shot of twenty-four pound weight; yet through ye wonderful Providence
of God, but one man was killed and two mortally wounded in that hot
Engagement, which continued ye greatest part of ye night and ye next
day several hours."

Another letter written by Sir William Phips, addressed from Boston to
William Blathwayt, soon after he was made Governor, shows him in a
light even more engaging. The witchcraft frenzy was at its height, and
only three weeks before this date, October 12, 1692, fourteen men and
women had been hanged in Salem. This letter, as copied from the
original document, runs as follows:

"On my arrival I found this Province miserably harrassed by a most
horrible witchcraft or possession of devils, which had broken in upon
several towns. Some scores of poor people were taken with
preternatural torments; some were scalded with brimstone; some had pins
stuck into their flesh, others were hurried into fire and water, and
some were dragged out of their houses and carried over the tops of
trees and hills for many miles together.

"It has been represented to me as much like that of Sweden thirty years
ago, and there were many committed to prison on suspicion of witchcraft
before my arrival. The loud cries and clamor of the friends of the
afflicted, together with the advice of the Deputy Governor and Council,
prevailed with me to appoint a Court of Oyer and Terminer to discover
what witchcraft might be at the bottom, and whether it were not a
possession. The chief judge was the Deputy Governor, and the rest
people of the best prudence and figure that could be pitched upon.

"At Salem in Essex County they convicted more than twenty persons of
witchcraft, and some of the accused confessed their guilt. The Court,
as I understand, began their proceedings with the accusations of the
afflicted persons, and then went upon other evidences to strengthen
that. I was in the East of the Colony throughout almost the whole of
the proceedings, trusting to the Court as the right method of dealing
with cases of witchcraft. But when I returned I found many persons in
a strange ferment of dissatisfaction which was increased by some hot
spirits that blew upon the flame. But on enquiry into the matter, I
found that the Devil had taken upon him the name and shape of several
persons who were doubtless innocent, for which cause I have now
forbidden the committal of any more accused persons.

"And them that have been committe