advanced gave no very good Prospect of Success to the Expedition but that which gave a much worse was a most horrid Mismanagement which had the mean while happened in the West For a Thousand English from New-York and Albany and Connecticut with Fifteen Hundred Indians were to have gone over-Land in the West and fallen upon Mount-Royal while the Fleet was to Visit Quebeck in the East and no Expedition could have been better laid than This which was thus contrived But those English Companies in the West marching as far as the great Lake that was to be passed found their Canoos not provided according to expectation and the Indians also were How God knows and will one Day Judge dissuaded from Joining with the English and the Army met with such Discouragements that they returned Had this Western Army done but so much as continued at the Lake the Diversion thereby given to the French Quartered at Mount-Royal would have rendered the Conquest of Quebeck caâ—e and certain but the Governour of Canada being Informed of the Retreat made by the Western-Army had opportunity by the cross Winds that kept back the Fleet unhappily to get the whole Strength of all the Country into the City before the Fleet could come up unto it However none of these Difficulties hindred Sir William Phips from sending on Shoar the following Summons on Monday the Sixth of October Sir William Phips Knight General and Commander in Chief in and over Their Majesties Forces of New-England by Sea and Land To Count Frontenac Lieutenent-General and Governour for the French King at Canada or in his Absence to his Deputy or Him or Them in Chief Command at Quebeck THE War between the Two Crowns of England and France doth not only sufficiently Warrant but the Destruction made by the French and Indians under your Command and Encouragement upon the Persons and Estates of Their Majesties Subjects of New-England without Provocation on their part hath put them under the Necessity of this Expedition for their own Security and Satisfaction And although the Cruelties and Barbarities used against them by the French and Indians might upon the present Opportunity prompt unto a severe Revenge yet being desirous to avoid all Inhumane and Unchristian-like Actions and to prevent shedding of Blood as much as may be I the aforesaid Sir William Phips Knight do hereby in the Name and in the Behalf of Their Most Excellent Majesties William and Mary King and Queen of England Scotland France and Ireland Defenders of the Faith and by Order of Their said Majesties Government of the Massachuset-Colony in new-New-England Demand a present Surrender of your Forts and Castles undemolished and the King 's and other Stores unimbezzelled with a seasonable Delivery of all Captives together with a Surrender of all your Persons and Estates to my Dispose Upon the doing whereof you may expect Mercy from me as a Christian according to what shall be found for Their Majesties Service and the Subjects Security Which if you Refuse forth-with to do I am come provided and am Resolved by the help of God in whom I trust by Force of Arms to Revenge all Wrongs and Injuries offered and bring you under Subjection to the Crown of England and when too late make you wish you had accepted of the Favour tendered Your Answer Positive in an Hour returned by your own Trumpet with the Return of mine is Required upon the Peril that will ensue The Summons being Delivered unto Count Frontenac his Answer was That Sir William Phips and those with him were Hereticks and Traitors to their King and had taken up with that Vsurper the Prince of Orange and had made a Revolution which if it had not been made new-New-England and the French had been all One and that no other Answer was to be expected from him but what should be from the Mouth of his Cannon General Phips now saw that it must cost him Dry Blowes and that he must Roar his Perswasions out of the Mouths of Great Guns to make himself Master of a City which had certainly Surrender'd it self unto him if he had arrived but a little sooner and Summon'd it before the coming down of Count Frontenac with all his Forces to command the oppressed People there who would have been many of them gladder of coming under the English Government Wherefore on the Seventh of October the English that were for the Land-Service went on Board their lesser Vessels in order to Land among which there was a Bark wherein was Captain Ephraim Savage with sixty Men that ran a Ground upon the North-Shoar near two Miles from Quebeck and could not get off but lay in the same Distress that Scaeva did when the Britans poured in their Numbers upon the Bark wherein he with a few more Soldiers of Caesar's Army were by the disadvantage of the Tide left ashoar The French with Indians that saw them ly there came near and Fired thick upon them and were bravely Answered and when two or three Hundred of the Enemy at last planted a Field-Piece against the Bark while the Wind blew so hard that no help could be sent unto his Men the General Advanced so far as to Level two or three great Guns conveniently enough to make the Assailants Fly and when the Flood came the Bark happily got off without the hurt of one Man aboard But so violent was the Storm of Wind all this Day that it was not possible for them to Land until the Eighth of October when the English counting every Hour to be a Week until they were come to Battle vigorously got ashoar designing to enter the East-end of the City The Small-Pox had got into the Eleet by which Distemper prevailing the number of Effective Men which now went ashoar under the Command of Lieutenant General Walley did not amount unto more than Fourteen Hundred but Four Companies of these were drawn out as Forlorns whom on every side the Enemy fired at nevertheless the English Rushing with a shout at once upon them caused them to Run as fast as Legs could carry them So that the whole English Army expressing as much Resolution as was in Caesar's Army when they first landed on Britaiâ— in spight of all opposition from the Inhabitants marched on until it was dark having first killed many of the French with the loss of but four Men of their own and frighted about seven or eight Hundred more of the French from an Ambuscado where they lay ready to fall upon them But some thought that by staying in the Valley they took the way never to get over the Hill And yet for them to stay where they were till the smaller Vessels came up the River before them so far as by their Guns to secure the Passage of the Army in their getting over was what the Council of War had ordered But the Violence of the Weather with the General 's being sooner plunged into the heat of Action than was intended hindred the smaller
have considered the circumstances of England and of Scotland In New-England they differ from other Plantations they are called Congregational and Presbyterian So that such a Governour will not suit with the People of New-England as may be very proper for other English Plantations Two Days after this the King upon what was proposed by certain Lords was very inquisitive whether He might without breach of Law set a Governour over new-New-England whereto the Lord Chief Justice and some others of the Council answered That whatever might be the Merit of the Cause inasmuch as the Charter of New-England stood vacated by a Judgment against them it was in the King's Power to put them under what Form of Government He should think best for them The King then said That He believed it would be for the Advantage of the People in that Colony to be under a Governour appointed by Himself Nevertheless because of what Mr. Mather had spoken to Him He would have the Agents of new-New-England nominate a Person that should be agreeable unto the Inclinations of the People there and notwithstanding this He would have Charter-Priviledges restored and confirmed unto them The Day following the King began another Voyage to Holland and when the Attorney General 's Draught of a Charter according to what he took to be his Majesty's Mind as expressed in Council was presented at the Council-Board on the eighth of June some Objections then made procured an Order to prepare Minutes for another Draught which deprived the New-Englanders of several Essential Priviledges in their other Charter Mr. Mather put in his Objections and vehemently protested that he would sooner part with his Life than consent unto those Minutes or any thing else that should infringe any Liberty or Priviledge of Right belonging unto his Country but he was answered That the Agents of New-England were not Plenipotentiaries from another Soveraign State and that if they would not submit unto the King's Pleasure in the settlement of the Country they must take what would follow The dissatisfactory Minutes were by Mr. Mather's Industry sent over unto the King in Flanders and the Ministers of State then with the King were earnestly applied unto that every mistake about the good Settlement of new-New-England might be prevented and the Queen Her self with Her own Royal Hand wrote unto the King that the Charter of new-New-England might either pass as it was drawn by the Attorney General or be deferred until His own Return But after all His Majesties Principal Secretary of State received a Signification of the King's Pleasure That the Charter of new-New-England should run in the Main Points of it as it was now granted Only there were several Important Articles which Mr. Mather by his unwearied Sollicitations obtained afterwards to be inserted There were some now of the Opinion That instead of submitting to this New Settlement they should in Hopes of getting a Reversion of the Judgment against the Old Charter declare to the Mininisters of State That they had rather have no Charter at all than such an one as was now proposed unto Acceptance But Mr. Mather advising with many unprejudiced Persons and Men of the greatest Abilities in the Kingdom Noblemen Gentlemen Divines and Lawyers they all agreed That it was not only a lawful but all Circumstances then considered a needful Thing and a part of Duty and Wisdom to accept what was now offered and that a peremptory Refusal would not only bring an Inconveniency but a Fatal and perhaps a Final Ruine upon the Country whereof Mankind would lay the blame upon the Agents It was argued That such a Submission was no Surrender of any thing That the Judgment not in the Court of Kings Bench but in Chancery against the Old Charter standing on Record the Pattent was thereby Annihilated That all attempts to have the Judgment against the Old Charter taken off would be altogether in vain as Men and Things were then disposed It was further argued That the Ancient Charter of new-New-England was in the Opinion of the Lawyers very Defective as to several Powers which yet were absolutely necessary to the subsistence of the Plantation It gave the Government there no more Power than the Corporations have in England Power in Capital Cases was not therein particularly expressed It mentioned not an House of Deputies or an Assembly of Representatives the Governour and Company had thereby they said no Power to impose Taxes on the Inhabitants that were not Freemen or to erect Courts of Admiralty Without such Powers the Colony could not subsist and yet the best Friends that New-England had of Persons most learned in the Law professed that suppose the Judgment against the Massachuset-Charter might be Reversed yet if they should again Exert such Powers as they did before the Quo Warranto against their Charter a new Writ of Scire Facias would undoubtedly be issued out against them It was yet further argued That if an Act of Parliament should have Reversed the Judgment against the Massachuset-Charter without a grant of some other Advantages the whole Territory had been on many Accounts very miserably Incommoded The Province of Main with Hampshire would have been taken from them and Plymouth would have been annexed unto New-York so that this Colony would have been squeezed into an Atom and not only have been render'd Insignificant in it's Trade but by having it's Militia also which was vested in the King taken away it's Insignificancies would have become out of measure humbling whereas now instead of seeing any Relief by Act of Parliament they would have been put under a Governour with a Commission whereby ill Men and the King 's and Country's Enemies might probably have crept into Opportunities to have done ten thousand ill Things and have treated the best Men in the Land after a very uncomfortable Manner It was lastly argued That by the New Charter very great Priviledges were granted unto new-New-England and in some respects greater than what they formerly enjoyed The Colony is now made a Province and their General Court has with the King's Approbation as much Power in new-New-England as the King and Parliament have in England They have all English Liberties and can be touched by no Law by no Tax but of their own making All the Liberties of their Holy Religion are for ever secured and their Titles to their Lands once for want of some Forms of legal Conveyance contested are now confirmed unto them If an ill Governour should happen to be imposed on them what Hurt could he do to them None except they themselves pleased for he cannot make one Counsellour or one Judge or one Justice or one Sheriff to serve his Turn Disadvantages enough one would think to discourage any ill Governour from desiring to be Stationed in those uneasie Regions The People have a Negative upon all the Executive Part of the Civil Government as well as the Legislative which is a vast Priviledge enjoyed by no other Plantation in America nor
Pietas in Patriam THE LIFE OF HIS EXCELLENCY Sir William PHIPS Knt. Late Captain General and Governour in Chief of the Province of the Massachuset-Bay New England Containing the Memorable Changes Undergone and Actions Performed by Him Written by one intimately acquainted with Him Discite Virtutem ex Hoe verumque Laborem LONDON Printed by Sam. Bridge in Austin-Friers for Nath. Hiller at the Princes-Arms in Leaden-Hall Street over against St. Mary-Ax 1697. To his Excellency the Earl of Bellomont Baron of Coloony in Ireland General Governour of the Province of Massachusets in New England and the Provinces annexed May it please your Excellency THE Station in which the Hand of the God of Heaven hath disposed His Majesties Heart to place your Honour doth so manifestly entitle your Lordship to this insuing Narrative that its being thus Presented to your Excellencies Hand is thereby both Apologized for and Justified I believe had the Writer of it when he Penned it had any Knowledge of your Excellency he would himself have done it and withal would have amply and publickly Congratulated the People of New England on account of their having such a Governour and your Excellency on account of your being made Governour over them For though as to some other things it may possibly be a place to some Persons not so desirable yet I believe this Character may be justly given of them that they are the best People under Heaven there being among them not only less of open Profaneness and less of Lewdness but also more of the serious Profession Practise and Power of Christianity in proportion to their number then is among any other People upon the Face of the whole Earth Not but I doubt there are many bad Persons among them and too many distemper'd Humours perhaps even among those who are truly good It would be a wonder if it should be otherwise for it hath of late Years on various accounts and some very singular and unusual ones been a Day of sore Temptation with that whole People Nevertheless as I look upon it as a Favour from God to those Plantations that he hath set your Excellency over them so I do account it a Favour from God to your Excellency that he hath committed and trusted in your Hand so great a part of his peculiar Treasure and precious Jewels as are among that People Besides that on other accounts the Lord Jesus hath more of a visible Interest in New England then in any of the outgoings of the English Nation in America They have at their own Charge not only set up Schools of lower Learning up and down the Country but have also erected an University which hath been the happy Nursery of many useful Learned and excellently accomplished Persons And moreover from them hath the blessed Gospel been Preached to the poor barbarous savage Heathen there and it hath taken such root among them that there were lately four and twenty Assemblies in which the Name of the Lord Jesus was constantly called on and celebrated in their own Language In these things New England outshineth all the Colonies of the English in those goings down of the Sun I know your Excellency will Favour and Countenance their University and also the Propagating of the Gospel among the Natives for the Interest of Christ in that Part of the Earth is much concerned in them That the God of the Spirits of all Flesh would abundantly replenish your Excellency with a suitable Spirit for the Service to which he hath called your Lordship that he would give your Honour a prosperous Voyage thither and when there make your Excellency a rich Blessing to that People and them a rejoycing to your Excellency is the Prayer of April 27. 1697. My Lord Your Excellencies most Humble Servant Nath. Mather THE CONTENTS OF THE SECTIONS SEct. 1. The Introduction The Authors Ends in Writing this Remarkable History Page 1. Sect. 2. Some great Men with whom Sir William Phips might be parallel'd An Account of his Birth in New-England and his Parentage 3. Sect. 3. He was early inspired with great Hopes Yet puts himself Apprentice to a Shipwright He Marries a Merchants Widow Builds a Ship Saves his Neighbours from the cruelty of the Indians 5. Sect. 4. He strangely foretels his future Advancement An Account of his Genius and Disposition He goes to Sea in quest of a Spanish Wreck Sails to England for Assistance Is made Captain of one of the Kings Frigats 6. Sect. 5. His Conduct and Courage when his Men Mutiny'd He gets Intelligence of the Place where the Spanish Wreck lay Sails to England again for farther help 7. Sect. 6. His admirable Patience Diligence c. in prosecuting his Business Returns to Port de la Plata in America Happily finds out the Wreck which had been cast away Fifty Years before An Account how he fished and brought up two and thirty Tuns of Silver besides Gold and Jewels His Seamen Mutiny He quiets them Brings his Treasure being about 300000 l. Sterling to London His Honesty both to his Employers and to his Seamen He is Rewarded and Knighted Page 10. Sect. 7. His generous Temper and great Love to his Native Country Some Account of the sad State of New-England by the loss of its Charter and by an ill Governour Sir William Phips his endeavours at Court to serve New-England He is made High Sheriff of that Country Sails a second time to the Wreck with Sir John Narborough 15. Sect. 8. A large Account of New-Englands Sufferings and Oppressions under their bad Governour For redress whereof Sir William Phips makes a Voyage to England King James offers him the Government of new-New-England on Terms which He could not accept He returns to New-England Finds his Country in new troubles from the Indians News is brought thither of the Prince of Orange's Success in England An Account how the Revolution was brought about in New-England their Governour imprisoned c. 19. Sect. 9. Sir William Phips joyns himself to a Church in New-England His own Account of his Conversion to God Page 26. Sect. 10. His great Zeal to serve his Country His Expedition against the French at L'Acady and Nova Scotia He recovers that Country from them Anno 1690. 30. Sect. 11. A large Account of his Expedition against the French at Canada with a Fleet of 32 Ships in the same Year The Story out of Bradwardine of an Angel and Hermite that travelled together 32. Sect. 12. Bills of Credit passed a little while in New-England instead of Money Some farther Matters relating to the Canada Expedition A wonderful Relation of a Shipwrack and how some of the Men were strangely preserved With the great hardships and difficulties they underwent for six or seven Months 43. Sect. 13. Sir William Phips makes a Voyage to England to obtain help for another Expedition against Canada His Reasons presented to the King 52. Sect. 14. Some Account of Mr. Increase Mather 's Negotiations at White-Hall on the
behalf of new-New-England Sir William Phips joyns with him A new Charter is obtained Sir William is made Captain General and Governour of New-England He and Mr. Mather return home 54. Sect. 15. How wisely and uprightly Sir William governed New-England Page 62. Sect. 16. A remarkable History of the strange Witchcrafts and Possessions in New-England 66. Sect. 17. Governour Phips raiseth an Army and marcheth against the Indians Builds a Fort to bridle them They sue for Peace and own Subjection to the Crown of England His laborious endeavours for his Country His Care to send a Preacher to the Indians He dispatches a Frigat to St. John 's against the French The Indians assisted by the French make a new War 82. Sect. 18. A Description and Character of Governour Phips 88. Sect. 19. The Predictions of an Astrologer concerning Sir William And the Event 96. Sect. 20. Governour Phips as good as he was yet met with some Enemies They Article against Him at White-Hall The King sends for Him He Sails to England where he meets with Favour and was like to have soon returned Governour of New-England But Dies at London and is there Buried and with Him Great Hopes and Designs for the good of both Englands some of which are recounted 99. Sect. 21. Some farther Things by way of Character and Elogy A Poem upon his Death 105. THE Author of the following Narrative is a Person of such well known Integrity Prudence and Veracity that there is not any cause to Question the Truth of what he here Relates And moreover this Writing of his is adorned with a very grateful Variety of Learning and doth contain such surprizing workings of Providence as do well deserve due Notice and Observation On all which accounts it is with just Confidence recommended to the Publick by April 27. 1697. Nath. Mather John Howe Matth. Mead. THE LIFE Of His Excellency Sir William PHIPS Knt. LATE GOVERNOUR OF New England SECTION I. IF such a Renowned Chymist as Quercetanus with a whole Tribe of Labourers in the Fire since that Learned Man find it no easie thing to make the common part of Mankind believe That they can take a Plant in it 's more vigorous Consistence and after a due Maceration Fermentation and Separation extract the Salt of that Plant which as it were in a Chaos invisibly reserves the Form of the whole with its vital Principle and that keeping the Salt in a Glass Hermetically sealed they can by applying a Soft Fire to the Glass make the Vegetable rise by little and little out of its Ashes to surprize the Spectators with a notable Illustration of that Resurrection in the Faith whereof the Jews returning from the Graves of their Friends pluck up the Grass from the Earth using those Words of the Scripture thereupon Your Bones shall flourish like an Herb 'T is likely that all the Observations of such Writers as the incomparable Borellus will find it hard enough to produce our Belief that the Essential Salts of Animals may be so prepared and Preserved that an Ingenious man may have the whole Ark of Noah in his own Study and raise the fine shape of an Animal out of it's Ashes at his pleasure and that by the like Method from the Essential Salts of Humane Dust a Philosopher may without any Criminal Necromancy call up the Shape of any Dead Ancestor from the Dust whereinto his Body has bin Incinerated The Resurrection of the Dead will be as Just as Great an Article of our Creed although the Relations of these Learned Men should pass for Incredible Romances But yet there is an Anticipation of that Blessed Resurrection carrying in it some Resemblance of these Curiosities which is performed when we do in a Book as in a Glass reserve the History of our Departed Friends and by bringing our Warm Affections unto such an History we Revive as it were out of their Ashes the True Shape of those Friends and bring to a fresh View What was Memorable and Imitable in them Now in as much as Mortality has done its part upon a Considerable Person with whom I had the Honour to be Well-acquainted and a Person as Memorable for the Wonderful Charges which befel him as Imitable for his Vertues and Actions under those Charges I shall endeavour with the Chymistry of an Impartial Historian to raise my Friend so far out of his Ashes as to shew him again unto the World and if the Character of Heroick Vertue be for a Man to deserve well of Markind and be great in the Purpose and Success of Essays to do so I may Venture to Promise my Reader such Example of Heroick Vertue in the Story whereto I Invite him that he shall say it would have bin little short of a Vice in me to have withheld it from him Nor is it any Partiality for the Memory of my Deceased Friend or any other Sinister Design whatsoever that has Invited me to this Undertaking but I have undertaken this Matter from a sincere Desire that the Ever-Glorious Lord JESVS CHRIST may have the Glory of his Power and Goodness and of his Providence in what he did for such a Person and in what He disposed and Assisted that Person to Do for Him Now May He assist my writing even He that prepared the Subject whereof I am to write SECT 2. SO obscure was the Original of that Memorable Person whose Actions I am going to relate that I must in a way of Writing like that of Plutarch prepare my Reader for the Intended Relation by first searching the Archives of Antiquity for a Parallel Now because we will not Parallel him with Eumenes who though he were the Son of a poor Carrier became a Governour of Mighty Provinces Nor with Marius whose mean Parentage did not hinder his becoming a Glorious Defender of his Country and Seven Times the chief Magistrate of the chiefest City in the Universe Nor with Iphicrates who became a Successful and Renwoned General of a Great People though his Father were a Cobler Nor with Dioclesian the Son of a poor Scrivener Nor with Bonosus the Son of a poor School-Master who yet came to sway the Scepter of the Roman Empire Nor lastly will I compare him to the more late Example of the Celebrated Mazarini who though no Gentleman by his Extraction and one so sorily Educated that he might have wrote Man before he could write at all yet asâ—ended unto that Grandeur in the Memory of many yet living as to Umpire the most Important Affairs of Christendom We will decline looking any further in that Haemisphere of the World and make the Hue and Cry throughout the Regions of America the New World which He that is becoming the subject of our History by his Nativity belong'd unto And in America the first that meets me is Francisco Pizarro who though a Spurious Offspring exposed when a Babe in a Church-Porch at a sorry Village of Navarre and afterwards employ'd while he was a
interwoven into all that remains of his History and his Character Accordingly though he had the Offers of a very Gainful Place among the Commissioners of the Navy with many other Invitations to settle himself in England nothing but a Return to New-England would content him And whereas the Charters of New-England being taken away there was a Governour Imposed upon the Territories with as Arbitrary and as Treasonable a Commission perhaps as ever was heard of a Commission by which the Governour with Three or Four more none of whom were chosen by the People had Power to make what Laws they would and Levy Taxes according to their own Humours upon the people and he himself had Power to send the Best men in the Land more than Ten Thousand miles out of it as he pleased And in the Execution of his Power the Country was every day suffering Intollerable Invasions upon their Proprieties yea and the Lives of the Best Men in the Territory began to be practised upon Sir William Phips applied himself to Consider what was the most significant Thing that could be done by him for that poor people in their present Circumstances Indeed when King James offered as he did unto Sir William Phips an Opportunity to Ask what he pleased of Him Sir William Generously prayed for nothing but This That new-New-England might have its Lost Priviledges Restored The King then Replied Any Thing but that whereupon he set himself to Consider what was the Next Thing that he might Ask for the service not of himself but of his Country The Result of his Consideration was That by Petition to the King he Obtained with Expence of some Hundreds of Guinea's a Patent which constituted him The High Sheriff of that Country Hoping by his Deputies in that Office to supply the Country still with Conscientious Juries which was the Only Method that the New-Englanders had left them to secure any thing that was Dear unto them Furnished with this Patent after he had in Company with Sir John Narborough made a Second Visit unto the Wreck not so advantageous as the former for a Reason already mentioned in his way he Returned unto New-England in the Sumaner of the Year 1688. able after Five Years Absence to Entertain his Lady with some Accomplishment of his Predictions and then Built himself a Fair Brick House in the very place which wee foretold the Reader can tell how many Sections ago But the Infamous Government then Rampant there found a way wholly to put by the Execution of this Patent yea he was like to have had his Person assassinated in the face of the Sun before his own Door which with some further Designs then in his Mind caused him within a few Weeks to take another Voyage for Ergland SECT 8. IT Would require a long Summers-Day to Relate the miseries which were come and coming in upon poor New-England by reason of the Arbitrary Government then Imposed on them A Government wherein as Old Wendover says of the Time when Strangers were domineering over Subjects in England Judicia committebantur Injustis Leges Exlegibus Pax Discordantibus Justitia Injuriosis and Foxes were made the Administrators of Justice to the Poultrey yet some Abridgement of them is necessary for the better understanding of the Matters yet before us Now to make this Abridgment Impartial I shall only have Recourse unto a Little Book Printed at London under the Title of The Revolution of New-England Justisied wherein we have a Narrative of the Grievances under the Male Administrations of that Government written and signed by the chief Gentlemen of the Governour 's Council together with the Sworn Testimonies of many Good men to prove the Several Articles of the Declaration which the New-Englanders published against their Oppressors It is in that Book demonstrated That the Governour neglecting the Greater Number of his Council did Adhere principally to the Advice of a few Strangers who were persons without any Interest in the Country but of Declared Prejudice against it and had plainly laid their Designs to make an Unreasonable Profit of the poor people and four or five persons had the Absolute Rule over a Territory the most Considerable of any belorging to the Crown That when Laws were proposed in the Council tho the major part at any time Dissented from them yet if the Governour were positive there was no fair Counting the Number of Councellors Consenting or Dissenting but the Laws were immediatly Engrossed published and Executed That This Junto made a Law which prohibited the Inhabitants of any Town to meet about their Town-Affairs above once in a year for fear you must Note of their having any opportunity to Complain of Grievances That they made another Law requiring all Masters of Vessels even Shallops and Wood-boats to give Security that no Man should be Transported in them except his name had been so many Days posted up whereby the Pockets of a few Leeches had been filled with Fees but the whole Trade of the Country destroyed and all Attempts to obtain a Redress of these Things obstructed And when this Act had been strenuously opposed in Council at Boston they carried it as far as New-York where a Crew of them enacted it That without any Assembly they Levied on the People a penny in the pound of all their Estates and Twenty-pence per Head as Poll-money with a penny in the Pound for Goods Imported besides a Vast Exeise on Wine Rum and other Liquors That when among the Inhabitants of Ipswich some of the Principal Persons modestly gave Reasons why they could not choose a Commissioner to Tax the Town until the King should first be Petitioned for the Liberty of an Assembly they were committed unto Gaol for it as an High Misdemeanour and were denied an Habeas Corpus and were drag'd many Miles out of their own County to answer it at a Court in Boston where Jurors were pickt for the Turn that were not Freeholders nay that were meer sojourners and when the Prisoners pleaded the Priviledges of English-men That they should not be Taxed without their own consent they were told That those things would not follow them to the ends of the earth As it had been before told them in open Council no one in the Council contradicting it You have no more Priviledges left you but this that you are not bought and sold for Slaves And in fine they were all fined severely and laid under great Bonds for their Good Behaviour besides all which the hurgry Officers extorted Fees from them that amounted unto an Hundred and Threescore Pounds whereas in England upon the like Prosecution the Fees would not have been Ten Pounds in all After which fashion the Townsmen of many other Places were also served That These Men giving out That the Charters being lost all the Title that the People had unto their Lands was lost with them they began to compel the People every where to take Patents for their Lands And accordingly
Writs of Intrusion were issued out against the chief Gentlemen in the Territory by the Terror whereof many were actually driven to Petition for Patents that they might quietly enjoy the Lands that had been fifty or sixty Years in their possession But for these Patents there were such exorbitant Prices demanded that Fifty Pounds could not purchase for its Owner an Estate not worth Two Hundred nor could all the Money and Moveables in the Territory have defrayed the Charges of Patenting the Lands at the Hands of these Crocodiles besides the considerable Quit-Rents for the King Yea the Governour caused the Lands of particular persons to be measured out and given to his Creatures And some of his Council Petitioned for the Commons belonging to several Towns and the Agents of the Towns going to get a voluntary Subscription of the Inhabitants to maintain their Title at Law they have been dragg'd Forty or Fifty Miles to answer as Criminals at the next Assizes the Officers in the mean time extorting three Pounds per Man for fetching them That if these Harpies at any Time were a little out of Money they found ways to Imprison the best men in the Countrey and there appeared not the least Information of any Crime exhibited against them yet they were put unto Intollerable Expences by these Greedy Oppressors and the Benefit of an Habeas Corpus not allowed unto them That pack't and pick't Juries were Commonly made use of when under a Pretended Form of Law the Trouble of some Honest and Worthy Men was aimed at and these also were hurried out of their own Counties to be tried when Juries for the Turn were not like to be found there The Greatest Rigour being used still towards the soberest sort of people whilst in the mean time the most horrid Enormities in the World committed by Others were overlook'd That The publick Ministry of the Gospel and All Schools of Learning were discountenanced unto the Utmost And several more such abominable things too notorious to be denied even by a Randolphian impudence it self are in that Book proved against that unhappy Government Nor did that most Ancient Sett of the Phoenician Shepherds who scrued the Government of Egypt into their Hands as Old Manethon tells us by their Villanies during the Reigns of those Tyrants make a Shepherd more of an Abomination to the Egyptians in all after-Ages than these Wolves under the Name of Shepherds have made the Remembrance of their French Government an Abomination to all Posterity among the New-Englanders A Government for which now Reader as fast as thou wilt get ready this Epitaph Nulla quaesita Scelere Potentia diuturna It was under the Resentments of these Things that Sir Williom Phips returned into England in the year 1688. In which Twice-Wonderful-Year such a Revolution was wonderfully accomplished upon the whole Government of the English Nation that New-England which had been a Specimen of what the whole Nation was to look for might justly hope for a share in the General Deliverance Upon this Occasion Sir William offered his best Assistances unto that Eminent Person who a little before this Revolution betook himself unto White-Hall that he might there lay hold on all Opportunities to procure some Relief unto the Oppressions of that afflicted Country But seeing the New-English Affairs in so able an Hand he thought the best Stage of Action for him would now be New-England it self and so with certain Instructions from none of the least considerable Persons at White-Hall what Service to do for his Country in the Spring of the Year 1689 he hastened back unto it Before he left London a Messenger from the Abdicated King tender'd him the Government of new-New-England if he would accept it But as that excellent Attorney General Sir William Jones when it was proposed that the Plantations might be Governed without Assemblies told the King That he could no more Grant a Commission to levy Money on his Subjects there without their consent by an Assembly than they could Discharge themselves from their Allegiance to the English Crown So Sir William Phips thought it his Duty to refuse a Government without an Assembly as a thing that was Treason in the very Essence of it and instead of Petitioning the succeeding Princes that his Patent for High Sheriff might be rendred Effectual he joined in Petitions that New-England might have its own Old Patent so Restored as to render Ineffectual that and all other Grants that might cut short any of it's Ancient Priviledges But when Sir William arrived at New-England he found a New Face of Things For about an Hundred Indians in the Eastern parts of the Country had unaccountably begun a War upon the English in July 1688. and though the Governour then in the Western Parts had immediate Advice of it yet he not only delayed and neglected all that was necessary for the Publick Defence but also when he at Last returned he manifested a most Furious Displeasure against those of the Council and all others that had forwarded any one thing for the security of the Inhabitants while at the same time he dispatched some of his Creatures upon secret Errands unto Canada and set at Liberty some of the most Murderous Indians which the English had seized upon This Conduct of the Governour which is in a Printed Remonstrance of some of the Best Gentlemen in the Council complained of did extreamly dissatisfy the Suspicious People Who were doubtless more extream in some of their Suspicions than there was any real Occasion for But the Governour at length raised an Army of a Thousand Erglish to Conquer this Hundred Indians and this Army whereof some of the chief Commanders were Papists underwent the Fatigues of a Long and a cold Winter in the most Caucasaean Regions of the Territory till without the Killing of One Indian there were more of the poor People Killed than they had Enemies there Alive This added not a Little to the Dissatisfaction of the People and it would much more have done so if they had seen what the World had not yet seen of the Suggestions made by the Irish Catholicks unto the Late King published in the Year 1691 In the Account of the State of the Protestants in Ireland Licensed by the Earl of Nottingham whereof one Article runs in these Express Terms That if any of the Irish cannot have their Lands in Specie but money in Lieu some of them may Transport themselves into America possibly near New-England to check the Growing Independants of that Country Or if they had seen what was afterwards seen in a Letter from K. James to His Holiness as they stile His Foolishness the Pope of Rome That it was his Full purpose to have Set up Roman-Catholick Religion in the English Plantations of America Tho after all there is cause to think that there was more made of the Suspicions then flying like Wild-fire about the Country than a strong Charity would have Countenanced When the People
it is now time for us to return unto Sir William SECT 13. ALL this while CANAD A was as much written upon Sir William's Heart as CALLICE they said once was upon Queen Maries He needed not one to have been his daily Monitor about Canada It lay down with him it rose up with him it engrossed almost all his Thoughts he thought the subduing of Canada to be the greatest service that could be done for New-England or for the Crown of England in America In parsuance whereof after he had been but a few Weeks at Home he took another Voyage for England in the very depth of Winter when Satling was now dangerous conflicting with all the Difficulties of a tedious and a terrible Passage in a very little Vessel which indeed was like enough to have perished if it had not been for the help of his Generous Hand aboard and His Fortunes in the bottom Arriving per tot Discrimina at Bristol he hastned up to London and made his Applications to Their Majesties and the Principal Ministers of State for assistance to Renew an Expedition against Canada concluding his Representation to the King with such Words as these If Your Majesty shall graciously please to Commission and Assist me I am ready to venture my Life again in your Service And I doubt not but by the Blessing of God Canada may be added unto the rest of your Dominions which will all circumstances considered be of more advantage to the Crown of England than all the Territories in the West-Indies are The Reasons here subjoined are humbly Offered unto Your Majesties Consideration First The Success of this Design will greatly add to the Glory and Interest of the English Crown and Nation by the Addition of the Bever-Trade and securing the Hudson's Bay Company some of whose Factories have lately fallen into the Hands of the French and increase of English Shipping and Seamen by gaining the Fishery of Newfoundland and by consequence diminish the number of French Scamen and cut off a great Revenue from the French Crown Secondly The Cause of the English in New-England their failing in the late Attempt upon Canada was their waiting for a Supply of Ammunition from England until August their long Passage up that River the cold Season coming on and the Small-Pox and Fevers being in the Army and Fleet so that they could not stay fourteen days longer in which time probably they might have taken Quebeck yet if a few Frigats be speedily sent they doubt not of an happy Success the strength of the French being small and the Planters desirous to be under the English Government Thirdly The Jesuites endeavour to seduce the Maqua's and other Indians as is by them affirmed suggesting the Greatness of King Lewis and the inability of King William to do any thing against the French in those Parts thereby to Engage them in their Interests In which if they should succeed not only new-New-England but all our American Plantations would be endangered by the Great Increase of Shipping for the French built in New-England at easie Rates to the Infinite Dishonour and Prejudice of the English Nation But now for the Success of these Applications I must entreat the Patience of my Reader to wait until we have gone through a little more of our History SECT 14. THE Reverend INCREASE MATHER beholding his Country of New-England in a very Deplorable Condition under a Governour that acted by an Iilegal Arbitrary Treasonable Commission and Invaded Liberty and Property after such a manner as that no man could say any thing was his own he did with the Encouragement of the Principal Gentlemen in the Country but not without much Trouble and Hazard unto his own Person go over to White-Hall in the Summer of the Year 1688. and wait upon King James with a full Representation of their Miseries That King did give him Liberty of Access unto him whenever he desired it and with many Good Words promised him to Relieve the Oppressed People in many Instances that were proposed But when the Revolution had brought the Prince and Princess of Orange to the Throne Mr. Mather having the Honour divers Times to Wait upon the King he still prayed for no less a Favour to new-New-England than the full Restoration of their Charter-Priviledges And Sr. William Phips happening to be then in England very Generously joined with Mr. Mather in some of those Addresses Whereto his Majestie 's Answers were always very expressive of his Gracious Inclinations Mr. Mather herein assisted also by the Right Worshipful Sr Henry Ashurst a most Hearty Friend of all such Good Men as those that once filled New-England solicited the Leading Men of both Houses in the Convention-Parliament until a Bill for the Restoring of the Charters belonging to New-England was sully Passed by the Commons of England but that Parliament being Prorogu'd and then Dissolved all that Sisyphaean Labour came to nothing The Disappointments which afterwards most wonderfully Blasted all the hopes of the Petitioned Restoration obliged Mr. Mather not without the Concurrence of other Agents now also come from New-England unto that Method of Petitioning the King for a New Charter that should contain more than all the Priviledges of the Old and Sir William Phips now being again returned into England lent his utmost Assistance hereunto The King taking a Voyage for Holland before this Petition was answered Mr. Mather in the mean while not only waited upon the greatest part of the Lords of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Council offering them a Paper of Reasons for the Confirmation of the Charter-Priviledges granted unto the Massachuset Colony but also having the Honour to be Introduc'd unto the Queen he assured Her Majesty That there were none in the World better affected unto Their Majesties Government than the People of New-England who had indeed been exposed unto great Hardships for their being so and entreated That since the King had referred the New-English Affair unto the Two Lord Chief Justices with the Attorney and Solicitor General there might be granted unto us what They thought was Reasonable Whereto the Queen replied That the Request was Reasonable and that She had spoken divers times to the King on the behalf of new-New-England and that for Her own Part She desired that the People there might not meerly have Justice but Favour done to them When the King was returned Mr. Mather being by the Duke of Devonshire brought into the King's Presence on April 28. 1691. Humbly Pray'd His Majesties Favour to new-New-England urging That if their Old Charter-Priviledges might be restored unto them his Name would be Great in those Parts of the World as long as the World should stand adding Sir Your Subjects there have been willing to venture their Lives that they may enlarge Your Dominions The Expedition to Canada was a great and Noble Vndertaking May it Please Your Majesty In your great Wisdom also to consider the circumstances of that People as in Your Wisdom you
by Ireland no nor hitherto by England it self Why should all of this Good be refused or despised because of somewhat not so Good attending it The Despisers of so much Good will certainly deserve a Censure not unlike that of Causabon upon some who did not value what that learned Man counted highly valuable Vix illis optari quid quam pejus potest quam ut fatuitate sua fruantur Much good may do them with their Madness All of this being well considered Sir William Phips who had made so many Addresses for the Restoration of the Old Charter under which he had seen his Country many Years flourishing will be excused by all the World from any thing of a Fault in a most unexpected passage of his Life which is now to be related Sir Henry Ashurst and Mr. Mather well knowing the agreeable Disposition to do God and the King and his Country Service which was in Sir William Phips whom they now had with them all this while prosecuting his Design for Canada they did unto the Council-Board nominate Him for the GOVERNOUR of new-New-England And Mr. Mather being by the Earl of Nottingham introduced unto His Majesty said Sir I do in the behalf of New-England most humbly thank your Majesty in that you have been pleased by a Charter to restore English Liberties unto them to con 〈…〉 them in their Properties and to grant them some peculiar Priviledges I doubt not but that your Subjects there will demean themselves with that dutiful Affection and Loyalty to your Majesty as that you will see cause to enlarge your Royal Favours towards them And I do most humbly thank your Majesty in that you have been pleased to give leave unto those that are concerned for New-England to nominate their Governour Sir William Phips has been accordingly nominated by us at the Council-Board He hath done a good Service for the Crown by enlarging your Dominions and reducing of Nova Scotia to your Obedience I know that He will faithfully serve your Majesty to the utmost of his Capacity and if your Majesty shall think sit to confirm him in that Place it will be a further Obligation on your Subjects there The Effects of all this was that Sir William Phips was now invested with a Commission under the King's Broad-Seal to be Captain General and Governour in Chief over the Province of the Massachuset-Bay in new-New-England Nor do I know a Person in the World that could have been proposed more acceptable to the Body of the People throughout New-England and on that score more likely and able to serve the King's Interests among the People there under the Changes in some things unacceptable now brought upon them He had been a Gideon who had more than once ventured his Life to save his Country from their Enemies and they now with universal Satisfaction said Thou shalt Rule over us Accordingly having with Mr. Mather kissed the King's Hand on January 3d. 1691. he hastned away to his Government and arriving at new-New-England the fourteenth of May following attended with the Non-such-Frigate both of them were welcomed with the Loud Acclamations of the long shaken and shatter'd Country whereto they were now returned with a Settlement so full of Happy Priviledges SECT 15. WHEN Titus Flaminius had freed the poor Grecians from the Bondage which had long oppressed them and the Herald Proclaimed among them the Articles of their Freedom they cryed out A Saviour a Saviour with such loud Acclamations that the very Birds fell down from Heaven astonish'd at the Cry Truly when Mr. Mather brought with him unto the poor New-Englanders not only a Charter which though in divers points wanting what both he and they had wished for yet for ever delivers them from oppressions on their Christian and English Liberties or on their Ancient Possessions wherein ruining Writs of Intrusion had begun to Invade them all but also a GOVERNOVR who might call New-England his own Country and who was above most Men in it full of Affection to the Interests of his Country the sensible part of the People then caused the sence of the Salvations thus brought them to reach as far as Heaven it self The various little Humours then working among the People did not hinder the Great and General Court of the Province to appoint a Day of Solemn THANKS GIVING to Almighty God for Granting as the Printed Order express'd it a Safe Arrival to His Excellency our Governour and the Reverend Mr. Increase Mather who have industriously endeavoured the Service of this People and have brought over with them a Settlement of Government in which Their Majesties have Graciously given us distinguishing Marks of Their Royal Favour and Goodness And as the Obliged People thus gave Thanks unto the God of Heaven so they sent an Address of Thanks unto Their Majesties with other Letters of Thanks unto some Chief Ministers of State for the Favourable Aspect herein cast upon the Province Nor were the People mistaken when they promised themselves all the Kindness imaginable from this Governour and expected Vnder his shadow we shall live easie among the Heathen Why might they not look for Halcyon-days when they had such a Kings-Fisher for their Governour Governour Phips had as every Raised and Useful Person must have his envious Enemies but the palest Envy of them who turned their worst Enmity upon him could not hinder them from confessing That according to the best of his Apprehension he ever sought the good of his Country His Country quickly felt this on innumerable Occasions and they had it eminently demonstrated as well in his promoting and Approving the Councils Choice of good Judges Justices and Sheriffs which being once established no Successour could remove them as in his urging the General Assembly to make themselves happy by preparing a Body of Good Laws as fast as they could which being passed by him in his Time could not be nulled by any other after him He would often speak to the Members of the General Assembly in such Terms as these Gentlemen you may make your selves as easie as you will for ever consider what may have any tendency to your welfare and you may be sure that whatever Bills you offer to me consistent with the Honour and Interest of the Crown I 'll pass them readily I do but seek Opportunities to serve you had it not been for the sake of this thing I had never accepted the Government of this Province and when ever you have settled such a Body of good Laws that no Person coming after me may make you uneasie I shall desire not one Day longer to continue in the Government Accordingly he ever passed every Act for the welfare of the Province proposed unto him and instead of ever putting them upon Buying his Assent unto any good Act he was much forwarder to give it than they were to ask it Nor indeed had the Hunger of a Salary any such Impression upon him as to make him decline doing
sort of a Praeternatural Dream wherein they had said of themselves they knew not what themselves In fine The last Courts that sate upon this Thorny Business finding that it was impossible to Penetrate into the whole Meaning of the Things that had happened and that so many unsearchable Cheats were enterwoven into the Conclusion of a Mysterious Business which perhaps had not crept thereinto at the Beginning of it they cleared the Accused as fast as they Tried them and within a little while the Afflicted were most of them delivered out of their Troubles also And the Land had Peace restored unto it by the God of Peace treading Satan under foot Erasmus among other Historians does tell us that at a Town in Germany a Daemon appearing on the Top of a Chimney threatned that he would set the Town on Fire and at length scattering some Ashes abroad the whole Town was presently and horribly Burnt unto the Ground Sir William Phips now beheld such Daemons hideously scattering Fire about the Country in the Exasperations which the Minds of Men were on these Things rising unto and therefore when he had well Canvased a Cause which perhaps might have puzzled the Wisdom of the Wisest Men on Earth to have managed without any Error in their Administrations he thought if it would be any Error at all it would certainly be the safest for him to put a stop unto all future Prosecutions as far as it lay in him to do it He did so and for it he had not only the Printed Acknowledgments of the New-Englanders who publickly thanked him As one of the Tribe of Zebulun raised up from among themselves and Spirited as well as Commissioned to be the Steers-man of a Vessel befogg'd in the Mare Mortuum of Witchcraft who now so happily steered her Course that she escaped Shipwrack and was safely again Moored under the Cape of Good Hope and cut asunder the Circaean Knot of Enchantment more difficult to be Dissolved than the famous Gordian one of Old But the QVEEN also did him the Honour to write unto him those Gracious Letters wherein Her Majesty commended his Conduct in these Inexplicable Matters And I did right in calling these Matters Inexplicable For if after the Kingdom of Sweden in the Year 1669. and 1670. had some Hundreds of their Children by Night often carried away by Spectres to an Hellish Rendezvous where the Monsters that so Spirited them did every way Tempt them to Associate with them and the Judges of the Kingdom after extraordinary Supplications to Heaven upon a strict Enquiry were so satisfied with the Confessions of more than Twenty of the Accused agreeing exactly unto the Depositions of the Afflicted that they put several scores of Witches to Death whereupon the Confusions came unto a Period yet after all the chiefest Persons in the Kingdom would Question whether there were any Witchcrafts at all in the whole Affair it must not be wondred at if the People of New-England are to this Hour full of Doubts about the steps which were taken while a War from the Invisible World was Terrifying of them and whether they did not kill some of their own side in the Smoke and Noise of this Dreadful War And it will be yet less wondred at if we consider that we have seen the whole English Nation alarumed with a Plot and both Houses of Parliament upon good Grounds Voting their Sense of it and many Persons most justly Hang'd Drawn and Quarter'd for their share in it When yet there are enough who to this Day will pretend that they cannot comprehend how much of it is to be accounted Credible However having related these wonderful Passages whereof if the Veracity of the Relator in any one Point be contested there are whole Clouds of Witnesses to vindicate it I will take my leave of the Matter with an wholesome Caution of Lactantius which it may be some other Parts of the World besides New-England may have occasion to think upon Efficiunt Daemones ut quae non sunt sic tamen quasi sint conspicienda Hominibus exhibeant But the Devils being thus vanquished we shall next hear that some of his most devoted and resembling Children are so too SECT 17. AS one of the first Actions done by Sir William after he came to the Age of Doing was to save the Lives of many poor People from the Rage of the Diabolical Indians in the Eastern Parts of the Country so now he was come to the Government his Mind was very vehemently set upon recovering of those Parts from the Miseries which a New and a Long War of the Indians had brought upon them His Birth and Youth in the East had rendred him well known unto the Indians there he had Hunted and Fished many a weary Day in his Childhood with them and when those rude Savages had got the Story by the End that he had found a Ship full of Money and was know become all-one-a-all-one-a-King They were mightily astonished at it But when they farther understood that he was become the Governour of new-New-England it added a further Degree of Consternation to their Astonishment He likewise was better acquainted with the Scituation of those Regions than most other Men and he consider'd what vast Advantages might arise to no less than the whole English Nation from the Lumber and Fishery and Naval-stores which those Regions might soon supply the whole Nation withal if once they were well settled with good Inhabitants Wherefore Governour Phips took the first Opportunity to raise an Army with which he Travelled in Person unto the East-Country to find out and cut off the Barbarous Enemy which had continued for near four Years together making horrible Havock on the Plantations that lay all along the Northern Frontiers of New-England And having pursued those worse than Scythian Wolves till they could be no longer followed he did with a very laudable Skill and unusual Speed and with less Cost unto the Crown than perhaps ever such a Thing was done in the World erect a strong Fort at Pemmaquid This Fort he contrived so much in the very Heart of the Country now possessed by the Enemy as very much to hinder the several Nations of the Tawnies from Clanning together for the common Disturbance and his Design was that a sufficient Garrison being here posted they might from thence upon Advice issue forth to surprize that ferocient Enemy At the same time he would fain have gone in Person up the Bay of Funda with a convenient Force to have spoiled a Neast of Rebellious Frenchmen who being Rendezvouzed at St. John's had a yearly Supply of Aminunition from France with which they still supplied the Indians unto the extream Detriment of the English but his Friends for a long time would not permit him to expose himself unto the Inconveniencies of that Expedition However he took such Methods that the Indian Kings of the East within a little while had their Stomachs brought down to sue and
all proper Testimonies of Respect and Honour from the Body of the People which he had been the Head unto and with Addresses unto their Majesties and the Chief Ministers of State from the General Assembly humbly imploring that they might not be deprived of the Happiness which they had in such an Head Arriving at White-Hall he found in a few Days that notwithstanding all the Impotent Rage of his Adversaries particularly vented and Printed in a Villanous Libel as well as almost in as many other ways as there are Mouths at which Fyal sometimes has vomited out its Insernal Fires he had all Humane Assurance of his returning in a very few Weeks again the Governour of New-England Wherefore there were especially two Designs full of Service to the whole English Nation as well as his own particular Country of New-England which he applied his Thoughts unto First He had a new Scene of Action opened unto him in an opportunity to supply the Crown with all Naval Stores at most easie Rates from those Eastern Parts of the Massachuset Province which through the Conquest that He had made thereof came to be Inserted in the Massachuset-Charter As no Man was more capable than He to improve this opportunity unto a vast Advantage so his Inclination to it was according to his Capacity And he longed with some Impatience to see the King furnished from his own Dominions with such floating and stately Castles those Wooden-Walls of Great Britain for much of which He has hitherto Traded with Forreign Kingdoms Next if I may say next unto this he had an Eye upon Canada all attempts for the reducing whereof had hitherto proved Abortive It was but a few Months ago that a considerable Fleet under Sir Francis Wheeler which had been sent into the West-Indies to subdue Martineco was ordered then to call at New-England that being recruited there they might make a further Descent upon Canada but Heaven frowned upon that Expedition especially by a terrible Sickness the most like the Plague of any thing that has been ever seen in America whereof there Died e're they could reach to Boston as I was told by Sir Francis himself no less than Thirteen Hundred Sailers out of Twenty One and no less than Eighteen Hundred Souldiers out of Twenty four It was now therefore his desire to have satisfied the King that his whole Interest in America lay at Stake while Canada was in French Hands And therewithal to have laid before several Noblemen and Gentlemen how beneficial an Undertaking it would have been for them to have pursued the Canadien-Business for which the New-Englanders were now grown too Feeble their Country being too far now as Bede says England once was Omni Milite floridae Juventutis Alacritate spoliata Besides these two Designs in the Thoughts of Sir William there was a Third which he had Hopes that the King would have given him leave to have pursued after he had continued so long in his Government as to have obtained the more General welfare which he designed in the former Instances I do not mean the making of new-New-England the Seat of a Spanish Trade though so vastly profitable a Thing was likely to have been brought about by his being one of an Honourable Company engaged in such a Project But the Spanish Wreck where Sir William had made his first good Voyage was not the only nor the Richest Wreck that he knew to be lying under the Water He knew particularly that when the Ship which had Governour Boadilla Aboard was cast away there was as Peter Martyr says an entire Table of Gold of Three Thousand Three Hundred and ten Pound Weight The Duke of Albemarl's Patent for all such Wrecks now expiring Sir William thought on the Motto which is upon the Gold Medal bestowed by the late King with his Knighthood upon him Semper Tibi pendeat Hamus And supposing himself to have gained sufficient Information of the right Way to such a Wreck it was his purpose upon his Dismission from his Government once more to have gone unto his old Fishing-Trade upon a mighty Shelf of Rocks and Bank of Sands that ly where he had informed himself But as the Prophet Haggai and Zechariah in their Psalm upon the Grants made unto their People by the Emperours of Persia have that Reflection Man's Breath goeth forth he returns to his Earth in that very Day his Thoughts perish My Reader must now see what came of all these considerable Thoughts About the middle of February 1694. Sir William found himself indisposed with a Cold which obliged him to keep his Chamber but under this Indisposition he received the Honour of a Visit from a very Eminent Person at White-Hall who upon sufficient Assurance bad him Get well as fast as he could for in one Months Time he should be again dispatched away to his Government of New-England Nevertheless his Distemper proved a sort of Malignant Feaver whereof many about this Time dyed in the City and it suddenly put an End at once unto his Days and Thoughts on the Eighteenth of February to the extream surprize of his Friends who Honourably Interr'd him in the Church of St. Mary Woolnoth and with him how much of New-England's Happiness SECT 21. ALTHOUGH he has now no more a Portion for ever in any Thing that is done under the Sun yet Jastice requires that his Memory be not forgotten I have not all this while said He was Faultless nor am I unwilling to use for him the Words which Mr. Calamy had in his Funeral Sermon for the Excellent Earl of Warwick It must be confessed least I should prove a Flaterer He had his Infirmities which I trust Jesus Christ hath covered with the Robe of his Righteousness My Prayer to God is that all his Infirmities may be Buried in the Grave of Oblivion and that all his Virtues and Graces may supervive although perhaps they were no Infirmities in that Noble Person which Mr. Calamy counted so Nevertheless I must also say That if the Anguish of his Publick Fatigues threw Sir William into any Faults of Passion they were but Faults of Passion soon Recalled And Spots being soonest seen in Ermin there was usually the most made of them that could be by those that were least Free themselves After all I do not know that I have been by any personal Obligations or Circumstances charmed into any Partiality for the Memory of this Worthy Man but I do here from a real Satisfaction of Conscience concerning him declare to all the World that I reckon him to have been really a very Worthy Man that few Men in the World rising from so mean an Original as he would have acquitted themselves with a thousandth Part of his Capacity or Integrity that he left unto the World a notable Example of a Disposition to Do Good and encountred and overcame almost invincible Temptations in doing it And I do most solemnly Profess that I have most conscientiously endeavoured
the utmost Sincerity and Veracity of a Christian as well as an Historian in the History which I have now given of him I have not written of Sir William Phips as they say Xenophon did of Cyrus Non ad Historiae Fidem sed ad Effigiem veri imperii what should have been rather than what really was If the Envy of his few Enemies be not now Quiet I must freely say it That for many Weeks before he died there was not one Man among his personal Enemies whom he would not readily and chearfully have done all the kind Offices of a Friend unto Wherefore though the Gentleman in England that once published a Vindication of Sir William Phips against some of his Enemies chose to put the Name of Publicans upon them they must in this be counted worse than the Publicans of whom our Saviour says They Love those that Love them And I will say this further That when certain Persons had found the Skull of a Dead Man as a Greek Writer of Epigrams has told us they all fell a Weeping but only one of the Company who Laughed and Flouted and through an unheard of Cruelty threw Stones at it which Stones wonderfully rebounded back upon the Face of him that threw them and miserably wounded him Thus if any shall be so unchristian yea so Inhumane as libellously to throw Stones at so deserved a Reputation as this Gentleman has dyed withal they shall see a Just Rebound of all their Calumnies But the Name of Sir WILLIAM PHIPS will be heard Honourably mentioned in the Trumpets of Immortal Fame when the Names of many that Antipathied him will either be Buried in Eternal Oblivion without any Sacer Vates to preserve them or be remembred but like that of Pilate in the Gospel or Judas in the Creed with Eternal Infamy The old Persians indeed according to the Report of Agathias exposed their Dead Friends to be Torn in pieces by Wild Beasts believing that if they lay long unworried they had been unworthy Persons but all attempts of surviving Malice to demonstrate in that way the worth of this Dead Gentleman give me leave to Rate off with Indignation And I must with a like Freedom say That great was the Fault of New-England no more to value a Person whose Opportunities to serve all their Interests though very Eminent yet were not so Eminent as his Inclinations If this whole Continent carry in its very Name of AMERICA an unaccountable Ingratitude unto that Brave Man who first led any numbers of Europeans thither it must not be wondred at if now and then a particular Country in that Continent afford some Instances of Ingratitude But I must believe that the Ingratitude of many both to God and Man for such Benefits as that Country of New-England enjoy'd from a Governour of their own by whom they enjoyed great quietness with very worthy Deeds done unto that Nation by His Providence was that which hastned the Removal of such a Benefactor from them However as the Cyprians buried their Friends in Honey to whom they gave Gall when they were Boâ—n thus whatever Gall might be given to this Gentleman while he lived I hope none will be so base as to put any thing but Honey into their Language of him now after his Decease And indeed since 't is a frequent thing among Men to wish for the Presence of our Friends when they are Dead and gone whom while they were present with us we undervalued there is no way for us to fetch back our Sir William Phips and make him yet Living with us but by setting up a Statue for him as 't is done in these Pages that may out-last an ordinary Monument Such was the original Design of erecting Statues and if in Venice there were at once no less than an Hundred and sixty two Marble and Twenty three Brazen Statues erected by the Order and at the Expence of the Publick in Honour of so many Valiant Souldiers who had merited well of that Common-Wealth I am sure New-England has had those whose Merits call for as good an acknowledgment and whatever they did before it will be well if after Sir William Phips they find many as meritorious as he to be so acknowledged Now I cannot my self provide a better Statue for this Memorable Person then the Words uttered on the occasion of his Death in a very great Assembly by a Person of so diffus'd and Embalm'd a Reputation in the Church of God that such a Character from him were enough to Immortalize the Reputation of the Person upon whom he should bestow it The Grecians employ'd still the most Honourable and Considerable Persons they had among them to make a Funeral Oration in Commendation of Souldiers that had lost their Lives in the Service of the Publick And when Sir William Phips the Captain General of New-England who had often ventured his Life to serve the Publick did expire that Reverend Person who was the President of the only University then in the English America Preached a Sermon on that Passage of the Sacred Writ Isa 57.1 Merciful Men are taken away none considering that the Righteous are taken away from the Evil to come and in it gave Sir William Phips the following Testimony This Province is Beheaded and lyes a Bleeding A GOVERNOUR is taken away who was a Merciful Man some think Too Merciful And if so 't is best Erring on that Hand and a Righteous Man who when he had great Opportunities of gaining by Injustice did refuse to do so He was a known Friend unto the best Interests and unto the Churches of God Not ashamed of owning them No how often have I heard him expressing his Desires to be an Instrument of Good unto them He was a zealous Lover of his Country if any Man in the World were so He exposed himself to serve it He ventured his Life to save it In that a true Nehemiah a Governour that sought the welfare of his People He was one who did not seek to have the Government cast upon him No but instead thereof to my Knowledge he did several Times Petition the King that this People might always enjoy the great Priviledge of choosing their own Governour and I have heard him express his Desires that it might be so to several of the Chief Ministers of State in the Court of England He is now Dead and not capable of being Flattered But this I must testifie concerning him That though by the Providence of God I have been with him at Home and Abroad near at Home and afar off by Land and by Sea I never saw him do any Evil Action or heard him speak any thing unbecoming a Christian The Circumstances of his Death seem to intimate the Anger of God In that he was in the Midst of his Days removed and I know though Few did that he had great Purposes in his Heart which probably would have taken Effect if he had lived a few Months longer to
Boy in keeping of Cattel yet at length stealing into America he so thrived upon his Adventures there that upon some Discoveries which with an handful of Men he had in a Desperate Expedition made of Peru he obtain'd the King of Spain's Commission for the Conquest of it and at last so incredibly enricht himself by the Conquest that he was made the first Vice-Roy of Peru and created Marquess of Anatilla To the Latter and Highest Part of that Story if any thing hindred His Excellency Sir WILLIAM PHIPS from affording of a Parallel it was not the want either of Design or of Courage or of Conduct in himself but it was the Fate of a Praemature Mortality For my Reader now being satisfied That a Person 's being Obscure in his Original is not always a Just Prejudice to an Expectation of Considerable Matters from him I shall now inform him That this our PHIPS was Born Feb. 2. A. Dom. 1650. at a despicable Plantation on the River of Kennebeck and almost the furthest Village of the Eastern Settlement of New-England And as the Father of that Man which was as great a Blessing as England had in the Age of that Man was a Smith so a Gun-Smith namely James Phips once of Bristol had the Honour of being the Father to him whom we shall presently see made by the God of Heaven as Great a Blessing to New-England as that Country could have had if they themselves had pleased His fruitful Mother yet living had no less than Twenty Six Children whereof Twenty One were Sons but aequivalent to them all was WILLIAM one of the youngest whom his Father dying left young with his Mother and with her he lived keeping of Sheep in the Wilderness until he was Eighteen Years Old at which Time he began to feel some further Dispositions of Mind from that Providence of God which took him from the Sheepfolds from following the Ewes great with young and brought him to feed his People Reader Enquire no further who was his Father Thou shalt anon see that he was as the Italians express it A Son to his own Labours SECT 3. HIS Friends earnestly solicited him to settle among them in a Plantation of the East but he had an Unaccountable Impulse upon his Mind perswading him as he would privately hint unto some of them That he was Born to Greater Matters To come at those Greater Matters his first Contrivance was to bind himself an Apprentice unto a Ship-Carpenter for Four Years in which Time he became a Master of the Trade that once in a Vessel of more than Forty Thousand Tuns Repaired the Ruines of the Earth He then betook himself an Hundred and Fifty Miles further a Field even to Boston the chief Town of New-England which being a Place of the most Business and Resort in those parts of the World he expected there more commodiously to pursue the Spes Majorum Meliorum Hopes which had Inspir'd him At Boston where it was that he now learnt first of all to Read and Write be followed his Trade for about a Year and by a laudable Deportment so recommended himself that he Married a Young Gentlewoman of Good Repute who was the Widow of one Mr. John Hull a well-bred Merchant but the Daughter of one Captain Roger Spencer a Person of good Fashion who having suffer'd much dammage in his Estate by some unkind and unjust actions which he bore with such Patience that for fear of thereby injuring the Publick he would not seek satisfaction Posterity might afterwards see the reward of his patience in what Providence hath now done for one of his own Posterity Within a little while after his Marriage he Indented with several persons in Boston to build them a Ship at Sheeps-coat River two or three Leagues Eastward of Kennebeck where having Lanched the Ship he also provided a Lading of Lumber to bring with him which would have been to the advantage of all concern'd But just as the Ship was hardly finished the barbarous Indians on that River broke forth into an Open and Cruel War upon the English and the miserable People surprised by so sudden a storm of Bloud had no Refuge from the Infidels but the Ship now finishing in the Harbour Whereupon he left his intended Lading behind him and instead thereof carried with him his Old Neighbours and their Families free of all Charges to Boston So the First Action that he did after he was his own Man was to Save his Fathers House with the rest of the Neighbourhood from Ruine but the Disappointment which befel him from the Loss of his other Lading plunged his Affairs into greater Embarassments with such as had employ'd him SECT 4. BUT he was hitherto no more than beginning to make Scaffolds for further and higher Actions He would frequently tell the Gentlewoman his Wife That he should yet be Captain of a King's Ship That he should come to have the Command of better Men than he was now accounted himself And That he should be Owner of a Fair Brick-House in the Green-Lane of North-Boston and That it may be this would not be all that the Providence of God would bring him to She entertained these Passages with a sufficient Incredulity but he had so serious and positive an Expectation of them that it is not casie to say what was the Original thereof He was of an Enterprizing Genius and naturally disdained Littleness But his Disposition for Business was of the Dutch Mould where with a little shew of Wit there is as much Wisdom demonstrated as can be shewn by any Nation His Talent lay not in the Airs that serve chiefly for the pleasant and sudden Turns of Conversation but he might say as Themistocles Though he could not play upon a Fiddle yet he knew how to make a little City become a Great One. He would prudently contrive a weighty Undertaking and then patiently pursue it unto the End He was of an Inclination cutting rather like a Hatchet than like a Razor he would propose very Considerable Matters to himself and then so cut through them that no Difficulties could put by the Edge of his Resolutions Being thus of the True Temper for doing of Great Things he betakes himself to the Sea the Right Scene for such Things and upon Advice of a Spanish Wreck about the Bahama's he took a Voyage thither but with little more success than what just served him a little to furnish him for a Voyage to England whither he went in a Vessel not much unlike that which the Dutchmen stamped on their First Coin with these Words about it Incertum quo Fata ferant Having first informed himself that there was another Spanish Wreck wherein was lost a mighty Treasure hitherto undiscovered he had a strong Impression upon his Mind that He must be the Discoverer and he made such Representations of his Design at White-Hall that by the Year 1683 he became the Captain of a King's Ship and arrived at
new-New-England Commander of the Algier-Rose a Frigate of Eighteen Guns and Ninety five Men. SECT 5. TO Relate all the Dargers through which he passed both by Sea and Land and all the Tiresome Trials of his Patience as well as of his Courage while Year after Year the most vexing Accidents imaginable delay'd the Success of his Design it would even Tire the patience of the Reader For very great was the Experiment that Captain Phips made of the Italian Observation He that cann't suffer both Good and Evil will never come to any great Preferment Wherefore I shall supersede all Journal of his Voyages to and fro with reciting one Instance of his Conduct that show'd him to be a Person of no contemptible Capacity While he was Captain of the Algier-Rose his Men growing weary of their unsuccessful Enterprize made a Mutiny wherein they approach'd him on the Quarter-Deck with Drawn Swords in their Hands and required him to join with them in Running away with the Ship to drive a Trade of Pyracy on the South Seas Captain Phips though he had not so much of a Weapon as an Ox-Goad or a Jaw-bone in his Hands yet like another Shamgar or Sampson with a most undaunted Fortitude he rush'd in upon them and with the Blows of his bare Hands Fell'd many of them and Quell'd all the Rest But this is not the Instance which I intended That which I intend is That as it has been related unto me One Day while his Frigate lay Careening at a desolate Spanish Island by the side of a Rock from whence they had laid a Bridge to the Shoar the Men whereof he had about an Hundred went all but about Eight or Ten to divert themselves as they pretended in the Woods Where they all entred into an Agreement which they Sign'd in a Ring That about seven a Clock that Evening they would seize the Captain and those Eight or Ten which they knew to be True unto him and leave them to perish on this Island and so be gone away unto the South Sea to seek their Fortune Will the Reader now imagine that Captain Phips having Advice of this Plot but about an Hour and half before it was to be put in Execution yet within Two Hours brought all these Rogues down upon their Knees to beg for their lives But so it was For these Knaves considering that they should want a Carpenter with them in their Villanous Expedition sent a Messenger to fetch unto them the Carpenter who was then at Work upon the Vessel and unto him they shew'd their Articles telling him what he must look for if he did not subscribe among them The Carpenter being an honest Fellow did with much importunity prevail for one half hours Time to consider of the Matter and returning to Work upon the Vessel with a Spy by them set upon him he feigned himself taken with a Fit of the Cholick for the Relief whereof he suddenly run unto the Captain in the Great Cabbin for a Dram where when he came his business was only in brief to tell the Captain of the horrible Distress which he was fallen into but the Captain bid him as briefly return to the Rogues in the Woods and Sign their Articles and leave him to provide for the Rest The Carpenter was no sooner gone but Captain Phips calling together the few Friends it may be seven or eight that were left him aboard whereof the Gunner was one demanded of them whether they would stand by him in the Extremity which he informed them was now come upon him whereto they reply'd They would stand by him if he could save them And he Answer'd By the help of God he did not fear it All their Provisions had been carried a shoar to a Tent made for that purpose there about which they had placed several Great Guns to defend it in case of any Assault from Spaniards that might happen to come that way Wherefore Captain Phips immediately ordered those Guns to be silently Drawn and Turn'd and so pulling up the Bridge he charged his Great Guns aboard and brought them to Bear on every side of the Tent. By this Time the Army of Rebels comes out of the Woods but as they â—rew near to the Tent of Provisions they saw such a change of Circumstances that they cryed out We are Betray'd and they were soon confirm'd in it when they heard the Captain with a stern Fury call to them Stand off ye Wretches at your Peril He quickly saw them cast into a more than ordinary confusion when they saw Him ready to Fire his Great Guns upon them if they offered one Step further than he permitted them And when he had signified unto them his Resolve to abandon them unto all the Desolation which they had purposed for him he caused the Bridge to be again laid and his Men begun to take the Provisions aboard When the Wretches beheld what was coming upon them they fell to very humble Entreaties and at last fell down upon their Knees protesting That they never had any thing against him except only his unwillingness to go away with the King's Ship upon the South-Sea Design But upon all other Accounts they would choose rather to Live and Die with him than with any Man in the World however since they saw how much he was dissatisfied at it they would insist upon it no more and humbly begg'd his Pardon And when he judg'd that he had kept them on their Knees long enough he having first secur'd their Arms received them aboard but he immediately weighed Anchor and arriving at Jamaica he Turn'd them off Now with a small Company of other Men he sailed from thence to Hispaniola where by the Policy of his Address he fished out of a very old Spaniard or Portuguese a little advice about the true Spot where lay the Wreck which he had been hitherto seeking as unprosperously as the Chymists have their Aurifick Stone That it was upon a Reef of Shoals a few Leagues to the Northward of Port de la Plata upon Hispaniola a Port so call'd it seems from the Landing of some of the Ship-wreck'd Company with a Boat full of Plate saved out of their Sinking Frigate Nevertheless when he had searched very narrowly the Spot whereof the Old Spaniard had advised him he not hitherto exactly lit upon it Such Thorns did vex his Affairs while he was in the Rose-Frigat but none of all these things could retund the Edge of his Expectations to find the Wreck with such Expectations he return'd then into England that he might there better furnish himself to Prosecute a New Discovery for though he judged he might by proceeding a little further have come at the right Spot yet he found his present Company too ill a Crew to be confided in SECT 6. SO proper was his Behaviour that the best Noble Men in the Kingdom now admited him into their Conversation but yet he was opposed by powerful Enemies that Clogg'd his