ment, after all his application, so engrosses his time, that sometimes for weeks and months, after all his application, he cannot find a single day for the compilation of history. When he has attempted it, he has been able scarcely to write a page without interruption. Often he has been so fatigued with other studies, as to be in circumstances not the most favorable for composition.

It may, possibly, be thought a great neglect, or matter of partiality, that no account is given of witchcraft in Connecticut. The only reason is, that after the most careful researches, no indictment of any person for that crime, nor any process relative to that affair, can be found. The minute in Goff's journal, published by governor Hutchinson, relative to the execution of Ann Coles, and an obscure tradition that one or two persons were executed at Stratford, is all the information to be found relative to that unhappy affair.

The countenance and assistance which the honorable legislature have given the writer, by allowing him a free access to the public records and papers, is most respectfully acknowledged.

The attention and complaisance with which he has been treated by the secretaries of the state, and their respective families, while he has had occasion to examine the public records and papers, challenge the warmest expressions of his gratitude.

To his brethren in the ministry, the gentlemen of the bar, and the towns who have so generously encouraged and supported the subscription, he returns his grateful acknowledgments.

The labor of collecting the materials for the history and compilement, has been almost incredible. The expense of publication will be great. However, should it meet a favorable reception, assist the legislator or divine, the gentlemen of the bench or of the bar; should it afford instruction and pleasure to the sons and daughters of the state, and in any degree advance its morals or literature, it will be an ample compensation.

THE

HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.

CHAPTER I.

THE settlement of New-England, purely for the purposes of Religion, and the propagation of civil and religious liberty, is an event which has no parallel in the history of modern ages. The piety, self-denial, sufferings, patience, perseverance and magnanimity of the first settlers of the country are without a rival. The happy and extensive consequences of the settlements which they made, and of the sentiments which they were careful to propagate, to their posterity, to the church and to the world, admit of no description. They are still increasing, spreading wider and wider, and appear more and more important.

The planters of Connecticut were among the illustrious characters, who first settled New-England, and twice made settlements, first in Massachusetts, and then in Connecticut on bare creation. In an age when the light of freedom was but just dawning, they, by voluntary compact, formed one of the most free and happy constitutions of government which mankind have ever adopted. Connecticut has ever been distinguished by the free spirit of its government, the mildness of its laws, and the general diffusion of knowledge, among all classes of its inhabitants. They have been no less distinguished by their industry, economy, purity of manners, population and spirit of enterprise. For more than a century and half, they have had no rival, as to the steadiness of their government, their internal peace and harmony, their love and high enjoyment of domestic, civil and religious order and happiness. They have ever stood among the most illuminated, first and boldest defenders of the civil and religious rights of mankind.

The history of such a people must be curious, entertaining and important. It will exhibit the fairest models of civil government, of religious order, purity and human happiness. It is the design of the present work to lay this history before the public.

As the planters of Connecticut were among the first settlers of New-England, and interested in the first patents and settle

I

ments, sketches of the discovery of the country, of the patents by which it was conveyed and divided to the different colonies, and of the first settlements, will be necessary to illustrate the history of Connecticut and be a natural preliminary to this work.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, a Genoese, on October 12, 1492, discovered the western isles, and first communicated to Europe the intelligence of a new world: but the Cabots had the honor of discovering the great continent of North-America.

JOHN CABOT, a Venetian, born in England, in 1494 discovered Newfoundland and the island of St. Johns. In consequence of this discovery, king Henry the seventh of England, in whose service he was employed, conferred on him the honor of knighthood; and gave him and his sons a commission to make further discoveries in the new world. John Cabot died soon after he received this commission. His son Sebastian, in 1497, sailed with the fleet, which had been preparing for his father, and directing his course by his journals, proceeded to the 67th degree of north latitude, and, returning to the southward, fell in with the continent in the 56th degree of north latitude; and thence explored the coast as far south as the Floridas. From these discoveries originated the claims of England to these parts of the northern continent.

In 1602, Bartholomew Gosnold discovered some part of NewEngland. He first touched on its eastern coast, in about 43 degrees of north latitude; and, sailing to the southward, landed on the Elizabeth Islands. He made some discoveries of the adjacent parts, and gave the name to Cape Cod and Marthas Vineyard.

Captain Henry Hudson,1 commissioned by king James I. in 1608, sailed, in the employment of several London merchants, to North-America. He came upon the coast in about 40 degrees of north latitude, and made a discovery of Long-Island and Hudson's river. He proceeded up the river as far as the latitude of 43, and called it by his own name.

About two years after he made a second voyage to the river, in the service of a number of Dutch merchants; and, some time after, made sale of his right to the Dutch. The right to the country, however, was antecedently in king James, by virtue of the discovery which Hudson had made under his commission. The English protested against the sale; but the Dutch, in 1614, under the Amsterdam West-India company, built a fort nearly on the same ground where the city of Albany now is, which they called fort Aurania. Sir Thomas Dale, governor of Virginia, directly after dispatched captain Argall to dispossess the Dutch, and they

1 The Hudson river was discovered a year later, viz., September 4, 1609, at a time when Hudson's expedition in the yacht "Half Moon," was under the auspices of the Dutch East India Company. The discoveries made at this time formed the basis for a claim by the Dutch to the whole territory from the Delaware river to Cape Cod, which points were the limits of Hudson's cruise on our coast at this time. See Purchas's Pilgrim, also De Laet.-J. T.

submitted to the king of England, and under him to the governor of Virginia.1

The same year captain John Smith, who some years before had been governor of Virginia, made a voyage to this part of the continent. He ranged the coast from Penobscot to Cape Cod; made a discovery of the river Pascataqua, and the Massachusetts islands. On his return to England, he published a description of the country, with a map of the sea coast, and gave it the name of NewEngland.

In 1620, a number of pious people, part of Mr. John Robinson's church and congregation, who, by the violence of persecution, had been driven from their pleasant seats and enjoyments in England, arrived on the coast; and, after braving every danger, and enduring almost every hardship and distress of which human nature is capable, effected a permanent settlement in this part of North-America. They gave it the name of New-Plymouth. By voluntary compact they formed themselves into a small commonwealth, and had a succession of governors. They settled all that part of Massachusetts included in the county of Plymouth. By making permanent settlements, to which others might resort, on their first arrival in New-England, or afterwards in times of distress; by making treaties with the Indians, by which the peace of the country was preserved; by their knowledge of it, and the experience which they had gained, they were of peculiar advantage to those who came over and made settlements after them. They were a pious, industrious people, and exhibited towards each other the most striking examples of fraternal affection. They continued a distinct colony for about seventy years, until their incorporation, by the charter of William and Mary, in 1691, with the colony of Massachusetts and the province of Maine.

November 3d, 1620, just before the arrival of Mr. Robinson's people in New-England, king James the first, by letters patent, under the great seal of England, incorporated the duke of Lenox, the marquises of Buckingham and Hamilton, the earls of Arundel and Warwick, and others, to the number of forty noblemen, knights and gentlemen, by the name "of the council established at Plymouth in the county of Devon, for the planting, ruling and governing of New-England in America "-" and granted unto them, and their successors and assigns, all that part of America, lying and being in breadth from forty degrees of north latitude, from the equinoctial line, to the forty eighth degree of said northerly latitude inclusively, and in length of, and within all the breadth aforesaid, throughout the main lands from sea to sea." The patent ordained that this tract of country should be called New-England in America, and by that name have continuance for ever.

1 Smith's history of New-York, p. 2.