T

out being built upon moral principles, will in the end become like a baseless fabric of a vision, vanish and not leave a wreck behind it. The beft foundation of government and policy, is truth; without this they will always turn to oppreffion.

This year the ministry were fo bufily employed in profecuting the printers and bookfellers for publishing libels, and the magiftrates of the city of London for refufing to execute the orders of the Commons, that very little of American affairs came before parliament. It may not be unprofitable in this chafm of modern affairs in the American history, to fill the blank with a few particulars of the ancient hiftory of the colonies, And as this hiftory is principally intended to record the wars in the western part of the world, we fhall take a fhort view of fome of the first wars with the Indians, which was carried on by the English in those parts.

CHAR

4

CHA P. V.

1:

view of the first War between the Colonists and the Natives-The taking of Acadia-An attempt upon Quebec, &c.

W

E are fearcely fufficiently informed by the an nals of thofe times concerning the true caufes and fprings of the firft Indian war. The war itfelf is fuf ficiently defcribed, though the caufes ftill in a great meafure lie hid. Two things feem to have given rife to thofe bloody and cruel measures; the covetoufnefs of the colonifts, and the treachery of the French. The new colonists frequently in the extending their territories, did not ftrictly obferve the lines which bounded 'their new acquired poffeffions, and frequently were found making encroachments upon the poffeffions of the original natives, which though they were very inconfiderable, were magnified by the French emiffaries, who were fcattered among the Indians, as the most atrocious acts of injuftice and iniquity. Thefe emiffaries ftirred up the Indians, who were not ill to irritate against a people for whom they had but little regard, and against whom their own private intereft inclined them to believe the smallest accufa, tions. What added much to the difguft the natives had against the colonifts, and created in their minds a very strong antipathy against them, was the prac

tice

tice of fome occafional traders, who came upon their coafts without defign of fettling. Thefe, upon occafions, committed depredations and enticed fome of the Indians aboard, their fhips, and, carried them to Europe, and fold them for flaves. The natives who confidered thofe free-booters as friends and connections of the colonists, mutually engaged in the fame defigns of plunder and depredation, were determined to extirpate this new race of people, as enemies.to all their common and natural rights. Their minds could not fuggest any other reason why they came to fettle among them, except to invade their rights, and feize their poffeffions.-Being ignorant of their language, and uncapable of understanding on a fudden heir figns and fignatures of expreffion, they interpreted the whole as tokens of hoftility, or figns of dif fimulation.

They

The writers of the hiftory of New England have drawn the characters of the Indians of thofe times in the moft frighful and forboding colours. have reprefented them as worshippers of the devil, and as true fubjects of the prince of the power of the air. Cruel, barbarous, unmerciful, and unrelenting. Among the various tribes of thefe infidel favages, none. were more powerful, warlike, and formidable than the nation of the Pequots, which lay between the Naraganfets and the Moghenas. This tribe had now Become a terror not only to the new fettlers, but to the other tribes of Indians in their neighbourhood, on account of their power, cruelty, and oppreffion., ལམ༥. Their arms were almost irresistible, and their power intolerable; and the late thefts and pillagings of the English free-booters had encreafed their rage to the highest degree of revenge and refentment. It was no wonder that the colonists, when they fell in their

way,

way, felt the effects of their unbridled fury and re

venge.

In the year 1634, an open rupture began between these fierce natives and the colonifts. A party of Indian's attacked Captain Stone and Captain Norton, when they were failing up the river Connecticut, and - killed them, with fix men who were in company, and funk the veffel in the river. Hiftorians do not inform us whether thefe gentlemen were failing within the boundaries of the colony, or were for the fake of fishing, or for fome other reafons, beyond the line of agreement. It was a practice fo frequently purfued by the colonists, to proceed beyond the bounds of their purchase, that the natives often complained of the encroachments which they made upon their poffeffions. Whatever was the cause of these hoftilities, the truth is, that the Indians began now to take a most fevere revenge. Thefe favages attacked the crew of a veffel that were caft upon Long-Ifland, and killed feveral of the men; and in 1636, they boarded a ship near Block Ifland, killed the captain, and committed several more outrages. The colonists finding that this Indian war turned more ferious than they expected, began to confider upon fome fuitable méthods of defence, as well as offenfive projects, to annoy thofe cruel and barbarous affailants. The go

vernor and council of Bofton fent an hundred and twenty men, under the command of the Captains Endicot, Underhill, and Turner;-who boldly attacked the Indians, who left their 'huts, and retired to the fwamps and woods for their fafety and prefervation. Before this army proceeded any further, they fent a meffage to the Pequots, defiring them to deliver up the murderers, who were the occafion of the war, that the innocent might not be involved

with the guilty in the calamity of war. Thefe fierce and furious people either confidered their caufe to be just, or were determined, at all events, to fupport their brethren in the caufe they were now engaged in. They would listen to no proposals of accommodation, but were determined to carry on the war. Their refufal brought on a skirmish, in which the matives were defeated, and all their huts in that part of the country, and their corn were destroyed. These fkirmishes were only prefaces to a more bloody war that now followed, which was carried on with great fury and barbarity on the fide of the natives. The prifoners which fell into their hands, were tortured in the moft fhocking and inhuman manner, and put to all the extremities of pain that wanton barbarity could devife. Maids and children were roasted alive, and the barbarous favages all the while mocking their pains, and ridiculing their geftures and expreffions of agony.

This nation of Pequots joined policy and craft to their barbarity and cruelty; they at this time devised a fcheme, which had it taken place, muft have totally destroyed all the infant colonies. They fent Talks to all the various tribes of Indians of their acquaintance, setting forth the neceffity of an affociation among themselves, to extirpate this new race of people, which might be eafily done, by a confederacy of the various tribes, before the colonists were provided for a defence, or were grown ftrong by an increase of their numbers; that by one decifive blow, they had it now in their power to free themfelves of neighbours, who, if they were not at this time fubdued, would in a fhort time become their mafters, and deprive them of all their poffeffions. This was a most judicious and political scheme, and would have, pro