XII. gland. Roger Williams entertained grateful feelings to- CHAPTER ward the Dutch of New Netherland, and by his interference the sailing of this expedition was a little delayed. 1654. When the armament arrived in New England the Dutch war was over; and by the time the New England contingents were ready, news of the peace reached Boston. July. Instead of proceeding against New Netherland, Acadie became the object of attack. It was a time of peace between France and England; but Cromwell alleged that a sum of money, promised by France in consideration of the cession of Acadie, had never been paid, and that the cession, in consequence, was not binding. D'Aulney was dead, and La Tour, lately returned from Hudson's Bay, having married the widow of his old enemy and rival, had thus recovered possession of Port Royal, St. John's, Penobscot, and the other Acadien trading posts. But D'Aulney's principal creditor in France had renewed the old complaints against La Tour, had obtained an order to take possession of all D'Aulney's American property, and for that purpose had just arrived, when both he and La Tour found themselves obliged to surrender to Leverett and Sedgwick. The dexterous La Tour now revived his claims under the old grant to his father from Sir William Alexander; and, two years after, Cromwell made a new grant of Nova Scotia to La Tour, Crowne, and Thomas Temple, brother of the celebrated Sir William Temple, and soon sole proprietor. Some three years previous to the present time, the bankrupt Gibbons had removed to Maryland, being appointed by the proprietary admiral of that colony and one of the council. He built a wind-mill at St. Mary's; but, dying there this year, his widow transferred the mill to Lord Baltimore in payment of a debt of £100 due by her late husband to his lordship. Previous to the XII. CHAPTER surrender of Acadie he had twice sent to La Tour to demand payment of his old debt, now swelled by inter1654. est and charges to more than £4000, but it does not Sept. appear that he met with any success. At the next annual meeting of the Commissioners for the United Colonies, Bellingham having been this year chosen governor in Endicott's place, and the New Netherland question being now out of the way, Massachusetts yielded the disputed point of interpretation, and war was declared against Ninigret. Two hundred and seventy men were voted for an expedition against him, the choice of commander being left to Massachusetts, which was to furnish the greater part of the troops. Major Willard, appointed upon this service, marched with orders to compel Ninigret to give up those Pequod subjects of his for whom the tribute was in arrear; to give satisfaction for his past misconduct; to leave the Long Islanders in peace; and to pay the expenses of the present expedition. But Ninigret "swamped himself," and the troops presently returned, upon the strength of an illusive stipulation on his part to give up the Pequods. This bootless result gave great dissatisfaction in the other colonies, where it was even alleged that Massachusetts, by the choice of an incapable commander, if not, indeed, by secret instructions, had purposely defeated the object of the expedition. The Lord Protector Cromwell had no sooner made peace with the Dutch than he declared war against Spain, and dispatched a fleet and army under Penn and Venables to attack the Spanish West Indies. Winslow, who had hitherto remained in England as agent for Massachusetts, in which office he was presently succeeded by Leverett, went in this fleet as one of Cromwell's commissioners to superintend the conquered countries. By volunteers from Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands, the XII. Oct. army was raised to ten thousand men, the first of those CHAPTER great armaments, so many of which were subsequently sent from Europe to perish in the West Indies from the 1654 effects of the climate. St. Domingo was the object aimed at; but from that island the expedition was repulsed with disgrace. The fleet then proceeded to Jamaica, of which possession was taken. At the date of its conquest that island contained but a few thousand inhabitants, partly enervated descendants of the old Spanish colonists, partly negro slaves, who took that opportunity to escape into the interior, and to establish there an independent community, conspicuous afterward in the history of the island. Sedgwick, appointed by Cromwell to succeed Winslow, who had died shortly after the repulse from St. Domingo, found things, on his arrival at Jamaica, "in a sad, deplorable, and distracted condition;" the soldiers, a large part of them from the English West India settlements, so lazy and idle as it can not enter into the heart of any Englishman that such blood should run in the veins of any born in England." As the other commissioners were dead, in conjunction with the principal military officers, Sedgwick framed an instrument of government, constituting a Supreme Executive Council, with himself at the head. Cromwell was very anxious to people the island, possession of which he was determined to retain. A thousand girls and young men were ordered to be listed in Ireland and sent over. The administrators of the Scottish government were directed to apprehend all "known idle, masterless robbers and vagabonds, male and female," for transportation thither; and that there might be a due admixture of religion and energy, agents were dispatched to New England for emigrants. The people of New Haven, disappointed and unsuccessful in their mercantile undertakings, were impoverished, uneasy, and 66 CHAPTER disposed to remove. XII. They had entertained thoughts of transferring themselves to Ireland, where Cromwell had 1654. made extensive confiscations. The Protector was anxious they should remove to Jamaica; and, with his usual art, employed for that purpose arguments addressed to their peculiar religious ideas. But the magistrates opposed this migration, and very few went. Sedgwick was raised by Cromwell to the rank of major general, with the supreme command of the island, but died shortly after receiving the appointment. Vassall presently migrated thither, and established several valuable plantations. 1655. As the incursions of the Niantics into Long Island Sept. still continued, a vessel was fitted out by the Commissioners for the United Colonies to cruise in the Sound, to intercept their canoes. Uncas, presuming on the protection of his white allies, grew more turbulent and overbearing than ever. He soon became involved in quarrels with his neighbors, in which he strove to engage the colonists also; but this time they resolved to let the Indians fight it out. The Pequods who had been placed under Uncas's authority had repeatedly complained of his oppressions. At first these complaints had been very coldly received; but the misbehavior of Uncas became now so notorious, that the remnants of the Pequods, relieved from his yoke, were allowed to settle in two villages, one on each side of the Mystic River, under rulers selected for them by the Commissioners for the United Colonies. Humphrey Atherton, Sedgwick's successor as major general of Massachusetts, was appointed superintendent of all the subject Indians, an of1656. fice in which he was speedily succeeded by Daniel Gookin, whose emigration from Virginia has been formerly mentioned. The sale of horses or boats to the Indians was strictly prohibited and the Commissioners for the United Colonies suggested that, in case of war, "mastiff CHAPTER dogs might be of good use." XII The "great Cotton," now dead, was succeeded in the 1655 church at Boston by Norton; not, however, without loud reclamations on the part of the people of Ipswich, from whom he was thus taken away-complaints which it required the authority of the General Court and of several ecclesiastical councils to quiet. Hitherto, in Massachusetts, the settlement of ministers had been left to the zeal of the churches. But a law lately passed, though not 1654. without a good deal of opposition, required every town to support a minister, the burden to be laid upon the whole society jointly, whether in church order or not." This enactment would have troubled Cotton, who esteemed it an evident sign of a declining state of religion when law had to be resorted to for upholding the religious establishment. It was also enacted that none should be allowed to sit as deputies in the General Court who did not hold to the orthodox creed. The laws against the Baptists were rigidly enforced. Dunster, the learned president of Harvard College, indicted, tried, and fined for the expression of Anabaptist opinions, was obliged to resign his office. Chauncy, his no less learned successor, was somewhat infected with the same errors; for, though he admitted infant baptism, he held to the practice of immersion. But he promised to keep his opinions to himself. Massachusetts even undertook a supervision of her neighbors of Plymouth, whom she represented to the 1656. Commissioners for the United Colonies "as wanting to Sept. themselves in a due acknowledgment of, and encourage. ment to, ministers of the Gospel." Nor was this com plaint without effect. The General Court of Plymouth passed a law the next year requiring the towns to tax 1657. |