Great Mortality.

1

179

In some

teen months, one hundred and four persons died, which was about the seventh part of the population of the parish. Eight children were buried from one family, four of them in the same grave; another family lost five children. In other places, from three to six children were lost out of a family. towns one in three, and others one in four, who were sick, died. In Hampton Falls, twenty families buried all their children: twenty-seven persons were lost out of five families, and more than a sixth part of the inhabitants died. In the province of New Hampshire alone, which then had only fifteen towns, not less than one thousand persons, of whom nine hundred were under twenty years of age, fell victims to this terrible malady.

It was not an enemy of any particular season or situation. It continued through the whole year. It appeared afterward in 1754 and 1755, spreading mortality through New England. In some places in Connecticut, it was quite as fatal as in Massachusetts. It again alarmed New Hampshire and Massachusetts in 1784, 5, 6, and 7, and 1802, It has of late been much more under the controul of medicine; but still it is a formidable enemy, walking in darkness; appearing here to-day, and perhaps to-morrow in the remotest place in the neighbourhood, without any intercourse or similarity of situation; the distress and anguish it brings is often indescribable; the writhings and contortions of the patient, seem as great as if he were on a bed of burning coals.

The divisional line, in 1740, was finally determined by the lords of the council, between New Hampshire and Massachusetts. New Hampshire obtained fourteen miles in breadth, and about fifty in length, more than they had claimed. A party the following year opposed Mr. Belcher, and by their incessant applications to the ministry, by falsehood and forgery, they finally prevailed. He was succeeded in New Hampshire, by Benning Wentworth; in Massachusetts by William Shirley. Mr. Belcher repaired to court; demonstrated his own integrity and the baseness of his enemies, was appointed governor of New Jersey, passed a quiet life, and his memory has been treated with merited respect.

In 1744, news of war with France and Spain being received, forces were raised to attack Nova Scotia. Governor Shirley projected air invasion of Louisbourgh, the Dunkirk of America. Its fortifications had employed French troops twenty-five years, and cost 30,000,000 livres. A majority of one, in the general court, voted for the expedition. The land forces were com

Louisbourgh attacked and taken.

180 manded by Colonel William Pepperell of Kittery; the English squadron by Commodore Warren. The last of April the following year, the troops, 3800 in number, landed at Chapeaurogue Bay. The transports had been discovered early in the morning from the town, which was the first notice they had of the design. In the night of May 2, four hundred men burned the warehouses containing the naval stores. The French were alarmed, spiked their guns, flung their powder into a well, and, abandoning the fort, fled to the city. The New England troops cheerfully submitted to extreme hardships; for fourteen nights successively, they were yoked together like oxen, dragging cannon and mortars, through a morass of two miles. The commanding artillery of the enemy forbade this toil in the day. No people on earth, perhaps, are more capable of such labo rious and daring exploits, than the independant farmers of New England. On the 17th of June, the garrison capitulated, but the flag of France was kept flying, which decoyed into the harbour, ships of the enemy, to the value of £000,000 sterLing. The weather, during the siege, was fine, but the day following rains began, which continued ten days, and must have proved fatal to the provincial troops, had not the capitu lation prevented. The good people of New England were deeply affected by this evident interposition of divine providence.

The next year, 1746, a French fleet sailed to pour destruction on New England. Twenty men of war, a hundred transports, eight thousand veteran troops, made the country tremble. In their consternation, they were disappointed of a squadron of defence, from the mother country. God interpo sed, A mortal sickness spread through the fleet; a tempest scattered them; the commander, disappointed and mortified, poisoned himself; his successor fell on his sword. Never was the hand of divine providence more visible; never was a disappointment more severe to the enemy; never a deliverance more complete without human aid, than this in favour of New England.

As the distresses of war ceased, the people were alarmed, in 1749, with the report of an American episcopacy; but the design was not executed. Dr. Mayhew of Boston, distinguished himself in this controversy. This year, Benning Wentworth made a grant of Bennington.

In 1754, a congress met in Albany, consisting of delegates from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connec facut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland; but the plan

Braddock's Defeat.

184

of government they proposed was rejected, both in England and America. Had this instrument been accepted, the mind is lost in conjecturing what might have been the consequences. Perhaps the revolution of 1776, had been postponed a long period; perhaps the millious and millions of the human race lately destroyed in Europe and Asia, by the dæmon of revolutionary madness, might have long survived, to swell the tide of human felicity.

Preparations were made in 1755 to di lodge the French from Nova Scotia. Colonel Winslow raised two thousand men, but the command of the expedition was given to Colonel Monkton. The French were subdued. The inhabitants had taken the oath of allegiance to the British Crown, but were accused of furnishing support and intelligence to Indians and French, in annoying the colonies; some of them were in arms. It was determined to remove them; about two thousand souls were accordingly transported to New England. The cloud of their sorrows was never dispelled; in a land of strangers, most of them pined away and died. They were remarkable for the simplicity of their manners, the ardour of their piety, and the purity of their morals.

General Braddock, with two thousand two hundred regular and provincial troops, marched this year for Fort du Quesne, but fell into an ambuscade, and was fatally wounded; panic seized his regular troops, but colonel Washington, his aid-decamp, with his militia, covered their retreat, and saved the shattered army.

The 18th of November, this year, was a memorable day on account of the earthquake. The wooden spindle of the vane on Faneuil Hall was broken, and an iron one which support-ed the vane on Springfield steeple was bent to a right angle: stone walls were thrown down, and the tops of chimnies shaken off.

In 1758, Louisbourgh, Frontenac, and Fort du Quesne, submitted to the English, a small compensation for more than two thousand men killed and wounded in the rash and unsuccesful attack upon Ticonderoga. Splendid were the victories of the year 1739. Niagara, Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and Quebec submitted to the English. At the taking of Quebec, Wolfe, the British commander, after being wounded in the wrist, received a fatal ball in his breast. Leaning on the shoulder of a lieutenant, sinking in the agonies of death, he heard a cry," they run." For a moment,reviving, he asked,

who rau? It was answered, "The French." He replied, "I thank God, I die happy," and expired. Montcalm, the French commander, and also the second in command, were kilJed. Quebec surrendered, and the whole province was soon annexed to the British empire.

In 1762, Martinico, Grenada, St. Vincents, and Havanna submitted: English valour was triumphant in every quarter of the globe; peace followed.

CHAP. XXVI.

Stamp Act-Dartmouth College founded-Lexington and Bunkerhill Battles-Expedition to Canada-Boston evacuated—Ticonderoga taken-Descent on Rhode Island--Tryon's Expedition to Connecticut-American Academy incorporated-New London burnt-Insurrection in Massachusetts-Federal Constitu→ tion-Colleges in Vermont and Maine.

IT was now thought a proper time to tax America. The stamp act, which passed in 1765, roused New England. Every mean was used to inform the mind, and kindle the passions. Massachusetts made the proposal, and a congress assembled. In Connecticut the people met; the stamp-master resigned. The first of November, wheu the stamp act was to operate in Boston, the bells tolled, shops were shut, effigies of the royalists were carried about in derision, and torn in pieces. At Portsmouth, the bells tolled; a coffin was prepared; on the lid was inscribed" Liberty, aged 145;" a procession moved with unbraced drums; minute guns were fired; an oration was delivered at the grave. At the cløse, the coffin was taken up, signs of life appeared in the corpse;" Liberty revived," was substituted; the bells struck a cheerful key; joy sparkled in every countenance: all was decency and order. At Rhode Island, the day passed in a similar manner. In March, 1766, the obnoxious act was repealed; ships in the Thames displayed their colours, houses were illuminated through the city of London, and the colonies rejoiced in their deliverance. In 1769, Dartmouth College was established by a royal charter, the pious and labourious Dr. Eleazer Wheelock, the

founder, was appointed the first President, with power of appointing his successor. He removed Moor's Indian Charity School from Lebanon, in Connecticut, to Hanover, in New Hampshire, where the college was established. A principal object with this good man was, to civilize and spread the gos pel among the aboriginal natives of the country; persevering were his exertions, and indefatigable his labours, for the accomplishment of this benevolent and noble design. Considerable numbers were taught in the grammar school, and made some advance in collegiate studies; only one or two, however, obtained the honours of college. Several missionaries were sent to different tribes with some success; but the revolutionary war cut off supplies from England, and, for a time, interrupted the good work.

The college stands on a beautiful and elevated plain, half a mile west from Connecticut river. The place is very healthy, and the prospect commanding. About 80,000 acres of land/ constitute the permanent funds of the college. Their value is constantly increasing; in 1805, their income may be estima- › ted at about 2000 dollars. The number of undergraduates is generally about 150. The students are under the immediate government and instruction of a president, three professors, and one tutor. The professorships are, one of mathematics, natural and moral philosophy, one of Hebrew and the other oriental languages, and one of chemistry and medicine. The college building is 150 feet by 50, three stories high.

The same year that Dartmouth College was founded, 1769, the first commencement of Rhode Island college was at tended. It was incorporated in 1764, and was organized at Warren, where it continued till 1770. It was then removed to Providence, where a handsome brick building had been erected for its accomodation. It stands on the hill east of the town, has a healthy air, and beautiful prospect. The edifice is four stories high, 150 feet long, 46 wide, with a projection of ten feet on each side in the centre. From December, 1776, to June, 1782, it was used as an hospital and barrack by the French and American troops. It is now a flourishing institution. The president and a majority of the trustees, must always be of the Baptist denomination. They have a valuable library and philosophical apparatus.

The limits of this little volume prevent a detail of the various events which produced the revolutionary war, and the