he other in the next
year, reflect the bitter animosity he excited.[87] Both seem to be the
work of several persons, one of whom, there can be little doubt, was
Cotton Mather; for it is not easy to mistake the mingled flippancy and
pedantry of his style. He bore the governor a grudge, for Dudley had
chafed him in his inordinate vanity and love of power.

If Dudley loved himself first, he loved his native New England next, and
was glad to serve her if he could do so in his own way and without too
much sacrifice of his own interests. He was possessed by a restless
ambition, apparently of the cheap kind that prefers the first place in a
small community to the second in a large one. He was skilled in the arts
of the politician, and knew how, by attentions, dinners, or commissions
in the militia, to influence his Council and Assembly to do his will.
His abilities were beyond question, and his manners easy and graceful;
but his instincts were arbitrary. He stood fast for prerogative, and
even his hereditary Calvinism had strong Episcopal leanings. He was a
man of the world in the better as well as the worse sense of the term;
was loved and admired by some as much as he was hated by others; and in
the words of one of his successors, "had as many virtues as can consist
with so great a thirst for honor and power."[88]

His enemies, however, set no bounds to their denunciation. "All the
people here are bought and sold betwixt the governour and his son Paul,"
says one. "It is my belief," says another, probably Cotton Mather, "that
he means to help the French and Indians to destroy all they can." And
again, "He is a criminal governour.... His God is Mammon, his aim is the
ruin of his country." The meagreness and uncertainty of his salary,
which was granted by yearly votes of the Assembly, gave color to the
charge that he abused his official position to improve his income. The
worst accusation against him was that of conniving in trade with the
French and Indians under pretence of exchanging prisoners. Six prominent
men of the colony--Borland, Vetch, Lawson, Rous, Phillips, and Coffin,
only three of whom were of New England origin--were brought to trial
before the Assembly for trading at Port Royal; and it was said that
Dudley, though he had no direct share in the business, found means to
make profit from it. All the accused were convicted and fined. The more
strenuous of their judges were for sending them to jail, and Rous was
to