8. The year 1619 was also marked by the introduction of slavery. The servants at Jamestown had hitherto been English or Germans, whose term of service had varied from a few months to many years. No perpetual servitude had thus far been recognized. In the month of August a Dutch man-of-war sailed up the river to the plantations, and offered by auction twenty Africans. They were purchased by the wealthier class of planters, and made slaves for life.

9. There were now six hundred men in the colony, for the most part rovers who intended to return to England. Very few families had emigrated. In this condition of affairs, Sir Thomas Smith was superseded by Sir Edwyn Sandys, a man of prudence and integrity. In the summer of 1620, the new treasurer sent to America a company of twelve hundred and sixty-one persons. Among the number were ninety young women of good breeding and modest manners. In the following spring, sixty others of similar good character came over, and received a hearty welcome.

10. When Sandys sent these women to America, he charged the colonists with the expense of the voyage, as the company was bankrupt. An assessment was made, and the rate fixed at a hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco for each passenger—a sum which the settlers cheerfully paid. There were merry marriages at Jamestown, and the social condition was much improved. When the second shipload came, the cost of transportation was a hundred and fifty pounds for each passenger, which was also paid without complaint.

11. In July of 1621 the London Company gave to Virginia a code of written laws, and in October Sir Francis Wyatt, who had been commissioned as governor, began to administer the new constitution. The colony was found in a flourishing condition. The settlements extended for a hundred and forty miles along the banks of James River, and far into the interior. But the Indians had grown jealous of the colonists. Pocahontas was dead. The peaceable Powhatan had likewise passed away. Opechancanough, who succeeded him in 1618, had long been plotting the destruction of the English, and the time had come for the tragedy.

12. Until the very day of the massacre, the Indians continued on terms of friendship with the colonists. On the 22d of March, at midday, the work of butchery began. Every hamlet in Virginia was attacked. Men, women, and children were indiscriminately slaughtered, until three hundred and forty-seven had perished under the hatchets of the savages.

13. But Indian treachery was thwarted by Indian faithfulness. A converted Red man, wishing to save an Englishman who had been his friend, went to him on the night before the massacre and revealed the plot. The alarm was spread, and thus the greater part of the colony escaped destruction. But the outer plantations were entirely destroyed. The people crowded together on the larger farms about Jamestown, until of the eighty settlements there were only eight remaining. Still, there were sixteen hundred brave men in the colony; and the next year the population increased to two thousand five hundred.

14. The liberal constitution of Virginia soon proved offensive to King James. A committee was appointed to look into the affairs of the London Company. The commissioners performed their duty, and reported that the company was unsound in its principles, that the treasury was bankrupt, and that the government of Virginia was very bad.

15. Legal proceedings were now instituted against the company, and the judges decided that the patent was null and void. The charter was canceled by the king, and in June of 1624 the London Company ceased to exist. But its work had been well done. A torch of liberty had been lighted on the banks of the James, which all the tyranny of after times could not extinguish.

CHAPTER XI.

3. The council of Virginia had the right, in case of an emergency, to elect a governor. In this manner Francis West was chosen by the councilors; but as soon as the death of Yeardley was known in England, King Charles commissioned John Harvey to assume the government. He arrived in the autumn of 1629, and became a most unpopular chief magistrate. He began his administration by taking the part of certain land speculators against the people. The assembly of 1635 passed a resolution that Sir John Harvey be thrust out of office, and Captain West be appointed in his place "until the king's pleasure may be known in this matter." But King Charles treated the whole affair with contempt, and Harvey continued in power until the year 1639, when he was superseded by Wyatt, who ruled until the spring of 1642.

4. About this time monarchy was abolished in England. Oliver Cromwell was made Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, and this government continued until Charles II., exiled son of Charles I., was restored to the throne of England. Virginia shared in some degree the distractions of the mother-country. In 1642 Sir William Berkeley became governor, and remained in office for ten years. His administration was noted as a time of rapid growth and development. The laws were greatly improved. The old disputes about the lands were satisfactorily settled. Cruel punishments were abolished, and the taxes equalized. The general assembly was regularly convened, and Virginia became a free and prosperous State. In 1646 there were twenty thousand people in the colony.

5. In March of 1643, a law was enacted by the assembly declaring that no person who disbelieved the doctrines of the English Church should be allowed to teach, or to preach the gospel, within the limits of Virginia. This act was the source of much bitterness among the people. The few Puritans were excluded from places of trust, and some were driven from their homes. Governor Berkeley was a leader in these persecutions, by which all friendly relations with New England were broken off for many years.

6. Next came another war with the Indians. Early in 1644, the natives planned a general massacre. On the 18th of April the savages fell upon the frontier settlements, and murdered three hundred people before assistance could be brought. The warriors then fled, but were closely followed by the English. Opechancanough was captured, and died a prisoner. The tribes were punished without mercy, and were soon glad to buy a peace by the cession of large tracts of land.

7. For a while the colonists conducted their government as they wished. The important matter of choosing a governor was submitted to the House of Burgesses; when so great a power had been once exercised, it was not likely to be relinquished. Three governors were chosen in this way, and the privilege of electing soon became a right. The assembly even declared that such a right existed, and that it should not be taken away.

8. In 1660 Samuel Matthews, the last of the three elected governors, died. The Burgesses were convened and an ordinance passed declaring that the supreme authority of Virginia was in the colony, and would continue there until a delegate should arrive from the British government. The house then elected as governor Sir William Berkeley, who acknowledged the right of the Burgesses to choose.

9. As soon as it was known in Virginia that Charles II. had become king, Governor Berkeley issued writs in the name of the king for the election of a new assembly. The adherents of the Commonwealth were thrust out of office, and royal favorites established in their places. The Virginians soon found that they had exchanged a republican tyrant with good principles for a monarchial tyrant with bad ones. The former commercial system was reenacted in a worse form than ever. The new law provided that all the colonial commerce should be carried on in English ships; the trade of the colonies was burdened with a heavy tax, and tobacco, the staple of Virginia, could be sold nowhere but in England.

10. King Charles soon began to reward the profligates who thronged his court, by granting them large tracts of land in Virginia. It was no uncommon thing for an American planter to find that his farm had been given away to some flatterer of the royal household, and finally, in 1673, the king set a limit to his own recklessness by giving away the whole province. Lord Culpepper and the Earl of Arlington received a deed by which was granted to them for thirty-one years all the country called Virginia.

11. The colonial legislation of these times was selfish and narrow-minded. The aristocratic party had obtained control of the House of Burgesses. A statute was passed against the Baptists, and the peace-loving Quakers were fined and persecuted. Personal property was heavily taxed, while the large estates were exempt. The salaries of the officers were secured by a duty on tobacco, and the biennial election of Burgesses was abolished.

12. When the people were worn out with the governor's exactions, they availed themselves of a pretext to assert their rights by force of arms. A war with the Susquehanna Indians furnished the occasion for an insurrection. The tribes about the head of Chesapeake Bay fell upon the English settlers of Maryland, and the banks of the Potomac became the scene of a border war. Virginia and Maryland made common cause. John Washington, great-grandfather of the first President, led a company of militia against the Indians, and a devastating warfare raged along the whole frontier.

13. Governor Berkeley sided with the Indians; but the colonists remembered only the acts of treachery of which the Red men had been guilty, and thirsted for revenge. The aristocratic party took sides with the governor and favored a peace; while the popular party, led by young Nathaniel Bacon, clamored for war.

14. Five hundred men rushed to arms. Berkeley and the aristocratic faction proclaimed Bacon a traitor. Troops were levied to disperse the militia: but scarcely had Berkeley and his forces left Jamestown when another popular uprising compelled him to return. Bacon came home victorious. The old assembly was broken up, and a new one elected on the basis of universal suffrage. Bacon was chosen a member, and made commander of the Virginia army. A force was now stationed on the frontier, and peace returned to all the settlements. But Berkeley repaired to the county of Gloucester, where he summoned a convention of loyalists, and Bacon was again proclaimed a traitor.

15. The governor's forces were collected on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake; the crews of some English ships were joined to his command, and the fleet set sail for Jamestown. The place was taken without much resistance; but when Bacon and the patriots drew near, the loyal forces went over to his standard. Berkeley was again obliged to fly, and the capital was held by the people's party. It was now rumored that an English fleet was approaching for the subjugation of the colonies. The patriot leaders held a council, and it was decided that Jamestown should be burned. Accordingly, in the dusk of the evening the torch was applied, and the only town in Virginia was laid in ashes.

16. In this juncture of affairs Bacon fell sick and died, and the patriot party was easily dispersed. A few feeble efforts were made to revive the cause of the people, but the animating spirit was gone. The royalists found an able captain in Robert Beverly, and the authority of the governor was rapidly restored. Berkeley's vindictive passions were now let loose upon the defeated insurgents. Twenty-two of the leading patriots were seized and hanged with scarcely time to bid their friends farewell. Nor is it certain when the executions would have ended had not the assembly met and passed an act that no more blood should be spilled for past offenses.

17. The consequences of the rebellion were very disastrous. Berkeley and the aristocratic party had now a good excuse for suppressing all liberal principles. The printing-press was interdicted. Education was forbidden. To speak or to write any thing against the administration or in defense of the late insurrection, was made a crime to be punished by fine or whipping. If the offense should be three times repeated, it was declared to be treason punishable with death. The former methods of taxation were revived, and Virginia was left at the mercy of arbitrary rulers.

18. In 1675 Lord Culpepper, to whom, with Arlington, the province had been granted, obtained the appointment of governor for life, and Virginia became a proprietary government. The new magistrate arrived in 1680 and assumed the duties of his office. His administration was characterized by avarice and dishonesty. Regarding Virginia as his personal estate, he treated the Virginians as his tenants and slaves.

19. In 1683, Arlington surrendered his claim to Culpepper, who thus became sole proprietor as well as governor. Charles II., however, soon found in Culpepper's vices and frauds a sufficient excuse to remove him from office and to revoke his patent. In 1684 Virginia again became a royal province, under the government of Lord Howard, of Effingham. The affairs of the colony during the next fifty years are not of sufficient interest and importance to require extended notice. When the French and Indian War shall come, Virginia will show to the world that the labors of Smith and Gosnold and Bacon were not in vain.

CHAPTER XII.

3. A month later a Wampanoag Indian, named Samoset, ran into the village and bade the strangers welcome; friendly relations were soon established with the Wampanoags. Massasoit, the sachem of the nation, was invited to visit Plymouth. The Pilgrims received him with much ceremony, and then and there was ratified the first treaty made in New England. This treaty remained inviolate for fifty years. Other chiefs followed the example of Massasoit. Nine of the tribes acknowledged the English king. One chief sent to William Bradford, who succeeded Governor Carver, a bundle of arrows wrapped in the skin of a rattlesnake; but the governor stuffed the skin with powder and balls and sent it back to the chief, who did not dare to accept the challenge.

4. The summer was unfruitful, and the Pilgrims were brought to the point of starvation. New immigrants, without provisions or stores, arrived, and were quartered on the colonists during the winter. For six months the settlers were obliged to subsist on half allowance. At one time only a few grains of corn remained to be distributed, and at another there was absolute want. Then some English fishing-vessels came to Plymouth and charged the colonists two prices for food enough to keep them alive. The new immigrants remained at Plymouth until the summer of 1622, then removed to the south side of Boston harbor and founded Weymouth.

5. The summer of 1623 brought a plentiful harvest, and there was no longer any danger of starvation. The natives became dependent on the settlement for corn, and brought in an abundance of game. At the end of the fourth year, there were a hundred and eighty persons in New England. The managers, who had expended thirty-four thousand dollars on the enterprise, were discouraged, and proposed to sell out their claims to the colonists. The offer was accepted; and, in November of 1627, eight of the leading men of Plymouth purchased from the Londoners their entire interest for nine thousand dollars.

6. Before this transfer, the colony had been much vexed by the attempt to set over them a minister of the English Church. They had come to the New World to avoid this very thing. There was dissension for a while. The English managers withheld support; the stores of the colonists were sold to them at three prices; and they were obliged to borrow money at sixty per cent. But the Pilgrims would not yield, and the conflict ended with the purchase of the proprietors' rights in the colony.

7. In 1624 a settlement was made at Cape Ann, but after two years the cape was abandoned; the company moved farther south and founded Salem. In 1628 a second colony arrived in charge of John Endicott, who was chosen governor. In 1629 Charles I. issued a charter by which the colonists were incorporated under the name of The Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England. In July two hundred immigrants arrived, half of whom settled at Plymouth, while the other half removed to the north side of Boston harbor and founded Charlestown.

8. In September, 1629, it was decreed that the government of the colony should be transferred from England to America, and that the charter should be intrusted to the colonists themselves. Emigration then began on an extensive scale. In the year 1630 about three hundred of the best Puritan families came to New England. They were virtuous, well-educated, courageous men and women, who left comfortable homes with no expectation of returning. It was their good fortune to choose a noble leader.

9. The name of John Winthrop, governor of Massachusetts, is worthy of lasting remembrance. Born a royalist, he cherished the principles of republicanism. Surrounded with affluence and comfort, he left all to share the destiny of the Pilgrims. Calm, prudent, and peaceful, he joined the zeal of an enthusiast with the faith of a martyr. A part of the new immigrants settled at Salem; others at Cambridge and Watertown, on Charles River; while others founded Roxbury and Dorchester. The governor resided for a while at Charlestown, but soon crossed over to the peninsula of Shawmut and founded Boston, which became henceforth the capital of the colony.

10. In 1631 a law was passed restricting the right of suffrage. It was enacted that none but church members should be permitted to vote at the elections. Nearly three fourths of the people were thus excluded from exercising the rights of freemen. Taxes were levied for the support of the gospel; attendance on public worship was enforced by law; none but members of the church were eligible to office. The very men who had so recently escaped with only their lives to find religious freedom in another continent, began their career in the New World with intolerance.

11. Young Roger Williams, minister of Salem, cried out against these laws. For this he was obliged to quit the ministry of the church at Salem and retire to Plymouth. Finally, in 1634, he wrote a paper in which he declared that grants of land, though given by the king of England, were invalid until the natives were justly paid. When arraigned for these teachings, he told the court that a test of church-membership in a voter was as ridiculous as the selection of a doctor on account of his skill in theology.

12. After a trial, Williams was condemned for heresy and banished. In mid-winter he left home and became an exile in the forest. For fourteen weeks he wandered through the snow, sleeping on the ground or in a hollow tree, living on parched corn and acorns. He carried with him a private letter from the good Governor Winthrop, and the Indians showed him kindness. Wandering from place to place, in June of 1636 he became the founder of Rhode Island by laying out the city of Providence.

13. In 1634 a representative form of government was established in Massachusetts. The restriction on the right of suffrage was the only remaining bar to free government in New England. During the next year three thousand new immigrants arrived. It was worth while to come to a country where the principles of freedom were recognized.

14. New settlements were now formed at a distance from the bay. One company of twelve families marched through the woods to some open meadows sixteen miles from Boston, and there founded Concord. Another colony of sixty persons pressed their way westward to the Connecticut River, and became the founders of Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield.

15. The banishment of Roger Williams created strife among the people of Massachusetts. The ministers were stern and exacting. Still, the advocates of free opinion multiplied. The clergy, notwithstanding their great influence, felt insecure. Religious debates became the order of the day. Every sermon was reviewed and criticised.

16. Prominent among those who were accused of heresy was Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, who desired the privilege of speaking at the weekly debates, and was refused. Indignant at this, she became the champion of her sex, and declared that the ministers were no better than Pharisees. She called meetings of her friends, and pleaded with fervor for the freedom of conscience. The doctrines of Williams were reaffirmed with more power and eloquence than ever.

17. The synod of New England convened in August of 1637, and Mrs. Hutchinson and her friends were banished from Massachusetts. A large number of the exiles wended their way toward the home of Roger Williams. Miantonomah, a Narragansett chieftain, made them a gift of the island of Rhode Island; there, in 1641, a little republic was established, in which persecution, for opinion's sake, was forbidden.

18. In 1636 the general court of the colony passed an act appropriating between one and two thousand dollars to found a college. Newtown was selected as the site of the proposed school. Plymouth and Salem gave gifts to help the enterprise; and from villages in the Connecticut valley came contributions of corn and wampum. In 1638 John Harvard, a minister of Charlestown, died, bequeathing his library and nearly five thousand dollars to the school. To perpetuate his memory, the new institution was named Harvard College. At the same time the name of Newtown was changed to Cambridge.

19. The PRINTING-PRESS came also. In 1638 Stephen Daye, an English printer, arrived at Boston, and in the following year set up a press at Cambridge. The first American publication was an almanac for New England, bearing date of 1639. During the next year, Thomas Welde and John Eliot, two ministers of Roxbury, and Richard Mather, of Dorchester, translated the Hebrew Psalms into English verse. This was the first book printed in America.

20. New England was fast becoming a nation. Well-nigh fifty villages dotted the face of the country. Enterprises of all kinds were rife. Manufactures, commerce, and the arts were introduced. William Stephens, a shipbuilder of Boston, had already built and launched an American vessel of four hundred tons burden. Twenty-one thousand two hundred people had found a home between Plymouth Rock and the Connecticut.

21. Circumstances suggested a union of the colonies. The western frontier was exposed to the hostilities of the Dutch on the Hudson. Similar trouble was apprehended from the French on the north. Indian tribes capable of mustering a thousand warriors were likely at any hour to fall upon the helpless villages. Common interests made a union indispensable.

22. The first effort to consolidate the colonies was ineffectual. But in 1643, a plan of union was adopted, by which Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven were joined in a confederacy, called The United Colonies of New England. The chief authority was conferred upon an assembly composed of two representatives from each colony. These delegates were chosen annually at an election where all the freemen voted by ballot. There was no president other than the speaker of the assembly. Provision was made for the admission of other colonies into the union, but none were ever admitted.

23. At a meeting of the assembly in December, 1641, Nathaniel Ward brought forward a written instrument, which was adopted as the constitution of the State. This statute was called the Body of Liberties, and was ever afterward esteemed as the great charter of colonial freedom.

24. In July of 1656 the Quakers began to arrive at Boston. The first who came were Ann Austin and Mary Fisher. They were caught and searched for marks of witchcraft, and then thrown into prison. After several weeks' confinement they were brought forth and banished. Before the end of the year, eight others were arrested and sent back to England. A law was passed that Quakers who persisted in coming to Massachusetts should have their ears cut off and their tongues bored through with a red-hot iron. In 1657 the assembly of the four colonies convened, and the penalty of death was passed against the Quakers as disturbers of the public peace.

25. The English Revolution had now run its course. Cromwell was dead. Tidings of the restoration of Charles II. reached Boston on the 27th of July, 1660. On the reestablishment of the English monarchy, a law was passed by which all vessels not bearing the English flag were forbidden to trade in New England. Articles produced in the colonies and demanded in England should be shipped to England only. The products of England should not be manufactured in America, and should be bought from England only; and a duty of five per cent. was put on both exports and imports. This was the beginning of those measures which produced the American Revolution.

26. In 1664 war broke out between England and Holland. It became a part of the English plans to conquer the Dutch settlements on the Hudson. Charles II. was also anxious to obtain control of all the New England colonies. He therefore appointed four commissioners to settle colonial disputes, and to exercise authority in the name of the king. The real object was to get possession of the charter of Massachusetts. In July, 1664, the royal judges arrived at Boston. They were rejected in all the colonies except Rhode Island. Meanwhile, the English monarch, learning how his judges had been received, recalled them, and they left the country. For ten years after this event the colony was very prosperous.

CHAPTER XIII.

4. King Canonchet of the Narragansetts first made a treaty of peace with the English, but later violated it and chose to share the fate of Philip. But after much desperate fighting and heavy losses on both sides, the resources of the savages were exhausted and their numbers daily grew less. In April, 1676, Canonchet was captured on the banks of the Blackstone. Refusing to make a treaty, the haughty chieftain was put to death. Philip's company had dwindled to a handful. His wife and son were made prisoners; the latter was sold as a slave, and ended his life in the Bermudas. The savage monarch cared no longer to live. A company of soldiers surrounded him near his old home at Mount Hope. A treacherous Indian took a deadly aim at the breast of his chieftain. The report of a musket rang through the woods, and the king of the Wampanoags sprang forward and fell dead.

5. New England suffered terribly in this war. The losses of the war amounted to five hundred thousand dollars. Thirteen towns and six hundred dwellings lay in ashes. Six hundred men had fallen in the field. Gray-haired sire, mother and babe had sunk together under the blow of the Red man's tomahawk. Now there was peace again. The Indian race had been swept out of New England. The tribes beyond the Connecticut came and pleaded for their lives. The colonists returned to their farms and villages, to build new homes in the ashes of old ruins.

6. The next trouble was concerning the province of Maine. Sir Ferdinand Gorges, the old proprietor, was now dead; but his heirs still claimed the territory. The people of Maine had put themselves under the authority of Massachusetts; but the heirs of Gorges carried the matter before the English council, and in 1677 a decision was given in their favor. The Boston government then made a proposition to the Gorges family to purchase their claims; this was accepted, and for the sum of twelve hundred and fifty pounds the province was transferred to Massachusetts.

7. A similar difficulty arose in regard to New Hampshire. As early as 1622 the Plymouth council had granted this territory to Ferdinand Gorges and Captain John Mason. Seven years afterward Gorges surrendered his claim to Mason, who thus became sole proprietor. But this territory was also covered by the charter of Massachusetts. Mason died, and in 1679 his son Robert came forward and claimed the province. This cause was also taken before the ministers, who decided that the title of the younger Mason was valid. To the great disappointment of the people of both provinces the two governments were separated. A royal government, the first in New England, was now established over New Hampshire, and Edward Cranfield became Governor.

8. But the people refused to recognize Cranfield's authority. The king attributed this conduct to the influence of Massachusetts, and directed his judges to make an inquiry as to whether Massachusetts had not forfeited her charter. In 1684 the royal court gave a decision in accordance with the monarch's wishes. But before the charter could be revoked, Charles II. fell sick and died.

9. The new king, James II., adopted his brother's policy, and in 1686 the scheme so long entertained was carried out. The charter of Massachusetts was formally revoked; all the colonies between Nova Scotia and Narragansett Bay were consolidated, and Sir Edmund Andros was appointed royal governor of New England.

10. His despotism was quickly extended from Cape Cod Bay to the Piscataqua. The civil rights of New Hampshire were overthrown. In May of 1686, the charter of Rhode Island was taken away and her constitution subverted. The seal was broken, and a royal council appointed to conduct the government. Andros next proceeded to Connecticut. Arriving at Hartford in October of 1687, he found the assembly in session, and demanded the surrender of the charter. The instrument was brought in and laid upon the table. A debate ensued, and continued until evening. When it was about to be decided that the charter should be given up, the lamps were dashed out. Other lights were brought in; but the charter had disappeared. Joseph Wadsworth, snatching up the parchment, bore it off through the darkness and concealed it in a hollow tree, ever afterwards remembered as The Charter Oak. But the assembly was overawed, and the authority of Andros established throughout the country.

11. His dominion ended suddenly. The English Revolution of 1688 was at hand. James II. was driven from his throne; the system of arbitrary rule which he had established fell with a crash, and Andros with the rest. The news of the accession of William and Mary reached Boston on the 4th of April, 1689. On the 18th of the month, the citizens of Boston rose in rebellion. Andros was seized and marched to prison. The insurrection spread; and before the 10th of May, New England had regained her liberties.

12. In 1689 war was declared between France and England. This conflict is known in American history as King William's War. When James II. escaped from his kingdom, he took refuge at the court of Louis XIV. of France. The two monarchs were Catholics, and on this account an alliance was made between them. Louis agreed to support James in his effort to recover the English throne. Parliament, meanwhile, had conferred the crown on King William. Thus the new sovereign was brought into conflict with the exiled James and his ally, the king of France. The war which thus originated in Europe soon extended to the French and English colonies in America.

13. The struggle began on the frontier of New Hampshire in June, 1689. Later in the same year, the English and the Mohawks entered into an alliance, but the latter refused to make war upon their countrymen of Maine. The Dutch settlements of New Netherland made common cause with the English against the French.

14. New England at length became thoroughly aroused. To provide the means of war, a congress was convened at New York. Here it was resolved to attempt the conquest of Canada. At the same time, Massachusetts was to cooperate by sending a fleet up the St. Lawrence against Quebec. Thirty-four vessels, carrying two thousand troops, were fitted out, and the command given to Sir William Phipps. Proceeding first against Port Royal, he compelled a surrender; the whole of Nova Scotia submitted without a struggle. The expedition was foolishly delayed until October; and an Indian carried the news to the governor of Canada. When the fleet came in sight of the town, the castle was so well garrisoned as to bid defiance to the English; and it only remained for Phipps to sail back to Boston. To meet the expenses of this expedition, Massachusetts issued bills of credit which were made a legal tender. Such was the origin of PAPER MONEY in America.

15. Meanwhile, the land forces had proceeded from Albany to Lake Champlain. Here dissensions arose among the commanders, and the expedition had to be abandoned. The war continued nearly five years longer, but with only here and there a marked event.

16. Early in 1697, commissioners of France and England assembled at the town of Ryswick, in Holland; and, on the 10th of the following September, a treaty of peace was concluded. King William was acknowledged as the rightful sovereign of England, the colonial boundary-lines of the two nations in America were established as before, and King William's war was at an end.

17. The darkest page in the history of New England is that which records the Salem Witchcraft. In February of 1692, in that part of Salem afterwards called Danvers, a daughter and a niece of Samuel Parris, the minister, were attacked with a nervous disorder which rendered them partially insane. Parris pretended to believe the girls were bewitched, and that an Indian maid-servant was the author of the affliction. He accordingly tied the ignorant creature and whipped her until she confessed herself a witch. Here, perhaps, the matter would have ended had not other causes existed for the spread of the delusion.

18. But Parris had a quarrel in his church. A part of the congregation disbelieved in witchcraft, while Parris and the rest thought such disbelief the height of wickedness. The celebrated Cotton Mather, minister of Boston, had recently preached much on the subject of witchcraft, teaching that witches were dangerous and ought to be put to death. Sir William Phipps, the royal governor, was a member of Mather's church.

19. By the laws of England and of Massachusetts, witchcraft was punishable with death. In the early history of the colony, one person charged with being a wizard had been arrested at Charlestown, convicted and executed. But many people had now grown bold enough to denounce the baleful superstition; and something had to be done to save witchcraft from falling into contempt. A special court was accordingly appointed by Phipps to go to Salem and judge the persons accused.

20. On the 21st of March the proceedings began. Mary Cory was arrested, brought before the court, convicted, and hurried to prison. Sarah Cloyce and Rebecca Nurse, two innocent sisters, were next apprehended as witches. The only witnesses against them were the foolish Indian woman and the niece of Parris. The victims were sent to prison, protesting their innocence. And so the work went on, until seventy-five innocent people were locked up in dungeons. In hope of saving their lives, some of the prisoners confessed themselves witches. It was soon found that those were to be put to death who denied the reality of witchcraft. Five women were hanged in one day.

21. Between June and September, twenty victims were hurried to their doom. Fifty-five others were tortured into the confession of falsehoods. A hundred and fifty lay in prison awaiting their fate. Two hundred were accused or suspected, and ruin seemed to impend over New England. But a reaction at last set in among the people. The court which Phipps had appointed to sit at Salem was dismissed. The prisons were opened, and the victims of superstition went forth free. In the beginning of the next year, a few persons were arrested and tried for witchcraft. Some were even convicted; but not another life was sacrificed.

22. Most of those who participated in these terrible scenes confessed the wrong which they had done; but confessions could not restore the dead. Mather, in a vain attempt to justify himself, wrote a book in which he expressed his thankfulness that so many witches had met their just doom; and the hypocritical pamphlet received the approbation of the president of Harvard College.

23. In less than four years after the treaty of Ryswick, France and England were again involved in a war which soon extended to the American colonies. In the year 1700 Charles II., king of Spain, died, having named as his successor Philip of Anjou, a grandson of Louis XIV. This measure pointed to a union of the crowns of France and Spain. The jealousy of England, Holland, and Austria was aroused; the archduke Charles, of the latter country, was put forward as a candidate for the Spanish throne; and war was declared against Louis XIV. for supporting Philip.

24. In 1701 James II., the exiled king of Great Britain, died at the court of Louis, who now recognized the son of James as sovereign of England. This action was regarded as an insult to English nationality. King William prepared for war, but did not live to carry out his plans. In May of 1702 he died, leaving the crown to his sister-in-law, Anne, daughter of James II. From the fact of her sovereignty, the conflict with France is known in American history as Queen Anne's War; but a better name is the War of the Spanish Succession. This continued feebly through eleven years, and with many of the horrors incident to Indian warfare, as the Indians were leagued with the French against the English.

25. On the 11th of April, 1713, a treaty was concluded at Utrecht, a town of Holland. By it England obtained control of the fisheries of Newfoundland. Labrador, the Bay of Hudson, and Nova Scotia, were ceded to Great Britain. On the 13th of July a second treaty was concluded with the Indians, by which peace was secured throughout the colonies.

26. In the times that followed Queen Anne's war, the people were greatly dissatisfied with the royal governors. The opposition to those officers took the form of a controversy about their salaries. The royal commissions gave to each officer a fixed salary, which was frequently out of proportion to the services required. The difficulty was finally adjusted by an agreement that the salaries should be allowed annually, and the amount fixed by vote of the assembly.