The evil became awfully alarming; the most respectable persons in the country were accused; but the magistrates finally acquitted those who were accused, and the menacing storm blew over, to the great joy of the inhabitants.

At this period, many learned and eminent men, both in England and America, fully believed in the existence of witchcraft. Sir Matthew Hale, one of the brightest ornaments of the English bench, repeatedly tried and condemned persons as criminals, who were brought be fore him, charged with this crime. It must be confessed, that notwithstanding all the obloquy and contempt which is now cast upon our forefathers, for believing in the existence of witchcraft, many things took place at that time, (if we can credit the accounts given by many respectable witnesses,) which would be extremely difficult to account for, on natural principles.

27. Captain Kidd, the Pirate.

Capt. Robert Kidd, in the beginning of King William's war, commanded a privateer in the West Indies, and by several adventurous actions acquired the reputation of a brave man, as well as an experienced seaman. About this time the pirates were very troublesome in those parts; whereupon Capt. Kidd was recommended by Lord Bellamont, (then governor of Barbadoes,) to the British government, as a person very fit to be intrusted with the command of a government ship, for the purpose of suppressing piracy. The proposal, howto which the apprehended answer, they do not afflict them. The justices order the apprehended to look upon the said children, which accordingly they do; and at the time of that look (I dare not say by that look, as the Salem gentlemen do,) the afflicted are cast into a fit. The apprehended are then blinded, and ordered to touch the afflicted; and at that touch, though not by that touch, (as above) the afflicted do ordinarily come out of their fits. The afflicted persons then declare and affirm that the apprehended have afflicted them; upon which the apprehended persons, though of never so good repute, are forthwith committed to prison, on suspicion of witchcraft."

ever, through some cause, met with no encouragement from the government; whereupon Lord Bellamont, and some others, who knew of great captures which had been made by the pirates, and what prodigious wealth must be in their possession, were tempted to fit out a ship at their own private charge, and to give the command of her to Capt. Kidd; and to give the thing at greater reputation, as well as to keep their seamen under better command, they procured the king's commission for Capt. Kidd. This commission was dated at Kensington, Jan. 26, 1695, in the seventh year of the reign of King William the third. Kidd having received this commission for the suppression of piracy, sailed from Plymouth, England, in the Adventure galley, of 30 guns and 80 men; and arrived in New York, where he had a family. Here he held out great encouragement for others to join him, and he soon increased his company to 155 men.

With this company he proceeded to the Madeiras, and the Cape Verd Islands, and from thence to the East Indies, in order to suppress piracies. After having cruised about in those seas for some time without any success, he formed the resolution of becoming pirate himself. Finding his crew not averse to such a course, they accordingly commenced the practice of robbing. After having taken a number of rich prizes, Kidd returned to America, and, landing at Boston openly, he was taken, sent to England, and executed at Execution Dock, with six of his companions, and afterwards hung in chains, at some distance from each other, down the river, where their bodies hung exposed for many years.

The remembrance of Capt. Kidd is kept alive in the eastern states by the circumstance of his having buried large sums of money, it is believed, somewhere on the coast. There have been many attempts made to discover this treasure by digging, &c. at various places: how much of it has been found, or whether there has been any found at all, is a matter which it would be dif ficult to ascertain.

28. Great Snow Storm.

In February, 1717, fell the greatest snow ever known in this country, or, perhaps, in any other. So deep was it, that people stepped out of their chamber windows on snow shoes. With this fall of snow there was a terrible tempest; eleven hundred sheep, the property of one man, were found dead; one flock of a hundred, on Fisher's Island, were found buried sixteen feet in the snow; two of them only were alive, they having subsisted on the wool of their companions twenty-eight days after the

storm.

The following account of this snow storm was written by Dr. Cotton Mather, and preserved amongst the manuscript volumes of the Massachusetts Historical Society. It is a curious relic, and will serve to show the doctor's method of writing.

AN HORRID SNOW.

Boston, 10th Dec. 1717.

Tho' we are gott so far onward as the beginning of another Winter, yett we have not forgott y last, which at the latter end whereof we were entertained & overwhelmed with a Snow, which was attended with some Things, which were uncommon enough to afford matter for a letter from us. Our winter was not so bad as that wherein Tacitus tells us that Corbulo made his expedition against the Parthians, nor that which proved so fatal to ye Beasts & Birds in y° days of y Emperor Justinian, & that the very Fishes were killed under y• freezing sea, when Phocas did as much to ye men whom Tyrants treat like ye Fishes of ye Sea. But y⚫ conclusion of our Winter was hard enough, and was too formidable to be easily forgotten, & of a piece with what you had in Europe a year before. The snow was y chief Thing that made it so. For tho' rarely does a Winter pass us, wherein we may not say with Pliny, Ingens

Hyeme Nivis apud nos copia, yet our last Winter brought with it a Snow, that excelled them all. The Snow, 'tis true, not equal to that, which once fell & lay twenty Cubits high, about the Beginning of October, in the parts about y Euxine Sea, Nor to that which y⚫ French Annals tell us kept falling for twenty Nine weeks together, Nor to several mentioned by Bothius, wherein vast numbers of people, & of Cattel perished, Nor to those that Strabo finds upon Caucasus & Rhodiginus in Armenia. But yett such an one, & attended with such circumstances, as may deserve to be remembered.

On the twentieth of the last February there came on a Snow, which being added unto what had covered the ground a few days before, made a thicker mantle for our Mother than what was usual: And ye storm with it was, for the following day, so violent as to make all communication between y Neighbors every where to cease.-People, for some hours, could not pass from one side of a street unto another, & y poor Women, who happened in this critical time to fall into Travail, were putt unto Hardships, which anon produced many odd stories for us. But on y Twenty fourth day of y Month, comes Pelion upon Ossa: Another Snow came on which almost buried y Memory of y former, with a Storm so famous that Heaven laid an Interdict on y Religious Assemblies throughout ye Country, on this Lord's day, y' like whereunto had never been seen before. The Indians near an hundred years old, affirm that their Fathers never told them of any thing that equalled it. Vast numbers of Cattel were destroyed in this Calamity. Whereof some there were, of y⚫ Stranger sort, were found standing dead on their legs, as if they had been alive many weeks after, when y Snow melted away. And others had their eyes glazed over with Ice at such a rate, that being not far from ye Sea, their mistake of their way drowned them there. One gentleman, on whose farms were now lost above 1100 sheep, which with other Cattel, were interred (shall I say) or Innived, in the Snow, writes me word that there were two Sheep very singularly circumstanced. For no less than eight

and twenty days after the Storm, the People pulling ou the Ruins of above an 100 sheep out of a Snow-Bank, which lay 16 foot high, drifted over them, there was twe found alive, which had been there all this time, and kep themselves alive by eating the wool of their dead com panions. When they were taken out they shed thei own Fleeces, but soon gott into good Case again. Sheep were not y only creatures that lived unaccountably, for whole weeks without their usual sustenance, entirely buried in y Snow-drifts.

The Swine had a share with y Sheep in strange sur vivals. A man had a couple of young Hoggs, which he gave over for dead, But on the twenty seventh day after their Burial, they made their way out of a SnowBank, at the bottom of which they had found a little Tansy to feed upon. The Poultry as unaccountably survived as these. Hens were found alive after seven days; Turkeys were found alive after five and twenty days, buried in y Snow, and at a distance from y ground, and altogether destitute of any thing to feed hem. The number of creatures that kept a Rigid Fast, shutt up in Snow for divers weeks together, & were found alive after all, have yielded surprizing stories

unto us.

The Wild Creatures of y Woods, y outgoings of y Evening, made their Descent as well as they could in this time of scarcity for them, towards y Sea-side. ‹ A vast multitude of Deer, for y' same cause, taking y same course, and y Deep Snow Spoiling them of their only Defence, which is to run, they became such a prey to these Devourers, that it is thought not one in twenty escaped. But here again occurred a Curiosity. These carniverous Sharpers, & especially the Foxes, would make their Nocturnal visits to the Pens, where the people had their sheep defended from them. The poor Ewes big with young, were so terrified with the frequent Approaches of ye Foxes, & the Terror had such Impression on them, that most of ye Lambs brought forth in the Spring following, were of Monsieur Reinard's complexion, when y° Dam, were either White or Black.