CHAPTER
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This regulation was evaded, however, by Increase Mather, against whom Randolph had commenced a suit 1688. for defamation of character-a species of warfare sucApril. cessfully employed against Randolph himself in former

years. Mather avoided the service of the writ, and secretly embarked for England, loaded with complaints against the governor.

Andros meanwhile undertook an expedition to Penobscot, and, under pretense that the English limits extended to the St. Croix, he plundered the fort and trading house of the Baron St. Castin, successor of D'Aulney and La Tour in the Indian traffic on that coast. Castin revenged himself by stirring up the Eastern Indians, over whom he had great influence, to attack the English settlements.

Under a charge of violations of the acts of trade, writs of Quo Warranto had been issued against the proprietaries of East and West Jersey, a proceeding which they thought it useless to resist. Both these provinces, along with New York, which, by James's accession to the throne, had become a royal province, were presently annexed to the government of New England, and placed under the command of Andros, whose commission now included, if we except Pennsylvania, the whole extent of the original New England. Hastening to New York to supersede Dongan, toward whom he cherished no very good feeling, Andros installed Francis Nicholson as his lieutenant there. That province he found almost at open war with Canada, chief reason, it is probable, of Dongan's removal. The invasion of the country of the Five Nations by the French, the fort they had lately built at Niagara, and their recent attempt to occupy the mouth of the Mississippi-events to be narrated in the next chapter-had greatly alarmed Dongan, who, fearing the

The

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total loss of the fur trade, had been led into a sharp cor- CHAPTER respondence with the French governor-general. Dutch and English fur-traders had not ventured further west than the country of the Senecas, at the east end of Lake Ontario; till, anxious to rival the recent enterprises of the French, Dongan had lately encouraged an adventurous party, after wintering among the Senecas, to penetrate to the distant Ottawas and Hurons, residing near 1686 the Straits of Mackinaw. But this the Canadians regarded as an encroachment, and they also complained that, notwithstanding a recent treaty of neutrality, as respected America, between their respective sovereigns in Europe, Dongan still continued to stimulate and to aid the Five Nations in the war they were carrying on against Canada. A second party which he had attempted to send to Mackinaw had been intercepted and made 1787. prisoners by the French; and, dreading to be attacked even at home, Dongan had ordered Schenectady to be stockaded, and had levied two hundred men for the defense of Albany-an alarm not wholly dissipated by the sending back of the prisoners. To meet the expenses thus incurred, the governor and council had levied a direct tax of £3200; but the council, as well as the inhabitants, complained loudly of the burden, and insisted that the neighboring colonies ought to be made to contribute. Dongan, indeed, had warmly urged the annexation, since the surrender of their charters, of the Jerseys, and of Connecticut and Rhode Island, to New York; but he desired to shift off upon Massachusetts the remote county of Cornwall, with the costly occupation of Pemaquid.

The ravages of the Indians on the eastern frontier soon recalled Andros to that quarter. After a vain attempt Nov at conciliation, he marched against the Indians with seven hundred men. They fled, and he pursued through

CHAPTER the snow. He built some forts for defense on the An

XVIII. droscoggin, but did not succeed in bringing the Indians to 1688. terms. Meanwhile the people of Massachusetts showed

their disgust at his rule by refusing to observe the annual thanksgiving, that ancient festival of the colony, of which Andros, in accordance with previous usage, had as. sumed the appointment.

While Massachusetts was thus discontented, a revolution was on foot in England. The birth to James of an infant son and heir, threatening to fix a popish dynasty on the country, overthrew the hopes hitherto cherished of a Protestant succession in the persons of James's daughters, Mary and Anne. The Declaration of Indulgence, and the imprisonment of the six bishops, had roused against James the High Church and High Tory party, hitherto his main support. The down-trodden Whigs recovered their courage. William of Orange, the ablest Protestant prince in Europe, Stadtholder of Holland, and husband of Mary, James's eldest daughter, upon repeated Nov. 5. invitations, presently landed in England with a body of Dutch troops; and James, finding himself deserted by his soldiers, his ministers, and even his family, sought safety in flight.

1689.

News of the landing of William in England, and a April 4. printed copy of his Declaration, presently reached Boston by way of Virginia. Rumors of change had recalled Andros from the eastward; but he affected to disbelieve the news, and imprisoned those who brought it. The people, however, gave eager credence to a story so conApril 18. formable to their wishes, and a popular insurrection was soon arranged. The commander of the Rose frigate, which lay in the harbor, was seized as he landed from his ship. The sheriff, who sought to disperse the mob, was made prisoner. The militia assembled in arms at the

town house, and organized under their old officers.

An- CHAPTER

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dros, in alarm, retired with his council to a fort within the town, which crowned a hill near the water's edge, 1689. still known as Fort Hill. Bradstreet, now an old man of eighty-seven, having caught the eye of the assembled militia, was reproclaimed as governor, and the magistrates under the old charter, with some other of the chief inhabitants of Boston, formed themselves into a Council of Safety. A Declaration, from the ready pen of Cotton Mather, was published, and Andros was summoned to surrender. The water battery was taken without resistance, those who held it retiring into the upper fort. A barge, sent from the frigate to take off the governor and his party, was intercepted and captured. The guns of

the battery being turned against the fort, Andros yielded; and, along with Dudley, Randolph, and his other chief partisans, was committed to prison. Aware of having "a wolf by the ears," the more prudent leaders would have allowed the prisoners to escape; but the people were very clamorous for their punishment, and it was found necessary to detain eight of them without bail. Andros, indeed, by the connivance of a sentinel, escaped from prison; but he was arrested in Rhode Island and brought back.

Plymouth took advantage of this insurrection to reinstate her old government, with Hinckley again at its head. Connecticut also resumed her charter, now brought forth from its hiding-place, and Robert Treat was again chosen governor, an office which he held for May the next seven years. Similar steps were taken in Rhode Island, though there was some difficulty there in finding magistrates willing to assume the responsibilities of office. Henry Bull, a sturdy Quaker, governor four years before, at last consented to accept that place.

In Massachusetts the question of the resumption of

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CHAPTER the charter was referred to the people in their town meetings; they voted, by a large majority, to resume it; but 1689. the Council of Safety feared to commit themselves; and some, who desired certain modifications in the charter, would only agree to carry on the government temporarily, "till, by direction from England, there be an orderly settlement." The moderate party, now numerous and powerful, were, in fact, opposed to the re-establishment of the charter government without essential changes.

May 26.

Meanwhile, information having arrived of the accession of William and Mary, these revolutionary sovereigns had been joyfully proclaimed. To solicit the affairs of the colony at the English court, Sir Henry Ashurst, a person June. of note among the English Dissenters, was made joint agent with Mather; and Cooke and Oakes, two very zealous partisans of the old charter, were added on behalf of the deputies.

The "dominion of Virginia"-a style which now began to come into use-had been the first of the colonies to receive news of the Revolution; but the council had been very slow to act upon it. The people, a good deal alarmed at the prospect of a papist dynasty, and influenced by the preaching of John Waugh, a minister of Stafford county, threatened insurrection; but the council succeeded in maintaining their authority, and only after repeated commands to that effect from the Privy CounMay 23. cil in England were orders at length issued for proclaiming William and Mary "Lord and Lady of Virginia.”

While these events transpired in New England and Virginia, New York was in a great state of agitation. The only military force in the city appears to have been the five militia companies, of which Bayard, a member of the council, was colonel, and Jacob Leisler, a wealthy merchant, originally a private Dutch soldier, the senior