and that "the inhabitants of New England had their hearts filled with thankfulness and zeal for his Majesty's service by reason of the preparation and passing of a charter, and would set out the frigate at their own expense with a number of war and other ships, not only to preserve Nova Scotia, but also to reduce Quebec and the other .parts of Canada." He prayed to be placed in command of an expedition for these purNov. 10. poses, and he presented the "names of harbors and races in the eastern part of New England and in Nova Scotia fit for settlement in townships, every town consisting of at least thirty thousand acres of land." But he does not appear to have obtained much attention to this scheme, and not improbably his own interest in it may have abated when other interests were awakened in his mind by his recent high promotion.

dissolved by the Besides, Mather

He still lingered with Mather in England. Perhaps they did not incline to disturb the existing government of the colony before the time when in due course it would be expiration of the political year. liked to lengthen out his stay in a society from which he received much flattering attention, and he may well be supposed to have shrunk from the cold reception which he too well knew awaited him at his home. .

1692. At length, the governor, with his colMay 14. league in the agency, arrived in Boston. The easy transfer of the chief magistracy to him

May 4.

had been provided for. Bradstreet, at his last inauguration, only a few days before, had taken "the oath of his place or office for this year, or until there be a settlement of government. from the crown of England." At the town-house, whither the new governor was conducted with imposing civil and military parade, the new charter was first read in the presence of the General Court, and then the governor's commission. The oaths of office were administered first to him, and then by him to the counsellors, and writs were issued for an election of deputies to come together in the following month. Before adjourning, the Court appointed “a day of solemn thanksgiving to Almighty God for granting a safe arrival to his Excellency our Governor, and the Reverend Mr. Increase Mather, who have industriously endeavored the service of this people, and have brought over with them a settlement of government in which their Majesties have graciously given us distinguishing marks of their royal favor and goodness." Under such courteous words were the chagrins of the time covered over. One thing was certain; that, in a sense different from that of earlier times, Massachusetts was now a dependency of the British

crown.

66

May 24.

CHAPTER IV.

CLOSE OF BRADSTREET'S ADMINISTRATION.

THE WITCHCRAFT TRAGEDY.

THE aged and feeble Bradstreet must have been quite as well pleased to retire from the gov ernment of the province as his enterprising successor was to assume it. The management of the war had been too much for his failing strength. The administration of the last three years had been honest and careful, and in the circumstances the degree of good order which was maintained was highly creditable to the people. But it was impossible that a government which from the beginning had been declared by itself to be only temporary should be capable of a vigorous rule, and respect for it had been weakened during the unexpectedly long agitation of the question of a permanent settlement.

The war languished for a time after the defeat of the invasion of New France. The strenuous governor of that country would have followed up his advantage by a movement against New York,. and he applied to his court for reinforcements for that purpose; but he was told that the King had now employment nearer home for all his forces,

and for the present it was necessary that his views for New France should be confined to precautions for defence. While the exhausted condition of Massachusetts forbade a renewal of offensive operations on her part, the French governor's chief immediate solicitude was for the conduct of the Iroquois Indians; and the year after the repulsed invasion was mostly passed by him in a succession of unsatisfactory negotiations and indecisive hostilities with that crafty, capricious, and formidable confederacy, though New England was at the same time annoyed with a desultory maritime war.

Nov. 29.

Though the result of Colonel Church's expedition into Maine had disappointed expectation, it appeared to have been not without a salu- 1690. tary effect in alarming the Indians in that October. quarter, for it was scarcely over, when some of their chiefs appeared at the town of Wells, with proposals for a pacification. A treaty was accordingly made between three commissioners from Boston, and six representatives of the Abenaqui tribes. The Indians restored ten English captives, and agreed to deliver up their remaining prisoners at Wells, and contract for a permanent peace, at the end of five months, and meanwhile to abstain from hostilities and to give notice of any which they might know to be meditated by the French. On the day ap- 1691. pointed, President Danforth, with some May 1. members of his Council and a guard, came to

meet the chiefs at Wells; but, the favorable season for their inroads having returned, the savages had changed their minds, and, after waiting for them. a sufficient time, Danforth withdrew to York.

A

reinforcement of thirty-five men sent by June 9. him to Wells reached that place in season to repel an attack which, within an hour after their unexpected arrival, was made upon it by a band of two hundred Indians. The defeated party fell upon an outlying settlement of York, which they satisfied their vengeance by burning, along with a vessel anchored there, of which they massacred the greater portion of the crew. July. Their further movements were for the present arrested by a detachment of four companies who, landing in their rear at the head of Casco Bay, went in pursuit of them as far as Pejepscot (Brunswick). Some Indians landed from canoes at a detached settlement, now the town of Rye, and carried away twenty-one of the inhabitants. On or about the same day they murdered four men and two women at Dunstable. York and Wells, with Kittery, which was protected by its contiguity to Portsmouth, were now the only towns remaining to the English in Maine.

Sept. 29.

At York, which was a place of some consequence, having three or four hundred inhabitants, 1692. there were several fortified houses. Early Jan. 25. in a winter morning the town was surprised by a numerous party of French and In