ANDROS'S ADMINISTRATION.

245 Rhode Island, and in the same month with his arrival at Bos-· ton, he visited the province, dissolved the provincial corporation, broke its seal, and assumed the government. Five of the citizens were appointed members of his own council.

Connecticut, in an address to the king, had also vainly solicited the preservation of her privileges. A writ, similar to that against Rhode Island, was issued in this case, and Randolph, ever the enemy of American liberty, volunteered his services to carry it across the Atlantic. In January, 1687, the assembly and governor of Connecticut petitioned the secretary of state that if their government must be taken from them, they might be incorporated with Massachusetts. In pursuance of orders, Andros went, in October, with his suite and more than sixty armed men, to Hartford, where the assembly of Connecticut was then sitting, demanded the charter, and declared the government to be dissolved. The manner in which the assembly evaded this requisition and secreted their charter, has already been narrated in a former chapter.

Having now acquired the supreme power, Andros proceeded to exercise it with a rigour and injustice that rendered his government universally odious. The taxes were continually augmented, and the fees of the public functionaries reached an enormous height. Many alterations were made in ecclesiastical affairs, all tending to the benefit of the Episcopal Church, and consequently, to the injury of the mass of the colonists who were dissenters. Andros often remarked that the only dif ference between the inhabitants and slaves, was, that they were neither bought nor sold; and Randolph, at the summit of his wishes, boasted, in letters to his friends, that the rulers in New England were "as arbitrary as the Grand Turk.”

Although the trial by jury was not abolished, Andros selected the juries, and to suit his wishes, had the guilty acquitted or the innocent punished. To add extortion to tyranny, he questioned the titles to all the land, asserting that the titles granted under the charter were as defective as the former government. To have them amended, new patents *See Vol. I., p. 206.

246

COLONISTS REVOLT.

from the governor were requisite, and writs of intrusion were issued against all who refused to apply for such grants and pay the large fees that were demanded for them. Many of the landed proprietors had deeds from the Indians, but these he asserted were no better than scratches of a bear's paw. The insolent governor treated all the inhabitants as traitors and rebels, and said that he was authorised to grant his majesty's most gracious pardon to all who should apply for it. None, however, applied.

Town-meetings were held to be seditious, and a passport from the governor was necessary before leaving the colony. Sir William Phipps, in favour at the court of James, exerted himself strongly in behalf of his country, and the king, finding the provincial affairs growing desperate, at last offered the post of governor to Phipps. He refused to accept the office under the falling tyrant, and Andros continued to fill it. Meanwhile the Indian hostilities were renewed by the intrigues of the French. The colonists offered them peace; but, backed by the French, they refused all offers, and Andros was compelled to march against them in the depth of winter. He merely restrained the incursions of the savages, inflicting but little permanent injury upon them, and losing a great many of his men. The inhabitants ascribed this expedition to a deliberate purpose to destroy the troops he conducted, by cold and famine. At length the smothered rage of the people broke forth; letters from Virginia, having communicated to the inhabitants some vague reports of the proceedings of the Prince of Orange in England. All at once, and apparently without any preconcerted plan, an insurrection broke forth in Boston; martial music summoned the people together; in a few hours, the revolt become so universal, and the force of the people so overpowering, that the government abandoned all attempts to resist the popular will. Andros, Dudley, and fifty of the more obnoxious characters were seized and imprisoned. In the beginning of the outbreak, Andros had sent a party of soldiers to capture Simon Bradstreet, a veteran of near ninety years, who had exercised the office of governor at the

ACCESSION OF WILLIAM AND MARY.

247

time when the old charter was abrogated. The selection of this venerable man as a victim of tyranny by Andros seems to have designated him to the colonists as a suitable leader, in their present movement. When he came forward to the townhouse, where the people were assembled, he was received with a shout of welcome. It was the parting knell of Andros's tyranny. A committee of safety was appointed, who deposed the royal governor and his minions, appointed Bradstreet in his place, reinstated the former magistrates, and re-established the ancient constitution. Andros and the other prisoners were to be detained in prison until the directions of the Prince of Orange and the English Parliament with respect to them, might be made known.

When the tidings of the revolution in Boston reached Connecticut, the inhabitants determined to follow so noble an example. Captain Wadsworth drew the old charter from its hiding-place in the oak, and it was again proclaimed the law of the province. Rhode Island had never been required to give up the charter which they had so formally and unequivocally resigned, and now they again declared it to be in force, without hesitation. New Plymouth resumed its old government; but the assembly of New Hampshire petitioned King William that they might still be united to Massachusetts. Their request was, however, refused, and a separate governor was appointed for that province.

Mature reflection convinced the inhabitants of Massachusetts that it was impracticable to establish the former charter, so formally vacated by the parent state, who could alone restore it. A convention of the people resolved that though the charter might be restored, it could not be resumed.

The popular movement which terminated the dominion of Andros, was not confined to New England. An insurrection similar to that in Boston, took place in New York, where the Dutch signified, in a very unequivocal manner, their loyalty to the new king, who was their own countryman. The history of this outbreak, which was headed by Jacob Leisler, will be given in a subsequent chapter.

ATER intelligence now arrived in the colony from the mother country, by which the settlement of English affairs and accession of William and Mary were fully confirmed. Three days afterwards, May 29th, 1689, they were

proclaimed throughout the province, with "sincere congratulation and extraordinary solemnity." A letter was soon after received, addressed by the king and queen, "To the Colony of Massachusetts," sanctioning the acts of the inhabitants, and confirming the present magistrates until some

FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

249

other form of government should be determined upon, and directing that Andros and his associates should be sent to England for trial. They were accordingly sent; and Mather and other additional agents were sent for the prosecution of the charges against Andros, and, above all, to solicit the restoration of the charter. Ere they knew whether their affairs were likely to come to a favourable issue, they were again involved in a war with the French and their Indian allies. Attacks were made in the conclusion of the present year (1689), by considerable bodies of the Indians, on the settlements and forts; which, proving successful in some instances, were followed by brutal massacres.

One of these is all that we shall particularly notice, as the savage proceedings were nearly all conducted in the same manner. Thirteen years before, Major Waldron had seized four hundred Indians at Dover, after they had entered into a treaty and were come to trade. Two hundred of them were sold into slavery, and some others hanged at Boston. Revenge rankled in the bosoms of the Indians, who had determined that Waldron should now pay the forfeit of his treachery. He commanded five garrisoned houses at Dover, and thinking himself secure, he had neglected to keep a strict watch. The Indians observed and profited by this carelessness. Two squaws were to go and lodge for the night in each fort, and as soon as the people were asleep, they were to open the forts and admit the enemy. The plan was carried into effect; the Indians rushed into the forts, destroying all who opposed them, and committing the greatest cruelties. Major Waldron and twenty-two others were killed, and twenty-nine taken as prisoners into Canada and sold to the French, where most of them remained in captivity till death.

At the beginning of 1690, Count Frontignac sent three expeditions from Canada against the colonies. Schenectady was attacked (February 8th), and sixty men, women, and children were massacred, and twenty-seven taken prisoners; Salmon Falls settlement was pillaged and burnt (March 18th), thirty inhabitants being killed and fifty-four taken prisoners;

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