rates for the support of the ministry, and to tax themselves for as much more as was requisite for the maintaining of their worship.1 For nearly twenty years the College of Connecticut had continued to be an unsatisfactory experiment. Yale While the rector taught some youth at Milford, College. and two tutors had other pupils at Saybrook, and the few scores of books which had been obtained for a library were divided between the two places, there was small prospect of the results for which institutions of learning are created. Notwithstanding the general agreement that whatever facilities for the higher education could be commanded should be brought together and combined, the choice of the place was embarrassed by various considerations, some having reference to the public good alone, others more or less to the interest of property holders, who calculated on being benefited by the proximity of a literary colony. Saybrook, Wethersfield, Hartford, and New Haven competed with each other for the preference, offering such contributions as they were able towards the erection of a college building. The offer from New Haven, larger than that of any other town, was seven hundred pounds sterling. The plan of fixing the College there, promoted by the great influence of Governor Saltonstall, was adopted by the trustees; and with money obtained by private gifts, and two hundred and fifty pounds accruing from a sale of land given by the General Assembly, a building was begun, which finally cost a thousand pounds sterling. 1716. Oct. 17. But the permanent site of the College was not yet absolutely determined. A remonstrance was presented to the Trustees, setting forth that there had been illegality in the proceedings; and it was not till after much debate in the lower House of Assembly that this clamor was 1717. disposed of by a vote" advising the reverend Trus- October. tees to proceed." From that time, though opinions were 1 Conn. Col. Rec., VII. 107. 2 Ibid., VI. 30. 2 1711-1718. 1719. not yet fully reconciled, affairs went on more prosperously.1 The Assembly gave the College a hundred pounds. Jeremiah Dummer sent from England a substantial present of books. Governor Saltonstall contributed fifty pounds sterling, and the same sum was presented by Jahleel Brenton, of Newport, in Rhode Island. But the chief patronage came from Elihu Yale, — a native of New Haven, but long resident in the East Indies, where he had been Governor of Fort St. George. He was now a citizen of London, and Governor of the East India Company. His contributions, continued through seven years, amounted to some four hundred pounds sterling; and he was understood to have made arrangements for May. a further bounty of five hundred pounds, which, however, through unfortunate accidents, never came to its destination. The Province made a grant of forty pounds annually for seven years. Mr. Andrew being unwilling to remove to New Haven, Mr. Timothy Cutler, minister of Stratford, was made rector. But here occurred a mortifying disappointment. After a successful administration of the College of less than four years' duration, Cutler announced that he had conformed to the Church of England, a step which had also been taken at the same time by one of the tutors, and by the ministers of West Haven and North Haven." He was acOct. 17. cordingly dismissed, and it was not till after four March. 1722. New Haven were broken down; and 2 Conn. Col. Rec., VI. 38. Conn. Col. Rec., VI. 125. This apostasy of Cutler, says Sewall in a letter to Governor Saltonstall, of Oct. 15, 1722, “quickly years that his place was supplied by the induction of Mr. Elisha Williams, one of the ministers of Wethers- 1726. field. At this time the College had fifty-seven September. students.1 ians. The condition of the Mohegan Indians, of whom a considerable remnant, always persisting in their rejec- The Mohetion of the faith of their Christian neighbors, still gan Indkept together on the ancient site of their tribe, occasionally called on the Province for measures both of protection and of restraint. "Cæsar, sachem of Mohegan, Ben Uncas, and several other Indians," complained 1714. to Governor Saltonstall that two English neighbors March 4. had "set up the frame of a house within the land of the Mohegan country." The Englishmen were men of consequence, but such considerations were not apt to weigh with the straightforward Governor. Without a day's delay he arrested the trespassers, and placed them under bonds for future good behavior. It was, on the other brought to my mind Rev. xvi. 15. I apprehend that, in this extraordinary and unexpected alarm, we have a demonstration that the drying up of the great river Euphrates is near at hand. . . . . . I am fully of Mr. Cotton's mind that Episcopacy is that upon which the fifth vial is poured out, and he will have hard work that shall endeavor to control that angel." (Proceedings of the Mass. Hist. Soc., for 1871-1873, p. 378.) A number of letters which passed on this exciting occasion are printed in Mass. Hist. Col., XII. 128 et seq.; XIV. 297 et seq. The conversion of Cutler and his friends renewed an activity of the Episcopalians in New England, which had been suspended since the time of Andros. Cutler, transferred to a cure in Boston, claimed, though unavailingly, a right to a seat among the Overseers of Harvard College. (Quin cy, History, I. 366.) Before long, Dec. 12, 1727, was sent from Newport to the new King, "The Humble Address of Several of the Clergy of New England," representing "the great necessity of a Bishop resident in these parts." It reached the Board of Trade with an indorsement that "the Bishop of London desired it might not be inserted in the Gazette.” (British Colonial Papers.) I count this number on the Triennial Catalogue. In the interval between Cutler's administration and Williams's, by provisions of an Act passed Oct. 10, 1723, the Legislature changed the restriction as to the age of Trustees from forty to thirty years, and constituted the Rector a Trustee ex officio. (Conn. Col. Rec., VI. 416.) 2 Ibid., V. 421, 422; comp. 398, 431, 448, 518. 1720. hand, in respect to the Mohegans that the suspicions were first entertained which at this late time spread through Connecticut an apprehension of a conspiracy June 18- among what remained of the tribes.1 The GovOct. 3. ernor questioned the Mohegan, Pequod, and Niantic chiefs, who resolutely protested that they knew nothing of any hostile plot; and the result of a searching investigation rendered it probable that they had been maligned by persons who coveted their lands, but that disorderly behavior on the part of the Indians had given some real cause for suspicion; and they were accordingly admonished "to remove all the occasions of it, and particularly to abstain from drink, which puts men upon saying and doing things that are provoking "2 Intelligence of a savage inroad, which was marked by the destrucAug. 19. tion of Rutland, led to measures for securing the frontier towns of Simsbury and Litchfield, and to a direction to all the Indians in the Colony to limit their hunting excursions within certain bounds. The government complimented the Mohegans by sending representatives, "who understood well the language and manner of the Indians," to be present at their "convention . . to install as their sachem Major Ben Uncas, the only surviving son of Uncas, formerly their sachem."4 "John Mason, of Stonington, in consideration of the re 1723. October. spect justly due to the name of his ancestors, and the great trust the Mohegan Indians have had in them, as they now have in him, who has a great acquaintance with their language and manners, and may in that respect, as well as others, be of great use and service in endeavoring both to civilize and Christianize them," was authorized by the General Court to occupy any land among them which they might assign, and "to protect them from wrongs, to set up a school among them, and acquaint them in the Christian religion." 1 Three years later, in accordance with a petition of "Ben Uncas. . with 1726. others" of the tribe, James Wadsworth and John October. Hall, both of them prominent citizens, were appointed to be their supervisors, and Ben Uncas was "established" as their sachem.2 It has been seen that Governor Shute considered the General Court of Massachusetts to be precipitate share of in its hostile measures against the eastern savages.3 Connecticut The government of Connecticut were of the same ian war. opinion. When applied to by Massachusetts for a contribution of men and munitions, the Legislature of 1722. 1723. the sister Colony declined to afford such aid, Oct. 11. though it placed some small garrisons in its own western settlements, and sent a detachment of troops to aid in the defence of the Massachusetts towns on Connecticut River.1 As time passed, and the savage invasions grew more annoying, Connecticut desired the Governor to ob- October. tain precise information from the authorities of Massachusetts respecting the occasion, the objects, and plans of the war, and made arrangements for maintaining a small force as high up the river as the most northerly English settlements. The Indians committed now and then 5 1724. June. July. a murder in that quarter, but they did not come in force, and they eluded pursuit. The application from Massachusetts, more urgently repeated, met with no better success than before. Connecticut professed to be dissatisfied as to the justice of the war, and as to her not having been consulted before it was entered upon. Her historian thinks that this expression on her part expedited the peace which soon fol 1 Conn. Col. Rec., VI. 429. 2 Ibid., VII. 75. 3 See above, p. 421. 4 Conn. Col. Rec., VI. 334-336. VOL. IV. 31 5 Ibid., 426. 7 Ibid., 503. October. |