Life of William Phips, Biography · Section 20
SECT. 20.
'TIS a Similitude which I have Learned from no leſs a Perſon, than the great Baſil. That as the Eye ſees not thoſe Objects which are applied cloſe unto it, and even ly upon it; but when the Objects are to ſome diſtance removed, it clearly diſcerns them: So, we have little ſenſe of the Good, which we have in our Enjoyments; until God by the removal thereof, teach us better to prize what we once enjoyed. It is true, the Generality of ſober and thinking People among the New-Englanders, did as highly value the Government of Sir William Phips, whilſt he lived, as they do his Memory ſince his Death; nevertheleſs it muſt be confeſſed, that the Bleſſing which the Country had in his indefatigable Zeal, to ſerve the Publick in all it's Intereſts, was not ſo valued as it ſhould have been.
It was mention'd long ſince, as a notorious Fault in Old Egypt, That it was Loquax & Ingenioſa in Contumeliam Praefectorum Provincia; ſi quis fortè vitaverit Culpam, Contumeliam non effugit: And New-England has been at the beſt, always too faulty, in that very Character, A Province very Talkative, and Irgenious for the vilifying of it's Publick Servants.
But Sir William Phips who might in a Calm of the Common-Wealth have adminiſtred all things, with as General an Acceptance, as any that have gone before him, had the Diſadvantage of being ſet at Helm in a Time as full of Storm as ever that Province had ſeen; and the People having their Spirits put into a Tumult by the diſcompoſing and diſtempering Variety of Diſaſters, which had long been rendring the Time Calamitous, it was natural for them, as 'tis for all Men then, to be complaining; and you may be ſure, the Rulers muſt in ſuch Caſes, be always complained of, and the chief Complaints muſt be heaped upon thoſe that are Commanders in Chief. Nor has a certain Proverb in Aſia been improper in America, He deſerves no Man's good Word, of whom every Man ſhall ſpeak well.
Sir William was very hardly Handled (or Torgued at leaſt) in the Liberty which People took to make moſt unbecoming and Injurious Reflections upon his Conduct, and Clamour againſt him even for thoſe very Actions, which were not only Neceſſary to be done, but highly Beneficial unto themſelves; And though he would ordinarily ſmile at their Frowardneſs, calling it, His Country Pay, yet he ſometimes reſented it with ſome uneaſineſs; he ſeem'd unto himſelf ſometimes almoſt as bad as Rolled about in Regulus's Barrel; and had occaſion to think on the Italian Proverb, To wait for one who does not come; to ly a Bed not able to ſleep; and to find it impoſſible to pleaſe thoſe whom we ſerve, are three Griefs enough to kill a Man.
But as Forward as the People were, under the Epedemical Vexations of the Age, yet there were very few that would not acknowledge unto the very Laſt, It will be hardly poſſible for us to ſee another Governour, that ſhall more entirely Love and ſerve the Country: Yea, had the Country had the Choice of their own Governour, 'tis judged their Votes, more than forty to one, would have ſtill fallen upon him to have been the Man: And the General Aſſembly therefore on all occaſions renewed their Petitions unto the King for his Continuance.
Nevertheleſs, there was a little Party of Men, who thought they muſt not ſleep till they had cauſed him to fall: And they ſo vigorouſly proſecuted certain Articles before the Council-board at White-hal againſt him, that they imagined they had gained an Order of His Majeſty in Council, to ſuſpend him immediately from his Government, and appoint a Committee of Perſons nominated by his Enemies, to hear all Depoſitions againſt him; and ſo a Report of the whole to be made unto the King and Council.
But His Majeſty was too well informed of Sir William's Integrity, to permit ſuch a ſort of Procedure; and therefore He ſignified unto His moſt Honourable Council, that nothing ſhould be done againſt Sir William, until he had Opportunity to clear himſelf; and thereupon He ſent His Royal Commands unto Sir William to come over. To give any retorting Accounts of the Principal Perſons, who thus adverſaried him, would be a Thing ſo contrary to the Spirit of Sir William Phips himſelf, who, at his leaving of New-England, bravely declared, that he freely forgave them all, and if he had returned thither again, would never have taken the leaſt revenge upon them, that This alone would oblige me, if I had no other Obligations of Chriſtianity upon me, to forbear it; and it may be for ſome of them, it would be to throw Water upon a drowned Mouſe.
Nor need I to preduce any more about the Articles which theſe Men exhibited againſt him, than This; that it was by moſt Men believed, that if he would have connived at ſome Arbitrary Oppreſſions too much uſed by ſome kind of Officers, on the Kings Subjects, Few perhaps, or None of thoſe Articles, had ever been formed; and that he apprehended himſelf to be provided with a full Defence againſt them all.
Nor did His Excellency ſeem loath to have had his Caſe Tried under the Brazen Tree of Gariac, if there had been ſuch an one, as that mentioned by the Fabulous Murtadi, in his Prodigies of Aegypt, a Tree which had Iron Branches with ſharp Hooks at the End of them, that when any falſe Accuſer approached, as the Fable ſays, immediately flew at him, and ſtuck in him, until he had ceaſed Injuring his Adverſary.
Wherefore in Obedience unto the Kings Commands, he took his leave of Boſton on the ſeventeenth of November, 1694. attended with all proper Teſtimonies of Reſpect and Honour from the Body of the People, which he had been the Head unto; and with Addreſſes unto their Majeſties, and the Chief Miniſters of State from the General Aſſembly, humbly imploring, that they might not be deprived of the Happineſs which they had in ſuch an Head.
Arriving at White-Hall, he found in a few Days, that notwithſtanding all the Impotent Rage of his Adverſaries particularly vented and Printed in a Villanous Libel, as well as almoſt in as many other ways, as there are Mouths, at which Fyal ſometimes has vomited out its Inſernal Fires, he had all Humane Aſſurance of his returning in a very few Weeks again, the Governour of New-England.
Wherefore, there were eſpecially two Deſigns, full of Service to the whole Engliſh Nation, as well as his own particular Country of New-England, which he applied his Thoughts unto. Firſt, He had a new Scene of Action opened unto him, in an opportunity to ſupply the Crown with all Naval Stores at moſt eaſie Rates, from thoſe Eaſtern Parts of the Maſſachuſet Province, which through the Conqueſt that He had made thereof, came to be Inſerted in the Maſſachuſet-Charter. As no Man was more capable than He, to improve this opportunity unto a vaſt Advantage, ſo his Inclination to it, was according to his Capacity.
And he longed with ſome Impatience, to ſee the King furniſhed from his own Dominions, with ſuch floating and ſtately Caſtles, thoſe Wooden-Walls of Great Britain, for much of which He has hitherto Traded with Forreign Kingdoms. Next, if I may ſay next unto this, he had an Eye upon Canada; all attempts for the reducing whereof had hitherto proved Abortive.
It was but a few Months ago, that a conſiderable Fleet, under Sir Francis Wheeler, which had been ſent into the Weſt-Indies, to ſubdue Martineco, was ordered then to call at New-England, that being recruited there, they might make a further Deſcent upon Canada; but Heaven frowned upon that Expedition, eſpecially by a terrible Sickneſs, the moſt like the Plague of any thing that has been ever ſeen in America, whereof there Died, e're they could reach to Boſton, as I was told by Sir Francis himſelf, no leſs than Thirteen Hundred Sailers out of Twenty One, and no leſs than Eighteen Hundred Souldiers out of Twenty four.
It was now therefore his deſire to have ſatisfied the King, that his whole Intereſt in America lay at Stake, while Canada was in French Hands: And therewithal to have laid before ſeveral Noblemen, and Gentlemen, how beneficial an Undertaking it would have been for them to have purſued the Canadien-Buſineſs, for which the New-Englanders were now grown too Feeble; their Country being too far now, as Bede ſays England once was, Omni Milite & floridae Juventutis Alacritate ſpoliata.
Beſides theſe two Deſigns in the Thoughts of Sir William, there was a Third, which he had Hopes that the King would have given him leave to have purſued, after he had continued ſo long in his Government, as to have obtained the more General welfare which he deſigned in the former Inſtances. I do not mean the making of New-England the Seat of a Spaniſh Trade, though ſo vaſtly profitable a Thing was likely to have been brought about, by his being one of an Honourable Company engaged in ſuch a Project.
But the Spaniſh Wreck, where Sir William had made his firſt good Voyage, was not the only, nor the Richeſt Wreck, that he knew to be lying under the Water. He knew particularly that when the Ship, which had Governour Boadilla Aboard, was caſt away, there was, as Peter Martyr ſays, an entire Table of Gold of Three Thouſand, Three Hundred and ten Pound Weight.
The Duke of Albemarl's Patent for all ſuch Wrecks now expiring, Sir William thought on the Motto, which is upon the Gold Medal, beſtowed by the late King, with his Knighthood upon him, Semper Tibi pendeat Hamus: And ſuppoſing himſelf to have gained ſufficient Information of the right Way to ſuch a Wreck, it was his purpoſe upon his Diſmiſſion from his Government, once more to have gone unto his old Fiſhing-Trade, upon a mighty Shelf of Rocks and Bank of Sands, that ly where he had informed himſelf.
But as the Prophet Haggai and Zechariah, in their Pſalm upon the Grants made unto their People by the Emperours of Perſia, have that Reflection, Man's Breath goeth forth, he returns to his Earth; in that very Day his Thoughts periſh. My Reader muſt now ſee what came of all theſe conſiderable Thoughts. About the middle of February 1694. Sir William found himſelf indiſpoſed with a Cold, which obliged him to keep his Chamber; but under this Indiſpoſition, he received the Honour of a Viſit from a very Eminent Perſon at White-Hall, who upon ſufficient Aſſurance, bad him, Get well as faſt as he could, for in one Months Time he ſhould be again diſpatched away to his Government of New-England.
Nevertheleſs his Diſtemper proved a ſort of Malignant Feaver, whereof many, about this Time dyed in the City; and it ſuddenly put an End at once unto his Days and Thoughts, on the Eighteenth of February; to the extream ſurprize of his Friends, who Honourably Interr'd him in the Church of St. Mary Woolnoth, and with him, how much of New-England's Happineſs!