tensive meadows which it forms, and the immense quantities of fish, with which it abounds, is one of the finest rivers in NewEngland.

None of the ancient adventurers, who discovered the great continent of North-America, or New-England, made any discovery of this river. It does not appear that it was known to any civilized nation, until some years after the settlement of the English and Dutch, at Plymouth and New-Netherlands.

From this fine river, which the Indians called Quonehtacut, or Connecticut, (in English, the long river,) the colony, originally took its name. Indeed this is one principal source of its wealth and convenience.

The Housatonick and the little or Farmington river, westward of it, and Pequot river, now called the Thames, on the east, are also considerable sources of its opulence and prosperity. The Housatonick, now commonly called Stratford river, has two principal branches. One rises in Lanesborough, and the other in Windsor, in the county of Berkshire, in Massachusetts. Where it enters Connecticut, between Salisbury and Canaan, it is about fifty rods wide, and running through the whole length of the colony, it empties into the sound between Milford and Stratford. It is navigable twelve miles to Derby. Between Milford and Stratford it is about eighty rods wide, and there is about four fathoms of water. Were it not obstructed, by a bar of shells, at the mouth, it would admit large ships. Between Salisbury and Canaan is a cataract where the water of the whole river falls perpendicularly sixty feet. The fall produces a perfectly white sheet of water, and a mist in which various floating rainbows are exhibited, forming a scene exquisitely grand and beautiful.

The Naugatuck, or Waterbury river, is another considerable branch of the Housatonick. Its source is in Torrington, and running through Harwinton, Plymouth and Waterbury, it empties itself into said river at Derby.

The little, or Farmington river, rises in Becket, in Massachusetts, crosses the boundary line between the colonies at Hartland, and passing through Barkhempsted and New-Hartford, runs south considerably below the centre of Farmington first society; then, making a remarkable turn, it runs back nearly a north course, twelve or fourteen miles into Simsbury; where it turns easterly, and running into Windsor, discharges its waters into Connecticut river,' nearly in the centre of the town. This formerly was replenished with all kinds of fish in as great a profusion as Connecticut. The numerous dams, which more lately have been erected upon it, have very greatly obstructed their passage.

Pequot river, or the Thames, empties into the sound at New

1 The Connecticut river was doubtless explored by Adrian Block in 1614, who, according to De Laet, sailed as far as the present site of Hartford.-J. T.

London. It is navigable fourteen miles, to Norwich landing. Here it loses its name, and branches into Shetucket on the east, and Norwich or little river on the west.

About a mile from the mouth of the little river, is a remarkable romantic cataract. A perpendicular rock, about twelve feet high, extends itself across the whole channel: over this the river pitches, in one entire sheet, on to a bed of rocks: here it is compressed by a very narrow and crooked passage, between two craggy cliffs, and for fifteen or twenty rods, forces its way over numerous pointed rocks, with the most violent agitation; thence it flows into a large basin, which spreads itself for its reception. The long and constant falling of the waters, have excavated the rocks, even to admiration. In some, cavities are made, of a circular form, not less than five or six feet deep. The smooth and gentle flow of the river above the fall, the regularity and beauty of its descent, the roughness and foam of the waters below, and the rugged, towering cliff impending the whole, presents the spectator with a scene majestic and pleasing beyond description.

The Shetucket, which name it bears as far only as the southern boundary of Windham, is formed by the Willamantick and Quenibaug rivers. The Willamantick has its source in Massachusetts, enters Connecticut at Stafford, and is the boundary line between Tolland and Willington, Coventry and Mansfield, and passing by Windham, loses itself in the Shetucket. Quenibaug rises in Brimfield, in Massachusetts, and passing through Sturbridge and Dudley, crosses the line between that state and Connecticut, at Thompson; and dividing Pomfret from Killingly, Canterbury from Plainfield, and Lisbon from Preston, flows into the Shetucket.

The colony is watered and fertilized by numerous other rivers, of less extent and utility.

As the people at Plymouth had explored Connecticut river, and fixed upon a place convenient for building and commerce, and found the original proprietors of the soil desirous of their making settlements among them, they judged it an affair worthy of public, and immediate attention.

In July, 1633, Mr. Winslow and Mr. Bradford therefore made a journey to Boston, to confer with governor Winthrop and his council, on the subject. Governor Winslow and Mr. Bradford proposed it to them, to join with Plymouth, in a trade to Connecticut, for hemp and beaver, and to erect a house for the purposes of commerce. It was represented as necessary, to prevent the Dutch from taking possession of that fine country, who, it was reported, were about to build upon the river: but governor Winthrop declined the motion: he objected that it was not proper to make a plantation there, because there were three or four thousand warlike Indians upon the river; and because the bar at the

mouth of it was such, that small pinnaces only could enter it at high water; and because that, seven months in the year, no vessels could go into it, by reason of the ice, and the violence of the

stream.

The Plymouth people therefore determined to undertake the enterprise at their own risk. Preparations were made for erecting a trading house, and establishing a small company upon the river. In the mean time, the master of a vessel from Massachusetts, who was trading at New-Netherlands, shewed to Walter Van Twiller, the Dutch governor, the commission which the English had to trade and settle in New-England; and that his majesty, the king of England, had granted all these parts to his own subjects. He therefore desired that the Dutch would not build at Connecticut. This appears to have been done at the direction of governor Winthrop; for, in consequence of it, the Dutch governor wrote a very complaisant letter to him, in which he represented, that the lords, the States General, had granted the same country to the WestIndia company. He requested therefore, that the English would made no settlements at Connecticut, until the affair should be determined between the court of England, and the States General.1 This appears to have been a piece of policy in the Dutch governor, to keep the English still, until the Dutch had got a firm footing upon the river.

Several vessels, this year, went into Connecticut river to trade. John Oldham, from Dorchester, and three men with him, also travelled through the wilderness to Connecticut, to view the country, and trade with the Indians. The sachem upon the river made him most welcome, and gave him a present in beaver. He found that the Indian hemp grew spontaneously in the meadows, in great abundance: he purchased a quantity of it; and, upon trial, it appeared much to exceed the hemp which grew in England.

William Holmes, of Plymouth, with his company, having prepared the frame of a house, with boards and materials for covering it immediately, put them on board a vessel, and sailed for Connecticut. Holmes had a commission from the governor of Plymouth, and a chosen company to accomplish his design. When he came into the river, he found that the Dutch had got in before him, made a light fort, and planted two pieces of cannon: this was erected at the place since called Hartford. The Dutch forbid Holmes' going up the river, stood by their cannon, ordered him to strike his colours, or they would fire upon him: but he was a man of spirit, assured them that he had a commission from the governor of Plymouth to go up the river, and that he must obey

1 Winthrop's Journal, p. 55.

* In the Colony Records, Oldham is mentioned as a member of the assembly of May 8, 1632, "for Watertown." From this Savage draws the inference that he could not have been from Dorchester at this time, September, 1633.-J. T.

his orders: they poured out their threats, but he proceeded, and landing on the west side of the river, erected his house a little below the mouth of the little river, in Windsor. The house was covered with the utmost dispatch, and fortified with palisadoes. The sachems, who were the original owners of the soil, had been driven from this part of the country, by the Pequots; and were now carried home on board Holmes' vessel. Of them the Plymouth people purchased the land, on which they erected their house. This, governor Wolcott says, was the first house erected in Connecticut. The Dutch, about the same time, erected a trading house at Hartford, which they called the Hirse of good hope.*

It was with great difficulty that Holmes and his company erected and fortified their house, and kept it afterwards. The Indians were offended at their bringing home the original proprietors, and lords of the country, and the Dutch that they had settled there, and were about to rival them in trade, and in the possession of those excellent lands upon the river: they were obliged therefore to combat both, and to keep a constant watch upon them.

The Dutch, before the Plymouth people took possession of the river, had invited them, in an amicable manner, to trade at Connecticut; but when they were apprised that they were making preparations for a settlement there, they repented of the invitation, and spared no exertions to prevent them.

On the 8th of June, the Dutch had sent Jacob Van Curter, to purchase lands upon the Connecticut. He made a purchase of about twenty acres at Hartford, of Nepuquash, a Pequot captain. Of this the Dutch took possession in October, and on the 25th of the month, Curter protested against William Holmes, the builder of the Plymouth house. Some time afterwards, the Dutch governor, Walter Van Twiller, of fort Amsterdam, dispatched a reinforcement to Connecticut, designing to drive Holmes and his company from the river. A band of seventy men, under arms, with banners displayed, assaulted the Plymouth house, but they found it so well fortified, and the men who kept it so vigilant and determined, that it could not be taken without bloodshed: they therefore came to a parley, and finally returned in peace.

The Dutch were always mere intruders. They had no right to any part of this country. The English ever denied their right, and when the Dutch placed a governor at New-Netherlands, and

1 Manuscripts of governor Wolcott.

? Prince's Chron. part ii. sec. 2, p. 94, 95, 96.

3 In his manuscripts.

4 Smith represents this house as built ten years before it was. York, p. 2.

Б

Hist. of New

This is disputed by Savage, who accuses Trumbull of partisan feeling, and refers to the N. A. Review, 8: 85, for a fair statement of the claims of the Dutch. The fact that Trumbull erroneously supposed Hudson to be under control of the English at the time of the discovery of the Hudson river, probably had much to do with Trumbull's entire view of the claims of the Dutch.-J. T.

the court of England made complaint of it to the States General, they disowned the affair, and said it was only a private undertaking of an Amsterdam West-India company. King James the first commissioned Edward Langdon to be governor, at NewNetherlands, and named the country New-Albion. The Dutch submitted to the English government, until the troubles in England, under the administrations of king Charles the first and the long parliament. Taking the advantage of the distraction of those times, they again usurped and established their government, until they were reduced by king Charles the second, in 1664. They gave great trouble to both the colonies of Connecticut and New-Haven.

The people of New-Plymouth had carried on a trade upon Connecticut river for nearly two years before they erected a trading house. They found the country to be excellent and the trade profitable; but that, were there a house and company to receive the commodities which were brought down from the inland country, the profits would be much greater. The country abounded with beaver. The Dutch purchased not less than ten thousand skins annually. Plymouth and Massachusetts people sometimes sent, in a single ship, for England, a thousand pounds sterling worth of otter and beaver skins. The extent of Connecticut river, the numerous Indians upon it, and the easy communication which they had with the lakes, and natives of Canada, gave an extensive opening for a trade in furs, skins, corn, hemp and all kinds of commodities which the country afforded.

This was a year of great sickness at Plymouth. They lost twenty of their people. Some of them were their principal and most useful inhabitants.

It was a dreadful year to the Indians in the Massachusetts. Two sachems with a great part of their Indians died. The small pox, which spread among them, was the occasion of the mortality. The people of Massachusetts shewed them great kindness in their distress. Several towns received their children to prevent their taking the infection, and to nurse and save them if they had taken it; but the most of them died, notwithstanding all the care and pains which could be exercised towards them. When their own people forsook them, the English, who lived near them, went to their wigwams and ministered to them. Some families spent almost their whole time with them. One Englishman buried thirty of their dead in one day."

1

1 Doug. vol. ii. p. 222.

2

Winthrop's Journal, p. 59.