roasted and devoured before the very gates, were sick with terror. It became necessary for Frontenac to send a force at once to Lake Ontario, where the French had abandoned Fort Frontenac after an unsuccessful attempt to destroy it, so that the Iroquois had forthwith occupied it and got hold of more muskets and ammunition than the red man's boldest fancy had ever dreamed of. The fur trade from the upper lakes had been cut off for two years, and so great had been the destruction of property that a military expedition down the Hudson was utterly out of the question.

Plan of James II. for uniting

Thus it was that the scheme of Louis XIV. against New York collapsed at the outset, and thus it soon sank into oblivion, so that we are liable to forget how much we owe to those dreadful Iroquois. Meanwhile in these six years how had it fared with the knightly Irishman all the north- and his fair province? James, as we have seen, had undertaken to grant constitutional government to New York, and was about ready to sign a charter, when king and changed his mind. pose had a military reason.

ern colonies.

suddenly he became

This change of purIn order to oppose a

more solid front to Canada, James wished to unite all his northern colonies under a single military governor. Circumstances seemed to favour him. Massachusetts, the most populous and powerful of the colonies, had sustained a bitter quarrel with Charles II. during the whole of that king's reign, until just before his death he had succeeded in getting a chancery decree annulling the charter of Massachusetts. In 1686 James II. sent Sir

Sir Edmund

Andros vice

roy of New

England.

Edmund Andros to Boston to assume the government over all New England. Poor little Plymouth had never had a charter, and those of Connecticut and Rhode Island might be summarily seized. As for New York, the king revoked his half-granted charter and annexed that province to New England. New Jersey soon met the same fate, and legal proceedings were begun against the charter of Maryland. Apparently nothing was safe except the sturdy infant colony of William Penn, whose good-will the king could not afford to alienate.

annexed to

In August, 1688, Andros came in state to New York, and with due ceremonies the seal of that province was broken in his presence, and the seal of united New England was ordered to be used in its stead. Ex-Governor Dongan re- New York mained in the neighbourhood for about a New Engyear, attending to some private business, land. and then went home to Ireland, where he afterwards became Earl of Limerick. After a stay of two months in New York and Albany, Sir Edmund Andros returned to Boston in October, 1688, carrying off with him such of the New York public records as he wished to have on hand for reference, and leaving Francis Nicholson behind as his representative and lieutenant. No wonder if the good people on Manhattan Island resented this unceremonious treatment. Thus to ignore their natural and proper sentiments of local patriotism, and summarily annex them to New England, was an outrage of the worst sort, and put a severe strain upon such feelings of loyalty as they may have cherished toward James II.

The rule of
Andros in

But the strain did not endure long. The rule of Andros in Boston had already become insupportable. Arbitrary taxes were imposed, common lands were encroached upon, and the writ of habeas corpus was suspended. A strict and vexatious censorship was kept over the press. Boston. All the public records of the late New England governments were ordered to be brought to Boston, whither it thus became necessary to make a tedious journey in order to consult them. All deeds and wills were required to be registered in Boston, and excessive fees were charged for the registry. It was proclaimed that all private titles to land were to be ransacked, and that whoever wished to have his title confirmed must pay a heavy quit-rent, which under the circumstances amounted to blackmail. The representative assembly was abolished. The power of taxation was taken from the town meetings and lodged with the governor. And when the town of Ipswich, led by its pastor, John Wise, one of the most learned and eminent men of his time, made a protest against this crowning iniquity, the sturdy pastor was thrown into prison, fined £50 (i. e. at least $1000), and suspended from the ministry. In view of such facts the evil repute acquired by Andros in New England cannot well be said to have been undeserved. He earned it by obeying too thoroughly the orders of a master whose conduct Englishmen could not endure. Early in 1688 a commission headed by Increase Mather, president of Harvard College, was sent over to England to expostulate with James II. They found England

upon

them

Dr. Mather detains King William's

letter.

aglow with the spirit of rebellion. The flames burst forth when on the 5th of November (Guy Fawkes's day!) the Prince of Orange landed in Devonshire. Before Christmas the last Stuart king had fled beyond sea, leaving a vacant throne. It was of course a moment of engrossing business for the great Dutch prince, and he took the occasion to prepare a short letter for the American colonies enjoining it to retain all King James's arrangements undisturbed for the present until leisure should be found for revising them. Dr. Mather did not wish to have any such instructions sent to Boston, for he saw in them the possibility that Andros might hold over until it would be awkward to get rid of him without interfering with some plan of William III. By skilful pleading with the new king, in which he was aided by Sir William Phips, the wily Mather succeeded in delaying the departure of the letter. This was in February, 1689, and it was not until late in March that the flight of James II. and the success of the Prince of Orange became known in Massachusetts. glowing embers of rebellion were quickly Overthrow fanned into a blaze. On the 18th of of Andros. April armed yeomanry began pouring into Boston in response to the signal on Beacon Hill, and Sir Edmund saw that his hour had come. He tried to escape to the Rose frigate in the harbour, in the hope of finding a refuge in New York, but his Puritan foes had no mind to let him off so easily. He was seized and securely lodged in jail, and several of his agents and abettors were also impris

The

oned, among them Chief Justice Dudley, who had lately had the impudence to tell the people of New England that the only liberty left them was that of not being sold for slaves.

The old governments restored in New England.

Massachusetts then at once restored her old government as it was before her charter was annulled, and she caused this to be announced in England, explaining that it was done provisionally until the new king's pleasure should be known. Obviously the improvement in her position through Dr. Mather's astuteness was great. No one could interpret her rebellion as aimed at any other sovereign than the dethroned James. Instantly the other New England colonies followed suit. Plymouth, Rhode Island, and Connecticut quietly resumed their old governments. James's consolidated New England thus fell to pieces.

There were people in New York upon whom these events were not for a moment lost. The lieutenant-governor, Francis Nicholson, was in an awkward position. If Andros had come away in the Rose frigate to New York, where he could direct affairs from Fort James, all would have been simple enough. If he had been killed there would have been no difficulty, for Nicholson would have become acting-governor. But as Andros was only locked up, Nicholson did not know just in what light to regard himself or just how much authority to assume. He belonged to that large class of commonplace men who are afraid of assuming responsibility. So he tried to get messages to Andros in his Boston jail, but found very little counsel or comfort in that way.