1690.] SIR WILLIAM PHIPS. 243 



hood. Tempting offers were made him of employ- 

 ment in the royal service ; but he had an ardent 

 love for his own country, and thither he presently 

 returned. 



Phips was a rude sailor, bluff, prompt, and chol- 

 eric. He never gave proof of intellectual capacity ; 

 and such of his success in life as he did not owe to 

 good luck was due probably to an energetic and 

 adventurous spirit, aided by a blunt frankness of 

 address that pleased the great, and commended him 

 to their favor. Two years after the expedition to 

 Port Royal, the king, under the new charter, made 

 him governor of Massachusetts, a post for which, 

 though totally unfit, he had been recommended by 

 the elder Mather, who, like his son Cotton, expected 

 to make use of him. He carried his old habits into 

 his new office, cudgelled Brinton, the collector of 

 the port, and belabored Captain Short of the royal 

 navy with his cane. Far from trying to hide the 

 obscurity of his origin, he leaned to the opposite 

 foible, and was apt to boast of it, delighting to 

 exhibit himself as a self -made man. New England 

 writers describe him as honest in private dealings ; 

 but, in accordance with his coarse nature, he seems 

 to have thought that any thing is fair in war. On 

 the other hand, he was warmly patriotic, and was 

 almost as ready to serve New England as to serve 

 himself. 1 



When he returned from Port Royal, he found 



1 An excellent account of Phips will be found in Professor Bowen's 

 biographical notice, already cited. His Life by Cotton Mather is exces- 

 sively eulogistic. 



