telling him of the intrusion. He would not apparently have objected to the occupation of vacant territory by the new-comers. But they had specially set their affections on the very spot which the Plymouth government had bought from the Mohicans and had held so manfully against the Dutch. The difficulty, it is clear, was mainly caused by the emigrants from Dorchester. They had not merely gone as an agricultural settlement in need. of fresh soil, but with Ludlow, one of the richest men in Massachusetts, at their head, they sought to set up a station for trade. The emigrants from Plymouth protested in a temperate and dignified tone against the aggression. The intruders shamelessly replied that the territory was the Lord's waste, and that they had judged that present actions, such as theirs, were more important than uncertain possibilities. As was usual in the dealings of Massachusetts with the rest of New England, the unscrupulous and domineering temper of the stronger colony was rewarded by success.

The Plymouth emigrants, before they would treat, insisted on an acknowledgement of their claim to the soil. After that had been admitted they accepted a compromise. They were to retain their house with two parcels of land, making in all one-sixteenth of the tract. purchased from the Indians. For the rest they were to be compensated by the new-comers. We may well believe with Bradford that, though this ended the controversy, the unkindness was not so soon forgotten. At the same time the Plymouth historian carefully discriminates between the unjust greed of the Dorchester emigrants and the moderation of those from Newtown, who were content with leave to occupy ground which the original purchasers did not need for their settlement.1

The emigrants from Dorchester showed their reck1 Bradford, p. 214.

1635

with Sal

EMIGRATION TO CONNECTICUT IN 1635.

209

less indifference to established rights in another quarter. During the summer of 1635 Sir Richard Saltonstall, one Dispute of the patentees, sent out a party of twenty tonstall. men, seemingly as a private venture, to occupy a part of the territory granted by the Earl of Warwick. According to their own story, when they had marked out a site for building and enclosed ground for pasturage they were attacked and insultingly driven out by the emigrants from Dorchester. Not only was Saltonstall's settlement thus frustrated, but his vessel was hindered on her voyage, whereby, according to his own claim, he lost a thousand pounds.1

Severity of the

As winter came on it seemed doubtful whether the settlers would be able to keep their hold on the territory which they had so unscrupulously won. winter. In October a further party of emigrants, seventy in number, set forth for their new home.2 No explanation is given for the ill-chosen season of their migration. Though their own journey was made by land, their furniture and their provisions for the winter were to be sent round by water. The river froze before its usual time, and the emigrants were left destitute. In less than two months they had to leave their home and find their way along the banks of the river to meet their supplies. They embarked on board the first vessel which they met, made their way with some difficulty to the mouth of the river, and on the tenth of December reached Boston.4

Meanwhile Lord Say and Sele and his associates, stimulated in all probability by these intrusions, were at length taking steps to put in force their claims. At the same time their choice of an agent showed that the

1 Saltonstall's grievance is set forth in a letter written by him to the younger Winthrop in February, and published in Mass. Hist. Coll., 4th series, vol. vi. p. 579. Saltonstall's attempt is also briefly referred to by Winthrop (vol. i. p. 171).

4 lb.
P.

175.

Lord Say

and his

form a

scheme would be carried out with due regard to the rights and wishes of Massachusetts. The command of the settlement, or, as it should rather be partners called, the outpost, was entrusted to John Winsettlement. throp, the eldest son of the Governor of Massachusetts. He had followed his father to America in 1632, and had settled at Agawam. Within two years he lost his wife, and returned, disheartened it may be, to England.2 Far inferior to his father in vigour of mind and statesmanlike wisdom, he possessed a versatility and a charm of manner which had been denied to the elder Winthrop, not so much by nature as by the exigencies of his career. He was now commissioned to construct a fort at the mouth of the Connecticut, to garrison it with fifty men, and to build houses suited for the better class of emigrants. The practical work of fortification was entrusted to a Scotch soldier, Lyon Gardiner. His military skill was of considerable service to New England, and he has left a record of his doings there, in which a lack of scholarly skill is more than atoned for by shrewdness and vigorous simplicity. Winthrop did not sail direct to the mouth of the Connecticut, but landed at Boston. Thence he sent a small party to occupy the mouth of the river and to make preparations for building. When they reached the site of their settlement they found it in the hands of rival claimants. The Dutch had reasserted their right to the river by putting up the arms of the States General on a tree near the mouth. The English at once tore down the aggressive emblem. Just afterwards a Dutch vessel appeared, but the English, who had now got their ordnance on shore, refused to suffer the crew to land.3 There is no positive evidence to show what amount

1 Trumbull gives the commission in an Appendix, vol. i. p. 497.

2 See the Life, vol. ii. pp. 111, 123.

3 Brodhead, vol. i. p. 260; Winthrop, vol. i. pp. 174–5.

1635-6

SAYBROOK BUILT.

211

of connexion there was between these different attempts. It is no wise unlikely that the Dutch settlement may have been intended to check the English emigrants from Massachusetts, and that this in turn may have stirred up the patentees to send out Winthrop. Be that as it may, the importance of their action can hardly be overrated. Without it the English settlements on the upper waters of the river, those which afterwards grew into the colony of Connecticut, would have been effectually cut off from the rest of New England. As it was, the patentees did just enough to help the other settlers, and not enough to interfere in any way with them. It was of the utmost importance to the new settlements that the mouth of the river should be held by a friendly power strong enough to exclude all rivals. At the same time Saybrook, as the fort was called after its two chief founders, remained a military outpost, and did not become the nucleus of a colony. As might have been foreseen, the divided ownership of the river led to disputes, but these never for a moment threatened the political independence or unity of Connecticut.

tion from

The discouraging reports brought by the returned settlers had no effect in restraining the influx of emiEmigra grants into the new territory. In the spring Massachu- of 1636, as soon as the river was free from ice. and the woodland meadows offered any pasture, bands of emigrants were seen making their way by land with their herds of cattle, while their furniture and supplies of food were sent round by water.1

setts in 1636.

In one respect the migration thoroughly illustrated the peculiarities of New England life. It might almost be said that it was a movement, not of individuals, but of churches Thus Shepherd, who landed in New England in the autumn of 1635, writes that he found the congregation of Newtown on the point of removing to Winthrop, vol. i. p. 187; Trumbull, vol. i. p. 64.

1

Hartford, and that he and his company thus had a vacant abode ready to their hand. The temper in which the migration to Connecticut was conducted is strikingly illustrated by the fact, that the new settlements during the early years of their existence bore the names of the town in Massachusetts from which they came.2 The historical identity of the town was vested, so to speak, not in the place, but in the inhabitants. Just as the English Dorchester had given its name to a New England township, so now the mimic Pergamos of Massachusetts found a second copy in the valley of the Connecticut.3

ment of the colony.

By the end of 1636 there were, we are told, some eigh t hundred inhabitants in the new territory, divided among Govern- the three townships, which afterwards took the names of Hartford, Windsor, and Weathersfield. A fourth settlement, fifteen miles higher up the river, was marked off from the other three as lying within the bounds of Massachusetts. At a later day this took the name of Springfield. For the present it seems to have been called by the Indian name of Agawam, or after the township in Massachusetts from which it had its origin, Roxbury. The colony at first lived under what might be called a provisional constitution. The government was for the present entrusted to eight magistrates appointed by the Massachusetts legislature. Their commission set forth that their power was only granted temporarily, pending any arrangements made by the patentees of the river. As might have been expected, the instincts and habits of self-government quickly asserted themselves. In 1636 the municipal

1 Shepherd's Memoir of his own life, in Young, p. 545.

* Trumbull, vol. i. p. 64. This is confirmed by the very first entry in the Connecticut Records.

3 Parvam Trojam simulataque magnis Pergama.'-Æneid, iii. 319. 4 This number is Trumbull's conjecture.

5 Mass. Records, vol. i. p. 170.