Now, I having for some time before attended the work of the
Ministry in Salem Village, the report of those great afflictions came
quickly to my notice, the more so, because the first person afflicted
was in the minister's family, who succeeded me after I was removed from
them. In pity, therefore, to my Christian friends and former
acquaintance there, I was much concerned about them, frequently
consulted with them, and (by Divine assistance) prayed for them; but
especially my concern was augmented when it was reported at an
examination of a person suspected for witchcraft, that my wife and
daughter, who died three years before, were sent out of the world under
the malicious operations of the infernal powers, as is more fully
represented in the following remarks. I did then desire, and was also
desired by some concerned in the court, to be there present that I might
hear what was alleged in that respect, observing, therefore, when I was
amongst them, that the case of the afflicted was very amazing and
deplorable, and the charges brought against the accused such as were
grounds of suspicion, yet very intricate and difficult to draw up right
conclusions about them. They affirmed that they saw the ghosts of
several departed persons, who, at their appearing, did instigate them to
discover such as (they said) were instruments to hasten their death,
threatening sorely to afflict them if they did not make it known to the
magistrates.

"They did affirm at the examination, and again at the trial of an
accused person, that they saw the ghosts of his two wives (to whom he
had acted very ill in their lives, as was proved by several
testimonies), and also that they saw the ghosts of my wife and daughter
(who died above three years before), and they did affirm that when the
very ghosts looked on the prisoner at the bar they looked red, as if the
blood would fly out of their faces with indignation at him. The manner
of it was thus: Several afflicted being before the prisoner at the bar,
on a sudden they fixed all their eyes together on a certain place on the
floor before the prisoner, neither moving their eyes nor bodies for some
few minutes, nor answering to any question which was asked them. So soon
as that trance was over, some being out of sight and hearing, they were
all, one after another, asked what they saw, and they did all agree that
they saw those ghosts above mentioned. I was present and heard and saw
the whole of what passe