ned in a day of humiliation. The patients, however, did not
improve, till an Indian servingwoman denounced another, named Tituba, as
the author of the evil. Mr. Paris assailed the accused, and tortured her
in the view of extracting a confession of guilt, which she at length
made, with many absurd particulars, hoping to appease her persecutor.
From this time the mischievous folly spread wider; a respectable
clergyman, Mr. Burroughs, was tried for witchcraft on the evidence of
five women, and condemned to death, his only defense being that he was
accused of that which had no existence, and was impossible. New charges
multiplied daily; the jails of Salem were full of the accused, and
prisoners were transferred to other towns, where the silly infection
spread, and filled the whole colony with alarm.

Nothing could afford stronger proof of the hold which this sad delusion
had taken of the popular mind than the readiness so constantly displayed
by the accused to confess the monstrous imputation, whose punishment was
infamy and death. Many detailed long consultations held with Satan for
the purpose of overthrowing the kingdom of heaven. In some cases these
confessions were the result of distempered understandings; but,
generally, they may be attributed to the hope of respite and ultimate
reprieve, as none but the supposed impenitent sorcerers were executed.
Thus only the truthful and conscientious suffered from the effects of
this odious insanity. Some among the wretched people who had confessed
witchcraft showed a subsequent disposition to retract. A man named
Samuel Wardmell, having solemnly recanted his former statement, was
tried, condemned, and executed. Despite this terrible warning, a few
others followed the conscientious but fatal example. Every one of the
sufferers during this dreadful period protested their innocence to the
last. It seems difficult to discover any adequate motives for these
atrocious and constant accusations. There is too much reason to believe
that the confiscation of the condemned persons' property, malice against
the accused, a desire to excite the public mind, and gain the notice and
favor of those in power, were generally the objects of the witnesses.

The evil at length attained such a frightful magnitude that the firmest
believers in witchcraft began to waver. In two months nineteen unhappy
victims had been executed, eight more remained under sentence of death,
150 accused were still in prison