From this blow, the confederated Indians never recovered; but they still remained sufficiently strong to harass the settlements by continual inroads. In retaliation, the English sent several detachments into their territories, nearly all of which were successful. Captain Church, of Plymouth, and captain Dennison, of Connecticut, were conspicuous for their bravery and success. In the midst of these reverses, Philip remained firm and unshaken. His warriors were cut off; his chief men, his wife and family, were killed, or taken prisoners; and at these successive misfortunes, he is represented to have wept with a bitterness which proves him not to have been destitute of the noblest affections; but he disdained to listen to any offers of peace. He even shot one of his men, who proposed submission. At length, after being hunted from swamp to swamp, he was himself shot, by the brother of the Indian he had killed. This event was certainly the signal of complete victory. The Indians in all the neighboring country now generally submitted to the English, or fled, and incorporated themselves with distant and strange nations. Never was peace more welcome. In this short, but tremendous war, about six hundred of the inhabitants of New England, composing its principal strength, were either killed in battle, or murdered by the enemy; twelve or thirteen towns were entirely destroyed; and about six hundred buildings, chiefly dwelling-houses, were burnt. In addition to these calamities, the colonies contracted a very heavy debt; while, by the loss of their substance through the ravages of the enemy, their resources were greatly diminished. But, in their deepest distress, they forbore to apply to the mother country for assistance; and this omission excited surprise and jealousy. ‘You act,’ said a privy counsellor, ‘as though you were independent of our master’s crown; and though poor, yet you are proud.’
In this unsettled state of the country, the French in Canada and Nova Scotia instigated the northern and eastern Indians to commence hostilities against the English settlements. Dover and Salmon Falls, in New Hampshire, Casco, in Maine, and Schenectady, in New York, were attacked by different parties of French and Indians, and the most shocking barbarities perpetrated on the inhabitants. The Indians having taken the fort at Pemaquid, and the French privateers from Acadie still infesting the coast of New England, the general court of Massachusetts determined to make an attempt on Port Royal. A fleet, with seven or eight hundred men, under the command of Sir William Phipps, sailed on that expedition in the latter end of April. The fort at Port Royal, not being in a state to sustain a siege, surrendered, with little or no resistance; and Sir William took possession of the whole sea-coast, from Port Royal to the New England settlements.
Regarding Canada as the principal source of their miseries, New England and New York formed the bold project of reducing it to subjection. By great exertion they raised an army, which, under the command of general Winthrop, was sent against Montreal, and equipped a fleet, which, commanded by Sir William Phipps, was destined to attack Quebec. The fleet, retarded by unavoidable accidents, did not arrive before Quebec until the 5th of October. Phipps, the next morning, sent a summons on shore, but received an insolent answer from count Frontenac. The next day he attempted to land his troops, but was prevented by the violence of the wind. On the 8th, all the effective men, amounting to between twelve and thirteen hundred, landed at the isle of Orleans, four miles below the town, and were fired on from the woods by French and Indians. Having remained on shore three days, they received information from a deserter of the strength of the place, and precipitately embarked. A tempest soon after dispersed the fleet, which made the best of its way back to Boston. A successful result had been so confidently expected, that adequate provision was not made at home for the payment of the troops. In this extremity, the government of Massachusetts issued bills of credit, or paper money; and these were the first that were ever issued in the American colonies; but though it afforded relief at the moment, it produced in its consequences extensive and complicated mischief.
The first trials for witchcraft in New England occurred in the year 1645, when four persons charged with this crime were put to death in Massachusetts. For more than twenty years after, we hear but little of similar prosecutions. But in the year 1688, a woman was executed for witchcraft in Boston, after an investigation conducted with a degree of solemnity that made a deep impression on the minds of the people. Suspicions having been thus violently roused, the charges of witchcraft began gradually to multiply, till at length there commenced at Salem that dreadful tragedy which rendered New England for many months a scene of bloodshed, terror and madness, and at one time seemed to threaten the subversion of civil society.
In the year 1692, the frenzy of the colonists reached the highest pitch of extravagance. Suspicions and accusations of witchcraft became general among them; and on this fanciful charge many persons were put to death. This pestilential visitation first showed itself in the town of Salem. A fanatic, who was minister of a church there, had two daughters subjectto convulsions. He fancied they were bewitched; and fixed his suspicions on an Indian girl who lived in the house, as the accomplice and tool of Satan in the matter. By harsh treatment he made the poor savage acknowledge herself a witch. Among a people like the New Englanders, this was throwing a firebrand into a powder magazine; and the explosion was dreadful. Every woman subject to hysterical affections instantly believed herself bewitched; and was seldom at a loss to discover the guilty cause of her malady. Persons accused of the imaginary crime of witchcraft were imprisoned, condemned, hanged, and their bodies left exposed to wild beasts and birds of prey. Counsellors who refused to plead against these devoted victims, and judges who were not forward in condemning them, were doomed to share their fate, as accomplices in their guilt.
Children of ten years of age were put to death; young women were stripped naked, and the marks of witchcraft sought for on their bodies with unblushing curiosity. Scorbutical or other spots on the bodies of old men were reckoned clear proofs of a heinous commerce with the infernal powers. Dreams, apparitions, prodigies of every kind, increased the general consternation and horror. The prisons were filled, the gibbets left standing, and the citizens were appalled. Under this frightful delirium, the miserable colonists seemed doomed to destruction by each other’s hands. The more prudent withdrew from a country polluted by the blood of its inhabitants, and the ruin of the colony seemed inevitable; when, ceasing to receive countenance from those in authority, this awful frenzy passed away, almost as suddenly as it had arisen, leaving to future ages a fearful warning against such popular insanity.
It is matter of satisfaction to the historian, that his attention is not again to be diverted, in the annals of this state, from his peculiar province, to record events which, had the intention of religion been rightly apprehended, would not have intermixed with civil affairs in fact, and therefore not in history. The legislature, at its first session under the new charter, passed a law which indicates the same independent spirit that afterwards resisted the usurpations of the British parliament. It provided that no tax should be imposed upon any of his majesty’s subjects, or their estates, in the province, but by the act and consent of the governor, council, and representatives of the people, in general court assembled. It is almost needless to add, that this law was disallowed by the king.
The war with the French and Indians, which began in 1690, was not yet terminated. For several years were the frontier settlements harassed by the savages, and the English were employed in expeditions against them. This continuance of the war on the part of the Indians, instigated and aided by the French, induced repeated applications for a force from the British government, to act in conjunction with land forces to be raised in New England and New York, for the reduction of Canada; and it was at length determined, that an expedition should be undertaken for that purpose. A fleet was to be employed in the winter in the reduction of Martinico; and, after the performance of that service, was to sail to Boston, take on board a body of land forces under Sir William Phipps, and proceed to Quebec. By attempting too much, the whole of this extensive project entirely failed.
The attacks of the natives on the English continued with little intermissiontill the peace of 1697. They were carried on with Indian cunning, treachery, and cruelty. ‘To these causes of suffering were superadded the power of all such motives as the ingenuity of the French could invent, their wealth furnish, or their bigotry adopt. Here all the implements of war and the means of sustenance were supplied; the expedition was planned; the price was bidden for scalps; the aid of European officers and soldiers was conjoined; the devastation and slaughter were sanctioned by the ministers of religion; and the blood-hounds, while their fangs were yet dropping blood, were caressed and cherished by men regarded by them as superior beings. The intervals between formal attacks were usually seasons of desultory mischief, plunder, and butchery; and always of suspense and dread. The solitary family was carried into captivity; the lonely house burned to the ground; and the traveller waylaid and shot in the forest. It ought, however, to be observed, to the immortal honor of these people, distinguished as they are by so many traits of brutal ferocity, that history records no instance in which the purity of a female captive was violated by them, or even threatened.’
The peace of Ryswick, which had been signed on the 20th of September, was proclaimed at Boston on the 10th of December, and the English colonies had a brief repose. By the seventh article it was agreed, that mutual restitution should be made of all the countries, forts, and colonies taken by each party during the war.