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CHAP. XXV.

Public ferment in Massachusetts, Dreadful mortality, Line established between Massachusetts and New Hampshire, Shirley governor, Louisbourgh taken, French invasion, Congress at Albany, Nova Scotia taken, Braddock's defeat.

WHILE these provinces were in a con

stant ferment by their contentions with their governors, Connecticut and Rhode Island, under their ancient charters, enjoyed tranquillity, chose their own rulers, and enacted their own laws. The altercations of Massachusetts fanned the coals of independence, and finally produced the explosion which has forever separated the two countries.

In August, 1730, Mr. Belcher was received with great joy; like his predecessors, he proposed a fixed salary, like them, he saw his proposal repelled with violence. He saw the cause was desperate, and obtained leave from the British court, to receive such sums as should be granted him. So terminated the long, the tedious contest respecting the governor's salary.

In 1735, was the most extensive and fatal epidemic, which has been known in New England since its settlement by the English. It was called the throat distemper. The throat swelled with white or ash coloured specks, an efflorescence appeared on the skin; there was a great debility of

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the whole system, and a strong tendency to putridity. Its first appearance was in May, 1735, at Kingston, in New Hampshire. The first person seized was a child, who died in three days. In about a week, it appeared four miles distant, three children died on the third day. During the summer, it spread through the town; of the first forty who had it, not one recovered. In August, it appeared in Exeter, an adjacent town, where 127 died; in September, at Boston, fifty miles south, where 114 died; at Byfield, fifteen miles south of Kingston, October 23d, nor was it known in Chester, an adjoining town, till this month. At Byfield, only one died in October,* in November two died, in December ten, in January seven, in February three, in March six, in April five, in May seven, in June four, in July nine, in August twenty five, in September thirteen, in October eight, in November four : the last of which died on the 23d, so that in just thirteen months, 104 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. In some town's one in three, and others one in four, who were sick, died. In Hampton Falls, 20 families buried all their children; 27 persons were lost out of five

* Church Records of Byfield.

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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 1000 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 control of medicine; but still it is a formidable enemy, walking in darkness; appearing here today, and perhaps tomorrow in the remotest place in the neighbourhood, without any intercourse or similarity of situation; the distress and anguish it brings is of ten indescribable; the writhings and contortions of the patient, seem as great as if he were on a bed of burning coals.

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The divisional line, in 1740, was finally determined by the lords of the council, between New Hampshire and Massachusetts. New Hampshire obtained 14 miles in breadth, and about 50 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

Dr. BELKNAP. '

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332 Louisbourgh attacked and taken.

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 an 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 commanded 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, 400 men burned the warehouses containing the naval stores. 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

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Remarkable Deliverance.

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a morass of two miles. The commanding artilleof the enemy forbade this toil in the day. No people on earth, perhaps, are more capable of such laborious and daring exploits, than the independ ent 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 £600,000 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 capitulation prevented. The good people of New England were deeply affected by this evident interposi tion of divine providence..

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The next year, 1746, a French fleet sailed to pour destruction on New England. Twenty: men of war, an 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 interposed. 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 with, out human aid, than this in favour of New England.

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