Sir William even constituted himself another champion of downtrodden Massachusetts, and added his importunities to those of Mather, to induce James to re-establish the rights and territory of the colony and to give it back its beloved charter.
“We love you much, Sir William,” said the King, with a firmness which was never to be shaken, “but we cannot accede to your wishes. Anything but this that you will ask shall be granted.”
Disappointed, but never disconcerted, Sir William conferred with Mather, whom he was obliged to assure that nothing that either of them could say to him now would beget an alteration of King James’s decision. Mather, persistent, suave and convinced of the justice of his cause, determined to remain in touch with the Court and the King’s retainers, until sheer patience and persistence should win what persuasion could not.
Phipps, knowing only too well the disposition of the King, when once his word was passed, determined that he could do more for his country if present in the colony than he could by remaining in London. Reminding the King that he had already granted him any other favor than the restoration of the colony’s charter, he announced his desire to be appointed Sheriff of New England.
Regretting to lose the hearty Captain from his company, James nevertheless kept his word by complying with Sir William’s request. The appointment was duly made and confirmed. Leaving Mather behind him, Phipps returned to Boston and set about the administration of his new-made duties, with more ardor than cunning, with more honesty than diplomacy.
It is doubtful if William Phipps ever had a more aggravating experience, in all his adventures, with mutineers and pirates, than he underwent at the hands of Randolph and Governor Andros. He was not a man of finished education. Born in Maine, in a family of twenty-one children, he had been obliged to commence the round of shifting for himself at an early age. He had apprenticed himself to a ship-carpenter at eighteen and then had come to Boston four years later, when he went to work and taught himself to read and to write.
Hampered now, by this lack of early opportunities, insulted, and finding his most sincere efforts nullified and his plans constantly frustrated, by the delays and artifices of the council under Andros, he was made heartily sick of the whole situation.
His return to Boston, however, was not marked entirely by chagrin and discouragement. He had his wife with him, and herein lay the greatest happiness which ever came into his eventful life. He built her the “fair brick house, in the Green Lane,” which he had promised, years before, and he endeared many of the staunch patriots, who beheld his efforts to help them, sadly, though with admiration.
Although Garde had never known how very intimate indeed had been the relations of Captain Phipps and Adam, yet she was aware that they had been much together. She had naturally learned, in common with all the inhabitants of Boston, that Sir William had found the treasure he had spent so many years in seeking, but she had never known that when she sent Adam away he had gone to Hispaniola to join the searching expedition. Therefore she was in ignorance of the fact that Adam was wealthy.
But, after all, she was only concerned with Adam’s present whereabouts, and the reasons why, after all these months and months of waiting—it being now two full years since that last tragic meeting—he had never relented sufficiently to write, or to send her a word.