doubtless to be ascribed to the principles and institutions of their ancestors; and where effects so strikingly salutary are observed, it is a matter of great interest to examine and understand the causes by which they have been produced. These causes must be sought for in the history of Connecticut, a brief and comprehensive view of which is attempted to be given in the following work. The author has endeavoured to be as full and par. ticular in his account as the limits assigned him would permit; bearing in mind the importance of making his work, both in matter and style, as acceptable as possible to the numerous class of readers for whose gratification and instruction it is especially designed. He feels it incumbent on him to express his obligations to the different writers consulted by him in the preparation of this volume, and to whose productions he in great measure owes that taste for the history of his native state and country which has been to him a source of the highest gratification, and which he would fain assist in extending among his countrymen.

Surely this is a study, aside from its greater usefulness, which should be far more interesting to a well-trained mind than those works of fiction which absorb so great a portion of the time of many readers; and the author is persuaded, not only by observation and reflection, but by his own experience, that it is one from which the young and the old may derive equal advantage and delight. When quite a child, he often listened to the reading of Trumbull's History of Connecticut, with a pleasure not exceeded by that which the perusal of more voluminous works afforded him at a later period in life. B

The author has likewise embraced in the fol lowing pages the results of inquiries made by him, at different periods, among such records of the past as he has been able to discover in his visits to various parts of the country, and many interesting facts obtained from persons possessing valuable information. Many of the old forts and battle-fields mentioned in this work he has inspected at leisure, taking measurements, notes, and drawings on the spot; while family traditions and ancient manuscripts have often been usefully consulted to supply or explain important facts.

THE

HISTORY

OF

CONNECTICUT.

CHAPTER I.

Character and Objects of the Founders of Connecticut Colony. -The Founding of New-Haven Colony with similar Designs. -Difficulties arising from the conflicting Claims of European Sovereigns and of English Patents and Companies.-Claims of the Spaniards, English, Dutch, and French.-Justice of the English Claim.-Brief Geographical View of Connecticut, with its present Boundaries, &c.

THE settlement of Connecticut was commenced sixteen years after that of Massachusetts, for the same great purposes, and by men of the same origin and character. Indeed, the original founders of the colony were from Massachusetts, and of the num. ber of those conscientious men who had left England in consequence of religious persecution in the reign of James I. Finding, after a short residence there, that the few settlements about Massachusetts Bay were fast filling up with emigrants, and would soon be overstocked, and wishing to occupy the fertile shores of Connecticut River before they should be seized by the Dutch, who were then in

16

HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.

possession of New-York, they began to prepare for

a removal.

Their principal motives were declared to be, to secure freedom of conscience and civil liberty to themselves and their posterity, and to make the savages acquainted with the Christian religion and the blessings of civilized life. Their plan was seriously opposed by their friends in that colony, who loved and esteemed them too much to be willing to lose them; but they had deliberately adopted it, and were resolved to carry it into execution.

The first emigration to the banks of the Connecticut took place in 1636, the company being composed chiefly of married men, with their families, and including several religious congregations, with their pastors, church officers, and members.

Two years afterward another colony was founded at New-Haven, for the same exalted objects, by a congregation which had left England to form a dis. tinct settlement by themselves in the forests of America. Our attention will be directed to these two colonies in turn, up to the period of their final union.

Unfortunately, a part of the territory of Connecticut was included in the claim of the Dutch; several conflicting grants were also made at different periods to companies and individuals in England, which occasioned serious difficulties; while disputes of a still graver character frequently arose between Great Britain and France from their rival pretensions in the North, which brought many a fleet and army across the Atlantic, and thus at different times involved the colonies in war for several generations.

The groundwork of these troubles was laid in those early times when this part of America was known only through the first discoverers: the notions into which the world was led by their credulity and ignorance being often so preposterous as to excite a smile. When Columbus first made known to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain his discovery of land in the West, they were disposed to claim all the territories which might be found in that part of the world: the King of Portugal, however, informed them that he considered even the West Indies as justly belonging to his crown, inasmuch as his subjects had first visited the Azores. With a degree of superstition worthy of Southern Europe, the question was at last submitted to the pope, who gravely decided that Portugal should have all the lands and territories that might be discovered within a thousand miles of Europe, and Spain all that should be discovered beyond."

If the potentates of Europe had been at that time as submissive to Rome as they were a few centuries before, the Western world might have passed quietly into the possession of Spain and Portugal; and what would have been now the condition of our country, it is impossible to tell. But neither Great Britain, nor Holland, nor even France, was disposed to consent to this authoritative partition of the newly-discovered regions of the West; and these powers subsequently took possession of different parts of North America, supporting their respective pretensions by long and bloody wars, until the first-named power ultimately triumphed.

The claims advanced by Great Britain were