ment of that peace which they had so much desired, and again involved in a war, brought upon it through its dependance on the mother country. In May, 1702, war was declared against France and Spain by the Queen of England, the Emperor of Germany, and the States-General of Holland; and Connecticut, as well as the other colonies, was involved in its losses and dangers. Governor Dudley and the Massachusetts court asked the Assembly, in October, to send 100 men against the eastern Indians; soldiers were sent to protect the western towns; and a committee of war was appointed, to send others to the frontier and Hampshire county.

A special committee was appointed in 1704, to prevent the friendly Indians from joining or co-op. erating with the enemy. The inhabitants of every town were required to meet and consider the best manner of fortifying it; and commissioned officers were authorized to send out half the militia to repel any sudden attack, and to pursue the enemy. One hundred men were ordered out for Governor Dudley in the east, and sixty for Hampshire county chiefly, to be under the command of the commit. tee of war and the commanding officer there. County committees were appointed, to consult for the public safety; and persons and families were forbidden to desert any frontier town, without permission from the Assembly, under penalty of the loss of their freehold property there. Indians also were enlisted for scouts. The number of troops now kept on foot was 500; viz., 100 in the east, and 400 for the defence of the colony and Hampshire country; and the latter were provided with snow-shoes, that they might be ready for service at all seasons.

226 TROUBLE CAUSED BY GOV. DUDLEY. [1704.

A king's attorney was ordered to be appointed by each county court, to prosecute criminal offenders; and these attorneys were required to be not only moral, but religious men.

The colony, in the midst of these trials and expenses, was much harassed by urgent demands for money by Governor Dudley, of Massachusetts, and Lord Cornbury, governor of New.York and NewJersey. They stated that it was needed for the defence of their governments: but of this they gave no proof. The former appears to have been a man of an ambitious and domineering character, and versed in the arts of intrigue; and, while he grasp. ed at the control of all New-England, he persuaded Lord Cornbury to favour his measures, under the hope of being made governor of Connecticut and the southern colonies. Having been connected with Sir Edmund Andross in the days of his misrule, he was an enemy to all the civil and religious rights so steadily maintained by the people of Connecticut. He opposed every plan suggested in England for the benefit of the colonies; and had succeeded in getting a strong party in Parliament to favour the concentration of the government of them all in one person, and superseding the charters, and had a bill prepared for that purpose in the reign of King William. It was introduced into Parliament soon after Queen Anne's accession; and the preamble declared that the charters granted to the New-England colonies, East and West NewJersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Carolina, the Bahama and Lucay Islands, were repugnant to trade and the interests of the other colonies, favourable to piracy, &c.

What this artful and indefatigable enemy might have accomplished if unopposed, we cannot with certainty determine. Fortunately, he had an upright and skilful antagonist in Sir Henry Ashurst, the agent for Connecticut in London, who presented a petition or remonstrance to the Lords, representing the injustice and injury with which the bill was pregnant, stating that the charter was inseparably interwoven with the state of things, and could not be taken away without greatly injuring property as well as the rights of the people, and introducing confusion, if not ruin. Sir Henry obtained a hearing at the bar of the House, in behalf of the colony, on the third of May, 1701; and, having honourable connexions, ability, and the aid of a righteous cause, he placed the character and claims of Connecticut in an elevated point of view before the members, and made such an impression that the ambitious Dudley was entirely defeated: for his bill was rejected by the Parliament.

But he was not disheartened by this failure; and Lord Cornbury stood by to second him in a new attack upon the rights and privileges of the colonies. They were both imboldened by the consciousness that they had powerful acquaintances and connexions in England, and that there were some disaffected men in America. Dudley had many friends at court; and Cornbury was nearly related to the queen, as well as to several persons who held unfounded claims for land in the conquered country, or had appealed to England from decisions of the colonial courts, and were disposed to make common cause with any opponent of the existing order of things. Among these dissatis

228

MASON'S LAND-CLAIM.

[1704.

fied persons were Messrs. Nicholas Hallam, Major Palms, Captain Mason, and Daniel Clark. They all might expect much personal advantage from the success of an impeachment of the colony, which was now resolved on. Lord Cornbury was poor, and, wanting money, would have been glad to have the power to force out of Connecticut the sums he had been refused.

The first step, therefore, was to make out a set of charges; and this work was committed by Gov. ernor Dudley to one Bulkley, who wrote a large folio volume, entitled "The Doom; or, Miseries of Connecticut," abounding in misrepresentations, and highly extolling the government of Andross. With his customary duplicity, Governor Dudley all this time treated Connecticut with courtesy and marks of friendship, and once wrote a letter in which he gave them thanks for the abundant supplies with which they had furnished him, though it was one of his charges that they had withholden them.

Owaneco, the Mohegan Sachem, incited by disaffected Persons to urge unfounded Claims to Lands purchased by the Colony. -Governor Dudley appointed, with a Court, to try them.The Land Claim of the Mason Family.-The Charges made by Governor Dudley brought to a hearing before the Queen in Council. Decided in favour of the Colony.-Governor Dudley holds his Court, which gives a Decision in favour of Owaneco, treating the Colony with Contempt.-Public Embarrassments.

In the mean time, the Assembly had exerted themselves to satisfy the claims of Owaneco and

the other Mohegans about their lands; and, with the greatest fairness and liberality, had made him an offer of a sum of money, with which he was perfectly content. But Mason and his friends contrived to render him dissatisfied, so that he refused to make any arrangement. One of the prominent charges made by Dudley against the colony was, that they had treated the Mohegans with injustice, particularly in conveying away all their lands in the late grant and patent to New. London: while the fact was, with their uniform regard to justice and humanity towards that tribe, they had carefully guarded the property and priv. ileges of the Indians.

These and other misrepresentations respecting the Mohegans greatly deceived Queen Anne and her councillors, so that she appointed Governor Dudley, Thomas Povey, Esq., lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts, Major Palms, and nine others, to examine and determine the whole affair, with lib. erty for any one to appeal to her majesty in council. This led the colony into a long and expensive controversy, which was wilfully brought upon it by its enemies for, when a committee, sent by the Assembly this year to inquire and report, visited Owaneco, he refused to confer with them unless in the presence of Major Palms, while the latter absented himself at Boston, as if purposely to defeat their object.

The family of Deputy-governor Mason claimed the lands which he had purchased, under a deed from Uncas, given him in 1659, while acting as agent of the colony. They denied the legality of the surrender which he had made of them the fol.

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