88

RELIGIOUS DISSENSIONS.

of disorder, religious dissensions. A controversy arose concerning faith and works, in which a Mrs. Anne Hutchinson and two clergymen, Mr. Wheelwright and Mr. Cotton, espoused one side of the question, and received the support of governor Vane, while the lieutenant governor Winthrop, and a majority of the ministers and churches, contended as earnestly for the opposite opinions.

.

Mrs. Hutchinson held weekly conferences for persons of her own sex, and commented with great asperity on the sermons delivered by preachers of the opposite party, whom she pronounced to be under a covenant of works.' The number and quality of her adherents soon gave the affair a degree of political importance, which it could never have acquired in a community where the church and state were not intimately connected.

The general court took up the matter, and censured Wheelwright for sedition. This measure embroiled the parties still further; and the party question' of the day was made the test of elections, and interfered with the discussion and decision of every public measure. The controversy lasted till 1637, when Anne Hutchinson, Wheelwright, and Aspinwall were banished the colony, and their adherents were required to deliver up their arms.

Many of the Antinomians, as the minority were called, emigrated to the neighbouring colonies. A considerable number found shelter with Roger Williams; and, by his influence and that of Vane, obtained from Miantonomoh, the chief of the Narragansetts, a gift of the beautiful island of Rhode Island. Wheelwright and some of his friends removed to the Piscataqua, and founded the town of Exeter. Thus the intolerance of Massachusetts became instrumental in scattering new settlers over the face of the country, and founding new communities of men, who were ready to sacrifice all the delights of social intercourse to the preservation of the rights of conscience. Such men were worthy to become the founders of new states, and to be remembered with gratitude by those who are now enjoying the blessings which they so dearly purchased.

Vane, not being elected governor a second time, and having witnessed the persecution and exile of the party to which he had been conscientiously attached, soon after returned to England, became conspicuous in the civil wars, and suffered death

What cause of disorder now began to operate?

What is said of Mrs. Hutchinson ?

How did the controversy end?
Where did the exiles settle?
What became of Vane?

CONNECTICUT SETTLED.

89

for his attachment to the republican cause. Peter became chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, and, after the Restoration, suffered the same fate.

The valley of the Connecticut had already attracted attention, by its fertility and its convenient location for an extensive internal trade in furs. The first proprietary under the Plymouth council, the Earl of Warwick, had assigned his grant to Lords Say and Seal, Lord Brook, and others, in 1631. The people of the old colony at Plymouth had built a trading house at Windsor (1631) for the purchase of furs; and the Dutch had settled Hartford, under the name of Good Hope, in 1633.

The proprietaries sent out John Winthrop, in 1635, who erected a fort at the mouth of the Connecticut, and founded Saybrook. Before his arrival, parties of emigrants from Massachusetts had already formed settlements at Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield. The settlers marched through the forest to their new abode, accompanied by their wives and children. This appears to have been the first example of 'western emigration,' which was conducted in this manner. The march of the vanguard of sixty Pilgrims, which took place late in autumn, was attended with much suffering and privation.

Next year a government was organised under a commission from Massachusetts; and, in June, a company of one hundred new emigrants, under the direction of the Rev. Thomas Hooker, commenced its march from Massachusetts towards the new settlement on the Connecticut, travelling through the pathless woods at the slow rate of ten miles a day, encumbered with their families and flocks, and sleeping at night with scarce any shelter but what the woods afforded. This pilgrimage is not less remarkable for its romantic daring, than for the high character of its leaders. The new settlement was surrounded with perils. The Dutch, who were established on the river, were anxious to exclude the English; and the natives, who were numerous and powerful in that neighbourhood, had begun to entertain hostile dispositions towards all European intruders.

The Pequods, residing in the vicinity of the Thames river, could bring seven hundred warriors into the field. They had

already committed repeated aggressions on the whites, without suffering any chastisement, and they now proposed to the Narragansetts and Mohegans to unite in a league for the utter extermination of the race. Fortunately this design became. known to Roger Williams, who communicated it to the governor of Massachusetts; and having received, from the governor and council, letters, requesting his personal exertions. in dissolving the league, he went directly to the house of the sachem of the Narragansetts, and, although the Pequod chiefs were already there, he succeeded, at great hazard of his life, in breaking up the conspiracy. Such was the service which the persecuted man was able to render to those who had been his persecutors.

The Pequods, when the Narragansetts and Mohegans were detached from their alliance, foolishly resolved to prosecute the war alone. They commenced hostilities by murdering the white people on their borders; but the Connecticut settlers promptly raised a force of ninety men, who were placed under the command of John Mason. The Massachusetts and Plymouth colonies proceeded to furnish their contingent of troops; but before they could arrive, the Connecticut party were on their way to the scene of action. By a rapid march they succeeded in surprising the Pequods, in their camp of palisades, before daybreak, and, but for the barking of a watch dog, would have destroyed them without resistance. warriors rose at the alarm, and defended themselves with their bows and arrows. Their superiority of numbers gave them some chance of escape, until Mason cast firebrands upon the Indian cabins, and set the whole encampment in a blaze. The confusion that ensued gave the English an easy victory. Six hundred of the Indians, men, women, and children, perished; most of them by the fire. Only two of the assailants were killed.

The

The following account is given by Robertson, of the cause which delayed the arrival of the force from Massachusetts.

'The march of the troops from Massachusetts, which formed the most considerable body, was retarded by the most singular cause that ever influenced the operations of a military force. When they were mustered, previous to their departure, it was found that some of the officers, as well as of the private soldiers, were still under a covenant of works; and that the

Who leagued with them?
What did they design?
Who broke up the league?

Who remained hostile ?
Who marched against them?
What was the result?

blessing of God could not be implored, or expected to crown the arms of such unhallowed men with success. The alarm was general, and many arrangements necessary in order to cast out the unclean, and to render this little band sufficiently pure to fight the battles of a people who entertained high ideas of their own sanctity.'*

These troops, consequently, only arrived in time to hunt out a few of the fugitives, burn their remaining villages, and lay waste their corn-fields. Sassacus, the sachem of the Pequods, fled to the Mohawks, and was murdered. The remnant of the tribe, two hundred in number, surrendered, and were either enslaved to the English, or mingled with the Mohegans and Narragansetts. The Pequods no longer existed as a distinct tribe.

It is worthy of remark, that the Indians were never dangerous enemies to the colonists, until they had learnt the use of fire-arms. A handful of English could always march into their territory, and conquer a whole tribe, before the European weapons were brought into use among them.

The successful termination of the Pequod war, was followed by a long season of uninterrupted peace, during which the colonies of New England continued to flourish, increasing in wealth and population.

Settlements were constantly forming, and fresh emigrants arriving from England. In 1638, a Puritan colony was planted at New Haven, under the direction of John Davenport, its pastor, and Theophilus Eaton, who, for twenty years,

What became of the remnant of the | What followed the Pequod war?
Pequods?
When was New Haven settled?

* Neal, i. 168.

92

THE THREE CONNECTICUT COLONIES.

sustained the office of governor. This was a separate jurisdiction from that in the interior, so that, at this time, there were no less than three distinct political communities in the territory now called Connecticut, viz. Saybrook, under the proprietaries, Connecticut colony, under a commission from Massachusetts, and New Haven colony, claiming its territory by purchase from the Indians, and governing itself by virtue of a social contract.

CHAPTER XII.

THE COLONIES OF NEW ENGLAND UNITED.

THE increase of the colonies in New England, had already attracted considerable attention in the mother country. Some of those who had fallen under the censure of the government in Massachusetts, had returned to England, and busied themselves in exciting animosity against the colony. Gorges and Mason, who were rivals to the leaders of that colony, joined in the clamour against them. But there were friends of the colonists in England, who pleaded their cause with success.

Notwithstanding their exertions, however, an order in council was obtained, for preventing the departure of ships bound with passengers to New England; and a requisition was made for producing the letters patent of the company in England. This requisition was evaded. A special commission was then issued to the archbishop of Canterbury and others, for regulating the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of the colonies, with power to revoke charters.

When intelligence of this proceeding reached Boston, coupled with the rumour that a governor-general was on his way to assume the controul of affairs, the colonists began to prepare for resistance. Money was raised for erecting fortifications, and the boldest measures were determined on.

Mean time the council of Plymouth had resigned its charter, after parcelling out the territory among its members, which they had already granted by patents to others. They

Enumerate the separate political | What hostile measures were threatcommunities existing in Connecticut.

What is said of the New England co-
lonies ?
Of Gorges and Mason?

ened in England?

What was the effect of this news in
New England?

What is said of the council of Ply-
mouth?