d I would shelter from any proceedings
wherein the innocent could suffer wrong. I would also await the King's
orders in this perplexing affair. I have put a stop to the printing of
any discourses on either side that may increase useless disputes, for
open contests would mean an unextinguishable flame. I have been
grieved to see that some who should have done better services to their
Majesties and this Province have so far taken counsel with passion as
to declare the precipitancy of these matters.... As soon as I had done
fighting the King's enemies, and understood the danger of innocent
people through the accusations of the afflicted, I put a stop to the
Court proceedings till the King's pleasure should be known."

It was Governor Phips who suppressed the witchcraft persecutions and
the special court that had passed so many wicked death sentences was
shorn of its powers by his order. Other prisoners were later
acquitted, and a hundred and fifty released from jail. No sooner was
this burly figure of a man finished with the witchcraft business than
he was leading a force of Indian allies against the French. "His birth
and youth in the East had rendered him well known to the Indians
there," says Cotton Mather, "he had hunted and fished many a weary day
in his childhood with them; and when these rude savages had got the
story that he had found a ship full of money, and was now become all
one a King, they were mightily astonished at it; but when they further
understood that he was now become the Governor of New England, it added
a further degree of consternation to their astonishment."

He was too strenuous a person, was this astonishing William Phips, to
remain tamed and conservative when there was no strong work in hand.
With that gold-headed cane of his he cracked the head of the Captain of
the _Nonesuch_ frigate of the royal navy, and with his hard fists he
pounded the Collector of the Port after swearing at him with such oaths
as better befitted a buccaneer than the governor of the province.
These quarrels arose from a dispute over the authority of Sir William
to lay down the law as he pleased. By virtue of his commission as Vice
Admiral of the Colony he held that he had the right to judge and
condemn naval prizes. The Collector claimed jurisdiction and when he
refused to deliver a cargo of plunder brought in by a privateer, the
governor blacked his eyes for him.

As for the naval skipper, Captain Short, his