nations be at war. The French governor has made me commit so black an action, that I shall never be easy after it, till the Five Nations shall have taken full revenge." This outrage and indignity upon the rights of ambassadors, the truth of which they did not in the least doubt, animated the Confederates to the keenest thirst after revenge; and, accordingly, 1,200 of their men, on the 26th of July, 1688, landed on the south side of the island of Montreal, while the French were in perfect security; burnt their houses, sacked their plantations, and put to the sword all the men, women, and children, without the skirts of the town. A thousand French were slain in this invasion, and twenty-six carried into captivity, and burnt alive. Many more were made prisoners in another attack in October, and the lower part of the island wholly destroyed. Only three of the Confederates were lost, in all this scene of misery and desolation.*

Never before did Canada sustain such a heavy blow. The news of this attack on Montreal no sooner reached the garrison at the Lake Ontario, than they set fire to the two barks, which they had built there, and abandoned the fort, leaving a match to twenty-eight barrels of powder, designed to blow up the works. The soldiers went down the river in such precipitation, that one of the battoes and her crew were all lost in shooting a fall. The Confederates, in the mean time, seized the fort, the powder, and the stores; and of all the French allies, who were vastly numerous, only the Nepicirinians and Kiapous adhered to them in their calamities. The Utawawas, and seven other nations, instantly made peace with the English; and but for the uncommon sagacity and address of the Sieur Perot,

* I have followed Dr. Colden in the account of this attack, who differs from Charlevoix. That jesuit tells us, that the invasion was late in August, and the Indians 1500 strong; and as to the loss of the French, he diminishes it only to two hundred souls.

Nor did the distresses Numerous scouts from

the Western Indians would have murdered every Frenchman amongst them. of the Canadians end here the Five Nations, continually infested their borders. The frequent depredations that were made, prevented them from the cultivation of their fields, and a distressing famine raged through the whole country. Nothing but the ignorance of the Indians, in the art of attacking fortified places, saved Canada from being now utterly cut off. It was, therefore, unspeakably fortunate to the French, that the Indians had no assistance from the English, and as unfortunate to us, that our colonies were then incapable of affording succours to the Confederates, through the malignant influence of those execrable measures, which were pursued under the infamous reign of king James the second. Colonel Dongan, whatever his conduct might have been in civil affairs, did all that he could in those relating to the Indians, and fell at last into the king's displeasure, through his zeal for the true interest of the province.

While these things were transacting in Canada, a scene of the greatest importance was opening at New-York. A general disaffection to the government prevailed among the people. Papists began to settle in the colony under the smiles of the governor. The collector of the revenues, and several principal officers, threw off the mask, and openly avowed their attachment to the doctrines of Rome. A Latin school was set up, and the teacher strongly suspected for a jesuit. The people of Long Island, who were disappointed in their expectation of mighty boons promised by the governor on his arrival, were become his personal enemies; and in a word, the whole body of the people trembled for the Protestant cause. Here the leaven of opposition first began to work. Their intelligence from England, of the designs there in favour of the prince of Orange, blew up the coals of discontent, and elevated

the hopes of the disaffected. But no man dared to spring into action, till after the rupture in Boston. Sir Edmund Andross, who was perfectly devoted to the arbitrary measures of king James, by his tyranny in New-England, had drawn upon himself the universal odium of a people, animated with the love of liberty, and in the defence of it resolute and courageous; and, therefore, when they could no longer endure his despotic rule, they seized and imprisoned him, and afterwards sent him to England. The government, in the mean time, was vested in the hands of a committee for the safety of the people, of which Mr. Bradstreet was chosen president. Upon the news of this event, several captains of our militia convened themselves to concert measures in favour of the prince of Orange. Amongst these, Jacob Leisler was the most active. He was a man in tolerable esteem among the people, and of a moderate fortune, but destitute of every qualification necessary for the enterprise. Milborn, his son-in-law, an Englishman, directed all his councils, while Leisler as absolutely influenced the other officers.

The first thing they contrived, was to seize the garrison in New-York; and the custom, at that time, of guarding it every night by the militia, gave Leisler a fine opportunity of executing the design. He entered it with forty-nine men, and determined to hold it till the whole militia should join him. Colonel Dongan, who was about to leave the province, then lay embarked in the bay, having a little before resigned the government to Francis Nicholson, the lieutenant-governor. The council, civil officers, and magistrates of the city, were against Leisler, and therefore many of his friends were at first fearful of openly espousing a cause disapproved by the gentlemen of figure. For this reason, Leisler's first declaration in favour of the prince of Orange, was subscribed only by a few, among

several companies of the trained bands. While the people, for four days successively, were in the utmost perplexity to determine what part to choose, being solicited by Leisler on the one hand, and threatened by the lieutenant governor on the other, the town was alarmed with a report, that three ships were coming up with orders from the prince of Orange This falsehood was very seasonably propagated to serve the interest of Leisler; for on that day, the 3d of June, 1689, his party was augmented by the addition of six captains and four hundred men in New-York, and a company of seventy men from East Chester, who all subscribed a second declaration,* mutually covenanting to hold the fort for the prince. Colonel Dongan continued till this time in the harbour, waiting the issue of these commotions; and Nicholson's party, being now unable to contend with their opponents, were totally dispersed, the lieutenant-governor himself absconding, the very night after the last declaration was signed

Leisler being now in complete possession of the fort, sent home an address to king William and queen Mary, as soon as he received the news of their accession to the throne. It is a tedious, incorrect, ill-drawn narrative of the grievances which the people had endured, and the methods lately taken to secure themselves, ending with a recog

I have taken an exact copy of it for the satisfaction of the reader "Whereas our intention tended only but to the preservation of the Protestant religion, and the fort of this citty, to the end that we may avoid and prevent, the rash judgment of the world, in so a just design; wee have thought fitt, to let every body know by these public proclamation, that till the safe arryvell of the ships, that wee expect every day, from his royal highness the prince of Orange, with orders for the government of this country in the behalf of such person, as the said royal highness had chosen, and honoured with the charge of a governour, that as soon as the bearer of the said orders, shall have let us see his power, then, and without any delay, we shall execute the said orders punctually; declaring that we do intend to submitt and obey, not only the said orders, but also the bearer thereof, committed for the execution of the same. In witness hereof, we have signed these presents, the third of June, 1689."

nition of the sovereignty of the king and queen over the whole English dominions.

This address was soon followed by a private letter from Leisler to king William, which, in very broken English, informs his majesty of the state of the garrison, the repairs he had made to it, and the temper of the people, and concludes with strong protestations of his sincerity, loyalty, and zeal. Jost Stoll, an ensign, on the delivery of this letter to the king, had the honour to kiss his majesty's hand, but Nicholson, the lieutenant-governor, and one Ennis, an episcopal clergyman, arrived in England before him; and by falsely representing the late measures in New-York, as proceeding rather from their aversion to the Church of England, than zeal for the prince of Orange, Leisler and his party missed the rewards and notice, which their activity for the revolution justly deserved. For though the king made Stoll the bearer of his thanks to the people for their fidelity, he so little regarded Leisler's complaints against Nicholson, that he was soon after preferred to the government of Virginia. Dongan returned to Ireland, and it is said succeeded to the earldom of Limerick.

Leisler's sudden investiture with supreme power over the province, and the probable prospects of king William's approbation of his conduct, could not but excite the envy and jealousy of the late council and magistrates, who had refused to join in the glorious work of the revolution; and hence the spring of all their aversion, both to the man and his measures. Colonel Bayard, and Courtland, the mayor of the city, were at the head of his opponents, and finding it impossible to raise a party against him in the city, they very early retired to Albany, and there endeavoured to foment the opposition. Leisler, on the other hand, fearful of their influence, and to extinguish the jealousy of the