Dragging on sleds the needed supplies, they march up the Richelieu River and over the frozen surface of Lake Champlain.As they advance with caution into the colony of New York they suffer terribly, now from bitter cold, now from thaws which make the soft trail almost impassable.On a February night their scouts tell them that they are near Schenectady, on the English frontier.There are young members of the Canadian noblesse in the party.In the dead of night they creep up to the paling which surrounds the village.The signal is given and the village is awakened by the terrible war-whoop.Doors are smashed by axes and hatchets, and women and children are killed as they lie in bed, or kneel, shrieking for mercy.Houses are set on fire and living human beings are thrown into the flames.By midday the assailants have finished their dread work and are retreating along the forest paths dragging with them a few miserable captives.In this winter of 1689-90 raiding parties also came back from the borders of New Hampshire and of Maine with news of similar exploits, and Quebec and Montreal glowed with the joy of victory.
Far away an answering attack was soon on foot.Sir William Phips of Massachusetts, the son of a poor settler on the Kennebec River, had made his first advance in life by taking up the trade of carpenter in Boston.Only when grown up had he learned to read and write.He married a rich wife, and ease of circumstances freed his mind for great designs.Some fifty years before he was thus relieved of material cares, a Spanish galleon carrying vast wealth had been wrecked in the West Indies.Phips now planned to raise the ship and get the money.For this enterprise he obtained support in England and set out on his exacting adventure.On the voyage his crew mutinied.Armed with cutlasses, they told Phips that he must turn pirate or perish; but he attacked the leader with his fists and triumphed by sheer strength of body and will.
A second mutiny he also quelled, and then took his ship to Jamaica where he got rid of its worthless crew.His enterprise had apparently failed; but the second Duke of Albemarle and other powerful men believed in him and helped him to make another trial.This time he succeeded in finding the wreck on the coast of Hispaniola, and took possession of its cargo of precious metals and jewels--treasure to the value of three hundred thousand pounds sterling.Of the spoil Phips himself received sixteen thousand pounds, a great fortune for a New Englander in those days.He was also knighted for his services and, in the end, was named by William and Mary the first royal Governor of Massachusetts.
Massachusetts, whose people had been thoroughly aroused by the French incursions, resolved to retaliate by striking at the heart of Canada by sea and to take Quebec.Sir William Phips, though not yet made Governor, would lead the expedition.The first blow fell in Acadia.Phips sailed up the Bay of Fundy and on May 11, 1690, landed a force before Port Royal.The French Governor surrendered on terms.The conquest was intended to be final, and the people were offered their lives and property on the condition of taking, the oath to be loyal subjects of William and Mary.
This many of them did and were left unmolested.It was a bloodless victory.But Phips, the Puritan crusader, was something of a pirate.He plundered private property and was himself accused of taking not merely the silver forks and spoons of the captive Governor but even his wigs, shirts, garters, and night caps.The Boston Puritans joyfully pillaged the church at Port Royal, and overturned the high altar and the images.The booty was considerable and by the end of May Phips, a prosperous hero, was back in Boston.
Boston was aflame with zeal to go on and conquer Canada.By the middle of August Phips had set out on the long sea voyage to Quebec, with twenty-two hundred men, a great force for a colonial enterprise of that time, and in all some forty ships.The voyage occupied more than two months.Apparently the hardy carpenter-sailor, able enough to carry through a difficult undertaking with a single ship, lacked the organizing skill to manage a great expedition.He performed, however, the feat of navigating safely with his fleet the treacherous waters of the lower St.Lawrence.On the morning of October 16, 1690, watchers at Quebec saw the fleet, concerning which they had already been warned, rounding the head of the Island of Orleans and sailing into the broad basin.Breathless spectators counted the ships.
There were thirty-four in sight, a few large vessels, some mere fishing craft.It was a spectacle well calculated to excite and alarm the good people of Quebec.They might, however, take comfort in the knowledge that their great Frontenac was present to defend them.A few days earlier he had been in Montreal, but, when there had come the startling news of the approach of the enemy's ships, he had hurried down the river and had been received with shouts of joy by the anxious populace.
