THE HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT
INTRODUCTION. The discovery of North-America and New-England. Captain Smith's discovery. The country is named New-England. New-Plymouth settled. The great patent of New-England, and patent of Massachusetts. The settlement of Salem, Charlestown, Boston, and other towns in Massachusetts. Mr.Warham, Mr. Phillips and Mr. Hooker, with others of the first planters of Connecticut, arrive and make settlements at Dorchester, Watertown, and Newtown Their churches are formed and they are ordained.
The patent of Connecticut.- The situation, extent, boundaries and area of the settled part of the colony. The discovery of Connecticut river a description of it, and the signification of its name. The colony derives its name from the river. Description of other rivers. Plymouth and Dutch houses. Prospects of trade upon the river.
The state of the country of Connecticut when the setttement of the colony began. Its trees and fruits. Its animals. Number, situation, genius, manners, arms, utensils and wars of the Indians.
The people at Dorchester, Watertown, and Newtown, finding themselves straightened in the Massachusetts, determine to remove to Connecticut. Debates in Massachusetts relative to their removal. The general court at first prohibited it, but afterwards gave its consent. The people removed and settled the towns of Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield Hardships and losses of the first winters.
Vol. i. B
The war with the Pequots. The origin of it. The murder of Captain Stone and Norton, of Mr. Oldham and others. Mr. Endicott’s expedition against them.
The Pequots kill a number of the garrison at the
mouth of the river, and besiege the fort. Captain Mason is sent down from
Connecticut with a reinforcement. The enemy make a descent
on Weathersfield, torture and mock the English. The court at Connecticut declares war against them. Captain- Mason takes Mistic fort. Sassacus destroys his royal fortress and flees to the. westward. A second expedition is undertaken against the Pequots conjointly, by Massachusetts and Connecticut. The great swamp fight. The Pequot subdued. Sassacus flying to the Mohawks was beheaded. The captivated and surviving Pequots, after the war, were given to the Moheagans and Narragansets, and their name extinguished.
Effects of the war. Great scarcity in Connecticut, and means taken to
relieve the necessities of the people. Settlement of
New-Haven. Plantation covenant. Means for the defence of the colony. Captain Mason made
major general. Civil constitution of Connecticut, formed by
voluntary compact. First general election at
Connecticut. Governors and magistrates. General rights of the people, and principal laws of the colony.
Constitution and laws of New-Haven. Purchase
and settlement of several towns in Connecticut and New-Haven.
The progress of purchase, settlement, and law in the
colonies of Connecticut and New-Haven. The effect of the conquest of the Pequots on
the natives, and the manner in which they were treated. Purchases of them. Towns settled. Divisions at Weathersfield occasion the settle-
ment of Stamford. Troubles with the Dutch and Indians. Capital laws of Connecticut. The confederation of the united colonies. Further troubles with the Indians. Victory of Uncas over the Narragan-
sets, and capture of their sachem. The advice of the commissioner respecting Miantonomoh. His execution. Precautions of the colonies to prevent war. The Dutch, harassed by an Indian war, apply to New
Haven for assistance.
Public fasts appointed. Indians continue hostile,
and commit murder. Acts of the commissioners respecting them.
Branford settled. Towns in Connecticut. Message of the commissioners to the Narragansets.
Their agreement respecting Uncas. Long-Island Indians taken under the protection of the United colonies. Massachusetts claim part of the Pequot country and Waranoke. Determination of the commis-
sioners respecting said claim. Agreement with Mr. Fenwick relative to Saybrook fort and the adjacent country. Fortifications advanced. Extraordinary meeting of the commissioners to suppress the outrages
of the Narragansets. War proclaimed and troops sent against them. They treat and prevent war. Fairfield object to a jury of six. Controversy with the Dutch. The Indians plot against the life of governor Hopkins and other principal gentlemen at Hartford. Damages at Windsor. Battle between the Dutch and Indians. Losses of Newhaven. Dispute with Massachusetts relative to the impost at Say-
brook. Mr. Winthrop's claim of the Nehantic country. Settlement of accounts between the colonies.
Settlement of New-London. Salaries first granted to civil officers. Troubles
with the Narraganset Indians. Rhode-Island petitions to be united with
the colonies in confederation. The Massachusetts resume
the affair of the impost. Mr. Westerhouse complains of the seizure of his vessel by the Dutch, in the harbour of New-Haven. Murders committed by the Indians;—resolutions respecting the murderers. Body
of laws compiled. Debates relative to the settlement of Delaware. The Pequots revolt from Uncas, and petition the English. Resolution respecting them. Mr. Westerhouse petitions to make reprisals from the Dutch. Letter to the Dutch governor. Further altercation respecting the impost. Final issue of that affair. The conduct of the Massachusetts upon its decision, and the declaration of the commissioners respecting it. Their treatment of Connecticut respecting the line between the colonies. The court at Connecticut determine to avenge the death of John Whitmore, and detach men to take the murderer.
Court of election at Hartford. Grants
to captain Mason. The commissioners meet and dispatch captain
Atherton to the Narragansets. Their message to Ninigrate.
The Dutch Governor arrives at Hartford, and refers the differences between him
and the colonies to arbitrators. Their determination,
and the line is fixed between the English and Dutch plantations. Agreements
with Mr. Fenwick occasion general uneasiness. Committees are appointed to
explain and ascertain them. Towns are invited to attend the committees, by
their deputies, at Saybrook. An act for the encouragement of Mr. Winthrop in
seeking and improving mines. Norwalk and Mattabeseck settled and made towns.
The colony of New-Haven makes another attempt to settle at Delaware. The Dutch
Governor seizes the company and frustrates the design. He pursues his former
line of conduct towards the colonies. The resolutions of the
commissioners relative to his conduct, to the settlement of Delaware, and the
tribute to be paid by the Pequots. French
commissioners from Canada. Their proposals.
Reply to them. The Dutch governor and Indiana concert a plan to extirpate the
colonies. The commissioners meet, and dispatch agents to the Dutch governor.
They determine upon war, unless he should manifest his innocence, and redress
the grievances of the colonies. They determine on the number of men to be
raised, and draw a declaration of the reasons of the war. The agents return
unsuccessful. The commissioners meet again, and determine to make war upon the
Dutch and Narraganset Indians. The general court of Massachusetts refuses to
raise men, and prevents the war. Altercations between that
general court and the commissioners, and between that and the general courts of
Connecticut and New-Haven. The alarm and distress of
the plantations in these colonies. Their general courts protest against the court of Massachusetts, as violators of the articles
federation ; and write to Cromwell and the parliament for assistance. The tumultuous state of the inhabitants in several of the towns.
The death and character of Governor Haynes. The freemen of Connecticut meet and appoint a moderator. Mr. Ludlow removes to Virginia. The spirited conduct of the people at Milford, in recovering Manning's vessel. The freemen add to the fundamental articles, Fleet arrives at Boston for the reduction of the Dutch. The colonies agree to raise men to assist the armament from England. Peace presents the expedition. The general court at New-Haven, charge the Massachusetts with a breach of the confederation. They refuse to join in a war against Ninigrate, and oblige Connecticut and New-Haven to
pro-side for the defence of
themselves and their allies. Ninigrate continuing his hostile measures, the
commissioners send messengers to him. His answer to them.
They declare war, and send an army against him. The art of Massachusetts and
the deceit of Major Willard, defeat the designed expedition, The
number of rateable polls, and the amount of the list of Connecticut. The
Pequots are taken under their protection. Ninigrate persisting in his
hostilities against the Indians upon Long-Island, the general court adopt
measures for the defence of the Indians and the English inhabitants there.
New-Haven perfect and print
their laws. The answer of New-Haven to the protector's invitation that they would remove to Jamaica. Reply of the commissioners to the Dutch governor. Unpas embroils the country Deaths and characters of Governors Eaton and Hopkins. Settlement of Stonington. Mr. Winthrop chosen governor. The third fundamental article is altered by the freemen. Mr. Fitch and his church and people remove to Norwich. Final settlement of accounts with the heirs of Mr. Fenwick. Deputy governor Mason resigns the Moheagan lands to the colony.
The general court of Connecticut declare their
loyalty and submission to the king ; determine to
address his majesty, and apply for charter priv-
ileges. A petition to his majesty is prepared, and a letter addressed to lord Say and Seal. Governor Winthrop is appointed the colony's agent, to present their petition, and solicit a patent. Regicides condemned Whalley and Goffe arrive at Boston ; escape to New-Haven, and are kindly entertained, and kept from their pursuers. New Haven falls into great trouble and danger on that account. New-Haven excuse themselves ; decline sending an agent; but join with Mas-
sachusetts in supporting one. The king proclaimed. Governor Winthrop obtains the charter of Connecticut. First governor and council under the charter. Representation of the constitution it ordains, and the privileges it conveys. Difficulties of the colony of New-Haven. Governor Leet's address. Charter of Connecticut arrives. Proceedings of Connecticut in consequence of the charter. They extend their jurisdiction to all places within the limits of their patent, and challenge New-Haven colony, as under their jurisdiction. Controversy between the two colonies. Settlement of Killingworth. Patent of the duke of York. Colonel Nichols and commissioners arrive ; reduce all the Dutch settlements. Their extraordinary powers. Important crisis of
Connecticut. Answer to the propositions from his majesty, and reply to the duke of Hamilton's claim and petition. Boundaries between Connec-
ticut and New-York. Union of Connecticut and New-Haven.
A View of the churches of Connecticut .and
New-Haven, from their first settlement, until their union, in 1665. Their ministers. The
character of the ministers and first planters. Their
religious and political sentiments. Gathering of the
churches of New-Haven and Milford. Installation of Mr.
Davenport and Mr. Prudden. Church formed at Guilford. Number
of ministers in Connecticut and New-Haven before the union. Proportion of ministers to the people, before, and at
the union. Harmony between the civil rulers and the clergy. Influence of the clergy, and the reasons of it. Their opposition to Antinomianism. Assisted in the compilation of Cambridge Platform. Ecclesiastical laws. Care to diffuse general knowledge: its happy influence. Attempts to found a college at New-Haven. No sectaries in Connecticut nor New-Haven, until after the union ; and for twenty years the churches generally enjoyed great peace. Deaths and characters of several of. the first ministers. Great dissensions in the church at Hartford soon after Mr. Hooker's death. Dissensions and controversies in the colony and churches in general, relative to baptism, church-membership, and the rights of the brethren. A new generation arises, who had not all imbibed the spirit of their fathers. Grievances presented to the general court of Connecticut, on the account of the strictness of the churches, and that sober people were denied com-
munion with them, and baptism for their children. The court of Connecticut send to the other general courts for advice. Laws against the Quakers. Massachusetts and .Connecticut agree in appointing a synod at Boston. General court at New-Haven oppose the meeting of a synod, and decline sending their elders. ' Questions proposed tor discussion. The synod meet and answer them; but it had no good effect on the churches: they would not comply with their decisions. Dissensions continued at Hartford. Acts of the general court respecting them. Councils from Massachusetts. Difficulties in some measure..
composed. Divisions and animosities at Weathersfield. Act of |the genera! court respecting the church there. Mr. Russell and others remove from Weathersfield and Hartford and settle Hadley. Mr. Stow dismissed from the ministry at Middletown, by a committee of the general court. Synod at Boston. Its determination relative to baptism, and the consociation of churches. Division in the synod and in the churches relative to those points. The court at Connecticut send no elders to the council, nor take any part in the controversy, until some time afterwards.
.conduct of the king's commissioners. Counties and County Courts regulated. Governor Winthrop's estate freed
from taxation. Towns settled. Controversy with Rhode-Island.
The grounds of it. Courts appointed in the Narraganset
country. Laws revised and printed. War with the Dutch.
Claims and conduct of major Edmund Andros, governor of
New-York. Protest against him. Conduct of Capt. Thomas Bull.
Proclamation respecting the insult received from major
Andros. Philip's war. Captains Hutchinson and Lothrop surprised and slain. Treachery of the Springfield Indians. Hadley attacked by the enemy. The assembly make provision for the defence of Connecticut Expedition against the Narraganset Indians. The reasons of it. The great swamp fight. Loss of men. Courage exhibited and hardships endured. Captain Pierce and his party cut off. Nanunttenoo taken. Success of captains Denison and Avery. Captain Wadsworth and his party slain. Death and character of governor Winthrop. Success of Major Talcott. Attack upon Hadley. The enemy beaten and begin to scatter. They are pursued to Housatonick. Sachem of Ouabaug and Philip killed. Number of the enemy before the war. Their destruction. Loss of the colonies. Connecticut preserves its own towns and assists its neighbors.
adopted to discharge the
public debt, and settle the country in peace. The reasons of
the colony's claim to Narraganset. The former settlers and owners of
land there apply to Connecticut for protection. Major Treat goes to the upper
towns upon Connecticut river, to treat with the
Indiana. Fasts appointed through New-England. Act concerning the conquered
lands in Narraganset Navigation act grievous to the colonies. Governor Le>et takes the oath respecting trade
and navigation. Answers to queries from the lords of trade and plantations. Protest against Sir Edmund Andros’s claim to Fisher's Island. Character of governor Leet. Commissioners appointed by his majesty, to examine and make report concerning all claims to the Narraganset country, or king's province. They report in favour of Connecticut. Answers to the renewed claim of the duke of Hamilton, opinions on the case. Connecticut congratulate the arrival of colonel Dungan, governor of New-York, and agree with him respecting the boundary line between that colony and Connecticut. Petition to king James II. Settlement of Waterbury. Qno-warrantos against the colony. The assembly petition his majesty to continue their charter privileges. Sir Edmund Andros made governor of New-England. Arrives at Hartford: takes the government by order of his majesty. The oppression and cruelty of his administration. Distressed and sorrowful state of the people.
Revolution in New-England. Connecticut resume their government. Address to
king William. Troops raised
for the defence of the eastern settlements in New-Hampshire and the province of
Maine. French and Indian war. Schenectady destroyed.
Connecticut dispatch a reinforcement to Albany. Expedition against Canada. The land army retreats,
and the enterprise proves unsuccessful. Leister's abuse of
major-general Winthrop. The assembly of Connecticut
approve the general's conduct. Thanks are returned to Mr. Mather, agent
Whiting, and Mr. Purler. Opinions respecting the charter,
and the legality of Connecticut's assuming their government. Windham settled.
The Mohawk castles are surprised, and the country alarmed. Connecticut send troops to Albany. Colonel Fletcher, governor of
New-York, demands the command of the militia of Connecticut. The colony
petition king William on the subject. Colonel Fletcher comes to Hartford, and,
in person, demands that the legislature submit the militia to Ins command; but they refuse. Captain Wadsworth prevents
reading of his commission; and the colonel judges it expedient to leave the colony. The case of Connecticut relative to the militia
stated. His majesty determines in favour of the colony. Committees are
appointed to settle the boundary line between Connecticut and Massachusetts.
General Winthrop returns, and receives public thanks. Congratulation
of the Earl of Bellemont, appointed governor of New-York and Massachusetts.
Dispute with Rhode-Island continues. Committee to settle the
boundaries. Expenses of the war. Vexatious
conduct of governor Fletcher. Peace, joy, and thanksgiving.
General Winthrop is elected governor. The assembly
divides and forms into two houses. Purchase and settlement of
several towns. The boundary line between Connecticut and New-York
surveyed and fixed. Attempts for running and establishing the
line between Massachusetts and Connecticut. Owaneco and the Moheagans
claim Colchester and other tracts in the colony. Attempts to
compose all differences with them. Grant to the volunteers. The assembly
enacts, that the session in October, shall, for the future, be in New-Haven. An
Act enlarging the boundaries of New-London ; and acts
relative to towns and
patents. Measures adopted for the defence of the colony. Appointment of king's attorneys. Attempt to despoil Connecticut of its charter. Bill for re-uniting the charter governments to the crown. Sir Henry Ashurst petitions against, and prevents the passing of the bill. Governor Dudley, Lord Cornbury, and other enemies conspire against the colony. They exhibit grievous complaints against it. Sir Henry Ashurst defends the colony, and defeats their attempts. Quakers petition. Moheagan case. Survey and bounds of the pretended Moheagan country. Dudley's court at Stonington. The colony protest against it. Dudley's treatment of the colony. Judgment against it. Petition to her majesty on the subject New commissions are granted. Act in favor of the clergy. State of the colony.
The country is alarmed. Means of
defence. The assembly decline the affording of
any assistance in the expedition against Port Royal. Grant
assistance to the frontier towns. New townships granted and settled. The Rev. Gurdon Saltonstall chosen governor. Act empowering the
freemen to choose the governor from among themselves at large. Act relative to the settlement of the boundary line with Massachusetts.
Garrisons erected in the towns on the frontiers. Expedition against Canada. First emission of paper money. Address to her majesty.
Loss of the colony at Wood Creek. Expedition against Port Royal. Expedition against Canada, under the command of Admiral Waller and general Nicholson. Fleet cast away, and the enterprise defeated. The colony petition her majesty, and send the only pilot from Connecticut, to England, to represent to her majesty the loss of the fleet truly as it was. Acts respecting the superior court. Settlement of the boundary line between Massachusetts and Connecticut. Reasons why the colony consented to such a settlement. Return of peace. The colony happy in the preservation of their frontiers. Towns settled under Massachusetts. State of the colony. Observations.
. A View of the churches of Connecticut, from 16G5 to 1714,.continued from chapter XIII. The general assembly appoint a synod to determine points of religious controversy. The ministers decline meeting under the name of a synod. The assembly alter the name, and require them to meet as a general assembly of the ministers and churches of Connecticut. Seventeen questions were proposed to the assembly, to be discussed and answered. The assembly of minis. ters meet and discuss the questions. The legislature declare, that they had not been decided, and give intimations that they did not desire, that the ministers and churches of Connecticut should report their opinion upon them. They express their desires of a larger council from Massachusetts, and New-Plymouth. The Rev. Mr. Davenport removes to Boston. Dissension at Windsor. Mr. Bulkley and Mr. Fitch are appointed by the assembly to devise some way in which the churches might walk together, notwithstanding their different opinions relative to the subjects of baptism, church communion, and the Synod of church discipline. The church at Hartford divides, and Mr. Whiting and his adherents are allowed to practice upon congregational principles. The church at Stratford allowed to divide and hold distinct meetings. Mr. Walker and his hearers, upon advice, remove and settle the town of Woodbury. Deaths and characters of the Rev. Messrs. John Davenport and John Warham. General attempts for a reformation of manners. Religious state of the colony in 1680. Attempts for the instruction and Christianizing of the Indians in Connecticut. Act of the legislature respecting Windsor. The people there required peaceably to settle and support Mr. Mather. Owning or subscribing the covenant introduced at Hartford. College founded, and trustees incorporated. Worship according to the mode of the church of England, performed in this colony, first at Stratford. Episcopal church gathered-there. Act of assembly requiring the ministers and churches of Connecticut to meet and form a religious constitution. They meet and compile the Saybrook Platform. Articles of discipline. Act of the legislature adopting the Platform. Associations. Consociations. General Association. Its recommendations relative to the examination of candidates for the ministry, and of pastors elect previous to their ordination. Ministers, churches, and ecclesiastical societies in Connecticut, in 1713. Degree of instruction. The whole number of ministers in the colony from its first settlement, to that period.
AUTHENTIC history is of great utility; especially, to the countries and people whose affairs it relates. It teaches human nature, politics and morals; forms the head and heart for usefulness, and is an important part of the instruction and literature of states and nations. While it instructs, it affords an exalted pleasure. No man of genius and curiosity can read accounts of the origin of nations, the discovery, settlement, and progress of new countries, without a high degree of entertainment. But in the settlement of his own country, in the lives of his ancestors, in their adventures, morals, jurisprudence and heroism, he feels himself particularly interested. He at once becomes a party in their affairs, and travels and converses with them, with a kind of filial delight . While he beholds them braving the horrors of the desert, the terrors of the savage, the distresses of famine and war, he admires their courage, and is pleased with all their escapes from danger, and all their progress in settlement, population, opulence, literature and happiness. While he contemplates their self-den1al and perseverance in surmounting all dangers and enduring all hardships, to form new churches, and lay the foundations of new colonies and empires, and the immensely happy consequences of their conduct in turning the wilderness into gardens and fruitful fields, and in transmitting liberty and religion to posterity, he is struck with a pleas1ng astonishment . The pious man views a divine hand conducting the whole, gives thanks, adores and loves. No history is better calculated to produce these happy effects, than that of New-England and Connecticut.
Connecticut, originally consisting of two colonies, replete with Indians, and connected as it was with the neighboring colonies, affords much interesting matter for history. An authentic and impartial account of the affairs of the colony had long been an object of the wishes of the legislature, and of many gentlemen of principal character both in church and commonwealth.
In these views the writer, many years since, determined to attempt the compilation of the history which is presented to the public in the following sheets. He wished for the improvement which such a work might afford him, and for the pleasure of contributing his mite to the service of the community in which he received his birth and education, and has enjoyed such distinguished liberty and immunities. In pursuance of his design, he collected all books and manuscripts from which he , could expect assistance. He read the records of Connecticut, New-Haven and the United Colonies; and extracted whatever he judged important . He made a journey to Boston, examined the collection of the Rev. Mr. Prince, and minuted every thing which he could find relative to Connecticut . To him, at the time he was about writing the Chronological History of New-England, the ancient ministers, and other principal gentlemen in Connecticut, had transmitted accounts of the settlement of the towns and churches to which they respectively belonged. In this collection, important information was found, which could have been obtained from no other source. The author visited most of the principal towns, and places of burial, and obtained from records, monuments, and men of intelligence, whatever they could communicate on the subject. The ministers and clerks of the respective towns, and other gentlemen of character, assisted him in his researches. The honorable legislature, having been made acquainted with his design, passed a generous resolve, which gave him access to their records and papers on file.
His excellency governor Trumbull, than whom no man had a more thorough acquaintance with the history of the colony, employed his influence and friendship for his assistance, and furnished him with many important papers. In a letter to him on the subject, he expresses himself in this manner—" I wish you success, and to afford you all the assistance in my power. I imagine the earliest times of the colony will be attended with the most diff1culty, to collect the facts with sufficient certainty—wherein the great excellency of a history consists. Such an one I have long desired to see. It must be a work of time and indefatigable labour and industry, since it has been so long neglected, and the materials, many of them, almost lost, and others scattered, and all need so much care in collecting, time in comparing, and judgment in compiling." The truth of these observations, the author hath fully experienced; how far he hath acted upon them must be determined by the public opinion.
The honorable George Wyllys, Esq. late secretary of the state, was second to none in the assistance and encouragement which he afforded. From these various sources, the author, in 1774, found himself possessed of an ample and important collection; and determined to write the first volume of the history, as soon as might be, with convenience. But before he had entered upon the work, the war commenced between GreatBritain and her colonies, and the universal attention was turned to a very different object . It was conceived to be dangerous for any of the public papers to be kept so near the sea coast as the place of his residence. A great number of papers, therefore, which he had received from governor Trumbull, and others which had been taken out of the office at Hartford, were returned to their respective offices.
For a number of years after the war, the state of the country was altogether unfavorable for publications of this kind. It was nevertheless still hoped that an opportunity would present for the publication of such a work to advantage, and the design of writing was not wholly given up.
However, before the writer had entered upon the work, he was invited, by a vote of the General Association of the state, to compile a different history. Many objections presented themselves to his mind against engaging in the work proposed by that venerable body. But after these had been fully communicated, the solicitation was renewed. In consequence of which, and the opinion and advice of some principal gentlemen of the legislature, he was induced to undertake the writing of a general history of the United States of America, from the first discovery of this northern continent until the year 1792, including three complete centuries. In making collections for this, and in the compilation of it, all the leisure hours which he could possibly redeem, by early rising and an indefatigable attention to business, from the stated labours of his office, have been, for nearly ten years, employed.
In the progress of this work it became necessary to have frequent recourse to his former collections, which, by this time, had been in a manner forgotten. By this means the ideas of the ample materials which had been prepared, for the history of Connecticut, were revived in his mind. When he contemplated the pains and expense at which they had been collected, the countenance which he had received from the legislature, and the general expectations which had been entertained with respect to a history of Connecticut, it appeared to him not very consistent with that respectful and generous treatment which Vie owed more particularly to his own state, to publish a large history of the United States, while he neglected theirs. It also appeared to be a duty, which he owed to himself and family, as well as the public, not to suffer all his former pains and expense, in his collections for the history of Connecticut, to be lost. Upon a mature view of the case, and the advice of a number of his brethren in the ministry, he determined to suspend the writing of the history of the United States, until he should publish one volume, at least, of the history of Connecticut. If this should meet the public approbation, it might assist him in introducing a larger work, and render it more extensively useful. If the history of Connecticut should be unpopular, it would give him a profitable admonition, and prevent a greater misfortune, by a larger and more expensive publication.
About the middle of December, 1796, he began to look over and arrange his papers and to compile the following history. Since that time he hath examined the papers on file in the secretary's office, and taken out such as were necessary, composed and copied off with his own hands the history now published, besides preaching twice on every Lord's day, lectures on proper occasions, and attending the other duties of his office.
The death of that truly worthy gentleman, the honorable George Wyllys, the former secretary, considerably retarded the work, as more time has been employed in examining the files than otherwise would have been necessary.
In compiling the history, great pains have been taken to exhibit the state of the country when the first settlements commenced, to present every important transaction in a candid and clear view, and to make such an arrangement of the whole, as that every preceding chapter might prepare the way for the next, and add perspicuity to the story.
As this is the first history of the colony, and as time effaces ancient records and papers, and eradicates from the mind of man the remembrance of former transactions, the compiler judged it expedient to make it more full and particular, than otherwise might have been necessary or proper. He imagined, that no person would, probably, hereafter have the same advantages which he has had, nor take the same pains which he has taken, to examine the ancient records, histories and manuscripts of the country. He wished to assist future historians, and that nothing useful and important, respecting church or state, might be lost. As he has aimed at information and usefulness, he has avoided all circumlocutions, reasonings and opinions of his own, and attempted to fill every page with history. The florid and pompous style has been avoided, as unnatural and improper in historic writings, and the easy and familiar has been attempted. The compiler has judged his time too precious, and the field of usefulness before him too extensive, to busy himself in rounding periods, and guarding against every little matter which might afford business for the critic. He has, however, aimed at authenticity, propriety and perspicuity. He has wished to avoid the dull and dry manner, and to write with a becoming deference to the public.
The account which has been given of the sources whence the compiler has obtained his information, the quotations in the body of the work, the references made in the marginal notes to authors, records, and manuscripts, with the appendix, it is imagined, will be abundantly sufficient to authenticate what has been written. Indeed, very little has been taken upon tradition.
Had the history been written more leisurely and with fewer avocations it might have been more perfect; but as it was desired to make as short a pause as possible in writing the history of the United States, it was judged inexpedient to employ more time upon it
The author is under great disadvantages for historic writing. He can command no time for himself. The work of the ministry, which is his chosen and beloved employ
mcnt, after all his application, so engrosses his time, that sometimes for weeks and months, after all his application, he cannot find a single day for the compilation of history. When he has attempted it, he has been able scarcely to write a page without interruption. Often he has been so fatigued with other studies, as to be in circumstances not the most favorable for composition.
It may, possibly, be thought a great neglect, or matter of partiality, that no account is given of witchcraft in Connecticut. The only reason is, that after the most careful researches, no indictment of any person for that crime, nor any process relative to that affair, can be found. The minute in Goff s journal, published by governor Hutchinson, relative to the execution of Ann Coles, and an obscure tradition that one or two persons were executed at Stratford, is all the information to be found relative to that unhappy affair.
The countenance and assistance which the honorable legislature have given the writer, by allowing him a free access to the public records and papers, is most respectfully acknowledged.
The attention and complaisance with which he has been treated by the secretaries of the state, and their respective families, while he has had occasion to examine the public records and papers, challenge the warmest expressions of his gratitude.
To his brethren in the ministry, the gentlemen of the bar, and the towns who have so generously encouraged and supported the subscription, he returns his grateful acknowledgments.
The labor of collecting the materials for the history and compilement, has been almost incredible. The expense of publication will be great. However, should it meet a favorable reception, assist the legislator or divine, the gentlemen of the bench or of the bar; should it afford instruction and pleasure to the sons and daughters of the state, and in any degree advance its morals or literature, it will be an ample compensation.
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
THE settlement of New-England, purely for the purposes of Religion, and the propagation of civil and religious liberty, is an event which has no parallel in the history of modern ages. The piety, self-denial, sufferings, patience, perseverance and magnanimity of the first settlers of the country are without a rival. The happy and extensive consequences of the settlements which they made, and of the sentiments which they were careful to propagate, to their posterity, to the church and to the world, admit of no description. They are still increasing, spreading wider and wider, and appear more and more important.
The planters of Connecticut were among the illustrious characters, who first settled New-England, and twice made settlements, first in Massachusetts, and then in Connecticut on bare creation. In an age when the light of freedom was but just dawning, they, by voluntary compact, formed one of the most free and happy constitutions of government which mankind have ever adopted. Connecticut has ever been distinguished by the free spirit of its government, the mildness of its laws, and the general diffusion of knowledge, among all classes of its inhabitants. They have been no less distinguished by their industry, economy, purity of manners, population and spirit of enterprise. For more than a century and half, they have had no rival, as to the steadiness of their government, their internal peace and harmony, their love and high enjoyment of domestic, civil and religious order and happiness. They have ever stood among the most illuminated, first and boldest defenders of the civil and religious rights of mankind.
The history of such a people must be curious, entertaining and important. It will exhibit the fairest models of civil government, of religious order, purity and human happiness. It is the design of the present work to lay this history before the public.
As the planters of Connecticut were among the first settlers of New-England, and interested in the first patents and settlemer1ts, sketches of the discovery of the country, of the patents by which it was conveyed and divided to the different colonies, and of the first settlements, will be necessary to illustrate the history of Connecticut and be a natural preliminary to this work.
Chr1stopher Columbus, a Genoese, on October 12, 1492, discovered the western isles, and first communicated to Europe the intelligence of a new world: but the Cabots had the honor of discovering the great continent of North-America.
John Cabot, a Venetian, born in England, in 1494 discovered Newfoundland and the island of St. Johns. In consequence of this discovery, king Henry the seventh of England, in whose service he was employed, conferred on him the honor of knighthood; and gave him and his sons a commission to make further discoveries in the new world. John Cabot died soon after he received this commission. His son Sebastian, in 1497, sailed with the fleet, which had been preparing for his father, and directing his course by his journals, proceeded to the 67th degree of north latitude, and, returning to the southward, fell in with the continent in the 56th degree of north latitude; and thence explored the coast as far south as the Floridas. From these discoveries originated the claims of England to these parts of the northern continent .
In 1602, Bartholomew Gosnold discovered some part of NewEngland. He first touched on its eastern coast, in about 43 degrees of north latitude; and, sailing to the southward, landed on the Elizabeth Islands. He made some discoveries of the adjacent parts, and gave the name to Cape Cod and Marthas Vineyard.
Captain Henry Hudson,1 commissioned by king James I. in 1608, sailed, in the employment of several London merchants, to North-America. He came upon the coast in about 40 degrees of north latitude, and made a discovery of Long-Island and Hudson's river. He proceeded up the river as far as the latitude of 43, and called it by his own name.
About two years after he made a second voyage to the river, in the service of a number of Dutch merchants; and, some time after, made sale of his right to the Dutch. The right to the country, however, was antecedently in king James, by virtue of the discovery which Hudson had made under his commission. The English protested against the sale; but the Dutch, in 1614, under the Amsterdam West-India company, built a fort nearly on the same ground where the city of Albany now is, which they called fort Aurania. Sir Thomas Dale, governor of Virginia, directly after dispatched captain Argall to dispossess the Dutch, and they
1 The Hudson river was discovered a year later, viz., September 4, 1609, at a time when Hudson's expedition in the yacht " Half Moon," was under the auspices of the Dutch East India Company. The discoveries made at this time formed the basis for a claim by the Dutch to the whole territory from the Delaware river to Cape Cod, which points were the limits of Hudson's cruise on our coast at this time. See Purchas's Pilgrim, also De Laet.—J. T.
submitted to the king of England, and under him to the governor of Virginia.1
The same year captain John Smith, who some years before had been governor of Virginia, made a voyage to this part of the continent. He ranged the coast from Penobscot to Cape Cod; made a discovery of the river Pascataqua, and the Massachusetts islands. On his return to England, he published a description of the country, with a map of the sea coast, and gave it the name of NewEngland.
In 1620, a number of pious people, part of Mr. John Robinson's church and congregation, wh$, by the violence of persecution, had been driven from their pleasant seats and enjoyments in England, arrived on the coast; and, after braving every danger, and enduring almost every hardship and distress of which human nature is capable, effected a permanent settlement in this part of North-America. They gave it the name of New-Plymouth. By voluntary compact they formed themselves into a small commonwealth, and had a succession of governors. They settled all that part of Massachusetts included in the county of Plymouth. By making permanent settlements, to which others might resort, on their first arrival in New-England, or afterwards in times of distress; by making treaties with the Indians, by which the peace of the country was preserved; by their knowledge of it, and the experience which they had gained, they were of peculiar advantage to those who came over and made settlements after them. They were a pious, industrious people, and exhibited towards each other the most striking examples of fraternal affection. They continued a distinct colony for about seventy years, until their incorporation, by the charter of William and Mary, in 1691, with the colony of Massachusetts and the province of Maine.
November 3d, 1620, just before the arrival of Mr. Robinson's people in New-England, king James the first, by letters patent, under the great seal of England, incorporated the duke of Lenox, the marquises of Buckingham and Hamilton, the earls of Arundel and Warwick, and others, to the number of forty noblemen, knights and gentlemen, by the name "of the council established at Plymouth in the county of Devon, for the planting, ruling and governing of New-England in America "—" and granted unto them, and their successors and assigns, all that part of America, lying and being in breadth from forty degrees of north latitude, from the equinoctial line, to the forty eighth degree of said northerly latitude inclusively, and in length of, and within all the breadth aforesaid, throughout the main lands from sea to sea." The patent ordained that this tract of country should be called New-England in America, and by that name have continuance for ever.
1 Smith's history of New-York, p. 2.
This grant is the broad basis on which stand all the other grants made to the colonies in New-England. This prepared the way for future grants and the immediate settlement of New-England.
On the 19th of March, 1628, the Plymouth company granted unto Sir Henry Roswell, Sir John Young, knights, Thomas Southcoat, John Humphry, John Endicott and Simon Whitcomb, their heirs and assigns forever, all that part of New-England in America, which lies and extends between Merrimack river and Charles river, in the bottom of Massachusetts bay, and three miles to the north and south of every part of Charles river, and three miles south of the southernmost part of said bay, and three miles to the northward of every part of Merrimack river, and " all lands and hereditaments whatsoever lying within the limits aforesaid north and south, in latitude and breadth; and in length and longitude, of and within all the breadth aforesaid throughout the main lands there, from the Atlantic sea and ocean on the east part, to the south sea on the west part."
On the 4th of March, 1629, king Charles the first confirmed this patent under the great seal of England. This was the patent of Massachusetts bay, under which the settlement of that colony immediately commenced.
At this time, liberty of conscience could not be enjoyed in the parent country. No indulgence was granted even to the most pious, loyal, and conscientious people, who would not strictly conform to the habits, ceremonies, and worship of the church of England. All non-conformists were exposed to fines, imprisonments, the ruin of their families, fortunes, and every thing which ought to be dear to men. The most learned, pious, orthodox, and inoffensive people, who did not conform to the church of England, were treated, by the king and his bishops, with far greater severity, than drunkards, sabbath breakers, or even the most notorious debauchees. They were condemned, in the spiritual courts, without juries; without having the witnesses against them brought into court, to depose face to face; and, sometimes, without knowing the crime alleged against them, or who were the witnesses by whom it was to be proved. Many of the pious people in England, were so harassed and persecuted for their non-conformity, that they determined, if possible, rather to make settlements in a dreary wilderness, at the distance of three thousand miles from their native country, than endure the persecution and sufferings, to which they were constantly exposed from the hands of those who ought to have cherished and defended them. This cruel treatment of our venerable ancestors, was the cause of the settlement of the New-England colonies and churches. It will ever be the distinguishing glory of these colonies, that they were not originally formed for the advantages of trade and worldly emolument, but for the noble purposes of religion, the enjoyment of liberty of conscience in the worship and ordinances of God. The pious fathers of these colonies wished to enjoy the uncorrupted gospel, administered in all its ordinances in purity and power, and to transmit the invaluable blessings of civil and religious liberty to their remotest posterity. With these views they left their native country, their pleasant seats and enjoyments in Europe, and made settlements in the wilds of America.
The same year in which the patent of Massachusetts received the royal confirmation, Mr. John Endicott was sent over, with about three hundred people, by the patentees, to prepare the way for the settlement of a permanent colony in that part of New-England. They arrived at Naumkeak on June 24th, and began a settlement, which they named Salem. This was the first town in Massachusetts, and the second in New-England.
About a hundred of the planters who came over with Mr. Endicott, removed very soon to Mishawam, and began a plantation at that place. Here they erected a very spacious house, and made other preparations for the accommodation of those who were expected from England the next year. They called their settlement Charlestown.
At a meeting of the company for the planting of the Massachusetts, in England, August 29th, it was voted, that the patent and government of the plantation be transferred to New-England.1
The next year, therefore, seventeen ships were prepared, with all necessaries for the settlement of a colony. Eleven or twelve of these ships made a safe arrival in New-England by the middle of July, and they all arrived before the close of the year.2 In these came over governor Winthrop, and the magistrates of the colony, who had been previously chosen in England. With them also came a number of ministers, to illuminate the infant churches, and preach in the wilderness the glad tidings of salvation.
On the 10th or 12th of July, governor Winthrop arrived at Charlestown, with about fifteen hundred people. They encamped in cottages, booths, and tents, upon Charlestpwn hill. Their place of public worship was under a large spreading tree. Here Messrs. Wilson and Phillips preached their first sermons to these pious pilgrims.* In the ships which arrived this year, there came over about seventeen hundred people. In this and the last year, there came into New-England two thousand planters. These settled about nine or ten towns or villages. A considerable number settled at Boston and Charlestown. Many of the principal characters fixed their abode in these towns. Governor Winthrop lived in the great house, which had been erected the preceding year at Charlestown. Mr. Isaac Johnston, who married the lady Arabella, sister of the earl of Lincoln, and who had the best estate
1 Prince's Chron. p. 192. * Ibid, part ii. p. 10. * Ibid. p. 240
of any of the company, fixed his residence at Boston. He was the great promoter of the settlement of the capital of the Massachusetts.1 Sir Richard Saltonstall, who was another of the magistrates, with his company, settled at Watertown. They made choice of Mr. Phillips for their pastor. Mr. Pyncheon, and another company, began a settlement at Roxbury, and the famous Mr. John Elliot and Mr. Weld, who came into New-England the next year, were elected their ministers. Other companies settled Medford and Weymouth. Boston and Charlestown, the first year, considered themselves as one company, and chose Mr. Wilson for their pastor.
In one of the first ships which arrived this year, came over the Rev. Mr. John Warham, Mr. John Maverick, Mr. Rossiter, Mr. Ludlow, Mr. Henry Wolcott. and others of Mr. Warham's church and congregation, who first settled the town of Windsor, in Connecticut. Mr. Rossiter and Mr. Ludlow were magistrates. Mr. Wolcott had a fine estate, and was a man of superior abilities. This was an honourable company. Mr. Warham had been a famous minister in Exeter, the capital of the county of Devonshire. The people who came with him, were from the three counties of Devonshire, Dorsetshire, and Somersetshire.
Some time before the 20th of March, just as they were about to embark for New-England, upon a day of solemn fasting and prayer, they were formed into a congregational church, in the new hospital at Plymouth, in England. They then made choice of Mr. Warham and Mr. Maverick to be their pastor and teacher, and they were ordained, or re-installed to the care of this particular church. The famous Mr. White, of Dorchester, preached and assisted on this occasion.2
They sailed from Plymouth, in England, on the 20th of March, in the ship Mary and John, of 400 tons, and arrived at Nantasket on the Lord's day, May 30th. The next day, captain Squeb, master of the ship, put them and their goods on shore, at Nantasket point, and, in this situation, left them to shift for themselves.3 But, by the assistance of some of the old planters, they obtained a boat, and proceeded up Charles river, to the place since called Watertown. Here they landed their goods, and erected a shelter to cover them; but as they had many cattle, and found a neck of land at Mattapan, affording good accommodations for them, they soon removed and began a settlement there. They named their town Dorchester.
Sir Richard Saltonstall's people, who settled at Watertown, were the first settlers of Weathersfield, in Connecticut. Mr. Phillips, who was elected their pastor, at Watertown, had been min
• Ibid. p. 207. Captain Squeb was, afterwards, obliged to pay damages for this conduct.
ister at Boxford, in the county of Essex. Most of them were, probably, the people of his former charge, and from the same county.
The emigrants who came into New-England with Mr. Endicott and governor Winthrop, soon after their arrival, were visited with uncommon sickness and mortality. Of the company who came with Mr. Endicott the last year, eighty were in their graves before governor Winthrop arrived. He found the colony in very miserable circumstances. Many of those who were yet living, were in a weak and sickly condition. The people had scarcely a sufficiency of provisions for their subsistence fourteen days. Besides, they had sustained a capital loss in their servants. They brought over with them a hundred and eighty. These cost them more than three thousand pounds sterling. But they were so straitened for provisions, that they were necessitated to give all those who survived the sickness, their liberty, that they might shift for themselves.1
Many of the ships which arrived this year, had a long passage of seventeen or eighteen weeks; in consequence of which, numbers had the scurvy, and came on shore in a sickly condition. By reason of wet lodgings, in cottages and miserable huts, for the want of fresh food and other conveniences, this sickness increased. Other diseases also, soon attacked them with violence; so that, in a fortnight or three weeks, the sickness became general. In a short time, so many fell sick, that the well were not sufficient properly to attend them, and bury the dead. Great numbers died, and were buried on Charlestown hill.2 The sickness and mortality greatly retarded the necessary labours and affairs of the colony; so that many of the people were obliged to lie in tents, or miserable huts, during the winter. By the next spring, a hundred and twenty, or more, were among the dead. Of this number were Mr. Johnson and Mr. Rossiter. The charming lady Arabella, celebrated for her many virtues, died before her husband. She was sister to the earl of Lincoln; and, for the sake of religion, came from a paradise of ease, plenty, and delight, in the house of a renowned earl, into a wilderness of toil, disaster, and misery.
About a hundred of the people were discouraged, and returned to England; two hundred were dead, and some went to Piscataqua. About seventeen hundred remained; a little more than a hundred and eighty persons, or thirty families; on an average, to each town. The greatest numbers fixed themselves at Boston and Watertown. In these towns, there were, probably, nearly sixty families: in Charlestown and Dorchester, about forty; and in the other towns, not more than fifteen or twenty families.2
In addition to all the other calamities, with which these plantations had been visited, they, this year, experienced the distress of famine. By the beginning of February, bread failed in every house, except the governor's, and even in this the family were reduced to the last loaves. Such were the necessities of the people, that they fed on clams, muscles, ground-nuts, and acorns. Indeed, in the winter season, it was with great difficulty that the people procured these poor articles of subsistence. The governors foreseeing, in the fall, that they should want provisions, dispatched a ship to Ireland to procure them a supply. Her happy arrival on the 5th of February, prevented their perishing with famine. The return of health in the spring, the arrival of other vessels, with provisions, afterwards, and a plenteous harvest, gave the affairs of the colony a more prosperous appearance.
While affairs were thus transacting in the colony, the violent persecution of the puritans in England made great numbers look towards America as the only safe retreat from the impending storm. This, annually, occasioned a large accession of new planters to the settlements in New-England.
In 1630, the Rev. Mr. Thomas Hooker, a gentleman of great abilities, and a famous preacher, at Chelmsford, in the county of Essex, was silenced for non-conformity. To escape fines and imprisonment, he fled into Holland. He was held in such high and universal esteem among his acquaintance, that forty-seven ministers, in his vicinity, petitioned the bishop of London in his favour. These were all conformists, and witnessed for Mr. Hooker, that they esteemed him, and knew him " to be, for doctrine orthodox, for life and conversation honest, for disposition peaceable, and no wise turbulent or factious." However, as he was a non-conformist, no personal or acquired excellencies, no testimonials of his good conduct, nor prayers of his friends, could save him from prosecutions and deposition.
He was so esteemed as a preacher, that not only his own people, but others, from all parts of the county of Essex, flocked to hear him. The noble earl of Warwick, though he resided at a great distance from Chelmsford, was so delighted with his public performances, that he frequently attended them. Great numbers not only attended his ministry, but experienced its salutary effects, and found themselves willing to emigrate into any part of the world, to enjoy the happiness of such a pastor. No sooner, therefore, was he driven from them, than they turned their eyes towards New-England. They hoped that, if comfortable settlements could be made in this part of America, they might obtain him for their pastor. Therefore, in 1632, a large body of them came over and settled at Newtown, since called Cambridge, in Massachusetts. Numbers of them, it seems, came over at an earlier period, and began to settle at Weymouth, but, this year, they all removed to Newtown. They
Hooker, that he would come over into New-England, and take the pastoral charge of them.
At their desire he left Holland, and having obtained Mr. Samuel Stone, a lecturer at Torcester, in Northamptonshire, for an assistant in the ministry, took his passage for America in the Griffin, a ship of 300 tons, and arrived at Boston, September 4th, 1633. With him came over the famous Mr. John Cotton, Mr. John Haynes, afterwards governor of Connecticut, Mr. Goff, and two hundred other passengers, of importance to the colony.
Mr. Hooker, soon after his arrival at Boston, proceeded to Newtown, where, finding himself in the midst of a joyful and affectionate people, he was filled with joy himself. He embraced them with open arms, saying, in the language of the apostle, "Now I live, if ye stand fast in the Lord." 1 These were the pious people who afterwards settled the town of Hartford.
Soon after Mr. Hooker's arrival, he was chosen pastor, and Mr. Stone teacher of the people at Newtown. On the nth of October, 1633, the church was gathered, and, after solemn fasting and prayer, the pastor and teacher were ordained to their respective offices. The church at Watertown, had been gathered before, on the 27th of August, 1630, and Mr. Phillips ordained pastor. Thus, the three churches of Windsor, Hartford, and Weathersfield, were gathered antecedently to their settlement in Connecticut, and it does not appear that they were ever re-gathered afterwards.
THE great Plymouth company wished to make grants of their lands as fast as they could find purchasers; and conformity was so pressed, and the times grew so difficult in England, that men of quality, as well as others, were anxious to provide, for themselves and their friends, a retreat in America. Another patent, therefore, containing a large tract of country in New-England, soon succeeded that of Massachusetts.
On the 19th of March, 1631, Robert, earl of Warwick, president of the council of Plymouth, under his hand and seal, did grant and confirm unto the honourable William Viscount Say and Seal, Robert Lord Brooks, Robert Lord Rich, Charles Fiennes, Esq. Sir Nathaniel Rich, Sir Richard Saltonstall, and others, to the number of eleven, and to their heirs, assigns, and associates, for ever, " All that part of New-England, in America, which lies and extends itself from a river there, called Narraganset river, the
1 Magnalia B. III. The Life of Hooker.
space of forty leagues upon a straight line near the sea shore, towards the south-west, west and by south, or west as the coast lieth towards Virginia, accounting three English miles to the league, and all and singular the lands and hereditaments whatsoever, lying and being within the bounds aforesaid, north and south in latitude and breadth, and in length and longitude of, and within all the breadth aforesaid, throughout all the main lands there, from the western ocean to the south seas; and all lands, grounds, soil, wood and wood lands, ground, havens, ports, creeks • and rivers, waters, fishings and hereditaments whatsoever, lying within the said space, and every part and parcel thereof; and also, all islands lying in America aforesaid, in the said seas, or either of them, on the western or eastern coasts, or parts of the said tracts of land, by these presents to be given or granted."1 The council of Plymouth, the preceding year, 1630, granted this whole tract to the earl of Warwick, and it had been confirmed to him by a patent from king Charles the first.
This is the original patent of Connecticut.2 The settlers of the two colonies of Connecticut and New-Haven were the patentees of Viscount Say and Seal, lord Brook, and their associates, to whom the patent was originally given.
President Clap describes the extent of the tract, conveyed by this patent, in the words following: "All that part of New-England which lies west from Narraganset river, a hundred and twenty miles on the sea coast; and from thence, in latitude and breadth aforesaid, to the south sea. This grant extends from Point Judith, to New-York; and from thence, in a west line to the south sea: and if we take Narraganset river in its whole length, this tract will extend as far north as Worcester: it comprehends the whole of the colony of Connecticut, and much more."8 Neal, Douglass, Hutchinson,* and all ancient historians and writers, have represented all the New-England grants as extending west from the Atlantic ocean to the south sea. Indeed the words of the patent are most express, declaring its extent to be south west or west, towards Virginia, to be in length and longitude throughout all the main lands to the south sea.
The colony of the Massachusetts, and the commissioners of the
1 See this patent in the Appendix, No. 1.
'The foundation of the earl of Warwick's claim to this territory is as Johnston remarks, "mythical." The grant to Lord Say and Seal and others shows no title on the part of the grantor, and is merely a quit-claim. The same terrirory was granted by the Plymouth Company in 1635 to the Marquis of Hamilton, whose claim was set up in opposition to the charter in 1662, but was barred by prescription. The fact that the agreement with Fenwick in 1644 provides that he shall arrange that this same territory shall "fall in under the jurisdiction of Connecticut, if it come into his power," indicates that the court of the colony was by no means sure of its jurisdiction.—J. T.
'Manuscripts of president Clap.
4 Neal's history N. E. vol. 1. p. 148. Douglass, vol. ii. p. 90 and 160; and Hutchinson vol. i. p. 64 and vol. ii. p. 203.
united colonies of New-England, understood the patents in this light, and hence extended their claims to the westward of the Dutch settlements. The Massachusetts, in the year 1659, made a grant of lands, opposite to fort Aurania, upon Hudson's river, to a number of principal merchants, in the colony, who were planning to make settlements in those parts.1 The same year, the commissioners of the united colonies asserted their claim of all the western lands to the south sea. In a letter to the Dutch governor, September 1st, 1659, they write, "We presume you have heard from your people of the fort of Aurania, that some of our * people, the English, have been lately in those parts, upon discovery of some meet places for plantations, within the bounds of the patent of the Massachusetts colony; which from the latitude of 42 degrees and a half, or 42 degrees and 33 and a half minutes, and so northerly, extends itself from east to west, in longitude through the main land of America, from the Atlantic ocean to the south or west sea."
The patents to Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, have ever been understood to have the same westerly extension. In the same light have they always been viewed, by the British kings, and have been pleaded and acted upon, in treaties, between the court of Great-Britain, and the French and Spanish monarchs. By virtue of this construction of patents and charters of the American colonies, it was, that all the western territories, as far as Mississippi, were, in the late peace with Great-Britain, ceded to the states of America. From the same construction of the patents, congress have taken a formal surrender of the unappropriated western lands from particular states, and from Connecticut no less than from others.
The situation of the settled part of Connecticut is chiefly from 41 to 42 degrees of north latitude, and from 72 to 73 degrees and 45 minutes west longitude. It is bounded south by the sea shore about 90 miles, from Byram river, in the latitude of 40 degrees and 58 minutes, and longitude 72 degrees and 25 minutes, to Pawcatuck river, in latitude 41 degrees and 17 minutes, and in longitude 72 degrees and 25 minutes; east on the colony of RhodeIsland 45 miles; north on Massachusetts 72 miles, the line running nearly in the latitude of 42 degrees; and west on New-York about 73 miles. It contains 4,730 square miles, and 3,020,000 acres. One twentieth part of the colony is water and highways.a Exclusive of these there are 2,869,000 acres. Of this about 2,640,000 are estimated improvable. The land is excellently watered, and liberal to the husbandman. Though, in some places,
1 Hutchinson, vol. i. p. Ijg.
* To find the quantity of water and highways, an accurate computation was made of the proportion of water and highways in a particular town, which was supposed to contain an average with the towns in general.
it is mountainous and broken, yet the greatest part of this is profitable either for wood or grazing. There are some thin lands, but these are profitable with proper manuring and cultivation.
The present population is more than fifty souls to every square mile, including land and water. It is about one person to every ten or twelve acres of land.
The first discoveries made of this part of New-England were of its principal river and the fine meadows lying upon its bank. Whether the Dutch at New-Netherlands, or the people of NewPlymouth, were the first discoverers of the river is not certain. Both the English and Dutch claimed to be the first discoverers, and both purchased and made a settlement of the lands upon it nearly at the same time.
In 1631, Wahquimacut, a sachem upon the river Connecticut, made a journey to Plymouth and Boston, earnestly soliciting the governors of each of the colonies to send men to make settlements upon the river. He represented the exceeding fruitfulness of the country, and promised that he would supply the English, if they would make a settlement there, with corn annually, and give them eighty beaver skins. He urged that two men might be sent to view the country. Had this invitation been accepted it might have prevented the Dutch claim to any part of the lands upon the river, and opened an extensive trade, in hemp, furs, and deer skins, with all the Indians upon it, and far into Canada.
The governor of Massachusetts treated the sachem and his company with generosity, but paid no further attention to his proposal. Mr. Winslow, the governor of Plymouth, judged it worthy of more attention. It seems, that soon after he went to Connecticut, and discovered the river and the adjacent parts. The commissioners of the united colonies, in their declaration against the Dutch, in 1653, say, " Mr. Winslow, one of the commissioners for Plymouth, discovered the fresh river when the Dutch had neither trading house nor any pretence to a foot of land there." 1
It very soon appeared that the earnestness, with which the Indian sachem solicited the English to make settlements on the river, originated in the distressed state of the river Indians. Pekoath, at that time, the great sachem of the Pequims, or Pequots, was conquering them, and driving their sachems from that part of the country. The Indian king imagined that, if he could persuade the English to make settlements there, they would defend him from his too powerful enemies.2
The next year, the people of New-Plymouth made more particular discoveries, upon the river, and found a place near the mouth of the little river, in Windsor, at which they judged a trading house might be erected, which would be advantageous to the colony.
1 Records of the United Colonies. * Winthrop's Journal, p. 25
The Indians represented that the river Connecticut extended so far north, and so near the great lake, that they passed their canoes from the lake into it; and that from the great swamps about the lake came most of the beaver in which they traded.
One of the branches of Onion river, in Vermont, is within ten miles of Connecticut river. This was anciently called the French river. The French and Indians from Canada came by this river, and from this into Connecticut, when they made their attacks on the northern frontiers of New-England and Connecticut.
Connecticut river has its source in that grand ridge of mountains which divides the waters of New-England and Canada, and extends north-easterly to the gulf of St. Lawrence. The source of its highest branch is in about 45 degrees and a half, or 46 degrees of north latitude. Where it enters New-England, in 45 degrees of north latitude, it is ten rods in breadth, and in running sixty miles further, it becomes twenty-four rods wide. It forms the boundary line btween New-Hampshire and Vermont about two hundred miles. Thence running through the states of Massachusetts and Connecticut, it disembogues its waters into LongIsland sound, between Saybrook and Lyme. It runs with a gentle flow, as its course is, between three and four hundred miles. Its breadth through Connecticut, as a medium, is between a hundred rods and half a mile. In the high spring floods it overflows its banks, and in some places is nearly two miles in breadth. As its banks are generally low, it forms and fertilizes a vast tract of the finest meadow; feasible, fertile, and in which a stone is scarcely to be found. The general course of this beautiful river, above, and between the states of New-Hampshire and Vermont, is nearly south west; thence it turns and runs but a few degrees west of south to its mouth. At a small distance from its mouth is a bar of sand, apparently formed by the conflux of the river and tide. Upon this there is but ten feet of water at full tide. The bar is at such a distance from the mouth of the river, that the greatest floods do not increase the depth of the water. This is some obstruction to navigation, but any vessel, which can pass the bar, may proceed without obstruction as far as Middletown, thirty miles from the sound; and vessels of eighty, and a hundred tons, go up to Hartford, fifty miles from the river's mouth. By means of locks and cuts, at the falls, it is now navigable, for boats, more than three hundred miles.
In Connecticut, there is one exception to the lowness of the river's banks. About three miles below Middletown the river makes its way through two mountains, by which its breadth is contracted to about forty rods. This occasions the waters, sometimes, in the spring floods, to rise, even at Hartford, twenty feet above the common surface of the river. This, for the length of its course, its gentle flow, its excellent waters, the rich and ex
tensive meadows which it forms, and the immense quantities of fish, with which it abounds, is one of the finest rivers in NewEngland.
None of the ancient adventurers, who discovered the great continent of North-America, or New-England, made any discovery of this river. It does not appear that it was known to any civilized nation, until some years after the settlement of the English and Dutch, at Plymouth and New-Netherlands.
From this fine river, which the Indians called Quonehtacut, or Connecticut, (in English, the long river,) the colony, originally took its name. Indeed this is one principal source of its wealth and convenience.
The Housatonick and the little or Farmington river, westward of it, and Pequot river, now called the Thames, on the east, are also considerable sources of its opulence and prosperity. The Housatonick, now commonly called Stratford river, has two principal branches. One rises in Lanesborough, and the other in Windsor, in the county of Berkshire, in Massachusetts. Where it enters Connecticut, between Salisbury and Canaan, it is about fifty rods wide, and running through the whole length of the colony, it empties into the sound between Milford and Stratford. It is navigable twelve miles to Derby. Between Milford and Stratford it is about eighty rods wide, and there is about four fathoms of water. Were it not obstructed, by a bar of shells, at the mouth, it would admit large ships. Between Salisbury and Canaan is a cataract where the water of the whole river falls perpendicularly sixty feet. The fall produces a perfectly white sheet of water, and a mist in which various floating rainbows are exhibited, forming a scene exquisitely grand and beautiful.
The Naugatuck, or Waterbury river, is another considerable branch of the Housatonick. Its source is in Torrington, and running through Harwinton, Plymouth and Waterbury, it empties itself into said river at Derby.
The little, or Farmington river, rises in Becket, in Massachusetts, crosses the boundary line between the colonies at Hartland, and passing through Barkhempsted and New-Hartford, runs south considerably below the centre of Farmington first society; then, making a remarkable turn, it runs back nearly a north course, twelve or fourteen miles into Simsbury; where it turns easterly, and running into Windsor, discharges its waters into Connecticut river,1 nearly in the centre of the town. This formerly was replenished with all kinds of fish in as great a profusion as Connecticut. The numerous dams, which more lately have been erected upon it, have very greatly obstructed their passage.
Pequot river, or the Thames, empties into the sound at New
1 The Connecticut river was doubtless explored by Adrian Block in 1614, who, according to De Laet, sailed as far as the present site of Hartford.—J. T.
London. It is navigable fourteen miles, to Norwich landing. Here it loses its name, and branches into Shetucket on the east, and Norwich or little river on the west.
About a mile from the mouth of the little river, is a remarkable romantic cataract. A perpendicular rock, about twelve feet high, extends itself across the whole channel: over this the river pitches, in one entire sheet, on to a bed of rocks: here it is compressed by a very narrow and crooked passage, between two craggy cliffs, and for fifteen or twenty rods, forces its way over numerous pointed rocks, with the most violent agitation; thence it flows into a large basin, which spreads itself for its reception. The long and constant falling of the waters, have excavated the rocks, even to admiration. In some, cavities are made, of a circular form, not less than five or six feet deep. The smooth and gentle flow of the river above the fall, the regularity and beauty of its descent, the roughness and foam of the waters below, and the rugged, towering cliff impending the whole, presents the spectator with a scene majestic and pleasing beyond description.
The Shetucket, which name it bears as far only as the southern boundary of Windham, is formed by the Willamantick and Quenibaug rivers. The Willamantick has its source in Massachusetts, enters Connecticut at Stafford, and is the boundary line between Tolland and Willington, Coventry and Mansfield, and passing by Windham, loses itself in the Shetucket. Quenibaug rises in Brimfield, in Massachusetts, and passing through Sturbridge and Dudley, crosses the line between that state and Connecticut, at Thompson; and dividing Pomfret from Killingly, Canterbury from Plainfield, and Lisbon from Preston, flows into the Shetucket.
The colony is watered and fertilized by numerous other rivers, of less extent and utility.
As the people at Plymouth had explored Connecticut river, and fixed upon a place convenient for building and commerce, and found the original proprietors of the soil desirous of their making settlements among them, they judged it an affair worthy of public, and immediate attention.
In July, 1633, Mr. Winslow and Mr. Bradford therefore made a journey to Boston, to confer with governor Winthrop and his council, on the subject. Governor Winslow and Mr. Bradford proposed it to them, to join with Plymouth, in a trade to Connecticut, for hemp and beaver, and to erect a house for the purposes of commerce. It was represented as necessary, to prevent the Dutch from taking possession of that fine country, who, it was reported, were about to build upon the river; but governor "Winthrop declined the motion: he objected that it was not proper to make a plantation there, because there were three or four thousand warlike Indians upon the river; and because the bar at the mouth of it was such, that small pinnaces only could enter it at high water; and because that, seven months in the year, no vessels could go into it, by reason of the ice, and the violence of the stream.
The Plymouth people therefore determined to undertake the enterprise at their own risk. Preparations were made for erecting a trading house, and establishing a small company upon the river. In the mean time, the master of a vessel from Massachusetts, who was trading at New-Netherlands, shewed to Walter Van Twiller, the Dutch governor, the commission which the English had to trade and settle in New-England; and that his majesty, the king of England, had granted all these parts to his own subjects. He therefore desired that the Dutch would not build at Connecticut. This appears to have been done at the direction of governor Winthrop; for, in consequence of it, the Dutch governor wrote a very complaisant letter to him, in which he represented, that the lords, the States General, had granted the same country to the WestIndia company. He requested therefore, that the English would made no settlements at Connecticut, until the affair should be determined between the court of England, and the States General.1 This appears to have been a piece of policy in the Dutch governor, to keep the English still, until the Dutch had got a firm footing upon the river.
Several vessels, this year, went into Connecticut river to trade. John Oldham, from Dorchester,2 and three men with him, also travelled through the wilderness to Connecticut, to view the country, and trade with the Indians. The sachem upon the river made him most welcome, and gave him a present in beaver. He found that the Indian hemp grew spontaneously in the meadows, in great abundance: he purchased a quantity of it; and, upon trial, it appeared much to exceed the hemp which grew in England.
William Holmes, of Plymouth, with his company, having prepared the frame of a house, with boards and materials for covering it immediately, put them on board a vessel, and sailed for Connecticut. Holmes had a commission from the governor of Plymouth, and a chosen company to accomplish his design. When he came into the river, he found that the Dutch had got in before him, made a light fort, and planted two pieces of cannon: this was erected at the place since called Hartford. The Dutch forbid Holmes' going up the river, stood by their cannon, ordered him to strike his colours, or they would fire upon him: but he was a man of spirit, assured them that he had a commission from the governor of Plymouth to go up the river, and that he must obey
1 Winthrop's Journal, p. 55.
1 In tbe Colony Records, Oldham is mentioned as a member of the assembly of May 8, 1632, "for Watertown." From this Savage draws the inference that he his orders: they poured out their threats, but he proceeded, and landing on the west side of the river, erected his house a little below the mouth of the little river, in Windsor.1 The house was covered with the utmost dispatch, and fortified with palisadoes. The sachems, who were the original owners of the soil, had been driven from this part of the country, by the Pequots; and were now carried home on board Holmes' vessel. Of them the Plymouth people purchased the land, on which they erected their house.2 This, governor Wolcott says, was the first house erected in Connecticut.3 The Dutch, about the same time, erected a trading house at Hartford, which they called the Hirse of good hope.4
It was with great difficulty that Holmes and his company erected and fortified their house, and kept it afterwards. The Indians were offended at their bringing home the original proprietors, and lords of the country, and the Dutch that they had settled there, and were about to rival them in trade, and in the possession of those excellent lands upon the river: they were obliged therefore to combat both, and to keep a constant watch upon them.
The Dutch, before the Plymouth people took possession of the river, had invited them, in an amicable manner, to trade at Connecticut; but when they were apprised that they were making preparations for a settlement there, they repented of the invitation, and spared no exertions to prevent them.
On the 8th of June, the Dutch had sent Jacob Van Curter, to purchase lands upon the Connecticut. He made a purchase of about twenty acres at Hartford, of Nepuquash, a Pequot captain. Of this the Dutch took possession in October, and on the 25th of the month, Curter protested against William Holmes, the builder of the Plymouth house. Some time afterwards, the Dutch governor, Walter Van Twiller, of fort Amsterdam, dispatched a reinforcement to Connecticut, designing to drive Holmes and his company from the river. A band of seventy men, under arms, with banners displayed, assaulted the Plymouth house, but they found it so well fortified, and the men who kept it so vigilant and determined, that it could not be taken without bloodshed: they therefore came to a parley, and finally returned in peace.
The Dutch were always mere intruders.5 They had no right to any part of this country. The English ever denied their right, and when the Dutch placed a governor at New-Netherlands, and
1 Manuscripts of governor Wolcott.
5 Prince's Chron. part ii. sec. 2, p. 94, 95, 96.
3 In his manuscripts.
4 Smith represents this house as built ten years before it was. Hist, of NewYork, p. 2.
* This is disputed by Savage, who accuses Trumbull of partisan feeling, and refers to the N. A. Review, 8 : 85, for a fair statement of the claims of the Dutch. The fact that Trumbull erroneously supposed Hudson to be under control of the English at the time of the discovery of the Hudson river, probably had much to do with Trumbull's entire view of the claims of the Dutch.—J. T.
the court of England made complaint of it to the States General, they disowned the affair, and said it was only a private undertaking of an Amsterdam West-India company. King James the first commissioned Edward Langdon to be governor, at NewNetherlands, and named the country New-Albion. The Dutch submitted to the English government, until the troubles in England, under the administrations of king Charles the first and the long parliament.1 Taking the advantage of the distraction of those times, they again usurped and established their government, until they were reduced by king Charles the second, in 1664. They gave great trouble to both the colonies of Connecticut and New-Haven.
The people of New-Plymouth had carried on a trade upon Connecticut river for nearly two years before they erected a trading house. They found the country to be excellent and the trade profitable; but that, were there a house and company to receive the commodities which were brought down from the inland country, the profits would be much greater. The country abounded with beaver. The Dutch purchased not less than ten thousand skins annually. Plymouth and Massachusetts people sometimes sent, in a single ship, for England, a thousand pounds sterling worth of otter and beaver skins. The extent of Connecticut river, the numerous Indians upon it, and the easy communication which they had with the lakes, and natives of Canada, gave an extensive opening for a trade in furs, skins, corn, hemp and all kinds of commodities which the country afforded.
This was a year of great sickness at Plymouth. They lost twenty of their people. Some of them were their principal and most useful inhabitants.
It was a dreadful year to the Indians in the Massachusetts. Two sachems with a great part of their Indians died. The small pox, which spread among them, was the occasion of the mortality. The people of Massachusetts shewed them great kindness in their distress. Several towns received their children to prevent their taking the infection, and to nurse and save them if they had taken it; but the most of them died, notwithstanding all the care and pains which could be exercised towards them. When their own people forsook them, the English, who lived near them, went to their wigwams and ministered to them. Some families spent almost their whole time with them. One Englishman buried thirty of their dead in one day.2
Dong. vol. ii. p. 222.
WHEN the English became first acquainted with that tract comprised within the settled part of Connecticut, it was a vast wilderness. There were no pleasant fields, nor gardens, no public roads, nor cleared plats. Except in places where the timber had been destroyed, and its growth prevented by frequent fires, the groves were thick and lofty. The Indians so often burned the country, to take deer and other wild game, that in many parts of the plain, dry parts of it, there was but little small timber. Where lands were thus burned there grew bent grass, or as some called it, thatch, two, three and four feet high, according to the strength of the land. This, with other combustible matter, which the fields and groves produced, when dry, in the spring and fall, burned with violence and killed all the small trees. The large ones escaped, and generally grew to a notable height and magnitude. In this manner the natives so thinned the groves, that they were able to plant their corn and obtain a crop.
The constant fall of foliage, with the numerous kinds of weeds and wild grass, which annually died and putrified on the lands, yielded a constant manure, and exceedingly enriched them. Vegetation was rapid, and all the natural productions of the country luxuriant.
It abounded with the finest oaks of all kinds, with chestnut, walnut and wild cherry trees, with all kinds of maple, beech, birch, ash and elm. The butternut tree, buttonwood, basswood, poplar and sassafras trees, were to be found generally upon all tracts in Connecticut. White, yellow and pitch pine, white and red cedar, hemlock and spruce, grew plenteously in many places. In the north and northwestern part of the colony were excellent groves of pine, with spruce and fir trees. The white wood tree also, notable for its height and magnitude, making excellent boards and clapboards, was the natural growth of the country. In some towns white wood trees have grown in great abundance. All other kinds of small trees, of less utility, common to NewEngland, flourish in Connecticut.
The country abounded with a great variety of wild fruit. In the groves were walnuts, chestnuts, butternuts, hazlenuts and acorns in great abundance. Wild cherries, currants and plums, were natural productions. In the low lands, on the banks of the rivers, by the brooks and gutters, there was a variety and plenty of grapes. The country also abounded with an almost endless variety of esculent and medicinal berries, herbs and roots. Among the principal and most delicious of these were strawberries, blackberries of various kinds, raspberries, dewberries, whortleberries, bilberries, blueberries and mulberries. Cranberries also grew plenteously in the meadows, which when well prepared furnish a rich and excellent sauce. Juniperberrics, barberries and baybcrries, which are of the medicinal kind, grow spontaneously in Connecticut. The latter is an excellent and useful berry, producing a most valuable tallow. It is of a beautiful green, and has a fine perfume. Beside these, there was a profusion of various other kinds of berries of less consideration. Some even of these, however, are very useful in various kinds of dyes and in certain medicinal applications.
The earth spontaneously produced ground nuts, artichokes, wild leeks, onions, garlicks, turnips, wild pease, plantain, radish, and other esculent roots and herbs.
Among the principal medicinal vegetables of Connecticut are the blood root, seneca snakeroot, liquorice root, dragon root, pleurisy root,1 spikenard, elecampane, Solomon's seal, sarsaparilla, senna, bittersweet, ginseng, angelica, masterwort, motherwort, lungwort, consumption root,2 great and small canker weed, high and low centaury, sweet and blue flag, elder, maidenhair, pennyroyal, celandine, mallow, marsh mallow, slippery elm, adder's tongue and rattlesnake weed. Indeed a great proportion of the roots and plants of the country, with the bark, buds and roots of many of the trees, are used medicinally. There is a great variety of plants and flowers, the names and virtues of which are not known.2
The country was no less productive of animals, than of natural fruit. In the groves there were plenty of deer, moose, fat bears, turkeys, herons, partridges, quails, pigeons, and other wild game, which were excellent for food. There were such incredible numbers of pigeons in New-England, when the English became first acquainted with it, as filled them with a kind of astonishment. Such numerous and extensive flocks would be seen flying for some hours, in the morning, that they would obscure the light. An American historian writes, " It passeth credit, if but the truth were written."
Connecticut abounded in furs. Here were otters, beaver, the black, gray, and red fox, the racoon, mink, muskrat, and various other animals, of the fur kind. The wolf, wild cat, and other animals, common in New-England, were equally so in Connecticut. Wolves were numerous in all parts of New-England, when the
1 Esclepias decumbens.
* This is the Geum Urbanum of Linnaeus. It is known in Britain by the name of Herb Bennet, or common Averts. Dr. Buchhave, from long experience, recommends it as much superior to the Peruvian bark, in the cure of periodical and other diseases. Medical commentaries by a society of Physicians in Edinburgh, vol. vii. p. 279 to 288. He represents three ounces of this root, as equal to a pound of the cortex.
3 The roots and flowers of America, would be the most valuable addition to the works of the celebrated Linnaeus, which could be made.
settlements commenced, and did great damage to the planters, killing their sheep, calves, and young cattle.
The country afforded an almost incredible plenty of water fowl. In the bays, creeks, rivers, and ponds, were wild geese, and ducks of all kinds, wigeons, sheldrakes, broadbills, teal of various sorts, and other fowl, which were both wholesome and palatable. In the waters, on the shores, and in the sands, were lobsters, oysters, clams, and all kinds of shell fish in abundance. Most of these are reckoned among the dainties of the table.
In the seas, bays, rivers, and ponds, there was a variety, and an innumerable multitude of fish. Connecticut river, in particular, was distinguished for that plenty and variety which it afforded in the proper season: especially for those excellent salmon, with which its waters were replenished.
As Connecticut abounded in wild animals, so it did also with wild and savage men. In no part of New-England were the Indians so numerous, in proportion to the extent of territory, as in Connecticut. The sea coast, harbors, bays, numerous ponds and streams, with which the country abounded, the almost incredible plenty of fish and fowl which it afforded, were exceedingly adapted to their convenience and mode of living. The exceeding fertility of the meadows, upon several of its rivers, and in some other parts of it, the excellence of its waters, and the salubrity of the air, were all circumstances, which naturally collected them in great numbers to this tract. Neither wars, nor sickness, had so depopulated this, as they had some other parts of New-England.
From the accounts given of the Connecticut Indians, they cannot be estimated at less than twelve or sixteen thousand. They might possibly amount to twenty. They could muster, at least, three or four thousand warriors.1 It was supposed, in 1633, that the river Indians only could bring this number into the field.2 These were principally included within the ancient limits of Windsor, Hartford, Weathersfield, and Middletown. Within the town of Windsor only, there were ten distinct tribes, or sovereignties. About the year 1670, their bowmen were reckoned at two thousand. At that time, it was the general opinion, that there were nineteen Indians, in that town, to one Englishman.* There was a great body of them in the centre of the town. They had a large fort a little north of the plat on which the first meeting-house was erected. On the east side of the river, on the upper branches of the Podunk, they were very numerous. There were also a great number in Hartford. Besides those on the west side of the river, there was a distinct tribe in East-Hartford. These were princi
1 Winthrop's Journal, p. 51. * Manuscripts from Windsor.
* This estimate is considered by Stiles (Ancient Windsor, 1st ed. p. 86) as absurd. From church records unknown to Trumbull, Stiles shows that this computation would make the number of Indians in Windsor alone from 11,000 to 13,000, or as many as the whole colony of Connecticut was supposed to hold at that time. pally situated upon the Podunk, from the northern boundary of Hartford, to its mouth, where it empties into Connecticut river. Totanimo, their first sachem with whom the English had any acquaintance, commanded two hundred bowmen. These were called the Podunk Indians.
At Mattabesick, now Middletown, was the great sachem Sowheag. His fort, or castle, was on the high ground, facing the river, and the adjacent country, on both sides of the river, was his sachemdom. This was extensive, comprehending the ancient boundaries of Weathersfield, then called Pyquaug, as well as Middletown. Sequin was sagamore at Pyquaug, under Sowheag, when the English began their settlements. On the east side of the river, in the tract since called Chatham, was a considerable clan, called the Wongung Indians. At Machemoodus, now called East-Haddam, was a numerous tribe, famous for their pawaws, and worshipping of evil spirits.1 South of these, in the easternmost part of Lyme, were the western Nehanticks. These were confederate with the Pequots. South and east of them, from Connecticut river to the eastern boundary line of the colony, and north-east or north, to its northern boundary line, lay the Pequot and Moheagan country. This tract was nearly thirty miles square, including the counties of New-London, Windham, and the principal part of the county of Tolland.2
Historians have treated of the Pequots and Moheagans, as two distinct tribes, and have described the Pequot country, as lying principally within the three towns of New-London, Groton, and Stonington. All the tract above this, as far north and east as has been described, they have represented as the Moheagan country. Most of the towns in this tract, if not all of them, hold their lands by virtue of deeds from Uncas, or his successors, the Moheagan sachems. It is, however, much to be doubted, whether the Moheagans were a distinct nation from the Pequots. They appear to have been a part of the same nation, named from the place of their situation. Uncas was evidently of the royal line of the Pequots, both by his father and mother; and his wife was daughter of Tatobam, one of the Pequot sachems.8 He appears to have been a captain, or petty sachem, under Sassacus, the great prince of the nation. When the English first came to Connecticut, he was in a state of rebellion against him, in consequence of some misunderstanding between them; and of little power or consequence among the Indians.
The Pequots were, by far, the most warlike nation in Connecticut, or even in New-England. The tradition is, that they were,
1 Manuscripts of the Rev. Mr. Hosmer.
J President Clap's manuscripts, and Chandler's map of the Moheagan country. 5 Preface to Capt. Mason's history, and genealogy of Uncas, upon the records of Connecticut.
originally, an inland tribe; but, by their prowess, came down and settled themselves, in that fine country along the sea coast, from Nehantick to Narraganset bay. When the English began their settlements at Connecticut, Sassacus had twenty-six sachems, or principal war captains, under him. The next to himself, in dignity, was Mononottoh. The chief seat of these Indians, was at New-London and Groton. New-London was their principal harbor, and called Pequot harbor. They had another small harbor at the mouth of Mystic river. Their principal fort was on a commanding and most beautiful eminence, in the town of Groton, a few miles south-easterly from fort Griswold. It commanded one of the finest prospects of the sound and the adjacent country, which is to be found upon the coast. This was the royal fortress, where the chief sachem had his residence. He had another fort near Mystic river, a few miles to the eastward of this, called Mystic fort. This was also erected upon a beautiful hill, or eminence, gradually descending towards the south and southeast. The Pequots, Moheagans, and Nehanticks, could, doubtless, muster a thousand bowmen. The Pequots only were estimated at seven hundred warriors. Upon the lowest computation we therefore find at least three thousand warriors on the river Connecticut, and in the eastern part of the colony. If we reckon every third person a bowman, as some have imagined, then the whole number of Indians, in the town and tract mentioned, would be nine thousand; but if there were but one to four or five, as is most probable, then there were twelve or fifteen thousand.
West of Connecticut river and the towns upon it, there were not only scattering families in almost every part, but, in several places, great bodies of Indians. At Simsbury and New-Hartford, they were numerous; and upon those fine meadows, formed by the meanders of the little river, at Tunxis, now Farmington, and the lands adjacent, was another very large clan. There was a small tribe at Guilford, under the sachem squaw, or queen, of Menunkatuck. At Branford and East-Haven there was another. They had a famous burying ground at East-Haven, which they visited and kept up, with much ceremony, for many years after the settlement of New-Haven.
At Milford, Derby, Stratford, Norwalk, Stamford, and Greenwich, their numbers were formidable.
At Milford, the Indian name of which was Wopowage, there were great numbers; not only in the centre of the town, but south of it, at Milford point. In the fields there, the shells brought on by the original inhabitants are said to be so deep, that they never have been ploughed, or dug through, even to this day. On the west part of the town was another party. They had a strong fortress, with flankers at the four corners, about half a mile north of Stratford ferry. This was built as a defence against the Mo
hawks. At Turkey hill, in the north-west part of Milford, there was another large settlement.
In Derby, there were two large clans. There was one at Paugusset. This clan erected a strong fort against the Mohawks, situated on the bank of the river, nearly a mile above Derby ferry. At the falls of Naugatuck river, four or five miles above, was another tribe.
At Stratford, the Indians were equally, if not more numerous. In that part of the town only, which is comprised within the limits of Huntington, their warriors, after the English had knowledge of them, were estimated at three hundred; and, before this time, they had been much wasted by the Mohawks.
The Indians at Stamford and Greenwich, and in that vicinity, probably, were not inferior in numbers to those at Stratford. There were two or three tribes of Indians in Stamford, when the English began the settlement of the town. In Norwalk were two petty sachemdoms; so that within these towns, there was a large and dangerous body of savages. These, with the natives between them and Hudson's river, gave extreme trouble to the Dutch. The Norwalk and Stamford Indians gave great alarm, and occasioned much expense to the English, after they made settlements in that part of the colony.
In the town of Woodbury, there were also great numbers of Indians. The most numerous body of them was in that part of the town, since named South-Britain.
It would doubtless be a moderate computation, to reckon all these different clans at a thousand warriors, or four or five thousand people. There must therefore have been sixteen, and it may be, twenty thousand Indians in Connecticut, when the settlement of it commenced.
East of Connecticut were the Narraganset Indians: these were a numerous and powerful body. When the English settled Plymouth, their fighting men were reckoned at three or four thousand.1 Fifty years after this time, they were estimated at two thousand. The Pequots and Narragansets maintained perpetual war, and kept up an implacable animosity between them. The Narragansets were the only Indians in the vicinity of the Pequots, which they had not conquered. To these their very name was dreadful. They said Sassacus was "all one God; no man could kill him." 2
On the northeasterly and northern part of the colony, were the Nipmuck Indians. Their principal seat was about the great ponds in Oxford, in Massachusetts, but their territory extended southward into Connecticut, more than twenty miles. This was called the Wabbequasset and Whetstone country; and some
1 Prince's Chron. p. 116.
4 Major Mason's history of the Pequot war.
times, the Moheagan conquered country, as Uncas had conquered and added it to his sachemdom.1
The Connecticut, and indeed all the New-England Indians, were large, straight, well proportioned men. Their bodies were firm and active, capable of enduring the greatest fatigues and hardships. Their passive courage was almost incredible. When tortured in the most cruel manner; though flayed alive, though burnt with fire, cut or torn limb from limb, they would not groan, nor show any signs of distress. Nay, in some instances they would glory over their tormentors, saying that their hearts would never be soft until they were cold, and representing their torments as sweet as Englishmen's sugar.2 When travelling in summer, or winter, they regarded neither heat nor cold. They were exceedingly light of foot, and would travel or run a very great distance in a day. Mr. Williams says, " I have known them run between eighty and a hundred miles in a summer's day and back again within two days." As they were accustomed to the woods, they ran in them nearly as well as on plain ground. They were exceedingly quick sighted, to discover their enemy, or their game, and equally artful to conceal themselves. Their features were tolerably regular. Their faces are generally full as broad as those of the English, but flatter; they have a small, dark coloured good eye, coarse black hair, and a fine white set of teeth. The Indian children, when born, are nearly as white as the English children; but as they grow up their skin grows darker and becomes nearly of a copper colour. The shapes both of the men and women, especially the latter, are excellent. A crooked Indian is rarely if ever to be seen.
The Indians in general were quick of apprehension, ingenious, and when pleased, nothing could exceed their courtesy and friendship. Gravity and eloquence distinguished them in council, address and bravery in war. They were not more easily provoked than the English; but when once they had received an injury, it was never forgotten. In anger they were not, like the English, talkative and boisterous, but sullen and revengeful. Indeed, when they were exasperated, nothing could exceed their revenge and cruelty. When they have fallen into the power of an enemy, they have not been known to beg for life, nor even to accept it when offered them. They have seemed rather to court death.8 They were exceedingly improvident. If they had a supply for the present, they gave themselves no trouble for the future. The men declined all labor, and spent their time in hunting, fishing, shooting, and warlike exercises. They were excellent marksmen, and rarely missed their game, whether running or flying.
1 President Clap's manuscripts, and Chandler's map of the Moheagan country. 5 Hubbard's Narrative, p. 130 and 172. Jefferson's notes, p. 1oS, 109, and Hubbard's Narrative, p. 130, 172.
They imposed all the drudgery upon their women. They gathered and brought home their wood, planted, dressed and gathered in their corn. They carried home the venison, fish and fowl, which the men took in hunting. When they travelled, the women carried the children, packs and provisions. The Indian women submitted patiently to such treatment, considering it as the hard lot of the woman. This ungenerous usage of their haughty lords, they repaid with smiles and good humour.
It has been common among all heathen nations, to treat their women as slaves, and their children, in infancy, with little tenderness. The Indian men cared little for their children when young, and were supposed at certain times, to sacrifice them to the devil. Christianity only provides for that tender and honorable treatment of the woman, which is due to the sex formed of man. This alone provides for the tender care, nursing and education of her offspring, and is most favorable to domestic happiness, to the life and dignity of man.
The Indian women were strong and masculine; and as they were more inured to exercise and hardship than the men, were even more firm and capable of fatigue and suffering than they. They endured the pains of child-bearing without a groan. It was not uncommon for them, soon after labor, to take their children upon their backs and travel as they had done before.1
The clothing of the Indians in New-England, was the skins of wild beasts. The men threw a light mantle of skins over them, and wore a small flap which was called Indian breeches. They were not very careful, however, to conceal their nakedness. The women were much more modest. They wore a coat of skins, girt about their loins, which reached down to their hams.—They never put this off in company. If the husband chose to sell his wife's beaver petticoat, she could not be persuaded to part with it, until he had provided another of some sort.
In the winter, their blanket of skins, which hung loose in the summer, was tied or wrapped more closely about them. The old men in the severe seasons also wore a sort of trowsers made of skins and fastened to their girdles. They wore shoes without heels, which they called mockasins. These were made generally of moose hide, but sometimes of buck skin. They were shaped entirely to the foot, gathered at the toes and round the ankles, and made fast with strings.
Their ornaments were pendants in their ears and nose, carved of bone, shells and stone. These were in the form of birds, beasts and fishes. They also wore belts of wampompeag upon their arms, over their shoulders and about their loins. They cut their hair into various antic forms and stuck them with feathers. They
1 Wood's prospect of New-England, Neal and Hutchinson, Neal's Hist. N. E. Tol. i. p. 45. Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 462 to 467.
also, by incisions into which they conveyed a black or blue, unchangeable ink, made on their cheeks, arms, and other parts of their bodies, the figures of moose, deer, bears, wolves, hawks, eagles and all such living creatures as were most agreeable to their fancies. These pictures were indelible, and lasted during life. The sachems, on great days, when they designed to show themselves in the full splendor of majesty, not only covered themselves with mantles of moose, or deer skins, with various embroideries of white beads, and with paintings of different kinds; but they wore the skin of a bear, wild cat or some terrible creature upon their shoulders and arms. They had also necklaces of fish bones, and painting themselves in a frightful manner, made a most ferocious and horrible appearance. The warriors who, on public occasions, dressed themselves in the most wild and terrific forms, were considered as the best men.
The Indian houses or wigwams, were, at best, but poor smoky cells. They were constructed generally like arbours, of small young trees, bent and twisted together, and so curiously covered with mats or bark, that they were tolerably dry and warm. The Indians made their fire in the centre of the house, and there was an opening at the top, which emitted the smoke. For the convenience of wood and water, these huts were commonly erected in groves, near some river, brook or living spring. When the wood failed, the family removed to another place.
They lived in a poor low manner: their food was coarse and simple, without any kind of seasoning: they had neither spice, salt, nor bread: they had neither butter, cheese, nor milk: they drank nothing better than the water which ran in the brook, or spouted from the spring: they fed on the flesh and entrails of moose, deer, bears, and all kinds of wild beasts and fowls; on fish, eels, and creeping things: they had good stomachs, and nothing came amiss. In the hunting and fishing seasons, they had venison, moose, fat bears, racoons, geese, turkeys, ducks, and fish of all kinds. In the summer, they had green corn, beans, squashes, and the various fruits which the country naturally produced. In the winter they subsisted on corn, beans, fish, nuts, groundnuts, acorns, and the very gleanings of the grove.
They had no set meals, but like other wild creatures, ate when they were hungry, and could find any thing to satisfy the cravings of nature. Some times they had little or nothing for several days; but when they had provisions, they feasted. If they fasted for some time, they were sure at the next meal to make up for all they had lost before. They had but little food from the earth, except what it spontaneously produced. Indian corn, beans and squashes, were the only eatables for which the natives in NewEngland labored. The earth was both their seat and their table. With trenchers, knives, and napkins, they had no acquaintance.
Their household furniture was of small value. Their best bed was a mat or skin: they had neither chair nor stool. They ever sat upon the ground, commonly with their elbows upon their knees: this is the manner in which their great warriors and councillors now sit, even in the most public treaties with the English. A few wooden and stone vessels and instruments, serve all the purposes of domestic life. They had no steel nor iron instrument. Their knife was a sharp stone, shell, or kind of reed, which they sharpened in such a manner, as to cut their hair, make their bows and arrows, and served for all the purposes of a knife. They made them axes of stone: these they shaped somewhat similar to our axes; but with this difference, that they were made with a neck, instead of an eye, and fastened with a withe, like a blacksmith's chisel. They had mortars, and stone pestles, and chisels: great numbers of these have been found in the country, and kept by the people, as curiosities. They dressed their corn with a clamshell, or with a stick, made flat and sharp at one end. These were all the utensils which they had, either for domestic use, or for husbandry.
Their arts and manufactures were confined to a very narrow compass. Their only weapons were bows and arrows, the tomahawk and the wooden sword or spear. Their bows were of the common construction: their bowstrings were made of the sinews of deer, or of the Indian hemp. Their arrows were constructed of young elder sticks, or of other straight sticks and reeds: these were headed with a sharp flinty stone, or with bones. The arrow was cleft at one end, and the stone or bone was put in and fastened with a small cord. The tomahawk was a stick of two or three feet in length, with a knob at one end. Some times it was a stone hatchet, or a stick, with a piece of deer's horn at one end, in the form of a pick axe. Their spear was a straight piece of wood, sharpened at one end, and hardened in the fire, or headed with bone or stone.
With respect to navigation, they had made no improvements beyond the construction and management of the hollow trough or canoe. They made their canoes of the chestnut, whitewood, and pine trees. As these grew straight to a great length, and were exceedingly large as well as tall, they constructed some, which would carry sixty or eighty men:1 these were first rates; but commonly they were not more than twenty feet in length, and two in breadth. The Pequots had many of these, in which they passed over to the Islands, and warred against, and plundered the Islanders. The Indians upon Long-Island had a great number of canoes, of the largest kind.
The construction of these, with such miserable tools as the Indians possessed, was a great curiosity. The manner was this:
when they had found a tree to their purpose, to fell it they made a fire at the root, and kept burning it and cutting it with their stone axe, until it fell: then they kindled a fire at such a distance from the butt as they chose, and burned it off again. By burning and working with their axe, and scraping with sharp stones and shells, they made it hollow and smooth. In the same manner they shaped the ends, and finished it to their wishes.
They constructed nets, twenty and thirty feet in length, for fishing; especially for the purpose of catching sturgeon: these were wrought with cords of Indian hemp, twisted by the hands of the women. They had also hooks, made of flexible bones, which they used for fishing.
With respect to religion and morals, the Indians in New-England were in the most deplorable condition. They believed that there was a great Spirit, or God, whom they called Kitchtan. They imagined that he dwelt far away in the southwest, and that he was a good God. But they worshipped a great variety of gods. They paid homage to the fire and water, thunder and lightning, and to whatever they imagined to be superior to themselves, or capable of doing them an injury.1 They paid their principal homage to Hobbamocko. They imagined that he was an evil spirit and did them mischief; and so, from fear, they worshipped him, to keep him in good humour. They appeared to have no idea of a sabbath, and not to regard any particular day more than another. But in times of uncommon distress, by reason of pestilence, war, or famine, and upon occasion of great victories and triumph, and after the ingathering of the fruits, they assembled in great numbers, for the celebration of their superstitious rites.2 The whole country, men, women and children, came together upon these solemnities. The manner of their devotion was, to kindle large fires in their wigwams, or more commonly in the open fields, and to sing and dance round them in a wild and violent manner. Sometimes they would all shout aloud, with the most antic and hideous notes. They made rattles of shells, which they shook, in a wild and violent manner, to fill up the confused noise. After the English settled in Connecticut, and they could purchase kettles of brass, they used to strain skins over them, and beat upon them, to augment their wretched music. They often continued these wild and tumultuous exercises incessantly, for four or five hours, until they were worn down and spent with fatigue. Their priests, or powaws, led in these exercises. They were dressed in the most odd and surprising manner, with skins of odious and frightful creatures about their heads, faces, arms, and bodies. They painted themselves in the most ugly forms which could be devised. They sometimes sang, and then broke forth into strong invocations, with starts, 1 Magnalia, b. iii. p. 192. * Ibid.
and strange motions and passions. When these paused, the other Indians groaned, making wild and doleful sounds. At these times, they sacrificed their skins, Indian money, and the best of their treasures. These were taken by the powaws, and all cast into the fires and consumed together. After the English came into the country, and they had hatchets and kettles, they sacrificed these in the same manner. The English were also persuaded, that they, sometimes, sacrificed their children, as well as their most valuable commodities. No Indians in Connecticut were more noted for these superstitions than those of Wopowage and Machemoodus. Milford people observing an Indian child, nearly at one of these times of their devotion, dressed in an extraordinary manner, with all kinds of Indian finery, had the curiosity to inquire what could be the reason. The Indians answered, that it was to be sacrificed, and the people supposed that it was given to the devil. The evil spirit, which the New-England Indians called Hobbamocko, the Virginia Indians called Okee. So deluded were these unhappy people, that they believed these barbarous sacrifices to be absolutely necessary. They imagined that, unless they appeased and conciliated their gods in this manner, they would neither suffer them to have peace, nor harvests, fish, venison, fat bears, nor turkeys; but would visit them with a general destruction.
With respect to morals, they were indeed miserably depraved. Mr. Williams and Mr. Callender, who, at an early period, were acquainted with the Indians in Rhode-Island, Mr. Hooker, and others, have represented them as sunk into the lowest state of moral turpitude, and as the very dregs of human nature.1 Though the character which they gave them was, in some respects, exaggerated and absurd, yet it cannot be denied, that they were worshippers of evil spirits, liars, thieves, and murderers. They certainly were insidious and revengeful, almost without a parallel; and they wallowed in all the filth of wantonness. Great pains were taken with the Narraganset and Connecticut Indians, to civilize them, and teach them christianity; but the sachems rejected the gospel with indignation and contempt. They would not suffer it to be preached to their subjects. Indeed, both made it a public interest to oppose its propagation among them. Their policy, religion, and manners, were directly opposed to its pure doctrines and morals.
The manner of their courtship and marriages manifested their impurity. When a young Indian wished for marriage, he presented the girl with whom he was enamoured, with bracelets, belts, and chains of wampum. If she received his presents, they cohabited together for a time, upon trial. If they pleased each other, they were joined in marriage; but if, after a few weeks,
1 Williams' manuscripts, and Mr. Calender's sermon.
they were not suited, the man, leaving his presents, quitted the girl, and sought another mistress, and she another lover.1 In this manner they courted, until two met who were agreeable to each other. Before marriage the consent of the sachem was obtained, and he always joined the hands of the young pair in wedlock.
The Indians in general kept many concubines, and never thought they had too many women.2 This especially was the case with their sachems. They chose their concubines agreeably to their fancy, and put them away at pleasure. When a sachem grew weary of any of his women, he bestowed them upon some of his favourites, or chief men. The Indians, however, had one wife, who was the governess of the family, and whom they generally kept during life. In cases of adultery, the husband either put away the guilty wife, or satisfied himself by the infliction of some severe punishment. Husbands and wives, parents and children, lived together in the same wigwams, without any different apartment, and made no great privacy of such actions as the chaster animals keep from open view.
The Indian government, generally, was absolute monarchy. The will of the sachem was his law. The lives and interests of his subjects were at his disposal. But in all-important affairs, he consulted his counsellors. When they had given their opinions, they deferred the decision of every matter to him. Whatever his determinations were, they applauded his wisdom, and without hesitation obeyed his commands. In council, the deportment of the sachems was grave and majestic to admiration. They appeared to be men of great discernment and policy. Their speeches were cautious and politic. The conduct of their counsellors and servants was profoundly respectful and submissive.
The counsellors of the Indian kings in New-England, were termed the paniese. These were not only the wisest, but largest and bravest men to be found among their subjects. They were the immediate guard of their respective sachems, who made neither war nor peace, nor attempted any weighty affair, without their advice. In war, and all great enterprises, dangers, and sufferings, these discovered a boldness and firmness of mind exceeding all the other warriors.
To preserve this order among the Indians, great pains were taken. The stoutest and most promising boys were chosen, and trained up with peculiar care, in the observation of certain Indian rites and customs. They were kept from all delicious meats, trained to coarse fare, and made to drink the juice of bitter herbs, until it occasioned violent vomitings. They were beaten over their legs and shins with sticks, and made to run through brambles and thickets, to make them hardy, and, as the Indians said, to render them more acceptable to Hobbamocko.
1 Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 461, 462. * Neal's Hist. N. E. p. 38, 39.
These paniese, or ministers of state, were in league with the priests, or powaws. To keep the people in awe, they pretended, as well as the priests, to have converse with the invisible world, and that Hobbamocko often appeared to them.
Among the Connecticut Indians, and among all the Indians in New-England, the crown was hereditary, always descending to the eldest son. When there was no male issue, the crown descended to the female. The blood royal was held in such veneration, that no one was considered as heir to the crown, but such as were royally descended on both sides. When a female acceded to the crown, she was called the sunk squaw, or queen squaw. There were many petty sachems, tributary to other princes, on whom they were dependent for protection, and without whose consent they made neither peace, war, nor alliances with other nations.
The revenues of the crown consisted in the contributions of the people. They carried corn, and the first fruits of their harvest of all kinds, beans, squashes, roots, berries, and nuts, and presented them to their sachem. They made him presents of flesh, fish, fowl, moose, bear, deer, beaver and other skins. One of the paniese was commonly appointed to receive the tribute. When the Indians brought it, he gave notice to his sachem, who went out to them, and by good words and some small gifts, expressed his gratitude. By these contributions, his table was supplied; so that he kept open house for all strangers and travellers. Besides, the prince claimed an absolute sovereignty over the seas within his dominion. Whatever was stranded on the coast, all wrecks and whales floating on the sea, and taken, were his.1 In war, the spoils of the enemy, and all the women and royalties of the prince conquered, belonged to him who made the conquest.
The sachem was not only examiner, judge, and executioner, in all criminal cases, but in all matters of justice between one man and another. In cases of dishonesty, the Indians proportioned the punishment to the number of times in which the delinquent had been found guilty. For the first offence, he was reproached for his villainy in the most disgraceful manner; for the second, he was beaten with a cudgel upon his naked back. If he still persisted in his dishonest practices, and was found guilty a third time, he was sure, besides a sound drubbing, to have his nose slit, that all men might know and avoid him. Murder was, in all cases, punished with death. The sachem whipped the delinquent, and slit his nose, in cases which required these punishments; and he killed the murderer, unless he were at a great distance. In this case, in which execution could not be done with his own hands, he sent his knife, by which it was effected. The Indians would not receive any punishment which was not capital, from the hands 1 Magnalia, B. VI. p. 51.
of any except their sachems. They would neither be beaten, whipped, nor slit by an officer: but their prince might inflict these punishments to the greatest extremity, and they would neither run, cry, nor flinch. Indeed, neither the crimes nor the punishments are esteemed so infamous, among the Indians, as to groan or shrink under suffering. The sachems were so absolute in their government, that they contemned the limited authority of the English governors.
The Indians had no kind of coin; but they had a sort of money, which they called wampum, or wampumpeag. It consisted of small beads, most curiously wrought out of shells, and perforated in the centre, so that they might be strung on belts, in chains and bracelets. These were of several sorts. The Indians in Connecticut, and in New-England in general, made black, blue and white wampum. Six of the white beads passed for a penny, and three of the black or blue ones for the same. The five nations made another sort, which were of a purple colour. The white beads were wrought out of the inside of the great conchs, and the purple out of the inside of the muscle shell. They were made perfectly smooth, and the perforation was done in the neatest manner. Indeed, considering that the Indians had neither knife, drill, nor any steel or iron instrument, the workmanship was admirable. After the English settled in Connecticut, the Indians strung these beads on belts of cloth, in a very curious manner. The squaws made caps of cloth, rising to a peak over the top of the head, and the fore part was beautified with wampum, curiously wrought upon them. The six nations now weave and string them in broad belts, which they give in their treaties, as a confirmation of their speeches and the seals of their friendship.1
The Indians of Connecticut and New-England, although consisting of a great number of different nations and clans, appear all to have spoken radically the same language. From Fiscataqua to Connecticut, it was so nearly the same, that the different tribes could converse tolerably together.2 The Moheagan or Pequot language was essentially that of all the Indians in New-England, and of a great part of the Indians in the United States.3 The word Moheagans, is a corruption of Muhhekaneew, in the singular, or of Muhhekaneok in the plural number. Not only the natives of New-England, but the Penobscots, bordering on Nova-Scotia, the Indians of St. Francis, in Canada, the Delawares, in Pennsylvania, the Shawanese, on the Ohio, and the Chippewaus, at the westward of lake Huron, all spoke the same radical language. The same appears evident also with respect to the Ottowaus, Nanticooks, Munsees, Menomonees, Missifaugas, Saukies, Otta
gaumies, Killistinoes, Nipegons, Algonkins, Winnebagoes and other Indians. The various tribes, who evidently spoke the same original language, had different dialects; yet, perhaps, they differed little more from each other, than the style of a Londoner now does from that of his great grandfather. The want of letters and of a sufficient correspondence between the several nations may well account for all the variations to be found among the natives in New-England, and between them and the other tribes which have been mentioned. All the New-England Indians expressed the pronouns both substantive and adjective by prefixes and suffixes, or by letters or syllables added at the beginnings or ends of their nouns.1 In this respect there is a remarkable coincidence between this and the Hebrew language, in an instance in which the Hebrew entirely differs from all the ancient and modern languages of Europe.
From this affinity of the Indian language, with the Hebrew, from their anointing their heads with oil, their dancing in their devotions, their excessive howlings and mourning for their dead, their computing time by nights and moons, their giving dowries to their wives, and causing their women at certain seasons to dwell by themselves, and some other circumstances, the famous Mr. John Eliot, the Indian apostle, was led to imagine that the American Indians were the posterity of the dispersed Israelites.8 They used many figures and parables in their discourses, and some have reported that, at certain seasons, they used no knives, and never brake the bones of the creatures which they ate. It has also been reported, that in some of their songs the word Hallelujah might be distinguished.8
The Indian language abounds with gutturals and strong aspirations, and their words are generally of a great length,* which render it peculiarly bold and sonorous. The Indian speeches, like those of the eastern nations, generally were adorned with the most bold and striking figures, and have not been inferior to any which either the English or French have been able to make to them. The Indians in general, throughout the continent, were much given to speech making'. As eloquence and war were, with them, the foundations of all consequence, the whole force of their genius was directed to these acquisitions. In council, their opinions were always given in set speeches; and to persons whom they highly respected, it was not unusual, on meeting and parting, or on matters of more than common importance, to address their
1 Dr. Edwards' observations on the Indian language. 5 Magnalia, b. iii. p. 192, 193.
3 Hutchinson, vol. L p. 478.
4 Nummatchekodtantamoonganunonash was a single word, which in English, signifies, Our lusts. Noowomantammoonkanunnonnash was another, signifying. Our loves. Kummogkodonattoottummooctiteaongannunnonash was another, expressing no more than, Our question. Magnalia, b. iii. p. 193.
compliments and opinions in formal harangues. The Indians commonly spake with an unusual animation and vehemence.
The Indians in New-England, rarely if ever admitted the letters L and R into their dialect; but the Mohawks, whose language was entirely different, used them both. Some of the western Indians, who speak the same language radically, with the Moheagans, use the L. The Moheagan language abounds with labials, but the Mohawk differs entirely from this, and perhaps from every other, in this respect, that it is wholly destitute of labials. The Mohawks esteemed it a laughable matter indeed, for men to shut their mouths that they might speak.1
The Indians in Connecticut, and in all parts of New-England, made great lamentations at the burial of their dead. Their manner of burial was to dig holes in the ground with stakes, which were made broad and sharpened at one end. Sticks were laid across the bottom, and the corpse, which was previously wrapped in skins and mats, was let down upon them. The arms, treasures, utensils, paint and ornaments of the dead, were buried with them, and a mound of earth was raised upon the whole. In some instances the Indians appear to have used a kind of embalming, by wrapping the corpse in large quantities of a strong scented red powder.2 In some parts of New-England, the dead were buried in a sitting posture with their faces towards the east. The women on these occasions painted their faces with oil and charcoal, and while the burial was performing, they, with the relatives of the dead, made the most hideous shrieks, howlings and lamentations. Their mourning continued, by turns, at night and in the morning, for several days. During this term all the relatives united in bewailing the dead.
When the English began the settlement of Connecticut, all the Indians both east and west of Connecticut river, were tributaries, except the Pequots, and some few tribes which were in alliance with them. The Pequots had spread their conquests over all that part of the state east of the river. They had also subjugated the Indians on the sea coast, as far westward as Guilford. Uncas therefore, after the Pequots were conquered, extended his claims as far as Hammonasset, in the eastern part of that township.3 The Indians in these parts were therefore tributaries to the Pequots.
The Mohawks had not only carried their conquests as far southward as Virginia, but eastward, as far as Connecticut river. The Indians therefore, in the western parts of Connecticut, were their tributaries. Two old Mohawks, every year or two, might be seen issuing their orders and collecting their tribute, with as much authority and haughtiness as a Roman dictator.
1 Golden's history, vol. i. p. 16. * Neal's history N. E. vol. i. p. 29.
3 Manuscripts of Mr. Ruggles.
It is indeed difficult to describe the fear of this terrible nation, which had fallen on all the Indians in the western parts of Connecticut. If they neglected to pay their tribute, the Mohawks would come down against them, plunder, destroy, and carry them captive at pleasure. When they made their appearance in the country, the Connecticut Indians would instantly raise a cry from hill to hill, a Mohawk! a Mohawk! and fly like sheep before wolves, without attempting the least resistance.1 The Mohawks would cry out, in the most terrible manner, in their language, importing "We are come, we are come, to suck your blood." 2 When the Connecticut Indians could not escape to their forts, they would immediately flee to the English houses for shelter, and sometimes the Mohawks would pursue them so closely as to enter with them, and kill them in the presence of the family. If there was time to shut the doors they never entered by force, nor did they, upon any occasion, do the least injury to the English.
When they came into this part of the country for war, they used their utmost art to keep themselves undiscovered. They would conceal themselves in swamps and thickets, watching their opportunity, and all on a sudden, rise upon their enemy and kill or captivate them, before they had time to make any resistance.
About the time when the settlement of New-Haven commenced, or not many years after, they came into Connecticut, and surprised the Indian fort at Paugusset. To prevent the Connecticut Indians from discovering them, and that not so much as a track of them might be seen, they marched in the most secret manner, and when they came near the fort travelled wholly in the river. Secreting themselves near the fort, they watched their opportunity, and suddenly attacking it, with their dreadful yellings and violence, they soon took it by force, and killed and captivated whom they pleased. Having plundered and destroyed, at their pleasure, they returned to their castles, west of Albany.
As the Indians in Connecticut were slaughtered and oppressed, either by the Pequots or Mohawks, they were generally friendly to the settlement of the English among them. They expected, by their means, to be defended against their terrible and cruel oppressors. They also found themselves benefited by trading with them. They furnished themselves with knives, hatchets, axes, hoes, kettles and various instruments and utensils which highly contributed to their convenience. They could, with these, perform more labor in one hour or day, than they could in many days without them. Besides, they found that they could exchange an old beaver coat, or blanket, for two or three new ones of English manufacture. They found a much better market for their furs, corn, peltry, and all their vendible commodities.
1 Colden's history, vol. i. p. 3.
5 Wood's prospect of N. England.
The English were also careful to treat them with justice and humanity, and to make such presents to their sachems and great captains, as should please and keep them in good humor.
By these means, the English lived in tolerable peace with all the Indians in Connecticut, and New-England, except the Pequots, for about forty years.
The Indians, at their first settlement, performed many acts of kindness towards them. They instructed them in the manner of planting and dressing the Indian corn. They carried them upon their backs, through rivers and waters; and, as occasion required, served them instead of boats and bridges. They gave them much useful information respecting the country, and when the English or their children were lost in the woods, and were in danger of perishing with hunger or cold, they conducted them to their wigwams, fed them, and restored them to their families and parents. By selling them corn, when pinched with famine, they relieved their distresses and prevented their perishing in a strange land and uncultivated wilderness.
SUCH numbers were constantly emigrating to New-England, in consequence of the persecution of the puritans, that the people at Dorchester, Watertown and Newtown, began to be much straitened, by the accession of new planters. By those who had been at Connecticut, they had received intelligence of the excellent meadows upon the river: they therefore determined to remove, and once more brave the dangers and hardships of making settlements in a dreary wilderness.
Upon application to the general court in May, 1634, for the enlargement of their boundaries, or for liberty to remove, they, at first, obtained consent for the latter. However, when it was afterwards discovered, that their determination was to plant a new colony at Connecticut, there arose a strong opposition; so that when the court convened in September, there was a warm debate on the subject, and a great division between the houses. Indeed, the whole colony was affected with the dispute.
Mr. Hooker, who was more engaged in the enterprise than the other ministers, took up the affair and pleaded for the people. He urged, that they were so straitened for accommodations for their cattle, that they could not support the ministry, neither receive, nor assist any more of their friends, who might come over to them. He insisted that the planting of towns so near together was a fundamental error in their policy. He pleaded the fertility and happy accommodations of Connecticut: That settlements upon the river were necessary to prevent the Dutch and others from possessing themselves of so fruitful and important a part of the country; and that the minds of the people were strongly inclined to plant themselves there, in preference to every other place, which had come to their knowledge.
On the other side it was insisted, That in point of conscience they ought not to depart, as they were united to the Massachusetts as one body, and bound by oath to seek the good of that commonwealth: and that on principles of policy it could not, by any means, be granted. It was pleaded, that as the settlements in the Massachusetts were new and weak, they were in danger of an assault from their enemies: That the departure of Mr. Hooker and the people of those towns, would not only draw off many from the Massachusetts, but prevent others from settling in the colony. Besides, it was said, that the removing of a candlestick was a great judgment: That by suffering it they should expose their brethren to great danger, both from the Dutch and Indians. Indeed, it was affirmed that they might be accommodated by the enlargements offered them by the other towns.
After a long and warm debate, the governor, two assistants, and a majority of the representatives, were for granting liberty for Mr. Hooker and the people to transplant themselves to Connecticut. The deputy-governor however and six of the assistants were in the negative, and so no vote could be obtained.1
This made a considerable ferment, not only in the general court, but in the colony, so that Mr. Cotton was desired to preach on the subject to quiet the court and the people of the colony. This also retarded the commencement of the settlements upon the river. Individuals, however, were determined to prosecute the business, and made preparations effectually to carry it into execution.
It appears, that some of the Watertown people came this year to Connecticut, and erected a few huts at Pyquag, now Weathersfield, in which a small number of men made a shift to winter.2
While the colonists were thus prosecuting the business of settlement, in New-England, the right honourable James, Marquis of Hamilton, obtained a grant from the council of Plymouth, April 20th, 1635, of all that tract of country which lies between Connecticut river and Narraganset river and harbour, and from the mouths of each of said rivers northward sixty miles into the country. However, by reason of its interference with the grant to the lord Say and Seal, lord Brook, &c. or for some other reason, the deed was never executed. The Marquis made no settlement upon the land and the claim became obsolete.
The next May, the Newtown people, determining to settle at Connecticut, renewed their application to the general court, and obtained liberty to remove to any place which they should choose, with this proviso, that they should continue under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts.1
A number of Mr. Warham's people came this summer into Connecticut, and made preparations to bring their families, and make a permanent settlement on the river. The Watertown people gradually removed, and prosecuted their settlement at Weathersfield. At the same time, the planters at Newtown began to make preparations for removing to Hartford the next spring.
Meanwhile, twenty men arrived in Massachusetts, sent over by Sir Richard Saltonstall, to take possession of a great quantity of land in Connecticut, and to make settlements under the patent of lord Say and Seal, with whom he was a principal associate. The vessel in which they came over, on her return to England, in the fall, was cast away on the isle Sable.2
As the Dorchester men had now set down at Connecticut, near the Plymouth trading house, governor Bradford wrote to them, complaining of their conduct, as injurious to the people of Plymouth, who had made a fair purchase of the Indians, and taken a prior possession.3
The Dutch also, alarmed by the settlements making in Connecticut, wrote to Holland for instructions and aid, to drive the English from their settlements upon the river.4
The people at Connecticut having made such preparations as were judged necessary to effect a permanent settlement, began to remove their families and property. On the fifteenth of October, about sixty men, women, and children, with their horses, cattle, and swine, commenced their journey from the Massachusetts, through the wilderness, to Connecticut river. After a tedious and difficult journey, through swamps and rivers, over mountains and rough ground, which were passed with great difficulty and fatigue, they arrived safely at the places of their respective destination. They were so long on their journey, and so much time and pains were spent in passing the river, and in getting over their cattle, that, after all their exertions, winter came upon them before they were prepared. This was an occasion of great distress and damage to the plantations.
Nearly at the same time, Mr. John Winthrop, son of governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts, arrived at Boston, with a commission from lord Say and Seal, lord Brook, and other noblemen and gentlemen interested in the Connecticut patent, to erect a fort at the mouth of Connecticut river. Their lordships sent over men,
1 Winthrop's Journal, p. 82. 'Winthrop's Journal, p. 83 and 89.
4 The same, p. 86.
ordnance, ammunition, and 2000 pounds sterling, for the accomplishment of their design.1
Mr. Winthrop was directed, by his commission, immediately on his arrival, to repair to Connecticut, with fifty able men, and to erect the fortifications, and to build houses for the garrison, and for gentlemen who might come over into Connecticut. They were first to build houses for their then present accommodation, and after that, such as should be suitable for the reception of men of quality. The latter were to be erected within the fort. It was required that the planters, at the beginning, should settle themselves near the mouth of the river, and set down in bodies, that they might be in a situation for entrenching and defending themselves. The commission made provision for the reservation of a thousand or fifteen hundred acres of good land, for the maintenance of the fort, as nearly adjoining to it as might be with convenience.2
Mr. Winthrop, having intelligence that the Dutch were preparing to take possession of the mouth of the river, as soon as he could engage twenty men, and furnish them with provisions, dispatched them on November 9th, in a small vessel, of about thirty tons, to prevent their getting the command of the river, and to accomplish the service to which he had been appointed.
But a few days after the party, sent by Mr. Winthrop, arrived at the mouth of the river, a Dutch vessel appeared off the harbor, from New-Netherlands, sent on purpose to take possession of the entrance of the river, and to erect fortifications. The English had, by this time, mounted two pieces of cannon, and prevented their landing.8 Thus, providentially, was this fine tract of country preserved for our venerable ancestors, and their posterity.
Mr. Winthrop was appointed governor of the river Connecticut, and the parts adjacent, for the term of one year. He erected a fort, built houses, and made a settlement, according to his instructions. One David Gardiner,* an expert engineer, assisted in the work, planned the fortifications, and was appointed lieutenant of the fort.
Mr. Davenport and others, who afterwards settled New-Haven, were active in this affair, and hired Gardiner, in behalf of their lordships, to come into New-England, and assist in this business.5
As the settlement of the three towns on Connecticut river was begun before the arrival of Mr. Winthrop, and the design of their lordships to make plantations upon it was known, it was agreed, that the settlers on the river should either remove, upon full satis
1 Winthrop's Journal, p. 88
■ Appendix, No. II.
8 Winthrop's Journal, p. 90, 91.
4 This was evidently Lion Gardiner, as appears by his own narrative. His son David was born at Saybrook on the 29th of April, 1636, and appears to have been the first Gardiner of that name born in this country.—J. T.
Manuscripts of Gardiner.
faction made, by their lordships, or else sufficient room should be found for them and their companies at some other place.1
The winter set in this year much sooner than usual, and the weather was stormy and severe. By the 15th of November, Connecticut river was frozen over, and the snow was so deep, and the season so tempestuous, that a considerable number of the cattle, which had been driven on from the Massachusetts, could not be brought across the river. The people had so little time to prepare their huts and houses, and to erect sheds and shelters for their cattle, that the sufferings of man and beast were extreme. Indeed, the hardships and distresses of the first planters of Connecticut scarcely admit of a description. To carry much provision or furniture through a pathless wilderness, was impracticable. Their principal provisions and household furniture were, therefore, put on board several small vessels, which, by reason of delays and the tempestuousness of the season, were either cast away or did not arrive. Several vessels were wrecked on the coasts of New-England, by the violence of the storms. Two shallops laden with goods, from Boston to Connecticut, in October, were cast away on Brown's island, near the Gurnet's nose; and the men, with every thing on board, were lost.2 A vessel, with six of the Connecticut people on board, which sailed from the river for Boston, early in November, was, about the middle of the month, cast away in Manamet bay. The men got on shore, and, after wandering ten days in deep snow and a severe season, without meeting with any human being, arrived, nearly spent with cold and fatigue, at New-Plymouth.
By the last of November, or beginning of December, provisions generally failed in the settlements on the river, and famine and death looked the inhabitants sternly in the face. Some of them, driven by hunger, attempted their way, in this severe season, through the wilderness, from Connecticut to Massachusetts. Of thirteen, in one company, who made this attempt, one, in passing the rivers, fell through the ice, and was drowned. The other twelve were ten days on their journey, and would all have perished, had it not been for the assistance of the Indians.
Indeed, such was the distress in general that, by the 3d and 4th of December, a considerable part of the new settlers were obliged to abandon their habitations. Seventy persons, men, women, and children, were necessitated, in the extremity of winter, to go down to the mouth of the river, to meet their provisions, as the only expedient to preserve their lives. Not meeting with the vessels which they expected, they all went on board the Rebecca, a vessel of about 60 tons. This, two days before, was frozen in twenty miles up the river; but by the falling of a small rain and the influence of the tide, the ice became so broken and was so far removed,
1 Winthrop's Journal, p. 88. 'The same, p. 87.
that she made a shift to get out. She ran, however, upon the bar, and the people were forced to unlade her, to get her off. She was reladen, and, in five days, reached Boston. Had it not been for these providential circumstances, the people must have perished with famine.
The people who kept their stations on the river suffered in an extreme degree. After all the help they were able to obtain, by hunting, and from the Indians, they were obliged to subsist on acorns, malt and grains.1
Numbers of the cattle, which could not be got over the river before winter, lived through without any thing but what they found in the woods and meadows. They wintered as well, or better, than those which were brought over, and for which all the provision was made, and pains taken, of which the owners were capable. However, a great number of cattle perished. The Dorchester, or Windsor people lost, in this single article, about two hundred pounds sterling. Their other losses were very considerable.
It is difficult to describe, or even to conceive, the apprehensions and distresses of a people, in the circumstances of our venerable ancestors, during this doleful winter. All the horrors of a dreary wilderness spread themselves around them. They were encompassed with numerous, fierce and cruel tribes of wild and savage men, who could have swallowed up parents and children, at pleasure, in their feeble and distressed condition. They had neither bread for themselves, nor children; neither habitations nor clothing convenient for them. Whatever emergency might happen, they were cut off, both by land and water, from any succour or retreat. What self-denial, firmness, and magnanimity are necessary for such enterprises! How distressful, in the beginning, was the condition of those now fair and opulent towns on Connecticut river!
For a few years after the settlements on the river commenced, they bore the same name with the towns in the Massachusetts, whence the first settlers came.
The Connecticut planters, at first settled under the general government of the Massachusetts, but they held courts of their own, which consisted of two principal men from each town; and, on great and extraordinary occasions, these were joined with committees, as they were called, consisting of three men from each town. These courts had power to transact all the common affairs of the colony, and with their committees, had the power of making war and peace, and treaties of alliance and friendship with the natives within the colony.
The first court in Connecticut, was holden at Newtown, April 26th, 1636. It consisted of Roger Ludlow, Esq., Mr. John Steel,
1 Winthrop's Journal, p. 90, 91, to 98.
Mr. William Swain, Mr. William Phelps, Mr. William Westwood, and Mr. Andrew Ward. Mr. Ludlow had been one of the magistrates of Massachusetts in 1630, and in 1631 had been chosen lieutenant-governor of that colony. At this court it was ordered, that the inhabitants should not sell arms nor ammunition to the Indians. Various other affairs were also transacted relative to the good order, settlement, and defence of these infant towns.1
Several of the principal gentlemen interested in the settlement of Connecticut, Mr. John Haynes, who at this time was governor of Massachusetts, Mr. Henry Wolcott, Mr. Wells, the ministers of the churches, and others had not yet removed into the colony. As soon as the spring advanced, and the- travelling would admit, the hardy men began to return from the Massachusetts, to their habitations on the river. No sooner were buds, leaves and grass so grown, that, cattle could live in the woods, and obstructions removed from the river, so that vessels could go up with provisions and furniture, than the people began to return in large companies, to Connecticut. Many, who had not removed the last year, prepared, with all convenient dispatch, for a journey to the new settlements upon the river.
About the beginning of June, Mr. Hooker, Mr. Stone, and about a hundred men, women and children, took their departure from Cambridge, and travelled more than a hundred miles, through a hideous and trackless wilderness, to Hartford. They had no guide but their compass; made their way over mountains, through swamps, thickets, and rivers, which were not passable but with great difficulty. They had no cover but the heavens, nor any lodgings but those which simple nature afforded them. They drove with them a hundred and sixty head of cattle, and by the way, subsisted on the milk of their cows. Mrs. Hooker was borne through the wilderness upon a litter. The people generally carried their packs, arms, and some utensils. They were nearly a fortnight on their journey.
This adventure was the more remarkable, as many of this company were persons of figure, who had lived, in England, in honor, affluence and delicacy, and were entire strangers to fatigue and danger.
The famous Mr. Thomas Shepard, who, with his people, came into New-England the last summer, succeeded Mr. Hooker at Cambridge. The people of his congregation purchased the lands which Mr. Hooker and his company had previously possessed.
The removal of Dorchester people to Windsor is said to have been disagreeable to their ministers, but, as their whole church and congregation removed, it was necessary that they should go with them. However, Mr. Maverick died in March, before preparations were made for his removal. He expired in the 60th
year of his age. He was characterized as a man of great meekness, and as laborious and faithful in promoting the welfare both of the church and commonwealth.
Mr. Warham removed to Windsor in September, but he did not judge it expedient to bring his family until better accommodations could be made for their reception. Soon after the removal of Mr. Warham from Dorchester, a new church was gathered in that town, and Mr. Mather was ordained their pastor.
Mr. Phillips, pastor of the church at Watertown, did not remove to Weathersfield. Whether it was against his inclination, or whether the people did not invite him, does not appear. They chose Mr. Henry Smith for their minister, who came from England in office.
The colony of New-Plymouth professed themselves to be greatly aggrieved at the conduct of the Dorchester people, in settling on the lands, where they had made a purchase, and where they had defended themselves and that part of the country against the Dutch. They represented that it had been a hard matter that the Dutch and Indians had given them so much trouble as they had done, but that it was still more grievous to be supplanted by their professed friends. Mr. Winslow of Plymouth, made a journey to Boston, in the spring, before governor Haynes and some other principal characters removed to Connecticut, with a view to obtain compensation for the injury done to the Plymouth men, who had built the trading house upon the river. The Plymouth people demanded a sixteenth part of the lands and 100 pounds as a compensation; but the Dorchester people would not comply with their demands.1 There however appeared to be so much justice, in making them some compensation, for the purchase they had made, and the good services which they had done, that some time after, the freeholders of Windsor gave them fifty pounds, forty acres of meadow, and a large tract of upland for their satisfaction.2
At a court holden at Dorchester, June 7th, it was ordered, that every town should keep a watch, and be well supplied with ammunition. The constables were directed to warn the watches in their turns, and to make it their care that they should be kept according to the direction of the court. They also were required to take care, that the inhabitants were well furnished with arms and ammunition, and kept in a constant state of defence. As these infant settlements were filled and surrounded with numerous savages, the people conceived themselves in danger when they lay down and when they rose up, when they went out and when they came in. Their circumstances were such, that it was judged necessary for every man to be a soldier.
1 Winthrop's Journal, p. 96.
1 Governor Wolcott's manuscripts compared with governor Winthrop's journal.
At a third court, therefore, holden at Watertown, September 1st, an order was given, that the inhabitants of the several towns should train once a month, and the officers were authorized to train those who appeared very unskilful more frequently, as circumstances should require. The courts were holden at each town by rotation, according to its turn.
A settlement was made, this year, at Springfield, by Mr. Pyncheon and his company from Roxbury. This for about two years was united in government with the towns in Connecticut. In November, Mr. Pyncheon for the first time appears among the members of the court.
All the powers of government, for nearly three years, seem to have been in the magistrates, of whom two were appointed in each town. These gave all orders, and directed all the affairs of the plantation. The freemen appear to have had no voice in making the laws, or in any part of the government, except in some instances of general and uncommon concern. In these instances, committees were sent from the several towns. Juries were employed in jury cases, from the first settlement of the colony.
This was a summer and year of great and various labors, demanding the utmost exertion and diligence. Many of the planters had to remove themselves and effects from a distant colony. At the same time, it was absolutely necessary, that they should turn the wilderness into gardens and fields, that they should plant and cultivate the earth, and obtain some tolerable harvest, unless they would again experience the distresses and losses of the preceding year. These were too great, and too fresh in their memories, not to rouse all their exertion and forethought. It was necessary to erect and fortify their houses, and to make better preparations for the feeding and covering of their cattle. It was of equal importance to the planters, not only to make roads for their particular convenience, but from town to town; that, on any emergency, they might fly immediately to each other's relief. It was with great difficulty that these purposes could be at first accomplished. The planters had not been accustomed to felling the groves, to clearing and cultivating new lands. They were strangers in the country, and knew not what kinds of grain would be most congenial with the soil, and produce the greatest profits, nor had they any experience how the ground must be cultivated, that it might yield a plentiful crop. They had few oxen, or instruments for husbandry. Every thing was to be prepared, or brought from a great distance, and procured at a dear rate. Besides all these labors and difficulties, much time was taken up in constant watchings, trainings, and preparations for the defence of themselves and children. The Pequots had, already, murdered a number of the English; some of the Indians, in Connecticut, were their allies; and they had maintained a great influence over them all. They were a treacherous and designing people; so that there could be no safety, but in a constant preparation for any emergency.
Some of the principal characters, who undertook this great work of settling Connecticut, and were the civil and religious fathers of the colony, were Mr. Haynes, Mr. Ludlow, Mr. Hooker, Mr. Warham, Mr. Hopkins, Mr. Wells, Mr. Willis, Mr. Whiting, Mr. Wolcott, Mr. Phelps, Mr. Webster, and captain Mason. These, were of the first class of settlers, and all, except the ministers, were chosen magistrates or governors of the colony. Mr. Swain, Mr. Talcott, Mr. Steel, Mr. Mitchell, and others, were capital men. Mr. John Haynes, Mr. Hooker, Mr. Hopkins, Mr. Stone, Mr. George Wyllys, Mr. Wells, Mr. Whiting, Mr. Thomas Webster, and Mr. John Talcott, were all of Hartford. Mr. Ludlow, Mr. Henry Wolcott, Mr. Warham, Mr. William Phelps, and captain John Mason, were some of the principal planters of Windsor. Mr. William Swain, Mr. Thurston Rayner, Mr. Henry Smith, Mr. Andrew Ward, Mr. Mitchell, and Mr. John Deming, were some of the chief men, who settled the town of Weathersfield. These were the civil and religious fathers of the colony. They formed its free and happy constitution, were its legislators, and some of the chief pillars of the church and commonwealth. They, with many others of the same excellent character, employed their abilities and their estates for the prosperity of the colony.
While the three plantations on the river were making the utmost exertions for a permanent settlement, Mr. Winthrop was no less active, in erecting fortifications and convenient buildings at its entrance. Though he had, the last year, sent on one company after another, yet the season was so far advanced, and the winter set in so early, and with such severity, that little more could be done than just to keep the station. When the spring advanced, the works were, therefore, pressed on with engagedness. Mr. Winthrop and his people were induced, not only in faithfulness to their trust, but from fears of a visit from the Dutch, and from the state of that warlike people, the Pequots in the vicinity, to hasten and complete them, with the utmost dispatch. A good fort was erected, and a number of houses were built. Some cattle were brought from the Massachusetts, for the use of the garrison. Small parcels of ground were improved, and preparations made for a comfortable subsistence, and good defence.
There were, at the close of this year, about two hundred and fifty men in the three towns on the river, and there were twenty men in the garrison, at the entrance of it, under the command of lieutenant Gardiner. The whole consisted, probably, of about eight hundred persons, or of a hundred and sixty or seventy families.
THE Indians in general, were ever jealous of the English, from the first settlement of New-England, and wished to drive them from the country. Various circumstances however, combined to frustrate their designs. The English, on their first settlement at New-Plymouth, entered into such friendly treaties with some of the principal tribes, and conducted themselves with such justice, prudence and magnanimity towards them and the Indians in general, as had the most happy influence to preserve the peace of the country. The animosities of the Indians among themselves, and their implacable hatred of each other, with their various separate interests, contributed to the same purpose. Some of them wished for the friendship and neighbourhood of the English, to guard them from one enemy, and others of them to protect them from another. All wished for the benefit of their trade; and it is probable, that they had no apprehensions, at first, that a handful of people would ever overrun, and fill the country. It was therefore nearly sixteen years before they commenced open hostilities upon their English neighbours. But no sooner had they begun to trade and make settlements at Connecticut, than that great, spirited, and warlike nation, the Pequots, began to murder and plunder them, and to wound and kill their cattle.
In 1634, a number of Indians, who were not native Pequots, but in confederacy with them, murdered captain Stone and captain Norton, with their whole crew, consisting of eight men: they then plundered and sunk the vessel. Captain Stone was from St. Christopher's, in the West-Indies, and came into Connecticut river, with a view of trading at the Dutch house. After he had entered the river, he engaged a number of Indians to pilot two of his men up the river, to the Dutch: but night coming on, they went to sleep, and were both murdered by their Indian guides. The vessel, at night, was laid up to the shore. Twelve of those Indians, who had several times before been trading with the captain, apparently in an amicable manner, were on board. Watching their opportunity, when he was asleep, and several of the crew on shore, they murdered him secretly in his cabin, and cast a covering over him, to conceal it from his men: they then fell upon them, and soon killed the whole company, except captain Norton. He had taken the cook room, and for a long time made a most brave and resolute defence. That he might load and fire with the greatest expedition, he had placed powder in an open vessel, just at hand, which, in the hurry of the action, took fire, and so burned and blinded him, that he could make no further resistance. Thus, after all his gallantry, he fell with his hapless companions. Part of the plunder was received by the Pequots, and another part by the eastern Nehanticks. Sassacus and Ninigret, the sachems of those Indians, were both privy to the affair, and shared in the goods and articles taken from the vessel. It was supposed that the Indians had pre-concerted this massacre.1
The November following, the Pequots sent a messenger to Boston, to desire peace with the English. He made an offer of a great quantity of beaver skins and wampumpeag, to persuade the governor to enter into a league with them. The governor answered the messenger, that the Pequots must send men of greater quality than he was; and that he would then treat with them. The Pequots then sent two messengers to the governor, carrying a present, and earnestly soliciting peace. The governor assured them, that the English were willing to be at peace with them; but insisted, that, as they had murdered captain Stone and his men, they must deliver up the murderers, and make full compensation. The messengers pretended, that captain Stone had used the Indians ill, and provoked them to kill him: that their sachem, who was concerned in the affair, had been killed by the Dutch, and that the Indians who perpetrated the murder, were all dead but two; and that, if they were guilty, they would desire their sachem to deliver them up to justice. They offered to concede all their right at Connecticut river, if the English should desire to settle there; and engaged to assist them as far as was in their power, in making their settlements. They also promised that they would give the English four hundred fathoms of wampum, forty beaver, and thirty otter skins. After long and mature deliberation, the governor and his council entered into a treaty with them, on the conditions which they had proposed. The English were to send a vessel with cloths, to trade with them fairly, as with friends and allies.2
The reasons of their so earnestly soliciting peace, at this time, were, that the Narragansets were making war furiously upon them; and the Dutch, to revenge the injuries done them, had killed one of their sachems, with several of their men, and captivated a number more. They wished not, at this critical time, to increase the number of their enemies. They artfully suggested to their new allies, the governor and council of Massachusetts, their desire, that they would be mediators between them and the Narragansets. They also intimated their willingness, that part of the present which they were to send, might be given to them, for the purpose of obtaining a reconciliation. Such was the pride and stoutness of their spirits, and so much did they stand upon a point of honour, that though they wished for peace with their enemy, yet they would not directly offer any thing for that pur
pose. This treaty was signed by the parties, but hostages were not taken to secure the performance of the articles, and the Pequots never performed one of them. Whatever their designs were at that time, they afterwards became more and more mischievous, hostile and bloody.
The next year, John Oldham, who had been fairly trading at Connecticut, was murdered near Block Island. He had with him only two boys and two Narraganset Indians. These were taken and carried off. One John Gallup, as he was going from Connecticut to Boston, discovered Mr. Oldham's vessel full of Indians, and he saw a canoe, having Indians on board, go from her, laden with goods. Suspecting that they had murdered Mr. Oldham, he hailed them, but received no answer. Gallup was a bold man, and though he had with him but one man and two boys, he immediately bore down upon them, and fired duck shot so thick among them, that he soon cleared the deck. The Indians all got under the hatches. He then stood off, and running down upon her quarter with a brisk gale, nearly overset her; and so frightened the Indians, that six of them leaped into the sea, and were drowned. He then steered off again, and running down upon her a second time, bored her with his anchor, and raked her fore and aft with his shot. But the Indians kept themselves so close, that he got loose from her; and running down a third time upon the vessel, he gave her such a shock, that five more leaped overboard, and perished, as the former had done. He then boarded the vessel, and took two of the Indians, and bound them. Two or three others, armed with swords, in a little room below, could not be driven from their retreat. Mr. Oldham's corpse was found on board; the head split, and the body mangled in a barbarous manner. He was a Dorchester man, one of Mr. Warham's congregation.1 In these circumstances, Gallup, fearing that the Indians whom he had taken might get loose, especially if they were kept together, and having no place where he could keep them apart, threw one of them overboard. Gallup and his company then, as decently as circumstances would permit, put the corpse into the sea. They stripped the vessel, and took her rigging, and the goods which had not been carried off, on board their own. She was then taken in tow, with a view to carry her in; but the night coming on, and the wind rising, Gallup was obliged to let her go adrift, and she was lost. The Indians who perpetrated the murder were principally the Block-Islanders, with a number of the Narragansets, to whom these Indians, at this time, were subject. Several of the Narraganset sachems were in the plot, and it was supposed that the Indians whom Oldham had with him, were in the conspiracy. Several of the murderers fled to the Pequots, and were protected by them. They were, thereTore, considered as abettors of the murder.
1 See note, p. 16.—J. T.
The governor and council of Massachusetts, therefore, the next year, dispatched captain Endicott, with ninety volunteers, to avenge these murders, unless the Indians should deliver up the murderers, and make reparation for the injuries which they had done. The Narraganset sachems sent home Mr. Oldham's two boys, and made such satisfaction, and gave such assurances of their good conduct, for the future, as the English accepted; but the other Indians made no compensation. Captain Endicott was, therefore, instructed to proceed to Block-Island, put the men to the sword, and take possession of the island. The women and children were to be spared. Thence he was to sail to the Pequot country, and demand of the Pequots the murderers of captains Stone and Norton, and of the other Englishmen who were of their company. He was also to demand a thousand fathoms of wampum for damages, and a number of their children for hostages, until the murderers should be delivered, and satisfaction made. If they refused to comply with these terms, he was directed to take it by force of arms. He had under him captains John Underhill and Nathaniel Turner. They sailed from Boston on the 25th of August. When he arrived at Block-Island, forty or fifty Indians appeared on the shore, and opposed his landing; but his men soon landed, and, after a little skirmishing, the Indians fled to the woods. The Indians secreted themselves in swamps, thickets, and fastnesses, where they could not be found. There were two plantations on the island, containing about sixty wigwams, some of which were very large and fair. The Indians had, also, about two hundred acres of corn. After the English had spent two days on the island, burning the wigwams, destroying their corn, and staving their canoes, they sailed for the Pequot country. When they had arrived in Pequot harbour, captain Endicott acquainted the Pequots with the design of his coming, demanded satisfaction for the murders which they had committed against the English, and compensation for the damages which they had done them. In a few hours, nearly three hundred of the Pequots collected upon the shore; but soon after they were fully informed of his business, they began to withdraw into the woods, and, instead of treating, answered him with their arrows, from the adjacent rocks and fastnesses. He landed his men on both sides of the harbour, burnt their wigwams, and destroyed their canoes, but made no spirited attack upon them, nor pursuit after them. As their corn was standing, no pains were taken for its destruction. They killed an Indian or two, and then returned to Boston. They all arrived on the 14th of September, unharmed either by sickness or the sword.1 Enough, indeed, had been done to exasperate, but nothing to subdue a haughty and warlike enemy.
Sassacus and his captains were men of great and independent
1 Winthrop's Journal, p. 105, 106, 107.
spirits; they had conquered and governed the nations around them without control. They viewed the English as strangers and mere intruders, who had no right to the country, nor to control its original proprietors, independent princes and sovereigns. They had made settlements in Connecticut without their consent, and brought home the Indian kings whom they had conquered, and restored to them their authority and lands. They had built a fort, and were making a settlement, without their approbation, in their very neighbourhood. Indeed, they had now proceeded to attack and ravage their country. They were now, therefore, all kindled into resentment and rage; they determined upon, and breathed nothing but war and revenge. They determined to extirpate, or drive all the English from New-England.
For this purpose, they conceived the plan of uniting the Indians generally against them. They spared no art nor pains to make peace with the Narragansets, and to engage them in the war against the English. They represented, that the English, who were merely foreigners, were overspreading the country, and depriving the original inhabitants of their ancient rights and possessions: that, unless effectual measures were immediately taken to prevent it, they would soon entirely dispossess the original proprietors, and become the lords of the continent. They insisted, that, by a general combination, they could either destroy, or drive them from the country. With great advantage did they represent the facility with which it might be effected. They said there would be no necessity of coming to open battles: that, by killing their cattle, firing their houses, laying ambushes on the roads, in the fields, and wherever they could surprise and destroy them, they might accomplish their wishes. They represented, that, if the English should effect the destruction of the Pequots, they would also soon destroy the Narragansets. So just and politic were these representations, that nothing but that thirst for revenge which inflames the savage heart, could have resisted their influence. Indeed, it is said, that, for a time, the Narragansets hesitated.
The governor of Massachusetts, to prevent an union between these savage nations, and to strengthen the peace between the Narraganset Indians and the colony, sent for Miantonimoh, their chief sachem, inviting him to come to Boston. Upon this, Miantonimoh, with another of the Narraganset sachems, two of the sons of Canonicus, with a number of their men, went to Boston, and entered into the following treaty.
That there should be a firm peace between them and the English, and their posterity: That neither party should make peace with the Pequots, without the consent of the other: That they should not harbor the Pequots, and that they should return all fugitive servants, and deliver over to the English, or put to death, all murderers. The English were to give them notice, when they went out against the Pequots, and they were to furnish them with guides. It was also stipulated, that a free trade should be maintained between the parties.
Captain Underhill and twenty men,1 appointed to reinforce the garrison at Saybrook, lying wind bound off Pequot harbor, after Mr. Endicott's departure, a party of them went on shore to plunder the Pequots, and bring off their corn. After they had plundered a short time, and brought off some quantity of corn, the Pequots attacked them, and they fought a considerable part of the afternoon. At length, the enemy retired, and they returned to their boats. They had one man wounded, and imagined they killed and wounded several of the Indians.
About the beginning of October, the enemy, concealing themselves in the high grass, in the meadows, surprised five of the garrison at Saybrook, as they were carrying home their hay. One Butterfield was taken and tortured to death. The rest made their escape; but one of them had five arrows shot into him. From this disaster, the place received the name of Butterfield's meadow.
Eight or ten days after, Joseph Tilly, a master of a small vessel, was captivated by the enemy, as he was going down Connecticut river. He came to anchor two or three miles above the fort, and taking a canoe, and one man with him, went a fowling. No sooner had he discharged his piece, than a large number of Pequots, arising from their concealment, took him, and killed his companion. Tilly was a man of great spirit and understanding, and determined to show himself a man. The Indians used him in the most barbarous manner, first cutting off his hands, and then his feet, and so gradually torturing him to death. But as all their cruelties could not effect a groan, they pronounced him a stout man.
The enemy now kept up a constant watch upon the river, and upon the people at Saybrook. A house had been erected, about two miles from the fort, and six of the garrison were sent to keep it. As three of them were fowling, at a small distance from the house, they were suddenly attacked, by nearly a hundred Pequots. Two of them were taken. The other cut his way through them, sword in hand, and made his escape; but he was wounded with two arrows.2
Before winter, the garrison were so pressed by the enemy, that they were obliged to keep almost wholly within the reach of their guns. The Pequots razed all the out-houses, burnt the stacks of hay, and destroyed almost every thing, which was not within the
1 Underhill's narrative makes no mention of this affair. It is a mistake to suppose that he was engaged in it. The twenty men were evidently those furnished by Lieutenant Gardiner at Saybrook, as appears by his narrative.—J. T.
5 Hubbard's Narrative, Winthrop's Journal, and Mason's History of the Pequot war.
command of the fort. The cattle which belonged to the garrison, were killed and wounded. Some of them came home, with the arrows of the enemy sticking in them. Indeed, the fort was but little better than in a state of siege, a great part of the winter. The enemy so encompassed it about, and watched all the motions of the garrison, that it was dangerous, at any time, to go out of the reach of the cannon.
When the spring came on, they became still more mischievous and troublesome. They kept such a constant watch upon the river, that men could not pass up and down, with any safety, without a strong guard. They waylaid the roads and fields, and kept Connecticut in a state of constant fear and alarm.
In March, 1637,1 lieutenant Gardiner, who commanded the fort at Saybrook, going out with ten or twelve men, to burn the marshes, was waylaid by a narrow neck of land, and as soon as he had passed the narrow part of the neck, the enemy rose upon him, and killed three of his men. The rest made their escape to the fort; but one of them was mortally wounded, so that he died the next day. The lieutenant did not escape without a slight wound. The enemy pursued them in great numbers, to the very fort, and compassed it on all sides. They challenged the English to come out and fight, and mocked them, in the groans, pious invocations, and dying language of their friends, whom they had captivated, when they were torturing them to death. They boasted, That they could kill English men "all one flies." The cannon loaded with grape shot were fired upon them, and they retired.
Some time after, the enemy, in a number of canoes, beset a shallop, which was going down the river, with three men on board. The men fought bravely, but were overpowered with numbers. The enemy shot one through the head with an arrow, and he fell overboard; the other two were taken. The Indians ripped them up, from the bottom of their bellies to their throats, and cleft them down their backs: they then hung them up by their necks upon trees, by the side of the river, that as the English passed by, they might see those miserable objects of their vengeance.
The Pequots tortured the captives to death in the most cruel manner. In some, they cut large gashes in their flesh, and then poured embers and live coals into the wounds. When, in their distress, they groaned, and in a pious manner committed their departing spirits to their Redeemer, these barbarians would mock and insult them in their dying agonies and prayers.
On the 21 st of February, the court met at Newtown, and letters were written to the governor of Massachusetts, representing the dissatisfaction of the court with Mr. Endicott's expedition, the
consequences of which had been so distressful to Connecticut. The court expressed their desires that the colony of Massachusetts would more effectually prosecute the war with the Pequots.1 It was also represented to be the design of Connecticut to send a force against them.
At this court it was decreed, that the plantation called Newtown, should be named Hartford; and that Watertown should be called Weathersfield. It was soon after decreed, that Dorchester should be called Windsor. Hartford was named in honor to Mr. Stone, who was born at Hartford, in England.
Captain Mason was soon after dispatched with twenty men, to reinforce the garrison at Saybrook, and to keep the enemy at a greater distance. After his arrival at the fort, the enemy made no further attacks upon it, but appeared very much to withdraw from that quarter.
A party of them took a different route, and, in April, waylaid the people at Weathersfield, as they were going into their fields to labour, and killed six men and three women. Two maids were taken captive: besides, they killed twenty cows, and did other damages to the inhabitants.
Soon after this, captain Underhill, who had been appointed, in the fall preceding, to keep garrison at Saybrook, was sent from the Massachusetts, with twenty men, to reinforce the garrison. Upon their arrival at Saybrook, captain Mason and his men immediately returned to Hartford.
The affairs of Connecticut, at this time wore a most gloomy aspect. They had sustained great losses in cattle and goods in the preceding years, and even this year they were unfortunate with respect to their cattle. They had no hay but what they cut from the spontaneous productions of an uncultivated country. To make good English meadow, was a work of time. The wild, coarse grass, which the people cut, was often mowed too late, and but poorly made. They did not always cut a sufficient quantity, even of this poor hay. They had no corn, or provender, with which they could feed them: and, amidst the multiplicity of affairs, which, at their first settlement, demanded their attention, they could not provide such shelters for them, as were necessary during the long and severe winters of this northern climate. From an union of these circumstances, some of their cattle were lost, and those which lived through winter, were commonly poor, and many of the cows lost their young. Notwithstanding all the exertions the people had made the preceding summer, they had not been able, in the multiplicity of their affairs, and under their inconveniences, to raise a sufficiency of provisions. Their provisions were not only very coarse, but very dear, and scanty. The people were not only inexperienced in the husbandry of the country, but
* Winthrop'i journal, p. 123.
they had but few oxen or ploughs.1 They performed almost the whole culture of the earth with their hoes. This rendered it both exceedingly slow and laborious.
Every article bore a high price. Valuable as money was, at that day, a good cow could not be purchased under thirty pounds; a pair of bulls or oxen not under forty pounds. A mare from England or Flanders, sold at thirty pounds; and Indian corn at about five shillings a bushel: labour, and other articles bore a proportionable price.
In addition to all these difficulties, a most insidious and dreadful enemy were now destroying the lives and property of the colonists, attempting to raise the numerous Indian tribes of the country against them, and threatened the utter ruin of the whole colony. The inhabitants were in a feeble state, and few in number. They wanted all their men at home, to prosecute the necessary business of the plantations. They had not a sufficiency of provisions for themselves: there would therefore be the greatest difficulty in furnishing a small army with provisions abroad. They could neither hunt, fish, nor cultivate their fields, nor travel at home, or abroad, but at the peril of their lives. They were obliged to keep a constant watch by night and day; to go armed to their daily labours, and to the public worship. They were obliged to keep a constant watch and guard at their houses of worship, on the Lord's day, and at other seasons, whenever they convened for the public worship. They lay down and rose up in fear and danger. If they should raise a party of men and send them to fight the enemy on their own ground, it would render the settlements proportionably weak at home, in case of an assault from the enemy. Every thing indeed appeared dark and threatening. But nothing could discourage men, who had an unshaken confidence in the divine government, and were determined to sacrifice every other consideration, for the enjoyment of the uncorrupted gospel, and the propagation of religion and liberty in America.
In this important crisis, a court was summoned, at Hartford, on Monday the 1st of May. As they were to deliberate on matters in which the lives of the subjects and the very existence of the colony were concerned, the towns for the first time, sent committees. The spirited measures adopted by this court, render the names of the members worthy of perpetuation. The magistrates were Roger Ludlow, Esq. Mr. Welles, Mr. Swain, Mr. Steel, Mr. Phelps and Mr. Ward. The committees were Mr. Whiting, Mr. Webster, Mr. Williams, Mr. Hull, Mr. Chaplin, Mr. Talcott, Mr. Geffords, Mr. Mitchel and Mr. Sherman.
1 It seems, that at this period there were but thirty ploughs in the whole colony of Massachusetts. Winthrop's Journal, p. 114. It is not probable that there were ten, perhaps not five, in Connecticut.
The court, on mature deliberation, considering that the Pequots had killed nearly thirty of the English; that they had tortured and insulted their captives, in the most horrible manner; that they were attempting to engage all the Indians to unite for the purpose of extirpating the English; and the danger the whole colony was in, unless some capital blow could be immediately given their enemies, determined, that an offensive war should be carried on against them, by the three towns of Windsor, Hartford and Weathersfield. They voted, that 90 men should be raised forthwith;42 from Hartford, 30 from Windsor, and 18 from Weathersfield. Notwithstanding the necessities and poverty of the people, all necessary supplies were voted for this little army.1 No sooner was this resolution adopted, than the people prosecuted the most vigorous measures, to carry it into immediate and effectual execution.
The report of the slaughter and horrid cruelties practised by the Pequots, against the people of Connecticut, roused the other colonies to harmonious and spirited exertions against the common enemy. Massachusetts determined to send 200, and Plymouth 40 men, to assist Connecticut in prosecuting the war. Captain Patrick with 40 men was sent forward, before the other troops, from Massachusetts and Plymouth, could be ready to march, with a view, that he might seasonably form a junction with the party from Connecticut.
On Wednesday, the 10th of May, the troops from Connecticut fell down the river, for the fort at Saybrook. They consisted of 90 Englishmen and about 70 Moheagan and river Indians. They embarked on board a pink, a pinnace and a shallop. The Indians were commanded by Uncas, sachem of the Moheagans. The whole was commanded by captain John Mason, who had been bred a soldier in the old countries. The Rev. Mr. Stone of Hartford went their chaplain. On Monday the 15th, the troops arrived at Saybrook fort. As the water was low, this little fleet several times ran aground. The Indians, impatient of delays, desired to be set on shore, promising to join the English at Saybrook. The captain therefore granted their request. On their march, they fell in with about forty of the enemy, near the fort, killed seven and took one prisoner.
The prisoner had been a perfidious villain. He had lived in the fort, some time before, and could speak English well. But after the Pequots commenced hostilities against the English, he became a constant spy upon the garrison, and acquainted Sassacus with every thing he could discover. He had been present at the slaughter of all the English who had been killed at Saybrook. Uncas and his men insisted upon executing him according to the manner of their ancestors; and the English, in the circumstances
1 Records of Connecticut.
in which they then were, did not judge it prudent to interpose. The Indians, kindling a large fire, violently tore him limb from limb. Barbarously cutting his flesh in pieces, they handed it round from one to another, eating it, singing and dancing round the fire, in their violent and tumultuous manner. The bones and such parts of their captive, as were not consumed in this dreadful repast, were committed to the flames and burnt to ashes.
This success was matter of joy, not only as it was a check upon the enemy, but as it was an evidence of the fidelity of Uncas and his Indians, of which the English had been before in doubt. There were other circumstances, however, which more than counterbalanced this joy. The army lay wind bound until Friday, and captain Mason and his officers were entirely divided in opinion, with respect to the manner of prosecuting their enterprise. The court, by the commission and instructions which it had given, enjoined the landing of the men at Pequot harbour, and that from thence they should advance upon the enemy. The captain was for passing by them, and sailing to the Narraganset country. He was fixed in this opinion, because he found that, expecting the army at Pequot harbour, they kept watch upon the river night and day. Their number of men greatly exceeded his. He was informed, at Saybrook, that they had sixteen fire arms, with powder and shot. The harbour was compassed with rocks and thickets, affording the enemy every advantage. They were upon the land, and exceedingly light of foot. He was therefore of the opinion, that they would render it very difficult and dangerous to land, and that he might sustain such loss, as would discourage his men and frustrate the design of the expedition. If they should make good their landing, he was sure that, while they directed their march through the country, to the enemy's forts, they would waylay and attack them, with their whole force, at every difficult pass. Beside, if they should find, on trial, that they were not able to defeat the English, they would run off to swamps and fastnesses, where they could not be found; and they should not be able to effect any thing capital against them. He was not without hopes that, by going to Narraganset, he might surprise them. There was also some prospect, that the Narragansets would join him in the expedition, and that he might fall in with some part of the troops from Massachusetts.
His officers and men in general were for attending their instructions, and going at all hazards directly to the forts. The necessity of their affairs at home, the danger of the Indians attacking their families and settlements, in their absence, made them wish, at once to dispatch the business, on which they had been sent. They did not relish a long march through the wilderness. They also imagined that they might be discovered, even should they determine to march from Narraganset to the attack of the enemy. In this division of opinion, Mr. Stone was desired by the officers most importunately to pray for them, That their way might be directed, and that, notwithstanding the present embarrassment, the enterprise might be crowned with success.
Mr. Stone spent most of Thursday night in prayer, and the next morning visiting captain Mason, assured him, that he had done as he was desired; adding, that he was entirely satisfied with his plan. The council was again called, and, upon a full view of all the reasons, unanimously agreed to proceed to Narraganset. It was also determined, that twenty men should be sent back to Connecticut, to strengthen the infant settlements, while the rest of the troops were employed in service against the enemy; and, that captain Underhill, with nineteen men from the garrison at Saybrook fort, should supply their places.
On Friday, May 19th, the captain sailed for Narraganset bay, and arrived on Saturday at the desired port. On Monday, captain Mason and captain Underhill marched with a guard to the plantation of Canonicus, and acquainted him with the design of their coming. A messenger was immediately dispatched to Miantonimoh, the chief sachem of the Narragansets, to acquaint him also with the expedition. The next day Miantonimoh met them, with his chief counsellors and warriors, consisting of about 200 men. Captain Mason certified him, that the occasion of his coming with armed men, into his country, was to avenge the intolerable injuries which the Pequots, his as well as their enemies, had done the English: and, that he desired a free passage to the Pequot forts. After a solemn consultation in the Indian manner, Miantonimoh answered, That he highly approved of the expedition, and that he would send men. He observed, however, that the English were not sufficient in number to fight with the enemy. He said the Pequots were great captains, skilled in war, and rather slighted the English. Captain Mason landed his men, and marched just at night to the plantation of Canonicus, which was appointed to be the place of general rendezvous. That night there arrived an Indian runner in the camp, with a letter from captain Patrick, who had arrived with his party at Mr. Williams' plantation in Providence. Captain Patrick signified his desire, that captain Mason would wait until he could join him. Upon deliberation it was determined not to wait, though a junction was greatly desired. The men had already been detained much longer than was agreeable to their wishes. When they had absolutely resolved the preceding day to march the next morning, the Indians insisted that they were but in jest; that Englishmen talked much, but would not fight. It was therefore feared, that any delay would have a bad effect upon them. It was also suspected that, if they did not proceed immediately, they should be discovered, as there were a number of squaws who maintained an intercourse between the Pequot and Narraganset Indians. The army therefore, consisting of 77 Englishmen, 60 Moheagan and river Indians, and about 200 Narragansets, marched on Wednesday morning, and that day reached the eastern Nihantick, about eighteen or twenty miles from the place of rendezvous the night before. This was a frontier to the Pequots, and was the seat of one of the Narraganset sachems. Here the army halted, at the close of the day. But the sachem and his Indians conducted themselves in a haughty manner toward the English, and would not suffer them to enter within their fort. Captain Mason therefore placed a strong guard round the fort; and as the Indians would not suffer him to enter it, he determined that none of them should come out. Knowing the perfidy of the Indians, and that it was customary among them to suffer the nearest relatives of their greatest enemies to reside with them, he judged it necessary, to prevent their discovering him to the enemy.
In the morning, a considerable number of Miantonimoh's men came on and joined the English. This encouraged many of the Nihanticks also to join them. They soon formed a circle, and made protestations, how gallantly they would fight, and what numbers they would kill. When the army marched, the next morning, the captain had with him nearly 500 Indians. He marched twelve miles, to the ford in Pawcatuck river. The day was very hot, and the men, through the great heat, and a scarcity of provision, began to faint. The army, therefore, made a considerable halt, and refreshed themselves. Here the Narraganset Indians began to manifest their dread of the Pequots, and to enquire of captain Mason, with great anxiety, what were his real designs. He assured them, that it was his design to attack the Pequots in their forts. At this, they appeared to be panic-struck, and filled with amazement. Many of them drew off, and returned to Narraganset. The army marched on about three miles, and came to Indian corn fields; and the captain, imagining that he drew near the enemy, made a halt: he called his guides and council, and demanded of the Indians how far it was to the forts. They represented, that it was twelve miles to Sassacus's fort, and that both forts were in a manner impregnable. Wequosh, a Pequot captain or petty sachem, who had revolted from Sassacus to the Narragansets, was the principal guide, and he proved faithful. He gave such ihformation, respecting the distance of the forts from each other, and the distance which they were then at, from the chief sachem's, as determined him and his officers to alter the resolution which they had before adopted, of attacking them both at once; and to make a united attack upon that at Mistic. He found his men so fatigued, in marching through a pathless wilderness, with their provisions, arms, and ammunition, and so affected with the heat, that this resolution appeared to be absolutely necessary. One of captain Underbill's men became lame, at the same time, and began to fail. The army, therefore, proceeded directly to Mistic, and continuing their march, came to a small swamp between two hills, just at the disappearing of the day light. The officers, supposing that they were now near the fort, pitched their little camp, between or near two large rocks, in Groton, since called Porter's rocks. The men were faint and weary, and though the rocks were their pillows, their rest was sweet. The guards and sentinels were considerably advanced, in the front of the army, and heard the enemy singing, at the fort, who continued their rejoicings even until midnight. They had seen the vessels pass the harbor, some days before, and had concluded, that the English were afraid, and had not courage to attack them. They were, therefore, rejoicing, singing, dancing, insulting them, and wearying themselves, on this account.
The night was serene, and, towards morning, the moon shone clear. The important crisis was now come, when the very existence of Connecticut, under providence, was to be determined by the sword, in a single action; and to be decided by the good conduct of less than eighty brave men. The Indians who remained, were now sorely dismayed, and though, at first, they had led the van, and boasted of great feats, yet were now all fallen back in the rear.
About two hours before day, the men were roused with all expedition, and briefly commending themselves and their cause to God, advanced immediately towards the fort. After a march of about two miles, they came to the foot of a large hill, where a fine country opened before them. The captain, supposing that the fort could not be far distant, sent for the Indians in the rear, to come up. Uncas and Wequosh, at length, appeared. He demanded of them where the fort was. They answered, on the top of the hill. He demanded of them where were the other Indians. They answered, that they were much afraid. The captain sent to them not to fly, but to surround the fort, at any distance they pleased, and see whether Englishmen would fight. The day was nearly dawning, and no time was now to be lost. The men pressed on, in two divisions, captain Mason to the north-eastern, and captain Underbill to the western entrance. As the object which they had been so long seeking, came into view, and while they reflected they were to fight not only for themselves, but their parents, wives, children, and the whole colony, the martial spirit kindled in their bosoms, and they were wonderfully animated and assisted. As captain Mason advanced within a rod or two of the fort, a dog barked, and an Indian roared out, Owanux! Owanux! That is, Englishmen! Englishmen! The troops pressed on, and as the Indians were rallying, poured in upon them, through the pallisadoes, a general discharge of their muskets, and then wheeling off to the principal entrance, entered the fort sword in hand. Notwithstanding the suddenness of the attack, the blaze and thunder of their arms, the enemy made a manly and desperate resistance. Captain Mason and his party, drove the Indians in the main street towards the west part of the fort, where some bold men, who had forced their way, met them, and made such slaughter among them, that the street was soon clear of the enemy. They secreted themselves in and behind their wigwams, and taking advantage of every covert, maintained an obstinate defence. The captain and his men entered the wigwams, where they were beset with many Indians, who took every advantage to shoot them, and lay hands upon them, so that it was with great difficulty that they could defend themselves with their swords. After a severe conflict, in which many of the Indians were slain, some of the English killed, and others sorely wounded, the victory still hung in suspense. The captain finding himself much exhausted, and out of breath, as well as his men, by the extraordinary exertions which they had made; in this critical state of the action, had recourse to a successful expedient. He cries out to his men, We Must Burn Them. He, immediately entering a wigwam, took fire, and put it into the mats, with which the wigwams were covered. The fire instantly kindling, spread with such violence that all the Indian houses were soon wrapped in one general flame. As the fire increased, the English retired without the fort, and compassed it on every side. Uncas and his Indians, with such of the Narragansets as yet remained, took courage, from the example of the English, and formed another circle in the rear of them. The enemy were now seized with astonishment, and forced, by the flames, from their lurking places, into open light, became a fair mark for the English soldiers. Some climbed the pallisadoes, and were instantly brought down by the fire of the English muskets. Others, desperately sallying forth from their burning cells, were shot, or cut in pieces with the sword. Such terror fell upon them, that they would run back from the English, into the very flames. Great numbers perished in the conflagration.
The greatness and violence of the fire, the reflection of the light, the flashing and roar of the arms, the shrieks and yellings of the men, women and children, in the fort, and the shoutings of the Indians without, just at the dawning of the morning, exhibited a grand and awful scene. In a little more than an hour this whole work of destruction was finished. Seventy wigwams were burnt, and five or six hundred Indians perished, either by the sword, or in the flames.1 A hundred and fifty warriors had been sent on, the evening before, who, that very morning, were to have gone forth against the English. Of these, and all who belonged to the
1 Captain Mason, in his history, says six or seven hundred. From the number of Wigwams, and the reinforcement, the probability is, that about six hundred were destroyed.
fort, seven only escaped, and seven were made prisoners. It had been previously concluded not to burn the fort, but to destroy the enemy, and take the plunder; but the captain afterwards found it the only expedient to obtain the victory, and save his men. Thus parents and children, the sannup and squaw, the old man and the babe, perished in promiscuous ruin.
Though the victory was complete, yet the army were in great danger and distress. The men had been exceedingly fatigued, by the heat, and long marches through rough and difficult places; and by that constant watch and guard which they had been obliged to keep. They had now been greatly exhausted, by the sharpness of the action, and the exertions which they had been necessitated to make. Their loss was very considerable. Two men were killed, and nearly twenty wounded. This was more than one quarter of the English. Numbers fainted by reason of fatigue, the heat, and want of necessaries. The surgeon, their provisions, and the articles necessary for the wounded, were on board the vessels, which had been ordered to sail from the Narraganset bay, the night before, for Pequot harbour; but there was no appearance of them in the sound. They were sensible that, by the burning of the fort, and the noise of war, they had alarmed the country; and therefore were in constant expectation of an attack, by a fresh and numerous enemy from the other fortress, and from every quarter whence the Pequots might be collected.
A number of the friendly Indians had been wounded, and they were so distracted with fear, that it was difficult even to speak with their guide and interpreter, or to know any thing what they designed. The English were in an enemy's country, and entire strangers to the way in which they must return. The enemy were far more numerous than themselves, and enraged to the highest degree. Another circumstance rendered their situation still more dangerous, their provisions and ammunition were nearly expended. Four or five men were so wounded that it was necessary to carry them, and they were also obliged to bear about twenty fire arms, so that not more than forty men could be spared for action.
After an interval of about an hour, while the officers were in consultation what course they should take, their vessels, as though guided by the hand of providence, to serve the necessities of these brave men, came full in view; and, under a fair gale, were steering directly into the harbour. This, in the situation of the army at that time, was a most joyful sight.
Immediately, upon the discovery of the vessels, about three hundred Indians came on from the other fort. Captain Mason, perceiving their approach, led out a chosen party to engage them, and try their temper. He gave them such a warm reception, as soon checked and put them to a stand. This gave him great encouragement, and he ordered the army to march for Pequot harbour. The enemy, upon this, immediately advanced to the hill, where the fort stood; and viewing the destruction which had been made, stamped and tore their hair from their heads. After a short pause, and blowing themselves up to the highest transport of passion, they leaped down the hill after the army, in the most violent manner, as though they were about to run over the English. Captain Underhill, who, with a number of the best men, was ordered to defend the rear, soon checked the eagerness of their pursuit, and taught them to keep at a more respectful distance. The friendly Indians who had not deserted, now kept close to the English, and it was believed that, after the enemy came on, they were afraid to leave them. The enemy pursued the army nearly six miles, sometimes shooting at a distance, from behind rocks and trees, and at other times, pressing on more violently, and desperately hazarding themselves in the open field.
That the English might all be enabled to fight, captain Mason soon hired the Indians to carry the wounded men and their arms. The English killed several of the enemy while they pursued them, but sustained no loss themselves. When they killed a Pequot, the other Indians would shout, run and fetch his head. At length, the enemy finding that they could make no impression upon the army, and that wounds and death attended their attempts, gave over the pursuit.
The army then marched to the harbor, with their colors flying, and were received on board the vessels, with great mutual joy and congratulation.
In about three weeks from the time the men embarked at Hartford, they returned again to their respective habitations. They were received with the greatest exultation. As the people had been deeply affected with their danger, and full of anxiety for their friends, while nearly half the effective men in the colony were in service, upon so hazardous an enterprise, so sudden a change, in the great victory obtained, and in the safe return of so many of their children and neighbors, filled them with exceeding joy and thankfulness. Every family, and every worshipping assembly, spake the language of praise and thanksgiving.
Several circumstances attending this enterprise, were much noticed by the soldiers themselves, and especially by all the pious people. It was considered as very providential, that the army should march nearly forty miles, and a considerable part of it in the enemy's country, and not be discovered until the moment they were ready to commence the attack. It was judged remarkable, that the vessels should come into the harbour at the very hour in which they were most needed. The life of captain Mason was very signally preserved. As he entered a wigwam for fire to burn the fort, an Indian was drawing an arrow to the very head, and
would have killed him instantly; but Davis,1 one of his sergeants, cut the bow string with his cutlass, and prevented the fatal shot.2 Lieutenant Bull received an arrow into a hard piece of cheese, which he had in his clothes, and by it was saved harmless. Two soldiers, John Dyer and Thomas Stiles, both servants of one man, were shot in the knots of their neckcloths, and by them preserved from instant death.8
Few enterprises have ever been achieved with more personal bravery or good conduct. In few have so great a proportion of the effective men of a whole colony, state, or nation been put to so great and immediate danger. In few, have a people been so deeply and immediately interested, as the whole colony of Connecticut was in this, in that uncommon crisis. In these respects, even the great armaments and battles of Europe are, comparatively, of little importance. In this, under the divine conduct, by seventy-seven brave men, Connecticut was saved, and the most warlike and terrible Indian nation in New-England, defeated and ruined.
The body of the Pequots, returning from the pursuit of captain Mason, repaired to Sassacus, at the royal fortress, and related the doleful story of their misfortunes. They charged them all to his haughtiness and misconduct, and threatened him, and his, with immediate destruction. His friends and chief counsellors interceded for him; and, at their intreaty, his men spared his life. Then, upon consultation, they concluded, that they could not, with safety, remain any longer in the country. They were, indeed, so panic struck, that, burning their wigwams and destroying their fort, they fled and scattered into various parts of the country. Sassacus, Mononotto, and seventy or eighty of their chief counsellors and warriors, took their route towards Hudson's river.
Just before captain Mason went out upon the expedition against the Pequots, the Dutch performed a very neighbourly office for Connecticut. The two maids, who had been captivated at Weathersfield, had, through the humanity and mediation of Mononotto's squaw, been spared from death, and kindly treated. The Dutch governor, receiving intelligence of their circumstances, determined to redeem them at any rate, and dispatched a sloop to Pequot harbour for that purpose. Upon its arrival, the Dutch made large offers for their redemption, but the Pequots would not accept them. Finally, as the Dutch had a number of Pequots on board, whom they had taken, and finding that they could do no
1 Stiles, in his Ancient Windsor, 1st ed., p. 40, insists that William Hayden, of Hartford, cat the bowstring, and cites tradition. He also uses the dubious argument that Davis, being in the attacking party on the opposite side of the fort, could not have been the man, though it is difficult to see why he might not have been, if only the fact that he had previously entered the other side of the fort is cited as proving the act of Davis impossible.—J. T.
1 Hubbard's Narrative. s Mason's History.
better, they offered the Pequots six of their own men for the two maids.1 These they accepted, and the Dutch delivered the young women at Saybrook, just before captain Mason and his party arrived. Of them he received particular information respecting the enemy.
An Indian runner, dispatched by Mr. Williams, at Providence, soon carried the news of the success of Connecticut against the Pequots, to the governor of Massachusetts. The governor and his council, judging that the Pequots had received a capital blow, sent forward but a hundred and twenty men. These were commanded by Mr. Stoughton, and the Rev. Mr. Wilson, of Boston, was sent his chaplain.
This party arrived at Pequot harbour the latter part of June. By the assistance of the Narraganset Indians, the party under captain Stoughton surrounded a large body of Pequots in a swamp. They took eighty captives. Thirty were men; the rest were women and children. The men, except two sachems, were killed, but the women and children were saved.2 The sachems promised to conduct the English to Sassacus, and for that purpose were spared for the present.
June 26th, the court at Connecticut ordered that forty men should be raised forthwith for the further prosecution of the war against the Pequots, to be commanded by captain Mason.
The troops from Connecticut made a junction with the party under the command of captain Stoughton, at Pequot. Mr. Ludlow, with other principal gentlemen from Connecticut, went also with the army, to advise with respect to the measures to be adopted in the further prosecution of the war. Upon general consultation, it was concluded to pursue the Pequots, who had fled to the westward. The army marched immediately, and soon discovered the places, where the enemy had rendezvoused, at their several removes. As these were not far distant from each other, it appeared that they moved slowly, having their women and children with them. They also were without provisions, and were obliged to dig for clams, and to range the groves for such articles as they afforded. The English found some scattering Pequots, as they scoured the country, whom they captivated, and from whom they obtained intelligence relative to the Pequots whom they were pursuing. But finding, that the sachems, whom they had spared, would give them no information, they beheaded them, on their march, at a place called Menunkatuck, since Guilford; from which circumstance, the spot on which the execution was done, bears the name of sachem's head to the present time. In three days they arrived at New-Haven harbour. The vessels sailed along the shore while the troops marched by land. At
1 Winthrop's Journal, p. 128.
'Hnbbard'i Narrative, p. 34, and Winthrop's Journal, p. 130, 132.
New-Haven, then called Quinnipiack, a great smoke, at a small distance, was discovered in the woods. The officers supposing, that they had now discovered the enemy, ordered the army immediately to advance upon them; but were soon informed that they were not in that vicinity. The Connecticut Indians nad kindled the fires whence the smoke arose. The troops soon embarked on board the vessels. After staying several days at NewHaven, the officers received intelligence from a Pequot, whom they had previously sent to make discovery, that the enemy were at a considerable distance, in a great swamp, to the westward. Upon this information, the army marched with all possible dispatch to a great swamp, in Fairfield, where were eighty or a hundred Pequot warriors, and nearly two hundred other Indians. The swamp was such a thicket, so deep and boggy, that it was difficult to enter it, or make any movement without sinking in the mire. Lieutenant Davenport and others, rushing eagerly into it, were sorely wounded, and several were soon so deep in the mud, that they could not get out without assistance. The enemy pressed them so hard, that they were just ready to seize them by the hair of their head. A number of brave men were obliged to rescue them sword in hand. Some of the Indians were slain, and the men were drawn out of the mire. The swamp was surrounded, and after a considerable skirmish the Indians desired a parley. As the officers were not willing to make a promiscuous destruction of men, women and children, and as the sachem and Indians of the vicinity had fled into the swamp, though they had done the colonies no injury, a parley was granted. Thomas Stanton, a man well acquainted with the manners and language of the Indians, was sent to treat with them. He was authorized to offer life to all the Indians who had shed no English blood. Upon this offer, the sachem of the place came out to the English, and one company of old men, women and children after another, to the number of about two hundred. The sachem of the place declared for himself and his Indians, that they had neither shed the blood of the English nor done them any harm. But the Pequot warriors had too great a spirit to accept of the offer of life, declaring, that they would fight it out. They shot their arrows at Stanton, and pressed so hard upon him, that the soldiers were obliged to fly to his rescue.1 The fight was then renewed, the soldiers firing upon them whenever an opportunity presented. But by reason of an unhappy division among the officers, a great part of the enemy escaped. Some were for forcing the swamp immediately, but this was opposed, as too dangerous. Others were for cutting it down, as they had taken many hatchets, with which they were of the opinion it might be effected. Some others were for making a pallisado and hedge round it, but neither of these measures
1 Hubbard's Narrative, p. 38.
could be adopted.1 As night came on, the English cut through a narrow part of it, by which the circumference was greatly lessened; so that the soldiers, at twelve feet distance from each other, were able completely to compass the enemy. In this manner they enclosed and watched them until it was nearly morning. A thick fog arose just before day, and it became exceedingly dark. At this juncture, the Indians took the opportunity to break through the English. They made their first attempt upon captain Patrick's quarters, yelling in their hideous manner and pressing on with violence, but they were several times driven back. As the noise and tumult of war increased, captain Mason sent a party to assist captain Patrick. Captain Trask also marched to reinforce him. As the battle greatly increased, the siege broke up. Captain Mason marched to give assistance in the action. Advancing to the turn of the swamp, he found that the enemy were pressing out upon him; but he gave them so warm a reception, that they were soon glad to retire. While he was expecting that they would make another attempt upon him, they faced about, and falling violently on captain Patrick, broke through his quarters and fled. These were their bravest warriors, sixty or seventy of whom made their escape. About twenty were killed, and one hundred and eighty were taken prisoners. The English also took hatchets, wampum, kettles, trays and other Indian utensils.
The Pequot women and children, who had been captivated, were divided among the troops. Some were carried to Connecticut, and others to the Massachusetts. The people of Massachusetts sent a number of the women and boys to the West-Indies, and sold them for slaves. It was supposed that about seven hundred Pequots were destroyed. The women who were captivated, reported, that thirteen sachems had been slain, and that thirteen yet survived. Among the latter were Sassacus and Mononotto, the two chief sachems. These with about twenty of their best men fled to the Mohawks. They carried off with them wampum to the amount of 500 pounds.2 The Mohawks surprised and slew them all, except Mononotto. They wounded him, but he made his escape. The scalp of Sassacus was sent to Connecticut in the fall, and Mr. Ludlow and several other gentlemen, going into Massachusetts, in September, carried a lock of it to Boston, as a rare sight, and a sure demonstration of the death of their mortal enemy.8
Among the Pequot captives were the wife and children of Mononotto. She was particularly noticed, by the English, for her great modesty, humanity and good sense. She made it as her only request, that she might not be injured either as to her offspring or personal honor. As a requital of her kindness to the captivated
1 Mason's History. 'Winthrop's Journal, p. 136.
• Winthrop's Journal, p. 134, 135, 136.
maids, her life and the lives of her children were not only spared, but they were particularly recommended to the care of governor Winthrop. He gave charge for their protection and kind treatment.
After the swamp fight, the Pequots became so weak and scattered, that the Narragansets and Moheagans constantly killed them, and brought in their heads to Windsor and Hartford. Those who survived were so hunted and harassed, that a number of their chief men repaired to the English, at Hartford, for relief. They offered, if their lives might be spared, that they would become the servants of the English and be disposed of at their pleasure. This was granted, and the court interposed for their protection.
Uncas and Miantonimoh, with the Pequots, by the direction of the magistrates of Connecticut, met at Hartford; and it was demanded by them, how many of the Pequots were yet living? they answered, about two hundred, besides women and children. The magistrates then entered into a firm covenant with them, to the following effect: that there should be perpetual peace between Miantonimoh and Uncas, and their respective Indians; and that all past injuries should be remitted, and for ever buried: that if any injuries should be done, in future, by one party to the other, that they should not immediately revenge it, but appeal to the English to do them justice. It was stipulated, that they should submit to their determination, and that if either party should be obstinate, that then they might enforce submission to their decisions. It was further agreed, that neither the Moheagans, nor Narragansets should conceal, or entertain any of their enemies; but deliver up or destroy all such Indians as had murdered any English man or woman. The English then gave the Pequot Indians to the Narragansets and Moheagans; eighty to Miantonimoh, twenty to Ninnigret, and the other hundred to Uncas; to be received and treated as their men. It was also covenanted, that the Pequots should never more inhabit their native country, nor be called Pequots, but Narragansets and Moheagans. It was also further stipulated, That neither the Narragansets nor Moheagans should possess any part of the Pequot country without the consent of the English. The Pequots were to pay a tribute, at Connecticut annually, of a fathom of wampumpeag for every Sannop, of half a fathom for every young man, and of a hand for every male papoose. On these conditions the magistrates, in behalf of the colony, stipulated a firm peace with all the Indians.1
The conquest of the Pequots struck all the Indians in NewEngland with terror, and they were possessed with such fear of the displeasure and arms of the English, that they had no open war with them for nearly forty years.
This happy event gave great joy to the colonies. A day of public thanksgiving was appointed; and, in all the churches of New-England, devout and animated praises were addressed to Him, who giveth his people the victory, and causeth them to dwell safely.
THOUGH the war with the Pequots was now happily terminated, yet the effects of it were severely felt by the inhabitants. The consequences were, scarcity and a debt, which, in the low state of the colony, it was exceedingly difficult to pay. Almost every article of food or clothing was purchased at the dearest rate: and the planters had not yet reaped any considerable advantage from their farms. Such a proportion of their labourers had been employed in the war, and the country was so uncultivated, that all the provision which had been raised, or imported, was in no measure proportionate to the wants of the people. The winter was uncommonly severe, which increased the distress of the colony.1 The court at Connecticut foreseeing that the people would be in great want of bread, contracted with Mr. Pyncheon for five hundred bushels of Indian corn, which he was to purchase of the Indians, and a greater quantity, if it could be obtained. The inhabitants were prohibited to bargain for it privately, and limited to certain prices, lest it should raise the price, while he was making the purchase. A committee was also appointed by the court, to send a vessel to Narraganset, to buy of the natives in that quarter.2 But notwithstanding every precaution which was taken, the scarcity became such, that corn rose to the extraordinary price of twelve shillings by the bushel.8 In this distressful situation a committee was sent to an Indian settlement called Pocomtock, since Deerfield, where they purchased such quantities, that the Indians came down to Windsor and Hartford, with fifty canoes at one time, laden with Indian corn.* The good people considered this as a great deliverance. Those, who, in England, had fed on the finest of the wheat, in the beginning of affairs in Connecticut, were thankful for such coarse fare as Indian bread, for themselves and children.
In this low state of the colony, the court found it necessary to
1 The snow lay from the 4th of November until the 23d of March. It wa«, at sometimes, three and four feet deep. Once in the winter it snowed for two hours together, flakes as big as English shillings. Winthrop's Journal, p. 154.
'Records of Connecticut.
'Mason's history. Twelve shillings sterling at that time, was doubtless equal to eighteen or twenty shillings lawful money.
order the towns immediately to furnish themselves with magazines of powder, lead and shot, and every man to be completely armed, and furnished with ammunition. The court were also obliged to impose a tax of 550 pounds, to be collected immediately, to defray the expenses of the war. This appears to have been the first public tax in Connecticut. Agawam, since named Springfield, though it sent no men to the war, yet bore its proportion of the expense.1 The first secretary and treasurer appears to have been Mr. Clement Chaplin. He was authorised to issue his warrants for gathering the tax which had been imposed.
Captain John Mason was appointed major-general of the militia of Connecticut. The reverend Mr. Hooker was desired to deliver him the military staff. This he doubtless performed with that propriety and dignity which was peculiar to himself, and best adapted to the occasion. The general was directed to call out the militia of each town, ten times in a year, to instruct them in military discipline. He received out of the public treasury 40 pounds annually, for his services.
As it was of the highest importance to the colony to cultivate peace, and a good understanding with the Indians, laws were enacted to prevent all persons from offering them the least private insult or abuse.
While the planters of Connecticut were thus exerting themselves in prosecuting and regulating the affairs of that colony, another was projected and settled at Quinnipiack,2 afterwards called New-Haven. On the 26th of July,3 1637, Mr. John Davenport, Mr. Samuel Eaton, Theophilus Eaton and Edward Hopkins, Esquires, Mr. Thomas Gregson, and many others of good characters and fortunes, arrived at Boston. Mr. Davenport had been a famous minister in the city of London, and was a distinguished character for piety, learning, and good conduct. Many of his congregation, on account of the esteem which they had for his person and ministry, followed him into New-England. Mr. Eaton and Mr. Hopkins had been merchants in London, possessed great estates, and were men of eminence for their abilities and integrity. The fame of Mr. Davenport, the reputation and good estates of the principal gentlemen of this company, made the people of the Massachusetts exceedingly desirous of their settlement in that commonwealth. Great pains were taken, not only by particular persons and towns, but by the general court, to fix them in the colony. Charlestown made them large offers; and Newbury proposed to give up the whole town to them. The general court of
1 The tax was laid on the towns in the proportions following: Agawam, 86 pounds : 16 : o. Windsor, 158 pounds : 2 : a Hartford, 251 pounds : 2 : o. And Weathersfield, 124 pounds :o : o.
* This is sometimes spelt Quillipiaclc, and Qinnepioke.
* Should be June. Savage's Winthrop, I : 254.—J. T.
fered them any place which they should choose.1 But they were determined to plant a distinct colony. By the pursuit of the Pequots to the westward, the English became acquainted with that fine tract along the shore, from Saybrook to Fairfield, and with its several harbours. It was represented as fruitful, and happily situated for navigation and commerce. The company therefore projected a settlement in that part of the country.
In the fall of 1637, Mr. Eaton, and others, who were of the company, made a journey to Connecticut, to explore the lands and harbours on the sea coast. They pitched upon Quinnipiack for the place of their settlement. They erected a poor hut, in which a few men subsisted through the winter.
On the 30th of March, 1638, Mr. Davenport, Mr. Prudden, Mr. Samuel Eaton, and Theophilus Eaton, Esquire, with the people of their company, sailed from Boston for Quinnipiack. In about a fortnight they arrived at their desired port. On the 18th of April, they kept their first sabbath in the place.2 The people assembled under a large spreading oak, and Mr. Davenport preached to them from Matthew vi. I. He insisted on the temptations of the wilderness, made such observations, and gave such directions and exhortations as were pertinent to the then present state of his hearers. He left this remark, That he enjoyed a good day.
One of the principal reasons which these colonists assigned for their removing from Massachusetts, was, that they should be more out of the way and trouble of a general governor of New-England, who, at this time, was an object of great fear in all the plantations. What foundation there was for the hope of exemption from the control of a general governor, by this removal, had one been sent, does not appear. It is probable, that the motive which had the greatest influence with the principal men, was the desire of being at the head of a new government, modelled, both in civil and religious matters, agreeably to their own apprehensions. It had been an observation of Mr. Davenport's, That whenever a reformation had been effected in the church, in any part of the world, it had rested where it had been left by the reformers. It could not be advanced another step. He was now embarked in a design of forming a civil and religious constitution, as near as possible to scripture precept and example. The principal gentlemen, who had followed him into America, had the same views. In laying the foundations of a new colony, there was a fair probability, that they might accommodate all matters of church and commonwealth to their own feelings and sentiments. But in the
1 Winthrop's Journal, p. 151.
• This is impossible, as the 18th of April, 1638, was Wednesday. Kingsley, in his historical discourse, p. 78, suggests that the 18th was mistakenly substituted for the 15th, which was Sunday.—J. T.
Massachusetts, the principal men were fixed in the chief seats of government, which they were likely to keep, and their civil and religious polity was already formed. Besides, the antinomian controversy and sentiments, which had taken such root at Boston, were exceedingly disagreeable to Mr. Davenport, and the principal gentlemen of his company. He had taken a decided, though prudent part, against them. He, with his leading men, might judge, that the people who came with them would be much more out of danger of the corruption, and that they should be more entirely free from the trouble of those sentiments, in a new plantation, than in the Massachusetts. These might all unite their influence with Mr. Davenport and others, to determine them to remove and begin a new colony.
Soon after they arrived at Quinnipiack, in the close of a day of fasting and prayer, they entered into what they termed a plantation covenant. In this they solemnly bound themselves, "That, as in matters that concern the gathering and ordering of a church, so also in all public offices, which concern civil order, as choice of magistrates and officers, making and repealing laws, dividing allotments of inheritance, and all things of like nature, they would, all of them, be ordered by the rules which the scripture held forth to them." This was adopted as a general agreement, until there should be time for the people to become more intimately acquainted with each other's religious views, sentiments, and moral conduct; which was supposed to be necessary to prepare the way for their covenanting together, as christians, in church state.
The aspects of Providence on the country, about this time, were very gloomy, and especially unfavourable to new plantations. The spring, after a long and severe winter, was unusually backward. Scarcely any thing grew, for several weeks. The planting season was so cold that the corn rotted in the ground, and the people were obliged to replant two or three times.1 This distressed man and beast, and retarded all the affairs of the plantations. It rendered the gloom and horrors of the wilderness still more horrible. The colonists had terrible apprehensions of scarcity and famine. But at length the warm season came on, and vegetation exceeded all their expectations.
On the 1st of June, between the hours of three and four in the afternoon, there was a great and memorable earthquake throughout New-England. It came with a report like continued thunder, or the rattling of numerous coaches upon a paved street . The shock was so great that, in many places, the tops of the chimneys were thrown down, and the pewter fell from the shelves. It shook the waters and ships in the harbours, and all the adjacent islands. The duration of the sound and tremor was about four minutes. The earth, at turns, was unquiet for nearly twenty days. The
1 Winthrop's Journal, p. 155. Ibid. See also Morton and Autchinson.
weather was clear, the wind westerly, and the course of the earthquake from west to east.
The planters at Quinnipiack determined to make an extensive settlement; and, if possible, to maintain perpetual peace and friendship with the Indians. They, therefore, paid an early attention to the making of such purchases and amicable treaties, as might most effectually answer their designs.
On the 24th of November, 1638, Theophilus Eaton, Esq. Mr. Davenport, and other English planters, entered into an agreement with Momauguin, sachem of that part of the country, and his counsellors, respecting the lands. The articles of agreement are to this effect:
That Momauguin is the sole sachem of Quinnipiack, and had an absolute power to aliene and dispose of the same: That, in consequence of the protection which he had tasted, by the English, from the Pequots and Mohawks,1 he yielded up all his right, title, and interest to all the land, rivers, ponds, and trees, with all the liberties and appurtenances belonging to the same, unto Theophilus Eaton, John Davenport, and others, their heirs and assigns, for ever. He covenanted, that neither he, nor his Indians, would terrify, nor disturb the English, nor injure them in any of their interests; but that, in every respect, they would keep true faith with them.
The English covenanted to protect Momauguin and his Indians, when unreasonably assaulted and terrified by other Indians; and that they should always have a sufficient quantity of land to plant on, upon the east side of the harbour,2 between that and Saybrook fort. They also covenanted, that by way of free and thankful retribution, they gave unto the said sachem, and his council and company, twelve coats of English cloth, twelve a.U chymy spoons, twelve hatchets, twelve hoes, two dozen of knives, twelve porringers, and four cases of French knives and scissors.5
This agreement was signed and legally executed, by Momauguin and his council on the one part, and Theophilus Eaton and John Davenport on the other. Thomas Stanton, who was the interpreter, declared in the presence of God, that he had faithfully acquainted the Indians with the said articles, and returned their answers.
In December following, they made another purchase of a large tract, which lay principally north of the former. This was of Montowese, son of the great sachem at Mattabeseck. This tract was ten miles in length, north and south, and thirteen miles in breadth.
1 The Indians of Quinnipiack, in this treaty, declared, that they still remem be red the heavy taxes of the Pequots and Mohawks; and that, by reason of their fear of them, they could not stay in their own country, but had been obliged to flee. By these powerful enemies, they had been reduced to about forty men.
It extended eight miles east of the river Quinnipiack, and five miles west of it towards Hudson's river. It included all the lands within the ancient limits of the old towns of New-Haven, Branford, and Wallingford, and almost the whole contained in the present limits of those towns, and of the towns of East-Haven, Woodbridge, Cheshire, Hamden, and North-Haven.1 These have since been made out of the three old towns.
The New-Haven adventurers were the most opulent company which came into New-England, and they designed to plant a capital colony. They laid out their town plat in squares, designing it for a great and elegant city. In the centre was a large, beautiful square. This was encompassed with others, making nine in the whole.
The first principal settlers were Theophilus Eaton, Esq. Mr. Davenport, Mr. Samuel Eaton, Mr. Thomas Gregson, Mr. Robert Newman, Mr. Matthew Gilbert, Mr. Nathaniel Turner, Mr. Thomas Fugill, Mr. Francis Newman, Mr. Stephen Goodyear, and Mr. Joshua Atwater.
Mr. Eaton had been deputy-governor of the East India company, and was three years himself in the East Indies. He served the company so well, that he received from them presents of great value. He had been on an embassy from the court of England to the king of Denmark. He was a London merchant, who had, for many years, traded to the East Indies, had obtained a great estate, and brought over a large sum of money into New-England.1 Others were merchants of fair estates, and they designed to have been a great trading city.
There appears no act of civil, military, or ecclesiastical authority, during the first year; nor is there any appearance, that this colony was ever straitened for bread, as the other colonies had been.
Mr. Prudden, and his company, who came with Mr. Davenport, continued the first summer at Quinnipiack, and were making preparations for the settlement of another township.
When Mr. Davenport removed to Quinnipiack, Mr. Hopkins came to Hartford, and soon after incorporated with the settlers of Connecticut.
The inhabitants of the three towns upon Connecticut river, finding themselves without the limits of the Massachusetts patent, conceived the plan of forming themselves, by voluntary compact, into a distinct commonwealth.
1 For this last tract of ten miles north and south, and thirteen east and west, the English gave thirteen coats, and allowed the Indians ground to plant, and liberty to hunt within the lands. Records of New-Haven.
5 The tradition is, that he brought to New-Haven a very great estate, in plate and money. The East India company made his wife a present of a bason and ewer, double gilt, and curiously wrought with gold, weighing more than sixty pounds.
On the 14th of January, 1639,1 all the free planters convened at Hartford, and, on mature deliberation, adopted a constitution of government. They introduce their constitution, with a declaration to this effect, That for the establishment of order and government, they associated, and conjoined themselves to be one public state or commonwealth; and did, for themselves and successors, and such as should be, at any time, joined to them, confederate together, to maintain the liberty and purity of the gospel, which they professed, and the discipline of the churches, according to its institution; and in all civil affairs, to be governed according to such laws, as should be made agreeably to the constitution, which they were then about to adopt.
The constitution, which then follows, ordains, That there shall be, annually, two general courts, or assemblies; one on the second Thursday in April, and the other on the second Thursday in September: That the first, shall be the court of election, in which shall be annually chosen, at least, six magistrates, and all other public officers. It ordains, that a governor should be chosen, distinct from the six magistrates, for one year, and until another should be chosen and sworn: and that the governor and magistrates should be sworn to a faithful execution of the laws of the colony, and in cases in which there was no express law established, to be governed by the divine word. Agreeably to the constitution, the choice of these officers was to be made by the whole body of the freemen, convened in general election. It provided, that all persons, who had been received as members of the several towns, by a majority of the inhabitants, and had taken the oath of fidelity to the commonwealth, should be admitted freemen of the colony. It required, that the governor and magistrates should be elected by ballot; the governor by the greatest number of votes, and the magistrates by a majority. However, it provided, that if it should so happen, at any time, that six should not have a majority, that in such case, those who had the greatest number of suffrages, should stand as duly elected for that year. No person might be governor, unless he were a member of some regular church, and had previously been a magistrate in the colony. Nor could any man be elected to the office, more than once in two years. No one could be chosen into the magistracy who was not a freeman of the colony, and had been nominated, either by the freemen, or the general court. The assembly were authorised to nominate, in cases in which they judged it expedient. Neither the governor, nor magistrates, might execute any part of their office until they had been publicly sworn, in the face of the General Assembly.
1 This stands on the records of the colony, January 14th, 1638, which is owing to the manner of dating at that time. The first settlers of the colony, began their year on the 25th of March ; and until this time, they dated 1638 ; but it was most evidently 1639, as the December preceding, was 1638, and the April following, 1639
The constitution also ordained, that the several towns should send their respective deputies to the election: and that when it was finished, they should proceed to do any public service, as at any other courts: and, that the assembly, in September, should be for the enacting of laws, and other public services. It authorised the governor, either by himself or his secretary, to issue his warrants for calling the assemblies, one month at least, before the time of their appointed meetings. Upon particular emergencies, he might convene them in seventeen days, or even upon shorter notice, stating the reasons in his warrant. Upon the reception of the governor's warrants, in April and September, the constables of the respective towns were obliged to warn all the freemen to elect and send their deputies.
The constitution ordained, that the three towns of Windsor, Hartford and Weathersfield, should each of them send four deputies to every general court; and, that the other towns, which should be added to the colony in future, should send such a number as the court should determine, proportionate to the body of their freemen. The constitution declared the deputies to be vested with the whole power of the respective towns which they represented. It authorised them to meet separately, and determine their own elections, to fine any person who should obtrude himself upon them, when he had not been duly chosen, and to fine any of their members for disorderly conduct, when they were assembled.
Further, the constitution provided, that in case the governor and the major part of the magistrates should, upon any urgent occasion, neglect or refuse to call an assembly, the freemen should petition them to summon one; and, if, upon the petition of a major part of the freemen in the colony, they still refused or neglected, then the constables of the several towns should, upon the petition of the major part of the freemen, convoke an assembly. It also ordained, that when this assembly was convened, it should have power of choosing a moderator; and when it was thus formed, should exercise all the powers of any other general assembly. Particularly it was authorised to call any court, magistrate, or any other person before it, and to displace, or inflict penalties according to the nature of the offence.
All general assemblies, called by the governor, were to consist of the governor, four magistrates, and the major part of the deputies. When there was an equal vote, the governor had a casting voice. The constitution also provided, that no general court should be adjourned or dissolved, without the consent of a major part of the members: and that, whenever a tax was laid upon the inhabitants, the sum to be paid by each town should be determined by a committee, consisting of an equal number from each of the respective towns.
The form of oaths to be administered to the governor and magistrates was also adopted in the general convention of the free planters. This, for substance, was the original constitution of Connecticut.1
With such wisdom did our venerable ancestors provide for the freedom and liberties of themselves and their posterity. Thus happily did they guard against every encroachment on the rights of the subject. This, probably, is one of the most free and happy constitutions of civil government which has ever been formed. The formation of it, at so early a period, when the light of liberty was wholly darkened in most parts of the earth, and the rights of men were so little understood in others, does great honor to their ability, integrity, and love to mankind. To posterity indeed, it exhibited a most benevolent regard. It has continued, with little alteration, to the present time. The happy consequences of it, which, for more than a century and half, the people of Connecticut have experienced, are without description.2
Agreeably to the constitution, the freemen convened at Hartford, on the second Thursday in April, and elected their officers for the year ensuing.
John Haynes, Esq. was chosen governor, and Roger Ludlow, George Wyllys, Edward Hopkins, Thomas Wells, John Webster and William Phelps, Esquires, were chosen magistrates. Mr. Ludlow, the first of the six magistrates, was deputy governor. Mr. Hopkins was chosen secretary, and Mr. Wells treasurer.
The deputies sent to this first general assembly, in Connecticut, were Mr. John Steele, Mr. Spencer, Mr. John Pratt, Mr. Edward Stebbins, Mr. Gaylord, Mr. Henry Wolcott, Mr. Stoughton, Mr. Ford, Mr. Thurston Rayner, Mr. James Boosy, Mr. George Hubbard, and Mr. Richard Crab.
The general assembly proceded as they had leisure, and as occasion required, to enact a system of laws. The laws at first were few, and time was taken to consider and digest them. The first statute in the Connecticut code is a kind of declaration, or bill of rights. It ordains, that no man's life shall be taken away; no man's honor or good name be stained, no man's person shall be arrested, restrained, banished, dismembered, nor any wise punished: That no man shall be deprived of his wife or children; no man's goods or estate shall be taken away from him, nor any wise endamaged, under colour of law, or countenance of authority, unless it should be by the virtue of some express law of the colony
1 Appendix, No. III.
9 For the influence of Thomas Hooker in establishing the fundamental principles of this constitution, see Walker's Thomas Hooker, pp. 122-128, also Johnston's Connecticut, p. 71, in both of which it is shown that Hooker, not only in his letter to Winthrop, but more particularly in a sermon preached at an adjourned session of the General Court of April, 1638, laid down the principles which govern this constitution. The notes of this sermon were discovered and deciphered by the late J. Hammond Trumbull, and first published in the Collections of the Conn. Historical Society, p. 19.—J. T.
warranting the same, established by the general court, and sufficiently published; or in case of the defect of such law, in any particular case, by some clear and plain rule of the word of God, in which the whole court shall concur.1 It was also ordained that all persons in the colony, whether inhabitants or not, should enjoy the same law and justice without partiality or delay. These general precepts bore the same aspect, and breathed the same spirit of liberty and safety, with respect to the subjects universally, which is exhibited in the constitution.
The planters of Quinnipiack continued more than a year without any civil or religious constitution, or compact, further than had been expressed in their plantation covenant.
Meanwhile, Mr. Henry Whitfield, William Leet, Esq. Samuel Desborough, Robert Kitchel, William Chittenden and others, who were part of Dr. Davenport's and Mr. Eaton's company, arrived to assist them in their new settlement. These were principally from Kent and Surrey, in the vicinity of London. Mr. Whitfield's people, like Mr. Davenport's, followed him into NewEngland. There were now three ministers, with many of the membei s of their former churches and congregations, collected in this infant colony, and combined in the same general agreement.
On the 4th of June, all the free planters at Quinnipiack convened in a large barn of Mr. Newman's, and, in a very formal and solemn manner, proceeded to lay the foundations of their civil and religious polity.
Mr. Davenport introduced the business, by a sermon from the words of the royal preacher, "Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars." His design was to show, that the church, the house of God, should be formed of seven pillars, or principal brethren, to whom all the other members of the church should be added. After a solemn invocation of the Divine Majesty, he proceeded to represent to the planters, that they were met to consult respecting the settlement of civil government according to the will of God, and for the nomination of persons, who, by universal consent, were, in all respects the best qualified for the foundation work of a church. He enlarged on the great importance of the transactions before them, and desired, that no man would give his voice, in any matter, until he fully understood it; and, that all would act, without respect to any man, but give their vote in the fear of God. He then proposed a number of questions in consequence of which the following resolutions were passed.
I. "That the scriptures hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and government of all men in all duties which they are to perform to God and men, as well in families and commonwealth, as in matters of the church."
1 Old code of Connecticut.
II. "That as in matters which concerned the gathering and ordering of a church, so likewise in all public offices which concern civil order, as the choice of magistrates and officers, making and repealing laws, dividing allotments of inheritance, and all things of like nature, they would all be governed by those rules, which the scripture held forth to them."
III. "That all those who had desired to be received as free planters, had settled in the plantation, with a purpose, resolution and desire, that they might be admitted into church fellowship according to Christ."
IV. "That all the free planters held themselves bound to establish such civil order as might best conduce to the securing of the purity and peace of the ordinance to themselves and their posterity according to God."
When these resolutions had been passed and the people had bound themselves to settle civil government according to the divine word, Mr. Davenport proceeded to represent unto them what men they must choose for civil rulers according to the divine word, and that they might most effectually secure to them and their posterity a just, free and peaceable government. Time was then given to discuss and deliberate upon what he had proposed. After full discussion and deliberation it was determined—
V. "That church members only should be free burgesses; and that they only should choose magistrates among themselves, to have power of transacting all the public civil affairs of the plantation: Of making and repealing laws, dividing inheritances, deciding of differences that may arise, and doing all things and businesses of like nature."
That civil officers might be chosen and government proceed according to these resolutions, it was necessary that a church should be formed. Without this there could be neither freemen nor magistrates. Mr. Davenport therefore proceeded to make proposals relative to the formation of it, in such a manner, that no blemish might be left on the "beginnings of church work." It was then resolved to this effect,
VI. "That twelve men should be chosen, that their fitness for the foundation work might be tried, and that it should be in the power of those twelve men, to choose seven to begin the church."
It was agreed that if seven men could not be found among the twelve qualified for the foundation work, that such other persons should be taken into the number, upon trial,1 as should be judged most suitable.2 The form of a solemn charge, or oath, was drawn up and agreed upon at this meeting to be given to all the freemen.
1 Appendix No. IV.
* The twelve persons chosen for trial, out of whom the seven pillars of the house were chosen, were Theophilus Eaton, John Davenport, Robert Newman, Matthew Gilbert, Richard Malbon, Nathaniel Turner, Ezekiel Chevers, Thomas Fugill, John Punderson, William Andrews and Jeremiah Dixon.
Further, it was ordered, that all persons, who should be received as free planters of that corporation, should submit to the fundamental agreement above related, and in testimony of their submission should subscribe their names among the freemen.1 After a proper term of trial, Theophilus Eaton, Esq. Mr. John Davenport, Robert Newman, Matthew Gilbert, Thomas Fugill, John Punderson and Jeremiah Dixon, were chosen for the seven pillars of the church.
October 25th, 1639, the court, as it is termed, consisting of these seven persons only, convened, and after a solemn address to the Supreme Majesty, they proceeded to form the body of freemen and to elect their civil officers. The manner was indeed singular and curious.
In the first place, all former trust, for managing the public affairs of the plantation, was declared to cease, and be utterly abrogated. Then all those who had been admitted to the church after the gathering of it, in the choice of the seven pillars, and all the members of other approved churches, who desired it, and offered themselves, were admitted members of the court. A solemn charge was then publicly given them, to the same effect as the freemen's charge, or oath, which they had previously adopted. The purport of this was nearly the same with the oath of fidelity, and with the freemen's administered at the present time. Mr. Davenport expounded several scriptures to them, describing the character of civil magistrates given in the sacred oracles. To this succeeded the election of officers. Theophilus Eaton, Esq. was chosen governor, Mr. Robert Newman, Mr. Matthew Gilbert, Mr. Nathaniel Turner, and Mr. Thomas Fugill, were chosen magistrates. Mr. Fugill was also chosen secretary, and Robert Seely, marshal.
Mr. Davenport gave governor Eaton a charge in open court, from Deut. i. 16, 17. "And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. Ye shall not respect persons in judgment, but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it."
It was decreed, by the freemen, that there should be a general court annually, in the plantation, on the last week in October. This was ordained a court of election in which all the officers of the colony were to be chosen. This court determined, that the word of God should be the only rule for ordering the affairs of government in that commonwealth.
This was the original, fundamental constitution of the govern
1 Sixty-three subscribed on the 4th day of June, and there were added soon after about fifty other names.
ment of New-Haven. All government was originally in the church, and the members of the church elected the governor, magistrates, and all other officers. The magistrates, at first, were no more than assistants of the governor, they might not act in any sentence or determination of the court.1 No deputy governor was chosen, nor were any laws enacted except the general resolutions which have been noticed; but as the plantation enlarged, and new towns were settled, new orders were given; the general court received a new form, laws were enacted, and the civil polity of this jurisdiction gradually advanced, in its essential parts, to a near resemblance of the government of Connecticut.
While these affairs were transacted at Quinnipiack, plantations commenced at Wopowage and Menunkatuck. Wopowage was purchased February 12th, 1639,2 and Menunkatuck the September following. Both were settled this year. The churches of Mr. Prudden and Mr. Whitfield were both formed upon the plan of Mr. Davenport's; each consisting of seven principal men, or pillars. They appear to have been gathered at the same time. The planters were in the original agreement made in Mr. Newman's barn, on the 4th of June. The principal men, or pillars in the town of Wopowage, were Mr. Peter Prudden, William Fowler, Edmund Tapp, Zechariah Whitman, Thomas Buckingham, Thomas Welch, and John Astwood. The principal planters of Menunkatuck, were Henry Whitfield, Robert Kitchel, William Leet, Samuel Desborough, William Chittenden, John Bishop, and John Caffinge. The lands in Milford and Guilford, as well as in New-Haven, were purchased by these principal men, in trust, for all the inhabitants of the respective towns. Every planter, after paying his proportionable part of the expenses, arising from laying out and settling the plantation, drew a lot or lots of land, in proportion to the money or estate which he had expended in the general purchase, and to the number of heads in his family. These principal men were judges in the respective towns, composing a court, to judge between man and man, divide inheritances and punish offences according to the written word, until a body of laws should be established.
Most of the principal settlers of Milford were from Weathersfield.3 They first purchased of the Indians all that tract which lies between New-Haven and Stratford river, and between the sound on the south, and a stream called two mile brook on the north, which is the boundary line between Milford and Derby. This tract comprised all the lands within the old town of Milford, and a small part of the town of Woodbridge. The planters made
1 Records of the colony of New-Haven.
1 On the records it was 1638, but according to the present mode of dating 1639. 8 Mr. Prudden it seems preached at Weathersneld, the summer before the people removed to Milford.
other purchases which included a large tract on the west side of Stratford river, principally in the town of Huntington. In the first town meeting in Milford, the number of free planters, or of church members, was forty four.
The Indians were so numerous in this plantation, that the English judged it necessary for their own safety, to compass the whole town plat, including nearly a mile square, with a fortification. It was so closely inclosed with strong pallisadoes, as entirely to exclude the Indians, from that part of the town.
The purchasers of Guilford agreed with the Indians, that they should move off from the lands, which they had purchased. According to agreement they soon all removed from the plantation.
The number of the first free planters appears to have been about forty. They were all husbandmen. There was not a merchant, nor scarcely a mechanic among them. It was at great expense and trouble that they obtained even a blacksmith to settle in the plantation. As they were from Surry and Kent, they took much pains to find a tract of land resembling that from which they had removed. They therefore finally pitched upon Guilford, which, toward the sea, where they made the principal settlement, was low, moist, rich land, liberal indeed to the husbandman. Especially the great plain south of the town. This had been already cleared and enriched by the natives. The vast quantities of shells and manure, which, in a course of ages, they had brought upon it from the sea, had contributed much to the natural richness of the soil. There were also nearly adjoining to this, several necks, or points of land, near the sea, clear, rich and fertile, prepared for irnmediate improvement. These, with the industry of the inhabitants, soon afforded them a comfortable subsistence.1
At the same time when these settlements commenced, two new ones were made under the jurisdiction of Connecticut.
Mr. Ludlow, who went with the troops in pursuit of the Pequots, to Sasco,2 the great swamp in Fairfield, was so pleased with that fine tract of country, that he soon projected the scheme of a settlement in that part of the colony. This year, he, with a number of others, began a plantation at Unquowa, which was the Indian name of the town. At first there were but about eight or ten families. These, probably, removed from Windsor, with Mr. Ludlow, who was the principal planter. Very soon after, another company came from Watertown and united with Mr. Ludlow and the people from Windsor. A third company removed into the plantation from Concord; so that the inhabitants soon became numerous, and formed themselves into a distinct town
1 Manuscripts of Mr. Rupgles.
* It has also been called Pequot swamp, on the account of the memorable battle fought in this place with the Pequots.
ship, under the jurisdiction of Connecticut. The first adventurers purchased a large tract of land of the natives, and soon after Connecticut obtained charter privileges, the general assembly gave them a patent. The township comprises the four parishes of Fairfield, Green's farms, Greenfield and Reading; and part of the parish of Stratfield. The lands in this tract are excellent, and at an early period the town became wealthy and respectable.
Settlements commenced the same year at Cupheag and Pughquonnuck, since named Stratford. That part which contains the town plat, and lies upon the river, was called Cupheag, and the western part, bordering on Fairfield, Pughquonnuck. It appears that settlements were made in both these places at the same time. Mr. Fairchild, who was a principal planter, and the first gentleman in the town vested with civil authority, came directly from England. Mr. John and Mr. William Curtiss and Mr. Samuel Hawley were from Roxbury, and Mr. Joseph Judson and Mr. Timothy Wilcoxson from Concord, in Massachusetts. These were the first principal gentlemen in the town and church of Stratford. A few years after the settlement commenced, Mr. John Birdseye removed from Milford, and became a man of eminence both in the town and church. There were also several of the chief planters from Boston, and Mr. Samuel Wells, with his three sons, John, Thomas and Samuel, from Weathersfield. Mr. Adam Blackman, who had been episcopally ordained in England, and a preacher of some note, first at Leicester, and afterwards in Derbyshire, was their minister, and one of the first planters. It is said, that he was followed by a number of the faithful into this country, to whom he was so dear, that they said to him, in the language of Ruth, " Intreat us not to leave thee, for whither thou goest we will go; thy people shall be our people, and thy God our God." These, doubtless, collected about him in this infant settlement.
The whole township was purchased of the natives; but, at first, Cupheag and Pughquonnuck only, where the settlements began. The purchase was not completed until 1672. There was a reservation of good lands at Pughquonnuck, Golden hill, and another place, called Coram, for the improvement of the Indians.
The town is bounded upon the east by the Housatonick, or Stratford river; on the south by the Sound; by Fairfield on the west; and Newtown on the north. It comprises these four parishes, Stratford, Ripton, North-Stratford and New-Stratford, and a considerable part of Stratfield. The lands in this town, like those in Fairfield, are good, and its situation is exceedingly beautiful and agreeable.
While these plantations were forming in the south-western part of Connecticut, another commenced on the west side of the mouth of Connecticut river. A fort had been built here in 1635 and 1636, and preparations had been made for the reception of gentlemen of quality; but the war with the Pequots, the uncultivated state of the country, and the low condition of the colony, prevented the coming of any principal character from England, to take possession of a township, and make settlements in this tract. Until this time, there had been only a garrison of about twenty men in the place. They had made some small improvement of the lands, and erected a few buildings in the vicinity of the fort; but there had been no settlement of a plantation with civil privileges. But about midsummer, Mr. George Fenwick, with his lady and family, arrived in a ship of 250 tons. Another ship came in company with him. They were both for Quinnipiack. Mr. Fenwick and others, came over with a view to take possession of a large tract upon the river, in behalf of their lordships, the original patentees, and to plant a town at the mouth of the river. A settlement was soon made, and named Saybrook, in honour to their lordships, Say and Seal and Brook. Mr. Fenwick, Mr. Thomas Peters, who was the first minister in the plantation, captain Gardiner, Thomas Leffingwell, Thomas Tracy, and captain John Mason, were some of the principal planters. Indeed, the Huntingtons, Baldwins, Reynolds's, Backus's, Bliss's, Watermans, Hydes, Posts, Smiths, and almost all the names afterwards to be found at Norwich, were among the first inhabitants of Saybrook. The government of the town was entirely independent of Connecticut, for nearly ten years, until after the purchase made of Mr. Fenwick, in 1644. It was first taxed by the colony in the October session, 1645; and it appears by the tax imposed, that the proportion of the towns of Hartford, Windsor, and Weathersfield, were to this, as six to one. The plantation did not increase to any considerable degree until about the year 1646, when Mr. James Fitch, a famous young gentleman, was ordained to the pastoral care of the church and congregation; and a considerable number of families from Hartford and Windsor removed and made settlements in the town. Its original boundaries extended eastward five miles beyond the river, and from its mouth northward six miles; including a considerable part of the town of Lyme. Westward they extended to Hammonasset, the Indian name of the tract comprised in the limits of Killingworth, and north eight miles from the sea. Mr. Fenwick and captain 1 Mason were magistrates, and had the principal government of the town.
Great difficulties had arisen the last year, between the English at Pyquaug, now Weathersfield, and Sowheag and his Indians. It was discovered, that some of the Indians at Pyquaug, under Sowheag, had been aiding the Pequots in the destruction which they
1 Though captain Mason was appointed major-general of the militia of the colony, yet he was always called captain, or major, upon the records; in conformity to which I have uniformly given him those titles.
had made there the preceding year, and were instrumental of bringing them against the town. Sowheag entertained the murderers, and treated the people of Weathersfield with haughtiness and insult. The court at Connecticut, on hearing the differences, determined, that, as the English at Weathersfield, had been the aggressors, and gave the first provocation, the injuries which Sowheag had done should be forgiven, and that he should, on his good conduct for the future, be restored to their friendship. Mr. Stone and Mr. Goodwin were appointed a committee to compromise all differences with him. However, as Sowheag could not, by any arguments, or fair means, be persuaded to give up the murderers, but continued his outrages against the English, the court, this year, determined, that a hundred men should be senf down to Mattabeseck, to take the delinquents by force of arms. The court ordered, that their friends at Quinnipiack should be certified of this resolution, that they might adopt the measures necessary for the defence of the plantations. It was, also, determined to have their advice and consent in an affair of such general concernment.
Governor Eaton and his council fully approved of the design of bringing the delinquents to condign punishment; but they disapproved of the manner proposed by Connecticut. They feared that it would be introductive to a new Indian war. This they represented would greatly endanger the new settlements, and be many ways injurious and distressing. They wanted peace, all their men and money, to prosecute the design of planting the country. They represented that a new war would not only injure the plantations in these respects, but would prevent the coming over of new planters, whom they expected from England. They were, therefore, determinately against seeking redress by an armed force. Connecticut, through their influence, receded from the resolution which they had formed with respect to Sowheag and Mattabeseck.
Nevertheless, as the Pequots had violated their covenant, and planted at Pawcatuck, in the Pequot country, the court dispatched major Mason, with forty men, to drive them off, burn their wigwams, and bring away their corn.1 Uncas, with a hundred men and twenty canoes, assisted in the enterprise. When they arrived at Pawcatuck bay, major Mason met with three of the Pequot Indians, and sent them to inform the others of the design of his coming, and what he should do, unless they would peaceably desert the place. They promised to give him an immediate answer, but never returned.
The major sailed up a small river, landed, and beset the wigwams so suddenly, that the Indians were unable to carry off either their corn or treasures. Some of the old men had not time to make 1 Records of Connecticut.
their escape. As it was now Indian harvest, he found a great plenty of corn.
While Uncas's Indians were plundering the wigwams, about sixty others came rushing down a hill towards them. The Moheagans stood perfectly still, and spake not a word, until they came within about thirty yards of them; then, shouting and yelling, in their terrible manner, they ran to meet them, and fell upon them, striking with bows, and cutting with knives and hatchets, in their mode of fighting. Indeed, it scarcely deserved the name of fighting. It, however, afforded something new and amusing to the English, as they were now spectators of an Indian battle. The major made a movement to cut off their retreat, which they perceived, and instantly fled. As it was not desired to kill, or irritate the Indians more than was absolutely necessary, the English made no fire upon them. Seven Indians were taken. They behaved so outrageously, that it was designed to take off their heads; but one Otash, a Narraganset sachem, brother to Miantonimoh, pleaded that they might be spared, because they were his brother's men, who was a friend to the English. He offered to deliver the heads of so many murderers in lieu of them. The English, considering that no blood had been shed, and that the proposal tended both to mercy and peace, granted the request. The Indians were committed to the care of Uncas, until the conditions should be performed.
The light of the next morning no sooner appeared, than the English discovered three hundred Indians in arms, on the opposite side of the creek in which they lay.
Upon this, the soldiers immediately stood to their arms. The Indians were alarmed at the appearance of the English; some fled, and others secreted themselves behind rocks and trees, so that a man of them could not be seen. The English called to them, representing their desire of speaking with them. Numbers of them rose up, and major Mason acquainted them with the Pequots' breach of covenant with the English, as they were not to settle or plant in any part of their country. The Indians replied, that the Pequots were good men, and that they would fight for them, and protect them. Major Mason told them it was not far to the head of the creek; that he would meet them there, and they might try what they could do at fighting. The Indians replied, they would not fight with Englishmen, for they were spirits; but they would fight with Uncas. The major assured them, that he should spend the day in burning wigwams, and carrying off the corn, and they might fight when they had an opportunity. The English beat up their drum, and fired their wigwams, but they dared not to engage them. The English loaded their bark with Indian corn, and the Indians the twenty canoes in which they passed to Pawcatuck, and thirty more, which they took from the Indians there, with kettles, trays, mats, and other Indian luggage, and returned in safety.1
During these transactions in Connecticut, the Dutch, at NewNetherlands, were increasing in numbers and strength. A new governor, William Kieft, a man of ability and enterprise, had arrived at their seat of government. Kieft had prohibited the English trade at the fort of Good Hope, in Hartford, and protested against the settlement at Quinnipiack.2 These circumstances gave some alarm to the English in Connecticut. The court at Hartford appointed a committee to go down to the mouth of the river, to consult with Mr. Fenwick, relative to a general confederation of the colonies, for mutual offence and defence. The deputy-governor, Mr. Ludlow, Mr. Thomas Wells, and Mr. Hooker, went upon this business. They were, also, instructed to confer with Mr. Fenwick, relative to the patent. The court approved of the conduct of the committee, and, with respect to the article of confederation, declared its willingness to enter into a mutual agreement of offence and defence, and of all offices of love between the colonies. Mr. Fenwick was in favour of an union of the New-England colonies. With respect to the patent of the river, it was agreed, that the affair should rest, until the minds of the noblemen and gentlemen particularly interested, could be more fully known.
Governor Haynes and Mr. Wells were appointed to repair to Pughquonnuck, and administer the oath of fidelity to the inhabitants; to admit such of them as were qualified to the privileges of freemen; and to appoint officers for the town, both civil and military. They were, also, authorised to invite the freemen to send their deputies to the general courts at Hartford."
At an adjourned General Assembly, October 10th, the court incorporated the several towns in the colonies, vesting them with full powers to transact their own affairs. It was enacted, that they should have power to choose, from among themselves, three, five, or seven of their principal men, to be a court for each town. One of the three, five, or seven, was to be chosen moderator. The major part of them, always including him, constituted a quorum. A casting voice was allowed him, in cases in which there was an equal division. He, or any two of the court, were authorised to summon the parties to appear at the time and place appointed, and might grant execution against the party offending. They were authorised to determine all matters of trespass or debt, not exceeding forty shillings. An appeal might be made from
1 Mason's History.
* Smith's Hist. N. York, p. 3.
5 It was not unusual for the General Assembly to fine its members. Mr. Ludlow, the deputy-governor, was fined for absence, and for his conduct at Pughquonnuck. It was, probably, on the account of the displeasure of the court towards him, that this committee were appointed.
this court, at any time before execution was given out. This court was appointed to sit once in two months.
It was ordained, that every town should keep a public ledger, in which every man's house and lands, with the boundaries and quantity, according to the nearest estimation, should be recorded. All lands also granted and measured to any man afterwards, and all bargains and mortgages of lands were to be put on record. Until this was done, they were to be of no validity. The towns were, also, empowered to dispose of their own lands. This was the origin of the privileges of particular towns in Connecticut,
Besides the court in each town, there was the court of magistrates, termed the particular court. This held a session once in three months. To this lay all appeals from the other courts. In this were tried all criminal causes and actions of debt, exceeding forty shillings, and all titles of land. Indeed, this court possessed all the authority, and did all the business now possessed and done by the county and superior courts. For a considerable time, they were vested with such discretionary powers, as none of the courts at this day would venture to exercise.
Nepaupuck, a famous Pequot captain, who had frequently stained his hands in English blood, was condemned by the General Court at Quinnipiack, for murder. It appeared, that in the year 1637, he killed John Finch, of Weathersfield, and captivated one of Mr. Swain's daughters. He had also assisted in killing the three men, who were going down Connecticut river in a shallop. His head was cut off, and set upon a pole in the market place.
It will, doubtless, hardly be granted, in this enlightened age, that the subjects of princes, killing men by their orders, in war, ought to be treated as murderers. Though the first planters of New-England and Connecticut were men of eminent piety and strict morals, yet, like other good men, they were subject to misconception and the influence of passion. Their beheading sachems, whom they took in war, killing the male captives, and enslaving the women and children of the Pequots, after it was finished, was treating them with a severity, which, on the benevolent principles of christianity, it will be difficult ever to justify. The executing of all those as murderers, who were active in killing any of the English people, and obliging all the Indian nations to bring in such persons, or their heads, was an act of severity unpractised, at this day, by civilized and christian nations. The decapitation of their enemies, and the setting of their heads upon poles, was a kind of barbarous triumph, too nearly symbolizing with the examples of uncivilized and pagan nations. The further we are removed from every resemblance of these, and the more deeply we imbibe those divine precepts, "Love your enemies: Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them,"—the greater will be our dignity and happiness.