Late in 1693 Fitz-John Winthrop was sent to England as agent to obtain a confirmation of the charter.  He secured an emphatic legal opinion from Attorney General Somers, backed by those of Treby and Ward, that the charter was entirely valid, Treby’s concurrent opinion taking this shape:  “I am of the same opinion, and, as this matter is stated, there is no ground of doubt.”  The basis of the opinion was that the charter had been granted under the great seal; that it had not been surrendered under the common seal of the colony, nor had any judgment of record been entered against it; that its operation had merely been interfered with by overpowering force; that the charter therefore remained valid; and that the peaceable submission of the colony to Andros was merely an illegal suspension of lawful authority.  In other words, the passive attitude of the colonial government had disarmed Andros so far as to stop the legal proceedings necessary to forfeit the charter; and then prompt action, at the critical moment, secured all that could be secured under the circumstances.  William was willing enough to retain all possible fruits of James’s tyranny, as he showed by enforcing the forfeiture of the Massachusetts charter; but the law in this case was too plain, and he ratified the lawyers’ opinion in April, 1694.  The charter had escaped its enemies at last, and its escape is a monument of one of the advantages of a real democracy.

    [1] From Johnston’s “History of Connecticut.”  By permission of,
    and by arrangement with, the authorized publishers, Houghton,
    Mifflin Co.  Copyright, 1887, by Alexander Johnston.

THE COLONIZATION OF LOUISIANA

(1699)

BY CHARLES E.T.  GAYARRE[1]

On February 27, 1699, Iberville and Bienville reached the Mississippi.  When they approached its mouth they were struck with the gloomy magnificence of the sight.  As far as the eye could reach, nothing was to be seen but reeds which rose five or six feet above the waters in which they bathed their roots.  They waved mournfully under the blast of the sharp wind of the north, shivering in its icy grasp, as it tumbled, rolled, and gambolled on the pliant surface.  Multitudes of birds of strange appearance, with their elongated shapes so lean that they looked like metamorphosed ghosts, clothed in plumage, screamed in the air, as if they were scared of one another.  There was something agonizing in their shrieks that was in harmony with the desolation of the place.  On every side of the vessel, monsters of the deep and huge alligators heaved themselves up heavily from their native or favorite element, and, floating lazily on the turbid waters, seemed to gaze at the intruders....