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-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
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-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-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-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-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-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
have considered the circumstances of England and of Scotland In new-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-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-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-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
Affairs with such Demurrages and such Disappointments as would have wholly Discouraged his Designs if his Patience had not bin Invincible He who can wait hath what he desireth This his Indefatigable Patience with a proportionable Diligence at length overcame the Difficulties that had bin thrown in his way and prevailing with the Duke of Albemarl and some other Persons of Quality to fit him out he set Sail for the Fishing-Ground which had bin so well baited half an Hundred Years before And as he had already discovered his Capacity for business in many considerable Actions he now added unto those Discoveries by not only providing all but also by inventing many of the Instruments necessary to the prosecution of his intended Fishery Captain Phips arriving with a Ship and a Tender at Port de la Plata made a stout Canoo of a stately Cotton Tree so large as to carry Eight or Ten Oars for the making of which Periaga as they call it he did with the same industry that he did every thing else employ his own Hand and Adse and endure no little hardship lying abroad in the Woods many Nights together This Periaga with the Tender being Anchored at a place convenient the Periaga kept Busking to and again but could only discover a Reef of Rising Shoals thereabouts called The Boilers which Rising to be within Two or Three Foot of the Surface of the Sea were yet so steep that a Ship striking on them would immediately sink down who could say how many Fathom into the Ocean Here they could get no other Pay for their long peeping among the Boilers but only such as caused them to think upon returning to their Captain with the bad News of their total Disappointment Nevertheless as they were upon the Return one of the Men looking over the side of the Periaga into the calm Water he spied a Sea Feather growing as he judged out of a Rock whereupon they bad one of their Indians to Dive and fetch this Feather that they might however carry home something with them and make at least as fair a Trinmph as Caligula's The Diver bringing up the Feather brought therewithal a surprizing story That he perceived a Number of Great Guns in the Watry World where he had found his Feather the Report of which Great Guns exceedingly astonished the whole Company and at once turned their Despondencies for their ill success into Assurances that they had now lit upon the True spot of Ground which they had been looking for and they were further confirmed in these Assurances when upon further Diving the Indian fetcht up a Sow as they stil'd it or a Lump of Silver worth perhaps Two or Three Hundred Pounds Upon this they prudently Buoy'd the place that they might readily find it again And they went back unto their Captain whom for some while they distressed with nothing but such Bad News as they formerly thought they must have carried him Nevertheless they so slipt in the Sow of Silver on one side under the Table where they were now sitting with the Captain and hearing him express his Resolutions to wait still patiently upon the Providence of God under these Disappointments that when he should look on one side he might see that Odd Thing before him At last he saw it seeing it he cryed out with some Agony Why What is this Whence comes this And then with changed Countenances they told him how and where they got it Then said he Thanks be to God! We are made And so away they went all hands to Work wherein they had this one further piece of Remarkable Prosperity that whereas if they had first fallen upon that part of the Spanish Wreck where the Pieces of Eight had been stowed in Bags among the Ballast they had seen a more laborious and less enriching time of it Now most happily they first fell upon that Room in the Wreck where the Bullion had been stored up and they so prospered in this New Fishery that in a little while they had without the loss of any Man's Life brought up Thirty Two Tuns of Silver for it was now come to measuring of Silver by Tuns Besides which one Adderly of Providence who had formerly been very helpful to Captain Phips in the Search of this Wreck did upon former Agreement meet him now with a little Vessel here and he with his few hands took up about Six Tuns of Silver whereof nevertheless he made so little use that in a year or two he died at Bermudas and as I have heard he ran Distracled some while before he died Thus did there once again come into the Light of the Sun a Treasure which had been half an Hundred Years groaning under the Waters And in this time there was grown upon the Plate a Crust like â—imestone to the thickness of several Inches which Crust being broken open by Irons contrived for that purpose they knockt out whole Bushels of rusty Pieces of Eight which were grown thereinto Besides that incredible Treasure of Plate in various forms thus fetch'd up from seven or eight Fathom under Water there were vast Riches of Gold and Pearls and Jewels which they also lit upon and indeed for a more Comprehensive Invoice I must but summarily say All that a Spanish Frigate uses to be enricht withal Thus did they continue Fishing till their Provisions failing them 't was time to be gone but before they went Captain Phips caused Adderly and his Folk to swear That they would none of them Discover the place of the Wreck or come to the Place any more till the next Year when he expected again to be there himself And it was also Remarkable that though the Sows came up still so fast that on the very last Day of their being there they took up Twenty yet it was afterwards found that they had in a manner wholly cleared that Room of the Ship where those Massy things were Stowed But there was one extraordinary Distress which Captain Phips now found himself plunged into For his Men were come out with him upon Seamens Wages at so much per Month and when they saw such vast Litters of Silver Sows and Pigs as they call them come on Board them at the Captains Call they knew not how to bear it that they should not share all among themselves and be gone to lead a short life and a merry in a Climate where the Arrest of those that had hired them should not reach them In this terrible Distress he made his Vows unto Almighty God that if the Lord would carry him safe home to England with what he had now given him to suck of the abundance of the Seas and of the Treasures hid in the Sands he would for ever Devote himself unto the Interests of the Lord Jesus Christ and of his People especially in the Country which he did himself Originally belong unto And he then used all the obliging Arts imaginable to make his Men true unto him
of his Child-hood were spent where there was no settled Minister and therefore he was now not only willing to attain a good Satisfaction of his own Internal and Practical Christianity before his receiving that Mark thereof but he was also willing to receive it among those Christians that seemed most sensible of the Bonds which it laid them under Offering himself therefore first unto the Baptism and then unto the Supper of the Lord he presented unto the Pastor of the Church with his own Hand-writing the following Instrument which because of the Exemplary Devotion therein expressed and the Remarkable History which it gives of several Occurrences in his Life I will here Faithfully Transcribe it without adding so much as one Word unto it The First of God's making me sensible of my Sins was in the year 1674. by Hearing your Father Preach concerning the Day of Trouble near It pleased Almighty God to smite me with a Deep sence of my miserable Condition who had Lived until then in the World and had Done nothing for God I did then begin to think What I should Do to be saved and did bewail my Youthful Days which I had spent in vain I did think that I would begin to mind The Things of God Being then some time under your Father's Ministry much troubled with my Burden but thinking on that Scripture Come unto me you that are weary and heavy Laden and I will Give you Rest I had some Thoughts of Drawing as near to the Communion of the Lord Jesus as I could But the Ruines which the Indian Wars brought on my Affairs and the Entanglements which my following the Sea laid upon me hindred my pursuing the welfare of my own Soul as I ought to have done At length God was pleased to smile upon my Outward Concerns The various Providences both Merciful and Afflictive which attended me in my Travels were sanctified unto me to make me Acknowledge God in all my Ways I have Divers Times been in Danger of my Life and I have been brought to see that I owe my Life to Him that has given a Life so often to me I thank God He hath brought me to see my self altogether unhappy without an Interest in the Lord Jesus Christ and to close heartily with him desiring Him to Execute All His Offices on my Behalf I have now for some Time been under serious Resolutions that I would avoid whatever I should know to be Displeasing unto God and that I would Serve Him all the Days of my Life I Believe No man will Repent the Service of such a Master I find my self unable to Keep such Resolutions but my Serious Prayers are to the Most High that He would enable me God hath done so much for me that I am sensible I owe my self to Him To Him would I give my self and all that He has given to me I can't express His Mercies to me But as soon as ever God had smiled upon me with a Turn of my Affairs I laid my self under the VOWS of the Lord That I would set my self to serve His People and Churches here unto the Vtmost of my Capacity I have had great Offers made me in England But the Churches of new-New-England were those which my Heart was most set upon I knew that if God had a People any where it was here and I Resolved To Rise and fall with them neglecting very Great Advantages for my Worldly Intrest that I might come and enjoy the Ordinances of the Lord Jesus here It has been my Trouble that since I came home I have made no more Hast to get into the House of God where I desire to be Especially having Heard so much about the Evil of that Omission I can Do little for God but I desire to Wait upon Him in His Ordinances and to Live to His Honour and Glory My being Born in a part of the Country where I had not in my Infancy enjoyed the First Sacrament of the New-Testement has been somthing of a Stumbling Block unto me But though I have had Profers of Baptism elsewhere made unto me I Resolved rather to Deferr it until I might enjoy it in the Communion of these Churches And I have had awful Impressions from those Words of the Lord Jesus in Matth. 8.38 Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my Words of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed When God had Blessed me with something of the World I had no Trouble so Great as this Lest it should not be in Mercy and I Trembled at Nothing more than being put off with a Portion here That I may make sure of Better Things I now offer my self unto the Communion of this ' Church of the Lord JESUS Accordingly on March 23. 1690. after he had in the Congregation of North-Boston given himself up first unto the Lord and then unto His People he was Baptized and so Received into the Communion of the Faithful there SECT 10. SEVERAL Times about before and after this Time did I hear him express himself unto this purpose I have no need at all to look after any further Advantages for my self in this World I may sit still at home if I will and enjoy my Ease for the rest of my Life but I believe that I should offend God in my doing so For I am now in the prime of my Age and Strength and I thank God I can undergo Hardship He only knows how long I have to live but I think 't is my Duty to venture my Life in doing of Good before an useless Old Age comes upon me Wherefore I will now expose my self while I am able and as far as I am able for the Service of my Country I was born for Others as well as my self I say many a time have I heard him so express himself And agreeable to this Generous Disposition and Resolution was all the rest of his Life About this time New-England was miserably Briar'd in the Perplexities of an Indian War and the Salvages in the East part of the Country Issuing out from their Inaccessible Swamps had for many Months made their cruel Depredations upon the poor English Planters and Surprized many of the Plantations on the Frontiers into Ruin The New-Erglanders found that while they continued only on the Defensive part their People were thinned and their Treasures wasted without any hopes of seeing a Period put unto the Indian Tragedies nor could an Army greater than Xerxes's have easily come at the seemingly contemptible Handful of Tawnies which made all this Disturbance Or Tamerlain the greatest Conqueror that ever the World saw have made it a Business of no Trouble to have Conquered them They found that they were like to make no Weapons reach their Enswamped Adversaries except Mr. Milton could have shown them how To have pluckt up the Hills with all their Load Rocks Waters Woods and by their shaggy tops Vp-lifting bore them in their hands I herewith The Rebel Host to'v
all possible Service for the Publick while he was not sure of having any proportionable or honourable acknowledgments But yet he minded the Preservation of the King 's Rights with as careful and faithful a Zeal as became a good Steward for the Crown And indeed he studied nothing more than to observe such a Temper in all things as to extinguish what others have gone to distinguish even the Pernicious Notion of a separate Interest There was a Time when the Roman Empire was infested with a vast number of Governours who were infamous for Infinite Avarice and Villany and referring to this Time the Apostle John had a Vision of People killed with the Beasts of the Earth But Sir William Phips was none of those Governours wonderfully contrary to this wretchedness was the Happiness of New-England when they had Governour Phips using the tenderness of a Father towards the People and being of the Opinion Ditare magis esse Regium quà m Ditescere that it was a braver Thing to enrich the People than to grow rich himself A Father I said and what if I had said an Angel too If I should from Clemens Alexandrinus from Theodoret and from Jerom and others among the Ancients as well as from Calvin and Bucan and Peter Martyr and Chemnitius and Bullinger and a thousand more among the Moderns bring Authorities for the Assertion That each Country and Province is under the special care of some Angel by a singular Deputation of Heaven assigned thereunto I could back them with a far greater Authority than any of them all The Scripture it self does plainly assert it And hence the most Learned Grotius writing of Common-Wealths has a passage to this purpose His singulis suos Attributos esse Angelos ex Daniele magno consensu Judaei Christiani veteres colligebant But New-England had now besides the Guardian-Angel who more invisibly intended it's welfare a Governour that became wonderfully agreeable thereunto by his whole Imitation of such a Guardian-Angel He employed his whole Strength to guard his People from all Disasters which threatned them either by Sea or Land and it was remark'd that nothing remarkably Disastrous did befal that People from the Time of his Arrival to the Government until there arrived an Order for his leaving it Except one Thing which was begun before he entred upon the Government But instead thereof the Indians were notably defeated in the Assaults which they now made upon the English and several French Ships did also very advantageously fall into his Hands yea there was by his means a Peace restored unto the Province that had been divers Years languishing under the Hectic Feaver of a Lingring War And there was this one thing more that rendered his Government the more desirable That whereas 't is impossible for a meer Man to govern without some Error when ever this Governour was advised of any Error in any of his Administrations he would immediately retract it and revoke it with all possible ingenuity so that if any occasion of just complaint arose it was usually his endeavour that it should not long be complain'd of O Faelices nimium sua si Bona norânt Nov-Angli But having in a Parenthesis newly intimated that His Excellency when he entred on his Government found one Thing that was remarkably Disastrous begun upon it Of that one Thing we will now give some Account Reader prepare to be entertained with as Prodigious Matters as can be put into any History And let him that writes the next Thaumatographia Pneumatica allow to these Prodigies the chief Place among the wonders SECT 16. ABOUT the Time of our Blessed Lord's coming to Reside on Earth we read of so many possessed with Devils that it is commonly thought the Number of such Miserable Energumens was then encreased above what has been usual in other Ages and the Reason of that Increase has been made a Matter of some Enquiry Nowthough the Devils might herein design by Preternatural Operations to Blast the Miracles of our Lord Jesus Christ which Point they Gained among the Blasphemous Pharisees and the Devils might herein also design a villanous Imitation of what was coming to pass in the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ wherein God came to dwell in Flesh yet I am not without suspicion that there may be something further in the Conjecture of the Learned Bartholinus hereupon who says It was Quod judaei praeter modum Artibus Magicis dediti Daemonem Advocaverint the Jews by the frequent use of Magical Tricks called in the Devils among them It is very certain there were hardly any People in the World grown more fond of Sorceries than that unhappy People The Talmuds tell us of the little Parchments with Words upon them which were their common Amulets and of the Charms which they mutter'd over Wounds and of the various Enchantments which they used against all sorts of Disasters whatsoever It is affirmed in the Talmuds that no less than Twenty four Scholars in one School were killed by Witchcraft and that no less than fourscore Persons were Hanged for Witchcraft by one Judge in one Day The Gloss adds upon it That the Women of Israel had generally fallen to the Practice of Witchcrafts and therefore it was required That there should be still chosen into the Council One skilful in the Arts of Sorcerers and able thereby to discover who might be guilty of those Black Arts among such as were accused before them Now the Arrival of Sir William Phips to the Government of New-England was at a Time when a Governour would have had Occasion for all the Skill in Sorcerie that was ever necessary to a Jewish Councellor A Time when Scores of poor people had newly fallen under a prodigious Possession of Devils which it was then generally thought had been by Witchcrafts introduced It is to be confessed and Bewailed That many Inhabitants of new-New-England and Young people especially had been Led away with Little Sorceries wherein they did Secretly those Things that were not Right against the Lord their God They would often cure Hurts with Spells and practise detestable Conjurations with Sieves and Keys and Pease and Nails and Horse-shoes and other Implements to Learn the Things for which they had a forbidden and impious Curiosity Wretched Books had stoln into the Land wherein Fools were instructed how to become able Fortune-Tellers Among which I wonder that a blacker Brand is not set upon that Fortune-telling Wheel which that Sham-Scribler that goes under the Letters of R. B. has proposed in his Delights for the Ingenious as an honest and pleasant Recreation And by these Books the minds of many had been so poisoned that they studied this Finer Witchcraft until 't is well if some of them were not betray'd into what is grosser and more sensible and Capital Although these Diabolical Divinations are more ordinarily committed perhaps all over the whole World than they are in the Country of new-New-England yet That being
a Country Devoted unto the Worship and Service of the Lord JESVS CHRIST above the Rest of the World He signalized his Vengeance against these wickednesses with such extraordinary Dispensations as have not been often seen in others Places The Devils which had been so play'd withal and it may be by some few Criminals more Explicitely engaged and imployed now broke in upon the Country after as aftonishing a manner as was ever heard of Some scores of People first about Salem the Centre and first Born of all the Towns in the Colony and afterwards in several other Places were arrested with many Praternatural Vexations upon their Bodies and a variety of cruel Torments which were evidently inflicted from the Daemons of the Invisible World The People that were infected and infested with such Daemons in a few Days Time arrived unto such a Resining Alteration upon their Eyes that they could see their Tormentors they saw a Devil of a little Stature and of a Tawny Colour attended still with Spectres that appeared in more Humane Circumstances These Tormentors tendred unto the Afflicted a Book requiring them to Sign it or to Touch it at least in token of their consenting to be Listed in the Service of the Devil which they refusing to do the Spectres under the command of that Blackman as they called him would apply themselves to Torture them with prodigious Molestations The afflicted Wretches were horribly Distorted and Convulsed they were Pinched Black and Blew Pins would be run every where in their Flesh they would be scalded until they had Blisters raised on them and a thousand other things before Hundreds of Witnesses were done unto them evidently Praeternatural For if it were Praeternatural to keep a rigid Fast for Nine yea for Fifteen Days together or if it were Praeternatural to have ones Hands ty'd close together with a Rope to be plainly seen and then by unseen Hands presently pull'd up a great way from the Earth before a croud of People Such Praeternatural Things were endured by them But of all the Praeternatural Things which befel these People there were none more unaccountable than those wherein the praestigious Daemons would ever now and then cover the most Corporeal Things in the World with a Fascinating Mist of Invisibility As now A Person was cruelly assaulted by a Spectre that she said run at her with a Spindle though no Body else in the Room could see either the Spectre or the Spindle At last in her Agonies giving a snatch at the Spectre she pulled the Spindle away and it was no sooner got into her Hand but the other Folks then present beheld that it was indeed a real proper Iron Spindle which when they locked up very safe it was nevertheless by the Daemons taken away to do farther Mischief Again A Person was haunted by a most abusive Spectre which came to her she said with a Sheet about her though seen to none but her self After she had undergone a deal of Teaze from the Annoyance of the Spectre she gave a violent snatch at the Sheet that was upon it where-from she tore a Corner which in her Hand immediately was beheld by all that were present a palpable Corner of a Sheet And her Father which was now holding of her catch'd that he might keep what his Daughter had so strangely siezed but the Spectre had like to have wrung his Hand off by endeavouring to wrest it from him However he still held it and several times this odd Accident was renewed in the Family There wanted not the Oaths of good credible People to these particulars Also It is well known that these wicked Spectres did proceed so far as to steal several Quantities of Money from divers People part of which Individual Money was dropt sometimes out of the Air before sufficient Spectators into the Hands of the Afflicted while the Spectres were urging them to subscribe their Covenant with Death Moreover Poisons to the standers-by wholly Invisible were sometimes forced upon the Afflicted which when they have with much Reluctancy swallowed they have swoln presently so that the common Medicines for Poisons have been found necessary to relieve them Yea sometimes the Spectres in the struggles have so dropt the Poisons that the Standers by have smelt them and view'd them and beheld the Pillows of the miserable stained with them Yet more the miserable have complained bitterly of burning Rags run into their forceably distended Mouths and though no Body could see any such Clothes or indeed any Fires in the Chambers yet presently the scalds were seen plainly by every Body on the Mouths of the Complainers and not only the Smell but the Smoke of the Burning sensibly fill'd the Chambers Once more the miserable exclaimed extreamly of Branding Irons heating at the Fire on the Hearth to mark them now though the standers-by could see no Irons yet they could see distinctly the Print of them in the Ashes and smell them too as they were carried by the not-seen Furies unto the Poor Creatures for whom they were intended and those Poor Creatures were thereupon so stigmatized with them that they will bear the Marks of them to their Dying Day Nor are these the Tenth Part of the Prodigies that fell out among the Inhabitants of New-England Flashy People may Burlesque these Things but when Hundreds of the most sober People in a Country where they have as much Mother-Wit certainly as the rest of Mankind know them to be True nothing but the absurd and froward Spirit of Sadducism can Question them I have not yet mentioned so much as one Thing that will not be justified if it be required by the Oaths of more considerate Persons than any that can ridicule these odd Phaenomena But the worst part of this astonishing Tragedy is yet behind wherein Sir William Phips at last being dropt as it were from the Machin of Heaven was an Instrument of casing the Distresses of the Land now so darkned by the Wrath of the Lord of Hosts There were very worthy Men upon the spot where the assault from Hell was first made who apprehended themselves call'd from the God of Heaven to sift the business unto the bottom of it and indeed the continual Impressions which the out-cries and the havocks of the afflicted People that lived nigh unto them caused on their Minds gave no little Edge to this Apprehension The Persons were Men eminent for Wisdom and Virtue and they went about their enquiry into the matter as driven unto it by a Conscience of Duty to God and the World They did in the first Place take it for granted that there are Witches or wicked Children of Men who upon Covenanting with and Commissioning of Evil Spirits are attended by their Ministry to accomplish the Things desired of them To satisfie them in which Perswasion they had not only the Assertions of the Holy Scripture Assertions which the Witch-Advocates cannot evade without shifts too foolish for any Prudent or too profane for