he had early embraced the doctrines of the Puritans, but in his ideas of civil and religious liberty he went beyond them. Although of an extremely sensitive constitution, he possessed the most complete mastery over himself, and this united with a profound insight into human nature, enabled him to control the minds of others. He pursued his purposes, not with a fiery zeal and blind impetuosity, but with a calm foresight and a deliberate, steady energy. Such was his influence among the colonists. that he was elected governor of Massachusetts the next year after his arrival. The highest hopes were entertained of his administration. But Vane was a century beyond the majority in his ideas, and his administra tion lasted but one year.

In July, 1639, Governor Vane started on a tour through the towns on the northern and eastern parts of the bay. He was received with enthusiasm, although there was a large party hostile to his views of religious liberty. In nothing was his wisdom and benevolence displayed in a more striking manner, than his conciliatory course towards the Indians. He entertained the principal sachems at his residence in Boston, and procured a treaty of amity from them.

URING Vane's administration, Mrs. Anr. Hutchinson, a very remarkable woman, arrived from England, and became a member of the Boston church. It was the fortune of this woman to kindle the flames of religious strife once more in the colony. She possessed a keen and comprehensive mind, large information, and much

energy; but her zeal often led her into saying and doing that which her judgment could not have sanctioned. She instituted weekly religious meetings for females, at which she presided; and so attractive did they become, that all the ladies in the place attended, and thus Mrs. Hutchinson exercised a vast influence in the colony. The animosity of the clergymen and magistrates was aroused. Not satisfied with proceeding against her as a disturber of the peace of the community, they charged her with the blackest depravity, and demanded that she should be punished as a heretic.

Vane gallantly interfered, and a violent religious controversy followed. John Cotton joined the cause of Mrs. Hutchinson, while Winthrop and Wilson became the leaders of the opposition. At length, the annual election came round. Vane and Winthrop were the candidates of the opposing parties. After an exciting contest, Winthrop was elected, and the intolerant party triumphed. The people of Boston elected Vane and his most zealous friends to represent them in the general court. The

Winthrop party pronounced the election void. But the spirited Bostonians. returned the same men at another election.

HE Winthrop party now determined to gain their end by main force. A law was passed prohibiting strangers from residing in the colony, without permission of the assistant magistrates, or one of the standing council. Vane pronounced this law an enormous violation of the rights of the colonists. A controversy followed between Vane and Winthrop, in which the former maintained the principles for which he afterwards died upon the scaffold. Winthrop proved the stronger, and Vane left the colony for England, leaving behind him a character which even his religious enemies admired and respected.

Before the departure of Vane, a general synod of the clergy passed sentence of banishment upon Mrs. Hutchinson, her brother, Mr. Wheelwright, and Mr. Aspinwall, and thus the contest known as the Antinomian controversy was brought to a close. Wheelwright and his followers proceeded to New Hampshire, and founded Exeter. Another party joined Roger Williams, who procured from the Indians the fertile isle, called Rhode Island, for the new settlers. Mrs. Hutchinson removed to Rhode Island, and several years after, to East Chester, in the New Netherlands. There her house was attacked by the Indians, and this remarkable woman, and all her family except one child, fell victims to the ferocity of the savages.

Through the exertions of Sir Henry Vane, Rhode Island obtained a charter, from the government of England. The settlers had their written constitution, guaranteeing them all those civil and religious rights, which were dear to their hearts and conducive to the general happiness. The legislative and executive power was vested in a governor, called a judge, after the practice of the Israelites, and a council of assistants. Coddington was the first judge. The colonization of Rhode Island is a remarkable event, as being the first instance in which true liberty of conscience was enjoyed peaceably by the English colonists.

URING the early emigration to Massachusetts, Lords Brooke, and Say and Seal, English noblemen, obtained from the Earl of Warwick, an assignment of a grant which he had received from the Plymouth council, for lands on the Connecticut River, and they had so far pro

ceeded in their design as to send out an agent to take possession of the territory and build a fort. But, happily for America, their projects were not carried out; as they intended to introduce an order of nobility and hereditary magistracy in their province.

The first settlements on the Connecticut River were established by the Dutch. They had obtained a patent from their government for all the land they should discover, including the region upon the Connecticut River, then unknown to the English. They traded with the Indians for several years, and purchased land and erected a fort at Hartford, before the English came into the country.

In 1634, a number of the inhabitants of Cambridge, with the Rev. Mr. Hooker at their head, applied to the general court of Massachusetts for permission to remove to the banks of the Connecticut. The court was divided on the subject, and permission was not given until May, 1636. In the mean time, a party of emigrants proceeded to Pyquag, on the banks of the Connecticut, and building a few huts, passed the winter there. When permission to remove was received, Mr. Hooker's company set. about their preparations. They were to remain under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, however, in the new settlement, this being the condition of the grant of permission. About the middle of October, 1636, the party, numbering sixty persons, men, women and children, accompanied by their cattle, swine, and other property, proceeded on a long journey, during which they bore severe hardships and conquered many difficulties, with a firm and persevering spirit. On reaching the Connecticut, the company divided, and founded several towns, among which are Hartford and Windsor.

NFORTUNATELY for the settlers, the winter began much earlier than usual, and was very severe. Provisions became scanty, and several parties that set out to procure some, would

have perished but for the kindness of the Indians. Those who remained in Connecticut during the winter suffered every hardship, living in rude huts, and feeding upon malt and acorns. In the spring, Mr. Hooker, Mr. Stone, and about a hundred other persons set out from Cambridge, and after a journey of two weeks, through a wilderness, reached the banks of the Connecticut.

The Indians about the Connecticut had discovered a hostile disposition from the first settlement. The Pequods were the most formidable tribe of New England, numbering from seven hundred to a thousand warriors, long accustomed to victory. Their principal forts were at Groton, where their great prince Sassacus resided, and at Stonington on the Mystic River.

The Pequods were endeavoring to form a league with the Narragansetts and Mohegans for the utter extirpation of the whites. Information of this design had been given to the governor of Massachusetts by Roger Williams; but not content with this measure of precaution, the intrepid. founder of Rhode Island embarked himself alone in a small canoe and proceeded directly to the house of the sachem of the Narragansetts. Here he met the emissaries of the Pequods, and it was not without days. and nights of earnest solicitation, and, and at the imminent peril of his

life, that he finally succeeded in detaching the Narragansetts from the league. Their example was followed by the Mohegans, and thus the Pequods were left to contend single-handed with their civilized adversaries.

Meanwhile the repeated injuries inflicted by the Pequods, and the actual murder of about thirty of the settlers, determined the general court of Connecticut to proceed to active hostilities; and on the 1st of May, 1637, they resolved to raise ninety men, who were placed under the command of Captain Mason. This force, accompanied by sixty friendly Indians, under Uncas, a Mohegan sachem, sailed on the 19th for Narragansett Bay. On the 22d, they repaired to the court of Canonicus, the patriarch of the tribe, and were received with Indian solemnity. The fiery Miantonomoh offered to join them. They here heard of the arrival of the Massachusetts troops at Providence, but it was determined to push on without them. On the next day, the allies marched to Nahantick, bordering on the Pequod country. Here a large body of friendly Indians joined them, and proceeding along the Mystic river, the army encamped two miles from the Pequod fort, just before nightfall. The Pequods, believing the English were afraid to attack them, were passing the night in rejoicing, till weary with singing and dancing, they sought repose. The English surprised the fort just before the break of day. The barking of a watch-dog roused the slumbering savages, who rushed from their