great pomp and ceremony, his visits were merely occasional, and then made only when passing through the city on his way to meet the Five Nations from time to time in council either at Albany or Ticonderoga. His residence during his viceroyalty was principally at Boston, and his time was chiefly taken up in circumventing the Canadian Governor, Denonville, in his efforts to seduce the Iroquois from their allegiance to the British crown. In these negotia

of William and Mary, he, together with the members of his council, was seized on the 18th of April, 1689, and imprisoned in the fort until the pleasure of the king could be known. Lady Andros, however, did not live to witness this untoward event, as she died soon after her husband's taking up his residence in Boston. In the following July he was sent to England with a committee of his accusers; but not only was he acquitted without even the form of a trial, but, in

During Andros's administration of the government of Virginia he distinguished himself by restoring the secretary's office and the records to good order, which before his arrival had been in the greatest confusion. This certainly shows that he evinced an interest in the private property of the people whom he governed, for he thereby had no personal ends to serve. He continued in the governorship of Virginia, winning the esteem and even the affections of the people by his efforts to encourage manufactures and agriculture and, as one of the founders of the College of William and Mary, the cause of education, until the year 1698, when, in consequence of quarrels with the church authorities, he was recalled. During the years 1704-5 he was Governor of the Island of Jersey, and died in London on the 24th of February, 1714, at the age of nearly seventy-seven.

The character of Sir Edmund Andros has not been fairly drawn. Those upon whose opinions his reputation rests were persons living at the same day, and who, influenced by party strife, were not in a position to judge impartially. The time, moreover, when he first took possession of his government was, for his own fame, most inauspicious. Those principles which John Hampden had asserted and poured out his blood to defend in the great ship-money contest with Charles I., and which brought that monarch to the block,

were just beginning to strike root in America; and Andros arrived charged with the execution of the odious orders of a most bigoted master, of whom it has been truly said that "he would learn nothing from past experience." "My father lost his head by concessions," he repeated constantly as an answer to every argument for just and liberal dealing, "and I will concede nothing." That Andros himself was personally averse to harsh and arbitrary measures is evident from the efforts he made to prevail upon the king to allow the colony of New York a representative assembly. William of Orange, who was an excellent judge of character, retained his confidence in him to the last. This is shown not only by the successful exertion of his influence to prevent Andros being brought to trial when sent home from Boston in 1689, but by lavishing upon him, nearly to the end of his life, the highest honors in the gift of royalty. Personally his character was of the purest; and his ideas upon education, and on political and domestic economy, were far in advance of his age. His associations from early life with royalty, and his long training in the army, giving him, perhaps, an exaggerated sense of duty in carrying out the orders of his superiors-all contributed to force him into official acts which necessarily made him most unpopular. For these reasons his position in New York was uncomfortable in the highest degree; while his

Regarding the character given him by New England historians, it is certain, as Cadwallader Colden writes to his son, "that at the time Sir Edmund Andros governed the people of New England, they were zealous Republicans, bigoted Independents, having banished all others of different religious principles from among them and persecuted some of them to death. They were enthusiastic to a degree, as appears from their public proceedings in witchcraft. To all which is to be added a stiff, formal behaviour different from the rest of mankind. Among such a people it must have been difficult for a gentleman of Sir Edmund's education, and of his principles, both as to religion and politics, to conduct himself so as to please them; for moderation often gives the greatest offence to bigots. If it be considered, likewise, that as Sir Edmund was appointed their Governor in consequence of their having had their charter vacated in the Court of Chancery in England, he, by his coming among them at that time, must be received with great disgust. He must be a very extraordinary man indeed who, in his

circumstances, could at all times master his temper among such a people. The Revolution opened a wide door for the citizens of New England to make their complaints and to expose Sir Edmund's character in the strongest colors; yet notwithstanding this, King William and his ministers. soon afterward appointed him Governor of Virginia, a more lucrative government than New York and Massachusetts Bay together.

The charges of tyranny which the Dutch and the dishonest English traders whose peculations he had exposed and circumvented zealously circulated even to the foot of the throne itself, will not compare either for harshness or intolerance with the acts of persecution previously practiced by Director Stuyvesant against the Quakers and members of the Church of England both upon Manhattan and Long Islands; and yet, from the peculiar position in which Andros was placed, the least malignent of the epithets bestowed upon him, was, most unjustly, that of "the arbitrary and sycophantic tool of a despotic king."

The administration of Governor Andros, moreover, forms not only a distinct but a memorable epoch in the colonial history of the city of New York. He effected a complete reorganization of the militia; repaired the fort and strengthened the defences of the harbor; increased the trade of the province; beautified the city; largely augmented the revenue from

the excise; and by a personal supervision of municipal affairs, and an untiring industry, gave such a tone to the political and social condition of the people that its effects were apparent for fully a century after the period of his incumbency.

In the case of the Indians he was indefatigable; and the able manner in which he controlled, them and his personal visits to the "Long House" -undertaken under circumstances of great hardship incident to travel in a primeval wilderness-are the more remarkable when it is considered that to assist him by counsel and advice he had no such able lieutenant as Sir William Johnson, as was the

case with the governors of New York a century later. Indeed, it may safely be asserted that had it not been for his untiring efforts the Five Nations, under the insidious influence of Canada's astutest colonial Governor, Denonville-aided by the Jesuit fathers would have been completely won over by the French, and the tomahawk and the firebrand carried down to the very gates of New York!

Edmund Andros, whether compared with those who preceded or those who came after him, may justly be considered the most able and enlightened of New York's colonial governors.

As the time for the Columbian Exposition draws near the historical events to be commemorated become of increasing interest, and the life and times of Christopher Columbus and his contemporaries and successors in discoveries are being widely and critically studied.

With this revival of interest in the events and persons connected with the early history of the Americas is a desire for a more complete statement of the causes which led to their discovery, and the manners and customs which followed the Spanish arms, and afterwards became a part of the laws of the land.

No events in the whole history of the settlement of America are more interesting as historical facts, more romantic in their recital, or more fruitful in their results than the establishment and rule of the missions on the Pacific coast.

The first steps in the settlement of a country, the causes which led to its occupation, its time and manner of settlement, its first government, together with the character of its settlers and their religious institutions, are matters of primary importance in historical research, for without a

knowledge of these we fail to understand the origin of the customs, laws and institutions of the country. A full and accurate history of the Spanish conquest of the Californias, the establishment of the missions and the presidios, the wars with the Indians and their enslavement, and the triumph of the church in its mission work has not yet been carefully and exhaustively studied.

While much has been written on this subject, it is so far but the compiling of reports of padres and military chiefs, who gave such facts only as it was to their own interest to present, while entirely omitting or perverting others. There is an unwritten history still fresh in the minds of many people who distinctly remember the mission days, and many of these remembrances are in direct conflict with the best written and most reliable histories on this subject. The time of the settlement of the Californias was during an age of superstition and mysteries. The witchcraft delusion of our forefathers on the Atlantic coast was but the more civilized form of the well-nigh universal belief of that day in demons, necromancy and miracles.