ships, and Captain 
 Beale being the only person on board that under- 
 stood navigation, resolved to avail himself of the ad- 
 vantage, and accordingly, instead of sailing for 
 Africa, steered directly for England. Upon his ar- 
 rival the Algerine sailors were surpiised, but not at 
 all displeased ; they even confessed to their ambas- 
 sador the kind usage they had received ; upon which 
 Captain Beale had all he lost returned by agreement, 
 together with thanks for his humanity. This bold 
 adventure likewise procured the captain the honour 
 of an introduction to the king, who expressed a de- 
 sire of seeing him, and ordered Lord Carteret, then 
 secretary of state, to make him a handsome present 
 
 on the occasion. This memorable anecdote being 
 published, served to mark him for a man of address 
 and courage in Carolina, where he afterwards took 
 up his Besidence, and in time arrived at the chief 
 command of the militia, was made a member of his 
 majesty's council, and died at the age of 85, a rare 
 instance of longevity in that country. 
 
 In the year 1725, Governor Nicolson having ob- 
 tained leave from the king, returned to Great Britain, 
 and the government devolved on Arthur Middleton, 
 president of the council ; who though of a reserved 
 and mercenary disposition, was a sensible man, and 
 by no means ill qualified for governing the province. 
 But having succeeded a man who liberally spent all 
 his salary and perquisites of office in promoting the 
 public good, he was neither so much distinguished 
 nor respected among the colonists. Being possessed 
 of a moderate fortune, his chief study was to improve 
 it, and he seemed to aspire after the character of a 
 rich man in private life, rather than that of a popu- 
 lar governor and generous benefactor. As he had 
 taken an active part against the proprietary govern- 
 ment, he was not insensible of the advantages now 
 gained from the countenance given the colony by the 
 crown, and was equally careful to promote loyalty 
 to the king as the freedom and safety of his fellow- 
 subjects. 
 
 At this time the boundaries between the provinces 
 of Carolina and Florida were neither clearly marked 
 nor well understood, as they had never been settled 
 by any public agreement or treaty between En- 
 ;land and Spain. To prevent negroes escaping to 
 he Spanish territories, and overawe the Indians 
 under the Spanish jurisdiction, the Carolineans had 
 built a fort on the forks of the river Alatamaha, and 
 supported a small garrison in it. This gave um- 
 brage to the governor of Augustine, who complained 
 of it to the court of Madrid, representing it as an 
 encroachment on the dominions of Spain, and as an 
 attempt to seduce the Indians from their allegiance 
 to his Catholic majesty. The Spanish ambassador 
 at London lodged the complaint before the court of 
 Britain, and demanded that orders should be sent 
 out to Carolina immediately to demolish it. To pre- 
 vent any interruption of the good correspondence 
 then subsisting between the two courts, it was agreed 
 to send orders to both governors in America to meet 
 in an amicable manner, and settle the respective 
 boundaries between the British and Spanish do 
 minions in that quarter. Accordingly soon after 
 Don Francisco Menandez, and Don Joseph de Ra- 
 biero, came to Charlestown, to hold a conference 
 with the president and council of Carolina about this 
 matter. At their meeting, Mr. Middleton showed 
 those deputies, that this fort was built within the 
 bounds of the charter granted to the proprietors, 
 and that the pretensions of Spain to such lands were 
 groundless. At the same time he told them, that 
 the fort on the river Alatamaha was erected for de- 
 fending themselves and their property against the 
 depredations of Indians living under the jurisdiction 
 of Spain. Then he begged to know from them their 
 reasons for protecting felons and debtors that fled 
 from Carolina to them, and for encouraging negroes 
 to leave their masters and take refuge at Augustine, 
 while peace subsisted between the two crowns ? The 
 deputies replied, That the governor of Florida would 
 deliver up all felons and debtors ; but had express 
 orders for twenty years past, to detain all slaves who 
 should fly to Augustine for liberty and protection. 
 Middleton declared he looked on such injurious or- 
 ders as a breach of national honour and faith, espe- 
 
956 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 cially as negroes were ico,i property, as much as houses 
 and lands, in Carolina; a speech which cannot but 
 make one shudder. The deputies answered, That 
 the design of the king of Spain was not to injure 
 private men, having ordered compensation to be 
 made to the masters of such slaves in money ; but 
 that his humanity and religion enjoined him to issue 
 such orders for the sake of converting slaves to the 
 Christian faith. The conference ended to the satis- 
 faction of neither party, and matters remained as 
 they were; but soon after, the English fort, built of 
 wood, was burned to the ground, and the southern 
 frontiers of Carolina were again left naked and de- 
 fenceless. 
 
 As no final agreement, with respect to the limits 
 of the two provinces had been concluded, the Indians 
 in alliance with Spain continued to harass the Bri- 
 tish settlements : particularly the Yamassees, who 
 penetrated into Carolina in scalping parties ; killing 
 all the white men, and carrying off every negro 
 they could. Though the owners of slaves had been 
 allowed from the Spanish government a compensa- 
 tion in money for their losses, yet few of them ever 
 received it, and at last Colone'l Palmer resolved to 
 make reprisals on those plunderers, since no ade- 
 quate recompense could otherwise be obtained. For 
 this purpose he gathered together a party of militia 
 and friendly Indians, consisting in all of about 300 
 men, and entered Florida, with a resolution of 
 spreading desolation throughout the province. He 
 carried his arms as far as the gates of Augustine, 
 and compelled the inhabitants to take refuge iu their 
 castle. Scarce a house or hut in the colony escaped 
 the flames. He destroyed their provisions in the 
 fields, and drove off their cattle, hogs and horses. 
 Some Indians he killed, and others he made pri- 
 soners. In short, he left the people of Florida little 
 property, except what was protected by the guns of 
 their fort, and by this expedition convinced the 
 Spaniards of their weakness, and the bad policy 
 of encouraging Indians to molest the subjects o 
 Britain. But such a state of society is shocking to 
 reflect on, and bespeaks either some great defect on 
 the part of the early legislators, or great demorali 
 zation on that of the settlers. 
 
 By this time the Spaniards were not the only 
 neighbours that annoyed the Carolineans. Th* 
 French settled in Louisiana were also advancin 
 nearer them, and using all their address for gaining 
 an influence with these savage nations. They erectec 
 a strong hold, called Fort Alabama, high up on 
 Mobile river, which was excellently situated fo 
 opening and carrying on a correspondence with th 
 most powerful nations around the British settlement 
 The Carolineans had good reason to be on thei 
 guard against the influence of these insinuating 
 and enterprising neighbours. The tribes of Uppe 
 Creeks, whose hunting-lands extended to their fort 
 were soon won over by promises and largesses to an 
 alliance with them. The Cherokees indeed lived a 
 a greater distance from them, and yet by means c 
 Creeks and other emissaries, whom they sent amoni 
 them, they endeavoured also to bring them over t 
 their interest. The river Mississippi being navigabl 
 a great way from its mouth, opened a communicatio: 
 with the Choctaws, Chikesaws, and other nation 
 residing near it. So that the French had many ex 
 cellent opportunities of seducing Indians from the 
 alliance with Britain. The president of Carolin 
 employed Captain Tobias Fitch among the Creek 
 and Colonel George Chicken among the Cherokee! 
 to keep these tribes steady and firm to the Britis 
 
 terest. These agents, however, during the whole 
 me Mr. Middleton presided over the colony, found 
 o small difficulty in counteracting the influence of 
 rench policy, and preventing their union and alli- 
 nce with these enemies. From this period the 
 ritish and French settlers in America became com- 
 etitors for power and influence over the Indian na- 
 ons, the one or the other of whom were always ex- 
 osed to danger and trouble from them, in propor 
 on to the success of their rivals; and the Caroli- 
 eans were further from peace and safety than ever, 
 "he French supplied these savages with tomahawks, 
 tuskets, and ammunition, by which means they 
 aid aside the bow and arrow, and became more 
 angerous and formidable enemies than they had 
 een in any former period. 
 
 During the summer of 172rtte~weather i" Caro- 
 na was observed to be uncommonly hot, by which 
 ic earth was parched, /the pools of" standing water 
 ned up, and the cattle were reduced to great dis- 
 ress. After such a long and general/ drought the 
 nhabitants having usually observed-hurricanes and 
 ornadoes to follow in autumn, began to expect one 
 s that season of the year approached; and their 
 ears were fulfilled by a dreadful tornado which oc- 
 urred in the end of August, and occasioned an iu- 
 mdation, that over flowed the town aud the lowlands, 
 ind did incredible damage to the fortifications, houses, 
 wharfs, shipping, and corn-fields. The streets of 
 3harlestown were covered with boats and boards, 
 and the inhabitants were obliged to take refuge in 
 he higher stores of their dwelling-houses. Tweuty- 
 hree ships were driven ashore, most of which were 
 ;ither greatly damaged, or dashed to pieces; and 
 he Fox and Garland men-of-war, stationed there 
 'or the protection of trade, were the only ships that 
 rode out the storm. This hurricane, though it le- 
 velled many thousand trees in the maritime parts, 
 vet so thick was the forest, that it was scarcely per- 
 ceived 100 miles from the shore. But as such vio- 
 ent storms are probably occasioned by the rarefac- 
 ion of the air, with excessive heat, they are seldom 
 >f long duration, for having restored the equipoise 
 n the atmosphere, the wind commonly shifts, and 
 the tempest ceases. 
 
 The same year an infectious and pestilential dis- 
 Lemper, commonly called the Yellow Fever, broke 
 out in Charlestown, and swept off multitudes of the 
 nhabitants, both white and black. Although the 
 town depended entirely on the country for fresh pro- 
 visions, the planters would suffer no person to carry 
 supplies to it, for fear of catchiug the infection, and 
 bringing it to the country. The physicians knew 
 not how to treat the then almost unknown disorder 
 which was so suddenly caught, and proved so quickly 
 fatal ; and the calamity was so general, that few 
 could grant assistance to their distressed neighbours. 
 So many funerals happening every day, while so 
 many lay sick, sufficient white persons for burying 
 the dead were scarcely to be found; and though 
 they were ofteu interred on the same day they died, 
 so quick was the putrefaction, so offensive and in- 
 fectious were the corpses, that even the nearest re- 
 lations seemed averse from the necessary duty. 
 
 But notwithstanding these calamities, one memo- 
 rable event distinguished this year, which was at- 
 tended with many beneficial consequences to the 
 province. An act of parliament passed in Britain 
 for establishing an agreement with seven of the 
 proprietors for a surrender of their right and in- 
 terest, not only in the government, but also in the 
 soil aud lauds of the province, to toe king. The 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 $67 
 
 purchase was made for 17,5(XH. sterling, to be paid 
 before the end of September 1729, free of all de- 
 ductions; after which payment, the province was to 
 be vested in the crown of Great Britain. At the 
 same time seven-eighth parts of the arrears of quit- 
 rents, due from the colonists to the proprietors, 
 amounting to somewhat more than 9000/. sterling, 
 were also purchased for the crown for 5000/. ; so that 
 seven-eighth parts of this vast territory cost no more 
 than 22,500/. But in this act of parliament there 
 was a clause, reserving to Lord John Carteret the 
 remaining eighth share of the property and arrears 
 of quit-rents, which continues legally vested in his 
 representatives; but the whole of his share in the 
 government he surrendered to the crown. The pro- 
 prietors who sold their shares at this time, were 
 Henry, duke of Beaufort, William, Lord Craven, 
 James Bertie, Dodington Greville, Henry Bertie, 
 Mary Danson, Elizabeth More, Sir John Colleton, 
 John Cotton, and Joseph Blake, who before the sur- 
 render were possessed, either in their own right or 
 in trust, of seven-eighth parts of the government and 
 property of the province. This surrender was made 
 to Edward Bertie, Samuel Horsey, Henry Smith, 
 and Alexis Clayton, in trust for the crown; and in 
 consequence of the powers granted to the king by 
 this act of parliament, he claimed the prerogative of 
 appointing governors to both South and North Ca- 
 rolina, and a council similar to the other regal go- 
 vernments in America. 
 
 Sir Alexander Gumming treats with the Indians 'Se- 
 ven Ctierokees taken to England Robert Johnson, 
 governor James Oglethorpe settles a colony in Ge- 
 orgia A colony of Switzers arrives in Carolina 
 Eleven townships marked oat-^A struggle about 
 lands State of the colony The regulations of the 
 trustees Settlement of two colonies of Highlanders 
 and Germans Thomas Broiighton, lieut.-governor 
 Oglethorpe fortifies Georgia The Chickesaws defeat 
 the French Religious state of the colony The as- 
 sociation of Presbyterians Remarks on paper cur- 
 rency Small progress of Georgia Hardships of 
 thejirst settlers An Irish colony planted. 
 
 From that period in which the right and title to 
 the lands of Carolina were surrendered to the king, 
 and he assumed the immediate care and government 
 of the province, a new era commences in the annals 
 of this country, which may be called the era of its 
 security and happiness. The Carolineans. who had 
 long laboured under innumerable hardships and 
 troubles, from a weak proprietary establishment, at 
 last obtained the great object of their desires, a royal 
 government, the congtitution of which depended on 
 commissions issued by the crowu to the governor, 
 and the instructions which attended those commis- 
 sions. The form of all provincial governments was 
 borrowed from that of their mother country ; and 
 the government of Carolina now assumed a form 
 like the other regal ones, and was composed of three 
 branches : namely, a governor, a council, and an 
 assembly. The crown having the appointment of 
 the governor, delegated to him its constitutional 
 powers, civil and military, the power of legislation 
 as far as the king possesses it, and its judicial and 
 executive powers, together with those of chancery 
 and admiralty jurisdiction, and also those of supreme 
 ordinary : all these powers, as they exist in the 
 crown, were intrusted to the colonial governors, and 
 were declared and defined !>y their commissions pa- 
 tent. The council, though differing in many re- 
 snects from the house oi peers, was intended to re- 
 
 present that house, and the members were appointed 
 by the king during pleasure, for supporting the pre- 
 rogatives of the crown in the province. The assem- 
 bly consisted of the representatives of the people, 
 and were elected by them as the house of commons 
 in Great Britain, to be the guardians of their liber- 
 ties and properties. Here also the constitution con- 
 fided in the good behaviour of the representatives ; 
 for should they betray their trust, it gave the people 
 more frequent opportunities than even in Britain, of 
 choosing others in their stead. The governor con- 
 vened, prorogued, and dissolved these assemblies, 
 and had a negative on the bills of both houses. 
 After bills had received his assent, they were sent 
 to Great Britain for the royal approbation, which, 
 when they received, they had the force of laws in the 
 province. By the instructions which the governor 
 received from time to time from England, his power 
 was occasionally greatly circumscribed. 
 
 After the purchase of the province, the tirst object 
 of the royal concern was, to establish the peace of 
 the colony on the firmest foundation ; and for this 
 purpose treaties of alliance with the Indian nations 
 were judged to be essentially necessary. Domestic 
 security being first established, the colonists might 
 then apply themselves to industry with vigour and 
 success, and while they enriched themselves, they 
 would at the same time enlarge the commerce and 
 trade of the mother country. For this purpose Sir 
 Alexander Gumming was appointed, and sent out 
 to conclude a treaty of alliance with the Cherokees, 
 at this time a formidable nation of savages. These 
 Indians occupied the lands about the head of Sa- 
 vanna river, and backwards among the Apalachiau 
 mountains. The country they claimed as their hunt- 
 ing-grounds was of immense extent; and its boun- 
 daries had never been clearly ascertained. The 
 inhabitants of their different towns were computed 
 to amount to more than 20,000, 6000 of whom were 
 warriors, fit on any emergency to take the field. 
 An alliance with such a nation was an object of the 
 highest consequence to Carolina, and likewise to the 
 mother country, now engaged for its defence and 
 protection. 
 
 About the beginning of the year 1730, Sir Alex- 
 ander arrived in Carolina, and made preparations 
 for his journey to the distant hills. For his guides 
 he procured some Indian traders, well acquainted 
 with the woods, and an interpreter, who understood 
 the Cherokee language, to assist him in his negotia- 
 tions. When he reached Keowee, about 300 miles 
 from Charlestown, the chiefs of the lower towns there 
 met him, and received him with marks of great 
 friendship and esteem. He immediately dispatched 
 messengers to the middle, the valley, and over-hill 
 settlements, and summoned a general meeting of all 
 their chiefs, to hold a congress with him at Nequas- 
 see. Accordingly, in the month of April the chief 
 warriors of all the Cherokee towns assembled at the 
 place appointed. After the various Indian ceremo- 
 nies were over, Sir Alexander made a speech to 
 them, acquainting them by whose authority he was 
 sent, and representing the great power and goodness 
 of his sovereign, King George ; how he, and all his 
 other subjects, paid a cheerful obedience to his laws, 
 and of course were protected by him from all harm : 
 that he had come a great way to demand of Moytoy, 
 and all the chieftains of the nation, to acknowledge 
 themselves the subjects of his king, and to promise 
 obedience to his authority ; and as he loved them, 
 and was answerable to his sovereign for their good 
 and peaceable behaviour, he hoped they would agree 
 
958 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 to what he should now require of them. Upon which 
 the chiefs, falling on their knees, solemnly promised 
 fidelity and obedience, calling upon all that was 
 terrible to fall upon them if they violated their pro- 
 mise. Sir Alexander then, by their unanimous con- 
 sent, nominated Moytoy commander and chief of the 
 Cherokee nation, and enjoined all the warriors of the 
 different tribes to acknowledge him for their king, 
 to whom they were to be accountable for their con- 
 duct. To this they also agreed, provided Moytoy 
 should be made answerable to Sir Alexander for his 
 behaviour to them. After which, many useful pre- 
 sents were made them, and the congress ended to the 
 great satisfaction of both parties. The crown was 
 brought from Tenassee, their chief town, which, with 
 five eagle tails and four scalps of their enemies, 
 Moytoy presented to Sir Alexander, requesting him 
 on his arrival at Britain, to lay them at his majesty's 
 feet. But Sir Alexander proposed to Moytoy that he 
 should depute some of their chiefs to accompany him 
 to England, there to do homage in person to the 
 great king. Accordingly six of them agreed, and 
 accompanied Sir Alexander to Charlestown, where, 
 being joined by another, they embarked for England 
 in the Fox man-of-war, and arrived at Dover in June 
 1730. 
 
 We shall not pretend to describe their behaviour 
 at the sight of the vast effects of civilization. Being 
 admitted into the presence of the king, they, in the 
 name of their nation, promised to continue for ever 
 his majesty's faithful and obedient subjects ; and a 
 treaty was accordingly drawn up, and signed by 
 Alured Popple, secretary to the lords commissioners 
 of trade and plantations on one side, and by the 
 marks of the six chiefs on the other. The preamble 
 to this treaty recites, " That whereas the six chiefs, 
 with the consent of the whole nation of Cherokees, 
 at a general meeting of their, nation at Nequassee. 
 were deputed by Moytoy, their chief warrior, to 
 attend Sir Alexander Gumming to Great Britain, 
 where they had seen the great King George : and 
 Sir Alexander, by authority from Moytoy and all 
 the Cherokees, had laid the crown of their nation, 
 with the scalps of their enemies and feathers of 
 glory, at his majesty's feet, as a pledge of their 
 loyalty : and whereas the great king had com- 
 manded the lords commissioners of trade and plan- 
 tations to inform the Indians that the English on all 
 sides of the mountains and lakes were his people, 
 their friends his friends, and their enemies his ene- 
 mies ; that he took it kindly the great nation of 
 Cherokees had sent them so far to brighten the chain 
 of friendship between him and them, and between 
 his people and their people ; that the chain of friend- 
 ship between him and the Cherokees is now like the 
 sun, which shines both in Britain and also upon the 
 great mountains where they live, and equally warms 
 the hearts of Indians and Englishmen ; that as there 
 are no spots or blackness in the sun, so neither is 
 there any rust or foulness on this chain. And as the 
 king had fastened one end to his breast, he desired 
 them to carry the other end of the chain and fasten 
 it to the breast of Moytoy of Telliquo. and to the 
 breasts of all their old wise men, their captains, and 
 people, never more to be made loose or broken. 
 
 " The great king and the Cherokees being thus 
 fastened together by a chain of friendship, he has 
 ordered, and it is agreed, that his children in Caro- 
 lina do trade with the Indians, and furnish them 
 with all manner of goods they want, and to make 
 haste to build houses and plant corn from Charles- 
 towards the towns of Cherokees behind the 
 
 great mountains : that he desires the English and 
 Indians may live together as children of one family , 
 that the Cherokees be always ready to fight against 
 any nation, whether white men or Indians, who shall 
 dare to molest or hurt the English ; that the nation 
 of Cherokees shall, on their part, take care to keep 
 the trading path clean, that there be no blood on the 
 path where the English tread, even though they 
 should be accompanied with other people with whom 
 the Cherokees may be at war : that the Cherokees 
 shall not suffer their people to trade with white men 
 of any other nation but the English, nor permit 
 white men of any other nation to build any forts or 
 cabins, or plant any corn among them, upon lands 
 which belong to the great king : and if any such 
 attempt shall be made, th*rCh<!?okees must acquaint 
 the English governor therewith, and do whatever he 
 directs, in order to/maintain and dWend the great 
 king's right to the country of Carolina : that if any 
 negroes shall run away into the sfoods from their 
 English masters, the Cherokegs/shall endeavour to 
 apprehend them, and bring them to the plantation 
 from whence they run away, or to the governor, and 
 for every slave so apprehended and brought back, 
 the Indian that brings him shall receive a gun and 
 a watch-coat : and if by any accident it shall happen 
 that an Englishman shall kill a Cherokee, the king 
 or chief of the nation shall first complain to the 
 English governor, and the man who did the harm 
 shall be punished by the English laws as if he had 
 killed an Englishman ; and in like manner, if any 
 Indian happens to kill an Englishman, the Indian 
 sh*all be delivered up to the governor, to be punished 
 by the same English laws as if he were an English- 
 man." 
 
 This \va s the substance of the firs* treaty between 
 the king and the Chorokees, every article of whiiii 
 was accompanied with presents of different kinds, 
 such as cloth, guns, shot, vermilion, flints, hatchets, 
 knives, &c. The Indians were given to understand, 
 " That these were the words of the great king, whom 
 they had seen, and as a token that his heart was 
 open and true to his children the Cherokees, and to 
 all their people, a belt was given the warriors, which 
 they were told the king desired them to keep, and 
 shew to all their people, to their children, and chil- 
 dren's children, to confirm what was now spoken, 
 and to bind this agreement of peace and friendship 
 between the English and Cherokees, as long as the 
 rivers shall run, the mountains shall last, or the sun 
 shall shine." 
 
 This treaty, that it might be the easier under- 
 stood, was drawn up in language as similar as possi- 
 ble to that of the Indians, which at this time was 
 very little known in England, and given to them, 
 certified and approved by Sir Alexander Cumming. 
 In answer to which, Skijagustah, in name of the 
 rest, made a speech to the following effect : " We 
 are come hither from a mountainous place, where 
 nothing but darkness is to be found ; but we are now 
 in a place where there is light. There was a person 
 in our country, he gave us a yellow token of war- 
 like honour, which is left with Moytoy of Telliquo, 
 and as warriors we received it. He came to us like 
 a warrior from you. A man he is ; his talk is up- 
 right, and the token he left preserves his memory 
 among us. We look upon you as if the great king 
 were present ; we love you as representing the great 
 king : we shall die in the same way of thinking. 
 The crown of our nation is different from that which 
 the great King George wears, and from that we saw 
 in the tower. But to us it is all one. The chain of 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 S59 
 
 friendship shall be carried to our people. We look 
 upon the great King George as the sun, and as our 
 father, and upon ourselves as his children. For 
 though we are red and you are white, yet our hands 
 and hearts are joined together. When we shall have 
 acquainted our people with what we have seen, our 
 children from generation to generation will always 
 remember it. In war we shall always be one with 
 vou. The enemies of the great king shall be our 
 enemies; his people and ours shall be one, and shall 
 die together. We came hither naked and poor as 
 the worms of the earth, but you have every thing ; 
 and we that have nothing must love you, and will 
 never break the chain of friendship which is between 
 us. Here stands the governor of Carolina, whom 
 we know. This small rope we show you is all that 
 we have to bind our slaves with, and it may be 
 broken. But you have iron chains for yours. How- 
 ever, if we catch your slaves, we will bind them as 
 well as we can, and deliver them to our friends, and 
 take no pay for it. We have looked round for the 
 person that was in our country he is not here ; how- 
 ever, we must say that he talked uprightly to us, 
 and we shall never forget him. Your white people 
 may very safely build houses near us ; we shall hurt 
 nothing that belongs to them, for we are children of 
 one father, the great king, and shall live and die 
 together." Then laying down his feathers upon the 
 table, he added, " This is our way of talking, which 
 is the same thing to us as your letters in the book 
 are to you; and to you, beloved men, we deliver 
 these feathers in confirmation of all we have said." 
 
 The Cherokees, however barbarous, were a free 
 and independent people ; and this method of obtain- 
 ing a share of their lands by the general consent, 
 was honourable in itself, and beneficial in its effects ; 
 for the Cherokees, in consequence of this treaty, for 
 many years remained in a state of peace with the 
 colonists, who followed their various employments 
 in the neighbourhood of those Indians without the 
 least fear or molestation. 
 
 About the beginning of the year 1731, Robert 
 Johnson, who had been governor of Carolina while 
 in the possession of the lords proprietors, having 
 received a commission from the king, investing him 
 with the same office and authority, arrived in the 
 province. He brought back these Indian chiefs, 
 possessed with the highest ideas of the power and 
 greatness of the English nation, and not a little 
 pleased with the treatment they had received. The 
 Carolineans, who had always entertained the highest 
 esteem for this gentleman, even in the time of their 
 greatest confusion, having now obtained him in the 
 character of king's governor, a thing they formerly 
 had so much desired, received him with the greatest 
 demonstrations of joy. Sensible of his ability, and 
 ids strong attachment to the colony, they promised 
 themselves much prosperity and happiness under his 
 gentle administration. 
 
 This new governor, from his knowledge of the 
 province, and the dispositions of the people, was not 
 only well qualified for his high office, but he had a 
 council to assist him, composed of the most respect- 
 able inhabitants. Thomas Broughton was appointed 
 lieutenant-governor, and Robert Wright chief jus- 
 tice. The other members of the council were, Wil- 
 liam Bull, James Kinloch, Alexander Skene, John 
 Fen wick, Arthur Middleton, Joseph Wragg, Francis 
 Yonge, John Hamerton, and Thomas Waring. At 
 the first meeting of assembly, the governor recom- 
 mended to both houses to embrace the earliest op- 
 portunity of testifying their gratitude to his majesty 
 
 for taking the colony under his particular care ; he 
 enjoined them to put the laws in execution against 
 impiety and immorality, and as the most effectual 
 means of discouraging vice, to attend carefully to 
 the education of youth. He acquainted them of the 
 treaty which had been concluded in England with 
 the Cherokees, which he hoped would be attended 
 with beneficial and happy consequences ; and re- 
 commended the payment of public debts, the esta- 
 blishment of public credit, and peace and unanimity 
 among themselves as the chief objects of their at- 
 tention. They in return presented to him the most 
 loyal and affectionate addresses, and entered on 
 their public deliberations with uncommon harmonv 
 and great satisfaction. 
 
 For the encouragement of the people, now con- 
 nected with the mother country both by mutual af- 
 fectkm and the mutual benefits of commerce, several 
 favours and indulgences were granted them. The 
 restraint upon rice, an enumerated commodity, was 
 partly taken off ; and, that it might arrive more sea- 
 sonably and in better condition at the market, the 
 colonists were permitted to send it to any port south- 
 ward of Cape Finisterre. A discount upon hemp 
 was also allowed by parliament. The arrears of quit- 
 rents bought from the proprietors were remitted by 
 a bounty from the crown. For' the benefit and en- 
 largement of trade their bills of credit were con- 
 tinued, and 77,000^. were stamped and issued by 
 virtue of an act of the legislature, called the Appro- 
 priation Law. Seventy pieces of cannon were sent 
 out by the king, and the governor had instructions 
 to build one fort at Port-royal, and another on the 
 liver Alatamaha. An independent company of foot 
 was allowed for their defence by land, and ships of 
 war were stationed there for the protection of trade. 
 These and many more favours flowed to the colony, 
 now emerging from the depths of poverty and op- 
 pression, and arising to a state of freedom, ease, and 
 affluence. 
 
 As a natural consequence of its domestic security, 
 the credit of the province in England increased. 
 The merchants of London, Bristol, and Liverpool, 
 turned their eyes to Carolina, as a new and promis- 
 ing channel of trade, and established houses in 
 Charlestown for conducting their business with the 
 greater ease and success. They poured in slaves 
 from Africa for cultivating their lands, and manu- 
 factures of Britain for supplying the plantations ; 
 by which means the planters obtained great credit, 
 and goods at a much cheaper rate than they could 
 be obtained from ai:y other nation. In consequence 
 of which, the planters having greater strength, turned 
 their whole attention to cultivation, and cleared the 
 lands with greater facility and success. The lands 
 arose in value, and men of foresight and judgment 
 began to look out and secure the richest spots foi 
 themselves, with that ardour and keenness which 
 the prospect of riches naturally inspires. The pro- 
 duce of the province in a few years was doubled. 
 During this year above 39,000 barrels of rice were 
 exported, besides deer-skins, furs, naval stores, and 
 provisions ; and above 1500 negroes were imported 
 into it. From this period its exports kept pace with 
 its imports, and secured its credit in England. The 
 rate of exchange had now arisen to 700 per cent., 
 i. e. 700 Carolina money was given for a bill of 
 IQQl. sterling on England ; at which rate it after- 
 wards continued, with little variation, for upwards 
 of 40 years. 
 
 Hitherto the progress in cultivation Carolina had 
 made was very inconsiderable, and the face of the 
 
300 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 country appeared like a desert, with small spots 
 acre and there cleared, scarcely discernible amidst 
 the immense forest. The colonists were slovenly 
 farmers, owing to the vast quantities of lands, and 
 the easy and cheap terms of obtaining them ; and 
 for a good crop they were more indebted to the great 
 power of vegetation, and natural richness of the 
 soil, than to their own culture and management. 
 They had abundance of the necessaries, and several 
 of the conveniencies of life. But their habitations 
 were clumsy and miserable huts, and having no car- 
 riages, all travellers were exposed in open boats, or 
 on horseback, to the violent heat of the climate. 
 Their houses were constructed of wood, by erecting 
 first a wooden frame, and then covering it with clap- 
 boards without, and plastering it with lime within, 
 of which they had plenty made from oyster-shells. 
 Charlestown, at this time, consisted of between 500 
 and 600 houses, mostly built of timber, and neither 
 well constructed nor comfortable, plain indications 
 of the wretchedness and poverty of the people. 
 However, from this period the province improved in 
 building as well as in many ether respects ; many 
 ingenious artificers and tradesmen of different kinds 
 found encouragement in it, and introduced a taste 
 for brick buildings, and more neat and pleasant ha- 
 bitations. In process of time as the colony increased 
 in numbers, the face of the country changed, and 
 exhibited an appearance of industry and plenty. 
 The planters made a rapid progress towards wealth 
 and independence, and the trade being well pro- 
 tected, yearly increased and flourished. 
 
 At the same time, for the relief of the poor and 
 indigent people of Great Biitain and Ireland, and 
 for the further security of Carolina, the settlement 
 of a new colony between the rivers Alatamaha and 
 Savann-a was projected in England. This large 
 territory, situated on the south-west of Carolina, yet 
 lay waste, without an inhabitant, except its original 
 savages. Private compassion and public spirit con- 
 spired tow-ards promoting the excellent design. Se- 
 veral persons of humanity and opulence having ob- 
 served many families and valuable subjects oppressed 
 with the miseries of poverty at home, united, and 
 formed a plan for raising money, and transporting 
 them to this part of America. For this purpose 
 they applied to the king, obtained from him letters- 
 patent, bearing date June 9th, 1732, for legally car- 
 rying into execution what they had generously pro- 
 jected. They called the new province Georgia, in 
 honour of the king, who likewise greatly encouraged 
 the undertaking. A corporation, consisting of 21 
 persons, was constituted, by the name of trustees, 
 for settling and establishing the colony of Georgia ; 
 which was separated from Carolina by the river Sa- 
 vanna. The trustees having first set an example 
 themselves, by largely contributing towards the 
 scheme, undertook also to solicit benefactions from 
 others, and to apply the money towards clothing, 
 arming, purchasing utensils for cultivation, and 
 transporting such poor people as should consent to 
 go over and begin a settlement. They, however, 
 confined not their views to the subjects of Britain 
 alone, but wisely opened a door also for oppressed 
 and indigent Protestants from other nations. To 
 prevent any misapplication or abuse of charitable 
 donations, they agreed to deposit the money in the 
 Bank of England, and to enter in a book the names 
 of all the charitable benefactors, together with the 
 sums contributed by each of them; and to bind 
 hemselves and their successors in office, to lay an 
 account of t'ne money received and expended before 
 
 ;he lord chancellor of England, the lord chief justice of 
 the King's Bench and Common Pleas, the master of 
 the Rolls, and the lord chief baron of the Exchequer. 
 
 The benevolent founders of the colony of Georgia 
 perhaps may challenge the annals of any nation to 
 produce a design more generous and praise-worthy 
 than that they had undertaken. They voluntarily 
 offered their money, their labour, and time, for pro- 
 moting what appeared to them the good of others, 
 having no other reward but the satisfaction of doing 
 good. Among other great ends they had also in 
 view the conversion and civilization of Indian sa- 
 vages. If their public regulations were afterwards 
 found improper and impracticable ; if their plan of 
 settlement proved too/narrow and circumscribed; 
 praise, nevertheless,/*? due to them. Human policy 
 at best is imperfecf ; but, when the design appears 
 so evidently disinterested, the Aandid will make 
 many allowances for them, considering their igno- 
 rance of the country, and the^many defects that ad- 
 here to all codes of laws, even when framed by the 
 wisest legislators. 
 
 About the middle of July 1732, the trustees for 
 Georgia held their first general meeting, when Lord 
 Percival was chosen president of the corporation. 
 After all the members had qualified themselves, 
 agreeably to the charter, for the faithful discharge 
 of the trust, a common seal was ordered to be made. 
 The device was, on one side, two figures resting 
 upon urns, representing the rivers Alatamaha and 
 Savanna, the boundaries of the province; between 
 them the genius of the colony seated, with a cap of 
 liberty on his head, a spear in one hand, and a cor- 
 nucopia in the other, with the inscription, " Colonia 
 Georgia Aug. :" on the other side was a representa- 
 tion of silk-worms, some beginning, and others hav- 
 ing finished their web, with the motto, " Non Sibi 
 sed Aliis;" a very proper emblem, signifying that 
 the nature of the establishment was such, that neither 
 the first trustees nor their successors could have any 
 views of interest, it being entirely designed for the 
 benefit and happiness of others. 
 
 In November following, 116 settlers embarked 
 from England at Gravesend for Georgia, having 
 their passage paid, and every thing requisite for 
 building and cultivation furnished them by the cor- 
 poration. They could not properly be called adven- 
 turers, as they ran no risk but what arose from the 
 change of climate, and as they were to be main- 
 tained until by their industry they were able to sup- 
 port themselves. James Oglethorpe, one of the 
 trustees, embarked along with them, and proved a 
 zealous and active promoter of the settlement. In 
 the beginning of the year following, Oglethorpe ar- 
 rived in Charlestown, where he was received by the 
 governor and council in the kindest manner, and 
 treated with every mark of civility and respect. 
 Governor Johnson, sensible of the great advantage 
 that must accrue to Carolina from this new colony, 
 gave all the encouragement and assistance in his 
 power to forward the settlement. Many of the Ca- 
 rolineans sent them provisions and hogs, and cows, 
 to begin their stock. William Bull, a man of know- 
 ledge and experience, agreed to accompany Mr. 
 Oglethorpe, and the rangers and scout-boats were 
 ordered to attend him to Georgia. After their arri- 
 val at Yamacraw, Oglethorpe and Bull explored 
 the country, and having found a high and pleasant 
 spot of ground, situated on a navigable river, they 
 fixed on this place as the most convenient and healthy 
 situation for the settlers. On this hill they marked 
 out a town, and from the Indian name of the river 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 %1 
 
 which ran past it, called it Savanna. A small fort 
 was erected on the banks of it as a place of refuge, 
 and some guns were mounted on it for the defence 
 of the colony. The people were set to work in fell- 
 ing trees and building huts for themselves, and Ogle- 
 thorpe animated and encouraged them, by exposing 
 himself to all the hardships which the poor objects 
 of his compassion endured. He formed them into a 
 company of militia, appointed officers from among 
 themselves, and furnished them with arms and am- 
 munition. To show the Indians how expert they 
 were at the use tf arms, he frequently exercised 
 them ; and as they had been trained beforehand by 
 the Serjeants of the guards in London, they per- 
 formed their various parts in a manner little inferior 
 to regular troops. 
 
 Having thus put his colony in as good a situation 
 as possible, the next object of his attention was to 
 treat with the Indians for a share of their posses- 
 sions. The principal tribes that at this time occupied 
 the territory were the Upper and Lower Creeks; 
 the former "were numerous and strong, the latter, 
 by diseases and war, had been reduced to a smaller 
 number: both tribes together were computed to 
 amount to about 25,000 men, women and children. 
 These Indians, according to a treaty formerly made 
 with Governor Nicolson, laid claim to the lands 
 lying south-west of Savanna river, and, to procure 
 their friendship for this infant colony, was an ob- 
 ject of the highest consequence. But as the tribe of 
 Indians settled at Yamacraw was inconsiderable, 
 Oglethorpe judged it necessary to have the other 
 tribes also to join with them in the treaty. To ac- 
 complish this union he found an Indian woman 
 named Mary, who had married a trader from Caro- 
 lina, and who could speak both the English and 
 Creek languages ; and perceiving that she had great 
 influence among Indians, and might be made useful 
 as an interpreter in forming treaties of alliance with 
 them ; he therefore first purchased her friendship 
 with presents, and afterwards settled 100J. yearly on 
 her, as a reward for her services. By her assist- 
 ance he summoned a general meeting of the chiefs, 
 to hold a congress with him at Savanna, in order 
 to procure their consent to the peaceable settlement 
 of his colony. At this congress 50 chieftains were 
 present, when Oglethorpe of course represented to 
 them the great power, wisdom and wealth of the En- 
 glish nation, and the many advantages that would 
 accrue to Indians in general from a connexion and 
 friendship with them ; and after having distributed 
 some presents, an agreement was made, and then 
 Tomochichi, in the name of the Creek warriors, ad- 
 dressed him, and, giving him a buffalo's-skin, 
 adorned on the inside with the head and feathers of 
 an eagle, desired him to accept it, because the eagle, 
 was an emblem of speed, and the buffalo of strength. 
 He told him, that the English were as swift as the 
 bird and as strong as the beast, since like the for- 
 mer, they flew over vast seas to the uttermost parts 
 of the earth ; and, like the latter, they were so 
 strong that nothing could withstand them. He said, 
 the feathers of the eagle were soft, and signified 
 love; the buffalo's-skin was warm, and signified pro- 
 tection ; and therefore he hoped the English would 
 love and protect their little families. Oglethorpe 
 accordingly accepted the present, and after having 
 concluded this treaty of friendship with Indians, and 
 placed his colony in the best posture of defence, he 
 returned to Britain, carrying with him Tomochichi, 
 his queen, and some more Indians. 
 
 On their arrival in London, these Indian chiefs 
 HIST. OF AMER. -Nos. 121 & 122. 
 
 were introduced to his majesty, while many of the 
 nobility were present ; when Tomochichi, over- 
 powered with astonishment, addressed the king in 
 the following words : " This day I see the majesty 
 of your face, the greatness of your house, and the 
 number of your people ; I am come in my old days, 
 though I cannot expect to see any advantage to my- 
 self; I am come for the good of the children of all 
 the nations of the Lower and Upper Creeks, that they 
 may be instructed in the knowledge of the English. 
 These are feathers of the eagle, which is the swiftest 
 of birds, and which flieth round our nations. These 
 feathers are a sign of peace in our land, and have 
 been carried from town to town there. We have 
 brought them over to leave them with you, O great 
 king, as a token of everlasting peace. great king, 
 whatever words you shall say unto me, I will faith- 
 fully tell them to all the kings of the Creek nations." 
 To which his majesty replied : " I am glad of this 
 opportunity of assuring you of my regard for the peo- 
 ple from whom you came ; and I am extremely well 
 pleased with the assurances you have brought me 
 from them, and accept very gratefully of this pre- 
 sent, an indication of their good dispositions to me 
 and my people. I shall always be ready to cultivate 
 a good correspondence between the Creeks and my 
 subjects ; and shall be glad on any occasion to show 
 you a mark of my particular friendship." 
 
 During the whole time these Indians were in En- 
 gland, nothing was neglected that might serve to en- 
 gage their affections, and fill them with just notions of 
 the greatness and power of the British nation. The 
 nobility, curious to see them, and observe their man- 
 ners, entertained them magnificently at their tables. 
 Wherever they went, multitudes flocked around 
 them, shaking hands with the rude warriors of the 
 forest, giving them little presents, and treating them 
 with every mark of friendship and civility. Twenty 
 pounds a week were allowed them by the crown 
 while they remained in England, and when they 
 returned, it was computed they carried presents with 
 them to the value of 400/. After staying four 
 months, they were carried to Gravesend in one of 
 his majesty's carriages, where they embarked for 
 Georgia, highly pleased with the generosity of the 
 nation, and promising perpetual fidelity to its in- 
 terest. 
 
 It is said that James Oglethorpe, when he came 
 out to settle this colony in Georgia, brought along 
 with him Sir Walter Raleigh's manuscript journals ; 
 and by the latitude of the place, and the traditions 
 of the Indians, it appeared to him that Sir Walter 
 had landed at the mouth of Savanna river. Indeed 
 during his wild and chimerical attempts for finding 
 out a golden country, it is not improbable that he 
 visited many different places. The Indians acknow- 
 ledged that their fathers once held a conference 
 with a warrior who came over the great waters ; and 
 at a little distance from Savanna, there is a high 
 mount of earth, under which they said the Indian 
 king was interred, who talked with the English 
 warrior, and that he desired to be buried in the same 
 place where this conference was held. But having 
 little authority with respect to this matter, we can- 
 not vouch for its correctness. 
 
 While the security of Carolina, against external 
 enemies, by this settlement of Georgia, engaged the 
 attention of the British government, the means of 
 its internal improvement and population at the same 
 time were not neglected. John Peter Pury, a na- 
 tive of Nenfchatel in Switzerland, having formed a 
 design of leaving his native country, paid a visit to 
 
 4L 
 
96S 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Carolina, in order to inform himself of the circum- 
 stances, and situation of the province. After view- 
 ing the lands there, and procuring all the informa- 
 tion he could, with respect to the terms of obtaining 
 them, he returned to Britain. The government 
 entered into a contract with him, and, for the en- 
 couragement of the people, agreed to give lands and 
 400/. sterling for every 100 effective men he should 
 transport from Switzerland to Carolina. Pury, while 
 in Carolina, having furnished himself with a flatter- 
 ing account of the soil and climate, and of the ex- 
 cellence and freedom of the provincial government, 
 returned to Switzerland, and published it among 
 the people. Immediately 170 poor Switzers agreed 
 to follow him, and were transported to the fertile 
 and delightful province as he described it; and not 
 long afterwards 200 more arrived, and joined them. 
 The governor allotted 40,000 acres of land for the 
 use of the Swiss settlement on the north-east side 
 of Savanna river ; anu a town was marked out for 
 their accommodation, which he called Purisburgh, 
 from the name of the principal promoter of the set- 
 tlement. Mr. Bignion, a Swiss minister, whom they 
 had engaged to go with them, having received epis- 
 copal ordination from the bishop of London, settled 
 among them for their religious instruction. On the 
 one hand the governor ~and council, happy in the 
 acquisition of such a force, allotted each of them his 
 separate tract of land, and gave every encourage- 
 ment in their power to the people : on the other, 
 the poor Swiss emigrants began their labours with 
 uncommon zeal and courage. However, in a short 
 time they felt the many inconveniences attending a 
 change of climate. Several of them sickened and 
 died, and others found all the hardships of the first 
 state of colonization falling heavily upon them. 
 They became discontented with the provisions al- 
 lowed them, and complained to government of the 
 persons employed to distribute them ; and, to double 
 their distress, the period for receiving the bounty 
 expired before they had made such progress in cul- 
 tivation as to raise sufficient provisions for them- 
 selves and families. The spirit of discontent crept 
 into the poor Swiss settlement, and the people find- 
 ing themselves oppressed with indigence and dis- 
 tress, could consider their situation in no other light 
 than a state of banishment, and not only blamed 
 Pury for deceiving them, but also hearlily repented 
 their leaving their native country. 
 
 According to the new plan adopted in England 
 for the more speedy population and settlement of 
 the province ; the governor had instructions to mark 
 out eleven townships, in square plats, on the sides 
 of rivers, consisting each of 20,000 acres, and to 
 divide the lands within them into shares of 50 acres 
 for each man, woman, and child, that should come 
 over to occupy and improve them. Each township 
 was to form a parish, and all the inhabitants were 
 to have an equal right to the river. So soon as the 
 parish should increase to the number of 100 families, 
 they were to have a right to send two members of their 
 own election to the assembly, and to enjoy the same 
 privileges as the other parishes already established. 
 Each settler was to pay four shillings a year for 
 every 100 acres of land, excepting the first ten 
 years, during which term they were to be rent free. 
 Governor Johnson issued a warrant to St. John, 
 
 Accordingly eleven townships were marked out by 
 them in the following situations; two on river Ala- 
 tamaha, two on Savanna, two on Santee, one oa 
 Wacamaw, one on Wateree, and one on Black 
 rivers. 
 
 The old planters now acquiring every year greater 
 strength of hands, by the large importation of ne- 
 groes, and extensive credit from England, began 
 to turn their attention more closely than ever to the 
 lands of the province. A spirit of emulation broke 
 out among them for securing tracts of the richest 
 ground, but especially such as were most conveni- 
 ently situated for n a vigatirm. Complaints were made 
 to the assembljy^nat all the\valuable lands on na- 
 vigable rivers pmd creeks adjacent to Port-royal had 
 been run out in exorbitant traits, under colour of 
 patents granted by the proprietors to Cassiques and 
 Landgraves, by which the "complainants, who had, 
 at the hazard of their li^es, defended the country, 
 were hindered from obtaining such lands as could 
 be useful and beneficial, at the established quit- 
 rents, though the attorney and solicitor-general of 
 England had declared such patents void. Among 
 others, Job Rothmaller and Thomas Cooper, having 
 been accused of some illegal practices with respect 
 to this matter, a petition was presented to the as- 
 sembly by 39 inhabitants of Granville county in 
 their vindication. When the assembly examined 
 into the matter, they ordered their messenger forth- 
 with to take into custody Job Rothmaller andThomas 
 Cooper, for aiding, assisting, and superintending 
 the deputy-surveyor in marking out tracts of land 
 already surveyed, contrary to the quit-rent act. But 
 Cooper, being taken into custody, applied to Chief 
 Justice Wright for a writ of habeas corpus, which was 
 granted. The assembly, however, sensible of the 
 ill consequences that would attend such illegal prac- 
 tices, determined to put a stop to them by an act 
 made on purpose. They complained to the gover- 
 nor and council against the surveyor-general, for 
 encouraging land-jobbers, and allowing such liber- 
 ties as tended to create litigious disputes in the pro- 
 vince, and to involve it in great confusion. In con- 
 sequence of which, the governor, to give an effectual 
 check to such practices, prohibited St. John to sur- 
 vey lands to any person without an express warrant 
 from him. The surveyor-general, however, deter- 
 mined to make the most of his otlice, and having a 
 consideiable number to support him, represented 
 both governor and council as persons disaffected to 
 his majesty's government, and enemies to the inte 
 rest of the country. Being highly offended at the 
 assembly, he began to take great liberties without- 
 doors, and to turn some of their speeches into ridi- 
 cule. Upon which an order was issued to take St. 
 John also into custody ; and then the commons 
 came to the following spirited resolution : " That it 
 is the undeniable privilege of this assembly to com- 
 mit such persons they may judge to deserve it : that 
 the freedom of spee'ch and debate ought not to be 
 impeached or questioned in any court or place out 
 of that house : that it is a contempt and violation of 
 the privileges of that house, to call in question any 
 of their commitments : that no writ of habeas corpus 
 lies in favour of any person committed by that house, 
 and that the messenger attending do yield no obedi- 
 ence to such ; and that the chief justice be made 
 
 surveyor-general of the province, empowering him acquainted with these resolutions." In consequence 
 to go and mark out those townships. But he having of which, Wright complained before the governor 
 demanded an exorbitant sum of money for his trou- and council of these resolutions, as tending to the 
 ble, the members of the council agreed among them- dissolution of all government, and charged the lower 
 selves to do this piece of service for their country, j house with disallowing his majesty's undoubted pro- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 963 
 
 rogative, and with renouncing obedience to his writ 
 of habeas corpus. But the council in general ap 
 proved of their conduct, and were of opinion, tha 
 the assembly of Carolina had that same privileg 
 there, that the house of commons had in Englanc 
 This affair created some dissension in the colony 
 for while a strong party, from motives of privata in 
 terest, supported the chief justice ; the assembly re 
 solved, " That he appeared to be prejudiced agains 
 the people, and was therefore unworthy of the nffic 
 he held, and that it would tend to the tranquillity o 
 the province immediately to suspend him." 
 
 This was the situation of the colony about the 
 end of the year 1733. Each planter, eager in the 
 pursuit of large possessions of land, which were for 
 merly neglected, because of little value, strenuousl) 
 vied with his neighbour for a superiority of fortune 
 and seemed impatient of every circumstance that re 
 strained him. Many favours and indulgencies hac 
 already been granted them from the crown, for pro 
 moting their success and prosperity, and for securing 
 the province against external enemies. What fur- 
 ther favours they expected, we may learn from the 
 following memorial and representation of the state 
 of Carolina, transmitted to the king, dated April 9, 
 1734, and signed by the governor, the president ol 
 the council, and the speaker of the commons house 
 of assembly, 
 
 " Your majesty's most dutiful subjects of this 
 province, having often felt, with hearts full of gra- 
 titude, the many signal instances of your majesty's 
 peculiar favour and protection to those distant parts 
 of your dominions, and especially those late proofs 
 of your majesty's most gracious and benign care, so 
 wisely calculated for the preservation of this your 
 majesty's frontier province on the continent of 
 America, by your royal charter to the trustees for 
 establishing the colony of Georgia, and your great 
 goodness so timely applied, for the promoting the 
 settlement of the Swiss at Purisburgh ; encouraged 
 by such views of your majesty's wise and paternal 
 care, extended to your remotest subjects, and ex- 
 cited by the duty we owe to your most sacred ma- 
 jesty, to be always watchful for the support and 
 security of your majesty's interest, especially at 
 this very critical conjuncture, when the flame of a 
 war breaking out in Europe may very speedily be 
 lighted here, in this your majesty's frontier pro- 
 vince, which, in situation, is known to be of the 
 utmost importance to the general trade and traffic 
 in America : we, therefore, your majesty's most 
 faithful governor, council, and commons, convened 
 in your majesty's province of South Carolina, crave 
 leave with great humility to represent to your ma- 
 jesty the present state and condition of this your 
 province, and how greatly it stands in need of your 
 majesty's gracious and timely succour in case of a 
 war, to assist our defence against the French and 
 Spaniards, or any other enemies to your majesty's 
 dominions, as well as against the many nations of 
 savages which so nearly threaten the safety of your 
 majesty's subjects. 
 
 " The province of South Carolina, and the new 
 colony of Georgia, are the southern frontiers of all 
 your majesty's dominions on the continent of Ame- 
 rica ; to the south and south-west of which is situa- 
 ted the strong castle of St. Augustine, garrisoned 
 by 400 Spaniards, who have several nations of 
 Indians under their subjection, besides several other 
 small settlements and garrisons, some of which are 
 not 80 miles distant from the colony of Georgia. 
 To the south-west and west of us the French hav? 
 
 erected a considerable town, near fort Thoulouse, 
 on the Moville river, and several other forts and 
 garrisons, some not above 300 miles distant from 
 our settlements ; and at New Orleans, on the Mis- 
 sissippi river, since her late majesty Queen Anne's 
 war, they have exceedingly increased their strength 
 and traffic, and have now many forts and garrisons 
 on both sides of that great river for several hundred 
 miles up the same ; and since his most Christian 
 majesty has taken out of the Mississippi Company 
 the government of that country into his own hands, 
 the French natives in Canada come daily down in 
 shoals to settle all along that river, where many re- 
 gular forces have of late been sent over by the king 
 to strengthen the garrisons in those places, and, 
 according to our best and latest advices, they have 
 500 men in pay, constantly employed as wood- 
 rangers, to keep their neighbouring Indians in sub- 
 jection, and to prevent the distant ones from dis- 
 turbing the settlements ; which management of the 
 French has so well succeeded, that we are very well 
 assured they have now wholly in their possession, 
 and under their influence, the several numerous 
 nations of Indians that are situated near the Missis- 
 sippi river, one of which, called the Choctaws, by 
 estimation consists of about 5000 fighting men, and 
 who were always deemed a very warlike nation, lies 
 on this side the river, not above 400 miles distant 
 rom our out-settlements, among whom, as well as 
 several other nations of Indians, many French Eu- 
 ropeans have been sent to settle, whom the priests 
 and missionaries among them encourage to take 
 Indian wives, and use divers other alluring methods 
 o attach the Indians the better to the French alli- 
 ance, by which means the French are become tho- 
 oughly acquainted with the Indian way, warring 
 and living in the woods, and have now a great num- 
 ier of white men among them, able to perform a 
 ong march with an army of Indians upon any ex- 
 pedition. 
 
 " We further beg leave to inform your majesty, 
 
 hat if the measures of France should provoke your 
 
 majesty to a state of hostility against it in Europe, 
 
 we have great reason to expect an invasion will be 
 
 ere made upon your majesty's subjects by the 
 
 Drench and Indians from the Mississippi settlements. 
 
 They have already paved a way for a design of that 
 
 nature, by erecting a fort called the Albama fort, 
 
 alias Fort Lewis, in the middle of the upper Creek 
 
 ndians, upon a navigable river leading to Mobile, 
 
 rhich they have kept well garrisoned and mounted 
 
 dth fourteen pieces of cannon, and have lately been 
 
 revented from erecting a second nearer to us on 
 
 hat quarter. The Upper Creeks are a nation very 
 
 bold, active and daring, consisting of about 2500 
 
 ghting men (and not above 150 miles distant from 
 
 he Choctaws), whom, though we heretofore have 
 
 raded with, claimed and held in our alliance, yet 
 
 be French, on account of that fort, and a superior 
 
 bility to make them liberal presents, have been for 
 
 ome time striving to draw them over to their in 
 
 erest, and have succeeded with some of the town 
 
 f the Creeks ; which, if they can be secured in your 
 
 majesty's interest, are the only nation, which your 
 
 majesty's subjects here can depend upon as the best 
 
 arrier against any attempts either of the French 
 
 r their confederate Indians. 
 
 " We most humbly beg leave farther to inform 
 
 our majesty, that the French at Mobile, perceiving 
 
 hat they could not gain the Indians to their interest 
 
 without buying their deer-skins (which is the only 
 
 ommedity the Indians have to purchase neces 
 
 4 Li 
 
964 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, 
 
 saries with), and the French not being able to dis- 
 pose of those skins by reason of their having no vent 
 tor them in Old Fiance, they have found means to 
 encourage vessels from hence, New York, and other 
 places, (which are not prohibited by the acts of 
 trade,) to truck those skins with them for Indian 
 trading good^ especially the British woollon manu- 
 factures, which the French dispose of to the Creeks 
 and Choctaws, and other Indians, by which means 
 the Indians are much more alienated from our in- 
 terest, and on every occasion object to us that the 
 French can supply them with strouds and blankets 
 as well as the English, which would have the con- 
 trary effect if they were wholly supplied with those 
 commodities by your majesty's subjects trading with 
 them. If a stop were therefore put to that perni- 
 cious trade with the French, the chief dependence of 
 the Creek Indians would be on this government, 
 and that of Georgia, to supply them with goods ; by 
 which means great part of the Choctaws, living next 
 the Creeks, would see the advantage the Creek In- 
 dians enjoyed by having British woollen manufac- 
 tures wholly from your majesty's subjects, and thereby 
 be invited in a short time to enter into a treaty of 
 commerce with us, which they have lately made some 
 offers for, and which, if effected, will soon lessen the 
 interest of the French with those Indians, and by- 
 degrees attach them to that of your majesty. 
 
 " The only expedient we can propose to recover 
 and confirm that nation to your majesty's interest, 
 is by speedily making them presents to withdraw 
 them from the French alliance, and by building some 
 forts among them your majesty may be put in such 
 a situation, that on the first notice of hostilities with 
 the French, your majesty may be able at once to 
 reduce the Albania fort, and we may then stand 
 against the French and their Indians, which, if not 
 timely prepared for before a war breaks out, we have 
 too much reason to fear we may be soon over-run 
 by the united strength of the French, the Creeks, 
 and Choctaws, with many other nations of their 
 Indian allies: for, should the Creeks become wholly 
 enemies, who are well acquainted with all our set- 
 tlements, we probably should also be soon deserted 
 by the Cherokees, and a few others, small tribes of 
 Indians, who, for the sake of our booty, would rea- 
 dily join to make us a prey to the French and sa- 
 vages. Ever since the late Indian war, the offences 
 given us then by the Creeks have made that nation 
 very jealous Of your majesty's subjects of this pro- 
 vince. We have therefore concerted measures with 
 the honourable James Oglethorpe, Esq. ; who, being 
 at the head of a new colony, will (we hope) be suc- 
 cessful for your majesty's interest among that peo- 
 ple. He has already by presents attached the lower 
 creeks to your majesty, and has laudably undertaken 
 to endeavour the fixing a garrison among the upper 
 creeks, the expense of which is already in part pro- 
 vided for in this session of the general assembly of 
 this province. We hope, therefore, to prevent the 
 French from encroaching farther on your majesty's 
 territories, until your majesty is graciously pleased 
 further to strengthen and secure the same. 
 
 " We find the Cherokee nation has lately become 
 very insolent to your majesty's subjects trading 
 among them, notwithstanding the many favours the 
 chiefs of that nation received from your majesty in 
 Great Britain, besides a considerable expense which 
 your majesty's subjects of this province have been 
 at in making them presents, which inclines us to 
 believe that the French, by their Indians, have been 
 tampering with them. We therefore Leg leave to 
 
 inform your majesty, that the building and mount 
 ing some forts likewise among the Cherokees, agud 
 making them presents will be highly necessary to 
 keep them steady in their duty to your majesty, lest 
 the French may prevail in seducing that nation, 
 which they may the more readily be inclined to from 
 the prospect of getting considerable plunder in slaves, 
 cattle, &c., commodities which they very well know 
 we have among us, and that several other forta will be 
 indispensably necessary, to be a cover to your ma- 
 jesty's subjects settled backwards in this province, 
 as also to those of-thircelpny of Georgia, both which 
 in length are/very extensive; for though the trus- 
 tees for establishing the yolony of Georgia, by a 
 particular scheme of good) management, painfully 
 conducted by the gentlenWn engaged here in that 
 charitable enterprise, have put that small part of the 
 colony, which he has not yet been able to establish, 
 in a tenable condition, against the Spaniards of 
 Florida which lie to the southward ; yet the back 
 exposition of those colonies to the vast number of 
 French and Indians which border on the westward, 
 must, in case of a war, cry greatly aloud for your 
 majesty's gracious and timely succour. The ex- 
 pense of our safety on such an occasion we must,, 
 with all humility, acquaint your majesty, either for 
 men or money, can never be effected by your ma- 
 jesty's subjects of this province, who, in conjunction 
 with Georgia, do not in the whole amount to more 
 than 3500 men, which compose the militia, and wholly 
 consist of planters, tradesmen, and other men of bu- 
 siness. 
 
 " Besides the many dangers which by land we 
 are exposed to from so many enemies that lie on the 
 back of us ; we further beg leave to represent to 
 your majesty the defenceless condition of our ports 
 and harbours, where any enemies of your majesty's 
 dominions may very easily by sea invade us, there 
 being no fortifications capable of making much resist- 
 ance. Those in Charlestown harbour are now in a 
 very shattered condition, occasioned by the late vio- 
 lent storms and hurricanes, which already cost this 
 country a great deal of money, and it now requires 
 several thousands of pounds to repair the old and 
 build new ones, to mount the ordnance which your 
 majesty was graciously pleased to send us, which, 
 with great concern, we must inform your majesty 
 we have not yet been able to accomplish, being 
 lately obliged, for the defence and support of this 
 your majesty's province and government, to raise, 
 by a tax on the inhabitants, a supply of above 40,000/. 
 paper currency per annum, which is a considerable 
 deal more than a third part of all the currency among 
 us; a charge which your majesty's subjects of this 
 province are but barely able to sustain. Since your 
 majesty's royal instruction to your majesty's gover- 
 nor here, an entire stop has been put to the duties 
 which before accrued from European goods imported; 
 and if a war should happen, or any thing extraordi- 
 nary, to be farther expensive here, we should be 
 under the utmost difficulties to provide additionally 
 for the same, lest an increase of taxes, with an ap- 
 prehension of danger, should drive away many of 
 our present inhabitants, as well as discourage others 
 from coming here to settle for the defence and im- 
 provement of your majesty's province, there being 
 several daily moving with their families and effects 
 to North Carolina, where there are no such fears 
 and burdens. 
 
 " We must therefore beg leave to inform your 
 majesty, that, amidst our other perilous circum- 
 stances, we are subject to many intestine dangers 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 965 
 
 Prom the great number of negroes that are now among 
 us, who amount at least to 22,000 persons, and are 
 three to one of all your majesty's white subjects in 
 this province. Insurrections against us have been 
 often attempted, and would at any time prove very 
 fatal if the French should instigate them, by artfulb 
 giving them an expectation of freedom. In such a 
 situation we most humbly crave leave to acquain 
 your majesty, that even the present ordinary ex 
 penses necessary for the care and support of this youi 
 majesty's province and government, cannot be pro 
 vided for by your majesty's subjects of this province 
 without your majesty's gracious pleasure to continu( 
 those laws for establishing the duty on negroes am 
 other duty for seven years, and for appropriating 
 the same, which now lie before your majesty for 
 your royal assent and approbation ; and the further 
 expenses that will be requisite for the erecting some 
 forts, and f stablishing garrisons in the several ne 
 cessary places, so as to form a barrier for the secu 
 rity of this your majesty's province, we most humbly 
 submit to your majesty. 
 
 " Your majesty's subjects of this province, with 
 fulness of zeal, duty, and affection to your mosl 
 gracious and sacred majesty, are so highly sensible o 
 the great importance of this province to the French, 
 that we must conceive it more than probable, if a 
 war should happen, they will use all endeavours 
 to bring this country under their subjection; they 
 would be thereby enabled to support their sugar 
 islands with all sorts of provisions and lumber by 
 an easy navigation, which, to our great advantage, 
 is not so practicable from the present French colo- 
 nies, besides the facility of gaining then to their in- 
 terest most of the Indian trade on the northern 
 continent; they might then easily unite the Cana 
 dees and Choctaws, with the many other nations of 
 Indians which are now in their interest. And the 
 several ports and harbours of Carolina and Georgia, 
 which now enable your majesty to be absolute mas- 
 ter of the passage through the Gulf of Florida, and 
 to impede, at your pleasure, the transportation home 
 of the Spanish treasure, would then prove so many 
 convenient harbours for your majesty's enemies, by 
 their privateers or ships of war to annoy a great part 
 of the British trade to America, as well as that which 
 is carried on through the gulf from Jamaica ; be- 
 sides the loss which Great Britain must feel in so 
 considerable a part of its navigation, as well as the 
 exports of masts, pitch, tar, and turpentine, which, 
 without any dependence on the northern parts of 
 Europe, are from hence plentifully supplied for the 
 use of the British shipping. 
 
 " This is the present state and condition of your 
 majesty's-pvovince of South Carolina, utterly inca- 
 pable of finding funds sufficient for the defence of 
 this wide frontier, and so destitute of white men, 
 that even money itself cannot here raise a sufficient 
 body of them. 
 
 " With all humility we therefore beg leave to lay 
 ourselves at the feet of your majesty, humbly im- 
 ploring your majesty's most gracious care in the ex- 
 tremities we should be reduced to on the breaking 
 out of a war; and that your majesty would be gra- 
 ciously pleased to extend your protection to us, as 
 your majesty, in vour great wisdom, should think 
 proper." 
 
 In the meantime the trustees for Georgia had been 
 employed in framing a plan of settlement, and esta- 
 blishing such public regulations as they judged most 
 proper for answering the great end of the corpora- 
 tion. In this general plan they considered each in- 
 
 habitant both as a planter and a soldier, who must be 
 provided with arms and ammunition for defence, as 
 well as with tools and utensils for cultivation. As the 
 strength of the province was their chief object, they 
 agreed to establish such tenures for holding lands 
 in it as they judged most favourable for a military 
 establishment. Each tract of land granted was con- 
 sidered as a military fief, for which the possessor 
 was to appear in arms, and take the field, when called 
 upon for the public defence. To prerent large tracts 
 from falling into one hand, they agreed to grant 
 their lands in tail-male in preference to tail-general. 
 On the termination of the estate in tail-male, the 
 lands were to revert to the trust; and such lands 
 thus reverting were to be granted again to such 
 persons as the common council of the trust should 
 judge most advantageous for the colony; only the 
 trustees in such a ease were to pay special regard to 
 the daughters of such persons as had made improve- 
 ments on their lots, especially when not already pro- 
 vided for by marriage. The wives of such persons 
 as should survive them, were to be during their lives 
 entitled to the mansion-house, and one-half of the 
 lands improved by their husbands. No man was to 
 be permitted to depart the province without licence. 
 If any part of the lands granted by the trustees 
 should not be cultivated, cleared, and fenced with a 
 worm-fence, or pales, six feet high, within eighteen 
 years from the date of the grant, such part was to 
 revert to the trust, and the grant with respect to it 
 to be void. All forfeitures for non-residence, high- 
 treason, felonies, &c. were to the trustees for the use 
 and benefit of the colony. The use of negroes was 
 to be absolutely prohibited, and also the importation 
 of rum. None of the colonists were to be permitted 
 to trade with Indians, but such as should obtain a 
 special licence for that purpose. 
 
 These were some of the fundamental regulations 
 established by the trustees of Georgia, and perhaps 
 the imagination of man could scarcely have framed 
 a system of rules worse adapted to the circumstances 
 and situation of the poor settlers, and of more perni- 
 cious consequence to the prosperity of the province. 
 Yet, although the trustees were greatly mistaken, 
 with respect to their plan of settlement, it must be 
 acknowledged their views were generous. As the 
 people sent out by them were the poor and unfortu- 
 nate, who were to be provided with necessaries at 
 :heir public store, they received their lands upon 
 condition of cultivation, and by their personal resi- 
 dence, of defence. Silk and wine being the chief 
 articles intended to be raised, they judged negroes 
 were not requisite to these purposes. As the colony 
 was designed to be a barrier to South Carolina, 
 against the Spanish settlement at Augustine, they 
 magined that negroes would rather weaken than 
 strengthen it, and that such poor colonists wcultf. 
 un into debt, and ruin themselves by purchasing 
 hem. Rum was judged pernicious to health, and 
 uinous to the infant settlement. A free trade with 
 Indians was considered as a thing that might have a 
 endency to involve the people in quarrels and trou- 
 >les with the powerful savages, and expose them to 
 [anger and destruction. Such were probably the 
 motives which induced those humane and generous 
 >ersons to impose such foolish and ridiculous re- 
 trictions on their colony. For by granting their 
 mall estates in tail-male, they drove the settlers 
 rorn Georgia, who soon found that abundance of 
 ands could be obtained in America upon a larger 
 cale, and on much better terms. By their dis- 
 harging a trade with the We,st Indies, they not ouly 
 
966 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 deprived the colonists of an excellent and conveni- 
 ent market for their lumber, of which they had 
 abundance on their lands, but also of rum, which, 
 when mixed with a sufficient quantity of water, has 
 been found by experience the cheapest, the most re- 
 freshing, and nourishing drink for workmen in such 
 a foggy and burning climate. The trustees, like 
 other distant legislators, who framed their regula- 
 tions upon principles of speculation, were liable to 
 icany errors and mistakes, and however good their 
 design, their rules were found improper and imprac- 
 ticable. The Carolineans plainly perceived, that 
 they would prove insurmountable obstacles to the 
 progress and prosperity of the colony, and therefore 
 from motives of pity began to invite the poor Geor- 
 gians to come over Savanna river, and settle in Ca- 
 rolina, being convinced that they could never succeed 
 under such impolitic and oppressive restrictions. 
 
 Besides the large sums of money which the trus- 
 tees had expended for the settlement of Georgia, 
 the parliament had also granted during the two past 
 years 36,000/. towards carrying into execution the 
 humane purpose of the corporation. But after the 
 representation and memorial from the legislature of 
 Carolina reached Britain, the nation considered 
 Georgia to be of the utmost importance to the Bri- 
 tish settlements in America, and began to make still 
 more vigorous efforts for its speedy population. The 
 first embarkations of poor people from England, 
 being collected from towns and cities, were found 
 equally idle and useless members of society abroad, 
 as they had been at home. A hardy and bold race 
 of men, inured to rural labour and fatigue, they were 
 persuaded would be much better adapted both for 
 cultivation and defence. To find men possessed of 
 these qualifications, the trustees turned their eyes to 
 Germany and the Highlands of Scotland, and re- 
 solved to send over a number of Scotch and German 
 labourers to their infant province. When they pub- 
 lished their terms at Inverness, 130 Highlanders 
 immediately accepted them, and were transported 
 to Georgia. A town -ship on the river Alatamaha, 
 which was considered as the boundary between the 
 British and Spanish territories, was allotted for the 
 Highlanders, in which dangerous situation they set- 
 tled, and built a town, which they called New In- 
 verness. About the same time 170 Germans em- 
 barked with James Oglethorp, and were fixed in an- 
 other quarter ; so that, in the space of three years, 
 Georgia received above 400 British subjects, and 
 about 170 foreigners. Afterwards several adven- 
 turers, both from Scotland and Germany, followed 
 their countrymen, and added further strength to the 
 province, and the trustees flattered themselves with 
 the hopes of soon seeing it in a promising condition. 
 
 The same year Carolina lost Robert Johnson, her 
 favourite governor, whose death was as much la- 
 mented by the people, as during his life he had been 
 beloved and respected. The province having been 
 uch indebted to his courage and abilities, to perpe- 
 tuate his memory among them, and, in testimony 
 of their esteem, a monument was erected in their 
 church at the public expense. After his decease the 
 government devolved onThomasBroughton, an honest 
 man, but little distinguished either for his knowledge 
 or enterprise. At this time many of the leading 
 men of the colony scrupled not to practise imposi- 
 tions, and being eagerly bent on engrossing lands, 
 the lieutenant-governor freely granted them war- 
 rants; and the planters, provided they acquired 
 large possessions, were not very scrupulous as to 
 the manner in which they were obtained. 
 
 James Oglethorpe having brought a number of 
 great guns with him from England, now began to 
 fortify Georgia, by erecting strong-holds on its fron- 
 tiers, where he judged they might be useful for its 
 safety and protection. At one place, which he 
 called Augusta, a fort was erected on the banks of 
 Savanna river, which was excellently situated for 
 protecting the Indian trade, and holding treaties of 
 commerce and alliance with several of the savage 
 nations. At anothfir_p|ace, called Frederica, on an 
 island near the/fnouth oi the river Aiatainaha, an- 
 other fort, with four regular bastions, was erected, 
 and several pieces of cannjon were mounted on it. 
 Ten miles nearer the sea a^/battery was raised, com- 
 manding the entrance into the sound, through which 
 all ships of force mttst come that might be seut 
 against Frederica. To keep little garrisons in these 
 forts, to help the trustees to defray the expenses of 
 such public works, 10,000/. were granted by tho 
 parliament of Great Britain. 
 
 While James Oglethorpe was thus employed in 
 strengthening Georgia, he received a message from 
 the Governor of Augustine, acquainting him that a 
 Spanish commissioner from the Havanna had ar- 
 rived there, in order to make certain demands of 
 him, and would meet him at Frederica for that pur- 
 pose. At the same time he had advice, that three 
 companies of foot had accompanied him to that Spa- 
 nish settlement. A few days afterwards this com- 
 missioner came to Georgia by sea, and Oglethorpe, 
 unwilling to permit him to come to Frederica, dis- 
 patched a sloop to bring him into Jekyl Sound, 
 where he intended to hold a conference with him. 
 Here the commissioner had the modesty to demand, 
 that Oglethorpe and his people should immediately 
 evacuate all the territories to the southward of St. 
 Helena Sound, as they belonged to the king of 
 Spain, who was determined to maintain his right 
 to them ; and if he refused to comply with his de- 
 mand, he had orders to proceed to Charlestown and 
 lay the same before the governor and council of that 
 province. Oglethorpe endeavoured to convince him 
 that his Catholic majesty had been misinformed with 
 respect to those territories, but to no purpose ; his 
 instructions were peremptory, and the conference 
 broke up without coming to any agreement. After 
 which Oglethorpe embarked with all possible expe- 
 dition, and sailed for England. 
 
 During his absence the strict law of the trustees, re- 
 specting the rum trade, had like to have created a 
 quarrel between the Carolineans and Georgians. The 
 fortification at Augusta had induced some traders of 
 Carolina to open stores at that place, so conveniently 
 situated for commerce with Indian nations. For this 
 purpose, land-carriage being expensive, they in- 
 tended to force their way by water with loaded boats 
 up Savanna river to their stores at Augusta. But as 
 they passed the town of Savanna, the magistrates 
 rashly ordered the boats to be stopt, the packages to 
 be opened, the casks of rum to be staved, and the 
 people to be confined. Such injurious treatment was 
 not to be suffered; the Carolineans determined to 
 ive a check to their insolence, and for that purpose 
 deputed two persons, one from the council and an- 
 other from the assembly, to demand of the Georgians 
 by what authority they presumed to seize and de- 
 stroy the effects of their traders, or to compel them 
 to submit to the ir code of laws. The magistrates of 
 Georgia, sensible of their error, made great conces- 
 sions to the deputies, and treated them with the ut- 
 most civility and respect. The goods were instantly 
 ordered to be returned, the people to be set at liberty, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 967 
 
 and all manner of satisfaction was given to the de- 
 puties they could have expected. Strict orders were 
 sent to the agents of Georgia among Indians not to 
 molest the traders from Carolina, but to give them 
 all the assistance and protection in their power. 
 The Carolineans, on the other hand, engaged not to 
 smuggle any strong liquors among the settlers ol 
 Georgia, and the navigation on the river Savanna 
 was declared equally open and free to both provinces. 
 About the same time the French took the field 
 against the emperor; and the flames of war kin- 
 dung between such powerful potentates, would, it was 
 thought, inevitably spread, and involve all Europe 
 in the quarrel. In case Great Britain should inter- 
 fere in this matter, and declare in favour of the em- 
 peror, orders were sent out to the governors of Que- 
 bec and New Orleans to invade the weakest fron- 
 tiers of the British settlements of America. For 
 this purpose an army was formed in New France, 
 and preparations were made for uniting the force of 
 Canada and Louisiana to attack Carolina. But be- 
 fore this design was put in execution, advice came, 
 that the clouds of war which threatened Europe were 
 dispersed, and a general peace was restored, by the 
 mediation of Britain and Holland. This put a stop 
 to the motions of the main body in Canada; how- 
 ever, a detachment of 200 French, and 400 Indians 
 were sent down the Mississippi, to meet a party 
 from New Orleans to cut off the Chickesaw Indians. 
 This tribe were the firm allies of Britain, and the 
 bravest nation of savages on the continent, but con- 
 sisted only of between 600 and 800 gun-men. The 
 French having encroached on their lands, and built 
 some forts near them, had on that account drawn 
 upon themselves their invincible enmity and resent- 
 ment. The Chickesaws had long obstinately op- 
 posed their progress up the river Mississippi, and 
 were now the chief obstacle that prevented a regular 
 communication between Louisiana and Canada. The 
 
 French determined to remove it, by extirpating 
 this troublesome nation, and for this purpose fell 
 down the river in boats to the place where they ex- 
 pected to meet their friends from New Orleans. 
 But the party from the southward not coming up at 
 the time appointed, and the Canadians thinking 
 themselves strong enough for the enterprise, began 
 the war by attacking the Chickesaw towns. Upon 
 which the savages gathered together above 300 war- 
 riors, gave the French battle in an open field, and, 
 though with considerable loss, completely defeated 
 them. Above 40 Frenchmen and eight Indians were 
 killed on the spot, and the rest were taken prison- 
 ers, among whom was their commander, and chief, 
 brother to Mons. Bienville, governor of Now Or- 
 leans. Another party of French from Mobile, in 
 the same year, advanced against the Creeks, who 
 were also unsuccessful, and obliged to retreat with 
 considerable loss. Carolina rejoiced at those dis- 
 asters, and began now more than ever to court the 
 friendship and interest of these rude nations in their 
 neighbourhood, considering them as the best barrier 
 against their natural enemies. 
 
 By this time the episcopalian form of divine wor- 
 ship had gained ground in Carolina, and was more 
 countenanced by the people than any other. That 
 zeal for the right of private judgment had much 
 abated, and those prejudices against the hierarchy, 
 which the first emigrants tarried from England with 
 them, were now almost entirely worn off' from th<; 
 succeeding generation. To bring about this change, 
 no doubt the well-timed zeal and extensive bounty 
 of the society, incorporated for the propagation of 
 
 the Gospel, had greatly contributed. At this time 
 the corporation had no less than twelve missionaries 
 in Carolina, each of whom shared of their bounty. 
 Spacious churches had been erected in the province, 
 which were pretty well supplied with clergymen, 
 who were paid from the public treasury, and counte- 
 nanced by the civil authority, all which favoured the 
 established church. The dissenters of Carolina were 
 not only obliged to erect and uphold their churches, 
 and maintain their clergy by private contributions, 
 but also to contribute taxes equally with their neigh- 
 bours, towards the maintenance of the poor, and the 
 support of the establishment. This indeed many of 
 them considered as a grievance, but having but few 
 friends in the provincial assembly, no redress could 
 be obtained for them. Besides, the establishment 
 gave its adherents many advantageous privileges in 
 point of power and authority over persons of other de- 
 nominations. It gave them the best chance for being 
 elected members of the legislature, and of course of 
 being appointed to offices, both civil and military, in 
 their respective districts; and these privileges drew 
 over many of the dissenters, especially the younger 
 part. 
 
 However, the emigrants from Scotland and Ire- 
 land, most of whom were Presbyterians, still com- 
 posed a considerable part of the province, and kept 
 up the Presbyterian form of worship. Archibald 
 Stobo, by great diligence and ability, still preserved 
 a number of followers ; and an association had been 
 formed in favour of this mode of religious worship, 
 by him and Fisher, and Witherspoon, ministers of 
 the church of Scotland, together with Joseph Stan- 
 yarn, and Joseph Blake, men of respectable charac- 
 ters and considerable fortunes. The Presbyterians 
 had already erected churches at Charlestown, Wil- 
 town, and in three of the maritime islands, for the 
 use of the people adhering to that form of religious 
 worship. As the inhabitants multiplied, several 
 more in different parts of the province afterwards 
 joined them, and built churches, particularly at 
 Jacksonburgh, Indian Town, Port-royal, and Wii- 
 liamsburgh. The first clergymen having received 
 their ordination in the church of Scotland, the fun- 
 damental rules of the association were framed ac- 
 cording to the doctrines and discipline of that esta- 
 blishment, to which they agreed to conform as closely 
 as their local circumstances would admit. These 
 ministers adopted this mode of religious worship, 
 not only from a persuasion of its conformity to the 
 primitive apostolic form, but also from a conviction 
 of its being, of all others, the most favourable to 
 civil liberty and independence. Sensible that not 
 only natural endowments, but also a competent mea- 
 sure of learning and acquired knowledge were ne- 
 cessary to qualify men for the sacred function, and 
 enable them to discharge the duties of it with honour 
 and success, they associated on purpose to prevent 
 deluded mechanics, and illiterate novices from creep- 
 ing into the pulpit, to the disgrace of the character, 
 and the injury of religion. In different parts of the 
 province, persons oMhis stamp had appeared, who 
 decried all establishments, both civil and religious, 
 and seduced weak minds from the duties of allegi- 
 ance, and all that the Presbytery could do was to 
 >revent them from teaching under the sanction 01 
 ;heir authority. But this association of Presbyte 
 rians having little countenance from government, 
 aid no name or authority in law, their success de 
 tended wholly on the superior knowledge, populat 
 alents and exemplary life of their ministers. From 
 ime to time clergymen were afterwards sent out at 
 
968 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the request of the people from Scotland and Ireland ; 
 and the colonists contributed to maintain them, till 
 iit length funds were established in trust by private 
 legacies and donations, to be appropriated for the 
 support of Presbyterian ministers, and the encou- 
 ragement of that mode of religious worship and go- 
 vernment. 
 
 We have several times, in the histories of all the 
 colonies, had occasion to make remarks on paper 
 currency; which the planters were generally for in- 
 creasing, and the merchants and money-lenders for 
 sinking. The exchange of London, like a commer- 
 cial thermometer, served to measure the rise or fall 
 of paper credit in Carolina; and the price of bills of 
 exchange commonly ascertained the value of their 
 current money. The permanent riches of the coun- 
 try consisted in lands, houses, and negroes ; and the 
 produce of the lands, improved by negroes, raw ma- 
 terials, provisions, and naval stores, were exchanged 
 for what the province wanted from other countries. 
 The attention of the mercantile part was chiefly em- 
 ployed about staple commodities ; and as their great 
 object was present profit, it was natural for them to 
 be governed by that great axiom in trade, whoever 
 brings commodities cheapest and in. the best order 
 to market, must always meet with the greatest en- 
 couragement and success. The planters, on the 
 other hand, attended to the balance of trade, which 
 was turned in their favour, and concluded, that 
 when the exports of any province exceeded its im- 
 ports, whatever losses private persons might now 
 and then sustain, yet that province upon the whole 
 was growing rich. Let us suppose, what was indeed 
 far from being the case, that Georgia so far advanced 
 in improvement as to rival Carolina in raw mate- 
 rials and exchangeable commodities, and to under- 
 sell her at the markets in Europe : this advantage 
 could only arise from the superior quality of her 
 lands, the cheapness of her labour, or her landed 
 men being contented with smaller profits. In such 
 a case it was the business of the Carolina merchants 
 to lower the price of her commodities, in order to 
 reap the same advantages with her neighbours ; and 
 this could only be done by reducing the quantity of 
 paper money in circulation. If gold and silver only 
 past current in Georgia, which by general consent 
 was the medium of commerce throughout the world, 
 if it had a sufficient quantity to answer the pur- 
 poses of trade, and no paper currency had been per- 
 mitted to circulate ; in such case its commodities 
 would bring their full value at the provincial market, 
 and no more, according to the general standard of 
 money in Europe. Supposing also that Carolina 
 had a quantity of gold and silver in circulation, suf- 
 ficient for the purposes of commerce, and that the 
 planters, in order to raise the value of their produce, 
 should issue paper money equal to the quantity of 
 gold and silver in circulation, the consequence would 
 be, the price of labour, and of all articles of ex- 
 portation, would be doubled. But as the markets of 
 Europe remained the same, and its commodities 
 being of the same kind and quality with those of 
 Georgia, they would not bring a higher price. Some 
 persons must be losers, and in the first instance this 
 loss must fall on the mercantile interest and monied 
 men. Therefore this superabundance of paper credit, 
 on whose foundation the deluded province built its 
 visionary fabric of great wealth, was not only use- 
 less, but prejudicial with respect to the community. 
 Taper money in such large quantities is the bane of 
 comme-cs, a kind of fictitious wealth, making men 
 by high-sounding language imagine they are worth 
 
 thousands and millions, while a ship's load of it 
 would not procure for the country a regiment of aux- 
 iliary troops in time of war, nor a suit of clothes at 
 an European market in time of peace. Had Ame- 
 rica, from its first settlement, prohibited paper 
 money altogether, its staple commodities must have 
 brought her, in the course of commerce, vast sums 
 of gold/etui sltver, which would have circulated 
 through the continent, and answered all the purposes 
 of trade both foreign and domestic. It is true, the 
 value of gold and Isilver is equally nominal, and 
 rises and falls li)re the value of other articles of 
 commerce, iiupfbportion to the quantity in circula- 
 tion ; but as nations in general have fixed on these 
 metals as the medium of trade, this has served to 
 stamp a value on them, and render them the means 
 not only of procuring every where the necessaries of 
 life, but by supporting public credit, the chief means 
 also of national protection. 
 
 However, some distinction in point of policy 
 should perhaps be made between a colony in its in- 
 fancy, and a nation already possessed of wealth, and 
 in an advanced state of agriculture and commerce, 
 especially while the former is united to, and under 
 the protection of the latter. To a growing colony 
 such as Carolina, paper credit, under certain limi- 
 tations, was useful in several respects ; especially as 
 the gold and silver always left the country, when it 
 answered the purpose of the merchant for remittance 
 better than produce. This credit served to procure 
 the planter strength of hands to clear and cultivate 
 his fields, from which the real wealth of the province 
 arose. Adventurous planters in Carolina, eager to 
 obtain a number of negroes, always stretched their 
 credit with the traders to its utmost pitch ; for as 
 negroes on good lands cleared themselves in a few 
 years, they by this means made an annual addition 
 to their capital stock. After obtaining this credit, 
 it then became their interest to maintain their su 
 periority in assembly, and discharge their debt to 
 the merchants in the easiest manner they could. 
 The increase of paper money always proved to them 
 a considerable assistance, as it advanced the price 
 of those commodities they brought to the market, by 
 which they cancelled their debts with the mer- 
 chants ; so that, however much this currency might 
 depreciate, the loss occasioned by it from time to 
 time fell not on the adventurous planters, but on 
 the merchants and money-lenders, who were obliged 
 to take it in payment of debts or produce, which 
 always arose in price in proportion to its depre- 
 ciation. 
 
 In excuse for increasing provincial paper money, 
 the planters always pleaded the exigencies of the 
 public, such as warlike expeditions, raising fortifi- 
 cations, providing military stores, and maintaining 
 garrisons ; those no doubt rendered the measure 
 sometimes necessary, and often reasonable, but 
 private interest had also considerable weight in 
 adopting it, and carrying it into execution. In the 
 year 1737, a bill of exchange on London for 100/. 
 sterling, sold for 750J. Carolina currency. Of this 
 the merchants might complain, but from this period 
 they had too little weight in the public councils to 
 obtain any redress. The only resource left for them 
 was to raise the price of negroes and British arti- 
 cles of importation, according to the advanced price 
 of produce and bills of exchange. However, the ex- 
 hange again fell to 700/. per cent., at which stand- 
 aid it afterwards remained. 
 
 By this time the colonists of Georgia, after a suf- 
 icient experience, had become fully convinced of 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 the impropriety and folly of that plan of settlement 
 framed by the trustees, which, however well in- 
 tended, was ill adapted to their circumstances, and 
 ruinous to the settlement. In the province of Caro- 
 lina, which lay adjacent, the colonists discovered 
 that there they could obtain lands not only on better 
 terms, but also liberty to purchase negroes to assist 
 in clearing and cultivating them. They found la- 
 bour in the burning climate intolerable, and the 
 dangers and hardships to which they were subjected 
 insurmountable. Instead of raising commodities 
 for exportation, the Georgians, by the labour of 
 several years, were not yet able to raise provisions 
 sufficient to support themselves and families. Under 
 such discouragements, numbers retired to the Caro- 
 lina side of the river, where they had better pros- 
 pects of success, and the magistrates observed the 
 infant colony sinking into ruin, and likely to be 
 totally deserted. The freeholders iu and round Sa- 
 vanna assembled together, and drew up a state of 
 their deplorable circumstances, and transmitted it 
 to the trustees, in which they represented their suc- 
 cess in Georgia as a thing absolutely impossible, 
 without the enjoyment of the same liberties and pri- 
 vileges with their neighbours in Carolina. In two 
 respects they implored relief from the trustees ; they 
 desired a fee-simple or free title to their lands, and 
 liberty to import negroes under certain limitations, 
 without which they declared they had neither en- 
 couragement to labour, nor ability to provide for 
 their posterity. But the colony of Highlanders, in- 
 stead of joiuing in this application, most sensibly 
 and nobly remonstrated against the introduction of 
 slaves. As they lay contiguous to the Spanish do- 
 minions, they were apprehensive that these enemies 
 would entice their slaves from them in time of peace, 
 and in time of war instigate them to rise against 
 their masters. Besides, they considered perpetual 
 slavery as shocking to human nature, and deemed 
 the permission of it as a grievance, and which in 
 some future day might also prove a scourge, and 
 make many feel the misery of that oppression they 
 so earnestly desired to introduce. 
 
 Few persons who arc acquainted with the country 
 will wonder at the complaints of the early settlers in 
 Georgia; for if we consider the climate to which they 
 were sent, and the labours and hardships they had to 
 undergo, we may rather be astonished that any of 
 them survived the first year after their arrival. When 
 James Oglethorpe took possession of this wilderness, 
 the whole was a thick forest, excepting savannas, 
 which are natural plains whure no trees grow, and 
 a few Indian fields, where the savages planted maize 
 for their subsistence. In the province there were 
 the same wild animals, fish, reptiles and insects, 
 which were found in Carolina. The country in the 
 maritime parts was likewise a spacious plain, covered 
 with pine trees, where the lands were barren and 
 sandy ; and with narrow slips of oaks, hickory, cy- 
 press, cane, &c., where the lands were of a better 
 quality. Rains, thunder-storms, hurricanes, and 
 whirlwinds, were equally frequent in the one pro- 
 vince as in the other. Little difference could be 
 perceived in the soil, which in both was barren or 
 swampy ; and the same diseases were common to 
 both. The lands being covered with wood, through 
 which the sea-breezes could not penetrate, there was 
 little agitation in the air, which at some seasons was 
 thick, heavy and foggy, and at others clear, close, 
 and suffocating, both which were most pernicious 
 to health. The air of the swampy land was preg- 
 nant with innumerable noxious qualities, insomuch 
 
 that a more unwholesome climate was not perhaps 
 to be found in the universe. The poor settlers con- 
 sidered this wilderness to which they were brought, 
 to have been designed by nature rather for the habi- 
 tation of wild beasts than human creatures. They 
 found that diseases, or even misfortunes were in 
 effect equally fatal : for though neither of them might 
 prove suddenly mortal, yet either would reduce them 
 to a state in which they might more properly be 
 said to perish than to die. 
 
 Nothing retarded the progress and improvement 
 of these southern settlements more than the inat- 
 tention shown to the natural productions of the soil, 
 and the preference which has commonly been given 
 to articles transplanted from Europe. As Georgia 
 lay so convenient for supplying the West Indies with 
 maize, Indian peas, and potatoes, for which the de- 
 mand was very great, perhaps the first planters could 
 scarcely have turned their attention to more profita- 
 ble articles, but without strength of hands little ad- 
 vantage could be reaped from them. It is true the 
 West Indian Islands would produce such articles, yet 
 the planters would never cultivate them, while they 
 could obtain them by purchase : the lands there 
 suited other productions more valuable ard advan- 
 tageous. Abundance of stock, particularly hogs and 
 black cattle, might have been raised in Georgia for 
 the same market. Lumber was also in demand, and 
 might have been rendered profitable to the province, 
 but nothing could succeed there under the foolish 
 restrictions of the trustees. European grain, such 
 as wheat, oats, barley, and rye, thrived very ill on 
 the maritime parts ; and even silk and wine were 
 found upon trial by no means to answer tbeir expec- 
 tations. The bounties given for raising the latter 
 were an encouragement to the settlers, but either 
 no pains were taken to instruct the people in the 
 proper methods of raising them, or the soil and cli- 
 mate were ill adapted for the purpose. The poor 
 and ignorant planters applied themselves to those 
 articles of husbandry to which probably they had 
 been formerly accustomed, but which poorly re- 
 warded them and left them, after all their toil, in a 
 starved and miserable condition. 
 
 The complaints of the Georgians, however ignorant 
 they might be, ought not to have been entirely dis- 
 regarded by the trustees. Experience suggested 
 those inconveniences and troubles from which they 
 implored relief. The hints they gave certainly ought 
 to have been improved towards correcting errors in 
 the first plan of settlement, and framing another 
 more favourable and advantageous. The honour of 
 the trustees depended on the success and happiness 
 of the settlers, and it was impossible for the people 
 to succeed and be happy without those encourage- 
 ments, and privileges absolutely necessary to the 
 first state of colonization. 
 
 It must be acknowledged, for the credit of the 
 benevolent trustees, that they sent oui these emi- 
 grants to Georgia under several very favourable cir. 
 cumstances. They paid the expenses of their pas- 
 sage, and furnished them with clothes, arms, ammu- 
 nition, and instruments of husbandry. They gave 
 them lands, and bought for some of them cows and 
 hogs to begin their stock. They maintained their 
 families during the first year of their occupancy, or 
 until they should receive some return from their 
 lands. So that if the planters were exposed to ha- 
 zards from the climate, and obliged to undergo la- 
 bour, they certainly entered on their task with se- 
 veral advantages. The taxes demanded, compara- 
 tively speaking, were a mere trifle ; and for their 
 
970 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 encouragement they laboured entirely for themselves, 
 and for some time were favoured with a free and ge- 
 nerous maintenance. 
 
 By this time an account of the great privileges and 
 indulgencies granted by the crown for the encourage- 
 ment of emigration to Carolina, had been published 
 through Britain and Ireland, and many industrious 
 people in different parts had resolved to emigrate. 
 Multitudes oHabourers and husbandmen in Ireland, 
 oppressed by landlords and bishops, and unable by 
 their utmost diligence to procure a comfortable sub- 
 sistence for their families, embarked for Carolina. 
 The first colony of Irish people had lands granted 
 them near Santee river, and formed the settlement 
 called Williamsburgh township. But notwithstand- 
 ing the bounty of the crown, these poor emigrants 
 remained for several years in low and miserable cir- 
 cumstances. The rigours of the climate, joined to 
 the want of precaution, so common to strangers, 
 proved fatal to numbers of them. Having but scanty 
 provisions in the first stage of cultivation, vast num- 
 bers, by their heavy labour, being both debilitated 
 in body, and dejected in spirit, sickened and died in 
 the woods. But as this township received frequent 
 supplies from the same quarter, the Irish settlement, 
 amidst every hardship, increased in number; and 
 at length they applied to the merchants for negroes, 
 who intrusted them with a few, by which means 
 they were relieved from the severest part of the 
 labour, then, by their great diligence and industry, 
 spots of land were gradually cleared, which in the 
 first place yielded them provisions, and in process 
 of time became moderate and fruitful estates. 
 
 Trade obstructed by the Spaniards of Mexico William 
 Bull lieutenant-governor Oglethorpe's regiment 
 tent to Georgia The Spaniards try to seduce the 
 Creeks "Mutiny in Oglethorpe's camp^A negro in- 
 turrection in Carolina A war with Spain A pro- 
 ject for invading Florida General Oglethorpe 
 marches against Florida Invests Augustine Raises 
 the siege A great fire at Charlestown A petition 
 in favour of the rice trade James Glen governor 
 Lord Carteret's property divided from that of the 
 crown The Spaniards invade Georgia III treat- 
 ment of General Oglethorpe Petition for three in- 
 dependent companies. 
 
 For several years before an open rupture took 
 place between Great Britain and Spain, no good 
 understanding subsisted between those two different 
 courts, neither with respect to the privileges of na- 
 vigation on the Mexican seas, nor to the limits be- 
 tween the provinces of Georgia and Florida. On 
 one hand, the Spaniards pretended that they had an 
 exclusive right to some latitudes in the bay of Mex- 
 ico ; and, on the other, though the matter had never 
 been clearly ascertained by treaty, the British mer- 
 chants claimed the privilege of cutting logwood on 
 the bay of Campeachy. This liberty indeed had 
 been tolerated on the part of Spain for several years, 
 and the British merchants, from avaricious motives, 
 had begun a traffic with the Spaniards, and supplied 
 them with goods of English manufacture. To pre- 
 vent this illicit trade, the Spaniards doubled the 
 number of ships stationed in Mexico for guarding 
 the coast, giving them orders to board and search 
 every English vessel found in those seas, to seize on 
 all that carried contraband commodities, and con- 
 fine the sailors. At length not only smugglers, but 
 fair traders were searched and detained, so that all 
 commerce in those seas was entirely obstructed. The 
 British merchants complained to the ministry of 
 
 depredations committed, and damages sustained; 
 which produced one remonstrance after another to 
 the Spanish court ; all which were answered only 
 by evasive promises and delays. The Spaniards 
 flattered 4h-British minister, by telling him, they 
 wouM inquire\nto the occasion of suchr grievances, 
 aiid settle all differences by way of negotiation. Sir 
 Robert Walpole, fond of pacific measures, arid trust- 
 ing to such proposals of accommodation, for several 
 years suffered the grievances of the merchants ti> 
 remain unredressed, and the trade of the nation to 
 suffer great losses. 
 
 In the year 1 738, Samuel Horsley was appointed 
 governor of South Carolina, but he dying before he 
 left England, the charge of the province devolved 
 on William Bull, a man of good natural abilities, 
 and well acquainted with the state of the province. 
 The garrison at Augustine having receired a consi- 
 derable reinforcement, it became the business of the 
 people of Carolina, as well as those of Georgia, to 
 watch the motions of their neighbours. As the Spa- 
 niards pretended a right to that province, they were 
 pouring in troops into Augustine, which gave the 
 British colonists some reason to apprehend they had 
 resolved to assert their right by force of arms. 
 William Bull dispatched advice to England of the 
 growing power of Spain in East Florida, and at the 
 same time acquainted the trustees, that such prepa- 
 rations were making there as evidently portended 
 approaching hostilities. The British ministers were 
 well acquainted with the state of Carolina, from a 
 late representation transmitted by its provincial le- 
 gislature. The trustees for Georgia presented a me- 
 morial to the king, giving an account of the Spanish 
 preparations, and the feeble and defenceless condi- 
 tion of Georgia, and imploring assistance. In con- 
 sequence of which, a regiment of 600 effective men 
 was ordered to be raised, with a view of sendiu- 
 them to Georgia. And James Oglethorpe being ap" 
 pointed major-general of all the forces of the two 
 provinces, had the command of this regiment. 
 
 About the middle of the same year, the Hector, 
 and Blandford ships of war sailed, to convoy the 
 transports which carried General Oglethorpe and his 
 regiment to that province. Forty supernumeraries 
 followed the general to supply the place of such 
 officers or soldiers as might suffer by the change of 
 the climate. Upon the arrival of this regiment, the 
 people of Carolina and Georgia testified their grate- 
 ful sense of his majesty's paternal care in the strong- 
 est terms. The Georgians, who had been for some 
 time harassed with frequent alarms, now found 
 themselves happily relieved, and placed in such cir- 
 cumstances as enabled them to bid defiance to the 
 Spanish power. Parties of the regiment were sent 
 to the different garrisons, and the expense the trus- 
 tees had formerly been at in maintaining them of 
 course ceased. The general held his head-quarters 
 at Frederica, but raised forts on some other islands 
 lying nearer the Spaniards, particularly in Cumber- 
 land and Jekyl islands, in which he also kept gar- 
 risons to watch the motions of his enemies. 
 
 While these hostile preparations were going on, 
 it behoved General Oglethorpe to cultivate the firm- 
 est friendship with the Indian nations, that they 
 might be ready on every emergency to assist him. 
 During his absence the Spaniards had made several 
 attempts to seduce the Creeks, who were much at- 
 tached to Oglethorpe by telling them he was at Au- 
 gustine, and promised them large presents in case 
 they would pay him a visit at that place. Accord- 
 ingly some of their leaders went down there, but cot 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 971 
 
 finding him, they were highly offended, and resolved 
 immediately to return to their nation. The Spanish 
 governor, in order to cover the? fraud, or probably 
 with a design of conveying those leaders out of the 
 way, that they might the more easily corrupt their 
 nation, told them that the general lay sick on board 
 of a ship in the harbour, where he would be ex- 
 tremely glad to see them; but the savages were sus- 
 picious of some evil design, and refused to go, and 
 even rejected their presents and offers of alliance. 
 When they returned to their nation, they found an 
 invitation from General Oglethorpe to all the chief- 
 tains to meet him at Frederica, which plainly dis- 
 covered to them the insidious designs of the Spa- 
 niards, and helped not a little to increase his power 
 and influence among them. A number of their 
 chief warriors immediately set out to meet him at 
 the place appointed, where the general thanked them 
 for their fidelity, made them many valuable presents, 
 and renewed the treaty of friendship and alliance 
 with them. At this congress the Creeks seemed 
 better satisfied than usual, and agreed to march 
 1000 men to the general's assistance whenever he 
 should demand them, and invited him up to see their 
 towns. But as he was then busy, he excused him- 
 self, by promising to visit them next summer, and 
 accordingly dismissed them no less pleased with his 
 kindness, than incensed against the Spaniards for 
 their falsehood and deceit. 
 
 By this time England had resolved to maintain 
 the right of the territories in Georgia, together with 
 the freedom of commerce and navigation in the 
 Mexican seas. The pacific system of Sir Robert 
 Walpole had drawn upon him the displeasure of the 
 nation, particularly of the mercantile part ; and that 
 amazing power and authority he had long maintained 
 began to decline. The spirit of the nation was 
 roused, insomuch that the administration could no 
 longer connive at the depredations and cruelties of 
 Spain. Instructions were sent to the British am- 
 bassador at the court of Madrid, to demand in the 
 most absolute terms a compensation for the injuries 
 of trade, which upon calculation amounted to 200,000*. 
 sterling ; and at the same time a squadron of ten 
 ships of the line, under the command of Admiral 
 Haddock, were sent to the Mediterranean sea. This 
 produced an order from the Spanish court to their 
 ambassador, to allow the accounts of the British 
 merchants, upon condition that the Spanish demand 
 on the South Sea Company be deducted: and that 
 Oglethorpe be recalled from Georgia, and no more 
 employed in that quarter, as he had there made 
 great encroachments on his Catholic majesty's do- 
 minions. These conditions were received at the 
 court of Britain with that indignation which might 
 have been expected from an injured and incensed 
 nation. lu answer to which the Spanish ambassa- 
 dor was given to understand, that the king of Great 
 Britain was determined never to relinquish his right 
 to a single foot of land in the province of Georgia; 
 and that he must allow his subjects to make repri- 
 sals, since satisfaction for their losses in trade could 
 in no other way be obtained ; and in this unsettled 
 situation matters remained for a time. 
 
 In the meanwhile preparations were making both 
 in Georgia and Florida, by raising fortifications on 
 the. borders of the two provinces, to hold each other 
 at defiance. The British soldiers finding themselves 
 subjected to a number of hardships in Georgia, to 
 which they had not been accustomed in Britain, se- 
 veral of them were discontented and ungovernable. 
 At length a plot was discovered in the camp for as- 
 
 sassinating their general. Two companies of the 
 regiment had been drawn from Gibraltar, some of 
 whom could speak the Spanish language. While 
 stationed on Cumberland island, the Spanish out- 
 posts on the other side could approach so near as to 
 converse with the British soldiers, one of whom had 
 even been in the Spanish service, and not only un- 
 derstood their language, but also had so much of a 
 Roman Catholic spirit as to harbour an aversion to 
 Protestant heretics. The Spaniards had found means 
 to corrupt this villain, who debauched the minds of 
 several of his neighbours, insomuch that they united 
 and formed a design first to murder General Ogle- 
 thorpe, and then make their escape to Augustine. 
 Accordingly, on a certain day a number of soldiers 
 under arms came up to the general, and made som 
 extraordinary demands ; which being refused, they 
 instantly set up a shout, and one of them discharged 
 his piece at him ; and being only at the distance of 
 a few paces, the ball whizzed over his shoulder, but 
 the powder singed his clothes, and burnt his face. 
 Another presented his piece, which flashed in the 
 pan; a third drew his hanger, and attempted to 
 stab him, but the general parrying it off, an officer 
 standing by ran the ruffian through the body, and 
 killed him on the spot. Upon which the mutineers 
 fled, but were caught and laid in 'irons. A court- 
 martial was called to try the ringleaders of this des- 
 perate conspiracy, some of whom were found guilty, 
 and were shot. 
 
 Nor was this the only concealed effort of Spanish 
 policy ; another of a more dangerous nature soon 
 followed in Carolina, which might have been at- 
 tended with much more bloody and fatal effects. 
 At this time there were above 40,000 negroes in the 
 province, a fierce and strong race, whose constitu- 
 tions were adapted to the warm climate, whose nerves 
 were braced with constant labour, and who could 
 not be expected to be contented with the oppression, 
 under which they groaned. For a long time liberty 
 and protection had been promised to them by the 
 Spaniards at Augustine, and at different times Spa- 
 nish emissaries had been found secretly tampering 
 with them, and persuading them to fly from slavery 
 to Florida, and several had made their escape to 
 that settlement. Of these negro-refugees the gover- 
 nor of Florida had formed a regiment, appointing 
 officers from among themselves, allowing them the 
 same pay and clothing as the regular Spanish sol 
 diers. The most sensible part of the slaves in Ca- 
 rolina were not ignorant of this Spanish regiment, 
 for whenever they ran away from their masters, 
 they constantly directed their course to this quarter. 
 To no place could negro serjeauts be sent for enlist- 
 ing men where they could have a better prospect of 
 success. Two Spaniards were caught in Georgia, 
 and committed to gaol for enticing slaves to leave 
 Carolina and join this regiment ; and five negroes, 
 who were cattle-hunters at Indian Land, some of 
 whom belonged to Captain M'Pherson, after wound- 
 ing his son. and killing another man, made their 
 escape. Several more attempting to get away were 
 taken, tried, and hanged at Charlestown. 
 
 While Carolina was kept in a state of constant 
 fear and agitation from this quarter, an insurrec- 
 tion openly broke out in the heart of the settlement, 
 which alarmed the whole province. A number of 
 negroes having assembled together at Scono, first 
 surprised and killed two young men in a warehouse, 
 and then plundered it of guns and ammunition. 
 Being thus provided with arms, they elected one of 
 their number captain, and agreed to follow him 
 
972 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 inarching towards the south-west with colours flying 
 and drums beating, like a disciplined company. 
 They forcibly entered the house of Mr. Godfrey, and 
 having murdered him, his wife, and children, they 
 took all the arms he had in it, set fire to the house, 
 and then proceeded towards Jacksonburgh. In their 
 way they plundered and burnt every house, among 
 which were those of Sacheveral, Nash, and Spry, 
 killing every white person they found in them, and 
 compelling the negroes to join them. Goveinor 
 Bull returning to Charlestown from the southward, 
 met them, and observing them armed, quickly rode 
 out of their way. He spread the alarm, which soon 
 reached the Presbyterian church at Wiltown, where 
 Archibald Stobo was preaching to a numerous con- 
 gregation of planters in that quarter. By a law of 
 the province all planters were obliged to carry their 
 arms to church, which at this critical juncture proved 
 a very useful and necessary regulation. The women 
 were left in church trembling with fear, while the 
 militia, under the command of Captain Bee, marched 
 In quest of the negroes, who by this time had become 
 formidable from the number that joined them. They 
 had marched above twelve miles, and spread deso- 
 lation through all the plantations in their way. 
 Having found rum in some houses, and drank freely 
 of it, they halted in an open field, and began to sing 
 and dance, by way of triumph ; but during these 
 ill-timed rejoicings the militia discovered them, anc 
 stationed themselves in different places around them 
 to prevent them from making their escape. The 
 intoxication of several of the slaves favoured the as- 
 sailants. One party advanced into the open field 
 and attacked them, and, having killed some negroes 
 the remainder took to the woods, and were dispersed 
 Many ran back to their plantations, in hopes of es 
 caping suspicion from the absence of their masters 
 but the greater part were taken and tried ; and such 
 as had been compelled to join them contrary to thei 
 inclination were pardoned, but all the chosen leaders 
 and first insurgents suffered death. 
 
 All Carolina was struck with terror by this insur 
 rection, in which above twenty persons were mur 
 dered ; and to which, if it had become general, th 
 whole colony must have fallen a sacrifice. It wa 
 commonly believed, and not without reason, that th 
 Spaniards were deeply concerned in promoting th 
 mischief, and by their secret influence and intrigue 
 with slaves, had instigated them to this rising 
 Having already four companies of negroes in thei 
 service, by penetrating into Carolina, and puttin; 
 the province into confusion, they might no doub 
 have raised many more. But, to prevent furthe 
 attempts, Governor Bull sent an express to Genera 
 Oglethorpe, with advice of the insurrection, desirin 
 him to double his vigilance in Georgia, and seize a' 
 straggling Spaniards and negroes : in consequenc 
 of which a proclamation was issued to stop all slave 
 found in that province, offering a reward for ever 
 one they might catch attempting to escape. At th 
 same time a company of rangers were employed t 
 patrol the frontiers, and block up all the passage 
 by which they might enter Florida. 
 
 In the mean time matters were hastening to 
 rupture in Europe, and a war between England an 
 Spain was thought unavoidable. The plenipoten 
 tiaries appointed for settling the boundaries betwee 
 Georgia and Florida, and other differences and mi 
 understandings subsisting between the two crown 
 had met at Pardo in convention, where preliminar 
 articles were drawn up ; but the conference ended 
 the satisfaction of neither uarty. Indeed the pr 
 
 osal of a negotiation, and the appointment of pie - 
 ipotentiaries, gave universal offence to the people 
 : Britain. The merchants had lost all patience 
 nder their sufferings, and became clamorous for 
 tters- of reprisal, which at length they obtained, 
 ublic credit arose, and forwarded hostile prepara- 
 ons. All officers of the navy and army weie or- 
 ered to) their stations, and with the unanimous 
 oice ofthe nation war was declared against Spain 
 n th/23rd of October, 1739. 
 
 While Admiral Vernon was sent to take the com- 
 mand of a squadron in the West India station, with 
 rders to act offensively against the Spanish do- 
 minions in that quarter, to divide their force, Gene- 
 al Oglethorpe was ordered also to annoy the sub- 
 sets of Spain in Florida, by every method in his 
 ower. In consequence of which, the general im- 
 mediately projected an expedition against the Spa- 
 lish settlement at Augustine. He communicated 
 lis design by letter to Lieutenant-Governor Bull, 
 equesting the support of Carolina. Mr. Bull laid 
 lis letter before the provincial assembly, recom- 
 mending to them to raise a regiment, and give him 
 ill possible assistance in an enterprise of such in- 
 cresting consequence. The assembly, sensible of 
 he vast advantages that must accrue to them from 
 jetting rid of such troublesome neighbours, resolved 
 ,hat so soon as the general should communicate to 
 them his plan of operations, together with a state 
 of the assistance requisite, at the same time making 
 it appear that there was a probability of success, 
 ;hey would most cheerfully assist him. The Caro- 
 "ineans, however, were apprehensive, that as that 
 arrison had proved such a painful thorn in their 
 side in time of peace, they would have more to 
 dread from it in time of war ; and although the 
 colony had been much distressed by the small-pox 
 and the yellow fever for two years past, which had 
 cut off the hopes of many flourishing families ; the 
 people, nevertheless, lent a very favourable ear to the 
 proposal, and earnestly wished to give all the assist- 
 ance in their power towards dislodging an enemy so 
 malicious and cruel. 
 
 In the mean time, General Oglethorpe was indus- 
 trious in picking up all the intelligence he could 
 respecting the situation and strength of the garri- 
 son, and finding it in great straits for want of pro- 
 visions, he urged the speedy execution of his project, 
 with a view to surprise his enemy before a supply 
 should arrive. To concert measures with the greater 
 secrecy and expedition, he went to Charlestown 
 himself, and laid before the legislature of Carolina 
 an estimate of the force, arms, ammunition, and 
 provisions, which he judged might be requisite 
 for the expedition ; and in consequence, the assem- 
 bly voted 1 20,000/. Carolina money, for the service 
 of the war. A regiment, consisting of 400 men, 
 was raised, partly in Virginia and partly in North 
 and South Carolina, with the greatest expedition, 
 and the command was given to Colonel Vanderdus- 
 sen. Indians were sent for from the different tribes 
 in alliance with Britain. Vincent Price, com- 
 mander of the ships of war on that station, agreed 
 to assist with a naval force consisting of four ships 
 of twenty guns each, and two sloops, which proved 
 a great encouragement to the Carolineans, and 
 induced them to enter with double vigour on mili- 
 tary preparations. General Oglethorpe appointed 
 the mouth of St. John's river, on the Florida shore, 
 for the place of rendezvous, and having finished hi 
 preparations in Carolina, set out for Georgia to join 
 his regiment, and make all ready for the expedition 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 973 
 
 On the 9th of May 1740, the general passed over 
 to Florida with 400 select men of his regiment, and 
 a considerable party of Indians ; and on the day 
 following invested Diego, a small fort about '25 
 miles from Augustine, which after a short resistance 
 surrendered by capitulation. In this fort he left a 
 garrison of GO men, under the command of Lieu- 
 tenant Dunbar, and returned to the place of gene- 
 ral rendezvous, where he was joined by Colonel 
 Vanderdussen, with the Carolina regiment and a 
 company of Highlanders, under the command of 
 Captain M'Intosh. But by this time six Spanish 
 half-galleys, with long brass nine pounders, and 
 two sloops loaded with provisions, had got into the 
 harbour at Augustine ; and a few days afterwards, 
 the general marched with his whole force, consisting 
 of above 2000 men, regulars, provincials, and In- 
 dians, to Fort Moosa, situated within two miles of 
 Augustine, which on his approach the Spanish gar- 
 rison evacuated, and retired into the town. He im- 
 mediately ordered the gates of this fort to be burnt, 
 three breaches to be made in its walls, and then 
 proceeded to reconnoitre the town and castle. 
 
 Notwithstanding the dispatch of the British army, 
 the Spaniards, during their stay at Fort Diego, had 
 collected all the cattle in the woods around them, 
 and driven them into the town ; and the general 
 found, both from a view of the works and the intel- 
 ligence he "had received from prisoners, that more 
 difficulty would attend this enterprise than he at 
 first expected. Indeed, if he intended a surprise, 
 he ought not to have stopped at Fort Diego, for by 
 that delay the enemy had notice of his approach, 
 and time to gather their whole force, and put them- 
 selves in a posture of 'defence. The castle was built 
 of soft stone, with four bastions ; the curtain was 60 
 yards in length, the parapet nine feet thick ; the 
 rampart twenty feet high, casemated underneath 
 for lodgings, arched over, and newly made bomb- 
 proof. Fifty pieces of cannon were mounted, several 
 of which were 24-pounders. Besides the castle, the 
 town was intrenched with ten salient angles, on 
 each of which some small cannon were mounted. 
 The garrison consisted of 700 regulars, two troops 
 of horse, four companies of armed negroes, besides 
 the militia of the province, and Indians. 
 
 The general now plainly perceived that an attack 
 by land upon the town, and an attempt to take the 
 castle by storm, would cost him too much, and 
 therefore changed his plan of operations. With 
 the assistance of the ships of war, which were now 
 lying at anchor off Augustine-bar, he resolved to 
 turn the siege into a blockade, and try to shut up 
 every channel by which provisions could be con- 
 veyed to the garrison. For this purpose he left 
 Colonel Palmer with 95 Highlanders and 42 Indians 
 at Fort Moosa, with orders to scour the woods around 
 the town, and intercept all supplies of cattle from the 
 country by land ; and, for the safety of his men, he 
 at the same time ordered him to encamp every night 
 in a different place, to keep strict watch around his 
 camp, and by all means avoid coming to any ac- 
 tion. This small party was the whole force the 
 general left for guarding the land side. He then 
 sent Colonel Vanderdussen with the Carolina regi- 
 ment over a small creek, to take possession of a 
 neck of land called Point Quartel, above a mile dis- 
 tant from the castle, with orders to erect a battery 
 upon it ; while he himself, with his regiment, and 
 the greatest part of the Indians, embarked in boats, 
 and landed on the island of Anastatia. In this 
 island the Spaniards had a small party of men sta- 
 
 tioned for a guard, who immediately fled, and as it 
 lay opposite to the castle from this place, the gene- 
 ral resolved to bombard the town. Captain Pierce 
 stationed one of his ships to guard the passage by 
 way of the Motanzas, and with the others blocked 
 up the mouth of the harbour, so that the Spaniards 
 were cut off from all supplies by sea. On the island 
 of Anastatia batteries were soon erected, and several 
 cannon mounted by the assistance of the active and 
 enterprising sailors. Having made these disposi- 
 tions, General Oglethorpe then summoned the Spa- 
 nish governor to a surrender ; but the haughty Spa- 
 niard, secure in his strong hold, sent him for 
 answer, that he would be glad to shake hands with 
 him in his castle. 
 
 The opportunity of surprising the place being now 
 lost, the English general had no other methofl left 
 but to attack it at a distance : for which purpose he 
 opened his batteries against the castle, and at the 
 same time threw a number of shells into the town. 
 The fire was returned with equal spirit both from 
 the Spanish fort and from six haif-galleys in the 
 harbour, but so great was the distance, that though 
 they continued the cannonade for several days, little 
 execution was done on either side. Captain Warren, 
 a brave naval officer, perceiving that all efforts in 
 this way for demolishing the castle were ineffectual, 
 proposed to destroy the Spanish galleys in the har- 
 bour by an attack in the night, and offered to go 
 himself and head the attempt. A council of war wag 
 held to consider of and concert a plan for that ser- 
 vice ; but upon sounding the bar, it was found it 
 would admit no large ship to the attack, and with 
 small ones it was judged rash and impracticable, 
 the galleys being covered by the cannon of the 
 castle, and therefore that design was dropt. 
 
 In the mean time, the Spanish commander ob- 
 serving the besiegers embarrassed, and their opera- 
 tions beginning to relax, sent out a detachment of 
 300 men against Colonel Palmer, who surprised him 
 at Fort Moosa, and while most of his party lay 
 asleep, cut them almost entirely to pieces. A few 
 that accidentally escaped went over in a small boat 
 to the Carolina regiment at Point Quartel. Some 
 of the Chickesaw Indians coming from that fort 
 having met with a Spaniard, cut off his head, agree- 
 ably to their savage manner of waging war, and 
 presented it to the general in his camp : but he re- 
 jected it with abhorrence, denouncing them as bar- 
 barous, and bidding them begone. At this disdainful 
 behaviour, however, the Chickesaws were offended, 
 declaring, that if they had carried the head of an 
 Englishman to the French, they would not have 
 treated them so : and perhaps the general discovered 
 more humanity than good policy by it, for those 
 Indians, who knew none of the European customs 
 and refinements in war, soon after deserted him. 
 About the same time the vessel stationed at the 
 Metanzas being ordered off, some small ships from 
 the Havannah with provisions, and a reinforcement 
 of men, got into Augustine by that narrow channei, 
 to the relief of the garrison. A party of Creeks 
 having surprised one of their small boats, brought 
 four Spanish prisoners to the general, who informed 
 him that the garrison had received 700 men and a 
 large supply of provisions ; by which, all prospects 
 of starving the enemy being lost, the army began 
 to despair of forcing the place to surrender; and 
 the Carolinean troops, enfeebled by the heat, dis- 
 pirited by sickness, and fatigued by fruitless efforts, 
 marched away in large bodies. The navy being 
 short of provisions, and the usual season of hurri- 
 
974 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 canes approaching, the commander judged it im- 
 prudent to hazard the ships by remaining longer on 
 that coast; and last of all, the general himself, sick 
 of a fever, and his regiment worn out with fatigue, 
 and rendered unfit for action by a flux, with sjofrow 
 and regret followed, and reached Frederica about 
 the 10th of July 1740. 
 
 Thus ended the unsuccessful expedition against 
 Augustine, to the great disappointment of both 
 Georgia and Carolina. Many reflections were after- 
 wards thrown out against General Oglethorpe for 
 his conduct during the whole enterprise ; and per- 
 haps the only chance of success he had from the 
 beginning was by surprising this garrison by some 
 sudden attempt. He was blamed for remaining so 
 long at Fort Diego, by which means the enemy had 
 full intelligence of his approach, and time to pre- 
 pare for receiving him. He was charged with timi- 
 dity afterwards, in making no bold attempt on the 
 town. He indeed used great caution to save his 
 men, for excepting those who fell by the sword in 
 Fort Moosa, he lost more men by sickness than by 
 the hands of the enemy. Though the disaster of 
 Colonel Palmer, in which many brave Highlanders 
 were massacred, was perhaps occasioned chiefly by 
 want of vigilance and a disobedience of orders ; yet 
 many were of opinion that it was too hazardous to 
 have left so small a party on the main land, exposed 
 to sallies from a superior enemy, and entirely cut 
 off from all possibility of support and assistance 
 from the main body. The general, on the other 
 hand, declared he had no confidence in the firmness 
 and courage of the provincials ; for that they re- 
 fused obedience to his orders, and at last abandonee 
 his camp, and retreated. The truth was, the place 
 was so strongly fortified both by nature and art, tha 1 
 probably the attempt must have failed, though il 
 had been conducted by the ablest officer, and exe 
 cuted by the best disciplined troops. The miscar 
 riage, however, was particularly ruinous to Carolina 
 having not only subjected the province to a grea 
 expense, but also left it in a worse situation than i 
 was previous to the attempt. 
 
 The same year stands distinguished in the annal; 
 of Carolina, not only for this unsuccessful expedition 
 against the Spaniards, but also for a desolating con 
 flagration, which in November following broke ou 
 in the capital, and laid half of it in ruins. Thi 
 fire began about two o'clock in the afternoon, an< 
 burnt with unquenchable violence until eight a 
 night; and the houses being built of wood, an< 
 the wind blowing hard at north-west, the flame 
 spread with astonishing rapidity. From Broad-street 
 where the fire kindled, to Granville's Bastion, almos 
 every house was at one time in flames, and the vas 
 quantities of deer-skins, rum, pitch, tar, turpentine 
 and powder in the different stores, very much in 
 creased it. Amidst the cries and shrieks of women 
 and children, and the bursting forth of flames i 
 different quarters, occasioned by the violent wind 
 which carried the burning shingles to a great dis 
 tance, the men were put into confusion, and s 
 anxious were they about the safety of their families 
 that they could not be prevailed upon to unite thei 
 efforts for extinguishing the fire. The sailors from 
 the men of war, and ships in the harbour were th 
 most active and adventurous hands engaged in th 
 service. But such was the violence of the flame 
 that it baffled all the art and power of man, an 
 burnt until the calmness of the evening closed th 
 dreadful scene. Three hundred of the best and mos 
 
 convenient buildings in the town were consumet 
 
 hich, together with loss of goods, and provincial 
 nnmodities, amounted to a prodigious sum. Hap- 
 ily few lives were lost, but the lamentations of 
 uined families were heard in every quarter. In 
 lort, from a flourishing condition the town was re- 
 uced in the space of six hours to the lowest and 
 lost deplorable state ; and all those inhabitants whose 
 ouses/escaped the flames, went round and kindly 
 ivrted their unfortunate neighbours to them, so that 
 wo and three families were lodged in places built 
 nly for the accommodation of one. After the le- 
 islature met, to take the miserable state of the 
 eople under consideration, they agreed to make 
 pplication to England for relief; and the British 
 arliament voted 20,OOOJ. sterling to be distributed 
 mong the sufferers at Charlestown. 
 
 While the war between Great Britain and Spain 
 ontinued, a bill was brought into parliament to pre- 
 ent the exportation of rice, among other articles of 
 revision, to France or Spain, with a view to distress 
 bese enemies as much as possible. In consequence 
 f which, a representation to the following effect, in 
 ehalf of the province of Carolina, and the mer- 
 hants concerned in that trade, was presented to the 
 touse of commons : " The inhabitants of South Ca- 
 olina have not any manufactures of their own, but 
 re supplied from Great Britain with all their cloth- 
 ng, and the other manufactures by them consumed, 
 o the amount of 150,000/. sterling a-year. The 
 jnly commodity of consequence produced in South 
 Carolina is rice, and they reckon it as much their 
 taple commodity as sugar is to Barbadoes and Ja- 
 maica, or tobacco to Virginia and Maryland; so 
 hat if any stop be put to the exportation of rice 
 rom South Carolina to Europe, it will not only 
 render the planters there incapable of paying their 
 debts, but also reduce the government of that pro- 
 vince to such difficulties for want of money, as at this 
 >resent precarious time may render the whole colony 
 an easy prey to their neighbours the Indians and 
 Spaniards, and also to those yet more dangerous 
 enemies their own negroes, who are ready to revolt 
 >n the first opportunity, and are eight times as many 
 n number as there are white men able to bear arms, 
 and the danger in this respect is greater since the 
 unhappy expedition to Augustine. 
 
 " From the year 1729, when his majesty pur- 
 chased South Carolina, the trade of it hath so in- 
 creased, that their annual exports and imports of 
 ate have been double the value of what they were 
 n the said year ; and their exports of rice in parti- 
 cular have increased in a greater proportion: for, 
 from the year 1720 to 1729, being ten years, both in- 
 cluded, the whole export of rice was 264,488 barrels, 
 making 44,081 tons. From the year 1730 to 1739, 
 being also ten years, the whole export of rice was 
 499,525 barrels, making 99,905 tons ; so that the 
 export of the latter ten years exceeded the former by 
 235,037 barrels, or 55,824 tons: and of the vast 
 quantities of rice thus exported, scarcely one-fifteenth 
 part is consumed either in Great Britain or in any 
 part of the British dominions; so that the produce 
 of the other fourteen parts is clear gain to the na- 
 tion ; whereas almost all the sugar, and one-fourth 
 part of the tobacco, exported from the British colo- 
 nies, are consumed by the people of Great Britain, 
 or by British subjects ; from whence it is evident, 
 that the national gain arising from rice is several 
 times as great in proportion, as the national gain 
 arising from either sugar or tobacco. 
 
 " This year, viz. 1740, in particular, we shall ex- 
 port from South Carolina above 90,000 barrels of 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 975 
 
 rice, of which quantity there will not be 3000 barrels 
 used here, so that the clear national gain upon that 
 export will be very great; for at the lowest compu- 
 tation, of 25s. sterling per barrel, the 87,000 barrels 
 exported will amount, in value to 108,750Z. at the 
 first hand ; whereto there must be added the charge 
 of freight, &c. from South Carolina to Europe, which 
 amount to more than the first cost of the rice, and 
 are also gain to Great Britain ; so that the least 
 gain upon this article for the present year will be 
 220,000/., over and above the naval advantage of annu- 
 ally employing more than 160 ships, of 100 tons each. 
 
 " Rice being an enumerated commodity, it can- 
 not be exported from South Carolina without giving 
 bond for double the value that the same shall be 
 landed in Great Britain, or in some of the British 
 plantations, excepting to the southward of Cape 
 Finisterre, which last was permitted by a law made 
 in the 'year 1729; and the motive for such permis- 
 sion was, that the rice might arrive more sea- 
 sonably, and in better condition at market. We 
 have hereunto added an account of the several quan- 
 tities of rice which have been exported from South 
 Carolina to the different European markets since 
 the said law was made; and it will thereby appear, 
 that we have not in those ten years been able to 
 find sale for any considerable quantity of rice in 
 Spain ; for in all that time we have not sold above 
 3570 barrels to the Spaniards, making only 357 
 barrels annually upon a medium ; nor can we in the 
 time to come expect any alteration in favour of our 
 rice trade there, because the Spaniards are supplied 
 with an inferior sort of rice from Turkey, &c. equally 
 agreeable to them, and a great deal cheaper than 
 ours, the truth whereof appears by the rice taken 
 in a ship called the Baltic Merchant, and carried 
 into St. Sebastians, where it was sold at a price so 
 much under the market rate here, or in Holland 5 as 
 to encourage the sending of it thence to Holland 
 and Hamburgh. 
 
 " In France the importation of Carolina rice 
 without licence is prohibited; and though during 
 the last and present years there hath, by permission, 
 been some consumption of it there, yet the whole 
 did not exceed 9000 barrels, and they have received 
 from Turkey so much rice of the present year's 
 growth, as to make that commodity five shillings 
 per lOOlb. cheaper at Marseilles than here, and even 
 at Dunkirk it is one shilling and sixpence per 100If. 
 cheaper than here; so that there is not any prospect 
 of a demand for Carolina rice in France, even if 
 liberty could be obtained for sending the same to 
 any port of that kingdom. 
 
 " Germany and Holland are the countries where 
 we find the best market for our rice, and there the 
 greater part of it is consumed ; so that the present 
 intended embargo, or prohibitory law, cannot have 
 any other effect, in relation to rice, than that of 
 preventing our allies from using what our enemies 
 do not want, nor we ourselves consume more than 
 a twentieth part of, and which is of so perishable a 
 nature, that even in a cold climate it doth not keep 
 above a year without decaying, and in a warm cli- 
 mate it perishes entirely. The great consumption 
 of rice in Germany and Holland is during the winter 
 season, when peas and all kinds of pulse, &c. are 
 scarce; and the rice intended for those markets 
 ought to be brought there before the frost begins, 
 time enough to be carried up the rivers ; so that 
 preventing the exportation only a few days may be 
 attended with this bad consequence, that by the 
 frost the winter sale may be lost. 
 
 " And as we have now, viz. since November llth, 
 above 10,000 barrels of old rice arrived, so we may 
 in a few weeks expect double that quantity, besides 
 the new crop now shipping off from Carolina ; the 
 stopping of all which, in a country where there is 
 not any sale for it, instead of permitting the same 
 to be carried to the only places of consumption, 
 must soon reduce the price thereof to so low a rate, 
 that the merchants who have purchased that rice 
 will not be able to sell it for the prime cost, much 
 less will they be able to recover the money they 
 have paid for duty, freight, and other charges thereon, 
 which amount to double the first cost : for the rice 
 that 1001. sterling will purchase in South Carolina, 
 costs the importer 2001. more in British duties, 
 freight, and other charges. 
 
 " Thus it appears, that by prohibiting the expor . 
 tation of rice from this kingdom, the merchants who 
 have purchased the vast quantities before mentioned 
 will not only lose the money it cost them, but twice 
 as much more in duties, freight, and other charges, 
 by their having a perishable commodity embargoed 
 in a country where it is not used. Or if, instead of 
 laying the prohibition here, it be laid in South Ca- 
 rolina; that province, the planters there, and the 
 merchants who deal with them, must all be involved 
 in ruin ; the province, for want of means to support 
 the expense of government; the planters, for want 
 of the means to pay their debts and provide future 
 supplies; and the merchants, by not only losing 
 those debts, but twice as much more in the freight, 
 duties, and other charges upon rice which they can- 
 not sell. So that, in either case, a very profitable 
 colony, and the merchants concerned in the trade 
 of it, would be ruined for the present, if not totally 
 lost to this kingdom, by prohibiting the exportation 
 of rice; and all this without doing any national 
 good in another way, for such prohibition could not 
 in any shape distress our enemies. It is therefore 
 humbly hoped, that rice will be excepted out of the 
 bill now before the honourable house of commons." 
 As this representation contains a distinct account 
 of the produce and trade of the province, and shows 
 its usefulness and importance to Great Britain, we 
 judged it worthy of the particular attention of our 
 readers, and therefore have inserted it. 
 
 The following is an account of the rice exported 
 in the first ten years, after the province was pur- 
 chased for the king : 
 
 Barrels. 
 
 To Portugal 83,379 
 
 To Gibraltar 958 
 
 To Spain 3,570 
 
 To France 9,500 
 
 To Great Britain, Ireland, and the Bri- 
 tish plantations 30,000 
 
 To Holland, Hamburgh, and Bremen, 
 including 7000 barrels to Sweden and 
 Denmark 372,118 
 
 Total quantity exported in the ten years 499,525 
 About this time James Glen received a commis- 
 sion from his majesty, investing him with the go- 
 vernment of South Carolina, and at the same time 
 was appointed colonel of a new regiment of foot, to 
 be raised in the province. He was a man of consi- 
 derable knowledge, and of very courteous manners; 
 but exceedingly fond of military parade, which com- 
 monly has great force on ordinary minds, and by 
 these means he maintained his dignity and impor- 
 tance in the eyes of the people. His council, con- 
 sisting of twelve men, were appointed also by tb 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 king, under his sign manual ; and the assembly of 
 representatives consisted of 44 members, and were 
 elected every third year by the freeholders of sixteen 
 parishes. The court of chancery was composed of 
 the governor and council, to which court belonged 
 a master of chancery and a register. There was 
 also a court of vice-admiralty, the judge, register and 
 marshal of which were appointed by the lords com- 
 missioners of the admiralty in England. The court 
 of King's Bench consisted of a chief-justice ap- 
 pointed by the king, who sat with some assistant 
 justices of the province ; and the same judges con- 
 stituted the court of Common Pleas. There were 
 likewise an attorney-general, a clerk, and provost- 
 marshal. The secretary of the province, who was 
 also register, the surveyor-general of the lands, and 
 the receiver-general of the quit-rents were all ap- 
 pointed by the crown. The comptroller of the cus- 
 toms, and three collectors, at the ports of Charles- 
 towu, Port-royal, and George-town, were appointed 
 by the commissioners of the customs in England. 
 The provincial treasurer was appointed by the gene- 
 ral assembly. The clergy were elected by the free- 
 holders of the parish. All justices of the peace, and 
 otiirers of the militia, were appointed by the gover- 
 nor in council. Such at this time was the nature of 
 the provincial government and constitution. 
 
 About the same time John, Lord Carteret (then 
 earl of Granville,) applied by petition to his majesty, 
 praying that the eighth part of the lands and soil 
 granted by King Charles, and reserved to him by 
 the act of parliament establishing an agreement 
 with the other seven lords proprietors for the sur- 
 render of their title and interest to his majesty, might 
 be set apart and allotted to him and his heirs for 
 ever, and proposing to appoint persons to divide the 
 same ; at the same time offering to resign to the 
 king his share of, and interest in the government, 
 and to release and confirm to his majesty, and his 
 heirs, the other seven parts of the province. This 
 petition being referred to the lords commissioners of 
 trade and plantations, they reported, that it would 
 be for his majesty's service that Lord Carteret's pro- 
 perty should be separated from that of his majesty, 
 and that the method proposed by his lordship would 
 be the most proper and effectual for the purpose. 
 Accordingly five commissioners were appointed on 
 the part of the king, and five on that of Lord Car- 
 teret, for separating his lordship's share, and mak- 
 ing it one entire district by itself. The territory 
 allotted him was divided on the north-east by the 
 line which separated North Carolina from Virginia; 
 on the east by the Atlantic ocean ; on the south by 
 a point on the sea-shore, in latitude 35 degrees and 
 34 minutes ; and, agreeable to the charter, westward 
 from these points on the sea-shore it extended, in a 
 line parallel to the boundary line of Virginia, to the 
 Pacific Ocean. Not long afterwards, a grant of the 
 eighth part of Carolina, together with all yearly 
 rents and profits arising from it, passed the great 
 seal, to John, Lord Carteret and his heirs. But the 
 power of making laws, calling and holding assem- 
 blies, erecting courts of justice, appointing judges 
 and justices, pardoning criminals, granting titles 
 of honour, making ports and havens, taking customs 
 .or duties on goods, executing the martial law, exer- 
 cising the royal rights of a county Palatine, or any 
 other prerogatives relating to the administrations of 
 government, were all excepted out of the grant. 
 Lord Carteret was to hold this estate upon condition 
 of yielding and paying to his majesty, and his heirs 
 and successors, the annual rent of II. 13*. 4d., on the 
 
 feast of All Saints, for ever, and also one-fourth 
 :>art of all the gold and silver ore found within thia 
 jighth part of the territory so separated and granted 
 lira. 
 
 As Carolina abounds with navigable rivers, while 
 t enjoys many advantages for commerce and trade, 
 t is also much exposed to foreign invasions. The 
 tide on that coast flows from six to ten feet perpen- 
 dicular, and makes its way up into the Hat country 
 ay a variety of channels. 'All vessels that draw no't 
 above seventeen feet water, may safely pass over the 
 jar of Charlestown, which at spring-tides will admit 
 ships that draw eighteen feet. This bar lies in 32 
 degrees and 40 minutes north latitude, and 78 de- 
 rees and 45 minutes west longitude from London. 
 Its situation is variable, owing to a sandy foundation 
 and the rapid flux and reflux of the sea. The channel 
 leading to George-town is twelve or thirteenJeetdeep, 
 and likewise those of North and South Edisto rivers, 
 and will admit all ships that draw not above ten or 
 eleven feet of water. At Stono there is also a large 
 creek, which admits vessels of the same draught of 
 waler; but Sewee and Sautee rivers, and many 
 others of less note, are for smaller craft, which draw 
 seven, eight, or nine feet. The channel up to Port- 
 royal harbour is deep enough for the largest ships 
 hat sail on the sea ; and the whole royal navy of 
 England might ride with safety in it ; and it is ad- 
 mirably ordained for trade and commerce. 
 
 Several leagues to the southward of Port-royal, 
 Savanna river empties itself into the ocean, which 
 is also navigable for ships that draw not above four- 
 teen feet water. At the southern boundary of Georgia 
 the great river Alatamaha falls into the Atlantic sea, 
 about sixteen leagues north-east of Augustine, which 
 lies in 29 degrees 50 minutes. This river admits 
 ships of large burden as far as Frederica, a small 
 town built by General Oglethorpe, on an eminence 
 in Simon's island. The island on the west end is 
 washed by a branch of the river Alatamaha, before 
 it empties itself into the sea at Jekyl sound. At 
 Frederica the river forms a kind of bay. The fort 
 General Oglethorpe erected here for the defence of 
 Georgia had several eighteen-pounders mouu ted on it, 
 and commanded the river both upwards and down- 
 wards. It was built with four bastions, surrounded 
 by a quadrangular rampart, and a palisadoed ditch, 
 which included also the king's stores, and two large 
 buildings of brick and timber. The town was sur- 
 rounded with a rampart, in the form of a pentagon, 
 with flankers of the same thickness with that at the 
 fort, and a dry ditch. On this rampart several pieces 
 of ordnance were also mounted. In this situation 
 General Oglethorpe had pitched his camp, which 
 was divided into streets, distinguished by the names 
 of the several captains of his regiment. Their little 
 huts were built of wood, and constructed for holding 
 each four or five men. At some distance from Fre- 
 derica was the colony of Highlanders, situated on 
 the same river, a wild and intrepid race, living in 
 a state of rural freedom and independence. Their 
 settlement being near the frontiers, afforded them 
 abundance of scope for the exercise of their warlike 
 temper ; and having received one severe blow from 
 the garrison at Augustine, they seemed to long for 
 an opportunity of revenging the massacre of their 
 friends. 
 
 The time was fast approaching for giving them 
 what they desired. For although the territory 
 granted by the second charter to the proprietors at 
 Carolina extended far to the south-west of the river 
 Alatamaha, the Spaniards had never relinquished 
 
UNITED STATES 
 
 their pretended claim to the province of Georgia 
 Their ambassador at the British court had even de 
 clared that his Catholic majesty would as soon pan 
 with Madrid as his claim *to that territory. The 
 squadron commanded by Admiral Vernon had foi 
 some time occupied their attention in the West In 
 dies so much, that they could spare none of tbei 
 forces to maintain their supposed right ; but n< 
 sooner had the greatest part of the British fleet lef 
 those seas, and returned to England, than they im- 
 mediately turned their eyes to Georgia, and began 
 to make preparations for dislodging the English set- 
 tlers in that province. Finding that threats coulc 
 not terrify General Oglethorpe to a compliance with 
 their demands, an armament was prepared at the 
 Havanna to go against him, and expel him by force 
 of arms from their frontiers. With this view 2000 
 forces, commanded by Don Antonio de Rodondc 
 embarked at the Havanna, under the convoy of a 
 strong squadron, and arrived at Augustine in May 
 1742. 
 
 But before this formidable fleet and armament hac 
 reached Augustine, they were observed by Captain 
 Haymer, of the Flamborough man-of-war, who was 
 cruising on that coast ; and advice was immediately 
 sent to General Oglethorpe of their arrival in Flo- 
 rida. Georgia now began to tremble in her turn. 
 The general sent intelligence to Governor Glen at 
 Carolina, requesting him to collect all the forces he 
 could with the greatest expedition, and send them 
 to his assistance ; and at the same time to dispatch 
 a sloop to the West Indies, to acquaint Admiral 
 Vernon with the intended invasion. 
 
 Carolina by this time had found great advantage 
 from the settlement of Georgia, which had proved 
 an excellent barrier to that province, against the 
 incursions of Spaniards and Spanish Indians. The 
 southern parts being rendered secure by the regi- 
 ment of General Oglethorpe in Georgia, the lands 
 backward of Port-royal had become much in demand, 
 and rose to four times their former value. But though 
 the Carolineans were equally interested with their 
 neighbours in the defence of Georgia, having little 
 confidence in General Oglethorpe's military abilities, 
 since his unsuccessful expedition against Augustine ; 
 the planters, struck with terror, especially those 
 on the southern parts, deserted their habitations, 
 and flocked to Charlestown with their families and 
 effects. Many of the inhabitants of Charlestown, 
 being prejudiced against the general, declared 
 against sending him any assistance, and determined 
 rather to fortify their town, and stand upon their 
 own grounds in a posture of defence. 
 
 In the mean time General Oglethorpe was making 
 all possible preparations at Frederica for a vigorous 
 defence. Message after message was sent to his 
 Indian allies, who were greatly attached to him, 
 and crowded to his camp. A company of High- 
 landers joined him on the first notice, and seemed 
 joyful at the opportunity of retorting Spanish ven- 
 geance on their own heads. With his regiment and 
 a few rangers, Highlanders, and Indians, the gene- 
 ral fixed his head-quarters at Frederica, never doubt- 
 ing a reinforcement from Carolina, and expecting 
 their arrival every day ; but in the mean time de- 
 termined, in case* he should be attacked, to sell his 
 life as dear as possible in defence of the province. 
 
 About the end of June 1742, the Spanish fleet, 
 amounting to 32 sail, and carrying above 3000 men, 
 under the command of Don Manuel de Monteano, 
 came to anchor off Simons's bar. Here they con- 
 tinued for some time sounding the channel, and after 
 HIST. OF AMER.-NOS. 123 & 124. 
 
 finding a depth of water sufficient to admit their 
 ships, they came in with the tide of flood into Jekyl 
 sound. General Oglathorpe, who was at Simons's 
 fort, fired at them as they passed the sound, which 
 the Spaniards returned from their ships, and pro- 
 ceeded up the river Alatamaha, out of the reach of 
 his guns. There the enemy, having hoisted a red 
 flag at the mizen top-mast head of the largest ship, 
 landed their forces upon the island, and erected a 
 battery, with twenty eighteen-pounders mounted on 
 it. Among their land-forces they had a fine com- 
 pany of artillery, under the command of Don An- 
 tonio de Rodondo, and a regiment of negroes. The 
 negro commanders were clothed in lace, bore the 
 same rank with white officers, and with equal free- 
 dom and familiarity walked and conversed with their 
 commander and chief. Such an example might 
 justly have alarmed Carolina. For should the enemy 
 penetrate into that province, where there were such 
 numbers of negroes, they would soon have acquired 
 such a force as must have rendered all opposition 
 fruitless and ineffectual. 
 
 General Oglethorpe having found that he could 
 not stop the progress of the enemy up the river, and 
 judging his situation at Fort Simons too dangerous, 
 nailed up the guns, burst the bombs and cohorns, 
 destroyed the stores, and retreated to his head- 
 quarters at Frederica. So great was the force of 
 the enemy, that he resolved to act only on the de- 
 fensive. On all sides he sent out scouting parties to 
 watch the motions of the Spaniards, while the main 
 body were employed in working at the fortifications, 
 making them as strong as circumstances would 
 admit. Day and night he kept his Indian allies 
 ranging through the woods, to harass the outposts 
 of the enemy, who at length brought in five Spa- 
 nish prisoners, who informed him of their number 
 and force, and that the govennor of Augustine was 
 commander-in-chief of the expedition. The general, 
 still expecting a reinforcement from Carolina, used 
 all his address in planning measures for gaining 
 time, and preventing the garrison from sinking into 
 despair. For this purpose ha sent out the Highland 
 company also to assist the Indians, and obstruct as 
 much as possible the approach of the enemy till he 
 should obtain assistance and relief. His provisions 
 for the garrison were neither good nor plentiful, 
 and his great distance from all settlements, together 
 with the enemy keeping the command of the river, 
 cut off entirely all prospects of a supply. To pro- 
 long the defence, however, he concealed every dis- 
 couraging circumstance from his little army, which, 
 besides Indians, did not amount to more than 700 
 men ; and to animate them to perseverance, exposed 
 himself to the same hardships and fatigues with the 
 meanest soldier in his garrison. 
 
 While Oglethorpe remained in this situation, the 
 enemy made several attempts to pierce through the 
 woods, with a view to attack the fort ; but met with 
 such opposition from the morasses and thickets, 
 ivhich were lined with fierce Indians and wild High- 
 anders, that they honestly confessed that the devil 
 limself could not pass through them to Frederica. 
 Don Manuel de Monteano, however, had no other 
 irospect left, and these difficulties must either be 
 surmounted, or the design dropt; and therefore one 
 >arty after another was sent out to explore the 
 hickets, and to take possession of every advan- 
 ageous post to be found in them. In two skirmishes 
 with the Highlanders and Indians, the enemy had 
 ne captain and two lieutenants killed, with above 
 00 men taken prisoners. After which the Spanish 
 
 4M 
 
978 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 commander changed his plan of operations, and 
 keeping his men under cover of his cannon, pro- 
 ceeded with some galleys up the river with the tide 
 of flood, to reconnoitre the fort and draw the gene- 
 ral's attention to another quarter. To this place 
 Oglethorpe sent a party of Indians, with orders to 
 lie in ambuscade in the woods, and endeavour to 
 pro"ent their landing. About the same time an 
 English prisoner escaped from the Spanish camp, 
 and brought advice to General Oglethorpe of a dif- 
 ference subsisting in it, in so much that the forces 
 from Cuba, and those from Augustine encamped in 
 separate places. Upon which the general resolved 
 to attempt a surprise on one of the Spanish camps, 
 and taking the advantage of his knowledge of the 
 woods, marched out in the night with 300 chosen 
 men, the Highland company, and some rangers. 
 Having advanced within two miles of the enemy's 
 camp he halted, and went forward with a small 
 party to take a view of the posture of the enemy. 
 But while he wanted above all things to conceal his 
 approach, a Frenchman fired his musket, ran off, 
 and alarmed the enemy. Upon which, Oglethorpe 
 finding his design defeated, retreated to Frederica, 
 and being apprehensive that the deserter would 
 discover his weakness, began to study by what de- 
 vice he might most effectually defeat the credit of 
 his informations. For this purpose he wrote a letter, 
 addressing it to the deserter, in which he desired 
 him to acquaint the Spaniards with the defenceless 
 state of Frederica, and how easy and practicable it 
 would be to cut him and his small garrison to pieces. 
 He begged him, as his spy, to bring them forward 
 to the attack, and assure them of success ; but if he 
 could not prevail with them to make that attempt, 
 to use all his art and influence to persuade them to 
 stay at least three days more at Fort. Simons, for 
 within that time, according to the advice he had 
 just received from Carolina, he would have a rein- 
 forcement of 2000 land-forces, and six British ships 
 of war, with which he doubted not he would be able 
 to give a good account of the Spanish invaders. He 
 entreated the deserter to urge them to stay, and 
 above all things cautioned him against mentioning 
 a single word of Vernou coming against Augustine, 
 assuring him that for such services he should be 
 amply rewarded by his Britannic majesty. This 
 letter he gave to one of the Spanish prisoners, who 
 for the sake of liberty and a small reward, promised 
 to deliver it to the French deserter ; but instead of 
 that, as Oglethorpe expected, he delivered it to the 
 commander-in-chief of the Spanish army. 
 
 Various were the speculations and conjectures 
 which this letter occasioned in the Spanish camp, 
 and the^coinmander, among others, was not a little 
 perplexed what to infer from it.. In the first place 
 he ordered the French deserter to be put in irons 
 to prevent his escape, and then called a council of 
 war, to consider what was most proper to be done 
 in consequence of intelligence so puzzling and 
 alarming. Some officers were of opinion that the 
 letter was intended to deceive, and to prevent them 
 from attacking Frederica ; others thought that the 
 things mentioned in it appeared so feasible, that 
 there were good grounds to believe the English 
 general wished them to take place, and therefore 
 gave their voice for consulting the safety of Augus- 
 tine, and dropping a plan of conquest attended with 
 so many difficulties, and which, in the issue, might 
 perhaps hazard the loss of both army and fleet, if 
 not of the whole province of Florida. While the 
 Spanish leaders were employed in these delibera- 
 
 tions, and much embarrassed, fortunately three ships 
 of force which the governor of South Carolina hud 
 sent out, appeared at some distance on the coast. 
 This corresponding with the letter, convinced the 
 Spanish commander of its real intent, and struck 
 such a panic into the army, that they immediately 
 set fire to their fort, and in great hurry and con- 
 fusion embarked, leaving behind them several can- 
 non, and a quantity of provisions and military 
 stores. The wind being contrary, the English ships 
 could not, during that day, beat up to the mouth of 
 the river, and before next morning the invaders got 
 past them, and escaped to Augustine. 
 
 In this manner was the province of Georgia de- 
 livered, when brought to the very brink of destruc- 
 tion by a formidable enemy. Fifteen days had Don 
 Manuel de Monteano been on the small island on 
 which Frederica was situated, without gaining the 
 smallest advantage over a handful of men, and in 
 different skirmishes lost some of his bravest troops. 
 What number of men Oglethorpe lost we have not 
 been able to learn, but it must have been very in- 
 considerable. In this resolute defence of the country 
 he displayed both military skill and personal cou- 
 rage, and an equal degree of praise was due to him 
 from the Carolineans as from the Georgians. It is 
 not improbable that the Spaniards had Carolina 
 chiefly in thei; eye, and had meditated an attack 
 where rich plunder could have been obtained, and 
 where, by an accession of slaves, they might have 
 increased their force in proportion to their progress. 
 Never did the Carolineans make so bad a figure in 
 defence of their country. When union, activity, 
 and dispatch were so requisite, they ingloriously 
 btood at a distance, and suffering private pique to 
 prevail over public spirit, seemed determined to risk 
 the safety of their country, rather than General 
 Oglethorpe, by their help, should gain the smallest 
 degree of honour and reputation. Money, indeed, 
 they voted for the service, and at length sent some 
 ships, but by coming so late, they proved useful 
 rather from the fortunate co-operation of an acci- 
 dental cause, than from the zeal and public spirit of 
 the people. The Georgians with justice blamed 
 their more powerful neighbours, who, by keeping 
 at a distance in the day of danger, had almos: 
 hazarded the loss of both provinces. Had the enern ; 
 pursued their operations with vigour and courage, 
 the province of Georgia must have fallen a prey t> 
 the invaders, and Carolina had every thing to drea 1 
 in consequence of the conquest. Upon the retun 
 of the Spanish troops to the Havannah, the com- 
 mander was imprisoned, and ordered to take his trial 
 for his conduct during this expedition, the result 
 of which proved so shameful and ignominious to 
 the Spanish arms. Though the enemy threatened 
 to renew the invasion, yet we donot find that after 
 this repulse they made any attempts by force of arms 
 to gain possession of Georgia. 
 
 The Carolineans having had little or no share of 
 the glory gained by this brave defence, were also 
 divided in their opinions with respect to the conduct 
 of General Oglethorpe. While one party acknow- 
 ledged his signal services, and poured out the highest 
 encomiums on his wisdom and courage, another 
 shamefully censured his conduct, and meanly de- 
 tracted from his merit; and no one took any public 
 notice of his services, except the inhabitants iu and 
 about Port-royal, who presented him with a congra- 
 tulatory address. 
 
 But at the same time reports were circulating 
 in Charlestown to his prejudice-, insomuch that botii 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 979 
 
 his honour and honesty were called in question 
 Such malicious rumours had even reached London 
 and occasioned some of his bills to return to Ame 
 rica protested. Lieutenant-Colonel William Cook 
 who owed his preferment to the general's particula: 
 friendship and generosity, and who, on pretence o 
 sickness, had left Georgia before this invasion, hac 
 filed no less than nineteen articles of complain; 
 against him, summoning several officers and soldiers 
 from Georgia to prove the charge. As the genera 
 had, in fact, stretched his credit, exhausted his 
 strength, and risked his life for the defence of Caro- 
 lina in its frontier colony, such a recompense must 
 have been equally mortifying as it was unmerited 
 The charges brought by envy and malice he might 
 have treated with contempt ; but to vindicate him- 
 self against the attacks of an inferior officer, he 
 thought himself bound in honour to return to Eng- 
 land. 
 
 Soon after his arrival there, a court-martial ol 
 general officers was called, who sat two days at the 
 Horse Guards, and after the most mature delibera- 
 tion, the board adjudged the charge to be false, 
 malicious, and groundless, and reported the same to 
 his majesty. In consequence of which, Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Cook was dismissed from the service, and 
 declared incapable of serving his majesty in any 
 military capacity whatever. 
 
 After this period General Oglethorpe never re 
 turned to the province of Georgia, but upon all oc- 
 casions discovered in England an uncommon zeal 
 for its prosperity and improvement. From its first 
 settlement the colony had hitherto been under a 
 military government, executed by the general and 
 such officers as he thought proper to nominate and 
 appoint. But now the trustees established a kind of 
 civil government, and committed the charge of it to 
 a president and four assistants, who were to act by 
 certain instructions which they should receive from 
 them, and to be accountable to that corporation for 
 their public conduct. William Stephens was made 
 chief magistrate, and Thomas Jones, Henry Parker, 
 John Fallowfield, and Samuel Mercer, were ap- 
 pointed assistants. They were instructed to hold 
 four general courts at Savanna every year, for re- 
 gulating public affairs, and determining all differ- 
 ences relating to private property. No public money 
 could be disposed of but by a warrant under the 
 seal of the president and major part of the assistants 
 in council assembled, who were enjoined to send 
 monthly accounts to England of money expended, 
 and of the particular services to which it was ap- 
 plied. All officers of militia were continued, for the 
 purpose of holding musters, and keeping the men 
 properly trained for military services ; and Ogle- 
 thorpe's regiment "was left in the colony for its 
 defence. 
 
 By this time the trustees had transported to Geor- 
 gia, at different times, above 1500 men, women, and 
 children. As the colony was intended as a barrier 
 to Carolina, by their charter the trustees were at 
 first laid under several restraints with respect to the 
 method of granting lands, as well as the settlers 
 with respect to the terms of holding and disposing 
 of them. But it was now found expedient to relieve 
 both the former and latter from these impolitic re- 
 strictions. Under the care of General Oglethorpe 
 the infant province had surmounted many difficul- 
 ties, yet still it promised a poor recompense to 
 Britain for the vast sums of money expended for its 
 protection. The indigent emigrants, especially those 
 from England, baring little acquaintance with hus- 
 
 bandry, and less inclination to labour, made bad 
 settlers; and as greater privileges were allowed 
 them on the Carolina side of the river, they were 
 easily decoyed away to that colony. The High- 
 landers and Germans indeed, being more frugal and 
 industrious, succeeded better, but hitherto had made 
 very small progress, owing partly to wars with the 
 Spaniards, and to severe hardships attending all 
 kinds of culture in such an unhealthy climate and 
 woody country. The staple commodities intended 
 to be raised in Georgia were silk and wine, which 
 were indeed very profitable articles; but so small 
 was the improvement made in them, that they had 
 hitherto turned out to little account* The most in- 
 dustrious and successful settlers could as yet scarcely 
 provide for their families, and the unfortunate, the 
 sick, and indolent part, remained in a destitute 
 condition. ... .^ 
 
 Soon after r the departure of General Oglethorpe, 
 the Carolineans petitioned the king, praying that 
 three independent companies, consisting each of 
 100 men, might be raised in the colonies, paid by 
 Great Britain, and stationed in Carolina, to be en- 
 tirely under the command of the governor and coun- 
 cil of that province. This petition was referred to 
 the lords of his majesty's privy-council, and a time 
 appointed for considering whether the present state 
 of Carolina was such as rendered this additional 
 charge to the nation proper and necessary. Two 
 reasons were assigned by the colonists for the ne- 
 cessity of this military force : the first was, to pre- 
 serve peace and security at home; the second, to 
 protect the colony against foreign invasions. They 
 alleged, that as the country was overstocked with 
 negroes, such a military force was requisite to sub- 
 ject them and prevent insurrections; and as the 
 coast was so extensive, and the ports lay exposed to 
 every French and Spanish plunderer that might at 
 any time invade the province, their security against 
 such attempts was of the highest consequence to the 
 nation. But though they afterwards obtained some 
 ndependent companies, the privy-council at that 
 ;ime denied their request, declaring that it belonged 
 ;o the provincial legislature to make proper laws for 
 imiting the importation of negroes, and regulating 
 and restraining them when imported ; rather than 
 )ut the mother-country to the expense of keeping a 
 tanding force in the province to overawe them : 
 hat Georgia, and the Indians on the Apalachian 
 lills, were a barrier against foreign enemies on the 
 western frontiers ; that Fort Johnson, and the for- 
 ifications in Charlestown, were a sufficient protec- 
 ion for that port; besides, that as the entrance over 
 he bar was so difficult to strangers, before a foreign 
 enemy could land 500 meo in that town, half the 
 militia in the province might be collected for its 
 defence. George-town and Port-royal indeed were 
 exposed, but the inhabitants being both few in 
 number and poor, it could not be worth the pains 
 and risk of a single privateer to look into those 
 larbours. For which reasons it was judged that 
 Carolina could be in little danger till a foreign 
 enemy had possession of Georgia; and therefore it 
 was agreed to maintain Oglethorpe's regiment in 
 that settlement complete ; and give orders to the 
 commandant to send detachments to the forts in 
 James's Island, Port-royal, and such other places 
 where their service might be thought useful and 
 necessary to the provincial safety and defence. 
 
 The plan of settling townships, especially as it 
 ame accompanied with the royal bounty, had proved 
 icneficial to the colony iu many respects. It eu. 
 
 4M2 
 
980 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA 
 
 eouraged multitudes of poor people to emigrate from 
 Ireland, Holland, and Germany, by which means 
 the province received a number of frugal and in- 
 dustrious settlers. As many of them came from 
 manufacturing towns in Europe, it might have been 
 expected that they would naturally have pursued 
 those occupations to which they had been bred, and 
 in which their chief skill consisted ; but this was 
 not the case ; for excepting a few of them that took 
 up their residence in Charlestown, they procured 
 lands, applied to pasturage and agriculture, and by 
 raising hemp, wheat, and maize, in the interior 
 parts of the country, and curing hams, bacon, and 
 beef, they supplied the market with abundance of 
 provision, while at the same time they found that 
 they had taken the shortest way of arriving at easy 
 and independent circumstances. 
 
 Indeed, while such vast territories in Carolina 
 remained unoccupied, it was neither for the interest 
 of the province, nor that of the mother-country, to 
 employ any hands in manufactures. So long as 
 labour bestowed on lands was most profitable, no 
 prudent colonist would direct his attention or strength 
 to any other employment, especially as the mother- 
 country could supply him with all kinds of manu- 
 factures at a much cheaper rate than he could make 
 them. The surplus part of British commodities and 
 manufactures for which there was no vent in Bri- 
 tain, found in Carolina a good market, and in return 
 brought the English merchant such articles as were 
 in demand at home, by which means the advantages 
 were mutual and reciprocal. In the year 1744, 
 230 vessels were loaded at the port of Charlestown, 
 so that the national value of the province was not 
 only considerable as to the large quantity of goods 
 it consumed, but also as to the naval strength it 
 promoted. Fifteen hundred seamen at least found 
 employment in the trade of this province, and besides 
 other advantages, the profits of freight must make a 
 considerable addition to the account in favour of 
 Britain 
 
 Influx of Scotch settlers Climate and diseases Cul- 
 tivation of indiyo State of Georyia Dissensions 
 excited by Bosomworth Georgia made a royal yo- 
 vernnent Whitfield in Carolina Conference with 
 the Indians Great hurricane at Charlestown 
 State of commerce. 
 
 After the rebellion in England of 1745 had been 
 subdued, the Highlanders were induced by the go- 
 vernment to emigrate; and indeed many were al- 
 lowed the choice of trial or voluntary banishment ; 
 and among the other settlements in America, the 
 southern provinces had a great share of these bold 
 and hardy men, who afterwards proved excellent 
 and industrious settlers. 
 
 As every family of labourers is an acquisition to 
 a growing colony, such as Carolina, where lands are 
 plenty, and hands only wanted to improve them ; to 
 encourage emigration, a door was opened there to 
 Protestants of every nation. The poor and distressed 
 subjects of the British dominions, and those of Ger- 
 many and Holland, were easily induced to leave op- 
 pression, and transport themselves and families to 
 that province. Lands free of quit-rents, for the first 
 ten years, were allotted to men, women, and children. 
 Utensils for cultivation, and hogs and cows to begin 
 their stock, they purchased with their bounty-money. 
 The like bounty was allowed to all servants after the 
 expiration of the term of their servitude. From this 
 period Carolina was found to be an excellent refuge 
 to the poor, the unfortunate, and oppressed. The 
 
 population and prosperity of her colonies engrossed 
 the attention of the mother-country. His majesty's 
 bounty served to alleviate the hardships inseparable 
 from the first years of cultivation, and landed pro- 
 perty animated the poor emigrants to industry and 
 perseverance. The different townships yearly in- 
 creased in numbers. Every one upon his arrival ob- 
 tained his grant of land, and sat down on his free- 
 hold with no taxes, or very trifling ones, no tithes, 
 no poor rates, with full liberty of hunting and fish- 
 ing, and many other advantages and privileges he 
 never knew in Europe. It is true the unhealthiness 
 of the climate was a great bar to his progress, and 
 proved fatal to many of these first settlers ; but to 
 such as surmounted this obstacle, every year brought 
 new profits, and opened more advantageous prospects. 
 All who escaped the dangers of the climate, if they 
 could not be called rich during their own life, by 
 improving their little freeholds, yet commonly left 
 their children in easy or opulent circumstances. 
 Even in the first age being free, contented, and ac- 
 countable to no man for their labour and management, 
 their condition in many respects was preferable to 
 that of the poorest class of labourers in Europe. In 
 all improved countries, where commerce and manu- 
 factures have been long established, and luxury 
 prevails, the poorest ranks of citizens are always 
 oppressed and miserable. Indeed this must neces- 
 sarily be the case, otherwise trade and manufactures, 
 which flourish principally by the low price of labour 
 and provisions, must decay. In Carolina, though 
 exposed to more troubles and hardships for a few 
 years, such industrious people had better opportuni- 
 ties than in Europe for advancing to an easy and 
 independent state. Hence it happened that few 
 emigrants ever returned to their native country ; on 
 the contrary, the success and prosperity of the most 
 fortunate, brought many adventurers and relations 
 after them. Their love to their former friends, and 
 their natural partiality for their countrymen, in- 
 duced the old planters to receive the new settlers 
 joyfully, and even to assist and relieve them. 
 
 It has been observed, that in proportion as the 
 lands have been cleared and improved, and scope 
 given for a more free circulation of air, the climate 
 likewise became more salubrious and pleasant. This 
 change was more remarkable in the heart of the 
 country than in the maritime parts, where the best 
 plantations of rice are, and where water is carefully 
 preserved to overflow the fields ; yet even in those 
 places cultivation has been attended with salutary 
 effects. Time and experience had now taught the 
 planters, that, during the autumnal months, their 
 living among the low rice plantations subjected them 
 to many disorders, from which the inhabitants of 
 the capital were entirely exempted. This induced 
 the richer part to retreat to town during this un- 
 healthy season. Those who were less able to bear 
 the expenses of this retreat, and had learned to 
 guard against the inconveniences of the climate, 
 sometimes escaped ; but laborious strangers suffered 
 much during these autumnal months. Accustomed 
 as they were in Europe to toil through the heat of 
 the day, and expose themselves in all weathers, they 
 followed the same practices in Carolina, where the 
 climate would by no means admit of such liberties. 
 
 In the months of July, August, and September, 
 the heat in the shaded air, from noon to three o'clock, 
 is often between 90 and 100 degrees ; and as such 
 extreme heat is of short duration, being commonly 
 productive of thunder-showers, it becomes on that 
 account the more dangerous. Fahrenheit's thermo- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 981 
 
 meter has been seen to arise in the shade to 96 in 
 the hottest, and fall to sixteen in the coolest season 
 of the year; and occasionally even as high as 100, 
 and as low as ten. The mean diurnal heat of the 
 different seasons has been, upon the most careful 
 observation, fixed at 64 in spring, and 79 in sum- 
 mer, 72 in autumn, and 52 in winter ; and the mean 
 nocturnal heat in those seasons at 56 degrees in 
 spring, 75 in summer, 68 in autumn, and 46 in 
 winter. 
 
 Intermittent, nervous, putrid and bilious fevers 
 are common in the country, and prove fatal to many 
 of its inhabitants. Young children are very subject 
 to the worm-fever, which destroys numbers of them. 
 The dry colic, which is a dreadful disorder, is no 
 stranger to the climate ; and an irruption, com- 
 monly called the prickly heat, often breaks out dur- 
 ing the summer, which is attended with troublesome 
 itching and stinging pains; but this disease being 
 common, and not dangerous, is little regarded ; and 
 if proper caution be used to prevent it from striking 
 suddenly inward, is thought to be attended even with 
 salutary effects. In the spring and winter, pleuri- 
 sies and peripneumonies are common, and often ob- 
 stinate, and frequently fatal. So changeable is the 
 weather, that the thermometer will often rise or fall 
 20, 25, and 30 degrees, in the space of 24 hours, 
 and in autumn there is sometimes a difference of 20 
 degrees between the heat of the day and that of the 
 night, and in winter a greater difference between 
 the heat of the morning and that of noon-day. Not 
 only man, but every animal, is strongly affected by 
 the sultry heat of summer. Horses and cows retire 
 to the shade, and there, though harassed with insects, 
 they stand and profusely sweat through the violence 
 of the day. Hogs and dogs are also much distressed 
 with it ; as are poultry and wild fowls. The planter 
 who consults his health is not only cautious in his 
 dress and diet, but rises early for the business of the 
 field, and transacts it before ten o'clock, and then 
 retreats to the house for shade during the violent 
 heat of the day, until the coolness of the evening 
 again invites him to the field ; and such is the feeble- 
 ness and langour at noon, that the greatest pleasure 
 of life consists in being entirely at rest. 
 
 This kind of climate, however, is favourable to 
 the culture of indigo; and about the year 1745 a 
 fortunate discovery was made, that this plant grew 
 spontaneously in the province, and was found almost 
 every where among the wild weeds of the forest. 
 Some seed of a better kind was immediately im- 
 ported from the French West Indies, where it had 
 been cultivated with great success, and yielded the 
 planters immense profit ; and in consequence of the 
 success which attended various experiments, several 
 planters turned their attention to its culture, and 
 studied the art of extracting the dye from it. Every 
 trial gave them fresh encouragement; and in the 
 year 1747 a considerable quantity of it was sent to 
 England, which induced the merchants trading to 
 Carolina to petition parliament for a bounty on Ca- 
 rolina indigo. The parliament, upon examination, 
 found that it was one of the most beneficial articles 
 of French commerce, that their West Indian islands 
 supplied all the markets of Europe ; and that Britain 
 alone consumed annually 600,000 weight of French 
 indigo, which, at five shillings a pound, cost the 
 nation 150,OOOZ. sterling. This petition of the mer- 
 chants was soon followed by another from the planters 
 and inhabitants of Carolina, and others to the same 
 effect from the clothiers, dyers, and traders of dif- 
 ferent towns in Britain ; aud it was proved, that the 
 
 demand for indigo annually increased, and it could 
 never be expected that the planters in the West In- 
 dies would turn their hands to it, while the culture 
 of sugar-canes proved more profitable. Accordingly, 
 an act of parliament passed, about the beginning of 
 the year 1748, for allowing a bounty of six-pence a 
 pound on all indigo raised in the British American 
 plantations, and imported directly into Britain from 
 the place of its growth. In consequence of which 
 act the planters applied themselves with double vi- 
 gour and spirit to its cultivation. Some years in- 
 deed elapsed before they learned the art of preparing 
 it as well as the French, whose long practice and 
 experience had brought it to perfection ; but every 
 year they acquired greater skill and knowledge in 
 preparing it. Many of the cultivators doubled their 
 capital every three or four years, and in time brought 
 it to such a degree of perfection, as not only to sup- 
 ply the mother-country, but also to undersell the 
 French at several European markets. 
 
 As it was long the staple commodity of this colony, 
 the following account, as given by an early colonist 
 of its mode of culture, may serve to illustrate the 
 manners and circumstances of the inhabitants. " As 
 both the quantity and quality of indigo greatly de- 
 pend on the cultivation of the plant, it is proper to 
 observe, that it seems to thrive best in a rich, light 
 soil, unmixed with clay or sand. The ground to be 
 planted should be ploughed, or turned up with hoes, 
 some time in December, that the frost may render 
 it rich and mellow. It must also be well harrowed, 
 and cleansed from all grass, roots, and stumps of 
 trees, to facilitate the hoeing after the weed appears 
 above ground. The next thing to be considered is 
 the choice of the seed, in which the planters should 
 be very nice ; there is great variety of it, and from 
 every sort good indigo may be made ; but none an- 
 swers so well in this colony as the true Guatimala, 
 which if good is a small oblong black seed, very 
 bright and full, and when rubbed in the hand will 
 appear as if finely polished. 
 
 " In Carolina we generally begin to plant about 
 the beginning of April, in the following manner : 
 the ground being well prepared, furrows are made 
 with a drill-plough, or hoe, two inches deep, and 
 eighteen inches distant from each other, to receive 
 the seed, which is sown regularly, and not very thick, 
 after which it is lightly covered with earth. A bushel 
 of seed will sow four English acres. If the weather 
 proves warm and serene, the plant will appear above 
 ground in ten or fourteen days. After the plant 
 appears, the ground, though not grassy, should be 
 hoed to loosen the earth about it, which otherwise 
 would much hinder its growth. In good seasons it 
 grows very fast, and must all the while be kept per- 
 fectly clean of weeds Whenever the plant is in 
 full bloom it must be cut down, without paying any 
 regard to its height, as its leaves are then thick and 
 full of juice, and this commonly happens in about 
 four months after planting. But, previous to the 
 season for cutting, a complete set of vats of the fol- 
 lowing dimensions, for every twenty acres of weed, 
 must be provided, and kept in good order. The 
 steeper or vat in which the weed is first put to fer- 
 ment, must be sixteen feet square in the clear, and 
 two and a half feet deep ; the second vat or battery 
 twelve feet long, ten feet wide, and four and a half 
 "eet deep from the top of the plate. These vats 
 ihould be made of the best cypress or yellow-pine 
 slank, two and a half inches thick, well fastened to 
 ;he joints and studs with seven-inch spikes, aud then 
 raulked, to prevent their leaking. Vats thus made 
 
982 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 will last in Carolina, notwithstanding the excessive 
 heat, at least seven years. When every thing is 
 ready, the weed must be cut and laid regularly in 
 the steeper with the stalk upward, which will hasten 
 the fermentation ; then long rails must be laid the 
 length of the vat, at eighteen inches distance from 
 one another, and wedged down to the weed, to pre- 
 vent its buoying up when the water is pumped into 
 the steeper. For this purpose the softest water an- 
 swers best, and the quantity of it necessary must be 
 just sufficient to cover U the weed. In this situa- 
 tion it is left to ferment, which will begin sooner or 
 later in proportion to the heat of the weather, and 
 the ripeness of the plant, but for the most part takes 
 twelve or fifteen hours. After the water is loaded 
 with the salts and substance of the weed, it must be 
 let out of the steeper into the battery, there to be 
 beat; in order to perform which operation, many 
 different machines have been invented : but for this 
 purpose any instrument that will agitate the water 
 with great violence may be used. When the water 
 has been violently agitated for fifteen or twenty mi- 
 nutes in the battery, by taking a little of the liquor 
 up in a plate it will appear full of small grain or 
 curdled; then you are to let in a quantity of lime- 
 water kept in a vat for the purpose, to augment and 
 precipitate the faeculae, still continuing to stir and 
 beat vehemently the indigo water, till it becomes of 
 a strong purple colour, and the grain hardly per- 
 ceptible. Then it must be left to settle, which it 
 will do in eight or ten hours. After which the 
 water must be gently drawn out of the battery through 
 plug-holes contrived for that purpose, so that the 
 faeculae may remain at the bottom of the vat. It 
 must then be taken up, and carefully strained through 
 a horse-hair sieve, to render the indigo perfectly 
 clean, and put into bags made of Osnaburghs, eigh- 
 teen inches long, and twelve wide, and suspended 
 for six hours, to drain the water out of it. After 
 which the mouths of these bags being well fastened, 
 it must be put into a press to be entirely freed from 
 any remains of water, which would otherwise greatly 
 hurt the quality of the indigo. The press commonly 
 used for this purpose is a box of five feet in length, 
 two and a half wide, and two deep, with holes at 
 one end to let out the water. In this box the bags 
 must be laid, one upon another, until it is full, upon 
 which a plank must be laid, fitted to go within the 
 box, and upon all a sufficient number of weights to 
 squeeze out the water entirely by a constant and 
 gradual pressure, so that the indigo may become a 
 fine stiff paste ; which is then taken out and cut into 
 small pieces, each about two inches square, and laid 
 out to dry. A house made of logs must be prepared 
 on purpose for drying it, and so constructed that it 
 may receive all the advantages of an open and free 
 air, without being exposed to the sun, which is very 
 pernicious to the dye. For here indigo placed in 
 the sun, in a few hours will be burnt up to a perfect 
 cinder. While the indigo remains in the drying 
 house, it must be carefully turned three or four 
 times a day, to prevent its rotting. Flies should 
 likewise be carefully kept from it, which at this sea- 
 son of the year are hatched in millions, and infest 
 an indigo plantation like a plague. After all, great 
 care must also be taken, that the indigo be sufficiently 
 dry before it is packed, lest after it is headed up in 
 barrels it should sweat, which will certainly spoil 
 and rot it." 
 
 The province of Georgia, notwithstanding all that 
 Britain had done for its population and improve- 
 ment, still remained in a poor and languishing con- 
 
 dition. After the peace Oglethorpe's regiment being 
 disbanded, a number of soldiers accepted the en- 
 couragement offered them by government, and took 
 up their residence in Georgia. All those adventu- 
 rers who had brought some substance along with 
 them, having by this time exhausted their small stock 
 in fruitless experiments, were reduced to indigence, so 
 that emigrants from Britain, foreigners, and soldier?, 
 were all on a level in point of povei 
 politic restrictions of the trustees, 
 
 From the im- 
 ese settlers had 
 
 no prospects during life but those of hardship and 
 poverty. Nor was the trade of the province in a 
 better situation than its agriculture. The want of 
 credit was an insurmountable obstacle to its progress 
 in every respect. Formerly the inhabitants in and 
 about Savanna had transmitted to the trustees a re- 
 presentation of their grievous circumstances, and 
 obtained from them some partial relief. But now, 
 chagrined with disappointments, and dispirited by 
 the severities of the climate, they could view the 
 design of the trustees in no other light than that of 
 having decoyed them into misery. Even though 
 they had been favoured with credit, and had proved 
 successful, which was far from being their case ; as 
 the tenure of their freehold was restricted to heirs 
 male, their eldest son could only reap the benefit of 
 their toil. They considered their younger children 
 and daughters as equally entitled to their regard, 
 and could not brook their holding lands under such 
 a tenure, as excluded them from the rights and pri- 
 vileges of other colonists. They saw numbers daily 
 leaving the province through mere necessity, and 
 declared to the trustees, that nothing could prevent 
 it from being totally deserted, but the same encou- 
 ragements with their more fortunate neighbours in 
 Carolina. 
 
 They complained that the landholders in Georgia 
 were prohibited from selling or leasing their pos- 
 sessions; that a tract, containing 50 acres of the. 
 best lands was too small an allowance for the main- 
 tenance of a family, and much more so when they 
 were refused the freedom to choose it ; that a much 
 higher quit -rent was exacted from them than was 
 paid for the best lands in America; that the impor- 
 tation of negroes was prohibited, and white people 
 were utterly unequal to the labours requisite ; that 
 the public money granted yearly by parliament, for 
 the relief of settlers and the improvement of the pro- 
 vince, was misapplied, and therefore the wise pur- 
 poses for which it was granted were by no means 
 answered. That these inconveniences and hardships 
 kept them in a state of poverty and misery, and 
 that the chief cause of all their calamities was the 
 strict adherence of the trustees to their chimerical 
 and impracticable scheme of settlement, by which 
 the people were refused the obvious means of sub- 
 sistence, and cut off from all prospects of success. 
 
 We have already observed, that the laws and re- 
 gulations even of the wisest men, founded on theo- 
 retical principles, have often proved to be impracti- 
 cable ; and the trustees had an example of this in 
 the fundamental constitutions of John Locke. The 
 lands in Georgia, especially such as were first occu- 
 pied, were sandy and barren; the hardships of 
 clearing and cultivating them were great, the cli 
 mate was unfavourable for labourers, and dangeroua 
 to European constitutions. 
 
 Hitherto Georgia had made but small improve- 
 ment in agriculture and trade, and her government 
 was feeble and contemptible; and at this time, by 
 - the avarice and ambition of a single family, the wholo 
 - 1 colony was brought to the very brink of destruction 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 983 
 
 During the time General Oglethorpe had the di- 
 rection of public affairs in Georgia, he had, from 
 maxims of policy, treated an Indian woman, called 
 Mary, with particular kindness and generosity. Find- 
 ing that she had great influence among the Creeks, 
 and understood their language, he made use of her 
 as an interpreter, in order the more easily to form 
 treaties of alliance with them, allowing her, as al- 
 ready stated, for her services, IOOJ. sterling a-year. 
 This woman, Thomas Bosomworth, who was chap- 
 lain to Oglethorpe's regiment, had married, and 
 among the rest, had accepted a portion of land from 
 the crown, and settled in the province. ' Finding 
 that his wife laid claim to some islands on the sea- 
 coast, which, by treaty, had been allotted the In- 
 dians as part of their hunting-lands ; to stock them he 
 had purchased cattle from the planters of Carolina, 
 from whom he obtained credit to a considerable 
 amount. However, this plan not proving so suc- 
 cessful as he expected, he resolved on a bold mode 
 of supporting his credit, and acquiring a fortune. 
 His wife pretended to be descended in a maternal 
 line from an Indian king, who held from nature 
 the territories of the Creeks, and Bosomworth now 
 persuaded her to assert her right to them, as superior 
 not only to that of the trustees, but also to that of the 
 king. Accordingly Mary immediately assumed the 
 title of an independent empress, disavowing all sub- 
 jection or allegiance to the king of Great Britain, 
 otherwise than by way of treaty and alliance, such 
 as one independent sovereign might make with 
 another. A meeting of all the Creeks was sum- 
 moned, to whom Mary made a speech, setting forth 
 the justice of her claim, and the great injury done 
 to her and them, by taking possession of their an- 
 cient territories ; and excited them to defend their 
 property by force of arms. The Indians immediately 
 declared they would adhere to her, and in conse- 
 quence Mary, with a large body of savages, set out 
 for Savanna, to demand a formal surrender of them 
 from the president of the province. A messenger 
 was dispatched before hand, to acquaint him that 
 Mary had assumed her right of sovereignty over the 
 whole territories of the upper and lower Creeks, and 
 to demand that all lands belonging to them be in- 
 stantly relinquished; for as she was the hereditary 
 and rightful queen of both nations, and could com- 
 mand every man of them to follow her, in case of 
 refusal, she had determined to extirpate the settle- 
 ment. 
 
 The president and council, alarmed at her pre- 
 tensions and bold threats, and sensible of her influ- 
 ence with the savages, were not a little embarrassed 
 what steps to take. They determined to use gentle 
 measures until an .opportunity might offer of pri- 
 vately laying hold of her, and shipping her off to 
 England. But, in the mean time, orders were sent 
 to all the captains of the militia, to hold themselves 
 in readiness to march to Savanna at an hour's warn- 
 ."'ag. The town was put in the best posture of de- 
 fence, but the whole militia in it amounted to no 
 more than 170 men. A messenger was sent to Mary, 
 who was at the head of the Creeks, several miles 
 distant from town, to know whether she was serious 
 in such wild pretensions, and to try to persuade her 
 to dismiss her followers, and drop her design. But 
 finding her inflexible and resolute, the president re- 
 solved to receive the savages with firmness. The 
 militia was ordered under arms, to overawe them as 
 much as possible, and as the Indians entered the 
 town, Captain Jones, at the head of his company of 
 horse, stopped them, and demanded whether they 
 
 came with hostile or friendly intentions ? But re- 
 ceiving no satisfactory answer, he told them they 
 must there ground their arms, for he had orders not 
 to suffer a man of them armed to set his foot within 
 the town. The savages, with great reluctance, sub- 
 mitted, and accordingly Thomas Bosomworth, in his 
 canonical robes, with his queen by his side, followed 
 by the various chiefs according to their rank, marched 
 into town, making a formidable appearance. When 
 they advanced to the parade, they found the militia 
 drawn up under arms to receive them, who saluted 
 them with fifteen cannon, and conducted them to 
 the president's house. There Thomas and Adam 
 Bosomworth being ordered to withdraw, the Indian 
 chiefs, in a friendly manner, were called upon to 
 declare their intention of visiting the town in so 
 large a body, without being sent for by any person 
 in lawful authority. The warriors, as they had been 
 previously instructed, answered, that Mary was to 
 speak for them, and that they would abide by her 
 words. They had heard, they said, that she was to 
 be sent like a captive over the great waters, and 
 they were come to know on what account they were 
 to lose their queen. They assured the president 
 they intended no harm, and begged their arms might 
 be restored ; and, after consulting with Bosomworth 
 and his wife, they would return and settle all pub- 
 lic affairs, To please them their muskets were ac- 
 cordingly given back, but strict orders were issued 
 to allow them no ammunition, until the council 
 should see more clearly into their designs. 
 
 On the day following, the Indians having had 
 some private conferences with their queen, began to 
 be very outrageous, and to run in a tumultuous 
 manner up and down the streets. All the men being 
 obliged to mount guard, the women were terrified to 
 remain by themselves in their houses, expecting 
 every moment to be murdered or scalped ; and du- 
 ring this confusion, a false rumour was spread, that 
 they had cut off the president's head with a toma- 
 hawk, which so exasperated the inhabitants, that it 
 was with difficulty the officers could prevent them 
 from firing on the savages. 
 
 Orders were given to the militia to seize Bosom- 
 worth, and to convey him into close confinement. 
 Upon which Mary became outrageous, and insolently 
 threatened vengeance against the magistrates and 
 whole colony; ordered every man to depart from 
 her territories ; cursed General Oglethorpe and his 
 fraudulent treaties, and furiously stamping with her 
 feet upon the ground, swore by her Maker that the 
 whole earth on which she trode was her own. To 
 prevent bribery, which she knew to have great 
 weight with her warriors, she kept the leading men 
 constantly in her eye, and would not suffer them to 
 speak a word respecting public affairs but in her 
 presence. 
 
 The president finding that no peaceable agree- 
 ment could be made with the Indians while under 
 the influence of their pretended queen, privately 
 laid hold of her, and put her under confinement with 
 her husband ; and having thus secured the chief 
 promoters of the conspiracy, he then employed men 
 acquainted with the Indian language to entertain 
 the warriors in the most friendly and hospitable 
 manner, and explain to them the wicked designs of 
 Bosomworth and his wife. Accordingly a feast was 
 prepared for all the chief leaders; at which they 
 were informed that Mr. Bosomworth had involved 
 himself in debt, and wanted not only their lands, 
 but also a large share of the royal bounty, to satisfy 
 his creditors in Carolina ; that the king's presents 
 
984 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 were only intended for Indians, on account of their 
 useful services and firm attachment to him during 
 the former wars ; that the lands adjoining the town 
 were reserved for them to encamp upon when they 
 should come to visit their beloved friends at Sa- 
 vanna, and the three maritime islands to hunt upon 
 when they should come to bathe in the salt waters ; 
 that neither Mary nor her husband had any right to 
 those lands, which were the common property of 
 the Creek nations ; that the great king had ordered 
 the president to defend their right to them, and ex- 
 pected that all his subjects, both white and red, 
 would live together like brethren ; in short, that he 
 would suffer no man or woman to molest or injure 
 them, and had ordered these words to be left on 
 record, that their children might know them when 
 they were dead and gone. 
 
 This conduct produced the desired effect, and 
 many of the chieftains being convinced that Bosom- 
 worth had deceived them, declared they would trust 
 him no more. Even Malatchee, the leader of the 
 Lower Creeks, and a relation to their pretended 
 empress, seemed satisfied, and was not a little pleased 
 to hear that the great king had sent them some valu- 
 able presents. Being asked why he acknowledged 
 Mary as the empress of the great nation of Creeks, 
 and resigned his power and possessions to a despi- 
 cable old woman, while all Georgia owned him as 
 chief of the nation, and the president and council 
 were now to give him many rich clothes and medals 
 for his services ? He replied, that the whole nation 
 .Jcknowledged her as their queen, and none could 
 distribute the royal presents but one of her family. 
 The president by this answer perceiving more clearly 
 the design of the family of Bosomworth, to lessen 
 their influence, and show the Indians that he had 
 power to divide the royal bounty among the chiefs, 
 determined to do it immediately, and dismiss them, 
 on account of the growing expenses to the colony, 
 and the hardships the inhabitants underwent, in keep- 
 ing guard night and day for the defence of the 
 town. 
 
 In the mean time Malatchee, whom the Indians 
 compared to the wind, because of his fickle and 
 variable temper, having at his own request obtained 
 access to Bosomworth and his wife, was again se- 
 duced and drawn over to support their chimerical 
 claim. While the Indians were gathered together 
 to receive their respective shares of the royal bounty, 
 he stood up in the midst of them, and with a frown- 
 ing countenance, and in violent agitation of spirit, 
 delivered a speech fraught with the most dangerous 
 insinuations, he protested that Mary possessed that 
 country before General Oglethorpe ; and that all the 
 lands belonged to her as queen, and head of the 
 Creeks; that it v,as oy her permission English- 
 men were at first allowed to set their foot on them ; 
 that they still held them of her as the original pro- 
 prietor ; that her words were the voice of the whole 
 nation, consisting of above 3000 warriors, and at her 
 command every one of them would take up the 
 hatchet in defence of her right; and then pulling 
 out a paper out of his pocket, he delivered it to the 
 president in confirmation of what he bad said. This 
 was evidently the production of Bosomworth, and 
 served to discover in the plainest manner his am- 
 bitious views and wicked intrigues. The preamble 
 was filled with the names t)f Indians called kings, 
 >f all the towns of the Upper and Lower Creeks, 
 none of whom, however, were present, excepting 
 two. The substance of it corresponded with Ma- 
 latchee's speech ; styling Mary the rightful princess 
 
 and chief of their nation, descended in a maternal 
 line from the emperor, and invested with full power 
 and authority from them to settle and finally deter- 
 mine all public affairs and causes, relating to lands 
 and other things, with King George and his beloved 
 men on both sides of the sea, and whatever should 
 be said or done by her they would abide by, as if 
 said or done by themselves. 
 
 After reading this paper in council, the whole 
 board were struck with astonishment ; and Malat- 
 chee, perceiving their uneasiness, begged to have 
 it again, declaring he did not know it to be " a bad 
 talk," and promising he would return it immediately 
 to the person from whom he had received it. To 
 remove all impression made on the minds of the In- 
 dians by Malatcbee's speech, and convince them of 
 the deceitful and dangerous tendency of this con- 
 federacy into which Bosomworth and his wife had 
 betrayed them, had now become a matter of the 
 highest consequence : happy was it for the province 
 this was a thing neither difficult nor impracticable ; 
 for as ignorant savages are easily misled on the one 
 hand, so, on the other, it was equally easy to con- 
 vince them of their error. Accordingly, having ga- 
 thered the Indians together for this purpose, the 
 president addressed them to the following effect : 
 " Friends and brothers, when Mr. Oglethorpe and 
 his people first arrived in Georgia, they found Mary, 
 then the wife of John Musgrove, living in a small 
 hut at Yamacraw, having a licence from the go- 
 vernor of South Carolina to trade with Indians. 
 She then appeared to be in a poor ragged condi- 
 tion, and was neglected and despised by the Creeks. 
 But Mr. Oglethorpe finding that she could speak 
 both the English and Creek languages, employed 
 her as an interpreter, richly clothed her, and made 
 her the woman of the consequence she now appears. 
 The people of Georgia always respected her until 
 she married Thomas Bosomworth, but from that 
 time she has proved a liar and a deceiver. In fact, 
 she was no relation of Malatchee, but the daughter 
 of an Indian woman of no note, by a white man. 
 General Oglethorpe did not treat with her for the 
 lands of Georgia, she having none of her own, but 
 with the old and wise leaders of the Creek nation, 
 who voluntarily surrendered their territories to the 
 king. The Indians at that time having much waste 
 land that was useless to themselves, parted with a 
 share of it to their friends, and were glad that white 
 people had settled among them to supply their wants. 
 He told them that the present bad humour of the 
 Creeks had been artfully infused into them by Mary, 
 at the instigation of her husband, who owed 400/. 
 sterling in Carolina for cattle ; that he demanded a 
 third part of the royal bounty, in order to rob the 
 naked Indians of their right ; that he had quarrelled 
 with the president and council of Georgia for re- 
 fusing to answer his exorbitant demands, and there- 
 fore had filled the heads of Indians with wild fancies 
 and groundless jealousies, in order to breed mischief, 
 and induce them to break their alliances with their 
 best friends, who alone were able to supply their 
 wants, and defend them against all their enemies." 
 Here the Indians desired him to stop and put an 
 end to the contest, declaring that their eyes were now 
 opened, and they saw through his insidious design. 
 But though he intended to break the chain of friend- 
 ship, they were determined to hold it fast, and there- 
 fore begged that all might immediately smoke the 
 pipe of peace. Accordingly pipes and rum were 
 brought, and the whole congress, joining hand in 
 hand, drank and smoked together in friendship. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 985 
 
 Then all the royal presents, except ammunition, 
 with which it was judged imprudent to trust them 
 until they were at some distance from, town, were 
 brought and distributed among them. The most 
 disaffected were purchased with the largest presents; 
 and even Malatchee himself seemed fully contented 
 with his share ; and the savages in general perceiv- 
 ing the poverty and insignificancy of the family of 
 Bosomworth, and their total inability to supply their 
 wants, determined to break off all connexion with 
 them for ever. 
 
 While the president and council flattered them- 
 selves that all differences were amicably compro- 
 mised, and were rejoicing in the re-establishment 
 of their former friendly intercourse with the Creeks, 
 Mary, drunk with liquor, and disappointed in her 
 views, came rushing in among them like a fury, and 
 told the president that these were her people, that 
 he had no business with them, and he should soon 
 be convinced of it to his cost. The president calmly 
 advised her to keep to her lodgings, and forbear to 
 poison the minds of Indians, otherwise he would 
 order her again into close confinement. Upon 
 which, turning about to Malatchee in great rage, 
 she told him what the president had said, who in- 
 stantly started from his seat, laid hold of his arms, 
 and then calling upon the rest to follow his ex- 
 ample, dared any man to touch his queen. The 
 whole house was filled in a moment with tumult and 
 uproar; and every Indian having his tomahawk in 
 his hand, the president and council expected no- 
 thing but a massacre ; but Captain Jones, who com- 
 manded the guard, very seasonably interposed, and 
 ordered the Indians immediately to deliver up their 
 arms. The Indians submitted, though with reluct- 
 ance, and Mary was conveyed to a private room, 
 where a guard was set over her, and all further in- 
 tercourse with savages denied her during their stay 
 in Savanna. Her husband was sent for, in order 
 to convince him of the folly of his chimerical pre- 
 tensions, and of the dangerous consequences which 
 must result from persisting in them. But in spite 
 of every argument, he remained obstinate and con- 
 tumacious, and protested he would stand forth in 
 vindication of his wife's right to the last extremity, 
 and that the province of Georgia should soon feel 
 the weight of her vengeance. Finding that gentle 
 means were ineffectual, the council determined to 
 remove him also out of the way of the savages, and 
 afterwards to deal with him. They first persuaded 
 the Indians to retire, and a young warrior who had 
 discovered to his tribe the base intrigues of Bosom- 
 wcrth, set out among the first ; and the rest followed 
 him in different parties, and the inhabitants, wearied 
 out with constant watching, and harassed with fre- 
 quent alarms, were at length happily relieved. 
 
 By this time Adam Bosomworth, another brother 
 of the family, who was agent for Indian affairs in 
 Carolina, had arrived from that province, and being 
 made acquainted with what had passed in Georgia, 
 was filled with shame and indignation ; he exerted 
 himself to his utmost, and ultimately induced his 
 brother, Thomas Bosomworth, to repent of his folly, 
 and to ask pardon of the magistrates and people. 
 The latter wrote to the president, acquainting him 
 that he was now deeply sensible of his duty as a sub- 
 ject, and the respect he owed to civil authority, and 
 could no longer justify the conduct of*his wife ; but 
 hoped that her present remorse, and past services to 
 the province, would entirely blot out the remem- 
 brance of her unguarded expressions and rash de- 
 sign. He appealed to the letters of General Ogle- 
 
 thorpe for her former irreproachable conduct, and 
 steady friendship to the settlement, and hoped her 
 good behaviour for the future would atone for her 
 past offences, and reinstate her in the public favour. 
 For his own part, he acknowledged her title to be 
 groundless, and for ever relinquished all claim to 
 the lands of the province. The colonists generously 
 forgave all that had past ; and public tranquillity 
 being re-established, new settlers applied for lands 
 as usual, without meeting any more obstacles from 
 the idle claims of Indian queens and chieftains. 
 
 The trustees of Georgia finding that the province 
 languished under their care, and weary of the com- 
 plaints of the people, in the year 1752 surrendered 
 their charter to the king, and it was made a royal 
 government. In consequence of which, his majesty 
 appointed John Reynolds, an officer of the navy, 
 governor of the province, with a legislature similar 
 to that of the other royal governments in America. 
 Although the expense which the mother-country had 
 already incurred, besides private benefactions, for 
 supporting this colony had been very great, yet the 
 returns had been very small. The vestiges of cul- 
 tivation were scarcely perceptible in the forest, and 
 in England all commerce with it was neglected and 
 despised. At this time the whole annual exports of 
 Georgia did not amount to 10,0002. sterling; and 
 although the people were now -favoured with the 
 same privileges enjoyed by their neighbours under 
 the royal care, yet several years elapsed before the 
 value of the lands in Georgia was known, and that 
 spirit of industry broke out in it which afterward 
 diffused its happy influence over the country. 
 
 In the annals of Georgia the famous George Whit- 
 field may not be unworthy of some notice, especi- 
 ally as the Orphan-house built by him there has 
 been so celebrated. Actuated by religious motives, 
 Whitfield several times passed the Atlantic to con- 
 vert the Americans, whom he addressed in such a 
 manner as if they had been all equal strangers to 
 the privileges and benefits of religion with the ori- 
 ginal inhabitants of the forest. However, his zeal 
 never led him beyond the maritime parts of Ame- 
 rica, through which he travelled, spreading what he 
 called the true evangelical faith among the most 
 populous towns and villages. It might have been 
 expected that the heathens, or at least those who 
 were most destitute of the means of instruction, 
 would have been the chief objects of his zeal and 
 compassion ; but this was far from being the case. 
 However, wherever he went in America, as in Bri- 
 tain, he had multitudes of followers. When he first 
 visited Charlestown. Alexander Garden, a man of 
 some sense and erudition, who was the episcopal 
 clergyman of that place, to put the people upon 
 their guard, took occasion to point out to them the 
 pernicious tendency of Whitfield's wild doctrines and 
 irregular manner of life. He represented him as a 
 religious imposter or quack, who had an excellent 
 knack of setting off to advantage his poisonous tenets. 
 On the other hand, Whitfield, who had been accus- 
 tomed to bear reproach and face opposition, recri- 
 minated with double acrimony and greater success. 
 While Alexander Garden, to keep his flock from 
 straying after this strange pastor, expatiated on the 
 words of Scripture, "Those that have -turned the 
 world upside down are come hither also." Whitfield, 
 with all the force of humour and wit for which he 
 was so much distinguished, by way of reply, en- 
 larged on these words, " Alexander the coppersmith 
 hath done me much evil, the Lord reward him ac 
 I cording to his works." In short, the pulpit was per- 
 
986 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 verted by both into the mean purposes of personal 
 controversy, and every one catching a share of the 
 infection, spoke of the clergymen as they were dif- 
 ferently affected. 
 
 In Georgia, Whitfield having obtained a tract of 
 land from the trustees, erected a wooden-house two 
 stories high, the dimensions of which were 70 feet 
 by 40, upon a sandy beach near the sea-shore. This 
 house, which he called the Orphan-house, he began 
 to build about the year 1740, and afterwards finished 
 it at a great expense. It was intended to be a lodg- 
 ing for poor children, where they were to be clothed 
 and fed by charitable contributions, and trained up 
 in the knowledge and practice of the Christian re- 
 ligion. The design, beyond doubt, was humane and 
 laudable ; but, perhaps, had he travelled over the 
 whole earth, he could scarcely have found out a spot 
 of ground upon it more improper for the purpose. 
 The whole province of Georgia could not furnish 
 him with land of the same extent more barren and 
 unprofitable. To this house poor children were to 
 be sent from at least a healthy country, to be sup- 
 ported partly by charity, and partly by the produce 
 of this land cultivated by negroes. Nor was the 
 climate better suited to the purpose than the soil, for 
 it is certain, before the unwholesome marshes around 
 the house were fertilized, the influences of both air 
 and water must have conspired to the children's 
 destruction. 
 
 However, Whitfield having formed his chimerical 
 project, determined to accomplish it, and instead 
 of being discouraged by obstacles and difficulties, 
 gloried in despising them. He travelled through 
 the British empire, persuaded the ignorant and cre- 
 dulous part of the world of the excellence of his 
 design, and obtained from them money, clothes, and 
 books, to forward his undertaking, and supply his 
 poor orphans in Georgia. About 30 years after this 
 wooden house was finished it was burned to the 
 ground ; without, according to all accounts, having 
 repaid its benevolent, though eccentric founder, for 
 his anxiety and labours. After his death he was 
 brought from New England, above 800 miles, and 
 buried at this Orphan-house. Lady Huntingdon 
 became his executrix, and the funds of the land, 
 negroes, &c., were appropriated to the support ol 
 
 dissenting ministers. 
 About the year 1752 
 
 war broke out among some 
 
 Indian nations, which threatened to involve the pro- 
 vince of Carolina. The Creeks having quarrelled 
 with their neighbours for permitting some Indians 
 to pass through their country to wage war against 
 them, by way of revenge had killed some Cherokees 
 near the gales of Charlestown. A British trader to 
 the Chickesaw nation had likewise been scalpedby a 
 party of warriors belonging to the same nation ; anc 
 Governor Glen sent a messenger to the Creeks to 
 demand satisfaction for these outrages, and to re 
 quest a conference at Charlestown with their leading 
 men. The Creeks returned for answer, that they 
 were willing to meet him, but as the path had not 
 been open and safe for some time, they could nol 
 enter the settlement without a guard to escort them 
 Upon which the governor sent 50 horsemen, who 
 met them at the confines of their territories, and con 
 voyed Malatchee, with above 100 of his warriors, to 
 Charlestown. 
 
 As they arrived on Sunday the governor did no 
 summon his council until the day following, to hold 
 
 When they entered the council-chamber the gover- 
 nor arose and took them by the hand, signifying that 
 he was glad to see them, and then addressed them 
 ;o the following effect : " Being tied together by the 
 most solemn treaties, I call you by the beloved 
 names of friends and brothers. In the name of the 
 jreat King George I have sent for you, on business 
 f the greatest consequence to your'nation. I would 
 lave received you yesterday on your arrival, but it 
 was a beloved day, dedicated to repose and the con- 
 cerns of a future life. I am sorry to hear that you 
 lave taken up the hatchet, which I flattered my sel 
 lad been for ever buried. It is my desire to have 
 the chain brightened and renewed, not only between 
 you and the English, but also between you and 
 other Indian nations. You are all our friends, and 
 I could wish that all Indians in friendship with us 
 were also friends one with another. You have com- 
 plained tome of the Cherokees permitting the nor- 
 thern Indians to come through their country to war 
 against you, and supplying them with provisions 
 and ammunition for that purpose. The Cherokees, 
 >n the other hand, allege, that it is not in their 
 power to prevent them, and declare, that while their 
 people happen to be out hunting, those northern In- 
 dians come in to their town well armed, and in such 
 numbers that they are not able to resist them. 
 
 " I propose that a treaty of friendship and peace 
 be conclude^ first with the English, and then with 
 the Cherokees, in such a manner as may render it 
 durable. Some of your people have fro'm smaller 
 crimes proceeded to greater. First, they waylaid 
 the Cherokees, and killed one of them in'the midst 
 of our settlements; then they came to Charlestown, 
 where some Cherokees at the same time happened 
 to be, and though I cautioned them, and they pro- 
 mised to do no mischief, yet the next day they as- 
 saulted and murdered several of them nigh' the gates 
 of this town. For these outrages I have sent for 
 you, to demand satisfaction ; and also for the mur- 
 der committed in one of your towns, for which satis- 
 faction was made by the death of another person, 
 and not of the murderer. For the future, I acquaint 
 you, that nothing will be deemed as satisfaction for 
 the lives of our people, but the lives of those persons 
 themselves who shall be guilty of the murder. The 
 English never make treaties of friendship but with 
 the greatest deliberation, and when made observe 
 them with the strictest punctuality. They are, at 
 the same time vigilant, and will not suffer other na 
 tions to infringe the smallest article of such treaties 
 It would tend to the happiness of your people, were 
 you equally careful to watch against the beginnings 
 of evil ; for sometimes a small spark, if not attended 
 to, may kindle a great fire; and a slight sore, if 
 suffered to spread, may endanger the whole body. 
 Therefore, I have sent for you to prevent farther 
 mischief, and I hope you come disposed to give satis- 
 faction for the outrages already committed, and to 
 promise and agree to maintain peace and friendship 
 with your neighbours for the future." 
 
 This speech delivered to the Indians was inter- 
 preted by Lachlan M'Gilvray, an Indian trader, who 
 understood their language. After which Malatchee, 
 the king of the Lower Creek nation, stood forth, 
 and in a solemn and dignified manner addressed the 
 governor to the following effect : " I never had the 
 honour to see the great King George, nor to hear 
 his talk, but you are in his place; I have heard 
 
 a congress with them. At this meeting a number of yours, and I like it well. Your sentiments ar 
 gentlemen were present, whom curiosity had drawn agreeable to my own ; the great king wisely judged, 
 together to see the warriors and hear their speeches, that the best way of maintaining friendship between 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 987 
 
 white and red people was by trade and commerce. 
 He knew we are poor, and want many things, and 
 that skins are all we have to give in exchange for 
 what we want. I have ordered my people to bring 
 you some as a present, and, in the name of our na- 
 tion, I lay them at your excellency's feet. You have 
 sent for us ; we are come to hear what you have to 
 say ; but I did not expect to hear our whole nation 
 accused for the faults of a few private men. Our 
 head men neither knew nor approved of the mischief 
 done. We imagined our young men had gone a 
 hunting as usual. When we heard what had hap- 
 pened at Charlestown, I knew you would send and 
 demand satisfaction. When your agent came and 
 iold me what satisfaction you required, I owned the 
 justice of it; but it was not advisable forme alone to 
 grant it. It was prudent to consult with our beloved 
 men, and have their advice in a matter of such import- 
 ance. We met ; we found that the behaviour of some 
 of our people had been bad; we found that blood 
 had been spilt at your gates. We thought it just that 
 satisfaction should be made ; we turned our thoughts 
 to find out the chief persons concerned (for a man 
 will sometimes employ another to commit a crime 
 he does not choose to be guilty of himself). We found 
 the Acorn Whistler was the chief contriver and pro- 
 moter of the mischief ; we agreed that he was the 
 man that ought to suffer. Some of his relations, who 
 are here present, then said he deserved death, and 
 voted for it ; accordingly he was put to death. He 
 was a very great warrior, and had many friends and 
 relations in different parts of the country. We thought 
 it prudent to conceal for some time the true reason 
 of his death, which was known only to the head 
 men that concerted it ; we did this for fear some of 
 his friends in the heat of fury would take revenge on 
 some of your traders. At a general meeting all mat- 
 ters were explained ; the reasons of his death were 
 made known ; his relations approved of all that was 
 done. Satisfaction being made, I say no more about 
 that matter. I hope our friendship with the En- 
 glish will continue as heretofore. 
 
 " As to the injuries done to the Cherokees, which 
 you spoke of, we are sorry for them. We acknow- 
 ledge our young men do many things they ought 
 not to do, and very often act like madmen ; but it 
 is well known I and the other head warriors did all 
 we could to oblige them to make restitution. I rode 
 from town to town with Mr. Bosomworth and his 
 wife to assist them in this matter. Most of the things 
 taken have been restored. When this was over, an- 
 other accident happened which created fresh troubles. 
 A Chickesaw, who lived in our nation, in a drunken 
 fit shot a white man. I knew you would demand 
 satisfaction. I thought it best to give it before it was 
 asked. The murder was committed at a great dis- 
 tance from me. I mounted my horse and rode 
 through the towns with your agent. I took the head 
 men of every town along with me. We went to the 
 place and demanded satisfaction ; it was given ; the 
 blood of the Indian was spilt for the blood of a white 
 man. The uncle of the murderer purchased his life, 
 and voluntarily killed himself in his stead. Now I 
 have done. I am glad to see you face to face to settle 
 those matters ; it is good to renew treaties of friend- 
 ship. I shall always be glad to call you friends and 
 brothers." 
 
 This speech throws no small light on the judicial 
 proceedings of barbarous nations, and shows that 
 human nature in its rudest state possesses a strong 
 sense of right and wrong. Although Indians have 
 little property, yet here we behold their chief ma- 
 
 gistrate protecting what they have, and, in cases of 
 robbery, acknowledging the necessity of making 
 restitution. They indeed chiefly injure one another 
 in their persons or reputations, and in all cases of 
 murder the guilty are brought to trial and condemned 
 to death by the general consent of the nation. Even 
 the friends and relations of the murderer here voted 
 for his death. But, what is more remarkable, they 
 gave us an instance of an atonement made, and jus- 
 tice satisfied, by the substitution of an innocent man 
 in place of the guilty. An uncle voluntarily and 
 generously offers to die in the place of his nephew, 
 the savages accept of the offer, and in consequence 
 of his death declare that satisfaction is made. Next 
 to personal defence, the Indian guards his character 
 and reputation ; for as it is only from the general 
 opinion his nation entertains of his wisdom, justice 
 and valour, that he can expect to arrive at rank and 
 distinction, he is exceedingly watchful against doinsj 
 any thing for which he may incur public blame or 
 disgrace ; and in this answer Malatchee discovers 
 considerable talents as a public speaker, and appears 
 to be insensible neither to his own dignity and free- 
 dom, nor to the honour and independence of his 
 nation. 
 
 ^During the months of June, July, and August, 
 1752, the weather in Carolina was warmer than any 
 of the inhabitants then alive 'had ever felt it, and 
 the mercury in the shade often arose above the 
 90th, and at one time was observed at the 101 st 
 *ree of the thermometer ; and, at the same 
 time, when exposed to the sun, and suspended at 
 the distance of five feet from the ground, it rose 
 to 120. By this excessive heat the air becomes 
 greatly rarefied, and a violent hurricane commonly 
 restore* the balance in the atmosphere. In such 
 a case the wind usually proceeds from the north- 
 east, directly opposite to the point from which it had 
 long blown before. These storms indeed seldom 
 happen except in seasons when there has been little 
 thunder, when the weather has been for a long time 
 exceedingly dry and intolerably hot, and though 
 they occasion damages to some individuals, there is 
 reason to believe that they are productive upon the 
 whole of salutary effects ; and the want of them for 
 many years together has been deemed a great mis- 
 fortune by the inhabitants ; especially such as are 
 exposed to the noon-day heat, or to the heavy fogs 
 that fall every morning and evening. 
 
 It is not improbable that the maritime parts of 
 Carolina have been forsaken by the sea, for on dig- 
 ging however deep no stones or rocks are found, but 
 every where sand or beds of shells. As a small de- 
 crease of water will leave so flat a country entirely 
 bare, so a small increase will again cover it ; and the 
 coast is not only very level, but the dangerous hur- 
 ricanes commonly proceed from the north-east ; and 
 as the stream of the Gulf of Florida flows rapidly to- 
 wards the same point, this large body of water, when 
 obstructed by the tempest, recurs upon the shore,, 
 and overflows the country. 
 
 As had been fully expected owing to the previous 
 weather, a dreadful hurricane visited Charlestown in 
 the month of September, 1752. It was observed on 
 the night before by the inhabitants that the wind at 
 north-east began to blow hard, and continued in- 
 creasing in violence till next morning ; when the sky 
 appeared wild and cloudy, and it began to drizzle 
 and rain. About nine o'clock the flood came rolling 
 in with great impetuosity, and in a little time rose 
 ten feet above high-water mark at the highest tides. 
 As usual in such cases, the town was overflown, aud 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the streets were covered with boats, boards, and 
 wrecks of houses and ships. Before eleven all the 
 ships in the harbour were driven ashore, and sloops 
 and schooners were dashing against the houses of 
 Bay-street, in which great quantities of goods were 
 damaged and destroyed. Except the Hornet man- 
 of-war, which by cutting away har masts, rode out 
 the storm, no vessel escaped being damaged or 
 wrecked. The consternation which seized the in- 
 habitants may be more easily conceived than ex- 
 pressed. Finding themselves in the midst of a tem- 
 pestuous sea, and expecting the tide to flow till one 
 o'clock, its usual hour, at eleven they retired to the 
 upper stories of their houses, and there remained 
 despairing of life ; but providentially soon after 
 eleven the wind shifted, in consequence of which 
 the waters fell five feet in the space of ten minutes. 
 By this happy change the gulf-stream, stemmed by 
 the violent blast, had freedom to run in its usual 
 course, and the town was saved from destruction. 
 Had the water continued to rise, and the tide to 
 flow until its usual hour, every inhabitant of Charles- 
 town must have perished. As it was, almost all the 
 tiled and slated houses were uncovered, several per- 
 sons were hurt, and some were drowned. The fortifi- 
 cations and wharfs were almost entirely demolished : 
 the provisions in the field, in the maritime parts, 
 were destroyed, and numbers of cattle and hogs 
 perished in the waters. The pest-house in Sulli- 
 van's island, built of wood, with fifteen persons in 
 it, was carried several miles up Cooper river, and 
 nine out of the fifteen were drowned. 
 
 To form a right judgment of the progress of the 
 colony, and the mutual advantages resulting from 
 its political and commercial connexion with Britain, 
 we need only attend to its annual imports and ex- 
 ports. We cannot exactly say what its imports 
 amounted to at this time ; but if they amounted to 
 above 150,000/. sterling in the year 1740, as we have 
 already seen, they must have arisen at least to 
 200,000/. sterling in 1754, The quantities of rice 
 exported in that year were 104,682 barrels; of in- 
 digo, 216,024 pounds weight, which, together with 
 naval stores, provisions, skins, lumber, &c. amounted 
 in value to 242,529/. sterling. 
 
 /, dispute about the limits of British and French ter- 
 ritories War with the FrenchGovernor Glen holds 
 a congress with the Cherokees Forts built The 
 Cherokee war The Highlanders return to Carolina- 
 Peace with the Cherokees Storm at Charlestown. 
 
 Although the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle extended 
 to the subjects of both Britain and France residing in 
 America, yet the boundaries of the respective territo- 
 ries there were by no means so determinate as to pre- 
 clude grounds of future dispute; and consequently a 
 war broke out with the French, commonly called the 
 French war of 1756; of which, as we have already, 
 in the histories of the northern colonies, given a 
 sufficient account, it will be sufficient to say here, 
 that while hostilities were openly carrying on in 
 those parts of America, it was judged prudent to 
 consult the safety of the provinces to the south, and 
 put them in the best posture of defence ; and to pre- 
 vent the fatal influence of French emissaries among 
 the Indian tribes, it was thought necessary to build 
 some small forts in the heart of their country. A 
 message was also sent to Governor Glen from the 
 chief warrior of the over-hill settlements, acquaint- 
 ing him that it would be necessary to hold a gene- 
 ral congress with the nation, and renew their for- 
 mer treaties tf friendship. 
 
 It may be remarked, that the Cherokees differ 
 in some respects from other Indian nations that 
 have wandered often from place to place, and fixed 
 their habitations on separate districts. From time 
 immemorial they have had possession of the same 
 territory which at present they occupy. They affirm, 
 that their forefathers sprung from that ground, or 
 descended from the clouds upon those hills. These 
 lands of their ancestors they value above all .hings 
 in the world. They venerate the places whue their 
 bones lie interred, and esteem it disgracef <i in the 
 highest degree to relinquish these sacred reposito- 
 ries. The man that would refuse to take the field 
 in defence of these hereditary possessions, is regarded 
 by them as a coward, and treated as an outcast from 
 their nation. To the over-hill villages the French 
 had an easy access by means of rivers that emptied 
 themselves into the Ohio and Mississippi ; but their 
 middle settlements and towns in the valley lay more 
 convenient for trading with the Carolineans. Hitherto 
 they despised the French, whom they called light as 
 a feather, fickle as the wind, and deceitful as ser- 
 pents ; and, being naturally of a very grave cast, they 
 considered the levity of that people as an unpardon- 
 able insult. They looked upon themselves as a great 
 and powerful nation, and though their number was 
 much diminished, yet they could bring from their 
 different towns about 3000 men to the field. At this 
 time they had neither arms nor ammunition to de- 
 fend themselves against their enemy, and the gover- 
 nor of Carolina wanted liberty to build two forts on 
 their lands, in order to secure their friendship and 
 trade. 
 
 Governor Glen met the Cherokee warriors in their 
 own country, with a view to purchase some lands 
 from them ; and, after the usual ceremonies previous 
 to such treaties, a territory of prodigious extent was 
 ceded and surrendered to the king; containing not 
 only a fertile district, but one where the air was 
 more serene, and the climate more healthy, than ia 
 the maritime parts. 
 
 Soon after the cession of these lands, Governor 
 Glen built a fort about 300 miles from Charlestown, 
 afterwards called Fort Prince George, which was 
 situated on the banks of the river Savanna, and 
 within gun-shot of an Indian town called Keowee. 
 This fort was made in the form of a square, and had 
 an earthen rampart about six feet high, on which 
 stockades were fixed, with a ditch, a natural glacis 
 on two sides, and bastions at the angles, on each of 
 which four small cannon were mounted. It con- 
 tained barracks for 100 men, and was designed 
 for a defence to the western frontiers of the pro- 
 vince. About 170 miles further down there was 
 another strong hold, called Fort Moore, in a beau- 
 tiful commanding situation on the banks of the 
 same river. In the year following another fort was 
 erected, called Fort London, among the Upper Che- 
 rokees, situated on Tennessee river, upwards of 500 
 miles distant from Charlestown ; to which place it 
 was very difficult at all times, but, in case of a war 
 with the Cherokees, utterly impracticable to con- 
 vey necessary supplies. These strong holds, toge- 
 ther with those of Frederica and Augusta in Geor- 
 gia, were garrisoned by the king's independent 
 companies of foot, stationed there for the protection 
 of the two provinces. 
 
 After having fortified these frontiers, the settlers 
 of Carolina began to stretch backward, and occu- 
 pied lands above 150 miles from the shore. New 
 emigrants from Ireland, Germany, and the northern 
 colonies obtained grants in these interior parts, and 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 9S9 
 
 introduced the cultivation of wheat, hemp, flax, and 
 tobacco, for which the soil answered better there 
 than in the low-lands nearer the sea. The cattle, 
 sheep, hogs, and horses multiplied fast, and having 
 a country of vast extent to range over, they found 
 plenty of provisions in it through the whole year. 
 From different parts new settlers were invited to 
 those hilly and more healthy parts of Carolina, where 
 they laboured with greater safety than among the 
 swamps, and success crowned their industry. By 
 degrees public roads were made, and they conveyed 
 their produce in waggons to the capital, where they 
 found an excellent market for all their productions, 
 but especially the provisions which they raised. And 
 now many of the vegetables, herbs, and fruits com- 
 mon to English gardens were introduced. 
 
 The province of Georgia at this time, with respect 
 to improvement, still remained little better than a 
 wilderness, and the vast expense it had cost the 
 mother-country might perhaps have been laid out to 
 greater advantage in other parts of the continent. 
 In the government of that colony, John Ellis, a 
 fellow of the Royal Society, succeeded Captain John 
 Reynolds. The rich swamps on the sides of the 
 rivers lay uncultivated ; and the planters had not 
 yet found their way into the interior parts of the 
 country, which were more fertile and healthy. Ex- 
 cepting vagabonds and fraudulent debtors, who fled 
 to them from Carolina, few of the Georgians had 
 any negroes to assist them in cultivation; so that, 
 in 1756, the whole exports of the country were 2997 
 barrels of rice, 93351b. of indigo, 268ife. of raw 
 silk, which, together with skins, furs, lumber, and 
 provisions, amounted only to 16,776. sterling. 
 
 Although the hostilities which had commenced 
 between Great Britain and France still continued, 
 yet both countries remained averse from an open 
 declaration of war. William Lyttleton, now Lord 
 Westcot, being appointed governor of South Caro- 
 lina, in his way through the Bay of Biscay, was in- 
 tercepted by a French squadron under the command 
 of Count de Guay, and carried into France ; but an 
 order from the French court came to release the 
 ship, and permit the governor to return to England. 
 The British commanders at sea, indeed, had orders 
 to seize all French ships and bring them into port, 
 yet as some hopes of an accommodation still re- 
 mained, the crews were only confined, and the 
 caigwes remained entire. But so soon as the news 
 of the invasions of the English dominions in the 
 Mediterranean, joined with the many encroachments 
 in America, had reached the British court, all pros- 
 pects of an accommodation vanished at once, and 
 war was publicly declared against France on the 
 17th of May, 1756. 
 
 When General Abercrombie succeeded Lord Lou- 
 don as commander-in-chief in America, the British 
 force being considerably augmented, bolder enter- 
 prises were undertaken. It was agreed to attack 
 the French settlements in different places ; and the 
 French having determined to abandon Fort Du- 
 quesne, it was taken possession of by the British ; 
 and no sooner was their flag erected there, than the 
 numerous tribes of Indians came in and made their 
 submission ; and from a conviction of the superior 
 valour and strength of the British army, joined the 
 conquerors. 
 
 The flight of this French garrison to the south 
 promised little good to Carolina. The scene of ac- 
 tion was changed only from one place to another, 
 and the baleful influence of those active and enter- 
 prising enemies soon appeared among the upper j at that time. 
 
 tribes of Cherokees. An unfortunate quarrel with 
 the Virginians helped to forward their designs, by 
 opening to them an easier access into the towns o'f 
 the savages. In the different expeditions against 
 Fort Duquesne, the Cherokees, agreeable to treaty, 
 had sent considerable parties of warriors to the as- 
 sistance of the British army. As the horses in those 
 parts run wild in the woods, it was customary, both 
 among Indians and white people on the frontiers, to 
 lay hold of them and appropriate them to their own 
 purposes ; but while the savages were returning 
 home through the back parts of Virginia, many of 
 them having lost their horses, laid hold of such as 
 came in their way, never imagining that they be- 
 longed to any individual in the province. The Vir- 
 ginians, however, instead of asserting their right in 
 a legal way, resented the injury by force of arms, 
 and killed twelve or fourteen of the unsuspicious 
 warriors, and took several more prisoners. The 
 Cherokees, with reason, were highly provoked at 
 such ungrateful usage from allies, whose frontiers 
 they had helped to change from a field of blood into 
 peaceful habitations, and when they came home told 
 what had happened to their nation. The flame soon, 
 spread through the upper towns, and those who had 
 lost their friends and relations were implacable, and 
 breathed nothing but fury and vengeance against 
 such perfidious friends. In vain did the chieftains 
 interpose their authority, nothing could restrain the 
 furious spirits of the young men, who were deter- 
 mined to take satisfaction for the loss of their rela- 
 tions. The emissaries of France among them insti- 
 gated them to bloodshed, and for that purpose fur- 
 nished them with arms and ammunition ; and the 
 scattered families on the frontiers of Carolina lay 
 much exposed to scalping parties of these savages. 
 
 The garrison of Fort Loudon, consisting of about 
 200 men, under the command of Captains Demere 
 and Stuart, first discovered the ill-humour in which 
 the Cherokee warriors returned from the northern 
 expedition. The soldiers, as usual, making excur- 
 sions into the woods to hunt for fresh provisions, 
 were attacked by them, and some of them were 
 killed. From this time such dangers threatened 
 the garrison, that every one was confined within 
 the small boundaries of the fort; and all communi- 
 cation with the distant settlement from which they 
 received supplies being cut off, and the soldiers being 
 but poorly provided, had no other prospects left but 
 those of famine or death. Parties of young Indians 
 took the field, and rushing down among the settle- 
 ments, murdered and scalped a number of people 
 on the frontiers. 
 
 The commanding officer at Fort Prince George 
 having received intelligence of these acts of hostility, 
 dispatched a messenger to Charlestown to inform 
 Governor Lyttleton that the Cherokees had com- 
 menced hostilities. In consequence of which, parties 
 of the independent companies were brought to 
 Charlestown ; and the militia of the country had 
 orders to rendezvous at Congarees, where the go- 
 vernor, with such a force as he could procure from 
 the lower parts, resolved to join them, and march to 
 the relief of the frontier settlements. 
 
 No sooner had the Cherokees heard of these war- 
 like preparations at Charlestown, than 32 of their 
 chiefs set out for that place, in order to settle all 
 differences, and prevent if possible a war ; but the 
 governor notwithstanding determined that nothing 
 should prevent his military expedition, although 
 Lieutenant-Governor Bull urged the danger of a war 
 
990 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 A few days after holding this conference with the 
 chieftains, the governor set out for Congarees, the 
 place of general rendezvous for the militia, and 
 about 140 miles distant from Charlestown, where he 
 mustered in all about 1400 men. To this place the 
 Cherokees marched along with the army, and were 
 to all appearance contented, but in reality burning 
 with resentment. V/hen the army moved from the 
 Congarees, the chieftains, very unexpectedly, were 
 all made prisoners ; and to prevent their escape to 
 the nation, a captain's guard was mounted over 
 them, and in this manner they were obliged to 
 mirch to Fort Prince George. And these 32 In- 
 dians, upon the arrival of the army at Fort Prince 
 George, were all shut up in a hut scarcely sufficient 
 for the accommodation of six soldiers, where they 
 very naturally concerted plots for obtaining their 
 liberty. 
 
 Governor Lyttleton' s little army being not only 
 ill armed and disciplined, but also discontented 
 and mutinous, he judged it dangerous to proceed 
 further into the enemy's country. Having before- 
 hand sent for Attakullakulla, who was esteemed both 
 the wisest man of the Creek nation and the most 
 steady friend of the English, to meet him at Fort 
 Prince George, this warrior hastened to his camp 
 from an excursion against the French, in which he 
 had taken some prisoners, one of whom he pre- 
 sented to the governor. Mr. Lyttleton knew that 
 for obtaining a re-establishment of peace there was 
 not a man in the whole nation better disposed to 
 assist him than this old warrior, though it was ob- 
 served that he cautiously avoided making any offer 
 of satisfaction. But so small was his influence 
 among the Cherokees at this time, that they con- 
 sidered him as no better than an old woman, on ac- 
 count of his attachment to their English enemies, 
 and his aversion from going to war against them. 
 
 About the 18th of December 1759, the governor 
 held a congress with this warrior, and ultimately 
 agreed to a treaty of peace, drawn up and signed 
 by the governor and six of the head men ; in which 
 it was agreed that the 32 chieftains of the Cherokees 
 (who had been taken prisoners) should be kept as 
 hostages confined in the fort, until the same number 
 of Indians guilty of murder should be delivered up 
 to the commander-in-chief of the province; that 
 trade should be opened and carried on as usual ; that 
 the Cherokees should kill, or take every Frenchman 
 prisoner, who should presume to come into their 
 nation during the continuance of the war ; and that 
 they should hold no intercourse with the enemies of 
 Great Britain, but should apprehend every person, 
 white or red, found among them, that might be en- 
 deavouring to set the English and Cherokees at 
 variance, and interrupt the friendship and peace 
 established between them. 
 
 After having concluded this treaty with the Che- 
 rokees, the governor resolved to return to Charles- 
 town. But whether the Indians who put their mark 
 to it understood the articles of agreement or not, we 
 cannot pretend to affirm ; one thing is certain, that 
 few or none of the nation afterward paid the small- 
 est regard to it. The treacherous act of confining 
 their chiefs, against whom no charge could be 
 brought, and who had travelled several hundred 
 miles in order to obtain peace for their nation, had 
 made a strong impression on their minds, but par- 
 ticularly on that of Occouostota, who breathed no- 
 thing but vengeance against such false friends. 
 
 Scarcely had Governor Lyttleton concluded the 
 treaty of Fort Prince George, when the small-pox, 
 
 which was raging in an adjacent Indian town, broke 
 out in his camp ; and as few of his little army had 
 ever gone through that distemper, and as the sur- 
 geons were totally unprovided for such an accident, 
 his men were struck with terror, and in great haste 
 returned to the settlements, cautiously avoiding all 
 intercourse one with another, and suffering much 
 from hunger and fatigue by the way. The governor 
 followed them, and arrived in Charlestown about 
 the beginning of the year 17GO. Though not a drop 
 of blood had been spilt during the expedition, he 
 was received like a conqueror, with the greatest 
 demonstrations of joy ; and the most flattering ad- 
 dresses were presented to him by the different so- 
 cieties and professions, and bon-fires and illumina- 
 tions testified the high sense the inhabitants enter- 
 tained of his merit and services, and the happy con- 
 sequences which they believed would result from his 
 expedition. 
 
 However, those rejoicings on account of the peace 
 were scarcely over, when the news arrived that 
 fresh hostilities had been committed, and the go- 
 vernor was informed that the Cherokees had killed 
 fourteen men within a mile of Fort Prince George. 
 The Indians had contracted an invincible antipathy 
 to Capt. Coytmore, the officer whom Mr. Lyttleton 
 had left commander of that fort ; and the treatment 
 they had received at Charlestown, but especially the 
 imprisonment of their chiefs, had now converted 
 their former desire of peace into the bitterest rage 
 for war. Occonostota, a chieftain of great influence, 
 had become a most implacable and vindictive enemy 
 to Carolina, and determined to repay treachery with 
 treachery. Having gathered a strong party of Che- 
 rokees, he surrounded Fort Prince George, and 
 compelled the garrison to keep within their works ; 
 but finding that he could make no impression on the 
 fort, nor oblige the commander to surrender, he 
 contrived the following stratagem for the relief of 
 his countrymen confined in it. 
 
 As that country was every where covered with 
 woods, he placed a party of savages in a dark thicket 
 by the river side, and then sent an Indian woman, 
 whom he knew to be always welcome at the fort, to 
 inform the commander that he had something of 
 consequence to communicate to him, and would be 
 glad to speak with him at the river side. Captain 
 Coytmore imprudently consented, and without any 
 suspicion of danger walked down towards the river, 
 accompanied by Lieutenants Bell and Foster; when 
 Occonostota appearing on the opposite side, told 
 him he was going to Charlestown to procure a re- 
 lease of the prisoners, and would be glad of a white 
 man to accompany him as a safeguard ; and the better 
 to cover his dark design, had a bridle in his hand, 
 and added, he would go and hunt for a horse to him. 
 The captain replied, that he should have a guard, 
 and wished he might find a horse, as the journey 
 was very long. Upon which the Indian, turning 
 quickly about, swung the bridle thrice round his 
 head, as a signal to the savages placed in ambush, 
 who instantly fired on the officers, shot the captain 
 dead on the spot, and wounded the other two. In 
 consequence of which, orders were given to put the 
 hostages in irons, to prevent any further danger 
 from them ; but while the soldiers were attempting 
 to execute their orders, the Indians stabbed the first 
 man who laid hold of them with a knife, and wounded 
 two more ; upon which the garrison, exasperated to 
 the highest degree, fell on the unfortunate hostages, 
 and butchered them in a manner too shocking to 
 relate. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 991 
 
 There were few men in the Cherokee nation that 
 did not lose a friend or a. relation by this massacre, 
 and therefore with one voice all immediately de- 
 clared for war. The leaders in every town seized 
 the hatchet, telling their followers that the spirits of 
 their murdered brothers were flying around them, 
 and calling for vengeance. From the different towns 
 large parties of warriors took the field, painted in 
 the most formidable manner, and singing the war 
 song, rushed down among the defenceless families 
 on the frontiers of Carolina, where men, women and 
 children, without distinction, fell a sacrifice to their 
 merciless fury. Such as fled to the woods, and es- 
 caped the scalping-knife, perished with hunger; and 
 those whom they made prisoners were carried into 
 the wilderness, where they suffered inexpressible 
 hardships ; and every day brought fresh accounts to 
 the capital of their ravages, murders and desolations. 
 But while the back settlers impatiently looked to 
 their governor for relief, the small-pox raged to such 
 a degree in town, that few of the militia could be 
 prevailed on to leave their distressed families to 
 serve the public. In this extremity an express was 
 sent to General Ainherst, the commander-in-chief 
 in America, acquainting him with the deplorable 
 situation of the province, and imploring his assist- 
 ance in the most pressing terms. Accordingly a 
 battalion of Highlanders, and four companies of the 
 lloyal Scots, under the command of Colonel Mont- 
 gomery, afterwards earl of Eglinton, were ordered 
 immediately to embark, and sail for the relief of 
 Carolina. 
 
 In the mean time William Lyttleton being trans- 
 ferred to the government of Jamaica, the charge of 
 the province devolved on William Bull, a man of 
 great integrity and erudition. Application was made 
 to the inhabitants of North Carolina and Virginia 
 for relief, and seven troops of rangers were raised 
 to patrol the frontiers, and prevent the savages from 
 penetrating further down among the settlements. 
 A considerable sum was voted for presents to such 
 of the Creeks, Chickesaws and Catabaws as should 
 join the province, and go to war against the Chero- 
 kees ; and provisions were sent to the families that 
 had escaped to Augusta and Fort Moore, and the 
 best preparations possible made for chastising their 
 enemy, so soon as the regulars coming from New 
 York should arrive in the province. 
 
 Before the end of April, 1760, Colonel Mont- 
 gomery landed in Carolina, and encamped at Monk's 
 Corner ; but as the conquest of Canada was the 
 grand object of this year's campaign in America, he 
 had orders to strike a sudden blow for the relief of 
 Carolina, and return to head-quarters at Albany 
 without loss of time. Nothing was therefore omitted 
 that was judged necessary to forward the expedition. 
 Several gentlemen of fortune, excited by a laudable 
 zeal, formed themselves into a company of volun- 
 teers, and joined the army. The whole force of the 
 province was collected, and ordered to rendezvous 
 at Congarees ; and waggons, carts and horses were 
 impressed. 
 
 A few weeks after his arrival Colonel Montgomery 
 marched to the Congarees, where he was joined by 
 the internal strength of the province, and immedi- 
 ately set out for the Cherokee country. He was 
 provided with a half-blooded Indian, for a guide, 
 who was well acquainted with the roads through the 
 woods, and the passages through the rivers. Having 
 little time allowed him, his maich was spirited and 
 expeditious. After reaching a place called Twelve- 
 mile River, he encamped on an advantageous ground, 
 
 and marched with a party of his men in the night to 
 surprise Estatoe, an Indian town about 20 miles 
 from his camp. The first noise he heard by the 
 way was the barking of a dog before his men, where 
 he was informed there was an Indian town called 
 Little Keowee, which he ordered the light infantry 
 to surround, and, except women and children, to 
 put every Indian in it to the sword. He next pro- 
 ceeded to Estatoe, which he found abandoned by all 
 the savages, excepting a few who had not had time 
 to make their escape; and this town, which con- 
 sisted of at least 200 houses, and was well provided 
 with corn, hogs, poultry, and ammunition, he re- 
 duced to ashes ; and Sugar Town, and every other 
 settlement in the lower nation, afterwards shared 
 the same fate. In these lower towns about 60 In- 
 dians were killed and 40 made prisoners, and the rest 
 were driven to seek for shelter among the mountains. 
 He then marched to the relief of Fort Prince George, 
 which had been for some time invested by savages, 
 insomuch that no soldier durst venture beyond the 
 bounds of the fort, and where the garrison was in 
 distress, not for the want of provisions, but of fuel to 
 prepare them. 
 
 While the army rested at Fort Prince George, 
 Edmund Atkin, agent for Indian affairs, dispatched 
 two Indian chiefs to the middle settlements, to in- 
 form the Cherokees that by suing for peace they 
 might obtain it, as the former friends and allies of 
 Britain ; and at the same time he sent a messenger 
 to Fort Loudon, requesting Captains Demere and 
 Stuart, the commanding officers at that place, to 
 use their best endeavours for obtaining peace with 
 the Cherokees in the upper towns. Colonel Mont- 
 gomery finding that the savages were as yet dis- 
 posed to listen to no terms of accommodation, de- 
 termined to carry the chastisement a little further. 
 While he was piercing through the thick forest he 
 had numberless difficulties to surmount, particularly 
 from rivers fordable only at one place, and over- 
 looked by high banks on each side, where an enemy 
 might attack him with advantage, and retreat with 
 safety. When he had advanced within five miles 
 of Etchoe, the nearest town in the middle settle- 
 ments, he found there a low valley, covered so 
 thickly with bushes that the soldiers could scarcely 
 see three yards before them, and in the middle of 
 which there was a muddy river, with steep clay 
 banks. Through this dark place, where it was im- 
 possible for any number of men to act together, the 
 array must necessarily march ; and therefore Cap- 
 tain Morison, who commanded a company of rangers 
 well acquainted with the woods, had orders to ad- 
 vance and scour the thicket. He had scarcely en- 
 tered it, when a number of savages sprung from 
 their lurking den, and firing on them, killed the 
 captain and wounded several of his party. Upon 
 which the light-infantry and grenadiers were or- 
 dered to advance and charge the enemy, which they 
 did with great courage and alacrity. A heavy fire 
 then began on both sides, and during some time the 
 soldiers could only discover the places where the 
 savages were hid by the report of their guns. Colonel 
 Montgomery finding that the number of Indians 
 that guarded this place was great, and that they 
 were determined obstinately to dispute it, ordered 
 the Royal Scots, who were in the rear, to advance 
 between the savages and a rising ground on the 
 right, while the Highlanders marched towards the 
 left to sustain the light-infantry and grenadiers. 
 The woods now resounded with the horrible shouts 
 I and yells of the savages, but these, instead of inti 
 
992 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 midating the troops, seemed rather to inspire them 
 with double firmness and resolution. At length the 
 savages gave way, and in their retreat falling in with 
 the Royal Scots, suffered considerably before they 
 got out of their reach. By this time the Royals 
 being in the front and the Highlanders in the rear, 
 the enemy stretched away and took possession of a 
 hill, seemingly disposed to keep at a distance, and 
 always retreating as the army advanced ; and Co- 
 lonel Montgomery perceiving that they kept aloof, 
 gave orders to the line to face about, and march 
 directly for the town of Etchoe ; but the enemy no 
 sooner observed this movement, than they got be- 
 hind the hill, and ran to alarm their wives and chil- 
 dren. During the action, which lasted above an 
 hour, Colonel Montgomery, who made several nar- 
 row escapes, had 20 men killed, and 76 wounded. 
 What number the enemy lost is uncertain, but some 
 places were discovered into which they had thrown 
 several of their slain, from which it was conjectured 
 that they must have lost a great number, as it is a 
 custom among them to carry their dead off the field. 
 Upon viewing the ground, all were astonished to see 
 with what judgment and skill they had chosen it ; 
 for the most experienced European officer could not 
 have fixed upon a spot more advantageous for way- 
 laying and attacking an enemy, according to the 
 method of fighting practised among the Indian na- 
 tions. 
 
 This action, though it terminated much in favour 
 of the British troops, had nevertheless reduced them 
 to such a situation as made it very imprudent, if not 
 altogether impracticable, to penetrate further into 
 those woods. The repulse was far from being de- 
 cisive, for the enemy had only retired from one to 
 another advantageous situation in order to renew 
 their attack when the army should again advance. 
 Humanity would not suffer the commander to leave 
 so many wounded men exposed to the vengeance of 
 savages, without any strong hold in which he might 
 lodge them, or some detachment, which he could 
 not spare, to protect them ; and should he proceed 
 further, he saw plainly that he must expect frequent 
 skirmishes, which would increase the number, and 
 the burning of so many Indian towns would be a 
 poor compensation for the great risk, and perhaps 
 wanton sacrifice of so many valuable lives. To 
 furnish horses for the men already wounded obliged 
 him to throw many bags of flour into the river, and 
 what remained was no more than sufficient for his 
 army during their return to Fort Prince George. 
 Orders were therefore given for a retreat, which was 
 made with great regularity, although the enemy con- 
 tinued hovering around them, and annoying them to 
 the utmost of their power. A large train of wounded 
 men was brought above 60 miles through a hazardous 
 country in safety, for which no small share of honour 
 and praise was due to the officer that conducted the 
 retreat. 
 
 After Colonel Montgomery had returned to the 
 settlements, and was preparing to embark for New 
 York, agreeable to his orders from General Ainherst, 
 the Carolineans were again thrown under the most 
 dreadful apprehensions from the dangers which still 
 hung over the province ; and prevailed on the co- 
 lonel to leave four companies of the royal regiment, 
 under the command of Major Frederick Hamilton, 
 for covering the frontiers, while he embarked with 
 the battalion of Highlanders, and sailed for New 
 York. 
 
 In the mean time the distant garrison of Fort Lou- 
 acn, consisting of 200 men, was reduced to the 
 
 dreadful alternative of perishing by hunger or sub 
 mittingto the mercy of the enraged Cherokees. The 
 governor having information that the Virginians 
 had undertaken to relieve it, for a while seemed 
 satisfied, and anxiously waited to hear the news of 
 that happy event; but the Virginians were equally 
 ill qualified with their neighbours of Carolina to send 
 them any assistance. So remote was the fort from 
 every settlement, and so difficult was it to march an 
 army through the barren wilderness, where the va- 
 rious thickets were lined with enemies, and to carry 
 at the same time sufficient supplies along with them, 
 that the Virginians had dropped all thoughts of the 
 attempt. Provisions being entirely exhausted at 
 Fort London, the garrison was reduced to the most 
 deplorable situation ; and for a whole month they 
 had no other subsistence but the flesh of lean horses 
 and dogs, and a small supply of Indian beans, which 
 some friendly Cherokee women procured for them 
 by stealth. Long had the officers endeavoured to 
 animate and encourage the men with the hopes of 
 relief; but now being blockaded night and day by 
 the enemy, and having no resource left, they threa- 
 tened to leave the fort, and die at once by the hands 
 of savages, rather than perish slowly by'famine. In 
 this extremity the commander was obliged to call a 
 council of war, to consider what was proper to be 
 done ; when the officers were all of opinion that it 
 was impossible to hold out any longer, and therefore 
 agreed to surrender the fort to the Cherokees on the 
 best terms that could be obtained from them. For 
 this purpose Captain Stuart, an officer of great saga- 
 city and address, and much beloved by all the In- 
 dians that remaiaed. in the British interest, procured 
 leave to go to Chote, one of the principal towns in 
 the neighbourhood, where he obtained the following 
 terms of capitulation, which were signed by the com- 
 manding officer and two of the Cherokee chiefs. 
 " That the garrison of Fort London march out with 
 their arms and drums, each soldier having as much 
 powder and ball as their officer shall think necessary 
 for their march, and all the baggage they may choose 
 to carry : that the garrison be permitted to march 
 to Virginia, or Fort Prince George, as the com- 
 manding officer shall think proper, unmolested ; and 
 that a number of Indians be appointed to escort 
 them, and hunt for provisions during their march : 
 that such soldiers as are lame, or by sickness dis- 
 abled from marching, be received into the Indian 
 towns, and kindly used until they recover, and then 
 be allowed to return to Fort Prince George : that 
 the Indians do provide for the garrison as many 
 horses as. they conveniently can for their march, 
 agreeing with the officers and soldiers for payment : 
 that the fort, great guns, powder, ball, and spare 
 arms, be delivered to the Indians without fraud or 
 further delay, on the day appointed for the march 
 of the troops." 
 
 On these terms the garrison delivered up the forf, 
 and marched out with their arms, accompanied by 
 Occonostota. Judd's friend, the chief of Chote, and 
 several other Indians, and that day went fifteen 
 miles on their way to Fort Prince George. At night 
 they encamped on a plain about two miles from Ta- 
 liquo, an Indian town, when all their attendants, 
 upon one pretence or another, left them ; which the 
 officers considered as no good sign, and therefore 
 placed a strict guard round their camp. During 
 the night they remained unmolested, but next morn- 
 ing about break of day a soldier from an out-post 
 came running in, and informed them that he saw a 
 vast number of Indians, armed, and painted in the 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 993 
 
 mosi dreadful manner, creeping among the bushes, 
 and advancing in order to surround them. Scarcely 
 had the officer time to order his men to stand to their 
 arms, when the savages poured in upon them a heavy 
 fire from different quarters, accompanied with the 
 most hideous yells, whick struck a panic into the 
 soldiers, who were so much enfeebled and dispirited 
 that they were incapable of making any effectual 
 resistance. Captain Demere, with three other officers, 
 and about 26 private men, fell at the first onset. 
 Some fled into the woods, and were afterwards taken 
 prisoners and confined among the towns in the val- 
 ley. Captain Stuart, and those that remained, were 
 seized, pinioned, and brought back to Fort Loudon. 
 No sooner had Attakullakulla heard that his friend 
 Mr. Stuart had escaped, than he hastened to the 
 fort, and purchased him from the Indian that took 
 him, giving him his rifle, clothes, and all he could 
 command, by way of ransom. He then took pos- 
 session of Captain Demere's house, where he kept 
 his prisoner as one of his family, and freely shared 
 with him the little provisions his table afforded, until 
 a fair opportunity should offer for rescuing him from 
 their hands; but the poor soldiers were kept in a 
 miserable state of captivity for some time, and then 
 redeemed by the province at a great expense. 
 
 During the time these prisoners were confined at 
 Fort Loudon, Occonostota formed a design of at- 
 tacking Fort Prince George, and for this purpose 
 dispatched a messenger to the settlements in the 
 valley, requesting all the warriors there to join him 
 at Stiekoey old town. By accident a discovery was 
 made of ten bags of powder, and ball in proportion, 
 which the officers had secretly buried in the fort, to 
 prevent their falling into the enemy's hands. This 
 discovery had nearly proved fatal to Captain Stuart, 
 and would certainly have cost him his life, had not 
 the interpreter had so much presence of mind as to 
 assure the enemy that these warlike stores had been 
 concealed without his knowledge or consent. The 
 Indians having now abundance of ammunition for 
 the siege, a council was called at Chote, to which 
 the captain was brought, and put in mind of the 
 obligations he lay under to them for sparing his life ; 
 and as they had resolved to carry six cannon and 
 two cohoros with them against Fort Prince George, 
 to he managed by men under his command, they told 
 him he must go and write such letters to the com- 
 mandant as they should dictate to him. They in- 
 formed him at the same time, that if that officer 
 should refuse to surrender, they were determined to 
 burn the prisoners one after another before his face, 
 und try if he could ba so obstinate as to hold out 
 while he saw his friends expiring in the flames. 
 Captain Stuart was much alarmed at his situation, 
 and from that moment resolved to make his escape, or 
 perish in the attempt. His design he privately commu- 
 nicated to Attakullakulla, and told him how uneasy 
 he was at the thoughts of being compelled to bear 
 arms against his countrymen. He acknowledged that 
 he had always been a brother, and hoped he would 
 assist him to get out of his present perilous circum- 
 stances. The old warrior, taking him by the hand, told 
 him he was his friend, he had already given one proof 
 of his regard, and intended to give another so soon 
 as his brother should return and help him to concert 
 the measure. He said he was well apprised of the 
 ill designs of his countrymen, and should he go and 
 persuade the garrison of Fort Prince George to do 
 as he had done, what could he expect but that they 
 should share the same dismal fate. Strong and un- 
 cultivated minds carry their friendship, as well as 
 
 HIST. OF AMER.NOS. 125 & 126. 
 
 their enmity,to an astonishing pitch. Among savages 
 family friendship is a national virtue, and civilized 
 men may blush when they consider how much barba- 
 rians have often surpassed them in the practice of it. 
 
 Attakullakulla claimed Captain Stuart as his pri- 
 soner, and had resolved to deliver him from danger, 
 and for this purpose there was no time to be lost. 
 Accordingly he gave out among his countrymen 
 that he intended to hunt for a few days, arid carry 
 his prisoner along with him to eat venison, of which 
 he declared he was exceedingly fond. At the same 
 time the captain went among his soldiers, telling 
 them that they could never expect to be ransomed 
 by the province, if they gave the smallest assistance 
 to the Indians against Fort Prince George. Having 
 settled all matters, they set out on their journey, 
 accompanied by the warrior's wife, his brother, and 
 two soldiers, who were the only persons in the gar- 
 rison that knew how to convey great guns through 
 the woods. For provisions they depended on what 
 they might kill by the way; but the distance to 
 the frontier settlements was great, and the utmost 
 expedition was necessary to prevent any surprise 
 from Indians pursuing them. Nine days and nights 
 did they travel through a dreary wilderness, shaping 
 their course by the sun and moon towards Virginia, 
 and traversing many hills, valleys, and paths, that 
 had never been crossed before but by savages and 
 wild beasts. On the tenth they arrived at the banks 
 of Holston's river, where they fortunately fell in 
 with a party of 300 men, sent out by Colonel Bird 
 for the relief of such soldiers as might make their 
 escape that way from Fort Loudon. On the four- 
 teenth day the Captain reached Colonel Bird's camp 
 on the frontiers of Virginia, where having loaded 
 his faithful friend with presents and provisions, he 
 sent him back to protect the unhappy prisoners till 
 they should be ransomed, and to exert his influence 
 among the Cherokees for the restoration of peace. 
 
 No sooner had Captain Stuart made his escape 
 from the hands of the savages, than he immediately 
 began to concert ways and means for the relief of 
 his garrison. An express was dispatched to Lieu- 
 tenant-governor Bull, informing him of the disaster 
 that had happened to the garrison of Fort Loudon, 
 and of the designs of the enemy against Fort Prince 
 George. In consequence of which orders were given 
 to Major Thomson, who commanded the militia on. 
 the frontiers, to throw in provisions for ten weeks 
 into that fort, and warn the commanding officer of 
 his danger. At the same time a messenger was 
 sent to Attakullakulla, desiring him to inform the 
 Cherokees that Fort George was impregnable, having 
 vast quantities of powder buried underground every 
 where around it, to blow up all enemies that should 
 attempt to come near it. Presents of considerable 
 value were sent to redeem the prisoners at Fort 
 Loudon, a few of whom had by this time made their 
 escape ; and afterwards not only those that were 
 confined among the towns in the valley, but also 
 all that had survived the hardships of hunger, dis- 
 ease, and captivity in the upper towns were released, 
 and delivered up to the commanding officer at Fort 
 Prince George. 
 
 It might now have been expected that the vin- 
 dictive spirit of the savages would be satisfied, and 
 that they would be disposed to listen to some terms 
 of accommodation. This treacherous conduct to the 
 soldiers at Fort Loudon, they intended as a satis- 
 faction for the harsh treatment their relations had 
 met with at Fort Prince George; and dearly had 
 the province paid for the base imprisonment and 
 
 4 N 
 
994 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 massacre of the chiefs at that place. Still, however, 
 a great majority of the nation spurned at every offer 
 of peace. The lower towns had all been destroyed 
 by Colonel Montgomery; the warriors in the middle 
 settlements had lost many friends and relations ; 
 and several Frenchmen had crept in among the 
 upper towns, and helped to foment their ill humour 
 against Carolina. Lewis Lat.inac, a French officer, 
 was among them, and proved an indefatigable insti- 
 gator to mischief. He persuaded the Indians that 
 the English had nothing less in view than to exter- 
 minate them from the face of the earth; and, fur- 
 nishing them with arms and ammunition, urged 
 them on to war. At a great meeting of the nation 
 he pulled out his hatchet, and striking it into a log 
 of wood, called out, Who is the man that will take 
 this up for the king of France ? Saloue, the young 
 warrior of Estatoe, instantly laid hold of it, and 
 cried out, " I am for war. The spirits of our brothers 
 who have been slain still call upon us to avenge 
 their death. He is no better than a woman that 
 refuses to follow me." Many others seized the to- 
 mahawk, yet dyed in British blood, and burned with 
 impatience for the field. 
 
 Under the flattering appearance of a calm were 
 these clouds again gathering : however, Lieutenant- 
 governor Bull, who well knew how little Indians 
 were to be trusted on any occasion, kept the royal 
 Scots and militia on the frontiers in a posture of 
 defence. But rinding the province still under the 
 most dreadful apprehensions from their savage 
 neighbours, who continued insolent and vindictive, 
 and ready to renew their ravages and murders, he 
 made application a second time to General Amherst 
 for assistance. Canada being now reduced, the 
 commander-in-chief could the more easily spare a 
 force adequate to the purpose intended ; and Colonel 
 Montgomery, who conducted the former expedition, 
 having by this time embarked for England, the 
 command of the Highlanders devolved on Lieute- 
 nant-Colonel James Grant, who received orders to 
 return to the relief of Carolina. Early in the year 
 1761 he landed at Charlestown, where he took up 
 his winter-quarters, until the proper season should 
 approach for taking the field; but, unfortunately, 
 during this time many of-the soldiers, by drinking 
 brackish water, were taken sick, which afforded the 
 inhabitants an opportunity of showing their kindness 
 and humanity. They considered themselves under 
 the strongest obligations to treat men with tender- 
 ness, who came to protect them against their ene 
 mies, and therefore they brought the sick soldiers 
 into their houses, and nursed them with the greatest 
 care and attention. 
 
 In this campaign the province determined to ex- 
 ert itself to the utmost, that, in conjunction with 
 the regular forces, a severe correction might be given 
 to those troublesome savages. For this purpose a 
 provincial regiment was raised, and the cornmanc 
 of it given to Colonel Middleton. Presents were 
 provided for the Indian allies, and several of the 
 Chickesaws and Catabaws engaged to assist them 
 against the Cherokees. But the Creeks, whose help 
 was also strongly solicited, played an artful game 
 between the English and the French, and gave th 
 one or the other encouragement, according to th 
 advantages they reaped from them. All possibl 
 preparations were made for supplying the army with 
 provisions at different stages, and with such cart 
 and horses as wt-re thought necessary to the expe 
 dition. 
 
 As all white men in the province, of the military 
 
 age, were soldiers as well as citizens, anu trained iu 
 some measure to the use of arms, it was no difficult 
 matter to complete the provincial regiment. Their 
 names being registered in the list of militia; on every 
 emergency they were obliged to be ready for defence, 
 not only against the incursions of Indians, but 
 also against the insurrection of negroes ; and al- 
 though the same prompt obedience to orders could 
 not be expected from them that is necessary in a re- 
 gular army, yet the provincials had other advantage.'* 
 .vhich compensated for that defect. They were bet- 
 er acquainted than strangers with the woods, and 
 he nature of that country in which their military 
 ervice was required. They were seasoned to the 
 limate, and had learned from experience what 
 lothes, meat, and drink were most proper to enable 
 hem to do their duty. In common occasions, when 
 he militia was called out, the men received no pay, 
 >ut when employed, as in this Cherokee war, for 
 he public defence, they were allowed the same pay 
 with the king's forces. 
 
 As soon as the Highlanders had recovered from 
 heir sickness, and were in a condition to take the 
 ield, Colonel Grant began his march for the Cherokee 
 erritories ; and after being joined by the provincial 
 regiment and Indian allies, he mustered in all about 
 2600 men. Having served some years in America, 
 and been in several engagements with Indians, he 
 was now no stranger to their methods of making war. 
 On the 27th of May, 1761, Colonel Grant arrived 
 at Fort Prince George, and Attakullakulla having 
 information that he was advancing against his 
 nation with a formidable army, hastened to his camp, 
 o signify his earnest desire of peace. He told the 
 colonel that he always had been, and ever would 
 continue to be, a firm friend to the English; that the 
 outrages of his countrymen covered him with shame, 
 and filled his heart with grief; yet nevertheless he 
 would gladly interpose in their behalf, in order to 
 bring about an accommodation. Often, he said, had 
 be been called an old woman by the mad young men 
 of his nation, who delighted in war, and despised his 
 counsels. Often had he endeavoured to get the 
 hatchet buried, and the former good correspondence 
 with the Carolineans established ; but now he was 
 determined to set out for the Cherokee towns, to per- 
 suade them to consult their safety, and speedily agree 
 to terms of peace, and again and again begged the 
 colonel to proceed no further until he returned. 
 
 Colonel Grant, however, gave him no encourage- 
 ment to expect that his request could be granted; 
 but, on the 7th of June, began his march from Fort 
 Prince George, carrying with him provisions to the 
 army for 30 days. A party of 90 Indians, and 30 
 woodmen painted like Indians, under the command 
 of Captain Quintine Kennedy, had orders to march 
 in front and scour the woods. After them the light- 
 infantry, and about 50 rangers, consisting in all of 
 about 200 men, followed, by whose vigilance and 
 activity the commander imagined that the main 
 body of the army might be kept tolerably quiet and 
 secure. For three days he made forced marches, in 
 order to get over two narrow and dangerous defiles, 
 which he accomplished withoutashotfrom the enemy, 
 but which might have cost him dear, had they been 
 properly guarded and warmly disputed. On the day 
 following he found suspicious ground on all hands, 
 and therefore orders were given for the first time to 
 load and prepare for action, and the guards to 
 march slowly forward, doubling their vigilance and 
 circumspection. As they frequently spied Indians 
 around them, all were convinced that they should 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 995 
 
 that day have an engagement. At length, havio 
 advanced near to the place where Colonel Montgc 
 mery was attacked the year before, the Indian allie 
 in the van-guard, about eight in the morning, ob 
 served a large body of Cherokees posted upon a hi! 
 on the right flank of the array, and gave the alarm 
 Immediately the savages, rushing down, began t 
 fire on the advanced guard, which being supported 
 the enemy were repulsed, and recovered their heights 
 Under this hill the line was obliged to march a con 
 siderable way. On the left there was a river, from 
 the opposite banks of which a large party of Indian 
 fired briskly on the troops as they advanced. Co 
 lonel Grant ordered a party to march up the hill 
 and drive the enemy from the heights, while the 
 line faced about, and gave their whole charge to the 
 Indians who annoyed them from the side of th 
 river. The engagement became general, and the 
 savages seemed determined obstinately to dispute 
 the lower grounds, while those on the hill were dis- 
 lodged only to return with redoubled ardour to the 
 charge. The situation of the troops was in severa! 
 respects deplorable; fatigued by a tedious march, 
 in rainy weather, surrounded with woods, so thai 
 they could not discern the enemy, galled by the 
 scattered fire of savages, who when pressed alway 
 kept aloof, but rallied again and again, and returned 
 to the ground. No sooner did the army gain an 
 advantage over them in one quarter, than they ap- 
 peared in another. While the attention of the com- 
 mander was occupied in driving the enemy from 
 their lurking-place on the river's side, the rear was 
 attacked, and so vigorous an effort made for the 
 Hour and cattle, that he was obliged to order a party 
 back for the relief of the rear-guard. From eight 
 o'clock in the morning until eleven the savages con- 
 tinued to keep up an irregular and incessant fire, 
 sometimes from one place, and sometimes from 
 another, while the woods resounded with hideous 
 shouts and yells, to intimidate the troops. At length 
 the Cherokees gave way, and being pursued for 
 some time, random shots continued till two o'clock, 
 when they disappeared. What loss the enemy sus- 
 tained in this action we have not been able to learn, 
 but of Colonel Grant's army there were between 50 
 and 60 men killed and wounded ; and it is probable 
 the loss of the savages could not be much greater, 
 and perhaps not so great, owing to their manner of 
 fighting. Orders were given not to bury the slain, 
 but. to sink them in the river, to prevent their being 
 dug up from their graves and scalped. To provide 
 horses for those that were wounded, several bags of 
 flour were thrown into the river. After which they 
 proceeded to Etchoe, a pretty large Indian town, 
 which they reached about midnight, and next day 
 reduced to ashes. Every other town in the middle 
 settlements, fourteen in number, shared the same 
 fate; and their magazines and corn fields were like- 
 wise destroyed, and those miserable savages, with 
 their families, were driven to seek for shelter and 
 provisions among the lower mountains. 
 
 Colonel Grant continued 30 days in the heart of 
 the Cherokee territories, and, upon his return to 
 Fort Prince George, the feet and legs of many of 
 his army were so torn and bruised, and their strength 
 and spirits so much exhausted, that they were ut- 
 terly unable to march further. He resolved there- 
 fore to encamp at that place, both to refresh his 
 men, and wait the resolutions of the Cherokees, in 
 consequence of the heavy chastisement which they 
 had received. Besides the numberless advantage* 
 their country afforded for defence, it was supposed 
 
 that some French officers had been among them, and 
 given them all the assistance in their power. It is 
 true the savages supported their attack for some 
 hours with considerable spirit; but being driven 
 from their advantageous posts and thickets they were 
 wholly disconcerted, and though the repulse was far 
 from being decisive, yet after this engagement they 
 returned no more to the attack. 
 
 Such engagements in Europe would be considered 
 as trifling skirmishes, scarcely worthy of relation, 
 but in America a great deal is often determined by 
 them. It is no easy matter to describe the distress 
 to which the savages were reduced by this severe 
 correction; even in time of peace they are in a great 
 measure destitute of that foresight, which provides 
 for future events ; but in time of war, when their 
 villages are destroyed, and their fields laid desolate, 
 they /are reduced to extreme want. Being driven to 
 the barren mountains, the hunters furnished with 
 ammunition might indeed make some small provi- 
 sion for themselves; but women, children, and old 
 men, must perish, being deprived of the means of 
 subsistence. 
 
 A few days after Colonel Grant's arrival at Fort 
 Prince George, Attakullakulla, attended by several 
 chieftains, came to his camp, and expressed a desire 
 of peace. Severely had they 'suffered for breaking 
 their alliance with Britain; and convinced at last 
 of the weakness and perfidy of the French, who were 
 neither able to assist them in time of war, nor sup- 
 )ly their wants in time of peace, they resolved to 
 enounce ail connexion with them for ever. Ac- 
 ;ordingly terms of peace were drawn up and pro- 
 >osed, which were no less honourable to Colonel 
 jrant than advantageous to the province. The dif- 
 erent articles being read and interpreted, Attakulla- 
 julla agreed to them all excepting one, by which it 
 *-as demanded, " That four Cherokee Indians be de- 
 ivered up to Colonel Grant at Fort Prince George, 
 o be put to death in the front of his camp ; or four 
 jreen scalps be brought to him in the space of 
 welve nights." The warrior having no authority 
 rom his nation, declared he could not agree to this 
 irticle, and therefore the Colonel sent him to Charles- 
 own, to see whether the lieutenant-governor would 
 onsent to mitigate the rigour of it. 
 
 Accordingly Attakullakulla, and the other chief- 
 ains, being furnished with a safeguard, set out for 
 Chaiiestown, to hold a conference with Mr. Bull, 
 nd a peace was formally ratified and confirmed by 
 oth parties. 
 
 Thus ended the Cherokee war, which was amonf 
 he last humbling strokes given to the expiring 
 owei of France in North America, and Colonel 
 Sfrant returned to Charlestown to wait further orders. 
 5ut no sooner was peace concluded, and the pro- 
 ince secured against external enemies, than an 
 nhappy difference broke out between the two prin- 
 ipal commanders of the regular and provincial 
 srces. Colonel Grant, a native of Scotland, was 
 aturally of a high spirit, to which he added that 
 ride of rank which he held among those British sol- 
 iers who had carried their arms triumphant through 
 le continent. During this expedition it is proba- 
 le that he scorned to ask the advice of a provincial 
 fficer, whom he deemed an improper judge of mill - 
 ary operations, and claimed the chief glory of hav- 
 ng restored peace to the province. Colonel Mid- 
 letoa was equally warm and proud, and consider- 
 ng such neglect as an affront, resented it, and while 
 ome reflections were cast upon the provincial troops, 
 
 ing the chief in command, he thought himself 
 4 N 2 
 
995 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 bound to stand forth as a champion for the honour 
 of the province. This discontent, which appeared 
 between the officers on their return to Charlestown, 
 was encouraged and fomented by persons delighting 
 in mischief, who, by malicious surmises and reports, 
 helped to widen the difference. The dispute became 
 serious, and was carried on for some time in the 
 public papers by mutual charges of misconduct, and 
 at length ended in a duel ; which, however, happily 
 terminated without bloodshed. 
 
 This year one of the most violent and dreadful 
 hurricanes that had ever been known, passed Charles- 
 town in the month of May. It appeared at first 
 to the west of the town, like a large column of 
 smoke, approaching fast in an irregular direction ; 
 and the vapour of which it was composed resembled 
 clouds rolling one over another in violent tumult 
 and agitation, assuming at one time a dark, at 
 another a bright flaming colour. Its motion was 
 exceedingly swift and crooked ; and, as it approached, 
 the inhabitants were greatly alarmed with an unu- 
 sual sound, like the continual roaring of distant 
 thunder, or the noise made by a stormy sea beating 
 upon the shore, which brought numbers of people to 
 witness the dreadful phenomenon. While it passed 
 down Ashley river, such was its incredible velocity 
 and force, that it ploughed the waters to the bottom, 
 and laid the channel bare. The town narrowly and 
 providentially escaped, but it threatened destruction 
 to a fleet consisting of no less than 40 sail of loaded 
 ships, lying at anchor in Rebellion Road, about four 
 miles below the town, and waiting a fair wind to sail 
 for England. When it reached the fleet, five ves- 
 sels were sunk in an instant by it, and a British ship 
 of war, the Dolphin, with eleven others, were dis- 
 masted. Such was the situation of the fleet, and so 
 rapid was the motion of the whirlwind, that though 
 the seamen observed it approaching, it was impossi- 
 ble to provide against it. In its oblique course it 
 struck only a part of the fleet, and the damage, 
 though computed at 20,000/. sterling, was by no 
 means so great as might have been expected. Nor 
 were many lives lost, for the channel of the river 
 not being very deep, while the ships sat down in the 
 mud, and were covered by' the waves, the sailors 
 saved themselves by running up the shrouds. The 
 whirlwind passed the town a little before three o'clock, 
 and before four the sky was so clear and serene, that 
 it could scarcely have been believed that such a dread- 
 ful scene had been exhibited, had it not left many 
 striking proofs behind it. Its route was not only 
 marked in the woods, having levelled the loftiest 
 trees, or swept them away before it like chaff, but its 
 effects were visible in the fleet, by the number of 
 vessels sunk and dismasted. 
 
 The climate of Georgia, like that of Carolina, is 
 more mild and pleasant in the inland than maritime 
 parts. Governor Ellis has left us the following ac- 
 count of the heat of the summer at Savanna. In the 
 7th of July, while he was writing in his piazza, 
 which was open at each end, he says the mercury in 
 liahrenheit's thermometer stood at 102 in the shade. 
 Twice had it risen to that height during the summer, 
 several times to 100, and for many days together to 
 98; and in the night did not sink below 89. He 
 thought it highly probable, that the inhabitants of 
 savanna breathed hotter air than any other people 
 upon earth. The town being situated on a sandy 
 eminence, the reflection from the dry sand, when 
 there is little or no agitation in the air, greatly in- 
 creases the heat; for by walking 100 yards from his 
 house upon the sand, under his umbrella, with the 
 
 thermometer suspended by a thread to the height of 
 his nostrils, the mercury rose to 105. The same 
 thermometer he had with him in the equatorial parts 
 of Africa, in Jamaica, and in the Leeward Islands ; 
 yet by his journals he found that it had never in any 
 of these places risen so high. Its general station 
 was between 79 and 86. He acknowledges, how- 
 ever, that he felt these degrees of heat in a moist 
 air more disagreeable than at Savanna, when the 
 thermometer stood at 81 in his cellar, at 102 in the 
 story above it, and in the upper story of his house 
 at 105. On the 10th of December the mercury was 
 up at 86, on the 1 1th down as low as 38, on the 
 same instrument. Such sudden and violent changes, 
 especially when they happen frequently, must seri- 
 ously injure the human constitution; yet he asserts 
 that few people die at Savanna out of the ordinary 
 course, though many were working in the open air, 
 exposed to the sun during this extreme heat. As 
 this governor was a man of sense and erudition, and 
 no doubt made his observations with great accu- 
 racy, we shall not presume to call in question the 
 facts he relates ; but it is very unusual for the mer- 
 cury to rise so high in the shade at Charlestown, and 
 we believe it very seldom happens to do so in Georgia. 
 It may be added, that the situation of Savanna, 
 surrounded with low and marshy lands, and liable 
 to sudden and great changes in the weather, as in 
 Carolina, is very bad; and the maritime parts of 
 both provinces must, be ranked among the most un- 
 healthy climates in the world. 
 
 The peace with France Boundaries of East and West 
 Florida The southern provinces left secure En- 
 couragement given to reduced officers and soldiers 
 Georgia begins to flourish Emigrations to Caro- 
 lina Regulations relative to the Indians John 
 Stuart, superintendant for Indian affairs Decrease 
 of Indians, and the causes of it Population and 
 trade of the province. 
 
 The peace of Paris, though condemned by many 
 unquestionably placed America in the most advan- 
 tageous situation. As the war there arose from a con- 
 test about the limits of the British and French terri- 
 tories, by the seventh article of this treaty it was 
 agreed, " That, for the future, the confines between 
 the dominions of his Britannic majesty and those 
 of his most Christian majesty in that part of the 
 world should be fixed irrevocably, by a line drawn 
 along the middle of the river Mississippi, from its 
 source to the river Iberville, and from thence by a 
 line drawn along the middle of the river and the 
 lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain tc the sea " 
 And by the twentieth article, " His Catholic ma- 
 jesty ceded and guaranteed in full right to his Bri- 
 tannic majesty, Florida, with Fort Augustine and 
 the bay of Pensacola, as well as all that Spain pos- 
 sessed on the continent of North America, to the 
 east or south-east of the river Mississippi, and in 
 general every thing depending on the said countries 
 and lands, with the sovereignty, property, posses- 
 sion, and all rights acquired by treaties or otherwise, 
 which the Catholic king and the crown of Spain 
 have had till now over the said countries, lands, 
 places, and other inhabitants." By these articles 
 the southern provinces were rendered perfectly se- 
 cure, and, considering the nature of the country, no 
 frontiers could be more distinctly defined. 
 
 Great pains were taken to acquire an exact know- 
 ledge of the new acquisitions, which were divided 
 into three separate independent governments, under 
 officers \vho had distinguished themselves during the 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 997 
 
 war. The government of East Florida was bounded 
 to the westward by the Gulf of Mexico and the river 
 Apalachicola; to the north by a line drawn from 
 that part of the above-mentioned river where the Ca- 
 tabouchee and Flint rivers meet, to the source of 
 St. Mary's river, and by the course of the same river 
 to the Atlantic Ocean ; and to the east and south by 
 the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Florida, includ- 
 ing all islands within six leagues of the sea-coast. 
 The government of West Florida was bounded to 
 the southward by the Gulf of Mexico, including all 
 islands within six leagues of the sea-coast, from 
 the river Apalachicola to Lake Pontehartrain ; to 
 the westward by the said lake, the lake Maurepas, 
 and the river Mississippi; to the north by a line 
 drawn due east from that part of the river Missis- 
 sippi which lies in 31 degrees of north latitude, to 
 the river Apalachicola, or Catabouchee ; aud to the 
 east by the said river. All the lands lying between 
 the rivers Alatamaha and St. Mary : s were annexed 
 to the province of Georgia. 
 
 The possession of these two provinces of East and 
 West Florida, though of themselves little better than 
 an immense waste, was of great importance to the 
 neighbouring provinces of Georgia and Carolina. 
 It deprived the Spaniards of a strong hold from 
 which they could send out an armed force and harass 
 these provinces, and of an easy avenue through 
 which they had often invaded them. It removed 
 troublesome neighbours out of their way, who had 
 often instigated the savages against them, and made 
 Augustine an asylum for fugitive slaves. It opened 
 some convenient ports for trade with Britain and the 
 West Indies, and for annoying French and Spanish 
 ships coming through the Gulf of Florida, in case ot 
 any future rupture. It formed a strong frontier to 
 the British dominions in that quarter, and furnished 
 an immense track of improvable land for reduced 
 officers, soldiers, and others, to settle and cultivate. 
 
 Grants were made to officers and soldiers who had 
 served during the late war, and orders were given to 
 the governors on the continent, to grant, without 
 fee or reward, 5000 acres to every field-officer who 
 had served in America, 3000 to every captain, 2000 
 to every subaltern, 200 to every non-commiasioned 
 officer, and 50 to every private man ; free of quit- 
 rents for ten years, but subject, at the expiration of 
 that term, to the same moderate quit-rents as the 
 lands in the other provinces, and to the same con- 
 ditions of cultivation and improvement. In the new 
 colonies, for the encouragement of the people, they 
 were to be allowed civil establishments, similar to 
 those of the other royal governments on the conti- 
 nent, so soon as their circumstances would admit. 
 
 No province on the continent felt the happy 
 effects of this public security sooner than the pro- 
 vince of Georgia, which had long struggled under 
 many difficulties, arising from the want of credit 
 from friends, and the frequent molestations of 
 enemies. During the late war the government had 
 been given to James Wright, who governed the 
 province with justice and equity ; and discovered 
 the excellence of its low lands and river swamps, by 
 the proper management and cultivation of which he 
 acquired in a few years a plentiful fortune. His ex- 
 ample and success gave vigour to industry, and pro- 
 moted a spirit of emulation among the planters for 
 improvement. The rich lands were sought for with 
 ardour, and the British merchants observing the 
 province safe, and advancing to a hopeful and flou- 
 rishing state, were no longer backward in extend- 
 ing credit to it, but supplied it with negroes, and 
 
 goods of British manufacture, with equal freedom 
 as the other provinces on that continent. The trade 
 of the province kept pace with its progress in culti- 
 vation. The rich swamps attracted the attention 
 not only of strangers, but even of the planters of 
 Carolina, who had been accustomed to treat their 
 poor neighbours with the utmost contempt, se- 
 veral of whom sold their estates in that colony, 
 and moved with their families and effects to Georgia. 
 Many settlements were made by Carolineans about 
 Sunbury, and upon the great river Alatamaha. The 
 price of produce at Savanna arose as the quantity 
 increased, a circumstance which contributed much 
 to the improvement of the country. The planters 
 situated on the opposite side of Savanna river found 
 in the capital of Georgia a convenient and excellent 
 market for their staple commodities. In short, from 
 this period the rice, indigo and naval stores of Georgia 
 arrived at the markets in Europe in equal excellence 
 and perfection, and, iu proportion to its strength, in 
 equal quantities with those of its more powerful and 
 opulent neighbours in Carolina. To form a judg- 
 ment of the progress of the colony, we need only 
 attend to its exports. In the year 1763, the exports 
 of Georgia consisted of 7500 barrels of rice, 96331t>s. 
 of indigo, 1250 bushels of Indian corn, which, to- 
 gether with deer and beaver-skins, naval stores, 
 provisions, timber, &c. amounted to no more than 
 27,02R sterling ; but afterwards the colony thrived 
 and increased in a manner so rapid, that, in the 
 year 1773, it exported staple commodities to the 
 value of 121,6772. sterling. 
 
 No less favourable were the blessings of peace and 
 security to their neighbours of Carolina; for never 
 did any country flourish and prospei in a more as- 
 tonishing degree than this province did subsequently 
 to the late mentioned war. The government had 
 been given to Thomas Boone, who was not only a 
 native of the province, but had a considerable estate 
 in it, which naturally rendered him deeply inte- 
 rested in its prosperity. The assembly appropriated 
 a large fund for bounties to foreign Protestants, and 
 such industrious poor people of Britain and Ireland 
 as should resort to the province within three years, 
 and settle on the inland parts. Two townships, each 
 containing 48,000 acres, were laid out; one on the 
 river Savanna, called Mecklenburgh, and the other 
 on the waters of Santee at Long Canes, called Lon- 
 donderry ; to be divided among emigrants, allowing 
 100 acres for every man, and 50 for every woman 
 and child, that should come and settle in the back 
 woods. The face of the country in those interior 
 parts is variable and beautiful, and being composed 
 of hills and valleys, rocks and rivers, there is not 
 that stagnation in the air, which is so exceedingly 
 injurious in the flat marshy parts of the province. 
 In consequence of the encouragement offered, it was 
 hoped that multitudes would resort to Carolina, and 
 settle those extensive and fruitful territories in the 
 back woods, by which means the frontiers of the 
 province would be strengthened, its produce in- 
 creased, and its trade enlarged. 
 
 Not long after this a remarkable circumstance oc- 
 curred in Germany, by which Carolina received a 
 great acquisition. One Stumpel, who had been an 
 officer in the king of Prussia's service, being re- 
 duced at the peace, applied to the British ministry 
 for a tract of land in America, and having got some 
 encouragement returned to Germany, where, by de- 
 ceitful promises, he seduced between 500 and 600 
 ignorant people from their native country. When 
 these poor Palatines arrived in England, the officer 
 
THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 finding himself unable to perform his promises, fled, 
 leaving them in a strange land, without money, 
 without friends, exposed in the open fields, and ready 
 to perish through want. While they were in this 
 starving condition, and knew no person to whom 
 they could apply for relief, a humane clergyman, 
 who came from the same country, took compassion 
 on them, and published their deplorable case in the 
 newspapers. A bounty of 300Z. was allowed them 
 by government ; tents were ordered from the Tower 
 for the accommodation of such as had paid their 
 passage and been permitted to come ashore ; and 
 money was sent for the relief of those that were con- 
 fined on board. The liberal citizens of London 
 formed a committee on purpose to raise money for 
 the relief of these poor Palatines. A physician, a 
 surgeon, and man-midwife, generously undertook to 
 attend the sick gratis; and from different quarters 
 benefactions were sent to the committee, and in a 
 few days these unfortunate strangers, from the depth 
 of indigence and distress, were raised to comforta- 
 ble circumstances. The committee finding the money 
 received more than sufficient to relieve their present 
 distress, applied to the government for advice, which 
 sensible that Carolina had not its proportion of white 
 inhabitants, signified its desire of transporting them 
 thither. Another motive for sending them to Caro- 
 lina was the bounty allowed to foreign Protestants 
 by the provincial assembly, so that when their source 
 of relief from England should be exhausted, another 
 would open after their arrival in that province, 
 which would help them to surmount the difficulties 
 attending the first state of cultivation. They were 
 highly delighted at this arrangement ; and two 
 $hips, of 200 tons each, were provided for their ac- 
 commodation, with provisions of all kinds ; and 150 
 stand of arms from the Tower, were given them for 
 their defence after their arrival in America. Every 
 thing being thus arranged for their embarkation, the 
 Palatines broke up their camp in the fields behind 
 Whitechapel, and proceeded to the ships attended 
 by several of their benefactors ; of whom they took 
 their leave with songs of praise to God in their 
 mouths and tears of gratitude. 
 
 In the month of April 1764, they arrived at 
 Charlestown, and presented a letter from the lords 
 commissioners for trade and plantations to Governor 
 Boone, desiring that as many of them as were versed 
 in the culture of silks and vines, should have settle- 
 ments provided in the situations most proper for 
 those purposes. Though their settlement met with 
 some obstructions from a dispute subsisting at that 
 time between the governor and assembly about cer- 
 tain privileges of the house ; yet the latter could not 
 help considering themselves as laid under the strong- 
 est obligations to make provision for so many useful 
 settlers; and accordingly, in imitation of the noble 
 example set before them in London, they voted 
 500/. sterling to be distributed among the Palatines, 
 according to the directions of the lieutenant-gover- 
 nor, and iheir necessities. That they might be set- 
 tled in a body, one of the two townships, called Lon- 
 donderry, was allotted for them, and divided in the 
 most equitable manner into small tracts, for the 
 accommodation of each family. Captain Calhoun, 
 with a detachment of the rangers, had orders to 
 meet them by the way, and conduct them to the 
 place where their town was to be built, and all pos- 
 sible assistance was given towards promoting their 
 sjitedy and comfortable settlement. 
 
 Besides foreign Protestants, several persons from 
 England and Scotland resorted to Carolina after (he 
 
 peace. But of all other countries none has furnished 
 the province with so many inhabitants as Ireland . 
 In the northern counties of that kingdom the spirit 
 of emigration seized the people to such a degree, 
 that it threatened almost a total depopulation. Such 
 multitudes of husbandmen, labourers and manufac- 
 turers flocked over the Atlantic, that the landlords 
 began to be alarmed, and to concert means for pre- 
 venting the growing evil. Scarcely a ship sailed 
 for any of the plantations that was not crowded with 
 men, women and children. But the bounty allowed 
 new settlers in Carolina proved a great encourage- 
 ment, and induced numbers of these people, not- 
 withstanding the unhealthiness of the climate, to re- 
 sort to that province. The merchants finding this 
 bounty equivalent to the expenses of the passage, 
 from avaricious motives persuaded the people to em- 
 bark for Carolina, and often crammed such numbers 
 of them into their ships that they were in danger of 
 being stifled during the passage, and sometimes 
 were landed in such a starved and sickly condition, 
 that numbers of them died before they left Charles- 
 town. Many causes maybe assigned for this spirit 
 of emigration that prevailed so much in Ireland : 
 but of all other causes oppression at home was the 
 most powerful ; which was of such a kind that many 
 preferred the unwholesome climate of Carolina, to 
 that of their mother-country. The success that at- 
 tended some friends who had gone before them 
 being also industriously published in Ireland, and 
 with all the exaggerations of travellers, gavti vigour 
 to tha spirit of adventure, and induced multitudes 
 to follow their countrymen, and run all hazards 
 abroad, rather than starve at home. Government 
 connived at these emigrations, and every year 
 brought fresh strength to Carolina, insomuch "that 
 the lands in Ireland were in danger of lyiug waste 
 for want of labourers, and the manufactures of 
 dwindling into nothing. 
 
 Nor were these the only sources from which Ca- 
 rolina, at this time, derived strength and an increase 
 of population. For, notwithstanding the vast ex- 
 tent of territory which the provinces of Yirginiaand 
 Pennsylvania contained, yet such was the nature of 
 the country, that a scarcity of improveable lands 
 began to be felt in these colonies, and poor people 
 could not find spots in them unoccupied equal to 
 their expectations. Most of the richest valleys in 
 these more populous provinces lying to the east of 
 the Alleghany mountains were either under patent 
 or occupied, and, by the royal proclamation at the 
 peace, no settlements were allowed to extend be- 
 yond the sources of the rivers which empty them- 
 selves into the Atlantic. In Carolina the case was 
 different, for there large tracks of the best lands as 
 yet lay waste, which proved a great temptation to 
 the northern colonists to migrate to the south. Ac- 
 cordingly, about this time above 1000 families, with 
 their effects, in the space of one year resorted to Ca- 
 rolina, driving their cattle, hogs and horses over 
 land before them. Lands were allotted them on the 
 frontiers, and most of them being only entitled to 
 small tracts, such as one, two or 300 acres, the 
 back settlements by this means soon became the 
 most populous parts of the province. The frontiers 
 were not only strengthened and secured by new set 
 tiers, but the old ones on the maritime parts began 
 also to stretch backward and spread their branches, 
 in consequence of which the demand for lands in the 
 interior parts every year increased. The governor 
 and council met once a-month for the purpose of 
 granting lands and signing patents, and it is incre- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 999 
 
 dible what numbers of people attended those meet- 
 ings in order to obtain them ; so that, from the 
 time in which America was secured by the peace, 
 Carolina made a most sudden rapid progress in po- 
 pulation, wealth and trade. 
 
 In proportion as the province increased in the 
 number of white inhabitants, its danger from the 
 savage tribes grew less alarming. But to prevent 
 any molestation from the Indians, and establish the 
 peace of the colonies on the most lasting foundation, 
 the English government, by royal proclamations 
 after the peace, took care to fix the boundaries of 
 their hunting-lands, in as clear a manner as the 
 nature of the country would admit. No settlements 
 were allowed to extend any further backward upon 
 the Indian territories, than the sources of those great 
 rivers which i'all into the Atlantic Ocean, and all 
 British subjects who had settled beyond those limits 
 were ordered to remove. In this restriction a dis- 
 tinction was evidently made between the rights 
 of sovereignty and those of property ; the gover- 
 nors being excluded from all manner of jurisdiction 
 over those lands which were not specified within the 
 limits of their respective provinces. All private sub- 
 jects were prohibited from purchasing lands from 
 Indians ; but if the latter should at any time be in- 
 clined to dispose of their property, it must for the 
 future be done to the king, by the general consent 
 of their nation, and at a public assembly held by 
 British governors for that purpose. All traders were 
 obliged to take out licences from their respective 
 governors for carrying on commerce with Indian 
 nations. 
 
 Such regulations were in many respects useful 
 and necessary ; for the French and Spaniards being 
 excluded, it only remained to guard the provinces 
 against the danger arising from Indians. And as 
 they were liable to much abuse and oppression from 
 private traders, it was thought necessary that the 
 office of a superintendant should be continued for 
 the southern as well as the northern district of Ame- 
 rica. Accordingly this office was given to Captain 
 John Stuart, who was in every respect well qualified 
 for the trust. Attakullakulla had signified to the 
 governor and council, after the Cherokee war, that 
 the province would receive no molestation from In- 
 dians were this officer appointed to reside among 
 them, and to advise and direct them. The assembly 
 had not only thanked him for his good conduct and 
 great perseverance at Fort Loudon, and rewarded 
 him with 1501M. currency, but also recommended 
 him to the governor as a person worthy of prefer- 
 ment in the service of the province. After his com- 
 mission arrived from the king, the Carolineans re- 
 joiced, and promised themselves for the future great 
 tranquillity and happiness. Plans of lenity were 
 likewise adopted by government with respect to 
 those Indian tribes, and every possible precaution 
 was taken to guard them against oppression, and 
 prevent any rupture with them. Experience had 
 shown that rigorous measures, such as humbling 
 them by force of arms, were not only very expen- 
 sive and bloody, but was repugnant to humanity, 
 and seldom accompanied with any good effects. 
 
 It has been remarked, that the Indians who were at 
 the time of its discovery a numerous and formidable 
 people, have since that period been constantly de- 
 creasing. For this rapid depopulation many reasons 
 have been assigned. It is well known that popula- 
 tion every where keeps pace with the means of sub- 
 sistence. The Indians being driven from their pos- 
 sessions near the sea as the settlements multiplied, 
 
 were robbed of many necessaries of life, particu- 
 larly of oysters, crabs, and fish, with which the ma- 
 ritime parts furnished them in great abundance, and 
 on which they must have nearly subsisted, as is ap- 
 parent from a view of their camps, still remaining 
 near the sea-shore. 
 
 But famine and war, from which they suffered so 
 much, were not the only causes of their rapid decay. 
 The small-pox having broken out among them, proved 
 exceedingly fatal, both on account of the contagious 
 nature of the distemper, and their harsh and injudi- 
 cious attempts to cure it by plunging themselves into 
 cold rivers during its most violent stages. The 
 pestilence also appeared among some nations, par- 
 ticularly among the Pemblicos in North Carolina, 
 and almost swept away the whole tribe. The 
 practice of entrapping them, which was encou- 
 raged by the first settlers in Carolina, and selling 
 them for slaves to the West Indian planters, helped 
 greatly to thin their nations. But of all other causes, 
 the introduction of spirituous liquors among them, 
 for which they discovered an amazing fondness, has 
 proved the most destructive. Excess and intemper- 
 ance not only undermined their constitution, but 
 also created many quarrels, and subjected them to 
 a numerous list of fatal diseases, to which in former 
 times they were entire strangers. Besides those 
 Europeans engaged in commercial business with 
 them, generally speaking, have been so far from re- 
 forming them, by examples of virtue and purity of 
 manners, that they rather corrupted their morals, and 
 rendered them more treacherous, distrustful, base 
 and debauched than they were before this intercourse 
 commenced. In short, European avarice and am- 
 bition have not only debased the original nature and 
 stern virtue of that savage race, so that those few 
 Indians that now remain have lost in a great mea- 
 sure their primitive character ; but European vice 
 and European diseases, the consequences of vice, 
 have reduced this unhappy people so much that 
 many nations formerly populous are totally extinct. 
 
 The principal tribes around Carolina that remain 
 are, the Cherokees, the Catabaws, the Creeks, the 
 Chickesaws, and Choctaws, and a few others, that 
 scarcely deserve to be mentioned. In 1765 the 
 Cherokees, who inhabited the mountains to the north 
 of Charlestown, could scarcely bring 2000 men to 
 the field. The Catabaws had fifteen miles square 
 allotted them for hunting-lands, about '200 miles 
 north of Charlestown, with British settlements all 
 around them ; but they were so much reduced by a 
 long war with the Five Nations, that they could not 
 muster 150 warriors. The Creeks inhabit a fine 
 country on the south-west, between 400 and 500 
 miles distant from Charlestown, and the number of 
 both the upper and lower nations does not exceed 
 2000 gun-men. The Chickesaw towns lie about 600 
 miles due west from Charlestown, but the nation 
 annot send 300 warriors to the field, owing to the 
 incessant wars which they have carried on against 
 the French, by which their number has been greatly 
 diminished. The Choctaws are at least 7UO miles 
 west-south-west from Charlestown, and had be- 
 tween 3,000 and 4,000 gun-men. It is the geueial 
 opinion, however much humanity may deplore it, 
 that the Red man must fall before the White; these 
 wild, and, in many respects, noble savages seem, 
 from their best characteristics, to be rendered inca- 
 pable of assimilating to the intruders of their native 
 soil. Their fierce disdain, and erroneous pride, 
 gradually drives them further from the advances of 
 civilization. Their means of subsistence lessen; they 
 
1000 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 are exasperated into hostilities ; and thus they are 
 gradually vanishing from the immense regions which 
 they once solely possessed. 
 
 Having now brought the history of this State 
 down to the period of the great war, we shall con- 
 clude our separate account of it with the following 
 statement of its then existent state, as regards po- 
 pulation and trade. In 1765 the number of white 
 inhabitants in Charlestown amounted to between 
 5000 and 6000, and the number of negroes to be- 
 tween 7000 and 8000. With respect to the number 
 of white inhabitants in the province we cannot be 
 certain, but we may form some conjecture from the 
 militia roll ; for as all male persons, from sixteen to 
 60, are obliged by law to bear arms, and muster 
 in the regiments, and as the whole militia formed a 
 body of between 7000 and 8000, reckoning the fifth 
 person fit for military duty, the whole inhabitants 
 in the province might amount to near 40,000. But 
 the number of negroes was not less than 80,000 or 
 90,000. As no exact register of the births and fune- 
 rals had been kept at Charlestown for several years, 
 we cannot ascertain the proportion between them. 
 Previously, when bills of mortality were annually 
 printed, the common computation was, that, while 
 no contagious disorder prevailed in town, one out 
 of 35 died yearly, or one out of each family in the 
 space of seven years. However, the list of deaths 
 is often increased by the sailors and transient per- 
 sons that die in the town, and by malignant distem- 
 pers imported into it. 
 
 The merchants in Carolina are a respectable body 
 of men, industrious and indefatigable in business, 
 free, open, and generous, in their manner of con- 
 ducting it. The whole warehouses in Charls.stown 
 were like one common store, to which every trader 
 had access for supplying his customers with those 
 kinds of goods and manufactures which they wanted. 
 
 The merchants of England, after the peace with 
 France, in 1763, observing the colonies perfectly se- 
 cure, and depending on the strength of the British 
 navy for the protection of trade, vied with each other 
 for customers in America, and stretched their credit 
 to its utmost extent lor supplying the provinces. 
 Hence every one of them were well furnibhed with 
 all kinds of merchandise. And as the staples of Ca- 
 rolina were valuable, and in much demand, credit 
 was extended to that province almost without limita- 
 tion, and vast multitudes of negroes, and goods of 
 all kinds, were yearly sent to it. In proportion as 
 the merchants of Charlestown received credit from 
 England, they were enabled to extend it to the 
 planters in the country, who purchased slaves with 
 great eagerness, and enlarged their culture. Though 
 the number of planters had much increased, yet 
 they bore no proportion to the vast extent of terri- 
 tory, and lands were still easily procured, either by 
 patent or by purchase. According to the number 
 of hands employed in labour, agriculture prospered, 
 and trade was enlarged. An uncommon circum- 
 stance also attended this rapid progress, which was 
 favourable to the planting interest, and proved an 
 additional incentive to industry. The price of staple 
 commodities arose as the quantity brought to market 
 increased. In 1761 rice sold at 40*. per barrel, and in- 
 digo at two shillings per lf ; but in 1771 in so flourish- 
 ing a state was commerce that rice brought at market 
 3J. 10s. per barrel, and indigo three shillings per ft>. 
 At the same time the quantity increased so much, that 
 the exports of Carolina amounted, upon an average, 
 of three years after the peace of 1763, to 395,666J. 
 13s. 4d. ; but in 1771, the exports in that year alone 
 arose to a sum not less than 756,000/. sterling. But 
 the imports must have been very great, as the pro- 
 vince, notwithstanding this amazing increase, still 
 remained in debt to the mother-country. 
 
 LOUISIANA AND FLORIDA. 
 
 [ALTHOUGH these States were not incorporated with i 
 the United States until long after the revolutionary ' 
 war, it will be necessary to give some historical ac- 
 count of them; as they were early peopled by Euro- 
 peans, in this respect differing from the other States 
 of Tennessee, Ohio, &c., which, until taken posses- 
 sion of by the States' Government, were only tran- 
 siently occupied by wandering Indians. 
 
 Our notice of Florida can only be incidental, for 
 its history contains little but what has already been 
 narrated in the account of Carolina. In 1830 the 
 population was only 34,723, of whom 15,510 were 
 slaves.] 
 
 Discovery Vasquez's piratical visit Expedition of 
 Narvaez also of Soto Moscoso succeeds him Ad- 
 ventures of Ribaut Fort Carolina built Further 
 discoveries Distress of the colony Spaniards in 
 Florida Fort Carolina taken by them Merciless 
 contests between the French and Spaniards Ac- 
 count of, and war with, the Indian* La Sale's 
 progress, and death Adventures of Joutd Disco- 
 
 very of the Mississippi State of Louisiana Ad- 
 ventures vf St. Denys Peace of 1763 Account 
 of the Indians. 
 
 Louisiana is chiefly that country lying upon the 
 river Mississippi, which the French settled in the 
 latter end of the 17th century; but it also comprises 
 a part of Florida, of which the Spaniards pretend to 
 be the first discoverers. 
 
 (A.D. 1512.) John Ponce de Leon, sailing from 
 the island of Puerto Rico with three ships, on the 
 3rd of March, and steering north-west, made land on 
 the 3rd of April following, in the latitude of 30 de- 
 grees and 8 minutes north. As the Spaniards of 
 those days thought themselves sufficiently warranted, 
 by the pope's grants, to take possession of the lands 
 in America, he went through that ceremony, ami 
 named the country where he landed Florida, because 
 he discovered it upon Easter-day, or what the Spa- 
 niards call Pasqua des Fiores. He then sailed to- 
 wards the south, coasting along the shore, but could 
 not, for some time, discover any of its natives; at 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1001 
 
 last, seeing some savages, he ventured to land, and 
 they attempting to rob him of his boat, a skirmish 
 ensued, in which two Spaniards were wounded. He 
 afterwards, in going to water, made prisoner one of 
 the natives, who served him as a guide and interpreter, 
 and erected a cross, with an inscription, upon the 
 banks of a river, which is from thence called Rio de 
 la Cruz. All this while Ponce imagined Florida to 
 be an island, and. in that persuasion, returned through 
 the Lucaya islands to Porto Rico. 
 
 That Florida was discovered long before this, ap- 
 pears from Sebastian Cabot's own words in 1496. 
 " But after certain days, I found that the land ran 
 towards the north, which was to me a great displea- 
 sure. Nevertheless, sailing along by the coast, to 
 see if I could find any gulf that turned, I found the 
 land still continent to the 56th degree under our 
 pole ; and seeing that there the coast turned toward 
 the east, despairing to find the passage, I turned 
 back again, and sailed down by the coast of that 
 land toward the equinoctial (ever with an intent to 
 find the said passage to India), and came to that 
 part of this firm land which is now called Florida, 
 where my victuals failing, I departed from thence, 
 and returned into England." 
 
 No further attempts seem to have been made after 
 that of Leon for eight years by the Spaniards to 
 pursue this discovery; and if we are to credit the 
 French writers, their Canadians at that time actu- 
 ally traded with the savages of Florida. In the 
 year 1520, Luke Vasquez of Aylon, with some asso- 
 ciates, formed the inhuman project of stealing some 
 natives from the neighbouring islands, to supply the 
 scarcity of hands in working the Spanish mines. 
 Fitting out two ships, he sailed from the harbour of 
 Plata in Hispaniolai to the Lucaya islands, and from 
 thence proceeded to that part of Florida now called 
 St. Helena, lying in the 32nd degree of north lati- 
 tude. The natives, mistaking his ships for two 
 monstrous fishes driving towards the shore, ran in 
 crowds to view them ; but, seeing them land, they 
 were so struck with the clothing and appearance 
 of the Spaniards, that they fled in the utmost con- 
 sternation. Two of them, however, were taken pri- 
 soners, and the Spaniards carrying them on board, 
 gave them food and drink, and sent them back on 
 shore clothed in Spanish dresses. This insidious 
 kindness had its desired effect with the unsuspecting 
 savages. The king of the country admired the 
 dresses, and the Spanish hospitality* so much, that 
 he sent 50 of his subjects to the ships with fruit and 
 provisions ; ordered his people to attend the Spani- 
 ards whenever they had a mind to visit the country ; 
 and made them rich presents of gold, plates of silver, 
 and pearls. The Spaniards, having learned all they 
 could concerning the country, watered, and re-vic- 
 tualled their ships, and invited a great number of the 
 Indians on board, where they plied them with strong 
 liquor, and weighing anchor, carried them oft in a 
 state of intoxication. This villany, however, had 
 not all the success its perpetrators expected. Most 
 of the unhappy savages either pined to death, or 
 were wrecked in one of the ships that foundered at 
 sea; and only a very few suffered a fate worse than 
 death, that of being carried into Spanish slavery. 
 This infamous treachery obtained to Vasquez from 
 his Catholic Majesty, the reward of a discoverer of 
 
 ships was wrecked near cape St. Helen. These 
 losses, and his perceiving that the advantages arising 
 from his discoveries were but inconsiderable, induced 
 him to return to Hispaniola, where the disappoint- 
 ment is said to have broken his heart. 
 
 The next adventurer in the discovery of Florida 
 was Pamphilo Narvaez, who obtained from Charles V. 
 a grant of all the lands lying from the river Palms 
 to the boundaries of Florida, a space of territory so 
 indefinite, that it reached as far as the adventurers 
 pleased to extend it on a map. In 1528 he sailed 
 from Cuba with 400 foot, and twenty horse, and ar- 
 rived at Florida on the 12th of April. His anchor- 
 ing-place was so near the land, that he could discover 
 the huts of the savages from his ships, and going on 
 shore, he found a utensil made of gold, which they 
 had left behind them in their flight ; a circumstance 
 from which he concluded that all their other utensils 
 were of the same metal ; and, landing his troops, he 
 again took possession of the country for the king of 
 Spain. The Indians seemed displeased at this ce- 
 remony ; but such was the innate benevolence of the 
 people, that many of them came and supplied him 
 and his soldiers with maize. Proceeding up the 
 country, he discovered four wooden boxes, contain- 
 ing bodies wrapped up in painted skins, and upon 
 them lay some pieces of stuffs, both linen and woollen, 
 with some gold, which increased his sanguine ex- 
 pectations as to the richness of the country. He 
 ordered his troops to march by land, and his ships to 
 attend him by sea, and the scene of his adventures 
 seems to have lain towards the north coast of the 
 gulf of Mexico. On the 1st of May he began his 
 long, painful, and romantic march, against the re- 
 monstrances of his treasurer. The fatigues his men 
 underwent were very great ; but the few inhabitants 
 they met with were humane and hospitable. An 
 Indian prince, clothed in a stag's hide elegantly 
 painted, with attendants, who blew horns, treated 
 them in his towns with maize and venison. 
 
 Rude as those nations were, they knew that gold 
 was the great motive of the Spanish invasions, and 
 their constant custom was to shift, upon more distant 
 nations, the crime of possessing that mischievous 
 metal. The natives, where Narvaez landed, pre- 
 tended they had it from the Apalaches, and their 
 report engaged him in that laborious march. At 
 last, on the 25th of June, he reached to the village 
 of Apalache, which consisted of no more than 40 
 cottages; but those constructed with all the conve- 
 niences, and furnished with all the comforts of savage 
 elegance, all which he plundered, many of the un- 
 suspecting natives flying to their marshes, but their 
 cazique, or prince, fell into his hands. Narvaez re- 
 mained at Apalache 25 days, but could make no 
 discoveries. After a march of nine days southwards, 
 during which they were harassed by the savages 
 they came to Aute, a village situated in a country 
 abounding with corn and all the necessaries of life. 
 The opposition which those Indians made to their 
 entering the town, brought on a sharp engagement, 
 wherein several Spaniards were killed; but Nar- 
 vaez at last made good his quarters, and became 
 master of large quantities of maize, peas, gourds, 
 and other vegetables. Notwithstanding this sea- 
 sonable relief, his army was in so miserable a con- 
 dition, and the country round was so unpromising, 
 
 new lands. In 1524 he sent over more ships to that he was forced to direct his march towards the 
 Florida, and next year went thither in person with sea, his ships being now the only refuge his soldiers 
 three vessels. No commodity in America was so could have to save them from perishing. It was 
 precious as men : Vasquez lost 200 of his, who were with great difficulty they could provide a kind of 
 landed, and cut off by the natives, and one of his , boat to cross the rivers in their way. Their ropes 
 
1002 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 were made of horse-hair, and their sails of the sol- 
 diers' shirts, and the savages took advantage of their 
 distress to cut off ten of their people. According 
 to their computation, from the bay of Santa Cruz, 
 where they landed, to the place of embarkation, they 
 had marched above 800 miles. After they were 
 embarked, they had numberless dangers and diffi- 
 culties to encounter. They were embayed among 
 shoals and currents, distressed for want of water, and 
 never landed without being attacked by the natives; 
 so that many of them were cut off by the Indians, 
 who at last wounded the governor, and had almost 
 destroyed the whole army. His treasurer, Cabeca 
 de Vaca, was one of the few that escaped ; and to 
 him we owe the history of this expedition. When 
 they were reduced to as much misery as human na- 
 ture could sustain, they touched upon a part of the 
 coast inhabited by people who were tender-hearted 
 and humane. Those few who could land were hos- 
 pitably relieved by the natives ; the rest were obliged 
 to devour one another. Of eighty, fifteen only re- 
 mained alive; and four of them, after having endured 
 inexpressible miseries, arrived at Mexico ; but Nar- 
 vaez himself was never heard of afterwards. 
 
 (A. D. 1539.) Notwithstanding the unfortunate 
 events attending the above three expeditions to Flo- 
 rida, Ferdinand de Soto, who was governor of Cuba, 
 received from Charles V. the title of marquis of 
 Florida, or, more properly, of the lands he should 
 conquer in that country. This adventurer was brave, 
 enterprising, and persevering, from no principle but 
 that of avarice. On the 12th of May, 1539, he em- 
 barked, on board nine ships, 350 horse, and 900 foot. 
 This was the most formidable armament, of Europe- 
 ans that, till then, had appeared in North America; 
 for his number of sailors was proportionable, and he 
 carried with him all kinds of necessaries. On the 
 25th of the same month he came to anchor in 
 the bay of Spiritu Sancto, and there disembarked, 
 while the natives, at sight of his ships, gave alarms 
 by fires all over the country. Moscoso, who seems 
 to have been the first in command under Soto, drew 
 up the army, and, without resistance, took posses- 
 sion of a small village, where was a temple, which 
 served as a lodgment ; and here the army was can- 
 toned; but the Spaniards met with an irreparable 
 loss by the desertion of two Floridan interpreters; 
 and the country round was so marshy, that they 
 could, at first, lay bold of none oFthe natives. Soto's 
 soldiers at last took four of them, but they were res- 
 cued by their countrymen, who furiously attacked, 
 and drove the Spanish detachment back to their 
 head-quarters. Another party fell upon ten or twelve 
 Indians, amongst whom was John Ortiz, a noble 
 Spaniard, who could not be distinguished from a 
 native of the country. He had served under Nar- 
 vaez, and been taken prisoner, but his life was 
 spared by the Floridans. He surrendered himself 
 to his countrymen, and persuaded the Indians to go 
 along with the detachment to the Spanish camp, 
 where they were received with great e-xultation. 
 Ortiz, it seems, owed his life to the interposition of 
 a female, daughter of the chief by whom he was 
 taken. Humanity alone was her motive, without 
 any amorous inclination ; for she advised Ortiz to 
 fly to a neighbouring chief, who she knew would 
 receive him favourably, and showed him in person 
 part of his way. Moc'oso (for that was the name of 
 the chief,) received him kindly, and favoured him 
 with his particular protection above twelve years. 
 When he heard of the landing of the Spaniards, he 
 counselled him to join his countrymen, and gave 
 
 him, for that purpose, the escort which the Spa- 
 niards carried to their camp. Ortiz, being equipped 
 as a Spanish officer of horse, informed Soto, that at 
 the distance of 30 leagues, lay a plentiful country, 
 governed by Paracoxi, one of the most powerful 
 princes on that continent. Mocoso afterwards paid 
 a friendly visit to the Spanish general, who made 
 him a few presents, and dismissed him ; then Soto 
 dispatched Balthazar de Gallegos to reconnoitre the 
 country of Paracoxi with about 30 men : that chief 
 hearing of the Spaniards approach, left his capital, 
 but sent a deputation to know what they demanded, 
 and whether he could be of service to them, but, at 
 the same time, on pretence of an indisposition, de- 
 clined paying the Spaniards a visit. Gallegos de- 
 manded of the messenger, whether any country 
 thereabouts produced gold and silver, and they di- 
 rected them to a province called Cale ; upon which 
 Gallegos put them in irons, that they might be use- 
 ful in the march ; but they found the town deserted. 
 The army being at this time half-famished, were re- 
 freshed by the maize they found at Cale, the only 
 commodity it produced. The natives, willing to get 
 rid of their rapacious guests, directed the general to 
 another plentiful province, called Palache ; and 
 thither he marched against the advice of all his offi- 
 cers, carrying along with him, prisoner, the cazique 
 of Caliquieu, a province through which he passed. 
 The Indians several times applied with great humi- 
 lity for the deliverance of their chief, but that favour 
 being denied them, Ortiz, who understood their lan- 
 guage perfectly well, learned from a native, that 
 the cazique's subjects and friends had assembled, to 
 the number of 400 men, in a neighbouring wood, to 
 deliver him by force. Nevertheless, they very ci- 
 villy sent two messengers to intercede with the ge- 
 neral for their cazique's deliverance; but knowing 
 where the main body was posted, he ordered his 
 soldiers to fall upon them, and 40 were put to the 
 sword, while the rest, leaping into the water, were 
 surrounded by the Spanish horse in such a manner, 
 that all of them but twelve, who resolved to die ra- 
 ther than become slaves, were obliged to surrender. 
 Their slavery was so dreadful, that they rose upon 
 the Spaniards, and, though armed with clubs only, 
 killed many of them ; but at last they were subdued, 
 bound to stakes, and shot by the Paracoxi Indians, 
 many of whom attended the Spanish camp. Soto 
 pursued his march to Palache, through various 
 places and provinces, the names of which are now 
 lost ; all the way chaining together the miserable 
 natives who fell into his hands, and forcing them to 
 carry the baggage of his soldiers. Upon his arrival 
 he quartered his army round the residence of that 
 cazique, and was plentifully supplied with maize, 
 beans, cucumbers, and a sort of wild plums, more- 
 delicious than any to be found in Europe. Palache, 
 lying within ten leagues of the sea, Soto detached 
 one of his officers, Maldonado, to reconnoitre, and to 
 try whether he could discover any country producing 
 gold, or a good harbour. Maldouado discovered an 
 excellent harbour, and was sent by the general to 
 the Havannah, to procure a supply of arms and 
 utensils. A young Indian prisoner being brought 
 before Soto, gave him an account, that far off "to- 
 wards the east, lay a province called Yupaha, which 
 produced abundance of gold ; and he described the 
 manner of melting and refining it with so much ac- 
 curacy, that the Spaniards thought it impossible 
 they should be deceived. Leaving Palache. there- 
 fore, they began a most arduous, difficult, and dan- 
 gerous march to Yupaha, in which most of their 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1003 
 
 Indian prisoners perished through fatigue. The 
 first place they arrived at was Capachiqui, from 
 whence they proceeded to Toalli. where they found 
 the natives living in a convenient comfortable man- 
 ner, far beyond all the Floridans they had seen. 
 The next town m their route was Achese, where 
 Soto impudently pretended to the cazique, who hos- 
 pitably came to visit him, that he was the son of the 
 Sun, and set at liberty all the cazique's subjects whom 
 he had taken prisoners. On the 24th of April, the 
 army arrived at Altaraca ; and from thence advanced 
 to Ocute, where the cazique sent 2000 men with pre- 
 sents to the general, and gave him 400 of his sub- 
 jects for service. The Spaniards afterwards visited 
 Cosaqui, and Patofa ; the country all the way for 
 f)f) miles presenting a most beautiful appearance. 
 The Patofans said they knew of no such country as 
 Yupaha; but Soto still pursued his march to the 
 eastward, though the Patofans directed him to a 
 fertile province lying to the north-west. The march 
 proved so tedious, that the general threatened to 
 throw the young Indian who had deceived him to 
 the dogs ; but he was saved by the interposition of 
 Ortiz. Soto, in vain, sent out parties to make dis- 
 coveries, and his army must have perished for want 
 of provisions, had it not been for some swine he had 
 brought to Florida, and carried along \vith him, 
 and which had multiplied extremely. At last Dan- 
 husco, one of his officers, who had been sent out on 
 a reconnoitring party, returned with an account of 
 his having discovered a town, at the distance of 
 about 36 miles; a report which revived the spirits 
 of the army ; but they were obliged to dismiss the 
 Patofans, who had served the Spaniards with great 
 fidelity and affection. On the 2Gth of April the 
 general took possession of this town, and understood 
 that near it lay another nation, called Catifachiqui, 
 which was governed by a woman. Soto sent his com- 
 pliments to that princess, who returned her's by her 
 sister; and soon after she herself appeared in a 
 canoe, attended by many others, with all the state 
 of her country. She was received with great solem- 
 nity by Soto, whom she presented with a fine pearl 
 necklace, and supplied his army with provision. 
 Her country was pleasant, and her people more . 
 civilized than Soto had met with in Florida, wearing 
 clothes and drawers. Here the Spaniards found a 
 very advantageous port for the ships from New Spain, 
 Peru, St. Martha, and the main ; and most of them 
 wanted to settle on the spot; but gold being the sole 
 view of the general, he rejected all their applica- 
 tions, and, pretending that Maldonado was to wait 
 for them at Ochuse, prepared to set out for Catifa- 
 chiqui. 
 
 The Spaniards had behaved with such rudeness 
 and barbarity to the attendants of the female cazique, 
 that she had formed a design of escaping from them, 
 but was most infamously put under arrest by Soto, 
 notwithstanding the generous manner in which she 
 had received him, and obliged to attend his army 
 on foot as a prisoner for seven days' march through 
 a desert country, until they reached Chalagne. Thus 
 basely betrayed into slavery, she discovered no sign 
 of reluctance or discontent ; but ordered her subjects 
 to carry the Spanish baggage, and dissembled so 
 well, that on their march to Xualla, she found means 
 to escape, carrying oft' with her a casket of very 
 valuable pearls. This elopement was a great morti- 
 fication and disappointment to Soto, who intended 
 to have kept her as a pledge for his own security, 
 in traversing tha extended dominions she possessed, 
 many of the neighbouring caziques being her tribu- 
 
 taries. In the mean time, he sent a messenger to 
 the cazique of Chiaha, desiring him to provide maize 
 for his army, as he intended to reside for some days 
 in his dominions. The country from Catifachiqui 
 was beautiful and fertile, and "naturally produced 
 fruit as delicious as any to be found in the best Eu- 
 ropean gardens. After five days' march, the army 
 approached Chiaha, where the general met with a 
 most hospitable reception from the cazique; the 
 Spaniards here found lard made of bears' fat, and 
 likewise honey, the first they had seen in Florida. 
 This country presented them with the face of tran- 
 quillity ; the people were generous and peaceable ; 
 and the soil so fertile, that the Spanish horses soon 
 grew fat in grazing in the neighbouring meadows. 
 In short, the situation of the Spaniards here, after 
 the vast fatigue they had undergone, was so agree- 
 able, that Soto did not resume his march for 30 days : 
 he then demanded of the cazique 30 of his subje'cts 
 to carry his baggage ; and obtained his request, with 
 some difficulty ; for those princes are obliged on such 
 occasions to consult their people. 
 
 Soto's appetite for gold and silver still prevailed ; 
 and the cazique of Acoste, who came to pay him his 
 compliments, informed him, that the province of 
 Chisca, towards the north, produced copper, with 
 other metals of a more lively appearance. This in- 
 formation was sufficient to add wings to his expedi- 
 tion. On the 12th of July, he arrived at Acoste, 
 where he was received with great hospitality by the 
 cazique ; but his soldiers beginning to rans'ack and 
 plunder the town, the Indians fell upon them, and 
 the general's person being in the hands of the sa- 
 agps, he must have lost his life, had he not, with 
 great presence of mind, joined in chastising the pil- 
 lagers. This act of justice reconciled the cazique to 
 him so effectually, that he found means to draw him 
 with some of his principal attendants to bis camp, 
 where he put them all under arrest ; and declared 
 that they should not regain their liberty till they 
 hould have furnished guides for his soldiers. Hav- 
 ing complied with these terms, he was n-leased ; the 
 Spaniards proceeded to Tali ; and on the 16th of 
 July arrived at Cosa, where the cazique of the place 
 metthem in great state, before they entered the town. 
 He was clothed in a robe of martens'-skins ; he wore 
 on his head a feather diadem ; and the litter on 
 which he sat was carried on the shoulders of his no- 
 bles ; his other subjects played round it with instru- 
 ments of music. The reception the Spaniards met 
 with in this delightful country, which was well peo- 
 pled, well cultivated, and abounded with all the 
 beauties of nature, was the most hospitable that can 
 b conceived ; for the inhabitants resigned even their 
 own houses for the accommodation of the Spaniards. 
 But when Soto, according to custom, put their ca- 
 zique under arrest, the inhabitants fled to the woods, 
 from whence they could not be drawn, but by the 
 entreaties of the cazique himself, to carry the bag- 
 gage of the Spaniards. 
 
 On the 20th of August, Soto continued his march 
 to Tallimachuse, Ilava, Ulliballi, Toasi, andTallise, 
 a large town lying in the midst of a well cultivated 
 country ; where he dismissed the cazique of Cosa, 
 whom, till then, he had most ungratefully and un- 
 generously detained in captivity. From thence he 
 marched to Tascaluca, the residence of a powerful 
 prince, who reigned over well cultivated and popu- 
 lous countries. This cazique received Soto sitting 
 in a balcony, with great state ; but the Spaniard 
 seating himself by him, whispered in his car, that 
 he was his prisoner, an;i he was obliged to attend hint 
 
1004 
 
 THE 1IISTOR5T OF AMERICA. 
 
 accordingly, in his march to Piache; but he found 
 means to make his escape, and never more would 
 maintain the least correspondence with the Spani- 
 ards, whom he very justly considered as a cruel, ra- 
 pacious, and perfidious race. Soto now wanted to 
 treat with this Indian whom he had so lately at- 
 tempted to enslave ; but his advances were treated 
 with silent disdain. One of the savage chiefs being 
 wantonly wounded by a Spaniard, the natives ran 
 to arms, wounded and drove Soto out of their town, 
 killed five of his attendants, and made prize ot all 
 his valuable baggage, with a great quantity of arms. 
 Soto regaining his camp, charged the savages at the 
 head of his cavalry, and drove them behind the pali- 
 sade, and then, bringing all his army up, he at- 
 tempted to storm the town. The savages had sent 
 off their cazique. with the most valuable baggage 
 they had taken from the Spaniards, to a place of 
 safety, and resolved to defend themselves to the last 
 extremity ; but as they were, in a manner naked, 
 the Spaniards forced their way into the town, and 
 slaughtered the inhabitants to the number of 2500. 
 Such are the infamous acts of inhumanity, that have 
 marked the progress of the Spaniards in all their 
 American conquests. 
 
 On the 18th of November, Soto resumed his march, 
 and after various adventures, arrived at Chicocha, 
 where he resolved to pass the winter ; the country 
 being pleasant and fertile. He was well received 
 by the cazique ; but in the course of the winter the 
 Spaniards behaved so little to the satisfaction of the 
 natives, that in March, when Soto was about to move 
 his army, he could not obtain a supply of Indians 
 for his service. At last, the natives rose, and at- 
 tacked the Spaniards in the night, setting fire to 
 the town where they wore quartered. In all proba- 
 bility, the whole body would have been destroyed, 
 had not the horses, breaking loose, intimidated the 
 savages, who retired with precipitation after having 
 burned the town and all the Spanish effects it 
 contained. Twelve Spaniards were killed, many 
 wounded or scorched by the flames; but 50 horses 
 were burnt, together with 400 pigs, an animal which 
 the Spaniards had imported into Florida, where it 
 throve prodigiously, and the Indians were so fond of 
 its flesh, that many quarrels happened on that ac- 
 count between them and the Spaniards. The latter 
 had now no shelter against the inclemency of the 
 weather, till a soldier invented a robe, woven of dry 
 grass, which served as a kind of clothing to the 
 whole army. Had the Indians attacked them in this 
 distress, they might have been ruined ; but they de- 
 layed giving them any molestation till the 15th of 
 March, when the Spaniards were so well provided 
 to receive them, that they were repulsed with the 
 loss of 40 men. 
 
 Soto then pursued his march ; but was opposed at 
 Alimama, by the Indians, who had intrenched them- 
 selves behind a palisade, and for some time fought 
 them very bravely, till being obliged by the Spanish 
 fire-arms to retire, they threw themselves into a river 
 which they crossed by swimming. After a fatiguing 
 inarch of seven days, the Spaniards surprised Quiz- 
 quiz, and made the cazique's mother a prisoner. 
 Soto intended to keep her as a pledge for her son's 
 friendship, but offered to set her at liberty, provided 
 the cazique would come to his camp. The savage 
 refused to trust him, till his mother and all the other 
 prisoners were delivered up, a condition with which 
 Soto, whose army was upon the point of perishing, 
 was obliged to comply. All that this compliance 
 gained him, was liberty to proceed unmolested to 
 
 Rio Grande. Here he found a station that afforded 
 maize, and wood for building boats, and he was vi- 
 sited in great state by the azique of the place, who 
 was very powerful, attended by 200 canoes. After 
 some conference, the cazique made a seasonable 
 present of fish, and a sort of cakes, of plum paste ; 
 but he could not be persuaded to land: and it was 
 thought he would have attacked the Spaniards, had 
 he found them off their guard. Our adventurers 
 then crossed the river, which was the largest in Flo- 
 rida, but were all the while exposed to the arrows 
 of the savages. Traversing the province of Quixo, 
 they entered that of Pacha, and proceeded to Cas- 
 qui, the cazique of which being at war with him of 
 Pacaha, through whose territories Solo's march lav, 
 entertained him and his attendants very hospitably. 
 The arrogant Spaniard pretending to be son of the 
 Sun, the cazique brought him two blind men to be 
 cured, as a proof of his divine extraction, which 
 however he could not authenticate in this manner. 
 Here his army passin* the river, upon a bridge most 
 ingeniously constructed by the savages, and falling 
 into the province of Pacaha, he was followed by the 
 cazique of Casqui, and his army. The cazique of 
 Pacaha, at first, stood upon the "defensive in a little 
 island, from whence being driven, a considerable 
 booty fell into the hands of the Casquiaris, who, find- 
 ing that the Spaniards were strongly inclined to 
 claim it, separated from their army ; a secession 
 which obliged Soto to take the Pacahan cazique into 
 his friendship, and, at last, to reconcile the two 
 chiefs together. He remained 40 days in this station ; 
 but, not being able to discover any road to Chisca, 
 the fancied land of gold and silver, he returned to 
 Casqui, and, on the 4th of August, arrived at Qui- 
 gate, the largest town the Spaniards had seen in 
 Florida. Great part of it was burnt by way of pre- 
 caution by Soto, and its cazique being made pri- 
 soner, he was by him directed to the province of 
 Coligors to which they marched through a road so 
 very marshy, that they were sometimes obliged to 
 sleep in the water. Having travelled about 40 
 leagues in this uncomfortable manner, they pro- 
 ceeded to Paliseme, and from thence to Tafulicoya, 
 where the cazique furnished them with a guide to 
 Cayas, where the army remained a whole month. 
 Here the natives manufactured salt, a commodity 
 which the Spaniards had not before seen in Florida, 
 and the grass fattened their horses to an amazing 
 degree. Soto, as usual, made the cazique his pri- 
 soner, and demanded a guide to Tulla, which lay a 
 clay and a halfs journey to the southward; but, he 
 having been long at war with that people, no inter- 
 
 rcter could be procured. 
 
 Nevertheless Soto set out with a party of horse 
 and foot; but was soon oblige i to return, the na- 
 tives having fallen upon the army he hai left. The 
 people of Tulla at first made resistance, but Soto cut 
 off the right hands and noses of six individuals, and 
 sent them in that condition to their cazique, threa- 
 tening that, unless he submitted, he would treat 
 himself and all his subjects in the same manner. 
 This menace had the desired effect ; and amongst 
 other presents he received, were a great many cow- 
 skins covered with wool, as soft as that of sheep, 
 which in that cold country was of infinite seivice to 
 the Spaniards. Upon inquiry, he found that he was 
 within 80 leagues of Autiamque ; which was de- 
 scribed as a plentiful populous country, situated near 
 a great lake, which he thought might be an arm of 
 he sea. There he resolved to establish his winter- 
 quarters, in hopes of being able to open a commu- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1 005 
 
 nicatio-n with Cuba. This was the more accessary 
 as he had now lost above 250 of his men : and 
 consequently needed a reinforcement. Having 
 marched through the towns of Annouxi and Cata- 
 maya, he arrived at Autiamque. and fortified his 
 camp with a wooden palisade. The caziques sent 
 him presents, but would not visit him in person : and 
 perceiving from Soto's evasive manner, that he- in- 
 tended to remain some time in his country, he at- 
 tempted to force him away ; but Soto kept his people 
 so alert, that his camp was not to be surprised, and 
 the Indians could not attack him in any other man- 
 ner. While he lay in this situation, his army had 
 great plenty of provisions, and particularly of fine 
 large rabbits. 
 
 <A.D. 1542.) On the Gth of March, Scto marched 
 from Autiamque with his army, which was now re- 
 duced to 300 men, and 40 horses, several of them 
 lame ; amongst others, John Ortiz died at Autiamque 
 to the inexpressible loss of Soto ; whose design was 
 to reach Nilco, from whence he hoped to have a pas- 
 sage to the sea. After a fatiguing march, through 
 a marshy country, he arrived at Tutelpina, and in 
 three days advanced to Tianto, in the province of 
 Nilco, which, excepting Palache and Cosa, appeared 
 to be the most fertile and best peopled of any they 
 had seen in Florida. He proceeded to Guachoya, 
 the cazique of which fled at his approach; but, after- 
 wards made apologies for his retreat, and diiected 
 him to the dominions of one Quigaltan, which lay 
 three days' journey down the river on the opposite 
 shore. The difficulties which occurred to the scout- 
 ing parties, who were sent out to know whether 
 Quigaltan's country lay near the sea, were so great 
 that the vexation they occasioned threw Soto into a 
 fever. Nevertheless, such was his pride and arro- 
 gance, that he sent a message to the cazique of Qui- 
 galtan commanding him to come and pay him ho- 
 mage iii person. The cazique returned an answer full 
 of scorn and indignation, setting the .Spaniard at 
 defiance. Soto exasperated at this affront, sent a 
 detachment, which, in conjunction with the natives 
 of Guachoya, committed a most horrible and un- 
 provoked massacre upon the inhabitants of Nilco, 
 while he himself, confined to his death-bed, piously 
 poured out his soul in acknowledgments to God for 
 having enabled him to shed such torrents of innocent 
 blood, and in exhorting his followers to tread in his 
 most Christian footsteps; for which purpose he no- 
 minated as his successor, his lieutenant-general, 
 Lewis Moscoso d'Alvarado, to whom the Spaniards 
 immediately swore obedience. 
 
 Moscoso took great care to conceal Soto's death 
 from the savages, whom he endeavoured to persuade, 
 that he was only gone to heaven for a short excur- 
 sion according to custom ; but they suspected the 
 truth, and the cazique of Guachoya sent Moscoso 
 two very handsome young Indians to accompany the 
 general to the other world. Moscoso then deliber- 
 ated about the course they were to pursue, whether 
 to make the best of their way by land to the Spanish 
 settlements, or endeavour to reach Cuba by sea : the 
 former scheme was adopted ; and on the 5th of June 
 the Spaniards quitted Guachoya. After six days' 
 march through a desert, they reached Chauguate, 
 in which province they remained two days. On the 
 4th of July they arrived at Aguacay ; from whence 
 they proceeded to the province of Maye. and thence 
 to Naguata. Here they were attacked by the sa- 
 vages, but hunger and despair rendering them invin- 
 cible, they forced their passage across a river, where 
 1he cacique's habitation lay, and entered a most plcn 
 
 tiful country. The cazique made his submission, 
 throwing the blame of all that had happened upon 
 his brother, who had been killed by the Spaniards 
 in the attack, and he was taken into particular fa- 
 vour by Moscoco. The swelling of rivers, though 
 no rain had fallen, detained him eight days in this 
 province; but in three days more he reached Miso- 
 bone, and Lacane, both of them lying in the midst 
 of wild deserts. He advanced to Mondaca, proceeded 
 to Soacatino, and penetrating through the province 
 of Aays, where they were dreadfully harassed by the 
 natives, reached Nagiscosa, after having sustained 
 incredible hardships and fatigue. By this time they 
 were become a band of wretched outcasts, and wan- 
 dered they scarcely knew whither. Surrounded as 
 they were by wilds and deserts they had no object oa 
 which they could exercise their courage, nor could 
 they exert any virtue bnt patience. After consul- 
 tation they resolved to return to Nilco, hoping from 
 thence to effect a passage to Cuba. In measuring 
 back the route they had followed, they were not a 
 little surprised to see that the industry and activity 
 of the savages had repaired all the horrible ravages 
 which they themselves had committed. The town 
 of Naguata, which they had destroyed, was rebuilt, 
 and the natives were employed in a manufacture of 
 earthen dishes, resembling those of Spain and Hol- 
 land. Upon their arrival at Nilco, they found the 
 inhabitants not yet recovered from the consterna- 
 tion into which the Spaniards had thrown them, and 
 their country was void of all the means of subsist- 
 ence. But in the neighbouring province of Minoya, 
 they met with prodigious quantities of maize, and 
 wood fit for ship-building. Through incredible in- 
 dustry and application, seven brigar.tines were built, 
 and upon the sudden swelling of the waters at the 
 increase of the moon, they were floated. On the 
 2nd of July,l543, the Spaniards embarked, and sailed 
 down the river amidst clouds of Indian airows, which 
 poured on every side, and killed a great many of 
 their men. After a most uncomfortable passage of 
 52 days, the survivors arrived at Panico on the 
 continent of Mexico on the 10th of September, 
 1543. Thus ended the expedition of Ferdinand 
 de Soto and Moscoso, in disappointment, ruin, and 
 disgrace ; and it is a great misfortune to the inte- 
 rests of humanity that they ever met with bettersuc- 
 cess in any of their American expeditions. We 
 hear nothing more of Florida till the celebrated 
 Admiral Coligny obtained permission of Charles IX. 
 to transplant thither a colony of French huguenots, 
 whom he was glad to be rid of. 
 
 This last circumstance suggested to the famous 
 Admiral de Coligny the idea of transplanting to 
 Florida a colony of French. Coligny committed the 
 execution of this project to one Ribaut, a native o* 
 Dieppe, an experienced sailor, and a zealous reli- 
 gionist. On the 18th of February, 1562. Ribaut 
 sailed from Dieppe, with two ships Avell equipped, the 
 crews consisting of excellent sailors, with a body of 
 land forces, amongst whom were several gentlemen- 
 volunteers. To the first land which he discovered, 
 which was woody, though low, he gave the name of 
 Cape Francois. Turning to the right, he disco- 
 vered the river Dauphin, without entering it ; then 
 sailed to the river May, so called from his enter- 
 ing it on the first day of that month. Here he was 
 welcomed by great numbers of the natives, and he 
 erected a kind of stone column, on which the arms 
 of France were engraved. This ceremony being 
 performed, he visited the cazique of the savages, and 
 made him some presents. He afterwards steered for 
 
1006 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the river Jourdain, which had been discovered by 
 Vasquez, and coasted, still keeping sight of the land, 
 all along the shore of what is now known as Caro- 
 lina. Arriving at the river of St. Croix, he built 
 a fort which he called Charles fort, in the midst of 
 a most delightful country ; the neighbouring rivers 
 abounding with fish, and the savages being extremely 
 friendly : but he could not prevail with any of 
 them to follow him to France, where he intended to 
 present them to his court, and his patron, the ad- 
 miral. 
 
 Ribaut, having made a settlement round his new- 
 built fort, left one of his officers, named Albert, to 
 command it, and he himself returned to Dieppe, 
 where he arrived on the 20th of July. During his 
 absence, Albert made excursions, in order to ex- 
 tend his discoveries, and visited several chiefs, whom 
 they termed Paraousties: but he fell into the com- 
 mon fault of all adventurers. Instead of sowing 
 grounds, and rearing stock for the subsistence of the 
 colony, he roved about the country in quest of gold 
 and silver mines. In a short time his provisions 
 failed ; his powder and ball were expended : the In- 
 dians could no longer supply his infant colony; his 
 colony could no longer bear his tyranny ; therefore 
 they cut his throat, and chose for his successor one 
 Barre, a prudent, moderate man ; but Ribaut not 
 returning according to his promise, the colony pre- 
 cariously depended upon the savages for subsistence, 
 till they came to have nothing before their eyes but 
 detlh by famine. In this extremity, there was scarce 
 an artisan or sailor amongst them ; but they made 
 shift to build and rig out a vessel, by an effort of in- 
 dustry, the half of which, if exerted in cultivating 
 their lands, would have enabled them to live com- 
 fortably. Putting to sea, in this ill-constructed 
 vessel, they were driven about by the waves, till 
 their water and provision being quite consumed, they 
 killed and devoured a soldier called Luchau, who 
 offered himself as a \ictim to appease their hunger: 
 but before they had occasion to repeat the sacrifice, 
 they were taken up by an English ship, on board of 
 which was a Frenchman, who told them that the 
 civil wars of France had prevented their being re- 
 lieved. 
 
 When Charles IX. and Coligny were, to appear- 
 ance, reconciled, that admiral strongly solicited re- 
 inforcements for his colony ; and he obtained three 
 ships well manned and victualled for succouring 
 Charles fort, under the command of one Rene de 
 Laudonniere, a good officer, who had before served 
 in that country under Ribaut. He carried along 
 with him a number of soldiers, amongst whom were 
 incorporated several gentlemen-volunteers, who 
 served at their own expense, with a body of excellent 
 artisans, all of whom were Protestants. The king 
 furnished Laudonniere with 50,000 crowns in ready 
 money ; and he sailed with his three ships from 
 Havre de Grace, the 22nd of April, 1564. On the 
 22nd of June he arrived at Florida, where he landed, 
 and where he was almost worshipped by one of the 
 Floridan princes, whom the French writers name 
 Paraousti Saturiova. This chief was excessively 
 fond of the French, and brought to Laudonniere his 
 two sons ; the eldest of whom was a most amiable 
 prince. At the same time he instructed him in the 
 state of the country, of his friends, his enemies,, and 
 of every thing he had either to hope or fear. Lau- 
 donniere, without regarding Charles fort, fixed his 
 residence on the banks of the river May, and en- 
 gaged the paraousti to make an excursion with him 
 up that river. Having proceeded a little way. he 
 
 ordered his tent to be pitched, and sent two of his 
 officers Ottigny and D'Erlac to make discoveries 
 higher up. In their journey they met with savages, 
 entirely independent of Saturu/ va, who recovering 
 from the fright into which the sight of the French 
 had at first thrown them, brought them to a para- 
 ousti, said to be 250 years of ago, who received thorn 
 with great hospitality. As the finding mines of gold 
 and silver was the great motive that brought the co- 
 lonists to America, they applied themselves entirely 
 to that object, without minding the culture of the 
 lands, which were very fertile and inviting. Lau- 
 donniere was infected with the same infatuation, 
 and became the dupe of the savage Saturiova. That 
 sagacious American told him, that his own country 
 afforded no silver, but that it was the product of a 
 distant land, governed by one Timagoa, who was 
 his mortal enemy. Laudonniere offered to assist 
 him in subduing this enemy ; and the paraousti eon- 
 eluded a treaty with him for that purpose. 
 
 Laudonniere either repented his having pro- 
 mised to engage in a war that might prove ruinous 
 to an infant colony, or willing to find out the mines 
 without the assistance of the savages, decamped, and 
 without taking Saturiova along with him, sailed up 
 another river, where he met with the paraousti of 
 the province, his wife, and four daughters, and was 
 hospitably entertained. Amongst other presents he 
 received from this cazique, was one of a small silver 
 bullet. This confirmed Laudonniere in his opinion, 
 that there was precious metal in the neighbourhood. 
 Assembling his people, it was unanimously agreed 
 to settle near the mouth of the May, which would 
 afford the shortest passage to the country of the 
 mines. Next day their little squadron was' ordered 
 to repair to the mouth of that river ; and, about 
 two miles within land, fort Caroline was built, of a 
 triangular form, strong enough to withstand any 
 hostile attack of the Indians. According to Lau- 
 donniere's relation, Saturiova was so well pleated 
 with the company of the French, that he ordered 
 his people to assist in building the fort. Other re- 
 lations say with greater probability, that all the 
 friendship he showed them, proceeded entirely from 
 his fear, and that he could not bear the thoughts of 
 their making a settlement upon his territory. Ilis 
 dissimulation went so far that he not only furnished 
 the French with abundance of provisions of every 
 kind, but his subjects made them presents of gold, 
 silver and pearls, which Laudonnitire ordered to be 
 deposited in one common stock. 
 
 As soon as fort Caroline was finished, he dis- 
 patched one of his vessels to France for recruits to 
 his colony, and sent Ottigny to improve his disco- 
 veries in the country of Timagoa, particularly to 
 learn where the mines lay. Ottigny was indefati- 
 gable in his researches, and one of his soldiers ac- 
 tually brought him some pounds of silver ; but, in 
 fact, the French were outwitted by the savages. 
 They did not agree amongst themselves concerning 
 the places where the mines were, though all of them 
 pretended they were very distant, that they might 
 remove the French further off. Sometimes they said 
 that towards the Apalachian mountains there was 
 found yellow iron, which the settlers immediately 
 concluded to be gold, but in reality, it was only cop- 
 per, though bits of gold were sometimes found washed 
 down the banks of the rivers by torrents. In short, 
 those Indians behaved so artfully, that they soon 
 stripped the French of most of their merchandise, 
 and paid them only in promises. At length Satu- 
 riova put Laudonniere in remembrance of his pro- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1007 
 
 mise to be the friend of his friends, and the enemy 
 of his enemies, and asked whether he was ready 
 to accompany him in an expedition he was about to 
 undertake against Timagoa. Laudonniere pre- 
 tended that his presence was still necessary amongst 
 the French ; and that he had not made provision for 
 so long an expedition ; nor could he be ready to 
 set out in less than two moons. This evasion was 
 very disagreeable to Saturiova, whose army was as- 
 sembled to the number of 500 men ; but at that time 
 he shewed no resentment. Before he set out, he 
 performed a kind of baptismal ceremony amongst 
 his followers, whom he sprinkled with water, and he 
 himself continued for some time under strong agita- 
 tions in prayer for victory over his enemies. 
 
 Then beginning his march, in two days he reached 
 the borders of Timagoa's dominions. Here it was 
 resolved that the army should separate, one half to 
 proceed by land, and the other by water, towards 
 the town which they were to attack, and matters 
 were ordered so well, that both divisions arrived at 
 the same instant. All who ventured to oppose them 
 were put to the sword, and Saturiova returned with 
 about 24 prisoners, women and children ; thirteen 
 of whom fell to his own share. Next day, Laudon- 
 niere sent his congratulations to him upon his victory, 
 and begged him to send him two of his prisoners. 
 His intention was to make a friend of Timagoa, by 
 sending him back his prisoners without ransom; but 
 Saturiova flatly refused to comply with his demand. 
 The irsolent Frenchman, upon this refusal, taking 
 along with him 40 of his soldiers completely armed, 
 thrust himself into Saturiova's cabin, and without 
 paying him any civility, demanded to see his pri- 
 soners. At first Saturiova, who had added some re- 
 proaches to his denial of Laudonniere's request, 
 pretended that the prisoners had, upon seeing the 
 French, lied into the woods ; but perceiving him- 
 self to be in danger, ordered them to appear, and 
 Laudonniere committed them to the care of D'Erlac 
 and Le Vasseur, to carry them to their own country, 
 informing Saturiova at the same time, that he took 
 this step in order to establish peace between him 
 and Timagoa. The two deputies were strongly en- 
 joined to gain over Timagoa, and to repair to the 
 country of one Outina, a very powerful prince, and 
 endeavour to form an alliance between him and the 
 French colony. 
 
 On the 21st of August, the most dreadful hurri- 
 cane happened that ever had been seen in those 
 parts; attended with lightning, thunder, and earth- 
 quakes. The Indians ascribed it to the artillery of 
 the Europeans, while the French imagined that the 
 burning of the forests proceeded from the savages, 
 who wanted to force them out of their country. One 
 of Saturiova's vassals, who had refused to give up 
 his prisoners to Laudonniere, now sent him a very 
 humble message, requesting he would cause the 
 storm to cease. The Frenchman answered that the 
 storm was owing to the Indian's obstinacy, and 
 threatened to burn him in his cabin if he did not 
 instantly deliver up the prisoners. The savage 
 punctually complied with this demand ; but was so 
 frightened, that he fled to a considerable distance, 
 and it was two months before he appeared again in 
 his own dominions. 
 
 On the 10th of September D'Erlac and Vasseur 
 set out with the captives, under an escort often men 
 and a serjeant; and having delivered up their 
 charge to Timagoa, proceeded from Outina's resi- 
 dence, which lay at the distance of 127 miles from 
 Fort Caroline. They wore joyfully received by this 
 
 chief, who was preparing to set out on an expedition 
 against a neighbouring prince, called Potanou. He 
 invited D'Erlac to accompany him, and he consented 
 to go with half his escort, sending the other half 
 back to Fort Caroline for fresh instructions how to 
 behave towards Outina. This paraousti began his 
 march with a small army ; but was terribly discon- 
 certed, when he saw his enemy inarching against 
 him at the head of all his forces. He was, however, 
 encouraged by D'Erlac, who, in the beginning of the 
 fray, shot Potanou dead ; upon which all his army 
 lost heart, and took to their heels. They were pur- 
 sued by Outina and D'Erlac, who made a great num- 
 ber of prisoners, and the paraousti nobly rewarded 
 the Frenchman for his service. Upon their return, 
 they found a boat from Laudonniere, which he had 
 dispatched to recall D'Erlac to Fort Caroline, on 
 account of some discontent which began to appear 
 among the French adventurers. 
 
 The volunteers, who were gentlemen, complained 
 that they were treated as hardly as the meanest ar- 
 tisans. Great dissatisfaction was occasioned by their 
 want of a clergyman to perform divine service: but 
 their greatest grievance was a dearth of provision, 
 and a near prospect, of famine. Their discontents 
 arose to such a height, that at last a conspiracy was 
 formed against the governor's' life. Laudonniere 
 behaved on this occasion with wonderful prudence 
 and intrepidity. He hanged a fellow who had be- 
 trayed bis confidence to the conspirators, and sent 
 off to France in a ship that happened to be then in 
 the river, some of the most dangerous amongst the 
 mutineers. Perceiving that many malcontents still 
 remained, he detached them under the conduct of 
 one Roche Ferriere to complete the discovery of Ou- 
 tina's canton, and kept Outigny and D'Erlac about 
 his own person, being assured of their fidelity. Of 
 the two barks which he employed for bringing pro- 
 visions to the colony, one was carried off by thirteen 
 of his people, and the other by two carpenters, who 
 never were heard of more. One Stephen, a Gene- 
 vois, and two Frenchmen, called Des Fourneaux 
 and La Croix, seduced above 60 men into a scheme 
 of cruising upon the Spaniards, and these were af- 
 terwards joined by a greater number. While Lau- 
 donniere was confined to his bed by sickness, the 
 conspirators entered his cabin in arms, and conveyed 
 him on board of a vessel lying in the river. They 
 not only turned a deaf ear to all his remonstrances 
 and entreaties, but also plundered him of his effects ; 
 and forced him, with a dagger at his throat, to sign 
 a commission for trnir cruising upon the Spaniards 
 in the gulf of Mexico. They then embarked on 
 board the two new vessels, and set sail on the 8th of 
 December, with intention to plunder Yaguana. 
 
 Before they left the river May, they disputed 
 amongst themselves, and the two vessels separated, 
 the one steering for the isle of Cuba, and the other, 
 which was never heard of again, for the Lucayan 
 islands. The former was commanded by D'Oranger, 
 who took a Spanish brigantine, laden with wine and 
 cassava ; and then bore towards the western part of 
 Hispaniola, where, in a harbour near Yaguana, they 
 careened their prize, which was leaky. They after- 
 wards steered to Baracoa, in the island of Cuba, 
 where they made themselves masters of a caravel 
 between 50 and 60 tons burthen ; and holding to- 
 wards Hispaniola, took, near Cape Tiberone, a pa- 
 tache richly laden, on board of which was the go- 
 vernor of Jamaica, then in possession of the Spa- 
 niards, and his two sons, whom they detained pri- 
 soners. With these they stood over to Jamaica; 
 
1008 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 but were outwitted by the governor, from whom 
 they expected a large ransom. He pretended to 
 write to his wife a letter, which he showed to D'O- 
 ranger, enjoining her to send by the bearer his own 
 son, the sum which the pirates demanded for his 
 ransom ; but he slipt into the youth's hands another 
 letter of very different contents. Next morning 
 the pirates saw their two ships beset by three Spa- 
 nish vessels of superior burthen, which took the 
 largest, wherein were D'Oranger and the governor; 
 but the other, on board of wh.ch were 25 men, slipt 
 her cables, and bore away for the north coast of Cuba. 
 
 Trenchant, the pilot, who had been forced into 
 the service, in concert with others of the crew, who 
 did not relish this profession, conducted the ship by 
 the Bahama islands, to the river May, in Florida. 
 Laudonniere had timely notice of her ai rival, and 
 appearing at the head of 30 well-armed soldiers, 
 made them all prisoners. Four of the most muti- 
 nous, comprehending the Genevois, Le Croix, and 
 Des Fourneaux, were instantly condemned to be 
 hanged ; but Laudonniere, at the earnest request of 
 his own men, permitted them to be shot to death. 
 
 Mean while La Roche Ferriere proceeded with 
 success in his discoveries. He had visited the In- 
 dians lying near the Apalachian mountains ; with 
 whom he made alliances, which excited the jealousy 
 of Outina. Then he returned to Laudonniere with 
 abundance of fine presents from the new friends of 
 the French, consisting of little plates of gold and 
 silver, curious quivers, furs, arrows ornamented with 
 gold, hangings made of beautiful feathers, hatchets, 
 and other utensils. A paraousti, called Onathaca, 
 having in his possession two Europeans, upon Lau- 
 donniere's promising to pay their ransom, they were 
 sent to fort Caroline. They proved to be Spaniards, 
 who had been long in slavery ; and one of them had 
 a piece of gold worth 25 crowns. They reported, 
 that Onathaca reigned over the eastern part of Flo- 
 rida; but that towards the west reigned another 
 prince called Callos, who was master of all the gold 
 and silver mines that Florida contained; but that 
 a great number of European vessels had been 
 wrecked upon his coast, which was very dangerous 
 for shipping. They affirmed that this savage prince 
 had a ditch, six feet deep and three wide, filled with 
 riches; that he detained in his town four or five 
 European women of rank, with their children, who 
 had been shipwrecked upon his coast fifteen years 
 before ; he persuaded his subjects the fertility of the 
 earth was owing to him; for which reason they sa- 
 crificed to him every year about the time of harvest 
 an unhappy captive. Finally, they counselled Lau- 
 donniere not to trust the Florida'ns, who were the 
 most dangerous when they made the greatest ex- 
 pressions of friendship; and they offered, with 100 
 men, to put the French in possession of Callos, and 
 to make many other discoveries. 
 
 The account given by the Spaniards of the riches 
 of this country received some countenance from an 
 affidavit, made by one Sagean before the regent of 
 France, about th time he projected the Mississippi 
 company, and which about 80 years ago was trans- 
 lated into English, and published. 
 
 Laudonniere, instead of espousing the interest of 
 any particular paraousti, employed all his influence 
 and address to reconcile the natives to each other, 
 and formed alliances with many of their chiefs, to 
 which he intended to have recourse in case of new 
 disturbances amongst his colonists. He then applied 
 himself to the storing his magazines, in giving employ- 
 ment to his people, and in dispatching Ottigny upon I 
 
 new discoveries. That officer returnea with an 
 account of a great lake he had discovered, probably 
 the same that was known to Ferdinand de Soto, in 
 his journey to the Apalachian mountains; and it 
 was pretended that the sands upon the borders of 
 this lake were mingled with grains of silver. In 
 returning to fort Caroline, he visited Outina, with 
 whom, at his earnest request, he left some of his 
 companions. 
 
 Outina finding himself involved in a fresh war 
 with Patanou, desired of Laudonniere a small rein- 
 forcement of men, and Ottigny was sent to him with 
 30 auxiliaries, who no sooner arrived, than he took 
 the field. Having marched two days, he was not a 
 little disconcerted to learn that the enemy had pre- 
 pared for his reception ; and his juggler advised 
 him to retire, assuring him, that Potanou was waiting 
 for him at the head of 2000 men with cords to bind 
 him and his subjects. This intelligence discouraged 
 Outina, and he was upon the point of turning his 
 back, when Ottigny made him ashamed of his coward- 
 ice. He accordingly continued to advance, and 
 came up with Potanou, who, as the juggler had said, 
 was at the head of 2000 men. Ottigny immediately 
 attacked them, and his musketry made such havoc 
 amongst their foremost ranks, that their whole army 
 was in an instant put to flight. Immediately after 
 this action, his French auxiliary left him twelve of 
 his men, and made the best of his way with the rest 
 back to fort Caroline. There he found Laudonn it-re 
 and the colony in the utmost distress, in consequence 
 of having been disappointed of the reinforcements 
 and provisions they expected from France. The 
 barbarians saw the difficulties they were under, and 
 having now abated in their passion for European 
 trinkets, they forced the French to pay exorbitantly 
 for every thing they sold, and when they had nothing 
 more to dispose of, they withdrew to a distance. 
 To complete the misfortunes of the colony, the 
 fish in the river disappeared, as the game did 
 from the woods and mountains; so that they were 
 obliged at first to feed upon acorns, and then upon 
 wild roots and herbs, which they found in the 
 fields. This extremity of misery was attended by 
 insults on the part of the barbarians, who robbed 
 and murdered one of the settlers. Laudonniere, 
 weak as he was, gave orders to set fire to the village 
 where this savage lived ; but the assassins and all 
 the inhabitants ded to their fastnesses, where they 
 were secure. 
 
 The colony being now reduced to a state of de- 
 spair, and its best and bravest members carried off 
 by diseases, the survivors pressed Laudonniere to 
 arrest Outina, and force him to furnish them with 
 some means of subsistence. Laudonniere held out 
 a long time against this proposal ; but he was at last 
 obliged to give way to famine. Outina was made a 
 prisoner, but all his subjects took arms for his res- 
 cue, and the unhappy settlers found themselves 
 plunged in a war, whijh they were in no condition 
 to support. A negotiation succeeded, and Outina 
 bought his liberty for a trifle, which was paid in 
 provisions; but they were retaken by his subjects, 
 before they reached fort Caroline, and two French- 
 men were killed, and about twenty wounded in this 
 rencounter. After all, it was owing to the courage 
 and authority of Ottigny and D'Erlach, that Lau- 
 donniere regained Ibrt Caroline. He afterwards 
 received a supply of millet by a French ship; and 
 then formed the resolution of returning to OH 
 France, when he discovered four vessels in the offing. 
 He and his people at first believed them to i- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1009 
 
 French, and their joy was excessive. But he soon 
 perceived them to be English. They were com- 
 manded by Captain John Hawkins, and were obliged 
 to put into the river to water; but not before the 
 captain had asked the French commandant's leave 
 for that purpose. This generous Englishman un- 
 derstanding to what a miserable condition the French 
 were reduced, relieved them with great humanity. 
 He came on shore unattended and unarmed. Lau- 
 donniere treated him with some wild fowl, which he 
 happened to have by him, and Hawkins furnished 
 bread and wine, which neither the French com- 
 mandant, nor any of his people had tasted of for six 
 or seven months before. The savages, imagining 
 the English and French to be but one nation, soon 
 became more tractable towards the colony, and 
 brought provisions from all quarters. Hawkins 
 furnished them with every thing they stood in need 
 of; and offered to carry them to France; but they 
 unaccountably refused his kindness, though their 
 own ship was in no condition to bear the sea. At 
 last, Laudonniere purchased one of his vessels, the 
 settlers loudly declaring, that they were determined 
 to leave a country where the prospect of famine was 
 every moment be lore their eyes. This spirit of de- 
 spair arose from tho bad principles upon which these 
 colonists had started. They had no idea of the 
 habits of industry, and had formed to themselves 
 the hopes of becoming rich all at once, by dropping 
 into mines of gold and silver, the searching after 
 which cost them more time and labour than the 
 clearing, improving, and sowing the grounds could 
 possibly have done, by which they might have lived 
 with comfort and in plenty. 
 
 Hawkins leaving one of his ships with Laudon- 
 niere, took leave of him, and, by the 15th of August, 
 the settlers were ready to sail, but the wind did not 
 prove fair till the 28th. As they were weighing 
 anchor several ships came in view, and Laudonniere 
 sent out a boat to speak with them ; but to his great 
 surprise, it did not return, upon which, he shut 
 himself up in his fort, where he was determined to 
 stand upon his defence. Next morning he perceived 
 seven chaloupes i'ull of armed people proceeding up 
 the river, in profound silence, till they came oppo- 
 site to the fort, from whence some muskets were 
 discharged, but at too great a distance to do any 
 execution. The garrison at last threatened to fire 
 upon them with cannon; and then they understood 
 that the ships were under the command of Ribaut. 
 Upon his landing he very fairly laid before Laudon- 
 niere all that had been said to his disadvantage to 
 ruin him both with the king, and his patron, the Ad- 
 miral Coligni. The chief heads of the accusation 
 imported that he had behaved in a tyrannical and 
 rebellious manner; and that there was no other way 
 of preserving any interest in that country, but by 
 obliging him to resign the command' In conse- 
 quence of this representation, the French king had 
 sent Ribaut with these seven ships, on board of 
 which were many catholics ; and their passage had 
 been long and tedious ; Ribaut having spent some 
 time after he came upon the coast, in treating with 
 the savages. Laudonniere soon convinced this offi- 
 cer of his innocence so thoroughly, that he pressed 
 him to retain his command, and offered to settle 
 himself elsewhere. Laudonniere persisted in his 
 resolution to vindicate his conduct at court in per- 
 son, and then Ribaut put into his hands a letter 
 from Admiral Coligni, desiring him to return to 
 France, that he might advise with the king and his 
 ministry concerning the good of the colony. 
 HIST. OF AMKR. Nos. 127 & 128. 
 
 Laudonniere was preparing to depart, the savages 
 resorted to Ribaut in great numbers with presents, 
 amongst which was a large piece of go Wen ore, 
 which they said they had from a mine in the Apa- 
 lachian mountains, and they offered to conduct him 
 to the place. Ribaut, probably, by this time, was 
 tired of mine-hunting, and applied himself to re- 
 pairing the fort; but perceived that there was not 
 water enough upon the bar of the river to carry his 
 four largest ships over it, and therefore he was 
 obliged to let them remain in the road. 
 
 Matters were in this situation on the 4th of Sep- 
 tember, 1565, when six Spanish ships cast anchor in 
 the same road near the four French vessels. Those 
 Spaniards were commanded by Don Pedro Menen- 
 dez de Avilez, a wild, fanatic devotee, in whose 
 heart the fury of bigoted zeal had stifled every 
 sentiment of humanity. Philip II. gave him the 
 command of a fleet and army, with very full powers 
 to drive the huguenots out of Florida, and to settle 
 it with good Catholics. He likewise bestowed upon 
 him the title of hereditary adelantado of Florida, 
 with considerable appointments. The king fur- 
 nished only one ship, the St. Pelagic, of 1000 tons 
 burthen, with about 300 soldiers, and 100 mariners ; 
 but the whole of his armament consisted of above 
 2600 men. On the 29th of June it left Gales ; and 
 it was so rudely treated on the voyage by the 
 weather, that several of his ships parted from him, 
 so that when he landed at Porto Rico, on the 9th 
 of August, he had not with him above the third part 
 of his force. His soldiers were without experience ; 
 but he could depend upon his officers, who, like 
 himself, were all of them bigots, and considered the 
 expedition they were engaged in as a holy war; it 
 being given out in Spain, not without some appear- 
 ance of truth, that it was secretly encouraged by the 
 French king himself in hatred to the huguenots. 
 
 Menendez, notwithstanding the diminution of his 
 force, bore away for Florida, which he discovered 
 the 28th of August, and, coming upon that coast, 
 understood, with a good deal of difficulty, from some 
 Indians, that he was about twenty leagues to the 
 northward of the French settlement. At the same 
 time, he gave the name of St. Augustine to the 
 river Dauphin, which he discovered on that saint's 
 day. Approaching the four French ships that lay 
 in the road of fort Caroline, he hailed Ribaut, as- 
 suring him that be had nothing to apprehend, but 
 all of a sudden, he bore up to his ships, and they 
 had but just time to cut their cables, and to make 
 oft'. The Spanish historian says, the French fired 
 in the night upon Menendez, who, in the morning, 
 declared who he was, and demanded of the French 
 to know whether they were Huguenots or Catholics. 
 Being answered that they were Protestants, he told 
 them he had strict charge from his master to put 
 every man of them to death, which he would most 
 punctually execute; but that, if any Catholics were 
 amongst them, he would give them quarter: then 
 proceeding to attack the French ships, they gave 
 him the slip and escaped. Returning to the mouth 
 of the May, he saw the smaller French ships drawn 
 up under the fort, and the beach lined with soldiers ; 
 upon which he bore away for the river of St. Au- 
 gustine. Meanwhile, the four French ships re- 
 turned to their anchoring place, and Cossel, who 
 commanded them, informed Ribaut of what had 
 happened. The latter immediately called a council 
 of war, where the general opinion was, that they 
 ought to complete the works of Fort Caroline; and 
 that a strong detachment should pass by land to fall 
 
 40 
 
1110 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 upon the Spaniards, as they were disembarking. 
 Ribaut, upon this occasion, produced a letter from 
 Coligni, advising him of Menendez' expedition, and 
 enjoining him to suffer the Spaniards to undertake 
 nothing prejudicial to the crown of France in Flo- 
 rida, and gave his opinion for attacking the Spa- 
 niards by sea. All the council opposed this resolu- 
 tion, on account of the approaching hurricanes ; but 
 Ribaut persisted in it so obstinately, that he obliged 
 Laudonnirre, to whom he had intrusted the charge 
 of fort Caroline, to give him the greatest part of his 
 garrison, and almost all his provisions, and then he 
 went on board of one of the four French ships in 
 quest of the Spaniards. Laudonniere was left in 
 the fort, with about 50 men, besides women and 
 children ; but he himself was confined to his bed, and 
 the rest of his garrison was so sickly, that not above 
 twenty of them, were in a condition to do service. 
 
 In the mean time, Menendez had planned out his 
 new fort of St. Augustine ; and understanding about 
 the 10th of September, that he was about to be at- 
 tacked by the French under Ribaat, he prepared to 
 stand on the defensive within the bar of the river. 
 It is probable, however, that he must have been 
 taken or destroyed, had not, at the very moment of 
 the charge a most dreadful hurricane arisen, which 
 drove Ribaut and his ships to sea. Menendez then 
 called a council of war, and declaring that the late 
 hurricane was a divine judgment upon the heretics, 
 proposed that they should directly attack fort 
 Caroline by land, and give no quarter to any one of 
 the garrison. The council having assented to this 
 proposal, he put himself at the head of 500 men. 
 and began his march, leaving the charge of his new 
 town to his brother, and of his navy and artillery to 
 his vice-admiral. It was with great difficulty he 
 could prevent his troops from mutinying, in the 
 course of a severe march across a wild country, 
 under the inconvenience of excessive rain ; but he 
 persisted with great obstinacy till they arrived, when 
 the whole army was in so distressed a condition, 
 that the officers upbraided him with leading them 
 like so many beasts to be slaughtered. Menendez 
 bore these reproaches with invincible patience ; and, 
 pretending that he had divine assurances of success, 
 instantly marched towards the place, which was 
 easily surprised, the garrison having retired to rest, 
 little imagining, in so dreadful a night, that their 
 enemies were so near. At first, they butchered all 
 the sick, the women and children, who fell into 
 their hands, and Laudonniere, after having made a 
 very brave resistance, was obliged to retire to the 
 woods. The Spaniards being now masters of the 
 place, Menendez published an order, that all the 
 women, and the children under fifteen years of 
 age, should receive quarter ; but all the others were 
 put to the sword. 
 
 The three French ships were still in the river, and 
 the adelantado summoned the crews to surrender, 
 offering to suffer them to transport themselves in 
 any one of their ships they should choose; but he 
 threatened, at the same time, if they did not com- 
 ply, to put them all to the sword. This summons 
 was rejected by young Ribaut ; and the Spaniards 
 beginning to play upon the ships from the fort, they 
 were obliged to retire beyond cannon-shot. Lau- 
 donniere, who had been joined by about a dozen of 
 his garrison, suffered inexpressible miseries in the 
 woods ; but, at last, he gained the French ships in 
 the river, and proposed to young Ribaut that he 
 should go in search of his father. Ribaut, whose 
 conduct on this occasion was greatly blamed, an- 
 
 swered that he was determined to sail directly for 
 France, a declaration which provoked Laudonniere 
 so much, that he went on board another ship : as 
 one of their vessels was destitute of men, Laudon- 
 niere ordered h';r to be sunk that she might not fall 
 into the hands of the enemy, then he set sail for 
 Europe, and vas driven by stress of weather into 
 England, whe;e he was long detained by sickness; 
 and when he went to his own country, notwith- 
 standing all his services, he met with a cold re- 
 ception from the- French king, who was then more 
 embroiled than ever with Coligni. Laudonniere, 
 before his departure, had not been able to persuade 
 all the French to follow him. Some of them fled to 
 the savages, and others surrendered to the Spaniards, 
 who chained them together ; and all of them were 
 hanged upon a tree, on which was fixed an inscrip- 
 tion to this effect: " These persons are not treated 
 in this manner, because they are Frenchmen, but 
 because they are heretics, and enemies of God." 
 This was the fate of all the French who were taken 
 in the fort, or surrendered voluntarily, or were 
 given up by the Indians among whom they had fled 
 for shelter. About twenty more, who still remained 
 in the woods, were pursued and shot like so many 
 wild beasts by the Spaniards. This was an exploit 
 in the true Spanish style, inspired by superstition 
 and executed by cruelty. No man of sentiment will 
 be able to read it without horror and indignation. 
 Fort Caroline now lost its name, being changed by 
 Menendez into that of St. Mattheo, on whose day it 
 was reduced; 
 
 This brutal zealot having laid out ground for a 
 church, and appointed Gonzalo de Villareal to be 
 governor of St. Mattheo, with a garrison of 300 men, 
 returned with 30 soldiers to St. Augustine, which 
 he was afraid might be visited by Ribaut, who still 
 kept the sea. He was received in vast triumph by 
 the garrison ; and notwithstanding his barbarities, 
 he is still extolled by his countrymen, as a perfect 
 hero, statesman, and Christian. He had, upon his 
 arrival in Florida, taken some French prisoners, 
 whom he sent on board the St. Pelagius to be carried 
 to Hispaniola. In the voyage, the prisoners mas- 
 tered the Spanish crew, put the officers to death, 
 and carried the galleon to Denmark. The hurricane 
 which had driven Ribaut from his intended attack 
 of the Spaniards, carried him into the straits of 
 Bahama, where all his ships were wrecked on the 
 rocks. The crews and soldiers saved themselves, 
 and arrived on the coast without arms or provisions. 
 As they were entirely unacquainted with the country, 
 and had only the sun and stars to direct them in 
 their return to fort Caroline, their miseries were in- 
 expressible. At last, they discovered an empty 
 sloop that was driving along, and Ribaut gave the 
 command of it to Vasseur, with orders to look into 
 the river May. Vasseur immediately returned with 
 an account, that he saw the Spanish colours flying 
 on the fort. Upon this report, it was agreed that 
 two of the French officers should repair to the fort, 
 and learn what terms they were to expect from the 
 Spanish commandant. They were accordingly car- 
 ried before him, and he told them, that Laudonniere 
 and his garrison had been sent in a good ship to 
 France ; and that, if Ribaut and his party would 
 surrender, he would grant them the same terms. 
 Upon the return of the two officers, the French were 
 divided in their opinions, and being sensible how 
 meritorious the Spaniards held it not to keep any 
 faith with heretics, they sent one of their officers 
 back, and he obtained an oath from the command 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1011 
 
 ant. who proved to be Menendez himself, that, if 
 the French would surrender, they should be fur- 
 nished with a good ship, and every thing necessary, 
 to carry them to France. They were obliged to trust 
 to this solemn engagement, and chaloupes were 
 sent to carry them across the river, when they were 
 immediately bound with cords. Ribaut and Ottigny 
 endeavoured to expostulate with the Spaniards, but 
 could not obtain a sight of. the commandant. A 
 Spanish soldier coming up, gravely asked Ribaut, 
 whether he did not expect that the French soldiers 
 under him were to obey his orders ? " Without 
 doubt," answered Ribaut. " Then," replied the 
 soldier, " you are not to be surprised, if I obey my 
 general's order likewise." So saying, he plunged 
 a dagger into Ribaut's heart. Ottigny shared the 
 same fate, and in an instant the throats of all the 
 French v/ere cut, excepting those of some workmen, 
 who were employed upon the fortifications at St. 
 Augustine. 
 
 Such is the relation the French have given us of 
 this horrible massacre. The Spanish accounts lay 
 the scene of it at St. Augustine ; and tell us, that 
 Meneudez never promised or swore to show them 
 any mercy, and rejected the offer of a large ransom. 
 That the French were divided into two parties ; the 
 first was of 200, whom he brought across the river 
 in boats; and, finding that eight of them were Ca- 
 tholics, he spared them, but gave orders that the rest 
 should be instantly put to the sword. Next day, the 
 other party of the French,consisting of 350 souls,being 
 discovered upon a raft, Menendez informed the of- 
 ficer, who came to treat with him, how he had served 
 his countrymen ; and even carried him to the place 
 where their dead bodies lay. Two hundred threw 
 themselves on shore, but the other 150, with Ribaut 
 at their head, surrendered, and were all put to death, 
 excepting four Catholics Menendez, understanding 
 that the 200 French, who had fled, had begun to 
 build a fort far up the river, surprised them with a 
 party of Spaniards on the 1st of November : upon 
 their flying to a neighbouring mountain, he invited 
 them to surrender, upon promise of pardon, and 'of 
 being treated as his own soldiers. They submitted 
 accordingly, and he punctually performed his en- 
 gagements ; but we are told, at the same time, that 
 many of them turned Roman Catholics. 
 
 Whatever partiality Charlevoix may show in 
 favour of this Spanish relation, it carries upon its 
 face the most palpable marks of forgery. Is it to be 
 imagined, that a brave man, like Ribaut, at the 
 head of a force, equal, at least, to that of his ene- 
 mies, with arms in their hands, would have tamely 
 given up their throats to be cut, after having been 
 refused quarter; and after having seen how punc- 
 tually cruel the Spaniards had been to their compa- 
 nions ? He and his companions in martyrdom must 
 have been the worst of fools and enthusiasts, to have 
 gone to death so tamely ; and to have discovered (as 
 the Spanish writer said they did) that they had 
 100,000 crowns in their possession, which they of- 
 fered for their ransom. 
 
 Upon the whole, Menendez seems to have acted 
 in concert with the court of France, who considered 
 the Huguenots of Florida as the very worst of rebels 
 and traitors, though they had been settled under the 
 charter, and by the authority of the French king, 
 Charles IX. ; who acted in the same manner to- 
 wards his Protestant subjects in France, as Menen- 
 dez did by those of Florida All Europe was amazed, 
 that, in whatever light he might view the Floridan 
 Huguenots, he did not resent the insult done to his 
 
 own dignity ; and all that has been said in vindica- 
 tion of his tameness, is, that his connexions at that 
 time did not admit of his coming to a rupture with 
 Spain. The cause of his slaughtered subjects was 
 avenged, however, in a very extraordinary manner 
 by a Catholic gentleman, the chevalier de Gourgues, 
 a soldier of fortune, of a good family in Gascony. 
 He had served with reputation against the Spaniards 
 in Italy ; and being taken prisoner, was chained to 
 a galley, and obliged to work as a slave. This galley 
 was taken by the Turks, and afterwards retaken 
 by the Maltese, by which means de Gourgues re- 
 covered his liberty. He afterwards made some voy- 
 ages to Africa, Brazil, and other places ; and, upon 
 his return to France, he was looked upon to be one 
 of the ablest navigators in Europe. This adven- 
 turer hearing of the massacre of his countrymen in. 
 Florida, immediately laid a plan for revenging their 
 deaths, and for driving their murderers out of that 
 fine country. 
 
 For this purpose, he converted all he had into 
 ready money, and likewise took up large sums upon 
 credit. With these funds, he built three frigates, 
 on board of which he put 150 soldiers and volunteers, 
 most of them gentlemen, and 80 sailors. His ships 
 drew very little water, and were constructed so, 
 that they could be worked in a calm by oars ; and 
 by that means enter the mouths of rivers. 
 
 With this armament, he sailed from France, in 
 the month of August, 1568. He had, hitherto, kept 
 his main intention a secret from all the world; and 
 had obtained from M. de Montluc, the French king's 
 lieutenant in Gascony, a commission for going to 
 the coast of Africa, upon a slaving voyage. Having 
 traded, or pretended to trade, there for some time, 
 be, all of a sudden, bore away for the coast of Ame- 
 rica. He first fell in with the little Antilles islands, 
 and beat up to Porto Rico, and from thence to the 
 small island of Mona, where he is said to have vic- 
 tualled and watered. He was afterwards obliged to 
 put into St. Nicholas harbour, on the east side of 
 Hispaniola, by a storm, which damaged great part 
 of his bread ; but the Spaniards refused to supply 
 him with any more. Sailing from thence, he met 
 with another storm; and it was with great difficulty, 
 that he reached Cape St. Antony, on the west of 
 Cuba. Here, for the first time, he opened his real 
 intention to his company ; and painted the cruelty 
 of the Spaniards towards his countrymen in so af- 
 fecting a manner that they entered into his measures 
 with a degree of enthusiasm. Sailing through the 
 straits of Bahama, he came upon the coast of Flo- 
 rida, where the Spaniards thought themselves so 
 secure against any attack, that they took his ships 
 for those of their own countrymen, and saluted them 
 accordingly. They were duly answered by De 
 Gourgues, who next night entered the river Taca- 
 tacouron, called by the French the Seine, fifteen 
 miles from the river May. 
 
 The Spaniards, by this time, had rendered them- 
 selves so odious to the natives, that, taking de Gour- 
 gues' squadron to be Spanish, they prepared to op- 
 pose his landing. But De Gourgues, suspecting 
 their mistake, immediately sent ashore his trum- 
 peter, who, having served under Laudonniere, was 
 master of their language, and knew Saturiova, whom 
 he met by accident, along with the paraousti of the 
 country. The trumpeter informed them, that the 
 French were come back to renew their alliance with 
 them ; and, next day, Saturiova had an interview 
 in person with De Gourgues, who found him exas- 
 perated as much as he could wish against the Spa- 
 
 402 
 
iOll 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 niards. He complained of their pride and cruelty ; 
 and offered, if the French would attack them, "to 
 support him with all his force, and that of his allies 
 and dependents. De Gourgues pretended, at first, 
 that he had not come with any intention to make 
 war, but to pay them a friendly visit, and to renew 
 the former leagues between the French and them ; 
 and that he intended, if he found they suffered any 
 grievances from the Spaniards, to return to France, 
 and bring to their assistance a larger force. He 
 added, however, that he had now changed his reso- 
 lution, and was ready to second them with the few 
 soldiers he had on board his ships. His answer won 
 Saturiova's heart; and, amongst other presents he 
 made De Gourgues, he put into his hands Peter de 
 Bray, a young Frenchman, whom he had preserved 
 from the fury of the Spaniards, and treated as his 
 own son. All the paraousties, who were either allies 
 or vassals of Saturiova, being assembled, to delibe- 
 rate concerning their future operations, it was re- 
 solved, that D'Estampes, a Frenchman, and Olaca- 
 tora, a brave Indian, nephew to Saturiova, should 
 reconnoitre fort St. Mattheo. They returned in 
 three days, with an account that the Spaniards had 
 built two additional forts, one on each side of the 
 river; that all three were in good condition, and 
 garrisoned by 400 men ; but that they lived in per- 
 fect security. 
 
 From this report, De Gourgues concluded he had 
 no chance for success but from secrecy and surprise ; 
 and ordered a general rendezvous of all his allies 
 upon the river Somine, called by the savages Su- 
 raba. They attended punctually; and after having 
 entered into solemn engagements never to abandon 
 the French, set out on their march ; but such heavy 
 rains had fallen, that their expedition was in danger 
 of being defeated. At last, a savage undertook to 
 conduct them by a safe way. though somewhat round 
 about. He kept his promise, but with great diffi- 
 culty ; and in the morning, De Gourgues found him- 
 self so near the fort, that he could reconnoitre it at 
 leisure. At first, he was a little startled at seeing 
 the people in motion ; but he afterwards understood 
 that this hurry was occasioned by their being busied 
 in repairing a fountain. About ten o'clock the 
 French passed the river; and so thorough was the 
 hatred of the savages towards the Spaniards, that 
 the latter, till the very moment of the attack, knew 
 nothing of their being in Florida; an uncommon 
 instance of secrecy in those barbarians. De Gour- 
 gues divided his little army into two parties, giving 
 the command of one to his Lieutenant Casenove, 
 and himself marching at the head of the other. He 
 had advanced so near the platform of the fort, that 
 a Spanish engineer discovered him, and fired two 
 culverins upon his party. This alarm might have 
 been fatal to the French, had not the brave Oloco- 
 tora, creeping near the platform, mounted it at 
 once, and laid the Spanish engineer dead with his 
 lance. So daring an action discouraged the Spa- 
 niards so much, that they forthwith abandoned the 
 fort; and happened to take the way by which the 
 other division of the French, under Casenove, was 
 advancing. Thus, being put between two tires, all 
 the garrison, consisting of 60 people, were cut in 
 pieces, excepting a few, who were taken and re- 
 served to be hanged. 
 
 Mean while, the second fort was incessantly firing 
 upon the French ; but De Gourgues drawing out the 
 artilWy of the first Fort, played upon the Spaniard 
 so effectually, ana the savages seconded him so 
 vigorously, that the Spaniards betook themselves to 
 
 the woods, where all of them were taken prisoners, 
 or put to death. The main fort of Caroline remained 
 still to be reduced. This being a matter of some diffi- 
 ulty, De Gourgues obliged an old Spanish sergeant, 
 who was his prisoner, to give him information as to 
 he strength of the place ; and he quickly perceived, 
 ,hat he had no means of succeeding against it but 
 jy a scalade. The two following days were passed 
 n preparatives for thaj purpose ;, during which time, 
 De Gourgues planted such a number of Indians 
 around the fort, that it was impossible for the Spa- 
 niards to come at any knowledge of his real strength. 
 A Spaniard, however, disguising himself like an 
 Indian, mingled with the besiegers, but was disco- 
 vered by Olocotora, and, upon examination, proved 
 to be a spy. He was destined to the gallows : but 
 *reat part of the success of De Gourgues was owing 
 to the information which this man communicated. 
 When every thing was ready for the 'attack, De 
 Gourgues made such dispositions of his Indians as 
 rendered it extremely difficult for any of the Spa- 
 niards to escape, wheu the fort should be taken. He 
 then advanced to the attack, under the direction of 
 the Spanish sergeant and the spy, who led him to the 
 top of a little hill, from whence he had a full view 
 of the strength and weakness of the fort. His in- 
 tention was to have delayed the attack till the next 
 morning; but the besieged made a sally with four- 
 teen musketeers, who, by the disposition De Gour- 
 gues had made, weie completely surrounded, and 
 every man of them put to death, though they fought 
 very bravely. This slaughter being made under the 
 eye of the besieged, they lost all heart ; and, with- 
 out minding any orders, ran out of the fort towards 
 the woods, where the savages in ambu&h gave them 
 no quarter. They then endeavoured to escape an- 
 other way ; but were met full in the front by De 
 Gourgues, who laid most of them dead on the spot. 
 To complete his revenge, he saved the rest from 
 the hands of the savages, that he might resign them 
 to those of the executioner. He then reproached 
 them with their cruelty, their perfidy, and violated 
 faith; and ordered every one of them to be haaged 
 upon a tree, on which was the following inscription, 
 in imitation of that of Menendez : " I do not hang 
 these people as Spaniards, nor as the spawn of in- 
 fidels ; but as traitors, robbers, and murderers." 
 Nothing but the detestable example of the like 
 cruelty, set by the Spaniards themselves, could have 
 excused this barbarity ; which indeed has been va- 
 riously censured. Indeed, if it had been retaliated 
 upon the very individuals who had given the provo- 
 cation, it was certainly an act of eternal justice, 
 though unformal and unauthorized ; for it is certain, 
 thatDe Gourgues was not legally entitled to sail upon 
 the coast of Florida, far less to make such reprisals. 
 It must, however, be acknowledged, that he under- 
 took this expedition from very disinterested motives ; 
 for, before he entered upon it, he knew that he had 
 neither men to keep the forts, nor money to pay his 
 men, and that it was impossible to procure them 
 subsistence, even for money. 
 
 De Gourgues, satisfied with the glory of reveng- 
 ing the massacre of his countrymen upon a bar- 
 barous enemy, prepared to return to Europe; 
 having demolished the three forts, and shipped their 
 artillery on board his vessels. The savages seemed 
 to be sorry to part with him. but he knew he could 
 not depend upon their friendship ; and they loaded 
 him with the most extravagant praises for an action, 
 which was fco much in their own manner, but far 
 exceeded their abilities to have performed. On the 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1013 
 
 3rd of May he set sail from Florida ; and, on the 6th 
 of June, arrived at Rochelle, having suffered a great 
 deal on his voyage by storm and famine ; but all 
 his loss, otherwise, consisted only of a few soldiers, 
 and five volunteers. Before his arrival in France, 
 the court of Spain had received intelligence of his 
 expedition, and fitted out a squadron to intercept 
 him*, from which he very narrowly escaped. Upon 
 his landing, his old friend, the Marshal De Montluc, 
 highly extolled his valour and conduct, and advised 
 him to go to court. It happened, fortunately for 
 him, that the Protestant party was then so powerful 
 in France, that the government durst not provoke 
 it, by inflicting upon him any unseasonable severity ; 
 and the French, in general, Catholics as well as 
 Protestants, applauded what he had done. On the 
 other hand, the friendship of Spain happened, at 
 this time, to be necessary to the French king, and 
 the Catholic part of his government; and a sum had 
 been set upon De Gourgues's head at the court of 
 Madrid, as a pirate and a murderer. When he re- 
 paired to court, he was very ill received, and had 
 secret intimations given him to withdraw, to avoid 
 the fury of the queen-mother, and the Spanish fac- 
 tion, who had pressed the king to consent that he 
 should be tried. De Gourgues, therefore, was 
 obliged to fly to Rouen, where he was concealed by 
 the president, De Marigny ; and so reduced, at tha't 
 time, were his circumstances, that he owed his daily 
 subsistence to that magistrate's generosity. This 
 persecution served only to increase his fame ; which, 
 at last, made such an impression upon the French 
 king, that he restored him to his favour. His coun- 
 trymen pretend, but we cannot say upon what au- 
 thority, that Queen Elizabeth offered him a consi- 
 derable post in her service, which he declined. We 
 much question the truth of this report, as he always 
 professed himself a strict Roman Catholic. It is 
 certain, however, that Don Antonio offered him the 
 command of the fleet he was then fitting out, to^re- 
 cover the crown of Portugal from Philip II. of Spain. 
 But while De Gourgues was going to take possession 
 of that honourable commission he fell sick, and died 
 ut Tours. 
 
 The Spaniards, by the evacuation of De Gourgues, 
 for some years, had no competitors in Florida, and 
 applied themselves to the fortifying and improving 
 their new settlement at St. Augustine. As to that 
 ut St. Mattheo, it was suffered to go to decay; and 
 afterwards subsisted under the name of St. Juan, 
 the name which the Spaniards had given the river 
 on which it stands. Upon Queen Elizabeth's going 
 to war with the Spaniards, she was advised to at- 
 tack them in America. In consequence of this 
 scheme, some private adventurers in England, in 
 1585, fitted out a fleet, consisting of twenty sail of 
 ships and pinnaces, with the number of 2300 sailors 
 and landmen on board. The admiral in chief of 
 this fleet was the famous Sir Francis Drake ; his 
 vice-admiral was Martin Frobisher; Francis Knolles 
 was his rear-admiral; and Lieutenant-general Car- 
 lisle commanded the land forces. He attacked Fort 
 St. Mattheo, which being very weak, was abandoned 
 by the Spaniards; and Drake found in it fourteen 
 pieces of brass cannon, with about 2000Z. in money. 
 These seem to have been all the fruits of this at- 
 tempt upon Florida. 
 
 But we must now turn our attention to that part 
 of it, particularly distinguished by the name of 
 Louisiana, lying on the river "Mississippi, the mouth 
 and navigation of which the French pretend to have 
 discovered. 
 
 In the year 1684, when La Sale was at the French 
 court, on the subject of his discoveries, he not only 
 won the esteem of de Seignelay, the minister, but 
 brought him to agree, that he should prosecute his 
 discoveries, and attempt to enter the mouth of the 
 Mississippi by sea, in order to form a settlement. 
 All the winter was spent in making preparations for 
 his expedition. By his commission, he was to com- 
 mand all the French and savages that lay between 
 fort Lewis, which he had already built upon the 
 river Illinois, to that part of Florida called New- 
 Biscay; and the French commodore, who was to 
 carry him to America, was enjoined to give him all 
 the assistance in his power. 
 
 Four vessels were built at Rochfort ; on board of 
 which were embarked 100 soldiers, a Canadian fa- 
 mily, 30 volunteers, some of whom were gentlemen, 
 a few ladies, and workmen. Three ecclesiastics, 
 with four others, amongst whom was Father Zenobe, 
 composed the rest of the company, together with a 
 citizen of Rouen, one Joutel, who was a man of 
 some capacity, and intended as a kind of an assist- 
 ant to La Sale. The ships destined for this disco- 
 very were the Joli, of 40 guns, commanded by 
 M. de Beaujeu; another vessel, of six guns, which 
 the French king made a present of to La Sale ; the 
 Amiable, a merchant ship of about 300 tons burden, 
 which carried La Sale's baggage and implements; 
 and a ketch, of 30 guns, freighted with ammunition, 
 and merchandise. This little squadron had scarce 
 cleared the land, when the main-mast of the Joli 
 broke, and all the four ships returned to Rochelle ; 
 from whence they again set sail on the 1st of August, 
 and on the 16th day were in sight of the Ma- 
 deiras. By this time, La Sale and Beaujeu had 
 quarrelled. The latter proposed to put into Ma- 
 deira, to take in water and provisions ; but as the 
 success of the expedition depended on its being kept 
 a secret from the Spaniards, La Sale resolutely op- 
 posed their stopping; and this circumstance in- 
 creased their animosity. When they arrived in 
 Hispaniola, Beaujeu came to anchor at Petit Guaves, 
 on the west end of the island, though La Sale had 
 business of great importance, trusted to him by the 
 minister, with M. de Cussi, the French governor, 
 who lived on the north side; so that Cussi, with 
 two other French officers, was obliged to repair to 
 Petit Guaves, where be found La Sale greatly in- 
 disposed, chiefly through vexation, two Spanish 
 peruagas having taken his ketch off the island. ' 
 The growing discontents between La Sale and 
 Beaujeu made all the adventurers despair of success 
 in their undertaking ; but, at last, La Sale recovered ; 
 and, having dispatched his business at Petit Guaves, 
 set sail from thence the 25th of November, more 
 embroiled than ever with Beaujeu. About the 12th 
 of December, they entered the gulf of Mexico ; but 
 were obliged, by contrary winds, to lie by till the 
 18th. On the 28th, La Sale discovered the conti- 
 nent of Florida; and, having been informed that 
 the currents in the gulf set strongly in for the east, 
 he did not doubt that the mouth of the Mississippi 
 lay a great way to the west : upon which he bore 
 westward. The 10th of January, 1685, he was near 
 the object of his search, without knowing it, and 
 passed it, without sending any of his people ashore. 
 Some days after, beginning to be sensible of his 
 mistake, he wanted to return ; but Beaujeu refused 
 to obey him, and La Sale acquiesced, though he 
 had been extremely obstinate in all their differences 
 of minor consequence. Still holding to the west, 
 they at last arrived, without knowing where they 
 
1014 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 were, at the bay of St. Bernard, 10U leagues to the 
 west of the mouth of the Mississippi. Here La Sale 
 , discovered a river, which he mistook for the Missis- 
 sippi; and here he resolved to land his people. On 
 the 2Uth of February he sent orders to the com- 
 mander of the Amiable, the merchant ship, to lighten 
 her, that she might sail up the river, and ordered 
 one Le Belle to command her; but the captain of 
 the vessel refused to receive him. Meanwhile, some 
 of La Sale's company, who had landed, were car- 
 ried off by the savages ; and as he himself was run- 
 ning to disengage them, the Amiable was run ashore, 
 designedly, as it was thought, by the commander. 
 The crew was saved, and some part of the cargo ; 
 the whole of which might have been retrieved, had 
 not the vessel's long boat been destroyed on purpose. 
 Next morning the Amiable bulged ; so that no more 
 was got on shore than 30 casks of wine and brandy, 
 and some barrels of flour, and salted meat. A bundle 
 of blankets, and several other things, being driven 
 from the wreck to the shore, were seized by the sa- 
 vages ; and re-demanded by La Sale and his people 
 with so much roughness, that the Indians resolved 
 to be revenged, and refused to give up their prey. 
 La Sale seized their canoes, which they had left 
 -ishore ; an outrage by which they were greatly ex- 
 asperated. Advancing in the night to his camp, 
 they killed some of his men, and wounded others, 
 amongst whom was Moranger, his own nephew. 
 
 It appears, from all accounts, that La Sale was 
 obstinate, proud, and passionate, to the last degree; 
 qualities but ill suited to such an undertaking. 
 Beaujeu, who considered his station of commander ot 
 a royal ship, as superior to that of La Sale, to whose 
 orders he was subjected, could not bear with his 
 peevish tyrannical humour, and took all opportuni- 
 ties to thwart him in his projects. All the sensible 
 and independent part of the adventurers, some of 
 whom had risked large sums in the undertaking, 
 were disgusted for the same reason. They com- 
 plained, that all their hardships were owing to La 
 Sale's headstrong humour, in his disdaining to ad- 
 vise with any one; and some of the most consider- 
 able amongst them proposed returning to France 
 with M. Beaujeu, who was making ready for his 
 voyage. La Sale applied to him for the cannon 
 and bullets, which he had on board; but Beaujeu 
 answered, the season was so far advanced, that he 
 could not spare time, as they were in the bottom of 
 the hold, for putting them ashore. This was not 
 the only mortification La Sale met with at this time; 
 for though the captain of the Amiable was convicted 
 of running his vessel ashore with design, yet Beaujeu 
 received him and his crew on board ; and, setting 
 sail, he left La Sale with no more than ten field- 
 pieces a-shore, and almost quite destitute of balls 
 and ammunition. These untowardly circumstances 
 were far from daunting La Sale. He set about erect- 
 ing a store-house, which he intrenched and fortified 
 as well as he could; and Beaujeu having sailed 
 about the middle of March, a fort was begun, though 
 Hennepin says, that it was almost finished before 
 he sailed. While it was building, La Sale gave 
 the charge of it to Joutel, and left about 120 
 persons with him ; and, with the remainder, which 
 did not exceed 50, he proceeded in his own frigate 
 up the stream, still of opinion that it either was the 
 Mississippi, or a branch of that river. He had not 
 made great progress, when, hearing some discharges 
 made by Joutel against the savages, who were mo- 
 iesting the store-house, or fort as it is called, he 
 returned with five or si:; of his company, and in- 
 
 formed Joutel, that, having found a most commo- 
 dious situation, he had begun to build a fort further 
 up the river. He then took leave of Joutel, and 
 returned to his newly-founded fort, where he soou 
 perceived that the savages had robbed his workmen 
 of their tools and utensils ; and that even when 
 they were supplied by others, they knew not how to 
 use them; so that the work went on very heavily. 
 In the beginning of June, La Sale sent an order to 
 his nephew Moranger, to bring all the people from 
 the old to the new fort, excepting 30, who were to 
 be left with Joutel and the store-keeper. Scarce 
 was the main body gone, when two ruffians entered 
 into a conspiracy to murder these two officers, and 
 desert with their spoils. This plot was discovered 
 by a third soldier, whom the conspirators wanted to 
 make an accomplice ; and Joutel put them both in 
 irons. On the 14th of July a fresh order came 
 from La Sale, for Joutel entirely to abandon the 
 first fort, and to repair to him with all his peo- 
 ple ; which he accordingly obeyed ; but found La 
 Sale, and his new settlement, in a wretched condition. 
 The fort was but little advanced ; for scarce any 
 part of it, except a small magazine, was covered 
 over head. They had planted and sowed, but little 
 came up; and even that little had been destroyed 
 by the wild animals. Several of the most considerable 
 adventurers were dead, and maladies were every day 
 increasing amongst the living. All these mortifying 
 circumstances greatly affected La Sale ; but he dis- 
 sembled his chagrin, and continued to behave with 
 incredible spirit and industry. No sooner were all 
 his people re-united, than he set them the example, 
 by working at the fort with his own hands, which 
 would have had an excellent effect by raising an 
 emulation amongst the men, had he not destroyed it 
 by his excessive cruelty and severity. He gave them 
 no respite from labour; he could not bestow on any 
 one a civil expression; he punished every fault 
 with the utmost rigour; and misery, which com- 
 monly renders other men sociable, seemed only to 
 exasperate him into inhumanity. At the same time, 
 despair and want of wholesome food threw his men 
 into a kind of languor, which carried off numbers. 
 To crown those misfortunes, the imprudence of some 
 of his people had rendered the inhabitants of the 
 place irreconcileable enemies to the new settlement. 
 
 The natives were called Clamcoets, a cruel, per- 
 fidious people, but remarkable for covering their 
 revenge and deceit under the appearances of buf- 
 foonery and gaiety. They had strong liquors of 
 their own making, and were extremely addicted to 
 drinking. Both men and women went almost naked; 
 and they had other barbarous customs peculiar to 
 themselves. 
 
 These savages, notwithstanding their degradation, 
 have all the advantages of climate and soil. The river, 
 on which the new fort was built, was called that of 
 Cows, from the great number of those animals 
 found on its borders ; which abounded likewise with 
 deer and kids. Smaller game swarms all over the 
 country, and the rivers and lakes abound with fish. 
 Their plains, though level, are extensive, but beau- 
 tifully diversified with wood and water; but to coun- 
 terbalance these blessings of nature, their rivers 
 are pestered with sharks, and their plains with rat- 
 tle-snakes. Their woods are full of most of the trees 
 known in Europe, and many to which we are 
 strangers. They are fruitful in vines, which bear 
 both black and white grapes. Nuts of various kinds, 
 and some of them very large, mulberries, figs, and 
 bananas, grow every where; and a fruit which the 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1015 
 
 Spaniards call Tsonnos, of the figure of an egg, but 
 delicious and refreshing, is peculiar to this country. 
 Notwithstanding the soil is extremely fertile, it sel- 
 dom rains in this country ; and the natives are fur- 
 nished with plenty of salt, which the sun makes on 
 the sea-shore, and the banks of the lakes. The 
 people who lay next to the Clamcoets, but further 
 up the country, were little known to Europeans ; 
 but were said to be pretty much of the same dis- 
 position, and to live in the same manner with their 
 neighbours. 
 
 About 100 leagues towards the north live the 
 Cenis, or Assinais, a more humanized people. They 
 settle in communities, cultivate the earth, raise 
 maize, beans, citrons, water-melons, and various 
 other vegetables, together with tobacco, and breed 
 great numbers of horses to bring home what they 
 kill in their hunting. The Cenis make war very 
 differently from all the other American savages ; for 
 they take the field on horseback, armed with bows 
 and quivers full of arrows, and bucklers made of a 
 bull's hide, which they hang on the left arm. Their 
 bridles are made of horse-hair, as are their stirrup 
 straps; the stirrups themselves being composed of 
 boards, and their saddles of folded deer-skin. If a 
 prisoner can find means to escape, so as to enter 
 one of their cabins, he is free, and becomes one of 
 the nation, otherwise they put him to a most ex- 
 cruciating death, and afterwards his body is roasted 
 and eaten. The Cenis, according to Joutel, could 
 not send to the field above 100 men capable of bear- 
 ing arms. Their cabins are round, in the form of a 
 hay-rick ; but commonly very large, some of them 
 being 60 feet in diameter ; and each family has a 
 piece of ground lying round its habitation. Besides 
 their dwelling-places, they have other cabins curi- 
 ously constructed, that serve for their public meet- 
 ings. Their furniture consists of hides and skins 
 well-dressed, mats, and earthenware, besides wicker- 
 baskets for holding their pulse and fruits, and their 
 beds are made of woven canes, raised three feet 
 from the ground, spread with skins handsomely 
 dressed. When seed-time comes, the men and 
 women labour equally, but in separate bodies. Their 
 tools are of wood, with which they just remove the 
 surface of the earth ; but the women have all the 
 labour of the harvest. Their habit is much like that 
 of the Clamcoets, and though they seem to have no 
 notion of religious worship, yet certain faint ideas 
 of a Deity are discernible in some of their cere- 
 monies. 
 
 At last La Sale finished his fort, which he called 
 St. Lewis, and he gave the same name to the bay 
 of St. Bernard, into which he still believed the Mis- 
 sissippi discharged itself, and therefore he resolved 
 to make an accurate survey of it in his frigate. He 
 covered the roof of his fort with green turf, to pre- 
 vent its being set on fire by the arrows, which the 
 savages used to discharge with lighted matches tied 
 to them. It happened luckilly for La Sale and his 
 adventurers, that those barbarians were cowardly to 
 a ridiculous degree; and two or three Frenchmen 
 often put as many dozens of them to flight, but they 
 never failed to destroy the French, when they could 
 do it by stealth. La Sale finding he could not re- 
 claim, endeavoured to subdue them, and he had 
 many skirmishes with them, in which he was always 
 conqueror; yet he never could bring them to give 
 him information concerning the country, or lend 
 him their peruaguas, which were so necessary for 
 him in his intended voyage. So far, however, he 
 prevailed, that, being intimidated, they removed to 
 
 a convenient distance from the fort, and gave the 
 new settlers time for cultivating their lands, and 
 raising their stock. These measures they took with 
 amazing success, and even found time to build ca- 
 noes, which proved of the greatest utility to the un- 
 dertaking. At last, in the month of October, La 
 Sale, with the bulk of his people, went on board 
 his frigate, leaving Joutel, with 34 persons under 
 his command, at fort Lewis, and strictly enjoining 
 him, that he should admit none of those who at- 
 tended him into the fort, without a particular order 
 signed by himself. About the middle of January, 
 (A.D. 1686,) Duhaut, one of the adventurers, whose 
 younger brother, Dominique, had been left in the 
 fort, came back to it alone in a canoe, and Joutel 
 thought he had so little to apprehend from him, that 
 he received him into the fort without a particular 
 order for admission from La Sale. This man re- 
 ported that La Sale's pilot had orders to sound the 
 mouth of the river, but that going ashore with five 
 men, they were all murdered, while they were 
 asleep, by the savages ; and La Sale next morning 
 found the remains of their bodies, which had been 
 devoured by the wild beasts. Although the death 
 of this pilot was an irreparable loss to La Sale, 
 he ordered the frigate to advance up the bay, while 
 he himself crossed it with two canoes, then proceeded 
 by land, attended by about twenty persons, till he 
 reached the banks of a fine river, where Duhaut pre- 
 tended he accidentally lost them, and that in search- 
 ing for them, he was insensibly carried back to fort 
 Lewis. About the middle of March, La Sale re- 
 turned in a very miserable condition with his bro- 
 ther M. Cavalier, an ecclesiastic, who had attended 
 him, and five or six persons. The rest of his at- 
 tendants, amongst whom was his youngest nephew, 
 a youth about fifteen years of age, whose name was 
 likewise Cavalier, he had detached in search of his 
 frigate, on board of which were his linen, baggage, 
 and most valuable effects. 
 
 To keep up the spirits of his people, he pretended 
 to be wonderfully pleased with the discoveries he 
 had made, and seemed even to forgive Duhaut for 
 returning to the fort without his leave. Next morn- 
 ing young Cavalier and the rest of his companions 
 returned, but brought no accounts of the frigate, to 
 the great mortification of La Sale, who had pro- 
 posed first to send it to the French American islands 
 for supplies, and then to have coasted all the gulf of 
 Mexico in prosecuting his discoveries. 
 
 About the beginning of May, a few days after La 
 Sale himself had set out in quest of the frigate, an. 
 account arrived of its being wrecked on the opposite 
 side of the bay. The crew, who had reached the 
 shore, set about building a raft ; but it was so badly- 
 executed, that all those who ventured on it were 
 drowned. The survivors made another with better 
 success, on which they put all they could save out 
 of the wreck, and they happily passed on it into 
 the river on the opposite side of the bay, where it 
 was useless, because it could not carry them up to 
 the fort ; nor durst they travel by land for fear of 
 the savages. At last, meeting with an old canoe, 
 they refitted it as well as they could, and it brought 
 them to fort Lewis. 
 
 La Sale had then been two months gone, and it 
 is not at all to be wondered at, if the settlement be left 
 behind him was full of discontent and murmurings 
 at what they suffered from his unaccountable conduct. 
 Many of them, who could not remain shut up in the 
 walls of the fort, were murdered by the savages, as 
 they went hunting. The more sedentary, being the 
 
1016 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 most valuable part of the settlement, were carried 
 off by diseases ; and many of them ventured even 
 to throw themselves upon the barbarians, who gave 
 them liberty to live in the Indian manner, whUe 
 those who remained entered into a conspiracy, at 
 the head of which was Duhaut, whose younger bro- 
 ther was with La Sale. Joutel, the commandant of 
 the fort, gaining a knowledge of these cabals, acted 
 with so much prudence and resolution, that he kept 
 the conspirators in awe till the return of La Sale, 
 which was about the month of August. During this 
 last ramble, he had visited the country of the Cenis, 
 with whom he made an alliance, and they fur- 
 nished him with five horses laden with provisions, 
 but he had learned nothing of t^ie main object of his 
 search; and of twenty men he carried out with him, 
 he brought no more than eight back. Amongst the 
 missing was Duhaut's brother; but La Sale pre- 
 tended that he had given him, and several others, 
 leave to return to the fort. These new losses aug- 
 mented the discontent of the settlers, whom La 
 Sale's presence, however, overawed ; and as the 
 Clamcoets had begun to renew* their incursions, he 
 communicated to Joutel a design he had formed of 
 transferring his settlement to the country of the Illi- 
 nois, with which he was well acquainted. In the 
 mean time he declared he would undertake a third 
 journey to visit that people. 
 
 As he was preparing to set out, he was attacked 
 by a fever, which confined him to the end of De- 
 cember, when being recovered, he renewed his pre- 
 parations for his journey ; and having given Joutel 
 leave to attend him, he nominated another in his 
 room to command the fort, the works of which had 
 of late been much strengthened, and it was stored 
 with a sufficiency of provisions for all who were to 
 be left in it, who did not exceed twenty persons, 
 seven of whom were women. About the beginning 
 of January 1687, he set out, attended by sixteen 
 men, including his brother Cavalier, and his two 
 nephews. Father Anastase, Joutel, and Duhaut ; the 
 rest of his company we shall have often occasion to 
 mention. For the conveniency of travelling, La Sale 
 ordered the five horses, which he had brought from 
 the Cenis, to be loaded with provisions. This third 
 ramble seems to have been dictated by necessity ; 
 for, in fact, he could remain no longer amongst the 
 Clamcoets, and he missed the end he had proposed, 
 which he pretended to be the discovery of the Mis- 
 sissippi, but which in fact was to render himself master 
 of the Spanish mine of St. Barbe ; a more romantic 
 enterprise than the other. Having travelled a little 
 way he met with some bodies of savages, whom he 
 knew so well how to humour, that they parted in an 
 amicable manner. He then crossed many rivers, 
 but they increased so fast, and were sometimes so 
 swollen by rains, that he resolved to build a large 
 canoe for crossing them, to be carried over land 
 upon poles ; and this proved of singular use. The 
 countries through which he passed were extremely 
 pleasant, and some of them populous. Three great 
 villages particularly are named, Taraba, Tyakap- 
 pon, and Palonna. The course by which he tra- 
 velled was north-east; and at last he arrived at the 
 country of the Palaquessens, who, he was told, were 
 in alliance with the Spaniards. Amongst his at- 
 tendants was one Hiens, whose true name was James, 
 an English soldier, one Larcheveque, and a surgeon 
 called Liotot. As it was impossible for our travellers 
 to carry with them a sufficiency of provision to 
 maintain them during the whole journey, they had 
 recourse to hunting, the country through which they 
 
 travelled being full of excellent game, and they di- 
 vided themselves into small parties for that purpose. 
 Moranget, La Sale's valet, and one Nika, an In. 
 dian, but a most admirable hunter, formed one of 
 those parties, and, as is reported, fell in with Duhaut, 
 Hiens, and Liotot. A quarrel ensued, in which 
 Moranget is said to have abused Duhaut, whose 
 younger brother was suspected to have been put to 
 death by La Sale's own hand. It is probable that 
 the tyranny and insolence of La Sale determined 
 those men to dispatch him ; but that they did not 
 think themselves safe without first murdering Mo- 
 ranget, the valet, and the hunter;' a scheme which 
 they accordingly executed, when they were asleep, 
 in a most inhuman manner, Larcheveque and the 
 pilot Tessier being their accomplices. Despair, rage, 
 and misery prompted them to cross a river which 
 lay between them and La Sale, to murder him like- 
 wise ; but they were detained two days by the swell- 
 ing of the waters. By this time La Sale became 
 excessively uneasy, because Moranget and his two 
 servants had not returned, and resolved to go in 
 quest of them, taking with him Father Anastase and 
 an Indian, and recommending the care of his little 
 encampment to Joutel. Having travelled a little 
 way, he fired his gun at some eagles that were ho- 
 vering in the air, which in those parts is a sure sign 
 of carrioD being near, and the discharge informed 
 the assassins where he was. Two of them, Duhaut 
 and Larcheveque, passed the river; and the former 
 concealing himself behind the bushes, instantly shot 
 La Sale dead. Father Anastase expected the same 
 fate, but was informed by the assassins that he was 
 safe. Charlevoix and Hennepin have bestowed 
 great encomiums upon La Sale's vast abilities, per- 
 severance, spirit, and courage. But, admitting all 
 they say to be true, every man of sense who reads 
 his history must consider him as no better than a 
 madman, with lucid intervals. The manner of his 
 death was, however, deplorable, and perhaps a loss 
 to the public. That he had made great discoveries 
 of nations lying upon the Mississippi can scarcely 
 be doubted ; but his austere reserved humour, joined 
 to his pride and ambition (which seem to have been 
 unbounded,) prevented his opening himself to any 
 confident on that subject. The French court, long 
 after his death, availed itself even of the manner of 
 it, by pretending, in their memorials, that his dis- 
 coveries comprehended the whole extent of the 
 country to the Mississippi, and even to the west of 
 that river. 
 
 Cavalier was informed of his brother's death by 
 Father Anastase and the assassins, who, after the 
 murder of La Sale, returned to the encampment, and 
 assured both him and Joutel that they had nothing to 
 fear ; which is a further proof, that personal resent- 
 ment alone prompted the murders that had been 
 committed. Duhaut, however, took possession of 
 the command instead of Joutel, and he and Larche- 
 veque shared betwixt them La Sale's effects, which 
 they say amounted in money, plate, and merchan- 
 dise, to 50,000 franks. Next day, which was the 
 21st of May, the assassins, with the other French, 
 were prevented by the badness of the weather from 
 going to a village of the Cenis for provisions; and 
 they could not set out till the 29th, when they met 
 three savages on horseback, one of them habited 
 like a Spaniard, but the other two stark naked. 
 From them Joutel understood, that some Spaniards 
 lived not far off. The savage in the Spanish dress 
 informed him, that he had lately been amongst these 
 Spaniards, and, to confirm what he said, he pro- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1017 
 
 duced a printed paper of indulgences from the Holy 
 See to the New Mexican missionaries. This man 
 remained with the French ail night, and next morn- 
 ing led them to the village, where they were hos- 
 pitably received by the elders, who presented them 
 with pipes of tobacco, and here they met with a 
 Frenchman, who lived with the savages, and could 
 not be distinguished from one of them, and who had 
 deserted from La Sale during his first voyage. 
 Through his interest they were entertained with 
 all the luxury of the Indians, and exchanged some 
 trinkets for provisions ; but the village not contain- 
 ing a sufficiency for the French, Jouiel remained 
 in it to complete their cargo, while his companions 
 returned to their encampment. His chief motive 
 for staying was, that he might have an opportunity 
 of conversing with two other French deserters, who, 
 as he understood, were in those parts, and who, he 
 thought, could give him some light with regard to 
 the Mississippi river, and the route they were to 
 take towards the Illinois. Joutel had the good for- 
 tune to meet with one of those deserters, who was 
 quite naked, painted, and\marked like a savage; 
 nor were his manners different, for he was in all re- 
 spects a complete barbarian. He could give no in- 
 formation as to the Mississippi, other than that 
 there was a great river at the distance of 40 
 leagues northward; and Joutel took it for granted 
 that this must be the Mississippi. Being extremely 
 desirous to get rid of the company of the murderers, 
 he engaged the savage Frenchman to go in search 
 of another French deserter, who lived in the same 
 manner amongst the Ceuis, and to accompany him 
 in his journey towards the river. The man soon 
 found out, and brought his companion, who was not 
 quite so barbarously dressed as his countryman. 
 He confirmed all the other had said with regard to 
 the great river, which he informed him lay to the 
 north-east: he added, that Europeans were often seen 
 near it; and those two deserters, who were called 
 Ruter and Grollet, offered to accompany him thither. 
 Joutel, with joy, accepted of their attendance; 
 then leaving him for that time, in two days they 
 brought a horse to carry their provisions on the 
 road, and thus they rejoined their companions on the 
 10th of April. 
 
 While Joutel was absent, La Sale's murderers 
 had conspired amongst themselves to return to fort 
 St. Lewis, where they were to build a bark to carry 
 them to the French American islands. Their com- 
 panions, who were innocent of the murder, pre- 
 pared, at the same time, to set out for the country 
 of the Illinois. Cavalier, La Sale's brother, was at 
 the head of the innocent party ; and, understanding 
 that Duhaut and his companions were preparing to 
 set out for the Cenis country, where they were to 
 purchase horses to carry them to fort St. Lewis, he 
 begged of them some powder and shot, and a few 
 hatchets. He pretended, that he and his compa- 
 nions being too much fatigued to proceed, were de- 
 termined to stop at the first village of the Cenis ; 
 and he offered to give them a draught ,for the value 
 of all he received at Duhaut's own price. After 
 some consultation with his companions, Duhaut told 
 Cavalier that he and his friends were welcome to 
 half the merchandise that was in the storehouse ; 
 and that if he and his companions should not suc- 
 ceed in building a vessel at fort St. Lewis, they 
 would return to Cavalier's party, and all of them 
 should share the same fortune. Some days after 
 this agreement the assassins split amongst thern- 
 eelves ; Duhaut was for returning to Cavalier, and 
 
 going with him to the country of the Illinois, while 
 the others insisted upon returning to fort St. Lewis, 
 or on having their dividends of La Sale's effects. 
 The dispute growing hot, Hiens shot Duhaut through 
 the head, and Ruter slew Liotot, the surgeon ; and 
 thus the murderers of La Sale and Moranget were 
 justly punished by one another's hands. According 
 to Hennepin, Hiens had taken the part of the de- 
 ceased, La Sale, and now pretended that he killed 
 Duhaut because he was his murderer. Joutel, who 
 was by this time returned, and an eye-witness to 
 the tragical scene, seems to confirm the innocence 
 of Hiens, for he told him he had nothing to fear. 
 Joutel was then at great pains to inform the savages 
 who attended him, and who beheld what had hap- 
 pened with marks of horror, that the two wretches 
 who had been killed, deserved their fate, because 
 they had been guilty of murdering their officer, and 
 plundering his effects. Larcheveque was abroad, 
 hunting, during this scene of murder, and Hiens 
 declared he would serve him upon his return, as he 
 had done Duhaut, but was dissuaded from it by the 
 elder Cavalier, and Father Anastase, while Joutel 
 went and acquainted Larcheveque of his danger, 
 and, upon his arrival at his encampment, Hiens and 
 he were made friends. They then consulted what 
 they were to do next, when Hiens said, that having 
 promised the Cenis to assist them in their next cam- 
 paign, he was resolved to be as good as his word; 
 and that if the company would attend him thither, 
 they might then determine what they had to do. 
 As Hiens and his confederates still remained mas- 
 ters of the company's effects, they were obliged to 
 acquiesce in his proposal. Upon their arrival at the 
 Cenis village, Hiens took the field with the suvages, 
 and six Frenchmen, all on horseback, while the 
 rest of the French remained in the village. In a 
 few days, the women of the village, bedaubed with 
 earth, entering their cabins early in the morning, 
 danced round them for three hours. The dance 
 being ended, the master of the cabin presented each 
 of the ladies with a piece of their country tobacco, 
 which has a smaller leaf than that raised in the 
 French plantations. 
 
 The occasion of this festivity was a complete vic- 
 tory, which had been gained by the Cenis over 
 their enemies the Cannohatinnos, a fierce people, 
 who, according to Father Hennepin, always boil in. 
 caldrons, and eat their prisoners. Hearing of the 
 French and their fire-arms, and that they were on 
 the side of the Cenis, they durst not stand a charge, 
 but fled ; and the Cenis, in the pursuit, killed about 
 48 men and women. They returned in triumph 
 with the scalps of the dead to their village, where 
 they immediately put all their prisoners to death, 
 excepting two boys and two women. One of the 
 women was scalped, and dispatched, with a charge 
 of powder and shot, to her countrymen, to inform 
 them, that the Cenis intended, in a short time, to 
 pay them another visit. The other was conveyed to 
 a lone place, where she was tortured to death by a 
 number of her own sex, armed with sharp-pointed 
 stakes ; then her body was cut in pieces, and given 
 for food to their slaves. Next day was dedicated to 
 rejoicings. The cabin of their chief was cleaned 
 out, and spread with mats, upon which their elders 
 and the French were seated; and the company was 
 harangued by the village orator, upon the glorious 
 victory they had obtained, chiefly by means of the 
 strangers. His speech being finished, a woman 
 appeared, with a large reed or cane in her hand ; 
 she was followed by the warriors, each preceded by 
 
1018 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 his wives, carrying the scalps of the enemies they 
 had killed, and every warrior having in his hand a 
 how and two arrows. The procession was closed by 
 the two young prisoners, one of whom, being 
 wounded, was on horseback. 
 
 Each warrior, as he passed by the orator, presented 
 him with the scalps, which he took out of his wife's 
 hand. The orator received them, and having turned 
 round to each quarter of the world, laid them on the 
 ground. This ceremony being ended, sagamet (the 
 common food of the Indians, made of maize or In- 
 dian corn,) was served up in large platters; but be- 
 fore any of the company touched it, the orator filled 
 out some into a capacious dish, and placed it by 
 way of offering before the scalps ; then he lighted a 
 pipe of tobacco, and perfumed it with its smoke. 
 Besides the sagamet, the tongues of their enemies, 
 who had been killed, composed part of the banquet; 
 and the two young prisoners were obliged to eat 
 slices of the flesh of the woman who had been sacri- 
 ficed to the fury of her sex. The like ceremonies 
 were performed in other cabins ; and the festival 
 was concluded with singing and dancing. After 
 this solemnity, the French resumed their consulta- 
 tions upon the course they were to hold. Hiens 
 said, he neither could agree to the journey to the 
 Illinois, nor would he be publicly executed in France. 
 The innocent part of the company made no reply 
 to this declaration, but persisted in their resolution 
 of travelling towards the Illinois country. The sa- 
 yages did all they could to persuade them to remain 
 where they were, by painting in frightful colours 
 the length, the difficulties, and dangers of the jour- 
 ney they were about to undertake ; but, finding 
 they were determined in their resolution, they rea- 
 dily gave them two of their best guides. Hiens, 
 who was still in possession of La Sale's effects, and 
 wore his scarlet clothes laced with gold, a circum- 
 stance of no mean importance amongst the barba- 
 rians, offered to accommodate Cavalier and his party 
 with whatever was in his power ; but he forced him 
 at the same time, to give him under his hand a 
 Latin attestation of his being entirely innocent ol 
 his brother La Sale's death. 
 
 The number of the party which travelled to the 
 Illinois country were seven; the two Cavaliers 
 uncle and nephew, Father Anastase, Joutel, one 
 Marie, a young Parisian called Bartholemy, anc 
 Tessier the pilot. Larcheveque, Munier, and Ruter. 
 had promised to accompany them ; but the libertine 
 habits they had contracted detained them amongst 
 the Cenis. According to Hennepin, in all the 
 countries through which they passed, the inhabitants 
 entertained them with complaints of the cruelties o 
 the Spaniards, against whom they said twenty o 
 their nations were confederated, and the nation o 
 the Nasonis were extremely importunate with the 
 French, because of their fire-arms, to join in the 
 association; but this they declined. Their guide 
 led them northwards and north-east, through thi 
 most delightful countries in the universe, inhabitec 
 by different nations. They crossed four great rivers 
 passed through the country of the Nabiri, or Neansi 
 and entered that to the Cadodacchos. The inhabi 
 tants of this nation met them a league from the vil 
 lage, received them with the calumet, or pipe o 
 peace, entertained them with tobacco, and led thei 
 horses in triumph to their habitation. These peopl 
 lived so far within the country, that they had neve 
 before seen a European; and they called th 
 French spirits come from the other world. When ou 
 adventurers arrived at the village, where they foun 
 
 11 the inhabitants assembled, the women washed 
 leir heads and feet with warm water, and the rest 
 f the uight, as well as day, passed in rejoicings, 
 lie Cadodacchos seemed to have some notion of a 
 eity, by the worship they paid to the sun ; two 
 gures of which luminary were painted ou their ce- 
 emonial habits. On the 24th of June, Marie, one 
 f the Frenchmen, in bathing himself, was sucked 
 nto a whirlpool, and drowned. His body being af- 
 erwards found, was carried to the house of the chief, 
 vhere his wife wrapped it decently up in a handsome 
 mat; and the young men having dug a grave, it 
 as interred by Father Anastase with all the cere- 
 monies of the Romish religion, to the great adinira- 
 on of the savages. 
 
 It was the beginning of July before they left this 
 lospitable people, and proceeded to the territories of 
 he Natches, the most gentle of all the savages of 
 he American continent. They worshipped fire, 
 which they never suffered to be extinguished; and 
 t is probable, from. some traditions they had amongst 
 hemselves, that their forefathers carne from a roun- 
 ry on the borders of Peru. These, and all the 
 ther nations they passed through, received the 
 Drench with the most unbounded hospitality. The 
 urther they advanced northward, they found the 
 greater plenty of beavers and otters. At last they 
 cached the Ouidiches, where they met with three 
 warriors of two nations, called the Cahinnio and the 
 Mentous, who dwelt 25 leagues further east-north- 
 east, and had seen some Frenchmen. They offered 
 o conduct them to their countrymen; and this offer 
 vas accepted. In their journey they passed several 
 rivers and brooks, and were still treated with the 
 same affection and hospitality. Some of those tribes 
 mentioned a captain with one hand (De Tonti), who 
 'nformed them that a greater captain than he, mean- 
 ng La Sale, would soon visit their country. On 
 the 20th of July they arrived amongst the Akansai, 
 where they met with two of their countrymen. De- 
 lounay and Couture, a carpenter, who had been sent 
 by De Tonti into those parts to meet La Sale ; but 
 despairing of his return, they had settled among the 
 Indians. These people turned their own families 
 put of their cabins, that they might accommodate 
 the strangers, and called them envoys from the sun, 
 who came to defend them from their enemies with 
 thunderbolts, meaning their muskets, weapons whicl. 
 they had never seen before. Upon their departure, 
 the savages would have loaded their horses with otter 
 and beaver skins, which they had in such plenty, as 
 to be thought of no value; but the French declined 
 the present, and travelled for some days along the 
 beautiful banks of the Akansa, being visited by de- 
 puties from all the neighbouring countries. When 
 they drew near the place where they were told the 
 two Frenchmen lived, they tired their guns ; upon 
 which their countrymen appeared. After some con- 
 versation, Couture charged them not to mention the 
 death of La Sale in public, because his very name 
 had kept all the neighbouring savages in awe, and 
 had supplied them with canoes, guides, and every 
 thing they wanted. 
 
 Cavalier persuaded Couture to intimate to the 
 heads of the savages, that La Sale had made a fine 
 settlement upon the gulf of Mexico ; that they were 
 then travelling to Canada ; that they would soon re- 
 turn with a good number of French to make a set- 
 tlement in their country, in order to defend them 
 from their enemies, to make them happy by the fruits 
 of an established commerce ; and that they hoped 
 at the same time to obtain from them the same assist- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1019 
 
 ance and marks of friendship they had experienced 
 from the nations through which they had travelled. 
 The Akansas emitted no circumstance of honour or 
 accommodation for the entertainment of their guests, 
 and assembled together, that they might consult 
 upon their proposals. Some difficulty was raised 
 with regard to guides ; for, amongst them, all were 
 equally reckoned children of the public ; but even 
 that difficulty was got over by promises and presents, 
 to which the most generous of the savages are not 
 insensible, though we must do them the justice to 
 say, that all goes into the public stock ; so that pri- 
 vate avarice amongst them in fact, becomes a public 
 virtue. The young Parisian not being able to travel 
 any further, remained amongst the Akansas, while 
 the others, attended for some time by Couture, pro- 
 ceeded on their journey. On the 27th of July, 1687, 
 they embarked on board a peruaga, rowed by four 
 savages, one from each nation they were then treat- 
 ing with, the better to express their friendship with 
 the French. Falling down the river Akansa they 
 reached, the same day, the village of Toriman, where 
 they had the first view of the Mississippi, which they 
 crossed on the 29th ; in the evening they reached 
 the village of Kappas. On the 3d of September 
 they entered the river of the Illinois, at a place 100 
 leagues distant from fort Crevecoeur ; and on the 14th 
 arrived at fort St. Lewis, where an officer, one Bel- 
 lefontaine, commanded in the absence of Tonti, who 
 was then serving in Canada under Denonville in 
 his expedition against the Tsonnonthouans. There 
 being questioned about La Sale, they pretended they 
 had left him about 40 leagues on the other side of 
 the Cenis's country, fearing, that if the savages in 
 the neighbourhood should hear of his death, they 
 would find it impossible to procure accommodations 
 for their journey to Canada, which was extremely 
 fc.azardous on account of the war then raging with 
 the Iroquois. It happened that Tonti's commissary, 
 De Boiscondet, was setting out at the same time for 
 Canada, and all of them embarked together : but 
 the severity of the weather obliged them to put back 
 to the fort, and extinguished all hope of reaching 
 France that year, or sending from thence any suc- 
 cours to their friends, whom they had left at the 
 Louisianian fort of St. Lewis near the bay of St. 
 Bernard. 
 
 On the 27th of October, De Tonti arriving at the 
 fort, Cavalier informed him of his brother's death 
 from whom he had received a letter of credit for 
 4000 franks or value, which Tonti immediately 
 paid him in furs. It was the 21st of March, before 
 they again set out ; and, on the 10th of May, they 
 arrived at Michillimakinac, from whence they re 
 paired to Montreal. There they pretended to De 
 nonville and Champigny the intendant, that thej 
 were obliged to sail directly for France, that the} 
 might from thence send supplies to La Sale, anc 
 the governor and intendant believed their assertions 
 But we can by no means see the use or expediency 
 of this imposition, as they had already acquaintec 
 several of the French officers with La Sale's death 
 They made the best of their way to Rochelle, am 
 Charlevoix often saw, and conversed with Joutel 
 When they arrived at Paris, and began to solici 
 for supplies for the settlement at St. Bernard's Bay 
 it was judged too late to risk any ; and that appre 
 hension proved but too true. No sooner were the 
 Clamcoets informed of La Sale's death, and the dis 
 persion of his company, than they surprised the in 
 habitants of St. Lewis's fall, and murdered all o 
 them, excepting three sons of one Talon, Eustace 
 
 )e Breman, and an Italian, all of whom they carried 
 o their village. This Italian, who had performed 
 iy land this stupendous journey between Canada 
 ,nd St. Bernard's Bay to join La Sale, to whom he 
 ertainly would have been of infinite service, saved 
 limself by a very extraordinary stratagem. When 
 hey were about to kill him, he told them they did 
 lim injustice, because be carried them all in his 
 teart ; and that if they would spare him till next 
 morning, he would convince them that what he had 
 aid was true. The strangeness of the proposal, 
 and the air of confidence with which the Italian 
 poke, startled the barbarians, who, without hesi- 
 ation, granted his request. Next morning, when 
 ,he trial came on, he boldly advanced towards the 
 savages, and opening his breast, to which he had 
 aeatly fixed a small looking-glass, in which each of 
 them saw himself, they were so amazed that they 
 spared his life. 
 
 (A.D. 1688.) By this time, the Spaniards of New 
 Mexico hearing of La Sale's expedition, were so 
 much alarmed, that they sent 500 men into the 
 country of the Cenis, where they made Larcheveque 
 and Grollet prisoners. Some time after this event, 
 another body of 200 Spaniards arrived at the same 
 place, having upon their march seized Munier and 
 Peter Talon, the brother of those we have men- 
 tioned above. The design of the Spaniards was to 
 have settled two Franciscan missionaries amongst 
 those savages ; and understanding that Talon and 
 bis companions were perfectly well acquainted with 
 the language of the natives, they treated them with 
 great civility, that they might induce them to remain 
 with the missionaries. Talon informed them that 
 he had three brothers and a sister in slavery amongst 
 the Clamcoets, and the Spaniards immediately sent 
 a detachment to find them out. It was with great 
 difficulty that this detachment brought off two of 
 Talon's brothers, their sister, and the Italian, the 
 barbarians having conceived a great affection for 
 them all. Next year, a detachment of 250 Spa- 
 niards came to the village of the Clamcoets, where 
 the third brother of the Talons remained still in 
 servitude, as did the Italian. Both of them were 
 seized and conducted to St. Louis du Potosi, a city 
 of New Mexico. From thence they were carried 
 to Mexico itself, where they were admitted into the 
 service of the viceroy. As to Larcheveque and 
 Grollet, they were sent to Old Spain, and from 
 thence back to Mexico, probably to work in the 
 mines : and a similar fate seems to have attended 
 Eustace De Breman. Their examples furnish us 
 with a strong proof of the unrelenting jealousy of 
 the Spanish government with regard to its posses- 
 sions in America. The clemency shown towards 
 the Talons and Eustace De Breman, was probably 
 owing to their youth and inexperience, which ren- 
 dered them less obnoxious to the Spaniards. It is 
 plain, however, that none of them were suffered to 
 return to France, for fear of their giving informa- 
 tion of the mines, commerce, and country. Eight 
 years after this transaction, the three brothers, the 
 Talons being grown up, were sent to serve on board 
 the Spanish vice-admiral's ship, which, being taken 
 by a French ship, they obtained their liberty, and 
 returned to France, where they related the above 
 particulars, which otherwise never could have been 
 known. As to the youngest brother of all, and his 
 sister, they were carried to Old Spain by the viceroy 
 when he was relieved from his government. 
 
 Thus ended the mighty projects of the French 
 court under the direction of M. De La Sale, to ob- 
 
1020 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 tain a settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi, 
 which might overawe both the English and the Spa- 
 niards in America ; for both of them were then at 
 war with France. The reader has been sufficiently 
 informed of La Sale's character, and his adventures. 
 His reserved severe temper, and his numerous ram- 
 blings, called voyages and discoveries, together with 
 his sudden and tragical death, left his countrymen 
 impressed with notions that he had discovered mines 
 and countries richer than those of Peru and Mexico ; 
 and that a little spirit and perseverance alone were 
 wanting to make the French rival the Spaniards in 
 riches upon the continent of America. The truth 
 is, La Sale's real object was to get possession of 
 the mines of St. Barbe; and yet we know of no re- 
 gular plan, and no feasible attempt he made to be- 
 come master of them. It is possible, that the perpe- 
 tual wars in which his court was engaged in Eu- 
 rope, prevented it from sending the necessary assist- 
 ance for his undertaking to St. Domingo, from 
 whence he seems to have expected them ; but had 
 they arrived, his romantic, disagreeable humour 
 rendered him the most unfit man in the world for 
 carrying on a regular plan of operations. After his 
 death his court resumed his chimerical projects, and 
 entered into intrigues with a Spaniard, the Conde 
 De Pinalossa, for realizing them; but this bubble 
 likewise burst,and the accession of the duke of Anjou 
 to the crown of Spain united the interests of that 
 monarch with those of France. 
 
 Notwithstanding all we have said of La Sale's 
 chimerical projects, it is certain that his voyages 
 and intercourse with the Indians on the Mississippi, 
 made the French better acquainted with that country 
 than they had ever been before ; and it was he that 
 distinguished it by the name of Louisiana, which 
 it still retains. After the death of La Sale, his pro- 
 jects appeared for some time to have been dropt by 
 the French ministry; but Iberville, after his suc- 
 cessful expedition to Hudson's Bay, revived them, 
 by undertaking to Pontchartrain the discovery of 
 the mouth of the river Mississippi, where he pro- 
 posed to build a fort and make a settlement. His 
 known capacity, both as a seaman and officer, and 
 the reputation he had acquired in both services by 
 his prudence and address, prevailed with the mi- 
 nister to order two ships on this expedition, La Fran- 
 c,ois and La Renommee to be commanded by the 
 Marquis De Chateaumorand, and M. D'Iberville. 
 Setting sail on the 17th of October, 1698, they cast 
 anchor at Cape Francois in St. Domingo. From 
 thence they proceeded to Leogane, where they had 
 a conference with the famous M. Ducasse, then go- 
 vernor of St. Domingo, who made a most favour- 
 able report to the minister of Iberville's great abi- 
 lities for carrying into execution what he had under- 
 taken. On the last day of the year the two captains 
 proceeded on their voyage; and on the 27th of Ja- 
 nuary, 1699, they discovered Florida. Sending an 
 officer ashore for wood and water, they understood 
 that they were opposite to Pensacola Bay, upon 
 which 300 Spaniards had been settled for some time, 
 in order to be beforehand with the French, whom 
 they expected in those parts. Lescalette, the French 
 officer, who had been sent ashore, entered the har- 
 bour of Pensacola, and demanded permission of the 
 governor to take in wood and water. The governor 
 understanding from whom he came, sent his major 
 with his compliments to the two French captains 
 (for France and Spain were then at peace by the 
 treaty of Ryswick) with a letter, importing that his 
 most Christian majesty's two ships were welcome 
 
 to take in wood and water, and to come as near as 
 they pleased to the shore, but that he was expressly 
 ordered to admit no foreign ship into the harbour ; 
 yet, that he would send his pilot to conduct them 
 into the bay, if they should be forced to take shelter 
 through bad weather. On the 31st the two French 
 captains, upon reflection, not thinking proper to 
 force an entn into the harbour, stood out from the 
 bay into which they had been driven by stress of 
 weather; and Iberville, who was foremost, anchored 
 at the south-east point of the river Mobile, famous 
 for the bloody victory which the Spanish General 
 Fernando De Soto obtained there over the savages. 
 On the 2nd of July, he went ashore on an island 
 about four leagues in circumference, with a toler- 
 able good harbour, when clear of the sands, which 
 sometimes choke it after tempestuous weather. He 
 gave this island the name of Massacre, on account 
 of the skulls and bones of about 60 people, who had 
 been newly devoured, and were scattered along the 
 shore; but this term was afterwards changed for 
 that of the isle of Dauphin. From this isle Iberville 
 passed to the main land, where he discovered the 
 river Pascagoulas, on which he met with a great 
 number of savages. All these discoveries, however, 
 together with that he afterwards made cf the mouth 
 of the Mississippi, were far from being new, either 
 to the English or the Spaniards ; but they served to 
 the French as pretexts for arrogating to themselves 
 the property of the country. The informations which 
 Iberville received of the Pascagoulas left him no 
 room to doubt, that he would soon discover the 
 mouth of the Mississippi, which the savages called 
 Malbouchia, and the Spaniards La Palisade, on 
 account of the vast number of trees which are car- 
 ried down by the force of the tide, and stick in the 
 mud at the mouth of the river. On the 2nd of March 
 he entered it, and being well satisfied as to the 
 reality of his discovery, he communicated it to Cha- 
 teaumorand, who was sailing gently after him, and 
 who, according to orders, immediately returned in 
 the Francois to St. Domingo. Iberville, when he 
 made the discovery, was attended by his ensign 
 De Sauvole, his brother De Bienville, and about 
 48 men on board of twenty small sloops. The fur- 
 ther he proceeded up the river, the more he found 
 fault with the informations that had been given him 
 concerning it by De Tonti and Hennipin; but this 
 circumstance, which is related by Charlevoix, who 
 had in his hands Iberville's letters to the minister 
 on that head, is of no great weight, as it was na- 
 tural for Iberville to be fond of having the honour 
 to be the first discoverer. When he arrived at the 
 villages of Bayagoulas, he went ashore, and the 
 chief of the savages there conducted him to a temple 
 of a most curious construction. The roof was adorned 
 with the figures of many animals, and, amongst 
 others, of a red cock. The entrance was by a kind 
 of portico, which was eight feet broad and eleven 
 long, supported by two large pillars, fastened to a 
 beam running across the roof of the portico Both 
 sides of the entrance were adorned with the figures 
 of bears, wolves, and several birds, and at the head 
 of them all was a chouchouacha, or opossum. The 
 door of this temple was but three feet high, and two 
 broad, and the savage chief ordering it to be opened, 
 introduced Iberville. The inside was formed like 
 other cabins in the manner of a cupola, about 30 
 feet in diameter. In the middle of it stood two fag- 
 gots of dried wood, which were placed on end, and 
 burning, and filled the temple with smoke. A scaf- 
 fold was raised from the floor, heaped with a great 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1021 
 
 many bundles of the skins of kids, boars, and bul- 
 locks, which had been sacrificed to Chouchouacha, 
 whose figure was represented in several parts of the 
 temple in black and red, and was the deity of Baya 
 goulas. The village itself consisted of 700 cabins 
 each containing a family, but without any other day- 
 light than what came in at the door, and a hole 
 about two feet in diameter in the middle of the room 
 or roof. 
 
 From thence Iberville proceeded to the Oumas 
 where he was received with great affection by the 
 inhabitants. Though he met at Bayagoulas with 
 some evidences of De Tonti's having been there, yet 
 he began to entertain some suspicions as to the 
 identity of the Mississippi, on account of its appear- 
 ance, which was very different from the description 
 given of it by De Tonti. At last a letter, presented 
 to De Bienville by a savage chief, removed his un- 
 certainty. It was written by the Chevalier De 
 Tonti, and directed to La Sale, who is there styled 
 governor of Louisiana ; dated from the village of 
 Quinipissas (the same as Bayagoulas), the 20th of 
 April, 1695. In this letter Tonti informs La Sale, 
 that having found the standard with the French 
 arms, which he had erected, thrown down by the 
 violence of the tide, he had set up another about 
 seven leagues from the sea, and had there left a let- 
 ter in a tree. He says that all the nations through 
 which he passed, sung him the calumet, and that 
 they were much afraid of the French, ever since 
 La Sale had left that village. " I shall conclude," 
 continues he, " in acquainting you with the very 
 great trouble it gives me, that we are obliged to re- 
 turn with the misfortune of not having met with you 
 after two canoes had skirted the coast of Mexico 
 for 30 leagues, and those of Florida for 25." 
 
 D' Iberville, being now satisfied of his having en- 
 tered the real river, returned to the bay of Biloxi, 
 situated between the mouths of the Mississippi and 
 the Mobile, where he built a fort three leagues from 
 the river Pascagoulas, of which he made a Sauvole 
 commandant, and De Bienville lieutenant; then he 
 sailed back to France, where he entirely satisfied 
 that court a-:; to the reality of his discovery; but re- 
 mained there a very short time, and on the 8th of 
 January, 1700, he was again at Biloxi. He there 
 understood, that, during the preceding September, 
 an English vessel of twelve guns had entered the 
 mouth of the Mississippi, and was met by De Bien- 
 ville, as he was sailing to take soundings 25 leagues 
 from the sea. De Bienville acquainted the English 
 commander that he had no business there, and ad- 
 vised him to be gone, otherwise he would employ 
 force to drive him away. The Englishman pleaded 
 pre-occupancy on the part of his countrymen, who, 
 he said, had a better right to that river than the 
 French ; but finding it to no purpose to discuss the 
 matter further at that time, he retired, threatening 
 to return with force. Iberville, at the same time, 
 understood, that other English from Carolina were 
 amonst the Chicachas, where they traded in furs 
 and slaves ; and where, he pretended, they had in- 
 stigated the Tonicas to massacre an ecclesiastic. 
 This incident, with the declarations of the English, 
 that they had discovered the mouth of the Missis- 
 sippi 50 years before, determined Iberville to renew 
 the possession, which had been taken formerly by 
 M. De La Sale, of that river, and the lands about 
 it, as if that empty ceremony could defeat a prior 
 possession, which most undoubtedly was in the En- 
 glish. At the same time Iberville erected on the 
 bank of the river another little fort mounting four 
 
 pieces of cannon, and gave the government of it to 
 his brother Bienville; but this fort, which stood to- 
 wards the east of the river's mouth, was soon aban- 
 doned. While Iberville was busied in giving di- 
 rections about it, De Tonti arrived with about twenty 
 Canadians, who had been settled amongst the Illi- 
 nois. By this time a pamphlet had been published 
 upon the discovery of Louisiana, and the Missis- 
 sippi, under Tonti's name; but when Iberville, who 
 found great fault with it, mentioned it to Tonti, he 
 disowned it, and threw the blame of its publication 
 upon a Parisian, who had undertaken it for lucra- 
 tive views. Charlevoix, therefore, casts the blame 
 of the English endeavouring to disturb the settle- 
 ment upon Hennepin ; whose book was published 
 long before this time. But there can be no doubt, 
 that this river, and the adjacent country was known 
 long before to the English, under the name of Ca- 
 rolina, and that it was comprehended in a grant 
 made by King Charles I. on the 30th of October, 
 in the fifth year of his reign, to Sir Robert Heath, 
 his attorney-general. 
 
 It is therefore idle, and contradictory to a thou- 
 sand evidences, to suppose the English to have had 
 no information of this country but from Hennepin, 
 whose first discoveries were made at the expense of 
 the French king. Callieres, in his letters to Pont- 
 chartrain affects to be of that opinion ; but the facts, 
 with many others too tedious to introduce here in 
 favour of the English, are so evident, it would be 
 superfluous to insist upon them. King William 
 himself was so much convinced of the right his sub- 
 jects had to this country, that about the year 1698 
 he had some thoughts of planting it with a colony 
 of French Protestants. It happened, however, un- 
 fortunately for the English claims, that the people 
 of New York likewise advanced a title to Louisiana: 
 and twenty of them actually set out from thence to 
 treat with the Illinois, on pretence that it had been 
 ceded to them by the Iroquois, who had conquered 
 it by force of arms. Be this as it will, it is certain, 
 that three ships were sent from England to take pos- 
 session of the Mississippi at the same time the New 
 York people were treating with the Illinois, in the 
 month of October 1698. These vessels stopt at Ca- 
 rolina ; but two of them proceeded to the gulf of 
 Mexico, and holding always towards the east, the 
 smaller ship actually entered the Mississippi, and 
 was that which had been met with by Bieuville, 
 while the other sailed westward to the province of 
 Panuco in New Spain, there to concert measures 
 for driving the French from the Mississippi. 
 
 It must be confessed that the interest of the Spa- 
 niards and the French, with regard to this new set- 
 tlement, were, at this time, strangely entangled. 
 The Spaniards disliked the neighbourhood of the 
 French on the gulf of Mexico ; but they could get 
 rid of them only by the English, whose neighbour- 
 hood was still more formidable. King William on 
 the other hand, who, on all occasions, was, perhaps, 
 too tender of the interest of Spain in America, had 
 the setttlement of the French Protestants on the 
 Mississippi greatly at heart But though the Spa- 
 niards would willingly have joined him in driving 
 away the French, they could not bear the thoughts 
 of the English succeeding them, or rather the French 
 under the English protection. King William be- 
 came sensible of this objection, and gradually re- 
 tracted his intentions as to the French Protestant 
 establishment. Great numbers of the latter had, by 
 this time, transported themselves to Carolina, where 
 their presence was not very agreeable to the colony ; 
 
1022 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 but they had heard so much of the beauty arid fer- 
 tility of the new settlement, that finding themselves 
 in danger of being disappointed, they privately ap- 
 plied to the French king for leave to settle there 
 under his protection, where they promised to live as 
 loyal subjects, and, undertook without asking for 
 any thing more than liberty of conscience, to repair 
 thither in such numbers, as soon to render Louisi- 
 ana a great and flourishing province. 
 
 None but a thorough bigot, like Lewis XIV., could 
 have rejected a proposal so evidently for the inte- 
 rest of his crown and people. But the Jesuits urged 
 the impiety of suffering heretics to enjoy liberty 
 of conscience; and this was the sole reason why 
 their proposal was rejected, though it was sup- 
 ported by the ablest ministers he had, who were not 
 under the same delusion. On the defeat of this 
 application, the Spaniards, rather than call in 
 English to their assistance, very politicly took mea- 
 sures for rendering the French weary of their new 
 settlement. All the trade the latter carried on 
 was between the bay of Pensacola and the east side 
 of the Mississippi, where all the coast, as well as 
 the isle of Dauphin, was barren sand; and upon 
 the river Mobile, which was of very little conse- 
 quence. Iberville has been blamed for not having 
 forced a trade at this time : but it was not in his 
 power; and had his force been triple what it was 
 he could not possibly have got the better of that 
 innate aversion, which the Spaniards had ever ex- 
 pressed for all who pretended to interfere with them 
 in America. Iberville, having finished his fort upon 
 the Mississippi, sailed up that river as far as the 
 country of the Natches, where he had intended t( 
 build a town under the name of Rosalia. It wai 
 probably on this occasion that he took an English 
 man, whom he sent prisoner to Quebec, for trading 
 with the natives ; and, indeed, it appears as if the 
 chief design of his voyage had been to clear the 
 country of Englishmen, for we know of nothing he 
 did till he returned back to the bay of Biloxi, wher 
 he had established the head-quarters of his ne\ 
 colony. Charlevoix, on this occasion, notwithstand 
 ing his prepossession in favour of Iberville, seem 
 to think that he was out-witted by the Spaniards 
 who, without opposing him, confined him to a verj 
 insignificant compass of trade. 
 
 It appears very plain, that the court of Franc 
 itself, rather than" Iberville, was out-witted by th 
 Spaniards. At this time, the connexions between 
 it and that of Madrid were very strong, on accoun 
 of the Spanish succession; so that it was easy fo 
 the Spaniards, by their agents, to put the Frenc 
 ministry upon a wrong scent, in this new establish 
 ment. D'Iberville's instructions from his court ra 
 in the following strain : " One of the great object 
 presented to the king, when he engaged in the dis 
 covery of the mouth of the Mississippi, was the ac 
 vantage arising from the wool of the beeves of tha 
 country ; for which reason it is proper to tame thos 
 animals, to shut them up in parks, and to sen 
 them young to France. Though the pearls pre 
 sented to his majesty are neither of a good wate 
 nor shape, yet the search for them must be cont 
 nued, because more valuable ones may be discovered 
 and his majesty desires that M. Iberville will brin 
 along with him as many as he can find ; that h 
 will make sure of the places most proper for the 
 fishery, and that it be performed in his own presence. 
 As to the pearl-fishing, it was scon known to b 
 good for nothing ; and, notwithstanding all th 
 precautions taken by Iberville, Old France nev 
 
 aped any benefit from the wool, or, what is more 
 itraordiuary, from th$ hides of the buffaloes or 
 eeves. Nevertheless, Louisiana is undoubtedly one 
 f the finest countries in America, and the most ca- 
 ble of being improved for the purposes both of 
 ulture and commerce. The Spaniards knew the 
 ature of it, and took care to misrepresent it to the 
 'rench; and Iberville was too little acquainted with 
 to be able to rectify the notions of his court. 
 After his return to the bay of Biloxi, which 
 harlevoix thinks was the worst-judged station on 
 11 that coast, to be the head-quarters of the colony, 
 IB Chevalier de Surgeres demanded liberty of the 
 overuor of Pensacola to enter that port. The 
 paniard, in pursuance, no doubt, of his orders to 
 dmit as Tew French as possible, replied, that he 
 vas commanded not to suffer the English, or any 
 radiug company, to settle in the neighbourhood of 
 be Mississippi, and that he was instructed to give 
 dmittance to the French king's ships; but he in- 
 isted upon Surgeres producing sufficient evidences 
 o him, that he was in the service of his most Chris- 
 ian majesty, and not of any of his subjects. When 
 berville gave an account of this interview to Pont- 
 hartrain, he told him, that they who understood 
 American affairs best, were of opinion that the set- 
 lement of Louisiana never could succeed, unless 
 every merchant of France had a liberty of trading 
 ,o it. But while the French king continued to be 
 beset by Jesuits and bigots, more care was taken 
 or the propagation of popery than of commerce, 
 [berville had been obliged to introduce into the 
 new colony two or three Jesuits ; but their admis- 
 sion being prohibited, unless they complied with 
 certain terms, by the bishop of Canada, who claimed 
 Louisiana as part of his diocese, they were ordered 
 by their superiors to withdraw, and not to co-operate 
 with the other French missionaries sent by the 
 bishop. 
 
 This is a fresh proof of the ambition and avarice 
 of the Jesuit superiors, as they could have no 
 other reason for not co-operating with the other mis- 
 sionaries, but the fear lest their practices should be 
 seen through, as they pretended that their aim, the 
 conversion of the savages, was the same. The Je- 
 suits, however, still kept up their interest amongst 
 the Illinois, where they exercised their missions, 
 exclusive of all other ecclesiastics. They boasted, 
 that they had rendered the Illinois from being the 
 most worthless and irreclaimable of all the New 
 France savages, the most tractable, docile, and the 
 most attached to the interests of France of any but 
 the Abenaquais. By this time, the sieur Jachereau, 
 a Canadian gentleman, had begun a settlement at 
 the entry of the river Ouabache, the most convenient 
 of any for the French in North America ; because 
 it discharges itself into the Mississippi, and forms 
 the safest, as well as shortest, communication be- 
 tween Canada and Louisiana. Here a good num- 
 ber of the Mascoutin savages were settled; and one 
 of the Jesuit missionaries of the Illinois repaired 
 thither to convert them. His success, however, was 
 rery indifferent : he found them entirely under the 
 influence of their jugglers, and devoted to the wor- 
 ship of their manitous. A manitou, be it under- 
 stood, is any object, either animate or inanimate, 
 from a mountain and a bull to a mouse, and a bit of 
 red cloth, that these whimsical savages worship as 
 tutelar deities. 
 
 A severe epidemical distemper, which swept off 
 great numbers of the savages in the settlement, was 
 of no service to the Jesuit, further than by giving 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1023 
 
 him an opportunity of besprinkling the dying wretches 
 with water, which the Jesuits called converting and 
 baptizing. The survivors redoubled their devotions 
 to the manitous ; but they came at last to be of 
 opinion, that the manitous of the Christians were 
 more powerful than their own ; and one of their 
 chiefs, making choice of the Jesuit missionary him- 
 self for his manitou, went to the Christian quarter, 
 arid implored the forgiveness of his sins. The Jesuit 
 promised to do all he could for him and his country- 
 men ; but all was in vain, for the disease continued 
 to spread, till it swept off half the settlement; and 
 Jachereau was obliged to give over all further thoughts 
 ofhis project. 
 
 (A.D. 1700.) The public of France were still in 
 expectation that Louisiana contained mines : and 
 this was owing to some discoveries, lately said to 
 have been made by La Sale and Tonti. The French, 
 before that notion prevailed, were as indifferent 
 about the country of Louisiana as the Spaniards had 
 been, who neglected it, because they thought it con- 
 tained no mines ; so ignorant were both those people 
 of the true principles of national prosperity. In April 
 1700, when Iberville returned to France, all the 
 buildings the French had in Louisiana consisted of 
 a few straggling houses, belonging to some French 
 Canadians, who had been settled amongst the Illi- 
 nois ; the fort at the mouth of the Mississippi ; and 
 another, which was their head-quarters, on the 
 bay of Biioxi, where De Sauvole commanded. Iber- 
 ville had left the care of the fort, at the mouth of the 
 Mississippi, to his brother Bienville, Jachereau, and 
 the sieur De St. Denys, his wife's uncle, who was 
 a man of enterprise, understood many of the savage 
 idioms, and seemed to inherit all the spirit of La 
 Sale. About this time, one Le Sueur, another re- 
 lation of Iberville, discovered, in the country of 
 the Sieux, a copper-mine, which, by Iberville's 
 orders, he went to take possession of; but, though 
 it was ouh the end of September when he set out, he 
 found the weather so severe, that he was obliged to 
 winter in a fort, which he built upon the banks of a 
 river that falls into that of St. Peter. Their provi- 
 sions falling short, they were obliged to hunt buf- 
 faloes ; and, after they were killed, for want of salt., 
 they hung up pieces of their flesh in the air, where 
 it was soon tainted. This food was at first so un- 
 wholesome that it threw them into fluxes and fevers ; 
 but, by degrees, in six weeks, they were so well re- 
 conciled to it, that their appetites returned, and in- 
 creased even to voracity; so that there was not a 
 sick person amongst them, and all of them grew fat 
 and fleshy. They remained here till the beginning 
 of April, during a most severe winter ; and arriving 
 at the mine, worked it to such purpose, that in 22 
 days, they dug from it above 30,0001fes. weight of 
 real copper, of which they sent about 4000Ifos. weight 
 to France. This mine lay at the opening of a moun- 
 tain, ten leagues long, on the side of a river, where 
 not a tree grows, and which is continually exposed 
 to tempests, and thunder-showers. Notwithstanding 
 those promising appearances, Le Sueur was soon 
 obliged to give over his undertaking. Next year, 
 Iberville returned, for a third time, to Louisiana, 
 and begun a settlement upon the Mobile, of which 
 Bienville was commandant; and he abandoned the 
 post at Biioxi, carrying to the new settlement all 
 its inhabitants. 
 
 In this languishing state were the affairs of Lou- 
 isiana, during the remainder of the year 1702. In 
 vain did Iberville go back to France this year, for 
 the fourth time. The people, being as yet in no 
 
 expectation of mines equal to those of Peru and 
 Mexico, looked coldly upon his project; but he ac- 
 quired some patrons at court, whom he convinced 
 of its utility ; so that, upon his return to America, 
 he was enabled to build magazines on the isle of 
 Dauphin, as being far more convenient than the 
 fort at Mobile was for landing goods from France. 
 A fort was built there with additional storehouses ; 
 and, at last, it became the head-quarters of the co- 
 lony. All this while, no trade was carried on for 
 the profit, no lands were cleared for the subsistence 
 of the inhabitants, who enjoyed only the small spot 
 on which they dwelt. They subsisted upon preca- 
 rious supplies from France ; but the Apalache sa- 
 vages, fortunately for them, preferred their neigh- 
 bourhood to that of the Spaniards, and cultivated 
 some lands upon the Mobile, which contributed 
 greatly to their subsistence. No care, however, 
 was taken to associate them with the colony, or to 
 conrert them to Christianity. Matters still continued 
 in this languid state, owing undoubtedly to the dis- 
 tresses of France in Europe, till the year 1708, 
 when M. Diron D'Artaguette arrived in quality of 
 regulating commissary. His first care was the cul- 
 tivation of the lands upon the Mobile, which rescued 
 the settlers from the necessity of associating them- 
 selves with the savages in their hunting, when any 
 accident retarded their supplies from France. The 
 cares of this magistrate did not succeed. The lands 
 upon the Mobile were unfavourable for grain ; and 
 the little which they produced was apt to be damaged 
 by storms, which rendered it musty. To compensate 
 for this inconvenience, the settlers applied them- 
 selves to the cultivation of tobacco, which, upon the 
 Mobile, was found to be superior to that of Virginia. 
 However inconsiderable this colony was, the rest of 
 Europe, at this time, conceived the highest ideas of 
 it ; and perceiving it to be supported by the French, 
 amidst all their distresses in Europe, many believed 
 that the profits of it enabled them to carry on the 
 war ; so that an English privateer invaded the isle 
 of Dauphin, and, as D'Artaguette pretended, com- 
 mitted great cruel ties upon the inhabitants, to oblige 
 them to discover where they had concealed their 
 riches. The damage they sustained on this occasion, 
 amounted to above 4000 franks. D'Artaguette,whose 
 chief business in Louisiana was to inform himself of 
 the nature of the country, and the situation of the 
 settlement, upon his return to France, gave the 
 court great lights as to both ; and notwithstanding 
 the distresses of the kingdom, a resolution was taken 
 to improve the settlement of Louisiana into a co- 
 lony ; a measure that, in other countries, has always 
 required the most prosperous state to effect. A proud 
 court, through all its poverty, preserves its forms 
 and titles. De Muys, the Canadian officer, was 
 named governor of Louisiana: and, upon his death, 
 the title devolved to La Motte Cadillac. The sieur 
 Crozat, by this time, had obtained his most Christian 
 majesty's letters patent, for the exclusive privilege 
 of the commerce of Louisiana for sixteen years, and 
 the perpetual property, for him and his heirs, of 
 all its mines and minerals ; on condition of his send- 
 ing, by every ship of his that arrived at the mouth 
 of the Mississippi, six girls or boys for planting the 
 colony. At the same time, to give it the greater 
 credit with the public, the sieur Ducios was ap- 
 pointed regulating commissary ; and the governor 
 and he were placed at the head of a superior council, 
 whose powers were to last for three years, and who 
 were to be judges in all affairs civil and criminal. 
 La Motte Cadillac had been recommended by Crozat 
 
1024 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 for governor on account of his being so well ac- 
 quainted with the Indians, the Illinois in particular, 
 from whom great things were expected for the in- 
 terest of the colony, particularly in the discovery of 
 mines, which, after the most sanguine expectations 
 had been raised, not only in America, but all over 
 Europe, came to nothing. The other great object 
 which Crozat, who associated Cadillac in his patent, 
 had in view, was a trade with New Mexico. It is 
 true, that by this time, Spanish America was in the 
 hands of the house of Bourbon ; but the Spaniards 
 understood their own interest too well to forego its 
 great palladium, by suffering any foreign nation to 
 interfere in their commerce. When Cadillac came 
 to the isle of Dauphin, he sent a ship commanded 
 by Jonquaire to trade at Vera Cruz, where the go- 
 vernor furnished him with some provisions, but, 
 without suffering him to sell his cargo, obliged him 
 instantly to depart. Crozat was as unsuccessful after- 
 wards in attempting to carry on a trade by land. 
 
 The sieur St. Denys was employed in this com- 
 merce, and furnished with 10,000 franks worth of 
 merchandise, in order to deal with the Natchitoches, 
 a people who lived upon the Red River. By means 
 of Penicaut, a ship-carpenter, who understood their 
 language, and had accompanied Le Sueur to the 
 copper-mines, some of them had been prevailed 
 upon to settle amongst the Colapissas, a race of 
 savages in the neighbourhood of the Mobile. It was 
 natural for St. Denys, when going to the country 
 of the Natchitoches, to carry along with him those 
 who had been settled amongst the Colapissas ; and 
 they were so very fond of attending him to their 
 mother-country, that they set out on their march 
 without taking leave of their hospitable landlords, 
 the Colapissas. The latter were so affronted at this 
 neglect, that they ran to arms, pursued their guests, 
 killed seventeen of them and brought back pri- 
 soners a number of their women. Those who es- 
 caped joined St. Denys at Biloxi ; and in passing 
 by the village of the Tonicas, he engaged the head 
 man of it, with fifteen of his best hunters, to attend 
 him upon his journey. Arriving at the township of 
 the Natchitoches, which lies in an isle of the Red 
 River, about 40 miles above the place where it dis- 
 charges itself into the Mississippi, he built some 
 houses for the French he intended to leave there; 
 and, prevailing with some savages to associate them- 
 selves with the Natchitoches, he gave them all kinds 
 of utensils proper for agriculture, and seed-corn to 
 sow. He then left the Red River, which was na- 
 vigable no higher, attended with twelve French and 
 some savages, and, Iravelling west, arrived at the 
 country of the Cenis ; but he could find none of 
 them who had the least idea of a European, ex- 
 cepting the Spaniards, whose manner and appear- 
 ance are the same with their own. They furnished 
 guides to St. Denys, who travelled to the south-west 
 50 leagues before "he reached the first Spanish set- 
 tlement, which was a fort situated on a large river, 
 called the North Garrison. , He and his attendants 
 were very courteously received by Don Pedro De 
 Vilescas, who accommodated them all with lodgings; 
 and, in a few days, St. Denys opened the purport 
 of his journey, which was to establish a trade be- 
 tween the Spaniards and Louisiana, assuring Don 
 Pedro, that the terms should be of his own making 
 Don Pedro directly dispatched an express to his 
 superior, the governor of Caouis, which lay at the 
 distance of 60 leagues. This governor sent 25 
 horsemen, who, next year, conducted St. Denys, 
 and his surgeon Jalot, first to Caouis, from whence 
 
 je wrote to the attendants he had left at the North 
 iarrison, ordering them to return to Natchitoches. 
 St. Deuys then travelled 150 miles before he reached 
 Mexico, where, without any examination, he was 
 nstantly committed to prison by the viceroy, where 
 le lay for three months, when he was released at 
 ;he intercession of some officers, who knew his family 
 and connexions with the governor of Louisiana. 
 Upon his deliverance, the viceroy of Mexico con- 
 ceived so high an opinion of his abilities, that he 
 did all he could to engage him in the service of 
 Spain ; but, though poor, be was proof against all 
 his tempting offers. According to St. Denys's own 
 report, the viceroy made him first a present of 300 
 dollars, and offered to second him in his courtship 
 f Donna Maria, daughter to Don Pedro De Vi- 
 lescas, with whom he was in love ; but finding him 
 immoveable, even by this temptation, his excellency 
 made him a second present of 1000 piastres, to de- 
 fray, as he said, the expenses of his nuptials ; but 
 told him he had nothing to hope for with regard to 
 the trade proposed between Louisiana and Mexico. 
 Next day, the viceroy gave him a fine horse, and 
 appointed him a convoy to Caouis, which he reached. 
 Here he found Don Pedro in great perplexity about 
 four townships of savages, who supplied his garrison 
 with necessaries, but were ready to depart from it, 
 on account of the insults they had suffered from the 
 Spaniards. St. Denys undertook to bring them 
 back, though they were already upon their journey, 
 and acted with so much address, that he returned 
 with them to their ancient habitations. 
 
 This important service immediately made St. 
 Denys the husband of his mistress, and after six 
 months' cohabitation, he set out along with the uncle 
 of his wife, whom he left with child, on his return 
 to the Mobile. Cadillac, by this time, had dispatched 
 the sieur De La Loire with some merchandise to 
 make a settlement amongst the Natches. Here he 
 found some English traders from Carolina, who, ac- 
 cording to Charlevoix, had not only spirited up a 
 war amongst the savages, but had entered into prac- 
 tices against the interest of the French. La Loire 
 therefore arrested the English officer, who remained 
 alone amongst the Natches, and sent him prisoner 
 to the Mobile, where Bienville, who commanded in 
 the absence of Cadillac, treated him for three days 
 with great civility, and then set him at liberty. The 
 officer, on his return, took Pensacola in his way, 
 where he likewise met with a favourable reception 
 from the governor ; but travelling afterwards towards 
 Carolina, by the Alabamons, he fell in with a hunt- 
 ing party of the Tomez, who murdered him; so in- 
 veterate had the French. practices, at that time, ren- 
 dered all the savages towards the English. The 
 latter had a storehouse in a village of the Choctaws, 
 which those barbarians plundered, after having mur- 
 dered the people. This cruelty was a kind of watch- 
 word for the Alibamons, and the neighbouring sa- 
 vages, to confederate against the English, and they 
 made an irruption into Carolina, from whence they 
 carried off a great number of prisoners. France at 
 this time was at peace with Great Britain, and her 
 governors, therefore, durst not avow the infamous 
 practices made use of to excite those violences. The 
 prisoners were carried to the Mobile, where, under 
 the stale pretext of redeeming them, the French 
 commandant gave them an intimation of what they 
 were to expect, if they should continue to trade with 
 the natives ; and after this caution they were dis- 
 missed. Cadillac was at this time amongst the 111 
 nois, and upon his return to the Mobile, it was 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1025 
 
 given out, that he had discovered a silver mine in 
 tliU! country ; a report which had a most wonderfu 
 effect ail over Europe, and was undoubtedly en 
 couraged for the purposes that were hatching in th< 
 Frencu councils. Upon his return to the Mobile, 
 he was waited upon by a savage deputy of greai 
 credit, and authority on the part of several Indian 
 nations round, particularly of the Alibamons, who 
 till that time, had always been declared enemies o 
 the French, but now offered, at their own expense 
 to build in their village a fort for their service. This 
 offer was accepted of, the fort was built, and a gar- 
 rison placed in it under the command of M. De La 
 Tour. 
 
 La Loire was all this while continuing his nego- 
 tiations with the Natches, but soon discovered 
 amongst them symptoms extremely unfavourable to 
 tha French interest. Four Frenchmen had been 
 murdered, while they were travelling in their country, 
 and La Loire with his brother were threatened with 
 the same fate. The elder La Loire had set out for 
 the country of the Illinois, attended by some of those 
 savages, one of whom put him upon his guard. From 
 the romantic manner in which the French have re- 
 lated this conspiracy of the Natches, the truth of 
 it appears doubtful. They tell us, that the elder 
 La Loire, being thus cautioned, examined the sa- 
 vages, who were with him, separately, and that all 
 of them confessed that they had an intention to 
 murder him at a certain place. Upon this informa- 
 tion, La Loire, who suspected that the conspiracy- 
 was general amongst all the Natches, returned to 
 advertise his brother of his danger. The difficulty 
 was how to get access to him, but this Penicaut 
 undertook to remove. When the company reached 
 the landing-place of the Natches, Penicaut went 
 ashore, but told La Loire, that, if he did not see 
 him by midnight, he might conclude him dead, and 
 that he must pursue his voyage. Penicaut then, 
 armed only with his fusil, made the best of his way 
 towards young Loire's habitation ; and the latter, 
 being advertised by some Natches of his approach, 
 came out to meet him, and asked him news of his 
 brother. Penicaut pretended that he was fallen ill; 
 but afterwards desired him to send for the chief 
 Natche, to whom he told, that six out of the eight 
 Natches who had attended him. and La Loire, being 
 sick, they had been obliged to put back to the land- 
 ing-place, and he begged that, early next morning, 
 the chief would send 30 of his savages to unload the 
 grand canoe, and carry the merchandise to the store- 
 house ; a request which the chief accordingly pro- 
 mised should be complied with ; expressing, at the 
 same time, the great apprehensions he had been 
 under, lest the elder La Loire should have fallen 
 into the hands of the Yasous, a perfidious people, 
 who were enemies to the French. Penicaut, with- 
 out making any answer, expressed his satisfaction 
 with the chief's behaviour ; but, on his departure, 
 let La Loire into the real secret of his journey, and 
 showed him that he had not a single moment to lose 
 in making his escape. Three of the natives slept in 
 his room, but the exigency being pressing, they 
 opened the door while the savages were asleep, and 
 made the best of their way to the landing-place, 
 where they met with the elder La Loire, and, hav- 
 ing made handsome presents to the eight Natches, 
 they discharged them, and proceeded on their 
 voyage. 
 
 The first place they stopt at was a township be- 
 longing to the Tonicas, where they found three 
 Natches. These had been dispatched by their grand 
 
 HIST. OF AMER. Nos. 129 & 130. 
 
 chief, who, finding himself outwitted, h:i;i sent them 
 to persuade the ctiief of the Tonicas to murder all 
 the French who should fall into his hands. This 
 chief, who was a friend to the French, was so much 
 offended by the inhumanity of this proposal, that he 
 would have put the messengers to death, had he not 
 been dissuaded from it by a messenger residing in his 
 village. Upon the arrival of the two La Loires at 
 Mobile, and relating their story to Cadillac, the latter 
 immediately raised a party of 100 men, who set out 
 to chastise the Natches. In their voyage, perceiv- 
 ing a pocket hanging on a tree, they searched, and 
 found in it a letter from the Tonica missionary, in- 
 forming them of a French trader who had been 
 robbed and murdered by the Natches. This letter 
 cured Bienville, who commanded the partv. of some 
 doubts as to the reality of La Loire's danger. But 
 not conceiving himself strong enough to proceed 
 against the Natches, he stopt in the bay of the To- 
 nicas, where he built a fort, and dispatched from 
 thence an officer with twenty men to the grand chief 
 of the Natches, desiring an interview with him at 
 the fort. The officer returned, and said that the 
 chief was following him ; but this report proved not 
 to be true, for, without leaving his village, he only 
 sent some of his subaltern chiefs, with about 25 men. 
 Bienville received them with great state ; but, upon 
 their entering the fort, he demanded satisfaction, 
 for the death of live Frenchmen, who had been mur- 
 dered by their nation, and that their murderers 
 should be delivered up. The savages pleaded that 
 their grand chief alone could give him the satisfac- 
 tion he required; and some of them offered to wait 
 upon him for that purpose, while the rest of them 
 were to remain prisoners in the fort, till the chief 5 .-- 
 answer should arrive. This proposal was accepte 
 of, and. in a short time, messengers returned wit,., 
 the head of a man, whom the grand chief had put 
 to death, but who was innocent of the murders. 
 Bienville expressed some resentment at this attempt 
 to impose upon him, and demanded that the real 
 murderer should be produced, and particularly a 
 chief, whom he named. The messengers replied, 
 that the said chief was the nephew of the Sun, the 
 bravest of all their countrymen, who would rather 
 see Iheir village destroyed than give him up. They 
 added, that, the four murderers were amongst the 
 prisoners, whom they had left behind in the fort, 
 and that they might inflict upon them what punish- 
 ment he should think proper. Bienville immedi- 
 ately ordered them to appear, and, though they de- 
 nied the fact, the brains of all of them were beaten 
 out with clubs upon the spot. Amongst them was 
 a chief so obnoxious for his cruelties that his death 
 bad been long wished for by the neighbouring 
 nations. 
 
 After this catastrophe, the French, at the Tonica 
 fort, reflecting that it was in the power of the Natches 
 to interrupt all communication by water between 
 ;he Mobile and the Illinois country, resolved to avail 
 :hemselves of the panic struck into the Natches by 
 :he late executions, and proposed to them the fol- 
 owing terms of peace. That they should build, at 
 heir own expense, upon a certain spot to be pointed 
 >ut to them in their largest township, a fort and 
 storehouses, with proper accommodations for a 
 French garrison and a commissary ; that they should 
 restore all the effects they had taken from the French, 
 and indemnify them for all the other losses they had 
 uffered in their country ; and that the nephew of 
 heir grand chief, of whom the French complained, 
 hould not stir out of the village on pain of having 
 
 4P 
 
1026 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 his brains beat out. The deputies approved of those 
 articles which were read to them, and De Pailloux, 
 a French officer, W5<5 dispatched with twenty men 
 to get them ratified by the grand chief of the Natches. 
 He entered their village with drums beating and 
 colours flying, and was received with great cordi- 
 ality by all the inhabitants, who were friends to the 
 French. Being introduced to the cabin of the Sun, 
 where the grand Natche resided, the latter approved 
 of the terms, and said that he only waited for M. 
 De Bienville's orders to set about the construction of 
 the fort. Bieuville being apprised of this under- 
 taking, immediately set out from the Tonica village, 
 at the head of 50 men, and was received by the 
 Sun, or grand chief of the Natches, with great ce- 
 remony. The spot on which the fort was to be 
 erected was immediately marked out, and De Pail- 
 loux was appointed to superintend the building. 
 It was completely finished in six weeks, and Bien- 
 ville, who had returned to the Tonica village, set 
 out from thence, and took possession of it under the 
 name of Fort Rosalie. The Natches appearing to 
 be quite reconciled to the French, Bienville passed 
 all the year 1714 at this fort; and, upon his return 
 to the Mobile, he left De Pailloux to command it, 
 and one Du Tisne for his lieutenant. 
 
 La Motte Cadillac concluded, from the answer 
 sent him by St. Denys from the viceroy of New 
 Spain, that it was in vain to hope to open a trade 
 between Mexico and Louisiana; but, to prevent 
 any interruption from the Spaniards, he charged 
 Du Tisne to build a fort in the isle of the Natchi- 
 toches. Scarcely was it finished, when Du Tisne 
 \vas informed that the Spaniards had made a settle- 
 ment among the Assinais or Cenis, which they were 
 endeavouring to extend to the Mississippi : and this 
 intelligence determined Cadillac to reinforce the 
 garrison of the Natchitoches fort : but all the pre- 
 cautions of this governor were in vain, as the whole 
 establishment of the colony was founded upon wrong 
 principles, which were equally prejudicial to the 
 patentee as to the province. Tn the year 1712, no 
 more than 24 French families were settled in Louisi- 
 ana ; one half of whom were traders or workmen, who 
 did not attempt the clearing or cultivating the lands. 
 All the commerce of the province was then carried 
 on about the Mobile, and the isle of Dauphin, and 
 consisted only in timber, or what it called lumber 
 and peltries. The Canadian rangers trafficked with 
 the savages, by exchanging French commodities for 
 their furs and slaves, by whom we are to understand 
 their prisoners made in war, both which they sold to 
 the French inhabitants of Louisiana. The latter 
 disposed of the peltries, either to French ships, or 
 to the Spaniards of Pensacola, but employed the 
 slaves in clearing their lands or in sawing deals, 
 which they sent sometimes to Pensacola, but oftener 
 to the French islands ; from whence they returned 
 with sugars, tobacco, cacao, and French commodi- 
 ties. They likewise carried to Pensacola, where 
 the Spaniards were too idle and too lazy to cultivate 
 the grounds, or to practise the habits of industry, 
 pulse of all kinds, maize, wild fowl, and other fruits 
 of their own labour, all which were paid for in 
 ready money, which enabled the Louisianians to live 
 comfortably, though not in affluence. They were 
 not insensible that their country was proper for 
 producing tobacco, indigo, and silk; but they had 
 not hands for rearing them, and not a person of the 
 colony knew in what manner they were to be cul- 
 tivated. 
 
 In a word, Crozat managed matters so impru- 
 
 dently, that Louisiana produced nothing to him but 
 care and vexation. He made complaints and re- 
 monstrances to the French ministry, and these being 
 neglected, he fairly surrendered his patent to his 
 moist Christian majesty. This surrender gave birth 
 to the famous Mississippi scheme, projected by Mr. 
 Law, a native of North Britain, the history of which 
 does not fall within the plan of this work. 'The river 
 Mississippi was now the boundary of the English 
 territories on that side of America ; and the other 
 French settlements were given up to the Spaniards, 
 by an express convention betwixt the courts of Ver- 
 sailles and Madrid. 
 
 Although it is anticipating our history, it may be 
 as well to mention here, that the portion of this re- 
 gion, left by the treaty of 1763 to Spain, was again 
 restored by treaty to F* ranee in 1800, and was pur- 
 chased by the United States, for 15,000,000 dollars, 
 in 1803. Florida was obtained by the United States 
 in 1821. 
 
 Of the various tribes of Indians once inhabiting 
 this entensive region, but few now remain. The 
 Natches were once the most powerful of these savage 
 races; but are now nearly exterminated. In the 
 year 1720, they were situated upon the little river 
 which bears their name ; and their chief village, 
 which was the residence of their grand " Sun," lay 
 upon the river, within a mile of the demolished fort 
 of Rosalie. Amongst the Natches lived a foreign 
 nation, called the Grisgras, so named by the French, 
 from their frequent repetition of the letter R, and 
 likewise the remains of the Thioux. once a powerful 
 people, but almost exterminated by the Chicacaws, 
 with whom they were perpetually at war. Accord- 
 ing to tradition the Natches were formerly by far 
 the most powerful people in all North America, ac- 
 knowledged by all the other nations of it, as their 
 superiors and directors. They occupied all the ter- 
 ritory from Manchac, within 50 leagues of the sea, 
 to the river Ouabache, an immense tract of country, 
 part of that river lying about 460 leagues from the 
 sea: they had no fewer than 500 Suns, or princes, 
 each of whom was despotic. A grand Sun never 
 died but he was attended to his tomb by great num- 
 bers of his subjects, who were murdered, and the 
 same funeral rites were paid upon the decease, even 
 of a common Sun, or the son of the great Sun. Such 
 was the infatuation of the people, that they sought 
 death on those occasions, as the sure means of eternal 
 happiness. This barbarous fanaticism, had there 
 been no other cause, was sufficient to have thinned 
 the most populous nation ; but the calamity was in- 
 creased by war. Their chiefs being independent, 
 often quarrelled, and their power was so absolute, 
 that a word or a sign was sufficient to doom any num- 
 ber of their subjects to death, which was instantly 
 inflicted by their allouez, or guards. But the most 
 extraordinary circumstance of this remarkable peo- 
 ple, was, that fundamentally their government was 
 female. 
 
 The grand chief of the Natches, says Du Pratz, 
 bears the name of Sun, and, as among the Hurons, 
 the son of his nearest female relation always suc- 
 ceeds him. This person has the quality of woman- 
 chief, and great honours are paid her, though she 
 seldom meddles in affairs of government. She has, 
 as well as the chief himself, the power of life and 
 death, and it is a usual thing for them to order their 
 guards, whom they call allouez, to dispatch any 
 one who has the misfortune to be obnoxious to either. 
 Go rid me of this dog, say they ; and they are in- 
 stantly obeyed. Their iubjects and even their chiefs 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1027 
 
 of their villages, never come into their presence 
 without saluting them thrice, and raising a cry, or 
 rather a sort of howling. They do the same thing 
 when they withdraw, and always retire going back- 
 wards. When they meet them they stop, and howl 
 till they are past. They are likewise obliged to 
 carry them the best of their harvest, and what they 
 acquire by their hunting and fishing. In fine, not 
 even their nearest relations, and those who compose 
 their nobility, when they have the honour to eat 
 with them, have a right to drink out of the same 
 cup, or put their hands into the same dish. 
 
 Every morning, at sun-rise, the grand chief stands 
 at the door of his cabin, turns his face towards the 
 east, and howls thrice, prostrating himself to the 
 ground at the same time. A calumet is afterwards 
 brought him, which is never used but upon this oc- 
 casion ; he smokes, and blows the tobacco first to- 
 wards the sun, and then towards the other three 
 quarters of the world. He acknowledges no master 
 but the sun, from whom he pretends he derives his 
 origin. He exercises an absolute power over his 
 subjects, whose lives and goods are entirely at his 
 disposal, and they can demand no payment for any 
 labour he requires of them. 
 
 When the grand chief, or the woman-chief, dies, 
 all the allouez are obliged to follow them to the 
 other world, nor are they the only persons who 
 have this honour which is greatly coveted. The 
 death of a chief has been sometimes known to cost 
 the lives of above 100 persons, and there are few 
 Natches of any note, who die without being attended 
 to the country of souls, by some of their relations, 
 friends, or servants. 
 
 Garcilasso de la Vega, the Spanish historian, men- 
 tions the Natches as being in his time (though then 
 they were greatly reduced) a very powerful nation. 
 In the beginning of the last century they could 
 have brought 5000 or 6000 warriors into the field ; but 
 before their destruction by the French, they, the 
 Grisgras and the Thioux, we are told by Du Pratz, 
 could not muster above ] 200. Notwithstanding the 
 barbarous, stupid attachment of those people to their 
 chiefs, it is certain that many of their Suns were 
 endowed with principles of moderation and huma- 
 nity. Some of these withdrew from their commu- 
 nity, and are now to be found dispersed through 
 different parts of America ; but are easily known to 
 be the offspring of Natches, by their preserving the 
 eternal fire, and other customs peculiar to their 
 nation. 
 
 We can only enumerate a few of the names of the 
 other tribes. 
 
 To the north of the Natches, on the east of the 
 Mississippi, existed the river and country of the 
 Yasous. Adjacent to them were the Corons, Chaet- 
 chi-Oumas, Oufe-Oumas, and the Tapoussas; all of 
 them inconsiderable tribes, who after the extermina- 
 tion of the Natches, united themselves under the 
 Chicachas. Northwards of the river Ouabacke, were 
 the Illinois, on the banks of the river which carries 
 their name. They were distinguished into the Ta- 
 maroas, the Caskaquias, the Caouquias, the Pimite- 
 ouis, and several other tribes. Near the Tamaroa 
 village was a settlement of French Canadians, and 
 one of the most considerable amongst all the savage 
 nations. In general the Illinois were always at- 
 tached to the French, who protected them against 
 the Sioux, the Iroquois, aud their other enemies; 
 and, though far from being destitute of courage, 
 they were very peaceably disposed. To the north 
 of the Illinois were the Eenards, whom the French 
 
 were at war with for 40 years. Between the Re- 
 nards and the fall of St. Anthony, there was a space 
 of almost 300 miles, uninhabited by any nation ; 
 but beyond that were the Sioux, a people very little 
 known in Europe ; but who were dispersed amongst 
 a vast number of villages both towards the east and 
 the west of Mississippi. 
 
 The inhabitants on the west of that river remained 
 a long time unsubdued, and unconnected, appa- 
 rently, with any other people. The first were the 
 Tchaouachas and the Ouachas, different tribes of the 
 same nation. The Tchitimachas were of the Natches 
 nation, and formerly a considerable people, inhabit- 
 ing the borders of the lakes towards the north of 
 the Tchacuachas. They are described as extremely 
 pacific, and so contented with their own condi- 
 tion, that rather than have their tranquillity broken, 
 they abandoned all the advantages they could have 
 expected from the protection of the French. One 
 of them happened to kill a French missionary, for 
 which the French made war upon them; but at last, 
 upon the Tchitimachas sending to them the head of 
 the murderer, they obtained peace. On the sea- 
 side, towards the west, were the Atac-Apas, or the 
 Man-eaters, so called from their being said to be 
 cannibals. 
 
 The Bayoue-Ogoulas inhabited a country which 
 bore their name, and were a mixed people. The 
 Oque Loussas were only known to the French, even, 
 by name, and were so termed from their living on 
 the borders of two lakes, the waters of which are 
 black, through the great number of leaves that 
 lodge in them. Between the Oque Loussas and 
 the Red river, no people were to be found ; but 
 above the fall of that river, there was a small nation 
 called the Avoyels, remarkable for selling to the 
 French, who were settled in Louisiana, horses, 
 bullocks, and cows. Those cattle were purchased 
 from the Spaniards of New Mexico, and they multi- 
 plied prodigiously in the hands of the French Loui- 
 sianians. About 50 leagues up the Red river lived 
 the Natchicoches, who were always averse to the 
 Spaniards, but friendly to the French. They con- 
 sisted of about 200 families, dispersed up and down 
 the river. About 100 leagues above the mouth of 
 the Red river was the once great nation of the Ca- 
 dodaquioux, which branched out into a vast number 
 of tribes. This nation, as well as the Natchitoches, 
 had a particular language, or dialect of their own; 
 and yet, in all their villages, people were found, 
 who spoke the Chicacha language, which they call 
 their common tongue. Upon the Black river were 
 the Ouachitas, who are now but few in number, 
 having been mostly destroyed by the Chicachas. 
 The Arkansas inhabit the borders of a river that 
 bears their name. They are a very brave people, 
 and excellent hunters. The Chicachas had often, 
 tried their valour, but were always worsted, espe- 
 cially after the Kappas, part of the Illinois, and the 
 Mitchigamias joined them. They are all now blended 
 into one nation; a kind of coalition which often 
 happens among the American savages. If a weak 
 people should be at war with another, and double 
 their force, the former needs but to take refuge un- 
 der a third, with whom the more powerful nation is 
 at peace, and if they adopt them, they are safe. 
 Near the Osage river there is still a considerable na- 
 tion called the Osages, said to have been formerly 
 numerous. The Missouris give name to the great 
 river so called; and the French once had a post 
 amongst them, which was commanded by the Cheva- 
 lier de Bourgmont. This gentleman, after 'having 
 
1028 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 restored a good understanding amongst all the neigh- 
 bouring savages, who before were perpetually de- 
 stroying one another, happened to leave the garri- 
 son ; and soon after it was destroyed by the natives 
 so completely, that not a Frenchman was left alive 
 to give the least account of the catastrophe. It is 
 surmised that the Spaniards had projected this mas- 
 sacre, in order to settle themselves among the Mis- 
 souris. Their real design was to exterminate the 
 Missouris likewise ; but, finding this impracticable, 
 they gained over, by the force of presents, the Osages, 
 whom they endeavoured to employ in the destruction 
 of the Missouris. With this view, they formed at 
 Santa Fe a kind of caravan, or rather an ark, con- 
 sisting of men, women, and soldiers. Their purser 
 was a Jacobin, and their commander-in-chief an 
 engineer ; but his colony was furnished with cattle, 
 and beasts of carriage of all kinds. Unfortunately 
 for them, they knew so little of the place of their 
 destination, that, instead of the country of the 
 Osages, they landed in that of the Missouris, and 
 their interpreter, not doubting their being amongst 
 the Osages, told them they came to make an alli- 
 ance with them, in order to exterminate the Mis- 
 souris. The grand chief of the Missouris, to whom 
 this discourse was addressed, far from undeceiving 
 the Spaniards, seemed to welcome them, and to pro- 
 mise himself and his nation vast benefits from their 
 hopeful intention. He dissembled so well, that he 
 persuaded his guests to remain with him for some 
 days, till he could assemble his warriors, and consult 
 with his elders. The Spaniards fixed a day for 
 their departure to take possession of their new con- 
 quest; but, the night before, the Missouris cut the 
 throats of them all, excepting the Jacobin, whom 
 they perceived to be a man of prayer, and no war- 
 rior. Him they kept for some months prisoner, and 
 diverted themselves by making him in fair weather 
 ride on horseback; but in this amusement they out- 
 witted themselves, for the Jacobin one day mounted 
 his horse, and got clear off. After his flight, the 
 Missouris carried the ornaments of the Jacobin's 
 chapel, which he had brought along with him, to sell 
 in the French Illinois, and each as they entered that 
 country, was fantastically adorned with some piece 
 of plate or vestment belonging to the altar ; but all of 
 them arrived in solemn procession, singing the ca- 
 lumet, and performing the dance of peace. Bois- 
 briand was then commandant of the Illinois post, 
 and, hearing of the procession, he was at first much 
 scandalized, as fearing, that the savages had slaugh- 
 tered and robbed some French settlement; but, 
 understanding how matters went, he was greatly 
 pleased, and gave the savages merchandise for the 
 furniture of the chapel, which he sent to Bienville, 
 the then French governor of Louisiana. 
 
 The most considerable nations inhabiting the 
 banks of the Missouri river, besides the Missouris 
 themselves, are the Canchez, the Outhouez, and the 
 Osages, the White and the Black Panis, the Pani- 
 mahas, the Aiaouis, and the Padoucas, which last 
 are the most numerous of them, the others being but 
 inconsiderable. To the north of all these, lie the 
 Sioux, who are wandering savages, inhabiting both 
 sides of the Mississippi. 
 
 There is great reason to believe that all the na- 
 tions of Louisiana were originally the same people, 
 and that they extended to Florida likewise. Besides 
 the Natches, the Pachca Ogoulas, preserved the 
 sacred fire, and their languages are, for the most 
 part, radically the same, though disguised by dif- 
 ferent articulations. Nevertheless, their intercourse 
 
 in some piaces with the Europeans, their mixture 
 with the savages of Canada, Sioux, New Spain, and 
 the Apalaches. have introduced into Louisiana a 
 vast confluence of different people and tribes ; some 
 of whom are very inconsiderable, diminishing even 
 to single families, so that every separate nation has 
 some rite, custom, or character, peculiar to itself. 
 To specify all these particulars, is not the province 
 of general history. 
 
 These Indians are, for the most part, very well 
 made ; their height is seldom under five feet six 
 inches ; but they often are much taller. The men 
 are much handsomer than the women, who arc of 
 a smaller size, but none of either sex degenerating 
 into dwarfs. Du Pratz says, that the French Creoles 
 of Louisiana, by which is meant children born in a 
 distant country, but of parents of the same nation, 
 are remarkably large, well made, and vigorous, and 
 that those qualities amongst the native Louisianians 
 in general are chiefly owing to the manner in which 
 the females treat their children in their infancy. As 
 soon as a female savage is brought to bed, she goes 
 to the water-side, where she washes herself and her 
 child ; then she returns home, and lays the infant 
 all along in a cradle of a very curious construction, 
 made of canes, so light that it does not weigh above 
 two pounds. She places this cradle upon her bed, 
 but without rocking it from side to side, and the 
 child is swaddled up so as to leave the motion of its 
 lungs and belly always free ; but its head is bound 
 to a little pillow, stuffed with hair, but not raised 
 above the rest of its bed, a circumstance which 
 renders all these natives flat-headed. When born, 
 they are white. Their skin, when they are very 
 young, is rubbed over with oil, and other materials", 
 which give them a copper colour, their hide being 
 in a manner enamelled with them by the heat of the 
 sun. This unction renders their joints more supple 
 and flexible, and prevents the flies from tormenting 
 them. The boys about twelve years of age are 
 taught to shoot with a bow, at a mark, and rewarded 
 according to their proficiency. The paternal au- 
 thority is greatly venerated amongst them. The 
 oldest of every family is, Ey all his descendants, who 
 are sometimes very numerous, termed their father, 
 and his word is their law. Unless they are cut off 
 in war, or by colds, or the small-pox, these savages 
 live to a great age, insomuch that they often are 
 unable to stir, merely through natural decay. 
 
 The fathers educate the boys, as the mothers train 
 up the girls ; but the latter toil the most. The rnea 
 are chiefly occupied in hunting or fishing, in cutting 
 wood, or preparing land; and those exercises being 
 over, they divert themselves with others less labo- 
 rious: but the women, besides the care of their 
 young infants, have all the maize to prepare for the 
 family, fire-wood to provide, and a vast u umber of 
 utensils to make, such as earthenware, mats, and 
 many other particulars. Children of both sexes, 
 when about ten or twelve years of age, are accus- 
 tomed to carry burthens, which are gradually in- 
 creased as they grow up, so that they are sometimes 
 capable of bearing a great weight. The savages of 
 Louisiana, however, are very cautious of over- 
 straining the strength of their children, and they 
 seldom suffer them to marry before they are 25 
 years of age. The care and wisdom with which, in 
 other respects, parents train up their youth, is very 
 surprising, and the judgment with which they mo- 
 derate their exercises, such as running, leaping, 
 swimming, and shooting, lest they should hurt their 
 tender constitutions, so as to render them less active 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1029 
 
 and vigorous in their manhood. On the other hand, 
 they are equally careful to keep them in exercise, 
 as the want of it may be prejudicial to their health. 
 From their teuderest years they bathe every morn- 
 ing, winter as well as summer, and both sexes learn 
 to swim even from their infancy, under the inspec- 
 tion of their elders and mothers. 
 
 As they have no knowledge of letters, they take 
 great care to preserve and communicate their tra- 
 ditions pure and unmixed. Most part of the Natcbes, 
 though they had a peculiar dialect of their own, 
 spoke the general tongue. According to Du Pratz, 
 their nobility had one language, and their common 
 people another ; and the manner in which the men 
 speak, is full, sonorous, and grave. 
 
 All the Indian nations of Louisiana have an idea 
 of a supreme Being, whom they call the Grand Spi- 
 rit, by way of excellence, and whose perfections are 
 as much superior to all other beings, as the fire of 
 the sun is to elementary fire. The Natches believed 
 in an omnipotent God, the Maker of all things, either 
 visible or invisible, and that he was so good, that he 
 could do no evil to any one, even if he were so in- 
 clined. That though he created all things by his 
 will, yet he had under him spirits of an inferior 
 order, who, by his power, formed the beauties of the 
 universe ; but, that man was the work of the Crea- 
 tor's own hands. Those spirits are termed free ser- 
 vants or agents; but at the same time they are 
 submissive as slaves. They are constantly in the 
 presence of God, and prompt to execute his will. 
 The air, according to them, is full of other spirits of 
 more mischievous dispositions, and these have a 
 chief, who was so malignant, that God Almighty 
 was obliged to confine him, and, ever since, those 
 aerial spirits do not commit so much mischief as 
 they did before, especially if they are entreated to 
 be favourable. For this reason the Indians always 
 invoke them when they want either rain or fair 
 weather. Their fasts are very long, and the grand 
 Sun himself has been known, for nine days succes- 
 sively, to abstain from women, and from all kind of 
 food, excepting a little maize and water. They be- 
 lieve that God first formed a little man of clay, and 
 breathed upon his work, and that he then walked 
 about, grew up, and became a perfect man; but the 
 " ancient word" is silent as to the formation of the 
 woman. We cannot enter into a more minute de- 
 tail of their religious opinions; concerning which 
 the reader may consult Du Pratz' history of Loui- 
 siana. 
 
 The grand Sun's power was despotism itself. 
 
 Though he was the uncontrolled master of the lives 
 and properties of his subjects, yet he was free from 
 the evils attending arbitrary government in other 
 countries, being under no apprehensions of treason 
 against his person, or insurrections against his state. 
 On his pronouncing sentence of death, the criminal, 
 though he could make his escape, never attempted 
 it, but quietly submits to his fate. There were po- 
 litical as well as religious feasts : the last in honour 
 of the great spirit, to thank him for his benefits, and 
 the first for the convenience of the sovereign, who 
 on those occasions gathered in his revenues ; for he 
 was so completely absolute as to have no stated in- 
 come ; therefore every one contributed to it, as their 
 inclination or abilities permitted, and no furthe: 
 questions were asked. Their year consisted o 
 thirteen moons, and at the end of every moon a feus: 
 was made, which took the name from the chief fruit; 
 of the ground, which the preceding moon afforded, 
 or the game that was then in season. The first feas 
 of the year, which was that of the kids, was ven 
 grand. On this occasion they performed a kind o* 
 drama, founded on one of the chief events of theii 
 history. The most solemn, however, of all their 
 feasts was the seventh, which is termed that of the 
 I maize or corn. 
 
 The ceremonies of these savages in some points, 
 is the reverse of that of the Europeans, all priority 
 and preference being given to the men, and the 
 women being considered as only household drudges. 
 The females, however, in the more early parts of their 
 lives, are not without their privileges. As soon as 
 the two sexes are judged by their parents to be of 
 proper years, the men and women mix together, 
 without the ceremony of marriage ; but after they 
 are married all amours are dropt on both sides. 
 Though the husbands have a power of divorce, yet ex- 
 amples of that kind are very seldom known amongst 
 the Natches, and never but when the woman is of an 
 intolerable. disposition. The women, owing to their 
 vile practice, never have children before marriages, 
 and the bridegroom values himself upon the wealth 
 his bride has acquired in the course of her amours ; 
 for it seems the females there are far from being void 
 of mercenary views, and take care always to make a 
 previous bargain with their lovers. 
 
 [We shall henceforward give a collective account 
 of the various States, having, in pursuance of our 
 plan, now brought their separate histories down to 
 the commencement o f :i The War of the Independ- 
 ence."] 
 
THE WAR OF THE INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 Taxation of the colonies Stamp act proposed Con- 
 duct oj the colonies Stamp act passed Congress 
 at New York Stamp act repealed Colonies taxed 
 by duties Associate to resist oppression. 
 
 WHEN the dominion of France, in America, was 
 relinquished, it occasioned universal joy throughout 
 the colonies. They forgot their sufferings and dis- 
 tress in the fair prospect which peace afforded. But 
 these prospects were of short duration. The peace 
 of Paris formed a new era in the views and conduct 
 of Great Britain, towards her colonies in America. 
 In the previous contest, England had added ex- 
 tensive territories to her empire ; but she had also 
 added 320 millions to the amount of her debt. To 
 find the means of defraying the annual charges of 
 this debt, and her other increased expenditures, was 
 the first and most difficult task of her legislature. 
 Among other expedients, the British ministry con- 
 ceived the idea of taxing the American colonies. 
 
 The origin of the dispute concerning taxation 
 may be traced to the commencement of the war 
 with France. At that important crisis, when the 
 congress at Albany was convoked to concert mea- 
 sures for common safety, the British ministry pro- 
 posed, as has been stated, that the governors of 
 the colonies, with their council, should assemble, 
 and concert, measures for general defence; and 
 draw on the treasury of Great Britain for the sums 
 that should be wanted : but that the treasury should 
 be reimbursed by a tax on the colonies, to be laid by 
 the British parliament. The provincial assemblies 
 rejected their plan, and the question was smothered 
 amidst the tumults of war. But peace was no sooner 
 concluded, than it was revived. The British parlia- 
 ment resumed the scheme of taxing the colonies, and 
 justified the measure, by declaring the money to 
 be thus raised, should be appropriated to defray the 
 expenses incurred in their defence. 
 
 Hitherto, when money was wanted from the colo- 
 nies, the parliament of England had been content 
 to ask for it by a formal requisition upon the colo- 
 nial legislatures ; and they had supplied it with a 
 willing hand. But now it was thought that a shorter 
 method of obtaining it might be resorted to with 
 better effect; and in 1764, Mr. Grenville, in the 
 British parliament, proposed a measure, the avowed 
 object of which was to raise a revenue in America, 
 the entire produce of which was to go into the ex- 
 chequer of Great Britain. Early in this year, the 
 minister proposed several resolutions, as a sort of 
 prelude to this grand scheme ; laying additional 
 duties upon imports into the colonies from foreign 
 countries ; on clayed sugar, indigo, coffee, &c. 
 
 These resolutions were passed by parliament, 
 without much debate or notice ; and though they 
 awakened some fears among the reflecting politi- 
 cians of America, they were quietly acquiesced in, as 
 a commercial regulation of Great Britain. 
 
 Amono- the resolutions reported by Mr, Grenville, 
 was one imposing " certain stamp duties on the 
 
 colonies:" but he declared to the house, his desire 
 that it should not be acted upon until the next ses- 
 sion of parliament. It was foreseen that the law 
 would be disregarded, if extraordinary measures were 
 not adopted to enforce it; and provision made that 
 penalties for violating it, and all other revenue laws, 
 might be recovered in the admiralty courts. The 
 judges of these courts were dependent solely on the 
 king, and decided the causes brought before them 
 without the intervention of a jury. 
 
 The colonial agents in London sent copies of the 
 resolutions to their respective colonies. As soon as 
 the intelligence of these proceedings reached Ame- 
 rica, they were considered as the commencement of 
 a system of oppression, which if not vigorously re- 
 sisted, would eventually deprive them of the liberty 
 of British subjects. The general court of Massa- 
 chusetts, at their session in June, took this law into 
 consideration. The house of representatives s^nt 
 instructions to their agent in England, in which 
 they denied the right of parliament to impose duties 
 and taxes upon those who were not represented in 
 the house of Commons ; and directed him to re- 
 monstrate against the duties imposed, and the stamp 
 act in contemplation. They acquainted the other 
 colonies with the instructions they had given to their 
 agent, and desired their concurrence. When their 
 communication was received in the house of bur- 
 gesses in Virginia, a committee was immediately 
 appointed to prepare an address to the king, and 
 two houses of parliament, expressing their sense of 
 the consequences of such a measure to the colonies. 
 Every argument whivh ingenuity could furnish, or 
 interest could enforce, was employed, in order to 
 prevent the passage of the obnoxious statutes ; but 
 all without effect. Associations were formed in all 
 the provinces, in ordei to diminish the use of Bri- 
 tish manufactures; a step which, besides its imme- 
 diate effects, rendered the merchants of England a 
 party against the ministry, and increased the oppo- 
 sition with which those in power were obliged to 
 contend. 
 
 In March 1765, Mr. Grenville, not deterred by 
 an opposition which he had expected, brought into 
 parliament a bill for imposing duties in America. 
 The friends of the administration employed much 
 able reasoning in support of the bill. Among those 
 who distinguished themselves by the ability and elo- 
 quence with which they advocated the cause of the 
 colonies, was Colonel Barre. He stated with a manly 
 freedom, that the same spirit which had actuated 
 the people at first, still continued with them. He 
 iasinuated, in a way that could not be mistaken, 
 what would be the effect of the measure which Eng- 
 land was about to adopt. He declared that he 
 spoke from a particular acquaintance with the cha- 
 racter of the Americans, and expressed his belief, 
 that while they were zealous of their rights, they 
 were loyal to their king; and, finally, he entreated 
 the ministry to pause before they ordained that the pri- 
 vileges of Englishmen were to beinvaded ordeetroyed 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1031 
 
 Colonel Barre, immediately rising, indignantly 
 and eloquently exclaimed: " Children planted by 
 your care! No. Your oppressions planted them 
 in America. They fled from your tyranny into a 
 then uncultivated land, where they were exposed to 
 all the hardships to which human nature is liable ; 
 and among others, to the cruelties of a savage foe, 
 the most subtle, and I will take upon me to say, the 
 most terrible, that ever inhabited any part of God's 
 earth. And yet, actuated by principles of true En- 
 glish liberty, they met all these hardships with plea- 
 sure, when they compared them with those they 
 suffered in their own country, from men who should 
 have been their friends. 
 
 " They nourished by your indulgence ! No. They 
 grew by your neglect. When you began to care 
 about them, that care was exercised in sending per- 
 sons to rule over them, who were deputies of some 
 deputy sent to spy out their liberty, to misrepresent 
 their actions, and to prey upon them; whose beha- 
 viour, on many occasions, has caused the blood of 
 those sons of liberty to recoil within them ; men 
 promoted to the highest seats of justice, some of 
 whom were glad, by going to a foreign country, to 
 escape being brought to the bar of justice in their 
 own. 
 
 " They protected by your arms ! They have nobly 
 taken up arms in your defence. They have exerted 
 their valour, amidst their constant and laborious 
 industry, for the defence of a country which, while 
 its frontier was drenched in blood, has yielded all its 
 little savings to your emolument. Believe me, and re- 
 member I this day told you so, the same spirit which 
 actuated that people at first, still continues with 
 them ; but prudence forbids me to explain myself 
 further. 
 
 " God knows I do not at this time speak from party 
 heat. However superior to me in general know- 
 ledge and experience, any one here may be, I claim 
 to know more of America, having been conversant 
 in that country. The people there are as truly 
 loyal as any subjects the king has; but a people 
 jealous of their liberties, and will vindicate them if 
 they should be violated. But the subject is delicate ; 
 I Will say no more." 
 
 Eloquence and argument, however,availed nothing. 
 The bill almost unanimously passed in parliament ; 
 and received the sanction of the crown. The night 
 after its passage, Dr. Franklin, then in England as 
 agent for Pennsylvania, wrote to Charles Thompson, 
 his friend, in America " The sun of liberty is set ; 
 you must light up the candles of industry and eco- 
 nomy." " Be assured," said Mr. Thompson in 
 reply, " we shall light up torches of quite another 
 sort ;" thus predicting the commotions which fol- 
 lowed. The act provided that all contracts and legal 
 processes should be written on stamped paper, which 
 was to be furnished by agents of the British govern- 
 ment, at exorbitant prices. 
 
 On the arrival of the news of the stamp act in 
 America, a general indignation spread throughout 
 thecoldnies; and spirited resolutions were passed. 
 In these resolutions Virginia led the way. On the 
 meeting of the house of burgesses, Patrick Henry, 
 a young, but distinguished member, proposed five 
 resolutions ; the four first asserted the various rights 
 and privileges claimed by the colonists ; and the fifth 
 boldly and explicitly denied the right of parliament 
 to tax America. These he defended by strong rea- 
 son and irresistible eloquence, and they were adopted 
 by a majority of one. The next day, in his ab- 
 sence, the fifth was rescinded; but this with the rest 
 
 had gone forth to the world. They formed the first 
 public opposition to the stamp act, and to the 
 schemes of taxing America by the British parliament. 
 Nearly at the same time, and before the proceed- 
 ings of Virginia were known in Massachusetts, her 
 general court had also adopted measures to pro- 
 duce a combined opposition. Letters were ad- 
 dressed to the other assemblies, proposing a con- 
 gress of deputies from each colony, to consult on the 
 common interest. The knowledge of what had been 
 done in Virginia aroused the most violent feelings. 
 The resolutions which at first were circulated cau- 
 tiously, were at length openly published in news- 
 papers ; and one general feeling of indignation per- 
 vaded all classes of society. 
 
 On the first Tuesday of October 1765, the day 
 appointed for the meeting of the proposed congress, 
 the delegates assembled at New York, where were 
 present members from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, 
 Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, 
 Maryland, and South Carolina. A committee from 
 six of the provinces drew up a declaration of their 
 rights and grievances. They declared themselves 
 entitled to all the rights and liberties of natural 
 born subjects of Great Britain : among the most 
 essential of which, were the exclusive right to tax 
 themselves, and the privilege of trial by jury. The 
 first of these they regarded as infringed by the stamp 
 act; the last, by the extension of the jurisdiction of 
 the courts of admiralty. The congress also agreed 
 upon a petition to the king, and a memorial to both 
 houses of parliament. The colonies not represented 
 forwarded to England similar petitions. 
 
 The 1st of November, the important day when 
 the stamp act was to take effect, at length ap- 
 proached. Combinations were every where formed 
 to prevent its execution. The violence of the po- 
 pulace could with difficulty be restrained. In some 
 places the day was ushered in with the tolling of 
 bells, as for a funeral procession. The act which 
 was the object of their aversion, was hawked in the 
 streets with a death's head attached to it. It was 
 styled the " Folly of England, and the ruin of Ame- 
 rica." The stamps were destroyed wherever they 
 could be found by the enraged multitude; who, with 
 all the intemperance of popular agitation, burued 
 and plundered the houses of such as supported the 
 act. So general was the opposition to the law, that 
 the stamp officers in all the colonies were obliged to 
 resign. Opposition became general, systematic and 
 alarming. Confederacies were every where form- 
 ing. It was universally agreed that no articles of 
 British manufacture should be imported, and that 
 those which were prepared in the colonies, though 
 both dearer and of worse quality, should be employed 
 in all the settlements. The women, animated with 
 a similar spirit, cheerfully relinquished every species 
 of ornament which was manufactured in England. 
 The proceedings in the courts of justice were sus- 
 pended, that no stamps might be used ; and the co- 
 lonists were earnestly and frequently exhorted by 
 those who took the lead on this occasion, to termi- 
 nate their disputes by reference. 
 
 In the mean time an entire change had taken 
 place in the British cabinet : the marquis of Ilock- 
 ingham became first lord of the treasury ; and it 
 was perceived that they must either repeal the ob- 
 noxious statutes, or oblige the Americans to submit 
 to them by force of arms. Each of these measures 
 had its advocates. Among the foremost to vindicate 
 che colonies, in the house of peers, was Lord Cam- 
 den. " My position," said he, " is this ; I repeat 
 
]032 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 it, I will maintain it to my last hour taxation and 
 representation are inseparable. This position is 
 founded on the laws of nature ; it is more it is it- 
 self an eternal law of nature : for whatever is a 
 man's own is absolutely his own ; no man has a right 
 to take it from him without his consent. Whoever 
 attempts to do it, attempts an injury : whoever does 
 it, commits a robbery." 
 
 In the house of commons, Mr. Pitt entered into 
 the views of the colonists ; and maintained with all 
 the eloquence for which he was conspicuous, that 
 taxation is no part of the governing or legislative 
 power, but that taxes are a voluntary gift and grant 
 of the commons alone : and concluded his speech 
 with a motion, " that the stamp act be repealed, ab- 
 solutely, totally, and immediately." 
 
 (1766.) About this time Dr. Franklin was exa- 
 mined before the house of commons, and gave it as 
 his opinion, that the tax was unprofitable and ruin- 
 ous. He asserted that it had alienated the affec- 
 tions of the colonists from the mother-country, and 
 made them regard the people of England as con- 
 spiring against their liberties, and its parliament as 
 desirous to oppress rather than to protect them. 
 A petition was received from the Congress at New- 
 York ; and some change having taken place in the 
 cabinet, the existing administration agreed with 
 Mr. Pitt, and the stamp act was repealed. But ac- 
 companying the repeal of the stamp act, was pub- 
 lished another act, declaring, " that parliament have, 
 and of right ought to have power to bind the colo- 
 nies in all cases whatsoever." This assertion di- 
 minished the joy which the repeal of the stamp act 
 would otherwise have occasioned. It was considered 
 by the Americans as a foundation on which any 
 future ministry might oppress them, under the sanc- 
 tion of parliamentary authority ; and it had no other 
 effect than that of rendering them more suspicious 
 of arbitrary designs, and more solicitous to mark 
 with a jealous eye the first encroachments of power. 
 
 An opportunity for the exercise of this spirit was 
 not long wanting. Immediately after the ratifica- 
 tion of the treaty of peace at Paris, the intention of 
 the ministers to quarter troops in America, and 
 oblige the colonies to support them, was announced 
 in the English papers. The maintaining of a stand- 
 ing army was connected with the system of taxation, 
 but the ministry well knew it would be opposed, 
 and they calculated that an army sent under pre- 
 tence of protecting the colonies, afforded a plausible 
 pretext for taxing them, while it would awe them 
 into submission to the mandates of the British go- 
 vernment. An act had been passed by the Rock- 
 ingham administration, for providing the soldiers 
 which had been quartered in the colonies, with the 
 necessaries and accommodations which their circum- 
 stances might require, at the expense of the colony 
 in which they were stationed. The assembly of 
 New York refused obedience to this law, consider- 
 ing it an indirect mode of taxing them without their 
 consent. The assembly at Boston not only followed 
 the example of that of New York, but proceeded 
 still further; and resolved, that the conduct of the 
 governor, in issuing money from the treasury in order 
 to furnish the artillery with provisions, was uncon- 
 stitutional and unjust; and that it disabled them from 
 granting cheerfully to the king the aids which his 
 service demanded. These resolutions were not ap- 
 proved in England, even by many who liad hereto- 
 fore espoused the interests of the colonies. The 
 consequence of this change of sentiment was per- 
 ceptible by a change of measures in parliament. A 
 
 nil was introduced by Mr. Townsend, the chancel- 
 .or of the exchequer, imposing a duty on all tea, 
 ylass, paper, and painters' colours. It passed Doth 
 louses without much opposition, and was the next 
 year sent to the colonies. 
 
 (1767.) The act for imposing the new taxes was 
 received with greater aversion than the stamp act 
 itself. Letters were sent from Massachusetts to all 
 the other colonies, inveighing against the injustice 
 and tyranny of the British legislature. Circulars 
 were sent to most of the colonial assemblies, sug- 
 gesting the expediency of acting in concert in all 
 endeavours to obtain redress. These proceedings 
 incensed and alarmed the ministry. They feared 
 that a union of the colonies would give them strength 
 and confidence ; and determined if possible to pre- 
 vent it. They instructed Sir John Bernard, then 
 governor of Massachusetts, to require the general 
 court to rescind the vote directing the circular to be 
 sent; and in case of refusal, to dissolve it. The 
 governor communicated these instructions to the 
 house of representatives; which, by a vote of 92 to 
 seventeen, refused to rescind, and was accordingly 
 dissolved. 
 
 This measure, like all the others which the Bri- 
 tish government at this period pursued, with the 
 intention -of intimidating the colonies, did but exas- 
 perate and arouse them. Frequent meetings of the 
 people were held at Boston, and the different pro- 
 vinces; a petition was made to the governor, in which 
 he was desired to remove the ships of war from the 
 neighbourhood of the town ; a request with which he 
 was neither able or willing to comply. 
 
 Convention at Boston Consequent conduct of colonies 
 Tea cargoes destroyed Spread of revolutionary 
 principles. 
 
 At the opening of the year 1768, every thing ap- 
 peared to indicate a rupture between the colonies 
 and the parent state. The agent of the province 
 was refused admission to the presence of the king. 
 A report was circulated that the troops had been 
 ordered to march into Boston, a dreadful alarm took 
 place, and all ranks of men joined in beseeching the 
 governor that a general assembly might be convoked 
 The answer of Governor Bernard was, that by his 
 last instructions from England, he was prevented 
 from complying with this wish of the people. 
 
 On this refusal, the ^select men of Boston pro- 
 posed to the several towns in the colony to hold a 
 convention, which was accordingly holden in that 
 town on the 22nd of September. In this convention 
 it was resolved that they would defend their violated 
 rights at the peril of their lives and fortunes, and 
 that the people who had no arms, should furnish 
 themselves. At the same time, they thought it 
 proper to assure the government of their pacific in- 
 tentions, and requested again that an assembly might 
 be called; but after transmitting to England an 
 account of their proceedings, and the reasons which 
 had induced them to assemble, they were again re- 
 fused, and stigmatized with the appellation of rebels. 
 
 The refractory spirit of the people of Boston had 
 been so often displayed, that General Gage, who 
 was commander-in-chiefof the troops in the colonies, 
 was ordered to station a regiment in that town, not 
 only to overawe the citizens, but to protect the offi- 
 cers of the revenue in the discharge of their duty. 
 Before the order was executed, the seizure of a sloop 
 belonging to Mr. Hancock, an eminent merchant, 
 and a popular leader, occasioned a riot, in which 
 those officers were insulted and beaten. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1033 
 
 On tht; 28th of September, two regiments, escorted 
 by seven armed vessels, arrived at Boston from 
 Halifax. The landing of the troops was protected 
 by the fleet, which was drawn up with the broad- 
 sides of the vessels opposite the town. In conse- 
 quence of their formidable appearance, they marched 
 into Boston without any resistance on the part of the 
 inhabitants. The select men of the town having 
 refused to provide them with quarters, the governor 
 commanded the state house to be opened for their 
 reception. The presence of the soldiers had great 
 influence in restraining the excesses of the popula- 
 tion ; but the hatred of the colonies towards Eng- 
 land was much increased by this highly offensive 
 measure. 
 
 Early in 1769, news reached the colonies that 
 both houses of parliament, in a joint address to his 
 majesty, had recommended vigorous measures in 
 order to enforce their obedience ; and had even gone 
 so far as to beseech the king to direct the governor 
 of Massachusetts bay to make strict inquiries as to 
 all treasons committed in that province since the 
 year 1767, in order that the persons most active in 
 committing them might be sent to England for trial. 
 This proposal gave great offence to the colonists. 
 
 The legislature of Massachusetts was not in ses- 
 sion when the news of this address reached America; 
 but the house of burgesses in Virginia, which met a 
 few days afterwards, were not tardy in expressing 
 their sense of it. They passed several spirited re- 
 solutions, declaring their exclusive right to tax 
 themselves, and denying the right of his majesty to 
 remove an offender out of the colony for trial. An 
 address to his majesty was also agreed on, which 
 stated, in a style of loyalty and real attachment to 
 the crown, the deep conviction of the house of bur- 
 gesses of Virginia, that the complaints of the colo- 
 nists were well founded. When the intelligence of 
 these proceedings reached the governor, he suddenly 
 dissolved the assembly. But the current of opposi- 
 tion was too strong to be stayed. The members as- 
 sembled at a private house, elected their speaker, 
 Peyton Randolph, Esq., moderator; and proceeded 
 to pass resolutions against importing British goods. 
 Their example was followed by other colonies ; and 
 non-importation agreements, which had before been 
 entered into by Boston, Salem, the city of New 
 York, and the colony of Connecticut, now became 
 general. 
 
 On the 5th of March, 1770, an affray took place 
 at Boston between the military and some of the in- 
 habitants, who insulted them while under arms, in 
 which four persons were killed. The bells were in- 
 stantly rung ; the people rushed from the country 
 to the aid of the citizens; and the soldiers were 
 obliged to retire to Castle William, in order to avoid 
 the fury of the enraged multitude. A trial was in- 
 stituted : the soldiers engaged in the affray were all 
 acquitted, except two, who were found guilty of 
 man-slaughter. The moderation of the jury, and 
 the ability with which the soldiers were defended by 
 two of the leading opposers of British aggression, 
 John Adams and Josiah Quincy, were honourable 
 to the individuals and to their country. This event, 
 however, increased the detestation "in which the 
 soldiers stationed among the people were held. 
 
 In the mean time the parliament of Great Britain 
 showed, that it had neither sufficient vigour to com- 
 pel the Americans to submit, nor sufficient liberality 
 to yield to their remonstrances. The ministry agreed 
 to take off all the duties which had lately been im- 
 posed, except that on tea ; but it was predicted by 
 
 the opposition that their indulgence would have no 
 good effect, while any duty remained which was im- 
 posed upon the Americans without their consent. 
 What was predicted by the opposition, was in the 
 end found to be true. It was resolved that the tea 
 should not be landed, but sent back to Europe in the 
 same vessels that had brought it; for it was obvious 
 to all, that it would be extremely difficult to hinder 
 the sale, if the commodity should once be received 
 on shore. The people assembled in great numbers 
 at Boston, and forced those to whom it had been 
 consigned to give up their appointments, and to 
 swear that they would abandon them for ever. Such 
 as refused to engage in this opposition, were de- 
 nounced as the enemies of their country. This dis- 
 position was not confined to Massachusetts alone ; 
 but the same spirit appeared in all the colonies. 
 
 Such was the situation of affairs, when three ships 
 laden with tea, arrived at the port of Boston. The 
 captains of these vessels, alarmed at the menaces of 
 the people, offered to return with their cargoes to 
 England, provided they could obtain the necessary 
 discharges from the merchants, to whom the teas 
 had been consigned ; and likewise from the gover- 
 nor, and the officers of the custom-house. But 
 though afraid to issue orders for landing the tea, 
 the merchants and officers, in conjunction with 
 the governor, refused to grant the discharges, and 
 the ships were obliged to remain in the harbour. 
 The people, however, apprehensive that the ob- 
 noxious commodity would be landed in small quan- 
 tities, if the vessels should continue in the neighbour- 
 hood of the town, resolved to destroy it at once. For 
 this purpose, several persons disguised themselves 
 as Indians, boarded the ships during the night, and 
 threw their cargoes into the water, without making 
 any further disturbance. No fewer than 142 chests 
 were thus broken open, and their contents emptied 
 into the sea. 
 
 At Philadelphia, the pilots were enjoined not to 
 conduct the ships into the river: and at New York, 
 though the governor ordered some of the tea to be 
 landed under the protection of a man-of-war, he 
 was obliged to deliver it into the custody of the peo- 
 ple, who took care that none of it should be sold. 
 
 The parliament of England resolved not to change 
 their measures, but to punish the inhabitants of 
 Boston in an exemplary manner, by imposing a 
 fine upon them, equal to the value of the tea which 
 bad been destroyed. The port of Boston was shut 
 by an armed force until this should be accomplished, 
 and their refractory rpirit subdued. 
 
 An act was also passed, giving to the crown the 
 appointment of counsellors ; whereas, it had resided 
 with the court. The custom-house was to be re- 
 moved to Salem ; and General Gage was made go- 
 vernor in the place of Hutchinson. 
 
 Gage removed the assembly from Boston, in Mas- 
 sachusetts, to Salem. Having met at that place, 
 ;hey declared it necessary that a congress of dele- 
 gates, from all the provinces, should assemble, to 
 ,ake the affairs of the colonies into their most serious 
 consideration. And they nominated James Bow- 
 doin, Thomas Gushing, Samuel Adams, John Adams, 
 Robert Treat Paine, men celebrated for their talents 
 and opposition to England, as the representatives to 
 such a congress, from Massachusetts. They recom- 
 mended to the whole province to abandon the use 
 of tea ; and urged the necessity of giving all the 
 encouragement in their power to the manufactures 
 f America. 
 
 In the mean time, the governor having learned 
 
10.14 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 their proceedings, sent an officer to dissolve the as- 
 sembly in the king's name ; but he finding the door 
 shut and entrance denied him, was compelled to 
 read the order of dissolution aloud on the staircase. 
 
 The inhabitants of Salem, which had now become 
 the metropolis of the country, appear to have 
 adopted the same spirit with those of Boston. They 
 published a declaration in favour of the latter ; in 
 which they asserted, that nature, in forming their 
 harbour, had prevented their becoming rivals in 
 trade ; and that even if that were otherwise, they 
 would regard themselves lost to every idea of justice 
 and all feelings of humanity, could they indulge one 
 thought of seizing upon the wealth of their neigh- 
 bours, or raising their fortunes upon the ruins of 
 their countrymen. 
 
 The cause of Boston was espoused by the rest of 
 the colonies. The 1st of June, the day on which 
 the city was to be blockaded by the king's ships, 
 was observed in Virginia as a day of fasting and hu- 
 miliation ; and a public intercession in behalf of the 
 American people, was enjoined throughout the pro- 
 vince. The style of prayer was, " That God would 
 give them one heart and mind, firmly to oppose 
 every invasion of American rights." Virginia united 
 with Massachusetts in recommending a general con- 
 gress. They declared if any one of the colonies was 
 taxed without its consent, the rights of the whole 
 were violated; and that in the present case, they 
 regarded the injury done to the inhabitants of Bos"- 
 ton as done to themselves. 
 
 The proposal for a general congress had now 
 been discussed, and was approved, and eleven of the 
 colonies had elected their delegates. Georgia had 
 not determined to unite her fate with that of New 
 England; and North Carolina was later than the 
 others in acceding to the measure. 
 
 The members of this congress were generally 
 elected by the authority of the state legislatures ; 
 but, in some instances, a different system had been 
 pursued. In New Jersey, and Maryland, the elec- 
 tions were made by a committee chosen in the several 
 counties for that particular purpose ; and, in New 
 York, where the royal party was very strong, and 
 where it is probable no legislative act, authorizing 
 an election of members to represent that colony in 
 congress, could have been obtained, the people them- 
 selves assembled in those places where the spirit of 
 opposition to the claims of parliament prevailed, 
 and elected deputies, who were readily received into 
 congress. The powers, too, with which the repre- 
 sentatives of the several colonies were invested, 
 were not only variously expressed but of various ex- 
 tent. The names of the delegates were as follows, 
 viz. : New Hampshire, John Sullivan, Nathaniel 
 Fulsom. Massachusetts Bay, James Boudoine, 
 Thomas Gushing, Samuel Adams, John Adams, 
 Robert Treat Paine. Rhode Island and Providence 
 Plantations, StephenHopkins, Samuel Ward. Con- 
 necticut, Eliphalet Dyer, Roger Sherman, Silas 
 Deane. From the city and county of New York, 
 and other counties in the province of New York, 
 James Duane, Henry Wisner, John Jay, Philip 
 Livingston, Isaac Low, John Alsop. From the 
 county of Suffolk, in the province of New York, 
 William Floyd. New Jersey, James Kinsey, Wil- 
 liam Livingston, John Dehart, Stephen Crane, 
 Richard Smith. Pennsylvania, Joseph Galloway, 
 Charles Humphreys, Samuel Rhoads, George Ross, 
 John Morton, Thomas Mifflin, Edward Biddle, John 
 Dickinson. Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex, on De- 
 laware, Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean, George 
 
 Read. Maryland, Robert Goldsborough, Thomai 
 Johnson, William Paca, Samuel Chase, Matthew 
 Tilghman. Virginia, Peyton Randolph, Richard 
 Henry Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, 
 Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, Edmund Pen- 
 dleton. North Carolina, William Hooper, Joseph 
 Hughes, Richard Caswell. South Carolina, Henry 
 Middleton, John Rutledge, Thomas Lynch, Chris- 
 topher Gadsden, Edward Rutledge. 
 
 Congress gives one vote to each colony Bill of rights 
 Petition to the King Address to the people of 
 England Boston Neck fortified Battle of Lexing- 
 ton Militia Fort Ticonderoga captured Crown 
 Point surprised. 
 
 At length on the 4th of September, 1774, the first 
 congress of the American States assembled at Phila- 
 delphia. This was the most important deliberative 
 body which had ever met in America. Peyton Ran- 
 dolph, Esq. of Virginia, was chosen president by 
 the unanimous suffrage of the delegates. To this 
 august body of citizens, who were met for the highest 
 purposes which can affect the temporal interests of 
 men, the eyes of the people of America were turned 
 with anxious concern. The officers and dependents 
 of the crown looked also to their measures with the 
 deepest interest, and alarmed at the calm determined 
 spirit which they manifested, dreaded the conse- 
 quences of their deliberations. 
 
 These delegates, having resolved that each colony 
 should have only one vote, and that their delibera- 
 tions should take place without the admission of 
 strangers, proceeded to the high duty which their 
 countrymen had imposed on them. 
 
 They first expressed their approbation of what 
 had been done by the inhabitants of Massachusetts 
 Bay ; warmly exhorted them to perseverance in the 
 cause of freedom; and voted that contributions 
 should be made for them in all the provinces, and 
 continued so long, and in such a manner as their 
 circumstances might require. 
 
 They next addressed a letter to General Gage, in 
 which they informed him of their unalterable resolu- 
 tion to oppose every attempt to carry the British 
 acts of parliament into effect; and entreated him 
 to desist from military operations, lest a difference, 
 altogether irreconcileable, should take place be- 
 tween the colonies and parent state. The next step 
 was a declaration of their rights, addressed to the 
 people in the shape of resolutions. This instrument 
 is commonly quoted by the title of the bill of rights; 
 and is as follows : 
 
 " Whereas, since the close of the last war, the 
 British parliament, claiming a power of right to 
 bind the people of America by statutes in all cases 
 whatsoever, hath in some acts expressly imposed 
 taxes on them ; and in others, under various pre- 
 tences, but in fact for the purpose of raising a re- 
 venue, hath imposed rates and duties payable in 
 these colonies, established a board of commissioners 
 with unconstitutional powers, and extended the juris- 
 diction of courts of admiralty, not only for collecting 
 the said duties, but for the trial of causes merely 
 arising within the body of a county. 
 
 " And whereas, in consequence of other statutes, 
 judges, who before held only estates at will in their 
 offices, have been made dependent on the crown 
 alone for their salaries, and standing armies kept in 
 times of peace : and whereas it has lately been re- 
 solved in parliament, that by force of a statute made 
 in the 35th year of the reign of HenryVIL, colonists 
 may be transported to England and tried there, upon 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 accusations for treason, and misprisions and con- 
 cealment of treasons committed in the colonies ; 
 and by a late statute, such trials have been directed 
 in cases therein mentioned. 
 
 " And whereas in the last session of parliament 
 three statutes were made ; one entitled ' An act to 
 discontinue in such manner and for such time as are 
 therein mentioned, the landing and discharging, 
 lading or shipping of goods, wares and merchandise; 
 at the town and within the harbour of Boston, i-n the 
 province of Massachusetts Bay in North America;' 
 another, entitled ' An act for the better regulating 
 the government of the province of Massachusetts 
 Bay in New England ;' and another act, entitled 
 ' An act for the impartial administration of justice 
 in the cases of persons questioned for any act done 
 by them in the execution of the law, or for the sup- 
 pression of riots and tumults in the province of Mas- 
 sachusetts Bay in New England :' and another 
 statute was then made for making more effectual 
 provision for the government of the province of Que- 
 bec, &<:. All which statutes are impolitic, unjust 
 and cruel, as well as unconstitutional, and most 
 dangerous and destructive of American rights. 
 
 " Andwhereas. assemblies have been frequently dis- 
 solved, contrary to the rights of the people, when 
 they attempted to deliberate on grievances ; and 
 their dutiful, humble, loyal and reasonable petitions 
 to the crown for redress, have been repeatedly treated 
 with contempt by his majesty's ministers of state : 
 the good people of the several colonies of New 
 Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and 
 Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, 
 New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Newcastle, Kent and 
 Sussex on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North 
 Carolina, South Carolina, justly alarmed at the 
 arbitrary proceedings of parliament and administra- 
 tions, have severally elected, constituted and ap- 
 pointed deputies to meet and sit in general congress, 
 in the city of Philadelphia, in order to obtain such 
 establishment, as that their religion, laws and liber- 
 ties may not be subverted : whereupon, the depu- 
 ties so appointed being now assembled in a full and 
 free representation of these colonies, taking into 
 their most serious consideration the best means of 
 attaining the ends aforesaid, do in the first place, 
 as Englishmen their ancestors in like cases have 
 usually done for asserting and vindicating their 
 rights and liberties, declare, that the inhabitants of 
 the English colonies in North America, by the im- 
 mutable laws of nature, the principles of the En- 
 glish constitution, and the several charters or com- 
 pacts, have the following rights : 
 
 " Resolved unanimously, - 1 st, That they are 
 entitled to life, liberty and property ; and they have 
 never ceded to any sovereign whatsoever, a right to 
 dispose of either without their consent. 
 
 " Resolved, 2nd, That our ancestors, who first 
 settled these colonies, were, at the time of their emi- 
 gration from the mother- country, entitled to all the 
 rights, liberties and immunities of free and natural 
 born subjects within the realm of England. 
 
 " Resolved, 3rd, That by such emigration, they 
 by no means forfeited,surrendered or lost any of those 
 rights, but that they were, and their descendants 
 now are, entitled to the exercise and enjoyment of 
 all such of them as their local and other circum- 
 stances enabled them to exercise and enjoy. 
 
 " Resolved, 4th, That the foundation of English 
 liberty, and of all free government, is a right in the 
 people to participate in their legislative councils ; 
 and as the English colonists are not represented, 
 
 and from their local and other circumstances, can- 
 not properly be represented in the British parlia- 
 ment, they are entitled to a free and exclusive power 
 of legislation in their several provincial legislatures, 
 where their right of representation can alone be pre- 
 served in all cases of taxation and internal polity, 
 subject only to the negative of their sovereign in 
 such manner as has been heretofore used and ac- 
 customed ; but from the necessity of the case, and 
 a regard to the mutual interests of both countries, 
 we cheerfully consent to the operation of such acts 
 of the British parliament as are bona fide restrained 
 to the regulation of our external commerce, for the 
 purpose of securing the commercial advantages of 
 the whole empire to the mother-country, and the 
 commercial benefits of its respective members ; ex- 
 cluding every idea of taxation, external or internal, 
 for raising a revenue on the subjects of America, 
 without their consent. 
 
 " Resolved, 5th, That the respective colonies are 
 entitled to the common law of England, and more 
 especially to the great and inestimable privilege of 
 being tried by their peers of the vicinage, according 
 to the course of that law. 
 
 " Resolved, Gth, That they are entitled to the 
 benefit of such of the English statutes, as existed at 
 the time of their oolonization ; and which they have, 
 by experience, respectively found to be applicable 
 to their several local and other circumstances. 
 
 " Resolved, 7th, That these, his majesty's colonies 
 are likewise entitled to all the privileges and immu- 
 nities granted and confirmed to them by royal char- 
 ters, or secured by their several codes of provincial 
 laws. 
 
 " Resolved, 8th, That they have a right peaceably 
 to assemble, consider of their grievances, and peti- 
 tion the king ; and that all prosecutions, prohibitory 
 proclamations, and commitments, for the same, are 
 illegal. 
 
 " Resolved, 9th, That the keeping a standing 
 army in these colonies in times of peace, without the 
 consent of the legislature of that colony in which 
 such army is kept, is against law. 
 
 " Resolved, 10th, It is indispensably necessary 
 to good government, and rendered essential by the 
 English constitution, that the constituent branches 
 of the legislature be independent of each other; that, 
 therefore, the exercise of legislative power in several 
 colonies, by a council appointed during pleasure by 
 the crown, is unconstitutional, dangerous, and de- 
 structive to the freedom of American legislation. 
 
 " All and each of which the aforesaid deputies in 
 behalf of themselves and their constituents, do claim, 
 demand, and insist on, as their indubitable rights 
 and liberties, which cannot be legally taken from 
 them, altered, or abridged by any power whatever, 
 without their own consent, by their representatives 
 in their several provincial legislatures. In the course 
 of our inquiry we find many infringements and vio- 
 lations of the foregoing rights, which, from an ardent 
 desire that harmony and mutual intercourse of affec- 
 tion and interest may be restored, we pass over for 
 the present, and proceed to state such acts and mea- 
 sures as have been adopted since the last war/ which 
 demonstrate a system formed to enslave America." 
 
 A committee was next appointed, who drew a 
 petition to the king, stating the grievances under 
 which they had laboured ; grievances, which they 
 said were the more intolerable, as the colonies were 
 born the heirs of freedom, and had long enjoyed ii 
 under the auspices of former sovereigns ; and stating 
 also, that they had wished for no diminution of the 
 
I03G 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 prerogative, and no privileges or immunities, except 
 those which were their rightful inheritance as the 
 subjects of Great Britain; concluding the whole 
 with an earnest prayer, that his majesty, as the 
 father of his people, would not permit the ties of 
 blood, of law, and of loyalty to be broken, in ex- 
 pectation of consequences, which, if they ever took 
 place, would never compensate for the suffering to 
 which they must give rise. 
 
 The committee who brought in this address, were 
 Mr. Lee, Mr. John Adams, Mr. Johnston, Mr. 
 Henry, and Mr. Rutledge. The original composi- 
 tion has been generally attributed to Mr. Lee. 
 
 The petition to the king was followed by an ad- 
 dress to the people of England, conceived with great 
 vigour, and expressed in the most energetic language. 
 " Be not surprised," they say, " that we who are 
 descended from the same common ancestors, that 
 we, whose forefathers participated in the rights, the 
 liberties, and the constitution you so justly boast of, 
 and who have carefully conveyed the same fair in- 
 heritance to us, guarantied by the plighted faith of 
 government and the most solemn compact with 
 British sovereigns, should refuse to surrender them 
 to meu, who found their claims on no principles of 
 reason, and who prosecute them with a design, that 
 by having their lives and property in their power, 
 they may with the greater facility enslave you. Are 
 not," they ask, " the proprietors of the soil of Great 
 Britain, lords of their own property ? Can it be 
 taken from them without their consent ? Will they 
 yield it to the arbitrary disposal of any man, or 
 number of men, whatever ? You know they will 
 not. Why, then, are the proprietors of America 
 less lords of their property than you are of yours ? 
 or why should they submit it to the disposal of your 
 parliament, or council, or any other parliament in 
 the world, not of their own election ? Can the in- 
 tervention of the sea that divides us, cause disparity 
 of rights ? or can any reason be given, why English 
 subjects who live 3000 miles from the royal palace, 
 should enjoy less liberty than those who are 300 
 miles from it ?" 
 
 The committee who prepared this eloquent and 
 manly address, were Mr. Lee, Mr. Livingston, and 
 Mr. Jay, who also prepared the memorial to their 
 constituents ; the composition has generally been 
 attributed to Mr. Jay. 
 
 This address was followed by a memorial to their 
 constituents. They applauded them for the spirit 
 which they had shown in defence of their rights ; 
 enjoined them to persevere in abstaining from the 
 use of every thing manufactured or prepared in Eng- 
 land ; and hinted at the necessity of looking forward 
 to melancholy events, and being ready for any con- 
 tingency that might take place. 
 
 The inclinations of the people were in exact ac- 
 cordance with the decision of the congress. The 
 inhabitants of Boston were supplied by contributions 
 from all quarters. Even those, who by their station 
 seemed likely to derive advantage from the cessa- 
 tion of their trade, were most forward to relieve 
 them in their distress. The people of Marblehead, 
 a town at no great distance, generously offered them 
 the use of their harbour, their wharfs, and ware- 
 houses, free of all expense. Every one who could 
 procure arms was diligent in learning their use. 
 
 Complete unanimity, however, did not exist. Some 
 of the late emigrants, on whom England had be- 
 stowed offices, and many who feared her power, 
 clung to her authority, and declared themselves her 
 adherents. Whigs and Tories were the distinguish- 
 
 ing names of the parties. The former favoured the 
 cause of the colonists; the latter that of Great 
 Britain. 
 
 In the mean time, many British troops having 
 assembled at Boston, General Gage thought it pru- 
 dent to fortify the neck of land that joins that city 
 to the continent. He also seized the magazines of 
 gunpowder, ammunition, and military stores at 
 Cambridge and Charlestown 
 
 An assembly was called, and its sittings immedi- 
 ately countermanded ; but the representatives met 
 at Salem, notwithstanding the proclamation of the 
 governor ; and after waiting a day for his arrival, 
 they voted themselves " a provincial congress," and 
 adjourned to Concord. Mr. Hancock was chosen, 
 president : and the delegates resolved, that for the 
 defence of the province, a military force, to consist 
 of one-fourth of the militia, should be organized, and 
 stand ready to march at a minute's warning ; and 
 that money should be raised to purchase military 
 stores. They appointed a committee of safety to 
 sit during the recess. 
 
 The more southern provinces, particularly Penn- 
 sylvania, Virginia and Maryland, displayed the 
 same determination to resist, and passed resolutions 
 designed to animate those who, in Massachusetts, 
 stood in the post of danger. 
 
 General Gage having received intelligence that a 
 number of field -pieces were collected at Salem, dis- 
 patched a party of soldiers to take possession of 
 them, in the name of the king. The people, how- 
 ever, assembling in great numbers, prevented the 
 military from advancing to the town, by pulling up 
 a draw-bridge, which it was necessary for them to 
 pass ; and they returned to the governor, without 
 accomplishing their purpose. 
 
 The next attempt was followed by more interesting 
 consequences. The provincials had deposited a large 
 quantity of ammunition and stores at Concord, about 
 twenty miles from Boston ; these General Gage 
 resolved to seize or destroy; and with that view, on 
 the 18th of April, 1775, he sent a detachment of 
 800 men, under the command of Colonel Smith, and 
 Major Pitcairn, ordering them to proceed with the 
 utmost expedition, and with all possible secrecy. 
 
 Notwithstanding his care, and the alacrity of the 
 soldiers, the provincials had notice of his design ; 
 and when the British troops arrived at Lexington, 
 within five miles of Concord, the militia of the place 
 were drawn up on the parade, and ready to receive 
 them. The advanced body of the regulars approached 
 within musket-shot, when Major Pitcairn, riding 
 forward, exclaimed, " Disperse, you rebels ! throv 
 down your arms and disperse." Not being instantly 
 obeyed, he discharged his pistol, and ordered his 
 men to fire. They fired and killed eight men. The 
 militia dispersed, but the firing continued. The 
 detachment then proceeded to Concord, destroyed 
 and took possession of the stores which were there. 
 Having effected their purpose, the military began 
 to retire ; but the colonists, pressing upon them on 
 all sides, they retreated to Lexington, where they 
 met Lord Percy, with a reinforcement of 900 men. 
 In consequence of this, they quitted Lexington, and 
 continued their march towards Boston, which they 
 reached the day after, though not without frequent 
 interruption, and very great difficulty. The Ameri- 
 cans being acquainted with the grounds, while the 
 British were not, possessed a great advantage, 
 which they improved to the utmost in harassing 
 their retreat. From every place of concealment, 
 a stone fence, a cluster of bushes, or a barn, the con 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 IU37 
 
 cealed provincials poured upon them a destructive 
 Hre. At sun-set, almost overcome with fatigue, they 
 passed Charlestown Neck, and found on Bunker's 
 Hill a place of security and repose. There, under 
 the protection of a man-of-war, they passed the night, 
 and the next morning went to Boston. 
 
 The affair of Lexington, where the first blood was 
 spilled, has justly been considered as the commence- 
 ment of the American war. In the retreat from 
 that place, the British lost 273 killed, wounded, and 
 missing ; and the provincials 88. 
 
 The intelligence of the battle of Lexington spread 
 ing rapidly through the colonies, caused a deep sen- 
 sation. Through all the country the cry was, " to 
 arms." An army of 20,000 men soon collected in 
 the neighbourhood of Boston. General Gage had, 
 however, fortified the town so strongly, that, nume- 
 rous as they were, the provincials durst not attempt 
 it by assault. On the other hand, the governor was 
 too weak to contend with them in the field. 
 
 The possession of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, 
 on which depended the command of lakes George 
 and Champlain,was an object of essential importance. 
 Accordingly, some gentlemen of Connecticut bor- 
 rowed on their individual credit 1,800 dollars from 
 the legislature of the colony, tc enable them to un- 
 dertake the enterprise. As success depended on 
 secrecy and dispatch, they resolved not to wait to 
 receive the sanction of congress, in the confidence 
 that the number of men necessary for the expedition, 
 might be raised among the hardy mountaineers, in- 
 habiting the country that bordered the lakes. About 
 40 volunteers set out from Connecticut, towards 
 Benningtou, where the authors of the expedition 
 proposed meeting with Colonel Ethan Allen ; and 
 engaging him to head their enterprise, Colonel 
 Allen readily entered into their views, and met them 
 with 230 Vermont volunteers, at Castleton. The 
 next day, he was joined by Benedict Arnold, of 
 Connecticut, who upon the first alarm had repaired 
 to Boston ; and having conceived the same project, 
 had been authorized by the committee of safety in 
 Massachusetts, to undertake it. 
 
 They reached lake Champlain, opposite Ticonde- 
 roga, on the 9th of May. Arnold and Allen em- 
 barked with the first body of troops, consisting of 
 83 men, landed at dawn of day, and completely sur- 
 prised the fortress. The approach of a hostile force 
 was so unexpected to De la Place, the commander, 
 that he knew not from what quarter they were, and 
 when summoned to surrender, he demanded by what 
 authority. " In the name of the great Jehovah and 
 the Continental Congress," said Allen. De la Place 
 was incapable of making any resistance, and deli- 
 vered up the garrison, which consisted of only three 
 officers and 44 privates. 
 
 The remainder of the troops having landed, Co- 
 lonel Seth Warner was dispatched with a small party 
 against Crown Point, and took possession of it with- 
 out opposition. Arnold, having manned and armed 
 a small schooner, found in South Bay, captured a 
 sloop-of-war lying at the outlet of the lake. The 
 pass of Skeensborough was seized at the same time 
 by a detachment of volunteers from Connecticut. 
 
 Thus were obtained without bloodshed, these im- 
 portant posts, and the command of the lakes on 
 which they stood, together with 100 pieces of can- 
 non, and other munitions of war. The successes 
 with which this expedition was crowned, greatly- 
 tended to raise the confidence which the Americans 
 felt in themselves. 
 
 Second Meeting of Congress. British Troops arrive. 
 Fortifications on Breed's Hill. Conflict with the 
 British. Washington elected Commander-in-chief. 
 Georgia joins the Confederacy. First Line of 
 Posts. 
 
 (1775.) The continental congress assembled at 
 Philadelphia on the 10th of May, and Mr. Hand- 
 cock was chosen president. Though the delegates 
 were all animated with a determined spirit of oppo- 
 sition to parliamentary taxation, it was the prevail- 
 ing sentiment in the middle and southern colonies, 
 that a reconciliation with England might still be 
 effected. For this object it was determined to ad- 
 dress once more a humble and dutiful petition to the 
 king; but as no great confidence could be placed in 
 its success, it was unanimously determined to put 
 the country in a state of defence Bills of credit, 
 drawn upon government, and not payable at any 
 definite period, to the amount of 3,000,000 dollars, 
 were issued for defraying the expenses of the war ; 
 and a cessation of the exportation of all provisions to 
 those colonies which had not deputed members to 
 congress, was unanimously determined on. 
 
 The middle and southern colonies, though not as 
 forward as the northern, were every where preparing 
 for hostilities, and the royal government was in all 
 of them laid aside. 
 
 In Virginia, Lord Dunmore, the governor, seized 
 by night some powder at Williamsburg, belonging 
 to the colony, and conveyed it on board the Fowey, 
 a British ship-of-war, in James river, at Yorktown. 
 This act of the governor's was condemned by several 
 counties, and Patrick Henry, at the head of the in- 
 dependent, companies in his vicinity, marched to- 
 wards the seat of government, with the avowed pur- 
 pose of obtaining by force, restitution of the powder, 
 or an equivalent value. He was met by a messen- 
 ger who paid him the value of the powder, when he 
 and his party returned to their homes. 
 
 Lord Dunmore fortified his palace, but soon after, 
 apprehending personal danger, he retired on board 
 the Fowey, then lying at Yorktown, from which he 
 issued his proclamation, making charges of illegal 
 practices against Henry and his associates in the 
 affair of the powder, which highly offended the peo- 
 ple, with whom this measure of their favourite leader 
 was particularly popular. 
 
 In North Carolina, Governor Martin was obliged 
 to take refuge on board a ship-of-war in Cape Fear 
 river. 
 
 South Carolina had always resisted parliamentary 
 taxation, and the governor, Lord William Campbell, 
 sought personal safety by retiring from the province. 
 New York contained many advocates for freedom; 
 yet such was the affection of some for the royal 
 cause, that they declined choosing delegates to con- 
 gress in May 1775 ; but the majority were actuated 
 by different feelings. Accordingly, a convention 
 was chosen for the sole purpose of electing members, 
 who should represent that province in the grand 
 council of the colonies. 
 
 About the latter end of May, the British army in 
 Boston, receiving a powerful reinforcement from 
 England, under Generals Howe, Clinton, and Bout- 
 goyne, martial law was proclaimed, and pardoix 
 offered to all who would return to their allegiance 
 except Samuel Adams and John Hancock ; but this,' 
 like every other measure designed to intimidate or 
 divide, served only to unite the Americans in one 
 common feeling of indignation, and consequently 
 increase their courage and activity. 
 
1038 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 The movements of the British army excited an 
 apprehension that General Gage intended to pene- 
 trate into the country. It was therefore recom- 
 mended by the provincial Congress to the council 
 of war, to take effectual measures to annoy them in 
 their present situation. 
 
 For this purpose a detachment of 1000 men, under 
 Colonel Prescott, was ordered on the night of the 
 16th of June, 1775, to throw up a breastwork on 
 Bunker's Hill, near Charlestown. By some mis- 
 take, the troops intrenched themselves on Breed's 
 Hill, nearer to Boston. They proceeded with such 
 silence and activity, that by return of light they had 
 nearly completed a strong redoubt, without being 
 discovered. At the dawn of the morning, however, 
 the British, discovering the advance of the Ameri- 
 cans, commenced a severe cannonade from the 
 ships in the river. But this not interrupting the 
 Americans, a body of about 3000 men under Gene- 
 rals Howe and Pigot, left Boston in boats, and 
 landed under the protection of the shipping in 
 Charlestown, at the extreme point of the peninsula, 
 and advanced against the Americans. Generals 
 Clinton and Burgoyne took their station on an emi- 
 nence in Boston, commanding a distinct view of the 
 hill. The spires of the churches, the roofs of the 
 houses, and every height which commanded a view 
 of the battle ground, were covered with spectators, 
 taking deep and opposite interests in the conflict. 
 The Americans waited in silence the approach of 
 their enemy, until they were within ten rods of the 
 redoubt. Then taking a steady aim, and having 
 advantage of the ground, they poured upon them a 
 deadly fire. The British were thrown into confu- 
 sion, and many of their officers were killed. They 
 were twice repulsed, yet they again rallied, and ad- 
 vanced towards the fortifications. The redoubt was 
 attacked on three sides at once. The ammunition 
 of the colonists began to fail. In this situation 
 courage was no longer of any avail, and Colonel 
 Prescott, who commanded the redoubt, ordered a 
 retreat. They were obliged to pass Charlestown 
 Neck, where they were exposed to a galling fire 
 from the ships in the harbour. 
 
 During the engagement, the town of Charlestown, 
 which is separated from Boston by a narrow sheet of 
 water, was set on fire, and the houses being chiefly 
 wood, the whole town was soon reduced to ashes. 
 
 In this engagement, 3000 men, composing the 
 flower of the British army, were engaged, and high 
 encomiums were bestowed on the resolution they 
 manifested. Their killed and wounded amounted 
 to 1054. Notwithstanding the danger of their re- 
 treat over Charlestown Neck, the loss of the Ameri- 
 cans was only 450 men. Among the killed was 
 General Joseph Warren, a gentleman greatly be- 
 loved and regretted. Although the ground was lost, 
 the Americans claimed the victory ; and it was uni- 
 versally asked how many more such triumphs the 
 British army could afford? The boldness with 
 which the undisciplined troops of the colonies so 
 long withstood the charges of the regulars, increased 
 their confidencfl, and convinced the English that 
 they had to contend with a resolute foe. 
 
 In the midst of these military transactions, the 
 continental congress assembled at Philadelphia. It 
 comprised delegates from twelve colonies; all of 
 whom were animated with a determined spirit of 
 opposition to parliamentary taxation. Mr. Hancock, 
 the proscribed patriot, was again chosen president. 
 Congress proceeded to the choice of officers to com- 
 mand their united forces. The northern delegates 
 
 determined to give their suffrages for commander- 
 in-chief, to a person residing in the southern pro- 
 vinces; in orcier to interest that section of the union 
 more warmly in the cause of resistance. On the 
 15th of June, two days previous to the battle of 
 Bunker's Hill, by unanimous vote of congress, 
 George Washington, then present as a delegate from 
 Virginia, was elected to that important station. 
 
 He had been elected a member of the first grand 
 congress at Philadelphia, where his example and 
 influence produced very considerable effects ; and 
 now that the situation of the provincials called for 
 a man of tried firmness and approved judgment, he 
 was unanimously elected " general and commander- 
 in-chief of the army of the united colonies." When 
 his appointment was intimated to him by the presi- 
 dent of the congress, he modestly observed that he 
 was not equal to the duties of the station to which 
 their partiality had raised him ; but he declared at 
 the same time, that he was ready to exert whatever 
 talent he might have in the service of his country. 
 
 Artemas Ward of Massachusetts, Colonel Lee, 
 formerly a British officer, Philip Schuyler of New 
 York, and Israel Putnam, then before Boston, were 
 at the same time appointed to the rank of Major- 
 generals; and Horatio Gates to that of Adjutant- 
 general. 
 
 Soon after his election, Washington set out for 
 the camp at Cambridge. He found the American 
 army, consisting of 14,000 men, posted on the heights 
 around Boston, forming a line which extended from 
 Roxbury on the right, to the river Mystic on the 
 left, a distance of twelve miles. The British forces 
 occupied Bunker's and Breed's Hill, and Boston 
 Neck. This disposition of the troops greatly dis- 
 tressed the British, who were confined to Boston, 
 and often obliged to risk their lives to obtain the 
 means of sustenance. 
 
 General Washington found the colonists ani- 
 mated with great zeal, and prepared to follow him 
 in the most desperate undertakings: but he soon 
 perceived that they were unacquainted with subor- 
 dination, and strangers to military discipline. The 
 spirit of liberty which had brought them together, 
 showed itself in all their actions. In the province 
 of Massachusetts the officers had been chosen by the 
 votes of the soldiers, and felt themselves in no de- 
 gree superior to them. The congressional and co- 
 lonial authorities likewise interfered with each other. 
 The troops were scantily supplied with arms and 
 ammunition, and all their operations were retarded 
 by the want of engineers. These difficulties were 
 in a great measure overcome by the talents and 
 perseverance of Washington. He formed the sol- 
 diers into brigades, and accustomed them to obe- 
 dience : he requested the congress to nominate a 
 commissary-general and paymaster-general, which 
 officers they had neglected to appoint. A number 
 of the most active men were constantly employed in 
 learning to manage the artillery; and such were 
 the efforts of the commander-in-chief, that in a short 
 time the army was organized, and fit for service. 
 
 In the meantime a solemn, dignified declaration, 
 in the form of a manifesto, setting forth the causes 
 and necessity of the war, was prepared by congress, 
 to be published to the world. 
 
 In July, Georgia entered into the opposition 
 made to the claims of the British parliament to tax 
 America,and chose delegates to congress ; after which, 
 the style of " the Thirteen United Colonies" was as- 
 sumed, and, by that title the English provinces con- 
 federated and in arms, were thenceforth designated. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1039 
 
 During this session of congress also, the first line 
 of posts for the communication of intelligence through 
 the United States, was established. Benjamin 
 Franklin was appointed, by an unanimous vote, 
 postmaster-general, with power to appoint as many 
 deputies as he might deem proper and necessary, 
 for the conveyance of the mail from Falmouth, in 
 New England, to Savannah, in Georgia. 
 
 Americans send two parties against Canada Montgo- 
 mery invests St. John's Colonel Allen makes an at- 
 tempt on Montreal He is taken prisoner Mont- 
 gomery takes St. John's And Montreal Proceeds 
 to Quebec Arnold arrives at Point Lei'i Attempts 
 to surprise Quebec Montgomery arrives Quebec 
 assaulted Montgomery killed Arnold wounded 
 Part of the assailants surrender Arnold blockades 
 Quebec. 
 
 (1775.) While the British army was closely block- 
 aded in Boston, without the power of annoying the 
 surrounding country, congress conceived the design 
 of sending a force into Canada Two expeditions 
 were accordingly organized and dispatched, one by 
 the way of Champlain, under General Schuyler of 
 New York, the other by the way of the river Ken- 
 nebeck, under the command of Arnold. General 
 Lee, with 1200 volunteers from Connecticut, was 
 also directed to repair to New York, and with the 
 aid of the inhabitants, fortify the city, and the 
 highlands on the Hudson river. 
 
 In pursuance of the plan of guarding the northern 
 frontier by taking Canada, Generals Schuyler and 
 Montgomery, with two regiments of New York mi- 
 litia, and a body of New England men, amounting 
 in the whole to about 2000, were ordered to move 
 towards Ticonderoga, which had remained in pos- 
 session of the Americans since the expedition of 
 Colonels Arnold and Allen. 
 
 Brigadier-general Montgomery was ordered to 
 proceed in advance, with the troops then in readi- 
 dess, and lay siege to St. John's, the first British 
 post in Canada, about 150 miles north of Ticonde- 
 roga. General Schuyler soon followed, and on 
 arriving at the Isle aux Noix, twelve miles south of 
 St. John's, sent circular letters to the Canadians, 
 exhorting them to arouse and assert their liberties, 
 declaring that the Americans entered their country 
 as friends and protectors, not as enemies. The in- 
 telligence received of the situation of St. John's, de- 
 termined them to wait at the Isle aux Noix, for 
 their remaining- troops and artillery. Gen. Schuyler 
 returned to Albany to hasten their departure ; and 
 being prevented from again joining the army, the 
 chief command devolved on Montgomery. On re- 
 ceiving the reinforcement he invested St. John's ; 
 but being almost destitute of battering cannon and 
 of powder, he made no progress in the siege. 
 
 Colonel Allen, the hero of Ticonderoga, had a 
 command under General Montgomery ; and was sent 
 by him with about 80 men, to secure a party of 
 hostile Indians. Colonel Allen having effected his 
 object, was returning to head-quarters, when he was 
 met by Major Brown, who, with a party, had been 
 on a tour into the country, to observe the disposi- 
 tions of the people, and attach them, if possible, to 
 the American cause. It was agreed between them 
 to make a descent upon Montreal. They divided 
 into two parties, intending to assail the city at two 
 opposite points. Allen crossed the river in the night, 
 as had been proposed ; but by some means Brown 
 and his party failed. Instead of returning, Allen 
 with great rashnsss determined to maintain his 
 
 ground. In the morning the British general, Car- 
 leton, at the head of a few regulars and several 
 hundred militia, marched to attack him. Allen, 
 with his little band of 80, fought with desperate 
 courage ; but he was compelled to yield, and he and 
 his brave associates were instantly loaded with irons, 
 and in that condition sent to England. 
 
 On the 13th of October, a small fort at Charnblet, 
 which was but slightly guarded, was taken. Several 
 pieces of artillery, and about 120 barrels of gun- 
 powder, were the fruits of this victory ; which en- 
 abled General Montgomery to proceed with vigour 
 against St. John's. In defiance of the continual 
 fire of the enemy, the Americans erected a battery 
 near the fort St. John's, and made preparations for 
 a severe cannonade, and an assault, if necessary. 
 
 General Carleton, hearing of the situation o'f St. 
 John's, raised a force for its relief. He had posted 
 Colonel McLean, with a Scotch regiment, at the 
 mouth of the Sorel, and attempted to cross at Lon- 
 gueil for the purpose of forming a junction, and 
 marching to the relief of St. John's. Colonel Warner, 
 who was stationed at Longueil with 300 moun- 
 taineers and a small piece of artillery, kept up so 
 warm a fij-e upon their boats, that they were com- 
 pelled to return to Montreal 
 
 When the news of this repulse reached Mont- 
 gomery, he sent a flag to Major Preston, who com- 
 manded the besieged fortress, summoning him to 
 surrender; as all hope of relief was cut off by 
 Carleton's repulse, and further resistance could only 
 lead to useless destruction of lives. It was accord- 
 ingly surrendered, November 3, and soon entered 
 by the American troops. 
 
 General Carleton now abandoned Montreal to its 
 fate, and made his escape down the river in the night 
 in a small canoe, with muffled oars. The next day 
 General Montgomery, after engaging to allow the 
 inhabitants their own laws, the free exercise of 
 their religion, and the privilege of governing them- 
 selves, entered the town. His benevolent conduct 
 induced many to join his standard : yet some of his 
 own army deserted from severity of climate, and 
 many whose time of enlistment had nearly expired, 
 insisted on leturning home. 
 
 With the remnant of his army, consisting of 300 
 men, he began his march towards Quebec, expect- 
 ing to meet there the detachment of troops under 
 Arnold, who were to penetrate by the way of 
 Maine. 
 
 Arnold commenced his march with 1000 men, 
 about the middle of September. After sustaining 
 almost incredible hardships, he arrived at Point 
 Lev', opposite Quebec, on the 9th of November. 
 On the 13th, he crossed the St. Lawrence in the 
 night, and ascending the precipice which Wolfe had 
 ascended before him, formed his army, which from 
 the hardships it had endured, was reduced to 709 
 men, on the heights near the memorable plains of 
 Abraham. He then marched towards Quebec, in 
 the hope of surprising it. But, being convinced by 
 a cannon-shot from the walls, that the garrison were 
 ready to receive him, he was obliged to retire ; and 
 on the 18th marched to Point aux Trembles, to 
 await the arrival of Montgomery. 
 
 On the 13th of October, General Arnold had in- 
 trusted an Indian whom he met, with a letter for 
 General Schuyler, giving him information of his 
 progress, which the Indian delivered to General 
 Cavleton ; and thus, in all probability, was the 
 enterprise frustrated. 
 
 General Carleton, who had escaped the vigilance 
 
1040 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 otihc provincial batteries at Montreal, arrived at 
 Quebec, immediately after Arnold had withdrawn 
 his troops, and began to prepare for a vigorous de- 
 fence. His garrison consisted of 1500 men. 
 
 General Montgomery arrived on the 1st of De- 
 cember. The united forces of the Americans 
 amounted to less than 1000 effective men. On 
 the 5th, Montgomery addressed a letter to the go- 
 vernor, and sent a flag with a summons to surrender. 
 General Carleton ordered his troops to fire upon the 
 bearer of the flag, and forbade all communication. 
 Montgomery attempted to batter the walls, and 
 harass the city by repeated attacks. During one 
 night, he constructed a battery of ice, where he 
 planted his cannon ; but they were not of sufficient 
 force to make any material impressiou, or to alarm 
 the garrison. 
 
 Montgomery now found himself under circum- 
 stances much more delicate and embarrassing, than 
 those which had sixteen years before environed Wolfe 
 at the same place. Several feet of snow covered the 
 ground : and his troops had undergone the severest 
 hardships of which human nature is capable. Yet 
 to abandon the enterprise was to relinquish fame, 
 and disappoint the expectations, however unreason- 
 able they might be, of his too sanguine countrymen. 
 He therefore, with the unanimous approbation of 
 his officers, came to the desperate determination of 
 storming the city. Just at the dawn of day on the 
 31st of December, and during a violent snow-storm, 
 the troops marched from the camp, in four divisions, 
 commanded by Montgomery, Arnold, Brown, and 
 Livingston. The two latter were to make feigned 
 attacks ; while Arnold and Montgomery were to 
 make an assault at opposite points. Montgomery, 
 at the head of his valiant band, was obliged to ad- 
 vance through a narrow path, leading under the 
 projecting rocks of a precipice. When they reached 
 the block-house and picket, he assisted with his own 
 hands to open a passage for his troops, encouraging 
 by his voice and his example his brave companions. 
 They advanced boldly and rapidly to force the bar- 
 rier, when a single and accidental discharge from 
 a cannon, proved fatal to this brave and excellent 
 officer, and thus destroyed the hopes of the enter- 
 prise. Several of Montgomery's best officers shared 
 his fate ; and Colonel Campbell, on whom the com- 
 mand devolved, found it impossible to pursue the 
 advantages already gained. 
 
 In the meantime, Arnold, at the head of his de- 
 tachment, was advancing with the utmost intrepidity, 
 when he received a musket-ball in the leg, and was 
 carried off the field. Colonel Morgan, who suc- 
 ceeded him, led on the troops with so much vigour, 
 that he soon made himself master of the second bar- 
 rier. But the troops of the garrison, freed from 
 their apprehensions of attack at any other point, 
 were now enabled to turn their undivided force upon 
 Colonel Morgan and his party. In order to cut off 
 his retreat, a detachment, with several field-pieces, 
 attacked him in the rear, while in front he had to 
 oppose the whole remaining garrison. The stand 
 which this little band of provincials made against 
 three times their number, is sufficient evidence that 
 nothing but the death of Montgomery, and the sub- 
 sequent retreat of the party on the opposite side, 
 could have prevented the fall of Quebec and the 
 surrender of Carleton. After an obstinate defence 
 of three hours, they were compelled to surrender 
 themselves prisoners of war. 
 
 On the part of the Americans, the loss was about 
 400 ; that of the enemy was inconsiderable. The 
 
 treatment of Carletou to his prisoners did honour 
 to his humanity. Arnold, wounded as he was, re- 
 tired with the remainder of his army, to the dis- 
 tance of three miles below Quebec ; where, though 
 inferior in numbers to the garrison, they kept it in 
 a state of blockade, and in the course of the winter 
 reduced it to great distress for want of provisions. 
 
 Falmouth and Boston burned Attention of Americans 
 to their navy British attempt to yain New York 
 Are defeated Dunmore burns Norfolk Penn ex- 
 amined before the peers Parliament of Enyland 
 prohibit the trade of the colonies And hires mer- 
 cenaries from Germany Bad s-tate of the army 
 Washington fortifies Dorchester heights He com- 
 pels the British to evacuate Boston Arnold's diffi- 
 cult situation at Quebec General Thomas super- 
 sedes him Siege of Quebec raised Thomas die* 
 Loss of the Americans at the Cedars General 
 Thompson and 200 Americans taken prisoners 
 British Jleet arrives at Charlestown Attack of the. 
 Briti-h on Sullivan's island Jasper's etploil 
 British sail for New York Independence proposed 
 in congress Independence declared State of the 
 country Eminent men. 
 
 (1775.) While these events were transacting in 
 the north, the royal force, both by sea and land, 
 was turned against New England. Orders were 
 given to the British officers to treat the Americans 
 as rebels, and to lay waste and destroy all such sea- 
 ports as had taken part in the rebellion. In conse- 
 quence of these orders, the town of Bristol in Rhode 
 Island, and Falmouth in Massachusetts, wero 
 burned by the ordeis of Captain Mowatt, of the 
 British navy. 
 
 These and other outrages of the royalists excited 
 the Americans to redouble their CxXertions ; they put 
 forth all their efforts to collect military stores ; they 
 purchased powder in all foreign ports where it was 
 practicable, and in many colonies commenced its 
 manufacture. They also began more seriously to 
 turn their attention to their armed vessels. Massa- 
 chusetts granted letters of marque and reprisal. 
 Congress also fitted out some frigates, and caused 
 two battalions of marines to be raised for the service, 
 and framed articles of war for the government of 
 their little navy. General Washington employed 
 in the service several cruisers to intercept the store- 
 ships of the enemy. Congress at the same time es- 
 tablished regular courts of admiralty for the adjudi- 
 cation of all prizes. These measures produced a 
 spirit of adventure, and the American coast soon 
 swarmed with privateers. Alert and bold, they visited 
 every sea, and greatly annoyed the British com- 
 merce. In these enterprises, Captain Manly, of 
 Marblehead, greatly distinguished himself. 
 
 Efforts were still made by the British ministry to 
 retain the colony of New York under their own in- 
 fluence. They restored Tryon, who was greatly 
 beloved by the people, to the government of New 
 York, for the express purpose of detaching, if pos- 
 sible, this colony from the united confederacy ; and 
 they empowered him to make use of every measure 
 to corrupt their political sentiments. Congress, 
 alarmed for the safety of the colony, recommended 
 that " all persons whose going at large would en- 
 danger the liberty of America, should be arrested 
 and secured." In consequence of this intelligence, 
 Governor Tryon was obliged to take refuge on board 
 a ship in the harbour. 
 
 In November, Lord Dunmore issued a proclama- 
 tion offering freedom to such slaves, as would leave 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1041 
 
 their masters, and repair to the royal standard at 
 Yorktown. Several hundred in consequence re- 
 paired to the place. A body of militia immediately 
 assembled, who, while posted near the city, were 
 attacked by the royalists, regulars, and negroes. 
 The militia repelled the attack, and gained a de- 
 cisive victory. Lord Dunmore, followed by his black 
 and white forces, took refuge on board one of his 
 majesty's ships. In this situation he sent to Norfolk, 
 demanding a supply of provisions. The commander 
 of the provincials refused to comply with this requi- 
 sition, in consequence of which, he set fire to the 
 town, and reduced it to ashes. 
 
 In the mean time, the friends of America were 
 making ineffectual exertions in the British parlia- 
 ment for the relief of the colonies. A reluctant vote 
 of the peers was obtained to examine Mr. Penn, who 
 had presented the last petition of congress to the 
 king, emphatically styled by its framers, the olive 
 branch. He affirmed that the colonies would still 
 allow the royal authority of Great Britain, but not 
 its system of taxation ; and that the rejection of the 
 present offer would certainly prove an insuperable 
 bar to a reconciliation : but the prevailing wish in 
 America still was, restoration of friendship with 
 (ireat Britain. He was informed that no answer 
 would be given to his petition. A bill was passed 
 in parliament, prohibiting all trade and intercourse 
 with the revolted colonies ; and their property, whe- 
 ther ships or goods, was declared to be forfeited to 
 the ships or crews, who might be their captors. 
 Treaties were made with the landgrave of Hesse 
 Cassel and other German princes, hiring of them 
 17,000 men, to be employed against the Americans ; 
 and it was determined to send over in addition to 
 these, 25,000 English troops. When the intelligence 
 of the " Prohibitory Act" and the " Treaty for the 
 German Troops" reached America, such indignant 
 feelings were excited, that their flag, which had 
 hitherto been plain red, was changed to thirteen 
 stripes, as emblematical of the union of the colonies. 
 
 At the close of the year 1775, the American army 
 was almost destitute of the necessary supplies for 
 carrying on the war. The terms of enlistment with 
 all of the troops had expired in December, and 
 although measures had been taken for recruiting the 
 army, yet on the last day of December, when the 
 old troops were to be disbanded, there were but 9,650 
 men enlisted for the ensuing year. General Wash- 
 ington proposed to congress to try the influence of 
 a bounty, but his proposal was not acceded to until 
 late in January, and it was not until the middle of 
 February that the regular army amounted to 14,000 
 men. 
 
 (1776.) General Washington had continued the 
 blockade of Boston during the winter of 1775-76, and 
 at last resolved to bring the enemy to action, or to 
 drive them from the town. On the night of the 4th 
 of March, a detachment under the command of 
 General Thomas, silently crossed the neck of land 
 which separates Dorchester heights from the town, 
 and constructed, in a single night, a redoubt which 
 gave them command of the heights, and menaced 
 the British shipping with destruction. When the 
 light of the morning discovered to General Howe 
 the advantage the Americans had gained, he per- 
 ceived that no alternative remained for him, but to 
 dislodge them or evacuate the town. He immedi- 
 ately dispatched a few regiments to attempt the 
 former, but a violent tempest of wind and rain 
 rendered their efforts ineffectual. The Americans had 
 continued with unremitting industry to strengthen 
 
 HlST. OF AMll. NOS. 131 & 13^. 
 
 their works, until they were now too secure to be 
 easily forced. After the failure of this attempt, a 
 council of war was held, in which it was resolved to 
 evacuate the town. Preparations were immediately 
 made for the embarkation of the troops, and on the 
 morning of the 17th, the whole British force, with 
 such of the loyalists as chose to follow their fortunes, 
 set sail for Halifax. As the rear of the British 
 troops were embarking, General Washington en- 
 tered the town in triumph. 
 
 In the plans for the campaign of 1 776, beside the 
 relief of Quebec, and the recovery of Canada, two 
 expeditions were resolved upon by the British. The 
 object of the one was to reduce the southern colo- 
 nies ; the command of this was given to General 
 Clinton and Sir Peter Parker : and the object of 
 the other was to gain possession of New York. The 
 command of this was given to Admiral and Sir 
 William Howe. 
 
 Arnold had continued the siege of Quebec, and 
 had greatly annoyed the garrison ; but he found 
 himself oppressed with many difficulties. His army 
 had suffered extremely from the inclemency of the 
 season, and the small-pox had made its way into the 
 camp. Notwithstanding the garrison of Montreal 
 had been sent to reinforce him, he had at this time 
 scarcely 1000 effective men. The reinforcements 
 which had been ordered by congress to his relief, 
 were slow in arriving, and when they reached Que- 
 bec, they were greatly reduced in numbers by dis- 
 ease. Added to this, the river was now clear of ice, 
 and the British fleet was daily expected to arrive. 
 
 General Thomas, who had been sent by congress, 
 now succeeded Arnold in command. He was un- 
 willing to raise the siege of Quebec without making 
 another effort to reduce the place. With the view 
 of burning the vessels of the governor, a fire-ship 
 was sent down the river. He intended to take ad- 
 vantage of the disorder which would ensue, to make 
 an assault upon the town. The garrison, when they 
 saw the ship, immediately commenced firing, and 
 the attempt failed. Having now nothing further to 
 expect from a siege, and seeing his troops daily 
 diminish, both in numbers and courage, General 
 Thomas resolved to abandon the enterprise. On the 
 very day appointed for raising the siege, several 
 British vessels came in sight of Quebec, bringing 
 reinforcements to the garrison. These ships now 
 had the command of the river, and prevented any 
 communication between the different parts of the 
 American camp. General Thomas found it neces- 
 sary to retreat with the greatest precipitation, leav- 
 ing behind him the baggage, artillery, munitions, 
 and whatever else might have retarded the maich 
 of the army. Many of the sick, together with all 
 the military stores, fell into the hands of the enemy. 
 
 Had General Carleton vigorously pursued the 
 Americans, they could not, probably, have effected 
 their retreat ; but he seemed only desirous of driving 
 the besiegers from the neighbourhood. He treated 
 with great kindness the sick and other prisoners 
 who fell into his hands. The Americans continued 
 their retreat to the river Sorel, having marched the 
 first 45 miles without halting. Here they found a 
 reinforcement of several regiments, under the com- 
 mand of General Thompson, waiting their arrival. 
 General Thomas was now seized with the small- 
 pox, of which he died. The command devolved 
 upon General Sullivan. 
 
 Adverse fortune seemed in every part of Canada 
 to follow thp American arms, \V"hile the troops 
 before Quebec were compelled to retreat by a supe- 
 
 4Q 
 
1042 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 rior force, a calamity, resulting from cowardice, was 
 experienced by a body of the Americans, in another 
 quarter. A garrison of 400 men, under the com- 
 mand of Colonel Bedel, was stationed at the Cedars, 
 about 40 miles above Montreal, at the head of one 
 of the rapids. Colonel Bedel, having received infor- 
 mation that Captain Foster, with about 500 royalists 
 and Indians, was descending the river to attack the 
 post, immediately proceeded to Montreal, to obtain 
 assistance; leaving the command with a subordi- 
 nate officer. They invested the fort, and the Ame- 
 rican officer, intimidated by the threat of Captain 
 Foster, that if any of the Indians were killed, a 
 general massacre of the Americans would take place, 
 surrendered the post without resistance. A rein- 
 forcement, under the command of Major Sherburne, 
 was ordered to march from Montreal. While on 
 his way thither, ignorant of the surrender of the 
 fort, Major Sherburne was attacked by the Indians, 
 to whom, after a spirited defence, he was obliged to 
 surrender. The loss of the Americans at this place 
 could not have been less than 500. The British 
 army in Canada was now augmented to 13,000 men ; 
 and although they were scattered along the banks 
 of the St. Lawrence, yet the general place of ren- 
 dezvous was at Three Rivers, a village about half 
 way from Quebec to Montreal. The party stationed 
 at this place was under the command of General 
 Frazer; another, under General Nesbit, was near 
 them, on board the transports ; one greater than 
 cither, with Generals Carleton, Burgoyne, Philips, 
 and the German Baron Reidesel, was on its way from 
 Quebec. General Sullivan detached General Thomp- 
 son from the river Sorel, with a considerable body 
 of troops, to attack the enemy at Three Rivers. 
 
 General Thompson dropped down the river by 
 night, with an intention of surprising the forces 
 under General Frazer. The troops passed the ships 
 without discovery ; but arrived at Three Rivers an 
 hour later than had been intended ; in consequence 
 of which, they were discovered, and an alarm was 
 given at their landing. They were fired on by the 
 ships in the river ; to avoid which, they attempted 
 to puss through what appeared a wood, but was in 
 reality a deep morass ; the difficulties of which were 
 scarcely surmounted, when a tremendous five was 
 opened upon them, which threw the whole detach 
 ment into confusion ; and each man took the best 
 means of effecting his own safety. In this unfortu- 
 nate enterprise, General Thompson and about 200 
 men were made prisoners. 
 
 General Sullivan ivas induced by the unanimous 
 opinion of his officers, to abandon the post at Sorel, 
 after the British entered it. He was joined at St. 
 John's by General Arnold, who had crossed at Lon- 
 gucil, just in time to save the garrison from falling 
 into the hands of the enemy. General Sullivan, at 
 the Isle aux Noix, received the orders of General 
 Schuyler to embark on the lakes for Crown Point ; 
 which post they reached in safety, June 15th, 1776. 
 On the Sorel the pursuit stopped. The Americans 
 had the command of the lakes, and the British ge- 
 neral deemed it prudent to wrest it from them, be 
 fore he advanced further. Thus ended the enterprise 
 against Canada. It was a bold, though unsuccessful, 
 effort to annex that extensive province to the United 
 Colonies. It had, however, in its commencement, 
 been attended with success to the Americans, and 
 displayed the military character of the colonial offi- 
 cers, in the most honourable point of view. 
 
 In the beginning of June, the British fleet under 
 Sir Peter Parker came to anchor in the harbour o* 
 
 Charlestown, where it was joined by General Clinton, 
 vho had been waiting its arrival at Cape Fear. 
 L'his fleet brought the expected reinforcements, with 
 L,ord Cornwallis, General Vaughan, and Colonel 
 Sthan Allen, who was now exchanged. This officer, 
 vith his fellow-prisoners, had been confined in Pen- 
 dennis-castle, in Cornwall. 
 
 Fortunately, an official letter had been intercepted 
 early in the year, announcing the departure of this 
 armament from England, and its destination against 
 the southern states. This gave the colonists an op- 
 )ortunity to be prepared for its reception. Sulli- 
 van's Island, at the entrance of Charlestown harbour, 
 lad been strengthened; and a fort had been con- 
 structed with the palmetto-tree, which resembles 
 ery much the cork. On learning the near approach 
 f the enemy, the militia of the country were sum- 
 moned to defend the capital. The popularity of 
 General Lee, the commander, soon collected a force 
 of 5,000 or 0,000 men ; and his high military repu- 
 tation gave confidence to the citi/cns as well as 
 soldiers. Under him were Colonels Gadsdcn, Moul- 
 trie, and Thompson. Colonel Gadsdcn commanded 
 a regiment stationed on the northern extremity of 
 James Island ; two regiments, under Colonels 
 Moultrie and Thompson, occupied the opposite ex- 
 tremities of Sullivan's Island. The remainder of 
 the troops were posted at various points. General 
 Clinton lauded a number of his troops on Long 
 Island, separated fiom Sullivan's Island on the 
 eastern side, by a small creek. The fort on Sulli- 
 van's Island was garrisoned by about 400 men, 
 commanded by Colonel Moultrie. The attack on 
 this fort commenced on the morning of the 28th of 
 June. The ships opened their several broadsides 
 upon it; and a detachment was landed on an adjoin- 
 ing isL n ' ! ' ~ "'">' ' ir Te the sea 
 was fo 
 charge 
 
 but Mo- i; .. 
 fire witii ' '. 
 suffcrci . 
 in thei 
 to aba 
 about '. 
 palmel 
 defenc 
 sunk b 
 hencei 
 
 Dm 
 occun 
 the fl. r 
 the A 
 theB 
 
 But Beared ; ai: . 
 
 strip* America was on 
 
 to thf ;r view. The staff had beei, 
 a sh ;tnd the flag bad fallen upon the 
 the \ 
 per, 
 bulh 
 
 It 
 
 cent 
 advf 
 wou ' 
 Gre 
 bef.'. 
 had 
 
 Isl. d New York : 
 
 aft 
 Liu 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1043 
 
 In a few days after the repulse at Charlestown, 
 the British fleet, with the troops on board, set sail 
 for the vicinity of New York, where the whole 
 British force had been ordered to assemble. 
 
 On the 7th of June, Richard Henry Lee, of Vir- 
 ginia, made a motion in congress, for declaring the 
 colonies FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES. 
 
 The most vigorous exertions had been made by 
 the friends of independence to prepare the minds ot 
 the people for the necessity and advantage of such 
 a measure. Among the numerous writers on this 
 momentous question, the most luminous and forci- 
 ble was Thomas Paine. His pamphlet entitled 
 ' Common Sense," was read and understood by all. 
 While it demonstrated the necessity, the advantage, 
 and the practicability, of independence, it treated 
 kingly government and hereditary succession with 
 ridicule and opprobrium. Two years before, the 
 inhabitants of the colonies were the loyal subjects 
 of the king of England, and wished not for inde- 
 pendence, but for constitutional liberty. But the 
 crown of England had, for their assertion of this 
 right, declared them out of its protection ; rejected 
 their petitions ; shackled their commerce ; and fi- 
 nally employed foreign mercenaries to destroy them. 
 Such were the excitements which, being brought up 
 and directed by the master spirits of the times, had, 
 in the space of two years, changed the tide of public 
 feeling in America, and throughout her extensive 
 regions produced the general cry of," WE WILL 
 
 BE FREE." 
 
 Satisfied, by indubitable signs, that such was the 
 resolution of the people, congress deliberately and 
 solemnly decided to make in a formal manner, this 
 declaration to the world, " America is, and of 
 rieht ought to be, a free and independent nation." 
 
 The declaration of independence was agreed to 
 in congress, on the 4th of July, 1776. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Frank- 
 lin, Roger Sherman, and R. R. Livingston, had 
 been appointed, on the llth of June, to prepare a 
 declaration of independence. It was agreed by this 
 committee that each one should draw up such a one 
 as his judgment and feelings should dictate ; and 
 that upon comparing them together, that one should 
 be chosen as the report of the committee, which 
 should prove most conformable to the wishes of the 
 whole. Mr. Jefferson's paper was the first read ; 
 and every member of the committee determined, 
 spontaneously, to suppress his own production ; ob- 
 serving that it was unworthy to bear a competition 
 with that which they had just heard. 
 
 This important document is as follows : 
 
 The declaration of independence of the United States 
 of America. Signed on the 4th of July, 1776, by a 
 congress of delegates, assembled at Philadelphia, 
 from the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, 
 ' Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Netv Jersey, 
 Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, 
 North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia. 
 
 " When, in the course of human events, it be- 
 comes necessary for one people to dissolve the poli- 
 tical bonds which have connected them with another, 
 and to assume among the powers of the earth, the 
 separate and equal station to which the laws of 
 nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent 
 respect to the opinions of mankind, requires that 
 they should declare the causes which impel them to 
 the separation. 
 
 " We hold these truths to be self-evident that 
 all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by 
 
 their Creator with certain unalienable rights.; that 
 among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
 happiness. That to secure these rights, govern- 
 ments are instituted among men, deriving their 
 just powers from the consent of the governed; that 
 whenever any form of government becomes destruc- 
 tive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or 
 to abolish it, and to institute a new government, lay- 
 ing its foundation on such principles, and organizing 
 its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most 
 likely to effect their safety and happiness. Pru- 
 dence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long 
 established, should not be changed for light and 
 transient causes ; and, accordingly, all experience 
 hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, 
 while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves 
 by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. 
 But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, 
 pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a 
 design to reduce them under absolute despotism, 
 it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such go- 
 vernment, and to provide-new guards for their future 
 security. Such has been the patient sufferance 
 of these colonies ; and such is now the necessity 
 which constrains them to alter their former systems 
 of government. The history of the present king of 
 Great Britain, is a history of 'repeated injuries and 
 usurpations, all having in direct object the establish- 
 ment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To 
 prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. 
 
 " He has refused his assent to laws, the most whole- 
 some and necessary for the public good. 
 
 "He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of 
 immediate and pressing importance, 'unless sus- 
 pended in their operations till his assent should be 
 obtained ; and, when so suspended, he has utterly 
 neglected to attend to them. 
 
 " He has refused to pass other laws, for the accom- 
 modation of large districts of people, unless those 
 people would relinquish the right of representation 
 iu the legislature a right inestimable to them, and 
 formidable to tyrants only. 
 
 " He has called together legislative bodies, at places 
 unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depo- 
 sitory of their public records, for the sole purpose of 
 fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. 
 
 "He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, 
 for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on 
 the rights of the people. 
 
 " He has refused, for a long time after such disso- 
 lutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the 
 legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have 
 returned to the people at large for their exercise; 
 the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all 
 the danger of invasion from without, and convul- 
 sions within. 
 
 " He has endeavoured to prevent the population 
 of these states ; for that purpose obstructing the laws 
 for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass 
 others to encourage their migration hither, and 
 raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. 
 
 " He has obstructed the administration of justice, 
 by refusing his assent to laws, for establishing judi- 
 ciary powers. 
 
 " He has made judges dependent on his will alone 
 for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and 
 payment of their salaries. 
 
 " He has erected a multitude of new offices, and 
 sent hither swarms of officers, to harass our people, 
 and eat out their substance. 
 
 " He has kept among us, in times of peace, stand- 
 ing armies, without the consent of our legislature. 
 
 4Q 2 
 
1044 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 " He has affected to render the military indepen- 
 dent of, and superior to, the civil power. 
 
 " He has combined with others, to subject us to a 
 jurisdiction, foreign to our constitution, and unac- 
 knowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their 
 acts of pretended legislation, 
 
 " For quartering large bodies of armed troops 
 among us : 
 
 " For protecting them, by a mock-trial, from pu- 
 nishment for any murders which they should com- 
 mit on the inhabitants of these states : 
 
 " For cutting off our tiade with all parts of the 
 world : 
 
 " For imposing taxes on us without our consent : 
 " For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits 
 of trial by jury : 
 
 " For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for 
 pretended offences : 
 
 " For abolishing the free system of English laws 
 in a neighbouring province, establishing therein an 
 arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, 
 so as to render it at once an example and fit instru- 
 ment, for introducing the same absolute rule into 
 these colonies : 
 
 " For taking away our charters, abolishing our 
 most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the 
 forms of our governments : 
 
 " For suspending our own legislatures, and de- 
 daring themselves invested with power to legislate 
 for us in all cases whatsoever. 
 
 " He has abdicated government here, by declaring 
 
 us out of his protection, and waging war against us 
 
 " He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts 
 
 burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our 
 
 people. 
 
 " He is, at this time, transporting large armies o 
 foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death 
 desolation, and tyranny, already begun, with cir 
 cumstances of cruelty and perfidy, scarcely parallelec 
 in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworth) 
 the head of a civilized nation. 
 
 " He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken 
 captive on the high seas, to bear arms against thei] 
 country, to become the executioners of their friend; 
 and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. 
 " He has excited domestic insurrections amongs 
 us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitant 
 of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whosi 
 known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destiue 
 lion of all ages, sexes, and conditions. 
 
 " In every stage of these oppressions we hav 
 petitioned for redress in the most humble terms 
 our repeated petitions have been answered only b 
 repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thu 
 marked by every act which may define a tyrant, i 
 unfit to be the ruler of a free people. 
 
 " Nor have we been wanting in attention to ou 
 British brethren. We have warned them from 
 time to time, of attempts made by their legislatur 
 to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us 
 We have reminded them of the circumstances o 
 our emigration and settlement here. We have ap 
 pealed to their native justice and magnanimity, an 
 we have conjured them by the ties of our cemmo 
 kindred to disavow these usurpations, which woul 
 inevitably interrupt our connexions and correspom 
 ence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice i 
 justice and consanguinity. We must, therefor 
 acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our se 
 paration, and hold them, as we hold the rest 
 mankind enemies in war in peace, friends. 
 it " ' We, therefore, the representatives of th 
 
 nited States of America, in congress assembled, 
 jpealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for 
 e rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and 
 y the authority of the good people of these colonies, 
 olemnly declare, that these United Colonies are, 
 nd of right ought to be, free and independent 
 tates. That they are absolved from all allegiance 
 3 the British crown, and that all political connexion 
 etween them and the state of Great Britain is, <ina 
 ught to be, totally dissolved; and that as free and 
 ndependent states, they have full power to levy 
 war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish 
 ommerce, and to do all other acts and things which 
 ndependent states may of right do. And for the 
 ipport of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on 
 be protection of Divine Providence, we mutually 
 iledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and 
 ur sacred honour.' " 
 
 The members of the congress of 1776, who signed 
 bis declaration, were as follows : 
 
 New Hampshire. Josiah Bartlett, William 
 Whipple, Matthew Thornton. 
 
 Massachusetts Bay. Samuel Adams, John Adarts, 
 iobert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry. 
 
 Rhode Island. Stephen Hopkins, William Elleiy. 
 
 Connecticut. Roger Sherman, Samuel Hunting- 
 on, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott. 
 
 New York. William Floyd, Philip Livingston 
 ^rancis Lewis, Lewis Morris. 
 
 New Jersey. Richard Stockton, John Wither- 
 poon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abram Clark. 
 
 Pennsylvania. Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, 
 Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer^ 
 James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George 
 [loss. 
 
 Delaware. Csesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas 
 M. Kean. 
 
 Maryland. Samuel Chase, William Paca,Thomas 
 Stone, Charles Carroll, of Carrolton. 
 
 Virginia. George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, 
 Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas 
 Nelson, jun., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton. 
 
 North Carolina. William Hooper, Joseph Hughes, 
 John Penn. 
 
 South Carolina. Edward Rutledge, Thomas Hey- 
 ward,jun., Thomas Lynch, jun., Arthur Middleton. 
 
 Georgia. Button Gwinuett, Lyman Hall, George 
 Walton. 
 
 Geographical notice of the state of the countn/. from 
 1763 to 1776. 
 
 The settlements in Vermont had extended, from 
 the southern, over the northern part of the state. 
 Emigrants from the eastern states, had commenced 
 the settlement of Kentucky and Tennessee. 
 Population. 
 
 Massachusetts 292,000 
 
 Connecticut 197,856 
 
 Rhode Island 59,678 
 
 New York 168,000 
 
 South Carolina 40,000 
 
 Louisiana 5,500 
 
 New Hampshire 52,000 
 
 The principal towns at this time were, New 
 York, Philadelphia, Annapolis, Boston, Charlostown, 
 South Carolina, Jamestown, Newark, Providence, 
 Newport, Hartford, New Haven, New London, 
 and Portland, in Maine. 
 
 During this period the following societies were 
 formed : 
 
 1766. The Marine Society of Salem. 
 
 1769. The American Philosophical Society, for 
 
UNITED STATES 
 
 J045 
 
 the promotion of useful knowledge, held at Phila- 
 delphia. 
 
 Catalogue of eminent men who flourished during the 
 same period. 
 
 Year in which 
 they died 
 
 Zabdiel Boylston, F.R.S., an eminent phy- 
 sician the first who introduced the inocula- 
 tion of the small-pox into America. 1766 
 
 Jonathan Mayhew, D.D., a learned divine. 
 
 Thomas Clap, president ef Yale College 
 constructed the first orrery or planetarium, 
 made in America. 1767 
 
 George Whitefield, one of the founders of 
 the sect of the Methodists. 1770 
 
 William Shirley, governor of Massachusetts. 1771 
 
 John Clayton, an eminent botanist and 
 physician author of " Flora Virginica." 1773 
 
 William Johnson, major-general of -the mi- 
 litia of New York, and distinguished in the 
 last French war. 1774 
 
 Richard Montgomery, a major-general in 
 the American army. 1775 
 
 Josiah Quincy, an eminent statesman and 
 patriot. 
 
 Peyton Randolph, first president of congress. 
 
 Joseph Warren, a major-general in the 
 American army, and a distinguished patriot. 
 
 Howe takes possession of Staten Island Positions of 
 
 Washington's army British land on Long Island 
 
 Battle of Long Island' The Americans defeated. 
 
 Considered as a step in the great march of human 
 
 society, perhaps no one can be fixed upon of more 
 
 importance than the solemn promulgation of the 
 
 writing, which, while it contained a catalogue of the 
 
 grievances of America, and declared her freedom, 
 
 embodied also, and held up to the view of the world, 
 
 the universal wrongs of the oppressed ; sent forth a 
 
 warning voice to the oppressor ; and declared the 
 
 common rights of all mankind. 
 
 But as it more particularly concerned the con- 
 dition of the Americans, the signing of this decla- 
 ration by the American congress, was a momentous 
 procedure. That firm band of patriots well knew, 
 that, in affixing their signatures, they were, in the 
 eyes of England, committing the very fact of treason 
 and rebellion ; and that in case of her ultimate suc- 
 cess, it was their own death-warrant which they 
 signed. Their countrymen felt there was now no 
 receding from the contest, without devoting to death 
 these their political fathers, who had thus fearlessly 
 made themselves the organs of declaring what was 
 equally the determination of their constituents, that 
 America should no longer be subject to Britain. 
 Thus it was now the general feeling, that the die 
 was cast, and nothing remained but liberty or death. 
 Foreign nations also now regarded the contest in a 
 different light. 
 
 " The Declaration of Independence," says Allen, 
 in his history of the revolution, " once published to 
 the world with such solemnity, gave a new character 
 to the contest, not only in the colonies, but in Eu- 
 rope. It was no longer the unholy struggle of sub- 
 jects against their monarch; of children against 
 their parents ; but it became under the awful sanc- 
 tion of that assembly, the temperate and determined 
 stand of men who have intrenched themselves 
 within the certain and thoroughly-understood limits 
 of their rights ; of men who had counted the cost 
 dispassionately, and measured th event without 
 shrinking." 
 
 The troops from Halifax, under the command of 
 General Howe, after touching at Sandy Hook, took 
 possession of Staten Island on the 2nd of July ; 
 and those from England, commanded by Admiral 
 Howe, landed at the same place on the 12th of the 
 same month. About the same time Clinton arrived, 
 with the troops which he reconducted from the ex- 
 pedition against Charlestowu. Commodore Hotham 
 also appeared about the same time, with the expected 
 reinforcements ; so that the army amounted in the 
 whole to 24,000 of English, Hessians, and Walde- 
 kers. Several Hessian regiments were expected 
 shortly, when the army would consist of 30,000 of 
 the best troops of Europe. 
 
 In hopes that this powerful force might have 
 awakened the fears of the Americans, and thus dis- 
 posed them to submission, Lord Howe, before active 
 operations, made an attempt at pacification. He 
 had, in the month of June, announced by his pro- 
 clamations, which the government wisely caused to 
 be printed, that he was empowered to grant pardon 
 to any person, or to the inhabitants of any city or 
 province, who should return to their allegiance : 
 and he promised large recompense to any who should 
 contribute to re-establish the royal authority. The 
 declaration of independence made soon after, showed 
 him in what light these promises were regarded by 
 congress. He now addressed himself to the com- 
 mander-in-chief, in a letter directed to George 
 Washington, Esq. With a spirit which the whole 
 nation applauded, Washington returned the letter 
 unopened ; alleging that it had not expressed his 
 public station, and that as a private individual, he 
 neither could nor would hold any communication 
 with the agents of the king. Howe, not yet dis- 
 couraged, sent another communication by Adjutant- 
 General Patterson. To the smooth and conciliatory 
 address of this gentleman, Washington made a re- 
 ply, which was an expression of the general feeling 
 of his countrymen, the true source of a union, which 
 both the threats and promises of Great Britain failed 
 to divide. The sentiment it contained was, that 
 Great Britain did not offer us the enjoyment of our 
 rights ; she offered nothing but forgiveness of of- 
 fences : America had committed no offences, and 
 asked no forgiveness. 
 
 The officers in command, General and Admiral 
 Howe, no longer hesitated to direct their efforts 
 against New York. The submission of this impor- 
 tant port would give the English a firm footing in 
 America, from which the English army could turn 
 to the right and carry the war into New England, 
 or upon the left to scour New Jersey and menace 
 Philadelphia. From New York, the English could 
 infest the neighbouring towns, attack and combat 
 the Americans with success, and retreat without 
 danger. Again, if Carleton after passing, as was 
 hoped, the lakes of Canada, could penetrate to the 
 Hudson, and descend at the same time that Howe 
 should ascend it, their junction would intercept all 
 communications between the provinces of New Eng- 
 land, and of the middle and southern colonies. 
 Long Island, adjacent to New York, being abun- 
 dant in grain and cattle, offered subsistence *>r the 
 most numerous army. While Howe expected to 
 have been seconded in his invasion of New York by 
 13,000 men from Canada, under Carleton, Clinton 
 was to operate in the southern provinces and attack 
 Charlestown. The American troops being thus di- 
 vided, their generals surprised and pressed upon so 
 many points at once, it was not. doubted that the 
 British arm* would soon be successful. This sue- 
 
1046 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 cess, however, was dependent upon the concurrence 
 of a number of parts. Admiral Howe, retarded by 
 contrary winds, did not arrive until the expedition 
 of Charlestown had failed. The army of Canada en- 
 countered so many obstacles, that it was not able 
 to make its way this year to v the Hudson. Hence, 
 Washington was not compelled to weaken his army 
 upon the coast to send succou-s into South Carolina, 
 or towards Canada. 
 
 The American congress had ordered the con- 
 struction of gun-boats, of galleys, and floating bat- 
 teries to defend New York and the mouth of tho 
 Hudson. Thirteen thousand of the militia were 
 ordered to join the army of Washington. This 
 army amounted to 27,000; but a fourth of these 
 were invalids, and another fourth were poorly pro- 
 vided with arms. From these and other causes, the 
 force fit for duty did not exceed 10,000. And of 
 this number the greater part was without order or 
 discipline. These inconveniences proceeded in part 
 from want of money, which prevented congress from 
 paying regular troops and providing for their equip- 
 ments, and partly from parsimonious habits, con- 
 tracted during peace, which withheld them from in- 
 curring with promptitude the expenses necessary to 
 a state of war ; while their jealousy of standing 
 armies inspired the hope of organizing each year 
 an army sufficient to resist the enemy. 
 
 The American army occupied the island of New 
 York. Two detachments guarded Governor's Island 
 and Paulus Hook. The militia under the American 
 Clinton were stationed at East and West Chester 
 and New Rochelle, to prevent the British landing 
 in force on the north shore, penetrating to Kings- 
 bridge, and thus enclosing the Americans in the 
 island. A considerable part of the army, under 
 General Putnam, encamped at Brooklyn, in a part 
 of Long Island which forms a sort of peninsula. 
 The entrance was fortified with moats and intrench- 
 ments. Putnam's left wing rested upon Wallabout 
 Bay, his right was covered by a marsh adjacent to 
 Gowau's Cove. Behind was Governor's Island and 
 the arm of the sea between Long Island and New 
 York, which gave him direct communication with 
 the city, where Washington was with the main 
 army. 
 
 On the 22nd of August, the English landed with- 
 out opposition, between the villages of New Utrecht 
 and Gravesend, on Long Island. They extended 
 themselves to Flatlands, distant four miles from the 
 Americans, and separated from them by a range of 
 hills called the heights of Gawanus, which, covered 
 with woods, and running from east to west, divide 
 the island into two parts. These hills were passable 
 <pnly in three places ; one, the road near the Nar- 
 rows, on the left of the English ; one, the road lead- 
 ing to the centre by Flatbush ; the other and most 
 eastern, that on the right of the British by Flatlands. 
 Upon the summits of these hills is a road the length 
 of the range from Bedford to Jamaica, intersected 
 by the Flatlands and Flatbush roads. Washington, 
 wishing to arrest the enemy on these heights, had 
 guarded them with his best troops, and had made 
 such arrangements as with proper vigilance would 
 have rendered the passage one of extreme difficulty 
 and danger. 
 
 About midnight of the 25th, the English, under 
 General Grant, attacked the Americans from the 
 left, thus inducing the belief, that against this post 
 the main strength of the British would be directed. 
 At day-break on the 26th, the Hessians under Ge- 
 neral de Heistcv attacked from the centre, and Ge- 
 
 neral Sullivan, who commanded the forces in front 
 of the camp, led them to repel the Hessians. 
 
 At the same time, the English ships commenced 
 a brisk cannonade upon the battery at Red Hook. 
 Colonel Miles was to guard the Flatlands road, and 
 to scour that and the Jamaica road continually, in 
 order to reconnoitre the movements of the enemy.. 
 This service, as the events proved, was the most 
 important, and the worst performed, of any on the 
 side of the Americans. It was here that the British 
 generals made their grand effort, and here that the 
 Americans suffered a surprise. The right wing of 
 the English, which was the most numerous, and en- 
 tirely composed of select troops, under Generals 
 Clinton, Percy, and Cornwallis, proceeded by Flat- 
 lands, and were, before Miles perceived their ap- 
 proach, within half a mile of the Jamaica road upon 
 the heights. Scouts sent by Sullivan were cap- 
 tured, and he was ignorant that the enemy were 
 approaching until his flank was attacked by their 
 infantry. He instantly ordered a retreat ; but was 
 intercepted in the rear by the English, who had 
 occupied the plains from Bedford, and compelled 
 the Americans to throw themselves into the neigh- 
 bouring woods. There they were met by the Hes- 
 sians, who repulsed them upon the English. Thus 
 were the distressed Americans alternately chased 
 and intercepted, until at length several regiments 
 cut their way with desperate valour through the 
 midst of the enemy, and gained the camp of Put- 
 nam ; but a great part of the detachment were killed 
 or taken prisoners. The left wing having given 
 way, the right attempted to retreat, but they were 
 encountered by the English and many \vere taken 
 prisoners. Lord Sterling, at the head of a Mary- 
 land company, charged a superior British force and 
 kept them engaged, while a considerable body of 
 the Americans passed them and retreated to Brook- 
 lyn. The loss of the Americans was estimated at 
 nearly 2,000, and the British at about 400. 
 
 On the subject of the loss of the Americans on 
 this unfortunate day, authorities disagree. Sir Henry 
 Clinton's official report states it at between 3,000 and 
 4,000; General Washington's at upwards of 1,000. 
 When the disastrous consequences of this engage- 
 ment are considered, it does not seem probable that 
 the American loss could have been less than 2,000. 
 
 In the height of the engagement, General Wash- 
 ington crossed to Brooklyn from New York, and 
 seeing so many of his best troops slaughtered or 
 taken prisoners, he uttered, it is said, an exclama- 
 tion of anguish. He might at this moment havo 
 drawn all his troops from the encampment; he 
 might have called over all the forces in New York 
 to take part in the battle : but victory having de- 
 clared in favour of the English, the courage with 
 which it inspired them, and the superiority of their 
 discipline, destroyed all hope of recovering the bat- 
 tle. Great praise is therefore due to Washington 
 for having preserved himself and his army for a hap- 
 pier future. 
 
 Washington withdraws his troops from Lony Inland 
 British enter New York Situation of the American 
 army Battle of West Plains Fort Washington 
 surrenders Fort Lee evacuated Washington 
 retreats. 
 
 On the night of the 28th of August, General 
 Washington, with great skill and judgment, suc- 
 ceeded in drawing the troops from Long Island to 
 New York ; to which place the detachment from 
 Governor's Island also retired. Finding it, however 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1047 
 
 impossible to defend the city, he removed his forces 
 to the heights of Harlaem. 
 
 About this time Captain Hale, a highly interest- 
 ing young officer of Connecticut, learning that 
 Washington wished to know the state of the British 
 army on Long Island, volunteered in the dangerous 
 service of a spy. He entered the British army in 
 disguise, and obtained the desired information ; but 
 being apprehended in his attempt to return, he was 
 carried before Sir William Howe, and by his orders 
 was executed the next morning. At the place of 1 
 execution, he exclaimed, " I lament that I have 
 but one life to lay down for my country." 
 
 On the 15th of September, the British army en- 
 tered and took possession of the city of New York. 
 A few days after, a tire broke out, which consumed 
 nearly one-fourth part of the buildings. It is said 
 that the fire was discovered in many different places 
 at once ; and hence many persons supposed that the 
 city was set on fire, as Moscow has more recently 
 been, to deprive its enemies of its hospitable shelter. 
 
 General Howe, not yet convinced of the constancy 
 of the American character, still indulged a hope 
 that they might now be sufficiently humbled to ac- 
 cede to the terms offered September llth by Eng- 
 land, and again made overtures for reconciliation. 
 Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, and Edward 
 Rutledge, were accordingly appointed to meet the 
 British commissioners at Staten Island. But as 
 they utterly refused to treat on any other basis than 
 the acknowledgment of American independence, 
 nothing was effected. 
 
 The situation in which the American commander 
 now saw the momentous contest, could not but have 
 filled him with alarming apprehensions for the fate 
 of his country. Until the check at Brooklyn, the 
 Americans had flattered themselves that Heaven 
 would constantly favour their arms. From the ex- 
 cessive confidence which had intoxicated them in 
 prosperity, they now fell into a state of dejection. 
 At first they had believed that courage without dis- 
 cipline could do all ; they now thought it could Jo 
 nothing : at every moment they were apprehensive 
 of some new surprise, and at every step fearful of 
 falling into an ambuscade. 
 
 Thus discouraged, the militia abandoned their 
 colours by hundreds, and entire regiments deserted 
 to their homes. In the regular army also, subor- 
 dination diminished, and desertions were common. 
 
 Their engagements were but for a year, or a few 
 weeks, and the hope of soon returning to their 
 families induced them to avoid dangers. The fidelity 
 of the generals was not suspected, but their talents 
 were distrusted, and every thing appeared to threaten 
 a total dissolution of the army. Washington strove 
 earnestly, with exhortation, persuasions, and pro- 
 mises, to arrest this spirit of disorganization. If he 
 did not succeed according to his designs, he obtained 
 more than his hopes. To congress he addressed an 
 energetic picture of the deplorable state of the forces, 
 and assured them that he must despair of success, 
 unless furnished with an army that should stand by 
 him till the conclusion of the enterprise. To effect 
 this, a beauty of twenty dollars was offered at the 
 time of engagement, and portions of unoccupied 
 lands were promised to the officers and soldiers. 
 
 But although Washington hoped ultimately to 
 reap the benefit of these arrangements, yet time 
 must intervene ; and his present prospect was that 
 of a handful of dispirited and ill-found troops, to 
 contend against a large and victorious army. In 
 this situation he adopted the same policy by which 
 
 Fabius Maximus had 2000 years before preserved 
 Italy, when invaded by Hannibal, and like him 
 saved his country. Hence he has been called the 
 American Fabius. This policy was to risk no gene- 
 ral engagement, but to harass and wear out the 
 enemy by keeping them in motion ; while by skir- 
 mishes, where success was probable, he would by- 
 degrees diminish their number and inspirit his own 
 troops. 
 
 On the 16th of September, the day after the Bri- 
 tish took possession of New York, a considerable 
 body of their troops appeared in the plain between 
 the two armies. Washington ordered Col. Knowl- 
 ton and Major Leech, with a detachment, to get in 
 their rear, while he amused them with preparations 
 to attack them in front. The plan succeeded ; and 
 although the brave Knowlton was killed, the ren- 
 contre was favourable to the Americans ; particu- 
 larly as it served in some degree to restore that con- 
 fidence in themselves which their preceding misfor- 
 tunes had destroyed. 
 
 The British commander manoeuvred with great 
 address to bring Washington to a general engage- 
 ment ; but failing of this, he endeavoured to destroy 
 his communication with the eastern states, and pre- 
 vent his supply of provisions from that quarter. To 
 effect this, it was necessary to- occupy the two roads 
 leading east. The one on the coast they secured 
 with little difficulty ; but to occupy the more inland 
 road, it was necessary to get possession of that post 
 of the highlands called White Plains. Washington, 
 aware of their object, removed his own force to that 
 place, where on the 28th of October he was attacked 
 by the British and Hessians, under Generals Howe, 
 Clinton, Knyphausen, and De Heistcr. A partial 
 engagement ensued, in which the loss on both sides 
 was considerable. Howe could not, however, draw 
 Washington from his position ; which he maintained 
 until a strong British reinforcement arrived under 
 Lord Percy, he dared not any longer risk his army, 
 but on the night of the 30th he withdrew his forces 
 to North Castle. Leaving here a body of men under 
 General Lee, he crossed the Hudson, and took post 
 near fort Lee. 
 
 General Howe next turned his attention towards 
 the forts Washington and Lee, which had been gar- 
 risoned with the hope of preserving the command of 
 the Hudson river. General Washington, foreseeing 
 their danger, had written to General Greene, who 
 commanded in that quarter, that if he should find 
 fort Washington not in a situation to sustain an as- 
 sault, to cause it instantly to be evacuated. General 
 Greene, believing that it might be maintained, left 
 it under the command of the brave Colonel Magaw, 
 with a force of 2700 men. On the 16th of Novem- 
 ber the British attacked the fort in four different 
 quarters. The Americans repelled them with surh 
 bravery, that in the course of the day about 1200 of 
 the assailants were killed or wounded. At length, 
 the Americans were forced to capitulate ; but not 
 without securing to themselves honourable terms. 
 The prisoners taken by the British at this time, 
 amounted to about 2000, a greater : amber than had, 
 on any previous occasion, fallen into their hands. 
 
 The British army immediately crossed the Hudson 
 to attack fort Lee ; but the garrison, apprised of 
 their approach, evacuated the fort, and under the 
 guidance of General Greene, joined the main army 
 at Newark. 
 
 The acquisition of these two forts, and the dimi- 
 nution of the American army, by the departure of 
 those soldier? whose term of service had expired, 
 
1048 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 encouraged the British to hope that they should be 
 able to annihilate, with ease, the remaining force 
 of the republicans. Washington still pursued the 
 policy of avoiding an engagement, as the only hope 
 of preserving his little army. Finding himself, in 
 the post which he had taken at Newark, too near 
 his triumphant foe, he removed to Brunswick. The 
 same day, Coinwallis, with a part of the British 
 army, entered Newark. Washington again retreated 
 from Brunswick to Princeton, and thence to Tren- 
 ton. The British still pursuing, he finally crossed 
 the Delaware into Pennsylvania. 
 
 General Howe appears, on this occasion, to have 
 manifested himself deficient in the energy and 
 promptitude of the military character ; as, with an 
 army of sixfold numerical force, and tenfold efficient 
 strength, comprised of disciplined troops, iu health 
 and vigour, ably commanded, completely found in 
 all things, and elated with success, he did not com- 
 mence the pursuit till four days after the capture of 
 forts Washington and Lee. 
 
 On the 28th of November, as the American rear- 
 guard left Newark at one end of the town, the Bri- 
 tish van entered the other ; and at any time after 
 this, till Washington crossed the Delaware, by a 
 single forced march, they might have overtaken and 
 destroyed his army. But forced marches were not 
 ordered by General Howe ; and when he arrived at 
 the Delaware, vhere he had hoped to overtake the 
 Americans, the last boat with the baggage was 
 crossing the river. 
 
 The British general, not choosing, however, to 
 take the trouble of constructing flat-bottomed boats, 
 for carrying over his troops, and the Americans 
 having been careful not to leave theirs for his ac- 
 commodation, he arranged his German troops, to 
 the number of 4000, along the Delaware, from 
 Holly to Trenton ; placed a strong British force at 
 Princeton ; stationed his main army at Brunswick, 
 and retired himself to New York, to wait for the 
 river to freeze, and that they might be furnished 
 with a convenient bridge; not doubting, as it would 
 seem, but that the Americans would quietly wait 
 until he was ready to pass over and destroy them. 
 
 Congress at this period manifested their sense of 
 the talents and services of the cominander-in-chief, 
 by resolving that he should be possessed of full 
 powers to order and direct all things relative to the 
 operations of the war. 
 
 Distress of Washington's army General Lee made 
 prisoner Washington attacks Cornwallis Arnold 
 defeated British blockade Providence Congress 
 extraordinary powers to Washington. 
 
 Washington showed how well he deserved the 
 confidence reposed in him, by making every ex- 
 ertion to increase his army, which, feeble as it was 
 when he commenced his retreat, had hourly dimi- 
 nished. His troops were unfed amidst fatigue; 
 unshod, while their bleeding feet were forced rapidly 
 over the sharp projections of frozen ground; and 
 they had to endure the keen December air, almost 
 without clothes or tents. In such a situation, the 
 wonder is not, that many died and many deserted, 
 but that enough remained to keep up the show of 
 opposition. In this distressing situation, Washing- 
 ton manifested to his troops all the firmness of a 
 commander, while he showed all the tenderness of a 
 father. He visited the sick, paid every attention 
 in his power to the wants of the army, praised their 
 constancy, and represented their sufferings to con- 
 gress. He encouxuged their despairing minds, by 
 
 holding out the prospects of a better future ; and thtf 
 serene and benignant countenance with which he 
 covered his aching heart, made them believe that 
 their beloved and sagacious commander was himself 
 animated with the prospects he portrayed to them. 
 
 The distresses of the Americans were increased by 
 the desertion of many of the supposed friends of 
 their cause. Howetak'ing advantage of what he con- 
 sidered their vanquished and hopeless condition, 
 offered free pardon to all who should now declare 
 for the royal authority. Of the extremes of society, 
 the very rich and the very poor, numbers now sued 
 for the royal clemency ; but few of the middle class 
 deserted their country in her hour of peril. 
 
 General Leo, as has been before stated, was, by 
 the orders of Washington, separated from the main 
 body of the army, soon after the battle of White 
 Plains. He was sent northerly, to be at hand to 
 succour the troops which were opposed to Carletou, 
 upon the lakes. But when Washington found the 
 main army in danger of annihilation, he ordered 
 Lee to join him with all possible expedition. Mercer, 
 who commanded a corps of light infantry at Bergen, 
 and Gates, who commanded on the northern frontier, 
 received similar orders, and promptly obeyed them. 
 Washington had also sent in various directions to 
 arouse the militia. General Mifflin, from Pennsyl- 
 vania, had now joined him with a body of 1500. 
 
 Lee's army was also united to the main army ; 
 but it was under the conduct of General Sullivan. 
 General Lee had not promptly executed the orders of 
 Washington, but had lingered along the northern 
 mountains of New Jersey ; where, having taken up 
 his quarters at a house d'isrant from the main body 
 of his army, he was surprised and carried prisoner 
 to New York, by a party of British cavalry. Sulli- 
 van immediately, as before stated, conducted the 
 army to Washington's camp. 
 
 With these reinforcements, the American forces 
 amounted to about 7000 effective men. A few days, 
 however, would close the year, and the period 'of 
 enlistment for a considerable portion of the soldiers, 
 expired with it. The cause of America demanded 
 that important use should be made of the short spare 
 which intervened. At this critical moment, Wash- 
 ington formed the bold resolution of re-crossing the 
 Delaware, and attacking the British at Trenton. 
 It has been remarked, that the British force ex- 
 tended on the left bank of the Delaware, from Tren- 
 ton to Holly, below Burlington. Washington de- 
 signed to cross his army over the river, in three 
 divisions ; at Makonkey's ferry, at Trenton ferry, 
 and at Bristol, in order to attack the posts at Tren- 
 ton and Burlington. The forces to cross at the two 
 last places, commanded by Irwing and Cadwallader. 
 were unable, owing to the 
 
 quantity of ice, to pro- 
 ler Washington, crossed 
 
 ceed. The main body, under 
 at Makonkey's ferry. " This force was separated Int 
 two divisions, commanded by Sullivan and Greene ; 
 under whom were Lord Sterling, Generals Mercer 
 and St. Clair. One division taking the upper road, 
 the other the Pennington road, they arrived at 
 Trenton at the same moment. The Hessians under 
 Colonel Rahl were surprised, and their commander 
 slain. Prisoners to the amount of 1000 were taken 
 by the Americans, who immediately re-crossed the 
 Delaware! The joy caused by this success was 
 great; and it was unalloyed by that sorrow, which 
 even victory generally brings. The Americans had 
 scarcely lost a man. 
 
 Lord" Cornwallis was at this time in New York, 
 on the point of embarking for England ; but on 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1049 
 
 receiving this news, he returned instantly to New 
 Jersey. The success of Washington at Trenton 
 induced the Americans to serve six weeks longer ; 
 and Washington had again quartered at Trenton 
 Cornwallis immediately proceeded towards Trenton 
 with the intention of giving battle to the Americans ; 
 and arrived with his van-guard, on the 1st of Ja- 
 nuary, having left a part of his troops at Princeton 
 Washington, knowing the inferiority of his force, 
 sensible too that flight would be almost as fatal as 
 defeat, conceived the project of marching to Prince- 
 ton, and attacking those who were left in that place. 
 About midnight, leaving his fires burning briskly, 
 that his army should not be missed, he silently de- 
 camped, and gained, by a circuitous route, the rear 
 of the enemy. At sun rise, the van of the American 
 forces met unexpectedly two British regiments. A 
 conflict ensued ; the Americans gave way : all was 
 at stake : and Washington himself, at this decisive 
 moment, led on the main body. The enemy were 
 routed, and fled. Instead of pursuing them, Wash- 
 ington pressed forward towards Princeton, where 
 one regiment yet remained. A part of these saved 
 themselves by flight ; the remainder, about 300 in 
 uuinber, were made prisoners. The loss of the Bri- 
 tish was upwards of 100; thatof the Americans was 
 less; but in the number was the brave General 
 Mercer, with several other valuable officers. 
 
 On hearing the cannonade from Princeton, Corn- 
 wallis, apprehensive for the safety of his Brunswick 
 stores, immediately put his army ill motion for that 
 place. Washington on the approach of Cornwallis, 
 retired to Morristown. When somewhat refreshed, 
 he again appeared against the British; and having 
 taken possession of Newark, Woodbridge, Eli/a- 
 bethtown, and indeed of all the enemy's posts in 
 New Jersey, except Brunswick and Amboy, he re- 
 tired, on the 6th of January, to secure quarters at 
 Morristown. In order to give a connected view of 
 the important operations of the main armies, events 
 have been omitted, which, had the order of time been 
 strictly observed, would have been sooner inserted. 
 
 On the llth of October, the northern American 
 force under General Arnold, and the British force 
 under Carleton, met on lake Champlain, near the 
 island of Valcour. The American armament was 
 entirely destroyed ; and General Carleton, after pro- 
 ceeding to Crown Point, reconnoitred the posts at 
 Ticonderoga and Mount Independence, and returned 
 to winter-quarters in Canada. 
 
 On the same day that General Washington re- 
 treated over the Delaware, the British took posses- 
 sion of Rhode Island, and blockaded the squadron 
 of Commodore Hopkins, together with a number of 
 privateers, at Providence. 
 
 On the 4th of October, congress adopted certain 
 articles, which were afterwards approved by the 
 several state governments, by which they agreed, 
 that on the first Monday of November in each year, 
 a general congress should be convoked, of deputies 
 from each of the states, and invested with all the 
 powers which belong to the sovereigns of other na- 
 tions. These powers were set forth, and the limits 
 between the authority of the state and national go- 
 vernment as clearly defined, as was at that time 
 practicable. These articles gave to the nation the 
 style of the " United States of America." They 
 were called the articles of confederation, and formed 
 the basis of the American government, until the 
 adoption of the federal constitution. 
 
 Never perhaps was a firmer or a wiser band of 
 patriots, than that which composed the congress 
 
 of 1776. They were environed with difficulties which 
 would have utterly discouraged men of weaker heads 
 or fainter hearts. They were without any power, 
 except the power to recommend. They had an ex- 
 hausted army to recruit, amidst a discouraged peo- 
 ple, and a powerful and triumphant foe ; and all 
 fliis, not merely without money, but almost without 
 credit ; for the bills which they had formerly issued 
 had greatly depreciated, and were daily depreci- 
 ating : yet they held their course of patriotic ex- 
 ertion, undismayed. In order to provide pecuniary 
 resources, they passed a law, authorizing a loan of 
 5,000,000 dollars, at four percent, yearly. They 
 also created a lottery ; intending by this means to 
 raise the sum of 1,500,000 dollars. Aware of the 
 importance of inducing the French to espouse the 
 American cause, they appointed, as commissioners 
 to the court of France, Benjamin Franklin, Silas 
 Deane, and Arthur Lee. They instructed them to 
 procure arms and ammunition, to obtain permission 
 to fit out American vessels in the ports of France, 
 in order to annoy the commerce of England. They 
 directed them to solicit a loan of 10,000,000 franks, 
 and to endeavour, by every means in their power, to 
 prevail upon the French government to recognise 
 the independence of the United States. 
 
 To General Washington they'gave.for six months, 
 powers which were almost dictatorial. They gave 
 him authority to levy and organize sixteen batta- 
 lions of infantry, in a'ddition to those already voted 
 by congress, and to appoint their officers ; to raise 
 and equip 3000 light-horse, three regiments of ar- 
 tillery, and a corps of engineers, and to establish 
 their pay. They empowered him to call into service 
 the militia of several states ; to displace and appoint 
 all officers under the rank of brigadier-general, and 
 to fill up all vacancies in every department of the 
 American army. They also authorized him to take 
 whatever he might want for the use of the army, 
 even if the inhabitants refused to sell it, establishing 
 his own price for the same ; and to arrest and con- 
 fine persons who refused to take the continental 
 money, returning their names and the nature of 
 their offences, to the states of which they were citi- 
 zens. This confidence in the good faith of their 
 defender, entitled them to find, and they did find, 
 one that was faithful. 
 
 Campaign of 1777 Excesses of the English army in 
 New Jersey Revolt of the loyalists Governor 
 Tryon advances to Danbury Exploit of Colonel 
 Meiys at Sag Harbour La Fayette espouses the 
 American cause Cornwallis defeats Sterling. 
 
 The inhabitants of New Jersey were so exaspe- 
 rated at the excesses which the English and Hessians 
 liad committed, that these troops now occupying 
 Brunswick and Amboy, could not venture out even 
 o forage, without extreme danger. General DC 
 Hfiister had not attempted to suppress his licentious 
 soldiery ; and the English soon vied with the Ger- 
 mans in all scenes of violence, outrage, cruelty, and 
 plunder ; and New Jersey presented only scenes of 
 havoc and desolation. The complaints of America 
 were echoed throughout Europe, and it was every 
 where reproachfully said, that " England had re- 
 vived in America the fury of the Goths, and the 
 sarbarity of the northern hordes." 
 
 At this period the loyalists evinced a spirit of re- 
 volt in the counties of Somerset and Worcester, in 
 Maryland; of Sussex in Delaware, and of Albany 
 n New York, to which places troops were sent to 
 overawe them. 
 
1050 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 The small-pox which had made such ravages in 
 the northern army during the last year, now thrca 
 tened the middle. To prevent the loss of lives from 
 this source, Washington caused his army, both re 
 gulars and militia, to be inoculated ; and the affai 
 was so prudently conducted, that no opportunity 
 was in consequence offered for the British to attack 
 his camp. 
 
 The first attempts of the British during the cam 
 paign of 1777, were against the American storei 
 collected at Courtland Manor, in New York, and a 
 Danbury, in Connecticut. Peekskill, the port of th 
 Manor, was then in command of Colonel McDougal 
 The 23rd of March, the British, under Colonel Bird 
 attacked this post, and McDougal, knowing his few 
 men could not defend it, destroyed the magazines 
 and retired to the back country. The loss, though 
 greater than the Americans would acknowledge, 
 was less than Howe anticipated. 
 
 The 25th of April, 2000 men under Governor 
 Tryon, major of the provincials or tories, having 
 past the sound, landed between Fairfieid and Nor- 
 walk. The next day proceeding to Danbury, he 
 compelled the garrison under Colonel Huntington 
 to retire, and not only destroyed the stores, but 
 burned the town. 
 
 Meantime, 800 militia had collected to annoy 
 them on their return ; of whom 500, under Arnold, 
 took post at Ridgefield to attack their front, while 
 300, under General Wooster, fell upon their rear. 
 Both parties were repulsed, Wooster slain, and 
 Arnold retired to Saugatuck, about three miles east 
 of Norwalk. The enemy having spent the night at 
 Ridgefield, set fire to it, still retreating, although 
 continually harassed by Arnold's party, now in- 
 creased to 1000 ; until they at length arrived at 
 Compo, between Norwalk and Fairfieid, and took 
 refuge on board their ships. The British loss was 
 170, the American 100. As to the stores taken, 
 the loss of tents was most severely felt by the Ame- 
 ricans. From the promptitude with which the inha- 
 bitants rose on the marauders, who expected many 
 to join them, the friends of liberty had their hopes 
 invigorated, and their exertions encouraged. 
 
 The same effect was also produced by another 
 affair which occurred soon after. The British had 
 collected at Sag Harbour, on Long Island, immense 
 magazines of forage and grain. Colonel Meigs, one 
 of the intrepid companions of Arnold in the expedi- 
 tion to Canada, with 130 men, left Guilford on the 
 23rd of May, destroyed the stores, burned a dozen 
 brigs and sloops, killed six of the enemy, took 90 
 prisoners, and returned without loss. 
 
 About this time the effects of the mission to 
 France began to appear. Congress had with great 
 judgment selected Dr. Franklin as one of the com- 
 missioners. A profound knowledge of human na- 
 ture, united with a warm and cheerful benevolence, 
 had given to this philosopher a manner possessing a 
 peculiar charm, attractive to all, however different 
 their taste or pursuits. His wit and gaiety even 
 at 70, the age at which he went to Paris, had 
 power to charm the young beauty from her lovers 
 and her toilette ; while his wisdom and his learning 
 could instruct the mechanic in his own trade, or the 
 statesman in his profoundest calculations. Perhaps 
 it is equally to these qualities in Franklin as to the 
 graver wisdom and more heroic valour of Washing- 
 ton that America owes her existence as a nation ; 
 for it must ever remain problematical, whether, 
 without the aid of France, she could have achieved 
 her independence ; and although political reasons 
 
 might have operated to make France wish evil to 
 England, yet without the interest which Franklin 
 found means to excite for America, it is not proba- 
 ble the'government would have effectually interfered. 
 
 This interest was so lively, that several individuals 
 of distinction took the generous resolution of em- 
 barking in the cause of America, and combating in 
 her armies. The most distinguished of these was 
 the young Marquis de la Fayette. With every 
 thing to attach him to his country, rank,wealth, a de- 
 serving and beloved bride, he was yet moved by com- 
 passion to the suffering, and by indignation against 
 oppression, to leave all that was individually dear, 
 to expose his life and impair his fortune in the cause 
 of American liberty, and the rights of man. He 
 had early communicated his resolution to the com- 
 missioners. After hearing of the disasters which 
 followed the battle of Long Island, they felt bound 
 to communicate to him the despairing state of their 
 country ; and also that such was her extreme poverty 
 that they could not even provide him with a vessel 
 for his conveyance. " Then," said Fayette, " if 
 your country is indeed reduced to this extremity, 
 this is the moment that my departure to join her 
 armies, will render her the most essential service." 
 His arrival caused a deep sensation of joy among 
 the people. Congress appointed him a major-ge- 
 neral in the army ; and Washington received him 
 into his family, and regarded him with parental 
 affection. 
 
 The American commander, in forming such a 
 probable calculation on the movements of his enemy 
 at New York, as would enable him to make a judi- 
 cious disposition of his own army, which now 
 amounted to 18,000, was well aware that there were 
 two objects of surpassing magnitude to the British. 
 The one was to get possession of Philadelphia ; and 
 the other to proceed up the Hudson and form a 
 junction with the northern army, and thus cut off 
 the communication between the eastern and south- 
 ern states. His sagacious mind comprehended that 
 the latter was the most important enterprise ; and 
 tie knew that it best coincided with the orders which 
 Howe had received from England. He was there- 
 fore inclined to believe that such would be his course; 
 but he also knew that Howe had, the preceding 
 year, manifested a disposition to follow his own 
 plans, rather than those of the ministry ; and that 
 t was a favourite project with him to draw the Ame- 
 ricans into a general engagement, not doubting but 
 ,hat it would issue in their final discomfiture. 
 Washington therefore sought to make such a dispo- 
 sition of his forces as should best enable him to con- 
 centrate them in opposition to the British com- 
 mander, whichever way he should turn. He re- 
 moved the main army from Morristown and took a 
 trong position at the heights of Middlebrook. He 
 tationed the troops raised in the northern provinces 
 at Peekskill and Ticonderoga, and those from the 
 middle and southern in New Jersey. 
 
 Howe commenced his operations by an attempt, 
 vhich the time wasted in his last campaign might 
 lave taught him would be fruitless ; which -fras to 
 Iraw the American commander into a general en- 
 gagement. For this purpose he crossed the Hudson, 
 ind marched to Middlebrook ; but finding the Ame- 
 ican camp too strong to attack, he remained several 
 lays before it, vainly offering battle. Finding that 
 Washington could not be thus induced to leave his 
 ntrenchments, he made a feiut to induce Washing- 
 on to believe that he was going to attack Philadel- 
 *hia, by detaching first several parlies, ami finally 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1051 
 
 his whole army towards the Delaware. But failing 
 in these attempts to draw Washington from his 
 camp, as though nothing further could be effected, 
 on the 19th of June he ordered a precipitate retreat 
 from Jersey. Having arrived at Amboy, the bridge 
 designed for ,the Delaware was thrown hastily over 
 to Staten Island, and all the heavy baggage and 
 many of the troops passed it. Even Washington 
 was for once deceived. He ordered his army to the 
 pursuit, and proceeded himself to Quibbletown, six 
 miles nearer Amboy. Howe having thus at length 
 succeeded in drawing Washington from his camp, 
 recalled his troops during the night of the 25th from 
 the island to the continent ; and the next day pro- 
 ceeded against the Americans in two parties the 
 right or eastern under Cornwallis, to proceed by 
 Woodbridge to Scotch Plains the left under Howe, 
 to go by Metuckin. Howe was to attack the Ame- 
 ricans at Quibbletown; Cornwallis to gain the 
 heights at Middlebrook. 
 
 After passing Middlebrook, Cornwallis attacked 
 and defeated 700 Americans, under Stirling. The 
 noise of the firing instantly convinced Washington 
 what was the design of the English. He with cele- 
 rity regained his camp at Middlebrook. and detached 
 parties which secured his lefi or eastern pass, which 
 Cornwallis designed to take. Washington being 
 again within his strong hold, Howe and Cornwallis 
 retired to Amboy, and passed with their army to 
 Staten Island. 
 
 General Prescott captured Burgoyne arrives at Que- 
 bec with an army Fort Stantvix invested Bur- 
 goyne's army move to Crown Point Americans 
 low 1000 men Schuyler retreats British defeated 
 at Bennington Battle near Saratoga British de- 
 feated Bouryoyne surrenders Garrison of Ticon- 
 deroga retreat Kingston is burned, 
 
 Great preparations were now made by the English 
 at Staten Island and New York ; but whether their 
 object was to co-operate by the Hudson with the 
 Canadian army, or to conquer Philadelphia, was 
 indeterminable. 
 
 On the night of July 10th, occurred the capture 
 of General Prescott, then in command on Rhode 
 Island. Colonel Barton, with 40 country militia 
 under his command, proceeded from Warwick, ton 
 miles in their whale boats, landed between Newport 
 and Bristol, marched a mile to Prescott' s quarters, 
 took the general from his bed, and conducted him 
 with dispatch to a place of safety on the main land. 
 
 Mean time great preparations were making for a 
 descent upon the United States from Canada. The 
 plan of dividing the states, by effecting a junction 
 of the British army through lake Champlain and 
 the Hudson, was at the beginning of this year 
 looked to by the whole British nation as the certain 
 means of effecting the reduction of America. This 
 plan had gained new favour in England by the re- 
 presentations of General Burgoyne, an officer who 
 had served under Carleton, and whose knowledge of 
 American affairs was therefore undisputed. Bur- 
 goyne by his importunities with the British ministry, 
 obtained the object for which he had made a voyage 
 to England. He was appointed to the command of 
 all the troops in Canada, to the prejudice of Gover- 
 nor Carleton, and wtis furnished with an army and 
 military stores. With these he arrived at Quebec 
 in May. 
 
 General Carleton, exhibiting an honourable ex- 
 ample of moderation and patriotism, seconded Bur- 
 goyuc iu hit; preparations with great diligence and 
 
 energy. To increase the army he exerted not only 
 bis authority as governor, but also his influence 
 among his numerous friends and partisans. Though 
 himself averse to employing the savages, yet such 
 being the orders of the British government, he aided 
 in bringing to the field even a greater number than 
 could be employed. 
 
 Burgoyne's army was provided with a formidable 
 train of artillery. The principal officers who were 
 to accompany him were General Philips, who had 
 distinguished himself in the German wars, Briga- 
 diers Frazer and Powcl ; the Brunswick Major- 
 general Baron Reidesel, and Brigadier-general 
 Sperht. The army consisted of 7173 British and 
 German troops, besides several thousands of Cana- 
 dians and Indians. 
 
 Burgoyne's plan of operation was that Colonel 
 St. Leger should proceed with a detachment by the 
 St. Lawrence, Oswego, and Fort Stanwix to Albany. 
 Burgoyne proceeding by Champlain and the Hud- 
 son, was to meet St. Leger at Albany, and both 
 join General Clinton at New York. 
 
 His preparations completed, Burgoyne moved 
 forward with his army, and made his first encamp- 
 ment on the western shore of lake Champlain at the 
 river Boquet. Here in two instances he betrayed 
 that vanity which his biographers consider the cha- 
 racteristic weakness of his character. He made a 
 speech to his Indian allies, in which, in terms of 
 singular energy and with an imposing manner, he 
 endeavoured to persuade them to change their sa- 
 vage mode of warfare. He also published a procla- 
 mation, in which, by arguments, promises, and 
 threats, (threats of savage extermination !) he 
 seemed to expect that he should bring the republi- 
 cans to the royal standard ; as if the words which he 
 should speak could change the natural character, 
 and established manners of a nation; or those 
 which he could write should have power to subvert 
 the purpose of men, whom all the previous measures 
 of his government bad failed to intimidate. 
 
 Meanwhile St. Leger, and Sir John Jonson who 
 bad united with him, having nearly 2,000 troops, 
 including savages, invested Fort Stanwix then in 
 command of Colonel Gansevoort. On the 3rd of 
 May, General Herkimer having collected the militia, 
 marched to the velief of Gansevoort ; but he fell into 
 an English ambuscade, and was defeated and slain 
 with 700 of his troops. St. Leger wishing to profit 
 by his victory, pressed upon the fort. In this peril- 
 ous moment, Colonel Willet and Lieutenant Stock- 
 ton escaped from the fort, made their way through 
 the English camp, eluding the Indians, arrived at 
 German Flats, and proceeded tc Albany to alarm 
 the country and gain assistance. 
 
 General Schuyler, on hearing the danger of the 
 fort, dispatched "Arnold to its relief. * On his ap- 
 proach, the Indians having previously become dis- 
 satisfied, now mutinied, and compelled St. Leger to 
 return to Montreal. On the way. they committed 
 such depredations on tne British troops, as to leave 
 the impression that they were no less dangerous as 
 allies than as enemies. 
 
 To preserve a connected view of the expedition of 
 St. Leger, we have nearly two months, forestalled 
 the operations, of Burgoyne. On the 30th oi June 
 that general advanced to Crown Point, from whence 
 he proceeded to invest Ticouderoga, which -A as 
 garrisoned by 3000 men, under the command of 
 General St.. Clair. This was a place of great na- 
 tural strength, and much expense aud labour had 
 been bcfrtovved upon its ioi tin' cations - } but up to this 
 
1052 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 period a circumstance respecting it seems to have 
 been strangely overlooked. It is commanded by an 
 eminence in its neighbourhood called Mount De- 
 fiance. The troops of Burgoyne got possession of 
 this height on the 5th of July, and St. Clair finding 
 the post no longer tenable, evacuated it on the same 
 night. The garrison, separated into two divisions, 
 were to proceed through Hubbardton to Skeenes- 
 borough. The first division under St. Clair, left 
 the fort in the night, two hours earlier than the 
 second under Colonel Francis. The stores and 
 baggage, placed on board 200 batteaux, and con- 
 voyed by five armed galleys, were to meet the army 
 at Skeenesborough. 
 
 General Frazer, with 850 of the British, pursued 
 and attacked the division at Hubbardton, under 
 Colonel Francis, whose rear was commanded by 
 Colonel Warner. The Americans made a brave 
 resistance, during which 130 of the enemy were 
 killed; but the British, in the heat of the action, 
 receiving a reinforcement under Reidesel, the re- 
 publicans were forced to give way. They fled in 
 every direction, spreading through the country the 
 terror of the British arms. In this unfortunate 
 action the Americans lost in killed, wounded, and 
 prisoners, nearly 1000 men. Many of the wounded 
 perished in the woods. Colonel Francis was among 
 the slain. 
 
 A part of the stores and armed galleys which had 
 been sent up the lake, fell into the hands of the 
 British. St. Clair, on hearing of these disasters, 
 did not pursue his intended route, but struck into 
 the woods on his left. At Manchester he was 
 joined by the remnant of the vanquished division, 
 conducted by General Warner. After a distressing 
 march, he reached the camp of General Schuyter, 
 at Port Edward, on the 30th. Warner remained 
 in Manchester with a detachment, which proved of 
 great importance in the affair which shortly after 
 occurred at Bennington. 
 
 Burgoyne, meanwhile, took possession of Skeenes- 
 borough. The American army under Schuyler re- 
 tired as he approached, successively, to Fort Anne, 
 to Fort Edward, to Saratoga, and finally, on the 
 13th of August, to the islands at the mouth of the 
 Mohawk. 
 
 This period of the history was gloomy to America, 
 and triumphant to England. When the news of 
 Burgoyne's successes reached that country, the mi- 
 nisters were every where felicitated on the success 
 of their plans; and rejoicings were made, as though 
 their object was already attained. On the other 
 hand, the Americans saw that the juncture was 
 critical and alarming ; but their spirit rose with the 
 occasion, and they breasted themselves to the shock. 
 
 General Schuyler, before leaving the northern 
 positions, obstructed the roads by breaking the 
 bridges, and, in the only passable defiles, by cutting 
 immense trees on both sides of the way, to fall cross 
 and lengthwise. These, with their branches inter- 
 woven, presented to the enemy an almost insur- 
 mountable barrier. 
 
 Congress were aware of the great merits and ex- 
 ertions of General Schuyler; yet they found that 
 the misfortunes of the army had, though undeservedly, 
 made him unpopular; and therefore it was neces- 
 sary to supersede him, in order to make way for a 
 leader, who should inspire a confidence that would 
 draw volunteers to the service. Accordingly Gene- 
 ral Gates was appointed to the command. Lincoln 
 also was ordered to the north, as were Arnold and 
 Morgan, whose active spirits and brilliant achieve- 
 
 ments, it was hoped, would reanimate the dispirited 
 troops. The celebrated patriot of Poland, Kosci- 
 usko, was also in the army, as its chief engineer. 
 
 Burgoyne, having with great expense of labour 
 and time opened a way for his army, arrived at the 
 Hudson on the 30th of July. But being in a hostile 
 country, he could obtain no provisions but from Ti- 
 conderoga; and these he was compelled to trans- 
 port by the way of lake George. Learning that 
 there was a large depot of provisions at Bennington, 
 he sent 400 men under Lieutenant-colonel Baum, a 
 brave German officer, to seize them. General Stark, 
 with a body of New Hampshire militia, was on his 
 march to join General Gates, when hearing of 
 Baum's approach, he recruited his forces from the 
 neighbouring militia, and met him four miles from 
 Bennington. After a sharp conflict, Baum was 
 killed, and his party defeated. The militia had dis- 
 persed to seek for plunder, when a British rein- 
 forcement under Colonel Breyman arrived. Fortu- 
 nately for the Americans, the Green Mountain 
 Boys, under Colonel Warner, appeared at the same 
 time, and the British were again defeated, and 
 compelled to retreat. Their loss was 700, the 
 greater part of whom were taken prisoners. The 
 republican loss was inconsiderable. 
 
 After the battle of Bennington, the Hessian pri- 
 soners were carried into the village, and distributed 
 into public buildings and out-houses. The meeting 
 house was filled to crowding. The next day an 
 alarm was suddenly given to the women of the vil- 
 lage, to take their children and flee. The Hessians, 
 it was said, were rising on their guard. They were 
 rushing in all directions out of the meeting-house. 
 The guard fired, and killed five of them. But the 
 fears of the inhabitants were suddenly changed to 
 compassion. The galleries were giving way. In 
 danger of being crushed to death, the unfortunate 
 men rushed out and met the fire of a guard, who 
 could not understand, from their foreign speech, 
 their explanation of the disoder. 
 
 The army of the islands having been reinforced, 
 and amounting to 5000, Gates left that encampment 
 the 8th of September, and proceeding to Stillwater, 
 occupied Behmus heights. 
 
 On the 12th, Burgoyne crossed the Hudson, and 
 on the 14th encamped at Saratoga. An obstinate 
 and bloody battle occurred at Stillwater on the 19th. 
 At first it was partial, commencing with a skirmish 
 between the advanced parties. Each party kept 
 reinforcing their own combatants, until nearly the 
 whole were in action. The American combatants 
 took advantage of a wood which lay between the 
 two camps, and poured from it a fire too deadly to 
 be withstood. The British lines broke; and the 
 Americans rushing from their coverts, pursued them 
 to an eminence, where their flanks being supported, 
 they rallied ; charging in their turn, they drove the 
 Americans into the woods, from which they again 
 poured a dreadful fire, and again the British fell 
 back. At every charge the British artillery fell 
 into the hands of the Americans, who could neither 
 carry it off, or turn it on the enemy. At length 
 night came on, and to fight longer, would be to at- 
 tack indiscriminately friends and foes. 
 
 The Americans retired to their camp, having lost 
 between 300 and 400 men : the loss of the British 
 was 500. Both sides claimed the victory ; but the 
 advantage gained was clearly on the side of the 
 Americans. 
 
 Skirmishes, frequent and animated, occurred be- 
 tween this and the 7th of October, whn a general 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1053 
 
 battle was fought at Saratoga. At this time the 
 right wing of General Gates occupied the brow of 
 the hill near the river. This camp was in the form 
 of the segment of a great circle, the convex side 
 towards the enemy. 
 
 General Burgoyne's left was on the river, his right 
 extending at right angles to it across the low grounds, 
 about 200 yards, to a range of steep heights, occu- 
 pied by his choicest troops. 
 
 The guard of his camp upon the high grounds was 
 given to Brigadiers Hamilton and Sperht ; that of 
 the redoubts and plain near the river, to Brigadier 
 Gole. Burgoyne commanded in person the centre 
 detachment of 1800, and was seconded by Philips, 
 Reidesel, and Frazer. His left flank, composed of 
 grenadiers, was commanded by Major Ackland; 
 his right, consisting of infantry, by the earl of Bal- 
 carras. 
 
 The Americans, undei General Poor, attacked 
 the left flank and front of the British ; and at the 
 same time Colonel Morgan attacked their right. The 
 action became general. The efforts of the comba- 
 tants were desperate. Burgoyne and his officers 
 fought like men who were defending at the last cast 
 iheir military reputation ; Gates and his army, like 
 those who were deciding whether their native land 
 should become the prey of invaders. 
 
 The invading army gave way in the short space 
 of 52 minutes. The defenders of the soil pursued 
 them to their intrenchments, forced the guard, and 
 killed Colonel Breyman, its commander. Arnold, 
 the tiger of the American army, whose track was 
 marked by carnage, headed a small band stormed 
 their works, and followed them into their camp. 
 But his horse was killed under him; he was himself 
 wounded, and darkness was coming on. He re- 
 tired ; and thus was reserved to another day, the 
 utter ruin of the British army. 
 
 The loss in killed and wounded was great on both 
 sides, but especially on the part of the British, of 
 whom a considerable number were made prisoners. 
 General Frazer, whose character was as elevated as 
 his rank, received a mortal wound. 
 
 The Americans had now an opening into the Bri- 
 tish camp. They rested on their arms the night 
 after the battle, on the field which they had so 
 bravely won; determined to pursue their victory 
 with returning light. But Burgoyne, aware of the 
 advantage which they had gained, effected, with 
 admirable order, a change of his ground. The ar- 
 tillery, the camp and its appurtenances, were all 
 removed before morning to the heights. The British 
 army, in this position, had the river in its rear, and 
 its two wings displayed along the hills upon, its right 
 bank. Gates was too wise to attack his enemy in 
 this position, and exposed to another risk what now 
 wanted nothing but vigilance to make certain. He 
 now made arrangements to enclose his enemy, which 
 Burgoyne perceiving, put his army in motion at 
 nine o'clock at night, and removed to Saratoga, six 
 miles up the river. He was obliged to abandon his 
 hospital with 300 sick and wounded, to the humanity 
 of the Americans. 
 
 Burgoyne now made efforts in various directions 
 to effect a retreat, but in every way he had been an- 
 ticipated. He found himself in a hostile and foreign 
 country, hemmed in by a foe, whose army con- 
 stantly increasing, already amounted to four times 
 his own wasting numbers. The boats laden with 
 his supplies were taken and his provisions were fail- 
 ing. He had early communicated with Sir Henry 
 Clinton at New York, and had urged his co-opera- 
 
 tion. More recently, when his fortune began to 
 darken, he had entreated him for speedy aid ; stat- 
 ing that at the most, his army could not hold out 
 beyond the 12th. The 12th arrived without the ex- 
 pected succour. His army was in the utmost dis- 
 tress, and Burgoyne capitulated on the 17th. 
 
 The army surrendered amounted to 5752, which 
 together with the troops lost before by various dis- 
 asters, made up the whole British loss to 9213. There 
 also fell into the hands of J the Americans 35 brass 
 field-pieces, and 5000 muskets. It was stipulated 
 that the British should pile their arms at the word of 
 command, given by their own officers, march out of 
 their camp with the honours of war, and have free 
 passage across the Atlantic; they on their part 
 agreeing not to serve again in North America dur- 
 ing the war. They were treated with delicacy by 
 the Americans. Their officers, especially their com- 
 mander, received many kind attentions. The worthy 
 General Schuyler hospitably entertained Burgoyne 
 at his own house ; although much of his private pro- 
 perty, especially an elegant villa, was destroyed by 
 command of that officer. 
 
 On hearing of the defeat of Burgoyne, the British 
 garrison at Ticonderoga, returned to Canada, and 
 not a foe remained in the northern section of the 
 union. Thus ended an expeditipn from which 
 the British had hoped, and the Americans had 
 feared so much. The effects of their success were 
 highly propitious to the cause of the republicans. 
 It weakened and discouraged their enemy, gave them 
 a supply of artillery and stores, and what was still 
 more important, raised them in their own estima- 
 tion, and in that of foreign nations. 
 
 Connected in some degree with Burgoyne's in- 
 vasions, was the predatory excursion up the North 
 river, in which the British took forts Clinton and 
 Montgomery, and burned the village of Esopus, 
 now Kingston. This excursion, commanded by Sir 
 Henry Clinton, who was accompanied by Tryon and 
 Vaughan, appears to have had the double object of 
 opening a free navigation for the British vessels up 
 the river to Albany, and of making a division of the 
 American forces, which were now concentrated in 
 opposition to Burgoyne, and thus giving him an 
 opportunity to escape. Had Clinton taken this step 
 earlier, he might possibly have effected the latter 
 object. As it was, Burgoyne had notice of the taking 
 of the forts, and the advance of Clinton, just after 
 he had made a verbal agreement to sign the articles 
 of capitulation ; when neither his honour nor his 
 humanity would permit him longer to await the ex- 
 pected succour. 
 
 Clinton, on hearing that Burgoyne had surrendered, 
 and that Gates was advancing to attack him, eva- 
 cuated and dismantled the forts which he had taken, 
 and retreated to New York, experiencing no other 
 permanent result than the execrations of a plun- 
 dered people, and the character of reviving in a 
 civilized age, barbarian atrocities. 
 
 Battle of Brandy wine Americans defeated Wash- 
 ington retreats to Chester Congress adjourn to 
 Lancaster Cornwallis enters Philadelphia Battle 
 of Germantown Americans defeated Washing- 
 ton returns to Schippack creek Attack on Redbank 
 American crews destroy their own vessels Wash- 
 ington retires to winter-quarters. 
 
 Having now given a connected view of the momen- 
 tous operations in the north, we go back nearly three 
 months, in the order of time, to take a brief sketch 
 of the less decisive transactions of the middle states. 
 
i054 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Admiral and General Howe, intent on the cap- 
 ture of Philadelphia, left Sandy Hook on the 23rd 
 of July. Sailing up Chesapeake Bay, they disem- 
 barked their troops, amounting to 18,000, on the 
 25th of August, at the head of the Elk river, 50 miles 
 south-west of Philadelphia. Washington, apprised 
 of their movements, crossed the Delaware, deter- 
 mined to oppose them, notwithstanding his army was 
 greatl) diminished by the powerful detachments he 
 had sent to check the alarming progress of Burgoyne. 
 
 Accompanied by Generals Greene, Sullivan. 
 Wayne, and Stirling, he approached the enemy 
 until he reached Gray's Hill, in front of the British 
 commanders, with whom were Generals Knyphau- 
 sen and Cornwallis. 
 
 He encamped on the rising grounds which extend 
 from Chadsfoid, in the direction from north-west 
 to south-east, and here, (the shallow stream of the 
 Brandywine being between the armies,) he awaited 
 an attack from (he British; well knowing that nothing 
 but a victory could now save Philadelphia. Early 
 in the morning, on the llth of September, the Bri- 
 tish army being drawn up in two divisions, com- 
 menced the expected assault. Agreeable to the plan 
 of Howe, the right wing, commanded by Knyphau- 
 sen, made a feint of crossing the Brandywine, at 
 Chadsford; while the left, commanded by Corn- 
 wallis, took a circuitous route up the Brandywine, 
 and crossed, though not without opposition, at the 
 forks, 
 
 Knyphausen, with some fighting and much noise, 
 had occupied the attention of the Americans. Wash- 
 ington, learning the approach of Cornwallis, deter- 
 mined to press forward in the centre and on the left; 
 and if possible, divide the army, and cut off Kny- 
 phausen. The false intelligence, that Cornwallis was 
 not approaching, pi evented his executing this bold 
 design, which might have changed the fate of the 
 day. He had already dispatched some of his officers, 
 whom, by the false intelligence, he was induced to 
 recall. Thus time was consumed, and Cornwallis 
 fell upon the Americans while they were in some 
 measure unprepared to receive him. They however 
 defended themselves with great valour, and the car- 
 nage was terrible. But they at length were forced 
 to give way. Washington ordered to their aid the 
 reserve, commanded by Greene ; but it was too late, 
 and the most it could effect was to cover the retreat 
 of the fugitives. Knyphausen began in earnest 
 effecting his passage at Chadsford. The Americans 
 withstood bravely ; but finding the remainder of the 
 army vanquished, they fled in confusion, and aban- 
 doned to the enemy their artillery and ammunition. 
 These fugitives also found a shelter within the lines 
 of Greene, who was last to quit the field of battle. 
 The Americans lost 300 killed, 600 wounded, and 
 400 taken prisoners. The British loss in killed and 
 wounded was less than 500. This battle was dis- 
 tinguished by the exertions of foreign officers. The 
 heroic La Fayette, while endeavouring to rally the 
 fugitives, was wounded in the leg. Another French 
 officer of distinction, the Baron St. Ovary, was 
 made prisoner; and Count Pulaski,a celebrated Po- 
 lander, displayed a courage which congress after- 
 wards rewarded with the rank of brigadier-general. 
 
 On the night succeeding the battle, the Americans 
 retreated to Chester ; the next day, through Phila- 
 delphia to Germantown. The following day, a de- 
 tachment of British troops proceeded to Wilmington, 
 and took prisoner the governor of Delaware. They 
 seized considerable property, public and private; 
 among which was a quantity of coined money. 
 
 Not disheartened by this defeat, Washington de- 
 termined to risk another battle for the defence of 
 the capital, and accordingly, re-passed the Schuyl- 
 kill, and met the enemy at Goshcn ; but a violent 
 shower of rain wet the powder in the ill-constructed 
 cartridge-boxes of the Americans, and compelled 
 the commander to defer the engagement. The re- 
 publicans were unfortunate in another attempt to 
 annoy the enemy. Washington had ordered Wayne 
 with a detachment into the rear of the British. This 
 detachment was surprised ; and a night scene of 
 shocking slaughter ensued, in which a great part 
 of the Americans were cut off. 
 
 Howe now made a movement, which placed 
 Washington in a situation where he could not in- 
 terpose his army between the enemy and the capital, 
 without exposing to destruction the extensive maga- 
 zine of provisions and military stores which had 
 been established at Reading. Notwithstanding the 
 clamours of the populace, he prudently abandoned 
 the city, rather than sacrifice the stores, or risk 
 another battle, while the odds were so much against 
 him. 
 
 Congress, finding themselves insecure in Phila- 
 delphia, adjourned to Lancaster, to which place the 
 public archives and magazines were removed. They 
 again invested Washington with the same dictatorial 
 powers which were intrusted him after the reverses 
 in New Jersey. 
 
 On the 2Gth, o detachment of the British army, 
 under Cornwallis, entered the American capital: 
 the main body remained at Germantown. Within 
 sixteen miles of this place, at Schippack creek, was 
 encamped the American army, which had been con- 
 ducted by Washington along the left bank of the 
 Schuylkill. 
 
 Lord Howe had now consummated an event to 
 which he had looked as decisive of the contest. But 
 far from being subdued, the Americans were not 
 even disheartened. They knew that the army of 
 Washington, when it should have received its rein- 
 forcements, could cut off the enemy's supplies on 
 the side of Pennsylvania. If, therefore, they could 
 prevent their receiving them by water, they would 
 soon be compelled to evacuate the city. For this 
 object, they had created batteries on Mud Island, 
 and also at Red Bank and Billing's Point, on the 
 Jersey shore ; along which places they had sunk 
 ranges of frames, to impede the navigation of the 
 river. The British, sensible of the importance of 
 a free communication with the sea, by means of the 
 Delaware, sent Colonel Stirling with a detachment 
 to attack Billing's Point, and clear away the ob- 
 structions which the Americans had placed in the 
 river ; in which they were ultimately successful. 
 
 The American commander, knowing that the 
 army of Howe was weakened by the detachments 
 under Cornwallis and Stirling, determined if possi- 
 ble, to surprise him. He accordingly left his camp 
 at Schippack creek, at seven in the evening. The 
 approach of the Americans was discovered by the 
 British patrols. Washington's army commenced 
 the attack about sunrise. Fortune at first favoured 
 the arms of the Americans, and the British were 
 compelled to retreat. But Colonel Musgrove hav- 
 ing thrown several companies into a stone house, 
 they so annoyed the Americans, that the pursuit 
 was delayed. The Pennsylvania militia did not all 
 perform the duty assigned them. A thick fog com 
 ing on, caused confusion in the American ranks. 
 The British, thus enabled to recover from the first 
 attack, aroused to fresh exertions ; ami the Araeri- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1055 
 
 cans were defeated. Their loss was 200 killed ; 
 among whom was General Nash of North Carolina ; 
 600 wounded, and 400 taken prisoners. The Bri- 
 tish loss was 500 ; among their killed were Colonels 
 Agnew and Bird. 
 
 The American army, with all its artillery, now 
 retreated twenty miles to Perkiomy creek, and from 
 thence, having received a reinforcement of 500 mili- 
 tia, Washington advanced to his old camp, at Schip- 
 pack creek. Although the army had not effected 
 what its commander had hoped, yet so much skill 
 and bravery had been displayed, that its reputation 
 was enhanced. 
 
 Congress voted their thanks to the commander, 
 and his officers and soldiers, except General Ste- 
 phens, who was cashiered for misconduct on the 
 retreat. 
 
 A few days after the battle, the royal army re- 
 moved from Germantown to Philadelphia. Scarcity 
 of provisions prevented Howe from following the 
 Americans, and he wished to co-operate in the de- 
 sign of opening ?the navigation of the Delaware. 
 Indeed this measure became necessary to the preser- 
 vation of his army, which could not draw subsis- 
 tence from the adjacent country ; so effectually did 
 the menacing attitude of Washington's army ope- 
 rate, and also the edict of congress, which pro- 
 nounced the penalty of death upon any citizen who 
 should dai'C to afford him supplies. Thus situated, 
 the British general found, in the language of a wit 
 of the times, that " instead of taking Philadelphia, 
 Philadelphia had taken him." 
 
 To succeed in opening a communication with 
 their fleet, it was necessary that the British should 
 possess themselves of Mud Island, which was de- 
 fended by Fort Mifllin and Fort Mercer on lied 
 Bank. Accordingly a body of Hessians, under 
 Colonel Donop, marched down the Jersey shore, 
 and attacked Red Bank with great impetuosity. 
 The Americans withdrew within the fort, and made 
 there a vigorous defence. The Hessian commander 
 was mortally wounded, and they were repulsed with 
 the loss of 500 men. The remainder returned to 
 Philadelphia. Their next attack was upon Mud 
 Island, and made by their shipping. This proved 
 no more successful ; and the British lost two warlike 
 vessels in the attempt. The Americans were, how- 
 ever, at length dislodged by an attack from an un- 
 expected quarter. The British found means to erect 
 a battery on Province Island a little above Mud 
 Island, which commanded fort Mifflin. Their post 
 thus becoming untenable, the Americans withdrew 
 in the night from Mud Island to Fort Mercer on 
 Red Bank. 
 
 To attack this fort, the British commander dis- 
 patched Cornwallis with a strong detachment. In 
 obedience to his orders, that general crossed the 
 Schuylkill, followed down the Delaware to Chester 
 below the fort, then crossing to Billing's Point, and 
 receiving a reinforcement from New York, he thence 
 ascended the river to attack the fort in the rear. 
 The Americans apprised of his approach evacuated 
 the fort, which, with a considerable quantity of ar- 
 tillery and stores, fell into the hands of the royalists. 
 The American shipping, deprived of the protection 
 of the forts, was now in great danger. Some vessels, 
 under cover of night, passed the battery of Phila- 
 delphia and sought safety further up the river ; but 
 the English taking measures to render the escape 
 of the remainder impracticable, the crews abandoned 
 their vessels to the number of seventeen, "and con- 
 sumed them by fire. Lord Howe had now opened 
 
 the navigation of the Delaware so that he could 
 communicate with his brother, the admiral. In the 
 mean-while the victorious troops of the north had 
 reinforced the main army of the republicans ; and 
 Washington advanced within fourteen miles of Phi- 
 ladelphia to White Marsh, his army consisting of 
 12,000 regulars and 3000 militia. Howe marched 
 his army within three miles of his lines, and ma- 
 noeuvred to draw him from his intrenchments, but 
 Washington, though he did not shun the battle, 
 chose to receive it within his lines. Howe finding 
 him too cautious to be drawn out of his camp, and 
 too strong to be attacked in it, withdrew his army 
 and retired to winter-quarters at Philadelphia. 
 
 Washington on the 11 th of December, left White 
 Marsh, and retired to Valley Forge. Hardly was 
 the army established in their winter-quarters, when 
 the magazines were found to contain scarce a single 
 day's provision. As to their clothing, some few had 
 one shirt, some the remnant of one, the greater part 
 none at all. Barefooted on the frozen ground, their 
 feet cut by ice, they left their tracks in blood. A 
 few only had the luxury of a blanket at night. 
 More than 3000 were excused from duty on account 
 of cold and nakedness. Straw could not be obtained, 
 and the soldiers, who during the day, were benumbed 
 with cold, and enfeebled by hunger, had at night no 
 bed in their huts, but that of the humid ground. 
 
 Diseases attacked them, and the hospitals were 
 replenished as rapidly as the dead were carried out. 
 The unsuitableness of the buildings and the multi- 
 tude of sick that crowded them, caused an insupport- 
 able fetor. Hospital fever ensued. It could not be 
 remedied by change of linen, for none could be had; 
 nor by salubrious diet, as even the coarsest was not 
 attainable; nor by medicines, ^as even the worst 
 were wholly wanting. The hospitals resembled 
 more receptacles for the dying, than refuges [Tor 
 the sick. 
 
 The patience with which these patriotic votaries 
 of freedom endured such complicated evils, is, we 
 believe, without a parallel in history. To go to 
 battle, cheered by the trumpet and the drum, with 
 victory or the speedy bed of honour before the 
 soldier, requires a heroic effort ; much more to 
 starve, to freeze, and to lie down and die, in silent 
 obscurity. Sparta knew the names of the 300 who 
 fell for her at the pass of Thermopylae ; but America 
 knows not the names of the hundreds who perished 
 for her in the camp of Valley Forge. 
 
 Causes of the distress of the army Intrigues against 
 Washington Predatory excursions of tJie British 
 Massacre at the.bridyes of Quinton and Hancock 
 Policy of France in reference to America France 
 concludes a treaty with America Arrival of British 
 ministers. 
 
 The melancholy state to which the army was re- 
 duced, was owing to several causes. The bills of 
 credit had diminished to one-fourth their nominal 
 value. A scarcity of linen cloth and leather pre- 
 vailed throughout the country. The commissaries 
 had contracted for supplies at ten per cent, above 
 the current price. This proceeding congress re- 
 fused to sanction; but required that supplies should 
 be furnished, and the bills received as specie. The 
 consequence was, that these articles could not be 
 procured. The officers, too, were constantly leaving 
 the army. This was principally owing to the depre- 
 ciation of paper-money, and the advanced price on 
 all articles .of consumption ; hence, far from being 
 able to live as became their rank, the officers had 
 
1056 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 not even the means of providing for their subsistence. 
 Many had already expended their private fortunes, 
 to maintain a respectable appearance. Those who 
 handed in their resignations were not the worthless, 
 but the bravest, most distinguished,and most spirited ; 
 who, disdaining the degraded situation in which they 
 were placed, left the army to escape it. 
 
 This example of defection set by his beloved offi- 
 cers, more than any of the other disasters of the 
 army, wounded the parental heart of Washington. 
 In the midst of these anxieties, that great man was 
 called to suffer from those commonjbes of distin- 
 guished merit, envy and calumny. Intrigues were 
 set in motion against him ; the object of which was 
 tot give him so many occasions of disgust, that he 
 should of himself retire from the head of the army ; 
 and thus make room for the promotion of Gates, 
 whose success in the affair of Burgoyne, had raised 
 his reputation to the highest pitch. 
 
 Among the leaders of this combination, was Ge- 
 neral Conway, a wily and restless intriguer. He 
 besieged all the members of congress with insinua- 
 tions that no order ^existed in the American camp. 
 Congress, at length, appointed him inspector-ge- 
 neral. 
 
 Pennsylvania addressed a remonstrance to con- 
 gress, censuring thej.measures of the commander-in- 
 chief. The same was done by the members from 
 Massachusetts, among whom was Samuel Adams. 
 They were not pleased that the whole command de- 
 volved on a Virginian, to the exclusion of their 
 generals, who were, in their opinion, equal, if not 
 superior, to Washington. 
 
 A board of war was created under Gates and 
 Mifflin, both of whom were thought to be among 
 the authors of the machinations against Washington. 
 With the advice of this board, congress planned an 
 expedition against Canada. Washington was not 
 consulted ; but he was ordered to detach La Fayette, 
 with certain regiments, to perform the service. 
 This order was promptly obeyed; but what he did, 
 was all that was done. La Fayette was recalled 
 from Albany, and the expedition was abandoned. 
 
 It is impossible to express, with what indignation 
 the whole army and the best citizens were filled, on 
 hearing the.. machinations that were in agitation 
 against their honoured chief. An universal cry 
 arose against the intriguers. Conway was super- 
 seded by Baron Steuben, and dared not show him- 
 self among the exasperated soldiers. Samuel Adams 
 also deemed it prudent to keep aloof from the army. 
 
 Congress, thus made to see how deeply rooted 
 was the commander in the affections of the army 
 and people, and knowing also that he ranked high 
 at foreign courts, became at length sensible of their 
 error, and restored to Washington a confidence 
 which he had so hardly earned, and to which he'was 
 so justly entitled. 
 
 During these machinations, Washington never 
 once turned from his high career of suffering virtue, 
 to notice his personal enemies. He had been inde- 
 fatigable in urging congress to stop the defection of 
 the officers, by securing to them some reward for 
 their services. In accordance with his advice, a law 
 was passed, allowing them half pay for seven years 
 after the close of the war. He also urged congress, 
 and the different state governments, to make such 
 preparations for the ensuing campaign, as that it 
 might be commenced early in the spring, before the 
 British reinforcements could arrive. But delibera- 
 tions are of necessity tardily made in popular go- 
 vernments ; hence, what ought to have been ready 
 
 in the beginning of spring, was but scantily pro- 
 vided during the summer. 
 
 These delays might have been fatal to the army, 
 had (he British been in a condition to take the field 
 early in the season. As it was, they contented 
 themselves with sending out their light troops to 
 scour the country in the neighbourhood of Philadel- 
 phia.- .In March, a party of their soldiers massa- 
 cred in cool blood, while crying for quarter, the sol- 
 diers who were stationed at the bridges of Quinton 
 and Hancock. 
 
 Near the same time, another party undertook an 
 expedition up the Delaware. They destroyed the 
 magazines at Bordentown, and the vessels which 
 the Americans had drawn up the river, between 
 Philadelphia and Trenton. 
 
 In May 2000 men, under La Fayette, were posted 
 at Baron Hill, to form an advance guard for the 
 main army, and to be in readiness to annoy the 
 British rear, in case they attempted a retreat to 
 New York. A detachment, of 5000 men, under 
 General Grant, were sent to surprise and destroy 
 this force. In the beginning of the engagement 
 Grant obtained some advantage, but at length the 
 skill and activity of La Fayette baffled his exertions. 
 He returned to Philadelphia, while La Fayette re- 
 moved to Valley Forge. 
 
 The Americans were no where more successful 
 than in>;the depredations which their swift-sailing 
 privateers made upon the British commerce. With 
 these they infested every sea, even those about the 
 British islands, and often performed deeds of almost 
 incredible boldness. Since 1776 they had already 
 captured 500 of the British vessels. 
 
 Early in the season, Sir Henry Clinton arrived in 
 Philadelphia to supersede Howe in the command of 
 the British forces ; that generals-having resigned his 
 commission,* and returned to England. 
 
 The news of the capture of Burgoyne caused a 
 deep sensation throughout Europe, and affected the 
 politics of several of its cabinets. It produced, 
 however,;its chief effectsf'in England , and; France. 
 The former nation was, astonished and afflicted; 
 theirv,sanguine calculations were defeated ; their 
 boastful predictions had failed ; and they were mor- 
 tified and perplexed, and knew not what course 
 next to pursue. The generals and soldiers who had 
 fought in America .were not inferior to any that 
 England or Europe could produce. These the 
 Americans had vanquished. Of what, then, might 
 they not be capable in future, when they should have 
 derived new confidence from successes, and conso- 
 lidated their state by'practice and experience ? The 
 garrisons of Canada were weak, and the Americans 
 might turn.their victories against them: the Cana- 
 dians following the example of the Americans, might 
 also revolt from Britain. Enlistments, both* in 
 America and England, became daily more difficult, 
 and the Germans;would only furnish troops to fulfil 
 the engagement 'already made. And for the few 
 recruits which they could raise, several of the German 
 princes refused a passage through their dominions. 
 
 France had long, by secret intrigues, favoured 
 the cause of America ; and the perplexities of the 
 British ministry were doubled, by the belief that she 
 would soon J openly disclose herself; and thus her 
 ancient and inveterate foe be joined in the contest 
 with her alienated colonies. 
 
 When the difficulties of America commenced, the 
 finances of France were diminished by preceding 
 wars, and her marine enfeebled by neglect. The 
 navy of England was powerful, her colonies in dif- 
 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 K)f,? 
 
 fereut quarters numerous and wealthy, aud produc- 
 tive of an immense revenue. France, jealous of her 
 rival, viewed the discontents in America with plea- 
 sure. She did not at first espouse the quarrel, 
 knowing that, at the moment she should declare her- 
 self, the British ministry, by acquiescing in the con- 
 cessions demanded by the Americans, might in- 
 stantly disarm them, and France would find herself 
 alone,' burdened with a war without motive or ob- 
 ject. The declaration of independence removed this 
 objection; yet though France would rather see 
 America independent, than reconciled with her pa- 
 rent state, she relished a long war between them, 
 which should waste both England and her colonies, 
 better than cither. 
 
 This being her policy, she amused the British 
 ministers with protestations of friendship. She en- 
 couraged the Americans with secret succours, but 
 scanty and uncertain ; and excited their hopes by 
 promises of future co-operation. These promises 
 were, however, vague and unofficial, so that they 
 might have been disowned by the government 
 
 Wearied out and disgusted, the agents 01 con- 
 gress urged the cabinet of Versailles to come to a 
 final decision; but they avoided it, alleging a va- 
 riety of excuses. Unable to accomplish their views 
 with France, and discovering no other prospect of 
 safety, the Americans proposed to England the re- 
 cognition of their independence. This point con- 
 ceded, they would have yielded in all others, to such 
 conditions as should tend to save the honour of the 
 mother-country ; but this proposition was rejected. 
 
 The capture of Burgoyne gave new ardour to 
 these patriots, and new hopes and fears to France 
 and England. The American negotiators now en- 
 deavoured to give jealousy to the French cabinet, 
 by pretending a disposition to form an alliance with 
 England; and disquietude to the English ministry, 
 by the appearance of courting the strictest union 
 with France. This policy induced the French 
 ministers to declare themselves openly ; and they well 
 knew that they should be warmly seconded in this 
 measure by every class of the French citizens; with 
 whom the cause of America was exceedingly popular. 
 On the 6th of February, 1778, France acknow- 
 ledged the independence of America by treaty ; and 
 promised to support it. The treaty was signed, on 
 behalf of France, by M. Gerard ; on the part of the 
 United States by Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, 
 and Arthur Lee. On the 20th of March, the Ame- 
 rican commissioners were received at. the court of 
 France, as the representatives of a sister nation ; 
 an event which was considered in Europe as the 
 most important which had occurred in the annals 
 of America, since its discovery by Columbus. 
 
 In the British parliament, a proposal was brought 
 forward by the ministers, to send commissioners to 
 America, empowered to grant all that her colonies 
 had asked before the war, on condition of their re- 
 turning to their former allegiance. This measure 
 was warmly opposed, and its ill-success foretold. It 
 is, said the opposition, either too little or too much ; 
 too little, if we wish to make peace in earnest; too 
 much, if we expect to continue the war. If the 
 Americans refused any other conditions than inde- 
 pendence, when they were single-handed and de- 
 pressed by misfortunes, surely all others will now be 
 rejected. Why not at once concede that indepen- 
 dence which America has already acquired, and is 
 able to maintain. She will then doubtless prefer 
 our alliance to that of France, and in our coming 
 contest with that wily nation, we shall have he as- 
 
 HIST. OF A.MKR.--NOS. 133 & 131. 
 
 sistance instead of her hostility. Such in substance 
 was the language of the opposition ; but the councils 
 of the ministry prevailed. The earl of Carlisle, Go- 
 vernor Johnstone and William Eden were appointed 
 commissioners. The ministry, as the result suffici- 
 ently proves, had other than the ostensible objects 
 in view, in sending these men to America. They 
 were to make an attempt to bribe, corrupt aud di- 
 vide the people. 
 
 The British, highly exasperated against the French, 
 on account of their interference, immediately made 
 preparations to attack that nation at sea. To the 
 astonishment of England, she now found that France 
 was able to cope with her on that element. When 
 the difficulties in America commenced, France had 
 directed her attention to the maintenance of a marine. 
 To provide excellentofficers, seamen of the merchant 
 shipping were employed in the royal navy. 
 
 In 1772, 1775, 1776, fleets, as schools of practice, 
 were sent out under Counts D'Orvilliers, De Gui- 
 chen, Duchffault ; and the French marine was now 
 equal to the English. 
 
 On the 2nd of May arrived the long-expected treaty 
 with France. It was brought over by the French 
 frigate Le .Sensible. This frigate brought also Silas 
 Deane, who had been recalled, and M. Gerard, the 
 minister from France to the United States. She 
 left Brest the 8th of March, aud arrived at Casco 
 Bay on the 2nd of May. The 6th of August, M. 
 Gerard was received publicly by congress at Phila- 
 delphia. 
 
 Carlisle, Eden and Johnstone, arrived at Phila- 
 delphia on the 9th of June. The concessions offered 
 were, as was predicted too late, and congress refused 
 to negotiate on any other terms than the recognition 
 of their independence, and the removal of all the 
 British forces. 
 
 The commissioners next resorted to the expedient 
 of disseminating in the country a multitude of wri- 
 tings, in which they censured congress as requiring 
 what was unjust, and injurious to America. They 
 represented the alliance with France as associated 
 with meanness, while they extolled th<; generosity 
 and magnanimity of England. 
 
 Johnstone had formerly resided in the colonies ; 
 and afterwards, as a member of parliament, he es- 
 poused the American cause. Availing himself of the 
 influence which these circumstances had given him, 
 he approached many influential republicans ; and 
 while he flattered them for their abilities and conduct, 
 he adroitly insinuated that, if the royal authority 
 could again be established, their merits would be 
 rewarded by wealth, titles and honours. 
 
 In some cases attempts at direct bribery were dis- 
 covered : a lady was employed by Johnstone to 
 offer to General Reed, if he would aid the royal 
 cause, 10,000/. sterling, and any office in the colo- 
 nies within the king's gift. " I am not," said Reed, 
 " worth purchasing ; but such as I am, the king of 
 England is not rich enough to buy me." 
 
 In some instances, Johnstone had the indiscretion 
 to write. The indignant patriots brought forward 
 his letters, which contained the evidence of his base 
 intrigues, and laid them before congress. That body 
 indignantly forbade all further communication with 
 the commissioners. The popular writers of the times, 
 among whom were Dayton, of South Carolina, and 
 Thomas Paine, met and confuted their insinuations. 
 Public opinion overwhelmed them with opprobrium ; 
 and this abortive attempt, like former similar ones, 
 served only to show to the British ministry, the sta- 
 bility of that union which they endeavoured to shake. 
 
1058 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Battle of Monmouth Clinton removes to New York 
 Washington to the Hudson French fleet arrives 
 Franklin appointed minister to France Expedi- 
 tion against Rhode hland Siege of Newport In- 
 dian atrocities Attack of Wyoming Savannah 
 taken by the Brit [sit. 
 
 Near the 5th of June, measures were taken by 
 the British to evacuate Philadelphia. This was 
 done the morning of the 18th, the army proceeding 
 through New Jersey, to go to New York. 
 
 Washington thought it wise to bring the British 
 to an engagement on their retreat; but this opinion 
 was contrary to that of a majority of officers. He 
 however persisted, and brought about an engagement 
 at Monmouth, or Freehold, on the 28th, in which 
 the Americans had the advantage. The loss of the 
 English was 700, that of the Americans much less. 
 Though both sides claimed the victory, yet historians 
 agree in awarding it to the republicans, as they 
 remained masters of the field of battle. 
 
 It was at the commencement of this engagement, 
 that the incident occurred, which was the cause of 
 General Lee's being censured, and suspended one 
 year from his command. By his own request, he 
 had been associated with General La Fayette in the 
 command of the van. After he had attacked the Bri 
 tish, he thought the ground in his rear more favour- 
 able to the formation of his lines ; and he made, in 
 some haste, a retrograde motion. Washington met 
 the retreating troops ; and finding that Lee was 
 abandoning aground which he had commanded him 
 to take, and endangering the army by an appear- 
 ance of flight, the commander inquired, with stern- 
 ness, what he meant ; and himself gave orders for 
 forming the battalion. 
 
 In the course of the day he employed Lee; who, 
 during the remainder of this hard fought battle, 
 displayed such courage and military conduct, that 
 had he not thought proper afterwards to write to the 
 commander a disrespectful letter on the events ol 
 the day, Washington would have taken no further 
 notice of his irregular behaviour. 
 
 Night separated the combatants, and Washington 
 and his soldiers rested upon their arms, intending 
 to renew the conflict the succeeding day; but Clin- 
 ton moved off silently in the night, and was in the 
 morning several miles distant. He moved on to 
 Middletown, from thence to Sandy Hook, and finall) 
 crossed over to New York. 
 
 On the 1st of July, the American commander 
 leaving Morgan's dragoons in lower Jersey, pro 
 ceeded with his army towards the Hudson. 
 
 A French fleet was now sent to the aid of Ame 
 rica, commanded by the Count D'Estaigne. Th 
 admiral left Toulon on the 18th of April, with th< 
 intention of blockading the British in the Delaware 
 He arrived on the 8th of June ; and finding tha 
 Admiral Howe had left Philadelphia for New York 
 he proceeded to that place, designing to engag 
 him there; but the size of his ships prevented hi 
 passing the bar between Sandy Hook and LODJ 
 Island. 
 
 On the 14th of September, Benjamin Franklin 
 still in France, was invested with the dignity an 
 powers of minister-plenipotentiary. 
 
 Washington, wishing to avail himself of the pre 
 sence of the French fleet, directed an expeditioi 
 against Rhode Island, for which he detached a fore 
 of 10,000 troops, under the command of Genera 
 Sullivan. With him he afterwards associated ge 
 nerals Greene and La Fayette. The force to whic 
 
 lis army was opposed, consisted of 6000. It wai 
 tationed at Newport, and commanded by General 
 "igott. 
 
 Sullivan had, with the advice of Washington, 
 oncerted a plan of operations with the French ad- 
 liral, D'Estaigne. Sullivan's army had taken 
 ost near Providence, and he had reasonable ex- 
 ectations, that with the aid of the French, he 
 bould be able to make himself master of the whole 
 orce under Pigott. The fleet was to enter the 
 arbour of Newport, and land the French troops on 
 he north part of the island on which that city is 
 ituated; while the Americans were to land at the 
 ame time, under cover of the guns of a frigate, on 
 he opposite coast. On the 8th of August, General 
 Sullivan joined General Greene at Tiverton, and 
 he descent was to be made the next day. The fleet 
 >resented itself. Some militia who were to join the 
 irmy, failed to come at the expected hour, and Sul- 
 ivan represented to the French admiral the neces- 
 ity of a short delay. In the meantime the fleet of 
 jord Howe appeared in sight. D'Estaigne left 
 Sullivan to give chase to the British admiral. The 
 rafty Howe led him on, and both fleets were soon 
 >ut of sight. On the morning of the 9th, Sullivan 
 crossed the east passage, and landed on the north 
 end of Rhode Island, and on the 14th commenced 
 he siege of Newport, still believing that he should 
 lave the promised assistance of the French fleet, 
 jreat was his chagrin and disappointment, when 
 after its return, it having been shattered in a storm 
 at sea, no entreaties could prevail on the admiral 
 ,o remain; but on the 22nd he sailed to Boston to 
 refit. Thus deserted by his allies, one half of his 
 army, which consisted of militia, refused to remaia 
 ,o encounter the danger he was now in, of an attack 
 TOin the British at New York. 
 
 Thus weakened, he raised the siege of Newport 
 on the 28th, and retired to a commanding situation 
 on the north part of the island. The enemy fol- 
 lowed, and on the 29th attacked his army. After a 
 sharp conflict, in which Sullivan lost 211 of his 
 troops, and Pigott 260, the British were compelled 
 to give way. They retired to Quaker HilJ,. The 
 next day a letter from Washington iuformed him 
 that Sir Henry Clinton, with a large body of troops, 
 had put out to sea from New York. 
 
 His prospects were now completely reversed, and 
 instead of hoping to conquer the British forces, bis 
 own were in imminent danger. By a skill that has 
 been much commended, he succeeded in drawing 
 off his army to the main land. The very next day, 
 Clinton, who had been detained by adverse wind?, 
 arrived with 4000 men at the island. 
 
 This affair was unhappy in its effects. D'Estaigne 
 had left Sullivan to his fate, not only against his 
 entreaties, but against the warm remonstrances of 
 Generals Greene and La Fayette. The resentment 
 excited in the breast of Sullivan, and the disappro- 
 bation of many others, gave to Washington the 
 greatest uneasiness, and called forth all his address 
 to sooth their ruffled spirits, and prevent an open 
 rupture with the French admiral. 
 
 Sir Henry Clinton, disappointed of his expected 
 prize, bent his course towards New York, intending 
 to make upon his way a descent upon New London; 
 but the winds were adverse. He therefore pro- 
 ceeded to New York ; having first left a detach- 
 ment under General Gray, with orders to destroy, 
 if possible, the American privateers, which resorted 
 to Buzzard's bay, and the adjacent rivers. He ar- 
 rived there with some transports, and succeeded in 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 destroying 60 large vessels, and some small craft. 
 Proceeding to New Bedford and Fair Haven, he 
 destroyed many mills, warehouses, and much pri- 
 vate property. 
 
 In the campaign of this year, the depredations 
 committed by the savages were more frequent and 
 more inhuman than ever. The ruthless chiefs who 
 guided them in these sanguinary expeditions were 
 Butler and Brandt ; beings capable of the most 
 horrid deeds. The devastation of the flourishing 
 settlement of Wyoming, by a baud of Indians and 
 lories, was marked by the most demoniac cruelties. 
 This settlement consisted of eight towns on the 
 banks of the Susquehannab, and was one of the 
 most flourishing as well as delightful places in 
 America. But even in this peaceful spot, the in- 
 habitants were not exempt from the baneful influ- 
 ence of party spirit. Although the majority were 
 devoted to the cause of their country, yet the loyal- 
 ists were numerous. Several persons had been 
 arrested as tories, and sent to the proper authori- 
 ties for trial. This excited the indignation of their 
 party, and they determined upon revenge. They 
 united with the Indians, and resorting to artifice, 
 pretended a desire to cultivate peace with the in- 
 habitants of Wyoming, while they were making 
 every preparation for their meditated vengeance. 
 The youth of Wyoming were at this time with the 
 army, and but 500 men capable of defending the 
 settlement remained. The inhabitants had con- 
 structed four forts for their security, into which 
 these men were distributed. In the month of July. 
 1600 Indians and tories, under the command of 
 Butler and Brandt, appeared on the banks of the 
 Susquehannah. Two of the forts nearest the fron- 
 tier immediately surrendered to them. The savages 
 spared the women and children, but butchered the 
 rest of their prisoners without exception. They then 
 surrounded Kingston, the principal fort, and to dis- 
 may the garrison, hurled into the place 200 scalps, 
 still reeking with blood. Colonel Denison, know- 
 ing it to be impossible to defend the fort, demanded 
 of Butler what terms would be allowed the garrison 
 if they surrendered ; he answered, " the hatchet." 
 They attempted further resistance, but were soon 
 compelled to surrender. Enclosing the men, wo- 
 men, and children, in houses and barracks, they 
 set fire to these, and the miserable wretches were 
 all consumed. 
 
 The fort of Wilksbarre still remained in the 
 power of the republicans : but this garrison learn- 
 ing the fate of the others, surrendered without re- 
 sistance, hoping in this way to obtain mercy. But 
 submission could not soften the hearts of these un- 
 feeling monsters, and their atrocities were renewed. 
 They then devastated the country, burnt their 
 dwellings, and consigned their crops to the flames. 
 The tories appeared to surpass even the savages in 
 barbarity. The nearest ties of consanguinity were 
 disregarded ; and it is asserted, that a mother was 
 murdered by the hand of her own son. None es- 
 caped but a few women and children ; and these, 
 dispersed and wandering in the forests, without 
 food and without clothes, were not the least worthy 
 of commiseration. 
 
 Disputes occurred about this time, between the 
 French and the inhabitants at Boston, and also at 
 Charleston, South Carolina. In both these places 
 some of the French were killed. At Boston, the 
 Chevalier de St. Sauverie lost his life. Congress 
 attributed these unfortunate affairs to British ma- 
 chiuations; and the French admiral forbore to in- 
 
 quire further. The Marquis La Fayette, hoping to 
 serve the United States by his representations in 
 <" ranee, requested and obtained permission to repass 
 the Atlantic. 
 
 Admiral D'Estaigne left Boston for (he West 
 Indies on the 3rd of November. The same day, 
 Commodore Hotham left Sandy Hook, having on 
 board 5000 land troops, commanded by Major Ge- 
 neral Grant. Admiral Byron, who had superseded 
 Admiral Howe, followed him the 1 4th of December. 
 The English took Martinico from the French, and 
 the French St. Lucie from the English. 
 
 In planning the campaign for this year, the Bri- 
 tish had placed their principal hope of success in 
 conquering the southern states. It was not, how- 
 ever, until this late period of the campaign, that 
 Sir Henry Clinton prepared to attempt the execu- 
 tion of their design. He sent to Georgia, under 
 convoy of Admiral Hyde Parker, 2500 English, 
 Hessians, and refugees. This corps was commanded 
 by Colonel Campbell, who was to attack by sea, 
 while Prevost, the commander in Florida, was or- 
 dered to commence attacks along the Savannah 
 river. The 27th of December, Campbell arrived 
 before Savannah, which was unprepared for defence. 
 On the 28th, he defeated the Americans near Sa- 
 vannah, under Major-general Robert Howe, and 
 killed upwards of 100 of his troops. The British 
 took immediate possession of the city. Four hun- 
 dred and fifty American troops, and a large quantity 
 of artillery and ammunition, fell into their hands. 
 
 Late in the autumn of 1778, Washington took 
 winter-quarters at Middlebrook. 
 
 Campaign of 1779 Sunbury taken by the British- 
 Unsuccessful attempt upon Port Royal Colonel 
 Pickens defeats a party of Royalists General Pre- 
 vost surprises the Americans John Rutledge gover- 
 nor of South Carolina" British defeat General 
 Moidtrie near Charlestown Engagement at Stono 
 Ferry British make a descent on VirginiaGover- 
 nor Tryon makes a descent on Connecticut Ameri- 
 cans take Stony Point British land at Penobscot 
 river American Flotilla destroyed Sullivan de- 
 feats the Savages. 
 
 The plan of Sir Henry Clinton was to subjugate 
 at the outset of this campaign, the whole state of 
 Georgia to the royal authority. The capital being 
 already in possession of the British, they soon over- 
 ran the adjacent country. Sunbury still held out 
 for congress. General Prevost, (commander of the 
 troops at St. Augustine,) pursuant to the orders of 
 Clinton, left Florida ; and after a march of exces- 
 sive fatigue and hardship, attacked the garrison at 
 that place. They made a show of resistance ; but 
 the country being now in the hands of the enemy, 
 they were compelled to surrender at discretion. 
 
 Colonel Campbell had undertaken the same enter- 
 prise. Joining his corps to that of Prevost, they 
 proceeded together to Savannah, where Prevost took 
 the command of all the British forces in that region. 
 All Georgia was now under the authority of the 
 royalists ; and Clinton had accomplished all that 
 he had expected to effect, before he should be joined 
 by recruits from England. He did not consider 
 himself in sufficient force to attackCharlestown; but 
 aware that if he did not proceed with offensive ope- 
 rations, his army would languish and his enemy 
 soon put him on the defensive, he planned an expe- 
 dition against Port Royal, giving the command to 
 General Gardner. The English were, however, 
 so valiantly received by the Carolinians, that they 
 
 4R2 
 
1000 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 were obliged to luiurn, after having experienced a 
 severe loss. 
 
 One of the motives of the British ministry iu 
 transferring the war into the southern states, re- 
 sulted from an opinion that a great proportion were 
 at heart in favour of the mother-country ; and that 
 if an opportunity presented, they would flock to her 
 standard. They were not mistaken in the belief 
 that there were royalists ; but they were deceived 
 as to their number and efficient strength. This was 
 clearly shown by events which occurred about this 
 period. 
 
 Of these royalists there were several kinds. Some 
 of the least violent, concealing their sentiments, re- 
 sided in the midst of the republicans ; some lived 
 solitary and watched a favourable opportunity to 
 declare themselves ; and some were so rancorous as 
 even to unite with the Indians ; and assisting in 
 their nocturnal massacres, their conduct was more 
 barbarous than that of the savages themselves. 
 
 To support and encourage these friends to the 
 royal cause, the British generals moved up the river 
 to Augusta. They sent out numerous emissaries, 
 who represented to them that now was the time to 
 join the royal standard. They were told that they 
 wanted nothing but to unite their strength, to be- 
 come incomparably the stronger party, and to be 
 enabled to take vengeance on those who had so 
 long loaded them with indignities, and to entitle 
 them to the high rewards which await those who are 
 found faithful among the faithless. The royalists 
 rose in arms, put themselves under the command of 
 Colonel Boyd, one of their chiefs ; and moving 
 towards the British army, pillaged, burnt, and 
 murdered on their way. Meantime the Carolinians 
 collected a force, which, under the command of 
 Colonel Pickens, met them, just as they had nearly 
 reached the British posts. A furious conflict ensued. 
 The republicans killed great numbers, and totally 
 defeated the party. Seventy-six of the most guilty 
 were condemned to death as criminals ; but mercy 
 was extended to the whole number of the condemned, 
 except five. 
 
 Towards the close of the preceding year, General 
 Lincoln was appointed, at the request of the Caro- 
 linians, to take the command of the southern forces. 
 He arrived on the 4th of December, at Charlestown ; 
 and on the 17th of January, took post at Purysburg. 
 As the enemy extended their posts up the Savannah, 
 on the southern side, Lincoln extended his on the 
 northern bank. He fixed one encampment at Black 
 Swamp, and another nearly opposite to Augusta ; 
 intending, as soon as he should be able to collect a 
 sufficient force, to cross the Savannah, and oblige 
 the enemy to evacuate the upper parts of Georgia. 
 Meantime Prevost fell down the river to Hudson's 
 Ferry. Lincoln, whose army amounted to 4000, 
 intending to restrict him to the coast, now com- 
 menced the execution of his design, of taking pos- 
 session of the upper part of Georgia. He detached 
 General Ashe with 2000 men of the North Carolina 
 militia, to take post on Briar creek. Finding his 
 position a strong one, and trusting too much to its 
 strength, General Ashe was not careful to avoid sur- 
 prise. Prevost took measures by judicious feints, 
 to keep the attention of Lincoln diverted from Ashe, 
 while he marched to surprise that general. He 
 was so completely successful, that he had entered 
 the camp of the Americans before they were aware 
 of his approach. Panic-struck, the militia fled with- 
 out firing a shot ; but many of them being drowned 
 in the river and swallowed up in the marches, met 
 
 with a death which they might possibly have escaped 
 by a gallant resistance. 
 
 The regular troops of Carolina and Georgia ani- 
 mated by the example of their commander, the brave 
 General Elbert, made a gallant resistance ; but de- 
 serted by their friends, and outnumbered by their 
 enemies, they were compelled to yield. By this 
 disastrous affair, General Lincoln must have been 
 deprived of 1600 of his troops, as only 400 returned 
 to his camp. 
 
 Again the British were masters of all Georgia. 
 They had free communication with the encouraged 
 loyalists ; not only in the back parts of this state, 
 but also in those of the Carolinas : and General 
 Prevost now proceeded to organize a colonial go- 
 vernment. 
 
 Alarmed but not dismayed, the Carolinians made 
 the most vigorous exertions to draw out their militia. 
 John Rutledge, in whom all classes confided, was 
 chosen governor. By the middle of April, Lincoln 
 found himself at the head of 5000 fighting men. On 
 the 23rd he resumed his intention of occupying 
 Georgia ; and leaving 1000 of his troops under Ge- 
 neral Moultrie, to garrison Purysburg and Black 
 Swamp, he marched with the remainder up the Sa- 
 vannah. Meantime the army of Prevost, which 
 was increased by the royalists, crossed the river Sa- 
 vannah near its mouth, and defeated General Moul- 
 trie ; who, finding Purysburg and Black Swamp 
 untenable, had retired towards Charlestown. Hold- 
 ing on their victorious course, the llth of May they 
 appeared before Charlestown. The garrison of this 
 city was small, although it had been the day before 
 reinforced by 500 militia under Governor Rutledge, 
 and by the " American Legion" under the Count 
 Pulaski. Their only hope of relief was from the 
 hourly expected presence of Lincoln. When, there- 
 fore, they were, on the morning of the 12th, sum- 
 moned to surrender, they sent out commissioners to 
 negotiate, who contrived, by requiring certain con- 
 ditions, to bring on a long dispute. In the mean- 
 time they were making vigorous preparations for 
 real defence, and a great show as if well prepared 
 for resistance. The fears of Prevost began to ope- 
 rate, and he drew off" his troops some miks from the 
 town. While he hesitated, and delayed to attack 
 the city, the army of Lincoln appeared. 
 
 Prevost now retired to the island of St. James 
 and St. John's southward of Charlestown. His de- 
 sign was to pass along the fertile islands which line 
 the coast. Lincoln followed him upon (he main 
 land, and an indecisive engagement of some regi- 
 ments occurred at Stono Ferry. General Prevost 
 left a garrison in Beaufort on Port Royal, under 
 command of Colonel Maitlaud, and then retired 
 with the British main army to Savannah ; while 
 General Lincoln with the American forces took post 
 at Sheldon. 
 
 In May, General Clinton, wishing to further the 
 designs of the British ministry in the conquest of 
 the southern states, sent out from New York a fleet 
 under the command of Commodore Collier, with a 
 corps of 2000 men under General Matthews, to 
 make a descent upon Virginia, and by devastating 
 the country, to keep the inhabitants in a continual 
 state of alarm. He had hopes that by the aid of the 
 loyalists, this force would be able to overawe and 
 effect a revolt of the state. This fleet proceeded to 
 the Chesapeake, and blocked up the entrances of 
 James river and Hampton roads. A part of the 
 troops landed on the banks of 'Elizabeth river : then 
 proceeded to Portsmouth, Norfolk, Suffolk, and 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1061 
 
 Gosport, burned those places, and spread devasta- 
 tion through the country. They demolished maga- 
 zines, and tooK great quantities of provisions, which 
 had been prepared for the American army, and 
 burned or removed all the stores and shipping. 
 Failing, however, in the grand object of producing 
 a revolt, Clinton recalled them to New York. 
 
 He next resolved to attack the American works 
 at Stony Point, and Verplank's Neck ; two oppo- 
 site projections of land on the Hudson river. The 
 Americans had constructed these works at great 
 labour and expense. They were important to them, 
 as they commanded the pass called King's Ferry, 
 and because if they fell into the hands of the Bri- 
 tish, the Americans would be obliged to take a cir- 
 cuit of 90 miles up the river to communicate be- 
 tween the northern and southern provinces. 
 
 General Clinton, commanding this expedition in 
 person, left New York on the 31st of May. He first 
 proceeded against Stony Point. The Americans 
 being unprepared for defence, evacuated the place. 
 At Verplank's Point, the fort named La Fayette 
 had just been completed. Unfortunately, however, 
 this fort was commanded by the heights of Stony 
 Point, upon which the British had, during the night, 
 planted a battery of heavy cannon, and another of 
 mortars. Early in the morning this artillery was 
 turned against Fort La Fayette ; and the enemy 
 having invested it, all probability of relief was cut 
 off, and the garrison surrendered. General Clinton 
 gave orders for completing the works of Stony Point. 
 On the 2nd of June he encamped his army at Phi- 
 lipsburg, half way between Verplank's Point and 
 New York. 
 
 At this period the commerce of the British in the 
 sound was nearly destroyed by the Connecticut pri- 
 vateers. They intercepted whatever made its ap- 
 pearance on their waters; and by this means dis- 
 tressed the British army in New York, which had 
 been accustomed to receive its supplies from this 
 quarter. To remedy this inconvenience, Governor 
 Tryon, by the orders of Clinton, embarked with a 
 strong detachment for Connecticut He proceeded 
 to New Haven, and destroyed all the shipping which 
 he found in that port. He then advanced to Fair- 
 field, Norwalk, and Greenwich, all of which places 
 he barbarously consigned to the flames. Besides 
 the loss of a great quantity of shipping and whale- 
 boats, the destruction of other property was immense. 
 
 While the British were thus desolating the coasts 
 of Connecticut, the Americans undertook the reco- 
 very of Verplank's and Stony Points. The stores 
 at Stony Point, in particular, were abundant, and 
 it was supplied with a numerous and select corps of 
 troops. Washington charged General Wayne with 
 the attack of Stony Point, and General Howe with 
 that of Verplank's. The troops commanded by Ge- 
 neral Wayne arrived under the walls of the fort 
 about midnight. The Americans were divided into 
 two columns, and attacked the fort from opposite 
 points. The English opened a tremendous fire 
 upon them, but they rushed impetuously onward, 
 opening their way with the bayonet. They scaled 
 the fort, and the two victorious columns met in the 
 centre of the works. The loss of the British in 
 killed, wounded, and prisoners, amounted to 600, the 
 Americans lost but JOO. The attack upon Ver- 
 plank's proved unsuccessful. 
 
 When Clinton received intelligence of the cap- 
 ture of Stony Point, he determined not to suffer the 
 Americans to remain in possession, and dispatched 
 a corps of troops to dislodge them. Washington, 
 
 not wishing to hazard a battle, ordered General 
 Wayne to retire, having accomplished his object in 
 dismantling the fort, and removing all the artillery 
 and stores. 
 
 At the east, the British obtained some advantages 
 over the Americans. Colonel McLean had em- 
 barked from Halifax with a strong detachment of 
 troops, and landed at the mouth of the Penobscot 
 river. In this place he chose an advantageous situa- 
 tion and proceeded to fortify himself. His object 
 was to annoy the eastern frontier, and to prevent 
 the inhabitants of Massachusetts from sending rein- 
 forcements to the army of Washington. The Bos- 
 tonians in great alarm fitted out an armament, and 
 gave the command to Commodore Saltoustall. With 
 it they dispatched a portion of land troops, under 
 the command of Lovell. On their arrival at the 
 Penobscot, instead of attacking the enemy immedi- 
 ately, which would have insured them success, they 
 delayed fifteen days in order to intrench themselves. 
 On the day of the intended attack, Commodore Col- 
 lier, whom Clinton, on bearing of the situation of 
 McLean, had sent from Sandy Hook to his relief, 
 appeared with his fleet at the mouth of the Penob- 
 scot. The Americans re-embarked, but Collier at- 
 tacked the flotilla, and entirely destroyed it. The 
 soldiers and sailors, in order to effect their escape, 
 were obliged to land and hide themselves in the fo- 
 rests. The failure of this enterprise was a severe 
 mortification, as well as a serious loss to the Boi- 
 tonians. 
 
 In July, congress sent General Sullivan with 2000 
 troops, to repress the incursions of the savages at the 
 west. He proceeded up the Susquehannah, and at 
 Wyoming was joined by a reinforcement of 1600 
 men, under the command of James Clinton. 
 
 The Indians had assembled in great number*, 
 under the command of their ferocious leaders, John- 
 son, Butler, and Brandt, and were now joined by 
 250 royalists. Confident in their strength, they had 
 advanced to Newtown ; and, while awaiting Sulli- 
 van's approach, bad thrown up an extensive intrench- 
 ment, strengthened by a palisade and redoubts, after 
 the European manner. General Sullivan, on his 
 arrival, immediately attacked the place. The Indi- 
 ans, after defending it two hours, fled in disorder. 
 Few were killed, and none taken prisoners. Ge- 
 neral Sullivan took possession of Newtown, from 
 whence he made incursions into the other parts of 
 their country. The savages, filled with terror, made 
 no further resistance, but escaped to the forests. 
 An immense quantity of grain was burned, 40 
 villages were utterly destroyed, and no trace of ve- 
 getation left upon the surface of the ground. General 
 Sullivan, after having accomplished this enterprise, 
 went with his army to Easton, in Pennsylvania. 
 
 Naval affairs D'Estaigne arrives off the coast of 
 Georgia Savannah invested by the French The 
 siege raised Paul Jones's naval engagement In 
 trigues of France and Spain. 
 
 To understand the history of the war, it is nece* 
 sary to keep in view, not only the movements of the 
 forces of America, but also those of her ally and her 
 enemy, the commencement of the present year 
 finds the Count D'Estaigne and Lord Byron, with 
 their respective fleets, in the West Indies. The 
 former is reinforced by a squadron under the Count 
 De Grasse, and the latter by an armament under 
 Commodore Rowley. 
 
 Their fleets were now nearly equal, and the Enfc 
 lish were desirous of a naval battle j but the French 
 
1062 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 had in view the conquest of the neighbouring Eng- 
 lish islands, and for that purpose had on board a 
 considerable land force, which must in the event of 
 a battle be exposed, and could afford no assistance. 
 D'Estaigne was therefore averse to an engagement, 
 and lay quietly at anchor in Port Royal, Martinico. 
 
 Meantime, Lord Byron sailed towards England 
 to convoy a fleet of merchantmen, well aware that 
 a guard of no ordinary strength could, under pre- 
 sent circumstances, protect them. No sooner had 
 he left the West Indies, than the French admiral 
 sent a detached squadron to St. Vincent, which 
 succeeded in capturing that valuable island. 
 
 On the 30th of June, D'Estaigne, who had re- 
 ceived a reinforcement from France, left Martinico, 
 his fleet consisting of 25 sail of the line, and on the 
 2nd of July came to anchor in a harbour of Grenada. 
 On this island he landed 2500 men, and attacked 
 and carried, by a bloody and destructive assault, 
 St. George, its principal fortress. The island, of 
 necessity, submitted to France. 
 
 Shortly after these events, D'Estaigne received 
 from General Lincoln, President Lowndes and Mr. 
 Plombard, letters, from which he learned of the dis- 
 satisfaction which existed in America. The repub- 
 licans complained, that the alliance with France 
 had produced nothing upon the American continent, 
 which corresponded either to the greatness cf their 
 ally, or the general expectations of the Americans. 
 It was said that the sums expended upon Rhode 
 Island were worse than fruitless, and that the zeal with 
 which the Bostonians had victualled and equipped 
 the French fleet, produced no better effect than its 
 immediate desertion of their coasts, on distant ex- 
 peditions. The loss of Savannah and Georgia, which 
 opened to the British an easy entrance to the Caro- 
 linas, was attributed to the desertion of the French; 
 and finally, it was said, that while the French were 
 enriching themselves in distant seas, with the con- 
 quests of the British possessions, they left the Ame- 
 ricans, contrary to the stipulations of the treaty, to 
 sustain the burden of the war. These complaints 
 were followed by earnest entreaties, that D'Estaigne 
 would immediately restore the confidence of the 
 Americans, by hastening to their succour. 
 
 Count D'Estaigne had received instructions to 
 return immediately to Europe, but moved by the 
 representations of the Americans, he ventured to 
 disobey the summons of his court. Directing his 
 course for Georgia, he appeared off the coast on the 
 1st of September. 
 
 He saw that there were two plans which, if Ame- 
 rica could successfully execute, the war must of ne- 
 cessity come to a conclusion. One of these was the 
 destruction of the forces under General Prevost, at 
 Savannah; and the other and more difficult was, to 
 attack by sea and land conjointly with Washington, 
 the British forces in the city of New York. It was 
 determined to attempt the former; and the Count 
 D'Estaigne and General Lincoln lost no time in 
 commencing their joint operations. 
 
 The French admiral had sent some vessels to 
 Charlestown with the joyful news of his arrival in 
 those waters. They surprised and captured some 
 British vessels loaded with provisions. General 
 Prevost, alarmed at his danger, sent expresses direct- 
 ing the forces under Maitland, and those at Sun- 
 bury, to repair with speed to Savannah. He re- 
 moved the shipping further up the river, destroyed 
 tbe batteries at the island of Tybee, and pressed the 
 completion of the fortifications at Savannah. 
 
 Meantime, General Lincoln marched towards Sa- 
 
 vannah, leaving orders for the militia to collect from 
 all quarters, and join his army. 
 
 Before he had arrived, D'Estaigne had invested 
 the place, and demanded of Prevost to surrender to 
 the arms of France; a measure which was dis- 
 pleasing to the republicans. The expected rein 
 forcements of Prevost had not yet arrived ; and he 
 amused the French admiral by a protracted negoti- 
 ation. D'Estaigne even went so far as to give him 
 a truce of 24 hours. In the meantime, Maitland 
 arrived , and there was then no further talk of sur- 
 rendering. Pulaski with his legion, and Lincoln 
 with 3000 troops, had arrived before Savannah. 
 Works were erected, and a regular siege was com- 
 menced on the 24th of September. 
 
 On the 3d of October the trenches were completed, 
 the batteries armed, and a bombardment com- 
 menced. Forty-three pieces of cannon and nine 
 mortars sent an incessant shower of balls and shells. 
 The city was on fire in many places. The burning 
 roofs fell upon the women and children, and the 
 unarmed multitude ; and every where were seen the 
 crippled, the dying and the dead. Five days had 
 this firing continued ; which although so dreadful 
 to the town, was nearly harmless to the fort. 
 
 Touched with the sufferings which he witnessed. 
 Prevost requested permission that the women and 
 children should be sent down the river, on board of 
 vessels intrusted to the care of the French, to await 
 there the issue of the siege. D'Estaigne, fearing to 
 be again entrapped, refused this humane request. 
 In the meantime, the French fleet would be exposed 
 to dangers, and himself to disgrace, should the ad- 
 miral longer detain it. And although the allies 
 knew that they were putting to great hazard that 
 which delay would make certain, yet the exigency 
 of the case seemed to demand it ; and it was resolved 
 to assault the town. The flower of the combined 
 armies were led to the attack by the two command- 
 ers, D'Estaigne and Lincoln. They met with many 
 disasters and a final repulse. The number of the 
 slain and the wounded shows that the battle must 
 have been bloody. The French loss was 700 ; the 
 American 400. The Count D'Estaigne was wounded, 
 but recovered; the Count Pulaski, while bravely 
 charging at the head of 200 horse, received a wound 
 which caused his death, and deprived America of 
 one of her most valiant and disinterested defenders. 
 
 On the 18th, the allies raised the siege of Savan- 
 nah. Lincoln crossed the river with his regular 
 troops ; the militia disbanded and returned to their 
 homes; and D'Estaigne set sail for Europe. Sir 
 Henry Clinton, fearing an attack from the French, 
 withdrew his troops from Rhode Island precipitately, 
 with the loss of his munitions ; leaving that state to 
 revert peaceably to the union. 
 
 Near the close of this year occurred on the coast 
 of Scotland, that unexampled sea-fight, which gave 
 to the name of Paul Jones such terrific eclat. This 
 man was a native of Scotland, but engaged in the 
 service of the United States. His flotilla was composed 
 of the Bonhomme Richard, of 40 guns, the Alliance, 
 of 36, (both American ships,) the Pallas, a French 
 frigate of 32, in the pay of congress, and two other 
 smaller vessels. He fell in with a British merchant 
 fleet, on its return from the Baltic, convoyed by 
 Captain Pearson, with tbe frigate Serapis, of 44 
 guns, and the countess of Scarborough, of twenty. 
 
 Pearson had no sooner perceived Jones, than he 
 bore down to engage him, while the merchantmen 
 endeavoured to gain the coast. The American 
 flotilla formed to receive him. The \. - enemies 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1063 
 
 joined battle about seven in the evening. The Bri- 
 tish having the advantage of cannon of a longer 
 reach, Paul Jones resolved to fight them closer. He 
 brought up his ships, until the muzzles of his guns 
 came in contact with those of his enemy. Here the 
 phrensied combatants fought from seven till ten. 
 Paul Jones now found that his vessel was so shat- 
 tered, that only three effective guns remained. 
 Trusting no longer to these, he assailed his enemy 
 with grenades ; which falling into the Serapis, set 
 her on fire in several places. At length her maga- 
 zine blew up and killed all near it. Pearson en- 
 raged at his officers, who wished him to surrender, 
 commanded them to board. Paul Jones at the head 
 of his crew, received them at the point of the pike ; 
 and they retreated. But the flames of the Serapis 
 had communicated to her enemy, and the vessel of 
 Jones was on fire. Amidst this tremendous night- 
 scene, the American frigate Alliance came up, and 
 mistaking her partner for her enemy, fired a broad- 
 side into the vessel of Jones. By the broad glare 
 of the burning ships she discovered her mistake, and 
 turned her guns against her exhausted foe. Pear- 
 son's crew were killed or wounded, his artillery dis- 
 mounted, and his vessel on fire ; and he could no 
 longer resist. The flames of the Serapis were, how- 
 ever arrested ; but the leaks of the Goodman Richard 
 could not be stopped, and the hulk went down soon 
 after the mangled remains of the crew had been re- 
 moved. Of the 375 who were on board that re- 
 nowned vessel, only 68 left it alive. The Pallas 
 had captured the Countess of Scarborough ; and 
 Jones, after this horrible victory, wandered with his 
 shattered, unmanageable vessels for some time ; and 
 at length, on the 6th of October, had the good for- 
 tune to find his way to the waters of the Texel. 
 
 Having now brought to a close the military af- 
 fairs of the campaign, we pause to take some note 
 of the political transactions. 
 
 Notwithstanding the apparent inutility to the re- 
 publicans of the French fleet, it was in reality of 
 great importance to their cause, as it kept the Bri- 
 tish constantly in check. But the alliance with 
 France had also its disadvantages. The public 
 feeling, so long strained to an unnatural elevation, 
 was now predisposed to sink to apathy ; and the 
 Americans were led to believe that England must, 
 from the power of France, soon be compelled to 
 yield, although they should remit their efforts. 
 
 The leading republicans saw the evil with alarm. 
 Endeavouring to counteract it, they called on the 
 people by the memory of their past exploits, by the 
 necessity of preserving the respect of their allies, 
 by the-peril's which still impended, and by the power 
 and treacherous policy of their yet unconquered ad- 
 versary, to arouse from their lethargy, and trust not 
 in chance or in strangers, but in their own exertions, 
 for the establishment of their rights. But vain was 
 the appeal ; and even the army was affected by the 
 lethargic torpor of the public mind. 
 
 Another evil had arisen. There had been pro- 
 duced by the disorders of the times, a race of men, 
 who seeking solely to enrich themselves, made a 
 trade of the public distress. What did they care if 
 their country should fall, if they could share her 
 spoils ? Freedom for them might perish, so they 
 could but batten on her corse. Army supplies en- 
 riched them, as they afforded them pretences for 
 peculations; and the state often paid dearly for 
 what it never received. Such wretches are ever the 
 loudest to chime in with the tune of the times. Hy- 
 pocrites in patriotism; vociferous in talking of their 
 
 country's rights, they deceived the undiscerning, 
 and acquired an influence, by which they sought to 
 remove from office all who obstructed their designs. 
 By their intrigues, the appalling cry of tory was 
 raised, and sometimes not in vain, against the up- 
 right officer, who refused to connive at their selfish 
 rapacity. 
 
 One cause of this alarming degeneracy in morals, 
 lay in the depreciation of paper currency. At the 
 close of this year, a dollar in specie could scarcely 
 be obtained for 40 in bills. But, the paper was 
 fluctuating in its value. Hence a set of men arose, 
 who preferred speculating on this currency, to honest 
 industry ; and often in the changes which occurred, 
 the worthless amassed sudden wealth, while many 
 deserving persons of moderate fortunes, sunk at 
 once to poverty. That the bills should have depre- 
 ciated, will not be mysterious, when we consider 
 that the immense sum of 160,000,000 had now been 
 issued by congress. 
 
 The honest individual of private life will be sur- 
 prised to learn another reason of the depreciation of 
 American paper, although the wily politician knows 
 that it is no new " trick of state." England on this 
 occasion turned counterfeiter. Her ministers sent 
 over, and her generals distributed whole chests of 
 spurious bills so perfectly imitated as scarcely to be 
 distinguished from the true. 
 
 In the meantime America was. scarcely less in 
 danger from her friends than her enemies. Her 
 congress was beset by the intrigues of France and 
 Spain. The former had not intended to declare in 
 her favour, until far greater concessions had been 
 obtained. She had been surprised into the step she 
 had taken, by the unexpected fortune whieh in the 
 case of Burgoyne, the Americans had single-handed 
 won for thems'elves, and which made her fear that 
 unless she then declared herself, the contest would 
 be decided, and America independent without 
 being in any degree indebted to her or inclined to 
 favour her. She also feared that she should lose the 
 opportunity of obtaining a powerful and efficient 
 ally in a war which she wished, on her own account, 
 to wage against her too powerful neighbour, and 
 hereditary enemy. Now that by the alliance, these 
 objects were secured, she wished in the particulars 
 which yet remained to be settled, to drive a hard 
 bargain for her services ; and to make the Ameri- 
 cans think meanly of themselves, would be to en- 
 hance the value of those services. M. Gerard in his 
 communications to congress, endeavoured, by such 
 means, to make them consent to abandon to France 
 the extensive fisheries of Newfoundland, and to 
 Spain the exclusive navigation of the Mississippi. 
 The alliance of Spain was also to be thrown into 
 the scale, and the advantages of this were magni- 
 fied. But congress were not deceived, they refused 
 the specious bait; and Spain having precisely the 
 same policy as France, and the same desire to hum- 
 ble England, declared war against that power, to 
 suit her own purposes ; without succeeding in making 
 America believe, that she did it for her sake. 
 
 The British ministry had in the spring sent out 
 Admiral Arbuthnot with a reinforcement for the 
 American service. He was however delayed by the 
 way, and did not arrive until August. Undei con- 
 voy of his fleet, Sir Henry Clinton with 7,000 men 
 sailed in October from New York for the south, and 
 after a tempestuous and protracted voyage, landed 
 atTyber Island in the neighbourhood of Charlestown. 
 
 General Lincoln, with his army, was, at the close 
 of this year, in winter- quarters at Sheldon, and 
 
1064 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Washington had again chosen his at the heights of 
 Movrissauia 
 
 (Jam-paiyn cf 1779 Armed neutrality Clinton be- 
 iittges Charlestown That city capitulates Tarleton 
 surprises BurJ'ord Clinton in South Carolina He 
 returns to New York Skirmish at Sprinyjield. 
 
 Fresh indications of hostility towards England 
 were manifested by the European powers. She had 
 for a considerable period been mistress of the sea, 
 and she had borne her honours haughtily. She 
 claimed the right of searching the vessels of neutral 
 nations, for articles contraband of war; nor would 
 she allow their national flag to protect them from 
 her troublesome and insulting scrutiny. A com- 
 mon feeling of indignation at this conduct pervaded 
 the nations, which, by the policy of Catharine II. 
 of Russia, England was made to feel, without the 
 power of resenting. On the occasion of the irrita- 
 tion produced by the search and seizure of a number 
 of Dutch vessels sailing under the convoy of the 
 Count de Byland, that princess proposed to the na- 
 tions to unite in an " armed neutrality," and imme- 
 diately the kings of Denmark and Sweden acceded 
 to the proposal. The treaty to which they were 
 mutually bound, and which constituted the basis of 
 this confederacy, stipulated that neutral vessels 
 might freely navigate from one port to another, 
 even upcn the coast of belligerent powers ; that 
 all effects become free so soon as they are on board 
 a neutral vessel, except such articles as by a former 
 specified treaty, had been declared contraband; 
 that no port should be deemed blockaded, until such 
 an actual naval force had invested it, as to make its 
 entrance dangerous ; that when any vessel had 
 shown by its papers, that it was not the carrier of 
 contraband goods, it might place itself under the es- 
 cort of ships of war, which should prevent its being 
 stopped ; and finally, that the legality of prizes 
 should be determined by these rules. In order to 
 command respect for this confederation, the three 
 allied powers agreed that each should keep a part 
 of its navy equipped, and make common cause in 
 protecting their common trade. These articles were 
 communicated to the courts of France, Spain, Hoi- 
 laud, England, and Portugal, with an invitation to 
 join the confederacy. The two former expressed 
 great admiration of their wisdom, and joy in their 
 adoption ; and not only acceded to them, but wished 
 the northern powers to understand, that by their 
 directions to their admirals, they had already antici- 
 pated them. Portugal, fearful of offending England, 
 declined the alliance. England threatened with 
 vengeance the states of Holland, if they departed 
 from the old system of neutrality ; but Holland, 
 irritated at the seizure of her vessels, and partaking 
 in the common feeling of resentment towards Eng- 
 land, disregarded these threats, and joined the armed 
 neutrality. The British ministry, unwilling to come 
 to an open rupture with Russia, but determined not 
 to admit the principles of the confederacy, dissem- 
 bled for the present their displeasure, and replied 
 to the invitation in a vague and indecisive manner. 
 Surrounded by so many perils, it is not strange 
 that England prosecuted the American war with 
 less energy than she had done in preceding years. 
 Yet she manifested no signs of fear or discourage- 
 ment. The only change which took place in her 
 policy respecting the American contest, was that 
 before stated ; to draw all her troops to the south, 
 except so many as should enable her to keep pos 
 essiou of tbe pobtn already acquired at the north. 
 
 Sir Henry Clinton, as we have before noticed, 
 was lying in the vicinity of Charlestown, with an 
 army of 7000 men. This was increased by the 
 troops from Savannah, under General Patterson. 
 Not doubting but that Charlestown would be at- 
 tacked, General Lincoln removed thither with his 
 army ; and in conjunction with Governor Rutledge, 
 to whom the state had confided dictatorial powers, 
 tried every measure to put the city in a posture of 
 defence. But they had great difficulties to encounter. 
 The militia had been disbanded ; they weie dis- 
 pirited, and afraid to enter Charlestown on account 
 of the small-pox, which was there prevailing. 
 
 Paper currency was out of credit, and many be- 
 coming discouraged as to the final success of the 
 republican cause, took advantage of the amnesty 
 which had been offered by Prevost. A considerable 
 force was however collected, and great diligence 
 was displayed in constructing fortifications. 
 
 The siege commenced on the 1st of April, Gene- 
 ral Lincoln had posted General Huger, with a de- 
 tachment, at Monk's Corner. They were driven 
 from their position by the British troops under Colo- 
 nels Webster, Tarleton, and Ferguson. The British 
 had, on the llth of April, passed Fort Moultrie 
 without stopping to engage it, losing by its guns 
 only 27 men. Colonel Piuckney, who commanded 
 this fort, surrendered it on the 7th of May. Charles- 
 town, thus surrounded, capitulated on the 12th, and 
 General Lincoln, with his army, fell into the hands 
 of the British. Seven general officers, ten conti- 
 nental regiments, three battalions, 400 pieces of 
 artillery, and four frigates, were surrendered. 
 
 The "successful operations of the British in the 
 siege of Charlestown, and in the defence made at 
 tbe close of the last year at Savannah, are by his- 
 torians attributed, in a great degree, to the superior 
 skill of their chief engineer, Moncrieff. 
 
 After taking possession of the capital, Clinton 
 planned three expeditions, all of which proved suc- 
 cessful; one against Ninety-six, one towards Sa- 
 vannah, and the third to scour the country between 
 the Cooper and Santee rivers. The object of the 
 last was to disperse a body of republicans, under Colo- 
 nel Burford, who were retiring by forced marches, 
 in hopes to meet another body of Americans who 
 were on the march from Salisbury to Charlotte. 
 Burford continued his retreat with such celerity, 
 that it appeared next to impossible to overtake him. 
 But Colonel Tarleton, the most active of Clinton's 
 officers, commanded the pursuit, and after marching 
 105 miles in 54 hours, on the 28th of May. he came 
 up with Burford at Wacsaw. The English victory 
 was complete, but it was stained with cruelty. They 
 massacred many of those who offered to surrender, 
 and from this time the proverbial mode of express- 
 ing the barbarous act of killing those who surrender, 
 was to call it " Tarleton's quarter." Thus the 
 cavalry which Clinton had brought with him had 
 proved of essential service to his arms ; and the 
 alert, yet sanguinary Tarleton, at that period seemed 
 to the terrified inhabitants to be every where present. 
 
 There no longer remained in South Carolina a 
 force capable of withstanding the British. The in- 
 habitants flocked from all parts to meet the royal 
 troops, and declare their desire of resuming their 
 ancient allegiance. Clinton wrote to England, that 
 " South Carolina was English again." But be was 
 aware that his conquests could not be preserved, but 
 by re-establishing the civil administration, lie pub- 
 lished a full pardon to all who should immediately 
 return to their duty. But they must consider them 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1065 
 
 elves established in the duties as well as the rights 
 of British subjects; that is, they were required to 
 take up arms in support of the royal government; 
 those who had families, to form a militia for home 
 defence; but those who had not, to serve with the 
 royal forces, for any six months of the ensuing 
 twelve. Thus citizens became armed against citi- 
 zens, brothers against brothers ; and the same indi- 
 viduals who had been soldiers of congress, since they 
 had been comprehended in the capitulation as 
 prisoners of war, were compelled to take up arms 
 for England. 
 
 General Clinton, seeing the affairs of the south 
 in apparent tranquillity, distributed his army into 
 the most important garrisons; and, leaving Lord 
 Cornwallis in the command of the southern forces, 
 returned to New York. That city had been ex- 
 posed to danger. The garrison was weak ; and such 
 had been the unparalleled severity of the winter, 
 that Washington might have marched his army with 
 all his artillery and baggage, across any of its sur- 
 rounding and now solid waters. But the miserable 
 condition of the American army would not allow the 
 commander to take advantage of this unexpected 
 circumstance. 
 
 Previous to the return of Clinton, General Knyp- 
 hausen, who had been left in command, had, with 
 5000 men, made an excursion into New Jersey, and 
 for a time occupied Elizabethtown. He had ma- 
 nwuvred to draw Washington from the heights of 
 Morristown, intending to occupy that strong post 
 himself, and thus force the American army into the 
 open country ; but his plan was penetrated, and his 
 expedition proved fruitless. Before his return, an 
 affair occurred near Springfield, in which General 
 Greene, who was sent by Washington to watch the 
 motions of Knyphausen, lost about 80 men. and the 
 British, as was supposed, somewhat more. Spring- 
 field, which consisted of 50 houses, was set on fire. 
 At sight of the flames the inhabitants aroused. The 
 spirit of the early days of the revolution rekindled. 
 They collected in such numbers, and pursued the 
 British with such violence, that their general was 
 glad to take advantage of the night to withdraw his 
 army from the open country of Jersey to the de- 
 fences of New York. 
 
 Congress sanction the depreciation of paper currency- 
 British in South Carolina Heroism of the women 
 in South Carolina Society of ladies. 
 
 Up to this period, congress had maintained their 
 bills at their nominal value, and had often declared, 
 that a dollar in paper should always be given and 
 received for a dollar in silver. But compelled to 
 yield to the pressure of circumstances, they now de- 
 cided that in future the bills should pass, not at 
 their nominal, but at their conventional value. 
 
 The government which Sir Henry Clinton esta- 
 blished in South Carolina had first made such a de- 
 cree ; and had caused a table to be constructed, 
 showing what had been the rate of depreciation, 
 and the actual value of the bills, in years, and even 
 in months past. The object of this calculation was 
 to obtain a rule, by which the payment of debts 
 might be regulated. This example congress found 
 it expedient to follow. 
 
 In Carolina and Georgia the British saw, with 
 chagrin, that there were still those who were devoted 
 to the cause of independence ; and their resentment 
 dictated measures of extraordinary rigour. Their 
 possessions were sequestrated, their families jealously 
 watched, and subjected as rebels to continual vexa- 
 
 tions. Within the city, they were refused access to 
 the tribunals if they had suits to bring against a 
 debtor, while, on the other hand, they were aban- 
 doned to all the prosecutions which those who had 
 or pretended to have claims against them, chose to 
 institute. 
 
 But there was still another more grievous injury, 
 and one which stung the Carolineans to madness. 
 This was the proclamation by which the British 
 commanders had absolved the prisoners of war from 
 their parole, and restored them to the condition of 
 British subjects, in order to compel them to fight 
 under the royal banner. Had they been suffered 
 to remain at home, they would by degrees have 
 become reconciled to what they could not but feel 
 to be the degradation of their country. But with 
 the requirement to take up arms, their wrath re- 
 kindled'. " If we must fight," said they, " it shall 
 be for America and our friends, not for England 
 and strangers." 
 
 The heroism of the women of Carolina gives them 
 a rank with the noblest patriots of the revolution. 
 They gloried in being called " rebel ladies." They 
 refused their presence at every scene of gaiety. Like 
 the daughters of captive Zion, they would not, ia 
 their captivity, amuse their conquerors. But at 
 every hazard they honoured with their attention 
 the brave defenders of their country. They sought 
 out and relieved the suffering soldiers, visited prison- 
 ships, and descended into loathsome dungeons. 
 Sisters encouraged their brothers to fight the op- 
 pressor : the mother gave military weapons to her 
 son, and the wife to her husband ; and their parting 
 advice was, " prefer prisons to infamy, and death 
 to servitude." 
 
 Where important national affairs are concerned, 
 there is a certain degree of warmth and animation, 
 which, pervading the public mind, marks the healthy 
 state of a nation. When this has risen to an unna- 
 tural heat, a period of lassitude and inertness suc- 
 ceeds, before the national pulse again recovers its 
 healthful beat. Such a preternatural state of public 
 feeling was excited in America by the apprehended 
 wrongs of Britain, and produced the noble efforts 
 of the days of 1776. But it was not in human nature 
 to keep long strained to such a high pitch of eleva- 
 tion. The period of lassitude succeeded, and ia 
 1779 the nation seemed asleep. But her sleep 
 recruited her vital energies. Her enemies con- 
 temning her apparent weakness, had applied the 
 scourge of a barbarian warfare. Its effects, though 
 cruel to individuals, were wholesome to the body 
 politic. America aroused from her slumbers, and 
 awoke to better deeds. 
 
 The leading patriots saw with delight the rising 
 enthusiasm of the people, and neglected no means 
 which could cherish and propagate it. Congress 
 sent circular letters to all the states, earnestly ex- 
 horting them to complete their regiments, and raise 
 and send recruits to the army. The militia obeyed 
 the call with alacrity. The capitalists subscribed 
 large sums, to replenish the exhausted treasury. A 
 bank was instituted at Philadelphia, on which con- 
 gress could draw for the necessities of the army 
 With generous patriotism, commercial houses, and 
 wealthy individuals stepped forward to support the 
 public credit, by their personal responsibility, al- 
 though the situation of affairs still offered too many 
 motives of doubt and distrust. 
 
 Nor was this patriotic zeal to strengthen the 
 sinews of war by filling the public chest, and pro- 
 viding for the wants of the soldiers confined to the 
 
J066 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 men. The women in all parts of the country dis- 
 played great zeal and activity, particularly in pro- 
 viding clothing for the soldiers. In Philadelphia 
 they formed a society, at the head of which was 
 Martha Washington, wife of the commander-in- 
 chief. This lady was as prudent in private affairs, 
 as her husband was in public. She alone presided 
 over their domestic finances, and provided for their 
 common household. Partaking of the complacent 
 dignity and calm temperament of her husband, she 
 had no caprices to disturb his affections, in that 
 citadel of man's happiness, the conjugal relation. 
 Thus it was owing to the talents and virtues of his 
 wife, that Washington could give himself wholly to 
 the dictates of that patriotism, which this virtuous 
 pair mutually shared, and reciprocally invigorated. 
 Mrs. Washington, with the ladies who had formed 
 the society, themselves subscribed considerable sums 
 for the public; and having exhausted their own 
 means, they exerted their influence, and went from 
 house to house, to stimulate the liberality of others. 
 
 Campaign of 1780 British defeated at Hanging 
 Rock Baron De Kalb enters Norlk Carolina 
 Battle near Camden Death of De Kalb Tarleton 
 turprises Sumpter. 
 
 At this period La Fayette returned with the 
 cheering intelligence, that a body of French troops 
 had, at the time of his departure, embarked for 
 America, and that the ships in which they had taken 
 passage were on the point of setting sail from France. 
 His exertions in that country had accelerated their 
 departure, and he had again come, self-devoted to 
 the generous cause of freedom. He was received 
 by all classes with the ardent affection which his 
 bland manners and interesting person excited, and 
 which his services and talents commanded. 
 
 The expected succours soon arrived at Rhode 
 Island. They consisted of a squadron of seven sail 
 of the line, five frigates, and two corvettes, com- 
 manded by M. De Fernay. This fleet convoyed a 
 number of transports, bearing 6000 soldiers under 
 the command of the Count De Rochambeau. An 
 agreement had been made between congress and 
 the court of Versailles, that General Washington 
 should be the commander-in-chief of all the forces 
 both French and American. The French were 
 welcomed with every demonstration of gratitude, 
 and put in immediate possession of the forts on 
 Rhode Island. Washington, in order to cement 
 more firmly the union between the two nations, 
 ordered the distinctive colours of the national flags 
 to be blended in the banners of his army. 
 
 At New York, Admiral Arbuthnot, whose force 
 had consisted of four ships of the line, was now re- 
 inforced by the arrival of six ships under Admiral 
 Greaves. General Clinton determined on attacking 
 the French at Rhode Island. He accordingly em- 
 barked on board the squadron of Admiral Greaves, 
 with 6000 choice troops, and sailed for Rhode 
 Island. Washington, in the meanwhile, having 
 watched the movements of Clinton, immediately 
 marched his army to Kingsbridge, with the inten- 
 tion of attacking New York, which was now left 
 almost defenceless. But Clinton learning this 
 movement, and finding also that the French were 
 reinforced at Rhode Island by the New England 
 militia, relinquished the expedition, and returned 
 to the defence of New York. The indecision and 
 timidity manifested by the British on this occasion, 
 infused new courage into the Americans. 
 While these events were transpiring in the north, 
 
 the inhabitants of the south were not inactive. The 
 insolence of the British troops had become insup- 
 portable; and the inhabitants of North and South 
 Carolina had assembled in numbers, and seized 
 every opportunity of harassing them. Among the 
 officers who headed these desultory parties, none 
 rendered such distinguished service to their country, 
 as Colonels Sumpter and Marion. Sumpter was a 
 native of South Carolina, and possessed an extensive 
 influence with his fellow-citizens. He collected 
 great numbers of the inhabitants ; and although they 
 were compelled to trust to chance for their means 
 of subsistence, and to use their implements of hus- 
 bandry for weapons of war, yet they menaced the 
 enemy in all directions. The resources of these 
 patriots were few. In some instances they were 
 known to encounter the enemy with but three 
 charges of ammunition to a man. Their frequent 
 skirmishes with the British, however, soon furnished 
 them with muskets and cartridges; and when thus 
 equipped, Colonel Sumpter, whose numbers now 
 amounted to 600 men, determined upon attacking 
 some of the strong posts of the enemy. His first 
 attempt was upon Rocky Mount, where he was re- 
 pulsed ; he then attacked the post at Hanging Rock, 
 and destroyed a British regiment stationed at that 
 place. Perfectly acquainted with every part of the 
 country, he was enabled to elude all pursuit. This 
 partisan warfare, while it weakened the number of 
 the English, emboldened the Americans,and strength- 
 ened their confidence in themselves. 
 
 In the meantime a few regular troops under the 
 command of the Baron De Kalb, had been sent from 
 Maryland to the defence of Carolina. Owing to the 
 excessive heat of the season, and the difficulty of 
 procuring provisions, they necessarily proceeded by 
 slow marches. On their way however they were re- 
 inforced by the Virginia militia, and the troops of 
 North Carolina, commanded by General Caswell. 
 At Deep river they were joined by General Gates, 
 who had been appointed to the command of the 
 southern army. He immediately advanced towards 
 South Carolina with a force amounting to about 4000 
 men. When he arrived on the frontiers of the state, 
 he issued a proclamation inviting the inhabitants to 
 join him, and promised pardon to all, from whom 
 oaths had been extorted by the English, excepting 
 those who had committed depredations against the 
 persons and property of their fellow citizens. His 
 proclamation had the desired effect. Multitudes 
 flocked to him, and even whole companies, which 
 had been levied in the provinces for the service of 
 the king, deserted. 
 
 Lord Rawdon, who had the command of the Bri- 
 tish forces on the frontiers of Carolina, had concen- 
 trated them at Camden. On learning the approach 
 of Gates, he gave immediate notice to Cornwallis, 
 who soon after joined him. At ten on the night of 
 the 15th of August, his lordship marched from Cam- 
 den with his whole force, amounting to 2000 men, 
 with the intention of attacking the Americans in their 
 camp at Clermont. Gates had also commenced his 
 march from Clermont with the view of surprising 
 the British camp. About two in the morning, the 
 advanced guards of the two armies met and fired 
 upon each other. From prisoners made on both 
 sides, the commanders learned each other's move- 
 ments. The two generals suspended their fire, wait- 
 ing for the light of day, and the armies having 
 halted were formed in the order of battle. 
 
 The ground on which they had met was exceed- 
 ingly unfavourable to Gates ; he could not advance 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1067 
 
 to the attack but through a narrow way bordered 
 by a deep swamp, and the situation rendered the 
 superiority of the American numbers of no effect. 
 In the morning a severe and general action was 
 fought. The Virginia and North Carolina militia 
 fled in the commencement of the battle, and General 
 Gates in vain attempted to rally them. The con- 
 tinentals were thus left to maintain the contest, and 
 though they defended themselves with great bravery, 
 and several times gained ground, yet they were 
 unable to restore the fortune of the day. The rout 
 became general, the Americans fled in the greatest 
 disorder. They were pursued by the British 23 
 miles. The whole loss of the Americans in killed, 
 wounded and prisoners, was about 2000. General 
 Gregory was killed ; the Baron De Kalb, who was 
 wounded, and General Rutherford, were taken pri- 
 soners. All the artillery, baggage aud stores, fell 
 into the hands of the enemy. The loss of the British 
 amounted to only 324. 
 
 Baron De Kalb, who had been wounded, died 
 three days after the battle. General Gates retreated 
 to North Carolina, leaving the British triumphant 
 in the south. 
 
 Colonel Sumpter continued to show himself on 
 the banks of the Wateree ; but on learning the de- 
 feat of Gates, he retired with 1000 men and two 
 field-pieces to North Carolina. Tarleton with his 
 legion was sent in pursuit of him, and surprised him 
 on the banks of Fishing creek. Sumpter with a 
 few of his men escaped ; the most of them, however, 
 were taken by Tarleton and put to the sword. 
 
 Colonel Marion, who about this time was pro- 
 moted to the rank of brigadier-general, still kept the 
 field. Sheltering himself in the fastnesses of the 
 mountain*, he occasionally sallied out upon the Bri- 
 tish and tories, and seldom failed of surprising and 
 capturing such small parties, as with his small force 
 it. was prudent for him to attack. 
 
 Arnold's treasonExecution of Andre Cornwallis 
 arrives at Charlotletown Defeat at Ferguson- 
 Descent upon Portsmouth, VirginiaGates surprised 
 by Greene Arnold makes a descent upon Virginia. 
 
 While these affairs were transacting at the south, 
 an unexpected event occurred at the north, which 
 arrested the general attention. A design which had 
 for some time been maturing in darkness, was now 
 brought to light. Arnold, the loudest to proclaim 
 his patriotism, the fiercest to fight for his country, 
 had bargained to sell that country for gold ! and he 
 had nearly accomplished his wicked purpose. 
 
 Arnold was dear to the American people ; he had 
 been valiant in their service, and his maimed person 
 bore the marks of the field of Saratoga. On account 
 of his wounds he was obliged to retire from active 
 service. He solicited and obtained from congress, 
 the post of commandant of Philadelphia. 
 
 Here Arnold lived in princely magnificence. He 
 inhabited, it is said, the house of Penn. If so, this 
 mansion of simplicity received a splendid furnishing, 
 and became a scene of high play, sumptuous ban- 
 quets and expensive balls. To" support this pa- 
 geantry, Arnold resorted to commerce and privateer 
 ing. In these he was unfortunate, and his next re- 
 source was the public treasure, to which as an officer 
 of the government, he had means of access. He 
 presented accounts unworthy of a general. C 
 gress were indignant, and caused them to be inves- 
 tigated. The commissioners which they appointed 
 reduced them to one-half. Arnold stormed, and ap- 
 pealed to congress, A committee of its members 
 
 re-investigated, and found his accounts worse than 
 even the report of the commissioners had stated 
 them. Arnold now wreaked his vengeance, by the 
 most shameless invectives against congress. The 
 state of Pennsylvania took up the quarrel, accused 
 him of peculation, and brought him before a court- 
 martial. By this court he was sentenced to be re- 
 primanded by Washington. 
 
 From what other quarter could he obtain the 
 money to support his extravagance, since the last 
 resource had failed? The coffers of England, he 
 knew might be opened to supply him. Treason bore 
 with her a high price. He should also obtain re- 
 venge on the objects of his wrath : and for these 
 motives he resolved to sell himself and his country. 
 He developed his intention in a letter which he ad- 
 dressed to Colonel Robinson, by whom it was com- 
 municated to Sir Henry Clinton. Determined to 
 make the most of his new ally, Clinton revolved in 
 his mind what was the most important service which 
 could be rendered him, while Arnold's treachery re- 
 mained concealed. The foe within the fortress, is 
 employed by its enemy to open the gate. This was 
 the nature of the service, which Arnold was to per- 
 form for the enemies of his country. 
 
 As Arnold passed up the river to assume his com- 
 mand, those guardian mountains, whose rugged 
 passes had so often sheltered the little army of his 
 country, must have seemed to frown upon the traitor 
 who was about to deliver it up to the enemy. 
 
 His first measure was to scatter his forces at dif- 
 ferent points, so that they might be easily cut off by 
 the British ; all was ready, and a few days would 
 have consummated his treason ; but a providential 
 disclosure saved America. 
 
 Major Andre, the aid-de-camp of General Clinton, 
 had been by him intrusted with the negotiation. 
 This young officer is represented by those who knew 
 him as being both in person and mind one of the 
 most perfect specimens of human nature, and as 
 concentrating all the qualities which the novel writer 
 is fond of attributing to the hero of the tale. He 
 was manly, yet graceful and elegant, bold, yet tender, 
 and firm, yet ingenuous. Sir Henry Clinton loved 
 him as a son; and such was his confidence in his 
 talents, that he intrusted to him this most impor- 
 tant, difficult and hazardous service. Probably, 
 however, the partiality of Clinton threw a false 
 light around its object ; for Andre was not the pro- 
 per man for such an enterprise. Had he been more 
 crafty and subtle, he might have conducted the plot 
 to its consummation. 
 
 Arnold and And.e had corresponded, under the 
 feigned names of Gustavus and Anderson. As the 
 crisis approached, they conceived that a personal 
 interview was necessary, in order to concert the last 
 measures. On the night of the 21st of September, 
 Andre lauded from the British sloop of war Vulture, 
 which Clinton had stationed near West Point to 
 facilitate the negotiation. Arnold and Andre spent 
 the whole night in conference ; and when the day 
 dawned, their dispositions were not all concluded. 
 
 Andre was concealed through the day, and at 
 night he prepared to return. By the entreaties of 
 Arnold, he was prevailed upon to change his uniform 
 for a common dress, instead of concealing it as he 
 had formerly done by a cloak. He took a horse 
 from Arnold, and a passport under the name of John 
 Anderson. He had safely passed the American 
 guard, and had reached Tarrytown near the British 
 posts, when three soldiers of the militia crossed his 
 way, and he passed ou. One of them thought the 
 
IOCS 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 traveller had something peculiar in his appearance, 
 and called him back. Andre inquired, " where are 
 you from ?" " From below," (intending to be un- 
 derstood from New York,) replied the soldier. " So 
 am I," said the self-betrayed Andre. The soldiers 
 arrested him, and he did not attempt to conceal that 
 he was a British officer. He offered them every 
 bribe which he thought could tempt men like them. 
 He pleaded with all the energy inspired by the love 
 of life, and the momentous concerns that his preser- 
 vation then involved, to his country, and his be- 
 loved general. But the humble patriots spurned the 
 bribe, and were deaf to the entreaty. Their names 
 were John Paulding, David Williams and Isaac Van 
 Wart. They searched his person, and found pa- 
 pers in his boots, in the hand-writing of Arnold, 
 which disclosed the treason. They immediately con- 
 ducted Andre to Colonel Jameson, the officer at 
 West Point, who commanded the advanced guard. 
 This officer hesitated. He could not be persuaded 
 that his general would betray that country for which 
 he had shed his blood ; and he indiscreetly per- 
 mitted Andre to write. Arnold thus learned that 
 Andre was arrested, and seizing a boat escaped on 
 board the Vulture. 
 
 Washington, during these transactions, had been 
 called by some affairs to Hartford, but shocked and 
 alarmed at the news, he hastened to his camp. His 
 first care was to learn whether Arnold had accom- 
 plices. Convinced by a strict scrutiny that none of 
 his other officers were guilty, his next was the painful 
 duty of bringing to trial and execution the inte- 
 resting young Andre. 
 
 Although from the usages of war Washington 
 might have given his prisoner, found as he was in 
 disguise, the same hasty execution as Howe had 
 some years before given to the equally interesting 
 young Hale, yet he was aware that in this transac- 
 tion the eyes of Europe and America would be upon 
 him, and his heart inclined him to mercy. He there- 
 fore summoned a court-martial ; and was careful to 
 appoint a tribunal of whom none could complain, 
 and who would be as merciful as public safety would 
 allow. La Fayette and Greene were among its 
 members ; and who could doubt, if such men, with 
 all the kindness of their nature, gave sentence of 
 death, that such was the stern dictate of their mili- 
 tary duty. 
 
 From this fate, Sir Henry Clinton strove with all 
 the earnestness of a tender father to shield his favou- 
 rite. He wrote to Washington, urging that what- 
 ever Andre had done, especially his change of 
 dress, was by the direction of Arnold, an American 
 general ; he urged, that his detention was a viola- 
 tion of the sanctity of flags and the usages of nations. 
 Arnold also wrote in his favour, endeavouring to 
 charge himself with the blame of the transaction : 
 and alleging, that in his character as an American 
 general, he had a right to grant to Andre the usual 
 privilege of a flag, for the purpose of conferring with 
 him, and to provide for his safe return in any man- 
 ner he should choose. Andre appeared before his 
 judges with a noble frankness. He was calm and 
 composed as to his own fate, but anxious to screen 
 his friends, especially Sir Henry Clinton. He dis- 
 guised no fact, and resorted to no subterfuge. He 
 ingenuously disavowed what Clinton and Arnold had 
 mainly urged in his defence, that he had come 
 under the protection of a flag ; and the fact was un- 
 questioned that he was in disguise. Grieving at 
 the sentence they were compelled to pronounce, his 
 judges condemned him to death us a spy. 
 
 Clinton, smitten with anguish, again sought to 
 negotiate his release; and Washington, at big re- 
 quest, sent General Greene down the river to meet 
 and confer with General Robinson. This friend of 
 Andre exerted all the powers of reasoning to con- 
 vince General Greene that the sentence was unjust. 
 Failing in that, he urged his release on the score of 
 interest; he promised that any American charged 
 with whatever crime, should be exchanged for An- 
 dre ; and he hinted that the sparing of his favourite 
 would do much in the mind of the British commander 
 in favour of the Americans. Finding all these efforts 
 unavailing, he resorted to threats. He delivered a 
 letter from Arnold, which contained the declaration, 
 that if Andre was executed, the rebels of Carolina, 
 hitherto spared by Clinton, should all be put to in- 
 stant death. 
 
 The interference of Arnold would have injured 
 the cause it designed to serve, had it not been al- 
 ready hopeless. 
 
 Andre prepared to meet his approaching fate as 
 became a man. Life and its fair prospects he could 
 calmly relinquish; but there were circumstances 
 relating to his domestic affections, and his honour, 
 which touched his heart. His widowed mother and 
 his sisters, on the far shore of an intervening ocean, 
 were watching for every vessel that brought them 
 news of him. One would reach them in a few 
 weeks, and who would console them for its tidings ! 
 and should they learn not only that he was dead, but 
 that he died upon the gallows ! There was the bit- 
 terness of death; and he besought Washington that 
 he might be allowed to die by the musket, and not 
 by the halter. 
 
 The cruel rules of that sanguinary science, which 
 philanthropy hopes may in some future age cease to 
 exist, compelled Washington to deny even this poor 
 request. Andre then asked permission to write to 
 Sir Henry Clinton, which was granted ; and to the 
 care of this general he commended his widowed 
 mother, and afflicted sisters. 
 
 Brought to the gallows, he said, " And must I 
 die thus ?" The burst of grief was calmed by de- 
 votion. After a few minutes spent in prayer, he 
 said with composure to those around him, "bear 
 me witness that I die as a brave man should die :" 
 and the scene closed. 
 
 Arnold received from the British 10,000/., and the 
 rank of brigadier-general. For this he bartered his 
 honour, his peace and his fame ; changing the 
 high esteem of the public into general detestation 
 The English, although they stooped to purchase the 
 treason, could not but despise the traitor. Even 
 his innocent children could not defend their little 
 rights among their playmates ; but the finger of 
 scorn was pointed at them, and they were hissed 
 with " Traitor, traitor." 
 
 The three captors of Andre were honoured as 
 benefactors to their country. They received the 
 thanks of congress, a silver medal, and a pension 
 for life. 
 
 Cornwallis, after the battle of Camden, directed 
 his attention to the subjugation of North Carolina; 
 and with that view, commenced his march from 
 Camden towards Charlottetown. But in order to 
 maintain the royal cause in South Carolina, he dis- 
 tributed detachments of troops upon different parts 
 of the frontier. He arrived at Charlottetown about 
 the last of September. 
 
 In the meantime Colonel Ferguson, who had been 
 previously sent into the province by Lord Corn- 
 wallis, had committed acts of so barbarous a nature, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 * to awaken the highest indignation. Whereve 
 he went devastation marked his progress, and th 
 people determined no longer to submit to his atro 
 cities. The mountaineers collected in great num 
 bera under several commanders, the principal o 
 whom were Campbell, Shelby, and Cleveland ; an 
 arming themselves with such weapons as could mos 
 eaily be obtained, they descended to the plain ii 
 pursuit of Ferguson. 
 
 They found him posted on a woody emineuc 
 called King's Mountain. This spot commanded th 
 adjacent plain, and the road leading to it was de 
 fended by an advanced guard. The guard were 
 soon compelled to fall back, and the mountaineer 
 advanced towards the summit. After a vigorou 
 contest the Americans reached the brow of the hill 
 Ferguson fell, and 300 of his party were killed an 
 wounded. Hia successor in command surrendered 
 Thia defeat was a severe blow to Cornwallis, an 
 rendered his situation in North Carolina dangerous 
 The loyalists intimidated, no longer evinced an 
 eagerness to join his cause. The republicans as 
 sembled under Colonels Sumpter and Marion, in 
 whom they had equal confidence, made every effor 
 to annoy him ; and the royal troops were in con- 
 tinual danger of being surprised by these active 
 leaders. Under these circumstances he found i 
 most prudent to retire to South Carolina, and awai 
 the reinforcements which he there expected to re- 
 ceive. He accordingly repassed the Catawba, anc 
 stationed his army at Winnsborough, where he could 
 conveniently hold communication with the forces 
 at Camden and Ninety-six. 
 
 In order to co-operate with Lord Cornwallis, Sir 
 Henry jClinton had detached General Leslie, with 
 a corps of 3000 men, to Virginia. They landed 
 at Portsmouth, and ravaged the adjacent country. 
 Cornwallis now ordered General Leslie to embark 
 for Charlestown. 
 
 Colonel Sumpter continued to harass the British 
 on all sides. He had surprised some small detach- 
 ments, and made many prisoners. Tarleton was now 
 sent by Cornwallis to surprise this formidable officer. 
 He found him near Tiger river, encamped on the 
 bank of Mud river. Tarleton commenced the attack 
 with great impetuosity, but Sumpter soon compelled 
 him to retreat. Sumpter was however dangerously 
 wounded, and being unable to retain the command 
 of his forces, they were disbanded. 
 
 General Gates had, during the period of these 
 transactions, exerted himself to collect new troops, 
 and had greatly improved the condition of his army. 
 He was, however, superseded in command by Ge- 
 neral Greene. This officer found the army at Char- 
 lottetown, and notwithstanding the exertions of 
 Gates, it was still feeble, and unable to cope with 
 Cornwallis. He therefore determined not to hazard 
 a general action, but to harass, if possible, the Bri- 
 tish army, and reduce it by degrees. 
 
 A reinforcement of 1500 men now joined Corn- 
 wallis at Winnsborough. This accession of troops 
 renewed his hopes of reducing North Carolina and 
 Virginia. In order to render the success of the en- 
 terprise more certain, and to prevent the \irginians 
 from sending succours to Greene, Arnold had been 
 sent to the Chesapeake with 50 transports and 1500 
 men. He landed his troops in Virginia, and imme- 
 diately commenced, what now seemed his favourite 
 occupation, the devastation of his country. 
 
 Ca,'pc.ijn of 1781 Robert Morris treasurer Frank- 
 lin obtain- money from France and Holland Re- 
 
 volt of the Pennsylvanian line New Jersey troopt 
 revolt Tarleton attacks Morton at the Cowpens 
 Cornwallis pursues More/an Colonel Lee defeatt 
 Colonel Hill Battle of Guilford Caurt-houieThe 
 Americans retreat Cornwallis sets out for Virginia. 
 
 England, during the past year, had shown herself 
 a brave and powerful nation. Though alone against 
 both hemispheres in arms, she remained unshaken. 
 The favourite objects of Spain, next to humbling the 
 maritime power of England, were the possession of 
 Gibraltar and Jamaica, and the recovery of the Flo- 
 ridas. She had, at immense expense, laid and con- 
 tinued the siege of Gibraltar, which under its com- 
 mander, Elliot, made the most obstinate defence 
 found in the annals of modem history. She had 
 also sent out immense fleets, which uniting with 
 those of France and Holland, had twice threatened 
 England with invasion ; but untoward circumstances 
 prevented the attempts. The naval operations of 
 the belligerent powers were, duiing these years, 
 of astonishing magnitude ; and neither side could 
 at this period claim the supremacy of the ocean. 
 Great naval battles were fought in the West Indian 
 and European seas, in which the allies and the En- 
 glish were each alternately the conquerors and the 
 conquered. Each also took from .the other, on vari- 
 ous occasions, large fleets of merchant vessels. But 
 n these captures the English were the most success- 
 f ul. Several of the West India islands changed 
 masters during these contests. Pensacola was in 
 May taken by the Spaniards, who thence extended 
 "heir conquests over the whole province of Florida. 
 
 Amidst these contests, neither England nor 
 France forgot America. France, in addition to the 
 ? orce under Rochambeau, determined to send out a 
 arge fleet under the Count De Grasse, which, after 
 )erforming certain services in the West Indies, was 
 ;o repair to the coast of America, and co-operate 
 vith the Count De Rochambeau and General Wash- 
 ngton. This measure proved of the highest impor- 
 ance to America. 
 
 The English exerted an extraordinary activity 
 n equipping a fleet which was to carry Lord Corn- 
 wallis a reinforcement of several regiments of En- 
 glish troops, besides 3000 Hessians. They hoped 
 hat this addition of force would be sufficient to 
 maintain their former conquests, and extend still 
 urther the progress of their arms. 
 
 The situation of America had in reality much at 
 this period to give hopes to her enemies, and alarms 
 o her friends. The efforts made during the preced- 
 ng year, and the successes experienced in the south, 
 ad produced the happy effect of. reviving public 
 pirit. But although temporary relief had been 
 fforded, no permanent system of means to supply 
 be returning and increasing wants of the army had 
 een established ; and from this cause the country 
 eemed standing on the verge of ruin. 
 
 It is scarcely possible to conceive a situation more 
 rying than that of the American congress. They 
 vere fighting, not for conquest, but existence ; their 
 owerful foe was in full strength in the heart of 
 aeir country ; they had great military operations 
 o carry on, but were almost without an army, and 
 wholly without money. Their bilis of credit had 
 eased to be of any worth ; and they were reduced 
 3 the mortifying necessity of declaring by their own 
 cts, that this was the fact; as they no longer made 
 lem a legal tender, or received them in payment 
 f taxes. Without money of some kind, an army 
 ould neither be raised nor maintained. But tho 
 
1070 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 greater the exigency, the greater were the exertions 
 of thii determined band of patriots. They directed 
 their agents abroad to borrow, if possible, from 
 France, Spain, and Holland. They resorted to tax- 
 ation, although they knew that the measure would 
 be unpopular, and that they had not the power to 
 enforce their decree. The tax laid they apportioned 
 among the several state governments, by whose 
 authority it was to be collected. Perceiving that 
 there was great disorder and waste, or peculation in 
 the management of the fiscal concerns, they deter- 
 mined on introducing a thorough reform and the 
 strictest economy. They accordingly appointed as 
 treasurer Robert Morris, of Philadelphia ; a man 
 whose pure morals, ardent patriotism, and great 
 knowledge of financial concerns, eminently fitted 
 him for this important station. The zeal and genius 
 of Morris soon produced the most favourable results. 
 By a national bank, to which he obtained the ap- 
 probation of congress, he contrived to draw out the 
 funds of wealthy individuals. By borrowing in the 
 name of the government from this bank, and pledg- 
 ing for payment the taxes not yet collected, he was 
 enabled to anticipate them, and command a ready 
 supply. He also used his own private credit, which 
 was good, though that of his government had failed ; 
 and at one time, bills signed by him individually, 
 were in circulation to the amount of 581,000 dollars. 
 While America thus received this great service from 
 the zeal and ability of one of her sons at home, she 
 owed not less to the exertions of another of her pa- 
 triots abroad. 
 
 Franklin, at the court of France, obtained from 
 Louis XVI. a gift of 6,000,000 of livres ; and as Hol- 
 land refused to lend to the United States on their 
 own credit, the French monarch granted to the 
 solicitations of the minister his guarantee to the 
 states-general; who, on this security, lent to con- 
 gress the sum of 10,000,000 of livres. Spain refused 
 to furnish money to the United States, unless they 
 would renounce the navigation of the Mississippi. 
 This they steadily refused. The funds thus raised 
 were expended with the utmost prudence. All who 
 furnished supplies were paid by the treasurer with 
 the strictest punctuality; and public confidence by 
 degrees sprang up in the place of distrust; order 
 arid economy in the room of confusion and waste. 
 
 Before these measures had imparted vigour to the 
 fainting republic, an event occurred which threatened 
 its subversion. In fact, it was one of the causes 
 which led to the reformation in the finance, and 
 the establishment of the new system. The whole 
 Pennsylvania line, amounting to near 1500, revolted. 
 They were suffering the extremity of want. They 
 had enlisted for three years, or during the war ; 
 and as the three years expired at the close of 1780, 
 they contended that they had now a right to be dis- 
 charged, and return to their homes. The govern- 
 ment, however, maintained that they were bound to 
 serve until the close of the war. 
 
 From these causes a violent tumult broke out on 
 the night of the 1st of January. They declared 
 that they would march with arms in their hands to 
 the hall of congress, and demand justice. It was 
 in vain that their officers attempted to appease them. 
 Their most popular leader, La Fayette, and others 
 were constrained to quit the camp. General Wayne 
 presected himself boldly among them with a pisto' 
 in his hand ; but they menaced his life, and pointed 
 their bayonets as if to execute their threat. March 
 ing towards Philadelphia, they had already advancec 
 from Middlebrook to Princeton, when they were 
 
 met by Generals Reed and Sullivan, who were 
 lonimissioners appointed by congress to investigate 
 'acts, and take measures for the restoration of 
 public tranquillity. 
 
 In the meantime, Sir Henry Clinton, informed of 
 hese affairs, made every disposition to draw the 
 mutineers into the service of the British. He rassed 
 with his forces into Staten Island, and sent three 
 American loyalists to make them the most tempting 
 iffers. These the insurgents declined. Meanwhile, 
 he commissioners of congress offered to grant dis- 
 :harges to those who had enlisted foi three years, or 
 during the war. They promised remuneration for 
 what they had lost by the depreciation of paper 
 ecurities, the earliest possible payment of arrears, 
 m immediate supply o'f necessary clothing, and an 
 blivion of their past conduct. The mutineers ac- 
 cepted the proposals, and congress in due time ful- 
 illed the conditions. The Pennsylvanians then 
 delivered to congress the emissaries of Clinton, who 
 were immediately hanged. 
 
 A few days after this affair, the troops of New 
 Jersey also erected the standard of revolt. Wash- 
 ngton instantly marched against them with so pow- 
 erful a force, that he compelled them to submit; 
 and chastising their leaders with severity, the army 
 was no longer disturbed by sedition. 
 
 In the meantime the war was vigorously carried 
 on at the south, by both the contending parties. 
 General Greene, as has been related, had superseded 
 Gates in command of the southern army, then at 
 
 harlottetown. This army, which consisted of 2000 
 men, he separated into two parts. He marched at 
 the head of one division to Hicks Creek, while 
 Colonel Morgan, at the head of the other, moved by 
 his direction into the western part of the state. 
 
 Cornwallis, unwilling to advance into North Ca- 
 rolina while Morgan was in his rear, detached 
 Tarleton to oppose him with a corps of 1100 men, 
 and two field-pieces. Tarleton found Morgan at a 
 place called the Cowpens, and with his usual impe- 
 tuosity commenced the attack. After one of the 
 severest engagements which took place during the 
 whole war, the British were defeated. The disparity 
 of loss in this engagement was surprising ; while 
 that of the British was 300 killed and wounded, 
 that of the Americans was only twelve killed, and 
 60 wounded. Colonel Morgan took 500 prisoners, 
 and all the artillery and baggage of the enemy. 
 Colonels Washington, Howard, and Pickens dis- 
 tinguished themselves in this action. Colonel Mor- 
 gan now directed his march towards Virginia, in 
 order to join General Greene. Cornwallis, mor- 
 tified at the defeat of his favourite officer, immedi- 
 ately prepared to pursue him. He intended to in- 
 tercept him on his route, retake the prisoners, and 
 prevent his junction with Greene. He then de- 
 signed to proceed to the sources of the Yadkin, be- 
 fore Greene could have crossed that river, and thus 
 the last portion of the divided army would be his. 
 Both Morgan and Cornwallis now proceeded by 
 forced marches towards the Catawba, both exerting 
 themselves to reach the fords before the other. 
 Morgan reached the Catawba, and had crossed it 
 but two hours before the British appeared on the 
 opposite bank. Night coming on, Cornwallis was 
 obliged to delay crossing until morning. A heavy 
 rain fell, and in the morning the ford was impass- 
 able ; and three days was the impatient Cornwallis 
 obliged to wait, before the subsiding waters allowed 
 him to pass. 
 
 In the meantime Greene, anxious for the fate of 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1071 
 
 the pursued troops, had left his army under the 
 command of General Huger, to make their way 
 toward the sources of the rivers, where they were 
 fordable, and had himself proceeded with, only a few 
 attendants to join Morgan. It was at this juncture 
 that he arrived at the camp of Morgan, and took 
 upon himself the command. Another race now 
 commenced, and again the Americans foiled the 
 British. The army had just crossed the Yadkin, 
 and a quantity of baggage was yet remaining on 
 the other side, when the British arrived. Again 
 the waters suddenly rose, and Cornwallis was once 
 more obliged to stop, and look inactively on, while 
 the expected fruit of his plans and toilsome marches 
 was iu a moment, snatched from him. And it was 
 done by no human hand. At this signal deliverance 
 every pious feeling of the American bosom rose in 
 gratitude to Him who had made to them, as to his 
 people of old, a way through the waters, while he 
 had closed it to their enemies. 
 
 General Greene now directed his course towards 
 Guiltbrd court-house, where he was to be joined by 
 General Huger. On the 7th of February the two 
 detachments of the American army reached Guilford, 
 and effected their junction in safety. The two plans 
 of Cornwallis were thus defeated. He resolved, 
 now, to proceed to the Dan ; intending, by reaching 
 these fords before the Americans, to prevent their 
 communication with Virginia. In this also he was 
 disappointed, the Americans on the 1 1th crossed the 
 Dan, with all their artillery, baggage, and stores, 
 leaving the British yet in their rear. 
 
 Cornwallis, thus disappointed in all his schemes, 
 was compelled to relinquish them. He now deter- 
 mined to remain in North Carolina, and to collect 
 the loyalists under his standard. With this view he 
 repaired to Hillsborough, and endeavoured to pre- 
 vail upon the inhabitants to espouse the royal cause. 
 His efforts, however, were not crowned with the 
 success he anticipated. The people considered the 
 cause of congress triumphant, and feared to mani- 
 fest any attachment to the royal interest. In some 
 instances, however, the British general prevailed 
 upon the people to take up arms. He sent Taiieton 
 with his legion to the district between the Haw and 
 Deep rivers, to encourage the rising of the loyalists 
 in that quarter. 
 
 General Greene detached Colonel Lee with a 
 body of cavalry to scour the country, and attack 
 Tarleton. Lee soon overtook a body of loyalists 
 marching to Cornwallis, under the command of 
 Colonel Hill. The Americans charged them with 
 vigour, and the tories. supposing them to be Tarle- 
 ton's legion, and themselves mistaken for republi- 
 cans, declared their attachment to the royal cause, 
 and vociferated the cry, " long live the king." 
 Between 200 and 300 were killed by their enraged 
 assailants, and the survivors compelled to surrender. 
 Tarleton, by a singular coincidence, soon after met 
 another small body of royalists, and slaughtered 
 them, believing them to be republicans. While 
 advancing 'to encounter Lee, Tarleton was called 
 back by Cornwallis to Hillsborough. 
 
 Greene had now received a reinforcement of con- 
 tinental troops, and several bodies of militia. These 
 troops augmented his army to 6000, and he no 
 longer wished to avoid an engagement with the 
 British. Making every possible preparation for so 
 important an event, he now marched toward Corn- 
 wallis, who had taken post at Guilford court-house. 
 The armies met on the 15th of March. Early in 
 the battle some coinuanies of the militia fled, and 
 
 he regulars were soon left to maintain the conflict 
 alone. They fought for an hour and a half with 
 rreat bravery, and in some instances forced the 
 3ritish to give way. They were, however, at length 
 compelled to retreat, but it was only step by step, 
 nd without breaking their ranks. The loss of the 
 Americans in this engagement was estimated at 
 1300 men, that of the British in proportion to their 
 number was more considerable. Greene now re- 
 reated to Speedwell's iron works, ten miles from 
 he field of battle. Cornwallis, although he had the 
 reputation of a victor, found himself in consequence 
 of his losses obliged to retreat, while Greene was in 
 a condition to pursue, thus affording the singular 
 spectacle of a vanquished army pursuing a victorious 
 one. Cornwallis retired to Bell's-mills, and after a 
 ew days' repose marched towards Wilmington, 
 jreene having collected the fugitives of his army, 
 followed the British, and with his light-infantry 
 continually infested their rear. He however soon 
 altered his course, and proceeded by forced marches 
 :owards Camden in South Carolina. On Cornwal- 
 lis's arrival at Wilmington, he was undetermined 
 whether to return to the relief of South Carolina, or 
 march into Virginia, and join the forces under 
 Arnold. A council of war was called, which decided 
 upon the first measure, and the British general, after 
 having remained in Wilmington a few days, to 
 refresh his troops, proceeded towards Petersburg, 
 leaving the command of the forces in the Carolinas 
 to Lord Rawdon, a young man of much talent ana 
 military ardour, who he hoped would be able to hold 
 the army of Greene in check, keep possession of the 
 province, and establish the British authority. 
 
 Sumpter and Marion annoy the British- Americant 
 defeated at Hobkirk's Hill Rawdon evacuates 
 Camden British forts taken by the Americans* 
 Greene attacks fort Ninety-six. 
 
 Lord Rawdon established his head-quarters at 
 Camden, a place fortified with great care. The other 
 principal posts of the British in Carolina were the 
 city of Charlestown, Ninety-six and Augusta. They 
 had, however, garrisoned several others of minor 
 importance, so that their forces were much divided. 
 The disaffection of the inhabitants to the British 
 cause, compelled them thus to divide their troops, 
 in order to maintain such points as were necessary 
 to their subsistence, and their communication with 
 each other. The intelligence of the retreat of Corn- 
 wallis gave the republicans new hopes, and new vi- 
 gour. Sumpter and Marion by their bold but pru- 
 dent movements were continually gaining advan- 
 tages over the royalists. They thus made them- 
 selves regarded as leaders, who would conduct their 
 followers to glory and success, and not lead them 
 into disgrace or danger; and hundreds nocked to 
 their standard, who were organized into regular 
 companies. Thus they became so powerful, that 
 they were able to hold "in check the whole of lower 
 Carolina, while Greene with his army faced Lord 
 Rawdon in the Highlands. That officer, finding that 
 his position was becoming dangerous, strengthened 
 his army by calling in his troops from places not 
 susceptible of defence. 
 
 General Greene at this time appeared in view of 
 Carnden, at the head of his army, and proceeded to 
 intrench himself within a mile's distance, at Hob- 
 kirk's Hill. Rawdon would have retreated towards 
 Charlestown ; but the way was infested by the light- 
 troops of Sumpter and Marion. He perceived that 
 the Americans trusted to the strength of their post, 
 
1072 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 auci guarded it with negligence. Arming his musi- 
 cians, and leaving Camden in the care of the con- 
 valescents, he marched with every being in his 
 army capable of carrying a firelock, on the night 
 of the 25th of April ; and taking a circuitous route, 
 he fell by surprise on the left flank of the Americans. 
 Greene perceiving that the British moved in a solid 
 but not extended column, immediately caused them 
 to be attacked at the same time on both flanks and 
 in front. The battle became general and fierce. 
 The royalists gave way. Rawdon pushed forward 
 his reserve. The Americans in their turn retreated, 
 and the efforts of Greene and his officers to rally 
 them were ineffectual. The loss of the Americans 
 in killed, wounded and missing, was 2G8 ; that of 
 the British nearly equal. 
 
 The American general after this affair, retired 
 from Hobkirk's Hill, (five miles from Gun Swamp,) 
 to re-organize his army. Rawdon, like Cornwallis 
 at Guilford, found the effects of the battle to be 
 rather those of a defeat than a victory. He was in- 
 ferior to his enemy in cavalry, and could not pursue 
 him. His army was weakened. The inhabitants 
 in every direction were rising against him; and 
 he had reason to tremble for several of his posts, 
 which, as he was informed, were invested by the 
 Americans. 
 
 Thus situated, he evacuated Camden, rased its 
 fortifications, and retreating before the foe which 
 he boasted of having conquered, made his way to- 
 wards Charleston. On the 13th of May, he arrived 
 at Nelson's ferry ; where he learned that the forts 
 which the Americans had invested had fallen into 
 their power. Fort Watson capitulated to Marion 
 and Lee ; fort Motte to Sumpter, and Georgetown 
 to Marion. The prisoners taken in these forts 
 amounted to nearly 800 ; and in fort Motte was 
 a considerable quantity of military stores. From 
 Nelson's ferry, Rawdon moved to Eutaw Springs. 
 
 Greene now formed the design of reducing Ninety- 
 six and Augusta ; the only two posts which remained 
 to the British in the upper country, and which were 
 already invested by militia, under Colonels Clarke 
 and Pickens. He first marched his army against 
 Ninety-six, which was the strong hold of the royal- 
 ists, and could be overcome only by a regular siege. 
 
 Meantime, Rawdon, whose army had been rein- 
 forced by three regiments from Ireland, put himself 
 in motion to oppose the American commander and 
 preserve his fortresses, particularly that of Ninety- 
 six. On his march, he learned the capitulation of 
 Augusta, to the American militia, commanded by 
 the gallant Colonel Pickens. 
 
 Greene now learned that the enemy approached 
 with fresh forces ; and he knew that his troops were 
 in no condition to contend against the army of Raw- 
 don, combined with the garrison of Ninety-six. Un- 
 willing however to leave the place without an effort 
 which should at least vindicate the honour of the 
 American arms, he made a vigorous assault upon 
 the fort, and gained a considerable advantage 
 though he did not succeed in capturing it. He then 
 removed his army beyond the Tigerand Broad rivers. 
 Rawdon approached, and made some unavailing at- 
 tempts to draw Greene into an engagement. After 
 this, he entered and examined Ninety-six ; anc 
 finding the place not capable of withstanding a re- 
 gular attack, he abandoned it, and directed his 
 march towards Orangeburg ; where, on the 12th, 
 he established his head-quarters. Greene followec 
 him ; but finding his position covered by the wind 
 ings of the Edisto, he bent his march, ou the 16th 
 
 o the heights which border the Santee. The season 
 )roving uncommonly hot and sickly, the contend- 
 ng armies, by tacit consent, suspended their ope- 
 ations. 
 
 During this period, occurred the last scene of the 
 ragedy of Colonel Hayne. At the commencement 
 >f the war, few men co'uld have been found more to 
 be envied than Isaac Hayne. Blessed with the goods 
 of fortune, eminently endowed with tho.se qualities 
 which gain the love of men, possessing all the finer 
 sensibilities which ennoble our nature, he was all 
 that is estimable as a man and a patriot. At the 
 commencement of the war, he entered with ardour 
 nto the views of the republicans, and assisted in 
 person at the defence of Charlestown. On the sur- 
 render of that city, Hayne, whose consequence as 
 a leader was appreciated by the British, was offered 
 the alternative of becoming a British subject, or 
 joing into rigorous confinement. For himself, he 
 would not have hesitated a moment to choose cap- 
 tivity. But his wife and children were at his plan- 
 tation, languishing with the small-pox. And not 
 only did he feel it agony at such a time to be sepa- 
 rated from them, but he knew, that should he refuse 
 the offer of the British, a lawless soldiery would 
 violate and lay waste the retreat of his suffering 
 family. Torn by conflicting duties, who could blame 
 him, if in such a situation the husband and the fa- 
 ther triumphed over the patriot. He consented to 
 invest himself with the condition of a British subject, 
 on the solemn assurances of the British general, 
 Patterson, that he should not be called on to bear 
 arms against his countrymen. 
 
 Meanwhile the republicans had found means to 
 change the fortune of the war. The British, obliged 
 to act on the defensive, no longer regarded their 
 sacred engagements, but called on those enrolled 
 as their subjects, to take up arms in their defence. 
 Hayne, among others, found that he could not re- 
 main peaceably at home. His home too was deso- 
 lated, by the loss of his wife and two children, who 
 had died with the small-pox. Feeling released from 
 an obligation which the British themselves had vio- 
 lated, he once more took arms in the cause which 
 he had ever held dear. Engaged as a colonel, com- 
 manding a corps in the partisan warfare, he was 
 taken prisoner and confined in a deep dungeon in 
 Charlestown. Without even the form of trial, Lord 
 Rawdon with Colonel Balfour, the commandant of 
 Charlestown, contrary to the usages of war, sen- 
 tenced him to death. The royalists, with the go- 
 vernor at their head, petitioned for the prisoner, 
 and pleaded the impolicy of the act. The most dis- 
 tinguished women of Charlestown, touched with his 
 virtues, pleaded his cause with all the feeling and 
 eloquence of their sex. But more than all, his 
 children, clad in mourning for their mother, ap- 
 peared before the judges, and stretching out their 
 little hands, pleaded and entreated with tears for the 
 life of their surviving parent. But they pleaded in 
 vain ; and Hayne was led to execution. 
 
 Amidst the execrations which Rawdou's unrelent- 
 ing cruelty had in this instance drawn, not only 
 upon himself, but upon the cause which he had 
 thought proper to use such means in vindicating, 
 that general left the capital of Carolina, and re- 
 turned to, England. The command of the army de- 
 volved on Colonel Stuart. 
 
 Battle of Eutaw Springs Engagement of the French 
 and English fleets Junction of the British armies 
 Tarleton surprises Charlotte-villc Cornwallit 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1073 
 
 enters Yorktown Washington arrives at the head 
 of the Elk De Grasse enters the Chesapeake 
 Action between the French and English fleets. 
 
 General Greene, still in his camp at the high hills 
 of the Santee, had made the best use of the time 
 allowed him by the suspension of arms. It was now 
 the beginning of September, the sultriness of the 
 season had abated, and Greene determined, if possi- 
 ble, to dispossess the British of the remaining posts 
 in the upper country. He marched to the upper 
 Congaree, passed it with all his army, and descended 
 along its right bank, intending to attack Colonel 
 Stewart, who at this time occupied the post of Ma- 
 cord's Ferry. The royalists fell back upon Eutaw 
 Springs ; thither General Greene pursued them, 
 and on the 8th of September the armies engaged. 
 The battle of Eutaw Springs is memorable as being 
 one of the most bloody and valiantly contested fields 
 of the war; and also for being the last of any note 
 that occurred at the south. 
 
 In this battle General Greene drew up his forces 
 with great skill, and made the attack. The troops 
 on both sides fought with great bravery. The Ame- 
 rican officers remarked, that when necessary, their 
 soldiers resorted promptly to the use of the bayonet, 
 which they had formerly appeared to dread. After 
 a severe contest, victory seemed to declare for the 
 republicans. The British were routed and fled ; but 
 finding in their flight a large house and some other 
 objects affording shelter, they rallied and repulsed 
 their assailants with heavy loss. Greene finding it 
 impossible to dislodge them, retreated to bis cainp, 
 bearing 500 prisoners. The whole loss of the British 
 in killed and wounded was about 1000, that of the 
 Americans 600. Congress voted their thanks to 
 General Greene, and presented him with a con- 
 quered standard and a golden medal. Greene was 
 ably seconded by his officers, among whom the gal- 
 lant Colonels Lee and Washington are mentioned 
 as particularly deserving. The latter was wounded 
 and taken prisoner. Greene's army having being 
 reinforced, the British no longer dared to keep the 
 open country, but retired to Charlestown. Thus 
 had the Americans in a few months recovered the 
 whole of the states of South Carolina and Georgia, 
 except their capitals. The skill and valour mani- 
 fested by Greene in their defence, has given him a 
 rank among the heroes of the revolution, second to 
 none but to Washington. 
 
 While the war at the south was progressing, other 
 important operations were going on in other parts 
 of the union, and we now go back several months in 
 the order of time, to give an account of their pro- 
 gress. It will be recollected that we left both Corn- 
 wallis and the traitor Arnold in the state of Vir- 
 ginia. The latter had landed on the 4th of January 
 with a force of 1700 men, in the vicinity of Rich- 
 mond. He destroyed the public stores in Richmond ; 
 and sent Colonel Simcoe, who laid waste those in 
 Westham. In their course Arnold and his officers 
 committed the most wanton depredations on private 
 property. 
 
 Washington, although perplexed with the recent 
 mutiny of the troops, and the deranged state of the 
 finances, concerted measures with the French, by 
 means of which, he hoped to relieve Virginia, and 
 obtain possession of the traitor and his force. 
 
 La Fayette, at the head of 1200 light-infantry, 
 was detached towards Virginia, while the commander 
 of the French fleet at Rhode Island dispatched a 
 squadron of eight sail of the line under the Chevalier 
 
 HIST. OF AMER. Nos. 135 & 136. 
 
 Destouches, to cut off the retreat of Arnold from the 
 Chesapeake. But Clinton, gaining intelligence of 
 the plan, sent Admiral Arbuthnot to the relief of 
 Arnold, with a squadron of equal force. These two 
 fleets met and fought off Cape Henry, on the 16th 
 of March, and suffered equal, though not very con- 
 siderable loss. But the French were constrained 
 to relinquish their design, and return to Rhode 
 Island. Upon hearing this, La Fayette, who had 
 arrived at Annapolis, marched to the head of the Elk. 
 
 Clinton, finding how narrowlyArnold had escaped, 
 sent to his assistance General Philips with 2000 
 men. Thus reinforced, Arnold resumed the work 
 of pillage and destruction. La Fayette arrived in 
 time to save Richmond ; but he witnessed from that 
 place the conflagration of Manchester, on the oppo- 
 site bank of the James. About this time both parlies 
 learned the approach of Cornwallis ; and it became 
 the object of Philips and Arnold to form a junction 
 with him at Petersburg. They arrived before Corn- 
 wallis. While awaiting his arrival, General Philips 
 sickened and died. His death occurred the 13th of 
 May, and on the 20th Cornwallis reached Petersburg. 
 
 After remaining a few days at Petersburg, Corn- 
 wallis, now in command of the combined forces, 
 directed their march into the interior of Virginia, 
 supposing, as was the fact, that the Americans were 
 too weak and too much dispersed, to offer any effec- 
 tual opposition. There were, however, three sepa- 
 rate corps of republican troops in Virginia ; one 
 under General La Fayette, another and a smaller 
 one under the Baron Steuben, and the Pennsylvania 
 troops under General Wayne. Had they been united, 
 they were by no means a match lor the army of 
 Cornwallis. But La Fayette, who had the chief 
 command, showed how well he had profited by the 
 lessons of Washington. Prudent and brave, under- 
 standing far better than the British, the ground over 
 which the armies moved, he harassed his foe and 
 restrained his motions ; without once suffering him- 
 self to be led into a snare, or his army to be en- 
 dangered. When Cornwallis pursued, he retreated ; 
 when intent upon some other object, his foe held 
 another direction, immediately La Fayette pursued 
 in his turn, hanging upon his rear, and preventing 
 him from sending out straggling parties. This con- 
 duct kept up the spirits of the republicans, and pre- 
 vented the British from realizing their sanguine ex- 
 pectation, that many would flock to their standard. 
 
 While at Westover, Cornwallis detached Colonel 
 Tarleton to Charlotte ville, where the legislature of 
 Virginia were in session, and at the same time 
 sent Colonel Simcoe to the Point of Fork, at the 
 junction of the two rivers which form the James, to 
 seize some stores at that place. Both these expedi- 
 tions were in a measure successful ; but Tarleton 
 was disappointed of the prize on which he most cal- 
 culated. This was the capture of Governor Jeffer- 
 son, who after having provided for the safety of a 
 considerable quantity of arms and ammunition, found 
 means to elude the vigilance of his pursuers. 
 
 Cornwallis, while thus ranging the interior of Vir- 
 ginia, constantly checked however by La Fayette, 
 was suddenly recalled to the sea-coast by an order 
 from Sir Henry Clinton. That general, appre- 
 hensive that the Americans and French meditated 
 an attack on New York, and fearing that he was 
 not in sufficient force to resist them, had directed 
 Cornwallis to embark 3000 of his troops to join his 
 garrison. Intent on obeying his mandate, Corn- 
 wallis marched with his army to Portsmouth, where 
 he received orders to retain the troops. Clinton, 
 
 4S 
 
1074 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 having received a reinforcement of 3000 Germans, 
 now believed he could dispense with further aid ; 
 and ordered Cornwallis to proceed to Point Comfort 
 and there fortify, in order to have, in any event, a 
 secure retreat. 
 
 Cornwallis found reasons for disliking this post, 
 and obtained of Clinton permission to select another. 
 He fixed on Yorktown, a village which is situated 
 on the right bank of York river. Upon the opposite 
 side of the stream upon a projecting point, which 
 rrows and deepens its channel, is the smaller 
 village of Gloucester. Cornwallis entered York- 
 town, August 23rd, and proceeded to 'erect forti- 
 fications. 
 
 We have already seen the difficulties which, 
 from an exhausted army and treasury, at the com- 
 mencement of this campaign, environed the com- 
 mander-in-chief. For Washington was, in fact, a 
 main spring in the deliberations and decisions of 
 congress, as well as the director of field operations. 
 He had learned that a considerable French fleet, 
 and a body of land troops was soon to arrive upon 
 the coast. Anxious to avail himself of the naval 
 superiority which this force would give him, and to 
 strike some important blow, the commander-in-chief, 
 with the advice of Rochambeau, whom he met at 
 Weathersfield, determined to attack New York. 
 Clinton, apprised of the plan, determined, as we 
 have seen, to recall a part of the forces of Corn- 
 wallis, but was prevented by the arrival of 300C 
 German troops, which increased his garrison to up- 
 wards of 10,000. 
 
 In the meantime, Washington was disappointed 
 in his expected recruits. Instead of 12,000 regular 
 troops, which he was to have had, he could hardly 
 muster 5000, a number by no means adequate to 
 the projected siege. He learned that De Grasse, the 
 expected French admiral, could not remain on the 
 American coast longer than October, and finally 
 that his destination was the Chesapeake. From thes< 
 considerations, Washington suddenly changed hi: 
 plan of operations, and bent all his calculations t( 
 take Cornwallis in the snare which he seemed laying 
 for himself. 
 
 Success depended upon secrecy, for had Sir Henry 
 Clinton been apprised of his plan, he might at firs 
 have defeated it. But it may reasonably be sup 
 posed that few at this time were in the counsels o 
 the commander-in-chief, for never was a secret bet 
 ter kept, or an enemy more completely deceived 
 Washington made every show of a preparation t 
 attack New York. He broke up his camp at Nei 
 Windsor, and advanced down the river to Kings 
 bridge. The French army, consisting of 5000 unde 
 Rochambeau, had marched from Rhode Island an 
 joined him. They appeared daily to expect the ar 
 rival of De Grasse at New York. Suddenly Wash 
 ington crossed the Hudson, and directed the rapi 
 .march of the continental armies across New Jersey 
 But he had caused a report to be spread, that thi 
 was merely a feint to draw Clinton from his fortifica 
 tions, that he might fight him in the open fielc 
 Clinton deceived, removed within his fortress. Wash 
 ington, now learning that De Grasse was near th 
 Chesapeake, no longer delayed crossing the Dela 
 ware, and steering direct for his object, well satis 
 fied that the time for his foe to prevent its accom 
 plishment was past. He arrived after a rapid marc 
 at the head of the Elk, the northern extremity c 
 the Chesapeake, on the 25th of August ; and havin 
 made the necessary arrangements for the transpo 
 tation of his army, he proceeded in person to Vi 
 
 nia, attended by the Count De Rochambeau ; and 
 i the 14th of September, he joined La Fayette at 
 filliamsburg. 
 
 The Count De Grasse with 25 sail of the line, 
 ntered the mouth of the Chesapeake only one hour 
 efore Washington arrived at the head of the Elk, 
 nd immediately performed the part assigned to him, 
 y blocking up the mouths of the York and James 
 vers, thus cutting off all communication between 
 \e British at Yorktown and New York. He also 
 pened a communication with La Fayette. When 
 ornwallis first took post at Yorktown, this general 
 ad occupied a position high up the river, but had 
 ow descended as far as Williamsburgh. The allies 
 ad a fear that Cornwallis, seeing the toils into 
 hich he was falling, would turn upon La Fayette, 
 ho was inferior in force. To prevent this, 3000 
 ght troops, under the Marquis de St. Simon, were 
 ent up the river in boats, to join him at Wiiliams- 
 urgh. 
 
 The allies needed artillery, and other prepara- 
 
 ions for besieging, as Cornwallis had strengthened 
 
 lis works, and could only be overcome by a regular 
 
 iege. These they expected from Rhode Island, 
 
 o be brought by a French squadron, commanded 
 
 y the Count De Barras, who had made sail three 
 
 ays before the arrival of De Grasse in the Chesa- 
 
 )eake. To prevent falling in \vith the British fleet, 
 
 Sarras had stood far out to sea. While expecting 
 
 lim, De Grasse, on the 5th of September, saw, off 
 
 he capes, a British fleet of nineteen sail, under 
 
 Admiral Greaves. The French commander, advised 
 
 y Washington, behaved with admirable skill and 
 
 irudencs. He engaged the British partially, to 
 
 draw them from their anchorage ground; by which 
 
 means the Count De Barras, as he expected, was 
 
 enabled to pass by them into the bay ; but refused a 
 
 general engagement, which would have been putting 
 
 o hazard a game, which with prudence was already 
 
 n the hands of the allies. 
 
 Fort Trumbull taken And fort Groswall Arnold 
 burns New London Yorktown besieyed Corn- 
 wallis capitulates British Land forces surrender to 
 the American*, and the Marine to the French 
 Clinton too late endeavours to preserve Cornwallis 
 La Fayette returns to France. 
 
 Cornwallis had now no hope of escape but from 
 linton. To him he had found means to represent 
 bis situation, and closely invested as he was, he re- 
 ceived an answer to his communication. By this 
 he was informed that troops would, if possible, em- 
 bark from New York for his relief by the 5th of 
 October. 
 
 Clinton, hoping to draw off some part of the forces 
 which menaced Cornwallis, projected an expedition 
 against New London in Connecticut, the command 
 of which he gave to the traitor, Arnold, lately re- 
 turned from Virginia. The access to the port of 
 New London, was guarded by forts Trumbull and 
 Griswold, erected on the opposite banks of the 
 Thames. Fort Trumbull was taken without much 
 effort. The garrison of fort Griswold was composed 
 of militia, many of whom were the fathers of the 
 families in the vicinity, hastily collected, and under 
 the command of the estimable Colonel Ledyard. 
 They made a resolute defence, and killed numbers 
 of the assailants. At length, however, they were 
 overpowered, and ceased to resist. As the British 
 entered the fort, an officer inquired " who com- 
 mands this fort ?" " I did," said Colonel Ledyard, 
 " but you do now," and presented his sword. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1075 
 
 The monster took it and plunged it in his bosom. 
 This was the signal for slaughter. Forty, out of 
 160, were all that escaped. Scarcely was there a 
 father of a family in the little town of Groton, but 
 was that night butchered, and almost its entire popu- 
 lation became widows and orphans. 
 
 New London was next laid in ashes, and a great 
 number of vessels richly laden, fell into the hands 
 of Arnold. Washington was not however moved to 
 quit his post at the south. The people of Connec- 
 ticut showed ominous signs of resistance, and Arnold 
 judged it prudent to return to New York. 
 
 Cornwallis, in the belief that he should receive 
 succour from Clinton, abandoned his out-posts and 
 defences, and withdrew entirely within the fortifica- 
 tions of Yorktown. Many of his own officers con- 
 sidered this as a great error. They had urged him 
 to attempt crossing the river, and regaining the 
 open country, through which they might, as they 
 believed, proceed by rapid marches to New York. 
 While he delayed and deliberated, the small chance 
 that was left him of escaping in this way, was de- 
 stroyed. The besiegers had now collected in the 
 vicinity of Yorktown ; their whole force amounted 
 to 16,000, 7000 of whom were French. Notwith- 
 standing a heavy fire from the fort, they made rapid 
 advances in their works. They had commenced 
 them on the night of the 6th of October. On the 
 9th several batteries were completed, and a heavy 
 destructive cannonade commenced. On the llth 
 they began their second parallel, which was only 
 300 yards from the fort. In order to complete their 
 trenches, it was necessary to dislodge the English 
 from two redoubts which were in advance of their 
 main works. Washington determined on carrying 
 them by assault, and taking advantage of the emula- 
 tion between the two armies, to make success more 
 certain, he assigned to the French under Baron De 
 Viomesnil the taking of one, while to the Americans 
 under the Marquis La Fayette and Colonel Hamil- 
 ton he assigned the capture of the other. The ardour 
 and eloquence of the officers stirred up their troops 
 to the highest pitch of valour, and their onset was 
 so furious, that the British, though they bravely 
 withstood, could not long resist them. Both the re 
 doubts were taken, not without loss to the allies, o 
 which the French parly suffered the greatest share. 
 
 Nothing now remained to prevent the completion 
 of the second parallel ; which once finished, Corn 
 wallis had no alternative before him but death or 
 submission. In fact his walls were already broken 
 and his ditches filled up by their falling parts. On 
 the night of the 16th, the British under General 
 Abercrombie made a rigorous sortie, took two bat 
 teries and spiked eleven cannon. They were chargec 
 furiously by the French under De Noailles, ant 
 driven back to their encampments. 
 
 Thus situated, Cornwallis made one more effort 
 which had he, as advised, sooner attempted, migh 
 perhaps have saved his army. This was to cross th 
 river in the night, to Gloucester Point, where a 
 small garrison of the British, commanded by Tarle 
 ton, were watched by the French under De 
 Choise. Leaving his baggage, and the sick am 
 wounded, whom in a letter to Washington, he re 
 commended to his generosity, his army were tc 
 embark in three divisions. A part had already 
 crossed and landed at Gloucester Point ; a part wer 
 upon the river, the third division alone had not em 
 barked ; the air and the water were calm, and Corn 
 wallis's hopes of escape were high. In a moment 
 the sky was overcast and a tempest arose, the ele 
 
 ments were armed against him, as if again he was 
 hecked by that invisible power which seemed to 
 atch over the destiny of the American people, and 
 hich before by the swelling of the waters had saved 
 iieir army from his grasp. The wind and rain were 
 iolent, and his boats were driven down the river, 
 ^he day appeared, and the besiegers discovering 
 heir situation, opened upon his scattered and 
 weakened army, a destructive fire ; and they were 
 dad when the abating tempest allowed them to re- 
 urn to their almost dismantled fortifications. 
 
 Seeing now no hope of escape, his army wasting 
 y the irresistible fire of the American works, Corn- 
 vallis no longer delayed to treat for a surrender. 
 Jefore noon on the 17th he sent a flag to Washing- 
 on, requesting a cessation of arms for 24 hours, and 
 he appointment of commissioners to settle the terms 
 )f surrender, Washington fearing the arrival of 
 British troops, refused to grant a truce longer than, 
 wo hours ; and signified that within that time he 
 ihould expect the propositions of the British com- 
 mander. Cornwallis wished to obtain liberty for the 
 European troops to return to their homes upon their 
 >arole of not again serving in the American war; 
 and he also wished to make terms for the Americans 
 who had followed his fortunes. Both these condi- 
 ions Washington refused, as the European soldiers 
 would be at liberty to serve in garrisons at home, 
 and the case of the Americans belonged to the civil 
 authority. All that the most earnest persuasion 
 could obtain from Washington on this point, was 
 )ermission for a sloop, laden with such persons as 
 Cornwallis selected, to be allowed to pass without 
 search or visit to New York; he being accountable 
 for the number of persons it carried, as pr.soners 
 of war. The whole remaining British force to be 
 surrendered to the allies; the land army with its 
 munitions to the Americans, the marine to the 
 French. 
 
 Agreeable to the articles of capitulation, the posts 
 of Yorktown and Gloucester were surrendered on 
 the 19th of October. The prisoners exclusive of 
 seamen amounted to more than 7000, of whom 2000 
 were sick or wounded. Five hundred and fifty-two of 
 the British had fallen during the siege. Sixty pieces 
 of cannon also fell into the hands of the Americars, 
 principally brass. Two frigates and twenty trans- 
 ports with their crews fell into the hands of the 
 French. General Lincoln, who had suffered at 
 Charlestown the mortification of surrendering an 
 American army, was, with peculiar delicacy, selected 
 by the commander-in-chief to receive the submis- 
 sion of the British army. 
 
 The French and Americans added on this occa- 
 sion the praise of generosity and humanity, to that 
 of wisdom and valour. Their leaders vied with 
 each other, in acts of kindness to the conquered 
 officers, and every possible attention was paid to the 
 accommodation of the soldiers. 
 
 On the day in which the capitulation was signed, 
 Clinton passed Sandy Hook, with a powerful force, 
 to go to the succour of Cornwallis ; he appeared oS 
 the capes of Virginia on the 24th, where learning 
 the surrender of the army, he immediately returned 
 to New York. 
 
 This event caused a burst of joy and exultation 
 throughout America. Nor did the people, or the 
 civil rulers, amidst the honours which were showered 
 upon the American and French commanders, forget 
 to acknowledge their supreme obligations to the Great 
 Commander and Ruler of armies and of nations. 
 
 Washington would gladly have detained the French 
 
1076 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 your bosom, because you who have already felt and 
 
 suffered so much will be able to sympathize with me." 
 
 The people of England, who felt severely the ex- 
 
 for France, leaving deep in the hearts of a grateful vernment, nothing remained to them on the Ame 
 
 people, the remembrance of his virtues and his 
 
 services. 
 
 and 
 ieton 
 
 Poverty of the American government Trials 
 magnanimity of the treasurer Sir Guy Car 
 supersedes Clinton Articles of peace siyned 
 Paris Disturbance amony the officers of the army 
 Evacuation of New York Resignation of Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 fleet to co-operate in a descent upon Charlestown; 
 but DC Grasse being under orders from the French 
 court, to be in the West Indies on a certain day, 
 
 dared not hazard the detention of his fleet; and I penses of the war, on hearing the disasters which 
 made sail for those islands without delay. had attended their armies, particularly that of Corn- 
 
 General La Fayette, who had sought America in wallis, no longer suppressed their discontent. They 
 her adversity, left her as soon as prosperity dawned saw, that after the lives and property which had 
 upon her fortunes. He embarked about this time been expended, after all the intrigues of their go- 
 f deep in the hearts of a grateful | 
 
 rican shores but New York, Charlestown, and Savan- 
 nah; and these posts could only be maintained by 
 strong fleets and garrisons. All hope of reducing 
 the Americans to subjection now vanished. Still 
 the king, in his speech at the opening of parliament, 
 showed his unwillingness to relinquish his sway over 
 what he had during his life considered his patrimony; 
 the people, however, persisted in their wishes for 
 peace, and loudly demanded the removal of minis- 
 The poverty of the United States, as a govern- 1 ters, who advised the king to measures so much 
 ment, was again almost incredible. The great effort I against the public interest. 
 
 made by congress in the winter of 1780-81 enabled The house of commons, about the last of Febru- 
 them to provide for the campaign of the ensuing ary, moved by the general feeling, as well as by the 
 season, and it was most fortunate for America that eloquent speeches of General Conway and others, 
 the result was favourable; for it seems impossible voted " that they should consider as enemies to his 
 that another active and expensive campaign could majesty and their country, all who should advise or 
 have been sustained. There was no fault in the attempt a further prosecution of offensive war on the 
 arrangements of congress, or remission of activity, continent of America." This vote was followed by 
 prudence, and patriotism on the part of the treasurer, the resignation of the office of prime-minister, by 
 On the contrary, congress had made the most judi- Lord North, and the appointment of an administra- 
 cious arrangements early in the winter of 1781. tion favourable to peace. 
 
 They were aided in their deliberations by Washing- Sir Henry Clinton was now superseded in corn- 
 ton, who, at their request, had stopped at Philadel- mand by Sir Guy Carleton ; whose conciliating 
 phia, on his way from Yorktown, to his accustomed conduct as governor of Canada, had gained him the 
 winter- quarters. They laid taxes, and apportioned esteem of the Americans. The general sentiment 
 them among the several states ; and made such other I of all parties was now favourable to peace ; and after 
 regulations, that the commander-in-chief had san- this there were no hostile operations, except a few of 
 guine hopes that every thing would be in readiness 1 inconsiderable importance in South Carolina. In 
 for an early campaign, as it was wisely considered one of these fell the young and gallant Colonel 
 that the way to obtain an honourable peace was to Laurens, lamented by Washington and the whole 
 be in readiness for war. But the several state go- 1 army. 
 
 vernments wholly failed of paying their quotas, I Admiral Digby, who the summer before had ar- 
 alleging the utter inability of their constituents to rived in New York with reinforcements for Clinton, 
 support further taxation. Although by the judicious I was appointed with Carleton by the British ministry, 
 arrangements of Morris the public expenses were to treat with the Americans for peace, on the ground 
 much diminished, yet they were necessarily great, I of acknowledging their independence; but congress 
 and must so continue, although the means of meet- 1 finding that parliament had not sanctioned this step 
 ing them thus unexpectedly failed. At the com- I of the ministry, refused to negotiate with their 
 mencement of 1782 not a dollar remained in the agents. Whether this was or was not, as many 
 treasury. " Yet to the financier," says Marshall, supposed, a snare which was set for the Americans, 
 " every eye was turned ; to him was stretched forth congress without doubt encountered one, which had 
 the empty hand of every public creditor, and against for its object to destroy their alliance with France 
 him, instead of the state authorities, w ere the com- I and Spain, by procuring the American government 
 plaints and imprecations of every unsatisfied claim- to treat separately from her allies; but this congress 
 ant directed." The keen sense of the ingratitude steadily refused. 
 
 of his country, experienced by this injured patriot, I That body, careful to be ready for the first ho- 
 and at the same time his resolution not to aban- nourable overtures which they should receive, had 
 don the cause of a people who were so unjust to him, appointed John Adams, their minister at the Hague, 
 were thus expressed in a letter to the commander-in- I as a commissioner for this purpose : with him they 
 chief: " With such gloomy prospects as this letter I now associated Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and 
 affords, I am tied here to be baited by continual 1 John Laurens. The latter, while crossing the ocean 
 clamorous demands ; and for the forfeiture of all I as minister to Holland, had been captured and 
 that is valuable in life, and which I hoped at this I confined in the Tower of London, 
 moment to enjoy, I am to be paid by invective. I To meet these commissioners at Paris, the court 
 Scarce a day passes, in which I am not tempted to I of St. James sent Mr. Fitz Herbert and Mr. Oswald, 
 give back into the hands of congress the .power On the 20th of January, 1783, preliminary articles 
 they have delegated, and to lay down a burden I of peace were signed at Versailles. The definitive 
 which presses me to the earth. Nothing prevents I treaty was deferred until the adjustment of affairs 
 me but a knowledge of the difficulties which I am between England and France, and was not signed 
 obliged to struggle under. What may be the sue- I until the 8rd of September, 1783. The terms granted 
 cess of my efforts, God onlji knows; but to leave I to America by this treaty, in respect to extent of 
 my post at present would I know be ruinous. This I territory und right to the fisheries of New England, 
 candid state of my situation and feeiiugs I give to | were equal to the most sanguine expectations of her 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1077 
 
 friends. The English ministers then in power, 
 seemed to be aware of the policy of making Ame- 
 rica independent in fact, as well as in name : pro- 
 bably the more so, as a contrary disposition was 
 manifested by France. Both powers seemed aware, 
 that if she remained in a state of dependence, it 
 must, from the posture of affairs, be a dependence 
 upon France, rather fchan upon England. The 
 American negotiators were men of great ability and 
 ardent patriotism, and well knew how to turn this 
 sta'e of things to the advantage of their country. 
 
 But in the general pacification, and amidst the 
 protracted negotiations f the several parties, nothing 
 was stipulated on the subject of neutral rights, which 
 had been the moving cause of the coalition against 
 England; and thus a door was left open for future 
 contention and bloodshed. 
 
 The situation of the rising republic of America 
 was, during these long negotiations, extremely cri- 
 tical. Had congress possessed the means of paying 
 their officers and soldiers, there would have been 
 nothing to apprehend from the disbanding of so 
 patriotic an army. But the officers, aware of the 
 poverty of the treasury, doubted whether it would 
 be in the power of congress to fulfil the stipulation 
 made in October, 1780, granting to them half pay 
 for life. 
 
 While the independence of their country was 
 uncertain, they had pressed forward to the attain- 
 ment of that object; and, regardless of themselves, 
 had sacrificed their fortunes, their possessions, and 
 their health. Nowthatgreatobjectwas attained, they 
 began to brood over their own situation ; and fears 
 arose that should they disband before their country 
 had done them justice, and lose their consequence 
 as a body, themselves and their services might be 
 forgotten. 
 
 Designing persons increased their discontent, by 
 insinuating that their cause was not advocated with 
 sufficient zeal by their commander. 
 
 On the 10th of March, while the army was lying 
 at Newburgh, an anonymous paper was circulated, 
 which embodied in the most glowing language the 
 deep feelings of many hearts. The discontents of 
 the army exploded, and murmurs rose to threats and 
 open invective. This paper proposed a meeting of 
 the officers on the ensuing day. 
 
 Washington, aware of the feelings of the army, 
 had not availed himself of the suspension of hostili- 
 ties to seek the pleasures of home, but had remained 
 in the camp. He now saw that the dreaded crisis 
 had arrived. Intent on guiding deliberations which 
 he could not suppress, he called his officers to a 
 meeting somewhat later than the one appointed in 
 the anonymous appeal, to which, in his orders, he 
 alluded with disapprobation. In the interim he 
 prepared a written address. The officers met. The 
 father of his country rose, to read the manuscript 
 which he held in his hand. Not being able to dis- 
 tinguish its characters, he took off his spectacles to 
 wipe them with his handkerchief. " My eyes," 
 aid he, " have grown dim in the service of my 
 country, but I never doubted her justice." This 
 was a preface worthy of the paper which he read. 
 In this he alluded in the most touching manner to 
 the sufferings and services of the army, in which he 
 too had borne his share. He treated with becoming 
 severity the proposition to seek, by unlawful means, 
 the redress of their injuries. He assured them that 
 congress, though slow in their deliberations, were 
 favourable to the interests of the army ; and he 
 conjured Athena not to tarnish the renown of their 
 
 brilliant deeds, by an irreparable act of rashness 
 and folly ; and finally, he pledged them his utmost 
 exertions to assist in procuring from congress the 
 just reward of their meritorious services. 
 
 The officers listened to the voice which they had 
 so long been accustomed to respect and obey ; and* 
 the storm of passion was hushed. His pledge of 
 using his influence with congress in behalf of the 
 army, was performed in a manner which showed 
 how deeply he had their cause at heart. " If," said 
 he, in a letter to that body, " the whole army have 
 not merited whatever a grateful people can bestow, 
 then I have been beguiled by prejudice, and built 
 opinion on the basis of error. If this country should 
 not, in the event, perform every thing which has 
 been requested in the late memorial to congress, 
 then will my belief become vain, and the hope that 
 has been excited, void of foundation. And if (as has 
 been suggested for the purpose of inflaming their 
 passions,) the officers of the army are to be the only 
 sufferers by this revolution; if retiring from the 
 field they are to grow old in poverty, wretchedness, 
 and contempt ; if they are to wade through the vile 
 mire of dependency, and owe the miserable remnant 
 of that life to charity, which has hitherto been spent 
 in honour, then shall I have learned what ingratitude 
 is ; then shall I have realized a tale which will em- 
 bitter every moment of my future life. 
 
 Moved by the remonstrances of Washington, and 
 alarmed lest the danger they had so narrowly es- 
 caped should return, congress made every exertion 
 in their power to do justice to the officers. They 
 commuted the half-pay which had been pledged to 
 them, for a sum equal to five years full pay. The 
 army was disbanded without tumult, in November, 
 17f/3. They mingled with their fellow-citizens, ever 
 through future years to be honoured for belonging 
 to that patriotic band. 
 
 On the 25th of November the British troops eva- 
 cuated New York, and a detachment from the Ame- 
 rican army entered it. 
 
 On the 4th of December the separation of Wash- 
 ington from his officers took place at New York. 
 The long and eventful period which they had passed 
 together; the dangers they had mutually shared; 
 the reflection that they parted to meet no more ; 
 and above all, the thought that they might never 
 again behold the face of their beloved commander, 
 filled their hearts, and the hardy veterans wept. 
 
 From New York, Washington hastened to Anna- 
 polis, where congress was then in session. He im- 
 mediately waited on them for the purpose of re- 
 signing his commission. A public audience was 
 appointed for that purpose on the 23rd of December, 
 when, in the presence of a large, and deeply affected 
 audience, he resigned his offices, and commended 
 his country to the protection of God. He retired 
 to Mount Vernon, followed by the benedictions of 
 America, and the admiration of the world. 
 
 State of the American finances Rebellion in Massa- 
 chusetts In New Hampshire Defects in the Ame- 
 rican form of government Delegates meet from 
 five states Constitution framed at Philadelphia 
 Constitution Adopted by eleven statea Geographi- 
 cal notices, Sfc. 
 
 (1784.) At the close of the war, the United Stat<s, 
 although they bad burst the bonds of European 
 thraldom, were in a most deplorable condition. A 
 heavy debt encumbered the government; and a 
 similar burden rested upon almost every corporation 
 within it. Trade and manufactures had decayed 
 
1078 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 during the war, and many of the inhabitants were 
 now nearly destitute of clothing and the necessaries 
 of life. Immediately after the peace was announced, 
 the British sent over an immense quantity of cloths 
 of an inferior quality, which were sold at a most 
 exorbitant price ; and thus almost all the money of 
 the country was collected and carried abroad. The 
 nation being in debt, and destitute of the means of 
 payment, heavy taxes were necessarily imposed. 
 This increased the discontent which already pre- 
 vailed among the people to an alarming degree. 
 The state governments resorted to various measures 
 for the relief of their citizens. In Rhode Island 
 the government issued a quantity of paper money, 
 redeemable at a future day; this measure only in- 
 volved them in all the difficulties which the general 
 government had experienced from the same cause ; 
 depreciation of their bills, and loss of public credit. 
 
 In Massachusetts a law was passed for making real 
 and personal estate a tender in the discharge of 
 executions and actions commenced at law. Other 
 laws were also passed, considered oppressive ; one 
 for collecting former taxes not paid in certain 
 specified articles; and another for rendering pro- 
 cesses of law less expensive. The distress which pre- 
 vailed in the country at length produced insurrec- 
 tions. In August, nearly 1500 insurgents assembled 
 under arms at Northampton, and took possession of 
 the court-house. Their object was to prevent the 
 sittings of the court of common pleas, and of course, 
 the issuing of executions under these obnoxious 
 laws. The governor issued a proclamation, calling 
 on the citizens to suppress such treasonable pro- 
 ceedings; but his proclamation was utterly disre- 
 garded. In the next month, a scene similar to that 
 at Northampton was acted at Worcester. A body 
 of men, exceeding 300, assembled, and compelled 
 the court there sitting to adjourn. 
 
 Nor was Massachusetts the only state where a 
 disposition to insurgency manifested itself. In New 
 Hampshire a large body of malcontents assembled 
 at Exeter, where the general assembly of the state 
 was convened, and surrounding the house where 
 they were in session, held them prisoners for several 
 hours. The insurrection here was soon crushed by 
 the energetic measures of the government. The 
 leader of the malcontents in Massachusetts was Da- 
 niel Shays. At the head of 300 men, he marched 
 into Springfield, where the supreme judicial court 
 was in session, and took possession of the court- 
 house. He then appointed a committee, who waited 
 on the court with an order couched in the humble 
 form of a petition, requesting them not to proceed to 
 business ; and both parties retired. The number of 
 insurgents increased; the posture of affairs became 
 alarming; and an army of 4000 men was at length 
 ordered out for their dispersion. This force was 
 placed under the command of General Lincoln. 
 His first measure was to march to Worcester; and 
 he afforded such protection to the court at that place, 
 that it resumed and executed the judicial functions. 
 Orders were given to General Shepard to collect a 
 sufficient force to secure the arsenal at Springfield. 
 Accordingly, he raised about 900 men, which were 
 reinforced by 300 militia from the county of Hamp- 
 shire. At the head of his force he marched, as 
 directed, to Springfield. 
 
 On the 25th of January Shays approached at the 
 liead of 1 100 men. Shepard sent out one of his 
 aids to know the intention of the insurgents, and to 
 warn them of their danger. Their answer was, that 
 they would have the barracks, and they proceeded 
 
 to within a few hundred yards of the arsenal. They 
 were then informed that the militia were posted there 
 by order of the governor; and that they would be fired 
 upon if they approached nearer. They continued 
 to advance, when General Shepard ordered his men 
 to fire, but to direct their fire over their heads ; even 
 this did not intimidate them, or retard their move- 
 ments. The artillery was then levelled against the 
 centre column, and the whole body thrown into 
 confusion. Shays attempted in vain to rally them. 
 They made a precipitate retreat to Ludlow, about 
 ten miles from Springfield. Three men were killed, 
 and one wounded. They soon after retreated to 
 Petersham ; but General Lincoln pursuing their re- 
 treat, they finally dispersed. 
 
 Some of the fugitives retired to their homes ; but 
 many, and among them their principal officers, 
 took refuge in the states of New Hampshire, Ver- 
 mont and New York. 
 
 Commissioners were appointed by the government 
 of Massachusetts, empowered to promise pardon, on 
 certain conditions, to all concerned in the rebellion. 
 Several hundreds received the benefit of the commis- 
 sion. Fourteen only were sentenced to death, and 
 these were afterwards pardoned. 
 
 A proposal was this year made to amend the ar- 
 ticles of confederation. The present frame of go- 
 vernment, although it had served during the pres- 
 sure of danger to keep the several parts of the nation 
 together, was now found inadequate for providing 
 for the national exigencies. In forming the articles 
 of confederation, great care had been taken to with- 
 hold any delegation of power, which might hereafter 
 endanger the liberties of the individual states. Con- 
 gress had no authority to enforce its ordinances ; 
 and now that the pressure of public danger was re- 
 moved, they were contemned and disregarded. The 
 treaties which the general government had formed 
 with foreign nations, had been violated by some of 
 the states, and some of them refused to adopt a 
 system of import, which was devised by congress. 
 It became evident that nothing could put a stop to 
 evils of this description, but a more energetic form 
 of government. 
 
 In 1783, John Adams, then in Europe, suggested 
 to congress the expediency of strengthening the 
 general government. In 1786, at the suggestion of 
 Mr. Madison, in the legislature of Virginia, a con- 
 vention of delegates from five of the middle states 
 met at Annapolis, who came to the conclusion that 
 nothing short of a thorough reform of the existing 
 government, would be effectual for the welfare of 
 the country. Congress approved their proceedings, 
 and passed a resolution, recommending a convention 
 of delegates, to be holden at Philadelphia. 
 
 In May 1787, the convention met, and instead 
 of amending the articles of confederation, they pro- 
 ceeded to form a new constitution. Their debates 
 were long and arduous. A momentous political ex- 
 periment was to be tried, and the destinies of un- 
 born millions hung upon their deliberation. Re- 
 specting many articles of the constitution, much dif- 
 ference of opinion existed. In particular, where the 
 strength of the new government came in question, 
 an honest diversity of opinion, in men of equal pa- 
 triotism, prevailed. On the one hand, it was con- 
 sidered, that if the government was made too weak, 
 a state of anarchy and consequent revolution would 
 ensue ; on the other, that if it were made too strong, 
 America would lose the blessings of liberty which 
 she had bled at every pore to obtain, and only make 
 an exchange of foreign for domestic oppression. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1079 
 
 which it now commands. It made the government 
 too strong to please one party, and too weak to 
 satisfy the other ; and while, on the one hand, it 
 was believed, that it would in its operation even- 
 tually overturn the liberty of America, on the other, 
 it was pronounced to be a " rope of sand," atid the 
 date of its dissolution was augured to be near. 
 
 This being a most important document, we incor- 
 porate it in our history. 
 
 The Constitution of the United States of America, 
 framed during the year 1787, by a Convention of 
 Delegates, who met at Philadelphia, from the States 
 of Neiv Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
 New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, 
 Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Caro- 
 lina, Georgia. 
 
 " We, the people of the United States, in order to 
 form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure 
 domestic tranquillity, provide for the common de- 
 fence, promote the general welfare, and secure the 
 blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, 
 do ordain and establish this Constitution for the 
 United States of America. 
 
 ARTICLE I. Section 1. 
 
 " All legislative powers herein granted shall be 
 vested in a congress of the United States, which 
 shall consist of a senate and house of representa- 
 tives. 
 
 Section 2. 
 
 " I. The house of representatives shall be com- 
 posed of members chosen every second year by the 
 people of the several states, and the electors in each 
 state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors 
 of the most numerous branch of the state legislature. 
 
 " II. No person shall be a representative who 
 shall not have attained the age of 25 years, and 
 aeen seven years a citizen of the United States, and 
 who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of 
 ;hat state in which he shall be chosen. 
 
 " III. Representatives and direct taxes shall be 
 apportioned among the several states which may be 
 ncluded within this union, according to their r- 
 pective numbers, which shall be determined by 
 adding to the whole number of free persons, kiclud- 
 ng those bound to service for a term of years, and 
 excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other 
 >ersons. The actual enumeration shall be made 
 within three years after the first meeting of the con- 
 gress of the United States, and within every subse- 
 jierit term of ten years, in such manner as they 
 hall by law direct. The number of representatives 
 hall not exceed one for every 30,000, but each state 
 hall have at least one representative; and, until 
 uch enumeration shall be made, the state of New 
 lampshire shall be entitled to choose three, Mas- 
 achusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plan- 
 ations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New 
 ersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, 
 Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, 
 South Carolina five, and Georgia three. 
 
 " IV. When vacancies happen in the representa- 
 ion from any state, the executive authority thereof 
 hall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. 
 
 " V. The house of representatives shall choose 
 heir Speaker, and other officers ; and shall have 
 be sole power of impeachment. 
 Section 3. 
 
 " I. The senate of the United States shall be com- 
 osed of two senators from each state, chosen by 
 tie legislature thereof, fot six years ; and each se- 
 ator shall have one vote. 
 
 Some of these politicians thought the only sal' 
 mode of reasoning was from the experience of th 
 past, and that all speculations not drawn from thi 
 source, should be condemned as impracticable, spe 
 culative, and visionary. These looked for an ex 
 ample to the constitution of England, as containing 
 the best form of government actually existing. 
 
 Others believed that as the circumstances of th 
 times changed, governments should accommodat 
 themselves to the change. That the present state o 
 the world, and the situation of America had m 
 parallels in history ; and that therefore the track 
 of no former nation could serve as the guide to thei 
 voyage : but like the discoverer of their continent 
 they must lay their course through the untravellec 
 way, with nothing to guide them but the light o 
 heaven, and their own observation. 
 
 The happy medium probably lies between the ex 
 tremes of these two opinions ; and the constitution 
 framed, being a compromise between them, the form 
 of government, which it prescribes is probably, on 
 that account, more perfect than if either side hac 
 wholly prevailed. 
 
 Connected with these ideas concerning the greater 
 or less degree of strength proper to give to the new 
 government, was the subject of the consolidation or 
 strict independence of the states. Those who wished 
 for the general government to possess great strength 
 were charged by their opponents with wishing so to 
 arrange it, that in the play of its parts, it would have 
 broken down and subjected to itself the state govern 
 ments. Those, on the other hand, who feared op- 
 pression more than anarchy, watched, with a jealous 
 eye, every infringement of state rights. 
 
 Those in favour of holding the states strongly 
 united, were called at this time federalists, and their 
 opponents anti-federalists. 
 
 Other points of dispute arose still more dangerous, 
 because they divided parties by geographical lines. 
 The most difficult of these, regarded the represen- 
 tation in congress of the slave-holding states. The 
 non-slave-holders contended that the number of 
 representatives sent should only be in proportion to 
 the number of free white inhabitants. This would 
 bring some states whose whole population was 
 great, upon a level with others where the number 
 of inhabitants was comparatively small ; and mem- 
 bers from these states would not give their consent 
 to such an appointment. This difficulty, like many 
 others which perplexed the convention, was com- 
 promised ; and the slaves were allowed to be 
 reckoned, in settling the quota of representatives, 
 as equal to three-fifths of an equal number of free 
 white inhabitants. 
 
 That these great difficulties were compromised, 
 holds up this convention, as an example to future 
 times, of the triumph of strong patriotism and honest 
 zeal for the public welfare, over party feeling and 
 factious prejudice. If the time shall ever come 
 when any American congress or convention shall 
 fail to compromise amicably, disputes which con- 
 flicting interests must produce in this extensive re- 
 public ; then will the day of its degeneracy have 
 arrived, and its downfal be at hand : then will be 
 experienced the triumph of party feeling and fac- 
 tious interest over patriotism and public zeal. The 
 finger of history would point with scorn at such a 
 body of men, while she contrasted them with the 
 wise and honest patriots who framed the constitution 
 which such a convention would have destroyed. 
 
 The federal constitution, at the time of its adop- 
 tion, was far from receiving the entire confidence 
 
1080 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 " II. Immediately after they shall be assembled, 
 in consequence of the first election, they shall be 
 divided as equally as may be into three classes. The 
 seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated 
 at the expiration of the second year, of the second 
 class at the expiration of the fourth year, and of the 
 third class at the expiration of the sixth year, so 
 that one-third maybe chosen every second year; 
 and if vacancies happen by resignation, or other- 
 wise, during the recess of the legislature of any 
 state, the executive thereof may make temporary 
 appointments until the next meeting of the legisla- 
 ture, which shall then fill such vacancies. 
 
 " III. No person shall be a senator who shall not 
 have attained the age of 30 years, and been nine 
 years a citizen of the United States, and who shall 
 not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state for 
 which he shall be chosen. 
 
 " IV. The vice-president of the United States 
 shall be president of the senate, but shall have no 
 vote unless they be equally divided. 
 
 " V. The senate shall choose their other officers, 
 and also a president pro tempore in the absence of 
 the vice-president, or when he shall exercise the 
 office of president of the United States. 
 
 " VI. The senate shall have the sole power to try 
 all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, 
 they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the 
 president of the United States is tried, the chief 
 justice shall preside ; and no person shall be con- 
 victed without the concurrence of two-thirds of the 
 members present. 
 
 " VII. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall 
 not extend further than to removal from office, and 
 disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of 
 honour, trust or profit under the United States ; 
 but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable 
 and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and pu- 
 nishment according to law. 
 
 Section 4. 
 
 " I. The times, places and manner of holding 
 elections for senators and representatives, shall be 
 prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; 
 but the congress may at any time by law make or 
 alter such regulations, except as to the places of 
 choosing senators. 
 
 " II. The congress shall assemble at least once 
 in every year, and such meeting shall be on the first 
 Monday in December, unless they shall by law ap- 
 point a different day. 
 
 Section 5. 
 
 " I. Each house shall be the judge of the elections, 
 returns and qualifications of its own members, and a 
 majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do 
 business; but a smaller number may adjourn from 
 day to day, and may be authorized to compel the 
 attendance of absent members, in such manner, and 
 under such penalties as each house may provide. 
 
 " II. Each house may determine the rules of its 
 proceedings, punish its members for disorderly be- 
 haviour, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, 
 expel a member. 
 
 " III. Each house shall keep a journal of its pro- 
 ceedings, and from time to time publish the same, 
 excepting such parts as may in their judgment re- 
 quire secrecy ; and the yeas and nays of the mem- 
 bers of either house on any question, shall, at the 
 desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on 
 the journal. 
 
 " IV. Neither house, during the session of con- 
 gress, shall, without the consent of the other, ad- 
 journ for more than three days, nor to any other 
 
 place than that in which the two houses shall be 
 sitting. 
 
 Section 6. 
 
 " I. The senators and representatives shall re- 
 ceive a compensation for their services, to be ascer- 
 tained by law, and paid out of the treasury of the 
 United States. They shall in all cases, except treason 
 felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from 
 arrest during their attendance at the session of their 
 respective houses, and in going to and returning 
 from the same ; and for any speech or debate in 
 either house, they shall not be questioned in any 
 other place. 
 
 " II. No senator or representative shall, during 
 the time for which he was elected, be appointed to 
 any civil office under the authority of the United 
 States, which shall have been created, or the emo- 
 luments whereof shall have been increased during 
 such time ; and no person holding any office under 
 the United States, shall be a member of either house 
 during his continuance in office. 
 Section 7. 
 
 " I. All bills for raising revenue shall originate 
 in the house of representatives; but the senate may 
 propose or concur with amendments as on other 
 bills. 
 
 " II. Every bill which shall have passed the house 
 of representatives and the senate shall, before it be- 
 comes a law, be presented to the president of the 
 United States; if he approve, he shall sign it, but 
 if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to that 
 house in which it shall have originated, who shall 
 enter the objections at large on their journal, and 
 proceed to reconsider it. If, after such re-conside- 
 ration, two-thirds of that house shall agree to pass 
 the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objec- 
 tions, to the other house, by which it shall likewise 
 be re-considered, and if approved by two-thirds of 
 that house it shall become. a law. But in all such 
 cases the votes of both houses shall be determined 
 by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons 
 voting for and against the bill shall be entered on 
 the journal of each house respectively. If any bill 
 shall not be returned by the president within tea 
 days (Sundays excepted), after it shall have been 
 presented to him, the same shall be a law, in lilce 
 manner as if he had signed it, unless the congress 
 by their adjournment, prevent its return, in which 
 case it shall not be a law. 
 
 " III. Every order, resolution, or vote, to which 
 the concurrence of the senate and house of repre- 
 sentatives may be necessary (except on a question 
 of adjournment) shall be presented to the president 
 of the United States ; and before the same shall take 
 effect, shall be approved by him, or, being disap- 
 proved by him, shall be re-passed by two-thirds of 
 the senate and house of representatives, according 
 to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of 
 a bill. 
 
 Section 8. 
 
 " The congress shall have power 
 
 " I. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and 
 excises ; to pay the debts and provide for the com- 
 mon defence and general welfare of the United 
 States ; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be 
 uniform throughout the United States. 
 
 " II. To borrow money on the credit of the United 
 States. 
 
 " III. To regulate commerce with foreign na- 
 tions, and among the several states, and with the 
 Indian tribes. 
 
 ' IV. To establish a uniform rule of uaturaliz* 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1081 
 
 tion, and uniform laws on the subject of bankrupt- 
 cies throughout the United States. 
 
 " V. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, 
 and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights 
 and measures. 
 
 " VI. To provide for the punishment of counter- 
 feiting the securities and current coin of the United 
 States. 
 
 " VII. To establish post-offices and post-roads. 
 
 " VIII. To promote the progress of science and 
 useful arts, by securing for limited times, to authors 
 and inventors, the exclusire right to their respec- 
 tive writings and discoveries. 
 
 " IX. To constitute tribunals inferior to the su- 
 preme court. 
 
 " X. To define and punish piracies and felonies 
 committed on the high seas, and offences against 
 the law of nations. 
 
 " XI. To declare war, grant letters of marque 
 and reprisal, and make rules, concerning captures 
 on land and water. 
 
 " XII. To raise and support armies ; but no ap- 
 propriation of money to that use shall be for a longer 
 term than two years. 
 
 " XIII. To provide and maintain a navy. 
 
 " XIV. To make rules for the government and 
 regulation of the land and naval forces. 
 
 " XV. To provide for calling forth the militia to 
 execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections, 
 and repel invasions. 
 
 "XVI. To provide for organizing, arming and 
 disciplining the militia, and for governing such part 
 of them as may be employed in the service of the 
 United States, reserving to the states respectively 
 the appointment of the officers, and the autho- 
 rity of training the militia, according to the disci- 
 pline prescribed by congress. 
 
 " XVII. To exercise exclusive legislation in all 
 cases whatsoever over such district (not exceeding 
 ten miles square) as may by cession of particular states, 
 and the acceptance of congress, become the seat of 
 the government of the United States, and to exercise 
 like authority over all places purchased by the consent 
 of the legislature of the state in which the same shall 
 be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, 
 dock-yards, and other needful buildings : and 
 
 " XVIII. To make all laws which shall be neces- 
 sary and proper for carrying into execution the 
 foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by 
 this constitution in the government of the United 
 States, or in any department or officer thereof. 
 Section 9. 
 
 " I. The migration or importation of such persons 
 as any of the states now existing shall think proper 
 to admit, shall not be prohibited by the congress 
 prior to the year 1808, but a tax or duty may be 
 imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten 
 dollars for each person. 
 
 " II. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus 
 shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of re- 
 bellion or invasion the public safety may require it. 
 
 " III. No bill of attainder or ex post facto law 
 shall be passed. 
 
 " IV. No capitation, or other direct tax shall be 
 laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumera- 
 tion herein before directed to be taken. 
 
 " V. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles ex- 
 ported from any state. No preference shall be given 
 by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the 
 ports of one state over those of another ; nor shall 
 vessels bound to or from one state, be obliged to 
 cuter clear, or pay duties in another. 
 
 " VI. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, 
 but in consequence of appropriations made by law ; 
 and a regular statement and account of the receipts 
 and expenditures of all public money shall be pub- 
 lished from time to time. 
 
 " VII. No title of nobility shall be granted by the 
 United States ; and no person holding any office of 
 profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent 
 of congress, accept of any present, emolument, 
 office or title of any kind whatever, from any king, 
 prince or foreign state. 
 
 Section 10. 
 
 " I. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance 
 or confederation ; grant letters of marque and re- 
 prisal ; coin money ; emit bills of credit ; make any 
 thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment 
 of debts ; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto 
 law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, 
 or grant any title of nobility. 
 
 " II. No state shall, without the consent of con- 
 gress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or ex- 
 ports, except what may be absolutely necessary for 
 executing its inspection laws; and the net produce 
 of all duties and imposts laid by any state on imports 
 or exports, shall be for the use of the treasury of the 
 United States, and all such laws shall be subject to 
 the revision and control of congress. No state shall, 
 without the consent of congress, lay any duty on 
 tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war, in time of 
 peace, enter into any agreement or compact with 
 another state, or with a foreign power, or engage in 
 war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent 
 danger as will not admit of delay. 
 
 ARTICLE II. Section 1. 
 
 " I. The executive power shall be vested in a 
 president of the United States of America. He 
 shall hold his office during the term of four years, 
 and, together with the vice-president, chosen for 
 the same term, be elected as follows : 
 
 " II. Each state shall appoint, in such manner 
 as the legislature thereof ma/ direct, a number of 
 electors, equal to the whole number of senators and 
 representatives to which the state may be entitled 
 in the congress; but no senator or representative, 
 or person holding an office of trust or profit under 
 the United States, shall be appointed an elector. 
 
 " III. The electors shall meet in their respective 
 states, and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom 
 one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same 
 state with themselves. And they shall make a list 
 of all the persons voted for, and of the number of 
 votes for each ; which list they shall sign and certify, 
 and transmit, sealed, to the seat of government of 
 the United States, directed to the president of the 
 senate. The president of the senate shall, in the 
 presence of the senate and house of representatives, 
 open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be 
 counted. The person having the greatest number 
 of votes shall be the president, if such number be a 
 majority of the whole number of electors appointed ; 
 and if there be more than one who have such ma- 
 jority, and have an equal number of irotes, then the 
 house of representatives shall immediately choose, 
 by ballot, one of them for president ; and if no per- 
 son have a majority, then from the five highest on 
 the list, the said bouse shall in like manner choose 
 the president. But in choosing the president, the 
 votes shall be taken by states, the representation 
 from each state having one vote; a quorum for this 
 purpose shall consist of a member or members from 
 two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the 
 stales shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, 
 
1082 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 after the choice of the president, the person having 
 the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be 
 the vice-president. But if there should remain two 
 or more who have equal votes, the senate shall 
 choose from them by ballot the vice-president. 
 
 " IV. The congress may determine the time of 
 choosing the electors, and the day on which they 
 shall give their votes ; which day shall be the same 
 throughout the United States. 
 
 " V. No person, except a natural born citizen, or 
 a citizen of the United States at the time of the 
 adoption of this constitution, shall be eligible to the 
 office of president, neither shall any person be eligi- 
 ble to that office who shall not have attained to the 
 age of 35 years, and been fourteen years a resident 
 within the United States. 
 
 " VI. In case of the removal of the president 
 from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability 
 to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, 
 the same shall devolve on the vice-president, and 
 the congress may by law provide for the case of re- 
 moval, death, resignation, or inability, both of the 
 president and vice-president, declaring what officer 
 shall then act as president, and such officer shall act 
 accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a 
 president shall be elected. 
 
 " VII. The president shall, at stated times, re- 
 ceive for his services a compensation, which shall 
 neither be increased or diminished during the period 
 for which he shall have been elected, and he shall 
 not receive within that period any other emolument 
 from the United States, or any of them. 
 
 " VIII. Before he enter on the execution of his 
 office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation : 
 'I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully 
 execute the office of president of the United States, 
 and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, 
 and defend the constitution of the United States.' 
 Section 2. 
 
 " I. The president shall be commander-in-chief 
 of the army and nafy of the United States, and of 
 the militia of the several states, when called into 
 the actual service of the United States ; he may re- 
 quire the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer 
 in each of the executive departments, upon any 
 subject relating to the duties of their respeciive 
 offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves 
 and pardons for offences against the United States, 
 except in cases of impeachment. 
 
 " II. He shall have power, by and with the ad- 
 vice and consent of the senate, to make treaties, 
 provided two-thirds of the senators present concur; 
 and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice 
 and consent of the senate, shall appoint ambassadors, 
 other public ministers and consuls, judges of the 
 supreme court, and all other officers of the United 
 States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise 
 provided for, and which shall be established by law. 
 But the congress may by law vest the appointment 
 of such inferior officers as they think proper in the 
 president alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads 
 of departments. 
 
 " III. The president shall have power to fill up 
 all vacancies that may happen during the recess of 
 the senate, by granting commissions, which shall 
 expire at the end of their next session. 
 Section 3. 
 
 " He shall, from time to time, give to the con- 
 gress information of th<* state of the union, and re- 
 commend to their consideration such measures as 
 he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, 
 on extraordinary occasions, convene both houses, or 
 
 either of them, and in case of disagreement between 
 them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he 
 may adjourn them to such time as he shall think 
 proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other 
 public ministers ; he shall take care that the laws 
 be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the 
 officers of the United States. 
 
 Section 4. 
 
 " The president, vice-president, and all civil 
 officers of the United States, shall be removed from 
 office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, 
 bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. 
 ARTICLE III. Section I. 
 
 " The judicial power of the United States shall 
 be vested in one supreme court, and in such inferior 
 courts as the congress may from time to time ordain 
 and establish. The judges, both of the supreme 
 and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during 
 good behaviour, and shall, at stated times, receive 
 for their services a compensation, which shall not 
 be diminished during their continuance in office. 
 Section 2. 
 
 " I. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, 
 in law and equity, arising under this constitution, 
 the laws of the United States and treaties made, or 
 which shall be made, under their authority ; to all 
 cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers 
 and consuls ; to all cases of admiralty and maritime 
 jurisdiction; to controversies to which the United 
 States shall be a party ; to controversies between 
 two or more states, between a state and citizens of 
 another state, between citizens of different states, 
 between citizens of the same state claiming lands 
 under grants of different states, and between a state, 
 or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens 
 or subjects. 
 
 " II. In ail cases affecting ambassadors, other 
 public ministers and consuls, and those in which a 
 state shall be a party, the supreme court shall have 
 original jurisdiction. In all other cases before 
 mentioned, the supreme court shall have appellate 
 jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such ex- 
 ceptions, and under such regulations, as the con- 
 gress shall make. 
 
 " III. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of 
 impeachment, shall be by jury ; and such trials shall 
 be held in the state where the said crime shall have 
 been committed; but when not committed within 
 any state, the trial shall be at such place, or places 
 as the congress may by law have directed. 
 Section 3. 
 
 " I. Treason against the United States shall con- 
 sist only in levying war against them, or in adhering 
 to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No 
 person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the 
 testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or 
 on confession in open court. 
 
 " II. The congress shall have power to declare 
 the punishment of treason, but no attainder of trea- 
 son shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, ex- 
 cept during the life of the person attainted. 
 ARTICLE IV. Section 1. 
 
 " Full faith and credit shall be given ia each 
 state to the public acts, records, and judicial pro- 
 ceedings of every other state. And the congress 
 may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in 
 which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be 
 proved, and the effect thereof. 
 Section 2. 
 
 " I. The citizens of each state shall be entitled to 
 all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the 
 several slates. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1083 
 
 "II. A person charged in any state with treason, 
 felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, 
 and be found in another state, shall, on demand ol 
 the executive authority of the state from which he 
 fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the state 
 having jurisdiction of the crime. 
 
 " III. No person held to service or labour in one 
 state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, 
 shall in consequence of any law or regulation therein, 
 be discharged from such service or labour, but shall 
 be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such 
 service or labour may be due. 
 Section 3. 
 
 " I. New states may be admitted by the congress 
 into this union, but no new state shall be formed or 
 erected within the jurisdiction of any other state ; 
 nor any state be formed by the junction of two or 
 more states, or parts of states, without the consent 
 of the legislatures of the states concerned, as well as 
 of the congress. 
 
 " II. The congress shall have power to dispose of 
 and make all needful rules and regulations respect- 
 ing the territory or other property belonging to the 
 United States ; and nothing in this constitution shall 
 be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the 
 United States, or of any particular state. 
 Section 4. 
 
 " The United States shall guarantee to every 
 state in this union a republican form of government, 
 and shall protect each of them against invasion ; 
 and on application of the legislature, or of the exe- 
 cutive (when the legislature cannot be convened) 
 against domestic violence. 
 
 ARTICLE V, 
 
 " The congress, whenever two-thirds of both 
 houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amend- 
 ments to this constitution, or, on the application of 
 the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, 
 shall call a convention for proposing amendments, 
 which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents 
 and purposes, as part of this constitution, when ra- 
 tified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the se- 
 veral states, or by conventions in three-fourths 
 thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification 
 may be proposed by the congress: provided, that 
 no amendment which may be made prior to ;he year 
 1808, shall in any manner affect the first and fourth 
 clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and 
 that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived 
 of its equal suffrage in the senate. 
 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 " I. All debts contracted, and engagements en- 
 tered into, before the adoption of this constitution, 
 shall be as valid against the United States under 
 this constitution, as under the confederation. 
 
 " II. This constitution and the laws of the United 
 States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; 
 and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under 
 the authority of the United States, shall be the su- 
 preme law of the land ; and the judges in every state 
 shall be bound thereby, any thing in tfce constitu- 
 tion or laws of any state to the contrary notwith- 
 standing. 
 
 " III. The senators and representatives before 
 mentioned, and the members of the several state 
 legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, 
 both of the United States and of the several states, 
 shall be bound by oath or affirmation, k> support 
 this constitution ; but no religious test shall ever be 
 required, as a qualification to any office or public 
 trust under the United States. 
 
 ARTICLE VII. 
 
 " The ratification of the conventions of nine states, 
 shall be sufficient for the establishment of this con- 
 stitution between the states so ratifying the same. 
 
 " Done in Convention by the unanimous consent of the 
 states present, the seventeenth day of September, in 
 the year of our Lord 1787, and of the Independence 
 of the United States of America, the twelfth. In 
 witness whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our 
 names. 
 
 " The constitution, although formed in 1787, was 
 not adopted until 1789. The number of delegates 
 chosen to this convention was 65, of whom ten did 
 not attend, and sixteen refused to sign the consti- 
 tution. The following 39 signed the constitution : 
 
 " New Hampshire. John Langdon, Nicholas 
 Gelman. 
 
 " Massachusetts. Nathaniel Gorham,RufusKing. 
 
 " Connecticut. William Samuel Johnson, Roger 
 Sherman. 
 
 " New York. Alexander Hamilton. 
 
 " New Jersey. William Livingston, David 
 Brearley, William Paterson, Jonathan Dayton. 
 
 "Pennsylvania. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas 
 Mifflin, Robert Morris, George Clymer, Thomas 
 Fitzsinaons, Jared Ingersoll, James Wilson, Gou- 
 verneur Morris. 
 
 " Delaware. George Read, Gunning Bedford, 
 jun., John Dick-inson, Richard Bassett, Jacob Broom. 
 
 " Maryland. James McHenry, Daniel of St. 
 Thomas Jenifer, Daniel Carroll. 
 
 " Virginia. John Blair, James Madison, jun. 
 
 " North Carolina. William Blount, Richard 
 Dobbs Spaight, Hugh Williamson. 
 
 " South Carolina. John Rutledge, Charles C. 
 Pinkney, Charles Pinkney, Pierce Butler. 
 
 " Georgia. William Few, Abraham Baldwin. 
 " GEORGE WASHINGTON, President. 
 
 '' WILLIAM JACKSON, Secretary." 
 
 AMENDMENTS. 
 
 The following articles in addition to, and amendment 
 of, the Constitution of the United States, having 
 been ratified by the leyislatures of nine states, are 
 equally obligatory with the constitution itself : 
 
 ARTICLE I. 
 
 " After the first enumeration required by the first 
 article of the constitution, there shall be one repre- 
 sentative for every 30,000, until the number shall 
 amount to 100, after which the proportion shall be 
 so regulated by congress, that there shall be not less 
 than 100 representatives, nor less than one repre- 
 sentative for every 40,000 persons, until the num- 
 ber of representatives shall amount to 200, after 
 which the proportion shall be so regulated by con- 
 gress, that there shall not be less than 200 repre- 
 sentatives, nor more than one representative for 
 every 50,000 persons. 
 
 ARTICLE II. 
 
 ;< No law varying the compensation for the ser- 
 vices of the senators and representatives shall take 
 effect, until an election of representatives shall have 
 intervened. 
 
 ARTICLE III. 
 
 " Congress shall make no law respecting an es- 
 tablishment of religion, or prohibiting the free ex- 
 
1084 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 ercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, 
 or of the press ; or the right of the people peaceably 
 to assemble, and to petition the government for a 
 redress of grievances. 
 
 ARTICLE IV. 
 
 " A well regulated militia being necessary to the 
 security of a free state, the right of the people to 
 keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. 
 ARTICLE V. 
 
 " No soldier shall in time of peace be quartered 
 in any house without the consent of the owner, nor 
 in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed 
 by law. 
 
 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 " The right of the people to be secure in their 
 persons, houses, papers and effects, against unrea- 
 sonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated ; 
 and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, 
 supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly 
 describing tne place to be searched, and the persons 
 or things to be seized. 
 
 ARTICLE VII. 
 
 " No person shall be held to answer for a capital, 
 or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a present- 
 ment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases 
 arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia 
 when in actual service in time of war or public 
 danger ; nor shall any person be subject for the 
 same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or 
 limb ; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case 
 to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of 
 life liberty or property, without due process of law; 
 nor shall private property be taken for public use 
 without just compensation. 
 
 ARTICLE VIII. 
 
 " In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall 
 enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an 
 impartial jury of the state and district wherein the 
 crime shall have been committed, which district shall 
 have been previously ascertained by law, and to be 
 informed of the nature and cause of the accusation ; 
 to be confronted with the witnesses against him ; 
 to hare compulsory process for obtaining witnesses 
 in his favour, and to have the assistance of counsel 
 for his defence. 
 
 ARTICLE IX. 
 
 " In suits at common law, where the value in 
 controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of 
 trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact, tried 
 by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any 
 court of the United States, than according to the 
 rules of the common law. 
 
 ARTICLE X. 
 
 " Excessive bail shall not be required, nor ex- 
 cessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual pu- 
 nishments inflicted. 
 
 ARTICLE XI. 
 
 " The enumeration in the constitution, of certain 
 rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage 
 others retained by the people. 
 
 ARTICLE XII. 
 
 " The powers not delegated to the United States 
 "by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, 
 are reserved to the states respectively, or to the 
 people. 
 
 ARTICLE XIII. 
 " The judicial power of the United States shall 
 not be construed to extend to any suit in law or 
 equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the 
 United States by citizens of another state, or by 
 citizens or subjects of any foreign state. 
 
 ARTICLE XIV. 
 
 11 The electors shall meet in their respective states, 
 and vote by ballot, for president and vice-president, 
 one of whom at least, shall not be an inhabitant of 
 the same state with thetnselves ; they shall name, in 
 their ballots, the person voted for as president, and 
 in distinct ballots, the person voted for as vice-pre- 
 sident, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons 
 voted for as president, and of all persons voted for 
 as vice-president, and of the number of votes for 
 each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and 
 transmit, sealed, to the seat of the government of 
 the United States, directed to the president of the 
 senate. The president of the senate shall, in the 
 presence of the senate and house of representatives, 
 open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be 
 counted. The person having the greatest number 
 of votes for president, shall be the president, if such 
 number be a majority of the whole number of elec- 
 tors appointed ; and if no person have such a ma- 
 jority, then from the persons having the highest 
 numbers, not exceeding three on the list of those 
 voted for as president, the house of representatives 
 shall choose immediately by ballot, the president. 
 But in choosing the president, the votes shall be 
 taken by states, the representation from each state 
 having one vote ; a quorum for this purpose shall 
 consist of a member or members from two-thirds of 
 the states, and a majority of all the states shall be 
 necessary to a choice. And if the house of repre- 
 sentatives shall not choose a president whenever the 
 right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the 
 fourth day of March next following, then the vice- 
 president shall act as president, as in the case of 
 the death or other constitutional disability of the 
 president. 
 
 " The person having tire greatest number of votes 
 as vice-president, shall be the vice-president, if such 
 number be a majority of the whole number of elec- 
 tors appointed ; and if no person have a majority, 
 then, from the two highest numbers on the list, the 
 senate shall choose the vice-president a quorum for 
 the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole 
 number of senators, and a majority of the whole 
 number shall be necessary to a choice. 
 
 " But no person constitutionally ineligible to the 
 office of president, shall be eligible to that of vice- 
 president of the United States. 
 ARTICLE XV. 
 
 " If any citizen of the United States shall accept, 
 claim, receive, or retain any title of nobility or 
 honour ; or shall without the consent of congress, 
 accept and retain any present, pension, office or 
 emolument of any kind whatever, from any emperor, 
 king, prince, or foreign power, such person shall 
 cease to be a citizen of the United States, and shall 
 be incapable of holding any office of trust or profit 
 under them or either of them." 
 
 It was not without a struggle that the new con- 
 stitution was adopted. Eleven of the states were, 
 however, early in the year 1789, brought to decide 
 in favour of its ratification. Rhode Island, who had 
 refused to send members to the convention in which 
 it was framed, now refused to accept it. 
 
 The first president under the new constitution, 
 was Washington. His grateful countrymen were 
 unanimous in bestowing upon him this high office. 
 The first vice-president was that profound and 
 honest statesman, John Adams. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1085 
 
 Geographical Nutic.es of the Country at this Period. 
 
 Population. 
 
 Maine 96.540 
 
 New Hampshire 141,885 
 
 Vermont 85,589 
 
 Massachusetts. . 373,324 
 Rhode Island.. 
 Connecticut.. 
 
 New York 
 
 New Jersey.... 
 Pennsylvania 
 Delaware 
 
 Population. 
 
 Virginia 442,117 
 
 Kentucky 61,133 
 
 Tennessee 77,262 
 
 North Carolina 288,204 
 South Carolina 140,178 
 
 Georgia 2,886 
 
 Territory south 
 
 of the Ohio.. 31,913 
 Territory north- 
 west of Ohio 15,000 
 
 64,470 
 232,374 
 314,142 
 169,954 
 424,099 
 46,310 
 Maryland 319,649 
 
 The principal towns had now become so nume- 
 rous, that the reader is referred to the geographies 
 of the present time, for their names and location. 
 
 The principal exports from the New England 
 states were provisions, lumber, and pot and pearl 
 ashes. Wheat was the staple commodity of the 
 middle states ; and Indian corn, tobacco, rice, and 
 cotton, were exported from the southern states. The 
 whole amount of exports from the United States in 
 the year 1789, amounted to 16,000,000 dollars. 
 
 In commerce and manufactures ; the chief ma- 
 nufactories were those of iron, leather, skins and 
 paper, which were extensively established in various 
 parts of the United States. Woollen cloths were 
 also manufactured in some of the states ; and com- 
 merce to a considerable extent was carried on with 
 Europe, and the East and West Indies. 
 
 The societies formed about this time were the 
 following : 
 
 (1779.) Massachusetts Charitable Society was in- 
 corporated. 
 
 (1780.) The American Society of Arts and Sci- 
 ences was incorporated. 
 
 (1783.) The Society of Cincinnati instituted. 
 
 (1784.) The Boston Episcopal Charitable Society 
 incorporated. 
 
 (1785.) The Agricultural Society of Philadelphia, 
 the Humane Society of Massachusetts, and the 
 Association of Manufacturers and Tradesmen in 
 Boston, were formed. 
 
 (1786.) The Connecticut Society of Arts was in- 
 stituted. The Scotch Charitable Society, and the 
 Massachusetts Congregational Charitable Society 
 incorporated. 
 
 (1788.) The Moravian Society for thePropagation 
 of the Gospel among the Heathen, was incorporated 
 by the government of Pennsylvania. 
 
 The following is a Catalogue of Eminent Men who 
 died during the period extending from 1776 to 1789. 
 
 (1776.) Cadwallader Golden, an eminent physi- 
 cian, botanist, and astronomer, author of a " His- 
 tory of the Five Nations of Indians." 
 
 (1777.) John Bartram, a celebrated botanist, who 
 published a " Description of East Florida," and 
 observations on the inhabitants, climate, soil, &c., 
 ade in his travels from Pennsylvania to Onondego. 
 
 (1778 ) Butler Gwinett, one' of the signers of the 
 declaration of independence. 
 
 Nicholas Biddle, captain in the navy of the United 
 States. 
 
 Philip Livingston, one of the signers of the de- 
 claration of independence. 
 
 (1779.) Francis Bernard, governor of Massachu- 
 setts. 
 
 Thomas Lynch, jun., one of the signers of the 
 declaration of independence. 
 
 John Winthrop, LL D., F.R.S., a distinguished 
 philosopher, aud astronomer. 
 
 (1780.) Thomas Hutchinson, governor of Mas- 
 sachusetts, author of a " History of Massachusetts." 
 
 (1781.) Richard Stockton, one of the signers of 
 the declaration of independence. 
 
 (1782.) Charles Lee, major-general in the Ame- 
 rican army. 
 
 Robert Monckton, governor of New York. 
 
 (1783.) Samuel Cooper, D.D., an eminent divine. 
 
 James Otis, a distinguished patriot and statesman, 
 author of a " Dissertation on Letters, " and the " Power 
 of Harmony in poetic and prosaic composition." 
 
 (1784.) Anthony Benezet, a distinguished phi- 
 lanthropist. 
 
 (1785.) Jonathan Trumbull, a distinguished pa- 
 triot, and governor of Connecticut. 
 
 William Whipple, one of the signers of the decla- 
 ration of independence. 
 
 (1786.) Nathaniel Greene, a major-general in 
 the American army. 
 
 (1787.) Charles Chauncey, D.D., a divine emi- 
 nent for his learning and piety publications nume- 
 rous, chiefly theological. 
 
 Thomas Gage, the last governor appointed by 
 the king. 
 
 (1788.) Thomas Gushing, LL.D., a distinguished 
 patriot. 
 Washington elected president Hamilton's report on 
 
 the public debts Bill for duty on distilled spirits 
 
 A national bank established' Vermont admitted into 
 
 the Union. 
 
 The 4th of March, 1789, was the day upon which 
 the new government was to commence its operations. 
 But from necessary delays, the inauguration of the 
 president did not take pla'ce until the 30th of April. 
 
 Washington, since his resignation, had busied 
 himself in the peaceable and respectable pursuits of 
 agriculture ; and he was upon his farm, when the 
 official intelligence of his appointment to be the 
 head of the nation was announced to him. Wash- 
 ington signified his willingness to comply. He 
 proceeded without delay to New York, where con- 
 gress first convened. In his progress he was met 
 by numerous bodies of the people, who hailed him 
 as the father of his country, and triumphal arches 
 were erected to commemorate his achievements. 
 He approached New York by sea, attended by a 
 deputation from congress : he was received by the 
 governor, as he landed, amidst the firing of artillery 
 and the acclamations of the people. 
 
 The ceremony of his inauguration was witnessed 
 with inexpressible joy, by a great multitude of 
 spectators. The novelty and the importance of the 
 transaction, the benign dignity of Washington's 
 character and manners, the remembrance of the 
 sufferings by which America had won the right to 
 govern herself, and which with a father's anxious 
 solicitude he had shared; all conspired to make the 
 pageant inexpressibly solemn and affecting. 
 
 In an address to both houses of congress, he modestly 
 declared his incapacity for " the mighty and untried 
 cares before him," and offered his "fervent supplica- 
 tions to that Almighty Being, whose providential aid 
 can supply every human defect, that his benediction 
 would consecrate to the liberties and happiness of 
 the people of the United States, a government in- 
 stituted by themselves for essential purposes ; and 
 would enable every instrument employed in its ad- 
 ministration, to execute with success the functions 
 allotted to his charge." He remarked, that " the 
 foundation of our national policy should be laid in 
 the pure principles of private morality ; and that no 
 truth was more thoroughly established, than that 
 
108G 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 there exists an indissoluble union between virtue 
 and happiness ; between duty and advantage ; be- 
 tween the genuine maxims of an honest and mag- 
 nanimous people, and the solid rewards of public 
 prosperity and felicity." An attention to these con- 
 siderations, he enforced by the weighty reasons, 
 " that the success of the republican form of govern- 
 ment is justly considered as deeply, perhaps finally 
 staked on the experiment entrusted to the American 
 people ; and that the propitious smiles of Heaven 
 could never be expected on a nation that disregarded 
 the eternal rules oforder and right, which Heaven 
 itself had ordained." 
 
 The several departments of government were 
 next to be arranged and filled. Mr. Jefferson was 
 made secretary of state ; Colonel Hamilton secre- 
 tary of the treasury ; General Knox secretary of 
 war; Edmund Randolph attorney-general, and John 
 Jay first judge of the supreme judiciary. 
 
 Congress made it their first object to establish a 
 revenue sufficient for the support of government, 
 and for the discharge of the debt contracted during 
 the revolutionary war. For this purpose, they laid 
 duties on the importation of merchandise, and on 
 the tonnage of vessels ; thus drawing into the public 
 treasury funds which had before been collected and 
 appropriated by individual states. 
 
 During this session of congress, a proposition was 
 made to amend the constitution. Congress, after a 
 long and animated discussion of the subject, agreed 
 upon twelve new articles. These were submitted 
 to the respective state legislatures ; and being ap- 
 proved by three-fourths of these bodies, they became 
 a part of the constitution. 
 
 On the 29th of September, the first session of con- 
 gress closed ; the secretary of the treasury being 
 previously directed to prepare a plan for providing 
 for the adequate support of the public credit, and to 
 report the same at the next meeting of congress. 
 
 After the adjournment of congress, the president 
 made a tour through New England, where he was 
 received by the inhabitants with demonstrations of 
 the most filial affection. They crowded around him. 
 They vied with each other in the display of hospi- 
 table attentions. Parents brought their children, 
 that they might view in him the living model of ex- 
 cellence, and that they might have in after-life, the 
 satisfaction of reflecting that they had, with their 
 own eyes, beheld the man whom the history of their 
 country ranked as the first of her citizens. 
 
 The second session of the first congress began the 
 6th of January, 1790. At this session, Mr. Hamil- 
 ton made his celebrated report with respect to the 
 discharge of public debts contracted during the war 
 of the revolution. With regard to the foreign debt, 
 he remarked that no difference of opinion existed; 
 all agreed that provision should be made for its dis- 
 charge according to the terms of the contract ; but 
 with respect to the domestic debt, opinions were 
 entirely opposite ; some advocating a discrimina- 
 tion between the present holders of public securities, 
 and those to whom the debt was originally due. 
 This subject opened a field of debate, which shook 
 the government to its foundation, and may fairly 
 be said to be the origin of that division of sentiment 
 and feeling, which agitated so long and so violently 
 the national councils, and which gave rise to the 
 two great political parties, which, under the names 
 of federalists and republicans, for 30 years arrayed 
 one part of the American community against the 
 other. The question was, shall the present holders 
 of public securities, who have given but two or 
 
 three shillings on the pound, receive the full value 
 of what appears on the face of the obligations, or 
 only the amount which they gave ? After much de- 
 bate, Mr. Madison proposed that the present holder 
 of assignable paper should receive the highest price 
 such paper had borne in market, and the original 
 holder receive the residue. These propositions were 
 finally rejected. 
 
 During the war, the states had frequently exerted 
 their resources under their own authority, independ- 
 ent of congress. Some had funded their debts; 
 some had paid the interest, and some had done 
 neither. All looked forward to the new congress to 
 assume their debts. Mr. Hamilton recommended 
 this assumption of the state debts ; and also, that 
 provision should be made for paying the interest, by 
 imposing taxes on certain articles of luxury, and on 
 spirits distilled within the country. These recom- 
 mendations again opened a torrent of debate in con- 
 gress. The republican party, who existed chiefly 
 in the southern states, possessing an ardent attach- 
 ment to the equal rights of man, warmly opposed 
 Mr. Hamilton. They remembered him when a 
 member of the convention, as being suspected of 
 monarchical views. They feared that the assumption 
 of these debts would render the government stronger, 
 as its creditors would support it from interest, and 
 that it would have a tendency to destroy the state 
 governments. The federal party, existing princi- 
 pally in the northern states, supported with great 
 ability the plans of the secretary; but they were re- 
 jected by a majority of two. 
 
 Disputes had taken place with respect to the tem- 
 porary, as well as the permanent seat of govern- 
 ment. It was understood that should it be fixed for 
 ten years at Philadelphia, and afterwards at a place 
 to be selected on the Potomac ; and that some of the 
 members of the house of representatives, from the 
 Potomac, would withdraw their opposition to Mr. 
 Hamilton. This was accordingly done, and his 
 plans were adopted. 
 
 The debt funded amounted to a little more than 
 75,000.000 of dollars, upon a part of which an in- 
 terest of three per cent, was paid, and on the re- 
 mainder six per cent. 
 
 In May 1790, Rhode Island acceded to the new 
 constitution. 
 
 Soon after the commencement of the third session 
 of congress a bill was introduced for laying the taxes 
 which the secretary had proposed for the payment 
 of the interest on the assumed debt of the states. 
 That for laying duties on distilled spirits was urged 
 on the ground that the inhabitants beyond the 
 Alleghany mountains, where no other spirits were 
 consumed, would not otherwise bear an equal burden 
 with those on the sea-coast, who consumed most of 
 the articles on which an import duty was laid. The 
 bill after much debate was carried. 
 
 In 1790 a termination was put to the war, which 
 had for several years raged between the Creek In- 
 dians and the state of Georgia. 
 
 During the third session of congress, an act was 
 passed accepting the cession of the claims of North 
 Carolina to a district west of that state, and a ter- 
 ritorial government was established by congress 
 under the title of " The Territory of the United 
 States south of the Ohio." 
 
 This year the states of Pennsylvania and North 
 Carolina established their present constitution. 
 
 This year also Kentucky was erected into an in- 
 dependent state, receiving its name from its prin- 
 cipal river. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1087 
 
 A national bank was during this session recom- 
 mended by the secretary. It met with a violent op- 
 position from the republican party. They consi- 
 dered all banking institutions as useless, the pre- 
 sent bill defective, and the power of establishing a 
 bank not granted to congress. The supporters of 
 the bill considered it as constitutional; and a na- 
 tional bank not only useful, but necessary for the 
 operations of government. The president required 
 the opinions of the cabinet in writing. Mr. Jeffer- 
 son and Mr. Randolph opposed, while Mr. Hamilton 
 sanctioned the bill. After deliberate investigation, 
 the president was convinced of its constitutionality 
 and utility, and gave it his signature. 
 
 In 1791 Vermont adopted the federal constitution, 
 and applied to congress to be admitted into the union. 
 New Hampshire and New York had both laid claim 
 to the territory of this state, and both had made 
 grants of land within its limits. In 1777 the inha- 
 bitants refusing to submit to either, declared them- 
 selves independent. At the request of her citizens, 
 Vermont was this year admitted a member of the 
 union. 
 
 In 1791 the first census, or enumeration of the 
 inhabitants of the United States, was completed. 
 They amounted to 3,921,326. The revenue amounted 
 to 4,771,000 dollars, the exports to 19,000,000, and 
 the imports to about 20,000,000. 
 
 In October the second congress commenced its 
 first session. One of its first acts was that of appor- 
 tioning the number of representatives according to 
 the census. After much disagreement a bill passed 
 fixing the ratio at one for every 33,000. 
 
 Indian war in Ohio Harmer defeated Also St. 
 Clair Proclamation of Neutrality Randolph sue* 
 ceeds Jefferson as secretary of state. 
 
 While congress was agitated by party strife, and 
 conflicting interests, an Indian war was opening in 
 the north-western frontiers of the states. Pacific 
 arrangements had been attempted by the president 
 with the hostile tribes in Ohio, but without effect. 
 On their failure General Harmer was sent with a 
 force amounting to 1400 to reduce them to terms. 
 He was successful in destroying their villages, and 
 the produce of their fields ; but in an engagement 
 near Chilocothe he was defeated with considerable 
 loss. Upon the failure of General Harmer, Major- 
 general St. Clair was appointed to succeed him. He 
 hastened to protect with his army the unfortunate 
 inhabitants who were now left without defence, to 
 suffer all the midnight horrors of Indian warfare. 
 With a force amounting to nearly 2000 men, St. 
 Clair marched into the wilderness in the month of 
 October. On the 3rd of November he encamped 
 within a few miles of the Miami villages, with his 
 army, which was reduced by desertion and detach- 
 ment to 1400. Here he intended to remain until 
 reinforced. Notwithstanding the many melancholy 
 examples of similar disasters in the armies of his 
 country, St. Clair suffered himself to be surprised. 
 The militia who were posted in front, were driven 
 in great disorder upon the regulars. In rain did 
 St. Clair attempt to rally the flying militia and re- 
 pulse the savages. They appeared on all sides oi 
 the American army, and poured in such a deadly 
 fire from the surrounding thickets, as strewed the 
 field with the wounded, the dying and the dead. 
 After a contest of three hours, General St. Clair, 
 disabled by indisposition from the active duties oi 
 commander, ordered a retreat, which was effected, 
 and the remnant of his army saved from total ruin 
 
 The victorious Indians pursued closely about four 
 miles, when they returned to share the spoils of the 
 camp. General St. Clair retreated to fort Jefferson 
 and afterwards to fort Washington. In this dis- 
 astrous engagement, the numbers on each side were 
 nearly equal. The loss of the Indians is not known ; 
 but that of the Americans was 630 killed and miss- 
 ng, and 260 were wounded ; a slaughter almost un- 
 paralleled. The whole American camp and artillery 
 "ell into the hands of the enemy. 
 
 On receiving information of this disaster, con- 
 gress resolved to prosecute the war with increased 
 vigour, to augment the army by enlistment, and to 
 put the frontiers in a state of defence. 
 
 In pursuance of the resolutions of congress, Wash- 
 ington endeavoured to put on foot an army sufficient 
 for a vigorous prosecution of the war wi'th the In- 
 dians ; but the defeats of Harmer and St. Clair pro- 
 duced such a dread of the Indians, that a sufficient 
 number of recruits could not be raised to authorize 
 an expedition against them. There was a violent 
 clamour against the war; and the president deemed 
 t advisable to make another effort at negotiation 
 with the unfriendly Indians. The charge of this 
 business was committed to Colonel Harden and 
 Major Freeman, who were both murdered by the 
 savages. 
 
 Kentucky was this year admitted to the union. 
 Soon after the opening of the next session of 
 congress, a motion was made to reduce the military 
 establishment, but it did not prevail. 
 
 In 1 792, a mint was established by congress, and 
 the division and value of the money to be used 
 throughout the country, regulated by statute. 
 
 General Washington was again elected president, 
 and in March 1793, was inaugurated. Mr. Adams 
 was also re-elected vice-president. 
 
 The president, intent on terminating the war with 
 the Indians, had obtained the intervention of the 
 Six Nations. Through their friendly agency, a 
 treaty of peace had been negotiated with the Indians 
 on the Wabash ; and the Miamis had consented to a 
 conference the ensuing spring. 
 
 About this time the French revolution, which had 
 commenced in 1789, began seriously to affect the 
 politics of the United States. A new government 
 was at first established in France, which had for its 
 fundamental principle, the universal equality of 
 man. Hopes were entertained, that France would 
 now enjoy the blessings of a free government; but 
 the leaders of the revolution were selfish and un- 
 principled men, and their sanguinary measures soon 
 blasted these hopes. Louis XVI. was executed, his 
 family murdered or imprisoned, and all who were 
 suspected as being hostile to their views, particularly 
 the nobility, suffered decapitation by the guillotine. 
 The parties which had agitated the union were 
 now raging with increased violence. The demo- 
 cratic or republican party beheld with pleasure tho 
 downfal of kings, and the dissemination of what they 
 regarded as their own peculiar principles ; and though 
 they contemplated with horror the proceedings of 
 those sanguinary leaders, Marat and Robespierre, 
 they trusted that when the first commotions were 
 assuaged, a republic of the most perfect kind would 
 be established, and would remain as a proof to the 
 world of the compatibility of good order with li- 
 berty. The federalists, regarding their country as 
 connected with Britain by identity of origin, and 
 the various ties of commercial interest, by resem- 
 blance of institutions by similarity of language, of 
 literature and of religion, shocked with the crimes 
 
1088 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 of the French rulers, and alarmed at the system of 
 disorganization which they had introduced, became 
 more inveterate in their animosity to the democratic 
 or republican party, whom they charged with foster- 
 ing this spirit. Their public prints teemed with 
 the most terrific visions of the future condition of 
 the country, should the republican party gain the 
 ascendancy. Law, religion, and good order, they 
 foretold, would all be subverted ; the churches sa- 
 crilegiously demolished, and the written word of 
 God committed to the flames. The republican prints 
 retorted with equal asperity, charging their political 
 opponents with hostility to the republican institu- 
 tions of their country, ad with mean subserviency 
 to the policy of Great Britain. 
 
 In April, 1793, information was received of the 
 declaration of war by France against Great Britain 
 and Holland. Washington was an American, and 
 he did not choose to involve his country in the con- 
 tests of Europe. He accordingly, with the unani- 
 mous advice of his cabinet, consisting of Messrs. 
 Jefferson, Hamilton, Knox, and Randolph, issued a 
 proclamation of neutrality. This measure contri- 
 buted in a great degree to the prosperity of Ame- 
 rica. Its adoption was the more honourable to the 
 president, as the general sympathy was in favour of 
 the sister republic, against whom it was said Great 
 Britain had commenced a war for the sole purpose 
 of imposing upon her a monarchical form of govern- 
 ment : but he preferred the welfare of his country 
 to the popular applause. 
 
 M. Gerard, the French minister, who had been 
 appointed by the king, was about this time recalled, 
 and in April, Mr. Genet, who was appointed by the 
 republic, arrived at Charlestown, South Carolina. 
 The flattering reception he met with, induced him 
 to believe that he could easily persuade the Ameri- 
 can people to embark in the cause of France, what- 
 ever might be the determination of government. 
 This opinion of his was followed by the presump- 
 tuous procedure of fitting out privateers from the port 
 of Charlestown, to cruise against the vessels of the 
 enemies of France, nations, however, at peace with 
 the United States. 
 
 Notwithstanding these illegal assumptions of 
 power, he was welcomed at Philadelphia by the most 
 extravagant marks of joy. Mr. Hammond, the 
 British minister, complained of these proceedings. 
 The cabinet unanimously disapproved of them, and 
 determined to enforce the laws against those citizens 
 who had committed the offence. Genet accused the 
 executive of acting in opposition to the wishes of 
 the people, and even threatened an appeal from the 
 government to the people. This threat turned many 
 against him, who had before been his advocates 
 When congress met in December, the proclamation 
 of neutrality was approved, as well as the conduct 
 of the administration towards Mr. Genet. France 
 at the request of the president, annulled his powers 
 and he was succeeded by Mr. Fauchet. 
 
 On the 1st of January, 1794, Mr. Jefferson re 
 signed his office of secretary of state, and was sue 
 ceeded by Mr. Randolph. The office of attorney 
 general was filled by Mr. William Bradford 
 
 Insurrection in Pennsylvania Wayne defeats th< 
 Indians Jay's treaty Treaty with Algiers Will 
 Spain Mr. Monroe sent to France And recalled 
 Washington' s farewell address to the people. 
 
 An insurrection of the western counties of Penn 
 sylvania took place about this time. Great dissatis 
 faction had arisen from the laws of congress layin 
 
 uties on distilled spirits. A sheriff was killed in 
 be execution of his duty. A meeting of the mal- 
 ontents was held at Pittsburg, correspondencies 
 were established among them, and an armed force, 
 alculated to amount to 7000 men, was organized. 
 
 General Washington,after having vainly attempted 
 >ersuasive measures, found himself compelled to re- 
 ort to force. An army of 15,000 men was raised, 
 nd placed under the command of General (formerly 
 Colonel) Lee. This powerful force had the intended 
 ffect, inspiring such salutary terror that no op- 
 >osition was attempted. Sixteen of the most active 
 eaders were seized, tried, and convicted of treason, 
 iut afterwards pardoned. 
 
 At this session of congress an act was passed to 
 
 aise a naval force, consisting of six frigates, for the 
 
 mrpose of protecting the American commerce 
 
 against Algftrine corsairs. Eleven merchant ves- 
 
 els, and upwards of 100 citizens, had been captured 
 
 y these corsairs, and further preparations, it was 
 
 understood, were making for a renewed attack upon 
 
 he unprotected commerce of the United States. 
 
 A war with Great Britain was at this time appre- 
 lended. Since the peace of 1783, mutual complaints 
 were made by the United States and Great Britain, 
 or violating the stipulations contained in the treaty. 
 The former were accused of preventing the loyalists 
 'rom regaining possession of their estates, and Bri- 
 ,ish subjects from recovering debts contracted before 
 .he commencement of hostilities. The Americans 
 complained, that certain military posts situated in 
 he western wilderness, within the limits of the 
 United States, were still retained, that the Indians 
 were incited to make incursions upon the frontier 
 settlements, and that injurious commercial restric- 
 ;ions had been imposed. By these restrictions, 
 American vessels trading to the ports of France 
 might be seized by English cruisers, carried into 
 England, and there condemned. A bill passed, 
 aying an embargo for 30 days, one for erecting 
 fortifications, one for raising a provincial army, and 
 another for organizing the militia. To avert, how- 
 ever, if possible, the calamity of another war, Mr. 
 Jay was sent to England for the purpose of nego- 
 tiating with the British government. 
 
 The Indians still continuing hostile, .General 
 Wayne had been appointed to succeed General St. 
 Clair. Wayne having in vain attempted to nego- 
 tiate with the savages, marched against them, at the 
 head of 3000 men, and a battle was fought near the 
 Miami of the Lakes. The Indians were totally 
 routed, a vast number killed, and their whole coun- 
 try laid waste. This decisive victory disposed them 
 to peace, and had a salutary effect on all the tribes 
 north-west of the Ohio, as well as upon the Six 
 Nations. 
 
 January 1st, Mr. Hamilton resigned his office of 
 secretary of treasury, and was succeeded by Oliver 
 Wolcott from Connecticut. At the close of this 
 session, General Knox also resigned his office of 
 secretary of war, and was succeeded by Timothy 
 Pickering. 
 
 In the spring of 1795 Mr. Jay having negotiated 
 a treaty with Great Britain, returned to America. 
 This treaty having been laid before the senate, was, 
 after considerable debate, ratified by that body. 
 This treaty provided that the posts which the British 
 had retained should be given up to the Americans, 
 and compensation made for illegal captures, and that 
 the American government should pay to the British 
 600,000 pounds in trust for the subjects of Great 
 Britain to whom American citizens were indebted 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1089 
 
 But it did not piohibit the right of searching mer- 
 chant vessels claimed by the British; and was thus 
 an abandonment of the favourite principle of the 
 Americans, that " free ships make free trade." 
 Meantime, while the senate were debating the sub- 
 ject with closed doors, a member had given an incor- 
 rect copy of it to a printer. It was circulated with 
 rapidity, and produced much irritation. The presi- 
 dent received addresses from every part of the union, 
 praying him to withhold his signature ; but Wash- 
 ington believing the treaty to be the best which, 
 under existing circumstances, could be obtained, 
 signed it in defiance of popular clamour: at the 
 next session of congress an attempt was made by 
 the republican party to hinder the treaty from going 
 into effect, by refusing to vote for the necessary 
 supplies of money. After a long debate, in which 
 several members, particularly Fisher Ames of Mas- 
 sachusetts, displayed much eloquence, and the parties 
 generally much heat and irritation, the appropria- 
 tion was carried by a majority of three, and the 
 treaty went into effect. The republican party, al- 
 though in general confiding in their beloved presi- 
 dent, considered that his sanction to this instrument 
 was a proof that his judgment partook in some small 
 degree of human fallibility. They believed the 
 peace which it purchased, while the odious right of 
 search was granted to England, would be short-lived 
 and inglorious. Washington probably thought it 
 was better than war, and that should war ultimately 
 arise from the insulting and injurious exercise of 
 that power, it were better deferred until the state 
 had gained the strength and vigour of a few more 
 years* consolidation. 
 
 A treaty was also made this season with Algiers, 
 the commerce of the Mediterranean was opened, and 
 the American captives were restored. 
 
 A treaty was also concluded with the Indians in 
 the west ; thus securing the frontiers from savage 
 invasion. 
 
 A treaty with Spain soon after followed. Spain 
 had endeavoured to cause the western boundary of 
 the new republic to be fixed 300 miles east of the 
 Mississippi. She denied the inhabitants beyond 
 the Alleghany mountains access to the ocean through 
 that river, the mouth of which was in her province 
 of Louisiana. To adjust these differences, Thomas 
 Pinkney was appointed envoy-extraordinary to the 
 court of Madrid. In October a treaty was signed, 
 allowing the claims of the republic, as to the west- 
 ern boundary ; securing to the United States the free 
 navigation of the Mississippi to the ocean, and the 
 privilege of landing and depositing cargoes at New 
 Orleans. 
 
 In 1796 Tennessee was admitted to the union. 
 
 The treaties of the last year met with no opposi- 
 tion in congress. The conduct of France still con- 
 tinued to be a source of disquiet to the American 
 republic. Mr. Fauchet, ardently attached to his 
 nation, and believing himself supported by a nu- 
 merous party in America, gradually assumed an 
 authoritative manner. He accused the administra- 
 tion of partiality to their former foes, enmity to their 
 friends, and cold indifference to the cause of liberty. 
 Mr. Morris, who had been sent minister to France, 
 failing to secure the confidence of those in power, 
 was at their request recalled. Mr. Monroe suc- 
 ceeded him. This gentleman possessed the ardour 
 for liberty and the rights of man common to the re- 
 publican party ; and, with them, hoped that the 
 French revolution would eventually lead to the es- 
 tablishment of a free government, in the room of the 
 
 HIST. OF AMEK Nos. 137 & 138, 
 
 ancient despotism of that country. He was received 
 in the most flattering manner by the convention, 
 who decreed that the flags of the two republics, 
 entwined, should be suspended in the legislative 
 hall as a symbol of their friendship and union. 
 
 Mr. Adet soon after succeeded Mr. Fauchet, and 
 brought with him the colours of France, which with 
 much ceremony were deposited with those archives 
 of the United States, which are at oiice the memo- 
 rials of their freedom and independence, and an 
 honourable testimony of the existing sympathies 
 and affections of the sister republics. 
 
 Notwithstanding the professions of friendship be- 
 tween the governments, France still wished to in- 
 volve America in her European wars ; but finding 
 her maintaining a steady system of neutrality, she 
 adopted measures highly injurious to American com- 
 merce. Her cruisers were allowed in certain cases 
 to capture vessels of the United States, and while 
 prosecuting a lawful trade, many hundreds were 
 taken and confiscated. 
 
 Mr. Monroe, at this time, was suspected by the 
 president of not asserting and vindicating the rights 
 of the nation with proper energy. These suspicions 
 were attributed by the republican party to the false 
 insinuations of his political opponents. The pre- 
 sident however recalled him, and appointed Charles 
 C. Pinkney, of South Carolina,' in his stead. 
 
 As the period for a new election of the president 
 of the United States approached, General Wash- 
 ington determined to retire into private life. And 
 he published the following farewell address on this 
 interesting occasion. 
 
 " FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS, 
 
 " The period for a new election of a citizen to 
 administer the executive government of the United 
 States, being not far distant, and the time actually 
 arrived, when your thoughts must be employed in 
 designating the person who is to be clothed with 
 that important trust, it appears to me proper, especi- 
 ally as it may conduce to a more distinct expression 
 of the public voice, that I should now apprise you 
 of the resolution I have formed, to decline being 
 considered among the number of those out of whom 
 a choice is to be made. 
 
 " I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice 
 to be assured, that this resolution has not been taken 
 without a strict regard to all the considerations ap- 
 pertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citi- 
 zen to his country ; and that, in withdrawing the 
 tender of service, which silence, in my situation 
 might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of 
 zeal for your future : nterest; no deficiency of grate- 
 ful respect for your past kindness ; but am sup- 
 ported by a full conviction that the step is compatible 
 with both. 
 
 " The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto 
 in the office to which your suffrages have twice called 
 me, have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to 
 the opinion of duty, and to a deference for what ap- 
 peared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that 
 it would have been much earlier in my power, con- 
 sistently with motives which 1 was not at liberty to 
 disregard, to return to that retirement from which 
 I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my 
 inclination to do this, previous to the last election, 
 had even led to the preparation of an address to de- 
 clare it to you; but mature reflection on the then 
 perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with 
 foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of per- 
 sons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to 
 abandon the idea. 
 
 4 T 
 
1090 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 " I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external 
 as well as internal, nc longer renders the pursuit of 
 inclination incompatible with the sentiment of duty 
 or propriety; and am persuaded, whatever partiality 
 may be retained for my services, that in the present 
 circumstances of our country, you will not disap- 
 prove my determination to retire. 
 
 " The impressions with which I first undertook 
 the arduous trust, were explained on the proper 
 occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I will only 
 say, that I have with good intentions contributed 
 towards the organization and administration of the 
 government, the best exertions of which a very fal- 
 lible judgment was capable. Not unconscious in 
 the outset, of the inferiority of my qualifications, 
 experience in my own eyes, perhaps still more in 
 the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to 
 diffidence of myself; and every day the increasing 
 weight of years admonishes me more and more, that 
 the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it 
 will be welcome. Satisfied that if any circumstances 
 have given peculiar value to my services, they were 
 temporary, I have the consolation to believe, that 
 while choice and prudence invite me to quit the po- 
 litical scene, patriotism does not forbid it. 
 
 " In looking forward to the moment which is in- 
 tended to terminate the career of my public life, my 
 feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep ac- 
 knowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe 
 to my beloved country, for the many honours it has 
 conferred upon me ; still more for the steadfast con- 
 fidence with which it has supported me ; and for the 
 opportunities I have thence enjoyed, of manifesting 
 my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and 
 persevering, though in usefulness unequal to my 
 zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from 
 these services, let it always be remembered to your 
 praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, 
 that, under circumstances in which the passions, 
 agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead, 
 amidst appearances sometimes dubious, vicissitudes 
 of fortune, often discouraging in situations in which 
 not unfrequently want of success has countenanced 
 the spirit of criticism, the constancy of your support 
 was the essential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee 
 of the plans by which they were effected. Pro- 
 foundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it 
 with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to un- 
 ceasing vows, that Heaven may continue to you the 
 choicest tokens of its beneficence ; that your union 
 and brotherly affection may be perpetual ; that the 
 free constitution, which is the work of your hands, 
 may be sacredly maintained ; that its administra- 
 tion, in every department, may be stamped with 
 wisdom and virtue ; that, in fine, the happiness of 
 the people of these states, under the auspices of 
 liberty, may be made complete, by so careful a 
 preservation, and so prudent a use of this blessing, 
 as will acquire to them the glory of recommending 
 it to the applause, the affection, and the adoption 
 of every nation which is yet a stranger to it. 
 
 " Here, perhaps, I ought to stop : but a solicitude 
 for your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, 
 and the apprehension of danger natural to that soli- 
 citude, urge mo, on an occasion like the present, 
 to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to re- 
 commend to your frequent review, some sentiments 
 which are the result of much reflection, of no in 
 considerable observation, and which appear to me 
 all important to the permanency of your felicity as 
 a people. These will be afforded to you with the 
 more freedom, as you can only see in them the dis- 
 
 nterested warnings of a parting frit-nd, who can 
 possibly have no personal motive to bias his coun- 
 sel ; nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, 
 your indulgent reception of my sentiments on a for- 
 mer and not dissimilar occasion. 
 
 " Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every 
 ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine 
 is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment. 
 
 " The unity of government, which constitutes you 
 one people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so ; 
 for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real in- 
 dependence ; the support of your tranquillity at home, 
 your peace abroad ; of your safety ; of your pros- 
 perity ; of that very liberty which you so highly 
 prize. But as it is easy to foresee, that from dif- 
 ferent causes and from different quarters, much 
 pains will be taken, many artifices employed to 
 weaken, in your minds, the conviction of this truth ; 
 as this is the point in your political fortress against 
 which the batteries of internal and external enemies 
 will be most constantly and actively (though often, 
 covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite 
 moment that you should properly estimate the im- 
 mense value of your national union, to your collec- 
 tive and individual happiness ; that you should 
 cherish a cordial, habitual, and immoveable attach- 
 ment to it ; accustoming yourselves to think and 
 speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety 
 and prosperity ; watching for its preservation with 
 jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may 
 suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event 
 be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the 
 first dawning of every attempt to alienate any por- 
 tion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the 
 sacred ties which now link together the various parts. 
 
 * ; For this you have every inducement of sym- 
 pathy and interest. Citizens by birth or choice, of 
 a common country, that country has a right to con- 
 centrate your affections. The name of American, 
 which belongs to you in your national capacity, must 
 always exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than 
 any appellation derived from local discriminations. 
 With slight shades of difference, you have the same 
 religion, manners, habits, and political principles. 
 You have, in a common cause, fought and triumphed 
 together : the independence and liberty you possess, 
 are the work of joint councils and joint efforts, of 
 common dangers, sufferings and successes. 
 
 " But these considerations, however powerfully 
 they address themselves to your sensibility, are 
 greatly outweighed by those which apply more im- 
 mediately to your interest : here every portion of 
 our country finds the most commanding motives for 
 carefully guarding and preserving the union of the 
 whole. 
 
 " The north, in an unrestrained intercourse with 
 the south, protected by the equal laws of a common 
 government, finds in the productions of the latter, 
 great additional resources of maritime and commer- 
 cial enterprise, and precious materials of manufac- 
 turing industry. The south in the same intercourse, 
 benefitting by the agency of the north, sees its agr/ 
 culture grow, and its commerce expand. Turning 
 partly into its own channels the seamen of che north, 
 it finds its particular navigation invigorated : and 
 while it contributes, in different ways, to nourish 
 and increase the general mass of the national navi 
 gation, it looks forward to the protection of a man" 
 time strength, to which itself is unequally adopted 
 The east, in like intercourse with the west, already 
 finds, and in the progressive improvement of inte- 
 rior communication, by land and water, w.ttl more 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1091 
 
 and more find a valuable vent for the commodities 
 which it brings from abroad, or manufactures at 
 home. The west derives from the east supplies re- 
 quisite to its growth and comfort ; and what is per- 
 haps of still greater consequence, it must, of neces- 
 sity, owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable 
 outlets for its own productions, to the weight, in- 
 fluence, and the future maritime strength of the 
 Atlantic side of the union, directed by an indis- 
 soluble community of interest as one nation. Any 
 other tenure by which the west can hold this essen- 
 tial advantage, whether derived from its own sepa- 
 rate strength, or from an apostate and unnatural 
 connexion with any foreign power, must be intrin- 
 sically precarious. 
 
 " While, then, every part of our country thus 
 feels an immediate and particular interest in union, 
 all the parties combined cannot fail to find, in the 
 united mass of means and efforts, greater strength, 
 greater resource, proportionably greater security 
 from external danger, a less frequent interruption 
 of their peace by foreign nations ; and what is of 
 inestimable value, they must derive from union an 
 exemption from those broils and wars between them- 
 selves, which so frequently afflict neighbouring 
 countries, not tied together by the same govern- 
 ment ; which their own rivalships alone would be 
 sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign al- 
 liances, attachments and intrigues, would stimulate 
 and imbitter. Hence, likewise, they will avoid 
 the necessity of those overgrown military establish- 
 ments, which, under any form of government, are 
 inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be re- 
 garded as particularly hostile to republican liberty ; 
 in this sense it is, that your union ought to be con- 
 sidered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the 
 love of the one ought to endear to you the preserva- 
 tion of the other. 
 
 " These considerations speak a persuasive lan- 
 guage to every reflecting and virtuous mind, and 
 exhibit the continuance of the union as a primary 
 object of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt, whether 
 a common government can embrace so large a 
 sphere ? Let experience solve it. To listen to 
 mere speculation in such a case were criminal. We 
 are authorized to hope, that a proper organization 
 of the whole, with the auxiliary agency of govern- 
 ments for the respective subdivisions, will afford a 
 happy issue to the experiment. It is well worth a 
 fair and full experiment. With such powerful and 
 obvious motives to union, affecting all parts of our 
 country, while experience shall not have demon- 
 strated its impracticability, there will always be 
 reason to distrust the patriotism of those, who in any 
 quarter may endeavour to weaken its bands. 
 
 " In contemplating the causes which may disturb 
 our union, it occurs as a matter of serious concern, 
 that any ground should have been furnished for 
 characterizing parties by geographical discrimina- 
 tions; northern and southern; atlantic and west- 
 ern : whence designing men may endeavour to ex- 
 cite a belief that there is a real difference of local 
 interests and views. One of the expedients of party 
 to acquire influence within particular districts is, to 
 misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. 
 You cannot shield yourselves too much against the 
 jealousies and heart-burnings which spring from 
 these misrepresentations : they tend to render alien 
 to each other those who ought to be bound together 
 by fraternal affection. The inhabitants of our west- 
 ern country have lately had a useful lesson on this 
 head ; they have seen in the negotiation by the , 
 
 executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the 
 senate, of the treaty with Spain, and in the univer- 
 sal satisfaction at that event throughout the United 
 States, a decisive proof how unfounded were the 
 suspicions propagated among them, of a policy in 
 the general government, and in the Atlantic states, 
 unfriendly to their interests, in regard to the Mis- 
 sissippi : they have been witnesses to the formation 
 of two treaties; that with Great Britain, and that 
 with Spain, which secure to them every thing they 
 could desire, in respect to our foreign relations to- 
 wards confirming their prosperity. Will it not be 
 their wisdom to rely for the preservation of these 
 advantages on the union by which they were pro- 
 cured? Will they not henceforth be deaf to those 
 advisers, if such there are, who would sever them 
 from their brethren, and connect them with aliens ? 
 
 " To the efficacy and permanency of your union, 
 a government for the whole is indispensable. No al- 
 liance, however strict between the parts, can be an 
 adequate substitute ; they must inevitably experience 
 the infractions and interruptions which all alliances 
 in all times have experienced. Sensible of this 
 momentous truth, you have improved upon your 
 first essay, by the adoption of a constitution of go- 
 vernment better calculated than your former, for an 
 intimate union, and for the efficacious management 
 of your common concerns. This government, the 
 offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, 
 adopted upon full investigation and mature delibe- 
 ration, completely free in its principles, in the dis- 
 tribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, 
 and containing within itself a provision for its own 
 amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and 
 your support. Respect for its authority, compliance 
 with its laws,' acquiescence in its measures, are du- 
 ties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true 
 liberty. The basis of our political systems is the 
 right of the people to make and to alter their con- 
 stitutions of government : but, the constitution which 
 at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and 
 authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obliga- 
 tory upon all. The very idea of the power and the 
 right of the people to establish government, presup- 
 poses the duty of every individual to obey the esta- 
 blished government. 
 
 " All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all 
 combinations and associations, under whatever plau- 
 sible character, with the real design to direct, control, 
 counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and ac- 
 tion of the constituted authorities, are destructive of 
 this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. 
 They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial 
 and extraordinary force, to put in the place of the 
 delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often 
 a small but artful and enterprising minority of the 
 community : and, according to the alternate triumphs 
 of different parties, to make the public administra- 
 tion the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous 
 projects of faction, rather than the organ of con- 
 sistent and wholesome plans, digested by common 
 councils, and modified by mutual interests. 
 
 " However combinations or associations of the above 
 description may now and then answer popular ends, 
 they are likely, in the course of time and things, te 
 become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, 
 and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the 
 power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the 
 reins of government; destroying, afterwards, the 
 very engines which had lifted them to unjust do- 
 minion. 
 
 " Towards the preservation of your government, 
 
 4 T '2 
 
1092 
 
 TIIF. II I. STORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 and the permanency of your present happy state, 
 it is requisite, not only that you speedily discounte- 
 nance irregular oppositions to -its acknowledged au- 
 thority, but also that you resibt with care the spirit 
 of innovation upon its principles, however specious 
 the pretexts. One method of assault may be to 
 effect, in the forms of the constitution, alterations 
 which will impair the energy of the system, and 
 thus to undermine what cannot be directly over- 
 thrown. In all the changes to which you may be 
 invited, remember that time and habit are at least as 
 necessary to fix the true character of governments, 
 as of other human institutions ; that experience is 
 the surest standard, by which to test the real ten- 
 dency of the existing constitution of a country; 
 that facility in changes, upon the credit of mere 
 hypothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, 
 from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion ; 
 and remember, especially, that for the efficient ma- 
 nagement of your common interests, in a country 
 so extensive as ours, a government of as much vi- 
 gour as is consistent with the perfect security of li- 
 berty, is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in 
 such a government, with powers properly distributed 
 and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, 
 little else than a name, where the government is too 
 feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to con- 
 fine each member of the society within the limits 
 prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the 
 secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person 
 and property. 
 
 " I have already intimated to you the danger of 
 parties in the state, with particular reference to 
 the founding of them on geographical discrimi- 
 nations. Let me now take a more comprehensive 
 view, and warn you, in the most solemn manner, 
 against the baneful effects of the spirit of party ge- 
 nerally. 
 
 " This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from 
 our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of 
 the human miad. It exists under different shapes 
 in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, 
 or repressed ; but in those of the pupular form it is 
 seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst 
 enemy. 
 
 " The alternate domination of one faction over 
 another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural 
 to party dissension, "which, in different ages and 
 countries, has perpetrated the most horrid enormi- 
 ties, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads, 
 at length, to a more formal and permanent despo- 
 tism. The disorders aud miseries which result, 
 gradually incline the minds of men to seek security 
 and repose in the absolute power of an individual, 
 and, sooner or later, the chief of some prevailing 
 faction, more able or more fortunate than his com- 
 petitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his 
 own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty. 
 
 " Without looking forward to an extremity of this 
 kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely 
 out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of 
 the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the in 
 terest and duty of a wise people to discourage and 
 restrain it. 
 
 " It serves always to distract the public councils 
 and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates 
 the community with ill-founded jealousies and false 
 alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against 
 another; foments occasionally, riot and insurrection. 
 It opens the door to foreign influence and corrup- 
 tion, which find a facilitated access to the govern- 
 ment itself, through the channels of party passions. 
 
 Thus the policy and the will of one country are buh- 
 jected to the policy and will of another. 
 
 There is an opinion, that parties, in free countries, 
 are useful checks upon the administration of the 
 government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of 
 liberty. This, within certain limits, is probably true; 
 and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriot- 
 ism may look with indulgence, if not with favour 
 upon the spirit of party. But in those of the po- 
 pular character, in governments purely elective, it 
 is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natu- 
 ral tendency, it is certain there will always be 
 enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. 
 And there being constant danger of excess, the ef- 
 fort ought to be, by force of public opinion, to miti- 
 gate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it 
 demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting 
 into a flame, lest instead of warming it should con- 
 sume. 
 
 " It is important likewise that the habits of think- 
 ing, in a free country, should inspire caution in those 
 intrusted with its administration, to confine them- 
 selves within their respective constitutional spheres, 
 avoiding, in the exercise of the powers of one de- 
 partment, to encroach upon another. The spirit of 
 encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all 
 the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever 
 the form of government, a real despotism. A just 
 estimate of that love of power, and proneness to 
 abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is 
 sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. 
 The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise 
 of political power by dividing and distributing it 
 into different depositories, and constituting each the 
 guardian of the public weal, against invasions by 
 the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient 
 and modern: some of them in our own country, and 
 under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as 
 necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion 
 of the people, the distribution or modification of the 
 constitutional powers, be in any particular wrong, 
 let it be corrected by an amendment in the way 
 which the constitution designates. But let there be 
 no change by usurpation ; for though this, in one 
 instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the 
 customary weapon by which free governments are 
 destroyed. The precedent must always greatly over- 
 balance, in permanent evil, any partial or transient 
 benefit which the use can at any time yield. 
 
 " Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to 
 political prosperity, religion and morality are indis- 
 pensable supports. In vain would that man claim 
 the tribute of patriotism, who should labour to sub- 
 vert these great pillars of human happiness, these 
 firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. 
 The politician, equally with the pious man, ought 
 to respect and to cherish them. A volume could 
 not trace all their connexions with private and 
 public felicity. Let it simply be asked, where is 
 the security for property, for reputation, for life, if 
 the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, 
 which are the instruments of investigation in courts 
 of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the 
 supposition, that morality can be maintained without 
 religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influ- 
 ence of refined education on minds of peculiar struc- 
 ture, reason and experience both forbid us to expect 
 that national moi'ality can prevail in exclusion of 
 religious principle. 
 
 " It is substantially true, that virtue or morality 
 is a necessary spring of popular government. The 
 rule indeed extends with more or less force to every 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1093 
 
 species of free government. Who, that is a sincere 
 friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts 
 to shake the foundation of the fabric. 
 
 " Promote then, as an object of primary import- 
 ance, institutions for the general diffusion of know- 
 ledge. In proportion as the structure of a govern- 
 ment gives force to public opinion, it is essential 
 that public opinion should be enlightened. 
 
 " As a very important source of strength and se- 
 curity, cherish public credit. One method of pre- 
 serving it is to use it as sparingly as possible : 
 avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, 
 but remembering also that timely disbursements to 
 prepare for danger, frequently prevent much greater 
 disoursements to repel it; avoiding, likewise, the 
 accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occa- 
 sions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time 
 of peace, to discharge the debts which unavoidable 
 wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throw- 
 ing upon posterity the burthen which we ourselves 
 ought to bear. The execution of these maxims be- 
 longs to your representatives, but it is necessary that 
 public opinion should co-operate. To facilitate to 
 them the performance of their duty, it is essential 
 that you should practically bear in mind, that, to- 
 wards the payment of debts there must be revenue ; 
 that to have revenue there must be taxes ; that no 
 taxes can be devised which are not more or less in- 
 convenient and unpleasant; that the intrinsic em- 
 barrassment, inseparable from the selection of the 
 proper objects (which is always a choice of difficul- 
 ties,) ought to be a decisive motive for a candid 
 construction of the conduct of the government in 
 making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in the 
 measures for obtaining revenue which the public ex- 
 igencies may at any time dictate. 
 
 " Observe good fa'ith and justice towards all nations, 
 cultivate peace and harmony with all; religion and 
 morality enjoin this conduct ; and can it be that 
 good policy does not equally enjoin it ? It will be 
 worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant 
 period, a great nation, to give to mankind the mag- 
 nanimous and too novel example of a people always 
 guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who 
 can doubt that, in the course of time and things, 
 the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any tem- 
 porary advantages which might be lost by a steady 
 adherence to it ? Can it be, that Providence has 
 not connected thi permanent felicity of a nation 
 with its virtue ? The experiment, at least, is re- 
 commended by every sentiment which ennobles 
 human nature. Alas ! is it rendered impossible by 
 its vices ? 
 
 " In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more 
 essential than that permanent inveterate antipathies 
 against particular nations, and passionate attach- 
 ments for others should be excluded ; and that, in 
 place of them, just and amicable feelings towards 
 all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges 
 towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual 
 fondness, is, in some degree, a slave. It is a slave 
 to its animosity or to its affection, either of which 
 is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its in- 
 terest. Antipathy in one nation against another, 
 disposes each more readily to offer insult and in- 
 jury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to 
 be haughty and intractable, when accidental or 
 trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence frequent 
 collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody con- 
 tests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and resent- 
 ment, sometimes impels to war the goternment, con- 
 trary to the best calculations of policy. The govern- 
 
 ment sometimes participates in the national propen- 
 sity, and adopts, through passion, what reason 
 would reject; at other times, it makes the animosity 
 of the nation subservient to projects of hostility in- 
 stigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and 
 pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes 
 perhaps the liberty, of nations has been the victim. 
 
 " So, likewise, a passionate attachment of one na- 
 tion to another produces a variety of evils. Sym- 
 pathy for the favourite nation, facilitating the illusion 
 of an imaginary common interest, in cases where 
 no real common interest exists, and infusing into 
 one the enmities of the other, betrays the former 
 into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the 
 latter, without adequate inducement or justification. 
 It leads also to concessions to the favourite nation 
 of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly 
 to injure the nation making the concessions ; by 
 unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been 
 retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a 
 disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom 
 equal privileges are withheld : and it gives to ambi- 
 tious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote 
 themselves to the favourite nation) facility to betray, 
 or sacrifice the interests of their own country, with- 
 out odium, sometimes even with popularity ; gilding 
 with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obliga- 
 tion, a commendable deference for public opinion, 
 or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish 
 compliances of ambition, corruption or infatuation, 
 
 " As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable 
 ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to 
 the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How 
 many opportunities do they afford to tamper with 
 domestic factions, to practise the art of seduction, 
 to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the 
 public councils ! Such an attachment of a small or 
 weak, towards a great and powerful nation, dooms 
 the former to be the satellite of the latter. 
 
 " Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence 
 (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens), the 
 jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly 
 awake ; since history and experience prove that 
 foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of 
 republican government. But that jealousy, to be 
 useful, must be impartial ; else it becomes the in- 
 strument of the very influence to be avoided, instead 
 of a defence against it. Excessive partiality for 
 one foreign nation, and excessive dislike of another, 
 cause those whom they actuate to see danger only 
 on one side, and serve to veil and even second the 
 arts of influence on the other. Real patriots, who 
 may resist the intrigues of the favourite, are liable 
 to become suspected and odious ; while its tools and 
 dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the peo- 
 ple, to surrender their interests. 
 
 " The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to 
 foreign nations is, in extending our commercial re- 
 lations, to have with them as little political connexion 
 as possible. So far as we have already formed en- 
 gagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good 
 faith. Here let us stop. 
 
 " Europe has a set of primary interests, which to 
 us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence 
 she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the 
 causes of which are essentially foreign to our con- 
 cerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us 
 to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the or- 
 dinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary 
 combinations and collisions of her friendships or 
 enmities. 
 
 " Our detached and distant situation invites and 
 
1094 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 enables us to pursue a different course. If we re- 
 main one people, under an efficient government, 
 the period is not far off when we may defy material 
 injury from external annoyance ; when we may 
 take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we 
 may at any time resolve upon, to be scrupulously 
 respected ; when belligerent nations, under the im- 
 possibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not 
 lightly hazard the giving us provocation ; when we 
 may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by 
 justice, shall counsel. 
 
 " Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a 
 situation ? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign 
 ground ? Why, by interweaving our destiny with 
 that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and 
 prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rival- 
 ship, interest, humour, or caprice ? 
 
 " 'Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent 
 alliances with any portion of the foreign world ; so 
 far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it ; for 
 let me not be understood as capable of patronizing 
 infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the 
 maxim no less applicable to public than to private 
 affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I 
 repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be ob- 
 served in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it 
 is unnecessary, and would be unwise to extend them. 
 
 " Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suit- 
 able establishments on a respectable defensive pos- 
 ture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for 
 extraordinary emergencies. 
 
 " Harmony, and a liberal intercourse with all 
 nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and 
 interest. But even our commercial policy should 
 hold an equal and impartial hand ; neither seeking 
 nor granting exclusive favours or preferences ; con- 
 sulting the natural course of things; diffusing and 
 diversifying, by gentle means, the streams of com- 
 merce, but forcing nothing; establishing, with powers 
 so disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, 
 to define the rights of our merchants, and to enable 
 the government to support them, conventional rules 
 of intercourse, the best that present circumstances 
 and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and 
 liable to be, from time to time, abandoned or varied, 
 as experience and circumstances shall dictate ; con- 
 stantly keeping in view, that 'tis folly in one nation 
 to look for disinterested favours from another; that 
 it must pay with a portion of its independence for 
 whatever it may accept under that character; that 
 by such acceptance it may place itself in the con- 
 dition of having given equivalents for nominal 
 favours, and yet of being reproached with ingrati- 
 tude for not giving more. There can be no greater 
 error than to expect, or calculate upon real favours 
 from nation to nation. It is all illusion, which ex- 
 perience must cure, which a just pride ought to 
 discard. 
 
 " In offering to you, my countrymen, these coun- 
 sels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not 
 hope they will make the strong and lasting impres- 
 sion I could wish ; that they will control the usual 
 current of the passions, or prevent our nation from 
 running the course which has hitherto marked the 
 destiny of nations ; but if I may even flatter myself, 
 that they may be productive of some partial benefit, 
 some occasional good ; that they may now and then 
 recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn 
 against the mischiefs of foreign intrigues, to guard 
 against the impostures of pretended patriotism ; this 
 hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for 
 your welfare by which they have been dictated. 
 
 " How far, in the discharge of my official duties, 
 I have been guided by the principles which have 
 been delineated, the public records, and other evi- 
 dences of my conduct, must witness to you and to the 
 world. To myself, the assurance of my own con- 
 science is, that I have at least believed myself to be 
 guided by them. 
 
 " In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, 
 my proclamation of the 22nd of April, 1793, is the 
 index to my plan. Sanctioned by your approving 
 voice, and by that of your representatives in both 
 houses of congress, the spirit of that measure has 
 continually governed me, uninfluenced by any at- 
 tempts to deter or divert me from it. 
 
 " After deliberate examination, with the aid of 
 the best lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied 
 that our country, under all the circumstances of the 
 case, had a right to take, and was bound in duty 
 and interest to take a neutral position. Having 
 taken it, I determined, as far as should depend upon 
 me, to maintain it with moderation, perseverance, 
 and firmness. 
 
 " The considerations which respect the right to 
 hold this conduct, it is not necessary on this occa- 
 sion to detail. I will only observe, that, according 
 to my understanding of the matter, that right, so 
 far from being denied by any of the belligerent 
 powers, has been virtually admitted by all. 
 
 " The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be 
 inferred, without any thing more, from the obliga- 
 tion which justice and humanity impose on every 
 nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to main- 
 tain inviolate the relations of peace and amity to- 
 wards other nations. 
 
 " The inducements of interest, for observing that 
 conduct, will best be referred to your own reflexions 
 and experience. With me, a predominant motive has 
 been to endeavour to gain time to our country to settle 
 and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress, 
 without interruption, to that degree of strength and 
 consistency, which is necessary to give it, humanly 
 speaking, the command of its own fortunes. 
 
 " Though in reviewing the incidents of my admi- 
 nistration, I am unconscious of intentional error; 
 I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects, not lo 
 think it probable that I may have committed many 
 errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech 
 the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which 
 they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope 
 that my country will never cease to view them with 
 indulgence ; and that, after 45 years of my life de- 
 dicated to its service, with an upright zeal, the faults 
 of incompetent abilities will be consigned to obli- 
 vion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest. 
 
 " Relying on its kindness in this as in other 
 things, a'nd actuated by that fervent love towards it 
 which is so natural to a man, who views in it the 
 native soil of himself and his progenitors for several 
 generations ; I anticipate with pleasing expectation 
 that retreat, in which I promise myself to realize, 
 without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in 
 the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence 
 of good laws under a free government the ever 
 favourite object of my heart, and the happy reward, 
 as I trust, of our mutual cares, labours, and dangers. 
 " GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 " United States, }7th September, 1796." 
 
 Mr. Adams elected president X Y Sf Z mission 
 Capture of the L' Insurgents Death of Washington. 
 To fill the station which Washington had so emi- 
 nently dignified, the two great political parties pre- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1095 
 
 sented their leaders. The federalists claiming to b 
 the sole adherents of the policy of Washington, an 
 charging the opposite party with being under Frenc 
 influence, and having imbibed French principles 
 zealously endeavoured to elect John Adams. Th 
 republicans setting themselves up as the exclusiv 
 friends of liberty, and accusing their opponents wit 
 undue attachment to Britain and her institutions 
 exerted their influence for Jefferson. 
 
 In February, 1797, the votes for president an 
 vice-president were opened. Mr. Adams had th 
 majority of suffrages for president, and Mr. Jeffer 
 son for vice-president, for the four succeeding years 
 Immediately on succeeding to the presidency, Mr 
 Adams received intelligence of an open indignity or 
 the part of the French directors towards the Unitec 
 States. They had refused to accept Mr. Pinkney in 
 exchange for Mr. Monroe, and declared their de 
 termination not to receive another minister, unti 
 the United States had complied with their demands 
 Mr. Pinkney further communicated to the president 
 that he had received a written mandate, directing 
 him to quit France. Congress was immediate!) 
 convened, and the dispatches containing this intel 
 ligence submitted to their consideration. They 
 passed laws, increasing the navy, augmenting the 
 revenue, and authorizing the president to detach, a 
 his discretion, 80,000 men from the militia. T< 
 prevent war, however, and manifest his sincere de 
 sire of peace, Mr. Adams appointed three envoy: 
 extraordinary to the French republic, General Pink 
 ney, Mr. Marshall, and Mr. Gerry. These also th< 
 directory refused to receive ; but an indirect inter, 
 course was held with them by the minister through 
 the medium of unofficial persons, who were instructec 
 by Talleyrand, the minister of foreign relations, to 
 make them proposals. These persons demanded 
 before any negotiation could be opened with the 
 directory, that a considerable amount of money 
 should be given to Talleyrand. This insulting pro- 
 posal was indignantly rejected. It was, however, 
 repeated, and letters were received upon the sub- 
 ject, signed X Y & Z. Hence this has been called 
 the X Y & Z mission. The envoys at length suc- 
 ceeded in putting an end to such a degrading inter- 
 course. After spending several months at Paris. 
 Mr. Marshall and Mr. Pinkney were ordered to 
 leave France, while Mr. Gerry was permitted to re 
 main, and repeatedly importuned singly to enter 
 into a negotiation. 
 
 This he declined, and was soon after recalled by 
 his government. This treatment of the envoys in- 
 duced Mr. Adams to declare, that " he would make 
 no further overtures, until assured that his envoys 
 would be received in a manner suited to the dignity 
 of a great and independent nation." 
 
 These events were followed by depredations on 
 American commerce, by the citizens of France ; which 
 excited general indignation throughout the United 
 States. Civil discord appeared extinct; and this 
 was the general motto: " Millions for defence, not 
 a cent, for tribute." The treaty of alliance with 
 France was considered by congress as no longer in 
 force ; and further measures were adopted by con- 
 gress, for retaliation and defence. A regular provi- 
 sional army was established, taxes were raised, and 
 additional internal duties laid. General Washington, 
 at the call of congress, left his peaceful abode, to 
 command the armies of the United States, while 
 General Hamilton was made second in command. 
 The navy was increased, and reprisals were made 
 on the water. At sea, the French frigate L'lnsur- 
 
 geute, of 40 guns, was captured after a desperate 
 action, by the frigate Constitution, of 38 guns, com- 
 manded by Commodore Truxton. The same officer 
 compelled another frigate of 50 guns to strike her 
 colours; but she afterwards escaped in the night. 
 
 On hearing of these vigorous preparations, the 
 French government indirectly made overtures for a 
 renewal of the negotiations. Mr. Adams promptly 
 met these overtures, and appointed Oliver Ellsworth, 
 chief justice of the United States, Patrick Henry, 
 late governor of Virginia, and William Van Murray, 
 minister at the Hague, envoys to Paris, for con- 
 cluding an honourable peace. They found the di- 
 rectory overthrown, and the government in the 
 hands of Napoleon Buonaparte, who had not par- 
 taken of the transactions which had embroiled the 
 two countries. With him negotiations were opened, 
 which terminated in an amicable adjustment of all 
 disputes. The provisional army was soon after dis- 
 banded by order of congress. 
 
 America was now called to mourn for the death 
 of Washington. He calmly and peacefully expired 
 at Mount Vernon, after an illness of 24 hours. The 
 blackened newspaper announced to the people, " the 
 father of his country is no more !" The bells of the 
 nation tolled forth his requiem, and one general 
 burst of grief broke from the filial hearts of the 
 American people. Clad in bjack, they assembled in 
 their churches to hear his funeral praises from the 
 orator, and from the minister of God. The poet 
 wrote his elegy, and the choir sung the solemn and 
 pathetic dirge. The government mourned as was be- 
 coming, with more of the parade of grief, and with 
 an equal share of its sincerity. The senate addressed 
 a letter to the president, expressing in dignified, but 
 pathetic language, their deepsense of the magnitude 
 of their common loss, and of the resignation with 
 which it became them to bow before the bereaving 
 stroke of " Him who maketh darkness his pavilion." 
 The house of representatives resolved that the speak- 
 er's chair should be shrouded in black; that the 
 members should be clad in the vestments of sorrow, 
 and that a joint committee of both houses should be 
 appointed, to devise the most proper manner of paying 
 'lonour to the memory of " the man first in war, first 
 n peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." 
 The committee reported a plan of funeral honours, 
 y which Washington was mourned by the whole 
 government, with a solemn and august pageantry. 
 
 Washington died on the 14th of December, 1799, 
 n the 68th year of his age. His history is the his- 
 ory of his country, during the period of his public 
 ervices. Commanding her armies, and presiding 
 n her councils during the most interesting period of 
 ler existence, her history can never be delineated, 
 ut he must stand the most prominent figure on the 
 jreground. What may be said of many of the 
 r orthies of the revolution, may be eminently said of 
 im. In no instance has he rendered his country a 
 more important service, than in leaving to her fu- 
 ure sons his great and good example. 
 
 Other heroes have been praised for their love of 
 lory. The true, distinguishing praise of Washing- 
 on is, that he was above the love of glory. In no 
 nstance did he rashly adventure the cause con- 
 ded to his care, lest he should suffer in his personal 
 eputation. To assert that in no case did he corn- 
 it an inadvertent error, or manifest the most trifling 
 railty, would be giving him that, praise which be- 
 ngs not to man; but judging from the general 
 nour of his conduct, we shall be justified in pro- 
 ouncing, that his was the soul which was above all 
 
1096 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 other approbation and all other fear, but that of 
 God. 
 
 His mortal remains repose at Mount Vernon, 
 near the scene of his domestic enjoyments. To that 
 spot will every true son of America, in all future 
 ages, be attracted, in mournful, filial pilgrimage; 
 and thither from every clime, will the votary of the 
 rights of man repair, to renew his vow of devotion, 
 and to draw fresh inspiration in the sacred cause. 
 
 Seat of government transferred to Washington Elec- 
 tion of Jefferson and Burr Inauguration ofJeffer- 
 sonRight of deposit at New Orleans Louisiana 
 purchased 'Geographical and other notices. 
 
 During the year 1800, the seat of government, 
 agreeably to a law passed by congress in ] 790, was 
 transferred from Philadelphia to the city of Wash- 
 ington. A territory ten miles square, in which the 
 permanent seat of government was located, had 
 been ceded to the general government by the states 
 of Virginia and Maryland. It was situated on both 
 sides of the Potomac, a lew miles from Mount Ver- 
 non. Public buildings had been erected, and in 
 November of this year, congress for the tirst time 
 held their session in that place. 
 
 Indiana was this year constituted a state ; and 
 Mississippi was erected into a territorial government. 
 
 The time had now arrived for electing a president. 
 It was about this period that the feuds and animo- 
 sities of the federal and republican parties were at 
 their greatest height. When Mr. Adams was first 
 made the opposing candidate to Mr. Jefferson, he 
 was by no means obnoxious to the great body of the 
 republican party, who voted against him. They re- 
 cognised in him a patriot of the revolution, and they 
 liked him well, although they liked Mr. Jefferson 
 better. It was Mr. Hamilton, not Mr. Adams, who 
 was the chief object of party aversion ; and although 
 a clamour was raised to serve party purposes, ac- 
 cusing Mr. Adams of being too much in favour of 
 the British form of government ; yet the real cause 
 of dissatisfaction was, that he was supported by 
 those, who they were persuaded had monarchical 
 views. After the lapse of four years, when Mr. 
 Adams was again to be a candidate for the presi- 
 dency, he was opposed with far more bitterness. 
 
 In some of his measures he had been unfortunate, 
 and the vigilant spirit of party was awake to make 
 the most of the real or supposed errors of the nomi- 
 nal head of their opponents. In the early part of 
 his administration the acts by which the army and 
 navy were strengthened, and 80,000 of the militia 
 subjected to his order, were represented by the re- 
 publicans as proofs, that however he might have 
 been a friend to the constitution of his country, he 
 now either wished to subvert it, or was led blindfold 
 into the views of those who did. The republicans 
 scrupled the policy of a war with France, and de- 
 nied the necessity, even in case of such a war of a 
 great land force against an enemy totally unassail- 
 able except by water. They believed that spirits 
 were at work to produce this war, or to make the 
 most of the prospect of a disturbance in order to lull 
 the people, while they raised an army which they in- 
 tended as the instrument of subverting the repub- 
 lican, and establishing a monarchical government. 
 The president was stung by the clamours of the 
 opposition, who imputed to him intentions which he 
 never had. Attributing the evil to French emis- 
 saries; and moreover ascribing to too much liberty 
 the horrible excesses of the French revolution, he 
 gave his signature to two acts, which were con- 
 
 sidered by the body of the people as dangerous to, 
 f not subversive of, the constitutional liberty of 
 America. One of these, called the alien law, au- 
 horized the president to order any alien whom he 
 should judge dangerous to the peace and liberty of 
 .he country, to depart from the United States on 
 lain of imprisonment. The other, called the sedi- 
 ion law, had for its avowed object to punish the 
 abuse of speech and of the press ; and imposed a 
 icavy fine and imprisonment for years upon such as 
 hould "combine or conspire together to oppose any 
 measure of the government ;" upon such as should 
 ' write, print, utter, publish, &c. any false, scan- 
 dalous, and malicious writing against the govern- 
 ment of the United States or either house of the 
 congress of the United States, or the president, &c." 
 
 Under the sedition law several persons were ac- 
 tually imprisoned. The sympathies of the people 
 were awakened in their behalf, and their indigna- 
 tion was aroused against those, by whose means they 
 were confined. These were the principal causes 
 why Mr. Adams was at this period unpopular, and 
 hat the federal party, as appeared by the election, 
 aad become the minority. 
 
 Immediately preceding his retirement from office, 
 Mr. Adams appointed in pursuance of a law made 
 by congress twelve new judges: these were called 
 bis midnight judiciary, from the alleged fact that 
 they were appointed at twelve o'clock on the last 
 night of his presidential authority. 
 
 From the constitution as it existed at that period, 
 each elector voted for two men, without designating 
 which was to be president ; and he who was found 
 to hare the greatest number of votes was to be pre- 
 sident, and the second on the list vice-president. An 
 unlooked-for case now occurred. The republican 
 electors, who had a very considerable majority over 
 the federal, gave their votes to a man for Thomas 
 Jefferson, and Aaron Burr, intending that Jefferson, 
 the leader of the party, should be president, and 
 Buir vice-president. These two men had an equal 
 number of votes ; the election must, according to the 
 constitution, be decided by the house of representa- 
 tives. The federal party, defeated themselves, con- 
 sidered that they might still defeat their opponents ; 
 and probably believing that they might find a grate- 
 ful friend in Colonel Burr, while they knew ihat 
 they had nothing to expect from Mr. Jefferson, they 
 determined if possible to raise him to the presiden- 
 tial chair. On counting the votes in the house of 
 representatives another singular event occurred, 
 Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Burr had an equal number 
 of votes. Again and again the voting went round, 
 and the votes remained the same. 
 
 The time had now nearly arrived when by the 
 constitution the president must be elected. Other- 
 wise the machine of government was run down, and 
 the constitution contained no machinery by which 
 to wind it up. News of what was passing in con- 
 gress spread through the country, and the people 
 became alarmed. Men armed and disguised entered 
 the capital. Members way-laid in the dark, were 
 accosted with a grasp of the arm and an imperative, 
 " Give us a President." This fact has been as- 
 serted by those who well knew the transactions of 
 those times ; although, as it did not happen to many, 
 it is not generally corroborated. At length after the 
 members had voted 35 times, it was found on the 36th 
 balloting that Mr. Jefferson had amajority of one state. 
 
 This transaction must go down to posterity as a 
 dark passage in the American history. Whether or 
 not the republicans would have continued to vote 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1097 
 
 until the constitution was destroyed rather than yield 
 to their opponents a short-lived triumph, and take 
 for four years as president the man themselves had 
 selected as vice-president, can never be known ; 
 but if such had been the fact, posterity would have 
 had cause to execrate their memories. Had such a 
 catastrophe ensued, still less would America have 
 had occasion of gratitude to the other party. The 
 republicans might allege that they voted in obedi- 
 ence to the will of the people ; but no one pretended 
 that any freemen in voting for an elector, or any 
 elector in voting for Mr. Burr, expected or wished 
 that he should be president. 
 
 On the 4th of March, 1801, Mr. Jefferson was 
 inaugurated. On his accession to office he departed 
 from the example of his predecessors, and instead 
 of a speech, delivered to the two houses of congress 
 in person, he sent to them a written message, which 
 was first read by the senate, and then transmitted to 
 the house of representatives, The practice has been 
 followed and sanctioned by his successors. 
 
 The message of Mr. Jefferson was worthy of the 
 writer of the declaration of independence. Tt is 
 preserved among the most precious relics of the 
 Americans ; and like the farewell address of Wash- 
 ington, must serve, according as the future course 
 of America may be, for a light to guide her in the 
 way to happiness and glory, or to discover the 
 shame of her degradation. 
 
 The principal offices of the government were now 
 transferred to the republican party. Mr. Madison 
 was appointed to the department of state. 
 
 A bill was passed by congress, in accordance with 
 the recommendation of the president, reorganizing 
 the judiciary department, by means of which the 
 twelve judges appointed during the last days of Mr. 
 Adams's administration, were deprived of their offices. 
 Another bill was passed enlarging the rights of na- 
 turalization. 
 
 The present constitution of Kentucky was adopted 
 this year. 
 
 A second census of the United States was also 
 completed; giving a population of 5,319,762, an in- 
 crease of 1,400,000 in ten years. In the same time 
 the exports increased from nineteen to 94,000,000, 
 and the revenue from 4,771,000 to 12,945,000 dol- 
 lars. This rapid advance in the career of prospe- 
 rity, is unparalleled in the history of nations ; and 
 it is to be attributed to the industrious habits of the 
 people, and their excellent political institutions. 
 
 During this year congress declared war against 
 Tripoli. 
 
 In 1802, Ohio was admitted as an independent 
 state into the union. The territory of this state was 
 originally claimed by Virginia and Connecticut, and 
 was ceded by them to the United States, at different 
 times after the year 1781. From this extensive 
 and fertile tract of country slavery was entirely 
 excluded. 
 
 In 1802, the port of New Orleans was closed 
 against the United States. The king of Spain hav- 
 ing ceded Louisiana to the French, the Spanish 
 intendant was commanded to make arrangements to 
 deliver the country to the French commissioners 
 In consequence of this order, the intendant an- 
 nounced that the citizens of the United States should 
 no longer be permitted to deposit their merchan- 
 dises and effects in the port of New Orleans. By 
 this prohibition, the western states were in dangei 
 of suffering the ruin of their commerce, and greai 
 agitation was excited in the public mind. In con 
 gress, a proposition was made to take the whole 
 
 country by force ; but reposing just confidence in 
 the good faith of the government whose officers had 
 committed the wrong, that body caused friendly and 
 reasonable representations of the grievances sus- 
 tained, to be made to the court of Spain, and the 
 right of deposit was restored. 
 
 Aware of the danger to which the United States 
 would be perpetually exposed, while Louisiana re- 
 mained in the possession of a foreign power, pro- 
 positions had been made for procuring it by pur- 
 chase. This was a subject of much discussion and 
 
 eeling. But by a treaty concluded at Paris in 1803, 
 Louisiana, comprising all that immense region of 
 country extending from the Mississippi to the Pa- 
 cific ocean, was acquired by the United States, as 
 well as the free and exclusive navigation of the 
 river. The sum of 15,000,000 dollars was the price 
 of these newly acquired rights. The minority were 
 
 pposed to a ratification of the treaty, contending 
 that the sum was exorbitantly large, and that the 
 navigation of the river could have been secured with- 
 out such heavy pecuniary sacrifices. Mr. Jefferson 
 and the majority of congress viewed the subject in 
 a very different light. They considered that com- 
 pared with the importance of the object attained, 
 the purchase money was trifling. That the pi'ospe- 
 rity of all the western states was dependent on the 
 free and uninterrupted navigation of the waters of 
 the Mississippi, and a safe depot at New Orleans ; 
 that by this treaty the western frontier would be 
 protected and preserved from collisions with a foreign 
 power, and that such was the happy organization of 
 the American government, that, it was fully adequate 
 for the security and protection of its territories, 
 however extensive they might be. 
 
 Geographical Notices of the Country in 1803. 
 
 Population. Population. 
 
 Maine 150,896 New York . . 586,050 
 
 New Jersey.. 211,149 
 
 Pennsylvania 602,545 
 
 Delaware.... 64,273 
 
 Ohio 76,000 
 
 New Hampshire 183,858 
 
 Vermont 154,397 
 
 Massachusetts.. 422,630 
 Rhode Island.. 69,122 
 Connecticut.. 251,002 
 
 Indiana territory had now become settled, and the 
 number of its inhabitants was .... 4,875 
 
 Michigan 3,206 
 
 Maryland 349,692 
 
 Virginia. . . . 534,396 whites, and 345,796 blacks 
 
 Kentucky.... 220,959 138,296 
 
 Tennessee... 92,018 13,584 
 
 South Carolina 345,591 59,699 
 
 Mississippi ter- 
 ritory 8,850 
 
 Louisiana.... 42,375 
 
 Washington, in the district of Columbia, now 
 made the capital of the United States, contained but 
 4354 inhabitants. For the principal towns, see 
 geographies of the present day. 
 
 The following colleges were existing at this time : 
 Harvard, Yale, William and Mary's, Columbia, 
 Nassau Hall, Rhode Island-college, the University 
 of Pennsylvania, Washington-college in Chester- 
 town, Maryland, Dickinson-college in Carlisle, St. 
 John's in Annapolis, Cokesbury-college, Franklin- 
 college in Lancaster, Pa., and the Roman Catholic- 
 college in Georgetown, University of North Caro- 
 lina, Burlington-college, Williams-college, Union- 
 college at Schenectady, Grenville-college at Ten- 
 nessee, Beaufort and Winsborough-colleges in 
 South Carolina, Bowdoin-college in the district of 
 Maine, the Transylvania University at Lexington, 
 and Middlebury-college. 
 
1098 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 The following Societies were all formed during 
 this period. 
 (1790.) The Connecticut Society for the Abolition 
 
 of Slavery. 
 
 The Middlesex Medical Society, (Mass.) 
 (1791.) The Society for the Promotion of Agricul- 
 ture, Arts, and Sciences, at New York. 
 (1792.) The Massachusetts Agricultural Society. 
 (1793.) The Marine Society of South Carolina. 
 (1794.) The Massachusetts Historical Society, and 
 
 the Boston Library Society. 
 A Society for the Promotion of Christian 
 
 Knowledge, at New York. 
 A Medical Society in Vermont. 
 (1796.) The New York Missionary Society. 
 (1799.) The East India Marine Society of Salem. 
 The Missionary Society of Massachusetts. 
 The North Carolina Medical Society. 
 (1801.) The Connecticut Academy of Arts and 
 
 Sciences. 
 
 (1802.) The Massachusetts Baptist Missionary So- 
 ciety. 
 
 (1803.) The Massachusetts Society for the Promo- 
 tion of Christian knowledge. 
 
 Catalogue of Eminent Men who died during the 
 period extending from 1789 to 1803. 
 
 (1789.) Ethan Allen, a brigadier-general in the 
 American army. 
 
 John Ledyard, an enterprising traveller. 
 
 John Morgan, M.D., F.R.S., a learned 
 
 physician. 
 
 (1790.) Joseph Belamy, D.D., a learned divine 
 author of a treatise entitled " True Re- 
 ligion Delineated." 
 
 James Bowdoin, LL.D., a distinguished 
 philosopher and statesman, and first pre- 
 sident of the American Academy of Arts 
 and Sciences. 
 
 David Br early, distinguished as a lawyer 
 and a statesman. 
 
 Benjamin Franklin, LL.D., F.R.S., a ce- 
 lebrated philosopher and statesman. 
 
 William Livingston, author of a poem called 
 " Philosophical Solitude," " Miscella- 
 neous pieces in prose and verse," &c. 
 
 Israel Putnam, a major-general in the Ame- 
 rican army. 
 
 (1791.) Lyman Hall, one of the signers of the de- 
 claration of independence. 
 
 Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of 
 the declaration of independence. 
 
 John Wesley, the great founder of Metho- 
 dism. 
 
 (1792.) Henry Laurens, president of congress, and 
 a distinguished patriot. 
 
 Arthur Lee, M.D., a distinguished states- 
 man, 
 
 John Paul Jones, a captain in the American 
 
 navy. 
 
 (1793.) John Hancock, president of congress, and 
 a distinguished patriot. 
 
 Roger Sherman, a distinguished patriot, 
 and one of the signers of the declaration 
 of independence. 
 (1794.) Richard Henry Lee, president of congress. 
 
 Frederic William Steuben, major-general 
 in the army of the American revolution. 
 
 John Witherspoon, D.D., LL.D., one of 
 the signers of the declaration of inde- 
 pendence, and president of Princeton- 
 college. 
 
 (1795.) Josiah Bartlett, M.D, one of the signers of 
 the declaration of independence. 
 
 William Bradford, attorney-general of the 
 United States. 
 
 Ezra Stiles, D.D., president of Yale-col- 
 lege. 
 
 John Sullivan, LL.D., major-general of 
 
 the American army. 
 (1796.) Samuel Huntington, one of the signers of 
 the declaration of independence. 
 
 David Rittenhouse, LL.D., F.R.S., a dis- 
 tinguished philosopher and astronomer. 
 
 Anthony Wayne, major-general in the army 
 
 of the United States. 
 (1797 ) Daniel Morgan, brigadier-general in the 
 army of the United States. 
 
 Oliver Wolcott, LL.D., one of the signers 
 
 of the declaration of independence. 
 (1798.) Jeffrey Amherst, a celebrated English ge- 
 neral. 
 
 Jeremy Belknap, D.D., eminent as a divine 
 and historian author of a " History of 
 New Hampshire," " American Biogra- 
 phy," &c. 
 
 George Read, one of the signers of the de- 
 claration of independence. 
 (1799.) Patrick Henry, a distinguished patriot and 
 statesman. 
 
 George Washington. 
 
 (1800.) Thomas MinHin, major-general in the army 
 of the United States. 
 
 Edward Rutledge, one of the signers of the 
 declaration of independence. 
 
 John Rutledge, a celebrated patriot, gover- 
 nor of South Carolina, and invested by 
 that state with dictatorial powers. 
 
 Artemas Ward, first major-general in the 
 
 American army. 
 
 (1801.) Benedict Arnold, in the early part of his 
 life was distinguished for bravery, and 
 was a major-general of the American 
 army ; but afterwards deserted the cause 
 of his country. 
 
 Jonathan Edwards, president of Union-col- 
 lege, Schenectady, N. Y. 
 
 (1 802.) George Richards Minot, an historian of Mas- 
 sachusetts, author of a " History of Mas- 
 sachusetts Bay." 
 
 War with Tripoli Possession taken of Derne A 
 peace concluded General Hamilton killed in a 
 duel Jefferson again elected president Dispute 
 with Enyland Colonel Burr's projects His trial 
 and acquittal. 
 
 In the meantime, the semi-barbarous nations which 
 inhabit the southern shores of the Mediterranean, 
 had commenced depredations on the American com- 
 merce. Tripoli, in particular, had intimated to the 
 government that the only method of securing their 
 commerce, was the payment of tribute. This led to 
 a war between that power and the United States. 
 
 In prosecution of this war, the United States had, 
 during the year 1801, sent out Commodore Dale, 
 with a squadron of two frigates and a sloop of war. 
 By blockading the harbour of Tripoli, he prevented 
 the piratical cruisers from leaving it, and thus af- 
 forded protection to the American commerce. 
 
 Early in the year 1803, congress, bent on more 
 efficient operations against their barbarian enemy, 
 sent out Commodore Preble, with a squadron of 
 seven sail. In October, one of his ships, the frigate 
 Philadelphia, Captain Bainbridge, was sent into the 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1099 
 
 harbour of Tripoli to reconnoitre; and while in pur- 
 suit of a small vessel, he unfortunately proceeded 
 so far that the Philadelphia was grounded, and fell 
 into the hands of the enemy. The officers were 
 considered as prisoners, and the crew treated as 
 slaves. 
 
 As soon as the news of the capture of the Phila- 
 delphia reached the squadron, Stephen Decatur, who 
 held a lieutenancy under Commodore Preble, con- 
 ceived the design of recapturing or destroying it. 
 Having obtained the consent of the commodore, he 
 armed a small ketch, the Intrepid, and sailed from 
 Syracuse, February 1804, with seventy men. He 
 entered the harbour of Tripoli undiscovered, and ad- 
 vancing boMly, took a station along-side of the 
 frigate, which was moored within gun-shot of the 
 bashaw's castle and of the principal battery. Two 
 of the enemy's cruisers lay within two cables' length, 
 and all the guns of the frigate were mounted and 
 loaded. Decatur sprang on board, and his intrepid 
 crew rushed, sword in hand, upon the astonished 
 and terrified Tripolitans ; killed and drove them into 
 the sea and were soon masters of the frigate. The 
 situation of Decatur and his crew became perilous 
 from the artillery of the battery which now began to 
 be poured in upon them. The corsairs in the har- 
 bour were approaching, and they had no time to 
 lose in making their escape. They set fire to the 
 Philadelphia, left her, and were soon out of the 
 reach of their pursuers, having accomplished this 
 daring enterprise without the loss of a single man. 
 
 In the month of August, Commodore Preble went 
 three times into the harbour of Tripoli, and opened 
 the broadsides of his fleet upon the shipping and 
 the batteries of the city. Although the Americans 
 destroyed some of the Tripolitan shipping, yet they 
 failed of making any material impression upon the 
 fortifications. Meantime, the barbarians treatec 
 the American prisoners with every degree of in- 
 dignity and cruelty. Captain Bainbridge, who, with 
 bis crew, had remained in captivity since the capture 
 of the Philadelphia, vainly endeavoured to obtain 
 some mitigation of their sufferings. Their country 
 deeply commiserated their distresses, and congress 
 was ready to listen to any proposition which affordet 
 a reasonable prospect of their relief. 
 
 In 1803, Captain William Eaton, on his return 
 from Tunis, where he had been consul, representec 
 to the government, that his joint operation with ar 
 elder and expelled brother of the reigning bashaw o 
 Tripoli, might be useful. Permission was given 
 him to undertake the enterprise, and such supplies 
 granted as could be afforded, and the co-operation o 
 the fleet recommended. In 1801, Eaton was ap 
 pointed navy agent of the United States, for th 
 Barbary powers. After reaching Malta, he left the 
 American fleet, and proceeded to Cairo and Alex 
 andria, where he formed a convention with Hamet 
 who hoped, by attacking the usurper in his domi 
 nions, to regain his throne. For this purpose, an 
 army was to be raised in Egypt, where Hamet hac 
 been kindly received, and presented with a militar 
 command by the Mameluke Bey. Early in 1805 
 Eaton was appointed general of Hamet's forces 
 From Egypt, he marched with a few hundred troops 
 principally Arabs, across a desert 1000 miles in ex 
 tent, to Derne, a Tripolitan city on the Mediter 
 ranean. In this harbour he found a part of th 
 American fleet, which was destined to assist him 
 He learned, also, that the usurper, with a consider 
 able force, was within a few days' march of the city 
 The next morning, he summoned the governor ( 
 
 )erne to surrender, who returned for answer, " my 
 ead or yours." He then commenced an assault 
 pon the city, and, after a contest of two hours and 
 half, took possession of it. General Eaton was 
 ounded, and his army suffered severely, but 
 mmediate exertions were, notwithstanding, made 
 
 fortify the city. On the 8th of May, it was 
 ttacked by the Tripolitan army. Although the as- 
 ailants were ten times more numerous than Eaton's 
 and, yet, after persisting four hours in the at- 
 empt, they were compelled to retire. On the ]0th 
 t June, another battle was fought, in which Eaton 
 ,-as again victorious. The next day, the American 
 rigate Constitution arrived in the harbour, and the 
 ^ripolitans fled precipitately to the desert. While 
 he impression resulting from the bravery displayed 
 at Derne, operated at Tripoli, and an attack upon 
 hat city was daily expected from the United Stales' 
 quadron, Colonel Lear, the consul at Tripoli, 
 bought it the best moment to listen to the terms of 
 )eace offered by the bashaw. He did so, and it was 
 tipulated, that a mutual delivery of prisoners should 
 ,ake place; among whom were Captain Bainbridge, 
 vith the officers and crew of the Philadelphia ; and, 
 is the bashaw had a balance of more than 200 pri- 
 ;oners in his favour, he was to receive 60,000 dollars 
 or them. It was also understood, that all support 
 rom Hamet was to be withdrawn, and hostilities 
 were to cease. It was, however, stipulated, that on 
 Hamet's retiring from the territory, his wife and 
 children, then in the power of the reigning bashaw, 
 should be given up to him. Thus ended the war 
 u the Mediterranean. 
 
 In July, 1804, occurred the death of General 
 Alexander Hamilton. He died in a duel fought 
 with Aaron Burr, vice-president of the United 
 States. Colonel Burr had addressed a letter to 
 General Hamilton, requiring his denial or acknow- 
 ledgment of certain offensive expressions contained 
 in a public journal. Hamilton declining to give 
 either, Colonel Burr sent him a challenge. They 
 met, and Hamilton fell at the first fire. His death 
 caused a deep sensation throughout the union. The 
 city of New York paid extraordinary honours to his 
 remains. General Hamilton was so much the idol 
 of one of the great political parties, and the aversion 
 of the other, and in such opposite terms is his poli- 
 tical character delineated by the writings and men 
 of his time, that impartial history scarcely dares as 
 yet, to pronounce the estimate of his merits as a po- 
 litician. As a man of great talents, of powerful 
 eloquence, as a scholar, and as a gentleman, Ha- 
 milton stood pre-eminent. 
 
 In the meantime, Mr. Jefferson received his se- 
 cond presidential election ; and such was his popu- 
 larity, that out of 176 votes, he received 162. George 
 Clinton of New York was chosen vice-president. 
 They were sworn into office on the 4th of March, 
 1805. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson on entering upon the discharge of 
 the duties of the second term of his administration, 
 although a decided majority in both houses of con- 
 gress were friendly to the principles of government 
 by which he was actuated, perceived himself to be 
 placed in a more critical situation than at any former 
 period of his public life. The manner in which Eu- 
 ropean wars were conducted, created apprehensions 
 in the minds of the American citizens, that their 
 rights and liberties would not only be endangered, 
 but sacrificed. 
 
 The wise policy of America had been eminently 
 conspicuous in maintaining a steady system of neu- 
 
1100 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 trality, during the whole of those wars which broke 
 out in consequence of the French revolution. Her 
 neutrality enabled her to profit by the colonial com- 
 merce of France and Spain, as also the whole branch 
 of European trade, which, in consequence of the 
 general war, could not be transported with native 
 ships. France, in the meantime, had become a na- 
 tion of soldiers. She had repelled her invaders, and 
 placed at the head of her republic a man whose 
 vast mental powers and resources had acquired con- 
 trol over most of the European kingdoms. Buona- 
 parte had made a stand against the maritime pre- 
 dominance of Britain, while that nation, with equal 
 vigour, resisted his usurpations on land. 
 
 On two subjects Britain and America were also 
 at issue. One was respecting what the former power 
 denominated " the right of search ;" by which, on 
 various pretences, she assumed and exercised an 
 authority to search the vessels of other nations. An- 
 other subject in dispute was, that of expatriation. 
 England maintained that a man once a subject, was 
 always a subject ; and that no act of his could 
 change his allegiance to the government under which 
 he was born. 
 
 This difference in principles on the subjects of 
 the right of search, and that of expatriation, pro- 
 duced the difficulties between the two nations, on 
 the subject of the impressment of American seamen. 
 Officers of British ships, in the exercise of the 
 pretended right of search, entered American vessels, 
 and impressed from thence certain seamen, whom 
 they claimed as British subjects, because they were 
 born in Great Britain ; while the same men, having 
 become naturalized in America, were regarded by 
 that power as her citizens. The practice of impress- 
 ment thus begun, did not end here, but proceeded 
 to extremes that the Americans considered unjusti- 
 fiable on any principles. 
 
 America, 'thus situated, was meditating measures 
 for the defence of her commerce, when she received 
 from both the belligerents fresh cause of provocation. 
 Great Britain, under the administration of Fox, is- 
 sued a proclamation, May J806, blockading the 
 coast of the continent, from Elbe to Brest. The 
 French government, exasperated at this measure, 
 retaliated by the decree issued at Berlin, November 
 21st, declaring the British Isles in a state of block- 
 ade. Thus each nation declared in effect, that no 
 neutral power should trade with the other. 
 
 In 1807, the public attention was again directed 
 to Colonel Burr. He had lost the confidence of the 
 republican party, by his supposed intrigues against 
 Mr. Jefferson, for the office of president, and exci- 
 ted the indignation of the whole federal party by his 
 encounter with Hamilton. Thus situated, he had 
 retired as a private citizen into the western states. 
 It was at length understood, that he was at the head 
 of a great number of individuals, who were arming 
 and organizing themselves ; purchasing and build- 
 ing boats on the Ohio. Their ostensible object was 
 peaceful and agricultural. It was to form a settle- 
 ment on the banks of the Washita, in Louisiana. 
 Their boats, it was said, were calculated to accom- 
 modate families who were removing to their settle- 
 ments. But the vigilant eye of government was 
 upon their leader ; and, as the nature and designs 
 of his movements were suspected, he was closely 
 scrutinized ; prosecutions were instituted against him 
 in Tennessee, Kentucky, and in the Mississippi ter- 
 ritory, from which, as proof of guilt was wanting, 
 he was discharged. At length, these suspicions 
 gaining strength, he was apprehended on the Toin- 
 
 bigbee river, in Missouri territory, in February 
 1807, brought to Richmond under military escort, 
 and committed in order to take his trial upon two 
 charges exhibited against him on the part of the 
 United States. First, for a high misdemeanor, in 
 setting on j,foot withitTthe United States a military 
 expedition against the king of Spain, with whom 
 the Uuited States were at peace; second, for treason 
 in assembling an armed force, with a design to seize 
 the city of New Orleans, to revolutionize the terri- 
 tory attached to it, and to separate the Atlantic 
 states from the western. It was supposed that he 
 intended to make New Orleans the seat of his do- 
 minions, and the capital of his empire. In August, 
 after a trial before Judge Marshall, the chief justice 
 of the United States, evidence of his guilt not being 
 presented, he was acquitted by the jury. 
 
 The Chesapeake searched^Mr. Madison elected presi 
 sident Erskine's treaty Indians commence hostiti' 
 ties Battle of Tippecanoe Henry's secret mission 
 
 In June of this year (1807), an alleged outrage 
 was committed upon the United States' frigate, the 
 Chesapeake, by the British ship of war Leopard, 
 which produced throughout the country a general 
 burst of indignation. The Chesapeake, commanded 
 by Commodore Barron, having been ordered on a 
 cruise in the Mediterranean, sailed from Hampton 
 Roads on the 22nd of June. She had proceeded but 
 a few leagues from the coast, when she was over- 
 taken by the Leopard. A British officer came on 
 board, with an order from Vice-admiral Berkely, to 
 take from the Chesapeake three men, alleged to be 
 deserters from the Melampus frigate. These men, 
 it appears, were American citizens, who had been 
 impressed by the British, but had deserted, and en- 
 listed in the American service. Commodore Barron 
 replied to the British officer in terms of politeness, 
 but refused to have his crew mustered for examina- 
 tion, by any officers but his own. Commodore 
 Barron was unprepared for an attack, not contem- 
 plating the possibility of meeting an enemy so near 
 the Capes; but, during this interview, he noticed 
 preparations on board the Leopard, indicative of u 
 hostile disposition, and he immediately gave orders to 
 prepare for action. But before any efficient prepa- 
 rations could be made, the Leopard opened a broad- 
 side upon the Chesapeake. After receiving her fire 
 about 30 minutes, during which time the Americans 
 had t'oree men killed, and eighteen wounded, Com- 
 modore Barron ordered the colours to be struck. An 
 officer from the Leopard came on board, and took 
 four men, the three who had been previously de- 
 manded, and another, who, they affirmed, had de- 
 serted from a merchant vessel. Commodore Barron 
 observed, that he considered the Chesapeake a prize 
 of the Leopard. The officer replied, " No," he had 
 obeyed his orders in taking out the men, and had 
 nothing further to do with her. This event produced 
 great excitement. That rancour of party which had 
 so long embittered all the intercourse of social life, 
 was lost in the general desire to avenge a common 
 wrong. The president, by proclamation, commanded 
 all British armed vessels within the harbours or 
 waters of the United States, to depart from the same 
 without delay, and prohibited others from entering. 
 Mr. Monroe, the American minister in London, was 
 instructed to demand reparation ; and a special con- 
 gress was called. 
 
 In November, Britain issued her orders in council, 
 a measure declared to be in retaliation of the French 
 decree of November 1806. These orders in council 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1101 
 
 prohibited all neutral nations from trading with 
 France, or her allies, except upon the condition of 
 paying tribute to England. This was immediately 
 followed by a decree of Buonaparte, at Milan, which 
 declared that every vessel which should submit to be 
 searched or pay tribute to the English, should be 
 confiscated if found within his ports. 
 
 Thus was the commerce of America subjected to 
 utter ruin, as almost all her vessels were, on some 
 of these pretences, liable to capture. The Ameri- 
 can government, after much discussion, resorted to 
 an embargo on their own vessels, as a measure best 
 fitted to the crisis. This would effectually secure 
 the mercantile property, and the mariners now at 
 home, and also those who were daily arriving; and, 
 at the same time, it would not be a measure of war, 
 or a just cause of hostility. 
 
 Mr. Monroe was instructed not only to demand 
 satisfaction for the Chesapeake, but to obtain se- 
 curity against future impressment! from American 
 ships. But Mr. Canning, the British minister, ob- 
 jected to uniting these subjects, and Mr. Monroe 
 was not authorized to treat them separately. Mr. 
 Rose was sent envoy-extraordinary to the United 
 States, to adjust the difficulty which had arisen on 
 account of the Chesapeake. In 1808, Commodore 
 Barron was tried for prematurely surrendering that 
 frigate. 
 
 In 1809, Mr. Jefferson's second term of office 
 having expired, he declared his wish to retire from 
 public life, and Mr. Madison who had during Mr. 
 Jefferson's administration held the important office 
 of secretary of state, was elected president. Mr. 
 George Clinton of New York was re-elected vice- 
 president. 
 
 While all the citizens of America were indignant 
 at the treatment of their country by the belligerent 
 powers, a diversity of opinion prevailed with regard 
 to the method adopted by government to prevent 
 further aggression. The embargo convulsed the 
 whole nation, and produced the most violent oppo- 
 sition. The commercial states inveighed against it 
 as ruinous ; bringing in its train poverty and dis- 
 tress. Individuals throughout the nation seized op- 
 portunities of infringing it, and its restrictions could 
 tiot be enforced in the eastern states without the aid 
 of a military force. Thus circumstanced, the go- 
 vernment repealed the embargo, and substituted an- 
 other law, prohibiting for one year all intercourse 
 with France or Great Britain. A provision was 
 made in this law, that should either of the hostile 
 nations revoke her edict, so that the neutral com- 
 merce of the United States should be no longer 
 violated, the president should immediately make it 
 known by proclamation, and from that time the non- 
 intercourse law should cease to be enforced as it re- 
 garded that nation. 
 
 On pretence of retaliating upon America for sub- 
 mitting to the outrages of England, Buonaparte 
 issued his decree of Rambouillet, which authorized 
 the seizure and confiscation of American vessels 
 which were then in the ports of France, or mighl 
 afterwards enter, excepting those charged with dis- 
 patches to the government. 
 
 In April a treaty was concluded with Mr. Erskine 
 the British minister at Washington, which engager 
 on the part of Great Britain, that the orders in 
 council so far as they affected the United States 
 should be withdrawn.' The British ministry, how- 
 ever, refused to ratify this treaty; they denied th< 
 authority of that minister to make such a treaty, 
 and immediately recalled him. His successor, Mr 
 
 rackson, insinuated in a correspondence with the 
 ecretary of state, that the American government, 
 cnew that Mr. Erskine was not authorized to make 
 he arrangement. This was distinctly denied by 
 he secretary, but was repeated by Mr. Jackson, 
 rhe president then declined receiving any further 
 communications from him. In May 1810, the non- 
 ntercourse law expired, and government made pro- 
 msals to both the belligerent powers, that if either 
 would revoke its hostile edicts, this law should only 
 
 revived and enforced against the other nation. It 
 lad ever been the policy of America, to avoid be- 
 coming a party in the European wars, and to regard 
 ;ach belligerent as standing on equal ground. The 
 aw was applicable to both, and if it made a distinc- 
 ion in its operation between the belligerents, it 
 must necessarily result from a compliance of one, 
 with an offer made to both, but which would still be 
 open to the acceptance of the other. France re- 
 pealed her decrees, and the president issued a pro- 
 clamation on the 2nd of November, in which he 
 declared that all the restrictions imposed by the non- 
 ctercourse law should cease in relation to France 
 and her dependencies. Great Britain was now 
 called on to fulfil her engagement, by revoking her 
 orders in council. She refused on pretence that the 
 revocation of the French decrees had not actually 
 taken effect. 
 
 The population of the United States by the third 
 census of 1810, was 7,239,903. 
 
 Among the occurrences produced by British ships 
 hovering off America, was an encounter near Cape 
 Charles, between the American frigate President, 
 commanded by Commodore Rogers, and the British 
 sloop of war, Little Belt, commanded by Captain 
 Bingham. The attack was commenced by the Little 
 Belt, but she was soon disabled, and thirty-two of 
 her men killed and wounded. 
 
 Menacing pi-eparations, and the appearance of a 
 combination had been discovered among the Indians 
 on the western frontier, who watching the hostile 
 feelings existing between the United States and 
 Great Britain, considered this a favourable oppor- 
 tunity for them to commence their depredations. 
 They accordingly collected on the Wabash, and 
 under the influence of a fanatic of the Shawanese 
 tribe, who styled himself a prophet, and of his bro- 
 ther, the famous chief Tecumseh, they committed 
 the usual atrocities of their barbarian warfare. 
 
 Governor Harrison of the Indiana territory, was 
 directed to march against them with a force consist- 
 ing of regulars and the militia of the territory. On 
 the 16th of November, Governor Harrison met 
 a number of Indian messengers at Tippecanoe, their 
 principal town, and a suspension of hostilities was 
 agreed upon until next day, when an interview was 
 to be had with the prophet and his chiefs. 
 
 On the meeting of General Harrison with the 
 chiefs, occurred a noble flash of aboriginal elo- 
 quence. Tecumseh was not present when the 
 council assembled. As he entered he was told that 
 his father (meaning General Harrison) had reserved 
 a seat for him next himself. " My father," said Te- 
 cumseh, " the Great Spirit is my father, the earth 
 is my mother, and upon her breast will 1 recline !" 
 
 In Tecumseh, we find much to remind us of 
 Philip, of Mount Hope. Like Philip, he possessed 
 in addition to the general characteristics of the 
 American savage, a comprehensive mind capable of 
 forming and persevering in a great and complicated 
 plan ; and, as with Philip, the love of country and 
 the love of right, appear to have been blended in 
 
1102 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 his mind, with the thirst for human blood. The plan 
 of Tecumsch, like that of Philip, was to unite the 
 scattered tribes of his countrymen against the whites; 
 and for this purpose, he visited and stirred up the 
 Indians to war, by his savage and powerful eloquence. 
 
 Warned by the fate of so many American armies 
 surprised and cut off by the savages, General Har- 
 rison formed his men in order of battle; and thus 
 they reposed upon their arms. Just before day, the 
 faithless savages rushed upon the Americans. But 
 their war-whoop was not unexpected. The Ameri- 
 cans stood, repelled the shock, and repulsed the 
 assailants. Their loss was however severe, being 
 about 180 in killed and wounded. That of the 
 Indians was 170 killed, and 100 wounded. 
 
 Mr. Foster, who succeeded Mr. Jackson, as minis- 
 ter from England, arrived at Washington this sum- 
 mer. The controversy respecting the Chesapeake 
 and President was finally adjusted. The British 
 government agreeing to make provision for those 
 seamen who were disabled in the engagement, and 
 for the families of those who were killed. The two 
 surviving sailors who were taken from the Chesa- 
 peake, were to be restored. But no change of 
 policy was exhibited by the British government. 
 Their right to search American vessels, and to im- 
 press American seamen, if native-born Britons, was 
 still maintained ; and the orders in coucil were en- 
 forced with the greatest rigour. British vessels 
 were for this purpose stationed before many of the 
 principal harbours in the United States. 
 
 In consequence of the French decrees being 
 annulled, commerce with France had again com- 
 menced. American vessels bound for French ports, 
 and richly laden, were captured by the British. 
 Not less "than 900 had thus fallen into their hands 
 since the year 1803. 
 
 It was evident that Great Britain now considered 
 the United States as an unwarlike nation, and know- 
 ing the commercial spirit of the people, expected 
 that restrictions equivalent to their own would be 
 the only method of defence to which the govern- 
 ment would resort. Forbearance under these re- 
 peated injuries was no longer a virtue, and served 
 only to invite further aggression. 
 
 When congress assembled in November, the pre- 
 sident laid before them the state of foreign relations, 
 and recommended that the United States should be 
 placed in an attitude of defence. The representa- 
 tives of the people acted in accordance with their 
 views. Provision was made for the increase of the 
 regular army to 35,000 men, and for the enlargement 
 of the navy. A law was enacted, empowering the 
 president to borrow eleven millions of dollars ; the 
 duties on imported goods were doubled, and taxes 
 were subsequently laid on domestic manufactures, 
 and nearly all descriptions of property. 
 
 On the 25th of February, 1812, Mr Madison laid 
 before congress copies of certain documents, which 
 proved that on the 6th of February, 1809, the 
 British government, by its agent Sir James Craig, 
 governor of Canada, had sent John Henry as an 
 emissary into the United States, for the express pur- 
 pose of insidiously destroying its government, by 
 effecting, if possible, the disunion of its parts. The 
 service for which Henry was employed, was to in- 
 trigue with the leading members of the federal party, 
 draw them into direct communication with the go- 
 vernor of Canada, and lead them, if possible, to 
 form the eastern part of the union into a nation or 
 province dependent on Great Britain. 
 
 Henry proceeded through Vermont and New 
 
 Hampshire to Boston, which was his ultimate desti- 
 nation ; but he returned without effecting in any 
 degree his purpose. This failure he attributed 
 solely to the readiness which Mr. Madison had 
 manifested to meet the conciliating propositions of 
 Mr. Erskine, which took from his opponents the 
 power of making him and his administration odious 
 to the people, by representing to them that he was 
 in the interest of France. Henry having vainly 
 sought from Great Britain remuneration for this dis- 
 honourable service, disclosed the whole transaction 
 to the American government, for which he was paid 
 50,000 dollars out of the contingent fund for foreign 
 intercourse. This treacherous attempt made by 
 England in time of peace, was regarded with ab- 
 horrence by the majority of both parties, and was 
 among the causes which led to the war which soon 
 ensued. 
 
 War declared An act of congress to raise 25,000 men 
 State of the revenue General Dearborn com-' 
 mander-in-chief Proceedings of the army of the 
 north-west Hull's operations Hit proclamation 
 Affair at the river Aux Canards Van Horn de- 
 feated at Brownstou-n -Mackinaw, surrendered 
 Dearborn's armistice Hull abandons Maiden 
 Battle of Maguaga Captain Heald defeated 
 Hull capitulates /* exchanged Hit trial and 
 sentence. 
 
 In April 1812, congress laid an embargo for 90 
 days, upon all vessels within the jurisdiction of the 
 United States. Although the government was con- 
 tinually making preparation for war, a hope was yet 
 cherished, that some change of policy would take 
 place in the British cabinet, which would render it 
 unnecessary. But at length, finding no prospect of 
 such a change, on the 18th of June, 1812, an act 
 was passed, declaring war with Great Britain. In 
 the manifesto of the president, the reasons of the war 
 were stated to be, "the impressment of American 
 seamen by the British ; the blockade of her enemies' 
 ports, supported by no adequate force, in conse- 
 quence of which the American commerce had been 
 plundered in every sea; and the British orders in 
 council." Against this declaration, the represen- 
 tatives of the federal party, constituting a small mi- 
 nority in congress, entered their solemn protest. 
 
 Thus had England again compelled America to 
 resort to arms. The circumstances of the country 
 at the commencement of the present war, were, 
 however, far different from those which attended 
 the war of the revolution. A government had been 
 established, which, unlike the congress of that pe- 
 riod, could not only recommend, but enforce. The 
 number of inhabitants had increased from about 
 three millions to nearly eight millions ; and the pe- 
 cuniary resources of the republic had advanced in 
 a ratio yet greater than that of its population. These 
 were the advantages which America in 1812 pos- 
 sessed over America in 1775; but there were points 
 in which the originators of the revolution were in a 
 much more advantageous situation for war, than that 
 in which their descendants, 37 years afterwards, 
 found themselves placed. In 1775, the Ameri- 
 cans were comparatively a warlike people. They 
 had been obliged to be constantly on the alert, 
 to defend themselves from their savage foes. A con- 
 test had just passed, which had given practical ex- 
 perience of the difficulties and hardships of war, and 
 consequently, the ability to face its dangers and en- 
 dure its fatigues. This war was also eminently cal- 
 culated, both by its misfortunes and successes, to im- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1103 
 
 part sound maxims in the military art. The shame- 
 ful inertness and disasters of the first campaign of 
 the French war, the energy and brilliant successes of 
 the last, the disgrace of Braddock, and the glory of 
 Wolfe, were fresh in men's minds ; and it was amidst 
 these scenes that the military character of the leader 
 of the revolutionary army, and that of many of his 
 officers, was formed. 
 
 On the contrary, in 1812, a season of 30 years 
 of peace and prosperity had enervated the nation. 
 Most of the officers of the revolution slept in 
 honoured graves. There were, however, a few 
 veterans of that noble band remaining; but they 
 were not of those who had stood in its foremost rank, 
 and they had already passed the vigour of manhood; 
 whose best energies are required for the momentous 
 duties of a high military command. Thus, for the 
 army to be raised in 1812, there were no officers in 
 whom entire confidence could be placed. But with 
 the best of officers, very great difficulties must have 
 been encountered, from the condition of the troops. 
 
 During Mr. Jefferson's administration, economy 
 was the order of the day. Every possible retrench- 
 ment of national expenditure was adopted; and 
 among other measures of this nature, was the cur- 
 tailing of the army and navy. Although a spirit of 
 prudence in money affairs is highly commendable, 
 and though it was at that period popular, and in 
 many respects useful to the country, yet it may now 
 be doubted, whether in this instance it did not dege- 
 nerate into that penny-wisdom and pound foolish- 
 ness, which is as little consistent with the best in- 
 terests of a nation, as with those of an individual. 
 The national debt, it is true, was by these measures 
 reduced from 75,463,467 dollars, to 36,656,932 dol- 
 lars ; but by the increased expenditures of the war 
 of 1812, 1813 and 1814, it amounted in 1816 to 
 123,016,375 dollars; a sura exceeding by 47,552,908, 
 its original amount. It is probable that many o: 
 the misfortunes of the country might have been 
 spared, by maintaining during peace a better state 
 of preparation for war, and a sum of money even 
 tually saved, far greater than the amount of the re 
 treuchment. 
 
 In 1808, the regular army consisted of onlj 
 3,000 men. During that year, the government 
 alarmed by the increasing aggressions of the Euro 
 pean powers, increased it to 9000. In January 
 1812, congress voted to raise an additional fore* 
 of 25,000. This act was, however, passed so shor 
 a time previous to the declaration of war, that no 
 more than one-fourth of the number were enlisted a 
 that time ; and those were of course raw and undis 
 ciplined. 
 
 In addition to the regular army, the presiden 
 was authorized to call on the governors of the state 
 for detachments of militia, to an amount not exceed 
 ing 100,000, and to accept the services of? any num 
 ber of volunteers, not exceeding 50,000. Thi 
 species of force, although of great use in defence 
 has been found not efficient in offensive field opera 
 tions. Thus the actual efficient force at the com 
 mencement of the war in 1812 was small, and th 
 troops were wholly inexperienced. 
 
 Nor had the army that high tone of public feeling 
 which animated the soldiers of the revolution. Th 
 occasion, though important, was not so overpowe 
 ingly momentous. Indeed, the administration r 
 luctant to change its pacific and economical policy 
 had suffered the highest state of public excitemen 
 for the injuries of Britain to pass away, before th 
 declaration of war. This was the period immediate 
 
 ucceeding the outrage upon the Chesapeake; for 
 hich Britain had now made satisfaction. The na- 
 on felt itself so keenly wounded by that insult, that 
 would then have moved simultaneously to the vin- 
 cation of its rights. But while the government 
 ;layed and temporized, the warmth of public feel- 
 ig in a measure abated. That money-loving spirit 
 hich the administration had formerly too much 
 ourted, was now offended by the operation of its re- 
 trictive system ; and its political enemies had taken 
 dvantage of every subject of discontent, to excite 
 pposition to its measures. 
 
 The state of the revenue, in 1812, was far from 
 eing favourable to the prosecution of an expensive 
 var. Derived almost solely from duties on merchan- 
 ise imported, it was abundant in a state of com- 
 mercial prosperity ; but in time of war and trouble, 
 tie aggressions of foreign nations, which in their 
 peration produced an increase of public expendi- 
 ure, almost destroyed the means of defraying it. 
 n this emergency, congress in 1812 authorized a 
 oan of 11,000,000 of dollars, and increased one 
 undred per cent, the duties on imported goods and 
 he tonnage of vessels. 
 
 The condition of the navy was in some material 
 espects better than that of the army. The situa- 
 ion of the United States, as a maritime and com- 
 mercial nation, keeps her provided with seamen, 
 who in time of war, being transferred from mer- 
 chant to warlike vessels, are already disciplined to 
 naval operations. 
 
 The recent contest with the Barbary states had 
 given to the officers and men of the little American 
 lavy, experience in war ; and their successes had 
 uspired them with confidence in themselves and in 
 each other. Many enterprising individuals of the 
 epublic converted their merchant ships into priva- 
 ,eers ; but the vessels belonging to the government 
 it the commencement of the war consisted of only 
 en frigates, ten sloops, and 165 gun-boats. This 
 was all the public force which America could oppose 
 ,o the thousand ships of the proud mistress of the 
 ocean. 
 
 Commodore Preble is regarded by some as the 
 main spring of the prosperity of the American navy. 
 tt is said that the officers who gained so much fame 
 'or themselves and for their country, were almost all 
 formed under his instructions. 
 
 Among the few survivors of the revolutionary war, 
 was Henry Dearborn of Massachusetts, who was ap- 
 pointed major-general and commander-in-chief of the 
 American army. His head-quarters were at Green- 
 bush, on the Hudson river, opposite Albany. Forces 
 acting under his direction, mostly composed of New 
 York militia, were stationed at Plattsburgh, and on 
 the Niagara frontier : those at the latter place were, 
 at the commencement of the war, under the com- 
 mand of Generals Porter and Hall. 
 
 About a year before the declaration of war, 
 William Hull, governor of the Michigan territory, 
 had, in his letters to the government, given a vie'w 
 of the situation of the country in the vicinity of the 
 upper lakes. He reminded the administration that 
 they possessed in that region three military posts, 
 viz., Michilimakinack, (usually called Mackinau,) 
 Chicago, and Detroit. He asserted that the British 
 forces at Amherstburg, (otherwise called Maiden,) 
 and at St. Joseph's, were about equal to those of the 
 United States at the three stations mentioned, and 
 that should the militia of Upper Canada in case of 
 war, take a part, they were twenty to one superior 
 to those of Michigan, the province containing 
 
1104 
 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 100,000, the territory only 5000 inhabitants. The 
 adjacent states, he said, were thinly inhabited, 
 and needed their forces for their own defence. 
 In addition to the superiority in population on 
 the British side, General Hull warned the govern- 
 ment that they must expect that the numerous 
 Indian tribes, of whose services the humane oplicy 
 of America forbade her acceptance, would, in the 
 event of war, (which was the state in which they 
 most delighted,) unite with her foe. He urged the 
 importance of Detroit, as being the key of the north- 
 ern country, and the only spot from which the In- 
 dians could be kept in check. He stated that a 
 wilderness nearly 200 miles in extent, and in- 
 fested by savages, separated it from any point 
 from which it could draw supplies, and advised the 
 administration to prepare a naval force on Lake 
 Erie, superior to the British, and sufficient to pre- 
 serve their communication. If the government 
 should not think proper to listen to this advice, 
 Governor Hull suggested as the next most expedient 
 measure, immediately on the declaration of war, to 
 invade Upper Canada by a powerful army from Nia- 
 gara, which should co-operate with a force from 
 Detroit; and thus take possession of the whole pro- 
 vince. And he gave it as his opinion, that unless 
 one or the other of these measures should be adopted, 
 the posts of Detroit, Mackiuau, and Chicago, must 
 inevitably fall into the hands of the enemy. To 
 these suggestions of Hull may in part be traced the 
 plan of the campaign which was formed at Wash- 
 ington, and which seems to have had the conquest 
 of Montreal for its "ultimate object. But instead of 
 concentrating the force and moving directly to this 
 point, the American troops were scattered along the 
 extensive northern frontier. It was intended to in- 
 vade simultaneously at Detroit and Niagara, with 
 the expectation that the armies from these places 
 would move in the direction of Montreal, and be 
 joined on the way by the force stationed at Platts- 
 burg. 
 
 The army, destined for Detroit, was collected at 
 Dayton, in Ohio, some time before the declaration 
 of war. The president of the United States had 
 made a requisition of 1200 men on the governor of 
 that state. This number was immediately filled 
 by volunteers, who were divided in to three regiments, 
 commanded by Colonels M ' Arthur, Cass, and Find- 
 lay. These troops were joined by the fourth regi- 
 ment of infantry, and a few other regulars, amount- 
 ing in the whole to about 300, under the direction of 
 Colonel Miller. These, together with a few strag- 
 gling volunteers, who followed the army, and were 
 included in the return, composed the whole of this 
 force, the command of which was given to Governor 
 Hull, who had served with reputation in the army of 
 Washington, and who had been for several years 
 the governor of Michigan. But although he had 
 been a brave man in his youth, age had now para- 
 lyzed his energies ; nor is it probable, that nature 
 ever gave to him the firmness, decision, and activity, 
 necessary to the military commander; who must 
 often in war reverse the maxims of peace, as he often 
 finds himself in situations, where, to be long in de- 
 liberation, and slow in action, is a i'atal imprudence. 
 
 The general, having been ordered by the govern- 
 ment to proceed to Detroit, and there to wait for 
 further orders, the army left Dayton about the mid- 
 dle of June, and, passing through Stanton, and Ur- 
 banna, traversed the uncultivated region between 
 the latter place, and the rapids of the Maumee, or 
 Miami of tl\e lakes. The army had been obliged to 
 
 remove obstructions, and make their own road. 
 They had built four block-houses, and garrisoned 
 them with the disabled. They reached the Rapids 
 on the 30th of June. On the 26th, four days pre- 
 vious, General Hull had received by express, a 
 letter from Mr. Eustis, the secretary of war, written 
 on the morning of the day in which war was de- 
 clared. This letter merely reiterated former orders, 
 and contained expressions which indicated that war 
 would soon be declared. Expecting to be informed, 
 by express, when the declaration actually occurred, 
 and not dreaming that the British could be in pos- 
 session of such important intelligence from the Ame- 
 rican government earlier than himself; Hull, for 
 the purpose of disencumbering his army, and facili- 
 tating their march, hired a vessel, which had sailed 
 as a packet, to convey to Detroit his sick, his hospi- 
 tal stores, and a considerable part of his baggage. 
 This vessel, which sailed on the first of July, felf into 
 the hands of the British near Maiden, who had been 
 two or three days in possession of the information 
 that war was declared. With Hull's private bag- 
 gage, his aid-de-camp unfortunately had placed on 
 board the vessel a trunk of public papers, by means 
 of which the enemy became possessed of his corre- 
 spondence with the government and the returns of 
 his officers, showing the number and condition of 
 his troops. 
 
 The intelligence of the declaration of war, Gene- 
 ral Hull received on 2nd of July, in a second letter 
 from Mr. Eustis, of June 18th, which was not sent 
 by express, but by mail. 
 
 The fortress of Maiden or Amherstburg, garrisoned 
 by 600 men, and commanded by Colonel St. George, 
 was the strong hold of the British, and their IndTan 
 allies for the province of Upper Canada. It is si- 
 tuated on the Detroit river, near its entrance into 
 Lake Erie. On the opposite American bank, is the 
 Indian village of Brownstown, through which passes 
 the road from Ohio to Detroit; a communication on 
 which Hull, in the event of the British keeping pos- 
 session of the lake, must depend for the supplies of 
 his army. But they would be liable to be cut off, as 
 the British, having command of the waters, could, 
 at any time, land detachments on the opposite side. 
 Thus, for Hull to proceed from the Rapids to De- 
 troit, was to advance and leave an enemy's fortress 
 in his rear. The orders of the secretary of war were, 
 however, explicit, nor do we learn that at the time 
 the American general remonstrated with the govern- 
 ment, although he afterwards considered this as the 
 fatal order which caused his misfortunes. Pursuant 
 to this mandate, he continued his march, and reached 
 Detroit on the 5th of July. Here he permitted his 
 army to rest for a few days, from their toilsome 
 march through the wilderness, the fatigues of which 
 they had borne with exemplary patience. The Ame- 
 ricans were here employed in cleaning and repairing 
 their arms, which were at the commencement of the 
 march in a bad condition, especially those of the 
 Ohio militia. An impatience prevailed to cross the 
 river, and invade Canada immediately. General 
 Hull, on the 9th, called a council of his officers, in 
 which he explained to them, that his directions from 
 the government were to remain at Detroit, and 
 await further orders, and, on that account, he could 
 not then invade Canada. They, however, thought 
 he ought, notwithstanding, to take immediate pos- 
 session of the opposite bank of the river. 
 
 On the same day, soon after the breaking up of the 
 council, General Hull received a letter from Mr. 
 Eustis, authorizing him to commence offensive opera- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 i!05 
 
 tious, and saying, that " should the force under 
 your command be equal to the enterprise, and con- 
 sistent with the safety of your own posts, you will 
 take possession of Maiden, and extend your con- 
 quests as circumstances will allow." General Hull 
 in his answer on the same day states to the secretary, 
 that he did not think his force equal to the reduction 
 of Maiden ; that the British commanded the water 
 and the savages; yet he said he should pass the 
 river in a few days. On the 10th, he agafn wrote 
 to the government, saying, " the communication 
 must be secured, or this army will be without provi- 
 sions. This must not be neglected. If it is, this 
 army will perish by hunger." On the 1 1th he wrote 
 to Governor Meigs of Ohio a similar communication. 
 From this statement of General Hull, and from the 
 tenour of his former communications, the govern- 
 ment ought to have considered this army in a pe- 
 rilous situation, and to have taken measures for its 
 preservation; at the same time, so long as Hull had 
 no assurances of reinforcements, his order being to 
 invade if he considered his own force sufficient ; and 
 as he had no pledge from the government, that any 
 provision was making to relieve him by taking pos- 
 session of the lakes or keeping open the communi- 
 cation to Ohio; it would seem that he should not 
 have acted in so momentous a concern, on the pre- 
 sumption that on account of his former advice, these 
 things would have been done. Consistently with his 
 own expressed opinions, he should have made use of 
 the discretion granted him to remain on the defen- 
 sive, until he had sufficient reason to believe that 
 those measures which he had stated to the govern- 
 ment as being essential to the safety of the post, were 
 in a state of actual accomplishment ; in the mean 
 time taking all due pains to keep the sentiments of 
 the army in his favour, and warmly soliciting the 
 aid of his government. Had he pursued this course, 
 consequences could not have followed so wounding 
 to the honour of his country, as those which accrued. 
 Another course of bolder policy also presented itself 
 in accordance with the views of most of his officers. 
 This supposed, that the army of Hull was of itself 
 competent to the reduction of the enemy's country, 
 and that prompt and vigorous measures would place 
 at his command the fortress of Maiden, the key of 
 Upper Canada, and the great obstruction in the way 
 of his own supplies. Had this policy been con- 
 sistently pursued, its result, though it might not 
 have been successful, would certainly have been 
 honourable. Hull appears to have vacillated between 
 the two, and thus he failed of securing the advan- 
 tage of either. 
 
 General Hull crossed into Canada on the 12th of 
 July, and directing his march southerly, took post at 
 Sandwich, and issued from that place his famous 
 proclamation. This was a bold and imposing com- 
 position, and backed by the presence of an in- 
 vading army, had all the effeet which the Americans 
 could have desired. The Indians were awed into 
 neutrality, and the Canadians favourable to the Ame- 
 rican cause, either remained quietly at home, or 
 joined their ranks. In it, he placed before the in- 
 habitants of Canada the advantages of uniting with 
 the United States rather than remaining as an ap- 
 pendage of Britain ; and promised, in the name of 
 his country, protection to their persons, property and 
 rights, if they remained quietly at home ; but on 
 the contrary, if they united with the savages against 
 America, he threatened them with a war of exter- 
 mination. " Had I," continues the proclamation, 
 " any doubt of ultimate success, I should ask your 
 
 HIST. OF AMER. Nos. 139 & 140. 
 
 assistance-; but I come prepared for every contin 
 gence. I have a force which will break down al 1 
 opposition, and that force is but the van-guard of 
 a much greater ;" alluding here to the expected in- 
 vasion from Niagara. If Hull intended this pro- 
 clamation as a stratagem of war, in the commence- 
 ment of a set of desperate measures, entire success 
 might have justified it ; to ensure which, his sword 
 should have been as prompt as his pen, and his 
 military manoeuvres as energetic as his language. 
 To rise so high as the tone of this proclamation, so 
 soon to sink to the degrading surrender of a whole 
 army, without a sword drawn, was a mortification to 
 which he should not have subjected his country. 
 Knowing, as appears by his memoirs of this cam- 
 
 Eaign, how many causes existed which might have 
 id him to fear that he should ultimately be over- 
 powered, he ought to have considered the effect of 
 this proclamation, in raising false hopes and expec- 
 tations in the minds of his own army, and the people 
 of the United States. Dissatisfaction that the ex- 
 pected achievements had not been performed, would 
 naturally arise, and the blame fall on the command- 
 ing general. Neither the government nor General 
 Dearborn could, without some secret explanation, 
 have regarded it as the language of an officer who 
 considered his army already in the desperate predi- 
 cament of a "severed limb,'' requiring their utmost 
 care to assist in uniting it to the body. 
 
 Some of the officers were ardent to proceed imme- 
 diately to the attack of Maiden, but General Hull 
 deemed it expedient to wait for his heavy artillery, 
 which was preparing at Detroit ; and in this opinion 
 he was supported by the majority of a council of 
 war, which he called on the 14th of July. 
 
 The army continued at Sandwich, while occa- 
 sional parties scoured the adjacent country, and col- 
 lected some provisions. On the 15th, Colonel Cass, 
 with a detachment of 280 men, left the camp, having 
 obtained the general's permission to reconnoitre the 
 ground between Sandwich and Maiden. Within 
 four miles of Maiden, the river Aux Canards pre- 
 sented an obstruction to the approach of the Ame- 
 rican troops to the British fortress. Colonel Cass 
 attacked the party stationed as a guard, and after 
 killing ten of their number, took possession of the 
 bridge. This attack was made without orders from 
 the commander. Colonel Miller, who accompanied 
 Cass, agreeing with him that this pass was import- 
 tant to the Americans, they sent to ask of the gene- 
 ral to make provision for guarding and retaining it ; 
 but in his opinion, an attempt to maintain the con- 
 quered position would bring on a general action, 
 which he thought would be unwise, as Colonel 
 M'Arthur was then absent with a considerable de- 
 tachment, and it had been determined to wait for 
 artillery. He sent orders, not positive, however, 
 but discretionary, to abandon the bridge and return 
 to the camp, which the party accordingly did. 
 
 Governor Meigs, of Ohio, to whom General Hull 
 had sent for supplies, had dispatched Captain Brush, 
 with a quantity of provisions. Early in August, Hull 
 had been informed that this detachment had pro- 
 ceeded to the river Raisin, and that a party of 
 British and Indians had been sent from Maiden to 
 Brownstown, to intercept it. On the 4th of August, 
 General Hull, at the request of the Ohio officers, 
 detached about 200 men under Major Van Horn to 
 open the communication, and escort Captain Brush 
 to the camp. The detachment arrived at Browns- 
 town on the 8th, and although warned of their danger, 
 they suffered themselves to be surprised by an Indian 
 
 4U 
 
HOG 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 ambuscade. Being fired upon, the Americans at 
 first returned the fire, but soon after fled in disorder 
 to Detroit, leaving eighteen dead upon the field, and 
 having twelve wounded. 
 
 About the 1st of August, General Hull received 
 the unwelcome intelligence of the fall of Mackinau. 
 It had been attacked on the 17th of July, by a party 
 of British and Indians, principally the latter, 
 amounting in the whole to 1024. Lieutenant 
 Hawks, who commanded at this fort, had only 57 
 men under his command; nor had he been informed 
 of the declaration of war when he received the 
 summons to surrender. On learning the strength 
 of the enemy, he capitulated, by the unanimous ad- 
 vice of his officers; stipulating, however, that his 
 garrison should march out of the fort with the ho- 
 nours of war. This event filled Hull with surprise 
 and consternation. He had nothing now to ex- 
 pect, but that these hordes of northern savages would 
 come down upon him. 
 
 This alarm was increased by an intercepted letter 
 from a gentleman belonging to the British North 
 West Company, at Fort William, from which he 
 received the intelligence, that this enterprising as- 
 sociation, by whose means Mackinau had been 
 taken, were still employed with great activity and 
 success in inciting the Indians against the Ameri- 
 cans, and that several thousands in those regions 
 were already in arms. The Indian tribes in his 
 more immediate vicinity, he found were also rising 
 against him. Of these the Wyandots were the 
 most formidable ; as his supplies from Ohio must 
 pass through their country. 
 
 By the defeat of Van Horn, he found himself 
 already cut off from his supplies. On the 5th of 
 August, he again called a council of officers, to de- 
 liberate on the expediency of proceeding to the 
 attack of Maiden without the artillery, which had 
 not been made ready, but was expected in two days. 
 After deliberation, it was agreed to wait two days, 
 and if not then ready, to attack without it. 
 
 Accordingly, the 8th was the day fixed on for the 
 assault ; but intelligence received between the 5th 
 and 8th, induced the general to alter his plan. 
 Letters were received from Generals Porter and 
 Hall, who commanded on the Niagara frontier, 
 informing him that the enemy were leaving their 
 posts in that direction, and were bending all their 
 forces against him ; and that he had nothing to 
 expect from a diversion at Niagara. He was fur- 
 ther informed, that a considerable number of these 
 troops had already reinforced the garrison at Maiden. 
 
 General Dearborn, the commander-in-chief, had 
 been directed by the government to invade Canada 
 1'rom Niagara, and co-operate with Hull. While 
 tardily engaged in preparations to execute this or- 
 dr, Colonel Baynes was sent from Montreal by Sir 
 George Prevost, the governor-general of Canada, 
 with a flag to the American commander at Green- 
 bush. He carried dispatches to the government, 
 which contained the repeal of the British orders in 
 council. But the main object of Prevost appears 
 to have been, to procure (under pretence that this 
 would probably produce a peace,) the consent of 
 General Dearborn to an armistice, in which Hull 
 should not be included, that thus he might be able to 
 turn his whole force against the only invader of the 
 British territory. In this he was successful. 
 
 The partial armistice was to take place on the 
 8th of August. It was, however, stipulated by Gene- 
 ral Dearborn, that if the president of the United 
 States should disapprove it, hostilities should com- 
 
 mence after four days' notice. But the transmis- 
 sion of the dispatches to and from Washington, and 
 the stipulated notice, would give to the governor of 
 Canada all the time which he wished. The presi- 
 dent did disapprove the armistice, but before the 
 commencement of hostilities, the objects of Sir 
 George Prevost were effected. 
 
 General Hull had no intimation of tne armistice, 
 although he experienced its effects. The letters which 
 he had received from. Generals Porter and Hall, de- 
 stroyed the reasonable confidence which he had en- 
 tertained of co-operation from General Dearborn, 
 and also the unauthorized expectation that some- 
 thing would be done by the American government 
 to obtain possession of the lake. He felt the neces- 
 sity of opening a communication with his supplies 
 by the way of Ohio. It had been urged in the 
 council held on the 5th, that to take Maiden would 
 be the most certain measure to effect this ; as Mai- 
 den, the defence of the British forces and the refuge 
 of the Indians, was itself the source of its obstruc- 
 tion. This view of the subject was overruled by the 
 consideration, that as the British commanded the 
 waters between Maiden and the Ohio road, the 
 Americans, although in possession of that fortress, 
 would still be cut off from their desired communica- 
 tion. He believed that amidst so many savage foes, 
 a defeat would prove the destruction of his whole 
 army. As the governor of the territory, he had 
 long been accustomed to watch for the safety of the 
 people, and to guard them from Indian outrages, to 
 which the destruction of the army would leave them 
 exposed without defence : and the idea of their 
 burning habitations, their murdered women, perhaps 
 his own daughter, and their mangled children, rose 
 to his imagination, and the father and civil go- 
 vernor triumphed in his bosom over the military 
 commander; and although he had pledged himself 
 to lead his army to the attack, although his long 
 delayed artillery was now ready for the expected 
 assault, he gave, on the afternoon of the 7th, the 
 positive order for his army to return to Detroit. 
 
 Whether the views which induced the retreat of 
 Hull from Maiden were correct or not, can never be 
 ascertained ; because the issue of a battle was not 
 tried : but posterity will not doubt that he acted from 
 the best dictates of his judgment, although it was a 
 judgment warped by womanly tenderness, and the 
 too cautious fears of age. The man and the 
 warrior should have stirred within him at the thought 
 of the glory he might have acquired for himself and 
 his country ; the disgrace which would attend his 
 retreat, and his desertion of those Canadians, who 
 allured by his high promises, had trusted to his 
 protection. 
 
 If Hull intended a contest with the enemy, with 
 the force under his command, it would seem that 
 every reason was in favour of his encountering it at 
 Maiden, rather than going to await it at Detroit; 
 for, with his views of the numerous force which was 
 gathering against him, he ought to have calculated 
 that he should be followed, and have the war brought 
 to his own door. The delay gave the British time 
 to concentrate their forces, which, not being yet 
 united, he might have defeated in detail. The va- 
 riance of his views with those of his officers, has 
 already been noticed. Neither party adopting those 
 of the other, discontent and dissatisfaction arose 
 between them. This was manifested on the part of 
 Hull, who probably felt that he had been drawn by 
 their advice into his present situation, by taking the 
 resolution to retreat from Maiden without consulting 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1107 
 
 them; and, ou their part, not only by the murmur- 
 ing and reluctance with which they obeyed his 
 orders, but by a plan which was in agitation to de- 
 prive him of the command, and choose a more ener- 
 getic leader. The soldiers were as little satisfied as 
 their officers. Having understood from their gene- 
 ral's proclamations, that they were a force which 
 could " breakdown all opposition," having expected 
 the attack on Maiden, with all the confidence of 
 success, it is not surprising that this uiiexpected or- 
 der of their commander should fill them with dis- 
 appointment and chagrin. 
 
 It was on the 8th of August, that the American 
 army re-crossed the river, and once more took post 
 at Detroit. On the same day. General Hull dis- 
 patched the flower of his army, amounting to 600 
 mm, under Colonel Miller, to open the ccmmu- 
 nicaiion to the river Raisin, the service which 
 had been vainly attempted by Van Horn. At Ma- 
 guaga, near Brownstown, Colonel Miller met, on 
 the 9th, a body of troops, consisting of British, 
 Canadians, and Indians, who, having received infor- 
 mation of bis approach, had crossed over from Mai- 
 den, and were drawn up in the woods in regular order 
 of battle. After a severe contest, the enemy were 
 compelled to retreat. Colonel Miller pursued them 
 about two miles. They embarked under cover of 
 their armed vessels, and returned to Maiden. In 
 this engagement, Tecumseh, the celebrated Shawa- 
 nese chief, was the hero of the British force. He, 
 with his Indians, kept his ground, while the regular 
 troops gave way. He was wounded in the battle, 
 and about 40 of his Indians were found dead 
 upon the field. The American loss, in killed and 
 wounded, was about 80. As soon as General 
 Hull had received a communication from Colonel 
 Miller, he sent to that officer a reinforcement of 
 100 men, under Colonel M'Arthur, with a supply 
 of provisions. A severe storm of rain intervening, 
 to which the troops were exposed without covering, 
 General Hull was induced to order the return of 
 both parties to Detroit. Arrangements were now 
 made to open a communication where they would 
 be less exposed to incursions from Maiden. To 
 this measure he was led by a letter from Captain 
 Brush, who informed him, that he should endeavour 
 to reach Detroit by a circuitous route. Colonels 
 M'Arthur and Cass volunteered for this service, and 
 were directed by Hull to select the choicest troops 
 of their regiments. They took about 350 men, and 
 left the fort on the 13th of August. 
 
 On the return of Hull to Detroit, he manifested, 
 by his measures, his fears for the safety of his post. 
 He sent, on the 9th, an order to Captain Heald, the 
 commander at Chicago, to evacuate that place, and 
 conduct the garrison to Detroit. Accordingly, on 
 the morning of the 15th, he set out with about 70 
 Americans, and 50 friendly Indians, escorting 
 several women and children. At a small distance 
 from the fort, they were attacked by a party of be- 
 tween 400 and 500 savages. The little band made 
 a desperate resistance, but being overpowered 
 by numbers, 36 of the men, two women, and 
 twelve children, being slain in the engagement, 
 they at length surrendered, under promise of pro- 
 tection from " Black-bird," an Indian chief of the 
 Pottowattamie nation. 
 
 After Colonel Miller's return, and before the de- 
 tachment under Cass and M'Arthur left Detroit, 
 Jlull suggested to his officers the propriety of remov- 
 ing his army to some place near the Rapids of the 
 Miami. His reasons were, that the whole force from 
 
 Niagara east, from the upper lakes, and from Mi- 
 chigan, wore collecting at Maiden ; that lake Erie 
 was closed against the Americans ; that the road 
 from Ohio was obstructed by hostile Indians ; that 
 their country had not, as he'could learn, any force 
 prepared for their relief; that their provisions were 
 nearly exhausted, and that isolated as they were 
 they could wot procure a supply. This measure 
 which his own judgment dictated, he failed of car- 
 rying into effect, because his officers did not ap- 
 prove it; and he was told that the Ohio militia 
 would desert if he attempted it. 
 
 On the 13th, five days after the armistice on the 
 Niagara frontier was to take effect, and about the 
 same hour that Colonel Cass and M'Arthur marched, 
 General Brock, the most active and able of the Bri- 
 tish commanders in Canada, arrived to take the 
 command of the British forces. Prveious to his ar- 
 rival, a party of the British under Colonel Proctor, 
 who had succeeded Colonel St. George in the com- 
 mand at Maiden, had taken a position on the river 
 opposite Detroit, and proceeded to fortify the bank, 
 without interruption from the Americans. On the 
 14th, General Brock arrived at Sandwich, and on 
 the 15th he sent a flag, bearing a summons to the 
 American general to surrender. " It is far from, 
 my intention (this is the language.of General Brock's 
 note,) to join in a war of extermination, but you 
 must be aware that the numerous body of Indians 
 who have attached themselves to my troops will be 
 beyond my control the moment the contest com- 
 mences." To this General Hull answered, " I have 
 no other reply to make, than that I am prepared to 
 meet any force which may be at your disposal, &c." 
 General Brock immediately opened his batteries 
 upon the town and fort, and several persons within 
 the fort were killed. The fire was returned by the 
 Americans with some effect. General Hull, greatly 
 alarmed, sent out an express, commanding the im- 
 mediate ret'Ji'u of the detarhm&nt under M'Arthur 
 and Cass. 
 
 Early in the morning of the 16th, the British 
 landed under cover of their warlike vessels, at Spring 
 Wells, three miles below Detroit. Between six and 
 seven o'clock, they had effected their landing and 
 were marching towards the fort. Hull was per- 
 plexed and agitated. He believed that the territory 
 was invaded by a force which it would be in vain to 
 resist, that victory itself would be but a temporary 
 advantage, whose ultimate result would be to deliver 
 the inhabitants to the undistinguishing barbarities 
 of an Indian massacre. Yet he was not insensible 
 to the disgrace of surrendering without an effort, 
 and even at this critical moment he was wavering 
 and indecisive in his operations, neither pursuing 
 with consistency the policy of bravely defending his 
 post, nor that of prudently putting his army in the 
 best posture of defence, and then making honour- 
 able terms of capitulation. At first his army were 
 drawn up in order of battle without the fort, his 
 artillery was advantageously planted, and his army 
 waited'the approach of the'British full of the con- 
 fidence of victory. The latter were within 500 
 yards of their lines, when suddenly an order from 
 General Hull was received, directing his forces 
 to retire to the fort. The indignation of the Ame- 
 ricans broke forth, and all subordination ceased. 
 They crowded into the fort, and without any order 
 from the general, stacked their arms, some dashing 
 them with violence upon the ground. Many of the 
 soldiers wept. Even the spirit of the women rosa 
 iadigaant at this unexpected disgrace, and they de- 
 
 4 U 2 
 
1108 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 clared in the violence of their impotent wrath, that 
 the fort should not be surrendered. Hull, perceiv- 
 ing that he had no longer any authority in his own 
 army, and believing that the Indians were without 
 in large numbers ready to fall upon the inhabitants, 
 was anxious to put the place under the protection of 
 the British. A white flag was hung out upon the 
 walls of the fort. Two British officers rode up. 
 Negotiations were immediately commenced ; and a 
 capitulation was concluded by Hull with the most 
 unbecoming haste. His officers were not consulted ; 
 nor did he make any stipulations for the honours of 
 war for his army, or any provision for the safety of 
 his Canadian allies. All the public property was 
 given up ; the regular troops were surrendered as 
 prisoners of war ; the militia were to return to their 
 homes, and not to serve again during the war, un- 
 less exchanged. 
 
 One of the reasons stated by Hull for his precipi- 
 tate measures, was the absence of the detachment 
 under M 'Arthur and Cass, which weakened his 
 army, as they constituted one full quarter of his 
 effective force, and their situation exposed them to 
 be entirely cut off. At his particular request, they 
 were included in the capitulation ; as was also the 
 party with provisions under Captain Brush. 
 
 Cass and M 'Arthur arrived immediately after the 
 capitulation, and surrendered agreeably to its con- 
 ditions. Captain Brush, having learned the cir- 
 cumstances of the surrender from some Ohio militia, 
 took the resolution not to regard its stipulations ; and 
 accordingly marched his party back to Ohio. 
 
 The number of effective men at Detroit, at the 
 time of its surrender, is stated by General Hull in 
 his official report, not to have exceeded 800 ; while 
 the force of the enemy is said to have been at least 
 double the number. General Brock in his report to 
 Sir George Prevost, states his force to have been 
 1300. of whom 700 were Indians. 
 
 General Hull being exchanged, was prosecuted 
 by the government of the United States, and ar- 
 raigned before a tribunal, of which General Dear- 
 born was president. He was by this tribunal 
 acquitted of treason, but sentenced to death for 
 cowardice and unofficer-like conduct. The criminal 
 under sentence of death was not, however, impri- 
 soned, but sent without a guard from Albany, where 
 the court-martial assembled, to his residence in the 
 vicinity of Boston, to await there the decision of the 
 president of the United States ; to whose mercy the 
 court, in consequence of his revolutionary services, 
 recommended him. The president remitted the 
 punishment of death, but deprived him of all mili- 
 tary command. 
 
 Successes of the Americans at sea Situation of the 
 forces on the New York frontier Affair of Queens- 
 townHarrison takes command of the north- western 
 army Hopkins' expedition The Americans invade 
 Canada The capture of the Frolic And other 
 vessels. 
 
 On the 19th of August, three days after the dis- 
 graceful surrender of Detroit, an event occurred, 
 which, in a measure, healed the wounded pride of 
 the Americans. This was the capture of the British 
 frigate Guerriere, under the command of Captain 
 Dacres, by the American frigate Constitution, com- 
 manded by Captain Hull. The captain of the Bri- 
 tish frigate, previous to the rencontre, had chal 
 lenged any American vessel of her class, and the 
 officers, in various ways, manifested their contempt 
 Of " the Yankees." On the approach of the Gure- 
 
 rit're, Captain Hull gave orders to receive her oc- 
 casional broadsides without returning the fire, and 
 bis crew calmly obeyed his orders, although some 
 of their companions were falling at their guns. Hav- 
 ing his enemy near, and his position favourable, 
 Hull commanded his men to fire broadside after 
 broadside, in quick succession. This was done, and 
 with such precision and effect, that in 30 minutes 
 the Guerriere had her masts and rigging shot away, 
 and her hull so injured, that she was in danger of 
 sinking. Sixty-five of her men were killed, and 63 
 wounded. Knowing that a few more broadsides 
 would carry his ship to the bottom, Captain Dacres 
 struck his colours. The Constitution sustained but 
 little injury. Her loss was seven killed and seven 
 wounded. The American frigate had a small su- 
 periority in the number of her guns, yet by no 
 means in proportion to the superior advantage she 
 obtained. The captured vessel was so much injured, 
 that she could not be got into port, and was burned. 
 Every mark of honour and distinction was paid to 
 the gallant rrew by their grateful countrymen. 
 Several of the officers were promoted by congress, 
 and 50,000 dollars were distributed among the crew 
 as a recompense for the loss of the prize. 
 
 Soon after, another naval victory was announced. 
 On the 7th of September, Capta'in Porter, of th > 
 United States frigate Essex, entered the Delaware, 
 after a successful cruise, in which, among other 
 prizes, he had captured a British sloop of war. This 
 was the Alert, commanded by Captain Laugharne, 
 which was encountered off the Grand Bank of New- 
 foundland, and taken after an action of eight 
 minutes, the British having three men wounded. 
 
 The operations of the frontier of New York were, 
 as has been remarked, under the direction of Gene- 
 ral Dearborn, the commander-in-chief, whose head- 
 quarters were still at Greenbush. Brigadier-general 
 Bloomfield commanded the force at Plattsburg; and 
 Brigadier-general Smyth was now in command at 
 Buflaloe. The militia of the state of New York, 
 then in the service of the United States, amounting 
 to about 5000 men, under General Van Rensselaer, 
 were mostly stationed on the Niagara frontier. 
 Bodies of regulars and militia were also stationed 
 at Black Rock, Sackett's Harbour and Ogdensburg. 
 
 General Van Renssalaer made his head-quarters 
 at Lewiston, on the Niagara river. The militia de- 
 manded to be led against the enemy, and the ge- 
 neral determined to gratify them by attacking 
 Queenstown, a fortified post of the British, on the 
 opposite side of the river. On the llth of October, 
 he attempted to cross the Niagara, but the weathei 
 being tempestuous the attempt was defeated. In the 
 evening of the 12th, the army was reinforced by 
 300 regulars, under the command of Colonel Christie. 
 On the morning of the 13th, the attempt was again 
 made to cross the Niagara, and succeeded. One 
 division of the troops was commanded by Colonel 
 Solomon Van Rensselaer : the other was the divi- 
 sion of Colonel Christie, and consisted of the same 
 number of regulars. These were to be followed by 
 Colonel Fenwick's artillery, and the residue of the 
 army. The first party which effected a landing, 
 was that of Colonels Van Rensselaer and Christie, 
 which had crossed about four o'clock in the morn- 
 ing, just before the dawn of day. As soon as the 
 detachments landed, they were formed by order of 
 Colonel Van Rensselaer, (Colonel Christie not. hav- 
 ing crossed with his men,) for the purpose of storm- 
 ing the heights of Queenstown. 
 
 While waiting for orders to ascend the heights, 
 
ON1TED STATES. 
 
 1109 
 
 the American troops were attacked bythe enemy on 
 either flank. They were however met and repulsed ; 
 but they still kept up a fire which enfiladed the 
 ranks of the Americans, of whom a considerable 
 number were killed and wounded. The brave Co- 
 lonel Van Rensselaer was wounded severely ; it was 
 then supposed mortally. 
 
 Captain Wool, on whom, as senior officer of the 
 regular troops, the command devolved, was also 
 wounded by a ball, which striking him sideways, 
 passed between his thighs. Seeking the disabled 
 Rensselaer, Wool represented to him the criti- 
 cal situation of the troops ; and, notwithstanding 
 his wound, volunteered for any service which might 
 relieve them. Colonel Van Rensselaer directed, as 
 the only effectual measure, the one first proposed, 
 that of storming the British battery upon the 
 heights. Wool conducted his force silently and cir- 
 cuitously, leaving the battery to his right, until he 
 had passed it and attained an eminence which com- 
 manded it. The British finding that resistance 
 would be in vain, left it to the Americans, and re- 
 treated down the heights to Queenstown. 
 
 Elated with their success, the Americans had 
 fallen into disorder, when they again beheld their 
 foe advancing. The intrepid Brock was at their 
 head, with a reinforcement of about 300 men from 
 fort George. An officer raised a white flag, in token 
 of surrender : Wool indignantly pulled it down. 
 To keep the British at bay until he could form his 
 men, he dispatched a body of 60 men, who ad- 
 vanced, but retreated without firing a gun. The 
 British followed, and drove the Americans to the 
 brink of the precipice. One soldier was about to 
 descend: Wool ordered him to be shot; but as the 
 musket was levelled, he returned. 
 
 Thus prohibiting either surrender or retreat, and 
 being ably seconded by his officers, Wool rallied 
 and led on his troops to the attack. The British in 
 their turn gave way, and retreated down the hill. 
 Brock attempted to rally them amidst a galling fire 
 from the Americans ; but in the attempt this brave 
 and gallant officer was mortally wounded. His party 
 no longer attempted resistence, but fled in disorder. 
 
 Soon after, General Van Rensselaer, Colonel 
 Christie and the other officers who had been expected, 
 joined their forces to the gallant band under Captain 
 Wool. That officer, faint with the loss of blood 
 from his wound, crossed the river. Several others 
 who were wounded, and also some prisoners taken 
 in the battle, were carried over. The Americans 
 on the heights considered the day as their own, when 
 they were attacked by a body of British and Indians, 
 probably amounting to 1000, under General Sheaffe, 
 who had followed the energetic Brock at a slower 
 pace, from fort George. The battle becoming warm, 
 and the Americans being hard pressed, General Van 
 Rensselaer recrossed the Niagara, for the purpose 
 of bringing over the militia, who were on the op- 
 posite bank. 
 
 But those who in the morning had evinced so 
 much courage and ardour in the prospect of a bat- 
 tle, having looked upon the blood of their wounded 
 companions who had been brought over, now be- 
 came utterly regardless of the commands, nay, even 
 the most urgent entreaties of their general, to go to 
 the relief of their brethren. 
 
 Two thousand five hundred of the militia remained 
 idle spectators of -the combat ; and to their cowardice 
 may be attributed the defeat which ensued. For their 
 conduct they had since morning found an excuse 
 by declaring it to be unconstitutional to oblige the 
 
 militia to make offensive war ; and they now fancied 
 it would be wrong for them to cross the national 
 boundary. 
 
 The troops already on the Canadian shore de- 
 fended themselves bravely, but were at length over- 
 powered and obliged to surrender. Sixty of the 
 Americans were killed, 100 wounded, and 700 sur- 
 rendered themselves prisoners of war. 
 
 Ohio and Kentucky, particularly the latter, had 
 aroused at the call of Hull for assistance, and an 
 army on its march for Detroit was in the southern 
 part of Ohio, when the news met them of the sur- 
 render of that post. This news rather stimulated 
 than repressed the ardour of the brave and patriotic 
 inhabitants of the west. They continued their efforts 
 in raising troops, until Kentucky is said to have 
 put on foot 7000, and Ohio nearly half that number. 
 These had volunteered ; nor were they all who had 
 stepped forward, and offered their blood and toil for 
 the honour of their country. Pennsylvania and 
 Virginia also sent their bodies of volunteers to the 
 aid of their brethren in the west. But the experi- 
 ence and skill of the officers, the discipline and 
 subordination of the troops, were not equal to their 
 zeal and courage. 
 
 On the 24th of September, William Henry 
 Harrison, governor of the Indiana territory, and 
 brigadier-general in the army, 'who possessed more 
 than any other man the confidence of the western 
 citizens, was appointed by congress to the command 
 of the whole of these forces. They had already ad- 
 vanced to the north-western part of Ohio ; their ge- 
 neral plan of operation being to protect the country 
 against the incursions of hostile savages, and to re- 
 gain the ground lost by Hull's surrender. 
 
 The main division, consisting of 3000, com- 
 manded by Harrison in person, was at this time at 
 the river St. Mary's. Another division, under 
 General Winchester, consisting of 2000, had pene- 
 trated as far as fort Defiance; but they were in 
 want of provisions, and had sent to Harrison for re- 
 lief. That general immediately marched with a con- 
 siderable part of his troops, and on the 3rd of Octo- 
 ber joined General Winchester at fort Defiance. 
 He returned the next day to St. Mary's, having pre- 
 viously ordered General Tupper, with 1000 of the 
 Ohio militia, to proceed to the rapids of the Miami, 
 to dislodge the enemy, and take possession of that 
 place. A want of experience on the part of the offi- 
 cers, and of proper subordination on that of the 
 troops, produced a failure in this, and another at- 
 tempt made by the same officer ; and the British 
 still retained possession of that post. 
 
 The Indians in the Indiana territory were, in the 
 meantime, manifesting a hostile spirit. On the 4th 
 of September, fort Harrison, on the Wabash, was 
 attacked by several hundred of these savage foes. 
 Captain Taylor, with a garrison of 50 men, only fif- 
 teen of whom were effective, it being a time of sick- 
 ness, repelled the assailants with great intrepidity, 
 killing a considerable number, while he lost only 
 three of his own men. The savages, irritated at this 
 defeat, surprised and massacred a settlement consist- 
 ing of 21 persons, men, women, and children, at the 
 mouth of White river. 
 
 Governor Shelby, of Kentucky, issued an address, 
 calling for an additional number of mounted volun- 
 teers, for the defence of the territories of Indiana and 
 Illinois. On the 2nd of October, more than 2000 had 
 assembled at Vincennes. This body was placed un- 
 der the command of General Hopkins On the 10th 
 they arrived at fort Harrison. Here th destruc- 
 
1110 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 lion of the Kickapoo and Peoria towns was pro- 
 posed, and the plan meeting with general approbation, 
 the troops set forward for its execution. On the 
 fourth day of the march, the army being in an ex- 
 tensive prairie of dried grass, perceived suddenly 
 alarming volleys of smoke and flame advancing with 
 the wind. The Indians had set fire to the long thick 
 grass of the prairie. The Americans immediately 
 resorted to the only expedient which could save the 
 army. They set fire to the grass in an opposite di- 
 rection, whose flames the wind carried from them, 
 and then marched on to the ground thus cleared of 
 combustibles. This operation is called setting aback 
 fire, and is frequently necessary. The Indians often 
 resort to this measure to distress an enemy. 
 
 The militia became mutinous, and a major, named 
 Singleton, apparently wishing to bring on a quarrel 
 with the general, rode up to him as the troops were 
 resting, and ordered him, in a peremptory manner, 
 to take up his line of march, or his battalion would 
 instantly leave him. Hopkins called a council of 
 the officers, who agreed to take the sense of the army 
 as to the propriety of returning. The majority were 
 in favour of that measure ; but Hopkins, who en- 
 tirely disapproved the measure, notwithstanding the 
 vote of the army, put himself at their head, and com- 
 manded them to follow him, promising to lead them 
 in one day more to the accomplishment of their ob- 
 ject. But they turned their faces in the opposite di- 
 rection, and marched towards home, the general fol- 
 lowing in the rear. Thus, in consequence of in- 
 subordination, this expedition, which commenced 
 with so much individual patriotism, produced nothing 
 in the event but public disgrace. 
 
 Another expedition, for a similar object, conducted 
 with better success, by the same officer, was under- 
 taken. With a force of 1000 men, mostly regulars 
 and militia, he left fort Harrison, and, on the 19th 
 of November, destroyed the Prophet's town, and a 
 Kickapoo village, four miles distant; these places 
 having been previously evacuated by the inhabitants. 
 A skirmish took place between a party of the militia 
 and an ambuscade of Indians, in which eighteen of 
 the militia were killed. General Hopkins endea- 
 voured to draw on a general action, but failing in 
 this, he returned to Vincennes. 
 
 Colonel Russell, in a similar incursion, with 300 
 regulars, surprised and destroyed a town called the 
 Pimertams. He drove the Indians into a swamp, 
 killed twenty of thorn, and brought off 80 horses. 
 
 About the same time, another expedition was un- 
 dertaken by Colonel Campbell, of the regular army, 
 with 600 men. On the 17th of November, he marched 
 against the towns of the Mississenema, succeeded in 
 destroying them, and overawing the Indians. 
 
 No operations of very great importance were un- 
 dertaken by the northern army, during this cam- 
 paign. In September, a detachment of militia from 
 Ogdensburg, attacked a party of the British, who 
 were moving down the St. Lawrence, and defeated 
 them. They were reinforced, and, in their turn, 
 compelled the militia to retire. In retaliation, the 
 British attempted the destruction of Ogdensburg, on 
 the 2nd of October ; but they were repulsed by Gene- 
 ral Brown, the energetic commander at that sta- 
 tion. 
 
 On the 22nd of October, Major Young, who com- 
 manded a detachment of the New York militia, at 
 French Mills, made an attack upon the British at the 
 Indian village of St. Regis. The Americans, with- 
 out the loss of a man, killed five of the British, and 
 took 40 prisoners. 
 
 On the 16th of November, the army at Plattsburjj 
 moved towards the Canada frontier, and encamped 
 at Champlain. On the 18th, General Dearborn took 
 the command. Soon after, Colonel Pike, with hi* 
 regiment, made an incursion into the territory of the 
 enetny, surprised a party of British and Indians, and 
 destroyed a considerable quantity of public stores. 
 
 It had been expected that the army in this direc- 
 tion would invade Canada, but the failures on the 
 Niagara frontier and at Detroit, prevented the co 
 operation of these armies ; and, on the 23rd, the troopi 
 at Plattsburgh went into winter-quarters. 
 
 On the 12th of November, General Alexander 
 Smyth, who succeeded General Van Reusselaer, in 
 the command of the army of the Centre, issued an 
 inflated address to " The Men of New York," assur- 
 ing them that, in a few days, he should plant the 
 American standard in Canada, and inviting them to 
 "come on," and share the glory of the enterprise. 
 A considerable number volunteered, probably how- 
 ever, more from their confidence in the character of 
 General Porter, who was to be associated with Smyth, 
 and who was to command the volunteers, than from 
 the effect of that general's ridiculous and bombastic 
 appeal. Preparatory to crossing the army, General 
 Stnyth sent two parties, on the night of the 27th of 
 November, one under Colonel Bcerstler, and the other 
 under Captain King, who was accompanied by Lieu- 
 tenant Angus, of the navy, with a small but valiant 
 band of marines; the whole under the direction of 
 General Winder. The party under Boerstler whose 
 object was to destroy a bridge, went several miles 
 down the river, dispersed the enemy, made several 
 prisoners, but returned without having accomplished 
 their object. That under King, who were ordered 
 to attack the batteries opposite Black Rock, per- 
 formed the service in a most gallant manner. Nine 
 out of twelve of the naval officers who embarked in 
 the affair, and half the seamen, were either killed or 
 wounded. They had dispersed the enemy, rendered 
 useless their arnllery, and prepared the way for the 
 safe landing of the army who had been ordered to 
 embark at lleveiile; but delays occurred, and they 
 were not embarked till noon. General Smyth, at 
 this time, ordered them to disembark to dine. It was 
 then found that there were not sufficient boats to 
 carry over 3000 men at once, as had been the order* 
 of the secretary of war; and the General, amidst the 
 murmurings of the army, concluded to postpone the 
 invasion. Most of the brave men who crossed, suc- 
 ceeded in returning ; but some were made prisoners, 
 among whom was Captain King. Not finding boats 
 enough to cross over bis whole party, he sent all his 
 officers and part of his men, but would not desert the 
 remainder, and was captured with them. 
 
 On the 30th of November, General Smyth again 
 ordered the troops to embark the next morning, for 
 the purpose of fulfilling his pledge of planting the 
 standard of America on the shores of her enemy. 
 They did not go on board the boats as early as was 
 expected, and again the general failed of embarking 
 three thousand at once. The fate of the day at 
 Queeustown, (honourable to America in comparison 
 with this,) seems to have been in his mind, and he 
 had no confidence that those who remained behind 
 would cross at all, it' those who went over should b<- 
 in danger. Ho, therefore, disgracefully abandoned, 
 without an effort, the enterprise hn had so boast- 
 ingly pledged himself to perform ; ordered his troops 
 to d'isembark, the regulars to go into winter-quar- 
 ters, and t.he volunteers to return to their homo. A 
 scene of not and confusion cutued. Four thousand 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1111 
 
 men, indignant, and perfectly uncontrolled, were 
 discharging their muskets in every direction, made 
 this a more dangerous field than they would proba- 
 bly have formed on the territory of the enemy. 
 
 On the 18th of October, the American sloop of 
 war, Wasp, commanded by Captain Jones, encoun- 
 tered the British sloop of war, Frolic, under the di- 
 rection of Captain Whinyates, off the island of Ber- 
 muda. Both vessels had suffered injuries from a re- 
 cent storm, but the British was superior in weight of 
 metal. The American at first received the fire of 
 her enemy, at the distance of 50 or 60 yards, but gra- 
 dually lessening this distance, she fired her last broad- 
 side so near, that her rammers, while loading, were 
 shoved against the side of the Frolic. Captain Jones 
 then boarded her, but he trod her deck amidst the 
 dead and dying, without finding a private in arms to 
 oppose him. Three officers and the seamen at the 
 wheel were all that were found alive on deck. Of 
 the whole crew, consisting originally of 120, all, ex- 
 cept twenty, were either killed or wounded. The 
 Americans had five killed and five wounded. Cap- 
 tain Jones did not long enjoy his bloody triumph. 
 Two hours after the battle, a British 74, the Poic- 
 tiers, took both the Victor and his prize, and carried 
 them both into Bermuda. On the return of Cap- 
 tain Jones and his officers, they were hailed by their 
 countrymen with the most distinguishing marks of 
 honour. His crew received 25,000 dollars, and 
 himself the command of a frigate, the captured Ma- 
 cedonian. 
 
 On the 25th of October, the frigate United States, 
 commanded by Decatur, whose conduct in the Me- 
 diterranean had already made him regarded as one 
 of the first officers of the American navy, captured 
 the British frigate Macedonian, commanded by Cap- 
 tain Garden. The engagement took place, where 
 the 29th of north latitude intersects the 29| degrees 
 of west longitude, and continued an hour and a half. 
 The Macedonian being to the windward, had the 
 advantage of choosing her own distance, which, for 
 the first half hour, was so great, that the carronades 
 of the American frigate were useless. When the 
 Macedonian came to close action, the rapid and well- 
 directed fire of the United States proved fatal to her 
 men, swept her masts and spars, and left her an 
 " unmanageable log ;" and the British captain re- 
 luctantly ordered the broad flag of his nation to be 
 furled. When he offered his sword to Decatur, that 
 officer refused to take it " from one who knew so 
 well how to use it," but asked instead, to receive the 
 friendly grasp of his hand. The loss in killed and 
 wounded, on the side of the Americans, was only 
 twelve, while that of the British was 104. 
 
 The naval campaign of this year closed with 
 another American victory, equal in brilliancy to any 
 which had preceded. On the 29th of December, 
 the fortunate Constitution, now commanded by Com- 
 modore Bainbridge, descried off the coast of Brazil, 
 the British frigate Java, of 49 guns, and 400 men, 
 commanded by Captain Lambert. The action con- 
 tinued nearly two hours. The Constitution had nine- 
 teen men killed, and 25 wounded, but she had shot 
 away the masts of the Java, killed 60 of her men, 
 and'wounded 101. The British colours, which, after 
 every spar was gone, had been nailed to the stump of 
 a mast, were at length torn down. 
 
 Nor were these successes confined to armed ves- 
 sels. The swift sailing privateers, which issued from 
 every American port, succeeded in capturing vessels 
 of a superior force, and in harassing and destroying 
 the English commerce. Nearly 250 British vessels 
 
 were captured, and 3000 prisoners were taken, while 
 but comparatively few of the American privateer* 
 fell into the hands of their opponents. 
 
 In reviewing the results of the campaign of 1812, 
 we find on land a series of disgraceful failures on the 
 part of the Americans. This disgrace is however re- 
 lieved by occasional flashes of valour, the most re- 
 markable of which was that exhibited by Captain 
 Wool, upon the heights of Queenstown. These 
 failures were the more mortifying to the Americans, 
 because their superiority in numbers, over the small 
 British force in Canada, was known to be great ; 
 and they confidently expected, that at least all 
 Upper Canada, would fall into their hands during 
 the first campaign. 
 
 But the ill success of the Americans on land was 
 counterbalanced by a series of naval triumphs, 
 equally unexpected, and more injurious to their op- 
 ponents, than even their land defeats were to the 
 United States. 
 
 America makes overtures of peace Connecticut and 
 Massachusetts refuse to furnish tooops Congress 
 assembles Acts passed- Madison re-elected presi- 
 dentPlan of the campaic/n Massacre at French. 
 Toum Fort Meigs besieged The Six nations de- 
 clare war against Canada Fort Stephenson be- 
 sieged Proctor repulsed. 
 
 In the civil and political transactions of bellige- 
 rent powers, we find the causes of their military 
 movements. 
 
 On the 23rd of June, five days after the declara- 
 tion of war, the British government repealed the 
 orders in council. 
 
 No sooner had the United States declared war 
 against Great Britain, than Mr. Monroe, secretary 
 of state, in his letter of June 26th, directed Mr. 
 Russell, charge d' affaires at the court of St. James, 
 to state to the British government, that America had 
 entered upon this contest with reluctance, and was 
 ready to make peace as soon as the wrongs of which 
 she justly complained were redressed. Mr. Russell 
 was authorized to negotiate an armistice by sea and 
 land, on the condition, that the orders in council 
 should be repealed ; the impressment of American 
 seamen discontinued, and those already impressed 
 restored : and as an inducement to discontinue their 
 practice of impressment, the American government 
 pledged themselves to pass a law, prohibiting the 
 employment of British seamen, either in the public 
 or commercial service of the United States. 
 
 These propositions being made by Mr. Russell, 
 Lord Castlereagh, the British minister, on the 29th 
 of August, communicated to him their rejection by 
 his government ; at the same time, informing him 
 that measures had been taken to authorize Sir John 
 Borlase Warren, the British admiral on the Ameri- 
 can station, to propose to the United States an 
 immediate and reciprocal cessation of hostilities ; 
 and in that event, to assure them that full effect 
 should be given to the provisions for repealing the 
 orders in council. On the subject of impressment, 
 Lord Castlereagh said the British government were 
 ready, as heretofore, to receive from the government 
 of the United States any proposition which might 
 check the abuse of the practice, but they could not 
 consent to suspend the exercise of a right, upon 
 which the naval strength of the empire materially 
 depended, until they were fully convinced other 
 means could be devised and adopted, by which the 
 object to be obtained by impressment could be se- 
 cured. 
 
1112 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 While this correspondence was going on in Eng- 
 land, negotiations were also carried on in America. 
 The advantage which was taken by Sir George Pre- 
 vost, of the arrival of the intelligence that the Bri- 
 tish had repealed their orders in council, in procur- 
 ing from General Dearborn the partial and tempo- 
 rary armistice of the 8th of August, has already 
 been noticed in treating of the causes of the misfor- 
 tune and disgrace of General Hull. 
 
 General Dearborn doubtless supposed, that the 
 object of the British was " to seek peace in the 
 spirit of peace," not gain an advantage in carrying 
 on the war. This appears from his letter to the se- 
 cretary of war, of which the following is an 
 extract : 
 
 " SIR : Colonel Baynes, adjutant-general of the 
 British army in Canada, has this day arrived at this 
 place, in the character of a flag of truce, with dis- 
 patches from the British government, through Mr. 
 Foster, which I have enclosed to the secretary. 
 Colonel Baynes was likewise bearer of dispatches 
 from Sir George Prevost, which are herewith en- 
 closed. Although I do not feel myself authorized 
 to agree to a cessation of arms, I concluded that I 
 might with perfect safety agree that our troops should 
 act merely on the defensive, until I could receive 
 directions from my government; but as I could not 
 include General Hull in such an arrangement, he 
 having received his orders directly from the depart- 
 ment of war, I agreed to write to him, and state the 
 proposition made to me, and have proposed his con- 
 fining himself to defensive measures, if his orders 
 and the circumstances of affairs with him would 
 justify it. Colonel Baynes has written similar 
 orders to the British officers in Upper Canada, and I 
 have forwarded them to our commanders of posts, to 
 be by them transmitted to the British commanders." 
 
 From this it appears that the views of the gene- 
 ral were truly pacific ; but it also shows, in con- 
 nexion with the events of the history, that he was 
 doubly deceived. He himself sent the orders of 
 Colonel Baynes to the British officers in Upper 
 Canada ; orders which gave them the information 
 that they had no enemy to fear on the New York 
 frontier, but were at liberty to bend their whole 
 force against Hull. 
 
 On the 30th of September, Sir John Borlase War- 
 ren, then on the Halifax station, addressed a letter 
 to Mr. Monroe, apprising him of the revocation of 
 the orders in council, proposing a cessation of hos- 
 tilities, and threatening in case of a refusal, that the 
 obnoxious orders should be revived. The American 
 government had, in the mean time, been made ac- 
 quainted with the failure of Mr. Russell's negotia- 
 tion ; and Mr. Monroe replied to Sir J. B. Warren, 
 that America could not hope for a durable peace, 
 until the question of impressment was settled. " The 
 claim of the British government," says Mr. Monroe, 
 " is to take from the merchant vessels of other 
 countries British subjects. In the practice, the 
 commanders of the British ships of war often take 
 from the merchant vessels of the United States, 
 American citizens. If the United States forbid the 
 employment of British subjects in their service, and 
 enforce the prohibition by suitable regulations and 
 penalties, the motive for the practice is taken away. 
 It is in this mode that the president is willing to 
 accommodate this important controversy with the 
 British government, and it cannot be conceived on 
 what ground the arrangement can be refused. He 
 .s willing that great Britain should be secured 
 against the evils of which she complains ; but he 
 
 seeks, on the other hand, that the citizens of the 
 United States should be protected against a prac- 
 tice, which, while it degrades the nation, deprives 
 them of their rights as freemen, takes them by force 
 from their families and country into a foreign ser- 
 vice, to fight the battles of a foreign power, perhaps 
 against their own kindred and country." 
 
 The British admiral having no powers to enter on 
 the question of impressment, nothing further re- 
 mained to America, but to exchange the pen for the 
 sword. 
 
 The warmth of party feeling had increased 
 throughout the Union. Notwithstanding much 
 bravery had been exhibited by individual officers and 
 soldiers, still the army had failed in the accomplish- 
 ment of any important object. The enemies of the 
 administration declared, that the ill success of the 
 war was owing to the inefficient measures of the 
 government in providing means for its prosecution ; 
 while its friends attributed the failure to the inter- 
 ference of the opposite party. Both were right in 
 degree ; as the government, wholly inexperienced 
 in providing for the exigencies of war, probably 
 failed in many respects of making judicious and 
 seasonable provisions ; and all its difficulties were in- 
 creased by the ungenerous and almost treasonable 
 opposition which it encountered. But had the ex- 
 pectations which, previous to the war, were enter- 
 tained with regard to the efficiency of the militia 
 system, been realized, and had the affairs of the 
 army been managed well by the agents of govern- 
 ment, its provisions, notwithstanding the inveteracy 
 of its opponents, would have been sufficient to pro- 
 duce very different results from those which were 
 actually experienced. It ought to have been re- 
 membered, that the United States were uudergoing 
 the trial of a great political experiment. Their 
 constitution, which had succeeded in peace, had not 
 been tested in war ; and many had predicted that it 
 would then be found inadequate for public safety, 
 and that the unwieldy mass of its incongruous parts 
 would fall asunder. 
 
 The government, in respect to the efficiency of 
 the militia, were in nowise to blame for expecting 
 what the wisest of the American patriots, and the 
 great body of the people did expect before the war, 
 the events of which have given rise to the general 
 impression, which has since prevailed, that the mili- 
 tia, although they may be useful for defence, and 
 annoy an enemy in desultory warfare, are not calcu- 
 lated for offensive operations or field engagements. 
 But before we too much depreciate the militia sys- 
 tem, we should consider that an army organized on 
 any plan, totally undisciplined, and both officers and 
 men wholly inexperienced, could not be expected to 
 stand their ground at first, or operate successfully 
 against experienced officers and veteran troops. 
 
 The most alarming opposition to the national go- 
 vernment, was not, however, that arising from mere 
 individual clamour. 
 
 The states of Massachusetts and Connecticut had 
 been officially requested by the president, to furnish 
 detatchments of their militia, and place them under 
 General Dearborn, for the defence of the maritime 
 frontier. The constitution gives to congress power 
 to demand the services of the militia, " for the exe- 
 cution of the laws, the suppression of insurrections, 
 and the repelling of invasions;" and also declares, 
 " that the president shall be commander-in-chief of 
 the militia of the several states, when called into the 
 service of the United States." These states re- 
 fused to furnish the required detachments, on the 
 
ONITED STATES. 
 
 1113 
 
 ground that the state governments ought to deter- 
 mine when the exigencies of the nation require the 
 services of their militia. They also decided that it 
 was unconstitutional for the president to delegate his 
 power to any officer not of the militia, and who was 
 not chosen by the respective states. This construc- 
 tion of the constitution was favoured by the deci- 
 sion of the supreme court of Massachusetts ; and as, 
 in their opinion, exigencies did not exist which re- 
 quired the service of the militia, they refused to 
 obey the call of the president. The sea-coast of 
 these states, and, also, of Rhode Island, which state 
 subsequently adopted the same views, was thus de- 
 prived of an important means of defence ; and 
 public feeling was agitated with apprehensions of a 
 civil, as well as a foreign war. 
 
 It was probably owing to this feeling, more than 
 to any other cause, that, notwithstanding the ill 
 success of the army, the result of the election of 
 president was not only favourable to Mr. Madison, 
 but showed a diminution of the federal, and an in- 
 crease of the republican party. 
 
 Congress assembled on the 4th of November, after 
 an unusually short recess. 
 
 The increase of the army and navy early occu- 
 pied their attention. As a greater inducement to 
 enlist, an act was passed on the 21st of November, 
 by which an addition of two dollars per month was 
 made to the pay of the non-commissioned officers 
 and privates ; by which, also, they were exempted 
 from arrest for debts contracted either before or 
 after enlistment. By another act, 25 dollars were 
 given in addition to the existing bounty, to each re- 
 cruit who would enlist for five years. 
 
 On the 30th of November, a bill was reported 
 to the senate, and soon after passed that body, au- 
 thorizing the construction of four ships, carrying 
 each 74 guns, and six frigates, each of 44 guns. 
 This species of armed vessels was strongly recom- 
 mended by Captains Hull, Stewart, and Morris. 
 Subsequently on the 22nd of February, a supplemen- 
 tary act was passed, authorizing the increase of the 
 navy on the lakes. 
 
 (1813.) On the 14th of January, abill passed, author- 
 izing the president to increase the military force, by 
 ing such a number of regiments of infantry, not ex- 
 ceeding twenty, as the service might require. As 
 but little benefit had resulted from the employment 
 of volunteers, the law was repealed which autho- 
 rized the acceptance of their services. By the same 
 act, the force was increased for the protection of 
 the frontier. 
 
 On the 26th, a bill passed, authorizing a loan of 
 16,000,000 dollars, for the year 1813, and, the fol- 
 lowing day, another was passed, giving to the pre- 
 sident power to issue treasury notes to an amount 
 not exceeding 5,000,000 dollars. 
 
 On the 29th, congress passed a law, declaring, 
 that no seaman should be employed in American 
 vessels but native citizens of the United States, or 
 those who had become naturalized. This law was 
 to be carried into effect at the close of the war. 
 
 The regular force of the United States now 
 amounted to nearly 55,000 men. An act was passed 
 on the 13th of February, by which, in addition to 
 the officers of an inferior grade, six major-generals 
 and six brigadiers were appointed. 
 
 On counting the votes, it was found that James 
 Madison had been re-elected president, and Eltridge 
 Gerry chosen vice-president, for the ensuing term 
 of four years ; and they were accordingly, on the 
 4th of March, inaugurated into office. 
 
 The scene of military operations during the year 
 1813, comprehended the whole extensive northern 
 frontier of the United States. At the opening of 
 the campaign, the army of the west, under General 
 Harrison, was placed near the head of lake Erie ; 
 the army of the centre, under General Dearborn, 
 between the lakes Ontario and Erie ; while the army 
 of the north, under General Hampton, occupied the 
 shores of lake Champlain. The invasion of Canada 
 was still the object of the American armies ; and the 
 force which Sir George Prevost, the viceroy of Ca- 
 nada, could bring to oppose them, was comparatively 
 small. The defence of the upper provinces was 
 committed to Colonels Proctor and Vincent, while 
 the command of the troops of Lower Canada was 
 given to General Sheaffe, who was, however, to act 
 under the more immediate direction of the governor 
 himself. 
 
 The head-quarters of General Harrison were at 
 this time at Franklinton, in Ohio. General Win- 
 chester had proceeded in advance of the main army, 
 and hearing that a party of British were stationed 
 at Frenchtown, he attacked and dispersed them. 
 He remained at Frenchtown with apart of his troops 
 encamped in the open field, the remainder being 
 behind a breastwork. On the morning of the 22nd 
 of January, he was surprised by a combined force 
 of British and Indians, under the command of Co- 
 lonel Proctor, and the Indian chiefs Roundhead 
 and Split-log. That part of the American force 
 which encamped in the'open field, were soon thrown 
 into disorder. General Winchester and the other 
 officers in vain attempted to rally. Many of them, 
 unable to make their escape, were killed by the 
 Indians. General Winchester and Colonel Lewis 
 were taken prisoners. The American troops, how- 
 ever, continued fighting with great intrepidity, until 
 they received General Winchester's order to sur- 
 render. That general had sent this mandate, on 
 being assured by Colonel Proctor, that if the Ame- 
 ricans would surrender, they should be protected; 
 otherwise he should not be responsible for the con- 
 duct of the Indians. The promised protection was 
 not, however, granted. Colonel Proctor marched 
 for Maiden, leaving behind him and without a 
 guard, the wounded prisoners. The merciless sa- 
 vages soon returned, set fire to the town, dragged 
 the wounded from the houses, scalped them in the 
 streets, and left their mangled bodies in the highway. 
 
 In this melancholy affair the Americans lost in 
 killed and wounded about 500 ; a number equal to 
 the slaughtered were made prisoners of war. They 
 were principally volunteers from the most respect- 
 able families of Kentucky ; and this bloody day 
 clothed that state in mourning. 
 
 The loss of the British, as stated by Colonel 
 Proctor, was 24 killed, and 158 wounded. 
 
 General Harrison now removed his head-quarters 
 from Franklinton, to a fort which he had built at 
 the rapids of the Miami, named in honour of the 
 governor of Ohio, fort Meigs. He was here be- 
 sieged on the 1st of May, by Colonel, now General 
 Proctor, with a force of 1000 regulars and militia, 
 and 1200 Indians. The American army, occupying 
 a commanding position and strongly intrenched, 
 resisted the efforts of the besieging army. Their 
 fate, however, hung in suspense, when on the 
 morning of the 5th, an officer arriving at the fort, 
 announced the intelligence that General Clay, 
 from whom he came, was with 1200 Kentuckians, 
 descending the Miami, and at that moment was but 
 a few miles distant. Conceiving that the British 
 
1114 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 army was now in his power, Harrison sent orders 
 to land one half of the advancing force on the side 
 of the river opposite to the fort, to co-operate with 
 him in forcing the British batteries. Colonel Dud- 
 ley, with a party of 800, was charged with this 
 service ; and he performed it with so much spirit, 
 that in a few minutes he was in possession of the 
 batteries of the besiegers, and had taken several 
 prisoners ; but his troops, unduly elated, pursued 
 the British until they were drawn into an ambus- 
 cade prepared for them by the Indian Tecumseh. 
 The whole party, with the exception of 150, were 
 cut off. Dudley strove in vain to rescue his troops ; 
 and when mortally wounded, he still continuedHhe 
 contest, and killed an Indian warrior before he fell 
 himself. 
 
 In the mean time a sortie from the fort, under 
 Colonel John Miller, brought on a general engag 
 ment, in which the British were defeated. The 
 Indian warriors, either displeased at their want of 
 success, or desirous to display their trophies to their 
 several tribes, and to gratify their thirst for blood 
 by the immolation of a portion of their captives, now 
 withdrew from the army of Proctor, notwithstanding 
 the entreaties of Tecumseh, who was himself ever 
 faithful to the cause which he espoused. Thus situ 
 ated, Proctor, on the 9th of May, raised the siege 
 of fort Meigs and retreated to Maiden. General 
 Harrison returned to Ohio, leaving General Clay 
 in command. 
 
 In July, the Six Nations declared war against 
 the Canadas. About the same time, the United 
 States accepted the services of some of the other 
 tribes. The American government at the commence- 
 ment of the war, deprecating the policy of employ- 
 ing savage allies, and considering the power which 
 employed them as responsible for their known bar- 
 barities, had refused the services of such as had 
 offered, and had uniformly advised them to remain 
 neutral. This advice had in many cases given of- 
 fence to the savages, being construed as implying a 
 disrespect of their valour. It had been found that 
 such was their fondness for war, that the only alter- 
 native for the administration was to receive their 
 hostile efforts upon the heads of their own inhabi- 
 tants, or turn them upon their enemy; and from 
 these reasons, the Americans at length consented 
 that they should " take hold of the same tomahawk," 
 and make common cause with them. 
 
 On the 20th of July, Proctor, having again col- 
 lected about 500 of his Indian allies, with about as 
 many regulars, marched against fort Stephenson, 
 on the Sandusky river. On the 2nd of August he 
 invested it, and demanded a surrender. Major 
 Croghan, a gallant youth of 21, with a garrison of 
 160, took the resolution of defending the fort to the 
 last extremity, notwithstanding the threat, which 
 in former instances had been found so potent, that 
 after the contest had commenced, the Indians could 
 not be restrained. By his judicious measures, and 
 the courage and promptness of the officers and men, 
 Proctor was repulsed with a loss of 150 ; the Ame- 
 ricans losing only one killed and seven wounded ; 
 and the English general returned to Maiden ; and 
 no military operation of consequence was under- 
 taken, until the Americans, having command of the 
 lakes, were able to act offensively. 
 
 Attack on Oydensburg Chauncey prepares a fleet on 
 lake Ontario York attacked by the Americans 
 General Pike killed York surrenders Chandler 
 and Winder captured Perry's victory on lake Erie 
 
 Battle of the Thames Delaware and Chesapeake 
 bays in a state of blockade Admiral Cockburn car- 
 ries on a predatory warfare New York and New 
 London harbours blockaded. 
 
 We now go back several months to give a view of 
 the operations of the contending armies on the New 
 York frontier. 
 
 Early in February, Major Forsyth, an enterpris- 
 ing partisan officer, who commanded some American 
 troops stationed at Ogdensburg, crossed the St. 
 Lawrence with a party of his riflemen and some vo- 
 lunteers, surprised the guard at Elizabethtown, and 
 took 52 prisoners, together with a quantity of arms 
 and ammunition. 
 
 On the 22nd of February, (1812,) Sir George 
 Prevost, who had recently arrived at Prescott, di- 
 rected an attack upon Ogdensburg, which was made 
 on the same night by a corps of 500 regulars and 
 militia, under Major Macdonnal. The Americans 
 refused to surrender at their summons, and notwith- 
 standing they were much inferior in numbers, they 
 fought with great bravery for an hour, when they 
 were compelled to retire, and abandon their artillery 
 and stores to the British. Two schooners, two gun- 
 boats, together with the barracks, were committed 
 to the flames. 
 
 Pursuant to the law passed by congress, early 
 efforts were made to build and equip fleets upon the 
 lakes. The preceding year the Americans did not 
 possess a single armed vessel on lake Erie, and none 
 on lake Ontario save the brig Oneida, of sixteen guns. 
 On the 8th of October, 1812, the gallant Captain 
 Elliot, with 100 men, embarked in two boats, crossed 
 the Niagara from Black Rock, and took two British 
 brigs from under the guns of fort Erie, from which a 
 heavy fire was kept up upon his party. One of 
 these brigs, called the Detroit, was burned; the other, 
 the Caledonia, was added to the American naval force. 
 
 It was in 1812 that Commodore Chauncey was 
 sent by the government to take the command on the 
 lakes. He arrived at Sackett's Harbour on the 6th 
 of October. By great exertions he had succeeded 
 in preparing a flotilla to aid in the operations of the 
 ensuing campaign. Its first important service was 
 that of transporting General Dearborn from Sackett's 
 Harbour to York, the capital of Upper Canada, 
 which that general, by the advice of General Pike, 
 a much valued officer, had determined to attack. 
 He embarked with 1700 men, and on the 27th of 
 April arrived before York. The force of the enemy 
 consisted of 700 regulars and militia, and 100 In- 
 dians, under General Sheaffe. These troops had 
 collected near the place of debarkation, which was 
 nearly a mile and a half from the fort. Major 
 Forsyth was the first who landed. General Pike, to 
 whom the command of the attack had been given, 
 soon followed with the remainder of the troops. 
 After a severe contest of half an hour, the British re- 
 peated to their works. The Americans formed, ad- 
 vancing in columns. They had destroyed one of 
 the batteries, and were within 60 yards of their 
 main works, when the tremendous explosion of a 
 magazine, at 200 yards' distance, filled the air in 
 every direction with huge stones and fragments of 
 wood, which falling, caused a dreadful havoc among 
 ;he troops. One hundred of the Americans and 40 
 >f the British were killed. General Pike fell mor- 
 ally wounded. Finding resistance unavailing, Ge- 
 leral Sheaffe with the regulars retreated towards 
 Kingston, leaving the commanding officer of the mi- 
 "itia to make the best terms in his power. Th 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 Americans soon recovered from the shock produced 
 by the explosion, and proceeded under Colonel 
 Pearce to take possession of the enemy's barracks. 
 The outlines of a capitulation were soon agreed on, 
 and the Americans took possession of the town. Ge- 
 neral Pike survived his wounds but a few hours ; and 
 General Dearborn in person now took the command 
 of the troops. The loss of the British was 90 killed, 
 200 wounded, and 300 prisoners, besides 500 militia 
 released upon parole. A great quantity of stores 
 was likewise found here, as York was the naval and 
 military depot for all Upper Canada. General 
 Sheaffe's baggage and papers fell into the hands of 
 the Americans. 
 
 On the 8th of May, General Dearborn evacuated 
 the capital of Upper Canada, and having crossed the 
 lake for the purpose of leaving the wounded at Sack- 
 ett's Harbour, again set sail and disembarked his 
 troops at Niagara. 
 
 The army at Niagara having been reinforced, Ge- 
 neral Dearborn re-embarked, and on the morning of 
 the 27th of May proceeded to attack fort George. 
 The landing was warmly disputed by the British un- 
 der Colonel Vincent, but the coolness and intre- 
 pidity which the American troops displayed, led on 
 and encouraged by General Boyd, soon compelled 
 the enemy to give way in every direction. Com- 
 modore Chauncey had made the most judicious ar- 
 rangements for silencing their batteries near the 
 point of landing. Colonel Vincent, perceiving that 
 the fort would soon become untenable, set fire to his 
 magazine, spiked his guns, and abandoned the place; 
 not, however, until he had sustained a loss of 300 
 men. The loss of the Americans was seventeen killed 
 and 45 wounded. 
 
 The capture of fort Erie speedily followed that of 
 fort George. Lieutenant-colonel Preston took pos- 
 session of this fort on the 28th, it having been pre- 
 viously abandoned by the British, and the magazine 
 blown up. 
 
 The British governor had not been an idle spec- 
 tator of these successes. Having arranged his plan 
 of operation with Commodore Yeo, the commander 
 of the British fleet on lake Ontario, he embarked at 
 Kingston on the 27th of May, appeared before 
 Sackett's Harbour on the 28th, and landed 1200 men. 
 General Brown immediately rallied the militia, and 
 compelled Sir George to abandon the enterprise and 
 return to Canada. 
 
 After the fall of fort George and fort Erie, Colonel 
 St. Vincent had retired with his army to Burlington 
 Heights, near the head of lake Ontario. He was 
 pursued by a force which General Dearborn had de- 
 tached for the .purpose, under Generals Chandler 
 and Winder. Colonel St. Vincent having recon- 
 noitred their position, formed his plan of attack. At 
 the dead of night he stole unperceived upon the 
 Americans, drove in the pickets, and with the roar 
 of artillery and the dreadful yell of the Indians, 
 rushed upon the camp. A scene of confusion and 
 carnage ensued. The Americans could not distin- 
 guish friend from foe. General Chandler noticing a 
 party of men in apparent confusion, approached and 
 attempted to rally them. They were British troops, 
 and immediately secured him as their prisoner. Ge- 
 neral Winder shared, by a like mistake, a similar fate. 
 The Americans however maintained their post, and 
 forced the British to retire. The loss of the latter 
 was supposed to exceed that of the Americans, and 
 was probably between 200 and 300 in killed and 
 wounded. Colonel Burns, on whom the command 
 of the American force now devolved, finding him- 
 
 self in an embarrassing situation, from the capture of 
 the two generals and the failure of ammunition, re- 
 treated from Stony Creek, the place of the battle, to 
 Forty Mile Creek, the former position of this 
 force. 
 
 The last operation on this scene of hostility, pre- 
 vious to the retreat of the Americans, was the affair 
 at Beaver Dams. On the 23rd of June, Colonel 
 Bcestler was ordered by General Dearborn to march 
 from fort George, and disperse a body of the enemy, 
 which had collected at this place. The Americans 
 were attacked within two miles of the Beaver Dams, 
 and after an action, Colonel Bcestler's ammunition 
 being exhausted, he surrendered his whole detach- 
 ment, which consisted of 570 men. Soon after, Ge- 
 neral Dearborn received orders to retire, and the 
 command of the army at fort George devolved on 
 General Boyd. 
 
 Commodore Chauncey left Sackett's Harbour on 
 the 27th of July, to cruise upon the lake. On ar- 
 riving off Niagara, he learned that the British had 
 a considerable quantity of stores at Burlingtonbay. 
 Colonel Scott volunteered his services to aid in their 
 destruction. They set sail with about 200 infantry, 
 but finding a force double their own strongly in- 
 trenched and defended by eight pieces of cannon, 
 they abandoned the attempt. They proceeded to 
 York, took a few prisoners, and destroyed or carried 
 away five pieces of cannon, eleven boats, and a con- 
 siderable quantity of ammunition. 
 
 The autumn of this year witnessed the novel scene 
 of a naval battle on one of those inland seas which 
 separated the possessions of the contending parties. 
 The American fleet, which had been wholly formed 
 during the last summer, was under the command of 
 Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. It now consisted 
 of the Niagara and Lawrence, each mounting 25 
 guns, and several smaller vessels, carrying on an 
 average two guns each. The British fleet was con- 
 sidered of equal force. Commodore Barclay, the 
 commander of the latter squadron, was a veteran, 
 officer. The conflict commenced on the part of the 
 Americans about twelve o'clock, and soon became 
 general and desperate. Commodore Perry's flag- 
 ship, the Lawrence, being disabled, he embarked 
 in an open boat, and amidst a shower of bullets, car- 
 ried the ensign of command on board the Niagara, 
 and once more bore down upon his enemy with the 
 remainder of his fleet. The action was severe; and 
 at four o'clock, the whole British squadron, consist- 
 ing of six vessels, carrying in all 63 guns, surren- 
 dered to the Americans. 
 
 This success on lake Erie opened a passage to the 
 territory which had been surrendered by General 
 Hull; and General Harrison lost no time in trans- 
 porting the war thither. On the 23rd of September 
 be landed his troops near fort Maiden, but to his sur- 
 prise, instead of an armed force, he met at the en- 
 trance of the town, the matrons aud maids of Atn- 
 ierstburg, who, in their best attire, had come forth 
 to solicit the protection of the Americans. 
 
 General Proctor had previously evacuated the 
 ;own, and burned the public storehouses and fort. 
 The next day the Americans marched in pursuit of 
 Proctor and his troops, and on the 29th entered and 
 ;ook possession of Detroit. 
 
 General Proctor had retired to the Moravian 
 illage on the Thames, about 80 miles from Detroit, 
 is force at this time consisting of 2000 men, inclini- 
 ng Indians, who composed more than half his army. 
 He was overtaken by the American general o"n 
 be 5th of of October. The British army, although 
 
1116 
 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 inferior in numbers, had the advantage of choosing 
 their ground, and were strongly posted, their left 
 resting on the Thames, and defended by artillery ; 
 the right extended to a swamp which run parallel to 
 the river, and was supported by the brave Tecumseh 
 and his warriors, who were stationed in a thick 
 wood which skirted the morass. General Harrison, 
 placing great reliance.on Colonel Johnson's mounted 
 regiment, ordered them to charge the British centre , 
 with the intention of penetrating their lines, and 
 getting into their rear. The Kentuckians advanced 
 valiantly to the charge, and so far succeeded as to 
 throw the British into confusion ; but their horses 
 were unused to such perilous service, and they 
 failed to penetrate the lines. In this situation they 
 did not suffer themselves to be thrown back upon 
 the advancing army, but wheeled to the right and 
 left, fell upon the enemy's flanks and poured upon 
 them a destructive fire. The venerable Governor 
 Shelby led on his militia, and was found in the hot- 
 test of the fray. Colonel Johnson with his battalion 
 was encountered by the Indians under Tecumseh ; 
 and these two heroes of the contending armies, by a 
 chance which often happens in romance, but seldom 
 in real warfare, met each other in a strife which, 
 from the character of both, must be deadly to one. 
 Johnson, perceiving in a certain part of the field 
 that the battle was hot and the troops hard pressed, 
 turned the steps of his conspicuous white horse thi- 
 ther. The Indians saw in him an officer of dis- 
 tinguished rank, and a shower of bullets met him as 
 he approached. Five of them pierced his body. 
 His noble charger reeled to his fall. Tecumseh, 
 himself wounded, drew up his majestic figure, raised 
 his bloody tomahawk, but stood one moment as if in 
 pity to his victim. The Kentuckian drew a pistol 
 from his holster, and ere the uplifted arm fell, 
 fired, and Tecumseh lay dead at his feet. Johnson 
 fell also, but his wounds were not. mortal. The 
 defeat of the mighty savage was the defeat of the 
 army. 
 
 This celebrated aboriginal warrior fell in the 
 forty-fourth year of his age. In person he was 
 above the middle size ; extremely active, and capa- 
 ble of sustaining fatigue in an extraordinary degree 
 His carriage was erect and lofty his motions quick 
 his eye penetrating his visage stern with an air 
 of hauteur in his countenance, arising from an ele- 
 vated though savage pride. His rule of war was neither 
 to give nor accept quarter. He had been in almos 
 every battle with the Americans ; and received seve 
 ral wounds, and always sought the hottest of the fire 
 His ruling passion was glory ; wealth was beneath 
 his ambition, and although his plunderings and sub- 
 sidies must have amounted to a large sum, he diec 
 poor. The Americans had a kind of ferocious plea 
 sure in contemplating the contour of his features 
 which was majestic even in death. 
 
 Proctor perceiving that all was lost, fled from the 
 field with 200 dragoons. The remainder of his 
 army immediately surrendered. Nineteen regulars 
 were killed, 50 wounded, and 600 made prisoners 
 The Indians left 120 on the field. The American 
 loss in killed and wounded, was upwards of 50 
 Among the trophies of the field, were six brass field 
 pieces, which had been surrendered by Hull; on 
 two of which were inscribed the words " Surren 
 tiered by Burgoyne, at Saratoga." Several of th< 
 Indian tribes now sent deputations to General Har 
 rison, and the Ottowas, Chippewas, Miami*, an 
 Potowattatnies, made treaties of alliance, agreein 
 " t> take hold of the same tomahawk with the Ame 
 
 icans, and strike at all the enemies of the United 
 States, whether they be British or Indian." 
 
 General Harrison, having witnessed the accom- 
 ilishment of his objects in Michigan and Upper 
 Canada, left General Cass in command at Detroit, 
 nd embarked for Buffalo. The Kentucky infantry, 
 n their march homeward, collected the bleaching 
 >ones of their countrymen, massacred at French- 
 own, and deposited them in one common grave. 
 
 In the early part of this year, the bays of Chesa- 
 
 jeake and Delaware were declared by the British 
 
 government to be in a state of blockade ; and to en- 
 
 orce this edict, Admiral Warren was stationed off the 
 
 American coast, and Rear-admiral Cockburn was 
 
 ent up the Chesapeake, to make the inhabitants and 
 
 he government sensible of the danger of arousing 
 
 .he British nation. A squadron, under Admiral 
 
 5eresford, also entered the Delaware, and, on the 
 
 !0th of April, proceeded to Lewistown. The Bri- 
 
 ish demanded provisions of the inhabitants, which 
 
 )eing refused, they commenced an attack upon the 
 
 illage. After a bombardment of several days, they 
 
 were at last compelled to retire. Other attempts 
 
 ere made by them to land their troops, but they 
 
 always met with a successful opposition. After de- 
 
 troying some of the smaller American vessels, the 
 
 squadron sailed for the Bermudas, where Admiral 
 
 Warren was, with his fleet, preparing for an attack 
 
 upon the sea-coast during the summer. 
 
 Admiral Cockburn was, in the mean time, prose 
 cuting a most relentless warfare in the Chesapeake, 
 tie took possession of several small islands in the 
 say, and from these made descents upon the neigh- 
 aouring shores, whenever, and wherever there was a 
 probability of finding the inhabitants unprepared 
 and defenceless. The militia were hastily collected, 
 and stationed along the coast, and though they often 
 repulsed the enemy, yet their opposition was but of 
 little avail against hundreds of these marauders. 
 
 Their first attacks were upon the small villages of 
 Frenchtown and Havre de Grace. They took pos- 
 session of these towns, and the stores in them which 
 could not be removed, were destroyed* They then 
 proceeded to lay waste the adjacent country ; and 
 their route was marked by devastation. On the 
 16th of May, they returned to the fleet. 
 
 Their next descent was upon Fredericktown and 
 Georgetown, situated nearly opposite to each other, 
 on the Sassafras river ; and in these places great 
 excesses were committed. 
 
 Not long after, Admiral Warren appeared in the 
 bay, with his fleet reinforced and carrying 2000 
 troops, under Sir Sydney Beckwith. This force 
 excited the fears of the inhabitants of the cities and 
 larger towns. On receiving this intelligence, Com- 
 modore Cassin made arrangements for opposing 
 them. A frigate was stationed at the mouth of 
 Elizabeth river, on which Norfolk is situated, and 
 10,000 Virginia militia were collected near this 
 place. 
 
 On the 22nd of June, an attempt was made by 
 4000 British troops on Craney's island, which was 
 the only obstacle to a direct attack on Norfolk. An- 
 other party attempted to land on the main shore ; 
 but here they were met by the Virginia militia, 
 while their landing on the island was opposed by 
 the officers of the frigate; and thus they were forced 
 to abandon the attempt. 
 
 On the 25th, Cockburn and Beckwith directed 
 their forces, amounting to 2500, against the village 
 of Hampton. At first they were compelled to with- 
 draw, by the exertions of 400 militia, who were 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1117 
 
 stationed at the place ; but another effort was made, 
 and they gained possession of the town. Their 
 troops were chiefly of the vilest description, being 
 prisoners taken from the. French armies in Spain, 
 and they committed great outrages. 
 
 To the north of the Chesapeake these excesses 
 were not committed, though the effects of the war 
 were felt in the strict blockade which was kept up at 
 New York. Three ships of war on leaving that port 
 in May, were chased into New London harbour, and 
 there blockaded for several months, by the British 
 fleet under Commodore Hardy. 
 
 Chauncey captures a British squadron Battle of 
 Williamsburg Affair of Chateaugay Newark 
 burnt The British take possession of fort Niagara 
 Naval engagements The Hornet and the Pea- 
 cock Chesapeake and the Shannon The Argus 
 and the Pelican The enterprise captures the Boxer 
 Creek war. 
 
 Although Commodore Chauncey had not been in- 
 active on lake Ontario, still he had failed to bring 
 Sir James Yeo to a decisive engagement. This he 
 successfully manoeuvred to avoid, his squadron being 
 inferior in force but superior in sailing to that of his 
 antagonist. On the 5th of October, however, Com- 
 modore Chauncey encountered a fleet of seven sail, 
 which was bound for Kingston, with troops and 
 provisions. Five of these he captured, one of them 
 was burned, and the remaining vessel escaped. 
 
 General Wilkinson, who had commanded the army 
 en the Mississippi, was this year appointed to the 
 command of the army of the centre, and arrived at 
 Sackett's harbour on the 20th of August. The chief 
 object of his instructions from the government, was 
 the taking of Kingston ; yet the reduction of Ca- 
 nada, by attacking Montreal, appears to have been 
 the object of the remainder of the campaign. 
 
 The forces on which Wilkinson depended for the 
 accomplishment of this object, were an army of 
 5000, at fort George ; a force of 2000 under General 
 Lewis, at Sackett's harbour ; and the victorious 
 troops of General Harrison, whom General Wilkin- 
 son expected would unite with his army, and pro- 
 ceed with him down the St. Lawrence. General 
 Hampton, who had been appointed to command the 
 northern army, was to penetrate by the way of 
 Champlain, and form a junction at some place on 
 that river. To aid in this project, General Arm- 
 strong, who had lately been appointed secretary of 
 war, arrived at Sackett's harbour on the 5th of Sep- 
 tember. General Wilkinson waited on him for 
 orders ; and notwithstanding his former instructions, 
 jhe now favoured that general's proceeding imme- 
 diately to Montreal, without attacking Kingston. 
 Grenadier island, near the northern outlet of lake 
 Ontario, was fixed upon as the place of rendezvous. 
 Owing to tempestuous weather, the troops did not 
 arrive before the last of October ; and on the 30th 
 they set sail. 
 
 On the 6th of November, they arrived within a 
 few miles of Prescott. The stores were landed on 
 the Canadian side, and the troops under General 
 Boyd disembarked, to proceed by land in order to 
 avoid the fire of the British batteries. The flotilla 
 under General Brown, sustained a heaty cannonade 
 on passing the fortress. 
 
 The British governor had anticipated the designs 
 of the American government in sending this force 
 against Canada, and had ordered a corps of obser- 
 vation from Kingston to follow the movements of 
 General Wilkinson's army. With this force they 
 
 continually menaced his rear. Colonel Macomb, 
 wilh an elite corps of about 1200 men, was detached 
 to disperse the militia who were collected on the 
 shores. On the 8th, he was reinforced by General 
 Brown. On the 10th, having arrived at a long and 
 dangerous rapid, the troops, excepting a sufficient 
 numbef to navigate the boats, were ordered to 
 march under General Boyd, while General Brown 
 was detached still further down the river. Generals 
 Wilkinson and Lewis were both confined to the 
 boats by indisposition. 
 
 On the llth, the troops arrived at Williamsburg, 
 and were about to re-embark, when the British were 
 discovered in their rear. General Boyd, who was 
 joined by Generals Covington and Swartout with 
 their brigades, marched upon them in three columns, 
 and commenced an attack. The action was sus- 
 tained for more than three hours with great bravery, 
 the adverse lines alternately yielding and advancing, 
 when by a movement of the British, the American 
 infantry, who had been left to cover their retreat, 
 were dislodged, and the former gained the victory. 
 The loss of the Americans was 339 ; that of the 
 British 180. The American force engaged did not 
 exceed 1200, while that of the British was certainlv 
 more. 
 
 The next day communications were received from 
 General Hampton, in which he declined joining his 
 forces to those of General Wilkinson, stating that 
 his stock of provisions was not sufficient for both 
 armies; he intimated, however, that he should 
 retire to the Plattsburg road, and would join him 
 lower down the river. A council of war was now 
 called by Wilkinson, who decided to abandon the 
 attack on Montreal, and to go into winter-quarters 
 at French Mills. 
 
 In the meantime, General Hampton with an 
 army 4000 strong encamped at Plattsburg. He re- 
 ceived orders for invading the British territory by 
 the way of Champlain, and took post at that place 
 on the 25th of September. Here he met an order 
 to proceed to Chateaugay, and penetrate to Mon- 
 treal by the way of Chateaugay river. Leaving his 
 encampment at Chateaugay Four Corners on the 
 21st of October, he crossed the line, and proceeded 
 down the river to Ormstown. Here he ascertained 
 that the British, about 600 strong, occupied a posi- 
 tion six miles below him, on his route to Montreal. 
 For the purpose of destroying it, he detached Co- 
 lonel Purdy on the night of the 25th, with 2000 of 
 his forces. For the want of proper guides Purdy 
 was unable to accomplish his object. A little after 
 sunrise on the morning of the 26th, within one mile 
 of the position of the enemy, the other division of 
 the army under Hampton overtook Purdy, being, 
 however, on the opposite side of the river. General 
 Hampton placed the greater part of his force under 
 General Izard with orders to attack the British im- 
 mediately, which he accordingly did, and after some 
 unsuccessful attempts to dislodge them, he treated 
 from the field of battle. During this attack upon 
 the left bank, Colonel Purdy remained on the right 
 bank, without any exertions on his part to aid Ge- 
 neral Izard, his men being exhausted by the last 
 night's march. The British discovering them, sup- 
 posed them to be only a small detachment sent over 
 for guarding the bank of the river, and sent a few 
 troops for the purpose of capturing them. Without 
 being observed, they had gained his rear and com- 
 menced an attack, when his whole division without 
 firing a musket fled to the river in the greatest con- 
 fusion. The British finding their force greater than 
 
1118 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 they had expected, retreated. The American army 
 encamped on the night of the 26th, and remained 
 until the 28th, when they returned to Four Corners, 
 where Hampton dispatched to General Wilkinson 
 the letter which has been mentioned. Receiving 
 the intelligence that the attack on Montreal was 
 abandoned, he took up his line of march for Platts- 
 burg, where he established his winter-quarters. He 
 soon resigned his commission, and was succeeded 
 in command by General Izard. 
 
 General Harrison did not arrive at Buffalo until 
 the 24th of October, and was not ready to join Ge- 
 neral Wilkinson until he had gone into winter-quar- 
 ters. He then proceeded to Sackett's harbour, 
 leaving the Niagara frontier defenceless, except 
 that a few militia remained under General M'Clure, 
 who commanded at fort George. Sir George Pre- 
 vost, being relieved from his apprehensions of an 
 attack on Montreal, ordered his forces under Gene- 
 neral Vincent and General Drummond to proceed 
 to Niagara. General M'Clure fearing their ap- 
 
 E roach, and misunderstanding the orders which he 
 ad received from government, on the 10th of De- 
 cember caused the village of Newark to be burned. 
 This act was subsequently disavowed by the Ame- 
 rican government, but the British had commenced 
 measures for its retaliation. On the 19th of De- 
 cember 400 troops under Colonel Murray crossed at 
 Niagara, and surprising the sentries of the fort ob- 
 tained immediate possession. The garrison, con- 
 sisting of 300, were mostly put to the sword. The 
 commander, Captain Leonard, was absent at his 
 farm about two miles distant, and was consequently 
 accused of treachery ; but a court-martial acquitted 
 him of this charge. 
 
 Th British now increased their forces, and under 
 General Rial proceeded to Lewistown. Here they 
 were opposed by the militia under Major Young, 
 who after maintaining his ground for some time was 
 at last compelled to retreat. Major Mallory, from 
 Schlosser, with 40 Canadian volunteers, made a 
 gallant resistance. But the exertions of a few scat- 
 tered troops were ineffectual against a large body 
 of British regulars and 700 Indians. They laid 
 waste Lewistown, Manchester, and the Tuscarora 
 villages. 
 
 General Hall advanced from Batavia with all the 
 forces which he could collect, for the defence of the 
 frontier. On the night of the 29th of December, 
 the British under General Rial crossed at Black 
 rock. Owing to the darkness of the night, the mi- 
 litia were unable to repulse their attacks. General 
 Hall arrived from Buffalo early on the morning of 
 the 30th ; at the same time a large division of Bri- 
 tish and Indians were crossing the river. The Ame- 
 ricans poured a destructive fire upon them in their 
 boats, but they repulsed them and effected a land- 
 ing. They commenced a spirited attack upon the 
 Americans under General Hall, who was driven 
 from his batteries and pursued to Buffalo, a distance 
 of two miles. Here Hall attempted again to face 
 them; when of 2000 militia, only 600 could be 
 prevailed upon to stand their ground. They fled to 
 the woods, and many of them were cut off in the 
 pursuit. The villages of Buffalo and Black Rock 
 were set on fire the same day, and the British pro- 
 ceeded into the interior, laying waste the whole of 
 the country on the American side of the Niagara 
 for several miles. " The concluding scenes of the 
 campaign of the present year," says Baines, " as- 
 sumed the character of a war of extermination; 
 a species of contest abhorrent to every civilized 
 
 mind, and fit only for the savage auxiliaries of the 
 two exasperated belligerents." 
 
 Having given a sketch of the military operation* 
 of the campaign, and as connected with these the 
 naval affairs of the inland seas; a view of the en- 
 gagements which occurred on the ocean during 
 1813, next follows. The first affair of this kind 
 was that between the Peacock and Hornet, and it 
 was in its termination the sixth successive naval 
 victory by which America manifested her rising in- 
 fluence in maritime warfare. 
 
 On the 29th of February, as the United States ship 
 Hornet, Captain Lawrence, was returning from a 
 cruise off the coast of Brazil, she fell in with and 
 captured the British sloop of war Peacock, com- 
 manded by Captain Peake. The action lasted but 
 fifteen minutes. The loss of the British in killed 
 and wounded was about 40, that of the Americans 
 five. The Peacock unfortunately sunk with thir- 
 teen of her crew, while engaged in removing the 
 wounded. She had on board three impressed Ame- 
 rican seamen, who, notwithstanding their earnest 
 solicitations, had been compelled to fight against their 
 country. One was killed in the engagement, and 
 two were found among the prisoners. 
 
 In the career of naval triumph the Americans now 
 suffered a severe check. On the 1st of June, as the 
 United States frigate Chesapeake was lying in Bos- 
 tou harbour, the British frigate Shannon appeared 
 in full sight off the harbour, inviting her to a con- 
 test. Captain Lawrence, who for his gallant ser- 
 vices in the affair of the Peacock had been promoted 
 to the command of the Chesapeake, felt himself bound 
 in honour to accept the challenge. His officers and 
 crew were strangers to him, and the seamen were in 
 a state of dissatisfaction on account of not having re- 
 ceived their pay. Lawrence, however, put to sea, 
 and prepared for action. A furious engagement en- 
 sued, and in a few minutes every officer on board 
 the Chesapeake capable of taking the command, was 
 either killed or wounded. Captain Lawrence re- 
 ceived a mortal wound, and the Chesapeake being 
 much disabled, he was asked " if the colours 
 should be struck ;" he replied, " No, they shall wave 
 while I live." Becoming delirious, he continually 
 cried, " Don : t give up the ship." At the moment 
 of his being carried below, Captain Broke boarded 
 the Chesapeake, and the British lowered the Shan- 
 non's colours. They did not, however, achieve this 
 victory without loss". They had 24 killed and 56 
 wounded. The loss of the Americans was 70 killed 
 and 63 wounded. The defeat was unexpected, and 
 the greatest grief prevailed for the fate of the heroic 
 Lawrence. He survived four days. The Shannon 
 had carried her prize into Halifax, and there he was 
 interred with every mark of honourable distinction; 
 and the oldest captains in the British navybore his pall. 
 
 Another naval disaster to the Americans soon fol- 
 lowed the loss of the Chesapeake. On the 14th of 
 August the United States sloop of war Argus, com- 
 manded by Lieutenant Allen, was captured after an 
 action of nearly an hour, in St. George's channel, by 
 the British sloop of war Pelican, commanded by Cap- 
 tain Maples. The loss of the Americans was 40, that 
 of the British only eight. Lieutenant Allen died 
 in England. He was treated with every degree of 
 attention by the English, who buried him as they 
 would have buried a brave officer of their own 
 nation. 
 
 On the 4th of September the American seamen 
 were victorious. The brig Enterprise, sailing from 
 Portland harbour, fell in the same day with the Bri- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1119 
 
 tish brig Boxer. Captaiu Blyth, the commander, 
 when he descried the American, fired a shot as a 
 challenge, and raised three British ensigns, which he 
 caused to be nailed to the mast. Soon after the ac- 
 tion commenced, Lieutenant Burrows, who com- 
 manded the American brig, was mortally wounded, 
 but he refused to be carried below. In his last ago- 
 nies he raised his head, and requested that his flag 
 might never be struck. Lieutenant M'Call, on whom 
 the command devolved, gave orders to board the 
 enemy: but Captain Blyth had fallen, and the Bri- 
 tish brig had become unmanageable, and the crew 
 surrendered. The bodies of the British and Ame- 
 rican commanders were received at Portland with 
 tokens of the highest respect : masters of vessels 
 rowed them ashore with the funeral stroke of the oar, 
 while minute guns were fired by the vessels in the 
 harbour ; and their last obsequies were performed 
 by the civil and military authorities of the place. 
 
 On the 26th of September Commodore Rodgers 
 returned to America from a long cruise, in which he 
 circumnavigated the British isles, and explored the 
 Atlantic. He did not gain any signal victory, but 
 rendered essential service to his country by harass- 
 ing the British commerce. He captured twelve 
 merchant vessels and took many prisoners. 
 
 The lands of the Creeks lying within the territory 
 of the United States, about this time were secured to 
 them by the American government. Great exertions 
 had been made by benevolent individuals,' ;as well 
 as by the government, to instruct them in thfe arts of ci- 
 vilized life. These exertions had been attended with 
 considerable success; and they were advancing to a 
 more refined state of society. Their early habits 
 and prejudices were not however entirely rooted out; 
 and some of them wished to return to their former 
 state. A visit from Tecumseh, in 1812, tended to 
 increase this disposition. This highly gii'ted savage 
 used all the powers of his eloquence to persuade 
 them to shake off the oppressions of civilized life, 
 and return to their former condition of wild and 
 fearless independence. A civil war raged among 
 them. The party hostile to the United States in- 
 creased, and they commenced a harassing and vex- 
 atious warfare against the whites. Alarmed at the 
 threatening aspect of affairs, the settlers in the 
 most exposed situations had taken refuge in forts 
 which were erected for their security. No event of 
 any importance however, occurred, until the sum- 
 mer of 1813. 
 
 (1813.) Fort Mims had been erected in the Ten- 
 sau settlement, nearly opposite to Fort Stoddert. 
 This fort was now filled with the inhabitants of the 
 surrounding settlements. Major Beaseiy, the com- 
 mander, had received repeated warnings of an in- 
 tended attack on the fort by the Indians, but had 
 delayed to make preparations for its security. 
 On the 30th of August, at noon-day, the garrison 
 was surprised by about 600 Indians. At first they 
 stood their ground and repulsed the savages ; but 
 again they returned, drovS the besieged into the 
 houses, and set fire to them. A dreadful massacre 
 followed. Only seventeen escaped out of 300 men, 
 women and children, to bear the sorrowful tidings 
 to the surrounding inhabitants. 
 
 A desire of revenge spread through the neigh- 
 bouring states. Two thousand men from Tennessee, 
 under General Jackson, and 500 under General 
 Coffee, joined their forces on the 12th of October, 
 and marched to the Ten Islands in the Coosa river, 
 where General Jackson, who took the command, 
 established his head quarters. On the 2nd of No- 
 
 vember, he detached General Coffee, with 900 
 cavalry and mounted riflemen, to destroy a body of 
 the Creeks at Tallushatches. A desperate engage- 
 ment ensued, which ended in victory to the Ameri- 
 cans. Two hundred savages were found dead, and 
 84 women and children were taken prisoners. Not 
 one escaped. General Coffee's loss in killed and 
 wounded was 46. 
 
 On the 7th General Jackson hearing that a party 
 of friendly Creeks at Talladega were surrounded 
 and in danger of being destroyed, marched with 
 1200 men to their relief. Having made the most 
 judicious arrangements for surrounding the enemy, 
 he advanced and commenced an attack. A bloody 
 battle followed, in which 290 of the Indian warriors 
 were slain. Fifteen whites were killed, and 85 
 wounded. 
 
 The militia from Tennessee under General Cocke 
 were encamped at fort Armstrong. On the llth of 
 November, he detached General White with a por- 
 tion of his army, against the Hillabee towns. After 
 burning two Indian villages on their route, they 
 entered the towns at daylight, on the morning of 
 the eighteenth. Here were about three hundred 
 inhabitants ; 60 warriors were killed, and the re- 
 mainder made prisoners. 
 
 - The last of November, the governor of Georgia 
 sent General Floyd to protect the frontiers of that 
 state. With 250 militia, and nearly 400 friendly 
 Indians, he marched into the most flourishing part 
 of the Creek country. On the 29th, his troops were 
 drawn up for battle at Autossee, their sacred ground, 
 to approach which, the superstitious natives consi- 
 dered as inevitable destruction to any white man. 
 The Indians were collected from eight towns for its 
 defence, and fought with desperate bravery; but 
 they were defeated, and their towns, consisting of 
 400 houses, were burned. Two hundred of their 
 warriors were killed, among whom were the Autossee 
 and Tallasee kings. The loss of the Americans wa 
 50 in killed and wounded; and among the latter 
 was General Floyd. 
 
 On the 23rd of December, General Claiborne, 
 who commanded the Mississipi volunteers, gained 
 an important victory over the Creeks, under their 
 famous prophet Weatherford, at Eccanachaca or 
 holy ground, on the Alabama river. 
 
 The term of service for the Tennessee militia had 
 now expired, and becoming mutinous, they were 
 disbanded and ordered to march for their homes. 
 
 On the 14th of January, General Jackson was 
 reinforced by eight hundred volunteers. Their term 
 of service was only 60 days ; and as fort Armstrong 
 was threatened with an attack, and General Floyd 
 was about to enter the enemy's country, he deter- 
 mined to make a diversion in their favour, by march- 
 ing against a considerable force who were collected 
 near the mouth of Emucfau creek. On the 17th, 
 he took up his line of march, and on(the 18th, 
 was joined at Talladega by between 300 and 400 
 friendly Indians. On the 21st, as appearances in- 
 dicated their approach to an Indian settlement, he 
 formed his men at night in order of battle, as he ex- 
 pected ar> attack. At dawn on the morning of the 
 22nd, he was assaulted on the left flank ; but after 
 a severe contest of half an hour, the Indians were 
 repulsed. General Jackson then acted on the offen- 
 sive. A general charge was made with great vigour 
 upon the enemy's lines. General Coffee attacked 
 their left, while 200 friendly Indians co-operated with 
 him on the right. The savages were unable to re- 
 sist, and they fled to their post. About 50 of them 
 
1120 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 were slain. On the 23rd, General Jackson com 
 menced his return to fort Strother. On the same 
 night he encamped at Enotachopco ; and the nexl 
 day, his army were attacked in a narrow defile by 
 the Indians, whom they repulsed after a severe con- 
 test. Tne loss of the Americans in these several en- 
 gagements was twenty killed, and 75 wounded. 
 
 On the 27th of January, General Floyd was as- 
 sailed in his camp, west of the Chatahoucie, by a nu- 
 merous body of savages ; but a steady and incessant 
 fire from the artillery and riflemen, compelled them 
 to retire. General Floyd was severely wounded, and 
 many of his soldiers killed. 
 
 The hostile spirit of the Creeks, notwithstanding 
 their numerous defeats, still remained unsubdued. 
 Determined to make a desperate effort to prevent 
 the destruction of their tribe, they strongly fortified 
 the bend of the Tallapoosa, called by the Indians 
 Tohopeka, and by the whites Horse-shoe-bend. Na- 
 ture and art had rendered this a place of great se 
 curity. They had erected a breastwork, from five to 
 eight feet high, across the peninsula, thus enclosing 
 nearly 100 acres of ground. This could not be ap- 
 proached, without being exposed to a double and 
 cross fire from the Indians who lay behind. About 
 1000 warriors had collected on this spot. Here Ge- 
 neral Jackson determined to attack them. On the 
 26th of March he encamped within six miles of the 
 place, and having learned the shore was lined with 
 canoes, he sent General Coffee to the opposite side 
 of the river to surround the Bend in such a manner 
 that none could escape by crossing the river. With 
 the remainder of his force, he attacked their fortifi- 
 cations in front. A brisk fire was kept up for two 
 hours, when General Coffee crossed to the peninsula 
 to his aid, and commenced a spirited tire upon the 
 enemy, who lay behind the breastwork ; but they 
 were still unsubdued. General Jackson determined 
 to storm their fortifications. The regulars, led on 
 by Colonel Williams and Major Montgomery, ad- 
 vanced to the charge. An obstinate contest ensued ; 
 in which the combatants fought through the port- 
 holes, musket to musket. At this time, Major Mont- 
 gomery, leaping on the wall, called to his men to 
 mount, and follow him. Scarcely had he spoken, 
 when a ball struck him on the head, and he fell life- 
 less to the ground. Yet the Americans obeyed his 
 command, and, following his example, soon'gaiued 
 the opposite side of the works. Though the Creeks 
 fought with a bravery which their desperate situation 
 alone could have inspired, yet they were entirely de- 
 feated, and cut to pieces. Five hundred and fifty 
 were ;killed on the peninsula, and many were 
 drowned or shot in attempting to cross the river. 
 General Jackson's loss, including the friendly In- 
 dians, was 54 killed, and 156 wounded. This de- 
 cisive victory ended in the submission of the remain- 
 ing warriors, and terminated the Creek war. Among 
 those who threw themselves upon the mercy of their 
 victors, was Weatherford, who was equally distin- 
 guished for his talents and cruelty. " I am in your 
 power," said he, " do with me what you please. I 
 have done the white people all the harm I could. I 
 have fought them, and fought them bravely. There 
 was a time when I had a choice. I have none now; 
 every hope is ended. Once I could animate my war- 
 riors to battle ; but I cannot animate the dead. They 
 can no longer hear my voice ; their bones are at 
 Tallushatches, Talladega, Emucfau, and Tohopeka. 
 While there was a chance of success, I never sup- 
 plicated peace ; but my people are gone, and I now 
 ask it for my nation and myself." 
 
 During the summer, a treaty of peace was con- 
 cluded with the conquered Creeks, on conditions ad- 
 vantageous to the United States. General Jackson 
 returned to Tenessee, and was soon after appointed 
 to succeed General Wilkinson in the command of 
 the forces at New-Orleans. 
 
 Mediations of peace Extra session of congress Em- 
 baryo and non-importation act Unsuccessful attempt 
 at La Colle Attack on Oswego Expedition tu the 
 river Thames British ascend Connecticut river. 
 During the spring of 1813, the Emperor of Russia 
 offered his mediation in the quarrel between the 
 United States and Great Britain. On the part of the 
 republic, the offer was promptly met, and three among 
 the most highly honoured of her citizens, John Quincy 
 Adams, Albert Gallatin, and James A. Bayard, were 
 despatched to Russia, to meet and negotiate with 
 such commissioners as Great Britain might choose 
 to appoint. England, however, had declined the me- 
 diation of Alexander, but offered to treat for peace 
 directly with the United States. In pursuance of 
 this proposition, to which the American government 
 acceded, Messrs. Adams, Gallatin, and Bayard, in 
 the month of August, proceeded to Ghent, the place 
 of meeting agreed on, and there met Lord Gambier, 
 Henry Golbourn, and William Adams, commission- 
 ers on the part of Great Britain. On the part of 
 America, Henry Clay and Jonathan Russell were 
 added to the gentlemen already mentioned. 
 
 " After the fall of Napoleon, it was held in this 
 country, (England,)" says Baines, " withalament- 
 able ignorance of the real state of the feelings and 
 energies of the United States, that Britain, so long 
 the undisputed mistress of the ocean, would soon be 
 able to sweep from the seas the ships of America ; 
 and that those troops, which had acquired so much 
 glory when contending with the veteran armies of 
 Europe, would no sooner show themselves OQ the 
 western side of the Atlantic, than the panic-struck 
 soldiers of the United States would be driven far 
 within their own frontiers. These pleasing illusions 
 were heightened by the hope, that England would 
 soon be able to dictate peace in the capital of the 
 republic; or at least, that the splendour of British 
 triumphs, and thejpressure of American embarrass- 
 ments, would induce and encourage the inhabitants 
 of the northern states to form a separate government 
 under the protection of the crown of Great Britain, 
 if not actually under the sway of her sceptre. 
 
 " During the early part of the year 1814, the war 
 with America was]suffered to languish ; but no sooner 
 was Europe restored to peace, by the dethronement 
 of Buonaparte, than the British government resolved 
 to prosecute the contest with increased vigour, and 
 to obtain in the field a recognition of those mari- 
 time rights, which had hitherto been so strenu- 
 ously resisted in the cabinet. Two distinct modes of 
 prosecuting the war seemed to have been determined 
 on by the British ministry : first an invasion of the 
 coast of the United States, and, second, after the 
 protection of Canada had been secured, the con- 
 quest of so much of the adjoining territory as might, 
 in the event of a future war, effectually guard that 
 province from all danger. The peace of Paris was 
 scarcely ratified before 14,000 c f those troops, which 
 tiad gained so much renown under the Duke of Wel- 
 iington, were embarked at Bordeaux for Canada ; 
 and about the same time a strong naval force, with 
 an adequate number of troops, were collected, and 
 dispatched for invading different parts of the ooast 
 of the United States." 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1121 
 
 On account of the critical state of the country, the 
 American congress had deemed it expedient to hold 
 an extra session ; and had, accordingly, met on the 
 24th of May, 1813. Their most urgent business 
 was to provide means of replenishing the exhausted 
 treasury ; and, notwithstanding the clamours of the 
 party opposed to the war, they proceeded with firm- 
 ness and decision in the execution of their duty. 
 After considerable debate, they agreed on a system 
 of internal duties, and laws were passed laying taxes 
 on lands and houses, distilled liquors, refined sugars, 
 -jtailers' licences, carriages, sales at auction, and 
 oank notes. By these means, it was expected to 
 raise a revenue of 5,500,000 dollars, and a loan of 
 7,500,000 was authorized. Congress adjourned on 
 the 2nd of August. 
 
 On the 2nd of December they convened again, as 
 usual. Among other important subjects embraced 
 in the President's message, was that concerning the 
 right of expatriation, on which Great Britain and 
 America had been so long at issue, and from which 
 the most tragical consequences were at that period 
 apprehended. Forty persons, natives of Britain, but 
 who by a long residence had become naturalized in 
 America, had been taken in arms against the Bri- 
 tish nation, and were sent to Great Britain to un- 
 dergo a trial for treason against their country. The 
 American government, feeling itself bound to pro- 
 tect them, had put in close confinement an equal 
 number of British soldiers, with a notification that 
 if violence was done, the same in kind and degree 
 should be inflicted in return. In retaliation for this 
 step, the British government put in confinement, 
 with a similar threat, double the number of American 
 officers of the lower grades. This measure had also 
 been retaliated, and an equal number of British offi- 
 cers selected. In this alarming position did this affair 
 stand at the delivery of the president's message. The 
 subject was however adjusted by the exchange of all 
 prisoners, except the first sent for trial ; and on pro- 
 ceedings having been instituted against them, the 
 American government reserved a right to retaliate, in 
 case any violence should hereafter be done them. 
 
 Another message was soon after received from the 
 president, recommending an embargo upon exports; 
 with a view to deprive the British of supplies from 
 the ports ; and with a design to proteet the American 
 commerce, a more complete prohibition of British 
 manufactures was enforced. These measures, which 
 after the most spirited debates were adopted by con- 
 gress, were considered by the opposition as measures 
 of greater annoyance to America than to her foe, and 
 condemned as unconstitutional and oppressive. 
 These commercial restrictions were not however of 
 long continuance. Mighty changes were taking 
 place in Europe, with which was changed the policy 
 of America. Her measures had been taken with a 
 view to withdraw her commerce from both bellige- 
 rents, and threaten them with offensive operations, 
 in case her rights were not regarded. The result of 
 this was, as we have seen, peace with France and 
 war with England. America had continued her re- 
 strictions with Britain, because the power of Buo- 
 naparte closed from her commerce so many of the 
 Sorts of Europe, that it was detrimental to her to be 
 eprived of that of America also. But Buonaparte 
 was now a powerless exile at Elba; and the ports of 
 Europe were now open to England. Under these 
 circumstances, the American government judged it 
 expedient to repeal their restrictive laws; and ac- 
 cordingly, in the month of April, the embargo and 
 non-importation act were both discontinued. 
 
 HIST. OF AMKR.NOS. 141 & 142. 
 
 The condition of the army required and received 
 the attention of congress. A bill was passed early 
 in the session, giving to those who should enlist for 
 fire years, or during the war, the unprecedented 
 bounty of 124 dollars; and to any person who should 
 procure an able-bodied recruit, was given further the 
 sum of eight dollars. Little addition was, during 
 this session, made to the naval force. An appropria- 
 tion of 500,000 dollars was however made, for the 
 building of one or more floating batteries, to be pro- 
 pelled by steam. 
 
 General Wilkinson had remained inactive at 
 French Mills, until early in February 1814 ; when 
 having received orders from the secretary of war, he 
 detached General Brown, with 2000 troops, to the 
 Niagara frontier; and having destroyed his bar- 
 racks, he retired to Plattsburg. The enemy taking 
 advantage of this movement, on the 21st of Febru- 
 ary, made an incursion as far as Malone, and de- 
 stroyed the arsenal and public stores kept there, 
 which had belonged to the cantonment of French 
 Mills. 
 
 Movements of General Wilkinson, which had the 
 appearance of an attempt again to invade Canada, 
 induced 2000 of the British under Major Hancock, 
 to fortify themselves at La Colle Mill, near the river 
 Sorel. General Wilkinson advanced on the 30th 
 day of March, for the purpose of dislodging them. 
 Having dispersed skirmishing parties of the British, 
 he arrived at La Colle, and so arranged his troops, 
 as to cover the guns of a small battery, and cut off 
 the retreat of his enemy. A cannonade followed ; 
 during which, a sortie was made from the building, 
 but it ended in the repulse of the assailants. Find- 
 ing this battery insufficient to penetrate the thick 
 stone walls of the mill, Wilkinson retired with his 
 forces, having lost 100 in killed and wounded, Such 
 a succession of unsuccessful measures brought public 
 censure upon this general. He was tried before a 
 court-martial at Troy, but nominally acquitted of the 
 charges brought against him. 
 
 The whole force of Lower Canada now withdrew 
 from the St. Lawrence, and were stationed near St. 
 John's, for securing the entrance of their fleet into 
 lake Champlain. 
 
 During the autumn and winter, Commodore Mac- 
 donough had laboured with great industry to pro- 
 vide a naval force on lake Champlain, equal to that 
 of the British. The flotilla was lying in the Otter 
 river, at Vergennes; and it was the object of the 
 British to destroy it, before it should make its appear- 
 ance on the lake. Apprised of this, Commodore 
 Macdonough caused a battery to be erected at the 
 mouth of the rivei On the ] 2th of May, the Bri- 
 tish fleet entered the lake, and were repulsed in an 
 attack upon this battery by water. They were also 
 unsuccessful in attempting to gain the rear of the 
 battery by land, being driven off by a detachment of 
 Vermont militia. Thus repulsed, they abandoned 
 their object, and moved down the lake. 
 
 On lake Ontario, both the Americans and British 
 were actively employed in constructing large ships, 
 before again contending on its waters for supremacy, 
 which however at this time leaned to the side of the 
 British. They attacked several places on the Ame- 
 rican shore, and made attempts which were gene- 
 rally unsuccessful, to destroy the unfinished ships, 
 and the stores which were to furnish them. Oswego 
 was a deposit for naval stores- It was defended by 
 a fort, which mounted only five guns, and was gar- 
 risoned by 500 men, under Colonel Mitchell. To 
 destroy this place, was the first attempt of the Bri< 
 
 4 X. 
 
1122 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 tish. On the 5th of May, their whole fleet with 
 1500 troops under General Drummond, appeared be- 
 fore it, hut could not effect a landing. On the 6th, 
 they renewed the attempt, and landed their men. 
 Colonel Mitchell, after maintaining his ground for 
 half an hour, retired to the falls of Oswego, about 
 twelve miles distant, to which place he had caused 
 the stores to be removed. Destroying the bridge in 
 his rear, the British were cut off from their object, 
 and evacuated the town. The fleet returned to Kings- 
 ton, leaving only a few gun-boats on the lake. 
 
 Shortly after, Major Appling and Captain Wool- 
 sey were appointed to convey the naval stores from 
 Oswego to Sackett's Harbour. On the 28th of May, 
 when off Sandy Creek, sixteen miles south-west of 
 Sackett's Harbour, perceiving themselves covered 
 by the British boats, they entered the creek. Here 
 they landed, and formed an ambuscade. The Bri- 
 tish followed, were completely surprised, and sur- 
 rendered after an action of ten minutes. 
 
 The Americans had now completed the Superior, 
 a vessel capable of mounting 64 guns. Commodore 
 Chauncey soon after fitted her out, and sailed in view 
 of Kingston ; but Sir James did not choose to hazard 
 an engagement until his own vessel of equal size 
 should be completed. 
 
 (1814.) At the commencement of this year, the 
 Americans were in possession of all their former terri- 
 tory at the west, except fort Mackinaw. 
 
 On the 21st of February. Captain Holmes was de- 
 tached from Detroit with 180 men, to dislodge a 
 party of British who were stationed on the river 
 Thames, about two days' march from that place. 
 When within fifteen miles of their position, he re- 
 ceived intelligence that about 300 of the English were 
 within one hour's march of him. He immediately 
 retired five miles, to a more favourable position, and 
 sent forward a small body of rangers to discover their 
 strength ; but they returned, followed by the British. 
 Wishing to draw Captain Holmes from his position, 
 they feigned an attack, and then retreated. He fol- 
 lowed for five miles, when he found the main 
 army preparing for action. He hastened back to his 
 former position, and being attacked on all sides, a 
 severe contest followed. The Americans gallantly 
 defended themselves for an hour, when the British 
 ordered a retreat. The loss of the Americans was 
 only six killed and wounded, while that of their 
 enemy was 69. 
 
 The idea had hitherto prevailed among the Bri- 
 tish, that the northern states might easily be induced 
 to break off their alliance with the other states, and 
 again become a part of their empire ; while they con- 
 sidered the southern states as being more firmly at- 
 tached to the government, and consequently more 
 difficult to subdue. Hence the northern sea-coast 
 experienced little molestation until the spring of 
 1814. The British then commenced their attacks 
 by ascending the Connecticut river to Pettipaug, 
 otherwise called Essex, where they destroyed ship- 
 ping to the value of 200,000 dollars. The coasting 
 trade suffered severely from the Liverpool Packet, a 
 British privateer. Commodore Lewis succeeded in 
 chasing her off. Taking under his convoy about50 
 vessels, which he found lying at Saybrook, he passed 
 the squadron blockading New London, and escorted 
 them safely to sea. 
 
 General Brown crosses the Niagara Battle of Chip- 
 pewa Battle of Bridgewater General Riall cap- 
 tured 'Fort Erie besieged Colonel Drummond 
 
 killed British works destroyed Unruccessfui at- 
 tempt to re-take Mackinau. 
 
 General Brown, as has been related, conducted 
 2000 of the army of General Wilkinson from French 
 Mills to Sackett's Harbour. His force consisted of 
 two brigades, the first under General Scott, tha 
 second under General Ripley. These able officers 
 were diligently occupied during the first part of the 
 campaign in disciplining their troops, and prepar- 
 ing them for action. 
 
 General Brown marched his army to Buffalo, ex- 
 pecting to invade Canada. Here were added to his 
 army Towson's artillery, and a corps of volunteers 
 commanded by General Porter, making in the whole 
 about 3500 men. On the 2nd and 3rd of July, they 
 crossed the Niagara, and immediately invested fort 
 Erie, where the garrison, amounting to 100 men, 
 surrendered without resistance. 
 
 On the 4th, the brigade under General Scott, with 
 Towson's artillery, advanced from fort Erie along 
 the bank of the Niagara, to where it is intersected 
 by a small brook, called Street's Creek, which falls 
 into the river from the south-west. Here, being 
 within a mile and a half of the British, he halted. 
 General Brown, with the remaining brigade, arrived 
 at the same place at midnight, and General Porter, 
 with the volunteers, at sunrise. The British occu- 
 pied a strong position at the mouth of the Chippewa. 
 They were 3000 strong, commanded by General 
 Riall. They consisted of a portion of those troops 
 which, since the pacification of Europe, Great Bri 
 tain had sent to conquer America. The camp of the 
 Americans being annoyed by flying parties of the 
 enemy, General Porter, with 800 volunteers and In- 
 dians, and 80 regulars under Captain M 1 Donald, by 
 the orders of General Brown, advanced from the 
 rear, and taking a southerly direction along the 
 Creek, surprised and attacked a body of Indians 
 about two miles from the American camp. The In- 
 dians retreated skirmishing towards the British in- 
 trenchment. The noise of the firing brought a large 
 reinforcement to the Indians; and the enemy, ill 
 their turn, obliged General Porter, after a warm en 
 gagement, to retire. 
 
 It was now found that the main body of the Bri- 
 tish were advancing, and General Brown put his 
 whole camp in motion. General Ripley was sent 
 to the left to the aid of General Porter, while Gene- 
 ral Scott, crossing the creek, drew up his brigade 
 in order of battle, to receive the charge of the king's 
 regiment, and that of the royal Scots. They out 
 numbered the republican troops more than one-third ; 
 and they were the veterans who had fought by the 
 side of Wellington, and conquered the conqueror 
 of Europe ; and of whom many of the English had 
 predicted, that they would recolonize America. 
 The officers and soldiers of the republic had, at the 
 most, but two years' experience ; and many of them 
 had never before been in battle. Here then they 
 met in fair and open fight. 
 
 General Scott led on his men, while his officers 
 nobly seconded his heroic exertions. The conflict 
 was bloody but the genius of America prevailed. 
 The yeterans gave way, and retreated ; Scott pur- 
 sued, defeating them at every point, until at length 
 their retreat being changed to a disorderly rout, 
 they sought the shelter of their intrenchments. So 
 decisive had been the movements of General Scott, 
 that the British were totally defeated before the bri- 
 gade of General Ripley was brought into action. 
 General Brown now ordered up the artillery to batter 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1123 
 
 their works ; but the day was spent, and their bat- 
 teries appeared so strongly fortified, that he desisted 
 from the attempt, drew off his forces, and returned 
 to his camp. 
 
 In this engagement, Colonel Gordon, of the royal 
 Scots, and Colonel the marquis of Tweedale, late 
 aid-de-camp to the duke of Wellington, were both 
 severely wounded. The loss of the enemy in killed, 
 wounded, and prisoners, was 514 ; that of the Ame- 
 ricans, 328. 
 
 In the mean time, a large body of British troops, 
 commanded by General Drummond, were situated 
 at the head of lake Ontario, near Burlington Heights, 
 and at York. Soon after the battle of Chippewa, 
 General Riall fell back to fort George. On the 10th 
 of July, the American camp was removed from 
 Street's Creek to Queenstown, and from thence Ge- 
 neral Brown marched to invest fort George ; but 
 finding unexpected difficulties, he retired from that 
 position, and, on the 23rd, took post at Chippewa. 
 He had, however, previously sent his wounded and 
 heavy baggage across the strait to Schlosser, near 
 the Falls, intending, at the time, to advance upon 
 the enemy at Burlington Heights. The British, 
 stung by their defeat at Chippewa, were making vi- 
 gorous exertions to retrieve the fortune of the war ; 
 and General Drummond, with all the forces from 
 Burlington and York, had marched to fort George. 
 Kingston and Prescott bad also sent their forces 
 across lake Ontario to the same point. An army of 
 about 5000, including 1500 militia and Indians, was 
 thus collected to oppose the force of General Brown, 
 which, instead of augmenting, had been lessened by 
 the desertion of the Indians. The army, under Ge- 
 neral Drummond, advanced, and on the morning of 
 the 25th, General Brown received information from 
 General Swift, who had the care of the wounded, 
 that they were at Queenstown, and that a detach- 
 ment threatened his stores at Schlosser. At this in- 
 telligence, General Brown sent General Scott with 
 his brigade and Captain Towson's artillery to make 
 a movement on the Queenstown road, as if to attack 
 the enemy, and thus divert their attention from his 
 stores. General Scott left the camp at four in the 
 afternoon, moved along the river, and passed the 
 grand cataract, in ignorance that the enemy were 
 near. Having proceeded a short distance beyond 
 the falls, he learned that the British army, in great 
 force, were encamped behind a wood, about 300 
 yards to the north, and that they intended to attack 
 the Americans the next day. Scott immediately 
 transmitted this intelligence to his commander, and 
 moved rapidly forward through the wood, till he per- 
 ceived the British strongly posted on an eminence 
 defended by nine pieces of artillery. He halted, 
 and drew up his men in order of battle, on a level 
 ground near Lundy's lane, and in front of the Bri- 
 tish position. The artillery under Towson com- 
 menced a brisk cannonade, which was returned by 
 the British battery ; and a warm engagement com- 
 menced. The British general, probably ignorant of 
 their real situation, did not put forth his strength, or 
 he might have surrounded and crushed the Ameri- 
 cans. In this case, a heavy censure would have 
 fallen on their commander for his temerity in bring- 
 ing on the action. As it is, he has been charged 
 with wasting the blood of his countrymen ; but that 
 blood was not wasted, which served to make the 
 rights of his country respected, by obliterating the 
 stain of cowardice, with which too many of the early 
 transactions of this war had tarnished it. It was 
 late in the afternoon when this engagement com- 
 
 menced. The sun had now gone down, and dark- 
 ness came on. No reinforcement appeared to the 
 Americans, but they still maintained the battle, al- 
 though an officer reminded the general that the rule 
 for retiring was accomplished, more than one-fourth 
 being killed or wounded. Many of his officers were 
 among the number. The brave Colonel Brady had 
 been the first to form his regiment, and on that the 
 loss fell heaviest. Himself twice wounded, he was 
 entreated by those who observed him pale from the 
 loss of bloofl, to quit the field ; " Not while I can 
 stand," was his reply. At that critical moment a 
 reinforcement appeared. General Ripley had been, 
 ordered to form his brigade on the skirt of a wood to 
 the right of General Scott. But, finding that this 
 position was not favourable for annoying his enemy, 
 he took the responsibility of moving nearer to them 
 before he formed. For this purpose, he was about 
 to pass the brigade of Scott, but coming between him 
 and the British, he found that he was suffering se- 
 verely from their battery, and then truly conceived 
 what must be his situation. Ripley then conceived the 
 bold thought of storming the formidable battery. " Co- 
 lonel Miller," said he, " will you take yonder battery ?" 
 " I'll try," said the latter : and, at the head of tho 
 21st regiment, he calmly took his course, and bay- 
 oneted the men while firing, and possessed himself 
 of their guns. Ripley had moved at the same time, 
 at the head of the 23rd regiment, to the attack of the 
 infantry, and drove them from the eminence which 
 was the key of their position. Here Ripley formed 
 his brigade. General Porter, with his volunteers, 
 was on the right, and the artillery of Towson in the 
 centre. The British, mortified and enraged, rallied 
 and advanced to regain their position and artillery. 
 The Americans perceived that they were coming on, 
 but could not distinctly ascertain from what point. The 
 moon had risen, but there were dark clouds, and the 
 light was fitful. Sounds came indistinctly mingled 
 from every quarter. The roaring of the cataract, 
 the shrieks and groans of the wounded and dying, 
 the discharge of artillery, were all heard, as well as 
 the rush of the enemy's attack. In this situation, 
 Ripley gave his troops the order to wait till the 
 enemy's bayonets touched their own, and take aim 
 by the light from the discharge of their muskets. 
 The aim of the Americans was good. Numbers of 
 their brave enemy fell. They closed up their ranks, 
 and came on with the bayonets. The republicans 
 stood the charge, and sturdily pushed back the thrust. 
 For twenty minutes this deadly strife continued, when 
 the veterans of Wellington retreated in disorder. 
 Three times, in the course of that bloody night, the 
 same scene was repeated. Four times were the Bri- 
 tish met with the bayonet, and repulsed by the Ame- 
 ricans. At length, about midnight, they relin- 
 quished the conflict, leaving their position and ar- 
 tillery to the Americans. 
 
 Although the brunt of battle was on the eminence, 
 other efforts were making in different parfs of the 
 field. The brigade of General Scott, shattered as it 
 was, having formed anew, was not content to look 
 idly on, while their brethren, who had stepped be- 
 tween them and death, were now bleeding in their 
 turn. General Scott charged at their head, through 
 an opening in Ripley's line ; but in the confusion 
 and darkness of the scene, he passed between the 
 fires of the combatants. He afterwards engaged in 
 the battle, taking his post on General Ripley's left. 
 In another quarter, Colonel Jessup, with only 200 
 men, advanced upon the enemy, brought them to 
 close action, drove them from their ground, and cap- 
 
 4X2 
 
1124 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 'jured General Riall, with other officers and soldiers, 
 lo an amount almost equal to his own. 
 
 In this sanguinary contest, the total loss of the 
 British was 878. Generals Drummond and Riall 
 were among the wounded. The Americans lost in 
 tilled, wounded, and missing, 860. Of these, eleven 
 fficers were killed, among whom were Major M'Far- 
 land and Captain Ritchie. Fifty-six officers were 
 wounded, among whom were Generals Brown and 
 Scott ; it was not however until towards the close of 
 the action that the two generals highest in command 
 were disabled. General Brown, on receiving his 
 wound, gave notice to General Ripley that he was 
 left in (command, but ordered him to collect the 
 wounded, remove the artillery, and retire to the 
 camp at Chippewa. The Americans lost the ad- 
 vantage of removing the captured artillery, as they 
 had no means of conveying it away ; and General 
 Ripley was obliged to leave it upon the field of bat- 
 tle. The British, on learning that the Americans 
 had abandoned the field, re-occupied it immediately. 
 Both sides claimed the victory. 
 
 The American army now reduced to 1600, retired 
 to fort Erie, and proceeded to intrench themselves 
 strongly in that position. The enemy to the num- 
 ber of 5000 followed them; and on the 4th of Au- 
 gust commenced a regular siege. On the 5th, Ge- 
 neral Gaines arrived at Erie from Sackett's Harbour, 
 and took the command. Anticipating an attack, 
 the Americans prepared themselves to receive it. 
 On the morning of the 15th, the enemy advanced 
 in three columns, commanded by Colonels Drum- 
 mond, Fischer, and Scott; the columns to the right 
 and left repeatedly attacked, and were as often re- 
 pulsed. The centre column under Drummond, 
 after a sanguinary conflict, succeeded in scaling the 
 walls, and taking possession of a bastion. While 
 Drummond was denying quarter to the conquered 
 Americans, from some cause not well understood 
 a barrel of powder beneath him was ignited 
 There was a sudden crash, and bastion, assailants 
 and assailed, were blown together into the air 
 Those of the British who survived, fled in dismay 
 but their numbers were thinned as they passed the 
 American artillery. According to the British officia 
 report, their loss on this day was 57 killed, amongs 
 whom were Colonels Scott and Drummond, 315 
 wounded, and 539 missing. The total loss of the 
 Americans was but 84 ; but among their killed were 
 Captain Williams and Lieutenant Macdonough 
 both officers of great merit. 
 
 After this repulse, both armies remained in 
 state of inactivity for some time. General Gaine 
 had been wounded by the bursting of a shell, am 
 the command again devolved on General Ripley 
 but was exercised but a short time, as Genera 
 Brown, now recovered from his wounds, entered th 
 fort and resumed his functions. 
 
 The American public had become anxious for th 
 fate of their army, and General Izard, by the order o 
 the . acretary of war, abandoning a post which, from 
 the arrival of the British troops at Montreal, it wa 
 hazardous to leave, marched from Plattsburg wit 
 5000 men, for their relief. The British were dail 
 receiving Reinforcements, and their works, upo 
 which they laboured with great assiduity, gre 1 
 more and more formidable. General Brown, learn 
 ing that of the three parts into which the Britis 
 army was divided, two were kept at the camp, whi] 
 the third manned the batteries, determined to mak 
 a sortie, with a view of destroying the batteries, an 
 cutting off the brigade on duty. 
 
 On the 17th of September, at 12 o'clock, General 
 orter was ordered to move at the head of his de- 
 ichment, by a passage through the wood, penetrate 
 3 the rear of the British, and fall by surprise upon 
 leir right, General Miller was at the same time 
 reeled to advance a short distance, and then con- 
 eal his party in a ravine between the fort and the 
 ritish camp, until General Porter had commenced 
 te attack. General Ripley was posted with a 
 orps of reserved, between the bastions of the fort, 
 jeneral Porter with his men trod silently and cir- 
 uitously along their perilous way, when, arriving at 
 heir destined point, they rushed upon the British, 
 vhom they completely surprised. In 30 minutes, 
 ley had taken a block-house and two bastions, 
 piked their guns, blown up their magazine, and 
 made prisoners of their garrison ; but Colonels Gib- 
 on and Wood had fallen at the head of their co- 
 umns. At the moment of the explosion of the ma- 
 azine, General Miller came up. He had been 
 /arned by the firing, that Porter had met the 
 nemy. His division was equally brave and suc- 
 essful. In his attack, General Davis, of the New 
 fork militia, was killed. General Ripley arrived 
 with the reserve, in season to share the danger and 
 he honour of this well-planned and well conducted 
 nterprise. 
 
 Thus in a few hours were the British deprived of 
 he fruit of 47 days' labour, of a great quantity of 
 artillery and ammunition, and of lOOO men, which 
 was their number of killed, wounded and prisoners. 
 General Miller, on whom the command devolved, 
 ecured the prisoners and the trophies of the victory, 
 and reconducted the army to the fort in perfect 
 order. Eighty-three were killed, 216 wounded, and 
 as many missing ; amounting in the whole to not 
 much less than one-third of their whole number. 
 
 After the destruction of his works before fort Erie, 
 General Drummond broke up his camp and retired 
 on the night of the 21st, to his intrenchments be- 
 lind Chippewa. Soon after this, the arrival of 
 General Izard placed the Americans on a footing 
 again to commence offensive operations ; and leav- 
 ing Erie in command of Colonel Hindman, General 
 Brown again advanced towards Chippewa. Near 
 this place an affair occurred on the 20th of October, 
 in which Colonel Bissell, with a detachment of 1000 
 men, obtained an advantage over the marquis of 
 Tweedale, who commanded a corps of 1200; took 
 from him a fieldpiece, and obliged him to retire with 
 considerable loss, having himself experienced a loss 
 of 67 men. 
 
 During the summer of this year, an expedition 
 was undertaken for the purpose of recovering Mack- 
 inau. A part of the squadron on lake Erie, had 
 for this object been extended into lake Huron, 
 under the command of Commodore Sinclair. Major 
 Croghan, accompanied by Captain Holmes, left 
 Detroit on the 5th of July. Co-operating with 
 Commodore Sinclair, they succeeded in destroying 
 the British establishments at St. Joseph's and" the 
 Sault de St. Marie, and then proceeded to Mack- 
 inau. Croghan landed his troops, but his force 
 was not sufficient to reduce the fortress. The at- 
 tempt was attended with the loss of many brave 
 officers, among whom was Captain Holmes; Two 
 vessels, which were left by the Americans to pre- 
 vent supplies arriving at the fort, were blown up by 
 the British. Commodore Sinclair, however, sue- 
 ceeded in capturing the last of their vessels on the 
 upper lakes. 
 On the 22ud of October, General M' Arthur left 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1125 
 
 Detroit with 700 men, and inarched in the direction 
 of the river Thames. He destroyed the British 
 stores at different places, and took 150 prisoners 
 without any loss to his own party. He returned to 
 Detroit on the 27th of November. 
 
 Peace cf Paris Preparations to defend Washington 
 British land and ascend the Patuxent Pro- 
 ceedings of both armies Alexandria capitulate 
 Battle near Baltimore Various rencontres. 
 
 In the early part of the year 1814, Admiral 
 Cockburn confined his operations to a predatory war- 
 fare upon the shores of the Chesapeake. The only 
 protection of the inhabitants was a fleet of gun- 
 boats and smaller vessels, commanded by Captain 
 Barney. Early in June, several skirmishes took 
 place between this flotilla, and a part of the enemy's 
 vessels ; but the American commander not being 
 able to cope with the superior force of the British, 
 took refuge in the Patuxent, and was there block- 
 aded by the British admiral. 
 
 About the middle of June, news was received of 
 the peace of Paris, which leaving unemployed a 
 large veteran land force, and an immense navy at 
 the disposal of England, there was every reason to 
 expect that she would use it to the annoyance of 
 America. America ought to have been as much as 
 possible prepared in all her vulnerable points : and 
 especially ought her government to have made a rea- 
 sonable provision for the safety of her capital. Not 
 that Washington, like the great metropolis of a Eu- 
 ropean kingdom, contained the strength and wealth 
 of the empire, to invite great exertions on the part 
 of an enemy ; but from common opinion, to pos- 
 sess the capital of a country, as the flag of a ship is 
 the point of honour. 
 
 The administration were not however inattentive. 
 They took measures in reference to the object of de- 
 fending Washington, and the adjacent city of Balti- 
 more, but their measures were inefficient. The na- 
 tional territory had been previously divided into 
 nine military districts. A tenth was now formed, 
 embracing Maryland, the district of Columbia, and 
 a part of Virginia. On the 4th of July, a requisi- 
 tion was made by the president upon the governors 
 of these states for 93,000 militia. Of these, 15,000 
 were within the limits of the new military district. 
 One thousand regulars were also to be added, and 
 thus there was numerically a force of 16,000 men at 
 the disposal of General Winder, who was appointed 
 to the command. 
 
 But it was only a fortnight previous to the invasion 
 which terminated in the capture of Washington, that 
 the order, authorizing General Winder to call for 
 these forces on the respective states which were to 
 furnish them, was received. Time is necessarily con- 
 sumed in the tardy operations of republican govern- 
 ments, unused to war ; and when on the 20th of Au- 
 gust news arrived that the enemy had landed at Be- 
 nedict, on the Patuxent, General Winder had not 
 collected more than 3000 men, and these were un- 
 acquainted with each other, and mostly unaccus- 
 tomed to move with regularity, or to act in concert. 
 
 On the J7th of August the British fleet in the 
 Chesapeake was greatly augmented by the arrival 
 of Admiral Cochrane, who had been sent out with a 
 large land force commanded by Major Ross, in pur- 
 suance of the resolution which had?;been taken by 
 the British government " to destroy and lay waste 
 such towns and districts upon the coast as might be 
 found assailable." This formidable fleet was di- 
 
 vided into three parts, one of which carrying Gene- 
 ral Ross, and commanded by Admiral Cochrane, 
 proceeded up^the Patuxent; one under Captain Gor- 
 don ascended the Potomac ; and the third under Sir 
 Peter Parker, went further up the Chesapeake, as if 
 to threaten Baltimore. 
 
 On the 19th General Ross landed at Benedict 
 with 5000 infantry ; on the 20th he commenced his 
 march, keeping along the right bank of the Patux- 
 ent. His object was in the first instance to co-ope- 
 rate with Admiral Cockburn in the destruction of 
 Commodore Barney's squadron, which that Admiral 
 had for some time been blockading. On the 22nd 
 the expedition reached Pig Point, and descried the 
 broad pendant of the American flotilla. They in- 
 stantly advanced to the attack; but on their ap- 
 proach the Americans abandoned their fleet, and 
 sixteen out of the seventeen boats of which it was 
 composed, were blown into the air. Commodore 
 Barney, no longer able to secure them, thus pre- 
 vented their falling into the hands of the British, 
 who were now distant only sixteen miles from Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 On the afternoon of the 20th of August, when Ge- 
 neral Winder was apprised of the danger of the ca- 
 pital, he left it with his force and advanced towards 
 the enemy. On the 22nd the main body of his army 
 being encamped about half way from Marlborough 
 to Washington, a detachment under Major Peter 
 met and annoyed the British at Marlborough. On 
 this day, Commodore Barney united his marines 
 with the army. On the night of the 23rd, the Bri- 
 tish rested only five miles from the American camp. 
 The president of the United States, the secretary of 
 war, and some of the other heads of department, here 
 visited General Winder, and it was resolved to fall 
 back nearer to the capital for the purpose of Jcon- 
 centrating the American force, and as is suggested 
 by some, from fear of a night,attack. The same re- 
 treating policy was pursued until General Winder 
 tiad recrossed the eastern branch of the Potomac. 
 Here he made provisions for guarding the bridge, it 
 being supposed the enemy would attempt the capital 
 from this point. In the mean time, the militia from 
 Baltimore, under General Stansbury, advanced to 
 ;he relief of Washington. These, to the number of 
 2200, including a company of artillery, rested on the 
 night of the 23rd, near Bladensburgh. Being un- 
 der orders to join General Winder, they commenced 
 their march onfthe morning of the 24th. But it was 
 now discovered that although General Winder, or 
 those under whose direction;he acted, hadjfcarefully 
 set a trap at the great bridge,on the east branch, the 
 British commander did not choose to fall into it, but 
 lad taken for safety a more circuitous route, and 
 was marching past Washington, to gain the Bla- 
 densburgh road on the north. On his march for 
 Washington, General Stansbury met the order of 
 eneral Winder to retrace his steps to Bladensburg, 
 and there give battle to the enemy. Almost ex- 
 lausted by fatigue and the heat of the season, he 
 abeyed the order. On his march he was met by 
 Colonel Monroe, secretary of state, who had been 
 scouring the adjacent country for volunteers. He 
 >roposed to Stansbury his making a movement to get 
 n the enemy's rear ; but that general being under 
 >rders to the contrary, did not feel at liberty to fol- 
 ow this judicious counsel. About noon he met the 
 memy near Bladensburg. General Winder soon 
 came up with the main body. The president- and 
 heads of department were on the field, but left it 
 'except Colonel Monroe, jivho was active in forming 
 
1126 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA 
 
 and bringing forward the cavalry of General Stana- 
 bury) about the time the action commenced ; pro- 
 bably having documents of great importance to se- 
 cure, as the event of the day was doubtful. Here en- 
 sued a contest in which, as might have been ex- 
 pected from the condition of the American troops, 
 the British were victorious. Commodore Barney, 
 with his little band of marines, fought valiantly, and 
 for some time held the British in check ; but he was 
 at length wounded and made prisoner. The regu- 
 lars and militia of the district of Columbia stood their 
 ground for a time, but at length left the field and re- 
 treated towards Washington. They were now joined 
 by fresh militia from Virginia, and upon the heights 
 they formed again, and once more interposed a bar- 
 rier between the seat of their country's government 
 and the British. But on surveying their numbers, 
 wasted by the flight ol many timid, and the fall of a 
 few brave men, they were found inadequate to the 
 task of its defence ; and with sorrow they heard the 
 order to retire, and leave the capital of their 
 country to the mercy of her enemies. 
 
 General Ross entered Washington at eight in the 
 evening, and with a Goth-like barbarism, disgraced 
 himself and his country, by destroying the monu- 
 ments of taste and literature, with which the young 
 republic had embellished her chosen seat. The 
 British commenced with destroying the capitol, 
 which was in an unfinished state, the extensive li- 
 brary, public records, and whatever else of value it 
 contained. The public offices and the president's 
 house, were wantonly sacrificed, together with many 
 private dwellings. The public stores at the navy- 
 yard, and the vessels on the stocks, were burned by 
 order of the president, to prevent their falling into 
 the hands of the invaders. The elegant bridge 
 across the Potomac was also destroyed. The loss 
 of public property alone amounted to 1,000,000 
 of dollars. They left Washington on the even- 
 ing of the 25th, arid proceeded without any opposi- 
 tion to their ships, which they reached on the evening 
 of the 27th. 
 
 The loss of the Americans in the battle of Bla- 
 densburg, was 30 killed and 50 wounded ; that of 
 the enemy, 249 in killed and wounded. Their loss 
 during this expedition, amounted to 400 killed and 
 wounded, besides 500 who were taken prisoners or 
 deserted. 
 
 Had the British confined themselves to the cap- 
 ture and destruction of public property appropriated 
 to warlike purposes, their conquest would have been 
 untarnished. The Americans would have felt deeply 
 their humiliation, and the resentment of the nation 
 might, as was expected in England, have fallen hea- 
 vily upon the public servants ; but the manner in 
 which the advantage was used, produced in the minds 
 of the people a stern vindictive feeling against the 
 conquerors, which swallowed up all minor resent- 
 ments, and united the nation, not in a wish for peace, 
 but in firm resolves fer war. 
 
 In the mean time, the squadron under Captain 
 Gordon passed up the Potomac without opposition, 
 and appeared before Alexandria on the 27th of Au- 
 gust. The inhabitants entered into a capitulation, 
 by which they delivered up their merchandise and 
 shipping to the British, who, laden with a rich booty, 
 returned to the ocean, though not without being 
 much annoyed from the shore as they passed. 
 
 The squadron, which had sailed up the Chesa- 
 peake under Sir Peter Parker, landed about 250 
 marines for the purpose of surprising 200 militia, 
 who were encamped near Bellair under Colonel 
 
 Reed. They were repulsed with the loss of 41 
 killed and wounded. Sir Peter Parker was mortally 
 wounded. 
 
 Admiral Cochrane having received on board hi 
 fleet the conquerors of Washington, the combined 
 land and sea forces moved in the confidence of vic- 
 tory to the attack of Baltimore. After passing 
 down the Patuxent, they ascended the Chesapeake, 
 and on the llth of September appeared at the mouth 
 of the Patapsco, fourteen miles from Baltimore. On 
 the morning of the 12th, General Ross, with an army 
 amounting to about 5000, debarked at North Point, 
 and commenced his inarch towards the city. 
 
 General Smith commanded the whole force of the 
 defenders. Watching the movements of the enemy, 
 he dispatched about 2300 men under General 
 Strieker, who on the llth marched towards North 
 Point. They halted at night seven miles from the 
 city. On the morning of the 12th, information was 
 received of the landing of the British, and General 
 Strieker advanced to meet him. A skirmish between 
 the advanced parties ensued, in which General Ross 
 was killed. The command then devolved on Colonel 
 Brooke, who having the instructions of General 
 Ross, continued to move forward. An action com- 
 menced at about half past three, by a discharge of 
 cannon on both sides. After maintaining the con- 
 test for some time, the Americans gave way, and 
 General Strieker retired behind the entrenchments 
 on the heights, where General Smith was stationed 
 with the main army. 
 
 On the morning of the 13th, the British army ad- 
 vanced within a mile and a half of the intrench- 
 ments, and made several manoeuvres to draw forth 
 the Americans, which were so met by General Smith, 
 that they could not obtain their object ; but on the 
 contrary, the republicans maintained the advantage 
 of ground and position. Colonel Brooke was aware 
 that they were superior to him in numbers as well 
 as position; he therefore made no attempt upon 
 them during the day, but disposed his troops for a 
 night attack. In the evening he received a commu- 
 nication from Admiral Cochrane, the commander of 
 the naval forces, informing him that fort M'Heury 
 had resisted all his efforts, and that the entrance of 
 the harbour was blocked up by vessels sunk for that 
 purpose, and that a naval co-operation against the 
 town and camp was impracticable. Colonel Brooke 
 resolved therefore not to hazard an attack, but moved 
 off in the night, and on the 15th re-embarked at 
 North Point. 
 
 Great was the joy of the inhabitants of Baltimore, 
 at the success of their efforts for the preservation of 
 their city ; and the warmest gratitude was mani- 
 fested to those whose vigorous exertions had saved 
 them from the dreaded invasion. Among these, tho 
 defenders of fort M'Henry were particularly re- 
 membered. 
 
 The harbours of New York, New London and 
 Boston, continued to be closely blockaded. The 
 humanity of Commodore Hardy, in his incursions 
 into the interior, affords a striking contrast to the 
 brutality of Admiral Cockburn, and the squadron 
 in the Chesapeake. In some cases, however, but 
 contrary to his orders, private property was de- 
 stroyed by parties of officers and marines. 
 
 On the llth of July, Commodore Hardy with 
 eight ships and 2000 men, made a descent upon 
 the coast of Maine, and, without resistance, took 
 possession of Eastport and all the towns on the 
 west side of Passamaquoddy Bay. Many of the 
 inhabitants remained, but it was on the condition 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1127 
 
 acknowledging themselves the subjects of Great 
 Britain. 
 
 In August, the governor of New Brunswick, with 
 the aid of Admiral Griffith, undertook an expedition 
 to the Penobscot river. They took possession of 
 Castine, which was previously evacuated, and pro- 
 ceeded up the river to Hamden, where the frigate 
 John Adams had been placed for preservation. The 
 militia who had been stationed for its defence, fled 
 on their approach, and the frigate was blown up, to 
 prevent its falling into the hands of the British. A 
 proclamation was issued by the council of New- 
 Brunswick, declaring the country east of the Pe- 
 nobscot in possession of the king of Great Britain ; 
 and a direct communication was opened between 
 New Brunswick and Canada. The British con- 
 tinued to occupy this section of Maine until the close 
 of the war. 
 
 Early in August, the enemy's ships under Com- 
 modore Hardy, appeared before Stonington, in 
 Connecticnt, and threatened the destruction of the 
 town. They commenced a severe attack, but were 
 repulsed by a battery of two eighteen-pounders ani 
 a small band of militia. They then proceeded to 
 another part of the town, which they expected to 
 find defenceless ; but here the well directed fire of 
 a six-pounder, forced them to retire to their ships. 
 They bombarded the place during the night, and in 
 the morning renewed the attack ; but-' finding the 
 place so gallantly defended, at the end of three days 
 the Commodore retired. 
 
 British force in Canada increased Sir George Pre~ 
 r>ost advances to Plattsburg Engagement in the 
 bay of Plattsburg Americans annoy the British 
 merchant-vessels Naval engagements Difficulties 
 of the Americans Convention at Hartford. 
 
 During the months of July and August, the Bri- 
 tish army in Caada was augmented by another 
 considerable body of those troops, who had, under 
 Lord Wellington, acquired experience and reputa- 
 tion in the war of the Spanish peninsula. With 
 these troops, Sir George Prevost determined to in- 
 vade America, by the same route that Burgoyne 
 had formerly pursued. Like that general, his hopes 
 were sanguine, that if he appeared in force in the 
 country, the inhabitants would join him; and like 
 Burgoyne, it is said that a .part of his baggage con- 
 sisted of arms and clothing for those who he ex- 
 pected would flock to his standard. The American 
 smugglers, wishing to court the favour of the Bri- 
 tish, had encouraged these hopes, which the republi- 
 can party accused the federalists of exciting. Pre- 
 vost's -plan of operations is supposed by some to have 
 resembled that of Burgoyne in another respect, and 
 that he had hopes of being able to penetrate, by the 
 way of lake Champlain and the Hudson river, to 
 New York. 
 
 The army at Plattsburg had been reduced by the 
 departure of General Izard for fort Erie. Sir George 
 Prevost seized this opportunity for making the 
 projected invasion. Having concentrated his force 
 on the frontier of Canada, he entered the American 
 territory on the 3rd of September. From Champlain, 
 he issued a proclamation, assuring the inhabitants 
 that his arms would only be directed against the go- 
 vernment, and those who supported it; while 'no 
 injury should be done to the peaceful and unoffend- 
 ing. The fire of genuine patriotism kindled in the 
 breasts of the Americans, at the news that the foot 
 of an invader pressed the soil of their country. The 
 inhabitants of the northern part of New York, 
 
 and the hardy sons of the green mountains, rose in 
 arms without distinction of party, and hastened to- 
 wards the scene of action. 
 
 A different disposition, however, prevailed among 
 a few individuals of the federal party, in Vermont; 
 and among these was the governor, who belonged 
 to the federal party, a well meaning man, but too 
 much under the influence of others. Stationing him- 
 self at Burlington, he endeavoured to dissuade the 
 volunteers from crossing to Plattsburg, stating that 
 General Macomb did not need their services. In 
 consequence, some were actually returning. At 
 the solicitation of Colonel Fasset, of the regular 
 army, a special messenger crossed to Plattsburg, to 
 obtain a written request for their services from Ge- 
 neral Macomb. General Strong, a federalist, and 
 a highly respectable farmer and country gentleman, 
 and who, on his arrival at Plattsburg, was chosen 
 to command the volunteers, was earnestly urged by 
 the governor and his friends, not to embark in the 
 enterprise. The political obloquy which these mea- 
 sures cast upon the party, and particularly on the 
 individuals concerned, will remain a salutary warn- 
 ing to others under similar circumstances. 
 
 Sir George Prevost advanced at the head of 
 14,000 troops, in two columns, upon Plattsburg. 
 One column, with all the baggage and artillery, 
 proceeded by the lake road, and the other, under 
 the command of General Brisbane, by Beekman- 
 town. Major Appling, with his corps of riflemen, 
 and Major Sproul, with a detachment of the 13th 
 regiment of infantry, were ordered on the Lake 
 road, to check the advance of the enemy ; which 
 they endeavoured to do, by destroying bridges and 
 felling trees in the road. On the 4th and 5th of 
 September, the British advanced on both roads, and 
 the column under General Brisbane encamped on 
 the Beekmantown road, eight miles from Plattsburg, 
 and two miles from General Mooers, who had 700 
 militia under his command. On the night of the 
 5th and 6th, General Macomb ordered Major Wool, 
 with 230 regulars, to join General Mooers, and to 
 give support to the militia, in retarding the advance 
 of the enemy. At the dawn of day, General Bris- 
 bane broke up his encampment, and resumed his 
 line of march for Plattsburg. He was met by Major 
 Wool, about seven miles from the latter place. A 
 skirmish ensued, but in consequence of the superior 
 force of the British, he was compelled to retreat, 
 not, however, without disputing every inch of ground 
 to Plattsburg, killing and wounding 120; among 
 whom was Lieut.-colonel Wellington. Major Wool 
 lost 45,^ killed and wounded. Sir George arrived 
 in the course of the morning, with the main column, 
 and encamped his whole army before Plattsburg. 
 
 The situation of General Macomb was critical in 
 the 'extreme. His whole regular force did not ex- 
 ceed 2000, and his fortifications were merely a show 
 of defence. Had Sir George pursued Major Wool 
 across the Saranac, on the morning of the 6th, he 
 no doubt could have taken with ease the forts occu- 
 pied by General Macomb and his army. Prevost 
 has been censured for this delay, which gave his 
 enemy time to increase his force ; but the British 
 commander, expecting that a part of the inhabitants 
 would unite with him, calculated that his own force 
 would also be augmented. Preferring to wait until 
 the two fleets should have settled the question of the 
 supremacy of the lake, he contented himself with 
 doing little else than to erect seven batteries to assist 
 in that which he considered certain, the capture of 
 General Macomb and his army. 
 
1128 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 On the morning of the llth of September, Sir 
 George formed his army in two columns, prepara- 
 tory to an assault. Accordingly, one column passed 
 the Saranac, and placed itself in rear of the Ame- 
 rican position. The other column was in the village 
 in front, ready to advance whenever the order might 
 be given, or circumstances might justify. Such 
 was the position of the British army, when the Bri- 
 tish fleet made its appearance in the Bay of Platts- 
 burg. It was commanded by Commodore Downie, 
 and composed of the Confiance, a frigate of 39 guns, 
 a brig of sixteen, two sloops of eleven, and several 
 galleys, mounting in the whole, 95 guns, and hav- 
 ing 1000 men. The American squadron, under 
 Commodore Macdonough, was anchored in the bay. 
 It mounted 86 guns, and had only 820 men. It 
 consisted of the Saratoga, carrying 26 guns, the 
 Eagle of 20 guns, the Ticonderoga, of seventeen, 
 the Preble, of seven, and ten galleys. 
 
 The British having the advantage of choice of 
 position, anchored within 300 yards of the Ameri- 
 can line, and at 9 o'clock, commenced the action. 
 The Confiance was opposed to the Saratoga, the 
 enemy's brig to the Eagle ; one sloop assisting their 
 brig and ship, while the Saratoga and Eagle were 
 supported by one division of the gallis, the remain- 
 ing division being opposed to the schooner, sloop, 
 and thirteen galleys of the enemy. 
 
 The surface of the lake was unruffled, and for one 
 hour and a half, the Saratoga and Confiance pourec 
 upon each other a most destructive fire, while the 
 smaller vessels commenced a close and spiritec 
 action. The Eagle then cut her cable, and passing 
 between the Ticonderoga and Saratoga, increased the 
 danger of the American commodore, by leaving hin 
 exposed to a heavy fire from the enemy's brig. Hii 
 guns were dismounted, or had become unmanageable 
 when by the skilful manoeuvre of winding his ship 
 (in which Commodore Downie was unsuccessful, 
 he brought a fresh broadside to bear upon the Con 
 fiance ; and she surrendered. A broadside was then 
 poured upon the brig, which in fifteen minutes sur 
 rendered. The sloop opposed to the Eagle, as alsc 
 that engaged with the galleys, struck some time be 
 fore. Three of the galleys were sunk, and the re 
 mainder escaped in a shattered condition. A frigate 
 brig, and two sloops of war were the trophies of th 
 victory. The action lasted two hours and a hali 
 and the shattered appearance of both squadrons bor 
 witness to the severity of the conflict. Commodor 
 Downie was slain, with 84 men. One hundred an 
 ten men were wounded. The loss of the American 
 was 52 killed, and 58 wounded. 
 
 At the moment of the engagement between th 
 fleets, the British opened their land batteries upo 
 the American works, but with little effect. The 
 ceased however with the victory on the lake, whe 
 Sir George recalled his columns from the contem 
 plated assault, and commenced his retreat towarc 
 Canada, leaving behind large quantities of ammu 
 nition and military stores. The column placed i 
 the rear of the Americans, was pursued by Genera 
 Strong, with his militia, when the soldiers of on 
 company were either killed, wounded or captured. 
 Affairs interesting to the belligerents were als 
 transacted on the ocean. 
 
 During the month of April, Commodore Porte 
 returned from his cruise in the Pacific ocean. H 
 had sailed from the Delaware in the autumn of 1815 
 and after cruising off the eastern coast of Sout 
 America for some time, he steered for the Pacif 
 ocean, and arrived at Valparaiso in March 18K 
 
 e proceeded to Lima. From thence he went to 
 ;e Gallipagos Islands, and cruised among them 
 atil October. Here he greatly annoyed the British 
 mimerce, particularly the whale fishery. He cap- 
 ured twelve armed whale ships, whose aggregate 
 rce amounted to 107 guns, and 302 men. 
 
 Of these prizes, the Atlantic was equipped with 
 wenty guns, intended chiefly as a store ship, and 
 ith the name of Essex Junior, given in command to 
 jieutenant Downs. With this vessel, Downs con- 
 ucted the prizes made by Porter, to the neutral 
 ort of Valparaiso. 
 
 Alarmed by the successes of the Essex, the British 
 dmiralty had sent out Commodore Hillyar with the 
 D ehbe frigate, carrying 53 guns, and a complement 
 f 320 men, accompanied by Captain Tucker, with 
 ic Cherub sloop of war, mounting 28 guns, and 
 aving 180 men, making his whole force 81 guns 
 nd 500 men. 
 
 On learning the vicinity of this force, by the re- 
 urn of Lieutenant Downs, Commodore Porter 
 teered for the island of Noaheevah, for the purpose 
 f refitting his vessel. He took possession of the 
 sland in the name of the American government, 
 named it in honour of the president, Madison's 
 sland, and established a friendly intercourse among 
 he. natives, whom he had found in a state of hosti- 
 ity. Leaving three of his vessels under the charge 
 )f Lieutenant Gamble, he proceeded to Valparaiso, 
 and there, as he expected, met with Commodore 
 ilillyar, who had been seeking him for five months. 
 The Essex mounted 46 guns, but her crew at this 
 ime consisted of only 250 men ; the^Essex Junior 
 was manned by 60. Finding to his regret that his 
 'orce was greatly inferior to that of his adversary, 
 Uommodore Porter remained blockaded in the port 
 or six weeks. 
 
 Determined to attempt an escape, the wind being 
 favourable, he set sail on the 28th of March, 1814. 
 On rounding the point at the entrance of the bay a 
 sudden squall carried away his main topmast. The 
 British gave him chase with both their ships. In 
 his disabled state he anchored in a.small bay, within 
 pistol shot of the Ashore, hoping that Commodore 
 Hillyar would respect the neutrality of the place. 
 Perceiving that they continued to approach, Porter 
 made every preparation in his power to meet them, 
 and sustain the honour of his flag. The British 
 vessels commenced the attack, but so vigorously 
 was it met, that in the course of half an hour the 
 Phebe and Cherub were so much disabled as to re- 
 tire for repairing damages. The crew of the Essex 
 had suffered severely from the hot raking fire of the 
 British ; but they still showed a spirit of brave and 
 determined resistance. A tremendous firing was 
 soon renewed. The Phebe being enabled to choose 
 her distance, took a station out of the reach of the 
 guns of the Essex, while with her long guns she 
 poured upon the American frigate a destructive 
 tire ; many of the guns had all their men destroyed, 
 and one was manned three times during the action. 
 Porter next endeavoured to board his antagonist, 
 but his masts and rigging were shot away, and his 
 ship became unmanageable. He next determined 
 to run his vessel on shore, land his men, and de- 
 stroy her; but the wind shifting, he was blown into 
 a situation to receive the raking fire of the British. 
 His ship caught fire. The flames burst in all direc- 
 tions, and the brave men were threatened with in- 
 stant death from the explosion of the magazine, 
 near which the fire had taken. The boats had been 
 
 cut to pieces, and the sailors received permission to 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1129 
 
 swim for the shore, but most of them preferred re- 
 maining with the commander to share the fate of 
 the ship; the enemy still firing upon them. The 
 sailors succeeded in extinguishing the flames of the 
 Essex, not however until a considerable quantity of 
 powder was exploded. With a desperate resolution 
 they again went to their guns. 
 
 Commodore Porter now determined to consult his 
 officers on the expediency of surrendering, when, to 
 his surprise, Lieutenant M' Knight was the only re- 
 maining officer to be consulted. The commodore 
 then gave his orders to strike the colours ; only 75 
 of the crew of the Essex remaining, the rest being 
 killed or wounded. The loss of the enemy was also 
 severe. Both vessels were in a sinking state. 
 
 Commodore . Porter was sent on parole, in the 
 Essex Junior, to the United States, where he was re- 
 ceived at New York with distinguished honours. 
 
 On the 21st of April the United States' sloop of 
 war, Frolic, commanded by Commodore Bainbridge, 
 was captured by the Orpheus frigate. On the 29th 
 of the same month, the United sloop, the Peacock, 
 of which Captain Warrington was the commander, 
 captured the British brig Epervier, commanded by 
 Captain Wales. The action took place in latitude 
 27 degrees, 47 minutes, north, and longitude 30 de- 
 grees, 9 minutes. During its continuance, which 
 was 45 minutes, the Epervier had eight men killec 
 and fifteen wounded, while the Peacock escapee 
 without a man killed, and two slightly wounded. 
 
 The Wasp, commanded by Captain Blakely, lefi 
 Portsmouth, (New Hampshire,) on the 18th of May 
 On the 28th of June, near the entrance to St 
 George's Channel, she fell in with the English brig 
 Reindeer, commanded by Captain Manners. After 
 an action of nineteen minutes the Reindeer having 
 lost her commander and purser, and 27 men kille 
 and 42 wounded, and having made two unsuccessfu 
 attempts to board the Wasp, was herself boarded by 
 the American vessel and forced to strike her colours 
 She was so much injured during the engagement 
 that the next day she was burned. The American 
 lost in the action 26 killed and wounded. 
 
 The Wasp continued her cruise, and after making 
 several captures, put into the port of L'Orient, in 
 France, on the 8th of July. She remained there un 
 til the 27th of August, and when four days at sea sh 
 met the brig Avon, commanded by Captain Arbuth 
 not. After a severe action of 45 minutes, and afte 
 orders were given to board her, three British vessel 
 appeared in sight, and Captain Blakely was com 
 pelled to abandon his prize. The Avon sunk soon 
 after he left her. During the remainder of the cruise 
 Captain Blakely captured fifteen merchant vessels 
 but he never returned to port ; nor is it known wha 
 was the fate of the vessel and her gallant crew. 
 
 The last naval battle, ended in the loss of th 
 American frigate President, then under the com 
 mand of Commodore Decatur. Four British vessel 
 were off Sandy Hook, blockading the harbour o 
 New York ; the Pomone, the Tenedos, the Majesti 
 andthe Endymion. Commodore Decatur attempte 
 to put to sea on the 15th of January, 1815 ; whe 
 they gave chase, and after eighteen hours he wa 
 brought to an engagement with the Endymion 
 For two hours and a half the action continued, an 
 Decatur had silenced the guns of his adversary 
 when the whole fleet appeared. Having one-fifth 
 his crew killed or wounded, and being opposed b 
 a force greatly superior to his own, he no longe 
 hesitated to surrender. 
 
 In October, communications were received fro 
 
 e American commissioners in Europe. Great 
 ritain demanded such terms as extinguished the 
 opes of a speedy reconciliation. The situation of 
 flairs in the United States was such as to alarm the 
 iends of their country. The expenditure of the na- 
 on greatly exceeded its income, its credit was low, 
 s finances disordered, and a most bitter opposition 
 as manifested to every measure of the administra- 
 on ; yet its congress did not shrink from the du- 
 es which the crisis imposed. New loans were au- 
 lorized, taxes augmented, and every preparation 
 ade for prosecuting the war with increased vigour. 
 VIr. Munroe was appointed secretary of war, in k the 
 lace of General Armstrong. 
 
 The opposition had at this time assumed a bold 
 ttitude ; some of the New England states, as has 
 een related, refused to call out their militia, and 
 Massachusetts even proposed to withhold the re- 
 enue of the state from the general government. A 
 onventlon of delegates from the New England 
 tates was proposed, the object of which was, to 
 ake into consideration the situation of the country, 
 md'to decide upon such measures as might lead 
 o a redress of supposed grievances. Members were 
 appointed by the legislatures of Massachusetts, Con- 
 necticut, and Rhode' Island. Two members from 
 Hampshire and one from Vermont were ap- 
 >ointed at county meetings. The convention met 
 it Hartford, in Connecticut, on the 15th of Decem- 
 ber, 1814, and sat nearly three weeks with closed 
 doors. After their adjournment they published an 
 address, charging the national government with 
 pursuing measures hostile to the interests of New 
 England, and recommending amendments of the 
 'ederal constitution. Among these amendments, it 
 was proposed that congress should have no power to 
 "ay an embargo for more than 60 days, that they 
 ihould not interdict commercial intercourse, or de- 
 'lare war, without the concurrence of two-thirds of 
 both houses ; that no person, who should be thereafter 
 naturalized, should be eligible to a seat in the senate, 
 or house of representatives, or hold any civil office 
 under the government of the United States ; and that 
 the same person should not be twice elected to the 
 office of president of the United States, nor the pre- 
 sident elected from the same state for two successive 
 terms. A resolution was passed, providing for the 
 calling of another convention, if the United States 
 
 should refuse their-, consent to arrangements 
 whereby the New England states, separately or in 
 concert, might be empowered to assume upon them- 
 selves the defence of their territory against the 
 enemy, and appropriate therefore such part of the 
 revenue raised in those states as might be neces- 
 sary." The committee appointed [by the conven- 
 tion to communicate these resolves to the govern- 
 ment of the union, subsequently met at Washing- 
 ton the news of peace. 
 
 The proposed alterations of the constitution were 
 submitted to the several states, and rejected by all 
 except Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connec- 
 ticut. Probably there had been no measure taken 
 since America was a nation, soiodious to the great 
 bulk of the people of the United States, as* this con- 
 vention, or which subjected the agents to such se- 
 vere personal as well as political censure. It is but 
 right to give however the following defence made by 
 one of the leading members of that body. " The 
 Hartford Convention, far from being the original 
 contrivance of a cabal, for anypurpose of faction or 
 disunion, was a result, growing by natural conse- 
 quences out of existing circumstances. More than 
 
1130 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 a year previous to its institution, a convention was 
 simultaneously culled for by the people, in their 
 town meetings, in all parts of Massachusetts. Pe- 
 titions to that effect were accumulated on the tables 
 of the legislative chamber. They were postponed 
 for twelve months by the influence of those who 
 now sustain the odium of the measure. The adop- 
 tion of it was the consequence, not the source of a 
 popular sentiment ; and it was intended, by those 
 who voted for it, as a safety-valve by which the 
 steam, arising from the fermentation of the times, 
 mifht escape, not as a boiler in which it should be 
 generated. Whether good or ill, it was a measure 
 of the people, of states, of legislatures. How unjust 
 to brand the unwilling agents, the mere committee 
 of legislative bodies, with the stigma of acts which 
 were first authorized, and then sanctioned by their 
 constituted assemblies." 
 
 Proceedings in the south La Fitte's disclosures 
 Pensacola surrenders to the Americans General 
 Jackson's preparations at New Orleans Capture of 
 the American flotilla Contests between the armies 
 
 Sir E. Packenham arrives with the main body of 
 
 the British Jackson's Proceedings with the legisla- 
 ture of Louisiana Battle of New Orleans Sir E. 
 Packenham killed Subsequent rencontres British 
 abandon the expedition Fort Bowyer surrenders- 
 Peace proclaimed. 
 
 After the peace with the Creeks, and about the first 
 of August, General Jackson fixed his head-quarters 
 at Mobile. Here he learned that three British 
 shins had entered the harbo'ir of Pensaco la, and 
 landed about.'SOO men, under Colonel Nicholls, and 
 a large quantity of guns and ammunition, for the 
 purpose of 'arming the Indians. . General Jackson 
 also heard that the British meditated a descent, 
 with a large force, upon the southern shores of the 
 United States. He immediately made.a call for the 
 militia of Tennessee, and was promptly furnished 
 with 2000 men by that patriotic state 
 
 Colouel Nicholls issued from Mobile a proclama- 
 tion which was addressed to the inhabitants of 
 Louisiana, Kentucky, or Tennessee ^inviting them 
 to return to their allegiance, and help to restore the 
 country to its rightful., owner. This proclamation 
 produced no other effect but^contempt. If this at- 
 tempt manifested Nicholls a weak man another 
 brought him greater odium. West of the mouth 
 of the Mississippi, the island of Barrataria was 
 the resort of a band of marauders, who, by their 
 darinor courage,' and the celerity and mysterious se- 
 crecy of their movements, kept the country in a 
 state of perpetual alarm; now appearing, to strike 
 some unexpected blow of robbery perhaps of mur- 
 der, sometimes by sea, sometimes by and, then sud- 
 denly disapppearing, and constantly eluding pursuit 
 Their numbers were formidable, amounting to 500 
 or 600. Their leader, La Fitte, was subtle and 
 courageous ; possessing traits of magnanimity, yet 
 unprincipled, as the chieftain of such a band must 
 of*course be. They had made a pretence of sailing 
 under the Carthagenian flag, as privateers, but 
 their prizes were condemned in their own ports. In 
 short, they were by land, robbers ; by sea, pirates. 
 The American authorities, by whom they were.out- 
 lawed, having endeavoured to root them out, applied 
 to thetBritish to lend their assistance. Instead of 
 this, Nicholls, disclosing to La Fitte that a powerful 
 attempt was to be made on New Orleans, offered 
 him a large reward, if, by his knowledge of the 
 
 passes, he would aid the British in their approach to 
 the threatened city. 
 
 La Fitte drew from him important facts, and then 
 dismissing his propositions with disdain, disclosed 
 the whole to Claiborne, governor of Louisiana. 
 Struck with this act of the pirate's generosity to a 
 country which had set a price upon his head, and per- 
 ceiving how valuable would be the services of the 
 Barratarians in the crisis which was approaching, 
 Governor Claiborne, by a proclamation, offered par- 
 don to the whole band, if they would come forward 
 in the present crisis in defence of the country. They 
 joyfully accepted the proposition, and afterwards 
 rendered essential services. 
 
 m General Jackson had represented to the govern- 
 ment, that the Spanish were not performing the part 
 of a neutral nation, but were suffering the British to 
 use the port of Pensacola for the purpose of --an- 
 noyance to the Americans, and he therefore urged 
 the propriety of taking it into possession during the 
 war. Not having received an answer, he deter- 
 mined to hazard the responsibility of taking pos- 
 session of the port without the orders of the go 
 vernmenL Having received his reinforcements, 
 about the 30th of October he marched from Mobile, 
 at the head of nearly 2000 men. Having arrived 
 in th neighbourhood of Pensacola, on the 6th 
 of November he sent a flag to the governor, for 
 the purpose of conference, but his messenger was 
 fired upon. On the 7th, he entered the town, 
 at a place where he had not been prepared for, or 
 expected. A battery was however formed in the 
 street; but this was soon carried at the point of the 
 bayonet, and the governor capitulated. The British 
 troops destroyed the forts at the entrance of the har- 
 bour, and with their shipping evacuated the bay. 
 Jackson now returned to Mobile. He had received 
 information that Admiral Cochrane had been rein- 
 forced at Bermuda, and that thirteen ships of the 
 line, with transports and an army of 10,000 men, 
 were advancing. Believing New Orleans to be 
 the place of their destination, he marched for that 
 place, and reached it on the 1st of December. 
 
 Early in the month of September, the inhabitants 
 of Louisiana were impressed with the belief that 
 the British were about to invade them with a power- 
 ful force, and their principal citizens, among whom 
 were Governor Claiborne, and Mr. Edward Living- 
 ston, beheld the prospect with well-grounded alarm. 
 This portion of the union having been but recently 
 annexed, its yeomanry felt not the same-; pride of 
 country as those of the older states. New Orleans 
 being assailable from so many points, it was diffi- 
 cult to secure it in all. Yet, far from being dis- 
 couraged by difficulties, these patriotic citizens felt 
 them only as stimulants to greater exertions. Go- 
 vernor Claiborne issued his proclamation, calling 
 on the people 'to arouse for the defence of their coun- 
 try and their homes. Mr. Livingston, at a meeting 
 of the citizens who convened on the 16th of Sep- 
 tember to devise measures in -co-operation with the 
 government of the state, made an eloquent and 
 moving appeal, calling on the inhabitants to prove 
 the assertion a slander, that they were not attached 
 to the American government. The people aroused ; 
 defences were commenced, guarding the principal 
 passes, and volunteer corps were organized. In the 
 mean time. General Jackson arrived, and all classes 
 concurred in putting him at the head of affairs. 
 His powerful talents and invariable success in war, 
 lad already made him regarded, particularly near 
 the seat of his victories, as invincible ; and believing 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 that he could and would preserve them in safety, or 
 lead them to victory, the inhabitants were content 
 to put all their strength, pecuniary and physical, at 
 his disposal. Confident in his own energies, he 
 took, with a firm and unwavering step, the perilous 
 post assigned him ; satisfied that his own breast 
 should be the first to meet the shock which menaced 
 his country. 
 
 It was ascertained that the British with 60 sail of 
 the line, were off Ship Island. Jackson neglected 
 no measure which might increase his military force, 
 or make it more effective, or that would put at his 
 disposal more labouring hands, in the building of 
 defences. The motley populati-m of New Orleans, 
 the slaves, the free people of colour, Frenchmen, 
 Spaniards and Americans, all were employed. 
 
 The British had passed into lake Borgne. A 
 naval force consisting of several small vessels, under 
 Lieutenant Jones, met them at one of the straits 
 which connect that lake with the Ponchartrain. 
 The British, being provided with a great number of 
 boats, sent 43, with 1200 men, against the American 
 flotilla, which was manned with only 180 men. 
 After a gallant defence, in which Lieutenant Jones 
 sunk several of their barges, he was compelled to 
 surrender his fleet to the superior force of the as- 
 sailants. The loss of this fleet, which had been sup- 
 posed adequate to defend the passes, placed New 
 Orleans in still greater danger. Having reason 
 to believe that there were persons in the city who 
 carried intelligence to the British, an embargo was 
 laid for three days. That not an idle hand might 
 be found, the prisons were cleared, on condition that 
 the prisoners should labour in the ranks. La Fitte 
 and the Barratarians arrived, and were employed. 
 To keep in order and direct the energies of such a 
 mass, General Jackson judged that the strong arm 
 of military control only could be effectual. The 
 danger of the times was extreme ; it was a case of 
 preservation or destruction, which a few days must 
 decide, and the general took the daring responsibi- 
 lity of proclaiming martial law. 
 
 On the morning of the 22nd of December, 3000 
 British troops, under General Kean, landed at the 
 head of lake Borgne, and at two o'clock, after mak- 
 ing prisoners of a small advanced party of Ameri- 
 cans, they posted themselves about nine miles be- 
 low New Orleans. General Jackson lost no time 
 in preparing to meet them. Apprehending that they 
 would pass the strait from lake Borgne to lake Pon- 
 chartrain, and thus make a double attack, he posted 
 part of his force under General Carroll, on the 
 Gentilly road, so as to intercept their approach in 
 that direction. At five on the afternoon of the 
 23rd, General Jackson, accompanied by General 
 Coffee, having the co-operation of the Caroline, an 
 armed vessel, attacked the enemy in their position 
 on the bank of the river. The charge of the Ame- 
 ricans was bravely made, but the British troops 
 maintained their position. A thick fog coming on, 
 General Jackson, whose men were now for the first 
 time acting in concert, deemed it prudent to draw 
 off his army. Having rested on the field, he with- 
 drew on the morning of the 24th, to a stronger 
 position, two miles nearer the city. The loss of 
 the Americans was about 100, in killed, wounded, 
 and missing ; that of the British, 224 killed, besides 
 a large number wounded. 
 
 In the discretion with which General Jackson now 
 took his position, and the diligence, care and 
 activity with which he fortified it, consists much of 
 the merit of his defence of New Orleans. His 
 
 camp occupied both banks of the Mississippi. On 
 the left was a parapet of a thousand yards in length, 
 in the construction of which bags of cotton were 
 used, with a ditch in front, containing five feet of 
 water. The right wing of the division here posted, 
 rested on a river, and the left on a wood which na- 
 ture and art had rendered impervious. On the 
 right bank of the river, a heavy battery enfiladed 
 the whole front of the position on the left. The 
 entire army were vigorously occupied in strength- 
 ing these lines. 
 
 In the mean time, the British who had been 
 greatly annoyed by the fire of the Caroline, con- 
 structed a battery, which by means of hot shot, set 
 fire to the vessel, and blew her up ; she having 
 been one hour before abandoned by her crew. 
 
 On the 25th Sir Edward Packenham, the com- 
 mander-in-chief of the British force, accompanied 
 by Major-general Gibbs, arrived at the British en- 
 campment with the main army, and a large body of 
 artillery. On the 28th, Sir Edward advanced with 
 his army and artillery, intending to force Jackson 
 from his position. At the distance of half a mile 
 from the American camp, he opened upon their yet 
 unfinished works a heavy cannonade. This was 
 met on the part of the Americans, by the broadsides 
 of the Louisiana, then lying in the river, and by 
 the fire of their batteries. Aftej maintaining the 
 contest for seven hours, the British commander re- 
 tired with the loss of 120 men. The loss of the 
 Americans was inconsiderable, being only six killed 
 and twelve wounded. 
 
 While engaged in the conflict of the 28th, Ge- 
 neral Jackson was informed that plans were forming 
 in the legislature of Louisiana, then in session, for 
 entering into negotiations with the British. In the 
 moment of irritation, he sent an order to Governor 
 Claiborne, to watch their conduct, and if such a 
 project was disclosed, to place a military guard at 
 the door, and confine them to their chamber. Go- 
 vernor Claiborn, misconstrued the order, and placed 
 a guard which prevented their assembling. 
 
 Eaton in his life of General Jackson, says, " My 
 object in this, remarked the general, was that then 
 they would be able to proceed with their business, 
 without producing the slightest injury; whatever 
 schemes they might entertain would remain with 
 themselves, without the power of circulating them 
 to the prejudice of any other interest than their own. 
 I had intended to have had them well treated, and 
 kindly dealt by ; and thus obstructed from every thing 
 passing without doors, a better opportunity would 
 have been afforded them to enact good and whole- 
 some laws. But Governor Claiborne mistook my 
 order, and instead of shutting them in-doors, con- 
 trary to my wishes and expectations, turned them 
 out." 
 
 (1815.) On the morning of the 1st of January, 
 the British having constructed batteries near the 
 American lines, immediately opened a heavy fire 
 upon them, and at the same time made an attempt 
 to turn their left flank. They were repulsed, and 
 in the evening abandoned their position. The loss 
 of the Americans on this occasion, was six killed 
 and 24 wounded. The British were supposed to 
 have had 120 men killed. 
 
 On the 4th of January, General Jackson received 
 a reinforcement of 2500 Kentucky militia, under 
 General Adair. On the 6th, the British army was 
 augmented by 4000 troops under General Lambert. 
 Their army amounted at this time to 14,000, while 
 that of General Jackson did not exceed 6000. 
 
1132 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 On the 7th, the British commanders were making 
 the most vigorous preparations for a meditated at- 
 tack. At immense labour they had widened and 
 deepened the canal from lake Borgne to the Missis- 
 sippi, so that, on the night of the seventh, they suc- 
 ceeded in getting their boats from the lake to the 
 river. Early on the morning of the 8th, the Ame- 
 rican army was assailed by a shower of bullets and 
 Congreve rockets. The British army marched in 
 two divisions under General Gibbs and General 
 Kean, the whole commanded by Sir Edward Pack- 
 kenham, to storm the American intrenchments. 
 The American batteries opened a brisk fire upon 
 them, but the soldiers advanced slowly, though 
 firmly, carrying fascines and scaling-ladders. The 
 keen and practised eyes of the western marksmen 
 were, as they advanced, selecting their men. When 
 the British were within reach of their rifles, the 
 advanced line fired, and each brought down his 
 man. Those behind handed a second loaded rifle 
 as soon as the first was discharged. The plain was 
 strewed with the dead, and the British faltered and 
 retreated in confusion. Sir Edward appeared 
 among them, encouraging them to renew the assault. 
 Two balls struck him, and he fell, mortally wounded. 
 A second time the British columns advanced, and a 
 second time retreated before the deadly fire of the 
 Americans. Again their thinned ranks were closed, 
 and they moved forward with desperate resolution. 
 Generals Kean and Gibbs were now both wounded, 
 and carried from the field. Their troops fell back. 
 At this time General Lambert, who commanded the 
 reserve, attempted to bring them up, but the day 
 was irretrievably lost. The retreating columns had 
 fallen back in disorder upon the reserve, and all 
 his attempts to rally were vain. 
 
 In the mean time, the battle was raging upon the 
 opposite side of the river. Gen. Jackson had there 
 placed the Kentucky militia, to guard his battery 
 and annoy the British. Previous to the commence- 
 ment of the action, Sir Edward Packenham had 
 sent Colonel Thornton, with a strong detachment 
 to make an attack upon these batteries, simultaneous 
 with his own. Thornton was completely successful. 
 The Kentucky militia, after having spiked the can- 
 non, ingloriously fled, and left to the enemy the 
 strong position which they occupied. General 
 Lambert, now in command, and defeated on the 
 left bank of the river, learning the success of Thorn- 
 ton, sent an artillery-officer to examine the position, 
 who, giving it as his opinion that the post could not 
 be securely held without 2000 men, 'he concluded 
 to abandon it, and accordingly ordered Colonel 
 Thornton to rejoin the main army. The disparity 
 of loss on this occasion is utterly astonishing.; that 
 of the British was 2600, while that of the Americans 
 was but seven killed and six wounded ! On the 
 9th, both armies returned to their former position. 
 From this period until the 18th, a bombardment 
 was kept up by the British fleet at<fort St. Philips, 
 while General Jackson continued to annoy the 
 troops with his artillery. On the night of the 18th, 
 the British retreated, leaving behind them their 
 wounded and artillery. 
 
 On the 7th of February, fort Bowyer, commanded 
 by Major Lawrence, with a garrison amounting to 
 370, was invested by'a British force, 6000 strong. 
 Resistance against so superior a force must of ne- 
 cessity be unavailing, and Major Lawrence sur- 
 rendered his garrison as prisoners of war. 
 
 On the 17th of February, while the (Americans 
 were yet rejoicing for thetvictory at New Orleans, 
 
 a special messenger arrived from Europe, bringing: 
 a treaty of peace, which the commissioners had con- 
 cluded in the month of December, at Ghent. This 
 treaty, which was immediately ratified by the pre- 
 sident ana senate, stipulated that all places taken 
 dating the war, should be restored, and the boun- 
 daries between the American and British dominions 
 revised. Yet it contained no express provision 
 against those maritime outrages on the part of Great 
 Britain, which were the chief causes of the war 
 But as the orders in council had been repealed, and 
 the motives for the impressment of seamen had 
 ceased with the wars in Europe, these causes no 
 longer existed in fact ; although America had failed, 
 as Europe, combined under the name of the armed 
 neutrality, had formerly done, to compel England 
 to the formal relinquishment of the principles on 
 which she founds her claims. 
 
 After the promulgation of peace, news was re- 
 ceived of the further success of the American navv 
 On the 20th of February, the Constitution, the'ti 
 under the command of Captain Stewart, when off 
 the island of Madeira, fell in with and captured the 
 Cyane and Levant, after a severe action of 40 
 minutes. The total number of killed and wounded 
 on board the Constitution, was fifteen ; that of the 
 enemy, 38. 
 
 On the 23rd of March, an engagement took place 
 off the coast of Brazil, between the United States 
 sloop Hornet, Captain Biddle commander, and the 
 British brig Penguin, which had sailed from En- 
 gland in September, for the purpose of capturing 
 the Wasp. After 22 minutes, the Penguin sur- 
 rendered. Her loss was fourteen killed and 28 
 wounded. 
 
 War with Algiers Decatur and Bainbridge sent to 
 the Mediterranean Piratical powers make peace 
 Treaties with the Indians National bank Mr. 
 Monroe president Mississippi admitted to the union 
 The illicit trade destroyed Proceedings of the 
 congress Commencement of the Seminole war Ge- 
 neral Jackson t marches against them Trial of 
 Arbuthnot And of Ambn'ster Treaties uith Great 
 Britain and Sweden Indian affairs Cession of 
 Florida. 
 
 Soon after the ratification of peace with Great 
 Britain, the United States declared war against 
 Algiers. The Algerine government had violated 
 the treaty of 1795. In 1812, under pretence that 
 the cargo of the ship Alleghany, which had just ar- 
 rived with naval stores, for the payment of tribute, 
 did not contain such an assortment of articles as he 
 had a right to expect, the dey, of Algiers demanded 
 additional tribute to be paid in money. After several 
 ineffectual attempts to negotiate, Colonel Lear, the 
 American consul, made arrangements for paying 
 the demand, and sailed for the United States. Im- 
 mediately after his departure, the dey commenced 
 hostilities upon the commerce of the United States, 
 in the, Mediterranean. These outrages were not 
 chastised at the time, on account of the war with 
 Great Britain. War having been declared with 
 Algiers, two squadrons were fitted ont, under Com- 
 modores Decatur and Bainbridge. Commodore 
 Decatur sailed from New York in May, and pro- 
 ceeding up the Mediterranean, captured on the 17th 
 of June, an Algerine frigate, and on the 19th, off 
 Cape Palos, an Algerine brig, carrying 22 guns. 
 From Palos, Decatur sailed for Algiers. The dey, 
 intimidated, signed a*treaty of peace, which was 
 highly honourable and advantageous to the Ame- 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1133 
 
 ricans. Decatur then proceeded to Tunis and 
 Tripoli, where he obtained "H.fertirm 
 
 additional force, made his appearance eore Algiers, 
 Tunis, and Tripoli, but seeing no Disposition to 
 violate the treaties, he returned to the Unite. 
 
 St Wi S th a view to the tranquillity of the western and 
 north-western frontiers, measures .were taken to ob- 
 tain a peace with several tribes of Indians who had 
 been hostile to the United States. Several of their 
 chiefs met at Detroit, on the 6th of September, and 
 readily acceded to a renewal of their former treaties 
 
 f AUhfcte of the war, the regular army of the 
 United States was reduced to 10,000 men For the 
 better protection of the country in case of another 
 war, congress appropriated a large sum for fortify- 
 ing the sefa-coast and inland frontiers, and for the 
 
 1BC (18160 In 6 April an act was passed by congress 
 to establish a national bank, with a capital of 
 
 , which was occu- 
 
 pied by mnaway negroes and hostile Indians, was 
 destroyed by a detachment of American troops. 
 More than 100 were killed, and the remainder were 
 
 In September General Jackson held a treaty with 
 theChickasaws, Choctaws, and Cherokee.. Hemade 
 purchases of their lands, particularly favourable to 
 the wishes and security of the frontier settlements 
 The tranquillity which was restored among 
 Indians themselves, contributed to favour the re- 
 sumption of the work of civilization, which previous 
 to the war had made considerable progress. 
 
 In December the Indiana territory was admitted 
 
 , establishments forspin 
 
 ning cotton, and for ^^SSSSS. 
 cloths, were attempted in the state of Rhode Island 
 They were at first on a small scale ; but as the cloths 
 found a ready market, the number and extent ^of 
 these manufactories gradually increased The em- 
 barrassments to which commerce was subjected jme 
 years previous to the war, increased the demand t 
 American goods, and led the people to reflect upon 
 th? importance of rendering themselves indepen- 
 dent of the manufactures of foreign nations. 
 S the war large capitals were vested m manu- 
 Tcfulg es^ablisLenL, from which the capitalists 
 reaped a handsome profit. But at the close of the 
 war the English having made great improvements 
 manufacturing, and being able to sell their goods 
 at Tmuch lower rate than the American manufac- 
 tured could afford, the country was immediately 
 Sled by importations from England The Ameri- 
 can manufactures being in their infancy could not 
 resist the shock; and many large establishments 
 failed The manufacturers then petitioned govern- 
 ment'for protection, to enable them to withstand 
 the competition; and in consequence of this peti- 
 tion, the F committee on commerce and manufactures 
 in 1816 recommended that an additional duty 
 should be laid on imported goods A new tariff was 
 accordingly formed, by which the double war im- 
 posts being removed, a small increase of duty was 
 
 laid upon some fabrics, such as coarse cotton goods. 
 The opposition to the tariff from the commercial in- 
 teresL&nd in some sections of the country from the 
 agricultural, was so great, that nothing effectual was 
 at that time done for the encouragement of manu- 
 factures. , 
 
 A society for colonizing the free blacks 'of the 
 United States, was first proposed in 1816, and was 
 soon formed. This society was not under the direc- 
 tion of government, but was patronized by many ot 
 the first men in all parts of the Union. The society 
 purchased land in Africa, where they yearly re- 
 moved considerable numbers of the free blacks from 
 America. The object of the society was, by remov- 
 ine the free negroes, to diminish the black popula- 
 tion of the United States; and by establishing a co- 
 lony in Africa, to prevent the traffic in slaves which 
 then existed. It would also give those owners of 
 slaves who were desirous of liberating them, an op- 
 portunity of doing so, without exposing the country 
 to the dangers apprehended from a numerous free 
 black population. 
 
 (1817 S Mr. Madison's second term of office hav- 
 ing expired, he followed the examples of his prede- 
 cessors and declined a re-election. James Monroe 
 and Daniel D. Tompkins were elected president and 
 vice-president, and entered upon their official duties 
 March 4, 1817. During the summer of 1817, Mr. 
 Monroe visited all the northern and eastern states, 
 and was received with every demonstration of affe< 
 tion and respect. . . 
 
 This year a treaty was concluded by commission- 
 ers appointed by the president of the United States 
 and the chiefs of the Wyandot, Delaware, fchawa- 
 noe, Seneca, Ottoway, Chippewa, and Potowat tamie 
 tribes of Indians, by which these tribes ceded to the 
 United States all lands which they claimed within 
 the limits of Ohio. The Indians were, at their op- 
 tion, to remain on the ceded lands subject to the laws 
 of the United States. 
 
 The territory of Mississippi was this year admitted 
 into the union of the states. 
 
 A band of adventurers, who pretended to act un- 
 der the authority of the South American states, took 
 po session of Amelia Island, near the boundary of 
 Georgia, with the avowed design of invading Florida. 
 As this island had been the subject of negotiation 
 with the government of Spain, as an indemnity for 
 osses ^spoliations, or in exchange for lands of 
 equal value beyond the Mississippi the measure ex- 
 cited a sentiment of surprise and disapprobation; 
 which was increased when it was found that the 
 md was made a channel for the illicit mtroduc- 
 on of sl^s fromwVfrica into the United Statesman 
 asylum for fugitive slaves from the neighbouring 
 states and a port for smuggling of every kind An 
 e stablishment P of a similar nature had previously 
 been formed on an island in the Gulf of Mexico on 
 the coa t of Texas. *This island was also a rendez- 
 vous for smugglers ; and privateers were equipped, 
 who -ave grett annoyance to the commerce ot the 
 Unted States. These enterprises, however proved 
 to bemerely private adventures, unauthorized by any 
 gove^ment. P The United States sent out a force, 
 which took possession of the islands, and put a stop 
 
 i-ne puuu -~ which had, since the revolu- 
 tion occasioned so much animosity, were now gra- 
 i dually subsiding ; and it was an object wrth the ad- 
 ministration toSemove old party prejudices ^ and 
 promote union among the people A spirit of i 
 provement was spreading over the country :- roads 
 
1134 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 and canals were constructed in almost all parts of 
 the union, and the facilities for travelling and for 
 conveying merchandise and produce were conti- 
 nually increasing. The subject of education re- 
 ceived great attention, particularly in its primary 
 departments. These improvements were, however, 
 made by the state governments ; among which, the 
 wealthy state of New York, at whose head was the 
 illustrious De Witt Clinton, took the lead. Con- 
 gress caught the spirit of the times, and manifested 
 a desire to employ the resources of the nation for 
 these objects ; and though no doubt arose as to the 
 expediency of such a course, yet the power of that 
 body for carrying on such a system of internal im- 
 provement, was questioned and debated. It was 
 the opinion of President Monroe, that the general 
 government had not this power, and could not ob- 
 tain it except by an amendment of the constitution, 
 which he recommended to the states. Military 
 roads had been opened in the late war, but it was by 
 order of the war department. One of these extend- 
 ed from Plattsburg to Sackett's Harbour, another 
 from Detroit to the foot of the Miami rapids. The 
 extra pay to the soldiers engaged in these works, 
 was provided for by congress in a specific appropria- 
 tion. Congiess had, however, caused to be made 
 the great Cumberland road, connecting through tho 
 seat of government, the eastern with the western 
 states, and passing over some of the highest moun- 
 tains in the union. This undertaking, however, was 
 not decisive of the great question respecting the 
 right of congress ; but it was made under peculiar 
 circumstances. An article of pact between the 
 United States and the state of Ohio, under which 
 that state came into the union, provided that such a 
 road should be made ; the expense being defrayed 
 by money arising from the sale of public lands with- 
 in that state. As the road passed through Mary- 
 land, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, it was thought 
 necessary to obtain the sanction of those several 
 states. Accordingly, the subject was brought be- 
 fore their legislatures, and an act passed, approving 
 the route, and providing for the purchase of the land. 
 The final decision of congress was, that the consti- 
 tution in its present state did not grant to them the 
 power of expending the revenue, for internal im- 
 provements. Under several of the state govern- 
 ments, however, roads and canals were constructed; 
 the most extensive of which were two in the state of 
 New York ; one leading from lake Erie, and the 
 other from lake Champlain, to the Hudson river. 
 The expense of these canals was defrayed entirely 
 by the state of New York. 
 
 In the first year of Mr. Monroe's administration, 
 an arrangement was concluded with the British go- 
 vernment for the reduction of the naval force of 
 Great Britain and the United States, on the lakes ; 
 and it was provided that neither party should keep 
 in service on lake Ontario or Champlain more than 
 one armed vessel, and on lake Erie, or any of the 
 upper lakes, more than two, to be armed with one 
 gun only. 
 
 For the security of the inland frontiers of the 
 United States, military posts were established at 
 the mouth of the Yellow Stone river, on the Mis- 
 souri, about 1800 miles above its junction with the 
 Mississippi, and at the mouth of St. Peters, on the 
 Mississippi. 
 
 (1818.) During this year, the United States be- 
 came engaged in a war with the Seminole Indians, 
 who occupied the lands lying on the confines of the 
 United States, and Florida ; the greater part, how- 
 
 ever, lying within the dominions of the king of 
 Spain. Outlaws from the Creek nation, negroes 
 who had fled from their masters in the United 
 States, and the Seminole Indians, had united in 
 committing depredations upon the lives and propeity 
 of the citizens of the United States. For many 
 months, the southern frontier was exposed to savage 
 and bloody incursions ; the most horrid massacres 
 had become so frequent, that the inhabitants were 
 obliged to flee from their homes for security. The 
 hostile spirit of the Indians was strengthened by 
 Arbuthnot and Ambrister, two English emissaries, 
 who had taken up their residence among them, for 
 the purposes of trade. They were also incited by 
 one Francis, whom they regarded as a prophet. In 
 December 1817, a detachment of 40 men, under the 
 command of Lieutenant Scott, was sent to the 
 mouth of the river Appalachicola, to assist in re- 
 moving some military stores to fort Scott. The 
 party m returning, were fired upon by a body of 
 Indians who lay in ambush upon the bank of "the 
 river, and six only escaped. Lieutenant Scott was 
 one of the first who fell. Notwithstanding the 
 offenders were demanded by General Gaincs, the 
 commanding officer on that frontier, the chiefs re- 
 fused to deliver them up to punishment. General 
 Jackson, with a body of Tennesseans, was now or- 
 dered to the protection of the southern frontier. In 
 .everal skirmishes with the Indians, he defeated 
 and dispersed them ; and persuaded that the Spa- 
 niards were active in fomenting the Seminole war, 
 and furnishing the Indians with supplies, he entered 
 Florida, and took possession of fort St. Marks and 
 Pensacola. He took as prisoners, Arbuthnot, Arn- 
 mster, and the Indian prophet Francis. A court- 
 nartial was called, at which General Gaines pre- 
 sided, for the trial of Arbuthnot and Ambrister. 
 Arbuthnot was tried on the three following charges ; 
 first, " for exciting and stirring up the Creek In- 
 dians to war against the United States and her 
 citizens, he being a subject of Great Britain, with 
 whom the United States are at peace." Second, 
 ' for acting as a spy, aiding, abetting, and com- 
 brting the enemy, and supplying them with tho 
 means of war." Third, " for exciting the Indians to 
 murder and destroy William Hambly and Edmund 
 Doyle, confiscate their property, and causing their 
 arrest, with a view to their condemnation to death, 
 and the seizure of their property, they being citizens 
 of Spain ; on account of their active aud zealous 
 exertions to maintain peace between Spain, the 
 United States, and the Indians." He was found 
 guilty of the first and second charge, omitting the 
 words " acting as a spy," and sentenced to be 
 hung. 
 
 Ambrister was tried on the following charges : 
 First, " Aiding, abetting, and comforting the enemy, 
 and supplying them with the means of war, he 
 being a subject of Great Britain, who was at peace 
 with the United States, and late an officer in the 
 British colonial marines." Second, " Leading and 
 commanding the Lower Creek Indians, in carrying 
 on war against the United States." The court-martial 
 found him guilty of both charges, and sentenced 
 him to be shot. 
 
 The treaty between the United States and Spain 
 stipulated, that the Spanish should keep such forces 
 as would enable them to restrain the hostilities of 
 the Indians inhabiting their respective colonies. It 
 was the refusal of Spain to do this, which produced 
 the necessity of carrying the war into her provinces. 
 The massacres committed by the savages, left no 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1135 
 
 alternative but to suffer the frontier settlements of 
 Georgia to remain exposed to the mercy of those 
 6arbarians, or to carry the war into Florida. Pen- 
 sacola and St. Marks were restored to Spain, by 
 order of the president. 
 
 In April of this year, the governor of Georgia re- 
 ceived information that the Phlelemm.es and Hop- 
 ^pones, tribes of Indians, had shown indications of 
 a hostile disposition, and that several murders had 
 been committed by them. He accordingly ordered 
 Captain Wright, with a company of militia, to go 
 to the reliei of the inhabitants in that part of the 
 country. The Creeks were at this time friendly, 
 and many of them assisted General Jackson in the 
 Seminole war. Notwithstanding this, Capt. Wright, 
 instead of defending the frontier from the Phlelem- 
 mes, attacked the Cheraw village, which belonged 
 to the Creeks. Their warriors being with General 
 Jackson, they were unable to defend the town, and 
 Captain Wright took possession of it, murdered 
 many of the Indians, some of their women, and re- 
 duced their dwellings to ashes. This treatment 
 enraged the Creeks, and it was expected that they 
 would immediately retaliate. Measures were how- 
 ever taken by government, to redress the injuries 
 inflicted upon them, and they became satisfied. It 
 seemed doubtful whether Captain Wright's proceed- 
 ings arose from a misapprehension of the point of 
 attack, or not. He was arrested by government, 
 but escaped from prison. 
 
 The congress of this year passed a bill to admit 
 Illinois territory into the union, by the name of the 
 state of Illinois. 
 
 Treaties of commerce were concluded with Great 
 Britain and Sweden. In the treaty with the former, 
 the northern boundary of the United States, from 
 the lake of the Woods to the Stony Mountains, was 
 fixed. 
 
 Congress also passed a law abolishing internal 
 duties. They passed an act providing for the indi- 
 gent officers and soldiers of the revolution, by whioh 
 every officer who had served nine months at any 
 period of the revolutionary war, and whose annual 
 income did not exceed 100 dollars, received a pen- 
 sion of twenty dollars a month ; and every needy 
 private soldier who had served that length of time, 
 .eceived eight. 
 
 This year, the Chickasaws ceded to the govern- 
 ment of the United States, all lands west of the 
 Tennessee river in the states of Kentucky and 
 Tennessee. 
 
 (1819.) The condition of those tribes living within 
 the territories of the United States, now attracted 
 the attention of the government, and a most humane 
 policy dictated its measures with regard to them. 
 The sum of 10,000 dollars annually, was appropri- 
 ated by congress for the purpose of establishing 
 schools" among them, and to promote in other ways, 
 their civilization. By means of the missionary so- 
 cieties already established in the United States, 
 missionaries were supported among the Indians, 
 and success in many instances crowned their efforts. 
 
 On the '23rd of February, 1819, a treaty was ne- 
 gotiated at Washington, between the secretary of 
 state and the Spanish minister, by which Spain 
 ceded to the United States, East and West Florida, 
 and the adjacent islands. The government of the 
 United States was to exonerate Spain from the 
 claims which the citizens of the United States had 
 against that nation, on account of injuries and spo- 
 liations, and congress was to satisfy these claims to 
 an amount not exceeding 5,000,000 of dollars. 
 
 Three commissioners were to be appointed by the 
 president with the advice of the senate, to examine 
 and decide upon the amount and validity of all 
 claims included by the treaty. The contracting 
 parties renounced all claims to indemnities for any 
 of the recent acts of their respective officers in Flo- 
 rida. This treaty was ratified by the president and 
 senate of the United States, and sent to Spain, 
 when th<j king very unexpectedly refused to sanction 
 it. Don Onis, the Spanish minister, was recalled. 
 Another minister was sent to the United States, to 
 make complaints of unfriendly policy on the part of 
 the American government, and to demand expla- 
 nations respecting the imputed system of hostility 
 on the part of thV American citizens, against the 
 subjects and dominion of the king of Spain. Ex- 
 planations were made, and it was satisfactorily 
 shown, that there had been no system of hostility 
 pursued by the citizens of the United States. 
 
 Alabama admitted to the union The Missouri question 
 Mr, Monroe re-elected Treaty with France In- 
 crease of piracy Recognition of South American 
 slates The tariff' question again agitated. 
 
 In October, 1820, Ferdinand ratified the treaty 
 between France and Spain, but did not give posses- 
 sion of Florida until July 1821. 
 
 Alabama territory was this year (1820) admitted 
 into the union of the states. The territory of Mis- 
 souri was separated, and another, called the Arkan- 
 saw territory, formed. 
 
 A petition was presented to congress this year 
 from the territory of Missouri, praying for authority 
 to form a state government, and to be admitted into 
 the union. A bill was accordingly introduced for 
 that purpose. This, with an amendment, prohibit- 
 ing slavery within the new state, passed the house 
 of representatives, but was arrested in the senate. 
 
 The district of Maine also presented a memorial 
 to congress, praying to be separated from Massachu- 
 setts, to be authorized to form its own constitution, 
 and to be admitted into the union on an equal foot- 
 ing with the other states. The two bills for the ad- 
 mission of Maine and Missouri were joined, but not 
 without much opposition from the advocates of the 
 restriction in the Missouri bill. Upon this subject, 
 the members of congress were divided into two par- 
 ties ; those from the non-slaveholding states were in 
 favour of the restriction, while those from the south 
 warmly opposed it. Much debate took place, and 
 at no time had the parties in the congress of the 
 United States been so marked by a geographical di- 
 vision, or so much actuated by feelings dangerous to 
 the union of the states, as at this time. Nor was 
 the seat of government the only place where this 
 subject was discussed; in all parts of the union it at- 
 tracted the attention of the people. Many of the 
 northern states called meetings, and published spi- 
 rited resolutions, expressive of their fears of perpe- 
 tuating slavery, and their approbation of the restric- 
 tion. 
 
 The members from the south opposed the restric- 
 tion partly on the ground of self-defence. They did 
 not consider that the admission of Missouri, without 
 any restriction, would tend in any degree to per- 
 petuate slavery. It would not be the means of in- 
 creasing the number of slaves within the states, but 
 of removing some of those that already existed from 
 one state to another. They maintained that it 
 would be a dangerous and despotic measure of the 
 general government, and one that would infringe 
 upon the sovereignties of the states ; 'that such are- 
 
1136 
 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 striction was inconsistent with the treaty by which 
 the territory was ceded to the United States ; and 
 finally they insinuated the danger of a dissolution of 
 the union, if the friends of the restriction persisted 
 in it. 
 
 The advocates of the restriction maintained that 
 the constitution gave to congress the right of admit- 
 ting states with or without restrictions, and* that no 
 state had ever yet been admitted without any. That 
 the ordinance of 1787 established this right. In 
 proof of this it was urged that when North Carolina 
 ceded to the United States that part ofTier territory 
 which now includes the state of Georgia, she made 
 the grant upon the, express condition that congress 
 should make no regulation tending to the emanci- 
 pation of slaves. When Georgia ceded to the United 
 States the Mississippi territory, the articles of agree- 
 ment which provided for its admission as a state on 
 the conditions of the ordinance of 1787, expressly 
 excepted that article which forbidsislavery. They 
 also maintained that to strike out the restriction 
 from this bill, would inevitably tend to perpetuate 
 slavery, and to entail this greatest evil upon the new 
 state, besides increasing to the union the mischiefs 
 arising from unequal representation. After much 
 discussion a compromise was effected, and a bill 
 passed for the admission of Missouri without any re- 
 striction, but with the inhibition of slavery through- 
 out the territories of the United States, north of 36 
 degrees, 30 minutes, north latitude. Thus was the 
 most dangerous question ever agitated in congress 
 disposed of in an amicable manner. 
 
 The bill for the admission of Maine passed with- 
 out restriction or amendment ; and, in 1820, Maine 
 became independent of Massachusetts, and assumed 
 her proper rank as one of the United Stales. 
 
 (1821.) Missouri -was not declared independent 
 until August 1821. Previously to the passage of 
 the bill for its admission, the people of Missouri 
 formed a state constitution ; a provision of which 
 required the legislature to pass a law " to prevent 
 free negroes and mulattoes from coming to and set- 
 tling in the state." When the constitution was pre- 
 sented to congress, this provision was strenuously op- 
 posed. .*, The contest occupied a great part of the ses- 
 sion, but Missouri was finally admitted on the con- 
 dition that no laws shouldtbe passed, by which any 
 free citizens of the United States should be pre- 
 vented from enjoying those rights within that state, 
 to which they were entitled by the constitution of the 
 United States. 
 
 This year Mr. Monroe entered upon his second 
 term of office, having been re-elected to the presi- 
 dency by nearly a unanimous vote. 
 
 (1822.) A territorial government was established 
 in Florida in 1822. 
 
 In June a convention of navigation.* and com- 
 merce, on terms of reciprocal and equal advantage, 
 was concluded between France and the United 
 States. The ports of the West India islands were 
 opened to the United States by an act of the British 
 parliament. 
 
 The American commerce had for several years 
 suffered severely in consequence of the depreda- 
 tions committed by pirates. The West Indian seas 
 were infested by these marauders, and transactions 
 of the most flagrant and outrageous character had 
 become frequent. Great quantities of property were 
 seized by them, and their captives were often mur- 
 dered in the most inhuman manner. They respected 
 no law, and the flag of no nation. An event oc- i 
 curred this year which excited general attention, | 
 
 and showed that the evil had become so alarming as 
 to call loudly for the strong arm of government to 
 interpose for the protection of its citizens. The 
 Alligator, United States schooner, was about enter- 
 ing the harbour of Matanzas, when information was 
 received that two American vessels, which the pi- 
 rates had just captured, were lying a short dis- 
 tance from that place. The Alligator was imme- 
 diately ordered to their relief. An engagement with 
 the pirates ensued, in which the Americans were 
 victorious. They recaptured five American vessels 
 which were in possession of the pirates, and took one 
 piratical schooner. But Allen, the commander of 
 the Alligator, was wounded in the engagement, and 
 died in a few hours. His death excited much feel- 
 ing throughout the United States. 
 
 The pirates made the island of Cuba their gene- 
 ral place of rendezvous, and they carried their de- 
 predations to such an extent that it was extremely 
 dangerous for vessels to enter or leave the port of Ha- 
 vanna. Congress^at length passed a law appropriating 
 a sum of money to fit out an expedition for the sup- 
 pression of piracy. Commodore Porter, to whom 
 was given the command of this expedition,. sailed 
 for the West Indies, and after touching at Porto 
 Rico, arrived at Matanzas with a squadron consist- 
 ing of a steam frigate, eight schooners, and five 
 barges. No captures were made by this squadron, 
 as the pirates had obtained knowledge of their move- 
 ments ; but the object of their going out was ac- 
 complished in the protection afforded to commerce. 
 The American squadron remained near the islands, 
 and afforded convoys to merchant vessels ; and in 
 consequence of this protection of the sea, the pirates 
 were compelled to remain upon the islands, where 
 they committed depredations upon the inhabitants. 
 But one vessel was taken from the Americans du- 
 ring this time, and that was recaptured by Commo- 
 dore Porter. 
 
 In the message which President Monroe this year 
 sent to congress, he invited their attention to the 
 expediency of recognising the independence of the 
 South American republics. He stated, that 
 throughout the contest between those colonies and 
 the parent country, the United States had remained 
 neutral, and had fulfilled, with the utmost impar- 
 tiality, all the obligations incident to that character. 
 Some time had elapsed since the provinces had de- 
 clared themselves independent nations, and had 
 enjoyed that independence free from invasion. For 
 three years Spain had not sent a single corps of 
 troops into any part of that country. The delays 
 which had been observed in making a decision 
 on this important subject, would afford an unequi- 
 vocal proof of the respect entertained by the United 
 States for Spain, and of their determination not to 
 interfere with her rights. Mr. Monroe remarked, 
 that " in proposing this measure, it is not contem- 
 plated to change thereby in the slightest manner, 
 :he friendly relations with either of the parties, but 
 to observe in all respects as heretofore, should the 
 war be continued, the most perfect neutrality be- 
 tween them." The committee on foreign relations, 
 to whom this question was referred, reported in fa- 
 vour of this measure, and recommended that a sum 
 should be appropriated to enable the president to 
 *ive due effect to such recognition. Ministers-pleni- 
 potentiary were appointed to Mexico, Buenos Ayres, 
 Columbia, and Chili. 
 
 (1824.) Ever since the year 1816, the tariff had 
 attracted the attention of the people throughout the 
 union, and from time to time the subject had beeu 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 ua; 
 
 brought before congress ; but with the exception of 
 the small protection afforded to coarse cotton cloths, 
 nothing had yet been done for the encouragement 
 of American 'manufactures. Notwithstanding the 
 pressure of the times, and the many disadvantages 
 under which they laboured, the manufactures of cot- 
 ton, after they recovered from the first shock, had 
 proved successful. Excepting fine fabrics, which 
 were not manufactured to any extent in America, 
 domestic cottons almost supplied the country, and 
 considerable quantities were exported to South Ame- 
 rica. Establishments for printing calicoes had been 
 erected in a few places, and in some instances the 
 manufacture of lace had been attempted. 
 
 In the support of these establishments, indepen- 
 dent of the protection of government, and in de- 
 fiance of the obstacles which opposed them, indivi- 
 duals and manufacturing companies displayed great 
 energy and perseverance. During this period, the 
 friends of manufactures had increased in numbers, 
 and in zeal for the cause. This year the subject of 
 a new tariff was again brought before congress, but 
 wa vehemently opposed. The grounds of the op- 
 position to the bill were, that it would injure the 
 commerce and agriculture of the country, and by 
 lessening the public revenue, compel a resort to a 
 system of excise and taxation. That it would di- 
 minish the exports of the United Stales, as other 
 nations would not purchase articles of any kind 
 unless the produce of their industry was received 
 in exchange. That the country was not prepared 
 for the successful establishment of manufactures, on 
 account of the high price of labour ; and that 
 manufactures would, under a favourable concur- 
 rence of circumstances, flourish without the protec- 
 tion of government. 
 
 The friends of a new tariff replied, that a depen- 
 dence upon the internal resources of the country 
 was the only true policy of the government; and 
 that the protection desired for manufactures, far 
 from injuring, would prove beneficial to both com- 
 merce and agriculture. It would create a home 
 market, without which the agriculturist would not 
 receive the just reward of his labours. It would 
 create a new and extensive business, by which 
 thousands of persons now out of employment might 
 add greatly to the wealth of the nation,and thus keep 
 its resources at home. That it would not diminish 
 the exportations of the country unless to Europe, 
 where little besides the raw materials are carried; 
 and by the applications of industry, new articles of 
 exportation might be multiplied, more valuable 
 than the raw materials, and by which the country 
 would be indemnified for any losses. They con- 
 sidered it by no means certain that it would lessen 
 the public revenue; the augmentation of duty 
 would compensate for the diminution in the quantity 
 of goods imported. Experience proved that manu- 
 factures needed protection, and that such had ever 
 been the policy of those governments where th 
 manufacturing interest flourished ; and in proof of 
 this, they pointed to the steady course of the Eng- 
 lish government. Many of the friends of the tariff, 
 however, conceded, that if all nations would unite 
 in a system of free, unshackled trade, it would 
 probably produce the best possible state of things ; 
 but the commercial world contended, that as the 
 United States must suffer from laws made by other 
 governments to protect and favour their own manu- 
 factures, it was but just that the citizens of the 
 United States should receive a like protection and 
 preference from their own government. After much 
 HIST. OP AMER. Nos. 143 & 144. 
 
 discussion, the bill, with some amendments, passed ; 
 and it proved effectual in affording the desired pro- 
 tection to cotton goods. 
 
 La Fayette visits America His reception Returns 
 to France Mr. Adams elected President Treaty 
 with Columbia Representatives sent to the Con- 
 gress at Panama Fiftieth anniversary of Inde- 
 pendence Military stations Eminent men Con- 
 cludiwf remarks Retrospect and present stato 
 Future prospects Conclusion. 
 
 On the 15th of August, 1824, General La Fayette, 
 the friend of America, arrived in the harbour of 
 New York. He did not stop at the city, but pro- 
 ceeded to the residence of the vice-president, at 
 Staten Island. Congress, participating in the warm 
 feeling of esteem and gratitude which pervaded the 
 whole nation, had given him an invitation to visit 
 America, and had proposed sending a national ship 
 for his conveyance. He accepted the invitation, 
 although he declined the offer of a national vessel. 
 When information was received in the city of New 
 York of his arrival, a committee of the corpora- 
 tion and a great number of distinguished citizens 
 immediately proceeded to Staten Island, to behold 
 and welcome the former benefactor of their country, 
 now her illustrious guest. Arrangements were 
 made by the committee for his visit to New York, 
 which was to take place the following day. A 
 splendid escort of steam-boats gaily decorated with 
 the flags of every nation, and bearing thousands of 
 citizens, brought the popular La Fayette to the view 
 of the assembled crowds at New York. The feel- 
 ings of Fayette, at revisiting again in prosperity 
 the country which he had sought and made his own 
 in the period of her adversity, were at times over- 
 powering. 
 
 The thousands assembled to meet him at New 
 York, manifested their joy at beholding him, in the 
 most vehement and sincere manner. He rode un- 
 covered from the battery to the City Hall, receiving 
 and returning the affectionate gratulations of the 
 multitude. At the City Hall, the officers of the 
 city, and many citizens, were presented to him, and 
 he 'was welcomed by an address from the mayor. 
 His meeting with a few grey-headed veterans of 
 the revolution, his old companions in arms, was an 
 interesting scene. The deep affection they evinced, 
 their constant recurrence to the time when they 
 fought together, few could witness without tears. 
 
 Deputations from Philadelphia, Baltimore, New- 
 Haven, and many oiher cities, arrived in New- 
 York, with invitations for him to honour those places 
 with his presence. After remaining a few days in 
 New York, he proceeded through New Haven and 
 Providence on his way to Boston. A deputation, 
 from Boston met him on his entrance into Massa- 
 chusetts, and accompanied him to the seat of the 
 governor, in Roxbury. There they received an 
 escort of 800 citizens from Boston; the mayor and 
 corporation awaiting his arrival at the city lines. 
 The pupils of the public schools, both male and 
 female, were arranged in two lines on the side of 
 the common adjoining the mall, under the care of 
 their respective teachers, and through these lines 
 the procession passed. 
 
 From Boston he proceeded to Portsmouth, to visit 
 the navy-yard. Orders had been issued by the 
 president to all the military posts, to receive him 
 with the honour due to the highest officer in the 
 American service. He returned to Boston, and 
 from thence to New York, through Worcester and 
 
 4 Y 
 
JJ.J3 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMKKTCA. 
 
 Hartford. On his return to New York, a splendid 
 fele was given at Castle Garden, and every demon- 
 stration of joy continued to be shown. From New 
 York, the general proceeded to Albany and Troy, 
 calling at West Point, and several other places on 
 the , river. He next passed through New Jersey, 
 and visited Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, 
 Yorktown, and Richmond. These places vied with 
 New York and Boston in the splendour with which 
 they received the esteemed defender of their country. 
 He returned to Washington during the session of 
 congress, and remained there several weeks. Con- 
 gress voted him the sum of 200,000 dollars, aud a 
 township of land which was located in Florida, as 
 a remuneration, in part, of his services during the 
 revolutionary war, and as a testimony of their gra- 
 titude. 
 
 (1825.) The last of February, La Fayette com- 
 menced his tour through the southern aud western 
 states. From Washington he went to Richmond, 
 passed through North and South Carolina, taking in 
 his route, Raleigh, Fayetteville, and Charlestown, to 
 Savannah. He travelled through Georgia, Alaba- 
 ma, and Mississippi, to New Orleans ; and from 
 thence proceeded up the Mississippi as far as St. 
 Louis, visiting the principal places on both sides of 
 the river. He returned to the Ohio, passed through 
 Nashville; Louisville, Frankfort, and Lexington 
 in Kentucky ; Cincinnati, and other towns in 
 Ohio; Wheeling and Pittsburg, in Pennsylvania, 
 to Buffalo ; through the state of New York to Al- 
 bany ; and from thence, across Massachusetts, to 
 Boston. He arrived in season to participate in the 
 ceremony of laying the corner stone of a monument 
 which was to commemorate the battle of Bunker's 
 Hill. Leaving Boston, he proceeded to Portland, 
 in Maine ; from thence, through Concord in New 
 Hampshire, Windsor, and Montpelier, to Burling- 
 ton, in Vermont. From Burlington he crossed to 
 Plattsburg ; and passing down lake Champlain and 
 the Hudson, arrived again in New York, where he 
 united in the celebration of the anniversary of 
 American independence. Then taking his leave of 
 the eastern and northern states, he returned to 
 Washington, where he remained until his departure 
 from the continent. A more interesting scene can 
 hardly be imagined, than was presented in his visit 
 to Mount Vernon, to the tomb of his departed 
 friend, of him whose name is dear to the heart of 
 every friend of America. He was accompanied by 
 several gentlemen, relatives of Judge Washington's 
 family. When he arrived at the tomb, Mr. Custis, the 
 adopted child of Washington, presented him with a 
 ring containing a portion of the locks from that 
 great champion of American independence. On 
 retiring from the tomb, he was overcome with emo- 
 tions; and, according to an eye-witness, " Not a 
 soul intruded upon the privacy of the visit to the 
 tomb. Nothing occurred to disturb its reverential 
 solemnity. Not a murmur was heard, save the 
 strains of solemn music, and the deep and measured 
 sound of artillery, which awoke the echoes around 
 the hallowed heights of Mount Vernon." 
 
 On the departure, of General La Fayette from 
 Washington, the president expressed to him the 
 happiness the nation had experienced in receiving 
 such a guest ; its attachment to him ; the grateful 
 remembrance of his valuable services ; and in be- 
 half of the nation, he bade him an affectionate adieu. 
 A new frigate, named the Brandywine, in memory 
 of the battle in which General La Fayette was 
 wounded, was deputed by government to convey 
 
 him to his native land, where be was followed U 
 the benedictions of thousands, who would gladly 
 have detained him in America. 
 
 The administration of Mr. Monroe was during a 
 time of profound peace. In this period, 00,000.000 
 dollars of the national debt were discharged. 
 The Floridas were peaceably acquired, and th<; 
 boundaries of the United States extended to the Pa- 
 cific ocean. The internal taxes were repealed, the 
 military establishment reduced to its narrowest 
 limits of efficiency, the organization of the army im- 
 proved, the independence of the South American 
 nations recognised, progress made in the suppres- 
 sion of the slave trade, and the civilization of the 
 Indians advanced. 
 
 Mr. Monroe's second term of office having ex- 
 pired, John Quincy Adams was elected president. 
 Four among the principal citizens of the republic 
 had been candidates for the office, and voted for by 
 the electoral college. These were John Quincy 
 Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and William 
 H. Crawford. The electors were divided, and no 
 choice being made by them, a president, according 
 to the constitution, was to be chosen by the house 
 of representatives, from the three candidates whose 
 number of rotes stood highest ; who were Messrs. 
 Adams, Jackson, and Crawford. Mr. Adams was 
 chosen. His was the first election by the house of 
 representatives. Many fears had been expressed, 
 that whenever such a case should occur, it would 
 be attended with unpleasant circumstances; but 
 the result was far different. That an event, such 
 as had torn asunder the most powerful kingdoms, 
 should have taken place in the congress of the 
 United States, without the least commotion, showed 
 the respect which that body felt for its own dignity, 
 and their sense of the solemnity of the obligation 
 which bound them to preserve inviolate the consti- 
 tution of their country. 
 
 Mr. Adams was inaugurated March 4th, 1825. 
 In his inaugural address, he declared the course he 
 should pursue was that marked out by his prede- 
 cessor. He observed that there remained one effort 
 of magnanimity to be made by the individuals 
 throughout the nation, who had heretofore followed 
 the standards of the political party ; it was that of 
 discarding every remnant of rancour against each 
 other, of embracing as countrymen and friends, 
 and of yielding to talents and virtue alone, that 
 confidence which in times of contention for princi- 
 ple, was bestowed only upon those who bore the 
 badge of party communion. 
 
 A treaty of commerce and navigation, with the 
 republic of Colombia, was ratified in 1825. " The 
 basis of this treaty was laid in the principle of entire 
 and unqualified reciprocity, and the mutual obli- 
 gation of the parties to place each other on the foot- 
 ing of the most favoured nation." 
 
 In the first message of President Adams to con- 
 gress, he announced the invitation which had been 
 received by the government of the United States 
 from the South American republics, to send repre- 
 sentatives to the congress which they had called at 
 Panama. This invitation had been accepted by 
 the president, on condition that the nomination of 
 commissioners should be approved by the senate. 
 The congress of Panama was to be merely an as- 
 sembly of diplomatic agents, vested with no powers, 
 except to negotiate and discuss ; they were to be 
 deputed by governments, whose constitutions re- 
 quire that all foreign contracts and treaties shall 
 receive ratification fiom the organic body at home, 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1139 
 
 before they can go into effect. The relations which 
 the United States held with the South American 
 nations, were very different from those which ex- 
 isted with the European powers. They were united 
 by a similarity in the forms of their governments : 
 the new republics looked upon the United States as 
 having led the way in 1 he cause of freedom, and ex- 
 pected from her friendship in their cause. At the 
 same time, they desired nothing of her which would 
 violate her strict neutrality, or give just cause of 
 umbrage to any other power. The commercial re- 
 lations existing between the United States and 
 those nations, were even now important ; and the 
 interest of them to that country, would be conti- 
 nually increasing. Subjects in which the United 
 States were deeply interested, were to be discussed at 
 Panama, and it was highly necessary that their 
 wishes should be made known there. 
 
 Some of the objects which it was hoped might be 
 accomplished by the attendance of ministers at Pa- 
 nama were, the preservation of the tranquillity of 
 the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico, the invasion 
 of which, by the united forces of Mexico and Co- 
 lombia, was among the objects to be matured by 
 the belligerent states at Panama ; and the abolition 
 of private war upon the ocean, by a general agree- 
 ment among the South American nations, as far 
 as they were concerned. They would also take 
 into consideration the means of making effectual 
 the assertion of the principle, that the European 
 nations have no right to colonize further in Ame- 
 rica, and that with the exception of the existing 
 colonies, the whole of the continent of America be- 
 longs to the independent governments established 
 upon it. They would concert measures for the 
 more effectual abolition of the slave trade, and if 
 possible, prevail upon the South American nations, 
 to consent to religious toleration. 
 
 The mission was warmly opposed in congress, on 
 the ground that it would be a departure from the 
 neutral character the United States professed to 
 maintain, and contrary to the advice of Washing- 
 ton, which was, in extending the commercial rela- 
 tions with other countries, to have as little political 
 connexion with them as possible. After much dis- 
 cussion, the nominations of the president were ap- 
 proved by the senate, and two ministers were ap- 
 pointed to represent the United States at Panama. 
 
 The intercourse of the United States with the na- 
 tions of Europe, has, since the close of the war with 
 Great Britain, been friendly. With many of them, 
 commercial treaties highly advantageous to the 
 United States, have been formed. 
 
 We now draw to the close of our history of this 
 great republic, and cannot conclude it better, than 
 at the fiftieth anniversary of its independence. This 
 epoch, which occurred on the 4th July, 1826, was 
 commemorated with a universal enthusiasm, which 
 was alone subdued by the simultaneous death of the 
 two great champions of American freedom, John 
 Adams and Thomas Jefferson, that with a me- 
 lancholy singularity occurred on this day. 
 
 List of the Military Stations in the United States, 
 in 1826. 
 
 Fort Sullivan, at Eastport, Maine. 
 
 Fort Preble, at Portland, Maine. 
 
 Fort Constitution, at Portsmouth, New Hamp- 
 shire. 
 
 Fort Independence, at Boston, Mass. 
 
 Fort Adams and Wolcott, at Newport, Rhode 
 Island. 
 
 Fort Trumbull, at New London, Connecticut. 
 
 Forts Columbus, Wood, Gibson, and La Fayette, 
 at New York. 
 
 Fort McHenry, at Baltimore, Maryland. 
 
 Fort at Annapolis, Maryland. 
 
 Fort Washington, on the Potomac, four miles 
 below Alexandria. 
 
 Fortress Monroe and Calhoun, near Hampton 
 Roads. 
 
 Fort Johnson, at Smithfield, North Carolina. 
 
 Fort Moultrie, at Charlestown, South Carolina. 
 
 Fort Jackbon, at Savannah, Georgia. 
 
 Fort Marion, at St. Augustine, Florida. 
 
 Fort Barancas, near the entrance of the harbour, 
 and Cantonment Clinch, above the town, Pensacola. 
 
 Forts Jackson and Philips, near the mouth of the 
 Mississippi river. 
 
 Fortified Arsenal, at Baton Rouge. 
 
 Cantonment Jessup, at Natchitoches. 
 
 Cantonment Towson, at Kirmitia river. 
 
 Fort Atkinson, at Council Bluffs. 
 
 Fort Armstrong, on Rock Island, in the Missis- 
 sippi river. 
 
 Fort Crawford, at the Prairie du Chien. 
 
 Fort Luelling, near the Falls of St. Anthony. 
 
 Fort Howard, at Green Bay. 
 
 Fort Brady, at the Sault de St. Marie. 
 
 Fort Mackinaw, near the Straits of Michilima- 
 cinack. 
 
 Madison Barracks, at Sackett's Harbour. 
 
 Fort Niagara, near the mouth of Niagara river. 
 
 Fort at West Point. 
 
 There are arsenals at Watertown, near Boston ; 
 Gibbonsville, opposite Troy, New York ; Rome, Do. ; 
 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Pittsburg, Do. ; Pikes- 
 ville, near Baltimore; Washington City; Bellona 
 arsenal, near Richmond, Virginia ; and at Charles- 
 town, South Carolina. 
 
 Armories at Springfield, and at Pittsburg, Penn- 
 sylvania. 
 
 A military academy was founded at West Point, 
 by the government of the United States, in 1802, 
 during the administration of Mr. Jefferson. This 
 institution, when first organized, consisted only of 
 the commandant, and a few other officers of the 
 corps of engineers, together with fifteen or twenty 
 cadets, who were attached to that corps. Congress 
 appropriated 25,000 dollars, for erecting buildings, 
 and purchasing apparatus. By an act of congress 
 in 1812, the plan was much extended, as to the 
 course of education, and the number of cadets. This 
 act increased the number of cadets to 250, and pro- 
 vided for a professor and assistant professor in na- 
 tural and experimental philosophy; a professor and 
 assistant professor in engineering ; a professor and 
 assistant professor of mathematics ; a professor of 
 the French language; a professor of drawing; an 
 instructor of tactics ; an instructor in artillery ; a 
 surgeon of the army, to act as professor of chemistry 
 and mineralogy ; and a swords-master. By an act 
 of congress in 1818, a chaplain was appointed, who 
 is also professor of rhetoric and moral philosophy. 
 The secretary of war is authorized to appoint, in 
 addition to the above, as many lieutenants from the 
 army, as the service of the academy may require, 
 who are to act as assistant professors. The library 
 contains about 700 volumes, principally on scientific 
 subjects. The course of instruction is finished in 
 four years. HafiCTcft Ofc 
 
 Catalogue of Eminent Man who died during the Period 
 
 extending from 18U3 to 1826. 
 (1803.) Samuel Adams, a distinguished statesman 
 and patriot. 
 
1140 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 (1803.) Samuel Hopkins, D.D., an eminent divine 
 author of a System of Doctrines, to 
 which is added a Treatise on the Mil- 
 lenium. 
 
 William Vans Murray, a distinguished 
 statesman. 
 
 Matthew Thornton, one of the signers of 
 
 the declaration of independence. 
 ( 1 804.) Alexander Hamilton, a distinguished states- 
 man, and first secretary of the treasury 
 of the United States. 
 
 John Blair Linn, D.D., a poet, and an 
 eminent divine author of " The Powers 
 of Genius," &c. 
 
 Philip Schuyler, a major-general in the 
 revolutionary army. 
 
 George Walton, one of the signers of the 
 
 declaration of independence. 
 
 (1805.) Arthur Brown, LL.D., a distinguished 
 scholar and eminent barrister author 
 of a " Compend of Civil Law," "Miscel- 
 laneous Sketches," &c. 
 
 William Moultrie, governor of South Ca- 
 rolina, and a major-general in the Ame- 
 rican war. 
 
 (1806.) Isaac Backus, a learned divine and his- 
 torianauthor of a " Church History of 
 New England." 
 
 Horatio Gates, a major-general in the army 
 of the United States. 
 
 Henry Knox, LL.D., a major-general in 
 the army of the United States. 
 
 Robert Morris, one of the signers of the 
 declaration of independence. 
 
 George Wythe, chancellor of Virginia, and 
 one of the signers of the declaration of 
 independence. 
 
 (1807.) Abraham Baldwin, a distinguished states- 
 man. 
 
 Oliver Ellsworth, chief justice of the United 
 States, and a distinguished statesman. 
 
 Edward Preble, commodore in the navy 
 of the United States. 
 
 Samuel West, D.D. an eminent divine, 
 metaphysical, theological, and contro- 
 versial writer author of " Essays oa 
 Liberty and Necessity." 
 
 (1808.) Fisher Ames, a distinguished statesman 
 and scholar. 
 
 John Dickinson, a distinguished political 
 writer. 
 
 John Redman, M.D., first president of the 
 College of Physicians in Philadelphia. 
 
 William Shippen, M.D., F.R.S., a learned 
 physician and anatomist. 
 
 James Sullivan, a distinguished civilian 
 author of a " History of the District of 
 Maine," " History of the Penobscot In- 
 dians," &c. 
 
 (1809.) Thomas Heyward, one of the signers of the 
 declaration of independence. 
 
 Meriwether Lewis, governor of Louisiana. 
 
 Thomas Paine, a political and deistical 
 writer author of the "Age of Reason," 
 " Rights of Man," &c. 
 
 (1810.) Charles Brockden Brown, a distinguished 
 writer, principally of novels author of 
 " Wieland," " Ormond, or the Secret 
 Witness," &c. 
 
 Benjamin Lincoln, a major-general in the 
 
 American army. 
 (1811.) Robert Treat Paine, a popular poet. 
 
 (1811.) William Williams, one of the signers of the 
 
 declaration of independence. 
 
 (1812.) Joel Barlow, LL.D., a distinguished poet 
 author of the " Vision of Columbus," 
 since entitled the " Columbiad." 
 
 George Clinton, fourth vice-president of the 
 United States. 
 
 David Ramsay, a celebrated historian 
 author of the " Life of Washington," 
 " American Revolution," &c. 
 (1813.) George Clymer, one of the signers of the 
 declaration of independence. 
 
 Robert R. Livingston, one of the signers of 
 the declaration of independence, and a 
 distinguished patriot and statesman. 
 
 Theophilus Parsons, an eminent statesman 
 and lawyer. 
 
 Zebulon Montgomery Pike, a brigadier- 
 general in the army of the United States. 
 
 Benjamin Rush, M.D., a celebrated phy- 
 sician, and one of the signers of the de- 
 claration of independence. 
 
 Alexander Wilson, a celebrated naturalist. 
 (1814.) William Heath, a major-general in the 
 American army. 
 
 Robert Treat Paine, a distinguished patriot, 
 and one of the signers of the declaration 
 of independence. 
 
 (1815.) James A. Bayard, a distinguished states- 
 man. 
 
 John Carroll, D.D., first archbishop of the 
 Roman Catholic church in America. * 
 
 Benjamin Smith Barton, M.D., a learned 
 physician. 
 
 Hubert Fulton, a celebrated civil engineer. 
 (1817.) James Alexander Dallas, secretary of the 
 treasury of the United States. 
 
 Timothy Dwight, S.T.D., LL.D., presi- 
 dent and professor of divinity of Vale- 
 college. 
 
 (1818.) Caspar Wistar, M.D.. a learned physician 
 and celebrated anatomist author of a 
 " System of Anatomy." 
 (1819.) Hcnry'Kollock, D.D., an eminent divine. 
 
 Samuel Stanhope Smith, D.D., LL.D., pre- 
 sident of Princeton-college. * 
 
 Hugh Williamson, M.D., LL.D., author 
 of the " History of North Carolina," 
 " Change of the climate of the United 
 States," &c. 
 
 (1820.) Daniel Boone, the first settler of the state 
 of Kentucky. 
 
 Stephen Decatur, commodore in the navy 
 of the United States. 
 
 Oliver Hazard Perry, commodore in the 
 navy of the United States. 
 
 Benjamin West, a celebrated historical 
 
 painter. 
 
 (1821.) Samuel Bard, M.D., LL.D., an eminent 
 physician, and president of the College of 
 Physicians and Surgeons in the Univer- 
 sity of New York. 
 
 William Floyd, one of the signers of the 
 
 declaration of independence. 
 
 (1822.) William Pinkney, an eminent lawyer and 
 statesman. 
 
 John Stark, a brigadier-general in the 
 American army during the revolutionary 
 war. 
 
 (1823.) William Bartram, F.R.S., an eminent bo- 
 tanist author of Travels through the 
 Carolinas, Georgia, and the Florida*. 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1141 
 
 (1826.) John Adams, L.L.D., eminent as a states- 
 man and a lawyer, and second president 
 of the United States. 
 Thomas Jefferson, LL.D., third president 
 
 of the United States. 
 Kufus King, a distinguished statesman. 
 
 Concluding Remarks. 
 
 We cannot better conclude our history than with 
 the following general review of the history and pros- 
 pects of the United States, by an able American 
 author. 
 
 The English colonies of North America were set- 
 tled under the most favourable auspices. The mind 
 of man had just burst from thraldom, and begun to 
 delight in the free and vigorous exercise of its powers. 
 Religion and government had become themes of ani- 
 mated discussion. The people had boldly questioned 
 the divine right of their rulers to control their ac- 
 tions, and of their priests to prescribe to them ar- 
 ticles of faith. They had assumed a higher rank and 
 bolder attitude ; and, conscious of their own power, 
 had begun to feel less dependence upon others. 
 
 From that country, where the advancement of 
 knowledge had been greatest, came those who peopled 
 this western wilderness. They belonged principally 
 to a class, so high as to have participated largely in 
 the advantages which knowledge imparts, and yet 
 not so high as to be above the power of the oppressor. 
 The persecutions they had endured rendered the 
 principles of civil and religious liberty more dear to 
 their hearts ; and led to inquiries and reflections, 
 which fixed a conviction of their truth more firmly in 
 their understandings. 
 
 No occasion could be more fortunate, no men 
 could be better fitted to lay the foundation of a su- 
 perstructure entirely new. Their knowledge enabled 
 them to discern the good and the evil of the political 
 institutions which had existed in the world ; and 
 their feelings, chastened by their sufferings, or ele- 
 vated by their favourable view of human nature, led 
 them to reject those provisions which sacrificed the 
 happiness of many to the splendour of a few ; and to 
 adopt such only as gave equal rights and privileges 
 to all. 
 
 In every nation of Europe ecclesiastical establish- 
 ments existed, almost co-ordinate with the civil au- 
 thority. The officers of these establishments were 
 numerous, and their privileges extensive. For their 
 support, in early times, a tenth part of the income 
 of the laity was appropriated. Possessing wealth, 
 and rank, and learning, their influence was great, 
 and was constantly exerted to acquire and preserve 
 dominion over the minds and consciences of men. 
 Their success was equal to the means which they em- 
 ployed. They continued to add to their wealth and 
 power, until, corrupted by luxury and idleness, they 
 forgot their duties to God and to man ; and encum- 
 bered society with a useless and oppressive weight. 
 
 No part of these establishments have been trans- 
 ferred to America. The first settlers of most of the 
 colonies were too proud of their attainments, in spi- 
 ritual knowledge, to submit to dictation in matters 
 of faith ; and too independent in feeling to acknow- 
 ledge a superior on earth. Here man resumed his 
 natural and dignified station ; and the ministers of 
 the Gospel, maintaining an apostolical simplicity of 
 character and manners, have seldom sought to ob- 
 tain, and possess not the means of obtaining, any 
 greater influence than that which superior virtue 
 and piety confer. 
 
 The doctrine ot hereditary right prevailed also 
 throughout Europe. By the fundamental regula- 
 tions of nearly every kingdom, the monarch and 
 nobles transmitted to their eldest sons, even though 
 destitute of talents and virtue, their authority, pri- 
 vileges, and rank. The people often saw on the 
 throne men, who were guilty of the most atrocious 
 wickedness, and whose conduct involved commu- 
 nities and nations in misery ; but no attempt could 
 be made to remove or punish them without incur- 
 ring the penalty of rebellion. They saw also, in 
 other exalted stations, men equally wicked and 
 equally beyond their control. 
 
 The law of primogeniture existed as a part of the 
 hereditary system. The eldest son inherited, not 
 the title only, but also all the lands of the father. 
 By this unjust, and unnatural law, the younger sons 
 and daughters were doomed to comparative poverty. 
 One portion of the people was made rich, and an- 
 other poor. Few were placed in that happy medium 
 between wealth and poverty, which is most favour- 
 able to virtue, to happiness, and to the improvement 
 of the human faculties. 
 
 The principle, that power could be inherited, was 
 at once rejected by the first emigrants to America. 
 They had witnessed, in Europe, the pernicious 
 operation of this principle ; they were convinced of 
 its absurdity ; and even had not such been the case, 
 that equality of rank and condition, which existed 
 among them, would have prevented any one from 
 claiming such a privilege for his family, and all 
 others from submitting to it. 
 
 The law of primogeniture fell of course into dis- 
 use, or was abolished. That equality of rights and 
 of rank, which prevailed at first, has continued to 
 prevail ; and though in some of the colonies, the 
 extravagant grants of land, which were made by 
 capricious governors to their favourites, introduced 
 great inequality of fortune, yet the salutary opera- 
 tion of various laws is continually diminishing this 
 inequality, dividing and distributing among many 
 that wealth which, in the hands of a few, is less be- 
 neficial to the public, and productive of less indivi- 
 dual enjoyment. 
 
 The systems of government established in the co- 
 lonies were also departures from European prece- 
 dents, and were in perfect harmony with their social 
 institutions. Most of the provisions of the early 
 charters were doubtless suggested by the first emi- 
 grants, and of course accorded with their liberal po- 
 litical principles. The kings who granted them 
 conceded many privileges, to encourage the settle- 
 ment of colonies in America, entertaining no suspi- 
 cion that their successors would ever have occasion 
 to regret their concessions. These charters made 
 but little distinction in the rights and privileges of 
 the colonists. Every man could regard those around 
 him as his equals. The state of individual depen- 
 dence being hardly known, all sense of dependence 
 on the mother-country was gradually lost ; and the 
 transition from a colonial to an independent condi- 
 tion was natural and unavoidable. 
 
 In nothing is the contrast between the two sys- 
 tems of government greater than in the requisitions 
 which they make of the people for their support and 
 defence. That of Great Britain may be taken as a 
 favourable example of the European governments. 
 The people of that kingdom pay annually, for the 
 support of their sovereign and his relatives, above 
 2,500,000 dollars, while the compensation of the pre- 
 sident of the United States is but 25,000. In the 
 salaries of the subordinate officers of government, 
 
1112 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 the disproportion is not so great, but is generally, 
 nevertheless, as four or five to one. 
 
 The military peace establishment of Great Bri- 
 tain costs annually 34,000,000 dollars; that of the 
 United States but little more than 5,000,000. The 
 naval establishment of the former costs 22,000,000 ; 
 that of the latter less than 2,500,000. British sub- 
 jects pay in taxes, raised exclusively for national 
 purposes, at the rate of fifteen dollars yearly for each 
 individual; the citizens of the United States pay, in 
 national and state taxes, at the rate of but two dol- 
 lars. And as the whole population of Great Britain 
 and Ireland is included in the estimate, the indivi- 
 dual wealth of the subjects of the united kingdom 
 and of the citizens of the American republic may, on 
 an average, be considered nearly equal. 
 
 With burdens thus light, not embarrassed by too 
 much regulation, nor restricted by monopolies, but 
 left at liberty to pursue their own interests as indi- 
 vidual judgment may dictate, the citizens of the re- 
 public have boldly embarked in all the ordinary pur- 
 suits of man ; and in all have met with a degree of 
 success which exhibits a favourable and forcible 
 commentary upon their free institutions, and proves 
 that no other people surpass them in activity or en- 
 terprise. 
 
 In the pursuits of AGRICULTURE, by far the greatest 
 portion of the inhabitants are engaged; and for that 
 employment the country is most favourably situated. 
 It embraces every desirable variety of climate. The 
 soil is generally good ; in many parts of the union 
 it is exceedingly fertile ; and it produces, or may be 
 made to produce, almost every vegetable which can 
 be made the food of man, or as the material of ma- 
 nufactures. The northern states produce Indian 
 corn, rye, wheat, flax, hemp, oats, potatoes ; and 
 their pastures feed and fatten large numbers of 
 cattle and sheep. The middle and western states 
 produce tobacco, and the same articles as the nor- 
 thern, but wheat in much greater abundance. In 
 the southern states cotton is principally cultivated, 
 but considerable quantities of rice and sugar are 
 produced. 
 
 In 1820 the number of persons engaged in agri- 
 culture was 2,070,646. The value of all its products 
 exported during the year ending the 30th of Septem- 
 ber 1823 was 37,646,000 dollars. The principal ar- 
 ticles were, cotton to the value of 20,445,000 dollars; 
 tobacco to [the value of 4,852,000 dollars ; flour to 
 the value of 4,962,000 dollars ; and rice to the value 
 of 1,821 ,000 dollars. The value of provisions of all 
 kinds exported was 13,460,000 dollars, and it has in 
 many years been at a greater average. A people 
 able to spar* such an amount of the necessaries of 
 life, can never be in danger of suffering from want. 
 
 The agricultural class is conspicuous for industry, 
 morality, and general intelligence ; but has less pro- 
 fessional knowledge than the same class in Europe. 
 Land having hitherto been cheap, and not exhausted 
 by cultivation, agriculturists have hitherto not been 
 eager, and it has not been necessary, to make prac- 
 tical application of the discoveries of science ; but a 
 change in these respects having taken place,especially 
 in the Atlantic states, many now study their profes- 
 sion as a science ; and as all professions are estimated 
 according to the skill and intelligence required to at- 
 tain eminence in them, they are raising their own 
 i; carer to that rank in society, to which its utility 
 and importance entitle it. More taste and neatness 
 are now displayed in cultivation, and the appear- 
 ance of the country is rapidly improving. 
 /fire COMMERCE of the United States has yielded 
 
 a rich harvest of wealth. Various circumstances 
 have directed the attention of a large portion of the 
 population to this pursuit, and have contributed to 
 give them success in it. For 2000 miles the republic 
 bounds upon the sea, and in that space has many ex- 
 cellent harbours. The finest timber for ship build- 
 ing is abundant, and easily procured. Near the 
 shores of the northern states, and on the adjacent 
 banks of Newfoundland, are fishing stations, unsur- 
 passed by any in the world. Fishing is consequently 
 a lucrative employment, in proportion to the capital 
 invested, and attracts to it a large number of the na- 
 tives of those sta.es. These, havingbecome accustomed 
 to a seafaring life, and acquired the requisite quali- 
 fications, soon pass into larger vessels, destined for 
 more distant and perilous voyages. 
 
 The state of the world, for several years subse- 
 quent to the commencement of the French revolu- 
 tion, offered great encouragement to the commercial 
 enterprise of the country. While almost every other 
 power was engaged in war, the United States were 
 neutral; their vessels navigated the ocean in safety, 
 and were employed to carry, from port to port, the 
 commodities of the belligerent nations. In fifteen 
 years, beginning with 1793, these favourable cir- 
 cumstances increased the amount of American ton- 
 nage from 491,000 to 1,242,000 tons, and the re- 
 venue arising from commerce, from 4,399,000 to 
 ] 6,363,000 dollars. 
 
 In 1820, the number of persons engaged in com- 
 merce was 72,493. In 1823 the whole amount of 
 exports was 74,799,000 dollars ; the amount of im- 
 ports was 77,579,009 dollars, the balance, in favour 
 of the United States, being about 3,000,000 of dol- 
 lars. As the imports, however, are always under- 
 valued at the custom-house, the accession of wealth 
 which, in that year, accrued to the nation from com- 
 merce, was undoubtedly greater. 
 
 In other years the commerce of the country has 
 flourished more. In 1807 the exports amounted to 
 108,343,000, and the imports to 138,574,000 dollars. 
 The principal causes of the decline which has taken 
 place have been the restoration of peace in Europe, 
 and the increase of the product of domestic manu- 
 factures. The former has permitted all other nations 
 to become competitors ; the latter has rendered it 
 unnecessary to resort to Europe for most of the con- 
 veniences and many of the luxuries of life ; but a 
 proof that the depression is fast decreasing, is that in 
 1831 the exports were estimated at 81,310,583 dol- 
 lars; and the imports at 103,191,124 dollars; and 
 the independence of the South American republic 
 has opened a wide field for the enterprise of Ameri 
 can merchants. 
 
 The COD-FISHERY on the north-eastern coast of 
 America attracted at an early period the attention of 
 the world. In 1583 Sir Humphrey Gilbert found 36 
 vessels fishing in the harbour of St. John, in N ew- 
 foundland. They were principally from Biscay, in 
 Spain, and Brittany, in France, and for many years 
 the French retained almost a monopoly of this source 
 of wealth. In 1744 they employed, in this fishery, 
 414 large ships, navigated by about 24,000 seamen, 
 and the quantity of fish taken amounted to 1,149,000 
 quintals. 
 
 The war of 1756 expelling the French from the 
 continent, transferred the privileges which they had 
 enjoyed to Great Britain. The English' colonies, 
 from their vicinity, participated largely in them. In 
 the year 1760, 660 vessels, navigated by 4400 sea- 
 men, were fitted outfrom the ports of New England. 
 During the revolutionary war, the Americans were 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1143 
 
 compelled to relinquish the profitable pursuit; arid 
 it required all the iiimness and address of the nego- 
 tiators of the peace of 1783 to secure to these states 
 those advantages which nature seems to have in- 
 tended for them, and which they had enjoyed as a 
 component part of the British empire. They were 
 at length, however, notwithstanding the covert oppo- 
 sition of France, conceded by the mother-country. 
 
 From that period till 1807 the number of vessels 
 and men employed in this pursuit continued to in- 
 crease. An estimate has been made that, from 
 1790 to 1810, 1200 vessels of all kinds, navigated 
 by 10,500 men and boys, were, on an average, yearly 
 employed in the Bank bay and Labrador fisheries ; 
 1,150, 000 quintals of fish were caught and cured; 
 and 37,000 barrels of oil were made. The annual 
 value of the product of these fisheries could not have 
 been less than 3,500,000 dollars. They were inter- 
 rupted by the last war with Great Britain, and have 
 not since regained their former activity. As nurse- 
 ries of seamen, they are important to the nation ; and 
 as such have received the particular attention and 
 encouragement of government. A bounty, amount- 
 ing in some years to 200,000 dollars, is paid to the 
 owners and crews of the vessels employed. 
 
 The WHALE-FISHERY of the United States ought 
 not to be passed over unnoticed. Its successful pro- 
 secution requires uncommon hardihood and skill. 
 As early as 1690, the inhabitants of Nantucket en- 
 gaged in this pursuit, and were soon after joined by 
 their brethren of the town of New Bedford. In a 
 few years these monsters of the deep were driven 
 from the American coasts ; but were pursued with 
 ardour into seas more remote. In 1715, 228 tons; 
 in 1771, 27,000 tons; in 1815, 42,000 tons of ship- 
 ping were employed in this business. The product 
 of this fishery exported in 1807, consisting of com- 
 mon and spermaceti oil and whale-bone, was valued 
 at 606,000 dollars ; in 1831 at 741,808 dollars; not 
 including spermaceti candles, which amounted to 
 217,830 dollars additional. 
 
 An extract from the speech of Mr. Burke, de- 
 livered in the British parliament, in 1775, presents 
 in eloquent language, a correct idea of the import- 
 ance of this fishery, and of the enterprise and dex- 
 terity of those engaged in it. " As to the wealth 
 which the colonies have drawn from the sea by 
 their fisheries, you bad all that matter fully opened 
 at your bar. You surely thought those acquisitions 
 of value ; for they seemed even to excite your envy ; 
 and yet the spirit by which that enterprising em- 
 ployment has been exercised, ought rather, in my 
 opinion, to have raised your esteem and admira- 
 tion. 
 
 " And pray, Sir, what in the world is equal to 
 it ? Pass by the other parts, and look at the man- 
 ner in which the people of New England have of 
 late carried on the whale fishery. While we follow 
 them among the tumbling mountains of ice, and 
 behold them penetrating into the deepest frozen re- 
 cesses of Hudson's bay and Davis's straits; whilst 
 we are looking for them beneath the arctic circle, 
 we hear that they have pierced into the opposite re- 
 gion of polar cold ; that they are at the Antipodes, 
 and engaged under the frozen serpent of the south. 
 Falkland Island, which seemed too remote and ro- 
 mantic an object for the grasp of national ambition, 
 is but a stage and resting-place in the progress of 
 their victorious industry. 
 
 l< Nor is the equinoctial heat more discouraging 
 to them than the accumulated winter of both poles. 
 We know that while some of them draw the line and 
 
 strike the harpoon on the coast of Africa, other* 
 run the longitude and pursue the gigantic game 
 along the coast of Brazil. No sea but what is vexed 
 by their fisheries. No climate that is not witness 
 to their toils. Neither the perseverance of Holland, 
 nor the activity of France, nor the dexterous and 
 firm sagacity of English entei prise, ever carried 
 this most perilous mode of hardy industry to the ex- 
 tent to which it has been pushed by this recent 
 people ; a people who are still, as it were, but in 
 the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of 
 manhood. 
 
 " When I contemplate these things ; when I 
 know that the colonies owe little or nothing to any 
 care of ours, and that they are not squeezed into 
 this happy form by the Constraints of watchful aud 
 suspicious government, but that, through a wise 
 and salutary neglect, a generous nature has been 
 suffered to take its own way to perfection ; when I 
 reflect upon these effects, when I see how profitable 
 they have been to us, I feel all the pride of power 
 sink, and all presumption in the wisdom of human 
 contrivances melt and die away within me. My 
 rigour relents. I pardon something to the spirit of 
 liberty." 
 
 MANUFACTURES. While the United States were 
 colonies, the mother-country endeavoured to prevent 
 the inhabitants from manufacturing any article 
 whatever, even for their own use. The erection of 
 slitting-mills was prohibited, and hatters were for- 
 bidden to take any apprentice for less than seven 
 years, or to employ more than two at a time. In 
 addition to these and other legislative enactments, 
 the wages of labour were high, and neither skill 
 nor surplus capital existed in the country. But lit- 
 tle attention was of course given to manufactures, 
 and the inhabitants received their supplies from the 
 artisans of England. 
 
 Some attempts were indeed made, a few years 
 previous to the commencement of the revolutionary 
 war, to introduce manufactures. Such was in part 
 the intention of the non-importation agreements ; 
 and some of the colonial legislatures, to encourage 
 the production of wool, and the manufacture of 
 cloths, exempted sheep from taxation. But at no 
 time, previous to the adoption of the constitution, 
 did manufacturers exist in the country in sufficient 
 number to be considered a class of the population. 
 
 And indeed it was not until the imposition of the 
 embargo, in 1807, that any considerable impulse 
 was given to this branch of industry. Prevented 
 by this interruption of commerce from exchanging 
 their products for foreign articles, the inhabitants 
 then attempted to fabricate them for themselves. 
 From the want of experience and skill, many of the 
 first attempts were unsuccessful ; but in a very short 
 time these deficiencies were supplied, and at the 
 close of the war the amount of the products of ma- 
 nufactures was astonishingly great. Forming an es- 
 timate from the amount in 1810, which was near 
 170,000,000, it could not have been less, for 1814, 
 than 200,000,000 dollars. 
 
 Peace, by affording to foreigners an opportunity 
 of introducing the goods which had accumulated in 
 their warehouses, checked for a few years the im- 
 pulse which the restrictive measures and the war 
 bad given. In each of the three years following 
 1815, the value of articles manufactured was pro- 
 Dably less than in any one of the preceding six years. 
 From the year 1818, the amount has gradually in- 
 creased, and in 1821 and 1822 it was probably 
 greater than it had ever before been. It will here . 
 
1144 
 
 THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 after continue to increase, and the navigation of the 
 country will be employed, not so much in bringing 
 home the manufactures of other nations, as in car- 
 rying abroad those of the United States. In this 
 way, domestic manufactures will repay to commerce 
 the capital they have lately drawn from it. 
 
 The states in which the greatest attention is de- 
 voted to this branch of industry, are Rhode Island, 
 Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and 
 Connecticut. The principal manufactures are those 
 of cotton and of woollen cloths, of iron, and of lea- 
 ther. In 1820, the number of inhabitants engaged 
 in manufactures was 349,506. 
 
 The question, whether agriculture, commerce or 
 manufactures is most productive of national wealth, 
 and to which the government ought, in preference, 
 to extend its protection and encouragement, has 
 lately been warmly discussed bv the politicians and 
 writers on political economy in America and in 
 Europe. Each interest has its advocates. The de- 
 cision of the impartial statesman would probably be, 
 that neither should be encouraged to the neglect of 
 the others : that if either is, in any degree, to be 
 preferred, it is that which is, at the time, the most 
 depressed ; or that which supplies most of the means 
 of national defence, and most of the necessaries 
 and conveniences of life. 
 
 DEBT, REVEN UE AND EXPENDITURES. When in 
 1 790, the public debt was first funded, it amounted to 
 about 75,000,000 dollars. In 1803, by the purchase 
 of Louisiana, it was augmented to about 85,500,000. 
 In the eight years which followed, a large amount 
 was paid, leaving due, in 1S12, but little more than 
 45,000,000. To defray the expenses of the war which 
 was declared in that year, more than 80,000,000 of 
 new debt was contracted. A large portion has since 
 peen paid, and the remainder is so small as not to 
 deserve notice. 
 
 ' The present revenue of the republic is derived 
 principally from commerce, and from the sale of 
 public lands. In 1822, there accrued from the for- 
 mer source, the sum of 20,500,775 dollars; from 
 the latter source, 1,803,581 ; and from other sources, 
 839,084. The amount however which was actually 
 received, during the year, was but 20,232,427. 
 
 The expenditures, during the same year, were 
 as follow : Civil, diplomatic, and miscellaneous, 
 1,967,996; for the pay and support of the army, 
 the construction of forts, the supply of arms, the 
 payment of pensious, and the various expenses of 
 the Indian department, 5,635,188; for the support 
 and increase of the navy, 2,224,458 ; for the pay- 
 ment of the interest, and'for the redemption of that 
 portion of the principal of the debt which became 
 due within the year, 7,848,949: amounting in the 
 whole to 17,676,591, and leaving an excess of re- 
 venue over expenditure of 2,555,836 dollars. 
 
 EDUCATION. In the kingdoms of Europe, large 
 sums have been appropriated, by the governments, 
 for the purpose of education. Nearly all, however, 
 has been expended in founding or endowing uni- 
 versities. To these the sons of the nobles and the 
 rich could alone gain access ; and the intention 
 and effect of the expenditure has always been, to 
 produce erudite scholars, and able orators, and to 
 perpetuate and widen the separation between the 
 higher and lower classes of the population. 
 
 The people of the United States have had a dif- 
 ferent object in view, and one more congenial with 
 their political institutions. Desirous that none 
 should be ignorant, their first and principal care has 
 been, to impart the advantages of instruction to the 
 
 whole mass of the population. With this vifw, the 
 legislatures of many of the states have ordained that 
 schools, for the education of all the youth in reading, 
 writing, and arithmetic, shall be kept and supported 
 by a public and general tax. 
 
 This system was adopted in Massachusetts as 
 early as 1647. A law was then passed by that co- 
 lony, providing that a school should be kept in 
 every township having 50 householders, in which 
 all the children who might resort to it should be 
 taught to read and write. As the number of inha- 
 bitants increased, the townships were divided into 
 small districts, and a school supported in each. 
 Thus the means of education were provided at the 
 public expense, and the opportunity of acquiring it 
 placed within the power of all. 
 
 Immediately after their first settlement, the same 
 system was adopted by the other colonies of New- 
 England ; and it has, bv all of them, been preserved 
 and cherished to the present time. Connecticut, 
 having a large tract of land in Ohio, which was sold 
 for 1,200,000 dollars, appropriated the whole sum 
 to the support of common or primary schools. The 
 sum has since been augmented to 1,700,000 dollars, 
 and the interest is annually distributed to the seve- 
 ral school districts, according to the number of 
 scholars taught in each. No district, however, is 
 entitled to any aid from this fund unless it had in 
 the preceding year expended, for the same purpose, 
 a certain amount derived from its own resources. 
 
 The effect of this system has been, to render the 
 great body of the people of these states the most 
 enlightened in the world. All can read and write, 
 and rarely can one be found not qualified by educa- 
 tion to transact the common concerns of life. To 
 educate his children is the first object, and the chief 
 glory of the parent ; their ignorance is to him and 
 to them disgraceful. In these schools, the human 
 mind receives its first impulse in the career of learn- 
 ing; an impulse which carries many forward to 
 high stations of honour and of usefulness. 
 
 The great state of New York, distinguished for 
 magnificent projects of internal improvement, and 
 for liberal patronage of literature and the arts, has 
 lately adopted a system nearly similar to that of 
 Connecticut. From various sources it has accumu- 
 lated a fund, the income of which is to be applied 
 annually to the support of common schools. This 
 fund in 1820, amounted to 1,215,000 dollars. Since 
 that year all the unsold and unappropriated lands, 
 which, when disposed of, will probably produce 2 or 
 3,000,000 more, have been permanently devoted to 
 the same object. The annual interest of this fund 
 is distributed, according to population, among the 
 several townships, on their raising, for the same 
 purpose, an additional sum equal to that which they 
 receive from the state. In 1821, 333,000 children 
 were taught in the several district schools ; a num- 
 ber nearly equal to that of all the children in the 
 state between five and fifteen years of age. In 1823, 
 the number taught was 400,000. 
 
 Virginia has also a literary fund, the interest of 
 a part of which is appropriated for the support of 
 common schools. This fund is of recent origin, and 
 its income is yet small. The advantages of educa- 
 tion are, however, so highly appreciated in that 
 state, by its enlightened citizens, that most of the 
 rising generation are instructed in private schools, 
 or by domestic teachers. The same remark will 
 apply to most of the middle and southern states ; 
 yet, in these, too many of the children of the poor 
 will remain in ignorance until effectual provision 
 
UNITED STATES. 
 
 1145 
 
 is made by the respective governments, for the in- 
 struction of all. 
 
 The national government has not been unmindful 
 of the importance of universal education. Before 
 the adoption of the constitution, it acquired, by the 
 cession of the states claiming it, the property of 
 nearly all the unappropriated land within the na- 
 tional boundaries. In offering this land for sale, it 
 has reserved in every township one section, compris 
 ing 640 acres, for the use of schools. As the popu- 
 lation of the new states becomes more dense, these 
 lands will constitute a valuable and productive fund, 
 and the system of free schools, thus planted in the 
 western, will there produce the same benefits as in 
 the eastern portion of the union. 
 
 Schools of a higher order, to which the name of 
 academies has been applied, are numerous in all the 
 states, especially in those of New England. Many 
 are incorporated, and some possess considerable 
 funds. That at Exeter, in New Hampshire, holds 
 the highest rank; its funds amount to 80,000 dol- 
 lars ; it has a library containing 700 volumes, and a 
 handsome philosophical apparatus. In these schools 
 are taught English grammar, composition, history, 
 geography, mathematics, the Latin and Greek lan- 
 guages. Many young men resort, to them to acquire 
 an education superior to that which can be obtained 
 at the primary schools, and many to prepare them 
 selves to enter some college or university. They are 
 principally taught by those who have just received 
 degree in the arts, and who are unable, from the 
 want of property, to engage immediately in the study 
 of the professions which they intend to pursue. 
 
 Of colleges and universities there is also a large 
 number in the United States. (Of the chief, Har- 
 vard-college, and Yale-college, vrehave already given 
 an account, in the history of their respective states.) 
 In addition to these, there are in the union about 50 
 colleges and universities authorized to confer de- 
 grees. In all of these are taught the English. Latin, 
 and Greek languages, rhetoric, mathematics, na- 
 tural philosophy, logic, chymistry, astronomy, his- 
 tory, and geography. In some of them are also 
 taught the Hebrew, Oriental, and modern European 
 languages, anatomy, surgery, medicine, botany, po- 
 lite literature, divinity, ethics, natural and municipal 
 law, politics, and elocution. 
 
 LITERATURE. The remark has often been made, 
 that the United States have produced no eminent, 
 scholars; and that the national character has not 
 been illustrated by literary and scientific perform- 
 ances of distinguished merit. This remark is doubt- 
 less just. Compared with those of the old world, 
 their writers have not exhibited the same laboured 
 polish of style, nor their men of science the same 
 perseverance and extent of investigation. Their 
 historians are not equal to Hume or Robertson ; 
 their poets to Milton or Pope ; their chymists to La- 
 voisier or Davy ; nor their metaphysicians to Locke, 
 Berkeley, or Reid. 
 
 But this fact implies no deficiency of mental vi- 
 gour in the people. The mind of the nation has re- 
 ceived from circumstances a different direction. 
 Those who are endued with extraordinary talent, 
 wha-tever may have been their original propensities, 
 have been called from the closet to labour in the le- 
 gislative hall, or the cabinet; to vindicate the cause 
 or defend the ir'.erests of their country abroad; to 
 dispense justice irom the bench, or to support and 
 defend at the bar the claims and the rights of their 
 fellow-citizens. 
 
 To perform, these duties, certainly not less ho- 
 
 nourable nor less difficult than any thing which the 
 maera scholar can perform, a greater variety of ta- 
 lents, and greater intellectual labour have been re- 
 quired in this than in any other country. Here in 
 comparatively a short period the foundations have 
 been laid, and the superstructures erected, of new 
 political institutions. Many governments have been, 
 established over communities differing from each 
 other, and from those of Europe ; and over these a 
 paramount government with extensive and import- 
 ant powers. For each of these communities, a new 
 system of law has been required, and each govern- 
 ment has a separate executive, legislative, and ju- 
 dicial department. The population of no country 
 has been called upon to supply such a number of le- 
 gislators, of judges and of lawyers; nor, it may b . 
 added, of instructors of youth. And while their nun* 
 her accounts for the comparative neglect of litera- 
 ture and the fine arts, the talents they have dis- 
 played sufficiently vindicate the republic from the 
 reproach of intellectual inferiority. 
 
 But not in these modes alone have the people of 
 these states proved that in original powers of mind 
 they may assert an equality, at least, with those of 
 any other nation. None has made more important 
 discoveries in the useful arts. England boasts of 
 her Arkwright, who invented the spinning machine ; 
 of her Worcester, Newcomm, and Watt, by whose 
 ingenuity and labours the powers' of steam were sub- 
 stituted for the uncertain aid of wind and water in 
 moving the machinery of manufactories. 
 
 America may boast of her Godfrey, whose quad- 
 rant has been almost as serviceable as the compass 
 to navigation ; of her Franklin, who has made our 
 dwellings comfortable within, and protected them 
 from the lightning of heaven ; of Whitney, whose 
 cotton gin has added to the annual product of that 
 article at least 100,000,000 of pounds ; of her Whit- 
 temore, the inventor of the wonderful machine for 
 making cards; of her Perkins, the inventor of the 
 nail machine ; and of her Fulton, who has rendered 
 the power of steam subservient to the purposes of 
 navigation. 
 
 But the United States have produced authors who 
 would do honour even to any other nation. The 
 style of Franklin is perspicuous and pure ; and few 
 men of any age or country have contributed more 
 by their writings to enlighten and to benefit man- 
 kind. The histories of Marshall, Ramsay, Belknap, 
 Williams, and the Annals of Holmes, are works of 
 sterling merit, interesting and instructive. Among 
 theological writers, Edwards, Hopkins, Dwight, 
 Lethrop, Davies, Kollock, and Buckminister are 
 deservedly eminent. And, as novelists, Brown, Coo- 
 per, and Irving, are very distinguished. 
 
 Many of the political writers of this country have 
 displayed great vigour of thought and force of ex- 
 pression. The pamphlets and state papers to which 
 the revolutionary struggle gave existence ; the num- 
 bers of the Federalist ; the official letters of Mr. Jef- 
 ferson, as secretary of state, and of the American mi- 
 nisters at Ghent, not only display intellectual powers, 
 but possess literary merit of the highest order. The 
 best writers of this republic have not been authors of 
 books. 
 
 To the fine arts still less attention has been paid 
 than to literature ; but the neglect is to be attributed 
 rather to the deficiency of patronage than to the want 
 of capacity to excel. Benjamin West, a native of 
 Pennsylvania, presided for many years over the 
 Royal Academy, comprising the most eminent pain- 
 ters of Great Britain. In portrait painting, Copley 
 
1146 
 
 HISTORY OF AMERICA. 
 
 and Stuart have acquired a high reputation ; and in 
 historical painting, Trumbull excels. The United 
 States claim only the honour of their birth ; England 
 and Italy that of patronizing and instructing them. 
 
 RELIGION. The consequences resulting from the 
 enjoyment of religious liberty have been highly 
 favourable. Free discussion has enlightened the 
 ignorant, disarmed superstition of its dreadful 
 powers, and consigned to oblivion many erroneous 
 and fantastic creeds. Religious oppression, and the 
 vindictive feelings it arouses, are hardly known. 
 Catholics and Protestants live together in harmony ; 
 and Protestants who disagree, employ in defending 
 their own doctrines, and in assailing those of their 
 antagonists, the weapons only of reason and elo- 
 quence. 
 
 In the New England states, the Independents or 
 Congregationalists constitute the most numerous 
 denomination ; in the middle states, the Presby- 
 terians ; and in the southern, the Methodists. Bap- 
 tists, Episcopalians, and Roman Catholics are found 
 in all the states ; but in Maryland and Louisiana, 
 the Catholics are more numerous than elsewhere. 
 Each of these sects has one or more seminaries of 
 learning, in which its peculiar doctrines are taught, 
 and young men are educated for the ministry. Many 
 other sects exist, but reason, less tolerant than the 
 laws, is gradually diminishing the number. 
 
 CHARACTER AND MANNERS. Foreigners have as- 
 serted that the Americans possess no national cha- 
 racter. If at any period this assertion has been 
 true, it was then no reproach. In its youth, a na- 
 tion can have no established character. The inha- 
 bitants of this republic, coming from every quarter 
 of the world, speaking many different languages, 
 dispersed over a vast extent of territory, could not 
 immediately assimilate and exhibit those few pro- 
 minent traits, which nations as well as individuals, 
 in their maturity, display. 
 
 But the germ of national character has always 
 existed. It has grown with the growth of the nation, 
 and is gradually throwing into the shade those un- 
 favourable and discordant traits, which have disfi- 
 gured and partly concealed it from view. Who 
 that has read the history oi' these states, has not per- 
 ceived in the inhabitants an energy of purpose ca- 
 pable of surmounting all obstacles ; a spirit of enter- 
 prise, that leaves nothing useful unattempted ; a 
 proud sense of personal dignity and independence; 
 a decided preference of utility before show ; and a 
 love of knowledge that has dispelled ignorance from 
 the land? They may have been too much devoted 
 to the pursuit of gain ; too much addicted to habits 
 of intemperance ; too much inflated with national 
 vanity ; bigoted and superstitious : but these traits 
 are now less apparent ; they are constantly melting 
 away, and those more noble appearing in bolder 
 relief. 
 
 Those whose wealth or talents place them in the 
 first rank in society, are, in their manners, free 
 from awkwardness, formality, haughtiness, and os- 
 tentation ; but they do not display the elegance or 
 refinement of the same class in Europe. The mass 
 of the people are serious, shrewd, inquisitive, manly, 
 and generally respectful, but they know little, and 
 
 practise less, of the ceremonies of formal politeness. 
 To foreigners, accustomed to the servility of the 
 lower classes in Europe, they doubtless often ap- 
 pear rough and uiicourtly ; and many fashionable 
 tourists may have had their feelings needlessly 
 wounded, and their delicacy shocked ; but when 
 respectfully treated, they display native politeness, 
 and generosity of sentiment. Time will remove the 
 grosser defects ; but may it never, by polishing too 
 deeply, impair that strength of character, which is 
 essential to the permanence of repuolican institu- 
 tions. 
 
 A review of the rapid progress of. the United 
 States in population, wealth, and power ; a survey 
 of their present physical and moral condition ; and 
 a comparison of them, in either respect, with other 
 nations, cannot fail to give to an American citizen 
 an elevated conception of his own country, and to 
 justify the loftiest anticipation for the future. 
 
 In a period of 30 years, ending with 1820, the 
 population of the republic increased from 3,893,835, 
 to 9,642,150; it consequently doubles in less than 
 25 years. In Great Britain, the population does 
 not double in less than 80 years ; and in that 
 country the increase is nearly, if not quite, as rapid 
 as in any other country in Europe. 
 
 The augmentation of wealth and power cannot 
 be so easily ascertained. It is the opinion of many, 
 well qualified to judge, that it has been still more 
 rapid ; and when the increase of the exports, which 
 in the same period advanced from 19 to 65,000,000 ; 
 when the growth of the cities and villages ; the in- 
 crease of the manufacturing establishments, of the 
 national and mercantile navy, of the fortifications 
 and other means of defence ; the extent of the in- 
 ternal improvements ; and beyond all, the extensive 
 territories reclaimed from a state of nature, and made 
 productive, and valuable, are adverted to, that opi- 
 nion will not appear unfounded nor extravagant. 
 
 Although now inferior to the principal nations of 
 the old world, yet but a short period will elapse 
 before the United States, should their progress here- 
 after be the same that it has been, will overtake and 
 pass them. Their great natural advantages will 
 continue to urge them forward. Extensive tracts 
 of fertile land yet remain vacant of inhabitants ; 
 the portions already settled are capable of support- 
 ing a much more numerous population ; new roads 
 and new canals will give greater activity to internal 
 commerce, and open new fields to the untiring in- 
 dustry and enterprise of man ; and a small partonly 
 being required by the government, nearly the whole 
 annual income will be added to the general capital, 
 augmenting it in a compound ratio. 
 
 That these splendid anticipations are not the sug- 
 gestions of national vanity, the history of the past 
 sufficiently proves. Yet their fulfilment depends in 
 a great degree upon the future conduct of the peo- 
 ple themselves ; upon their adherence to the princi- 
 ples of their fathers ; upon the preservation of free 
 political institutions, of industrious, frugal, and 
 moral habits; and above all, upon the universal 
 diffusion of knowledge. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Priuted by Mayhevv, Isaac, aud Co., 14, Henrietta Street. Coveot Garden. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 
 Page 
 
 ABYSSINIA. An embassy sent to that coun- 
 try by John II., king of Porttigal . 16 
 
 Acapulco. The nature of the trade carried on 
 from thence to Manila . . 202 
 
 Amount of the treasure on board the ship 
 taken by Lord Anson . .278 
 
 Aeosta. His method of accounting for the dif- 
 ferent degrees of heat in the old and new 
 continents . . . 244 
 
 Adair. His account of the revengeful temper 
 of the native Americans . . 254 
 
 Adanson. His justification of Hanno's account 
 of the African seas. . . 236 
 
 Africa. The western coast first explored by order 
 of John I., king of Portugal . . 13 
 
 Discovered from Cape Non to Bojador ib. 
 
 Cape Bojador doubled . . .14 
 
 The countries southward of the river Sene- 
 gal discovered . . 16 
 Cape of Good Hope seen by Bartholomew 
 
 Dias . . ib. 
 
 Causes of the extreme heat of the climate 
 
 there . . .63 
 
 Ignorance of the ancient astronomers con- 
 cerning Africa . . .237 
 Expedition to the coast . . 207 
 
 Agriculture. State of the art among the na- 
 tive Americans . . .80 
 Two principal causes of its defects . 81 
 
 Aguado. Sent to Hispaniola, as a commis- 
 sioner to inspect the conduct of Columbus . 34 
 
 Ayuilar, Jerome de. Relieved from a long cap- 
 tivity among the Indians at Cozumel, by Fer- 
 nando Cortes . . .103 
 
 Albuquerque, Rodrigo. Barbarous treatment by 
 him of the Indians of Hispaniola . 54 
 
 Alcavala. A term in the Spanish customs; 
 explained . . 279 
 
 Alexander the Great. His political character. 7 
 Motives in founding the city of Alexandria ib. 
 Discoveries in India. . . ib. 
 
 Alexander VI. (Pope). Grants to Ferdinand 
 and Isabella of Castile the right of all their 
 western discoveries . - 30 
 
 Sends missionaries with Columbus on his 
 second voyage . . . ib. 
 
 Almagro, Diego de. His birth and character 136 
 Associates with Pizarro, and De Luque, in a 
 
 voyage of discovery . . . 137 
 
 His unsuccessful attempts . . ib. 
 
 Page 
 
 Neglected by Pizarro in his Spanish Nego- 
 tiation . . . .138 
 Reconciled to him . . 139 
 Brings reinforcements to Pizarro at Peru . 143 
 Beginning of dissensions betwixt him and 
 
 Pizarro . . .146 
 
 Invades Chili . . .147 
 
 Created governor of Chili, and marches to 
 
 Cuzco . . .148 
 
 Seizes Cuzco out of the hands of Pizarro . ib. 
 Defeats Alvarado, and takes him prisoner 149 
 Deceived by the artful negotiations of Fran- 
 cis Pizarro . . . ib. 
 Defeated by the Pizarros . . 150 
 Taken prisoner . ib. 
 Tried and condemned . . . ib. 
 Put to death . . . ib. 
 
 Almagro (the son). Affords refuge to his father's 
 followers at Lima . . .152 
 
 His character ; heads a conspiracy against 
 
 Francis Pizarro . . . ib. 
 
 Pizarro assassinated . . 153 
 
 Acknowledged as his successor . ib. 
 
 His precarious situation * . ib. 
 
 Defeated by Vaca de Castro . 154 
 
 Betrayed and executed . . ib. 
 
 Almajorifasgo. The amount in the Spanish 
 American customs . . 239 
 
 Alvarado, Alonzo, is sent from Lima by Fran- 
 cis Pizarro, with a body of Spaniards to re- 
 lieve his brothers at Cuzco . . 149 
 Is taken a prisoner by Almagro . ib. 
 His escape . . . . ib. 
 
 Alvarado, Pedro de. Is left by Cortes to com- 
 mand at Mexico, while he marches against 
 Narvaez . . . 120 
 
 Besieged by the Mexicans . . 121 
 
 His imprudent conduct . . ib. 
 
 His expedition to Quito, in Peru . . 146 
 
 Amazons. A community said to exist in South 
 America by Francis Orellana . 152 
 
 America. Discovered by Christopher Columbus 36 
 How it obtained this name . . 39 
 
 Ferdinand of Castile nominates two governments 48 
 The propositions offered to the natives . ib. 
 
 Ill reception of Ojeda and Nicuessa among 
 
 them . . . .49 
 
 The South sea discovered by Balboa . 51 
 
 Rio de Plata discovered . .53 
 
 The natives injuriously treated by the Spa- 
 niards . . . .58 
 The vast extent . 61 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 The grand objects it presented to view . 61 
 
 Circumstances favourable for commerce and 
 civilization . . .62 
 
 Climates . . . ib. 
 
 Various causes of the peculiarity of its cli- 
 mates . . . .63 
 
 Its rude and uncultivated state when first 
 discovered. , . . ib. 
 
 Its animals . . .64 
 
 Its insects and reptiles . . ib. 
 
 Birds ... ib. 
 
 General account of its soil . . 65 
 
 Inquiry into its first population . ib. 
 
 Improbable that it was peopled by civilized 
 nations . . . .66 
 
 Its northern extremity contiguous to Asia 67 
 
 Probably peopled by Asiatics . . 69 
 
 Condition and character of the native inha- 
 bitants inquired into . ib. 
 
 They were more rude than the natives of any 
 other known parts of the earth . . ib. 
 
 The Peruvians and Mexicans excepted 70 
 
 The first discoverers incapable of a judicious 
 speculative examination . . ib. 
 
 The various systems of philosophers respect- 
 ing the natives . . . ib. 
 
 Method observed in the present reviews of 
 their bodily constitution and circumstances 71 
 
 The venereal disease derived from this part 
 of the world . . .75 
 
 Why so thinly inhabited 
 
 The country depopulated by continual wars 89 
 
 Cause of the extreme coldness toward its 
 southern extremity . . 245 
 
 The natural uncultivated state of the country 
 described . . . . 246 
 
 Bones of large extinct species of animals dis- 
 covered under-ground near the banks of 
 the Ohio . . ib. 
 
 Why European animals degenerate there . ib. 
 
 Supposed to have undergone convulsive sepa- 
 ration from Asia . . 217 
 
 The vicinity of the two continents of Asia 
 and America clearly ascertained . 248 
 
 Causes of its depopulation traced . 183 
 
 This depopulation not the result of any inten- 
 tional system of policy . . ib. 
 
 Nor the result of religion . . 184 
 
 Number of Indian natives still remaining in 
 Mexico and Peru . . ib. 
 
 All the Spanish dominions there subjected to 
 two viceroys . . . 185 
 
 Its third viceroyalty lately established . ib. 
 
 (See Mexico, Peru, Cortes, Pizarro, Cabot, &c.) 
 America, North. Project of settling there 208 
 
 Failure of the first expedition . . 209 
 
 A second expedition ends disastrously ib. 
 
 Plan of settling there resumed without effect ib. 
 
 The coast divided into two parts . 212 
 
 Charters granted to two companies for set- 
 tling colonies . . . ib. 
 
 Emigrations from England . . 230 
 
 (See Colonies, New England, Virginia, &c.) 
 Americans, Native. In Spanish America, their 
 
 bodily constitution and complexion . 71 
 
 Their strength and abilities . . ib. 
 
 Their insensibility with regard to their women 72 
 
 No deformities in their frame . . 73 
 
 This circumstance accounted for . ib. 
 
 Uniformity of their colour . . ib. 
 
 A peculiar race described . . 74 
 
 The Esquimaux . . . 74 
 
 Patagonians . . . . ib. 
 
 The existence of Patagonian giants yet re- 
 maining to be decided . . 75 
 
 Their diseases . . . ib. 
 
 The venereal disease peculiarly theirs . ib. 
 
 The powers and qualities of their minds . 76 
 
 Only solicitous to supply immediate wants ib. 
 
 The art of computation scarcely known to 
 
 them . . . . ib. 
 
 They have no abstract ideas . ib. 
 
 The North Americans much more intelligent 
 than those of the South . .77 
 
 Their aversion to labour . . ib. 
 
 Their social state . . .78 
 
 Domestic union . . ib. 
 
 The women . . . ib. 
 
 Their women not prolific . . 79. 
 
 Their parental affection and filial duty , ib. 
 
 Their modes of subsistence . ib. 
 
 Fishing . . . ib. 
 
 Hunting . . .80 
 
 Agriculture . . ib. 
 
 The various objects of their culture . ib. 
 
 Two principal causes of the defects of thei: 
 agriculture . . .81 
 
 Their want of tame animals . . ib 
 
 Their want of useful metals . . 82 
 
 Their political institutions . . ib. 
 
 Were divided into small independent commu- 
 nities . . . . ib. 
 
 Unacquainted with the idea of property ib. 
 
 Their high sense of equality and independence 83 
 
 Their ideas of subordination imperfect . ib. 
 
 To what tribes these descriptions apply ib. 
 
 Some exceptions . . . ib. 
 
 Florida . . . .84 
 
 The Natchez . . . ib. 
 
 The islands . . ib. 
 
 In Bogota . . . . ib. 
 
 Inquiry into the causes of these irregularities ib. 
 
 Their art of war . . .85 
 
 Their motives to hostility . . ib. 
 
 Causes of their ferocity . . . ib. 
 
 Perpetuity of their animosities . 86 
 
 Their modes of conducting war . . ib. 
 
 Are not destitute of courage and fortitude ib. 
 
 Incapable of military discipline . . 87 
 
 Their treatment of prisoners . ib. 
 
 Their fortitude under torture . . ib. 
 
 Never eat human flesh but to gratify revenge 88 
 
 How the South Americans treated their pri- 
 soners . . ib. 
 
 Their military education . . ib. 
 
 Strange method of choosing a captain among 
 
 the Indians on the banks of the Orinoco . ib. 
 
 Their numbers wasted by continual wars 89 
 
 Their tribes now recruit their numbers by 
 
 adopting prisoners . . . ib. 
 
 Are never formidable in war to more polished 
 
 nations . . . ib. 
 
 Their arts, dress, and ornaments . . 90 
 
 Their habitations . . ib. 
 
 Their arms . . . . ib. 
 
 Their domestic utensils . . 91 
 
 Construction of their canoes . . ib. 
 
 The listlessness with which they apply to 
 
 labour . . . jb- 
 
 Their religion . . .92 
 
 Some tribes altogether destitute of any re. 
 
 Remarkable diversity in their religious notion* 93 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Their ideas of the immortality of the soul 
 
 Their modes of burial . 
 
 Why their physicians pretend to be conjurors 
 
 Their love of dancing . 
 
 Their immoderate passion for gaming . 
 
 Are extremely addicted to drunkenness 
 
 Prt their aged and incurable to death . 
 
 General estimate of their character 
 
 Their intellectual powers 
 
 Their political talents . 
 
 Powers of affection 
 
 Hardness of heart 
 
 Their insensibility 
 
 Taciturnity . 
 
 Their cunning . . V, 
 
 Their virtues 
 
 Page 
 
 94 
 , ib. 
 
 ib. 
 
 95 
 
 96 
 
 ib. 
 
 97 
 
 ib. 
 
 ib. 
 
 ib. 
 
 98 
 
 ib. 
 
 ib. 
 
 ib. 
 
 99 
 
 ib. 
 
 ib. 
 
 ib. 
 
 ib. 
 100 
 
 ib. 
 
 ib. 
 '249 
 
 ib. 
 
 Their spirit of independence 
 Attachment to their community . 
 Their satisfaction with their own condition 
 General caution with respect to this inquiry 
 Two distinguishable classes . 
 Exceptions as to their character . 
 Their characteristic features described 
 Instances of their persevering speed 
 An antipathy industriously encouraged be- 
 tween them and the negroes in America by 
 the Spaniards . . . 188 
 
 Their present condition . . ib. 
 
 How taxed , . ib. 
 
 Slated services demanded from them . 189 
 
 Mode of exacting these services . ib. 
 
 How governed . . . ib. 
 
 Protector-of the Indians ; his function ib. 
 
 Reasons why so small a progress is made in 
 their conversion . . . 191 
 
 Amerigo Vespucci. Publishes the first writ- 
 ten account of the New World, and hence 
 gave name to America . . 39 
 
 His claim as a discoverer examined . 242 
 
 Anacoana. A female cazique of Hispaniola, 
 cruelly treated by the Spaniards . . 46 
 
 Andes. Stupendous height and extent of that 
 range of mountains . . 62 
 
 Their height compared with other moun- 
 tains . . . .244 
 Gonzalo Pizarro's remarkable expedition 
 over them . . ib. 
 
 Animals. Few of any size found in America, 
 at its first discovery . . .64 
 
 Ancients. Cause of the imperfection of the art 
 of navigation among them . . 4 
 
 Their geographical knowledge extremely 
 confined .... 237 
 
 AraHans. Their peculiar attachment to the 
 study of geography . . 10 
 
 Argonauts. Why their expedition was so fa- 
 mous among the Greeks . . 6 
 
 Arithmetic. This art hardly known to the na- 
 tive Americans . . .76 
 
 Ascclino, Father. Engaged in an extraordinary 
 mission to the prince of the Tartars . 11 
 
 Asia. Discoveries made in that continent by 
 the Russians . . 67 
 
 Axtiento. The nature of this trade explained 197 
 The frauds practised in it, and how they 
 were put an end to . . . 198 
 
 Atahualpa. Left by his father Huascar his suc- 
 cessor in the kingdom of Quito . 140 
 Defeats his brother Huascar, and usurps the 
 
 empire of Peru . . . 141 
 
 Sends presents to Fizario . ib. 
 
 Page 
 
 Visits Pizarro . . . 142 
 
 Is perfidiously seized by him . 143 
 
 Agrees with Pizarro on a ransom . ib. 
 
 Is refused his liberty . . 144 
 
 His behaviour during his confinement . ib. 
 A form of trial bestowed on him . ib. 
 
 Is put to death . . .145 
 
 Comparison of authorities relating to his 
 transactions with, and treatment by, Pi- 
 zarro . . '. 264 
 
 Audience, Board of. Established in New Spain 
 by the Emperor Charles V. . .135 
 
 Courts and jurisdiction . . 185 
 
 Averia. A Spanish tax for convoy to and 
 from America ; when first imposed . 279 
 
 Its rate . . . ib. 
 
 Azores. Discovered by the Portuguese . 15 
 
 B. 
 
 Bacon, Nathaniel. Heads an insurrection in 
 Virginia . . . 223 
 
 Forces the governor and council there to 
 
 fly .... il>. 
 
 They apply to England for succour . 224 
 
 His death terminates the rebellion . ib. 
 
 Balboa, Vasco Nunez de. Settles a colony at 
 Santa Maria, in the gulf of Darien . 49 
 
 Receives intelligence of the rich country of 
 
 Peru . . . . 50 
 
 His character . . ,51 
 
 Marches across the isthmus . . ib. 
 
 Discovers the Southern Ocean . ib. 
 
 His return . . . .52 
 
 Superseded in his command by the appoint- 
 ment of Pedrarias Davila . ib. 
 Tried by Pedrarias for former transactions jb. 
 Appointed lieutenant-governor of the coun- 
 tries on the South sea, and marries Pedra- 
 rias's daughter . . .53 
 Arrested and put to death by Pedrarias ib. 
 
 Bark. A production peculiar to Peru . 194 
 
 Barrere. His description of the construction 
 of Indian houses . . . 255 
 
 Behaim, Martin. The honour of having disco- 
 rered America is falsely ascribed to him by 
 some German authors . . 240 
 
 Account of him and his family . . ib. 
 
 Behring and Tschirikow. Russian navigators, 
 thought to have discovered the north-west 
 extremity of America from the eastward 68 
 
 Uncertainty of their accounts . 247 
 
 Benalcazar. A governor of St. Michael, who 
 reduced the kingdom of Quito . .146 
 
 Is deprived of his command by Pizarro 151 
 
 Benjamin (the Jew of Tudela). His extraor- 
 dinary travels . . .11 
 
 Bernald'o. Instance of the bravery of the 
 Caribbees mentioned by him . 257 
 
 Bethencourt, John de. A Norman baron, who 
 conquered and retained possession of the 
 Canary Islands . . .12 
 
 Birds. An account of those natural to America 64 
 Their flights often stretch to an immense dis- 
 tance from land . . 239 
 
 Bogota (In America). Some account of its 
 inhabitants . . 84 
 
 Causes of their tame submission to the 
 
 Spaniards . . .85 
 
 Their religious doctrines and rites . 94 
 
 Bojador, Cape. Its first discovery . .13 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 Doubled by the Portuguese discoverers 14 
 
 Possu. His account of the American war-song 254 
 
 Bovadilla, Francis de. Sent to Hispaniola to 
 inquire into the conduct of Columbus . 40 
 
 Sends Columbus home in irons . . ib. 
 
 Is degraded . . .41 
 
 Bougainville. His defence of the Periplus of 
 Hanno .... 236 
 
 Bouguer, M. His character of the native Pe- 
 ruvians . . . . 250 
 
 Brazil. The coast discovered by Alvarez Ca- 
 bral . . . .39 
 
 Remarks on the climate . 245 
 
 Bridges. Those of Peru described . .176 
 
 Buenos Ayres. A short account of that pro- 
 vince .... 180 
 
 Bulls (papal). Of no force in Spanish Ame- 
 rica, until examined and approved of by the 
 royal council of the Indies . . 190 
 
 Burial. Mode of performing that ceremony in 
 America . . . .94 
 
 C. 
 
 Cabot, Giovanni. Appointed to command the 
 first expedition to explore unknown countries 205 
 Embarks with his son at Bristol . . ib. 
 
 Discovers Newfoundland . . ib. 
 
 Returns to England . . . ib. 
 
 No advantage is derived from his discoveries ib. 
 The scheme is abandoned . . ib. 
 
 He is appointed governor of a company of 
 merchant adventurers, for whom he ob- 
 tains a charter . . . 206 
 Cabot Sebastian. Sails on an expedition to 
 South America . . . 206 
 Visits Brazil, and touches at Hispaniola and 
 Puerto Rico. His voyage extends the 
 sphere of English navigation, and proves 
 the means of opening an intercourse with 
 the Archipelago, and some towns on the 
 coast of Syria . . . ib. 
 Cabral, Alvarez. A Portuguese commander, 
 
 who discovers the coast of Brazil . 39 
 
 Cacao. The best in quality, produced in the 
 Spanish American colonies . . 194 
 
 The preparation of chocolate from it de- 
 rived from the Mexicans . . 198 
 Cadiz. The galleons and flota removed thither 
 
 from Seville . . . .196 
 
 California. Discovered by Fernando Cortes 136 
 The true state of this country long unknown 179 
 Why depreciated by the Jesuits . ib. 
 
 Favourable account given of it by Don Jo- 
 seph Galvez . . . ib. 
 California. Their character by P. Venegas 251 
 Compeachy. Discovered by Cordova, who is 
 
 repulsed by the natives . . 60 
 
 Campomanes, Don Pedro Rodriguez. Character 
 of his political and commercial writings 278 
 
 His account of the produce of the Spanish 
 
 American mines . . . 280 
 
 Canary Islands. Erected into a kingdom by 
 Pope Clement VI. Conquered by John de 
 Bethencourt . . .12 
 
 Cannibals. No people ever found to eat human 
 flesh for subsistence, though often for re- 
 venge . . 88,254 
 Canoes. Their construction described . 91 
 Caraccas. Establishment of the company tra- 
 ding to that coast ' . 199 
 
 Growth of the trade . . 2/7 
 
 Caribbee Islands. Discovered by Columbus in 
 his second voyage . . .30 
 
 Caribbees. Their spirit peculiarly tierce 100 
 
 Their character by M. de Chanvalon . 251 
 
 Probable conjecture as to the distinction in 
 character between them and the natives of 
 the larger islands . . 257 
 
 Carpini. His extraordinary mission to the 
 prince of the Tartars . . .11 
 
 Carthagena. The harbour, the safest and best 
 fortified of any in all the Spanish American 
 dominions . . . 181 
 
 Carthaginians. State of commerce and naviga- 
 tion among them . . f: 
 The famous voyages of Hanno and Himlico ib. 
 
 Carvajal, Francisco de. Contributes to Vaca 
 de Castro's victory over young Almagro . 154 
 Encourages Gonzalo Pizarro to assume the 
 
 sovereignty of the country . . 158 
 
 Seized by Gasca, and executed . . 162 
 
 Castillo, Bernal Diaz del. Character of his His- 
 toria Verdadera de la Couquista de la Neuva 
 Espagna . 257-8 
 
 Centeno, Diego. Revolt from Gonzalo Pizarro 
 to the viceroy of Peru . . .158 
 
 Defeated by Carvajal, and secretes himself in 
 
 a -cave " . . ib. 
 
 Sallies out and seizes Cuzco . .161 
 
 Reduced by Pizarro . . ib. 
 
 Employed by Gasca to make discoveries in 
 
 the regions about the river Plata . 163 
 
 Chancelour, Richard. Sails in search of a north- 
 west passage. The fleet is scattered in a 
 storm. He enters the White Sea, and-winters 
 at Archangel. Visits Moscow, a distance of 
 1200 miles, and delivers a letter to the czar 206 
 The means of opening a trade with Russia . 207 
 Empowered by Queen Elizabeth to negotiate 
 with the czar in her name . ib. 
 
 Chanvalon, M. de. His character of the native 
 Caribbees , . . .251 
 
 Chapetones. Who thus distinguished in the 
 Spanish American colonies . 187 
 
 Charles HI. (king of Spain). Establishes packet- 
 boats between Spain and the colonies =, 199 
 Allows free trade to the windward islands ib 
 Grants the colonies a free trade with each 
 other . . . .200 
 
 Charles V. (Emperor). Sends Roderigo de Fi- 
 gueroa to Hispaniola as chief judge, to regu- 
 late the treatment of the Indians . 56 
 Causes this subject to be debated before him 58 
 Equips a squadron at the solicitation o* i* cr- 
 
 dinand Magellan . . J32 
 
 Resigns his claim on the Moluccas to tie 
 
 Portuguese . . . 133 
 
 Appoints Cortes governor of New Spain 134 
 Rewards him on coming home . . 135 
 
 Establishes a board called the Audience of 
 
 New Spain . . ib. 
 
 His consultations on American affairs . 154 
 
 Establishes new regulations . , 155 
 
 'hesapeake. See Virginia. 
 
 Chili. Invaded by Almagro . . 147 
 
 How subjected by the Spaniards . 180 
 
 Excellence of its climate and soil . ib. 
 
 Cause of its being neglected. . ib. 
 
 Prospect of its improvement . ib 
 
 Chiquitos. Political state of the people, from 
 Fernandez . . 2o3 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 Chocolate. Its use derived from the Mexicans 198 
 Clwtula (Mexico). Arrival of Cortes there, with 
 some account of the town . .112 
 
 \. conspiracy against Cortes discovered, and 
 
 the inhabitants destroyed . . ib. 
 
 Church. Sentiments respecting church-govern- 
 ment at the reformation . . 225 
 Religious persecution in the reigns of Queen 
 
 Mary and Queen Elizabeth 226 
 
 Intolerant spirit of the church . . ib. 
 
 Separation of the Puritans from the church 227 
 They are reduced into an ecclesiastical sys- 
 tem by Robert Brown, a popular de- 
 clainier, and adopt the name of Brownists ib. 
 Take refuge in Holland . . ib. 
 
 Remove thence to America . . ib. 
 
 Church-government is established in Massa- 
 chusetts' bay . . .229 
 Its intolerance . . . ib. 
 The intolerance of Laud increases the emi- 
 grations from England . . 230 
 Cicero. Instance of his ignorance in geography 237 
 Cinaloa. Political state of the people there 253 
 Their mode of living . . . 255 
 Their utter want of religion . . 256 
 Extraordinary large grain of gold found there 270 
 Cineguilla (in the province of Sonora). Late 
 discoveries of rich mines made there by the 
 Spaniards . . .179 
 Probable effects of these discoveries . ib, 
 Clavlgero, M. Several of his objections an- 
 swered . . 275 
 Clement VI. (Pope). Erects the Canary islands 
 
 into a kingdom . .12 
 
 Climates. Influenced by a variety of causes 62 
 Their operation on mankind . 100 
 
 Inquiry into the cause of their different de- 
 grees of heat . 244 
 Cochineal. An important production, almost 
 
 peculiar to New Spain . . 194 
 
 Cold. Extraordinary predominance of cold in 
 the climate of America . . 62 
 
 Causes of this peculiarity . . 63 
 
 Colonies. Project of settling the English 
 American colonies . . 208 
 
 Two expeditions sail . . 209 
 
 The first colony established in Virginia ib. 
 
 In danger of perishing by famine ; it returns 
 
 to England . . . il. 
 
 A second attempt made to settle there, but 
 
 the colony perishes by famine . 210 
 
 The scheme of settling there is abandoned. 
 Circumstances in the reign of Elizabeth 
 unfavourable to colonization . . ib. 
 
 The reign of James favourable to the esta- 
 blishment of colonies . 211 
 James divides the coast of America into two 
 parts; the one called the first, or south 
 colony of Virginia; the other, the second 
 or north colony . . '212 
 He grants charters to two companies for the 
 government of them. Tenour and defects 
 of those charters . ib. 
 Under these charters the settlement of the 
 English in Virginia and New England 
 were established . ' ib. 
 Captain Newport sails from England for Vir- 
 ginia, and discovers the Chesapeake 213 
 Sails up James' river, and founds a settle- 
 ment in James' town. Its bad administration ib. 
 It is annoyed by the Indians, and suffers 
 
 Page 
 
 from scarcity and the unhealthiness of the 
 climate . . 213 
 
 Seasonable succours are sent from England ib. 
 
 A survey of the country is undertaken 214 
 
 The colony depends for subsistence chiefly 
 on supplies from the natives . . ib. 
 
 A change is made in the constitution of the 
 company, and a new charter is granted 
 with more ample privileges . ib. 
 
 Lord Delaware is appointed governor of tbe 
 colony . . . . ib. 
 
 Anarchy prevails there . . ib. 
 
 It is almost reduced by famine . . ib. 
 
 Lord Delaware arrives, and by his wise ad- 
 ministration restores order and discipline 215 
 
 His health obliges him to return to England, 
 and he is superseded by Sir Thomas Dale, 
 who establishes martial law . . ib. 
 
 A new charter is issued to the colony, and 
 new privileges are granted . 216 
 
 Cultivation of the land is promoted, and a 
 treaty entered into with the natives . ib. 
 
 The land in Virginia becomes property . ib. 
 
 The culture of tobacco is introduced, and its 
 pernicious consequences . . ib. 
 
 The company in England send out a number 
 of young women to induce the colonists to 
 form more extensive plans of industry. Ne- 
 groes are first introduced . . 217 
 
 A new constitution is given to the colony . ib. 
 
 A general massacre of the English is planned 
 by the Indians, and executed in most of 
 the settlements . . .218 
 
 A bloody war is commenced with the Indians, 
 and neither old nor young are spared . ib. 
 
 The settlements extend, and industry revives ib. 
 
 Defects in the first constitution of the co- 
 lonies . . . . 219 
 
 King Charles's arbitrary government of them 220 
 
 He grants them new privileges . . 2*2 1 
 
 They flourish under the new government ib. 
 
 The colonists remain attached to the royal 
 cause, and parliament makes war on Vir- 
 ginia, which is obliged to acknowledge the 
 commonwealth . . . ib. 
 
 Restraints are laid on the trade of the co- 
 lonies . . 222 
 
 The colonists are dissatisfied with these re- 
 straints . . . . ib. 
 
 Are the first to acknowledge Charles II., but 
 their loyalty is ill rewarded . ib. 
 
 Restraint on their commerce further ex- 
 tended by the navigation act . . ib. 
 
 Effects of the act . . . 223 
 
 Colonists remonstrate against it . . ib. 
 
 The colony of Virginia is attacked by the 
 Indians . . ib. 
 
 Discontents are produced by the grants of 
 land by the crown . . . ib. 
 
 A colony is established at New Plymouth, in 
 New England, Plan of its government 228 
 
 A grand council is appointed . . ib 
 
 A new colony is projected . . ib. 
 
 Settles at Massachusetts bay . . 229 
 
 The chapter of the company in England 
 being transferred to the colonies, they ex- 
 tend in consequence of it . ib. 
 
 The colonists increase . . .231 
 
 New settlers arrive ... ib. 
 
 Sectaries settle iu Providence and Rhode 
 Island . 232 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 Theological contests give rise to a colony at 
 
 Connecticut . . 232 
 
 Emigrants from Massachusets' bay settle 
 
 there . . . 233 
 
 Settlements are formed in the provinces of 
 
 New Hampshire and Maine . ib. 
 
 State of the colonies at the revolution . 235 
 Are exempted from certain duties . ib. 
 
 Enter into a league of confederacy . ib. 
 
 Assume the right of coining . ib. 
 
 Are patronized by Cromwell, who proposes 
 
 to transport them to Jamaica * . 236 
 
 They decline his offer . . ib. 
 
 (See New England,, Virginia, &c.) 
 Colonies (Spanish American). View of their 
 policy and trade . . .182 
 
 Depopulation the first effect of them . ib. 
 
 Causes of this depopulation . . ib. 
 
 The small-pox very fatal to them 
 General idea of the Spanish policy . 184 
 
 Early interposition of the royal authority ib. 
 An exclusive trade their first object . 186 
 
 Compared with those of ancient Greece and 
 
 Rome . . ib. 
 
 The great restrictions to which they are sub- 
 jected . . . ib. 
 Slow progress of their population from Eu- 
 rope . . .187 
 Are discouraged by the state of property ib. 
 Also by the nature of their ecclesiastical po- 
 licy . . . . ib. 
 Various classes of people . . ib. 
 Their ecclesiastical constitution . , 190 
 Form and endowments of the church there ib. 
 Pernicious effects of monastic institutions 
 
 there . . . ib. 
 
 Character of their ecclesiastics . , ib. 
 
 Productions . . .192 
 
 Mines . . . . ib. 
 
 Those of Potosi and Sacotecas . 193 
 
 The spirit with which they are worked . ib. 
 Fatal effects of this ardour . ib. 
 
 Other commodities composing their commerce 194 
 Amazing increase of horned cattle . ib. 
 
 Advantages which Spain formerly derived 
 
 from them . . . ib. 
 
 Why the same advantages are not still re- 
 ceived . ib. 
 Guarda costas employed to check the contra- 
 band trade . . 198 
 The use of register ships introduced . ib. 
 Galleons laid aside . . ib. 
 Company of the Caraccas instituted . 199 
 Establishment of regular packet-boats . ib. 
 Free trade permitted between them . 2(X] 
 New regulations in their government . ib 
 Reformation of the courts of justice . ib 
 New distribution of governments . 201 
 A fourth viceroyalty established . . ib 
 Attempts to reform domestic policy . ib 
 Trade with the Philippine islands . 202 
 Revenue derived from them by Spain . 202 
 Expense of administration there . . ib, 
 State of the population . . 271 
 The number of monasteries there . . 274 
 (See Mexico, Peru, &c.) 
 
 Columbus, Bartholomew. Sent by his brother 
 Christopher to negotiate with Henry VfL, 
 king of England . . .20 
 
 The misfortunes of his voyage . ib 
 
 Follows his brother to Hispaniola . 32 
 
 Is vested with the administration of affairs 
 theie by his brother on his return to Spain 
 Founds the town of St. Domingo . 
 'olumbus, Christopher. H is birth and education 
 
 His early voyages . 
 
 Marries and settles at Lisbon 
 
 His geographical reflections 
 Conceives the idea of making discoveries to 
 the westward 
 
 Offers his services to the Genoese senate 
 Cause of his overtures being rejected in Por- 
 tugal 
 
 Applies to the courts of Castile and England 
 
 His proposal, how treated by the Spanish 
 geographers 
 
 Is patronized by Juan Perez 
 
 His proposals again rejected 
 
 Is invited by Isabella, and engaged in the 
 Spanish service 
 
 Preparations for his voyage . 
 
 The amount of his equipment 
 
 Sails from Spain 
 
 His vigilant attention to all circumstances 
 during his voyage 
 
 Apprehensions of his crew . 
 
 His address in quieting their cabals 
 
 Indications of their approaching land . 
 
 An island discovered . 
 
 He lands 
 
 His interview with the natives 
 
 Names the island San Salvadore 
 
 Prosecutes his discoveries southward 
 
 Discovers, and lands on, the island of Cuba 
 
 Discovers Hispaniola . 
 
 Suffers shipwreck, but is saved by the Indians 
 
 Builds a fort 
 
 Returns to Europe 
 
 His expedient to preserve the memory of his 
 discoveries during a storm 
 
 Touches at the Azores . 
 
 Arrives at Lisbon . 
 
 His reception in Spain 
 
 His audience with Ferdinand and Isabella 
 
 His equipment for a second voyage 
 
 Discovers the Caribbee islands 
 
 Finds his colony on Hispaniola destroyed . 
 
 Builds a city which he calls Isabella . 
 
 Visits the interior parts of the country 
 
 His men discontented and factious 
 
 Discovers the island of Jamaica . 
 
 Meets his brother Bartholomew at Isabella 
 
 The natives ill used by his men, and begin to 
 be alarmed 
 
 He defeats the Indians 
 
 Exacts tribute from them 
 
 Returns to Spain to justify his conduct 
 
 Is furnished with a more regular plan for 
 colonisation 
 
 His third voyage . 
 
 Discovers the island of Trinidad 
 
 Discovers the continent of America 
 
 State of Hispaniola on his arrival 
 
 Composes the mutiny of Roldan and his 
 adherents .... 
 
 Is distressed by the factious behaviour of his 
 men . . . 
 
 Complaints carried to Spain against him 
 
 Is sent home in irons 
 
 Clears his conduct, but is not restored to his 
 authority . 
 
 His solicitations neglected 
 
 Page 
 
INDEX. 
 
 vii 
 
 Page 
 
 Forms new schemes of discovery . . 42 
 
 Engages in a fourth voyage . . ib. 
 
 His treatment at Hispaniola . . ib. 
 
 Searches after a passage to the Indian ocean 43 
 Is shipwrecked on the coast of Jamaica . ib. 
 His artifice to secure the friendship of the 
 
 Indians . . .44 
 
 Is delivered, and arrives at Hispaniola . ib. 
 Returns to Spain . . ib. 
 
 His death . . . .45 
 
 His right to the original discovery of America 
 
 defended . . . .240 
 
 The spirit of adventure raised in England by 
 
 his discoveries . . . 204 
 
 Is checked by the want of skill in naviga- 
 tion .... 205 
 His system of opening a passage to India, by 
 steering a westein course, is adopted by 
 Cabot . . . . ib. 
 Columbut, Don Dieyo. Sues out his claim to 
 
 his father's privileges . . 48 
 
 Marries and goes over to Hispaniola . ib. 
 
 Establishes a pearl-fishery at Cubagua ib. 
 
 Projects the conquest of Cuba . . 49 
 
 His measures thwarted by Ferdinand . 54 
 
 Returns to Spain . . . ib. 
 
 Commerce. The era from which its commence- 
 ment is to be dated . . 4 
 Motives to an intercourse among distant 
 
 nations . . ib. 
 
 Flourishing state of commerce in the Eastern 
 
 empire after the subversion of the Western 9 
 Revival of commerce in Europe . 10 
 
 Compass, Mariner's. Navigation extendedmore 
 by the invention of this instrument, than by 
 all the efforts of preceding ages . . 12 
 
 By whom invented . . ib. 
 
 Condamine, M. His account of the country at 
 the foot of the Andes in South America . 246 
 His remarks on the character of the native 
 
 Americans . . . 251 
 
 Congo. Discovered by the Portuguese . 16 
 
 Constantinople. The consequence of removing 
 the seat cf the Roman empire to this city 9 
 
 Continued a commercial city after the extinc- 
 tion of the Western empire . . ib. 
 Become the chief mart of Italy . 10 
 Cordova, Francisco Hernandez. Discovers Yu- 
 catan . . . .59 
 Is repulsed at Campeachy, and returns to 
 
 Cuba . . . .60 
 
 Corita, Alonzo. His observations on the contra- 
 band trade of the Spanish colonies . 202 
 Character of his American memoirs . 266 
 Cortes, Fernando. His birth, education, and 
 
 character . . . .101 
 
 Appointed by Velasquez commander of the 
 armament fitted out by him against New 
 Spain . . 102 
 
 Velasquez becomes jealous of him . ib. 
 
 Velasquez sends orders to deprive him of his 
 
 commission, and lay him under an arrest ib. 
 Is protected by his troops . 103 
 
 The amount of his forces . . 
 
 Reduces the Indians at Tabasco . . 
 
 Arrives at St. Juan de Ulna . 
 
 His interview with two Mexican commanders 104 
 Sends presents to Montezuma 
 Receives others in return 
 His schemes . . 
 
 Establishes a farm of civil government . 107 
 
 Page 
 Resigns his commission under Velasquez, and 
 
 assumes the command in the king's name 107 
 His friendship courted by the Zempoallans . ib. 
 Builds a fort . . .108 
 
 Concludes a formal alliance with several 
 
 caziques . . . . ib. 
 
 Discovers a conspiracy among his men, and 
 
 destroys his ships . 109 
 
 Advances into the country . . ib. 
 
 Is opposed by the Tlascalans 110 
 
 Concludes a peace with them . .111 
 
 His rash zeal . . . ib. 
 
 Proceeds to Cholula . . .112 
 
 Discovers a conspiracy against him here, 
 
 and destroys the inhabitants . ib. 
 
 Approaches in sight of the capital city of 
 
 Mexico . . . 113 
 
 His first interview with Montezuma . ib. 
 
 His anxiety at his situation iu the city of 
 
 Mexico . . . 114 
 
 Seizes Montezuma . . .115 
 
 Orders him to be fettered . . 116 
 
 Reasons of his conduct . . ib. 
 
 Prevails on Montezuma to own himself a 
 
 vassal to the Spanish crown . 117 
 
 Amount and division of his treasure . ib. 
 
 Enrages the Mexicans by his imprudent zeal 118 
 An armament sent by Velasquez to supersede 
 
 him . . ib. 
 
 His deliberations on this event . .119 
 
 Advances to meet Narvaez . . 120 
 
 Defeats Narvaez and takes him prisoner 121 
 Gains over the Spanish soldiers to his in- 
 terest . . . . ib. 
 Returns to Mexico . . 122 
 His improper conduct on his arrival . ib. 
 Is resolutely attacked by the Mexicans ib. 
 Attacks them in return without success . ib. 
 Death of Montezuma . 123 
 His extraordinary escape from death . ib. 
 Abandons the city of Mexico . ib. 
 Is attacked by the Mexicans . . ib. 
 His great hopes in the encounter . 124 
 Difficulties of his retreat . . ib. 
 Battle of Otumba 
 
 Defeats the Mexicans . . 125 
 
 Mutinous spirit of his troops . ib. 
 
 Reduces the Tepeacans . . 126 
 
 Is strengthened by several reinforcements ib. 
 Returns to Mexico . . ib. 
 
 Establishes his head-quarters at Tezeuco 127 
 Reduces or conciliates the surrounding coun- 
 try . . b. 
 Cabals among his troops 
 
 His prudence in suppressing them . 128 
 
 Builds and launches a fleet of brigantines 
 
 on the lake . . . ib. 
 
 Besieges Mexico . . . ib. 
 
 Makes a grand assault to take the city by 
 
 storm, but is repulsed 
 
 Evades the Mexican prophecy . . 130 
 
 Takes Guatimozin prisoner . 
 Gains possession of the city . . ib. 
 
 And of the whole empire 
 Defeats another attempt to supersede him in 
 
 his command . 133 
 
 Is appointed governor of New Spain . 134 
 
 His schemes and arrangements . . ib. 
 
 Cruel treatment of the natives . ib. 
 
 His conduct subjected to inquiry . . 135 
 
 Returns to Spain to justify himself . ib, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 Is rewarded by the Emperor Charles V. . 135 
 Goes back to Mexico with limited powers ib 
 Discovers California . . . 136 
 
 Returns to Spain and dies . . ib, 
 
 Inquiry into the nature of his letters to the 
 
 Emperor Charles V. . .257 
 
 Authors who wrote of his conquest of New 
 
 Spain . . ib, 
 
 Council of the Indies. Its power . .185 
 
 Creoles. Character of those in the Spanish 
 
 American colonies . . 187 
 
 Croglan, Colonel George. His account of the 
 discovery of the bones of a large extinct 
 species of animals in North America . 246 
 
 Crusades. The great political advantages de- 
 rived from them by the European nations 10 
 Cruzado (Bulls of}. Published regularly every 
 two years in the Spanish colonies . 203 
 
 Their prices and amount of the sale at the 
 
 last publication . . . 278 
 
 Cuba. Discovered by Christopher Columbus 26 
 Is sailed round by Ocampo . . 47 
 
 The conquest undertaken by Diego Velas- 
 quez . . . .49 
 Cruel treatment of the cazique Hatuey, and 
 
 his repartee to a friar . . 50 
 
 Columbus's enthusiastic description of a har- 
 bour in this island . . 239 
 The tobacco produced there the finest in all 
 
 America . . .194 
 
 Cubayua. A pearl-fishery established there . .48 
 Cumano. The natives revenge their ill treat- 
 ment by the Spaniards . . 58 
 The country desolated by Diego Ocampo . 59 
 Cusco. The capital of the Peruvian empire, 
 founded by Manco Capac . . 140 
 Seized by Pizarro . . . 145 
 Besieged by the Peruvians . . 148 
 Surprised by Almagro . . . ib. 
 Recovered and pillaged by the Pizarros 150 
 The only place entitled to the uamu of city 
 in all'Peru . .177 
 
 D. 
 
 Dancing. A favourite amusement among the 
 Americans . . .95 
 
 Darien. This isthmus described . .51 
 
 The increase of settlement there, obstructed 
 by the noxiousness of the climate . 181 
 
 Delaware, Lord. Appointed governor of Vir- 
 ginia .... 214 
 His wise administration there . 215 
 Obliged to return to England on account of 
 his health . . . . ib. 
 
 De Solis. His unfortunate expedition up the 
 river Plata . . . 53 
 
 De Solis, Antonio. Character of his Historia de 
 la Conquista de Mexico . . 258 
 
 D'Esguilache, Prince. His rigorous measures 
 for restraining the excesses of the regular 
 clergy there . . . 191 
 
 Rendered ineffectual . . . ib. 
 
 DiaZj Bartholomew Discovers the Cape of 
 Good Hope . .16 
 
 Discoveries. The difference of tnose made by 
 land and those made by sea . . 237 
 
 Dodvtell. His objections to the Peri plus of 
 Hanno exploded . . 236 
 
 Domingo, St., on the island of Hispanic!*, 
 founded by Bartholomew Columbus 36 
 
 Dominicans. Those in Hispaniola publicly re- 
 monstrate against the cruel treatment of the 
 Indians . . . .54 
 
 (See Las Casas.) 
 
 Drake, Sir Francis. Sails round the world . 208 
 Drunkenness. Strong propensity of the Ame- 
 ricans to indulge in this vice 90 
 
 E. 
 
 Earth. How divided into zones by the ancients 9 
 
 Egyptians. The ancient commerce and naviga- 
 tion among them . . .4 
 
 El Dorado. Wonderful reports of Orellana 
 concerning a country so called . 15:> 
 
 Elephant. An animal peculiar to the torrid 
 zones . . . . 210 
 
 Elizabeth. Her reign auspicious to discovery 207 
 She encourages commerce, and secures the 
 
 trade of Russia . . . ib. 
 
 Circumstances in her reign unfavourable to 
 
 colonization . . . 210 
 
 Her high idea of her superior skill in theo- 
 logy . . . 226 
 
 Escurial. Mr. Waddilove discovers a curious 
 calendar in the library there . . 268 
 
 Description of that valuable monument of 
 Mexican art . . ib. 
 
 Esquimaux Indians. Their resemblance to the 
 Grcenlauders . . .69 
 
 Some account of them . . . 2!V 
 
 Eugene IV. (Pope). Grants to the Portuguese 
 an exclusive right to all the countries they 
 should discover, from Cape Non to the con- 
 tinent of India . . .15 
 
 Europe. How affected by the dismemberment 
 of the Roman empire by the barbarous nations 9 
 Revival of commerce and navigation . 10 
 
 Political advantages derived from the crusades ib 
 
 F. 
 
 Ferdinand (king of Castile). Turns his affection 
 towards the regulation of American affairs 40 
 Don Diego de Columbus sues out his father's 
 
 claims against him . . .47 
 
 Erects two governments on the continent of 
 
 America . . ,48 
 
 Sends a fleet to Darien and supersedes Balboa 52 
 Appoints Balboa lieutenant-governor of the 
 
 countries on the South Sea . . 53 
 
 Sends Diaz de Solis to discover a western 
 
 passage to the Moluccas . . ib. 
 
 Thwarts the measures of Diego de Columbus 54 
 His decree concerning the treatment of the 
 
 Indians . . . . ib. 
 
 Fernandez, Don Diego. Character of his His- 
 toria del Peru . . . 263 
 Fernandez, P. His description of the political 
 
 state of the Chiquitos . . . 254 
 
 Figueroa, Roderigo de. Appointed chief judge 
 of Hispaniola, with a commission to examine 
 into the treatment of the Indian natives 56 
 
 Makes an experiment to determine the capa- 
 city of the Indians . . 59 
 Florida. Discovered by Juan Ponce de Leon 50 
 The chiefs there hereditary . . ib. 
 Account from Alvar Nuignez Cabeca de 
 
 Vaca . 252 
 
 Flota, Spanish. Its course . . 196 
 
 tseca, bishoo of Badajos, and minister for 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 Indian affairs, obstructs the plans for coloni- 
 zation and discovery formed by Columbus 34, 36 
 Patronizes the expedition formed by Alonzo 
 
 deOjeda . . '38 
 
 Frvbisher, Martin. Makes three unsuccessful 
 attempts to discover a north-east passage to 
 India . 208 
 
 G. 
 
 Galleons, Spanish. The nature and purpose of 
 these vessels . . .196 
 
 Arrangement of their voyage . . ib. 
 
 Galoez, Don Joseph. Sent to discover the true 
 state of California . . 179 
 
 Mama, Vasco de. His voyage for discovery . 38 
 Doubles the Cape of Good Hope . ib. 
 
 Anchors before the city of Melinda . ib. 
 
 Arrives at Calicut, in Malabar . ib. 
 
 Gaming. Strange propensity of the Americans 
 to this vice . . . .96 
 
 Ganyes. Erroneous ideas of the ancients as to 
 the position of that river . . 237 
 
 Gasca, Pedro de la. Sent to Peru as president 
 of the Court of Audience, in Lima . 159 
 
 His character and moderation . ib. 
 
 The powers he was vested with . . 160 
 
 Arrives at Panama . . 162 
 
 Acquires possession of Panama with the 
 
 fleet and forces there . . ib. 
 
 Advances towards Cuzco . . 161 
 
 Pizarro's troops desert to him . 162 
 
 His moderate use of the victory . ib. 
 
 Devises employment for his soldiers . 163 
 
 His division of the country among his followers ib. 
 The discontents it occasions . . ib. 
 
 Restores order and government . ib. 
 
 His reception on his return to Spain . ib. 
 
 Geminus. Instance of his ignorance in geo- 
 graphy . . .237 
 
 Geography. The knowledge extremely con- 
 fined among the ancients . . 8 
 Becomes a favourite study among the Ara- 
 bians ... 10 
 
 Giants. Recent discoveries do not confirm the 
 accounts given of them by early travellers 11, 250 
 
 Gilbert, Sir Humphrey. The first colony con- 
 ducted by him to North America . 208 
 A charter granted to him and his heirs . ib. 
 Conducts another expedition, which ends 
 disastrously, and in which he perishes 209 
 
 Gii>''a, Flavio. The inventor of the mariner's 
 compass . . .12 
 
 Globe. Its division into zones by the ancients 8 
 
 Cold. Why the first metal with which man 
 
 was acquainted . . 82 
 
 Extraordinary large grain found in the 
 mines of Cinaloa . . . 270 
 
 Gornaro. Character of his Chronica de la Nuova 
 Efepagna . . . 257 
 
 Good Hope, Cape of, discovered by Bartholo- 
 mew Diaz . . .16 
 
 Gosnold, Bartholomew. The first who attempts 
 to steer a direct course from England to North 
 America . . .211 
 
 Descries Massachusett's-bay, and returns to 
 
 England . . . . ib. 
 
 The consequences of his voyage . ib. 
 
 Government. No visible form of government 
 established among the native Americans . S3 
 Exceptions . . . ib. 
 
 Page 
 
 Gran Chaco. Lorano's account of the method 
 of making war among the natives . 254 
 
 Granada. By whom this new kingdom in 
 America was reduced to the Spanish dominion 182 
 Its climate and produce . '. ib. 
 
 A viceroy lately established there . ib. 
 
 Greeks. Progress of navigation and discovery 
 among the ancient Greeks . . 6 
 
 Their commercial intercourse with other na- 
 tions very limited . . ib. 
 
 Greenland. Its vicinity to North America . 68 . 
 
 Greenville, Sir Richard. Establishes a colony 
 in Virginia, which being in danger of perish- 
 ing by famine, is obliged to return to Eng- 
 land . . . .209 
 Appears off the coast soon after the depar- 
 ture of the colony, and lands fifteen of his 
 crew to keep possession of the island, who 
 are destroyed by the savages . . 210 
 
 Grijalua, Juan de. Sets out from Cuba on a 
 voyage of discovery . . 60 
 
 Discovers and gives name to New Spain . ib. 
 His reasons for not planting a colony in his 
 newly discovered lands . . 61 
 
 Guarda, Costas. Employed by Spain to check 
 illicit trade in the American colonies . 198 
 
 Guatimala. The indigo there 'superior to any 
 in America . . . 194 
 
 Guatimozin. This nephew and son-in-law of 
 Montezuma succeeds Quetlavaca in the king- 
 dom of Mexico . . . 127 
 Repulses the attacks of the Spaniards in 
 
 storming the city of Mexico . 130 
 
 Taken prisoner by Cortes . . 131 
 
 Tortured to discover his treasure . ib. 
 
 Is hanged .... 134 
 
 Guiana, Dutch. Cause of the excessive ferti- 
 lity of the soil . . . 247 
 
 H. 
 
 Hakluyt. Improves the naval and commercial 
 skill of the age in which he lived . . 211 
 
 Empowered to settle any part of the South 
 colony of Virginia . . 212 
 
 Hanno. His Periplus defended, with an account 
 of his voyage . . . 236 
 
 Hatuey (a cazique of Cuba} . His cruel treat- 
 ment and memorable repartee to a Franciscan 
 friar . . . .50 
 
 Hawkesu-orth's Voyages. Account of New Hol- 
 land and the inhabitants 
 
 Heat. The different degrees of, in the Old and 
 New continents, accounted for . . 244 
 
 Estimated . . 247 
 
 Henry (prince of Portugal). His character and 
 studies . . . .13 
 
 Expeditions formed by his order . . 14 
 
 Applies for a papal grant for his new dis- 
 coveries . . .15 
 His death . . . . ib. 
 
 Herrada, Juan de. Assassinates Francis Pi- 
 zarro .... 153 
 
 Dies . . . .154 
 
 Herrera. The best historian of New Spain . 258 
 His account of Orellana's voyage . 265 
 
 Hispaniola. The island discovered by Christo- 
 pher Columbus . . .26 
 The transactions of Columbus with the natives ib. 
 Columbus leaves a colony there . .27 
 The colony destroyed . . 28 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 A city built by Columbus, called Isabella . 31 
 The natives from ill usage begin to be 
 
 alarmed . . .33 
 
 They are defeated by the Spaniards . ib. 
 
 A tribute exacted from them . 34 
 
 They scheme to starve the Spaniards . ib. 
 
 Bartholomew Columbus founds St. Domingo 36 
 Columbus sent home in irons by Bovadilla . 40 
 Nicholas de Ovando appointed governor 41 
 
 View of the conduct of the Spaniards towards 
 
 the natives . . .45 
 
 Unhappy fate of Anacoana . . 46 
 
 Great produce from the mines . . ib. 
 
 Diminution of the inhabitants . 47 
 
 The Spaniards recruit them by trepanning 
 
 the natives of Lucayas . . ib. 
 
 Arrival of Don Diego de Columbus . 48 
 
 The natives almost extirpated by slavery 49, 54 
 Controversy concerning the treatment of them 54 
 Columbus's account of the humane treatment 
 
 he received from the natives . 239 
 
 Curious instance of superstition in the Spa- 
 nish planters . . . 246 
 
 Holyuin, Pedro Alvarez. Erects the royal 
 standard in Peru, in opposition to the younger 
 Almagro . . .154 
 
 Vaca de Castro arrives and assumes the com- 
 mand . . . . ib. 
 
 Homer. His account of the navigation of the 
 ancient Greeks ... 6 
 
 Honduras. The value of that country owing to 
 its production of the logwood-tree . 179 
 
 Horned cattle. The amazing increase of them 
 in Spanish America . . 194 
 
 Horses. Astonishment and mistakes of the 
 Mexicans at the first sight of them . 259 
 
 Expedient of the Peruvians to render them 
 incapable of action . . 265 
 
 Huana, Capac (inca of Peru). His character 
 and family . . . .140 
 
 Huascar, Capac {inca of Peru). Disputes his 
 brother Atahualpa' s succession to Quito . ib. 
 
 Defeated and taken prisoner by Atahualpa . 141 
 Solicits the assistance of Pizarro against his 
 
 brother . . ib. 
 
 Put to death by order of Atahualpa . 143 
 
 Hutchinson, Mrs. Heads a sect of religious 
 women in New England, who are denomi- 
 nated Antinomians . . 232 
 Her doctrines are condemned by a general 
 synod . . . ib. 
 
 Jamaica. Discovered by Christopher Columbus 32 
 Jerome, St. Cardinal Ximenes sends three 
 
 monks of that order to regulate the treatment 
 
 of the Indians . . .55 
 
 Their conduct under this commission . ib. 
 
 They are recalled . . 56 
 
 Jesuits. Acquire an absolute dominion over 
 
 California . . . .179 
 
 Their motives for depreciating the country ib. 
 Jews. Their ancient state of commerce and 
 
 navigation 
 Incas of Peru. Received origin of their empire 140 
 
 Their empire founded both in religion and 
 policy .... 173 
 
 (See Pern.) 
 India. The motives of Alexander the Great in 
 
 his expedition ... 6 
 
 Page 
 How the commerce was carried on in ancient 
 
 times with that country . . 8 
 
 When the arts began to revive in Europe 10 
 The first voyage was made round the Cape 
 
 of Good Hope . . .38 
 
 Attempts to discover a north-west passage 
 
 unsuccessful . . . 206 
 
 An attempt made by the north-east . ib. 
 
 A company of merchants in England is in- 
 corporated to prosecute discoveries . ib. 
 A communication attempted by land . 207 
 Queen Elizabeth encourages the design ib. 
 
 Indians (in Spanish America). See Americans. 
 
 Indies (West). Why Columbus's discoveries 
 were so named . . .30 
 
 Innocent IV. (Pope). His extraordinary mis- 
 sion to the prince of the Tartars . 1 1 
 
 Inquisition (Court of the). When and by whom 
 first introduced into Portugal . . 238 
 
 Insects and Reptiles. Why so numerous and 
 noxious in America . . 64 
 
 John I. (king of Portugal). The first who 
 sent ships to explore the western coasts of 
 Africa . . . .13 
 
 His son, Prince Henry, engages in these 
 attempts . . . . ib. 
 
 John II. (king of Portugal). Patronizes all at- 
 tempts towards discoveries . . 16 
 Sends an embassy to Abyssinia . . ib. 
 His ungenerous treatment of Columbus ib. 
 
 Iron. The reason why savage nations were un- 
 acquainted with this metal . . 82 
 
 Isabella (queen of Castile). Applied to by Juan 
 Perez in behalf of Columbus . 21 
 
 Again applied to by Quintanilla and San- 
 
 tangel . . . . ib. 
 
 Prevailed on to equip him . . 22 
 
 Dies . . . .45 
 
 Her real motive for encouraging discoveries 
 
 in America . . . 183 
 
 Isabella (the City of). Built by Columbus in 
 Hispaniola . . . .31 
 
 Italy. The first country in Europe where civi- 
 lization and arts revived after the overthrow 
 of the Roman empire . . 10 
 
 The commercial spirit, active and enter- 
 prising . . . . ib. 
 
 Ladrone Islands. Discovered by Ferdinand 
 
 Magellan . .133 
 
 Lakes. Their amazing size in North America 62 
 Las Casas t Bartholomew. Returns from Hispa- 
 niola to solicit the cause of the enslaved In- 
 dians at the court of Spain . . 55 
 Sent back with powers by Cardinal Ximenes ib. 
 Returns dissatisfied . . 56 
 Procures a new commission to be sent over 
 
 on this subject . . . ib. 
 
 Recommends the scheme of supplying the 
 
 colonies with Negroes . . 57 
 
 Undertakes a new colony . . ib. 
 
 His conference with the bishop of Darien 
 
 before the Emperor Charles V. . 58 
 
 Goes to America to carry his schemes into 
 
 execution . . . ib. 
 
 Circumstances unfavourable to him . ib. 
 
 His final miscarriage . . .59 
 
 Revives his representations in favour of the 
 
 Indians, at the desire of the emperor 155 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 Composes a treatise on the destruction of 
 
 America .... 155 
 Leon, Pedro Cuza de. Character of his Chro- 
 
 nica del Peru . . . 263 
 
 Lery. His description of the courage and fero- 
 city of the Toupinambos . . 254 
 Lima. The city in Peru founded by Pizarro 147 
 Logwood. The commodity which gives im- 
 portance to the provinces of Honduras and 
 Yucatan . . .179 
 Policy of the Spaniards to defeat the English 
 
 trade in those provinces . . ib. 
 
 Louis, St. (king of France). His embassy to 
 
 the khan of the Tartars . .11 
 
 Lozano. His account of the method of making 
 
 war among the natives of Gran Chaco . 254 
 
 Luque, Hernando de. This priest associates 
 with Pizarro in his Peruvian expedition . 136 
 
 M. 
 
 Madeira. The island first discovered . 14 
 
 Madoc (prince of North Wales). Story of his 
 voyage and discovery of North America exa- 
 mined .... 241 
 
 Magellan, Ferdinand. His account of the 
 gigantic size of the Patagonians . . 75 
 
 The existence of this gigantic race yet to be 
 
 decided . . .75, 250 
 
 His introduction to the court of Castile . 132 
 Equipped with a squadron for a voyage of 
 
 discovery . . . ib. 
 
 Sails through the famous strait that bears his 
 
 name . . . . ib. 
 
 Discovers the Ladrone and Philippine islands 133 
 Is killed . . ib. 
 
 Maynet. Its properties of attracting iron known 
 to the ancients, but not its polar inclination 4 
 Extraordinary advantages resulting from this 
 discovery . . . .12 
 
 Malo, Si. Account of its commerce with Spa- 
 nish America . . . 197 
 
 Manco, Capac. Founder of the Peruvian em- 
 pire .... 140, 173 
 
 Mandeville, Sir John. His eastern travels, and 
 character of his writings . .11 
 
 Manila. The colony established by Philip II. 
 of Spain . . . 202 
 
 Trade between the colony and South America ib. 
 
 Mankind. Their disposition and manners formed 
 by their situation . . .66 
 
 Resemblances therefore to be traced in very 
 
 distant places without communication ib. 
 
 Have uniformly attained the greatest perfec- 
 tion of their nature in temperate regions . 100 
 
 Marco Polo (the Venetian). His extraordinary 
 travels in the East . . 11 
 
 Marest, Gabriel. His account of the country 
 between the Illinois and Machilimakinac . 253 
 
 Marina, Donna. A Mexican slave 
 
 Marinus, Tyrius. His erroneous position of China 238 
 
 Martyr, Peter. His sentiments on the first dis- 
 covery of America . 241 
 
 Maryland. See Virginia. 
 
 Massachusetts' Bay. See America, New Eng- 
 land, &c. 
 
 Merchants (English). The right of property in 
 the North American colonies vested in a 
 company of merchants resident in London . 212 
 Charters granted to two companies to make 
 settlements in America . ib. 
 
 Page 
 
 Tenour and defects of these charters . 212 
 
 A new charter granted to them with more 
 
 ample privileges . . 214 
 
 They are divided by factions . . 218 
 
 An inquiry instituted into their conduct 219 
 
 They are required to surrender their charter, 
 which they refuse . . . ib. 
 
 A writ of quo warranto is issued against them ib. 
 They are tried in the court of King's Bench, 
 
 and the company is dissolved . ib. 
 
 Their charter transferred to the colonists . 230 
 Mestizos. Distinction between them and mu- 
 
 lattoes . . . .188 
 
 Metals. The original natives of America totally 
 
 unacquainted with useful metals . . 81 
 
 Mexicans. Their account of their own origin 
 compared with later discoveries . 69 
 
 Their paintings few in number, and of am- 
 biguous meaning . . .165 
 Description of their historical pictures . 267 
 Various exaggerated accounts of the number 
 
 of human victims sacrificed bv them . 269 
 
 Their language furnished with respectful ter- 
 minations for all its words . . 266 
 How they contributed to the support of go- 
 vernment . . . . ib. 
 Mexico. Arrival of Fernando' Cortes on the 
 
 coast . . . .103 
 
 His interview with two Mexican officers . 104 
 Information sent to Montezuma, with some 
 
 Spanish presents . . ib. 
 
 Montezuma sends presents to Cortes, with 
 
 orders not to approach his capital . 105 
 
 State of the empire at that time . ib. 
 
 The Zempoallans court the friendship of 
 
 Cortes . . . .107 
 
 Several caziques enter into alliance with 
 
 Cortes . . . .108 
 
 Character of the natives of Tlascala . 109 
 
 The Tlascalans reduced to sue for peace . Ill 
 Arrival of Cortes at the capital city . 113 
 
 The city described . . 114 
 
 Montezuma acknowledges himself a vassal to 
 
 the Spanish crown . . .117 
 
 Amount of the treasure collected by Cortes ib. 
 Reasons of gold being found in such small 
 
 quantities . . . . ib. 
 
 The Mexicans enraged by the imprudent 
 
 zeal of Cortes . .118 
 
 Attack Alvarado during the absence of 
 
 Cortes . . . .121 
 
 Their resolute attack on Cortes when he re- 
 turned . . .122 
 Death of Montezuma . . . 123 
 The city abandoned by Cortes . 124 
 Battle of Otumba . . . 125 
 The Tepcacans reduced . . 126, 
 Preparations of the Mexicans against the re- 
 turn of Cortes . . . ib. 
 Cortes besieges the city with a fleet on the lake 129 
 The Spaniards repulsed in storming the city 130 
 Guatimozin taken prisoner . . 131 
 Cortes appointed governor . . 134 
 His schemes and arrangements . . ib. 
 Inhuman treatment of the natives . ib. 
 Reception of the new regulations there . 156 
 A retrospect into the form of government, 
 
 policy, and arts . .164 
 
 Our information of the Mexican monarchy 
 
 very imperfect . , .165 
 
 Origin of the monarchy . . ib. 
 
xii 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 Number and greatness of the cities . 166 
 
 Mechanical professions there distinguished 
 
 from each other . . ib. 
 
 Distinction of ranks . . . ib. 
 
 Political institutions . . 167 
 
 Power and splendour of their monarchs . 168 
 Order of government . . ib. 
 
 Provision for the support of it . ib. 
 
 The police of the Mexican government ib. 
 
 The progress of the Mexicans in various arts ib. 
 Their paintings . . . ib. 
 
 Their method of computing time . .169 
 
 Their wars continual and ferocious . ib. 
 
 Their funeral rites . . .170 
 
 Imperfection of their agriculture . ib. 
 
 Doubts concerning the extent of the empire ib. 
 Little intercourse among its several provinces ib. 
 Ignorance of money . . .171 
 
 State of their cities . . ib. 
 
 Temples and other public buildings . ib. 
 
 Religion, priests, &c. . ib. 
 
 Causes of the depopulation of this country . 182 
 The small-pox very fatal there . 183 
 
 Number of Indian natives remaining there . 184 
 List and character of those authors who wrote 
 
 accounts of the conquest of Mexico . 257 
 
 Description of the aqueduct for the supply of 
 
 the capital city . . . 266 
 
 (See Colonies.) 
 
 Michael, St. Balboa discovers and names this 
 gulf, in the South Sea . . .51 
 
 The colony established by Pizarro . 140 
 
 Migrations of mankind. Why first made by 
 land . . . .4 
 
 Mind (human). Its effects proportioned to the 
 wants of the body . . .76 
 
 Mines of South America. The great induce- 
 ment to population . . 178 
 Their produce . . 193 
 The spirit with which they are worked ib. 
 Fatal effects of this ardour . . ib. 
 Evidence of the pernicious effects of labour- 
 ing in them . . . 273 
 Total produce of the Mexican mines to the 
 Spanish revenue . . . 279 
 
 Molucca Islands. The Spanish claims sold by 
 the Emperor Charles V. to the Portuguese 133 
 
 Monastic institutions. Their pernicious effects 
 in the Spanish American colonies . 190 
 
 Number of convents in those colonies . 274 
 
 Monsoon*. When their periodical course was 
 discovered by navigators 
 
 Montesena (a Dominican preacher at St. Do- 
 mingo). Publicly remonstrates against the 
 cruel treatment of the Indians . 54 
 
 Montezuma. The first intelligence received by 
 the Spaniards of this prince . . 61 
 
 Receives intelligence of the arrival of Fer- 
 nando Cortes in iiis dominions . 104 
 His presents to Cortes . . . 105 
 Forbids him to approach his capital . ib, 
 State of his empire at this time . . ib 
 His character . . ib 
 His perplexity at the arrival of the Spaniards ib 
 His timid negotiations with Cortes . ib 
 His scheme for destroying Cortes at Cholula 
 
 discovered . . . .112 
 
 His irresolute conduct . . 11 
 
 His first interview with Cortes . . ib 
 
 Seized by Cortes and confined to the Spanish 
 quarters - . . . 11 
 
 Is fettered . . . .116 
 
 Acknowledges himself a vassal to the Spanish 
 
 crown . . 117 
 
 Remains inflexible with regard to religion . 118 
 Circumstances of his death . . 123 
 
 Account of a gold cup of his in England . 267 
 Mulattoes. Explanation of this distinction in 
 the Spanish American colonies . 188 
 
 N. 
 
 Narvaez, Pamphilo. Sent by Velasques with an 
 armament to Mexico to supersede Cortes . 119 
 Takes possession of Zempoalla . 120 
 
 Defeated and taken prisoner by Cortes . 1 21 
 How he carried on his correspondence with 
 
 Montezuma . . . 260 
 
 Natchez (an American nation). Their political 
 institutions . . . .84 
 
 Causes of their tame submission to the Spa- 
 niards . . . 85 
 Their religious doctrines . . ib. 
 Navigation. The art very slowly improved by 
 mankind ... 3 
 The knowledge of the art prior to commercial 
 
 intercourse . . ... 4 
 
 The imperfections of it among the ancients ib. 
 More improved by the invention of the mari- 
 ner's compass than by all the efforts of 
 preceding ages . . .12 
 
 The first naval discoveries undertaken by 
 
 Portugal . . . . ib. 
 
 Negroes. Their peculiar station under the Spa- 
 nish dominion in America . . 188 
 First introduced into Virginia . 217 
 New England. The first attempts to settle 
 herein unsuccessful . . . 225 
 Religious disputes give rise to the colony 
 
 there . . . ib. 
 
 A settlement is formed at New Plymouth in 
 
 Massachusetts' Bay . . . 228 
 
 Plan of its government . . ib. 
 
 All property is thrown into a common stock ib. 
 A grand council is appointed . . ib. 
 
 A new colony is projected at Massachusetts' 
 Bay, and a charter granted for its establish- 
 ment .... 228 
 Its settlement there . . . 229 
 
 A new church instituted there . ib. 
 
 Its intolerance . . ib, 
 
 Charter of the English company of merchants 
 
 in London transferred to the colonies 230 
 The colony of Massachusetts' Bay extends . ib. 
 None but members of the church are admitted 
 
 as freemen there . . 230 
 
 Bad consequences of this regulation . 231 
 
 The settlement increases, and the assembly 
 is restricted to the representatives of free- 
 men . , . ib. 
 Extent of political liberty assumed by the 
 
 assembly . . . . ib. 
 
 Spirit of fanaticism spreads in the colony ib. 
 
 New settlers arrive, and the doctrine of the 
 Antinomians are condemned by a general 
 synod . . . . ib. 
 
 Sectaries settle in Providence and Rhode 
 
 Island . . 232 
 
 Theological contests give rise to the colony 
 
 of Connecticut . . . ib, 
 
 Emigrants from Massachusetts' Bay settle in 
 Connecticut . . . 233 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 The Dutch, who had established a few trading 
 towns on the river there, peaceably with- 
 draw . . . .233 
 Settlements are formed in the provinces of 
 
 Nw Hampshire and Maine . ib, 
 
 Further encroachments of the English re- 
 sisted by the natives . . . ib, 
 War with the Pequod tribes commenced ib, 
 Purification of the army . . ib, 
 The Indians defeated . . . 234 
 Cruelties exercised against them . 234 
 Emigration from England to the colonies pro- 
 hibited by proclamation . . ib 
 Colony of Massachusetts' Bay is sued at law, 
 
 and found to have forfeited its rights . ib. 
 
 Confederacy of the States . . 235 
 
 Newfoundland. Its situation described . 244 
 
 Discovered by Cabot . . 205 
 
 New Holland. Account of the country and its 
 
 inhabitants . . . 253 
 
 New Plymouth. Settlement . . 228 
 
 (See Colonies, New England.") 
 New Spain. Discovered and named by Juan 
 de Grijalva . . .CO 
 
 (See Mexico.) 
 
 Nigno, Alonzo. His voyages to America 39 
 
 Norwegians. In ancient times this people 
 might have migrated to, and colonized Ame- 
 rica. . . . .69 
 Nugnez Vela, Blasco. Appointed viceroy of 
 Peru, to enforce the new regulations 15G 
 His character . . . 157 
 Commits Vaca de Castro to prison . ib. 
 Dissensions between him and the court of 
 
 audience . . . . ib. 
 
 Is confined . . ib. 
 
 Recovers his liberty . . . 158 
 
 Resumes his command . . ib. 
 
 Pursued by Gonzalo Pizarro . . ib. 
 
 Defeated and killed by Pizarro . ib. 
 
 O. 
 
 Ocampo, Diego. Sent with a squadron from 
 Hispaniola to desolate the country of Cu- 
 
 * mana . . 58 
 
 Ocampo, Sebastian de. Sails round Cuba and 
 discovers it to be an island . . 47 
 
 Ocean. Continues long a formidable barrier 
 to the intercourse between distant countries 
 although adapted to facilitate it . .3 
 
 (See Compass, Navigation.) 
 
 Ojeda, Alonzo de. His private expedition to the 
 ' West Indies ... 38 
 
 His second voyage . . .41 
 
 Obtains a government on the continent 48 
 
 Olmedo, Father Bartholomew de. Checks the 
 rash zeal of Cortes at Tlascala in Mexico 112 
 Sent by Cortes to negotiate with Narvaez 120 
 
 Orellana, Francis. Appointed to the command 
 of a bark built by Gonzalo Pizarro, and 
 deserts him . . . 152 
 
 Sails down the Maragnon . . ib. 
 
 Returns to Spain with a report of wonderful 
 
 discoveries . . ib. 
 
 Herrea's account of his voyage . . 265 
 
 Orgognez. Commands Almagro's party against 
 the Pizarros, and is defeated by them . 150 
 
 inoco. This great river discovered by Chris- 
 topher Columbus . . .36 
 The great plenty of fish in this river 252 
 
 Page 
 Strange method of choosing a captain among 
 
 the Indian tribes on the banks of this river 68 
 Otaheite. The inhabitants ignorant of the art 
 of boiling water 
 
 Sent governor to His- 
 
 25* 
 12 
 
 4 1 
 ib 
 
 4'. 
 
 Otumba. Battle beween Cortes and the Mexi- 
 cans .... 
 Ovando, Nicholas de. 
 paniola . 
 
 His prudent regulations 
 Refuses admission to Columbus on his fourth 
 
 voyage 
 His ungenerous behaviour to Columbus on 
 
 his shipwreck . . .43 
 
 Receives him at length, and sends him home 44 
 Engages in a war with the Indians . 45 
 
 His cruel treatment of them . . ib. 
 
 Encourages cultivation and manufactures 4C 
 His method of trepanning the natives of the 
 
 Lucayos . . . .45 
 
 Is recalled . .45 
 
 P. 
 
 Pacific Ocean. Why, and by whom, so named 133 
 
 Packet-boats. Their first estsblishment between 
 Spain and her American colonies . 199 
 
 Panama.'. Settled by Pedrarias Davila . 53 
 
 Parmenides. The first person who divided the 
 earth by zones . . . 238 
 
 Patagonians. Account of them . . 75 
 
 The reality of their gigantic size to be de- 
 cided . . .75, 253 
 
 Pedrarias Davila. Sent with a fleet to super- 
 sede Balboa in his government of Santa 
 Maria, on the isthmus of Darieii . . 52 
 
 Treats Balboa ill . . ib. 
 
 Rapacious conduct of his men . . ib. 
 
 Is reconciled to Balboa, and gives him his 
 
 daughter . . . .53 
 
 Puts Balboa to death . . ib. 
 
 Removes his settlement from Santa Maria to 
 Panama . . . . ib. 
 
 Penguin. The name of that bird not derived 
 from the Welsh language . . 241 
 
 Perez, Juan. Columbus patronized by him at 
 the court of Castile . . .21 
 
 His solemn invocation for the success of Co- 
 lumbus's voyage . . 23 
 
 Periplus of Hanno. The authenticity of that 
 work justified . . . 236 
 
 Peru. The first intelligence concerning this 
 country received by Vasco Nugnez de Balboa 50 
 The coast discovered by Pizarro . 138 
 
 Pizarro's second arrival . . 139 
 
 His hostile proceedings against the natives ib. 
 The colony of St. Michael established . 140 
 
 State of the empire at the time of this invasion ib. 
 The kingdom divided between Huascar and 
 
 Atahualpa . . . ib. 
 
 Atahualpa usurps the goverment . -141 
 
 Huascar solicits assistance from Pizarro ib. 
 
 Atahualpa visits Pizarro . . 142 
 
 Is seized by Pizarro . . . 143 
 
 Agreement for his ransom . . ib. 
 
 Is refused his liberty . . .144 
 
 Cruelly put to death . .145 
 
 Confusion of the empire on this event . ib. 
 
 Quito reduced by Beualcazar . . 146 
 
 The city of Lima founded by Pizarro . 147 
 Chili invaded by Almagro . . ib. 
 
 Insurrection of the Peruvians . ib. 
 
 Almagro put to death by Pizarro . 150 
 
XIV 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 Pizarro divides the country among his fol- 
 lowers . . .151 
 Progress of the Spanish arms there . ib. 
 Francis Pizarro assassinated . .153 
 Reception of the new regulations there 156 
 The viceroy confined by the court of au- 
 dience . . . .157 
 The viceroy defeated and killed by Gonzalo 
 
 Pizarro . . .158 
 
 Arrival of Pedro de la Gasca . . 160 
 
 Reduction and death of Gonzalo Pizarro 162 
 The civil wars there not carried on with mer- 
 cenary soldiers . . ib. 
 Gratified with immense rewards . . ib. 
 Their profusion and luxury . . ib. 
 Ferocity of their contests . . ib. 
 Their want of faith . . 163 
 Instances . . . . ib 
 Division of the country by Gasca among his 
 
 followers . . ib 
 
 A retrospect into the original government, 
 arts, and manners of the natives . 
 
 The high antiquity they pretend to . 17< 
 
 Their records . . . ib 
 
 Origin of their civil policy . . ib 
 
 This founded on religion . . ib 
 
 The authority of the Incas absolute and un- 
 limited . . .17 
 All crimes were punished capitally . ib 
 Mild genius of their religion . ib 
 Its influence on their civil policy . ib 
 And on their military system . 175 
 Peculiar state of property there . . ib 
 Distinction of ranks . . ib. 
 State of the arts . . . ib. 
 Improved state of agriculture . ib. 
 Their buildings . . . 176 
 Their public roads . . ib. 
 Their bridges ... ib. 
 Their mode of refining silver ore . 177 
 Works of elegance , . . ib. 
 Their civilization but imperfect . ib. 
 Cuzco the only place that had the appear 
 ance of a city 
 
 No perfect separation of professions 
 tie commercial intercourse 
 
 ib. 
 ib. 
 ib. 
 178 
 ib. 
 
 Litt 
 
 Their unwarlike spirit 
 
 Eat their flesh and fish raw 
 
 Brief account of other provinces under the 
 
 viceroy of New Spain . . ib. 
 
 Causes of the depopulation of this country . 183 
 The small-pox very fatal there . ib. 
 
 Writers who gave accounts of the conquests 
 
 of Peru . . . .262 
 
 Their method of building . 270 
 
 The revenue derived from Peru by Spain . 278 
 
 Peter I. (czar of Russia). His extensive views 
 in prosecuting Asiatic discoveries . 67 
 
 Phenidans (Ancient). The state of commerce 
 and navigation among them . . 5 
 
 Their trade, how conducted . . 236 
 
 Philip II. (of Spain). His turbulent disposition 
 aided by his American treasures . . 195 
 
 Establishes the colony of Manila . 202 
 
 Philip III. Exhausts his country by inconsi- 
 derate bigotry 
 
 195 
 
 Philippine Islands. Discovered by Ferdinand 
 Magellan . . .133 
 
 A colony established there by Philip II. of 
 
 Spain . . . .202 
 
 Trade with America ib. 
 
 Phytic. Why the art is connected with divina- 
 tion in America . . .94 
 Pinta (Chevalier). Description of the charac- 
 teristic features of the native Americans 249 
 Pinzon, Vincent Yanez. Commands a vessel 
 under Columbus in his first voyage of dis- 
 covery . .22 
 Sails to America on a private adventure with 
 
 four ships . . 39 
 
 Discovers Yucatan . . .47 
 
 Pizarro, Ferdinand. Besieged by the Peruvians 
 in Cuzco . . .148 
 
 Surprised there by Almagro . . ib. 
 
 Escapes with Alvarado . . ]49 
 
 Defends his brother at the court of Spain .151 
 Is committed to prison . . ib. 
 
 Pizarro, Francisco. Attends Balboa in his set- 
 tlement on the isthmus of Darien . . 49 
 Marches under him across the isthmus, where 
 
 they discover the South Sea . 51 
 
 His birth, education, and character . 136 
 
 Associates with Almagro and De Luque in a 
 
 voyage of discovery . . 137 
 
 His ill success . . . ib. 
 
 Is recalled, and deserted by most of his fol- 
 lowers . . . ib. 
 Remains on the island of Gorgona for supplies 138 
 Discovers the coast of Peru . . ib. 
 Returns to Panama . . ib. 
 Goes to Spain to solicit reinforcements ib. 
 Procures the supreme command for himself . 139 
 Is assisted with money by Cortes . ib. 
 Lands again in Peru . . . ib. 
 His hostile proceedings against the natives ib. 
 Establishes the colony of St. Michael . 140 
 State of the Peruvian empire at this time ib. 
 Cause of his easy penetration into the country 141 
 Is applied to by Huascar for assistance 
 
 against his victorious brother Atahualpa ib. 
 State of his forces . . . ib. 
 
 Arrives at Caxamalca . . ib. 
 
 Visited by the Inca . . . 142 
 
 His perfidious seizure of him . 143 
 
 Agrees to Atahualpa's offer for his ransom . ib. 
 Division of their plunder . . ib. 
 
 Refuses Atahualpa his liberty . .144 
 
 His ignorance exposed to Atahualpa , ib. 
 
 Bestows a form of trial on the Inca . ib. 
 
 Puts him to death . . .145 
 
 Advances to Cuzco . . ib. 
 
 Honours conferred on him by the Spanish 
 
 court . . . .146 
 
 Beginning of dissensions between him and 
 
 Almagro ' . . . ib. 
 
 His civil regulations . . .147 
 
 Founds the city of Lima . . ib. 
 
 Insurrection of the Peruvians . . ib. 
 
 Cuzco seized by Almagro . . 148 
 
 Deludes Almagro by negotiations . 149 
 
 Defeats Almagro and takes him prisoner 150 
 Puts Almagro to death . . . ib. 
 
 Divides the country among his followers 151 
 The impolitic partiality of his allotments . ib. 
 Makes his brother Gonzalo governor of Quito ib. 
 Assassinated by Juan de Herrada . 153 
 
 Pizarro, Gonzalo. His brother Francis makes 
 him governor of Quito . . 151 
 
 His expedition over the Andes . . ib. 
 
 Deserted by Orellana . . 152 
 
 His distress on this event . . ib. 
 
 His disastrous return to Quito . ib 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 Encouraged by the people to oppose Nugnez 
 
 Vela, the new viceroy . . 157 
 
 Assumes the government of Peru . 158 
 
 Marches against the viceroy . . ib. 
 
 Defeats and kills him . . . ib. 
 
 Advised by Carvajal to negotiate with the 
 
 court of Spain . , . ib. 
 
 Consultations of the court on his conduct . 159 
 His violent resolutions on the arrival of Pedro 
 
 de la Gasca . . .160 
 
 Resolves to oppose him by violence . 161 
 
 Marches to reduce Centeno at Cuzco . ib. 
 
 Defeats him . . . ib. 
 
 Is deserted by his troops on the approach of 
 
 Gasca . . .162 
 
 Surrenders and is executed . . ib. 
 
 His adherents men of no principle . 163 
 
 Plata (Rio de}. Discovered by Dias de Solis 53 
 Its amazing width . . . 244 
 
 Playfair (Professor). The result of his compa- 
 rison of the narrative and charts given in 
 Captain Cook's voyages, published in 1780, 
 and Mr. Coxe's account of the Russian dis- 
 coveries printed in the same year, in which 
 the vicinity of the two continents of Asia and 
 America is clearly ascertained . . . 248 
 
 Pliny (the naturalist). An instance of his igno- 
 rance in geography . . 237 
 
 Ponce de Leon, Juan. Discovers Florida . 50 
 Romantic motive of his voyage . ib. 
 
 Population of the earth. Slow progress . 3 
 
 Porto Bella. Discovered and named by Chris- 
 topher Columbus . . .43 
 
 Porto Rico. Settled and subjected by Juan 
 Ponce de Leon . . .47 
 
 Porto Santo. Its first discovery . 14 
 
 Portugal. When and by whom the court of 
 inquisition was first introduced into that 
 country . . . 238 
 
 Portuguese. View of the circumstances that 
 induced them to undertake the discovery of 
 unknown countries . . 13 
 
 Their first African discoveries . . ib. 
 
 Madeira discovered . . 14 
 
 They double Cape Bojador . . ib. 
 
 Obtain a papal grant of all the countries they 
 
 should discover . . .15 
 
 Cape Verd Islands and the Azores discovered ib. 
 Voyage to the East Indies by Vasco de Gama 37 
 
 Potosi. The discovery of the rich silver mines 193 
 The mines greatly exhausted and scarcely 
 worth working . . . 236 
 
 Prisoners of war. How treated by the native 
 Americans . . . .87 
 
 Property. The idea unknown to the native 
 Americans . . .82 
 
 Notions of the Brazilians concerning it . 253 
 
 Protector. The functions of the protector of 
 the Indians in Spanish America . 189 
 
 Ptolemy. This philosopher's geographical de- 
 scription is more ample and exact than that 
 of his predecessors . . .9 
 
 His geography translated by the Arabians 10 
 His erroneous position of the Ganges ; 237 
 
 Quetlavaca (brother of Montezuma). Succeeds 
 him as king of Mexico . . 126 
 
 Conducts in person the fierce attacks which 
 obliged Cortes to abandon his capital . ib. 
 
 Page 
 Dies of the small-pox . 127 
 
 Quevedo (bishop of Darieri), His conference 
 with Las Casas on the treatment of the 
 Indians in the presence of the Emperor 
 Charles V. . ' . .58 
 
 Quicksilver. The property of the famous mines 
 at Guancabelica reserved by the crown of 
 Spain .... 276 
 Why the price is reduced . . ib. 
 
 Quinquina (or Jesuits' Bark). This production 
 peculiar to Peru . . . 194 
 
 Quipos. Some account of the historic cords of 
 the Peruvians . . . 173 
 
 Quito. This kingdom overcome by Huana 
 Capac, inca of Peru . . 140 
 
 Leaves it to his son, Atahualpa . . 141 
 
 Atahualpa's general revolts after his death 145 
 Reduced by the Spaniards under Benalcazar 146 
 Benalcazar deposed, and Gonzalo Pizarro 
 made governor . . . 151 
 
 R. 
 
 Raleigh. Resumes the plan of settling colonies 
 in North America . ' . . 209 
 
 Dispatches Amadas and Barlow to examine 
 the intended settlements, who discover Vir- 
 ginia and return to England . . ib. 
 Establishes a colony in Virginia, and obliged 
 
 by famine to return to England . ib. 
 
 Makes a second attempt to settle a colony 
 
 there, which perishes by famine . 210 
 
 Abandons the design . . ib. 
 
 Ramusio. His defence of Hanno's account of 
 the coast of Africa . . . 236 
 
 Register-ships. Why introduced in the trade 
 between Spain and her colonies . '198 
 
 Supersede the use of the galleons . ib. 
 
 Religion. An inquiry into the religion of the 
 native Americans . . .92 
 
 Ribus. His account of the political state of the 
 people of Cinaloa . . . 253 
 
 Their want of religion . . 256 
 
 Rio de la Plata. Account of this province and 
 that of Tucuman . . .181 
 
 Rivers. Their amazing size in America . 62 
 
 Robison (Professor). His remarks on the tem- 
 perature of various climates . . 244 
 
 Roldan, Francis. Columbus leaves him chief- 
 justice in Hispariola . 
 Becomes the ring-leader of a mutiny . 
 Submits . . . ib. 
 
 Romans. Their progress in navigation and dis- 
 covery . 
 Their military spirit averse to mechanical 
 
 arts and commerce . . . ib. 
 
 Navigation and trade favoured in the pro- 
 vinces under their government . 8 
 Their extensive discoveries by land . ib. 
 Their empire and the sciences destroyed to- 
 gether . . 9 
 
 Rubruquis (Father) . His embassy from France 
 to the khan of the Tartars . .11 
 
 Russia. A trade opened to this empire by the 
 English . . . .207 
 
 Restricted to a company of British mer- 
 chants . . ib. 
 The connexion with the Russian empire by 
 Queen Elizabeth . . ' . ib. 
 
 Russians. Their discoveries in Asia . 67 
 
 Uncertainty of those discoveries . . 247 
 
INDEX. 
 
 S. 
 
 Page 
 
 Sacotecas. Rich silver mines discovered . 193 
 
 San Salvador. Discovered and named by Chris- 
 topher Columbus . . .25 
 
 Sancho, Don Pedro. Account of his history of 
 the conquest of Peru . . 262 
 
 Sandoval. The shocking barbarity executed by 
 him, in Mexico . .134 
 
 Sandoval, Francisco Tello de. Sent by the Em- 
 peror Charles V. to Mexico as visitador of 
 America . . 156 
 
 His moderation and prudence . . ib. 
 
 Savage Life. A general estimate . 97 
 
 Scalps. Motive of the native Americans for 
 taking them from their enemies . . 254 
 
 Serralvo, Marquis de. His extraordinary gains 
 during his viceroyalty in America . 280 
 
 Seville. -Extraordinary increase of its manu- 
 factures by the American trade . 277 
 Its trade greatly reduced 
 The American trade removed to Cadiz . 196 
 
 Silver ore. The Peruvian method of refining it 177 
 
 Small-pox. Indian territories depopulated by 
 this distemper . 231 
 
 Son or a. Late discoveries of rich mines by the 
 Spaniards . . .179 
 
 Soul. American ideas of its immortality 94 
 
 South-Sea. First discovered by Vasco Nugnez 
 de Balboa .... 
 
 Spain. General idea of the policy of Spain 
 with regard to the American colonies 
 Its dominions in America subjected to two 
 
 viceroys 
 
 A third viceroyalty lately established 
 The colonies compared with those of Greece 
 
 and Rome 
 
 Advantages she derived from her colonies 
 Why she does not still derive the same 
 Rapid decline of trade 
 This decline increased by the mode of regu- 
 lating the intercourse with America 
 
 51 
 184 
 
 ib. 
 ib. 
 
 ISO 
 194 
 ib. 
 195 
 
 ib. 
 
 Employs Guarda Costas to check illicit trade 198 
 The use of register-ships introduced . ib. 
 
 The company of Caraccas established . 199 
 Commercial ideas enlarged there . ib. 
 
 Free trade permitted to several provinces . ib. 
 Revenue derived from America . 203 
 
 Specification . 278 
 
 Spaniards. Their curious form of taking pos- 
 session of newly discovered countries . 242 
 
 Strabo. A citation from his works proving the 
 great geographical ignorance of the ancients 237 
 His own want of geographical knowledge 238 
 
 Superstition. Always connected with a desire 
 of penetrating into the secrets of futurity 94 
 
 T. 
 
 Tapia, Christoval de. Sent from Spain to 
 Mexico, to supersede Cortes in the command, 
 but fails in the attempt . 133 
 
 Tartars. The possibility of their migrating to 
 America . . .68 
 
 Tlascala, in Mexico. Character of the natives 109 
 Oppose the passage of the Spaniards . 110 
 
 Reduced to sue for peace . . Ill 
 
 Tobacco. That of Cuba, the best flavoured of 
 any in all America . . .194 
 
 Introduced into England 
 Consequences of its culture in Virginia . 216 
 
 Page 
 
 Its exportation thence is annually increased !2t / 
 Trade for it opened with Holland . ib. 
 
 Grants and monopoly . . . 220 
 
 Toupinambos. Account of their ferocious courage 
 from Lery . . . 254 
 
 Trade. No efforts made in England to extend 
 it in the reign of Henry VII. or his imme- 
 diate successors . . . 205 
 To what causes that neglect was owing 206 
 
 Trade* (Free). Opened between Spain and 
 her colonies . . 200 
 
 Increase of the Spanish customs from this 
 measure .... 278 
 
 Trade Winds. Their periodical course, when 
 discovered by navigators . . 8 
 
 Travellers (Ancient'). Character of their writings 11 
 
 Trinidad. This island discovered by Christo- 
 pher Columbus on his third voyage . 36 
 
 Tucuman. Account of this province ; also that 
 of Rio de la Plata . . 180 
 
 Tyre. How (he commerce of this city is con- 
 ducted . . . .236 
 
 Tithes of Spanish America. How applied by 
 the court of Spain . . 279 
 
 V. 
 
 Vaca de Castro, Christoval. Sent from Spain 
 
 to regulate the government of Peru 
 
 Arrives at Quito . 
 
 Assumes the supreme authority . 
 
 Defeats young Almagro 
 
 Prevents an insurrection concerted to oppose 
 the new regulations . 
 
 Imprisoned by the new viceroy 
 Valverde, Father Vincent. Curious harangue to 
 
 Atahualpa, Inca of Peru 
 
 Gives his sanction to the trial and condem- 
 nation of Atahualpa 
 
 Vega, Garcilasso de la. Character of his com- 
 mentary on the Spanish writers concerning 
 
 Peru 
 Vegetables. Their natural tendency to fertilize 
 
 the soil where they grow 
 Velasquez, Diego de. Conquers the island of 
 
 Cuba 
 
 His preparations for invading New Spain 
 
 His difficulty in choosing a commander for 
 the expedition 
 
 Appoints Fernando Cortes . 
 
 His motives to this choice 
 
 Becomes suspicious of Cortes 
 
 Orders Cortes to be deprived of his commis- 
 sion and arrested 
 
 Sends an armament to Mexico after Cortes 
 Senegas, P. His character of the native 
 
 Californians . 
 Venereal Disease. Originally brought from 
 
 America 
 
 Appears to be wearing out 
 
 Its first rapid progress 
 Venezuela. History of that settlement 
 Venice. Its origin as a maritime state . 
 
 Travels of Marco Polo . 
 Verd Islands. Discovered by the Portuguese 
 Viceroys. The Spanish dominions in America 
 
 subjected to two viceroys 
 
 A third lately established 
 
 Their powers 
 
 A fourth established 
 
 151 
 
 153 
 
 ib. 
 
 154 
 
 156 
 
 157 
 
 142 
 145 
 
 263 
 65 
 
 49 
 101 
 
 ib. 
 ib. 
 102 
 
 ib. 
 
 ib. 
 118 
 
 251 
 
 75 
 
 76 
 
 250 
 
 181 
 
 10 
 
 ib. 
 
 15 
 
 1S5 
 ib. 
 ib. 
 
 201 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 Villa Segnor. His account of the state of popu- 
 lation in New Spain . . 272 
 His detail of the Spanish American revenue 278 
 Villefagna, Antonio. Foments a mutiny among 
 Cortes' troops . . .127 
 Discovered by Cortes and hanged . 128 
 Virginia. Its first discovery . . 209 
 Attempts to settle there unsuccessful . ib. 
 Second attempt to settle there, when the co- 
 lony perishes by famine . . 210 
 The scheme of settling there abandoned 21 1 
 Divided into two colonies . . 212 
 Charters granted to two companies to make 
 
 settlements there . . ib. 
 
 Captain Newport sails from England to Vir- 
 ginia and discovers the Chesapeake . 213 
 He proceeds up James river, and founds a co- 
 lony in Jamestown . . ib. 
 Its bad administration . . . ib. 
 Captain Smith is excluded from his seat at 
 
 the council-board . . ib. 
 
 The colony is annoyed by the Indians, and 
 suffers from scarcity and the unhealthiness 
 of the climate . . . ib. 
 
 Smith is recalled, and the prosperity of the 
 
 colony restored . . ib. 
 
 He is taken prisoner by the Indians, his life 
 is spared, and his liberty obtained through 
 the intercession of a favourite daughter of 
 an Indian chief . . . ib. 
 
 Returns to James-town, and finds the colony 
 
 in distress . . ib. 
 
 The colonists are deceived by the appearance 
 
 of gold . . . .214 
 
 A survey of the country is undertaken by 
 
 Smith . . ib. 
 
 The company obtains a new charter with 
 
 more ample privileges . . ib. 
 
 The jurisdiction of the council in the colony 
 abolished, and the government vested in a 
 council resident in London ib. 
 
 Lord Delaware appointed governor and cap- 
 tain-general of the colony, and Sir Thomas 
 Gates and Sir George Summers vested with 
 the command till his arrival . . ib. 
 
 The vessel in which they embark stranded on 
 
 the coast of Bermudas . . ib 
 
 Smith returns to England, and anarchy pre- 
 vails in the colony . . . 215 
 The Indians withhold supplies, and the colony 
 
 reduced by famine . . - ib 
 
 Gates and Summers arrive from Bermudas, 
 and find the colony in a desperate situa- 
 tion . . . ib 
 They are about to return to England when 
 
 Lord Delaware arrives . . ib 
 
 He reconciles all differences, and perfectly 
 
 restores subordination . . ib 
 
 Obliged to resign the government and return 
 
 to England on account of bis health . ib 
 Superseded by Sir Thomas Dale, who esta- 
 blishes martial law . * ib 
 Another charter granted to the colony with 
 new privileges . . 
 The land is cultivated, and a treaty concluded 
 
 with the Indians . ib 
 
 Rolfe, a man of rank in the colony, marries 
 
 the daughter of an Indian chief . ib 
 
 The land first becomes property . ib 
 
 Culture of tobacco introduced . . ib 
 
 The quantity exported increases every year ib 
 
 Page 
 
 Negroes are first introduced . . 217 
 
 A general assembly of the representatives is 
 formed . . . ib. 
 
 A new constitution given to the colony, and 
 a trade for tobacco opened with Holland . ib. 
 
 The necessary precautions for the defence of 
 the colony being neglected, a general mas- 
 sacre of the English is planned by the In- 
 dians, and executed in most of the settle- 
 ments . . . 218 
 
 A bloody war commenced with the Indians ib. 
 
 Their plantations are attacked, and the owners 
 murdered . . . . ib. 
 
 A few escape to the woods, where they perish 
 with hunger . . . ib. 
 
 The settlements extend, and industry revives ib. 
 
 The strength of the colony is considerably 
 weakened . . . 220 
 
 A temporary council is appointed for its go- 
 vernment . . . . ib. 
 
 The arbitrary government of the colonies on 
 the accession of Charles I. . . ib. 
 
 The colonists seize Sir John Harvey, governor, 
 and send him prisoner to England . ib, 
 
 He is released by the king,' and reinstated in 
 his government . . . 221 
 
 Succeeded by Sir John Berkeley, whose wise 
 administration is productive of the best 
 effects . . . . ib. 
 
 New privileges granted to the colony, which 
 flourishes under the new government ib. 
 
 It is attacked by the Indians . . 223 
 
 Discontents are produced by grants of land 
 from the crown . . . ib. 
 
 An insurrection breaks out, and the governor 
 and council forced to fly . . ib. 
 
 They apply to England for succour . 224 
 
 The rebellion is terminated by the death of 
 Nathaniel Bacon . . . ib. 
 
 The governor is reinstated, and an assembly 
 is called . . . ib. 
 
 The moderation of its proceedings . ib. 
 
 General state of the colony till the vear 
 1688 ib. 
 
 (See Colonies.} 
 Ulloa, Don Antonio de. His description ox the 
 
 characteristic features of the native Ameri- 
 cans .... 249 
 
 His reasons for the Americans not being so 
 sensible of pain as the rest of mankind . 255 
 
 His account of the goods exported from Spain 
 
 to America, with the duty on them . 280 
 Volcanoes. The remarkable number of them in 
 
 the northern parts of the globe discovered by 
 
 the Russians .... 247 
 
 W. 
 
 Wafer, Lionel. His account of a peculiar race 
 of diminutive Americans . 
 
 Compared with similar productions in Africa ib. 
 War-sony. Its terms and sentiments among 
 
 the native Americans . . 254 
 
 Willoughby, Sir Hugh. Sails in search of a 
 north-east passage to India . 206 
 
 Steers along the coast of Norway and doubles 
 
 the North Cape . ib. 
 
 His squadron is separated in a storm, and 
 his ship driven into an obscure harbour in 
 Russian Lapland, where he and all his 
 companions are frozen to death . ib. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 Women. Their condition among the native 
 Americans . . .78 
 
 Are not prolific . . .79 
 
 Not permitted to join in their drunken 
 
 feasts . . . .97 
 
 Not suffered to wear ornaments . . 255 
 
 X. 
 
 Xeres, Francisco de. This secretary of Pizarro 
 the earliest writer on his Peruvian expedi- 
 tion . . . .262 
 
 Ximenes (Cardinal). His regulations for the 
 treatment of the Indians in the Spanish colo- 
 nies . . . .55 
 Patronizes the attempt of Ferdinand Ma- 
 gellan . . .132 
 
 V. 
 
 Page 
 
 Yucatan. This province discovered by Pinzon 
 and Dias de Solis . . .47 
 
 Described .... 243 
 From whence it derives its value . 179 
 
 Policy of the court of Spain respecting it . ib. 
 
 Z. 
 
 Zarate, Don. Augustine. Character of his His- 
 tory of the Conquest of Peru . . 2G3 
 
 Zones. How the earth is divided into zones by 
 the geography of the ancients . . 9 
 
 By whom first so divided . . 238 
 
 Zummaraga, Juan de. The first bishop of 
 Mexico, and destroyer of all the ancient re- 
 cords of the Mexican empire . . 165 
 
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