250

EXPEDITIONS OF PHIPPS.

and the fort and settlement at Casco was also destroyed (May 17th). Connecticut was applied to for aid, and a general congress of the colonies called at New York, for the purpose of successfully resisting the Indian encroachments.

The fort at Pemaquid had been taken by the Indians, and the French privateers from Acadie were destroying shipping on the coast; the general court of Massachusetts determined to send a fleet of eight small vessels, with seven hundred and fifty men, under Phipps, against Port Royal. This expedition sailed on the 28th of April, 1690, and the garrison capitulated after a short resistance. The treasure, acquired here, more than repaid the whole expense of the expedition. Phipps having taken possession of the whole sea-coast, from Port Royal to the New England settlements, returned.

Emboldened by success, the people of Massachusetts formed a design of reducing all Canada to the subjection of the British crown. Phipps was made leader of this expedition; but he did not arrive at Quebec until October 5th, when the town could have been taken only by an immediate attack; but by unskilful delay, the time for such an attempt was irretrievably lost. The English were worsted in various sharp encounters, and compelled at length to retreat; and the fleet, after having sustained great damage in the voyage homeward, returned to Boston. The expedition involved Massachusetts in an enormous expense, and cost the lives of a thousand of her people. Bills of credit were issued to pay the troops, and Phipps soon after embarked for England.

In May, 1692, he returned to the colony with the new charter. By this instrument, Massachusetts, Plymouth, Maine, and Nova Scotia, were united under one jurisdiction; the appointment of the governor, deputy governor, secretary, and all the officers of the admiralty, was reserved to the crown; the councillors were to be chosen by the house of assembly, and presented to the governor for his approbation; the governor was empowered to convoke and dissolve the assembly at pleasure, to nominate civil and military officers, and to have a negative on all laws and acts of the general

assembly and the council. All laws enacted in the province were to be sent to England for the approval of the crown. Liberty of conscience and of divine worship was expressly granted to all persons except Roman Catholics.

To render a charter so obviously unacceptable to the colonists, less unpopular, the ministry waived the right of appointing a governor, and desired the provincial deputies to name the person whom they considered most likely to be well received by their countrymen. They named Sir William Phipps, and he was appointed. This act of courtesy served to mollify the ill-humour of the people, who justly esteemed Phipps as their real friend.

The strange infatuation which was so prevalent in all Christian countries, about this period, the belief in witchcraft, extended itself to the New World, and beginning in Salem and extending to the neighbouring towns, some nineteen persons were executed for the supposed crime. Many more were imprisoned; but were soon afterwards set at liberty.

The French and Indian depredations still continued. On the 25th of January, 1692, the town of York was attacked and nearly destroyed; seventy-five of the inhabitants were killed, and about the same number taken into captivity; and on the 10th of June, an army of French and Indians made a furious attack upon Wells; but were defeated by Captain Convers, with great loss. Governor Phipps, this year, built a very strong fort at Pemaquid. It was called Fort William Henry, and sixty men were placed in it as a garrison.

On the 11th of August, the Indian tribes in the vicinity of Fort William Henry made a treaty of peace with the English, whereby they renounced all connection with the French. The Count Frontignac now sent an expedition against the Mohawks. They took three hundred of the Indians prisoners; but fifty were again recaptured by a party from Albany. The French lost eighty men killed and thirty wounded. Oyster River settlement was soon after attacked, and between ninety and one hundred persons taken.

252

PEACE OF RYSWICK.

The year 1696 was signalized by active operations on the borders. The French took and demolished the fort at Pemaquid, and the English took Fort Bourbon, on Nelson's Bay, and sent the garrison prisoners to France. Towards the close of this year, Frontignac led a large army against the Five Nations; but his provisions failing, he was compelled to return with but little success.

The year 1697 carried terror throughout the northern and middle colonies. The French government sent out an immense armament, for the purpose of conquering the whole country, from New Jersey to Canada, for the French crown. The Marquis of Nesmond received the command of the expedition, which, fortunately for the colonies, sailed too late. He did not arrive at Placentia until the last of July; and before he could commence hostilities, after refitting his fleet, the peace of Ryswick was proclaimed, and the colonists freed from danger.

"Perhaps no country in the world," says Grahame, “was ever more distinguished than New England was at this time for the general prevalence of those sentiments and habits that render communities respectable and happy; sobriety and industry pervaded all classes of the inhabitants. The laws against immoralities of every kind were extremely strict, and not less strictly executed; and being cordially supported by public opinion, they were able to render every vicious and profligate excess alike dangerous and discreditable to the perpetrator. We are assured by a well-informed writer, that at this period, there was not a single beggar in the whole province and a gentleman of unquestioned veracity, who had resided in it for seven years, declared, that during all that period, he had never heard a profane oath, nor witnessed an instance of inebriety. Labour was so valuable, land so cheap, and the elective franchise so widely extended, that every industrious man might acquire a stake in the soil, and a voice in the civil administration of his country."

NEW ENGLAND FROM THE ACCESSION OF QUEEN ANNE TO THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR.

B

Y the decease of King William, in 1702, the Princess Anne of Denmark, daughter of James II., became the sovereign of Great Britain. She appointed Joseph Dudley to be governor of Massachusetts, in which colony he arrived on the 11th of June. On his arrival commenced

those disputes between the governor and

the general court, upon the demands of the one, and the rights of the other, which lasted to the time of the revolution. He demanded that the court should provide a house and fixed

254

REDUCTION OF PORT ROYAL.

salary for the governor, lieutenant-governor, and other high officers; but the court declined acceding to this demand, and at the same time presented him with £500, out of the treasury, observing the settling a salary for the governor was a new thing for them, and, in their opinion, contrary to the constitution.

War now broke out in Europe, and Dudley held a conference with the eastern Indians, June 20th, 1703, who assured him that they had not the most distant design of engaging in hostilities; that the union was "firm as a mountain, and should continue as long as the sun and moon." The conference broke up, and six weeks afterwards, a party of five hundred French and Indians, in small parties, attacked all the settlements from Casco to Wells, killing and capturing one hundred and thirty persons, and burning all before them.

In the night of February 28th, 1704, a body of three hundred French and Indians, made a violent assault on the town of Deerfield, Massachusetts. They killed forty-seven, took one hundred and twelve prisoners, and set fire to the town.

In 1707, an expedition was planned against Port Royal, in Nova Scotia, then in the hands of the French. It returned without effecting its object; but in 1710, the New England troops, assisted by a British fleet, succeeded in reducing the place, when in compliment to Queen Anne, it was called Annapolis. General Nicholson now went to England to solicit the employment of a force against Canada, and an armament was ordered, proportional to the magnitude of the enterprise. When all preparations were completed, Nicholson, with an army of militia and Indians, to the number of four thousand men, left Albany on the 28th of August, and commenced his march towards Canada. The troops at Boston, under General Hill, embarked on board the fleet, which comprised sixty-eight vessels, carrying six thousand four hundred and sixty-three soldiers. This force sailed on the 30th of July, and arrived at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, on the 14th of August. The weather now became stormy, and the colonial pilots offered their services; but the British captains would trust