Surrounding their ex-master they made him a prisoner, not a refugee, and at length he gave in and was captured and sent to confinement, along with the others of his recent government.
With an instinct for conventions, the citizens were soon assembled. Howsoever great had been their heat in their moment of rebellion and triumph, they were calm enough to be wise when the time arrived to declare for themselves. They reinstated Bradstreet and the Council of ’86. They declared the old Government in force and their former charter ipso facto restored, unimpaired by the interim of nearly three years of maladministration.
William and Mary received the report of all these swiftly terminated proceedings with a favor which was not unblended with astonishment. Admiring the Protestant spirit, which it had become their own special province to uphold, they lost no time in confirming the entire course of actions, even to the temporary resumption of their old charter privileges and powers, by the patriots across the sea. And there, for a time, they were contented to permit the matter to rest. The affairs of England they had found so completely engrossing that they had no time to spare toward regranting a specific charter to Massachusetts.
Increase Mather, suspicions of privileges and liberties not absolutely signed, sealed and delivered, remained at his post, working continuously and sedulously to obtain that monarchical support and confirmation of the colony’s prerogatives which his many compatriots had sent him to secure.
Sir William Phipps, on the other hand, realized the busy state of mind in which William and Mary had been so abruptly plunged, and he therefore deferred further work with Mather for a time more suitable. Then, when he learned that the French Catholics in America had formed alliances with the Indians and were already overrunning the Protestant territory and committing daily depredations, he made up his mind once more to return to the field of action, in which he might be able to render more effective service than he could by remaining in England.
He arrived in the summer of that fateful year, ’89, and offered himself to Bradstreet at once. The period of warfare in which he thereupon engaged was one of great length and of much bitterness.
Alternating defeat and victory left the advantages with the French and Indians, so far as hopes of ultimate success were concerned. The colonists had to make such long, tedious marches that decisive victories for their arms were almost impossible. The enemy gained in confidence, audacity and numbers.
In despair the General Court finally offered two sloops of war, free, together with all the profits of plunder which might result from the enterprise, to any man who would undertake to reduce to ashes Penobscot, St. John’s and Port Royal, the seats of the French and Indian power. The offer attracted Phipps, who foresaw, in the execution of the task, an infinite amount of adventure and action.
He enlisted men for the undertaking. Yet matters grew worse with such alarming rapidity that before the enterprise could be placed in readiness for work, it became necessary to raise a small fleet of vessels prepared for war-like operations. Thus seven sloops and seven hundred men, under command of Sir William, sailed away to the North on their sinister errand.
Port Royal, secure and arrogant, in her fancied isolation from attack, was surprised and taken. The French were routed with great loss. The town was looted until hardly so much as a sauce-pan was left by the thorough-going warriors of New England. The plunder, while not enormously valuable, nevertheless was sufficient to help materially in meeting the expenses of the venture. But its indirect effect on the colonists was not so happy. Cupidity is so often the jackal that follows righteous indignation.