Bellamont Governor.

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The French and Indians, in 1696, took and demolished the fort at Peniaquid.

In 1697, the French projected an invasion of the country. A fleet arrived at Newfoundland, expecting an army from Canada, to assault Boston, and ravage the coast to Piscataqua; but the season was advanced, provisions failed, and the design was relinquished. After the peace of Ryswick, 1698, the French could no longer assist the savages; they therefore buried the hatchet, restored their captives, ratified their former engagements, and, in 1699, submitted to the British

crown.

At the close of the war in Europe, the king ap pointed the earl of Bellamont governor of New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. He resided at New York; Mr. Stoughton conducted the affairs of New England. In May, Lord Bella-. mont visited Boston. He was a nobleman of po-. lite, conciliating manners, and professed great esteem for the congregational ministers, and with the general court, as was customary at that time, attended the stated Thursday lectures, at Boston. In his time, the pirates, who had been connived at for thirty or forty years, were arrested and punished. Numbers were executed at Boston. Bradish, Kidd, and others were carried to England, tried, and executed.

Soon after the session of the general court, in May, 1700, Lord Bellamont returned to New York, where he died, the 5th of March following,

This year, Yale College was founded. It was first established at Killingworth, where it was continued seven years; it was then removed to Saybrook, where it remained till 1716, when it was fixed at New Haven. Governor Yale was among its principal benefactors, for which it was in 1718, called Yale College. The first building was of wood, 170 feet long, 22 Wide, erected in 1717. In 1782, this was taken down. There are now three colleges, each 100 feet long, 40 wide; there is a chapel 50 feet long; 40 feet wide with a steeple 130 feet high, and another building of a like size, for the library, &c. beside a dining hall 60 feet by 40, a dwelling house for the president, and another for the professor of divinity. There is a handsome philosophical apparatus, and a library of about 4000 volumes.

The first charter of incorporation was granted to eleven ministers, under the denomination of trustees, in 1701. Their powers were enlarged by an additional charter in 1723, and by another in 1745, when the trustees were incorporated by the name of" the President and Fellows of Yale College, New Haven."

By an act of the legislature for enlarging the powers and increasing the funds of Yale College, passed in 1792, and accepted by the corporation, the governor, lieutenant governor, and the six senior assistants in the council of the state, for the time

being, are trustees and fellows of the college, in addition to the former corporation. The executive authority is vested in the president, professors, and tutors. There is at present, a president, a professor of divinity, a professor of natural philosophy and astronomy, and four tutors. In 1801, there were 224 students in the four classes.

In May and September, annually, the several classes are examined in all their classical studies. As incentives to improvement in composition and oratory, those most necessary acquirements for public characters, quarterly exercises are appointed by the president and tutors to be exhibited by the several classes in rotation. The public commencement is hd on the second Wednesday in September, annualy.

In 1702, Queen Ann appointed Joseph Dudley, Esq. to succeed Bellamont as governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. According to his instructions he required a permanent salary, and maintained a long and obstinate struggle with the general court of Massachusetts, but was finally obliged to relinquish the object.

In 1703, the Indians, aided as usual by the French, attacked all the settlements from Canso to Wells; killed and took about 130 people, and burned many houses. Women and children fled to garrisons; the men carried their arms into the field of labour, and posted centinels round them; small parties of the enemy were frequently

322

Indian Ravages.

making assaults; and the whole country from Deerfield to Canso, for some time was in constant alarm. Towards the close of the year, 300 French and Indians fell upon Deerfield, murdered forty of the inhabitants, took 100 captives, and left the village in flames. To repel such bloody foes, the famous Col. Church, so distinguished in the wars of Philip, in 1704, was ordered to the eastward. At Piscataqua, he was joined by major Hilton; they destroyed Minas and Chignecto, and did some damage to the French at Penobscot and Passamaquoddy.

The

The following year, a number of captives taken at Deerfield were redeemed. In April, 1706, the Indians killed eight people at Oter river. garrison was near, but not a han in it. The women put on hats, loosened their hair, and fired so briskly, that the enemy fled, without burning or plundering the house they had assaulted. The year following, the Indians came to Reading, with. in ten miles of Boston, killed a woman and three children, and carried off five captives. Persons were also killed and prisoners taken this year at Chelmsford, Sudbury, Groton, and Exeter.

On the 27th of November, 1707, died John Winthrop, Esq. governor of Connecticut, and was buried in Boston. The bones of John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts, his son and grandson, governors of Connecticut, rest in the same tomb, in the oldest burying ground in Bos

Acadia taken.

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ton. There was this year an unsuccessful expedition against Port Royal.

On the 29th of August, 1708, Haverhill was assaulted by the Indians; thirty or forty persons were killed, among whom was their minister, Mr. Rolf; twenty or thirty houses were burned, and the rest plundered. Such had been the loss of men in Massachusetts, by their dreadful wars with the French and Indians, that, in 1713, the province had not doubled in half a century. The same observations may be made respecting the period from 1722 to 1762. Had the French, in Canada, been subdued a hundred years sooner, it is supposed there would have been more than three hundred thousand souls in New England, more than there

now are.

In 1710, the territory of Acadia was subdued, by the surrender of Port Royal. The name of the place was changed to Anapolis, in honour of the queen. Samuel Vetch, a colonel in the victorious army, was appointed governor.

This success encouraged New England to attempt, the next year, the conquest of Canada. General Nicholson was successful in soliciting aid from the British court. The combined army of Old and New England troops, being 6,500 men, with a fleet of five ships of war, engaged in the enterprise but in the way, eight transports were wrecked on Egg Island, and a thousand people perished, among whom there was but one man