Besides this instance of uncommon darkness, there was one on the 21st of October, 1716; when 'people were forced to light candles to eat their dinner by,' but the particulars of it are not preserved.

The following is an extract of a letter from Dr. Tenney to the Massachusetts Historical Society, giving an account of the dark day of May, 1780.

"You will readily recollect that, previously to the commencement of the darkness, the sky was overcast with the common kind of clouds, from which there was, in some places a light sprinkling of rain. Between these and the earth there intervened another stratum, to appearance of very great thickness. As this stratum advanced, the darkness commenced and increased with its progress till it came to its height; which did not take place till the hemisphere was a second time overspread. The uncommon thickness of this second stratum was probably occasioned by two strong currents of wind from the southward and westward, condensing the vapours and drawing them in a north-easterly direction. I remember this observation was made by an anonymous writer in one of the public papers soon after the

event.

As I set out the next day, from my father's at Rowley, to join my regiment in New Jersey, I had an opportunity to inform myself what were the appearances in different parts of the country between here and Pennsylvania. The result of my enquiries, on that journey, and after my return, was that the darkness was most gross in the county of Essex, the lower part of the State of New-Hampshire and the old Province of Maine. In Rhode-Island and Connecticut it was not so great, and still less in New-York. In New-Jersey the second stratum of clouds was observed, but not of any great thickness; nor was the darkness very uncommon. In the lower parts of Pennsylvania, if my recollection does not fail me, no extraordinary appearance was noticed. Through this whole extent the lower stratum had an uncommon brassy hue, while the earth and trees were adorned with so enchanting a verdure as could not escape notice, were amidst the unusual gloom that surrounded the spectator. This gradual increase of the darkness from southwest to northeast, which was nearly the course of the clouds, affords a pretty good argument in favour of the supposition that they were condensed by two strong currents of wind blowing in different directions. To these two strata of clouds we may, without hesitation, impute the extraordinary darkness of the day."

"The latter part of the summer of 1782, was excessively dry. In New Jersey, a cedar swamp twenty miles in length and eight in breadth, took fire by accident, and was consumed. The fire penetrated among the roots to the depth of six feet; corn, grass, and the very forests withered. The air was loaded with a thick vapor, for some days in September.

"On the evening of the 10th of February, a dense fog or vapor spread over some parts of New England, having the smell of burnt leaves. The ground at the same time was covered with snow.”—Mem. Amer. Acad. vol. 1.

"In 1788, almost all the codfish taken on the banks of New Foundland, were thin and sickly; when dried, they were of a dark or blueish color, little better than skeletons, and not well received in foreign markets. This condition of that fish was confined to those banks; as the cod taken at other places were in their usual state.-Webster."

"The crops being thin the preceding year, the Northern States, in the Spring of 1789, experienced a dearth approaching to a famine. In Vermont, people were reduced to the necessity of feeding on tadpoles boiled with pea straw. In one instance, four potatoes were sold for nine pence. None of the human race were actually starved to death, but a few died of a flux in consequence of bad diet. Cattle however, perished in considerable numbers. The Spring of this year was cold, and vegetation tardy; part of the Summer succeeding, was excessively hot.-The winter of 1789-90, was one of the mildest ever known in this country; there being but little frost, except for a few days in February. There fell frequent snows, and in great abundance; but they were immediately followed by warm southerly winds, and dissolved."-Webster.

"On the 16th of May, 1790, at half past 10 o'clock, in a serene moonlight night, there was an extensive earthquake in the northern states. It was preceded, a few seconds, by a rattling sound; its duration was short; its course, as usual in America, from N. W. to S. E. No injury was sustained. On the morning after the earthquake, was observed at Middletown, in Connecticut, a substance like honey or butter, covering the grass and earth for a considerable extent.

In 1791, the canker worms devoured the orchards over the New England States; and their ravages were repeated the two following years. Orchards standing on stiff clay, and in low grounds, which are wet in the Spring, escaped; but on every species of light and dry soil, the trees were as dry on the first of June, as on the first of January. Many trees never recovered from the effects of their ravaAnother worm of a distinct species, and called at the time palmer-worm, overspread our forests in this, or the next year, devouring the leaves of oak and other species of wood."—Webster

ges.

REMARKABLE AND UNACCOUNTABLE OCCURRENCES.

The following, relating principally to what is called Salem Witchcraft, is taken from the 2d volume of Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts. Governor Hutchinson had great facilities in procuring correct information respecting the circumstances of this excitement, and it is believed that his account is the most authentic which has yet appeared.

"The great noise which the New England witchcrafts made throughout the English dominions, proceeded more from the general panic with which all sorts of persons were seized, and an expectation that the contagion would spread to all parts of the country, than from the number of persons who were executed, more having been put to death in a single county in England, in a short space of time, than have suffered in all New England from the first settlement until the present time. Fifteen years had passed, before we find any mention of witchcraft among the English colonists. The Indians were supposed to be worshippers of the Devil, and their powows to be wizards. The first suspicion of witchcraft, among the English, was about the year 1645; at Springfield, upon Connecticut river, several persons were supposed to be under an evil hand, and among the rest two of the minister's children. Great pains were taken to prove the facts upon several persons charged with the crime, but either the nature of the evidence was not satisfactory, or the fraud was suspected, and so no person was convicted until the year 1650, when a poor wretch, Mary Oliver, probably weary of her life from the general reputation of being a witch, after long examination was brought to confession of her guilt, but I do not find that she was executed. Whilst this inquiry was making, Margaret Jones was executed at Charlestown; and Mr. Hale mentions a woman at Dorchester, and another at Cambridge about the same time, who all at their death asserted their innocence. Soon after, Hugh Parsons was tried at Springfield and escaped death. In 1655, Mrs. Hibbins, the assistants ' widow, was hanged at Boston. In 1662, at Hartford in Connecticut, (about 30 miles from Springfield, upon the same river) one Ann Cole, a young woman who lived next door to a Dutch family, and, no doubt, had learned something of the language, was supposed to be possessed with demons, who sometimes spake dutch and sometimes english, and sometimes a language which no body understood, and who held a conference with one another. Several ministers, who were present, took down the conference in writing, and the names of several persons, mentioned in the course of the conference, as actors or bearing parts in it; particularly a woman, then in prison upon suspicion of witchcraft, one Greensmith, who upon examination confessed and appeared to be surprized at the discovery. She owned that she and the others named had been familiar with a demon, who had carnal knowledge of her, and although she had not made a formal covenant, yet she had promised to be ready at his call, and was to have had a high frolick at Christmas, when the agreement was to have been signed. Upon this confession she was executed, and two more of the company were condemned at the same time. In 1669, Susanna Martin, of Salisbury, was bound over to the court, upon suspicion of witchcraft, but escaped at that time.

In 1671, Elizabeth Knap, another ventriloqua, alarmed the people of Groton in much the same manner as Ann Cole had done those of Hartford; but her demon was not so cunning, for instead of confining himself to old women, he rail'd at the good minister of the town and

otner persons of good character, and the people could not then be prevailed on to believe him, but believed the girl, when she confessed she had been deluded, and that the devil had tormented her in the shape of good persons; and so she escaped the punishment due to her fraud and imposture.

In 1673, Eunice Cole of Hampton was tried, and the jury found her not legally guilty, but that there were strong grounds to suspect her of familiarity with the devil.

In 1679, William Morse's house, at Newbury, was troubled with the throwing of bricks, stones, &c. and a boy, of the family, was supposed to be bewitched, who accused one of the neighbors; and in 1682, the house of George Walton, a quaker, at Portsmouth, and another house at Salmon-falls (both in New-Hampshire) were attacked after the same manner.

In 1683, the demons removed to Connecticut river again, where one Desborough's house was molested by an invisible hand, and a fire kindled, no body knew how, which burnt up great part of his estate; and in 1684, Philip Smith, a judge of the court, a military officer and a representative of the town of Hadley, upon the same river, (an hypocondriack person) fancied himself under an evil hand, and suspected a woman, one of his neighbors, and languished and pined away, and was generally supposed to be bewitched to death. While he lay ill, a number of brisk lads tried an experiment upon the old woman. Having dragged her out of her house, they hung her up until she was near dead, let her down, rowled her some time in the snow, and at last buried her in it and there left her, but it happened that she survived, and the melancholly man died.

Notwithstanding these frequent instances of supposed witchcrafts, none had suffered for near thirty years, in the Massachusetts colony. The execution of the assistant or councellor's widow in 1655, was disapproved of by many principal persons, and it is not unlikely that her death saved the lives of many other inferior persons. But in 1685, a very circumstancial account of all or most of the cases I have mentioned, was published, and many arguments were brought to convince the country that they were no delusions nor impostures, but the effects of a familiarity between the devil and such as he found fit for his instruments; and in 1687 or 1688, began a more alarming instance than any which had preceded it. Four of the children of John Goodwin a grave man and a good liver, at the north part of Boston, were generally believed to be bewitched. I have often heard persons, who were of the neighbourhood, speak of the great consternation it occasioned. The children were all remarkable for ingenuity of temper, had been religiously educated and were thought to be without guile. The eldest was a girl of thirteen or fourteen years. She had charged a laundress with taking away some of the family linnen. The mother of the laundress was one of the wild Irish, of bad character, and gave the girl harsh language; soon after which she fell into fits, which were said to have something diabolical in them. One of her sisters and two brothers followed her example, and it is said, were tormented

in the same part of their bodies at the same time, although kept in separate apartments, and ignorant of one another's complaints. One or two things were said to be very remarkable; all their complaints were in the day time, and they slept comfortably all night; they were struck dead at the sight of the assembly's catechism, Cotton's milk for babes, and some other good books, but could read in Oxford jests, popish and quaker books, and the common prayer, without any difliculty. Is it possible the mind of man should be capable of such strong prejudices as that a suspicion of fraud should not immediately arise? But attachments to modes and forms in religion had such force that some of these circumstances seem rather to have confirmed the credit of the children. Sometimes they would be deaf, then dumb, then blind; and sometimes all these disorders together would come upon them. Their tongues would be drawn down their throats, then pulled out upon their chins. Their jaws, necks, shoulders, elbows and all their joints would appear to be dislocated, and they would make most piteous outcries of burnings, of being cut with knives, beat, &c. and the marks of wounds were afterwards to be seen. The ministers of Boston and Charlestown kept a day of fasting and prayer at the troubled house; after which, the youngest child made no more complaints. The others persevered, and the magistrates then interposed, and the old woman was apprehended, but upon examination would neither confess nor deny, and appeared to be disordered in her senses. Upon the report of physicians that she was compos mentis, she was executed, declaring at her death the children should not be relieved. The eldest, after this, was taken into a minister's family, where, at first, she behaved orderly, but, after some time, suddenly fell into her fits. The account of her affliction is in print; some things are mentioned as extraordinary, which tumblers are every day taught to perform; others seem more than natural, but it was a time of great credulity. The children returned to their ordinary behaviour, lived to adult age, made profession of religion, and the affliction they had been under they publicly declared to be one motive to it. One of them I knew many years after. She had the character of a very sober virtuous woman, and never made any acknowledgment of fraud in this transaction. The printed account was published with a preface by Mr. Baxter, who says, 'the evidence is so convincing, that he must be a very obdurate sadducee who will not believe.' It obtained credit sufficient together with other preparatives, to dispose the whole country to be easily imposed upon by the more extensive and more tragical scene, which was presently after acted at Salem and other parts of the county of Essex. Not many years before, Glanvil published his witch stories in England; Perkins and other nonconformists were earlier; but the great authority was that of Sir Matthew Hale, revered in New England, not only for his knowledge in the law, but for his gravity and piety. The trial of the witches in Suffolk was published in 1684. All these books were in New England, and the conformity between the behavior of Goodwin's children and most of the supposed bewitched at Salem, and the be