Book I. terprise, had arrived at their seat of government. Kieft had prohibited the English trade at the fort of Good Hope, 1639. in Hartford, and protested against the settlement at Quinnipiack. These circumstances gave some alarm to the English in Connecticut. The court at Hartford appointed a committee to go down to the mouth of the river, to consult with Mr. Fenwick, relative to a general confederation of the colonies, for mutual offence and defence. The deputy-governor, Mr. Ludlow, Mr. Thomas Wells, and Mr. Aug. 15th. Hooker, went upon this business. They were, also, instructed to confer with Mr. Fenwick, relative to the patent. Attempts The court approved of the conduct of the committee, and, for a gene with respect to the article of confederation, declared its willingness to enter into a mutual agreement of offence and defence, and of all offices of love between the colonies. Mr. Fenwick was in favour of an union of the New-England colonies. With respect to the patent of the river, it was agreed, that the affair should rest, until the minds of the noblemen and gentlemen particularly interested, could be more fully known.

al union.

Oct. 10th,

towns in

corporated.

Town

courts instituted.

Governor Haynes and Mr. Wells were appointed to repair to Pughquonnuck, and administer the oath of fidelity to the inhabitants; to admit such of them as were qualified to the privileges of freemen; and to appoint officers for the town, both civil and military. They, were, also, authorised to invite the freemen to send their deputies to the general courts at Hartford.t

At an adjourned General Assembly, the court incorporated the several towns in the colonies, vesting them with full powers to transact their own affairs. It was enacted, that they should have power to choose, from among themselves, three, five, or seven of their principal men, to be a court for each town. One of the three, five, or seven, was to be chosen moderator. The major part of them, always including him, constituted a quorum. A casting voice was allowed him, in cases in which there was an equal division. He, or any two of the court, were authorised to summon the parties to appear at the time and place appointed, and might grant execution against the party offending. They were authorised to determine all matters of trespass or debt, not exceeding forty shillings. An appeal might be made from this court, at any time before execution was given out. This court was appointed to sit once in two months. * Smith's Hist. N. York, p. 3.

+ It was not unusual for the General Assembly to fine its members. Mr. Ludlow, the deputy-governor, was fined for absence, and for his conduct at Pughquonnuck. It was, probably, on the account of the displeasure of the court towards him, that this committee were appointed.

It was ordained, that every town should keep a public Book I. ledger, in which every man's house and lands, with the boundaries and quantity, according to the nearest estima- 1639. tion, should be recorded. All lands also granted and measured to any man afterwards, and all bargains and mortgages of lands were to be put on record. Until this was done, they were to be of no validity. The towns were, also, empowered to dispose of their own lands. This was the origin of the privileges of particular towns in Con

necticut.

Besides the court in each town, there was the court of magistrates, termed the particular court. This held a session once in three months. To this lay all appeals from the other courts. In this were tried all criminal causes and actions of debt, exceeding forty shillings, and all titles of land. Indeed, this court possessed all the authority, and did all the business now possessed and done by the county and superior courts. For a considerable time, they were vested with such discretionary powers, as none of the courts at this day would venture to exercise.

Nepaupuck, a famous Pequot captain, who had frequently stained his hands in English blood, was condemned by the General Court at Quinnipiack, for murder. It appear- Oct. 30th, ed, that in the year 1637, he killed John Finch, of Weathersfield, and captivated one of Mr. Swain's daughters. He had also assisted in killing the three men, who were going down Connecticut river in a shallop, His head was cut off, and set upon a pole in the market place.

It will, doubtless, hardly be granted, in this enlightened age, that the subjects of princes, killing men by their orders, in war, ought to be treated as murderers. Though the first planters of New-England and Connecticut were men of eminent piety and strict morals, yet, like other good men, they were subject to misconception and the influence of passion. Their beheading sachems, whom they took in war, killing the male captives, and enslaving the women and children of the Pequots, after it was finished, was treating them with a severity, which, on the benevolent principles of christianity, it will be difficult ever to justify. The executing of all those as murderers, who were active in killing any of the English people, and obliging all the Indian nations to bring in such persons, or their heads, was an act of severity unpractised, at this day, by civilized and christian nations. The decapitation of their enemies, and the setting of their heads upon poles, was a kind of barbarous triumph, too nearly symbolizing with the examples of uncivilized and pagan nations. The further we are remo

BOOK I. ved from every resemblance of these, and the more deeply we imbibe those divine precepts, "Love your enemies: Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them," the greater will be our dignity and happiness.

1640.

Claims of the Indians, and

the manper in

which the

English treated tireme

CHAPTER VII.

The progress of purchase, settlement, and law, in the colonies of Connecticut and New-Haven. The effect of the conquest of the Pequots on the natives, and the manner in which they were treated. Purchases of them. Towns settled. Divisions at Weatherfield occasion the settlement of Stamford. Troubles with the Dutch and Indians. Capital laws of Connecticut. The confederation of the United Colonies. Further troubles with the Indians. Victory of Uncas over the Narragansets, and capture of their sachem, The advice of the commissioners respecting Miantonimoh. His execution. Precautions of the colonies to prevent war. The Dutch, harassed by an Indian war, apply to NewHaven for assistance.

ALTHOUGH the conquest of the Pequot extended the

claim of Connecticut to a great proportion of the lands in the settled part of the colony, yet, to remove all grounds of complaint or uneasiness, the English planters made fair purchases of almost the whole tract of country within the settled part of Connecticut.

After the conquest of the Pequots, in consequence of the covenant made with Uncas, in 1638, and the gift of a hundred Pequots to him, he became important. A considerable number of Indians collected to him, so that he became one of the principal sachems in Connecticut, and even in NewEngland. At some times he was able to raise four or five hundred warriors. As the Pequots were now conquered, and as he assisted in the conquest, and was a Pequot himself, he laid claim to all that extensive tract called the Moheagan or Pequot country. Indeed, it seems he claimed, and was allowed to sell some part of that tract which was the principal seat of the Pequots. The sachems in other parts of Connecticut, who had been conquered by the Pequots, and made their allies, or tributaries, considered themselves, by the conquest of this haughty nation, as re

stored to their former rights. They claimed to be inde- Book I. pendent sovereigns, and to have a title to all the lands which they had at any time before possessed. The plan- 1640. ters therefore, to show their justice to the heathen, and to maintain the peace of the country, from time to time, purchased of the respective sachems and their Indians, all the lands which they settled, excepting the towns of New-London, Groton and Stonington, which were considered as the peculiar seat of the Pequot nation. The inhabitants of Windsor, Hartford, and Weathersfield, either at the time of their settlement, or soon after, bought all those extensive tracts, which they settled, of the native, original proprietors of the country. Indeed, Connecticut planters generally made repeated purchases of their lands. The colony not only bought the Moheagan country of Uncas, but afterwards all the particular towns were purchased again, either of him or his successors, when the settlements in them commenced. Besides, the colony was often obliged to renew its leagues with Uncas and his successors, the Moheagan sachems; and to make new presents and take new deeds, to keep friendship with the Indians and preserve the peace of the country. The colony was obliged to defend Uncas from his enemies, which was an occasion of no small trouble and expense. The laws obliged the inhabitants of the several towns to reserve unto the natives a sufficient quantity of planting ground. They were allowed to hunt and fish upon all the lands no less than the English.

The colonies made laws for their protection from insult, fraud and violence.* The inhabitants suffered them to erect wigwams, and to live on the very lands which they had purchased of them; and to cut their fire wood on their uninclosed lands, for more than a whole century, after the settlements began. The lands, therefore, though really worth nothing at that time, cost the planters very considerable sums, besides the purchase of their patents and the right of pre-emption.

In purchasing the lands and making settlements, in a wilderness, the first planters of Connecticut expended great estates. It has been the opinion of the best judges, who have had the most perfect acquaintance with the ancient affairs of the colony, that many of the adventurers expended more, in making settlements in Connecticut, than all the lands and buildings were worth, after all the improvements which they had made upon them.t

These facts are fully ascertained by the records of the colonies, and of the respective towns.

† This was the general opinion among men of extensive knowledge, in

BOOK I. At the general election in Connecticut, this year, Mr. Hopkins was chosen governor, and Mr. Haynes deputy 1640. governor. Mr. Ludlow was chosen magistrate in the Election at place of Mr. Hopkins. The other magistrates were the Hartford. same who were elected the last year. The same governor, deputy governor and magistrates, who were in office, at New-Haven, the last year, were re-elected for this.

As the colonists, both in Connecticut and New-Haven, were the patentees of Lord Say and Seal, Lord Brook and the other gentlemen interested in the old Connecticut patent, and as that patent covered a large tract of country, both colonies were desirous of securing the native title to the lands, with all convenient dispatch. Several large purchases were made this year both by Connecticut and New-Haven.

Connecticut made presents to Uncas, the Moheagan sachem, to his satisfaction, and on the 1st of September 1640, obtained of him a clear and ample deed of all his lands in Connecticut, except the lands which were then planted. These he reserved for himself and the Moheagans.

The same year, governor Haynes, in behalf of Hartford, made a purchase of Tunxis, including the towns of Farmington and Southington, and extending westward as far as the Mohawk country.

The people of Connecticut, about the same time, purchased Waranoke and soon began a plantation there, since called Westfield. Governor Hopkins erected a trading house and had a considerable intertest in the plantation.

Mr. Ludlow made a purchase of the eastern part of Norwalk, between Saugatuck and Norwalk rivers. Captain Patrick bought the middle part of the town. A few families seem to have planted themselves in the town about the time of these purchases, but it was not properly settled until about the year 1651. The planters then made a purchase of the western part of the town.*

About the same time Robert Feaks and Daniel Patrick bought Greenwich. The purchase was made in behalf of New-Haven, but through the intrigue of the Dutch governor, and the treachery of the purchasers, the first inhabitants revolted to the Dutch. They were incorporated and vested with town privileges by Peter Stuyvesant, govMassachusetts, as well as in Connecticut. Governor Hutchinson, in a manuscript which he wrote against the stamp act, observed, that land in New-England, at the time of its settlement, was of no value.

*The first purchases were of the sachem, Mamechimoh. Mr. Ludlow's deed bears date Feb. 26th, 1640, and Capt. Patrick's April 20th, 1640. The western purchase was of a sachem called Buckingheage. It hence appears that there were two sachems in this town.