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-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-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-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-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-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-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-England might be prevented and the Queen Her self with Her own Royal Hand wrote unto the King that the Charter of 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-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-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-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
were under these Frights they had got by the Edges a Little Intimation of the then Prince of Orange's glorious Undertaking to deliver England from the Feared Evils which were already felt by new-New-England but when the Person who brought over a Copy of the Princes Declaration was Imprisoned for bringing into the Country a Treasonable Paper and the Governour by his Proclamation Required all Persons to use their utmost-Endeavours to hinder the Landing of any whom the Prince might send thither This put them almost out of Patience And One thing that plunged the more Considerate Persons in the Territory into uneasy Thoughts was the Faulty Action of some Souldiers who upon the Common Suspicions deserted their Stations in the Army and caused their Friends to gather together here and there in Little Bodies to protect from the Demands of the Governour their poor Children and Bretheren whom they thought bound for a Bloody Sacrifice and there were also belonging to the Rose-Frigat some that Buzz'd surprizing stories about Boston of many mischiefs to be thence expected Wherefore some of the Principal Gentlemen in Boston consulting what was to be done in this Extraordinary Juncture They all agreed that they would if it were possible extinguish all Essays in the People towards an Insurrection in daily Hopes of Orders from England for their Safety but that if the Country People by any violent motions push'd the matter on so far as to make a Revolution unavoidable Then to prevent the shedding of Blood by an ungoverned Mobile some of the Gentlemen present should appear at the Head of the Action with a Declaration accordingly prepared By the eighteenth of April 1689. Things were pushed on so far by the People that certain Persons first Seized the Captain of the Frigate and the Rumor thereof running like Lightning through Boston the whole Town was immediately in Arms with the most Vnanimous Resolution perhaps that ever was known to have Inspir'd any People They then seized those Wretched Men who by their innumerable Extortions and Abuses had made themselves the Objects of Vniversal Hatred not giving over till the Governour himself was become their Prisoner The whole Action being managed without the least Bloudshed or Plunder and with as much Order as ever attended any Tumult it may be in the World Thus did the New-Englanders assert their Title to the Common Rights of Englishmen and except the Plantations are willing to Degenerate from the Temper of True Englishmen or except the Revolution of the whole English Nation be condemned their Action must so far be justified On their late Oppressors now under just Confinement they took no other satisfaction but sent them over unto White-Hall for the Justice of the King and Parliament And when the Day for the Anniversary Election by their vacated Charter drew near they had many Debates into what Form they should cast the Government which was till then Administred by a Committee for the Conservation of the Peace composed of Gentlemen whose Hap it was to appear in the Head of the late Action But their Debates Issued in this Conclusion That the Governour and Magistrates which were in Power before the late Vsurpation should Resume their Places and apply themselves unto the Conservation of the Peace and put forth what Acts of Government the Emergencies might make needful for them and thus to wait for further Directions from the Authority of England So was there Accomplished a Revolution which delivered New-England from grievous Oppressions and which was most Graciously Accepted by the King and Queen when it was Reported unto Their Majesties But there were New Matters for Sir William Phips in a little while now to think upon SECT 9. BEHOLD the great Things which were done by the Sovereign God for a Person once as little in his own Eyes as in other Men's All the Returns which he had hitherto made unto the God of his Mercies were but Preliminaries to what remain to be Related It has been the Custom in the Churches of New-England still to expect from such Persons as they admitted unto constant Communion with them That they do not only Publickly and Solemnly Declare their Consent unto the Covenant of Grace and particularly to those Duties of it wherein a particular Church-state is more immediately concerned but also first Relate unto the Pastors and by them unto the Brethren the special Impressions which the Grace of God has made upon their Souls in bringing them to this Consent By this Custom and Caution though they cannot keep Hypocrites from their Sacred Fellowship yet they go as far as they can to render and preserve themselves Churches of Saints and they do further very much Edifie one another When Sir William Phips was now returned unto his own House he began to bethink himself like David concerning the House of the God who had surrounded him with so many Favours in his own and accordingly he applied himself unto the North Church in Boston that with his open Profession of his hearty Subjection to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ he might have the Ordinances and the Priviledges of the Gospel added unto his other Enjoyments One thing that quickned his Resolution to do what might be in this Matter expected from him was a Passage which he heard from a Minister Preaching on the Title of the Fifty First Psalm To make a publick and an open Profession of Repentance is a thing not mis-becoming the greatest Man alive It is an Honour to be found among the Repenting People of God though they be in Circumstances never so full of Suffering A famous Knight going with other Christians to be Crowned with Martyrdom observed That his Fellow-Sufferers were in Chains from which the Sacrificers had because of his Quality excus'd him whereupon he demanded that he might wear Chains as well as they For said he I would be a Knight of that Order too There is among our selves a repenting People of God who by their Consessions at their Admissions to His Table do signalize their being so and Thanks be to God that we have so little of suffering in our Circumstances But if any Man count himself grown too big to be a Knight of that Order the Lord Jesus Christ Himself will one Day be ashamed of that Man Upon this Excitation Sir William Phips made his Address unto a Corgregational-Church and he had therein One Thing to propound unto himself which few Persons of his Age so well satisfied in Infant-Baptism as he was have then to Ask for Indeed in the Primitive Times although the Lawfulness of Infant-Baptism or the Precept and Pattern of Scripture for it was never so much as once made a Question yet we find Baptism was frequently delayed by Persons upon several superstitious and unreasonable Accounts against which we have such Fathers as Gregory Nazianzen Gregory Nyssen Basil Chrysostom Ambrose and others employing a variety of Argument But Sir William Phips had hitherto delayed his Baptism because the Years
over-whelm'd So it was thought that the English Subjects in these Regions of America might very properly take this occasion to make an attempt upon the French and by Reducing them under the English Government put an Eternal Period at once unto all their Troubles from the Frenchified Pagans This was a Motion urged by Sir William Phips unto the General Court of the Massachuset-Colony and he then made unto the Court a brave Offer of his own Person and Estate for the Service of the Publick in their present Extremity as far as they should see cause to make use thereof Whereupon they made a First Essay against the French by sending a Naval Force with about Seven Hundred Men under the Conduct of Sir William Phips against L'Acady and Nova Scotia of which Action we shall give only this General and Summary Account That Sir William Phips set Sail from Nantascot April 28. 1690. Arriving at Port-Royal May 11. and had the Fort quickly Surrender'd into his Hands by the French Enemy who despaired of holding out against him He then took Possession of that Province for the English Crown and having Demolished the Fort and sent away the Garrison Administred unto the Planters an Oath of Allegiance to King William and Queen Mary he left what Order he thought convenient for the Government of the Place until further Order should be taken by the Governour and Council of the Massachuset-Colony unto whom he returned May 30 with an acceptable Account of his Expedition and accepted a Place among the Magistrates of that Colony to which the Free-Men had chosen him at their Anniversary Election two Days before Thus the Country once given by King James the First unto Sir William Alexander was now by another Sir William recovered out of the Hands of the French who had afterwards got the Possession of it and there was added unto the English Empire a Territory whereof no Man can Read Monsieur Denys's Description Geographique Historique des Costes de l' Amerique Septentrionale but he must reckon the Conquest of a Region so Improvable for Lumber for Fishing for Mines and for Furrs a very considerable Service But if a smaller Service has e'er-now ever merited a Knighthood Sir William was willing to Repeat his Merits by Actions of the greatest Service possible Nil Actum credens si quid superesset agendum SECT 11. THE Addition of this French Colony to the English Dominion was no more than a little step towards a greater Action which was first in the Design of Sir William Phips and which was indeed the Greatest Action that ever the New-Englanders Attempted There was a time when the Philistines had made some Inroads and Assaults from the North-ward upon the Skirts of Goshen where the Israelites had a Residence before their coming out of Egypt The Israelites and especially that Active Colony of the Ephraimites were willing to Revenge these Injuries upon their wicked Neighbours they presumed themselves Powerful and Numerous enough to Encounter the Canaanites even in their own Country and they formed a brisk Expedition but came off unhappy Losers in it the Jewish Rabbins tell us they lost no less than Eight Thousand Men. The Time was not yet come there was more Hast than good Speed in the Attempt they were not enough concerned for the Counsel and Presence of God in the Undertaking they mainly propounded the Plunder to be got among a People whose Trade was that wherewith Beasts enriched them so the Business miscarried This History the Psalmist going to recite says I will utter dark Sayings of old Now that what befel Sir William Phips with his whole Country of New-England may not be almost forgotten among the dark Sayings of old I will here give the true Report of a very memorable Matter It was Canada that was the chief Source of New-England's Miseries There was the main Strength of the French There the Indians were mostly supplied with Ammunition Thence Issued Parties of Men who uniting with the Salvages barbarously murdered many Innocent New-Enlanders without any Provocation on the New-English part except this that New-England had Proclaimed King William and Q. Mary which they said were Vsurpers And as Cato could make no Speech in the Senate without that Conclusion Delenda est Carthago so it was the general Conclusion of all that Argued sensibly about the safety of that Country Canada must be Reduced It then became the concurring Resolution of all new-New-England with New-York to make a Vigorous Attack upon Canada at once both by Sea and Land And a Fleet was accordingly fitted out from Boston under the Command of Sir William Phips to fall upon Quebeque the chief City of Canada They waited until August for some Stores of War from England whither they had sent for that purpose early in the Spring but none at last arriving and the Season of the Year being so far spent Sir William could not without many Discouragements upon his Mind proceed in a Voyage for which he found himself so poorly provided However the Ships being taken up and the Men on board his usual Courage would not permit him to Desist from the Enterprize but he set Sail from Hull near Boston August 9. 1690. with a Fleet of Thirty two Ships and Tenders whereof one called the Six Friends carrying Fourty Four great Guns and Two Hundred Men was Admiral Sir William dividing the Fleet into several Squadrons whereof there was the Six Friends Captain Gregory Sugars Commander with Eleven more of the Admiral 's Squadron of which one was also a Capital Ship namely The John and Thomas Captain Thomas Carter Commander Of the Vice-Admirals the Swan Captain Thomas Gilbert Commander with Nine more Of the Rear-Admirals the America-Merchant Captain Joseph Eldridge Commander with Nine more and above Twenty Hundred Men on Board the whole Fleet He so happily managed his Charge that they every one of them Arrived safe at Anchor before Quebeck although they had as dangerous and almost untrodden a Path to take Vn-Piloted for the whole Voyage as ever any Voyage was undertaken with Some small French Prizes he took by the way and set up English Colours upon the Coast here and there as he went along and before the Month of August was out he had spent several Days as far onward of his Voyage as between the Island of Antecosta and the Main But when they entred the mighty River of Canada such adverse Winds encountred the Fleet that they were Three Weeks dispatching the way which might otherwise have been gone in Three Days and it was the Fifth of October when a fresh Breeze coming up at East carried them along by the North Shore up to the Isle of Orleans and then haling Southerly they passed by the East end of that Island with the whole Fleet approaching the City of Quebeck This loss of Time which made it so late before the Fleet could get into the Country where a cold and fierce Winter was already very far
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
besides themselves Wherefore though by an Act they made stealing to be so Criminal that Several did Run the Gantlet for it yet they were not far from being driven after all to make One Degree and Instance of it Capital There was a wicked Irishman among them who had such a Voracious Devil in him that after divers Burglaries upon the Store-house committed by him at last he stole and Eat with such a Pamphagous Fury as to Cram himself with no less than Eighteen Biskets at one stolen meal and he was fain to have his Belly strok'd and Bath'd before the Fire lest he should otherwise have burst This Amazing and indeed murderous Villany of the Irishman brought them all to their Wit 's Ends how to defend themselves from the Ruine therein threatned unto them and whatever methods were proposed it was feared that there could be no stop given to his Furacious Exorbitancies any Way but One He could not be past Stealing unless he were past Eating too Some think therefore they might have Sentenced the Wretch to Dye and after they had been at pains upon Christian and Spiritual Accounts to prepare him for it have executed the Sentence by shooting him to Death concluding matters come to that pass that if they had not shot him he must have Starved them unavoidably Such an Action if it were done will doubtless meet with no harder a Censure than that of the seven English men who being in a Boat carried off to Sea from St. Christopher's with but one Days Provision aboard for Seventeen Singled out some of their Number by Lot and slew them and Eat them for which when they were afterwards accused of Murder the Court in consideration of the inevitable Necessity acquitted them Truly the inevitable necessity of Starving without such an Action sufficiently grievous to them all will very much plead for what was done whatever it were by these poor Antecostians And starved indeed they must have been for all this if they had not Contrived and Performed a very desperate Adventure which now remains to be Related There was a very diminutive kind of Boat belonging to their Brigantine which they recovered out of the Wreck and cutting this Boat in Two they made a shift with certain odd Materials preserved among them to lengthen it so far that they could therein form a little Cuddy where Two or Three Men might be stowed and they set up a little Mast whereto they fastned a little Sail and accommodated it with some other little circumstances according to their present poor Capacity On the Twenty Fifth of March Five of the Company Shipped themselves upon this Doughty Fly-Boat intending if it were possible to carry unto Boston the Tidings of their woful Plight upon Antecosta and by help from their Friends there to return with seasonable succours for the rest They had not Sail'd long before they were Hemm'd in by prodigious Cakes of Ice whereby their Boat sometimes was horribly wounded and it was a Miracle that it was not Crush'd into a Thousand pieces if indeed a thousand pieces could have been Splintred out of so minute a Cock-Boat They kept labouring and fearfully Weather-beaten among enormous Rands of Ice which would ever now and then rub formidably upon them and were enough to have broken the Ribs of the strongest Frigat that ever â—ut the Seas and yet the signal Hand of Heaven so preserved this petty Boat that by the Eleventh of April they had got a quarter of their way and came to an Anchor under Cape St. Lawrence having seen Land but once before and that about seven Leagues off ever since their first setting out and yet having seen the open and Ocean Sea not so much as once in all this while for the Ice that still encompassed them For their support in this Time the little Provisions they brought with them would not have kept them alive only they killed Seale upon the Ice and they melted the upper pare of the Ice for Drink but fierce wild ugly Sea-Horses would often so approach them upon the Ice that the fear of being devoured by them was not the least of their Exercises The Day following they weighed Anchor betimes in the Morning but the Norwest Winds persecuted them with the raised and raging Waves of the Sea which almost continually poured into them and monstrous Islands of Ice that seemed almost as big as Antecosta it self would ever now and then come athwart them In such a Sea they lived by the special assistance of God until by the thirteenth of April they got into an Island of Land where they made a Fire and killed some Fowl and some Seal and found some Goose-Eggs and supplied themselves with what Billets of Wood were necessary and carriageable for them and there they stayed until the seventeenth Here their Boat lying near a Rock a great Sea hove it upon the Rock so that it was upon the very point of oversetting which if it had she had bin utterly disabled for any further service and they must have called that Harbour by the Name which I think one a little more Northward bears The Cape without Hope There they must have ended their weary days But here the good Hand of God again interposed for them they got her off and though they lost their Compass in this Hurry they sufficiently Repaired another defective one that they had aboard Sailing from thence by the Twenty Fourth of April they made Cape Brittoon when a thick Fog threw them into a new Perplexity until they were safely gotten into the Bay of Islands where they again Wooded and Watred and killed a few Fowl and catched some Fish and began to reckon themselves as good as half way home They reached Cape Sables by the Third of May but by the fifth all their Provision was again spent and they were out of sight of Land nor had they any prospect of catching any thing that lives in the Atlantick which while they were lamenting one unto another a stout Halibut comes up to the top of the Water by their side whereupon they threw out the Fishing-Line and the Fish took the Hook but he proved so heavy that it required the help of several Hands to hale him in and a thankful Supper they made on 't By the seventh of May seeing no Land but having once more spent all their Provision they were grown almost wholly hopeless of Deliverance but then a Fishing Shallop of Cape Ann came up with them fifteen Leagues to the Eastward of that Cape And yet before they got in they had so Tempestuous a Night that they much feared perishing upon the Rocks after all But God carried them into Boston Harbour the Ninth of May unto the great surprise of their Friends that were in Mourning for them And there furnishing themselves with a Vessel fit for their Undertaking they took a Course in a few Weeks more to fetch home their Brethren that they left behind them at Antecosta But