History of Connecticut, Volume I, Part 1

Author: Bingham, Harold J., 1911-
Publication date: 1962
Publisher: New York : Lewis Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 562


USA > Connecticut > History of Connecticut, Volume I > Part 1


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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46



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PROPERTY OF HOLMES SCHOOL DARIEN, CONN.


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PROPERTY OF HOLMES SCHOOL DARIEN, CONN.


Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019


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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT


(Courtesy Conn. Devel. Comm.)


HARTFORD-MURAL OF THE SIGNING OF THE FUNDAMENTAL ORDERS OF THE CONNECTICUT COLONY IN 1638, STATE LIBRARY AND SUPREME COURT


HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT


BY


HAROLD J. BINGHAM, Ph.D.


VOLUME I


PROPERTY OF HOLMES SCHOOL DARIEM, CONN,


5/11 LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY (Incorporated) NEW YORK WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA


COPYRIGHT LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY (Incorporated) 1962


1450878


PUBLISHERS' FOREWORD


W HEN DR. BINGHAM began the labors of research and compilation that have resulted in these impressive volumes, he wrote in part as follows:


The writing of a history of Connecticut entails a dual responsi- bility: that of portraying the state's contribution to the growth of the United States, and that of illuminating the unique characteristics of the state's development.


Connecticut's influence has extended beyond the rock-laden hills of its countryside. The state has made significant contributions to rep- resentative government, although its solutions to public problems have seldom been novel. In national politics, the electoral count has made Connecticut's political power comparatively slight, yet its leadership and contributions have assured the state of political influence. A cos- mopolitanism in art and letters has added to its prestige in political and non-political matters. The Connecticut craftsman has been unexcelled and Yankee notions have been necessities of American households for generations. Indeed, wherever Yankees have been, Connecticut culture has persisted.


The record of early Connecticut has been carefully studied. Schol- arly monographs record and interpret the state's history to 1865, and local histories add color to the story. However, as the Federal Union became more firmly established, and as the national government in- creased in importance, there was a lessening of interest in local history. The record for the later period, then, is not so complete. It is intended in this study to maintain a balance, in scope and emphasis, of the old and the new Connecticut .-


That the plan and program thus outlined have been followed with a rare power of analysis and gift of pleasing expression is, we believe,


Goodspeed "37.50 %.9.68 Hems, Ink", 2581-1.2,5:21


X


PUBLISHERS' FOREWORD


obvious. So absorbed did the author become in his challenging task that the publication date had to be advanced, resulting, we are certain, in a degree of accuracy and appraisal that more than counterbalances the adjustments necessary to give him the time required for the satis- faction of his scholarly standards. Where the results of political and social trends are not fully apparent he has refrained from judgments and opinions, the proper attitude of his profession. Each generation views, reviews, and revises the interpretations of past movements and events, and at the point where guiding perspective is lost, the historian's work finds its conclusion.


The publishers wish to express their appreciation of the high de- gree of interest and cooperation extended the author and themselves by the scholarly fraternity, the advisers, and the public, and present what they feel to be a valuable contribution to Connecticut's historical literature.


THE PUBLISHERS


Table of Contents


VOLUME I


CHAPTER


PAGE


I


The Land and the Traders 1


II The Settlement of Connecticut 17


III The Basis of Government 41


IV Expansion and Conflict 62


V The Economic Order


85


VI Saints and Sinners


122


VII Educational Institutions and Intellectual Development


148


VIII


The Legend of Liberty The Frontier, 1690-1739 175 204 226


255


XII XIII


Connecticut in the Revolution


282 306


XIV


The Aftermath of War


340


XV Federalism at High Tide


373


XVI


The Jeffersonian Challenge


405


XVII


An Era of Political Transition, 1817-1827 426


448


XIX


The Ingenious Yankee 465


XX


Social Changes, Early Nineteenth Century


503


VOLUME II


XXI


Education and Intellectual Development in the Early Nineteenth Century 531


XXII


The Rise of the Republican Party 554


xi


IX


X


The Religious Dissent


XI


Connecticut in the War Years, 1739-1763


The Period of Protest and Petition


XVIII


The Jacksonian Impression


xii


TABLE OF CONTENTS


CHAPTER


PAGE


XXIII The Civil Conflict 580


XXIV


The Period of Readjustment 610


XXV The Aggregation of Capital, Banking and Insurance . 630


XXVI The Power of Wealth and Industry, Railroads and Industry 652


XXVII


Agriculture, Labor, and the Foreign-born


679


XXVIII


The Growth of the City 718


XXIX


Republican Years


749


XXX


Citizen and Soldier, World War I


778


XXXI The Business Man's Community 797


XXXII


The New Deal in Connecticut


843


ADDENDUM


XXXIII The Home Front in World War II


(1)


XXXIV


Connecticut After the War (25)


XXXV


The Challenge at Mid-Century (49)


XXXVI


The Middle Way (65)


XXXVII


"The Middle of the Road" (89)


XXXVIII


A Measure of Reform (111)


XXXIX


The Current Scene


(133)


List of Illustrations


VOLUME I


PAGE


East Hartland-Great Boulder Deposited by Ice Sheet, and Easily Teetered Slightly


3


Farmington-Red Sandstone Monument Erected in 1840 in the Riverside Cemetery in Memory of Tunxis Indians


8


Norwalk-Site of Old "Fruitful Spring," Treasured by Settlers Three Centuries Ago and Referred to in Earliest Records. Located Under Old Beech Tree at Edge of Marsh Between Shorehaven Golf Course and the Sound


13


Middletown-Tercentenary Log Cabin, 1935


18


New London-Home of John Winthrop, Built of Stone in 1646. (A Copy.) Winthrop School Now Stands on Site


22


Wethersfield-Great Elm, Planted in 1758. Largest Tree in Connecti- cut, Now Gone


28


New London-Winthrop's Mill, Built in 1650. The Winthrop School at Right, 1935


34 43


Woodbury-Glebe House


Old Saybrook-Tomb of Lady Fenwick, Cypress Cemetery. She Died in 1648


49


Windsor-Tomb of Rev. Ephraim Huit, Oldest Tombstone in the State, Dated September 4, 1644


59


Ansonia-Richard Mansfield House, Owned by the Antiquarian and Landmarks Society 64


Stamford-Home of the Stamford Historical Society, Built About 1730 68


75 Essex-Pratt's Smithy


xiii


xiv


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


PAGE


Norwalk-Governor Fitch House, South Side


87


Lebanon-The Trumbull War Office


91


Guilford-Whitefield Stone House, Built in 1639 by Rev. Henry Whitefield, Now the Henry Whitefield State Historical Mu- seum 97


Stamford-Captain Webb's Tavern, Used as Headquarters by Gen- eral Lee in the Revolutionary War 105


Cornwall Hollow-General John Sedgwick Monument 110


Montville-Monument in Honor of Lieut. Thomas Leffingwell in Fort Shantok State Park 115


East Lyme-Thomas Lee House and Little Boston School ( Oldest Schoolhouse Still Standing in Connecticut )


124


Cromwell-One of the Middletown Upper Houses, Built by the Kirby Family 150 Years Ago 131


Brooklyn-Home of Gen. Israel Putnam 137


Hartford-South Congregational Church 141


North Branford Church


144


The First School House in Hartford-1642


151


New Haven-First Schoolhouse Built in 1644 "On the Market Place


Near Where the United Church Now Stands." (Redrawn from Old Print Loaned by Wilbur F. Gordy to Mr. Mills )


154


Plainfield Academy


159


Madison-Historical Society


166


Ridgefield-Keller Tavern


177


Hartland Hollow, Hartland-Jonathan Miller Tavern


182


Pomfret-Putnam Wolf Den on the Day Wolf Was Present (1902) Greenwich-Putnam Cottage Built in 1731, Originally Knapp's Tav- ern, Scene of Putnam's Escape from British, Photo 1934 193


187


Buckingham-Congregational Church and Old Burial Ground 199


Columbia-Old Congregational Church and Meeting House on the Green 228


Hebron-St. Peter's Church ( Episcopal)


23]


Cheshire Church 233


New Haven-Center Church 240


Harwinton Church (Destroyed by Fire, 1950) 243


XV


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


PAGE


Rocky Hill-Congregational Church


249


New Haven-Soldiers and Sailors Monument atop East Rock,


Honoring the Men of Four Wars 257


Bethany-Tan Bark Mill of Revolutionary War Period and Later. Posed in 1935 265


Redding-Putnam Monument in Putnam Memorial Camp Ground (1935 Photo) 271


Storrs-Congregational Church


284


Enfield-Church on the Green


288


Winsted-Revolutionary Cannon at Winchester Historical Society, 1936


308


Coventry-Nathan Hale Monument and Homestead


315


Mystic Seaport-Schaefer's Spouter Tavern and the Charles W.


Morgan as Seen Through the Doorway of the Fishtown Chapel


325


Warren-Congregational Church and Old Meeting House 342


Norwalk-School Built about 1835 on East Avenue 350


358


Fairfield-Old Academy Built in 1904-Used by Eunice Dennie Burr Chapter, D.A.R. 366


Litchfield Church


383


Montowese Baptist Church, North Haven


Hartford-Governor's Foot Guard at Trinity Arch 399 407


Norwich-Norwich Free Academy


413


Glastonbury-Main Street


415


Fairfield-Powder House, Used to Store Munitions, War of 1812


422


West Avon-Rural School


428


Cromwell-St. John's Church


436


Greenwich-The Putnam Cottage


441


Stonington-Old Stone Lighthouse, No Longer Used


450


Meriden-Curtis Memorial Library


456


Hartford-Trinity College 467


New Haven


East Haddam-Shad Fishing, Connecticut River


480


Colchester-Old View of Bacon Academy


374


Stamford-First High School, One Room Used in 1873


393


xvi


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


PAGE


Stonington-Fishing Scene


481


Hartford-Albany Turnpike Poster (A Copy) 483


Mystic Seaport-Samuel Buckingham House 485


Farmington-Three of Piers Where Farmington Canal Crossed the


Farmington River. The Flood of August 19, 1955, Took Down Two of Them 487


New Hartford-Gorge at Satan's Kingdom, 1902. Two Railroad Lines Came Through Here, Both Now Gone


491


Chester Ferry


495


South Glastonbury Ferry


497


New Haven 505


Abington-Public Library Built in 1885. A Two Room Building, One Used for Library, One for School 509


Sharon-Home of Admiral Thomas Hart, Photo 1952 517


West Torrington-John Brown Birthplace, a Rare Picture 523


New Britain-Elihu Burritt Memorial


526


VOLUME II


Hartford-Old State House, Main Street


533


New Britain-Central Connecticut State College


536


Storrs-Churches, Chapels and Synagogue, University of Connecti- cut 538


Danbury-Administration Building, Danbury State Teachers Col- lege


545


North Canton-Post Office, Built in 1800


555 561


New Haven


Bridgeport


566


Middletown


572


Clinton, Town Hall


582


New Britain-Center of City West Hartford 585 588


Fairfield, Town Hall


591


New Haven 594


Torrington-Main Street, North from Center of Business District 597


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


xvii


PAGE


Fairfield-Southport Harbor


603


New Haven


611


Bridgeport


618


Manchester


620


Saybrook Point Light House or Lynde Light (1935 Photo)


623


Meriden


626


Meriden-City Hall


632


Hartford-Wadsworth Atheneum


635 639


Hartford-Municipal Building at Right, Travelers in Background ..


641


Bridgeport


645


Hartford


653


New Haven-Port Area


Barkhamstead-Bell Portable Saw Mill as the Valley Was Being Cleared for Barkhamstead Reservoir 656


Danbury-Surgical Products Division, American Cyanamid 659


Robertsville-Union Chair Factory 662


Riverton-Lambert Hitchcock Chair Factory, Photo 1935 665


Thompsonville-Scene in Bigelow Sanford Carpet Company, Inc., Plant


666


Naugatuck-Scene in United States Rubber Company Synthetic Rubber Plant 669


Stamford-First Iron Foundry, Built in 1830; Later the First Woolen


670


Greenwich-Industrial View, Showing Electrolux Corporation


Manchester-Cheney Bros., World's Largest Silk Mills 674


681


Danbury-Fair Grounds


683


Canton Center-A. L. Mills in a 1902 Tobacco Scene


687


Putnam


693


Danielson


Groton-Photo Taken at 10,000 Feet, with New London in Fore- ground


695


Middlefield-John Lyman Orchards 699


701


Roxbury-Village Scene


Mill, Afterward Diamond Ice Company 673


Meriden-First Horse Car to Come Through Colony Street. (Taken from Home Bank Window, 1887)


689


xviii


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


PAGE


Manchester-Showing Wide Main Street


705


Unionville-Richards Bridge over Farmington River, Built in 1895,


Washed out in Flood, August 19, 1955 709


Middletown 712


New Milford-Bridge over Housatonic River, Completed 1954


719


Norwalk-Merritt Parkway on an August Sunday Afternoon in 1944. Gasoline Rationing the Cause 721


Greenwich-Scenes in Bruce Park


723


Meriden-Undercliff Hospital Administration Building


727


Farmington Canal Boat "De Witt Clinton," from a Poster of the Time


729


Hartford


731


Plainville-Last Trolley on the Bristol-Plainville Line. Next Run Was Made by Bus, July 17, 1935


New Britain-New YMCA Building


Meriden-The Bradley Memorial Home


Hartford-Bushnell Park


Hartford-Bushnell Park


Greenwich-Old Greenwich Library, from Binney Park


North Haven-Martha Culver Memorial Library


Hartford-State Library and Supreme Court


Norwich


New London


Waterbury


761 767


Waterbury


Danbury-The War Memorial Building


New London-Coast Guard Academy


Hartford-State Office Building


Hartford-Skyline View


Hartford


811


Bridgeport-Statue of P. T. Barnum at Seaside Park


818


Waterbury 823


Hartford Hospital 829


Rocky Neck Beach State Park Views


835


733 735 737 739 741


743 744 751 755 759


Norwich-Norwich State Hospital


769 780 783 790 799


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


xix


New London Harbor Light ( 1935 Photo)


845


New London


847


Colchester


851


Milford-Town Office Building


859


Waterbury


861


Willimantic


865


Watertown


869


Stafford Springs


871


Simsbury


875


Middletown


878


881


Moosup


Torrington-Heart of Business District, Prior to 1955 Flood


885


Advisers


W. E. ATTWOOD, JR. DR. CREIGHTON BARKER JAMES BREWSTER WHITNEY L. BROOKS CYRIL COLEMAN CHARLES K. DAVIS LEWIS A. DIBBLE WARD E. DUFFY ADMIRAL JAMES FIFE, U.S.N. (Ret.) CARL G. FREESE WILLIAM M. Goss GEORGE F. GREEN DR. MATTHEW GRISWOLD


J. C. HULLETT EDWARD INGRAHAM PHILIP A. JOHNSON SHERMAN R. KNAPP BERNHARD KNOLLENBERG DWIGHT C. LYMAN


JOHN LYMAN WILLIAM M. MALTBIE WILLIAM J. PAPE EDWIN PUGSLEY MISS MARCELLA R. PUTNAM


WILLIAM H. PUTNAM ALBERT S. R.EDWAY HON. ABRAHAM RIBICOFF


L. S. ROWE


L. TRACY SHEFFIELD ODELL SHEPARD PHILIP B. STANLEY HERMAN W. STEINKRAUS


EVARTS C. STEVENS MALCOLM P. TAYLOR DR. HERBERT THOMS DUDLEY L. VAILL DR. ALBERT E. VAN DUSEN


DR. HERBERT D. WELTE SANFORD H. WENDOVER


Chapter I The Land and the Traders


W HEN ADRIAN BLOCK, in the spring of 1614, piloted his recently-built American yacht, the Restless, through the nar- row passageway which he named Hellgate and into Long Is- land Sound, he became the first European to discover Connecticut. His report of his exploration and observation of the coastline and rivers of Connecticut increased the interest in the New World and provided a general knowledge of the natives and natural environment. Even to an experienced explorer such as Block, nature revealed only the finished backdrop. The evidences of the incredibly long period of preliminary construction were discovered and studied by subsequent generations1 and supplement the explorer's observations.


The Natural Setting


The record of the rocks indicates a drama of undetermined length in which the prologue spoke of the decline of ancient hills; the first act, during which the land was bounded by a bay on the West and by an ocean on the East, of mountain making; the second act, during which the general topography of the state was determined, of leveling and of lava flows; and the third, which included the period of glaciation, of altering detail. Each of these acts, to which geologists refer as the pale- ozoic, mesozoic, and cenozoic periods, was shorter than that which had preceded. Atmosphere, heat, water, and ice acted upon the rocks chem- ically and mechanically as agents of disintegration. The extent to which these disruptive forces were withstood varied with the rocks' strength. In these variations, for the most part, lies the story of the major geological and physiographic features of Connecticut.2


2


HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT


The Sound was not always the Great Bay, as Block called it. During the glacial epoch the level of the sea was lowered as water was taken from it to form ice sheets, and the Sound was, perhaps, a valley through which rivers had flowed. Had this condition prevailed in the time of Dutch and English settlement, considering the Yankee's ability in bound- ary disputes, it would have considerably extended the area of Connecti- cut. When the ice melted, however, water returned to the sea, the lower Connecticut Valley was submerged, and Long Island Sound and the present southern Connecticut shoreline were formed. Since then, the sea has accomplished only a slight amount of straightening by which it has made, from New York to Rhode Island, the relatively regular shoreline which Block followed as he explored areas about the Sound.3


As he pointed the Restless in a north-northeasterly direction, Block passed along the indented coastline which forms the southern boundary of the Western Upland. one of the three major topographic areas of the state. This area is drained by the systems of the Housatonic and the Farmington Rivers, whose valleys are separated by divides of land, ap- proximately 200 feet in height, which extend in a slightly northeasterly direction into a series of elongated hills. These rise gradually to a height of from 1000 to 1500 feet, except Bear Mountain, which rises 2355 feet above the sea. The Western Upland is the highest region in the state, partly because it has been less affected by erosion and partly because the underlying rocks are more resistant.4 These hard rocks crop out along the water's edge from the East River to the Norwalk River, a distance which Block logged as 24 miles. There, where he reckoned the Great Bay to be 12 miles wide, he observed a group of islands which lie from one to two miles off the mainland and which range up to one mile in length and one-third mile in breadth. Constant erosion has reduced their height to scarcely more than twenty feet.5


When he explored the area to the east, Block passed between the present sites of Fairfield and Stratford along the largest area of flat land along the shore. He continued past the abandoned sea cliffs nearby to the site of West Haven where the first signs of the Connecticut Lowland appear. This second major topographical area of Connecticut divides the previously discussed Western Upland from the Eastern Upland. From New Haven, the Lowland extends to the northern boundary of


3


THE LAND AND THE TRADERS


the state and increases in width from eight to twenty miles. This Low- land of Connecticut is interrupted frequently by low hills from 100 to


(Courtesy Conn. State Lib.)


EAST HARTLAND-GREAT BOULDER, DEPOSITED BY ICE SHEET, AND EASILY TEETERED SLIGHTLY


200 feet in height, and, occasionally, by sharp unreduced ridges. One of these ridges, Talcott Mountain, divides the Lowland into unequal parts. The western part is drained by the Farmington River to the north and by the Quinnipiac to the south, and the eastern part is drained by the Connecticut River. Of these, only the Quinnipiac emp-


4


HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT


ties into the Sound in the Lowland region, for nature altered the course of the Farmington so that it merges with the Connecticut and altered the course of the Connecticut so that its mouth was placed further to the east.6


Block noted the river which the natives called the Quinnipiac as being "about a bow shot wide" and of a depth of three and one half fathoms at high water. When the first settlers arrived, they found it of "sufficient depth for all the ordinary purposes of commerce." An ex- plorer's name for an area is likely to be descriptive of its natural surround- ing and the Dutch names of "Royenberg" for the river and of "Roden- berg" for the settlement identified the abundance of red sandstone which is characteristic of the whole of the Connecticut Lowland. The rounded rocks of the area are cemented together by a composition, largely red oxide of iron, which fills the chinks between the grains of rock.7


As he proceeded along the shoreline from New Haven east to Guilford, Block passed what was later described as Connecticut's "rock bound coast." Although beyond Guilford the nature of the shore changes abruptly and sandy beaches appear, hard granite-like rocks are generally characteristic of the Eastern Upland. This third major topographical area of Connecticut lies to the east of a line which extends in general from Branford northward to Middletown, Rocky Hill, Man- chester, and on to the state line. From the broadly indented shoreline, the land rises to the northern boundary of the state, where the general level of the divide is from 800 to 1000 feet in height, while the prin- cipal river valleys are reduced to 500 to 700 feet above sea level. There are included within this region of moderately high hills more than two dozen separate groups of rock formations. The rocks of the area were once deposited as sediments but have been greatly altered by the sub- terranean action of heat and water, by the chemical action of percolating waters and vapors, and by fusion and solidification. The area is drained primarily by the Thames, far to the east, and by the Connecticut, which enters the Upland below Middletown and cuts across the southwestern corner of the region to enter the Sound at Saybrook.8


Block recorded the distance from New Haven to the Fresh River, as the Dutch called the Connecticut, as being 24 miles. The Restless was


5


THE LAND AND THE TRADERS


turned into the river, and its sails were rigged to catch full wind to en- able it to leave the shallow mouth and head north, for the current was swift and to the southward. Shades of pink and red intermingled with grays and greens along the shore to mark the presence of granite-like rocks. The river extends in a north-northwesterly direction to Hig- ganum and there turns northward to Cobalt, where it turns at a 90 degree angle before passing through the last of the narrow gorges of crystalline rocks. Then it rejoins its ancient course in the Lowland Valley.9


Block followed the course of the river past Hartford to the vicinity of the falls at Enfield. The river at Hartford was described as being more than five feet deep. From that point the Connecticut follows a crooked course for thirty miles in a northerly direction. Here, if one considers the description in Johannes de Laet's New World to have been based on Block's journal, Block navigated the distance with some difficulty to a point where the river became rocky and quite shallow. The rapids further to the north suggest that at some ancient time the valley was perhaps filled and the stream forced to make a new way for itself across the country until it dropped again into its former stream or into a valley of another stream, thereby forming falls or rapids. Wa- terfalls are common to Connecticut, and, like the lakes, are of compara- tively recent origin as measured by geological time.1ยบ


Connecticut might be termed a land of lakes. It has been estimated that at the beginning of this century there were more than 1000 lakes in the state and it has been conjectured that there were at least that many at the time of the first settlement. The lakes owe their existence chiefly to the fact that Connecticut was in the path of the glacial advance which greatly altered the landscape as it retreated. Subsequently, when rain fell, it did not find established channels to carry it to the sea, and the water remains in the hollows while the streams are being re-estab- lished. The Connecticut River, it has been suggested, was sufficiently large to be only slightly affected by the period of glaciation.11


From the rocky river bed above Hartford, Block retraced his route down the river to the Sound and headed in the direction of the Thames River. This portion of the shore is fairly even, and, although boulders are not lacking, they are in comparatively small numbers. Between


6


HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT


them, there are the long sweeping crescent beaches characteristic of a region composed alternately of resistant and non-resistant materials. As he approached the Thames, which the Dutch called the Siccanamos after the Chief of the Indians living in the area, Fisher's Island came into view. At the Thames was found "a good roadstead behind a sand point about a half league [11/2 miles] from the western shore in two and a half fathoms of water" which permitted ships to navigate about fifteen or eighteen miles up the river.12


From the Thames to the Pawcatuck River, Fisher's Island is so near the shoreline that it serves to break the force of the large waves, and the boulders at the water's edge serve as a bulwark against their further advance. Block apparently followed the shoreline to Watch Hill and beyond, as it is noted in the translation of the Latin version of de Laet's New World that "the mainland forms a crooked prominence in the shape of a sickle, behind which an inlet receives a small stream that flows from the east," which, for that reason, was named East River by the Dutch. After coming out of the inlet, Block next visited Montauk Point and the island which bears his name. He then left the Connecticut vicinity, voyaging from the Sound to Narragansett Bay, Martha's Vine- yard. and Cape Cod before he returned to Holland to make the report which was to stimulate interest in the New World.13




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