purest mind; a statesman of spotless integrity; whose name the progress of intelligence and liberty will erase from the rubric of fanatics and traitors, and insert high among the aspirants after truth and the martyrs for liberty."*

In the following spring (1636) Vane was elected governor of the colony. The people were dazzled by his high birth and pleasing qualities, and committed an error in choosing him, for neither his age nor his experience fitted him for the distinguished position conferred upon him. The arrival of Vane seemed to promise an emigration of a number of the English nobility, and an effort was made by several of them in England to procure the division of the general court into two branches, and the establishment of an hereditary nobility in the colony which should possess a right to seats in the upper branch of the court. The magistrates of the colony were anxious to conciliate these valuable friends, but they firmly refused to establish hereditary nobility in their new state.

Religious discussions formed a large part of the life of the colony. Meetings were held by the men, and passages of Scripture were discussed, and the sermons of the ministers made the subject of searching criticism, The women might attend these meetings, but were not allowed to take part in the discussions. Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, a woman of talent and eloonence, claimed for her sex the right to participate equally with the men in these meetings; but as this was not possible, she began to hold meetings for the benefit of the women at her own house. At these religious doctrines were discussed and advocated which were at variance with the principles of the magistrates. Mrs. Hutchinson and her followers held that the authority of private judgment was superior to that of the church, and condemned the efforts of the colony to enforce conformity to the established system as violative of the inherent rights of Christians. She was encouraged by John Wheelwright, a silenced minister, who had married her sister, and by Governor Vane, and her opinions were adopted by a large number of the people, and by members of the general court and some of the magistrates.

The ministers saw their authority menaced by the new belief, and made common cause against Mrs. Hutchinson and her protector, Governor Vane. The colony was divided into two parties, and the religious question became a matter of great political importance. Under the established system he ministers formed almost a distinct estate of the government, and political privileges were entirely dependent upon theological conformity. The success of Mrs. Hutchinson's views would revolutionize the government and destroy the power of the church to control secular

* Bancroft.

affairs. Such a change was not yet to be attempted. Governor Vane was too far in advance of the age, and Mrs. Hutchinson was denounced as "weakening the hands and hearts of the people towards the ministers," and as being as bad "as Roger Williams, or worse." Some went so far as to hint that she was a witch. Feeling sure that they would not receive justice at the hands of their opponents, the friends of Mrs. Hutchinson declared their intention to appeal to the king. This aroused a storm of indignation in the colony, and "it was accounted perjury and treason to speak of appeals to the king." This threat changed the whole character of the question, and was fatal to the party which made it. The Puritans had come to Massachusetts to escape the interference of the crown with their religious belief, and to appeal to the king in this case would be simply to place the liberties of the colony at his mercy. When the elections were held, in the spring of 1637, Governor Winthrop and the old magistrates were chosen by a large majority. Vane soon after returned to England.

The church party being now in power resolved to silence Mrs. Hutchinson. She was admonished to cease her teachings, and upon her refusal to obey this order, she and her followers were exiled from the colony. Wheelwright and a number of his friends went to New Hampshire, and founded the town of Exeter, at the head of tide-water on the Piscataqua. Mrs. Hutchinson and the majority of her followers removed, in the spring of 1638, to the southward, intending to settle on Long Island or on the Delaware. Roger Williams induced them to remain near his plantation, and obtained for them from Miantonomoh, the chief of the Narragansett tribe, the gift of the beautiful island in the lower part of Narragansett bay, which they called the island of Rhodes, or Rhode Island. The number of settlers was scarcely more than twenty, but they proceeded to form a government upon a plan agreeable to the principles they professed. It was a pure democracy, founded upon the universal consent of the people, who signed a social compact pledging themselves to obey the laws made by the majority, and to respect the rights of conscience. William Coddington, who had been a magistrate in the Bay colony, was elected judge or ruler, and three elders were chosen as his assistants. The settlement grew rapidly, and by 1641 the population had become so numerous as to require a written constitution.

Mrs. Hutchinson remained in Rhode Island for several years; but fearing that the hostility of the magistrates of Massachusetts would reach her even there, removed beyond New Haven into the territory of the Dutch, where, in 1643, she and all her family who were with her, except one child, who was taken prisoner, were murdered by the Indians.

CHAPTER XII.

COLONIZATION OF CONNECTICUT.

The Dutch Claim the Connecticut Valley-They build a Fort at Hartford-Governor Winslow makes a Lodgment in Connecticut for the English-Withdrawal of the Dutch -The First Efforts of the English to Settle Connecticut-Emigration of Hooker and his Congregation-They Settle at Hartford-Winthrop builds a Fort at Saybrooke-Hostility of the Indians-Visit of Roger Williams to Miantonomoh-A Brave Deed-The Pequod War-Capture of the Indian Fort-Destruction of the Pequod Tribe-Effect of this War upon the other Tribes-Connecticut Adopts a Constitution-Its Peculiar Features Settlement of New Haven.

HE fertile region of the Connecticut had attracted the attention of the English at an early day; but before they could make any effort to occupy it the Dutch sent an exploring party from Manhattan island, in 1614, and examined the river and the country through which it flowed. They built and fortified a tradingpost on the site of the present city of Hartford, but soon excited the illwill of the Indians by their cruel treatment of them. The Dutch found themselves unable to occupy the country, and being unwilling to lose it, endeavored, but without success, to induce the Pilgrims to remove from Plymouth to the Connecticut, and settle in that region under their protection.

In 1630, the council of Plymouth granted the Connecticut region to the Earl of Warwick, who, in 1631, assigned his claim to Lords Say and Brooke, John Hampden, and others. As soon as this grant was known to the Dutch they sent a party to the site of Hartford and re-established their trading-post, and began a profitable trade with the Indians. They mounted two cannon on their fort for the purpose of preventing the English from ascending the river. Towards the latter part of the year 1633, Governor Winslow, of Plymouth, in order to secure a foothold for the English in this valuable region, sent Captain William Holmes to the Connecticut with a sloop and a number of men to make a settlement. Upon ascending the river to the site of Hartford, Holmes found his progress barred by the Dutch fort, the commander of which threatened to fire upon him if he attempted to continue his voyage. Undaunted by this threat, Holmes passed by the fort without harm, and ascended the

stream to Windsor, where he erected a fortified post. In 1634, the Dutch made an unsuccessful attempt to drive him away. Failing in this, and seeing that it was the deliberate purpose of the English to occupy the Connecticut valley, the Dutch relinquished all claim to that region, and a boundary line was arranged between their possessions and those of the English, corresponding very nearly to that between the States of Connecticut and New York.

In 1635, the Pilgrims determined to make settlements in this inviting region, and late in the fall of that year a company of sixty persons, men, women, and children, set out from Plymouth by land, sending a sloop laden with provisions and their household goods around by sea, with orders to join them upon the Connecticut river. They began their journey too late in the season, and their sufferings were very great in consequence. Upon reaching the river they found the ground covered with snow, and their sloop was delayed by storms and ice. Their cattle died from cold and exposure, and but for a little corn which they obtained from the Indians, and

The Puritans were resolved to continue the effort to settle Connecticut, and in the spring of 1636 several companies emigrated to that region. The principal party set out in June, led by the Rev. Thomas Hooker. It comprised about one hundred persons, and consisted principally of Hooker's congregation, who followed their pastor with enthusiasm. They drove before them a considerable number of cattle, which furnished them with milk on the march. The emigrants were largely made up of persons of refinement and culture, and comprised many of the oldest and most valued citizens of the Bay colony. They were attracted to the valley of the Connecticut by the superior advantages which it offered for the prosecution of the fur trade, and by the great fertility of its soil. They had no guide but a compass, and their route lay through an unbroken wilderness. The journey was long and fatiguing. The emigrants accomplished scarcely more than ten miles a day, carrying their sick on litters, and making the forests ring with their holy hymns. At length the site of Hartford, where it was proposed to establish the settlement, was reached by the 1st of July. The greater number remained there; some went higher up the

river and founded Springfield, and the rest went to Wethersfield, where there was already a small settlement.

In the same year the younger John Winthrop arrived from England, with orders from Lords Say and Brooke to establish a fort at the mouth of the Connecticut river. This he accomplished, naming the new settlement Saybrooke in honor of the proprietors. The settlements in Connecticut grew rapidly, the excellent soil and pleasant climate attracting many emigrants to them.

The existence of these settlements was precarious, however. The region in which they had been planted was the country of the Pequods, who inhabited it in large numbers. They were the most powerful and warlike tribe in New England, and could bring nearly two thousand warriors into the field. They occupied the southeastern part of Connecticut, and their territory extended almost to the Hudson on the west, where it joined that of the Mohegans. On the east their territory bordered that of the Narragansetts. Both of these tribes were the enemies of the Pequods and the friends of the English. This friendship was resented by the Pequods, who were already jealous of the English because of their occupation of the lands along the Connecticut. The tribe bore a bad name, and had already manifested their hostility by murdering, a few years before, a Virginia trader named Stone, together with the crew of his vessel, who were engaged in a trading expedition on the Connecticut river. Somewhat later Captain Oldham and his crew, while exploring the river, were also murdered by Indians living on Block island. The Pequods justified the murder of Stone by alleging that he had attacked them. Wishing to make a treaty with the English, they sent their chiefs to Boston for that purpose, and promised-as the magistrates understood them-to deliver up the two men who had killed Stone. Captain John Endicott was sent with a vessel, in 1636, to punish the Block Island Indians for the murder of Oldham, and was ordered to call on his return at the Pequod town, and demand the surrender of the murderers of Stone. The Pequods declined to surrender these men, but offered to ransom them. This was in accordance with their customs. But Endicott refused to accept any compensation for the crime that had been committed, and to punish the Indians destroyed their corn and burned two of their villages. This made open hostilities inevitable. The Pequods began to hang around the Connecticut settlements and cut off stragglers from them. By the close of the winter more than thirty persons had fallen victims to their vengeance.

The settlements in the Connecticut valley were now greatly alarmed. They could not muster over two hundred fighting men, and the Indians