soon became so populated as to send out colonists to the adjacent shores.

Let me now call the attention of the reader to the settlement of Connecticut. The first discovery of the country of Connecticut River, was made by the enterprising people of Plymouth, in 1633. The Plymouth people 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 the Dutch governor the commission the English had to trade and settle in New England; and that the king had granted these parts to his own subjects; he also desired that the Dutch would not build in Connecticut. The Dutch governor requested that the English would not settle in Connecticut until the affair should be determined between them. This appears to have been a piece of policy in the Dutch governor, to keep the English back, until the Dutch had got a firm footing upon the river.

In September, several vessels went into Connecticut river, to trade. John Oldham, from Dorchester, with a few men, travelled through Connecticut to view the country, and trade with the Indians. He found that the Indian hemp grew in great abundance in the meadows, and purchased a quantity of it, which upon trial, was found to exceed that which grew in England. William Holmes, of Plymouth, with his company, having prepared the frame of a house, and boards and materials for covering it, immediately put them on board a vessel, and sailed for Connecticut. When he came into the river, he found that the Dutch had got in before him, and made a light fort, and planted two pieces of cannon at the mouth of the little river, since called Hartford. The Dutch forbade Holmes going up the river, stood by their cannon, and ordered him to strike his colours, or they would fire upon him; but he was a man of spirit, and assured them that he had a commission from the governor of Plymouth, to go up the river, and go he would. They still threatened, but he proceeded, landed on the west side of the river, and erected his house, a little below the mouth of the little

river in Windsor. This was the first house erected Connecticut. It was covered with the utmost despatch and well fortified. The Sachems who were original own ers of the soil, had been driven from this point of the country, by the Pequots, and were now carried home on board Holmes' vessel. The Dutch, about the same time, erected a trading house at Hartford. It was with great difficulty that Holmes and his company erected and fortified their house, and kept it afterwards. The Dutch, before the Plymouth people took possession of the river, had been invited to trade with them at Connecticut; but when they found that they were preparing for a settlement there, they repented of the invitation, and did all in their power to prevent them. On the 8th of June, the Dutch purchased about twenty acres of land at Hartford, of a Pequod captain. Of this the Dutch took possession; they protested against Holmes, the builder of the trading house. Some time afterwards, the Dutch governor despatched a reinforcement from fort Amsterdam to onnecticut, designing to drive Holmes and his company from the river. A band of seventy men assaulted the Plymouth house but they found it too well fortified, and gave up their design.

In November and December, the small pox raged among the Indians; two Sachems, with a great part of their Indians, died. 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.

In 163, at a meeting of the General Court, in September, the people of Newtown made application for liberty to remove to Connecticut River. Mr. Hooker, acting as principal advocate for the people, the court refused to give their consent; and the design was given over. In 1635, permission was granted, on condition that the new settlement should continue subject to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. The people of Newtown, Dorchester, and Watertown, now began to prepare for their new habitation. In the course of the season, several people went to Connecticut river; some by water, some through the wil

derness.

The Dorchester men sat down at Windsor, near the Plymouth trading house. They purchased the building and land owned by the Plymouth people. The peo

In

ple from Newtown, of whom but few removed till the following year, settled at Hartford. The Watertown settlers began the town of Wethersfield. In 1636, about one hundred persons, men, women, and children, led by the Rev. Messrs. Hooker and Stone, together with their horses, cattle, and swine, commenced ther journey through the wilderness to Connecticut river They travelled about two weeks, on foot; during which time they lived upon the milk of their cows. By the 25th of November, Connecticut river was frozen over; heavy falis of snow succeeded, and the season was very severe. Several small vessels, which had been laden with their furniture and provisions, sailed from Boston, and were wrecked on the coast. By the last of November, provisions began to fail in the settlements on the river, and death looked them sternly in the face. Thirteen in one company, driven by hunger, attempted their way in this severe season. passing the river, one of their company fell through the ice, and was drowned, the other twelve were kept from perishing by the Indians, and arrived in Massachusetts in ten days. Their distress was so great, that by the first of December a considerable part of the men settlers were obliged to abandon their habitations. As the only means of preserving their lives, about seventy persons, men, women, and children, left their settlements, and went down the river, in hopes of meeting with their provisions. As their expectation failed, they went on board the Rebecca lying near the mouth of the river. This, but two days before, was frozen in twenty miles up the river, but was released by the falling of a small rain, and reached Boston in five days. Had it not been for a very quick passage, the people must have perished. The people that kept their situations on the river suffered extremely. After all the help they were able to obtain by hunting, and from the Indians, they were obliged to subsist on acorns, malt, and grain. The number of cattle that could not be got over before winter, living upon what they found in the woods and meadows, wintered better than those which

were brought over; however, a great number of them perished. Early in the spring, those who went from Connecticut to spend the winter with their friends, began to return to their new habitations.

The first court held in Connecticut, was held at Newtown, April 26th, 1636.

Towards the last of the year 1635, Mr. Winthrop, son of the Massachusetts governor, the worthy character who afterwards procured the Connecticut Charter, arrived at Boston, with a commission from lords Say and Seal, lord Brook, and others, to take possession of Connecticut river; and build a fort, which they had named Saybrook.

In a few days, a Dutch vessel appeared off the harbor, sent to take possession of the entrance of the river, and erect fortifications; but the English had by this time mounted two cannon, and prevented their landing. Thus providentially was this fine tract of country preserved for our venerable ancestors, and their posterity.

In September 1636, Mr. Pynchion, with a part of the people of Roxbury, began the settlement of the town of Springfield; but no sooner had the English begun to trade, and make settlements in Connecticut, than the Pequods began to murder, and kill their cattle. In 1634, they murdered captains Stone and Norton, with their whole crew, consisting of eight men; they then plundered and sunk the vessel.

In November following, the Pequods sent a messenger to Boston, for the purpose of obtaining peace with the English. He made an offer of a great quantity of beaver skins, to persuade the governor to enter into a league with them. The governor assured them that the English were willing to make peace, on condition that they would give up the murderers of Captain Stone and his men; the Indians assured him that the murderers were all dead but two, and they would give them up to justice; they offered to give up their right at Connecticut river, if the English desired to settle there, and engaged to assist them as far as was in their power, in making settlements; they also agreed that they would give the English forty beaver and thirty otter skins. The governor and council entered into a treaty with them on the conditions they proposed.

Whatever their designs were at that time, they soon afterwards became more and more mischievous, hostile and bloody.

In 1636, John Oldham was murdered near Block Island. He had with him two boys and two Narraganset Indians; these were taken and carried off. John Gallup, as he was going from Connecticut to Boston, discovered Mr. Oldham's vessel full of Indians, and saw a canoe go from her laden with goods. Suspecting they had murdered Mr. Oldham, he hailed them, but received no answer. Gallup was a bold man ; and although he had but one man and two boys with him, he immediately bore down upon her, 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, bore down upon her, with a brisk gale, and nearly overset her, which so frightened the Indians, that several jumped overboard and were drowned; he then stood off, and running down upon her the second time, raked her fore and aft with his shot, and running down upon her a third time, he gave her such a shock, that five more jumped overboard and were drowned. He then boarded her, 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 out. Mr. Oldham's corpse was found on board; his head split, and the body mangled in a barbarous manner. Gallup and his men, then, as decently as possible, put the corpse into the sea. After taking her rigging and goods, which had not been carried off, they were obliged to let her go adrift, and she was lost. The Indians who committed the murder were chiefly Block Islanders, and NarragansetsThe governor and council of Massachusetts, despatched captain Endicott with ninety volunteers to avenge the murder. The Narraganset Sachems sent home Mr. Oldham's two boys, and made peace with them; but the other Indians made no compensation. Captain Endicott was ordered to proceed to Block Island, put the men to the sword, and take possession of the Island, but to spare the women and children. They sailed from Boston 25th of August. When they arrived at Block Island, forty or fifty Indians appeared on shore, and opposed his landing.