“The frigate, upon the news, put out all her flags and pendants, and opened all her ports, and with all speed made ready for fight, under the command of the lieutenant, he swearing that he would die before she should be taken.”  He sent a boat to bring off Andros and his attendants; but it had scarcely touched the beach when the crew were encountered and overpowered by the party from the Town-House, which, under the command of Mr. John Nelson, was bearing the summons to the Governor.  The boat was kept, with the sailors manning it, who were disarmed.  Andros and his friends withdrew again within the Port, from which they had come down to go on board the frigate.  Nelson disposed his party on two sides of the Fort, and getting possession of some cannon in an outwork, pointed them against the walls.  The soldiers within were daunted.  The Governor asked a suspension of the attack till he should send West and another person to confer with the Provisional Council at the Town-House.  The reply, whatever it was, decided him how to proceed, and he and his party “came forth from the Fort, and went disarmed to the Town-House, and from thence, some to the close gaol, and the Governor, under a guard, to Mr. Usher’s house.”

So ended the first day of the insurrection.  The Castle and the frigate were still defiant in the harbor.  The nineteenth of April is a red-letter day in Massachusetts.  On the nineteenth of April, 1861, Massachusetts fought her way through Baltimore to the rescue of the imperilled capital of the United States.  On the nineteenth of April, 1775, she began at Lexington the war of American Independence.  On the nineteenth of April, 1689, King James’s Governor was brought to yield the Castle of Boston by a threat, that, “if he would not give it presently, under his hand and seal, he would be exposed to the rage of the people.”  A party of Colonial militia then “went down, and it was surrendered to them with cursings, and they brought the men away, and made Captain Fairweather commander in it.  Now, by the time the men came back from the Castle, all the guns, both in ships and batteries, were brought to bear against the frigate, which were enough to have shattered her in pieces at once, resolving to have her.”

Captain George, who had long nursed a private quarrel with the arch-disturber of Massachusetts, and chief adviser of the Governor, “cast all the blame now upon that devil, Randolph; for, had it not been for him, he had never troubled this good people;—­earnestly soliciting that he might not be constrained to surrender the ship, for by so doing both himself and all his men would lose their wages, which otherwise would be recovered in England; giving leave to go on board, and strike the top-masts, and bring the sails on shore.”  The arrangement was made, and the necessity for firing on a ship of the royal navy was escaped.  The sails were brought on shore, and there put away, and the vessel swung to her anchors off Long Wharf, a harmless and a ridiculous hulk.  “The country-people came armed into the town, in the afternoon, in such rage and heat that it made all tremble to think what would follow; for nothing would satisfy them, but that the Governor should be bound in chains or cords, and put in a more secure place, and that they would see done before they went away; and to satisfy them, he was guarded by them to the Fort.”