SETTLEMENT OF CONNECTICUT.

79

4. They landed on the west side of the stream, where Farmington River enters it, and laid the foundation of Windsor. The Dutch, with a band of seventy men, attempted to drive them away in 1634, but did not succeed. Thus was a colony planted in Connecticut.

5. Wethersfield and Hartford were settled in 1635, by a company of emigrants from Newton and Watertown, near Boston. It consisted of men, women, and children, to the number of sixty, with their cattle and horses. They left home on the 25th of October, and were a fortnight on the road, wading through rivers and swamps, and traversing hills and mountains.

6. But they had begun the journey too late in the season. The winter came upon them in their new residence before they were prepared for it, and the snow fell very deep. They had sent their goods and provisions by water, but the vessel did not arrive, and was supposed to be cast away. Thus a famine was at once produced among them.

7. In this dreadful condition, they became quite discouraged, and some of them desperate. Fourteen of the number set out to return to Boston by the way they came. One was drowned in crossing the river, and the rest would have perished on the road, had they not been relieved by the Indians. A great many emigrants returned by water.

8. It is difficult to say who suffered most, those who went away or those who remained. The latter received a little of the promised aid from the Indians, but their fare was at times scanty-consisting chiefly of acorns and grain. A part of their cattle subsisted by browsing on what they could find in the woods and meadows.

9. The Plymouth Company in England had, in 1631, given to Lords Say and Seal, and Lord Brook, a patent of the lands lying about the mouth of the Connecticut River. In 1635, a son of Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts, with twenty men, built a fort there, which he called Saybrook, and became the governor of it. The Dutch tried to drive him away, but without effect.

10. In June, 1636, one hundred emigrants from Dorchester and Watertown, accompanied by two ministers of the gospel, Mr. Hooker and Mr. Stone, crossed the mountains, swamps, and rivers, to Connecticut. They journeyed on foot, and drove a hundred and sixty head of cattle; subsisting during the journey chiefly on milk. They were a fortnight on the road. They settled at Hartford, which they called Newtown.

4. Where did the emigrants land? What did the Dutch of Hartford attempt to do! 5. What of the settlement of Wethersfield and Hartford? 6. What evils beset the set tlers? 7. What of the return of some of them? 8. Situation of those that remained! 1. What had taken place in 1631? What of a son of Governor Winthrop? 10. What happened in 1636?

11. As they passed along, the woods resounded with their songs and hymns and prayers, and with the lowing of their kine. They had no guide but a compass, and Him who guarded the host of Israel in their travels from Egypt to Canaan. They had no pillows but heaps of stones. None saw them but here and there a group of wandering savages, and the Eye which sees and observes all secrets.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Roger Williams. He is banished from Massachusetts, and settles in Rhode Island.-The Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

1. IN February, 1631, a Puritan minister arrived in New England,

2. He was, at first, pastor of a church in Salem. Here, having advanced the opinion that a commonwealth is bound to protect all denominations of Christians, rather more boldly than was acceptable to the Massachusetts government, and having also announced some strange opinions with an overbearing spirit, he was tried for heresy and was sentenced to leave the province.

11. Describe the progress of the emigrants through the woods.

CHAP. XXXIV.-1. What of Roger Williams? 2. Of what church was he at first pastor? What opinions dia ne advance? What was the consequence of this conduct

SETTLEMENT OF RHODE ISLAND.

81

3. He first repaired to See'-konk, now in Rhode Island; but having learned, soon after, that the place was within the jurisdiction of the Plymouth colony, he removed, June, 1636, to the place where Providence now stands, and laid the foundation of a colony, of which he was, at one and the same time, minister, instructor, and father.

4. But the labors of Roger Williams were not by any means confined to his own countrymen. Though his manners had been harsh, he had a good heart. Like Eliot, he did much for the conversion and improvement of the savages. He even took pains, like him, to learn their language, that he might the better conciliate, instruct, improve, and elevate them; and, at the same time, preserve his colony from destructive and bloody wars.

5. Providence was within the territory of the Narraganset Indians, but Mr. Williams very soon obtained a deed of it; not for himself or his friends, for though it was his own property as much as the clothes he wore, he gave away every foot of it. Nor did he love power more than property, for, instead of making himself the magistrate, the colonists had none till the year 1640.

6. The Providence settlement soon became the asylum of all who were persecuted in the other colonies on account of their religious opinions, especially the Baptists, to which sect Mr. Williams adhered. In 1639, a Baptist church was formed there; the first in the United States. Twelve years later, the General Court of Massachusetts, by their severe laws, drove a greater number to Rhode Island than ever before.

7. Rhode Island, properly so called-that is, the beautiful island which goes by this name-was first settled in the spring of 1638, by William Coddington and seventeen others. In the following November, Mr. Coddington was chosen governor. These last were the followers of one Ann Hutchinson, a fanatic in religion, but in many respects a wise and virtuous woman.

8. Until 1640, the citizens of Providence had made their own rules and laws in a general convention. They now thought it best to adopt a more permanent form of government, and, in 1644, Roger Williams, with the aid of Governor Vane, of Massachusetts, procured a charter for the two settlements, under the name of the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

3. Where did Williams first go? Where did he establish himself? 4. What of Williams and the Indians? 5. Did Williams take a deed of his land? What did he do with his land? What of the government of the colony till 1640? 6. Of whom did the Providence settlements become the asylum? The Baptists? What happened in 1639? What happened twelve years later? 7. What occurred in 1638? What of Ann Hutchinson? 8. What occurred in 1644?

114

CHAPTER XXXV.

War with the Pequod Indians.-The Battle at Mystic River-Burning of the Indian Fort.-Utter Defeat of the Pequods.

1. CONNECTICUT was first organized as a government separate from

Massachusetts

and Plymouth, in
1636. Its inhab-
itants held their
first General
Court or Assembly
at Hartford, in the
spring of that
year. The first
law they passed
was, that arms
and ammunition
should not be sold
to the Indians.
2. Enough, how-
ever, had been
done, long before,

by unprincipled men, like Hunt and Morton, to excite that savage jealousy which, when once roused, makes little discrimination, but vents itself with nearly equal readiness on all who are white, without regard to age or sex. The period was at hand when the colonists of Connecticut were to feel the full force of savage vengeance.

3. The Pe'-quods, or Pequots, were a very formidable tribe, having at least seven hundred warriors. Their principal settlement was on a hill in Groton, near New London, in Connecticut, though they had forts elsewhere. They were the terror of many other tribes of Indians, and they soon became a serious annoyance to the Connecticut and Massachusetts settlers.

4. They had, in the first place, murdered some of the traders from Massachusetts, especially one Old'-ham, at Block Island, and Governor Endicot had been sent to treat with them, or bring them to submission; but he had accomplished very little, except to provoke them by burning their wigwams.

CHAP. XXXV.-1. When was Connecticut first organized as a government separate from Massachusetts and Plymouth? Where was the first General Assembly? What was the first law? 2. What had been done by such men as Hunt and Morton? 3. What of the Pequods? 4. What had the Pequods done?

WAR WITH THE PEQUODS.

83

5. In March, 1637, they became so bold as to attack the fort at Saybrook, and kill three of the soldiers. In April, they murdered several men and women at Wethersfield, carried away two girls into captivity, and destroyed twenty cows. The inhabitants could no longer consider themselves safe, by night or by day, in their houses or in their fields.

6. The General Assembly, which convened at Hartford, May 11, resolved to make war upon them; and ninety men-about half the colony who were able to bear arms-with Captain Mason at their head, accompanied by seventy friendly Mohegan Indians, and Rev. Mr. Stone as their chaplain, were sent out to attack the Pequods in their own country.

7. Sailing down the river, and thence to Narraganset Bay, they were joined at the latter place by two hundred Narraganset Indians, and, after landing and proceeding toward the Pequod country, by five hundred Ni-an'-ticks. The Pequods had two forts, one at Mystic, in the present town of Groton, and another further on. They resolved to attack the former.

8. They arrived at Mystic River, near the fort, late in the evening, and pitched their camp by two large rocks, now called Porter's rocks. About daybreak the next morning, they were ready to advance and attack the fort. The first signal of their arrival was the barking of a dog, upon which an Indian in the fort cried out, "O-wan'-ux! Owanux!" which meant Englishmen! Englishmen !

9. The battle soon began, and for a long time was severe. The fate of Connecticut, and perhaps of all New England, was to be determined by seventy-seven men.* Every soldier, therefore, fought for his own life and the lives of his countrymen. With the Indians, too, every thing was at stake; and their arrows descended among the English like a shower of hail.

10. At last, seeing his men begin to tire, Captain Mason cried out, "We must burn them!"—and, seizing a firebrand from one of the wigwams, he applied it to the combustible material of which it was composed, and in a few minutes the whole fort was in flames. The fire and sword together made terrible havoc; and soon victory decided in favor of the colonists.

11. But the contest was not yet over. Three hundred Pequods from

5. What happened in March, 1637? 6. What of the General Assembly? Of whom did the force sent against the Pequods consist? 7. By what forces were they joined ? Wha: forts had the Pequods? 8. What of the approach of the white men to Fort Mystic? 9. What of the fight? 10. What of Captain Mason?

They set out with ninety, but thirteen had fallen off at Saybrook, or elsewhere; and as for the friendly Indian allies, they dared not venture near the fort.