Governor Sloughter's Delay and Leisler's Rebellion [ 251 ] adverse winds. One may only speculate on the governor's state of mind as he neared New York, but he must have suffered much anxiety and frustration. The fates seemed to have conspired to keep him from the most responsible post of his career. He believed that plots had delayed his journey by six months and that his enemies had intercepted and misrouted his mail and intrigued against him at court. Worse, he did not know what had happened in New York or if an anticipated third representative from Leisler had reached England since his departure. His commission did not give him the authority to deal decisively with Leisler, the usurper who claimed the authority that was rightfully his. The voyage had been a torment of mishaps, foul weather, and insults from Hicks. In such a frame of mind Sloughter was unlikely to show mercy or be objective in dealing with Jacob Leisler and his interim government in New York. A smooth transition of government was improbable not only because of the blustery Leisler's recalcitrance but also because of the tocmning Sloughter's def ensfveness.35 In mid-March 1691, the Archangel at last approached New York. On the seventeenth, the day that Leisler's and Ingoldsbv's forces exchanged shots across the city, the ship's lookout spied land south of Sandy Hook. The following day Sloughter learned of the violence when the Archangel hailed a small vessel outbound from Manhattan. The word he received was that "Lashly [sic] still holds [Fort William] and the Shipps with soldiers have bin arrived 2 months and the ffoart had bin [claimed] by Capt. Ingoldsby but he was denied by the other and that he [Leisler] fired into the town and killed severair36 The next day, March 19, a brigantine came down from New York with Thomas Dudley and others of Sloughter's adininistration to report that Leisler still held the fort and was firing into the town. Bearing bis commission, Sloughter started toward New York, landing on Long Island at 5:00 p.m. that day. By March 21, Hicks had worked the Archangel to within a pistol shot of Fort William. But the ship was not needed. Leisler had yielded to the governor's commission, and with 33 Hicks' log, February 4 to March 17, 1691, records thirty-four days of "uncertaine" weather and only six days of "fair!' Daily distances covered were as short as twenty-nine miles. Letters from Sloughter to the king, May 7, 1691, and various depositions dated 1691, Cal. State Paps., XIII, 1463,1114,1460, and 1462. 36 Hicks' log, March 17—18,1691.