"The New-Englanders are a people of God settled in those, which were once the Devil's territories; and it may easily be supposed that the Devil was exceedingly disturbed, when he perceived such a people here accomplishing the promise of old made unto our blessed Jesus, That He should have the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession... The devil is now making one attempt more upon us; an attempt more difficult, more surprising, more snarled with unintelligible circumstances than any that we have hitherto encountered."

Cotton Mather, Wonders of the Invisible World, published October 1692. Mather was a prominent Puritan minister in Boston who supported the Salem trials and was given access to the court records by the judges.