council, who were appointed by the king, without the consent of the people. In the following year James having abdicated, William, prince of Orange, and Mary, daughter of James, ascended the throne. This intelligence was joyfully received at New York. SEC. VIII. 1689. Jacob Leisler, with fortynine men, seized the garrison at New York, and held it for the prince of Orange. William and Mary were proclaimed there in June; and the province was now ruled by a committee of safety, at the head of which was Leisler. Andros had been previously seized and imprisoned by the citizens of Boston. Nicholson, with the council and civil officers, made all the opposition in their power to Leisler, but it was ineffectual. Nicholson absconded, and Leisler assumed supreme authority. Leisler's assumption of command excited the envy and hatred of many of the people; at the head of whom were Col. Bayard and the mayor, who being unable to make any effectual resistance in New York, retired to Albany. A letter arrived from England, directed to "Francis Nicholson, Esq., or in his absence, to such as, for the time being, take care for preserving the peace and administering the laws." Nicholson having absconded, Leisler considered the letter directed to himself, and assumed the title and authority of lieutenant governor. SEC. IX. Albany, though friendly to William and Mary, refused subjection to Leisler; to compel which, Leisler sent his son in law, Milborn, with an armed force. Albany was re VIII. Give some account of the revolution, which took place in 1689. What is said of Leisler's assumption of command? IX. What occurred at Albany? duced in the following spring, and Nicholson and Bayard imprisoned. During the year 1689, the Five Nations renewed their covenant with the English, and soon after made a descent upon Montreal in Canada, attended with terrible massacre and devastation. Many plantations were burned, and the whole French colony thrown into con sternation. SEC. X. 1690. Count Frontenac detached several parties of French and Indians from Canada, to take different routes into the English territories. One party, consisting of 150 French and Indian traders, and as many Indians, surprised and destroyed Schenectady. The assault was made about 12 o'clock on Saturday night, and 60 men, women, and children were massacred. The inhabitants had no intimation of their approach, until their doors were broken open, and the enemy entered, and began the perpetration of the most inhuman barbarities. No tongue, says Col. Schuyler, can express the cruelties that were committed. SEC. XI. 1691. Col. Henry Sloughter arrived at New York, with the commission of governor of the province. The first assembly, after the revolution, was holden on the ninth of April. The province was, by an act of the assembly, divided into ten counties. The arbitrary acts of James were repealed, and the former privileges restored to the colo What enterprise of the Indians in 1689 ? x. What enterprise of the French in 1690 ? XI. Who was next appointed governor of New York-What took place on his arrival? ny. Leisler and Milborne, having made a vain attempt to retain their authority and refused to deliver up the fort to the governor, were condemned to death for high treason, and soon after executed. Sloughter died suddenly in July, 1691, and ended a short, but weak, and turbulent administration. The distractions in the province so entirely engrossed the public attention, that the Indian allies, who had been. left solely to contend against the common enemy, became extremely disaffected. In the summer of 1691, Major Schuyler with a party of Mohawks passed through Lake Champlain, and made a bold and successful irruption into the French settlements at the north end of the lake. The design in this descent was to animate the Indians, and continue their hostility to the French. They, accordingly, continued their hostilities against them, and by frequent incursions, kept the country in constant alarm. An Indian, called Black Kettle, commanded in these excursions of the Five Nations, and his successes so exasperated the French, that they ordered an Indian prisoner to be burnt alive. The bravery of this savage was as extraordinary, as the torments inflicted on him were cruel. He sung his military achievements without interruption, even while his bloody executioners practised all possible barbarities. They broiled his feet, thrust his fingers into red hot pipes, cut his joints, and twisted the sinews with bars of iron. After this, his scalp was ripped off, and hot sand poured on the wound. SEC. XII. 1692. On the death of governor Sloughter, the council committed the chief command to Richard Ingolsby. In August, Col. Benjamin Fletcher arrived, with a com What is said of the Indian affairs? Of Schuyler's expedition? What was the design of this descent?- - What is said of their incursions?. Of Black Kettle? XII. Who was appointed governor in 1692 ? mission of governor. In the following year, he introduced the episcopal church into the province. Early in the year 1693, Count Frontenac, with an army of six or seven hundred French and Indians, made an irruption into the territory of the Mohawks. In this descent, three hundred of the Indians, in the interest of the English, were made prisoners. Col. Schuyler, with a party from Albany, pursued the enemy, and several skirmishes ensued. When the French reached the north branch of Hudson's river, a cake of ice opportunely served them to cross it, and Schuyler, who had retaken about fifty Indians, desisted from the pursuit. The French, in this enterprise, lost about eighty men. By the charter of Connecticut, that state had exclusive power over its own militia; but, by the plenary powers vested in the governor of New York, he had also command. over them. Fletcher, the governor, insisted on submission, which being refused, he went to Hartford while the legislature were in session, to compel obedience. He ordered his commission to be read to the trainbands of Hartford, then under exercise of their senior officer, Capt. Wadsworth. As soon as the reading commenced, the captain ordered the drums to beat. It was in vain, that the governor commanded silence. Three attempts were made to read, each of which was futile; the governor crying out, "silence, silence," and the captain bawling drum, drum. At length the governor, on being told by Wadsworth, that if he again interrupted his drumming he would “make the sun shine through him," relinquished all hope of success against such obstinacy, and returned to New York. Give some account of the incursion of the French in 1693. SEC. XIII. Mr Fletcher's administration was characterised by much turbulence, and frequent disagreement between him and the assembly. The raising and appropriating the revenue, and the religious concerns of the colony, constituted the usual subjects of controversy. He left the province in 1695. An act had been passed by the assembly for the support and encouragement of the clergy. Fletcher, who was a bigoted episcopalian, made efforts to have the act so framed, that the appropriations might be exclusively devoted to the episcopal clergy. In their session of April, on receiving a petition from the church wardens and vestrymen of the city of New York, the House declared it to be their opinion, "That the vestrymen and church wardens have a power to call a dissenting protestant minister, and, that he is to be paid and maintained, as the act directs." Trinity Church, in the city of New York, was built in the following year; and the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church incorporated. The city at this time contained five hundred and ninety four houses, and six thousand inhabitants. The shipping of New York consisted of forty ships, sixtytwo sloops, and sixty boats. SEC. XIV. In 1696, Frontenac made another irruption with a large force, and carried devastation into the possessions of the Five Nations. After this expedition, small parties of the Indians, in the English interest, continued to harass the inhabitants near Montreal; and similar parties, in the French interest, to harass those near Albany, until the peace of Ryswick, in 1697. XIII. What is said of his administration ?-What were the subjects of controversy ? What can you say of the city at this time? |