1

or Fresh Water River. Soon afterward Dutch traders were upon its banks, and might have carried on a peaceful and profitable traffic with the Indians, had honor and honesty marked their course. But the avaricious agent of the Dutch, imprisoned an Indian chief on board his vessel, and would not release him until one hundred and forty fathoms of wampum' had been paid. The exasperated Indians menaced the traders, and near the site of Hartford, at a place yet known as Dutch Point, the latter commenced the erection of a fort. The Indians were finally conciliated, and, at their request, the fort was abandoned for awhile.

6

5

A friendly intercourse was opened between the Dutch of New Netherland and the Puritans in 1627.3 With the guise of friendship, but really for the purpose of strengthening the claims of the Dutch to the Connecticut valley, by having an English settlement there under the jurisdiction of New Netherland, Governor Minuit' advised the Puritans to leave the barren land of Massachusetts Bay, and settle in the fertile region of the Fresh Water River. In 1631, a Mohegan chief, then at war with the powerful Pequods, desirous of having a strong barrier between himself and his foes, urged the English to come and settle in the Connecticut valley. The Puritans clearly perceived the selfish policy of both parties, and hesitated to leave. The following year [1632], however, Governor Winslow, of the Plymouth colony, visited that fertile region, and, delighted with its appearance, resolved to promote emigration thither. In the mean while, the Council of Plymouth' had granted the soil of Connecticut [1630] to the Earl of Warwicke, who, in 1631, transferred his interest to Lord Say-and-Seal, Lord Brooke, John Hampden, and others. The eastern boundary of the territory was "Narraganset River," and the western (like all other charters at that time) was the South Sea, or Pacific Ocean. The Dutch became apprised of these movements of the English; and perceiving no advantage (but detriment) to themselves, they purchased of the Indians the land at Hartford and vicinity, completed their fort, and placed two cannons upon it, in 1633, with the intention of preventing the English ascending the river.

8

Although the Plymouth people were aware of the preparations made by the Dutch, to defend their claim, they did not hesitate, and in October, 1633, Captain William Holmes and a chosen company arrived in the Connecticut. River, in a sloop. Holmes bore a commission from Governor Winslow to make a settlement, and brought with him the frame of a house. When he approached the Dutch fort, the commander menaced him with destruction if he attempted to pass it. Holmes was not intimidated, and sailing by unhurt, he landed at the site of Windsor, and there erected his house. Seventy men were sent by the Dutch the following year, to drive him from the country. at bay, and finally a parley resulted in peaceful relations. flourished, and in the autumn of 1635, a party of sixty men, dren, from the Puritan settlements, commenced a journey through the wilder

They were kept Holmes's colony women, and chil

1 Connecticut is the English orthography of the Indian word Quon-eh-ta-cut, which signifies "the

long river."

3

Page 75.

7

Page 74.

Probably about four hundred dollars. See note 2, page 13.

2

4

* Page 139.

8

Page 42.

5

Page 21.

6

• Page 79.

9 See note 2, page 142.

2

ness [Oct. 25] to join him. With their cattle,' they made their slow and dreary way a hundred miles through dark forests and dismal swamps; and when they arrived upon the banks of the Connecticut [Nov. 25], the ground was covered with deep snow, and the river was frozen. It was a winter of great trial for them. Many cattle perished. A vessel bearing food for the colony was lost on the coast, and the settlers were compelled to subsist upon acorns, and scanty supplies of Indian corn from the natives. Many of them made their way to the fort, then just erected at Saybrook, near the mouth of the river, and returned to Boston by water. Spring opened, and the necessities of those who remained were supplied. They erected a small house for worship on the site of Hartford, and in April, 1636, the first court, or organized government was held there. At about the time when this company departed, a son of Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts, Hugh Peters, and Henry Vane, arrived at Boston from England, as commissioners for the proprietors of Connecticut, with instructions to build a fort at the mouth of the river of that name. and to plant a colony there. The fort was speedily built, and the settlement was named Saybrook, in honor of the two peers named in the charter.1

3

Another migration of Puritans to the Connecticut valley, more important, and with better results, now took place. In June, 1636, Rev. Thomas Hooker, the "light of the western churches," with other ministers, their families, and flocks, in all about one hundred, left the vicinity of Boston for the new land of promise. It was a toilsome journey through the swamps and forests. They subsisted upon berries and the milk of their cows which they took with them, and on the 4th of July, they stood upon the beautiful banks of the Connecticut. On the 9th, Mr. Hooker preached and administered the communion in the little meeting-house at Hartford, and there a great portion of the company settled. Some chose Wethersfield for a residence; and others, from Roxbury, went up the river twenty miles, and settled at Springfield. There were now five distinct English settlements upon the Connecticut River, yet they were scattered and weak.

Clouds soon appeared in the morning sky, and the settlers in the Connecticut valley perceived the gathering of a fearful storm. The powerful Pequod Indians became jealous of the white people, because they appeared to be the friends of their enemies, the Mohegans on the west, and of their more powerful foes, the Narragansetts, on the east. They first commenced petty annoyances; then kidnapped children, murdered men in the forests, and attacked families on

1 This was the first introduction of cattle into Connecticut.

2 The loss in cattle was estimated at about one thousand dollars. 3 Page 117.

4 Page 85.

5 Thomas Hooker was a native of Leicestershire, England, where he was born in 1586. He was silenced, because of his non-conformity, in 1630, when he left the ministry, and founded a grammar school at Cambridge. He was compelled to flee to Holland, from whence he came to America with Mr. Cotton, in 1633. He was a man of great benevolence, and was eminently useful. He died in July, 1647, at the age of sixty-one years.

6 Page 21.

3

the outskirts of the settlement at Saybrook. Their allies of Block Island' captured a Massachusetts trading vessel, killed the captain' [July, 1636], and plundered her. The Puritans in the east were alarmed and indignant, and an inefficient expedition from Boston and vicinity penetrated the Pequod country. It did more harm than good, for it resulted only in increasing the hatred and hostility of the savages. The Pequods became bolder, and finally sought an alliance with their enemies, the Narragansetts, in an effort to exterminate the white people. At this critical moment a deliverer appeared when least expected. Roger Williams, who for his tolerant opinions had been banished from Massachusetts, was now a friendly resident in the country of the Narragansetts, and heard of the proposed alliance. Forgetting the many injuries he had received, he warned the doomed people of the Bay colony, of impending danger. At the risk of his own life, he descended Narraganset Bay in an open canoe, on a stormy day, and visited Miantonomoh, the renowned sachem, at his seat near Newport, while the Pequod embassadors were there in council. The latter menaced Williams with death; yet that good man remained there three days, and effectually prevented the alliance. And more-he induced the Narragansetts to renew hostilities with the Pequods. By this generous service the infant settlements were saved from destruction.

4

Although foiled in their attempt at alliance, the Pequods were not disheartened. During the ensuing winter they continued their murderous depredations. In the spring, the authorities of the English settlements on the Connecticut declared war against the Pequods [May, 1637], and the Massachusetts and Plymouth colonies agreed to aid them. Soon, Captain Mason, who was in command of the fort at Saybrook," and Captain John Underhill, a brave. and restless man, sailed in some pinnaces, with about eighty white men and seventy Mohegan Indians under Uncas, for Narraganset Bay. There Miantonomoh, with two hundred warriors, joined them, and they marched for the Pequod country. Their ranks were swollen by the brave Niantics and others, until five hundred "bowmen and spearmen" were in the train of Captains Mason and Underhill.

6

The chief sachem of the Pequods, was Sassacus, a fierce warrior, and the terror of the New England tribes.' He could summon almost two thousand warriors to the field; and feeling confident in his strength, he was not properly vigilant. His chief fort and village on the Mystic River, eight miles northeast of New London, was surprised at dawn the 5th of June, 1637, and before sun-rise, more than six hundred men, women, and children, perished by fire and sword. Only seven escaped to spread the dreadful intelligence abroad, and arouse the surviving warriors. The Narragansetts turned homeward, and the English, aware of great peril, pressed forward to Groton on the Thames,

This island, which lies nearly south from the eastern border of Connecticut, was visited by Adrian Block, the Dutch navigator, and was called by his name. At the time in question, it was thickly populated with fierce Indians.

2 John Oldham, the first overland explorer of the Connecticut River.

3 Page 89.

4

Page 91.

5

Page 85.

6

Page 21.

* Page 22.

and there embarked for Saybrook. They had lost only two killed, and less than twenty wounded.

The brave Sassacus had hardly recovered from this shock, when almost a hundred armed settlers, from Massachusetts, under Captain Stoughton, arrived at Saybrook. The terrified Pequods made no resistance, but fled in dismay toward the wilderness westward, hotly pursued by the English. Terrible was the destruction in the path of the pursuers. Throughout the beautiful country on Long Island Sound, from Saybrook to New Haven, wigwams and cornfields. were destroyed, and helpless women and children were slain. With Sassacus at their head, the Indians flew like deer before the hounds, and finally took shelter in Sasco swamp, near Fairfield, where, after a severe battle, they all surrendered, except Sassacus and a few followers. These fled to the Mohawks,' where the sachem was treacherously murdered, and his people were sold into slavery, or incorporated with other tribes. The blow was one of extermination, relentless and cruel. "There did not remain a sannup or squaw, a warrior or child of the Pequod name. A nation had disappeared in a day." The New England tribes' were filled with awe, and for forty years the colonists were unmolested by them.

3

With the return of peace, the spirit of adventure revived. In the summer of 1637, John Davenport, an eminent non-conformist minister of London, with Theophilus Eaton and Edward Hopkins, rich merchants who represented a wealthy company, arrived at Boston. They were cordially received, and urgently solicited to settle in that colony. The Hutchinson controversy1 was then at its height; and perceiving the religious agitations of the people, they resolved to found a settlement in the wilderness. The sagacious Puritans, while pursuing the Pequods, had discovered the beauty and fertility of the country along the Sound from the Connecticut to Fairfield, and Davenport and his companions heard their report with joy. Eaton and a few others explored the coast in autumn, and erecting a hut near the Quinipiac Creek (the site of New Haven), they passed the winter there, and selected it for a settlement. In the spring [April 13, 1638] Davenport and others followed, and under a wide-spreading oak," the good minister preached his first sermon. They purchased the lands at Quinipiac of the Indians, and, taking the Bible for their guide, they formed an independent government, or "plantation covenant," upon strictly religious principles. Prosperity blessed them, and they laid the foundations of a city, and called it NEW HAVEN. The following year, the settlers at Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield, met in convention at Hartford [January 24, 1639], and adopted a written constitution, which contained liberal provisions. It ordained that the governor and legislature should be elected annually, by the people, and they were required to take an oath of allegiance to the commonwealth, and not to the king. The General Assembly, alone,

very

could make or repeal laws; and in every matter the voice of the people was heard. This was termed the CONNECTICUT COLONY; and, notwithstanding it and the New Haven colony were not united until 1665, now was laid the foundation of the commonwealth of CONNECTICUT, which was governed by the Hartford Constitution for more than a century and a half.

THE seed of the Rhode Island commonwealth was planted by brave hands, made strong by persecution. The first settler in Rhode Island was William Blackstone, a non-conformist minister,' who was also the first resident upon the peninsula of Shawmut, where Boston now stands. Not liking the "lords brethren" in Massachusetts any more than the "lords bishops" of England, from whose frowns he had fled, he withdrew to the wilderness, and dwelt high up on the Seekonk or Pawtucket River, which portion of the stream still bears his name. There he planted, and called the place Rehoboth. Although he was the first settler, Blackstone was not the founder of Rhode Island. He always held allegiance to Massachusetts, and did not aspire to a higher dignity than that of an exile for conscience' sake.

6

4

3

Roger Williams, an ardent young minister at Salem, became the instrument of establishing the foundations of a new commonwealth in the wilderness. When he was banished from Massachusetts, toward the close of 1635,5 he crossed the borders of civilization, and found liberty and toleration among the heathen. After his sentence, his bigoted persecutors began to dread the influence of his enlightened principles, if he should plant a settlement beyond the limits of existing colonies, and they resolved to detain him. Informed of their scheme, he withdrew from Salem in the dead of winter [Jan., 1636], and through deep snows he traversed the forests alone, for fourteen weeks, sheltered only by the rude wigwam of the Indian, until he found the hospitable cabin of

1 Note 2, page 76.

2

Page 118.

3 Room. The name was significant of his aim-he wanted room outside of the narrow confines of what he deemed Puritan intolerance.

4

* Roger Williams was born in Wales, in 1599, and was educated at Oxford. Persecution drove him to America in 1631, when he was chosen assistant minister at Salem. His extreme toleration did not find there a genial atmosphere, and he went to Plymouth. There, too, he was regarded with suspicion. He returned to Salem in 1634, formed a separate congregation, and in 1635, the general court of Massachusetts passed sentence of banishment against him. He labored zealously in founding the colony of Rhode Island, and had no difficulty with any people who came there, except the Quakers. He died at Providence, in April, 1683, at the age of eighty-four years. 5 Page 119.

Williams was allowed six weeks after the pronunciation of his sentence to prepare for his departure.

7

Massasoit had become acquainted with the manner of building cabins adopted by the settlers at fishing-stations on the coast, and had constructed one for himself. They were much more comfortable than wigwams. See page 13.