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-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-New-England their Governour imprisoned c. 19. Sect. 9. Sir William Phips joyns himself to a Church in new-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-New-England instead of Money Some farther Matters relating to the Canada Expedition A wonderful Relation of a Shipwrack and how some of the Men were strangely preserved With the great hardships and difficulties they underwent for six or seven Months 43. Sect. 13. Sir William Phips makes a Voyage to England to obtain help for another Expedition against Canada His Reasons presented to the King 52. Sect. 14. Some Account of Mr. Increase Mather 's Negotiations at White-Hall on the
behalf of New-England Sir William Phips joyns with him A new Charter is obtained Sir William is made Captain General and Governour of New-England He and Mr. Mather return home 54. Sect. 15. How wisely and uprightly Sir William governed New-England Page 62. Sect. 16. A remarkable History of the strange Witchcrafts and Possessions in New-England 66. Sect. 17. Governour Phips raiseth an Army and marcheth against the Indians Builds a Fort to bridle them They sue for Peace and own Subjection to the Crown of England His laborious endeavours for his Country His Care to send a Preacher to the Indians He dispatches a Frigat to St. John 's against the French The Indians assisted by the French make a new War 82. Sect. 18. A Description and Character of Governour Phips 88. Sect. 19. The Predictions of an Astrologer concerning Sir William And the Event 96. Sect. 20. Governour Phips as good as he was yet met with some Enemies They Article against Him at White-Hall The King sends for Him He Sails to England where he meets with Favour and was like to have soon returned Governour of new-New-England But Dies at London and is there Buried and with Him Great Hopes and Designs for the good of both Englands some of which are recounted 99. Sect. 21. Some farther Things by way of Character and Elogy A Poem upon his Death 105. THE Author of the following Narrative is a Person of such well known Integrity Prudence and Veracity that there is not any cause to Question the Truth of what he here Relates And moreover this Writing of his is adorned with a very grateful Variety of Learning and doth contain such surprizing workings of Providence as do well deserve due Notice and Observation On all which accounts it is with just Confidence recommended to the Publick by April 27. 1697. Nath. Mather John Howe Matth. Mead. THE LIFE Of His Excellency Sir William PHIPS Knt. LATE GOVERNOUR OF New England SECTION I. IF such a Renowned Chymist as Quercetanus with a whole Tribe of Labourers in the Fire since that Learned Man find it no easie thing to make the common part of Mankind believe That they can take a Plant in it 's more vigorous Consistence and after a due Maceration Fermentation and Separation extract the Salt of that Plant which as it were in a Chaos invisibly reserves the Form of the whole with its vital Principle and that keeping the Salt in a Glass Hermetically sealed they can by applying a Soft Fire to the Glass make the Vegetable rise by little and little out of its Ashes to surprize the Spectators with a notable Illustration of that Resurrection in the Faith whereof the Jews returning from the Graves of their Friends pluck up the Grass from the Earth using those Words of the Scripture thereupon Your Bones shall flourish like an Herb 'T is likely that all the Observations of such Writers as the incomparable Borellus will find it hard enough to produce our Belief that the Essential Salts of Animals may be so prepared and Preserved that an Ingenious man may have the whole Ark of Noah in his own Study and raise the fine shape of an Animal out of it's Ashes at his pleasure and that by the like Method from the Essential Salts of Humane Dust a Philosopher may without any Criminal Necromancy call up the Shape of any Dead Ancestor from the Dust whereinto his Body has bin Incinerated The Resurrection of the Dead will be as Just as Great an Article of our Creed although the Relations of these Learned Men should pass for Incredible Romances But yet there is an Anticipation of that Blessed Resurrection carrying in it some Resemblance of these Curiosities which is performed when we do in a Book as in a Glass reserve the History of our Departed Friends and by bringing our Warm Affections unto such an History we Revive as it were out of their Ashes the True Shape of those Friends and bring to a fresh View What was Memorable and Imitable in them Now in as much as Mortality has done its part upon a Considerable Person with whom I had the Honour to be Well-acquainted and a Person as Memorable for the Wonderful Charges which befel him as Imitable for his Vertues and Actions under those Charges I shall endeavour with the Chymistry of an Impartial Historian to raise my Friend so far out of his Ashes as to shew him again unto the World and if the Character of Heroick Vertue be for a Man to deserve well of Markind and be great in the Purpose and Success of Essays to do so I may Venture to Promise my Reader such Example of Heroick Vertue in the Story whereto I Invite him that he shall say it would have bin little short of a Vice in me to have withheld it from him Nor is it any Partiality for the Memory of my Deceased Friend or any other Sinister Design whatsoever that has Invited me to this Undertaking but I have undertaken this Matter from a sincere Desire that the Ever-Glorious Lord JESVS CHRIST may have the Glory of his Power and Goodness and of his Providence in what he did for such a Person and in what He disposed and Assisted that Person to Do for Him Now May He assist my writing even He that prepared the Subject whereof I am to write SECT 2. SO obscure was the Original of that Memorable Person whose Actions I am going to relate that I must in a way of Writing like that of Plutarch prepare my Reader for the Intended Relation by first searching the Archives of Antiquity for a Parallel Now because we will not Parallel him with Eumenes who though he were the Son of a poor Carrier became a Governour of Mighty Provinces Nor with Marius whose mean Parentage did not hinder his becoming a Glorious Defender of his Country and Seven Times the chief Magistrate of the chiefest City in the Universe Nor with Iphicrates who became a Successful and Renwoned General of a Great People though his Father were a Cobler Nor with Dioclesian the Son of a poor Scrivener Nor with Bonosus the Son of a poor School-Master who yet came to sway the Scepter of the Roman Empire Nor lastly will I compare him to the more late Example of the Celebrated Mazarini who though no Gentleman by his Extraction and one so sorily Educated that he might have wrote Man before he could write at all yet asâ—ended unto that Grandeur in the Memory of many yet living as to Umpire the most Important Affairs of Christendom We will decline looking any further in that Haemisphere of the World and make the Hue and Cry throughout the Regions of America the New World which He that is becoming the subject of our History by his Nativity belong'd unto And in America the first that meets me is Francisco Pizarro who though a Spurious Offspring exposed when a Babe in a Church-Porch at a sorry Village of Navarre and afterwards employ'd while he was a
came in and helped him and saved him and so by a rare Virtue he made his worst Adversaries the Captives of his Generosity One of the Ancients upon such an History cried out If Heathens can do thus much for the Glory of their Name what shall not Christians do for the Glory of Heaven And Sir William Phips did so much more than thus much that besides his meriting the Glory of such a Name as PHIPPIVS MAXIMVS he therein had upon him the Symptoms of a Title to the Glory of Heaven in the Seal of his own Pardon from God Nor was this Generosity in HIS EXCELLENCY the Governour of new-New-England unaccompanied with many other Excellencies whereof the Piety of his Carriage towards God is worthy to be first mentioned It is true He was very Zealous for all Men to enjoy such a Liberty of Conscience as he judged a Native Right of Mankind And he was extreamly Troubled at the over-boiling Zeal of some good Men who formerly took that wrong Way of reclaiming Hereticks by Persecution For this Generosity it may be some would have compared him unto Gallio the Governour of Achaia whom our Preachers perhaps with Mistake enough think to be condemned in the Scripture for his not appearing to be a Judge in Matters which indeed fell not under his Cognizance And I shall be content that he be compared unto that Gentleman for that Gallio was the Brother of Seneca who gives this Character of him That there was no Man who did not love him too little if he could Love him any more and That there was no Mortal so Dear to any as he was to all and That he hated all Vices but none more than Flattery But while the Generosity of Sir William caused him to desire a Liberty of Conscience his Piety would not allow a Liberty of Prophaneness either to himself or others He did not affect any mighty show of Devotion and when he saw any that were evidently careful to make a show and especially if at the same Time they were notoriously Defective in the Duties of Common Justice or Goodness or the Duties of the Relations wherein God had stationed them he had an extream Aversion for them Nevertheless he did show a Conscientious Desire to observe the Laws of the Lord Jesus Christ in his Conversation and he conscientiously attended upon the Exercises of Devotion in the Seasons thereof on Lectures as well as on Lords-Days and in the Daily-Sacrifice the Morning and Evening Service of his own Family yea and at the Private Meetings of the Devout People kept every Formight in the Neighbourhood Besides all this when he had great Works before him he would Invite good Men to come and Fast and Pray with him at his House for the Success thereof and when he had succeeded in what he had undertaken he would prevail with them to come and keep a Day of Solemn Thanksgiving with him His Love to Almighty God was indeed manifested by nothing more than his Love to those that had the Image of God upon them He Heartily and with a Real Honour for them Loved all Godly Men and in so doing he did not confine Godliness to this or that Party but wherever he saw the Fear of God in one of a Congregational or Presbyterian or Antipaedobaptist or Episcopalian Perswasion he did without any Difference express towards them a Reverent Affection But he made no Men more welcome than those Good Men whose Office 't is to promote and preserve Goodness in all other Men even the Ministers of the Gospel Especially when they were such as faithfully Discharged their Office And from these at any Time the least Admonition or Intimation of any good Thing to be done by him he entertained with a most obliging Alacrity His Religion in Truth was one Principle that added Virtue unto that vast Courage which was always in him to a Degree Heroical Those Terrible Nations which made their Descents from the Northern on the Southern Parts of Europe in those Elder Ages when so to swarm out was more frequent with them were inspired with a valiant Contempt of Life by the Opinion wherein their famous Odin instructed them That their Death was but an Entrance into another Life wherein they who Died in Warlike Actions were bravely feasted with the God of War for ever 'T is inexpressible How much the Courage of those fierce Mortals was fortified by that Opinion But when Sir William Phips was asked by some that observed his Valiant Contempt of Death What it was that made him so little afraid of Dying he gave a better grounded Account of it than those Pagans could his Answer was I do humbly believe That the Lord Jesus Christ shed his Precious Blood for me by His Death procuring my Peace with God and what should I now be afraid of Dying for But this Leads me to mention the Humble and Modest Carriage in him towards other Men which accompanied this his Piety There were certain Pomps belonging unto the several Places of Honour through which he passed Pomps that are very taking to Men of little Souls But although he rose from so little yet he discovered a marvellous Contempt of those Aiery Things and as far as he handsomely could he declined being ceremoniously or any otherwise than with a Dutch Modesty waited upon And it might more truly be said of him than it was of Aristides He was never seen the Prouder for any Honour that was done him from his Country-men Hence albeit I have read that complaint made by a worthy Man I have often observed and this not without some Blushing that even good People have had a kind of shame upon them to acknowledge their low beginning and used all Arts to hide it I could never observe the least of that Fault in this worthy Man but he would speak of his own low beginning with as much Freedom and Frequency as if he had been afraid of having it forgotten It was counted an Humility in King Agathocles the Son of a Potter to be served therefore in Earthen Vessels as Plutarch hath informed us It was counted an Humility in Arch-Bishop Willigis the Son of a Wheel-wright therefore to have Wheels hung about his Bed-Chamber with this Inscription Recole undè Veneris i. e. Remember thy Original But such was the Humility and Lowliness of this Rising Man Not only did he after his return to his Country in his Greatness one Day make a splendid Feast for the Ship Carpenters of Boston among whom he was willing at his Table to Commemorate the Mercy of God unto him who had once been a Ship Carpenter himself but he would on all occasions permit yea Study to have his Meannesses remembred Hence upon frequent occasions of Uneasiness in his Government he would chuse thus to express himself Gentlemen were it not that I am to do Service for the Publick I should be much easier in returning unto my Broad Ax again And hence according to
the utmost Sincerity and Veracity of a Christian as well as an Historian in the History which I have now given of him I have not written of Sir William Phips as they say Xenophon did of Cyrus Non ad Historiae Fidem sed ad Effigiem veri imperii what should have been rather than what really was If the Envy of his few Enemies be not now Quiet I must freely say it That for many Weeks before he died there was not one Man among his personal Enemies whom he would not readily and chearfully have done all the kind Offices of a Friend unto Wherefore though the Gentleman in England that once published a Vindication of Sir William Phips against some of his Enemies chose to put the Name of Publicans upon them they must in this be counted worse than the Publicans of whom our Saviour says They Love those that Love them And I will say this further That when certain Persons had found the Skull of a Dead Man as a Greek Writer of Epigrams has told us they all fell a Weeping but only one of the Company who Laughed and Flouted and through an unheard of Cruelty threw Stones at it which Stones wonderfully rebounded back upon the Face of him that threw them and miserably wounded him Thus if any shall be so unchristian yea so Inhumane as libellously to throw Stones at so deserved a Reputation as this Gentleman has dyed withal they shall see a Just Rebound of all their Calumnies But the Name of Sir WILLIAM PHIPS will be heard Honourably mentioned in the Trumpets of Immortal Fame when the Names of many that Antipathied him will either be Buried in Eternal Oblivion without any Sacer Vates to preserve them or be remembred but like that of Pilate in the Gospel or Judas in the Creed with Eternal Infamy The old Persians indeed according to the Report of Agathias exposed their Dead Friends to be Torn in pieces by Wild Beasts believing that if they lay long unworried they had been unworthy Persons but all attempts of surviving Malice to demonstrate in that way the worth of this Dead Gentleman give me leave to Rate off with Indignation And I must with a like Freedom say That great was the Fault of New-England no more to value a Person whose Opportunities to serve all their Interests though very Eminent yet were not so Eminent as his Inclinations If this whole Continent carry in its very Name of AMERICA an unaccountable Ingratitude unto that Brave Man who first led any numbers of Europeans thither it must not be wondred at if now and then a particular Country in that Continent afford some Instances of Ingratitude But I must believe that the Ingratitude of many both to God and Man for such Benefits as that Country of new-New-England enjoy'd from a Governour of their own by whom they enjoyed great quietness with very worthy Deeds done unto that Nation by His Providence was that which hastned the Removal of such a Benefactor from them However as the Cyprians buried their Friends in Honey to whom they gave Gall when they were Boâ—n thus whatever Gall might be given to this Gentleman while he lived I hope none will be so base as to put any thing but Honey into their Language of him now after his Decease And indeed since 't is a frequent thing among Men to wish for the Presence of our Friends when they are Dead and gone whom while they were present with us we undervalued there is no way for us to fetch back our Sir William Phips and make him yet Living with us but by setting up a Statue for him as 't is done in these Pages that may out-last an ordinary Monument Such was the original Design of erecting Statues and if in Venice there were at once no less than an Hundred and sixty two Marble and Twenty three Brazen Statues erected by the Order and at the Expence of the Publick in Honour of so many Valiant Souldiers who had merited well of that Common-Wealth I am sure New-England has had those whose Merits call for as good an acknowledgment and whatever they did before it will be well if after Sir William Phips they find many as meritorious as he to be so acknowledged Now I cannot my self provide a better Statue for this Memorable Person then the Words uttered on the occasion of his Death in a very great Assembly by a Person of so diffus'd and Embalm'd a Reputation in the Church of God that such a Character from him were enough to Immortalize the Reputation of the Person upon whom he should bestow it The Grecians employ'd still the most Honourable and Considerable Persons they had among them to make a Funeral Oration in Commendation of Souldiers that had lost their Lives in the Service of the Publick And when Sir William Phips the Captain General of New-England who had often ventured his Life to serve the Publick did expire that Reverend Person who was the President of the only University then in the English America Preached a Sermon on that Passage of the Sacred Writ Isa 57.1 Merciful Men are taken away none considering that the Righteous are taken away from the Evil to come and in it gave Sir William Phips the following Testimony This Province is Beheaded and lyes a Bleeding A GOVERNOUR is taken away who was a Merciful Man some think Too Merciful And if so 't is best Erring on that Hand and a Righteous Man who when he had great Opportunities of gaining by Injustice did refuse to do so He was a known Friend unto the best Interests and unto the Churches of God Not ashamed of owning them No how often have I heard him expressing his Desires to be an Instrument of Good unto them He was a zealous Lover of his Country if any Man in the World were so He exposed himself to serve it He ventured his Life to save it In that a true Nehemiah a Governour that sought the welfare of his People He was one who did not seek to have the Government cast upon him No but instead thereof to my Knowledge he did several Times Petition the King that this People might always enjoy the great Priviledge of choosing their own Governour and I have heard him express his Desires that it might be so to several of the Chief Ministers of State in the Court of England He is now Dead and not capable of being Flattered But this I must testifie concerning him That though by the Providence of God I have been with him at Home and Abroad near at Home and afar off by Land and by Sea I never saw him do any Evil Action or heard him speak any thing unbecoming a Christian The Circumstances of his Death seem to intimate the Anger of God In that he was in the Midst of his Days removed and I know though Few did that he had great Purposes in his Heart which probably would have taken Effect if he had lived a few Months longer to
the great Advantage of this Province but now he is gone there is not a Man Living in the World capacitated for those Undertakings new-New-England knows not yet what they have lost The Recitation of a Testimony so great whether for the Author or the Matter of it has now made a Statue for the Governour of New-England which Nec poterit Ferrum nec edax abolere vetustas And there now remains nothing more for me to do about it but only to recite herewithal a well-known Story related by Suidas That an Envious Man once going to pull down a Statue which had been raised unto the Memory of one whom he maligned he only got this by it that the Statue falling down knock'd out his Brains But Poetry as well as History must pay it's dues unto him If Cicero's Poem intituled Quadrigae wherein he did with a Poetical Chariot extol the Exploits of Caesar in Britain to the very Skies were now Extant in the World I would have Borrowed some Flights of That at least for the Subject now to be Adorned But instead thereof let the Reader accept the ensuing Elegy UPON THE DEATH OF Sir William PHIPS Knt. Late Captain General and Governour in Chief of the Province of the Massachuset-Bay New-England who Expired in London Feb. 18. 1694 5. And to Mortality a Sacrifice Falls He whose Deeds must Him Immortalize REjoice Messieures Netops rejoice 't is true Ye Philistines none will rejoice but You Loving of All He Dy'd who Love him not Now have the Grace of Publicans forgot Our Almanacks foretold a great Eclipse This they foresaw not of our greater PHIPS PHIPS our great Friend our Wonder and our Glory The Terror of our Foes the World 's rare Story England will Boast him too whose Noble Mind Impell'd by Angels did those Treasures find Long in the Bottom of the Ocean laid Which her Three Hundred Thousand Richer made By Silver yet ne'r Canker'd nor defil'd By Honour nor Betray'd when Fortune smil'd Since this bright Phoebus visited our Shoar We saw no Fogs but what were rais'd before Those vanish'd too harras'd by Bloody Wars Our Land saw Peace by his most generous Cares The Wolvish Pagans at his dreaded Name Tam'd shrunk before him and his Dogs became Fell Moxus and fierce Dockawando fall Charm'd at the Feet of our Brave General Fly-blow the Dead Pale Envy let him not What Hero ever did escape a Blot All is Distort with an Inchanted Eye And Heighth will make what 's Right still stand awry He was oh that He was His Faults we 'l tell Such Faults as these we knew and lik'd them well Just to an Injury denying none Their Dues but Self denying oft his own Good to a Miracle resolv'd to do Good unto All whether they would or no. To make Vs Good Great Wise and all Things else He wanted but the Gift of Miracles On Him vain Mob thy Mischiefs cease to throw Bad but alone in This the Times were so Stout to a Prodigy living in Pain To send back Quebeck-Bullets once again Thunder his Musick sweeter than the Spheres Chim'd Roaring Canons in his Martial Ears Frigats of armed Men could not withstand 'T was try'd the Force of his one Swordless Hand Hand which in one all of Briareus had And Hercule's twelve Toyls but Pleasures made Too Humble in brave Stature not so Tall As low in Carriage stooping unto all Rais'd in Estate in Figure and Renown Not Pride Higher and yet not Prouder grown Of Pardons full ne'r to Revenge at all Was that which He would Satisfaction call True to his Mate from whom though often flown A Stranger yet to every Love but one Write Him not Childless whose whole People were Sons Orphans now of His Paternal Care Now lest ungrateful Brands we should incur Your Salary we 'll Pay in Tears GREAT SIR To England often blown and by his Prince Often sent laden with Preferments thence Preferr'd each Time He went when all was done That Earth could do Heaven fetch'd Him to a Crown 'T is He with Him Interr'd how great designs Stand Fearless now ye Eastern Firrs and Pines With Naval Stores not to enrich the Nation Stand for the Vniversal Conflagration Mines opening unto none but Him now stay Close under Lock and Key till the Last Day In this like to the Grand Aurifick Stone By any but Great Souls not to be known And Thou Rich Table with Bodilla lost In the Fair Galeon on our Spanish Coast In weight Three Thousand and Three Hundred Pound But of Pure Massy Gold ly Thou not found Safe since He 's laid under the Earth asleep Who learnt where Thou dost under Water keep But Thou Chief loser Poor NEW-ENGLAND speak Thy Dues to such as did thy welfare seek The Governour that vow'd to Rise and Fall With Thee Thy Fate shows in His Funeral Write now His Epitaph 'T will be Thine own Let it be this A PVBLICK SPIRIT 's GONE Or but Name PHIPS more needs not be exprest Both Englands and next Ages tell the Rest FINIS Books Printed for and Sold by Nath. Hiller at the Princes-Arms in Leaden-Hall Street over against St. Mary Axe THe Righteousness of God through Faith upon all without difference who believe in two Sermons at Pinners-Hall on Romans 3.22 by Mr. Nath. Mather Minister of the Gospel A Learned and Accurate Discourse concerning the Guilt of Sin Pardon of that Guilt and Prayer for that Pardon written many Years since by the Reverend Mr. Thomas Gilbert Minister of the Gospel lately Deceased at Oxford The Conquests and Triumphs of Grace being a Brief Narrative of the Success which the Gospel hath had among the Indians in New-England by Mr. Mathew Mayhew 1695. Batteries on the Kingdom of Satan by Mr. Cotton Mather Author of the late memorable Providences relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions and of Early Piety exemplified 1695. A Letter to Dr. Bates containing a Vindication of the Dr. and Mr. Lob necessitated by Mr. Williams his Answer to Mr. Humfrey by Mr. Stephen Lob 1695. The Throne of Grace discoursed from Heb. 4.6 in thirteen Sermons at Pinners-Hall by Mr. Robert Trail M. A. 1696. Scripture Proof for singing Scripture Psalms Hymns and Spiritual Songs by E. H. 1696. The Figures or Types of the Old Testament by which Christ and the heavenly Things of the Gospel were Preached and Shadowed to the People of God of Old in sundry Sermons by Mr. Samuel Mather sometime Pastor of a Church in Dublin FINIS
Boy in keeping of Cattel yet at length stealing into America he so thrived upon his Adventures there that upon some Discoveries which with an handful of Men he had in a Desperate Expedition made of Peru he obtain'd the King of Spain's Commission for the Conquest of it and at last so incredibly enricht himself by the Conquest that he was made the first Vice-Roy of Peru and created Marquess of Anatilla To the Latter and Highest Part of that Story if any thing hindred His Excellency Sir WILLIAM PHIPS from affording of a Parallel it was not the want either of Design or of Courage or of Conduct in himself but it was the Fate of a Praemature Mortality For my Reader now being satisfied That a Person 's being Obscure in his Original is not always a Just Prejudice to an Expectation of Considerable Matters from him I shall now inform him That this our PHIPS was Born Feb. 2. A. Dom. 1650. at a despicable Plantation on the River of Kennebeck and almost the furthest Village of the Eastern Settlement of new-New-England And as the Father of that Man which was as great a Blessing as England had in the Age of that Man was a Smith so a Gun-Smith namely James Phips once of Bristol had the Honour of being the Father to him whom we shall presently see made by the God of Heaven as Great a Blessing to New-England as that Country could have had if they themselves had pleased His fruitful Mother yet living had no less than Twenty Six Children whereof Twenty One were Sons but aequivalent to them all was WILLIAM one of the youngest whom his Father dying left young with his Mother and with her he lived keeping of Sheep in the Wilderness until he was Eighteen Years Old at which Time he began to feel some further Dispositions of Mind from that Providence of God which took him from the Sheepfolds from following the Ewes great with young and brought him to feed his People Reader Enquire no further who was his Father Thou shalt anon see that he was as the Italians express it A Son to his own Labours SECT 3. HIS Friends earnestly solicited him to settle among them in a Plantation of the East but he had an Unaccountable Impulse upon his Mind perswading him as he would privately hint unto some of them That he was Born to Greater Matters To come at those Greater Matters his first Contrivance was to bind himself an Apprentice unto a Ship-Carpenter for Four Years in which Time he became a Master of the Trade that once in a Vessel of more than Forty Thousand Tuns Repaired the Ruines of the Earth He then betook himself an Hundred and Fifty Miles further a Field even to Boston the chief Town of New-England which being a Place of the most Business and Resort in those parts of the World he expected there more commodiously to pursue the Spes Majorum Meliorum Hopes which had Inspir'd him At Boston where it was that he now learnt first of all to Read and Write be followed his Trade for about a Year and by a laudable Deportment so recommended himself that he Married a Young Gentlewoman of Good Repute who was the Widow of one Mr. John Hull a well-bred Merchant but the Daughter of one Captain Roger Spencer a Person of good Fashion who having suffer'd much dammage in his Estate by some unkind and unjust actions which he bore with such Patience that for fear of thereby injuring the Publick he would not seek satisfaction Posterity might afterwards see the reward of his patience in what Providence hath now done for one of his own Posterity Within a little while after his Marriage he Indented with several persons in Boston to build them a Ship at Sheeps-coat River two or three Leagues Eastward of Kennebeck where having Lanched the Ship he also provided a Lading of Lumber to bring with him which would have been to the advantage of all concern'd But just as the Ship was hardly finished the barbarous Indians on that River broke forth into an Open and Cruel War upon the English and the miserable People surprised by so sudden a storm of Bloud had no Refuge from the Infidels but the Ship now finishing in the Harbour Whereupon he left his intended Lading behind him and instead thereof carried with him his Old Neighbours and their Families free of all Charges to Boston So the First Action that he did after he was his own Man was to Save his Fathers House with the rest of the Neighbourhood from Ruine but the Disappointment which befel him from the Loss of his other Lading plunged his Affairs into greater Embarassments with such as had employ'd him SECT 4. BUT he was hitherto no more than beginning to make Scaffolds for further and higher Actions He would frequently tell the Gentlewoman his Wife That he should yet be Captain of a King's Ship That he should come to have the Command of better Men than he was now accounted himself And That he should be Owner of a Fair Brick-House in the Green-Lane of North-Boston and That it may be this would not be all that the Providence of God would bring him to She entertained these Passages with a sufficient Incredulity but he had so serious and positive an Expectation of them that it is not casie to say what was the Original thereof He was of an Enterprizing Genius and naturally disdained Littleness But his Disposition for Business was of the Dutch Mould where with a little shew of Wit there is as much Wisdom demonstrated as can be shewn by any Nation His Talent lay not in the Airs that serve chiefly for the pleasant and sudden Turns of Conversation but he might say as Themistocles Though he could not play upon a Fiddle yet he knew how to make a little City become a Great One. He would prudently contrive a weighty Undertaking and then patiently pursue it unto the End He was of an Inclination cutting rather like a Hatchet than like a Razor he would propose very Considerable Matters to himself and then so cut through them that no Difficulties could put by the Edge of his Resolutions Being thus of the True Temper for doing of Great Things he betakes himself to the Sea the Right Scene for such Things and upon Advice of a Spanish Wreck about the Bahama's he took a Voyage thither but with little more success than what just served him a little to furnish him for a Voyage to England whither he went in a Vessel not much unlike that which the Dutchmen stamped on their First Coin with these Words about it Incertum quo Fata ferant Having first informed himself that there was another Spanish Wreck wherein was lost a mighty Treasure hitherto undiscovered he had a strong Impression upon his Mind that He must be the Discoverer and he made such Representations of his Design at White-Hall that by the Year 1683 he became the Captain of a King's Ship and arrived at
especially by assuring them that besides their Wages they should have ample Requitals made unto them which if the rest of his Employers would not agree unto he would himself distribute his own share among them Relying upon the Word of One whom they had ever found worthy of their Love and of their Trust they declared themselves Content But still keeping a most careful Eye upon them he hastned back for England with as much Money as he thought he could then safely Trust his Vessel withal not counting it safe to supply himself with necessary Provisions at any nearer Port and so return unto the Wreck by which delays he wisely feared lest all might be lost more ways than one Though he also left so much behind him that many from divers parts made very considerable Voyages of Gleanings after his Harvest which came to pass by certain Bermudians compelling of Adderly's Boy whom they spirited away with them to tell them the exact place where the Wreck was to be found Captain Phips now coming up to London in the Year 1687. with near Three Hundred Thousand Pounds sterling aboard him did acquit himself with such an Exemplary Honesty that partly by his fulfilling his Assurances to the Scamen and partly by his exact and punctual Care to have his Employers defrauded of nothing that might conscientiously belong unto them he had less than sixteen Thousand pounds left unto himself As an acknowledgment of which Honesty in him the Duke of Albemarl made unto his Wife whom he never saw a Present of a Golden Cup near a Thousand Pound in value The Character of an Honest Man he had so merited in the whole Course of his Life and especially in this last act of it that this in conjunction with his other serviceable Qualities procured him the Favours of the Greatest Persons in the Nation And He that had been so diligent in his Business must now stand before Kings and not stand before mean Men There were indeed certain mean Men if base little dirty Tricks will entitle Men to Meanness who urged the King to seize his whole Cargoe instead of the Tenths upon his first Arrival on this pretence that he had not been rightly inform'd of the True state of the Case when he Granted the Patent under the Protection whereof these particular Men had made themselves Masters of all this Mighty Treasure but the King replied That he had been rightly informed by Captain Phips of the whole matter as it now proved and that it was the slanders of one then present which had unto his Dammage hindred him from hearkning to the Information Wherefore he would give them he said no Disturbance they might keep what they had got but Captain Phips he saw was a Person of that Honesty Fidelity and Ability that he should not want his Countenance Accordingly the King in consideration of the Service done by him in bringing such a Treasure into the Nation conferr'd upon him the Honour of Knighthood And if we now reckon him A Knight of the Golden Fleece the Stile might pretend unto some circumstances that would justifie it Or call him if you please The Knight of Honesty for it was Honesty with Industry that Raised him and he became a Mighty River without the running in of Muddy Water to make him so Reader Now make a Pause and behold One Raised by God! SECT 7. I am willing to Employ the Testimonies of others as much as may be to support the Credit of my History And therefore as I have hitherto related â—o more than what there are Others enough to avouch Thus I shall choose the Words of an Ingenious Person Printed at London some Years ago to express the Sum of what remains whose Words are these It has always been Sir William Phips's Disposition to seek the Wealth of his People with as great Zeal and Unweariedness as our Publicans use to seek their Loss and Ruine At first it seems they were in hopes to gain this Gentleman to their Party as thinking him Good-Natur'd and easie to be flattered out of his Understanding and the more because they had the advantage of some no very good Treatment that Sir William had formerly met with from the People and Government of new-New-England But Sir William soon shewed them that what they expected would be his Temptation to lead them into their little Tricks he embraced as a Glorious Opportunity to shew his Generosity and Greatness of Mind for in Imitation of the Greatest Worthies that have ever been he rather chose to join in the Defence of his Country with some Persons who formerly were none of his Friends tâ—aâ— become the Head of a Faction to its Ruine and â—esolation It seems this Noble Disposition of Sir William joined with that Capacity and good Success wherewith he hath been attended in Raising himself by such an Occasion as it may be all things considered has never happened to any before him makes these Men apprehensive And it must needs heighten their trouble to see that he neither hath nor doth spare himself nor any thing that is near and dear unto him in promoting the Good of his Native Country When Sir William Phips was per ardua aspera thus Raised into an Higher Orb it might easily be thought that he could not be without Charming Temptations to take the way on the left hand But as the Grace of God kept him in the midst of none of the strictest Company unto which his Affairs daily led him from abandoning himself to the lewd Vices of Gaming Drinking Swearing and Whoring which the Men that made England to sin debauch'd so many of the Gentry into and he deserved the salutations of the Roman Poet Cum Tu inter scabiem tantam Contagia Lucri Nil parvum sapias adhuc Sublimia cures Thus he was worthy to pass among the Instances of Heroick Vertue for that Humility that still Adorned him He was Raised and though he prudently accommodated himself to the Quality whereto he was now Raised yet none could perceive him to be Lifted up Or if this were not Heroick yet I will Relate one Thing more of him that must certainly be accounted so He had in his own Country of New-England met with Provocations that were enough to have Alienated any man Living that had no more than Flesh and Blood in him from the Service of it and some that were Enemies to that Country now lay hard at him to join with them in their Endeavours to Ravish away their Ancient Liberties But this Gentleman had studied another way to Revenge himself upon his Country and that was to serve it in all â—ts Interests with all of his even with his Estate â—â—s Time his Care his Friends and his very Life The Old Heathen Vertue of PIETAS IN PATRIAM or LOVE TO ONES COVNTRY he turned into Christian and so notably exemplified it in all the Rest of his Life that it will be an Essential Threed which is to be now
were under these Frights they had got by the Edges a Little Intimation of the then Prince of Orange's glorious Undertaking to deliver England from the Feared Evils which were already felt by New-England but when the Person who brought over a Copy of the Princes Declaration was Imprisoned for bringing into the Country a Treasonable Paper and the Governour by his Proclamation Required all Persons to use their utmost-Endeavours to hinder the Landing of any whom the Prince might send thither This put them almost out of Patience And One thing that plunged the more Considerate Persons in the Territory into uneasy Thoughts was the Faulty Action of some Souldiers who upon the Common Suspicions deserted their Stations in the Army and caused their Friends to gather together here and there in Little Bodies to protect from the Demands of the Governour their poor Children and Bretheren whom they thought bound for a Bloody Sacrifice and there were also belonging to the Rose-Frigat some that Buzz'd surprizing stories about Boston of many mischiefs to be thence expected Wherefore some of the Principal Gentlemen in Boston consulting what was to be done in this Extraordinary Juncture They all agreed that they would if it were possible extinguish all Essays in the People towards an Insurrection in daily Hopes of Orders from England for their Safety but that if the Country People by any violent motions push'd the matter on so far as to make a Revolution unavoidable Then to prevent the shedding of Blood by an ungoverned Mobile some of the Gentlemen present should appear at the Head of the Action with a Declaration accordingly prepared By the eighteenth of April 1689. Things were pushed on so far by the People that certain Persons first Seized the Captain of the Frigate and the Rumor thereof running like Lightning through Boston the whole Town was immediately in Arms with the most Vnanimous Resolution perhaps that ever was known to have Inspir'd any People They then seized those Wretched Men who by their innumerable Extortions and Abuses had made themselves the Objects of Vniversal Hatred not giving over till the Governour himself was become their Prisoner The whole Action being managed without the least Bloudshed or Plunder and with as much Order as ever attended any Tumult it may be in the World Thus did the New-Englanders assert their Title to the Common Rights of Englishmen and except the Plantations are willing to Degenerate from the Temper of True Englishmen or except the Revolution of the whole English Nation be condemned their Action must so far be justified On their late Oppressors now under just Confinement they took no other satisfaction but sent them over unto White-Hall for the Justice of the King and Parliament And when the Day for the Anniversary Election by their vacated Charter drew near they had many Debates into what Form they should cast the Government which was till then Administred by a Committee for the Conservation of the Peace composed of Gentlemen whose Hap it was to appear in the Head of the late Action But their Debates Issued in this Conclusion That the Governour and Magistrates which were in Power before the late Vsurpation should Resume their Places and apply themselves unto the Conservation of the Peace and put forth what Acts of Government the Emergencies might make needful for them and thus to wait for further Directions from the Authority of England So was there Accomplished a Revolution which delivered new-New-England from grievous Oppressions and which was most Graciously Accepted by the King and Queen when it was Reported unto Their Majesties But there were New Matters for Sir William Phips in a little while now to think upon SECT 9. BEHOLD the great Things which were done by the Sovereign God for a Person once as little in his own Eyes as in other Men's All the Returns which he had hitherto made unto the God of his Mercies were but Preliminaries to what remain to be Related It has been the Custom in the Churches of New-England still to expect from such Persons as they admitted unto constant Communion with them That they do not only Publickly and Solemnly Declare their Consent unto the Covenant of Grace and particularly to those Duties of it wherein a particular Church-state is more immediately concerned but also first Relate unto the Pastors and by them unto the Brethren the special Impressions which the Grace of God has made upon their Souls in bringing them to this Consent By this Custom and Caution though they cannot keep Hypocrites from their Sacred Fellowship yet they go as far as they can to render and preserve themselves Churches of Saints and they do further very much Edifie one another When Sir William Phips was now returned unto his own House he began to bethink himself like David concerning the House of the God who had surrounded him with so many Favours in his own and accordingly he applied himself unto the North Church in Boston that with his open Profession of his hearty Subjection to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ he might have the Ordinances and the Priviledges of the Gospel added unto his other Enjoyments One thing that quickned his Resolution to do what might be in this Matter expected from him was a Passage which he heard from a Minister Preaching on the Title of the Fifty First Psalm To make a publick and an open Profession of Repentance is a thing not mis-becoming the greatest Man alive It is an Honour to be found among the Repenting People of God though they be in Circumstances never so full of Suffering A famous Knight going with other Christians to be Crowned with Martyrdom observed That his Fellow-Sufferers were in Chains from which the Sacrificers had because of his Quality excus'd him whereupon he demanded that he might wear Chains as well as they For said he I would be a Knight of that Order too There is among our selves a repenting People of God who by their Consessions at their Admissions to His Table do signalize their being so and Thanks be to God that we have so little of suffering in our Circumstances But if any Man count himself grown too big to be a Knight of that Order the Lord Jesus Christ Himself will one Day be ashamed of that Man Upon this Excitation Sir William Phips made his Address unto a Corgregational-Church and he had therein One Thing to propound unto himself which few Persons of his Age so well satisfied in Infant-Baptism as he was have then to Ask for Indeed in the Primitive Times although the Lawfulness of Infant-Baptism or the Precept and Pattern of Scripture for it was never so much as once made a Question yet we find Baptism was frequently delayed by Persons upon several superstitious and unreasonable Accounts against which we have such Fathers as Gregory Nazianzen Gregory Nyssen Basil Chrysostom Ambrose and others employing a variety of Argument But Sir William Phips had hitherto delayed his Baptism because the Years
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
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-England Demand a present Surrender of your Forts and Castles undemolished and the King 's and other Stores unimbezzelled with a seasonable Delivery of all Captives together with a Surrender of all your Persons and Estates to my Dispose Upon the doing whereof you may expect Mercy from me as a Christian according to what shall be found for Their Majesties Service and the Subjects Security Which if you Refuse forth-with to do I am come provided and am Resolved by the help of God in whom I trust by Force of Arms to Revenge all Wrongs and Injuries offered and bring you under Subjection to the Crown of England and when too late make you wish you had accepted of the Favour tendered Your Answer Positive in an Hour returned by your own Trumpet with the Return of mine is Required upon the Peril that will ensue The Summons being Delivered unto Count Frontenac his Answer was That Sir William Phips and those with him were Hereticks and Traitors to their King and had taken up with that Vsurper the Prince of Orange and had made a Revolution which if it had not been made new-New-England and the French had been all One and that no other Answer was to be expected from him but what should be from the Mouth of his Cannon General Phips now saw that it must cost him Dry Blowes and that he must Roar his Perswasions out of the Mouths of Great Guns to make himself Master of a City which had certainly Surrender'd it self unto him if he had arrived but a little sooner and Summon'd it before the coming down of Count Frontenac with all his Forces to command the oppressed People there who would have been many of them gladder of coming under the English Government Wherefore on the Seventh of October the English that were for the Land-Service went on Board their lesser Vessels in order to Land among which there was a Bark wherein was Captain Ephraim Savage with sixty Men that ran a Ground upon the North-Shoar near two Miles from Quebeck and could not get off but lay in the same Distress that Scaeva did when the Britans poured in their Numbers upon the Bark wherein he with a few more Soldiers of Caesar's Army were by the disadvantage of the Tide left ashoar The French with Indians that saw them ly there came near and Fired thick upon them and were bravely Answered and when two or three Hundred of the Enemy at last planted a Field-Piece against the Bark while the Wind blew so hard that no help could be sent unto his Men the General Advanced so far as to Level two or three great Guns conveniently enough to make the Assailants Fly and when the Flood came the Bark happily got off without the hurt of one Man aboard But so violent was the Storm of Wind all this Day that it was not possible for them to Land until the Eighth of October when the English counting every Hour to be a Week until they were come to Battle vigorously got ashoar designing to enter the East-end of the City The Small-Pox had got into the Eleet by which Distemper prevailing the number of Effective Men which now went ashoar under the Command of Lieutenant General Walley did not amount unto more than Fourteen Hundred but Four Companies of these were drawn out as Forlorns whom on every side the Enemy fired at nevertheless the English Rushing with a shout at once upon them caused them to Run as fast as Legs could carry them So that the whole English Army expressing as much Resolution as was in Caesar's Army when they first landed on Britaiâ— in spight of all opposition from the Inhabitants marched on until it was dark having first killed many of the French with the loss of but four Men of their own and frighted about seven or eight Hundred more of the French from an Ambuscado where they lay ready to fall upon them But some thought that by staying in the Valley they took the way never to get over the Hill And yet for them to stay where they were till the smaller Vessels came up the River before them so far as by their Guns to secure the Passage of the Army in their getting over was what the Council of War had ordered But the Violence of the Weather with the General 's being sooner plunged into the heat of Action than was intended hindred the smaller
it is now time for us to return unto Sir William SECT 13. ALL this while CANAD A was as much written upon Sir William's Heart as CALLICE they said once was upon Queen Maries He needed not one to have been his daily Monitor about Canada It lay down with him it rose up with him it engrossed almost all his Thoughts he thought the subduing of Canada to be the greatest service that could be done for New-England or for the Crown of England in America In parsuance whereof after he had been but a few Weeks at Home he took another Voyage for England in the very depth of Winter when Satling was now dangerous conflicting with all the Difficulties of a tedious and a terrible Passage in a very little Vessel which indeed was like enough to have perished if it had not been for the help of his Generous Hand aboard and His Fortunes in the bottom Arriving per tot Discrimina at Bristol he hastned up to London and made his Applications to Their Majesties and the Principal Ministers of State for assistance to Renew an Expedition against Canada concluding his Representation to the King with such Words as these If Your Majesty shall graciously please to Commission and Assist me I am ready to venture my Life again in your Service And I doubt not but by the Blessing of God Canada may be added unto the rest of your Dominions which will all circumstances considered be of more advantage to the Crown of England than all the Territories in the West-Indies are The Reasons here subjoined are humbly Offered unto Your Majesties Consideration First The Success of this Design will greatly add to the Glory and Interest of the English Crown and Nation by the Addition of the Bever-Trade and securing the Hudson's Bay Company some of whose Factories have lately fallen into the Hands of the French and increase of English Shipping and Seamen by gaining the Fishery of Newfoundland and by consequence diminish the number of French Scamen and cut off a great Revenue from the French Crown Secondly The Cause of the English in New-England their failing in the late Attempt upon Canada was their waiting for a Supply of Ammunition from England until August their long Passage up that River the cold Season coming on and the Small-Pox and Fevers being in the Army and Fleet so that they could not stay fourteen days longer in which time probably they might have taken Quebeck yet if a few Frigats be speedily sent they doubt not of an happy Success the strength of the French being small and the Planters desirous to be under the English Government Thirdly The Jesuites endeavour to seduce the Maqua's and other Indians as is by them affirmed suggesting the Greatness of King Lewis and the inability of King William to do any thing against the French in those Parts thereby to Engage them in their Interests In which if they should succeed not only new-New-England but all our American Plantations would be endangered by the Great Increase of Shipping for the French built in New-England at easie Rates to the Infinite Dishonour and Prejudice of the English Nation But now for the Success of these Applications I must entreat the Patience of my Reader to wait until we have gone through a little more of our History SECT 14. THE Reverend INCREASE MATHER beholding his Country of New-England in a very Deplorable Condition under a Governour that acted by an Iilegal Arbitrary Treasonable Commission and Invaded Liberty and Property after such a manner as that no man could say any thing was his own he did with the Encouragement of the Principal Gentlemen in the Country but not without much Trouble and Hazard unto his own Person go over to White-Hall in the Summer of the Year 1688. and wait upon King James with a full Representation of their Miseries That King did give him Liberty of Access unto him whenever he desired it and with many Good Words promised him to Relieve the Oppressed People in many Instances that were proposed But when the Revolution had brought the Prince and Princess of Orange to the Throne Mr. Mather having the Honour divers Times to Wait upon the King he still prayed for no less a Favour to New-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-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-England they differ from other Plantations they are called Congregational and Presbyterian So that such a Governour will not suit with the People of New-England as may be very proper for other English Plantations Two Days after this the King upon what was proposed by certain Lords was very inquisitive whether He might without breach of Law set a Governour over New-England whereto the Lord Chief Justice and some others of the Council answered That whatever might be the Merit of the Cause inasmuch as the Charter of New-England stood vacated by a Judgment against them it was in the King's Power to put them under what Form of Government He should think best for them The King then said That He believed it would be for the Advantage of the People in that Colony to be under a Governour appointed by Himself Nevertheless because of what Mr. Mather had spoken to Him He would have the Agents of New-England nominate a Person that should be agreeable unto the Inclinations of the People there and notwithstanding this He would have Charter-Priviledges restored and confirmed unto them The Day following the King began another Voyage to Holland and when the Attorney General 's Draught of a Charter according to what he took to be his Majesty's Mind as expressed in Council was presented at the Council-Board on the eighth of June some Objections then made procured an Order to prepare Minutes for another Draught which deprived the New-Englanders of several Essential Priviledges in their other Charter Mr. Mather put in his Objections and vehemently protested that he would sooner part with his Life than consent unto those Minutes or any thing else that should infringe any Liberty or Priviledge of Right belonging unto his Country but he was answered That the Agents of New-England were not Plenipotentiaries from another Soveraign State and that if they would not submit unto the King's Pleasure in the settlement of the Country they must take what would follow The dissatisfactory Minutes were by Mr. Mather's Industry sent over unto the King in Flanders and the Ministers of State then with the King were earnestly applied unto that every mistake about the good Settlement of New-England might be prevented and the Queen Her self with Her own Royal Hand wrote unto the King that the Charter of New-England might either pass as it was drawn by the Attorney General or be deferred until His own Return But after all His Majesties Principal Secretary of State received a Signification of the King's Pleasure That the Charter of New-England should run in the Main Points of it as it was now granted Only there were several Important Articles which Mr. Mather by his unwearied Sollicitations obtained afterwards to be inserted There were some now of the Opinion That instead of submitting to this New Settlement they should in Hopes of getting a Reversion of the Judgment against the Old Charter declare to the Mininisters of State That they had rather have no Charter at all than such an one as was now proposed unto Acceptance But Mr. Mather advising with many unprejudiced Persons and Men of the greatest Abilities in the Kingdom Noblemen Gentlemen Divines and Lawyers they all agreed That it was not only a lawful but all Circumstances then considered a needful Thing and a part of Duty and Wisdom to accept what was now offered and that a peremptory Refusal would not only bring an Inconveniency but a Fatal and perhaps a Final Ruine upon the Country whereof Mankind would lay the blame upon the Agents It was argued That such a Submission was no Surrender of any thing That the Judgment not in the Court of Kings Bench but in Chancery against the Old Charter standing on Record the Pattent was thereby Annihilated That all attempts to have the Judgment against the Old Charter taken off would be altogether in vain as Men and Things were then disposed It was further argued That the Ancient Charter of New-England was in the Opinion of the Lawyers very Defective as to several Powers which yet were absolutely necessary to the subsistence of the Plantation It gave the Government there no more Power than the Corporations have in England Power in Capital Cases was not therein particularly expressed It mentioned not an House of Deputies or an Assembly of Representatives the Governour and Company had thereby they said no Power to impose Taxes on the Inhabitants that were not Freemen or to erect Courts of Admiralty Without such Powers the Colony could not subsist and yet the best Friends that New-England had of Persons most learned in the Law professed that suppose the Judgment against the Massachuset-Charter might be Reversed yet if they should again Exert such Powers as they did before the Quo Warranto against their Charter a new Writ of Scire Facias would undoubtedly be issued out against them It was yet further argued That if an Act of Parliament should have Reversed the Judgment against the Massachuset-Charter without a grant of some other Advantages the whole Territory had been on many Accounts very miserably Incommoded The Province of Main with Hampshire would have been taken from them and Plymouth would have been annexed unto New-York so that this Colony would have been squeezed into an Atom and not only have been render'd Insignificant in it's Trade but by having it's Militia also which was vested in the King taken away it's Insignificancies would have become out of measure humbling whereas now instead of seeing any Relief by Act of Parliament they would have been put under a Governour with a Commission whereby ill Men and the King 's and Country's Enemies might probably have crept into Opportunities to have done ten thousand ill Things and have treated the best Men in the Land after a very uncomfortable Manner It was lastly argued That by the New Charter very great Priviledges were granted unto new-New-England and in some respects greater than what they formerly enjoyed The Colony is now made a Province and their General Court has with the King's Approbation as much Power in New-England as the King and Parliament have in England They have all English Liberties and can be touched by no Law by no Tax but of their own making All the Liberties of their Holy Religion are for ever secured and their Titles to their Lands once for want of some Forms of legal Conveyance contested are now confirmed unto them If an ill Governour should happen to be imposed on them what Hurt could he do to them None except they themselves pleased for he cannot make one Counsellour or one Judge or one Justice or one Sheriff to serve his Turn Disadvantages enough one would think to discourage any ill Governour from desiring to be Stationed in those uneasie Regions The People have a Negative upon all the Executive Part of the Civil Government as well as the Legislative which is a vast Priviledge enjoyed by no other Plantation in America nor