. During its
continuance, six hundred white men were killed and many more wounded;
thirteen towns were destroyed and five hundred buildings burned, but the
Indian power in southern New England was shattered forever.

THE WITCHCRAFT DELUSION.

One of the most fearful delusions recorded in history is that of the
general belief in witchcraft which prevailed in Europe down to the
seventeenth century. Its baleful shadow all too soon fell upon New
England. Massachusetts and Connecticut made laws against witchcraft and
hanged a number of persons on the charge of being witches. In 1692 the
town of Salem went crazy over the belief that the diabolical spirits
were at work among them. Two little girls, who were simpletons that
ought to have been spanked and put to bed, declared with bulging eyes
that different persons had taken the form of a black cat and pinched,
scratched, and bitten them. The people, including the great preacher
Cotton Mather, believed this stuff, and the supposed wizards and witches
were punished with fearful severity. Suspicion in many cases meant
death; evil men disposed of their creditors and enemies by charging them
with witchcraft; families were divided and the gentlest and most
irreproachable of women suffered disgraceful death. Everybody, including
ministers and judges, lost their wits. The magistrates crowded the
jails, until twenty had been put to death and fifty-five tortured before
the craze subsided. Then it became clear that no one, no matter what his
station, was safe, and the delusion, which forms one of the blackest
pages in New England, passed away.

[Illustration: GALLUP'S RECAPTURE OF OLDHAM'S BOAT

Which had been taken by the Indians from the Puritan exiles in 1636.
"Steer straight for the vessel," cried Gallup, and stationing himself at
the bow he opened fire on the Indians. Every time his gun flashed some
one was hit. This incident was the beginning of the Pequot War.]

SETTLEMENT OF MAINE AND NEW HAMPSHIRE.

New Hampshire was the name of John Mason's share of a territory granted
to him and Sir Fernando Gorges by the Council of Plymouth in 1622. This
grant included all the land between the Merrimac and Kennebec Rivers.
The first settlement was made in 1623, at New and at Little Harbor, near
Portsmouth. In 1629 the proprietors divided their grants, the country
west of the Piscataqua being taken by Mason, who named it New Hampshire,
while Gorges, who owned the eastern section, calle