speak of them as troops of men, armed and rushing to battle. Such representations are the effusions of weak and timid minds; these lights and all others in the atmosphere proceeding from natural causes, are no more the harbingers of evil than a shower of rain or a blast of wind. For about three hundred years past, our accounts of the northern lights, are tolerably correct. There was a discontinuance of them eighty or ninety years, anterior to 1707, when a small light was seen by persons in Europe. But they did not re-appear in full splendor, till the year 1716, when they were observed in England. Their first appearance in America was December 11, 1719, when they were remarkably bright, and as people in general had never heard of such a phenomenon, they were extremely alarmed, with the apprehension of the approach of the final judgment. All amusements, all business, and even sleep was interrupted, for want of a little knowledge of history. From 1719 to 1790, these lights were frequent, when they again disappeared, for a long period.

421. Diseases among the brutes. The brutes have at times pestilential diseases which sweep them away in multitudes. A plague among cattle destroyed a great part of the species in Germany about the year 800. The same happened in Italy and Germany, in 1713, among eattle and horses. A like mortality among cattle happened in Holland and some parts of England, in 1751. Fortunately no similar plague among useful animals has ever happened in America; although at times, there has been considerable mortality among horses and cat tle. In 1514, the cats in Europe, perished by a pestilential disease, as they did lately in Europe and America, in 1797. In 1763, dogs, sheep, mules, poultry, swine and horses, in several countries of Europe, were swept away by unusual diseases. In 1764, the blue fish all perished or abandoned the shores of Nantucket, where they had always been in great plenty. In 1775 the oysters at Wellfleet, on Cape Cod, all perished, and have never since grown on the same banks. In 1788, the cod fish on the grand bank of Newfoundland were mostly thin and ill flavored. In 1789, the haddock on

the coast of Norway, mostly or all died, and floating on the surface, covered many leagues of water. In 1799, the small fish on the coast of North Carolina shared a like fate. At times, oysters are found to be watery, sickly and ill flavored; dogs, wolves and foxes are affected with madness, and wild fowls perish by epidemic diseases.

QUESTIONS.

412. What were the principal diseases that affected the first settlers?

412, 413, 414. When were the principal earthquakes? 413. When was the first influenza noticed?

414, 416. When did the croup or rattles first appear, and when the malignant sore throat?

417, 418. In what years were there severe winters ?

419. In what years was there an unusual darkness?

420. When were northern lights first seen in New England? 421. When was there unusual mortality of fish on the American coast?

CHAPTER XIV.

WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.

422. Remote causes of the revolution. The first planters of New England were all dissenters from the church of England, who declined to conform to its ritual and ceremonies, and by their opposition, called down upon their heads the vengeance of archbishop Laud. To get rid of such uneasy subjects, was rather to be desired, than dreaded, by the king and court. But within a few years, the numerous emigrations from England alarmed the government, and orders were issued to stop the sailing of ships bound to America. These orders however were temporary, and most or all those men departed from England, who wished to settle in a country, where they might be exempt from arbitrary government. the plantations increased, and became respectable, the court of England began to be alarmed with the appre

As

hension, that the colonies would become wholly independent of the parent state.

423. Measures to prevent the independence of the colonies. With a view to secure the dominion of England over the colonies, in ecclesiastical as well as civil affairs, king Charles the first granted a commission, dated April 10, 1634, by which he empowered the two archbishops, with certain other persons, to superintend the colonies, to erect courts, civil and ecclesiastical, to remove governors for causes which to them should seem meet, to inquire into the conduct of all officers, to punish offenses with fines and imprisonment, to make and repeal laws and revoke charters. This extraordinary commission excited great alarm in the infant colonies, but the inhabitants determined to resist the execution of it; and on receiving intelligence that a governor, appointed by the commissioners, would proceed to America, the government of Massachusetts hastened the fortifications in Boston harbor. It does not appear that any attempt was made to enforce this commission.

424. Colonies under Charles the first and Commonwealth. During the reign of Charles the first, the colonies were frequently alarmed with the report of some act of the English government, to abridge their freedom. Their enemies represented the people as aiming at an entire independence, and a plan was devised and nearly matured, to deprive the colonies of their charters, and place over them a general governor. Probably the disputes and civil war in England, were among the causes which frustrated that plan. After king Charles was beheaded, and the government of England assumed the shape of a commonwealth, the colonies were relieved from their apprehensions, and the protector, Cromwell, appeared to favor the views and interests of the settlers of America. Under his administration, however, the parliament passed an act for encouraging the commerce of England, which was the groundwork of the famous Navigation Act, in 1660, which restrained the trade of the colonies, and was the means of drying up the sources of their prosperity.

425. State of the colonies under Charles the second.

Upon the restoration of the monarchy in England, the colonies submitted, and sent addresses, congratulating the king on his accession to the throne. Connecticut and Rhode Island obtained charters with ample privileges, and so well pleased was the king with the respectful manner in which they treated him, that he wrote letters, giving most flattering assurances that he would protect the colonies in all their chartered rights. He also appointed commissioners to examine the state of the colonies, and decide controversies between them. The king required that the laws derogatory to the crown should be repealed; that free liberty should be given to use the common prayer, and the service of the church of England; that all persons of honest lives should be admitted to the sacrament, and their children to baptism; and that magistrates should be chosen and freemen admitted, without regard to opinions and professions of religion. The king required also that every person in the plantations should take the oath of allegiance to his majesty. These requisitions gave the colonies some alarm, and indicated that the king was apprehensive the people intended to become independent. The union

of the four colonies was regarded by the crown with an eye of jealousy, but the people assured the king's agents, that it was not intended for the purpose of casting off a dependence on England.

426. Opposition to the Navigation Act. No mea sure of the English court or parliament excited more discontent, or was resisted with more firmness, by the first settlers, than the law for regulating the trade of England and the colonies, first enacted by the parliament in 1651, during the administration of Cromwell, and in 1660, re-enacted by the king and parliament with considerable additions. By this act, all trade with England and the colonies was restricted to English ships, the masters of which, and three fourths, at least, of the seamen, were to be English; and the colonies were prohibited from shipping many of their most valuable articles to any ports but to England, where they were to be landed, before they could be sent to market in any other country. This regulation threw the advantages of the

colonial trade into the hands of the English; but de prived the colonies of their best markets. The colonies opposed the execution of it many years; at length, in 1680, governor Leet, of Connecticut, submitted, and took the oath required. But Massachusetts was more obstinate, and her opposition was one of the reasons for vacating her charter. She finally submitted to the regulations, by passing a law requiring them to be observed, but denied the right of parliament to bind the colonies to observe them.

427. Agency of Randolph. The king, determined to enforce the Navigation Act, sent over Edward Randolph, with powers to inspect the conduct of the colonies, to make seizures for breaches of the act; and, in short, to be a common informer. This man made it his business to collect charges against the colonies, and return to England to excite the jealousy of the English government. In this manner, the way was prepared for annulling the charters of the colonies, and the appointment of sir Edmund Andross as governor general over New England and New York. This was the consequence of a determination in the king and ministry to check and subdue the growing spirit of independence in the colonies; but Andross overacted his part; and his tyrannical proceedings only served to alienate the people's affections from the parent state, and prepared the way for that independence which the king dreaded.

428. Colonies under king William and queen Ann. The colonies under Charles and James were despoiled of their charters, and they suffered the tyranny of Andross with a spirit of just indignation. King William was more favorable to the colonies; Connecticut resumed her old charter, and Massachusetts obtained a new one, in which the king retained the power of appointing the governor, and the governor was vested with the power of negativing the choice of councilors, made by the house of representatives. It was supposed that this power in the king would secure a predominant influence to the crown over the legislature and colony. But it had the contrary effect, and created a fruitful source of animosity between the two branches of the legislature,