place late in autumn, was attended with much suffering and privation.

Next year a government was organised under a commission from Massachusetts; and, in June, a company of one hundred new emigrants, under the direction of the Rev. Thomas Hooker, commenced its march from Massachusetts towards the new settlement on the Connecticut, travelling through the pathless woods, at the slow rate of ten miles a day, encumbered with their families and flocks, and sleeping at night with scarce any shelter but what the woods afforded. This pilgrimage is not less remarkable for its romantic daring, than for the high character of its leaders. The new settlement was surrounded with perils. The Dutch, who were established on the river, were anxious to exclude the English; and the natives, who were numerous and powerful in that neighbourhood, had begun to entertain hostile dispositions towards all European intruders.

The Pequods, residing in the vicinity of the Thames river, could bring seven hundred warriors into the field. They had already committed repeated aggressions on the whites, without suffering any chastisement, and they now proposed to the Narragansetts and Mohegans to unite in a league for the utter extermination of the race. Fortunately this design became known to Roger Williams, who communicated it to the governor of Massachusetts; and, having received from the governor and council letters requesting his personal exertions in dissolving the league, he went directly to the house of the sachem of the Narragansetts, and, although the Pequod chiefs were already there, he succeeded, at great hazard of his life, in breaking up the conspiracy. Such was the service which the persecuted man was able to render to those who had been his persecutors.

The Pequods, when the Narragansetts and Mohegans were detached from their alliance, foolishly resolved to prosecute the war alone. They commenced hostilities by murdering the white people on their borders; but the Connecticut settlers promptly raised a force of ninety men, which were placed under the command of John Mason. The Massachusetts and Plymouth colonies proceeded to furnish their contingent of troops; but before they could arrive, the Connecticut party were on their way to the scene of action. By a rapid march they succeeded in surprising the Pequods, in their camp of palisades, before day-break, and, but for

the barking of a watch-dog, would have destroyed them without resistance. The warriors rose at the alarm, and defended themselves with their bows and arrows. Their superiority of numbers gave them some chance of escape, until Mason cast firebrands upon the Indian cabins, and set the whole encampment in a blaze. The confusion that ensued gave the English an easy victory. Six hundred of the Indians, men, women, and children, perished; most of them by the fire. Only two of the assailants were killed.

The following account is given by Robinson of the cause which delayed the arrival of the force from Massachu

setts:

The march of the troops from Massachusetts, which formed the most considerable body, was retarded by the most singular cause that ever influenced the operations of a military force. When they were mustered, previous to their departure, it was found that some of the officers, as well as of the private soldiers, were still under a covenant of works; and that the blessing of God could not be implored, or expected to crown the arms of such unhallowed men with success. The alarm was general, and many arrangements necessary in order to cast out the unclean, and to render this little band sufficiently pure to fight the battles of a people who entertained high ideas of their own sanctity.'

These troops, consequently, only arrived in time to hunt out a few of the fugitives, burn their remaining villages, and lay waste their cornfields. Sassacus, the sachem of the Pequods, fled to the Mohawks, and was murdered. The remnant of the tribe, two hundred in number, surrendered, and were either enslaved to the English, or mingled with the Mohegans and Narragansetts. The Pequods no longer existed as a distinct tribe.

It is worthy of remark, that the Indians were never dangerous enemies to the colonies, until they had learnt the use of fire-arms. A handful of English could always march into their territory, and conquer a whole tribe, before the European weapons were brought into use among them.

The successful termination of the Pequod war was followed by a long season of uninterrupted peace, during which the colonies of New England continued to flourish, increasing in wealth and population.

Settlements were constantly forming, and fresh emigrants arriving from England. In 1638, a Puritan colony was

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planted at New Haven, under the direction of John Davenport, its pastor, and Theophilus Eaton, who, for twenty years, sustained the office of governor. This was a separate jurisdiction from that in the interior, so that, at this time, there were no less than three distinct political communities in the territory now called Connecticut, viz. Saybrook, under the proprietaries; Connecticut colony, under a commission from Massachusetts; and New Haven colony, claiming its territory by purchase from the Indians, and governing itself by virtue of a social contract.

CHAPTER XII.

THE COLONIES OF NEW ENGLAND UNITED.

THE increase of the colonies in New England had already attracted considerable attention in the mother country. Some of those who had fallen under the censure of the government in Massachusetts had returned to England, and busied themselves in exciting animosity against the colony. Gorges and Mason, who were rivals to the leaders of that colony, joined in the clamour against them. But there were friends of the colonists in England, who pleaded their cause with

success.

Notwithstanding their exertions, however, an order in council was obtained, for preventing the departure of ships bound with passengers to New England; and a requisition was made for producing the letters patent of the company in England. This requisition was evaded. A special commission was then issued to the archbishop of Canterbury and others, for regulating the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of the colonies, with power to revoke charters.

When intelligence of this proceeding reached Boston, coupled with the rumour that a governor-general was on his way to assume the control of affairs, the colonies began to prepare for resistance. Money was raised for erecting fortifications, and the boldest measures were determined on.

Meantime the council of Plymouth had resigned its charter, after parcelling out the territory among its members, which they had already granted by patents to others. They

PERSECUTION OF THE PURITANS."

73

were not able, however, to take possession of the territory thus claimed, without the aid of government. At their instance a quo warranto was issued against the company of Massachusetts Bay, and judgment was pronounced against its members. The other patentees of the Plymouth company were outlawed. But the death of Mason, their most active enemy, and the civil disturbances in England prevented any further proceedings for the time.

The persecution of the Puritans raged with great fury in England. The punishments of scourging, mutilation, imprisonment, and the pillory were inflicted on great numbers of them; and when they attempted to fly from their persecutors to the safe asylum of the New World, the ships in which they proposed to embark were detained. In 1638, a squadron of eight ships, preparing to sail for New England, was detained in the Thames, by order of the privy council. This detention lasted, however, but a few days.

It has been affirmed by historians, that Hampden and Cromwell were about to embark in this fleet; but Mr. Bancroft, in his history, has conclusively shown that this assertion is without foundation.

During the civil wars of England, the colonies were left in a state of peace and prosperity. The population increased rapidly. Twenty-one thousand two hundred emigrants had arrived before the assembling of the Long Parliament, and a million of dollars had been expended on the plantations. Agriculture, ship building, the fisheries, and an extensive commerce in furs, lumber, grain, and fish, were the chief pursuits of the inhabitants. Their institutions of religion and civil government were highly favourable to habits of industry and economy; labour rendered their soil productive, and the natural result was a rapid increase of wealth and population.

The members of the Long Parliament, being Puritans themselves, were disposed to extend every encouragement to the Puritan colonies. They freed the colonists from all 1641. taxation on exports and imports, and declared their approbation of the enterprise in which they were engaged. The colonists accepted the courtesy, but were careful to avoid too close a connection with these unsought friends.

In 1641, New Hampshire was annexed to Massachusetts, by request of the people, and on equal terms; the inhabitants of the former province not being required to qualify its free

H

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NEW ENGLAND COLONIES UNITED.

men or deputies, for a participation in the business of legislation, by church membership.

As early as 1637, a union of the colonies of New England had been proposed at a meeting of the leading magistrates and elders of Connecticut, held in Boston, but it was not until 1643, that a confederation was effected, embracing the sepa rate governments of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven, under the title of the United Colonies of New England. Their declared object was the protection of the lives, property, and liberties of the whole, against foreign or internal dangers. The local jurisdiction of the several states was carefully guarded. Two commissioners from each colony were to assemble annually to deliberate on the affairs of the confederacy. The measures which they determined were merely recommended to the several colonies, to be carried into effect by their local authorities.

Rhode Island was excluded from the union, because it declined to come under the jurisdiction of Plymouth; and the people of Providence Plantations and Maine were not admitted on account of the want of harmony between their religious views and those of the members of the confederacy.

One of the chief offices of the commissioners of the United Colonies was the regulation of Indian affairs; and their intervention was required soon after they had become organised, Miantonomoh, the sachem of the Narragansetts, prompted by an ancient grudge against Uncas, chief of the Mohegans, suddenly gathered his warriors, to the number of 1000, and fell upon the hated tribe with great fury. He was defeated and taken prisoner; and Uncas applied to the commissioners for advice respecting the manner in which he should be disposed of. They inquired into the circumstances of the affair, and finding that Miantonomoh had killed a servant of Uncas, in time of peace, they pronounced him guilty of murder. How far an independent chieftain was amenable to their tribunal may be doubted. The Indian customs warranted his execution, and accordingly he was put to death by Uncas himself, on a spot beyond the jurisdiction of the colony. His tribe were greatly exasperated, but durst not attempt to avenge his death.

In 1646, the people of Connecticut purchased the territory at the mouth of the river, from the assigns of the Earl of Warwick.