The Wonders of the Invisible World: Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches Lately Executed in New-England, to which is added A Farther Account of the Tryals of the New-England WitchesMather, Cotton
History
The Wonders of the Invisible World: Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches Lately Executed in New-England, to which is added A Farther Account of the Tryals of the New-England Witches
Mather, Cotton
Witchcraft -- New England -- Early works to 1800
'Twas testified, that keeping his two Successive Wives in a strange kind
of Slavery, he would when he came home from abroad, pretend to tell the
Talk which any had with them; That he has brought them to the point of
Death, by his harsh Dealings with his Wives, and then made the People
about him, to promise that in case Death should happen, they would say
nothing of it; That he used all means to make his Wives Write, Sign,
Seal, and Swear a Covenant, never to reveal any of his Secrets; That his
Wives had privately complained unto the Neighbours about frightful
Apparitions of Evil Spirits, with which their House was sometimes
infested; and that many such things have been whispered among the
Neighbourhood. There were also some other Testimonies relating to the
Death of People whereby the Consciences of an Impartial Jury were
convinced that _G. B._ had Bewitched the Persons mentioned in the
Complaints. But I am forced to omit several passages, in this as well as
in all the succeeding Tryals, because the Scribes who took notice of
them, have not supplyed me.
VII. One Mr. _Ruck_, Brother-in-Law to this _G. B._ testified, that
_G. B._ and himself, and his Sister, who was _G. B's_ Wife, going out for
two or three Miles to gather Straw-berries, _Ruck_ with his Sister, the
Wife of _G. B._ Rode home very Softly, with _G. B._ on Foot in their
Company, _G. B._ stept aside a little into the Bushes; whereupon they
halted and Halloo'd for him. He not answering, they went away homewards,
with a quickened pace, without expectation of seeing him in a
considerable while; and yet when they were got near home, to their
Astonishment, they found him on foot with them, having a Basket of
Straw-berries. _G. B._ immediately then fell to Chiding his Wife, on the
account of what she had been speaking to her Brother, of him, on the
Road: which when they wondred at, he said, _He knew their thoughts._
_Ruck_ being startled at that, made some Reply, intimating, that the
Devil himself did not know so far; but _G. B._ answered, _My God makes
known your Thoughts unto me._ The Prisoner now at the Bar had nothing to
answer, unto what was thus witnessed against him, that was worth
considering. Only he said, _Ruck, and his Wife left a Man with him, when
they left him._ Which _Ruck_ now affirm'd to be false; and when the
Court asked _G. B._ _What the Man's Name was?_ his Countenance was much
altered; nor could he say, who 'twas. But the Court began to think, that
he then step'd aside, only that by the assistance of the _Black Man_, he
might put on his _Invisibility_, and in that _Fascinating Mist_,
gratifie his own Jealous Humour, to hear what they said of him. Which
trick of rendring themselves _Invisible_, our Witches do in their
Confessions pretend, that they sometimes are Masters of; and it is the
more credible, because there is Demonstration, that they often render
many other things utterly _Invisible_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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