Favor of the King to the Atherton Company Charter of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations Reception of the Charter at Rhode Island Population of the Narragansett Settlements in 1663 . Disputes concerning Lands on the Paucatuck River Debate between Massachusetts and the Royal Commissioners The Royal Commissioners in New Hampshire and Maine Dispersion of the Royal Commissioners Demand from England for Agents to be sent over by Massachusetts Present of Masts from Massachusetts to the King HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. BOOK II. THE CONFEDERACY OF THE FOUR COLONIES. CHAPTER I. THE Confederation of the four Colonies makes an epoch in the history of New England. When that league was formed, twenty-three years had passed since the plantation at Plymouth was begun, and thirteen years since a royal charter, transferred to the soil of Massachusetts, had there become the basis of a government. The institutions and the social condition of the Colonies had taken a definite shape. It will be instructive here to pause, and observe what the founders had done towards realizing the purposes of their emigration, and what was that primitive system of society which was to influence the character and fortunes of the later generations of the people. The men who established the charter government in Massachusetts entertained the hope of building up a free community of Englishmen, numerous and strong enough for the maintenance of those rights, the denial of which had driven them from their homes. It was material to their object, not only to invite numbers of sympathizing associates, but also to make their power effective by political consolidation. The first years had brought some disappointments in this respect. Connecticut and New |