gan's brigantine. He thought it best to see the king at once and make his own report. His departure left the three councilmen as the only regular representatives of royal authority in the province. But Leisler now assumed more dignity. Some of the insurrectionary party declared that there had been no lawful Christian government in England since the death of Oliver Cromwell. Leisler likened himself to Cromwell. He had turned out the traitors and the time had come when the Lord Jehovah must rule New York through the sword in the hands of his saints. News came that the new sovereigns William and Mary had been officially proclaimed at Hartford, and that post-riders were on their way to New York with a copy of the proclamation. Mayor Van Cortlandt and Colonel Bayard rode many miles out into the country to meet them, but Leisler's emissaries got ahead of those gentlemen and secured the proclamation first, so that next day it was read aloud by Leisler himself in the fort and by one of his captains in the City Hall, and he could claim the credit of having proclaimed the new sovereigns. At the same time he ordered that Fort James should henceforth be called Fort William.

On the 24th of June a copy of that royal proclamation which Dr. Mather had withheld from the knowledge of Boston reached New York and found its way into the hands of Mayor Van Cortlandt. It continued all King James's appointments provisionally until King William should have time to review the situation. Obviously, then, the government of

The king's proclamation.

New York, since the imprisonment of Andros and the departure of Nicholson, was legally vested in the councilmen Philipse, Van Cortlandt, and Bayard. If this proclamation had arrived a month earlier it would have cut away the ground from under Leisler's feet. Now he had such consolidated popular support as to venture to defy it on grounds of his own. King William was evidently ignorant of the situation. He never would willingly have entrusted responsible command to these popishly affected, lying dogs," not he. These rogues must be put down, and the king must be told why. The very next day Leisler Leisler turned the city government out of doors, appointed and two or three gentlemen were roughly in-chief. handled by the soldiers, but Bayard escaped and made his way to Albany. Leisler called a convention, and a committee of safety was organized which appointed him commander-in-chief over the whole province.

66

commander

letter.

While these things were going on, Nicholson was in mid-ocean on his way to England. The king, in ignorance of what had occurred, addressed a letter to him with words of advice and The king's counsel; the letter was not addressed to Nicholson by name, but to "Our lieutenant-governor and commander-in-chief of our province of New York in America." After sundry vicissitudes this letter reached New York early in December and was received by Leisler, who understood it to be addressed to himself. His vanity was tickled

1 The circumstances under which Leisler obtained the letter should be noted. The bearer of the king's despatches, John

Leisler assumes the title of lieu

to the bursting point. He had sent his friend, Joost Stoll, keeper of a dram-shop, and rather a laughable sort of envoy, to explain matters to the king; and now, doubtless, this was the response! So Leisler at once assumed tenant-gov- the title of Lieutenant - Governor, appointed a council, and took his seat next Sunday in the gubernatorial pew at church, to the intense disgust and chagrin of the aristocrats among the worshippers.

ernor.

The summer and autumn had been peaceful, save now and then for a few arbitrary arrests. But now troubles began to thicken about Leisler.

Riggs, expected to deliver it to the three councilmen, but in passing through Boston he was told that he ought to deliver it to Leisler, who was actually in command at New York. To Riggs, coming from England, this was puzzling, for he was sure that there was nothing in the packet intended for any such person as Leisler. When Riggs arrived in New York late at night, he met Philipse and Bayard at the latter's house, and they sent for Van Cortlandt, who was out of town. On Van Cortlandt's arrival next morning, Riggs would have delivered the packet to the three councilmen in presence of each other. But early in the morning Leisler sent a party of soldiers who arrested Riggs and took him to Fort William. Van Cortlandt and Philipse, hearing of this, followed him thither, and an altercation ensued, in which Leisler called them rogues and papistical dogs who had nothing to do with government. He showed Riggs his commission from the council of safety, and prevailed upon him to deliver the packet to himself. He gave Riggs a written receipt for the packet.

No doubt Leisler, as a "crank" with his brain dominated by a narrow group of morbid fixed ideas, believed that King William, the Protestant, could not possibly have intended his letters to be received by three ex-officials of King James, the Catholic. His subsequent logic, on opening the letter to Nicholson and understanding it to be addressed to himself, was crank logic. Leisler seems to have felt that others might dispute his conclusion, for he never allowed the contents of the letter to be made public.

He revives

Act of 1683.

As governor he needed revenue and began to look at the collection of taxes from a new point of view. In default of any new statute, the Colonial he proclaimed that the Colonial Act of 1683 with regard to customs and excise was still valid and would be rigorously enforced. That act, albeit passed by New York's first popular assembly,1 that assembly so long desired and prayed for, had never enjoyed popular favour; doubtless because it put an end to the two years of free trade which had ensued upon the departure of Andros in 1681. The history of this piece of legislation was extremely curious. Passed by a popular assembly, it was disallowed by the Duke of York, but was nevertheless continued in operation by Governor Dongan and his council, for want of something better. But neither under Dongan nor under Nicholson was it very strictly enforced.2 Now by adopting this unpalatable act the unhappy Leisler at once sacrified a large part of his popular support. People tore down the copies of his proclamation from the walls and trees where they were posted. Merchants declared his title unsound and refused to pay duties to his collector. He retorted savagely with fines and confiscations. His authorMen were dragged to prison till the jails ity is defied. were full. The fact that he could keep up such a course shows how strong at the outset must have been the popular impulse that brought him into power.

1 Colonial Laws of New York, Albany, 1894, i. 116–121.

2 Leisler himself had refused to pay duties under it. See Brodhead, History of the State of New York, ii. 599.

Jacob Milborne.

Outside the city his authority was more easily defied. When he appointed new sheriffs and justices, and ordered the old ones to give up their commissions, he was sometimes obeyed but often openly derided. Albany flatly refused to acknowledge his authority. Late in the summer the mayor, Peter Schuyler, and his brother-in-law, Robert Livingston, called a convention and took measures for protection against the French, but they would have nothing to say to Leisler. About that time Leisler's old friend, Jacob Milborne, returned from a visit to Europe and became his most energetic supporter. Milborne was an Englishman of Anabaptist proclivities. He had some book-knowledge and some skill in writing, and was determined to have all the ills in the world mended, say by the year 1700. If he had lived in these days he would have edited some anarchist newspaper. Leisler deemed him a treasure of knowledge and capacity and sent him up the river with three sloops to tame the frowardness of Albany. His persuasive tongue won a number of adherents and succeeded in sowing some seeds of dissension, but Livingston and Schuyler were too much for him, and his mission was unsuccessful.

This was in November, 1689, and Frontenac had arrived in Canada. As we have seen, the Iroquois had been there before him, and his grand scheme for conquering New York dwindled ignominiously into the sending of three scalping parties to destroy the most exposed frontier settlements of the Dutch and English. It was necessary to make some show of strength in order to retrieve in the minds of the