CRISIS IN ENGLAND. thousand; Connecticut, from seventeen to twenty thousand; that is, in all New England, seventy-five thousand souls; New York, not less than twenty thousand; New Jersey, half as many; Pennsylvania and Delaware, perhaps twelve thousand; Maryland, twenty-five thousand; Virginia, fifty thousand or more; and the two Carolinas, which then included the soil of 437 Georgia, probably not less than eight thousand souls."* Such was the condition of affairs when William III. ascended the English throne, and hardly had the event occurred when the colonies became involved in a war that has since been known as the French and Indian War, consequent upon the war between France and England at home. - - CHAPTER XVI. 1689-1697. FIRST INTER COLONIAL WAR. Importance of the Accession of William III.-Colonies do not share in the benefits of the changes of rulersFirst intercolonial war begins Attack by the Indians on Dover, N. H.- Death of Major Waldron - Other attacks - Frontenac decides to invade New York - Destruction of Schenectady-Massacre of Salmon Falls Narrative of one of the sufferers — Attack on Casco — Colonial delegates plan conquest of CanadaFrontenac repulses Schuyler and the Iroquois - The unsuccessful expedition of Phipps against QuebecNew charter given to Massachusetts - The witchcraft delusion - Influence of Cotton Mather and Increase Mather Various convictions and executions The reaction Attacks by the French and Indians on Oyster Further depredations of Frontenac First intercolonial River and Pemaquid - Massacre at Haverhill war ended by treaty of Ryswick. In 1689, at the time of the accession of William III., there was a crisis in the affairs of England which had to be met, and which required all the combined wisdom and energy of the statesmen of that period to save the country from the evil which threatened to destroy every vestige of constitutional freedom. It was then to be determined which was to prevail, despotism or the liberty of law and order in the supremacy of the legislature, but the dethronement of James II. and the accession of William III. to the throne established Parliament as supreme and forever overthrew all pretensions on the part of the sover eign to the irresponsible exercise of royal prerogative and power. This change had a very important influence upon the progress and development of the American colonies. Bancroft says: "By resolving that James II. had abdicated, the representatives of the English people assumed to sit in judgment on its kings. By declaring the throne vacant, they annihilated the principle of legitimacy. By disfranchising a dynasty for professing the Roman faith, they not only exerted the power of interpreting the original contract, but of introducing * Bancroft, History of the United States, vol. ii., p. 450 (1st ed.). into it new conditions. By electing a king, they made themselves his constituents; and the Parliament of England became the fountain of sovereignty for the English world." However, while the accession of William was of great importance to the mother country, the colonies received less benefit from the change of rulers than they had hoped and expected. Mr. Hildreth says: "By strengthening the parliament and increasing the influence of the manufacturing class, it [the English Revolution] exposed the American plantations to increased danger of mercan tile and parliamentary tyranny, of which, in the acts of trade, they already had a foretaste-a tyranny a tyranny far more energetic, persevering, grasping, and more to be dreaded than any probable exercise of merely regal authority.” * The policy of William and Parliament was unfavorable to the interests of the colonies, and the colonists were not long in discovering that the mere riddance of a despotism of royal prerogative afforded no guarantee that the Parliament would not act just as it agreed. William does not seem to have forgotten any of the pretensions and claims of his predecessors on the throne, and though the policy, both at home and in the colonies, became more liberal to all Protestants, the rancor against the Catholics became still more bitter after the dethronement of * History of the United States, vol. ii., p. 123. James. Furthermore, war broke out with France at this time and the national and religious differences were roused to their highest pitch. The colonists, as a matter of course, became involved in a ruinous conflict between the two nations of the Old World, as a consequence of which they were saddled with heavy expense and enormous debts, in addition losing many thousands of valuable lives. Nevertheless, when the war first broke out, both sides were eager for the fray. The New England colonists believed that they were powerful enough to drive the French entirely from the continent, and to secure for themselves the valuable fur trade which at this time lay in the hands of the French. On the other hand, the French proposed to continue their monopoly of the western fur trade, to secure uninterrupted passage through Lake Erie, down the Mississippi to the Gulf, and to cut off the English from the cod fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland. Both sides, therefore, engaged in the conflict with all the ardor of religious and national animosity, and prepared themselves for a long and bloody struggle. A little more human than were his English neighbors, Louis XIV. of France had proposed that the respective colonies of the two nations remain neutral, but the English king, believing that the New England colonies were more powerful than the French in America, rejected this proposition; INDIAN MASSACRE AT DOVER; WALDRON KILLED. and as there was no alternative, the war broke out furiously on both sides. The French were the first to strike an effective blow. Almost as soon as news was received of the declaration of war between the two home countries, Baron Castin succeeded in persuading the eastern Indians to open hostilities against the English. This he easily accomplished, because of a transaction which had occurred some thirteen years before, at the end of King Philip's War. At that time a body of about 300 Indians had been seized and sold into slavery, after peace was established between the English and the Indians. This transaction took place at the home of Major Richard Waldron, at Dover, New Hampshire. Castin, therefore, persuaded the Indians to avenge this treachery by attacking the settlement at Dover. Though Waldron had been warned of the designs of the Indians, he derided the opinion that the Indians would make such an attack, telling those who feared it "to go and plant their pumpkins, for he would tell them when the Indians would break out." Free from any sign of hostile intention, a large number of Indians gradually came into the town, but on the very eve of the attack Waldron could not be persuaded that any treachery was meditated, saying "that he knew the Indians very well, and there was no danger whatever." At this time it was a common practice during times of peace for Indians, who traded with 439 the colonists to seek and obtain a night's lodging at any house with the owner of which they might be acquainted. On the night of the attack, following the usual custom, two squaws obtained consent to sleep by the hearth of Waldron's home, and similar permission was granted by every other householder where Indians made application. When Waldron's household were asleep, the two squaws arose, and giving the appointed signal, the Indians quietly stole in, and setting a guard at the door went into the room where Waldron was asleep. Though eighty years of age, Waldron, when he heard the noise, seized his sword and finally succeeded in driving his assailants through one or two apartments, but he was then stunned by a blow from a hatchet, tightly bound, and after being dragged into the hall, was seated in an arm chair upon the table. There he was subjected to every form of insult, after which each of the Indians made deep gashes with a knife across his naked breast, exclaiming "Thus I cross out my account." Finally fainting from the loss of blood, Waldron toppled from the table, and as he did so, one of the Indians held his own sword under him so that he fell upon it. Thus he was killed. Throughout the town on the same evening more than 20 others were killed, 29 were carried off prisoners, and the town was burned. This event took place in the latter part of June, 1689.* Several attacks were made during August and September on other towns such as Pemaquid and Casco, the attack on the latter place being repulsed by Church, a famous partisan in King Philip's War.† All the settlements further east were broken up.‡ About the middle of October, 1689, Frontenac, having been reappointed to the position of governor, arrived in Canada, bringing with him large supplies of galleys and troops, and also the Indians who had been carried to France as prisoners. Though now sixty-nine years of age, Frontenac possessed wonderful energy and ability. Immediately upon his arrival, he determined to invade New York both by sea and land, and proceeded to perfect his scheme. He fitted out three war parties to attack three different towns simultaneously, and to inflict the same misery and suffering upon the English which the French in Canada had suffered at the hands of the Iroquois. He first determined upon the destruction of Schenectady, N. Y., and in January, 1690, sent out an expedition of 210 men, of whom 96 were Indian converts, the whole being under command of French officers. Starting from Cagnawaga, on the St. Lawrence opposite Montreal, the ex * Bancroft, vol. ii., pp. 178-179. Church's Entertaining Passages, pp. 152–176. On these events see Parkman, Count Frontenac, p. 222 et seq.; Johnston, History of Bristol, Bremen and Pemaquid. pedition toiled through the heavy snows for twenty-two days, during which time they endured all manner of hardships. On the 8th of February they succeeded in reaching Schenectady, which at that time consisted of about 40 houses (though the French accounts say 80). The town was protected by a palisade, but the inhabitants carelessly left the gates unguarded at night, thinking that the distance from the frontier and the fact that the winter was extremely severe would render them immune from attack either by the French or Indians. But their carelessness was soon to be forcibly brought home to them. On the night of February 8 the French and Indians quietly stole into the town in several bodies, and in all parts of the little village the attack was carried on simultaneously. The door of every dwelling was burst open, and men, women and children were indiscriminately butchered, 60 being killed on the spot and between 80 and 90 taken prisoners, although only 27 were carried away as captives. The village was then set on fire, and as it was burning, the survivors of the massacre hastened away toward Albany in the midst of the driving snowstorm, spreading terror and confusion among the people along the way by the account of the savage treatment to which they had been subjected.* * Fiske, Dutch and Quaker Colonies, vol. ii, pp. 192-195; Parkman, Count Frontenac, pp. 184219; New York Colonial Documents, vol. ix.; MASSACRE AT SALMON FALLS; NARRATIVE OF CAPTIVE. A second war party consisting of about 50 armed men under François Hertel, set out by order of Frontenac from Three Rivers and made their way by the St. Francis and the valley of the upper Connecticut to Salmon Falls, New Hampshire. Reaching the village on March 27, they made a sudden assault on it, killed the majority of the male inhabitants, burned a large number of the houses, and carried off 54 prisoners, the majority of whom were women and children. These they drove off into the wilderness, with the intention of selling them as slaves in Canada. As a sample of the horrors resulting from this border warfare, we quote an extract from the narrative of one of the captives: "The Indians, when they had flogged me away along with them, took my oldest boy, a lad of about five years of age, along with them, for he was still at the door by my side. My middle little boy, who was about three years of age, had by this time obtained a situation by the fire in the house, and was crying bitterly to me not to go, and making bitter complaints of the depredations of the savages. "But these monsters were not willing to let the child remain behind them; they took him by the hand to drag him along with them, but he was so very unwilling to go, and made such a noise by crying, that they took him up by the feet, and dashed his brains out against the threshold of the door. They then scalped and stabbed Documentary History of New York, vol. i., pp. 297-312; Schuyler's letter of February 15, 1690, in Whitmore's Andros Tracts, vol. iii.; Roberts, New York, vol. i., p. 169; Lamb, City of New York, vol. i., pp. 376-378; Miles, Canada, pp. 206209; McMullen, Canada, pp. 67-70; Smith, Canada, vol. i., p. 87; Heriot, Canada, p. 241; Murray, British America, vol. i., p. 188; Hildreth, vol. ii., pp. 130-131; Colden, Five Nations, pp. 113-115. * Parkman, Count Frontenac, pp. 219-228; Miles, Canada, p. 210; Hildreth, vol. ii., p. 132. him and left him for dead. When I witnessed this inhuman butchery of my own child, I gave a most indescribable and terrific scream, and felt a dimness come over my eyes next to blindness, and my senses were nearly gone. The savage then gave me a blow across my face and head, and brought me to my sight and recollection again. During the whole of this agonizing scene, I kept my infant in my arms. "As soon as their murder was effected, they marched me along to the top of the bank. Here I beheld another hard scene, for as soon as we had landed, my little boy, who was still mourning and lamenting about his little brother, and who complained that he was injured by the fall in descending the bank, was murdered. "One of the Indians ordered me along, probably that I should not see the horrid deed about to be perpetrated. The other then took his tomahawk from his side, and with this instrument of death killed and scalped him. When I beheld this second scene of inhuman butchery, I fell to the ground senseless, with my infant in my arms, it being under, and its little hands in the hair of my head. How long I remained in this state of insensibility I know not. "The first thing I remember was my raising my head from the ground, and my feeling myself excedingly overcome by sleep. I cast my eyes around, and saw the scalp of my dear little boy, fresh bleeding from his head, in the hands of one of the savages, and sunk down to the earth again, upon my infant child. The first thing I remember, after witnessing this spectacle of woe, was the severe blows I was receiving from the hands of the savages, though at this time I was unconscious of the injury I was sustaining. After a severe castigation, they assisted me in getting up, and supported me when up. "In the morning one of them left us, to watch the trail or path we had come, to see if any white people were pursuing us. During the absence of the Indian who was the one that claimed ine, the other, who remained with me, and who was the murderer of my last boy, took from his bosom his scalp and prepared a hoop, and stretched the scalp upon it. Those mothers who have not seen the like done by one of the scalps of their own children—and few, if any, ever had so much misery to endure will be able to form but faint ideas of the feelings which then harrowed up my soul." On the way back from Salmon Falls, the second war party met the |