to New England to take possession of his province, when he was met by a new difficulty. The new authorities seemed jealous of his increased importance, and would not grant execution, or allow that he had the power to grant land by leases. In the midst of his troubles he died, in July, 1688, leaving his claims and lawsuits to his two sons, John and Robert Mason. On the news of the landing in England of William Prince of Orange reaching Boston, Andros imprisoned the messenger; but the people of Massachusetts rose in April, 1689, and seized the governor and his accomplices, whom they imprisoned, and afterward sent as prisoners of State to the old country. The magistrates under the old charter, with Bradstreet, the late governor, at their head, assumed the name of a Council of Safety, and maintained a form of government until orders were received from England. New Hampshire was left without a government. The people of the Province were persuaded by some of the leading men to meet in convention and take measures for their future government. The following deputies were chosen : From Portsmouth, Major William Vaughan, Richard Waldron, Nathaniel Fryer, Robert Elliot, Thomas Cobbet and Capt. John Pickering; from Dover, Capt. John Woodman, Capt. John Gerrish, John Tuttle, John Roberts, Thomas Edgerly and Nicholas Follet; from Exeter, Robert Wadley, William Moore and Samuel Leavitt. Hampton was in sympathy with the movement, but dissensions arising in town meeting no deputies were sent. At an adjourned meeting of the convention in January, 1690, it was decided to renew their union with Massachusetts until the King's pleasure should be known. A petition signed by 372 "inhabitants and trained soldiers of the Province of New Hampshire" was presented to the Massachusetts authorities, and favorably received. This union was the more desired on account of the breaking out of what was known as King William's War, and lasted until the appointment, in 1692, of Governor Samuel Allen and Lieutenant-Governor John Usher. During the union, Portsmouth was represented at the Massachusetts General Court in 1690, 1691 and 1692, by one or two of their delegates, Elias Stileman, John Foster, Richard Waldron and John Pickering. The military and civil officers of the Province during the union approved by the governor and council were: Samuel Penhallow, treasurer; John Pickering, recorder; William Vaughan, Richard Martin and Nathaniel Fryer, justices of the peace, at Portsmouth: John Gerrish, at Dover: Robert Wadleigh, at Exeter; Major William Vaughan, commander of the military forces. Of the military company, at Dover, John Gerrish was commissioned captain; John Tuttle, lieutenant; William Furber, ensign: at Oyster River (Durham), John Woodman, captain; James Davis, lieutenant; Stephen Jones, ensign at Portsmouth, Walter Neale, captain; John Pickering, lieutenant; Tobias Langdon, ensign: at Exeter, William Moore, captain; Samuel Leavitt, lieutenant; Jonathan Thing, ensign: at Great Island (New Castle), Nathaniel Fryer, captain; Thomas Cobbet, lieutenant; Shadrach Walton, ensign: at Hampton, Samuel Sherburne, captain; Edward Gove, lieutenant; John Moulton, ensign. CHAPTER V. KING WILLIAM'S AND QUEEN ANNE'S WARS, 1689-1713. CAUSES ST. CASTINE - GRIEVANCES - RICHARD WALDRON'S DEATH DOVER - OYSTER RIVER SALMON FALLS - NEWINGTON - LAMPREY DUNSTABLE REMOVAL OF INDIANS TO CANADA DEATH OF COLONEL WINTHROP HILTON - PEACE - CONDITION OF PAR TIES. THE HE first Indian war resulted to the advantage of the settlers. A large proportion of the New England Indians had been exterminated. The most stalwart and the fiercest, who survived, nursed their wrath, magnified their grievances, and plotted future vengeance. Their anger was increased by artful enemies of the English settlers, until the basest treachery and demoniac cruelty became a part of their character in their dealings with the New England colonies. The war became one of extermination on both sides. The French made it a little less fearful by offering a much larger bounty for captives than for scalps. A bounty on scalps was offered also by the colonial authorities. In 1689 commenced a contest of races, which, with but a brief suspension of hostilities, was destined to be prolonged for a quarter of a century, a generation, and to result in the practical dispersion of the aborigines from the whole territory of New England, their former home and hunting ground. King William's War was the most disastrous as it was the most prolonged of the many contests in which the New Engl and colonists were engaged. It lasted with but an occasional truce for ten years, and was the more fierce because to race hatred was added religious fanaticism. Besides, the Indians had a base of supplies in Canada, and counted on the French as allies and confederates. Before the French monarch, Louis XIV, had made war on William and Mary, the sovereigns of England, in the interest of James II, the dethroned king, Andros, by his overbearing and arbitrary course in New England, had prepared the way, before he was driven from office, for a general Indian war, the horrors of which were greatly increased when war was declared between the home governments of France and England. France held all land to the eastward of Penobscot river by treaty, and Baron de St. Castine had for many years resided on the peninsular of Castine and carried on a large trade with the Indians. A new line was run which left Castine within English territory, and soon afterward, in 1688, Andros went with an armed force and plundered De Castine's house and fort. Thereupon the Frenchman, who had the sympathy and confidence of the Indians to the fullest extent, incited them to open hostility. This was the more easily done as they had grievances of their own for which they could obtain no redress. Their tribute of corn was withheld, seines obstructed their fishery, cattle destroyed their crops, and their land was granted to settlers without their consent. To this was added the fact that they had become Catholics, and considered the English as heretics and their natural enemies. War commenced in Maine. Andros led an army of seven hundred men into their territory; but the only loss was sustained by his own force, for not an Indian was seen on the march. The treachery of Major Waldron, a dozen years before, still rankled in the memory of the Cocheco, the Pigwacket, and the Penacook tribes. The strage Indians, who had been sold into slavery in foreign countries, and had escaped and returned, were thirsting for revenge, and formed a confederacy for surprising the Cocheco settlement and taking vengeance. Their plans were carefully matured. Wannalancet, as chief of the Penacooks, was succeeded by Hagkins, who had been treated with neglect by Cranfield and was ready to listen to Castine's emissaries. Ostensibly they were at peace with the Province, when near the last of June, 1689, they assembled in the neighborhood of Dover. The veteran magistrate, Richard Waldron, feared no treachery. Some of the inhabitants were uneasy on account of meeting so many Indians and warned Waldron without effect. An official warning was on its way from Boston, but arrived too late. There were at the time five garrisoned houses near the first falls of the Cocheco river, Waldron's, Otis's and Heard's on the north side of the river; Peter Coffin's and his son's on the south side. The Indians sent two squaws to each of the garrisoned houses in the evening, to ask shelter for the night, and they were welcomed at all, except the younger Coffin's, and allowed to sleep by the open fire when the family had retired. One of the chiefs, Mesandowit, was hospitably entertained by Major Waldron the day before, and the squaws told him to expect a trading visit from the Indians the following day. When all was quiet, the squaws opened the gates and admitted their confederates. Waldron, on being aroused, sprang from his bed and bravely defended himself until he was overpowered and cruelly put to death, amid the jibes of his captors. His son-in-law, Abraham Lee, was also killed. The Otis garrison, next to Waldron's, shared the same fate. Heard's and Elder Wentworth's were accidentally saved. The elder Coffin's was surprised, and his son surrendered to save his father; but both families escaped while the Indians were plundering the houses. Twenty-three people were killed and twenty-nine were carried away captives. Five or six houses and the mills were burned, and the Indians had departed with their prisoners and booty before assistance arrived from other parts of the town. The prisoners were carried to Canada and sold to the French; and they were said to have been the first ever carried there. A pursuing party, under command of Captain Noyes, destroyed the corn of the Indians at Penacook; and another party, under Captain Wincol, killed several Indians at Lake Winnipiseogee, and despoiled their fields. |