chance of maintaining their lands--lands
which they had reclaimed and made valuable--was by assisting Allen in
his crusade against the pretensions of New York.

Success perched upon his banner, and not only was he able to hold the
lands for the people, but he drove the New York settlers out of the
district.

He had drafted a petition to the English king, asking that Vermont
should be a separate colony, having its own governor and its
legislature.

But before that petition reached England the revolution had broken out.

The Boston Port bill had been passed, which enacted that no kind of
merchandise should any longer be shipped or landed at the wharves of
Boston.

The custom house was removed to Salem, but the people of that town
refused the honor conferred on them by the tyrant who ruled the
destinies of England and the colonies.

The inhabitants of Marblehead offered the free use of their warehouses
to the merchants of Boston. The Colonial Assembly stood by the people.

Then England passed an act of parliament annuling the charter of
Massachusetts. The people were declared rebels, and the governor was
ordered to send to England for trial all persons who should resist the
royal officers.

A colonial congress was called to assemble at Philadelphia. Eleven
colonies were represented, and it was unanimously agreed to sustain
Massachusetts in her conflict with parliament.

An address was sent to King George, another to the English nation, and
a third to the people of Canada.

As soon as England received the addresses an order was made by which
the governor was directed to reduce the colonists by force.

So we see that England took the initiative in the war which was to
deprive her of her richest colonies.

A fleet and an army of ten thousand men were sent to America to aid in
the work of subjugation.

Gov. Gage seized Boston Neck and fortified it. The military stores in
the arsenals of Cambridge and Charlestown were conveyed to Boston, and
the general assembly was ordered to disband.

Instead of accepting their dismissal, the members resolved themselves
into a provincial congress, and voted to equip an army of twelve
thousand men to defend the colony.

As soon as the people of Boston learned the intentions of the governor,
they concealed their ammunition in carts of rubbish and conveyed it to
Concord, sixteen miles away.

The wrath of the governor was especially directed against Samuel Adams
and Joh