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opened the General Court with formal speeches, copies of which were delivered to the two Houses and afterward printed. We give an extract or two, as illustrating the style and manner of proceeding, as well as the sentiments of the new governor. His first speech, a very long one by the by, concluded in these terms: "I should be wanting 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 have 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 providence, in bringing to pass the late happy and wonderful revolution in England. His blessed work it was, without doubt, and He was pleased to make King William, immediately, the author and instrument of it. Ever since the year 1602, England has had a succession of kings, who have been aliens in this respect, that they have not fought our battles nor been in our interests, but have been, in an unnatural 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 person 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 has restored to our nation the almost lost character of bravery and valor; and, what is most valuable of all, his majesty is entirely in the interest of his people. It is therefore our duty and interest to pray to God, in the most fervent manner, that He would bless our great King William with a long and prosperous reign over us, to which I am persuaded, you that are present and all good people will heartily say, Amen." His last speech has more in 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 king favored who parted with Nova Scotia, and of what religion he died."

The noted pirates or buccaneers having been deprived of French and English support, by the remonstrances of Spain, were compelled in a great measure to give up their lawless mode of life. Some of them settled at the west end of Hayti; others stuck to the old trade, and in various places they were received and even winked at by the colonial authorities. A company was formed, King William himself taking shares, to cruise for recapturing the rich prizes which the pirates had made. Curiously enough as it seems to us now, the famous Captain Kidd, was put in command of a ship fitted out for this purpose. Kidd, at that time, bore a good character;

1697.

CH. II.]

1698.

1700.

DUDLEY SUCCESSOR OF BELLAMONT.

165

liam on the throne, Dudley reached Boston in 1702. In his first speech to the Council and Assembly, he informed them that he was com- 1702.

but the temptation appears to have been too great, and so he turned pirate himself. As it was an object to seize on Kidd, Lord Bellamont was charged with the duty of accomplish-manded by her majesty to observe to ing it if he could find him. His them, "that there is no other province own reputation and that of several of or government belonging to the crown his friends depended upon his seizure, of England, except this, where there is that being the only effectual way of not provided a fit and convenient house removing the jealousies and sharp sur- for the reception of the for the reception of the governor, and mises, not only against several of the a settled stated salary for the governor, ministry but even the king himself. lieutenant governor, secretary, judges, Kidd having buried his treasures on and all other officers; which, therefore, the east end of Long Island, is recommended to you. And since this burned his ship, and was daring province is so particularly favored by enough to appear openly in Boston. the crown, in more instances than one, He was arrested, sent to England for their more ready obedience is justly trial, where, with Bradish and others, expected in this and all other occahe was executed. sions." The House, in their answer the next day, observed, "As for those points which, in obedience to her majesty's command, your excellency has laid before this House, we shall proceed with all convenient speed to the consideration of them." Having resolved that the sum of £500 be at this time presented out of the public treasury to the governor, the House, in their answer to some parts of his speech, observed, "As to settling a salary for the governor, it is altogether new to us; nor can we think it agreeable to our present constitution, but we shall be ready to do according to our ability, what may be proper on our part for the support of the government." The sturdy Bostonians had no intention of saddling themselves with any such burdens as these. Dudley could not bring them to the point, and indeed from this time. it became a fruitful source of contention between the governor and the

Bellamont by his prudent course succeeded in obtaining a vote for a more liberal salary than any of his predecessors or successors, for the General Court voted him about $9,000 for the fourteen months he was with them. But he was not able to prevail upon them to rebuild the fort at Pemaquid, or pass ordinances enforcing the acts of trade. A like unwillingness to be shackled in their commercial interests operated in Rhode Island and Connecticut, and caused Bellamont a great deal of trouble and vexation. In 1701, while in New York and engaged in pretty sharp controversy growing out of the navigation act, Lord Bellamont suddenly died.

1701.

Joseph Dudley, an ambitious, but by no means a popular man, obtained the appointment of governor from the king. Having received his commission from Queen Anne, who succeeded Wil

colonists as to their respective rights was calculated that every Indian scalp and privileges.

1701.

1703.

1704.

The disputes between France and England relative to the "Spanish succession" brought on a second intercolonial war, and involved the colonists not only with the French in the north, but with the Spaniards, also, in Florida. Active preparations were made in Canada, in 1702, for renewing the contest, and the settlements in Maine were furiously attacked. The colonists had already provoked hostilities by plundering the half-breed son of Baron Castin, on the Penobscot. The eastern Indians, wholly under French influence, were easily roused to seek revenge. Accordingly a body of two hundred Canadians and a hundred and fifty Indians, under the command of Hertelle de Rouville, in March, 1704, descended the Connecticut and stole upon the village of Deerfield, in the dead of a wintry night, while the sentinels were all asleep, and the snowdrifts piled high rendered it an easy thing to scale the palisade. The village was burned, nearly fifty of the inhabitants murdered, and a hundred more driven through the snow-covered forests to Canada, a distance of about three hundred miles. As the women and children sunk with fatigue, their sufferings were ended by the tomahawk. In reprisal for these atrocities the English offered a premium of-on an average $100 for the scalps of the Indians, and the whole frontier was a scene of bloody and barbarous recrimination. So difficult, however, was it to succeed in taking an Indian that it

brought in during this war cost the colony over $3,000.

1708.

This same De Rouville, in 1708, set forth on another predatory expedition, with the view of surprising Portsmouth, but not being able to obtain some expected reinforcements, fell again upon the little village of Haverhill. With that astonishing bigotry and fanaticism of the day, thinking that they were doing God service, they went through their devotions, then entered the village a little before sunrise, and began the wonted work of destruction. Fifty of the inhabitants were killed by the hatchet, or burned in the flames of their own homesteads. The first panic having subsided, a bold defence was made. Davis, an intrepid man, concealed himself behind a barn, and by beating violently on it, and calling out to his imaginary succors, "Come on! Come on!" as if already on the spot, succeeded in alarming the invaders. Here occurred another remarkable instance of female energy and heroism, called forth by the terrible emergencies of the period. One Swan, and his wife, seeing two Indians approach their dwelling, to save themselves and children, planted themselves against the narrow doorway, and maintained it with desperate energy against them, till their strength began to fail. The husband, unable to bear the pressure, cried to his wife that it was useless any longer to resist, but she, seeing but one of the half-naked Indians was already forcing himself into the doorway, seized a sharp-pointed spit, drove it with her whole strength into his body, and

CH. II.]

EXPEDITION AGAINST QUEBEC.

thus compelled himself and his fellow savage to retreat. The alarm being given, it was with some difficulty that the invaders contrived to effect their escape from the scene of their barbarous assault.

Dudley having obtained information of the weakness of Canada, prevailed upon Rhode Island and New Hampshire to join in an enterprise 1707. against the French. The expedition consisted of a thousand men, and was directed against Port Royal; but they were not able to reduce the fort. Having burned and ravaged in every direction, and having failed in a second attack on the citadel, they were compelled to abandon the enterprise. An earnest petition was made at this

1708.

time (1708) to Queen Anne, to terminate this "consuming war" of little less than twenty years' duration, by the final conquest of all the French possessions. All the northern States joined in raising and equipping troops, and agents were sent over to urge the coöperation of the English Government. Their application was successful, and two English ships of war, with five hundred marines on board, appeared in the harbor of Boston. With a considerable force raised by the colonists, they proceeded, under the command of Nicholson, to invest Port Royal, which was in no condition to offer a protracted resistance. The French were obliged to capitulate, and the conquered fortress, in honor of the English queen, received the name of Annapolis, which it has ever since retained. With the exception of the inhabitants within a circuit of three

1710.

167

1711.

miles, all others were exposed to plunder and ill usage at the caprice of the captors; and the proposition was even made to drive them from their homes "unless they would turn Protestants." Nicholson, who had gone to England, returned again in June, 1711, and brought with him the important information that a large armament was under way for the subjugation of Canada. A few weeks afterwards a fleet of fifteen ships of war, commanded by Sir Hovenden Walker, with forty transports, and five regiments of veterans of Marlborough's troops, arrived at Boston. Delayed rather vexatiously, it was not till the last of July that the expedition, with seven thousand men on board, sailed against Quebec. Nichol- 1711. son repaired to Albany, to take the command of a large body of troops that were to proceed by land to attack Montreal. When the fleet had advanced ten leagues up the river St. Lawrence, the weather became tempestuous and foggy. A difference of opinion arose concerning the course to be pursued; the English pilots recommending one course, and the colonial another. The admiral, like most English officers, preferred the advice of his own to that of the colonial pilots. Pursuing the course they recommended during the night, eight transports were driven upon the rocks and dashed to pieces. From every quarter cries of distress arose, conveying through the darkness, to those who were yet afloat, intelligence of the fate of their comrades, and of their own danger. The shrieks of the drowning pleaded powerfully for assist

ance, but none could be afforded until the morning dawned, when six or seven hundred, found floating on the scat tered wrecks, were rescued from death, nearly a thousand having sunk to rise no more. Chagrined by this terrible disaster, the admiral sailed away as fast as possible for England, where he arrived in the month of October. The New England troops returned to their homes, and Nicholson, having learned the fate of the fleet, led back his troops to Albany. The indignation of the colonists knew no bounds, and they unsparingly denounced those who had caused the failure of the expedition, and involved them in this heavy and disgraceful expense and loss.

The treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, put an end to the second intercolonial war.

So far as America was concerned 1713. the colonists obtained considerable advantages, inasmuch as there was yielded to them the entire possession of Hudson's Bay and the fur trade, the whole of Newfoundland, the French having certain privileges in the fisheries, and the territory of Acadie, which received the name of NOVA SCOTIA.

The affairs of the war had so engaged public attention, that we hear little of party disputes for five or

six years but as soon as they were delivered from enemies without, a contention began within, the effects of which were felt for many years together. The paper bills of credit were the cause of this contention: so many of which had been issued for the charges of the war-particularly the large sum of £40,000, issued for the Canada expedition that they were

become the instrument and measure of commerce, and silver and gold were hardly at all to be obtained. The price of every thing bought or sold consequently, was no longer compared with gold or silver, but with the paper bills, or rather 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; and it was thought by many that increasing the paper bills would enliven and increase trade.

Three parties grew out of the difference of views on this question. One was very small, and advocated the drawing in the paper bills and depending upon silver and gold currency. Mr. Hutchinson, 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 principle very ancient, but too seldom practised upon-nil utile quod non honestum: "nothing is advantageous which is not honest."

Another party was very numerous. These projected 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 suf ficient value, were to be bound as a security that the company should perform their engagements. They solicited the sanction of the General Court, and an act of government to incorporate them. This party consisted, for the most part, of persons in difficult or involved circumstances in trade, or such

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