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The next May, the Newtown people, determining to settle at Connecticut, renewed their application to the general court, and obtained liberty to remove to any place which they should choose, with this proviso, that they should continue under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts.1

A number of Mr. Warham's people came this summer into Connecticut, and made preparations to bring their families, and make a permanent settlement on the river. The Watertown people gradually removed, and prosecuted their settlement at Weathersfield. At the same time, the planters at Newtown began to make preparations for removing to Hartford the next spring.

Meanwhile, twenty men arrived in Massachusetts, sent over by Sir Richard Saltonstall, to take possession of a great quantity of land in Connecticut, and to make settlements under the patent of lord Say and Seal, with whom he was a principal associate. The vessel in which they came over, on her return to England, in the fall, was cast away on the isle Sable.2

As the Dorchester men had now set down at Connecticut, near the Plymouth trading house, governor Bradford wrote to them, complaining of their conduct, as injurious to the people of Plymouth, who had made a fair purchase of the Indians, and taken a prior possession.3

The Dutch also, alarmed by the settlements making in Connecticut, wrote to Holland for instructions and aid, to drive the English from their settlements upon the river.1

The people at Connecticut having made such preparations as were judged necessary to effect a permanent settlement, began to remove their families and property. On the fifteenth of October, about sixty men, women, and children, with their horses, cattle, and swine, commenced their journey from the Massachusetts, through the wilderness, to Connecticut river. After a tedious and difficult journey, through swamps and rivers, over mountains and rough ground, which were passed with great difficulty and fatigue, they arrived safely at the places of their respective destination. They were so long on their journey, and so much time and pains were spent in passing the river, and in getting over their cattle, that, after all their exertions, winter came upon them before they were prepared. This was an occasion of great distress and damage to the plantations.

Nearly at the same time, Mr. John Winthrop, son of governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts, arrived at Boston, with a commission from lord Say and Seal, lord Brook, and other noblemen and gentlemen interested in the Connecticut patent, to erect a fort at the mouth of Connecticut river. Their lordships sent over men, 2 Winthrop's Journal, p. 83 and 89. The same, p. 86.

'Winthrop's Journal, p. 82. 3 Winthrop's Journal, p. 86.

ordnance, ammunition, and 2000 pounds sterling, for the accomplishment of their design.1

Mr. Winthrop was directed, by his commission, immediately on his arrival, to repair to Connecticut, with fifty able men, and to erect the fortifications, and to build houses for the garrison, and for gentlemen who might come over into Connecticut. They were first to build houses for their then present accommodation, and after that, such as should be suitable for the reception of men of quality. The latter were to be erected within the fort. It was required that the planters, at the beginning, should settle themselves near the mouth of the river, and set down in bodies, that they might be in a situation for entrenching and defending themselves. The commission made provision for the reservation of a thousand or fifteen hundred acres of good land, for the maintenance of the fort, as nearly adjoining to it as might be with convenience.2

Mr. Winthrop, having intelligence that the Dutch were preparing to take possession of the mouth of the river, as soon as he could engage twenty men, and furnish them with provisions, dispatched them on November 9th, in a small vessel, of about thirty tons, to prevent their getting the command of the river, and to accomplish the service to which he had been appointed.

But a few days after the party, sent by Mr. Winthrop, arrived at the mouth of the river, a Dutch vessel appeared off the harbor, from New-Netherlands, sent on purpose to take possession of the entrance of the river, and to erect fortifications. The English had, by this time, mounted two pieces of cannon, and prevented their landing. Thus, providentially, was this fine tract of country preserved for our venerable ancestors, and their posterity.

Mr. Winthrop was appointed governor of the river Connecticut, and the parts adjacent, for the term of one year. He erected a fort, built houses, and made a settlement, according to his instructions. One David Gardiner, an expert engineer, assisted in the work, planned the fortifications, and was appointed lieutenant of the fort.

Mr. Davenport and others, who afterwards settled New-Haven, were active in this affair, and hired Gardiner, in behalf of their lordships, to come into New-England, and assist in this business.5

As the settlement of the three towns on Connecticut river was begun before the arrival of Mr. Winthrop, and the design of their lordships to make plantations upon it was known, it was agreed, that the settlers on the river should either remove, upon full satis

1 Winthrop's Journal, p. 88

2 Appendix, No. II.

3 Winthrop's Journal, p. 90, 91.

4 This was evidently Lion Gardiner, as appears by his own narrative. His son David was born at Saybrook on the 29th of April, 1636, and appears to have been the first Gardiner of that name born in this country.-J. T.

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Manuscripts of Gardiner.

faction made, by their lordships, or else sufficient room should be found for them and their companies at some other place.1

The winter set in this year much sooner than usual, and the weather was stormy and severe. By the 15th of November, Connecticut river was frozen over, and the snow was so deep, and the season so tempestuous, that a considerable number of the cattle, which had been driven on from the Massachusetts, could not be brought across the river. The people had so little time to prepare their huts and houses, and to erect sheds and shelters for their cattle, that the sufferings of man and beast were extreme. Indeed, the hardships and distresses of the first planters of Connecticut scarcely admit of a description. To carry much provision or furniture through a pathless wilderness, was impracticable. Their principal provisions and household furniture were, therefore, put on board several small vessels, which, by reason of delays and the tempestuousness of the season, were either cast away or did not arrive. Several vessels were wrecked on the coasts of New-England, by the violence of the storms. Two shallops laden with goods, from Boston to Connecticut, in October, were cast away on Brown's island, near the Gurnet's nose; and the men, with every thing on board, were lost. A vessel, with six of the Connecticut people on board, which sailed from the river for Boston, early in November, was, about the middle of the month, cast away in Manamet bay. The men got on shore, and, after wandering ten days in deep snow and a severe season, without meeting with any human being, arrived, nearly spent with cold and fatigue, at New-Plymouth.

By the last of November, or beginning of December, provisions generally failed in the settlements on the river, and famine and death looked the inhabitants sternly in the face. Some of them, driven by hunger, attempted their way, in this severe season, through the wilderness, from Connecticut to Massachusetts. Of thirteen, in one company, who made this attempt, one, in passing the rivers, fell through the ice, and was drowned. The other twelve were ten days on their journey, and would all have perished, had it not been for the assistance of the Indians.

Indeed, such was the distress in general that, by the 3d and 4th of December, a considerable part of the new settlers were obliged to abandon their habitations. Seventy persons, men, women, and children, were necessitated, in the extremity of winter, to go down to the mouth of the river, to meet their provisions, as the only expedient to preserve their lives. Not meeting with the vessels which they expected, they all went on board the Rebecca, a vessel of about 60 tons. This, two days before, was frozen in twenty miles up the river; but by the falling of a small rain and the influence of the tide, the ice became so broken and was so far removed, 1 Winthrop's Journal, p. 88. ? The same, p. 87.

that she made a shift to get out. She ran, however, upon the bar, and the people were forced to unlade her, to get her off. She was reladen, and, in five days, reached Boston. Had it not been for these providential circumstances, the people must have perished with famine.

The people who kept their stations on the river suffered in an extreme degree. After all the help they were able to obtain, by hunting, and from the Indians, they were obliged to subsist on acorns, malt and grains.1

Numbers of the cattle, which could not be got over the river before winter, lived through without any thing but what they found in the woods and meadows. They wintered as well, or better, than those which were brought over, and for which all the provision was made, and pains taken, of which the owners were capable. However, a great number of cattle perished. The Dorchester, or Windsor people lost, in this single article, about two hundred pounds sterling. Their other losses were very considerable.

It is difficult to describe, or even to conceive, the apprehensions and distresses of a people, in the circumstances of our venerable ancestors, during this doleful winter. All the horrors of a dreary wilderness spread themselves around them. They were encompassed with numerous, fierce and cruel tribes of wild and savage men, who could have swallowed up parents and children, at pleasure, in their feeble and distressed condition. They had neither bread for themselves, nor children; neither habitations nor clothing convenient for them. Whatever emergency might happen, they were cut off, both by land and water, from any succour or retreat. What self-denial, firmness, and magnanimity are necessary for such enterprises! How distressful, in the beginning, was the condition of those now fair and opulent towns on Connecticut river!

For a few years after the settlements on the river commenced, they bore the same name with the towns in the Massachusetts, whence the first settlers came.

The Connecticut planters, at first settled under the general government of the Massachusetts, but they held courts of their own, which consisted of two principal men from each town; and, on great and extraordinary occasions, these were joined with committees, as they were called, consisting of three men from each town. These courts had power to transact all the common affairs of the colony, and with their committees, had the power of making war and peace, and treaties of alliance and friendship with the natives within the colony.

The first court in Connecticut, was holden at Newtown, April 26th, 1636. It consisted of Roger Ludlow, Esq., Mr. John Steel, Winthrop's Journal, p. 90, 91, to 98.

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Mr. William Swain, Mr. William Phelps, Mr. William Westwood, and Mr. Andrew Ward. Mr. Ludlow had been one of the magistrates of Massachusetts in 1630, and in 1631 had been chosen lieutenant-governor of that colony. At this court it was ordered, that the inhabitants should not sell arms nor ammunition to the Indians. Various other affairs were also transacted relative to the good order, settlement, and defence of these infant towns.1

Several of the principal gentlemen interested in the settlement of Connecticut, Mr. John Haynes, who at this time was governor of Massachusetts, Mr. Henry Wolcott, Mr. Wells, the ministers of the churches, and others had not yet removed into the colony. As soon as the spring advanced, and the travelling would admit, the hardy men began to return from the Massachusetts, to their habitations on the river. No sooner were buds, leaves and grass so grown, that cattle could live in the woods, and obstructions removed from the river, so that vessels could go up with provisions and furniture, than the people began to return in large companies, to Connecticut. Many, who had not removed the last year, prepared, with all convenient dispatch, for a journey to the new settlements upon the river.

About the beginning of June, Mr. Hooker, Mr. Stone, and about a hundred men, women and children, took their departure from Cambridge, and travelled more than a hundred miles, through a hideous and trackless wilderness, to Hartford. They had no guide but their compass; made their way over mountains, through swamps, thickets, and rivers, which were not passable but with great difficulty. They had no cover but the heavens, nor any lodgings but those which simple nature afforded them. They drove with them a hundred and sixty head of cattle, and by the way, subsisted on the milk of their cows. Mrs. Hooker was borne through the wilderness upon a litter. The people generally carried their packs, arms, and some utensils. They were nearly a fortnight on their journey.

This adventure was the more remarkable, as many of this company were persons of figure, who had lived, in England, in honor, affluence and delicacy, and were entire strangers to fatigue and danger.

The famous Mr. Thomas Shepard, who, with his people, came into New-England the last summer, succeeded Mr. Hooker at Cambridge. The people of his congregation purchased the lands which Mr. Hooker and his company had previously possessed.

The removal of Dorchester people to Windsor is said to have been disagreeable to their ministers, but, as their whole church and congregation removed, it was necessary that they should go with them. However, Mr. Maverick died in March, before preparations were made for his removal. He expired in the 60th

1 Records of Connecticut.

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