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-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-Summers-Day to Relate the miseries which were come and coming in upon poor new-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-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-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
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-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
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-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
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
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-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
But the Angel then thus addressed him Vnderstand now the secret Judgments of God! The first man that entertained us did inordinately affect that Cup which I took from him 't was for the advantage of his interiour that I took it away and I gave it unto the impious man as the present reward of his good Works which is all the reward that he is like to have As for our Third Host the Servant which I slew had formed a bloody Design to have slain his Master but now you see I have saved the Life of the Master and prevented something of growth unto the eternal punishment of the Murderer As for our Fourth Host before his Child was Born unto him he was a very liberal and bountiful Person and he did abundance of good with his Estate but when he saw he was like to leave such an Heir he grew covetous wherefore the Soul of the Infant is Translated into Paradise but the occasion of sin is you see mercifully taken away from the Parent Thus General Phips though he had been used unto Diving in his time would say That the things which had befallen him in this Expedition were too deep to be Dived into SECT 12. FROM The time that General Pen made his Attempt upon Hispaniola with an Army that like the New English Forces against Canada miscarried after an Expectation of having Little to Do but to Possess and Plunder Even to this Day the General Disaster which hath attended almost every Attempt of the European Colones in America to make any Considerable Encroachments upon their Neighbours is a matter of some close Reflection But of the Disaster which now befell poor new-New-England in particular every one will easily Conclude none of the least Consequences to have been the Extreme Debts which that Country was now plunged into there being Forty Thousand pounds more or less now to be paid and not a Penny in the Treasury to pay it withal In this Extremity they presently found out an Expedient which may serve as an Example for any People in other parts of the World whose Distresses may call for a sudden supply of Money to carry them through any Important Expedition The General Assembly first pass'd an Act for the Levying of such a sum of Money as was wanted within such a Term of Time as was judged convenient and this Act was a Fund on which the Credit of such a Sum should be rendered passable among the people Hereupon there was appointed an Able and Faithful Committee of Gentlemen who printed from Copper-Plates a just Number of Bills and Florished Indented and Contrived them in such a manner as to make it Impossible to Counterfeit any of them without a Speedy Discovery of the Counterfeit besides which they were all Signed by the Hands of Three belonging to that Committee These Bills being of several Sums from Two-shillings to Ten pounds did confess the Massachuset-Colony to be Endebted unto the Person in whose Hands they were the Sums therein expressed and Provision was made that if any particular Bills were Irrecoverably Lost or Torn or Worn by the Owners they might be Recruited without any Damage to the whole in General The publick Debts to the Sailors and Souldiers now upon the point of Mutiny for Arma Tenenti Omnia dat qui Justa negat were in these Bills paid immediatly but that further Credit might be given thereunto it was Ordered that they should be Accepted by the Treasurer and all Officers that were Subordinate unto him in all publick Payments at Five per cent more than the Value expressed in them The People knowing that the Tax-Act would in the Space of Two years at Least fetch into the Treasury as much as all the Bills of Credit thence emitted would amount unto were willing to be furnished with Bills wherein 't was their Advantage to pay their Taxes rather than in any other Specie and so the Sailors and Souldiers put off their Bills instead of Money to those with whom they had any Dealings and they circulated through all the Hands in the Colony pretty Comfortably Had the Government been so Settled that there had not bin any Doubt of any Obstruction or Diversion to be given to the Prosecution of the Tax-Act by a Total Change of their affairs then Depending at White-Hall 'T is very certain that the Bills of Credit had been better than so much ready Silver yea the Invention had been of more Use to the New-Englanders than if all their Copper Mines had been opened or the Mountains of Peru had been Removed into these parts of America The Massachuset Bills of Credit had been like the Bank-Bills of Venice where though there were not perhaps a Ducat of Money in the Bank yet the Bills were esteemed more then Twenty per cent better than Money among the Body of the People in all their Dealings But many People being afraid that the Government would in Half a year be so Overturned as to Convert their Bills of Credit altogether into Wast-paper the Credit of them was thereby very much impaired and they who first received them could make them yield little more than fourteen or sixteen shillings in the Pound from whence there arose those Idle Suspicions in the Heads of many more Ignorant and Unthinking Folks concerning the Use thereof which to the Incredible Detriment of the Province are not wholly laid aside unto this Day However this Method of paying the Publick Debts did no less than save the Publick from a perfect Ruine and e're many Months were expired the Governour and Council had the pleasure of seeing the Treasurer burn before their Eyes many a Thousand Pounds Worth of the Bills which had passed about until they were again Returned unto the Treasury but before their being returned had happily and honestly without a farthing of silver Coin discharged the Debts for which they were intended But that which helped these Bills unto much of their Credit was the generous offer of many worthy men in Boston to run the Risque of selling their Goods reasonably for them and of these I think I may say that General Phips was in some sort the Leader who at the very Beginning meerly to Recommend the Credit of the Bills unto other Persons cheerfully laid down a Considerable Quantity of ready Money for an equivalent parcel of them And thus in a little time the Country waded through the Terrible Debts which it was fallen into In this though unhappy enough yet not so unhappy as in the Loss of men by which the Country was at the some Time consumed 'T is True there was very Little Blood spilt in the Attacque made upon Quebeck and there was a Great Hand of Heaven seen in it The Churches upon the Call of the Government not only observed a General Fast through the Colony for the Welfare of the Army sent unto Quebeck but also kept the Wheel of Prayer in a Continual motion by Repeated and Successive Agreements for Days of
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-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
the Affable Courtesie which he ordinarily used unto all sorts of Persons quite contrary to the Asperity which the old Proverb expects in the Raised he would particularly when Sailing in sight of Kennebeck with Armies under his Command call the Young Souldiers and Sailers upon Deck and speak to them after this Fashion Young Men It was upon that Hill that I kept Sheep a few Years ago and since you see that Almighty God has brought me to something do you Learn to fear God and be Honest and Mind your Business and follow no bad Courses and you don't know what you may come to A Temper not altogether unlike what the Advanced Shepherd had when he wrote the Twenty Third Psalm or when he Imprinted on the Coin of his Kingdom the Remembrance of his old Condition For Christianus Gerson a Christianized Jew has informed us That on the one side of David's Coin were to be seen his old Pouch and Crook the Instruments of Shepherdy on the other side were Enstamped the Towers of Zion In fine our Sir William was a Person of so sweet a Temper that they who were most intimately acquainted with him would commonly pronounce him The best Conditioned Gentleman in the World And by the continual Discoveries and Expressions of such a Temper he so gained the Hearts of them who waited upon him in any of his Expeditions that they would commonly profess themselves willing still to have gone with him to the End of the World But if all other People found him so kind a Neighbour we may easily inferr what an Husband he was unto his Lady Leaving unmentioned that Virtue of his Chastity which the Prodigious Depravation brought by the Late Reigns upon the Manners of the Nation has made worthy to be mentioned as a Virtue somewhat Extraordinary I shall rather pass on to say That the Love even to Fondness with which he always treated her was a Matter not only of Observation but even of such Admiration that every one said The Age afforded not a kinder Husband This Kindness appeared not only in his making it no less his Delight than Study to render his whole Conversation agreeable to her but also and perhaps chiefly in the Satisfaction which it gave him to have his Interests very much at her Command Before he first went abroad upon Wrack Designs he to make his long Absence easie unto her made her his Promise that what Estate the God of Heaven should then bestow upon him should be entirely at her Disposal in Case that she survived him And when Almighty God accordingly bestow'd upon him a Fair Estate he not only rejoiced in seeing so many Acts of Charity done every Day by Her bountiful Hand but he also not having any Children of his own Adopted a Nephew of Her 's to be his Heir And reckoning that a Verbal Intimation unto her of what Pious and Publick Uses he would have any Part of his Estate after his Death put unto as well as what Supports he would have afforded unto his own Relations would be as much attended by Her as if he had otherwise taken the most effectual Care imaginable he contented himself with Bequeathing all he had entirely to Her in his Last Will and Testament He knew very well that Her Will in Point of a Liberal Disposition to Honour the Lord with the Substance which the Lord had in so strange a manner enriched them withal would not fail of being equal with his own But we must now return to our Story SECT 19. When Persons do by Studies full of Curiosity seek to inform themselves of things about which the God of Heaven hath forbidden our curious enquiries there is a marvellous Impression which the Demons do often make on the Minds of those their Votaries about the Future or Secret Matters unlawfully enquired after and at last there is also an horrible Possession which those Fatidic Daemons do take of them The Snares of Hell hereby laid for miserable Mortals have been such that when I read the Laws which Agellius affirms to have been made even in Pagan Rome against the Vaticinatores I wonder that no English Nobleman or Gentleman signalizes his regard unto Christianity by doing what even a Roman Tully would have done in promoting An Act of Parliament against that Paganish Practice of Judicial Astrology whereof if such Men as Austin were now Living they would Assert The Devil first found it and they that profess it are Enemies of Truth and of God In the mean Time I cannot but relate a wonderful Experience of Sir William Phips by the Relation whereof something of an Antidote may be given against a Poison which the Diabolical Figure-Flirgers and Fortune-Tellers that swarm all the World over may insinuate into the Minds of Men. Long before Mr. Phips came to be Sir William while he sojourned in London there came into his Lodging an Old Astrologer living in the Neighbourhood who making some Observation of him though he had small or no Conversation with him did howbeit by him wholly undesired one Day send him a Paper wherein he had with Pretences of a Rule in Astrology for each Article distinctly noted the most material Passages that were to befall this our Phips in the remaining Part of his Life it was particularly Asserted and Inserted That he should be engaged in a Design wherein by Reason of Enemies at Court he should meet with much Delay That nevertheless in the Thirty Seventh Year of his Life he should find a mighty Treasure That in the Forty First Year of his Life his King should employ him in as great a Trust beyond Sea as a Subject could easily have That soon after this he should undergo an hard Storm from the Endeavours of his Adversaries to Reproach him and Ruine him That his Adversaries though they should go very near gaining the Point should yet miss of doing so That he should hit upon a vastly Richer Matter than any that he had hitherto met withal That he should continue Thirteen Years in his Publick Station full of Action and full of Hurry And the rest of his Days he should spend in the Satisfaction of a Peaceable Retirement Mr. Phips received this undesired Paper with Trouble and with Contempt and threw it by among certain loose Papers in the Bottom of a Trunk where his Lady some Years after accidentally Lit upon it His Lady with Admiration saw step after step very much of it accomplished but when she heard from England that Sir William was coming over with a Commission to be Governour of new-New-England in that very Year of his Life which the Paper specified she was afraid of letting it ly any longer in the House but cast it into the Fire Now the Thing which I must invite my Reader to Remark is this That albeit Almighty God may permit the Devils to predict and perhaps to perform very many particular things to Men that shall by such a presumptuous and unwarrantable Juggle as
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-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-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