The present volume opens with the accession of King James the Second, on the 6th of February 1685, and is continued to December 1688, at which date as will be seen, orders were still issued from England in respect of the Colonies in his name and by his authority. It will be remembered, on refer ence to the previous volume of this Calendar, that many most important matters awaited the decision of the new King. Massachusetts was virtually without a government and the subjection of Massachusetts to the royal authority signified great changes for the whole of New England. New Hamp shire also was without a governor. Bermuda likewise lay in a state approaching to anarchy. Jamaica was under the control of an administrator pending the arrival of a successor to Sir Thomas Lynch in Barbados the corrupt rule of Sir Richard Dutton was drawing to its close and in the Leeward Islands there was the difficulty of finding a governor worthy to follow the veteran Sir William Stapleton. Finally, French encroachment was active whenever it could find an opening against the British, whether in the West Indies or on the frontiers of the North American Colonies. In a word, Colonial affairs appealed urgently for the attention of an active and resolute administrator.

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