Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/214

CHAPTER XIV FROM PLYMOUTH TO MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY Condition of Colonies at Close of Philip's War — The Andros Govern- ment — William and Mary on the Throne — Plymouth Colony with- out a Charter — Massachusetts Bay Influence at London — Swansea Votes "No," on Raising Money — Plymouth Merged in the Bay Colony — Swansea Comes Under a New Colonial Government. THE years from 1675 to 1691, were full of troubles of various sorts to all the dwellers in Plymouth and Massachusetts Colonies. Philip's War had broken up homes, destroyed houses and farming property, and sacri- ficed the lives of the people to an extent never fully measured and by us of this day, scarcely known or appre- ciated. The infant colonies were just emerging into the comfortable life of young manhood, when the earnings of the struggling years were swept away in a night and the best blood of the settlers was spent in a defence of life and home. Add to the personal losses the debt incurred for arms, equipments and military service, amounting to the almost incredible sum of ;£^ 100,000, as stated by the Com- missioners, and one can begin to measure the cost of that perilous encounter, the first and inevitable duel between civilization and savagery on this Continent. Following this destructive war with an interval of only ten years, came the tyrannical usurpation of Colonial authority by Sir Edmund Andros in 1686. James the Second had no friendship for the American Colonies, but bore especial hatred to Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. He demanded the charters of the colonies, and all were surrendered save that of Connecticut which was hidden in the Charter oak at Hartford. Andros arrived at Boston on the 29th of December, 1686, with a