HON. WILLIAM WILLIS : MY DEAR SIR, 20 COURT STREET, BOSTON, } The public document, of which I here send you a copy, was handed to me to-day by Mr. Charles H. Morse, of Cambridge. It is a State paper of such value, and so germane to the present volume of the "Collections," that I forward it at once. I regret that I did not have it in season foruse in the article on "Ancient Pemaquid," as it has the authority of an official paper, and directly and fully sustains the views there given. ANSWER. "An answer to Sr Edmond Andros' acco1 of the forces raised in New England for defence of the Country against the Indians &c in ye year 1688 humbly offered by the Agents of the Massachusets Colony. To the R: Honoble ye Lds of ye Comitty for y° plantations. Begging your Lord: p's Leave to observe in yo preamble of St Edmond Andros' acco; the words (Subvertion of the Government) and afterwards Insurrection) which with submission we take to be Expressions of Disaffection to ye present and a Vindication of the Late so Illegal and Arbitrary Government and doe most humbly Beseech your Lord: ps that wt was don by the people of New: England with so much zeale and good affection to secure the Govern! there to their present maj: ties may be favorably accepted and vindicated from such unworthy and unjust reflections. Upon the whole we humbly represent unto your Lord: ps that the New fforts built by St Edmond Andros were meer ffancies of his owne, useless (& so esteemed by the experienced Officers of the Army and others well acquainted with the Country,) to any purpose of Defence as was pretended. And may be easily made [to] appeare unto your Lord: ps: by the map of that Country. And consequently the Drawing the souldiers from thence hath been no prejudice to the Country. Nor hath any Loss or Damage hapned thereby But our ffrontier Townes strengthened which in St Edmond's time were not only Left naked but also several persons threatened for fortifying their houses. As to the partiqulars in this acco: we declare as followeth. Pemaquid was a Garrison settled by St Edmond Andros. whilest Govern' of New: Yorke and in the beginning of the present war put under the comand of Capt: Brockholes a papist & for that reason [he] was ordered home upon the happy Revolution which Order he never observed, But afterwards being suspected to be in a plot for Deserting and runing over with the sloop Mary to ye ffrench was seized by the Inhabitants of Dartmouth and brought to Boston, And his Leiftenant Weems at the request of the Inhabitants put in his roome with all the standing Garrison, not a man drawne off. The other souldiers were Dispersed by Coll: Tynge, and the rest of the chiefe Officers. Those that were sick to their owne homes, those that were fitt for service to Posts that required their assistance, there being force sufficient Left as they Judged to defend the fort. True it is that afterwards that ffort and about twenty houses were taken and destroyed by the Indians, But it was Imputed to the Careless Security of the Garrison and not [to] want of men, The towne being Surprised at Noonday and no Scout abroad. New Dartmouth was destroyed all but four or five houses, New Towne. And Newtowne all but one by the Indians in the time of St Edmond Andros' government, Don as was supposed in revenge of St Edmond's seizing Monsieur Cas |