*

took possession of the mouth of Connecticut River, and erected a Fort there, which they called Saybrook, in honor of the principal Proprietor. Mr. John Winthrop acted as Governor of the new Colony under the direction of the Proprietors, who remained in England; and as the settlements increased in population it was found extremely necessary that the power of making laws should rest in the Colony. Accordingly a negociation was opened between the inhabitants of the Colony on one side, and the Proprietors, through their agent George Fenwick Esq. who commanded Fort Saybrook, on the other, which resulted in a cession of the title of the Proprietors to the inhabitants on the 5th of December 1644.

From this time the people of Connecticut were governed by their own laws; but as the original power of legislation was by the Charter to be exercised at " Plymouth in the County of Devon," the right of the General Court to exercise the same in the Colony, became very questionable. A civil war however raged in England, and the people of Connecticut were more deeply concerned in relation to the manner of administering their Government, than anxious respecting its legality. Upon the restoration of the Monarchy under Charles II. it was very naturally concluded that these powers would be more critically examined, as a state of peace would give the Government leisure to enquire into the affairs of the Colonies; and it was

*Trumbull.

D*

thought proper to apply to the King for a specific Charter granting them the privilege of self Govern ment. Accordingly the Legislative body (called the General Court,) which met at Hartford in May 1644, drew up a petition to his Majesty requesting in a formal manner to be taken under the royal protection, and that he would be pleased to grant them a Charter of privileges which should include and establish the original Constitution of Government which had been adopted at a general meeting of all the free planters of the Colony convened at Hartford on the 14th of January 1639, a copy of which accompanied the petition. John Winthrop, at that time Governor of the Colony, was sent to England to lay this petition before the King, and on the 23d of April 1662, a Charter was granted to the Colony agreeably to the prayer of the petition. This Charter included "All that part of our dominions in New England "in America, bounded on the East by Naragansett

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Bay, where the said River falleth into the Sea"and on the North by the line of the Massachu"setts plantation on the South by the Sea, and "in longitude as the line of the Massachusetts Col"ony, running from East to West-(that is to 66 say) from the Naragansett Bay on the East to the South Sea on the West part.”

These several instruments taken together give us a full view of the territorial limits of Connecticut. It will be observed that in the Connecticut Charter, the southern boundary is said to be "the Sea," but as the Sea, or rather Long Island Sound,

extends in a south-westerly direction, the place of the south-west corner of the Colony was not specifically defined. In order therefore to ascertain that point, we must resort to the Deed of the Colony from the Earl of Warwick, in which the territory included is said to be "All that part of New 56 England in America which lies and extends it"self from a River there called Naragansett River, "the space of forty leagues upon a straight line 66 near the shore towards the south-west as the "coast lieth towards Virginia, accounting three

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English miles to the league," &c. The grant to the Plymouth Company having extended South to the fortieth degree of North latitude, they had therefore an undoubted right to transfer their claims to that degree, and if the distance mentioned in the Deed from the Earl of Warwick beginning at the Naragansett Bay where the said River falleth into the Sea," and measuring one hundred and twenty English miles," in a straight line as the coast lieth towards Virginia," would not extend beyond the fortieth degree of North latitude, then the point found by such measurement would be the south-west corner of Connecticut, and the territory included would be all the country from that point to the line of the Massachusetts plantation," and "from the Naragansett Bay on the East, to the South Sea on the West part." It so happens that a distance of one hundred and twenty miles measured in a direet line along the coast from Naragansett Bay towards Virginia will terminate very nearly on the fortieth

degree of North latitude, but as this measurement was not made at the time various difficulties occurred in establishing the south-western boundary of the Colony. Those difficulties originated in the following circumstances.

In the year 1608, Capt. Henry Hudson, under a commission from King James I. of England, sailed in the employment of several London merchants in quest of a north-west passage to India, and having discovered Long Island Sound and the mouth of a large river opening into a spacious bay, he sailed into the same and having proceeded up the river about one hundred miles with his ship, he came to anchor opposite the place where the city now stands which bears his name. He spent several days trading with the Indians, and having given his own name to the river, returned into the Atlantic. Two years afterwards he made a second voyage in the employment of several merchants of Holland to whom he subsequently sold his right to the countries which he had discovered.

The Amsterdam West India Company having purchased Hudson's claim called the country the "New Netherlands," and built a Town on an Island at the mouth of the river which they called "New Amsterdam. In 1614 the same Company sent part of their Colony up the river where they built a Town on the western bank which they called "Orange." These two Towns were the first which were built by the subjects of any European nation within the present limits of the United States. Thus the whole country for a distance of

one hundred and sixty miles along the Hudson was in the possession of the Dutch and consequently came within the proviso mentioned in the Charter to the Plymouth Company which excepted such of the granted premises as were "then actually possessed or inhabited by any other Christian Prince or State," for the Dutch had been in the occupancy of the country six years previous to the date of the Company's Charter.

In the year 1664 on the 12th day of March King Charles II. granted a patent to his brother the Duke of York and Albany of a large tract of country in America including Long Island, the territory of the New Netherlands and all the country westward to the Delaware Bay: his Majesty having declared that the Dutch had no right to countries first discovered by an Englishman. A war had broken out with the Dutch, and the Duke considered it a proper time to take possession of his territories. A fleet was accordingly fitted out under the command of Sir Robert Carr and Colonel Nichols, which proceeded to Boston, and having procured reinforcements from the Colonies appeared before the city of New Amsterdam which surrendered to the English on the 27th of August 1664, and the whole of the New Netherlands having followed the example of the capital, the two principal Towns received the names which formed the principal titles of their new proprietor: New Amsterdam taking the name of New York, and Orange that of Albany. The Dutch Colony of the New Netherlands, having by these events become