offered them an Indian bible, and a Protestant missionary; they rejected both. Some time elapsed before the opposition, usually displayed against royal governors, shewed itself; but, in 1720, the storm rose higher than it had for a number of years, The governor negatived the speaker, chosen by the house; they refused to choose another; he dissolved them. The flame of popular resentment blazed through the province. He revived the old controversy of a fixed salary, and met with the fate of his predecessors. But the people of New-Hampshire were satisfied with Gov. Shute's adminis tration, and contributed more than their proportion toward his support. So strong was the tide of opposition at Boston, that the governor, in 1720, returned to England, and presented a variety of complaints against the house of representatives. Among other things, he complained that they had usurped his right of appointing days of fasting and thanksgiving. The British ministry justified the governor, and the province was obliged to accept an explanatory charter, dated August 12th, 1724. This confirmed the right of the governor to negative the speaker, and forbid the house to adjourn for more than two days, without his consent. In 1721, the small pox was very mortal in Boston, and several adjacent towns. In Boston 5889 caught it, and 844 died. The Rev. Dr. Cotton Mather had read of innoculation among the Turks, He recommended it to the physi cians. Dr. Boylston alone complied. He was first suc cessful in his own family, and afterward gave it to many others in the same way; but the business was, in general, very unpopular, and finally forbidden by the general court. In the winter, an unsuccessful attempt was made to seize Ralle, the French missionary at Norridgewock. This provoked the Indians to vengeance; and, after various hostili ties, they destroyed Brunswick. By these things, the gov ernment was induced, in 1722, to make another attempt upon Norridgewock. Captains Moulton and Harman of York, surprised the village, killed the Jesuit and about 80 Indians; rescued 3 prisoners, burned the wigwams and chapel, and brought away the plate and furniture. The military spirit was roused: government offered £100 for every scalp. Capt. Lovell, of Dunstable, became a daring adventurer. At one time he brought in 10 scalps; but soon after fell in battle, with more than a 4th part of his companions, near Winnipisioke pond.* After governor Shute's departure, lieutenant governor Dummer managed the affairs of Massachusetts, and Mr. Wentworth those of New-Hampshire. Fort Dummer was built in Hinsdale, 1724, and the first settlement made in Vermont. At his decease, Gov. Dummer bequeathed a valuaable estate in Byfield to that parish, toward supporting a grammar school. This is now Dummer Academy. The year 1727 was remarkable for the greatest earthquake, which had ever been known in New-England. It happened Oct. 29, at 10 o'clock, P. M. The heavens were clear, the atmosphere perfectly calm, the moon shining in her glory. The shock extended several hundred miles; its greatest force was displayed at Newbury, in Essex county; the earth burst open in several places; more than a hundred cartloads of earth were thrown out, which, in a few days, emitted a loathsome smell. But the most remarkable and important effect was the panic, which seized the public mind, and the general seriousness, which followed. In many towns, numbers were awakened, a reformation of morals was visible, family prayer was more generally attended, and great additions were made to many churches.† Upon the accession of George II. this year, Mr. William Burnet, son to the good bishop of Sarum, was appointed governor of Massachusetts and New-Hampshire. He had been popular as a governor of New-York and New-Jersey, and was received in Boston with great pomp, being met there by the lieutenant governor of New-Hampshire, and a committee of the council and assembly. The government of New-Hampshire gave him a fixed salary, on certain conditions; but in Massachusetts there was soon a warm altercation between him and the general court on this subject. His nerves should have been "made of sterner stuff," to contend with Massachusetts. He was disappointed; he was depressed; and died in a few months. When the news of this reached England, the resentment there was so great, that a proposal was made to reduce the colony to absolute dependence on the crown; but milder measures prevailed, and Mr. Jonathan Belcher, a native of the province, son of a wealthy farmer, then a merchant in London, was appointed governor of Massachusetts and New-Hampshire. CHAP. XXIV. Public ferment in Massachusetts; Dreadful mortality; line established between Massachusetts and New-Hampshire; Shirley governor; Louisbourg taken; French invasion; Congress at Albany; Nova Scotia taken; Braddock's defeat. WHILE these provinces were in a constant ferment by their contentions with their governors, Connecticut and Rhode-Island, under their ancient charters, enjoyed tranquillity, chose their own rulers, and enacted their own laws. The altercations of Massachusetts fanned the coals of inde pendence, and finally produced the explosion, which has forever separated the two countries. In August, 1730, Gov. Belcher was received with great joy; like his predecessors, he proposed a fixed salary; like them, he saw his proposal repelled with violence. He saw the cause was desperate, and obtained leave from the British court to receive such sums as should be granted him. So terminated the long, the tedious contest respecting the gov ernor's salary. In 1735 was the most extensive and fatal epidemic, which has been known in New-England since its settlement by the English. It was called the throat distemper. The throat swelled with white or ash-coloured specks, an ef efflorescence appeared on the skin; with great debility of the whole system, and a strong tendency to putridity Its first appearance was in May, 1735, at Kingston, in New-Hampshire. The first person seized was a child, who died in 3 days. In about a week, it appeared 4 miles distant, 3 children died on the third day. During the summer, it spread through the town; of the first 40 who had it, not one recovered. In August it appeared in Exeter, an adjacent town, where 127 died; In September, at Boston, 50 miles south, where 114 died; at Byfield, 15 miles south of Kingston, Oct. 23d; nor was it known in Chester, an adjoining town, till this month. At Byfield, only 1 died in October,* in November 2 died, in December 10, in January 7, in February 3, in March 6, in April 5, in May 7, in June 4, in July 9, in August 25, in September 13, in October 8, in November 4; the last of which died on the 23d, so that in just thirteen months 104 persons died, which was about the 7th part of the population of the parish. Eight children were buried from one family, 4 of them in the same grave; another family lost 5 children. Church Records of Byfield. In other places, from 3 to 6 children were lost out of a family. In some towns 1 in 3, and others 1 in 4, who were sick, died. In Hampton Falls, 20 families buried all their children; 27 persons were lost out of 5 families, and more than a sixth part of the inhabitants died. In the province of New-Hampshire alone, which then had only 15 towns, not less than 1000 persons, of whom 900 were under 20 years of age, fell victims to this terrible malady.* It was not an enemy of any particular season or situation. It continued through the whole year. It appeared afterwards, in 1754 and 1755, spreading mortality through NewEngland. In some places in Connecticut, it was quite as fatal as in Massachusetts. It again alarmed New Hamp shire and Massachusetts in 1784, 5, 6 and 7, and 1802. It has of late been much more under the controul of medicine; but still it is a formidable enemy, walking in darkness; appearing here to-day, and perhaps to-morrow in the remotest place in the neighbourhood, without any intercourse or similarity of situation; the distress and anguish it brings is often indescribable; the writhings and contortions of the patient seem as great, as if he were on a bed of burning coals. The divisional line, in 1740, was finally determined by the lords of the council, between New-Hampshire and Massachusetts. New-Hampshire obtained 14 miles in breadth, and about 50 in length more than they had claimed. A party, the following year, opposed Gov. Belcher, and by incessant applications to the ministry, by falsehood and forgery, they finally prevailed. He was succeeded in NewHampshire, by Benning Wentworth; in Massachusetts, by William Shirley. Gov. Belcher repaired to court; demonstrated his own integrity and the baseness of his enemies, was * Belknap. |