1692. session of Pemaquid harbour, the measure was generally disliked; but it is supposed, the English ministry had in view the prevention of the French from claiming Acadie, as a derelict country.'

R. Island

ticut.

While Massachusetts had found it expedient to & Connec- accept a new charter, which deprived her colonists. of some of their ancient privileges; Rhode Island and Connecticut were allowed to resume their old charters.3

Affairs of

On the death of governor Sloughter of New New York. York, the council committed the chief command to Richard Ingolsby, a captain of an independent company. In June, captain Ingolsby met the Five Nations at Albany, and encouraged them to persevere in the war against the French. On the twenty ninth of August, colonel Benjamin Fletcher arrived, with a commission to be governor. The number of men, fit to bear arms, in the entire government, did not at that time amount to three thousand.+

Maryland.

Sir E. Andros made governor of Virginia.

The bishop of London having appointed Thomas Bray, D. D. to be his commissary in Maryland; he now came over, to inspect the church affairs of that province. By an act of the provincial assembly, the counties were now divided into thirty parishes; sixteen of which were supplied with ministers, and provided with livings. Through the care of Dr. Bray, the people were at the same time furnished with many protestant books of practical devotion; and several chapels were erected."

Lord Effingham being removed from the government of Virginia, Sir Edmund Andros, of obnox

1 Hutchinson, ii. 68. The fort, built at Pemaquid by Sir E. Andros [See A. D. 1678 and 1690], was a mere stockade: "un Fort, qui n'étoit à la vérité que de pieux, mais assez regulierement construit." Charlevoix Nouv. France, i. 557.

2 Mather Magnal. book ii. 55, 56.

3 Adams N. Eng. 155. Trumbull, i. 407.

4 Smith N. York, 79, 80.

5 Univ. Hist. xl. 471, 472. Brit. Emp. iii. 6,

13

ious memory in New England, arrived in that colo- 1692. ny with a commission as governor of Virginia and of Maryland. A patent was laid before the Virgin

ian assembly, for making Mr. Neal post master gen- Post office eral of Virginia and other parts of America; but, projected. though the assembly passed an act in favour of this patent, it had no effect. The reason assigned is, that it was impossible to carry it into execution, on account of the dispersed situations of the inhabitants. *

2

Falls.

A deluge, called The Great Flood, happened in Great Flood the spring at Delaware Falls. The first settlers of at Delaware the Yorkshire tenth in West Jersey had built on the low lands near the Falls, and had been making improvements there nearly sixteen years. This flood, caused by the melting of the snow above, almost entirely demolished their settlement. The water rose to the upper stories of some of the houses, and many of the people were conveyed from them in canoes. Two persons, in a house swept away by the torrent, were lost. Many cattle were drowned. The inhabitants, taught by experience the evils, of which the natives had forewarned them, fixed their habitations on higher ground. 3

On the seventh of June, a tremendous earthquake Earthquake shook Port Royal in Jamaica to its foundations; at Jamaica. buried nine tenths of the city under water; and made awful devastations over the whole island. Northwardly of the town, above a thousand acres were sunk. Two thousand souls perished. The subsequent effects of the earthquake were destruc

1 Beverly, 141. Univ. Hist. xli. 545. This new promotion of Andros excited the amazement of the public. The authors of the Universal History, to account for so extraordinary a measure, suppose, that the English ministry was at that time holden by tories (as it often happened in king William's reign); and that Andros was possessed of abilities for a governor, which he had prostituted to the interests of his superiors. It is generally allowed, that he was far from being a bad governor of Virginia. 2 Beverly, 142. Univ. Hist. xli. 546.

3 Smith N. Jersey, 208.

Small Pox in New

Hampshire.

Population

tive. Three thousand white inhabitants on the island, principally of Kingstown, died of pestilential diseases, ascribed to the putrid effluvia, issuing from the apertures.'

The small pox, brought in bags of cotton from the West Indies, caused a great mortality in Portsmouth and Greenland, in New Hampshire.'

There were now in New England above two hunof N. Eng. dred thousand English people. 3

N. Eng.

The New England version of the Psalms was inversion of troduced into the church of Plymouth, which until the Psalms. this time had used Ainsworth's translation."

Windham.

Southern
Indians.

The town of Windham, in Connecticut, was incorporated. s

1693.

The Southern Indians were now at war among themselves; and the Carolineans had already adopted the policy of setting one tribe against another, as the means of their own security. Beside purchasing the friendship of some tribes, which they em

1 Univ. Hist. xli. 364-366. Port Royal was the fairest town of all the English plantations, and the best emporium and mart of the West Indies. The houses on the wharf (which was entirely swallowed up by the sea) were built of brick; and most of them were equal in beauty to those in Cheapside in London. In the space of three minutes, this beautiful town was shattered to pieces, and sunk. The earthquake took place about half an hour after eleven, A. M. The minister of Port Royal, who was a witness of the tremendous scene, in an account of it, which he wrote soon after, on board a vessel in Port Royal harbour, observes: "It is a sad sight to see all this harbour, one of the fairest and goodliest I ever saw, covered with the dead bodies of people of all conditions, floating up and down without burial." See Coll. Hist. Soc. iv. 223-230. Montserrat was almost destroyed, this year, by an earthquake. Univ. Hist. xli. 318. 2 Belknap N. Hamp. i. 241. 3 Univ. Hist. xxxix. 323.

4 Belknap Biog. ii. 261. All the other churches in N. England had previously adopted the N. England version. Coll. Hist. Soc. viii. 10. See vol. i. P. 375, note 4.

5 Trumbull, i. 408. Joshua, sachem of the Moheagans, son of Uncas, by his last will, 29 February 1675, gave to captain John Mason, James Fitch, and others, to the number of 14, the tract containing this town. It was, the next year, surveyed, and laid out into distinct lots. By Joshua's will, the lands in the town of Mansfield were also given. The settlements at both places commenced about A.D. 1686. Canterbury originally be longed to the town of Wizdham. Ibid.

ployed to carry on war with others, they encour- 1693. aged them to bring captives to Charlestown, for the purpose of transportation to the West Indies. This year, twenty Cherokee chiefs waited on governor Smith, with presents and proposals of friendship; soliciting the protection of government against the Esaw and Congaree Indians, who had destroyed several of their towns, and taken a number of their people prisoners. They complained at the same time of the outrages of the Savanna Indians for selling their countrymen, contrary to former regulations, established among the different tribes; and begged the governor to restore their relations, and protect them against such insidious enemies.

The

governor declared his cordial desire of friendship and peace with them; and promised to do every thing in his power for their defence. The prisoners, he informed them, were already gone, and could not be recalled; but he engaged to take care for the future, that a stop should be put to the custom of sending them out of the country.'

tutions of

The colony of Carolina was still, in regard to gov- Fundamen ernment, in a confused and turbulent state. The tal Constiproprietaries now resolved: That, as the people Carolina have declared they would rather be governed by the abrogated. powers granted by the charter, without regard to the fundamental constitutions, it will be for their. quiet, and the protection of the well disposed, to grant their request. 3

3 Chalmers, i. 552, 556. "Thus," says Chalmers," at the end of three and twenty years, perished the labours of Locke: Thus was abrogated upon the requisition of the Carolineans, who had scarcely known one day of real enjoyment, a system of laws, which had been originally intended to remain forever sacred; which far from having answered their end introduced only dissatisfaction and disorders, that were cured at length by the final dissolution of the proprietary government. The Carolinean annals shew all projectors the vanity of attempting to make laws for a people, whose voice, proceeding from their principles, must be forever the supreme law." See A. D. 1671,

church es

1693. Governor Fletcher projected a tax for building Episcopal churches, and supporting episcopal ministers in the tablished province of New York; and the provincial assemin N. York. bly passed an act for settling and maintaining a ministry. This is considered as the time of the introduction of the episcopal church into that province."

Govern

nia assum

The king and queen of England assumed the govment of ernment of Pennsylvania into their own hands; and Pennsylva- colonel Fletcher was appointed governor of this ed by the province, as well as of New York. An alteration king and was now made in the numbers of the assembly. Inqueen. stead of six members for each of the six counties, those of Philadelphia and Newcastle were reduced to four each, and the rest to three; making a diminution of sixteen. 3

Projected

On the arrival of colonel Fletcher at Philadelphia, to assume the government of Pennsylvania, the persons in the administration appear to have surrendered the government to him, without any notice or or der to them, either from the crown or the proprie. tary. The new governor called an assembly in May. One of its acts was for the support of government.*

Repeated application having been made for a expedition force to be sent from England, sufficient, in conjunc against Canada tion with land forces to be raised in New England

frustrated.

I Humphreys Hist. Account, 201.

2 Pres. Stiles Lit. Diary. "However, it was near four years after the passing of this Act, before any thing was done in pursuance of it." Humph. 3 Franklin Pennsylv. 26, 33.

4 Proud, i. 381-393. By this act was granted the tax of one penny in the pound; and from the sums, raised by this tax, a probable estimate may be made of the value of all the private estates and property, at that time, in the Province and Territories. The sums were as follow: