youth passed amidst the refinements of old civilization; the destitution of a wilderness, and conflicts with savage men; the growth of a virtuous and vigorous commonwealth; its subversion, resurrection, and reorganization under restricted but permanent conditions, such was the outline of nearly a century's events, traced by the recollec tions of a leading actor in them.1

1 "The only surviving antiquary of us Nov-Angles, the prime Secretary and Register of our civil and sacred records, and the bifronted Janus who saw the closure of the old, and the overture of this New-Albion world; one who, in your juvenile strength, engaged you all to raise and build up the arduous and hazardous structure of this then despised and despicable fabric: so as its observers said of it,' What will these feeble men build? If a fox go up, he shall even break down the stone wall;' of which

CHAPTER VI.

THE selection of Phips to be Governor of Massachusetts was expected to gratify the people of that Province, and so to facilitate the introduction of their new constitution of government. Even had his administration been much more satisfactory than it proved to be, the choice of his successor would not have been dictated by the same considerations. While the new system had settled itself, and was in quiet operation, the home supervision of the Colonies had been changed by the transfer of it from a committee of the Privy Council to the Board of Trade; and the new functionaries naturally desired to justify and to signalize their advancement by some novelty in the energy and methods of their proceeding. Nor could it seem amiss to inaugurate their business by committing the administration of the principal Colony to a man of ability, of resolution, and of high social standing.

1696.

Reasons for

pointment.

Two needs of the Colonies seemed to demand special attention at this moment. In the long war with France, private armed ships had been much em- Lord Belloployed. By their rude navigators the distinction mont's apbetween privateersman and pirate failed of being always observed; and it was said that there was some resort of freebooters to the American coast, where they had advantages for eluding detection and arrest. Again, the disappointments and disasters of the war in America had proved at what a great disadvantage the English were, notwithstanding their preponderance in numbers, by reason

1 See above, 21.

of their want of combination under one head. The management, by Nicholson and Fletcher, of affairs with the Indian tribes on the New York frontier, had not been satisfactory. The peace just made in fact lasted through the period of Lord Bellomont's service. But from the first it was understood to be of uncertain duration, and, against the time when hostilities should be renewed, it was prudent to provide for a better handling of colonial resources. The scheme of a general government, like that of Andros's rule, or even more comprehensive, was repeatedly entertained and pressed. But objections occurred, partly arising out of the charters; and it was thought that the nearest approach to a consolidation which could well be made for the present was by extending over New York and New Jersey the authority of the Governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and by placing him in command of the military force of all the northern Colonies.1

It was indeed impossible, in the circumstances, that the peace of Ryswick should be more than a truce. It was a truce of undetermined length, and of imperfectly defined conditions. The parties did not mean to bury their quarrel; they but wanted respectively a resting-time to look about them to reorganize and to recruit. The cessation from arms probably lasted longer than any of them anticipated. That between French and English the strife was only adjourned, was manifest to both the late belligerents. An article of the

'For William Penn's "Scheme for a Union of the Colonies in America," see O'Callaghan, IV. 296; comp. Edmund Harrison, Representation to the Board of Trade, Feb. 1, 1697 (British Colonial Papers). He wrote, "The uniting the government of New England and New York is of the utmost necessity for the good of both." The project of a union was not without favor in high quarters in Massachusetts. "Many small governments: . . . these should be united under one government, or

rather a viceroy sent over all.” (Letter of Stephen Sewall to Edward Hull, of Nov. 2, 1696, Ibid.) Sir Henry Ashurst subscribed his name to a memorial to the Lords of Trade in favor of such a measure, but afterwards withdrew it. (Journals of the Board of Trade for Feb. 8, 1697.) For the final decision of this question by the Lords, see O'Callaghan, IV. 259. The plan of a union was discarded Feb. 25, 1697. (Ibid., 261.)

treaty provided for a mutual restitution of "all territories, islands, forts, and colonies, wherever situated," to the power which possessed them before the war. The limits of Acadia were not now described, and had never been defined. The French always held that that province, which now French prereverted to them, was bounded on the west by the tensions. Kennebec; the English maintained that their possession extended eastward to the St. Croix, and that accordingly all between the Kennebec and the St. Croix was now part of Massachusetts. The same contradictory interpretations included the right to the allegiance of the Indians within the disputed territory, and the right to take fish along its coast and among the neighboring islands. Villebon, the French Governor of Acadia, gave formal notice to the government of Massachusetts that he was in- Sept. 5. structed to assert by force his master's claim in these particulars. It was especially with reference to this controversy that the home government was at different times so urgent with Massachusetts to keep up the fort at Pemaquid, so as to command the river Penobscot.

1698.

The new Governor of Massachusetts, Richard Coote, grandson of Sir Charles Coote, a soldier of Queen Elizabeth, was the second Baron Coloony, and the first Earl of Bellomont, in the peerage of Ireland. He was now sixtytwo years old. He had taken a serviceable part in the measures which led to the recent Revolution, but, as a member of the House of Commons in the new King's second Parliament, had incurred his displeasure by moving an impeachment of two law officers of the crown in Ireland. From the consequences of this loss of favor he was relieved by the friendship of Lord Shrewsbury,*

1 Letter of Stoughton of Oct. 24, 1698. (British Colonial Papers.) 2 See Burke, Extinct Peerage, Art. Bellomont.

4 "Compassion will not permit me to refuse seconding what my Lord Sunderland says he has writ to your Majesty in behalf of my Lord Bello

* Hansard, Parliamentary History, mont, that he may have some forfeited lands in Ireland. His condition

V. 816.

1694.

who at this moment stood especially high in the royal graces, by reason of his having consented, after much solicitation, to resume office, for which acquiApril 30. escence he had been rewarded with a dukedom; and the King's reconciliation with the offender must be presumed to have been cordial, since it 1696. was after the Duke's intervention that his client was raised a degree in the peerage.

1697.

The Governor's arri

York.

1698.

April 2.

It was in the seventh month after his appointApril 8. ment that Lord Bellomont left England, and four or five months more passed before he landed at New York, adverse weather having driven him off to the West Indies. He had doubted to which of his governval at New ments he should repair first. He had learned in London that "the merchants and others belonging to New England did little stomach the discourse that had been about the town of his going first to New York, as if the people of New England (who are the bigger body of people, and far more considerable than the others) were thereby slighted." "Therefore that they might not take it ill of me," he writes in a memoAug. 26. rial to the Board of Trade, " I think it absolutely necessary to have the direction of your Board, or of the Lords Justices, to which of those Provinces I am first to go. The reasons hinted to me by the Lords Justices for my repairing first to New York are chiefly two; namely,

1697.

I really believe is necessitous to a great degree, and there are several persons, members of Parliament, who lay great weight, and think his friends obliged to see him taken care of. He seems to the world to have been displaced for a reason that would do your Majesty great prejudice to have it believed that it sticks with you As to indiscretions, sir, I will not be answerable for him, but dare engage that no man living is more faithful and zealous to your Majesty and your

government, even under these hardships, than he is." (The Duke of Shrewsbury to the King, June 11, 1694, in the Correspondence of Charles Talbot, &c., 40.)

Privy Council Journal, sub die. 2 Letter of Lord Bellomont to the Lords of Trade, in O'Callaghan, IV. 302. — At the end of the year (Dec. 18, 1697) of Lord Bellomont's appointment, James Vernon succeeded Sir William Trumbull as Secretary of State.