by which this was accomplished, it is proper to notice the steps by which the colony, which was to extend from Narragansett Bay to the Pacific Ocean, was restricted to the limits with which she entered the Union under the Constitution.

CHAPTER XV.

COMMONWEALTH DEVELOPMENT.

- WYOMING

AND THE WESTERN RESERVE.

THE century following the grant and establishment of the charter was a period of quiet but almost uninterrupted growth for Connecticut. Comparatively undisturbed by wars or by the interference of the home government, with no royal agent within her borders to frame indictments against her policy and methods, and to press them upon the king's attention, she went steadily on her way to that which her people wanted most, the undisturbed power of gaining a livelihood and of worshiping God under democratic government. Her charter had secured to them most of these objects; the obstacle to the attainment of the rest was the unkindly nature of her soil.

In 1680 the colonial government sent, in answer to a request of the board of trade for detailed information, a statement of the colony's condition. Its quaint and sometimes apparently guarded language carries in it many indications of the almost hopeless weakness of the colony, and of the stout hearts of the men who were maintaining it. The

draft of the letter is from the hand of John Allyn. He estimates the fighting men, or "trained bands," of the colony, at 2,507, which might imply a population of between ten and twelve thousand, or about three persons to the square mile, about half the proportion of Nebraska in 1880. The people had "little traffique abroad," and the bulk of their trade was in "sending what provissions we rays to Boston, where we buy goods with it, to cloath vs." The country was mountainous, full of rocks, swamps, hills and vales; most that was fit for planting had been taken up; "what remaynes must be subdued, and gained out of the fire as it were, by hard blowes and for smal recompence." The principal towns were Hartford, New London, New Haven, and Fairfield, with twenty-six smaller towns, in one of which "we have two churches." The buildings, however, were not so bad, "for a wilderness;" they were of wood, stone, and brick, many of them, says Allyn with pardonable pride, "40 foot long and 20 foot broad, and some larger: three and four stories high." On second thoughts, Allyn struck out these latter specifications, perhaps fearing that such a picture of opulence might excite the greed of the home government. The exports were farm products, boards, staves, and horses, mainly sent to Boston, but some small quantities to the West Indies, there to be bartered "for suger, cotton wool and rumme, and some money." Tobacco was grown for home consumption. There

were but twenty merchants in the colony, and few of these had a foreign trade. There were very few servants, and only about thirty slaves, imported from Barbadoes at £22 each. The largest ship of the colony was one of ninety tons; twenty-eight others ranged from eight to eighty tons. Labor was scarce and dear; wages were 28. and 2s. 6d. a day; and provisions were cheap, so that there was little necessity for poor relief. Beggars and vagabonds" were not suffered," but, when discovered, were bound out to service. There were no duties imposed by the colony on exports, and only a duty on imported wines, to be used as a school fund. The property of the colony was estimated for taxing purposes at about £110,000. But, in all such estimates, it should be remembered that about two fifths of it was more in the nature of a poll-tax, the tax being increased according to a somewhat arbitrary schedule of supposed wealth or position in the various trades and professions, so that it took the place, in part, of an income tax as well.

In spite of the poverty of the colony, its vitality was shown by the steady increase in the number of its towns. Allyn gives their number as twentysix in 1680. Six of these, Lyme, Haddam, Simsbury, Wallingford, Derby, and Woodbury, had been incorporated since the union of the two colonies; and three more, Waterbury, Glastenbury," and Plainfield, were to become towns before the

end of the century. In the development of these new towns there were two distinct processes, according to the nature of the case. A speculator or a company might buy lands from the Indians, with the approval of the general court, in some locality outside of the bounds of any town. As soon as the rates became sufficiently large to need the extension of the general court's taxing power over the little community, a committee was appointed by that body to bound out the town: it was then expected to choose constables, and send delegates to the general court. The other process continually tended to become the only one. A town, when first established, usually had extensive boundaries. Those persons who settled in the outflying districts of the township found it more and more troublesome, particularly in winter, to resort to the old church for preaching. When there were enough of such dissatisfied persons to support a minister of their own, they applied to the general court for permission to form a church. For the church was really a territorial term, quite as much so as the township; and the setting off of a new church meant the diminution of the area of the old church, and the inclusion of all persons within the new bounds in the new church. As this involved a diminution of the resources of the old church, it regularly met with strong opposition, and was only successful after several petitions. The erection into a town followed at the discretion of the