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rejecting his burden, was bound by the Indians to a
tree, and dry leaves kindled about him, yet in such
heaps as would burn but slowly.
Mary Furguson, a girl of fifteen, burst into tears from fatigue, and was scalped forthwith.
Mehetabel Goodwin would linger apart in the snow to lull her infant to sleep, lest its cries should provoke the savages: angry at the delay, her master struck the child against a tree, and hung it among the branches.
The infant of
Mary Plaisted was thrown into the river, that, eased of her burden, she might walk faster.
Returning from this expedition, Hertel met the war party, under Portneuf, from
Quebec, and, with them and a reenforcement from Castin, made a successful attack on the fort and settlement in
Casco Bay.
Meantime, danger taught the colonies the necessity of union, and, on the first day of May, 1690, New York beheld the momentous example of an American congress.
The idea originated with the government of
Massachusetts, established by the people in the period that intervened between the overthrow of
Andros and the arrival of the second charter; and the place of meeting was New York, where, likewise, the government had sprung directly from the action of the people.
Thus, without exciting suspicion, were the forms of independence and union prepared.
The invitations were given by letters from the general court of
Massachusetts, and extended to all the colonies as far, at least, as
Maryland.
Massachusetts, the parent of so many states, is certainly the parent of the American Union.
At that congress, it was resolved to attempt the conquest of
Canada by marching an army, by way of
Lake Champlain, against
Montreal, while
Massachusetts should, with a fleet, attack
Quebec.
