but his heirs had never relinquished their claims to the territory. The people of Maine had meanwhile put themselves under the authority of Massachusetts; but the representatives of Gorges carried the matter before the privy council, and in 1677 a decision was rendered in their favor. Thereupon the Boston government made a proposition to the Gorges family to purchase their claims; the proposition was accepted, and on the 6th of May the heirs signed a deed by which, in consideration of twelve hundred and fifty pounds sterling, the soil and jurisdiction of the province were transferred to Massachusetts.

A similar difficulty arose in regard to New Hampshire. As far back as 1622 the Plymouth council had granted this territory to two of their own number-Gorges, just mentioned, and Captain John Mason. Seven years after the grant was made, Gorges surrendered his claim to Mason, who thus became sole proprietor. But this territory was also covered by the charter of Massachusetts. Mason died; and now, in 1679, his son Robert came forward and claimed the province. This cause was also taken before the ministers, who decided that the title of the younger Mason was valid. To the great disappointment of the people of both provinces, the two governments were arbitrarily separated. The king's policy was now made manifest. A royal government, the first in New England, was immediately established over New Hampshire; Mason nominated Edward Cranfield as governor, the king confirmed the appointment, and received in return one-fifth of all the rents.

But the people took care that the rents should not amount to much. They refused to recognize Cranfield's commission, and thwarted his plans in every way possible. Being in despair, he wrote to the English government that he would esteem it the greatest happiness to return home and leave the unreasonable people of New Hampshire to themselves. The king attributed all this trouble to the influence of Massachusetts. He could not forget how that commonwealth had treated his custom-house officer Randolph. The hostility of the English government to the existing order of things in New England became more bitter than ever. To carry out his plan of subverting the colonial governments, the king directed his judges to make an inquiry as to whether Massachusetts had not forfeited her charter. The proceedings were protracted until the summer of 1684, when the royal court gave a decision in accordance with the monarch's wishes. The patent was forfeited, said the judges; and the English crown might justly assume entire control of the colony. The plan of the king was thus on the point of realization, but the shadow of death was already at his door. On the 6th of February, 1685, his evil reign of twenty-five years ended with his life.

The new sovereign, James II., immediately adopted his brother's colonial policy. In the next year after his accession, the scheme so long entertained was successfully carried out. The charter of Massachusetts was formally revoked; all the colonies between Nova Scotia and Narragansett Bay were consolidated, and Joseph Dudley appointed president. New England was not prepared for open resistance; the colonial assembly was dissolved by its own act, and the members returned sullenly to their homes. In the winter following, Dudley was superseded by Sir Edmund Andros, who had been appointed royal governor of all New England. His commission ought to have been entitled AN ARTICLE FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF COLONIAL LIBERTY. If James II. had searched his kingdom, he could hardly have found a tool better fitted to do his will. The scarlet-coated despot landed at Boston on the 20th of December, and at once began the work of demolishing the cherished institutions of the people. Randolph was made chief secretary and censor of the press; nothing might be printed without his sanction. Popular representation was abolished. Voting by ballot was prohibited. Town meetings were forbidden. The Church of England was openly encouraged. The public schools were allowed to go to ruin. Men were arrested without warrant of law; and when as prisoners they arose in court to plead the privileges of the great English charter which had stood unquestioned for four hundred and fifty years, they were told that the Great Charter was not made for the perverse people of America. Dudley, who had been continued in office as chief-justice, was in the habit of saying to his packed juries, at the close of each trial: "Now, worthy gentlemen, we. expect a good verdict from you to-day;" and the verdicts were rendered accordingly.

(better.

Thus did Massachusetts lose her liberty; and Plymouth fared no better. If the stronger colony fell prostrate, what could the weaker do? The despotism of Andros was quickly extended from Cape Cod Bay to the Piscataqua. New Hampshire was next invaded and her civil rights completely overthrown. Rhode Island suffered the same calamity. In May of 1686 her charter was taken away with a writ, and her constitutional rights subverted. Some of the colonists brought forward Indian deeds for their lands; the royal judges replied, with a sneer, that the signature of Massasoit was not worth as much as the scratch of a bear's paw. The seal of Rhode Island was broken, and an irresponsible council appointed to conduct the government. Attended by an armed guard, Andros proceeded to Connecticut. Arriving at Hartford in October of 1687, he found the assembly of the province in session, and demanded the surrender of the colonial charter. The instrument was brought in and laid upon the table. A spirited debate ensued, and continued until evening. When

it was about to be decided that the charter should be given up, the lamps were suddenly dashed out. Other lights were brought in; but the charter had disappeared. Joseph Wadsworth, snatching up the precious parchment, bore it off through the darkness and concealed it in a hollow tree, ever afterward remembered with affection as THE CHARTER OAK. But the assembly was overawed and the free government of Connecticut) subverted. Thus was the authority of Andros established throughout the country. The people gave vent to their feelings by calling him THE TYRANT OF NEW ENGLAND.

But his dominion ended suddenly. The English Revolution of1688 was at hand. James II. was driven from his throne and kingdom. The entire system of arbitrary rule which that monarch had established fell with a crash, and Andros with the rest. The news of the revolution and of the accession of William and Mary reached Boston on the 4th of April, 1689. A few days afterward, the governor had occasion to write a note to his colonel of militia, telling him to keep the soldiers under arms, as there was "a general buzzing among the people." On the 18th of the month, the citizens of Charlestown and Boston rose in open rebellion. Andros and his minions, attempting to escape, were seized and marched to prison. The insurrection spread through the country; and before the 10th of May every colony in New England had restored its former liberties.

IN

CHAPTER XVI.

MASSACHUSETTS.-WAR AND WITCHCRAFT.

N 1689, war was declared between France and England. This conflict, known in American history as KING WILLIAM'S WAR, grew out of the English Revolution of the preceding year. When James II. escaped from his kingdom, he found refuge at the court of Louis XIV. of France. The two monarchs were both Catholics, and both held the same despotic theory of government. On this account, and from other considerations, an alliance was made between them, by the terms of whichLouis agreed to support James in his effort to recover the English throne. Parliament, meanwhile, had settled the crown on William of Orange. By these means the new sovereign was brought into conflict not only with the exiled James, but also with his confederate, the king of France.

The war which thus originated in Europe soon extended to the American colonies of the two nations; New England and New France entered the ✓ conflict under the flags of their respective countries.

The struggle began on the north-eastern frontier of New Hampshire. On the 27th of June, a party of Indians in alliance with the French made an attack on Dover. The venerable magistrate of the town, Richard Waldron, now eighty years of age, was inhumanly murdered. Twenty-three others were killed, and twenty-nine dragged off captive into the wilderness.

In August a war-party of a hundred Abenakis embarked in a fleet of canoes, floated out of the mouth of the Penobscot, and steered down the coast to Pemaquid, now Bremen. The inhabitants were taken by surprise; a company of farmers were surrounded in the harvest-field and murdered. The fort was besieged for two days and compelled to surrender. A few of the people escaped into the woods, but the greater number were killed or carried away captive. A month later an alliance was effected between the English and the powerful Mohawks west of the Hudson; but the Indians refused to make war upon their countrymen of Maine. The Dutch settlements of New Netherland, having now passed under the dominion of England, made common cause against the French.

In January of 1690 a regiment of French and Indians left Montreal and directed their march to the south. Crossing the Mohawk River, they arrived on the 8th of February at the village of Schenectady. Lying concealed in the forest until midnight, they stole through the unguarded gates, raised the war-whoop and began the work of death. The town was soon in flames. Sixty people were killed and scalped; the rest, escaping half clad into the darkness, ran sixteen miles through the snow to Albany. The settlement of Salmon Falls, on the Piscataqua, was next attacked and destroyed by a war-party led by the Frenchman Hertel. Joining another company from Quebec, under command of Portneuf, the savages proceeded against the colony at Casco Bay. The English fort at that place was taken and the settlements broken up. Thus far the fortunes of the

war had been wholly on the side of the French and their allies.

But New England was now thoroughly aroused. In order to provide the ways and means of war, a colonial congress was convened at New York. Here it was resolved to attempt the conquest of Canada by marching an army by way of Lake Champlain against Montreal. At the same time, Massachusetts was to co-operate with the land forces by sending a fleet by way of the St. Lawrence for the reduction of Quebec. Thirtyfour vessels, carrying two thousand troops, were accordingly fitted out, and the command given to Sir William Phipps. Proceeding first against Port

Royal, he compelled a surrender; the whole of Nova Scotia submitted without a struggle. If the commander had sailed at once against Quebec, that place too would have been forced to capitulate; but vexatious delays retarded the expedition until the middle of October. Meanwhile, an Abenaki Indian had carried the news of the coming armament to Frontenac, governor of Canada; and when the fleet came in sight of the town, the castle of St. Louis was so well garrisoned and provisioned as to bid defiance to the English forces. The opportunity was lost, and it only remained for Phipps to sail back to Boston. To meet the expenses of this unfortunate expedition, Massachusetts was obliged to issue bills of credit which were made a legal tender in the payment of debt. Such was the origin of PAPER MONEY in America.

Meanwhile, the land forces had proceeded from Albany as far as Lake Champlain. Here dissensions arose among the commanders. Colonel Leisler of New York charged Winthrop of Connecticut with treachery; and the charge was returned that Leisler's commissary had furnished no supplies for the Connecticut soldiers. The quarrel became so violent that the expedition had to be abandoned, and the troops marched gloomily homeward. The great campaign had resulted in complete humiliation.

Sir William Phipps had as little success in civil matters as in the command of a fleet. Shortly after his return from Quebec he was sent as ambassador to England. The objects of his mission were, in the first place, to procure aid from the English government in the further prosecution of the war; and secondly, to secure, if possible, a reissue of the old colonial charter. To the first of these requests the ministers replied that the armies and navies of England could not be spared to take part in a petty Indian war; and the second was met with coldness and refusal. King William was secretly opposed to the liberal provisions of the former charter, and looked with disfavor on the project of renewing it. It is even doubtful whether Phipps himself desired the restoration of the old patent; for when he returned to Boston in the spring of 1692, he bore a new instrument from the king, and a commission as royal governor of the province. By the terms of this new constitution, Plymouth, Maine and Nova Scotia were consolidated with Massachusetts; while New Hampshire, against the protests and petitions of her people, was forcibly separated from the mother colony.

The war still continued, but without decisive results. In 1694, the village of Oyster River, now Durham, was destroyed by a band of savages led by the French captain Villieu. The inhabitants, to the number of ninety-four, were either killed or carried into captivity. Two years later